CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
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i. sweet dreams & sorry nightmares !

the enchanted forest . now .

— IT TOOK HOURS OF TIRELESS TREKKING THROUGH EMERALD SEAS OF OVERGROWN TREES AND VEGETATION, before they finally came upon a single, solitary poppy; as red as the apple that had first cursed Snow White to be trapped behind her eyes in a hellish landscape.

Christopher was beginning to feel bad that he had even brought it up, not wanting Snow to have to return to the, apparently horrific, room.

He swallowed that feeling, keeping it buried beneath the idea that Snow was a hero- and she would do this a hundred times over again if it meant they got to go back to their family.

Christopher sat on the forest floor, huddling next to Emma as her and her mother spoke. He was tucked into the blonde woman's side, silently watching Mulan crush the poppy seeds that would act as a guide for Snow to find the room in her dreams once again.

Emma took her mother's hand as Snow prepared for her slumber, leaning back against the trunk of a tree and closing her eyes.

Christopher, himself, felt sleepy as he watched Mulan blow the poppy dust in Snow's direction- the powder seeming to move- dance, even- playfully and hypnotically as it settled into her system.

Before he knew it, his head was later against Emma's arm, and he, too, fell asleep as quickly as Snow did, feeling his tired muscles and aching bones begin to relax under the thought that finally- finally- they had a fighting chance.

the enchanted forest . now .

— CHRISTOPHER COULD FEEL HIS HEAD SHAKING AS HE OPENED HIS EYES, being nudged constantly and almost aggressively by Emma's arm as she tried to force him awake.

"Christopher! Kid, c'mon, we need to go." Emma shouted.

Christopher jolted up, groggily standing on wobbly legs as his brain was still being held captive by sleep.

"What? What happened?" He asked as she stood and gathered their things, along with Snow, who was wide awake and looking worried- even terrified.

"A lot, but our main concern right now is that Mulan and the compass are missing." Emma rushed, "I'll explain as we go, but we gotta start running now."

She paused as she noticed his tired features, clearly upset that he'd been forced awake into an entirely new problem they had to face.

"I'm sorry, kid." She whispered, grabbing his hand and tugging him after her and Snow.

Soon enough, he properly found his footing and began running alongside Emma and Snow,

"What's going on? Is Henry okay?" Christopher asked as they ran.

"It wasn't Henry." Emma replied.

"What?"

"It was David." Snow revealed.

"But- you said that only people who have been under the curse can go to the room- does that mean-..." Christopher lost his sentence. It ran away from him, leaving only sad realization in it's wake. "He's under a sleeping curse."

Emma tried to water even the slightest bloom of optimism in the boy, encouraging it to grow, "But we know what Gold needed to tell us- he's got some sort of magic ink in his old cell that we can use against Cora."

Christopher nodded and heaved a quick breath so he could whistle and check on his bird friends. Expectedly, they twittered back.

Unfortunately, it was difficult for the birds to help them find Mulan, as the trees created a thick canopy that they couldn't see through as they flew above it all- meaning the trio had to rely solely on Snow's tracking skills.

Thankfully Snow was an excellent tracker, and within an minutes, they caught up to her.

Snow drew her bow.

"No!" Christopher tried to stop her, but she hushed him with a very direct look, allowing him to see her intentions and keep quiet.

With that, Snow aimed and fired an arrow into a tree, just a couple feet away from Mulan, causing the soldier to stop in her tracks.

"That was a warning shot." Snow stated, "Try to run and I promise the next one won't be."

"How did you find me?" Mulan couldn't meet their eyes.

"I know a thing or two about tracking."

Emma stepped forward, keeping Christopher behind her, "All we want is the compass.

Mulan seemed to consider her options before attempting to draw her sword, immediately getting taken down by Snow's blind rage and need to see her husband.

"Give me the compass." Snow demanded, having overpowered the soldier.

"And seal Aurora's fate?" Mulan still struggled against her, despite the top of a steel arrow against her neck.

"We learned how to defeat Cora." Christopher spoke up, trying to retain the optimism Emma had given him, "Once we do, Aurora will be free- we just have to get the thing we need-"

"Another journey." Mulan interrupted. "Aurora doesn't have that kind of time. Our best chance to save her is to make that trade now."

"Not gonna happen." Snow shook her head, "Without that compass, we can't get home."

"Then I hope you're prepared to use that arrow." Mulan had found the hill she would die on, and she refused to budge.

Before Snow could even move, Christopher whistled a high, quick note.

Mulan, from what Christopher had taught her, could gather that he'd said only two words to the feathery beings peeking through their surroundings.

"Stop her."

A thrush and a sparrow dived down at the call, flapping their wings and getting directly in Snow's face, singing and twiddling, causing Snow to jump back in surprise, nearly dropping her arrow as she fell back on the forest floor.

Both women paused before they could continue their altercation, hearing Christopher gasp, "Aurora!"

They all looked towards the Princess, who had just happened to join them, gasping for breath after having clearly been running for a while.

"Okay don't take this the wrong way, but how the hell did you get here?" Emma asked, her eyes wide.

Mulan had more important things to discuss as she pushed herself off the ground, "Were you followed?"

"I-I don't think so." Aurora glanced behind her as she came to stand at Mulan's side. "Cora may know I'm gone, but she didn't see me escape."

Christopher narrowed his eyes at the woman, observing her demeanour, "How did you escape?"

The wicked sorceress that held Aurora's heart in her hand scowled as she realized the bright child was already catching on to Aurora's lack of self control.

"Stupid boy." She muttered to herself, catching the attention of a certain pirate, who had previously been leaning carelessly against the wall, polishing his hook.

Once he heard Cora's utterance, he pushed off the rough stone and stood at full height, "What's happened?

"He's too smart for his own good..." She whispered.

Cora needed something- something that would skew Christopher's thoughts.

As her eyes fell on Killian and his stone cold, protective glare at the mere mention of the child, she smirked. There it is.

"It was Hook." Aurora spoke, unknowingly the puppet in someone's devilish play. "He let me go."

"Why?" Emma asked.

"Because of you. He wanted to prove to you, that you should have trusted him. That if you had trusted him, we could have defeated Cora together." Aurora then turned to Christopher, "and you... Christopher, Hook never wanted to break your promise. He still cares for you."

Christopher looked up into the trees, crossing his arms and turning away from the group, not even bothering to display whatever that sentence made him feel.

To be entirely honest, he wasn't sure. Emma had practically lied to him, and forced Killian's hand, making him believe that the pirate had betrayed his promise.

He should feel happy that Killian was seemingly still on their side, glad that he was, in fact, fighting to keep his promise.

Christopher tried to push down the doubt in his mind that told him otherwise, and hold onto that optimism and faith that he so needed.

"Did you find a way to stop Cora?" Aurora asked.

Emma nodded, holding the compass tight in one hand as Mulan had regretfully given it back, "Yes."

"Where are we going?"

"Rumplestiltskin's cell." The blonde stated.

"Great." Aurora breathed, "Then lead the way."

Christopher tried to stick close to Snow's side as they walked, feeling like, out of everyone in their group, she was the only one he didn't currently doubt.

the enchanted forest . now .

— DARKNESS HAD BLANKETED THE EARTH BY THE TIME THEY GOT TO THEIR DESTINATION, which hardly mattered, as the underground cave that Rumplestiltskin's old cell resided in was awfully dark on its own.

The group lit torches and lanterns, lighting the path as they went, Christopher even getting his own lantern to carry as they wondered into the dungeon.

Soon enough, they came upon the exact thing they were looking for.

"The squid ink- it's not here." Aurora worried as she observed the dirt floor of the menacing cell.

"Gold said we would find it here." Snow held her lantern up to examine the walls.

"Well, was there anyone else in here with him?" Mulan asked, "Could they have taken the ink?"

"No. He was kept alone. Visitors were forbidden, he was too dangerous to allow any human contact." Snow explained.

Christopher noticed a square red linen on the ground, covered in old crumbs.

No visitors, he mused, then how exactly did he get his hands on some of mama's pastries?

For a man who was seemingly so cruel, his mother still met him with a gentle hand. Christopher admired her for that.

For a brief moment, he was filled with a warmth he hadn't felt in a long while, and he allowed it to sit in the pit of his stomach as he continued searching the cracks and crevices along the lower portions of the walls.

"How did he keep from going crazy?" Emma asked rhetorically.

"He didn't." Aurora spoke, clearly having found something alarming.

Everyone turned to her, seeing a scroll of parchment paper in her grip.

"What is it?"

"Is it a message?" Emma asked.

"Yes," Aurora stepped forward and handed it to the blonde, "and I think it's for you."

"Why would you think-" Emma chewed up her words as she saw the scroll, inscribed with only a single word written a hundred times, and then a hundred times more.

Her name.

Emma sat cross legged and observed the scroll as they continued to search, looking over every curl in the writing, every jagged edge.

It slowly began to hurt her brain, her name losing all meaning the more she read it.

"What does this even mean?" She asked.

"He was obsessed with you, Emma." Snow tried to carefully climb down from the crack in the wall she'd been looking in, "You were the key to breaking the curse."

"We've looked everywhere. There's no ink in this cell." Aurora stood.

Snow began to grow worried, "No, there has to be. He told David."

"You were in a netherworld. Maybe something got lost in translation." Emma dismissed, too preoccupied with the scroll that almost literally was calling her name.

"No." Mulan pulled her arm from a crevice, "She heard right."

"You found it?" Christopher stood and glanced over in Mulan's direction, still observing the walls, just in case.

"In a manner of speaking... There was ink in this cell."

Christopher stepped over a rock in the way and stood with the group, seeing the ink pot Mulan had found was bone dry.

"Son of a bitch." Emma sighed.

None of them could have expected what happened next.

Aurora suddenly reeled back her arm, a heavy rock leaving her hand as she flung it at the lever that was keeping the cell door open.

As soon as the stone knocked against the contraption, the heavy cage-esque door fell with a whirring chain noise, and an echoing boom.

"Aurora!" Christopher shouted in surprise, just as Emma did the same.

"What are you doing?" Emma rushed to the door, trying to figure out if there was any way to get back though the jagged bars.

It was helpless, they were trapped.

And what was even worse, as Christopher came to stand next to Emma, placing his hands on the bars as she did, observing the stone corridor they had entered from, seeing two particular figures.

Right now, he only acknowledged the one.

"Mr Hook?"

author's note

que the Lightning McQueen 'I am speed' speech

y'all I'm starting to wonder if I should commit to a writing schedule and try and get my fics together wtf I haven't written like this since WDWG was published

I'm honestly just really excited to keep writing 😭 I have to literally stop myself before I just go for another chapter lmao

ALSO your questions were so cool omg I expected nothing less from absolute legends such as yourselves, and I actually do have a question this time: what kind of music do you think Winnie would listen to? I'm gonna eventually put together an additional playlist of songs that Winnie would listen to and idk I was just curious what your impression of her was 🥰

Anyway, as always, I love u guys, thank you so much for reading, I can't wait to chat with you all again soon and dw I promise I'm taking a lil break before starting the next chapter 😭💕💕