Image
courtesy of TheConscienceThing. Used with permission.
courtesy of TheConscienceThing. Used with permission."You realize that just one of those creatures, those spiders infiltrated my ship and killed everyone else on board? It was blind luck that I escaped with my life. If those colonists have found that ship, I can only imagine what has occurred. If one, one creature caused so many deaths in such a short time then imagine what a hundred of them could do. Do you understand now? Lieutenant?"
Monsters is a Once Upon a Time fanfic retelling of Aliens.— Regina Mills on the Xenomorphs.
After a mysterious alien monster killed all of her crew, Regina is believed to be crazy and simply wants to get back to Earth. However, when the Misthaven company loses contact with a colony, Regina joins a rescue mission which brings her face to with her worst fears. Regina also finds herself growing close to Marine, Emma Swan, and the Sole Survivor of the colony, the young Henry.
It was written by Aofie and can be read on Archive of Our Own, here.
Trope examples:
- Adaptational Romance Downgrade:
- In the original show, Killian is Emma's main love interest and Robin is Regina's soulmate. However, in this story there is no romance between them and either woman and Emma and Regina become an Official Couple by the end of the story.
- In the original show, Robin was previously married to Marian, but here there is no hint that they even knew each other, as Marian was part of Regina's crew that died before the story takes place.
- In canon, Mary Margaret and David were married and Emma's parents, but here there is no hint at romance of between them.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Regina and Emma are both straight in the show. Here, Regina is bisexual and Emma, despite her sexuality never being stated in the story, only shows interest in women.
- Adaptational Villainy: Robin in the show is a good guy, Regina's love interest, and an all-around Nice Guy. Here, Robin is a greedy and self-centered businessman who shows no remorse for getting the colony massacred and has no problem trying to kill everyone in his group in order to try to get the creature to Earth and use it as a weapon.
- Big Bad Ensemble: The Xenomorphs are led by the queen, which is the biggest psychical threat to the group, but Robin acts as the main human threat, trying to get the creatures back to Earth and being the cause you the current outbreak.
- Giant Spider: The Xenomorphs in this version are spider-like creatures and can grow to easily tower over humans.
- Hate Sink: Robin is a greedy and self-centered businessman who sent the colony to make contact with something he knew was potentially dangerous and didn't properly warn them about. Not only does this lead to the massacre of all but one of the colonists, but this is something Robin feels no remorse for. He also plans to kill everyone on the mission to bring the aliens back to Earth and use them as weapons to make money.
- Lack of Empathy: Robin shows no remorse for the fact that his actions caused the death of almost everyone in the colony or any of the other horrible stuff he does.
- Moment Killer: Killian walks in on Regina and Emma making out and awkwardly interrupts them.
- Official Couple: Regina and Emma officially get together at the end of the story and basically adopt the orphaned Henry.
- Parental Substitute: Regina and Emma quickly become attached to the orphaned Henry when they find him, with them, especially Regina, becoming like his new parents. By the end of the story, he even calls them mom and Ma.
- Sanity Slippage: After the Marines' first encounter with the Xenomorphs, Killian quickly loses any hope for rescue and begins yelling at any setback that they are all dead
- Second Love: Emma becomes the first person Regina falls in love with after the death of her husband Daniel in her original encounter with the Xenomorphs.
- Sole Survivor: Henry is the only survivor of BH657 massacre by the Xenomorphs.
- Spared By Adaptation: In the original continuity, Hicks and Newt die before they can get back to Earth, but here their stand ins Emma and Henry are spared and make it to Earth.
- Would Hurt a Child: Robin has no problem locking the child Henry in the same room as a Xenomorph, despite knowing this would lead to his death.
"Are we home?"
