Enchanted Forest
Many Years Ago.
It was days like today she wished she was back in the city she called home. Sat upon her grey and white molted horse Achilles, the redheaded woman that earned her name as the Black Widow followed the Evil Queen's carriage, with the woman herself sat within with a multitude of guards and knights surrounding it as they walked down the Queen's road at a snail's pace, returning from an outlying village near the palace that had reported sightings of the bandit Snow White.
Instead of sending out her Widow, she insisted on visiting herself to instill the fear that surrounded the woman onto its people. It was a royal waste of time, she knew Snow would be nowhere nearby. She made sure of that herself.
As they walked through the thick woods the Widow kept her eye's firmly on their surroundings as she kept pace with the others. She knew these woods like the back of her hand, she knew every vantage point that any bounty hunter or would-be thief would use to stalk out their prey or their next big payday.
But something was off, something was different...
Something in the air had shifted, and it made the assassin uneasy to say the least as she tried to find it's source only to see something in the distance to make Achilles came to stop in the middle of the road as she saw something she hadn't seen before here.
Making herself look away the Widow easily found the head guardsman near the front of the train, spurring Achilles catch up with the faceless guardsman.
"Take the Queen straight to the palace" she instructs the man "I'm taking two of your men to look at something".
"Yes Milady" he said with a curt nod of his head, knowing he had no power to stop her. Halting Achilles's, the Widow patiently waited for the carriage to catch up to her until the coachman made the carriage come to complete stop once the Queen's window had reached the Black Widow.
Feeling her carriage stop the Queen glared out of the window in annoyance to be met by reason for the complete stop. The Black Widow sat waiting for her on horseback with her dark hood off her head, the woman's green eye's met her's through the window.
"What is it?" the Queen demanded to know from her Widow.
"I've instructed the guards to pick up the pace and get you back to the palace" she informs her Queen "There's something in the forest I need to take a look at".
The Queen looked at her assassin quizzically hearing this "I thought you knew this forest".
"I do, which is why I need to look" she tells the monarch "I'm taking two guards with me, the others will stay with you".
"I don't recall putting you in charge of my knights" the Queen griped at her. The assassin couldn't help the smile on her face at the Queen's annoyance. She was right, but when it came to her safety from those who wished to harm her, it was her job.
"It's my job remember" Amelia tells her with a knowing smirk that reached her emerald eyes. The same ones that took the Queen back only a few short years previous.
The corner of the Queen's lip's quirked up at the redhead's words.
"I do" Regina tells her "Do what you must. As long you come back in one piece" she tells her loyal assassin. The redhead knew what she meant by coming back in one piece, she was telling her to be careful. The sentiment always made the redhead's stomach warmly flutter.
"As you wish" the assassin tells her before hitting the roof of the carriage twice with her fist instructing the coachman pull ahead with the Queen before she guided Achilles away. The Queen watched from her seat as the woman that had been taken so much space in her mind lately rode away with two of her knights following her on horseback as her guard picked up their pace back to the palace.
She dreaded the day the assassin didn't come back from one of the Dark One's contracts or one of her own missions to find her old masters. But as long as she could help it that day wouldn't be soon. She wasn't finished with the woman just yet.
The Widow rode further into the forest than she first thought as they finally came to the thing that caught her attention in the distance. A set of stone ruins that had been left open to the elements as grass and weeds grew out in between the stones laid out on the ground. Green vines encircled what was left of four broken off columns that used to hold up a roof.
It was a temple.
Dismounting her horse the guards followed suit as the assassin handed Achilles's reins over to the guards as she slowly stepped towards the temple ruin that had seen better centuries. Parts of the temple laid everywhere as she took a closer look a the ruins she had never seen before, climbing the small steps that led up to the main building, or what was left of it she assassin came to a stop when she saw something engraved into the stone not too far away from where the entrance was.
Iunonis templum
"Temple of Juno". the assassin easily translated to herself out load as her guards approached her.
"Milady, there is no-one here" one of her guards called out to her making her sigh out in annoyance. She knew she should have come alone.
"Stay there and wait for me" she tells them as she goes to go further into the temple ruin only to feel the stone flooring to give way under her weight, she couldn't stop herself as she fell through the hole in the ground, swallowing her whole into a tunnel she could stop herself from sliding further down into it.
"Milady!" the knights called out to her as they stood by to see the assassin fall into the ground.
She couldn't stop herself as she fell further into the tunnel that never seemed to end, and no matter how much she tried to slow herself down, she only seemed to go faster until she tried to cover her head and face from the amount of dead tree roots that protruded from the walls of the tight tunnel. It came to sudden stop as her feet came contact with solid ground, making her roll forward into a crumple heap at the bottom landing on her front.
A groan left the assassin throat as she tried to figure out where she had ended up.
"Son of a-" she cursed to herself as she pushed herself off the floor faintly hearing the voices of the knights calling down to her as she felt her fingers slide through the dirt she had landed in. On her knee's she glanced back to the tunnel she had fallen down to see that it had been sealed shut by rubble. Wherever she was, she would have to find another way out as she felt something wet above her eye.
Reaching up the assassin hissed out in pain as she felt a deep cut through her eyebrow, quickly taking her hand away to faintly see in what little light was down there her book on her fingers.
"Damn it" she spat out as she pushed herself onto her feet dusting her dark robes of the dust that covered them, moving forwards she blinked on her sixth sense to get a better idea of how she was getting out of this predicament. The world turned dark blue around her as the environment around her was mapped out in front of her as walls became visible around her as a mounted torched had been found attached to the wall.
Unsheathing both her hidden blades she reached up and scraped the edges of the sharpened blades together until they made enough sparks set the torch aflame, allowing her to blink off her extra sense as she grabbed the torched off it's mantle to light up the dark tunnel ahead of her.
With the torch held up over her head, the light it did give off did little to light the path ahead as she slowly moved forward until she saw something move from right to left in front of her stop, scuffing her boot covered feet on the ground.
Tensing her left forearm the hidden blade slip out ready to take on whatever was down there with her. The movement happened again as she got a clearer look at what was moving. It was a person, they ran straight past her. Turning in the direction it was going the ghostly figure continued its journey completely ignoring her presence in the tunnels.
"Hey!" she tried to call out to the figure as she moved her feet to run after it "Hey stop!". The figure didn't let up as continued to cut down different pathways until it came to a brick wall that had a gaping crack in the middle of it, big enough for the figure to easily jump through easily landing on the other-side.
Following it's lead the Black Widow dropped the torch in her hand as she squeezed herself through the crack in the wall to find herself in an anti-room fully lit with torches on the walls, the large room contained a singular stone pedestal in the center that held a strange object that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end, feeling the waves of power that came off it. Power she had never felt before in her life. Not even Regina or Rumpelstiltskin's magic could be compared to it.
"Romeo" the name came shuddering out of her lips as she saw him descending a stone staircase behind the object that made her stomach churn uncomfortably and touch it all at the same time. He didn't even give her a second glance as all his focus was on the bronze ball-like object that sat in the middle of the room.
"Romeo!" she called out to her father only for his image to suddenly disappear as she blinked in confusion. Was she going mad? Was this all a dream?
"It's calling out for it's new owner" A voice she didn't now say to her as she snapped her head to the right to see an older man with wild unkempt grey hair with and equally wild beard in red robe's "To you, Amelia Montague".
The Apprentice had been waiting for a product of Star-Crossed Lover's for centuries for them to find the Apple, and they would. He was powerless to stop the Apple from calling out to them and he was powerless to do anything to stop them from taking it, he just had to trust that they would know what to do with it once they did have it.
William Shakespeare had kept his word and kept what he had learnt of what Amelia was out of his famous tragedy. It would as a warning that all Star-Crossed Lovers that would come and go would always be marked by death, and that no-one would be able to stop it.
But the Author, Issac dismantled his plan for her life to be of no significance to the other stories that played out around her. She was meant to die by her old Masters after being discovered after running away. Instead Issac put her on a course that would ensure her's and those around her's demise.
"What is it?" Amelia asked him. She had gone through so much heartache as he stood by and watched take a path into darkness.
"Your people called them Pieces of Eden" the man tells her "They are object's of great power that only few can control. That only you can control. It was hidden away, out of the reach of the people you serve and the people who sought to control them until the day it's next owner is called upon".
She remembered the stories of the Pieces of Eden. Every Assassin and Templar were told them as they were taught and molded into the ways of their separate orders. The stories of the ones that lived before had been burnt into her memory form how many time they were told over a campfire or while they trained with weapons bigger than them.
The god like deities send them to control their enslaved humans to built their cities before a world ending disaster wiped them out to make way for the realms they lived in now. Where magic and belief ran rampant.
"What if I don't want it?" she asked the man.
"It won't matter, it will keep calling out to you like it did Romeo" he said as his ghost once again reappeared out of nowhere as it ran to the spherical object reaching out to touch it only for something to stop him as he snapped his head up to look straight at her.
Whirling around her breath caught in her throat as she saw a woman with the same flaming red hair as she did. She looked the same she did the last time she saw her alive. Her hair was tied up in braid that sat around her neck as she wore a long dark coat over her shoulders as the Black Widow saw the dagger she currently held in her own person. It wasn't hard to miss as the wing shaped rein-guard peeked out from its original sheath, the same one that now sat on her own waist.
"Mama?" she whispered to herself as her mother walked right through her to get to her husband making her follow her mother around to see her father's eyes set firmly on his wife's face.
"They can't here me. What kind of magic is this?".
"This isn't magic Amelia. The Apple is simply playing it's last memory out for you, of the last people that found it".
She watched as her father's hand hovered over the object as her mother was seemingly trying to stop him from touching it, but he looked conflicted, something she always saw in his face whenever he was thinking. After some silent arguing Romeo allowed his wife to take his hand away from object, allowing her to walk him away from it and up the stairs that would eventually lead up to her own freedom.
"What happened next?" she asked the older man.
"You know what happened Amelia" he knowingly told her "The same thing that always happen's no matter how much the moment plays out in your dreams".
She did know, this memory must've been month's before she found her lifeless mother in their shared room in the bordello.
"What do I do with it?".
"Keep it away from people who would seek to use it's powers against others. It will call out to you again when you need it the most".
"How will I know?".
"You will know when the time comes Amelia. When all hope is almost lost, you will use it to save those you hold most dear to you. But it will come at a cost, like everything in this world".
Stepping forward her hand slowly reached out for the round object as the man closely watched her. She didn't know what to expect once her skin made contact with it. She expected it to be cold from the strange bronze metal that encased it, but it wasn't. Instead it was comfortable, warm even as the ball seemed to react to her touch as a gentle gold light shone through the engravings that ran through the sphere, humming with life as she picked it up and cradled in her hands.
The Apprentice smiled sadly to himself seeing the Apple in the hands of it's next owner as its power shone in the Black Widow's face.
"Goodbye Amelia" the man suddenly told her "Until we meet again".
"What? Wait!" she called out to the man only for a bright light to blind her vision. Squeezing her eye's shut the assassin suddenly felt the warmth of the sun on her skin and the gentle breeze as she blinked her eye's open to see her back on the surface with the Apple still in her hands.
"Milady!" One the knights called after the woman as he ran to her leaving the horses with the other guard she had brought with her. "Are you alright? We saw you-" his words were caught in his throat as hidden blade suddenly found itself in his throat.
"No" she shuddered to herself as the faceless man choked on her blade before it was wrenched out of his throat leaving him to fall onto the ground with blood cascading down from the deep wound in his throat.
She didn't do that.
Her eye's widened in panic as she saw the blood that covered the blade, before her eye's were drawn to the remaining guard. He shook like a leaf before he dropped the reins before running from the Black Widow.
"No!" she called out to stop him. Her hand that held the Apple moved by itself as she lifted up as a bright gold light encased the fleeing knights dragging him back to her, the guard screamed out for the Widow to stop as he was lifted up into the air and turned to face her. She couldn't do anything as her hand involuntary turned to the side making his head wrenched to the side hearing an audible snap coming from his neck, making her flinch in fear, before his dead body fell to the ground.
In fright, the poised assassin dropped the Apple out of her hand and let it fall to the ground, her chest rising and falling as he heart quickly thumped in her chest. Tears leaked from her eye's as she looked at what she had done. Or what the Apple made her do. She couldn't stop the uncontrollable sobs wrenching through her body as she crumbled to her knees.
And now it was her's. It held do much power. She didn't want to touch it again and she certainly didn't want to take it back to the palace with her.
She needed help. And there was only one person she knew that knew how to control all that power. And he was possibly the person the man warned her not to give the Apple to. Taking a deep breath she proceeded to call out his name to summon him to her.
"Rumpelstiltskin" she called out between sobs "Rumpelstiltskin!" she called out a little louder as she wiped the tears from her face "Rumpelstiltskin!".