FIDGET, BATRISHAN PRINCE OF DARKNESS
The Queen of Heart's Apprentice
"A five year apprenticeship under my tutelage is just what you need to obtain the power you desire," Cora said as she led Fidget inside her heart themed castle and gave him a tour.
"Um, Your Majesty?" Fidget asked politely. "It's not that I don't appreciate what you are offering me, believe me I do, but...how can you teach me magic when I don't even have any?"
Cora paused as they walked and arrived inside a fancy living room that had, for a center of attention, a couple of red velvet lounge chairs shaped like broken hearts surrounding a spinning wheel and a basket full of straw. She excused her guards and ordered a maid to bring in tea.
"Please, have a seat." Cora motioned him to sit down next to her on the nearest lounge chair. The Batrishan directly obeyed. "Such a well-mannered Batrishan you are...The Aldoradians have taught you well."
"I'm used to showing respect to my royals, Your Majesty," Fidget said quietly. "Unless, of course, they gave me reasons not to."
"And you are right." Cora nodded her head towards the spinning wheel. "Before I became the Queen of Hearts, before I married into royalty, and before I became an expert in magic, I was just a poor miller's daughter. I could have gone on and live such a life..." Her voice then became bitter. "Until a spoiled princess intentionally made me trip while I was delivering flour and claimed that I dirtied her shoes with flour on purpose. Clearly, the king of the land I lived in as a peasant preferred to believe a spoiled, rich, lying princess to the honest, poor peasant. They made me bow in forgiveness."
She then pointed at the spinning wheel. "When Rumplestiltskin came to me when I needed to prove my spinning straw into gold powers to the royals, he taught me how to use magic. How to channel it through emotion rather than thought and how the most common emotional trigger is anger. Thanks to his advice, I used my anger on the royals and desire to make them bow before me to spark my powers."
Fidget stared at her as she pulled him upward and led him to the spinning wheel. "People can learn magic, Fitzgerald, if they can master their emotions." She gently pushed him down on the stool facing the spinning wheel and placed some straw for him to spin. "So, what makes you angry the most?"
Fidget sat there, silently spinning the straw into thread as he began to give his answer.
"I had a friend. A friend who seemed like he could understand my troubles more than those I already knew could. We were like best friends and yet we only met a few hours ago. Among some other militants from our respective countries' navies, we were chosen to go on a diplomatic mission to retrieve a peace artifact that would unite our countries. How excited I was to go on such a mission with my new friend, my foster father, and my royal diplomatic friends, one of them being my fiancée the princess."
Cora frowned in curiosity at the mention of his royal love. Fidget began to spin faster as he got angrier.
"But my friend's king wanted nothing of peace. He wanted his men to get rid of me because he was jealous of how a monster born from an extinct nation could be such an advantage to a kingdom known for being wealthy and undefeatable at war. So a fight occurred between the opposing parties once we got to the location. But the worst part was when I saw my friend pulling out his sword from the bodies of my parent and my love. Just like that, he backstabbed me and impaled those I cared for!"
He spun faster, making sparks fly as he got angrier. "My wings sprouted, but he got one of them crippled. Aldorada, my home, was destroyed when I returned from my own absence! And the codfish's lover, a woman he seduced away from her husband and son, slashed my leg so that she could save him! Now the only thing I desire the most in the universe is for his blood to shed by my foot and peg leg, his flesh splattered all over the Earth, and his heart crushed into dust in the middle of my palm!"
He stopped spinning when he heard a crash. He looked down and saw that instead of spinning straw into gold, he spun it into crystal thread that shattered all over the floor due to heavy weight.
"Quite original power you have there, Fitzgerald," Cora said as the maid finally came in with the tea. The Queen of Hearts ordered the servant to get rid of the crystals while the queen and her new apprentice sat back on the lounge chairs to enjoy their tea. "Just think of how you could use that magic to get what you wanted."
"The same way you forced the royals to bow before you?" Fidget asked quietly from his cup.
"And the same way I got even with the spoiled princess by poisoning her and by destroying her daughter's chances of ever becoming queen."
That sold the deal.
About a year or two later
The Batrishan was moving his hands in circular motions as he used his dark magic to levitate the tiles from the courtyard and put them in a floating formation that formed a tile tower capable of taking you up on one of Wonderland's floating islands.
He then pressed his hands together. The tiles crushed against one another and the rumble began pouring back down until he held out his hands and froze the rock shower in midair. He snapped his fingers and made the tiles form into a statue of the codfish. The statue didn't last a minute thanks to the black fireball that Fidget shot at him.
Cora was watching Fidget improvise faster than any apprentice she had ever seen as she got to the destroyed courtyard and brought in a pony with her.
"Here is your next lesson, my dear apprentice." She got his attention and got him to approach the pony. "You will learn how to rip a heart out of a living being."
An excited blink flashed in his eyes. "What are the steps, Your Majesty?" he asked.
"The trick is that you have to use a hand you'd use more often and put your fingers in a mid-clutching pose. Most magic-wielders are right-handed and therefore use their right hands more often when it comes to casting magic and crushing hearts, but since you appear to be quite ambidextrous, we'll see which hand you are most comfortable with." She motioned Fidget to use the technique. The Batrishan didn't flinch even once as he thrust his right hand into the pony's chest and pulled out its heart, put it back in and took it out again, but this time with his left hand. Cora was rather stunned on how Fidget was so eager to learn how to rip out a heart at all. Through her magic she had seen how her daughter Regina was initially upset about Rumplestiltskin making her rip out a unicorn's heart, and back when Cora was tutoring Anastasia the Red Queen, the latter nearly fainted at the sight of a ripped heart.
But the Batrishan was so ruthless that he was willing to rip out a poor pony's heart out despite the creature making agonizing sounds at every pull. He was the kind of apprentice Cora wished to have had for a son.
"You can also make the heart's owner your own slave," she mentioned to the Batrishan. "Control the heart and you can control that being."
He grinned mercilessly at the pony. "Kneel," he said quietly as he held the heart next to his mouth. The pony whimpered as it struggled to bow on its small legs. "I SAID KNEEL!" he shouted, tightening his grip on the heart, forcing the pony to wail and fully bow before the Batrishan, who looked at it with disgust and crushed the poor heart in his hands. "That animal was worthless," he muttered as he blew away the heart ash from his hands.
"Not your education," Cora said approvingly. "You have improved very much, Fitzgerald."
He bowed before his mentor, who ordered her guards to feed the pony's dead body to the hounds.
Around the end of Fidget's 5 year apprenticeship
Fidget walked his way through the corridor, groaning as he touched the bandage covering his right ear. Thanks to a mishap with the Cheshire cat, Fidget just got himself a notched ear.
He approached the doors of the dinning hall. Feeling too lazily to open them himself, he waved at them and used his magic to force them open. The doors swung open and led him to the castle's dining hall, where a feast worthy of a party of a hundred laid at the large table.
"Is her Majesty holding a royal event?" Fidget asked when he saw Cora sitting in her usual chair at the table. Her hand was resting on top of a nicely wrapped red box.
"In a way," Cora said. "You didn't forget what day it is today, have you?"
"Is...it the anniversary of when you killed Snow White's mother?" Good Lord, he hoped that it wasn't a pop quiz, because the last thing he wanted was the Queen of Hearts testing the efficacy of the Elixir of Nine Lives by ordering Fidget's decapitation.
"You mean you don't remember today is your birthday?" Cora arched an eyebrow.
The Batrishan rubbed his hands anxiously as he sat down on the seat next to Cora. Guilt began to fill him when he realized that, ever since the ruined mission on Discordia's Isle, he hadn't even bothered to celebrate his birthday (whether it was his actual date of birth or the day when he got adopted). But to see his mentor actually treating him on such a day...
"It's very touching of you, Your Highness," he tried to say politely as he tried to resist looking at the cake covered in lilac purple frosting.
"You've been such a wonderful student, Fitzgerald." Cora sliced the cake with an enchanted knife. "I've had and seen previous pupils and magic and none of them were as ambitious, motivated, and powerful as you are." She put a slice on a plate and handed it to Fidget, who politely accepted. "My own daughter Regina is still training with the Dark One and she's taking much longer time than you are."
"Maybe she didn't have a coach as great as you?" Fidget suggested.
"No, she's just awfully stubborn." Cora shook her head in disappointment as she talked about her daughter. She then moved on to Fidget. "You, Fitzgerald, are full of promises, which is why for both your birthday and as a small early good-bye gift, I'm giving you the option to choose between a present and a proposition." She put the red box in front of Fidget and made a hand gesture indicating him to open it. On the outside, he was stiffly opening his present, but on the inside, his mind was screaming images at him of warm memories of a two-year old Fitzgerald Denada Cortés running down the stairs to find the adults surprising him on his birthday and the young Batrishan would be slashing through the wrappers in excitement to see what kind of presents his father brought him back from his travels.
The opened box revealed a silver hand mirror with hearts and vine carvings on it. "A mirror?" Fidget frowned in confusion as he picked it up by the handle.
"It can show you whatever you wish to see or find if you ask it to," Cora explained. "But there might be times when the mirror cannot show you everything because the Fates won't allow it." Fidget smirked at his reflection when the mirror's functions were explained. "Now, about the proposition."
"Yes?" Fidget gently put down the mirror on the table and looked at the Queen of Hearts as she talked to him.
"Fitzgerald, your new powers show that you were meant for greatness," Cora said, "but why waste it on a pirate, who is now a worm compared to you, when you could do so much more? My own daughter has banished me here and destroyed her chances to form a dynasty. You, Fitzgerald," Cora pointed at his medallion, "are descended from Batrishan Priests. The chances that you're born from your people's hidden royalty are quite possible. Stay here and I could make you the crown prince of Wonderland. Your title of Batrishan Prince of Darkness would be pure legit."
Fidget blinked he shock at what the Queen was saying. She wanted to make him her heir despite the fact that the Batrishan wasn't even related to her.
"Your Majesty, while I am flattered by your proposition and grateful of your tutoring, I'm afraid I must decline it. My main priority in life is to get my revenge on the one who wronged me," Fidget said as he took the mirror.
Cora nodded in understanding. "Seeking revenge to correct an unjust act is noble, but it won't complete you." Her voice was very calm. "Suppose you do get your revenge, hum? Suppose you manage to get back at the pirate, crush his heart, watch his blood spill, and avenge your dead beloved ones. What will you do then, once your lifelong goal is achieved? Believe me, those you have craved vengeance for ages end up falling for something far more tempting and soul-consuming. That's what eventually took over me once I realized I wanted more than just get back at one puny king for humiliating me, the daughter of a miller. Power is what got to me. Mark my words, Fidget: if revenge doesn't consume you for the rest of your life, then hunger for power will."
He said nothing as she ate her slice. "Just remember that" was all she said afterwards.
Present break between Zadnji and Vjero
"So then what happened, Papa?" Zadnji asked his father as they sat on the cold floor and watched their ancestor's statue. "What happened after our ancestor left Cora?"
"Well, he managed to seal the monstrous Tamatoa in Pandora's Box, which sealed his contract with Rumplestiltskin and put an end to his hunt for the five pacts," Vjero said. "He went back to Dracula's lair and gave him the five scrolls so that the vampire could use his spell to give our ancestor exactly what he wanted: eternal invincibility."
Crows were making noises outside the temple. A cold wind blew through the temple, threatening to blow off the torches.
"I feel bad that our ancestor became so evil," Zadnji said. He leaned his head on his father's chest. "It's not his fault that his destiny was full of crap."
Vjero chuckled at his son's cussing and was grateful that the mother wasn't around to hear this. "No indeed," Vjero agreed. "Most of the time fate is cruel to us but we can't change it, especially if the gods say so."
"What happened next to our ancestor?" Zadnji asked. "Please tell me now before we have to go back home."
"Glad you asked," Vjero said. He sat a little more upstraight. "Because this concluding part of the story is very essential. This part is about how our ancestor managed to find his way towards Storybrooke."