Enchanted Forest

Years Ago

He knew from the moment he allowed Lestat de Lioncourt - or as he now called himself to fit in with the humans around him Henry Wotton- set his sights on the innocent Elijah Mill's. He would sink his claws into him and turn him into something unrecognizable.

He knew who he was, or at least knew what he was for years when Lestat took him under his wing as his student at the young age of fifteen. From the shadow's the vampire had watched the young boy's talents take leaps and bounds until he had finally broken through and became a household name for himself within the atrocity and royalty in the Enchanted Forest.

And when a Duke's wife came to him with a large commission to paint his son to catapult him into society. How could he refuse?.

Only this wasn't just any other wife of a Duke, this one was once a Miller's Daughter who married of a King's youngest son's after turning straw into gold. After countless portraits of her only son dressed as romantic figures or ancient soldiers the woman was never happy.

But after some time , he achieved it. He had managed to emulate the beauty of the man that stood in front of him and put it on his canvas. It was his best work to date, and it was down to the young man that had come to his home to take the portrait back to his future brother-in-law's palace, King Leopold, as an engagement gift to his new young fiancée, the Princess Snow.

Entering the parlour, they found Elijah Mill's sat at the painter's piano, turning over pages of the music sheet in his hands

"You must lend me these, Basil" Elijah calls out to his friend "I want to learn them. They are perfectly charming".

"Oh that entirely depends on what your fiancée thinks of the portrait, Elijah" Basil calls back.

"She's a princess" he bites back "She doesn't appreciate anything unless it lives in a stable" answered the younger man as he swung on the music stool catching sight of the third person in the room, making him stand on his feet as a faint blush of embarrassment coloured his cheeks "I beg your pardon, Basil, I didn't know you had anyone with you".

"This is Lord Henry Wotton, Elijah, and old friend of mine and fellow artist. I've just been telling him what an excellent sitter you were, and now you have spoiled everything" he teased the young lad.

"You have not spoiled my pleasure in meeting you, Mr Mill's" said Lord Henry, stepping forward and extending his hand for the young man to take "I've heard much about you and your older sister, our future Queen, from your mother".

"I'm afraid I'm in my mother's bad book's at the moment".

"Isn't everyone Mr. Mill's?" Lord Henry quipped to him with a teasing smirk taking the younger man by surprise at how casually he spoke about his mother in a bad light only for an amused chuckle to bubble from his lips as he shook the man's hand .How refreshing it was to hear this for the young man.

Lestat could see why Basil worshipped him, he was wonderfully handsome, with finely curved lips, his deep brown eyes that would make any woman or man for that matter want to fall into, and the dark hair that had been recently cut short. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth's passionate purity. Basil's portrait didn't do him justice, now he's seen the life model.

"Basil" Elijah turned to the painter "My mother wishes for my portrait to be taken back to the palace in time for my sister's wedding".

"Of course Elijah. I'll see if Parker needs some help getting it to your carriage".

"Or I can have someone else do that for us" Elijah rebutted "While we have a drink".

"That sounds even better Basil" Lestat spoke up with a sly smirk, knowing it would rile his friend and protégé. He could only worry of what he had planned at his remark, despite the warning he gave him in his studio, he seemed hell bent on doing the opposite of his wishes. Glancing at him the painter hesitated for a moment and said;

"Harry, would you think it awfully rude of me if I asked you to go away" Basil asked the man.

Lestat smiled before looking towards Elijah Mill's "Am I to go, Mr. Mills? he asked the young man.

"Oh please don't, Lord Henry. I see that Basil is in one of his sulky moods, and I can't bear hum when he sulks. Besides, I wish to know more about you".

"I don't know what to tell you, Mr Mill's. It's a tedious subject that I think would bore you. But I certainly shall not run away, now that you have asked my to stay. You don't mind, Basil, do you? You have often told me that I needed to meet new people, younger than myself".

Basil was sure he would make his lip bleed from how hard he biting it "If Elijah wishes it, of course you must stay. Elijah's whims are laws to everybody, except himself!".

Taking the hint Lord Henry took up his hat and gloves "You are very pressing, Basil, but I am afraid I must go. I have promised to meet someone. Goodbye Mr Mill's".

"Basil" Elijah cried out "If Lord Henry goes, I shall go too without my portrait and tell my mother you are still not finished. Ask him to stay. I insist upon it".

"Stay Henry, to oblige Elijah and to oblige me" said Basil thought his teeth "I don't wish to be in his mother's bad book's as well. I beg you to stay".

Placing his hat and gloves to the side, Lestat joined the pair in the parlour as the painter poured the drink out for him and his guests as they found a seat around the parlour.

"Don't pay attention to what Lord Henry says". Basil warns the younger man, handing him a glass of amber liquid before handing one to Lestat "He has a very bad influence over all his friends, with the single exception of myself. I shall see to the portrait being readied to be taken".

Despite his gut telling him not to leave the pair alone, he had to oversee his prized portrait safely to it's new home.

"Have you really a very bad influence, Lord Henry?" Elijah sent the question to the man once Basil left the room "As bad as Basil says?".

"There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr Mill's. All influence is immoral".

"Why?".

"Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not this natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sin's if there are such things, are borrowed. And echo in someone else's music and actor. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of duties, to duty that one owes to one's self".

With a subtle smile, Lord Henry watched him as he spoke. He knew Elijah was interested. He was amazed at the sudden impression that his words had produced. He had merely shot an arrow into the air. Had it hit the mark? How fascinating the lad was!.

"-I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought reality to every dream. Returning to Hellenic ideal, this world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that is so desperately need. We are punished for our refusals, every impulse that we strangle broods the mind and poison's us. You. Mr. Mill's, you yourself, with your rose red youth and rose white boyhood, you have the passions that have made you afraid, thoughts that have filled you with terror, day-dreams and sleeping dream's whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame-".

"Stop!" Elijah faltered at the man's words shuffling in his seat as he suddenly felt the lack of air, like it had been sucked out of room "I don't know what to say. Perhaps we should move into the garden. I am stifling in here".

"My dear friend" Basil spoke up as he stepped back into room seeing how uncomfortable the young man had become "I am so sorry. I don't know what Henry has been saying to you. I don't suppose he had been paying you compliments. You mustn't believe a word he says".

"He has certainly not been paying me compliments. Perhaps' that is the reason I don't believe anything he has told me".

"You know you believe it all" Lestat says looking at the younger man with his, laid back eye's "I will go out to the garden with you. It is hot in here".

"Certainly Harry" the painter agrees seeing how ill the young man looked "Don't keep him long. We will need to send him back to the palace soon".

The mere thought of returning to the palace made the young man more ill as he stood from his chair head outside with Lestat closely following the lad.

Going out into the garden, Lestat found him burying his face in lilac blossoms, drinking in their perfume as if it were wine. He came close to him, placing his hand on his shoulder "You're quite right doing that. Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul".

The lad drew back filling his lungs full of the fresh clean air round him ease the queasiness in his stomach that threatened to expose the underlying guilt that was building by the day since Daniel's passing and the shame of his the cowardice he showed towards his mother. Lord Henry's speech about stirred something in him he was trying to bury.

"Come let's sit in the shade" Lord Henry encouraged the boy as they moved towards a spot out of the sun that blazed over them. "If you stay any longer in this glare you will be quite spoiled, and Basil will never paint you again".

"What can it matter?" replied Elijah., laughing as he sat down on a stone wall in the shade.

"It should matter everything to you Mr. Mills".

"Why?" "My mother has what sha has wanted since I was born. I am to marry a Princess and create a dynasty that will last centuries.

"Because you have the most marvellous youth, and youth is the one thing worth having".

"I don't feel that, Lord Henry" He felt heavy, like he aged a decade since that fateful night.

"No, you don't feel it now. Some day, when you are old and wrinkle and ugly, when thought has seared you forehead with it's lines, and passion branded you lips with its hideous fires, you will feel it. You have a wonderfully beautiful face, Mr. Mill's. The gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they quickly take away. Every month as it wanes brings you nearer to something dreadful. Be searching for new sensations , Be afraid of nothing..A new Hedonism- this is what his land needs. You might be it's symbol, with your personality there is nothing you could not do. The moment I met you I saw that you were quite unconscious of what you really are, or what you really might be".

Dry land couldn't come sooner as soon for Emma Swan as she set foot back in Storybrooke from her trip to New York with Rumplestiltskin and her son to find the former's long lost son in the Land of No Magic, only to discover that the man she chased through the busy street's was also her ex-boyfriend and Henry's father. And in all that time no-one could find the town's only resident vampire that was still missing after leaving to find his sister.

And when her parents told her all they found of him was a bloodied handkerchief and signs of fight in the library, she became worried something worse had happened to him knowing his mother was in town.

However at the moment a dying Dark One thanks to a stab happy pirate had to be her main priority as she tied the boat from the Jolly Roger to the docks as Ruby and Neal carried the injured older man across the boardwalk where her parents were already waiting for them in David's red ford truck.

"Are you okay?" Mary Margaret asked the group as she and David made their way over to them.

"Yeah" she sighs as David takes over from Ruby to take the dying man's weight to help him towards the truck "Yeah, we're alright".

"Uh, I drove a ship" Henry happily reported to his grandparents.

"Did you now?" David replied from Gold's right side.

"Yeah, my dad showed me how".

"That's…me" Neal waved, introducing himself to his ex's parents before setting his father on the bed of David's truck.

"Thank you, thank you" Gold said in a strained voice as he hoisted himself onto the truck.

"Is Cora trying to control you with the dagger?" the Prince asked the man, knowing the woman and Regina were in possession of the dagger that controlled the Dark One from its hiding place in the clock tower.

"Oh, you'd know if she was, cause most of you would be dead by now" he snark's at the pair.

"Well, then we'll just have to take the fight to her before that can happen" Mary Margaret voiced to the man.

"We will" David sighs out.

"And this time, we finish it" the former Princess adds.

"Mary Margaret…" She was still hurting from Johanna's, her former maid, death at the hands of the mother/ daughter duo.

"David" she sharply replied "She needs to be stopped. She needs to be killed. This is our family. We are going to protect it".

Taking his wife to one side, he needed to sway her from the path she wanted to go down "Of course we will, but what you're talking about goes beyond that".

"Does it? Because she is the reason you've never met my mother".

"I know. I know what happened to Queen Eva, and I have zero problem with Cora dying for it. But not by your hand, and not out of vengeance".

"Why?".

"Because you wouldn't be able to live with yourself. You have the purest heart of anyone I have ever known. That's who you are, and that's who you're going to stay".

"You okay?" Emma asks the Dark One as she approached the bed of the truck with a thick blanket in her arms.

"Ah, I'm beginning to feel a bit stronger. Take me back to my shop. There's magic there that can protect us".

"Let me guess" Henry spoke up from behind her, stood with Ruby "I get to go with Ruby".

"You got it, kid" the blonde tells her son.

"I'll keep him out of the crossfire" Ruby tells the family as Emma saw something behind the she-wolf's eye's that told her that she was hiding something for Henry's benefit.

"Thank you" Mary Margaret tells her best friend before heading back to the truck failing to see how worried her friend was under the anger and grief she felt towards Cora for killing her mother so that her children would benefit from the untimely death.

"Don't look so worried" Henry tell his mother "You'll stop Cora. You won't let her get away" he tells his mother before turning to leave with the waitress.

With Henry under her arm, the she-wolf guided him to her car only to be called back by the saviour.

"Ruby" making her stop her mother's best friend turned back to speak to the blonde privately "We'll find out where Elijah is" she told the younger woman, with a lowered voice so that Henry wouldn't hear them. The eleven year old was too smart not to notice his Uncle's absence, but he knew he was somewhere, ready to be found by the hero's.

"I must really look that bad huh?" the she-wolf replied with a sheepish smile, since he had disappeared, she tried her best not to pine for the man, they weren't even in a relationship, but the night they spent together brought back feelings she had forgotten about since Peter. He made her feel good about herself, even when she was 'breaking up' with him during the curse. But as the days dragged, her hope dwindled that he wouldn't be the same man she cared for or even alive.

"We just know how worried you've been" the blonde emphasized with her, keeping her own concerns for the man hidden from view, she needed to concentrate on Gold for the time being, until they figured out how to save him.

"He's in trouble Emma" Ruby voiced to the saviour "I just...feel it" she didn't know how she felt it, it was just there, tugging at her, every time she thought of the man that hadn't been seen since Archie's funeral.

"Me too. We'll get him back. I promise".

"Thanks" at that the woman turned to find Henry and take him to safety until Regina and Cora had been stopped.

Time flew by as Elijah listened to Lord Henry Wotton's ideal's of a new Hedonism as they walked Hallward's garden's, watching the bee's and butterfly's that flew by as the younger man listened closely to the words that sounded like poetry. A world in which all social norms are ignored in favour of a world in which people followed their impulsive desire's, whether to what they drink, eat or sleep with without regard for the harm done to others. Prioritising of pleasures in one's lifestyle, actions or thoughts.

To not be controlled by one's own mother for the future of their family. Now that is a world the young Elijah Mill's wished he lived in.

His time however finding out more about Wotton's lifestyle was cut short when they were invited by Hallward to see the finished portrait before it was loaded onto his carriage and taken with him to the palace.

"You are glad you have met me, Mr Mill's" said the Lord look at him as they made their way back to the home.

"Yes I am glad now. I wonder shall I always be glad?" he teased Basil's friend.

"Always!" the lord chuckled playfully taking hold of the younger man's shoulder "That is a dreadful word. It makes my shudder when I hear it. Women are so fond of using it. They spoil every romance by trying to make it last forever".

"You think so?".

"I know so. Once you and the Princess have moved past the honeymoon phase, popped out an heir and a couple of spares, you'll find yourself needing a change of scenery and company to keep yourself from throwing yourself out of a tower".

"You sound like my mother" the younger man trailed off.

"Your mother is a smart woman. Love is weakness, by dear Elijah. It has no room in the new world and no need for it".

Entering the studio the men were struck by the image in front of them of the young man the stood at the fireplace in his family's home in the off-white suit with an elbow propped on the mantlepiece. He remembered this sitting like it was yesterday. Out of all the sitting's the painter made him sit, he had to chose that specific one. From the top of the frame to the bottom left hand corner where Basil has signed his name, it would forever serve as a reminder of the day he and his sister had saved Snow White on her horse and the subsequent death of his dearest friend, his sister's true love.

Examining the portrait unclamped from it's easel, the masterpiece stood in it's new handcrafted gilded frame as the Lord took a closer look at frame that now housed his friends work.

"What wood is the frame?" Lord Henry asks the painter as he surveyed the gold gilded frame.

"White oak" Basil answered him "I thought it fitting, that such a masterpiece should be framed in an even rarer occurrence of nature".

"Hmm, quite so Basil" Henry hummed to himself before looking back at the young man that was the sole focus of the portrait.

He stood there motionless in wonder barely conscious that Hallward was speaking to him, not catching the meaning of his words, as the brief feeling of joy at seeing the portrait for the first time dissolved bit by bit as the sense of his own beaty can in on him like a revelation.

Hallward's compliments seemed to be merely the charming exaggeration of their friendship that was laughed off and forgotten, never influencing his mind.

Then came Lord Henry Wotton with his strange praising of youth, and his warning's of its shortness, that had stirred at the time, and now, as he stood gazing at the shadow of this own loveliness, the full reality of the description flashed across him.

Yes, there would be a day when his face would be winkled and wizen, his eye's dim and colourless, the grace of his figure broken and deformed. The scarlet would pass from his lips and the dark steel of his hair would dull and grey.

Out of the corner of his eye, the young man saw his own reflection from a full length mirror int he corner of the room, he couldn't help, but to compare the reflection in the mirror to the reflection of himself in the portrait that look so much younger and innocent .It was already happening. The guilt and grief he felt from losing Daniel had aged him a decade in little less than a month.

He would become dreadful, hideous and uncouth, even more that he is now.

"Don't you like it?" called out Basil, stung by the younger man's silence, not understanding his sudden change of demeanour , he thought he would be pleased of no longer having to sit for hour's on end for a portrait that his mother wanted.

"Of course he likes it" Lord Henry spoke up "Who wouldn't? It is one of the greatest pieces you've done. I must have it, I will give anything you ask for it".

"It's not my property Harry" the painter replied.

"Whose property is it?".

"Elijah's of course".

"He's a very lucky fellow".

"How sad it is" murmured Elijah that as heard by both men in the room, making them turn to him "How sad it is" the young man spoke more clearly "I shall grow old and horrible and dreadful. I will never be older than that particular day. If only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that I would give everything! I would give MY soul for that!".

The painter stood and stared at amazement, it was so unlike Elijah to speak like that. What had happened? He seemed angry as he look straight at him "You like your art better than your friends. I am no more to you than a bronze figure. How long will you like me? Till I have my first winkle, I suppose. When one losses' one's good looks, whatever they may be, one loses everything. Your picture has taught me that. Lord Wotton is perfectly right. Youth is the only thing worth having. When I find that I am growing old, I shall kill myself".

"Elijah!" Don't talk like that. I have never had a friend like you. You are not jealous of material things are you?".

I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me! If the picture could change and I could always be what I am now. Why did you paint it. It will mock me someday, mock me horribly!" he exclaimed pacing the floor in front of the portrait that held hi likeness in deep thought

"This is your doing, Lestat" Basil whispered harshly to his friend, being careful of the young man hearing his true name.

"It is the real Elijah Mills, that is all" Lestat shrugged his shoulder at him.

"It is not".

"If not, what have I to do with it?".

"You should've gone away when I asked you".

"I stayed when you asked me" was his old friends answer.

"Harry, I cannot quarrel with my two best friends at once, between you both you made me hate the finest piece of work I have ever done, and I will destroy it. I will not let it become our three lives and mar them"

Eyeing a palette-knife with it's thin blade of lithe steel in amongst the mess of littered paint tubes and dry brushes, the painter snatched the item up in his hand and moved toward the portrait with the intention of ripping it apart and starting from scratch, only for the young man that had hated the painting only a few seconds ago to stop him, tearing the knife from his hand, flinging it across the studio.

"Don't Basil don't!" he cried to the painter in protest "It would be murder!".

"I am glad you appreciate my work at last, Elijah" said the painted coldly when he had recovered from his surprise "I never thought you would".

"Appreciate it? I am in love with it. It is part of myself. I feel that. I will bring it back to the palace and show the whole kingdom how talented Basil Hallward is to the whole kingdom when the portrait is reveal to the whole world on my sister's wedding day".

"Let us go the theatre sometime after the wedding Elijah" Lord Henry spoke up "There is sure to be something on, somewhere".

"I would like that Lord Henry" said Elijah replied.

"Than we shall, and you will come too Basil, won't you?" the Lord sent the question towards the painter.

"I can't, really. I would sooner not. I have a lot of work to do" he politely declined the offer.

"Well, then, you and I will go alone, Mr Mill's" Henry smiled to himself at the thought of getting the young man all to himself yet again.

"Don't go to the theatre Elijah" the painter spoke up "Come dine with me instead".

"I can't Basil" the young lad replied.

"Why?".

"I have promised Lord Henry to go with him. I gave him my word".

"He won't like you better for keeping your promises. He always breaks his own. I beg you not to go" at this Elijah laughed and shook his head "I beseech you".

The lad seemed to hesitate and look over at Lord Henry, who was watching them with an amused smile.

"I must, Basil" he answered.

"Very well" the defeated painter conceded stepping away from the young man he had grown fond of over the months "It is rather late, you should get back to the palace before your mother has the King's guards looking for you. I'll await the men you will send to fetch the painting in the morning. Goodbye Elijah. Goodbye Harry. Come and see me when you can after the wedding".

"I will my friend" Elijah promised the painter before turning to leave the studio to find his carriage and return home only for Lestat to follow the young lad out of the studio to his own hansom.

"Harry!" the painter called out to the vampire hybrid.

"Yes Basil?" .

"Remember what I asked you, when we were in here earlier".

"I have forgotten it" Lestat teased him with a matching smirk.

"I trust you" he slowly reminded the man.

"I wish I could trust myself" Lestat smirked to himself before leaving the painter to himself and the portrait of the 'real' Elijah Mill's.

As the door closed behind them, the painter flung himself down on a sofa, and a look of pain came into his face.

Settling Gold in the back of the shop on the makeshift cot, the ailing Dark One instructed Emma to find a glass jar as they awaited the arrival of the Queen of Hearts with the Dark One's dagger in her hands with her daughter by her side, preparing the shop for the upcoming battle.

"Emma, did you find it?" the ailing Dark One asked the blonde as she return to his bedside with her father and ex-boyfriend either side of her.

"Yeah. There's nothing in it" she tells the man as she shook the container, creating a clinking sound like something was inside it "What the hell?" she trail's off reaching into the jar to feel an object inside, taking out the invisible object in-between her finger and thumb .

"Invisible chalk" Henry's second grandfather stated to her "Use it in the front doorway. Draw a line" he instructs her "The rest of you? You might want to prepare for battle".

Leaving his bedside the other's did as they were told as David headed out to check outside while Neal followed his ex into the main shop while Mary Margaret went to follow only to be stopped by the sorcerer.

"Oh. Oh, wait, wait. Please. Can you… Get me a warmer blanket? In that cabinet".

Doing as he asked the former princess foes into the cabinet he pointed at, opening the door only to find the two ended candle she could have used to save her mother's life. that was given to her by the Blue Fairy who was really Cora. Taking it out of it's glass case the young woman shakily hold the candle in her hand as she turns to the man on the makeshift bed.

"Why do you have this?" she asks them man as she visibly shook as she held the Enchanted Candle in the palm of her hand.

"For a rainy day" he answers her.

"You're not getting any better, are you?" she says to the man.

"The candle can save me" Gold tells her "There's nothing else".

"I wouldn't use this to save my own mother. What makes you think I would use it for you?".

"Because you're all grown up now. And for once, our interests are aligned.

"She dies instead of you" she concludes outload.

"I know you can do this. I know you want to do this".

"There's no coming back from murder".

"And there's no coming back from death, either" he argues "And that's what will happen to your loved ones".

"Even if I were to do this… The candle only works if you whisper the victim's name over them".

"The heart will do" he instructs her.

"Cora's heart. It's not in her body".

"Use the candle, curse the heart. And then… Here comes the tricky part".

"That's not the tricky part?" she exclaimed at the sick man.

"You have to put the heart back inside Cora's body" he tells her "She will die, and I will live".

"There's another way. I get Cora's heart, I control her and make her do the right thing, and I let you die. Takes care of two evils at once".

The woman's theory made him laugh to himself "I'm just imagining poor Henry's face when he finds out that you killed his grandpa and allowed his dear old Uncle Elijah to remain lost to wherever Cora has left him".

"You know where he is".

"Oh he's alive" the man shakily smiled at her as he laid his head down on the pillow next to him "Trapped...in a spell of his own mother's making. A spell that's even a little too" he chuckled to himself "Hardcore.. even for a Dark One".

"But he's alive" that all that mattered, he could be found and brought back to his family.

"For now" the man panted out as he allowed his eye's to close "He'll be free.. once the castor of the spell is dead".

Sibyl Vane was dead.

The tragedy! Oh how his friend must be feeling, he could not imagine the pain he was in.

Setting foot into the palace, no guard or servants looked his way as he made his way to the dining hall to find his friend eating breakfast breakfast at the far end of the room with plates of food laid out in front of him with what looked like a stuffed Swan sat in the middle as a centrepiece with a small crown sat upon it's slim head as it's long neck had been shaped in a way that resembled half a heart shape.

"Elijah! I came as soon as I could" Basil exclaimed making his way down the long room to join his friend as he continued to eat between reading papers in front of him. "I called by last night, and the guards told me you were out with Lord Harry, I wish you had left word where you were going. I passed a dreadful evening, half afraid that one tragedy might be followed by another. I came here as soon as I read a letter sent from Wotton himself. I can't tell you how heartbroken I am about the whole thing. I know what you must suffer" he says taking a seat by his friend as servant shuffled around him to place and extra setting in front of him like he was going to join to break his fast.

"Did you go down to see the girl's mother? Poor woman. What a state she must be in! And her only child. What did she say about it all?".

"How would I know my dear Basil?" his younger friend replied sipping on the hot tea looking dreadfully bored with the paper's in his hands "I was at the club with Harry. You should've joined us, we meat this charming woman. And don't speak of such horrid things, if one doesn't talk about a thing, it never happened. It is simply expression as Harry would say that give reality to things. And may I mention she was not the woman's only child. There is a son, a charming fellow. A sailor or something...nautical. Tell me what are you painting now?".

"You went to the club?" said Basil, speaking very slowly and a strained touch of pain in his voice "You went to the club while Sibyl Vane was lying dead in some lodging, while you speak of charming woman while the girl you loved lies somewhere in some pauper grave".

"Stop it Basil! I won't hear it" cried Elijah leaping to his feet "You must not tell me about such things. What done is done. What is past is past".

"You call yesterday the past?" Basil questioned him "Elijah how horrible! Something has changed in you completely. You look exactly like the boy who used to come an a sit for his portrait, and yet you speak as it you have no heart, no pity in you. It is all Harry's influence".

"I owe a great deal to Harry, more that I owe to you. You only taught me to be vain".

"Well I am punished for that, or shall be some day".

"What do you mean Basil. I do not know what you want. What do you want?".

"I want the Elijah Mill's I used to paint".

Basil!" said the young man over him, putting a hand on his shoulder "You have come too late. Yesterday when I heard that Sibyl Vane had killed herself".

"Killed herself!" the painter cried out in horror.

"Surely you don't think it was a vulgar accident? Of course she killed herself. No there is nothing fearful about it. You must not I have not suffered. If you had come yesterday at a particular moment you would've found me in tears. Even Harry, who was here who brought me the news had no idea what I was going though even after his own grief. I suffered immensely. Then it passed away. That is charming of you . You find me consoled, and you are furious".

"You have not realized how I have developed from that boy you first met. I am a man now. I have new passion's new thoughts, new ideas. I am different but you must not like me less, I am changed, but you must always be my friend. Of course I am fond of Harry. But I know that you are better than he is. You are stronger-you are too much afraid of life-but you are better. Don't leave me Basil and don't quarrel with me. I am what I am. There is nothing more to be said".

The painter felt moved by the man's words, and his personality had been a great turning for his painting. There was so much in him that was good, so much in him that was noble.

"Well Elijah" he said a length "I won't speak to you again about this horrible thing after today. I only trust you know what you're doing and that your name won't get mentioned in any inquest".

"They don't know my name" she didn't know who he was really was, no one could.

"But surely she did".

"Only my first name, she only told them by the name Prince Charming. It was pretty to her. You must do me a drawing of Sibyl, something more of her than the memory of a few kisses and some broken pathetic words".

"I will try and do something Elijah, if it pleases you. Perhaps for something in return?".

"What could you need?" he quired with the man. He continued his mother patronage of his work to this day, years after he and Regina threw her into the looking glass.

"I wish for you to sit for me again" the painter requested.

"Impossible" Elijah instantly answered.

"Do you mean you don't like what I did for you? Where is it? Let me look at it" he demanded for the younger man.

"You cannot".

"Why not?"".

"I had the servants make a screen for it when the light became too strong for it".

"Too strong! Surely you are mistaken, Let me see it" he demands standing from the chair to head out of the dining hall to find his portrait that would be out on display in that many corridors of the palace, opposite the large open windows.

"You must not look at it!" Elijah jumped forward to stop him "I had it moved into my chambers a while ago when I noticed the damage. Basil, you must not look at it. I don't wish you to".

"Not look at my own work? You are serious. Why shouldn't I?".

"If you try and look at it, Basil on my word I will never speak to you again as long as I live. I don't offer any explanation, and you are not to ask for any, but if you so much as touch the frame, everything between us is over".

"Of course" the painter relented "I won't look at it if you don't wish me to. But really it all rather seemed absurd if I'm going to exhibit it to a few of my colleagues. It shall probably need enough coat of varnish before that, so I must see it".

Elijah felt the bead of sweat on his forehead. He felt like he was on the brink of terrible danger "You told me you would never exhibit it. You told Harry the same exact thing. Why have you changed your mind?".

The reminder of Harry's words made him stop and a gleam of light came to eye's.

"If you want to have a strange quarter of an hour, get Basil to tell you why he won't exhibit your picture. He told me why he wouldn't, and it was a revelation to me".

"Basil" Elijah started, coming quite close and looking him straight in the face, picking piece of fluff from his jacket with his finger and thumb "We have each of us a secret. Let me know yours, and I shall tell you mine. What id your reason for refusing to exhibit my picture?".

"Elijah, if I told you, you might like me less that you do. and you would certainly laugh at me. If you wish me never to look at your picture again. I am content with that. I have always you to look at. If you wish my best work hidden from the world, I am satisfied. Your friendship is dearer tome that anything".

"No, you must tell me" Elijah insisted "I think I have a right to know".

"Let us sit down, Elijah" the painter said looking troubled "Let us sit down, and just answer me one question; Have you noticed in the picture something curious? something that probably at first did not strike you, but that revealed into to you".

"Basil!" the lad cried, clutching the back of one of the dining chairs with trembling hands, staring at him with wild startled eye's.

"You did" the painter states outload to the younger man "Don't speak, just listen".

"From the moment I met you, your personality had the most extraordinary influence over me. I was dominated, soul, brain and power by you. I worshipped you. I grew jealous of every one to whom you spoke. I wanted you all to myself, I was only happy when I was with you. Week's went on and I grew more absorbed. I had drawn you as hero after hero before I was determined one day to pain a wonderful portrait of you as you actually are, not in a costume, but in your own dress and your own time. But I know as I worked at it, every flake of colour seemed to reveal my secret. I grew fearful that other's would see it as well. I felt that I had put too much of myself into it. That's when I resolved never to allow the picture to be shown".

"When the picture was finished, and it left my studio, it seems foolish in imagining that I had seen anything in it. The picture cannot be shown. You must not be angry with me for what I have told you. As I said to Harry once, you are made to be worshipped".

Elijah Mill's drew in a long breath, the colour coming back to his cheeks and a smile playing on his lips. The peril is over. He was safe for the time. HE could not help feeling infinite pity for the painter who had made this strange confession to him and wondering himself would ever be so dominated by the personality of a friend. Would there ever be some one who would fill him with a strange idolatry? Was that one of the things that life had in store? Was that what love felt like?.

Perhaps it was something he needed to ask his sister about. Had Daniel dominated her mind and soul so much that she was willing on darkening her heart for to enact revenge on a girl that didn't know better.

"It is extraordinary to me Elijah" said Hallward bringing the younger man out of his thoughts "That you should have seen this in the portrait. Did you really see it?".

"I saw something in it" he answered "something that seemed to me very curious".

"Well, you don't mind my looking at the thing now" Basil tried his luck.

"I could not possibly let you stand in front of that picture".

"You will some day, maybe?".

"Never".

"Perhaps you are right. You have been the one person in my life who had really influence my art. Whatever I have done that is good, I owe you. Ah! You don't know what it cost me to tell you all that I have told you".

"My dear Basil" said Elijah " What have you told me? Simply that you felt that you admired me too much. That is not even a compliment".

"It was a confession, now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put ones worship into words".

"It was a very disappointing confession. You and I are still friends, Basil, and we must always remain so".

"Goodbye Elijah. Sorry you won't let me look at the picture once again. I quite understand what you feel about it".

As the painter left the room, Elijah smiled to himself. Poor Basil, how little he knew of the true reason. That instead of having been forced to reveal his own secret. How mush that confession explained the man's fit's of jealousy, his wild devotion, he understood them now, and he felt sorry. There seemed to him to be something tragic in the a friendship so coloured by romance.

Even with the protection spell surrounding the pawn shop thanks to Emma's efforts, it was only a matter of when the Queen of Hearts would come for the dying Dark One to take his power for her own. A tremor announced their arrival making the whole shop and everything inside of it shake making the Prince rush to the back of the shop to get Emma and Gold's son to defend the ailing man.

With a sword in both their hand's the former couple joined the blonde's father with his own sword to meet the pair of villains making their way into the shop as Mary Margaret eyed the side exit to her left, with her plan in mind to put an end to Cora's plans.

One single powerful blast of magic from the mother and daughter is what broke the protective shield as it flung the door wide open for the duo to step into the pawn shop to meet the hero's defending the Dark One. As the Queen's stepped into the pawn shop, Mary Margaret edged herself closer to the side door.

"Regina" Emma calmly called out to the former Queen "Think about what you're doing".

"Don't talk to me" the woman glowered at the saviour, while the former Princess snuck out of the side door, quietly closing the door behind her before running towards the cemetery to find Cora's heart.

Regina was the first to strike as she conjured a ball of fire in her gloved hand to throw towards the defender's only for the Prince to quickly react and deflect it with a swing of his sword. Annoyed at the Prince's actions, the former Evil Queen throws the man out of the front door and out into the street, locking the door behind him to keep him out.

"David!" Emma called out to her father before Cora blasts Emma into the back corner as Neal lunges forward in retaliation. Disappearing in a puff of smoke, making Neal swing his sword at nothing accidently dropping the Dark One's dagger onto the shop floor as the man turned to face the witch again. Regina goes for the blonde saviour again as she attempts to magically strangle the woman, pinning her to the wall with a snarl on her lips, only to get distracted when Cora reappears, with the dagger sat in between her and the man that attacked her.

Grabbing a knife from the counter, Emma gains the upper hand over the distracted former Queen as she takes hold for the woman from behind, pinning her arms against her while holding the dagger up to her throat.

"Where's Elijah?" she seethes into the woman's ear, demanding to know what she had done with her younger brother tempted to press the edge of the knife into her skin only to get no answer from the woman "Where is he?!" she pressed further.

"Don't talk about him to me" she snapped at the blonde as they looked up to see the dagger on the floor between Neal and Cora in a face-off.

"What's it going to be?" Neal asks the woman. Choose the dagger, or choose to help her daughter.

"Mother!" Regina called out to her trying to fight Emma's hold on her.

"Choose wisely" the man went on as the older woman looked to her daughter before making her decision. The decision she was always going to make, even if it were her own son with a stake poised above his heart.

Summoning the dagger into her hand, her daughter could only watch on is disbelief before she was thrown to her mother, the two of them crashing into the glass counter, making it shatter as the former Queen fell heavily onto her side as glass rained over her.

"Fall back to Gold!" Emma yelled to her ex "I have the chalk".

He didn't need to be told twice as he followed his ex through the doorway as she scratch the invisible line in the doorway, creating a protective barrier as the two women in the shop recovered from being thrown into the glass counter. Pushing her ex into the room the pair retreated into the back room as they waited the second wave of attack from the witches.

"Help me take out Rumpelstiltskin, and then we'll go back-" the older woman suddenly wavers mid-sentence as she appears disorientated.

"Mother, what is it?" Regina asks her in concern.

"My… My heart" she stammer's her breathing suddenly becoming heavy from the discomfort she felt "It's with my things in your vault. Someone's there" she tells her daughter, gasping in pain.

"Mother?".

"Go! Go!" Cora demands pushing her daughter towards the exit making her leave to find out what was going on with her heart leaving her to break down the barrier that laid in her path towards the Dark One's power.

"Really, Rumpel. Hiding's beneath you".

Making her way down the dark tight stone steps to the vault, she wasn't' sure where to start in the search for Cora's heart, but one thing was for sure was how creepy the underground structure was as the former Princess heard something odd coming from the far end of the dimly lit vault.

"Basil" a weak deep voice echoed down the corridor making the former Princess stop and turn to look down the passageway to see nothing that would explain the sound "Basil" the same voice called out again.

"Hello?" the former Princess called out to the voice as she took slow, careful steps towards where the sound was coming from "Anyone there?".

Coming to stand in front of the glamour spell, what Mary Margaret didn't see on the other side was the sleeping form of the resident vampire trapped deep within is own mind as it recounted his past sins that he had firmly put behind the red door, still in the chains that limply held his body off the ground.

"Basil" the vampire breathed out once again between beaths as his closed eye's twitched underneath his lids as the former Princess recalled what the Dark One had told her in the back of the pawn shop.

"Elijah?" she slowly tested the name. She was answered a beat later as a low growl emitted from the back of his throat at the sound of his name being said. Even in his current state he could still hear.

"Elijah!" she called out louder this time "It's me! It's Mary Margaret!" she continued hoping the sound of her voice wound get him to talk to her, tell her what had happened to him, how he was only for the same name he called out earlier.

"Basil" the name came out in a pained whimper this time as his face contorted in fear unseen by the younger woman on the other side of the glamour spell as he continued to dream.

"Hey, it's okay" she tried to comfort him from her side of the spell "I'm going to get you out of here and back to Henry okay. I promise. I'm going to free you. We'll come and get you as soon as Cora is gone".

Venturing back where she came from, the pixie haired former Princess found an alcove full of trunks, searching through each one only to come up with nothing, before turning to the last.

Opening the last trunk, the younger woman finds it full of small boxes containing hearts. The bow where Cora's heart lies glowed as the heats of her heart reached the former Princess's ears. Pulling the box out, she places on top of the trunk and opens it to see the woman's darkened heart only to slam the lid back down, clamping her hand over the box her heart and head came to blows.

Could she really do this? Kill a woman for revenge? Was ending a life really the answer?.

Her morals were battling each other as her head was telling her to kill the woman that poisoned her mother to marry her children to inherit a kingdom, while her heart told her taking another life only made her as bad as any villain she had encountered. Could she be that selfish?.

Only she wasn't only doing it for herself.

Making her decision, the woman lit both ends of the Enchanted Candle, reopening the box to hold the candle over the heard to whisper "Cora...Cora...Cora".

Years had past since his last encounter with Basil Hallward, in those years a great many things had changed. His mother was now in a entirely different realm, Snow White was longer the innocent Princess but branded a traitor by her step-mother became more commonly known as the Evil Queen.

However, as the years went by, the Queen's younger never seemed to change from the young twenty-one year old that had saved the ten-year-old Princess on her runaway horse as he took on Lord Henry's hedonism lifestyle, as he took pleasure in whatever he could get his hands on. However behind the velvet curtains in his room above the fireplace, his portrait had twisted itself in the monster that took on the consequences of his actions.

The eve of his thirty-first birthday seemed to be the point of his life in which everything that changed for him.

Stepping out of the tavern that Wotton had taken him to begin the celebrations before they had to join the festivities his older sister had put on for her baby brother the next evening, the thirty year old that didn't look a day over twenty one stumbled out of the building leaving behind the merriment to look for his friend, recalling his friend telling he was going to look for something to eat despite the mountain of hot food that was already on offer, heading down the cobblestone street his shoulder came into contact with a man walking very fast in the opposite direction with a bag in his hand with the collar of his coat upturned up to protect his neck from the cold mist that had descended on the town.

He recognised him. It was Basil Hallward. A strange sense of fear came over him. He made no sign of recognition, and went on in the direction of his own. But Basil Hallward had seen him. He heard him stop on the cobblestone and then hurrying after him, in a few moment a hand was on his arm.

"Elijah!" the painter smiled widely seeing his old friend "What an extraordinary piece of luck, I was on my way to the docks to wait for my ship. I am off to another kingdom and I wanted to see you before I left. I thought it was you, but I wasn't sure. Didn't you recognise me?".

"In this fog Basil! Why I wouldn't even recognise my own sister. I think my carriage is somewhere out here, I'm not certain. I'm sorry you are going away, I have not seen you in years. I suppose you'll be back soon?".

"Six months, I'm setting up another studio and shut myself in it to paint the picture I've had in my head".

"Won't you miss your ship?".

"It's not till the morning. I was going to find an Inn to spend the night, but then I saw you" I must say I'm most sorry for the whole mess with Snow White, do you think she conspired to kill her own father?".

"Tell me Basil" the younger man changed the subject away from the bandit "How would you like to spend the night at the palace instead some cold Inn?".

The man stood there taken aback by his friends offer, never before he had he offered such a thing,

"Y-you can really do that?" the painter quired with the man.

"Of course. I am the Queen's brother after all. I can do whatever I wish and you are a dear friend".

Quick feet took the former Queen to the cemetery and to her mausoleum to find out what was happening to her mother's heart as she carefully entered the vault for the culprit that was after her mother's heart. Once at the bottom, the former Queen look ahead of her to make sure the glamour spell she herself had put up to hide her brother from view was still intact and that he was still where their mother had left him and not somehow escaped.

But she was in clear as she saw her her baby brother through the glamour spell still hung from the chains, on his knee's with his head slumped onto his shoulder as he slept through the spell.

Turning to the right to where her mother's belongings were the former Queen gasped seeing Mary Margaret stood there with the box containing her mother's heart in her hands.

"You have no right to be here" the older woman tell the other "And you have no right to that!" she adds pointing to the box as the former Princess thought of an idea of how to get the heart back in Cora's chest.

"I was going to give it to you" she states to her former step-mother.

"What?" the former Queen asked perplexed at the younger woman's words.

"She can't love you, you know. She doesn't have her heart. With it, maybe she can. That's why you've never felt she loved you and your brother. She doesn't have her heart. But I do".

"You're doing this for me?" Regina queried trying to understand why she was telling her this.

"Think about it. What would happen if Cora had her heart back? Back inside her?".

"She told me she took it out to protect herself" Cora's daughter argued.

"And did it work?" Mary Margaret retorted "The person she was before… Do you think that person survived? She can't love, so she can't love you or Elijah".

"She always wanted the best for me" Regina answered her with a tight smile "For us" she adds "That's love".

"Imagine real love. You'd both have a mother, and a start on making a family Henry could be a part of. Or, you could have her be the Dark One" she says holding out the box that contained the cursed heart towards the woman "The choice is yours".

Settling Basil into one of the many guest rooms in the palace for the night, Elijah's father was more than happy to accommodate the late arrival of his son's friend even with only a bag on his person the painter felt at home straight at home when he heard a knock on the door.

Leaving the spot on the couch he had found nursing a glass of bourbon, the painter quickly answered the door to find Elijah on the other side "Ah, Elijah, come in please" he told the younger man as the latter stepped into the room as the door behind him was closed behind him.

"Your servant made me quite at home" Basil reports to his friend making his way back to his spot on the couch to re-take his brink "He gave me everything I wanted including an invitation to your birthday celebration tomorrow evening. Thirty one! My goodness how time has flown by. Of course I politely had to decline, but I suppose Lord Henry will make up for my absence"

"Yes my father said you had settled in quickly and without much fuss" he smile politely making himself a drink joining his friend on the end of the of piece of furniture.

"Your father?" the painter quired with him.

"Yes, he didn't want to leave my sister's side when she became Queen. He has quite a devotion to his children".

"My apologies if I have offended you"

"You have not. I am offended that you won't stay long enough to celebrate the day of my birth" he teased his friend.

"I must speak to you seriously for a moment Elijah" the painter changed the subject.

"I hope it is not about myself" Elijah groaned out "I am tired of myself tonight. I should like to be somebody else".

"It is about yourself. I think it right that you should know that the most dreadful things are being said against you throughout the kingdom and beyond".

"I don't wish to know anything about them. I love scandals about other people, but scandals about myself don't interest me.

"But they must. Every gentleman is interested in his good name especially if it included their family. You don't want people to talk of you as something vile and degraded. Of course you have your position, and your wealth, but position and wealth are not everything-".

"My mother would argue you on that my dear Basil" Elijah interrupted the man "And you knew her well enough for her to fund your livelihood".

"I do remember. And yet I hear all these hideous things that people are whispered about you. Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man's face that cannot be concealed. If a wretched man has a vice, it shows itself in the lines of his mouth, the droop of his eyelids, the moulding of his hands even".

"Tell me of these hideous, vile things that people whisper about me" the younger man requests from the painter.

"Elijah-".

"No, tell me, if I' am to be found guilty for these crimes, them tell me the charges".

"Elijah-".

"Tell. Me".

"Gentleman will walk out of a club when you enter. They will neither go to your estate or invite you to theirs. When your name is uttered they curl their lip and say that might have the most artistic tastes, but that you were a man whom no pure-minded gild should be allowed to know and whom no chaste woman should sit in the same room with. Why your friendship so fatal to young men? Some had to leave the kingdom with a tarnished name. Men seem to be full of shame and sorrow when you destroy their son's prospects-".

"Stop Basil" the younger man interrupts him "You are talking about things of which you know nothing".

"You ask me why men leave when I enter a club. It is because I knew everything about his life, not because he know anything of mine. You ask me about those young men. I simply taught them their vices and the other his debauchery, if one were to take a wife from the street and other other to write my name on a bill am I his keeper? Do you ever think of what lives these people lead, who pose as being moral to whisper these things about me. My dear friend, you forget that we are in the native land of hypocrite".

"I know, that is the reason why I want you to be fine. You have not been fine. You seem to have lost all sense of honour, of goodness, or purity. You have filled them with madness and pleasure. They have gone down to the same depths you have led them to".

"I want you to have a clean name. I want you to get rid of the dreadful people you associate with. You have a wonderful influence. Let it be for good, not for evil. I wonder so I know you when I see letter's implicating you in the most terrible confessions. Before I could answer that, I should have to see your soul. But only God can do that".

"To see my soul!" Elijah muttered standing from the couch "You shall see it yourself, tonight. Come it is your own handiwork, then you can tell the world all about it afterwards, nobody would believe you. Come I tell you, you have chatted enough about corruption. Yes. I shall show you my soul. You shall see the thing that you fancy only God can see".

Leaving his drink behind, the younger man turns and leaves the room giving no choice for the painter to follow him to show him his 'soul'.

Regina took the heart.

Sat on the steps of the the Mill's mausoleum with her head in her hands, the former Princess contemplate what she had just done, when David find her after running from the pawn shop to find her as soon as he realised what she was doing.

"Mary Margaret!" he called after her "Are you okay?! Are you…" he trailed off, as she barely looked him in the eye "What did you do?".

"You were right. This isn't me".

Reaching the locked door of his chambers with Basil beside him, Elijah took the only key from his pocket that was attached to a long gold chain that was attached to a pocket watch that his father gifted him when he turned eighteen.

Slotting the key into the lock, the younger man seemed to hesitate before turning he key, hearing the click of the lock moving out place, before opening the door to let himself and his friend into his chambers.

The younger man headed straight for the fireplace and the velvet rope that controlled the curtains, hiding his portrait from view as the painter followed him to the warm fireplace.

"So you think only a God who sees the soul. Basil? Draw that curtain back and you will see mine" he instructed his friend.

"You are mad, Elijah or playing a part" the painter addressed him.

You won't? Then I must do it myself" said the young man, harshly pulling down the rope to open the curtains and reveal the portrait to the man.

An exclamation of horror broke from the painters lips as he saw in the dim light the fire gave off from beneath the portrait, the hideous face on the canvas ginning at him. There was something in the expression that filled him with disgust and loathing, only for the painter to realize it was Elijah Mill's own face.

"Good heavens" he muttered to himself as he looked upon the horror, whatever it was, had not yet entirely spoiled that marvellous beauty. There was still some dark brown in the thinning hair and some scarlet on the sensual mouth. The sodden eyes had kept something of the loveliness of their brown, the noble curves had not yet completely passed away from chiselled nostrils and from the plastic throat.

Yes, it was Elijah himself. But who had done this? He recognised his own brush work and the gilded frame he had made from white oak. Stepping closer to the portrait, int he left hand corner was his own name, traced in long letters.

"What does this mean?" the painter cried at last, his own voice sounded shrill and curious.

"Year's ago, when I was a boy" began Elijah, plucking a dark rose from a vase that stood on the mantlepiece, bring it up to his nose to smell it, or at least pretended to "You met me, flattered me, and taught me to be vain of my looks" he continues taking the delicate flower head into his hand and clenching his fist around the petals "One day, you introduced me to a friend of yours, who explained to me the wonder of youth, finishing a portrait of me that revealed tome the wonder of beauty. In a mad moment, that even now, I don't know whether I regret or not, I made a wish..".

"I remember it" the painter murmured, his head shaking from side to side in denial that the wish he had made in his studio could actually come true "No, that thing, is impossible. I tell you the thing is impossible!".

"What's impossible exactly?".

"You told me you had damaged it".

"i was wrong. It destroyed me!".

"It's not my picture".

Can't you see your ideal in it?" Elijah bitterly replied.

"My ideal as you call it..".

"As you call it" Elijah rebutted.

"There was nothing evil in it, nothing shameful. This is the face of a satyr".

"It's the face of my soul!".

"That!" Basil spat at his old friend pointing an accusing finger at the portrait "Has the eyes of the devil. Can't you feel that accursed thing leering at us!?".

Glancing at the picture the younger man suddenly felt an incontrollable feeling of hatred come over him for Basil Hallward, as though the picture itself where whispering into his earn through grinning lips, stirring his mind. He loathed the man that who was stood in his chambers, more than in whole life he had never loathed anything.

Something glimmered on the ornate sofa behind Basil. He knew what it was. An early gift from his sister after he told her of his plans of a hunt with Lord Wotton after his birthday celebrations and forgotten to put it away before leaving to meet Harry at the tavern. Moving slowly towards it, as the painter continued to drawl on about how he could still be saved, passing past Hallward as he did so.

As soon as he got behind him, he picked up the hunting knife by it's ornate wooden handle, the painter stopped midsentence to find his friend behind him seeing the object glimmer in the reflection of the roaring flames out of the corner of his eye.

With one quick thrust of his arm the hunting knife disappeared into the painter's torso, taking the man by surprise as the sharp blade cut into his flesh, veins and organs. The blade came out as quickly as it went, thick blood pooled from the wound onto the painter shirt as the knife disappeared into his torso twice more with the same viscousness as the same one.

There was a stifled groan, and horrible sound of someone choking on their own blood. Three times the outstretched arm shot up before Basil fell onto the sofa, no longer moving. Stood over his unmoving friend, the blood covered the hand he held the knife in as drops covered his shirt and face. He could hear nothing, but the drip, drip on the rug underneath his boot covered feet and the crackle of the fire as the portrait changed to reflect the fresh spot of darkness that had settled into his heart.

What had he done?.

Breaking through the protective shield Cora Mill's stepped through to the back of the pawns shop to be met with Emma and Neal armed with their swords protecting the bed bound Dark One, prepared to fight the sorceress

"You two – out of the way" Cora said waving her hand making a cloud of purple smoke take the pair out of the shop, leaving her to approach the dying Dark One, with no interference by the hero's

"A vision told me about you" the man told her "Told me this day would come. But it didn't tell me everything. Didn't tell me what I really wanted to know" he goes on as she takes a seat next to Rumplestiltskin.

"And what's that?".

"Did you ever love me?".

Stroking the side of his face, the woman looked upon the man she once loved "Why do you think I had to rip my own heart out? You were my weakness" she admits to him "But you weren't the only man I ever truly loved. There was another that I put my heart back in for. And when he left..I never bothered putting it back".

Standing up, the sorceress raises the dagger above her former love's heart, the older woman lurched forward as her heart was shoved back into her chest by her daughter behind her, dropping the dagger onto the floor, she staggered back feeling her heart back in her chest to look upon her daughter as Gold instantly recovers from the poison Captain Hook had infected him with.

Looking upon her daughter a genuine love filled smile grew on the woman's lips, the first one the former Queen had seen one on her as she smiled back at her, hopeful that what Mary Margaret had promised her would be true.

"Mother".

Her baby brother's birthday was something none of her courtiers dared to miss, not even he could escape the plans she had meticulously put in place to celebrate the day her brother entered her life, not even the mysterious Lord Henry Wotton would be able to weasel himself out of the festivities as he sat among the guests in attendance, drinking whatever he could get his hands on.

Food and drink filled the long dining table, wrapped gifts laid out ready for him to open, there as even a fresh stuffed stag stood in the middle of the table that the huntsman had trailed for days. The only thing that was missing now was the birthday boy himself. It was the middle of the day and no one had seen or heard from him since the previous night when their father helped him welcome a friend back that wasn't Henry Wotton to stay at the palace overnight.

People were starting to whisper as the Queen paced the room wondering where her baby brother had gotten to when he gave her his word to attend the party for at least three hours before leaving to go hunting with Lord Wotton. Which was strange in itself because he held no interest in it before now.

After an hour of waiting, the Queen had sent out her guard to find him within the palace thinking he was just sleeping off another hangover.

"Where is he? Where is he?".

"I'm sure he's on his way my dear" their father tried his best to sooth her concerns making her stop "He wouldn't miss his own birthday. Especially when you've gone to the effort of organising it".

"I know Daddy" she replied taking in a deep breath as she looked for the one man that seemed to know where her brother was at all times "You!" she barked and the young Lord Wotton, interrupting the pleasant conversation he was having with a young blonde courtier, stomping over to the man that took up most of her brother's time "Where is he?" she demanded to know from the dirty-blond man whose dark blue eye's contrasted with his pale-white skin.

"I have no idea where is his Your Majesty" he answered her with a straight voice as the blonde woman he was speaking to slinked away into the background from the angered Evil Queen.

"Well you should! You already spend a nauseating amount of time with him. You should know why he hasn't turned out for his own birthday!".

"Believe me your Majesty" he drawled out "If I thought for one minute he would be late for this fine party, I would've dragged him here myself".

God she hated him. How dare he speak to her that way. Like he wasn't afraid of her. She hated it. Every time they found themselves in a room together she could only think of the ways she could torture him. Since her brother had been spending more time with him, the more she noticed a change in him. Like each time he took a part of his soul.

There was something she couldn't put her finger on, especially since she witnessed the man so easily influence the precious Snow White. Since then she had made it her mission to know everything there was to know about Lord Henry Wotton. But any inquires about it hit wall after wall. No-one seemed to know who he was.

Henry Wotton was the bane of her existence and she would not rest until she permanently rid of him from her brother's life.

"My Queen" the huntsman's voice dragged her away from the arrogant Lord "The guards have search every inch of the palace and the surrounding grounds, the Lord Elijah cannot be found anywhere".

"What about his chambers?" the Queen questioned the Huntsman "Surely he left a clue of where he was in his own room" she was only met by silence as the Huntsman looked to guard that stood next to him. It dawned on the Queen and all those concerned at the obvious place he would be hadn't been checked.

Hearing a chuckle to her right, her head snapped to the left to see Lord Wotton chuckling into the glass of wine he was attempting to use to hide his amusement from his friend's older sister, having witnessed the idiocy within the Queen's household, only to fail as full fit so laughter filled the silent room while the courtier watched in stunned silence at the man's gall.

"Oh you must admit it Your Majesty" the Lord said breaking out between fits of laughter "It is rather absurd is it not?".

Ignoring his remark the Queen turned back to the Huntsman and the guard in front of her "Did you seriously not check his own room?" she slowly asked the pair "Are you complete idiots!?".

"It's usually locked-" the Huntsman tried to argue.

"IDIOTS!" she angrily snapped at them, the vein on her forehead on full viewing before she took a calming breath, smoothing out the dark dress on her waist.

"If you can't find him in his own room, than I shall have to find him myself" she told the men before heading for the door to track down her baby brother herself.

"Your Majes-" the faceless guard tried to stop her only for his neck to snap to the side ,an audible crack to echoed in the room before his lifeless body fell onto ground dead as Lord Wotton stepped over his corpse to follow the Queen out of the dining hall.

"Better luck next time mate" Wotton said to the heartless Huntsman as he passed the man, patting him on the shoulder before hurrying after the woman.

"Perhaps I should enter first" Lord Wotton suggested to the Queen once he caught up to her.

"And why would I let you do that?".

"First thing comes to mind; to save him the embarrassment of being caught out with whatever tavern wench he shared his bed with last night" he went on only to me met by a scoff.

"I wouldn't care if the she-wolf that associate's herself with Snow White walked out of that room on all fours. All I care is that he's alive" she answers him as they turned the corner that led to his room.

"Out of morbid curiosity" the Lord goes on "What if it was Snow White herself you found in his bed".

"Then I'd kill him right after I ripped out her heart" she answered without skipping a beat as they came to a stop in front of he closed doors of her brother's room.

Reaching for the handle the Queen goes to let herself in only for the door's not to move.

"It appears to be locked Your Majesty" the lord smirked at her.

"Shut up" she sneers at the man beside her before waving her hand over the lock, hearing it click before the door swung open on it's own accord.

Lestat didn't need to see what was inside as the smell of blood and death wafted into his nostrils from where he stood. Instinct kicked in as the hybrid put his arm across the open door way, blocking the Queen's from entering the room. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

"Stay here" he lowly told the woman next to his as the smirk on his face dropped from his lips.

"What?" she hissed at the man beside her.

"Stay here and fetch your Huntsman" he ordered the Queen.

"How dare you-".

"Shut your mouth or I'll cut out your tongue!" he snapped at the woman. The Queen stilled taken aback by the sudden only to push through the shock of the threat a beat later as she used her magic to push the man away from the door, throwing him back into the corridor.

"No, don't!" he cried out in warning as she stepped into the dark room despite the time to day to look upon a scene that made her skin crawl.

A gush of wind rushed passed her and appeared Henry Wotton as they looked upon the horrifying image that even made the so called Evil Queen uneasy.

Sat on the ornate sofa in front of the dying embers of the fireplace sat her baby brother with his head in his hand and a bloodied knife tightly gripped in his hand as a body sat slumped next to him covered in blood, staining the piece of furniture and the carpet below it as quiet sobs left her brother's lips.

What had he done?.

Cora's joyous laugh filled the back of the pawn shop before the laughter turned to painful gasps as the older woman felt the first sign's of the poison that infected her body. Confused, Gold checked the wound on his chest to discover the skin completely unscarred by the point of Hook's silver hook as Cora discovers the wound that had appeared on her.

The older woman's knee's gave out from underneath her, collapsing onto the ground for her daughter to catch her fall calling out to her as she held her in her arms as the Dark One's dagger is picked up by its owner.

"What's wrong?" the younger sorceress called down to her mother as laboured breath left her lungs, the mother looked up to her daughter with eye's full of love for the child that held her.

"This…" she weakly tells her "Would've been enough" You… You both would've been enough" the Queen of Hearts muttered out before closing her eye's and taking her last breath in the Land of No Magic.

"Mother?" Regina calls to her still mother "What's going on?" she says looking to the older man for an answer "Mother, don't leave me, please.." the former Queen sobs, rocking her mother in her arms "What am I going to do?".

"Your mother did you no favours" the man bluntly told the younger woman.

"Shut up!" she snaps angrily at the man "You stole her life! You cast some spell" she accused her former tutor.

"I did nothing" he states as a frantic Mary Margaret rushes into the backroom with her truelove trailing behind her

"Regina! Stop!" she exclaimed trying to stop her from returning her mother's heart to her only to find the older woman dead in her daughter's arms. She was too late.

Looking up, the former Queen looked at the woman that had tricked her;

"You did this".

The seconds seemed to drag as Regina and Lord Wotton stared at the image of before them, Elijah sat on the ornate sofa with reddened eyes and wet cheeks with dried blood overing his hands and face from where he had tried to wipe away his tears. His hair looked like he had ran his hands and finger's through them again and again as Lestat looked at the still body of his former protégé and his murderer.

"What have you done?" Regina the words left her mouth before she could stop them. It was clear what he had done.

"Look at it" Elijah's hoarse voice croaked out to his sister and friend pointing to something over their heads with the murder weapon "It's hideous" he seethed at the the portrait gripping the dagger still coated in Basil's blood in his hand as Lestat slowly looked behind him to see what he was talking about to see what made his friend say the next two words "I'm hideous".

"Bloody Hell" he lowly trailed off to himself at what he was seeing for himself for the first time in years. He would be able to pick out Basil's work from hundred shown to him, and it was certainly was one of his. But instead of the young beautiful man he saw on the canvas many years ago was old and ugly.

"'Lijah" Regina slowly called out to her brother keeping her voice calm and even as she stepped towards her brother "What are you taking about?".

"LOOK AT IT!" he screamed at his elder sister making her jump back in fear. He had never screamed at her like that, crazed eye's bulged out of his head.

"Your Majesty" Lord Henry called out to the Queen "The portrait. Look" he directed her away from her frenzied brother as she made herself look at the root of Elijah's problem.

She couldn't stop the gasp that left her mouth as she looked upon the hateful, repulsive creature that resembled a man in the portrait, leering down at her

"Who is that?".

"It's him" Lestat answered glancing at the younger man as a fresh sob left his mouth.

"Now you see" she heard her brother sob making her look at him to see him on his feet pacing back and forth in front of the piece of furniture, with the hunting knife still in his hand "I'm a monster. A hideous beast that needs to be locked away in a tower, hidden from everyone".

"Elijah stop" Regina wept hearing these words coming from her baby brother.

"I-I am the embodiment of evil, I am the face of satyr, the devil, just as Basil proclaimed" he yelled out to the room "PUT ME TO DEATH FOR I AM SOULESS!".

For once she didn't know what to do as her brother continued to pace in front of the lifeless body. She needed to do something, but nothing came to her mind before looking to the last man she would ever look for help for, for help.

"Do something" Regina whispered to the only sane man in the room only for the the hybrid to continue to watch his friend spiral into madness.

"No more" they heard him mutter to himself coming to a stand still as an idea came to his mind "I will destroy it myself. Kill the past and when that is dead I will be free".

Kill this monstrous soul-life, and without hideous warnings, he would be at peace.

He moved too quicky for her to do anything as Lestat watched on in intrigue as the younger Mill's sibling rushed towards the fireplace, reaching up a stab the portrait in the stomach, the tip of the knife hitting the wooden frame underneath, forcing the weapon down an inch or two, before a cry of pain was heard and a crash as the young man fell onto the ground.

"ELIJAH!" the Queen screamed out seeing the her brother collapse onto the floor, rushing forward to help him as Lestat smelt fresh blood escape the fresh wound on his torso.

Panic filled eye's met hers as the Queen managed to catch him, cradling his head and shoulder on her lap as blood flowed easily out from the wound that soaked into his cotton shirt.

"W-What's happening?" the Queen started to panic seeing the pain her brother was in.

"He's dying" Lestat breathed out almost in intrigue as he looked between the portrait and the young man in his sister's arms to see the the exact spot where the knife had been stabbed into the picture was in the same exact spot he was currently bleeding out from.

"How?" she barked at the man who seemed to more interested in the portrait than her brother.

"The portrait. It's changing" he answered making her look up from the floor to see the feature aging figure in the picture turn back, as liver spot started to fade away, the thin brown hair thickened and the soddened eye's started to show signs of youth, looking down at her brother in her arms started to show signs of his true age, winkles started to appear in the corner's of his eyes as his face changed right in front of her.

As the portrait grew younger he aged. She had no idea what kind of magic this was but all she knew is that she needed to stop it before her baby brother aged into an old man right in her arms.

"How do I stop it?!".

"You can't" he answered her turning away from the portrait to crouch down onto the floor near his head to look her straight in the eyes "I can save him. I do this and this animosity between us ceases" he demands from her as her brother continues to bleed out and age.

He hated her as much as she him, but he put up with the whims and theatrics of the Evil Queen for Elijah. For the bond they shared as friends, it was like no other he had experienced in his long life.

"No" she shakily answers him, knowing how much he truly cared for her brother. She saw how much he loved him from the way he acted around him "I know you won't let him die".

Pursing his lips the hybrid stilled knowing the woman was right. He would do anything for the man he loved as a brother, despite everything he had done. His affair with his wife. Killing Sybil. Killing Basil.

The Evil Queen watched as Henry Wotton's face changed right in front of her, fangs grew from the top and bottom row of his teeth, his eye's shone bright amber as dark veins crawled out from under his eye's. He was a different kind of monster than the one she saw in the portrait.

She didn't get long to take in everything before he pulled up the sleeve of his jacket to sink the fangs deep into his hand before placing over brother's lips, squeezing every drop of his blood his friend's lips before he felt the holes in his hand heal before he took hold of his head, poised to end his mortal life forever.

"What are you doing?" she questioned him.

"Trust me" he addressed the Queen with a stoic face "You'll thank me for this later" at that the hybrid used his strength to harsh pull his friend head and neck to the side hearing the audible snap come from friend, his painful groans silenced and his body falling limp in his sister's arms.

Peering up at the portrait, he watched the picture for any sign of it changing yet again only to see that his plan had worked as the man in the frame looked no younger than forty while his friend had aged at least a decade from the youthful age of twenty-one he had been for years. He had saved him.

The Queen's mournful sobs reached his ears as he looked to see her weeping into her brother's still body as grief washed over her from seeing her brother as she tried to understand what was going on around her.

"You said you would save him!" she yelled at Lord Wotton from the ground as she rocked Elijah's body back and forth urging him to wake up. What was she going to do, without him?.

"And I have love" he says moving onto the next problem at hand. Basil's body "When he wake's up and he will wake up. He'll need to complete the transition".

"What the hell are you talking about? What the hell are you?".

"Me? I've got some vampire, I've got some wolf".

"A..what?".

"A hybrid Your Majesty. However, that is a story for another day" the statement only confused the woman further as stood over to the body on the sofa to start cleaning up the mess Elijah had left them "Soon Elijah will be joining a world very few have survived in".

"What make you think he'll survive this world?".

"Because he'll have me to guide him" he tells the queen re-joining her on the ground crouching down in front as her brother's still body lied between them.

"I give you my word, I will teach him everything there is about being a vampire. How to hunt, how to blend in with the rest of the world, but more importantly how to survive in a world in which we've become the prey. He'll be your weapon in your quest for vengeance. Always and Forever".

The vault was the only place the former Queen could think of going after the murder of her mother, making her down the stone steps down, she kept herself on her feet by holding herself up on the walls as fresh tears blurred her vision.

Reaching the bottom she wiped the tears from her eyes to look upon the last person she thought who would ever hurt her as the rage she felt for Mary Margaret turn towards the man that had lied to her for years.

Angry footsteps approached her brother's sleeping figure she came to abrupt stop with a hand inches from his chest ready to put an end to his life once and for all for what happened to Daniel only to stop inches away as she recalled their mother's last words to her.

They would've been enough.

With fresh tears threatening, her fist unclenched and her features softened as she instead took hold of her brother chin in her hand, lifting it up so that he was looking at her as she woke him up.

As she waved her hand across his face the vampire woke from his catatonic state with a deep gasp, as wide eye's jumped from side to side in a state of panic from being pulled out of the memories he had hidden behind the red door. The last moments of his mortal moment, held in his sister's arm as he drew cold from bleeding out from the fatal stab wound he had made on his portrait.

A beat later the panting vampire looked up to see his sister stood before him with his stubble covered chin in her hand seeing the tears that filled her eye's.

"What happened?" his hoarse voice asked her.

"Mother's dead" hearing this from her, his brows furrowed in confusion before his head dropped from her grasp as the news sunk in before her felt her take his head back between her hands, making him look at her to repeat the last words their mother uttered before dying "We would've been enough" she whispers to him before waving her hand to remove the poppet figure that bound him to the chains and spell Cora had cast on him as his eye's involuntarily fell closed.

As the chain's fell from the ceiling above him, he hit the floor with an oomph with no strength to stop himself as the former Queen thought of what to do with him. She couldn't kill him. As much as she wanted to, she just couldn't. He was the only family she had left in this world. So she would do the next best thing for her.

With a wave of her hand, thick purple smoke enveloped her brother form taking him out of the vault back into the hands of the hero's that had been looking for him.

She may be freeing him, but she was a long way from forgiving him.

Enchanted Forest

Many Years Ago

A strong baby boy.

She never wanted another child, never thought she would have another after her daughter Regina, and yet here she was sat in the freshly made bed she had birthed him on only a day ago with her new born son wrapped in a tight bundle in her arms as maids and wetnurses fussed around her. His first breath in this world was a loud one as he cried and cried until he was put to her breast. After that and the hours after he never made a fuss unless he was hungry.

Peering down at him as he slept soundly in her arms, she couldn't hep but notice how much he looked like his father, there was hardly anything of her in his looks. It was all him. She could only hope that would change over time as he grew into to strong man that would be able to look out for his family.

"Ma'am" a maids voice brought her out of her thoughts of what her son could do for this family.

"Yes" she mummed to the young girl who seemed to be scared of her own shadow.

"There's a man downstairs asking about the babe" she informs the lady of the household.

"Who are they?".

"He wouldn't give a name ma'am. All he asked was to give you this. A gift for the little one".

Stepping forward, the young maid placed small 'package' which was a tied white cotton handkerchief. Opening the gift, Cora's lips quirked up seeing the visitors' initials embroidered in the corner, only for the smirk to fall when she saw the gift that was sat in the middle. A silver ring with the image of a dragon embossed in the middle of the circlet shaped ring. It was him.

"Where is this man now?" she quickly asked the girl.

"O-out front Ma'am" she stuttered taken aback by her sudden question "He wouldn't come in".

"Take him" she hastily ordered the midwife making the girl jump into action as the new-born was thrown her way before Cora climbed out of the bed in her robe to the window that overlooked the front of the estate.

Peering out, she saw the man that had entered her life months ago in the same dark suit, tie and hat ensemble she had first met him in, with a black cane he didn't need in his hands, stood in the middle of the courtyard. He was the only other man she allowed herself to put her heart back into her chest for, only to remove it not long after he left.

As if he could feel her gaze on him, he looked up to find her in the window as a grin slowly grew on his lips in a knowing smile before reaching up to take the dark bowler hat from head head, tipping it towards her before replacing it. With a flick of his cane the man turning on his heel to climb back into the horse drawn carriage behind him to be taken away back to his home to continue his work that he had dedicated his life to.

Not even the birth of his son would stop him from achieving his one and only goal.

A knock on the door of the bedroom brought her away from the window as it opened and her husband and three year old daughter stepped into the room who was eager to meet her new sibling.

"Is this a good time?" her husband said from the door "Regina wanted to meet her baby brother".

The girl could hardly contain her excitement at the prospect of having a playmate to grow up with, someone to look out for and after.

"It's fine" the woman made herself say "Go meet your little brother". With an encouraged hand from her father, the young girl found her little brother in the maids arms sat of the edge of the bed as she climbed up to peer down at his small face as Henry followed after her to look down at the new-born himself.

"A healthy boy" Henry addressed his wife at the window "Handsome as well" he mused to himself as Cora continued to watch the carriage pull further and further away from her "Must get it from his father. Have you thought of a name yet?".

"Elijah" Cora tells him from the window watching the carriage disappearing to into the forest like it did months ago "His name is Elijah".

Reappearing in the middle of road in main street flat on his front and unconscious outside Granny's, a set of tyres screeched behind him as the driver suddenly broke seeing the figure in the middle of the road coming to complete stop inches from his unconscious form as car horns blared out in protest as car swerved out of the way coming the other way only for the car to mount the curb, hitting the diner's chalk board, making it crash onto the ground, alerting the owners to the commotion outside.

"Who the hell is that?" Sleepy exclaimed from the passenger seat.

"Don't care" Leroy growls out with clenched teeth, his eye's ablaze with anger as he looked out of the windshield "Whoever it is owes me a new set of tyres" he adds before heading out of the van to confront the figure that had made him brake so hard followed by his brother.

As the dwarfs rounded the front of the van, Ruby and Granny hastily left the diner to investigate the noise outside to see a car on the curb and the sandwich board on the ground and the driver stepping out of his care with his hand around his neck, grimacing in pain from the accident as Granny attended to him.

"Are you okay!?" the waitress asked the driver that mounted the curb getting a nod before moving on to dwarfs to see Leroy and Sleepy stood over something in the middle of the road. "Hey, what happened?" she call out to them making the former look over his shoulder to meet her gaze.

"I think we found him" was all the dwarf said which only confused her further.

"Who?".

Standing aside for the she-wolf to see who it was, the first thing she saw that told her who Leroy was talking about was the crisp blue dress shirt covered in patches of blood, laid out on his front with the side of his head lying on the warm asphalt and his daylight ring securely on his middle finger.

"Oh my god!" she gasped seeing the man in the flesh making her rush forward to kneel onto the ground to find him with his eye's closed "Elijah?" "Elijah!" she called out to him only to get any response from the man as she tried to shake him awake.

"Is he alive?" Leroy questioned her from behind her. Taking hold of his shoulder the she-wolf pulled the man up until he was on his back, pushing a lock of her long hair behind her ear before pressing it against his chest only to hear the steady beat of his heart

"He's alive" she breathed out in relief "Why isn't he waking up?" she asked the question aloud before looking to the dwarf behind her.

"Call Emma and David" she tells Leroy only for the shorted man to hesitate "Now!" she pressed. He needed help.

Doing as he was told the dwarf found his phone and dialled a number as the she-wolf gently took hold of Elijah's head and face in her hands hoping he could hear her "Hey, it's okay" she softly told the sleeping man on the ground "It's okay. We found you. You're safe" she tells him before leaning down to gently press her lips to his as one of the the town Sheriff's answered their call.

"Hey, it's us" Leroy's says into the receiver "We found him".

AN:

Hello there!

You made it! Well done! This turned out a LOT longer than I originally thought but we did it. A lot to digest in this chapter, but I hope you all enjoyed it!.

I know some of you really wanted Elijah getting some payback for what she's done to him, but I didn't want to overkill it.

This cover's The Queen is Dead and The Miller's Daughter.

Welcome to Storybrooke next!

Until then, remember to:

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06bromley

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