Title: The Forester
Author: Joshua
Disclaimer: Don't own 'Once Upon A Time' or any of its characters. Don't own Highlander, any of its characters, nor the concept of 'Immortals' and the Game. References to the mini-series "Highlander: The Source", but no actual spoiling. Well, maybe the 'epilogue'.
Summary: Highlander/Once Upon A Time crossover. What if the origin of Immortals was even more complicated than either "Highlander 2" or "The Source" ever hinted at? Baby Emma came through during the time period when 'Grimms Fairy Tales' were actually being told and written, and then she died, was killed… and revived as an Immortal.
Premise: Because she's magical and from 'another world', but mostly because she's a foundling, Emma fits the bill of a pre-Immortal just fine. Switch things up a bit so that she comes across in the early 1800's, when Fairy Tales were first being published and spread more effectively. Also, set it up so that her death occurs on her 28th birthday and exactly 200 years later she comes across Storybrooke. Maybe have her Teacher be Duncan, or Amanda. Neal is still Baelfire and trapped in Neverland until the late 80's. For… whatever reason, Storybrooke still appears at the same time and same everything as canon states. Call it 'time differential between worlds' or whatever. It happened with the Rabbit in 'Wonderland', it can happen here with the Tree/Cupboard baby Emma was sent through. Emma uses same style of sword that her father uses and therefore that 'she' uses in canon. Henry is Emma's natural born biological child, and a pre-Immortal. She's not explaining why or how.
"Forester" - A person in charge of a forest or skilled in planting, managing, or caring for trees. A person, or animal, living in a forest. Someone whose origin can be traced back to the Enchanted Forest.
Prologue: The History of Emma
Amanda prided herself on her ability to survive. Part of that was due to her status as an Immortal. The rest was just good instincts and decent skill. She always paid attention when her gut told her to stay or go. To stay in the shadows, hidden while guards or patrolmen searched for any sign of her. Or to skip town because she'd been exposed or things were getting a bit too hot.
It was one of the reasons she was currently in the Americas at the moment. And while normally she might be shacking up with a local businessman, or making like she was a noble on holiday from Europe, so soon after the war where England's colonies had declared their independence and formed their own nation, the 'United States of America', it wasn't a great idea to be a wealthy noblewoman on her own in Boston or New York these days.
So she'd headed north from Boston, into the forest wilds. She knew a French trapper in the colonies there that could put up with her for a little while. At least until her more recent crimes were forgotten and she had better prospects available to her. It was why she was in the woods, walking through the forest, rather than along the main road. It was why she was there at all. In hindsight, she'd wonder about that.
That was when the tree exploded in front of her.
She wasn't killed, which was fortunate. And her travelling cloak protected her from most of the splinters. For a time she feared that she was under attack or had stumbled upon idiots playing with gunpowder or cannons. Neither were the case, though she might have preferred if it had been.
The tree itself wasn't destroyed. Only one side of it had been, and it opened onto a smooth hollowed out space that clearly had not been there before. Because inside that hollowed out space was a little crying newborn baby, wrapped up in a hand-spun wool blanket. The baby's name had been embroidered in silk into the blanket. Emma.
Not exactly experienced with babies, Amanda was hesitant to even approach the squalling infant, but she was literally the only soul around for miles and it would surely die if she didn't do something!
Cooing, as she'd seen midwives and mothers do for babies before, she gently and as carefully as possible, picked the baby up and held her close. The baby was obviously a she and not just from the name on the blanket either. Looking around for something to do, Amanda decided that she needed to make camp and deal with everything else after. Jacques was at least three days away, and that was when she was by herself. A baby complicated things and slowed her down, but Amanda was no monster. She would not abandon this child.
She just needed somebody to foist her off onto.
Her trapper friend wasn't really an option. Not just because he was an Immortal ex-lover that she planned on swindling out of all his hard-earned cash, but he really wasn't the child-rearing type. No, she needed a nice mortal couple that she could probably sell the child to, claiming to be the matron of an orphanage seeking to give the newborn a good home. Dropping her off at an actual orphanage, or worse a convent, was not an option for Amanda. Too many bad memories.
"Not to worry, little Emma," Amanda said to the still crying infant. "We'll figure something out. For right now though, Auntie Amanda needs to get a fire going and then find us some food for you to eat. Won't that be nice?"
The baby continued to cry at the top of her lungs.
As though fate were listening to the Immortal Thief's needs, she was startled a moment later as a cow came up to them, mooing and chewing on grass. Even from the brief distance, she could see that it was a female cow and from the looks of it was bred for dairy production.
"Even I know that goats milk would be better for a newborn!" Amanda cried to the universe.
Ten seconds later, a goat with a rope around its neck joined the cow in chewing the spot of grass. Amanda smirked and looked to the heavens and said rather saucily, "Now about that fire…"
10 Months Later
Amanda was back in England. She'd brought Emma with her, easily able to 'pretend' being the little girl's mother after her crucible in the northern forests of Maine. She'd also discovered a few things about the little baby during all their time together. No, it wasn't difficult at all to pretend to be the child's mother. Yet as attached as she'd become to the little darling, she had to give her up. Hers was not a lifestyle for raising children, and she'd been at it for nearly a thousand years already and she wasn't about to change now.
Which is why they were in England so soon after she'd abandoned Europe for better prospects. Amanda had found baby Emma a family with which to live. And even better, she'd gotten her old friend and Teacher, Rachel to watch over them.
Amanda didn't know the whole story, but she knew that quite recently the Darlings had lost a daughter, whether to death or kidnapping, everyone was being intentionally vague, but they were seeking to fill the void left by the girl's departure from their lives. She'd met them, several times now, and determined that they were a good family. Nice and normal and stable and above all else, loving. Which is what every child needs.
"Are you sure about this?" Rachel asked as they waited on the stoop before the Darlings Victorian home. "Settling down might do you some good Amanda, and with this child… well, I can see that you've already thought about it, haven't you?"
"More often than you realize, darling," Amanda chuckled. "You'll watch out for her? I know I'm out of options by this point, but the rumors about their eldest daughter disappearing like that… well, they concern me."
"I've already looked into it," Rachel assured her. "She was kidnapped, and neither of the parents had anything to do with it. The boys say that a shadow took her to some make believe place called Neverland, but children often make believe what they cannot understand of the world."
"Yes," Amanda agreed, but by then the conversation was over as the door opened suddenly.
"Amanda, Rachel," the Lady Darling greeted them with a warm and open smile. Though a touch of sadness remained in her eyes, these days it never seemed to leave. "Welcome. And hello Emma! Is… uh, is today the day?"
They remained in the foyer for a few moments, all three women cooing and tickling the happy little infant. Then things got serious when another giggling little girl came running in, being chased by the big family dog.
"Oh, and who is this?" Amanda asked, holding Emma to her a little tighter.
"This is Alice," Mrs. Darling answered, smiling down at the blond toddler that was trying to hide amongst her skirts. "Her family have been good friends to us in these… trying times. Her father, Edwin, is my husband's business partner. They're visiting for the day. We, uh, we had no idea that you would be coming today."
"Quite all right," the dark haired Immortal assured her. "Hello Alice."
"Hi!" the giggling little girl said, peeking from behind the skirts of her hiding spot, trying to stay away from the enthusiastic and excited dog.
Seeing new playmates, the dog, Nanna, began to bark loudly. Amanda and Rachel both looked down, concerned, at the no longer sleeping babe in the former's arms. To everyone's surprise, Emma fussed only a littled before working one chubby little arm free and waving it in the barking dog's direction. Nanna quieted down immediately and sat down on her haunches, the world's best behaved dog all of a sudden. Amanda had a sudden impulse to introduce Emma to Nanna and vice versa.
Kneeling, so she was face to face with both Nanna and Alice, Amanda held out Emma in her arms so both could get a look at her.
"Amanda…" Rachel began to say, but was stunned into silence as were all the other adult witnesses (Edwin and Mr. Darling had come into the foyer from the study where they'd just concluded their meeting, as had Alice's mother when Mrs. Darling hadn't returned from getting the door).
Baby Emma reached out on her own and grabbed the huge sheepdog by it's cold wet nose. Nanna huffed, but remained still, letting the baby do what all babies do. Alice stepped forth from her hiding spot and petted the dog more properly on her head. "What's her name?" the little blond girl asked, so sweet and innocent that Amanda couldn't dare deny her a thing.
"Emma," she answered.
"Hello Emma," Alice introduced herself to the 10-month-old. "My name is Alice. We're going to be friends."
"Yes, darling, I believe you will be," Amanda laughed gently, watching both girls bond.
20 Years Later
"So, you're the man that my best friend fell in love with, was devastated to the point of insanity, and very nearly died for on multiple occasions, and also the reason that she returned to Wonderland-without me I might add-again? You're Cyrus?" the blue-eyed blond said, arms crossed as she eyed the Middle-Eastern twentyish-year-old man up and down.
"Indeed I am," he nodded, bowing slightly.
"Uh huh," Emma exchanged looks with Alice, who was barely restraining her giggles as it was. Where the older girl's hair had darkened to brown, except at the tips, Emma's had remained golden throughout her life growing up. She'd just returned from a trip abroad with her 'Aunts' Amanda and Rachel, only finding out about Alice's stay in an asylum, and adventures in Wonderland after the whole thing was over and done with. Apparently when she'd announced shortly after her eighteenth birthday that Amanda and Rachel would be taking her on this 'trip', Alice decided it would be a good time to start looking for a way back into Wonderland to get the proof her father needed to finally believe her. "I thought he'd be bigger."
Alice lost the fight with containing her giggles.
"What is so funny?" Cyrus questioned, looking between the two women. Both of whom were now laughing their shapely asses off. "What?"
"I'm glad you're back Emma," Alice said, hugging her childhood friend, the only one that truly believed her about Wonderland growing up. Partly because during their early teen years, they'd gone there together. Yet even before that, Emma had believed. Probably because what she'd grown up believing. Her older brothers, both now missing as her 'older sister' was as well, had raised her on stories of how their family had taken in a runaway boy named Baelfire and how he'd then sacrificed himself to keep Michael from being taken by the Shadow. Wendy had then gone to plead for Baelfire's return and hadn't been seen since. When John turned twenty-one, he and nineteen-year-old Michael had sought out the Shadow and means to get to Neverland to rescue their long lost sister, leaving behind their devastated parents and their seventeen year old baby sister, Emma. The Darlings had been lost in a shipwreck soon after. Hence the trip abroad with her 'Aunts' that had lasted for close to three years and ensured that she'd missed so much in her best friend's life.
"So, is Rabbit still here?" Emma asked, looking about, having had her fun at Cyrus's expense.
"No, he's gone back to be with his family," Alice said.
"Aw, I never get to have any fun," she pouted, but quickly changed moods. "So, what do you think of your new baby sister?"
"Oh, she's wonderful!" Alice gushed. The two women continued to talk, leaving Cyrus behind in the garden. A few moments later, Will Scarlet, the once Knave of Hearts, came practically running out of the house to join Cyrus in the garden. Edwin was quick to follow.
"You two certainly left in a hurry," Cyrus observed.
"Bloody hell mate, if there is anything that I know, its when to get out of the kitchen," Will said with certainty born of experience. Painful experience. "And your lady talking with my lady, I can deal with that because I'm usually the referee and they've got history. Your lady with my lady, Ed here's lady, and Alice's childhood friend? Who looks really familiar by the way, just can't place her. That's a little too hot for my tastes, thank you very much."
"I'm suddenly feeling something that I never, ever thought I would feel," Cyrus suddenly stated.
"What is that, my boy?" Alice's father inquired.
"Happy," he said, sounding surprised at himself, "that my mother is gone. Because she wouldn't hesitate to join in, I know it."
All three men shivered in dread at the mere thought.
Eight Years Later
The year was 1811. Ironically, October 22, 1811. It was her birthday. How fitting that she should die on her twenty-eighth birthday. That was her last thought before blackness consumed her.
It was broken a moment later by the stroke of lightning.
At least that is what it felt like to her. One moment, blackness, the next a jolt of energy strikes out from her core to her entire body like a bolt of lightning. She gasps, every muscle in her body tense and flexing as her heart began pumping out extra adrenaline and endorphins. Not that science had properly identified those particular chemicals in the body, but the effect and reasons were the same and always had been.
Slowly, the blood-drenched woman got her breathing under control and she sat up, looking down at herself. She gulped back the instinctive gag at the sight of so much blood, covering her, and took a closer look at herself rather than just her clothes.
She was fine.
More than that, she was whole, she was healthy, and most importantly, she wasn't stabbed through the gut with a fishing knife. Damned bastard had gotten her with a damned fishing knife! At least she'd gotten him back. Although, considering she was no longer injured-even the scrapes and bruises she'd acquired during the night were gone!-it would make things a tad difficult to explain to the constables. That is what she thought, until she took a closer look at her surroundings.
She was no longer in the back alley of London's criminal underbelly. She was in a place she'd only been to a handful of times, and it had always been to identify a dead body, usually of a client that had hired her to bring in a bounty, or the bounty she was looking for so she could claim the lesser reward. She was in the morgue.
"Not good," she declared and started looking for alternative means of attire. She was still dressed, so that meant they hadn't done the autopsy yet. That was probably the only good bit of news she had at the moment.
"Really miss Alice at times like these," she mumbled as she began gathering sheets, half expecting she'd need to sew herself a dress in the next few minutes. Fortunately in her collecting, she'd uncovered the bin where the discarded clothes of the dead were, well… discarded. Sorting through them, she found a dress that was close enough to her size and was in reasonable condition (no blood, no gaping holes in the middle or the back, and didn't smell too bad either). She kept her own shoes, and fashioned a few torn sheets into a loincloth and breast band for undergarments and donned the dress. There was absolutely no way she was going to even consider the dead's underwear!
Now came the hard part, getting out of the morgue without being detected. Or missed, she realized as she walked past the chalkboard that showed the number of incoming bodies for the night. She erased and wrote in the number with one less. Then she went back to her London flat, grateful to discover along the way that she'd only been 'out of it' for a single night. It wasn't yet the morning of the 23rd of October, though it was after midnight.
It wouldn't be for another two weeks, when her Aunt Amanda stopped by with an 'old friend', that she learned the truth about what had happened that night. Duncan Macleod of the Clan Macleod was soon proclaimed her Teacher, seeing as Amanda no longer had the patience for dealing with her bounty hunter niece, and since Duncan was there…
Well, it was a match made by Amanda when she was doing her best to foist off responsibility as quickly as possible. Both of the Immortals were familiar with her by now and took the matter in hand. They got even with her.
One Year Later
"Are you sure you're ready for this?" the Scotsman asked as he stood next to his Student, across the field from her soon-to-be opponent. Duncan hated to admit it, but he'd grown attached to this spunky little girl that Amanda had found in the woods one day and brought 'home' with her. He'd taught her everything he was able, and thanks to his time in China and Japan, that was more than he'd previously could have. The rest was all her.
"Am I sure? No," Emma grumbled, still wishing there was some way around killing this person, but… He hadn't even done anything to her, not really. Apparently he thought she'd done plenty though, because from the moment he met her the other day, he'd challenged her and wouldn't stop until she accepted. "Am I ready? We'll find out, I guess."
"Don't guess, know," Duncan offered as one last bit of advice. "Are you sure you don't want me to challenge him if he… you know?"
"No, don't," the blond bounty hunter shook her head. "It's bad enough that I have to try and kill him because of his damned pride. I don't want you to go on some revenge kick and start up a cycle that will never end. This ends with me and him."
"And what if he has somebody wanting revenge against you for killing him?" Duncan argued.
"I don't see them waiting in the wings, do you?" she pointed out. "I'll deal with that if it comes up, but this is all his fault as it is. I don't want to kill him, but he's left me little choice. Tell me you've never challenged someone just to get an easy Quickening?"
"I never have and I never will," he said, offended at the merest suggestion.
"Finished saying goodbye to your whore, Macleod?" the bastard called out. "Too bad I can't enjoy her a bit myself before taking her power. Oh well, easy come, easy go!"
Looking back over her shoulder as she approached the other Immortal, Emma remarked to her Teacher, "You know what I said about not wanting to kill him? That is no longer the case."
"Oh good, the swan has claws," the headhunter mocked, 'saluting' her with his rapier.
She merely spread out her skirts and grasped her English short sword with both hands, and intoned, "There can be only one."
The fight was fairly short after that. And the conclusion, well, at least to Duncan, was not surprising at all. Emma may not have been all that powerful, especially considering she'd been Immortal for less than a year, but she made up for that by being smart and playing to her strengths while taking advantage of any weaknesses her enemy may have. In this particular case, his enormous ego.
It was child's play (literally) for her to call out taunts and verbally abuse him to the point that he lost all semblance of control and let his rage consume him. Then she danced around him, yes, danced. Swirling and twirling with her skirts, deflecting with her sword and dodging to the side with well-timed and placed steps, placing small scratches and slicing up his clothes in the process. Until finally he was so exhausted that Duncan thought he'd lose his grip on his sword before too much longer. Before that could happen though, Emma decided to end it.
Raising her head, chin out, a display of her resolve, she went in for the kill.
For just a moment, a heartbeat of time, Duncan feared that is exactly what the bastard had been waiting for, as he moved and struck with such sudden speed that even the Highlander would be hard-pressed to keep up with. Emma, however, had things well in hand. She twirled past the rapid strike and drove the point of her own blade up through the man's soft underbelly into his heart. She pulled it out and stepped back before any blood could get on her. Just as he collapsed to his knees, already dead, he just didn't know it yet, he looked up at her and spat a mouthful of blood in her direction. She finished it with a single stroke.
Duncan nodded with approval. Clean. Efficient. No hesitation.
The electric white mist flew up from the body and began the process known to Immortals as the Quickening.
Duncan and other Immortals she knew had done their best to prepare her for it. Too bad that the one thing they all agreed upon was that there was no preparing for it. It was a pain so intense it transformed to ecstasy. It was power incarnate, in every sense of the word. It was indescribable.
Aside from the raw sensations assaulting her though, there were the mental and emotional flashes that really drove it home. She knew everything about the bastard that had challenged her. Not like she was watching his life play out before him or like she had his memories. More like she *knew* him, and at the same time if anyone asked her a question about him she could probably answer it. They were right, it was indescribable.
Instinct.
That is the only word that she could use to describe it. His instincts and knowledge and emotions and power were becoming a part of her own instincts. Less so with the knowledge, thankfully less so with the emotions, and the power… well, hard to ignore the power when it was still coursing through her.
And then it came to an end.
Emma collapsed to the ground, weak and disoriented. Duncan rushed over to catch her and help her back to her feet.
"... I don't think I like that," she said to him, before collapsing in his arms.
Seventy-One Years Later
"I cannot believe you sometimes!" Emma screamed at her 'aunt' as they ran along the London rooftops.
"You love it darling, and you know it!" Amanda laughed as they made their way from the secure property they'd just robbed and back toward Amanda's hideout… at one of the most upscale and expensive hotels in the city.
"These… birthday parties that you throw me? They usually mean a lot of trouble for me at some point!" the blond argued as they began to make their way back down to street level.
"Can you say that Duncan's are any better?" the Immortal Thief teased.
"Well… not as fun, certainly," Emma was careful to watch her words. "But at least I don't have to take on jobs in other countries for a decade or two."
"When are you heading back to Boston, by the way?"
Emma sighed and pulled out their dresses that they'd hidden away earlier in the evening here.
"The ship leaves the day after tomorrow," she answered, stripping off the 'thief clothes' she'd worn while helping Amanda… 'acquire' her "birthday present", and just as quickly donning the dress. "According to all records, I'll be on the Queen Elizabeth, bound for New York on a three week journey, first class all the way."
"But really?" Amanda smirked knowingly.
"For me to know and my enemies to find out… or not," Emma smirked back.
As they made their way back to the hotel, just two ladies walking along the streets, spending their "husbands" hard-earned money, Emma reminisced about her last century of life. Tonight was her one hundredth birthday. Amanda often made fun of how she was the only Immortal she'd known in her millennium that had actually died on their birthday and could get to celebrate becoming an Immortal at the same time. As such, the woman that had found and rescued her from a hole in a tree in the middle of the New England forests, made it a point to always celebrate the event with something to remember it. Tonight, being her one hundredth year of life, to the day, had to be something really special.
So, after a day of being pampered, all on 'the boys' dime of course, (Conner, Duncan, and Fitzcairn always managed to get together to help celebrate Emma's birthdays), and a party at the best venue in London, also paid for by the men-who'd all still gotten her presents-Amanda had announced that she hadn't gotten her gift yet. Which is when they left and the Immortal Bounty Hunter and the Immortal Thief went out and tested the former's skill. By breaking into the Bank of London and stealing a priceless jewel out of Amanda's own safety deposit box. The 'added security' put there by the thief in the box hadn't been fun, but didn't do much to stop her either.
She liked the necklace that was her actual gift though. Besides, who needed the twin to the Hope Diamond? Something like that doesn't get stolen and sold off. Just hidden and lost for a "time" before getting found and turned over to whoever last "owned" it.
In reflecting upon the last day, she further reflected on all that she had accomplished and done in a century. Growing up with the Darlings was fun and an adventure worth having. Especially as she got to play and stay with her best friend Alice a lot of the time. When Alice discovered and told everyone about Wonderland, she was the only one to believe her. And her faith was well-warranted as when they were both young teenagers, they discovered how to return, or rather how to get the attention of the White Rabbit so he could take them back to Wonderland. Each time though, the 'proof' Alice always sought was taken from their grasp at the last second, or something else happened where they had to give it up rather than take it back with them. Still, those were fun times.
After Alice got married to Cyrus and had a little girl of her own, Emma went back to Wonderland one final time and discovered what she wanted to do with her life. She found out the Truth. Oh, she'd always known she'd been adopted, and Amanda told her the story of how she'd been found in the hollow of a tree that had basically just exploded. No, the Truth was that she wasn't from America, or England, or even anywhere on Earth really. She was from a realm known as the Enchanted Forest. The Rabbit tried to take her there, but something had changed. The entire place was frozen, and only the Rabbit's Hole being kept open prevented them from being frozen along with everything else. What was truly odd was that he'd just been there, just prior to searching out the Knave to get Alice, and everything had been fine. A bit desolate, but nothing frozen as it was now.
It wasn't so much the discovery of the Truth, but rather the journey that lead to it. All throughout her solo adventure in Wonderland, she kept having to hunt down various characters and then retrieve numerous artifacts and bric a brac for a variety of reasons. She realized she was really good at it. And so she became a Bounty Hunter when the Rabbit returned her home. Which, unfortunately, lead to her first death.
It didn't change her mind about doing it though, and she was pretty good at tracking people down. Helped that she had a knack for knowing when people were lying to her and had picked up quite a few deductive skills over the years that let her ferret out the truth. She'd once-when she was about fifty-considered going into law enforcement, becoming a police officer. Except that was in the 1840's and not even America was liberal enough to have a woman as anything other than a secretary in the typing pool for any government agency, let alone as a detective on the police force.
There were rumors, stories mostly, of towns out in the Wild West, or the middle of nowhere between the Mississippi and California, where there were women sheriffs or 'deputized' US Marshalls running around catching criminals just as effectively as their male counterparts. Some were proven to be stories, while most were either killed in the line of duty or 'reassigned' the moment anyone in Washington heard about it. Of course in Europe, it was absolutely unheard of anywhere as the most a woman could hope for was 'working behind the scenes' or something like that.
Emma was satisfied with her bounty hunting career. She didn't need approval or oversight or even the respect of her peers or the people around her. All she needed was the bounty, or proof of, and they gave her the cash. Simple as that.
Sure, there were cheats out there, who thought they could pull one over on her. That's where her skill at seeing through lies came in real handy. Drove Amanda nuts though.
More recently, she'd been working out of the Northeast of the United States and Southeastern Canada. Part of her hoped to find some trace of that tree that brought her here, help her find out why her homeland was frozen the way that it was. Not that she'd been back to check on it in more than seventy years, but the Rabbit was her friend and she wasn't going to risk taking him from his family just to satisfy her curiosity. She'd find another way into the Enchanted Forest.
One possibility that struck her as the best option was finding that tree that Amanda had told her about, the one that had exploded and left her behind in a hollowed out space in the tree. If that was how she got into this world, then maybe, just maybe, it would let her return to the other world, the world she was from.
So, between jobs, Emma spent most of her time scouring the forests, trying to find the tree, hoping that it hadn't been cut down or destroyed over the years. As a direct result of this, she learned a lot about forestry and taking care of the trees and animals that lived there. And as a consequence of this, the Immortals she'd encountered over the years had taken to calling her…
"Forester, eh?" Amanda said, breaking her concentration.
"Huh? Wait, what?" she asked.
"You're not even paying attention, are you?" the brunette accused the blond.
"I was… reflecting," Emma replied sagely.
"Mm-hmm," she hummed knowingly.
"Now what was that about… Forester?" A change of subject was needed, she thought.
"I recently heard some rumors, is all," Amanda confessed. "About a blue-eyed blond woman that is as powerful and skilled as a certain pair of cousins. Took me a while to connect the dots. So you are this… Forester, I keep hearing about, Emma, darling?"
"Guilty," she shrugged.
"Why Forester?" she was asked.
"Why are Duncan and Conner called 'Highlander' if they hardly ever visit the Scottish Highlands? Why are any of 'us' given titles and nicknames in the first place? It sort of just happened. I don't mind though, so I'm not about to stop it. Besides, if I tried, they'd just use it more to annoy me or taunt me into pointless fights. And you know how I try to avoid those."
"Hm, have you considered… broadening your horizons? Just a bit?" Amanda suggested.
The sudden change it topic brought Emma up short.
"What have you heard?" she asked.
"Oh nothing much, just that… a certain Immortal Witch, not that I happen to believe in that sort of thing, is seeking the Forester, and has put the word out," her 'Aunt' explained. "I haven't told the boys yet, but it is only a matter of time. I don't think they would connect this 'Forester' with you though. Maybe try Africa?"
"Africa?" Emma exclaimed, giving the woman a dull look. "With my complexion, hair, and eyes? Might as well say China. No thank you, Amanda. I'm not running. And no matter who or what this… witch is, I'll face her in my own way and my own time. I don't run."
Thirteen Years Later
"I thought you didn't run?"
She jumped, looking up through the foliage of the underbrush to the red/brown-haired woman standing there on the cliff. How did she find her? Ever since that last birthday in London, when Amanda told her of the rumors regarding some Immortal Witch looking for the Forester, her life had never been the same. She'd been hounded by this witch and the rumors that she spawned, and never permitted a moments peace. She was currently in Australia, playing to the advantage of the many, many, many European settlers and tourists visiting and seeking adventure. She was able to blend in, and while the natives, the Aborigines, knew she was different, everyone else that actually mattered and could even hint as to who she truly was would just think she was another European lady off on an adventure. She hadn't had much luck.
"Well," Emma answered the witch that had been hounding her for more than a decade, "when I kept getting challenged by every Headhunter and power-hungry ratbags across the known world, all because of a damned bloody rumor of YOU looking for ME! Couldn't do a damned bloody thing back in the States without getting challenged and either having to fight or kill somebody every other week! You'd think it was the damned bloody Gathering already!"
"I apologize," the woman, who wore only a simple, pure white cotton dress, common for these parts. "That was not my intention. It was not the lifestyle that forced you to run though, was it?"
"He wanted to use me against you," Emma stated, turning her back on the Witch and continued collecting her food and other supplies. "That damned Kantos bastard! Who the fuck does he think he is, anyway? He nearly got the drop on me. Twice! That thrice-damned voice of his. What did you do that pissed him off so much that he wants to destroy you so badly?"
She turned back around but the witch was gone. Snorting derisively, she faced front again, and jumped when she saw the unarmed woman standing less than five feet from her.
"I was his Teacher," Cassandra explained to Emma.
"Bang up job. Glad I still haven't fallen into that trap. Advantage of knowing a pair of Scottish do-gooders and a couple of saints," she said, referring to Rachel and Darius, both of whom had gladly taken in any new Immortals that she'd come across over the years.
"The reason that I've been looking for you, Emma the Forester," Cassandra said, "also known as Emma Darling, Emma Pevensie, Emma Wonders, Emma Cygnus, Emma Cygnet, and Emma Swan. Is because I want to become your Teacher. I have foreseen it."
"So you've done your homework," Emma snapped, glowering as she walked around the icy-eyed woman. "Give me one good reason I should bother with you? Way I see it, as badly as I'm hunted just by there being rumors of you looking for me, how bad will it be when word gets around that I'm actually your Student? Huh?"
"I can give you more than one reason," Cassandra told her. "My name is Cassandra. I am over four thousand years old, and what I taught Kantos pales in comparison to what I can teach you, and what you are truly capable of. I have also foreseen something else, something that will change your mind immediately and forever change the course of your life afterward."
"And what might that be?" she huffed, turning to face the older Immortal in frustration.
"You will one day meet your parents."
The world stopped, crumbled, and began to crash, falling apart and destroying everything that it had been before. Emma dropped everything that she was carrying and reached for her sword, drawing it and putting it to Cassandra's throat in a flash. Tears pooled in her eyes as she struggled to keep her emotions in check. Choked up, she accused the Immortal Witch with something she already knew wasn't possible.
"Liar! You lie! I'm an Immortal! We don't have parents! We are foundlings, every last one of us! And I can tell that you are lying! I always know when people lie!" she cried.
"What you say is true, for the most part," Cassandra said as gently as she was able. "You are an Immortal. Immortals are foundlings. You know when people lie. Look at me very closely, Emma. You will one day meet your parents."
Emma's sword dropped in shock. Then it was back up, an angry look in her eyes. "Just because you believe it does not make it true!"
"Then believe this," Cassandra smirked, before intoning, "Drop your sword, Emma. It is getting heavy, heavier than the weight of the truth you now know. Drop your sword."
The sword dropped, but she kept her grip on it through sheer stubbornness. She'd faced this with Kantos, and surprised him with just how strong-willed she was and how long she'd held out against him. The last time, she'd actually managed to escape him thanks to a cliff and a nearby river. Cassandra's voice was different though. More subtle, gentler, and more effective because of it.
"Don't ever do that again," Emma growled, eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Wouldn't you like to learn how to do it yourself?" Cassandra asked 'innocently'.
"No," the blond answered immediately. "I've felt that, I know what it is like, and even if I never hurt people with it like Kantos, I'd never willingly use that on another person. No matter what."
"There are many things that you'll find yourself doing, Emma," she warned her new student. "Things that are unimaginable to you as you are now. I seek to expand your horizons. You have a destiny, Emma. And I am a part of that destiny. Whether you accept that or not."
"Does anyone else know that I'm here?" she asked, sheathing her sword and picking up her supplies. "Were you followed?"
"I had a vision of where you'd be and left immediately," she answered. "The moment that my ship was closest to you, I jumped overboard and swam ashore and then walked here. If anyone followed me, they'll be at the docks with the ship, on the other side of the continent."
"But they'll be on this continent," Emma sneered. "I'd hoped to have another decade or two. Come on, Teacher, let me introduce you to the tribe. Always have an escape route, and always have a backup plan to every step of whatever plan you put in place. Learned that the hard way, dealing with criminal scum and worse."
"And what is your plan for when I inevitably caught up to you?" Cassandra inquired, keeping easy pace, still barefoot and wearing only her white dress, while Emma was equipped as a typical European Settler, boots, trousers, shirt, vest, and jacket.
"I have a canoe," Emma told her. "Up north. We're going to use it to get to Indonesia and traverse the archipelago and get lost for those few decades that I wanted to remain lost. After that… we'll see."
"I'm somewhat surprised," Cassandra admitted. "I expected you to need more convincing to allow me to become your Teacher."
"You've been 'looking' for me for over a decade. I've been running from you for seven years now, the last five of which here in the Outback. You found me and I didn't see you coming until you were right in front of me. If you found me, Kantos isn't too far behind. And chances are, he's actually following you, somehow. So rather than run from both of you, might as well keep the rat bastard from catching either one of us. Doesn't mean I want to learn that control thing you and he do, just means that I acknowledge you have things to teach me. Even if it is just how to counter those tricks so I can kill the bastard."
"You won't be the one to kill him," Cassandra explained. "There is a prophecy. The one who will defeat him has already been chosen. It is just a matter of time now. There is a prophecy about you as well, though the details of which I know not. It has nothing to do with Kantos though, I can assure you of that at least."
"I'm all ears, Cassie," Emma drawled.
Fifty Years Later
The War, people were starting to call it 'World War II' already, had spread down into Africa. That was far enough that not even the Forester could ignore it any longer.
The first War, the Great War, World War I, she'd stayed out of it by going into the black heart of Africa and honing her skills. Before that, she and Cassandra had spent some thirty years, give or take, amongst the archipelagos of Southeast Asia, and even spent a couple years in the monastery's of the Himaleyas and China. As women, they were segregated against from the other monks, but in seeking what they sought, they were permitted to learn, though in isolation from all others at the temple.
Cassandra taught Emma magic. She learned the Voice trick, though she never used it. She also discovered that she had abilities that Cassandra did not, and slowly over the years learned to master them. She learned martial arts and various other skills from the Shaolin, Bhuddists, and a number of other disciplines hidden throughout that part of the world. She was a Kung Fu master, though not Shaolin. She also knew Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Jiu Jitsu, Karate, and Muay Thai. Though Qi Gong had mostly just helped her develop her body and learn a few healing techniques rather than fighting as the others had.
Once Cassandra had been assured that Emma had learned all she could from her, they parted ways. Cassandra heading back toward Europe, to throw the trail off Emma (Kantos was still following them), while the blond went to Africa. There, she lost herself in the forests there and honed her skills.
A few Immortals found her. Some, she befriended, quite a few Challenged her. She disabled and humiliated the ones that were just doing what they'd been told to do, the ones that she could see didn't really want to fight or kill. A couple of those kept trying and a very odd friendship was formed with them. Others learned their lesson quickly and did their best to avoid the 'She-Devil of Africa'. There were some though, truly evil to the core, and she racked up quite a head-count over the years.
By the beginning of the second War, with the Nazi war machine spreading pretty much all over, there were stories, some rumor, most fictional and sold for entertainment value, of a blond blue-eyed white jungle woman roaming the forests of Africa, saving the innocent, hunting evil and defending the animals and trees of the forest from all that would harm or abuse them. They never got her name right, but Emma often laughed at some of the 'comic books' that were coming out that were basically her. Not that she went around in a tiny leather top and loincloth, or did even a tenth of the things that the stories said she did, but it was amusing nevertheless.
The War changed things, however.
Seeing that she needed to rejoin the world, Emma went north and enlisted. Given her appearance and the 'image' that Hitler and his Nazi's were promoting, she went with German defector rather than return to England or America to just turn right back around. It was an experience that she would never forget and never allow herself to forget.
She saw, met, encountered, fought, and befriended more Immortals during that decade of hell than she'd ever known had existed before. Aside from her 'extended family', she met over thirty other Immortals in the hospital unit she was a part of. Mostly as 'patients' though some were just passing through. Given that everyone had much larger concerns to deal with, she never had any trouble with Challenges or Headhunters. Even those idiots knew that it wouldn't be a good idea to reveal the existence of Immortals in this kind of environment. Especially not with rumors of Hitler's insanity and obsession with the occult. And everybody wanted 'super soldiers'. How much more 'super' can you get than soldiers that cannot die?
And then the Americans started their invasion. D-Day they called it afterward.
At that point, she'd moved further north into the conflict, and eventually made it to France. She found Darius, still guarding his church and helping people where and how he could.
"Hello Emma," Darius said as he met her at the gate to his church.
"Allo Darius," Emma returned the greeting in her mostly-faked French-English accent. Over time, she'd picked up numerous languages, but English had been her first, and while her original accent was Proper English, and then Aussie English, and then 'European' English, now her tones and dialect and inflections were approaching what was known as American accent English. "How are you?"
"I think the question is," Darius smiled, seeming to look right through her, "how are you? You've looked… better, my child. Has this time of strife truly taken such a toll on you?"
"Most don't see what I see out there, Darius," she confessed, walking through the gates and giving him a hug. She'd never been one of his… disciples, but they remained friends and she'd learned much from him. She hoped to learn more now. It was why she was here.
"I've been in this since it's second year, and in that time since, I've seen… so much death, Darius," Emma told him, walking with him into the stone building. "Immortality can be cruel. Watching innocents, people that held so much… potential for life and in this world, being slaughtered like that. Dying so… so young!" She sobbed.
He held her as the grief poured out of her. Eventually the tears subsided, but he continued to hold and rock her, as though she were his very own daughter. She pulled away, just slightly, enough to tell him that she was ready to continue. He let her, though he kept one arm across her shoulder, added support. Emma took a deep, trembling breath and wiped her eyes.
"You know, part of me is envious," she admitted. "Wishing that I was like them. Because at least those that were with me at the camps, that helped and provided relief and saw what I saw, at least they're mortal. They'll only have the nightmares for what? Another fifty or sixty years at the most? Then they'll die and be at peace. I won't have that."
"No, you won't," Darius told her straight. No bull shit. She laughed.
"I'm going back to America after this," she told him. "I need to… get away from… all this death. And at least they're willing to help, they actually care."
"At least this generation does," he wisely pointed out.
"Then maybe I'll come back at some point, when they've stopped caring and don't help," she shrugged. "I need to go back to my home forest for a while."
"Your name Forester is well deserved, Emma," Darius said with a gentle smile. "You care about all living things and protect the land and the people all at once. A savior in the making."
"Stop," she blushed, still sniffling a little bit. "I'm not Duncan. He can't help but get involved. I heard he was there when they finally killed that bastard. I can't imagine being on the front lines all the time like he is. I prefer to help and to heal, if I can."
"And the old stories of the She-Devil Jungle Woman?" he teased.
"Shut up!" she shoved him away.
"When do you leave?" he asked after they'd had their laugh.
"Not for a few months," she told him honestly. "I need to clear up some business, tie up loose ends, and then by the time that is finished, I'd imagine there will be a lot of immigrants to America after this. I'll be on a ship amidst thousands of people just like me, nobody will even notice until long after."
"Always knew how to disappear, Miss Swan," he laughed. "Will you keep the name, or come up with a new one?"
"Swan has grown on me. And I have no connections to the others I've had in the past. Not anymore. I have a ship to London this afternoon. Goodbye, Darius. I'll see you again sometime."
"I'm sure you will," he stood and they hugged goodbye.
It was the last time they ever saw one another.
Fifty-Five Years Later
(AN: Spoilers for Season 2 Episode 6)
It was spring of 2001. Times had been tough. For Emma Swan as much as any. The Y2K scare was finally over with, not that she'd been all that scared. She'd fucking lived in the dark heart of Africa for over twenty years, she could handle whatever would happen if all the world's computers suddenly crashed. Didn't change the fact that in the past decade alone she'd taken hundreds of heads, none of them by choice.
On top of that, new laws regarding bounty hunting came into effect and she found herself needing more of an 'identity' than what had worked previously, and all her years alone and isolated hadn't helped her in that regard. After World War II, she'd done as she'd told Darius and gone to America. She'd started up a bounty hunting firm, in her old stomping grounds even. During the 50's she actually did pretty well, managed to stay under the radar during those Soviet witch hunts, and even managed to make enough money to make investments, planning for the future.
The 60's were… interesting. For Emma at least. She was dragged into the Women's Lib movement, but stayed on the fringes. Still got her arrested a couple times and she put her thieving skills to use by getting and destroying her police records. It did mean having to move out of state, however. So she tried Florida, Tallahassee to be specific, for the latter half of the 60's. Watched all the rockets the US were sending up. Wasn't anywhere near Texas, but was saddened like the rest of the world by the President's assassination.
In the 70's, most of her investments didn't pan out with Vietnam going on, and the few that did wouldn't let her touch anything for a good while. So, deciding to educate herself, she went to school. College to be specific; Harvard.
It took her selling some antiquities that she'd "inherited from a relative", and thankfully Conner was able to help her out with that. But she managed to afford her degrees. Which was actually pretty much every degree that Harvard offered. Didn't even have to change her name, just make sure they never put her photo id in with her file. It put her smack dab in the middle of the (Hippie movement), but she made sure to stay away from the drugs and 'mind-altering' experiences. She had enough of that, thank you very much White Rabbit and Cassandra. Still took her over a decade to go from Freshman to Full Honors Master Degree on Every Degree Graduate. It was 1983 when she stopped going to Harvard, and rather than go back to bounty hunting, she decided to go with the flow and headed out West, to Hollywood and tried to 'make it big' in the movies. Thankfully she never got any actual parts, as she didn't know what she'd do if she actually wound up in a movie, her face and image preserved for all time where millions of people could recognize her, even decades, possibly centuries after the fact.
Instead she became something of a talent scout, the Hollywood answer to a bounty hunter. She got pretty good at it too. Until she found out that the producers and film companies she was finding this 'young talent' for was turning them into drug addicts. Then there was a little… incident with the Los Angeles Police and she went into hiding again. For about a day, and then she turned around and started using her accumulated skills for more than just running away from the world and investigated the 'crime' that she'd been accused of. Found the truth, and used her Harvard Law Degree to full effect and got herself acquitted and turned things around on the real criminals, plus the negligent cops that had been chasing her the whole time. Either way, by the time the Wall fell in 89, she was done with Hollywood.
She started moving up the West Coast. Met all the computer guys of the early 90's in Silicon Valley, made sure to invest with each of them. Started wearing thick rimmed glasses and dressing up like a secretary. In business meetings, people always underestimated her and thought she was a secretary for the 'Swan Trust'. At several points she encouraged this with several individuals, making it seem like she was a reclusive, eccentric old money millionaire philanthropist. Then things started happening in Africa.
And that is where her luck turned for the worst.
There were plenty of white-skinned blue-eyed blonds roaming around the continent now, so any attempt at reintroducing her 'identity' as the White She-Devil Jungle Woman wasn't going to fly. So she turned her Swan Trust toward helping on the political and financial front. By 1999, she was broke and had to smuggle herself out of Africa and back to the states. Turns out she just missed visiting Duncan, who'd gone back to his barge in France when she went to visit his address in Seattle.
And now here she was, in Portland, Oregon. She'd decided to start over. Doing what, as who, she couldn't begin to imagine. And then quickly realized that by being out of money, meant she couldn't pay for things like a place to stay, food, or… renewing her bounty hunting license. Good thing she had… other skills to fall back on.
She'd never been much of a car thief. Amanda's lessons tended more toward jewelry, and priceless antiquities held in museums and the like. Didn't mean she didn't know how to do it though.
Walking along with a locker key, like it was the car keys to the yellow Volkswagon Beetle she was walking towards, she made sure that she wasn't being watched. She'd 'updated' her secretary look to more of a schoolgirl look, keeping her hair back in a ponytail. The thick rimmed glasses kept people underestimating her, and that was better than the alternative, especially against other Immortals. Now she was in black heel-boots, black stockings, a plaid mini-dress and a black leather jacket.
Looking the car over, even as she jimmied the lock, she figured she could get a pretty decent price for it. More if she took it to a chop shop. Thing is, she was actually looking to skip town, maybe head back East, and of all the cars that get pulled over for any number of reasons, old style 'Bugs' were very close to the bottom of that list.
Jumping in quick, she closed the door and pulled a flathead screwdriver and a heavy rock. A couple hits was all it took to get the metal in far enough and she had the little motor running moments later. She pulled out of the alley the little yellow car had been parked in and out onto the road.
"Impressive," a male voice said from right behind her.
She screamed, well, gasped in surprise while restraining her screams. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a man, somewhere in his early to mid-twenties based on appearance. He was dressed in an olive hoodie and a brown t-shirt and sweatpants. She was driving down the road, so she didn't exactly take the time to look him over in detail, but from the little she'd glimpsed… it looked like he'd been sleeping back there. She was still a bit too scared out of her wits to care at the moment.
"But really, you could've just asked me for the keys," he grinned boyishly at her, holding up the mentioned keys.
She shot him another look, and then turned her attention back to the road, trying to get her heart rate under control. He was still grinning at her. Weirdo.
"Just drive, it's fine," he said, misinterpreting the look she'd been giving him.
"I just stole your car," she pointed out. "Your life could be in danger."
"Neal Cassidy," he introduced himself.
"I am not telling you my name," she snapped at him.
"I don't need it when the robbery is in progress," he laughed. She rolled her eyes at him.
"Emma. Swan."
"Good name."
"So, do you just live in here or are you just waiting for the car to be stolen?" she asked, curious as to whether he really was just a weirdo, or she'd been set up.
"Why don't I tell you over drinks?" he flirted.
Turning to glare at him, giving her pony tail an extra flip to it, she said to him, "Excuse me?!"
"Hey! Eyes on the road!" he called, pointing.
Turning back she only just caught sight of the fact that she'd just run a stop sign. Thankfully no one had been in her way or was hurt, though a few honked their horns at her.
Calming herself down and paying closer attention to her driving, she told him in no uncertain terms, "I am not having drinks with you! You might be a pervert."
"I might be a pervert," he agreed, "but you're definitely a car thief."
"I said I was sorry!" she protested.
"You didn't actually," he corrected her.
Before the conversation could go much further, their attention was brought jarringly back to reality as a police cruiser came up behind them, lights and siren blaring. They both groaned in dismay.
"Oh…"
"Damnit!" Emma cursed.
"That's why I said eyes on the road," Neal groaned, covering his eyes.
Knowing better than to try and outrace a 2000 Dodge Charger Police Cruiser in a 1987 VW Beetle, Emma pulled over to the side of the road.
"Screwdriver," Neal warned, helping her hide the evidence of her theft-in-progress.
"License and Registration please," the officer requested as he came up to the driver's side.
Before Emma could actually say anything though, Neal jumped forward from the back seat and leaned over to look the officer in the eye. "Hi-"
"Terribly sorry officer," he said in a rush. "This is actually my car. I'm trying to, uh, teach my girlfriend, uh, how to drive stick."
"Still a lot to learn," the officer stated, looking back at the intersection where Emma had run the stop sign.
"I know," Neal said, nodding in agreement. "But, you know, women."
Emma turned and glared anew at her unintended passenger, silently vowing to make him pay for that comment at some point. Neal just grimaced, keeping his eyes locked with the officer, not daring to even glance at the pretty blond he was leaning across at the moment.
"Yeah, I hear ya," the police officer grunted. "It's a warning! This time!"
"Yeah! Thank you so much!" Neal gushed as the man walked back to his cruiser.
"What are you, some sort of misogynist?" Emma asked as he briefly stepped out so he could properly move to the front seat with her.
"You're welcome," he remarked sarcastically. "Go, we got lucky."
Emma stopped, alarm bells ringing in her head. She turned to face him and repeated, "We?"
He just looked back at her, meeting her gaze for but a few moments. "This isn't your car either, is it?" she asked, suspicious.
"Huh?" he put on an innocent expression she was all too familiar with.
"I stole a stolen car?" she asked him, a little bit of awe in her tone.
He just grinned that boyish grin of his at her again and said, "Now, how about that drink?"
She just shook her head and started the car up again. It had been a while since she'd last met a mortal that made her feel… young again. Maybe she would let him buy her that drink. It was the least he could do for that women-comment from before.
Ten Years (and a few months) Later
Emma got up from blowing out the single candle she'd put on the cupcake. It was her two-hundred and twenty-eighth birthday tonight. And she was alone.
Amanda was… somewhere. Duncan was off on a quest with several others in Europe somewhere. Cassandra had vanished from the face of the earth. Darius was dead. Rachel was dead. Fitz was dead. Conner was dead. And the man that she'd fallen in love with and had given her something… absolutely impossible, had sent her to prison and disappeared from all traces.
So she'd made a wish on the little blue star candle she'd put into a gourmet cupcake she'd bought on her way in from a job that had left a sour taste in her mouth.
And now someone was ringing her doorbell.
She answered it, sensing no Immortals nearby, and was surprised to see a ten-year-old boy with brown hair and… a boyish grin, looking up at her. He was dressed in a school uniform of some sort and had a backpack on. "Uh, can I help you?"
"Are you Emma Swan?" he asked.
"Yeah, who are you?" she asked back.
"My name is Henry," he answered, looking her in the eye. "I'm your son."
END Prologue