"Henry, look, listen to me, Henry," Aubrey begged, grabbing his wrists and pulling them away from his face. "I know that there are other worlds, obviously; everyone in Storybrooke knows that, but I don't know how to recognize one of those when I see it. Not out of the blue, not when I'm dropped into it. Storybrooke is all that I know – and a little village in the Enchanted Forest where I lived before the curse-"

A flash of recognition – from his book, if from nowhere else – hit Henry upside the head, and he interrupted Aubrey by screaming, "The Enchanted Forest!"

"We're in the Enchanted Forest?" Aubrey asked, and now that the two of them had some piece of information to grasp onto, they both became calm enough for their thoughts to be reasonably coherent.

Henry nodded quickly, looking around again as he said, "I've seen this place in my book… I think we're on the queen's highway." He did another, slower turn and looked back the way they'd come to see a mansion blocking the skyline. "And that is-"

"Where we woke up, right?"

"Yes, but that's also, I think, the Dark Castle."

"That sounds inviting," Aubrey snorted, and Henry smiled a little at the stab at loosening up the tension that was dripping from this situation.

"I'm sure it's not that bad; after all, it belonged to my grandpa."

"Considering that it's called the Dark Castle and that one of your grandparents is the Dark One, do I want to ask which grandparent it belonged to?"

"Yes, it belonged to Rumplestiltskin," Henry nodded patiently, "But it's also the one place that I can see to go back to. So, unless you want to take our chances on getting lost in the Enchanted Forest, I suggest we go back there while we get this figured out."

Aubrey sighed, apparently coming to the conclusion that he was right, and agreed, "Okay, come on then."

Though her voice was reasonably steady, considering their sudden and wild change of circumstances, her hand was trembling when she reached out to him – so what was he to do but take her hand in his as they walked back the way they had come?


"What do you mean, my son is 'gone'?" Regina screeched. "Gone where? How could you let this happen?!"

"I got distracted with looking at his future and lost track of the time while trying to figure out what was actually going on in what I was seeing," Rumple replied, looking around at the group in Regina's office.

"You were looking into his future, and you still managed to screw it up?" Regina snapped. "How did that happen? I thought you couldn't see into the future of those you cared about? And where is my son?"

"It was a very telling thread that I grasped onto when Mr. Nolan gave me that task; I learned a surprising lot, even though I'm still trying to untangle the vast majority of what I saw. And I can't see Henry's future directly, no, but I looked into the life of Aubrey Freeman and saw it that way. He and Aubrey… are… connected. And… as for where they are at…" Here Rumple barely managed not to wince. "I have reason to believe that they're in Mist Haven."

"The Enchanted Forest?" Emma gasped, while Regina screeched again, Bae threw his head back with a groan, and Snow White burrowed into her husband's arms.

Belle took one of Rumple's hands into her own as he added, "More specifically, the Dark Castle."

"I am going to kill you," Regina seethed succinctly, locking her black eyes onto him like a predator observed its prey.

Belle nervously tightened her grip on his hand as the Nolans stepped between Regina and her target. "Come on, Regina," Snow coaxed. "We all know that this wasn't anyone's fault - accept for maybe Henry's."

Regina's fury turned onto her step-daughter then as she bit out, "Do not tell me who's fault you think this is; he's my son."

"And our grandson!" Mr. Nolan snapped.

"And mine," Rumple added.

"Point being," Emma called out, loudly gaining their collective attention. "That we're all Henry's family, and that means that we're all concerned for his safety - and with getting him back."

"And how do you propose we do that, oh Dark One?" Regina snarled.

Rumple sighed, admitting, "I don't know - but I promise all of you, no matter how long it takes, I will find a way."


"Aubrey, it will be okay," Henry said, watching from a seated position as the blonde girl paced anxiously across the sitting room. "They'll find us, I promise."

"Do you have any of Antoine's magic beans with you?" she asked suddenly.

"No. And with the hailstorm that came through Storybrooke last month…"

Aubrey said what he didn't want to: "There are currently no beans in Storybrooke either."

"They will find a way to get to us," Henry repeated passionately.

"What if that way is waiting a whole year until there's an entirely new crop of beans?" Aubrey asked shakily, her mad pacing stopping as she dropped to the floor beside him.

"Then we hang tight here for a year," Henry answered in a tone that was much calmer than he actually felt at that idea.

"How are we supposed to survive for an entire year, may I ask? No one has lived in your grandpa's castle for forever; there's no food here or anything, and this place is a veritable pig sty."

"Nah, it's just been thoroughly looted is all. A good autumn cleaning should solve that problem."

"And what about the whole 'no food' problem? Since it looks like we're stranded here until further notice, I mean."

"I'm… not sure yet. If you'll start cleaning up, I'll start looking around."

Aubrey objected with a sharp "I-" and then cut herself off, nodding hesitantly instead.

"What is it?" Henry asked carefully, standing to his feet.

"I… don't want to be by myself…"

"Then stay with me," he suggested with a smile, offering her a hand to help her to her feet. "I'm going to start in this room anyway."

Aubrey smiled shakily and accepted the assistance, asking, "What are we going to do?"

"Look for a vault," Henry answered with certainty, ignoring the fact that she had yet to let go of his hand.

She repeated a little incredulously, "A vault?"