Chapter Thirteen: Let it Go and Let it Fly
Neal found Robin outside of Mr. Gold's Pawn Shop.
"Why are you not at home yet?" Neal demanded. He then remembered about the wand and how the Black Fairy could track them down because of it.
"Relax Neal, I was coming home. I just had to get rid of some goons first." Robin explained. And she didn't really want to go home. She was having a good time being by herself, taking a minute to reflect. Heck, she had even read a couple of chapters from the book Mr. Gold had given her.
"I needed some time, Neal. Some time to just get a break and not feel like I was about to lose it." Robin admitted.
"Granny watched my stuff in the diner so I could go for a run. I was able to have some lunch, look over some online school work by logging into one of the computers at the library. I rested, I relaxed. And I even bought a wand." Robin pulled the box out of her bag.
"To be honest, I think it's just a stick, but Mr. Gold referred to it as a wand."
"Charlotte told us about it. It's dangerous." Neal commented.
"Yeah, I guess if you have it to close to your eye and then you trip over something-"
"Robin, it can be magically traced." Neal blurted.
Oh man, more about magic. Robin was hoping that she and the others had just been hallucinating the night before. Surely she didn't have any magic?
"So the Black Fairy has been able to track me because of her wand?" Robin asked. Neal nodded.
"Then how come she hasn't come for it yet? I'm apparently on her most wanted list, why not try to come take the wand away?"
"Maybe she doesn't know yet?" Neal guessed.
"Neal, it's a stick. It's nothing fancy, just looks like old bark." Robin said. She saw how worried Neal was, and asked for his phone. Calling her own phone, Robin had Charlotte hand the phone over to Henry.
"Is this stick some sort of threat?" Robin greeted. Henry asked for a photo of it, and Robin texted him one.
"Yeah, that's one of them. To be truthful, the first time the Black Fairy came to StoryBrooke she ended up getting a hold of another one." Henry said. "But she later took this one, when you two were smaller."
"Alright, so what's the big deal about it? Can it help us break out of the town?" Robin suddenly realized that none of them had considered that.
"I'm not sure. That would require some difficult spell most likely, and those books are in my mom's vault-"
"We can head over there and grab them." Neal said. "Then we can come back home."
"Better yet Neal, meet me at the crypt." Henry suggested.
"I'll know what book to look for. Besides if Robin comes back, the mayor could start tracking the wand-"
"It's a stick!" Robin said in a frustrated tone. But Neal could see the crack to open the box glow, which didn't look good. Robin put the box back in her bag.
"Henry, it's getting dark. You want us to wander through a graveyard to a crypt?" Robin demanded.
"Uh just Neal." Henry said. He knew where a certain tombstone was in the graveyard, and didn't want Robin to see it. Not yet.
"Where do I go?" Robin asked.
"How about the town line to see if your magic will work?" Charlotte suggested. The kid had a lot of faith in Robin, which is something she didn't have in herself.
"Where is Charlotte going to go?" Robin asked. Henry suggested that she could stay home, but both Robin and Neal shut that idea down.
"No way. Besides, the Black Fairy could track Robin's phone because it was near the wand earlier when she had it. And it was beside that storybook you have."
"Okay, so I'll come down with Charlotte and we'll look for the right book. Robin, you could wander around town and find a present that you want for your birthday."
"Honestly Henry, all I want is to go home."
The mayor had left her wand in Mr. Gold's shop on purpose. She had retrieved it in order to get rid of all the heroes of course, but then it wasn't needed as much. Also, she was worried that Henry could wake up, or that one of those pathetic heroes could come back and find the wand if it was in her office or the mining cave. So Fiona traded the wand in to Mr. Gold's shop. Well, a trade didn't actually take place. She gifted it to Mr. Gold, who decided that it was pretty valuable and that he wasn't wanting to sell it.
Therefore, Fiona cursed in anger in her office when she saw that the wand was gone. Another surveillance video was requested by the mayor since two of her goons saw Robin and that brat who escaped the mines go into the store. When they were inside the goons didn't try to go near them because they had known who Mr. Gold really was. And Rumpelstiltskin was not a man to be trifled with.
When looking over the tape in her office, Fiona saw that her wand was not where it usually was. If an item was kept at the back of Mr. Gold's shop, it was never moved from there. Usually his most valuable items were kept in the back. Therefore if it was no longer there, Mr. Gold no longer saw the value in the wand, and most likely sold it. Fiona was surprised at how many magical trinkets and objects had been sold to the townsfolk over the years. But since her magic was well controlled and rarely used, none of the objects could cause any harm. But now that another magic user was in the town…
Fiona pulled out her cellphone and called her main henchmen.
"Go throughout the town and find any magical items you can. Take them to the mining cave and hide them. We don't want any more escape artists."
"So the wand is no longer safe?" The man asked.
"Apparently Mr. Gold didn't find any worth in the wand and sold it to that girl!" Fiona admitted with a frustrated tone that was equal to Robin's.
"Well, those brats are back in town. Can you not just track down the girl and get the wand back?" The man asked.
"There's the problem." Fiona spat. She ordered the man to locate the other three, who she could actually find quite easily. Henry had been correct in that the Black Fairy could track Neal's phone. It was surrounded by magic, which acted as a homing beacon for the mayor.
But Robin was more frustrating. She couldn't be tracked. Something blocked the Black Fairy from locating her, which had made the past day an ever so boring routine of regularly checking in with her henchmen and hearing what they had seen. Most of them were quite useless and were sent back to the mines as punishment. Some were so worthless that they didn't even get sent back to the mines. Their punishment was far worse.
So yes, Robin Hood was protected. But the Black Fairy smiled, because her three friends were not so lucky.
Even though Robin was well protected with her magic, Henry was clever and had more experience. He had been wondering why the Black Fairy hadn't stopped by and paid Robin a visit. But his main focus was keeping Neal and Charlotte undetected, because in Henry's books they were just as much of a nuisance to the mayor as Robin and he were.
Neal had broken Henry out of jail after having only arrived in the town two hours earlier, and he hadn't needed any magic. Charlotte had broken out of the mining cave not once, but twice, and she was only nine.
And since Henry had been a thorn in the Black Fairy's side for a while now, he knew that the three of them would be just as wanted by her. Not for something they possessed, but just so that they would stay out of the way.
Henry told Neal to leave his phone somewhere in the town. Neal begrudgingly obliged. He hid his phone in an alleyway, and Henry wondered what would happen to the three of them if they were caught.
Charlotte had escaped the mining cave twice already, so Henry knew that the Black Fairy wouldn't be as lenient. But would she be willing to kill a child? Henry didn't actually know what happened to those kids in the cave. He doubted that the Black Fairy would go that far, but she would certainly do something horrible.
Henry glanced at Neal, and knew that he would probably survive. Sure, he would find himself being tortured and humiliated beyond belief. But the Black Fairy would most likely throw him in the mines, and maybe after a few years, give or take, allow an "accident" to take place.
Meanwhile, Henry knew what would happen to him. He had already interfered with the Black Fairy's original plan back in the day, and helped end her run as mayor. Now he was wide awake and helping to stop her once more. Also, Henry was a Charming, which didn't sit well in the Black Fairy's book. He was also her great-grandson, but to be honest Henry thought that was probably more annoying that useful.
Henry had seen too much and done too much to survive if he were caught. He may have been sent to wherever the rest of his family was, but Henry didn't know if they were still….
Robin was the one that Henry had no idea about. He wondered why he pondered about what could happen, since it was a subject that was rather depressing. But he wasn't too focused on anything else as he and the other two walked to the graveyard.
The Black Fairy had met Robin when she was a baby, having actually held her to antagonize Zelena. Then she met Robin as a toddler, and seemed amused with the idea of making her and Neal mine workers. But after Robin fought back, not once but now twice, Henry didn't know what the Black Fairy would do. He was sure that she would take Robin's magic, but he didn't know if that would cause Robin's end, or merely weaken her to such a degree that she couldn't do anything else.
There was too little on Henry's mind at that moment. He needed to think about something else.
"When is Robin going to find out about her dad?" Charlotte asked.
Not the subject I was wanting to think about.
Robin walked down past the sheriff's office, and was tempted to go inside. But she didn't feel like breaking and entering. She had already broken a law by helping Henry escape the hospital.
Robin was actually hoping that Charlotte could hang out with her while the boys were busy, but that wasn't the case. Henry was still worried about the wand and didn't want to risk Charlotte.
So Robin walked past different stores and noticed some nice items. She looked at the different bike models in the bike shop and visited the animal shelter.
But she was lonely. Solitude had been good earlier in the day, but it was dark out now. And she didn't have a safe way of reaching Neal, because Henry was so worried about her phone being traced. Robin didn't know that they hadn't even gotten to the crypt yet.
"What do you mean, Charlotte?" Henry asked through gritted teeth. Neal had walked ahead and was looking at different gravestones he walked by. He had passed by the gravestone that belonged to Robin's dad.
"We both know that he's dead. Robin should know too." Charlotte protested. Henry sighed.
"You don't think I don't know that? But think about it Charlotte; Robin's magic is finally visible again, after fifteen years. How stable will it be when she realizes that her family is missing and that her father is dead?" Henry asked.
"Shouldn't that be a risk you're willing to take? Think about the secrets kept in your family."
"Robin is my family. And so is Neal. I don't want Robin to be hurt."
"It doesn't matter because either way, whether we tell her now or wait till later, she'll be hurt. You knew and didn't say anything. I just found out and want to tell her the truth."
"She will know. She'll know about everything. But I want to know where the rest of our family is before I tell her that her dad died protecting my mom." Henry admitted.
Charlotte paused, and sighed as well.
"Okay, that does make sense. But she won't be happy about it."
"I'm not happy about it either. But I want to know the fate of our family first before giving her more information." Henry said.
Neal waited outside of the crypt, and Henry looked down at his watch. It was pretty late, but he and Charlotte went inside the crypt while Neal waited outside.
A few minutes passed, and Neal could hear other voices. Not knowing what to do, Neal hurried inside the crypt, and saw something odd. A bow and sheath of arrows was in the corner of the room, and Neal decided to borrow them.
"The guy won't mind, he's dead." Neal reasoned. Grabbing both items, Neal went back outside, and saw a group of men standing on the path. One of them was looking at a gravestone beside the path, which was the one that Henry and Charlotte had been arguing about earlier. The man pointed it out to one of the others.
"That's the kid's father, nimrod. She isn't dead. Not yet at least."
"Yeah, alright. But this kid might be by the time we're finished with him."
Neal looked back at the crypt, and sighed. It was obvious that there were other people inside. Neal wouldn't be guarding a closed crypt, whereas this one was wide open.
"Henry, can you just pick a book already!"
Neal hadn't used a bow in a long time. When he went to summer camp a few years back, he was given a quick lesson or two by the counsellors. He wasn't a bad shot, just took a couple of tries to get it right. But for some reason, Neal was the most determined.
He had ended up going to a sports and recreation camp that his dad had worked at years before. Neal was an alright athlete and one of the best in his class, but the camp was a different experience. He was lousy compared to everyone else. His self esteem plummeted, but the counsellors could see he was struggling and helped him out.
The other kids had two turns at shooting, but Neal had an unlimited amount. The other kids didn't notice too much because they were busy competing against one another. But not Neal. He was focused on those two afternoons where he could just shoot at a target.
The counsellors tried to give him advice about aiming for the bullseye, but Neal didn't like it. One counsellor said to imagine his worst enemy standing in front of it, but that wasn't Neal's style. Neal focused on the fact that he really enjoyed shooting, and somehow knew that it was something he would get better at.
When camp ended, Neal had told his parents about shooting and how he was getting better at archery. But there was nowhere for Neal to go to enhance the skill, and he didn't want to try hunting. So Neal never went back to shooting.
Now he had three goons to deal with. His immediate instinct was to shoot at them, but Neal wasn't wanting to hurt anyone. The bow and arrows felt more like props, like a distraction in a way. To be honest, Neal didn't know if he could handle these guys.
Would they follow me if I left the crypt? Neal didn't think they would, because Henry and Charlotte were still inside. Besides, the guys would probably just split up. So there was no point to that plan.
It was darker out now, around nine o'clock at night. The three goons stepped closer to the crypt, but didn't feel like coming further. Maybe they knew what was inside?
"Look kid, to be honest, we don't want to mess with you. The Black Fairy doesn't need you, she just wants you outta the way. So why don't you do that, and make it easier for all of us." The main goon suggested.
Neal shook his head automatically. "How about I don't listen to an old hag of a fairy and you three just get lost? That'd make it easier for me." Neal retorted. He wouldn't have called the mayor old if Henry hadn't shown him one of the stories in his book. Man, that lady was ancient!
"What's in it for you three anyway?" Neal asked. "I heard that mining cave is a terrible place to be found."
"It's all we know." One of the goons admitted. Neal felt sympathy for the guy, seeing how he felt about the whole situation himself. But he sneered at Neal anyway.
"Why don't you join us, and see it for yourself?"
"I'm good." Neal responded.
The main goon sighed.
"C'mon kid, we know you don't have any magic of your own-"
"How do you know that?" Charlotte popped up behind Neal, and he almost shot one of his arrows.
"He's a product of True Love too, he could have magic of his own." Charlotte defended.
"You know who my parents are?" Neal croaked.
"Why do you think you like the story of Snow White so much?" Charlotte questioned.
"CHARLOTTE!" Neal heard Henry from inside the crypt.
"We were working on getting to that part!"
"Man you tell these two nothing!" Charlotte complained.
"He don't got any magic, kid. But the Black Fairy does, and wait until you see what she has planned for you, you filthy little-"
One of Neal's arrows was launched from his bow, and hit the man straight in the mouth. But instead of piercing him, the arrow glowed and floated in front of the man's face. It coiled around his head and covered his mouth, silencing him.
Neal's immediate reaction was to look around and see if Robin was there. She wasn't. The Black Fairy? Not in sight. Even Henry was innocent of this action as he came up the stairs out of the crypt.
"Told you." Charlotte teased. The three goons ran away.
Neal dropped his bow, closing his eyes. He didn't know what had happened, and was scared to think about it. Henry looked over at Charlotte who mouthed a couple of words to him.
Look at his hands.
Sure enough, Neal's hands were glowing, and Henry realized that he had now had two magical users to worry about.
Speaking of which….
"Is that really how late it is? We need to get to Robin!"
Neal went to the small nursery in the farmhouse and sat, closing the door. Henry tried calling Robin, but couldn't get a hold of her.
"Maybe Neal's magic would do the trick and give us a boost?" Charlotte asked. Henry shook his head. Of course it would work, but he didn't want to bother Neal at the moment.
"We have to go out and look for her." Charlotte nodded.
"And by we I mean me. Keep and eye on Neal, I'll go find my cousin."
Fiona knew that something was different. But that was even before her goons had told her. Closing her eyes, she imagined her magic appearing in her hand. A black sphere of magic appeared. She then thought about Robin's magic, which she had come into contact with when she visited the town line. But there was something new. She was powerful and was able to pick up on this new magic quickly. Closing her eyes once more, she thought about this new magic, and opened her eyes. A red and orange sphere appeared in her hand.
Robin wasn't the only one she had to worry about now. After she had heard from the three goons that Neal had scared off, she order them to go to find him. But since Neal had left his phone in an alleyway, Fiona didn't know that the boy couldn't be reached. But as Fiona sat in her office, she decided to take a stroll, wondering if she would run into anyone she had been looking for.
"Why would it appear all of a sudden, Neal?" Charlotte asked him quietly. She had drawn him out of the nursery and made him some food. Neal shrugged, not knowing what to say.
"I still don't think it was me." He admitted.
"But I saw you. Just like I had seen Robin do it yesterday." Charlotte protested. "And I'm not blind Neal. You believed what you saw with Robin. She would believe if she saw what you did."
"But that's the thing Charlotte, I don't believe it happened because of how it happened." Neal explained.
"I had never felt like that before. But when I had that bow and those arrows, I felt strength."
Charlotte paused for a moment, thinking she had the answer in her own mind.
"You need to get back to shooting."
Somehow, Robin didn't feel very brave carrying a wand in her hand. She didn't even know why she was holding onto it, to be honest. A car drove by on the road as Robin walked. She was walking down the main street of StoryBrooke, looking at the wand. It was made of two pieces that must have been glued together, the rough bark sticking out in her head. Robin had expected a wand that was like Harry Potter's, something cool looking. This wand looked like a piece of scrap bark that ended up in the camp fire's at Neal's cottage in the summer.
Throwing the wand into her backpack, Robin looked at the time on her phone. It was almost ten o'clock, why wasn't she home yet? Something about what Mr. Gold had been telling her was bugging Robin.
Scratch that. Everything was bugging Robin. She was in a strange town with her best friend, walking down the main street at night with nothing but an old stick to protect her.
But seriously, it was as if Mr. Gold knew that Robin hadn't stayed in StoryBrooke after she was born. She left a couple of years later, but how did he know that?
Stopping in front of Mr. Gold's Pawn Shop, Robin looked at her reflection in the mirror. Would she be able to find her parents here? Would they want to be found? As Robin stared at her reflection, she noticed the swan on her token. She didn't even know if the necklace really belonged to her.
"It's a bit cold to be wandering around outside, Robin." Robin noticed someone behind her in the window. Turning around, Robin looked at Mayor Fiona. The mayor was eying Robin's backpack, and Robin could swear she felt something move inside it.
"It still feels like late summer." Robin answered back, not moving away from the window. She didn't feel like moving any closer to the mayor. Something felt wrong. Scratch that. Everything felt wrong. It was different from when she had first met the mayor a day ago. And that made sense, considering everything that had happened since they met. When Robin had first met the mayor, she felt guilty and anxious because of how she had helped Henry. But now it was different. Now she could see what Henry was scared of. The mayor looked evil.
The mayor gave Robin a smile, but it didn't seem genuine. She had a forced demeanor, as if she was trying to remain patient. Robin wondered how long it would take before her patience would disappear.
"I can give you a ride home, Robin." Fiona offered.
"I don't want to leave a young girl alone at night."
Robin started to feel uncomfortable. She remembered what Wyatt and Janice had been teaching her about safety, since her guardians hadn't bothered to brush Robin up on the subject. Wyatt and Janice had warned Robin not to go into someone's vehicle that she didn't trust. Robin had no reason to trust Fiona. The mayor hadn't made it obvious that she could be trusted, and all Robin had to do was ask how Henry felt about his adoptive mother to get a firm answer.
"That's alright, mayor Fiona." Robin dismissed, now starting to walk down the street. She was so tempted to start running. She bet that Jack would have been impressed with her time, since she would practically sprint all the way home in order to get there quicker. She even had on her running shoes.
"I'll be home soon. Goodnight." Robin wondered if she should have turned away from the mayor. Wyatt and Janice had warned Robin of something else along those lines, which were probably that she shouldn't turn away too quickly. In the midst of the moment Robin had forgot.
Robin could hear the mayor sigh and suddenly felt herself lifted off her feet. She exclaimed in fear, and felt something leave her hand, then heard a window shatter. She fell onto her back and was looking up at the night sky. The moon was a crescent shape that evening, bright in the sky. Fiona stepped forward and knelt above Robin.
"Trust me dearie, I insist."