Option A: Plans Made

"This is a stupid plan."

"It is better than your plan."

"You didn't let me come up with a plan! I have no plan!"

"Hence why it is better than your plan."

'Gabrielle' sighed and rolled her eyes. "We're going to mug my mother, and then come back and 'help her' by offering her a bigger score?"

'Xena', now in a mix between what Meg, Xena and the Evil Queen would wear with a plain cloak, tight leather pants, and a bust-enhancing corset/leather armor piece, let out her own sigh and replied, "I'm going to mug her, and make a noise about needing her skills and then having her take the ring for 'our purposes'. Then you come in and we 'convince' her that helping us by stealing the ring is in her best interests, and then once we get her agreement, we explain about the party. We've done things like this hundreds of times, what is so different about now?"

"Xena and Gabrielle did this sort of thing hundreds of times," the blue-eyed blond grumbled. "Emma and Regina have only done something like this like… twice, maybe three times if you count what just happened with Rumple."

"I don't."

"Then we've only done it twice, when we conned the town into thinking you were still evil when I came back, and then when we tried to ambush your sister by telling everyone you were working on a cure. Every other time we've worked together, it has just been straight-forward working together. No conning involved."

"Well, third time's a charm," 'Xena' said in her fun-voice, which always meant mischief was afoot. Before 'Gabrielle' could do anything to stop her though, she'd already taken off across the way toward their mark, aka a troubled and hiding Snow White.

They quickly cornered the nervous fugitive, not that she knew she was cornered. Not until Xena stepped out from an alcove in her path and held out a sword at her side. Snow froze and stopped in her tracks. She tried to back away, but Gabrielle was there, hidden beneath a concealing cloak, stopping her mother's retreat with the point of a stick, not that Snow knew that at the time.

"What do you want?" Snow demanded, struggling not to show her fear.

"We know who you are," Gabrielle harshly whispered from behind her. "We know why you're here. You're trying to escape the Evil Queen and her reach."

"Then you are trying to collect the reward," she deduced. "You should know…" she tried to warn her would-be-muggers, but Xena interrupted her.

"That the Evil Queen cannot be trusted," the tall, dark-haired warrior-woman finished for her. "Yes. That is why we tracked you down. You see, we're also trying to escape this place. But we need your help in order to do that."

"My help?" Snow asked, surprised. "Why me? What can I do?"

"Funny you should ask," Xena said, grinning like a shark.

She sheathed her sword across her back and put her hands on her hips, facing Snow with the cloak half undone, revealing the outfit beneath. "I hear that you're good at stealing. You've been accused of lifting the purses of quite a few nobles and taking your pick of a number of treasuries throughout the Enchanted Forest. If even half of the rumors are true, you're the person that we need."

"You want me to steal something," Snow stated, frowning. "Why?"

"Why do we need you to steal it, or," Xena intimidated, "why should you steal for us? The latter reason should be all too obvious. Why we need you to steal it, well, that is where what we need you to steal comes into play."

"And before that," Gabrielle said as she spun her mother around to face the blond in peasant clothes and cloak, wooden stick in hand, "we need to know that we can trust you. You're a Royal, or you were. You were raised on the whole concept of 'your word is your bond' and other ideals such as that. Give us your word that you'll steal this one thing, and we'll do away with the threats and everything."

Her frown deepened, but they could both tell that the thief princess was no longer afraid. She then crossed her arms and leaned against the alley wall, eyeballing the both of them. "What do you need me to steal?" she asked.

Xena and Gabrielle shot each other a questioning glance before finally coming to some silent agreement. "A ring," Xena answered.

"One that you actually would have acquired earlier today if you hadn't been spooked by some falling branches," Gabrielle added.

"What do you want with it?"

"Your word," Xena declared before her blond companion could say anything further.

"What," Snow repeated with greater emphasis, "do you want with it?"

"To stop a wedding," Gabrielle answered before Xena could stop her.

"Why?"

"Why are you trying to leave your kingdom?" she was asked in return, startling both Snow and Xena at the source of the question.

"I…" Snow was at a loss.

"Look," Xena quickly stepped in before any waterworks could start. "No threats, no blackmail, no intimidating. You want to get out of the Enchanted Forest, beyond the reach of the Evil Queen, yes?"

"Uh, y-yeah," Snow nodded her head.

"We can make sure that you end up on the path that you're meant to be on, where the Evil Queen ultimately is no longer a threat to you," she offered. "But in order to do that, we need you to steal that ring. Tonight."

"What is in it for you?" Snow asked, suspicious.

"Your word," they both demanded this time.

"Do I deliver this ring to you, or can I keep it?" she questioned.

"Keep it, sell it, try it on for all we care," Xena huffed with annoyed impatience. "All we care about is stopping the damn wedding."

"Why me?"

"No more questions, in or out?" Xena demanded.

Snow chewed on her lip for a bit before finally taking a deep breath and nodding her head. "Very well. I give you my word that I'll steal this ring. Now tell me what this is all about!"

"We already gave you the clues," Xena smirked, pulling Snow along so they'd leave the port by the quickest route that would take them to Midas's castle. "Not our fault if you're so…"

"You need to break into King Midas's castle and steal Prince James's engagement ring to Princess Abigail," Gabrielle interrupted before too much of 'Regina' could show through while in Snow's presence.

"Wait, what?!" Snow exclaimed.

"Now you see why we wanted your word before telling you the details," Xena smirked.

"Can either of you help?" she asked after they'd made it to the road toward the Midas kingdom. "I certainly wouldn't say no."

"I…" Gabrielle started to offer, but Xena interrupted her this time.

"We'll try and keep the guards off of you," she stated. "That is the best that we can offer. You're on your own for getting in, finding it, and then getting out."

"Fine," Snow said, put off by the dark-haired woman's abruptness. "Will I see either of you after this?"

"If everything goes the way it is supposed to," Gabrielle replied, "not for a very long time. If things go wrong…"

"We'll be there," Xena promised.

"All right then," Snow acknowledged before dashing ahead into the woods, pulling her hood further over her head. "See you… eventually then."

Continued...