Neal Nolan

The road Charlie is leading us on is odd looking. It's nothing how I would've pictured a road to look like. We're surrounded by trees, and the ground is gravel. It's very hard to walk on, but we're managing.

Charlie and Robin are walking in front of me and Gideon, leading the group.

I look over at Gideon, who looks as if he's about to pass out. I can't blame him, he's emotionally exhausted, and going on this journey isn't going to help with that.

"Do you need to sit down?" I offer him, seeing as he might need to.

"I'm fine," Gideon says with a straight face and I give him a look.

"No, you're not. We both know you're not."

"I'll just rest when we arrive there, okay?" Gideon says quietly and I just nod.

Gideon eventually ran up to join Robin and Charlie, leaving me to walk alone. I'm not upset with him for wanting her company and not mine. Robin has always been his comfort person, and he didn't see her for a whole year, but he saw me.

Charlie noticed I'm walking alone and stopped, leaving Gideon and Robin to continue walking and for me to catch up with her.

"Hey," She says softly and starts walking when I walk next to her.

"Hey," I reply.

"I was just wondering if you need to take a break? Robin and Gideon say they're alright, but I wanted to ask you too."

That's thoughtful of her. How did Robin find such a nice girl like her to be on our side?

"Gideon's not fine, but he isn't going to admit to it. I'm alright though. Do you know how much longer we have?"

I grip my sword more than I already was. To be honest, Charlie could be leading us to our death, and I need to be prepared for that. Nice could just be acting, but Robin doesn't seem to think so, and Robin has pretty good instincts.

"Maybe an hour or so, we're not that far now," Charlie answered.

"Thank you for helping Robin, by the way. And us. I hope you know what you're risking by doing this."

"I do," Charlie states. "But it would be unfair of me to be aware of your situation and not help you."

I smile a little at her, "Well I appreciate it."

Charlie smiles a little at me as well before running back up to Robin. "We need to turn up here," I overheard her say.

We made it to Charlie's uncles by nightfall. Charlie told us to stay put while she went and talked to her uncle. That left me with Gideon and Robin, standing a little ways from the big cottage that he lived in.

"She seems nice," Gideon says when Charlie walks away. Robin nods. "She is, actually Gideon, there's something I wanted to talk to you about."

I assume she's talking about the spellbook that she told me about. "But it can wait until we know for sure that we can stay here," She added.

Charlie walked out after a few minutes, practically skipping towards us. "I have good news and bad news."

"Tell us the bad news first," Robin says.

"I would, but I have to tell the good news first. The good news is that my uncle is letting you guys stay here.. the bad news is that he's only letting you three stay if you do work around the place."

Gideon scoffed. "I didn't leave being a slave just to become one again," He tried to walk away, but I grabbed his arm, pulling him back.

Charlie frowned. "I'm sure I can convince him to pay you guys."

"Come on, Gideon. It's a good deal," Robin whispers to both of us.

Gideon sighs and gives in. "Yeah, okay. But only if I get paid," He says and points a finger at Charlie. Charlie salutes at him. "I will make sure of that. Let me show you where you guys are staying."

Charlie leads us into the cottage. It's a big place for a cottage, though the living room looks about the size of two cells from Fiona's castle put together, which isn't that big.

The kitchen is larger than the living room, and the stairs are right in the middle. There's a man who's sitting in a chair that's in the living room. I assume that's Charlie's uncle as he has red hair like her.

"Uncle Peter!" Charlie announced and walked over to him. "This is them," She says and waves her hand at all of us. "That's Neal, Robin, and Gideon."

"Welcome," Uncle Peter says. "I'm sorry about the situation you guys are in."

"That's quite alright," I speak up. "It's better than what we were in before."

Gideon, who seems like he didn't want to talk much on the subject, spoke up as well. "Where are our rooms?"

"I'll show you guys. There are only four bedrooms, so we'll have to split it two and two," Charlie says and begins walking up the stairs.

I've never had a bedroom. I'll admit, I'm a bit excited.

"I'll stay with you," Robin says to Charlie before Gideon or I could answer.

Charlie directed me and Gideon to the bedroom on the left. It isn't much, but it has a bed, and I only cared about having a bed. I set the very few things I have down before running and jumping onto the bed. "Oh my god," I moan. "This is so comfortable."

Gideon lays next to me, staring at the ceiling.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask, knowing that he was obviously still upset about what happened to Roderick. Anyone would be, and it's not like it's been months, only a few hours.

Gideon shakes his head. "I just want to sleep," He whispers. I hope he doesn't think that this is all a bad dream that he'll wake up from if he falls asleep.

I nod at him and get up. "I'll be in the other room," I state and turn the light off, leaving the room and shutting the door behind me.

I don't know what room the girls are in, but I hear giggling down the hall, so I walk towards it. I find the room that's the source of the giggling, and I knock on the door.

"Who is it?" One of them called out, I can't make out who.

"Neal," I reply and the door opens, Robin standing behind it. "Just you?"

I nod and walk in when Robin moves out of the way. Their room looks different, it's the opposite of mine and Gideon's, just more furniture.

"Gideon's asleep," I say as I can feel both of them wondering where he might be.

"That'll be good for him," Charlie says and Robin adds to her sentence. "Yeah, it's been a long and hard day for him. We're about to sleep, too."

Now I feel as if I'm invading. "Oh, do you need me to leave?"

"Nah, Charlie has something she wants to ask you anyway."

I raise an eyebrow. "Oh?" I looked over at Charlie who was pulling clothes out of the drawer.

Robin slaps my arm out of nowhere. "Stop making those eyes at her, you just met her." She hisses at me.

"What eyes?"

"You know, the eyes you make whenever you're about to flirt with someone. It's not that kind of question," Robin rolls her eyes.

"Oh," I reply.

Charlie turns towards me. "You have a sword, and Robin says you know how to fight with it?"

"Sort of, not really. I haven't had it long."

"Don't be modest, you're a natural, and a good fighter too," Robin says who was now laying on the bed.

I blush from feeling flattered.

"I was wondering if you could teach me? I've never had any fight training and all of you have weapons."

"You did well during the fight with those guys," Robin points out.

"That was just luck," Charlie shrugs.

I'm honored that she wants me to teach her, as she hasn't even seen my fighting skills. I personally think I'm not the best fighter, but Robin and Gideon seem to think that I'm the best they've seen. I know there's better.

"Sure, yeah. We can train tomorrow after work or whatever," I said coolly.

"Cool," Charlie answers, and I could tell she was holding back a grin.

Robin Mills

The next day wasn't as tough as I had been expecting it to be. The chores I was tasked with weren't difficult at all. Let's just say, I've done harder stuff for Fiona when I was younger.

I'm also getting paid for this, which is something Fiona would've never even dreamed of doing.

The first chore I completed was picking fruits and vegetables from the garden. I placed them all in a basket and carried them to the kitchen. I spotted Charlie making lunch and decided to help her with it, even if I wasn't supposed to.

Neal had to feed the animals in the barn. That seems like the perfect job for Neal. As for Gideon, he wasn't awake yet. Charlie convinced her uncle not to condemn him for it, as he had just lost someone important to him.

Now, since we completed all of our tasks, I'm outside. I'm sitting on a log with the spellbook, hoping to practice some spells before the end of the day.

Then, someone, who I wasn't expecting, sat next to me.

It's Gideon.

"Practicing spells without me? I'm hurt," He jokes. Who told him about the spellbook?

Although, I'm happy to see that he's in a better enough mood to be his usual, sarcastic self.

"In my defense, you were asleep, and you're cranking when we wake you up... Who told you about the book?"

"Charlie," Gideon shrugs. "I asked where you were and she said you were out here studying with the spellbook... Where did you find it?"

"That's actually an.. interesting story," I start, debating if I should tell him I found it in his father's castle.

"An interesting story is exactly what I need to hear right now, honestly."

He's right, so I decide to tell him. I explain how Charlie and I were running from some men that were trying to take me back to Fiona, and how we stumped among a castle. I explained how that castle belonged to Rumpelstiltskin .. Gideon's father and how I found both the spellbook and my bow there.

I look over at Gideon when I finish the story, his brown eyes blinking rapidly. "Wait.. so you found it in my father's castle?"

I nod at him and he pouts. "I want to go! But it wouldn't be smart.. Fiona probably knows about it."

"Yeah, that's why Charlie and I didn't stay long. We left when we knew the men did."

Gideon and I just sit there for a moment, as I can tell he's deep in thought. I need to talk to him about another thing.. Something Neal told me he did.

"Let's get started on the spells, shall we?" Gideon stands up but I gently grab his wrist. "Wait, there's one more thing I need to talk to you about."

I can see a bit of annoyance on Gideon's face, as Gideon is the type of person who hates waiting.

"Neal told me about what you did to Mark," I say when he sat back down.

"Well damn, did he tell you my whole life story while he was at it?" Gideon mumbles.

"Don't be like that. He was worried. I'm worried too! You need to be more careful, Gideon."

"I couldn't control half of it!" Gideon argued. "I was angry and it just kind of.. happened, but I wanted it to happen, too." Gideon continues before I can say anything else. "Magic like that always comes with a price, I know. And if it comes back to bite me in the ass well.. that'll be my fault."

I frown at him. "Maybe we can figure out a way for you to channel all that anger onto something else."

"Like what? A tree?"

"Yes, actually," I stand up and walk. Gideon runs after me.

I find a big tree and pat it. "That'll work. Pretend this tree is Mark," I suggest and back up.

"Are you sure this'll work? What do I even do?"

"I don't know.. attack it. Let that energy out on the tree."

Gideon looked skeptical like it won't work, but I believe it will. Gideon stays saying spells and throwing balls of magic at the tree until he eventually got to the point where he didn't even need to say the spells for them to work.

I knew it would work, I think proudly.

Gideon stops after a while and looks over at me panting. "That was fun," He says.

"You looked like a badass," I grin and him and walk over, high fiving both of his hands.

"You give it a go now," Gideon says to me and repeats the same motions I did when I told him to do it.

I look over at Gideon before looking at the tree, closing my eyes and pretending it was Fiona standing there. Pretending it was Fiona taking her away from her mother as a baby, as if I have to put a stop to it.

All the spells I know ran across my mind, but I put my focus on one. I conjured a ball of magic in my hand (like Gideon did) and threw it at the tree, the tree taking some damage from it. I threw a few more until eventually, there was a hole in the tree.

Gideon looks at me, his mouth is agape. "My god.. What did that tree ever do to you?" I laugh a little. "You were right, that was fun."

"Told you!" Gideon grins at me and I roll my eyes playfully.

"Come on, let's actually go learn some spells now."

Gideon Gold

Robin and I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing spells. It would've been a good distraction if I hadn't been mostly faking my mood the whole time. I wanted Robin to think I was feeling better, which I'm not. Although, that tree experiment did help.

I was about to walk back into the cottage to cry when I heard the sound of fighting. I look over and see Neal and Charlie fighting in the distance. It looks like they're sword fighting

Who let him have another sword?

Maybe I should join them.. maybe it'll be an actual distraction. If I had known how to fight sooner, maybe I could've saved Roderick..

Why not? I walked over to them and had to watch them fight for a solid minute before they noticed me. I listened to the sound of Robin shooting arrows to pass the time (as she had started practicing with her bow when we finished with magic).

"Gideon, hey," Neal says from under Charlie, who has a sword to his neck.

I smirk at him. "How does it feel to finally lose a fight?"

"Whoa, you mean to tell me I'm the first person to vanquish him? The honor I'm feeling right now.." Charlie jokes and gets off of him, Neal chuckling as well and standing up.

I don't find it as funny as the two of them do.

"What's up?" Neal asks me after putting his sword away.

"You didn't have to put your sword away, I came to ask you if you could train me too?"

Neal raises an eyebrow. "You? Want me to train you?"

"Yes.. is it so bizarre that I'm asking?"

"Yes!" Neal empathizes, but I could tell he was holding back a smile. "I always have to ask you to spar."

"Today is your lucky day then, Charming."

Neal glances over at Charlie. "Do you mind?" He asks her and she just shrugs. "I need some water anyway. Do the two of you want any?"

I nod quickly. I didn't realize how thirsty I was until right now. "Please," Neal says and picks up the two swords he now had.

"Okay, where did you get another sword?"

"Robin used a spell to duplicate mine."

Oh, that makes sense.

Neal hands one of the swords to me. "We'll start with swords. Sword fighting is easier to teach than fist fighting."

Neal shows me the steps. First, how to swing a sword while still being able to control it, then, he and I fought with them a little bit. He showed me how to block and disarm. I even was able to jump over his sword when he swung it at me once. This sword thing isn't as hard as it looks.. well, as long as you don't get slashed with it.

"I need a minute," I tell Neal when he disarms me. I just sit down on the ground, rubbing my temples as I had started to think about what happened to Roderick again.. How he died in my arms, how I could've saved him, how it was my fault... I didn't even notice that I started tearing up.

Neal kneels in front of me. "Gideon, whoa, hey. What's wrong?" He asks, concerned.

"Just.. this reminded me of what happened to Roderick is all."

Neal frowns. "What happened to Roderick was an accident. Do you want to just stick with sparring?"

I nod a little, still wanting to train. Neal extends his hand to help me up. I take it and stand.

"You were doing really good, by the way. With a bit more practice, you might become just as good as me."

I scoff. "Just as good as you? I'm going to be better."

Charlie Flynn

After bringing the boys some water, I had two things I had done. The first thing I did was calm my uncle down, who was mad at the fact that Gideon never did any chores, and I had to explain to him how someone he cared about just died. I felt horrible for him. I didn't know that 'Roderick', but he didn't deserve to die that way. The second thing I did was prepare dinner.

As I had been preparing dinner, I thought of an idea that could possibly help the trio's case. I had remembered my conversation with Holly and how Mariah and Gustin Whittaker's birthday was coming up. I had seen my uncle get an invitation to it in the mail, not surprised that he was invited. My uncle gives some of his crops to the royals.

If I could get them to change his name to my name, then maybe I can get the three of them in to talk to Mariah and Gustin. Mariah and Gustin also have magic, and their family has been trying to put a stop to Fiona for years, but they've never been able to. But with Robin, Neal, and Gustin's help, maybe they finally can.

I just need to talk to the three of them about this plan first.

Sparring with Neal had been fun. I was happy to have learned something useful. I want to be able to help them if Fiona ever finds them again, and I'm pretty useless compared to the lot.

They all came in soon after I had finished dinner. Uncle Peter had been the first one at the table.

I sat down to eat once everyone else had gotten their food. "There's something I want to talk with you all about.. I think It could help with your.. you know who problem."

The three of them looked at me, hopefully, while Uncle Peter just looked at me, confused.

"There is this prince and princess.. their names are Mariah and Gustin Whittaker, and every year for their birthday they hold some sort of ball. It's coming up and Gustin and Mariah just happen to have magic, and the Whittaker family has been after Fiona for years.. Maybe.. If you could convince them to help you guys, you could all officially be free."

"Is it even safe for us to be going? Our faces are everywhere, Charlie. You know that" Robin states. She's right, but there happens to be a solution to that.

"It's a masquerade. We would all be wearing masks."

"What if they don't want to help us and Fiona comes?" Gideon asks.

"As I said, they don't like her either. If she showed up, she would be out of there quicker than she'd be able to spot you all."

"I think it's worth a try," Neal says. "I mean if they decide to help us, it would be four against one with magic, and six against one altogether."

"Don't forget about the goonies, Neal," Gideon says grimly.

"How would we get in?" Robin asks before taking a bite of her food.

"Well, Uncle Peter got invited," I looked over at him. "I was wondering if you could change your name to mine? I know you won't even go anyway."

"I can try, yeah, but don't get your hopes up."

For the rest of dinner time, we all assemble our plan. Now, it's just up to Mariah and Gustin to decide what they're going to do.

Fiona Sangster

I waited for my goonies to get back while I dug through my things, trying to find the one thing I'm looking for. I was bored with destroying villages, it was time for my next plan.

I felt my hand move across a small brown box. Ah ha. I picked the box up and wiped the dust off of it. It's been a while since I've held this box, not having any need for the object that's inside.

Until now.

My goonies arrive back to my palace. I sit the box down before sitting myself down on my throne as they all walk up to me, but I noticed one is missing.

"Where's Roderick?" I ask them, not really caring where he is. I just turned him into a goonie to use against Gideon.

"Dead, Ms," Carmen states.

Wow. That's a bit extreme. I wonder which one of the runaways did it..

"And his body?"

"We had no time to grab it."

"Pity. So, where are they? Did you already lock them up in the dungeons?" I inquire, as I see no signs of the trio.

"No, ms," Carmen looks down, "They got away."

"YOU LET THEM GET AWAY?" I shout before composing myself. "Did you.. did you four at least find anything useful?"

"There was another one with them. A redhead." Dennis says.

"A redhead? What about this redhead?"

"Not sure. All we know is that she was with them."

I hum and stand up. "Well.. that can be useful. Off with all of you," I gesture for them to leave and they all do as asked. I shut the door with magic and lock it.

I walk over to the other end of the room and pull a sheet off of something that was being covered, something I needed.

My magic mirror.

I found this after I had found out about Regina Mill's, and I thought I need one of these, so I got myself one.

"Magic mirror, show me the redhead that is with Gideon, Robin, and Neal," I command, and she immediately shows up.

Ah, yes. I know exactly who she is.

"Charlotte Flynn.. so that's why you left the pub," I smirk a little as my plan was fully coming together, and they just happened to meet the one village girl I know much about.

I strut back over to my throne to grab the brown box. I open it to reveal a small velvet bag. I take the bag out and just stare at it, feeling it to make sure the object was still inside.

They won't be expecting this.

I open the bag and dump the magic bean into my hand, twirling it around my fingers. I smirk, feeling satisfied.

When I find them, this bean will send them to a world that is worse than anything they've experienced before.

A/N: Two chapters left omg

who is yalls favorite character? mine is either Gideon or Charlie