This is one of the longest chapters (so far) in the story, so enjoy!

Present Time

Storybrooke, Maine

Since they did not want to be holed up in the room all day, Toby, Miranda and Rachel had decided to head over to Granny's Diner. It was a lively place where people originating from all possible fairytales came and went, the seven dwarves from Snow White being some of the more regular guests. The waitress behind the counter whom Miranda had spoken to the night before, Ruby, had been Red Riding Hood back in the Enchanted Forest and ran the diner together with her grandmother, a stern old lady who certainly did not trust just anyone. They also became acquainted with another waitress, Ashley; the Storybrooke-counterpart of Cinderella.

"It's weird, isn't it?" Ruby said with a smile as she sat down with the trio.

"A little bit, yes", Miranda answered. "Though somehow I'm not as uneasy at seeing real fairytale characters in earthly clothes as I thought I would be."

"If you were with us in the Enchanted Forest that might be a reason behind it", Ruby pointed out, looking around the diner. "Emma will find an answer for all of this, though. She always does."

"Why is that?" Toby asked.

"Because she's the Saviour", Ruby answered. "When the Queen cursed us the first time, about thirty years ago, Rumplestiltskin, also known as the Dark One, predicted that the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming would be the one to break the curse, but in order to do that she had to be sent away. So when Emma was a newborn baby in the Enchanted Forest, right when the curse struck, Charming brought her to a magic wardrobe and sent her away to this world. Almost thirty years later she came here and broke the curse."

"How did she come here?" Miranda asked.

"Henry found her", Ruby answered.

"Henry?" Rachel asked with a frown. "Who's that?"

"Emma's biological son", Ruby responded, "and Regina's adopted son. Emma gave him up at birth and Regina adopted him. Henry figured out everything that was going on here through a book with our true stories and also realized that he had to bring Emma here, so he sought her out. Of course she did not believe him at first, but she still stayed and eventually she became the Sheriff."

"Then where is he now?" Miranda asked. "Shouldn't he be here as well?"

Ruby looked pained.

"He is. He's just... not aware of what is happening. In order to protect him Regina removed his memories of this place before we went back to the Enchanted Forest. She did the same for Emma, so they both believed they had lived together and that Emma had never given him up. They've stayed in New York for the past year; that's where Hook found them and provided Emma with a memory potion. So she remembers all of this but..."

"Henry doesn't", Miranda filled in and sighed. "Poor Regina."

"Is there a bathroom I can use?" Rachel suddenly asked. "All these cups of tea are starting to make themselves known."

"Yeah, sure; just head in through that door", Ruby responded with a smile and pointed at a door at the back of the diner. Rachel smiled back and rose, grabbing her jacket as she went. Just as the door closed Toby turned towards the two others sitting in the booth.

"Why would she need her jacket if she's heading to the bathroom?" he inquired. Miranda's eyes widened.

"Oh no."

As one the three of them rose and walked in through the door, finding the entrance to the ladies' bathroom unlocked. Instead they heard the diner's backdoor close behind the next corner of the corridor.

"Blast it!" Toby muttered. "Never trust a writer."

"So where are you heading?"

David looked up with a start, finding Rachel standing on the other side of his car.

"When did you get here?" he asked.

"Just now", she answered. "I saw you from the window at Granny's."

"And somehow you assumed you could just join me, wherever I'm going?" David retorted. Rachel gave him a hint of a smile before opening the door of his truck. It caused him to groan, but he also found himself not arguing with her. Instead he climbed in behind the wheel and fired up the engine.

"Are you going to answer my question?" Rachel asked once they had left Granny's behind them.

"The Toll Bridge", he responded. "We believe the Wicked Witch's hideout is near that place; she left a Holly berry behind at Regina's office and they only grow around there."

"Sounds like a good place to start", Rachel agreed. In the corner of his eye he saw her frown slightly at him.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yes, of course", he responded. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"That frown says something else", she remarked, "but if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. It's not my job to pry."

At this he actually turned briefly towards her, his frown deepening. He could swear he had heard someone say that before.

"Alright, now you're looking at me like I'm some ghost from the past", Rachel pointed out.

"I'm... that thing you just said, it just sounded so... familiar."

"Subconscious memory, perhaps", Rachel said with a shrug. "Whatever this spell is that is keeping us from remembering events happening during the past year it can't keep away possible déjà vu feelings."

"Yeah, maybe that's it", David responded, focusing on the road once more. They had left the town and were now driving through the forest. As the sky had become clouded the forest surrounding them had taken on a gloomy tone.

"You should not have come with me", he eventually said. "It's not even been a day since you had your head stitched up."

"I'm fine", Rachel responded. "The doctor said it wasn't a deep cut, which means the only reason he stitched it was to speed up the healing process. Besides, staying at Granny's all day would have made me beyond uneasy. An unnatural trait for a Ravenclaw, I suspect."

"A Ravenclaw?" David asked, frowning at her again.

"That's sort of how me and my friends met", Rachel explained. "We're fans of the Harry Potter-series and we all belong to a certain house, defined in this series by a set of traits. Gryffindors are brave, Hufflepuffs are loyal, Slytherins are ambitious and Ravenclaws are logical."

"So you define yourself by a set of traits from a book?"

"Says Prince Charming", she pointed out. "And no, we do not define ourselves by those traits only. Which is why I might not be the typical Ravenclaw; I act impulsively from time to time, which is more of a Gryffindor trait. Toby would certainly not do things like this."

He nodded, not sure what response he should give to this explanation. Luckily he did not have to consider it as he found they were nearing the bridge. He pulled the car to a stop.

"Rachel, I know the doctor said you should be fine, but I still think you should stay behind", he pointed out. "This could be dangerous."

"Do you really think..."

She paused, her eyes stuck on the rear-view mirror.

"Did you see that?" she asked. He tensed at once and looked at the object. All he could see was the gloomy forest.

"See what?"

She hesitated, then shook her head.

"I thought I saw something, but maybe it was just the forest playing tricks on me."

He still frowned.

"Stay in the car", he ordered and stepped out, grabbing his sword as he did. When he had closed the door he locked it, something she immediately noticed.

"What the..."

"Stay in the car", he repeated.

"You bloody cheater", she hissed as she tried to open the door. He ignored her and walked over to the trail, finding the bushes with their red berries at once. They were in the right place.

Rachel let out multiple curses as she tried to open the door to the truck. He was good, she had to admit that; whatever it was she had seen had distracted her long enough for him to force her into staying put. She pulled at the plug in the door in order to try to force it up, but it was jammed.

A rustling of leaves outside caused her to freeze in her movements and slowly turn around. David was moving down the trail next to the road, his steps determined, but there was one thing he had missed; a strange shadow was following him, flitting from place to place as it closed in on its prey. Her breath hitched and she looked around the car for a way out. The truck was old, she realized, and in order to open the windows you had to roll them down manually. The handle on her door was broken, which meant that if she would get out through the window she had to use the one by the driver's seat and thus turn her back on whatever was happening on the trail.

She looked up and saw that David has stopped, his eyes scanning the forest around him. He had felt that something was wrong, or maybe he had heard something she had not. It still caused her to crawl over to his side of the car and start to turn the handle. Slowly the window moved downwards and she growled at the pace. As she looked up she could see the shadow, which now looked more like a human in a cloak, was leaning out from behind a tree, peering it David. The look on his face told her that he had also seen it this time around. It flitted in behind the tree, vanished and then appeared behind another, closer to where he stood. The window was halfway down. She could see David reach into his pocket, taking out his phone and, while still keeping an eye on the strange shadow, dialled a number he obviously knew by heart.

"Emma, it's David", she heard him say. "I'm at the trail now and I think I found her; the Wicked Witch. I'm going after her."

He put his phone back in his pocket and raised his sword, slowly moving towards the tree. She gritted her teeth at the window; a few more turns and she should be able to make it out without any problems. Of course she had never tried to escape a locked car this way before, but she really had no choice.

She could hear the low thud of David's sword hitting the tree trunk and looked up.

"Behind you!" she yelled, noticing the shadow had moved once again. He immediately spun around to face his opponent just as she began to pull herself out through the window. With her back to the events proceeding at the trail she had no idea of what was going on, but she could hear the sound of someone hitting a tree. She gritted her teeth and moved to get her leg out of the car. This certainly was not as easy as some might make it look.

She tumbled to the ground, feeling the asphalt scraping her palms and causing her to hiss in pain, but at least she was now out. Pain could wait. She looked up and saw the cloaked being standing over David's unmoving body.

"Hey!" she yelled, causing it to look up. The face beneath the hood was shrouded in darkness.

"Leave him alone", she ordered. The next moment David rose, turned and plunged his sword into his opponent's chest. Nothing happened and his eyes widened. The strange creature then grabbed him by the neck and hoisted him up into the air as if he was lighter than a feather.

"Let him go!" Rachel yelled and rushed forward. She hit the strange being from the side, sending the two of them crashing to the forest floor while David went the other way, sword still in one hand as he gasped for air. Upon hitting the ground the hood fell away and Rachel, straddling the creature, hissed in surprise as beneath the hood was an all too familiar face.

"David?"

The creature grinned manically, before tossing her aside. She sat up, shaking her head to get the world to stop spinning. David was staring at his twin, who, in turn, stared down at him, his glare triumphant.

"Who are you?" David asked, scrambling to his feet. The cloaked twin smiled.

"I am you."

He drew a sword, identical to David's, and flicked it in the same manner.

"You're going to defeat me?" the twin said, still smiling in that wicked way of his. His voice was deeper than David's and seemed to echo, giving away that whatever he was it was not something natural.

"Well, don't let your fears hide the stench", the twin continued. "The stench of a scared shepherd boy who strayed too far from his farm."

David gritted his teeth.

"I'm not scared of anything."

He moved to attack, but his opponent parried, able to estimate every move he would make. The twin laughed as they moved to circle each other and Rachel could see that David's eyes were wide with the fear he said he did not feel.

"Well, if that was true, I wouldn't be here", the twin said with a wicked smile. David attacked again, but the twin grabbed him by his arms and forced him down on the ground, proving once again that he was the stronger one. Then, with one swift move, he cut David's sword into pieces.

"Don't you see?" the twin said. "Your fear makes you weak."

"No", David said and shook his head. "I'm not afraid."

"Saying so doesn't make you fearless."

"I will die to protect my family", David argued.

"Everyone's afraid", Rachel suddenly said, causing both of them to turn towards her. She had managed to pull herself upright with the help of a tree.

"Everyone's afraid", she repeated, her voice somewhat stronger than before. "Bravery comes from facing that fear, from admitting it."

"Cute little thing, isn't she?" the twin said with a smile, causing both Rachel and David to frown. The next moment he was in front of her, pressing her against the tree, his hand tightening around her neck. She struggled to push him away as she felt the air supply to her lungs being cut off. The twin smiled. Behind him David roared and moved to strike his twin with the broken hilt of his sword, but the twin grabbed him with his free hand and pressed him against the tree as well.

"Give in", the twin said with a smile. "It's easier."

David glanced at Rachel, noticing how blue her lips were starting to look. If he did not do anything now she would die and he could not allow that. Then, when he looked past her, he saw a familiar yellow bug coming down the road. Emma.

"I am afraid", he managed to croak out. "I'm afraid I won't be a good father, but I won't let that stop me. Not now."

With those words he plunged the hilt into the chest of his twin and, unlike the last time he had scored a hit, the twin looked stunned and released their throats. He then stumbled back and, as he did, dissolved into nothing. As his hilt fell to the ground in front of him he allowed himself to fall down on all fours, breathing heavily. Rachel had collapsed on the ground next to him, drawing deep, shuddering breaths with her eyes closed.

"Are you alright?" he said, squeezing her shoulder. She nodded and managed to open her eyes.

"I will be. Thank you."

He managed a slight smile before he reached out to grab the hilt of his sword. Just as his fingers were about to touch it, it vanished in a puff of green smoke.

Will post more later (unless I forget... again)