APPLICATION: Entranceway (Round 2)

[cursebreaking]

Name: Christine
DW username: faelight
E-Mail: myyahelle [at] gmail [dot] com
IM: necrofancy#5279 @ discord
Plurk: necrofancy

Other Characters: Teddy Altman | Marvel-616 | dangerouslyunhip

Character Name: Emma Swan
Series: Once Upon a Time
Timeline: Just before 3.12, "New York City Serenade."
Canon Resource Link: "The price of being the Savior is I don't get a day off."

Character History:

before storybrooke

Emma was declared to be a figure of great importance even before her birth. The child of Snow White and Prince Charming, Rumplestiltskin foretold that she would be the Savior, the one person able to break the Dark Curse that the Evil Queen had threatened the kingdom with. Though the curse itself was unavoidable, Emma would be able to bring an end to it during her 28th year, should her parents find a way to protect her from the curse in the first place.

That way was through a wardrobe, carved from a very particular tree with magical properties. It would transport those within it to another world, one without magic, but one where there was a chance to escape the Dark Curse and prepare for battle against the Queen when the time came. Geppetto, who was responsible for fashioning the wardrobe, bargained with the Blue Fairy to ensure that his son, Pinocchio, be able to escape the curse as well, and it was arranged so that he would travel through the wardrobe alongside Snow White and her unborn child. However, Snow White went into labor earlier than expected, and Pinocchio was newborn Emma’s only companion when the time came to flee the curse. Upon arriving in this world, the two of them were put into the foster system, where they managed to stay together for some time, though Pinocchio, now going by the name August, ran away with a number of older foster children, leaving Emma, still an infant, behind.

Emma spent the next fifteen years in the foster system, moving from home to home, never managing to properly put down roots. As she got older, she would see younger children get adopted and find families, but always found herself passed over-- nobody wanted to adopt an older child, and this became more obvious during her early teenage years. Lonely and forever questioning why her birth parents gave her up, she counted the days each time she found herself in a new foster home, only to stop when she’d given up hope that things might take a turn for the better. She became independent at sixteen, taking whatever jobs she could to scrape by, happy enough as long as she had her freedom. Odd jobs turned out to not be enough, and she found other ways to make ends meet, primarily through theft.

Two years later, she was living in Portland, Oregon, where she met Neal Cassidy while attempting to steal a car-- the same yellow bug she can be seen driving in the present-day. She originally mistook him for the car’s owner, though it was quickly revealed that he was a thief, as well. The two of them put together a Bonnie and Clyde act and became a couple, working various scams together until they decided they both wanted to find a place to put down roots and start a real life. They decided on Tallahassee, Florida, but before they were able to see this plan through, Neal abandoned Emma for reasons unknown to her at the time, leaving her to get caught holding onto a bunch of stolen watches he had been intending to fence. Emma was arrested and wound up spending eleven months in a minimum security prison in Phoenix. It was there that she discovered that she was pregnant and gave birth to her son, whom she gave up for adoption in the interest of giving him his best chance. All she knew was that while there was part of her that wanted to keep him, she wasn’t a fit parent and his best chance was most definitely not with her, going so far as to tell the doctor in delivery that she “couldn’t be a mother.”

the first curse

Ten years later, Emma was working as a bail bondsperson in Boston. On her 28th birthday, a young boy turned up at her apartment without warning-- coincidentally granting Emma’s wish that she wouldn’t have to spend her birthday alone. He introduced himself as Henry Mills, the son she had previously given up for adoption. Wanting her to return to Storybrooke with him, he informed her that if she called the cops, he would simply tell them she kidnapped him, leaving her with little choice but to take him back to Storybrooke herself, knowing that the police would believe him because she was his birth mother. During the drive from Boston to Storybrooke, Henry proceeded to tell Emma about the book he carried with him: “Once Upon a Time,” a volume filled with classic fairy tales that everyone knows, though each of the stories within it played out a bit differently from the versions Emma remembered.

It was when they reached Storybrooke itself that Henry told her why the book was so important: it was full of stories about real people, stories that actually happened, and the characters within it were all citizens of the town of Storybrooke, cursed to forget who they were and the lives they had before. Emma was understandably skeptical, dismissing it as some form of Henry playing pretend, even as he pointed out that he was convinced his therapist was actually Jiminy Cricket. Though disbelieving, Emma found herself charmed by Henry himself, interested in getting to know him better but deciding that it was best for both of them if she didn’t pursue a relationship with him. This changed when she brought him home to his mother, Mayor Regina Mills, who was gracious that Henry had been delivered home safely, but quick to remind Emma that she had asked for a closed adoption and that it would be best if she didn’t stay in town.

While Emma’s initial plan had been to turn around and head back to Boston immediately, meeting Henry’s adoptive mother gave her pause. Though Henry had tried to clue her in about the curse and his adoptive mother’s origins, insisting that she was the Evil Queen responsible for the curse, Emma dismissed it as his having an overactive imagination and didn’t see those stories as a reason to stay – but the fact that he seemed unhappy at home was as good a reason as any.

Much of her time in Storybrooke was spent getting to know Henry as well as the other citizens, and as she and Henry grew closer, he pointed out several different parallels between his book of fairytales and the people in town. She and Henry bonded, finding a particularly meaningful parallel between themselves as children who had been given up by their birth parents, though Emma had never been adopted herself. Henry explained to her that he understood why she gave him up, that she had wanted to give him his best chance, telling her that it was the same reason her parents had done the same with her. Though doubting her own parents’ motives and refusing to lend Henry’s claims about her parents being Snow White and Prince Charming any credibility, Emma enjoyed spending time with her son and learning to understand him, determined not to disappoint him or let him down again now that she was in his life. Emma also became fast friends and roommates with Mary Margaret Blanchard (Snow White, though neither one of them was aware) who served as a pillar of support while Emma herself engaged in a months-long power struggle with Regina over their roles in Henry’s life. She had a brief romance with Sheriff Graham Humbert, who had recruited her as his deputy, but it was cut short when he died, leaving her to fill the void he left and step up to assume the role of sheriff, which she did with some hesitance. Once it became clear that Regina didn’t want Emma in office as sheriff, Emma became more passionate about the job itself, in honoring Graham’s memory and serving the town, putting down roots.

Though it took time and perseverance on Henry’s part, with the occasional (and questionable) aid of Mr. Gold and, later, the assistance of an adult August, Emma was nudged closer and closer to being able to accept that the curse was a very real thing, and one that she had the power to bring an end to. She remained skeptical and stubbornly dismissed it as nothing but stories for months, telling August that it was incredibly unfair of him to try and dump this on her, that she didn’t want to be held responsible for the livelihood and happiness of everyone in Storybrooke-- she had never asked for that, and the story itself was beyond insane, something she was absolutely unwilling to allow herself to even consider believing. It was Henry who finally managed to impress the severity of the situation on her. By taking a bite of an apple turnover that Regina had meant for Emma, Henry fell under a sleeping curse, and suddenly Emma had no choice but to suspend disbelief in order to save her son, whatever the cost. She forced a confession from Regina that the curse and everything Henry had told her since the first night they’d met was absolutely true, and the two of them were forced to work together in order to retrieve the potion that Mr. Gold insisted would break the spell’s hold on Henry, but he double-crossed them and left them empty-handed, taking the potion for himself. Fortunately, all that had been said about the power of true love’s kiss turned out to be true, and Emma planting a kiss against Henry’s forehead was enough to both awaken and revive him.

Meanwhile, Gold used the potion that Emma had unknowingly retrieved for him to bring magic to Storybrooke. With it came the Wraith, a creature that no one knew much about, other than the fact that it had to be stopped. Though Emma was reunited with the family she had never known beyond their Storybrooke counterparts, the reunion itself was short-lived, and during their battle with the Wraith, she found herself pulled through a portal to their world of origin, the Enchanted Forest. Mary Margaret leapt in after her and the portal closed behind them, separating them both from their allies in Storybrooke.

the enchanted forest

In the Enchanted Forest, Emma and Mary Margaret’s primary goal was to find a way back home, and to do so as soon as possible, though they were met with resistance. Initially found unconscious by a suspicious Mulan and Princess Aurora, Emma and Mary Margaret were accused of being responsible for bringing the Wraith back to the Enchanted Forest. The two of them were taken prisoner and marched to the refugee camp that Mulan and Aurora had been staying at, peopled by those who had managed to withstand the Evil Queen’s curse twenty-eight years earlier through means they did not understand, though it was later revealed that this was because of the intervention of Regina’s mother, Cora, who had frozen a small portion of the Forest and those within it in time in order to escape the curse herself. The refugees were lead by Lancelot, formerly of the Round Table, whose past friendship with Mary Margaret earned both her and Emma their freedom. Appreciative of Lancelot’s help, Emma impressed upon him the importance of her returning home to her son, and he provided both her and Mary Margaret with weapons and supplies, as well as a guide in the form of Mulan. Together, along with Aurora, they set out towards the castle that had once been Snow and Charming’s, seeking out the wardrobe that had sent Emma to our world in the first place and hoping to use its magic to find their way home.

Among the many trials they faced during their travels in the Enchanted Forest, Emma found trying to come to grips with her changing relationship with Mary Margaret more difficult than any ogres or other creatures that they faced. While Mary Margaret was intent on spending more time with her and hoping to encourage Emma to accept her as her mother, Emma found herself unable to let go of the bitterness she’d felt for so many years over being abandoned, even now knowing that her parents had done it with her best interests in mind. Knowing their intent wasn’t enough to erase years of feeling that she didn’t belong or didn’t matter, and trying to reconcile that the woman who had become her best friend over the past year was also her mother was challenging. The reality of the situation finally began to sink in when they reached the castle and Mary Margaret had the opportunity to show Emma what was meant to be her nursery after she was born, but the chance for Emma to talk out her complicated feelings was cut short by the appearance of Cora, who intended to use the enchanted wardrobe for herself in order to travel to Storybrooke. Having been told of Cora’s history by Mary Margaret and knowing that allowing Cora to get to Storybrooke would most certainly put Henry in danger, Emma burned the wardrobe to ash in order to keep Cora from being able to make her way through, cutting Mary Margaret and herself off from their way home in the process.

Determined to find another way, Emma and the rest of her entourage returned to the refugee camp, only to find that Cora had already slaughtered everyone in it. The only remaining survivor was Killian Jones, known more commonly by his more colorful moniker of Captain Hook. Though he attempted to play himself off as having been a victim of Cora’s assault, Emma saw through his attempts at manipulation and coerced him into telling the truth, threatening to leave him to be killed by the ogres that were nearing the remains of camp. He revealed that he had previously been working with Cora, but that his own reasons for getting to Storybrooke didn’t necessarily align with hers: his only goal was to reach Storybrooke in order to kill Rumplestiltskin, intent on revenge. Whether he got there by helping Cora or Emma didn’t much matter to him, and he made himself invaluable to Emma and her companions by offering to serve as their guide to the location of a magic compass that, along with the ashes from the enchanted wardrobe, would be able to open a portal and show them the way home. Though Emma refused to trust him implicitly, she freed Hook and allowed him to make good on his word, though she made it perfectly clear that she would be watching him carefully the entire way.

Hook was able to guide the group to a beanstalk that lead up to the land of giants, where the compass in question was said to be located. Emma proceeded to climb her way up with Hook in tow, but not before asking Mulan to protect Mary Margaret and to cut down the beanstalk and leave without her if she didn’t return within ten hours, trying to plan for the possibility of Hook betraying her. Together, Emma and Hook were able to climb the beanstalk and make their way into the giants’ palace, where one lone giant named Anton remained. Though the giant initially accused them of coming to kill him for his remaining magic beans, Emma was able to reason with and befriend him, convincing him that not all humans solved their problems with violence and that she was only trying to get home to her son. Anton chose to let her pass freely, telling her to get back to her family, and she and Hook reconvened, prepared to escape with the compass. At the last minute, Emma convinced Hook to hand the compass over to her and then proceeded to handcuff him in place, trapping him in the giant’s palace and leaving him behind, saying that while she believed he was telling the truth and didn’t plan to double-cross her, she couldn’t trust herself and take the chance that she might be wrong about him.

Returning to Mary Margaret, Mulan and Aurora, Emma was prepared to put as much space between herself and Hook as possible in order to buy herself enough time to find a way back home before he caught up to them. Unfortunately, her abandoning Hook left him with no choice but to once again join forces with Cora in order to make his own way to Storybrooke. Emma and Mary Margaret faced Hook and Cora head-on at Lake Nostos, where Emma proceeded to defeat Hook in a duel before throwing herself in front of Mary Margaret to keep Cora from ripping out her heart. Cora reached for Emma’s heart instead, telling her that the display was touching but that love was weakness-- only to find that she was unable to pull Emma’s heart from her chest as Emma defied her, telling her that love was strength instead and causing a strong pulse of magic to throw Cora away from her. Together, Emma and Mary Margaret were able to get through the portal to Storybrooke that had been created, leaving their enemies behind so that they could return to their friends and family.

coming home

Upon returning to Storybrooke, Emma began to take a new approach to her interactions with Regina, deciding it was in Henry’s best interest that both his birth and adoptive mothers be on good terms. Despite the past bad blood with her family and her own power struggle with Regina, Emma reminded her parents that she herself wouldn’t have been able to change if she hadn’t been given a second chance, and that she wanted to do the same thing for Regina. Though her efforts were genuine, she also displayed some hesitance in letting Henry go to spend the night with Regina now that he was living with her and Mary Margaret, which lead Regina to doubt Emma’s sincerity. Emma’s efforts to smooth things over and build a civil relationship with Regina continued, but were brought to a sudden halt when Regina was framed for the murder of Dr. Hopper. Emma was intent on giving her the benefit of the doubt despite the fact that everyone else in town was convinced Regina was responsible, with Emma herself feeling that the evidence was too easy to find and that someone wanted them to think Regina was to blame. However, after using magic to be able to see the events of Dr. Hopper’s death firsthand under Gold’s guidance, Emma was left with no choice but to believe that Regina was guilty as well, until it was later revealed that Cora and Hook had managed to make their way to Storybrooke on the Jolly Roger and that Cora herself was responsible for framing Regina, having used magic to disguise herself as her daughter and fake Dr. Hopper’s murder, having taken him captive instead.

While Emma and Henry were both relieved to find that Regina wasn’t guilty, they were whisked away from Storybrooke before they had the opportunity to tell her so, thanks to Gold stepping in to cash in on a favor that Emma had owed him since he’d helped her keep her job as sheriff of Storybrooke. He insisted that she accompany him to locate his son, Baelfire, knowing that finding people was her specialty, as well as being aware of the fact that he would need someone with experience beyond Storybrooke to help him navigate the outside world. Emma and Henry accompanied him to Manhattan together, where thanks to the aid of magic, they were successful in tracking down Baelfire-- only to find that Gold’s son was also a significant figure from Emma’s own past. No longer using the name his father had given him, Baelfire was revealed to be none other than Neal Cassidy, Henry’s biological father.

The reunion was not a happy one. While urging Emma not to reveal him to his father, Neal explained why he had abandoned her eleven years earlier, informing her that August had managed to track him down and intervened, insisting that he needed to remove himself from Emma’s life in order for her to become who she was meant to be. Emma’s first reaction was somewhere between anger and panic, furious with Neal for having left her in the first place, and immediately assuming that he and his father had somehow planned his involvement in her life, that Neal had known that she was meant to be the Savior all along, though Neal promised her that he hadn’t known who she was until August found him and explained. Hurt and angry, Emma told Neal that nothing good had ever come of their being together, purposefully avoiding telling him that they had a son together, leaving him behind in order to return to his father and tell him what she’d found. Determined not to leave things unresolved, Neal followed her, finding himself forced to face his father and also realizing that the young boy who had accompanied Emma to New York was his own son.

The reunion was cut short when Gold himself was attacked and poisoned using dreamshade by Hook, who had used the Jolly Roger to pursue Gold himself to New York, though Emma was quick to apprehend him, locking him in a storage unit. The wound that Hook had inflicted would only be curable with the use of magic, which was impossible given their current location. Though Gold and Neal were at odds and Emma’s relationship with Henry was now strained, owing to his being upset that she had lied to him about his father’s identity (saying he had been a firefighter who died a hero before he was born), the family drama was put on hold long enough for them to hurry Gold back to Storybrooke. They left New York at the helm of the Jolly Roger, though not before running into Tamara, Neal’s fiancee. Back in Storybrooke, Emma played her part in defending Gold alongside Neal as Regina, now having reunited and teamed up with Cora, attempted to come after him and finish him off, hoping to take the power of the Dark One for themselves. Emma and Neal were successful for a time, until Cora forced her way through the magic barrier that Gold had coached Emma into putting in place, banishing both Emma and Neal to the forest outside town via teleportation. In Emma’s absence, it was Mary Margaret who was able to stop Cora in her tracks, using dark magic to curse Cora’s heart and tricking Regina into putting it back inside her body, killing her almost immediately.

Cora’s death only paved the way for more trouble, leaving Regina heartbroken and bent on revenge. Regina sought to exploit a failsafe that she had built into the curse that had brought Storybrooke into existence, planning to take Henry back to the Enchanted Forest with her while Storybrooke and everyone in it were erased. Unaware of this plan, Emma busied herself with keeping Henry a safe distance from Regina and carefully overseeing his interactions with Neal, who wanted a chance to get to know his son now that he had the opportunity. Things rapidly became more complicated as Emma found herself faced with the problem of an outsider named Greg Mendell having found his way into town-- the first person without any prior connection to Storybrooke who had ever come into town, leaving the citizens concerned about hiding magic from the eyes of tourists. Neal’s fiancee, Tamara, joined him in Storybrooke shortly after, wanting to spend time with him and join him getting to know Henry, though Emma found herself immediately suspicious of her. Upon discovering that Tamara had a list of everyone in town and their storybook counterparts, Emma decided that she needed to be watched closely, going so far as to break into her hotel room to look for evidence. Mary Margaret gently suggested that Emma might be seeing something suspicious where there was no reason to, implying that Emma’s dislike of Tamara was because of jealousy and her own unresolved feelings for Neal, which Emma immediately denied.

Emma’s suspicions were confirmed shortly after: Tamara and Greg were discovered to be working together, serving an employer who had them set out to destroy magic wherever it appeared in this world. Upon being discovered, Tamara shot Neal and sent him through a portal-- while Emma attempted to pull him out, Neal begged her to let go and to make sure that she stayed where she was in order to protect Henry, telling her that he couldn’t lose both of his parents and asking Emma not to “let him grow up like we did.” Emma was forced to let go, but not without telling Neal that she loved him. In the wake of his disappearance, she quickly pursued his murderer. Tamara and Greg had also hijacked Regina’s plan to exploit the curse’s failsafe, drawing the information out of her through torture, and were prepared to use it to destroy Storybrooke as a whole, though Regina herself was freed by Emma and the pair of them were able to shut down the magical device responsible by pooling their power together. While Emma and Regina were preoccupied with saving the town, Tamara and Greg took the opportunity to kidnap Henry and to take him through a portal to Neverland, revealing that finding him had been the primary goal of their mission. Unwilling to let their son be taken from them, Emma and Regina banded together and prepared to follow Greg and Tamara to Neverland, with Emma convincing Hook to take them through the portal on his ship and to act as their guide, insisting that the two of them understood one another and that this was his chance to do something right for a change. Begrudgingly, he agreed, with Mary Margaret, David and Gold joining them as they set off to bring Henry back home.

neverland & the second curse

Neverland was nothing like the island Emma had heard of in children’s stories, covered by a dark and dangerous jungle and inhabited by Peter Pan’s savage band of Lost Boys, all of whom were prepared to ensure that no intruders were allowed to leave the island alive. Pan himself was the worst of them, taking a special interest in Emma from the start and choosing to prey on her lingering feelings of resentment over having been orphaned. He managed to catch her alone early on, offering her a blank map and saying that it would lead the way to Henry once she realized who she really was. Emma found herself forced to try to come to terms with everything she had been unwilling to accept about herself thus far: the fact that she was the Savior, her being the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, but it wasn’t until she confessed that she saw herself in the fearful, desperate obedience of the Lost Boys that the map revealed itself. Pan was glad to learn that Emma still considered herself an orphan, and told her to hold onto those feelings-- that Henry would be feeling that same resentment over her abandoning him, insisting that he had never forgiven her for giving her up.

Pan’s goading only made Emma that much more determined to find her son, and she continued to push her way through Neverland’s jungle along with the others, letting Hook act as their guide even as she attempted to ignore his attempts to get into her good graces. As the search for Henry continued, Hook continually tried to prove to Emma that he wasn’t the villain she had assumed him to be and that he was worth her time, though it wasn’t until he saved David from dreamshade poisoning that she finally began to reciprocate, kissing him as thanks for saving her father before breaking away and telling him not to mention it to anyone, having already made it clear that the only thing on her mind at the moment was saving her son. Any romantic developments between Hook and Emma were complicated by the reappearance of Neal, who had fallen through a portal to the Enchanted Forest and had his wounds treated by Mulan and Aurora before finding his own way to Neverland in the interest of finding and rescuing what remained of his family. Neal was taken prisoner by Pan following his arrival, and it was revealed that Neal himself had been a Lost Boy when he was younger.

Rescuing Neal became an imperative step on their road to finding and saving Henry, and Emma and the others were forced to admit difficult truths to one another in order to build themselves a path through the Echo Cave, where Neal was being held. It was Emma who was left with the task of finally freeing Neal from the cage he’d been kept it by offering her own confession, and she admitted that when she learned that he might be on the island and alive, that she had hoped it wasn’t true. She wanted to believe that he had died falling through the portal while wounded, because it would have been easier than having hope only to lose him again when getting over his disappearing from her life the first time had nearly killed her, as well as her mourning what she’d believed to be his death in Storybrooke. Neal was freed, and told Emma that he understood how she felt, choosing not to hold her attempts to protect herself against her.

When Emma and the others finally caught up with Pan and found their way to Henry, it was almost too late, with Henry having been convinced by Pan that his purpose on this island was to give his own heart, the heart of the Truest Believer, in order to save magic. Neal intervened, quick to try and remind Henry that Pan was selfish and had no interest in saving magic, only his own personal gain, with Emma and Regina joining him in trying to appeal to their son. Pan’s manipulations won out, and Henry gave up his own heart only to plunge it into Pan’s chest before collapsing to the ground. Emma attacked Pan, furious, though he vanished before she could do any real damage, leaving both her and Regina to hover over Henry’s unconscious body, panicked. Neal proposed a plan to find Pan, having a good idea of where he might have gone thanks to his time as a Lost Boy, causing Regina to lash out. Emma sympathized, telling Regina that she understood how she felt, that they were both worried sick about Henry, but it wasn’t until that moment that Emma truly grasped just how different their situations were. Regina informed Emma that she had her parents, Neal, and Hook all on her side, important people in her life who actively wanted to be a part of it, but that Henry was the only family she had left. Emma conceded, admitting that she couldn’t possibly know exactly how Regina felt, and she offered Regina the opportunity to take charge of the situation, to choose how she wanted to get her son back.

Together, with Regina in the lead, they managed to imprison Pan in Pandora’s Box, though not before Pan himself can turn everyone’s regrets against them, including informing Emma of just how many times she had disappointed Henry, something he now knew with absolute certainty as Henry’s heart was within his body. Regina was the one who was able to free her companions from Pan’s trap and imprison Pan himself, owing to the fact that she had no regrets, as each step she had taken throughout her life had lead her to Henry. Regina reclaimed Henry’s heart, returning it to him and bringing him back to life as everyone boarded the Jolly Roger to return to Storybrooke, leaving Neverland behind.

Back in Storybrooke, Emma found herself unable to focus on anything but Henry, troubled by the change in his behavior since the return from Neverland. While her family reassured her that it was only because Henry had been through an ordeal, Emma was unable to shake the feeling that something wasn’t right with him, especially when he asked to be allowed to spend the night at Regina’s. Her suspicions continued to mount as Henry’s behavior continued to be off in small ways, none of it adding up to what she expected of the boy she had come to know over the last year and a half. When Mother Superior was murdered by a shadow in front of a number of witnesses, Emma’s suspicions immediately turned to Pan. Taking Pandora’s Box to the town line, Emma released Pan from his prison to question him outside the town where his magic would be useless, only to have Pan himself claim to be Henry when he appeared in front of her. Disbelieving, Emma told him she refused to fall for whatever game he was playing, but when she demanded proof, Pan was able to offer it: when Emma asked when the first time she and Henry connected was, Pan told her that it was at his castle playground on the beach when he had told Emma he understood why she had given him up. Convinced that Pan had managed to switch bodies with Henry, Emma embraced him and the two of them quickly realized that the real Pan was now in Regina’s vault, where Regina herself had taken “Henry” for protection once they suspected that Pan was responsible for Mother Superior’s murder.

That short time in the vault had been enough for Pan to get what he wanted, leaving him in possession of Regina’s Dark Curse. Mr. Gold, as the originator of the curse back in the Enchanted Forest, informed Emma, Regina and the others that it was possible to stop the curse before Pan could put it into effect and create a new Neverland for himself, but that it would come with a steep price. By use of the Black Fairy’s wand, he was able to put Pan and Henry back in their original bodies, leaving Henry in possession of the curse so that it could be delivered to Regina, the only person capable of destroying it as she had been the one to cast it in the first place. Emma and Regina were reunited with Henry quickly thanks to Granny’s tracking skills, but the plan was quickly derailed by Pan, who intervened and stole the scroll bearing the curse back for himself, freezing Emma and the others in place. It was Gold who was able to overpower Pan’s magic, summoning the dagger that served as the source of his power as the Dark One and using it to stab both Pan and himself simultaneously, sacrificing himself in order to take Pan down with him.

Pan’s death left Regina free to destroy the curse, but she informed the others that destroying it meant that Storybrooke would disappear, and everyone would return to their lives back in the Enchanted Forest-- all but Henry, who had been born in this world. Though it broke her heart to say goodbye to him, Regina entrusted Emma with Henry’s care, and together they decided that Emma and Henry would remain in this world to live their life together, complete with new memories that Regina would create for them. Though hesitant to say goodbye to her family, Emma knew that staying with Henry was the only choice for her, and just before the curse itself was destroyed, she and Henry offered tearful goodbyes before getting into her yellow bug and driving over the town line, with their altered memories settling in as they departed, headed for a new life in New York City with no memories of fairy tales or magic or any of what had initially brought them together. For the first time, they would have an opportunity to be mother and son in a way that their lives had never allowed for.

Abilities/Special Powers:

Emma does not have abilities so much as she has potential. As was pointed out by Gold, she is the product of true love, which is something incredibly powerful in itself. She has been shown to possess great potential as far as magic is concerned, but doesn’t know how to put it to use without guidance. She has been seen using magic in order to look into Pongo’s memories to witness Archie Hopper’s supposed murder, but other than that, she is inexperienced. Her latent magic ability has the potential to be developed into something that can be controlled and wielded, as seen in canon during her magic lessons with Regina, but at present, she's still learning.

She tends to refer to her ability to tell whenever people are lying as a ‘superpower,’ but it’s not always reliable and it’s likely that this ability is more the result of experience and intuition rather than a natural-born talent. That said, she is incredibly good at reading people and is right more often than not in situations where someone’s honesty is being called into question.

Though not necessarily special abilities, it’s worth noting that she’s experienced in handling firearms and in tracking people. She can also fumble her way through a swordfight if need be, but she’d prefer to stick to guns or her own fists in a matter of self-defense, thanks very much. Anything in a pinch, though. She’s had to heft a sword enough times now that she’s gotten pretty decent at it.

Third-Person Sample:

The scenery that awaits whenever someone steps off the subway can vary, but most major features of it never change. Emma has become so familiar with the station nearest her apartment over the years that she never even gives her surroundings a second glance, able to navigate it with practiced ease, second nature after years of taking the same route home from the office for so long. The routine for Thursday night is always the same: come home, help Henry with the last of his homework, order pizza and treat themselves to a movie night together as the week nears its end. While she considers herself to be amenable to change, she isn’t expecting it, and certainly not to this degree-- because the total lack of noise as she steps off the subway is almost deafening in how unexpected it is, and it takes her a moment to register what she’s actually seeing: not a subway station, but a hedge maze. She’s never seen one in real life before, and definitely not in New York.

Her first impulse is to pinch herself, assuming she’d dozed off on the train, but nothing around her changes and the sudden pinch leaves the beginnings of a small, stinging welt on her forearm. She turns back to look towards the train behind her, only to see that there’s nothing but another tall row of hedges standing there. No train, no crowds, and the only immediate sound being distant birdsongs.

“Okay. Weird is an understatement.”

She mutters under her breath, talking to herself just because she can, because it’s easier to deal with than the uneasy and unnatural quiet. She can feel confusion and panic warring with one another, trying to decide which one should win out, but she shoves both of them down despite the tight feeling in her chest. She can’t even begin to explain what’s happening, but the fact that she’s not where she’s supposed to be and that her son is at home waiting for her takes priority. She reaches for her phone, only to pull it out and find that there’s no signal. That doesn’t stop her from trying to call Henry anyway, but nothing goes through, and she swears under her breath as she shoves her phone back into her pocket.

Whatever was happening, she knows there has to be an answer, but she feels something stick in her throat as she swallows, beginning to move along the path in front of her, running a gloved hand along the hedge to her left to help her keep her bearings as she moves through the maze. She doesn’t know how to begin making sense of what she’s seeing, but staying where she is isn’t going to help her get any closer to getting to the bottom of any of this.

First-Person Sample:

[Emma has read what information has been made available, she’s walked the grounds and the corridors of some of the mansion’s ground floor, and she’s combed through what public postings she could find to look through on the device she’d found in the pocket opposite of where she kept her own phone. She’s been digging for evidence since she got here, but what she’s found?

She’s not buying it. The message that comes through is voice only, not wanting to reveal her face or her exact location right away-- though she’s pretty damn sure that whoever’s responsible for this is watching her and has a good idea of where she is, if not who.]

Look. I know someone is out there listening.

[She doesn’t know exactly who, but someone.]

This game of yours? I’m not interested. I don’t know how you got me here, or how you set all this up. Maybe it’s some messed-up alternate reality game, but I didn’t opt in for any of this. I don’t care how elaborate it is, or how much work went into it-- my kid is at home waiting for me, and I am not screwing around.

[Her tone is hard, angry rather than anxious, determination winning out over uncertainty.]

‘Wonderland.’ Cute, but I’m not impressed. All I want is for you to point me towards the exit. You can do me a solid and we can do this the easy way-- or we can do it the hard way. Trust me, whatever weird stuff you might be into, I can promise you won’t be happy if we go that route.

[She stays on the line, just to wait for any kind of possible response-- but she doesn’t really know what to expect. This entire thing has her out of her depth, even if she’s not willing to admit it.]