Once Upon A Time: Destinies Intertwined

Chapter 15: True Love's Kiss

David let out an agonizing scream, witnessing Asmund standing before him with a sword pierced into his stomach and blood pouring from his mouth and wounds.

"David..." Asmund said numbly as he looked at the sword piercing his body and then up at David who stood in front of a portal leading back to Storybrooke.

Asmund collapsed to the ground, falling onto his side as David stood frozen in horror, unable to comprehend what went wrong to turn their happy ending into a tragedy.

                                                                    The night before

David sat in front of the fire, watching the flames crackle during the dead of night as Aurora slept across from him on the ground. David sat there, remembering the first time he'd met Asmund and fallen in love, only for Asmund to sacrifice his happiness to save David from Regina's diabolical plan to have Maleficent attack King George's castle. David was tired of Asmund sacrificing his happiness for others, and he resented that the others only saw him as Regina's former ally when Asmund was a kind, sweet soul who only wanted his friends to accept him and love him. David reflected on the possibility of what might have happened if Asmund hadn't erased everyone's memories of him at the ball that fateful night that they declared their love for each other before the tragic circumstances that occurred instead and he knew that he would have done everything to make sure that Asmund had been happy with him.

"Charming?" Aurora said as she woke up and saw the prince sitting in front of the crackling fire, "Are you okay?"

"I couldn't sleep." David replied and he looked at Aurora apologetically, "I'm sorry if the fire kept you up."

"It's alright...I can't sleep that well anyway." Aurora said waving a hand to brush aside his apology and she sat up looking around, "We should be close right?"

"Yeah, we should be able to continue after we rest a little bit longer." David told her as he looked over to the horses who were drinking from the river beside their camp, "I appreciate you coming along, Aurora."

"Hey...we're going to save the man you love." Aurora said smiling at him, "I wouldn't miss this for the world."

David smiled softly at her as he was grateful that she had convinced him to let her join him on his journey to rescue Asmund and he was about to say something else when suddenly he heard something moving within the forest and he sprung up, unsheathed his sword and posed to attack immediately as Aurora got up quickly and moved to his side as she drew her own sword ready to help the prince against any intruders.

"It's just me." Mulan's voice called out as she stepped into the light of the fire and both prince and princess let out a sigh of relief as they lowered their weapons, "Not bad attack form though...very alert."

"You followed us?" Aurora questioned in shock and she looked at David who didn't look that surprised, "You don't look all the surprised to see her here."

"I figured she would either follow us on her own or be ordered to follow by Lancelot." David said shrugging as he put out the fire, "Since we're all awake now, let's get going. We still got few hours until we reach Regina's castle."

"I'm assuming you have a plan once we reach the castle?" Mulan asked as David gather his items and went to his horse.

"Of course...I'm going to defeat Cora and get Asmund back." he answered and Mulan let out a disappointing groan as she walked up to David.

"Look, I understand that you want to save your friend but you can't just run in there blindly without a solid plan in place." Mulan said.

"I'll figure it out when we get there." David replied getting onto his horse and Mulan looked at him for a moment before sighing and digging into her pouch as David looked at her confused for a moment before seeing her pull out a small staff covered in runes that he recognized, "Wait, that's..."