"I'm not telling you anything!"

Oh but she did. Rumpelstiltskin had her now and he knew it. He wasn't sure if she'd caught on yet but for everything that she tried to hold back just told him even more about herself than what she was willing to share. He as a master manipulator; he understood that there was a story to every twitch, every blink, every bristle, every drawn out sigh, every quickened breath, every movement told him something that he wanted to know. He could get her life story if he wanted to.

Oh wait; he did want her life story. Desperately. Because if Regina was somehow involved then by default he was involved since she was his investment.

And since this woman…he KNEW her name wasn't Alice was powerful and not from this world even though she seemed to know who he was and refused to tell him anything…then he was definitely eager to know what she did.

Alice stared at the photo and then at him, "I don't know who she is."

Her eyes dilated slightly. Lie. She knew who Regina was.

"She's in your…whatever this thing is called, dearie…."

"She's in the background," the woman said and then changed the subject. She blinked four times. She knew her and it was a very bad relationship then? He needed to do more digging but Alice interrupted him, "Why is she so important to you anyway?"

"Because I have a very particular interest in her future," he looked at the phone. He touched the screen and spread his fingers by accident and the picture grew! This technology was astounding! He could see details that he hadn't seen before! What fun!

The woman wrapped her arms around herself and took a step back. Her eyes kept flicking towards her mother. There was concern for sure but she wasn't begging that he wake her up. She didn't even seem panicked. There wasn't even that love he'd seen in the eyes of a daughter for her mother….he wondered what the story was.

He studied Regina's almost blurry face closely on the device and then looked up at the woman, "She looks older than when I saw her last."

"That's what age does," Alice spat. Oooh, she had quite the mouth on her. Normally he wouldn't tolerate such disrespect but coming from someone with this much…untapped potential; he had to admit that he was more than just a little excited…and possibly aroused. He wasn't going to bring that up to her though, she already didn't seem to like him and he didn't want to frighten her. He was a gentleman after all…well…no he wasn't but he did have a bit of a code of honor…well maybe not, but there was a certain amount of respect that he treated his prey with. He let them make their own decisions and that was far more than any dark one in history.

Oh, he was getting off subject.

"She looks far older than she is here," Rumpelstiltskin shoved the thing in Alice's face so that she could get a good look.

Oh no…wait…it couldn't be…

The panicked way she looked at him, the way she swallowed and averted her gaze…and that boy looked FAR too much like little Snow White for it to be a coincidence….

He dropped the phone in shock as he realized what she'd said…about how the forest had been destroyed and an evil grin crept across his lips. Why hadn't he seen it before? Oh, put a pretty blonde in front of him and all strategy about evaded him. But a powerful one in his presence and he was practically putty, "You're from there aren't you? From that world."

He was going to have to find a way to keep her here with him and find out everything he could about that world.

"What world?" Alice asked and edged backwards slightly, she put her arms around herself as if she was guarding herself, "I'm from friggin' Wonderland."

Lie! Lie! Lie! So many buzzers went off in his head and he took a big step closer to make her uncomfortable. Unnerved people revealed more and she was revealing so much already despite her best efforts

"You're from that land without magic," he continued to push, struggling to find the right button. He would bring up the boy in the picture but that might get her to close up completely and he knew from her body language that she was the kind that would close herself off in an instant. The only reason she probably hadn't was because she seemed to recognize him which meant that his plan worked. Everything worked; all his planning, all his schemes, all his manipulations….the lives he ruined and it worked! So many times he doubted that it would all work and it would be for nothing but now he was wrong! He knew it now! How much longer did he have to wait? A decade? Maybe a decade and a half at most?

He wanted to ask her everything…about him, about the identity of her parents, about Bae…especially about Bae but that would reveal weakness and tell her far more than what he wanted to tell her.

He reached out to put two fingers on the side of her face, "You're my little savior aren't you?"

The flinch was slight that even he almost missed it. He had her, he had the savior right in his hands…the two fingers against her face turned into a full hand…a way to comfort her perhaps because in her becoming the savior, he ruined her life and he was aware of the sacrifices that she and her family had probably made in their pasts and hopefully his soon future.

Alice shoved his hand away, grabbed a scalpel that he kept on his able and shoved it through his chest. The sudden attack pulled him back a little. Alice stumbled back and raced for another door across the room. Rumpelstiltskin sighed and waved his hand. The door shut just before Alice reached it. With a flourish of his hand, Alice was lifted off her feet and shoved into a wall.

He pulled the scalpel out, "It's going to take a lot more to kill me than that, dearie. That wasn't very ladylike by the way; didn't your mother ever teach you any manners?"

Rumpelstiltskin knew that he couldn't let the girl go. He couldn't let her out in this world and its dangers when she was still so very important to him.

He could be nice though, if she was going to stay with him for an indeterminate amount of time then he could offer an olive branch so to speak.

Rumpelstiltskin turned on his heel and waved a hand. The girl slid from the wall to the floor and he heard the mother stir from her sleep behind him.

The door closed as soon as he exited from it and it locked into place; trapping mother and daughter in a room together until he could assemble decent quarters for them and decide what he was going to do with her next.

With the right questions, Rumpelstiltskin could easily got all the information he wanted from this so called 'Savior'; Everything thus far but her name, which among other things, he took as a personal challenge to get her to tell.