Once on Instagram III

Page 23 (Part Two)

August 4, 2018

"Save the Queen," Regina read aloud. She looked up from the paper. "What does that mean?"

Henry shrugged. "I don't know."

Robin took the paper from Regina and read over it. "Maybe it doesn't mean right now. Maybe it means in general. I mean, that fits with what the prophecy says. Assuming that it's a prophecy and not some random poem that actually means nothing."

Regina nodded slowly. "That's possible..."

The discussion about the possible prophecy was cut short by Zelena and Belle appearing in a cloud of smoke. "We've got problems."

Regina rolled her eyes. "When don't we have problems?"

Zelena opened her mouth to reply with an equally sarcastic comment, but Belle cut her off. "Hook and Milah have Rumple. ...And we think they're working with the Black Fairy."

~years from now~

"What is this?" Alice asked, staring at the picture, as if it would answer her. When it didn't, she looked over at Lucy. "What is this?"

Lucy looked pale. She opened her mouth, closed it, and shook her head.

"Lucy," Robyn prompted, "what does this mean? I thought you said the storybook was complete? Why is there an extra page?"

"It's not extra though," Alice pointed out. "It looks like a replacement page for..." she leaned down to look at the page number, "page twenty-three?"

"So if this book really is the story of our lives, what happened on page twenty-three?" Robyn questioned. "Is the book wrong?"

Lucy shook her head. "The book is right, but... you're story could've gone a bunch of different way, 'cause--" Lucy stopped talking suddenly, a realization, "'cause you're like Regina and Robin... you're soulmates."

Alice and Robyn looked at each other and then back at Lucy. It was Robyn who spoke first. "I'm not sure what's more concerning; the fact that you're worried about that, or the fact that you think Roni and my dad are soulmates."

"It's the curse making them think they're not in love!" Lucy insisted. "Whoever cast it must not like soulmates. And they must not have known about you two."

"This doesn't make any sense!" Robyn exclaimed. But even as she said it, her mind was racing. "Unless... Roni always did have something against using the word 'soulmate'... Maybe... I guess it's possible..."

Lucy picked up the replacement page and studied it. "What I don't know is why this showed up. Regina always told me their extra page showed up 'cause they needed hope. This isn't hopeful."

"Well what do we need now?" Alice asked. "Maybe that will help us figure out why it showed up."

"Proof," Robyn suggested. "A way to break the curse. Maybe there's some sort of secret clue about breaking the curse on that page?"

"That'd be great, but I doubt it." Alice looked down at her fingers. "There must be something we're missing..."

~present day~

Rumple didn't exactly have any way to defend himself. He wasn't the Dark One anymore, so his magic was gone. And now he was limping because of the foot injury he never should have given himself centuries ago. So he did have his cane. Or, he did until Milah took it from him. So now he was weaponless and couldn't even walk very well. It was pretty much a nightmare scenario.