The Dark Backward

Chapter Five

Meanwhile…

Maleficent slowly awoke and then struggled to raise herself up from the cold ground where she found herself lying, somewhere within the cemetery once she was able to get a better sense of her bearings. What was also strange, was that the sorceress found herself wearing the same grey suit and hat she had been wearing earlier that day until she remembered using her magic to change herself into her black gown she confronted the Savior with down in the cave just before whatever happened next as a bright white light had engulfed them. She just couldn't remember how or why, nor how it was she wound up as she was now.

Once she was back on her feet, the villainess looked around her again, bent down to pick up her daughter's rattle she found was lying beneath her, then she stared ahead of her as she began to feel a strange sense of déjà vu when she turned to face Regina's magic vault. She thought for another minute before she finally decided to walk inside, suspecting she would find Gold still down there along with Regina. In truth, she hoped he'd be there so she could try to get a few answers about her missing memories.

When she entered the room beneath the crypt, she found the Dark One standing in front of the Evil Queen's magic mirror and made no effort to turn around to face her as he spoke quietly saying, "You didn't get me the page. You didn't earn your answer. That was the deal."

Maleficent's sense of déjà vu grew stronger as she could have sworn she had already had this conversation with him earlier that evening, but she still responded like before, "That was the deal. But after all I've been through, I've more than earned my answer."

"I know," he replied callously before the sorceress could say something more to find the answers she had really come down for this time, still without facing her, though he looked at her through the mirror instead. "And I want to give you a last chance to preserve what you have."

"What I have is pain," she darkly answered him.

Mr. Gold finally turned around while he responded, "And pain fades… Unless you feed it. And this… This could be the meal, you really don't want."

Maleficent suddenly raised her hand to cut him off before he said anything more, then she glared at him as she said again, "Look… now I know we've definitely had this conversation before. I'm not here for answers about my daughter this time. I know about her and what happened. How my poor little girl was lost to this world after she was taken from me and then adopted by normal, non magical human beings.

"How do you know that?" the Dark One asked while he stared at her in confusion, as she walked around him to take a seat against the wall before either of them continued. "I never told you any of this and no one else could possibly know what I do."

"Let's not really go into that right now," the villainess curtly replied when she looked up at him again. "I need to know what happened to me earlier. Why I'm here now repeating a conversation and I had with you over an hour ago."

He slowly began to pace back and forth as he tried to make sense of what she was trying to talk to him about, though he had to admit her story had certainly peaked his interest, and then he finally answered her, "I wish I could help you, but I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean, dearie. The last conversation I recall having with you was when you, me, Cruella, and Regina were seeking out my grandson to find the missing page. But do go on. What's happened?"

She let out a sigh of frustration, then she responded, "After I left here, I headed back into town and discovered Hook walking alone towards the harbor after he left the Savior. I wanted to talk to her about what her parents did to me and my daughter. In hoped that by doing so it would turn her against her parents and darken her heart just like we've been wanting. However, she already knew the truth. I abducted the pirate to lure Emma down into the cave beneath the library because I knew she wouldn't come to me on her own. She did and that's when everything went wrong, only… I can't remember much except that I lost my temper and lashed out against the Savior. I fired a burst of magic from my staff towards her, but her pirate stepped between her and was killed."

"Hook is dead?" Gold asked in disbelief.

"As far as I know," the sorceress replied crossly. "His death is pretty much the last I remember aside from the Savior weeping over his body until she turned on me. I think we both unleashed our powers against one another, but then there was nothing but light and then darkness. The next thing I knew, was finding myself lying outside of this vault on the ground among the gravestones."

The Dark One took a few moments to try to comprehend her story, then he finally turned back to her again and stated, "That's a very interesting story. If all you say is true… why don't you go out to find the Savior again and see if she's experiencing the same circumstances you are? Should you survive her wrath again, come back here to finish telling me the rest. I'll be around. Now if you'll excuse me… I have some business of my own to attend to. I have reasons to believe that the Author has been released from his prison for us. It's time I go out to find him before the heroes do."

Maleficent nodded and finally just left the vault again without another word. Gold then smiled at the knowledge that one of his oldest enemies might be dead after all the years Hook had been seeking revenge against him, but he didn't relish in the thought for long, before he teleported himself from the vault to go out into the woods in search for the Author like he told the sorceress he was going to do.

A short time later, the Author finally stopped running from the heroes chasing after him to try to catch his breath and swiftly snapped a twig off from one of the trees surrounding him as he immediately started carving it into a quill with his knife, until Mr. Gold suddenly appeared before him as he said haughtily, "Well, I'm not much of a writer, but I do know something about magic quills."

"Such as?" Isaac questioned when he raised his head to look up at the Dark One when he spoke.

"Well, for starters... they must be sculpted from the wood of enchanted trees, which… unfortunately for you, is not an attribute any of the timber in Storybrooke possesses," the Dark One answered coolly, then nodded to confirm the Author's doubt when Isaac looked between him and the stick in his hands again.

All of a sudden, he snapped the twig into two and threw the pieces on the ground as he cursed, "Damn it!"

When he turned upon hearing the sound of the heroes coming to find him as they closed in on him, he quickly turned back to Gold again as he added, "I need to go."

"Yes, you do," the older man responded in understanding, but then offered the Author another choice as he walked nearer to him, instead of him continuing to run. "Or, um… You could come with me."

"Why would I do that?" Isaac then asked coldly after he chortled in disbelief of the villain's offer. "You're quite possibly the biggest pain in the ass I have ever had the displeasure of writing about."

The Dark One laughed as well and then he replied, "Yes… there is that. But there's also… This."

When Gold pulled the Author's real quill from his inside coat pocket, the Author gave him a look of frustration, then worryingly asked again, "What do you want from me?"

"You are gonna write me a whole bunch of new happy endings," the villain answered him smugly, then placed the quill back into his coat pocket once more while Isaac turned his head again to see that those chasing him had grown closer.

"Okay," Isaac finally agreed after he let out another sigh of frustration, as he nervously looked at Gold again.

The Dark One smiled at him again knowing he had won, then retorted smugly, "I thought so."

He then waved his hand and teleported himself and the Author away before the heroes arrived where they'd been standing. Little did either man know that Maleficent had been standing at a safe distance as she concealed herself so they wouldn't see her as she watched and listened in on their conversation just now.

She sneered, then uttered coldly to herself in regard to what Gold had told the Author about what he wanted from him, "One of those happy endings better be mine."

And then, the sorceress raised her hand above her head as she was about to vanish within a purple smoke cloud before the heroes arrived within the clearing. But before she could, a blinding white light suddenly engulfed her again until if faded into nothing but darkness like it had happened down in the cave during her fight with Emma. If whatever had caused the strange occurrence to happen had held off for a moment longer, Maleficent might have seen that neither Emma, nor Hook were among the search party looking for the Author this time.