Once on Instagram III

The Song in Your Heart (Part One)

A/N: I hope you guys are ready for a 5000+ word chapter lol

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April 6, 2018

When the magic cleared away, Emma was standing in what looked to be a courtyard. She looked around and saw Robin, Lily, Belle, Milah, and... Neal. Emma was standing in between Lily and Milah and it was taking all of her control not to rush over to Neal and start apologizing. She had to remind herself that they were cursed. ...Or at least they were supposed to be...

Suddnely, the Seer appeared in the middle of the group. She looked around, as if to make sure everyone was there, before she began speaking. "We don't have much time, so you have to listen carefully. I was able to intervene with the curse and bring you six here in order to break it. Unfortunately, there was a price. The children and Rumplestiltskin are locked up in the Evil Queen's prison."

"What?!" Emma exclaimed before she could stop herself. Everyone looked at her.
"Henry, Ella, Violet, and Grace as well as Roland, Riley, Hope, Neal Jr, and Rose are in the Evil Queen's dungeon with Rumplestiltskin. Luckily, she doesn't know they're there. It was the only way I could get you guys here and give you more than one opportunity to break this curse.

"Soon, the sun will rise and Snow and Charming will wake up and begin the first song. The entire musical episode will run through until we get to Emma's song. If you succeed, Emma will sing her song and the curse will break. If you don't, the day will start over again and you will go through the episode again, trying new strategies. Each one of you must pick a character to follow and bring them all to the final song between the Evil Queen and the Charmings. It's in that battle that it will be decided if you have succeeded or failed."

"Succeeded or failed in what?" Belle asked.

"In proving you deserve to have the curse broken."

"Well who decides if we deserve that or not?"

"Venus. Or, as you know her, Aphrodite. That is what Snow wished on after all." The Seer waited for a moment, to see if anyone else had any questions. "You will get three run throughs of the episode before your fate is sealed and you continue on to A Happy Beginning in Storybrooke. If you don't succeed on the third run, the musical episode will run through exactly how it's supposed to and it will end with everyone in Storybrooke and Emma singing her song before you go onto the wedding. And you can't change who follows which characters from run to run. You've got an hour before the sun comes up, so good luck." With that, the Seer disappeared.

Belle cleared her throat. "So. We don't have Henry, who would be a huge help, but Neal has spoken with the Seer plenty, so do you have any suggestions, Neal?"

"I..." Neal glanced over at Emma before he looked back at Belle. "I don't really know much about the musical episode, just that Emma and Hook get married at the end of it. Um... Snow, Charming, Regina, Zelena, and Hook all have songs, so we need at least one person to be paired up with each of them."

Everyone just looked at each other, waiting for someone to make the first move. It was Emma who spoke up first. "I'll take Regina."

"I'm not sure that's the best..." Belle started.

"We're on good terms again, don't worry. And I promised I'd save her from this curse, so it's only right that I follow her." Emma looked at Robin. "Is that... Is that okay?"

Robin nodded. "I'm okay with that."

"I can go with Zelena," Belle volunteered. "I mean, I doubt anyone else wants to, so..."