My computer has been spazzing out as of the late, I meant to get this up a couple days ago. Sorry.
"Mom, where's my storybook?" a frantic Henry asked, upturning every pillow, sheet, and late homework in his room.
"Last time I saw it, it was under your jeans, third drawer down," Regina said from the doorway. Not that she had been searching for it, or anything. "Henry, what are you doing?"
"It's just a hunch," he muttered, finally finding the beloved book. He sat down on his bed and started flipping towards the end, muttering the stories under his breath. "There!"
"It's just another story in the book, Henry," she said gently, going to sit next to him. Henry shook his head.
"The last time I checked this book was before the curse was broken. It ended with the curse, nothing after it except 'The End' written on the last page. Now look!" he explained, shoving the book into Regina's lap.
It was flipped to the beginning of another story, the curse picture on the opposite side. Regina flipped through the 'new story', searching for something that could make everything clear. And then she saw it.
It was a picture of Snow and Emma in a pit with Cora, Snow on the ground and Emma and Cora talking. Regina swallowed a pit lodged in her throat. She turned a couple of pages, the next picture showing one of Snow, Emma, and 2 other women. She believed their names to be Mulan and Aurora.
"Henry, what are you saying?" she asked, intrigued.
"It's adding stories to itself! As they happen, stories are put in here. It's writing down what happens as it happens, or maybe after it does. Maybe we can use this to see what happened to Mary Margaret, hopefully where Emma is now," Henry said, eager. Regina nodded. Henry quickly skimmed everything after the curse, occasionally pointing out things.
"There! Emma, Snow, Mulan, and Aurora are in Rumplestiltskin's cage, Aurora throws a rock a lever, trapping them inside, Cora and Hook come out, they say something. Huh," he said. She craned her neck to see what Henry was 'huh'-ing about.
"What?" she asked.
"There's nothing here except for the words 'The two had a heated argument, then Cora and Captain Hook left them there, off to pursue their goals'. The books usually includes the actual words. Weird," Henry explained. Regina nodded, agreeing. There had to be something special about that conversation...
"So, where are we now?" she asked a couple minutes after they last spoke. She had been letting Henry read, it was far easier with one person reading.
"Lake Nostos, which is now a lake again. Cora is fighting Mulan and Snow, Hook and Emma are duking it out for the compass," he murmured, eyes moving back and forth as he scanned the page.
"Anything else?" she asked, hoping for something that could actually tell her about Cora. Or Mary Margaret or Emma, but Cora was her main concern. Like where she was now...
"Yes. Hook won, well, sort, of and then he grabbed Emma, who had the compass and he jumped into the portal with her, leaving Mary Margaret and Cora behind. And that's all there is for now," Henry groaned, slamming the book shut.
"Nothing after that? Nothing at all?" Regina asked, thirsting for some information on her mother.
"Nothing, besides what we already know. I think that it appears in the book after a certain amount of time. The problem is, we have no clue how much time it takes," Henry grumbled, flopping backwards on his bed. Regina smoothed his hair down, trying to relax the both of them.
"So, Mary Margaret and Cora are still in the Enchanted Forest?" Regina clarified.
"Yes, which means David can't wake up from him sleeping curse! And Mary Margaret is still fighting Cora, according to the book. We need to find Emma and Hook," Henry said, jumping up and putting some candy, the book, and other stuff into his backpack.
"Henry, if we go after them Hook will either go after you or kill Emma, and we don't want either of those to happen," Regina tried. While Emma and Regina hadn't come to an truce verbally, they had come to a truce of sorts when it came to Henry's safety. And if Emma died, it would crush Henry. So no matter how often she wanted it, Emma couldn't die. Disappear, perhaps, leave, but not die. Unfortunately.
"There has to be something we can do! Is there any magic we can use, do you think Rumpelstiltskin has something we could use?" he asked, determined. Regina quickly shook her head.
"Henry, we can't tell Rumpelstiltskin Hook is here, he'll go after Hook and the two will try and kill each other," Regina reasoned.
"I know, I've read their stories, you know. But what if we just tell him that we're looking for someone-" Henry began. Regina furrowed her brow. Maybe letting Henry read all of the stories in that book was a bad idea... There were some stories maybe he shouldn't have read until at least 8th grade...
"Henry, he'll want to know the entire story. I've known that man for two lives, and that's two lives too many. We have to find another way," she interrupted.
"What do you have in mind?" he asked, no longer packing. She shrugged.
"But we will find a way," she said. Her phones buzzed once, twice, three, four times, signaling she had a lot of new messages. She looked at Henry for permission to look. He nodded.
They were all from Gold, or as she should change his contact to, Rumpelstiltskin.
Belle's missing. She's not in the library, not at Granny's, not with Ruby, not in my shop. I'm going to check the library again, meet me there.
There was a note a the library, addressed to me. I need to know one thing: Did Hook come through the portal?
There's a rack of books on the floor. I think someone kidnapped Belle.
Regina, answer dammit! Belle is in trouble, and I need your help.
"I think Hook kidnapped Belle," she told Henry, showing him the messages.
"Tell Rumpelstiltskin to meet us at the library. I think that this is more important than we think," Henry urged, and Regina did just that.
Minutes later, the three were all in library, Rumpelstiltskin showing them the note and fallen rack of books.
"You see? And there's hook marks on the back window, Regina, tell me that Hook isn't here," he said, a cross between fury and worry in his voice.
"He's here, and the last we saw of him he was holding Emma captive," Henry quipped. Gold looked to Regina for conformation, and she nodded.
"And you didn't tell me?" he said quietly. That wasn't good, every time he went quiet it meant he was barely containing his anger.
"We've had enough murder in this town lately," Regina said, shooting him a look that said 'We'll talk later'.
"Have you tried texting Belle?" Henry asked. Gold nodded.
"Texting, calling, the whole thing," he said, miserable. Henry felt sorry for him, even if he had done bad things in the past. No one deserved that, right?
"Try hunting down Hook, maybe someone will find them. Just try, please?" he suggested. He nodded, and quickly sent another message.
"Regina, can I speak to you in private," Gold said, more like demanding. She nodded, already dreading it. She walked over to a bit of a more secluded section and the library and spoke.
"I know, I should have told you, but let's face it, you two would try and kill each other and blow the town up in the process. Understand that while I may not be mayor anymore, I still care slightly for the safety of this town and the people in it," she whispered, putting as much defense into her voice as possible.
"And as long as he's alive and breathing that can still happen!" Gold flared.
"Uh, sorry to interrupt, but Mr. Gold, someone responded," Henry said shyly, pointing to the phone on the counter. He snatched it open and read it.
"He has Belle. We're meeting at the town border at midnight," he said.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? What if someone crosses the line, they'll lose their memory!" Henry said, worried. Gold laughed.
"Well, that's a risk I'll have to take. He said he's leaving Belle where he has her, we need to find him, now," he directed.
"Gold, he may not even come," Regina attempted.
"Oh, he'll come. Any chance to skin his crocodile, he'll take it," Gold said, bitter.
Emma had searched all over town, looking in every nook and cranny. People congratulated her on getting back, but kept asking where Mary Margaret was. Emma would stop and tell them a short version of the story, the basis, and now had a small army looking for Hook. She headed over to Granny's. Maybe the wolf in Ruby would be able to help.
"Emma, you're back! Thank god, where's Mary Margaret?" asked Ruby, quickly embracing her friend.
"She's still in the Enchanted Forest. But more on that later, I need a favor," Emma replied. Ruby's smile faded, but nodded.
"What do you need?" she asked, serious.
"You've heard of Captain Hook, right?" Emma asked, smiling slightly. Ruby rolled her eyes.
"Girl, if you can find anyone who hasn't that'd be harder. Go on."
"Well, he's kind of here and has taken Belle captive to try and kill Rumplestiltskin, long story short," she explained.
"And you want me to..." Ruby trailed off, curious. They started walking outside.
"Ruby, can you track him?" she asked, fierce determination in her eyes.
"I need something of his, preferably something he touched not so long ago," Ruby said as they walked up and down Mainstreet.
"I have his jacket in my apartment. Is that good enough?" Emma asked.
"Why is- I'm not even going to finish that," she said, shaking her head and smiling in a way only Ruby could. "But yeah, that should be good."
"Let's go." Emma dragged Ruby up the stairs to the apartment, still clutching her gun. She noted that her extra was gone, but that wasn't really important at the moment. They had to find him, and then put him in jail. Emma shook her head. Where could Killian have gone?
She tossed Ruby the heavy jacket, wondering just how Hook wore that all day long. Ruby started sniffing, her eyes going a slight yellow-gold for a moment before returning to normal.
"I have his scent, come on," she said, running outside. Emma trailed behind her, barely keeping up. Even though Ruby was going slow for her sake, it was still pretty fast. At the docks, Ruby stopped, spinning around.
"What wrong, why did you stop?" Emma asked, nervous.
"The ocean is interfering with his scent. They're not only similar, but any sort of water messes with trails. It masks it, meaning I can't find him. All I know is that someone else was definitely with him, I think Belle. She has a bit of a new-book scent. Now can you explain everything? Like why Hook has Belle?" Ruby asked, looking at her straight on.
"Revenge. He wants to get revenge on Rumpelstiltskin," Emma breathed. Ruby gave her a worried look.
"We need to find Rumpelstiltskin then. Do you know where he is or do I have to track him?" she asked.
"You have to track him, sorry. I've only been back in Storybrooke for a matter of hours, I barely know where David and my son are," Emma said, frustrated.
"Don't worry about it, he's rather close," Ruby said, pointing towards the library. They ran there, bursting the doors open to reveal Gold, Regina, and Henry.
"Miss Swan, Ruby, what are you doing here?" Gold said, puzzled.
"Mom!" Henry said, hugging her tightly. "Where's Hook and Belle?"
"Emma, where is Hook?" Regina asked, looking at a cell phone.
"Hook left to go get revenge on you, I tried chasing him down but couldn't find him, there's a small army looking for him, Ruby and I tried tracking his scent but the ocean masked it. We have no clue where he is, and we think Belle is with him," she summed up, overwhelmed by the questions.
"We're meeting him at midnight at the border," Gold said, but Regina sent him a dirty look.
"No, we're not, it's too dangerous," she shut down.
"If we don't go Belle will be stuck with him for the rest of her life, which may not be very long," he argued.
"Okay, will someone please explain to me what's going on?" Ruby said. Henry nodded.
"Hook kidnapped Belle because Gold loves her and Hook wants revenge on him for killing his love and Gold's ex wide, Gold texted Belle, Hook responded saying they'd meet at midnight at the border and Belle wouldn't be there, we have no clue where either of them are, and that's pretty much everything," he summed up. Ruby flashed him a grateful smile, then raised an eyebrow at Emma. She then proceeded to mouth 'You let your son read this kind of stuff?' Emma ignored her.
"So, what are we going to do?" Emma asked, arms crossed.
"You're going to stay here with everyone else in this town while I go face off with Hook," Rumpelstiltskin directed.
"Uh, no," Ruby said, shaking her head.
"Wolf girl's right, you're not going alone," Regina agreed, getting a sour look from Ruby.
"I'm going alone, this is my fight and I'm not letting anyone stop me from killing him," Gold growled. Emma recalled seeing the same emotion in Hook's voice whenever he talked about getting his revenge on Gold.
"Fine, but we'll be nearby, okay?" she compromised, and everyone nodded.
"I've been texting Belle, have you guys?" Ruby asked.
"A text per minute," Gold steeled, dead serious. Well, he couldn't exactly die, so that didn't mean much. But still, he was very serious.
"I'm trying to reason with Hook," Regina said.
"I'll start trying her, okay? The last thing I sent her was asking her if she had seen Hook or anyone else with Hook," Emma volunteered. Suddenly, her phones buzzed.
"Read it," Regina said, impatient.
Emma opened the message, and her heart stooped low when she saw it was from Belle, meaning Hook from Belle's phone.
"It's Hook," she said.
"What does it say?" Gold asked, revenge in his eyes.
Hello, love.
Did you enjoy this chapter? Now that I've fixed it, chapters might be up quicker.
Question of the Post: Has any one seen or read 'Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World'? If not, check it out. I found it funny. :) Ciao, lovelies! Haha, that spells 'loves lies'. That may or may not been intended for foreshadowing. ;)