Thanks for all the great reviews so far! I've had a lot of fun with this story so far, I hope y'all are too!

Here's chapter 3! Personally, this is my favorite so far! Enjoy!

Chapter 3: Once Upon a Time

March 28, 2358
Province 4, County 29, Honshu Island
Mt. Fuji Tourist Center

Charlene glanced over her shoulder, trying to play it cool. She faced forward and took in the beauty of the sight in front of her. Mount Fuji was possibly the most beautiful sight she had ever seen.

After being wrongly (and weirdly) accused of witchcraft, Charlene's life had turned upside down—or right side up, depending on which way you looked at her life before January. For the past three months she had been on the run, backpacking across the fourth province. She knew that if she left the province, she'd be fingerprinted, thus giving herself away. She was stuck and she was running out of hiding places.

A cold gust of wind sent goose bumps up Charlene's arm. She rubbed her arms and took a deep breath. The beauty of Mt. Fuji was truly breathtaking. She wished she could stay longer.

Back in Beijing, she had grown up always longing to travel. Every time she opened a geography or history book she felt a desire to travel to the places in the pictures. She wanted to experience life at the fullest.

But then her graduation test crushed that dream. Her results told her she was going to be a businesswoman. But by some odd coincidence, a significant number of girls that year got the same result. When that happens, the best jobs in that field go to the girls with the last name starting with A, the rest of the jobs being delegated out to the rest of the girls in alphabetical order.

By a stroke of bad luck, Charlene Turner had been the last name on the list. She got to work a menial desk job at a huge (and immensely stupid and pointless) advertising business. The job of businesswoman meant no college, so Charlene had been in that job for six never-ending years. But her desire for travel never died.

Charlene walked down the observation deck so that she could get a closer view of the mountain. She walked past a pair of men in tuxedos and couldn't help but overhear their conversation.

"Have they found that witch yet?"

He said the word witch with such distaste, making Charlene cringe. She didn't do anything wrong, but the stupid government made everyone believe that she was this evil demon.

"Not sure," the second man shrugged. "I'm sure they'll find her soon."

"They're going to have to use the methods on her surely."

"I wouldn't be surprised if Maleficent herself came to watch! That witch is such a nuisance to the province, I'm sure she's already caught the dictator's eye."

Charlene continued walking. She had heard more than enough. It didn't matter that she had died her blonde hair brown. It didn't matter that she was wearing brown contacts to cover her blue eyes. Charlene still felt as if people could still recognize her.

It's not that Charlene was a witch, she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

She had been working the graveyard shift at work one night trying to finish some paperwork for her boss. She left at four in the morning and started walking back to her apartment.

Another disappointment of her job was that she didn't earn enough to own a car. She had to walk everywhere. Beijing at night was creepy. Charlene jumped at every noise.

That particular January night, she walked in on a robbery. Not just any robbery, but a someone robbing a soldier.

She wasn't necessarily loyal to the government, especially after her graduation test, but seeing someone getting robbed was not something she was going to let slide.

She walked over to the robbery in progress and punched the robber in the face. She turned to help the soldier up, when the robber jumped on her back.

Charlene grabbed the robber's hand and judo-flipped him over her back. There was a sickening THUD! The robber's eyes rolled back in his head, but wasn't dead. Charlene turned to help the soldier up again, but he was already standing.

He had a huge gash on his forehead and he was shaking profusely. His face was pale. His eyes were wide with shock, but Charlene saw something else there: fear.

"Y-y-you just killed him."

"No I didn't," Charlene insisted. "I just flipped him over my back. He was trying to kill you!"

"Flipped? Is that what you call it, witch?" He took a few steps backward. "Witchcraft!"

"What?" Charlene had never felt so confused in her life. What did he see? He must have hit his head very hard.

"Witchcraft! You'll be executed for this!"

"What?"

The soldier turned and stumbled away from her.

Charlene shook the memory out of her mind. She continued walking at a normal speed, so that she didn't draw suspicion to herself. She was still confused as to what the soldier thought she did to assume she was a witch.

She readjusted her sunglasses and moved past a few ancient binocular stands. According to the plaque, they were placed there so people could get a better view of the mountain from far away. Now they were just ancient artifacts that no one was allowed to touch. Charlene wanted nothing more than to use one of them, but that would draw too much attention to herself.

The fact that those men in tuxedos were talking about her had shaken her pretty good, but the mentioning of the methods scared her down to her core. She had heard stories of the methods—none of them were even remotely good.

Maybe the stories are worse than the actual thing, Charlene reassured herself. It wasn't working too well.

The methods was only the worst form of punishment, something so insane and immoral Charlene couldn't even bring herself to think about it. She pushed that thought out of her mind. She would worry about that if she got caught.

That's good thinking, Charlene. If, if is good.

Charlene reached the steps that led from the observation deck down to the base of the mountain. She made the mistake of glancing back and making eye contact with the two men in tuxedos.

She saw their glowing green eyes and Charlene thought she was going to have a heart attack. They were Maleficent's soldiers. Not just any kind of soldiers...but the special agents. They were they were the global force that Maleficent personally hired.

How did she not see the glowing green eyes before?

Charlene saw them take a step toward her and she took off down the steps. She moved in and out of the people with such ease she wondered if she had been meant to be on the run.

She reached the bottom of the staircase and took off running toward the parking lot. She needed to get a car now. She didn't have her own, but she did know how to hot-wire a car.

She glanced behind her without slowing down and saw the men in tuxedos were about halfway down the stairs. Charlene turned her head back so that she could see the direction in which she was running and slammed into someone, throwing both of them onto the ground.

Charlene was lying on top of this person—a young man with brown hair. She took one glance into his non-glowing green eyes and her mind took her to another place.

"We did, Philby agreed. "But the parks are close to each other. She can transfigure herself into a bird. I'm not saying she's in two places at once. I'm just saying Wayne wants us over at Fantasmic!"

"Not before we find him."

"We may not have a choice on that," Philby said. "What if we don't find him here?"

"We will," said Finn.

"If only we could go back in time, we could have rescued him from Wonders."

Charlene's comment stopped Finn cold. For a moment he faced her as if in a trance. Then he took her by the shoulders and all three of them thought Finn was about to kiss her. Charlene looked terrified; Philby looked surprised; Finn looked out of it.

"We blew it!" Finn said.

"You don't have to sound so excited about it," Philby said. Then he added, "Blew what, exactly?"

"'Go back in time.' Charlene just said: 'Go back in time.'" He still held her shoulders; she still looked panicked.

"Yeah? So what?" Philby said.

Charlene was speechless. She turned her cheek toward Finn so that at least if he tried to kiss her it wouldn't be on the lips. But she didn't push him away, and she would later secretly wonder why not.

"Think about Jess' dreams," Finn said, "her visions. What's the one thing we know about them? About when they take place?"

"The fut—" Philby said, catching himself. "No way!"

"What's going on?" Charlene asked, still bracing herself for the possibility of a kiss.

Philby answered for Finn. "When we went to Wonders, the writing wasn't on the wall behind the chair. It wasn't exactly like Jess's dream. No Wayne. No words on the wall."

"I was there. I know all this."

"We were all there. But we were there too soon," Finn said. "Wayne hadn't been brought there yet. We got there ahead of Jess's vision. It wasn't that she'd gotten it wrong—"

"We were just early," Philby said, completing his thought.

"So at some point he's still going to end up in that chair?" Charlene said.

"At some point they start moving him around to keep him hidden," Philby said.

"Like, for instance," Finn said, "after the Kingdom Keepers cause a car crash at Test Track."

"Or discover the maintenance log at Soarin'," Philby said.

"Or end up on Mission: Space," Charlene added.

The excitement sparked between them. Finn finally released Charlene's shoulders, apologizing, and she quietly sighted in relief.

Charlene blinked and she saw that she was still on top of the young man.

"Uh…sorry…" Charlene scrambled to get up. The young man stood up and grabbed her arm, keeping her close.

"I've got to go, I'm sorry," Charlene tried her hardest to rip her arm away from his grasp, but was unsuccessful.

The green eyes were unsettling to her. He was in that short flashback she had just had. But she had never seen him or the other boy before. Did I just experience magic? Is he a witch?

"Look, kid, I've got to run," she muttered under her breath.

The man was studying her. He reached into his jacket with his other hand and pulled out a black envelope and a pair of keys.

"Take these," he insisted. "The keys go to the blue compact car in front. An innocent person like you doesn't need to start breaking laws now."

"Do I know you?" Charlene asked as she took the black envelope and the keys from the mysterious man.

He sighed. To Charlene he seemed conflicted, as if that question was the one he wanted her to ask, but he wasn't allowed to give her the answer.

"Maybe you did...once upon a time." He let go of her arm. He had a sad look in his eyes, as if he wanted her to remember him. "Read the letter inside when you're alone."

Charlene mouthed a thank you to him and took off toward the parking lot. Sure enough she found a blue compact car in the front row. She fumbled with the keys, got into the car and sped off. She flew onto the highway at top speed and made a plan of action in her head. She needed to get as far away as possible. She was running out of places to hide in the fourth province. She needed a way to leave.

And she needed to figure out what the heck had just happened.

First off, I have to credit the quote to Kingdom keepers 3: Disney In Shadow (pages 399-401).

And I got to use my favorite line from Hercules, "if, if is good." Score one for me :P

Just a quick side not to that-kk-fangirl, I know you requested Charlene to be in Paris. I already had this chapter written and I already have one of the other keepers near there. I didn't want two of them to be that close. I'll keep it in mind, though, and try to use it later! Thanks for the request :)

For everybody else: any ideas on why Charlene's had flashbacks to her real life and none of the others haven't? What's in the black envelope? Any ideas?

I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can! Please review!