Once We are Descendants

Chapter 26: What Did I Bring to Storybrooke?

"Okay, the official test," Crystal says. She holds a vial of green liquid of the now perfected portal potion in one hand and an apple from Regina's tree in other; ready to test its teleportation ability.

"Please tell me how you talked me into this again?" Regina moans in annoyance. The two stand quite some distance from each other, on opposite ends, further down Main Street, near Crystal's father's shop.

"I bribed you with iced lattes," the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin smirks. The former Evil Queen rolls her eyes, wondering how she gets herself into these situations.

Rumple stands in front of his pawn shop, curious to see how this formula worked; he was wondering if it could have saved the years and years he wasted trying to find a magic bean or perfecting his mother's dark curse in order to find his son, Baelfire. Perhaps he should read more like his wife, or perhaps kept her his prisoner longer as his researcher instead of his maid... before he fell in love with her that is. A pregnant Emma and Killian are present too, to ensure the safety of both parties. They would likely only ever arrest Crystal if she used the potion to steal something or blew up a building. Killian keeps his wife behind him at all times to ensure that she and the baby are safe, despite Emma's protests that she could take care of herself. Granny is also present, waiting with bated breath to see if this would work and she would get the chance to visit her granddaughter in Oz. A few other Storybrooke residents watch from the safety of inside their shops or through windows, knowing very well how unstable magic could be.

"Tell me why we're doing this in front of your father's shop?" Regina asks, still not happy that she was talked into this.

"So, if something goes wrong, he might have the tools and the power to reverse its effects."

"That is not exactly reassuring at our end, lass," Killian calls out.

"It's a small amount of potion, it won't suck the town into a vortex, I promise. Besides, I'm just teleporting an apple."

"Nothing more perfect to send to the Evil Queen," Rumple chuckles to himself.

"You ready?" Crystal calls to Regina.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she moans.

Crystal pops the cork of the vial and pours the liquid onto the pavement. A very small portal begins flashing green at her feet. The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin can feel the pull from the portal, so she takes a step back as a precaution. She then remembers the instructions from the book; if no one is entering the portal, an individual with magic had to feed it with just enough power to get a portal to open at the other end. Using the softest amount of her light purple magic; the light side of her powers, she feeds the swirling vortex in front of her, just enough to make it a bit bigger. Giving the apple a kiss for luck, she drops it into the centre of the green circle. The apple disappears, then Crystal waves her hand to close her end of the portal. She then waits and watches intently for Regina's end.

The Evil Queen stands ready, unsure of what was coming... hopefully just an apple and nothing else. She has to be ready in case the portal opened underneath her, and she had to teleport away very quickly.

Suddenly, a tiny green portal opens in front of her, something red comes flying upwards from the centre. Regina catches the apple in her hand and uses her own magic to close the portal.

"YES!" Crystal cheers happily, jumping up in excitement. She'd finally perfected a new way of travelling between realms instead of waiting for Tiny's beans to grow. A reluctant Regina forces herself to be impressed by the girl's achievement, despite having to sacrifice one of her best outfits in its previous creation to get there. Both Emma and Killian look impressed, even applauding her, as well as Rumpelstiltskin. He goes over and pats his daughter on the back to congratulate her on the success of her developing new Arcane knowledge. While she had her ups and downs with magic, the Dark One is confident in his daughter, that she would be a great wielder of magic for the years to come. She impulsively hugs him, something that he is still not used to.

The girl then turns to Granny with a huge smile. She rushes to the old woman.

"All we need to do is get you two jars of this stuff, one for the way there and one for the way home and you're set."

"Thank you, Crystal," Granny says with a genuine smile. "For not giving up and allowing me to see Ruby for her birthday."

"Its what heroes do," the girl says modestly. "Help people... and hopefully, pay off the bill my family cranks up at your place?" She winces.

Granny gives a mischievous half-smile. "I'll think about it."

"Don't forget to give Ruby all the love in the world and tell her that we hope she comes to visit in the future."

The old woman nods.

Rumple is thinking very hard to himself; wishing he'd had his daughter's tenacity and determination back in the day to make a new method of transportation possible. If he had not been so focused on gaining power, then maybe he could have found Bae sooner and avoided the entire curse in general. Of course, if he'd done that, he'd have never met Crystal's mother, Lillian, conceived his only daughter, only to lose her and find true love in Belle during those years of seeking power and spreading chaos. There was much that he regretted back then, but now is the time to invest in the future with hope and love.

Crystal pulls out another sample of the potion from her pocket. "I want to do one more test, to see if the portals can be conjured in mid-air, creating almost like a doorway to walk through."

"What are you going to teleport?" Granny asks.

Crystal conjures up a small white rabbit. "Something living this time." She hands the animal to her father to hold. The Dark One strokes the creature gently on the back and Crystal gets a flashback to James Bond villains stroking white cats.

The girl then texts Emma and Killian to let them know what was going to happen. While the couple is reluctant to be on the receiving end, Crystal reassures them, saying that it would not be big, and all they would have to do is catch the rabbit after it ran through. She explains that she teleported it from the pet store and would have to give it back after. If it worked with Regina's apple, it should work with them, only with a living animal and an intended direction. They stand in the road, next to Regina. Granny and Rumple take some steps back. Crystal uncorks another bottle and tosses the liquid into the air. She slowly makes the tiny portal big enough for the rabbit to hop through.

Just as she's taking the rabbit into her arms, the portal suddenly becomes bigger and bigger. The wind picks up heavily.

"Crystal..." Granny calls out. "What's happening?"

"Not a clue!" the girl screams. She shoves the rabbit back into her father's arms and steps back from the now very large vortex of power. Regina, Killian, and Emma also stand back, going towards the clock tower to avoid being sucked in.

The daughter of the Dark One then uses her magic to try and counteract the portal, shrink it if possible. However, it only seems to feed the thing's power.

"What the hell is happening?" Crystal calls over the wind.

She hits it with a blast of magic, much darker than she intended for it. When the two sources of power meet, a bright flash of light blinds all of them. They hear a distant roar.

When the burst of energy dims enough for them to see, the group is completely gobsmacked at the scene in front of them. There is a pile of kids, most of them unconscious, lying in the middle of Main Street, but what scares them the most is a giant dragon has seemingly come through the portal. Clinging to the leg of the said dragon is a girl with turquoise hair who has the bottom half of an octopus-like Ursula. The dragon's wings flap very hard, keeping the two creatures high above the tiny town they had now become trapped within.

Crystal's eyes meet the purple dragon's green one and she swallows hard.

"What the hell did I bring to Storybrooke?"

A/N: What indeed? Please review.