Race Through Time:
Continuing The Search
Anubis nearly fell on the floor by the time he and Marion entered the sheriff's office in order to attend the meeting. At first, everyone had assumed it was because of what Fidget had said about how he had managed to trick Midnight Sparkle into Pandora's Box the first time they met. Now they all knew why he felt disgraced about it.
"You faked desiring intimacy with her -which apparently she wanted to have with you so badly despite barely even knowing you- and right before insertion, you sucked her into the box?" Killian said in disbelief. "What the Hell, Fitzgerald?"
"I was running out of options!" Fidget protested. "You think I'm a fan of forceful sex? Besides, if I wasn't going to do it, then Midnight would have most likely been the one putting that ghastly option into action!"
Killian cupped his nose with nose and gave an exasperated sigh. As for Mr. Gold, Emma, and David, they were equally disturbed.
"As much as I know what it's like dealing with rather seductive women, you got to admit that this is pretty low for you," David told Fidget.
"Do I even look like I'm proud of it?" the Batrishan nearly shouted. "Seriously!"
"Calm down, Fidget," Emma said. "Look, we can tell you were...uncomfortable about it and you don't want to do it again. We're just, slightly disturbed. That's all."
"Because now you're telling me that out of all the disturbing things you've encountered ever since you discovered that you were actually the child of fairytale characters, one villain faking sex just to imprison a victim in Pandora's Box is the most disturbing?" Fidget snorted.
Emma said nothing. She knew that Fidget was making a point right there: ever since Henry had come into her life telling her that she was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, 'disturbing' was an appropriate choice of words for describing the things she had witnessed.
"Anubis, what's wrong?" Marion asked her husband as she helped him get up. The heroes and the Batrishan were curious to see the Ancient Egyptian god of funerals on the floor and being helped up by his mortal wife. Anubis rubbed his head, feeling his headache once more.
"Was the Batrishan's story that disturbing, Lord Anubis?" Mr. Gold asked.
"No." The god went to sit on a nearby chair. "Believe it or not, I can relate to such a similar situation."
"Which caused you to have both ablutophobia and aquaphobia," Marion said drily. "I still had to chase you around the house in order to give you a bath during our first dating days."
"TMI, Marion!" Anubis snapped in frustration. David and Emma gave one another an awkward look that told one another that this might be the explanation of why Anubis couldn't swim despite being a god.
"Anyway," Anubis said, "I didn't fall because of the story. I fell because I heard Rosie screaming in my head."
"Was it a vision?" Marion started freaking out. They still haven't Rosie, so this could be helpful.
"No, it's one of those disadvantages of gods siring demigods: whenever they scream your name, it gives you a ghastly pain in the head."
"Figuratively?" Emma asked. Anubis gave a disbelieving look. "Never mind."
"So why was Rosetta screaming your name?" Fidget asked. "Is she in danger?"
"That's what I'm worried about." Dread began to fill the eyes of Anubis. "I heard her scream: 'DADDY, HELP ME!'"
"So she's in danger?" David asked as he got up. "From what?"
"And that's the worst part! I don't know what the danger is! My hounds and I have searched everywhere in town and throughout the woods! I tried a locator spell using her backpack to track her! I even tried to use the blood link between my daughter and I to find her, but even that didn't work for some reason!" Anubis dropped his head into his hands in defeat. "Who am I kidding? I'm a god who can't even take care of his own eight-year-old child!"
Marion placed a comforting arm on her husband's back. "Anubis, we will find her. Don't worry."
"You don't suppose she might have crossed the town line by accident?" Emma suggested.
"No, we checked the town line already," Marion answered. "No signs of her scent crossing it were found."
"Not to mention that the mere idea of her doing such a thing would be downright stupid," Fidget said bluntly.
"Exactly how is that helping them?" David glared skeptically at the Batrishan while referring to Marion and Anubis.
"UGH! How idiotic are you people?" Fidget held out his hands in the air. "That kid has an I.Q that could almost rival the one of the ex-Dark One," he pointed at Rumplestiltskin, "and managed to contribute a lot to foiling my schemes on killing the codfish, and you still treat her like she's some helpless little eight-year-old!" He then turned his attention to Emma. "Your own kid knew that something was going on in this town while he was ten, now he's the Author, and you still act like he's defenseless and needs your guidance 24/7! Grow up a bit, people!"
His words really hit them hard. Usually, when a villain badmouthed them off, they usually try to fight back or something. But this time, however, they didn't, for his badmouthing was making a fair point: they kept visualizing their kids as helpless, and whenever the kids tried to prove they weren't, they were either caught in danger or this became another one of those situations were parents learned the hard way that their kids weren't so little anymore and that they had the obvious resources to take care of themselves. After all, despite the fact that they knew what their kids were capable off, Emma, Marion, and Anubis still had a hard time accepting the fact that they were overprotective.
"So," Killian cut off the silence. "Shall we discuss how we're going to track down Midnight Sparkle and find Rosetta in less than twenty-nine days?"
"Now that we think about it, Midnight's been out of the box for almost a month," David said. "And on the same day she showed up, meaning yesterday, we learn that Rosetta has disappeared. You don't suppose Midnight might have kidnapped her?"
"I hardly doubt it," Mr. Gold said. He rubbed his chin while thinking. "Alicorns are very unique creatures alright, but their magical powers forbid them from harming children..."
"Seriously?" Fidget gapped. "Midnight can be a man's worst nightmare, especially if they step into her cave, but she can't harm kids?"
"Well, despite being nearly 300 years and looking incredibly young, you do act like an average typical teenager," Killian chuckled at Fidget.
"Shut up, codfish. You're barely eight years older than me."
"You're both old men, let's go with that!" Marion said in an annoyed tone. All the men in the room glared at her. "What? It's not my fault Emma and I are the only ones without aging issues!"
"As fascinating as that might be, we should worry back to our initial problem," Mr. Gold said. "Concerning our alicorn friend, I might have something in our shop that could help us track her since the hounds of Anubis couldn't pick up her scent."
"What is it?" Emma asked.
"Equestrian dust, from the homeland of all mystical horses. Of course, there are three different types of Equestrian dust, one for each horse, but combining the dust of a pegasus with the one of a unicorn should create a new dust, meant for alicorns. We can then use that dust and a locator spell to track down Midnight Sparkle."
"You know that the probability of this idea might work at 50-50, right?" Anubis said. "After all, Equestrian dust meant for alicorns is as rare as the alicorn itself."
"What choice do we have, Anubis?" Marion looked at him. Her husband glanced at her cyan eyes one more time before giving in.
"Well don't count me for going after Midnight!" Fidget got up and started walking towards the door.
"Hey! After everything you did, helping us is the proper thing left for you to do!" Killian grabbed Fidget by the arm but the latter yanked him away.
"The proper thing left for me to do is to go back to my cottage, see if I can find anything that might help me find Rosetta -hopefully I won't have to pray for my patron's intervention- and find something that will shield me from Midnight!" Fidget said.
"But..."
Fidget grabbed Killian and began shaking him as if he were trying to get him to think reasonably.
"GET A CLUE, KILLIAN! I'M BEING HUNTED BY A REVENGE-SEEKING AND CREEPY STALKING ALICORN! AND THE WORST PART IS THAT NOW I'M NOT SURE IF SHE WANTS TO KILL ME OR INFECT ME WITH SOME SORT OF LOVE SPELL!"
Once he was done screaming, he let go off Killian and stormed off the room, slamming the door while he was at it.
"It's official, we're dealing with a paranoid teenager," Emma sighed.