A/N: I hate to sound skeptical, but I wasn't as impressed with the Once winter finale as I know I should have been. The acting felt choppy, the end results were predictable, what happened to Zelena was anticlimactic and not at all what should have happened with her, and Arthur just seemed to have vanished from the writers' ideas. Plus with this journey to the Underworld in March, they're bringing back characters that have died. So writer of Once, if you're reading this, then I have a request for you: Do not, and I repeat DO NOT BRING BACK INGRID! I think I had had enough when Zelena was brought back from the dead, but you would lose a loyal fan if you brought back that bitch. You clearly have no idea how to make a good villain anymore based on recent story arcs. I'll admit that Cruella and Maleficent were ok, but Zelena, Ingrid, and even Arthur are villains that I love to hate, and nothing more. They have close to nothing redeeming about them whatsoever, and you're heading down a dark path now that won't end well.

Sorry. Tend to rant around there. Anyways, I am almost done with the last chapter of Season 3, and after the next chapter, I will be taking a short break as I explained in my last chapter. Like my own winter finale. Enjoy!

Chapter 27: Snow Drifts

"Asgeir!"

I snorted and turned over.

"Asgeir! Wake yer buckin' ass up!"

I groaned and rolled over again. I had had enough of that ghost of an Irish bastard giving me the wakeup call. The next time he called for me, I would punch him right the face.

"C'mon, Asgeir! Yah had too much ta drink!" I felt him kick me lightly in the ribs.

I responded to that comment by using my right hand as a launcher and slamming my fist right into his face. As I noticed whom I just punched, I gasped and ran over.

Rory was backing down, clutching his nose. "Bloody feckin' hell! What was that for?!"

"Rory!" I cried. "I'm sorry, man!"

"I think yah broke me nose!" He gasped, still holing his face. "Oh, shite! How bad is it?!"

Luckily I hadn't broken it, but it looked pretty red from what I could see. I rubbed my eyes as I looked around. With my sleepwalking, I had ended up right in the forest this time, so it was all the more surprising to find Rory with me first thing in the morning. When I asked what he was doing here, he told me as he clutched his nose.

"I had one too many Irish coffees and spent the whole night with no sleep." He explained. "I'm in the pub just tryin' tah sleep it off, and the next thing I know, I see yah stumble out of the inn, through the pub, and out into the night. I had to find out what was goin' on."

I sighed as we started walking through the woods, back towards town. "I forgot that you didn't know."

"Didn't know what? Does this have somethin' tah do with Project Boden?"

I glanced at him. "Did I tell you about that last night?"

"Yah told me a lot of stuff, brother. You, Jason and Zar. Yah offered me a part in helpin' yah out with takin' down King George. But besides that, are yah goin' to explain to me why I find yah sleepwalking all the way out here?"

"It's a curse that's afflicted me for a long time, Rory. Seven years after Zelena turned you, I finally revealed myself to Elsa and Anna, my half-sisters. Despite their parents both being Templars, they offered the Arendelle branch and me sanctuary, and we were able to begin fixing our position back to what it used to be. But it came too little, too late. Through the efforts of a Templar prince that wanted Arendelle for himself, he unearthed an urn that carried another that processed magic similar to Elsa's. You know of Elsa's magic?"

"Aye. I've heard the whispers from Assassins who have seen her before I was turned. The lass can make it snow."

"Well, it turned out that our aunt on that side of the family could as well. But she was nothing like Elsa. She saw Anna and me, and blamed us for things that weren't even remotely our fault. She used an enchanted mirror and cursed both of us with uncontrollable anger. Although she gave me the worse part of it by clawing me in the eyes with a knife made out of shards of the mirror. The situation got out of hand with Anna's anger, and she trapped Elsa in the urn. This was not what Ingrid wanted to happen, so she took her anger out on us again, this time freezing Arendelle in an instant along with Anna, her fiancé Kristoff, and two of our brothers at arms, Troy and Rabbit. But that wasn't enough for the freak. Despite all the pain I was feeling, I kept fighting her, so she wanted to put me down even further than that bitch already had, and froze my heart. Those two spells weren't supposed to be used on the same person, and the end result is unholy: I physically cannot age or die, and I suffer from a broken mind. The things that have happened to me gave me a rage that no Assassin has ever had before."

"So this woman curses yah with a mirror that makes yah angry? Ok, I already knew that this town was a looney bin just as much as the other lands, but this is takin' it one step further."

"She knows no mercy, no kindness, and she poisons and kills everything that she touches, Rory. It's why I'm here. Ingrid has some kind of plan that involves her unleashing this hellish spell on hundreds of innocent people in this town, forcing them to kill each other."

"So what is stoppin' yah?" He asked. "Or is it something old Matthew told yah to do?"

"He knows something, Rory. Something that every Assassin has been kept secret from by my father and him. A secret that I learned through the curse."

"What kind of secret?" He asked me, with fearful concern in his eyes.

Rory wasn't someone who had seen the bad side of me just yet. He needed to see at least a fraction of what I have seen.

"I need your full disclosure, Rory. That you trust what I do and what I will say and that this is not made up."

"I will if yah just tell me, Asgeir."

I pulled out from my hoodie pocket a small notebook I kept on hand, and a pen, and began writing. I only kept it on hand for something like this to happen, but I did not keep the pages written down. I remembered what was in them like they were my own memories. But they felt more like they were tattoos on my mind. Like what Cora had shown me of Norik's past, everything I had seen in Shay's life, I remembered too well.

As we walked I kept writing, tearing out a page of the notebook every time I finished on it, and handing it to Rory. Four pages in, he stopped me.

"Are these…what I think they are?" He stammered.

"I told you that I'm not lying, Rory. Matthew tried to hide this information and if you read the whole thing, you will know why. It was him that ripped out and burned the pages so he could hide them from the branch."

We resumed walking, heading back out of the woods and onto the main street as I kept writing down the pages.

I didn't get time to finish by the time we reached Cormac's but Rory said he would destroy them and wait until it was safe for us to continue with them. When we got back inside, Jason and Zar were talking with two others.

"Cindy! Red!" I said, grinning as they walked over.

"Hey, Asgeir." Red said. "And you are?"

"Ah. Rory Woods." He shook both the girls hands. "Assassin of Dublin at yer service. Was one of Greenie's little monkeys a while ago, but it's good ta be back. Glad to have found Asgeir so soon after where he went. He's back here, not too worse for the wear."

Zar came up with Jason. "So what brings you girls over today?" He asked.

"We're sort of throwing a party at Granny's. Pot luck celebrating Snow and David's new baby coming." Cindy said. "We know that her place and Cormac's never got along, but Granny said she would be more than happy if the Assassins dropped by. The whole town is welcome."

I nodded. "We'll be there. Tonight?"

"That's right. Starts at 5."

"Perfect." Jason said. "Although something tells me that you both came over for more than just an invitation."

Red looked over her shoulder and then pointed to one of the tables. The six of us sat over there as Red took out an envelope from her bag.

"It's been a few weeks since you recruited us to Project Boden, but so far we haven't gotten much further than that. So Ashley and I went by and did some digging of our own."

"Anything good?" Jason asked, a mix of worry and wonder in his eyes.

"I don't know." Cindy said. "We don't know what kind of information you guys have, so we have no idea if what we have will add on anything to the cause."

Red slipped the envelope across the table, and Zar opened it, taking a close look at them. The first papers were photos, and they gave us a little bit more evidence.

"That's George meeting with a representative of his benefactors from out of town." Red said as Zar looked at each photo. "Templar agents, I'd bet my hood on."

The man George was talking with was stern and rigid, a black collared coat with the Templar cross pinned on his lapel.

"What was he there for?"

"We couldn't tell much." Cindy replied. "We would think that it was concerning finances-"

"Not that." I replied. "George has been getting paid for the outgoing shipments through his dealers. He wouldn't risk the exposure unless if something was going on."

"Could they be onto us?" Rory asked. "I only just got here."

Zar looked uneasily at the photos. George's usual scowl on his face looked even worse than before. His contact didn't look too happy, either. They were mad about something.

"Oh, you know," I heard Shay as he looked over Jason's shoulder and down at the photos. "They must have figured out how yah got the nicer toys here, and now know what you're trying to do!"

"We're going to have to play it cautiously going out." I said, ignoring Shay, as usual. "Whatever George was there, meeting his contact for, it doesn't matter as much as the exposure. The guy doesn't show his arse to the sun for months and suddenly shows up to talk with his outside contact? Something is not going right for him and his meth tweaking twats. We can't let him think that we are focusing on him."

"But he's going to easily think that with Zelena captured, Asgeir." Zar said. "He's concerned with who we have left to hunt down with the Witch out of the way."

I shook my head. "He won't be thinking that when Ingrid makes her first move and we turn our sights to her."

"Ingrid?"

I looked over at Red and Cindy. They both stared at me inquisitively.

"Who is Ingrid?"

No use hiding it from them. "She's who's going to attack Storybrooke next if we don't kill her soon."

"Wait, there's another enemy here?" Cindy whispered. "Jeez. We just cannot catch a break."

"What can we do to help? We should tell Snow and David-"

"No!" I snapped. "Absolutely not. None of them thought it would be a good idea to kill Zelena, and I can understand that well enough." I lied. "But Ingrid is another monster entirely. She will destroy this town and all it's people, but she is mine to kill. Not Snow's and David's to kiss and make up with. They will show her mercy, then she will make us claw out each other's throats."

Red and Cindy were only listening to me with shock in their eyes.

"What Asgeir isn't really pulling any punches while trying to explain is that this woman isn't a Templar, but she is a threat that should be our concern more than the town's." Jason said. "We find the right opportunity starting tomorrow, hunt her down, then kill her before she gets any bright ideas with Zelena out of the way. But that is not the concern at the moment. It's George."

I looked at Jason. "You're the one who started this, J. What do you think we should do going forwards with the Project?"

Jason then shifted through the papers Red had given us, and noticed something else. A map of Storybrooke with lines and marks all over it. It was a route that went across town.

"I know these kinds of marks." He murmured. He looked at the girls. "You tailed them?"

"If you think about it, it's the best move. If one of you were spotted there, George would have sniffed you out and set off every alarm he had." Cindy said.

Red pointed and traced her finger around the long line that wove through the streets of town. "This is the path that he took when we spotted and started tailing him. We don't know where he came from, nor do we know where he finished his trip across town. We left before they spotted us."

"Probably the best decision." I said. "The numbers on the path?"

"We numbered every photo too, see." Cindy said. "The numbers on the photos are where we took them on the map."

"And the Xs here?" Jason asked.

"I know for a fact that every one of those places are labs." Red said. "I smelled the chemicals from the car."

I smirked. Red had her wolf senses to thank for that.

Jason's eyes widened as he looked at the map. "Most of these labs we never even knew were there! This is good intel!"

"It is?"

"Yes." Zar replied. "Looks like you tagged three that we already knew of, but overall we have another four added to the map. This is great progress to the mission. You did great for us."

"You're welcome." Cindy replied as the two of them got up. "Again, everyone who works here at Cormac's is invited to the party if they want to go."

"We'll be there, girls." I replied. "See you this afternoon."

As we started walking off, Red grabbed my arm. "Can we talk?" She asked.

I nodded and walked her over to the hallway between the pub and the inn, and we walked into the meeting room. I took my seat beside the head of the table, while Red sat across from me in Jason's spot.

"So what is going on?" I asked.

Red sighed, thinking hard about what she was going to say. Then she started with a question that I wasn't expecting. "Why did your father hate werewolves so much?"

I sat back in my chair, surprised by this question, of course. No one outside the Assassins asked me questions about my father, or even mention him.

"Well, I think there is a bunch of reasons why. I never found out if he killed any. We know for a fact that he stripped your mother's hood off when she slaughtered all those other Assassins. She should have counted herself lucky, really. Murder of another brother is punishable by death in our brotherhood. I think my father really hated them because he faced a lot of them who liked the wolf side so much, they had a need to feed on humans instead of trying to live like civilized people."

"Yeah." Red replied, nodding. "I think I understand. But that doesn't change the hard truth, Asgeir."

"What truth is that?"

"I feel out of place here. Sure, I'm among friends, some of which I have known for a good part of my life, but I haven't seen any of my own kind in a long time."

"You want to find other werewolves?" I asked.

Red reached into her pocket. She laid down her fist on the table and opened it. A Magic Bean.

"Wow." I said. "How did you get that?"

"This giant who ended up in town here, Anton. He carried a seedling of a beanstalk and was able to grow more of them here in town. Except Regina and Cora burned them when they were here, and we were only able to salvage so many after that. I want to go back to the Enchanted Forest and find more of my kind. It's something I'd much rather do than take revenge on George."

I reached over the table and placed my hand on hers. "I care for you, Red." I said. "And I wouldn't do anything to spite you or hurt you. But I don't think this is the right call just yet."

Red looked at me confused, but I only smirked as I looked down at her hand.

"I don't think you're telling me this for the reason that you think, Red. You thought that you were telling me in hopes that I would give you my blessing to go out and find more werewolves for you to join with. But really I think you're telling me, the most vocal of your friends, so that you can find a reason of why you shouldn't go."

Red crossed her arms. "Okay. Why don't you think I should go, then?"

"You're the closest thing I have left to a family now, Red. I know how you can take care of yourself, but this may be the biggest war that we have ever faced."

"You mean because of this Ingrid woman?"

I nodded. Shay suddenly appeared beside her.

"The lass is gonna leave yah if yah fuck this up, Asgeir." He said. "No pressure."

"Red, this Ingrid freak was the one who murdered my real family, my two half sisters, Elsa and Anna. She may be the last of my blood left as she was my mother's sister, but I will burn in hell before I consider her family. I told you all this so long ago, but there are other things you need to know. My hood was taken away from me after the First Curse arrived. I used a Magic Bean to escape the curse, and over the next thirty years I spent in this world, I fought hard on the front lines of the war against the Templars, and became more and more obsessed with hunting her down and killing her. Now she's here in Storybrooke, and I have my chance to take her down. But the cruelest thing I now know is that all that's stopping me from walking right down the street to her ice cream shop and shoving my blade right into her eye is all those people outside this room. They're my brothers at arms, Red. But they have lost their faith in me from what they have seen of me. They may treat me like one, but I see clearly now. They don't trust me, and they will try to stop me from killing Ingrid,"

Red didn't understand. "Why do you need me here then, if you can do it yourself?"

"Because you're one of only four people I know I can trust outside this room. The darkness is coming, and if you leave, then who knows what will happen to me when I try to face it? When I face her?"

Red shook her head. "I just don't know how I can stay here anymore, Asgeir."

I sighed as I put my face in my hands.

"Unless…"

I looked up from my hands. "Unless what?"

"Now that I think about it, you mentioned that there are some branches of the Assassins that have werewolves in them, right?"

"That's right. They're civilized ones that follow a special set of laws aside from our own. There's even one branch that has not one mortal human among their ranks."

Red looked down at the bean in her hand, then placed it on the table. "If you get my help in fighting the oncoming fight with Ingrid, then you owe me. You take me to them after this is all done and finished."

I sighed with relief as I took the bean. Better safe than sorry. Who's to say she wouldn't try and escape when Ingrid made her move? "Thank you, Red. I won't forget this. I promise."

A few hours later I was in the Project Boden room going over the map. Zar was putting the new labs on there, which was bringing the total labs up to a devastating 15.

"We might not have the numbers to strike them all at once when the time is right." He said to me as we started going over what we had at Cormac's. "George is putting more up too fast, by the time we're ready, we may be too spread thin."

"Yes, but there's no way to take them down at all and take George if we don't take them that way."

Rory looked hard at the map. "What kind o' chemical traces can we find?"

Jason glanced at him. "Uh, I'm not sure…I could give you a list from one of our techs?"

"Good. I may have a way we can take them down from the inside out individually to thin them down."

"What are you talking about, Rory?"

"Chemistry. I remember a few chemistry books I had to hit while developing gas bombs with the IRA. If I can go over a few more, I might know if there is a chemical I can sabotage to make their machines malfunction and the labs explode."

Zar's eyes widened as he began to understand. "You sabotage the chemicals that are going in, and that will take down the lab making them think it was them and not us. Keeps them from aiming back at us."

"Precisely." Rory replied. "It'll thin down the herd for when we are able to take down the rest of them."

The doors of the room suddenly opened and both Matthew and another man I knew walked in. He was a sout man built like a blacksmith, balding with grey hair at the sides of his head, and a thick grey beard to match. He was wearing a long grey sleeved t shirt with the Assassin logo on his right breast pocket, and a black hooded coat over that. Keaton, the Mentor of the Enchanted Forest branch.

"What are you two doing here?" I snapped.

Keaton flinched a bit, shaking his head. "I didn't realize I'd be turning back from a monkey to face such hostility, Asgeir. And by the way, it is nice to see you again."

"Look, Asgeir." Jason said, reaching and taking me by the arm, expecting me to advance on them. "I invited them here for a small meeting. And I need you to be here, too. So shut up unless I ask you."

Jason then walked forwards between me, Zar and Rory, and Keaton and Matthew.

"Gentlemen, we all know what is coming next. Zelena has been out of the way for almost 24 hours, which means Ingrid will be making her next move soon. As such, I think it best that we take the necessary defensive precautions and prepare for the worst. She obviously will be targeting us the most, considering we are all that stands between her and this town's people. And she's here for some reason."

"Which we have no real idea why." Keaton interrupted.

"That being said." Jason snapped back, continuing. "I want you both to listen to me. You are our Mentors, but Asgeir is the only one who has faced Ingrid head on when she had every intention on killing him. Matthew, we already know that you knew Ingrid, but not like this. Asgeir will tell us what we are going to need to use to defend Cormac's and our troops better, and you both will authorize it."

Matthew crossed his arms. He wasn't keen on the idea of listening to my orders since I had blackmailed him last night. But he nodded.

Jason then nodded to me. "Go on, Asgeir. We have everything we might need to protect Cormac's, but you will know what it'll be in our arsenal to take anything that tries to approach our front door down."

I looked over at Keaton and Matthew. "Alright then." I said. "I'd say the first things we are going to need are sentry guns."

"That won't be easy to get, Asgeir." Keaton said. "We had a few of them, but I don't know if we still have them in our stockpile. We may have shipped them back to our customers."

"Get them if you can, at least." I said. "We need to do more than guard Cormac's. We need to lock it down completely, starting tonight after the party. Snipers on the roof, and sentry guards at every entrance, and if we can spare a few, I want drones in the sky."

"And the Outposts?" Matthew said, his eyebrows raised again. "What about them? Those places are meant to store weapons."

"They were meant to hide weapons, Matthew." I replied. "Not store them. I bet we might even find some forgotten weapons buried there if we do what I think is necessary next: empty them all out, then kill the locations. We won't be going back there unless it is safe again and I have killed Ingrid. We take the weapons back here to Cormac's and store them either in the Bunker, or if we don't have the room, in the empty rooms in the Inn. The key is to pull back every troop that we have and get them to Cormac's by tonight. Then lock it down with what resources we have."

There was silence for a while. Both old Mentors glanced at each other, then Keaton looked back at me.

"Matthew's been telling me things about you, Asgeir. Things that alarm me, to put it lightly. I can even feel that you're losing the respect we once had for you, even after you were voted to keep your hood. Can you even be sure that condensing all our arms to this place is the smartest idea?"

I took a step towards them. Matthew tensed up, and I swore I saw him start to reach for his gun. I looked down at his hand at his hip, then at him dead in the eyes, narrowing mine. Then back at Keaton.

"How often have you been to Arendelle, Keaton? Eh?"

"Three times before it was frozen over. I even met your lovely sisters during the third time. Good souls, they were."

"Right." I replied. "Do you know what Ingrid did to me and Anna?"

I looked around the room to make sure that everyone was listening to me. They were. Even the novices working at the computers.

"The Southern Isle shite, Hans thought that it would be the ideal time to strike on Arendelle when Anna and I left the kingdom. Unprotected without me looking over it, he thought. And he was so desperate to make sure he could take out Elsa, that he sought the urn that brought all this shit upon us. That… thing that came out of that urn had lost every bit of sanity that she had left when my own mother sealed her in that urn. She came to believe that everyone that wasn't her or Elsa was going to try to kill her, and hit first against me and Anna. The freak blamed her for things our mother did, only because she LOOKED like her! And then she decided that she wouldn't kill us herself, but try to turn Elsa against us and have her kill us herself! I'm only glad that Elsa decided she would rather be sealed in that urn than try and sink to her level. But I am not glad that Ingrid would then go a step further and kill both them, and Troy and Rabbit."

I then got up on one of the chairs beside the table and pulled out my radio. Hitting the button, I spoke loud and clearly into it.

"All Assassins, this is Reaper. I know you all are aware that with one threat down, another is on the way. But know this: Ingrid is not a threat. She is an abomination! Whatever you think you know about her is bullshit, and doesn't come anywhere near to how ruthless and insane she really is. I have seen her evil first hand, and I know what she intends to do. She said clear as day to me and Anna, that she was planning on using the Spell of Shattered Sight. What she wants is irrelevant. She will strike this town soon, and she will do the worst thing a soul could ever do.

"You all know the story of my grandfather, Norik Swortssen of Yurness. He was the one who finally killed King Xavier, which we all thought was because of how he was a Templar. But he was also punishing him for the worst crime anyone can commit aside from breaking the Tenets: Xavier had a brother of ours executed instead of killing him himself. We all owe it to our enemies to look at that person in the eyes and do the deed ourselves. It is that burden and obligation that makes us the ethical and the righteous. Ingrid will cripple this town, but she will not do it herself. She will use all of us to kill each other, and sit back, laughing as we all suffer. My grandfather, he even had a certain way he saw life. I don't know where he got it from, but he always though of our lives as a 'long walk and a short drop'. You walk your whole life as long as you can before that short drop to death.

"You know, I met a wise man during my time fighting a war in another realm in the last thirty years. Morality and laws bound him, but his laws were the right ones. And his words line the closest with our own: 'The one who passes the sentence swings the sword'. Ingrid will not do such a thing, and after trying to make my own sisters, who wouldn't harm a fly try to kill each other, I know that I can't let that pass anymore. Ingrid is out there, and she doesn't have the same morals as any Templar or Rogue Assassin. She will target us first! And no one knows that more than me. I am the only one who will get to kill her, and no one else. And we will spend every second taking Ingrid one step closer on her long walk before I give her the short drop. Ingrid is here, and she will kill us. But she won't do it herself. She'll make us turn on each other, so we need to do what must be done to stop that. And it starts here; we start trusting each other again and stop casting votes about who gets to keep their hood and who doesn't. Ingrid doesn't care who still has their hood or doesn't. She will kill any Assassin that faces her, current or former.

"I know what we stand for; freedom. But we can't be free with that psycho running around out there. It's one of our ironies: We seek to open the minds of all, but we must follow the rules without question. So here come the new ones: Cormac's will lock down and be placed under constant guard until Ingrid is dead. No one will go in or out alone. No one leaves without a weapon on them. Only a short list of townsfolk will be allowed to come inside. The hands at the Outposts will empty their stockpiles and kill the locations before settling down here at Cormac's. And finally…" I paused for effect as I glared at Matthew. "If anyone tries to stop me from cutting Ingrid's head off, Assassins or townsfolk alike, they won't get the chance to even whimper for mercy."

I had stored most of my close belongings in the trunk in my room, and was now going over most of them. My old set of hooded armor from Arendelle, my first Hidden Blades, my magic whetstone, and Pick.

Pick, the sword that I had given to Anna so long ago. When Rumplestiltskin violated her innocence, she demanded I take it back and never place it into her hands again. I cursed myself so many times, thinking that if she hadn't given it back, she might have still been alive. And that was why I blamed Rumplestiltskin as well as Ingrid for my sisters' deaths. That, and I knew for a fact he had helped Ingrid in some way.

The door to my room opened, and Matthew walked in. I looked up, but said nothing as he sat in the cushioned chair by the tv set.

"That was… um… inspirational, Asgeir." He began. "You threatened everyone in the brotherhood in the process, but that was alright."

I only stared at him but then he smiled.

"You know, I always had the feeling in my mind after your father died; I wasn't cut out for this role as Mentor. He always seemed to know what to do next when I was his second in leadership, and he always had a plan. I was the one who should have died instead of him."

I got up with Pick in my hands and sat down on the bed. "But you weren't." I replied, placing it on my lap. "So what now?"

"Now I face the music. I won't excuse how I burned those pages, because what I did was wrong. Are you mad because of what they held? I know plenty of people would go mad at the mere thought of it all. How their Mentor knew the whole time."

I shook my head. "No." I said. "I'm not, surprisingly. Not anymore. I'm just shocked at how you never got around to telling me. How could you hide this from everyone in our branch for so long?"

Matthew crossed his hands as he sighed. "You're right, Asgeir. I shouldn't have hid the truth from everyone, even you. I mean, this goes beyond what the books of the history of our order even suggest. So many of us were taught by our Mentors to think of Shay as nothing but a traitor to the brotherhood, but it was us who betrayed him. The Colonial Branch, who corrupted and abused the Creed unjustly with their criminal activities."

"So why were we all taught how he ruthlessly killed the branch with no mercy when it was one of the biggest lies put into our ears?"

"I really can't say, Asgeir." He replied. "Maybe someone along the lines knew exactly why the previous Mentors for so many years altered the truth, but I think the biggest reason why your father and I jumped on that wagon and raised our recruits to think the same of Shay, is because in the end, he was a traitor to us, but not the way how our books suggest. He still killed brothers of ours, and Adéwalé was the worst one that he took down."

He got up. "You're right about one thing. There can't be anymore squabbling amongst us. But do you even know why I voted against you when your hood was on the line?"

I shrugged. "You knew that I knew your secret, and wanted me out of the way, didn't you?"

"Come now, Asgeir." He replied. "We won't get anywhere unless you start learning to trust me again." He paused. "Do you know what it means to be Mentor? The rules of our order state that a Mentor must be obeyed without question, and yet, so many of us do it all the time. Being Mentor means that everyone in your branch will second-guess you at one point or another. And you need to be ready for it, boy."

Ready for it? I don't-

"You really think I'd be doing this my whole life? Your father made it very clear to me that I was to make sure you would be the one to take my place should anything ever happen to me. And nothing has changed my mind, Asgeir. You're still a good Assassin, and you are still my first choice for my successor. But you need to understand what it means to have people second guess you."

"You voted against my hood to test me?" I said, bewildered.

"Not just me. Everyone who voted against your hood did so because I told them to."

"So if I'm Mentor…"

"What starts tomorrow will also serve as your trials as Mentor. You will be taking a larger role in this as we prepare to fight Ingrid. You'll need to be ready to make decisions that could mean life or death for your brothers at arms as well as yourself, and know how not everyone will agree with them. But the key to making those decisions is to stay true to yourself and never be the one who second guesses yourself. If a Mentor starts second guessing every decision he makes, that's it for us."

He got up, leaving me alone in my room.

I stared at Pick in my hands. I couldn't remember the last time I even thought of ever becoming Mentor. If I was being honest, after I killed Ingrid and George, I didn't mean to go on living. I wouldn't really have anyone else left to kill. One might argue that the Assassins outside Storybrooke in the real world were fighting a losing battle against Abstergo, but I thought that they wouldn't need me. They had gone on just fine without me for seven years. Once I killed Zelena today when everyone was celebrating, then all I had left to kill were Ingrid and George. What would there be left for me then? Nothing at all.

The party was in full swing by the time Jason, Zar, Rory and I made our way over. Everyone was either sitting or standing, drinking, laughing and talking. Red waved us over and we brought our seats over to the table in the front corner where David and Mary Margaret were with their newborn baby. Henry was reading a story to the baby out of his book.

"How's the little guy been since I swiped him from Zelena?"

David chuckled. "Ah, just the normalities of new parenthood. It's a new thing for both of us."

"Ain't that the truth." Red sniggered.

David then glanced at Rory. "Oh!" He said. "I must not have caught your name. Are you new in town?"

"Rory…O'Dre" He said as he stood up and shook David's hand. He was using a different name. "Newly released from a monkey under watermelon face 'erself."

"Irish, huh?" David said, noting his accent. "Belfast?"

"Hah." He replied. "No, but good guess. Dublin. You ever been?"

"Eh…" He sighed. "In this life I remember always wanting to go. Maybe one day when we decide to leave town."

"Absolutely, brother. Spent plenty of my time in Belfast. We're still tryin' to get our Northern brothers back with us."

"'And that's when the bandit leapt on top of the carriage and stole the Prince's jewels. As the Prince chased the thief on horseback through the treacherous forest.'" Henry was reading from the book. He stubbornly hadn't stopped reading when we came in and started talking, but he stopped when his mother and Hook came in.

"Really?" She asked. "I can't even hear the kid's name yet, but I have to hear this story again?"

"Well, my son should know where he comes from." David said.

"Are you sure you want the first thing he knows to be that his parents fell in love during an armed robbery?"

"I wasn't armed!" Snow protested.

"Except for a rock." Red replied.

"I still have the scar!" David added.

"Which healed!" Snow said to her husband. She looked down at her son, smiling. "But that's just how we met. It's not how we fell in love."

David nodded. "Yeah, that was a bit more complicated." He turned to the next page in the book, the illustration showing what he meant. "See? There were black knights when I saved your mother's life."

"Uh, I wouldn't flatter yourself, brother." I warned.

Snow only laughed, and turned to the next page. Her and David fighting off trolls on the bridge. I'd heard this story too many times from them. "Oh, and the attack on the troll bridge when I saved his!" She parried.

David rolled his eyes and smiled as he turned to the next one. A tug of war between those two with a book at the rope. "But it wasn't until I saw my mother's ring on her finger that I knew in my heart there was no other woman I would ever love." He smiled down on Snow.

"Oh, I wish you had told me then. We would have saved so much time."

"And a quicker war to go along with it." I said.

"Well, how could I?" David said. "I had to get to my wedding."

"Sorry?" Hook asked. "Have I missed something? You were previously betrothed, mate?"

"Aye. To Princess Abigail." I said. "That one there." I gestured over to the bar. The blonde was talking up with Granny.

"Although she's Kathryn here." Red said.

"King Midas' daughter?" Hook said. "The man who can turn anything to gold?"

David nodded.

"Why would you leave that opportunity?" Hook asked, mistakenly putting his foot in his mouth.

Emma lightly slapped him on the shoulder as Snow said "Hey!"

"Brother, you clearly never met Abigail." I said. "If you had back then, you'd know what I mean."

I'll say it: What a bitch.

"Well, what can I say?" David said. "My heart was destined for another."

"You just had to find her, first." Red sniggered. "She ran away and was living on a farm."

"Oh, it sounded like such a peaceful life at the time." Snow said. "Leave everyone and everything behind-"

"Well, like mother, like daughter." Hook muttered.

"Hook." Emma snapped.

Henry looked up at Emma. "What is he talking about?" He asked.

Emma looked around at us, feeling all the attention going to her decision. It made sense to me, and if she was leaving with her son, it would mean two less people for Ingrid to kill, and one less person standing in my way to slashing her open.

David looked at his daughter, then tried diverting the attention away. "Uh, should we read more stories?" He offered.

Regina had suddenly noticed what was going on and came over with Robin. "Actually, I'd like to know what the pirate is talking about." She said.

"It's nothing." Emma tried to play off.

"You're not planning on going back to New York, are you?"

Henry shook his head. "Why would we go back to New York?"

Regina smiled at the boy. "You're not." She assured. "Right, Ms. Swan?"

"Actually, it's complicated." She replied.

"Why would we leave?" He asked. "This is our home,"

"Henry, this isn't the time or place."

"I think it is." Regina said.

"No, it's not!" Emma snapped. She turned and went out the door.

Hook gave a quick nod. "I'll talk to her." He said.

"Wait." Henry said. He closed the book and handed it to him. "Take this. It might help her remember where she belongs."

Hook headed out to catch up with Emma

David patted Henry on the shoulder. "It's gonna be alright." He said. "She's just stubborn like her m-"

Snow glared at her husband at what he was going to say. I chuckled.

Henry suddenly looked out the window behind me. "Uh, Grandpa?" He asked. "Look."

All eyes at the table looked out. A large column of fire, thousands of feet high was rising from far away.

"What the hell is that?" Jason said.

Rumplestiltskin and Belle had just walked in. "That is a problem." He said. "That light is from Zelena's time portal. It's open."

David, Regina, Robin, Belle, Rumplestiltskin and I headed straight for the sheriff's station. It took the old prune longer than us, because even though I had heard he had a limp from an old injury in the Ogre Wars, it was even worse when I shot him in the back of the knee. I kept a close eye on him as we walked into the station. To my horror, Zelena was gone.

"Zelena!" David exclaimed. "She's gone."

"No! She was here when I left her." Regina protested.

"But if she escaped, that would explain the time portal."

"Belle, that can't have happened." I said. "Without her pendant, she can't have done anything to escape or even open that portal." Then I suddenly realized something. I glared at Rumplestiltskin. "Unless you did something, imp!"

"Asgeir…" David warned.

Rumplestiltskin didn't even blink. "Well, I'm sorry but no." He said. "And even if I wanted to, Belle has my Dagger. She would certainly curb any homicidal tendencies."

Belle nodded to me. "It's true."

Shay appeared beside the snake. "Yah know he's shitting you. There is no way the Dark One would just hand his power over to anyone, even the one he loves. You have a Bullet with you, so you can end this right now and take him for stealing your vengeance."

I had my hands on my holster, but no one noticed. David then went to the TV set in the corner. "Well, if she escaped, let's find out how."

I noticed the cameras right above the set on the wall. I smirked as Rumplstiltskin shifted uncomfortably. "Wonderful." He muttered.

I sat on a desk nearby as the footage started up. But just as it was starting, I noticed something out the corner of my eye. Rumplestiltskin waved his hand towards the TV while the rest of them were watching the screen. It suddenly went static.

"What's that? What just happened?" Regina said.

David sighed. "Yeah, we could use an upgrade. Stupid Betamax…"

Even though I would agree about that statement, the real culprit was right behind them, and only I saw it.

The footage suddenly went back to normal. "Ah! Here we go!" David said as we watched Zelena. The footage showed her suddenly raise her hand above her head, and move it down towards her. She turned right into a porcelain figure of herself, before crumbling to dust. She was dead. But not by her hand, I knew. He had killed her earlier. But he used magic Photoshop on the footage right there to protect his sorry arse.

"Well, it seems her great escape was of a more permanent nature. I won't ask for an apology, Assassin." The Imp said.

"Good." I snapped back. "You won't get one."

Regina wasn't paying attention to me or Gold. "She must've had just enough residual magic to do herself in." She realized. "And when she did, when she was gone, the magic in her pendant had no thether. It was set free. Her last wish fulfilled."

"But how do we unfullfil it?" Robin asked her.

"Excellent question. But until we figure it out, no one should go near it. A trip to the past can have catastrophic repercussions."

Back at Granny's, Jason and Zar were chatting with Granny while Rory was with Red. As long as no one went close to the portal, it wouldn't be a problem. Yet I was more furious that Rumplestiltskin stole my vengeance from me. Zelena was mine, as were George, and Ingrid. And him as well. I just meant to me that I would have to make sure he didn't get in my way towards killing the last two before him. And I knew just how to do it.

"Asgeir!" Granny called. I went over to her and Jason and Zar. "Been talking with your friends, here. Glad to know my older brothers were part of your order if they were mostly good boys like you."

"The pleasure is ours, Granny." Jason replied. "We know of both your older brothers, and they were heroes among our kind."

David had been on his cell phone a few minutes ago, but he suddenly rushed over and tapped me on the shoulder.

"Asgeir, Emma's not answering her phone. I was trying to tell her about the portal. Can you try to find her? Or at the very least head over there to make sure she hasn't gone in yet?"

"Surely, David." I replied. "Jason, let's go!"

"Aye!" We headed out the door and for my pickup.

We were too late when we reached the barn. Emma and Hook were already reaching the door when it flew open and started to suck them closer and closer into it. I yelled out for them as we got out of the truck, but it was no use. Emma was grabbing onto Hook's leg as he had his hook nailed into the ground. Soon enough she couldn't hold on anymore, and fell through the portal. Hook said something to himself, and then fell through right after her. I started to chase after them, but started to feel dizzy. The barn started to swim before my eyes, and I fell to the ground as Jason yelled for me. I could see more visions change before me, and my memories of what had been, become something different.