Snow sat on her horse, bow in hand watching the village burn. The guardsmen were moving from house to house at one end dealing with any survivors. She had an arrow already in place as she saw the man running from the village she followed the moving target before shooting him in the back. The screams and the terror somehow beyond her hearing. The Queen had shown her proof that this part of the kingdom had been paying taxes to King George, and underpaying their rightful monarch. It was one thing to have a boundary dispute but it was another to support the enemy. And if they weren't going to be loyal to the Queen they'd be dead.

This was the third village in a week that had faced this treatment. And there would be even less mercy shown once she pushed forward into George's actual lands. The knowledge that his playboy of a son had used her... had left her weak and so desperate that she'd taken the drastic action that lead her to the Queen. It filled her with a boiling rage.

"Careful Snow. You have to allow some to live if the lesson is going to be learned by others."

She turned to see the Queen riding up beside her. She was in a simple, at least for her, red riding outfit.

"The Evil Queen is really telling me to do a little less killing?" Snow teased, but Regina shook her head.

"Not less... just a little more strategic." The word had traveled throughout the kingdom. The bandit Snow White was now the Queen's knight and crossing her bow was in many ways even more dangerous than facing the evil sorceress herself. It broke the back of what little resistance there was to the Queen. There had been an undercurrent of revolt which existed almost solely on legend that was the Bandit Snow White. Now, not only had the Evil Queen destroyed that hope, but in turning her against them she destroyed the spark that even allowed that hope to be created.

And now the fire could be brought beyond her borders.

"Before the armies march I have one more job for you." Regina said quietly. "Prince James has been spotted in the western forest."

The mention of James. The man who had used her and thrown her away for Midas' gold made her sit taller in the saddle.

"He is trying to organize a rebellion. The knights have been chasing him for days but .. as I think you know... their tracking skills are limited."

"You want me to capture him. Interrogate him."

Regina shook her head. "As tempting as watching you torture him would be..." There was a funny little smile on the Queen's face as she said that, "I want you to hunt him down and kill him. His head on a spike to be carried before our armies as we take his father's kingdom."

She nodded.

"Make sure he's recognizable. Whatever else you do to his body... is your business."

She nodded again. "I'll bring you his head, Regina."

"I know you will." The smile the Queen gave her favorite was radiant.

"It's time shepherd." The Queen said as she walked towards his cell. "And to show you that I am not without mercy, I'll even give you a chance to live."

"What have you done witch."

"Oh, I've set your true love on a murderous killing spree." She said with a slight grin. "You see, shepherd, a very long time ago she took something from me. She took my true love. And now... now she's going to take her own."

She smiled so wide that the vain in her forehead looked like it was about to burst. "A dark heart only gets darker, but there is nothing that will destroy a heart more than murdering their own true love. But... as I said... I'm a fair woman. You could survive this. If you run far enough, fast enough, or ... by some miracle, you kill your hunter. But I'm going to take my bet on the woman who has lived as a bandit for years rather than the man whose major qualifications for his claim to a throne are his square jaw and good looks."

"You won't win."

"I already have, Charming."

She waved her hand and he was standing in the middle of a forest, his sword in hand, and in the distance he could hear the sound of barking dogs and horses hooves.

The report of the guardsman who had been chasing Prince James for days was unsatisfying. They knew he was in these woods, but he was like a ghost. She called off the hunting dogs right away. If they hadn't found him in the time they'd been out they didn't have his sent. She sent most of the men to guard the exit points make sure the Prince couldn't escape. Her bow in hand she began tracking herself, with only a handful of the black knights she trusted most behind her.

She was the best tracker in the Enchanted Forest.

There was no question in her mind that she would have him soon enough. In her heart there was a dull pain she couldn't identify, but did her best to ignore.

The sound of the dogs was gone, and the horses were no longer stumping through the woods. David was sure that he had finally managed to shake the pursuit. Now, he just had to figure out how to get through to Snow. Their first encounter weeks ago had been... less than productive... but he was sure that he could shake through whatever had made her forget him and whatever the royal bitch had done to her.

He heard the snap of a twig and hid behind a fallen tree to see two black knights looking over a map. Their horses behind them. If he could take them and get a mount he had a chance...

The arrow flew fair and true from her bow straight into the prince's back as he began running towards the bait. He hit the ground in a thud as the air rushed out of his lungs through the hole in his back. Snow walked towards him, another arrow ready. The two men who had been out in the open moved towards the fallen body and one pulled the arrow from the wound and kicked him over on his back.

"Snow..."

"I found you." She smiled. "I was always going to find you."

He shook his head looking into her cold eyes as she pointed the arrow right at his heart.

"Please... she's lied to you." He had one last hope of life, of saving both his own and of salvaging hers.

"Of course she's lied. She's Regina." She didn't care though. Because that evening she would be presenting the gift to her and Regina would reward her.

The arrow let go, ripping through his chest and his heart, and something within her own ached so much that she nearly lost her balance. As David the Sheppard, briefly prince James, lay dead on the ground such that no true love's kiss could save him the last of the light in Snow White's heart faded to nothing.

Dark as coal.

And the Evil Queen and the Dark Princess would burn the world... together.