Leather & Lace

Chapter One

Long ago, deep in the dark end of the forest surrounding Camelot, a very powerful sorcerer entombed a nearly as powerful sorceress within a wall of stone inside a crypt where she remained imprisoned for many years, until one night the magical force that kept her captive suddenly vanished and awakened the villainess from deep slumber. Upon opening her eyes, the witch summoned every ounce of dark magic inside of her and blasted herself free, then stepped out from the shattered rocks on the ground at her bare feet in order to walk outside the cave so she could survey the distant kingdom beyond the trees using her magic to see through the eyes of the owl flying high above her.

Camelot was eerily dark, as was Arthur's castle. While the Sorceress didn't know how much time passed since she had been imprisoned, she could see much has changed and that everyone who once lived within the once bountiful kingdom were now missing on account of what she immediately recognized was the dark curse cast only moments ago upon seeing the remnants of its purple storm cloud vanishing within the air.

At last, the villainess let out a quiet whistle and the owl flew down to land upon her arm as she turned around to walk back inside the crypt where she hoped to gather magical ingredients that were once hers before being left behind and forgotten by the Sorcerer who trapped her, so she could use them to discover what might have happened to bring this realm's most powerful kingdom down to ruin.

Weeks later…

The citizens of Camelot finally returned home early one afternoon upon passing through a magical portal within a door to another world as they were led by a woman with hair the color of a flame and the Queen herself. The Sorceress looked down on their homecoming atop of one of the castle's highest walls after she transformed herself into a crow to avoid being seen upon sensing the rise of the portal from within her crypt, then flew back to its safety where she would wait for the opportune moment when she would make her reawakening known.

On the eve of a grand celebration within the castle's main hall where the people of Camelot gathered to celebrate the engagement of Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot, the villainess' time finally came as she suddenly burst into the center of the room with a bang, her dark magic protecting her from the knights' futile attacks upon her sudden appearance.

Once each of the knights had fallen after the powerful witch blasted them all away from her and knocked them down or out cold, Lancelot called out to her as he shouted angrily, "Who are you? Why have you disrupted our celebration here tonight?"

Before the villainess could answer, Guinevere fearfully stated, "Morgan Le Fay… I know very well who you are."

"Just as I know very well who you are too, Your Majesty," Morgan Le Fay replied coldly. "Queen Guinevere… You married my much younger brother Arthur some time ago, did you not? Where is he? I can only imagine my little brother is dead, seeing as you're all here celebrating your engagement to another man, whom must be… Lancelot. Merlin prophesied of many things. He told me one day Arthur would first be betrayed by the woman he loved and that soon after he would be murdered, but by my hands… as I was meant to be his undoing."

"Merlin apparently was only able to keep one of these two prophecies from coming true when he imprisoned me all those years ago, before Arthur was even born," she continued after she turned her head to look around at the soldiers slowly rising back to their feet while they picked up their swords again to prepare themselves for another battle against the witch.

Lancelot spoke again while he stood protectively in front of his fiancé saying, "Our King was killed in the strange land we all returned from days ago upon being transported there within a dark curse cast by the Dark One. Guinevere was told that Hades, God of the Underworld murdered him. If you wish to blame someone for taking away your glory for killing our King yourself, blame the Gods."

The dark sorceress sneered and then she responded, "On the contrary… I didn't really come here for Arthur. Not to kill him or to find him. What of Merlin? Where is he now and why is he not here joining you in this glorious festivity?"

"Merlin is also gone," the Queen answered quietly. "Except none of us actually know how he died, or by whose hands. But seeing as he was the most powerful sorcerer who ever lived, it must have been someone else nearly as powerful."

"It had to have been the Dark One," the leader of the knights added darkly. "The second one. The woman was fighting to resist the darkness. We don't know what happened between the heroes once she turned the man she loved into a Dark One as well to try to save his life. Before the curse was cast, her parents encouraged me to return to my mother. At the time, Arthur still lived and Guinevere was still loyal to him. I left the kingdom because I never believed we could be together, but we are now."

Morgan Le Fay didn't acknowledge she even heard any of what Lancelot said, as she asked again, "Where was Merlin buried? If I'm to learn what truly happened to him, I need either his body or something of great value to him. I spent the weeks of your absence trying to discover the answer for myself, but to no avail. I demand you tell me at once. Or I will destroy Camelot once and for all, and everyone in it. With both Merlin and Arthur gone, there's no longer anyone here who can protect you from me."

Queen Guinevere stepped out from behind her fiancé as she replied crossly, "We've already told you, we don't know what happened to Merlin. Or if he was even buried at all. But we may have something you can use to help you discover the truth. If you know where Merlin resided while alive before he was transformed into the tree, you will find a flower magically preserved within a priceless vase. A middlemist flower. He spoke of it once being the very first flower from the middlemist field he had given to his one true love, until she…"

"Betrayed him, like you betrayed yours?" the witch responded cruelly. "I know of his hovel within this forest very well. I went there when I first awoke and I don't recall seeing any flower."

"Perhaps you didn't look hard enough, but it's there," Lancelot retorted. "We saw it when we buried Arthur's body nearby and laid to rest most of his own precious belongings. Within the ground where Excalibur once was embedded in its rock until the sword was finally removed."

Morgan Le Fay raised her hands as she prepared herself to vanish from them until she said once more, "At least you thought to bring my brother home from this mysterious land you were displaced in. What was its name?"

Guinevere simply answered, "Storybrooke."

Without another word, the Sorceress finally waved her hands and disappeared just as she came. Instead of returning to her crypt, Morgan Le Fay transported herself back to Merlin's home within the forest, a small hut within a magical tree. The irony didn't escape her that he had lived within the tree long before he ever was transformed into one as Guinevere had told her he had. Putting the thought out of her mind, she looked more closely at the books and objects surrounding her, yet still she could see no middlemist flower within some enchanted vase. She then waved her hand once again to uncover all that contained magical properties within the room and at last the flower was uncovered.

"A cloaking spell… appearing to have lost most of its power," the witch uttered to herself, then carefully picked up the vase holding the flower so she could examine it more closely. "No doubt to hide it from the likes of me. This ought to work perfectly. Merlin always was a sentimental fool."

Upon finally returning back to the tomb within her crypt, Morgan Le Fay immediately got to work in mixing the potion that would open a window into the past so she would finally learn of what happened to Merlin. So she would learn who it was who stole her revenge against the Sorcerer who had imprisoned her.

When she succeeded after adding one final ingredient… the flower upon crushing its petals into a powder and releasing the residue into her boiling cauldron, a window opened like the villainess hoped as images swirled around within until they became clear, revealing a sinister, yet handsome villain she could only assume was the Dark One whom the Queen and Lancelot spoke of, appear as he entered a darkened room before Merlin, then locked the door behind him with a simple flick of his wrist.

Morgan Le Fay watched as the Dark One stared coldly at the Sorcerer while Merlin finished leaving a message to those unknown to her, then turned to face his enemy until the Dark One rushed forward and suddenly ripped out the Sorcerer's heart with barely a word to explain his action.

"Heard you preparing for the worst case scenario," Dark Hook stated cruelly just before doing so. "I'm sorry, mate. It's already here."

Merlin gasped in pain as the Dark One plunged his hand into his chest, then the supposedly more powerful being replied, "You're too late. I've already left a message for the others."

The villain looked between the glowing red heart in his hand and the magical sword at his side while he responded, "Well, they can't do anything to stop me. Not while I have this."

Upon the blade being brought to his attention, the Sorcerer spoke again with surprise in his voice saying, "Excalibur. What do you want?"

"My revenge," the Dark One answered plainly. "And for that, I need to get back to Storybrooke."

"You want to cast a curse," Merlin replied as if he could read his enemy's mind. "It's not possible. Not without crushing the heart of the thing you love most."

Hook turned his head, appearing to be looking at someone or something only he could see, as did Merlin until Morgan Le Fay heard Merlin utter a single name, "Nimue."

Once whoever both men were seeing finished speaking, the Sorceress listened and observed as Merlin shook his head while he finally said again sadly, "But you're not really here."

"Aye, mate," the man consumed by the darkness responded smugly. "But she is. She lives in all Dark Ones."

"So when I crush your heart…" Hook continued more cruelly, holding Merlin's heart out in front of him to taunt him. "…so will she."

All of a sudden, the other Dark One also entered the room as she saw the second Dark One standing before her with Merlin and a woman invisible to Morgan Le Fay still, the great Sorcerer's heart within his hand, then she looked at the man she loved while she said with disbelief, "You were playing me the whole time."

Dark Hook turned to her and then answered, "Once you lied about Excalibur, all bets were off. I knew it was just a matter of time before you tried controlling me. And now no one will ever control me again."

"Go back from whence you came," he ordered the powerful blade hanging at his side that only he now controlled while he looked down at Excalibur. "Back to stone."

"I don't understand," Emma replied coldly as she strode towards the other being among them the Sorceress wished she could see and hear as well. "Why are you helping him get his revenge?"

After the invisible villain appeared to respond, the Dark Swan asked more curtly, "What do you want?"

After another moment of silence, she then stammered fearfully "No. You can't."

Emma struggled to take in the despair until she turned back to the man she loved and moved in close to him, taking the lapels of his long leather duster in her hands as she whispered gently, "Killian... Your revenge is not your happy ending. I am. You told me that. If you destroy this heart, you will destroy your happy ending along with it."

"No, Killian Jones told you that," Hook answered darkly. "Your lovesick puppy dog. But that man died the moment you turned him into a Dark One."

"Ooh…" he mockingly taunted when he stretched out his arm towards the Sorcerer and suddenly crushed Merlin's heart before him, then walked into the back room of the diner to pour the ashes left behind into a cauldron in order to create a new dark curse so they could all return back home to Storybrooke like he wanted.

It appeared that the moment between the two Dark Ones continued after the second killed the man Morgan Le Fay wished to take her own revenge on for imprisoning her all those years within her own lair. However, the Sorceress waved her hand over the window to make it vanish and then picked up one of her books so she could find a way to this strange land of Storybrooke herself, without having to cast another dark curse. In truth, she loved no one, or anything any longer, having left her past far behind her long before she met Merlin.

"There must be another way into this magical realm the Dark One now resides in and I will find it," the villainess uttered to the owl perched on one of the stacks of books beside her sternly while it stared at her as if the creature could understand what she was trying to do. "I don't care how long it takes. This Dark One stole my revenge from me. I will make him suffer for it. I may not be able to kill him, as he is immortal… but there are worse fates than death."

Morgan Le Fay had no idea the man she sought vengeance upon was no longer the Dark One. Nor would she care if she did. He murdered her greatest enemy, which in turn made Captain Hook her enemy as well. So without another word, to herself or to the owl still beside her, she continued to examine the book's pages until she couldn't find what she was looking for and went on to look through the next book. Little did she know then that it would take her more than a year to find this magical realm existing within the Land Without Magic.