Based around the Prompt: 'Red is pulled into the hat with Emma instead of Snow and they return to Storybrooke a couple…' (thanks borgygleek!)

Pairing(s): Red Swan, Sleeping Warrior.

A/N: This starts off slowly but my fics usually do. It'll pick up soon though. Also, I'm really bad at think of titles so…yeah.

"It's not working!"

Red watched anxiously from the corner of the room as Regina tried in vain to get the hat to work while James fought to keep the Wraith at bay.

"What is the problem?" Emma asked from where she was hovering protectively over the crouching mayor.

"Magic," Regina answered in such a quiet voice that Red almost didn't hear her. "It's different here."

"Now would be the time!" James exclaimed rather unhelpfully as he jabbed at the beast with the flaming broom he was wielding.

The Wraith roared and in a desperate attempt to help Emma knelt down next to Regina and supportively gripped her upper arm. As soon as her hand made contact with Regina's arm the hat started spinning quickly, a purple portal opening up within it. Emma and Regina looked at each other with stunned expressions, both of them silently wondering which of them had triggered the magic. They stood up, taking a step away from the hat and Emma stared at her hands in surprise. Red too was staring at them in shock. How was it that the magic only worked when Emma touched Regina? What could have triggered it? How was it possible that Emma would have magic?

"IT'S COMING!"

At James's yell Emma looked up to see the Wraith heading straight for them.

"REGINA!" Acting out of pure instinct and panic Emma shoved Regina to the side to get her out of the vengeful beast's path. The Wraith was sucked into the portal and Red felt a split second of relief before something wrapped around Emma's ankle and she was yanked into the portal.

"NOOOOOO!" Snow screamed, quickly echoed by James.

Red glanced at Snow and James who were both on the ground, James having been swept aside by the Wraith. Snow of course had instantly rushed to kneel down at his side to make sure he was okay. Red quickly worked out that as agile as Snow and James both were they would have no chance to get to the portal in time to go after their daughter. Red didn't really think about her actions but unwilling to let Emma jump into the dark unknown alone Red sprang into action, taking a run and jump into the portal. She heard a vague yell behind her narrowly followed by a dull thump as the portal closed indicating that Snow or James had tried and failed to follow her. Recalling why she'd jumped into the portal Red desperately reached down as she continued to plummet into the dark abyss. Her fingers brushed against something and she stretched her arm out as far as she could to grip it. Finally she closed her fingers around a leather like material and gave a sharp pull to tug what she hoped was Emma towards her. Finally the blonde came into sight and Red allowed herself a moment of relief. No matter what happened from that point on, at least they weren't alone. Emma looked up and their eyes met for a split second before they both slammed into the ground.

XXX

"Mulan what is that?" Aurora asked, trepidation tainting her tone as she stared down at the two women sprawled on the floor.

"That…" Mulan's resentment was obvious when she spoke. "That is what brought the Wraith here. That's what killed our Prince."

Aurora inhaled in shock as she watched the blonde women stir slightly. The movement caused her to notice that the dark haired women had a tight grip on a fistful of the other woman's jacket.

"Ooooww." The blonde whined as she slowly blinked her eyes open. Mulan's sword was instantly trained on her and when she finally became aware of her surroundings she focused on the sword and jerked back by a fraction. "Whoa."

"Whoa?" Aurora echoed in confusion, her gaze momentarily flitting towards Mulan. "What does she mean?"

Mulan didn't answer, partly because she didn't know but mostly because she was too busy glaring threateningly at the woman on the floor.

"Red." Without tearing her eyes away from the armour clad woman pointing a sword at her Emma reached out and gently swatted any part of Red she could reach. "Ru…Red, wake up." After a few more prods, Emma finally felt Red beginning to stir under her hands and breathed a sigh of relief. It was bad enough that Red had jumped in after her, and Emma was still baffled as to why she'd done that but it would have been so much worse if Red had been seriously hurt by the fall.

"Emma…"

"R-Red." Emma tripped over her words as she gave Red another light shake to wake her up. She didn't take her eyes off the sword pointed menacingly to her throat however. "Come on, wake up."

Red finally opened her eyes and winced at the pain in her head. She blinked up at the blurry figures above them and instantly froze at the sight of the blade being moved back and forth between herself and Emma.

"Who are you?" Mulan demanded seriously.

"We're…" Red paused for a moment, realizing that she really wasn't sure who she was anymore. "I'm Red and this is Emma. We were pulled into the portal and…"

"You brought the Wraith." Mulan interrupted angrily.

"More like it brought us." Emma muttered, reaching up to rub her throbbing shoulder which had slammed solidly into the ground.

"Stand up," Mulan ordered, taking a step back. "Now."

Emma looked rather affronted at being ordered around. "Look here lady…"

"Emma, she has a sword. Just do what she says." Red cut Emma off as she carefully stood up, pulling the hot-headed blonde with her thanks to the firm grip she still had on Emma's jacket. When Emma was on her feet Red warily let go, her gaze trained on the strangers in front of her. "We mean no harm."

"How are we meant to believe that when you brought that thing?" Aurora asked sceptically from where she was hovering behind Mulan. "He killed Philip!"

"Philip?" Red echoed in confusion.

"Our prince. He…"

"Princess!" Mulan cut Aurora off with a sharp look.

"Princess?" Emma echoed, looking the young woman over. "Princess who?"

"Princess Aurora." Aurora hesitantly introduced herself. Mulan rolled her eyes at the fact that Aurora was completely ignoring her order not to talk to the strangers.

"Seriously?" Emma smirked despite the serious nature of their situation. "Aurora as in sleeping beauty?"

"I'm sorry?" Aurora asked, tilting her head to the left in confusion.

"Sleeping beauty. You pricked your finger and fell into a deep sleep until your prince woke you up?"

"Yes, that happened." Aurora confirmed quietly, dropping her gaze to the ground. "But I wouldn't describe the effect as sleep."

"Enough talking." Mulan interrupted impatiently. "How and why did you bring the Wraith here?"

"We didn't bring it." Emma frowned, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "It pulled me in and Ruby…" she glanced at Red with a troubled expression. "We didn't bring it here okay?"

"You said something about a portal." Mulan accused purposefully. "Who conjured the portal?"

"Well Regina did but we had to get rid of the Wraith…"

"So you did bring it here." Mulan interrupted sharply, anger returning to her voice. "Aurora?"

"Yes Mulan?" Aurora stepped forward instantly.

"You're Mulan?" Emma asked, somewhat awed. "Seriously?"

"Get me the rope from my things." Mulan said without tearing her eyes away from their soon to be prisoners.

"Oh come on…" Emma looked immediately crestfallen. "My favourite fairytale character is kidnapping me? Are you kidding me?"

"I don't know what that means." Mulan said, lowering her sword to step forward. "Hold your arms up."

Emma sighed but did as she was told.

Mulan gave Emma a quick pat down with one hand but didn't find anything interesting until she reached her belt which concealed some kind of small device.

"Hey!" Emma exclaimed, instinctively moving to prevent Mulan from taking the gun. She didn't have her hand halfway to her belt before the blade of the sword was pressed against her throat. A low growl sounded from her left and she watched as Mulan's eyes flicked briefly in that direction.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Emma swallowed hard and slowly looked to her left to see that Red had taken a half step forward, her body poised to attack. Worried that Red would try to defend her and get hurt because of it Emma spoke up softly. "It's okay Ru-Red."

Red slowly relaxed her stance though she didn't take her eyes away from the sword at Emma's throat.

"Is it a weapon?" Mulan asked, holding the gun up in front of her eyes.

"Yes." Emma answered shakily.

Mulan gave her a hard look. "If you mean no harm why would you bring weapons?"

Emma opened her mouth to answer but she was promptly cut off by Aurora's arrival.

"What's going on? What's that?"

"I don't know." Mulan answered, tucking the weapon into her armour. "Did you get the rope?"

"Yes." Aurora answered, stepping forward with the rope in hand.

"Good, tie them up." Mulan ordered without drawing her eyes away from Emma. "You can do that, can't you?"

"Of course I can." Aurora huffed before stepping forward to tie Emma's hands in front of her.

Emma looked to her left, sharing a nervous look with Red.

Red offered a small smile though it wasn't half as assuring as she'd intended it to be.

TBC