The cold heavy chains made her wrists ache; they made her bones ache. Atop the stone altar beneath her father's oasis Emma shivered. The only sounds echoing in the dark chamber was water dripping and the shuddering of her own breaths. Rumpelstiltskin had been in here earlier, working on her abdomen to finish the newest addition to her tattoos. Though spanning eight years, the tattoos on her body flowed seamlessly from one to another in one mad, swirling design only the Babylonian knew the design of. Only the xvarǝnah on her hand lay apart, like a small black island on the back of her hand, the very first of them all. They would have been pretty if it hadn't been for their purpose. With every blot of ink he sank into her skin, she could feel his hold on her growing.

Ahura only knew why he kept her down here while he rested, like some kind of roped swine. Upstairs a party was being held in honor of her sixteenth name-day and like all the ones before, she was down here instead. She had never actually been to one of her parties, she only knew that James had come to celebrate them as the No-Emma day. She could hardly believe she was only sixteen, she felt so much older. Name-days seemed so trivial to her now…part of a little rosy world she wasn't a part of anymore. Her world was blood and death now. A boot scuffing on the stone floor announced the imminent entrance of Rumpelstiltskin, back from whatever dank hole he'd slithered too. Emma's muscles tensed as a reflex, they tended to start hurting when he was around. "Emmmmaaaa…I'm hoommeee."

Bile rose in her throat and Emma sat up just in time to rip the mask of her face before she threw up onto the sand beside her. Tears were rolling down her cheeks and her skin crawled like it only did when Rumpelstiltskin was around. That bastard still invaded her mind from miles away. Slowly she became aware of her surroundings as her stomach settled, curiosity growing. She was in a cream-colored tent nestled in a bed of rugs, blankets, and pillows. Her arm was freshly bandaged where her snake bite was. An overwhelming drumming sound filled her ears, one so distinct and rare she had heard it only once before, the sound of rain. Emma waved a hand over her bile, making it disappear, before she spied a canteen of water propped against a pillow not too far away. All of a sudden, she was thirsty. She grabbed it and drank and drank until she heard Jamakh give a nicker in greeting outside the tent. Emma pulled her mask on in time as Regina, masked in a shemagh, ducked through the opening of the tent. Regina stood there, and on her hip, looking down at Emma with a smirk.

"Your finally awake." She said. Emma nodded slowly, unsure of everything. Regina's smirk deepened as she caught a whiff of Emma's insecurities. "Don't worry, I didn't look. Everyone has a right to their own privacy. Besides, I'm probably not missing out on much." Emma raised a surprised eyebrow under her mask. Where was all this banter coming from? Was that a teasing twinkle in her eye? A low sultry chuckle brought her back. "Oh, come off it Swan, relax. We just went through a war zone together." Regina walked over and sat down cross legged beside her, pulling some fruit, and offering it to her, which Emma denied—her stomach still rolling.

"It's raining." Emma said. Regina nodded.

"It started right before you collapsed and has been raining since."

"How long have I been out?" Emma asked.

"About a day, more or less. You collapsed right after we got out of the canyon, I had to set up camp close by." Emma instantly became alert.

"We are near the canyon?" Regina chuckled.

"Relax Swan, I've had a cloaking barrier around us the entire time. I was just out planting a false trail as well."

"You shouldn't have been out there Regina, it's not safe." The older woman raised a dark eyebrow.

"And what, you would have protected me? You can barely stand. I can take care of myself."

"But the magician—"

"Is no threat to me." Regina scoffed. "She won't be catching me unawares again."

"She?" Regina frowned in confusion.

"I saw her. The magician is a blonde woman." Regina replied. Emma started to struggle to her feet, Regina grabbing her arm. "What are you doing?"

"I want to see the rain." Emma replied, shuffling to the tent entrance, the Greek rolled her eyes in exasperation but helped her along anyway with a hand on her bicep. The scent of rain hit her nose as Emma opened the tent flap to reveal the deluge outside. Gray stormy clouds rolled above their heads while rivers of water sliced through the sand, creating their own trails, only avoiding wetting their tent because of Regina's magic. Emma breathed the rare occurrence in, Regina standing beside her, amused. They stood like that for a few minutes until Regina broke the silence.

"That was a pretty stupid thing you did with the water you know." She spoke.

"It was the necessary course of action in that situation." Emma replied. Regina shook her head.

"I didn't appreciate you trying to get yourself killed for me by slowly roasting to death." She said. "You should have let the soldiers who gave me the bath water suffer. It was their fault for giving it up, after all." Emma turned to her, irritation lacing her words.

"It actually really wasn't. I know how persuasive you can be. They never had a choice; but I can't punish the queen, Mazda forbid. I had to take responsibility of the situation you created instead. I chose to take the least damage-causing route. As much as you hate it, we are all a team and there are consequences if one of us fucks up. The desert makes equals of us all." Regina raised an eyebrow at the unexpected lecture by the Black Swan. "And now, that team is dead! One-hundred of my best men!" With a surprising show of strength despite her weakened state, Emma whirled herself back into the tent, gathering up a saddle bag of supplies.

"Where are you going?!" Regina spluttered disbelievingly.

"I need to go back, try and find some survivors." Regina scoffed.

"You are hardly in a position to leave right now!" She yelled as she followed Emma to Jemakh and watched as the Persian struggled to throw the saddlebag over his back. "I will not have all my hard work go down the drain just because you want to play saviour."

"I'll be back before nightfall, stay here." Emma spurred Jemakh out of the barrier and towards the canyon, Regina kicking a nearby sand knoll in frustration.

"Swan! Don't be stupid!" Regina yelled, growling. She watched helplessly as the black clad figure disappeared back down into the canyon. She stopped back inside the tent, plopping back down on the pillows with her hands kneading her forehead. It had just been one shower, seemingly such a small trivial way to get under the Black Swans skin. If she was being honest she had done it because there wasn't much she could do to fight back, and they were just so aggravatingly commanding all the time.

She had just wanted to see the look on his face, so to speak. A small little revenge, to give her just a little bit of satisfaction. It had turned into something way bigger then she had imagined—it had almost gotten the Black Swan killed, and she didn't know what she thought about that. Despite what he had said about the team, she was sure he had done it for her. Regina let out a frustrated growl and buried her head in her hands. This was getting too complicated.

._.

The bodies started only a few miles from where she had reentered the canyon. Those who were unlucky had been dragged on the ground behind a rider on horseback, ropes tight around their necks to the outskirts of the canyon where she was now. Luckily there were only a few who had died like that. The closer she got to the sight of the ambush, the more bodies she saw packed into the cramped passages of the canyon. This is where one hundred of her best men had died for no reason. Persian against Persian, all for the sake of the Sorceress of Athens. She withheld her emotions as Jemakh traveled on through the deep night.

They reached the main place of the ambush a little after the moon reached its zenith from where it peaked in between the rain clouds. Many of the bodies she passed were not of her company, and Emma felt no small amount of pride at the ferocity with which her men had died. From her tentative count her men had taken two to three men down for every one of them that fell, even with the ambush. It was a slaughter. Right where the bodies where thickest was where she found him. They had tried to form a defense with shields against the arrows, but surrounded and with the disadvantage of being on the lower ground, they hadn't had a chance. Most had been killed by the magic blast that ran through their chest, the charred holes the size of her fist. She quickly dismounted and knelt next to him, pulling him to her, rocking his body like she could shake him awake.

Rain clinked against her mask as she turned her face to the heavens. She tore it off. She would mourn him as her, not as the Black Swan, he deserved that much. She caressed his face, remembering him in their childhood—all smiles and fun. The clash of wooden swords as they played in the garden together, practicing their moves. His small hands holding her as she cried from the pain, a section of her back freshly tattooed, angry and red. Years later, his silent support at her shoulder as she was flayed alive with words and scorn from her father when she came back from the mission, pregnant.

He was the brother she had never had.

Giant sobs raked her body as she let out a silent scream, burying her face deeply into his bloody leathers. Tendons strained from her neck in protest as she screamed for real this time, her fists pounding his chest, snapping the shafts of the three arrows buried there. She stayed bent over him for what seemed like days and also seconds. Her grief never abating. Finally she stood, his body falling to the ground. Wiping her eyes she called on her magic and piled the bodies of her men into one big pile. She set them ablaze, staying until even the embers faded to grey and the sun started to peak on the horizon. She found a small, blood soaked scrap of paper tucked into the jerkin of one of the enemy soldiers. Most was missing, torn away in the battle, and the rest was smeared by the blood. The only words she could make out were: "…supposed spy for the Greek rebellion. Approach with caution, as she is a trained witch." If these words were true, Emma knew she wouldn't be at all surprised. Conflicting emotions revenged her body. Who was responsible for this slaughter? Regina? No, as arrogant as she was she would not ask men to die for her, nor wish it. She could not help the ancient prejudices that ran so deep in her people that they made them kill each other.

Suddenly she was transported back to the throne room, the day she had been sent back out into the desert to fetch the sorceress in a memory:

Her eyes focused not on the king, who was speaking to her, but they slid passed and over her shoulder and landed on the face of Rumpelstiltskin. That smile was there, that day she hadn't seen it because she had been focused on the king, but now she did. The smile that told her that they knew it. The smile that seemed to grow a little bit wider as the king said "I've had Rumple watching their every move since he left this court. They have no magic protection and are therefore just too easy to spy on. You will deal with them when you return, they are no threat till us then." The smile that said they knew everything the whole time. Darius was right, she would deal with them all upon her return. Emma climbed back onto her horse and wheeled him around, limbs on fire.

She would burn them…she would burn them all, but first she had to finish her mission. Emma re-applied her mask like a shield. If they wanted the Black Swan, she would give it to them.

._.

The whole time Regina had sat or paced in the tent, grumbling and fretting over the "Persian idiot". Later on, when he still didn't show, she resigned herself to the carpet of pillows, leaving the tent flaps open so she could see the canyon, nursing her pride and cursing her unexpected outburst. When she did spot the metallic hide of the Akhal-Teke ascend out of the canyon it was turning into morning. She had to suppress the fluttering relief she felt in her chest. The Swan looked surprisingly steady, riding his seat well all the way up to the tent. The decent was smooth as well, he was not the weak warrior who had left.

Silently he came and sat down across from her, a lit brazier in between them, his mask glinting, body language unreadable. Regina took in a breath. "I apologize for my unladylike behavior earlier. I completely understand your need to seek the fate of your men." He silently nodded, betraying nothing. Regina was too afraid to ask the burning question. He had come back alone.

"They are all dead. I will kill that witch for what she's done." The Black Swan tossed something into the brazier, the coals hissing. Regina flinched at the harsh word. Through the flames Regina spotted a circlet of silver marked with the insignia of lieutenant. Regina was speechless, utterly lost on how to comfort him, realizing for once how little she actually knew of the Black Swan. Say something, Regina thought.

"Was he close to you?" She asked. The Swan gave a dark chuckle.

"Like brothers, though I know he sometimes wished for more." Regina suppressed the urge to raise an eyebrow in interest. The Black Swan had known that Graham had loved him. "Now that he's dead, I wonder if I should have given it to him." There was a long moment of silence. "It would have been impossible. Any relationship with me is impossible."

"He believed there was hope for you," The Swan looked up from the flames, "to achieve happiness." Regina spoke thinking of one of her last conversations with him. Why do you care? Why are you comforting him? The Swan stood abruptly.

"He was a fool. There is more hope for a sword to find use in the hands of a infant than for me to find peace in the hands of my master." The Swan started packing things up. "It's time to get you to Susa."

Regina looked up in confusion. "You need to rest…"

"I'll rest when I'm dead." He replied with black mirth. "I've had enough of this."