Ch.66: The Snow Queen
Regina was in her vault, reading a book, when Robin entered.
“Hello, Regina,” he greeted her.
She looked up from where she was standing with a book in her hand.
She set the book down on the nearby brown chest.
“I told you it was best to stay away.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you here?” she wanted to know.
“Honestly? I don’t know. My mind was in the forest, but my heart took me here.” He went to stand in front of her.
“Robin,” was all she could say, before walking out of her vault, leaving him there.
Katherine set an opened book down in front of the computer on the desk Elsa was sitting at.
“Belle found something in here. A spell. It may be able to work against the Snow Queen.”
“You don’t mean kill her?” Elsa questioned.
“No, no one’s killing anyone. It’ll just neutralize her powers. Maybe,” Katherine assured her.
“Can you read this?” Elsa asked, looking at the book.
“Elvish? No, but Belle translated it.”
She took a folded paper out of her back pocket and unfolded it, handing it to Elsa.
“It tells us how to enact the spell.”
Elsa began to read it.
“With both hands, hold the candle and then use your magic to light it. And then when you blow on it…”
“Then bam! She’s right back to selling ice cream,” Katherine interrupted her. “My guess is business will be down.”
“Maybe without her powers, we can talk to her,” Elsa suggested. “We can find Anna. We can get some real answers.”
“Does your sister have magic?” Katherine wanted to know.
“No. I think that’s why the Snow Queen’s so interested in you.” Elsa stood up.
“Yeah,” Katherine replied, and pushed in the chair.
“Does anyone in your family have magic?” Elsa asked.
“No. Not exactly. My parents didn’t have magic as far as I know, although doppelgangers were kind of made through magic. There’s at least one every century. My daughter had Traveler magic, but she had more control and knew how to use it, which is where I learned about my Traveler magic. I’ve never actually practiced with it. I didn’t even know I was descended from Travelers until my daughter told me years ago.”
“It’s hard when they look at you differently, isn’t it?” Elsa replied.
“Well, my vampire family do, but my blood related family, never did.”
“You’re lucky,” Elsa replied. “Okay, should we try this?”
Katherine held the candle and used magic to light it. She then blew on it and the fire from the lit candle came towards Elsa and a spark hit her dress and went out. The candle stopped being lit.
“I’m sorry. Should we try again?” Elsa said.
“Later. I have to meet Mary Margaret. I’m supposed to babysit tonight,” Katherine informed her, and set the candle on the desk.
“Life goes on,” Elsa replied, understanding.
“We’ll find her,” Katherine assured her, and grabbed her jacket, heading out.
“It’s okay. Go. I’ll be here.”
Snow approached Katherine with baby Neal.
“Is Neal ready?” Katherine asked her.
“Yes. Oh, just a few things. Uh, diaper bag, stroller, milk.” Snow picked the milk up.
“He sure has a lot of stuff,” Katherine commented, having never raised a child or babysat before.
“Well, I wanted to give him everything.”
Ashley came over to them.
“Katherine!” She gave her a hug.
“Oh, Ashley, look at you, the baby whisperer.”
“What can I say, I just took to it. Now if you need help getting him to sleep, just tell him he’s gonna turn into a pumpkin by midnight.”
“So, this is what you do here? You give sleeping tips and sing songs and…”
“Oh, it’s more than that. It’s like having a support group. I mean, being a first-time mother is not easy.”
She looked at Snow.
“This is exciting. Mommy and Me classes and songs and first steps. It all must be really exciting.”
She suddenly saw their looks.
“What?”
“The bottle,” Ashley stated.
When she looked at the bottle she was holding of Neal’s, she saw that it was glowing.
“Oh. Uh…” It stopped glowing and she looked at them. “It’s just, you know, magic. I’ve been practicing to try to capture the Snow Queen. And I guess I must just still be a little revved up.” She put the bottle back in the stroller where it belonged.
She got ready for Snow to hand Neal over, but Snow pulled back, not knowing what to think of what had just happened.
A moment later, Katherine’s phone went off, so Katherine answered it.
“Hello?”
“Katherine, there’s something going on at the clock tower,” Charming informed her. “There was a trail going upstairs. A frozen trail.”
“The Snow Queen. Is she still up there?”
“Well, the trail goes up, doesn’t come down.”
“All right, I’ll be right there.” She hung up and looked at them. “The Snow Queen is in the clock tower. I guess I’ll have to take a rain check on babysitting.”
Snow gave a nod and Katherine left.
Katherine entered the clock tower and went upstairs with Elsa.
“Hey!” Katherine said to the Snow Queen, whom then turned to look at her and through some ice at her.
“Katherine, now!” Elsa said.
They did what they had practiced, which worked. Magic in the color of gold appeared on her wrists and the Snow Queen seemed to not be able to get free from it. Then the gold magic turned into shackles.
“You did it,” Elsa said.
“Yeah, I guess I did,” Katherine replied, though she was thinking that it had been a little too easy.
Elsa hugged her and she hugged back.
“You got me,” the Snow Queen said.
Katherine and Elsa entered the interrogation room that the Snow Queen sat in at a table.
“All right, Queenie, time to talk,” Katherine stated.
“Ooh. You should get that looked at, Katherine,” the Snow Queen said, seeing a small cut on the side of her neck that she’d caused when she’d thrown ice at her.
“Oh, now you want to play nice?” Katherine inquired.
“With you two?” the Snow Queen said. “Don’t you understand? That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
“We don’t care what you want. Where is Anna?” Elsa demanded of her.
“She’s alive. We know it. We heard her heartbeat,” Katherine added.
“You heard her heartbeat?” the Snow Queen inquired.
“From Bo Peep’s crook,” Elsa clarified.
“Sounds like someone’s grasping at straws about their long-lost sister.”
“What happened to her?”
“I’m not sure you should care. I told you, she’s the one who put you in that urn. I have no idea why you’d want to find someone like that.”
“Because she is my sister and she would never do what you say.”
“Or she’s your sister and she couldn’t handle what you, what we are, and she did exactly as I said.”
Elsa smacked her hands on the table and yelled, “No!”
“Elsa! Please,” Katherine said calmly.
The Snow Queen smiled.
Katherine put a hand on her shoulder and then opened the door and said, as she had Elsa leave the room, “Take it easy. She’s getting under your skin. Don’t let your emotions cloud your judgment. If we want answers, we have to be calm.”
“She knows what happened to Anna.”
“And we’re gonna figure it all out. You go help David and Hook try to figure out how to take apart her mirror. I got this.”
“Katherine…,” Elsa said.
“I got it.”
Elsa nodded and then left.
Katherine stood for a moment with a made face, and then closed the door behind herself and went to stand not far from the table.
“Okay. Now it’s just me.”
“Good. You’re the one I wanted to talk to anyway.”
Katherine sat down in a chair across from her.
“Yeah, yeah. I know. You want me to turn to the dark side and be your sister, buddy, something-or-other. Not interested.”
“I’m so proud of you, Katherine.”
“No, that’s not gonna work. You’re not gonna push my buttons.”
“I’m being completely sincere,” the Snow Queen assured her. “Look and you’ll see I’m telling the truth.”
“Don’t talk to me like we’re friends.”
“We’re not friends, Katherine, we’re family.”
“I know that’s what you want, but whatever happened in the past with you, I know enough to tell you about the future. And what you want? It ain’t gonna happen, sister.”
“Oh, but it will,” the Snow Queen replied. “You see, at the end of the day, you’ll understand that everything that I’ve been saying is true. And then you’ll do the last thing in the world you think possible right now.”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“You’re going to let me go.” She sighed. “Now, then. What would you like to talk about?”
Regina was in a chair in her living room, looking through Henry’s book, the fireplace on, when she saw that a new story had appeared.
“Hey, mom. Could you help me with this thing?” Henry asked, entering the living room.
She looked at her son.
“Look at you all dressed up. What’s the occasion?”
“I’m getting married,” he joked.
She gave him a look.
“Work,” Henry added, this time being serious. “With grandpa. At the shop. He said if I was gonna learn the family business, I’d have to represent the family business. Which would be fine if it didn’t also mean wearing a tie.”
She got to her feet and went to stand in front of him.
“Well, I think you look very handsome,” she said, as she fixed his tie for him.
She walked away, about to go back to what she was doing, when he asked her what had happened.
She turned around to look at him.
“What do you mean?”
“You were tearing through the book with your scary face on. Did something happen with Robin Hood?”
“No. I’m just…,” she began, and then changed the subject, walking back over to him. “From now on, Operation Mongoose will be my main focus. We will find the author.”
“Good. And I have a few ideas about where to look for clues next in the shop.”
“Now get to work.”
Henry left.
Katherine set a glad of water down in front of the Snow Queen.
“So, the spell of shattered sight. Pretty impressive stuff,” Katherine said, standing not far from the table.
“What does it mean? You’ve stopped me.”
“That’s right. I did. We know who you are. We know what you’re planning. And we know that for some sick, twisted reason, you want Elsa and me to replace your long-lost sisters.”
“Well, then. You have all your answers. May I retire to my cell now?”
“No. I want to know why. Why have you been tracking me my whole life?”
“I was trying to protect you, Katherine.”
“I can protect myself. You see, no. You and I? We are not family. I have one of those and it spans 2,000 years,” she replied, since she knew that doppelgangers had been first made when Quetsyiah had been alive.
“Family isn’t about blood. It is a bond far stronger than mere genetics. Elsa and I are your real family. Because we are the only ones like you, we belong together. The family that you think you have, they may love you, but they also fear you.”
“No, they don’t,” she replied.
“You’ve never seen them wince at your power? You’ve never seen a twinge of panic just behind their eyes? Not even once? I find that hard to believe.”
“They love me for who I am, including my powers,” she replied, though she couldn’t help but to remember earlier when Snow had been afraid of what she’d been able to do with the milk bottle. She knew her real family didn’t fear her, though. It was more mixed between hate and love.
“I thought that once, too, Katherine.”
Elsa was at the clock tower examining the mirror, Hook standing back a ways.
“This is what we’ve been worried about? Shouldn’t it be shaking or doing something evil?” Hook inquired.
“Agreed,” Elsa replied. “It feels like just a harmless looking glass to me.”
“I’ve found nothing to counteract the spell yet,” Belle said, as she came up the stairs. She then closed the book and told Hook, “Hey! Stop! Do not look in that thing. It’ll make you see the worst in yourself.”
“It must be broken. I’ve been staring at it all day and I think I’m even more devilishly handsome and charming than usual.”
Belle cautiously approached and looked into the mirror. That’s when she noticed it.
“This isn’t the same mirror.”
“Why would the Snow Queen risk coming all the way out here to plant a fake mirror?” Elsa asked, looking at Belle.
Charming whom had been silently standing on the sidelines, looking at Hook whom looked back at him, both realizing that same things at the same moment.
“Because she wanted to get caught,” Charming stated.
Hook and Charming both left the clocktower to make sure Katherine was okay.
The Snow Queen twirled a couple fingers and the police station doors began to freeze over, just as everyone that was at the clock tower, approached.
“Katherine! Katherine!” Charming called, as he tried to get the doors open, but they were all ice.
Robin was at Granny’s, playing the target game. He missed the target completely, because the target went onto the wall instead of the target circle. He then took a drink from his shot glass he had on the nearby booth table.
Will entered the diner. Then, when he saw Robin, he turned around to leave, and Robin saw him and through a target by the door.
“I can explain,” Will assured him.
“No need. Another for me. And one for Mr. Will Scarlet,” he said.
A few minutes later, they were at the bar, having a drink next to each other.
“I really do want to make amends, you know,” Will told him. “For what I did to you and the Merry Men at Sherwood Forest.”
“You nearly got us all killed.”
“Nearly. Surely that’s worth something?”
“Because of a woman. And where is she now?” When Will was silent and looked away, Robin realized that something had happened. “I’m sorry.”
Will looked at him.
“I chose my path. Sometimes even when you win, you lose.”
“Did I ever tell you how I met Mirian?”
“Only about three dozen times.”
“I stole her father’s horse.”
“Three dozen and one.”
“I was just a two-bit thief in those days. I didn’t even need it. I already had two horses back at the camp.”
“That night you woke to an arrow pointed at your head,” Will said, having memorized the story.
“Her family, she said, were poor farmers. The little that they had was held together by that prized steed. I didn’t say a word as she rode off that night. But the next day, I returned to her cottage…”
“With two of your own horses as a gift to her family. And from that day forward, you never stole for yourself again. From that day forward, you only stole from the rich, and gave to the poor.”
“She made me the man that I am today, Will. I need to remember that.”
“It wasn’t easy for her, you know,” Will replied. “Living like an outlaw. I asked her once how she gave up everything to be with you. Do you know what she told me?”
“What?”
“She said, “There’s good in him, Will. And when you see the good in someone, you don’t give up on them. Especially if they don’t see it themselves. And if you’re ever lucky enough to find true love, you fight for it. Every day.”
“You still believe that?” Robin asked him. “After everything you did for love? Was it worth it?”
“Mate, if you find someone you love enough to ruin your entire life for, it’s always worth it.”
Rumple had just sent Henry into the back to polish the furniture, when he saw Belle come in with Charming, Hook, and Elsa.
“Well, this kind of procession never bodes well.”
“The Snow Queen iced over the locks of the sheriff’s station. Katherine’s trapped inside with her,” Charming informed him.
“We need your help, Rumple. You must be able to get us in there. Please,” Belle said.
“How could I turn down the pleas of my beloved wife?” Rumple said. “After you.”
Everyone except for Hook left.
“All right, crocodile. What’s your game? The last two villains that came into town tried to kill you. But you seem rather unconcerned by this one. Makes a man wonder if you two have a history.”
“You can wonder all you like, dearie. My history, my business.”
Katherine was back in the room with the Snow Queen.
“It’s understandable you feel upset,” the Snow Queen said.
“Now you think you know how I feel?” Katherine inquired, getting frustrated with her.
“I know you better than you know yourself, Katherine.” Then she added, “They’re using your powers.”
“That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it? How many times have you saved them? How often have you felt like more like a savior than what you really are? And all it takes is one tiny mistake. One accident. And you and your powers go from being their salvation to their worst nightmare.”
“You don’t know them. Or me.”
“I don’t have to know you, Katherine. I’ve been you. Different. Misunderstood. Alone.”
“They love me,” she said, getting angry at her, but doing her best to control it.
The glass of water began to shake.
“You can’t love somebody you don’t understand. And you know what happens when people don’t understand something? They learn to fear it. And then they look at it like a monster.”
She slammed her hands on the table and yelled, “Shut up!”
Suddenly, there was a gigantic hole in the wall.
She looked at the Snow Queen whom stood up.
“What did you do to me?”
The Snow Queen made the shackles disappear.
“All I did is show you who you really are.”
“Well, make it stop,” she said, looking at her hands that were shining with magic.
“I can’t. It’s you, Katherine,” she said with a smile. “And it’s beautiful.”
A moment later, the Snow Queen disappear in a whirlwind of snow.
Katherine came out of the station through the hole she’d accidentally made and took a look at it.
“What have I done?”
“Katherine!” she heard Charming yell.
She turned around to see them running over to her.
“Are you all right?” Charming added.
“We were so worried,” Snow said.
“Wait!” Katherine warned them.
“Seems you didn’t need my help after all,” Rumple commented.
“Pierce, what did that monster do to the sheriff’s station?” Hook inquired.
“The monster who did this was not the Snow Queen. It was me,” Katherine answered him.
“What?” Charming inquired.
“Just keep your distance,” she warned, when Charming and Hook began to approach. “I don’t know if I can control myself. I don’t want to hurt anyone,” she added, and took a step away, turning away to leave.
“Pierce,” Hook said, and went to grab her arm to stop her.
“You should heed her words,” Rumple warned, having seen it before.
“Katherine, we can help,” Elsa said.
“Just stay away,” Katherine warned them all, but Hook grabbed her arm. “Let me go!” she said, and some of her magic shot into a couple streetlights. One of them began to collapse. “Watch out!,” Katherine warned, seeing that it was gonna fall on Hook.
Charming got Hook out of the way and part of the fallen streetlight hit Charming’s shoulder.
“David!” Snow said, and helped him up.
Snow and Charming looked at Katherine, as Snow yelled at her.
“Katherine!” Then Snow calmed down, saying, “Katherine…Katherine, wait. No, please, come back!”
Katherine began to step back and turn away, as Hook tried to grab her arm, once again.
“Pierce!”
“Katherine!” Henry called.
“It’s okay!” Snow tried to assure her. “Katherine!”
Katherine didn’t heed any of them, as she ran off.
The Snow Queen watched from behind the corner of a building that was across the street.
Katherine got into her car, upset, and began to drive away.
Regina was back in her vault, reading Henry’s book again, when, once again, Robin entered.
“Why am I getting a sense of déjà vu?” Regina said, realizing Robin was there.
“Regina. I have lived by a code my entire life. Steal from the rich and give to the poor. Be truthful, righteous, and good. I have tried to live by that code every day of my life.”
“Then why are you here?” Regina wanted to know.
“Because today is not one of those days,” he said, before approaching her and then kissing her.
Regina got to her feet, as she kissed him back.
Snow had just layed Neal down for a nap, when Charming and Hook entered the apartment.
“Did you find her?” she asked, approaching them.
“No. We looked everywhere. Which means only one thing,” Charming replied, as the three of them stood in the kitchen.
“She doesn’t want to be found,” Hook said, as Elsa entered the apartment, closing the door behind herself.
“I’ve been through this,” Elsa said. “And I saw the same looks on my loved ones’ faces as Katherine just did. I saw fear.”
“David, we failed today,” Snow said. “When Katherine needed us the most, she looked in our eyes, and all she saw was fear.” She sighed. “The Snow Queen has some mirror that turns us against each other? Well, she doesn’t need it. Look at us. We’re doing it to ourselves.”
Katherine sat in her car at the edge of the woods, silent, looking at the town of Storybrooke below.
Rumple was looking at a snow globe, when the Snow Queen entered.
“As someone who’s created many monsters in his time, I am impressed by the number you did on Ms. Pierce.”
Rumple set the globe down.
“I’m ready to make that deal.”
“So.” He turned around to look at her, standing in front of the glass counter. “You finally understand what you didn’t so many years ago.”
“I want my ribbons back,” she said, speaking of the three ribbons that years ago, when they’d been young, herself and her two sisters had traded to him for the gloves and the urn, since she’d been afraid that one day she wouldn’t be able to control her powers, and that day had come in which it had happened, because she’d accidentally killed one of her sisters and her other sister had put her in the urn to save everyone from any harm after what had happened.
“Then you’ll also understand that a deal requires an exchange of goods,” Rumple replied. “And I’m no longer convinced you have anything I want.”
“You still need one more thing to cleave yourself from that dagger.”
“And how do you know about that?”
“I had that hat, longer than you. I learned many things. Among them, the missing piece of your puzzle. Give me my ribbon, I’ll tell you what it is. You see, I’ve figured out your plan. Storybrooke is a small town. Too small for someone as powerful as the Dark One to be content.”
“Well, they did close down that ice cream parlor I was so fond of.”
“You want to cleave yourself from the dagger so you can venture outside Storybrooke without losing your power, or your precious Belle. You want, in short, what all villains want.”
He stood behind the counter and brought out a box that held the three ribbons.
“And what’s that?” he asked, opening the box.
“Everything. And I want to give it to you.”
“What makes you so generous?”
“What you want is out there, and everything that I want is in here.” She tapped her finger on the globe that was on the counter and the globe turned to ice. “Do what you want with the rest of the world. Storybrooke will be mine. Do you want your answer?”
“You know I do,” he replied, a ribbon in his hand.
“Then we have a deal.” She went to take the ribbon from his hand, but he pulled it back.
“You first,” he said, being smart enough not to give it to her until she told him what he wanted to know. “Tell me what I require.”
She bent over to his ear and whispered it to him, before pulling away.
“Not only can I do that, but I shall do it with great pleasure.”
They looked at each other silently.
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