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INDIANA JONES
xlv. GUILT-RIDDEN CRIMINAL

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PRESENT
STORYBROOKE

DING!

THUMP.

DING!

THUMP.

DI—Indiana Jones interrupted the sound of her phone ringing by throwing it as hard as she could against the closest tree. She let out a groan of irritation as she continued to punch the wood, scratching up her fists.

THUMP.

"Just what does that stupid princess mean people can't change?" Indiana muttered to herself.

THUMP.

"I can change. I haven't killed in 30 years!"

THUMP.

"It's been 30 years, yet why do I feel so..." Indiana stopped hitting the tree. "No. That can't be. I'm Indiana fricking Jones. I don't feel guilty about anything... except that time I beat up Winnie, but that was one time... no, two... or was it three? Still! I don't feel guilty about anything."

Indiana sat down on the ground, hugging her knees to her chest.

"Come on, Indie, get yourself together," Indiana whispered to herself. "That's what Peter would tell you. Stop... feeling. That's not hard. Felix did it all the time." Indiana fisted a chunk of her hair, tugging it slightly. "Don't think about them, Indie."

She sniffled and picked up her broken phone, feeling tears of anger and frustration threaten to pour down her cheeks. She wouldn't let that happen, though.

"You're not just some kid anymore, Indiana," Indiana continued to mumble to herself. "You're a cold-blooded murderer. Stop feeling so remorseful."

She paused.

"Maybe I don't want to be a murderer anymore," Indiana suddenly stated, looking up from the ground and releasing her hair. "Maybe I just want to be... Indiana Jones: adventurer extraordinaire..."

The cheesy nickname put a smile to her face, but that quickly faded when she spotted something in the distance. This time, Indiana got a better glance at it. It was dark, like a raven's feathers or the night sky. It had eyes the color of the sun or a lemon. It was a shadow of some sort.

No, it wasn't a shadow. It was Pan's Shadow.

"Get a hold of yourself, Indiana," the brunette whispered to herself. "Your boyfriend's shadow isn't staring at you. Your boyfriend's shadow isn't..." she gulped harshly while slowly standing up. When the Shadow began to move, Indiana started to run. "Wait!"

➖➖➖

"Dammit, slow down!" Indiana shouted, running onto the Storybrooke docks. She had been chasing the Shadow for a while now and it refused to slow down. Indiana was so focused on trying to communicate with it that she didn't even realize that her friends were watching her run in their direction.

Indiana continued to run until she crashed into a body, landing directly on her bottom. If she hadn't bumped into that someone, Indiana didn't have a doubt in her mind that she would have run right into the water. Apparently, the person had the same thought because he said, "Geez, if you were running any faster, I'd say you'd run right past me."

The brunette tensed at the familiar situation. She looked up, spotting an older man, whom she didn't recognize. "Uh, you alright, kid?" Emma's voice rang out.

Looking over, Indiana shot the Savior a look. "I'm a whole century older than you, so don't call me kid... kid," Indiana breathlessly, yet somewhat awkwardly demanded. "Also, who's this?" She motioned to the man standing before her as she stood up.

"Gold's son," Emma answered reluctantly.

Indiana snapped her head in the man's direction. "Baelfire?" Indiana queried.

"Uh, it's Neal now," Baelfire informed her. "I see you're still the same Indiana you were all those years ago. But Henry says you've changed. What's this I hear about choking a guy with his intestine?"

Indiana opened her mouth to spit out some kind of response, but she was interrupted by Emma speaking. "Never mind that," Emma interrupted. "Were you chasing something? Or were you running from something?"

Indiana furrowed her eyebrows together. "Don't be ridiculous. You're telling me you didn't see it?" Indiana asked.

"See what?" Snow White asked the brunette, placing her hand on her shoulder. Indiana immediately moved away under her touch.

"The Shadow! It flew right over your heads!" Indiana exclaimed. "How did you not...?"

"Indiana—Anna—Indiana, are you feeling okay...?" Emma stammered.

Suddenly, Rumplestiltskin winced loudly as he leaned against the bed of David's brown truck. "Whoa, what's up with the Alligator-man?"

"What's wrong? Is Cora trying to control you with the Dagger?" David demanded.

"Oh, you'd know if she was, and most of you would be dead by now," Rumplestiltskin breathlessly spat.

"Well, then, we'll just have to take the fight to her before that can happen," Snow declared with determination evident in her voice.

"We will," David assured her.

"And this time we'll finish it," Snow said.

"Mary Margaret—"

"She needs to be stopped," Snow interrupted. "She needs to be killed."

Indiana snorted at Snow's words. "You? Kill someone?" she asked. "Don't make me laugh. Every time it came down to killing someone in the Enchanted Forest, you'd cry and make me do it."

"This is our family. We are going to protect it," Snow continued.

"Snow, I get what you're saying, but what you're talking about goes beyond that," David butted in.

"Does it?" Snow argued. "Because she is the reason you've never met my mother."

"I know. I know what happened to Queen Eva, and I have zero problem with Cora dying for it, but not by your hand and not out of vengeance," David fired back.

"Why?"

"Because you wouldn't be able to live with yourself," David argued. "Indiana's right. You have the purest heart of anyone I have ever known. It's who you are, and that's who you're gonna stay."

Then, Emma walked over to them while Indiana stepped over to Henry and Red's side. "You okay?" Emma wondered

"Ah, I'm beginning to feel a bit stronger. Take me back to my shop," Rumplestiltskin demanded. "The magic there can protect us."

"Let me guess. I get to go with Ruby," Henry declared.

"You bet," Emma and Indiana stated in sync.

"I'll keep him out of the crossfire," Red promised, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you," Indiana breathed gratefully.

"Don't look so worried! You'll stop Cora. You won't let her get away," Henry said. "I believe in you, Anna. Always do."

Indiana's heart warmed at the boy's words as they separated.

➖➖➖

It was such a strange scene to see the Dark One gasping and flinching with every second that inched by. As usual, Indiana's brother had something to do with the Dark One's injury. He had been stabbed by Killian's hook. Apparently, there was some kind of poison on it. Indiana wanted to assume it was Dreamshade, but there was none of the sort in the real world.

Indiana stared at Baelfire intensely from within Mr. Gold's Pawnbroker, finding it hard to believe that he had been in the real world this whole time. "If you stare any harder, your eyes are bound to pop out of your head," Baelfire joked. Indiana raised an eyebrow. "Oh, no."

"What?" Indiana asked.

"You do it, too. The eyebrow thing," Baelfire pointed out. He had been caught up to speed on Indiana's story since it was one of the many things Henry continuously spoke about on their journey back to Storybrooke. He knew all about Peter Pan.

Coincidentally, Indiana was caught up to speed, as well for the most part. All she knew was that Baelfire had spent some time in Neverland, which was why he was much younger than he was supposed to be.

"Eyebrow thing? You mean this?" Indiana asked, switching eyebrows.

Baelfire shivered. "Stop," he told her. "It's weird."

"Emma, did you find it?" Rumplestiltskin questioned as the blonde walked forward.

"Yeah," she confirmed, holding an empty jar. "There's nothing in it." She shook the jar, hearing something clattering inside it. "What the hell?" She stuck her hand in and pulled out an invisible object.

"Invisible chalk," Rumplestiltskin told her, sitting on the bed in the back part of the shop. "Use it in the front doorway. Draw a line. The rest of you, you might wanna prepare for battle."

As they began to make their way around the shop to prepare for battle, David placed his hand on Indiana's shoulder.

"Can I talk to you?" David questioned.

Indiana narrowed her eyes at him. "If this is about what Snow said to you earlier, forget it," Indiana told him. "It's childish of me to hold a grudge."

"That's funny coming from you," David joked. He shook his head. "Never mind that. I just wanted to say that you know she wasn't talking about you, right? She was talking about—"

"—Regina? Yeah, I figured," Indiana interrupted. "That doesn't mean what she said didn't irk me. Whatever you two might believe, I'm changing."

"Are you sure, Indiana?" David asked worriedly. "You've been doing this whole evil thing since you were 12. I'm not so sure that it'll be like turning off a switch."

"I'm not Regina. I can be good if I want to, David, and I do," Indiana declared, obviously extremely determined. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go help the Savior and the son of Rumplestiltskin protect us with invisible chalk."

When she walked into the front part of the store, Emma was crouching by the door while Neal was playing with a sword. "Alright, we're good to go," Indiana declared before noticing the strange tension. "Everything okay in here?"

Emma merely nodded.

➖➖➖

After Emma Swan managed to create a barrier around the shop using her own magic, Cora Mills had broken into the shop and was now attempting to get into the back part of the Pawnbroker where Emma, Neal, and Indiana were standing before Rumplestiltskin.

"It's getting weaker," Neal noted. "She's gonna get through."

"Maybe it's for the best," Rumplestiltskin whispered. "At least this cursed power will pass from this world."

"Calm down, princess, you're not dying," Indiana spat as Neal tossed his sword to the floor and sat at the foot of his father's bed.

"I am dying," Rumplestiltskin corrected, "that much is certain. I need to talk to Belle."

Emma gave Indiana an unsure look, fingering the phone in her coat pocket. Indiana nodded. "Do it. If I were on my deathbed, I'd do anything to talk to the people I love," Indiana told her with a low voice.

"Who's Belle?" Neal wondered as Emma nodded and handed Rumplestiltskin the phone.

"Your dad's girlfriend," Indiana answered.

As he spoke on the phone, Indiana couldn't help but feel sad for Rumplestiltskin. Belle still didn't remember who he was. "I know you're confused about who you are, so I'm going to tell you," Rumplestiltskin weakly said. "You are a hero who protected your people. You... are a beautiful girl who loved an ugly man. You really, really loved me. You find goodness in others. And when it's not there, you create it. You make me wanna go back... back... to the best version of me. And that never happened before. So when you look in the mirror and you don't know who you are, that's who you are. Thank you... Belle."

There was silence in the room, aside from the quietest of sniffling that came from the farthest right of the room. Emma looked over, spotting Indiana, who wiped her face. "Is... Is the Indiana Jones crying?" Emma asked in surprise.

Indiana rolled her eyes. "As—As if," Indiana stuttered. "I have really bad allergies."

"Didn't know you had that in you," Neal admitted quietly to his father.

"Oh, I'm full of love..." Rumplestiltskin trailed off. "I've spent a lifetime looking for you... dealing with a little brat who always asked where you went, but I didn't have it in me to kill your best friend... just waiting for a chance to say I love you... and I'm sorry."

"I didn't think you would go back on our deal," Neal added after a short pause, confusing Emma and Indiana.

"I just made the wrong choice," Rumplestiltskin told him. He raised his hand shakily. "May I?"

Neal looked down. "I'm still angry," he stubbornly whispered as his voice broke.

"I know."

Then, Neal took his father's hand and looked down as the two silently cried together.

After some time, Cora eventually broke through the second barrier Emma had created within the shop. She narrowed her eyes at Neal, Emma, and Indiana, who were prepared to fight for Rumplestiltskin. (This wasn't something Indiana thought she would ever do).

"You three, out of the way," Cora declared. She waved her hand, causing the trio to disappear in a puff of purple smoke.

They reappeared in the middle of a path in the forest.

"Oh, what a bloody joke!" Indiana exclaimed with realization. "Of course she has magic! We're all idiots!"

Too bad that was the last thing Cora Mills ever said to Emma Swan, Neal Cassidy, and Indiana Jones, for not too much longer later, Snow White had used the candle that was used on her mother and killed Cora.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:
quick note - i did get inspo for the whole "u do the eyebrow thing 2!!!" from the fic Echo by cat_archer i believe - i forget the author, but she's fantastic! i loved that story and thought that line was hilarious. so ya pls don't fight me on that <3

i have this huge fear that indiana is too similar to her character (rae/skylar) or just the stories in general are too similar, so pls let me know if i should adjust indiana or anything

i am in no way shape or form trying to be like that author so again don't swing fight me pls :) that's all love u guys