Ch.2: Broken

        Kat and Klaus exited the Jolly Roger, stepping foot on the dock, before Hook followed after securing it there. 

        "You promised me my vengeance. Where's the crocodile?" 

        "He'll look kind of like how he did when you first met him. He has an antique shop. Just look for a shop called Mr. Gold's Pawn Shop. If he's not there, he's probably at the diner, which you'll be able to find as Granny's diner," she instructed the pirate. 

        "Thank you for your services, luv," he replied with a smile, before leaving, looking for the shop. 

        "And now, it's time we head to Regina's place. Here, in this town, she's the mayor," she informed Klaus, before taking the familiar route to Regina's place, him at her side.

        When she got to the house with Klaus, she saw familiar faces on the front lawn, as Whale pounded on the door, telling her to open up, or they'd be coming in. As that happened, Kat began to go around the crowd, Klaus following. 

        Regina opened up her door, giving a fake smile to Whale. 

        "Can I help you?"

        "That smirk isn't gonna last forever, Regina. You took everything from us, and now," Whale began. 

        "What?" Regina questioned. "Now, you're gonna kill me?"

        "Eventually, but first you need to suffer."

        Regina pushed Whale, as she stepped onto her porch, closing the door behind herself. 

        "Listening to you has been enough suffering for all of us." 

        She pushed Whale so that he was off her porch. Then faced the crowd of fairytale characters, hearing gasping from some. 

        "That's right. You wanted to see your Queen?" She took a step off her front porch. "Well, my dears, here...she...is." She attempted to magically change wardrobes, but nothing happened, which was a surprised to her, since magic was now in Storybrooke. 

        They cowarded down, but when nothing happened, they stood up again. 

        "She's powerless! Get her!" one of them said. 

        Whale pinned Regina against one of the pillars outside, in front of her porch. 

        "Now, where were we?" 

        At that moment, Kat had gotten close enough, and she pushed him away from Regina. 

        "Get your hands off of her!" 

        If she'd still been a vampire, she would've growled at him for what he'd attempted to do. 

        He wasn't really phazed at her being back, but before he could do anything, Klaus had easily tossed him a foot away from her. 

        "I suggest you do what Katerina asks. Otherwise, they'll be consequences." 

        He gave one of his smiles, which normally told people that knew him not to call his bluff, since he wasn't bluffing. People that knew him usually took the hint. 

        Regina was shocked at Katherine being in town, and for the moment, didn't have anything to say. 

        Kat turned to face the crowd, now on the porch with Regina. 

        "You know, no matter what she's done to you all, she doesn't deserve this. Nobody does. I suggest you all go home. Klaus isn't someone you want to mess around with. He's not afraid to kill any of you," she replied. She put a hand on Regina's arm. "Inside." Then Regina opened her door, Katherine following. "You're going to want to invite Klaus inside," she informed her, in which Regina did.

        When Regina had closed the door with her and Klaus inside, she had questions. 

        "How are you back?" Regina questioned, although she was glad to have a friendly face. One that wouldn't dream of torturing or killing her. 

        "I recently died for a second time. When I did, I ended up in your world. It's not gone like you thought. Rumple's past self helped get a spirit out of Klaus. Then we got Hook to help us get out of there. Hook's here. I had hoped you'd be able to help us get home, but I imagine that's not going to happen." 

        "The curse is broken. Now, as you saw, everyone wants to kill me for what I did to them. Magic must be different here. If I can't do magic, then I'm just as they said. Powerless," she replied. 

        "We'll protect you until you figure out a way to be able to do magic again, but you're not powerless. I have a saying. Once a witch, always a witch. But if you can't do magic, then I imagine Rumple is the one with magic now. Which means I've probably sent Hook to get himself killed. Or at the very least, his a*s handed to him." 

        She gave a smile at that last part. 

        "So, this is your sworn enemy," Regina stated. 

        "Not anymore. We buried the hatchet. I forgave him on my deathbed. I realized that being vengeful had stopped me from being able to fully live my life. It was time to forgive him. And he's changed, just as I wanted to when my daughter found me. Klaus isn't as much of a monster as he used to be. He had a daughter, too. She changed him into a decent person. Or, at least half of a decent person. Besides, even when we hated each other, when it comes to a common enemy or cause, we work well together. I may not be a vampire anymore, but I've got magic of my own. My daughter informed me before she died years ago. She told me as a human, I'm descended from Travelers, and that I could do magic. If you want to stay here and hide from all of them, I'll put a protection spell on your house. It'll keep anyone from getting inside. But I need to speak with Rumple. I need to keep my end of the deal. Plus, I need to find out what he plans on doing with all of this magic in town." 

        "Well, I'm glad someone's able to forgive. No need. Go. I'll figure something out," Regina commented, and then assured her. 

        "You're sure?" Kat inquired.

        Suddenly, just as they all heard the crowd getting a speech from Charming and Snow White on the other side of the door, the person she needed to see came into the hallway, cane helping him walk. 

        "I had hoped you'd be alone for what I have in store for you, Your Majesty," Rumple commented to Regina. 

        "Sorry to disappoint," she replied. 

        "Well, this saves a trip, then. I imagine you're the one that brought magic here," Kat commented to him. 

        "Yes, but what are you doing back?" he replied, since he knew that she always dug until she found answers. 

        "I didn't exactly plan the trip, but since I'm here, I might as well help. Besides, I owe you my end of the deal. You might not remember it, but your past self and I made a deal to help Klaus here. The deal was I'd owe you a favor," she replied, since she imagined that Rumple probably would've wiped his memory after they'd left, which would mean that this Rumple didn't have a memory of the deal. 

        "Right now, I don't need your services, but in the future, you might come in handy," he replied. "Welcome back," he added. "Now, I have a little vengeance of my own to tend to. If you'd be kind enough to get out of the way." 

        "What did she do to you now?" Kat questioned. 

        "For the moment, only one thing is on my list. She left Belle here, in an asylum, alive for twenty-eight years. A fate worse than death, which I'm going to give to her. I made a promise to Belle that I won't kill her. I said nothing about other things that could. Now, if you please," he explained to her. As a semi-friend, he didn't want to have to do anything magical to Katherine. But his vengeance was strong for what Regina had done. 

        "I could've killed her, but I didn't," Regina reminded him. 

        "You did more than that. You kept her alive, so you could kill her when it suited you," Rumple replied.

        "I can't let you do that, whatever it is you're about to do," Kat told him. 

        "Very well then," Rumple replied to her, and pinned both of them magically to a close by wall. Then grabbed her arm, putting pressure on her hand with a medallion. 

        "Is that...?" Regina inquired. 

        "It is. The one thing no one can escape. Destiny. And I promise, yours is particularly unpleasant." 

        He let her go. 

        Regina looked at her hand, which had a mark from the medallion. 

        Rumple let Katherine and Klaus go, before poofing himself out of the house. 

        Kat went over to her. 

        "What did he do?" 

        She looked at Katherine. 

        "He just gave me a death sentence. If those people don't get to me first, the wraith will. A soul sucker. And it won't stop until its target is dead."

        "Any way to kill it?" Kat questioned. 

        "You can't kill something that's already dead," she told her. 

        "Then we'll figure out how to stop it, at the very least," Kat assured her.

        Regina didn't feel optimistic, but didn't want to raid on her optimism, since she knew Katherine was pretty good at figuring things out. She'd gotten to know her well enough the last time she'd been here. 

        "I sure hope so," Regina commented to her. 

        "No matter where you go, you won't be safe from that thing, but you can be safe from this town. The safest place for you might be with us at Snow and Charming's place," she assumed. She was making an assumption from what Regina had said what the wraith was. If it was a soul sucker, then that had to mean it was going to hunt her down, no matter where she went. 

        "I thought we were avoiding them, luv," Klaus commented. 

        "In the Enchanted Forest, yes. Here, we don't need to. They can't do anything to you here. The Enchanted Forest, they could. They don't hold power here like they do in their world," she explained. "But they might need convincing to invite you in," she added. 

        About half an hour later, they opened the door to their loft apartment, Katherine with Regina and someone they didn't know. 

        "We've been looking for you," Charming commented to Regina. 

        "I'm sure you have," Regina commented back. 

        "What Regina did is the least of your concerns right now. Rumple just gave her a death sentence. We need to stop it," Kat intervened. "The wraith, as Regina's told me, is a soul sucker. That'll kill her." 

        "Why should we help stop it?" Charming inquired. 

        "Because you're a good person. Both of you are. You don't help stop the wraith that'll be here sooner rather than later, and you're no better than any of us. It would be like killing her yourself. What do you say?" Kat replied, catering to his good nature she knew he had. 

        "She's right. Whatever Regina's done, it doesn't justify killing her. Or letting something kill her for us," Snow White interceded. 

        Always on her side, Charming finally gave in. 

        "Fine. You can come in," he stated to all of them. 

        "You'll need to invite him in, since you own this apartment, technically," Kat told her. 

        Snow did as she was asked, and Klaus came inside. Then Charming closed the door. 

        Regina started pacing, obviously nervous about her impending doom. 

        Suddenly, everything shook, as if it were a mini earthquake, making everyone nearly lose their balance, having to grab onto something. 

        "I assume that means it's here," Kat stated. 

        "It is," Regina told her. 

        "Then let's hurry up and figure out how to stop it, since you said it can't be killed."

        "Well, we can't send it to our world," Regina told her. "It would wreak havoc there. I don't have any ideas where else it could be sent." 

        "It still exists?" Charming inquired. 

        "According to Katherine, yes. They ended up there, before they got here," Regina answered him. 

        "Then we can send everyone back home," he replied. 

        "Not necessarily. The world of yours we were in. The Dark curse hadn't been used. It could've been an alternate world of yours. Not the one after the curse. Who knows what that one looks like now," Kat interceded. 

        "Well, we can try anyway." 

        "How about we concentrate on one problem at a time, Charming," Kat replied. "First, we figure out where to send the wraith. We could send it to your world. Then we see if you guys can't get back home, where you clearly want to be so badly."

        "No. If there are any survivors after the curse, we'd be subjecting them to that thing," Snow disagreed. 

        "Then I'm out of options. Unless you know how to send it to the underworld, or maybe even oblivion on the Other Side. Because I don't have an ascendant attached to a no longer in existence prison world," Kat told them. 

        "She's right. It needs to be sent to our world."

        "This shouldn't be our problem to begin with," he stated. 

        "Yeah, well, it is. You know why? Rumple sent it. You think it'll go home once it's done with Regina? I don't think so. And then we'll still have to deal with it. So, how about you armor up or whatever, and let's figure this out," Kat replied. 

        "We could try Jefferson's hat," Charming suggested. 

        "Who's that?" Kat questioned. 

        "The Mad Hatter," Regina informed her. 

        "Snow and I can try to find Jefferson, and get him to give us the hat." 

        "Good idea," Kat said. "The rest of us will stay here." 

        That night, the wraith broke into the apartment, as Regina tried to get the hat to work, and it tossed everyone away, before starting to suck on her soul. While it was doing that, Kat did her best to get it to work, which she finally succeeded.

        Kat put a hand on Regina's arm, getting her and herself safely away from the portal, as it sucked the wraith into the hat. But that's not everything it did. Snow and Charming had been close by, trying to get it towards the portal, and ended up also getting sucked into it, before the portal finally closed.

        Kat picked up the hat, before looking at her. 

        "You okay?" 

        "I'll be fine," she replied, still kind of getting her breath back.

        Being smart with portals, none of them had tried to help those two. 

        "You ready to face the people of Storybrooke?" Kat questioned her. 

        After Regina had gotten her breath fully back, she finally spoke. 

        "I'll have to, sooner rather than later, so I might as well start now."

        "I'll come with you, just in case," Kat replied. 

        After Kat had handed the hat to Regina, they all left the apartment, heading to Granny's Diner.