Operation All Realms

Chapter 2

"Henry, you're the only one that's seen inside the storybook that's causing this; what happened?" Emma asked the next evening.

"I don't know what's happening now. When I found it years ago, it was bad enough I didn't want to ever see it again. And it wasn't causing damage to the other realities then."

"So whatever has happened with the story is so far off the mark it's even worse than what Isaac did."

"Yeah. One thing I remember from when I read that book- I realized that Henry thought he was the author, but he was a character in the book, not the author."

"How could you tell?" Robin asked.

"There were narrative paragraphs about Henry that I could tell were written by someone else."

"I talked to Morgan last night." Regina said. "She could see the reality where that book is being written. There are two main authors and then people subordinate to them that do some of the writing."

"Two authors, and this sort of committee that writes for them? It sounds like chaos already." Emma looked disgusted.

"The problem is in this reality they don't know they are causing chaos in the lives of the people they are writing about. They think they came up with the characters and everything."

"And to top it off, they aren't responsible at all. They change things midcourse, break rules they stated were unbreakable, people's ages don't match up, their timeline makes no sense, and just everything's messed up." Henry said angrily. "I don't understand why something hasn't stopped them."

Regina clasped Henry's hand reassuredly. "Morgan said it would usually happen, but that reality is already in such chaos that the forces of light were so overwhelmed trying to hold back the chaos from taking them into destruction, that they can't spare anyone to contain the authors."

"Maybe the chaos of that reality's book might be because everything around them has gone to hell in a handbasket." Robin mused.

There were several murmurs of agreement around the room.

"Or did the book's chaos trigger that reality's chaos?" Emma posited. "Remember what Isaac did spill out into our world, beyond Storybrooke."

"But it didn't cause chaos outside. It just shifted reality slightly in the rest of the world." Henry pointed out.

"But if it had continued? Would it have triggered the same problem?" Emma responded.

"Possibly. But what Isaac did triggered the response that stopped him. I agree with Robin. I think that reality's chaos made the chaos those authors are creating seem normal to them. You can't stabilize anything if everything thing is spinning around you. Chaos begets more chaos."

Emma shrugged. "Chicken or egg, doesn't really matter. What matters is what we can do about it. Now."

"It's not going to be easy, but Morgan said the problem this chaos has caused for our reality is part of the solution. Right now it's only making the barriers between realms and realities weaker."

"So we might get some accidental crossovers?" Tinkerbelle asked.

"Between us and our realities' Enchanted Forest, likely. Everyone be careful around the town line, and watch for bewildered strangers in our old land's clothes." Regina advised.

"What about other realities?" Maleficent asked.

"Possible, but less likely. On Avalon they are going to try contacting the other realities closely connected with ours and see if they are aware of what's happening and if they want to help stop this. I don't know if anyone outside of Avalon can do this."

"What about your mirror spell, Regina?" Robin asked.

"Maybe, but I don't know if I'm powerful enough alone. On Avalon they use a pool of water and multiple powerful energy users just to see the other realities. They couldn't speak to them. But with the breakdown of the barriers maybe they will be able to talk to each other."

Grace stood up in the back of the room. "Mom, Hope and I can do the mirror spell, and I know we can combine our magics. We could add ours to yours. "

Robin leaned over and whispered in Regina's ear. "While my magic is nothing impressive, we were told years ago, that my magic can strengthen yours because we are soulmates."

Regina nodded in response to both. "We can try, especially if they need our help on Avalon."

"I can keep a watch on the barrier spell on the corrupted storybook" Emma stated. "As long as Henry doesn't mind one of his moms and her husband camping out in your guest bedroom."

"No problem, mom."

Snow and David had been invited to the meeting, even though they had no measureable magic. Regina was still certain Snow had some, just couldn't consciously access it. Both Emma and Neal had magic, and Emma's was, although damaged, high level. Neal's had been damaged as an infant as well, but the damage had been healed and he was now a mid-level air element magic user.

David chuckled. "Andrea will be glad to hear you'll be pulling duty here, Emma. She's wanted to go full time for over a year."

"Really? She hadn't told me." Emma said tonelessly.

David shrugged. "She's still a bit in awe of you. Sees you as the savior of Storybrooke."

"Yeah, she was in my class when the first curse broke. So she heard about everything…" Henry said embarrassedly.

Regina grimaced. Andrea was part of the minority of Storybrooke residents that were still a bit wary of her. It probably started knowing from an angry young adolescent Henry the colossally wrong things Regina had done in Storybrooke when she and Emma were battling over custody of their son. Andrea was also a bit wary of Hope and Grace, and even Roland to a degree; because they all had magic and had been raised by Regina. Once Henry reconciled and became closer to Regina as his mother than Emma, Andrea and several of his other classmates refused to associate with him. To them Henry was also tainted by magic, especially after he became the author. Regina doubted if David even knew why Emma found Andrea annoying; he could be pretty obtuse at times.

Emma found Andrea's prejudice against Henry and the children with magic irritating, and wasn't that friendly to her. David, though, was as friendly to Andrea as he was to anyone else that worked for the Storybrooke police force. Emma just ignored her father's friendliness to people that annoyed her. It wasn't worth it to explain why. He just didn't get it. "Okay, so you can tell Andrea she's full time now." Emma said neutrally.

"Great! I'll tell her tomorrow morning." David said cheerfully.

Emma rolled her eyes and turned back to Henry. "Okay, any other details you remember from the book? We might need to know where things started going wrong, even if it wasn't enough to cause this."

Henry closed his eyes and looked disgusted. "I'll try to remember details. Don't want to risk writing them down since I'm still the author. Don't want to cause that reality to get any more power here."

"Absolutely. " Regina said firmly. "Morgan said we are one of the key realities. We have to hold off any damage from that one as much as possible."

"So that reality isn't a key one?" Henry sighed with relief.

"No. They branched off from us at some point. That's why Morgan thinks it's possible we can cut off the corruption from that reality."

"Thought things were complicated when I was going back and forth between realms back in my pirate days." Killian muttered.

Robin looked at Killian with sympathy; it was way beyond him too. He could sort of follow, but it was even beyond some of the magic principles Regina had explained to him.

Emma didn't want to give up on getting information about that storybook though. "Could we put a strong enough barrier spell that the book could be opened and read by someone who isn't the author?"

Henry shook his head no. "I can tell it's too dangerous to open anymore, and even if we could, only I could see it. I'd have to tell you what it said."

"Give it up, Emma." Regina said firmly. "It's too dangerous."

Emma grimaced with annoyance.

Regina sighed. "There is one way that isn't, I don't think. They can see that reality on Avalon. I could ask them if they could see what caused the critical break."

"And when. Any details."

Regina thought it was a waste of their resources, but maybe Emma might be right, maybe it would be good to know what triggered this. "I'll ask."

Emma looked encouraged, "I'm not great at the mirror spell but do you mind if I tag along to ask the questions?"

Inwardly Regina sighed, she doubted if the police interrogation tone would go over that great with the priestesses of Avalon, but if she said so Emma would hound her with lists of questions. Better to get it over with. Morgan was aware of Emma's personality and would smooth things over with the other priestesses. Benefit to this is she'd definitely need a power boost for the spell. She'd need Robin and the girls. With the girls there that might make Emma hold back on the cop attitude a bit. And Robin was a skilled peacemaker with a bit of magic behind it.

"I'll need Robin and the girls to boost the spell power if you want to ask questions directly."

"Sounds good to me. How about after the girls get out of school tomorrow?"

"Yay! Get to put off homework!" Grace grinned.

"Only till we finish talking to Avalon." Regina smirked at her youngest child.

Grace grinned "Better than having to do it right away."

"You're an idiot." Hope said with teasing affection and rolled her eyes at her sister. "Just means you'll have to stay up later doing it. And so will I, because you'll be 'I don't understand this Hope, can you help me?"

Grace stuck out her tongue at her sister.

Roland piped up "Wish this was something Eimi, Douglas and I could do something about."

Robin smiled at his son. "There is, not about the storybook, but you three would be our best people for helping any accidental arrivals. "

"How?"

"Your magic Roland, you could reach out and calm them, if they are dangerous, Eimi could use her illusion ability to confuse them until reinforcements came, and if they were injured Douglas could treat them on the spot."

"Exactly. Do you mind doing the majority of town line patrols?" Regina asked.

Roland looked at his partners.

"Sounds great to me. Chances are we'll probably get some that are hurt."

"Or dangerous." Eimi responded.

"If they are dangerous, stay back as far as you can. Try to keep them from seeing you." Regina said worriedly.

"We know, mom." Roland said fondly.

"I'll increase my patrols in the rural areas, ask the rest if they could too." David said.

Emma looked guilty. "Maybe I should too."

David shook his head no. "The book has to be watched by someone who can keep the barrier spell strong. Chances are most people will just be confused, not dangerous. We might not even get anyone."

"Yeah, okay. But I'm keeping my phone on just in case."

"Maleficent and I can patrol from the air too" Tinkerbelle said.

"We could definitely use that. You'd probably see them before we did." Roland said.

"And if they are dangerous I can quickly make sure they won't be." Maleficent said warningly.

"Then the first thing we need is a schedule and who will be the backup person" Emma said, motioning the patrol group over to the table to plan it out.

"I can come up with a plan to make sure the children know without scaring them too much." Snow said to Regina.

"Yeah, you get along with the principal better than I do. You can probably get it done in a day or two, right?"

Snow nodded and pulled out a notebook to plan out her ideas.

Regina nodded to Robin and he turned to the girls. "Homework done?"

Hope nodded, but Grace groaned. "Really dad, homework isn't that important right now."

Robin raised an eyebrow.

Grace sighed and headed over to her school backpack in the corner."

"I'll go too. If I don't she'll be whining for my help in five minutes." Hope smirked.

"So Henry, " Regina turned to him with a faint smile, "what shall we call this?"

He looked thoughtful, "How about Operation All Realms?" He grinned sheepishly. "Bit out of practice with that; it's been a few years."

"Sounds fine to me." Regina said encouragingly.