It was only back at his tower that he recognized the smell on Regina and where he had smelled it before. It was the smell Jefferson reeked of. It was the same smell that came from every object in the bag that Jefferson had left him. Suddenly it was all clear. Last he'd checked, the Enchanted Forest didn't have any Counts, certainly none that wanted revenge. Somehow, that little witch had gotten Jefferson to take her to another world and plucked the Count out of obscurity to come here and do her bidding. Jefferson had helped her?!

He sneered as he approached his cauldron and summoned an image of Jefferson, set on going to him and questioning him over this nonsense, but-

Odd. No picture formed in the cauldron.

He moved to the mirror and waved his hand over it, using the reflective surfaces he knew of in Jefferson's home to see into it. The magic worked this time, and there it was, the little cottage that he was raising his daughter in, the same one he'd gone to when he'd sworn never to use magic again.

It was empty inside. No Jefferson, no Grace, and a layer of dust on every surface, suggesting no one had been there for some time.

He glanced back over at the cauldron, suddenly suspicious of its inability to pull from it an image of Jefferson, then back to the mirror and into the home where Jefferson wasn't. Something felt wrong. Sometimes, if there was an enchantment, a person could hide from such things as the cauldron, just as the Apprentice had. Perhaps that was the deal that Jefferson had struck with Regina, that she would hide Jefferson and the girl from him if he took her to the other world. That was one theory. There was a way to test it.

He reached for the crystal ball, the very one that Jefferson had brought him back in order to see around those kinds of enchantments. He sought to summon an image of Jefferson and his daughter in the crystal, expecting to see them living a rich life in a lavish palace or perhaps protected from him in a new cabin. Instead, the girl appeared, a stuffed bunny in her hands as she tugged at the sleeve of an unknown man. She wiped a tear from her eye when a woman appeared and knelt in front of her before pulling her into her arms and hugging her—no sign of Jefferson.

That was odd. Very odd. Perhaps, if Regina had arranged some kind of deal with him, he was in another realm somewhere, searching for something or completing the transaction? Doing work for Regina...but, not for him...

With an angry wave of his hand, he dismissed the image of Grace. What did it matter where Jefferson was. Something was going on, the Former Queen had Jefferson's magic on her, and somehow she was responsible for the Count being here in this world trying to kill Snow White. He wanted to speak to Jefferson, wanted to get details from the man, and throttle him for turning to Regina but not him after he'd vowed never to do so again, and he'd kept his promise to leave him alone, but harsh words could wait. Snow and the Count could not.

Regina claimed that she'd cast a protection spell over the Count to prevent him from harming the man. It could be a lie. That was an interesting piece of magic, and he didn't know where she would have gotten hair or blood or skin or anything else that would have told the spell who to protect him from. She could have been bluffing. He wouldn't have smelled the lie on top of the smell of realm travel, but…perhaps he didn't need to test it in that way.

The Count had already seemed unhappy with going after "the Charmings" as Regina had put it. He was motivated by revenge of some kind. Naturally, Regina would have hired someone who wanted revenge, thinking it was powerful enough a motivator, but there was another feeling stronger than revenge. Love…

And as David existed as a loophole for Regina, something she hadn't yet figured out…perhaps there was one for the Count as well that Regina hadn't planned for.

Setting it up was easy. As the Count rode back to the castle, he used magic to write a letter in the hand of one of Charlotte's sisters, informing her that her mother was sick and she had to come home to help care for her at first light because no one else had the skills she did. He knew that Charlotte would eat that up. Her family wanted her to be a handmaiden, not a doctor. They'd rejected any kind of interest she ever had in medicine. For them to write her and tell her they needed her skills, well…he knew that she'd be insistent they let her go. He had Pirithous deliver the letter. He knew the Charmings. He knew they'd insist she go in the morning, they'd probably send her off with a carriage and gifts too, but not before they invited her to dinner.

As he waited for the time to be right, he summoned from the bag of items that Jefferson had given him a key. It smelled like Regina and Jefferson, but the key was unlike the other items in the bag. He didn't even know if Jefferson knew what he had when he'd given this to him. It wasn't a portal that would work once to take an individual to the room of doors, but rather a magical object that he'd figured out early on could be used to open a door to a very special place, a very special world…one where dear Charlotte could be saved from what was about to afflict her. He'd already used the key once for Dr. Jekyll. Perhaps, if this played out the way he thought it would, the pair of them could pass on his compliments.

His suspicions were confirmed when he spied on the Charmings through a mirror. At the Seer's assurance, he stayed where he was in his tower and watched as the Count poured the venom into the crystal pitcher of wine. He poured it for David and Snow that evening, only to be stopped dead in his tracks when he was told another guest was coming to dine. None other than Charlotte. Snow explained that her family was in need of her, and she would be leaving in the morning. Together they were celebrating for her last night. The Count, Edmund, according to Charlotte, had hesitated before offering her wine from the pitcher. When questioned about it, he'd answered that it was her eyes "again" that had stopped her. Snow White smirked, seeing the same thing he had seen. He eventually poured her a glass, but before anyone could drink, he stopped them all, claiming that he had another bottle in the cellar he wanted to share with them. Charlotte's glass was the first one that he took.

Love…he could work with love.

As Count Edmund stormed away to fetch the mythical bottle of wine, he waited. After dinner, when Charlotte had excused herself to pack, the Count retreated, looking terribly torn apart by the fact that she'd soon be leaving. In the palace cellar, he sat atop a barrel of something waiting for his moment when the Count appeared. The Poor Man didn't notice him, merely slammed the pitcher down on the table so hard he was shocked it hadn't broken. He wasn't surprised to see him with the pitcher of wine; he'd barely let it leave his sight since he'd introduced the potion to it, eliminating any chance that someone might accidentally take a sip. He took the vial that held the poison from his pocket and looked it over—sentiment and love…his two favorite materials to work with.

"Having second thoughts?"

The Count startled when he saw him and moved to pull his sword, but just as it was drawn, he'd summoned it into his hand. When the Count stopped his advance and looked properly shaken, he dropped it.

"No need for that, dearie. Tell me...why didn't you poison Snow White and Prince Charming?"

The Count swallowed nervously. "I was prepared to poison them, but...I saw Charlotte, and she reminded me of..."

The Seer blessed him with an image of the girl, of Charlotte.

He saw her face clearly, but before his eyes, he watched as her face morphed, the bones changed, all but the eyes. The eyed stayed the same on her, the one trait he'd been confounded by. How interesting. He saw the pair in a field, laughing. He saw them at a river, her reading poetry in a familiar language as he ate grapes in a sickening idyllic scene, the pair of them kissing in what appeared to be a dark barn and then…a coffin. Dressed in black, he stood beside her coffin. Her eyes were closed. And then the girl morphed and changed again, back into the figure of Charlotte; every detail was different, except for the eyes. The eyes remained the same. Closed, as venom from the Agrabah Viper claimed her body.

When the Seer brought him out of the past and the future, the Count was still stuttering. He might have been too if he hadn't gotten over such things years ago.

"Your fiancée?" he guessed. The Count's eyes and silence answered for him. "Yeah, yeah, I-I-I can see that. I mean, before she became a rotting corpse. Your love and-and the handmaiden share the same je ne sais quoi, n'est-ce pas?" he taunted, using the language he'd seen in the book. The Count did not appear impressed.

"She didn't deserve to die," he argued. "And if I had killed her just to get my revenge, I'd be no better than my enemies."

"Yes, yes, but...but Snow White and Prince Charmy-warmy, you gonna try again?"

The Count paused, then, slowly, his eyes began to fill with tears before he finally shook his head. "No," he whispered. "They don't deserve to die either."

Well, that was refreshing to hear, but unfortunately, he'd seen that look of resistance before, when he'd been visiting Regina. All it had taken was one promise of revenge to get him to do what she'd wanted. He needed more than just words. He needed the Count gone, and he needed Regina to learn…there was no fighting him.

"Hm..." he snapped his fingers and summoned Charlotte's body, unconscious with a bit of his magic, into the room with them, hiding her behind another barrel for the time being so that he could explain. The sudden thud on the floor did not go unnoticed by the Count. Did they have magic in whatever world he'd come from? Did it really matter?

"What was that?"

"My insurance policy," he explained, taking the long way around the table as he summoned the last dregs of the poison from the bottle and used his magic to place them on dear Charlotte's tongue…that should do.

"Let's just say in order for my plan to work, I need Prince Charming and Snow White very much alive and procreating. Sorry for bluntness, but I need what I need. So that means I must make sure that you're never tempted to kill them ever again. Boop!"

He used his magic to make a noise in the place that Charlotte was hidden. Predictably the boy turned his back, went to investigate the spot, and gasped as he knelt by her side.

"Charlotte?" he laughed as he examined her. What he'd find was the black poison of the viper already doing its damage. It was a quick poison when it wasn't diluted. A full bite could take a few seconds, but with what she'd had, it might take up to five minutes. They had some time, but not a lot.

"Why?" he roared. "If you didn't want me to kill them, kill me, not her!"

"Would that I could, dearie," he muttered, rounding the table once again. "Where's the antidote?!" the Count demanded, getting to his feet and storming after him.

"Antidote?" he laughed. "There isn't any. There's no cure for this poison."

"No, no, no," he cried, returning to her side in a panic. Oh, he did have a sense of morality this one. That was good. He might not be in love with her, not yet, but he'd take his deal just to keep her alive. He felt responsible. He could work with that just as he could love.

"But it can be stopped," he countered, removing the key from a pocket and showing him.

"A key?"

"This isn't any old key," he explained. "This is the key to the land where all stories come to a screeching halt! Including Charlotte's story…you know the one...where the poison reaches her heart!" he used his hand to mime poison flowing through her veins and strangling her, but the Count once more was not amused. Instead, he looked from him to Charlotte and then back at the key.

"I go through there, she lives?"

"Indeed!" he squealed. "As long as you remain there. If you should ever leave, her story and the poison shall r-r-resume. And I hate to spoil the ending," he whispered, recalling the image of Charlotte dead from the poison. That was decades down the road, long after the Curse was broken…what did he care. "But it's really quite tragic…"

Again the Count stared at the key in his hand, he looked at the door behind him, but finally nodded. By the look of Charlotte, it was none too soon.

"Then it's settled!" he proclaimed, turning to collect the girl. He turned his back and used the magic of the key to open the door behind him, not into the wine racks but into another world, one he would not be going to. The Count said not a word as he hoisted Charlotte into his arms and stepped through the portal with her. He laughed when it closed, and the smell Jefferson had on him permeated the room. He couldn't wait for Regina to learn how she'd failed so miserably. Student surpass the teacher…there couldn't only ever be one Dark One.

I would like to reiterate again that I did my best on this chapter. I feel like the shoddy writing was really evident in this scene, especially. I felt like they took shortcuts Rumple probably wouldn't have taken and just left a lot of it up to the old "well, we can explain it with magic" excuse. I feel for that excuse, and I've used it myself several times, but this scene seemed to rely on it a bit much for my taste. But hey, it's over, it's done, 6x02 is now in the past, and I'm really excited about tomorrow's chapter. Even if you know what scene we're doing tomorrow, there is a conversation that happens in front of it, one that I hadn't realized had to take place until I watched the "seen scene." I don't know how you'll feel about it ultimately, but I know that I enjoyed writing it, and there is something about it that puts a smile on my face. I'm very excited to show it to you.

Thank you, Grace5231973 and Jennifer Baratta, for your reviews on the last chapter. Props for any who realized that what Rumple was smelling on Regina in the last chapter was Jefferson. Well, Jefferson's magic at least. I did that to give you a bit of an idea as to where we are timeline wise for everyone else. This story follows Rumple, but there's a lot going on that he doesn't worry about or see because it's not really pertinent to his goal. The idea that Cora came back from Wonderland snatched Henry, and Regina took Jefferson and left him in Wonderland to get dear ole Daddy back...that's one of those things we don't see. But by doing this it allowed me to give Rumple a hint to check in on Jefferson and then excuse him from caring further when he assumes that Jefferson is "working for Regina". We're getting close to the end everyone! Only five more chapters left in the Snow White and Prince Charming Section then we'll be moving on to the next and last section in this fiction! I won't say that the last section is super amazing and awesome, but I like it more than this one. Rumple sort of becomes the central character again (in his own story, shocker), and I think you will like what I do with some of the more boring parts of sitting in prison. So, if these last few chapters start making you a bit bored in this section, when Snowing starts to do some things they probably shouldn't, know that we are almost through with it. Peace and Happy Reading!