He spent the night watching Regina as she prepared the Sleeping Potion, dipping the apple over and over into the Sleeping Curse, applying layer after layer for the apple to absorb until it was finally a deep black color. With a wave of her hand, she turned it red again and he knew, with certainty, that it was done. But so was he.
He had a plan; a preliminary plan, but a plan nonetheless. A plan that would, with any luck, get David free, get Regina to see her own failings, get the potion of True Love to a safe place, and allow David to break the curse about to be placed on Snow White. The first step was going to be the trickiest, he acknowledged that, but he was certain he could do it. He just had to watch the right person, the only one in the Queen's castle that wasn't truly loyal to her...and of course, wait for the right time.
When afternoon came, he found the Queen back at her old estate, the one she'd lived at with her Mother and Father before she married the King and was named Queen and Step-mother. She walked the house, the grounds, and finally came to rest in the stables, looking around in near tears when, naturally, Snow came. With David in her clutches, Snow had very little choice in the matter. The minute she arrived, Regina turned and marched out of the stables, bidding the girl to follow her. They walked along the grounds and out onto a hill with a grave. It was a grave he recognized. She'd placed it there after "the experiment" had failed, and she'd placed Danial in the ground. Snow had never seen it, not until now.
Words were exchanged. It was clear that sometimes they spoke as normal individuals, calmly, cordially, even respectfully at times. But then the conversation grew heated and, if the vein in Regina's forehead was any indication, loud. And then the moment came. Regina pulled the apple she'd worked on the previous night from its satchel. After a brief explanation, the Princess finally took the apple, willingly, and with tears in her eyes, bit into it.
The effect was almost immediate. There was something wrong, small movements that looked like gagging, like her body was trying to reject it, but her mouth wouldn't open, or perhaps she was trying to hold onto it. And then Snow collapsed without grace. Her knees fell out beneath her and she dropped hard to the ground. Her breathing slowed, he knew that her heartrate would as well. Her fingers uncurled. Regina beamed, staring at her with pleasure.
He felt anger, even despite the fact that he knew he had to let this happen for his plan. Instead of giving into his anger and going after Regina, he followed the apple. Angry as he was, Regina was going to be dealt with later, but that apple had been infused with something powerful and wasn't even half used. He hated what she'd done, but he wasn't foolish enough to let that apple get away! He wasn't about to let magic like that lay out in the middle of nowhere. After rolling out of her fingers, it continued down the hill. He watched for it to stop, watched it roll end over end until-
His mouth dropped open as a small portal opened up, just big enough for the fruit, and pulled it through. It was gone. He turned away from the scene on the hill, commanding his cauldron to find it. No image came to him. He picked up his crystal ball and commanded the same thing but…nothing! For the first time since he'd had the ball there was nothing but darkness to meet him. The crystal couldn't find it, the cauldron couldn't find it. That did not bode well. Something like that meant that the apple was no longer in either this time or this space. Seeing as how time travel was impossible, he deduced someone from another world had pulled it from this world into theirs.
Fine. He was angry, things seemed far from good or fine. But the apple wasn't the goal, it wasn't the conception of the Swan, for now the goal wasn't even Bealfire. It was True Love's Kiss.
Step one…free David.
He returned his watchful eye back to Regina just in time to see her disappear, he watched Snow's body in his crystal ball all the while he used the mirrors in Regina's palace to root out the Hunter. Regina was bound to feel victory. She was bound to feel powerful and strong and bound to want to celebrate that. With no one else to celebrate with, he had the very distinct feeling that she would summon her in-house sex-slave for her own amusement. But he had no intention of letting something like that happen. Not on this night.
The dwarves were the ones to find Snow White. Granny and Red joined them eventually and it was the wolf girl who finally thought to take a dagger from her grandmother, place it beneath her friend's nose, and find no breath within her. They mourned and cried together, hugging and embracing as they lifted the girl into their arms to hug her. But it was useless. When they finally began to gather her body, he stopped to look in on Regina, alone in her tower.
Using her mirror he observed her sitting at her vanity draped across her chair with not a care in the world., her eyes fixed on him but really just looking past him. She was staring into her own mirror, watching something. Judging by the look of satisfaction on her face he could guess easily enough what that might have been.
"It would appear sacrifice is overrated. Speaking of…"
She waved her hand at him, at the mirror in front of her, and the image he had of her waved a bit, indicating magic had been used. He glanced back into his ball and found the image of David in his cell, clanging at the bars and crying out. "Snow! What have you done to her? What have you done? Where is she?! Where is she?!"
It sickened him. Almost enough to go now himself and free him. But he was waiting for the opportune moment. The moment when Regina rose from her chair, went to her chamber of hearts and pulled on forth with glee.
"Come to my chambers tonight, huntsman. We're going to celebrate."
That was what he'd been waiting for. In his crystal ball, he watched the huntsman's eyes widen, he watched as he turned green and wrinkled his nose as if he was going to be sick and then…he rose from his bed in the servant's quarters and obeyed her commands. Now, enough was enough.
He summoned the anger he'd felt last night, forgot the fact that he had a plan, that he was now committed to the plan. He recalled all the years he'd searched for the Curse, all the pain and anguish it had taken to get it in the first place! And then he was ready.
"Foolish girl…foolish stubborn girl," he whispered in a menacing tone from the shadows of her room.
Regina turned to look at him. "You'll keep your voice down in my palace!"
"Quiet!" he snapped. He made sure there was poison in his voice, demanded her attention, but didn't raise his voice. He wanted his anger to be carefully controlled and tamped down; like a parent. "I do the talking now."
For a moment, she complied. He saw her back straighten and fear overshadowed her eyes before she shook her head and turned her back on him. "Go home, Rumple. This is my palace, I am Queen here, and I won't be talked down to by you as if you were-"
"Cora? Well, maybe your mother had her reasons! Parents do when their children act like spoiled, selfish brats."
"Cora is dead!" she screamed.
He had opened his mouth but that proclamation stopped his heart and gave him pause. He'd seen this discussion going many different ways, but not that way. Cora? Dead?
As if sensing his confusion Regina shrugged. "Happened a long time ago; saw the body myself. She was a liability I couldn't afford to keep around so I had her killed. So you can stop pretending that she's some sort of paragon of magic and deception because she has fallen to me! To my magic! To my plans!"
No...no she was lying. Why, exactly, he couldn't tell, maybe to try and prove herself to him? He didn't know why she was lying, but he knew that she was. The way her heart raced, the way she shook with anger, the way she shifted her eyes...lies. All of it. She may long for her mother's death as much as he did, might have even tried to bring it about as she said, but she hadn't succeeded. Cora would never have allowed it.
"Cora is twice the witch you are."
"'Was', and you will watch your tongue."
Watch his tongue? She was the lying, foolish little girl and thought she could tell him to watch his tongue. Not in a million years. Dead or alive Regina would always be half the woman her mother is or was so long as she continued to behave as she was. Oh, he may have come here with one reason, on purpose, in mind, but it appeared he had other lessons to teach.
"Your mother would never-"
"Stop it!"
"-ever have settled for such a foolish, second rate plan!"
"I told you, watch your tongue."
"And I told you it was childish," he shouted. "It is bound to fail! And now it's cost you your greatest asset! You gave away gold coins for a copper pot!"
"You don't know anything! I've won!" she shouted at him. "My plan worked! The girl slumbers! The dwarves have taken her body and are fashioning a coffin for her pretty little figure to lie in for all an eternity."
"Until he breaks the curse!"
Suddenly her mouth clamped closed with an annoying clap. Oh, and there was the rub in this plan of hers, what he'd seen coming ever since she told him her plan. She'd been so focused on cursing her step-daughter she hadn't considered how the curse might be broken.
"Oh, have we forgotten so soon?" he taunted. "All curses can be broken, Regina!"
"Oh please!" she cried after a minute. "He doesn't know that she's cursed. It's a powerful potion, she looks dead, sounds dead, feels dead, and give it a few days, but she'll eventually smell dead. Even if he weren't locked up in my dungeon, what kind of man kisses a dead woman?"
"You doubt, Regina. You doubt the possible all because of logic and reason and not emotion. You forget how you kissed your own beloved after he perished, trying to bring him back, you don't think he'll try just as hard?! You're a stupid little girl! One day, you'll learn your lesson just as I've learned mine. I was wrong to give you something so strong. I shouldn't have put so much faith in such a weak witch!"
He turned, making it look like he wanted to leave but what he really wanted was to get a clear view of the hallway outside the Queen's door. Was that movement? Someone coming down the hall, to please his master? Right on cue.
"It'll never happen!" Regina shouted, her voice cracking and betraying her emotions. He'd made her nervous. Good. She'd made him nervous when she gave his curse to her friend. "I've won! Snow White lay asleep in a coffin, by the time they finally realize she's not dead it will be too late. I still have the Prince in my custody. I'll see to his execution in the morning."
And that was certainly movement. The hunter was behind the door, hiding away, listening to their conversation or at least the tail end of it. All he'd wanted him to hear was that last bit, the part about Charming's execution. He'd cared enough to spare Snow White, with any luck he'd care enough to also spare her Prince.
"You try that, Regina…" he muttered, looking at her over his shoulder. "You try, but when you are sick of sniffling about and ready to give revenge true consideration, we'll talk."
He took another step toward the hallway and saw the Huntsman speeding away from her room, perhaps going to make a plan, he hoped? His work here was done.
"I gave that curse of yours away!" Regina shouted before he could disappear. Brave girl. At least she owned her mistakes, even if he knew the point of her shouting that was to cut him deep. It did. He was hurt and angered by it and so, incredibly, tired of being here in this realm while Baelfire was in another, breaking curses, arranging meetings, knowing every damn thing just to stay one step ahead of stupidity. But he wouldn't show it. He was so close he was finally starting to taste it! He wasn't about to fold now.
"I know, Regina," he whispered without looking at her. "Someday, you will learn...I know everything."
Confused? Head spinning a bit? Oh, I hope so. This chapter is supposed to make you feel those things. It's supposed to make you feel like you are jumping from one character, one story, to another. It's supposed to sort of get you twisted. One second Rumple is looking at Snow, then he's looking at David, then he's back to Snow, then to Regina, then the apple, back to Snow, find the Huntsman, make a plan...it's done for two reason. The first is to show exactly how much is going on right now. The second is to demonstrate how many plates Rumple is spinning right now, it's to show the control he's trying to maintain on everything even down to the last detail. Just like before Belle, he's trying to think two steps ahead of everyone. That's not to say that he's over Belle, he just finally has something to focus on for a moment and it's keeping him busy.
Thank you so much Alarda, Grace5231973, and Jennifer Baratta for your review on the last chapter! I'm so happy to hear you thought it was okay. I'm hoping you'll like some of his scheming in this chapter. It's sort of setting up the dominoes before everything really falls into place. Peace and Happy Reading.