Once Upon a Second Chance

(9) - The Parents

"...I wished for a family," Evie said sadly, "One that loves me unconditionally."

Blue smiled, "And that's exactly what the wish gave you."

Ben was hesitant to speak up. "Okay, so, not to interrupt. But there must be some mistake. What about the rest of us? We just got caught up in Evie's wish. We're not supposed to be here. We need to get back to Auradon as soon as possible. Everybody must be worried sick about us."

"No," Blue said. "Every one of you is here for a reason. I don't make 'mistakes'. Believe me, this is exactly where you need to be."

"What does that mean?" Lonnie asked.

A dark shadow fell upon the Blue Fairy's face. "You shall soon find out. But for now, I suggest you all make yourselves at home in Storybrooke, because you're not leaving for a very long time."

Ben tried to be polite, but he couldn't when it meant that his kingdom could be at risk. "Y-Yeah, no. I'm sorry, I can't accept that. I'm the king. I can't just leave Auradon without a ruler to take an unplanned vacation in some random town. No offense," he said to all the residents.

"King?" Belle muttered. She assumed the teenager was royalty by the crown he was wearing on his head, but he still looked far too young to rule a kingdom.

Blue answered, "I can assure, your majesty, there is nothing random about this town. And there is nothing you can do to leave. Try it. Exhaust all your options and you'll see that I'm right... This is your new home."

There were immediately protests and questions by all the kids. Everybody wondered what Mother Superior had meant by that.

But the fairy was done answering questions. "If you'll excuse me." She walked away without another word.

"I've never seen her so vague," David said, looking back at the nun.

"So what do we do?" Emma asked.

"There is nothing to do. You heard Mother Superior, love. These children aren't going anywhere and we can't change that," Killian said.

"He's right," Regina said. "Look, if it's what you think is best, I'll do what Mother Superior said and exhaust every possiblity to get these kids home. But if that doesn't work, well, when has she ever led you astray before?"

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The kids were sitting in Granny's for a couple hours with the Charmings, the Swan-Jones, Belle, and Henry as Regina took Rumplestiltskin and her sister, Zelena to try and find a way to create a portal back to their land.

All the kids decided to pass the time by reading through Henry's storybook that continued to amaze them the more and more that they read it. They were fascinated by how all the stories from their land were twisted and intertwined in the Enchanted Forest and realms even beyond that.

"Damn, Storybrooke's Snow White is a savage," Carlos said as they were up to the part where Snow robbed David's carriage.

"And Prince Charming was really a shepherd and had a twin brother who was a prince?" Jay said.

"And apparently there were originally eight dwarves, one of which was named 'Stealthy' and my alternate uncle Grumpy's name used to be 'Dreamy'," Doug said as they reached the chapter about the dwarves.

"Rumplestiltskin killed Cinderella's fairy godmother and sent her to the ball, instead... in exchange for her baby?!" Chad said, reading the Cinderella chapter.

Ben was the most shocked when they got to the chapter about Rumplestiltskin. "...Apparently my alternate father is an evil sorcerer called 'the Dark One' and he... used to have scaly skin?"