Splendid

Chapter 7

                  "She's not dead." said a familiar husky voice. Emma looked up into the eyes of the woman that had once been her enemy, but was now a reluctant friend and a second mother to her son. Regina stood directly behind where Emma knelt on the ground, holding Gold as he shook with his grief.  She stood slowly, Gold unmoving, making no movement to suggest that he even knew she'd moved.

                  She turned slowly to face Regina, trying not to let hope spark in her chest, for it was almost always doused by reality. "What do you mean, she's not dead? Look at her!" She exclaimed, gesturing her arm wildly towards the frozen form of one of the kindest citizens of Storybrooke. Killian stepped towards her, skirting around Belle and Gold, still kneeling at her feet. His one hand reached for hers and he entwined their fingers as he stepped neatly up beside her.  "Perhaps we should hear her out, love? The queen is more experienced with magic than either of us." As always, his smooth accent rolled over her, both soothing and irritating. If such a thing were possible. 

                  Emma's only reaction to that statement was to say, "Well, what about Gold? He's more experienced than any of us in magic. For God's sake, he taught Regina how to use it! If he doesn't know what it is, why would she? No offense, Regina." Emma added hastily, having sort of dismissed Regina's presence.

                Regina bowed her head slightly in acknowledgement. "None taken", she replied. "And normally, you'd be right. But,"  she sighed, "this is a particular form of magic. One that is unique to one person and one person only."

                Hook had a look of utter confusion on his face and Emma knew that hers would no doubt hold the same expression.  She took a slight step toward Regina, her hand still entwined with Killian's. "How is that possible?" she asked, knowing enough about magic to understand that it simply didn't work that way. Magic worked much the same way as genetics. Some had particularly strong affinities for a certain type of magic, some couldn't access another type, but it was never truly unique. It always happened more than once.

               Emma's father, David, stepped up from the crowd, forming a half circle around the still kneeling Gold who had not noticed their conversation or, more likely, was just ignoring them to tend to his own turbulent grief. "How can one person have a unique power, one that no one has ever heard of? Power like that isn't easy to control, and nearly impossible to keep quiet." David said, speaking not only to Regina, but to any who might have an answer.

                 Regina's look became one of resignation. "Because the owner of this particular power isn't strictly human, and most definitely not from the Enchanted forest."

                 Mary-Margaret stepped up beside her husband. "But how did this...person end up here if they're not from our world?" Her question seemed a valid one to Emma, but Regina apparently thought it rather stupid from the way she threw up her hands in exasperation. "Do none of you recall," she said, using what Emma had deemed years ago as her Queen Bitch voice. "not even three days ago, when a rather exciting looking portal opened up and none other than the product of true love, one of the most powerful magics in the world, just jumped right into it?" Regina looked at each one of them, an expectant look on her face. She then sighed and tossed her hair back, muttering under her breath, "No, of course not. Everyone is too concerned with when the Savior and Captain Guy-liner will finally jump into bed."

               Emma made a choking sound, hoping no one else had heard that particular comment and hoping even more that it wasn't true. Regina then turned her attention back to the matter at hand. "When you take such a powerful, pure form of magic and throw it together with a very unstable, never before accomplished time portal, the effects can be somewhat... unpredictable." She stopped, and for a moment seemed as if she wouldn't finish her excruciatingly long speech. Then, she sighed and ran a hand through her short, raven hair. "Because the portal was so unstable, it more than likely didn't just tunnel through time, but through other worlds as well. The force of Emma's magic was magnified by the portal, attracting another type of magic, one that I'd hoped to God I'd seen the last of years ago."

               As silence again fell around them, Regina's words being considered by all, Gold finally unfolded himself from the ground and stood, completing the their little circle. His expression was carefully blank, but Emma could still sense the emotions that rode high within him. That was one of her newer gifts. Unlike Regina, her own powers didn't have to be learned, they just popped up with complete irregularity and no warning. She was still trying to hone her more physical magic, no matter the emotional weight of knowing everyone's pain around her.

            Gold may have kept his face expressionless, but his voice, low and raspy from weeping, was rife with grief. "And now, deary, this is the part where you tell us exactly how you know about this particular power."