Present Time
Storybrooke, Maine
While Emma parked the car over by the road David slowly sat back, trying to calm his breathing. His head was reeling due to the recent events; the strange twin he had been fighting and the fact that his sword had disappeared. Well, not entirely; the blade that his shadow twin had cut off still lay on the ground, but the hilt had vanished.
"David", Emma said as she hurried up to him and Rachel, who still lay on the ground, "are you okay?"
He nodded and grasped Rachel's arm, helping her sit up as well. Her neck was bruised and her hands bloody; not until now did he realize that she must have climbed out of his car in order to help him and had probably fallen on the asphalt in the process. Regina, Hook, Indira and Wolfgang approached them as well.
"Well, where is she?" Regina asked, looking around.
"It wasn't her", David sighed and rose, Rachel leaning against him.
"Then who was it?" Hook asked. "You two look whiter than fresh sails."
"Myself", David responded.
"Come again?" Wolfgang and Hook said at the same time, then looked at each other in surprise as they realized what they had done.
"It's the Witch", Regina said. "She's toying with us."
"Did you guys find where she might be hiding?" David asked.
"There's a farmhouse nearby that we think is hers", Indira answered and moved to relieve David from Rachel's weight. To his surprise he found his grip on the girl next to him tightening; he did not want to let go. He was in charge of keeping her safe.
The next moment he wondered why he could possibly think that and why he would not let some of her friends help out, which caused him to let go and allow Rachel to lean against Indira instead.
"Then let's end this", he said, looking at Regina. "Let's send that Witch back to Oz."
"Any sign of the monkey?" Filipi asked.
"None, at least not now", Chris answered. "Have you found anything?"
"Well, it's an Alder tree, alright", Robin responded. "Question now is if we were right."
He knelt down next to the tree in question, scouring the area close to its roots. Jade soon joined him, something he was grateful for as she had a much better knowledge of what they were looking for than he did. Also, in case the monkey appeared he had to be able to get up and fire a shot at it from the crossbow he had brought along.
"Look", Jade suddenly said. "Beneath that root, in the hollow close to the trunk."
He looked in the direction she was pointing, but at first he could not understand what she was referring to. The hollow she was inclining towards was filled with old leaves that had blown there during the winter.
"Oh come on, you're Robin Hood!" Jade groaned. "Don't tell me you're blind."
She reached forward and brushed the leaves away, revealing a set of sticks bound together by a rope. The fact that these sticks had carefully carved out handles was what gave their true nature away.
"Wands", he said, finding himself grinning as Jade pulled them out. Once she did she revealed a second bundle beneath them, which she was quick to grab as well.
"Looks like we got them all at once", she said with a wide smile.
"At a good time, too", Chris said and jumped down from his stone. "The monkey's coming back."
Sure enough; there was the ominous sound of large wings beating up in the air, closer and closer to the set of Alder trees they had found. Robin quickly tossed the leaves back into the hollow before leading his four companions to safety.
"Do you think she'll find out we've found them?" Tessa asked as they found a safe hide-out.
"I don't know", Robin answered, "but you've got a way to defend yourselves now."
"Well, maybe not", Jade said. The others turned towards her.
"Seems like the ropes binding them together are enchanted", the youngest girl answered. "We're going to have to look for a way to untie them in order to actually be able to use them."
"There's another thing as well", Chris remarked. "Counting those of us who are still missing the total amount of wands should be fourteen, yet in these two bunches we have fifteen."
"You could have gotten yourself killed", Indira remarked while supporting her friend. Rachel's legs still felt like boiled spaghetti.
"Could you have stood by and just allowed him to be attacked?" she asked.
"No, but this isn't like you", Indira responded.
"Agreed", Rachel responded. "It's not how I usually act around people I barely know."
Indira frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
"We've lost a year of our lives", Rachel responded, "and who knows what might have happened during that time? Most likely we met some of those people we have now met as well and became close with them."
"And you think you became close with him, Prince Charming, or David?" Indira asked.
"It's the only explanation to why I'm acting like he's one of my closest friends", Rachel responded. "Subconsciously I must know that I know him."
"Any particular reason she would send a demon that pretends to look like you?" she heard Hook ask up ahead.
"No idea", David answered. "It was just there, wearing my face, harping on my deepest fears..."
Regina stopped dead in her tracks.
"It knew your deepest fears?" she asked, causing the others to stop as well and allowing Indira and Rachel to catch up. While they stood still Rachel experimentally tried to stand without supporting herself on her friend.
"Yeah, things I never told anyone, even Mary Margaret", David responded to Regina's question. Emma raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"It wasn't until I admitted them that I was able to defeat it by stabbing it with the hilt of my sword", David continued.
"Where is it?" Regina quickly asked. "Your sword, that is."
"Well, that's the strange part", David admitted. "After I killed it the hilt... it disappeared."
"What's that mean, then?" Wolfgang asked.
"When we face our deepest fears our true courage comes out", Regina explained. "When you used the hilt of your sword to vanquish your fears, your courage transferred into it."
"Then why did it disappear?" Rachel asked, managing to stand on her own two feet again.
"It didn't disappear", Regina responded. "She took it."
"Hang on", Emma said. "The Wicked Witch stole his courage?"
"Well, a symbol of it at least", Regina responded, "and symbols can be powerful totems."
"But... courage, that has something to do with the Oz-story", Indira pointed out.
"Yes, it's what the Lion seeks from the wizard", Rachel responded. "The Scarecrow wants a brain and the Tin Man wants a heart."
"Do you think she might be after those two other things as well?" Emma asked.
"It's possible", Regina admitted, "though I cannot see what good it will do to her."
"We just have to send her back before she gets all three", Wolfgang said.
They trudged on, following the trail out of the forest and up the hill.
"Hey", David suddenly said, falling into step besides Rachel, "did you mean what you said before, to Indira?"
"About us possibly being friends back in the Enchanted Forest?" Rachel asked in return. "Yes, I did. I am not someone who finds friends easily, so when I do I stick to them and I protect them just as I would protect my family. My reactions to both the events at the hospital yesterday and what occurred earlier points towards that explanation."
David smiled slightly.
"Well, it would seem you haven't lost your Ravenclaw identity after all", he joked.
"I do not mean to", she responded with a smile of her own.
The farmhouse, located up on a snow covered hill, was surrounded by a barbed wire fence, but outside this fence lay the entrance to a storm cellar. That was where Emma, Hook, Indira and Wolfgang were leading them. However, as they closed in on the door the quartet stopped.
"That lock", Emma said, "it wasn't busted before."
Rachel looked at the broken padlock that had obviously been securing the door, before she felt David push her back. A glance from him told her to stay back while they secured the place. In the corner of her eye she saw Emma drawing her gun and Hook his sword, while Indira and Wolfgang also stepped back as they were unarmed. If even Gryffindors did that maybe it was a good idea for her to follow suit.
David grabbed the handle to the door while Emma readied her weapon.
"Ready?" she asked, looking around. The others nodded and David opened the door with Emma quickly pointing her gun at whatever might be waiting for them down the steep stairs.
Nothing happened.
"So far, so good", Hook remarked.
"Stay alert", Emma ordered before slowly descending down the stairs. "Come on."
A gush of dry air from the inside made Rachel shiver and as she looked over at Wolfgang and Indira she could see them reacting the same.
"There's definitely dark magic here", Regina said as she climbed in after Emma and David. Hook glanced at the three others, giving them permission to head into the cellar before him. As they descended down the stairs the goosebumps on their arms made themselves known again.
When they reached the bottom of the basement they found themselves standing in a small, square room with concrete walls. Half of the room was, however, occupied by a large cage. The lock on the cage's door was busted, just like the lock upstairs.
"Can you feel it?" Regina continued, referring to her comment about dark magic.
"I don't know", Emma answered. "Maybe. Whatever I feel it's not good."
"What would the Wicked Witch keep in a cage?" Indira asked. "Monkeys?"
"No, not monkeys", David responded, reaching up into the ceiling and turning on a single light bulb hanging there. As the cellar was suddenly bathing in light they found themselves looking at an object standing in the centre of the cage; a spinning wheel. David reached down and picked something up off the floor. It had the shape of a straw but the colour was entirely wrong; not yellow, but shimmering like some sort of metal.
"Now, how many people do we know that can spin straw into gold?" David asked.
"Rumplestiltskin", Emma whispered, staring at the item in shock.
"Who's Rumplestilt..." Wolfgang begun, but suddenly found himself falling backwards as the wall he had been aiming to lean against fell away, revealing another cage hidden behind an illusion. This cage, however, was inhabited, although its inhabitants were currently asleep or unconscious.
"Oh my God", Indira whispered. "It's them. It's our friends."
One of the inhabitants of the cage stirred and gave a muffled cry against the gag in her mouth when she noticed them.
"Someone get the door open", Rachel said, prompting Regina to move forward and, with a flick of her wrist, busted the lock. Wolfgang, Indira and Rachel immediately moved in and loosened the bonds and gags tying their friends down. A blonde girl flung her arms around Indira's neck.
"Thank God you found us", she cried.
"How did you all get here?" Wolfgang asked while helping the only male inhabitant of the cage get free. "What happened?"
"Don't know", the other boy answered. "One moment we're at Ollivander's in Orlando, the next we wake up in this cage, bound and tied down."
"How long have you been here?" Indira asked.
"Don't know, it's been dark the whole time", another girl answered.
"Hey!" Rachel suddenly shouted. She had moved further into the cage to the only one of its inhabitants that had not woken up.
"What is it?" David asked, moving in as well.
"I need some light, has anyone got a torch?" she responded.
"Yes, I usually do walk around with one in my pocket", Wolfgang sarcastically responded. Regina then followed David into the cage and created a fireball in her hand, causing the prisoners to move away from her.
"What have you found?" she asked.
"It's Ella", Rachel answered.
"But... she wasn't with us in Orlando", Indira remarked. "How come she turned up here as well as we did?"
"Don't know, but she's not waking up", Rachel answered.
"Any bite marks?" David asked. "We don't want another monkey incident."
"Not that I can see", Rachel responded. "There's something else going on. We need to get her to a hospital."