Rivers

Rivers is a black knight working for Queen Regina in "The Evil Queen".

Before the Curse
Queen Regina and her legion of knights make their way to a village, hoping to find Snow White. The dark knights, riding on their steeds, bring with them lit torches, and the Queen, dressed in an exquisite magenta outfit, hosts an evil smirk on her face. Some knights descend from their rides and make their way to a cabin, apparently having come to be in the wiser regarding Snow's whereabouts, and the Queen steps down from her horse as well and follows after them. One knight bursts through the door, and another one follows him in to take a look around. The Queen enters the cabin and is told by Berkley, the knight who forced his entrance, that the place is empty. She retorts that she can see that, with spite, and recounts that Snow White was hiding there, but she's gone, so someone must have tipped her off and thus she ran. She leaves, being followed by her two knights, and orders her minions to pan out and bring her the villagers.

Shortly afterwards, the knights have made it so that the entire village's frightened population has been gathered in front of the Queen, with the cabin once inhabited by Snow White behind them. The regal beauty then starts up her speech, telling the villagers that Snow White has betrayed them, having poisoned her own father - whom Regina then refers to as her 'dear husband' - so she could try to ascend to the throne herself. Regina then tells them Snow now stalks the outer villages, being a bandit, a murderer, and a traitor. She then tells the people, with a grin, that information leading to Snow's capture will be richly rewarded. Nobody speaks up. "No one?" Regina asks, with relative surprise. Her grin has vanished, and she moves closer towards the villagers and wonders if none of them wants gold. "No?! You're telling me she lived there and not one of you saw her!" The Queen is exasperated. She turns back towards her knights and Rivers inquires his majesty as to what they should do now, to which she promptly replies, "Kill them all. No mercy. Find me Snow White."

Queen Regina is seen fitting in with the peasants in a common village, walking amidst them through a fair, with no one recognizing her disguised self. She approaches an attraction, wherein a carny is seen juggling, and she notices the effigy of the Queen - herself - behind him, with a heart-shaped fabric ornament on her chest. She points out that it's the Queen, to which the man corrects that it's the Evil Queen, as he urges people to step right up and sink an arrow in her heart. A peasant boy prepares to try his luck, and Regina tells them that's not right. The carny says that the game is fixed, actually, you can't hit the Queen in the heart... because she ain't got one. The villagers around the attraction laugh, and the boy shouts, "Kill the Evil Queen!", being met with loud excitement. Regina is horrified. The boy then lunges his arrow straight into the effigy's heart, and the crowd is pleased. She asks him how he could do that, for Regina is their Queen, and the boy tells her that Snow White should be their queen. Regina tells the people that Snow White is a bandit, a murderer and a menace, to which everyone nods their heads in denial of this. "Lies!" the carny tells her, adding that the Queen is evil, to which Regina says that he doesn't know her. The boy tells her that he can thank his lucky stars for that, and then urges the crowd to burn the effigy, and their excitement continues. He grabs a flaming torch, but Regina stands between him and the effigy, telling everyone that this is treason, and she won't stand for it. She takes the torch from his hand and waves it at the crowd, and then the people disperse as they witness the arrival of Rivers and Berkley, two of the Queen's dark knights. The carny leaves his own attraction, and the knights rush to it. There, Regina tells her soldiers that it's about time, and asks where they have been. Berkley asks her if she did this, which the disguised Regina denies, claiming that she was trying to stop it, as she puts the torch out. Berkley turns to his partner and asks him if that's what it looks like to him, to which Rivers says that it looks to him like some 'dirty slag' was defacing an effigy of their Queen. He then jokes that it does look just like her though, and they both scoff. Regina, offended, removes an arrow from the effigy and says, "How dare you? I will have your head for that, Rivers!" He takes the arrow from her right away, and Berkley comments that she knows his name. He then asks her how she dares to address a knight of the Queen's guard in such fashion, and Regina tells him that she knows their names - then referring to them as 'idiots' - because she is the Queen. The knights, assuredly, aren't convinced, and move up towards her. Regina, as a natural instinct, prepares to ward them off with a spell, but is suddenly forced to be reminded that she is no longer in control of magic. The knights laugh and Berkley overpowers her, walking her off of the attraction and through the fair, as she commands that he let go of her.

The magically disguised Queen is being escorted to the execution podium by Rivers and Berkley, still trying to convince them that she is the Queen, as she reminds Berkley that she hired him a year before despite his drunkenness, and that she had Rivers flogged the previous spring for lateness. She makes a valid point as she is pushed up the steps that she couldn't possibly know this if she weren't truly the Queen, but the only response she gets is that Rivers isn't liking 'her' any better. Rivers picks up the axe as Berkley tells his partner to cut off her head, and then pushes her head onto the wood stump. A horrified Regina shouts out for Rumplestiltskin, and Rivers is immediately shot in the arm with an arrow. He starts groaning in pain, and Berkley takes out his sword as a masked individual makes their way to the podium and matches his attack. The surprise guest overpowers Rivers as Berkley makes his way around the elevated stage and then sneaks up behind them. He too is defeated and thrown off the stage, and Rivers then swings his sword at the person's feet, but they leap up from the wood stump, and the sword misses them, hitting Regina in the leg, however. She falls from the podium and is aided by townspeople, and the masked individual goes on to ultimately defeat both of the black knights. The person then removes their hood to reveal their identity: Snow White, much to the surprise of everyone in attendance. Regina is helped up by the locals, and then looks at her savior with disdain. She utters her name and then faints.