Technically, he wasn't hiding. Hiding implied an unwillingness to fight. He was more than willing to fight the creatures currently scraping at the locked bathroom door. After he had a plan, of course. Which he was sure was going to come to him at any moment. So this was more of a strategic retreat, until a proper course of action could be decided upon.

A splinter from the door shot to the floor beside him. Ok. So not much time before they knock that down then. He had barely made it to the small bathroom as it was. Even if he did come up with a truly impressive plan, it was going to be difficult to implement it from in here. What little he knew of the creatures suggested they were difficult to kill. He was good, but even he couldn't make a viable weapon out of a plunger and some antibacterial hand soap. If there had been some industrial cleaner, something with bleach in it, that would have been a different story. There were only paper towels, no electric hand dryer he could MacGyver into an explosive device. There wasn't even a smoke detector in here. Well, that just seemed unsafe. He would have to say something about that at the next town meeting.

The door rattled on its hinges. Even if it held, eventually they would leave their current forms and break apart into smaller parts. That would be a last resort for them. It had taken them days to be able to finally join together back into their solid shapes. It had to be something to do with the amount of energy it took to break the bonds formed between the individual elements. Clearly they...

Focus. Now was not the time to analyze the creature that was going to rip him to pieces. He checked his pockets. His keys, his wallet, a pack of gum, his phone, and the device he had built. The sound waves would not be enough to break apart the bonds, the creatures had become too large. There had to be a way to amplify the sound somehow. He should...

The rattling and scratching at the door stopped. He waited for the inevitable final crash, but as the moments ticked by Victor found his dread increasing. Why had they stopped? Clearly Theodora had sent them there to kill him. Had they left? Or were they simply waiting for him to peak his head out? He really had no idea of the intelligence of these creatures. Then he heard it. The main door to the hall opening, the hurried footsteps. It could be anyone. Please let it be anyone but...

"Victor? Victor where are you?"

Ruby. He had to warn her. He knew the moment he opened that door he was dead. He could always hide in here, wait until Gold or Regina returned. Their magic could probably at least corral the creatures. The smart course of action, was to wait.

Victor grabbed the handle and swung the door wide.

"Ruby, look out there are..."

He felt the air knocked out of his lungs, the ground slammed into his chest. He expected to feel claws or the hot breath of a predator claiming its prey on his neck. Instead, he felt a coldness. A pressure that was both real and imagined. It was, he supposed, what a claustrophobic person felt like. The air too thin, but also thick, smothering him. Pressing in on him. There was nowhere to run, no where he could escape, because the ground was so close. It was surrounding him, pushing him down into it. There would be no need to dig a grave, he was being swallowed up by...

Suddenly the pressure was gone and he found, quite to his surprise, that he was simply laying on the ground. He was not in fact, several feet down with no air and nothing but rocks and dirt to keep him company. He was pulled rather forcefully up by a very strong hand, one that seemed to give little regard to his sudden revelation that he had not been buried alive.

And he was back in the bathroom. Except now, Ruby was there.

"Victor look at me. Ok, I need you to focus on me."

Victor realized that Ruby must have slapped him at some point, she had a look of concern and frustration on her face. It seemed to be the facial expression she used most when speaking to him.

"Ruby."

She smiled. He smiled back.

"Welcome back. Ok, skipping over all the whys and hows and what-the-hells for the moment, how do we defeat those things?"

Victor reached into his pocket and pulled out the sub-sonic transmitter device.

"A cell phone?"

"I had very little time and given proper conditions I would have..."

"Sorry, I wasn't criticizing. I promise. So that will kill those things?"

"Ah, well. No. They've grown too large, this was only meant to work on smaller ones, more of a way to force their particle bonds to shatter so they would be easier to force back through the...how did we get back in the bathroom? There were several of those things attacking me."

Victor finally noticed Ruby's appearance. The scratches on her arms and face, the tears in her clothes. And, a fire ax in her hand.

"Are you injured, I..."

"I'm fine, let's just say I improvised a few things. I may have made things slightly worse out there, the damn things wouldn't go down easy."

"You chopped them into several pieces?"

"I may have let my wolf strength out in full force there for a few moments. They just flew up to the rafters and started kinda melting back together or whatever though."

"This is good, they are weakened when they are in smaller forms. I still need to figure out a way to boost the output signal of the..."

"What about the microphone system? The one up by the podiums? Could you use that to do whatever science thing you have to do?"

Yes. He should have thought of that. Should have been one of the first things. He was starting to slip. Too much time spent as Dr. Whale, that's what he blamed it on.

"That would be perfect. Do you think you can...distract them long enough for me to..."

"You take care of the mad science, I'll take care of the ripping things to pieces."

Was she offended by the implication that he was only using her for her wolf strength? Perhaps he had said something...

"Victor, relax. It was a joke." She kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Let's go kill some monsters, shall we?"

He stood behind her as she opened the door. She was gone in a flash, her reflexes too quick for his eyes to follow. That would be an interesting thing to study, how quickly her body was able to react to outside stimuli. For scientific purposes, of course.

Victor rushed to the podium. He knew that Ruby would be able to hold them off, but he didn't want to put her in any undue danger. It was simple enough to wire the transmitter to the microphone cord. He could hear the swishing of Ruby's ax, it was strange to hear. She was hitting the creatures and yet it sounded as if she was cutting through nothing more than a dense fog. Victor ran to the control board and switched on the speaker system.

The sound was silent to human ears, he wondered briefly if Ruby could hear it. He didn't have to hear it to know it was working. He could see a pulsing wave move through the creatures. Ruby had done an impressive job of cutting them down. There were none larger than a cat still moving around. He watched as the ones in the rafters began to break apart. It was like seeing a statue made of ashes slowly start to blow away in the wind.

"Victor, now what?"

The platter. He had lost track of it.

"The silver platter, its the gateway. The transmitter is just sending out random pulses to break them apart now, but soon the pulses will become focused. This will sort of herd them towards a focal point, we need to..."

"This it?"

"Ah, yes. Thank you. That...was much simpler than I thought."

Victor took the platter and set it below the podium, the pulses should cause the creatures to be forced towards the platter.

"How do we open it?"

"The creatures themselves will open it. They will do anything to escape the noise that is shattering their cohesive structure. Since they are of the same magic as the platter it should...there they go."

Ruby and Victor watched as the now innocuous pieces started to flow into the platter. They seemed like little more than dust now, hardly the sort of thing one hides in a bathroom from. The small portal in the platter was doing its job, Theodora would not be able to come through without someone like Rumpelstiltskin forcing the door open for her.

"Ruby I..."

"Victor! Look out!"

Victor turned his head just in time to see a shadow the size of german shepherd coming straight for his head. Somehow it had managed to hide, to keep its bonds together. Impressive really, it must be a collective of the strongest organisms.

For the second time, Victor found himself forcefully flung to the ground.

He waited for the darkness, the cold. Instead, this time he felt...oddly warm. Victor hazarded opening his eyes. When they had closed he was unsure. An unconscious reaction to the striking certainty that you are about to have your throat ripped out he supposed. He was greeted by the sight of brown hair. It was then he realized that it was Ruby that had pushed him to the floor. He followed her line of sight. The dog shaped creature was starting to break apart the closer it got to the platter. Its teeth still snapping as they were pulled through the portal.

Ruby pushed off of Victor, her eyes scanning the area for any more potential threats. Victor watched as the last of Glinda….Theodora's magic slipped back through the silver platter. Did this mean that she would now starve to death? Would the platter be able to tell that it was magic from this side that caused the breach in her cell? Rumpelstiltskin clearly wasn't sending food through when he had it. Leon would be dead by now, was there anyone back in Oz looking out for...

"Victor, are you alright?"

"I apologize for my rudeness. I was distracted by…"

"Hey it's ok." Ruby she was…

"You're bleeding." Victor moved to put his hands on her head. She had done a fairly impressive flying tackle to save his life, it would appear she did not get out of that unscathed.

"It's fine, just a scratch." Victor still put his hands near the wound.

"You shouldn't have come back, they could have killed you."

"Yea, I kinda figured that there was something horrible you weren't telling us. Why else would you try to drive all of us away like that?"

"Ruby, the power of that magic, it can…I had to make sure..."

"Victor, I get it. Really. You didn't want any of us to get hurt or infected or whatever by something you saw as your responsibility."

Her hands encircled his wrists.

"You were, in your messed up and completely insane way, trying to look out for us."

"I..."

Victor realized his hands were still on her face, he had pulled her closer to inspect the wound. Now, he noticed their closeness. How warm her face felt in his hands.

"Ruby I…"

The door behind them flew open.

"Ruby! Whale! You guys alright?"

"We're over here!" Emma was beside them in a moment. She was clearly stunned by the state of the hall. Most of the chairs and benches were overturned. There were claw marks on the floor and ceiling. Not to mention their appearances. Victor was sure he probably shared Ruby's state of disarray. Not to mention she was still holding that ax.

"What the hell happened? Gold never opened the platter..door whatever, how did it get through?"

"When he opened it the first time, Theodora took the opportunity to send her pets through as well. She was clever, sending them through in their smallest forms so as not to be detected. In Oz the creatures would float around her like..."

"Flying monkeys?"

"I believe that is probably where the imagery came from yes."

"So you knew there were these small bits of magic still flying around and you didn't say anything about it?"

"I wasn't sure at first. But I had my suspicions. So I took steps to create a device that would be able to fight them. They are vicious creatures, but they are also rather focused in their goals. Since Theodora is trapped in her cage, they are constantly looking for someone else to take her place. Someone strong enough to harbor the magic of the red gem. This person has to be pure, but also has to have been somewhat exposed to magic. Those with magic of their own would be able to fight them off. But someone with no ability to fight them off..."

"Belle."

Gold walked into the hall, David only a few steps behind. David came up beside his daughter.

"Snow is still with Belle. She…" David trailed off. Gold was staring at Victor. There was the ever present anger the man seemed to always exude, but there was also confusion.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why give her her memories back? Your plan would have succeeded the same if you hadn't. All you had to do was hide her from me and from that other power. You gain nothing by giving her back her memories. So why do it?"

Victor tried to come up with an explanation that Gold would believe. They hardly had a friendly relationship, and the number of death threats between them over the last few days would contradict any real answer Victor could give. Victor wasn't entirely sure why, fleeting thoughts about the right thing to do were quickly discarded. That just wasn't the type of man he knew himself to be. He should also leave out the part where it was just as likely his procedure could have left Belle with permanent brain damage, as it was to heal her. Victor decided to go with a coping mechanism he had picked up from being Dr. Whale. When honesty with others and with yourself is far too difficult, go with flippancy.

"I'm the Wizard of Oz. Consider it a gift."

Victor could actually hear Emma roll her eyes. He wasn't entirely sure he wasn't going to be the recipient of one of those custom cane bruises. Gold stared a few seconds longer.

"You and I are going to discuss this later."

"That sounds like a truly delightful conversation."

Gold turned and walked away. Victor kept waiting for the fireball to the face, but it never came. Emma was giving him one of her disapproving looks.

"Do you have to antagonize him like that? One day he is going to turn you into a goat."

"If you aren't constantly pissing off all-powerful wizards, then you aren't living your life correctly."

"Right. There was no sign of Hook when we got there, you know where he would go?"

"I told him to leave before you arrived. I didn't think Gold would be willing to hear what he had to say."

"And that was?"

"That Hook never hurt her, that he knew the details of my plan from the beginning."

"You expect me to believe that a man who has wanted revenge for 300 years just up and decided to help his enemy's girlfriend?"

"Yes." Victor hoped that his response didn't sound like a question.

"Fine." Emma's response was clearly one of disbelief but apparently she too was willing to let him get away with a lie. If only just for the moment.

David slapped Victor on the shoulder and then headed for the door, Emma only a few steps behind.

"Huh."

"What?" Ruby was still there. Still standing beside him.

"I expected a lot more yelling and potential jail time."

"For what? You just saved the town. Just tell us you are about to do that next time though, alright?"

"I promise I won't lie about shadow creatures and mysterious power from Oz that have the potential to kill us all."

"I'll take it."

"I...I should probably head home."

"Ok. I'm going to stop by Granny's make sure everything is ok there. I'll stop by your place afterwards."

"You don't have to do that. I intend to fall asleep as soon as I get there."

"Well then I will make sure you are all tucked in. There's still Hook to consider."

"I told you, he is no threat."

Ruby gave him one last disbelieving look and then headed for the door. Victor walked slowly home. His mind should have been racing. Should have been filled with thoughts about Oz, and Glinda, and the shadow creatures. Instead it was...oddly quiet. He couldn't remember a time when his mind was so still. He was past the point of exhaustion, he needed rest. Needed to get his mind back in correct working order. He opened the door to his apartment and kicked his shoes off. He went to the kitchen, a cup of tea would be the perfect thing right now. He filled his kettle and set it on the stove, he found the tea tin and a sturdy mug. He leaned his back against the kitchen counter, his eyes closed. The shrill sound of the kettle snapped him awake.

Victor pulled the kettle off the stove and poured the steaming water over his tea. His hands were only slightly shaking, a feat he found himself ridiculously proud of. The people of this town were proving to be…unpredictable at best. He had honestly only given himself a 32% chance of survival. He let the tea steep in his mug for a few moments, he rubbed his eyes.

"Rough day Doctor? I can understand, I had a bit of a disappointing day as well."

"Hello Captain."

"You lied to me Doctor. You never intended to help me kill Rumpelstiltskin. You helped him. I don't take betrayal very well, ask any of the crewmen I've made walk the plank. You are about to meet them actually."

"I didn't betray you …"

"Really? What would you call helping the man you swore to help me kill? You have a funny way of exacting revenge on a man who wronged you."

Victor sighed. All he wanted to do was drink his tea and then sleep for the next 18 hours.

"When I was…"

"This isn't going to be one of those family stories you go on and on about, until you eventually arrive at the point is it? Because I am really not in the mood. I barely tolerated them when we were allies, I don't intend to listen to them now that we are enemies."

"Enemies seems like a harsh…."

"Is that really what you want your last words to be Doctor? Arguing over semantics?"

Victor figured if Hook was going to stab him, he would have done it already. Victor decided to take a chance that the Captain wouldn't just kill him to make him stop speaking.

"Gerhardt and I used to play hide-n-seek when we were children. At first, he didn't really grasp how the game was played. He was only three or so when we started. No matter how many times I told him the rules, told him the entire point was to not get caught, he always hid in the same place. I would close my eyes, count to twenty, and then I would check under my bed. And there he would be, curled up with his hands over his eyes. I asked him once why he always hid there and he said, because it's the safest. Our home had over twenty rooms, not including the servants' quarters and every single time we played he would curl up under my bed and wait for me to find him. As he got older, he started hiding throughout the house. He was far better at it than I was. He once managed to fit himself between the cabinets and the ceiling in the kitchen. Took me hours to find him. There were several times when I was never able to locate him at all. It would be time for our lessons or supper, I would say the game was over, and then suddenly he would just reappear as if he had been standing beside me the whole time."

"As we got older our time for games became less and less. One day, Gerhardt asks me if I want to play one more time. I was past the age where such frivolity was accepted and he was very soon to be as well. I agreed, I closed my eyes, counted to twenty and proceeded to check the entire house. Only now I had to be more discreet, I would have to take a book from the library if I wanted to check in that room. I couldn't be seen running all over the place. I searched every hiding spot, every impossible place he used to cram himself into. Hours passed and finally I retreated to my room, ready to come up with a better strategy. I almost didn't look under my bed, I thought, surely there is no way is he is under there. He is almost a young man now. But there he was, curled up underneath. I don't know what surprised me more, that he was actually under there, or that it had taken me so long to think to look for him there. He smiled up at me, like he used to do when he knew he had outsmarted me. I asked him 'What on earth possessed you to hide under there?' And he said 'Once you've mastered the complex, no one ever stops to consider the simple solution.'"

"I didn't lie to you Captain. I told you I knew how to kill Rumpelstiltskin and that is the truth. The easiest way to kill Rumpelstiltskin is to bring Mr. Gold out to the forefront. Belle can do that. She is the only one that can kill that monster he carries inside of him."

"You knew that wasn't exactly the type of killing I was going for."

"I know."

"So you did deceive me."

Hook moved closer, the space between them less than an arm's reach. More than enough space for the captain to lunge forward and fill Victor with all sorts of new and painful holes.

"So tell me Doctor, in this grand scheme of yours, this Master Plan. Did you consider the option of living through all of it, just for me to kill you in your kitchen?"

"I did consider that possibility, yes."

"I see. And how exactly did you intend to stop me from slitting your throat and leaving you here for your little wolf to find? What's to stop me from going after her?"

Victor snorted.

"Good luck with that. You would never get close enough. Aside from the obvious, she would rip your throat out with her teeth scenario, you aren't going to kill her or me."

"Oh? And why's that? Because you and I have become such close friends throughout this entire ordeal?"

"I don't think you are this man you have convinced yourself you are." Hook reached forward and grabbed Victor by the throat.

"You think you know me so well, do you? Think you're so smart that you can just predict what people will do?"

Victor thought of Ruby running back to save him. Of standing between him and death. Of David and Emma's quick forgiveness and friendship.

"No. People are…unpredictable at best. I know your obsession Captain, I know that desire to somehow fix the death of someone you love. You push forward, never looking back, always focused on your goal. You never allow yourself to think on anything else. Your entire life is boiled down to that one narrow path you force yourself to walk. But one day my friend, you will slow down, if only for a moment, and you will look back and realize that you have left horrors in your wake. You can kill me if you'd like Captain, but I think you are just as tired of fighting this never-ending battle as I was."

"I'm not really hearing any incentives not to kill you mate."

"I told them you never had any intention of killing Belle or Rumpelstiltskin." The Captain eased his grip on Victor's neck.

"And why did you do that?"

"So that when you do finally decide you want to see what other paths are open to you, they might be more willing to accept you."

"I will never be one of them."

"Neither will I." It didn't mean he wouldn't fight every day to try and be a part of something other than the darkness he was used to. "This second chance, hell it's probably my third or fourth chance, I know I don't deserve it. But I need it."

Killian stared at Victor. Victor knew Hook wouldn't accept his offer, wouldn't be willing to give up on the obsession that had sustained him for so long. Victor hadn't then, he was still trying to overcome it now. Hook wouldn't see him as anything other than an ally that had betrayed him. Perhaps one day he might. Something might happen that would cause the Captain to question his righteous quest. Then he may see Victor as someone who understood, someone who wouldn't judge him for anything he had done.

The Captain was still eyeing Victor, his hook moving slightly at his side. Of course Victor could be totally wrong and the man could kill him on the spot. Gerhardt had always said that his ability to read people was not his strongest character trait.

"I think you might be a little insane mate."

Victor smiled.

"I have been called a mad scientist on occasion."

The Captain gave Victor a half salute and then slinked out the back door. Victor rubbed his throat where Hook had grabbed him. Not very sore, unlikely to even bruise. He turned to finish making his tea, which had steeped for far too long at this point, when he was interrupted once more. This time, by his door flinging itself against the back wall with a loud bang. That was going to be a pain to fix.

"Victor! Are you alright?"

"Quite fine, except for the fact that I no longer have a front door." Ruby looked slightly abashed for a second. Then she began to scan the room.

"I was searching for Hook, and his scent led me here. I thought he might have gone after you for using him to help Rumpelstiltskin."

"The good Captain was here, but he has gone. And there was no threatening of any kind. I told you he was in on the plan from the start."

Ruby's disbelief was palpable. It took all of Victor's will power not to rub his neck again. He must have given away some tell, some sign of discomfort however. Ruby's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Really? You're sticking with that story as the truth then?"

Victor sighed. This was going to be a very complicated relationship, seeing as it appeared that he was never going to be able to lie to her correctly.

"Can't…Can't we just say it's the truth? Just for right now at least?" Ruby's eyes softened. She might not understand Victor's desire to protect the villainous pirate, but she seemed willing to trust him for now.

"Ok. I'll text the others and tell them that you talked to Hook again, and he is trying to do better."

"Thank you Ruby, I know I don't…"

"Shut up Victor. Whatever you think you do or don't deserve, I can tell you right now you're wrong."

She put her right hand on his shoulder, the other she used to pull him closer.

"Whoever you think you were, whatever you did. It doesn't matter. It's not who you are now, it's not the person I know you are trying to be."

"There is no forgiving the things I've done."

"I know. You can only try to do better. To be better. You have to keep moving forward, Victor. Maybe you aren't the good man you think you should be. But I know for a fact you are a better man than you think you are."

Victor was having trouble not turning his eyes away from hers. They were so...earnest. So honest. He was so unworthy of that look. Glinda had looked at him that way, and he had failed her when she need him the most. He wasn't a good man. But there was no way he would ever fail someone who looked at him like that again.

Victor allowed himself the smallest of smiles. Ruby seemed to interpret this to mean that he believed her. Maybe, with her help, one day he actually would.

"Now then, Doctor. Or should I call you Wizard?"

"I would rather you didn't."

They were very close now. He could smell the forest on her hair. The heat from her skin penetrating through his shirt. Victor had so many things he wanted to say. How beautiful she was, how brave and intelligent. How strong. How her strength and faith made him believe in the possibility of happy-ever-afters, even for someone as wicked as him. Every compliment that rushed through his mind, none of them seemed enough. How do you thank someone for giving you back your faith in the future, in the idea of your life moving forward? In the possibility of a family.

There was no way to correctly articulate all that he owed her. All that he idolized and worshiped about her. All that he would try to repay her.

"You broke my door."

Victor was one day going to find the cure for his chronic stupidity when it came to telling the women he loved that he did, in fact, care about them. That could be his new medical obsession. Ruby just smiled.

"You know, I've always thought that the Wizard of Oz was supposed to be about people giving him gifts."

"It's the other way around actually. And technically I never…"

"Tell me Doc, is me fixing your door, really the gift you want? Because I sort of had other ideas."

Victor looked uncertainly into Ruby's eyes, all he saw was that raw honestly she always seemed to have in her eyes. Maybe it was the animal part of her that made her that way. She relied more heavily on her instincts, on her external senses. It made her less prone to lying. Victor relied solely on his mind. Solely on the structures and confines that man creates for himself. There was no reason that two people so widely different should feel such comfort in one another.

Victor brushed a hair out of Ruby's face. He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. There was no reason that he should have been given such a chance to start new. But now that it was here, now that he had that chance, he was going to hold on to it. He was going to cling to it. Even if it didn't last. Even if it ended the same way as it did last time. Even when he ended up alone again some day, at least he would have now. He would always know that for even one moment, he was truly content.

The End

A/N: Thanks to everyone who read this, it truly means a lot to me.