Dagmar pressed her face through the bars of the gate, "What are you doing here?"

Johann smiled a charming smile as the wind lifted his hair, "I heard you were with the imp, I wanted to make sure it was willing."

She shrugged, "Well as willing as a 'you will be queen or you'll die of a plague' mentorship can be, I suppose."

"I can break this gate down. Take you home, rescue the maiden..."

"If I take one step outside these walls without him then the disease he healed me from comes back tenfold. Listen, I don't even want to be queen and I don't want your throne, I just wanted my golden fleece back but he sort of found me when I was trying to take it…"

"So you are the real queen."

"Yes."

"The descendant of Jason and Medea?" he furrowed his eyebrow, "But their children were killed…"

Dagmar smiled, "Not the youngest. One of the servants found him bleeding and smuggled him away. And my ancestors have been surviving ever since. And now I'm here to take back my throne because I was an idiot…a dying idiot but one none the less."

"You realize that he's going to use you while you sit on that throne."

"Yeah, he's been pretty honest about that," she muttered, "But I don't have a choice."

He sighed and wrapped his hands around the cage "May I come in for a bit?"

"He'll know."

"Let him know."

Dagmar stared at him, "Do you realize what he'd do if he found you here?"

"Well what's he going to do?" Johann asked, "Kill me? I suppose I'm a dead man if he decides to put you on the throne. I highly Doubt Rumpelstiltskin will allow any sort of competition like myself to be against you. And besides, I want to hear how exactly you plan to run the country after we lose our right to the throne. It wouldn't hurt to get to know the new queen either"

Dagmar pursed her lips, "You know that you'll lose it for a fact?"

"You have the Dark One supporting you; of course I know I'll lose it."

Dagmar thought about the repercussions of what might happen to him if Rumpelstiltskin found him here before she opened the gate, "Come on, let's see if we can find a way to get Rumpelstiltskin his way and keep all of you alive."

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Rumpelstiltskin had set his plan in motion over and over again throughout the centuries but something always fell short. He'd get his monster ready to cast the spell but he hadn't figured out how to bottle true love. Or he'd get his true loves together and have that true love baby but he STILL couldn't figure out how to bottle true love and his monster wasn't where he wanted them to be.

Regina and Snow White was the closest thing he had right now. Regina wasn't the worst monster he'd ever had as an apprentice but she was certainly up there. He expected that she'd be the one to cast the curse and Snow White' the epitome of purity and goodness would find her true love and have little true love babies for him to exploit, but he'd had his hopes dashed before.

He told Dagmar that she was just something for him to control on the throne but in reality, she was his backup plan. She was mule headed enough to find her true love instead of settling for an arranged marriage so he didn't have to worry about that, all he had to do was try and push the soon to be 'former' king and queen into enacting the curse after she found whoever it was and gave him a baby.

But that didn't seem to be going right, they were frustrated and angry but he didn't sense any evil or desperation brewing in them.

The queen had joined them in the council, which frustrated him far more than it should have. She was levelheaded and she'd undo all the anger that he was trying to stir up in the King.

The queen listened to them trying to negotiate and cleared her throat, "Alright, if she's a queen then she should be able to pass a simple test to prove her bloodline."

"Yes, that's usually how it goes" Rumpelstiltskin barely regarded her but answered it anyway.

"Then let's put it to the test," The queen said, "Because with all due respect, sir. While you don't lie…you don't exactly tell the truth either. Not all of it. And I want to make sure I know who I'm giving my throne to before I even think about the possibility of surrendering it."

Rumpelstiltskin sighed, oh this went against everything that he was hoping to accomplish but he didn't expect he'd get what he wanted done anyway. These people were good. Ugh, it left such a bad taste in his mouth.

"I suppose we can work something out," he said.

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Dagmar was finishing breakfast the morning after he returned from negotiations.

"I hope you're happy," he said and stopped when he smelled or…sensed that the pretty boy prince had been in this room. He stopped in surprise that she would dare let anyone into his castle and used his power to figure out if she had let him anywhere else but the main quarters.

She hadn't. IN fact it seemed like they just spent the night in the two chairs in front of the fireplace.

"Happy for what?" she asked while playing ignorant.

"I lost a night's sleep trying to clean up your mess."

She just stared at him, "Does evil incarnate even NEED to sleep."

That was beside the point and she knew it, "You have a test you have to pass by the end of the week. As per the deal I made, I'm not to tell you about it because apparently that would be cheating but it should prove your claim to the throne."

"Oh," she stood and gathered her plate, "That should be interesting."

"Yes, it'll prove you are who you say you are once and for all so you don't really need to worry about it."

"I won't," she said, started to pass him and then stopped, "Oh, and I'm getting married next week, just thought you should know."