Enchanted Forest

The rest of the day after the dagger went through the previous Dark One, Rumpelstiltskin felt an enormous rush of power. Zoso was dead and every bit of the previous Dark One's magic was rushing through him, twisting and making him something new and whole, something –

"Well aren't you a right piece of work. Fell into that one, didn't you? Played like a particularly predictable piece of music."

He whirled around and unthinkingly a ball of offensive magic burst from his palm, speeding towards the direction that the voice had come from. However, he saw the figure that had been speaking simply step to the side and flick it away from her.

"You'll have to get that bit under control quickly, I reckon. Wouldn't want to hurt your little sprog."

Rumpelstiltskin felt his every protective instinct flare, multiplied tenfold by the new rush of feelings he had been trying to deal with all day, however before he could lash out at what he perceived to be the threat to Bae she pushed off of the tree she'd been leaning against and walked toward him with a small smirk on her face.

"Touchy, touchy. That's another thing you'll have to tamper down if you want to last as the Dark One. That nifty little knife can be grabbed by anyone, as you very well know. Provoking people to anger is both easy and fun, and anger will cause you to err."

Rumpelstiltskin regarded her warily. She clearly knew what he had done, knew about the dagger that now bore his name. She might have even been watching him long enough to have seen what led up to everything. Her demeanor was strange – not quite unhinged, but she seemed to be treating everything as if it was an amusing joke.

"What is it that you want?"

She snorted derisively and sank down onto the grass, crossing her legs and looking far too relaxed for the given situation in his opinion. When she motioned for him to sit down he couldn't have repressed his scoff even if he had wanted to. Instead of showing any offense, she laughed with a bit less of a mocking quality and shrugged, evidently unbothered by his mistrust.

"Clever of you. Though your line of questioning is distinctly un-clever. Who I am is more important than my unperformed actions, don't you think? You see, I want quite a few things. The ability to make decent seared tomatoes, a new saddle that somehow is as comfortable as my old worn one, and hair that is a bit more manageable in the heat."

Rumpelstiltskin opened his mouth, but she spoke over him. It was something he was already too used to, considering he had seen her for the first time less than five minutes before.

"Those things are irrelevant to our little chat, I know. But your question was not a wisely worded one. Lesson the first: words carry power. If someone gives you their word, magic can make it binding. Carefully craft your phrases – deals are easy to make and impossible to break, Stilt. I can call you Stilt, can't I?"

Rumpelstiltskin stared at her. She was being strangely forthcoming.

"Fine, then. Who are you, and what is it that you want from me specifically?"

Her smile became sharper and she uncrossed her legs, stretching them out in front of her. The strangeness of her apparel was more obvious than before. She wore loose dark breeches and a large tunic on her top, completely hiding any shapeliness she might have had. Her cloak was a dark blue, and none of what she wore betrayed her social standing or duties.

With an over-the-top amount of gallantry, she rose to her feet and theatrically bowed to him instead of curtsying – it was teasing, yes, but it didn't seem particularly malicious.

"There's that intelligence I'd been hoping you'd possess. As far as my name – I'm Vistravara Gavronson."

The name wasn't one that he recognized, until she finished her introduction with a darker look in her eye than she'd had a minute ago.

"It is quite a mouthful, I know. Most people just call me Gav."

This – this could not be Gav. The nightmarish urban legend he had told Bae about when his young son had demanded scary stories. The elusive, shadowy figure who could walk through dreams during the night and at daybreak rose the dead.

"Much more attractive than most expect, I'm sure. No need to flatter me further, Stilt."

Rumpelstiltskin frowned at her lightheartedness but wasn't going to openly disagree with her on the chance that she was indeed exactly who she claimed to be.

"So you're the famed necromancer. The musician, luring people away in the night."

Her smile in response was far too knowing for his taste when she responded, "One of the musicians. You know a well as I do that there is another prancing about, smarmy brat that he is."

There was a fond look on her face that did not match his own feelings towards the piper. Because there was nobody else that she could be talking about other than his father, or 'Peter Pan' as he was now known and her phrasing had made it clear that she knew they were somehow connected.

However instead of continuing to speak, the woman let out a high pitched whistle and said, "I'll be seeing you around, Stilt. Giving you an introduction to the dark side is the least I can do since you killed Zoso and released me from the enslavement charm he'd performed. I did not enjoy being at his beck and call."

Apparently hearing her whistle, her mount stepped out from the shadows. The creature that stood before him left no doubt whatsoever in his mind that the woman in front of him was actually the fabled 'Gav' as she'd claimed to be.

The creature had clearly been a horse at some point. However its skin was a withered dark grayish black and leathery while part of its right side lacked any flesh at all, the white skeleton standing out. A section of its skull was showing and one of its eyes was missing, but Gav walked up to it with a spring in her step, petting its flank softly and cooing at it while pecking it on the nose.

Without any help, she stepped up into a stirrup and mounted the horse-like creature.

"Good luck, Dark One. You'll be needing it if you're to survive the next few centuries. Now, I must be going. Places upon places upon places to be."

Storybrooke

"How long have you deluded yourself into thinking I'll be in this room?"

Regina smirked but made sure her face maintained an expression of earnest concern when she replied, "I don't know what you mean. Are you referring to-"

She jerked back a step when the woman inside of the room threw herself against the door, slamming into it heavily with a face conveying rage as she glared at Regina through the large window covered with only a grate.

"You know exactly what I am talking about, your majesty. No portals were opened - I would have known, of course – but I can't feel my magic nor any in the air. So, what. Have. You. Done?"

Regina tried to appear genuine and said in a slow voice, "I'm not royalty, you seem to be confused. I'm Mayor Regina Mills, and you're in Storybrooke, Maine. You were found acting unstable, and we had to move you into the hospital's psychiatric ward for your own good."

The woman on the other side of the door began laughing – a hysterical, twisted cackle that made Regina admittedly a little bit wary. Though he had never explained their back-story to Regina, Rumpelstiltskin himself had seemed careful around her. But Regina reminded herself that now in this world without magic, she was reduced to nothing.

"Oh, Mills, is it? How pathetically quaint! Your miller mother would hate to know that after all of her trickery and scheming all you ever amounted to was a mayor. This is – this is hilarious!"

Regina clenched her teeth but kept her voice as even as she could when she said, "I'm sorry, Jane, but you're a very sick woman."

This seemed to catch the woman off guard, and her laughter halted immediately. As she lightly trailed her fingertips across the metal grate that separated them, she asked in a curious voice, "Why are you calling me 'Jane'? You've known of me your entire life. Your mother knew of me her entire life, her mother before her, and so on. Have you suddenly gone delusional to have forgotten who you're speaking to?"

A smug smile covered Regina's face and she made sure to be as condescending as possible when she answered, "You were found with no identification, raving about traveling through different dimensions. You were given the title 'Jane Doe'."

Annoyed, the woman immediately quipped, "Well, that's not at all correct. Now answer me, Regina. Come now, let's be clear – you have only lived this long because I've been too busy looking for your mother to seek you out and eviscerate you. I can bide my time for however long I need until my magic returns, but I've got things that require my attention."

At this, Regina finally let her facade fall entirely and a triumphant tone entered her voice. Her curse had worked. Well, on nearly everyone, seeing as the woman had retained her memories - but locking a now-powerless sorceress in a mental facility was simple once her magic had been stripped from her. The de-powered woman in front of her was a trophy that practically shouted her victory over all of the beings in the Enchanted Forest. She was an easily dealt with issue, and with the woman having been frantically searching for the family that wouldn't technically exist and ranting about magic in public, nobody would doubt that she should be locked away.

Oh, how the mighty Gav had fallen. For the legendary magic-wielder to have been made so low was an enormous ego boost to Regina.

"Things that require your attention? Yes, it was mentioned that you'd been looking for a man you claimed to be your husband as well as your daughter. However when we double checked our records we saw that the only man anywhere near Storybrooke whose description came close lives alone. There isn't any daughter in the picture, and certainly no wife, Jane."

Gav seemed to lose her composure upon hearing that, and all feigned nonchalance left her expression, replaced by strained worry.

"He was right beside me when it happened, and she was asleep in the room just next to us. If they aren't together - what did you do? Have you not done enough to him already? I have to, have to – there's simply places upon places upon places - "

"You seem to be getting worked up. I'll go fetch a nurse to give you something to help keep you calm."

Gav began pounding on the door and seemed to be going down a different route entirely upon hearing about the fate of her now-cursed family.

"Don't you turn your back on me! Take me to them now and I'll owe you a favor."

Regina didn't plan on visiting Gav again. She'd needed to be sure that the sorceress was truly powerless, and after their conversation she was. Now that her curse was settling, the woman would be confined to the mental hospital. So with no little amount of malice in her voice she leaned forward and whispered to the other woman.

"Your little favors have no meaning here. I won. Your daughter has a new family now, and she wouldn't even recognize your face if she saw you. Your husband is nothing more than an insane hermit in the woods who believes his wife is dead, acting in a manner reminiscent of his days when he was as mad as a hatter."

Gav's mouth fell open in shock, but Regina had already begun walking away before she could respond. Just as she reached the front desk, the woman began screeching at her.

"I'll kill you! You're dead when I get out of here, you whorish, desperate excuse for a queen! There will be nowhere for you to hide, you or your mother!"

Regina leaned against the counter at the nurse's desk and put on a fake expression when she said, "It's so sad, she's clearly delusional. She should probably be watched closely if she is already expressing such violent desires."

The nurse – Regina was sure she had been a woodland creature of some sort – replied in a nasally, high pitched tone that reeked of falsehood, "You're more than right, Mayor Mills. It's scary to think what she could have done if she hadn't been found right away. Going off about some fantasy of hers."

Regina tried to give off a simple vibe of gossiping when she whispered, "What exactly was she saying?"

The nurse seemed delighted to be filling her in and said in an equally hushed tone, "It was so strange! She was insisting she was some sort of dimension-traveler looking for her family and introduced herself with a really long foreign name. It was like an episode of the X-Files!"

Regina nodded in return and quickly wrapped up the conversation before leaving. She had nothing to worry about. Her curse had worked, and Vistravara Gavronson would stay in this hospital as a mental patient for the rest of her days.