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Chapter Text

Emma Swan

One minute Gold was explaining his plan and the next an explosion from the well, something I wanted to say that he had planted there, but from the way he jumped in surprise and screamed ‘no’ I would have said not. The magic bubbled out from the well in a dark grey colour, quickly rising to waist height and moving faster than any of us could run. Before it overtook us all I tried to sense who’s magic it could have been, but it was no use. The new curse was upon us before I could even start to feel who’s it was.

I glanced over to Killian, who looked like he was trying to reach out to me before the curse hit, and once it did, all I knew was darkness, pain and unconsciousness.

Regina Mills

It had been late evening when Henry unexpectedly called, and once I heard his message I felt my blood ran cold for a reason I couldn’t quite place. Rumpelstiltskin had threatened Emma and Killian that he would use some curse the pirate had to kill everyone in Storybrooke unless they both met him at the well.

Seems like Miss Swan and the pirate had some common sense as they had asked Henry to get me to pick him up and bring him back to my home, and even after that that he should stay indoors until they knew it was safe. I did as Henry had said but when we got to my mansion it happened. A blast from the well and a magical aura swept over the town, and the it was an evil magic I could tell that much. Considering that I was once the evil queen that was saying something. But that wasn’t the only problem, I could hear Henry screaming for the parents who could have been hurt in the blast but nothing I was doing was able to console the screaming teenager in my arms.

“Henry please go inside, I am going to go and find them okay? I am going to bring them home okay?” He finally listened and went into the house, locking the door behind him and watching me leave from the window.

Climbing into the car I made a mental checklist of what I needed to do. I needed to call the charmings and make sure that they were all right, and to get David to come as my backup seeing as Emma and the Pirate were usually the ones who would to come to sort these situations but it was them who had been involved by Gold. I was nearing the road beside the well but as soon as I was about to call Charming I saw how truck pull onto the road behind me, and thankfully he was already without his wife.

“What happened here Regina? We felt a blast and saw something coming from the well!”

“Gold probably. Apparently he blackmailed the pirate and Emma here to help him with something, and not long later that explosion happened but I can guarantee that it wasn’t the dark ones, nor was it the saviours”

“And you didn’t recognise the magic at all?”

“No. It was somehow darker than the dark ones whilst being lighter at the same time, but I could feel the anger, rage and fear that came with it.”

“And Emma was exposed to that!” I could understand how Charming was feeling, the thought of you child being in or close to danger.

“Possibly, and she wasn’t the only one, Jones was there too” the Prince turned towards the well once again, his steps becoming more sure with every step to the point he was nearly running, and when we got closer to the area, I found out why.

On the side of the well we could see there was a younger Gold unconscious on the floor, and it was clearly before he was the Dark One because his leg was not broken, and he looked distinctly younger, but I could also see the blonde locks from the other side of the well where Charming was knelt down to the ground. Coming around the other side I saw two children, a boy and a girl, no more than Henry’s age lying on the floor unconscious, one who was in modern clothing and the other in nothing more than rags.

The girl was quite clearly a younger version of Miss Swan, but her clothes were both too big and too small for her, nothing her own size which I could imagine was a common story for many orphans in the world without magic in her position. The boy however I could barely recognise. Through logic I would have said he was Hook, however this boy was curled up in on himself, blood seeping through his shirt in what looked to be whip lines, and the only thing I could recognise from the pirate we all knew was how dark his hair was.

Looking over to David, a small nod indicated what we needed to do. He picked up Miss Swan whilst I took who was most likely the pirate and Rumpelstiltskin back to my cat by magic, healing the wounds on the boy’s back whilst doing so. I placed the boy in the front where I could keep an eye on him and Rumpel in the back where he could keep out of mischief. David was going to drive by the loft to pick up his wife and Son before coming back to my house where we had agreed to take them and figure out what was going on.

I couldn’t help glancing at the boy in the front seat, and how he compared to Henry. Despite looking the same age as Henry, he looked smaller and thinner, and I quickly noticed that you could in fact see his collarbones jutting out of his skin, and the rest of his bones weren’t any better. In simple terms he was badly emaciated, injured, and could have easily been living on the streets, but considering the pirates age there was another option for what could have caused the wounds and how thin he was, and no matter how hard I tried to reason that it wasn’t the reason for his condition I eventually couldn’t escape it.

The boy pirate had been a slave. And none of us had known about it, meaning that we were going to possibly have a teenager who was not going to say anything or alternatively he would run away and never been seen again.

I knew I wanted neither of those things to happen because he was just a child in this form, a child who looked very similar to my own son who had been through a lot of bad things and who needed looking after. A child who in his adult body had just spent around six weeks doing the reverse for me and my step daughter.

“This could be a long night.”

David Nolan

When I had rushed off to the well this was certainly not what I had expected to find. Regina updated me on what had happened and why she was there but how she ended up like this I had no idea but in a small way I was quite thankful. For in my arms there was a younger version of Emma, somewhere around 12 or 13 years old. The fact that she was unconscious was pretty bad but I saw no immediate damage to be worried about, unlike when Regina turned over the boy who was next to her only to discover that his back had been ripped to shreds by something.

Then of course there was the unconscious Gold to sort out as well. He, like Emma, had had time reversed on him and was now much younger, perhaps before he was even the Dark One. I picked up Emma from the ground to take her back to the truck, nodding to Regina to get the others in her car which was bigger and with the flick of her wrist she, Rumpelstiltskin and the boy were loaded up into her car. She climbed our once she had them both adequately secured to come and see Emma and make sure there were no evident wounds on her as she had found on the boy.

“Bring her back to my place, we can sort out how to turn her back there, and the pirate, if that is him that is”

“I’ll take a detour and get Snow and Neal, if this really is Emma as a child there is no way that she will forgive me if she misses it, even for a day.” I sighed, looking between the cab of my truck where Emma was secured and Regina’s car where I could see the boy in the front seat. “Do you really think that is him? Hook I mean? Doesn’t he look a bit too small?”

“Well it’s the best guess we have, his hairs the right colour and I did see a very similar scar on his face, so it must be”

“We can try to figure it all out once we get to your mansion. I’ll see you there”

I turned and got into my truck, watching as Regina drove off, carrying the unconscious cursed males with her, and all I could think of was what would Emma be like now? Would she have her memories of Storybrooke and of her family? Or would she be back  to being an orphan with no memories of where she was?

It was a surprise that I even stayed on the road considering that I couldn’t remember thinking about anything other than what Emma going to be like, and the same happened from the loft to Regina’s, except I just had another passenger to think with me.

“She looks so young Charming, I can’t even believe that we have gotten this lucky”

“I wouldn’t exactly call this situation lucky Snow, She, Jones and Rumpelstiltskin all had the clock turned back on them physically and we have no idea if that goes mentally too- I almost fear for when Hook wakes up considering how he appeared”

“What do you mean?” I thought back to how thin he was. How his back was bleeding through a shirt that hung off him. How even in his unconscious state he had curled himself up as small as he could go. I stayed silent, unable to convey to what I was thinking and what I had seen, instead opting to just show her once we got to Regina’s.

The car ride was a quick one, but it felt so much longer because of all my questions. Who had done this to them? Was there a reason why it was just them and not the whole town? Was anyone else in danger?

Once we arrived at Regina’s, I carried Emma inside, Snow carrying Neal behind me where we were ushered into her lounge area where Rumpelstiltskin was asleep one of the arm chairs, and on her couch was the boy. He was laid on his side, and from his new position you could see how skinny he was, because his shirt was draping over him, and it showed all his ribs underneath and how frail he looked.

I put Emma on the couch opposite from him, and waited for Regina to tell us what she had found. Unfortunately, it wasn’t good.

“I don’t know what kind of age reversal spell she used, nor do I know who it was who had done it, but I did manage to find out that it was a small range spell which should help limit the options. I does raise the question on why it was only these three who she cursed- and I think it may have something to do with the research they had been doing whilst we were cursed, because I just got off the phone from Belle and the library has been stolen from as the books they had been using have all gone; and a lot of those were unaccounted for because they had been hidden away by the dark one. However in this state I don’t think any of them are going  to be able to answer our questions” She looked over to the younger Killian, a look in her eye that I couldn’t understand, but if it was anything like what I was feeling I could understand it.

As a parent, seeing your child in pain was the worst thing possible, and knowing that this young boy was going to wake up alone and mentally scarred was a daunting prospect- and to make it worse for us he looked like Henry except from his darker mop of hair and how skinny he was. I could see Snow had noticed the boy and was moved as we were about him, and as she got closer I am sure that she would have seen the blood on the back of his shirt as Regina hadn’t gotten around to changing his clothing yet.

We moved around to Rumpelstiltskin next, discussing what ire he could have invoked this time, and when we turned around,

There were a pair of scared blue eyes staring back at us.

Chapter Text

Regina Mills

We had been talking about possible reasons the curse had been cast, and whilst I was expecting that they should wake up sans memories of Storybrooke, I didn’t expect the fear that was inside the boy’s eyes as he stared at us, and because he was so frail and small we hadn’t heard him move. It was only as I stepped closer that I noticed how he had backed himself to the end of the couch, and how he was shaking as we got closer.

His eyes were mainly on me, but he kept flicking between everyone else in the room, and whenever someone moved closer his eyes went to them immediately. I knelt down opposite him, not as close as I would usually have gone, but I could see that he was scared so I kept my distance and motioned for Snow and Charming to do the same.

“Are you alright? You gave my friends and I quite the fright there” I could see him glancing between us all but he still said nothing. “What is your name? Do you have a family who might be looking for you?” my heart dropped as his head shook.

“They took names. No family” a timid voice replied, and as soon as he spoke he curled up into himself further. Glancing behind me I noticed Snow moving forward and before I could stop her she touched the boy as if to comfort him, but instead of it comforting him, it scared him, making him jump over the back of the couch and run into the kitchen.

“Don’t think you should have done that Snow” I said as I went through to the kitchen area to see where he had run to, and I was thankful that I had locked the back door last time I was in there or else he would have gone outside to possibly never come back. I could see he was looking for a way out, glancing quickly between the windows, the doors and even to some of the kitchen utensils which were on the counter. He spun around again when he saw me in the doorway.

“Please Miss, I don’t want trouble, I just  need to get back before Master knows I missing” I noted that some of his speech was not natural, then I remembered Henry telling me that his  first language wasn’t ours so I decided just to keep my questions simple.

“It’s alright we aren’t going to give you back to your Master” his eyes were disbelieving, and he looked blankly at me, as if he were considering what that could mean for his future.

“But his seller is coming tomorrow- and he’s going to hurt the others if I am not there as he agreed !” he all but screamed, once again trying to dislodge the door so he could get outside.

I didn’t know what to say. Nothing we were trying was going to get through to this boy that he wasn’t in that world anymore. Then I thought of a different tactic.

“The plans changed. We chose you to come here into our world and your master allowed us to take you. You aren’t a slave anymore” he turned back towards me, hesitant in asking if it was true, to which I nodded. He looked behind me where I was assuming that Snow and David had walked in behind me to see what was going on.

I walked over to him, kneeling before him trying to be as friendly as I could, but I could see that the boy was doing everything he could to not meet our eyes, and was trying to mold himself into the cupboard which he was leaning against. Eventually he moved to get up again, and I motioned for him to follow us back into the lounge. Fortunately the other two hadn’t woken up yet, so I knew that we would be able to talk to him alone before the real bombshells went off.

After getting him to sit on the couch, we weren’t able to get much out of him. His previous master had been cruel to him, but he couldn’t remember much from before, only remembering a pain in his head when he first arrived. It was clear from his use of English that whilst he knew a fair bit of it, it was not his first language, and from our estimated age of the pirate there was a very small chance of anyone being able to speak in whatever language he was natural in.

I went to take him upstairs when Emma and Rumpelstiltskin woke up, but I left them to the Charmings as I felt that this little boy needed my help more than those downstairs did. I showed him to one of my spare rooms. He looked around the room, looking for something I couldn’t spot, and when he turned around, his question shocked me.

“There is no mess here Miss, I don’t understand what I am supposed to do”

“This room is not for you to clean, it’s for you to sleep in. And the clothes in the wardrobe are for you to wear. In this world you are no longer a slave, just a boy. And that means you will have new clothes and you will go to school, have friends. So what would you like to do first?”

He looked around the room again, confused, before finally settling on the door.

“Could I get clean please?”

David Nolan

Regina was leading the boy upstairs when both Emma and Rumpelstiltskin woke up, and Snow immediately rushed to our daughter’s side, leaving me to deal with the man who looked nothing like any version of the Dark One I had ever had the displeasure of meeting.

He was uncertain of himself, trying to take in his surroundings whilst making himself as small as possible. It seemed like a recurring theme for this curse, although in this instance it was for the better that the town had no Dark One to worry about. Instead of looking at me as I drew closer, he was looking in every other direction he could manage, trying to find a way to escape.

“We aren’t going to hurt you Rumpelstiltskin” I tried to speak softly, but it came out more like a threat, for even though there was a strong chance that he didn’t do this he was the cause of my daughter even being close to the well along with the pirate. The man in front of me cowered even lower, practically curled up in himself on Regina’s couch. I waited until he decided to look at me again, and used that time to cool my anger slightly.

“We just want to know what happened to you. Do you remember anything before this? A well perhaps? Or meeting anyone somewhere?”

“No… I… I was with… Oh no… Bae! I need to find him! My son, please I need to find him I…”

“Slow down! Your son is not here at the moment, I need you to calm down, and just, tell me what you remember”

He babbled on about what he and his son had been doing that morning, and that they had been on their way back to their house on the road when he blacked out, waking up here. I glanced over my shoulder to the kitchen to where Snow had Taken Emma, and thankfully she seemed to be a lot calmer than the cursed men were doing.

I only hoped that Regina could find a way to reverse them all soon because I wasn’t sure how much longer I could handle this situation. It really made me think about how Emma and Killian had handled a much bigger problem than this whilst dealing with all the crap the town was throwing at them and I just couldn’t get my head around it.

Then again they weren’t dealing with a slave, an orphan and a coward so they almost had it easier when we were all toddlers.

Regina Mills

I took the boy to the bathroom to show him how to use the bath or the shower, and I was happy to see that he was at least confident enough to be openly curious about his surroundings. He was asking questions about every single object from items around the house to the different soaps in the bathroom. I was going to leave him to wash up but the look in his eyes made me second guess my judgement.

Despite the fact he looked like he was around 12 he needed to be cared for as if he were much younger because he didn’t understand this world, and probably had very little teaching in his own time for his life of servitude. I knew when we got to his bath logistically that he would have to undress, but when he did I wasn’t ready for the amount of scars and scratches that covered his back. He was covered in lash marks and scratches from whips and weapons which I could only guess at what they were once called- there were so many scars that I couldn’t tell where one scarring ended and another began. I tried to be gentle as I washed him clean, the grime coming off and turning the water black, but no matter how gentle I was the wounds on his back became redder and more prominent. He made no noise but in the mirror I could see him grimacing, knowing that he needed this but trying not to act like he was in pain. It was painful to watch, and I had watched torture in my time as Queen.

It made me wonder if all these scars were still visible when he was an adult, or if they were covered up by even more scars from fights and indentured servitude. Seeing his bravery also  made me reconsider some of the pirates actions in the past, the way he would hold back in certain situations or take beatings he didn’t deserve entirely from the charmings- the way he would study so quietly in the library that even Belle didn’t notice he was there until she was practically walking into him.

If only he had been left alone by the curse we would have someone who could possibly been able to find the answer for what had happened to them, or the reason that it had happened. I took him back into his room to change into some of Henry’s old clothes until we got some clothes for him personally. I knew the charmings were probably going to do the same for Emma and god knows what was going to happen to Rumpelstiltskin.

We could only hope in the new situation we had landed in because all I could see was a dark smoke on the horizon.

Chapter Text

Polaris

The first thing I knew was pain, then warmth then movement, but I still couldn’t wake. I couldn’t panic. I couldn’t see or hear. I remembered the other boys in the mine who had talked of this, the older boys who had been beaten until they fell into the void. Is that where I was? Would Cygnus help me? Or perhaps I would see Gemini when I woke up. They would help me, the others were too scared of the guards to help if someone was hurt.

But I didn’t know what I had done wrong. I had pulled Cygnus out of the way of a falling rock. I remembered the guards dragging me away to be beaten but I couldn’t remember what happened next. I was supposed to be getting my memories back today and given back to my original master to be sold on. I never questioned why they took away our memories and our names, but I heard the bigger ones saying it was so we wouldn’t fight back. Not that we knew what fighting back was. I knew my number and what my friends called me, and I had a good eye for spotting weak rocks to hit.

But when I opened my eyes I was nowhere I was supposed to be. The room was so clean it couldn’t be real, and I was on a strange soft rock. There were a few big ones in front of me, talking about something in the language that the master spoke whilst facing someone on the other soft rock. The language that I could only just understand and speak. I was afraid because I knew my masters wouldn’t have sent me here and that when I was returned I would be beaten even more. Perhaps I would go into the still sleep that had happened to grey.

After a minute of of considering where I could escape, one of them turned around and saw that I was awake, immediately coming over towards me with a face and expression I didn’t recognise. I kept moving further and further back into the soft rock until I could go no further and I couldn’t stop the shaking from fear, the knowing that I would be beaten if I didn’t do as I was told in the next second.

The lady came down to my level, closer than the others but not close enough to be able to cause too much pain.

“Are you alright? You gave my friends and I quite the fright there” she started. Her voice was strange, it was not as harsh as the masters, and sounded completely different to his voice when he was telling us off.  “What is your name? Do you have a family who might be looking for you?” I shook my head, thinking back to the others in the mine, and regretting that whatever had happened had happened just as I was about to get my memories back. For all I knew I could have had a family, but the chances of someone like me having a family was slim. Most slaves here were the only ones left alive.

“They took names. No family” I remembered only a few small bits from their language, wishing that grey could have been here to help me, he could have spoken to them for me or helped me understand everything that they were saying.

Once again the lady who spoke had a strange expression, one I didn’t understand but I assumed it was her version of angry or thoughtfulness. I curled up further so that when I was finally hit it would hurt as much, but when I wasn’t looking a smaller lady came up beside me and went to grab my arm, and I couldn’t help jumping backwards over the soft rock and running out of the room into what looked to be a torture chamber, with all sorts of strange utensils lining the walls, including what looked to be some of the guards sharp handles. There was a door to the outside, but it was locked and I didn’t recognise the strange mechanism within it. It was more complicated than the chains in the mines. There was a large window on the wall with the raised surfaces, but its opening was small. I might not fit through that. I heard the clacking of the lady’s shoes behind me, and I knew I had to turn around now before she had the chance to hurt me too badly. I hated it when I couldn’t see as I didn’t know where to expect the pain.

“Please Miss, I don’t want trouble, I just  need to get back before Master knows I missing” I asked, pulling once again in the handle to the door in the hope that it would budge and let me get back to the mine. If I could find it. I needed to get back or else the others would be hurt.

“It’s alright we aren’t going to give you back to your Master” She was stupid if she thought she could just take me away. I may be a nothing but the master never let something with even a penny to his head out of line. And that meant me seeing a the loan was up.

“But his seller is coming tomorrow- and he’s going to hurt the others if I am not there as he agreed !” I knew that it wasn’t the whole truth but I didn’t know how to word it otherwise. The one who really owned me had called the loan off as he wanted to sell me on meaning that I would go back to wherever I was before the mines.

“The plans changed. We chose you to come here into our world and your master allowed us to take you. You aren’t a slave anymore” I stilled at her words. There was no way that it was true, could it? I saw the other two come in behind her, watching me intently.

The first lady tried to come closer again but I went back against the handled wall where I slipped and ended up sitting against it, but all I could think was could it be true? I knew one of the boys, Jack he said his name was, was sold as a servant to help look after a rich household. He was given his memories right before he left so that his new masters would have something to call him by rather than 3986. I wondered if there was a reason that I hadn’t been given back my memories before I left, or if perhaps they didn’t so that I wouldn’t be a problem to my new owners. I wondered what these owners would call me, if they used brands (I hoped not it hurt when they put on my numbers). Eventually I looked back up to see them looking at me expectantly and motioning for me to come with them into the first room again where I was once again directed to the soft rock before they started questioning me.

“Do you remember what happened to you?”  Did I? I thought that I was sold to them, they should all know what happened to me more than I would.

“I helped Cygnus, the master beat me. My head hurt, Think I hit it.”

“Do you know the name of your master?” I shook my head. The man of the mines was nobody known to the slaves, other than when he hit you it hurt and body would break. I took a brief look around the room again, taking more notice of the other two on the other soft rocks, which were different to the soft rock that I was on, they were both smaller even though I was the smallest of the three of us on soft rocks. I could see a big one on the smallest soft rock sitting upright, although he looked to be asleep or in the void and had other man looking down on him. The girl opposite me and behind the lady made me look twice, because of her bright yellow hair which looked like what I imagined sunshine to look like. She had the other lady kneeling over her, brushing her hair out of the way and I could just about see a resemblance between them. I was thinking about her when the first lady asked me to follow her, and he offered me her hand for guidance which for the first time I could remember I let myself be guided out, although as I glanced back I saw a bright green pair of eyes looking at me and I could hear the big ones voice asking where he was, something which carried up the stairs to wherever the lady was taking me.

I remembered the layout of this area well, seeing that there was four doors on the corridor to the left, with 5 down the right corridor which branched off further back into the house. I was led down the right corridor, and then left towards the back of the house where immediately I saw a room with another large window, showing lots of green and light which didn’t come from a flame. I thought to myself that it must be the sun but I had to stay beside the lady.

There was only one door to the right, but yet another corridor to the left which she took me down to the singular door which was just around the corner with an open space in front of it. As she opened the door I saw what looked to be part of a work room, but with a large soft rock in the middle, and a large chest that was on its side, but it looked big enough to hide at least 10 of me inside it. I looked to try and find a reason for me to be here, for Jack had said a servant’s main job was to clean and yet I could not see anything that I could clean anymore than it already was. When I asked what I was supposed to do, the lady looked like the master when he was caught off guard, but that always meant a beating afterwards and this lady had not yet beat me once where the master would have chained me already.

“This room is not for you to clean, it’s for you to sleep in. And the clothes in the wardrobe are for you to wear.” I looked over to the large chest and acknowledged the new word, and I knew that clothes were what I was wearing and I hoped that perhaps she had something warmer I could wear as I was actually quite cold, not that I would say it as she seemed to be a very different sort of master from which I did not know what to expect. And I looked back over to the soft rock, and thought back to my old rock in the mines with Cynus and Gemini who would wonder what had happened to me, providing they didn’t have their memories erased again once I was gone. I had heard that that happened sometimes. “In this world you are no longer a slave, just a boy. And that means you will have new clothes and you will go to school, have friends. So what would you like to do first?”

I couldn’t reply. What she was saying couldn’t be true. She did not even have a name to call me by but she was still saying I was free. I didn’t know what that meant, other than you weren’t called a number anymore. I didn’t know what a school was either, but I guessed that it was where all the children worked. I looked back around the room at how clean everything was and realised that I had probably made a mess and been an inconvenience from being dirty and figured that as everyone in this world seemed to be so clean that there must be some place to be washed regularly, so I asked if I could get clean, something the lady was eager to do as she immediately left the room and opened door opposite mine, revealing a strange chamber, mostly in white with what looked to be a large bucket but made of something much smoother and finer than the metal bucket I was used to. The was two metal pipes at one end of the tub with a couple of things on the tops of them which looked like they could be moved. There was also a stange closed off area with a piece of metal with holes in it hanging high up of the wall and strange bottles were on metal shelves within the closed off space. Again there was the strange things from the tub on the tub which were underneath the strange holed metal which were much lower down, where someone could easily reach them. I was asking her about them and learning their names; Shower gel, shower, bathtub,toilet, basin, towel, stairs, carpet, tiles. The list was endless and I knew I would have to learn it quickly.

Hearing running water I turned around to the lady who had her hand on the strange handles of sorts on the bathtub, which did spin around to allow water flow out of them. I noted that she had turned the cross shape to the right and the cross on the left was turned left to allow water to flow out of it. The water had steam already coming from it, something I had only seen given to slaves who were leaving, as a treat almost for the hard work that they had done, or to clean them up so they were clean for their new masters. All the slaves said it was much nicer than the normal baths we were given. The lady beckoned for me to come closer towards the bathtub.

“Would you like some help or will you be okay to have a bath by yourself?” She asked, and I knew that she would probably expect me to be able to do this by myself, she seemed to think I could do things by myself but I couldn’t. I had never been allowed to do anything by myself in the Mines and I couldn’t remember anything from before that. I shook my head and let the lady take of my clothes and put me in the water.

The water was hot but it wasn’t as hot as a flame, and was very comfortable to sit in. I started rub my legs in an attempt to get some of the dirt off, and the lady handed me a bar of soap from on top of the basin and I watched as the water got darker and darker and the dirt came off of my body. The lady was busy scrubbing my back which was very sore, but I didn’t make a sound, for I was vulnerable enough as it was. Eventually she deemed me clean enough and helped me out of the bathtub, which was surprisingly slippery when wet.

She handed me a towel and told me to dry off before going to get some more clothes, taking my own with her and I hoped I would get them back, they were some of the only things I could call mine. Not to mention the items I had managed to hide inside them. The towels were softer than the rags that we used in the mine, and it was like every luxury I could imagine had been given to me- and I began to wonder if it was all a dream. I hoped not, although if it was I would awake and have my memories back.

I had my back turned towards the doorway, and was so surprised that I jumped around when I looked in the mirror to see the lady standing behind me with a pile of the strange clothing I had seen all the other adults wearing. She explained that the clothes had belonged to her son and that I could wear them until she got me some clothes that would fit me better.

I looked down at the strange clothing and decided to say what I had been wanting to say since she had said I was not a slave here.

“Polaris” I said quietly, as neither my body or mind were strong enough to say it for fear of rejection or hurt.

“Pardon?”

“My friends call me Polaris. I do not know my name. Can…. Can I use it?” I hoped that she would understand what I was trying to say, but my knowledge of Havena was very rough. She looked at me again with that strange look, where her lips were pressed tightly against one another and one of her eyebrows was raised higher.

“You want to be called Polaris?” I nodded, glad that she had understood what I was wanting. “Okay then, Polaris, I am Regina, and unless anything changes, I will be looking after you”

Quick note- I am calling English Havena in this story because England is not in the enchanted forest and I went along with mist haven and got this. “Polaris” Will have it explained to him that the language is referred to as English in Storybrooke.

Chapter Text

Regina Mills

The pocket sized pirate settled down quickly after his bath, the emotion and magic from the day’s events wearing him out completely, although the clothes I had lent him barely fit him- he was the same height as Henry nearly and yet he was so skinny that even the tight sight that I had found of Henry’s hung off of him easily. As for the jeans… well thank the lord for belts because it took a tight one to get them to stay up.

I went and checked on Henry who had stayed in his room quietly whilst I was trying to sort out the other child of the house, not even daring to go downstairs to where his mother was, afraid of what might greet him.

Henry was sitting on his bed, holding a picture of him, Emma and Killian that had been taken during the curse, with Hook holding him, gesturing towards the camera that Emma was holding, and the only thing I could concentrate on was how happy they all looked. They had gone through a curse, designed to keep them busy, make them frustrated and stop them from saving the day but they got through it, finding pieces of happiness and hope along the way.

“Do you think that you can fix them? Do you think you can turn them back?”

“We will fix this Henry. First we have to find this new caster, and find out what she is up to and why she targeted them all. But until then we can still be with them, or at least these versions of them. They did the same for us.”

“What’s he like?” Henry looked towards the door knowing that just a couple of doors away the pint sized pirate was resting. I thought back to the boy who I had found at the well, the boy who had lost everything.

“He’s…. Scared, but brave. He has no memory beyond where he last was, he doesn’t remember that his name is Killian or that he had a brother. All he knows is what the ‘masters’ do to him if he doesn’t do as they say and the name he and his friends had come up with. So until I can try and get his memories back his name is Polaris… Weird name but I am sure we will find that story out sometime soon.” Henry looked even more down beat when I said that Hook had no memories of his brother or anything other than the past few months of his life. Henry turned away from me, and I took it that he wanted to be alone for a while. I was nearly out of his bedroom that Henry spoke again.

“He was a slave, wasn’t he.” I had no words for Henry’s question, because until I saw his scars I tried to think of every other explanation to explain his behaviour, but there was no escaping it. I nodded because I couldn’t bring myself to say the word, because saying it would admit that it was true, and this boy who was far too similar to my own had been through so much more pain and trouble than any of us adults had, and to top it off he was only just about Henry’s age, or just a little bit older. I sat back beside Henry, putting an arm back around his shoulders, feeling the small shudders that came before he started crying.

He was too young to have to deal with all of this, and whilst in some cases I still blamed Emma for everything that had happened to ruin normality in Storybrooke I still knew that it was for the best that she had.

“We will fix this Henry. I promise that we will.”

It was a few hours until Polaris woke up, and by that time Snow, Charming, Emma and Rumplestiltskin were long gone, Henry had done his homework and was helping me look up remembering potions, seeing as I had had such an issue when Zelena had wiped ours in the most recent dark curse. We were just discussing what to have for dinner when we heard a loud noise from upstairs, and a small yell from the boy who had been resting.

Running upstairs, we burst into the room to find that most of the furniture was overturned, and once again there was a new form of magic- but this one was almost decidedly not human magic. It had a smell like the faeries magic, but whilst theirs mostly smelt like some revolting smell (bar tinkerbell’s, hers smelt like lily’s the annoying faerie) the purple magic smelt like a mountainous forest mess pit for lack of a better description, and you could see how all the objects were covered in both a blue and purple glow, meaning that the two sorcerers doing this were incredibly powerful for the magic to be seen on such simple spells. The dark hairded boy was curled up in the middle of the room in a fetal position, covering his ears, and all the furniture was swirling around him, threatening to hit him.

I could see more strands of the blue magic appearing the longer I looked for a way to get the boy out safely without any of the precariously balanced furniture falling on him. This magic was one did recognise however; it was the same magic that I had sensed around the well when we had found them all cursed. I was about to use my own magic when the blue glow became brighter, the smell changed to one like the sea and all the furniture started moving back towards their original locations, I had to pull Henry out of the way of the desk as it flew towards us, but Henry was unseeing of what was going around, only watching the boy before him, transfixed by his actions and the strange words which were coming out of his mouth.

“He has magic” Henry whispered, and I hoped that Henry could also see the magical display that I was seeing, or at least smelling it as it had become so strong if I closed my eyes I would have thought myself in another world entirely. “But why doesn’t he have it when he’s older?”

“Another thing we will have research. Polaris….”

I tried getting the boys attention, knowing that the furniture was not going to hurt him if he stopped his magic now, and sure enough his head snapped towards us both, taking in the sight of Henry by my side, his eyes wildly flicking between the two of us and his surroundings, as though everything would jump back out at him.

“Is safe now?” He asked, and Henry reached out towards him with his hand and I knew Henry would be able to feel the tremors running through the boys body.

I didn’t understand what Henry said next, as it was a language which I had not heard before, and I had no idea where Henry had picked it up from, unless the pirate had somehow found time to teach him it- but regardless the boy came towards Henry, even though it was apparent he was confused as to how Henry knew what language to speak in.

The two boys stood up together, and whilst they were both a similar height, the neglect that this Polaris had been through was even more evident when he was standing next to Henry as you could see how the clothes just hung off of his body.

Seeing as they were using another language to talk to each other I kind of just gestured towards the door and moved out of the way so that the boys could get out of the room and away from the magic which was apparently trying to kill Polaris.

I made a mental note to talk to the fairies about this magic and see if they knew whose magic it was who had cast this spell and was trying to remove the boy from the new situation. Quickly I thought back to Emma and Rumplestiltskin, and quickly called David to keep an eye on them and told him what had happened to Polaris. Thankfully nothing had come just yet for neither of them and so I went back to the two teenagers who were now sitting in my lounge, albeit much more comfortably than they were earlier without knowledge of what was going on.

“Hey Mom, do you think we can have some pizza? Polaris has never had any before!”

“I would like to try… Pizza” it wasn’t hard to see his difficulty saying the word, but both Polaris and Henry’s expressions were enough to make me think otherwise.

“Fine, but just this once we will order in food. I prefer to make the food myself usually. I trust you can start helping Polaris get used to his new home whilst I make the call Henry?”

Henry cheered as he led the other boy over to the TV, intent on showing him his games console probably whilst I went into the kitchen and called the only place in town which made semi-decent food. I knew the head chef of the small italian restaurant because he had been the head cook in my castle back in the Enchanted Forest. As soon as I had placed the order I went back to check on the boys, thinking that Henry would be teaching his new friend how to play an Xbox, but instead I found them both sitting on the floor, hunched over Henry’s book.

“So this stories… They are your families?”

“Yeah, these two are my Grandparents, Snow white and Prince Charming. My Mom is the Evil Queen in this story but she has changed since then.” I saw Polaris nod in approvement, and I was surprised that he wasn’t questioning anything so far, for he didn’t seem like the kind of boy who would believe in second chances and people changing from what I had seen earlier. I was however pulled from my musings as the young boy asked a more difficult question.

“And who is they?” Henry stammered, and as I walked over to see who Polaris was referring to I saw him pointing towards the picture of the pirate and Emma dancing at the ball.

“That’s… my other Mom and her Prince. Well he’s actually more of a pirate but they were under cover at the time”

“What do you mean your other Mother? Do people generally have more than one Mother in this realm?”

“No, it’s kinda complicated and trust me when I say I will explain it but now is not the time. We should probably go and clean our hands cos dinner will be here soon.” Henry got up from the floor, and reached forward to help the boy up, and his surprise was very evident when he realised just how skinny the other boy was.

It was going to be a long night.

David Nolan

The drive back to the loft had been tense, with Snow in the back with Neal and Emma, whilst Rumpelstiltskin was stuck in the front with me. The man was looking around at everything as though it would kill him, and getting him in here in the first place was difficult. Emma was watching us warily, not allowing herself to hold Snow’s hand and I could see just how much my wife wanted to tell Emma who we were, but until we could explain it as a family we would go by our cursed names. Of course Snow would take my name and then if anyone asked why at the school she was still going under Miss Blanchard we could just say she kept that name as a professional name.

Emma had been startled when she woke up on Regina’s couch, looking around for an escape from the moment she awoke, but keeping an eye on everyone in the room at the same time. Her movements reminded me of what the boys had been, although she was braver, not as afraid as he was.

“Where am I. This doesn’t look like Denver” The young Emma spoke, still glancing around the room, particularly landing on Snow, as if she was recognising her but the look quickly disappeared.

“You’re in Storybrooke, your Social service worker brought you here, we are your new foster parents” Snow quickly lied, and unfortunately she was forgetting that our daughter could easily spot a lie and knew that something wasn’t right.

“And who are you two? He looks weird” she was staring at Gold, and because he was clothing from the Enchanted Forest it made him seem completely nuts to a teenager from the modern world.

“I’m david, Mary-Margaret’s husband, and this is Mr Gold, he was doing a re-enactment and hit his head really hard, so he was brought here before we took him home” I grabbed the man in question tightly so that he knew just to nod in response rather than question what I was saying. “Speaking of which I think we should take our leave and let Regina and Henry be for the night. I am sure after all the excitement they will want a bit of alone time.”

“Yes, so why don’t we go back to our apartment and have some dinner once we have dropped Mr Gold back at home?”

“Sounds great, come on kid, let’s go get some food” Emma glanced between us, before moving towards the door, confused when she still couldn’t see the customary mini van which she was expecting to be waiting outside of the door.

That was all nearly an hour ago and Emma was still tense and looking like she was going to run a mile the moment our backs were turned. I was currently holding baby Neal whilst Snow was cooking some lasagna, and he was fussing a lot more since the curse had ended and I expected that was simply because he was older now than he had been when we had been looking after him. I noticed Emma sidling towards the door when I made my decision.

“Hey! What are you…” the teenager cried as I placed the squirming baby in her arms

“Watch over him for a minute please I need to use the gents” I said as I was walking off, leaving a stunned Emma and a bemused Snow standing in the lounge. I listened in from the other side of the bathroom door and smiled as my plan worked; Emma was clearly talking to Snow now and was sounding a little more settled as my wife asked her daughter (who had no clue as to who we were) as to what her favourite meals were (baked potatoes were good although chinese was better), what her favourite subjects at school were (she enjoyed art, but hated school as a general rule) and other topics.

When I finished hiding I was glad to see that Emma was now smiling- and Neal had finally stopped fussing. At least he still recognised his sister despite her being cursed.

We were about to have dinner when Regina rang unexpectedly, and I was hopeful that she had found something that may help us in this new curse, however when she told me what had happened my blood ran cold and I tensed up, causing Emma to flinch.

“Has something happened David?”

“Yeah, I’m going to have to go over to Regina’s, someone tried to hurt the boy she’s fostering at the minute and the sheriff isn’t picking up their phone. You two keep each other safe while I’m gone please” I kissed both my girls on the head before running out, turning the magic protection lock Emma had made at some point on the door so that nothing could get into attack them like what had happened at Regina’s with the boy.

I dimly registered that I should check up on Rumpelstiltskin who had been dumped at Granny’s instead of at his actual home to make sure that he was not going to get into trouble even if his memories returned. I was on the phone to Ruby when I could hear Granny calling in the background, saying something like all the furniture was trying to kill the man.

“Ruby get him out of there this is a deliberate attack on him from whoever cursed him try and get him out of the building if possible”

“Will do Dave” the wolf called as she hung up the phone, with Granny pushing Rumpelstiltskin onto the street outside the diner as I was pulling up, both staring into the diner where I imagine everything was floating passed the closed shutters.

“Who the hell did you piss off this time you ungrateful old fool! Some of us are trying to run businesses here while you keep trying to destroy the town with all your plans. You may have lost your son but if you are the reason the rest of us lose our families there will not be a place in heaven or hell where I will not find you and make you curse your very existence” Granny stared down the cowering man, her voice cold and stern as she delivered her promise- I could only imagine how Emma and Killian had stopped the town from collapsing in on itself as it had been less than a day since they had been cursed and the old rivalries were already coming back into play.

“Okay Granny I think that’s enough of that, You- get in the car we are heading back to my friends seeing as you are drawing too much attention to whoever wants you dead.

Unsurprisingly this cowardly version of Rumpelstiltskin climbed into the car quickly, despite his bad leg and evident fear of the vehicles.

“Why are all these things happening to me, what did I do wrong, I just want to go home to my wife and child, I don’t want to be in anybody’s way, I…”

“Shut it Stiltskin. You may not remember it but you deserve all that is happening to you, however you also dragged two innocent people into your problem before your memories and bodies were reset using magic. Now if you want any chance of seeing your family again I would suggest you start cooperating with us and telling us what you remember about all the magic users you have met.

“I.. I have met only two… the Dark one and a voodoo man who saved my sons life when he was dying. The voodoo man is dead, but the Dark One is not… I don’t think he would have any reason to hate me personally though.“

“Trust me when I say it is not the dark one doing this. The Dark One is… not able to do things like this at the moment.” I struggled to find a way to put the man at ease a bit without telling him that he was in fact the Dark One- for that could bring back the demon without the knowledge that we needed from him.

I pulled up outside Regina’s house at the same time as a pizza delivery boy was leaving- something that surprised me as she never ordered in food, she preferred to cook it herself and know that no one was in fact poisoning it.

Grabbing the man from car I went towards the house, spotting Henry, Regina and their new ward around their table, laughing as the dark haired boy tried to figure out the correct way to eat a pizza. Well that was before he noticed me at the window which made Regina realise I had been waiting for her to come to the door.

“David, why is he here?”

“The same thing happened to him at Granny’s as it did here; someone is trying to kill them. I activated Emma’s anti-magic charm on the way out seeing as that is what she made it for.”

“And what do you want me to do about it?”

“Can you keep him and put a protection spell around your house so that the three of them are safe from whoever is attacking Storybrooke this time” Regina was tense and for good reason- she didn’t want Gold any where near Henry as much as the rest of us but I couldn’t risk Emma and Gold being left together as she would run a mile before we could explain anything.

“David I will take him tonight, but you will have to have found him somewhere else to stay by then, and I need you to tell your wife that she needs to take the mayors office tomorrow.” I tilted my head in questioning as Regina knew Snow should be at school tomorrow teaching “I need to talk to that witch who is regrettably my sister and ask her about memory restoration potions as well as taking Polaris to get some clothes which actually fit him”

“Polaris?”

“Yes, the boy we found, that is the only name he knows which is not a number. It seems he spent a fair bit of time as a slave. Do we have a deal Deputy?”

I nodded and watched as the former Evil Queen took the Dark One into the house containing Captain Hook as a child and the Author. What even was life in Storybrooke?

Chapter Text

David Nolan

Getting back to the apartment I saw that Snow had managed to get Neal asleep and was trying to convince Emma to go to bed to in what was her old bedroom before she moved out. Both looked at me as I walked in, although neither came down to greet me.

“Everything OK here while I was gone?”

“Sure, I mean your son wanted to scream the house down and your wife tried to suffocate me but everything else was alright”

“It’s called a hug Emma. I was not suffocating you. I only do that to people who really get on my nerves.”

Both Emma and Snow started to laugh and I briefly recalled a time in the Enchanted Forest where Snow had practically tried to suffocate Blackbeard with his namesake when he wasn’t cooperating with her, leaving the pirate angry and insufferable whenever we had the misfortune of meeting him. I was tempted to mention it when I realised that Emma wouldn’t understand the joke so I kept quiet, enjoying seeing them both so happy while it lasted. 

“Did you sort out that problem for Regina?” Snow queried, clearly nervous about the situation in case something was to happen to Emma too.

“Yeah, although she said she needs you to take the office tomorrow instead of the school as she has a lot of things she needs to sort out, her sister being one of them. Did you manage to get Emma into the school?”

“Unfortunately” Emma droned, turning back from the balcony to go towards the bed and Snow took that as her cue to come downstairs and leave the teenager alone for the night. 

“Well that went well” I joked, hoping to hedge the news I actually had coming out of Regina’s house. “Regina took Gold in for the night, although I have to find him somewhere else to stay by tomorrow that isn’t Granny’s to make sure he doesn’t get killed at some point before we need him to repent for whatever the hell he did to cause this all.  Regina needs you to take the mayor’s office tomorrow because she has to sort out the boy we found by the well- Polaris his name is, as he has nothing and we think he has no family here in Storybrooke, so we now have to also try and find out if he has any remaining relatives. If he doesn’t he stays with Regina till this all blows over.” Snow was clearly agitated about the fact she would have to miss a day of teaching to be the mayor for the day but after hearing the reason why she relaxed, happy that Regina wasn’t going to be wasting any time on her unexpected day off.

“Did you get a chance to talk to Polaris again? He was terrified earlier when we were there” There were so many unspoken questions in Snow’s voice that I chose to ignore all of them incase Emma was listening in to our conversations as we were climbing into bed (Which was highly likely as there wasn’t any form of sound barriers in the loft)

“No, he and Henry were sitting elsewhere chatting and I didn’t go in either so I’m guessing he is doing a little bit better than he was”

“Well, at least that is something” she sighed and turned over, unhappy that I had not answered her questions but I couldn’t bring myself to be sorry. We had more pressing issues at hand. Namely a pair of teenagers and a Dark One with no memory of what was going on or what had happened to him.

I was just about to fall asleep when I heard the footsteps on the stairs, and I knew that it was Emma trying to run away. I slowly got up as not to wake up Neal or Snow, or to alert Emma to the fact that I was awake and watching her attempt to escape. She had almost found the key to unlock the door when I decided it was time to announce my presence to her.

“You know, if you were planning on escaping I would suggest finding a way which doesn’t involve opening the creaking door which will awaken the sleeping baby which will then wake up its parents” Emma spun around quickly, keeping her hands on the door incase a chance to run showed itself. She stayed silent as we stared at each other, neither one of us backing down until Emma sighed and walked over to the couch.

“So what you gonna do, send me back? Ground me? I know you aren’t going to keep me long anyway- your own kid is way more important to you people than a foster kid” My heart broke for Emma, the way she wrote herself off as not important when she meant everything to so many people here already. I just had to find a way of showing her that.

“No- I am going to make you a hot cocoa with cinnamon and we can talk until you feel ready to sleep knowing that we really do want you here and that we are not going to send you back after just finding you again.” I hadn’t meant for that last part to slip out but it had. Her eyes widened as she realised what I had said and I could see the conflict within her eyes so I chose to tell a version of the truth that would make sense to her.

“Mary-Margaret and I… we’re your parents Emma and we have been searching for you all these years, ever since that midwife ran off with you.”

“What midwife, I was left as a newborn on the side of the road?”

“Wrapped in a blanket that had your name embroidered into it per chance?” she nodded, processing what I was telling her, realising that at least most of what I was telling was the truth, and asking for me to continue. “Just after you were born, your mother had a complication and so was rushed into an operating room and I was asked to go with her whilst the nurses cleaned you up and took you to the nursery. When we got out of the surgery we found out that the midwife who had been helping us had kidnapped you and left during the operation, and when she was finally caught you were long gone and we couldn’t find you anymore. Please Emma, we just want a chance to be with you, to be a family like we were always meant to be”

I barely had a chance to prepare myself for Emma flying into my arms, tears pouring down her face as she realised that she had found her family, and that they wanted her and that she wasn’t going to be sent away. I don’t know how long we were standing there for until Snow came in and joined us, making Emma start crying again as we all stood cuddled together in the middle of the lounge, standing once again as a united family like when he curse broke. 

A stray thought reminded me of the young Hook; or Polaris as he said his name was as whilst we were able to comfort Emma as a family, he had nothing. No more siblings, his parents were both dead, he was in completely and time and a different time and a different world. I felt sorry for the boy and decided I would ask about being able to spend some time with him, look after him a bit along with Regina so that he would know there were more people looking out for him and teaching him how to live in this world. It was only right after everything he and done as an adult for the rest of us.

Once Emma was all cried out, she returned upstairs and climbed into bed, where she hopefully wouldn’t leave for the rest of the night, leaving Snow and I once again in the downstairs of the loft. My wife smiled gently, knowing that Emma now knew who she was and that she wouldn’t leave had left her in a radiant mood. If only I could change the plans for the day.

And of course when those plans were realised that morning both Snow and Emma were less than happy- Emma to be going back to school so soon and Snow would be taking the mayor’s office for the day whilst Regina sorted out some more magical issues. Like the memory potions, trying to reverse the new curse as well as look after another child. I was writing up reports left from Emma when Regina and Polaris walked in. The boy was now wearing clothes that fitted him and was at least clean, if not still a bit shy as he was hiding behind Regina again.

“Charming”

“Regina. What brings you here today? I thought my wife was sorting anything out that you needed seeing as she was in the office?”

“I need you to look after Polaris for me. He is going through some books to try and learn to read and speak English properly. If you could help and watch over him while I am gone that would be helpful.” I tilted my head with a questioning glance not understanding quite what Regina was asking from me “I don’t want Zelena to see him like this. It would be too dangerous.” I nodded in agreement as I really wouldn’t want that witch to see the boy. She would try to manipulate him to do her bidding which would be terrible.

Regina ushered the boy to Emma’s desk before leaving to go to the hospital, leaving him glancing nervously around the room. I decided to leave him be for the moment, so that he could get used to the new environment at his own pace. 

After half an hour he finally looked more comfortable and was looking curiously at what was at my desk. 

“What… is that?” He said pointing towards the computer, and then towards all the forms and assorted modern items which were too different for him to recognise. I spent the time to explain what each item was, and as I continued I noticed how much more comfortable he was now in comparison to last night when we had found him. No doubt Regina’s magic as well as some motherly love had done him the world of good. 

I noticed the time and realised that Emma would soon be coming down from the school to spend some time with me, and Regina had not yet returned for Polaris. I was starting to get worried the crazy witch had done something to her sister when Emma came into the room, dramatically dropping her bag by the door and sighing loudly, glad to be free of the school and all the new children at last no doubt.

“Hey Dad, how’s it…. Who are you?” Emma noticed Polaris mid sentence and seemed to be taken aback by him for some reason. Then I realised she may have a crush on him already. Not on my watch, even if they are together in the future she was my little girl now and I wanted to be an overprotective dad while I still could.

“Emma, this is Polaris, he is Regina’s new foster son who she is looking to adopt called Polaris- he doesn’t speak English too well so don’t be surprised if you have to repeat things to him for him to understand. How was school though, I would like to hear more about your day”

“Well the school is tiny, I mean there couldn’t have been more than 20 people in any of my classes, and people all seem to know who I am already for some reason. Did you and Mom tell people about me, you know, before I arrived?” perhaps just a little too quickly I told her that we had told most of the people she would likely bump into as we thought it would be a quicker way for her to settle in rather than everyone taking a wide berth to the new kid on the block. 

I was glad Emma was calling us by Mom and Dad, as it had taken her so long to when she was older to finally call us by those names, and yet here it had only taken her a day. Perhaps she didn’t feel as abandoned as she was when she was older, maybe she had been reset to an age where she could have a second chance. 

I shook my head to get rid of the thought. They needed to be returned to how they were, not trapped within themselves it wasn’t fair to them, as when given the chance to leave us as children in the previous curse they decided to fight it and return us back to normal. 

Glancing back towards where the boy was sitting, I could tell that he was obviously trying not to look to Emma too much, but at the same time whenever he was trying to read , he was struggling and refusing to ask any questions with the new person in the room.

"Is everything alright Polaris?" I called, walking over to where he was sitting at Emma's desk, trying to see what book exactly he had been given to read.

"I not know what this word be", he said, pointing to the word 'Exploring', and I realised know what Regina meant by his English wasn't that good- for while it seemed fine last night, he was obviously just using phrases that he knew from his time in indentured servitude.

"It says, Exploring" I gestured towards the word before reading the whole sentence to him "and so the children went exploring, through the trees and along the paths, until they reached the beach" I could see Emma glancing towards us, and I could imagine what kind of thought would be going through her head as I was teaching another child to read.

"What does it mean" the boy enquired quietly, as not to disturb (or at least trying not to disturb the girl who he hadn't realised was paying him great attention) Emma. "Exploring, what does it mean?"

"It means to go somewhere without having to be told to" Polaris jumped in his seat when he heard Emma talk to him, before trying to school his expressions into one that didn't look so afraid of her and more curious instead.

"Without being told to...." he whispered, looking back to the page, trying to understand this new concept of freedom which he had never heard before.

I left his side and went back into filling in the forms, knowing that if I hurried I would be able to take the two teenagers to Granny's so they could get some food and give me some more time to try and look after the young Hook, even if it did mean Regina would yell at me later for not being in the station until she returned (although in my defense it was getting pretty late by her standards and as to when she said she would return.

I told them both what we were going to do and Emma was immediately pleased to know that we were going to be getting some food, and when Polaris didn't react so enthusiastically she explained that a diner was a place to get food- and that certainly perked him up knowing that food was going to be involved. So you can imagine my annoyance at the fact that as I was about to leave and spoil them both with some food Regina turned up with her evil sister in tow, who was holding a baby when the last time I checked she had only been pregnant.

"Polaris, it's time to go home now" Regina called softly to the boy, and I knew that I was staring at Zelena but I couldn't fathom any reasons that would be acceptable for her to be out of her cell considering the stunt she just pulled on us. Glancing back I could see that the boy was very wary of Zelena- which made me think something that I hadn't before; What if they were under the same spell that we were under, only slightly modified to change their ages?

It matched up with what Emma had written in her notes during our curse, that while we didn't remember people in our memories we still had feelings about certain people; We knew could trust Hook to look after us even though we had all known stories of his murderous past, and Snow, Henry and I had all loved Emma from the start. And since Emma had been back she had already accepted that Snow and I were her parents, which at first I had chalked up to her just being a younger age where she still might have had hope that she would find her parents, but Polaris' reaction to Zelena made me so the correlation between the two curses. I wrote down a note for Regina and told her to meet me later at the library before grabbing my jacket and leading Emma towards parking lot, hoping that her cursed playmate would soon follow. Until I realised that Regina had likely used magic to transport them around the place today. And realised what a stupid idea that might be.

"So.... are we getting food now, or are we waiting for a millenia before you start the car" she quipped, smirking over at me with a smile I thought I wouldn't see for a long while.

"No food now, then we are taking a meal to your mother in the mayor's office so that she doesn't come home starving and frustrated" I turned the ignition but even still I could hear the murmur of 'a woman after my own heart' from Emma. "....So..... Grilled cheese and a bear claw sound good to you?"

Regina Mills

When I had gone to see Zelena this was not exactly what I had imagined happening. For starters there would have been some more smart mouthed comments from the both of us before anything actually came out, although I was more prepared for information coming out of Zelena; NOT a baby.

It happened too fast, and immediately I could smell the magic from before, it was the same as what was around the well, in Polaris' bedroom and it reeked around Rumpelstiltskin. I was half expeting my half sister to just disappear in the cloud of purple smoke, so I was surprised that she was still there when it disappated. I was even more surprised when she doubled over in pain saying something was wrong with the baby, only to stand up straight and be four months pregnant, very much showing and also growing at an alarming rate.

We only just about managed to get her into the maternity ward before her daughter made her entrance into the world, Robin following closely behind after he had been informed as to what was happening.  I couldn't deny that she was gorgeous and that I was jealous of my sister for being able to have children, but it ddin't the stop the fact I had two children who (regrettably) needed her help and she still hadn't given me any answers. 

"As unexpected as this was Zelena I still need answers"

"On what, that evil swarm that almost made me explode because my child was growing too fast?"

"I put a spell on you to stop that from happening so stop being so dramatic. And I need the recipe for the memory potion you made when you created the second dark curse"

"YOU....need MY help? clearly Hades is feeling generous as I think there's going to be snow in the Underworld!"

"Zelena this isn't funny" Robin growled, quietly enough that it didn't wake up his sleeping daughter from where she rested on her mothers chest, but loud enough to shut Zelena up before she did that annoying cackle of a laugh.

"I will help you, but only if I get to live outside of this hospital, with my daughter" I stared her down once I'd heard her request, and yet I couldn't think of an answer. 

If the magic provention bracelet was left upon her wrist she wouldn't be able to hurt anyone, but even so Storybrooke was a small town so no matter where so went she would likely cause trouble. The farmhouse she had lived in when she had cast the curse seemed like a good idea, although if someone was to find her and decide they wanted to hurt her for any (of the many) reason(s) then she would be on her own to either be hurt or hurt people in town; and neither of those options I was particuarly happy with.

But on the flip side to this there was a chance we could either learn something from the cursed people or remember something from when we were cursed. Eventually the latter arguement won inside my mind and I told her as much, as long as she didn't try and stir trouble where it was already brewing.

Robin whispered something in her ear that sounded vaguely like it might have been a threat and walked outside of the hospital room to give the nurses some time to get both mother and daughter ready to leave the hospital.

I hadn't realised that I was running late to grab Polaris until one of the doctors read it aloud on the check out sheet.

I quickly told Robin what I was going to do before grabbing my sister and teleporting us into the station, far enough away from the doors leading to the main office that she wouldn't be able to see who I was there for, but as I walked forward she followed me, and was spotted by all in the room before I could tell her to wait further away.

I could see that the young version of Hook didn't trust or like Zelena from just one glance, but when david slipped me a note on the way out I was left thinking it could be something else, something that David had obviously been thinking about to, although I didn't know exactly what he was meaning by 'Emma's notes may have answer' as I hadn't had a chance of looking at what she and Hook had been up to whilst we were cursed seeing as they had looked after the towns safety and roughly led them through peacefully, still leaving a lot of paperwork to be done and other mayoral tasks which neither one of them had even touched in our absence.

Once David and Emma were gone and Polaris moved a little closer, I introduced him and Zelena, gaining worried glanced from the former and side eyes from the latter.

"We are going to quicly drop off Zelena at her house before we go home and see Henry, and for that I will need you to step a little closer please" I held my hand out for the boy to hold making sure as I was mentally preparing the spell that I had definitely gotten everyone who was there, not wanting anyone to be left behind for leaving any of them would have bad repurcussions. I flick of my hand later and we were standing in the hall of Zelena's famhouse.

"Well, you have what you wanted, now give me what I wanted" I said cooly, not allowing any room for discussion of any kind, and as soon as she handed me the recipe I left with Polaris, who was still recovering from the last teleportation spell, and led him outside into the woods where I knew Robin was waiting for news. 

Both man and boy were surprised to see each other, if not for completely different reasons. A questioning eyebrown from Robin and a very much louder question from Rowland as to why I had another teenager who wasn't Henry with me. 

"This is Polaris, he is now living with me under my care. Polaris this is Robin, a good friend of mine, and this is his son, Rowland." All three of them nodded, although after that Rowland decided that he wanted to play and dragged the older boy with him, close enough so that they could be seen but far enough that neither boy should be able to hear what was going on.

"David really wasn't joking when he told me what happened, was he. That blast caused this to happen, didn't it?"

"Yes. Although my sister certainly isn't to blame, it wasn't a humans magic, or at least it wasn't magic from any world I recognised..." I left out the part where I had suspicions that whoever caused this was from wherever the pirate was from as their magic was completely different to anything I had seen. "But until I can figure out what is going on he is staying with me. Robin... he was a slave.... he went through so much, took things for us he shouldn't have and we never even knew. Half of his past is hidden to us, and whatever it is I don't think that its going to be good."

"Is that why you wanted the memory potion? To regain his memories for him?" Robin was searching my eyes for an answer, and standing this close it took all my willpower to stop myself from kissing him, but thankfully because the boys were there I knew not to do anything.

"Partially. I want him to remember, along with Emma and Rumpelstiltskin, but if we can have the memory potions too we might be able to remember what happened during the past month while we were cursed, because I would love to know about how you all figured out that Marian was Zelena and how you got back into town anyway" he nodded, whispering in my ear to call if I needed anythign before collecting Rowland from where he was trying to bury himself underneath some leaves, leaving only Polaris and I in the small clearing.

The longer Hook remained like that, the less I found myself referring to him mentally as the man he should be, and was until yesterday, and those slips of memory did not seem right, like someone was quietly stealing my memories to do with him and Emma as adults to make sure they would remain as children forever. 

Teleporting Hook and I back to the mansion, I immediately wrote down what was happening to my memories, left Henry in charge of getting some food prepared and left to meet David at the library.

Chapter Text

Regina Mills

After dropping Polaris back at the house with Henry under the stipulation that Henry would do his homework and Polaris finished his book I teleported to my vault before heading to the library, intending to make both Emma and Polaris Memory potions, but annoyingly enough some of the ingredients were pretty rare in the enchanted forest, but not in Oz so i could only make one potion while Zelena’s old stock had make enough for her and her demented monkeys to come across unscathed. I decided it was more important for Polaris to have the potion though, because Young Hook was definitely missing some memories, and even if it didn’t return his adult memories it would be better than just knowing the past few months of his life.

It was only while I was making the potion that the feeling i had felt in the woods with Robin returned, where the memories of the older Hook and Emma were being pulled from my mind. As soon as the potion was done I went to the library to tell the others what was happening.

As I entered I was glad to see that Charming, Belle, a couple of the fairies and others were already assembled in the room.

“Charming you said you might have something from Emma’s notes about what curse they are under?”

“From Emma’s notes I believe Emma, Killian and Gold are all under the same curse that we were under, Emma seemed to have an innate feeling of trust and love towards Snow and I, and then there was how Polaris acted towards Zelena at first, he had never met her and yet he knew to be wary and distrustful of her.”

“I nodded, thinking about his reaction and it had certainly made sense, although just thinking of Polaris and Hook made an unusual pain form in my abdomen.

“The person who is attacking us... they are stealing our memories of Emma and Hook as they used to be.... Not on my watch” The pain was almost making me fall over, but that wasn’t before I was able to lock all my memories of Emma and the pirate into the necklace I always wore so that the curse wouldn’t be able to take them away. I dimly recognised the hands of Belle and Robin helping me back onto a chair, while the others alternated between fussing over me and debating how to get a hold of maleficent to get the recipe to return Emma and Hook back to their original ages, everyone in the room was still alternating between what to do with Gold.

Speaking of which; I hadn’t seen him since this morning. Charming was supposed to have been finding him a new place to stay that was out of my house, but I realised, even though we were only losing memories of Emma and the pirate, Rumplestiltskin was without his modern memories, or even the fact that he was the current Dark One. If the part of him that was the Dark One was awakened without any kind of control switch to stop him he could do collateral damage to the town, not counting on whoever it was who was currently cursing us.

Very quickly the pain in my abdomen became too much to bear, but feeling the magic that was very clearly doing... something inside of me without my consent I felt like going to the hospital was not going to help me at all, so I asked Charming to take me back to my house as my magic was not answering me when i tried to use it, or more accurately it wasn’t doing what I told it to, for when I had tried to teleport myself before asking Charming’s help I may or may not have accidentally made multiple bookshelves explode all their books all over the floor.

As we pulled up outside my house the pain increased tenfold, and I had to lean upon Charming just to get into the house, and when I saw Henry and Polaris both looking so concerned and scared I hated it. They were both only young, although as soon as Polaris was close enough I pulled the memory potion from my pocket and told him to drink it, and within a few seconds, it was clear he was no longer just Polaris, but back to... whatever the pirate had really been like during his youth.

It seemed it was definitely a good idea giving him the memory potion however; because he immediately could recognise what this curse was, and when he explained it to me, my blood drained.

The very thing I had poisoned myself to not be able to have was nullified by a curse which was the reason everyone was losing their memories regarding the adult Emma and Hook. And even worse was his answer to what would happen if we tried to stop the curse. Although Henry had a brilliant idea on how to cope with the memory curse- simply read one of the authors books which was still being written so we could use that to remember Emma and Hook once this curse was over and... I would be an actual mother, to an actual child of my own flesh and blood.

Feeling more pain in my abdomen I briefly spaced out, not listening to what the boys were saying, and placing a hand over my abdomen, knowing that the pain was there because there was something growing inside of, I was surprised I could already feel a bump beneath my hand, even if it wasn’t particularly evident at that moment.

Feeling something pushing at your insides and watching it make your stomach growing before your eyes was both extremely painful and extremely weird, and by the time (I wasn’t exactly sure how much time had passed, just that it was hurting a lot by that point) David was leaving, I could fell my shirt was more than a little bit tighter, while it wasn’t the tightest shirt in existence, both my stomach and chest had both grown thanks to the magical pregnancy and were gaping in each area.

I dimly thought that I should check around the house for Rumpelstiltskin, but the pain from my stomach was more prevalent and important, so I decided to get this bit done first before sorting out Gold; he could wait till I wasn’t becoming the size of a house.

I was extremely glad for Killian and Henry’s help getting up the stairs, and while I wasn’t surprised (but it wasn’t nice to know I was getting so big so quickly) when I went to change two of the buttons on the blouse actually ended up coming out of their holes, opening around my stomach and breasts, which were making my bra seem extremely small on me when it had been properly fitted (for a normal day that was, one where who weren’t magically made pregnant by an unknown villain who for once was certainly not here on a vendetta with me.

I took off my clothes, finding the largest thing inside my wardrobe, knowing this curse was certainly going to go all the way to giving birth to the child (God, who was even going to be it’s father? I wasn’t even able to have children and yet one had been cursed, and from the way it was done it was impossible to be one of someone else’s child, meaning it was mine and someone else’s. I hoped that it was Robin’s, for then at least the father would be my true love and there wouldn’t be any problems over who looked after the child. I eventually found a large nightgown that I didn’t realise that I owned, and as I turned to the mirror to put it on, I got a glimpse at my stomach, which which still expanding at an extreme rate, but considering that I thought I would never have my own children after sterilising myself to spite my mother for everything that she did to me, I let myself admire the strange situation I was in.

Knowing the boys would be waiting for me though, I finished dressing and went over to the bed, quickly realising that walking was becoming more difficult with the added weight changing my balance and the pain of how fast it was going.

Not long after I was settled Henry called Whale to have him come over with some pain meds and be on stand by for whenever I exploded the child out of me (With how quickly the child was growing inside of me I knew giving birth to it was going to be painful and/ or explosive seeing as Zelena’s labour had been short and powerful just like her pregnancy). I sat talking to the boy pirate whilst we waited for the doctor to finally arrive, and I felt like between the times where the pain wasn’t overwhelming I was learning some interesting things. I was glad that Henry had told me the information of his brothers name however because I knew it would make him more at ease of his current situation, even if it was only temporary.

It was interesting hearing how he knew so much about the curse, and considering how small he was, I could see why the witch was more protective over them, and admired her for being kind to the woman who she was cursing, because it was the husband’s fault she hadn’t made her suffer too much because of him.

Not long after Killian finished his story, Whale finally arrived, and I could both see and feel how large my stomach was getting, occasionally it would have bursts of going faster, and I guessed it was because it was getting more memories to steal. The pain was getting worse, and even though Whale had given me the strongest pain meds he could whilst I was under the pregnancy curse, it was still painful. Henry told me of his day at school. Killian listened in intently, passing glances back to my growing stomach, and Whale kept checking both mine and the baby’s heart rate and breathing from the equipment he had with him, and I was happy when the spell started to slow down, becoming significantly less painful- although that happiness dispersed when Killian explained why.

The range of the curse had run out of people’s memories to steal, and it was designed to steal the memories of Emma and Hook from the entire town, meaning if we didn’t get moving the curse would instead start to kill me instead. I was glad when Whale called the ambulance, because if we were going to the hospital, we would pass through the centre of the town where most people would be, meaning I would grow even faster than I had previously probably and being in a car for that would not be comfortable, or even worse, giving birth on the way there which in a car would be an absolute nightmare.

As I predicted, just after we started moving, the curse started to speed up again, becoming faster and more painful than it already was before. Looking down I could only just see my feet still, the alien looking pregnancy belly still hazing my mind on how all this was happening in the first place. By the time we reached the hospital I was ready to explode, and I’d already started having contractions as we were pulling up.

I had to give the nurses and Doctors credit, they were already ready with a room and all the equipment they could need in whichever way this ended up happening. I wasn’t happy that Henry and Killian were left in the hallway, but at the same time I was glad they didn’t have to see me like this. A few contractions in Robin arrived, and he stayed with me the entire time, and eventually, it was all over.

Polaris

The Garden at the back of the house was Polaris’ favourite place once Henry showed it to him; more greenery than he had ever seen in one place, and so many colours, things Henry called “Flowers”. the other aspect he liked about it was how quiet and serene it was. The “Station” where the Lady Regina had had to leave him earlier was far too noisy for his liking, the loud beeps, or constant humming from their machines driving him crazy and scaring him.

The Lady Regina had left a few hours ago and had not yet returned, leaving Henry to do some work from his education, and I was free to investigate and explore (two new words which have quickly become his favourites) the house some more, as well as sorting all my new belongings that the Lady had kindly bought me. Finally ending up in the garden, he sat on a strange seat, made of the same material the handles on the mining axes were made of, but they had places to rest your arms and lean back against so that you could be comfortable.

Of course that comfort was greatly improved by the fact that all his wounds on his back had been cleaned and healed, both through magic and the other magic of this land which Henry called ‘Modern technology’. Looking again across the garden, Polaris thought about how people had reacted to him throughout the day, some were surprised by him, others called him a name when they thought he couldn’t hear- he had heard the name “Hook” be thrown around a few times, but not without a long hard glare from the Lady, something not too dissimilar to how the master would look at us if someone had done something he hadn’t liked (Like when he had pushed Cygnus out of the way of those falling rocks, the scars on his back were supposed to warn him not to help others- not that it stopped him from doing so.

He remembered the pretty girl with the light hair, the way she stared at him intently when he was doing everything in his power just to shrink away from the situation. he guessed she got that from her father, David, Polaris idly remembered.

This new world was unlike anything the boy could ever have dreamed, and yet here he was, not only here by some miracle of the master changing his mind on a deal, but he was also free of chains, and allowed to live a better life for no other reason than he deserved it. He was about to go and look at the fruit trees (apple trees, he tersely chided himself) when he felt a force coming from the house again, the same feeling he had when the furniture was floating around, threatening to hurt him. henry had explained as magic, and even was managing to explain that he had managed to stop it with his own magic.

As fanciful as the idea was, the thing that had struck him odd about that conversation was the fact that Henry had managed to speak in his language, something that not even his mother seemed to be able to understand, before even hearing Polaris himself speak the language.

As he ran into the house, he saw the Lady Regina, bent doubled, hobbling towards the ‘Living room’ with Henry and David’s help. Something about the magic inside her was familiar to him in a way that he could not explain. Once he got closer to her, he could also see that she was holding a glass bottle filled with a strange liquid; possibly a form of potion from this world, a bottle which was thrusted into his hands as soon as he was close enough, and told to drink it in-between cries of agony.

He let the strange liquid go down his throat, almost burning him slightly, he closed his eyes from the pain, and as he did, he saw all his locked memories again, of his brother, of the ship, of his fathers abandonment and prolonged indentured servitude. Upon opening his eyes, he was no longer Polaris; He was Killian Jones.

Killian Jones

I had to adjust my thoughts to what was happening (which was entirely too much, too much for even Liam to be able to handle. I had just had all my memories of my brother returned to me, I was in an even stranger world than I had realised, and the Lady Regina was cursed. Just what I needed after finding out I was separated from my brother and had no immediate way of getting back to him.

“Who cursed you Regina?” I asked, getting a strange look from David in return.

“This is a curse? do you recognise it from where you are from?” I nodded, recalling a poor girl who was my age who had been cursed with a similar spell, only changing what it had stolen from her and those who were related to her.

“It’s called the augeo curse, it steals something from the cursed and those around her, and forces a pregnancy within her. Whatever is being stolen determines the speed of the pregnancy- with the most common thing to be stolen is memories.”

“So you are saying that my Mom is pregnant, that’s what causing the pain?”

“The pain is coming from the accelerated speed of the pregnancy, but it had to have happened when I wasn’t with Lady Regina, because this magic is too strong for me to miss, the most likely time it could be was when she went to go and see her sister in the hospital, before her baby was born”

“The magic that got Zelena..... Somehow got me too?” Regina cried, and something akin to fear crossed her features.

“I do not think so My lady, for the curse that was placed on you can also affect those who are around you when it was cursed; so whatever happened to your sister was more likely to have been a side affect and a distraction to whatever was really going on” Her eyes flickered between amazement and fear, before landing on a steady determined.

“Is there anyway to stop it from happening, or remove the magic from the pregnancy?”

I remembered back to Rosemary, how her family had attempted to do the same thing for her, to stop it from stealing her youth, but the magic had retaliated badly, and in turn sped up the pregnancy further, and stealing more time from her than if they had just left it alone. Not to mention the fact that it also ended up taking her life from her.

So shaking my head, I recalled for them the story of Rosemary and the dangers that came with these curses. Both Henry and David looked shocked, scared and even a little bit heartbroken when they heard the part of the curse killing my friend, worried what that meant for the Lady Regina.

“You said it was most commonly used for stealing memories, correct?” Henry asked quickly, a realisation of something I did not know passing across his features.

“Yes? Do you think you may have a solution?”

“Maybe, yes. You see Polaris..”

“My real name is Killian Jones. Please call me that instead”

“Okay, Killian, you see we have these enchanted books which can only record the history of what has happened, by the means of the author”

“I am aware of an author, there was supposed to be one who was enchanted to write the history of our King”

“Well we have a couple of different books by authors here in the town, one of them is still being written! We can use that to remind ourselves of whatever memories the magic user is trying to steal from us!”

“Regina had mentioned something in the library; I believe that I know what this villain is stealing from us. They are stealing memories of our friends who aren’t in town at the minute, stopping us from finding them because they have dealt with a similar curse not even a week ago. And when I say a curse it was to do with something else which is going on in town at the moment”

“If it happened just a week ago, why do you not know of how to deal with this curse?”

“Because I was one of the ones who was cursed with it, so was Regina, Henry, and my Wife Mary-Margaret. They were the only ones who knew how to deal with what is happening but they are the ones who are cursed to disappear this time”

I didn’t exactly understand what he could have meant by being cursed to disappear out of a place before; that I had never heard of that happening before, so instead I just nodded to pretend that I understood what was going on. Looking back at Lady Regina, I could see what looked to be a beginning of a baby bump, her shirt was stretched around her abdomen, and considering that she was already that far along in the spell it was stealing everyone’s memories faster than they could have anticipated.

“I’m going to get back to my family now, tell them what is going on, and debrief my daughter on the fact that magic exists because she is more than likely going to see some strange things over the next few days”

Regina just nodded, one hand on her abdomen as she forced herself upright, her pain clear in the way she clamped her eyes shut. David gave Henry and I a hug before leaving, allowing us to help Regina up the stairs to her room so that she could become more comfortable.

I had only seen a normal pregnancy once before, and twice I had seen this curse, but that still didn’t prepare Henry or I from the shock of seeing how much Lady Regina’s stomach had grown in less than fifteen minutes while she had gone to go and change into something larger and more comfortable. Whilst she had only just been showing when she had gone into the other room, there was no denying now that she was with child, but the only thing I could think of was how much pain she must be in at this moment- Rosemary had come onto the ship to find him and cry on his shoulder it was so bad at times, as her body wasn’t given any time to adjust to the child placed inside of it by magic.

Directing her to the bed, I told Henry that we were going to need a physician if the speed of the spell continued, explaining how the further into the cursed pregnancy she got, the more memories it would steal and the faster it would grow. I was afraid that what happened to my friend would happen to her, not only for her kindness towards me, but also because she was the only one who could help me get back to my brother, or even better, bring him here too and out of slavery without consequence.

Henry left the room, saying he would wait outside until the doctor arrived, leaving me alone with the Lady.

“How... how do you know about this curse so well? You said you had seen it once... Seeing it once isn’t enough to learn how a curse works”

“The captains wife was once cursed by it too; he had made us fight a ship carrying a witch aboard it, who had found us slaves and the captains wife below decks, hiding from the fight or locked away. She was angered by the captains rudeness, but even more so at the fact he had 10 of us slaves chained in the hold, where his wife had chosen to hide thinking it was the one safe place on the ship in case they started coming down the lower decks. Witchy didn’t like any slavery, so she set us free, and even told the captains wife exactly what was about to happen, telling us all the details of the curse so we could try and stop the captain from doing something stupid and killing her in the process.”

“What happened to her? The Captains wife?”

“She gave birth to a set of twins, a lad and a lass, and at the next port the Captain bought her a house to live in, saying that it was safer for her to be off the boat now and that he’d return. Not that he ever did mind, just moved on to the next wench who caught his fancy.”

“Did you like her? The captains wife?”
“She was the only one who showed us any kindness, the crew and captain just treated us like dirt”

Regina nodded, both hands on her stomach as he curse started to speed up again.

“Is it bad to say that I am glad that you are here Killian? I know about your brother and that you’d rather be with him” I was about to cut in and ask her how she knew about Liam when she said that she had been looking for him too when she had taken me off of the mater in the mines. Something didn’t settle right about what she was saying; for I felt like she knew who my brother was, but the part about looking for him too felt too close to a lie to be true. I was going to press her more about the subject when Henry came back, dragging a very pale, light haired man behind him.

“Mom, Doctor Whale is here”

“Oh finally, I know you won’t have a way to stop this curse but at least tell me you brought a pain killer”

“Henry told me you were in severe pain from the pregnancy, so I got you the strongest thing I thought would be suitable in your condition.” Dr. Whale handed Regina a strange looking bottle which she drank in one go, and from her face I assumed it didn’t taste very good.

“That should kick in in about 20 minutes, but until then I would remain as still as possible, only getting up if you really need to” The doctor advised, and again Regina simply just nodded along with what he had to say.

We all sat beside The Lady, Henry trying to distract her with tales from his day at ‘School’, While the Doctor kept bringing out strange instruments to check on both Regina and the child inside her. Everything was the same for 25 minutes, but during that time the curse was seemingly slowing down, so I tentatively tried to use my magic to see why, only for all my blood to drain when I realised what was about to happen.

“We need to move” I said, gaining everyone’s attention immediately and before they could question, I explained what I had just seen. “The curse only has a certain range to it, and this curse seems to be trying to get everyone in the town but cannot reach that far, and so it’s slowing down for now. It will soon fight against this and unless we move to another part of the town it will begin to kill the Lady Regina.”

“The hospital is on the other side of the town, do you think that would be a good place to take her to?”

“Yes, even though I know this curse is stealing peoples memories, I would rather that happen then lose one of the few kind people I have ever met”

The Doctor nodded before leaving the room, pulling something out of his pocket which looked similar to something that I had seen Henry and the Lady use at times, speaking into as though there were someone there he was talking to, and he requested something called an ‘ambulance’ before putting it away again. I was nervous for what could happen, but, as if she could could sense my fears and concerns, I felt the Lady’s hand grasp mine, a small smile on her face, which looked notably more tired now than it had earlier.

“I will be fine, Killian. Trust me when I have survived crazier things than a simple pregnancy curse” I didn’t quite believe her, but at the same time I truly hoped she was telling the truth because she was one of the nicest people I could remember, and she had even said that she was going to look for my brother for me! I remembered in the back of my mind that she reminded me a bit of my own mother (Well, the one who raised me at least) and I was more than happy to lean against the support she was offering me.

When the ‘ambulance finally arrived, I saw that it was a larger version of the car which Regina had showed me earlier, when she had taken me to get my own clothes. I climbed into the back with Henry, where the Lady was placed upon a bed, and some more people in a strange green uniform were helping her to get comfortable. I noticed however there was one stranger who was not in the same green uniform- whilst it was still green it was much lighter than the others, and as she was talking to Regina I noticed that she was carrying a wand, and was possibly there to give magical assistance if it was required. I asked who the people in the other green uniforms were to Henry, and he said that they were called ‘paramedics’, and that they were like Doctors, but they took care of immediate injuries and didn’t do as much studying as Doctors did.

While the journey was a quick one, my suspicions about what had been happening with the curse were proven true, for as soon as we started to get a little bit closer to the town, the curse sped up again, and continued to speed up the closer and closer we got to the hospital. We arrived just in time, for not a few minutes after they took the Lady indoors, leaving Henry and I in a corridor, she went into labour, her magic causing some of the lights to flicker around her room.

Not long after the Lady went into labour, the man who she had taken me to meet in the forest arrived, his son, Rowland in tow. Leaving Rowland with Henry and I, he went into the room, considering with a contraction because Regina started screaming in pain, making Henry and itch to be in the room with her, but we could hear the Doctor saying that it wasn’t much longer now, and not long after that the cry of a child rang out.

I wanted to ask Henry who was being taken away by this curse, who “Hook” was and why people had been calling me that or saying that I looked like him, but I quickly remembered that seeing as he wasn’t in the town he must have been one of the two people who were out of town at the minute, meaning that Henry wouldn’t probably remember who he was anymore.

“What are you thinking Killian?” Henry asked in my language, obviously noticing that I was deep in thought, and while my life in forced servitude had taught me not to say what I thinking, or even give the idea that I could think, I was more than happy to answer Henry’s question, considering how many questions he had answered for me in this new world.

“I was wondering about the people who this curse was removing from everyone’s minds. I wondered about the man called ‘Hook’ and why people kept referring to me as him, or saying that I looked like him earlier”

“Hook is a really good guy, I’m kind of glad that these kinds of curses don’t effect me because I don’t think I would ever want to forget him. He was my other Mother’s boyfriend/future husband. He was called that because of the fact he was missing a hand and used a Hook in it’s place”

“He sounds a little bit like a villain. Also how can you possibly have two mothers?”

“He used to be, but now he’s not. And I have two Moms because Regina is my adoptive mother. My real Mother, Emma, had to give me up when I was born to give me my best chance at life, and I found her when I was 10. She broke the curse that brought her family to this world in the first place” A curse? I mused, and realised that it made sense in a way; for how else could they be speaking in Havena?

“Did they come from Mist Haven, your family?”

“Yeah! How did you know of it?”

“I went there during my time on the ship, while Liam and I weren’t allowed to leave the ship, we still got to see a little bit of the land during our masters trades there. I realised that was probably where everyone here came from by the language you are all speaking”

“What’s your brother like? You haven’t talked about him before” Henry said “Before” as though he had met me before I had woken up in this strange realm, and before I could ask him about what he meant by it, a kind looking woman came out and called Henry and I into the room where the Lady was, and I was elated to see that she was still OK, and in her arms was a tiny purple bundle of fabric, a tiny hand poking out of the top of it.

“Henry, Killian, meet your new baby sister, Violet Amelia Mills” I was so startled by the fact that Regina had basically called me family, saying that this new child was my sister when I wasn’t even related to her in the slightest. I snapped myself out of the stupor I had fallen into, imagining Liam telling me to get myself together, going beside Henry to meet the tiny baby which the augeo curse had brought along unexpectedly, and I had to admit she was pretty adorable. Big brown eyes peered out from her coverings, arms flailing towards Henry, who was now directly in front of her.

I had many questions going through my mind from all the little things that Henry had mentioned, about Hook, about subtly saying that he knew me before I arrived, and about how he wasn’t affected by the curse while presumably everyone else in the town should have been.

For now though I decided that it was within my best interest to simply enjoy the moment, for Regina still being fine after having a pregnancy condensed into just a few hours, marvelling at all the technologies that this realm had and the potential of having a new family to love; of course after being re-united with my brother.

I would ask as soon as Regina was out of the hospital.