"All right," Fang began. "Henry, you're an Author, but that doesn't mean you're incapable of Writer/Illustrator-like abilities. All you need is the right pen." She dug through her bag and pulled out a fountain pen and a note pad. "Here. Keep us updated on the situation. Just let your hands do the work, don't concentrate much on what you're writing or drawing. Give yourself a topic to write about, push your powers in the right direction, and the pen should handle the rest. Minx, get ready for the spell."
She opened the spell book from Regina's vault and began flipping through the pages. Once she found the page, she handed the book to Minx and began explaining what he was to do. Minx held on to every word, nodding when she asked him things, his tail flicking in his determination.
"All right. Aloja, still got some Oracle juice left in you?"
"Enough."
"Then once Minx has this drawn, we need to assist him in powering the spell. He's fully capable of performing this, but he's gonna need some more energy to avoid passing out or killing himself. We're breaking a spell designed specifically not to be broken, so this is gonna take a lot of power."
Minx began walking in a circle, his eyes on the book in his hands. His tail trailed behind him, leaving a black line of ink on the ground as he walked. He created a perfect circle, and then stepped back. He set the book on the ground in front of him, and kneeled down to all fours. He concentrated for a moment, and spread his arms and legs in a battle stance. His tail flicked forward above him and then began to draw with the speed of an Illustrator, ink appearing in the air above the circle he'd drawn. It created a pattern, before said pattern fell into the circle on the ground.
"Done, Mistress," Minx announced. "It's ready when you are."
Fang took Sai's pendant and placed it in the center of the confusing pattern.
"Sure you're up for this, Minxy?"
"Master Sai needs me!" He said firmly.
"Okay then. These are the symbols you need to enact. It's gonna be draining, but no matter what, you can't let the spell overwhelm you."
Minx nodded before his tail moved to draw another symbol, the ink staying in the air this time right where his tail moved.
"Alek?" The two Oracles put a hand on either of the boy's shoulders as the symbol where the pendant was sitting in began to pulse and glow with a dark purple.
The symbol that Minx had in front of him glowed gold as the spell began, and the ground seemed to tremble at the force it was requiring. The three of them instantly began to feel the strain, and the pendant rose up a few feet as it hummed with energy.
"It has a strong barrier," Minx warned.
"Focus the energy," Fang advised.
The three of the concentrated, pushing power into the spell and against the pendant's wards.
The pendant began to pulse, a light beginning to flicker on it, revealing the wards that hovered just above the surface. The purple of the symbol glowed brighter, streams of light stretching out to poke at the pendant's barrier and push against it from all sides, sparks crackling where they made contact.
Minx's golden symbol glowed brighter as well, and the three of them held their breaths as they tried to force more power into the spell.
The barrier began to flicker and crack.
Minx began to grunt as he gave it one last push.
All of the symbols flashed, blinding everyone in the area. Pure energy exploded with the shattering of the barrier, and the power that had to be sent through the spell in order to do so. The group was met with a blast of energy shoving them all back.
When the light finally faded, everyone looked to see as the pendant dropped to the ground with a small thunk.
"Sai?" Fang asked, looking around. "Sai?!"
She searched frantically, but he didn't seem to be anywhere.
"Did it not work?"
"We would be dead if it didn't," Alek pointed out. "A spell like that would've continued to drain all of our strength until we were dead if we weren't able to properly power it."
"The pendant appears to be empty," Minx reported, holding it in his hands. The gem looked to be completely clear, devoid of Sai's power that had once made it a navy blue.
"Then where is he?" Fang muttered.
The group looked around, before they noticed small dots of energy flying through the air. They stared small, no bigger than the dust you'd see in sunbeams, and barely noticeable, but soon, they grew bigger and brighter, looking like fireflies. Once they were big enough to follow, they all seemed to be heading towards the same direction, where the pendant had rested within Minx's symbol.
Once they reached where the center of the symbol had been, they faded away again. They began disappearing further and further out from the center, until eventually there was another explosion of light.
It wasn't as intense as the previous one from the symbols, and lasted only a second, before revealing a black-haired boy a little taller than Alek. Slung across his back was a large scroll of paper about four feet tall and six inches in diameter.
"Sai!" Fang shouted, tackling him with a hug. He stumbled back from the force, still a bit wobbly on his feet.
"Hey," He muttered. "You know something? That was not fun."
"No, no it wasn't. Don't ever scare me like that again, okay?"
"I'll try my best."
"Great, so it worked," Alek said. "We should get back to town and get to work. We have about five minutes now."
"Right. I'm caught up on everything already. This is not gonna be easy. Once we get started, we don't have a second for hesitation. Minx, how are you? Think you've still got some juice?"
"Yes, sir!" Minx said, saluting with his tail.
"So you're Sai?" Henry asked.
"Yes. Henry Mills, nice to meet you. I'm Yama Hui Ken Sai. I'd properly introduce myself, but we have about four minutes now to stop Armageddon."
"Henry, anything?" Fang asked.
"I'm not sure."
She walked over and looked to the notepad she'd given him and found him drawing…a notebook.
"Great, inception," Alek muttered. "Very helpful."
"That doesn't necessarily look like the notebook that Fang gave you," Sai said. "Alek, do you have Aloja's notebook on you?"
Alek looked surprised, before digging through his bag and pulling it out.
"Yeah. Aloja threw it at me before…" He couldn't finish, and Fang quickly moved the topic along.
"Let's have a look here…" She flipped through the pages (noticing a large percentage were of Alek) and finally settling on a page. "There. Oh, Aloja, you're a genius."
"What is it?" Henry asked.
She showed the book to everyone. On the page was a pencil drawing of Aloja, held down on his knees by chains that protruded out from the ground. His eyes were closed, and the chains seemed to be smeared, as though Aloja had erased them with a bad eraser, or they were covered in a black smoke.
"Minx! I need your help. Bring the drawing to life, will you?"
Minx looked confused, but tapped his tail to the image. It shimmered for a moment, before the pencil began to dissolve, like someone had thrown water on it. The graphite turned to dust in the air and moved to the side before reforming into a life-sized 3-D image of what had once been on the page.
"Aloja!" Alek called, disbelief and hesitance causing his voice to shake.
The image of Aloja began to take color, the black smoke that Fang had suspected being around the chains, moving away from Aloja and down into the ground where they came from. Slowly, the image began to clean itself up so that it no longer looked like a photo-shopped hand-drawing and more like the real thing.
Once the image had formed, Aloja slumped slightly, as though an invisible string had been cut and he had fully materialized. Then, he raised his head, opening his eyes.
"Alek?" He asked.
"Aloja!"
He moved to tackle Aloja with a hug. Aloja was unable to return the favor, being bound by the dark chains, but he rested his head on Alek's shoulder. It was good enough for Alek.
"Listen to me," Aloja said. "I don't think I have a lot of time."
"Why the heck are you chained up?" Alek demanded.
"What? Expected me to be lounging around inside a pendant holding me against my will and draining my power without consent?"
"The pendants bound us like that, attaching themselves to our power and chaining our will," Sai explained. "They drain our power when it's used, and take the control of it away from us."
"The only reason I'm here is because of Minxy, and you having my journal. It should keep you updated on my situation, and I'll try and send you messages through it if I can. Now listen to me. He's sending an army to hold you all off before the summon is prepared. He's preparing Divine Light, a rank 5 attack, meaning that it's gonna take longer than you all expected, though not by much. I'd say you now have another five minutes at most, eight in all now. Until then, he's sending an army, and not a pretty one at that. The residents of Storybrooke won't be able to hold them off."
"What kind of army?" Henry asked.
"The Reavers. I'll let the others explain it since I don't have the time. Anyway, we're in the forest outside of Storybrooke, still near that place I was captured, Alek. This wizard guy is still using your form, and I think it's because he doesn't like or doesn't have a form of his own. Whoever he really is, I think he's intent on just erasing the world, not ruling it or anything. He seems to know a lot about the Creators, even though we're supposed to be a covert organization, and so that leads me to assume he's a rogue. I think you should mention it to the counsel, and they might help you take him down, but I'm not sure if you have the time."
His image began to shimmer, like he was made of smoke and the wind was beginning to wear away at him.
"Aloja-" Alek began.
"No time. He knows you're coming, and he's sending the Reavers to keep the town from helping you. He won't hesitate to use me more and more in order to try and stop you, meaning the odds of saving me before I die are going to be near impossible. You need to destroy the pendant with me inside and cancel out this whole thing. I'm going to die either way, so you'd best kill me before my summons can do any serious damage."
"Aloja, we are not letting you die!" Alek declared.
"Don't be stupid, Alek. You know it's moronic to try and save me with so many odds stacked against you!"
"I don't care! You are a member of my village, and I will not just give up on you!"
"It's one life against dozens! Will you just shut up and listen to me for once?!"
"No! Because, dammit, Aloja! I didn't listen to you before even though you were apparently being very obvious, so I'm going to remain stubborn and blind until you give me a proper reason not to be! And you can't very well do that if you're dead, now can you?! So I don't care what you say, we're rescuing you!"
"Alek, I'm only a Summoner who randomly barged in on your little group of Oracles. I'm not worth saving. To make matters worse, I'm…well, you know. I don't belong, I'm a freak, and the world wouldn't miss me."
"Who gives a shit about them? We would miss you! I would miss you! We would fall apart without you because we couldn't protect you! Plus…plus Minxy is really attached to you and he would be sad if you're gone!"
"Yeah!" Minx agreed. "We'll save you, Master!"
"Don't you dare give up on us now, Lo," Fang agreed.
"I'm not letting you suffer in that thing," Sai said. "I know what it's like when you're stuck in one of those things. We're gonna get you out one way or another, and Alek's right. We would all miss you. You're a big part of our lives, ya little goofball."
"And what the hell made you think any of us judge you for your sexuality?" Alek scolded. "You have spent way too much time in the 19th century. None of us care, and none of us hate you in any way for it. It's not a crime! It doesn't make you sick! It makes you unique, and I think it's cool! You're an awesome Summoner, you're our friend, you're an amazing Illustrator, you're really smart, you're kind, you're…everything! Everything good, and nothing bad! So you're shy. That's cute, like Minx! So you're gay. Who the hell gives a shit?! It's who you are! No one can blame you for it!"
Alek got on his knees and shook Aloja by his shoulders, as if to shake him out of whatever daze of stupidity he was in.
"You are not worthless! We are not letting you die, and we are sure as hell not going to be the ones to kill you just because you ask for it!"
"But-"
Alek attacked Aloja's mouth with his own, effectively silencing anymore protests. He tasted slightly like ink, but Alek wasn't deterred.
"Shut up, Aloja."
Aloja's face seemed both flustered and nervous at the same time.
"Does…does this mean you…?"
"You're gonna have to make it out of this to find out."
Aloja looked baffled, surprised with a slight hint of hope spreading across his face. And with that, Aloja turned to a cloud of ink and dissolved into the wind.
Alek sat on his knees for a moment, before standing and turning to the others.
"Well, what are we waiting for, people?! Five minutes! Let's move it!"
He waved for them to follow as he hurried back to town.
Fang and Sai smiled before shrugging and following. Minx excitedly ran after too, and Henry quickly joined.
Aloja gasped as he opened his eyes, still within the pendant. All he could see was a vast room of white, with the chains that bound him contrasting with dark smoke.
Ahead of him was a giant image in the shape of a teardrop - what he could see from the inside of the pendant he was trapped within.
His thoughts were spinning around in his head frantically, and he dared to believe that what he'd just saw wasn't just a dream. He dared to hope Alek meant what he said, meant what he did. He dared to hope that they would come for him, rescue him successfully.
He had more hope than he should have, and it would only lead to more disappointment if he was wrong.
But still, he hoped anyway.