Dark Castle

Aveena sits on the shore of the lake, watching her reflection with little interest as she waited for her papa's business in the village to be finished. "Aveena?" A new reflection joins hers, a woman with dark brown hair and eyes, and some weird outfit that looked too ostentatious for Aveena's taste. She turns to face the woman, hand resting on the hilt of her dagger. "I thought so, you look exactly like your father." Aveena's eyebrows scrunch together in confusion since she looked nothing like her papa.

"Who are you?"

"The only person who'll tell you the truth. My name is Regina."

"What do you mean the truth?" Regina smiles, a cruel smile that made Aveena nervous, and she had just stood up when Regina snaps her fingers. Black-clad soldiers come out of the woods to surround the pair, weapons drawn and ready to be used.

"Put her in the carriage, she could be useful later."

Storybrooke

"Your Majesty," Papa greets as Regina storms into the shop and places a rotted apple on the display case.

"You think this is funny," she demands, obviously in a foul mood. "Well, I'll tell you what I think, I think it's a sign of the Curse—" Papa cuts her off with a simple look, cutting his gaze in my direction. I look between the two adults, my laptop balanced on my knees as I absently thought of a good thesis statement for my term paper over Porphyria. "Morgan, can you give us some privacy? This is an urgent matter and it doesn't need to be discussed in front of children."

"Sure, but uh, I'm not eight," she quips," seventeen year old here, kind of a young adult." I stand, carefully balancing all of my stuff in my arms. "Just curious, when you say curse, did you mean like when Mojo Jojo said the same thing in an evil tone?"

"Morgan," Regina and Papa say in unison.

"Alright, but if Regina starts hissing the word curses at little children because they were swimming in her moat, then know that I called it and I get to address her as Mojo Jojo for the rest of the month."

"Morgan Elizabeth," Regina says again in the same stern tone she uses with Henry. I shrug, exchanging my laptop for a notebook and walking into the back office. After a few minutes I grow frustrated at the lack of results and scribble a note for Papa before running out the back door towards the docks with a pencil and notebook.

All my best ideas occur when I'm at the docks with the water splashing over my feet. Papa hated my love of water, but he never forbade me from going to the docks as long as it wasn't too dark and I never showed up late to school or somewhere important.

Few people were there at this time of day, most were home with their families for dinner so I basically had the place to myself. At the farthest end of the docks, I sit cross-legged with my notebook perched on my lap and my pencil between my lips, my eyes closed as I listened to the crashing waves.

Dark Castle

Aveena pulls on the bars of her cell with all her strength, her only thought to escape from the Evil Queen's dungeon and get back to her papa. "There's no escaping here unless you possess any magic," Regina smirks confidently, looking the prisoner up and down. "And I highly doubt you have any magic inside that chubby body." Aveena pauses a second, a smile slowly beginning to form. She did have magic, not very much, but enough to do a simple teleportation spell. Her papa had taught her it when she was eight. "What's that look for, brat?"

"It's a look that any person gets when they know they bested someone," Aveena shrugs, purple smoke swirling around her feet at a rapid pace. Before Regina could counter the spell and force Aveena to stay, the teen was already back at the lake. Rumple appears seconds later, the residual magic catching his attention, but he ignores it when he finds his daughter smiling up at him from her spot on the ground. "Is it time to go back home?"

"Yes, little bird," he confirms," my business here is done for now." She jumps up, taking his arm and smiling even more as she feels his magic surround them. It was warm and familiar to her, comforting in a way that nothing else was.

Watching from behind a tree a few feet away was what appeared to be a teenage boy, grinning evilly as he witnessed his old friend interact with what would be his main weakness.

Yes, the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin could further certain plans easily, all he had to do was turn her against the Imp.

Storybrooke

I barely noticed anything was amiss until I felt someone pulling me forcefully to my feet, my nearly completed thesis statement tumbling to the dock and my favorite pencil rolling into the water. "What the hell," I complain, turning to face the person interrupting my study time only to find my papa looking frantic. "What…. What's going on?"

"It's young Henry, I'm afraid," Papa tells me softly, the hand not holding his cane giving my shoulder a comforting squeeze. "He's…" Papa trails off, as though unsure how to phrase the news.

"Papa?"

"He's in critical condition at the hospital, they're not quite sure what's wrong with him." I didn't wait for Papa to offer me a ride to the hospital, I just sprinted as fast as I could. To hell with me being the least athletic person in Storybrooke, Henry's in danger and I need some answers right fucking now!

Storybrooke hospital is busy most of the time, but the ICU ward was in total chaos when I arrive thirty minutes later, Doctor Whale trying separate Emma and Regina so that they wouldn't kill each other. The distraction worked in my favor, as I was able to get into Henry's room without anyone trying to stop me.

Lying in the hospital bed and hooked up to numerous machines is the little boy I've always viewed as a brother, his skin ashen and his breathing shallow. "Oh my God," I breathe, my hands flying up to cover my mouth. I've never seen him look so fragile, so vulnerable, not even as an infant. Sure, he cried a lot, but he was always so strong! "No, no, no."

Dark Castle

Aveena's eyes close as she focuses on the feel of the sword in her hand, won from King Arthur in one of her papa's various deals. Excalibur was its name and it was part of her now, just like her arm was part of her. You can't drop part of your arm, she tells herself as her arm grows tired and the sword heavier.

Fidget watches her on the stairs, having snuck down when she left him in her bed. Behind the kitten is Trista, sitting and petting the kitten's head distractedly. She found a woman handling a sword interesting; her own father would have beat her bloody if she even thought of touching a sword.

"You can't drop part of your arm," Aveena whispers under her breath, moving in a motion as fluid as water. She has been taught well, moving with grace that she normally lacked. "You can't drop part of your arm."

Looking out the window, Trista saw the cloud of magic, dark purple with green lightening rumbling their way. It scared her, she didn't know for sure what was about to happen and she wanted to be as near to Aveena as she could at the time of impact. It would be any second now and Trista held her breath, sweeping the kitten up into her arms. She hoped it came with them so Aveena would not be completely alone.

And then the cloud enveloped the castle, crumbling stone and turrets, sending the inhabitants into a deep sleep.

Storybrooke

I anxiously pace the hospital waiting room, waiting for my turn to visit Henry. Mary-Margret was in there right now, reading him his book of fairy tales; according to him, they helped to wake up David Nolan from his coma and now Mary-Margret was trying them out on Henry to see if it works even the slightest bit.

Emma and Regina had run off to find something that they thought could save their son a few minutes ago, the determination in their eyes warning everyone to stay out of their way.

I just wanted Henry to wake up. Hell, I've been watching the kid every other Saturday since he was learning to walk; I'd watched him take his first steps, say his first word. The kid meant the world to me and I don't know what I would do if he didn't make it.

Alarms start sounding in the E.R. and soon after Mary-Margret runs out in tears.

"No," I shout, voice raw as I sprint into Henry's room only to have a big guy wrap an arm around my waist and pull me out into the hall. "Henry!"

"I'm sorry," the nurse whispers, holding me as I break down, "I'm so, so sorry."

I stumble around on the streets, unsure of where I'm going just that I needed to get away. Henry was gone forever and now I had nothing to look forward to. "You can't drop part of your arm," I whisper to myself, the phrase I'd often tell myself in times of stress. It was comforting, though I have no idea why. "You can't drop part of your arm... You can't drop part of your arm..."

Somehow I'd made it into the shop and to the display of a beautifully crafted sword; golden hilt and ruby encrusted, the blade was sharp and shining when it catches the low light of the shop. I pick up the sword, liking the weight and beginning to move with it, doing things I didn't know I was capable of doing.

And in that moment, memories begin to flash through my mind, making me fall to my knees and clench the sword tightly.

Familiar blue eyes meeting mine in a crowded village... Papa holding me when I had a nightmare... Trista showing me how to care for a little black cat... Regina kidnapping me... Excalibur fitting into my hand near perfectly as I learned how to handle it... The Curse, the horrible Curse that wiped my memories from my mind and replaced them with false ones... Bae... The man from the market place, the one that looked at me with such sorrow... My name...

I gasp, shaking as I ran out in the streets with a few of the other people; Granny... Red... Grumpy and the other Dwarves. But no papa, no Trista. I was all alone in this world and I had no idea what to do. Some of the other residents send me strange looks, glancing down at my right hand, and I realized I was still holding Excalibur tightly.

You can't drop part of your arm.