Once Upon A Time:

For the sake of her baby and the other villagers that had not been chosen, Dagian knew that she had to remain calm.

It was easier said than done when faced with these barbarians the Duke called his army.

She kept to the side when the remaining of those that were unfit for recruitment were gathered in the middle of the village.

"The Duke has issued a proclamation of war toward the Ogres," one of the men explained, "We know that many of your men and women are not soldiers but strong numbers will turn the tide."

Dagian heard the obvious lie in the words. Not even this man believed them. She kept quiet but she wanted to scream that larger numbers only meant overconfidence and a larger mess to clean up.

She blinked, it turned out that she had been paying attention to her father's tales of the old wars.

She placed her hand on her stomach, "When will they come home?"

The man stopped, "What?"

"Our families, when do they come home, you rip them from our arms then you better have a time in which they're returned to us."

She kept her head held even though she knew that every eye was currently on her. She'd spent this year…being a survivor, then a guest, then a wife…who never quite fit in because of her reluctance to bond with the others.

"They'll be allowed to come home when their time is served."

"And when will that be?"

"When we decide it."

The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, "You're just taking them to the slaughter so that you're not in their place, aren't you?"

He was silent, "What would a little girl know about that?"

"My father spoke of men like you," she held his gaze even though she was about to step dangerously over the line, "He called you the great cowards. Putting the weak and helpless in front of you so that you might survive."

The slap nearly knocked her off her feet and her mouth filled with blood. She put her hands out to keep from falling on her stomach and straightened up. Tears threatened to spill from the pain and humiliation she'd just suffered but her pride refused to let her do so. She'd survived worse than a coward.

She spit the blood at his feet, "Is that truly the best you can do?"

He reached for his dagger but the soldier that had been…kinder to her earlier stopped him, "That's enough!"

She turned on her heel and walked to her house. She didn't look behind her to know that the soldier that had come to her aid was following her.

"Are you insane?" he asked her when they were alone, "Do you realize what you just nearly cost yourself?"

"You have no right to come into my home," she said resigned.

"It could be considered treason you know. What you just did…what you accused the Duke of doing when he sent out the recruiters."

"Just leave me alone," she laid down on the bed, her back facing him.

"You don't understand. These times are about to get rough, woman. If you cause trouble here than your husband is going to feel the brunt of it when the recruiters take more people to the training grounds. Trust me, my lady. You need to keep your mouth shut if you ever want to see your husband again."

She felt the tears spilling down her face as she turned to look at him. Her husband was a number; she knew that he had a very small chance of ever coming home.

He gave her a small bow and left her home.

She pulled the blanket over herself and sobbed into the pillow until she finally drifted off to sleep.


Present Day

The funeral turned out to be a larger affair than Mr. Gold had thought it would be; which benefitted him because it gave him the chance to look around.

Dawn stood next to him and held his hand. Neither one had been close to the sheriff but his death had affected her. She'd been constantly at the newspaper, interviewing people right and left, screening calls, trying to stay on top of everything. She was tired and when she was tired she got emotional. If there was any reason he couldn't wait for the funeral to be over it was so that the phone would stop ringing and they could get a decent sleep.

Ms. Swan looked like she was barely holding it together. She'd been the one that he'd been with when he died and the raw emotion written all over her face showed that more had happened that night than just two employees at the same workplace. He knew that look very well. It was the same look that people had when they let down their walls and were left bitterly disappointed.

He stared at Regina who stood closest to the plot with Emma's son. She tried her best to keep her face emotionless but he could still see the rage, grief, and regret that haunted her eyes for years in the Realms. He couldn't say he felt any sympathy for her. He knew that she was responsible and what made it extremely unnerving was that there was no cause in it. She was guided by her emotions. Just like she always was. And people suffered for it.

He knew that he wasn't exactly an angel in terms of what he'd done. But he'd done his best to write emotions out of the decisions that he made. It was all strategy. Emotions led to predictability and weakness. He'd found that out the hard way and he did his best to make sure that he didn't fall into that trap.

Perhaps that was another reason he'd put himself with Dawn. So that Regina wouldn't catch on when he formed no relation in the town. After all, they had 28 years in this town and they were the only two that knew what was going on. She'd catch on rather quickly if he followed all the lessons that he'd taught her.

Still…he hadn't expected this. Oh, he expected casualties and lots of them but he didn't expect it to be this quickly. He thought he'd have more time.

He needed to draw back for a couple of days. Rethink the strategy. Emma was deputy and she would become sheriff soon. Regina would probably fight that. He needed to think of something to get her that sheriff's position quickly without using that favor she owed him.

"Honey," Dawn said with a lot of strain in her voice. She was coming down with something. He wasn't surprised with all the stress she'd been under and how messed up her schedule was now, "Honey I think it's about over."

"Alright," he tugged her gently away from the crowd and led her to their car. She climbed in the driver's seat and rested her hand against her eyes and drew a shaky breath.

"Are you alright?" he asked. He hated dealing with her when she was crying.

"Yeah," she pulled her hands away and rested her fingers against her temples, "I'm fine."

"You don't look it."

"He was just…so young."

He nodded, since he and Dawn were about the oldest beings in this town, it certainly put things into a different perspective.

"I'd like for you to stay with me today," he told her.

"Honey, I'm not in the condition to be going anywhere."

"Well that's too bad."

She sighed, "Where did you want to go?"

"To the cabin for a few days."

"I have to cover the funeral."

"Sidney can do his own job for once. You've done more than your fair share."

She looked at him in confusion, "And why would you want to go there? You hate that place unless you're doing one of those shady dealings that everyone knows about but no one does anything."

"Because there is no cell phone reception up there and it'll give us a chance to rest without having to answer your bloody ringing phone. "

"I'll get fired," she said in a singsong voice but after this week she didn't sound that regretful about losing her position.

"Their loss," he said as Dawn turned on the ignition, "I didn't like you working at that glorified gossip column anyway."

"Honey, you're so sweet," she looked over her shoulder and pulled out, "Quitting gives me the perfect excuse to stop digging in Emma Swan's life."

"You didn't tell me you had to do that," he said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, Regina's been trying to get the juvie records opened for a while now. You know I think she's really threatened by her. I don't think I've ever seen that Ice Queen Squirm."

He was quiet for the few minutes it took for them to drive into the driveway.

"Pack a few things you'll need at the cabin," he told her.

"Well honey, if you're hoping for a romantic few days you're not going to get it. I'm so tired I think I'm just going to rest and rethink some things"

He looked at her, "You won't be the only one, dear."