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TWENTY FIVE; REVENGE AT ITS FINEST

     Walking down the streets of New York in a complete peaceful manner was a different experience than chasing down a random-nobody down busy roads. New York, being the first city Sage has ever been too, was quiet beautiful during the day and she could only imagine the magnificent view that it would possess during the black night. Now that Neal was introduced as Henry's biological father and everything was beginning to settle down, the group of five decided that perhaps going to tourist stops in downtown Manhattan would be a good idea, especially for Neal and Henry to have some bonding time. 

     Sage casually walked on Henry's right side while Neal walked on his left, the eleven year old boy comfortably strolling in between the two adults. All three of them talked and conversed with one another as if they've been family their entire lives. Henry, out of the three, was the most excited to learn more about his father. As for Emma and Gold, they were a couple of feet behind the trio, silent and not making an effort to join in on the frivolous conversation. It was probably a good thing they both kept their heads out of it considering both of them made major screw-ups as parents. 

     Despite the fact that the yelling and fighting had eased, there was still thick tension between Henry and his mother and Neal with his father. Sage was only glad her estranged parents were spontaneously in Manhattan as well, otherwise that would have been incredibly awkward. Within the trio, Henry was the one who did the most talking; he spoke about Storybrooke, his life before the curse, and how he got Emma to break it. Neal listened to every detail and whenever Henry wasn't talking, Neal would point on New York shops and restaurants. 

     Sage would make comments from here to there, but besides that, she remained silent. She wanted Henry and Neal to bond and make up for those eleven years of being apart. That and she kind of wanted to scope out Neal, to figure out who he was as a person. From Emma's point of view, he was the shitty boyfriend who left her jail, broke her heart, and never came back for her. That may be true, but just, because he was a terrible boyfriend doesn't automatically mean he's a terrible person, or a terrible father for that matter. If there was one thing Sage was good at, it was figure out who a person was just by observing their actions and their motives. 

      Neal glanced between the two, "So, you two like pizza?"

     Henry eagerly jumped the gun, before him or his brunette sister could answer, "Yeah. Let me guess – you're going to tell us the best pizza's in New York, and we got to try it, right?"

     "Actually, it's in the Kingdom of Damarian on the north shore of the Dragon Fields of Zorn." Both Henry and Sage stared at him blankly. It wasn't until a grin broke out on Neal's face that the pair realized that the man was pulling their legs. "Nah, it's in New York. Here, let's get some slices."

     The three walked into the restaurant with smiles on their lips and amused gleams in their eyes. Sage peeked behind her shoulder and noticed that Emma and Gold lingered behind, not even bothering to come inside. Neal and Sage sat across from each other at a small table, while Henry stood there, bouncing on the heels of his feet, "Can I order us the food?"

     "Sure thing, kid." answered his father, who reached into his back pocket and pulled out a twenty dollar bill. "Get me pepperoni."

     Sage tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, "Can I have ―" 

     "One slice of cheese pizza, but with extra cheese." Henry finished for her, making Sage blush in embarrassment. The eleven year old smiled brightly, "Your order is always the same."

     With that, Henry hopped off and patiently waited at the end of the line, across the room. Neal chuckled, "He knows you pretty well, doesn't he?" 

     "A little too well." Sage honestly answered, fumbling with her calloused fingers. The amount of times Henry was always able to guess Sage's next words or next moves was too many to count. Sage often wondered where Henry learnt his skills of perceptiveness from, but she assumed it was just natural. 

     Neal clicked his tongue, rubbing his brows together, "So, what's the deal with you and all of this? I mean, how do you know my father, Emma, and Henry?"

      "Uh, well, I used to work for your father as his own personal thief, of sorts. A long time ago, I considered him my boss. That whole ordeal didn't last very long, truth be told." Sage began to explain, feeling an anxious and uncomfortable tug on her heart. One of the things Sage always despised was bringing up her past and being forced to talk about them. But Neal was genuinely curious and she wasn't going to not talk about it. "I knew Emma's parents before the curse. Her mom, actually, is one of my closest friends. But I properly met Emma when she arrived in Storybrooke."

     "You're one of the cursed victims? The ones brought over from the Enchanted Forest?" 

    Sage nodded, "Yeah, I am. Twenty-eight years stuck in time. It wasn't fun, trust me. As for me knowing Henry, I knew him since he was a baby. His adoptive mother, Regina, is Storybrooke's mayor. She was constantly busy with her job or other activities, so she would ask me to babysit a lot. Henry and I became close and I don't know, we just ― we became family. He sees me as a big sister, kind of."

     "Wow, well, thank you taking care of him, especially since I wasn't there." A bitter smile tugged at the edges of his lips, reflecting the deep guilt and regret that was buried in his heart. Sage couldn't help, but feel immense sympathy towards the man sitting across from her. She could only imagine not knowing she had a son for over a decade. 

      "It wasn't your fault, Bae." Sage's eyes softened, her lips pursing into a firm, thin line. Comforting was exactly her strongest suit, but she hoped that she was doing a good job with Neal right now. "You're here now, that's what matters."

     Neal was silent for a second, before quickly jumping onto a better, much more lighter topic, "You miss living in the Enchanted Forest? 'Cause I don't."

     Sage chuckled, "Uh, well, I'm not originally from the Enchanted Forest. I just so happened to be in the realm when the curse was cast."

     "Where are you originally from?"

     "Wonderland."

     "Wonderland?" He exclaimed, surprise drawing on his features. The ongoing chatter around them, coming from the long lines of New Yorkers that were ordering their pizza, was able to drown out the magical word that was only known in a child's fairytale. To children, Wonderland was paradise, to Sage, it was her birthplace and childhood home. "That place is actually real? Don't tell me you're really Alice or something."

     "No, I am not Alice." laughed Sage, the black round tip of her nail reaching up to scratch her temple. "But I did know her. Interesting gal, she is. No wonder she had an entire book written about it."

      Over her long travels across her world and countless journeys, Sage has met various residents of the mystical land, including the infamous blue eyed, fair skinned beauty Alice. Her encounters with Alice seemed years away, which they were, but it was only now, that Sage began to wonder what life was like for Alice. Was she married to the genie she was so ardently in love with? Did she have a couple of adorable, innocent children running around her house? All of Sage's Wonderland companies weren't affected by Regina's curse at all, meaning those twenty-eights years continued and their lives went on. The thought of them moving on their lives without the burden on the curse sent waves of sad tremors through-out her heart.

     "So you spent most of your time in your own world, Wonderland?" Neal asked, his curiosity genuine and oh so alike to Henry's. Nobody back in Storybrooke sat Sage down and would bombard her with diverse questions about her homeland, but it wasn't like Sage minded. It also wasn't like she was a attention-seeker who longed for a spotlight to be shined upon her life story (it was actually the exact opposite), but it was always Henry who would urge her to spill her guts and reveal the thrilling details of her past life. Neal seemed to share his son's innocent curiosity. 

     "Up until I became a thief and I partnered up with a man named Jefferson, who later became the Mad Hatter." Neal opened his mouth, as if he was going to interrupt and question her further, but thought better of it and let Sage continued her short tale. "He gave me a pocket watch that could travel between realms. I mainly switched my time between Wonderland and the Enchanted Forest."

      "So you were a part-time thief, part-time portal jumper?" 

     Sage giggled, resting her chin on her palm, "Well, that, and con artist, employee of the Dark One. All of those titles fall under the category criminal."

     Neal's brows scrunched together in confusion, a long-awaited question stinging on the tip of his tongue. "Why did you decided to work for my father? He's not exactly a man most people liked to work with. He's the kind of man you stay away from."

     A long sigh of air blew through her pursed lips, "I had just gotten out of prison and I had gone through a really, really tough time. He was there and offered me a job position. I was blindly looking for an outlet from everything I was going through and he offered me one, one that would hardened my heart. It was the easy route. Truth be told, it was my start to become a villain; working for the Dark One tends to do that."

     "Yeah, my father has that effect on people." muttered Neal, under his husky breath and Sage could finally see the dim glimmer of harsh resentment the man across from her had been bottling up ever since he was abandoned. 

     Sage placed her arms on the table and leaned forward, now attempting to persuade the man to join the path of forgiveness, "Listen, I know your father becoming the Dark One and then abandoning you wasn't easy, and those years of pain aren't gonna ever go away. But he's here now and not a day went by where he wasn't thinking of you, where he wasn't trying to find his way back to you. Rumple is a lot of things, but he does love you and I can tell he deeply regrets the decisions he made as your father. He's trying to make up for them now, but he's just doing it in the wrong way. And he didn't force or turn me into a villain. I made that choice all on my own."

     A silent pause acted as a barrier between them. Within that time space, Sage's sympathetic eyes remained on Neal while his dark eyes were darted down to the tile floor, as if he was trying to find a way to respond to her comment. Finally, he looked up, "Do you think that he could change, one day?"

     It was a million dollar question, one that had no right answer to it. Sage always thought that anybody, given the help and resources, could change for the better, just like she did. But Rumple had over three hundred years of death and destruction staining his history, making it very difficult for him to just flip a switch and become one of the good guys. She was well aware that redemption wasn't like that, but she, a very long time ago, attempted to reach out to Rumple and make him see the errors of his ways, to make him brighten' his withering heart. That whole fiasco didn't end well for either of them. 

     But things were different now that he had Belle, his true love that miraculously was able to see the man behind the beast, and hopefully, Bae, his long lost son. Perhaps having a healthy relationship with his newly discovered grandson, Henry, would also be a positive effect. Maybe, he could change for better. "Yeah, I think he can. Sure, it's not going to happen over night and nothing is going to make up the horror he caused, but anyone who's willing to try can become good."

     Henry marched back over to them with three steaming pieces of pizza in his hands, an innocent smile naturally curved onto his features. He seemed completely oblivious to the serious topic that both his surrogate sister and his father where treading on, "The chef said these were freshly made. Everything okay?"

     "Yeah, absolutely." Neal reluctantly answered, before standing up and taking his paper plate of pizza. "How about we go and catch up with the two others? We don't want to keep them waiting. Hey, I'll even take you to the local museum!"

     All of them agreed and nodded, before making their way outside of the pizzeria and towards the little section where Gold and Emma were standing in. From the looks of it, both of them were having a rather distressing conversation. Neal also picked up on it too, "What are we talking about?"

     Neither of them answered directly, although the tension was thick and obvious. Henry, like most eleven year olds with the attention span of zero, didn't catch onto it and asked his mother, "Emma, Neal wanted to show me the museum. Do you think we can go back to the apartment and get my camera?"

     Emma glanced over at Neal with an odd look in her eyes, "Yeah, sure..."

     "Kids like culture, right?" He shrugged helplessly. Honestly, Sage felt bad for him, for not being experienced in the lifestyle and job of being a father. His efforts though were huge, which was what mattered. It almost reminded her of when Emma arrived into Storybrooke and had no idea in Hell how she was suppose to get to know Henry.

     "Sure. Yeah, that's fine." The blonde agreed, trying to be more amicable since she was already on thin waters with her friend, her child, and the father of her child. "You like the New York pizza?"

     "Yeah. It's delicious, cheesy, and doesn't lie." The last two words were soaked in bitterness that Henry wasn't letting go of any time soon. It struck a long cord inside of Emma's heart, causing a frown to descend on her pale face. Sage shifted uncomfortably and placed a gentle hand on Henry's shoulder, squeezing for a moment as a silent warning sign for him not to be disrespectful towards his mother again. Despite the fact that his anger was justified and rational, he couldn't behave badly towards his mom. Behind every choice that a mom makes, there's always a reason behind it. 

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     For the most part, walking back to the Neal's upper-side apartment was silent. Henry had moved his attention onto Rumple, who, up until a few hours ago, didn't even know was his grandfather. The boy and Gold paced up in front of the three other adults who were slowly lagging behind. Sage was walking in between the two ex-lovers, feeling vague discomfort since there was extreme tension there. Even though there were different troubles pondering in each of their heads, all three pairs of eyes were glued onto the brown-haired boy in front of them, who was so eager to know his newly appointed grandfather. 

     "He's a good kid." Neal gushed, secretly smiling at his son. Despite it being only a couple of hours since they've met and even knew they existed, Neal acted as if Henry was already his proudest joy. He saw the hesitant expression permanently carved into Emma's face and elaborated, trying to show his efforts. "Hey, I'm trying my best here."

     Emma shoved her hands into her coat pockets and grumbled, " I know. We all are. It's just, we're going to have to go back to our home."

     He looked at her, puzzled, "I'm just getting to know him."

     "Then maybe ― maybe you should come with us." 

     Both Sage and Neal snapped their heads to the blonde mother, the pure shock at the mere suggestion evident on their faces. A couple of hours ago, she wanted nothing to do with him and was willing to lie to her own son about her past with him, but now, she was inviting him to come home with them. Sage could only assume that the conversation between her and Rumple involved the request of convincing Neal to come to Storybrooke. 

     Neal rose his eyebrows, "To Storybrooke?"

     "I've seen your apartment." The blonde shrugged, not backing down despite the easy reluctance on her ex-boyfriend's face. "You don't got a lot going on here."

     "Looks can be deceiving." murmured Neal, before he sharply paused his walking and turned to the two females. "Listen...there's something I've been meaning to tell you, to tell you both. It's complicated."

     His eager need for a private conversation was interrupted once Henry came waltzing over, "So, Neal, do you think we can take the subway?"

     He took a moment, before answering, "Yeah. Sure, of course. Let's go get that camera."

     The five of them entered the lobby, but the pair of father and son went opened the metal gate and headed upstairs to the apartment. During the course of today's long hours, Sage's spent about ninety-nine percent of her time with Neal and Henry since her anger was going to explode if she spent more than thirty minutes alone with Emma. But now, she was tagging alongside her blonde friend and the Dark One.

    Rumple turned to the Savior with hope gleaming in his eyes, "So, did you talk to him?"

     She shrugged, "He said 'it's complicated'."

     "Oh, I see."

     Sage ran a hand through her hair, trying to ease the annoyance written across the older man's face, "Maybe it's a bit soon to be asking him to come back with us ― "

     During the trio's entire conversation, none of them noticed the front door to the apartment complex opening and a certain one-handed pirate charging into the lobby. He pushed both females into a nearby wall, their heads smacking against the wood roughly. Sage slid down the wall, slumping against the white wallpaper while her head rapidly throbbed. Through the haze and dizziness, Sage could hear the leather cladding pirate growl out harsh words that could tell the tale of centuries, "Tick tock. Time's up, crocodile."

     Pushing herself up, the brunette stumbled for a moment, trying to regain her balance. When she glanced over at the scene parallel from her, she saw the pirate leaning over Rumple with his curved hook covered in red blood. "You took Milah, my love, my happiness." Realizing that Hook was about to finish him off, Sage quickly searched around and grabbed a nearby small wooden bench. "And for that, I now take your life."

     With all her strength, she lifted the bench high in the air, before swinging low and whacking Hook in the back of the head. The revenge-seeking pirate fell down onto the floor, unconscious and no longer a threat. Emma, who had also regained her sense, rushed over to Rumple, alongside Sage, who had abandoned the bench. Rumple lied on the floor, his head only prompted up by the gate behind him, with a bloody hole indented in his chest. Seconds later, Neal came hurrying down the stairs, "What the hell is going on?"

     "One of your dad's enemies found us."

     He got down on his knees, just like the pair of girls, but not before stealing a quick glance at the immobile pirate, "Hook."

     Sage snapped her eyes up at him, "You know him?"

     Neal ignored her inquiry, instead focusing on his father and the oozing substance that was slick down his fingers. "Papa?"

     In the total span of ten minutes, both Neal and Sage were able to get Rumple off the floor and wobbling up the stairs. Emma stayed behind in order to deal with Hook since he couldn't just be left unconscious in the lobby. Thankfully, they were able to get the injured Dark One into the apartment and onto the couch without much hassle. Henry was watching from the corner, trying not to show up scared he was of this whole situation. After a moment or two, Emma came back with a piece of folded paper in her hand, "Found a storage room and locked our stab-happy pirate in there. Shouldn't be causing anyone else any problems. And get this – he had a map on him. It looks like he sailed his ship here."

     "How'd he get a pirate ship in New York?" Neal questioned, incredulously. 

     "He's very determined." murmured Sage as she stripped off her blue plaid shirt and began dabbing the blood around Rumple's open wound, leaving her in just black jeans with a matching black tank-top. Nursing wasn't her specialty, but she was going to try her best right now. 

     "It's cloaked." Emma responded, before bending down to meet her son's fearful eyes. "Don't worry. He's not going to hurt any of us."

     Henry kept glancing back to Gold, frightened. "But is Mr. Gold going to be okay?"

     "Henry, he's going to be fine!" His father tried to reassure him.

     Sage looked over at Neal, "Do you have a med-kit?"

     "Bathroom."

     As quickly as possible, Sage went into the bedroom where the bathroom was connected to. The bathroom was incredibly tiny and could only fit one person probably, but she kept her observations limited and focused on finding the med-kit. The cabinet above the sink was wide open with various male hygiene products, but after a moment of rummaging, she found a small red box with a plus sign on it. She came back into the living room and opened it, grateful to see gauze, transparent tape, and anti-septic cream.

     "We got to get him to an ER! Fast!" Neal firmly stated, just as his father was opening up his shirt and revealing more of his wound. Not only was blood pumping out, but now there was a yellow-greenish substance along with it. 

     Emma scrunched her nose in disgust, "What the hell is that?"

     "It's poison. It's one of Hook's own making." Rumple heavily panted, his face beat red and his breaths coming out in quick, pain-laced rasps. "There's no antidote in this world. It's... It's not from here."

     "Hey, hey, hey, hey!" Neal repeated over and over again, trying to calm his parent down. "There's got to be some way we can save you."

     Emma looked up at him, almost like a light bulb had lit from above her head. "Storybrooke. There's magic there now. We need to get him back."

     "I'll get a car!"

     "No, no, no! There's not enough time!" pleaded the dying man. "We need something faster. The Captain's ship."

     "The Jolly Roger instead of a car?" The blonde Savior rose her eyebrows at that suggestion.

     "It's the fastest vessel in all the realms."

     "Well, that's great, but who's going to captain it, since the only guy qualified wants you dead?" She made a good point with that. Sage's throat tightened as the memories of her and her father flooded back into her mind. The trips from the dock they took, the long hours she spent on his ship, the lessons about sailing she learnt from such a young age.

     "I can do it." Neal said, before Sage could.

     The brunette looked up at her, trying to keep her facial expression neutral. "I can help."

     "You two know how to sail a pirate ship?" Their blonde companion asked, feeling bewildered at the announcement of this information.

     Sage nodded, choosing not to answer, but instead focus on the subject at hand. She reached over into the medical kit and dabbed a swab of antiseptic cream on it. When Rumple saw her inching closer to him, he began to stammer, "T-T-That's not going to do much."  

     "The poison will kill you an hours, but a wound infection will do it much quicker." She snapped at him, before circling the wound with the orange medical cream. Dropping the now used swab onto the table, she carefully placed gauze onto Rumple's gaping wound and placed small tape around it, connecting his skin to the bandage. 

     While she was doing this, Neal continued to pace, before anxiously pulling out his phone. Emma noticed her ex-boyfriend's actions and quickly questioned him, "What are you doing?"

     "Getting us a car."

     "I thought you and Sage were suddenly a pirate and were going to take a ship." The blonde was not making this easy for either of them. 

     Neal explained himself, "Yeah, well, we still got to get his ass to the ship."

     "So you know Hook?"

     "It's a long story." While it may have been a long story, it seemed to also be a painful once considering he looked very eager to not talk about it and to jump off the topic of how he knew the nefarious captain. "Short version, is this world wasn't my first stop when I left home."

     "No?"

     "If it was, I'd be a couple hundred years old by now." He stated, before his phone began to ring. "That should be our ride. Hang tight."

     With that, he hurried out of the room to answer the call. Just as he was leaving, Henry came back into the room with his mother's phone in hand, "Emma, you need to see this."

     "What is it, kid?"

     Henry was quick to answer, "It's a text from David and Mary Margaret. You need to read it – now.

     Emma snatched the phone and quickly read the text, before becoming stone-faced. "Bad news, Gold."

     He laughed bitterly in all of their faces. "I don't know. You tell me. You got a dagger hidden somewhere in Storybrooke that's the source of all your power?"

     Rumple took a moment to answer, knowing that she had worse news to come, "Get to your point."

     She continued, "Cora's after it. The only way to stop her, is have David and Mary Margaret get to it first."

     The reformed thief's heart sunk to the hollow pit of her stomach, erupting a ball of panic inside of her her. The Queen of Hearts was a villain in her past and now she was a villain in her present life. That Devil of a woman was already able to snatch the one good thing in Sage's life; she could only imagine the horror she could create from possessing the dagger of the Dark one. Rumple did not share her concern, "Yeah, let Cora try."

     "You can't seriously be willing to risk this. Not with your son coming back with you to Storybrooke." Emma questioned, puzzled by the refusal that Rumple was making. Then again, she wasn't from their world so she didn't understand how much importance was held in that dagger.

     The mention of his son did nothing to change his mind, "Miss Swan, that dagger has not left my possession for centuries. It's not about to now."

     Sage bit her lip, allowing this uneasiness and panic to rumble inside of her both her body and her heart. She needed him to trust her, to trust them. She didn't care about any future consequences, all she cared about was making sure that her former queen did not obtain the dagger. It was now her turn to persuade her old boss. "Here's the thing. You're dying. And right now, we are your best hope. Time's come for you to start trusting someone. And, if I were you, I'd start with family and I'd start with your old employee."

     From the shifting of his eyes to the pain coursing through his body due to the poison, Sage knew that her proclamation about trust and family was a hook, line, and sinker.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Not Edited. Sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been dealing with family issues and school activities. Please excuse my slowness. In shameless self-promotion, I ask you, if you are a fan of Riverdale, please check out my new Jughead story called Between the Bars. Thank you.