A/N: Happy Summer! I honestly hadn't had the heart to work on this story for a long time, but a recent SWEN convention renewed my vigor, at least a little.
Henry pointed to the picture of the woman wearing black, "See, I told you Emma was alive."
"Henry, you don't know that that's Emma," David tried to be the voice of reason. He figured there was a reason the book was keeping the woman's name a secret.
"I know," Henry declared. "And she's going to save my mom."
After knocking Jack unconscious and besting Tiny in a fair fight, the mysterious woman's only barrier to the princess was Snow, who was nefariously holding a dagger to the princess's neck. As a result of her earlier brazenness, the princess had also been blindfolded with her hands and feet still bound together.
"Come any closer and she dies," Snow stated, fully prepared to slit the princess's throat. It would move her plan along a little faster than she had intended, but the results would be the same. The war between Oz and the Enchanted Forest would be glorious.
The masked woman asked rhetorically, "Isn't that what you planned to do anyway? I'm afraid I'll need better assurances than that if I'm going to let you leave here with your life intact."
"Wise woman I see. A battle of wits then. If you win, you get to keep the princess and do with her as you like, but if I win, you leave and never speak of this again," Snow proposed. She knew she could never take the other woman in a physical battle all by herself, but if she stalled long enough, her henchwomen would be able to fight by her side.
The woman in black contemplated the offer, "That sounds fair. You have yourself a deal. Name your challenge."
Snow smiled deviously, pulling out two wine glasses and filled them with wine. She then held up a vial of clear liquid, "This vial contains a powerful sleeping curse, one that can only be broken with True Love's Kiss. I will pour this curse into one of the goblets, and then you will decide who drinks from which glass. We will find out who is correct based on who is awake after we drink."
The woman in black posited, "One small change: I will pour the curse, and you will decide who drinks from which glass. We wouldn't want anyone to say that this is rigged, now would we?"
Snow nodded, "Get on with it then." She knew that if she drank the curse, she had a True Love to wake her, whereas the woman in black likely did not. She also knew that the sleeping curse would give the drink a purplish tinge, though only slightly, so she was confident she would make the right choice.
Turning away from the other woman's line of sight, the woman in black poured the curse before rotating back to place the goblets back on the table.
Snow looked at the goblets, and then stared up at the woman suspiciously. If her eyes hadn't deceived her, one glass didn't look like it had any more purple than the other. She was suddenly convinced the woman hadn't put the curse in either goblet and picked one randomly to drink. She motioned to the woman in black who drank from the opposing goblet. To her immense surprise, Snow's eyes began to close, and she fell to the floor.
The woman in black explained softly, "Both glasses contained the sleeping curse. I am immune because I possess True Love's magic." She laid Snow in a more comfortable-looking position on the ground before removing the blindfold and bindings from the princess.
The princess stared at her rescuer, who had an air of familiarity that she couldn't quite place, "Who are you?"
"No one of consequence, your highness," the woman in black responded bluntly. Grabbing the princess' arm, she continued, "We must be off and quickly before her companions awaken and follow us."
As the prince was not fond of his new bride-to-be being stolen from him, he had ordered they set sail and climb the cliffs so that the hooligans could be tried for treason and justly executed. Pan flew ahead and scouted the area so that they all reached the top of the cliffs safely.
Prince Leopold saw the remains of what had appeared to be a duel, "Looks like the bandits fought each other here. Perhaps they turned on each other."
"Did any survive?" Pan asked.
"It appears so. Two sets of tracks go off to the left, so we go left," the prince surmised.
Breathing heavily, the princess came to an abrupt halt, nearly causing the woman in black to fall. She said, "I need to stop."
"I should have expected a princess such as yourself would have no stamina," the other woman needled. She gambled that the princess' competitive spirit would give her the extra spurt of energy she needed so they could make it to the Deadly Desert on their way to the Emerald City.
Regina sat on a large rock, "So let me go. My fiancé will pay you handsomely to relieve yourself of such a burden as myself. I'm sure he's trailing us now."
The woman in black stared at her, "Ah yes, your True Love. I hate to break it to you, princess, but True Love is a fairytale."
"Prince Leopold is not my True Love. Princesses marry for the benefit of their subjects, not for love," Regina answered condescendingly. "My True Love is dead."
"How convenient," the woman in black laughed.
"How dare you mock me?" Regina burst out in anger. "I know who you are. You are the Dread Pirate Swann, and you killed my True Love,"
"Aye, I am the Dread Pirate Swann." The woman bowed. "As for your True Love, I have killed many. You must be more specific."
"She had the kindest heart in all the land. Her loyalty was unmatched. Her strength was envied by all who knew her…"
"A name will suffice. Extolling the virtues of this princess of yours will not aid my memory," Swann interrupted.
"She was no princess. Nay, she was but a mere stable girl, yet I loved her with the warmth of a thousand suns," the princess answered dreamily, remembering her True Love. "Her name was Emma."
"Stable girl named Emma…Emma…that name does sound familiar. She was quite strong, put up a fight. I considered making her part of my crew, but well, word gets out when you make exceptions. She begged, went on and on about this True Love of hers—I assume she meant you—and how faithful and loyal her True Love was," the woman in black's eyes held a tinge of anger. "A good thing really, that she didn't live long enough to learn your true nature."
"My true nature? How dare you?" Regina screamed back. "I died with her!"
"Oh, really? Just how long did you wait, princess, before getting engaged to your prince, after your True Love's death? A week? A month?"
"He is NOT my prince! You killed my love, and you deserve to die as well," Regina gave the woman a huge shove, causing her to roll down the hill.
"As….you….wish…."
To her surprise, as the woman rolled down the hill, the mask came off, revealing that the Dread Pirate Swann was in fact the stable girl she had grieved for so long. "Emma! My dear, sweet, loving Emma," Regina said as she immediately followed her down the hill.
Continuing his hunt, Prince Leopold came upon the sleeping Snow White. Rushing to her side, he asked anxiously, "Is she dead?"
Pan checked her wrists, "Her heart still beats. It would appear she fell to a sleeping curse, your highness."
"When I catch the bastard who did this…" Prince Leopold channeled his ire into barking orders at his men, "Take her back to the castle, unharmed. Pan and I will continue to hunt these cowards through the Deadly Desert."
"Your highness, how do you know they are in the Deadly Desert?" Pan asked, shuddering in fear at the prospect of the upcoming journey.
"Because I know, and I am never wrong," Prince Leopold answered. "Off we go!"