The Enchanted Forest – A time of Great Upheaval
An older Henry and Anya ran during the night through the forest, away from the shrieking evil that was chasing them. "You're gonna have to run faster than that, brother," Anya said to Henry as she leaped over a fallen tree.
"I could simply trip you," Henry answered as he quickly caught up.
The pair of them reached the cave they were headed for and dropped their torches in the water before hurrying inside. They quickly entered their shared hovel within the cave and barred the door. As Henry went over to a sleeping little girl – his daughter – Anya went to the other end of it to see to her son.
"Jack. Jack, wake up," Anya quickly urged him.
"Mother?" Jack yawned and saw the worried look on her face. "What's happened?"
"They've found us," Anya answered regrettably. "You need to go with Lucy and stay safe. Your Uncle and I will stay here and give you time to get away."
"No, I'll stay and fight!" Jack got up from his cot and grabbed his bow and quiver. He may be young, but he was ready to fight.
Anya had to quickly get through to him. "Jack, no. You need to keep Lucy, the Book, and your Heart safe. That is our only chance at defeating the Darkness."
There was a pounding at the door then and Anya quickly brought her son over to Lucy saying, "You two must leave, now!"
"I love you, mother," Jack made that clear to her.
"And I love you, my son. Never forget that." Anya hugged Jack and Lucy quickly then notched her bow and took aim as the children ran down the back passage.
As Henry drew his sword, she looked at him. "Bet you wished you tripped me now, huh?"
Henry simply let out a chuckle before saying, "Bet you wish you still had you Light."
"It's not my Light anymore," Anya replied as she and Henry stood ready for the fight they knew was about to burst through their doors.
The Black Fairy's Curse swirled all around Storybrooke and while it kept some there, it sent others away. Anya was one of them and when she awoke in the hall of the Charming's castle in the Enchanted Forest, she could see that she wasn't the only one. Anya, wearing her blue and white peasant dress, saw Snow, David, Hook, baby Neal, and her mother were there with her – each of them in their own Enchanted Forest attire.
Hook quickly bound to his feet calling out, "Emma? Emma!"
"She's gone," Regina sighed, getting to her feet and helping Anya do the same. "That Fairy," she seethed, "she's as good as her word. She's ripped us apart."
"Ripped us apart?" Hook shouted, "Where the blazes are we?"
"Their castle," Anya answered, gesturing to the Charmings.
Hook looked at her and then them. "What now?"
"We're in the Enchanted Forest," Snow reiterated with a regretful sigh.
"Well, she has panache, I'll give her that," Regina interjected, looking at Hook. "She took you from you wedding to theirs," gesturing to Snow and Charming.
"This is where we got married," Snow explained as David added in, "Right before we were cursed."
Anya looked around and realized there was another important person that wasn't with them. "Mom, where's Henry?"
Regina looked around the empty hall and didn't see him there either. "Henry!" she called out. "Henry!"
"Where is he?" Anya asked worriedly and it was Snow who came over to speak to them both.
"Hey," Snow took them both by their hands, "we'll find him. If she thinks she can rip this family apart…" she took a moment to change her wording. "Curses have never stopped us before. Today will be no different. We will get Emma and Henry back. Wherever they may be."
"At least we know they're not in my Realm," Anya felt that was a consolation. When the group looked at her, she said, "My Realm is inaccessible anymore – just take my word for it. There's no way they're there." And on this she was correct…at least…the latter was.
The group of them traveled to the Evil Queen's Castle and watched what was happening to Emma in Storybrooke. She was locked up in a Sanitarium with her memories altered and belief in disarray, all the while the Black Fairy was trying to convince her to burn the Storybook.
When the images in the Magic Mirror faded, Snow said, "Get her back. It's your Mirror!"
"Which she is controlling," Regina replied, making it clear that only the Black Fairy could be the one to show them anything.
"Why?" David demanded to know. "What is she doing?"
"The Final Battle," Anya answered and clenched her fists before shooting out a ball of magic in anger towards the clothing wardrobe, destroying it with a scream.
"Whoa, love, what's going on?" Hook asked, his hands held up to show he meant no harm in case she decided to turn her magic on him.
"I have been so focused on all the things that were different I didn't see what was the same," Anya answered, blaming herself for this. "In my Realm, Cora and Tinkerbell wanted to destroy my heart and the Black Fairy is doing the same thing to Emma. The Final Battle here is the same as the Battle in my Realm; a battle for the soul – the love, the light, the hope…the belief."
David didn't understand. "I don't get it. What happens if Emma stops believing."
"I think I might know," Zelena answered as she and a group of Munchkins joined them.
"Aunt Zel!" Anya rushed to her with a hug.
"Watch the hat, darling," Zelena replied with a grin as she hugged her in return. "Now before anyone asks what I'm doing here, I'll tell you. I'm helping." She turned to the Munchkin beside her and opened a hat box to pull out the Mad Hatter's hat.
Regina gasped at the sight of it. "Wasn't that destroyed?"
"Well he was a hatter," Zelena answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "he had multiples. Inside are portals to every realm. At least every realm in this Dimension. Anyway, I used it to escape Oz."
David was confused again. "Escape? Why did you need to escape your own Realm?"
"Darkness," Anya answered. "It was consumed by Darkness, wasn't it?"
"In a word," Zelena answered, setting the Hat on the floor. "It's better if I show you."
The Hat started to spin and with its magic it pulled the Charmings, Zelena, Regina, and Anya into it. Within the Hat they were in a hall that had doorways to all the realms.
Zelena went over to the curtain to Oz, saying, "If you want to know what we're running from, take a gander." She opened the curtain and on the other side was nothing but darkness – a void – nothing.
"Is this was you meant by Darkness?" Regina asked, looking at her daughter.
Anya stepped closer to the doorway and shook her head slowly. "No…it's not. My Realm still stood but here there – there's nothing."
"When I left Oz, it was falling apart," Zelena informed them. "Apocalyptic! But now…"
"It's erased," Snow said for her and David picked up from there, "Like it never existed."
"What the bloody hell has this got to do with Emma?" Hook demanded to know.
"Don't you get it?" Anya shouted at him. "This is what the Black Fairy is doing. Emma is the one thing that keeps these realms alive. If she stops believing in them then she stops giving them life! The Black Fairy is breaking her heart – destroying her belief. And if she succeeds then these worlds will cease to exist forever…and everyone in them."
More and more realms started to disappear and many people from those realms took refuge in the Hat. Anya couldn't believe how many people she recognized around her. It was like being back home again and even though she wasn't known by them, it still made her smile.
"The realms are falling apart and you're smiling?" Hook scoffed.
"Seeing more people from my Dimension alive and well is what's making me smile," Anya corrected. "And it gives me all the more reason to keep fighting." She didn't say another word when she saw Jasmine and Aladdin. "It hit Agrabah, too?" Anya asked as she went over to them. "How far is this spreading?"
"Far," Jasmine answered. "We barely got our people out. What is going on?"
"The Black Fairy is doing this all the way from Storybrooke," Snow explained.
"She's destroying Emma's belief," David added in further. "The more she loses faith, the realms of story fade away."
"We have to get back there and stop all this." Regina knew it had to be done, but didn't know how.
"What about the portal we just came though?" Aladdin suggested, "The Hat?"
"It can't create a portal to a land without magic," Zelena shot back at him. "We need something else." She looked to her niece. "Anything in your Realm that could help us?"
"The only way to travel between Realms where I'm from is four possessor and Light Magic casting a spell to where you want to go," Anya explained. "I doubt that will work for us here."
"I have it," Hook interjected. "Not what Anya is saying, but I think I have it. At least, I know where we might look."
"We don't have time for theories," Regina retorted. "What we need is magic. That is Anya's area of expertise and mine, so I think it's time we get to work and figure this out."
Since Regina brought Anya into this, he turned to her and asked, "Is that what you think, too?"
Anya answered without needing a second thought. "I think if you're anything like the Hook from my Realm then you're going to do whatever it is you want to do anyway so…there's no point in me saying anything at all." Leaving it at that, Anya used her magic to teleport herself and everyone else there to the Queen's Castle in the Enchanted Forest so they could get to work.
Anya was out in the Castle garden trying to find some ingredients since everything was empty in the Cauldron room and when she returned with what little there was, there were two Reginas there. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath saying, "I cannot handle more doubles. Please tell me I'm seeing things."
"You're not," Regina explained, going over to Anya. "This is my not-so-evil half." She turned to the Not-so-Evil Queen and introduced, "Queenie, this is Anya…Our daughter…from a different Dimension."
Queenie gasped looking at her and then smiled wide at the thought and then a question came to her. "With Daniel?" she asked curiously, and yet a part of her hoped not.
"Robin," Anya answered and just then, the Robin from the Wish Realm walked in asking, "Someone say my name?"
"Our daughter," Queenie answered turning to him. "From a different Dimension, but still."
"Our what now?" Robin asked, joining Queenie's side. Upon hearing her explanation he said, "Well…it's nice to meet you?"
Anya couldn't hold back her feeling in that moment and ran over to Robin, throwing her arms around him happily. She knew this wasn't her father from her Realm, but she needed one moment of joy at seeing him.
When the moment passed, she cleared her throat and pulled back, replying with "Likewise." She handed Regina the ingredients she could find as she said, "Sorry, about that. I…um…I need a minute."
As she started to walk away, Robin asked, "What's your name?" He felt connected to her in a way he couldn't explain and at least wanted to know what her name was.
"Anya," she answered, stopping for a moment and saw the expression on his face. "What's that look for?"
"My sister's name was Anya," he said with a smile and an approving nod. "It's fitting."
"Well, this is delightful," Zelena sarcastically interjected, "but ca we get back to saving the world now. You know, while there's still one to save?"
"What's going on?" Queenie asked, looking between them.
Regina sighed, "We're having a bit of a Fairy problem."
Queenie grinned upon hearing that. "Ooo, do tell."
While Regina and Zelena were filling Queenie in on what was going on with the Black Fairy and the Final Battle, Robin went out to the balcony to see Anya.
"So…" he began a bit awkwardly. "You are my daughter in this Dimension of yours?"
"We don't have to do this," Anya answered, turning to face him. "I know you're from a wish realm, so that makes you the Other-Other-Robin and complicated and…"
Robin stopped her there. "I may be nothing like your father but I feel…fatherly towards you if that makes any sense. It was like I was hit with a wave of it as soon as I saw you."
"Sorry about that," Anya sighed, looking back out onto the view in front of her. "My Gideon cast a spell to make myself recognizable to the Others I came across. It seems any version of the Others is affected by it."
Robin rocked on his feet a bit awkwardly. "Do you use a bow?"
Anya laughed at the question, she couldn't help it. "Do you really think I could get away with being Robin Hood's daughter without using a bow?"
"Well, I'm not exactly Robin Hood, so I had to ask," Robin smirked a bit. "You look like your mother, you know."
"Stuck with your nose though," Anya smiled back then took in a sharp breath as her eyes started to get teary. "Can I do and say something that has nothing to do with you?"
Robin wasn't sure what he was getting himself into but he nodded nonetheless.
Anya practically flung herself at him and said things to him that she wished she could say to her father. "I miss you so much," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry I couldn't save you."
Robin had no idea what this girl went through in her Realm but he hugged her back and smoothed down her hair saying, "You can't carry that weight around you forever. It's not a burden you should bear."
Anya pulled back and sniffed as she wiped her eyes, "You sound like him."
"I have a feeling that is a high compliment," Robin answered.
Anya nodded with a melancholy smile. "It is."
Their moment was shaken – literally – when it felt as if an earthquake was moving through the Enchanted Forest. They looked out onto the horizon and saw the Darkness looming, sucking up the realm as it went. "Moms!" she called out for Regina and Queenie.
They both went out onto the balcony along with everyone else that was seeking refuge and saw the Darkness on the horizon. Regina said with so much worry and fear in her voice, "I think we're too late."
End Episode 7