Emma waited for Henry outside his school with spinning thoughts. She had just spent the morning with Cyrus and Alice, getting their full story.
Alice had been in Victorian England which she left to go to Wonderland, where she met a genie from Agrabah and became enemies with Jafar, and Will Scarlet of the Enchanted Forest (and briefly, Robin Hood's Merry Men) started out trying to kill her because the Queen of Hearts-also known as Cora, Regina's mother-had removed his heart and was manipulating it, but she retrieved it and he had brought it back to Storybrooke, intending never to return to Wonderland or the Forest. Now, since the White Rabbit coaxed him back just last week, he had become a genie and done just that: returned to the places he never wanted to be again.
"If we could just find where in Storybrooke he hid his heart," Alice sighed, "that might help us find him!"
Emma shook her head. She had not even known this Will Scarlet had been in Storybrooke, much less what he looked like. How would she know where he was staying? Jefferson might be able to help her; as Storybrooke's resident authority on Wonderland, if any other resident decided to cross over from Wonderland, he would no doubt know.
Henry bounced down the steps of Storybrooke Elementary and into the car.
"So," he said brightly, "have you met the Wonderlanders yet?"
Emma glanced sharply at her son; she had said nothing about the events of the day before, so how could he know about them?
"Where did you hear anyone from Wonderland was here?"
"Are you kidding?" Henry squealed. "Everyone's talking about it; especially that villain in City Hall. Have you figured out who he is and what he wants?"
"No, kiddo," Emma's mind was driving her to distraction; if she was the savior of the Enchanted Forest, did that mean she would have to save Wonderland, too? Why couldn't these people save themselves?
"Why not?" Henry went on. "I bet Regina's already met them; I bet she's working with them. I wouldn't trust anything she says."
"Listen, Henry," Emma stemmed the flow of chatter. "I'll worry about myself and my job as the sheriff, and you can just worry about normal-kid stuff, okay?"
Henry gave her a pointed look as they pulled up in front of the Storybrooke Inn, behind Granny's Diner. "Just remember she tried to kill me with a poisoned apple, okay?"
Emma reached across him and shoved open the passenger side door. "All right, that's enough. Out! Go on up and get started on your homework," she told her son. "I have a few errands to run and I'll be back."
Henry paused outside the car. "Does one of those errands involve casing City Hall?"
Emma rolled up the window. "Homework!" she reminded him.
Henry trudged inside just as Ashley Herman (née Boyd) reached the doorway, ready to clean the empty rooms. Emma waved at her and waited just long enough for Henry to get into their apartment before she would leave her car.
"Waiting for someone?"
Emma turned to find Regina standing at her window. Henry's warning leaped to mind.
"No," she answered. "I just dropped Henry off."
"I saw," Regina returned, "and then I watched you sit here for five minutes doing nothing, watching the door. What are you doing, Sheriff?"
Emma squinted at her; Regina was always hiding something when she used Emma's title instead of her name. "What are you doing?" she asked instead of answering. "Don't you have anything better to do than sit and watch me do my job?"
"That depends on whether you really are doing your job or not, Sheriff Swann!" Regina snapped. "Don't think I don't know what's going on up there. And don't think I won't do what it takes to make sure things don't start getting out of hand in my town!"
Emma didn't have to think hard to figure out how she knew about the couple hiding out in one of Granny's rooms; it had to be Gold. The question was, how did he figure it out, and what did he have to gain by telling Regina?
"What about your pal in City Hall?" she fired back at the dark-haired woman. "I'm sure he's probably posing more of a disturbance of the peace in this town than anyone else!"
Regina drew herself up straight. "Watch yourself, Miss Swann. You just might get in over your head."
Emma glared right back and started the ignition. "You can't threaten me," she said, and pulled away.
Standing at the edge of the road, Regina happened to spot a strange sight: a white rabbit, three feet high, dressed in a white suit, just in the act of creeping down an alleyway just ahead. Carefully, Regina followed the Rabbit as it darted to a narrow doorway beside the Rabbit Hole tavern.
"Curiouser and curiouser," she murmured to herself.
Upstairs in Storybrooke Inn, Ashley was having the same thought, but for a different reason. She knew there had been no new check-ins lately, but one of the rooms was now locked, and she could not find the key. She had tried asking Granny about it the day before, but the older woman had brushed her off.
"Don't you worry about it, young lady," Granny told her. "Ruby and I have a... special project going on in that room. She'll clean it if it needs cleaning; you just clean the rest of the rooms like you always do."
Ashley paused at that door, waiting... for what? She sighed and moved on.
"Curiouser and curiouser," she muttered to herself.
Outside the mysterious apartment, Regina heard some crashing and banging inside as she approached the door, but then all was still. She carefully pushed the apartment door open. In spite of the dingy facade, the apartment inside was actually quite nice. It was full of boxes, as if whoever lived here didn't have time to completely move in before they left...
Or...
Regina checked the address label on one box: Mrs. Ginger, Cherry Tree Lane. She smirked; more likely these "moving boxes" had come off the back of a truck.
The persistent beating of a heart distracted her from her musings. The noise seemed to emanate from a wall nearby; her magical powers heightened her sensitivity to such things. Regina followed the noise to a panel with several dart holes and a picture fastened to it. She observed the face in the picture: the expression was haughty, and she wore a crown, but it was definitely the desperate blonde she had seen with Alice and Cyrus. But if there were only two now, where did she go?
The telltale heart beat on, and Regina wondered if someone was hiding behind the panel-though the heartbeat wouldn't be so loud if it were still in a body.
Using magic, Regina cut a neat hole around the picture. Sure enough, a glowing red heart-box winked at her from within the wall. She remembered the woman's plea: "He's Will Scarlet; have you seen him?"
She was looking for Will Scarlet; could this be his heart? Regina tucked the box under her coat and snuck out of the apartment, making her way not back down the street she came from, but out toward the family Mausoleum. She would need to hide this in her vault, in case she needed leverage in the future.
Sitting in a throne of his own making in City Hall, Jafar was fast coming to the conclusion that he hated Storybrooke. It was by far the worst town outside of Agrabah he'd ever been to. No one feared him, no one seemed astonished at his powers, and no one seemed interested in helping him in the least! In a tantrum, Jafar blasted a glass case of antiques with a fireball from his staff. Pitchers and pipes and hinges and buttons bounced off the floor amid shards of glass. Somewhere, a bell rang repeatedly. This only made Jafar even more frustrated. Couldn't he, with all his power, figure out what was making that noise and how to stop it?
The ringing stopped of its own accord. Minutes later, a knock sounded at the door. Jafar turned his back on it and flung it open with magic.
"Enter!" he called.
"I see you're settling in quite nicely," said a dry voice.
Jafar whirled around to behold that female magistrate-the irony of such a thing! Didn't the people of this world know how foolish it was to put a woman in charge?
"In case it has not become clear to you," he informed the woman, "I am not someone to be trifled with, and neither am I satisfied when my circumstances displease me!"
The woman smirked, "I called, but you didn't answer." She nodded to the black contraption in the corner. With some annoyance, Jafar finally realized that this just might have been the thing that was ringing. How was he supposed to answer it, though? He shrugged, as if answering her calls was something beneath him, instead of something he had not the faintest clue about.
She sauntered toward him, every bit as alluring as Amara had been. "I have something that might make life a bit more bearable," she murmured.
Jafar scoffed, "So you've managed to find my runaways after all?"
Regina pursed her lips; that information was going to cost him considerably more if he wanted it out of her. "Not quite; just one of them, at any rate." She pulled out the picture she had taken from the apartment. "Do you know this woman?"
Jafar barely glanced at it. "The Red Queen? What of her?"
"She was with the couple you're looking for, but she isn't anymore."
This got his attention. He leaned forward, watching Regina carefully. "Go on," he prompted.
"The three of them were looking for a fourth member of their party-probably someone this woman loved-but he never arrived in Storybrooke."
Jafar's face suddenly hardened. "My dear, this is hardly news. Her Majesty's obsession with the Knave of Hearts was never a mystery to me. Now, unless you have something of real value..." He let his voice trail off, but she didn't bite. She just kept watching him. Jafar waved her away. "Good bye, then." He used magic to push her out of the establishment and seal the doors behind her.
Alone in the great room, Jafar could not believe his luck. The miserable little queen was gone, and the bothersome Knave! They were probably chasing each other over hill and dale in some other world. What mattered is that now nothing stood between him and his quarry-and they were no doubt too much in love with being together to present any kind of a threat; all he had to do was find Alice, force the last wish out of her (and the town presented all sorts of tantalizing prospects for this!) and her precious genie would belong to him!
Trading his ornate robes for something a little more modern, Jafar made his way across the street to Granny's Diner and Storybrooke Inn. He paused to glance at the windows lining the side of the building. Surely the two lovers weren't so petty-
A woman dressed in red with long, dark hair exited the diner. He saw the way she made sure to peek carefully to both sides before proceeding out the door. Casually, Jafar stepped off the sidewalk-where he had been concealed from her view by a tall shrub-and blocked her path.
"Hello," he said. "I'm new in town and I was just looking for some friends of mine; have you met anyone new recently?"
The girl's eyes grew wide, and she pressed her lips together as if afraid some stray word would fall out quite by accident. This reaction told Jafar all he needed to know.
"Thank you," he said, sweeping past the petrified young woman and into the Inn.
An old woman stood at the desk. She bristled at his entrance. "You can't come in-"
Jafar merely swept his hand, and knocked the old woman aside. He traveled straight up the stairs to the apartments, and began blasting open doors one by one. Some were occupied, but one that should have been-since it was locked and the keys were missing-stood empty. He saw the castoff clothing from Cyrus and Alice, and knew they must have slipped out and changed their appearance. He stormed out of the building, furious. These people were shielding them from him!
"Where are they?" he thundered, pounding his staff upon the ground.
In the Storybrooke Library across town, Alice and Cyrus crouched in the dark corner of a back room. The door opened, and Belle entered, carrying a tea tray.
"It's all right," she told the couple. "He has no idea where you might be. You're safer than ever here."
Alice fiddled with the hem of her blouse, and still picked at the seams of her pants, which Belle had said were called jeans. Cyrus wore jeans too, and a shirt called a tee. He actually looked quite dashing in it, she thought. She accepted the tea, grateful that some things didn't change after two hundred years.
"Thank you for doing this," she murmured to Belle.
The pretty auburn-haired young woman smiled. "It's no trouble at all," she answered. "I know what it's like to face losing the one you love." She glanced over her shoulder at Rumplestiltskin-or, as he was sometimes known, Mr. Gold-who was pacing the library floor trying to figure out their next move.
"Jafar must be stopped," he said, "we must know his greatest weakness!"
"His weakness is for power," Cyrus answered.
"And he wants the genie because once he has that, he will have ultimate power," Alice said. Anastasia had revealed as much in their last conversation.
"An already-powerful sorcerer with ultimate power..." Gold mused. "That's just what this world doesn't need!"
"But as long as he still believes Cyrus is the genie, he's not looking for Will, and so they are safe," Belle remarked.
"Except the part when he inevitably finds out that I'm not a genie, and then he might travel to the Enchanted Forest himself to look for them," Cyrus countered.
Gold smiled and held up a finger. "So, my dears, the trick will be to find Will and Anastasia first, so that we can keep them safe while we take down Jafar."
"But how are we going to do that?" asked Alice. "He's already far more powerful than anyone."
"What about breaking the curse?" Belle suggested.
Cyrus shook his head, "I'm afraid that's impossible; the curse was cast by the Guardian of the Well of Souls in Agrabah, and the only other Well I know of is in Wonderland. Even if Will could find one in the Enchanted Forest, I must be the one to repay the debt that caused the curse."
Gold suddenly fixed him with a strange stare. "A Well, you say? Could it be any Well?"
Cyrus frowned in confusion, "Perhaps... if the well in question had magic properties. I have no idea."
Alice, who had been watching Gold's expression through all this, suddenly brightened. "You know of such a well here in Storybrooke, don't you?"
Gold smiled. "We might have a way to break the curse ourselves, after all."
He led them out the back entrance of the library and deep into the forest. There, in a thicket of trees, stood a squat, stone well.
Gold turned to Cyrus. "What is the spirit's name who guards the Well of Wonders?"
Cyrus sighed; that was a name he would never forget. "Nyx," he replied.
Rumplestiltskin dropped a few magic potions into the Well. "Nyx, of the World Beyond, we summon thee," he intoned.
A dark cloud erupted from the mouth of the well, and the gray-skinned specter appeared.
"Why have you disturbed my rest?" she demanded.
Cyrus stepped forward and threw himself at her feet. "Oh great Nyx," he said, "I am the one who stole water from your well all those years ago, and I was cursed to be a genie for the rest of my days. I have since learned what it is to prize others' wishes before my own, and I crave forgiveness and relief from this curse!"
Her face did not change. "Mere words do not right the wrong that was done," she said. "Let he who stole my water return it freely, and the curse shall be lifted."
Cyrus blinked, "But-how can I return the water if I gave it to my mother so long ago? Surely she is dead and gone by now."
Nyx fixed her yellow eyes on him. "The Water still remains; your mother lives. Even now, she is in this world. Bring the stolen water to me, and the curse shall be lifted." Without another word, Nyx sank into the well, and the dark cloud cleared.
Cyrus hadn't moved. Alice crouched down beside him.
"Are you all right?" she asked.
His voice choked as so many emotions crowded into his heart. "She is alive...all this time, the Lost-And-Found could never point to her, but she is alive..." He finally looked up at Alice. "That's why it never could find her, because she was here in Storybrooke the whole time!"