Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon A Time

Chapter 1: Kidnapped

"I say we fight!" says James, pounding the table with his fist. He and I are standing around a circular table with other people sitting in chairs beside us; Snow White, an old man, two of the dwarves, Red and her grandmother, and some guards. The couple has already explained the curse to everyone in the council chamber, thanks to Rumple's information. We went to see him in his cell a few hours ago, and that was when he told us that Snow's child, Emma, will return to save us from Regina's curse in twenty-eight years.

I am about to say how much I agree with James when the cricket, who is standing on the table, speaks up: "Fighting is a bad idea. Giving in to one's dark side never accomplishes anything."

I roll my eyes at his comment. "And how many wars have a clear conscious won?" I point out.

"Zoe is right," James says. "We need to take the queen out before she can inflict her curse." He seems to be the only one in this room making any sense.

"Can we even trust Rumplestinskin?" one of the dwarves asks cautiously.

"Of course we can," I state, and James nods. I know that Rumple would never lie to me. If he told me that a curse is coming, then it's coming. I have known him for a long time, meeting him only a short while after he became the Dark One. I was seventeen at the time, and neither one of us have aged ever since because of his magic, so I still look like a teenager. I'm not sure how but, ever since I met him, we have bonded in ways I can't explain. We both care for each other as if we were brother's, and it has stayed like that through all this years.

"I've sent my man into the forest," he says. "The animals are abuzz with the queen's plan. This is going to happen unless we do something."

"There's no point," says Snow White. "The future is written."

"No. I refuse to believe that. Good can't just loose," James says, determination in his voice.

"Maybe it can," Snow responds almost in a whisper without looking at her husband.

"No, no. Not as long as we have each other," says James warmly. He seats himself beside Snow to be at her eye level and she turns to look at him. I remember how I used to feel sick when they became so sentimental, but I have gotten used to it over time. "If you believe him about the curse then you must believe him about our child. She will be the savior."

Snow looks like she is about to reply, but before she can, the doors of the council chamber suddenly burst open and I turn my head to see a group of guards carrying a wide tree trunk.

"What the hell is this?" demands James, standing up again.

My blue eyes then move to follow The Blue Fairy, who is flying towards the table and has just stopped.

"Our only hope of saving that child," she answers.

"A tree? Our faith rests on a tree? Let's get back to the fighting thing," says Grumpy, and I roll my eyes at him. Of course I, as a person who was born with magic, know that what is standing in front of us isn't just a normal tree. I can feel the magic radiating from it, and it's quite a big amount.

"The tree is enchanted," The Blue Fairy explains, confirming my theory. "If fashioned into a vessel, it can wardrobe any curse," she then turns to the old man seating to my left. "Gepetto, can you build such a thing?"

"Me and my boy, we can do it," Gepetto replies, gently stroking his son's head, who is seating on the floor next to the table whilst he plays with his toys.

The Blue Fairy's gaze goes back to Snow White and James. "This will work. We all must have faith." Snow White holds James's hand and smiles gently at him. "There is, however, a catch," The Blue Fairy continues. "The enchantment is indeed powerful, but all power has its limits. And this tree can protect only one."

At The Blue Fairy's information, Snow's smile immediatly fades away and the couple exchange worried looks. It's settled. To save everyone, James will have to stay. He and Snow White will be turned away from each other. They look back at The Blue Fairy at the same time. "We'll do it anyway," James states.

I stand up angrily, the frustration overtaking me. "What the hell is wrong with you people?" They all stare at me in confusion. "I already didn't like the idea of everyone just accepting that we'll be cursed for twenty-eight years. But you two," I glance at Snow and James. "Are making way too many sacrifices."

"Zoe," Snow replies softly in that motherly way I hate her doing. "I don't want to leave him, but sometimes you make sacrifices for the people you love. This is our best chance."

I scowl at that. "No," I state, and my eyes darken as I think of Regina. "It isn't."

I then use my magic to make my chair move further backwards so that I have enough space to start walking quickly towards the doors.

"Zoe, stop!" I hear James call me from behind. "Where are you going?"

"To stop Regina once and for all," I reply without turning back.

"You can't do that!" I hear Snow's begging voice. I turn around to face them and see that James is already a few feet away from me and Snow has stood up from her chair.

"Why not? I can take her down; you all know I can," I say, my tone matter-of-fact.

"Hey, nobody doubts how powerful your magic is," James says, walking even closer to me. Yeah, that's something I'm quite sure of. My magic is the reason for half of the people in the Enchanted forest to be afraid of me, and is also the reason for which Regina has a bargain on my head. She and I have never really gotten along. "Zoe, you've had a lot of opportunities to kill her before. Why change your mind now?"

"Because I thought it wasn't necessary," I snap at him. "You convinced me that we should do it your way, and I agreed. I only now realize how wrong I was." Now that I'm finally letting go of an anger that suddenly rises, I realize that even though I don't want to, deep down I blame them. I blame James and Snow White for telling me that there were other ways to deal with Regina than death. But it's my fault, really, because I'm the one who gave in. Maybe if I hadn't we would never be having this meeting. "You don't have to make all this sacrifices. I can stop the curse from happening and save us all this trouble, isn't that what you want?"

"Like Snow White said, the future is written," says the cricket, flying towards me. I'm already getting tired of him interfering. "There's nothing we can do to stop her."

I smirk at that. "We shall see." I turn and keep walking towards the doors of the room, my strides smooth and confident.

"Zoe-" Snow starts, but I cut her off by stopping and turning my head over my shoulder.

"You should prepare the wardrobe anyway," I cut her off. "Just in case." It's just a precaution in case something goes wrong; even though I'm confident that killing Regina won't be so hard, considering that my magic is far more powerful than her's.

When I'm outside of Snow and James's castle, I immediately feel a chilling breeze against my skin. I zip on my black jacket, covering my black shirt, and start walking. Because of the dark sky, the trees around me are barely visible, though I can still see their leaves rustling because of the wind. The wind starts to get stronger to the point that it causes my light brown hair to cover my face, and I remove it impatiently.

All of the sudden, the wind stops abruptly. And that's when I sense it: the magic. But it's not light magic like the one radiating from The Blue Fairy or of the Enchanted Wardrobe; this one is dark and twisted. I look around warily, but I can't see anything but trees.

Suddenly, I feel a cold, strong grip on my wrist, but before I can make any sense of what is going on, I am dragged upwards.

I scream and realize that whatever is holding my wrist is taking me higher and higher, the trees shrinking below me at break-neck pace. I look up and see that the thing that is dragging me is a body-less shadow. This makes me want to use my magic to make it release me, but I immediately push the thought away, knowing that this kind of fall would definitely kill me. Now we are so high that I'm afraid it will accidentally let go of my wrist, but the shadow seems to have an iron grip. I look in front of us, realizing that the shadow is taking me towards two stars, particularly to the second star to the right.

As we get closer to the star, the light radiating from it starts to be too much, and I cant help but slam my eyes closed. When I sense that the light has faded, I open them again to see that beneath me there are no longer trees, but there is a sea instead.

"Let me go!" I yell, but the shadow simply ignores me. I see the distinct shape of an island in the distance and, suddenly, I start to hear a sound that makes me feel the urge to cover my ears. Is that… crying? I can perfectly hear it from here and I'm still far away from the island, so it can't be normal.

What kind of place is this?

I'm definitely not staying to find out.

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