A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 15

Rosetta shivered in her cave.

As the daughter of an underworld god, she shouldn't have to feel anything from cold to heat whenever she was in the underground. But maybe it was because she occasionally went under the layers of the earth with her father; he would always be there to protect her, and so would her half-brothers, the Jackals of Anubis, and her mother.

But her family wasn't here. Her father wasn't here to protect here from harm using his powers, strength, and hounds. Her mother wasn't here to hold her tight, tell her that everything would be alright, and use a crossbow to attack aggressors. Her half-brothers weren't here to guard her from menaces. Now, she was all alone, locked in a cage hanging in an underground abyss, with a revenge-seeking Batrishan who was feasting on her blood as a punishment for misbehaving towards him.

Rosetta hugged herself tightly. She ate barely ten minutes ago and the hot food in her belly wasn't enough to keep her warm. Her hands rubbed each other roughly, but resulted in nothing except red marks on her brown sand skin. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she silently cried, her head cuddling on her knees.

Her sadness was interrupted when she heard the lock of her cage unlocking. Her eyes turned to see Fidget opening the door of her cage. The Batrishan gave a dark look at the little demigod, who wished that all of this was only a bad dream or a fake vision that she got when she didn't sleep well or when she was ill.

She had no vision of what happened next: her captor gently grabbed her and carried her in his arms the same way her father did when she was too tired to even walk to her bed. Rosetta didn't predict that Fidget the Bat, with the dark past, dark intentions of seeking revenge, and dark willingness to use innocent children to achieve his scheme, would be cuddling her in a brotherly way although he was holding her captive.

"No, I'm not soft," he said, as if he read the demigod's mind. "I'm just annoyed of hearing tears while I'm a few inches close to get my revenge."

"I don't want to dance in celebration," Rosetta whimpered on her captor's shoulder. "I want to see my mommy again."

"I know." Fidget went to sit on one of his armchairs. He let the little demigod cuddle on his laps and bury her head on his chest, shedding tears on his old black-and-purple shirt. She felt something warm covering her back; her eyes gave a small look and saw that Fidget's right wing, the crippled one, to be exact, was shielding and warming her up like a warm blanket on a winter night. By giving a closer look at it, she saw how bad it was crippled: the phalanges looked as if they had been crushed on by something and broke half of those bones. His wing membranes looked as if they had been ripped roughly. His fight with Killian was very terrible; Rosetta can't imagine how horribly their friendship had ended.

"You know, you're kinda of a nice jerk," she said quietly to Fidget.

He barely moved. "I'm not. Crying just annoys me, especially when I'm close to victory."

"Whatever."

Rosetta realized her mistake at the last minute. She feared that Fidget would lift one of his clawed hands and hit Rosetta with it until blood was spilling and he would have a snack. But instead, he was stroking her head the same way a relaxing person would stroke a puppy that was relaxing on top of that person. The Batrishan was really in a good mood. Confidence and preparedness for his revenge must have given him a good day.

"Do you know what time it is?" the Batrishan asked.

"Around five o'clock," Rosetta answered. "Why?"

The Batrishan pulled out a modern watch out in order to check the time. "Just checking the accuracy of your fortune-telling. It's 5pm. You're right."

"You need me to tell you where to find the last ingredient," Rosetta said quietly. She cautiously lifted her head to look at her captor. "Something's missing in your plan of revenge."

The red irises in those yellow eyes stared at the demigod in an agreeing manner.

"I do. I'm missing one essential thing: the blood of the person that my enemy loves most. Since you know everyone's life, including the one of Killian, more than anyone else, than you should be able to know whom his true love is. And I vow on the River Styx that if you give me the information that I need, than I will let you go with this."

He snapped his fingers and a small vial with a transparent liquid appeared in his fingers.

"You know what this is?" Fidget asked.

"I do. It's a potion of forgetfulness," Rosetta said.

"Very good. When I'm done with the codfish, you and Henry will be free and you will have this vial to erase your memories and any one else in this town involved in this affair. Your parents will forget that you briefly went missing. One drop per person shall do."

Rosetta looked at the vial. She wanted to forget everything, especially the way Fidget treated her, and go back to the life she had with her family. But all of a sudden, a vision came to her, causing her to have a headache.

Fidget noticed her suddenly putting a hand on her forehead. "What? I swore on the River Styx that I'd keep my word."

"It's not that…it's just," Rosetta said. "I don't think that a potion of forgetfulness will work on me."

"Excuse me?"

"I saw something…an old memory of my life. Believe me, I get headaches whenever I get visions."

The Batrishan put a hand on Rosetta's forehead. Indeed, he felt actual bumps going up and down inside the little girl's skull.

"I'm surprised your parents, especially one of them being a god, didn't find a cure for these headaches or at least confined you to your bed."

"They tried," Rosetta said sadly. "They couldn't find anything. My dad fears that I might be a glitch."

"A what?"

"A glitch. Something too powerful enough to change the Fates' thread of life. I'm not supposed to exist. Even the fact that my father has sired many sons in a row proves it!"

"So?" Fidget asked as he got up from the chair ad lifted Rosetta off his laps and let her stand up on her own feet. "Just because you might be a glitch doesn't change your parents' affections towards you. Even if you were a bug, they'd still care for the person they raised as their own daughter."

Rosetta frowned. "Did you get such philosophy from being raised by humans?"

Fidget nodded. For the first time, Rosetta saw sadness in his face, which she hadn't seen so far.

"Indeed. My parents cared for me even though I was a Batrishan, which can be seen as a monstrosity by others. Aldorada admired and loved me for everything that I've done to protect and serve it even though I wasn't born there. My love Isabella loved me despite my ugliness. You can understand why I want to kill Killian after he killed Isabella and my father…at the same time."