Bane of His Existence
Chapter Eleven
When Gold finally awoke after he had been knocked unconscious by the blast of what he figured was a bomb placed under Rogers' car, he struggled to regain his bearings as he heard and saw a number of people surrounding him and the scene before him. Cops, firemen, rescue workers, paramedics, and several onlookers intrigued by the excitement of the explosion. He also found himself lying on a gurney as two paramedics worked on checking his vitals for any injuries aside from what was most likely an obvious concussion and the gash across the left side of his forehead. His head hurt, but other than that he would count himself lucky were it not for him being the Dark One.
Finally, he ignored the paramedics trying to help him as they objected when the senior detective slowly rose from off the gurney to stand on his feet, then one of the officers under his charge spoke up with concern for him saying, "Detective Weaver… I'm pretty sure it's protocol for you to go with the paramedics back to the hospital in order to be more thoroughly checked out. You should stay down."
Gold shook his head and pulled off the bandage that had been wrapped over the gash as he crossly responded, "I assure you, I'm fine. Besides, I have more important matters to attend to right now. How long have I been out?"
"About forty-five minutes or so," the desk sergeant answered gruffly as he bent down to get a better look at the partial license plate not completely demolished in the explosion and recognized from the numbers he could make out that the car belonged to Rogers. "If you still believe Rogers isn't guilty of that doctor's murder, then maybe you're not the detective I thought you were. He was probably the one who tried to kill you just now, knowing you were for some reason driving his car."
"Believe it or not, but someone went through a lot of trouble to frame Rogers and then tried to kill one of the few people in this town who happen to believe he's innocent," Weaver replied in his partner's defense. "Which I do believe. Just do your duty and figure out what caused his car to explode and who might have done this, desk sergeant. While I try to find the doctor's true murderer as well as my partner. Right now, I fear he's in real trouble."
At last, after he had left the explosion scene outside of the police precinct, Weaver finally arrived at the location of the address he had sent to Rogers as well, having borrowed another of the police cars from the station, and found himself at yet another chaotic scene of a fire, where a condemned subway tunnel burned hot as several more rescue workers, firemen, and policemen ran around trying to keep any onlookers back and to bring everything back under control.
The detective rushed over to one of the other officers as he pulled out his badge to show who he was, then immediately asked, "Do you have any idea what happened here? Was there anyone inside, or any wounded?"
The man glanced towards the two parked ambulances nearby while he responded, "When we arrived here, only two women who claimed to have been abducted were found wandering around by the two officers still with them, who happened to be passing by this site when it erupted in flames. They're over there. Good luck trying to talk to them. They've been more busy arguing with one another, rather than trying to explain to us what else happened here."
"Well, Victoria…" Gold stated snidely once he walked over to the first rescue vehicle to find the business woman sitting inside looking disheveled and covered in soot and grime from the fire, as much as he was. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see that you're still very much alive."
"Detective Weaver," she uttered quietly as she raised her head to look down at him when he appeared before her, and straightened herself up. "You look about as bad as I do. What happened to you?"
Gold looked sternly at the evil woman while he answered, "I'm the one asking the questions here. What happened, and where have you been? I'm guessing one of Gothel's captives along with your daughters?"
Victoria scoffed and then replied, "Daughters? If you can even call them that. Which I can't any longer."
"Because I'm the poor, pathetic child whose mother never held her enough, and Anastasia's now the daughter who just stood above us dumbstruck as three witches were about to sacrifice us on an altar so that she could become the most powerful of the witches, except perhaps Gothel herself," Drizella continued once she had walked over from the second ambulance with a blanket draped over her shoulders after having been checked out herself. "And Anastasia's no captive among them. Those witches revere her. Gothel betrayed me and stole my powers to give them over to her."
"So how did you escape?" the older detective asked curtly, as he looked up at the paramedics and then motioned for them to walk away while he questioned the women, hoping they weren't really paying close attention to what had already been spoken. "Was my partner here?"
Lady Tremaine looked away from him while she callously responded, "It was Detective Rogers who made it possible for me and Ivy to escape from them. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't so lucky."
Gold glared up at her as he questioned again, "What do you mean, he wasn't so lucky?"
"He came down into the old subway tunnel with his gun raised and shouted for Gothel to stop as he shot the dagger, which she was about to plunge into my mother's black heart from her hands," Ivy answered. "She then untied us so we could run past Rogers, knowing he would shoot her if she didn't. Words were spoken, Rogers told us to run, then I believe he fired another shot at one of the lit torches to set the room on fire so that he could escape after us too."
"Yes, but I believe I heard Gothel shout out to a couple of goons working for her and they suddenly came from nowhere and attacked the detective," her mother added quickly. "We didn't really see them, other than that they were huge, and bore tattoos on their arms matching the same one worn on the dead man Rogers found poisoned to death by Ivy."
Weaver looked down as he replied, "The symbol of their coven. No doubt these men were a couple of their protectors, or slaves working under them more like."
Victoria nodded and then responded, "Precisely. Gothel called them Stabbington. Only she added an 's' at the end of the name."
"Then I know of them," the Dark One answered crossly. "I've had a run in with them before. They're brothers. I appreciate the information. Perhaps if you care to help me find my partner, then you'll come to me with any more pertinent information you might think of if any comes to you."
"I believe we've given more than we should have, Detective Weaver," Ivy replied cruelly as she stared at him with a smugness in her eyes. "I may feel a little more lightheaded than I thought. I'm going to go back to my ambulance to lie down. Good luck. I doubt he'll still be the same man you knew if you do."
Victoria did the same as Ivy walked away, so knowing he wouldn't get anything more from either of them, Gold too walked away and returned to his car with the idea to return to the station again to try to gather some men together to help him find his partner. However, he knew no one else trusted Rogers, especially not after the earlier news report shown from an anonymous source. So, instead he drove back to Roni's bar, where he knew he could count on the only two other people who trusted and knew who Rogers really was. Regina and Zelena.
