《Artemis || OUAT》47. Hope
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Once everyone could see again, they opened their eyes and noticed that Astrid was gone, disappeared from Hook's arms. Robin spoke up breathlessly, "What was that?"
"Follow up question: Where the hell is my sister?" Emma also questioned while looking around them in the now empty tavern besides them.
"Wait. Where's Snow?" David began, noticing the spot beside him empty, "She was just standing beside me."
"And Rumple-" Peter added, noticing his brother's absence and also noticed the Evil Queen's missing presence, "And Regina's missing too."
Henry also searched the empty building and voiced his thought aloud, "And everyone else? This place wasn't empty before..."
Peter stood up and helped Hook to his feet also, saying, "He said the end was here. We need to find out exactly what that means. I mean, I know some of it from Astrid telling me about her fate as the Ender."
"Then that's where we should start. What exactly does Astrid becoming the Ender do? And how can we stop it?" Robin began.
Peter shook his head, explaining the best he could do, "Astrid was terrified of this prophecy or whatever. She'd have nightmares every single night- and even day-"
"Why didn't you tell us this sooner? We could've helped her-" David started in frustration.
"She made me promise not to tell you guys because she didn't want you to worry about her... She thought she was protecting all of you..." Peter cut him off, the ache in his heart hurting even more. He just wanted her by his side and never leave again.
"Anyway, why was she so terrified of this prophecy or whatever?" Emma spoke up, her hands over her hips as she looked from Peter to Hook who shared a knowing look.
"Because her loved ones would have to pay the ultimate price, and she couldn't live with that..." Hook said, glancing down at his adopted daughter's blood on his hands and shirt, "So, she left to protect us like always."
"So, where is everyone? And how come we didn't go with the people?" Henry inquired in confusion, standing in between Robin and David.
"I don't know," Emma sighed just as they heard an explosion from outside. They raced out of the tavern and noticed that everything was in complete ruins and destroyed, all of the people were statues. The oceans were lava and the sky was a blood red, too. "Oh, my God."
"This is what was in one of her nightmares," Peter murmured while continuing to look around the destroyed village.
Little did they know, what they were seeing here was also what it looked like all around the world and through the different realms.
A gargantuan, red skinned, four eyed figure emerged from behind some crumpled homes; The creature had antler-like horns and hooves as feet and was extremely large and his hair was white and a little past his shoulders.
"He must be what took everyone away and killed Astrid-" David let out, clenching his fists.
"She isn't dead, mate," Hook cut him off, "Before everything happened, I heard her gasp out and cough. Astrid's still alive."
"It's true. I would know if she's dead out of anyone here. Hook's right. She's not," Peter agreed.
"Let's go and demand this guy to tell us where she and everyone else is at," Emma commented before looking over at her son, "Kid, stay back, okay? We don't know who we're dealing with."
Henry nodded and stood behind his mother, Hook, Robin, David, and Peter as they began to step over to the goat demon.
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"Hey, Four-Eyes! Where is my fiancé!?" Peter exclaimed as he stepped slightly in front of his betrothed's family.
The beast chuckled darkly and simply waved his hand, making all of them except Peter be pinned down by his magic. "My daughter seems to have put a protection spell on you, Pan-- her last act."
Peter lifted an eyebrow and demanded, "Who are you? And what did you do with everyone? Why are we still standing?"
"I am Scath-- Better known as Trigon, Destroyer of Worlds!" The large demon announced before answering, "And everyone in stone are prisoners, their souls belong to me now."
That's when Peter noticed Gold, Regina, and Snow a few feet from them set in stone; He looked back at his friends who struggled to move out of the magical hold on them.
"Astrid had enough magic left to save a few of her family, which is why you few are still standing." Trigon stated, "But, no matter, you all will soon join the others as my slaves. You will all bow before me, your god."
David, Henry, Robin, Hook, and Emma managed to grab each other's hands just as pure light magic shot out from them and hit the all-powerful demon who stumbled back.
"Astrid transferred some of her power in us!" Henry spoke up in realization as Peter stepped back and took David's other hand, the strong light magic tripling and then another blast of the magic shot at the demon who stumbled back again with a pained scream.
Trigon stood back up, looking down at the six people who began to hover, a white glow emitting around them.
"Focus on the magic, feel it and will it," Emma told them, repeating what her twin had told her to do when she was first learning about her magic after arriving back in Storybrooke.
"Heh. Seems my daughter's spirit is still here. No matter. It won't do any good because I cannot be defeated." Trigon sneered, beginning to approach them again.
"She's not your daughter. She's ours." David, Robin, and Hook simultaneously stated, the pure light magic hitting the giant demon once again which made him stumble backwards.
Trigon grunted and glared at them, blasting the six with his own magic which sent them crashing back to the ground, their hands no longer linked.
"You," Trigon started towards Emma, "The Savior, sister to Astrid. Your light magic is almost as strong as hers. I can't have that... How about you join your sister in the Nightmare Realm?" He smirked darkly and made the ground split from under them.
Before Emma could fall, David quickly grabbed her hand and held her up. Emma looked down at the orange glow from beneath her and back at her father, saying, "Let me go. You heard him. Astrid's somewhere down there. I can bring her back-- just keep him from destroying the rest of the world."
"I'm not gonna lose my other daughter. I already lost one and my wife..." David began while struggling to hold Emma up.
"It's okay, Dad. I'm coming back, and I'm bringing Astrid back. Have faith." Emma assured with a small smile. David slowly nodded and reluctantly let her go as Emma fell into the abyss, disappearing from their sights.
"Be safe, Emma," David whispered with a sigh before he and the other four faced Trigon and started to try and fight him.
Well, Henry tried but David and Peter made the boy sit the battle out.
*In the Nightmare Realm*
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Emma landed on her front side and stood back up, brushing herself off; Distant, eerie voices spoke out all around her and flames shot out from the sides of the path in front of her.
"I'm coming, A," Emma mumbled before walking down the dirt road. She stopped at a river of lava and a row boat on the shore, and stepped into the boat and began rowing the oars in the stream of lava.
After ten minutes, she hit the other side and stepped out of the boat; Emma looked around and was fixing to move ahead on the path but stopped when she seen fiery, shadow-like demons surround her.
"Son of a bitch," Emma breathed out and took out her pistol, starting to fire at the creatures who lunged at her.
The bullets, however, did nothing as Emma withdrew the long dagger from her boot and swung it at one monster.
The creature let out a screech and disappeared in sparks. Emma glanced down at the dagger and remarked, her sister had gave her the weapon, "Astrid's always saving my ass."
Emma repeated the action to the other fiery demons, killing them one by one, but they kept multiplying; She blasted them with her light magic, making the demons vanish in sparks.
Emma planted her dagger back inside her boot and let out, "That's what I'm talking about."
The woman walked and walked until she came to an arched entrance but stopped when she heard a perky voice speak up, "Hey! You're here! Welcome to the Nightmare Realm!"
Emma furrowed her eyebrows and stared at the girl with the pink cloak around her, her hood completely concealing her face. "Astrid?"
The pink cloaked girl actually laughed and perkily pointed out, "In a sense. I'm one of her emotions, I guess you could say."
"What? Perky?" Emma replied as the girl nodded enthusiastically. "So, I'm going the right way to my sister?"
Perky grinned and nodded quickly before skipping ahead of Emma and ran further down the path; Emma chased after the pink hooded girl but stopped after a minute and losing her. "Perky!?"
"Oh, Honey, I'm a lot of things, but perky ain't one of them," A snide voice spoke up as Emma now noticed a girl with an orange cloak around her.
"You must be Snide," Emma sighed.
"No, what gives me away?" Snide remarked with a roll of her eyes, sarcasm dripping in her tone.
"I think I like Perky better," Emma let out.
Snide sarcastically replied, "It's okay if you don't like me. Not everyone has good taste."
Emma rolled her eyes and asked in slight impatience, "Are you here to take me to Astrid?"
"Everyone has the right to be stupid, but you are abusing the privilege," The orange hooded girl commented.
"Just take me to my sister-" Emma replied.
"I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings when I called you stupid," Snide replied, "I really thought you already knew."
"No, I- Wait. Hey!" Emma started and facepalmed with a shake of her head, "You are already a handful."
"Sarcasm- the ability to insult idiots without them realizing it," The hooded girl cheekily remarked before skipping ahead of Emma who followed behind.
"You're too sarcastic for my liking," Emma let out in annoyance.
"I'm not sarcastic. I'm just intelligent beyond your understanding," The girl sneered and vanished once they reached the next archway entrance.
A red cloaked girl stepped in front of Emma, stopping her abruptly, and folded her arms across her chest, putting out there, "What do you want, Savior?"
Emma lifted an eyebrow and replied, "I'm looking for my twin."
"Why?"
"Because she's my sister and she needs me and we need her-" Emma started.
"Please. You just want to find her, so that she will get rid of our father, Trigon." The red hooded girl spoke, "And then... You'll all go back to taking advantage of her loyalty and love." She clenched her fists tightly.
Emma furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head, saying, "No, no, that's not true. She's family, my twin. I just want to take her home. I mean, yeah, we want to end that four eyed demon up there and stop him from taking over the world..."
"See? And you need her to do that. You do take advantage of her." The red hooded girl commented, unamused and getting more angry by the second as she walked away.
"So... What emotion are you supposed to be anyway?" Emma changed the topic, catching up to the girl.
"Guess you'll find out- or not," The girl simply remarked just as more fiery demons made their way over to them. "I'm so getting tired of these stupid creatures!"
She began attacking the demons by her dark magic while Emma watched with slight wide eyes and then realized, "Rage. She's rage. Astrid's got a lot of pent up rage."
Emma continued to watch Rage grow ten times bigger as the cloaked girl mercilessly killed every last one of the fiery demon creatures.
Emma ran further down the path and didn't stop until three hooded figures flipped off burnt trees and landed in front of the woman.
One had a purple cloak, the second one was wearing a yellow cloak, and the other was wearing a green cloak; The purple cloaked girl smirked, flirtatiously saying, "Hey, how you doing? What brings you by, Em?"
"You must be Flirty and-" Emma breathlessly said while glancing over at the green hooded and the yellow hooded ones.
"Fearless," The green hooded girl remarked as the yellow hooded girl waved and introduced herself as well, "Brainy."
"Right. Who's next? Because I'm starting to get whiplash from all of these emotions," Emma sighed.
"There's one more and should be around here somewhere." Brainy pointed out.
Fearless yelled out, "Gloomy! Get over here!"
"Come on, Sister, let's go find our better self," Flirty grinned and looped her arm with Emma's, pulling her along the pathway.
A gray cloaked girl stepped over to them, saying, "Why? She won't be able to help Emma and the rest of them. There's no hope."
Emma looked over at Gloomy and pointed out, "My sister and I come from Snow White and Prince Charming. There's always hope."
"You hope for things, you end up getting disappointed," Gloomy sighed.
"Come on. We just have to fight a dragon to continue on the path to Astrid." Fearless spoke up, "Piece of cake."
"But we can't help-- only Emma can face the dragon and then go alone in the search of Astrid." Brainy added to her clones and then to Emma, "But be warned, Emma, you might not like what you find."
"I don't care. I'll take my chances. I'm getting my sister back." Emma murmured.
*Above ground, in the village*
After having enough of the persistence of David, Hook, Peter, and Robin, Trigon sealed the four in a sphere of red energy, zapping each of them, and then created dark doubles of the four.
"Destroy them," The villain told the four dark clones of the heroes.
The four was released from their holds and was then pitted against their clones.
Hook withdrew his sword as did David and their clones; Robin and his clone notched an arrow in their bows while Peter and his double just faced each other.
"Last time David faced himself, he lost-" Dark David smirked.
"Actually, I won that battle in the end," David corrected him as the double sneered and replied, "After getting your ass beaten."
Peter and Dark Peter had began fighting, using their magic and, occasionally, their swords; Hook and his dark self also began fighting one another, both deflecting each other's moves.
Dark David slammed his sword down as David quickly blocked it and pushed him back; Robin blocked his double's punches as did the double also.
After twenty minutes of watching the heavily even fights in front of him, Henry voiced his thoughts aloud, saying, "You guys need to switch opponents because your doubles knows every last of your weaknesses and strengths!"
"He's right," Peter agreed as he and David shared a look and switched, the two now going against one another's dark selves. Robin and Hook also switched then, doing the same action as they did.
Robin notched an arrow in his bow and pulled back the drawstring, letting it go as the arrow soared towards Dark Hook who caught it in his hand effortlessly, saying, "Who do you think taught Astrid that move? Not you. Me."
"You mean the one who abandoned her on that island?" Robin remarked while ducking from the dark pirate's punch and then hit him in the stomach.
Dark Hook chuckled while stepping back, saying, "Well, she left you willingly. What does that say?"
"She was doing it to protect-" Robin started but was punched by the dark pirate's hook as he cut him off, "Maybe. But she found her way back to me."
Robin tackled him and punched his jaw until Dark Hook flipped him over and held a knife to the archer's neck.
David was also having a tough time with fighting his opponent; Dark Peter smirked as he held his boot on his chest and a sword pointed at the man's neck, saying, "You can't defeat me. I'm Peter-"
That's when Dark Peter was stabbed in the chest from behind by his original self who took out his sword out of the clone's back and remarked, "That's my catchphrase. And there's only one Peter Pan."
Peter pushed his clone who vanished in sparks and then helped David to his feet who breathlessly let out, "Thanks. Where's my clone?"
"Defeated." Peter smirked, catching the man's look on his face, "What? Peter Pan never fails."
David laughed some and patted his shoulder lightly before admitting, "I'm actually glad you're on our side."
"Does that mean I can call you 'dad' now?" Peter replied in amusement. David laughed and shook his head, saying, "No." Peter simply shrugged.
They looked over at Hook withdrawing his sword from the stomach of Dark Robin who disappeared in sparks.
David and Peter stepped over to Hook just as Robin defeated Dark Hook by plunging an arrow in his heart, the last clone vanishing in orange sparks.
"Is that all you got?" Hook remarked up at Trigon who had made a large throne out of houses and was sitting in it, watching the heroes fight in amusement.
Trigon smirked and simply snapped his fingers, making more of their clones as they surrounded them.
"You just had to ask, didn't you?" Robin remarked towards the pirate on his left side.
*Nightmare Realm*
Emma hunched over, her hands over her knees, as she caught her breath. "The f-first time was-was easier than the s-second time..." She straightened up and picked up the dagger that she had threw at the dragon and placed it in her boot.
Emma took a deep breath and ran down the dark, rocky pathway as she then came to an immense cavern with a ruined temple in the center.
"Astrid?" Emma called out and began to search the ruins but stopped when she noticed someone running away. "Wait! Astrid!?"
Emma took off running after whoever it was but could tell they was wearing a white cloak; She pushed herself even more to go even faster.
Emma turned a corner that the person ran towards and reached out, her hand grasping a hold of the white cloak and pulled it away.
The person tripped on the end of the cloak and fell to the ground, moving to sit on her bottom. Emma now stared at the seven year old blonde haired, blue eyed girl and let out breathlessly, "Astrid?"
The child looked up at Emma in slight fear and meekly asked, "Who- Who are you?"
"It- It's me. Emma. I'm your twin sister." Emma started while slowly approaching the small girl who scooted away. "Okay... What about Hook? Do you remember him?"
Astrid glanced down at the name but furrowed her eyebrows, knowing she heard his name from somewhere. "No. Should I?"
Little Astrid stood up and slowly approached the woman in front of her as Emma nodded and said, "He's like a dad to you... Let me save you. You always save me. Come back with me, please, A."
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