AN: The wall scene; the getting into the tower? An adaptation of the one in "Angel" 4X10. It was just so cool.

P.S. The first half of this is a flashback, the second is in real time (after you see the scene break (~0~0~) with five 0's, that's where it picks up).

A seventeen-year-old Emma Louise Swan White refused to go for the umpteenth time that morning. It was a last ditch effort seeing that the stagecoach was before her and her parents, and she was in one of her best (and only) gowns, but it was worth a try. She simply made her way back into the castle.

"I don't think so, Little Princess…" Charming called after her, he and her mother not bothering to turn around.

She huffed out a sigh and walked back to stand next to them as everything was readied for the trip.

She'd avoided family outings and her parents taking her places like the plague. She was not going to get rooked into meeting potential suitors that would care for her, look good at her side, and not try to take her crown from her. That just wasn't going to happen. She already found the love of her life. She found her nine months before on a park bench.

Her parents saw otherwise; then again, they didn't know about her love. So, she was being forced to go to an overnight stay at an earl's, Lady Lillian Bradley's home. She and her husband Timothy were allegedly two of the only supporters of the King and Queen that were willing to stand up to them. Their son, Corey was well bred to fit into a kingdom easily. He'd learned from his father how he would need to act when marrying into a title higher than your own; he was Emma's best suitor. At least he was from their lands.

And Emma was not getting out of meeting him—especially since ever since she walked back down to her parents, her mother had kept hold of her hand. She'd tried to con her way out nine ways to Sunday, but there was no winning with them this time. She was forced into a gown and now, she was being forced into their stagecoach.

"Go, young lady." Snow's stern mother tone came out and Emma knew there was no point in trying to flee.

…That was until eight hours into the trip they slowed to a stop.

"Why've we stopped?" Charming leapt from the cab of the stagecoach.

Emma smirked as she turned to look outside the window. All her 'unplanned' escape needed was a little magic. Good thing she had some and knew a silent spell to make a tree fall.

"It's but a fallen tree, Your Majesty." A knight said from outside.

Snow gave her daughter an accusing look, "What is that smirk about?"

"Nothing, mother."

"You know I hate it when you call me that…" Snow shook her head as her daughter's smile only got wider.

"May I step outside for some air? This cab is quite stuffy."

"All right. But don't wander off." Snow followed her daughter from the stagecoach and walked over to survey the tree with her husband. "How could this happen? There've been no storms for days. This looks as though it just fell today."

"Never mind all that; we need to move it either way." Charming looked to all the knights now surrounding the tree, "Well men, can we do it?"

Emma subtly grabbed her belt with her pickaxe, knives, slingshot and sword and quietly crossed the street. She rolled her eyes of the easiness that was coming with her escape as she waited to make sure that no eyes were on her before stepping off the road into the forest. She moved swiftly and quietly. She knew she could have just poofed, but that made the escape far less fun. As she moved out of earshot, her feet picked up speed and she ran in a dead sprint before stopping in a clearing she'd never seen before.

She dropped her belt, and looked over her torn and tattered gown. She quickly removed it only to reveal that she wore her favorite shirt pants and boots underneath. A relieved breath filled her lungs as she bent over and picked up her belt. After securing it around her waist, she unsheathed her sword her father gave her two years prior and kissed the handle—she considered the sword lucky. It always helped her out of things she didn't want to do or deal with.

"Nice try, little girl." Her mother's voice sounded from behind her.

It seemed luck was not on her side that day, though. She sheathed her sword once more

"Mom?" Emma turned, utterly surprised.

Snow had her arms crossed as she stared her daughter down, "Move." She pointed the general direction of their stagecoach.

"Mother, I'm not going."

"Yes, my darling daughter, apple of my eye, you are." Snow picked up the ruined gown and placed her hands on the blonde's shoulders.

"But—"

"No." Snow gave her a fake smile, "We've had many a long, tedious discussion. You are going. We will eat dinner, spend the night and leave in the morning. You can even find your own way home, if you would like."

Emma's face was one of shock at hearing her mother's words, "Really?"

"Yes. If you do what you're supposed to do." After a silent agreement was made, Snow once again pointed to the stagecoach, "March."

"How did you catch me up?" Emma asked.

"You got your skills somewhere, my dear." Snow smirked in satisfaction as she saw the pleased, proud look from her daughter. It seemed the only times she bonded with her was when she told stories of her adventurous youth.

Emma plopped down into her seat, belt and weapons still at home on her waist, and they started on their way once more, the tree no longer an issue. She crossed her arms and watched the scenery. Then, another plan of escape came to mind; getting to find her own way home wasn't worth sitting through two meals and spending the night with people she didn't want to me or even consider marrying.

She debated for another ten minutes before she knew she had to do it. She unlocked the coach door and jumped out, rolling a few feet. All of her movements were swift and stealthy; her parents weren't able to try to stop her before she was on the ground. The knight that was following them immediately stopped to help her. And the coach driver was quick to pull his reigns as well. She already heard her parents' collective fuming and quickly grabbed two rocks from the road and her slingshot. She moved to a good angle to see both horses' rear ends then fired.

After the coach took off, the knights all mumbled things they weren't allowed to mumble about the Princess's behavior as they too, took off after their king and queen. None of them stayed behind. She smiled and started whistling as she meandered off the road and into the woods.

After two hours or so of walking around, exploring this part of the land she didn't know she started hearing the sounds of water. She came to a clearing and found a river. She wasn't quite tired yet and as she followed the water's path, she saw a cliff was near and she was at the top. She walked along the river's side until the drop off and when she peered over she saw a freshwater spring. She climbed down and looked around. It was absolutely breathtaking, like most nature is.

She needed to take advantage. She quickly stripped and dove into the clear water. As she swam around, she saw that the waterfall hid a cave. She thought for maybe half a minute before she was putting on her clothes once more and swimming under the fall into the cave. The cave held high ground and she easily hoisted herself onto the land. She couldn't see though. So, with a flourish of her hand, she held a bright, white and blue fireball.

She looked at the walls and saw symbols; though they might have been an ancient language. She could never be sure. The cave seemed to wind on forever, but eventually she came to an end, a dead end. This was no ordinary cave. It seemed to be man-made. There weren't millions of pathways or forks in the road. It was one tunnel that wound this way and that. It was one tunnel with no other purpose but to get to the end. And she was there now. It almost seemed cozy, like a room. There was what looked to be a fire pit and rotten logs that would have acted like benches.

She threw her fireball to the pit and it immediately lit up the place entirely.

"Woah." She looked around, seeing the symbols everywhere. Then a shadow caught her eye and as her eyes roamed, she finally found the shadow's starting point.

"…Woah."

There slammed, purposefully stuck in the wall was an axe. A battle-axe. Its blade was black and faded into rich blue hues, cerulean and sky and cornflower. It was beautiful.

"So, instead of the sword in the stone—that doesn't seem to be moving any time soon, by the way—we have the axe in the stone wall." She looked it over a bit more, "I wonder how you got here, who put you here, how many have found you and tried to remove you."

It called for her. She wanted it. She needed it. She wasn't going to leave that cave without it.

She stalked over to the wall, grabbed the handle, "Come on Excalibur in axe form, I am your true owner. You don't have to wait like the sword does." She yanked it as hard as she could and it easily slid free, the momentum causing her to spin almost full circle before catching herself. "Damn. That was too easy."

She looked around. She waited. She listened. She knew when a challenge was too easy that something horrific was going to happen. She'd read enough novels to know that the cave was going to drop in on her, or it was going to try to prevent her from ever getting out, or someone or something was going to emerge from nowhere and chase her down until they either killed her or took the axe back. But nothing happened.

She looked down at the axe, "Are you even special?" She ran her finger along the blade and almost immediately yanked her hand back, "You are razor sharp." She sucked on her finger before blood could drip. Deciding she'd had an eventful day, she poofed out of the cave.

~0~0~0~

"Regina?" Emma asked as she materialized in the Shadow Queen's bedroom. "Regina?" She asked again after the woman didn't answer.

She looked outside to find the sun still up. She couldn't have been in the cave for as long as she thought. The sun would have fallen in the entire Enchanted Forest and the Shadow Lands long before that with the amount of time she'd thought she'd taken.

Her stomach grumbled in this moment and she somehow wished she could get Regina's attention. Or that Regina still had on her Emma-dar.

She laid on the bed and held the axe above her. It was a beautiful axe. The main blades were enough, but this thing had lower blades that looked like they shouldn't be messed with. Thinking she would be alone a while, she stood and started play fighting like she did with a wooden sword when she was a child.

"What are you doing?" Regina's voice filled the room.

Emma stopped and turned; her eyes wide before she gave the other woman a bright smile, "Look at my axe!"

"And who do I have to punish for giving you that?" The Shadow Queen sat on her bed, leaning on an arm watching her blonde lover grin and move her way.

"No one. I found it."

"You found it, like you stole it or won it based on a bet, found it, or found it in the middle of nowhere, found it?" Regina grinned in amusement.

"The middle of nowhere." Came Emma's flippant response. When she realized that Regina was waiting on more, she started in, "So, my parents were making me go meet a potential husband. I wasn't too keen on that, so I jumped out of the stagecoach and with my slingshot and a couple of rocks to the horses' behinds, I sent them on their way. Well, being all alone and the adventurous girl I am, I started exploring before I came to you since I'm going to have a night before my parents return to the castle and then I'll be in trouble and come see you some more nights anyways." She took a breath, "Well, I wasn't tired yet, but I was bored of the forest when I heard water, so I followed it, found a river that led to a drop off that led to a spring—I'm taking you there one day when we can be seen in public together, even though I don't think anyone would even know because there is no one around for miles, but… Anyways. There was a cave behind the waterfall, and I followed it and at the very end of the cave, which had a bunch of funky symbols or writings or something on the walls, I found my new weapon in the rock wall and I pulled it from its resting place and now its mine."

"You pulled it from a rock wall?"

"Yeah. You're thinking Excalibur that has yet to have a rightful owner? Me too." The blonde set the axe on the window seat and took off her belt, setting those weapons with their new brother on the window seat as well. She then plopped next to her lover.

Regina chuckled, "You tired after that story? It should have taken you a good half hour to tell me everything, but you, my love, managed it in two minutes."

Emma gave her a cocky grin, "Well, what can I say? I do what I can. And sometimes, I am that good."

"Or you're acting your age…" Regina shook her head.

Emma knew where she was going with that, "I'm not a child."

"You're not an adult."

"I'm of legal age to marry…" Emma pushed up and pressed their foreheads together, "You love that I'm immature. It keeps you youthful, which you really don't need help with."

"That was a good save, my love."

"You like how I slipped that in there?" Emma leaned in and kissed her before laying back down, "I'm hungry."

Regina smiled as she hugged her lover tight, "What do you want to eat?" She pet the blonde's hair.

"I don't care."

"All right. I will tell my advisors that I've a headache and want to eat alone in my bedchamber. I'll be back soon."

"I love you."

"Is that why you intentionally got in trouble?" Regina turned at the door.

"And why I jumped out of the carriage to get out of meeting what's his face."

Regina walked back over to the White Princess, "I love you, too." She took the blonde's face, leaned down and kissed her.

~0~0~0~

That night, Emma jerked wide-awake from her dream. She was in a cold sweat and she scanned the room twice before her eyes landed on the axe.

"Darling, what is it?" Regina sat up and touched her lover's clammy skin. "You're feverish." She said worried.

"I'm fine. Just…" She kept her eyes on the axe.

"Just?" Regina sat and turned on her lamp—a new product that boomed throughout households—and tried to sooth her princess by scratching her back in calming strokes.

"My dream…" Emma finally turned to the brunette, resting her head on Regina's shoulder.

"What happened?"

"I'm not sure. It was like a vision." She took a breath, "I saw the man that put the axe in the wall. He was a Pure One. The last living Pure One for the last three decades. We really were extinct until me." She looked up to Regina, "He put it there and it was meant to be found by me. It really is Excalibur in axe form, Excalibur for the Pure Ones. Just no one knows about it."

"Why do you get an axe for being a Pure One?" Regina asked.

"You can't just be impressed that I get a cool axe?" Emma deadpanned.

"Well, my thinking is, if you are a Pure One, which you are, and you have the power of a Pure One, which you do, why do you even need the axe?"

Emma looked over to the axe once more, "Maybe there are things I can't do that it can."

~0~0~0~0~0~

The knights, princes and princess looked up as their forms materialized once again. They landed in the top half of the mountain, in the middle of an ominous path. The sky was dark and filled with shades of yellow-greens and purples. A dark, angry cloud seemed to take over the top of the mountain.

Artie didn't hide his fear, "So at the top of this mountain… Where the lightning and the storm and all the scary, gigantic crows are? That's where we're going?"

"Aye." Patrick nodded.

"Fun."

No ones' eyes could seem to break from the top of the mountain. It was steep, its wildlife was venomous and its nature thorny.

"Why didn't we just poof into the castle?"

"Because Maleficent would have known we were coming. She can feel when magic is present in her castle. This was the closest I could get us without her knowing."

"And how do you know that?" Gustave asked.

"I've done my research; and I've studied this witch. My father has helped fight against her. We've known the wickedness she bestows."

"One more time… Why are we fighting Maleficent?" Arely asked.

"Does it matter? You've already joined the fight." Chip looked at him before shaking his head.

"I guess not, but I'd still like to know what I'm fighting for."

"Peace." Emma looked to the prince.

"The Queen." Chip placed a hand on Emma's shoulder, "We're fighting for the Shadow Queen."

Arely looked from Chip to Emma to everyone else, then back to Emma before settling on Chip once more, "Then what are we waiting for?"

~0~0~0~0~0~

It took an hour to scale the mountain and get inside. They were doing well; they hadn't had to draw their swords once.

They were in a line as they crept down a hallway, Emma leading, when they heard a grunt and a snort. They turned to find four of Maleficent's goons.

"'Ello, gents." Arely, with his ever thickening pirate-like accent stepped from the line and gave the literally hog-headed goons a charming smile.

"'Lo…" One of them grunted, "You're not supposed to be here."

"Really? We're not? I thought the thing was today?" The Caspian Prince took a step toward them.

"Yeah, I'd have placed money on the thing being today…" Gustave broke from the royals to stroll around to the opposite side of the four goons.

"The thing is definitely today." Chip walked over to the growing group.

"Oh for the love…" Emma muttered as she stalked over to the four goons, grabbed one by the head and snapped his neck, killing him instantly. She looked to the other three goons, "Where is Maleficent?" When one of them started to squeal, she was quick with her battle-axe to cut off his head. She looked to the remaining two after the body fell, "Where is Maleficent?" She asked once more, placing the blade against the closer one's throat.

"She's in her tower!" He cringed thinking his life was over.

"How do we get there?" She pressed the blade further to his throat, the slightest amount of blood beginning to drip from the pressure on his neck.

"I'll never tell!" He made to spit, but Emma was faster.

She removed the blade and, with the momentum of turning to set the axe on the ground, she gave the goon a good roundhouse to the head. He would not be waking up anytime soon, if at all. She looked to the last one, "You want to live?" she asked.

"Please!" He fell to his knees pleading.

"How do we get to the tower?" She bent down, grabbing one of his tusks to make him look at her.

"Go through the library, take a right. You'll come to a dead end that's not supposed to be there. That's the entrance."

"Cute." Emma yanked on the tusk, turning him on his knees so that they were facing the same way. She placed her other hand on top of his head, "I'll give you one more chance to not lie to me. Are you going to tell me the truth or do I kill you now?"

"Okay! Okay!" He pointed the direction they had come from, "There's a wall in that hallway that looks like it's missing a door. It's not. That's the entrance to her tower."

"There…" Emma's voice was laced with a sweetness, "Was that so hard?"

The goon looked to the men terrified then tried to look at Emma, "You gonna let me go now?"

The sweetness was gone now, "What? So, you can call on all the other goons?" She snapped his neck. "Not likely." She let him fall to the ground before turning for her axe.

"Emma…" Artie looked on with wide eyes.

She looked to the young naïve prince and then to the others who shared the same, wide-eyed, open-mouthed look.

"What?"

Arely raised his brows, "Did anyone ever tell you that you're sexy when you're dangerous and rash?"

Emma huffed as she moved to stand in front of him. She traced his breastplate with her fingers, and gave him a coy look before grabbing the top of the metal plating and bringing him down to her level, "Anyone ever tell you to shut the hell up?" She pushed him away and started back around the corner, tucking her axe between her armor and her belt.

Chip smirked before turning to follow the princess.

"Why are you so smug?" Arely caught up to him.

"I just never thought I'd see the day that that would happen… I thought you liked to manhandle the fairer sex, but I guess it turns out you like being manhandled by the fairer sex."

"Oh, Chip," Arely placed an arm around the other man's neck, an understood, uncertain broship suddenly forming, "As long as one of us is handling something, I'm a happy bloke."

Chip pushed him away and gave him a glare, "You don't deserve the love of a woman."

"Yet, they keep flocking my way."

Chip rolled his eyes and kept walking.

Emma stopped suddenly causing the men that were keeping their distance for the time being to stop as well. She looked to the wall as if she were reading a passage on it. After scrolling from top to bottom, she narrowed her brows, licked her lips before biting the bottom one in contemplation.

"This has markings on it." She said quietly.

Dunstan slowly approached and looked at the wall, "Those are the ancient symbols of the evils." He cocked his head, "There's a lineage; each born from another. Christians speak of seven—the seven deadly sins: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride. But in actuality, there's a total of fifteen, eight of which stem from the first seven, but have taken on life of their own. Those being Murder, Hypocrisy, Thievery, Hoodwinking, Victimizing, Mendaciousness, Omitting, and Idolatry."

"What's the first evil?" Emma looked to Dunstan, not having time to marvel at his knowledge.

Dunstan looked at the wall and pointed, "That one, Lust."

Emma pushed the rock in only for a sharp blade to eject from the wall, piercing through her hand. She gasped then grunted, trying to swallow a scream. She inhaled and exhaled once, twice. Then with two staccato like breaths in, she pulled her hand from the wall.

"Gods be damned." She exhaled.

"But that makes no sense. That's the first one. That's Lust…" He pointed to the same rock, "And from Lust, from wanting something one can't or shouldn't have, stemmed everything else. The second is Gluttony, over-indulgence." he pointed to the different evils as he listed on, "That's the third being Greed; making the fourth Sloth, laziness; Wrath, or rage, for the fifth; Envy the sixth; Pride the seventh… Murder the eighth; Hypocrisy, ninth; Thievery for number ten; Hoodwinking, deception or trickery, is eleven; and Victimizing, rape or overpowering in any way is twelve… There's thirteen being Mendaciousness, or lying; fourteen being Omitting; and the final fifteenth evil is Idolatry." He looked angered, "Each of them is here. There is no other order!"

Emma having taken a strip of her shirt beneath her armor and wrapped it around her hand, clapped Dunstan's shoulder, "I don't doubt you." She said before looking to the others, "We've to push them all at once."

"And what happens when all of us suffer in both hands what you suffer in one?" Alexander asked like it a stupid suggestion.

"Then I magic us better and we quickly prepare to fight one of the most evil living beings. However, assuming that this is the right thing to do to get into the tower without her knowing we are here, and I have as much power and magic as I do, and am able to put her in a force field that will not let her or her magic out, so that she is so stunned that she'll have no choice but to tell me what I need to know to save the woman I love from what I can only presume is in fact the darkest, most evil living being, who, coincidentally, is also my future mother-in-law from hurting one hair on that priceless regal head of Regina's…" When she realized just how much she had given away—that they all already knew, she blinked twice before speaking deadpan, "No offense to those of you still in the competition, but let's face it, I'm going to win because I've her heart and she has mine."

"Right." Alexander didn't change his tone or face, but his mind was completely changed, "So, which two rocks do I need to push?" He moved to the wall.

The rest of the men followed suit each taking two. Emma placed her good hand on the same rock that ran her other hand through. "Ready?" She asked them all.

"Yes." Came the collective response.

"Push!"

Everyone pushed in the rocks at the same time.

AN: Read and Review! Thoughts and feels?