Author's note

This was written for the SQBB of 2015. The story was unveiled a week ago on ao3 and if anyone wants to read the story there the link is on my profile.

There isn't any particular trigger on this story except for the fact that this is an alternative universe with a bit of canon divergence and a brief spoiler of the 4b season just in case anyone has been living under a rock and you haven't seen the season finale yet.

Big thanks to queenofallswans because of her cheerleading and her encouraging words, I'm sorry we couldn't talk as much as I would have wanted to! Big thanks also to napfreak who is the one that created a beautiful pic for this story.

Thanks also to both thegardensofthemoon and shaakeit since thanks to the two of them I discovered what kind of story I wanted to tell.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, the story is mine though.

Preface

The man who had been an author opened his eyes as he tried to recognize where he was. He had been imprisoned a mere hours before and his back felt stiff when he tried to straighten it.

His surroundings were covered in darkness although the torches scattered all over what looked to be walls made out of barely worked stone pointed at a closed door that he looked for a second; too curious of what was at the other side to even feel scared.

He had been an author after all; his gift was the art of telling stories, of believing words and turning them into reality. Deciding that whatever that was at the other side of the door could help him to discover where he was now he nodded and inhaled deeply taking a step forwards towards the closed doors.

His steps echoed on what he now recognized as some kind of cave deeply and profusely decorated, the work didn't look like human-created although that was what it had looked like the first time he had opened his eyes and with dreed already starting to grow inside of him he finally stood as tall as he was in front of the decorated doors that cracked a little under his gaze, almost buzzling with what looked like a magic he had never saw before.

"Are you going to enter?" He heard, the words moving and floating away in the dark air of the cave, filled already with the smoke of the torches and what was probably dust.

"Yes?" He answered; the word more like a question than an actual answer but as minutes passed and the voice didn't speak again he bit his bottom lip once and, touching the door with his left hand, pushed what looked to be a quite heavy door until he heard a crack that signaled the opening of the door's frame.

The room at the other side was barely illuminated and the torches that not so long ago had looked menacing danced merrily at his back for a second as he walked inside the room, the door closing tightly behind him with a loud "thud" that made him jump and look behind his shoulder, the source of light now barely inexistent.

"I know who are you" The same voice than before said, this time holding a trace of amusement that made the weak man swallow twice. He obviously was on a realm with magic and although he had written about almost too many realms he didn't recognize where or what kind of creature was with him. "I, however, doubt that you know who I am"

"I…" The Author stammered the room filling slowly with purple and blue lights that changed and moved under his eyes almost as if they were liquid light. "You are…"

"Some people call me Merlin" The creature said, the lights swirling and gyrating in front of the lanky man until they were a fire that seemed to float in the middle of the room, its light caressing the man's face as he swallowed nervously and nodded. His hands were already searching for his quill and his parchment but once he realized that he hadn't have them with him anymore he let his hands rest limply at his sides, a passing look of regret swirling inside his pupils for a second as he tried to find something to say.

"They are searching for you" He finally said, his mind going already to the ones that were probably on the realm without magic, a realm that probably existed outside the place like everything else did.

"I know" The fire answered, a deep sound lacing its words and, for a second, the author thought that the creature looked even pleased with himself. "They want to free the one that had been designated as the savior"

"Yes" The man answered, nodding wildly at the bouncing fire; he didn't have any remorse for what he had done; he had wanted to be free, happy. Something that the quill hadn't given him even after what the Apprentice had promised him. He had done what he had needed to do but considering what had transpired a few hours before he bowed slightly under the shadows that the fire created, his tongue licking his bottom lip as he tried to find the correct words in that moment. "They want to change the story"

Silence covered the place for a second as the fire cracked and grew, the lights changing from purple to blue and back. As the author started to look for something that could be used as a weapon the voice spoke again, the deep murmur now transformed into a much younger voice that lingered on the shadows for a second before disappearing completely.

"They can't change the story, that's something you never understood"

The man that had been known as the Author blinked stupidly for a second, he had been persecuted because of what had been considered a ripple in the story; authors couldn't change the story, they needed to write the story as it happened. His crimes had been because of what he had wanted and had finally created; a world that wasn't real, a world where the ones that lived in it were nothing else but mere creatures he used as he desired.

"But… the quill…" He muttered, not being able to say a single word as the fire crackled patiently behind him.

"The quill is enchanted to be sure that nothing major happens" The fire explained softly, his voice returning to be the deep murmur that had surrounded the man the first time he had spoken. "But there are things than even I can't change"

"Like the savior" The man whispered.

"Exactly" The fire conceded as the man in front of him paced nervously, his mind already filled with the hundreds of threads he had severed, rewritten or simply forgotten on the back of his head as he had tried to achieve his own happiness.

"That means that everything that I did, the decisions Rumplestiskin made meant nothing, the story was already prewritten"

His words escaped his lips and as soon as they echoed on the room he trembled, the thought that the fire could kill him in a second filling his mind.

However, the creature didn't react to that and just crackled for a few more seconds before speaking again.

"I wouldn't say that" He finally muttered "Although there are things, threads, stories, that don't matter how many times you try to change them, they will always return to their original path. Like the savior and the one you have called the evil queen"

"That's impossible" The author protested "They are from two different worlds, they couldn't have met without the curse, the curse was a decision that I helped to create."

Something close to a snort was heard from the fire and the man recoiled, fear filling his mind once again.

"What if, author, the decision you say that you helped to create didn't even exist in the first place? What if the one you made the Evil Queen existed as a different woman, under a different name?"