Hideeho! Yes I am easily distracted. This was supposed to go up last month...but then two new plunnies spawned. One for Five Nights at Freddy's (that spawned a continuation) and another for a MH/Avengers crossover (no, idek where it came from so don't ask) one shot...that mutated into a chaptered story.

(Shrugs)

Anyhoosle, on with the story! I apologize if it seems rushed but I do have a habit of changing elements of my stories that I feel seem too close to what is currently happening in a fandom that is still ongoing. It's just a thing I do. Nothing about the relevant events in the chapter have been changed just some details scarily similar to the last 3 episodes that were going to bug the shit out of me if I let them be.

Our muse de jour, Incubus with Absolution Calling. A newer song that totally reflects this point in the story n_n

*OUATE *

"The what now?" David asked.

"Don't worry about it. You all just stay here!" Gabriel snapped before he and Pan vanished from the apartment.

"He has no idea who he's talking too. Henry's out there!" Regina huffed. "Who's with me?"

"You really should stay here. The Knave-" Neale attempted to reason.

"Then you stay and look after Pan's boy." The Evil Queen threw up her arms and pretty much everybody but him and Michael (who had passed out) was whisked away in a cloud of purple smoke. "God dammit. This is not going to end well."

*11 years before the curse*

"Victor we cannot do this!" The White Queen cried. She stormed away only to be caught about the waist by her husband and halted.

"Mirana we have no choice. That woman is a menace." The White King spoke evenly to her.

"And that justifies killing a child to stop her?!" The white haired woman collapsed near the altar, cradling the bundle in her arms. "An innocent child?"

"My dear, please. He will not suffer, hardly even aware as he is now. Already born so damaged he has no hope of a life." The man's eye softened. The ritual to be performed required a living host; one young, pure and not yet formed of mind or soul. He had labored over the possibility for so long. How could he ask one of his subjects to part with their newly born child? To be a sacrifice? A sacrifice for the good of all of Wonderland but a sacrifice none the less?! But once the opportunity presented itself...it was a godsend. This child, this broken child that lay listless in his wife's arms could be their savior. Beautiful brown eyes dull and flat, no hint of awareness within them. The only signs that he lived were the rise and fall of his chest, the strange moans he would make on occasion and the milk he would suckle like an automaton. No this child was as good as living dead. He would be missed but what sort of life could he have otherwise? What sort of ruler would he be to ask such of his subjects, but shy away when given the chance himself?

"How can you say such a thing he-" She looked up at him, crying her eyes out.

"Will die now or suffer as he grows and die in a few years. My dear, this is the more merciful choice. At least this way his short life will have some meaning." Victor kissed her forehead as he guided her to her feet.

"I know...but..."

"I know my dear. I know."

*Present*

There was instant panic when Henry's eyes turned pitch black and he fell backwards but did not collapse. Looking as if he were instead draped over an invisible stool. It only escalated when a barrier of black energy surrounded the town hall. Full on pandemonium occurred when the building began to quake as if something was striking the barrier.

"Henry what's happening?!" Granny demanded. "Let us out of this!"

"I...can't..." his voice was a hollow echo, a raspy whisper. "I...have...to...keep...him...out..."

"Him? Who?! Is that Destane guy here?" shouted someone.

"The...Knave...of...Hearts"

*OUATE*

Outside the barrier, the Knave was punching it creating the tremors. Growing more and more pissed off-there was food in there and he couldn't get to it!

"Fuck!" he snarled. He'd never encountered magic like this before. Magic he couldn't devour. So much power and it was an obstacle not a meal. Destane could have warned him about this shit, the fucker! But a familiar thrum nearby worsened his mood. More of this same shit, stronger and more concentrated...

With a final kick of frustration he turned towards the source as it materialized in sight.

"Wow, he must really be desperate if he's set you loose." Gabriel snorted. "What's wrong? Can't get in?"

"Shut up. 'ho the bloody 'ell are you?!"

"The wrong ones to piss off." Another voice spoke before a fist connected with the Knave's face. A shockwave rippled outwards from the impact sending the dark haired young man across the street and into a store front. Peter's eyes flashed acid green as he stomped forward. "You'll pay for killing one of my boys."

"Kill or be killed and all that. It's jus nature." The Knave laughed standing up, a wide grin on his face. Totally unharmed. "Perhaps you and his brother would like to join him...he wasn't too filling so there's plenty of room!"

Like a shot the Knave surged forward, his short dagger poised to strike. The blade only met with a wall of shadows that rebounded him the same direction he came from. Only to change his flight path just before revisiting the demolished candle shop window. The two dark chaos mages knew exactly what excited him before they even saw it and could not be more aggravated as a swirl of purple smoke yield the the same people they had JUST told to stay put.

"That's what you're worked up over? I could knock him out." Regina scoffed at the young man grinning at them.

"Something tells me that psycho smile says otherwise..." Emma reached for her gun upon seeing him flying right at them.

"REALLY?!" Gabriel yelled.

Before Regina could let loose her fireball, a dome of black covered team good n evil. The Knave caught himself just before plowing into it. With at frustrated roar he turned to face the mage and priest.

"Stop hiding! Fight me dammit!"

"What part of stay put was unclear to you lot?" Peter groaned.

"The stay put part. You don't honestly expect us to twiddle our thumbs when Henry's in danger do you?" Regina scoffed.

"Yeah, see he's actually much better equipped right now than you. Than any of you." Peter pushed the Knave skyward when he tried to attack from the air. "The Knave is a Magical Void. He craves magical energy like a thirsty man craves water. All magic he encounters he devours. All hearts he finds he consumes- and he's pretty much indestructable. He was born to be able to take out the baddest bitch in Wonderland kiddies. And if Destane hadn't gotten to him first he most certainly would have."

"Don't let him touch you. Don't let his dagger cut you. DO NOT attack him with magic." Gabriel summoned a rather large parasol made of bamboo and paper.

"What was that last part?" Gold whipped around.

"You heard him Rum. You'll only make him stronger." Pan looked so different when serious.

"So what are we suppose to do then?" Regina huffed.

"You could have listened before dragging us all here. As it stands, I would think the Evil Queen would know her way around a sword." Jasmine scoffed conjuring along curved sword for herself. "If not, I suggest you hide."

"Food that delivers itself. How novel." The Knave chuckled.

"Not happening Knave." Pan spat.

"You know of me? That's interesting. My master supposedly kept my existence a secret. Anyone who's met me...well hasn't lived to tell the tale. But I guess he wasn't as thorough as he thought. Tired of talkin. Come 'ere cutie you look tasty!"

Snow had about half a second to react before this wack job was in her face and about to stab her. But it was David who did, barrelling into the slightly younger man full force. A terrible idea. While it did knock the Knave off his feet, it also gave him skin contact with the king. Red veins crept along his face for the brief moment they were in contact and the Knave's eyes flashed red for just an instant. Then David was yanked backwards by a shadow.

"For Affinity sake I just told you not to touch him! You do have a sword dumbass!" Gabriel barked.

"Mmm...a man still in his prime. Deliciously pure of heart. I must 'ave more." He licked his lips and lept at David this time. Only to be intercepted...

...by a tree.

Everyone blinked for a moment as he careened into a storefront down the block.

"You said not to use magic on him. I used magic on the tree then hit him with it." Rumple smirked.

"That 'on't stop me!"

"But this will." A certain hook handed privateer stated. Walking down the street like he was out for a Sunday stroll, Killian flicked his wrist and dozens of silver chains shot out of the ground to ensnare their attacker. "Later mate."

"DAMN YOU!" The Knave screamed as the chains drug him into a shimmering portal in the ground.

After a beat of silence, the shield around the hall shattered and Peter ran inside.

"Okay, what the HELL was that?!" David nursed his strained elbow.

"That is the magical equivalent of the Terminator. Once the Knave locks on to you, it's best to make peace with whatever higher power you subscribe to." Hook pulled him up to his feet. One handed. By the back of his shirt. David did a double take at suddenly being manhandled upright like a toddler. "He feeds on the life force of mere mortals and the energy of magical creatures. And he always seems to be starving."

"Why were you not affected then? Those chains were an extension of you, saturated with magic." Jasmine huffed dusting her rear off.

"Uh yeah... that's a good question Hook. From what I've seen you're as magical as they come but well..." Snow struggled to find the words to she wanted.

"Being dead has it's perks yeah? To an extent Pan and his birds are same way. We exist in absence of the laws of magic and nature."

"That abomination has no soul!" A fairy cried timidly.

"He's got one...sorta." Henry rubbed his chest. "It's just so...I dunno. It makes no sense. Ive never felt something so, so not right before..."

"Because the thing inside him is a beast that makes no sense. The greatest minds of Wonderland plotted to kill their queen, your mother love." Hook pointed vaguely at Regina, trying not to wince as she bristled. She needed to hear this. "After you gave her the heave ho into the mirror, quite on accident, she wasted no time toppling the reigning Red Queen and taking out her frustrations on the ill prepared citizens. Desperation drove them to shove a ghastly monstrosity into the body of a child. Which promptly overshadowed with his soul and created the unending void you sensed within him Henry."

"Someone used dark magic to make a child into the thing that almost killed us?!" Snow shrieked. After a beat a thought occurred to her. "Why did Destane wait so long to unleash him? Why not wipe us out in one go before we became a threat? Before we knew what was going on?"

"Those dumbasses made the Knave of Hearts is the vessel for the darkest paradox in all of Wonderland, once existing within the very core of the realm itself. It consumes any magic it comes in contact with but is never satisfied. Even so, with out it to devour the ambient energies-" Felix scoffed.

"Where the hell did you come from?!" A startled Granny exclaimed. She was ignored by the next person to speak.

"Wonderland started to go pot." Jefferson spoke up, walking out of the crowd. "I always thought it was just her royal pain in the ass making everything topsy turvy but that beast is a necessary evil. I'd heard legends in my travels, before I started to lose my marbles. Wonderland isn't supposed to make much sense but that thing kept the place from going absolutely bonkers. Then one day it just vanished. I'd hate to see what the place looks like now with so much time passed. But I'm guessing he can't exist in a world without magic."

"That project failed." Rumple frowned. "I know for a fact the White King and Queen died trying to harness that creature's might."

"You know that how exactly?" Regina eyed him.

"Because, I would have never had a use for the curse and by extension the lot of you, if they succeeded."

"..."

"But they did, obviously. Looks like someone got over on the master deal maker." Jasmine mumbled earning a glare from the man in question.

"How come we've never heard of this guy? Or Destane? I mean if they're both so big and bad, why aren't they in the book?" Henry blinked. Peter was supporting him as he looked ready to pass out. Such a powerful spell had made him pretty loopy.

"What?" Gabriel paused in walking towards them. "They aren't?"

"No. At least I don't remember him."

"Henry, summon the book." The Moon's voice was low and controlled.

Without hesitating, the boy held out both arms. A swirl of shadow around them dropped the tome in his hands starling Emma who had been hesitant to approach because of Pan's presence.

First that weird freezing spell, then the shield that saved the townsfolk from the Knave. Now this. He'd had access to magic for literally half a day and he could wield it as if it'd been part of him all his life. Despite being dead on his feet, at the silver haired god's command he straightened up and effortlessly called for the book.

Regina was unsure if she should be impressed by the display of shadow casting or worried by it. The Knave's dagger radiated something dark and malevolent. Far beyond anything she had ever encountered. But a flick of the undead pirate's wrist had banished him to...somewhere. The Queen had no doubt that wasn't the end of it but still the ease at which these others were able to handle him when all her power did was feed him...

She watched the silver haired boy flip through the pages, irritation growing. With a scowl, he slammed the book closed.

"This isn't the book you was supposed to get."

"It's the one I found in my closet." Mary Margaret said.

"And I don't doubt that Snow White. This is just not the one that you should have found- it looks the same but it's not." he shook his head. "Huge chunks of this thing are missing. Stories from Wonderland, the 7 Deserts, Atlantis...a bunch of places are not even mentioned in here."

"It'd be huge if they were right?" Emma said.

"No. This book is enchanted to hold an infinite number of pages. It senses the reader's intentions and guides them where to what they seek. It's something my mother created to record the goings on in the worlds most strongly tethered to Everlie, the hub of this reality and our home. Unfortunately this one has neither property. And I just realized your gift from the seer is at best useless now and at worst a means of manipulating you all along Rumplestiltskin."

"Oh joy." The Dark One groaned. "Care to explain that little gem?"

"Anything the seer saw would have been tied to the book. It records and predicts but never at the same time."

"For fuck sake what does that even mean?!" Leroy wailed. "Stop speaking in riddles! For once can't you magic types get to the damn point?!"

"It's pretty much a device that works the same why our Sight does. Think of it this way- when you write a story you can't write any faster than your brain allows thoughts to form. Even then you may know what you want to happen in the next sentence you can't write that next sentence until you finish the one before it. The book can figure out what might happen next and present it as a series of 'what ifs' but each time a course is taken, prediction is replaced by record. It is how my mother, sister and I properly see the worlds. That's why most mortal seers are a bit looney tunes and their powers either drive them mad, slowly kill them or both. That book is what they tap into. Their minds are not meant to handle processing that much info at once. THIS however is nothing more than a plain leather bound text with a few stories in it."

"You call the history of everyone in town a few stories?!" Emma balked.

"Considering the book has existed almost as long as I have? I'd call it a drop in the bucket." Gabe rolled his eyes.

"But the only way Destane could bind the Knave is what worries me." Felix frowned, drawing everyone's attention to him including the Moon. "It's something only the Supreme Mother could give. Just how the hell did the Black Death get to Lady Aurii? Much less manage to get her to hand it over?!"

Cue crickets.

If only they knew the answer was ridiculously simple.

*Eons before the Dark Curse*

Far beyond the reach of all but a chosen few, two souls were conversing about a matter most dire.

"This cannot end well my Lady." a deep voice entoned.

"Nothing is set in stone. Or ink as it were my dear, you of all people should know this." a gentle voice answered.

"If this is truly the key, then surely a better way could be written...a better story told!"

"You fail to understand something, for all my power, the affinity affects me just the same as it affects you. As it affects the lowest of the low it affects those deemed most on high. What we do now determines the future's many possibilities. I have seen what will occur, the myriad of paths that the now could take." White eyes softened as they gazed upon her companion, a young magic user she had recognized with great potential. Potential to become a great power across all the realms. Power that would have to guide her children in her stead for some time.

As a Guardian, Lady Aurii could not directly interfere with the reality she created. She could see all, hear all, be anywhere but could not truly interact with anything beyond her sacred realm of Everlie. Her children had greater freedom but their interaction was limited to those no longer bound to the mortal coil. Because immorality in the sense of fantasy is a myth, these meant only the dead. Still, those who have died could be reborn as priests or priestesses that could do what neither she nor her children could. Alter the course of events in their reality.

Thinking on it, the circumstances in which she met her young apprentice were rather amusing. A humble young man born of rare chance and happenstance with gifts that would elevate him to god hood among his peers. A power unmatched by all but a very few-no one is invincible. He found himself in her prayer room one day after trying to banish a terrible dark force threatening his homeland. He had banished it to the only place capable of purifying it's energies to be released back into the karmic cycle.

He just hadn't the sense to let it go beforehand. Still, he was young and could learn. And fortunately, because he came to her, she could teach him. The Laws of the Affinity were absolute and could not be broken. But they could be bent to almost breaking. Because her apprentice came to her, to her sanctuary, conversing with him was not taboo. And it was through him she would ensure her children, her world, survived the coming strife. The path would not be easy, but there was hope. Time did not have the same meaning in Everlie and she used it to her advantage.

"This book will guide you. It records the history of all the realms. It will give you a clear picture of the past but alas it cannot give you the definite future. For every path taken, recorded in black ink, possibilities will appear written in red. As choices are made, red will bleed black and other possible outcomes will fade away. Then the cycle repeats." A large brown leather book appeared in the startled young man's hands. She sighed before continuing."You MUST NOT be tempted to alter what is written. No matter what terrible futures you see are possible. You will however have times when you must act, but rarely in the manner in which you may first think."

"M-my lady?! Surely you don't mean to...but why me?! I am but a simple man who wanted to protect his home and nothing more. Finding myself here was a folly! Proof of my own inadequacy. I cannot be trusted to divine with the same wisdom as one such as you. A goddess"

"My dear boy, you know not of your own worth but you will. I do not guarantee the choices you must make will be clear, but I do have the utmost faith that you will work it out." She hugged him tight, then conjured a round pendant the size of a half dollar on a chain. "This vial contains a special ingredient you can find no where else. I cannot tell you now but when the time comes, you will know what to do with it. Here is where you must leave me. From this point on, you are no longer my apprentice. You are, the Sorcerer. Free to take an apprentice of you own some day."

"I...I will not fail you my lady."

"I know you won't Walt." Her sad smile was the last thing the young Sorcerer saw. The panicked cry of her son and daughter the last thing he hear before his magic delivered him home and into his own destiny.

*OUATE*

Yup. I have officially laid out the rules of how Guardians, Mages, etc work. Loopholes and all. I have tried to keep constant throughout all my Chaos Mage fics that yes they are powerful but there are rules that apply to every one. In "A Mother's Love" Lady Gaia directly tells Nabu that seeing an outcome doesn't always mean you can prevent it from happening. She too bends the rules by speraking to him but how she does it is the loophole: Nabu invited her to speal with him. He summoned her in a sense therefore she DID NOT initiate contact. Aren't loopholes convenient?

I also gave my reason for the great and powerful Sorcerer sitting on his duff while all manner of bad shit went down. I think the current Author Arc is...kinda dumb if you think about it. Seriously, there's a guy hopscotching across realms with a pen that could give him whatever he wanted. And the ninnies who gave it to him can be made to dance for his amusement like everyone else. Their only means of correcting him is trapping him in a book. Not, you know, making him fix what he fucked up. WTFF?!

But now there's a whole host of other issues:

If Lady Aurii gave the 'secret ingredient' and the book to him, how did Destane get the vial (if he even did) and where the hell is the real book?

What is the Knave of Hearts and what role did Rumplestiltskin play in his creation?

It's becoming increasingly clear Destane had the upper hand for a long time. His war with Pan and Gabriel appears to have been partially reverse psychology. He tricked Jasmine and Mozenrath; he was never even in the tomb they put his body in and he wanted Moz to rip out his own heart. He mind fucked The Hatter but just what else he did remains unclear. Destane is also responsible for at the very least turning the Knave into his personal weapon. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.

Just how fucked are our beloved characters?

Love it? Hate it? Let me know, reviews are like hugs! Sirensoundwave out!