Lost in the Shadows

by

Injunuity89

Prologue...

Eleven year old Henry Mills ran with his grandparents and his mother Emma towards the mines underneath Storybrooke. He just had to reach his mom, Regina. If the whole entire town was going to be destroyed, at least they could be together. That thought was in the back of his mind as his backpack banged against his back. The cold air bit in to his face as he continued to follow along on the heels of his Grandpa, Prince Charming. Over and over he kept replaying the scene in the diner in his head. It seemed as if everyone was okay with leaving his mom there to be killed! They saved her from the Wraith for crying out loud. This whole instance was no different than that! At least Mary Margaret had been willing to do the right thing, and her words and courage had been like the falling of small stones which had started an avalanche of belief in the diner.

Greg Mindel and Tamara; two relatively newcomers to the town were hellbent on destroying it; Storybrooke. First, they kidnapped Regina and tortured her and then they set off some sort of fail-safe that was supposed to do their dirty work for them. Henry didn't understand a whole lot about this fail-safe, other than the simple fact that it was going to destroy the entirety of the town. Maybe it was enough not really understanding the statistics of it all.

It just wasn't fair though! Neal was supposed to help him with a model he had been working on in his spare time. However, now he couldn't because his father had been shot and killed by that evil witch Tamara! The model...it was a replica of Anakin Skywalker's Pod from Star Wars Episode 1. Neal had bought him the model before they had left New York and had promised that the two of them would work on it; when they weren't practicing with the wooden swords or saving the town of Storybrooke, that is. His father had wanted him to at least have a tiny bit of normalcy in his life. He was too old for coloring books, and he couldn't be learning sword fighting all of the time, so building plastic models was a nice compromise.

Shaking his head, Henry gritted his teeth as he and his family powered in to the mine. It was dark and it smelled like dirt and oil and some other unmentionables. However, in the distance he could hear a hum. As he and the others got closer, they all could see a light that seemed to go with the hum. Standing over a glowing blue diamond shaped crystal was non other than Regina herself; hands in the air around the glowing diamond, trying to use her magic to contain the crystal's energy.

Seeing them, she asked, "What are you doing here?!" Henry could tell by the look in her eyes that his mother was shocked and scared. Still that didn't stop him from speaking up. "You were willing to die to save us. That makes you a hero. And now we are going to be heroes." Regina shook her head. She couldn't let that happen! She had to protect Henry at all cost and damn the consequences! "No...!" she softly exclaimed, still not daring to lower her hands and let the crystal's energy loose.

"We are going to open a portal and throw this thing in to a void," Prince Charming explained as calmly as he could, gesturing to the thing that Regina was trying to protect them from.

"No! You don't know that it will work!" she shot back. "We have to try." Snow White proclaimed with a shake of her head. She understood Regina's concern but at the same time they couldn't stand by and do nothing while Storybrooke died.

All were silent for a few minutes; Snow looking in to Regina's eyes and Regina looking back with a few small tears rolling down her cheeks. Finally the moment passed and Charming decided that was as good as an 'alright' from the Queen.

"Alright, we'll step aside," he said, ushering Snow and Henry off to the side so his daughter Emma could get the magic bean from the pouch that Captain Hook had given her. It was supposed to be quick. All Emma had to do was take the bean out and throw it and the portal would open! So, why was it taking so long?!

"What?" Prince Charming asked. Slowly, Emma turned around. Shock, terror and surprise were all written over her face as she exclaimed, "It's empty!" She had seen the bean go in to the pouch, she had seen the thing get sealed up so who...?!

"Hook..." she whispered.

Slowly, a minute ticked by and then another and another. Regina's hands were starting to shake from the strain and a few more tears came rolling down her cheeks.

"I can't contain this much longer..." she whimpered, doing her best to sound brave, her whole body starting to shake. Emma looked from the glowing crystal to Regina's face. The look of sadness was clear to see and it was then that Emma broke down. They were all going to die except Henry. It was over...good had finally lost.

With tears filling her eyes, Emma looked to her father Prince Charming and her mother, Snow White. Shuffling over to them she looked in to their eyes with tears rolling down hers. "Mom...dad...!" she exclaimed, voice breaking. Now at the end she wished she could take everything back. All her life she had wanted a family and then when she discovered who her parents were, well, that reunion could have gone better. Now though it didn't seem to matter. Nothing seemed to matter at the end, other than being with her family.

Young Henry closed his eyes and allowed himself to be embraced by his mother and his grandparents. It was goodbye, but why?! Opening his eyes he looked through the arms of his grandfather to look upon his adoptive mother, Regina, who was staring back at him with regret and sadness written all over her face.

Tearing himself away, Henry walked over to his mother, studying her closely. "I love you Henry," she said. "I wish I was strong enough to stop all this, I'm just not...!"

Holding back a whimper, Henry threw his arms around his mother and hugged her as tightly as he could. Even though he wished that Regina could hug him back, he understood why she couldn't. But...no, it couldn't all end like this! Why hadn't he taken his mom's offer?! Why hadn't he learned magic?! At the time he hadn't wanted to end up like her; yes, that was his reasoning, and in a way it was still valid, but if he had learned magic he could at least do his part to try and help his mom contain the crystal's magic instead of just hugging her like, well...like a human!

"You may not be strong enough..."

Emma's voice caused Henry to open his eyes, release his mom and step away from her. Had Emma come up with some sort of last minute idea that could save them?

"But maybe we are."

It only took a moment for understanding to flow between all of the occupants of the mine. Quickly, Henry, Snow and Charming headed just around the corner while Emma stepped up to the other side of the glowing crystal. She was the Savior after all; she had magic and she had broken the initial curse that had sent them all there. Maybe, just maybe she could help Regina stop this 'fail-safe' from going off.

Steadying her breathing, Emma looked down at the crystal as she slowly raised her hands; palms down and fingers outstretched. She focused on the magic she believed was inside of her, willing it to come forth and wrap around the crystal. Stopping it, that really was all that was flowing through her mind. Suddenly, energy from the crystal seemed to flow like lightning bolts in to her hands! It scared Emma and the pain of it was a hundred times worse than the worse shock she had ever received in her life, but she kept going.

A small smile from Regina was enough to tell Emma that it was working. Still, the energy from the crystal was enormous. Emma felt it trying to escape but no! She wasn't going to let it! With the last of her reserves, she threw all of her energy through her fingers at the crystal and then...!

There was a small explosion it seemed like. A giant burst of energy threw Emma and Regina back away from the crystal; the resulting shockwave also tossing Snow, Charming and Henry back as well. It knocked all five of them out and in the absolute stillness of the cave, the crystal dropped down on to the stone, it's energy totally spent. Storybrooke was saved!

Shortly after the explosion however, two people entered the mines and came upon the unconscious figures.

"They stopped it..." Greg Mindel snarled, "I don't know how but they stopped it!" He had set the fail safe off to begin with. Magic had to be wiped from the face of the Earth! Magic was everywhere; it was a poison that the world wasn't designed to contain or harbor. This fail safe was supposed to be unstoppable. That's what their home office had told them, and yet...! There it lay on that slab of rock just as if it had never been used at all.

"Enough!"

Greg looked at Tamara who was looking at the unconscious forms before her. Oh, how she wished she could shoot each and every one of them, but no. They still had a job to do and if they couldn't destroy Storybrooke, well...they could at least fulfill their secondary mission.

"This is the one the home office wants," she said, kneeling down in front of Henry. "The Home Office wanted Storybrooke destroyed but they were also looking for him. One out of two objectives isn't bad."

Sighing, Greg nodded his head. He wanted Regina to pay for killing his father, but maybe this was the only way to make her pay. She had taken away his father when he was even younger than Henry. Now, he could take away her son! It wouldn't make them even but at least it could be just a bit of vengeance.

Bending down he grabbed on to the unconscious youth and picked him up off of the mine floor. "Right, come on. They could be waking up soon. We need to be out of here when they do." Turning, he and Tamara left the mine; their ultimate prize in hand. As they walked, neither Greg nor Tamara noticed Henry's backpack slip off of his shoulders and hit the ground.

Once out of the mines, Henry started to stir. He groaned and started to squirm around, so much so that Greg had to put him down on the ground for a moment.

"Wha...what are you doing here? What's going on?" He asked. In answer, Greg grabbed his hands and secured them together with a thick ziptie. Rope really was so overrated these days!

"Come on..." he said, once Henry was secure. They had to hurry. If Henry was up, the others could be as well. Struggling, Henry tried to pull back; tried to escape, but with Greg holding on to one arm, and Tamara holding on to the other, that made escape impossible.

They started marching as fast as they could. Just where were they headed? They were close to the docks, that much was obvious. Henry saw the Cannery and a few storage buildings, but they were heading past those.

"Relax kid, we're not going to hurt you," Tamara said, releasing Henry's shoulder and walking a pace and a half a head.

"Just everyone I love! You tried to blow up Storybrooke!" Henry shot back, still continuing to struggle against Greg.

"True," Tamara replied, glancing back with a smirk on her face "but that was never the point!"

Hearing that, Henry fell silent for a moment, totally confused. If they didn't come to the town to destroy it...then why did they come?

Looking from Tamara to Greg and back, Henry asked, "It wasn't?"

"We came here to destroy magic Henry. But then we found something more important. Something that changed everything." Greg said, pulling Henry's arm and causing him to stop so he could look in to the boy's eyes.

"You..."

Henry searched his captor's face, seeing the truth and determination in them. That's when it hit him. Everything that had happened; Regina getting kidnapped and tortured, his own father getting shot and killed, the fail safe being set off...it was all a great big distraction to get...him! Eyes widening, he started to struggle even more but Greg only smiled ever so slightly as they all began to walk once more.

He began to wonder just how they planned to get him out of Storybrooke. He didn't see any vehicles nearby, nor any boats tied up at the docks; at least not any boats that looked to be fast enough for his captor's purposes. But wait...why were they heading towards the water?!

Reaching the edge of the pier they all stopped. What? Were Greg and Tamara planning on throwing him in and watching him drown or something?! That was it wasn't it? Greg was so angry at his mom so as revenge he would kill a small child?!

Seeing Greg dip a hand in to a pocket and pull out something, all Henry saw was something small and shiny. A bean! A magic bean! It had to be!

"HENRY!"

Hearing his name, Henry managed a glance behind him to see his family running towards him with everything they had. All he had to do was stall Greg for a few moments to allow Emma and Regina and the others to catch up.

"No!" He exclaimed, latching on to Greg's hands even though his own hands were still fastened together. "You aren't taking me...!" It must have been surprise on Greg's part because suddenly Henry felt the bean in his inclosed fist. However, that momentary feeling was gone as he felt frantic tugging from his captor.

"No! Stop it! Storybrooke is my home...!" The lad exclaimed! He continued to struggle as his arms and hands were wrenched this way and that but within seconds he felt his shoulders wrenched forward as the bean sailed out in to the water with a plop. Moments later the water started turning as the portal opened up beneath them.

"No! Wait!" Henry begged when hands grabbed on his shoulders once more, "MOM!" However, it was too late. Greg and Tamara jumped in to the portal, taking Henry with them, and by the time Emma and the others reached the pier, the portal had already closed as if it had never been open before. Henry Mills was gone.