Choices

By: Jecir

Chapter One: When You Wish...

"I wish none of this had ever happened."

And just like that, the world went silent. Henry looked up in shock. Everything was gone—the snow, the trees, his father's grave, all of it. What was left was an inexplicable nothingness. Fear gripped his heart, but he was the grandson of Prince Charming; he would not be afraid. He stood up straight, squared his shoulders, and looked around. He had dealt with strange new locations before. Nothing was new to him after having dream chats with Sleeping Beauty or waking up in Neverland. It was his life.

All around was nothingness. It was strange. He had always thought that nothingness would be pitch black. This was something more. It was not fully black; more like a continuous shifting of blues, blacks, and other assorted colors associated with the night. He took a deep breath and was glad to see that nothingness included air. It was not stale; he did not know why he assumed it would be stale but it wasn't. It was just air. Not cool; not warm; not anything; just there. He guessed that was what nothingness was—simply there, which contradicted the entire meaning of nothing, but that was neither here nor there. He was here. He needed to figure out why so he could get back to his family.

His family...

Henry frowned. In the shock of this change, he had forgotten about his family. More so, why he had not been there with them when this...whatever it was...occurred. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise.

Indulging in the sudden vulnerability of his solitude, Henry looked up into the shifting nothingness and let his emotions wash over him. The pain he had been feeling flared up; unlike his fears, he did not fight it. Everything hurt; it felt like nothing was ok. His world was falling apart for the umpteenth time in his short life, and, for once, he did not know what to do about it.

He really missed his father.

Something twinkled overhead. Henry gazed up into the swirling nothingness, wondering how there could be light in the midst of this darkness.

"That's quite an accidental metaphor."

Henry turned sharply and raised his fists instinctually to face the mysterious speaker who had joined him in this bizarre moment.

His science classes had taught him that light was sucked away in vacuums, thus a normal person would be shocked to be able to see the woman standing next to him. Henry, however, was not normal and took it in stride that he could see her. He also took it in stride that he could see her because she, herself, was glowing. The woman standing beside him was gazing up into the night; she was surrounded by an artic blue glow that did little to fill the emptiness. Her skin was pale; her eyes were dark; and her hair fell in a waterfall down her back. She was robed in a cloak that broke up the shadows around them with small pinpricks of light—like stars in the night sky. She smiled when she turned to him and said, "Hello, Henry."

"Who are you?" Henry stuttered.

The woman swept her cloak back and dropped into an impressive bow. "I am Evangeline," she said. "I am a Wishing Star."

Henry dropped his fists and raised his eyebrow. "A Wishing Star?"

"Yes," Evangeline said with a laugh.

"As in "When You Wish Upon a Star?""

"Oh no," Evangeline wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Nothing like that rubbish, but, well, then again, almost like that rubbish. Why did you say it with such scorn?"

"Scorn?"

Evangeline cocked her head and eyed him over, something mysterious twinkling in her eyes. "I would think the Truest Believer would believe in his own wishes."

Henry ducked his head, feeling a touch of shame before that familiar sensation of shock returned accompanied by suspicion. "How did you know about that?"

"Easy," Evangeline said. "I heard you, though the words and the intension, well..."

"That's not what I meant," Henry said. He was torn between that nagging suspicion and general confusion. He would not be tricked by another stranger seeking his heart. He would not! His family had suffered enough; he would not bring more pain than he already had. Wishing Star or not, he would not be so easily duped. "Listen, whoever you are,"

"Evangeline."

"Evangeline," Henry corrected swiftly. "If you know about that then you know who I am."

"I do," Evangeline confirmed.

"And you know my family. I am—"

"Henry Mills, adopted son of the Evil Queen, biological son of the Daughter of True Love and the Child of the Dark One, grandson to the greatest lovers in all the lands and the greatest evil in all the realms. Your great grandfather tried to steal your heart so that he could live forever; your step-grandfather is potentially going to become your step-father; and...oh yes, you are the heir to the throne of three kingdoms. Did I miss anything?"

Henry's threat was stuck in his throat as he tried to process her rambling. All he had meant to use for intimidation; she had listed off with care-free nonchalance. He tried to grab at something to put him back on the front foot, but all that slipped from his lips was, "Three kingdoms?"

"Regina's kingdom, Snow's, and Prince James'," Evangeline explained. "You have quite the inheritance awaiting you should you ever go the Enchanted Forest."

Aghast and floundering to understand what exactly was happening, Henry demanded once again to know "Who are you? Where are we? Whatever it is you're doing, you won't get away with it! My mothers—"

"Are too busy fighting to know you are here," Evangeline cut in. "But you knew that already."

Henry ducked his head and looked away.

"To answer your questions, I am Evangeline. I am a Wishing Star. Where we are is a bit complicated, and no, believe it or not, Henry, I am not doing this. You are."

"What?"

A rumbling sounded in the depths beyond.

"Hm, it's started," Evangeline hummed.

"What's started?" Henry asked, looking back and forth between Evangeline and the distant rumbling.

"The fulfillment of your wish," she answered.

"But I didn't make a wish," Henry said.

"Yes, you did," Evangeline replied. "If you hadn't, I wouldn't be here."

"Oh, so Wishing Stars appear to every person who makes a wish?"

Evangeline laughed. "You gained some sass from your adopted mother. I like it."

The rumbling sounded again; louder and closer.

"You are an inquisitive child," Evangeline observed. "You get that from your father's side of the family. I will try to keep up. Wishing Stars do not appear at the call of any child's desire. Mostly, we grant the wishes from afar if we grant them at all, but you, you are the Truest Believer, and this," She indicated the nothingness around them. "This is the result of your wish."

Henry took in his surrounding again with renewed confusion. "I don't understand," he said. "I didn't make a wish."

"You did," Evangeline corrected in the wake of another rumble. "Do you not recall what you said before all this started?"

Henry wracked his brain trying to remember the words. It was harder than it should have been to recall something that happened mere moments earlier. His eyes widened a touch as he whispered, "I said..."

"I wish none of this had ever happened," they said together.

"Yes," Evangeline nodded; her countenance had turned grave. "And the magic in your blood seeks to do your will." She waved to the night where the rumbling was moving closer and closer—far too reminiscent of Pan's curse for Henry's liking.

"But," Henry stuttered as he looked out. He could have sworn he saw things moving out there. "I didn't mean it! You have to know I didn't mean it!"

Evangeline laughed a touch. "Wishing Stars are not foolish, Henry, of course we know a fake wish when we hear one."

"Then you can fix this?"

"No." Evangeline's dark eyes locked onto him. "You meant to wish, Henry."

"No, I didn't," Henry denied.

"You did," she said simply. "You may not have meant to speak the words you spoke, but in your heart, you held a wish—a deeply rooted wish that contained all the power of your belief—and, when you said those words, you released that power."

"That's insane," Henry said. "I make wishes all the time. Every child does. They don't come true."

"For you, they do. Did you ever wonder how you found your mother when living in a cursed town?"

"I'm not from the Enchanted Forest. I could leave whenever I wanted!"

"Yes, yes, yes, but how? You found a woman who did not want to be found, whose name had been erased from your birth records. It should have been impossible, but you did it. It's because you are the Truest Believer, and when you wished with everything inside of you to find your mother, we, the Wishing Stars, were bound to obey. That wish was made when there was no magic around you; this wish is saturated in it; but, because the intentions of your heart and the words that you spoke were not in alignment, you released wild magic that seeks to grant the surface wish."

Henry was almost too afraid to ask, "What's a surface wish?"

"The wish you think you needed instead of the wish you know you wanted."

The rumbling crashed around them like violent thunder. This time, it was accompanied by flashes of light that illuminated indistinguishable figures in the darkness. Henry stepped back. The rumbling was coming toward them.

"What is it your grandfather always says? All magic comes with a price. The life that you knew is unravelling."

"No!" Henry pleaded. "It can't. I didn't want this! Please, there has to be something we can do!"

"There is."

The wild magic was almost upon them now when Evangeline dropped to her knees and took hold of Henry's shoulders. "That is why I am here. Before the wild magic seeks to grant your surface wish, I will grant your intended wish. Do you believe me?"

Henry didn't know what to think. This was happening too fast. He looked at the incoming cloud. He hadn't meant to do this, he had just wanted...

"Henry, please, we are running out of time. Do you believe me?"

Henry looked back at Evangeline, into her pleading eyes, "We can fix this?"

"Yes," she affirmed. "But Henry, you must understand. What you have set in motion cannot be undone, not fully. No matter what happens after today, your life will never be the same. I can promise, however, that if you trust me, I will grant your true wish."

Henry took one last look at the incoming cloud. It was coming for him; it was coming to change everything. Magic always did this to him—took everything away. This time, he determined, he would not let it win. "Yes," he said. "I believe."

Evangeline grinned and, in a flash of silver light, they vanished before the cloud could take them.

AN: Hello. I hope you enjoyed the beginning of "Choices". This is my second Once Upon a Time story. The first, "Awakening to Dream", can be found in my profile. As an outside author, I will do my best to honor the show and the characters by keeping them as in character as possible within this proposed scenario. Reviews are welcomed, and a special prize for whomever guesses who Evangeline is.

Of course, I do not own Once Upon a Time. If I did, there would be no need to write this story.

Regards!

Jecir