Chapter Twelve: The Best Defense

After an intense encounter with an ogre and even Princess Aurora, who ended up accompanying them on their journey after an attempted assassination on Snow White, the group arrived at their destination – Snow and Charming's old castle. It was clear evidence that their land, believed to have been vanquished by the curse, was still in existence. The castle, however, had been ravaged from time; it was not the same majestic home as Snow once remembered it as. Emma was overwhelmed from the sight of her birthplace; everything she once believed about her history was washed away by the truth that she saw before her.

The group moved inside the castle, making it all the way to what was supposed to have been Emma's nursery. Emma was in awe more so from this room than the rest of the castle. "Oh, my god." Her eyes then locked on the wardrobe her mother had mentioned being their way back to Storybrooke. "I recognize this from Henry's book."

Jack smiled as he gazed upon the room, until he looked over to Snow, who he could see beginning to cry as she stood in the room for the first time in years. Realizing that mother and daughter should have their moment alone together, Harkness looked to River, Mulan, and Aurora and nodded his head towards the doorway. The three women caught his drift from the nod and headed out of the room with him.

Once they were outside, Mulan whispered to River and Jack, "We'll make camp here for the night. You both stand by the gate while we have a look around."

Harkness saluted to Mulan in acceptance of the orders. The salute puzzled Mulan as she left them, amusing Jack a little. "You'd think even armies in fairy tale land would use the standard salute." He looked to River, who appeared a little paranoid, eyes darting all about the hall they stood in. "What's eating you?"

"Have you noticed there are an excessive amount of statues in this castle?"

Jack chuckled on the question. "It's a castle."

"I'm serious, Jack."

"Why so jumpy about a bunch of statues? They're not going to bite us."

River didn't respond, which made Jack a bit wary of her paranoia. He had to remind himself that River did travel with the Doctor and had presumably seen things with him that Jack hadn't. If she spoke of peculiar statues that could possibly bite, then he knew that he needed to be as watchful as her. It was then the both of them heard movement in the shadows, believing at first to be just Mulan and Aurora scavenging for items to make camp with. A figure began to approach, prompting Jack and River to pull out their guns and take aim.

"Don't make another move, unless you're looking to die tonight." Jack warned the shadowed visitor.

The figure raised its hands and stepped into the moonlight that shined through the nearest window, revealing its identity – it was Lancelot. "No need to be alarmed, my friends."

Feeling relieved to see the knight there in the castle, River and Jack holstered their guns, which allowed Lancelot to lower his hands. "What the hell are you doing here?" Jack asked him.

"I came to help." He gestured to the door to the nursery and asked, "Are Emma and Snow in there?"

"Yes." River answered. "They've found the wardrobe to return us to our world."

Lancelot smiled. "May I go inside?"

"Sure. No problem." Jack acknowledged before he and River parted to allow the knight to walk into the nursery and surprise Snow and Emma. As they watched him enter, Harkness couldn't shake off a strange feeling that he had about his presence. "Something feels off about him being here."

River laughed. "Now who's the jumpy one?"

Jack laughed with her as they both faced the hallway again, only to be witness the unexpected presence of a statue that stood in the middle of the hallway. Of course, River knew that this was no ordinary statue – not one that preferably went with the castle structure that surrounded them. This was a Weeping Angel – the very same species that she just recently encountered with the Doctor in Manhattan.

"Don't…blink," she cautioned Jack.

Harkness stood confused. "What?"

"Just don't, Jack! Trust me on this!"

"What the hell is it? Where did it come from?"

"It's called a Weeping Angel…and as for where it came from, I have no idea."

"Well, how long do we…?"

Jack stopped just as he heard commotion taking place inside the nursery. He impulsively looked into the room to see a woman throwing Emma and Snow around it by what Harkness could only assume was magic. Lancelot was nowhere to be found in the room, which only confirmed what Jack had felt when they allowed him in – that wasn't the real Lancelot.

"Emma and Mary Margaret are in trouble," he alerted River, who remained staring at the Weeping Angel without blinking.

Mulan and Aurora promptly reentered the scene, hearing the commotion themselves. They were baffled by the strange statue standing in the hall. Aurora even questioned its presence: "Where did this come from?"

"That's really not what's important right now." River said. "Get inside the nursery and help Emma and Snow."

Mulan and Aurora did as she instructed, leaving her and Jack continuing to face the Weeping Angel. "They're gonna need help," said Harkness. "Get in there and give them some."

"I can't leave you with this, Jack."

"I've dealt with worse."

"Not this worse – not a Weeping Angel."

"I can't die, River. Whatever it does to me, it will only be pointless."

River thought about the point Jack made to convince her. Jack's immortality was the best defense against the Weeping Angel. Feeling assured of Jack's survival chances, River left him to fend off against the Weeping Angel and stormed into the nursery with her gun drawn. She arrived in time to see the woman who attacked Emma and Snow vanished in a puff of purple smoke. The wardrobe was engulfed in flames, taking away their one way back into Storybrooke.

Recovering from the attack, Snow showed gratitude to Emma. "You saved me."

"Yeah, well…where is she?"

"Gone."

"So's our ride home."

As Emma and Snow dolefully watched the wardrobe burn, River holstered her gun and asked the women, "Who was that witch that attacked you?"

"It was Cora." Emma answered. "The lady we met back at the camp."

"And where's Lancelot?" River inquired, looking all about the nursery. "We let him into the room."

"He's dead." Snow sadly confirmed. "Cora killed him some time ago. Lancelot was never really with us. It was all a trick by Cora, just to find a way out of this world and into Storybrooke." She sighed before she added, "Lancelot was one of the most noble knights I ever knew."

Mulan was full of frustration. "How could I be so blind? How could I not see that it was Cora?"

"Well, to be fair, the whole shape-shifting thing threw me, too." Emma admitted.

"What are we going to tell the people on the island?" Mulan questioned.

"The truth," Snow answered. "That Lancelot was cut down by a terrible villain and he died an honorable death."

Mulan accepted this advice yet still remained troubled. "Cora's still out there. We need to find her. We need to defend what's left of the kingdom."

"Who's going to lead us? You?" Aurora asked.

"No." Mulan gestured to Snow. "Her."

Snow, surprised of Mulan volunteering her for the job, smiled and said, "I'm honored, but Emma and I still have to find a way back to Storybrooke."

"We'll help you." Mulan offered. "We'll find a way, won't we?" She looked to Aurora for support.

The princess nodded with a small smile. "Yes. Perhaps it'll help me channel my anger." Her support made Snow feel extremely grateful and even saw it as an apology for the earlier attempt on her life.

In the midst of all the girl talk, River was suddenly reminded of the fact that Jack was still out in the hall with the Weeping Angel. After exclaiming his name to unintentionally alert the other women in the room, she rushed outside with them to assist Harkness with the angel. However, when they reemerged in the hall, Jack was gone – and the Weeping Angel with him. All that remained was a large pile of dark gray ashes, which sat exactly where the Weeping Angel once stood.

"Where's Jack?" Emma asked, clearly as confused as everyone else from the immortal captain's disappearance.

Mulan was even more so from the Weeping Angel's absence. "Where's that strange statue that was here?"

"Strange statue?" Snow repeated Mulan's words with more confusion. She then remembered the stories that the Doctor had told her and Emma about moving statues that can make people disappear, much like Jack had. "Wait. Don't tell me that a Weeping Angel was here."

"What is a Weeping Angel?" Aurora asked.

"A funky type of statue that kills you by sending you back in time." Just from the way Emma described it to Mulan and Aurora sounded insane, but she had seen a lot of insane things in the last twenty-four hours. "And it looks like it just took Jack from us."

While the other women were conversing, River knelt down and scanned the ashes with her vortex manipulator.

"But he can't die," Mulan pointed out. "If this 'Weeping Angel' kills its prey, then he should still be here somewhere…shouldn't he?"

Emma and Snow weren't entirely sure how to confirm that. There was still much about Jack's immortality that left them uncertain; they knew as much about it as they did the Weeping Angels. Of course, they counted on River to provide some information after she finished her scan. "The ashes belong to the angel," she established.

It didn't seem to be enough info for them, which encouraged Emma to say, "And that means?"

"The Angels consume the life energy of their victims once they've transported them back through time." River explained. "With Jack, they have an overabundance of it, due to his immortality. It's like when you consume large quantities of food and your stomach gets so full that you cannot eat another bite. And when you do, your body gives out and you die. When the Angel took Jack, it practically gave its own death sentence." She indicated the pile of ashes near her. "Too much life energy turns the angel into dust. You were right, Mulan – Jack's immortality is a weapon…one of the few that can put an end to Weeping Angels."