Hello readers! I'm back after a brief hiatus from writing, and I'm more excited than ever to jump back in. This isn't even how I see season 6 going, it was just an idea that popped into my head. I plan on updating once or twice a week depending on my schedule, but I will say that feedback from you guys tends to make the updates faster *wink wink*.

Please bear with me as I figure out how to write Regina without the Evil Queen, and the Evil Queen without Regina. My take is that Regina will be more subdued and less snarky, and that the Evil Queen will have no sense of right or wrong whatsoever. I should also warn you that if you're an Evil Regal who wants to read a story where Regina is hailed as the most important, best person in the world, this probably isn't the story for you. I'm certainly not setting out to bash Regina, I just feel that in the situation of this particular story, the other characters may not be as openly forgiving to her as they are on the show because she is responsible for this situation to begin with.

I'd also like to try to work a Zelena/Emma friendship of sorts into this as well, because I think they would be a riot if they ever got a scene together (very similar childhoods, defense mechanisms, senses of humor, etc.)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this and if you feel inclined, let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or its characters. All rights belong to ABC and Adam Horowitz/Eddy Kitsis.

She was gone. Gone gone gone. That was all Killian Jones could think about as he stared blankly ahead, blinking back tears. Emma Swan ‒his Swan‒ was gone. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up at David, who had a steaming mug of cocoa in each hand and a concerned look on his face. It took the darker haired man a moment to realize that David was worried about him.

The realization nearly broke the tenuous control he had over his emotions, but Killian would be damned if he lost it now. This, he could do. He could hold it together for everyone else, because it was what he'd always done. It's the role he'd always played, save for when Liam was in his life, and he knew that keeping it together was what he could do, right now, for Emma's family. Even if he couldn't help her at that very moment, the next best thing was helping them, and that's exactly what she would want.

"Thanks, mate," Killian choked out hoarsely, taking a sip of the steaming cocoa ‒then another and another, because it offered him a different kind of pain to focus on even just for a moment.

"Killian," Snow called out tentatively, lifting her teary eyes from her son's face and up to his. "We're going to find her. That's what this family does," she said.

Killian just wished she sounded a little more sure of that.

It'd been two hours. Two hours since David had called Killian from the station, asking if he knew where Emma was because she hadn't shown up, and it wasn't like her to just not show up for something. Killian had immediately known something was wrong, because Emma never didn't go where she said she was going without telling someone ‒Killian, specifically‒ and he was the same way. After all they'd been through, a little scare like being home from the store a half our later than what was decided upon was enough to send both partners into panic mode (he never forgot to call Emma to let her know he'd be taking longer than expected again after she went from yelling to crying and clinging within thirty seconds of him walking through the front door).

They'd finally agreed to organize a real search party consisting of Killian, Snow, David, Granny, Regina, and Zelena. He hadn't been too keen on the redhead joining their band of misfits, but he'd soon realized that she was the one person who would be blatantly honest about, well, everything and anything involving Emma's disappearance, and the person who could be the most objective. She and Emma weren't exactly friends, but Killian couldn't say that they hated each other, either. Zelena didn't appear to hold Emma's plan to murder her over against her, and he was pretty sure that Emma didn't have any problems with the other woman.

Granny brought over a plate of appetizers for the group to munch on, not that anyone was hungry. As she brought a chair over to sit, she said,

"I tried to follow her scent. I couldn't."

"So what does that mean?" Regina asked.

"Her scent's all over town, as one would expect. I just can't track her."

"Unless… she wasn't taken out of her house, per se," Zelena piped up for the first time since they'd all sat down. The new voice drew Killian out of his thoughts. Once she was sure that everyone was listening, she continued, "She could've been poofed. I mean, if I was going to kidnap her, that's what I would do."

"You have a point," David said, sitting up straighter than he had been a minute ago as the thoughts swirled around in his head. "Emma's wouldn't be an easy person to kidnap the conventional, non-magical way. She can fight, she has weapons training… she's not a tiny person you can pick up and just throw over your shoulder."

"I did it," Regina looked up in fear. "The Evil Quen…"

"Regina?" Snow put her hand on her stepmother's arm and gazed at her with concerned eyes. "You think that the Evil Queen took her?"

At that, she simply nodded and swallowed hard. "When Ingrid cast the spell of shattered sight, Emma and Elsa and I got into a… fight. Long story short, we discovered we have the power of true hatred. It uh… I like to think that's changed. But since the spell brought out the worst versions of ourselves, and the potion I just drank separated the bad part of my psyche from the good… then the other me that's running around is the worst version of myself‒"

"Which means she and Emma have the power of true hatred and while Emma wouldn't ever act on it, the Evil Queen would happily do just the opposite."

"I'm sorry, Snow, if I'd known that doing this would lead to‒"

"Shut up," the younger woman snapped. "Just shut up. We have all been so supportive of your redemption, and most days, I can ignore the fact that you are the reason I lost twenty eight years with my daughter ‒that my daughter suffered so much for all those years. I have forgiven you for all the times you tried to kill me. I felt bad for you, because Robin died. So I agreed that drinking that potion would be a good thing. But you know what, Regina? We all have had to fight for our happiness. We've all had horrible things happen, but we don't get the luxury of blaming it on an alter ego that lives inside of us. Because the decisions you made as the Evil Queen were still your decisions, and you should face the consequences for those actions. Losing Robin wasn't karma, it was just something that happened. Yes, it sucks. Sometimes, bad things just happen, and you need to find a way to cope that doesn't involve forcing someone to write you a happy ending or drinking a potion. If anything happens to Emma because of this, I won't be able to forgive you for that. I just won't." With that, Snow shot up from the table and ran off.

After handing baby Neal to Killian, David took off after his wife. Zelena reached across the table to console her sister, and Granny shot an apologetic look at Killian.

"How do we know Hyde didn't do it?" Zelena asked, hoping to make Regina feel better.

"We don't know how his magic works here, but it's a possibility," Killian said. "Then again, why didn't he just take her? He's powerful enough, physically, and considering magic in Storybrooke has been unstable, it would be the safer option for him. Then we run into the problem of a motive. I'm not sure he has one."

"All the villains have a motive when it comes to getting rid of Emma," Regina said with a sigh. "He said he wants to control Storybrooke. He wants the town to be his. I may be the mayor, but Emma's the savior. If he was behind this, I think he would take us all one by one, starting with her, then me. And considering I'm sitting right here, I don't think he took her."

"At any rate, she trusted whoever took her. She put a protection spell around our house, so no one could get in unless she wanted them to."

"I probably disguised myself to look like me and she let me in thinking I was me and then I poofed her to God knows where." When Regina was met with perplexed stares, she said, "That made a lot more sense in my head."

"I think I got it," Killian said, offering her a small smile. He completely understood Snow's anger, but he knew that it didn't matter whose fault it was. They all needed to work together to save Emma.

"If it's any consolation, we likely have a good amount of time to find her. I would keep my prisoners for weeks, if I really wanted to make them suffer. And the only person I wanted to suffer more than Emma Swan was her mother."

Killian knew exactly what Regina meant, and he felt his stomach lurch. He followed in Snow's footsteps, barley making it outside of the diner before he heaved uncontrollably, his entire body shuddering with the effort of expelling his breakfast.

He saw a dark blur out of the corner of his eye and barely had time to brace himself before Henry ran into him like a missile. The boy buried his face in Killian's chest, and Killian wrapped his arms around Henry's shaking shoulders.

"We're going to find her, Henry," he murmured while he combed his fingers through Henry's hair, hoping he sounded more convincing than Snow had earlier. After a minute, Henry pulled back and swiped angrily at his eyes. Killian knelt down so his eyes could be level with Henry's and said, "tears aren't a sign of weakness, lad. They mean that you care. In this world, caring about someone or something can be the bravest thing you'll ever do."

The teenager only nodded, still too overcome with emotion to speak. Killian guided Henry over to a bench and sat quietly, waiting for him to be ready to talk. He didn't have to wait long.

"I'm not used to my mom being missing. Even when she was the dark one, she was still here, you know what I mean? I knew she was in there, I could feel it, and I knew she would never stop fighting to come back to me, because she's my mom, and she promised me she'd never leave me. And then you died, and we got you back, then we had to leave you. Now you're back. And I'm scared my mom ‒my other mom‒ is going to pull away from me like she did last time she lost Robin. Only this time, he's never coming back. I just keep losing the people I care about, and I really, really can't lose any of you."

"I understand, Henry," Killian said, his voice thick. "More than you'd think."

"Mom does the saving," the boy said after letting Killian's words sink in. "She's the one who punches the bad guys in the face. Now the bad guy has her and she's the one who needs to be saved, and this is just all kinds of messed up."

The pirate wanted to point out that it was his other mother who was holding Emma captive ‒sort of‒ and not a bad guy. Because the Evil Queen wasn't a bad guy, she was evil, and that Hyde was the bad guy. He decided it should be Emma's decision when to tell Henry about the town's newest predicament involving Regina. Then he realized Emma wasn't here because of the town's newest predicament involving Regina. He didn't want Henry to do something stupid like try to confront the Evil Queen by himself, thinking he could talk some sense into her, so he decided to change the subject and at least attempt to alleviate some of Henry's fear.

"You know what she once said to me?" Killian asked, his lips quirking up as the memory flitted into his mind.

"What?"

"When we went back in time, Regina was holding her captive. I showed up to save her, only to find she'd already escaped. I informed her that she was depriving me of a dashing rescue, and she told me that the only one that saved her was her." Killian chuckled and put a hand on Henry's shoulder. "What'll likely happen is we'll show up to wherever she is now, and she'll have already gotten herself out of this mess. Then she'll tell us it's comforting to know we found her so damned slowly because she won't be able to resist giving us crap for how long it's taking us."

"Maybe…" Henry chewed on his bottom lip, not entirely convinced.

Though Killian hadn't been religious prior to his trip to the Underworld and impromptu meeting with Zeus, he now prayed to whatever God was listening ‒be it Zeus or the big man himself‒ that he was right.

The first thing that Emma became aware of was the pounding in her head. It was unlike anything she'd ever experienced before ‒not a migraine, hangover, or sinus headache‒ it was something else entirely. She tried to move her hands to massage her temples, only to find that they were shackled to the wall. She soon discovered the same was true of her ankles.

Well, shit.

She finally opened her eyes to find she was in some kind of dungeon or medieval inspired basement.

"Look who decided to join the party," a familiar voice crooned. Emma suddenly felt far too vulnerable for her liking with her hands chained above her head and her legs immobilized.

"I wouldn't say this is much of a party since the only way for you to get even one guest is to shackle her to a wall," Emma said, resisting the urge to thrash around in an attempt to get free. Doing so would only make the woman standing before her think she was scared.

Emma Swan was not scared of any villain, least of all Regina Mills. At least, that's what she told herself.

But the dark haired, crazy eyed woman that was looking at her now? She was most definitely not Regina Mills.

Emma wondered if maybe she should be a little scared. If the growing fireball in the Queen's hand was anything to go by, she decided she should be.