Will ran ahead of Jasmine and Allan, into the clearing around the Cavendish Manor.
"All right," he said to her, "think about Lady Drizella for a moment; if she had something important—like, say, a genie bottle—where would she keep it?"
Jasmine pushed past him and started up the stairs. "She keeps things she doesn't want us to touch in a secret door at the back of her room!"
Will dashed into the room and nearly tripped over Jasmine. Something was very wrong. He looked up at the curtain hanging in front of the "secret door" just as Drizella herself emerged from behind it.
The woman smiled and held up the genie bottle.
"Looking for this?" She asked smugly.
Nobody dared move a muscle.
"Bloody hell..." Will muttered.
"Drizella, please," Anastasia begged, darting forward, "I can explain!"
"Explain what?" Drizella sneered. "How leading them here was your idea, how once you had the genie in your custody, you were going to get the wishes and the bottle and have him for yourself?"
"She bloody would!" Will grumbled, but Anastasia shook her head.
"Will, don't listen to her—"
"Or what?" Drizella sneered. "You would disown me, sister?" She spat the word. "Your own family?"
Anastasia felt the tingle of magic at her fingertips—but at the same time, she knew that if she lashed out at Drizella now, Will would never forgive her. The Red Queen might have ignored such sentiment, but Anastasia wanted to be different, she wanted to prove she was the same girl without her magic, even when she knew how to use it. She swallowed the rising fury and kept her eyes fixed on the bottle and her thoughts fixed on Will as Drizella turned on Jasmine.
"And you! You miserable little peasant! I ought to have you whipped for this—" She raised her hand as if to strike, and everyone gasped.
"No..." Anastasia breathed.
Will just looked sick, like the dead-man-walking he was.
Pulsing gently in Drizella's hand was a glowing red heart. She gave a little squeeze, and Will collapsed to his knees, confirming just whose heart it was.
"Wasn't s'posed t' be here," he muttered.
"What do you think you're doing?" Ana burst out.
Drizella glared at her.
"Stand up!" She barked at Will, and he shot to his feet.
"On the contrary, dear sister," said Drizella, "I know exactly what I'm doing." She turned her gaze to the horrified Jasmine. "I'm going to offer you a trade: your three wishes—for his life." She squeezed the heart again, and Will began choking.
"Stop!" Anastasia shrieked. Out of the five of them, only she knew it did not take much pressure to crush a heart completely. "Please, Drizella, stop!"
"And why should I?" Drizella snapped at her. "Think, Anastasia! Think of all we have lost over the years, how we have fallen! I am only reclaiming what is rightfully ours!" She squeezed again, and Will writhed upon the floor.
"Driz, please don't do this!" Anastasia watched Will—the Knave who had loved her even when she was penniless, who had kept his word to her even when she had flagrantly desired pretty things and an easy life over the happy, simple one she had, whom she had made so miserable that he chose rather to go without his heart than to feel her betrayal over again—and she knew she at least owed him this much. "I—I love him, Drizella."
"Love!" Drizella scoffed. "And what has love gotten us? I seem to recall this little fling with the village scoundrel never netted you a farthing."
Will started breathing as she resumed holding his heart, but he couldn't move from the floor.
"It's true we didn't have much, Will and I," Ana admitted, "but we had each other, and we were both willing to work hard to earn the life we led."
"Pff, you sound like Ella!" Drizella snorted. "By the way, it's our idiot stepsister you have to thank for getting me this heart. You see?" She nailed Jasmine with a look. "I always get what I want!"
"And to your last day, you'll never know what it's like to work for something," answered Anastasia. She peered pensively at her sister. "You were the eldest and the favorite child. Ella may have gotten her happy ever after, but you and I both know what she went through to get there. Will worked hard to get us the life that could have been our happy ending if I had not been so blind and selfish. And now," she gestured to the bottle Drizella held, "you are going to kill someone, just for three wishes? When those wishes are gone, sister—what will you do then?"
Drizella watched her sister for a long moment, then shrugged. "I'm sure I'll think of something—" she moved to squeeze again.
"No, wait!" Jasmine cried.
"Drizella, if you'll just forget about the wishes I can show you how you can be happy for the rest of your life!" cried Ana. "A life filled with more meaning than a genie who could grant a thousand wishes!"
Drizella sniffed. "No thanks; just the three will do. So, what's it going to be?" She turned back to Jasmine. "Your genie—or your precious friend?" She squeezed again, and everyone could hear the crackling sound, even over Will's screaming.
"Stop!" Jasmine shook off Allan's restraining hand and pulled out the three glittering gems. "Here! You want my wishes? You can have them—" she pulled back just beyond Drizella's reach, "but first, give Will's heart to Anastasia."
Drizella balked, but her desire for the wishes outweighed her desire to make her sister suffer.
"Fine!" She snarled, thrusting the heart at Anastasia.
Ana took the heart gently, and Will could breathe easy again.
Drizella held out her empty hands to Jasmine. "Now, you stupid maid, give me my wishes!"
Jasmine did not hesitate to yield them. "Here," she said.
Will clambered to his feet, prepared to do his duty as a genie.
Ana glanced at Jasmine.
"Why?" She whispered.
Jasmine grinned and grasped Allan's hand again. "I have everything I could wish for," she said.
Meanwhile, Will still waited while Drizella practically drooled over the little red wishes.
"Look here, Milady," he groused, none too pleased to be at the mercy of the woman who tortured him so much, "are you gonna use your wishes or not?"
Drizella grinned at him. "You've got to say it first!"
"Say what?" Will squinted.
"Say the rhyme!" She insisted.
Will shook his head. "I don't 'ave to say anything; you've got the wishes, so use them before I just pop back into my bottle—"
"Say the rhyme or I won't wish!"
The combined belligerence was getting on Ana's nerves; the sooner she could get her hands on the bottle, the sooner they could leave the Enchanted Forest forever.
"For heaven's sake, Will," she snapped, "just say the bloody rhyme!"
Will rolled his eyes. "Oh bloody hell... 'Mistress mine, my will is thine; tell me your wishes three.' There, happy?"
Drizella giggled and clapped her hands like a little girl. "Oh yes! For my first wish—I wish that this house was a palace with one thousand servants!"
The instant she said the words "I wish", Will felt the tingle of magic spreading from his bronze cuffs. He snapped his fingers, and they stood in a magnificent ballroom. Servants bustled hither and thither, polishing, storing, sorting—and every one of them paused to bow to Lady Drizella as they passed.
"Oh my!" Drizella sighed, gazing all about her. "Oh, this is lovely!" She clapped Anastasia on the shoulder; her younger sister immediately cupped both hands around the heart, lest Drizella decide to steal it back.
"Isn't it just like the old days, Annie?"
Anastasia said nothing; inside, her mind screamed for Drizella to hurry up and make her last two wishes.
Drizella bustled to the window, where the sun was beginning to set behind a mountain range.
"Let me see..." She thought long and hard—for all of five seconds. "I know! I wish for a mountain of gold, right here behind the house!"
"A mountain, eh?" Will muttered, but he snapped his fingers anyway. Immediately, the gorgeous sunset could not be seen around the ponderous mass of shining metal.
Outside the palace, a crowd of tough voices yelled out in surprise. Allan glanced at Jasmine in terror.
"Long John Silver and his crew!" He cried.
Ana saw the genie bottle, sitting on a table not five paces behind her. She gazed anxiously at her sister. "Drizz! Hurry up and make that third wish!"
Drizella sniffed. "Well, it's very important, dear! Don't rush me—gracious, you're so annoying! If I never had to see you or Mother again—Wait," she snapped her fingers, "that's it! Genie, for my third and final wish, I wish to never see you, my family, my servant—" she sneered at Jasmine, "or their friends ever again!"
Ana's jaw dropped; where would she be sending them now? Would they be separated yet again?
Will folded his arms. "So let me get this straight," he said slowly, "everybody in your family—"
"Yes!"
"And all their friends."
"Yes!"
"You never want to see them again."
"Never!"
"Not even a little bit?"
"Completely gone!" Drizella saw Will raise his hand, and she waggled her fingers. "Nice knowing you, sister!"
Will snapped—
But everyone remained exactly where he and she stood. Will dissolved into smoke and vanished into the bottle.
Drizella had ceased smiling, and now cast about with her hands.
"Wait!" She wailed. "What have you done? Why can I still hear them? Where did everyone go?" She staggered about the room, even as the noise of the Pirates grew louder and alarms sounded all over the palace. Drizella clapped her hands over her face. "Blind?" She shrieked. "I can't be blind!"
Ana snatched up the bottle and rubbed it. In a puff of orange smoke, Will emerged. Anastasia finally did what she had waited so long to do—she threw her arms around him.
"Oh, well done, Will!" She cried.
Drizella perked up at the sound of her voice. "Anastasia?" She stumbled in the wrong direction. "Is that you? Help me, dear sister! Please!"
Anastasia ignored her; Will was looking at his heart in her hands. She caught his gaze.
"May I?" She asked shyly.
He rolled his eyes like the unfeeling Knave he had been for all those years. "Suit yourself," he said, baring his chest.
Anastasia held the heart against his shirt. "It might hurt," she warned. "I've never done this before."
"Whatever, I think I can—GAHHH! BLOODY HELL!" Will could not restrain a panicked bellow as the heart went in. His vision blurred as years of emotion came rushing back all at once. Through the fog, Anastasia's face and voice reached him.
"Will! Look at me, Will! Stay with me!"
He blinked and she stood before him, smiling, hopeful.
"Are you back, Will?" She asked. "Will, I love you with all my heart! Do you love me back?"
He didn't even wait for second thoughts. In a heartbeat he had swept her in his arms and kissed deeply, as the true love unfolded between them. They had no thought but for each other till Will felt a hand on his shoulder.
"I hate to break up the moment," said Allan, "but Silver's men are nearly here, and don't you two have somewhere else to be?"
Anastasia blinked, hardly believing that it was indeed her Will Scarlet's arms around her. "We need to get back to Storybrooke!" She cried.
Will frowned at her. "Storybrooke? What's there?"
"Alice and Cyrus," answered Anastasia, "and Jafar, too! He's going to destroy the town if we don't help Cyrus lift the curse!"
Will shook his head. "How do we get back there?"
Anastasia smiled and looked at the bottle she held. "I know a way! Genie, I wish we were both in Storybrooke!" Will wrapped his arms around Ana as a cloud of magic whirled around them, seeming to sweep the palace, Drizella, the Pirates, Jasmine, and Allan out of view...