"What I wouldn't give for another sleeping curse."

***

Chapter 4

Auradon City

Third Person POV:

"So Evie, what did you want to talk about?" Uma asks.

The group, comprising Evie, Jay, Carlos, Uma, Harry, Gil, Iria, CJ, and Harriet, sits around in Evie's dorm, lying on the couch, sprawled on the floor, or just sitting in some chairs.

"Well-" Evie reaches into her bag, taking out an old library book.

"Milo found this for me. I was looking for books on our parents, and this came up after about a month and a half."

"Did you find some dirty secret about our parents?" Uma asks.

"Sort of," she takes a deep breath, only to be cut off by the door creaking open. Iria looks over Jay's shoulder to see a shock of purple hair. Their stomach immediately drops to their feet with dread.

Oh, no... Evie couldn't have... Did she really?

Mal walks through the door, almost looking sheepish. She waves her hands dramatically, with mock-enthusiasm.

"I'm back!"

Iria's POV:

"Mal!" Evie exclaims, rushing to embrace her friend.

"Evie!"

I roll my eyes, turning away and picking at my braids as they squeal excitedly. I glance over as Jay and Carlos get up to greet Mal as well, before sighing in frustration. I pick up the book again, trying to make out the words. I give up a few seconds later, though, instead simply making a point of ignoring Mal. I see Uma offer her a small wave and a smile, and my scowl deepens further.

After what seems like forever, Evie finally gets back to what's so damn important about this dumb book she found.

"Ok, here's the deal. Apparently, our parents, a long time ago, couldn't have heirs. So, they called on this sorcerer from another dimension, Rumpelstiltskin, or The Dark One," she takes a deep breath, "To bring them children to raise as their own."

There's a pause as Evie waits for everyone to catch on. When no one does, she continues, "So, Rumpelstiltskin got children from his dimension, and brought them to our parents to raise. Guys... Those kids were us."

The silence seems to drag on for an eternity before CJ exclaims, "What?!"

Evie holds up a hand and adds, "Actually, just me, Mal, Jay, Carlos, Uma, and Harry. Oh, and Harriet and CJ, too."

Everyone starts talking at the exact same time, while I sit back on my heels, dumbfounded. Pretty much all of my friends are secretly from a different dimension. Huh.

Stranger things have happened, I guess.

"Why does it matter?" I finally ask loud enough to be heard over the din.

"Our parents have lied to us about who we are our entire lives!" Mal answers exasperatedly.

Uma rolls her eyes, "What else is new?"

Evie shakes her head, excitement glistening in her eyes, "You guys are missing the point. This means we have other parents. Better parents, out there, somewhere."

Harry shakes his head, "Iria's right, what does it matter now? Our dirtbag parents have already raised us, they've already done their damage."

CJ grins, "And besides, childhood trauma is totally in this season."

Harriet drags her hands down her face in response to her sister before adding, "Besides, how would we even find them even if we wanted to?"

"And how do we know that they're better than our parents?" Carlos continues, "There's no guarantee that they're good people."

Evie perks up, "Actually, I can."

Uma scoffs, "What are you playing at, princess?"

"Well, this is a storybook, right?" Evie explains, opening up to a page in the book, "It tells their stories. My mother- Regina Mills- she used to be a villain, but she's good now."

Mal smiles, "Just like us."

"I would like to jump out a window, please," I think, rolling my eyes as far into the back of my head as they can go.

Harriet points to something on the page Evie has opened up to, "Is that a... Poisoned apple?"

Evie winces slightly, "Well, back when Regina wasn't the best person, they used to call her... The Evil Queen."

"The Evil Queen as in your mother the Evil Queen?" Carlos asks, "As in, on the Isle Evil Queen?"

"Wait, wait, wait, hold up," Uma cuts in, "Are you saying that these alternate dimension parents of ours are just different versions of our parents?"

"Basically, from what I can tell..." Evie starts, "Yes."

"Okay, that is messed up on an entirely different level," CJ comments to murmurs of agreement from everyone.

"Hang on a second, I want to see this," Jay says, walking up behind Evie. Pretty much everyone else does the same thing. Me and Gil follow eventually, but we stay a few feet behind the others as they crowd around the book.

Then something strange happens. I feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up, a weird tingling sensation hits my fingers, almost like...

"Guys, be careful!" I exclaim, apparently too late.

The next thing I know, a wave of magical energy hits me like a freight train, knocking me backward a few feet. A flash of light bursts from the book, and I nearly slam my head against the wall in an effort to shield my eyes.

When I turn back, both the book and everyone else is gone.

"What the fuck was that?"

Storybrooke, Maine

Third Person POV:

When a huge portal opens in the sky, and eight kids fall from it, no one really questions it. By now, it's all just another day in Storybrooke. However, a few calls are made to the sheriffs to go check it out. So, David and Emma trek through the woods, looking for 8 kids from a different world. Just another Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned kids were beginning to wake up. Uma groans loudly, squeezing her eyes shut as intense pain shoots through her head. After a lot of cursing, she finally forces herself to sit up, eying her surroundings, as well as the other 7 teenagers passed out around her. She sighs in frustration, already restless from knowing that she'll have to wait.

The next to wake is Carlos. He forces his eyes open about as noisily as Uma, albeit with far less cursing. He looks around with wide eyes, only to spot Uma walking back from some path in the forest. She sighs in relief, "Finally! At least someone's awake."

The cecaelia walks away again, throwing a request that sounds more like a demand over her shoulder, "Well? Are you coming or not? I found a stream, we can dump water on all these idiots' heads."

Carlos shrugs, before getting to his feet and following the teal-haired girl deeper into the unknown world.

Emma and David continue through the dense, green forest, trying to keep a positive attitude about this new, vague possible threat.

"Where did Granny say the portal opened up again?" Emma asks as they jump over a dead tree.

"She didn't. Well, not really-" David vaults over the trunk, just avoiding some dead branches, "-It was far off, so she couldn't exactly tell where it came from. But she said it was due northwest, beyond the bridge."

"Well, we just passed the bridge. Let's hope my magic can sense the portal from here."

As white light shoots from Emma's hands, Harry jumps up from his previous position on the ground, coughing and sputtering as water drips down his face.

"What the bloody hell?" He exclaims. Uma only offers a smirk and a question in response,

"Wanna go do it to someone else?"

Harry sighs, muttering a curse before grinning despite himself, "You know me too well, Captain."

Uma smiles mischievously, wrapping her pinky around his hook.

"But first, you've got to tell me what in Hades' name is going on here."

Emma and David follow the magic trail laid out by Emma's powers, right into a stream. They find themselves a few feet away from a white-haired boy carrying some sort of bowl full of water. His eyes widen when he catches sight of them, and they widen even further when he sees the magic coming out of Emma's hands.

"Hi. I'm David, and this is Emma, we're the sheriffs of Storybrooke. Who are you?"

The VK glances between the two figures in front of him a few times, before finally answering, "My name is Carlos."

Harry and Uma make their way to the stream, casually bumping shoulders as they walk side by side.

"So you're telling me that the last thing you remember is sitting in Evie's dorm room when she told us we were all kidnapped at birth by an evil sorcerer from another dimension?"

"Well, yeah. Then everyone started screaming, so Iria ran out. And then Gil left to make sure she was ok, and then there was this flash of light and a huge magical surge."

"And then you woke up in this random forest, and we were all with you."

Uma nods, and they walk in silence for a couple of minutes.

"We're almost here- Stop!" Uma whispers urgently, ducking behind a bush. Harry immediately follows suit, and they both silently watch as Carlos talks to the two sheriffs of Storybrooke.

"Should we go to back him up?" Harry asks quietly.

Uma nods, "Follow my lead."

"Swords out?"

Uma hesitates for a few seconds before responding, "Swords out. We know nothing about this world or the people in it."

Harry nods, and the duo slowly advances towards the stream, Carlos, and their only hope of getting home.

When CJ wakes up to find herself lying on the ground, next to her older sister, and with a splitting headache, to say she is insanely pissed would be an extreme understatement. She stands up, brushing herself off, and swears profoundly the entire time. She's ready to produce her most dramatic sigh, and slump against that tree over there when she spots footprints. Deciding to save theatrics for when there are people around to appreciate them, she follows the path into the forest.

"Who are you?" Emma asks as the two pirates step to the edge of the stream.

"I'm Uma. This is Harry, and I see you've met Carlos."

"I'm Emma."

"Would you mind telling us where we are, exactly?" Harry asks.

"Storybrooke, Maine. My name is David. We're the sheriffs of the town, and we were called about a magic portal. Can I assume that you came through it?"

"That's right," Carlos answers.

"Well, we'd like to take you to our town. We can help you get back home," David offers.

Uma pauses for a few seconds, before giving a curt nod, "Alright. But there are 5 more of us, and they're all still unconscious."

"Well, let's go get them, then," David responds.

It's at that moment that a certain blonde-haired pirate stumbles out of the trees, shouting, "And I thought I was having a bad day when Evie set me up on that blind date with Jane! What the hell is this place?"

CJ grumbles, brushing twigs off of her outfit when she suddenly looks up and sees five pairs of eyes staring at her. She offers an awkward wave and a cheeky smile.

"What's up?"