Chapter 2: Trust No One
"DAD!" Crystal calls into his shop. "Dad, where are you?"
"I feel sorry for you for having such an unpleasant man to raise you," Elsa whispers sympathetically.
"Oh, trust me, he did not raise me, all he gave me were the powers and hair colour... Dad!"
The haggard and shadowy figure of Rumpelstiltskin appears from behind the curtain of his shop. He comes up behind the counter as his daughter and Elsa approach him.
"Settle down Crystal, half the neighbourhood can hear you. To what do I owe the visit? And why is the Ice Queen with you?"
"We need information and we need it now," his daughter answers
"I already told you, I don't know where her sister Anna is."
"Not that, is it possible for someone to have their powers removed?"
"With a magic cancelling cuff, yes..."
"No, I mean permanently..."
"Most of the time... no, powers are often here to stay, you are born with them and therefore they can never go away."
"Like my dark abilities," Crystal mutters.
"You always did get the better half of me," Rumpel smirks.
A nearby China figure shatters shards all over the counter as his daughter glares at him. Elsa takes a step back, sensing the girl's own powers were reacting to her emotions.
Grinding her teeth, Crystal hisses. "Mom was better than you in every single way, the fact that she loved a monster is nothing short of impressive. You're nothing but a..."
"Has Emma come to you at all?" Elsa inquires quickly, not wanting the fighting to escalate.
Rumpelstiltskin looks from his daughter's face to the queen's and back. "Why would Emma come to me?"
"Her powers are out of control and she's scared," Elsa explains. "We thought she might've come to you about getting rid of them."
"No," he lied smoothly. "She hasn't been here if I'm not mistaken, she's been out in the woods all night and running away after she hurt her father and my grandson."
"It wasn't her fault..." Elsa protests, but her companion is no longer listening.
As Elsa speaks, Crystal raises her eyebrow and her stomach twists once. Maybe Emma was rubbing off on her, but something wasn't right. The girl hardly ever trusted her father and this was one of those times. She slowly lets her vision take over, she can see her father's dark silhouette and his blackened heart beating briskly, she can see Elsa's light blue/white energy and beating red heart too, but she can also see something else. Magic... the residue of magic... it is pure white, much like the kind of energy trail she found in the woods. There's a burned handprint on one of the wooden boxes next to the cash register that was still glowing with light magic. Crystal subtly looks up once and sees a shattered light bulb above them. She quietly clenches her fist, trying to act normally. Once Elsa is done, Crystal speaks up.
"Dad, are you sure there's no way to get rid of someone's powers, even drastically?"
"No, there is not," he says firmly.
"Okay, well thanks for the information, we need to go back to help Hook with the search, call me if you do see her."
"Will do... Crisi."
Crystal grinds her teeth together in anger, glaring once at her father before grabbing Elsa's wrist and guiding her from the shop.
Once they are a safe distance away from the shop, Crystal faces Elsa.
"Did your father just call you Crisi?" the queen of Arendelle asks in confusion.
"It's a nickname, anyways that's not important. We need to find Emma right now!"
"Why?"
"Because my dad's going to do something to her?"
"How do you know?"
"My special vision showed me remnants of Emma's magic all over the shop, plus a box on the counter had a burned handprint on it and a light bulb above us was broken, almost like it exploded. Emma did the same thing to her headlight."
"What is that?"
"Elsa, focus, please! He's lying to us, he has something to hide. We have to track Emma down now. I have a feeling that my dad promised to remove her powers, but instead, he's going to use her for something..."
"Like what?"
"No idea, but my dad is not to be trusted. He's as deceptive and as evil as Norman Bates working in a steak knife factory."
"What...?"
"Didn't Regina say that she was making a locator potion?" Crystal asks.
"Y-Yes,"
"Then we need something of Emma's and a sample of that potion..."
...
Crystal enters the apartment, deciding that Elsa should stand outside just in case her father had followed them; their signal that he'd done so was frost on the window. The two know that they have to speak to Emma alone, they are the only ones who can understand what she's going through. They knew Emma needs her family, but she also needs understanding, something none of her loved ones can give in this specific situation. The stakes are raised much higher now that Crystal suspects that her father might do something to the Saviour. Not wanting to put anyone else in danger, the two know they have to do this themselves. Luckily, the only ones present in the room are Mary Margret and her infant son. Everyone else must be out looking for Emma.
"Any luck?" the worried mother asks.
"No, but we may have a lead," Crystal says. "Elsa and I have searched by The Rabbit Hole and some of the backwoods, but nothing yet. We may have found tire tracks in the dirt. I just need to grab a phone charger as mine's dying." She tries to act as indifferently as possible, but very quickly. She climbs the ladder to Emma's room in the loft. Thinking quickly, she grabs Emma's red scarf, shoves it into her coat pocket, grabs a phone charger from the wall and hurries back down.
Fortunately, Regina has now arrived and is talking with Mary Margret. The former Evil Queen has more than just locating the Saviour on her mind, but also unfreezing her lover's wife. She has a bottle of light blue liquid with her and Crystal knows immediately that it's the locator spell. When the mayor places it on the table, the girl pretends that she's listening, but trying to find a way to get the bottle. Thinking quickly, she conjures up a bottle filled with liquid matching the one on the table and then she uses her telekinesis to cause a cup to fall to the floor and smash. Unfortunately, this frightens little Neal, making her feel guilty, but this distracts the two women long enough for her to make the switch.
"Sorry little buddy," she whispers, pocketing the potion. "I'm going to follow up on that lead."
"O-Okay," Mary Margret says, handing her son to Regina so she can clean up the mess.
"Wait, what..."
Crystal shuts the door before the former queen can ask any more questions. She meets Elsa in the alley behind Nolan's loft.
"Did you get it?" Elsa asks.
"I pulled a quick switch. So how does it work?"
"I think you apply the potion to the item and then follow it," Elsa assumes.
"Okay, let's hurry because the sun's going down and it will be harder to find her in the dark."
Crystal takes the top of the bottle and Elsa holds the scarf. After applying a few drops, the scarf leaps into the air and begins floating away. The two women are in awe for a moment, looking at magic in action, but they soon snap out of it and follow the object at a quick pace. The long, slender thing almost acts like an arrow, pointing them towards their friend Emma.
"Hurry," Elsa pants.
The two are lead to the far side of town, an area unfamiliar to Crystal. The scarf goes to a house, a large mansion. Some lights are flickering inside. The Dark One's daughter lets her vision take over, she can see a large mass of energy inside. It looks very powerful and has a weird shape. She can also see Emma's silhouette within the confines of the house.
"My dad put something inside there, something with a lot of power. We have to hurry."
The scarf leads them to the back door, which then drops to the ground. Scooping it up, Elsa hurries inside, when Crystal senses that something is very off.
"Aren't you coming?" the snow queen asks.
"I will just give me a second, just start talking to her."
"Okay, but be careful..." the platinum blonde warns before vanishing inside.
Crystal can feel the dark energy radiating from inside, but something else is out there.
Without warning, something hits her from behind, freezing her on the spot. She is unable to move, she looks around frantically, trying to find her attacker, but sees none.
However, in the shadows of the home, Rumpelstiltskin frowns.
"We never can trust each other, can we?" he murmurs. He then teleports to the front of the house to meet a very distressed pirate.