Loving the Devil

Part 2: Saving the Devil

Cruella was harmless: it sounded strange to describe with this word the devil, but she actually was. She was so harmless that, despite the fact that she had a gun with her, she should have been the one to fear for her life; she could have died and the Savior would have turned dark: here it was one of the possible ending of the story. But Isaac could prevent it, he had to, he wanted to.

"I just wanted to save the world from Cruella"

That's what he said to the Charmings when they entered in a sudden rush the Dark One's cabin, trying to get the truth out of him. He didn't hide it: he showed the page he had written about Cruella, said something about the consequences of what was probably already happening, and then did something that surprised himself. He asked for help.

"I just wanted to save the world from Cruella" he said again and in his tone there was a begging note now. "But now we have to save Cruella from the world"

And then suddenly he stopped talking and started running. According to his deal with the Dark one, according to the cinism he had gained during all those years, that decision seemed almost absurd - but it wasn't a decision after all, since his brain was completely on stand-by.

"Don't let her die. Please, please, please don't let her die": that's all that was in his mind at that moment, filtered by the memory of Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms. It was absurd indeed, but he didn't want her to die, not now, not like that, not… ever. Because there was something he had forgotten to tell her during their last meeting: not only he had loved her in the past, but he still did. Maybe in the wrong way – but he did.

He was running through the woods and it was as if he magically knew where to go. It wasn't written anywhere yet how the story should have ended and for the first time Isaac could have intervened without his precious pen. It was the second time in his life that he was separating himself from the relationship with a piece of paper, and for the second time it was because of Cruella De Vil.

"Stop, Emma! Cruella can't harm Henry!"

Isaac couldn't tell who had shouted that sentence first – if himself or one of the two Charmings; but surely he was the first to arrive and, luckily, on time. Cruella glared at him, keeping drawing the gun on the boy. However, the man didn't care about it and instead focused all his attention on the Savior.

"Emma, let her go…" he repente, cautiously moving some steps toward her.

The blonde finally turned to him, letting show the expression of pure fury on her face. He already could see that dark side coming out, but he was confident that it wouldn't have ended that way. The shining magic in her hands, that almost diabolic look and the lost expression: no one could do anything no more, it was all on her to choose now.

"Don't worry, darling, she won't kill me. She's a hero and heroes don't kill"

It sounded quite ironic how, after a short but intense silence, it was Cruella the one to suggest the right choice. Sure, she had pronounced those words just to provoke her, but they had a certain worth anyway. Emma looked back at her and remained for some moments still just staring at her; then, she suddenly shook her head as if she was awakening from a night mare and let the flow of magic weakening in her hands. Only then, she hit the other woman, with an intensity sufficient only to make her temporarily pass out.

Here it was the epilogue of the story: the Savior as a hero, in the arms of her son and her parents, and the animals witch laying unconscius at some distance from the cliff. Angelically asleep and gloriously alive – in the flesh and fur.


If that had been a fairytale, Isaac would have bent on her and kissed her; but he was no prince and certaintly she was no princess, so he just kept staring at her red lips, whose taste could only be immagined. It was him who had taken her away from the woods and led her to her room at Granny's, then he had sat on the bed, just waiting for her to wake up. His only company had been The Great Gatsby, even if his own Daisy was more cruel than the one in the story; actually Cruella was no daisy at all, if anything a poisoned bluebell. However the reading was over when the woman's eyes finally opened.

"Mmm I've never actually liked this place, but I never thought that Hell would have been an inn…"

With that ironic sentence, Cruella came back to life, even if the face she made when she tried to lift her head let understand that it was a painful return.

Isaac hid his deep relief with an amused smile and approached her, totally forgetting Fitzgerald.

"Unluckily for the world, you are not dead Cruella"

The woman slightly shook her head and finally, after a new attempt, she managed to sit up and lean her back against the wall. She closed her eyes and that moment of darkness was enough to call back out her last memories from total black out. The escape into the woods with Henry, the Savior's threat, Isaac's arrival… Every detail strongly surfaced in her mind, so much that she found herself suddenly widening her eyes.

"You… You saved me" she murmured, turning slightly her head to him.

She looked genuinely surprised and confused, but there was nothing tender in those feelings; in fact, she waited for the man to nod and then chuckled out of the blue.

"You are such a fool, Isaac…" she added and this time in her tone there was a bitter note. "I wanted to kill you, I wanted to see you dead… And you save my life, darling?"

She wasn't sorry, she didn't feel any regret for her criminal thoughts, but their hostility was somehow making her sad and that unexplainable rescue surprised her. It was instead the absurdity of the general situation that was making her laugh.

"I never wanted to see you dead"

Isaac's answer was serious, but the hint of a smile was still on his lips: a strange smile, not amused, not bitter, maybe just determined. He kept smiling while he sat on the bed as well and slowly dared the move to approach his hand to the woman's cheek. He felt her shivering under his touch, he saw those sparkling blue eyes widening again and in that moment he understood. Cruella never was innocent and everything they had lived together was a lie, but there had been something real; there was a common thread between past and present, between angel and devil, and that common thread was her sincere wonder. Maybe she wasn't able to feel love or empathy, but she was able to wonder and he was the one to bring that emotion out of her.

"You were right, I never really loved you completely…" he started to say, still caressing her gently "but now I mean to do that, I want to fall in love with the devil…"

He stared at her with determination and then, before that beautiful expression of wonder vanished from her face, he let their faces become closer until he placed a soft kiss on those red lips – just as he had been imagining until that moment. That day and all the days of his whole life.

Cruella stood still; actually, she didn't feel anything particular at that contact, if not the intensity of his love. And that love wasn't bothering her now, it was simply intriguing – and amazing - her.

"Be careful, darling… For a man who's not used to live, this could be too much to bear" she whispered with a half smirk.

And then, pusher by an instict she couldn't define, it was her the one to close again the distance between their lips.


First of all, thank you so much for the beautiful reviews! I'm glad you liked the beginning of the story and I hope you will continue to follow it!:) Of course, I had to save Cruella from her death... So from now on the story will be an AU from 4x18. I let something happen between them and something more will in next chapters! See you soon:)