CHAPTER 17 – FIRE

[A/N: Sorry this took a while! Anyway, I watched Episode 10 in the middle of this and basically a lot has happened. There is now an actual canon version of Robin (who's cool, but isn't ginger which im mildly disappointed about as a fellow ginger… just kidding its swell) , who's 25 and also grew up in the enchanted forest. So my fanfic is no longer canon at all lol.

Anyway, I have got to say though I never expected there to be a thing between Alice and Robin and I'm really not sure how I would fit it in the fanfic, but I'm actually really digging it. One scene and I already ship them (that's me hi). If I can figure out a way to fit something like that in here then I would, but like I said seeing as this fanfic is basically just an AU now it's gonna be quite difficult. Apart from that, I'll continue writing this as I was. Maybe I'll do a sequel where I include canon-based stuff more, who knows]

|PRESENT DAY, END|

Once it was finally Robin's time to go and see the person who they all dubbed as 'the chief', she walked forwards as the door opened in front of her. She noticed that Robin Hood seemed to be standing right outside of it.

"So, you're getting your chance to speak to the chief then?", he asked a rhetorical question.

"I guess I was lucky.", she said in return.

She then suddenly walked towards him. "Look, whilst I'm gone I need you to make sure that Lucy doesn't go wondering off, okay?"

"What makes you think that you can trust me?"

It took quite a bit to think up the answer, seeing as she didn't even know herself why she would trust him.

"Because.. well, because you just seem like someone who's good with people her age I don't know."

Robin seemed confused and a bit paranoid that she seemed to notice something. "What do you mean?"

"Well, everyone else here seems like they could probably end up upsetting someone who believes that they can get back home from what I've heard. They're way too upfront about what they think is the truth. But you obviously knew how to talk to her when you did, when she first came here."

He looked paranoid.

"I mean, you seemed like you knew what you were doing. Did you have any children?", she asked.

It was at that moment where she realised that she'd probably pushed it too much on trying to confirm who this guy was. Sure, she tried to tell herself that there was no way that it could've been who she hoped he was. But it came apparent that they were both suspicious of each other.

"You're holding up everyone else, better go in", he said quickly before he watched her walk through the door in such a familiar way.

Robin was quickly greeted with a long hallway with high walls and no furniture whatsoever, which made her footsteps and breaths echo against them. After walking several metres down she finally came to a stop where she saw a rather large step in front of her.

"What's your first question?"

She looked upwards to see a chair, turned to the wall, obviously with someone in it. It came to her realisation that this was the person they called 'the chief', and this was the reason why nobody had seen his face before.

"So, you're the chief then?"

"Yes. Next question.", he said in a fed up voice

Robin was frustrated. "That wasn't my question!"

"Tough, you only have 5 left now.."

She made a fist before thinking up her actual question, and quickly stating it.

"Tell me, how do I get out of this place?"

She heard a laugh. "Seriously? They let you come to see me today? Sorry sweetie, but there's no getting out of here."

"Even with my own magic?". He paused at her second question.

"No one's magic can help us get out of here."

She thought carefully about her fourth question. "Okay, then what about magic getting us into here, would that work?"

"Nobody has the magic to open up a way into this place."

She knew he wasn't tell the truth. "So you're telling me that everyone here was sucked up by a black hole, and nothing else was involved?"

He hesitated. "Yes. Final question."

Robin quickly became angry.

"Alright then, when are you lying to me?"

She heard no response.

"I know for a fact that, that's not the only way in so why are you lying-"

"I'm not lying to you. Get out", he interjected

She slowly walked out, honestly wanting to pull a finger at the guy. She knew he was lying and that this entire system was garbage. How could they place their trust on someone like this? And who really was he?

She stormed out of the building, frustrated. What was she supposed to tell Lucy now? She wouldn't dare to let her hear any more false hope. Everything was a mess.

"Robin? What happened?", Lucy asked from a metre away, worried.

"We're going.", she said in response before grabbing her arm.

"What? Going where?"

"To find some other people who can help us. These guys can't do anything.", they walked off in the other direction of the castle.

"Wait! Stop!", Lucy shouted before freeing herself from Robin's grasp. "There are no other people who can help us!"

"Oh, come on Lucy don't be so blunt. This place is probably massive, there's bound to be some people who aren't as idiotic as they are.", she said, raising her voice at the end.

"There aren't", she heard Robin Hood say behind her.

In the midst of the following silence of the crowd, she turned around as if asking him to continue.

"There's no one else here, just us. Trust me."

"And what makes you think that I can trust you?", she replied.

Robin Hood was planning on saying something until he realised that there wasn't anything to say. There wasn't any reason for her to trust him, not really. And so, Lucy tried her best to stop her.

"Come on, let's wait for the others and then go back to the castle."

Lucy was taking a break to rest in her room. Robin had gone outside, claiming that she needed fresh air, and the world seemed quiet around her. But with that silence she couldn't help to feel more anxious about her mother. Was she still looking for her? How long had it been since they'd gone missing?

That was when she heard the sound of voices from outside of her room. She slowly opened the door and looked through the crack to see Robin talking to someone.. Robin Hood.

"I need to ask you something." Robin said in a stern voice.

"Okay, what is it?", he said back.

"How did you get here?", she spoke as her voice shook.

He went quiet for a few seconds, remembering what had happened. On the day that Hades removed him from the world he'd once known and on the last day in 'reality' which he remembered. But he couldn't tell anyone that. Hades would never allow it.

"The same as everyone else did. The world got sucked up by a black hole and I –"

"No!", she raised her voice. "You're lying…"

Fear shook him as she said those words. How did she know? There was no point in hiding it now.

"Yes. Yes I am."

Robin gulped. She was almost hopeful that he was her father, but at the same time the thought of it terrified her. What was she supposed to do after that? What was she supposed to say?

"Tell me..", she looked downwards. "No matter how weird or complicated the way you died was, and no matter how much you'll try to lie about it I need you to tell me this."

He looked at the teenager in front of him, in fear that he would have an answer to what she was about to say.

"Did it have anything to do with a crystal?"

Lucy closed the door in front of her, before trying to predict what would happen next.

|PRESENT DAY, HYPERION HEIGHTS|

Regina once again found herself working at Roni's after a short break. But this time, it was different. She was no longer the person who she used to be, the fun, untroubled yet cursed version of herself that she grew to like at the time. Although, that was the least of her worries.

It was at that moment when Jacinda slowly made her way over to her.

"Hey Jacinda..", she said to the miserable woman trying to seem sympathetic.

"Hey. I like your hair.". Regina was initially confused until she remembered that she reverted it back to it's old style, but she didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry to ask, but have you found out anything about Lucy yet?" she said in attempt to avoid unnecessary conversation.

"No, I haven't found anything..", Jacinda said whilst looking down, "I've called everyone I know from both in the area and out and they haven't seen her at all. To be honest, I'm personally quite suspicious of that 'Amelie' person who she started visiting, she doesn't seem to be around either.."

"I wouldn't worry about her. I'm pretty sure she said that she was moving back home after Lucy's party anyway which is probably why you didn't see much of her there.", Regina said trying to cover up the story despite wishing that she could tell the truth.

"I don't know..", Jacinda simply replied. "I just hope that she's ok.". It became obvious to her that almost everyone could tell how upset she'd been from the way that she'd looked. "Anyway, how are you recovering?"

"Good.", she said back continuing to lie. "I'm doing fine."

Not much longer later, Regina found herself making her way home in the dark. Despite it being like every other night, something once again felt different. The moon seemed to be much dimmer than it usually was and there were little lights around her.

That was when she realised that everything was dimmer, and not just reflecting the way she'd felt about that day. Everything legitimately looked darker and darker as she began to feel sick. It was at that point when she found herself falling to the floor in an unsettling dizziness and she began to lose her sense of the world around her slowly. It was only before she became unconscious that she remembered what Belfrey warned her, and about the poisonous arrow.

[a/n: well that's a double cliffhanger for you all ._.

hope you enjoyed and the next chapter will hopefully not take as long as this one did lol.]