Chapter 9 – The Sword in the Stone

Under the light of the sun, the metallic spikes jutting high into the sky from Dark Palace shimmered and reflected as if mirrors into an inescapable void. The effect created was awe inspiring if not a little terrifying, but for Ruby, excitement usurped all other considerations. When Emma and Esperanza crested the incline seconds later, she looked at them with a humongous grin.

"We made it!"

As her companions took in the same sight she just had, Ruby watched a myriad of expressions play over their features from relief to awe with plenty of trepidation in between before finally settling into determination. They are both as ready as I am to get this over with, Ruby thought, which was good as there would be little incentive for delays or sightseeing once inside. Regina's explicit instructions suddenly seemed more manageable.

"Once you reach the Dark Palace, don't dillydally, Ruby," she'd said the night before Ruby was due to leave. "It's not a place to linger, even if uninhabited. I had occasion to visit during Pan's Curse and know there to be darkness lingering there, a darkness that I created and eagerly cultivated. It permeates every hallway and chamber, lurks in every nook and cranny. I wanted my home to reflect to new disposition, and I was entirely too successful. I don't want you in that place longer than is absolutely necessary. So, as soon as you arrive at the Palace, you are going to do what?"

After a moment of expectant glaring, Ruby huffed out an annoyed breath. "I'm going to activate your pendant, follow it to your chambers, grab what we need, and hightail it out of there."

Humming with delight, Regina struck a pose as if a school teacher whose worst pupil just pleased and shocked her with a correct answer. "Very good! You were listening after all."

"I always listen to you, babe," Ruby had replied, returning Regina's sass with her own.

Regina smirked, shaking her head because she knew better. "Only when it suits you, dear."

And it kind of was the truth. Ruby had a tendency to feign acceptance of suggestions she didn't like – that is, unless she thought doing so would land her in the kind of trouble even her best puppy-esque pouting could mitigate. Now was one of those times she was tempted to ignore the stern warnings she'd been given if for no other reason than Regina wasn't present to scold her for such foolishness. And the opportunity to explore someplace new – Ruby had never set foot inside the Dark Palace – was powerful. Standing so tantalizingly close now, bearing witness to the awful splendor that made the structure one that pierced even the most courageous hearts with fear, made Ruby want to explore every inch of it.

What made her most keen to investigate, though, was its essential link to her wife. Even now she could taste the cloying flavor of dark magic and smell the anger and pain in the air. The almost tangible despair that seemed engraved into every surface of the edifice called out to her baser instincts because of familiarity; it was the same disturbing combination of residual sensory elements she encountered after Regina had a nightmare rooted in her past. This place was where it had all happened, where Regina had spent long, torturous years being deconstructed from a brave, loving young woman into a bitterly hollow shell that Rumplestiltskin took full advantage of. That impish bastard had filling her to overflowing with unbridled hatred through the indulgence of dark thoughts and the careful cultivation of dangerous inclinations. What emerged from that crucible was a broken vessel made into a terribly whole mass of unstoppable vengeance, fathomless malignity, and boundless cruelty; an unhinged tyrant whose rage and vindictiveness were so legendary that she inspired tales to be written of her in far away worlds; a woman undone who more than earned her altogether fitting appellation: the Evil Queen.

All under the guise of enacting her final revenge, Regina had cast the most insidious curse ever conceived. She hadn't realized then that her true motive was to escape the unending misery of her existence. Decades were spent toiling with blood, sweat, and tears for Regina to successfully entomb the Queen within the mausoleum of her mind where she kept all of her other vast assortment of horrific memories. That the work was done unwittingly at first made Regina's ultimate victory over her own personal darkness all the more impressive.

It felt wrong in a way, then, for Ruby to trample upon all of that excruciating labor when she knew very well Regina would be grilling her about the trip when she got home and that no details, however minute, could be permissibly omitted. Were Ruby to scratch the itch of her curiosity, the telling of it might inadvertently trigger a resurgence of thoughts and emotions best left consigned to the yellowed, cracked pages of ancient history. The very possibility of that happening made her wish to never walk upon the steel, stone, and mortar monument erected to her wife's descent into insanity.

But no matter how much Ruby respected and loved and wanted to protect Regina, the proximity to gleaning some personal insights to a time before they formally became acquainted, not to mention fell in love, proved nearly too irresistible to pass up.

"No," she told herself, imperceptibly shaking her head to rid herself of such contemplations. "You can't get distracted. Use the pendant, follow it, get what we came for, and get the hell out." Repeating that phrase over and over as if to emblazon it in her neurons, Ruby gestured toward the castle. "C'mon. We need to hurry. We can't afford lose any more time. I wanna be out of there and on our way to our next destination before nightfall if at all possible."

With silent nods of agreement, Emma and Esperanza fell back into step behind Ruby as she set off down the small hill. Her pace increased from what it was before in her urgency. As the Dark Palace grew larger and larger in her field of vision, Ruby focused on taking in every sound that she could make out. Esperanza's earlier tale about patrols of soldiers in the area could not afford to be underestimated when the terrain had proven unreliable, which meant exercising at least some caution was preferable to beating a hasty retreat that might very well get them lost.

For a good portion of the trek Ruby heard nothing out of the ordinary, but as they got to within a quarter of a mile, she detected a low-level humming that that set her teeth on edge and caused the fine hairs on her arms and neck to pebble. For a while, she dismissed the noise as some kind of ambiance possibly produced by an unintended side-effect on her ears from the weird magic that blanketed the entire area. But the closer they got to the Palace, the louder the humming got, and as they came to within a hundred yards of the rising hill upon which the Dark Palace rested, the volume became impossible for her to ignore.

Stopping in her tracks, she held up her hand for the others to stop as well. "Don't you guys hear that?" she asked, her eyes focused forward, scanning the area to and fro for movement.

"Not really," Emma said from close behind Ruby's right ear. "Just foresty stuff like birds chirping and leaves rustling in the wind. Why? Do you hear something?"

Her sensitive ears on overload, Ruby winced visibly. If the noise didn't get dialed down soon she would get a migraine. "I don't know what it is, but it's almost deafening! You know what happens when you turn the stereo up too loud and there's no music playing? Like that. I can't make out an origin, but it's so close that my head feels like it's going to pop!"

Emma frowned worriedly, resting a hand flat on the small of Ruby's back. "You gonna be okay?"

"I will if this damn buzzing will stop!" Ruby grit her teeth against the pain as Emma went silent. Ruby didn't have to see Emma's face to know she was sorting out options in her head. While the blonde was thinking and rubbing gentle circles on Ruby's back, Ruby tried every trick in the book to block out the noise, from humming loudly to stopping up her ear canals with her fingers. Nothing worked. It was as if the sound was not manifesting in the physical world but was being magically emitted and therefore not restricted to the laws of physics.

"Oh!" Emma's delighted squeak broke Ruby out of her pained stupor. She looked up to find her friend beaming a smile. "I know what it is! It's a force field. Esperanza mentioned it back at the lake – that it was put up to keep people out."

"So it is true," Esperanza said, her eyes wide at the reality that all of the stories she'd been told were not baseless after all. "If the shield is there, it means that the Sorcerer really is in the castle."

Groaning, Ruby's head fell. Her head was now pounding so viciously that white spots started dancing in her field of view.

She growled with frustration. "Dammit! This makes things a whole lot more complicated and dangerous."

The hand Emma had resting against Ruby's back was raised to her shoulder. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. One obstacle at a time, remember?"

Ruby made a face at the reference. "Yeah. How could I forget?"

Emma had used that exact phrase during Ruby's first tough case as a full time Sheriff's deputy. It was about four months into her employment, and other than the fallout from the tragic case of the Lost Boy who had killed someone due to desperation, she'd yet to tackle much more than simple misdemeanors. Contrary to popular belief, Storybrooke's sordid crowd was populated by villains mainly of the petty variety easily caught between the combined skills of the Savior and the Big Bad Wolf.

One particularly lazy afternoon when she and Emma were both bored out of their skulls, a call came in of a domestic disturbance in a very affluent neighborhood. They had responded with misplaced glee, glad more than anything to have something to do beyond meaningless pencil pushing. In her excitement to get cracking on a real crime, Emma may have even broken several traffic ordinances, some of which she was personally instrumental in instituting. And though Ruby teased her friend over the irony, she was pretty sure she would've done worse had Emma let her drive.

When they got to the home and approached the door, all was quiet, which was unsettling considering the report mentioned excessively loud shouting and the sounds of objects being broken. Instantly, Ruby's senses began tripping that something terrible had happened. She cut a nervous glance over to see Emma, who standing at attention with her hand resting on the handle of her gun as she reached out to the door. After three loud knocks and several calls for anyone inside to answer, the Sheriff reached for the knob with a stony expression that sent Ruby's stomach to flip-flopping.

As soon as Emma's hand touched the knob, the door very unexpectedly pushed open, and both immediately noted that the latch and socket were both broken. A scene awaited inside that would give Ruby nightmares for weeks. She could still remember in vivid detail the sweet, smokey smell of Jack Daniels mixed with coppery blood that permeated the living room as well as the sight of a used syringe haphazardly discarded upon the coffee table next to a spoon and lighter. The tools, Ruby knew from secondhand experience during the curse, of a heroin junkie. Next to the coffee table, a man was laying prone clearly in the throes of the powerful drug, muttering and murmuring disjointedly as his eyes flitted and fluttered.

But it was not the drugs or the mind-addled junkie that rattled her, but what was discovered a mere five feet to his left. There, in the middle of the small space between the living room and kitchen, were three bodies: one belonging to a woman and the two others young children. Their ghastly inert forms were arranged at odd angles and an enormous pool of blood was soaked into the tan carpet upon which they laid. It had taken an enormous amount of willpower for Ruby to keep herself from vomiting, but even more so to restrain herself from ripping the man apart who had obviously murdered his family in his drug-induced delirium.

After they had secured and restrained the man they assumed to be the junkie father, they began their initial walk of the scene. Several times during that first half hour, Ruby nearly lost her battle for self-control. She was still uncertain as to how she kept a lid on her swirling emotions in order to do her job.

But then in rapid succession, they made two discoveries that careened the investigation into a very unexpected direction. First was Emma's discovery of a family photograph that proved their perp was neither the husband or the father. Rather, the husband was a very prominent member of the City Council who was well known to be domineering and abusive. They'd never been able to pin anything on him because the wife refused to do anything about it. The new information created doubt as to whether or not the man they'd found at the scene had even committed the crime.

The second discovery came about when Ruby had heard whimpering inside a closet in the hallway. After investigating, she'd found a very small girl, three years old at the most, hunkered down in the corner of the hallway. A teddy bear was clenched in her tiny hands as she wept and trembled. The sight had broken Ruby's heart, particularly because she'd been heavily pregnant at the time and her motherly instincts were earnestly kicking in.

Considering the grizzly nature of the scene and the orphaned little girl clearly petrified out of her mind, Ruby's nerves were frayed to a thread within the first hour of the investigation. But after David arrived to take the suspect to lock-up and the newly appointed social worker took custody of the traumatized child, the added weight of responsibility having to handle such a delicate, high-profile, and potentially explosive investigation overwhelmed her.

She'd thought she was doing a pretty good job of hiding how much she was freaking out, but Emma seemed to share Regina's sixth sense in discerning her feelings. Sometimes it was annoying she couldn't escape knowing eyes watching her like a hawk even at work, but that day when a comforting hand reached out to steady her and sagely understanding green eyes fixed her with an expression of calm determination that belied Emma's own internal turmoil, Ruby was just relieved.

"It'll be okay, Ruby," Emma had said, her voice as calm with assurance as her features. "You can do this. Those kids and that poor woman in there deserve justice, and we're going to give it to them, okay? I know it seems a daunting task right now, and I'll admit that the odds are certainly stacked against us considering who we might be up against. But just remember: Rome wasn't built in a day and this investigation won't be either. So just take it one obstacle at a time, and pretty soon we'll get where we need to be to nail the bastard who did this."

Those words had stuck with Ruby ever since. Whenever she was presented with a difficult problem to solve or a complex case to crack, she remembered Emma's advice. One obstacle at a time. Keeping that in mind made it possible for her to focus whenever life threw crazy things her way, which seemed daily in Storybrooke. As grateful as she was for Emma's timely advice back then, she was equally so now.

"You're right," she said, resolute once more. "We need to tackle the first obstacle, and that is this shield. We have to get through it before we can do anything else. So how do we do that?"

"I think I can take care of it if we can find it without someone getting zapped," said Emma with no small amount of confidence. "Can you guide us by ear?"

"I can try."

Taking a deep breath, Ruby closed her eyes and allowed the loud humming to become her primary focus. While so obnoxiously loud that her teeth rattled, the source did not feel imminently close. She could tell it was nearby, though. Somewhere to the north. After opening her eyes, Ruby carefully started forward, taking at a slow, deliberate pace as she let the ever intensifying sounds emanated by the shield guide her closer and closer. About ten feet away from the sloping ground of the large hill, the humming reached a crescendo that had Ruby fighting against a scream.

Cupping her hands over her ears instinctively, she stopped moving forward. "I think we're close!" Deafened as she was, she didn't realizing she was shouting. And although Emma's lips moved in response, Ruby could not understand with her thoughts muddled by the incessant blaring. "What? I can't hear you, it's too damned loud!"

Sighing, Emma made a gesture with her hand, the tips of her fingers glowing white. "There," she said, and Ruby was relieved to find that the humming had stopped and she was now able to hear Emma talk once again. "That better?"

"Yeah," Ruby nodded, shaking her head in an attempt to clear the residual ringing. Out of gratitude, Ruby choked down a wise-ass comment that she wished Emma thought to do that earlier. Instead, she mustered up a lopsided smile that Emma returned. "Thanks."

"No problem." Stepping next to where Ruby was standing, Emma raised her right arm out perpendicular to her body, palm forward and hand open. "I'm going to...probe it with my magic now, for lack of a better description. See what we're dealing with."

Ruby bit her lip, anxious for Emma's safety. "Just be careful."

"You know me," was Emma's cheeky reply.

And that was the problem. The woman could be as reckless as anyone Ruby had ever known, especially where her magic was concerned. Getting past the shield was a vital step in accomplishing their objective, but it was just as important to keep Emma in one piece. Prepared to reiterate her desire that Emma be careful, Ruby was preempted by the Savior closing her eyes and extending out her magic to find the shield.

A cloud of white swirling magic began wafting from Emma's hand, dancing and twirling outward as it sought out the magical shield that kept unwanted intruders from gaining access into the Dark Palace. Onward and onward it went, extending out to about thirty yards up the incline before it suddenly came into contact with a solid yet invisible object. Bright white sparks shot out from where Emma's magic contacted the shield.

As the electric reaction intensified, Emma's face screwed up in concentration. Concern had Ruby ready to intervene or at least inquire after Emma's state but her better judgment staid her interference. Not only did she trust the blonde to know her limits, but when performing intricate magic, she knew Emma needed to keep her wits about her. Not wanting to be a distraction that caused a mistake, maybe even a catastrophic one, Ruby clasped her hands together in front of her and began anxiously fidgeting with them.

To distract herself, she observed Emma's magic as it began to move up and down, swooping and swirling as it spread over the surface of the shield. The cloud of magic grew until it covered at least a twenty foot section. Not long after, she heard incoherent mumbling, and Ruby glanced back to find Emma's forehead dotted with perspiration from the effort she was expending. A minute or more of intense focus followed before Emma's face went slack, her body relaxed, and she heaved a deep breath. And then she faltered.

"Emma!" Esperanza shouted, rushing forward to steady Emma, who continued wobbling in place even with Esperanza's support.

Heart thudding at seeing Emma so drained, Ruby tucked herself tight against her swooning to further buttress her. Trembling noticeably, Emma gingerly rubbed her temples, her green eyes slightly glazed over. As gently as she could, Ruby returned the comforting favor of rubbing Emma's back.

"Are you alright?" she asked, not bothering to hide how frightened she was.

"Yeah. 'M fine," Emma said, gently grasping onto Esperanza's forearm until her dizziness abated. "Whew! That's one hell of a powerful shield." After taking a moment to gather herself, she straightened back up and cleared her throat. "I'm good, thanks. Sorry about that. Didn't mean to worry you guys."

Nodding, Esperanza backed away a few steps, confident in Emma's ability to stay upright. Ruby kept her place at Emma's side.

"It's alright, sweetie," she said as she continued to make soothing patterns upon Emma's lower back. "Are you sure you're okay, though? You about passed out on us."

Emma nodded. "I'm fine. Really. Just wasn't expecting so much concentrated energy from such a large shield. As would be obvious, the size of a shield directly impacts the dispersal of magic, so they generally don't feedback. But this one did, though, and something nasty. Whoever cast it is very powerful.

"Thankfully, although surprisingly potent, the enormous size of the shield also works to our advantage. If it were smaller – say half as big – I wouldn't be able to break it without expending all of my energy. But because its so vast, the energy is diffused just enough that I can create a temporary hole in it without much trouble. It won't be anything fancy, but it will be enough for us to get through. However, I suggest we pick a location very close to where we're going to breach, 'cause as soon as I do this, whoever cast this shield is going to know we're here."

"Right," Ruby said, drawing out the word in a fit of aggravation. She stepped away from Emma and turned back toward the Dark Palace, eyeing it sharply. "Another obstacle to overcome, I suppose. I was really hoping to avoid detection, but it doesn't seem like we have much of a choice. One way or another, though, we need to get to those maps or this whole trip has been for nothing."

Shifting on her feet, Emma quirked her head at Ruby. "Don't stress out just yet, we'll get them. Where do we need to be when we break the shield?"

Ruby squinted her eyes as she recalled and then relayed the information Regina had been forced her to memorize. "According to Regina, the tunnel entrance is in the northeastern corner of the compound. She said to look for a large, misshapen tree with a horse carved into its trunk. A hundred paces up the hill from there is a large outcropping of stones, into which an alcove is carved. That's the entrance. The door is marked by runes from where she resealed it during their foray back here after Pan died using a mixture of blood and dark magic."

Emma appeared slightly worried by that information. "How are we supposed to get in then? Last time I checked, Regina isn't here and I can't access dark magic anymore without the dagger."

Ruby shrugged casually. "I honestly don't know how it's gonna work, but she swore to me that if I touched the stone, it would open."

Emma's golden brows arched. "Well, that's interesting. She ought to know, though, so I guess we'll have to trust her. Anyway, let's head that direction. I don't like hanging around here. This place gives me the heebie-jeebies."

"Indeed," said Esperanza, looking up at the Palace with a measure of foreboding. "The patrols are bound to be more numerous so close to the castle. It would be unwise to linger any longer than necessary."

Inclining her head in acknowledgment, Ruby turned back toward her companions. "Alright then. Let's head out." And with that, she lead them away, cutting a path away from the shield and back into the woods before veering northeast.

The Dark Palace was a very large complex, so it took them nearly twenty minutes to travel around the eastern mountainside to the gnarled and blackened tree that Regina had spoken of. Squatting down to check the truck, Ruby spotted the symbol she was told to look for, confirming they were in the correct location. Looking out toward the mountain, she easily spotted the outcropping of rocks that contained the entrance. She grinned.

"And there we are," she said, pointing out into the distance at the entrance rock. She glanced back at Emma and Esperanza, who were looking to her for her instructions. She focused on Emma first. "Can you drop your protection spell on my ears so I can hear the shield again?"

"Sure," Emma answered, and then gestured with her hand in that familiar way Regina often utilized to performing a spell without the need for incantation. With the block removed, Ruby instantly heard the incessant humming return and ground her teeth together against its grating effect.

"Follow me," she said, indicating toward the mountain, "I'll get us back up to the shield." And with that, she began forward with a determined gait.

Leaving the protection of the forest behind, she entered the clearing with Emma and Esperanza following closely behind, and after traveling about a hundred yards, reached the beginning of the mountain slope. Careful to avoid large boulders and ruts in the rough earth that might break an ankle, Ruby picked a path up the sharp incline, all the while making sure to keep track of the noise level from the shield and her companions progress as she did. They had only made it up about twenty yards when she felt liquid in her ears she knew to be blood.

Stopping, Ruby turned back to Emma and made a gesture around her ear with her hand. Having understood, Emma nodded and respelled her hearing to block the annoying sound generated by the shield.

Breathing a sigh relief, she rubbed her ears clean then wiped the blood on her pants before nodding to Emma. "Alright, do your thing."

After making a show of cracking her knuckles, Emma smiled crookedly. "With pleasure." And then she stretched out her arms in front of her toward where the invisible barrier lay.

As before, Emma's magic began to emanate out from her hands in a thick white cloud of smoke, which made its way toward the shield until it collided with the barrier and began to spread over its surface. But then, she began to move her hands as if she were shaping a box with them and as she did, her magic obeyed the silent commands to form a vertically oriented rectangle that extended about seven feet high by three feet wide, the typical dimensions of a modern door casing.

"Alright, get ready," the Savior said, voice already strained from the effort to maintain her focus. "When I cut the shield we'll have about thirty seconds to get on the other side. I can't hold the spell longer than that."

By the time Ruby glanced over at Esperanza, the woman was already on her haunches, ready to sprint at a moment's notice. Her calm and collected demeanor further bolstered Ruby's respect for someone who only a day earlier was a total stranger. And although Esperanza had her own motive for accompanying them on the journey, that she was willing to risk herself to help was no small thing in Ruby's estimation. When they got back to Storybrooke, she was going to have to figure out a way to properly thank her new kinswoman, though she was not quite sure what she could do besides extend the same hospitality to Esperanza that Esperanza had to her and Emma. It might not be much, but at least it was a good start.

"I'm ready," Esperanza preemptively declared, having anticipated Ruby's questioning glance.

Ruby acknowledged Esperanza with a brief nod before settling into her own preparatory stance. She turned back to Emma. "Do it."

No more was said as Emma launched into casting the spell to breach the shield. With a fluid motion, she closed her hands into fists and swiped her arms downward to her sides. A terrific whoosh ensued as golden Savior magic began to condense around the edges of the rectangle, growing more and more bold in color as it congealed into what looked like some kind of plasma. In only a few seconds the puffy white clouds of magic had formed into four thin liquid lines that began to vibrate at an ultrasonic frequency that resembled the screech of a dog whistle. Ruby's neck stiffened crookedly at the sound, but she summoned every ounce willpower to remain on task as Emma crouched down.

With all of them ready to run, Emma said, "Here we go," and as soon as the words left her mouth the shield groaned audibly and became visible. It appeared as a thin, flowing red and gray pool of roiling waves, which instantly hardened and cracked. Grabbing a rock, Emma glanced at Ruby and then at Esperanza. "As soon as I toss this rock, we have to run."

She didn't wait for acknowledgment. With a grunt of effort, she heaved the rock at the shield, which shattered on contact into innumerable pieces that rained down onto the ground. When Emma took off into a sprint, Ruby followed closely, and Esperanza behind her. As soon as all three were on the other side, they turned to watch the white lines of Emma's magic start to fray like old cords of rope, untangling and unwinding as the energy of the shield overwhelmed it. It broke with a loud pop, dissipating into the air as dust, and as soon as the shield had reformed, it was once again invisible.

"Another obstacle down," Emma said, obviously pleased with herself.

Ruby inclined her head in acknowledgment before turning her eyes toward the entrance to the tunnels. "Now for the next one."

As it happened, breaching the entrance to the tunnels was not nearly so complicated as the shield had been. At the touch of Ruby's hand to the runes marking the door, the magic sealing them was released and the doors rolled open of their own accord. No one said a word as the inky darkness of the tunnels was revealed. They just looked at one another with wide eyes, and Ruby knew without needing to ask they were all thinking the same thing: "What the hell have I gotten myself into?"

Since Regina was so thoughtful as to provide flashlights, both Ruby and Emma retrieved them from their packs and then lead the way down the tunnels with Esperanza wedged between. No one dared to speak for fear that someone or something might be listening in the shadows, and the oppressive silence combined with the darkness to elevate Ruby's sensory awareness. Though her breathing was steady, Esperanza's heart was thrumming rapidly, and Emma's tension was nearly palpable, echoing Ruby's own as she pressed forward with her gun drawn and pointed forward, flashlight tucked neatly underneath it.

The stress they were all feeling only made the journey seem all the more interminable. Eventually, and after many startled halts due to creaks and groans that were to be expected of a such structure that had had endured for so long without maintenance, they made it through the tunnel with little other disturbance. At the end, the passage opened up into a large hexagonal chamber with a heavy door on the opposite side marked by the same runes as the entrance had been. As Emma meandered over to inspect the left side of the chamber, Ruby approached the sealed door and laid her hand on it. Much as had happened earlier, the magic released, dissipating in a puff of purple smoke.

When she reached for the handle to open it, she was startled by a commotion to her left.

"Woah, what the hell?" Emma cried, as the wall she had been leaning against gave way. Having been unprepared to catch herself, she tumbled into the opened passage, landing in a heap on her side. Her gun clattered out of her hand along with her flashlight, and as it tumbled away, the light reflecting off of the corridor walls gave a weird disco effect that turned her stomach.

Abandoning all thoughts of the door, Ruby scrambled over to help her fallen friend up. "Oh, my God, are you okay?" she asked as she bent down to take Emma's elbow after she had sat up.

After being guided up gently, Emma said, "I think so. What the hell was that?"

"I don't know. Regina didn't say anything about secret passage ways down here."

As a cop, Emma's instincts were acting up. Here was a mystery that had literally fallen open in front of her, but considering how delayed they had already been, she wasn't sure what Ruby wanted to do. She decided the best course of action was to defer, but with the subtle hint as to what her opinion was. Emma considered herself a good friend, but she was not above manipulation to sate her curiosity.

"Do you think we should investigate?" she asked, purposefully peering down the narrow corridor.

For a while, Ruby didn't respond, looking torn between her own curiosity and her desire to carry on. Her bottom lip was firmly tucked between her teeth as she shifted her weight from side to side, trying to decide their course of action.

"Might I make a suggestion?" Esperanza spoke up from the middle of the room, having observed Ruby's conflicted expression and Emma's overt interest.

Ruby sighed with relief. "Sure."

"You said Regina sealed this place with blood and dark magic, correct?"

"Yeah," Ruby said, head cocked curiously to the side, "what of it?"

"Well, if she protected the entrance to the tunnel and that of the door that accesses the palace, it stands to reason that she would have protected this passage way in like manner." Esperanza then smiled mysteriously. "And there is also our fortuitous meeting."

Looking confused, Ruby's brow furrowed. "I don't follow."

"It seems to me that there is more at work here than meets the eye," Esperanza said. "It is almost as if the hand of fate is at work. So then, if this passageway opened for Emma, then maybe it was meant to. What lies at the end of this corridor may well be something we will need later. But as I said, it is just a suggestion."

"Makes a lot of damn sense to me," Emma said. She gave Ruby a brilliant if not teasing smile. "Besides, you know you wanna find out what's down there as much as I do."

Ruby resisted her own desire to examine the secret passageway for about a total of ten seconds before giving in. Thoroughly disgusted with herself, she made a sound of annoyance.

"Fine. But if we get eaten by a dragon or something, it's on you."

Emma laughed at Ruby's ridiculousness. "Oh, come on. Don't be such a drama queen. Leave that to your wife."

"Hey!"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." Emma was only mostly kidding, and Ruby knew it. "But just remember, I have killed a dragon before. And...this happening not technically my fault, as Esperanza so eloquently argued. That means she agrees with me. So there. You're outnumbered, Rubes."

Her eyes slightly panicked, Esperanza turned to Ruby. "Please, do not take offense to my suggestion. If you wish to carry on, I will follow you."

Hands on her hips, Ruby glared at Emma. "Now look what you did. Don't go pawning off the blame on our innocent little Esperanza, Swan."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Mills," Emma taunted back, green eyes dancing with merriment.

Despite the circumstances, Ruby was glad of Emma's needling. It was a fine way to pop the balloon of stress that had been gradually inflating since the moment they entered the tunnels. Besides that, Emma was right in assuming Ruby was curious as to what was on the other end of the passageway. And considering Esperanza's rather wise interpretation of events, who was she to fight fate?

Stalking off down the pitch dark passageway, Ruby allowed her instincts to take over. Her ears were attuned to the slightest movement and her eyes were sharply focused, constantly scanning for movement, of which none was detected. The passageway itself was narrow enough that her shoulders almost brushed against its jagged walls, and judging by the count of her footsteps it cut a path into the mountain about thirty yards long.

At the other end, the passage opened into a small, rounded room, in the center of which was a large nondescript stone. As soon as Ruby's feet crossed the threshold, the torches lining the wall lit up automatically. Blazing flames cascaded the room with orange light that cast an eerily surreal glow. As her eyes swept the room, a glint of metal caught her attention and she gasped. Without waiting for the others, she approached the center of the room to study the object.

Proudly protruding from the stone a sword of such unique beauty as to be without peer. Characterized by a long and tapered hilt wrapped with brown leather and criss-crossed with golden bindings, its crossguard was polished gold that gleamed in the low firelight – as was its pommel, which was circular and fashioned to resemble the sun beaming light in all directions. The silvered edges of the blade were so smoothly burnished as to reflect images with mirror precision, and along its entire length ran a strip of gold engraved with runes of ancient power.

As if possessing a power of its own, the sword pulsated with energy that Ruby could feel in her bones. It seemed to her that the blade was alive, humming an inviting tune, beckoning for her to take it, and of its own accord, her hand began to reach for it. But again, as with the door handle, she was stopped short in the process.

"Emma!" Esperanza called out in a harsh whisper, grabbing Ruby's attention away from the hypnotic pull of the blade.

Ruby turned to see Emma approaching the stone in measured steps with a dazed expression on her face, as if the pull Ruby had felt from the sword was magnified in the Savior a thousand times over. As Emma approached the stone serving as a scabbard, the blade's humming grew ever louder and upon halting less than a step away, it began to sing, a sound of glorious euphoria which echoed in Ruby's ears and reverberated all the way down to the base of her spine. Still caught in the throes of the musical language of the weapon, she watched dumbstruck as Emma's hand reached out to grasp the handle. The second the Savior touched the weapon, the singing stopped and Ruby was released from whatever mystical influence it was exerting upon her.

In one long, drawn out motion, Emma drew the sword away from the stone and as it slid free, the lights in the room flickered.

"Emma?" Ruby spoke hesitantly, trying to break through the fog her friend was in. Very carefully, she approached. "Hey, you okay?" No answer came, Emma's only movement to bring the sword up to her face, studying her own reflection in the smooth surface of the blade. Her green eyes were blazing, lit by flames from within that made her appear almost inhuman. Worry prompted her to reach for Emma's elbow.

When Ruby shouted her name, Emma's eyes hazed over before returning to normal. She blinked as shook her head. Upon catching sight of Ruby staring at her with open concern, she allowed her sword arm to fall to her side.

Frowning slightly, she said, "Did you say something?"

"I asked if you were alright."

Emma dismissed her friend's anxiety with a dismissive wave. "I'm fine."

"Then you won't mind me asking what the hell that was?" Ruby gestured to the sword.

Emma shrugged as if unaware why she had behaved so oddly. "I don't know, really. I can't explain it. I could feel it, hear it calling to me. It wanted me to take it, to set it free. And the second I touched it, I knew."

Ruby's look grew grave at that. "Knew what?" The smile Emma leveled her with was so serene and beautiful that it took her breath away.

"It chose me. All these years it's been waiting here...for me. Esperanza was right, we didn't come here by coincidence. Something larger is at work. It might be fate, it might be something else, but whatever it is, it feels right."

Looking owlish, Ruby took a dramatic step back. "Woah there! Careful, Em, you're starting to sound an awful lot like your mother."

"Strangely enough, I'm okay with that." Emma tilted her head slightly, eyes alight with gentle confidence. "You know, back in Storybrooke I never much felt like the Savior. Sure, everyone believed in me and all that jazz, and I accepted the role, but I never really believed it myself outside of necessity. But now..." Her voice drifted off and her eyes returned to the gleaming metal of the blade in her hand. "Now, I feel like the Savior."

"Good, 'cause that's who's needed right now," Ruby said, happiness overriding concern for her friend. If Emma had finally accepted who she was because of this trip, at least one good thing came of it. That and, as she had said, the Savior was who Ruby needed her to be. "We don't need Emma the cop or Emma the best buddy if we're going to make it out of this in one piece. But Emma the Savior? She's someone that I know can get us back home."

"Then might I say, I am at your service, milady," said Emma with a grin, holding hilt of the sword up to her face in a knightly salute.

Ruby laughed, immensely pleased and relieved that Emma was back to joking. "Alright, Joan of Arc. Don't get a big head just because you've been 'chosen'. I mean, geez, what does that even mean? A piece of metal chose you. Wow. Color me impressed."

"Hey, don't knock it!" Emma huffed in a manner that was obviously mischievious. "A piece of metal chose Colwyn and he used it to save Lyssa from the Beast! And who knows, this piece of metal might save your Debbie Downer ass before all of this is over."

Ruby laughed again. "I know you didn't just reference Krull on me..."

Esperanza interjected, looking completely lost and searching for answers. "Who are Colwyn and Lyssa? What is a...krull? And why didn't you tell me your full name was Emma Joan of Arc?"

At that, both Ruby and Emma looked at each other and burst out into a fit of very unladylike giggles that only seemed to intensify Esperanza's confusion.

"What is so humorous?" the exotic looking woman asked, sable brows scrunched up in rather cute manner.

"It's nothing," Ruby said after her amusement finally subsided. "We're not making fun of you or anything, I promise. It's just that even though your confusion was totally understandable, it was also adorable."

Giving a put-out harrumph, Esperanza pouted then turned back toward the passageway. "Well, adorable as I may be, I am also practical, and I believe that have taken a long enough detour from our objective. Yes?"

Nodding, Ruby sidled over to stand next to the shorter woman and flung and arm around her shoulders. "Never change, Espy," she said as she guided the woman toward the passageway. "Never, ever change."

Esperanza's nose wrinkled with distaste at the moniker. "Espy?"

As she fondly chuckled at both Ruby's typical dorkiness and Esperanza's unintentional adorableness, Emma crossed over to the wall opposite her to retrieve the white and gold scabbard that was hanging there. She then proceeded to remove her belt to thread it through the scabbard before replacing it. Once secure on her waist, she slid the magnificent weapon into its scabbard, listening with satisfaction to the metallic humming the action created.

"Well," she said, "I'm good to go now. Ruby?"

Ruby grinned in confirmation. "Let's roll."

And with that, the women exited the fire-lit chamber and made their way back down the passageway.

Not long after, they found themselves standing in front of the large metal door barring entrance to the Dark Palace. Ruby did not waste any time in pushing in open, granting them access to the interior of the castle.

"Alright," Ruby said, turning instruct her companions, "let's get into the castle as quietly as possible. Leave your packs behind. Take only one weapon. I want to minimize the risk of detection."

Both Emma and Esperanza removed their packs without complaint, setting them against the outer wall of the large entryway. Esperanza chose to remove her rapier, resting it along side her pack and then pulled a wicked looking dagger out of her boots. With a measure of disappointment, Emma removed her pistol holster from her belt and rested it beside her own pack as Esperanza had. Her new sword, however, remained firmly in hand. That done, they rejoined Ruby at the door.

"Ready?" she asked, looking to each of them.

"I am," Esperanza said, while Emma nodded sharply.

Ruby was very proud of how quietly they managed to make it up the stairs, despite the fact that they were all tired and wearing heavy boots. Reaching the upper doorway having made nary a sound audible enough to hear through the thickness of the walls, they paused a moment to prepare themselves.

The reality of the situation suddenly set in for Ruby. All of their journey up until now had been relatively mundane and without much danger, but all of that was about to change the moment she opened up the last door separating them from the castle proper. While Emma had freely chosen to accompany Ruby throughout the journey and had readily accepted the risks, Ruby couldn't help but feel as if she had dragged Esperanza into this mess. The last thing she needed on her already burdened conscience was another innocent death on her already laden conscience.

"Last chance to back out." She directed her comment at Esperanza in the hopes the woman might be convinced to wait in the tunnels. "You've come this far with us and I'm so grateful. I can't thank you enough. But I don't want you risking your life for me and my quest. Please, wait here for us. Emma and I can take care of things inside."

"I agree," Emma said. "We're no strangers to risking our lives. It's kinda our job back home. You, on the other hand, don't have to do this."

Esperanza smiled warmly at their thoughtfulness, but her voice was unyielding when she said, "I am aware of the risk, and I thank you for your consideration. That said, I am choosing to do this of my own volition. I'm with you both, wherever that may lead."

Tear pricking at her eyes, Ruby took Esperanza's hand and gave it heartfelt squeeze before turning back to the door. This was it. The moment of truth. She lifted her hand to the handle, but sensed no magic barring entrance. Unlike the door below, this one was apparently not sealed by Regina or whoever now occupied the castle, so it was just an ordinary door. Before she could even grasp the handle, though the door was flung open as if in anticipation of her arrival.

Behind it stood a tall and imposing man in richly embroidered robes of exquisite craftsmanship. His severe face was defined by a square jaw, deeply creased cheeks, and large steel-blue eyes. The dark hair upon his head was closely cropped and he wore a thin goatee on his chin. The man's entire demeanor and aura seemed to radiate power, and it took all of Ruby's inner fortitude not to avert her gaze or cower like a frail omega under his piercing stare.

"Welcome," he said, his voice rough and hard despite the warm geniality of his greeting. "My name is Belmordan and I have been expecting you."