At Gold's cabin in the woods, Ursula was outside on the veranda, overlooking the lake, as she listened to someone singing on an old radio. She's unaware that Cruella has come outside. "Darling. Come. You're missing out on all the fun." Then Ursula turned off her radio and followed Cruella.
When they were inside, August was still tied up on a chair. Gold, Caitlynn and Regina are standing together, watching him struggle against his bonds.
"I already told you... I don't know anything about this author." August looked at them.
Ursula entered with Cruella and walked over to August, holding a knife against his throat. "Well, perhaps you could use a little incentive."
"Oh, that knife is not gonna make me remember something that I don't know." August scoffed.
"Wait." Regina sighed as then she used her magic to take the knife from Ursula for herself.
"Is there a problem?" Ursula looked up at Regina.
"I knew she'd never the stomach for this." Cruella comment.
"Please." Regina told her darkly. "I was torturing people back when you were still playing with puppies. This sorry excuse for a man used to be made of wood. So let's light a fire under him and see what happens." Then she created a magic fireball in her hand.
Suddenly August looked scared. "Okay. All right. You know something? I actually, uh, do remember something about The Author." Then Regina throw her fireball into the fireplace, lighting the fire. "Um..."
"Don't hold out on us." Ursula comment, looking at him.
"W-when I was in Hong Kong, uh, before the curse broke, I met a mystic." August began his story. "His name was The Dragon. I don't know how he knew about the book, but he had been looking for the Author for years."
"And what did this "dragon" learn?" Caitlynn looked at him, with a scoff on her face.
"He died before I could ask." August looked at her.
"Oh, well, that's something you two are about to have in common." Gold comment as then he stood up and walked towards him.
"And after he died..." August told him. "I took his research. And I brought it with me to Storybrooke."
"Do you really think this man-child is telling us the truth?" Maleficent asked to Gold.
"Well, it wouldn't be the first time he's lied to my face." Gold replied to her. "I'm afraid I'm gonna have to pay a visit to his trailer to find out." Then he walked over to coat rack and took his jacket.
"While you're doing that, shall we carry on with the rest of the plan?" Ursula asked to him.
"Rest of the plan?" Regina looked surprised. "What aren't you telling me?"
"You're gonna have to do a lot more than just kidnap a marionette and torch a few logs for us to tell you everything." Gold replied to her. "In the meantime, be content that you've finally chosen the winning side."
Then Regina walked over to the fire and stares at it for a few moments as Caitlynn looked at her suspicions, before smoke quickly begins to rise to the top of the chimney.
-0-
Sometime later, Regina, August, Cruella, Ursula, Caitlynn and Maleficent were still in Gold's cabin and they were waiting for Gold to return. Regina sits next to August as she has the page of her and Robin Hood in her hands, slowly unfolding it. "What's that... more kindling?" August sighed.
"This page appeared to someone very important to me." Regina replied to him as others looked curiously at her.
August looked at the page. "Robin Hood?"
"How do you know about Robin Hood?" Regina asked, confused.
"Just 'cause the boy doesn't remember being me doesn't mean I don't remember being the boy." August replied to her.
"Well, you're right. Robin did find it." Regina looked at him. "But this page... it depicts something that didn't happen. And I think you know more than you're saying."
Just then Cruella noticed that Ursula suddenly got a bit uncomfortable. "What's the matter, darling? Is there something out there?"
"It's nothing. Just gonna go stretch my tentacles." Ursula replied as then she stood up and leave the cabin.
-0-
Regina gasped and woke up as Maleficent has been watching asleep. "If you're having trouble sleeping, I have something that might help."
"I'm fine. Thank you." Regina replied to him.
Gold entered the cabin and shuts the door behind him. "Hello, dearies."
"Tell us... did you find anything at the puppet's trailer?" Cruella asked to him.
"Of course not. I didn't even look." Gold chuckled. "The man's a born liar. He never would have cracked so easily. Instead, I paid a visit to the fairies. Or rather, a visit to their ample supply of magic." He pulled out a small potion. "Now, this potion can temporarily reverse any spell those do-gooders cast. They made him real. This can undo that. I promise you, dearie... This is gonna hurt." Then he removes August's gag and forces him to drink the potion, and very slowly August turned back into wood. "Now... Let's see if we can pull this puppet's strings."
August turned back into a man again as Cruella comment. "When you said it was temporary, you weren't kidding, were you, darling?"
"You see, you may no longer look like the puppet you once were, but it matters not." Gold looked at August. "That potion you just drank has activated that... built-in lie detector of yours."
"I don't know what you're talking about." He groaned as his nose started to grow.
"Excellent." Gold chuckled as the others watched him. "The next lie is gonna hurt." He forced August towards the fire and dangled his nose in it, August is clearly in pain. "What do you know about The Author?"
"I already told you everything." He lied and his nose grow once again as he grunted in pain as his nose gets closer to the fire.
"Try again, dearie." Gold asked to him. "Where is he?"
"I don't know." His nose grows once again.
"Do not fool yourself. I will get my answer." Gold comment.
"Okay." August sighed.
Gold pulled him back form the fireplace. "Where is he?"
"All right. I'm gonna tell you what you want to know." August looked at them. "The Sorcerer, uh, trapped the Author behind a door."
"The Sorcerer? A door? He's speaking in riddles." Cruella sighed.
"No, listen to me, Gold. You know about the sorcerer. You know I'm telling the truth. And she..." He turned to look at Regina. "She knows about the door. I know my papa gave you my things. There was a page that I took out of the book. Had an illustration of the door on it."
"Regina?" Caitlynn asked surprised.
"They were just scraps of paper." Regina looked at her.
"Then you'll have no problem sharing them with us now." Gold looked at Regina.
"Well, I would if I hadn't already given them to Henry." Regina told him.
Gold nodded, before looking back at August. "Do you remember what the door looks like?"
"Uh... Made of wood." August replied to him. "Hand-carved frame. Gilt in gold."
Caitlynn looked at him. "Where is the door?"
"All I know... Is... it's somewhere in Storybrooke." August replied to her.
Gold chuckled and pated August's back, before pushing August back onto the chair. "There we are, now. That wasn't so hard, now, was it? Since the sorcerer was the one who did the trapping, we will start our search for the door at his mansion. Maleficent." He started putting on his jacket.
"I'll stay here and watch the puppet." Regina offered.
"No, no. Cruella will be our guard dog." Gold told her. "Since you're the only one who's seen the drawing of the door, you're gonna have to help us find it." Then he, Caitlynn, Maleficent and Regina leaves the cabin.
-0-
In the past, 6 weeks ago. Caitlynn did a pregnancy test as she was still by her adopted parents, her mother was with her. The test turned positive as she looked at her mother. "It's positive, mom."
"I told you it would." Amelia comment.
Caitlynn gave her a look. "I know, mother's know best."
"That indeed." Amelia nodded.
Caitlynn rolled with her eyes. "Yeah, yeah." She looked at the test in her hands. "I should tell Gold."
Her mother told her. "Yeah, you should."
-0-
Present day, Regina, Gold, Caitlynn and Maleficent were walking back towards the cabin, after having an unsuccessful search at the Apprentice's mansion for the door. "Well, that was a royal waste of time." Regina comment.
"Indeed it was." Caitlynn muttered.
"The door may not be in the sorcerer's mansion, but it's somewhere in Storybrooke." Gold glanced at Caitlynn. "We will find it."
Just then Cruella screeches to a stop in front of them in her car as they were all surprised to see her. "What are you doing here? Where's August?" Gold asked to her as Cruella stepped out of the car.
"They rescued him... the heroes." Cruella replied to him.
"You had one simple task." Gold sighed.
"It wasn't my fault!" Cruella defended herself. "We have a mole."
Maleficent looked at Regina, before she looked back at Cruella. "Who would be foolish enough to cross us?"
"I know exactly who." Cruella told them. "Ursula. She sold us out for a reunion with daddy dearest."
"All right. We may have lost our informant, but we still have his information." Gold told them as then he turned to face Regina. "Bring us the illustration of the door. Maybe there's something in it the puppet missed."
"I will go with her." Caitlynn suggested as Gold nodded to her.
"Be careful." He told her.
"I will." Caitlynn nodded to him and kissed him as the others grimaced at the sight.
-0-
Not much later, Caitlynn and Regina went on their way to geo the page as Caitlynn stated to her. "I think you are the mole too."
Regina looked in shock. "What?!" She exclaimed.
"You heard me." Caitlynn looked angry. "You want it for yourself, that's why you let Henry snoop in Gold's shop and I think that Emma and the others also knows about it too."
Regina sighed, there no point in lying about it now. "Yeah, that because I told them with Henry."
"You shouldn't have, you can't trust them to do the right thing. Look at me and Gold, we have lost everything, because of them." Caitlynn told her. "Emma and Mary Margaret put us over the town line and we had to take care for ourselves, luckily my adopted parents helped us."
"What?!" Regina exclaimed. "I thought those were rumors."
"Well, they are not." Caitlynn scoffed. "My own sister and mother, can you believe it?"
"No, I thought they were good guys." Regina looked at her.
"Everyone has good and bad in them." Caitlynn comment. "And I know that for a fact and I see that in Gold and even in you and at all the others. Some of them are more bad and some of them are more good, but we all have that."
Regina nodded. "I know it well, yes."
"Then you know, we all have to work for our happiness." Caitlynn stated.
"Yes." Regina nodded.
"Then tell me, have you been telling them about us?" Caitlynn asked to her, she was asking about her parents and Emma.
Regina nodded again. "Yes, Caitlynn, you see we can't trust you all to do what we want."
"That's my parents that you are talking about, you have your own opinion?" Caitlynn asked. "Because you want the same thing as us."
"Yes, I do want that, but your parents…" Regina was interrupted by Caitlynn.
"Cut the crap, Regina. Let my parents outside of this." Caitlynn looked angry. "What do you want?"
"I want to find the author and rewrite my story so that I have my happiness." Regina replied to her.
Caitlynn smiled at her. "Well, now that we are on the same page, I suggest that you get the page for us and I will outside, when you get it." Caitlynn suggested.
"That's why you wanted to go to with me? To tell were my loyalties lie?" Regina asked confused.
"Yes." Caitlynn nodded. "I needed to know for sure."
"And Henry?" Regina had to ask.
"What about him?" Caitlynn asked confused.
"You wouldn't hurt him, right? Even he is on their side?" Regina asked concerned.
"Why would I hurt him?" Caitlynn looked at her. "First of all, he's my nephew and second of all, I love him very much even his is your son by adoption. Lastly, I wouldn't hurt children, I have a child of my own. Which bring me, do you know where she is?"
"By them." She replied to her.
"Thanks." Caitlynn comment, then she remembered something she wanted to say to her. "If you double gross me and my husband, you will be very sorry that you that you are alive." She threatened her.
Regina blinked. "You have been too much around Gold."
"No, you just don't me very well." Caitlynn comment.
Regina didn't believe it for a second as they made their way to the apartment from Mary Margaret. When they arrived there, Caitlynn waited outside as Regina went inside.
-0-
Caitlynn had to wait for a while as then Regina got back, but without the page. She wanted to ask her what happened, but she couldn't as Regina and she disappeared from there and was back in the cabin as Cruella comment to her. "Oh, at last. I feel I've aged a decade waiting for you two."
"Well, you certainly look like it." Regina comment back as Caitlynn looked at Gold, but didn't say anything yet, she needed to speak to him alone.
"Where's the page, Regina?" Maleficent asked to her.
"Don't tell me you failed." Gold was disappointed in her.
"The page was under a protection spell..." Regina replied to them, explaining. "Something cooked up by the savior. She almost caught me trying to break it. I had to flee."
"Emma isn't that strong." Caitlynn muttered as she made her way to a chair.
When she arrived there, Gold asked to Regina. "Are you sure that's what happened?"
"Of course I am." Regina replied to him.
Gold looked at her in suspicion. "It's just that you've been gone an awfully long time... And yet you come back empty-handed."
"I'm not empty-handed." Regina grabbed her phone and let them see a picture. "I got this."
"A photograph." Gold looked at the picture from the phone.
"Oh, and an incompetent one, too." Cruella comment. "That glare ruins any clear view of the door."
"No, that's not a glare." Gold explained. "That's magic. This door has been sealed by it. This is the door we've been looking for."
Maleficent looked at him. "You think the Author is trapped in an illustration? But that would mean..."
"The Sorcerer imprisoned him in the book." Gold looked at Regina. "We need to get it. Bring us the page."
"That won't be easy." Regina warned him. "The Savior isn't about to let it out of her sight."
"Don't worry about her. I've got just the thing." Maleficent smirked.
-0-
Not much later, Maleficent had put the whole town to sleep as she told them. "It's done. Now let's get to work."
Then they all began to walk as Gold and Caitlynn linked hands as he told to Maleficent. "Now, you know what you have to do."
"Quite well. The question is, do you?" She glanced at him.
"Our deal was that you were gonna help me find the Author and our happiness would be secured." Gold replied to her.
"Well, I'm altering the deal because, let's face it, you need that page from the book to get the Author." She told him. "And to do that, you need me."
"Do I?" Gold asked to her.
Maleficent glanced at him again as she began to speak. "I just put the town to sleep. I'm useful. And we all know Cruella and Ursula were a means to an end... me. That's why you haven't shed one tear over our tentacled friend's departure... because you have me. And to have me means you have to give me what I want. It's, oh, so simple. I need to know what happened to my child after those two heroes got rid of it. I need to know its fate. In return, I will get us both the Author. We'll get you the page. And once I know what they really did to my child, those heroes will pay."
-0-
They all arrived in Mary Margaret apartment as Caitlynn went to find Aubrey as the others went to find the page. "The savior looks a lot less threatening in this state, doesn't she?" Maleficent asked to Cruella.
She looked at her. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to wring her scrawny neck right now."
"Don't even think about it." Regina warned them. "I think we can all agree that killing the savior at this point would be ill-advised."
"You're right about that, yet wrong about the location of the page. It's not here." Gold told her as Caitlynn had found Aubrey and picked her up and carried her in her arms. Then he hurried over to them as the others looked surprised by his actions. "Is she okay?" He muttered towards her.
Caitlynn nodded. "Yeah, she is okay."
Just then, Regina comment. "We just have to keep looking. The page was here two hours ago. It didn't just grow legs and walk out of here on its own."
"Unless someone walked out of here with it." Gold looked at Regina, he knew who was awake, his own grandson.
Maleficent felt attacked. "I put the whole town to sleep."
"Except those who have been under a sleeping curse and are immune." Gold told them all. "I may know a resourceful young man who's wide awake. One who's very protective of the storybook and all its contents... one who's gonna test his mother's commitment, towards helping me."
Then they all walked out of the apartment as Regina told them. "No one goes near Henry but me. If you have a problem with that, you can take it up with one of my fireballs." With that she left them all to find her son.
"Follow her, and do what's necessary to convince the boy." Gold told to Cruella and Maleficent. "That page is the key. Let's not lose it when we're this close."
Cruella frowned art them as they wanted to leave. "Where are you two off to?"
"We have other business to attend to." Gold replied to her as then he and Caitlynn went away from them, with Aubrey in her arms.
-0-
They made their way to Gold's shop as then they saw Jackson laying on the ground close by Belle. 'What the hell is Belle doing by my father? And what do they in the shop? Arguing, maybe?" Caitlynn thought as then she spoke out loud. "What is my father doing with Belle?"
"Not a pleased conversation." Gold guessed.
"I figured." Caitlynn shrugged as then she put Aubrey on the bed and her father on a chair. Then she used her magic and let Belle go away from the shop. Then she made a letter for her father that he needed to watch Aubrey for a little while as they were still busy for Gold.
Just then Gold looked at Caitlynn and sighed. He began speaking in worry. "My love... I need to tell you this while it still matters. My magic comes at a cost, as you know. And I have racked up so much debt I can never be clear of it... Unless I find a way to change the rules. But now... Here's the hard truth. Something else is changing. So, if I'm gonna change the rules, I'm gonna have to do so quickly." Then they hear a vehicle approaching and it brakes squeak.
"I know you will." Caitlynn replied to him as then they went outside, knowing that Aubrey was safe and sound by Caitlynn's adopted father.
Cruella stepped out from her car. "What were you doing in there?"
"Mind your own business." Gold looked at her as then Maleficent and Regina stepped out of the car as well. "Did you find the boy?"
"We found the boy." Maleficent replied to him.
"I found him." Regina scoffed as she held up the page and gave it to Gold.
Gold grabbed it as then he looked at the page. "This is rubbish."
"What?" Regina scoffed.
"It's a fake." Gold stated. "You've spent enough time with the book. You should know the difference."
"They tricked me." Regina argued.
"What, you think I didn't suspect you?" Gold looked at her as then he glanced at Caitlynn. "I've been waiting for this moment. I knew it would come." Then he looked at Maleficent. "Maleficent."
"Wait, I can expl..." Just then Regina was also under the sleeping spell.
"Bring her to her vault." Gold ordered them.
-0-
Not much later, they were in Regina vault as Cruella stated. "Well, I say we just slit her throat right now, get it over with."
"No." Caitlynn stated.
"Well, if it's too messy for you, darling, Mal can incinerate her." Cruella looked at her.
"We're doing nothing of the sort." Gold agreed with his wife.
"She'll never help us." Maleficent argued.
"Of course she will." Gold looked at the sleeping Regina. "She just doesn't know it yet. I'll have something that the moment she sees it will make Regina do my bidding... Forever."
-0-
"Now that you're so confident Regina's taken care of, isn't time we took care of my needs?" Maleficent looked at Gold as he stood by the mirror with Caitlynn.
"You didn't get me the page." Gold turned to look at her. "You didn't earn your answer. That was the deal."
"That was the deal." Maleficent nodded. "But after all I've been through, I've more than earned my answer."
"I know." He looked at her as Caitlynn had turned to look at her as well. "And I want to give you a last chance to preserve what you have."
"What I have is pain." Maleficent told him solemnly.
"And pain fades..." Gold told her. "Unless you feed it. And this..." He held up rattle. "This could be the meal, you really don't want."
"Well, I've never seen my child." Maleficent looked him. "I don't even know what I had... a boy, a girl. I don't care how much it hurts to know its fate. I need this."
"I understand." Caitlynn nodded. "We are parents as well, we deserve to know what happened to our children."
Gold looked at his wife as then he looked back at Maleficent. "Now, remember, this was 30 years ago..."
They looked at a scene from the land without magic, it was way before the curse. There was a baby crying and a woman and a man. "Congratulations." The woman gave the baby to the man. "Your adoption is finalized. She's all yours. What will you name her?"
The new father replied to her. "Lilith. We want to name her Lily."
Then they the scene was over and Maleficent was relived. "She's alive." She breathed heavily. "And..."
"In this world." Gold finished her sentence.
"I must find her." Maleficent told him. "There has to be a way." She had teary eyes. "If she's out there... Someone must know her."
"And I will help you." Caitlynn told her seriously. "I know the land without magic better than anyone here. My twin sister as well." She scoffed at the end of the sentence also that Regina had double crossed her, she wasn't safe for her anymore.
-0-
Author's note: What will happen next? ;) And again I put two episodes as one and that are Poor Unfortunate Soul and Best Laid Plans.