A/N Here it is! A few days early because I've got a busy week ahead, but you can think of it as a little early Halloween present :) Admittedly, it is a shorter chapter, but it introduces a couple new key characters I hope you like!
For clarity: "Prue" will be used to refer to the Prue we all know and love and "Prudence" will be used to refer to Prue while under Rumpelstiltskin's curse in the Enchanted Forest.
Disclaimer: Sorry I didn't put this on the first chapter, but, in case there's any doubt, I do not own Charmed or Once Upon a Time.
Thank you to everyone who has added this story to their follows and favorites! Special thanks to Fluehatraya for your review, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! And I hope you all enjoy the story moving forward!
Now on to what we've all been waiting for:
Chapter 2: Strangers
San Francisco, CA
Phoebe had woken the next morning, reluctantly and yet gratefully, to the sound of her 5 AM alarm. She'd had a nightmare. It consisted of a series of horrific visions, each surrounding her sister Prue. A crazy-eyed man, a glowing and beating human heart, a dark forest, creatures she didn't know how to describe, a dungeon, a deep dark fog consuming everything. She couldn't say how these related to her sister, but in her dream, she just knew they did, and despite being horrified she felt she needed to see more. Even now though, mere minutes from waking up, the details of the dream were fading and Phoebe was wondering if it was really just that, a dream.
None of it made sense and she never forgot visions this easily. She dismissed it as a subconscious manifestation of her fears, but that didn't help her uneasiness of the situation. This was all getting to be more than she could handle alone, she knew she had to discuss it with someone. Someone who would understand and be able to help. She called Paige and set up a breakfast meeting in an hour, it was short notice but thankfully she wasn't busy and agreed. Phoebe felt guilty about not including Piper, but she really didn't want to open up old wounds until she had a better grasp on what exactly these visions meant.
She took a shower, got dressed, and did her hair and makeup, so when Paige orbed in to pick her up, she was ready. They went to a small cafe, each ordering a light breakfast. As they ate, Phoebe relayed her visions to Paige.
"Oh my God, what do you think it means?" Paige finally asked.
"Honestly, I think it means that something's wrong, she's in trouble, and now there's something we can do to help," Phoebe stated, there were many logical problems with this theory, the greatest of which being that this all happened 5 years ago, and they hadn't heard anything about this even being a possibility from those who should know, i.e. the Elders, Higher Beings, or even Grams or their mother.
"Then we've gotta tell Piper," Paige replied.
"I don't know, I mean, minus the fact my visions have never lead us wrong, this sounds crazy, right?" Phoebe confided,"I don't want to go opening that can of worms with Piper if this all turns out to be some trick or misinterpretation. I don't want to act on anything until we have more of an idea of how we could. Sorry, I know this is a big secret, but I just needed someone to talk about it with. If what we've always believed had happened, hadn't, I need help getting to the truth."
"I'm with you sister," Paige agreed, not liking the secrecy but understanding Phoebe's reasoning. Prue was her sister too after all, and if there was any chance she was in danger, she wanted to help.
"Thanks, sweetie," Phoebe smiled appreciatively, then she caught a glance at the clock on the wall, "Ooh and can you also give me an orb to work? I can't believe it's already a quarter to eight!"
"Paige's orbing taxi at your service," Paige joked with a mock salute.
Storybrooke, ME
Patience was actually feeling particularly good for once. Not that she typically felt bad, more like she didn't feel much of anything. She'd had a good dream, woke up before her alarm, and used her newfound abilities to cut her morning routine time in half! She was glad to be getting some control over her new powers. So instead of going straight to work, she decided to give her uncle a visit. She knew by now he'd be setting up shop.
Her uncle, Mr. Gold, ran a pawnshop, but there was much more to him than that. He's a very powerful person in Storybrooke, second (debatably) only to Regina, the mayor. He owned most of the town, including the apartment Patience currently rented. He had reached out to her, coincidentally, soon after her husband had passed away. Before then, the only family she'd known was her grandmother who raised her in New York City, but she too had passed away a few years prior. With no ties in New York anymore, she decided to start fresh with her uncle in Storybrooke, Maine, a far cry from the big city. He got her an apartment, helped her with any lasting debts she had had, and even set her up with her current job as Mayoral Assistant. She owed him her life.
"Patience dear, so nice to see you, would you like some coffee?" Mr. Gold said, welcoming her.
"Yes, thank you, that would be great," Patience smiled following her uncle to the back room where he poured her a mug, "I hope you've been doing well?"
"Of course, everything's going very smoothly," He smirked, "And yourself? Visiting this early is hardly routine for you."
"Breaking routine for once, and it feels good!" Patience smiled, "Things have been changing ever since Emma Swan came to Storybrooke. Hope she sticks around, though I worry that's unlikely."
"On the contrary, I think we'll be seeing a lot more of Ms. Swan," Gold stated knowingly.
"You mean Regina hasn't scared her off yet? Yesterday Regina had me make the call to Granny's to have her kicked out, I can't imagine where she'd even be staying," Patience wondered.
"I'm sure she'll make arrangements, she's made some friends in a few short days, I heard Mary Margaret had bailed her out of jail," Gold relayed, "Something tells me Ms. Swan isn't going down without a fight."
"I just hope Henry doesn't get hurt in the middle of all this," Patience contemplated.
"That boy is tougher than he seems," Gold stated.
"Sure hope you're right," Patience smiled, "Hey, what's this?"
A particular book, stacked seemingly innocuously atop at least ten with similar features, caught her eye. It was a rough, brown, leathery journal. It seemed very familiar.
"Just some old donated books I've been meaning to go through. You can take a look if you'd like," Gold encouraged.
Patience picked up the book and flipped through it. It appeared like your average journal, lightweight and filled with handwritten entries, but it was much more than that. The first page was distinguished by a hand-drawn triquetra and the initials "P. H.", the bottom corner was ripped off. Many pages following that were filled with spells and potions, some she even recognized directly from the Book of Shadows she had skimmed in her dream the previous night.
"How much do you want for it?" Patience asked, having seen enough to know she needed to see more.
"You can have it, I don't imagine it's worth very much anyway," Gold replied with a sly smile.
"Thank you Gold," Patience replied returning his smile then checked her watch, "Well I better get going, see you later!"
San Francisco, CA
"Thanks again for giving me a ride home Piper," Phoebe said as she was tightening her seatbelt.
"How did you even get to work without a car?" Piper asked.
"I had breakfast with Paige, she orbed me" Phoebe explained.
"What's she up to today, anyway?" Piper asked as she drove them out of the parking lot.
"She called me earlier, she got a new charge today but has been having trouble tracking her down," Phoebe explained, "She thinks she's in danger."
"Big danger? Does she need us?" Piper asked concerned.
"Hmm, she didn't say," Phoebe contemplated, "I'm sure if she does need us, she'd call. Or we'd find her. We've grown quite a knack these past few years for finding trouble."
"You got that right," Piper replied.
"Are you busy today? Hope I didn't cut into anything too important." Phoebe said.
"Oh no, I am actually gloriously not busy today and enjoying every minute of it. I was just home with Leo and the boys. I'm actually happy with the absence of a demon of the week." Piper smiled, "And what about you? You're done with work early."
"I've gotten so used to writing in pressing time, I can't slow down! I've caught up on all my emails and enough letters for the month" Phoebe laughed, "I can't believe we actually- … Piper freeze time now!"
They had just reached an intersection, stopped because the light was red, when Phoebe had a premonition, so quick Piper hardly even noticed her pause.
"What? Why?" Piper screamed back but, trusting her sister, did it anyway. There were only two cars at the intersection, Piper's and one speeding across the intersection in front of them, at least it had been speeding until Piper used her power to freeze it in place. Thankfully it wasn't a busy time of day, nobody around but just out of range of Piper's powers. But still, at any moment a person could happen upon the scene and the sisters' lives would be ruined just as they were starting to look brighter. Piper waited impatiently for her sister's explanation.
"Look!" Phoebe pointed to the front of the other car. When Piper froze time, she had noticed no one but the guy in the car, and yet standing frozen in front of the car was another man, dressed like he had just come from a renaissance fair. Ridiculous for the times but at the same time the getup was probably suited to medieval royalty.
"That guy wasn't there before!" Piper stated.
"I know! He just appeared!" Phoebe said.
"Do you think he blinked?" Piper asked.
"Don't only warlocks do that?" Phoebe returned.
"Warlocks freeze too," Piper stated, slapping Phoebe, playfully, on the shoulder, "Phoebe you made me save a warlock!"
"No, he's not alone, look!" Phoebe pointed again as something else became apparent about the man, there was something, someone, wriggling in his arms, "Only good witches don't freeze right?"
But before Piper had a chance to answer, remind her that powerful upper-level demons also did not freeze, Phoebe got out of the car.
Phoebe ran to the warlock, intent on saving the poor witch he'd captured. That's gotta be why she had the premonition right? To save the witch. As she approached, a little girl, maybe a few years old, had wriggled free from his arms. She wasn't afraid, but she was probably too young to understand the danger she was in. When she saw Phoebe she smiled and giggled, toddling towards her and waving.
Phoebe scooped up the tyke in her arms and ran back to the car, needing to get there before Piper's freeze ran out and time started up again.
"It's ok sweetie you're safe now," Phoebe cooed, holding the girl close on her lap as she reclaimed the front passenger seat.
Piper unfroze the scene, but though the warlock had been right in front of the car, the car sped by without impedance.
"Where did he go?" Piper asked searching the intersection.
"You guys found her! She's so young!" A familiar yet unexpected voice came from the backseat.
"Paige?" Piper asked, knowing the answer.
"You found my charge," Paige replied as Phoebe handed her the little girl. She promptly buckled her into Wyatt's car seat.
Just then, the man from the street also appeared in the car, on the other side of the car seat."Warlock!" Phoebe cried.
"Warlock?!" Paige asked/yelled while Piper froze the guy before he could do or say anything.
"Papa!" The little girl said in excitement at the man's presence.
"Papa?!" The sisters wondered in unison.
"That's it, we are taking this fun little situation to the manor, we cannot fit anyone else in this car," Piper stated.
"Wait we're taking him to the manor? Do you think that's safe?" Phoebe asked.
"Safer than trying to figure this all out in the middle of the street," Piper retorted.
Enchanted Forest (4 Years Ago)
Prudence had lived comfortably and trained rigorously with Rumplestiltskin for over a year. She'd gotten into a regular routine with him. Every day for at least a few hours she'd work on her powers, strength and control, and sometimes Rumpelstiltskin would mentor her from old magic books and she'd started picking up on some ancient languages. Of course, he limited what he taught her and kept the darker magic for his sessions with Regina. He didn't want to show Prudence anything that might scare her off or jog her memory.
Either way, with his aid and the greater access to magic, Prudence was able to develop her powers far beyond their strength when she had first come to the Enchanted Forest.
In return for living and training with him, she kept up the mansion and ran errands to town for him regularly. This particular day was no different, just a weekly run for groceries and potion ingredients. She'd memorized his list and carried nothing but a small bag with his allotted gold coins. The town was small and she recognized nearly everyone, she politely waved to those who initiated it, but most were wary of her, her connection to the Dark One was well known. Which is why she was surprised to find a stranger in town that day who went out of his way to get her attention.
She saw him on a corner, where two dirt roads cross, surrounded by a crowd of children, putting on a show. He was dirty and unshaven, she pitied him, she figured he was poor and the act was for money. Perhaps he traveled far and wide with this act in hopes for some change. He didn't seem so lucky here, those kids wouldn't be able to provide much, if anything, but he still seemed pretty happy. Intrigued she stuck around the outer edge to watch.
His only prop was a small ball. She watched as he closed his right hand around it, then opened both hands to reveal the ball in his left instead. Then he closed both hands and opened them once again showing them empty, one of the kids found it in their pocket. The children were amazed, Prudence wondered if it was actually innocent sleight of hand, as it seemed, or more. His act finished, the children began to disperse. Prudence started to leave.
"Did you enjoy the show, miss?" He called out, grabbing her attention.
"It was quite entertaining," She acknowledged, "I haven't seen you here before."
"I haven't been here long," He explained, "Just passing through."
"Then I hope you enjoy your stay," she replied, "I best get going though, I have some errands to run. Perhaps I will see you around before you go."
"Yes perhaps," He smiled, tipping his hat, and she headed off in her original direction. But suddenly she realized her bag felt off, like the weight had changed. When she opened it the gold coins were missing! In their place was a single ball, the same as the magicians. Angrily, she turned back quickly, but, before her eyes, the man disappeared into thin air! She was shocked but caught him out of the corner of her eye running on the opposite side of a row of shops not too far off. She smirked and astralled in front of him, his surprise gave her the advantage, she quickly, telekinetically, pulled the gold coins he still had in his hand to her own, replacing them with the ball.
"How?" He asked clearly baffled.
"These aren't mine, they belong to a very powerful person you may know as the Dark One. Believe me, you don't want to get on his bad side, and neither do I," She stated, "Don't try that again."
He nodded, looking impressed. Prudence left to finish her errands, half hoping she would never see this stranger again, and half wishing she'd gotten his name.
San Francisco, CA
"Are you getting anything from them, Phoebe?" Piper asked as they approached the manor.
"Him, no, because he's frozen, and it's a bit hard to read the little girl, her emotions are kind of everywhere but mostly happy, relieved, and comfortable. I mean, she's with a bunch of strangers and she's not phased. I think she was looking for us, in fact, I think she knows us," Phoebe informed them, returning the girls wave and smile.
"Sweetie my name is Paige, that's Piper and that's Phoebe, what is your name?" Paige asked, pointing out Piper and Phoebe in turn while the girl gazed around, apparently taking it all in. She had short dark brown hair, about shoulder length, icy blue eyes, and she was wearing a pink dress that, like the man's clothes, looked like they had come from another era.
"Trixie," the girl replied looking up at Paige. Then she looked back at the man and grabbed something that was sticking out of his pocket. It was a ripped piece of light brown paper. She handed it to Paige, it read "1329 Prescott Street San Francisco, California."
"Uh guys, they were definitely looking for us," Paige stated.
"What makes you say that?" Phoebe asked.
"He has a note with the address to the manor," Paige handed the parchment up front to Phoebe.
"Well that's not creepy," Phoebe commented sarcastically as she analyzed it.
"Since when did warlocks, or any magical being for that matter, use addresses? Isn't the manor just 'that place above the nexus where the Charmed Ones live' to them?" Piper sighed, pulling into the driveway of the manor. It's true they all used to live there together, but Phoebe and Paige had moved out not too long ago.
"Paige, would you mind orbing us to the attic? Leo's home with the boys and I don't want to freak them out until we know what's going on here," Piper asked.
"No problem," Paige replied, and after they got out of the car and locked it, Piper and Phoebe supporting the strange man, Paige orbed them all up to the attic.
Once there, Paige orbed the crystals in a circle around the guy, effectively caging him in case he was a threat, before Piper unfroze him so they could get some answers.
"What do you think you're doing? Where have you taken me?" He asked, surprised and angry. He tried to walk towards Trixie but the cage shocked him back and he grew angrier, "You better bring her no harm, you have no idea who you are dealing with!"
"Excuse me, mister, I don't think you have any idea who you are dealing with," Piper countered.
"You came looking for the Charmed Ones. Well, you've found us. This is 1329 Prescott Street," Phoebe explained.
"Oh, you're the Charmed Ones? Sorry then, but I thought you were supposed to be good, what is with this strange barrier?" He asked.
"You blinked," Phoebe stated.
"Excuse me?" He asked confused.
"In our experience, only warlocks blink from one place to another. Warlocks are evil," Paige further explained.
"I'm not a warlock," He stated defensively.
"Well then what are you?" Phoebe asked.
"I'm … oh, what was it? … a good witch!" He replied.
"Yeah no, nice try buddy. Good witches don't freeze." Piper replied, "That is how we know Trixie here is a good witch and why we even bothered bringing you here in the first place."
"Okay, you got me," He said putting his hands up, "I'm not a good witch. My wife was a good witch and that is why our daughter is as well. I've had powers since I can remember, to teleport myself and manipulate time. I don't know what I am, but I promise I mean no harm. My wife is missing, Trixie gets premonitions and that is why we were looking for you. We need your help to find her."
"You can time travel?" Piper asked, suspicious. That was incredibly rare innate ability, in fact, the only being they had ever come across who could do that was the higher level demon Tempus.
"No, more like I can manipulate the flow of time," He explained, "Slow it down or speed it up."
"What's with the getup?" Paige asked, changing the subject, gesturing to his clothes.
"Well, it is kind of a long, hard to believe story," He said calmly sitting crossed-legged in the cage. In a puff of purple smoke Trixie teleported into his lap, "Sorry, she gets that power from me."
The sisters decided not to react to that, their curiosity getting the better of them.
"We've seen so many things, trust me there's nothing we'd have trouble believing," Paige assured.
"But just so you know, we will be able to tell if you're lying. If this is all some ruse to get to us you will regret it," Piper threatened, cueing Phoebe in to use her empathic power to read his emotions. She should truly be able to tell if he is sincere or not. Piper was hesitant to trust him.
"Okay," He began, "Well my name is Darien and you've already met Trixie. We're not from here, from this world. We come from a land known as the Enchanted Forest …"
Enchanted Forest (A Few Days Ago)
Darien stood alone in his study, flipping furiously through a particular brown, leather-bound book. Certain there was nothing useful and yet certain he must be missing something.
"There must be something, there has to be!" He stated angrily to no one, clearly distressed, "I have to find her…"
A small knock came to the door before a child walked in.
"Papa," Trixie addressed.
"Any luck my sweet?" He asked sweeping her off her feet, holding her so she was eye level with him.
She shook her head no sadly, around her neck she wore a heart trinket necklace. The same that he had gifted her mother years ago, and that had recently been gifted to Trixie. She gripped the trinket tightly, he had hoped it would help her get a premonition of her mother, who had been missing a couple days now.
"Mama?" She asked hopefully.
He was about to respond, try to comfort her, when a new figure appeared in the room in a red haze.
"Mama!" Trixie smiled, he set her down so she could run over to her mother, who smiled, picked her up and hugged her close.
Her clothes were torn and dirty. She appeared unharmed, though he was not fooled, this was only a projection of her that would not reflect any physical afflictions. He was very happy she was alive, but he could see in her eyes she did not bring good news.
"The curse is coming," she stated as they closed the distance between them.
"Soon, I know," he agreed, "But there's still time, we can still get together, just tell me where you are, where has she taken you?"
"No," she paused and there were tears glistening in her eyes, "There's no time, you have to go without me. The curse is coming now."
She spoke calmly for the sake of Trixie but the urgency of the situation was reflected in her eyes and, after kissing Trixie's forehead and whispering comforting words in her ear, she passed the little girl back to him.
"Just tell me where you are, we can teleport, the spell and potion we've put together, it can work!" He argued.
"I don't know where I am, and there's no guarantee that spell would have worked, we didn't test it," She returned, "Please, you have to go now. The plan hasn't changed: find my sisters, find the town, break the curse."
She kissed him on the lips gently, he could feel her tears on his cheeks, or maybe those were his own. She hugged them both for a moment before backing away, looking the two up and down hoping to burn the image in her memory, knowing well that in a matter of hours, maybe minutes, she wouldn't remember them at all.
"Mama," Trixie whimpered.
"Prue," Darien pleaded one last time, resigned knowing she was right, as usual.
Her last words "I love you" were barely above a whisper as her projection faded away in a red haze.
San Francisco, CA
"...using our power of teleportation we were able to escape before the curse reached our house but my wife wasn't as lucky. As far as we know, the curse brought the residents of the Enchanted Forest here, somewhere at sometime, where they've been frozen, stuck in a time loop, since then, with their memories constructed by the Evil Queen, who enacted the curse," the man who had introduced himself as Darien explained.
"So you want us to break the curse?" Phoebe asked. The story sounded quite outlandish but they had of course dealt with time loops before, and Phoebe hadn't detected any deception, though it did feel like he was withholding some information. She particularly noticed he withheld from using his wife's name, but that really wasn't their business and was beside the point, so she chose to ignore it.
"I want you to help me find out where my wife is. We can take it from there," He asserted, "I haven't been here long, but this world is quite confusing … And big."
"No kidding, is there any way to narrow down the search? Do you know what state? Country? Continent?" Paige queried.
"I don't know what you mean, though I don't think it would be that far? If you cannot help just tell me now, we are wasting time," He stated urgently.
"If your daughter had a premonition leading you here, we can help," Piper stated, she was apprehensive but had no reason not to trust this man, whatever he is. Since Trixie had teleported through the crystal cage barrier she knew he could've teleported out at any point, but he didn't. Plus, Phoebe gave no sign that she felt anything off about them, Piper was convinced, they were legit innocents. She kicked away one of the crystals bringing down the cage.
"I have to put together dinner for Leo and the boys. Since you don't have anywhere to go you can stay here for the time being," Piper directed to Darien, "Phoebe, Paige, are you staying for dinner?"
"Henry's working late anyway so why not," Paige conceded, "I'll help you with dinner."
"Yeah if you don't mind, I'd like to get started on this," Phoebe said, "Scrying might be the easy fix here, at least it's worth a shot, and I can do it alone. What's the biggest map you have?"
Most of the maps they had centered on California, they never had to go that far distance-wise to save an innocent. They had a globe, but the more detailed maps the better when it came to scrying. It happened though that Piper had recently bought a map of the U.S., well an educational poster she was going to hang up in Wyatt's room. It highlighted the states, so they should at least be able to figure out if she is in the U.S., and hopefully what state. They'd need to get a more detailed map of said state to get the specific location they need but it would be a good start. It would be better if they had the scrying computer program Billie had rigged up, but she was currently out of town.
So Paige and Piper went downstairs and Phoebe started the scrying using Darien and Trixie to focus the crystals energy. An object belonging to the person usually worked better, more focused, but Darien claimed they didn't have anything of hers, so close family would have to do. Well until, assumingly out of curiosity, Wyatt orbed up into the attic. Trixie and Wyatt looked happy to see someone around their own age. Phoebe could tell the kid was getting antsy so she told Wyatt to show Trixie some of his toys and the two went off to the playroom. They held hands and in a flurry of purple smoke and bright blue orbs they were gone.
The crystal didn't seem to be picking up anything at first, Phoebe moved the crystal slowly across the country starting around California. She held Darien's hand and told him to focus his thoughts on his wife while she focused on his energy, hopefully, that would be enough to find her. For a long time, the crystal stayed slack, though Phoebe was sure she was doing it right, after having scried a million times before, she began to worry that they weren't going to find her in the U.S. Or that she didn't have enough information on her for it to work. They went over the whole map before dinner but had found nothing.
Afterward, they tried again, this time Piper and Paige helped out, it usually worked better when they combined their powers. Finally, the crystal started moving, toward the northeast of the map, but it wouldn't settle, it started circling the region from New York to Maine. No matter how they jostled it the crystal wouldn't, couldn't, find a precise location.
"It's possible," Phoebe mused, "this cursed town is somehow blocking our magic, which would be why we can't get a precise reading. But it's a start."
He looked nervous but satisfied, he didn't appear as worried and disheveled. It was clear that the weight of the day was getting to him. It was still unclear how long he and Trixie had been bouncing around before Piper and Phoebe had found them and just before that they had made the big jump from their world and time to ours. He agreed to call it a night for the time being.
Later that night, when all was quiet in the Halliwell manor…
A familiar stranger visited for the second night in a row. The manor now familiar, she wasted no time in heading to the attic, to the book. She was delighted to confirm her suspicions, the book she had received from Mr. Gold held several spells that matched those in this Book of Shadows.
She spent the rest of her night as she had the last, flipping through the book, absorbing all she could. She only hoped that it would not all be lost when she woke up.
A/N Hope you enjoyed! Please Review! Any comments, questions, concerns, or ideas moving forward? Let me know!
Next Chapter will be out on or before December 1!
