Season 1: Episode 11
Third Person POV: The Dark Castle
"Okay, Raven," Rumpelstiltskin said to the young nine year old. They stared at the flower pot. "Make it move."
Young Raven held out her hand. She made a straining noise. When the flower did not move, she whined, "It's not working!"
"Now, now, my dear," Rumpelstiltskin explained. "You just have to keep trying." He pat her arms. "You'll get it."
Kathryn's House
Kathryn and David sit at the dinner table eating. He compliments her cooking, but is clearing hiding something. "David, there's something we need to talk about," Kathryn says. David sits back in his chair as if bracing himself. "I applied to law school."
He pauses before responding. "That's amazing. Why didn't you ever tell me?" he asks.
"I don't know," she explains, "Maybe 'cause I didn't think I could actually do it, but I did." She pulls out a paper to her left. She hands it to David. "I got this today." Before he could read it, she says, "I got in."
David skims over the paper. "It's...it's in Boston."
She nods solemnly. "I know things have been hard between us, but maybe a fresh start is what we need. Maybe we've been fighting too hard to recapture old memories when we should have been making new ones instead." David sits in silence. In that silence, the knock comes to the door. Kathryn stands and answers it. She sees Raven standing outside. "Raven," she exclaims, "Are you okay? What are you doing here?"
"Long or short story?" Raven asks. Kathryn gives her a look of she already knew the answer. "Long story short, I beat up Mr. French because I thought he stole something from me when he robbed our house. Turns out he didn't have it. I'm trying to find the perpetrator while simultaneously running from the sheriff."
Kathryn shakes her head. "Come inside," she says standing to the side. Raven enters without hesitation.
She walks towards the stairs. "Now I owe you three," she exclaims with a smile. "Same room as usual?" Kathryn nods then turns her attention to David walking out the door. Raven walks next to her friend. "Is everything alright?" Kathryn explains her dilemmas with her friend. "Well, what do you think you should do?" Raven asks. Kathryn shakes her head. "Kat," Raven exclaims. Her friend looks up at her. "I'm tired of you being unhappy," she explains, "I'm your friend and I want what's best for you." Raven grabs Kathryn's hands. "It's time to move on."
In the Dark Castle
Rumpelstiltskin had left for a while to go on a "business trip". Raven stared at the flower on the dining room table. "Why is it so hard?" she asked herself, "Daddy could do it." She frowned and looked down. "If only Daddy were still here." After a moment of gloominess had passed, Raven stood determined. She ran back over to where she had been before. She holds out both her hands and keeps trying to make it happen.
In Kathryn's House
The next morning, Raven wakes up unsure of where she was. When she remembers, she walks down the stairs. She listens through the house, hearing Kathryn type away in the study. Raven smiles and thinks, 'You're trying so hard to make it work. You've always been dedicated Abby.'
Raven decides to leave the house. She puts on her hoodie and walks outside. She goes down main street. When she makes it across the street from Granny's, she watches August leave. Raven takes in a deep breath, smelling his sent. 'Wood and...' Raven flashes her red eyes. 'Vervain.'
August straddles his motorbike and starts the engine. Raven watches him intently. When he begins to drive away, Raven follows him.
In the Dark Castle
Rumpelstiltskin walked in on Raven trying to use theurgy on the flower. "Sweetheart, how long have you been trying to make it move?" he asked.
Raven looked out the window and sees darkness. "Wait," she said, "What happened to the sun?"
The Dark One laughed as he sat down in a chair at the end of the long dining table. Raven ran up to him. He picked her up and sat her on his lap. "Dearie," he explained, "Let's go back to when you first used your theurgist powers." Raven made a look of thinking on her face. "What were you doing when it first happened."
"Well," Raven said. "Brother, Snow, and I were in the castle when vampires attacked. I didn't want them to get hurt. Then..."
"Ah," Rumple interrupted. "You wanted to protect them." Raven nodded quickly. He set her down on the ground in front of the flower. He leaned down. "Now, think about those same feelings."
Raven closed her eyes and holds out her hand. Suddenly, the flower began to grow vines and roots. Rumpelstiltskin laughed in astonishment. Raven opened her eyes and saw her work. She shrieked with joy, jumping on the Dark One's leg. She hugged it in excitement.
Back at the Shed
Raven follows August into an abandoned warehouse. August leads her into a room where papers are drying up on ropes. She watches as August puts some papers in water, then hang them up to dry. Next to the vat of water, Raven spots Henry's storybook. Next to it lay her journal and necklace. 'Found you,' she thinks.
August goes to where he's making his own storybook. He places the dry sheets on it, then threads a needle through it to keep it together. Once he's finished, he says, "I know your there. You can come out now."
Raven takes a sharp breath in, then walks out from her hiding place. "First you take my personal property, then you steal a ten year old's storybook?" she exclaims, "Your sick."
"Really, I'm sick?" August asks drying his hands off. He walks to the table. He picks up Raven's journal. "According to this, so are you, Princess Arius."
Raven scoffs, "Then you go and read a girls journal. Your just disappointing me more by the second." Raven puts out her hand. "Hand over my things and the storybook, August, and no one gets hurt."
August laughs, "Oh really, no one gets hurt?" He pulls out vervain (picture above) from his jacket pocket. Raven stares at it with a look of shock. August starts to walk towards Raven. She walks back with every step he takes. "I'm disappointed, Great Uniter," he says, "I expected more."
Raven backs into the wall. August continues to approach. She closes her eyes for a moment, sniffing the air. She smells wood again. 'Wait a second,' she thinks. She holds out her left hand. August stops moving. Raven smiles evilly. With her right hand, she thrusts it forward. August flies backward. When he stands, Raven takes her right hand and thrusts it down. He falls on his hands and knees. "I was wondering why you didn't smell like blood or have a heartbeat," Raven says. "But now it all makes sense." She kneels down to him, "Pinocchio."
"You're a theurgist?" he yells in pain.
"You're made of wood and on the ground and that's your question?" Raven says. "Yes, I am a theurgist and if you value your life you will give me back my things and give Henry back his book." After considering his options, August nods. Raven retracts her hand and his body relaxes. He breathes in heavily.
Raven runs over to the desk. She put the book into her pocket. She grabs her necklace and laces it around her neck. 'I got you, Riker,' she thinks to herself.
Although soft and faint, she hears, 'It took you long enough.' Raven smiles in delight, glares at August, then speeds out of the room.
Raven watches as Emma returns Henry's storybook. She smiles at the sweet scene. Once Emma leaves, Raven makes herself known to Henry. "Rae!" Henry shouts. Raven puts her finger over her mouth. "How did you get out?" Henry asks in a whisper.
"Simple," she explains. "I bent the bars until I made a big enough hole to get out." Henry laughs as she helps him stand. "Let me take you home, kid."
Raven walks Henry all the way home. They hang out for a while, hiding in Henry's room. After a while, Regina comes home and hangs out downstairs. Raven begins to tell Henry a story when she stops and takes a sharp breath in. "Raven," Henry asks, "Are you okay?"
Raven looks to the window. "Abby!"