Lana opened her eyes slowly, squinting at the unexpected sunlight that was blinding her. She was outside in a forest somewhere, and her head ached dully. "Oww," she groaned, sitting up. A hand caught her shoulder, supporting her. She looked up at the unfamiliar woman sitting beside her. "Who—who are you?"

"Be at ease. My name is Iona. Your friends left me in charge of protecting you while they went after two others," she answered. "You are Lana, correct?"

"Mm," Lana said, nodding. More to give herself something to do, she ran a hand through her hair, trying to remember where they were. And, rather importantly as well, how they'd gotten there. Stumped, Lana turned back to Iona. "Did they say anything?"

"Not really," Iona said. "They said you were ill and they didn't want to leave you alone."

Lana rested her palm on her chin. "Ill? Well, I suppose that would explain my headache. It's funny, I don't remember being sick," she said. Then she shrugged. She'd never been one for dwelling on her problems. "I guess we'd better wait for them to come get me, then. Uncle Emrys wouldn't leave me alone for too long. Thank you for taking care of me," she added. "It was very kind of you."

"Oh, it was nothing, my dear," Iona answered, smiling. "I've sat by my own son often enough."

"Does he spend a lot of time ill?" Lana asked.

Iona's smile became a little more unhappy. "No. But he gets injured a lot. Partially because he seeks out trouble, and it more often than not finds him. That was why I asked your friends to look for him while they were searching for their friends as well. They were very kind to agree."

"They're like that," Lana agreed. She gave a smile. "That's why they're my friends, though. Hopefully they'll be here soon, and we can get going. Not that you're not good company, of course!" She added the last part for fear of offending Iona.

"Of course. And you're good company as well. Certainly not what I expected from a girl who was completely unconscious only a few minutes ago," Iona said. "You're very sweet."

Lana blushed, staring down at her feet. "Thank you," she whispered. Despite being a performer, she could never stand being complimented. It felt like they shouldn't be giving her the compliments, but her work.

It felt like the world was shaking beneath her, she was so embarrassed. It took Lana a moment to realize that the world actually was shaking beneath her. Iona's pleasant expression quickly morphed into panic, and she pulled Lana to her feet. "We need to go," she told the bard.

They didn't make it far when a massive hand wrapped around them both, pinning them to each other and lifting them up. Lana shrieked, pounding at the hand holding her. "Let go!" she yelled. Iona had her eyes squeezed shut and was whispering what sounded like a prayer.

The giant didn't release them, and Lana let herself go limp, realizing any resistance was futile. "What is this thing?" she demanded, her voice shrill.

"A giant. More appropriately, the giant Rebecks. The eldest and largest of the giants, and perhaps the most idiotic," Iona answered, opening her eyes. "But also the one who hates my son Jack the most."

Lana stared at her. "Ahh ... that's not good. Do you have any idea how we're supposed to escape from it?"

Iona shook her head. "The only one who can rescue us is my son."

"And my friends," Lana reminded her. "Don't worry; I'm sure we'll get away from it. Him. Whichever. I place my faith in my friends. We'll be away from this thing before you know it, just wait and see!"

Iona gave a small smile. "You have great faith, child. Your friends must truly be something special to have deserved such unyielding belief in them."

"They are," Lana answered with all her heart. She just hoped they were special enough to save her from a giant.

. . . . . . . . . .

Morph pulled Eve down into the trees beside him as the ground trembled beneath them. "That must be the third giant," he whispered.

Eve said nothing. It was rather obvious that only the third giant could make such earth-trembling sounds. Morph seemed to sense her annoyance and glared at her, silently warning her not to say a word. Again, it was obvious, but Eve didn't say anything. That would simply prove him right.

The giant thudded into sight, and Eve raised her eyes to his hand, seeing two figures in it. It only took her a moment to recognize the redhead clutched in his fingers. "That's Lana!" she hissed in a barely-restrained voice.

"Not a word!" Morpheus whispered.

Eve turned on him with horrified eyes. Somehow, it was more terrifying to her that Lana was getting dragged off by a giant than it had been when she was. Lana was an innocent, a grieving person, and she shouldn't have been involved, particularly not in Jack's problems. It had always been Eve's job to protect her, and she was failing every step that the giant took with Lana in his hand.

Impulsively, Eve moved towards the giant. Morph grabbed her arm, pulling her back, and she reacted badly. Yanking her arm from his hand, Eve slammed her fist into his mouth, sending him staggering back. Morph clamped his hands over his mouth, giving a barely-muted cry of pain. The giant didn't notice any of this and continued walking. Eve drew her sword, planning on challenging him—or something, she really didn't know what she intended to do—but Morph was more stubborn than she'd given him credit for. He wrapped his arms around her legs, dragging her down to the ground. "Do you have a death wish?" he cried as the giant's footsteps got further away. "Or did you want to join the girl in captivity? Getting ourselves caught won't save her!" He had a slight lisp, Eve noticed as she picked herself off the ground.

The reason why became apparent as she turned to him and saw his fat lip. Blood oozed out of it. "Oh, Morph," she said, putting a hand to her mouth. "I'm sorry! I don't ... I don't know what came over me! Forgive me!"

"No harm done aside from a fat lip," Morph answered, rubbing his sleeve over his mouth with a frown. "You've got quite the arm, Eve. I'm impressed. You probably could've knocked over the giant if you'd swung that at him. I think we need to go find Jack the giant killer. He'll probably be able to help us."

"I think you're right," she agreed, mostly glad that he wasn't holding her punching him against her. "But where is he supposed to be? I thought he was going back to his mother."

"Maybe he's following the giant. And what are you two doing here?"

Eve and Morph swung around to face the grinning Jack standing behind them. "Jack!" Eve cried, relieved. "I thought we'd have to go looking for you. Thank God."

"I've never had a lady be so relieved to see me," Jack said, his amusement obvious. "Any apparent reason why you'd be looking for me, love?"

"It's Rebecks," Morph said. "He's taken a friend of hers prisoner, as well as your mother."

Jack's amusement morphed into something else. Not the concern that Eve had been expecting, but annoyance. "That woman's going to be the death of me," he complained. "She blames me for getting into bad situations and she gets into more trying to stop me! When is she going to learn I can take care of myself?"

"It's a mother's privilege to be worried over her children," Eve said. "I would give anything to know that my mum's safe and worried about me. I don't even know if she's alive."

"You're lucky," Jack said, apparently not noticing that Eve didn't consider herself lucky. "Mums are a nightmare. Anyhow, I suppose I have to play the 'good son' and go rescue her—again. Care to join me? Not that I need any help, but company's not bad either."

Eve did her best not to roll her eyes. Whether they needed Jack or not, he was beginning to really annoy her with his constant arrogance and swagger. Judging from the annoyance on Morph's face, he was thinking the same thing. Neither of them said anything for a moment, and Jack looked at them, raising his eyebrows. "Problem?" he asked.

"N-no," Eve said, deciding she would be the diplomat. "We'll come with you, of course. I'd like to see Lana safely home."

"Course you do," Jack replied. "Alrighty, then, let's get a move on. Hopefully I can get my mother home in time for her to make my supper."

If Eve's knuckles hadn't already been bruised from punching Morph in the mouth, she would have punched him as well. Luckily for Jack, her knuckles were aching and she didn't feel like inviting anymore pain.

. . . . . . . . . .

Gwaine and Emrys were both bored. After all the action in the past couple of days, the lack of it made them feel extremely fidgety and bored. Rampion seemed to have the patience of a saint, sitting there next to the hole where the beanstalk had been. Gwaine gave an irritated huff. "I can't believe we got left behind," he complained. "It's like they don't even think we're important!"

"Stop stroking your bruised ego, Gwaine," Rampion said with a sigh. "Haste was in their best interest. They certainly couldn't waste time dragging one person down the hole then coming back up and getting somebody else and repeating that process. It simply wasn't logical. The best chance to get to Lana and Iona before the giant did was to go by themselves."

"I think we can assume that, since they're not back yet, getting there before Rebecks failed," Emrys put in flatly. "So they could have tacked on a little time and still brought us down there, for the extra manpower."

"If you're right," Rampion said patiently, "their best bet would be to find Jack and get him to help. Iona is his mother, after all. He was the most effective against the giants."

"I don't know about you," Emrys said with a sigh, "but that doesn't help alleviate my boredom at all. I'm going to explore the castle."

"I'll come with you," Gwaine said.

Rampion rolled her eyes at them. "If you fools run into a giant or something, don't come crying to me," she told them. "You're the only ones to blame."

"We'll bear that in mind," Emrys answered, tired of Rampion. "Don't scream if you need help from us. We'll probably be getting baked into a pie. Come on, Gwaine." Grabbing his brother's arm, he dragged him along behind him as they marched toward the castle. He didn't hear Rampion's muttered insults, but he could only imagine they were unkind.

The two brothers walked back to the castle and went back inside. It seemed even larger when they were by themselves, Emrys reflected. Gwaine kept slipping his sword in and out of its sheath, shifting from foot to foot. "Maybe she's right," he said after a moment. "I really don't want to be baked into a pie."

Emrys cupped his hand over his eyes. "Gwaine, I was joking. She was driving me insane and I just wanted to tell her something to make her be quiet. They only said there were three giants. Two are dead and one had to cut down the beanstalk, which doesn't leave many to come after us, does it?"

His brother looked insulted. "You must feel the air to this place, don't you? It's just ... creepy. I can't stop thinking about the corpses of the giants beneath us, or how many people like us have been killed and eaten here."

Emrys didn't want to admit that was all he could think about as well. He saw little use in further worrying his brother, though, so he forced himself to adopt a mocking air. If he could make Gwaine feel silly, it would help to stave off his fear. "There's nobody like us, Gwaine. I'm a sorcerer and you're a knight. What other brothers in The Story are like that? None, I'm sure. So there can't be anybody like us getting eaten by the giants. Make sense?"

Gwaine scowled. "You're determined to make me look like an idiot," he muttered. He looked up and saw a door in the hall ahead of them, one that looked different than the others. It was made of fancier wood and was significantly smaller than the others—human-sized. "Hey, what's that?"

The two brothers ran to the door and Emrys put his hand to the knob, turning it. "Locked," he said. "But not a big problem." Summoning just a tiny bit of magic, he felt the lock slide free and the door swung open. Gwaine and Emrys exchanged nervous glances. "What do you think we'll find?" Emrys asked.

"Hopefully not the remains of past meals," Gwaine said. But the threat of action had prompted the young knight to draw his sword, and a look of determination had replaced the fear on his face. "Stay behind me, Em."

Since Gwaine was going first, Emrys didn't complain about being called "Em". He lit up his fingertips and followed his brother into the room. They both breathed a massive sigh of relief when they saw it was empty. Gwaine sheathed his sword. "Well, that was a disappointment," he said, but the relief was obvious in his voice.

Emrys looked around. "It's like King Arthur's bedroom," he said. At least, what Emrys envisioned Arthur's room to look like. Neither of them had ever been inside, but this room resembled what a king's bedroom should look like. The sheets and blankets on the bed were royally colored and extremely expensive looking. An intricately-designed carpet covered the marble floor, and a canopy for the bed was tied back. A book sat open on the bedtable, neat handwriting scrawled across its pages.

"Looks at this sword!" Gwaine exclaimed, going to the wall and examining the great blade hung there. "It's amazing. I think I need it."

Emrys was too busy looking through the pages of the journal to pay much attention to Gwaine. "This ... this is Jack's diary," he said after a long moment.

That got Gwaine's swiftly-moving attention. "Wait, really?" he said. "But what's his diary doing in this place?"

The more Emrys was reading, the worse the situation was getting. He had no idea how to phrase it gently and simply decided to tell Gwaine the truth. "I don't think Jack's on our side," he told him.

"You mean ... this place really was Jack's?" Gwaine asked. "Then why did he climb the beanstalk and help Eve and you?"

Emrys heaved a sigh. "Read this," he said, handing the book to Gwaine. The passage read: "I can't believe I missed the war with The Editor. If I had been a part of it, they would never have lost to that blonde witch Rachel Andric. As it stands, an offer from the Lady Nimueh has proven too good to turn down. A chance to rid myself of my annoying mother and to deal a blow to the Andric woman. All I have to do is lead the giants to the Andric woman's daughter and her friends and I'll be richer than I already am. Worse comes to worst, I have to kill them myself, but that shouldn't be a problem for a man who's slain giants."

"Whoa, whoa," Gwaine stammered, shoving the book back into Emrys's hands. "He wants to kill us?"

Emrys was grim-faced. "Gwaine, I think you were right, even if you were only saying it in jest. I think Jack cut down the beanstalk and stranded us up here. It leaves the three of us open to Nimueh while he deals with Eve and Morph. And the giant kills Lana, which will make Nimueh pleased when we're all dead."

"So what do we do?"

"We've got to stop them," Emrys said. "Come on, we need to warn Rampion."

They ran back through the halls, Emrys taking Jack's book with him as proof. Something told him Rampion would be loath to believe him. Haste was in their best interest and even if he couldn't think of a way to get to Eve and Morph and warn them, he could at least protect his brother and Rampion when Nimueh came for them. He noticed unconsciously that Gwaine had Jack's massive blade in its sheath on his back.

The young men dashed through the door and across the cloud. "Rampion!" Emrys yelled. "Rampion, where the devil are you?"

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked as they got closer. She was still sitting in the same spot they'd left her in. "Honestly! You're yelling loud enough to wake the dead. What's going on? What's that book?"

"It's Jack's diary," Emrys said. "And it says some ... worrisome things."

The young woman drew some of her red locks over her shoulder. "How worrisome?" she asked.

"Bad," Gwaine said. "Very bad. Jack's evil."

Rampion laughed. "Evil? Him? Arrogant, maybe. But evil? I don't think so."

Emrys wordlessly handed the book over to her, open to the page with him talking about someone called the Editor and what he planned for them. She read it several times before looking up at them. "This is some sort of a joke. He has nothing but admiration for Eve. I think the fool might fancy her."

"It's a trick, Rampion," Emrys insisted.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Or maybe you're simply jealous of the attention he's given Eve and want to discredit him. Grow up, Emrys."

Emrys's jaw dropped, and he stared at her. "Do you really think I'm so immature to try such a childish trick?" he asked, his voice rising in pitch. "Eve is an acquaintance, and one who has shown me nothing but scorn as well. I have no romantic interest in her and she has none in me. I couldn't care less if Jack showed interest in her. But the fact remains that Jack is going to try and kill her, and Morph too, and we've got to figure out how to stop him."

"If he really did want to kill us, then why didn't he let the giants finish us off?" Rampion questioned, narrowing her eyes even further. "There's something more going on, if I can trust what you were saying."

Gwaine went to heave a sigh, but they were interrupted. A tall, handsome man stood in front of them, grinning with unfortunately bad dental health. "Well, well. It seems you stumbled on young Jack's plot," he told them, running a hand through his long hair. "Seems like I'm going to get to have some fun today, hm?"

"Define 'fun'," Rampion said, standing up. Gwaine had Jack's great sword out, and Emrys extended his fingers, preparing for a spell if need be. He noticed that Rampion's hair was shivering, whether in excitement or fear, he didn't know.

The man cracked his knuckles, still grinning. There was a massive gap between his front teeth. "Oh, don't be afraid, Scarlet. Her ladyship has plans for you. These two, on the other hand? Are useless to her."

Before Emrys could react, the man had swung around and summoned a staff in his hands. It slammed into the side of Rampion's head, and she crumpled to the cloud. Gwaine's eyes widened as the man turned to the two brothers. "Who are you?" the knight demanded, his voice rising in pitch.

"Rumpelstiltskin," the man answered. "The greatest magician in The Story. Perhaps not the greatest sorcerer, but I'm close, very close. Particularly when your father is ... eliminated."

Gwaine advanced, swinging the sword so the point was up to the sky. "You don't threaten my father!" he yelled.

Rumpelstiltskin's hand shone with a purple light, and he threw it at Gwaine and Emrys. Gwaine collapsed immediately, and Emrys felt ill as he accidentally inhaled it. He fell to his knees as Rumpelstiltskin lifted Rampion into his arms. "Enjoy your last moments," the magician sneered before disappearing from sight.

Emrys went to his brother, wheezing as he tried to stay conscious. When he rolled Gwaine onto his back, he saw with horror that the knight wasn't breathing. "Gwaine?!" he demanded. "Wake up! Gwaine! Please, wake up!"

His brother made no response. No great shuddering breath came over him, no complaint about the situation, nothing. Gwaine breathed no longer. "No," Emrys whispered, and tears sprang from his eyes. Gwaine was his rock, the normal brother. The brother everyone in Camelot loved, the one who cared for Emrys when he complained about people considering him a freak. The brother that Emrys loved. The only person in the world he had left. He couldn't be ... dead. "Wake up, Gwaine. Please!"

Again, his brother made no response, and Emrys took in a shaky breath. He had to calm himself. If he didn't, then the spell would never work and Gwaine would be dead. "Please work," he said, allowing himself one more moment of grief before pulling himself together mentally. If he was going to save his brother, he had to remain calm. Of course, there might be a problem if the spell backfired and killed Emrys instead ...

He quickly shook off his moment of self-doubt. If he worried that he'd ruin the spell, he most certainly would. It would require utter calm for him to succeed. "I won't let you die, Gwaine," he said softly before laying his hand over his brother's heart. There was no beat, something that threatened to overturn Emrys's newfound calm, but he swiftly overcame it. Gwaine's heart would beat again, he would make sure of it.

Whispering the spell in Welsh, Emrys's hand glowed with a golden light, spreading over Gwaine's heart and throughout his body. It was draining Emrys and he could feel Rumpelstiltskin's poison beginning to have more of an effect on him. If his spell continued draining him, he wouldn't be conscious for much longer. But he refused to give in, refused to let the poison win. Wouldn't let his brother die. Life wouldn't be worth living if he was unable to save Gwaine's life.

Unable to continue the spell—his lips would no longer form the Welsh words required for the spell—Emrys let his hand drop from his brother's chest. Maybe it had worked. He couldn't see clearly enough to be able to tell if Gwaine was breathing again. His fingers were numb, and he wasn't able to feel if Gwaine's heart was beating once more. "Please be alright." He wanted to say the words, but found that he couldn't even speak.

Blackness tinged the edges of Emrys's vision. Whatever spell Rumpelstiltskin had used on them, it was effective, Emrys thought dully. Perhaps he was dying. Or maybe it would just knock him unconscious. Whatever the case, he wouldn't be able to help Rampion escape from Rumpelstiltskin's clutches. That made him feel guilty, especially since he'd argued with her shortly before her abduction. Hopefully, she wouldn't be too angry at him for that.

Emrys slumped over Gwaine, unable to control his own body any longer. A tear escaped his eye as he realized he couldn't feel Gwaine's breath. Does that mean he's dead? he wondered. He hoped not. Not after everything he'd done to save him.

And he lost consciousness.