Emma Swan

One minute Gold was explaining his plan and the next an explosion from the well, something I wanted to say that he had planted there, but from the way he jumped in surprise and screamed 'no' I would have said not. The magic bubbled out from the well in a dark grey colour, quickly rising to waist height and moving faster than any of us could run. Before it overtook us all I tried to sense who's magic it could have been, but it was no use. The new curse was upon us before I could even start to feel who's it was.

I glanced over to Killian, who looked like he was trying to reach out to me before the curse hit, and once it did, all I knew was darkness, pain and unconsciousness.

Regina Mills

It had been late evening when Henry unexpectedly called, and once I heard his message I felt my blood ran cold for a reason I couldn't quite place. Rumpelstiltskin had threatened Emma and Killian that he would use some curse the pirate had to kill everyone in Storybrooke unless they both met him at the well.

Seems like Miss Swan and the pirate had some common sense as they had asked Henry to get me to pick him up and bring him back to my home, and even after that that he should stay indoors until they knew it was safe. I did as Henry had said but when we got to my mansion it happened. A blast from the well and a magical aura swept over the town, and the it was an evil magic I could tell that much. Considering that I was once the evil queen that was saying something. But that wasn't the only problem, I could hear Henry screaming for the parents who could have been hurt in the blast but nothing I was doing was able to console the screaming teenager in my arms.

"Henry please go inside, I am going to go and find them okay? I am going to bring them home okay?" He finally listened and went into the house, locking the door behind him and watching me leave from the window.

Climbing into the car I made a mental checklist of what I needed to do. I needed to call the charmings and make sure that they were all right, and to get David to come as my backup seeing as Emma and the Pirate were usually the ones who would to come to sort these situations but it was them who had been involved by Gold. I was nearing the road beside the well but as soon as I was about to call Charming I saw how truck pull onto the road behind me, and thankfully he was already without his wife.

"What happened here Regina? We felt a blast and saw something coming from the well!"

"Gold probably. Apparently he blackmailed the pirate and Emma here to help him with something, and not long later that explosion happened but I can guarantee that it wasn't the dark ones, nor was it the saviours"

"And you didn't recognise the magic at all?"

"No. It was somehow darker than the dark ones whilst being lighter at the same time, but I could feel the anger, rage and fear that came with it."

"And Emma was exposed to that!" I could understand how Charming was feeling, the thought of you child being in or close to danger.

"Possibly, and she wasn't the only one, Jones was there too" the Prince turned towards the well once again, his steps becoming more sure with every step to the point he was nearly running, and when we got closer to the area, I found out why.

On the side of the well we could see there was a younger Gold unconscious on the floor, and it was clearly before he was the Dark One because his leg was not broken, and he looked distinctly younger, but I could also see the blonde locks from the other side of the well where Charming was knelt down to the ground. Coming around the other side I saw two children, a boy and a girl, no more than Henry's age lying on the floor unconscious, one who was in modern clothing and the other in nothing more than rags.

The girl was quite clearly a younger version of Miss Swan, but her clothes were both too big and too small for her, nothing her own size which I could imagine was a common story for many orphans in the world without magic in her position. The boy however I could barely recognise. Through logic I would have said he was Hook, however this boy was curled up in on himself, blood seeping through his shirt in what looked to be whip lines, and the only thing I could recognise from the pirate we all knew was how dark his hair was.

Looking over to David, a small nod indicated what we needed to do. He picked up Miss Swan whilst I took who was most likely the pirate and Rumpelstiltskin back to my cat by magic, healing the wounds on the boy's back whilst doing so. I placed the boy in the front where I could keep an eye on him and Rumpel in the back where he could keep out of mischief. David was going to drive by the loft to pick up his wife and Son before coming back to my house where we had agreed to take them and figure out what was going on.

I couldn't help glancing at the boy in the front seat, and how he compared to Henry. Despite looking the same age as Henry, he looked smaller and thinner, and I quickly noticed that you could in fact see his collarbones jutting out of his skin, and the rest of his bones weren't any better. In simple terms he was badly emaciated, injured, and could have easily been living on the streets, but considering the pirates age there was another option for what could have caused the wounds and how thin he was, and no matter how hard I tried to reason that it wasn't the reason for his condition I eventually couldn't escape it.

The boy pirate had been a slave. And none of us had known about it, meaning that we were going to possibly have a teenager who was not going to say anything or alternatively he would run away and never been seen again.

I knew I wanted neither of those things to happen because he was just a child in this form, a child who looked very similar to my own son who had been through a lot of bad things and who needed looking after. A child who in his adult body had just spent around six weeks doing the reverse for me and my step daughter.

"This could be a long night."

David Nolan

When I had rushed off to the well this was certainly not what I had expected to find. Regina updated me on what had happened and why she was there but how she ended up like this I had no idea but in a small way I was quite thankful. For in my arms there was a younger version of Emma, somewhere around 12 or 13 years old. The fact that she was unconscious was pretty bad but I saw no immediate damage to be worried about, unlike when Regina turned over the boy who was next to her only to discover that his back had been ripped to shreds by something.

Then of course there was the unconscious Gold to sort out as well. He, like Emma, had had time reversed on him and was now much younger, perhaps before he was even the Dark One. I picked up Emma from the ground to take her back to the truck, nodding to Regina to get the others in her car which was bigger and with the flick of her wrist she, Rumpelstiltskin and the boy were loaded up into her car. She climbed our once she had them both adequately secured to come and see Emma and make sure there were no evident wounds on her as she had found on the boy.

"Bring her back to my place, we can sort out how to turn her back there, and the pirate, if that is him that is"

"I'll take a detour and get Snow and Neal, if this really is Emma as a child there is no way that she will forgive me if she misses it, even for a day." I sighed, looking between the cab of my truck where Emma was secured and Regina's car where I could see the boy in the front seat. "Do you really think that is him? Hook I mean? Doesn't he look a bit too small?"

"Well it's the best guess we have, his hairs the right colour and I did see a very similar scar on his face, so it must be"

"We can try to figure it all out once we get to your mansion. I'll see you there"

I turned and got into my truck, watching as Regina drove off, carrying the unconscious cursed males with her, and all I could think of was what would Emma be like now? Would she have her memories of Storybrooke and of her family? Or would she be back to being an orphan with no memories of where she was?

It was a surprise that I even stayed on the road considering that I couldn't remember thinking about anything other than what Emma going to be like, and the same happened from the loft to Regina's, except I just had another passenger to think with me.

"She looks so young Charming, I can't even believe that we have gotten this lucky"

"I wouldn't exactly call this situation lucky Snow, She, Jones and Rumpelstiltskin all had the clock turned back on them physically and we have no idea if that goes mentally too- I almost fear for when Hook wakes up considering how he appeared"

"What do you mean?" I thought back to how thin he was. How his back was bleeding through a shirt that hung off him. How even in his unconscious state he had curled himself up as small as he could go. I stayed silent, unable to convey to what I was thinking and what I had seen, instead opting to just show her once we got to Regina's.

The car ride was a quick one, but it felt so much longer because of all my questions. Who had done this to them? Was there a reason why it was just them and not the whole town? Was anyone else in danger?

Once we arrived at Regina's, I carried Emma inside, Snow carrying Neal behind me where we were ushered into her lounge area where Rumpelstiltskin was asleep one of the arm chairs, and on her couch was the boy. He was laid on his side, and from his new position you could see how skinny he was, because his shirt was draping over him, and it showed all his ribs underneath and how frail he looked.

I put Emma on the couch opposite from him, and waited for Regina to tell us what she had found. Unfortunately, it wasn't good.

"I don't know what kind of age reversal spell she used, nor do I know who it was who had done it, but I did manage to find out that it was a small range spell which should help limit the options. I does raise the question on why it was only these three who she cursed- and I think it may have something to do with the research they had been doing whilst we were cursed, because I just got off the phone from Belle and the library has been stolen from as the books they had been using have all gone; and a lot of those were unaccounted for because they had been hidden away by the dark one. However in this state I don't think any of them are going to be able to answer our questions" She looked over to the younger Killian, a look in her eye that I couldn't understand, but if it was anything like what I was feeling I could understand it.

As a parent, seeing your child in pain was the worst thing possible, and knowing that this young boy was going to wake up alone and mentally scarred was a daunting prospect- and to make it worse for us he looked like Henry except from his darker mop of hair and how skinny he was. I could see Snow had noticed the boy and was moved as we were about him, and as she got closer I am sure that she would have seen the blood on the back of his shirt as Regina hadn't gotten around to changing his clothing yet.

We moved around to Rumpelstiltskin next, discussing what ire he could have invoked this time, and when we turned around,

There were a pair of scared blue eyes staring back at us.