Once Upon a Psycho

Chapter 2

Breaking the Curse

The night was dark and filled with a chill in the air, the graveyard cloaked in darkness and mist as the night air tickled Photon's skin, staring down at the only grave that he knew as a personal loss, and on the gravestone was the name Karone Psycho, and below that was 'a caring mother'. She was a good one too, he loved her as any child would love their mother, she had an elegance about her, but was never afraid to be as harsh as a military commander, she had blonde hair like he did, and blue eyes that sparkled, and she died far too young to truly experience life. After giving birth to him, she died due to a rare disease, non-genetic but still worrisome all the same, she died at the age of 26, gave birth to him at the age of 20, so he had 6 years to study her face, to memorize every detail he could, and 6 years to soak up all her knowledge. After her death he continued on with his life as best he could, dedicated to learning how to defend himself, to stay in top physical and mental health, and have regular checkups to make sure he's never caught off guard by a disease of any type, doing so for… how long has he done so?

An image flashed in his mind, a man in black armor, maybe a knight of some type, fighting others in costumed spandex, but as soon as he got the image, it went away, so he ignored it and knelt down by his mother's grave, "hey mom, been a while," Photon laid some flowers by the grave. He didn't say nothing more as he didn't believe in talking to the dead, visiting just felt like a formality to him, but it's become something akin to a habit, the greeting as well, but lately all of these actions have felt empty, hollow, and all around wrong at just doing half of them. It started a few months ago, around the time Emma came to town now that he thinks about it, but ever since then he's gotten the feeling that everything he's doing is wrong, like nothing he's doing he should be doing, his fist clenched as he stood back up from kneeling by the grave. Another image flashed in his mind of the black knight attacking citizens, hunting down many people and just out right killing so many other random people just because he could, nothing seemed sacred to him and everyone was fair game, the images stopped and Photon turned.

He decided to walk and clear his head, he had nothing on his schedule for the moment so he began his night going back to his place by going to Granny's diner, stopping by for some dinner would be good, and on the way he saw the most unexpected sight to see right now. Henry was also coming down the road looked glum, as if he had an extreme talking to about who to trust and his attitude problem, that could have been the case, or he just snuck out and wants to walk around somewhere, who knows what that kid does nowadays.

Henry clearly didn't notice him because he jumped when Photon said, "hey Henry," and looked up to see him looking at him with a blank face, the kid looked down in shame, either from being caught up in walking without an adult, or maybe from guilt of constantly avoiding him wrongfully.

"Hello Photon," he said back shyly, his shoulders slumping even further down than usual now, he fidgeted a bit and looked off to the side before glancing up at him, "do you think we could talk," he asked of the man, and knowing that he looked guilty about something, the man agreed.

"Yeah," the older man turned to Granny's and began to walk there, "come on, I was just about to have dinner," together they walked into the diner and found an empty table, it was the middle booth beside the window, Ruby soon came up to them, "hello Ruby, I'll have the usual."

"Of course," the young woman wrote down the order in a little notepad, then turned to Henry, "I guess you'll have you're usual as well," she assumed but waited for his head nodding to confirm, she noticed he was acting down so turned to Photon, silently asking if he was taking care of it.

When he nodded yes she left to get the food and fix it, leaving the two males to discuss exactly what might be going on with the boy, "I'm guessing Emma told you about the discussion that me and her had in regards to your recent behavior towards certain people of the town, didn't she?"

The boy nodded his head with it still being bowed to look at the empty blank table, "I'm sorry about that," the boy rose to meet his gaze and saw that there wasn't really anything dark or evil in them, but at the same time knew he didn't have a power like Emma did, "and missing lessons."

"The lessons aren't important Henry," Photon put his hands on the table and crossed his arms, "what is important is knowing that just because an imaginary curse," Henry was about to interject, "remember, to me it is, and to you it isn't, so on behalf of myself, it's imaginary." Henry lowered his head in submission to the point, "now, the main issue I have lies not in you believing in this curse, it deals with how you treat the people under the curse you believe in while they have no idea of why they are being treated that way," the boy flinched at the tone.

"Yeah, Emma kind of already explained that to me," the boy looked into his backpack before deciding to reach inward and grab something, it was a book filled with various fairy tales and such, "but after reading this it made sense for me to keep you and others at arm's length." Photon grabbed the book and began looking through the pages, noticing that many of the people in the book looked like citizens of the town, one such character was Red Riding Hood, who ate her boyfriend because she was the wolf instead of the wolf being a creature that ate her grandmother.

"Never let it be said that there aren't interesting takes on stories," the black clad man showed Henry the picture and the described scene, "and what is your end goal with everything, after the division of everyone that was a… hero and villain, which is only based on perception by the way."

"Well some acts are only based on perception, others are undeniably evil," Henry countered back before looking at the picture, he looked to be in a great debate within himself to reveal such information, "but the end goal is to bring about everyone's happy endings, to break the curse."

Photon set back and digested that for a moment, thinking of a way that would help to minimize the danger that might put him in eventually, "this breaking of the curse would have everyone remember who they are and make everyone be conflicted on their own personalities and lifetimes. Not too bad," he commented after giving a small rundown of what might happen, "but what about who they are now, such as Ruby, it seems here that she is Little Red Riding Hood, who ate her first boyfriend and was hunted down like an animal out of fear," he pointed out from the book.

"Well, yeah, early on, but look here," he then began to turn the pages of the book to other events LRRH was apart of, "she also went through so many other adventures that also let her control her wolf side, befriend Snow White, and help them in the war against the Evil Queen," he pointed out.

"Yes, lost both her father early on, and her mother as well from the looks of it," he refuted right back, "but that's my point, to get to a point where she might be mentally stable and happy, she went through much hardship for her to get there," he saw Ruby was about to bring their food. Photon got the book and closed it before looking Henry in the eyes, "though instead of assuming that Ruby or everyone would want all of their memories back," Ruby had now brought their food out and placed it in front of them for them to eat, "why don't we inform and ask her take on it."

"My take on what," Ruby asked and had Henry jump a bit at the appearance of the young woman, with his head bowed he handed the book to her and let her read about Little Red Riding Hood and told her that he thought that was who she was, "bad track record with boys, and all red."

"Sounds just like you doesn't it," Photon joked and got a play glare from her in return, he put his hands up in mock surrender, "we wanted your take, would you want those memories back if you were cursed to be Ruby," he asked her and watched as Henry waited for her answer.

"Honestly, while I wouldn't mind having the memories of some of these adventures, and the power to turn into a wolf," Ruby looked at the book one more time with interest before looking at Henry, "the killing of the boyfriend is a huge drawback, and here I have an actual future." She looked back at Granny and all around with a sort of fondness only reserved for the elderly before turning back to them, "I have the potential to run this place when Granny retires, the only stable diner in this place and it'll be mine, so she sounds like a badass, but I'll stick with being Ruby."

She left them to eat their meals after that, though Henry didn't really eat at first, "it's not that bad to be honest," Photon's words made the boy look up, "you're relatively young and are prone to make rash decisions and look at everything with a child's eye," he took a bite of the burger. Then a drink of his soda before looking at Henry again, and thought of something, "if everyone else is cursed, and Ruby could be filed under a 'hero', than who all are the villains here," he asked and the boy looked a bit more guilty here but opened the book to the last known page.

"The Evil Queen, my mom the mayor," he didn't even hesitate to call the woman that took care of him and fed him evil, "and various others that did evil things in the Enchanted Forest," then turned to a specific page during the final moments of the curse, "including you and what you did."

Photon read the page and looked on in a semi fury at the boy for what he was implying, "says here that Psycho Black crippled Snow White's arm," the man closed the book and narrowed his eyes at Henry, "what have I done since you've known me to warrant you thinking I'd do that?"

Henry bowed his head even lower in shame at what he had to inform him of, "I know that you didn't do anything, not the you that is you now anyways," he took a slow drink from his own hot drink, "but I have to ask what you think Regina has done since invoking the curse."

The older man didn't even need to think on his answer, "I know she did much that many would be in prison for, things that many would find deployable and anyone with a brain not believable," he took a drink of his own soda again, "but what makes you think that she remembers that place."

The boy knew what he was referring to, "as the one that cast the curse, she has to be able to remember to make sure the curse remains intact should it start to get weak and get rid of any elements that might disrupt her happiness, says it right here," he pointed to the book.

Photon looked over his plate that he had been eating absently and noticed his food was gone, then looked to Henry and noticed his plate was empty too, "then that means that you're unfairly treating the woman who raised you, and fed you, changed you, loved you because of this curse."

Henry looked more melancholy now than ever before, "but based on the curse than it would have left a hole in her heart, a hole that could never be filled," he said as he also finished the rest of his hot beverage, "it sounded to me that it meant she could never love anything but herself again."

"I don't think that's the case," he rose from the booth now, "I think what she needed to fill her heart was someone to care for, and she thought she got it when she got you for a son," he turned and started to walk off to pay for the food, and afterwards decided that it was time to go home.

Later

It was a week later when something happened, the vary strangest of things occurred, he was called to go to the hospital for something, didn't know what, but he was just closing up the Dojo when he got the call, and the one who called was the Mayor herself, saying to meet her there. So Photon began running as fast as he could to get there, it was just a few blocks away anyways, so even while on foot he got there around the same time as Regina in her car, she didn't bother explaining, just ran on in and expected him to follow, he did and followed her.

He followed her all the way to the emergency room where she frantically questioned, "where's my son," before going to the foot of his bed, and just as soon as she got there Emma came over and jerked her arm towards a random closet, Photon running in behind, "what the hell are you doing?"

He got there just in time to hear Regina ask that question as Emma forced her against a locker by the collar of her blazer, "Henry is sick because of you," she accused before revealing why he's sick, "that apple turnover you gave me, he ate it," that made even Photon pause.

"What," Regina questioned in shock before spitting out, "that was meant for you," it left the man stunned that she would do that, and so he turned away from them, not hearing Emma's mumble, "what are you talking about," Regina asked loudly and got his attention again.

"It's true, isn't it," Emma growled, the desperation in her eyes for the truth finally letting itself be known, "all of it," the mayor could do nothing but nod yes to the question, "I was leaving town, why couldn't you just leave things alone," she questioned the other woman about why.

"Because as long as you're alive Henry will never be mine," the dark haired woman replied back, it wasn't a good reply to be honest, it maid her sound a bit too obsessed with only her son and nobody else, of course based on what they were saying, it wasn't out of line to guess as such.

"Hell never be anyone's unless you fix this, you wake him up," the blonde ordered of the other woman before Photon finally stepped in and pried the women apart from each other, "don't you have magic," she question as the mayor was brought to tears, "or was that the last of it."

"It was supposed to put you to sleep," Regina growled out as she also held fury in her eyes, wanting to blame someone else but ultimately knowing it was all for nothing, "I don't know what it'll do to him, magic here is unpredictable," she didn't want to say, but she choked out, "so he could…"

"Both of you knock it off," Photon's order surprised them as he stood there leaning against a shelf with his arms crossed, "first order of business is to find someone that can help," he let them catch their breath as they decided on what to do, "who else knows about the curse that can help?"

"Where's one other person in this town who knows about this that can help, who knows about magic," Regina informed them and all of them knew instantly who it was, Mr. Gold, but of course he has another name, "you know him as Mr. Gold, but actually he goes by Rumpelstiltskin."

So they left the hospital and headed for the pawn shop that was owned by the owner of the town, Mr. Gold, as soon as they entered with Photon closing the door behind them he spoke, "do my eyes deceive me or is that the look of a believer," he asked them rhetorically. Standing before a case and looking at all of them, "it seems you need my help, quite the tragic ailment has befallen our young friend, I told you magi comes with a price and you should have been the one to pay it," he then looked to the other male in the room, "Psycho Black is back."

"No, my memory hasn't returned, at the moment I'm just another citizen helping out," Photon answer back as he crossed his arms and looked at the humanized imp, "can you help us or not," he had assumed that somebody made the thing, and he put his money on Mr. Gold.

"Of course, true love, Ms. Swan, the only magic powerful enough to transcend realms and break any curse, luckily for you, I happen to have bottled some," Gold informed, astonishing Regina, "from strands of your parents' hairs I made the most powerful potion in all the realms. So powerful that when I created the Dark Curse, I placed a single drop on the parchment, just a little safety valve, it's why you're the savior and why you can break the curse," he turned to Photon and pulled out from behind him a long staff with a circled bi pronged end to it.

"Let me guess, not without help form the black knight," Emma guessed and Gold nodded as he held it out for Photon to take, and so he did, "I don't care about breaking the curse, all I care about is saving Henry," she turned around to face the other man, "no offence to you though."

Gold continued, "which is why it's your lucky day, I didn't use all the potion, I saved some for a rainy day, and I'd say it's storming, wouldn't you, but where it is isn't the problem, getting it is what should worry you," he turned to Regina, "your majesty, is our friend still in the basement?"

"You twisted little imp, you hid it with her," Regina asked with both anger and shock, mainly at the audacity of the man doing something like that, whatever it was that she thinks he did, which was clearly something very bad in her eyes but that could be any number of things.

"No, no, no, not with her, in her, I knew you couldn't resist bringing her over," Gold than turned to Emma, "this is someone you should be prepared for," and wiped off a leather case on the counter, "where you're going, you're gonna need this, your father's sword," he told her. In the case was a beautiful sword, golden hilt and pommel with an intricate gold and black pattern for the grip, the blade a stainless piece of craftsmanship that was far above just the randomly done junk one might find at a low end flee market, or a comic-con, truly castle forged.

"You go prepare for what you need to do," Photon stated as he shouldered his newly acquired Psycho Rod, he left them there and headed straight for the library, figuring that was where to go, and he was right as not too much longer, an hour or so, Emma and Regina finally came there.

Regina unlocked the door and they went inside, and soon went to a wall with an art project on it, pushing it in and up revealed an old elevator, very old one, with various gears and mechanisms to operate it, and one major problem, "sadly it takes one to operate from here," she didn't like that.

"So the both of us are suppose to go down there," he observed as he stepped inside of the lift while noticing Emma's reluctance, "you're going to have to trust her since I have a feeling that we'll be facing a dragon, right," he asked the mayor and got a nod in return, "so just get in."

"Fine," Emma stated as she also got in the elevator and Regina lowered them down the shaft, "I have to wonder why you're not remembering anything, this should all seem somewhat familiar to you," she wondered as she took the sword from the sheath and leaned against the wall of the lift.

"No idea, it's almost worrying that I don't remember anything yet," Photon stretched a bit as he got ready to face a dragon, "but I guess that just means the curse has to actually be broken before I can remember," he guessed as they reached the bottom and pulled the gold gate up.

Emma stepped through and they both went through the tunnel, right until it opened up to a long cavern of some sort, with a long glass and wood coffin just in front of the entrance and a stone bridge just past it, she stepped forward and examined the coffin while he looked around. Soon she backed up to what they thought was a rock and leaned against it, that is where the rock began to move and revealed itself to be the dragon, which stretched out and breathed fire up to the sky, "to hell with this," Emma commented before dropping the sword and getting her gun. She put four rounds in the beast before moving to take cover behind a boulder as it breathed fire, Photon swung his staff and swiped up with it to hit the dragon, it didn't do any good though as the scales were far to hard for him to do any actual damage, this was not going to be easy.

Emma ran across the stone bridge, Photon following while jabbing and poking at the beast with the bi pronged end to fend him off, when she got behind cover his jabbed his staff into the ground to crack it and make the dragon fall, it didn't last long though as soon it flew back up to them. "Distract it," he ordered her as he ran around the long way, going around the edge of the cavern as quickly as he could while Emma put four more rounds into the dragon, yet it did nothing as it sent another blast of fire out, she hid behind some rocks just as Photon got to where he wanted. With great courage he jumped from a ledge and onto the dragon's back, being sure mindful about the spikes that lined its back, it rocked and swung around in an effort to shake him off of it but he held on and saw in that behind the right ear was a golden egg, "found it," he called out to her.

It was stuck in there though and the only way to remove it was if the dragon remained still, "don't think it'll let you pull it out though," Emma commented as she ran across a stone pathway to where she threw down the sword, Photon stuck on jabbing and prodding the beast with his staff.

"Never know until we try," he didn't really want to kill it, no reason to kill the dragon to be honest, and it took a few more pricks with the staff before the egg loosened, and fell from the dragon's ear, which shook it's head from the dislodged object and finally flung him off of it. Photon got his balance though and landed in a crouch as the dragon swung its tail at him, he rolled under it and snatched the egg up before quickly tossing it at Emma, she caught it as he turned back to the dragon, it slamming its tail into the rock bridge to destroy it. "Get that out of here, break this curse, don't look back," he ordered her as he jabbed at the dragon with the staff, Emma looked torn for but a moment until she turned and sprinted out of there, the dragon was about to chase before another quick jab made it refocus on him.

With a mighty roar it breathed fire and forced him to dodge it with a roll to get away and get under the dragon, he jabbed up and stabbed it into the beast's belly, it roared in pain before using a claw to swipe at him, he dodged the best he could, but it wasn't enough as it ripped his arm. Didn't rip it off though as Photon just felt it as a deep cut before the wind was knocked out of him when it swiped its tail his way and sent him flying backwards to slam into a wall, he got just enough sense in him to get up and run for cover as it breathed fire his way, a long stream of it. Felt like a minute of a constant stream, though he knew that in reality just ten seconds, before it stopped and a claw came into view to try and swipe the rock and anything behind it to dust, thankfully he went in the other direction to avoid that fate and got to the other stone bridge. Though the dragon wasn't having it as it flew to the other side and waited for him, knowing the other target was long gone now it stalked him, creeping closer and closer to him, one arm unusable as a few ribs were definitely broken, he got one idea but knew it would be his last.

"Oh well, here goes nothing," Photon turned the staff as if it was a spear and lined it up, the dragon knew what it was doing though and reared back itself to breath its fire, both projectiles flew and the staff imbedded itself into the stomach of the dragon as the fire hit his left arm. Not just his left arm, it seemed his entire left side was now burned badly from the fire, while the dragon was wounded from the attack to the point where all the fight was knocked out of it, for now at least until it healed, so he began to drag himself to a wall, knowing he was done fore. He thought back on his cursed life, so many things made sense now, the lack of comprehension of a proper timeline, the way he could barely remember anything before a certain point, the memories of those not real, it was as if he was seeing that falsehood clearly for the first time.

Then the air hit him, the breath of fresh air hit his lungs and he remembered, the fights, the grudges, the family that went their separate ways, it was all there, his life as the Black Psycho Ranger, his time as the one warrior that pledged to the evil queen, his fight with King Charming. He began to laugh, it started as a hollow and broken thing, something that wasn't quite all there, than it got more continuous, it went on more and more as his mind remembered who he was and brought what he truly was to the forefront of his thoughts, and became his dominate persona. He was no longer Photon Psycho, secret town saint and altruistic unsung hero, now he was who he truly was, a mind twisted into madness and a killer from the farthest reaches of the most evil controlled worlds, he was once again Psycho Black, evil Black Psycho Ranger.