"Got what I needed," Fang reported as she closed the door to the shop.

"Why couldn't I come in again?" Henry asked, a hint of annoyance in his words.

"Plot convenience. Gold knows a few things that you can't, at least not for a while."

He sighed, unsatisfied with the answer, but knowing that it was the best one he was gonna get out of her.

"Okay then, what did you get?"

"Information. A location. The famous well outside this town, where Gold first released magic into this town after the first curse was broken, where a portal was made for your mom and grandma, etc. That place is where I'm going. Still wanna tag along?"

"Yeah. Not letting you out of my sight."

The pair headed back to the outskirts of town, this time heading for the old well, which wasn't very far from the pawn shop, at least.

"So, uh…" Henry began as they walked, hoping to make conversation. "What's it like? Being able to just will things to happen?"

"As easy as it is for you to speak, kid. Will things to happen and they do. If you're doing something big and fancy, you might feel a tug or a bit of fatigue, but once you're trained up, it becomes second nature. You always have to know what you want though, or it could transform into one of those genie things where you get what you wish for, but not in the way you wanted it. And you have to be careful that not everything you imagine is put into existence, because minds wander, and not everything is what you want to happen or see in real life."

"Could you tell me exactly what the difference between an Author and a Writer is? I mean, could I one day learn to do what you do? Is Writer like the evolved form of an Author, like Pokémon?"

"No. You have to be born into the right family, born the right person to be a Writer. You're born with the gift, not given it by the pen or anything. We're born knowing we're Writers from the moment we're born, mostly because if we don't know how to use our powers, bad things could happen without us meaning them too."

"You said you were an Oracle, right? Thirteenth Oracle of the something something? Does that mean you can see the future with your Writer powers?"

"Oracles hold a lot of purposes, but yes, if I try hard enough, I can see the future. Not constantly, and it does wear me out, but yes. I only do it under certain circumstances though, so don't think I'm just going around predicting your every action or something."

"Must be cool. Seeing the future."

"Not really. When you know what's going to happen, things are set in stone, no matter what you try and do to stop them. Surely you understand the logic. When you know something about the future, there's nothing that can change it, even if you don't know how long the road to that future is and what twists and turns lie on it. I prefer to remain in the dark, walk the path on my own, and then it seems more like I'm in control, and my path could go in any direction I choose."

The boy thought over her words.

"What if you do end up changing something?"

"That's what we Writer's are there for. We make sure things happen the right way. Oracles take oaths that say we can't do anything to change the futures we see, or else that can and most likely will condemn many others to a worse fate instead. We can't be selfish, and we have to see the bigger picture. It's a hard job, kid. Authors? You don't write the tales, you're not supposed to anyway. Isaac was able to re-write reality to his needs, but that's not what Authors are supposed to do. You're just supposed to document stories, set them in stone so that they don't fluctuate. Think of it like you're the force that keeps the past in the past, solidifies things into existence once they've happened. We Writers are just there to make sure you don't take advantage of that power."

"And who makes sure you don't take advantage of your power?"

""Who guards the guardians?" Something like that? We do. We look after each other and try to raise each and every one of our people with good and understanding hearts, people that know to use their power wisely."

"And when someone doesn't use their power wisely? No one's perfect, not even you guys, right? There's always someone that goes against even the most perfect group of people."

Fang was silent, staring ahead in a daze. That made Henry feel on edge. He was just beginning to think that Fang might not be such a bad person, but if she couldn't answer what happens when someone goes rogue…did that mean she was a rogue? If she was, that couldn't mean anything good for her presence in Storybrooke, could it?

Suddenly a blur sped past between the two of them, both staggering back in surprise.

Fang's eyes widened and she gritted her teeth as she checked her bag. Letting a string of curses escape in a foreign language, she looked to the direction of where the blur had headed.

In a tree, two boys were sitting, one with blonde hair swinging his legs in a carefree way and twirling a pen in his hand. The other boy with black hair held the book that Fang had just recently retrieved and put in her bag.

"Aloja!" Fang growled, stepping forward with her fist clenched. "Alek, give that back! You have no right to be interfering with my affairs!"

"You have no right to be using something like this," The boy with the book said, flipping through the pages. "You shouldn't even be here in the first place, Fang. You need to come back and just accept what happened. He'll be replaced."

"Shut it! I just need a little more time! I'm almost there! I'm not giving up on him just like that."

The boy with the book grunted in frustration.

"Would you stop being so stubborn?! He's just you're partner!"

"You stop being so stubborn, Alek! You never liked him anyway. Of course you'd be saying for me to just give up! I'm not giving up on a friend just because he's replaceable!"

"Rules, Fang! You're gonna be considered a deserter if you don't come back with us now!"

"I…I just need a little more time to-"

"You either come or not, Fang! Don't give up your entire career for this! If you're branded a deserter, we will bring you in, even if it means using force! You'll be stripped of your rank and power and memories and…and if you keep resisting-"

"I know Alek! But you're not gonna convince me. I'm not coming back unless it's with my partner!"

"If you decline now, even if you do return with him, you'll still be-"

"I don't care! My answer is NO, Alek! Understand?! EN. OH."

He growled in anger.

"Fine, be stubborn! Aloja!"

The blonde haired boy moved his pen as though he was drawing something in the air, but actual ink began to come out and stayed in place where he drew. His hands moved with lightning speed, his drawing becoming a 3D image of a tiger before it gained color and then solidified into a real tiger. It fell from the air where it had been drawn before slowly advancing on the Writer, and consequently, Henry.

"What do we do?" Henry asked.

"It won't harm you, Henry," Fang said. "They wouldn't dare kill an Author without orders. If they did, they'd be reprimanded."

Henry was still working to process all that he'd just heard. These two people were Alek and Aloja, people who apparently knew Fang but didn't get along with her. They were sent to bring Fang in, and she was some kind of outcast. She was going after a friend of hers, her partner, who she doesn't want to abandon despite the fact that he could be "replaced." That was the person she was looking to release with some object. If she didn't come back without him, then she'd be fired. And - wait a second.

"You get orders to kill Authors, sometimes?"

"Not all the time. That's just under extreme circumstances. The point is, they'd not kill an Author unless under said extreme circumstances, and therefore, they're gonna avoid harming you at all costs. Meaning, you can run right now, Henry."

"But…you…Are you a good guy or not?"

"What?!" She shouted over the roaring tiger, holding her arms out and seemingly keeping the tiger from advancing.

"What do you plan to do once you get your partner back?!"

"Go home! Or at least, send him home and hope that I don't get fired, which is pretty unlikely."

"You won't harm anyone in Storybrooke?"

"Not unless they aren't from Storybrooke, no."

The tiger lunged forward, but Fang jumped to the side like a bull fighter to dodge.

"Henry, get out of here now! This isn't anything you need to get caught in!"

"But…I can't just leave you here!"

"I'll be fine!"

Just as she says that, the tiger pounced on her and managed to pin her down.

"Fang!"

"Henry…stop being…stubborn and…just go!"

She pushed against the tiger's front paws that were pinning her arms. The tiger had no intention of killing her if it didn't have to, Fang knew. Alek and Aloja needed to bring her in alive, and killing a fellow Writer was even worse than killing an Author without reason. Besides, Alek and Aloja always had a soft side, and would also try to avoid even scratching her. All they needed to do was pin her down long enough for Alek to put a power-nullifying collar on her or for Aloja to draw a power-nullifying symbol on her. But Fang was the best of her class, and even two against one, she could handle her own.

She made her strength grow before managing to toss the tiger away. She stood quickly and held her hand out at the tiger. The air seemed to vibrate and the tiger roared in protest before shimmering and dissolving into nothing but ink that dissolved into black smoke and blown away in a breeze.

Fang panted at the effort, having already been overworking herself recently, but turned to the two boys in the tree. Alek and Aloja stood before jumping away, hopping on the three branches with blinding speed, basically disappearing between each branch.

Fang concentrated on her power, and felt as Alek resisted her in a battle of wills to see who would determine the outcome of the battle.

They won't escape her.

They'll escape her.

They won't escape.

They will escape.

They won't.

They will.

Won't

Will.

Won't.
Will.
Won't.
Will.
Won't.
Will.
WON'T!

Will.

Fang gasped, letting out the breath she didn't realize she was holding, before spots danced across her vision and she stumbled, falling to her knees.

Why were they fleeing? She wondered. They could've easily taken her in while she was in this state, weakened not only from her overuse of her power, but also from her lack of a partner making her ever weaker. Without her Illustrator by her side, Fang's abilities would be limited, not just because her Illustrator had different capabilities than her - and diversity was good for fighters so that one doesn't become predictable - but because their actual power was only at its peak when the two were together.

"Fang!" Henry called, hurrying over to her. "Are you okay?"

She nodded weakly, taking deep breaths.

"Who were those guys?"

"Black hair was Alek, a Writer, and blondie was Aloja, his Illustrator. Colleagues of mine. Sort of."

"Illustrator?"

"In return for being more powerful than you Authors, we of the higher class are split into two categories - Writers and Illustrators. Writers do the words, Illustrators do the pictures and physical beings. Both are powerful in their own way, and extremely dangerous when together. Authors have the power to make their own illustrations along with their writing, but we Writers can't do that. We mostly have to rely on the things we imagine in our heads. Illustrators are much better artists than us, and they can make any picture to describe what we write about and vice versa. We Writers are able to take any image and put it into words, and as they say: "A picture is worth a thousand words." We can pick the right words for their images, and can make those thousand words with barely any effort."

"So…the guy you want to find…he's your Illustrator, isn't he?"

She nodded.

"You're risking your job, your powers, your life, just to save him?"

She nodded once more.

"Then I guess that answers my question."

She looked to him in confusion.

"You're a good guy, all right."

I'm trying to keep these chapters close to or under 2,000 words, but if you're okay with longer chapters, dear readers, tell me in reviews! Sorry if there's a lot of fluff. I tend to ramble on about things when it may or may not be necessary.

P.S. If anyone knows where the names Alek and Aloja come from (without searching it up, cheaters) then you are my new best friend(s). No copyright intended, I swear, but they were cool names.