DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ONCE UPON A TIME!
to some of my most loyal fans: I know that I have already written this before, but this times things are different. I have learned a lot in the years I have been writing fanfiction and I think you will be pleased by the direction I have decided to take this story in. I still want to know what you would like to see in the story, but this time I have a more defined idea of what I want to do with the characters (both old and new) and plot (new ideas in addition to old) in a way I'm sure you will all enjoy!
PLEASE REVIEW!
Feel free to PM/Review with any ideas you have for this story; i.e. character interactions, special scenes, or anything else you can think of. I do try to incorporate your ideas if it works with the story line. My favorite part of fanfiction is hearing from YOU about what you do and do not like.
PLEASE REVIEW!
Once Upon A Time
There was an enchanted forest filled with all the classic characters we know.
Or think we know.
One day they found themselves trapped in a place where all their happy endings were stolen.
Our World.
This is how it happened.
Henry's POV
I was standing in front of my real mom's door as I tried to find the courage to knock on her door and make her come home with me. When I told Sammy my plan, he said it was a bad idea to look for my birth mom, but he's cursed, so he doesn't know what he's saying. No one in Storybrooke does, which is why I have to bring my mom, Emma Swan, back home with me so she can break the curse. Hesitantly, I knock on the door and a blonde woman opens the door.
"Hi, are you Emma Swan?" I ask the woman.
"Yeah, who are you?" She replies.
"My name is Henry, I'm your son."
Sammy's POV
"So, do any of you actually think this chick is gonna come to Storybrooke with Henry? I tried to talk him out of it, but he seemed pretty determined to find her." I ask my siblings in mine and Andy's room. Originally Tammy and I used to share a room, but because of our favorite colors, green for me and red for Tammy, our room looked a little too much like Christmas, so she moved in with Danny and Andy moved in with me.
"Why do you even care? If he wants to waste his time going on a wild goose chase, then I say let him, but worrying about someone that isn't us seems like a waste." Tammy replies while absentmindedly braiding her dirty-blonde hair.
"You don't know that, Tammy, maybe his birth mom will actually be a decent person." Andy supplies.
"Our parents didn't want us, so why would his mom be any different?" Danny counters. If there was one thing constant between the four of us, it was the fact that all of us could never agree on anything. I was with Danny and Tammy though, going off personal experience, as our own parents abandoned us when we were only four years old, so why would this Emma Sawn be any different?
Blaze's POV (Fairyback)
"You two want to see my mentor? You locked him up in a cage, I don't think he'll be too happy to see either of you. Do you really think he'll want to help after all the good he's done for the two of you, just to get his ass thrown into a cage?" I ask Snow and Charming.
"That's why you're here." Charming replies.
"Ah, I see, I'm here as vantage point so he'll actually listen to what you two have to say. Afraid to face Rumplestiltskin without me? I may be only thirteen, but I'm not an idiot, I'm only here because I want to be. Like you, I need to talk to him too."
"How do we know you're not going to let him out when our backs are turned?"
"I guess you have to trust I won't."
"Charming, she's the only one that can get the Dark One to talk to us." Snow intervenes.
"What about one of her brothers, like Aras, I trust him a lot more than her. Snow, do you know how many people this one has killed? She's betrayed our trust before, how do you know she won't do it again?"
"For once our interests are aligned; I don't want to be cursed either and lose my brothers."
"Let's just get this over with." I follow the royal couple down into the mines to where his cage was located, but I didn't see him. It was impossible for him to escape, they made sure of that, so he was somewhere just out of view.
"Rumplestiltskin! We need to talk, more specifically, they need to talk to you." My mentor jumps down from the top of the cage and lets out his signature cackle.
"Of course they do! Why else would they be down here?" Rumple replies.
"We need your help with—" Charming starts to say before he is cut off.
"Yes, yes, I know why you're here! You want to know about the Queen's threat."
"Tell us what you know!"
"Tense, aren't we? Fear not for I can ease your mind. But, it's gonna cost you something in return."
"No, this is a waste of time."
"What do you want?" Snow demands.
"Oh…just the name of your unborn child." Rumple tells her giddily.
"Absolutely not!" Charming protests.
"What do you know?" Snow asks.
"Ah, the Queen has created a powerful curse, and it's coming. Soon you'll all be in a prison, just like me, only worse! Your prison—all of our prisons—will be time. And time will stop. And we will be trapped, someplace horrible, where everything we hold dear, everything we love will be ripped from us while we suffer for all eternity, while the Queen celebrates, victory at last! No more happy endings." Rumple informs us.
"What can we do?'
"We can't do anything."
"Who can?"
"That little thing growing inside your belly. The infant is our only hope. Get the child to safety and on its…thirty-first birthday, the child will return. The child will find you and the final battle will begin!"
"I've heard enough, we're leaving." Charming starts to lead Snow away from Rumplestiltskin. This was not going to be pretty to watch given they didn't honor their deal.
"Hey! No! We made a deal! I want her name! We had a deal! I. Need. Her. Name! I want her name!" Prince Charming stops in his path and turns around to face Rumple.
"Her? We've having a boy." Charming once again continues to lead Snow away from Rumplestiltskin.
"Missy, missy—you know I'm right. Tell me. What's her name?" Snow White turns around, making her beloved prince stop with her.
"Emma. Her name is Emma."
"Let's go." Charming tells her. They disappear from view in a matter of seconds, and then I am left alone with Rumple.
"Blaze, I see you're still here. Come to catch up since my capture? I do hope you haven't burned down my castle already."
"You know that's not why I'm here. You told us about the Dark Curse and what it will cost the Queen, so I don't need precognitive powers to know that she's going to come to you to help. When that happens I need you to make sure she doesn't split me and my brothers up using the curse."
"I think I can manage to do that. My price is that the only people you tell are Aras, Cole, and Dune. Continue to find information on people so we can use it to our advantage once the curse is broken."
"I thought the curse was unbreakable."
"True love can break any curse, but more importantly it will allow me to find my son."
Emma's POV
"Okay, kid, how about an address?" I ask the kid I gave birth to as I continued to drive down the empty streets of this small town.
"One hundred and eight not telling you street." He replies. I slam on the brakes and get out of my bug; Henry does the same. Could this kid just cut me a break for once so I could get back to Boston? I know he's my son and trying to get to know me, I think, but I have a life in Boston and his adoptive mother must be worried sick about him.
"Look, it's been a long night, and it's almost—8:15?" I do a double-take at the clock tower, but it did indeed read 8:15; I guess it stopped working and no one's bothered to fix it yet.
"The clock hasn't moved my whole life, time's frozen here."
"Excuse me?"
"The Evil Queen did it with her curse. She sent everyone from the Enchanted Forest here."
"Hang on. The Evil Queen sent a bunch of fairytale characters here?"
"Yeah, and now they're trapped."
"Frozen in time, stuck in Storybrooke, Maine? That's what you're going with?"
"It's true!"
"Then why doesn't everybody just leave?"
"They can't, if they try, bad things happen."
"Danny, move!" a young female voice shouts.
"No, you move!" a young male voice shouts back. Henry and I turn our heads to see two kids Henry's age riding skateboards down the open road. Or I should say trying to. The two of them crash into each other and fall down a few feet in front of us, their boards sliding underneath my yellow bug. Within a few seconds they get to their feet, and I can instantly see the similarities between the two of them. They both had the same dirty-blonde hair and either brown or hazel eyes, in this light it was hard to tell which. The only difference I could tell about the two, who are most definitely twins, was the obvious; one was a boy and one was a girl. They even dressed similar for Pete's sake! The girl was wearing a red hoodie with dark washed skinny jeans and red converse while the boy was wearing a blue hoodie with dark washed straight legged jeans with blue converse. I thought twins only dressed similar in movies or tv shows, but apparently I was wrong.
"Who are you two?" I ask the kids.
"Depends who wants to know." The girl bites back.
"Well, that's my stubborn-ass sister, Tammy, who wishes she was as awesome as I am, and I'm Danny, King of Everything!" the boy, Danny, boasts.
"Isn't that exaggerating the truth like a lot? You can't even multitask or get dressed the right way the first time. I'm better at so many more things than you are, and you know it, so stop sounding like Sammy and accept that I'm much better than you."
"I take it you two are twins?" I ask them, trying to break up their little fight. The two of them look at each other before bursting into laughter. "What? What's so funny?"
"Dude, we're quadruplets." Danny says. There were two more of them? If the other two were even slightly similar to them, I wonder how this town handles them, or more importantly how do their parents handle them? Where are their parents anyway? Do they allow their kids to go skateboarding this late at night?
"Okay then. So, why are you skateboarding in the middle of the night? Do your parents know that you're doing something this dangerous?"
"Of course not. We do what we please, so don't even try the "make good decisions" speech. Heard it a thousand times before, and we honestly don't care about what you think we should and shouldn't do in our free time." Tammy replies.
"Who even are you?" Danny asks.
"I-I'm, uh—" I stutter.
"She's my real mom." Henry tells them.
"I'm gonna say nothing and let reality crush your soul instead." Tammy says. Well, she was awfully harsh for a thirteen year old; I wonder what her deal is.
"She can't more than the mayor, she even scares me." Danny replies.
"What are you doing out here anyway?" I ask.
"We were having a race, but Tammy got in my way, and now I already lost. Probably could've had a chance too if you didn't stop us. But at least she also lost."
"Race ya to not come in last!" Tammy challenges, grabbing her skateboard from underneath my car and rides away in one swift motion. "Eat my dust, loser!" Danny grins mischievously before following his sister. Suddenly, I realize something between all of their bickering.
"Wait, you're the mayor's kid?" I ask Henry.
"Maybe." Henry admits.
"Henry, just tell me what street you live on before you wake up the whole town and get yourself in more trouble than you're probably already in."
"It's 108 Mifflin Street, okay."
"You know, they didn't seem cursed to me, maybe a little reckless, but not cursed."
"That's why they need help. Because they don't know."
"That they're fairytale characters?"
"None of them do, they don't know who they are."
"Convenient. Alright, I'll play. Who are they supposed to be?"
"I'm still trying to figure that out, there's still a lot of the book I haven't read yet, but I think they're someone important."
"Like who? Hansel and Gretel?"
"There's four of them, so obviously not."
"Then who would they be?"
"I don't know, but I'm gonna find out."
"Before what? My car turns into a pumpkin?"
"You're not Cinderella!"
"Of course not, because that would be ridiculous."
Tammy's POV
I race Danny down the last leg, eying the beach in determination as I get closer and closer to my final destination. My brother was gaining ground as well, but I could beat him. The two of us were neck and neck, but at the last moment, I was able to just barely beat him.
"Ha! Take that, Danny!" I exclaim.
"What are you so excited about? I won." Sammy says. Of course Sammy had to win. He was the one that kept a track record of how many times he beat us at something just so he could gloat.
"Let's just go, we have school in the morning and I don't feel like getting caught, again, for sneaking out instead of doing what we're supposed to." Andy suggests. He was kind of a buzzkill, but he was sorta right in this situation, if we got caught for sneaking out again, we'd be so dead.
"Only cause I don't wanna die and deprive the world of me." Danny agrees. I resist the urge to roll my eyes at my brother's arrogance. "C'mon, let's go before Sheriff Graham catches us, again!"
Emma's POV
After convincing both the mayor and the sheriff to drop my supposed drunk driving charges so I could assist them in looking for Henry, we went back to the mayor's house and I was trying to find any information on where he could've gone by searching his computer. He was smart though cause he cleared his inbox, making it that much harder to find any clues.
"Smart kid. Cleared his inbox. I'm smart too, a little hard disk recovery utility I like to use." I tell them, putting in the computer to recover a handful of emails.
"I'm a bit more old-fashioned in my techniques. Pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, that sort of thing." Graham tells me.
"You're on salary; I get paid for delivery. Pounding pavement is not a luxury I get." I click on one of the emails to see a receipt for a website. Not the sort of thing you would expect to see on a thirteen year old's computer. "Ah, there's a receipt for a website, —it's expensive. He has a credit card?"
"He's thirteen." Regina responds simply.
"Well, he used one. Let's pull up the transaction record." I do so and see the credit card he used belongs to a Mary Margaret Blanchard. "Who's Mary Margaret Blanchard?"
"Henry's teacher." Without any hesitation, Regina and I head to Storybrooke Middle School where this woman was teaching. A bell rang, and the students filed out of the classroom while we were trying to get in to see if she had any idea where Henry was.
"Miss Mills, what are you doing here?" Mary Margaret asks Regina.
"Where's my son?"
"Henry? I thought he was home with you."
"You think I'd be here if he was? Did you give him your credit card so he could find her?" Mary Margaret looks at me with a very confused expression plastered on her face.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" I try to find the words, but Regina cuts me off before I could make anything from the English language come out of my mouth.
"She's the woman who gave him up for adoption."
"You don't know anything about this, do you?" I ask her as she rifles through her purse for her wallet.
"No, unfortunately not. Clever boy. I should have never given him that book." Mary Margaret admits.
"What the hell is this book I keep hearing about?" Regina demands.
"Just some old stories I gave him. As you know, Henry is a special boy; so smart, so creative, and as you might be aware, lonely. He needed it."
"What he needs is a dose of reality." Regina storms out of the room without saying another word. I stayed back, I knew there was something this woman knew that could help me find Henry, and I was going to find Henry, no matter what it took.
"Sorry to bother you." I tell her.
"No, it's okay, I fear this is partially my fault." Mary Margaret replies.
"How's a book supposed to help?"
"What do you think stories are for? These stories? The classics? There's a reason we all know them. They're a way for us to deal with our world. A world that doesn't always make sense. See, Henry hasn't had the easiest life."
"Yeah, she's kind of a hard-ass."
"No, it's more than that. He's like any adopted child. He wrestles with that most basic question they all inevitably face: why would anybody give me away? I am so sorry, I didn't mean in any way to judge you."
"It's okay."
"Look, I gave him the book because I wanted Henry to have the most important thing anyone can have; hope. Believing in even the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing."
"You know where he is, don't you?"
"No, I wish I could help, but I honestly don't know. But, I do know some kids that might. Mayor Mills doesn't like Henry hanging around them because she thinks they're trouble, but I think there's more than what meets the eye. I think they're good kids deep down, but they just have a way of constantly getting themselves into a lot of trouble for one reason or another. They're identical quadruplets; Andy, Danny, Sammy, and Tammy. They have a free period right now, so they're probably outside in the courtyard."
"Thanks."
Danny's POV
"I'm bored!" Andy exclaims, breaking Sammy, Tammy, and I from the gaze of our phones. He was right, this was boring, but there's not a ton you can do at school for fun. But this beat actually being in class and hearing the never ending lecture of today's lesson. Why do we really need school anyways? We know how to talk, read and write, and hustle people, so what more is there to know?
"Well, what are we supposed to do? Huh? It's not like we can really do anything from the confines of education, aka hell. So, tell me, how do you expect us to have some fun?" Sammy asks.
"Well, we could mess with someone, you know, really get under their skin." Tammy suggests.
"Like who?" I ask. Before any one of my siblings could offer a name of a victim, we saw Emma approach us. What did she want? Shouldn't she be in Boston doing whatever she does for a living?
"Hey, guys, I need to ask you something." Emma says to us.
"Sorry, not interested. Go ask someone who actually values what you have to say. Oh wait, that doesn't apply to anyone in the entire world." Tammy replies. I had to give it to her, Tammy could be downright nasty to people she didn't like, and Emma was getting the honor of being victim to the worst my sister had to offer.
"I met you last night, didn't I? You and your brother, Danny."
"So?" I ask.
"Right…so I was told that the four of you are close to Henry."
"Maybe we are, maybe we aren't. It's a bit cloudy today and on cloudy days our memories can get a little foggy." Sammy says.
"Really? You're kidding, right?"
"Not in the slightest."
"Guys, maybe we should—" Andy starts to say.
"No." Sammy, Tammy, and I answer before he can finish his sentence.
"You want information, you have to give us something in return, Emma. This is how we operate. Take it or leave it." I tell her.
"How do you know my name?" Emma asks.
"We know many things, but names are our specialty. Which is why people give us what we want in exchange for the information they want." Tammy tells Emma with a mischievous spark in her eyes.
"What do you want?"
"We're thirteen. What do you think we want? We want cash."
"I'll give you each two dollars."
"Cute. Do we look like a bunch of suckers? Twenty each." Sammy demands.
"Clock is ticking; tick-tock, tick-tock." I add.
"Fine, here." Emma gives us each a twenty dollar bill from her wallet. "Now, do you know where Henry would be, or did I just waste my time and money completely?"
"He's at his castle. It's by the docks." Andy tells her.
"And you know this how?"
"It's where he goes when he wants to be alone."
Emma's POV
After taking Henry back to Regina's, I decided that I'd give it a chance and stay here for a while, just to make sure that Henry's okay and maybe even get to know him a little. I know I gave him up thirteen years ago, but now that he found me, I have the urge to be a part of it, especially with Regina being his mom. I walk through the doors to Granny's Bed and Breakfast to hear a couple of people arguing with each other.
"Uh, hi, I'd like a room." I say just loud enough for them to hear me.
"Really?" An elderly woman asks me. I nod my head in response. "Would you like a forest or a square view? Normally there's an upcharge for the square, but as rent's due, I'll wave it."
"Square is fine."
"I just need a name for the records."
"Swan. Emma Swan."
"You know what I'm here for." A voice says from behind me. I turn around to see Tammy. What was she doing here? "I take it our information helped. You wouldn't be here otherwise, am I right? Funny how things work out, isn't it?"
"It's all here." Granny says, handing Tammy a roll of cash, to which she accepts without counting it. For a thirteen year-old girl, she sure walked around this town like she owned it, actually, all of them except Andy seemed to. He, on the other hand, seemed to actually care about other people, and not just himself.
"Of course it is." Tammy then just leaves, disappearing into the night.
"Why was she here? Isn't she, you know, a little young to be making business transactions like that?" I ask them.
"Tammy…she works for the person who owns this place, Mr. Gold." Granny explains.
"The inn?"
"No, the town. So, how long will you be staying?"
"I'm actually not quite sure. Until I check out I guess."
"Great. Welcome to Storybrooke." Granny hands me an old-fashioned key.
Andy's POV
"So, did anything interesting happen today?" Mr. Gold, our adoptive father, asks us as we eat our dinner. The records might show that he's technically our dad, but all he was to us was someone that kept the four of us together. Tammy and Sammy had gotten back from collecting rent about thirty minutes ago, and we always ate dinner after collecting rent for Mr. Gold. We really didn't mind given it helped give us information about the townspeople, but we always feared that eventually people would put it together of why we collect the rent. It's illegal for thirteen year-olds to work in the state of Maine, so surely people must wonder why he would use us.
"Uh, there's a new person in town." I reply, not looking up from my food.
"Really? What was their name?"
"Emma. Emma Swan." Tammy says. Unlike me, she didn't seem that scared of Mr. Gold, even daring to look him in the eyes, and I admired her for that. She was almost fearless, we all knew it, but we'd never tell her how impressed we were by her fiery, risk-taking, totally fearless attitude.
"Emma…what a lovely name."
I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter!
Please REVIEW and let me know if you have any ideas for future chapters
UNTIL NEXT TIME BANDIT OUT!