"You know this is the craziest idea I have ever been caught up in, right?" Ivy asks, pacing around the forest at the edge of the castle wall. Their little band of misfits, Ruby, her grandmother, seven dwarves, Snow White, and herself going up against a castle full of knights.

Snow White nods, observing the guards shifts through a telescope. "We're going to need air support; there are guards on every wall. Ivy, you're going to have to help in that department."

The bushes next to them start to shake, their weapons raised in case their cover has been blown. "Relax you guys, it's just me." Ruby appears through the bushes, wiping blood off her face. "The good news is that your prince is still alive."

"So why don't you look happy?" Snow asks.

"I also heard that the Queen is also here." Ruby explains. It's a moment of dread amongst all of them. The Queen's power isn't something that they could mess with just for the sake of messing with the Queen; she could tear them to pieces and transport them to another world if she wanted to. "It's probably a trap."

And just because it's the Queen, doesn't mean that they would just give now would they? It would be just lovely to see the Queen's face contorted in distaste. "But why is the Queen doing this?" Ivy asks, sure the Queen doesn't like Snow, reasonable to some extent, but why go through all this trouble just for a little princess.

"I took away her happiness." Snow White explains. "And now she wants to take away mine."

Ivy glances at the sky. The other fairies would have a good cover with all the fluffy gray clouds. The moon was barely halfway up the sky by then, which means they would be placing Snow White's crazy plan into action soon. "I'll go make sure the others are in place. Don't forget the signal." How the people in the castle won't notice it will be beyond her. But then again, they would be too concerned with staring at the ground, not up at the sky.

"I got as many of them as possible." Saphira says when Ivy runs into her under the cover of a large cloud. Ivy could just make out the smallest glows of the other fairies, pinks, blues, greens, they were all there to support this mission. "Here, I got you a bag." The bags weren't much, but they had enough magic to put any escaping guards to sleep.

The next thing to do is waiting. Snow had assured her that she would send out a signal when Ruby told them about the guard shift. A howl that is indistinguishable from any other wolves in the forest, the guards won't know what hit them. "There's the signal." Ivy says pointing to the little red fire arrow that burns out soon.

"It's time!" Saphira yells. Ivy can't help but feel very impressed by her lung capacity. "Fairies, attack!"

It's not much of an attack; the buzzing sound of about a hundred fairy wings diverging to fly towards the castle is the only thing that can be heard. It seemed like they were just in time as the guards had Snow and her seven dwarves surrounded. "Let's go!" Saphira just had to have a grand comment before an attack.

They bombed the guards with handfuls of magic powder. The guards were asleep before they even hit the ground. One sniff and they'd be out until the next morning, and hopefully by then, Snow and her Prince Charming would be out in the forest frolicking away on a white noble steed.

So that was wishful thinking, best case scenario would be that Snow White and her Prince Charming escape, hide out until the world stops hating them, and then figure things out from there. But, the world wouldn't even give them that. No, it had to be the worst possible case, where Prince Charming has already been kidnapped by the Queen, and the Queen tricks Snow White into a meeting where Snow White is to be killed.

"Snow, you know this is the worst thing you can possibly be doing right now?" Ivy asks as Snow takes off all of her weapons, which is quite a lot. She had a knack of just hiding sharp things in the most unusual places. "Can't you at least consider another option?"

"At least keep the knife between your, you know." Grumpy says, obviously reminding Snow about the knife that she had forgotten to take out from between her knockers. "We're not going to let you go like this."

Snow shakes her head. "I can't have any one else getting hurt because of this war between the two of us. Listen, I'm not asking. I love each and every one of you, but this is something I have to do." She makes sure to glance around, warning them with her eyes not to follow her. "Alone."

"Are you sure we should just let her go like this?" Ivy asks watching Snow White walk out the room unprotected and into a fight that she will most likely loose.

Ruby shakes her head in agreement. "I don't trust that Queen, who knows that she's up to."

"So, you're planning a trip?" Eirys couldn't remember the last time Mr. Gold ever considered going on a trip, much less talk about one. He had his cottage after all; he's always going there when he didn't want to be disturbed with something. Most of the time it was the bad kind of something. "Where are you going?"

Mr. Gold shrugs. "I haven't decided yet, maybe London."

"I don't think I've ever left Storybrooke before, you must tell me about your travels." Eirys says. She may have never left this town, but she felt queasy every time she was away from the ground like that time she went on a small boat ride with Mary Margaret. "I'll make you dinner before you leave, ok?"

There is absolutely no way that Mr. Gold would ever resist free food. Sure he would try to be all unwilling and everything, but it's obvious how much he likes food. "That would be lovely." Mr. Gold says. "But it's just a preparation."

"But I'll miss you." Eirys whines. The phone rings in the shop so she misses the surprised look on Mr. Gold's face and the sudden freeze of his hand on the teacup. "Hello?"

"Hello, this is Regina." With that cool and calculating voice? Who else could it be? "Listen, I've noticed some changes in my apple tree. Would you mind stopping by and taking a look at it?"

It's not often that Regina would ask for her help. Once or twice a couple months to make sure the greenery were alright, but those visits have stopped since the whole thing between Regina and Emma before very public. "Oh, yeah, sure, when should I come over?"

"Any time is fine; I'll be out for most of the day. I'll send in a check." Regina says, totally in control even when she's asking someone else for their help. There's nothing warm about her, even when she needs help.

Mr. Gold had managed to return back to his non-caring self by the time she came back. "You have a job today." He states simply. He pours himself another cup of the almond flavored tea. "Who needs you to fix their garden this time?"

He didn't like people that much were obvious. People tended to avoid him whenever he went to town events like parties or celebrations. And when he was there he'd try to keep Eirys as close to him as possible, who knows what kind of, shady people were out there. "Regina, something's happened to her apple tree. I hope it's nothing serious, I like that apple tree."

"I hope you don't eat from it. You don't know what Regina does to keep it so healthy." Mr. Gold warns. One wrong bitten apple could cause great misfortune. She knew that he would be getting a visit from the mayor, the tree wasn't sick in the conventional way.

Eirys laughs. "What like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves? Don't worry; I'll give you permission to wake me up with a kiss." There is an awkward silence between them after her last comment. "Um, I'm just going to go and check out that tree then."

"And I best be going as well." Mr. Gold says getting ready to leave. He leaves his dirty dishes in the sink and rushes out the door as fast as he could. He retreats back into the safety of his pawn shop, surrounded by priceless antiques, and stuff he's collected over the years, in this world and the last.

The mayor lives very close to the heart of the town. "Henry, shouldn't you be going to school soon?" Eirys ask when Henry appears at the front door before she even gets up the driveway. He doesn't appear to be going to school, no backpack or lunchbox. "I could drop you off if you want."

"No, I've going soon. I was hoping that you were Emma." He admits sheepishly. "Do you know if she wants to leave Storybrooke or not?"

Eirys frowns. "Leave? I thought she was going to fight Regina to get you back." Everyone seemed to be leaving or disappearing these days. "Why? Did she say something to you?" If Emma secretly wants to leave and she didn't tell Mary Margaret, then she probably told Henry.

Henry shakes his head frowning. "I just have this feeling, you know, about Operation Cobra." Eirys hadn't heard that name in quite a while. The whole case with Kathryn Nolen had just started to quiet down and things appeared to be returning to normal, or at least as normal as things got around here. "August told me that she just doesn't want to see so she doesn't see, but she has to see, right? We're all counting on her to break the curse."

"Maybe you should look at things from Emma's point of view?" Eirys says brushing away the dead leaves of the apple tree. The leaves never looked this wilted before; even the healthy ones were dropping sadly. "She moved around with only a box of items, she has trust issues, and she left you in the foster system. Maybe she's not ready for us to depend on her like this."

"But we need her." Henry insists just like how his mother does. "She's the only one who can break the curse." Eirys secretly wanted the curse to be real, and then she could have a life that wasn't always ruled by the rules. "She's also my mom."

"So is Regina." Henry immediately frowns and looks as if he's about to sprout the whole Evil Queen routine again. "Look at it from the law's prospective; look at everything that's happened with you. The Court will say that Emma is a bad influence. She may want you back, but she's not ready to have everyone depend on her, the court will not give her custody of you."

Henry frowns; he's only a ten year old boy it's not wonder he didn't understand the gravity of the situation he was in. "Then how am I supposed to make her see? She has to break the curse or else no one here's going to have their happy ending."

"Well, you're her son, aren't you?" Eirys asks finding herself suddenly distracted from her work. "One that should be going to school soon." She shoos Henry back to the house to get his stuff. Turning her attention back to the tree, it was really amazing to see how much it died since the last time Eirys checked up on it. "Henry, do you know what happened to your tree?"

Henry shrugs. "I don't know, maybe she forgot to water it." He rushes off to catch the bus. Sure, Regina could have just forgotten about the poor tree, but in the past, the tree was like her prize. Something like a gold star on a child's test.

"Don't tell me you've been here the whole time?" Regina's cold 'surprised' voice rings out across the yard. Eirys couldn't tell how long she had just sat there, staring at the tree, but it must have been a while. "Do you want to come in and talk about it?"

"No thanks, I stopped by Granny's for some hot chocolate a while ago. I can't tell if anything's wrong with it. Sometimes, trees just start to lose their life force. Maybe it's time for it to go." Eirys explains patting the trunk of the formerly healthy tree. "I can order you a new one if you want."

Regina smiles, one that doesn't reach her eyes. "That sounds fine. Why don't I just give you your pay now so I can save us the trouble?" She walks into her house, setting some groceries on the dinning table. "I was actually going to make a little apple turnover."

"Oh, well, then I should probably leave you to your baking then." Since when did Regina bake food? Did she even know how to bake? Oh well, at least she isn't yelling or being the frigid evil mastermind Henry made her out to be. Check in hand, Eirys glances back at the apple tree, how many years has the tree even been alive? It seemed to be forever young, powered by something other than Mother Nature.

Eirys stares out of the window; she really didn't feel right about the way she left the conversation that morning with Mr. Gold. And then Regina is there again, everything is so strange when Regina and Mr. Gold are working together. "Hello?" Mr. Gold's voice rings in her ear. When did she pick up the phone and dial his number? And why?

"Um, I was wondering if you want to have some leftover muffins, from this morning. Why did she have to bring up this morning? Eirys is on the verge of banging her head against the wall for her stupidity. She had actually forgotten to get them to Emma.

"That sounds fine," Mr. Gold says after a moment of silence which felt like it lasted forever. "I'm still at the shop." Of course, that workaholic, he seemed to always be at the shop, never leaving until quite late. "Tea would be nice as well."

Eirys hangs up and rushes to find some nice tea to go with the cranberry and almond muffins she made. "I have muffins, and cherry flavored herbal tea." Eirys says spreading a piece of cloth over the glass displays before taking out her carefully packed snack.

Mr. Gold hungrily devours a muffin in the seconds it took Eirys to pour him a cup of tea. "I could get used to this happening." He gestures to the late night meal. He rarely goes out to eat lunch, maybe a stop at Granny's a few times a week, and Eirys is sure that he only eats frozen dinners when he's at home. Or ate least, that's what she imagines he does.

"So, what's going to happen to the pawn shop when you're gone?" Eirys asks noting the amount of dust that covered the surfaces of the shop. Mr. Gold had enough money to not even need the shop. "I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy it from you."

Mr. Gold shrugs. "You could take care of it for a while." He suggests, only the look on her face clearly shot it down. "The trip is just a tentative thing, dearie, don't worry about it."

Eirys nods absently crushing a piece of muffin into tiny crumbles. "What do you think is the meaning of dream? I've been having these weird dreams about a girl, but I don't know her."

"What of this girl?" Mr. Gold asks, it was Archie's job to worry about the mental health of the inhabitants of Storybrooke. Though he did worry slightly if his friend and next door neighbor was starting to loose it. "Maybe you should talk to a professional?"

"I guess." Eirys replies, returning to their dull silence of eating.

Neither of them was really expecting customers that late in the evening, so it was quite the surprise when Emma and Regina walk in like two women on a mission. "Do my eyes deceive me or is that the look of a believer?" Mr. Gold asks.

"Maybe I should go then?" Eirys says making her way towards the door.

"Actually, you could possibly be of assitence." Mr. Gold says suddenly grabbing her wrist. "It seems as if something tragic has befallen our young friend." Young friend? Since when did Mr. Gold, Emma, and Regina have a common friend? "I told you magic came with a price, that you would have to pay."

"Can you help us though?" Emma asks.

"Of course I can," Mr. Gold replies letting go of Eirys's wrist once he knew she wouldn't try to leave again. "True love, Miss. Swan, the only magic powerful enough to transcend space and break all curses. And I happened to have bottled some, made from strands of your parents' hair. So powerful, that when I created the Dark Curse, I placed a drop of it on the parchment, as a safety valve."

So, by the way the conversation is going, this curse that Henry keeps talking about is real? "So that's why Emma's the savior, she can break the curse." Eirys says coming to the same realization as Henry did many months ago. Everything seemed to make sense now.

"And luckily for you, I saved some for a rainy day." Mr. Gold adds. Emma opens hwer mouth to say something, only to be cut off by Mr. Gold. "But where it is isn't the problem, getting it is."

"Enough riddles, Mr. Gold." Regina says, even under all this pressure she is still a frightening woman, especially if the curse is true, then Regina really is the Evil Queen who placed everyone under this curse that Mr. Gold apparently created. "What do we have to do?"

"You don't do anything." Mr. Gold says harshly. It's strange to see something like this happen, usually Eirys just sits in her store watching it through a window. "It has to be Miss. Swan, the product of this magic, she has to find it."

Emma glances at Eirys who shrugs. "I can do it."

"Good, now tell me, is our little friend still in the basement?" Mr. Gold asks Regina. This time, Eirys isn't the only clueless one. "I knew you couldn't resist bringing her over as well."

"You tricky little imp. You hid it on her?" Regina demands.

"I hid it in her." Mr. Gold corrects lifting a large leather box onto the table. "And where you're going, Miss. Swan, you're going to need this." Inside the box is a simple long sword.

The decorative handle is exactly the same as the one in Henry's book. It's exactly the same as Prince Charming's sword. "This is the Prince's, I mean, her father's sword." Eirys voices out loud, looking to Mr. Gold for reassurance.

"I believe you know enough to find my little potion." Mr. Gold says shooing them off. "And you have questions, don't you?" He turns to Eirys once the pair leaves. She had been unusually helpful during the conversation that she wasn't really supposed to know about.

Eirys shrugs munching on a muffin. "How am I supposed to help Emma get this potion?" she didn't actually follow any of the conversation, and mostly just made guesses on the parts that she had some clue on due to that one time she read Henry's fairytale book. "And why does Emma need a sword? What's going on here?"

"Well, Emma is going to fight Maleficent." Mr. Gold says ignoring her first and last question entirely. "You know Maleficent? I had Prince Charming hide the potion inside her."

"You hid the potion that could save Henry's life inside a dragon?" It was amazing that she could think logically after all the nonsense information that had been dumped on her. In fact, she really shouldn't believe him in the first place, this world didn't have magic and magic wasn't supposed to exist here. "Are you trying to kill her?"

"It's so tragic, Bae." Ivy says staring out the window of his grand castle, or one of his grand castles, she really didn't know anymore. "Besides, where were you the past few days, I brought you food but you weren't even home."

Bae snatches the basket off the table and rips at the cooled bread. "I was making sure something was saved for a rainy day." Which didn't explain why he went out dressed in his shabby clothing and the cape he stole from Prince Charming, nor did it really explain what he was doing. "Now, what was it that you were talking about? Oh yes, your little friend Snow White."

At least he had the decency to listen to her while he ate. "Doc says she's sleeping, or it's a curse, whatever the Queen did it's staying for a while. This is why I can't have friends, the Queen always does something and then I have to find new ones." She could count off the number of friends she lost to the Queen on her fingers, but that didn't do anything to bring them back. "You don't seem too worried about it."

"Let's just say that they will have their happy ending." Bae replies mysteriously in his elusive ways. "True love, after all, can break any curse." The elusive true love, too bad Prince Charming was in the grasps of the Queen. Or was he?

"You didn't help Prince Charming on purpose did you, Bae?" Ivy asks suspiciously, as much as she enjoys having her friends back, Bae actually helping such a thing happens is very strange. "What did you do?"

He shrugs finishing his meal with an exaggerated wipe of his mouth. "I don't know what you're talking about, dearie. But I like to see what true love can produce; after all, it's the most powerful magic in the world."

Call it coincidence or magic or whatever, but the two of them left the land pulse beneath their feet. And while Ivy usually feels the earth's heartbeat, this one was like a punch in the face. "You left that right?" Ivy asks once she could see again. Whatever it was, it was like everything was going to be ok again.

"True love."

"I think it's about time they found what they were supposed to find." Mr. Gold says glancing at the clock. Eirys had refused to leave the shop until Emma came back battling the dragon with the potion of true love. "You sure you don't want to go home?"

Eirys shakes her head, she lived across the street, and it was practically a two minute walk. She had left the pawn shop for only a few minutes to grab a book. "And where do you think you're going at such a late hour, Mr. Gold?" He really didn't expect to get past her without answering her questions. "You better not be trying any funny business, you have thirty minutes."

"Right." He says heading out the door with the least resistance. Eirys must be at a good place in the book if she let him go without grilling him with questions. Not that he really cared too much about her weird pulp fiction books.

Eirys glances back up when she hears the roar of his car and the crushed gravel as he pulls out of the parking lot. "Now, where did you go?" Who said that she was just a normal bookworm? She had been working on a little something to show Mr. Gold, a picture of sort, even if she didn't recognize the person, he probably would. He knew all the people in Storybrooke.

He was still out when the bell above the door twinkles. "Um, excuse me, is this where I can find Mr. Gold?" It was a foreign accent, something definitely not from Storybrooke. Mr. Gold definitely had connections everywhere.

"Yes, but he's out right now, he should be back soon." Eirys replies tucking her sketch back into the folds of her book. "I'm Eirys, I live next door can I help you with something?"

"Actually, you can." The girl replies. It's actually quite scary, first the whole curse thing is true, then Emma has to battle a dragon to save Henry's life, and now this. This girl, looks exactly like the girl in her dreams. "I was told to find either one of you, and tell you that Regina locked me away. And that you two would protect me."

Eirys slides the picture out again. Her hair was neater in the sketch, but her eyes were the same, and Eirys even got the same expression down. "I don't know who you are." The girl looks thoroughly disappointed at that news. "But I've been having dreams, and they keep telling me that I have to protect you."

"So you will?"

"Of course, you want some muffins and tea?" Luckily, Mr. Gold hadn't eaten everything, and the tea was still relatively warm. "You can warm up in here while Mr. Gold comes back. Now, why would Regina lock you up?"

"I'm back, right on time." Mr. Gold says walking into the store with what appeared to be a golden egg tucked under his arm. He stops his tracks at the sight of the other girl next to Eirys. "You're alive?"

Eirys and her new friend stare oddly at Mr. Gold's strange arrival. "Of course she would be, why wouldn't she be. Well, she was locked away by Regina, which is slightly strange, but she can't remember anything."

"Do I know you?" The stranger asks staring at both of them oddly. She may not know either of the people who were supposed to protect her, but she did seem to enjoy Eirys's baking more than some other people did. "I can't remember."

"You can stay at my place for the night." Eirys suggests stretching her arms above her head. It had been a relatively long night. "We can work something out tomorrow, alright?"

She nods and follows Eirys across the street.

Sobbing is all that really could be heard through the phone. "Emma? Are you ok? Are you drunk?" Eirys asks flipping a pancake. "Do you need to talk to Mr. Gold? He's out on a walk right now, but I can leave him a message or something?"

It was kind of weird that Mr. Gold wanted to take this girl they were supposed to protect some place. He said 'you're not going to like what happens to next.' Whatever that meant?

"No, but, Hen-Henry is." Emma chokes down another sob. "Henry is gone."

"What?" Eirys pulls the phone away from her ear and stares at it like it was lying. "He's ten years old and totally healthy, what do you mean he's gone?" Sure she believed in magic now, but magic couldn't exist in this world as she understood it, the fairytale world had magic and this one doesn't.

Eirys hangs up after a while; she couldn't handle the sound of Emma crying through the phone for much longer. Nor could she really grasp what was going on. "What the heck is going on?" When everything goes south she would usually go talk to Mr. Gold, but since he's out of the picture at the moment, she would have to go talk to Mary Margaret.

Ashley would be there soon, so she had to drive fast. Of course, as if things couldn't get weirder, right as she pulls to a stop outside of Granny's a strange wave-like sensation went through her body. It was kind of like those stories where your life flashes before you when you die, it was like that, but she wasn't about to die. Every single moment with Bae, who she now knew was Mr. Gold and Rumplestiltskin came flashing back like a story and Regina the Evil Queen, Snow White and Charming, the Huntsman, and even Belle. "Belle, she's Belle. We were friends."

Looking around, she recognizes everyone in a whole new light: Ruby and her grandmother, Snow White and Charming, and that strange purple cloud coming out of the forest where Mr. Gold went. So that last one was weird, it brought on the same sensation that bad things were going to happen, again. "Rumplestiltskin, you're going to be in a world of hurt when you get back."

He was right, she isn't going to like what happens next.