Narrated by Aubrey
I studied the instructions to the time travel spell which Mr. Gold had turned into English, but I was stumped on something. "Mr. Gold," I said, bringing the spell book over to him. "There's this part I'm still trying to understand. It says here that the sword's power will reveal the secret within the urn, so do you know what that exactly means?"
"Read closer," Mr. Gold replied. "What do you think it means, Deary?"
I read the sentence repeatedly, still trying to understand, then something inside me told me that I would find my answer inside the Once Upon a time Book. "Kaylee, I need to see the book really quick," I said, then she passed it over. I quickly flipped through the pages until I landed on the page called, Aubrey and Kaylee Destroyed the Urn with the Sword of Nayu. This page had an illustration of Kaylee and me holding the sword of Nayu, and we had just destroyed the urn which was shown as a pile of sand in the illustration, just what we remembered the urn became after destroying it. I studied the illustration closely, then suddenly, something in it caught my eye. When I had looked very closely at the pile of sand illustration, I saw what appeared to be part of a tiny key sticking up from the pile, and it blended well in it, making it hard to spot at first. "Kaylee, look," I said, pointing at the image of the key part. "Does that look like what I think it does?" Then I saw her expression quickly change into curiosity.
"Like a key?" Kaylee finished, beaming with delight.
"Exactly!" I replied. "That could explain what was meant by the sword's power being able to reveal the secret within the urn, and that secret ingredient must be the magic portal key! That's it! We just have to use the sword to destroy the urn again in order to get the key! That's the only way." I beamed, feeling very successful. "Thanks to this book!"
"So that's why those specific objects were needed in the spell... because the urn had the key inside it, and the sword of Nayu can destroy the urn, thus being able reveal the secret ingredient inside the urn, the key!" Kaylee said excitedly. "So really all we need for this time travel spell is the key and the Once Upon a Time book.
"Very clever indeed," Mr. Gold remarked. "I knew you two would figure it out."
Kaylee and I hugged for joy, feeling triumphant. "Now we have an urn to destroy," I said with confidence.
Mr. Gold took out the sword and the urn and handed them to us, then with his magic, he appeared us, along with himself, into the middle of the woods. We needed to do this in a quiet, safe area. I placed the urn on the ground, then together holding the sword, Kaylee and I, with all our might, stabbed the urn. Then suddenly, a powerful force emitted and caused us to fall backwards just like last time, and this knocked the wind out of us. Kaylee grimaced in pain, groaning. "I forgot that would happen," she said, then we both burst into laughter. Recovering from the shock, we stood up and went over to the sand pile that used to be the urn. I dug through it, then my hand touched something metal, and I took the metal thing out of the sand. To our great delight, it was the key, and we did a leap for joy.
"Well done," Mr. Gold said with a grin.
"We are ready," I said, then Mr. Gold set the Once Upon a Time book on the ground.
"And I think you will figure out the rest," he said.
I opened the book and flipped through the pages then landed on a page with an illustration of Kaylee and me in the Enchanted Forest, which was titled, Aubrey and Kaylee return from Agrabah. "Here," I said, pointing, "this is the time we need to go to." We were already beginning to feel extremely nervous since we were actually going to go back in time, something I thought was impossible.
"Now remember, Dearies, whatever you do, make sure yourselves do not see you because this will cause a time paradox that will inevitably alternate the entire past or future," warned Mr. Gold. "The future depends on you, so make sure you don't mess up."
I swallowed nervously because I was now really scared since we could very easily mess up. "So, technically, we are going to the future since we were sent to the past by the curse," I said, and he nodded. Then I turned to Kaylee. "You ready?"
"I'm ready," she replied, nodding nervously.
I took out the key, and as I was moving it down toward the center of the page, suddenly, a keyhole magically appeared in the middle of it just as I expected. "There you go," Mr. Gold said with a smile. "Now go save the future."
I inserted the key, and immediately, a bright light emitted from the page, then Kaylee and I were immediately sucked into the book. We abruptly landed in the Enchanted Forest, and after catching our breath, we stood up. I took a deep whiff of the Enchanted Forest scent that I had missed. "Well, it looks like it worked," I said, turning to Kaylee. "Any moment now, we are going to see the curse fog coming, and ourselves are going to diminish it. We just have to hide while waiting."
Soon, the sky grew dark and ominous, then billowing, heavy, dark fog began engulfing it. The curse was coming, and we anticipated watching it being diminished. A few minutes later, a crazy, swarming flock of birds flew our direction as the dark fog was advancing toward us. Then a moment later, we saw bright, white light, and it began to overpower the curse fog. We knew it was our light magic, and we watched the dramatic scene until the curse fog entirely disappeared. "Wow, I never realized how cool it was," Kaylee remarked proudly.
As we were running to the area that we remembered we were when diminishing the curse fog, suddenly, we stopped when someone appeared in front of us. It was Rumpelstiltskin. "Well done, Dearies," he said to us with a grin. "Very impressive indeed, just as impressive as how you managed to come back from where Queeny sent you just at the very right time. Now that is what I call a remarkable coincidence or as I like to call it, fate, fate that fulfilled your destiny."
I knew that we should not tell Rumpelstiltskin that we were actually from the future, technically past, because obviously when Mr. Gold was helping us with the time travel spell, he didn't know that he met our past-future selves. We had to be careful not to mess up anything. "Excuse us, but there's something we must do," I said in a rush. Then we ran off to the area where we encountered ourselves lying on the grass. We hid behind shrubs, watching ourselves from a distance. "Now we need to think up a plan of how we are going to steal that genie lamp," I whispered to Kaylee. We have to be very careful not to let ourselves see us like Mr. Gold warned since it will cause a time paradox, and who knows what may happen. We have only one shot at this, so we can't mess up," I ended with a nervous swallow.
"It is going to be very hard to get that lamp," Kaylee said, sighing anxiously and looking apprehensive, as she watched Snow, David, and the dwarfs run toward ourselves in celebration.
Just then, suddenly, a voice was heard from behind us, startling us, and we turned around to see Rumpelstiltskin. Kaylee and I cast alarmed glances, hoping he would not see our duplicates out yonder. "Uh, what are you doing here?" I nervously asked him.
"I want to know how you time traveled," he replied, looking surprised.
"Um..., what are you talking about?" I responded, feeling panicked.
"You know exactly what I mean," he replied. "If I am not wrong, Dearies, those are yourselves right out younger celebrating with your friends. Now you can't deny that."
Oh no, we messed up already, I thought, alarmed. We must had led him here! Kaylee and I exchanged apprehensive glances, then I turned back to Rumpelstiltskin and blurted out with frustration and anxiety, "You weren't supposed to know! The reason why we are here is to fix the past because in the future, Regina ends up succeeding with enacting the curse by using the genie lamp she stole from us, then we are all sent back in time by an aberration caused from the curse, and that's why we came here, to prevent this curse from ever happening so that we could fix everything and put time back on normal track. The prophesy really meant we would break the curse after we were all cursed in a place called Storybrooke, in a land without magic, and that's where we came from. Anyway, all we have to do is try to get the genie lamp back to keep Regina from using it." Then I ended, breathing heavily since I explained everything so fast.
"So, you really did succeed in the time travel spell," Rumpelstiltskin responded, looking impressed.
We nodded, then I said, "If it were not for you helping us, we would have not succeeded."
Rumpelstiltskin looked distracted and said, "In this land without magic, do I find my son, Baelfire?"
"You don't find your son yet because once you brought magic to Storybrooke to help us enact the time travel spell, the magic came with a price," I replied. "And you did not have any magic potion that could prevent you from losing your memories." Then I explained how no one could cross the town line since if they were to, they would lose their memories and return to their cursed selves."
Immediately, Rumpelstiltskin looked troubled, then he responded, snapping out of his distant thoughts, "Now, you two certainly shouldn't be tracing around here in those ridiculous clothes. You need to be disguised." Then he appeared cloaks on us.
"Can you help us get the genie lamp?" I asked. "We have to get it before it's too late, but we won't be able to without ourselves seeing us, and you told us if that were to happen, it would cause a time paradox."
"Well, that's why you are wearing those cloaks of course, Dearies, to disguise yourselves," he replied. "Now, you must do this yourself. If this is your destiny to change all of our fate, then you will succeed."
"So, you won't help us then?" Kaylee questioned with a sigh. "Fine."
Rumpelstiltskin disappeared, and we knew we had to make our move to steal that lamp quickly. We had no other choice but to go out there and steal that satchel containing the lamp. At least we would be disguised with our hoods. "Only one of us should go out there to steal the lamp," I said. "It's better that way. I will go do it. You stay here."
Rumpelstiltskin, in his fortress, took out a jar from his cabinet, a jar full of urn sand. Then he thought to himself, If this time travel was made possible to enact, then that must mean the urn had been used since the only spell book Regina and I have in our possession has that version of the spell, the one using the urn. My spell book was probably what was used. Those two items must had come to Storybrooke through the curse, and this urn sand must had transformed back into an urn since the curse caused a time aberration, sending all of us back into the past, and thus, making it so the urn was never destroyed in the first place. But because I won't be able to find my son in the future since I will lose my memories if crossing the Storybrooke border, I need to make sure I have a potion that will keep me from losing my memories so that I will be able to leave Storybrooke to find my son. Then after setting the jar of urn dust down, he went over to his potion cabinet and took a potion out of it, a potion with the label, "Memory Saving Potion." Then he continued into deep thought, Because the future already tells me that all the time travel ingredients came through the curse but obviously not this potion I will need, this is my chance to make sure the potion gets sent over. Because this potion won't come through the curse, I need to sneak it into one of the twin's cloak pockets, and when they return to Storybrooke, simply because they will fail getting the genie lamp back since it is impossible to change the past and the future, I will get my potion. I will get it later in Storybrooke after I tell them about the time travel spell and help them to enact it just as they said. I will have to make them think it's the answer to fixing everything, and this spell will succeed since they are here right now. And I know how they will be able to return to Storybrooke, and I will make sure they do. Luckily, I have a powerful wand for that. I will remember this, and this will be the reason why I bring up about the spell when I'm in Storybrooke, so I get my memory saving potion. I will find Baelfire.
As I was about to leave the shrubs, a moment later, I saw the Evil Queen appear out yonder where ourselves were. "Oh no!" I murmured, very upset that I had not gone out way sooner. But as I was still going to run out anyway and try to steal the urn quickly before Regina got it, Kaylee halted me.
"Aubrey, it's too late," she said sorrowfully, grabbing my arm. Then we saw Regina with the genie lamp.
"No!" I cried out. "How could we miss our opportunity! Why did we take so long? We failed. Now it's too late." I sighed with distress. "What were we thinking... of course it's not that easy to change fate. I guess it wasn't our destiny to succeed." I hung my head dejectedly, and Kaylee nodded sadly.
Suddenly, Rumpelstiltskin appeared behind us again. "I see you have failed to succeed," he said, glancing at our downcast faces. "It's not easy to change fate, Dearies, and I would say, impossible. I, for one, did not expect you to succeed, only to fail of course."
"So, you knew we were going to fail," I questioned with a sigh.
"Wait," Kaylee added with a suspicious tone, her face growing serious when a sudden thought struck her. "In the future when we are sent to Storybrooke, you acted like you didn't remember us time traveling here, because if you did, you would have told us and warned that we would fail."
"I probably took a Forgetting Potion which I am about to drink now," he replied. "This potion will make me forget I met your future selves. The future should be left unknown because knowing the future can alter fate."
"Oh, that explains it," I replied. "Now is there any way you can help us get back where we came from quickly before the curse hits?" I asked, feeling panicked.
"That's why I came here, to help you get back," he replied. Then he handed us a wand. "This powerful wand, the most powerful wand ever to exist, will enable you to open a portal back to your time. But it will take more than just the wand's magic to do the work; it will also take your own inner strength and belief. Together, you two can make the magic strong enough to create the portal, and that will not only take an immense amount of magic but also a lot of your energy."
We nodded with acknowledgement and said our thanks. Holding the wand together, we waved it, then it started to glow brightly. And with our determination and belief that we could succeed, together we concentrated very hard, and with our inner strength, we managed to create a portal that appeared in the air. "Well done, Dearies," Rumpelstiltskin said.
"Thank you, Rumpelstiltskin," I replied. Then we both jumped into the portal.
"That was easy," Rumpelstiltskin said, talking to himself. No Forgetting Potion for me, for I need to remember this time so that it would have been possible for this to have happened, he thought to himself.
We abruptly landed in the Storybrooke woods. "Well, that didn't work out so well," I said with discouragement. "I guess changing the past or future really is a tricky business."
"Yeah, well at least we tried," Kaylee replied, taking a deep breath. "Come on, I can't wait to see everyone, just what will cheer us up."
"Except for disappointing them," I added, feeling gloomy.
We went to town, first heading to Mr. Gold. "Unsuccessful I see," he said as we walked into his shop, and we nodded dejectedly. "But like I said before, time travel is a tricky business, Deary, and it looks like it just wasn't your fate to succeed."
"So, you're not upset?" I questioned.
"Of course not; you tried, and that is what counts," he replied.
"Oh, and by the way, we actually met your past self," Kaylee brought up, then we explained everything.
"I must had taken a Forgetting Potion," Mr. Gold replied.
"Yeah, that's what you said you were going to do," I responded. "But if you never did, you could had been able to warn us that we would fail, just the same as foretelling the future," I pointed out.
"It's better that the future is left unknown because knowing it can alter it," Mr. Gold replied.
"Yeah, you told us that before too," Kaylee responded. "I guess I wouldn't want to know the future either. I can't even stop thinking about how we actually saw ourselves." She shuddered. "It's freaky. I think I'm going to be scarred the rest of my life."
"Me too," I added, a chill running down my spine.
"Now, it looks like you won't be needing those cloaks any longer," Mr. Gold said. "I must had given them to you, did I?"
"Oh, yes," I replied. Then we took them off.
"I can take those for you, Dearies," he offered.
"Okay," we replied, then we handed them over and left the shop.
After we left, Mr. Gold headed to the back room with the cloaks, and from a pocket on one of the cloaks, he took out a small bottle of a clear substance with a label titled, "Memory Saving Potion." Grinning triumphantly, he murmured to himself, "Now I'm going to find my son."