Rachel was aghast. She'd finally gotten her own brother to recognize her...and he'd disappeared, right before her eyes. Right when she could have gotten some answers out of him, he was just gone. Frustrated, Rachel grabbed her sword and stabbed it into the floor. When she found the Editor, she was going to give her a piece of her mind.

Merlin looked in, and when he saw Ewan wasn't there, he said, "Where did he go?"

"I think the Editor took him back," Rachel said with a sigh. She pulled the sword out from the floor, and Merlin raised an eyebrow at the new hole in the wood. She shrugged. "Just when I was getting some answers from him, he was just gone."

"Did you get to ask him anything?"

"No...he didn't even recognize me at first," she said, feeling that familiar lump in her throat returning. "He looked at me with these dull eyes and he didn't say anything, really, other than junk about the Editor."

"Odd," Merlin commented. "I seem to remember him being a rather talkative fellow. Do you suppose the Editor has him under her control?"

"I more than suppose," Rachel replied. "Unlike Guy, Ewan didn't seem to be in control of himself at all. He just kept looking at me like he knew me but he didn't recognize me, but right before he vanished he did recognize me!"

"Then perhaps the Editor's control isn't as absolute as she would like to think," Merlin suggested thoughtfully. "And I find it most curious that she is apparently able to reverse Final Death."

"You think she's done it for everyone?" Rachel asked, thinking about Alan."

"One can only assume she'll do it for everyone we care about to mock us," Merlin answered. "But don't get your hopes up; it might not be all it seems. If she has control, you can probably guess that nothing she does will help us at all."

"I know," Rachel said, "but she's given us a blessing. Hope that Alan's alive."

Merlin smiled a little. "That she has," he agreed. "But she's given Red more than hope. She's given her another chance at her happy ending."

Rachel nodded. "I honestly hope it works out for her. She really loved Ewan." And so do I, she added quietly to herself. Despite Merlin's warning about not getting her hopes up, she couldn't help but hope that both Ewan and Alan would survive and be returned to their families.

Further conversation was stopped by a knock on the door. Merlin glanced at Rachel, and she shrugged. "Perhaps the dwarves?" she suggested.

Merlin formed a fireball in his hand and went to the door. "Who's there?" he barked.

"Just an old peddler, selling her wares," came the whiny response.

"Oh, I'm sure," Merlin muttered under his breath. "Let me guess," he added in a louder voice, "apples?"

The "peddler" cackled. "You must have foresight!" she said.

"Or I'm just not stupid," Merlin replied. "Go away; we don't want your poisoned apples."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," the peddler, obviously Mal, said. "I've come to offer a deal, one I think you might want to consider."

"I don't want any deals with you, Mal," Rachel called, shivering as she remembered how bad her last deal had almost been.

"Then let Guy of Gisborne and Will Scarlet's deaths be on your conscience alone, Guardian." Rachel and Merlin exchanged alarmed looks. Whether she was lying or not, they couldn't take the chance and assume she was.

"Wait," Rachel said, sighing. "Open the door, Merlin."

Queen Mal entered in the form of a wrinkled old crone, burdened by a basket of apples. She smiled toothlessly at Rachel. "You have wisdom beyond your years, child," she told her.

"Name your deal, woman, before I kill you," Rachel growled, raising her sword.

Mal laid the basket of apples on the floor and drew one it. "Simple," she said. "The Editor is currently in possession of Ewan Andric, Guy of Gisborne, and Will Scarlet. If you consume this apple, she will not write them out of The Story. If you don't...well, it's curtains for them." She extended the apple towards Rachel, her wrinkled hand trembling from apparent age.

Rachel stared at the apple. Merlin warned, "Rachel, don't. If you eat that, the only person who can save you is Guy, and he's the Editor's prisoner. If you eat it, you'll...you'll...die."

"And if I don't," Rachel said, her voice trembling with emotion, "my friends will die. My brother will die, again. My life isn't worth that, Merlin!"

"Let me eat it instead," Merlin protested. "The Story needs you. I'm just—"

"Sorry," Mal said, shaking her head. "It has to be Rachel Andric who eats it. Nobody else."

"Give it to me," Rachel said, and Mal placed the apple in her extended hand.

"Rachel, what are you doing?" Red demanded. She, Guinevere, and Snow White stood in the doorway, watching in horror. "Do not eat that!"

Rachel closed her eyes, trying to fight panic. What is the right thing to do? If she ate the apple, only Guy could wake her up—which meant, more likely than not, the Editor would kill Guy after she ate it. But it was a certainty if she didn't consume it that apple, the Editor would kill them.

"You don't have to be a hero, Rachel," Merlin said softly. "We can figure this out." But there was a sense of hopelessness to his voice that belied his attempted soothing words. He knew what she would do, and that there was no swaying her from it.

Rachel stared at the beautifully red apple, hiding a poison that was likely to kill her. It could have been a worse murder weapon, she thought ruefully. But a question nagged at her mind. "Why not just do this before?" she asked Mal. "Instead of sending Ewan."

"She hoped your brother would kill you, but you were a better swordswoman than we gave you credit for," Mal explained. "So she decided to offer you this deal instead."

Rachel nodded slowly, her fingers stroking the smooth and unblemished skin of the apple. Then she raised it towards her lips. "Non," Red said desperately.

Rachel inhaled slowly before putting the apple to her lips and opening them. A strained silence fell over the room as Rachel took a bite of the apple. She swallowed it, and for a moment nothing happened. She looked at Merlin, and he lowered his eyes, red with emotion. She opened her mouth to speak, to tell him she was sorry, but to her surprise her voice didn't work.

The apple slipped from Rachel's grasp as she tried to breathe and found that air wouldn't come. Merlin caught her by the shoulders, yelling something, but her ears weren't working. She couldn't hear, couldn't breathe, her vision was fading...

Then everything went black.