CHAPTER FOURTEEN:  the tower

❚█══𝖳𝗈𝖽𝖺𝗒 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖺 𝖿𝖺𝗂𝗋𝗒𝗍𝖺𝗅𝖾 ══█❚

JASON BUCHANAN WAS IN DISBELIEF AT THE TROUBLE THEY FOUND THEMSELVES IN. Once again, being cursed and not knowing who did the spell. It made him want to hit his head against a wall. Since he couldn't slam the had of whoever casted the spell, through a brick wall. Yes they now knew who casted the spell; the wicked

"we are dealing with, how do we find this Wicked Witch?" David asked.

"Might I suggest we start by asking, if anyone has seen a woman with green skin running around." Hook speaks, sarcastically.

"We're cursed in Storybrooke. She'll look like any one of us." Regina tells him.

"Then we start somewhere we know she's been. Regina's office." Emma says.

"Or, start by whoever is a new face," Jason spoke.

"I've been over it with a fine-toothed comb. She left no trace," Regina says.

"But you were combing for magic. Maybe there's physical evidence that you missed," Emma explained.

"Good idea. We'll track her." David tells his daughter.

"If you wanna waste your time playing Nancy Drew, be my guest, but we can't let Henry wander around alone with that witch and her flying monkeys out there," Regina spoke again.

"Well, especially, since one of these flying monkeys could turn out to be his father." Hook speaks.

"Still no sign of Neal?" Mary asked.

"No." Emma answered.

"Point being, someone needs to protect Henry. He doesn't even know what's going on."

"I'm guessing you're volunteering?" Emma asked.

"If you find anything, call me."

"Just remember, he thinks we're here because I'm on a case." Emma stepped in front of her.

"Well, look who's gotten good at lying." Regina smirked.

"Just don't let anything slip up. As far as Henry knows, you're just Madame Mayor and that's it."

"I'm well aware of how Henry sees me."
Regina exits.

"Time is wasting. There's something wicked in your town. What do you say we go find find it?" Alister asked.
❚█══𝖳𝗈𝖽𝖺𝗒 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖺 𝖿𝖺𝗂𝗋𝗒𝗍𝖺𝗅𝖾 ══█❚

Alister, Emma, Hook, Jason and David had all gone to the Mayor's office to search for any clues. David had been closely examining a fallen box of tiny bottles, filled with colored positions.

"I think I have a partial footprint. You guys see anything?" David asked, as he walked a few steps away from the knocked over potionk.

"Other than an austere sense of design? Nothing," Hook replied before he crouched down next to David examines the partial footprint more closely.

Jason moved over, standing over David's shoulder, leaning over.

"Will you stop doing that?" David asked, shoving against his legs.

"It's not my fault you're short."

"Is that blood?" Emma asked.

David wiped his pointer finger through the smudged,  then smelt the stain on his finger.  "It's berry."

"Like a fruit?" Emma asked.

"No, like holly berry. They grow on bushes."

"Are you some sort of botanist in this life, mate," Hook asked.

"I've worked in an animal shelter. Saw dogs track them all the time. The bushes grow in the woods."

"You know where?"

"Yeah, in the north-west corner, not far from the toll bridge." David's cell phone vibrates. Reading the message David sighs.

"Everything okay?" Emma asked.

"Mary Margaret needs me to come back to the loft. We're getting a midwife and she wants to meet the both of us."

"A bit demanding, isn't she?" Hook asker, but when he received multiple threatening looks, speaks up again. "I meant the midwife."

"It's fine. Go." Emma dismissed.

"we just got on track here," David says.

"And I've got it covered. She needs you. Just meet us when you get done."

David sighs. "Alright." He then exits the room.
❚█══𝖳𝗈𝖽𝖺𝗒 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖺 𝖿𝖺𝗂𝗋𝗒𝗍𝖺𝗅𝖾 ══█❚

The four; Alister, Emma, Hook and Jason had good to where David suggested to go. In search of the berries. But, upon finding the bush, Hook swiped his arm out, the one with the hook, and pushed the branches down.  He shook some berries off the branch.

"You'll look for any excuse to use that thing, won't you?" Jason inquired off.

"Trust me, he does," Alister says.

"At least we know we're in the right place. What now?" Hook asked.

"Now, we start searching." Emma speaks.

"You know something, Swan? Whenever you're around, I inevitably find myself trekking through some manner of woods or forest, courting danger." Alister tells Emma

"Here I thought you weren't afraid of anything. Always looking for the next adventure," Emma replied.

"Oh, is that, what this is?"

"Isn't it? What the hell were you doing the last year on that ship? I'm guessing it was one swashbuckling tale after another. Till you decided to come back and save me."

"Exactly."
Emma turns around to face him. "You're lying."

"Well, this is wonderful," Jason muttered

"Excuse me?"

"What happened back there? What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing. It's my tale. I'm sticking to it."

"Still don't believe you."

Jason gestured for himself and Hook to continue ahead, to not be her for the seemingly awkward conversation.  He lifted his hand,

"Well, let's leave at that and you can just say thank you." Alister replied to Emma.

"For my memories? I already did."

"Well, from saving you from a loveless marriage."

"You think that's what you were doing?"

"He was a flying monkey."

"I didn't know that."

"Were you considering it? His proposal?"

Jason and Hook continued to walk. "How long you think until they realize we left?

Hook was silent got a moment, thinking. "Sean will notice first."

Jason laughed.

"Does it matter?" Emma asked Alister .

"Humor me."

"Yes. Okay? I was in love, so of course, I was considering it. As usual, he wasn't who he said he was and I got my heart broken. Enough humor for you?"

Alister was silent for a moment. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm glad to hear that."

"You're glad to hear I had my heart broken?"

"If it can be broken, it means it still works." Emma turned, raised brows. "Where's Jason and Hook?"
❚█══𝖳𝗈𝖽𝖺𝗒 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖺 𝖿𝖺𝗂𝗋𝗒𝗍𝖺𝗅𝖾 ══█❚

Emma and Alister continue to walk, pausing when seeing Jason and Hook at the entrance of a farm house. "A farmhouse. You have to appreciate the irony."

"We were gonna go in, but figured if you didn't see us, and heard someone in the house, we'd get shot," Jason gestured to Emma.
❚█══𝖳𝗈𝖽𝖺𝗒 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖺 𝖿𝖺𝗂𝗋𝗒𝗍𝖺𝗅𝖾 ══█❚

They walked up to the house, carefully. Emma peered in though the windows. "There's definitely someone living here. It looks empty now."

"They why are we whispering?" The Jones brothers asked.

"Because good hideouts always look empty," Emma answered. "Trust me. I've spent a lot of time tracking down people who don't want to be found. I know about hiding out."

"If you want a good hideout, make it look empty," Jason said at the same time. "Snow and I would make ours look abandoned." He says lowly,

As they examine the piece of land, they eyed land on a storm cellar. "A storm cellar." Emma lets out.

They began to walk towards it, when seeing it locked,  Emma draws her pistole, but Hook stops her. "Whoa, wait. Wait. It's one thing walking around a deserted farmhouse, it's quite another descending into a one-way cellar with no way out."

"Scared?" Jason mocked.

Hook sighs. "There's a difference between fear and strategy. We know she's got flying monstrosities. Who knows what's down there? If this witch is as powerful as we think, we could use some magical backup." 

"Unless, you've been practicing in New York City," Alister directs at Emma.

"Okay, I'll call Regina. Have her drop Henry at Granny's. I'd like to see those flying monstrosities trying to get past her crossbow," Emma mutters,
Taking out her phone.

"And her lunch special."  Hook adds.

"It's David," Emma says, before pressing on her button and playing the voice mail;

"Emma, it's David. I'm at the trail head. And, I think I've found her. The Wicked Witch. I'm going after her."

"What the hell is he thinking?" Jason asked.
❚█══𝖳𝗈𝖽𝖺𝗒 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖺 𝖿𝖺𝗂𝗋𝗒𝗍𝖺𝗅𝖾 ══█❚

"Who let him drive?" Alister asked, gripping the handle above him, and the door handle.

"No one, he just made it to the driver's seat before I could," Emma explained, also gripping the seat.

"You keep driving like this and we won't make it alive to save David," Regina tells him.  "Because we will be dead."

Jason ignored them, driving off the street, and up the small hill into the woods.  And there, was David, on his knees, with someone standing in front of him. And the closer Jason got, he realizing the person in the cloak, the man in the cloaks, looked an awful like David.

Jason hoped that David would jump out of the way before he was hit by the car.

"Jason! Slow down!" Emma yells.

"I'm gonna to die!" Alister closed his eyes.

David grabbed the sword off the ground, and stabbed it onto his look-a-like, he fell to the ground. Immediately, Jason comes to an halt, the car swerving. "David!" Jason opened the door and got out of the car, running to David, pulling him up onto his feet. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," David hugs Jason back, leaning on him more, clearly tired.

"Well, where is she?" Regina asked.

"It wasn't her," David answered

"Then who was it? You look whiter than a fresh sail." Hook commented.

"Myself."

"Come again?"

"It's the witch. She's toying with us," Regina says.

"Did you guys find where she might be hiding?" David asked.

"A farmhouse. We think it's hers." Alister speaks up.

"Then let's end this. Let's send this witch back to Oz."

"Jason is NOT driving!" Alister exclaimed.
❚█══𝖳𝗈𝖽𝖺𝗒 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖺 𝖿𝖺𝗂𝗋𝗒𝗍𝖺𝗅𝖾 ══█❚

Eros had been stood by Snow. All of the kingdom has gathered, waiting for the long-lost (kidnapped) daughter to return. Prince Charming has managed to send news, saying he found her.

When the princess entered, wearing a pink and white dress. With a cloak that was all pink and white. "Mother? Father?"

Immediately, the king and queen ran up, passing Belle.  And the three embraced.

"Are you going to tell me why you were out in the woods all night?" Snow asked Charming.

"I was there because I was afraid." Charming admits.

"Afraid?" Snow asked, before she looked down at her stomach, realization. "Because we lost Emma."

"Once as a baby and then again, when we were forced to return to the Enchanted Forest without her," Charming says.

"No, neither time was either of your faults." Eros speaks up.

"I know. But, because we lost her, I was never a father." Charming says.

"You have been a great father."

"To her now. I didn't raise her. And this child? This one? I don't know. I've never done this before and I don't know if I can."

"You don't have to," Snow says. "We're going to do this the way we do everything. Together."

"How did I forget that? Now, come on. We have a nursery to build."

❚█══𝖳𝗈𝖽𝖺𝗒 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖺 𝖿𝖺𝗂𝗋𝗒𝗍𝖺𝗅𝖾 ══█❚

"Any particular reason she would send a demon who looks like you?" Hook asked

"No idea. It was just there wearing my face, harping on my deepest fears," David says.

"It knew your deepest fears?" Regina asked.

"Yeah, things I never told anyone, not Jason, even Mary Margaret.  It wasn't until I'd admitted them that I was able to defeat it by stabbing it with the hilt of my sword," David explained

"Where is it? Your sword?"

"Well, that's the strange part. After I killed it, the hilt... it disappeared."

"What's that mean, then?" Alister asked.

"When we face our deepest fears, our true courage comes out. When you used the hilt of your sword to vanquish your fears, your courage transferred into it." Regina explained.

"Why did it disappear?"

"It didn't disappear. She took it."

"Hang on. The Wicked Witch stole his courage?" Emma asked.

"Well, a symbol of it, at least. And symbols can be powerful totems."
❚█══𝖳𝗈𝖽𝖺𝗒 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖺 𝖿𝖺𝗂𝗋𝗒𝗍𝖺𝗅𝖾 ══█❚

They had walked back to the farm house, heading towards the storm cellar. They paused when seeing the lock was broken.

"That lock. It wasn't busted before." Emma reaches for her gun.

Both homes brother, and Jason draw their swords. "Ready?"

David opens the cellar's door. No one stood there, to attack.

"So far, so good." Hook commented.

"Everyone, stay alert. Come on." Carefully, Emma walks down the stairs. David, Jason, Regina and Hook enter the cellar, too.

"There's definitely dark magic here," Regina the turns to Emma. "Can you feel it?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Whatever I feel, it's not good." She notices a cage standing in the room. The lock is broken, too. "What would the Wicked Witch keep in a cage? Monkeys?"

"No, no monkeys," David turns on the lights. A spinning wheel is standing inside the cage. Then David crouches down picking up straw from the ground. "How many people do we know who can spin straw into gold?"

"Shit," Jason muttered, realization.

"Rumplestiltskin."
❚█══𝖳𝗈𝖽𝖺𝗒 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖺 𝖿𝖺𝗂𝗋𝗒𝗍𝖺𝗅𝖾 ══█❚

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