Under the Skin of the World, for phebemarie
Title: Under the Skin of the World
Author: purplehrdwonder
Recipient: Phebemarie
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount:~2,600
Warnings: None
Author's Notes: This shifted a bit from the original prompt, so I hope you still enjoy! Title comes from a line in Gregory Maguire’s Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: “If magic was present, it moved under the skin of the world, beneath the ability of human eyes to catch sight of it.”
Summary: Charlie alerts the Winchesters to a magical problem emanating from the town of Storybrooke, Maine. Once Upon a Time crossover.
Under the Skin of the World
“I know what you are,” Regina said, hovering over the booth where the Winchesters and Charlie sat, food forgotten. “You’re hunters,” she spat, slamming a palm down on the table. Charlie jumped.
“Well,” she spoke up from behind Dean, “technically they’re hunters.” She gave a grin that she hoped look more confident than she felt. “I’m just a hacker.”
Regina glared, her entire body radiating magical energy, and Charlie winced.
“I’ll just…Be quiet.”
Charlie and the Winchesters had come into Granny’s for lunch after visiting the library to do some research about Storybrooke, Maine, and to talk to a boy named Henry who’d left a note in the Winchesters’ room at the local inn. The Men of Letters hadn’t had any record of the town and it hadn’t started showing up on any maps until about thirty years earlier.
That was when Regina, mayor of Storybrooke, had cornered them at their table.
And Regina, according to Henry, was the Evil Queen of Snow White infamy.
The strangest part of that entire conversation was that it hadn’t seemed completely out there after everything Charlie had seen since meeting the Winchesters. If fairy tale monsters were real, who was to say that fairy tale characters couldn’t be either?
After the LARPing disaster, Charlie had started putting out feelers online for incidents that seemed up the Winchesters’ alley and had been surprised at how many crime reports had hints of supernatural involvement. One curious pattern she’d picked up was seemingly magical happenings in the previous months in the Northeast, dating back to a earthquake with an epicenter in Storybrooke, Maine. The name had piqued Charlie’s interest for obvious reasons, and she’d started looking into the city’s history only to find some interesting chatter in the hacker sphere about a supposed magical city where time had stopped and that either the government or some secret society was trying to destroy under the radar.
Since magical conspiracies were Charlie’s favorite kind, she’d immediately called Sam and Dean, and they’d met up in Storybrooke. The small, seaside town gave off a strange vibe that made Charlie’s skin itch. (“It’s definitely magic,” Sam had said as he looked around, brow furrowed. “But I’ve never felt magic like this before. It’s actually tangible.”)
Storybrooke was quaint and filled with people overly suspicious of outsiders-which seemed strange for a town that looked like a prime tourist destination; they’d even been greeted by the mayor, a severe woman whose friendly words were belied by the sharpness in her eyes. (“Definitely not a woman I want on my bad side,” Dean said once she’d left them to their food at Granny’s.)
The more they started poking around the town, the more they found people watching them and cutting off conversations as they approached. But it wasn’t until they’d been approached by Henry that they’d gotten any indication of what was really going on.
“Are you the one that left the note in our room?” Sam asked the little boy sitting on the bench by the docks, the location the note slipped under the Winchesters’ door had indicated.
He looked up nervously and nodded. “My name’s Henry.”
“I’m Sam,” Sam said, sitting down next to Henry. “This is my brother Dean and our friend, Charlie,” he introduced, nodding toward them respectively.
Charlie looked at Henry curiously. “Your note said that you had answers?”
“You’re looking for magic,” Henry said matter-of-factly.
Charlie blinked in surprise. “What?”
“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? For the magic?” Henry pressed.
Dean frowned. “Look kid, I don’t know what you’re ta-”
But Henry cut him off. “I heard you asking about weird things going on here.” He fixed them with a level stare far beyond his years. Or maybe, Charlie considered, it was the look of a kid who had no idea just how dangerous the men in front of him actually were. “You said you’re writing an article, but I don’t believe you.”
“Why not?” Sam asked.
“We don’t get many outsiders here,” Henry replied with a shrug. “But I know what you want to know.”
Dean raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”
He might be a kid, but some of the best hackers Charlie had known were young; kids learned things earlier and earlier anymore. But Dean, to his credit, didn’t sound like he disbelieved Henry just because he was young.
“Yes,” Henry replied simply. “So I’ll answer your questions if you answer mine.”
Charlie bit her lip, wondering what kind of questions this kid might have. But if he had answers, it seemed like a no brainer. And yet…
“Why would you trust us?” she asked. “If you’re sure we’re lying.”
“Emma said she didn’t think you were dangerous.”
“Who’s Emma?” Sam asked.
“The sheriff,” Henry replied. “So, deal?”
The Winchesters and Charlie had talked to the sheriff on their second day in town, pretending to be journalists writing a story about small seaside towns with a supernatural spin, but hadn’t gotten very far with her. Where the mayor had been all silky kindness masking malevolence, Emma had been outright stubborn in their confrontation, though both Winchesters had towered over her. Charlie, for her part, had tried just to look like she belonged.
“Fine,” Dean agreed, kneeling down in front of Henry and spitting in his hand. He held it out. “You’re on.”
Henry’s face scrunched up at the gesture, but Dean just kept his hand out, and Henry finally spit into his own hand and shook Dean’s.
“Gross,” he muttered as he took his hand back. He wiped his hand on his pants before looking back at the Winchesters. “Me first. Why are you looking for magic?”
“Because there have been some weird occurrences in the region,” Sam replied. “Since the earthquake. And people have gotten hurt.”
Henry’s brow furrowed. “The earthquake?” His eyes widened. “That must be when the curse broke! But wait, people have gotten hurt?”
But Dean shook her head. “Sam answered one for you. Your turn, kid.”
Henry huffed but nodded. “Fine, ask.”
“What curse are you talking about?” Sam asked.
And so Henry weaved a story about a fairy tale land, The Enchanted Forest, and fairy tale characters come to life in Storybrooke, cursed to lose their memories and happily ever after by the Evil Queen. The curse lasted twenty-nine years before the savior- Henry’s biological mother, Emma-broke it months earlier.
“How have people gotten hurt?” Henry asked once he finished his story.
“Magic always has a price, so spells have a tendency to go wrong,” Sam replied. “There have been fires, earthquakes, lakes and streams drying up while other areas flooded. That sort of thing.”
“But that hasn’t happened here,” Henry protested.
“Maybe because Storybrooke was created from magic, that makes it immune to the side effects,” Charlie suggested. When Sam gave her an impressed look, Charlie tried not to preen. Maybe she was getting better at this hunter thing after all.
Henry shrugged, mouth turning into a frown.
“Our turn again,” Dean said. “If the people in this town are fairy tale characters, then who is who?”
Henry bit his lip but finally started listing off the cast of every Disney movie Charlie had ever loved. She couldn’t help but shake her head, especially when he revealed that the mayor was the Evil Queen.
“What are you going to do now?” Henry asked for his question.
Sam shrugged. “We’re going to look for a way to stop Storybrooke’s magic from hurting anyone else.”
“But you won’t hurt anyone here, right?”
Dean poked Henry in the side. “That’s two questions, but no. We’re good at our job.”
“And you?” Henry asked, looking up at Charlie.
“I help them,” Charlie replied with a smile.
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay,” Henry confirmed, pushing himself to his feet. “I want to help. I’m the one that brought Emma here to break the curse in the first place, so it’s kind of my fault that people are getting hurt.”
“Hey, come on,” Dean said, turning serious. “Don’t blame yourself. If you’re going to blame anyone, blame the person who cast the curse in the first place.”
Henry looked torn for a moment before he shook his head. “I’ll talk to Emma and Mary Margaret. They’ll help.”
Dean glanced down at his watch and looked back at Henry. “We’re going to get some lunch. Come find us later?”
“You got it,” Henry agreed with a salute before running off.
Charlie shook her head in wonder at the precocious kid before turning back to Sam and Dean.
“What do you think?” Dean asked. “Fairy tales come to life?”
“We’ve seen weirder,” Sam replied with a shrug.
“That’s kind of a sad statement about our lives, isn’t it?” Dean said with a sigh. “Come on, I want some pie.”
But when they got to the diner, Regina followed them in. She dismissed everyone else, leaving her alone with the trio, freezing them to their booth with magic.
“So what are you doing here, hunters?” Regina demanded with narrowed eyes, turning back to Sam and Dean. “Here to skin a wolf? Maybe kill a witch?”
“I think,” a new voice broke in, and Charlie started hard since she hadn’t heard the door open. She turned to see Mr. Gold (Rumpelstiltskin or the Dark One, according to Henry) standing in the doorway with his hands gripping his cane in front of him. “That they’re here for magic.”
Regina frowned at Gold but then turned back to the Winchesters. “Oh? Are you after some magic for yourselves, boys?”
“You’ve got the wrong idea, lady,” Dean replied with a snort.
“The magic here is polluting the natural order somehow,” Sam added. “There’s a radius of magical disasters in the Northeast dating back months. And Storybrooke is at the epicenter.”
Regina frowned. “I don’t believe you. You just want magic for yourselves to keep killing our kind.”
“We don’t need magic,” Dean replied. “Besides, I hate witches.”
Sam kicked Dean under the table, but his brother barely flinched. “We don’t want to kill anyone,” Sam added. “We just want to stop whatever is causing these disasters and hurting innocents.”
“You’re liars. I know what your kind does,” Regina growled.
Gold cleared his throat. “Actually, they’re not wrong, dearie.”
Regina whirled around to look at Gold, eyes wide. “What?”
“Since the curse broke,” Gold replied, stepping further into the diner. “There have been…anomalies in the region.”
“What?”
“A little magical mayhem, if you will.” He sounded amused at the prospect.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Regina gritted out.
“It didn’t seem important.”
“The deaths of innocent people didn’t seem important?”
Charlie peered around Dean to see Henry leading Emma and who must be Mary Margaret (Snow White) and David (Prince Charming) in the doorway. Mary Margaret was the one who had spoken.
“Compared to what I was actually searching for?” Gold asked, raising an eyebrow. “No.”
“Right, because you had to find your son,” Emma said, lips thinning into a line. She looked furious.
“Why has magic been hurting people?” David asked over Emma. “It doesn’t act on its own.”
“I believe that the magic of our world is not compatible with this one,” Gold replied. “When the curse broke and magic returned, it tried to mesh with the magic of this world and…”
“It was like oil and vinegar,” Emma concluded, crossing her arms across her chest.
Silently, Charlie did a celebratory dance since that had been her theory as well. Yes, she was definitely getting better at this hunter thing.
“Something like that, yes. And it will keep spreading.”
“So what can we do?” Mary Margaret asked.
“Now that lady is speaking my language,” Dean broke in, nodding toward her. “Can we do something now? You know, save some lives?”
“Please, Mom?” Henry said quietly. “This is happening because of us.” Because of you, because of the Evil Queen, he didn’t say.
Regina looked at Henry, expression shifting eventually from frustration and defiance to resignation. “I may have an idea,” she finally said, deflating. “But I’ll need some help.”
-----
That evening, Charlie and the Winchesters stood outside the town line while Regina, Henry, Emma, Mary Margaret, and David stood inside. Mr. Gold had refused to take part, saying the outcome didn’t matter to him.
“We don’t have access to our magic when we pass the city limits,” Regina said, looking at the Winchesters. “Because our magic stems from our world, we must stay in the area created by the curse to have access to it. Nor can we leave it without losing our memories of our previous lives.”
“But that doesn’t mean the magic itself can’t pass the city limits,” Sam said, crossing his arms across his chest.
Regina nodded. “Correct. But I believe this spell should prevent magic from spreading any further. It will also block the magic from your world from entering Storybrooke and having the same effect.”
“Should?” Dean echoed, raising an eyebrow. “People are dying here.”
“I’ve never tried to mix my magic with outsider magic,” Regina snapped. “The results may be unpredictable. Unless you have a better idea…?”
Dean sighed and ran a hand over his face. “Fine, let’s get this over with.”
Charlie, honestly, wasn’t quite sure what she was witnessing as Sam drew marks into the concrete with a piece of chalk. It wasn’t a Devil’s Trap or any other sigil she’d ever seen, but Sam made the marks with a sure hand before standing back up. He pulled a short knife from his pocket and sliced his hand, reciting a low incantation as he dripped his blood over the sigil. Once he finished, the chalk marks lit up before turning black and fading into the pavement.
“What just happened?” Charlie whispered to Dean.
“For the barrier to work, they need to seal it on both sides with the magic from either side,” Dean replied. “That’s the gist, anyway.”
“So that just sealed our magic from their side?”
“Hopefully,” Dean shrugged. “We haven’t exactly come across this kind of thing before. But Sam knows what he’s doing.”
On the other side of the line, Regina mirrored Sam’s movements. She winced when she cut her hand and dripped blood into the circle, but hers also lit up and disappeared. A deathly silent moment passed while everyone held their breath and then a small shockwave blew dust from the invisible city limits line; Charlie had to grab onto Dean’s arm to not fall over in surprise.
“I’m guessing that was a good thing?” she asked once everything had settled again.
“Probably.”
Right, because that was comforting.
“That should do it,” Regina said, tightening her bleeding hand into a fist. “I don’t know how well this will hold if we keep getting visitors from your world, though.”
“I can take care of that,” Charlie volunteered before she knew what she was saying. When everyone turned to her in surprise, she shrugged self-consciously. “I’m a hacker. I can delete all those stories related to Storybrooke to keep other hunters from getting interested. Or at least get rid of the connection to Storybrooke.”
“But if it’s on the Internet, isn’t it there forever?” Emma asked, raising an eyebrow.
Charlie smirked. “Not if you know the right people.” Which Charlie totally did.
“Fine,” Regina said. “This should prevent the magic from spreading, but we still can’t do anything about the pollution that has already occurred.”
Sam and Dean exchanged a look.
“Leave that to us,” Dean said.
“It’s kind of our job,” Sam added.
“But if we hear from Charlie that this crap keeps spreading after all,” Dean said, fixing the group on the other side of the line with a stare, “we will be back.”
“You won’t have to!” Mary Margaret said quickly. “We’ll make sure the border keeps working.”
“And if you have trouble, call us,” Sam said.
Emma held up the card with Sam’s cell number on it and nodded. “Yeah, yeah.”
-----
“So,” Charlie stared as she slid into the backseat of the Impala. “Fairy tales.”
“Fairy tales,” Sam agreed while Dean shook his head.
“Friggin’ fairy tales, man.”
fin
Author: purplehrdwonder
Recipient: Phebemarie
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount:~2,600
Warnings: None
Author's Notes: This shifted a bit from the original prompt, so I hope you still enjoy! Title comes from a line in Gregory Maguire’s Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: “If magic was present, it moved under the skin of the world, beneath the ability of human eyes to catch sight of it.”
Summary: Charlie alerts the Winchesters to a magical problem emanating from the town of Storybrooke, Maine. Once Upon a Time crossover.
Under the Skin of the World
“I know what you are,” Regina said, hovering over the booth where the Winchesters and Charlie sat, food forgotten. “You’re hunters,” she spat, slamming a palm down on the table. Charlie jumped.
“Well,” she spoke up from behind Dean, “technically they’re hunters.” She gave a grin that she hoped look more confident than she felt. “I’m just a hacker.”
Regina glared, her entire body radiating magical energy, and Charlie winced.
“I’ll just…Be quiet.”
Charlie and the Winchesters had come into Granny’s for lunch after visiting the library to do some research about Storybrooke, Maine, and to talk to a boy named Henry who’d left a note in the Winchesters’ room at the local inn. The Men of Letters hadn’t had any record of the town and it hadn’t started showing up on any maps until about thirty years earlier.
That was when Regina, mayor of Storybrooke, had cornered them at their table.
And Regina, according to Henry, was the Evil Queen of Snow White infamy.
The strangest part of that entire conversation was that it hadn’t seemed completely out there after everything Charlie had seen since meeting the Winchesters. If fairy tale monsters were real, who was to say that fairy tale characters couldn’t be either?
After the LARPing disaster, Charlie had started putting out feelers online for incidents that seemed up the Winchesters’ alley and had been surprised at how many crime reports had hints of supernatural involvement. One curious pattern she’d picked up was seemingly magical happenings in the previous months in the Northeast, dating back to a earthquake with an epicenter in Storybrooke, Maine. The name had piqued Charlie’s interest for obvious reasons, and she’d started looking into the city’s history only to find some interesting chatter in the hacker sphere about a supposed magical city where time had stopped and that either the government or some secret society was trying to destroy under the radar.
Since magical conspiracies were Charlie’s favorite kind, she’d immediately called Sam and Dean, and they’d met up in Storybrooke. The small, seaside town gave off a strange vibe that made Charlie’s skin itch. (“It’s definitely magic,” Sam had said as he looked around, brow furrowed. “But I’ve never felt magic like this before. It’s actually tangible.”)
Storybrooke was quaint and filled with people overly suspicious of outsiders-which seemed strange for a town that looked like a prime tourist destination; they’d even been greeted by the mayor, a severe woman whose friendly words were belied by the sharpness in her eyes. (“Definitely not a woman I want on my bad side,” Dean said once she’d left them to their food at Granny’s.)
The more they started poking around the town, the more they found people watching them and cutting off conversations as they approached. But it wasn’t until they’d been approached by Henry that they’d gotten any indication of what was really going on.
“Are you the one that left the note in our room?” Sam asked the little boy sitting on the bench by the docks, the location the note slipped under the Winchesters’ door had indicated.
He looked up nervously and nodded. “My name’s Henry.”
“I’m Sam,” Sam said, sitting down next to Henry. “This is my brother Dean and our friend, Charlie,” he introduced, nodding toward them respectively.
Charlie looked at Henry curiously. “Your note said that you had answers?”
“You’re looking for magic,” Henry said matter-of-factly.
Charlie blinked in surprise. “What?”
“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? For the magic?” Henry pressed.
Dean frowned. “Look kid, I don’t know what you’re ta-”
But Henry cut him off. “I heard you asking about weird things going on here.” He fixed them with a level stare far beyond his years. Or maybe, Charlie considered, it was the look of a kid who had no idea just how dangerous the men in front of him actually were. “You said you’re writing an article, but I don’t believe you.”
“Why not?” Sam asked.
“We don’t get many outsiders here,” Henry replied with a shrug. “But I know what you want to know.”
Dean raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”
He might be a kid, but some of the best hackers Charlie had known were young; kids learned things earlier and earlier anymore. But Dean, to his credit, didn’t sound like he disbelieved Henry just because he was young.
“Yes,” Henry replied simply. “So I’ll answer your questions if you answer mine.”
Charlie bit her lip, wondering what kind of questions this kid might have. But if he had answers, it seemed like a no brainer. And yet…
“Why would you trust us?” she asked. “If you’re sure we’re lying.”
“Emma said she didn’t think you were dangerous.”
“Who’s Emma?” Sam asked.
“The sheriff,” Henry replied. “So, deal?”
The Winchesters and Charlie had talked to the sheriff on their second day in town, pretending to be journalists writing a story about small seaside towns with a supernatural spin, but hadn’t gotten very far with her. Where the mayor had been all silky kindness masking malevolence, Emma had been outright stubborn in their confrontation, though both Winchesters had towered over her. Charlie, for her part, had tried just to look like she belonged.
“Fine,” Dean agreed, kneeling down in front of Henry and spitting in his hand. He held it out. “You’re on.”
Henry’s face scrunched up at the gesture, but Dean just kept his hand out, and Henry finally spit into his own hand and shook Dean’s.
“Gross,” he muttered as he took his hand back. He wiped his hand on his pants before looking back at the Winchesters. “Me first. Why are you looking for magic?”
“Because there have been some weird occurrences in the region,” Sam replied. “Since the earthquake. And people have gotten hurt.”
Henry’s brow furrowed. “The earthquake?” His eyes widened. “That must be when the curse broke! But wait, people have gotten hurt?”
But Dean shook her head. “Sam answered one for you. Your turn, kid.”
Henry huffed but nodded. “Fine, ask.”
“What curse are you talking about?” Sam asked.
And so Henry weaved a story about a fairy tale land, The Enchanted Forest, and fairy tale characters come to life in Storybrooke, cursed to lose their memories and happily ever after by the Evil Queen. The curse lasted twenty-nine years before the savior- Henry’s biological mother, Emma-broke it months earlier.
“How have people gotten hurt?” Henry asked once he finished his story.
“Magic always has a price, so spells have a tendency to go wrong,” Sam replied. “There have been fires, earthquakes, lakes and streams drying up while other areas flooded. That sort of thing.”
“But that hasn’t happened here,” Henry protested.
“Maybe because Storybrooke was created from magic, that makes it immune to the side effects,” Charlie suggested. When Sam gave her an impressed look, Charlie tried not to preen. Maybe she was getting better at this hunter thing after all.
Henry shrugged, mouth turning into a frown.
“Our turn again,” Dean said. “If the people in this town are fairy tale characters, then who is who?”
Henry bit his lip but finally started listing off the cast of every Disney movie Charlie had ever loved. She couldn’t help but shake her head, especially when he revealed that the mayor was the Evil Queen.
“What are you going to do now?” Henry asked for his question.
Sam shrugged. “We’re going to look for a way to stop Storybrooke’s magic from hurting anyone else.”
“But you won’t hurt anyone here, right?”
Dean poked Henry in the side. “That’s two questions, but no. We’re good at our job.”
“And you?” Henry asked, looking up at Charlie.
“I help them,” Charlie replied with a smile.
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay,” Henry confirmed, pushing himself to his feet. “I want to help. I’m the one that brought Emma here to break the curse in the first place, so it’s kind of my fault that people are getting hurt.”
“Hey, come on,” Dean said, turning serious. “Don’t blame yourself. If you’re going to blame anyone, blame the person who cast the curse in the first place.”
Henry looked torn for a moment before he shook his head. “I’ll talk to Emma and Mary Margaret. They’ll help.”
Dean glanced down at his watch and looked back at Henry. “We’re going to get some lunch. Come find us later?”
“You got it,” Henry agreed with a salute before running off.
Charlie shook her head in wonder at the precocious kid before turning back to Sam and Dean.
“What do you think?” Dean asked. “Fairy tales come to life?”
“We’ve seen weirder,” Sam replied with a shrug.
“That’s kind of a sad statement about our lives, isn’t it?” Dean said with a sigh. “Come on, I want some pie.”
But when they got to the diner, Regina followed them in. She dismissed everyone else, leaving her alone with the trio, freezing them to their booth with magic.
“So what are you doing here, hunters?” Regina demanded with narrowed eyes, turning back to Sam and Dean. “Here to skin a wolf? Maybe kill a witch?”
“I think,” a new voice broke in, and Charlie started hard since she hadn’t heard the door open. She turned to see Mr. Gold (Rumpelstiltskin or the Dark One, according to Henry) standing in the doorway with his hands gripping his cane in front of him. “That they’re here for magic.”
Regina frowned at Gold but then turned back to the Winchesters. “Oh? Are you after some magic for yourselves, boys?”
“You’ve got the wrong idea, lady,” Dean replied with a snort.
“The magic here is polluting the natural order somehow,” Sam added. “There’s a radius of magical disasters in the Northeast dating back months. And Storybrooke is at the epicenter.”
Regina frowned. “I don’t believe you. You just want magic for yourselves to keep killing our kind.”
“We don’t need magic,” Dean replied. “Besides, I hate witches.”
Sam kicked Dean under the table, but his brother barely flinched. “We don’t want to kill anyone,” Sam added. “We just want to stop whatever is causing these disasters and hurting innocents.”
“You’re liars. I know what your kind does,” Regina growled.
Gold cleared his throat. “Actually, they’re not wrong, dearie.”
Regina whirled around to look at Gold, eyes wide. “What?”
“Since the curse broke,” Gold replied, stepping further into the diner. “There have been…anomalies in the region.”
“What?”
“A little magical mayhem, if you will.” He sounded amused at the prospect.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Regina gritted out.
“It didn’t seem important.”
“The deaths of innocent people didn’t seem important?”
Charlie peered around Dean to see Henry leading Emma and who must be Mary Margaret (Snow White) and David (Prince Charming) in the doorway. Mary Margaret was the one who had spoken.
“Compared to what I was actually searching for?” Gold asked, raising an eyebrow. “No.”
“Right, because you had to find your son,” Emma said, lips thinning into a line. She looked furious.
“Why has magic been hurting people?” David asked over Emma. “It doesn’t act on its own.”
“I believe that the magic of our world is not compatible with this one,” Gold replied. “When the curse broke and magic returned, it tried to mesh with the magic of this world and…”
“It was like oil and vinegar,” Emma concluded, crossing her arms across her chest.
Silently, Charlie did a celebratory dance since that had been her theory as well. Yes, she was definitely getting better at this hunter thing.
“Something like that, yes. And it will keep spreading.”
“So what can we do?” Mary Margaret asked.
“Now that lady is speaking my language,” Dean broke in, nodding toward her. “Can we do something now? You know, save some lives?”
“Please, Mom?” Henry said quietly. “This is happening because of us.” Because of you, because of the Evil Queen, he didn’t say.
Regina looked at Henry, expression shifting eventually from frustration and defiance to resignation. “I may have an idea,” she finally said, deflating. “But I’ll need some help.”
-----
That evening, Charlie and the Winchesters stood outside the town line while Regina, Henry, Emma, Mary Margaret, and David stood inside. Mr. Gold had refused to take part, saying the outcome didn’t matter to him.
“We don’t have access to our magic when we pass the city limits,” Regina said, looking at the Winchesters. “Because our magic stems from our world, we must stay in the area created by the curse to have access to it. Nor can we leave it without losing our memories of our previous lives.”
“But that doesn’t mean the magic itself can’t pass the city limits,” Sam said, crossing his arms across his chest.
Regina nodded. “Correct. But I believe this spell should prevent magic from spreading any further. It will also block the magic from your world from entering Storybrooke and having the same effect.”
“Should?” Dean echoed, raising an eyebrow. “People are dying here.”
“I’ve never tried to mix my magic with outsider magic,” Regina snapped. “The results may be unpredictable. Unless you have a better idea…?”
Dean sighed and ran a hand over his face. “Fine, let’s get this over with.”
Charlie, honestly, wasn’t quite sure what she was witnessing as Sam drew marks into the concrete with a piece of chalk. It wasn’t a Devil’s Trap or any other sigil she’d ever seen, but Sam made the marks with a sure hand before standing back up. He pulled a short knife from his pocket and sliced his hand, reciting a low incantation as he dripped his blood over the sigil. Once he finished, the chalk marks lit up before turning black and fading into the pavement.
“What just happened?” Charlie whispered to Dean.
“For the barrier to work, they need to seal it on both sides with the magic from either side,” Dean replied. “That’s the gist, anyway.”
“So that just sealed our magic from their side?”
“Hopefully,” Dean shrugged. “We haven’t exactly come across this kind of thing before. But Sam knows what he’s doing.”
On the other side of the line, Regina mirrored Sam’s movements. She winced when she cut her hand and dripped blood into the circle, but hers also lit up and disappeared. A deathly silent moment passed while everyone held their breath and then a small shockwave blew dust from the invisible city limits line; Charlie had to grab onto Dean’s arm to not fall over in surprise.
“I’m guessing that was a good thing?” she asked once everything had settled again.
“Probably.”
Right, because that was comforting.
“That should do it,” Regina said, tightening her bleeding hand into a fist. “I don’t know how well this will hold if we keep getting visitors from your world, though.”
“I can take care of that,” Charlie volunteered before she knew what she was saying. When everyone turned to her in surprise, she shrugged self-consciously. “I’m a hacker. I can delete all those stories related to Storybrooke to keep other hunters from getting interested. Or at least get rid of the connection to Storybrooke.”
“But if it’s on the Internet, isn’t it there forever?” Emma asked, raising an eyebrow.
Charlie smirked. “Not if you know the right people.” Which Charlie totally did.
“Fine,” Regina said. “This should prevent the magic from spreading, but we still can’t do anything about the pollution that has already occurred.”
Sam and Dean exchanged a look.
“Leave that to us,” Dean said.
“It’s kind of our job,” Sam added.
“But if we hear from Charlie that this crap keeps spreading after all,” Dean said, fixing the group on the other side of the line with a stare, “we will be back.”
“You won’t have to!” Mary Margaret said quickly. “We’ll make sure the border keeps working.”
“And if you have trouble, call us,” Sam said.
Emma held up the card with Sam’s cell number on it and nodded. “Yeah, yeah.”
-----
“So,” Charlie stared as she slid into the backseat of the Impala. “Fairy tales.”
“Fairy tales,” Sam agreed while Dean shook his head.
“Friggin’ fairy tales, man.”
fin