disclaimer: We do not own any of the OUAT characters. Just our added characters.
Extra info: This story has two writers. One of us writes Helena and the other writes Amy. You will notice a difference in how Helena's and Amy's perspectives are portrayed, we wrote them like we ourselves notice/see things. Fair warning: we are insane. Enjoy!
Amy sat by the tree on the edge of the courtyard, reading. Suddenly, Zach flew down landing next to her. "I- What are you doing here?" The griffin just lay next to her in the sun. Amy looked around waiting for the Dark One to appear. Paranoia eating her veins but she didn't move to get the Griffin back to its cellar.
Amy looked across the courtyard and there was Zach, the real Zach, and his brother, Sam, talking. Amy didn't move but just watched as they walked across the courtyard to the gate. When they reached the gate, Sam disappeared suddenly, replaced with Rumple.
Amy turned to where the griffin had been lying and he was gone. Smoke surrounded her and she found herself in her cell. "Great."
On one wall there was a mirror, which cleared allowing her to see Rumple and Zach arguing. Rumple was throwing a fit but Zach remained calm somehow. Amy approached the mirror as if getting closer would give her a better view or allow her to hear anything they were saying.
Rumple backed away from Zach and with a simple hand motion, human Zach had turned into griffin Zach. Amy clawed at the mirror trying to get through it but to no avail.
Rumple summoned his dagger or replica and stabbed the beast. "Zach!" Amy screamed in horror and the mirror shattered in front of her. The glass falling to the floor.
"No!" Amy breathed heavily. The griffin woke up startled at Amy's sudden awakening. She tucked herself, holding her knees fast to her chest, and rocked back and forth. "It's okay. It's okay. He's alive. Zach." She hugged the griffin. She felt her body shaking. She kept envisioning Zach's body on the floor. "It was just a dream. Only a dream. I want to go home." She told the griffin, nuzzling her face and tears into the griffin's neck. The griffin somehow allowed it for a moment, but then moved.
"Helena." Amy wished she could call her at that moment. Because, of course, Helena wants to hear all about this. Amy thought sarcastically, then shook her head, Ah! Why do I feel this way? I hardly know him. I mean, I know his family fairly well, but I have had a total of two or three conversations with him. Amy stared off into space.
'You should probably go before Rumple decides he wants you.' Amy nodded. After fighting the urge to stay, she got up and transported herself to her room. She quickly got hold of a pillow and hugged it. Amy imagined her friend Elizabeth hugging the same pillow, which was a coping mechanism they came up with after Amy moved.
Once she calmed herself enough to start to think normally, she noticed the Greek Mythology book lying on her bed. Distraction. Greek gods. Amy opened the book, Hermes is probably my best bet. I mean, if I don't count as a traveler, who does?
Amy read through all the books she could find on Hermes and ways she could summon him or ask him to help. Which was extremely extensive, but it was Belle's library. Elizabeth would be so jealous. Amy smiled at the memory of her book-loving friend.
Amy took notes, making sure to make note of the book and page number or chapter. She read and read. I've read this before. She facepalmed, I've been reading this same section for thirty minutes. She put the book down. Getting up off her bed, Amy felt the restless energy get to her. "I need to do something!" She groaned in frustration, "Punch something, run, shoot hoops. Anything! I'm in a world that's supposed to be full of adventure and I am living the most boring life right now."
Amy took a pair of mid-calf boots and ran down the stairs and out into the courtyard. Hopefully, Rosette doesn't have knee issues. Like I do. Amy remembered being Rosette's age when she first injured hers. Running was the worst thing she could do, but Amy never cared. She ran anyway. Once she got to the wall, she took off around the castle. She felt all her energy, her emotion, anger, release itself in the run. She felt free for a moment if only a moment.
In the next moment, once Amy had let go of the initial anger, she was left in confusion and in a fight of the mind. Of competing realities. One that she knew and one that she had yet to fully explore, but it wasn't hers to do so. Memories appeared before her eyes, that she had never lived. Ones of Belle and many of Rumple. One memory came in glimpses, pictures, that she pieced together. Where she stared up at Belle, as a small child, screaming, and being told to be quiet. Belle gave a weak reassuring smile and came to her level. Amy heard only one of the many words that she spoke, "Rumplestiltskin." With that Belle left her alone. Then a lapse in the memory occurred and all Amy could piece together was that she, or Rosette, summoned Rumple when he stood before her.
Yet, there was a different memory that appeared, but not Rosette's, her own. Of her, at Seaworld, with her grandparents and her family. She was about the same age as Rosette, five or six. She couldn't remember, but her sibling's stroller caught her foot. Suddenly she was in the nurse's office, demanding that no one but her Nana come near her to heal her wounded toe. Because only Nana had any certification as a nurse to this young child's mind.
Then another, of Rosette, when she was eight, running away to find Belle, but getting caught. Then one of Amy, doing a similar thing but only making it so far, as down the street, before crying and running back home. Again and again, ten, twelve, fourteen. Competing memories, then they stopped. Only Amy's memories remained for any age above fourteen but seemed odd for a girl her age to have such memories. Of living through high school, graduating, and finishing up her associates' degree. Things that Rosette wouldn't have done yet, nor could do living in a medieval world. Crushes and dating relationships she never would have encountered and this confused her and drove Amy mad.
Amy screamed and ran into the stone wall of the castle. Punching and kicking the wall, "No! This isn't me. I'm Amy. This is a dream! A dream." She repeated those two words to herself over and over again to convince herself but reason came in to prove to her the reality and her anger was rekindled, "Then why can't I just wake up?! Why can't I go home? What am I doing here?" She huffed as she lost some of her energy. She leaned her head against her forearm on the wall, staring blankly at the ground beneath her, "I don't know what to do. I can't tell who I am anymore. Did I have friends or have I been alone all my life? Did I have a family who loved me or a father who didn't and a mother who left?" Amy or Rosette. Those were her two options and both of them were true but, one was for the mind and the other for the body. "I want to go home."
Amy hugged herself and slid her back down the wall to hug her knees, wishing someone could explain this to her. Tell her everything would be fine, they'd figure this out. Only one person came to mind, Helena. "She's here and if she isn't, I'm Rosette. She smacked me back to reality last time, she can do it again." Determined to find an answer to both their questions, she magicked a piece of parchment, quill, and ink and wrote a note to Helena. Once she did, she rolled the parchment and tied it in a ribbon. She got up and went to search for her friend that had introduced her to her griffin.
Thirty minutes later, Amy located the robin. "Hi, Robin, I have a message for a specific wolf-friend of mine. Would you mind delivering it?" The robin chirped, flapping his wings. "Thank you, kind sir." She tied the ribbon to the robin's leg. As she did so, the sky cleared. That, and a magical tug from the dagger, told her Rumple had left the premises. "Now or never." She whispered to herself. The robin hopped onto her index finger. Amy whispered to the robin, as if Rumple had left a spy, "Go find Reika, she'll be with Red or Snow. Go." The bird flew off with the message.
'I hope you told her of my predicament.' A voice sounded behind her.
Amy turned, raising an eyebrow, "Zach? Helena, hurry. I'm definitely seeing things."
Zach nodded at her to follow him. "Yeah, definitely seeing things. Help." Amy whispered to herself then followed. He led her to the cellar where the griffin was kept. He offered a hand as she entered the cellar. If I take it he'll disappear. I'll wake up from this hallucination. She took it and… made contact. She gasped, "I'm holding hands with a ghost. Helena… help. Please."
Zach laughed, letting go of her hand as she stepped onto the wooden floorboards of the cellar, "I'm not a ghost. Do you not remember?"
"No. What am I supposed to remember?" Amy asked as Zach walked over to the griffin.
"I've been here the whole time. I came here with you and Helena, but in another form." He looked at the sleeping griffin. "I am only able to communicate when the griffin is asleep. I tried reaching out to Helena but she's walled off. Then, I found myself here."
"So, you're Dr. Strange? If you are Zach and not a form of my imagination- Which seems more likely because you've never talked to me this much and definitely not this formally- if you are Zach, how do we free you so we can get home?"
"I don't know. I was hoping you could figure it out. Now that you know." Zach replied.
"Great. I wonder who else is going to appear. Let me guess, Dylan's the robin? Or is that Sam? Or Emma?"
Zach raised his eyebrow, "It's just a robin. And Dylan would be a peacock."
Amy snorted at that notion simultaneously raising an eyebrow skeptically, "Yeah, no doubt, well… I guess I have some work to do. I'll leave you to sleep." She turned to leave, and just then the griffin stirred and Zach disappeared into the griffin, "You are the griffin. What the heck?"
As always, Hope you enjoyed. leave a comment!