ghost of you, 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬

iii. journey ahead

GHOST OF YOU
::  iii. | journey ahead

"Regina!" Emma called out in distress. The ship was rocking back and forth like a ship going through a storm but that wasn't the case at all.

"Mermaids!" Hook announced, trying to hang on as the ship kept rocking.

Regina shoved the paper and pen in her pocket. As she attempted to stand up, she stumbled forward as did everyone else. Luckily she caught herself then leaned forward, looking over into the water. She saw the mermaids swimming underneath. An annoyed expression came across her face.

"Those scrawny little skanks." Regina mumbled, bringing her arm up as a fireball formed in her hand.

"Regina, don't!" Killian warned, "It will anger them more!"

Regina ignored killian and threw the fireball in the ocean anyway. Quickly, the mermaids scattered, leaving one from their flock alone. Killian and Emma noticed, so they caught a fish, then brought her up to the ship. She didn't even try to fight. They let her out the net and she flopped to the middle of the ship.

Snow, gold, charming, Emma, hook, and Regina all crowded around the strayed mermaid.

"Call them off." Hook demand.

A smug smirk came across the mermaids' face, "You're in our territory."

Another fireball formed in Regina's hand, "How does fry fish sound for dinner everyone?"

Hook rose his brows, "She's quite serious, love."

The mermaid gulped as she took in a deep sigh. She nodded agreeing that she'll call off her friends. Soon enough, she was back in the ocean and the waters looked clear. She group sprouted out again and finished their journey to neverland.

Regina went back to the stool and sat back down as hook continued to sail the ship. Her thoughts got crowded by any worse possible outcome when saving Henry. There was no exact plan, they were just going.

Once they reached land, gold quickly parted ways from them to go on his own hunt. But they weren't stranded, killian knew exactly where to go. He had an old friend, Baelfire. So the group traveled to where baelfire stayed when he was there, it was a cave-like place.

They walked in and it was pitch black, quickly an idea sparked Emma's mind. She used her magic to light a candle in the midst of the darkness. Once the candle was lit, Emma picked it up and began shinning the light over the walls. She ran her hand over the markings.

Regina followed, "What?"

"He was losing hope." Emma spoke softly.

Regina rose a brow, "And you got that from scribbles?"

Emma ignored her and carried on through the rest of the cave. All of them were looking for clues, answers as to where Henry could be . . . then snow found a coconut shelling with holes punctured in the top.

The princess called over emma and as soon as Emma saw it, another idea went off in her head. She took the casing from her mom and brought it over to the candle. Emma put the candle inside then placed the lid on top. Everyone's eyes soon diverted towards the ceiling. They were confused as to what they were supposed to be looking at.

"Stars." Emma commented.

"That little bastard." Hook mumbled with a smile, he knew what it meant. He knew where to go from there.

• • •

After walking of what could've been hours, they all decided to hold camp. It was getting dark, so getting lost was not an option. At first regina refused, she wanted to keep going but was convinced that it was best to wait until their was light again. She doesn't take lightly when someone she loves gets taken or obstacles to getting them back. And that's what that was. She thought this rest was an obstacle and that the more they waited, the less time they have to save Henry.

As everyone set their camps and talked amongst themselves, Emma was encountered by Peter Pan. It was a game — he gave her a blank map and told her the only way to get Henry back was to accept her true self. The thing was, she thought she had already done that — years ago. Because as soon as she got back to camp, she included everyone and tried to reveal the map, but anything she did wasn't working.

Each second drew regina more frustrated than the last. She was growing impatient, Emma couldn't figure it out. So in result as regina walked passed Emma, she snatched the map. The thing is Regina likes to cheat to get her way, but this game — it can not be cheated and there are consequences. So she used her magic and a map appeared across the page. She walked back to Emma and gave the map back to her.

"See, magic always works."

After those words were spoken, the map sparkled in flames. Regina sighed in failure, while charming scoffed and walked the other way.

Emma stood up and faced Regina, "Nice going, Regina."

"Well at least I'm doing something to save our son. You sat there talking to paper—!" She rose her voice.

Emma shook her head, "That was our only shot, regina! Pan said no cheating!"

"Hey!" Snow intervened, "Why don't we all calm down? Let's rest and think of a new plan because we will find Henry. We're not leaving without him."

Regina and Emma shared a quick, annoyed glanced at each other before going their separate ways. Regina found herself curled up in the corner of their campsite. She pulled out paper and her pen. She began writing because that's all she knew that would help her — writing to cassandra. She wrote about how she messed up and if anything happened to Henry it would be her fault because of that stupid map. She spoke about how much passion she has for hating pan and once she finds him, she will kill him.

She quickly scratched that out because she remembered cassandra never condones violence. Then she scratched that out because she realized she wasn't being truthful. She was the evil queen for fucks sake, so she took countless of lives. So she rephrased, when I mentioned I'd kill him — I meant it because that's just in my nature.

a/n:
sooo i discovered something
&& all I'm hoping is for
y'all not to hate me in the
next couple of chapters 🫠