Chapter 49
Hi everyone! I did end up starting that one-shot series. You should totally check it out! I've gotten some really fun requests so far, and I'd love to have more! :) Well, here is the next chapter for this story! A few people wanted to see a little teenage fight with Snow and Hanna, since I did one with David a few chapters ago. Obviously, there's going to be some angst between them because of what's coming up in the storyline anyway, but I added something a little extra in too. Enjoy! :)
"Hanna!" Henry exclaimed as he ran into the loft.
Hanna jumped as he burst through the door, almost spilling the bowl of cereal she had just made herself. "Geez Henry, what is it?" Hanna asked as she sat down at the table to enjoy her Fruit Loops.
"I found this when I was going through August's stuff," Henry said as he set a page from the storybook down onto the table next to Hanna. Geppetto gave some of August's things to Regina. He thought since they couldn't get Pinocchio to remember, there might be something in in there that could help them.
"It's a door…" Hanna said as she took a bite of her cereal.
"Yeah, careful," Henry said as he moved it away from her, afraid she might spill milk on it. "I think it has something to do with the author. We just need to figure out where it is."
"Maybe at the Sorcerer's mansion?" Hanna suggested.
"That's what I was thinking. It's probably the best place to start looking. Ask Grandma and Grandpa if you can come look with me," Henry told her. He looked around though and realized that no one else was here. "Where is everyone?"
Hanna shrugged her shoulders. "My dad took Neal to Ashley I guess, then my mom and Emma ran out of here just a few minutes ago. They didn't tell me where they were going."
"I guess you don't have to ask for permission to leave then?" Henry said with a grin.
"Nope." If her parents were going to be sneaky and run off places, then so would she. She still thought they were up to something despite what she and Emma talked about last night. Hanna ate the rest of her cereal before getting up to put on her coat. "Let's go," she said as she opened the door and left with Henry.
Hanna did send her mom and dad a quick text letting them know where she was…she didn't feel like getting in trouble if they came home and found her gone. They said it was fine and to check in every so often.
Hanna and Henry spent the rest of the day searching the mansion for a door that looked like the one on the page. They went into every room and tried to find every secret passage way they could. They had no luck though. The door wasn't anywhere in that mansion. As Henry and Hanna walked home, they tried to think of another place the door might be. The town hall? The library? Granny's? They had no clue where to look next. They thought maybe someone at home might have a better idea.
"Hey, we're back," Henry said as he and Hanna walked into the loft.
"Hey, any luck finding the door?" Emma asked.
"No, it wasn't there," Hanna told her.
"Are you sure?" Regina asked them.
"We looked everywhere," Henry told her. He glanced over to the couch. "Is that August?"
Hanna looked too. "I thought he turned back into Pinocchio? How did that happen?"
"It's a long story…" Regina said with a sigh.
She and Emma filled the kids in on everything that happened. Regina went undercover to get information from Cruella, Ursula, and Maleficent. She informed them that Gold is back in town too. Apparently, they all want to find the author as well. They want their happy endings just like Regina does. Regina ended up having to kidnap Pinocchio in order to keep her cover safe. Then Gold turned Pinocchio back into August to get information about the author out of him. August told him that the author was trapped behind a door and that the door was somewhere in Storybrooke. August also knew that his Papa gave Regina his things and revealed that she had the page with the door on it. Gold wanted the page, and Regina was suppose to be getting it for him.
"How did you get him away from them?" Hanna asked.
"We took him while Gold and Maleficent were gone. Mom, Dad, and Killian helped too," Emma told her.
"Where are Mom and Dad anyway?"
"I don't know…" Emma said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Why am I not surprised," Hanna said with a roll of her eyes.
"Han…"
"What…" Hanna said, raising her eyebrows at her sister. "You know they're up to something."
"We don't know that," Emma told her. "For all we know they're just picking up Neal from Ashley's"
"It's not like that takes very long and…"
"Guys, he's awake!" Henry called from where he was standing next to August.
The girls stopped their argument and ran to August.
"What is she doing here?" August asked as he looked up at Regina.
"It's okay, I promise," Emma assured him.
"August, we need to talk about how we're going to keep up my cover with Gold. The only reason I was able to come here is because they think I'm stealing this page," Regina told him.
"We didn't find the door at the Sorcerer's mansion," Henry told him.
"That's because it's not there," August told him.
"What?" Hanna asked, she and Henry had wasted their whole day searching that place for nothing.
"But…you said you didn't know where it was and your nose didn't grow," Regina said. Gold had put a spell on August that would make his nose grow if he told a lie. He asked him if he knew where the door was, but August told him he didn't know. All he knew was that it was somewhere in Storybrooke.
"My nose didn't grow because I wasn't lying. When Gold asked me I didn't know where the door was because I didn't know where Henry was keeping this page."
Now they were all confused. August sat up to explain further. "Regina, this isn't just an illustration. This is the door. The author is trapped inside the book."
Regina stood up with the page in her hands and examined it some more. "How the hell is the author trapped inside the book?"
Hanna noticed something was wrong with August and gave Henry a nudge. He noticed too.
"Don't ask me you're the magic expert," Emma said to Regina, not realizing what the kids had noticed about August.
"Mom…" Henry said, trying to get their attention.
"Well, this is insane. What are we suppose to do…draw a key?"
"Well, we need to figure it out before Gold does."
"Mom!" Henry said a little louder. They both finally turned to him and paid attention. "There's something wrong with August."
"August? August?" Emma said frantically as she tried to wake him, but he didn't respond.
"We need to get him some help," Hanna said.
Regina kneeled down to get a better look at him. "It's all this magic he's been through, it's taken a toll on him." She glanced down at her watch. "It's pretty late. We can take him to Blue in the morning. She'll know what to do. He'll be fine for tonight."
They made sure August was comfortable on the couch and gave him the space he needed to rest. Snow and David finally came back with Neal and everyone decided to get some rest themselves and go to bed.
"Henry what are you doing with my phone?" Hanna asked as she came back into their room after getting a shower and brushing her teeth.
"Just seeing what kind of music you have on here," Henry said with a grin as he scrolled through her playlist.
"Henry, give it back," Hanna said as she tried to grab it from him
Henry pulled his hand away. "Come on please just let me look."
"Fine," Hanna said with a roll of her eyes as she went to sit on her bed. They pretty much liked all the same songs anyway, so it wasn't like he could make fun of her for which ones she had on there.
"Oh, this is a good one," Henry said, selecting a song that he liked. He didn't expect it to be so loud though as it started blaring through the phone. Apparently the volume was turned up all the way, and Henry didn't realize.
"Henry! Turn it down! Everyone is asleep!"
"It won't work. You do it," Henry said as he fumbled with the phone, then tossed it to Hanna. He didn't throw it far enough though, and it fell to the floor, making a loud thud…the music was still playing.
Hanna could hear Neal start to cry. "Crap, you woke the baby," Hanna said as she scrambled out of her bed to the floor and quickly grabbed her phone. "Henry I can't get this thing to…" Hanna started to say when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. They were going to be in so much trouble…and she still couldn't get the music to stop. Sometimes she hated this stupid phone. She was finally able to get it turned off as soon as her mom walked into the room.
"What on Earth is going on up here?" Snow demanded to know as she came into the room, seeing Hanna sitting on the floor with her phone.
Hanna looked shyly up at her mom. She seemed pretty mad. Hanna could still hear Neal crying a little bit downstairs. Her dad must be trying to calm him down.
"Well?" Snow asked, putting her hands on her hips and looking down Hanna. "I assume that music was coming from your phone?"
"Yeah, but Mom it wasn't my…" Hanna started to say as she stood up from the floor.
"Hanna I don't want to hear excuses," Snow told her.
"Grandma…" Henry tried to tell her what really happened.
"Henry don't," Snow said as she put her hand up to stop him from talking.
"What were you thinking Hanna? We've all had a long day, you've woken your brother, who hasn't been sleeping well lately anyways, and we have a guest downstairs who needs rest. Haven't your father and I told you not be on that thing while you're suppose to be sleeping?" Snow said with a raise of her eyebrows.
"But Mom…" Hanna started.
"Answer my question," Snow said sternly.
"Yes," Hanna said with a roll of her eyes.
"Give me the phone," Snow said as she held out her hand.
"What? Why?" Hanna asked.
"You broke the rules and you just rolled your eyes at me. I've told you before to stop that," Snow said, her voice making it clear she was not very happy with Hanna right now.
"But Mom, just listen to me. It wasn't my fault," Hanna complained.
"Hanna, I said I don't want to hear it!" Snow, said raising her voice a lot louder than she ever had before.
Hanna jumped back at her mom's sudden outburst. This was the first time her mom ever yelled at her like that.
Snow closed her eyes in frustration. Maybe that was a little harsh…she was just so stressed about all the stuff her and Charming had been dealing with these last few days. "Hanna, just give me your phone," Snow said as she held out her hand once more.
Hanna put the phone in her moms's hand and went back to her bed. She laid down and rolled over so she wasn't facing her. She heard her mom walk out of the room and shut the door.
"Hanna, I'm sorry. I'll tell Grandma tomorrow that it was my fault. She'll give you your phone back," Henry told her.
"It's fine. Don't bother," Hanna said as a few tears fell down her cheeks. She wasn't upset about her phone being taken away or mad at Henry. It was her mom that made her cry. Hanna couldn't understand why she wouldn't listen to her. She wouldn't even let her explain. That's what hurt Hanna the most.
Hanna woke up the next morning and came downstairs to find August gone. She sighed. She really wanted to go with them when they took him to Blue. Hanna was kind of annoyed…why wouldn't Henry or Emma have woken her before they left? Then she thought she remembered someone shoving her arm while she was sleeping. She definitely remembered pushing whoever it was away. Hanna knew it was her own fault she got left behind. Ugh! Why couldn't she be more of a morning person? Hanna looked up when she heard someone walking into the room. It was her mom. Hanna was so not in the mood to talk to her. She wasn't upset anymore. She was just mad.
"Good morning," Snow said to Hanna.
Hanna just walked past her and into the kitchen to get some breakfast.
"Oh, so you're not talking to me now?" Snow asked with a raise of her eyebrows.
Hanna just shrugged her shoulders as she grabbed a pack of pop tarts and went to sit down at the table.
"You know that's no way to get what you want," Snow said as she sat down across from her. Snow figured Hanna was acting this way because she wanted her phone back. Little did she know that was the furthest thing from her mind right now.
"I don't care about that stupid phone," Hanna told her. Which was true, she hadn't even thought about it once since her mom took it away last night.
"Hanna is there something else going on?" Snow asked. She could tell Hanna was telling the truth about not caring whether she got her phone back and her instincts were telling her that there was something more going on with her daughter.
"Nope," Hanna told her.
"Hanna if something else is bothering you I wish you'd tell me."
"Why? It's not like you'd listen anyways." Hanna stood up and walked away with her pop tarts. She just wanted to eat her breakfast in peace.
"Hanna…" Snow started, but was interrupted.
"You would just make your own assumptions anyway and not really care what I had to say," Hanna said as she ran up the stairs. She was going to change her clothes and go find Emma and Henry.
Snow just stood there, a little taken aback. She wasn't sure what Hanna meant by that.
"Hanna, where did that come from?" Snow asked once Hanna came back downstairs.
"Nowhere," Hanna said as she walked past her mom and put on her coat. "I'm going to find Emma and Henry."
"I'll let you go, but I want you to talk to me first," Snow said.
Hanna sighed. "Last night you didn't even…" Hanna just shook her head. She was going to tell her mom about how she didn't even let her explain last night, but it wasn't even worth it. She didn't feel like getting into all of this. "You know what never mind. I'm leaving," Hanna said as she opened the door and just left.
Hanna was walking through town when she saw Emma and Henry. She ran right up to them "Did you guys get August to Blue? Is he okay?"
"He'll be fine," Emma told her. "It was like Regina said last night, he's been through a lot being changed by magic so much. Blue says he just needs to rest."
"Okay," Hanna said with a nod of her head. "What about Regina? Did you figure out a way for her to keep her cover with Gold and the others?"
"Yeah, I made her a copy of the page to use, but she just took a picture of it instead. Gold doesn't know the door on the page is the actual door," Emma explained.
"We're hoping the picture keeps them occupied looking for an actual door for awhile. I kept the copy Emma made…just in case," Henry told her.
"Okay, good. I hope it works." Hanna said. She was relieved that August was going to be okay and that they had a plan for Regina.
"You know we did try to wake you before we left," Henry told her.
"I thought so…I kind of remember someone trying to wake me," Hanna said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"You sleep like a rock, Han," Emma told her with a nudge.
"Except when you almost slapped me in the face when I pushed your arm a little bit. I wasn't sure if you were asleep at first or if you were still mad at me about last night," Henry said.
"Sorry…I was definitely asleep," Hanna said with a laugh. "I'm not mad at you. It's not your fault."
Henry just nodded his head. He still had to tell his Grandma what happened. She was busy feeding Neal this morning, so he didn't get a chance to explain before they left. Emma didn't say anything. Henry had told her what happened. She thought it was kind of weird that her mom overreacted like that. It definitely wasn't like her. As much as Emma wanted to believe them, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was going on with her parents.
When they walked into the loft, Emma saw Killian there with her parents. She could tell something was up. "Killian? What is it?"
Apparently in exchange for his help getting her singing voice back, Ursula would tell him Gold's whole plan. Killian made good on his promise, and Ursula told him everything before leaving Storybrooke with her father. "Before Ursula left, she told me that to get their happy endings the villains tend to darken your heart, love, to turn you into a villain. You'll no longer be the savior."
"What?" Hanna asked, trying to wrap her head around what he just said.
"You can't just unsafe the savior," Henry added.
"As I said, Gold has a way. He can use the author to do it," Killian told them.
"That's insane, if that's what his plan is, then stop worrying. It's ridiculous. Author or no author. I'm not going dark," Emma assured them.
"Darkness is a funny thing…it creeps up on you," Killian said.
"Hey, no one…not Rumplestiltskin or some author gets to decide who I am," Emma told him. She could tell he was worried.
As Hanna was trying to take this all in, she noticed her parents whispering to each other again. She couldn't tell what they were saying, and as soon as she tried to listen in their conversation, her mom all of a sudden up and left. She stormed out the front door without saying anything to anyone.
"She'll be fine," David assured everyone as he walked out the door behind her.
"Where do you think they were off to in such a hurry?" Hanna asked Emma as she sat down next to her on the couch.
"I don't know but…" Emma started to say, but then she noticed Killian looking out the window at something. "What?" Emma asked as she turned to look too.
"Emma. Look," Killian said as he pushed back the curtain.
"What the hell is…" Emma started to say.
Hanna turned to look too, but before she could she felt herself falling asleep.
Hanna woke with a start. She looked beside her and saw Emma and Killian waking up too. "What just happened?" Hanna asked her sister. She looked out the window and noticed it was a lot darker outside than she remembered it being just a little bit ago.
"I don't know," Emma said as she looked around, very confused.
"It was a sleeping curse," Henry told them. "Maleficent put a sleeping curse on the whole town."
"What? Henry are you okay?" Emma asked him.
"I'm fine," Henry assured her.
"We better go check things out…make sure everyone in town is alright," Emma said as she looked over at Killian.
"Aye, love. Let's go," Killian said as he stood to go with her.
"We'll be back," Emma told the kids as she and Killian left.
"Henry, what happened? You were awake the whole time weren't you?" Hanna asked, knowing he had already been under a sleeping curse and couldn't be put under one again.
"Yeah…Hanna I found the key," Henry told her.
"What? How?" Hanna asked with excitement.
Henry told Hanna about how he took the book and ran straight to the Sorcerer's mansion as soon as the spell had been cast. He figured Gold and the others would be on their way here to get the real page. He was in the Sorcerer's library when a light started shining out from the door on the page. It shined on a drawer and when he opened it, the key was inside. Then, Regina, Cruella, and Maleficent showed up and demanded he give them the page. He gave his mom the fake one and had the real one hidden among the shelves of the other empty storybooks.
"It's a good thing you kept that page," Hanna told him. "So where's the key?"
"Grandma and Grandpa took it," Henry said.
"Why would they do that?"
Henry just shrugged his shoulders. "I knew they would be awake too, so I called them and told them where I was. When they got here I told them I found the key. I tried to open the door with it, but Gramps stopped me. He took the and the page and told me they would handle it. I tried to ask them why, but he just yelled at me and told me to go."
Hanna shook her head in disbelief. What was going on with them? Her mom yelled at her last night and now her dad yelled at Henry. This wasn't like them at all. They were up to something and Hanna was done pretending that they weren't. She was going to figure it out one way or another and as if on cue, her parents walked through the door.
"Hanna, are you okay?" Snow asked as she pulled her daughter into her arms.
"I'm fine," Hanna said as she wiggled herself out of her mother's grasp. "What is going on with you two?" Hanna demanded.
"Hanna, what…" David started to ask.
"Don't even think about lying to me. I know you're up to something. You've been acting weird ever since Cruella and Ursula came to town. I've seen it. You've been whispering to each other all the time and running off for hours doing who knows what. And you yelled at Henry…tell me what's going on."
Snow sighed and looked up at her husband. He nodded his head at her, and they both looked back to Hanna. "We do have something to tell you," Snow admitted.
"But it's something your sister needs to hear too. We'll tell you both when she gets back," David told her.
"Fine, I'll get her here right now." Hanna went to reach for her phone, but then remembered her mom took it from her. "Henry, give me your phone."
Henry handed it to her without question. Hanna called her sister. It rang a few times before she finally picked up. "Emma, you need to get home…right now." Hanna told her urgently before hanging up the phone. "She'll be here any second." She gave the phone back to Henry, then looked up at her parents. They almost seemed scared to reveal what they've been hiding.
Emma arrived and the girls sat down at the table with their parents. Snow and David started off by telling Emma and Hanna that, before they were born, they learned that since their child would be the product of true love, it would have the potential to turn into either a great hero or the darkest villain. They knew they couldn't take the chance of their child becoming a villain. They just couldn't leave that up to fate. Snow and David continued to tell them about a vision they saw when they touched a unicorn's horn, back in the Enchanted Forest. They knew this vision would tell them the fate of their unborn child. They hoped it would give them some peace. David saw a vision of a sweet innocent baby, and thought the baby was going to be alright, she would be good. In Snow's vision, the child was older. She ripped out Snow's heart and crushed it in her hands. This caused Snow to believe her daughter was going to be evil if they didn't do something about it. They were told that both the visions could be real. We are all born as blank slates with the potential for good or evil. The only way they could ensure their child's goodness was to do what they did. They had to banish the potential darkness, and another living vessel had to absorb it, one that was also a blank slate. That's when they decided to use Maleficent's egg. They thought it was just a dragon, believing that putting the darkness into it wouldn't change it's fate all that much anyway since it's mother was a villain. They planned to send the darkness from their baby and into the dragon egg, then bring it back to Maleficent. However, they weren't told that part of the enchantment was to send the egg somewhere else. Once the spell was enacted there was nothing they could do. They tried to stop the egg from falling into the portal, but it just happened. And then when they saw that it was an actual human child inside…they realized they made a grave mistake. Cruella and Ursula were there, they witnessed it all and got sucked through the portal too.
"It all happened so fast," Snow said as she thought back to that night.
"We tried to save Maleficent's baby. We didn't want any of them to get sucked into that portal," David told them.
"How could you…it was just a baby," Hanna said, trying to wrap her head around what her parent's had done.
"We didn't know. We thought it was just a dragon, we didn't…" David started to say.
"That doesn't matter! It was innocent!" Hanna interrupted.
"We thought we were doing what we had to in order to protect you. The vision, it…" Snow tried to explain.
"That vision could have been wrong! When you saw it you thought you only had one child, but obviously you had twins. The vision didn't tell you that, did it? That could have been either one of us in that vision. One of us could have been the evil one and the other the good one…you don't know!" Hanna told them. She was really getting herself worked up. She knew they were lying about something, but she never imagined it was something this big.
"Hanna…" David reached out his hand to try and calm her down.
"No," Hanna said as she pulled her hands back. "Now that you know…that there's two of us," Hanna said, nodding over to her sister, who was just sitting there be very quiet. She seemed to still be letting this all sink in. "Which one of us was it in the vision…which one of us was the evil one?" Hanna asked them.
"We don't know," Snow told her. "We took the evil out of you though, out of both of you, so we could ensure you would be good."
"You don't know that for sure," Hanna said as she shook her head. What if she was the evil one? What if they took the darkness out of Emma, but not her? They didn't even know about her at the time.
"This whole time, I was right," Emma said, finally breaking her silence. "You were lying. I wanted to believe you. I wanted to believe in you."
"We were just…trying to protect you," David told her.
"Emma are you alright?" Killian asked as he tried to reach out for her hand, but she pulled it away from him.
"No. I'm not okay," Emma said as she got up from the table. "I've got to go."
Hanna stood and followed her sister to the door.
"Please, stop. I'm your mother," Snow said, trying to prevent Emma from leaving. She wanted to try to explain.
"I don't care," Emma said as she walked out the door.
Hanna went to follow her sister, but Snow grabbed ahold of her hand to stop her. "Mom, just let me go," Hanna pleaded. She needed to talk to Emma, and they both needed time to process all of this.
Snow looked into Hanna's eyes and knew what her daughter needed. She would let her go. "At least take this just in case something happens," Snow said as she held out Hanna's phone to her. Hanna took the phone from her mom and ran to catch up with her sister.
