A/N: I wrote this story as a gift to a friend, and then decided to publish it online. Aïcha, thank you so much for your love of this story, and your continued support and encouragement. This is for you!
Also: there are a few more characters in this story than is in the description. It's not necessary to have read or watched those; so please give this story a chance even if you haven't read those. Once upon a time is the story's main fandom, but there's also a bit of Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, the Hunger Games and Sherlock (although those last two will be written out of the story soon, so if you don't know them you can still read this story!
Chapter 1: Introductions
I groaned as I slowly opened my eyes. I felt disoriented. Just a minute ago, I had been sitting in my living room, discussing baby names with Mary. Now, I was lying on the cold ground, face-first. I sat up slowly, peeling a few leaves off of my face. I appeared to be somewhere in a forest. Around me, I could see other people sitting on the ground. A few had already gotten up, and were walking around slowly. The first one I noticed was a young woman. Her hair was done up in a braid, and she was stalking through the forest with a bow held in her hand, an arrow already notched. I couldn't see her face from here, but I doubted she knew why we were here. She was probably as confused as I was.
"Watson?" I heard someone murmur next to me. I spun around. "Sherlock? What are you doing with that shrub?" I enquired as I recognised my comrade lying next to me on the ground. He smiled. "It's a lemon tree, my dear Watson." I wanted to tell him that that still didn't make any sense, but then I noticed the poof of purple smoke in the middle of the clearing we were in. "Look!" I shouted. My comrade jumped up and watched with me as two women materialised right were the purple smoke had been. By then, everyone else in the clearing had also noticed the two strangers who had suddenly appeared. The girl with the bow spun around and pointed her arrow at them. "Who are you?" She demanded to know. The woman closest to her rolled her eyes and flicked her wrist. The bow the girl had been holding disappeared in a puff of purple smoke. "How did she do that?" I whispered to my friend, but he appeared as confused as I was. The girl recoiled, fear passing over her face. She wasn't as brave without her weapon.
I looked more closely at the women. One of them had long blond hair, and was wearing a red leather jacket. She had her hand on the other woman's arm. The other woman had shorter, brown hair, and was wearing the power suit of a politician. I noticed two brown eyes peek out besides her elbow. "Hello, everyone." The politician lady began to speak. "We have gathered all of you here today, because we need your help. We would appreciate it if you did not try to harm us as we explain; as you have seen there's no point in trying anyway." "What do you need our help for?" A boy on the other side of the clearing shouted. His arm was curled protectively around the waist of a girl his age with long, blond hair. The brown haired woman looked absolutely peeved, as if she was not used to people interrupting her. But the blonde answered the question before the brunette could say something angry. "We need your help to save the world." She said simply. Save the world? I thought. What did she mean? A guy with unruly black hair to our right spoke up. "You're joking!" He said. The brunette rolled her eyes. "No, I'm serious." "But I'm Sirius!" The man standing next to the one with black hair asked. They high-fived childishly. "Now is not the time for jokes, James." The blonde interjected. The black-haired man looked only slightly regretful. "How do you know my name?" He asked curiously, clearly not scared the way the girl with the bow was. "Mr. Potter, if you could just be patient for one second and let us explain." The brunette snapped. Then a quiet voice piped up near her elbow. "Can I explain?" The brunette looked about to refuse, but the blonde touched her hand, and a sort of quiet understanding seemed to pass between them. "Alright." The brunette relented.
A young boy emerged from behind them. He looked about twelve, thirteen years old. "Hi, everyone." He began shyly. "So, like mum said, we summoned you here because we need your help to save the world. We searched across many times and many worlds, and brought you here, because you're all really good at something. And we hope you will help us, against a terrible villain." At that, the crowd started to murmur. I looked over at Sherlock, who was busy studying the crowd. He had an expression of confusion mixed with disbelief and intense concentration on his face, and it became clear to me that for once, he was as clueless as the rest of us. The boy had fallen silent, clearly unsure of what to say next. "What villain?" Someone asked. "Oh, right." The boy remembered. "The villain we need you to beat is …. The terrible Grinch." Everyone looked at each other, confused. Sherlock was still studying them. "The Grinch?" The black-haired man I now knew as James asked. "The grumpy green guy who stole Christmas?" A teenage girl with long, dark brown hair asked." I saw a suspicious look pass between the two women when she spoke. "Right." The boy said. "That one. Except now … he has a plan to steal all happiness."
Steal all happiness? How would someone do that? Was that even possible? I looked over at Sherlock. He seemed to be done studying the people around us. "So, what do you think?" I asked him quietly. "Absolute rubbish." He replied in a low voice. "They're a bunch of nutters." He seemed certain, but I doubted him somehow. "How did you explain the purple smoke, then?" I asked him. "Trickery." He said, convinced that he was, as always, right. But I was not so sure. There was something about the conviction of the three that made me wonder. But mad people could be convincing, I reminded myself. And since we had no idea where we were, and how to get out of there, we would just have to wait and see.
"Good job, Henry." The brunette said, stepping forward and patting the boy on the shoulder. "He's right. Now if you could please come up here in your respective groups, so I can introduce you to everyone." After some hesitation, the boy with the blonde haired girl at his side stepped forward.
"Hello, Mr. Jackson." The brunette said calmly. The boy seemed slightly freaked out by this casual use of his name by a woman he'd never met. The girl next to him untangled his arm from her back, and stepped forward. "Miss Chase." The brunette said with distaste. The girl raised her eyebrows, but took the boy's hand and turned around to face the crowd. "Hello, everyone. I'm Annabeth Chase, and this is my boyfriend Percy Jackson." The brunette didn't seem too happy about her role being taken over by the girl, but she let it slide. "Miss Chase and Mr. Jackson are demigods, half Greek god, half mortal." She informed everyone. "Nonsense!" My companion shouted. I was astonished that he'd managed to keep quiet for so long, seeing as he didn't seem to believe a word anyone was saying. "Ah, Mr Holmes." The brunette turned towards us with a patronising smile. "I told you he wouldn't believe." Her boy muttered. "Who are you?" Sherlock questioned them. "Oh yes, it does seem we forgot to introduce ourselves, doesn't it?" The brunette replied. "I'm Regina Mills, and this is Emma Swan." "Her fiancée." The blond piped up with a smug grin. The brunette rolled her eyes good naturedly. "And this is our son Henry. But back to the real introductions. As I said before, Miss Chase and Mr. Jackson are demigods. Miss Chase is the daughter of Athena, and Mr Jackson is the son of Poseidon. Would you care to give us a demonstration of your powers, Mr Jackson?" The boy looked over at his girlfriend, who shrugged. "They seem to know everything already, might as well show them." She told him, and he nodded.
The look of concentration on his face equalled that of Sherlock when he was on a case. He lifted his hands to the sky, and out of the ground, water rose slowly. It shimmered and shot up into the sky to form the image of a horse. The horse roared up onto its hind legs, and then the water crashed back into the ground. Astonished sounds could be heard all across the clearing. Even I opened my mouth in disbelief, but quickly snapped it shut when Sherlock looked at me like I was crazy. "Thank you." Regina said, waving them away. She clearly wasn't surprised by what she had just seen. "Mr Potter and his friends now, perhaps?" The young man shrugged and sauntered towards her, followed by the man with the long hair who was apparently called Sirius and another man that had yet to say a word. Regina nodded as the three men turned around to face the crowd. "James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin." She told everyone. "They are some of the most powerful wizards of their generation." James and Sirius grinned cockily, while Remus blushed. "Wizards?" Sherlock muttered disbelievingly. "How can anyone fall for this nonsense?" And it did indeed seem that most of the others were sceptical as well. "A demonstration of your powers, perhaps?" Regina urged. James and Sirius grabbed something out of their pockets that looked like simple wooden sticks. They waved the sticks at the ground, and shouted "Wingardium leviosa!" Suddenly, all of the leaves on the ground in front of them floated up into the air, causing the audience to gasp. Then, James shouted "Incendio!" and the leaves burst into flames. I could see the huge grin on Henry's face, and had to admit that what the men had just done, even if it were a mere trick, was quite impressive.
James and Sirius were grinning smugly as they walked back to their place. Their slight arrogance might've annoyed me, but after all these years of living with Sherlock I had become accustomed to it. "Mr Holmes, perhaps you and your companion could come up and introduce yourself?" Sherlock rolled his eyes at me, but walked towards her anyway. I followed. Sherlock never did pass up a chance to show off. "Mr Holmes and his companion, Dr. John Watson." Regina introduced us, as we looked out towards the crowd. I could now put a name to almost every face in the clearing, except for that of the girl with the bow, who had moved towards the trees and was now standing there, watching events unfurl, ready to flee if necessary, and that of the younger girl with the long, brown hair. As I looked at her, I saw her face clearly for the first time. Her eyes burned with a strange fire, and they glittered like eels. I had no time to study the expression on her face, however, because that was when Sherlock decided to show off his amazing powers of deduction.
He turned towards the brunette, and started rattling off facts as usual. "You like your coffee black, no sugar, one milk. You haven't slept in 51 hours, although you wouldn't admit it to anyone. You injured your leg three months ago and it healed quickly. You've read several old books in the past three days. And your clearly, obviously, exaggeratedly lying." He finished. Regina looked slightly annoyed, but not at all surprised. "Sherlock Holmes, everyone. Consulting detective, and one of the best deductionists of all the realms, although that last deduction was painfully incorrect." Sherlock scoffed, as we went to stand were we had stood before.
"Miss Everdeen?" Regina called out, and I gathered she was talking to the girl in the forest. She shook her head furiously. Regina sighed. "That over there is miss Everdeen. She's extremely skilful with a bow and arrow, but as you can see, she does not trust easily." She looked at the girl pointedly. "And that, I believe, was everybody. "You've missed one!" I called out, feeling sorry for the girl with the burning eyes. Regina looked around, confused. Then, she saw her. "Henry?" She turned around to her son. They gathered together, Regina, Henry and Emma. They spoke quickly, in hushed voices. I could just barely pick out a "She shouldn't be here." Whatever crazy plan they'd come up with, it had clearly gone wrong. I looked over at the girl. She looked a tad uncomfortable, but also like she knew something the rest of us didn't. She caught my eye, and I looked away quickly. No point in getting involved with anyone here. Sherlock and I would have to figure out some way to leave as quickly as possible, and perhaps we could take her with us.
It appeared the trio had made a decision. "We'll take her with us." Regina announced, although she didn't look at all pleased about it. "Come on, introduce yourself!" Henry encouraged. It seemed he, unlike his mother, had accepted the girl as soon as the decision had been made. The girl smiled and walked over to him. "Hi!" She waved. She looked around the crowd, not as if she was seeing new people, but as if she recognised old friends. I looked at Sherlock, and he looked back at me with a look of "I'll tell you later." I was curious what he'd have to say. The girl puzzled me.
"I'm Aïcha." She said. "Just normal. Not a wizard." She said, looking at Sirius, Remus and James. "Not a genius, either." She said, glancing over at Sherlock." I knew how she felt. Living in Sherlock's shadow had made me all too familiar with feeling plain. "But I'm gonna help in any way I can. Operation "Save the World" is on!" She turned to Henry for a high-five, and he high-fived her back, looking confused. The girl just grinned and walked back to where she'd stood before.
So, that was the first chapter, everyone! I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you think!