CHAPTER 11 – AND FALL

|PRESENT DAY, HYPERION HEIGHTS|

And there it was! The chance to escape all of this. Because, as much as Lucy loved this party that her actual parents had planned for her and as much as it made her excited to escape all of the hell that was knowing this neverending curse, escaping wasn't going to help her win.

She needed to know where Robin and Roni were, because thinking of what Weaver and Belfrey were up to whilst this was happening, it didn't sound like it was going to be a piece of cake (or should she say, birthday cake). Besides, why miss out on this just because of fun and games?

So, as she poked round the halls of this conveniently-sized building for the plot [im sorry] , she was quite happy to find a familiar face.

"Lucy, what on earth are you doing here? Shouldn't you be having fun?". It was Detective Weaver, with his unusual soft spot for children that had seemed to have developed over the past few.. decades.

"How am I supposed to have fun if I know that Robin and Roni have gone missing and that my step-grandmother is at this place?"

Concealing a shrug of agreement, Mr. Gold continued to keep his common sense. "Listen Lucy, this really isn't anything for you to worry about."

"Well, I am worrying about it so how about you tell me what's going on.". He sighed at the rebellious child in front of him.

"Listen to me Lucy, if you're not back in that room with your friends in the next few minutes then I'll have to take you there myself."

Lucy initially gave a childish whine as he walked past her, but she was really concealing a smile. Because he was right, she was a rebellious child, and she wasn't going to listen to people like him.

"Does it look like I care?"

That was Tremaine's response. After that long buildup, all she really was – was a woman who didn't seem to care. And the look on her face only backed that up. But Robin wasn't willing to give up just yet.

"You know what, you really piss me off. Seriously. I mean, you cast this curse and you don't even have a good enough reason other than to piss people off."

Tremaine just laughed. "Well, of course I had a reason for this curse."

"Okay, then please share..", Robin glared.

"If I didn't cast this curse, I wouldn't have the chance to save my daughter Anastasia. If I didn't cast this curse, I wouldn't have the chance to stop Drizella from perhaps casting the exact same curse."

She continued to get angrier at her as her fists clenched and her heartbeat pacened.

"That's.. enough.."

"And, for your information Robin, if I didn't cast this curse you wouldn't even be here, you'd be somewhere worse."

Robin said nothing, but in her mind she was screaming for her to stop.

"Sitting around, at home in god's knows where or when.."

Stop..

"..and being your pathetic little self who can't help with anything useful."

Stop..

"am I wrong?"

"STOP!"

And that was when it appeared. An unfamiliar crack. Unfamiliar to what anyone had known. It seemed like Robin had some how managed to open up some sort of portal, resembling the shape of a scar or tear in the fabric of this world. The most eerie thing however, was that everything through it was dark. There was nothing, nothing there.

"What.. the hell..", Robin was shook at what she'd just created. How did that even happen? One second it felt like her head was burning with anger and the next she'd opened some sort of black hole?

Tremaine however, just gave off the same evil laugh despite it being delayed in shock. It all just seemed humorous to her, because from her perspective there was nothing that could possibly get in the way of her plans was there?

"Look at that…" The woman circled the figure in front of her. "Well, when they said that realm-jumping had it's consequences I'd never thought it would be quite this spectacular."

Despite having no idea what she was saying, Robin knew that this wasn't going to end well.

"What.. what do you need me to do?"

Then, came a shout from behind her, "Don't touch it!", and of course when she turned around she only saw who she expected to. Rumplestiltskin.

"Oh, it seems someone has joined the party. Trust me, you haven't missed much yet."

Robin looked at him as if asking a question. Was there any chance to know what this was?

"Robin, whatever you do don't touch that thing."

"Oh, so you know who this girl is as well then? Well, they sure were correct when they said that you were clever..", Tremaine playfully answered. Robin continued to gasp for air. The delayed panic was suddenly getting to her.

"Do you know what this is?" she asked inbetween her breaths.

"It's a world-jumper, but trust me you don't want to enter it. Just walk back."

It was at that moment when Tremaine grabbed onto her shoulder. "Don't listen to him now, Robin. You're going to go through that thing, and you're going to do exactly as I say aren't you?", her threatening tone made her only feel colder.

"What are you doing!?"

But the woman then turned her head, as she saw that little girl – that one little girl who she honestly didn't want to deal with at that point.

"Lucy, what on earth are you doing here? I told you to stay away!", Weaver shouted like an angry parent.

"Grandma, please let go!", Lucy shouted as the woman practically strangled Robin with her tight grip.

"Lucy, this is none of your business! Go away!" . Robin gasped as she looked down at the little girl in front of her. She couldn't let this happen. She couldn't fail Lucy, not when she'd made that promise.

"I'm not leaving until you stop this!", she shouted as she looked at the portal. She originally thought it was some evil piece of magic that Belfrey had set off but when she looked closer there didn't seem to be anything distinctly evil about it. It was just.. black.

A faint sound of booming footsteps was heard from a distance.

Robin attempted to speak, but it only came out in a hoarse whisper.

"I'm sorry child, but I'm afraid you're going to have to say goodbye to your dear friend here.", Tremaine said in an almost convincingly pitiful voice. Lucy just looked at her in horror. She couldn't let this happen to Robin, not after all that they'd been through.

The booming became louder, and faster by the sound of it.

"Please, Victoria, please don't do this!". Tremaine almost considered listening to the child, but then again she was still set on her prize.

"I'm sorry Lucy."

She pushed Robin forwards, only for her to stumble and fall through the blackness of her own creation as she disappeared through it.

But right as the crack was about to close, right as Robin was going to be lost forever – Lucy ran. Ran as fast as she could to get through that portal.

And as the booming, which turned out to be the echo of Regina's steps down the hallways, drew to a close.. so did the presence of who were both known as Robin and Lucy.

"Where are they?", Regina said in a breathless voice.

"Oh, they're gone Regina.", Tremaine said in response.

Anger hit her, and she looked over at her former tutor to see his response. It was obvious he'd just ran into this as well, and what was also obvious to him was the fact that she'd just lost.

"I'm.. I'm not going to let you get away with this..", she said in a hoarse voice. "I will find them!"

"No.", Tremaine said as she took a poisonous arrow and crossbow out of her bag.

"You won't."

And the queen was shot.

[A/N: Well.. I guess that's a good cliffhanger to leave it on?

Honestly, writing this chapter was pretty hard but also pretty fun. I'm really excited to get on to the good bits of this fanfic ?

And yes, before you great OGs point out how similar the whole 'crack' thing was to that infamous Doctor Who plotline, stop judging me lmao.

Anyway, in the next chapter (or at least the one after that), you're finally going to meet the actual Robin so do not threat. I know this took a while and I didn't originally intend to make this fanfic super long but I've kinda realised that this fanfic generally has a lot of potential to bring back and to solve quite a few of the issues that A&E made in Season 5 and frankly I'm not one to hesitate as they say 8)

So, see you soon?]