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Chapter Text

The beast doesn’t need to transform to be loved. He doesn’t have to turn into a boring fucking prince to be loved. Or renounce to the essence of who it is. To me love is not transformation, love is acceptance and understanding. ― Guillermo del Toro

Bluebell was streaking across the clouds like a floating blue angel, her flip-style blonde hair flying behind her, held in place only by her blue headband. The fabric that hung below her translucent sleeves flapping like a banner in the wind.

It had happened at last. After all these centuries of waiting, hoping, it finally happened. The Saviour’s salvation had come.

She had made a side stop into town on the way to fulfil a tedious errand for Blue, checking in on her charge, even though she was no longer his official Fairy Godmother. Not for centuries. Hidden beneath her hood as she pretended to be browsing the flower stool, Bluebell had spotted Rumplestiltskin, his face concealed beneath his dark reddish brown cloak, moving through the crowd. He looked so sad and lonely, despite being surrounded by hundreds of people. Bluebell felt she was the only person who really saw him. Behind the smokescreen of the Dark One was a man so desperate to be loved. If Rumplestiltskin was a monster, it was because man’s cruelty, coupled with a parasitic dark curse, had made him so.

Then, something incredible happened. Rumplestiltskin glowed, as if a shaft of heavenly light shone upon him. Green pixie dust light. The Dark One seemed unaware that he was shining like a beacon, as did the people around him. The same green fairy dust glittered at his boots and trailed up the cobbled street in the direction he had just come from.

Bluebell followed it eagerly. She was close.

The fairy dust brought her to a fountain in the middle of the square, where a beautiful young woman sat alone on its edge, reading, while the world turned around her without so much as a glance in her direction. She wore a blue peasant’s dress, which billowed around her as she sat cross-legged, lost in her book. She had long chestnut brown hair that fell in curls, so that Bluebell couldn’t see her face, except her red lips, curled in a wistful smile at the story she was reading in her lap. And when a shy little girl asked what she was reading, the woman invited her to sit with her and, on discovering she couldn’t read, began giving her a free lesson, so that she too could enjoy the wonders and magic of books.

But Bluebell saw the most important qualities in this woman: well read, a pure heart, an amiable outsider, and who glowed with the same green light that connected her to her soulmate. Though neither of them knew it yet.

Completely forgetting about what she was supposed to be doing, Bluebell took off home to tell the Blue Fairy what she had discovered. The Three Good Fairies had been dissolved and disbanded, but surely Rheul Ghorm couldn’t ignore this.

Bluebell flew back to the hollow so fast that she staggered on landing in the Tulip Pod Chamber. She folded her two wings away into her back, used her star wand to magically fix her hair windswept hair and straightened her light blue dress. It was more modest than most of the dresses her kin wore, with a long blue ribbon tied around her waist with a tied heart as the buckle. There was also a blue, oval pendant placed in the cleavage and matching blue shoes.

Before she could catch her breath –

‘Really, Bluebell. Tardiness is very unbecoming.’

Bluebell turned to see the front petal of a green tulip fall open revealing the Blue Fairy standing there inside, looking as always like a stern, busty blue jellyfish ready to sting anyone in her presence.

‘I bring good news!’ Bluebell panted excitedly.

‘You were supposed to be bring fairy dust. You’re getting as unreliable as Pink.’

Bluebell frowned. Whenever a fairy was no longer in Blue’s favour, or had fallen from grace, she always referred to them by their colour rather by their chosen name. Bluebell had never revealed her moniker. Names have power and she would rather not give Blue more power over her than she already had.

‘Very well,’ Blue said aloofly. ‘What is this news?’

Bluebell smiled, her excitement returning, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. ‘I’ve found Rumplestiltskin’s True Love!’

Blue froze, staring at Bluebell as if she had just announced that the Evil Queen had expressed a desire to make peace with Snow White. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you just said,’ she said pointedly. ‘It sounded as if you were suggesting that that twisted little imp, that monster, that beast, that scourge, that the darkest creature in all the realms can not only love, but can be loved in return, as he is.’

Ignoring the multiple slights on Rumplestiltskin, Bluebell pressed on. ‘Tinker Bell’s gift was Love, to ensure that he would find his soulmate. There was this woman in town today – she was glowing green.’

Blue looked scandalised. ‘The Dark One and the Wicked Witch? You do realised he seduced her mother, the Queen of Hearts. We barely dodged a bullet with Heartless Darkness, now you want to create Wicked Darkness?

‘Ew! No, not Zelena! She’s wicked and deranged.’ Bluebell wrinkled her nose in disgust, repulsed at the very idea of Rumple and Zelena. That would be like pairing him with Regina, only weirder. ‘No, the girl I saw wasn’t green. She was literally glowing green. With pixie dust. I know Tinker Bell’s magic anywhere. Pixie dust doesn't lie. Come on, this is his chance of love and happiness. And hers too. A fresh start. He can let go off all the anger and darkness that weighs him down. And she will be with someone who truly understands her.’

‘Or bring her a lifetime of pain and misery.’

‘Pixie dust never fails! She is his perfect match! I’m not wrong! Rumplestiltskin was there!’

‘So consider yourself lucky you're still alive!’ 

‘He was glowing green, too! There is still light in him, Blue!’

‘An anomaly,’ Blue dismissed. ‘It’s merely an echo of what could have been. Had fate not been changed, he would not have lived this far. They would never have met.’

‘What if he was waiting for her?’

‘Not everyone has a True Love. Sometimes all we have is self-love. Or the love of power.’

Blue’s nit-picking was starting to grate her. It’s like she was determined to find fault in him. She saw him only as a villain and chose to ignore anything she sees or hears that didn’t comply with it.

‘Why are you so determined to see only the worst in him?’ Bluebell wanted to know.

‘Over thousands of years of the Dark One’s history. Eighteen incarnations. From Nimue to Gorgon the Invincible to Zoso, each and every one of them has brought darkness and discord to the world. Nimue imprisoned her True Love into a tree. Rumplestiltskin abandoned his son for the love of the dagger. What makes you think he can love another?’

‘Because the love of his son has kept the light alive in his heart all these years. And meeting his True Love will make the light brighter and make him go back to the man he used to be. If you had told Baelfire about True Love’s Kiss in the first place, Rumple wouldn’t need to cast the Dark Curse to find him…’

Bluebell never realised it until she heard herself say it. One kiss borne of the love between a father and a son would’ve solved everything.

‘Why didn’t you tell Bae about True Love’s Kiss?’

‘I do not have to explain my decisions to you,’ said Blue evasively.

‘Did you think Rumplestiltskin’s love wouldn’t be strong enough? Or did you just want to banish the Dark One from the realm – and it went wrong?’

‘Don’t presume to know the way the Dark One’s heart and mind works.’ Blue sighed. ‘Bluebell, this is not a man you can help. He is surrounded by darkness. You can only help someone who actually wants to be helped.’

‘Sounds to me like he’s exactly someone who could use help. It’s the people who don’t think they need help that need help the most. Maybe if you let me have some time off.’

‘Not a chance. You fly away from this one, Bluebell.’

‘I can’t believe you want me to ignore someone who needs help. It’s not very fairy-like.’

‘I will be the judge of what is fairy-like,’ said Blue angrily.

‘Well if he wishes for help, I won’t forsake him like you did,’ said Bluebell mutinously.

Blue raised her wand, its tip sparking a little indicating her supressed rage at Bluebell’s refusal to let this drop. ‘Let me make this perfectly clear: Rumplestiltskin is no longer any concern of yours. From now on you will stay out of this.’

‘Oh, will I?’

‘Yes, you will. Stay away from Rumplestiltskin. And the girl. We do not set ourselves against the heavens. Evil is as necessary as night, but must be kept at arm’s length.’

‘Don’t you think keeping him at arm’s length is exactly the reason he is the way he is?’

‘Need I remind you of the terms of your probation, Bluebell? You could have walked away quietly like Red did –’

‘Tiger Lily,’ Bluebell corrected her.

Blue chose to ignore this. ‘Instead, you and Green contested. You knew the conditions of your second chance; that you would abide by our laws and train under my direct supervision.’

Training? More like her dogsbody. Her caddie.

‘It’s good to have faith, but this cause is doomed to failure. Carry on down this path and you will end up like Green. Wingless, powerless, disgraced. And you will be of no help to anyone.’

‘Her name isn’t Green,’ said Bluebell furiously. ‘It’s Tinker Bell. And she didn’t fail, Regina failed herself. And it was you who took her wings; just as you threatened to take Nova’s and ruined her happiness with Dreamy.’

‘It’s Grumpy, now. And dwarves cannot love. What he feels is a dream. An illusion, as a result of the fairy dust that Pink carelessly dropped that hatched him from his egg. She imprinted on him. It isn’t real. You think that without fairy dust they would have fallen in love? As for Queen Regina and Robin Hood? That was a discarded idea of the Author, Isaac Heller, started but chose not to see through. It wouldn’t have been real. Even pixie dust couldn’t bring them together. It wasn’t meant to be. It’s the way of the world. Villains don’t get happy endings.’

‘You’re wrong.’

‘No discussion,’ said Blue in a very final sort of way, clearly bringing this discussion to an end. ‘If I hear you were seen talking to either of them, I will be very displeased. Understood?’

Bluebell clenched her fists so hard her nails were digging into her palms, even through the fabric her peasant’s cloak. Then the solution came to her.

‘You won’t hear that anyone saw me,’ she promised her teacher calmly.

Bluebell turned her back on her, so that Blue wouldn’t see her smiling, unfurled her wings and flew off to find the only other fairy who could help her.

She found Periwinkle in the Fairy Archives. She was an elderly woman with round brown eyes and white hair. She wore a periwinkle blue dress and matching hooded cloak with enormous sleeves that hung from her arms and tied with a large magenta bow.

‘Hello Lenore,’ said Bluebell.

‘Hello dear,’ said Lenore in a kind motherly voice that Blue could never replicate. ‘Oh, bother!’ She was looking up her sleeves, searching for something, shaking them to see if the missing item would fall out.

‘Have you lost something again?’

‘No, not lost, just… misplaced.’ She patted herself down. ‘What in the world have I done with that magic wand? I was sure I –’

‘Um, Lenore –’

‘That’s strange... I...’ She checked under the desk. ‘I always –’

‘I’ll come back later. I’ve caught you at a bad time.’

‘No, no, don’t be silly, pumpkin. I always have time for you.’ She shook the skirts of her dress in frustration, briefly revealing her white bloomers beneath. ‘Where is that wand? I – Oh! I forgot. I put it away.’

Lenore pulled her silver wand out of thin air. Bluebell sighed and shook her head fondly. Though wise to a degree, Periwinkle tended to be comically absent-minded; continuously losing sight of the obvious, and had a habit of both losing her wand and forgetting her magic words. Even so, she could piece together her mind quickly enough and enjoyed her ability as Fairy Godmother to ensure dreams come true, treating her charges and her sisters as her own daughter, in a sense.

Bluebell always liked Lenore. She had been like a mother to her since losing Tiger Lily and Tinker Bell. A genuine character with an optimistically pure heart.

‘Now, then. I assume you’re here because of your words with Rheul Ghorm earlier,’ said Lenore in a gentle tone.

‘How did you…?’

‘I’m our magical historian, dear. If a cruel dictator sneezes, I shall know about it. Including the miracle you witnessed in town today. What did Blue have to say about it?’

‘I thought you already knew?’

‘Yes, but it sounds fresher coming from someone else.’

Bluebell sighed. ‘She said it was an anomaly. That villains don’t get happy endings. That the Dark One couldn’t love –’

Lenore cut her off. ‘Oh, fiddle-faddle!’ she said impatiently.

‘She’s forbidden me to help him.’

‘Oh, that woman!’ Lenore stomped her foot. ‘I have a mind to… hmph, I’d best not say. It wouldn’t be appropriate.’

‘She wants me to fly away from this, but I cannot. Not when it might lead to two peoples happiness.’

‘Rumplestiltskin in love – what a lovely thought. And, um… How do you plan to accomplish such an impressive feat?’

Bluebell raised her arms hopelessly. ‘I don’t even know if it’s possible. I’m probably just fooling myself.’

‘You’re no fool, Bluebell. You’re a Good Fairy. You’re kind, caring and you have the right instincts.’

‘Can you help me?’ Bluebell urgently. ‘This may be Rumplestiltskin’s last chance. But I know he won’t accept help from a fairy. And if Blue finds out I was seen with them, I’m doomed. I can’t change my appearance.’

‘Not if I do it for you,’ said Lenore, her eyes twinkling, already raising her wand. ‘Allow you to hide in plain sight. Just a wave of my stick, and to finish the trick, Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo!’

Lenore waved wand and a shower of sparkling silver pixie dust rained on Bluebell’s golden head.

Nothing happened.

‘I don’t feel any different.’ Bluebell checked herself. ‘Or look any different.’

Lenore chuckled, leading her over to a mirror. ‘Of course not, child. You haven’t chosen your disguise yet. Go on – use your imagination!’

Bluebell bit her lip, thinking for a moment and decided on her disguise. With a thought, she changed into a grubby peasant woman, complete with ghastly rags. She looked at her real hands and saw that she still looked normal.

‘Won’t Blue recognise me?’ Bluebell asked.

Lenore smiled. ‘I can’t think why,’ she said. ‘No one looks twice at vagrants. But never fear. Remember, there’s none so blind as those who will not see.’

Bluebell cocked her head. ‘You mean she won’t believe it’s me, no matter what disguise I don?’

‘Not at all. Our magicks cancel each other out. It’ll just be… an anomaly.’

Bluebell nodded, reassured. ‘Thank you. If we succeed, history will remember you as the one who made this all possible.’

‘Bless you, my child.’ Lenore touched her face like an affectionate mother, smiling. ‘Now go save the Saviour.’

Bluebell pulled on her cloak and took off for the human realm, turning to share a farewell wave with Lenore before she disappeared in a twinkle of silver stars.

Chapter Text

Only in darkness are we revealed. Goodness is not goodness that seeks advantage. Good is good in the final hour, in the deepest pit, without hope, without witness, without reward. Virtue is only virtue in extremis. ― River Song, read from her diary by Nardole (Doctor Who S10 E6)

Belle was in her library. She winced as she pressed a cold compress to a burn on her raw wrist. She had visited the red room full of fire and flames again in her dreams last night. In her haste to curse herself to protect her child from Hades, she had forgotten the most important law of magic: it always comes with a price. So far she had been lucky in avoiding sustaining severe burns despite having no real control over her actions there, but last night one of the flames had licked her wrist, the skin there red, blistered and painful.

So focused on her ministrations she didn’t notice she was being watched, until a familiar voice said softly:

‘You should use Aloe Vera.’

Belle jumped and backed away from the circulation desk. Rumple stood by the door, his silhouette cast in shadow. She didn’t hear him come in.

‘Belle, I –’

Belle took a couple more hasty steps back from Rumple. She hadn’t seen or spoken to him since that day on the Jolly Roger where she had come so close to losing her baby and her life because of Rumple actions in both the past and the present. She didn’t know what he had been doing during that time and why he was here now, nor did she care.

‘No,’ said Belle, cutting him off at the pass. ‘No.’

‘Belle?’

‘The answer is “no.”’

‘You haven’t even heard the question.’

‘Look, I know you want me back, Rumple. It’s… it’s never going to happen.’ 

So she finally had the bravery to say it to his face.

Rumple had known there was no hope. He knew when she walked away through the portal on the word of a dream. He knew when she left him heartbroken at the wishing well, wishing he’d let the Dark One run him through with Excalibur, wishing that he’d died in the coma. He knew from the very beginning when she had left his castle with zero protest or objection. He knew when she forced him over the town line with nothing but the clothes on his back, without even a cane, knowing that he would never be able to come back. And when he did come back, for her, Belle had already given your heart away. He would never get his heart back. One chip… that was all it took to let her in.

Rumple had always known that reconciliation with his wife and the mother of his second born child was impossible to non-existent, but to hear it confirmed from Belle’s lips in such a final way, suddenly made everything he had been doing these past few days even more of a waste of time. Every single second of his pathetic unnaturally long life was as useless as his lame leg.

It’s never going to happen.

With just five words, the light in Rumple’s eyes, the tiniest flicker, the feeblest hope that there’s light in their present darkness, dimmed to a dying ember.

Rumple drew a deep breath through the nose and exhaled.  ‘I know,’ he said, tiredly. ‘But thank you for enunciating it. That’s not why I’m here.’ His sharp eye found her affliction. ‘How’s that wrist?’

Belle covered her wrist, even though it was pointless to hide it. ‘It’s nothing. Silly accident.’

Rumple frowned. ‘It’s not nothing. It’s a side effect.’

Belle looked up in surprise.

‘Oh, did your new bestie Zelena forget to tell you that her wicked sleeping spell comes with a price? Surely she told you that even after the curse is broken your soul would return to the Netherworld, trapped in a red room full of fire and no doors. You know, it’s remarkable you’d cast a curse you know so little about on yourself, given to you by a woman who only did it to get back at me.’

‘Because it’s all about you? I’m dealing with it.’

‘You should’ve come to me. I could’ve given you something to control the flames, like I did for Henry.’

Belle laughs mirthlessly. ‘Oh, and let me guess: and in exchange I agree to come back to you?’

‘No,’ said Rumple quietly. ‘But I’d rather our child was well born then well done. Like I said: Aloe Vera. Plant’s right there next to you.’

He indicated the plant on the circulation desk. Belle didn’t move; refusing acquiesce to him or take her eyes off him, as if she thought it was a sign of weakness, that it was all a diversionary tactic and he would pounce the second her back was turned.   

‘Are you really so full of stubbornness and pride that you’d rather endure second degree burns than take someone else’s advice, just because I’m the one who suggested it?’

Slowly Belle moved towards the desk, broke off one of the aloe vera leaves and applied its nectar to her burn. It did feel better, but she wasn’t going to tell him that.

‘Happy?’ she said.

‘I’m not unhappy.’

‘Why are you here?’

Only then did Belle notice that Rumple was leaning on his gold handled cane, which she hadn’t seen it since he went off to duel with Dark Hook.

‘You don’t need that.’

‘As a matter of fact, I do.’

Belle frowned. Rumple voice sounded so exhausted, as if he was unwell. But the Dark One didn’t get sick. She hadn’t heard him sound this rough since the day he had phoned her at the hospital to tell her… to her he was dying.

Belle squinted at him. ‘Come into the light.’

Rumple limped forward, oddly, like it was hard for him to move his legs normally, dragging his feet, and emerged into the shaft sunlight.

Belle gasped.

Rumple complexion was deathly pale, like death warmed over twice, sweating like a beast. He looked haggard, dark bruise-like shadows under his eyes, like he hadn’t slept in a week, and it was clear that his cane was the only thing keeping him standing. He was holding a flat wooden box under his arm. The hand gripping his cane was twitching involuntarily.

‘What’s wrong with you?’

Rumple swallowed, looking at Belle as if she was his last hope. ‘I need your help.’

This was low, even for him. Belle would not be fooled again. ‘If… If this is some sick, twisted way to win me back after everything –’

Rumple shook his head forcefully. ‘I’m not here to win you back. You’ve made it brutally clear that all my efforts up till now have been for naught. And that further pursuing with this fruitless endeavour would be long and drawn out and futile. I knew coming here was a mistake.’

‘If you think that by making me feel sorry for you that something’s going to change, you are wrong.’

‘I’m being serious, Belle.’

He looked close to a total breakdown. His voice was shaking.

‘I’m not trying to win you back… but I am sick.’

‘Then see a doctor.’

‘What ails me isn’t medical. Their small minds can’t comprehend it.’

‘What’ve you been doing? Why’re your hands twitching? Why do you need your cane?’

‘It’s the treatment.’

‘What treatment?’

Rumple tilted his head towards the door, not meeting her gaze. ‘Could we talk in private, please?’

He limped towards the door and out onto the street, leading the way. Belle reluctantly followed him. She never could resist a mystery.

They crossed the hundred yards and arrived at the pawnshop. Rumple opened the door with a jingle of his shop bell.

‘Come in here.’

Belle looked worried, but followed him inside.

The shop was dark. The lights were off, no gas lamps were lit, and the blinds were shut on the windows so that the only light came from the thin slivers around the edge and the slats between the shutters. This place that had once sparkled with life was dead and oppressive. An Aladdin’s cave that was now a cave.

Rumple closed the door, flipped the closed sign and bolted it.

Belle swallowed.

‘The sign doesn’t work,’ he explained.

Rumple moved passed her, leading her to the back room. Perhaps to put her more at ease, he flicked on the side lamp by the curtain, allowing a small orange glow to permeate the void. Belle recognised the lamp with the model woman in the blue dress with a book in her hand as the one that used to stand on the table in the hallway of their salmon house. She supposed as Rumple seemed to live in the shop now, that he had moved the Belle-lamp here.

‘This place is like a ghost town,’ said Belle.

‘Yeah, well, I missed you,’ Rumple murmured, before disappearing through the curtain.

It was brighter in the backroom, but not by much, as only one window remained uncovered, casting a shaft of pale light onto Rumple’s spinning wheel, spools of gold thread glinting in the basket by the stool.

Rumple moved around so that the workbench was between them. He placed the wooden case down on the worktop and opened it. Inside was an old fashioned hypodermic needle, like the kind Dr Jekyll had used, a metal case no doubt containing fresh needles and small glass phials of liquefied Light magic.

Then he reached into the pocket of his suit jacket and placed the dagger on the table. Belle saw at once that something was wrong. The blade was swirling between black and silver, like wisps of dark cloud drifting across a grey sky. And that wasn’t all. The writing was fading. What was once his full name has been reduced to ‘half-a-plestiltskin.’ She had no idea what was happening, but she knew it was not good.

Without asking permission and with no protest from its owner, Belle picked it up and almost immediately dropped it again with a gasp, having felt Rumple’s current condition through the blade.

‘You know the difference better than anyone,’ said Rumple. ‘Is what I’m feeling real enough for you?’

‘How are you even walking around?’ Belle asked.

‘With tremendous difficulty, pain, a cane and nausea.’

Rumple was now loosening his tie and unbuttoning his shirt.

‘I’m sorry about this,’ he muttered, embarrassed.

‘Go on,’ said Belle, preparing herself for the horror she was about to see revealed to her about this… treatment. ‘I can take it.’

Watching Belle fearfully, Rumple pulled back the shirt, enough so she can see the huge, blackened, infected abscess on his chest, where he’d been injecting the serum. She could no longer see the scar over his heart; relic of his great sacrifice, when he had given his life to save them all from Peter Pan.

‘Gods in heaven,’ Belle whispered. She could barely stand to look at it.

Rumple covered up the abscess again and started buttoning up his shirt, leaving the top button open. ‘I thought it would pass, but it just keeps getting worse. I can’t sleep.’

‘I’m not surprised,’ said Belle, tears in her eyes. What had he done to himself?

Rumple had tears in his eyes too, looking desperate. ‘Help me.’

Belle stared at him in disbelief.

‘You said a hero always helps strangers. Well, now’s your chance. I’m stranger to you now. Please. I don’t know what to do.’

Help me. Two words a hero and Belle never refused. ‘We’re going to the fairies, now.’

Rumple looked down, accepting the inevitable. Belle talked in a fast and firm voice, taking charge, particularly as another letter was beginning to fade from the metal.  ‘And we’ll show them the… syringe, and the serum you’ve injected, everything you’ve been taking, all of it. We’ll take your car. I’ll drive, it’s too far to walk and you’re in no fit state. And bring everything with you, do you understand?’

Rumple nodded again. He pocketed the dagger, picked up the box and moved towards the door. But just as he reached it Belle stopped him.

‘What were you thinking?’ she wanted to know.

Rumple sighed heavily. ‘What I always do… it’s the irrational act of someone so blind with pain and desperation, so afraid of losing everything they hold dear, they think they’re reaching for the cure, when in fact, it’s just more poison. And for a powerful Uber-Dark One, this is poison with what I am.’

‘Why would you inject yourself with poison?’

‘Why do people inject themselves with diluted botulinum? Botox,’ he added in answer to Belle’s blank look. ‘I’m sorry. You don’t have to come with me. This is my mistake. You don’t want to be a part of this.’

‘You made me part of this. And if you think I’m just going to walk away from you now? You’re wrong.’

‘Wouldn’t be the first time.’

And you will walk away, Belle, he thought sadly. You always do. Always when I need you most. You always leave me stranded because you think you understand it. Because you don’t want to understand it.

@>~~;~~~~~

They knocked on Mother Superior’s office door at the Convent of the Sisters of Saint Meissa and entered. Inside was a pretty nun with a kind and gentle face who was arranging a vase of white roses. She had neck-long straight blonde and wearing a light blue headband, true to her fairy name. She looked round when the Golds entered, holding a single white rose in her hand.

‘You’re not Mother Superior,’ said Belle, surprised.

‘What gave me away?’ The nun smiled. ‘I’m Sister Agathe. I’m afraid Mother Superior isn’t here right now.’

‘Typical Rheul Ghorm,’ Rumple muttered. ‘Never around when you want her.’

Belle, meanwhile, had recognised the nun. ‘I know you,’ she said. ‘You were a volunteer at the hospital, when I had amnesia.’ She turned to Rumple. ‘We talked, played card games and she always brought the best books.’

Sister Agathe shrugged, fiddling with the rose nervously. ‘I just thought you could use a friend.’

‘So, at least you weren’t completely abandoned in my absence,’ said Rumple.

‘Where is Mother Superior?’ Belle asked the nun. ‘Do you know when she’ll be back?’

‘She’s with the Heroes, figuring out how to stop Regina’s darker half. It may take some time.’

‘The greater good… always more important,’ grumbled Rumple. ‘Of course the privileged take priority over the little people. Regina wants to stop herself? Tell her to pull herself together before she kills us all.’

‘That would be easier,’ Sister Agathe agreed. ‘Save us a lot of time and resources.’

‘Well, this has been a waste of my time and resources. I’ll bid you adieu before I burst into flames.’

Rumple turned to leave.

Sister Agathe moved around the desk, setting aside the rose. ‘Can I help?’

Rumple stopped and looked back. No fairy had ever asked if he needed help, let alone offered it to the likes of him. ‘I’m not sure the Blue Fairy would approve.’

Sister Agathe raised her eyebrows. ‘Of helping those who need help? That’s our entire job – fairy and nun.’

‘I don’t think you can help me.’

‘You won’t know unless you ask.’

Rumple stared at her. He considered her. ‘So which one are you?’

The nun drew herself up a little straighter. ‘My name is Bluebell.’

Rumple chuckled at the irony of her name. ‘Of course you are.’ He sobered up as the fairy continued to gaze at him, waiting patiently. She looked so sincere, without any trace judgement. He swallowed. ‘Can you help me?’

Bluebell smiled brightly, so happy at being asked, and looking as though she thought he would never ask. ‘Yes, I can.’

@>~~;~~~~~

Belle sat in a chair in front of Mother Superior’s desk. Bluebell appeared from behind the screen having just finished examining Rumple and hearing his story. Rumple was getting dressed while Bluebell washed her hands in a basin of holy water.

‘All done,’ she announced.

‘It won’t trouble him further?’ said Belle.

‘Not as long as he stops poisoning himself,’ said Bluebell calmly.

‘You’ve had a look at the things he brought, then?’

Rumple stepped out from behind the screen and sat down next to Belle.

‘How is he?’

‘Basically fine,’ said Rumple offhandedly.

‘I’ve seen healthier people in the crypt,’ said Bluebell, sitting down behind the desk.

‘Well, you’ve got to hide the bodies somewhere.’

‘Not funny,’ said Belle.

‘This isn’t, but that was.’

‘Rumplestiltskin’s been injecting himself with a diluted solution of Light magic,’ Bluebell explained.

‘That’s not harmful, though, is it?’ said Belle.

‘To the Dark One curse, yes. To the man it’s bonded to, even more so as it obviously wasn’t sterilised. Repeated injections would cause fever, and abscesses at the site.’ She looked to Rumple. ‘I assume this is a course of treatment you went to a lot of time and effort to perfect.’

Rumple nodded. ‘Yes, a lot of time and effort. I went to the Saviour’s old apartment and collected the residue background radiation of her Light magic. It’s like Chernobyl up there. I concentrated it into a solution and administered it directly into my heart. It burned through my veins like fire. I did blackout, but when I came to the ‘R’ of my name had vanished from the blade and the blackness had started to dissipate. The injections were supposed to continue the process.’

‘The purpose of which was…?’

There was a pause. The two women, who already knew the answer, waited. Belle looked ready to cry.

Rumple’s voice was so low it was nearly a whisper. ‘To change me. To make me just like everyone else. To finish what True Love’s Kiss started if it hadn’t been stopped… both times.’

Belle’s breath hitched. Rumple had been magically castrating himself. To cure himself of his magical predilections. Because of what she did in the dream world. Because he thought there was no other choice. ‘You were trying to get rid of the Darkness. When you kissed me, you weren’t just breaking my curse… you were breaking yours too. You were choosing me.’

Rumple said nothing, nor did he look at her. It was all too little too late, to realise something that she should’ve known all along. Maybe if she’d let True Love Kiss wake her up she wouldn’t keep losing.

‘Well, I admire the commitment,’ said Bluebell. ‘But there is no magical cure that will achieve what you want. In her desperation to save Hook’s life, Emma Swan multiplied the Darkness so that it can never be destroyed. Not without paying a great price. And you now have had to contend with two additional incarnations of the Dark Ones, one of which very nearly succeeded in bringing them back and dragging you all to hell.’

‘You mean I’ve been taken for the fool that I am,’ said Rumple bitterly.

‘My advice to you, Rumple, would be to accept the burden that chance has seen fit to lay upon you. And to fashion as good a life as you are able. Remember – harsh reality is always better than false hope.’

Rumple nodded resignedly. ‘My two closest companions.’

‘But… it is doing something,’ Belle interjected. ‘I’m not saying it’s right, or even healthy, but you can see, the curse is weakening.’

‘You can’t change yourself with drugs and magic. The most you’ll achieve is to have no feelings at all. Is that really what you want?’

Rumple didn’t say anything. Maybe this was what he wanted; he wanted to have no feelings at all because it hurt too much.

‘Rumple?’ Belle prompted. But all she got in return was silence.

‘Good thing we caught it early,’ said Bluebell. ‘Now you can put a stop to it.’

‘No,’ said Rumple.

‘You’re not thinking clearly.’

‘If I wasn’t thinking clearly I wouldn’t have asked my wife for help.’

‘There are a million magical elements flowing through your brain. This treatment –’

‘–I’m fine.’

‘Why come to us for help if you’re just going to ignore it? Please let me help you.’

‘I don’t need your help.’

‘This is very raw, very strong Light magic that’s had no influence of the Saviour’s potential Darkness. If you carry on taking it at the rate you’re taking it, you’ve got weeks. Thank gods you haven’t been taking the full un-concentrated dosage, because that will kill you.’

Rumple raised his head at that. ‘Well… that’s good to know.’

‘Rumple, please,’ Belle pleaded softly. ‘You don’t have to do all this alone.’

‘I’m already alone,’ said Rumple gravely. ‘After all I’ve put you through… Isn’t that what I deserve? I should’ve been the one who was pushed into the Sea of Lost Souls.’

Belle opened her mouth to say something, but –

‘What is going on here?’ Blue had arrived.

Bluebell jumped up from Blue’s chair as though it had just been electrocuted. Rumple and Belle stood up too.

‘Making yourself at home in my office, I see, Sister Agathe.’

‘Mother Superior –’ Bluebell began.

Blue held up hand to silence her. ‘Our rent is paid in full,’ she said to Rumple.

‘I’m not here about the rent,’ said Rumple coldly.

‘Well, good day to you then. Belle?’ Blue moved to stand protectively beside Belle, glaring at Rumple, as if she thought he’d brought her here against her will. ‘Are you all right?’

‘I’m fine,’ said Belle. ‘I’m fine,’ she insisted when Blue continued to stare at the Dark One with her relentless ice-coldness. ‘I asked him to come, Mother Superior. Rumple needed my help.’

‘Belle,’ said Blue in the patronising tone that Rumple hated so much, ‘you of all people must realise by now that he’s beyond either of our help.’

‘No one is beyond help,’ said Bluebell, rather boldly Rumple thought. ‘You once thought Tinker Bell was mad to help Regina, that the Evil Queen couldn’t be reformed, but she was right.’

‘The cases are completely different. I have made it very clear how I feel about cavorting with his type.’

‘I don’t believe in types. I believe in people. Rumple asked for my help and I accepted. I owe it to him, Blue – we both do.’

‘We owe him nothing!’ said Blue hotly. ‘You would help the Dark One when he has killed our sisters, pressed and hung their corpses like an entomologist, put their wands on display – he forced us all into a magic hat to infuse our Light magic for his nefarious purposes!’

‘Not all of us. If you recall, Mother Superior, Tinker Bell was visiting Tiger Lily in Neverland, and you thought Nova and I had better utility at the convent with Lenore instead of helping the others at the diner stop the Snow Queen’s spell. The Screw-Up and the Disgrace. I suppose I should be grateful to you for that. You know a person doesn’t have to have a title to be worthy of help.’

‘What help could he possibly need from us?’

Blue spotted the box and its contents on her desk. She laughed icily.

‘You really are desperate, aren’t you, Dark One, if you thought stealing Light magic would change anything.’

‘Funny,’ said Rumple. ‘Regina or any of the Charming clan breaks the rules – Authors, curses, serums – they’re Heroes; even when their actions make things worse. I do it and I’m the villain. That doesn’t seem fair.’

‘No, what’s unfair is that it’s a vile, dangerous world, because you’re in it. Look what you’ve done to her.’ Blue pointed at Belle’s burn, for all the world as if Rumple had inflicted the injury himself. Like he had held her down and pricked her finger with his own brew of sleeping curse. ‘You’re like wildfire; you destroy everything in your path. And no amount of Light magic can make something as rotten as you pure.’

‘It so happens that you’re wrong. Because it is working.’

‘Is it? So you feel differently now, do you?’

‘I don’t feel differently about you.’

‘Thus proving my point. There is no hope for you.’ Blue picked up the box and carried it over to Rumple. ‘If you really want to be of service, Rumplestiltskin, if you really want to make the world a better and safer place for Belle and her son…’ She roughly, thrust the box at him. ‘I think you know what’s required of you.’

The little colour Rumple had regained drained for him, and the dimmed light in his soulful brown eyes seemed to extinguish in wake of Blue words.

‘Yes.’ Rumple took the box. ‘I believe I do. I think it’s better that I leave.’

‘Yes. That would be better for everyone.’ Blue then turned her condemnation on Bluebell. ‘And as for you.’

‘Blue, I –’

‘Hold your tongue! Now... It seems that you have time on her hands.’

‘But I was only trying to –’

‘Silence!’ Blue pondered her fellow sister. ‘Time to fraternize with the enemy. And would you be so kind to explain this?’

She held up a book, Past and Present by Thomas Carlyle.

‘I believe it’s called a book.’

‘Yes, I understand what it is, Sister Agathe, but what is it doing here?’

‘Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realise that reading material was restricted to only the Bible.’

‘Well... maybe we can put your time to better use.’

She waved her blue wand and produces a pile of laundry.

Bluebell looked shock and a little indignant. ‘But I just finished these –’

‘Do them again! You’re getting too big for your britches. You should remember your place in life, Sister Agathe. In life and in line.’

Rumple frowned. He wasn’t a fan of any fairy, but the way Blue was speaking to Bluebell – whose only crime was doing what any decent nun or fairy would do – was reminiscent of Lady Tremaine’s treatment of Cinderella. As if she was nothing more than a servant. ‘Forgive me, but that’s offensive beyond belief for anyone in this day and age and realm to be kept in their place.

‘That is a bit harsh,’ Belle agreed. She had never seen Blue act this way before.

‘I am the head of this Sisterhood,’ said Blue, ‘and I shall decide how hard, or otherwise, to be. And it’s no harsher than the chores the Dark One subjected you to, Belle. Duties ill-befitting the dignity of a lady. Washing the blood of the innocent out of his clothing. Unlike him I am not a monster.’

‘And on that note I think I’ll leave,’ said Rumple, already making his slow way to the door.

‘Can I drop you anywhere?’ said Belle.

‘No thank you, Belle. I… I’d rather be on my own, if you don’t mind. I’ve texted Dove to come; he can drop you off wherever you want. I feel like a walk.’

‘At least have a cup of tea before you go,’ said Bluebell, her arms full of the laundry she had to wash again.

Rumple shook his head. ‘No, I’ve outstayed my welcome.’

‘But you need help,’ she insisted.

Rumple lifted his gaze, his dead eyes over bright. ‘No… no help. No home. No hope.’

‘Rumple, hey.’ Belle put a hand on his arm to stop him. He tensed up at her touch. ‘Tell me what’s wrong. What do you need?’

Rumple looked at Belle, as if he had a million things he wanted to say. But he didn’t. ‘Forgive me… Miss French, for taking up so much of your time. Goodbye.’

And with that, Rumple left the office, leaving Blue looking satisfied that he’d gone, Bluebell looking worried and desperate and Belle, who was confused at upset.

@>~~;~~~~~

Rumple decided to make a side stop on the way back to the shop. Shifting the cardboard box in his arms, he rang the doorbell of the Swan House, Emma Swan’s new residence. He really hoped the lady of the house and her lapdog were out. Thankfully, the person he really wanted to see before he left answered the door.

‘Hello Henry.’

Henry folded his arms; rather than greet his grandfather or invite him in. But Rumple didn’t expect anything less. ‘What do you want?’ said his grandson with the grace of any moody teenager.

‘I’m sorry.’

Henry blinked, not expecting that at all. ‘What?’

Rumple’s hand shook a little on the box. ‘…I was and am a terrible grandfather. Neal’s death should’ve brought us closer; instead it only severed my link to your family and pushed us apart. We should been working side by side in my shop. Sharing stories about your father. Keeping his memory alive. Complaining about Hook behind your mother’s back. I guess it’s too late now, but for that I’m truly sorry, Henry. Here.’

He handed him the box.

‘These belong to you now.’

‘What is it?’ said Henry, taking it.

‘Neal Cassidy. Though he will always be Baelfire to me. And you deserve something of your father’s, not just his eyes.’

Henry took the box containing his dad’s last possessions. ‘You know… it wasn’t all your fault,’ he said. ‘I was too busy worrying about mom backsliding, I didn’t think you must be suffering too. Maybe things could’ve been different.’

‘We’ll never know.’

Henry opened the box to see what was inside. Neal’s dreamcatcher, CDs, books, a coal drawing of his father when he was Henry’s age, a brown leather ball, his shawl, some of his old toys and his clothes from the Enchanted Forest. Henry held up one of his father’s old tunics to his chest.

‘We’re the same size!’ he exclaimed excitedly.

Rumple smiled. ‘Like father like son. Just as it should be. You’re a remarkable young man, Henry. I know your father was – is – very proud of you.’

‘Wait,’ said Henry as Rumple made a move to depart. Henry retrieved his storybook from the sideboard where he had put it down to answer the door and pulled a piece of paper out of it. ‘Dad didn’t have much on him when he first came to this land, but he did keep this. I think he’d want you to have it.’

Rumple took the sheet of paper. It was a coal drawing of Rumplestiltskin, the man he used to be before he became the Dark One. The father Baelfire so desperately wanted back. It was wrinkled and there was a small tear at the top, like Bae had come close to tearing it up or screwed it up to throw it in the bin, but at the last minute decided he could never throw his papa away.

Rumple’s throat burned as did his eyes. He cleared his throat loudly and sniffed, folding his son’s last drawing carefully and stowing it in his breast pocket.

‘No matter how hard you try. You can’t escape your past. Thank you, Henry.’

Henry smiled and went back to searching through the rest of his father’s things.

‘I hope you’ll make more of your life than I ever made of mine.’

Before Henry could ask what he meant by that, Rumple had already disappeared from the porch.

@>~~;~~~~~

In the backroom of his shop, Rumple dribbled blood red wax onto the back of the envelope and sealed it with a rose stamp. He laid the letter – his note – addressed to Belle on top of a larger brown envelope, which sat in turn on a lumpy parcel tied with a thread of spun gold.

‘You’re really gonna give up now?’ demanded the voice of the Dark One, who had chosen Rumple’s form to taunt him with in his final moments, to sway him from what he was about to do. ‘When you have the tool to our triumph within your grasp?’

Rumple refused to look at the black box containing the golden shears he had plucked from the harbour waters. If the Evil Queen should get her hands on them, she could use them to permanently separate herself from Regina and reap untold havoc. Though he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t tempted. It would be so easy. One little cut and so many problems would be solved. But that was the Darkness’ deadliest weapon: temptation. However low Rumple felt he had fallen now, there was still way, way further down to go, if he listened to the Dark One.

‘You’re nothing but a devil on my shoulder,’ said Rumple firmly.

‘Doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Our boy is destined to hate us – how can he not with his mother pouring poison in his ear about his father and corrupting him with her limited, narrow, closeminded black and white view of Good and Evil, moulding him into her perfect blue-eyed French boy? Make him your Golden child. All you have to do is take back our child, now, use the Shears of Destiny and he will love us – the man and the beast. The way Belle never could. And never will.’

‘No. I won’t betray my family. I want his life to take its natural course. He’ll still have the power to change his mind, make his own choice. Using the shears would rob him of that. I will earn his love, just as I earned back Baelfire’s. I will be worthy of him.’

‘And it still won’t be enough. You can make the right choice and it still won’t work out. You may want to do the right thing, but as we all know… we can’t always get what we want, now can we? But with the Shears, we can. Kill two birds with one stone: use them on Belle. If you won’t rip out her heart and command her to love you, erasing all the nasty moments she will hold over your head for evermore, cut away her hate. Her bigotry. Her pesky prejudices. Then we can finally have everything… love and power.’

Take away her choice, her agency? Manipulate her memories to suit him? Just like Emma and Hook did to each other? Like Regina had once done to Henry?

‘No,’ Rumple growled, leaning in to his scaly, smirking reflection. ‘It won’t… be… real.’ 

He said, speaking to a demon no one but he could see.

‘It… was… never… real,’ the Dark One snarled back. ‘Belle never loved you, she just wanted to rescue you, because ♫that’s what a hero does!♫ And when she couldn’t save you, she had to stop you. And when you saved yourself, she couldn’t stand it. Couldn’t stand not being the only hero in your life. That you’re more of a hero than she’ll ever be. Without us, no one would have even known or cared who Gaston’s little wife was. We elevated her! Gave her provincial life some semblance of meaning! And she spat in our faces! The ungrateful, pious wench.’

Rumple lunged at the Dark One, who stopped him with a magic choker hold.

‘You’re pathetic. So weak.’ The curse threw Rumple into a shelf, which collapsed under his weight. The dagger clattered across the floor. ‘Too weak to take what could be ours.’

‘I am not weak.’

The Dark One smacked him down. ‘You could’ve fooled me.’

Rumple struggled to his feet again. ‘See. What you don’t understand is, I’m the strongest version of us. Because I have evolved.’

‘You have evolved into a pathetic shell of us. But don’t worry. I’ll burn the heart out of you once and for all. You will soon just be a faded memory, and I shall be the Rumplestiltskin the world remembers.’

Rumple leaned against the workbench. ‘You’re the weak one, because you don’t understand love. If you did you wouldn’t want to collect power or destroy the world. You’re not a man, you’re a beast. But I’m no longer that man. You are. And that beast will not be the Rumplestiltskin the world remembers. If there’s one thing I can do with my life, I can put a stop to you for good.’

‘What?’

‘Belle doesn’t need us. And I don’t need you.’

‘Where would you be without me? I saved us! It was me! You survived because of me! I’m your oldest friend! The only friend you’ll ever have. Who else is going to love you?’

‘Me.’

‘So, what’s your plan, then? Talk me to death?’

‘Oh, my plan is... to do whatever it takes.’

‘Dearie, there are Heroes all over this town and none of them, not even the Saviour and her Pirate, have been able to stop me.’

‘Well that’s because none of them… are me.’

Rumple took out the syringe filled with the serum at the lethal dosage Bluebell told him.

‘No!’ said the Dark One in alarm. ‘You inject us you’ll kill us both! You’ll never be with Belle! You’ll never know your son! You’ll never see Baelfire!’

Rumple’s hand shook on the syringe. ‘I know that. That sun has set. But I also know... you don’t do the right thing for a reward. Or recognition. Or redemption. You do it because it’s right. I will do right by my family. I’ve been living on borrowed, stolen time for too long. Now I will finally face the unknown.’

The Dark One waggled his finger, looking scared. ‘No, no, no, no.’

And he was not alone. Nimue appeared before him, the Dark Swan on her left, Dark Hook on her right and the rest of the previous Dark One’s behind them, shrouded in hoods, their eye glowing, flanked by Gorgon the Invincible and Zoso, ready to take him down.

‘You cannot destroy us!’ said Nimue and the Dark One’s in unison. ‘Nothing can stop the Darkness! We are everywhere! We are in all of you! In your hearts – in your vanity and obsession and lust! When your suns die and the stars burn out, there we shall be! Nothing will ever destroy me! Nothing!’

Rumple raised the syringe. ‘Go to hell,’ he said darkly, ‘and take your Pantheon of Darkness with you!’

With one powerful swing, Rumple stabbed himself in the heart with the needle.

‘No!’ cried the Dark Ones.

Too late, Rumple had already injected himself with the serum. He gasped as it seared his body like fire. The syringe shattered because he was gripping it so hard. He convulsed and collapsed. The Dark Ones turned to dust as the Light serum took effect, disintegrating one by one. The Rumple incarnation dropped to his knees, watching his own fingers blow away.

‘No more Rumple…’ he said, looking sad and lost as he was wiped from existence.

In his last seconds of life, Rumple regretted he would never know his child’s name.

‘You have weakened me…’ hissed Nimue, the first and last Dark One who remained, who was nothing more than a shapeless form of crumbling grey dust under a black hood, keeping herself alive out of pure spite. She laughed sickly, ‘…but not enough. When the man is gone… only the Dark One remains.’

And then everything was swallowed by the darkness.

@>~~;~~~~~

Belle walked along the pavement staring at the sonogram of their baby. She had been due to attend her first check-up that morning and Dove had been kind enough to drop her off. Though she marvelled at this world’s magic at being able to see the growth of her baby (back in their world all they would have been able to tell was the sex of the baby with aid of a gypsy necklace), she felt no joy. All she could think about was how Rumple wasn’t there with her. She hadn’t wanted him there in the first place, but after today she wondered whether she had been wrong in denying him any part of their son’s life.

This was supposed to be one of the happiest milestones of their life. They should be sharing these moments together; decorating the nursey, discussing baby names, spending more money on baby things than a married couple would spend on a car, Belle boring him with facts from her baby book (‘Did you know your heart gets bigger both in length and width? Love for your baby actually makes your heart grow’), while Rumple massaged her swollen feet, stroked her growing stomach, fluffed her pillows, ran out at two o’clock in the morning to satisfy whatever craving she was soon to develop and soothing any fears she may have of being a bad mother or that she looked like a cow.

If she didn’t want Rumple to be a part of something as simple as this, what was she going to do when the baby got here?

She looked at the name at the top: GOLD, Belle. When she had originally made the appointment she had registered under ‘French’ having wanted nothing more to do with Rumple. They hadn’t been together for a long time, yet to hear Rumple call her by her cursed maiden name at the convent felt more like a divorce than actually signing any paperwork.

Yesterday she didn’t know if Rumple could ever do anything to repair what they once had. In the dream, their son had looked at Rumple with such hatred. Then to discover that during the days he had kept his distance from her Rumple had been literally injecting himself with poison in the hopes of getting rid of the Darkness after she had rejected his kiss in the dream world, Belle thought there might be a chance for things to turn out differently for them. That much she hoped.

The hospital had given her a copy of the sonogram picture as standard procedure. She could give it to Rumple as an olive branch. But it wouldn’t make up for the fact that she had excluded him from this magical experience.

‘Hey, Grandma.’

Henry was walking beside her, carrying a cardboard box.

‘Oh. Hi Henry.’ Belle noticed a familiar shawl wrapped around Henry’s neck like a scarf. Then she looked into the box and saw more Baelfire memorabilia. ‘These are your father’s things. Where did you get them?’

‘Rumplestiltskin gave them to me, said he wanted me to have them.’

Rumple would never part with his son’s belongs so willingly. He once nearly beat Hook to death for stealing Baelfire’s shawl, and previously her cursed father for stealing the chipped cup. Why pass them on to his grandson now?

They walked for a bit in silence, both deep in thought.

‘Grandpa Gold’s in a funny mood,’ said Henry.

‘Why?’

‘After he gave me my dad’s thing, he suddenly told me out of the blue how he hoped I’d make more of my life than he’d ever made of his.’

Henry walked on, puzzled but not particularly concerned. Belle, however, was having a horrible epiphany. She thought of the dying light in Rumple’s eyes when she had told him they were never getting back together, how his attention had been caught when Bluebell told him that any higher dosage of Light magic would be fatal to him, and that the Blue Fairy’s blunt advice that there was something Rumple could do to make the world a better place for everyone, as she had handed him the means to that aim, had snuffed out the last light of hope in Rumple’s eyes.

There is no hope for you.

Belle came to a halt. She suddenly felt cold and pressed a hand to her chest, her heart feeling like it was in the death-grip of Death itself.

‘I should go back,’ said Belle.

Henry turned back to her, only realising now that she wasn’t with him. ‘Is something wrong?’

‘I hope not.’

She turned on her heels and walked back in the direction they had just come from. Henry stared after her, now looking concerned.

Belle broke into a run.

@>~~;~~~~~

Rumple wasn’t answering his mobile, the house phone or the shop phone. Granted he never answered his phone when the Heroes pestered him. But it was her calling. He almost always answered on the first ring when she called.

Belle hurried into the diner, looking for Rumple. She scanned the tables, booths and counter – he was nowhere to be seen. She left before anyone could ask her what was wrong. Belle took the sidewalk at a run, passing a surprised Bluebell on the way to the shop.

‘Is everything all right, Mrs Gold?’ asked Bluebell.

‘Where’s Rumple? Have you seen him?’ said Belle, talking breathlessly over her.

‘He went into his shop.’

Why the hell didn’t she check there first? Didn’t she know Rumple at all?

‘Oh my god. Come with me!’

Belle rushed past her, heading for the shop. Bluebell followed, alarmed.

‘Rumple!’

Belle banged on the door. It was pitch black inside the shop now. But the Cadillac was outside. He must be here.

‘Rumple, are you in there?’

She tried the door handle, but the door was locked or bolted. She rattled it desperately.

‘Rumplestiltskin, will you open this door?’

Bluebell pulled out her wand which had a star on the end and attempted to open the door, revealing a protective barrier. She tried to magically break through. However, her magic wasn’t strong enough.

‘Ah!’ The wand burned her hand and she dropped it to the ground. ‘He’s cast a protection spell.’ She took it up and tried again. ‘It’ll take me time to break through.’

‘No, we don’t have time! Get back!’

While Bluebell moved back, her hand clapped to her mouth in distress, Belle pulled off her jacket, wrapped her arm in it and elbowed the window pane in the door, breaking the glass. Rumple didn’t want anyone trespassing, but it seemed he would still let Belle in. She reached through the smashed window and unlocked the door.

The door burst opened and they rushed in.

In the backroom, they found Rumple lying on the floor before a wrecked shelf that looked as though he had been thrown into it. His eyes closed, a small trickle of blood coming out of his right nostril, pale and lifeless.

‘Oh, my god!’ said Bluebell, horrified.

Belle fell to her knees and gathered Rumple up in her arms. ‘Rumple? Rumple, it’s Belle, can you hear me? Wake up. Open your eyes, please!’

The dagger on the floor read stiltskin. They spotted the shattered syringe and didn’t need to guess that Rumple had injected himself with the lethal dosage of Light magic.

Bluebell pulled back his shirt and tried to use her wand to remove the serum from the injection site. The wound glowed white and Belle felt a fraction of a seconds hope. But it just made it worse as it turned black. More letters vanish from the blade. Bluebell stopped. The last letter ‘t’ was beginning to fade.

‘What are you doing?’ said Belle frantically. ‘If you don’t remove it he’ll die!’

‘If I remove it now he will die,’ said Bluebell, gripping her star wand tightly. ‘It’s merged with the curse. Light and Dark are battling for dominance. It’s chaotic. His body make-up doesn’t know which is which – he has no anchor.’

‘What do you mean anchor?’ said Belle urgently.

‘We all have Light and Dark inside us. Cruella relished the dark side. Most people tried to pretend they don’t have one. Regina is literally battling her dark side instead of facing it. And Rumple has been battling the Darkness on two fronts – natural and magical parasitical – and almost entirely on his own. All we can do is maintain the balance. But the scales are broken. There’s too many variables in the equation. It needs stability, something known. He needs a constant.’

‘So how do we stop it? How do we save him?’

Bluebell looked straight at Belle. ‘By accepting him,’ she said. ‘By loving him. All of him. Even the parts that belong to the Darkness. Unconditional love. Isn’t that what True Love is?’

True Love’s Kiss…

But would it even work now? In Storybrooke? The Dark One curse multiplied? The current state of their relationship compared to how fresh and pure it was back in the Dark Castle?

‘So much has happened,’ said Belle weakly.

‘The heart knows things the mind can’t explain. True Love never dies. Rumple’s love for you has been constant. He risked everything for you. Because he loves you. Don’t you think you owe him the same? When you find something that’s worth fighting for, you never give up.’

Belle looked at the dagger. The name now read kin.

Her husband’s life in her hands. True Love or bust.

‘Rumple?’ Belle whispered to him. ‘I don’t even know if you can hear me. But if you can? You can’t give up. The Rumplestiltskin I knew would never give up on his loved ones. Even when things seemed dark and hopeless, even when the odds were against him, even when he knew there was no chance he would succeed. It was your best quality. It’s what I love most about you. Blue told you you’d never make it to this world to find Baelfire – but you did! Hook and Regina told you you’d never get me back when I didn’t remember who I was – but you did! Pan thought he’d beaten you by blocking your magic – but you still defeated him without it and saved us all! You gave up your freewill and sanity to keep your son alive. You fought until your last breath to keep the Dark One from snuffing out the light in your heart. You saved me in every way a person can be saved. You became the purest hero because of who you are. You risked your health to change our son’s fate, so that he would have his best chance. You need to be that man right now! Fight for us! For your family! Our child needs you… I need you.’

There was no change, except the dagger, which had just lost two more letters. Only the n remained. And it was fading away, like the man in her arms. The man she loved with all her heart, who had just poisoned his own for her. He was giving up the ghost, or too far gone to fight back.

Belle wouldn’t let this stand. Not when they were so close.

‘You’re not a coward, or a monster, and you are not a beast. You are the most beautiful man I have ever known. You fought for us every single time. Because you love us. And I was just awful, awful... so horrible to you.’

He probably couldn’t even hear her baring her soul at all.

‘I said a lot of terrible things to you. My heart was broken… it’s always going to be broken… and I know yours is broken too. I said things that… Gods, I should burn in hell for what I said to you, what I did, it was just – I’m just sorry. I love you. I loved you as the beast, as I loved you as the man, as I love you now as both. I know it’s too late to say it, but… you can’t just die!’

Belle started crying in earnest.

‘I’m so sorry, Rumple. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I banished you from Storybrooke. I’m sorry I broke your heart at the well. I’m sorry I said saving you wasn’t worth darkening my soul. I’m sorry I rejected True Love’s Kiss, when it could’ve saved us both. I’m so sorry for all the awful things I said to you; that all I saw was a beast; that I didn’t want to make a home with you; that I said we needed protecting from you; that I said you should hate the man in the mirror; that I would never love you again; and that you would never get me back. And that that made you think you had nothing to live for. It’s all my fault, this and everything. I was wrong. I’m so sorry, Rumple. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. If you can hear me, if you have any love left for me, please, please, please don’t leave me!’

Rumple had seconds –

Belle leaned down, whispered, ‘I love you…’closed her eyes and kissed him.

The last letter vanished completely from the blade, leaving it silver with black markings, but no name. Because there was no soul bound to it.

For a split second nothing happened. Bluebell and Belle knelt on the floor, Bluebell crying silently at her failure and Belle’s lips still pressed to Rumple’s, kissing her dead husband. Then the black marks on the knife glowed white. That same white light shone from ground zero where their lips met. It radiated out of Rumple’s skin as he glowed, as it did Belle, shining brighter and brighter until it was burning white, radiating heat and light until the white corona coming from them filled the room, the light bouncing off every gleaming surface and making the trinkets rattle.

A pulse of white-rainbow tinged magic flashed throughout Storybrooke, igniting candles, lamps, streetlights, the lights and dashboards of parked vehicles, the diner’s florescent lights. The force of the shockwave blew Bluebell’s hair as it passed through her. Nimue shrieked and exploded in a cloud of dust. Everyone in town was knocked off their feet. And the Split-Evil Queen was forced to hurriedly cast a protection bubble around herself to defend her less the Light obliterated her despite still being linked with Regina, though the shield spell’s surface was entirely covered in splintered cracks when the wave had passed. The barrier spell around Storybrooke, that had encased it like a snow globe, lit up like a Christmas tree and then dissolved into the atmosphere.

The light slowly dimmed, retreating back into their skin, leaving the room much darker after the blinding brightness despite the candles and electric lights. Belle gasped as she pulled back, breaking the kiss at last, as old forgotten memories reawakened in her mind: the death of her mother, Regina ripping out her heart and the conversation between her and Rumple at the well that she had made her forget, the missing six weeks in Camelot that she never got back and a memory from the Dark Castle she had thought had been a dream.

But she didn’t have time to process it all. Rumple suddenly took a long, deep breath, still with his eyes closed, opened his mouth, exhaled and wisps of gas-like light escaped from him into the air.

His last breath?

It swirled through the air over their heads before it descended and spread over Belle’s burn, mending the skin and reducing the inflammation as the magic healed it.

Belle stared at her newly restored smooth alabaster skin, then turned quickly back to Rumple.

‘Rumple?’

But Rumple didn’t wake. He looked so at peace. The lines of pain and misery wiped clean.

The dagger on the floor was blank. His name had not returned.

Rumple was gone. Forever.

‘Rumple?’ Her voice broke, as did her break, tears spilling down her face as Rumple lay motionless, pale as death. ‘Oh no,’ she sobbed. ‘Rumple, don’t leave me! Please don’t leave me. Oh Gods, no…’ She clutched him to her, rocking backwards and forwards as she lamented the loss of her True Love, her forehead pressed to his, her tears falling into his sheared hair, reduced to tufty floof. Pain shot through her heart again, sharper than ever before. ‘No… Oh Gods, he’s gone.’

She looked up at Bluebell and was enraged to see that she was beaming in spite of the tear tracks on her face.

‘Why are you smiling?!’ Belle demanded, more tears cascading down her pink face at this inappropriate display. ‘Don’t you understand?! He’s dead! I killed him!’

‘No. He’s not dead. Look.’ Bluebell pointed. ‘He’s breathing.’

Belle looked down. Sure enough, Rumple’s chest was moving feebly up and down, indicating he was breathing, though barely.

‘But that’s impossible,’ said Belle faintly, still pressing her hand to her tauten breast. She winced, rubbing absentmindedly at the small pain in her chest. ‘His name’s gone. What happened?’

An expression of not a little wonder came over Belle’s face and she looked down at Rumple, watching his chest rise and fall, her newly restored missing memories still resettling in her head, all that could only have been recovered because of the most powerful magic in the world.

‘True Love’s Kiss can break any curse,’ she breathed.

Bluebell smiled and appeared to be overcome by a serious case of the warm and fuzzies, pressing her clasped hands to her mouth.

‘But he should be dead. The curse took root in his heart. He should be gone with it.’

‘Well,’ said Bluebell, lowering her hands. ‘Not if his heart already belonged to someone else.’

She looked pointedly at Belle. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Well… he’s your True Love. And you’re his. You found each other and professed your mutual unconditional love. In terms of magic, that essentially means you’ve exchanged your hearts, bound them together with a magical tether. The link his heart has to yours is keeping him alive right now.’

Belle’s heart rose. ‘So our love will keep him alive!’

Bluebell hesitated and Belle’s elation deflated.

‘It’s not that simple, is it?’

Bluebell shook her head. ‘No. I’m afraid not. Rumple’s life is hanging by a thread. One heart is not meant to sustain two souls long term. It’s why your chest hurts so much. It will get worse and worse for you, until Rumple wakes up… or he truly dies.’

She waved her star wand over Rumple’s body and it shimmered blue-white for a brief moment.

‘This will preserve him. A fresh body is better than a rotting one if his soul can find a way to return to it.’

‘If?’ said Belle anxiously. Surely his soul hadn’t left him. It was just a coma, like the last time the Darkness was removed from him. One that he would wake up from.

‘His fate’s in a precarious place. Rumplestiltskin was the Dark One for centuries and then took back on the power of centuries old Dark Ones, plus Emma Swan and Captain Hook. That’s a lot of Darkness to destroy, too much for even his pure soul. He may not have a choice where his soul is bound. He might not be able to come back.’

Belle didn’t know what happened when your soul passed on beyond going to either Heaven or Hell or the Underworld if they had unfinished business. They may even go to some place of Purgatory, a nowhere realm, waiting for their fate to be decided. But she knew one thing: no God, no Devil, no barrier between worlds would stop Rumple from returning to her.

‘He’ll come back to me,’ said Belle with upmost certainty. ‘He always comes back… Won’t he?’

Bluebell didn’t answer.

@>~~;~~~~~

Belle never knew how longer she sat there on the shop floor, still cradling Rumple in her lap, stroking his hair. She couldn’t be certain, but she was sure Rumple moved his head a little, very weakly but surely indicating he was still alive.

The silence did give her time to sort through her new-old memories: Regina’s betrayal to use her as a pawn against Rumple… Rumple’s confession at the wishing well, their reconciliation kiss, those awful words Regina had forced her to say before wiping her memory and preventing her from helping her dying husband and rebuild their relationship… the six weeks thinking time in Camelot, helping Merida save her brothers and vowing not to give up on Rumple back in Storybrooke… the memory of her and her mother being trapped in the library back in Avonlea and what had happened after the ogre found them under the table… they had been saved by the ogre child Gaston had tortured who had talked down the adult ogre (who might possibly have been its mother)… Colette thanking the ogre child and apologising to the ogre-mother and offering to broker a peace treaty and end the bloodshed… before Gaston shot an arrow, killing the ogre child, enraging the ogre-mother… Colette planting herself protectively in front of her daughter as the ogre-mother seized her and ripped her apart… Gaston hitting Belle on the head with the hilt of his sword, silencing her screams and catching her as she fell… her fiancé and her father discussing what to do when she woke up and her father hoping the blow and the trauma would make her forget, and if not, he would call upon the Blue Fairy to ensure Belle was ‘back in her right mind’… a half-remembered dream from her time in the Dark Castle involving her damned ex-fiancé, Gaston, that wouldn’t have made her so naïvely certain that his unfinished business was her and not killing Rumplestiltskin –

There came approaching footsteps and the curtain parted. Belle looked up in alarm, but it was only Bluebell, who had gone out front to make sure they were not disturbed. She closed the door to the backroom for privacy.

‘We should get him to the convent to rest and make him comfortable,’ said Bluebell, nodding at Rumple.

Belle nodded, but made no move to get up off the floor. ‘I hope he won’t mind if we undress him.’

‘I think he’s past minding if we put him in Granny’s night gown.’ Bluebell drew out her wand again. ‘Now, hold him tight and don’t let go.’

Belle pulled him close. Rumple opened his eyes a fraction and groaned, closing them again.

‘I hate to think he was so unhappy,’ said Belle miserably, thinking of everything that had led them here.

‘How can anyone be happy being separated from their true love and child?’ Bluebell didn’t sound harsh or condemning, but Belle felt her insides swivel up with guilt, knowing she was part of the reason Rumple had done this.

Would he even be happy to be alive when he woke up?

He had fought like hell to hang on in the coma because he had believed, on hearing Belle’s voice talking to him, that she still stood by him, even after everything he’d done. His tearful gratitude in the library, the hope in his eyes was almost unbearable. Today he had wanted to end the Dark One and his life. He had even left her a note and a package, which Bluebell was gathering up, along with the dagger. Would she be responsible, again, for undoing his sacrifice?

‘At least he’s not gone too far. All we can do now is wait.’

Belle stared at this fairy… Bluebell… Sister Agathe… who had gone to great lengths to help Rumple, against the wishes of Rheul Ghorm, knowing that Rumple loathed her kind.

I owe it to him, Blue – we both do.

‘Why are you doing this?’ Belle asked. ‘Why are you helping us? You said you owed it to Rumple? Do you know him?’

‘We’ve met,’ Bluebell shortly. ‘He was only a baby at the time. Let’s just say… I’m invested in his future.’

And on that enigmatic note, Bluebell waved her wand and she, Rumple and Belle vanished in a flash of blue-white light as they were transported to the convent.

Chapter Text

It’s just that these days [angels] probably don’t have wings. They probably just look normal, like you and me, but still cunningly wandering around doing good. ― Love, Actually, deleted scene.

Agatha

Book in hand, Belle left the bookshop and made her way back out onto the village’s main street. Opening to the first page, she planted her nose firmly in the book and blocked out everything else. She ducked under the cheese vendor carrying his tray of goods and swooped out of the way of the two florists, their arms loaded with huge bouquets, all the while never losing her spot on the page. The townspeople’s everyday routines never varied so Belle never had to worry about bumping into anyone, or getting deluged by a woman emptying her chamber pot into her gutting, knowing exactly when to knock a swinging shop sign into the flow of cascading water.

While she had been disappointed not to find anything new, this book was one of her favourites. It had everything a good story should have –

CLANG! CLANG!

Startled by the loud noise, Belle finally tore herself from the book. Looking up, she saw that the noise was coming from Agatha. If the town thought Belle was odd, they considered the older woman an outcast. She had no home or family and spent her days begging for spare change and food. Looking past the dirt that covered her cheeks and the rags she wore, Belle had always had a soft spot for Agatha. She felt Agatha deserved as much care and respect as anyone else, and hated to see how the other villagers ignored Agatha, or – worse – mocked her among themselves. Whenever she saw Agatha, Belle always tried to give her a little something whenever she saw her.

‘Good morning, Agatha,’ she said now, smiling gently. ‘I don’t have any money. But here…’ Belle reached into her bag, pulled out the baguette she had picked up especially for the older woman, and handed it over.

Agatha smiled gratefully. Then her smile turned playful. ‘No jam?’ Anticipating the response, Belle already had her hand in her pocket and produced the jar of strawberry jam. ‘Bless you,’ Agatha said. Lowering her head, she ripped a chunk off the baguette, Belle’s presence momentarily forgotten.

Belle smiled. She felt, in some strange way, a kinship with the woman. Agatha simply wanted to have food and be left alone. Belle was the same way with her books. As lonely as she could be at times, she couldn’t stand unwanted attention – hated it, in fact.

‘New book?’ Agatha enquired. Belle showed her the cover. ‘You’ve read that twice!’

‘I know, but it’s my favourite – far-off places, magic spells, adventure, a handsome hero in disguise and a strong heroine who discovered love… but not right away, of course.’

‘Of course… You know, adventure and True Love, isn’t in your books. It’s out there.’ Agatha pointed to the archway that led out of Avonlea to the world beyond. ‘Go find it.’

‘I can’t.’ Belle shook her head regretfully. She’d loved nothing more than to go running off into the blue, but she had duties, responsibilities, expectations. She was to be Gaston’s queen just so that their combined armies would help keep the ogres at bay. Her life was already decided. ‘My father barely lets me go to town by myself. Besides, I think it’s safer I stick to my books. They’re the only stories I know that have happy endings.’

‘Even the greatest love stories had obstacles to overcome. Trials and tribulations are part of the journey. It makes them stronger, because they refuse to let it take them down. Nothing in this world worth having is easy. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Or give up after the first fight.’

Belle hugged her book to her chest. ‘I’m not sure I’m brave enough.’

‘Do the brave thing and bravery will follow.’

Belle raised her head, surprised. ‘That’s what mother always says.’

Agatha smiled mischievously. ‘Then maybe you should listen.’ She raised the jam jar as though toasting her. ‘Let that be my gift to you.’ She kissed the jar of delicious strawberries. ‘Now go have an adventure.’

Belle smiled and walked away. Agatha watched her go.

From afar, Rumplestiltskin had been watching the exchange between the two women from the shadows. He remembered how a lifetime ago how he, a poor, powerless spinner who would starve himself so that his boy would have enough to eat, had given alms to a beggar, who had turned out to be the Dark One, Zoso, in disguise, hunting for a willing desperate soul to end his life and take the burden of his curse from him. The townspeople treated the beggar woman as if she were invisible. But that girl treated her like a friend.

The moment Rumplestiltskin saw her… Belle… the world seemed to fall away. For, lo, there she stood. The girl of his dreams. Who she is or whence she came, he knew not. Nor did he care. But his heart was telling him that here, here is the maid predestined to be his bride.

Pfft! The Dark One scoffed. Even after all this time, all the women who had crushed his heart, the Spinner still believed in pretty plots for fairy tales. That anyone could ever love him. Love was a witch’s spell from which Rumple should’ve awakened a long time ago. Though he could not deny he was intrigued by the pretty little thing. Maybe having a maid wasn’t such a bad idea. Knocking around his large estate talking to himself was starting to give him earache. And his collection of treasures had lost their lustre.

He didn’t know why he chose her. It could have been anyone. All he knew was, that somehow, someday, someway, come what may… I shall have her.

Stick Lady

An elderly woman carrying a bundle of twigs was walking along the forest path. When she saw people approaching her from the opposite direction, she held out a thin, bony hand.

‘Ah, I am but a poor old lady. Spare me some food.’

The first man gave his food to his dog rather than waste on her. She turned to the next man, palm held up.

‘Good sir.’

‘I only give to registered charities, hag,’ he grunted, banging into her on purpose so that her sticks scattered to the ground.

It mattered not. She stooped to pick them up and, raising her head, she saw the two people she was really waiting for.

Somehow Belle had convinced Rumple to let her come with him on one of his deals. She was wearing a blue fur-trimmed coat and brown pants with boots. Her coat was held closed by a wide belt with a big leather pouch hanging off the left side, like holster for her book. She was wrapped in a blue cape, also fur-trimmed, with a golden rose clasp and a yellow rose design tampographed on the back of it.

She was talking animatedly about the land they were visiting. Rumplestiltskin walked instep beside her, consulting a parchment map, pretending to be ignoring her mind-numbing wittering, but was really listening intently. He had visited these places so often that they had become mundane. But through Belle’s fresh eyes, Rumple felt as though he was seeing it for the first time.

‘Young lady? Good sir?’

Rumple, so absorbed in the parchment, didn’t appear to hear the Stick Lady and walked on by. Belle, however, stopped.

‘Spare me some food, please?’

Belle smiled and reached into her satchel. ‘I’ll give you what I have.’

Rumple finally realised that his maid was no longer with him. Looking back he saw Belle opening her satchel and pulling out her bacon sandwiches she’d wrapped in a handkerchief, about to hand them over to the old lady.

‘Belle!’ He sighed, shaking his head. ‘You’re such a soft touch.’

‘She certainly is,’ said the second man who had refused to give the Stick Lady food, looking at Belle as if he wanted to devour her. ‘Mmm… Soft and ripe fruit just begging to be –’

The sleazy man uttered a stifled squeal of pain as Rumple flicked his wrist and a dark red cloud of magic issued from his nether regions which he was now clutching in panic.

‘You can have your favourite toy back once you’re at a great, great distance,’ said Rumple, his amber eyes still on Belle, who hadn’t noticed anything, her attend focused on the frail Stick Lady. ‘Be lucky it was me and not some vengeful woman with a pair of scissors.’

The man whimpered and hobbled away, still gripping his smooth area.

‘You’ll know when you’re far enough, Dearie! Keep walking!’ said Rumple loudly as he heard his footsteps falter. To Belle he called, ‘And you owe me for those, Missy. That food comes from my kitchens.’

‘That I paid for,’ Belle reminded him.

‘With my gold.’

Belle raised her eyebrows. ‘You really think it’s a smart idea to start a fight with the woman who prepares your food?’

Rumple smiled. ‘I’ll allow it.’

Belle handed over her food to the old woman.

‘Thank you,’ said the Stick Lady. ‘Since you have been kind, I have a lesson for you both.’

She looked pointedly at Rumple, including him in her lesson. Rumple blinked in surprise, pointing silently at himself with a black nailed finger, as if to say “me?” and came back to join the ladies.

‘Take this stick.’ She handed Belle one of the twigs she had gathered.

Belle took it, looking a bit confused.

‘Break it,’ said the old woman.

Belle did.

The old woman handed another twig to Rumple. ‘And this one.’

The snap echoed through the trees. Rumple looked even more confused. Belle was fascinated.

‘Put your broken halves together with these,’ said the old woman, adding two whole sticks, one each to Rumple and Belle’s fagots.

Belle bundled them together neatly, as if she were going to be marked on her work. Rumple was frowning as he passed her his broken and whole sticks. What was the old woman getting out?

‘Now, try and break them.’

Belle bent them as she had the first one. But she couldn’t even get the twigs to move. She handed them to Rumple. He tried but they wouldn’t bend no matter how hard he tried. She looked up at the old woman. ‘We can’t.’

The woman smiled. ‘That is the lesson.’

‘Good lesson,’ said Rumple dryly. ‘That was definitely worth the price of admission and an empty stomach.’

‘When the students are ready, the teacher appears.’

‘Oh, indeed. I do much the same. People come to me for answers to their problems. As a teacher, I help them as much as I can. Impart wisdom… warnings. Whether my students learn anything I teach them, remains to be seen.’

‘What kind of students?’

Rumple grinned wickedly. ‘Special needs.’

The old woman stared at him for a moment. Her eyes were rheumy, her face a little too calm. ‘Remember the lesson you have learnt today. It will be important later.’

‘Forgive me,’ said Belle, ‘but what does breaking sticks prove?’

‘What it proves is for you to decide.’ 

Then without another word she walked away, bent double under the weight of the twigs.

‘What was that about?’ said Belle as they continued on their journey.

Rumple said nothing. He glanced over his shoulder at the Stick Lady’s retreating back and looked down at the bunch of twigs still in his claws. Easily broken on their own, but together they were unbreakable.

Old Beggar Woman

Belle was dying. And it was Rumple’s fault.

No! It was Gaston’s fault! But Belle would never have put herself in harm’s way if it wasn’t for him.

He had answered a mysterious summons. The sender had offered him a deal he couldn’t refuse: a magic glove, which, when you put it on, will transport you wherever you wished to go. After he’d left, Belle must’ve found the parchment and recognised the glove. It was owned by Gaston LeGume who used it to find the best hunting spots throughout the kingdoms. Realising it was a trap set for Rumple; Belle had rode off on Philippe to stop him.

Rumple had arrived at the meeting place in the middle of the forest and was attacked from behind by an arrow shot at him by Gaston. But being the Dark One, he was able to catch it before impact. Unfortunately, Gaston had anticipated it; which was why he didn’t coated the tip with squid ink. Rumple dropped the arrow but it was too late, the squid ink had immobilised him and rendered his magic impotent.

‘Ha-ha! I knew you couldn’t resist making a deal,’ said Gaston emerging triumphantly, the man glove in hand, admiring his new trophy. ‘I’ve heard rumours of the Dark One’s desire to travel to a Land Without Magic. Why would a power-hungry beast wish to go to a world that would leave him powerless?’

‘You have no idea what’s waiting out there for me,’ Rumple snarled. 

Gaston grinned. ‘You’ll be waiting forever.’

He ignited the glove with his flaming torch. Rumple watched helplessly as this rare chance to find Bae turned to ashes on the forest floor, melting the snow.

‘Disappointed? You won’t be disappointed for long. One shot of this silver arrow through your heart – compliments of the Blue Fairy – will kill you stone dead. Don’t worry. No one will mourn you.’

Gaston raised his bow and reached back over his shoulder to draw a silver arrow from his quiver – but there was nothing there. Gaston spun round and saw Belle standing there, a black cloak over her white shift dress, his enchanted arrows gripped in her hand.

‘Belle?’

With that, Belle snapped Gaston’s magic arrows over her knee with a loud crack, and tossed them away.

‘Where is he?!’ she demanded furiously. She saw Rumple standing paralysed in a cage of blue magic. ‘What have you done?’

She tried to push past Gaston to get to Rumple. Her fiancé grabbed her around the waist and pressed her close to his body. ‘Oh, my beautiful Belle. Oh, I was so afraid for your safety. Fear not! For I am rescuing you from this monstrous beast!’

Then he pulled her into a deep, smothering kiss. If Rumple could move he would’ve ripped him off her, ripped out every bone in his body, grind his bones and make them into bread. Then he realised that Belle wasn’t responding to the kiss with her husband-to-be. The kiss was entirely one-sided, but Gaston didn’t seem to notice as he attempted to eat her closed mouth off her face. His eyes were closed, making stomach churning moans of ecstasy, believing he was sharing some romantic reunion kiss, unaware that his love wasn’t returning his relief or affections.

Unable to stand it a second longer, Belle planted her hands on Gaston’s chest and pushed him back in disgust.

‘Gaston! Don’t get all smoochy and disgusting with me, okay? I remember what you did to the ogre child. And I won’t let you hurt anyone else.’

‘What’re you talking about? I was protecting you and your kingdom, just as I am protecting you now from the monster who ripped you away from everyone you love.’ Gaston shook his head with a small smile on his face. ‘You’re just so traumatised by your ordeal that you don’t remember.’

Belle refused to be gaslighted and allow Gaston to rewrite history. ‘I remember Rumple, that’s who I remember.’

‘Rumple?’ Gaston looked confused by the nickname.

‘Well it is my name,’ Rumple muttered.

Gaston shook his head. ‘Listen, Belle, I have no idea what you’re talking about. And I don’t have time for your foolish, idealistic nonsense. Now stand aside so that I can vanquish this villain so we can go?’

‘No!’

Once again Belle tried to push past Gaston to get to Rumple. This time, instead of playing the passionate lover, her fiancé reached out and grabbed her arm. Belle struggled to free herself, but his grip was too strong. His fingers dug into her skin, turning it red. Belle cringed. Gone was the patriotic war hero he presented to the world. The man standing in front of her had finally revealed himself as the true monster he was.

‘Why are you doing this?’ Belle winced.

‘I’m following your example,’ said Gaston. ‘I’m doing what is right, but that book of yours is wrong. Being a hero is not about compassion and having forgiveness. It’s about strength! Doing whatever it takes to defeat your enemies.’

‘But Rumple isn’t even your real enemy. The ogres were. And only because you made them the enemy by hurting their young.’

‘Why do you defend Rumplestiltskin? He kidnapped you. He made you a servant. You should want him dead, too.’

‘Yeah, well, I don’t.’

Perhaps Gaston’s hand slackened for just one moment. Or perhaps shock made him temporarily weaker. Or perhaps it was something more magical than any of that. But whatever the reason, Belle was able to yank her arm free.

‘Why not? Belle, that man –’

‘I know what he is,’ said Belle.

‘You know?’ Gaston frowned. ‘And you still wish him to live?’

Belle tried to reassure him, to explain. ‘When I first met Rumplestiltskin, he was mean and he was coarse and unrefined. And it took a long time to see past all that. But he’s not what you think he is. He’s not who I thought he was. He once tortured a thief for trying to steal magic from him. But when he realised he did it to save his sick pregnant wife, he let him go so their child wouldn’t grow up fatherless.’

‘One drop of clear liquid doth not change a bowl of black dye.’

‘Though it seems enough to condemn him,’ piped up Rumple.

‘He’s a villain!’ Gaston shouted. ‘He’s a monster! A beast!’

‘It’s not like I’ve hidden that fact, Dearie.’

‘He’s evil incarnate!’

‘No,’ said Belle simply. ‘No, he’s a good man.’ She looked round at Rumplestiltskin. ‘He’s my friend.’

Rumple looked genuinely confused and taken aback by that, the same confusion someone would get when they received a compliment for the first time in a long time. No one had ever said that about him. This was the first time in his existence anyone who actually knew him had ever called him a friend without wanting anything from him, like one of his favours.

He looked so adorably bewildered that Belle smiled.

Gaston, on the other hand, failed to see the beauty in that statement. For his love was looking at her kidnapper and captor in the way he always wished she would look like him, like all the sane women in their kingdom did.

There was only one logical explanation.

‘This is sorcery!’ Gaston pointed his burning torch at Rumple. ‘The monster has you under his spell! If I didn’t know better, I’d say you even cared for him.’

Belle felt his words like a slap across the face. After all he had done, he dared call Rumplestiltskin a monster? ‘He’s not a monster, Gaston. You are.’

‘I’ve heard of the effects of Dark magic, but I’ve never before seen it with my own eyes! This is a threat to our very existence! That creature will curse us all if we don’t stop him!’

Belle moved to stand in front of Rumple. ‘If you want to kill Rumplestiltskin, you’ll have to kill me too.’

Rumple was simultaneous awed by Belle’s magnificence and terrified at her standing alone and unprotected in the no-man’s land between two beasts.

Staring down at her, Gaston asked, his voice full of disbelief, ‘You prefer that hideous thing to me… when I offered you everything?’ He smiled nastily. ‘Good, old Belle. You always did have a soft spot for a monster. What will you be? Lady Dark? His courtesan? His demon whore?’

Belle looked at Gaston with contempt. ‘I’d rather be that than your Queen. Better to be in the arms of a beast with good in his heart than in the arms of a handsome man with evil inside him.’

The smile vanished from Gaston’s chiselled face. ‘He’s bewitched you so thoroughly that you cannot see reality anymore. He must die. The enchantment will be broken. And you will be free of him.’ He whipped out his pistol. ‘When we return to the Avonlea, you will marry me. And that Beast’s head will hang on our wall!’

‘Never!’ Belle shouted. She grabbed the barrel of Gaston’s gun. Then she kicked him in the shin and tugged the weapon from him – hard.

But Gaston wasn’t about to let go of his gun, even if the person on the other end was his supposed future wife. He hung on to it as they struggled, the loaded weapon between them. Rumple watched in fear, struggling against the magic that bound him. Belle yanked the pistol hard, Gaston, not letting go, his finger on the trigger –

BANG!

Belle fell to the ground, clutching her stomach (and Rumple wasn’t there to catch her!) while Gaston looked on in shock. But that shock soon gave way to horror as watched his doom approaching like a volcano about to erupt. For Rumplestiltskin’s rage was building; his rotten teeth bared, his scaly face set as he tried to move his limbs. As expected, the squid ink fought against him, but Rumple fought harder, focused on nothing but getting to Belle and inflicting untold pain on the man before him. The blue magic shimmered, fighting to keep him restrained, but it was losing as it seemed to change from blue to gold.

Rumple roared like a great Scottish lion, his darkness and rage could no longer be contained as with one final push the magic broke in a flash of gold as he thrust out his hands, the force of the broken spell and his own anger-induced magic bursting outwards, blasting Gaston off his feet and slamming him into a tree, knocking him out cold.

His heart pounding in his chest, Rumple rushed forward and dropped to his knee, pulling Belle against him. The white material of her dress above her abdomen was stained with bright red blood, and her skin was growing paler than the snow around them. He adjusted her in his arms with her head resting in the crook of his arm and pressed one hand on her wound. His voice cracked when he asked, ‘Belle? Why did you do that?’

Belle coughed and took a deep breath, burrowing closer to his slender dragon-hide form. ‘I couldn’t… couldn’t let him hurt you. Must have read one too many adventure novels… fancied playing the hero.’

‘It’s not every day you see a plot twist like this: the princess saving the beast instead of slaying it,’ he teased even as his throat closed up. ‘Belle, I am so sorry. I was too distracted by the prospect of… something I’ve desired for more years than you could know that I forgot my own rule: if a deal sounds too good to be true, then it definitely is. And now you’re paying the price. Forgive me, dearest.’

He hadn’t meant to say that. It had slipped out before his brain realised what he was mouth was doing.

A weak smile formed on Belle’s lips, her eyes heavy. ‘It wasn’t your fault,’ she said. ‘You can make me well.’

‘You have my word. Rumplestiltskin never breaks a deal. I am going to do everything in my power to fix this.’

‘I know.’

Her smile was suddenly chased away by a vicious cough that wracked her small frame. If the cough hadn’t been enough to heighten his concern, then the blood that sprayed from her mouth and onto his chest did. Several droplets stained the front of her pure white dress. He hushed her to try and keep her calm, taking a silk handkerchief from his pocket and wiping the crimson stain from her lips.

He could feel her blood spreading under his palm where it was pressed over her stomach. But something greenish-yellow mingled with the red. The bullets Gaston had loaded had been laced with some unknown poison, designed to give the afflicted a debilitating, agonising death. And not knowing its origin Rumple dared not use magic and cause more damaged. And in any case, his magic was still compromised from the squid ink, having broken free before the magic had run its course.

He straightened up, moving his hand and tucking his arm beneath her legs, ready to stand. ‘We have to get you home. There’s not a moment to lose.’

Belle clutched the lapel of his shirt, her breathing becoming even more laboured. Philippe, who Rumple had pretended to an unconvinced yet grateful Belle must have stumbled upon his castle on a whim (quipping he was going to have him boiled for glue or chopped up for burgers if no-one claimed him,) came trotting over and nuzzled Belle.

Normally animals grew skittish in the presence of the Dark One, but Philippe didn’t so much as flinch when Rumple stroked his neck. Then the Belgian draft horse dropped to his knees, waiting for Rumple and his injured rider to mount.

‘Don’t die, Belle,’ Rumple muttered frantically, hoisting her higher in his arms. ‘Don’t die…’

Once they were safely aboard, and Rumple held Belle securely in his arms, Philippe stood up and Rumple rode like the wind back to the Dark Castle.

Rumple carried Belle into the dining hall and laid her on the conjured chaise. He took off his spikey black coat and draped it over her to keep her warm.

Without moving from her side, and with his powers fully restored, he conjured his potion making kit, his entire stock of herbs, powders and extracts and several books from the shelves, while half a dozen more came rushing in through the open double doors as they came to the call of his magic from the library. The books floated before him, the pages turning of their own accord as he searched through every poison that could kill a creature of darkness.

Belle drifted in and out of consciousness as he reviewed page after page of text, adding a pinch and dash of this and that to the small cauldron. As fever took hold Belle seemed to be having past conversations with people who weren’t there and others parroting passages from one of the books she had read. During one of her lucid moments, Belle chaffed that he never looked more like a wizard than he did right now with the many spell books floating before him, like planets orbiting his head, as if it was the sun. All he needed was to take that pointy wizards hat he so detested off its plinth, put it on his head and this generations Merlin ensemble would be complete.

‘How would you feel about growing a beard…?’

Rumple never got the chance to give her an answer as she lost consciousness. Belle didn’t have long. Rumple used a pipette to extract some of the potion from the cauldron and applied it to one of the roses that Belle had picked that day that he had placed in a solution of the poison that was running through her body. If he had brewed this correctly it should restore the flower and would be safe to administer to Belle.

The decaying flower returned to its healthy blooming state for a moment, and Rumple felt a rush of excitement, but then the rose not only became discoloured and wrinkled again; it had turned jet black and dead-looking.

The antidote hadn’t worked. He was going to lose her. He failed.

Rumple could feel tears sliding down the scales around his eyes, but he didn’t care. He swallowed past the thick knot in his throat. He leaned against the tall curtain-less window, his hand clasped together as though in prayer and stared up at the starry sky. The Gods and fairies looking down on them from on high, indifferent to the suffering of the mortals below, nothing but mere ants in their eyes.

Then Rumple did something he hadn’t done since he was a mortal man. He prayed to the deities he no longer believed in and the species he loathed so much for help.

‘If you exist…’ Rumple beseeched quietly to the heavens, ‘if you ever cared…’ he said in the direction of the Fairy Kingdom through a mass of clouds that veiled the moon, ‘…help her.’

So desperate was he that Rumple actually got down on his knees.

‘I know you will not listen to a demon’s prayer. I am not an innocent. But she is. She should not have to suffer for my mistakes. If you save her, I will give you anything. I will do anything, if you would let her live. Do with me what you will, just please don’t let Belle die.’

There was no answering voice, no miraculous appearance of a multi-coloured sprite. No help was coming. He may as well have been talking to balls of burning gas burning billions of miles away.

‘Damn you,’ Rumple cursed the Gods. And to Rheul Ghorm, ‘If she dies, I will exterminate you all.’

He looked round at Belle trapped in a fevered dream, sweating and shaking, her breathing shallow and painful. He took her hand in his, letting her know he was there, trying to give her some comfort.

‘I will save you, Belle. I will find a way. I just… need a little help. That’s all I wish for, Belle. I wish for help.’

There was a loud knock on the castle door. Who dared intrude on his grief?

‘What is the meaning of this?’ he demanded with a snarl, releasing Belle’s cold and clammy hand, swiping the tears from his face.

Rumple stormed to the front door which swung open as his approached, revealing the unwanted guest.

The stranger was an old beggar woman. She was clutching a gnarled cane with a shaking veined and knotted hand. Hunched as she was, Rumple towered over her.

‘Go,’ he told the haggard, old, vagrant. ‘I’m not dealing today.’

The old woman looked up at him with hope in her eyes, despite the rude dismissal. Her face was more wrinkled than a crushed brown paper bag. She held out a single red rose. Rumple froze at the sight of it, the anger draining out of him, his eyes drawn to it as if caught in a beguiling enchantment.

‘Please,’ said the beggar woman in no more than a whisper. ‘Accept this rose in exchange for shelter from the bitter cold.’

Rumple hesitated. Any other time he would’ve said, ‘I don't need a rose. Go away, you wretched old hag!’ and slammed the door in her face. Then he thought of Belle giving her food to the Stick Lady, because she was Belle. Then he remembered how beautiful and radiant Belle had looked picking those roses from his garden in the glow of the rising sun.

Rumple sighed and nodded. ‘All right.’

He stood aside to let her in. The old woman moved out of the cold and into the warmth of the entrance hall. As the door shut, the hooded figure sighed audibly, clearly happy to be somewhere she seemed to think was safe and inviting.

She peered more closely into his face. ‘Tell me, why are you so sad?’

‘It’s my friend. That is… My caretaker. She’s sick. She needs help I cannot give her… or she’ll die.’

The beggar woman lowered her hood, revealing her long white hair, her expression worried and serious. ‘Show me.’

Rumple said nothing, just kept staring.

The fragile old woman tapped her cane loudly on the polished marble. ‘What are you waiting for, boy? Take me to her!’

They heard Belle’s weak agonised cough coming from the open doors of the dining hall. Rumple turned towards the sound of her suffering, but the old woman was already shuffling forwards with surprising speed and agility for her advanced age. Apparently compared to her, Rumplestiltskin was practically a young boy in her eyes.

The beggar woman examined Belle, feeling her forehead, inspecting her poisoned wound.

‘She’s dying and I can’t help her,’ said Rumple miserably.

‘Then do not waste your tears,’ said the beggar woman, bustling over to his cauldron and adding this and that with practiced hands. ‘For the time for her to die is not yet upon us.’

‘You can help her?

‘Perhaps,’ she said as she measured out yarrow root. ‘Just tell me one thing: is she worth it?’

‘What?’

‘Maids are ten a penny. If she dies, what of it? Just get a new girl.’

How dare she say that to him? ‘I don’t want a new girl.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because she won’t be Belle!’ Rumple shouted so loudly and passionately it left him panting for breath. ‘She is young and innocent and good, brave and noble. She was never supposed to be here and it’s all my fault. She is under my protection and I failed her. I cannot save her.’

‘But you can.’

‘How?’

‘Love itself is powerful magic. And you, Rumplestiltskin, love more as no Dark One has ever loved or been loved before.’

‘I can save her?’

‘What will you give to save her?’

‘Anything.’

‘Anything?’

‘What must I do? Tell me what to give her!’

‘The tears of a lover is the only magic powerful enough to combat magic as dark as this which has afflicted your lady.’

‘She’s not my lady. And I am not her hero.’

‘Are you certain?’

‘Enough! Name any sacrifice, I’ll pay the price that’s due! If it costs me my life, my magic, if I must take her place, if it cost me my chance to find my… the most important person in my life, if I have to sell my soul to Hades himself, I will not see Belle’s light die! Tell me what to do!’

The old woman smiled. ‘You already are.’

She raised a small phial and collected his precious tears.

‘You care for her a great deal.’

‘Now it’s too late.’

‘Not yet.’

She added Rumple’s tears to the potion and tested it on the dead rose. The once dead rose became luscious and healthy again.

The beggar woman brought a cup of the potion to Belle’s lips. ‘Drink.’

Belle took a sip. Almost immediately her colour improved. She stirred as the potion took effect, but didn’t wake.

‘Belle?’ said Rumple anxiously.

‘She is sleeping,’ said the beggar woman. ‘She’ll awake naturally in her own time. Within hours she will be fully recovered.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘On my honour.’

Apparently satisfied that Belle was out of danger, Rumple could now turn his attention to other matters. ‘So which is it? Flower seller or physician?’

‘I’m a woman of many powers.’

‘Why are you here?’

It did seem highly convenient that in his hour of need, no sooner had he wished for it, then help came literally knocking at his door.

‘To seek shelter from the cold,’ answered the old woman.

‘I asked for help. I actually prayed to the gods, to the fleas I despise for help. Then you appeared…’

The woman shrugged, not meeting his eyes. ‘Lucky.’

Rumple frowned. ‘Say it is coincidence. If you know who I am, then you know who I am. Why would you help me? Who are you?’

‘Concerned third party.’

‘What are my concerns to you?’

‘Plenty.’

Before Rumple could interrogate her further, a small voice said: ‘Rumple?’

Belle’s eyes were open and she was struggling to sit up.

‘Belle!’ Rumple was by her side in an instant, cupping her pale, sweaty face, checking to see she was okay. ‘Oh, Belle! You’re all right.’ He was so relieved he was laughing. ‘You’re all right. I thought... I really thought...’

Belle huffed weakly, covering one of his hands with her own. ‘Oh, you won’t get rid of me that easily.’

Her whole body trembled, her strength not yet returned and Rumple gently encouraged her to lie back down on the chaise.

‘You saved me… like you said you would…’

‘Tis not I who you should be thanking. This –’

But looking round he saw that the beggar woman had vanished. Only the rose she had offered remained next to the white one. He didn’t hear her leave.

‘Old woman?’ Rumple called.

‘What woman?’ asked Belle.

Rumple shook his head. ‘Doesn’t matter. How’re you feeling?’

‘Better. But I must look dreadful.’

‘You look heaven sent.’

Belle smiled. Then she yawned. ‘Sorry. That – that medicine I drank, I feel –’ Belle began, slurring her words, her eyes growing heavy.

‘Yes, you were given some pretty strong stuff. Most healing potions have a soporific side effect to induce sleep and increase recovery.’ And in some cases interfere with the memory. Some of the memories Belle had up to this point might also be... corrupted. Perhaps it was for the best that her ordeal would fade into a dream. ‘I don’t want you to fight it, Belle, I want you to sleep, so that you can get well again,’ said Rumple.

‘Please don’t leave me alone,’ said Belle, drowsily, barely keeping her eyes open as she fought against succumbing to the welcoming arms of healing sleep. She saw Rumple lean in closer, his outline becoming slightly clearer in her hazy vision, filling her nose with his delicious aroma of spices and woodsmoke with that slight metallic trace of magic.

‘I won’t, sweetheart. I promise,’ said Rumple, the endearment slipping out without his permission. Curse his loose tongue, what was wrong with him? He hoped to the Gods she won’t remember him saying any of this in the morning. ‘You go back to sleep, Belle,’ he whispered softly, unable to resist stroking her cheek. ‘Everything’s going be fine.’

Belle sighed and drifted back off to sleep as the effects potion took hold. Rumple took a seat in the chair next to Belle’s bed. He kept a tight grip on her hand and kept watch over her.

But first, there was something he had to do.

He would have to bend his promise a little and leave her for a short while, but he won’t be leaving her alone.

After healing Belle’s abdomen, Rumple brought one of the winged stone gargoyles to life. The little creature with pointy ears and small horns and sharp tiny needle teeth flapped its wings and made a chirping noise, standing attentively on its hind legs, swishing its tail.

‘Stand guard over her until I get back,’ Rumple told it, before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

The gargoyle padded over to Belle. It made soft crooning noises, its beady yellow eyes dilating. Another beast revealed to have a soft side despite its vicious appearance. And Mistress Belle was always so considerate in keeping the dust off and would use her feather duster in all the right places. Then it crawled up the chaise and sat perched on the edge of over Belle’s head. Then it unfurled its wings to their full length in a threatening way, hissing menacingly, warning any would-be attackers to keep their distance, as it settled down to keep sentry over his pretty charge until its master returned.

@>~~;~~~~~

Gaston was still where they’d left him in the clearing. He had come too to find Rumplestiltskin and Belle were gone, leaving nothing behind but hoof prints leading away from the patch of snow stained with blood.

He turned and found himself almost nose-to-nose with the Dark One. Gaston reared back, taking a few hasty steps back from this repulsive beast.

‘You didn’t think this was over, did you?’ said Rumple.

He snapped his fingers and Gaston vanished behind a cloud of dark red smoke.

‘It is now.’

Rumple giggled madly.

When the smoke cleared Gaston had been turned into an enormous black stag with glowing red eyes, like those that had reflected back out of the Mirror of Souls. Right on cue a hunting horn went off somewhere in the trees, signalling an oncoming hunt: the baying of hounds, along with the shouts of men and the pounding of horses’ hooves.

‘Be gone, beast,’ said Rumple. ‘Let’s see how fast you can run. And if I ever see you again, it won’t end well for you.’

Stag-Gaston bolted into the trees, disappearing into the thick brush. The once great hunter had become the hunted. Let’s see how he liked being meek prey hunted down for sport.

Though Rumple would rather gouge his eyes out with a rusty fork than sing, the refrain that came to mind was too good to pass up:

‘No one bounds like Gaston,

From the hounds like Gaston,

Can be seen for miles around like Gaston.

They’ll use his antlers in all of their decorating,

My, what a buck, that Gaston.’

Justice satisfied, Rumple returned to the Dark Castle to watch over Belle.

@>~~;~~~~~

The hunting party finally corner the great black stag, weapons drawn and dogs growling their bloodlust. Then the leader of the hunt dismounted and moved forwards.

It was the Evil Queen.

She waved her hand and Gaston was returned to a handsome prince again, though a little dishevelled.

‘Ah, that was invigorating,’ said Regina happily. ‘Nothing gets the blood pumping like a blood sport. Really brings a colour to ones cheeks.’

Gaston was panting, his black hair was a mess and he did not thank the Queen. ‘You have been chasing me for 42 minutes!’ he roared.

‘Well, the dogs need the exercise,’ said Regina carelessly, jerking her head towards her black knights. But to her actual dogs, she coddled them, saying, ‘And my pets love the thrill of the chase. They prefer live prey.’

Gaston jerked his red coat straight. ‘The Dark One lives.’

The Evil Queen raised her eyebrows. ‘Your prey got away? What kind of a hunter are you?’

‘My foolish fiancée got in the way. The beast’s cast a spell on her; convincing that beautiful girl that she loves him. She broke my arrows.’

‘And got in the way of your poison bullets.

‘Your poison! That’s why you came to me in the first place. A chance to kill Rumplestiltskin and get back what’s belongs to me. Now she’s probably dead and the Dark One still alive.’

‘And future historians will surely condemn you, Gaston LeGume, for that blunder – the Great Hunter who couldn’t kill a beast in a trap. No matter. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to kill that beast. And don’t worry about your love. Rumplestiltskin was able to cure her. So today wasn’t a total loss.’

‘Why’s that?’

Regina smiled. ‘Let’s just say you helped proved my point in a little experiment I’ve been concocting. Nothing to worry your pretty little head about. Goodbye, Darling.’

‘Where’re you going?’ Gaston called after the Evil Queen as she mounted her horse, Rocinante.

‘Oh, places to go. People to see. Lives to destroy.’

The Evil Queen cackled as rode away followed by her knights and hunting dogs.

Bluebell, still disguised as the old beggar woman, watched her go from her hiding place behind a tree. Gaston’s plan had failed, but Regina’s plan had succeeded. Rumplestiltskin was still the most powerful magical practitioner alive apart from herself, but now she knew how to beat him. Now she knew his weakness. She had suspected it for some time after seeing how Belle getting kidnapped by the Queens of Darkness had affected him, now she knew it was more than just stealing the property of the Dark One. He cared for her. He loved her. And Belle cared about him so much she’d taken a poison laced bullet for him. Once she got his pretty little maid alone, she would exploit it.

And Bluebell could do nothing to prevent it. She couldn’t interfere directly. Rumple or Belle had to come to her, or wish for help. She could only stand by as Regina would plant the seed in Belle’s head about breaking Rumple’s curse with True Love’s Kiss, sending her back to him with hopes of being the hero and setting him free, raising Rumple’s hopes that she had come back for him, and watch that bomb explode, leaving devastation in its wake.

She had done all she can.

The rest was down to them now.

Chapter Text

I will love you forever; whatever happens. Until I die and after I die, when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I’ll drift about forever, all my atoms, until I find you again. ―Phillip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass.

I will come back from the dead for you. ― Richard Siken, You are Jeff.

“…You’ll never be with Belle! You’ll never know your son! You’ll never see Baelfire!”

“I know that. That sun has set.” Memory-Rumple’s eyes met Belle’s. “But I also know... you don’t do the right thing for a reward. Or recognition. Or redemption. You do it because it’s right. I will do right by my family. I’ve been living on borrowed, stolen time for too long. Now I will finally face the unknown.”

Belle watched Rumple’s final moments unfold in the web of the dreamcatcher. She had always assumed his curse was a voice whispering in his ear that he could easily ignore. It had been a shock to see it manifest as a mental projection that took the form of its previous incarnations (having already driven out of Storybrooke to see the world when the Dark Ones had tried to drag them to hell), and then to see them all standing there ready to take him down. It had been even worse to discover that it could actually cause its host physical harm. It was horrible to watch her poor Rumple being magically strangled by himself and them thrown across the room like a ragdoll.

She watched the Dark One try to get inside his head and tempt him again. Sickened as she was by its suggestions of how to get her and their child to love him, Belle was reluctant to admit that the curse’s reasoning was very sound, and up till now Belle had certainly helped to prove its point: with her coldness, her unwilling to compromise, her determination to cut Rumple out of their lives, her refusing to believe the truth even when Rumple told it to her because it conflicted with what she saw as the truth.

Thankfully, Rumple refused to listened, bravely squaring up to that demon, the physical representation of his fears, his weaknesses and the Darkness that had ruled his life. Then taking the syringe he plunged it into his heart as he had once impaled himself on his own knife whilst ridding the world of a villain threatening their lives. She watched the Dark One’s wiped from the face of the earth one by one and felt only the smallest twinge of pity for the Rumple-version of the Dark One as it watched itself turn black and grey all over, watched its fingers crumbling to dust and travel up its body, its remains blowing away, its sad face the last thing to vanish as it said, ‘No more Rumple…’

The memory ended, so that the only face of Rumple Belle could see inside the dreamcatcher was the one lying in the bed.

‘Oh, Rumple…’ Belle whispered tearfully.

They were in the convent. Rumple was tucked up in bed wearing a pair of stripy pyjamas. Bluebell had been kind enough to offer her “cell” as the nuns called their living quarters, so that Rumple could recuperate. It was a simple room with little material possessions: a bed, a wardrobe, a table and chair, and a model of Saint Meissa on the windowsill. But it was comfortable.

Bluebell had conjured a white rose in a bell jar, just as the Blue Fairy had done for Belle, to monitor Rumple’s health. Though unlike her trip to Camelot, Belle wasn’t leaving Rumple’s side. Last time she had done that while he was unconscious, someone had taken him from her. If he died, she wanted to be there with him. And if he woke up, she wanted her face to be the first face he saw.

At that moment, Sister Lenore, or Periwinkle as she was known in the Enchanted Forest, came in with a cup of tea.

‘Here we are, poppet,’ she said kindly.

‘Thank you,’ said Belle accepting the cup.

Sister Lenore tucked and flattened Rumple’s sheets unnecessarily. She looked into his face, which was still peaky and clucked her tongue sympathetically, smoothing his hair. ‘Poor dear,’ she said, feeling his forehead. ‘He’s made a terrible mess of himself, but he’s awfully strong, so must look on the bright side. I’m sure he’ll pull through.’

‘Mm-hmm,’ said Belle almost silently.

‘Oh!’ said Sister Lenore making Belle jump as she clapped a hand to her forehead. ‘That’s what I came in for!’

She bustled back round the bed and out of the room. When she came back she was carrying the package and envelope Bluebell had taken from the pawnshop. The things Rumple had left Belle. And, for some strange reason, a tape player.

‘Bluebell’s checked them and there doesn’t seem to be anything dangerous inside – not that your husband would ever give you something dangerous.’

Belle picked up the letter addressed to her. She had a feeling she knew what was inside the larger brown envelope, but it was this one she was most scared of knowing its contents.

‘I don’t know if I should open it,’ said Belle.

‘It’s addressed to you.’

‘I know, but… what was going through his mind when he wrote this?’

Sister Lenore took the envelope and examined it front and back, including Rumple’s handwriting on the front.

‘Well, this is written on parchment and with a quill, that means he’s old fashioned. And a romantic, too, as he used a phoenix quill – a symbol of Eternal Love. He sealed it with wax and an… impressionable seal, which shows special care. The broad spacing of the letters? Indicative of loneliness. And the loop of the ‘B,’ like in an ‘O,’ reaching out – insecure.’ Catching sight of the look on Belle’s face, Sister Lenore added hastily, ‘But the letters were traced with love, not anger. Why don’t you read it?’

Sister Lenore held out the letter.

‘What if it’s bad?’ said Belle, as if she were a child afraid of opening her exam results. ‘He tried to take his own life. He wouldn’t do that if he was happy or if he believed there was hope of us getting back together. How do I know he doesn’t blame me?’

‘You don’t. No amount of thinking or wishing can change what is written here. But one thing I can tell you: however good or bad it is; it can’t be any worse than what’s going through your mind right now. Not knowing is the worst. You’ll spend your whole life wondering what he wanted to tell you before the end. Anything’s better than nothing.’

Belle took the letter from Sister Lenore.

‘I’ll leave you be.’

She left.

Belle examined the letter. Her name was traced with delicacy and love. And on the reverse side he had sealed it with red wax with a rose stamp. Rumple’s last rose. It was too beautiful to break. Belle reached for the blank dagger which was just a wavy piece of cutlery now; a letter opener. She carefully slit the tip of the blade along the top and pulled out the letter inside.

Belle opened the sheets with trembling hands and read Rumple’s final farewell. Her blue eyes moved from left to right, savouring every word her husband had written her, and with every line, every revelation, everything she thought was true proved right or completely and utterly wrong, her vision became blurrier, until she could barely discern the words she was reading through her tears.

My darling Belle,

Rumple had crossed out “my darling” – her favourite endearment that always made Belle feel as warm as the voice that had spoken it – as if he didn’t think it was appropriate to call her “darling”. Or right to call her “his.”

I’ve been alive for many, many years. My life has been full of darkness and isolation. A valley of woe filled with pain, misery, death and despair. And has for the most part been very little purpose to it. And of all those years, you, Baelfire and our unborn child have been the happiest moments of my sorry excuse for a life. My reason for living. Now all is ashes. And I have truly become dust.

Nothing would have made me happier than being with you for the rest my life. Raising our child, and perhaps even more children, would have given me the happy ending I’d always dreamed of having with you. And one day, when I could be sure it would be safe to do so for our family, to rid myself of the burden of the dagger, so that I may live a singular, natural life with you. That is and has always been my one and only wish.

But my hopes and plans don’t turn out like I want them to. Darkness, weakness, my past, Fate and chance just keep pouring poison between us. Or perhaps the universe is telling us that we shouldn’t be together. Maybe we were never supposed to be together.

As Kahlil Gibran says, “If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. If they don’t, they never were.” He also said, “Do not love half-lovers.” I know my word no longer means anything to you, but I would like to believe that my actions speak louder in that there is nothing half in how much I love you. I’ve died for you, I became a hero for you, I told you to leave Storybrooke so that you could live out you dream of traveling and saving you from being dragged to Hell – I resent that you think that that was the first and only time in our entire relationship that I was truly selfless (it’s not like I ever let a thief live so that his child wouldn’t grow up without a father, which thanks to Miss Swan’s reckless trip to the Underworld he will, and thanks to your wicked mummy buddy he will grow up without a mother, too), that that was the first time I ever put my family first, or that that was the first time I ever let you go with no hope or expectation of you coming back to me – I destroyed the contract on our child without hurting anyone (a deal I entered into before I knew anything about making deals, before I ever became the Dark One, before you were even born, because the alternative was to let my boy died or for him to have a murderer as a father – a contract that would have come to nothing if I hadn’t been dragged to the Underworld to rescue the pirate that tried to drag us there in the first place), I followed you into your dreams to overcome the barrier of both our curses preventing True Love’s Kiss from working, giving up my claim to Storybrooke – my kingdom – for you.

I wanted to add cutting my hair, but I can’t. You were right and wrong about why I did it. I hate the man in the mirror as much as you hate the man. I would like to say I felt like a change, but in truth, it was a moment of madness. No, it was self-mutilation. I thought if I could just cut away pieces of myself, the bits of me you didn’t love, maybe I could find something worth loving. If nothing else I hoped you would see I was trying to change. So I just kept cutting… and cutting… and cutting… If I hadn’t stopped myself I would’ve shorn the whole thing off. Because that’s when I realised; how can I find something worth loving when I never loved myself? If you can’t love me, Belle… no one can. No one will.

And I can’t stay here. Nor can I selfishly and unconscionably condemn another realm to the suffering that you’ve endured. Or to unleash my darker half into the world. The Evil Queen is bad enough, but the Dark One with no love in its heart, that’s more dangerous than you can ever imagine. One thing is certain – as long as the Dark One lives, as long as Rumplestiltskin lives, all our lives are in danger.

I have been happy in this town. More than I’ve had any right to be when I have brought nothing but darkness to all who speak my name. But that only makes my present situation all the harder to bear. And I cannot pretend any longer.

You no longer love me, Belle. The sight of me, my very presence in your life, is torture for you, which is torture for me. And I can’t bear it another day. I know I always ruin everything. And I know how often and how much I’ve hurt and disappointed you, and I can’t let you down again this time. Not when your entire future happiness is at stake. You told me to do anything and everything I could to save our child. And you didn’t want to make a life with me. This was the only option left.

For both our sakes, and more importantly our son’s, I will remove the threat to your happiness: Me.

I leave everything to you – the shop, our house, every property I own. Do with it what you will – keep it. Sell it. There’s enough money that you and your son will want for nothing. Or you can give all the money to charity. Perhaps it’s better. No one can ever say you made a life for yourself with my help. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find one person in this town who can say that. My will is in the safe in case anyone attempts to dispute that. I give you full custody of our son. You get everything.

You will also find along with this letter the necessary paperwork to your freedom. Or your exit clause, if you want to call it business. Divorcing you is the last thing I wanted, but I’m left with no alternative. This isn’t a marriage, Belle. It hasn’t been for a long time. I’m tired of walking on eggshells around you, afraid that one little mistake will make you take back your love, because you’ve never forgiven me. I’ve been killing myself trying to be what you want me to be and I don’t even know what that is. I never know what you want from me, and when I thought I did it still wasn’t enough. This would have happened sooner or later. If it had to end? This way? At least it’s on my terms. One drop of black dye was all it took the colour your opinion of our entire relationship. Just because that was a lie, doesn’t mean the rest of it was a lie. My love for you, Belle, will never be a lie.

I’ve signed everything and marked where you need to sign. Our marriage will be over. It would be as if it never happened. Just like magic. It’s my job to make you happy. And if being free of me makes you happy, who am I to deny my wife? While I am still privileged to call you that.

I also leave you my last gifts that I hope will leave you in no doubt who my True Love(s) have always been.

I have caused you so much pain. I’ve broken your heart and let so many horrific things befall you because of my carelessness, my greed or my past, and I’m so sorry, Belle. I am so sorry for every second you spent in pain because of me.

And I know I’m hurting you again by doing this. My death will/may bring you more pain, but it will pass. And in time you will dismiss the recollection of me as a vaguely unpleasant nightmare you are glad to have finally awoken from. It’s foolish of me to hope that one day you would… smile when you thought about our time together and not think it was a waste of time. If the only good that came from us being together was our son, then I must have done something right, and I can die knowing my life would not have been a total waste.

Raise him well, Belle. You’re kind nature, you generous spirit, your goodness will be essential to his development. And a sense of adventure and a love of reading wouldn’t go amiss either. Please tell our son about me. Whether it be good or bad things, please let him know that I didn’t leave him or you because I wanted to. I would never abandon my son, never again, please let him know that. I wish I could have seen him being born. I wish I could have known his name. But I don’t mind, just so long as he is safe, healthy and happy.

You will be a wonderful mother, Belle. You have so much to look forward to. The first time he grabs your finger in his little fist. His first words. His first steps. The first time he calls you “mama.” I hope he will be the man, the hero, you always wanted. That I could never be.

Go live out your dream, Belle. Have your adventures; see the world, saved every world you can find. Be the hero I know you are. You’re my Heartsome Heroine.

And one last thing, Belle. My last request – and no one’s supposed to be denied that: Don’t you dare blame yourself for any of this. If you feel guilty about this, even for one second. If you even attempt to bring me back again... There’s nothing to forgive. This is my fault. My life. My choice.

Wherever I end up – heaven, hell, the deepest darkest levels of the Underworld, or an eternity alone wandering in the mists of purgatory – my feelings for you will never fade. My heart will always belong to you.

I’m so glad you summoned me to save your little town. I’m so glad you chipped my cup. I’m so glad you broke down my walls and filled my life with your light.

Goodbye Belle… For good this time.

Your Rumple.

Always.

P.S. Thank you for one last dance.

Belle broke down sobbing, clutching the papers to her face. It was better and worse than she could ever have imagined. Belle felt horrified about the confession about his haircut. It wasn’t just a cry for help, it was self-destruction. She remembered her own cruel words on the docks and no amount of wishing could undo what she’d said. Rumple had hated himself and she had only told him he should. Told him that she didn’t love him.

Threats won’t make me love you again, Rumple…

And yet Rumple’s letter was full of nothing but love. And the only time he deviated from that virtue was the unspoken threat of what he’d do if Belle tried to blame herself for his death or attempted to bring him back. Rumple had been happy for all of three seconds when he had been reborn from the Dark One vault and saw Belle, until he saw that the price of being with his True Love was the loss of his Happy Ending: Baelfire. He had been beside himself with gratitude when he had returned from the coma, the sound of Belle’s voice keeping him alive, believing that she still wanted to be with him, only for Belle to crush those hopes at the well. What would he say when he woke up and discovered that Belle saved him?

The one time he wanted her to let him go… and she couldn’t do that.

Belle opened the brown envelope. Inside were the annulment papers. She flicked through the pages. She saw Rumple’s shaky signature at the bottom of the pages. Releasing Belle from any obligation towards him.

She stuffed them back inside and out of sight, turning her attention to the package tied with gold thread.

My last gifts that I hope will leave you in no doubt who my True Love(s) have always been.

The first gift was a necklace with a medallion that had a crescent moon on it. A talisman to protect her while she slept until the aftereffects of the sleeping curse had faded away. Rumple must have made it the second he got back from the Underworld, maybe even after she’d pricked her finger, waiting to give it to her when she woke up. Waiting for her to come to him and ask, rather than forcing it on her. But she never did.

Next was teddy bear with golden mohair plush fur and blue bow tied around its neck. A gift for the baby. On the base of its right foot a letter ‘G,’ similar to the way Rumple wrote his G’s, had been sown in gold thread. It’s left foot was bear… because Rumple didn’t know the name of their child. And would have died never knowing. The medium sized bear smiled up at Belle, its amber eyes twinkling.

Belle hugged the bear close, cupping its small head. Rumple had made this gift by hand rather than by magic or simply going to Splash! toy store or plucking any old 1920s Chad Valley toy from the shelf in his shop. This gift was more personal for it showed great care and love.

Completely bypassing the small wrapped box and the cassette tape on top, Belle reached for the folded fabric underneath it. It was a quilt and hand-sewn on each square were important people, objects and moments from Rumple’s life. From their lives:

The spinning wheel, becoming a father, fireflies (Belle remembered how when Bae was a boy they’d chase fireflies together), father reassuring son following his mother’s ‘death’ that they would always be together, fourteen year old Baelfire, Rumplestiltskin Hero of the Ogres War, the Dark One dagger, the Dark Curse, Belle in her golden dress, the deal their made that begun their relationship, the chipped cup, catching Belle after falling off the ladder, the red rose, True Love’s Kiss, ‘Welcome to Storybrooke,’ their post-curse reunion kiss, hamburger and iced tea, their hamburger date, standing at the town line before he would leave to find his son, Neal Cassidy set within a dreamcatcher, on the docks before Rumple left on Operation Cobra Rescue, a sand dollar, Rumple and Bae reconciling on the Jolly Roger, Pandora’s box, the three of them together bathed in sunlight, the nightshade cure, Rumple’s heroic sacrifice, the wishing well, their wedding day, their wedding rings, Mr and Mrs Gold’s first dance, the enchanted rose beneath the bell jar, pulling Excalibur from the stone, Queen Merida and her bear form, the brief happiness they shared on knowing they were going to have a baby, a gramophone, the dream realm dance, their son all grown up, Her Handsome Hero book…

The remaining squares were blank. A note from Rumple was pinned to it:

Here’s where your story continues, Belle. Thank you for letting me be a part of it…

R

X

Rumple must have been working on this for years. Such intricate detail. Of course he was a spinner before he became the Dark One. And very skilled with a needle and thread. The most recent events he must have done during those times they were apart. Maybe even late nights while she was sleeping.

Belle picked up the cassette tape. Now the tape player Sister Lenore brought made sense. The writing on the front read: For my wife.

She turned it over and over in her hands, much like she had done with the tape he had made for their child. She must have listened to him reciting Sleep Well five times that night. Whether he was reading from the phone book or even Granny’s menu, Rumple’s calm, smooth, rhythmic voice enveloped her like one of his warm hugs.

She placed the cassette into the tape player, pressed play and sat back in her chair. The music they danced to on their honeymoon and in her dreams began to play, catching her off guard, and Rumple’s voice issued from the machine in her lap once more. Belle watched her husband’s sleeping face while his sexy brogue filled the room.

‘For my wife… “Love” is not a big enough word for how I feel about you…

O my luve is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O my luve is like the melody,
That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
And I will luve thee still my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile.'

*Music*

Belle noticed the last verse of Robert Burns’ poem ‘A Red, Red Rose,’ was cut off. The part where he says goodbye to his love, wishing her well during their temporary separation and reaffirming his faithful love her by promising to return even if the journey covers a very long distance and takes a very long time. Because Rumple had thought there would be no coming back, no reunion, not even in the afterlife. Certainly not in heaven, a word Rumple had scratched out twice in his letter.

Rumple’s recorded voice was speaking again, now reciting ‘One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII’ By Pablo Neruda.

‘I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way
than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.’

The music of their song faded as Rumple finished reciting the verses he’d chosen to convey his love for her. His voice was thick with emotion, his brogue more prominent, not just reading the words but feeling them. He truly believed what he was saying. That he loved her and would love her still. Belle was so overwhelmed she had to switch it off to compose herself.

Only a small square box remained, but Belle couldn’t bear to open it. If she did, if she opened one more heartfelt gift from Rumple, she might burst into flames.

She was physically and emotionally exhausted. She needed to sleep, but she wasn’t going to leave his side. Not this time. Belle hung the necklace round her neck ready to face the horrors of the night without fear. She wrapped the quilt around herself for warmth and rested her head on her arms, which lay upon the mattress.

In her eye line she saw Rumple’s blue moonstone ring. His wedding ring. The ring he’d never taken off, even in death. Belle sniffled. And she thought she was all cried out. Scooching closer to her sleeping husband, she lifted his left arm and draped it around her shoulders, giving the illusion that he held her while she slept. She tried not to think of Simba doing the same thing with his father, Mufasa’s paw after his death.

Belle never knew how long she lay there, listening to her own breathing, holding Rumple’s hand, focusing on the weight of his arm around her, imagining she felt him squeeze her very slightly, wondering where Rumple’s soul was at this very moment, before she drifted into an uneasy sleep.

@>~~;~~~~~

Rumple wandered alone through an infinite wood of some unknown realm at night, his boots crunching over frozen leaves as he walked through a white mist. He was in darkness. There were no stars. He was dressed in the peasant’s clothes he had been wearing the night he became the Dark One, though less worn and shabby, beneath his brown leather coat. His limp was gone as were the scars and injuries he had sustained throughout his life from birth to death.

He didn’t know where he was, but it was quiet. His breath echoed, magnifying his isolation. This must be it, his final resting place.

As he began to make peace with his solitude, he heard, whispered on the wind –

‘…papa.’

Rumple stopped dead, recognising that voice.

His breath caught in his chest. Could it be…? No, it must be a trick, a phantom of his eternal punishment. But Rumple couldn’t help but hope… He turned, searching the dark wood, until –

A bright white light began to grow around him, blinding his surroundings. He thought he felt warmth spreading through him to every part of his body, starting from his lips. A feeling he hadn’t felt since…

And then – he heard him again –

‘Papa?’

Rumple’s hope built… He was right behind him. He turned around, the light fading. Rumple blinked. And he saw him –

Baelfire.

Neal Cassidy.

His son, his beautiful boy, was standing in the Storybrooke forest, near the well where Rumple and Belle were married. The place where lost things were returned. He was dressed in the clothes he had been wearing when his father had absorbed him in a desperate attempt to keep him alive. Waiting for him…

Rumple moved breathlessly towards him, filled with the kind of pure joy he never knew in life. He finally reached his boy, cautiously taking his hands, confirming… yes. Yes, it was really him.

Neal Cassidy smiled generously. ‘I knew you’d make it home.’

Rumple nodded, his eyes welling up, smiling tremulously. ‘Yeah…’

And then – he melted into his son’s arms. He was finally home.

As they embraced like they had been separated for a thousand years, the white light enveloped them.

They pulled back, drinking each other in.

‘Papa,’ said Neal.

‘Bae…’ Rumple breathed, overwhelmed to see his boy. He couldn’t help touch his face. ‘Is it really you?’

‘Well it’s not St Peter,’ Neal chuckled nervously.

Rumple laughed wetly, but then he turned serious, knowing his son must have watched everything that had happened since they last saw each other. ‘I’m sorry, son,’ said Rumple gravely. ‘I failed. It all went wrong when I lost you. I went wrong. I broke my promise not to be the man I was before. I dishonoured your sacrifice. I hurt Belle. I endangered your brother. I failed.’

But far from being disappointed in him, Neal smiled. ‘But you kept your promise, papa. You realised your mistake and tried to fix it. That’s enough for me. Your best is enough. I love you.’

‘I love you too, son.’ Rumple looked around at the Wishing Well. ‘Why are we here?’

Neal shrugged. ‘It’s your party, papa. Jack Shepherd had his church. Harry Potter had King’s Cross station. Why not Storybrooke Wishing Well? It obviously holds great significance to you. I can’t think of a better meeting place to reunite with those we’ve lost.’

Rumple smiled. He supposed there was nothing left to do now but walking into the light with Baelfire and ascend to Olympus together.

Neal looked as though he deeply regretted what he was about to say next. This was the happiest he had ever seen his father. ‘You can’t come with, father. Not just yet.’

Rumple’s face fell. ‘What?’

‘It’s not your time.’

‘Neither was it your time, son.’

‘There are people who still need you.’

‘There are people who need you more.’

‘Henry still has his mothers… And if Emma’s happy with Hook, then that’s all that matters. I want her to be happy, even if it’s not with me.’

‘You’re happy the man who stole away your mother is now with the mother of your child? You realise that if she marries her one-time-possibly-nearly-almost-not-quite-step-father-in-law, she’ll be your step-mother? Hook and Milah probably got married on his ship, and being captain of the ship he probably performed his own ceremony. I’m surprised he didn’t just marry himself. This family is already complicated enough without a borderline incestuous marriage.’

Preferring not to answer that, Neal said, ‘We’re getting off topic. I know why you did what you did. You were destroying the Dark One and making the world a safer place for our family. But not like this. Save the world, but the world includes you.’

Rumple shook his head. ‘Not anymore. The world will be a far better place without me. Belle’s better off without me.’

Rumple frowned and raised his left hand which had started to tingle, as though someone invisible was holding it, reaching out to him across time and space.

As if in answer to his earlier claim, a light shone from the depths of the well. Rumple and Neal peered down into it. As if looking through a window in the ceiling, he saw himself lying in a bed. Belle was sitting in a chair beside him, gripping his hand in both of hers.

‘I’m… alive? No. It can’t be. If I’m alive, how can I be here with you?’

‘You’re between life and death. You can go either way. It’s why you can’t follow me. Something’s holding you back…’

Belle increased pressure on his hand in the living world. Rumple touched his hand with his right one as the tingling intensified. He observed as Sister Agathe came in. She tapped her wand and a white rose appeared beneath a glass bell jar, which she set on Rumple’s bedside cabinet. She placed her hand briefly on his shoulder. Rumple placed his hand on his own shoulder, feeling her touch as keenly as he felt Belle’s.

Then another nun came in, made a fuss over him and his bedding and then passed Belle the gifts Rumple left her from the shop and left them in peace. Belle slit open the parchment envelope and read his letter to her. He could remember what he wrote as clearly as if he were writing them as Belle read it.

When she had reached the bottom, Belle broke down sobbing, clutching the papers to her face like tissues.

‘“Taking your own life,”’ said Neal, watching his father grip the edges of the well, staring at his grieving wife. ‘Interesting expression. Taking it from who? Once it’s over, it’s not you who’ll miss it. Your own death is something that happens to everybody else. I saw what my death did to you. You really thought she wouldn’t miss you when you were gone.’

‘She doesn’t want to be with me.’

‘Doesn’t mean she wants you dead.’

‘Thousands of people who know me or have ever met me would beg to differ.’

‘Well, if you’re holding out for universal popularity, you’re going to be wandering through this forest for all eternity.’

‘I don’t deserve her.’

‘You don’t deserve what was done to you, papa, what was taken from you.’

Rumple looked at Bae. What did he mean? What more could he possibly lose that he hadn’t already lost?

‘But in spite of all that, even when the cards were stacked against you, you found me, you found True Love, and that love just destroyed the darkest curse in all the realms. A True Love that exists in any realm, under any curse, that can even reach you in the beyond. A True Love that has never existed before: Eternal Love.’

Bae was right. Rumple and Belle had found love in the Enchanted Forest, in Storybrooke, in Heroes and Villains (granted because it written so by Isaac, but it still counted,) in the dream world, even when Belle was a blank slate and then Lacey (who Mr Gold would no doubt be attracted to her darkness as she had been to his). Belle had even come to him in Neverland when his resolve to give his life for Henry had wavered. And through the madness of sharing one mind with his son, Belle’s light had shone through and brought him back to sanity, if only for a brief moment. And love had overcome anger as she saved him from Gaston in the Underworld. And, though they didn’t know it, they had even fallen in love in the Wish Realm the Evil Queen had sent Emma to; a world where she never became the Saviour.

They were the only couple who were in love in every realm, curse, dream and wish. Not even death could sever that bond. Their love had been constant. And they had been together longer than Snow White and Prince Charming.

Rumple looked into the well again. Belle had wrapped herself up in the quilt for warmth, laying her head down on her arms resting on the edge of his mattress. Then she picked up his left arm and draped it over her, giving the illusion that he’s holding her while she slept.

‘I’ve got to go back, haven’t I?’ he said.

‘Got to? Have to? Need to? Or want to? That’s up to you.’

‘I’ve got a choice?’

‘Everyone has a choice. But you want to know what I think.’

‘Yes.’

‘Don’t die. Because if you do, I think the whole world will go dark.’

Rumple sighed, feeling over a thousand years old. ‘Can’t I ever have peace? Can’t I rest?’

‘Of course you can. It’s your choice. Only yours. If anyone deserves peace, it is you.’

‘But you want me to go back?’

‘I’ll be here waiting for you when you return. As will the Spinsters. Or, if it’s what you want, you can come with me to a place where we can watch over our loved ones until we’re all together again. The only question you should be asking yourself is: what do you want?’

Rumple gazed down into the well at the sleeping angel beside his earthbound body. ‘Belle…’

Neal smiled. ‘Well there’s your reason for living right there.’

‘She’ll leave me. I know as soon as I wake up she’s just going to leave me.’

‘If either of you walk away now, then you’re both idiots. You saved us... and I know you thought that your dreams would be in vain.’ Neal put a hand on his father’s shoulder. ‘But I refuse to believe that. Say she doesn’t need you, I know there’s a child who needs his father. And the father I know and love would never abandon his son. But if she does need you? By returning, you not only ensure her happiness, but your own. You only have one life, make it a great adventure. If that seems to you a worthy goal, then we say goodbye – no… see you soon for the present.’

Rumple nodded and sighed. Leaving this place wouldn’t be nearly as hard as giving his life twice over had been, but it was warm and light and peaceful here, and he knew that he would be heading back to a world of pain, uncertainty and the fear of more loss. He stepped forward, and Bae did the same, and they looked for a long moment into each other’s faces.

‘I won’t remember this, will I?’ said Rumple. ‘This’ll fade into a dream.’

‘They say dreams are memories,’ said Neal. ‘They always leave traces. Nothing’s ever forgotten. And the heart never forgets. If you do remember, tell Emma and Henry that I love them, and I always will.’ He sighed, his eyes shining. ‘I will miss you, papa.’ He sniffed. ‘But you deserve your happy ending.’ He cupped his father’s face and whispered, ‘Now go find it.’

As Neal kissed his father’s forehead, they were enveloped once more in the blinding white of heavens light…

@>~~;~~~~~

Fire.

Hellfire.

Everywhere she looked in the blood red room there were flames coming at her, as if they were alive, trying to melt her flesh off her bones and blocking her means of escape.

But Belle was unafraid. She clutched her medallion, closed her eyes and willed the flames away from her.

Distantly, as the roaring of the flames died away, she thought she heard a voice singing, as if whispering a lullaby to their bairn, ‘Days in the sun, when your life has barely begun. Not until my own life is done, will I ever leave you…’

Belle opened her eyes. No Henry, no Aurora, no Dorothy Gale, no Snow or Charming. In fact, she was no longer in the red room at all. She was back in her dream world in Dark Castle and the room was full of light. She heard the sound of a spinning wheel behind her and her heart leapt.

‘Rumple –’

Belle turned expecting to see her husband –

But it was not Rumple who looked round from their seat at the spinning wheel, spinning wool. It was the Black Fairy in a peasants dress, sitting in Rumple’s cage, smiling at her.

‘You!’ Belle gasped as the mother who’d abandoned Rumple got up from the stool.

‘Hello,’ she said pleasantly. ‘You must be Belle. My name’s Fiona.’

Belle snatched up a sword from its stand beside her and pointed it at Fiona. Thank gods for Rumple and his vast collection. ‘You stay away from us,’ Belle warned her, putting a hand on her stomach.

‘So very brave,’ said her mother-in-law admiringly. ‘I can see why my son loves you so much.’

‘Don’t come any closer. I know what you are and you will not take my child from me.’

Fiona raised one eyebrow. ‘I am in a cage. And even if I wasn’t, I do not wish to take your child from you.’

Belle laughed. ‘That’s what you do! You take babies from their mother’s arms! Yet you abandoned the one child who was actually yours! How could you do that to Rumple?’

‘Rumple?’ said Fiona as if she had never heard the name before.

‘Rumplestiltskin – your son’s name. Which you would know if you hadn’t abandoned him.’

‘That’s what Malcolm called our boy? How could he curse him with such a name?’

‘I love Rumple’s name,’ said Belle stubbornly. ‘Even if you don’t love him.’

Fiona glared at Belle, looking much more like the Black Fairy she remembered the last time she saw her. ‘How dare you! Of course I love my son!’

Sometimes you have to choose power over love.

‘Then why did you leave!’ Belle shouted.

‘Because she made me!’ Fiona shouted back, her voice cracking.

There was silence except for both women panting.

‘What?’ said Belle.

‘Blue…’ said Fiona in a trembling voice, ‘she separated us. She banished me. She took my son. Took my wings. My wand. And I’ve spent a lifetime trying to get back to him. To tell him that I love him. And I’m sorry.’

Fiona knelt down and reached through the bars of her cage for the bassinet beside it. Belle moved around and saw the scars on her back where her wings should have been. In the bassinet was a thick woolly blanket the colour of gold and peeking out of the top was a dreamcatcher, playing back the memory of a baby’s sleeping face.

The ex-fairy’s fingers brushed against the ghost of her baby son’s cheek as she sang tearfully, ‘I cried and called my sweet bairn’s name, but never saw sweet baby again.’

Belle didn’t know what to think. It was as if she wasn’t talking to the same woman.

‘But I met you – you tossed your son away like a piece of rubbish. It was definitely you.’

‘We all have a Dark side. And without Light it’s twice as ugly.’ Fiona stood up and approached the bars of her cage. ‘Let’s start over. My name is Fiona, formerly the White Fairy. Protector of the world’s children.’

‘Kidnapper of the world’s children,’ Belle scoffed.

Fiona nodded, but continued undaunted. ‘My purpose as a fairy and instincts as a mother were corrupted. Just as the Dark One corrupted my son’s purpose to protect those he loves. And that manifested into the Black Fairy. But that is not me.’

‘This is still a dream. You’re just saying this to deceive me, to lead me astray.’

‘Like you can tell. You were deceived a long time ago, for you deceived yourself. You see your foes as your friends. Your husband as your destruction instead of your defence. You would even use your own son as an excuse to run.’

‘What did you say?’

‘That man you saw in your dreams was not your son.’

‘Yes it was. The kiss worked.’

‘Naturally, he’s part of you. But beyond that, he’s not fully developed enough to know who his parents are. You’re just the one providing his food. That man you saw was a reflection of your inner most fears, using your son’s image. You wanted an excuse to walk away, so you gave yourself one, your words in the form of the only person you loved and trusted at that moment. Of course the Black Fairy hijacked your mental projection and put her own spin on it, convincing you that my son would destroy you.’

‘How?’ asked Belle. ‘She’s trapped in the Dark Realm.’

‘The Dark Realm? The Netherworld? That’s her domain. You really should have researched that sleeping curse before you went under. Especially with such a wicked brew. Had things been allowed to continue, you would have created the future you were trying to prevent. You’re the one who would’ve destroyed your son. You’re the one who would have made Rumple the threat because of your impulsiveness and arrogance –’

‘Don’t you ever –’

‘My son almost died because of you!’

Belle was struck by Fiona’s strong words. Was she right? Had Belle created this mess because of her fearmongering? Was there never any threat to their baby at all, until she created one? Was Rumple lying unconscious in a bed because of her?

‘No. No, you’re lying.’

‘You control the dream. You’re deepest desire is truth. You’re preventing me from lying.’

‘All right, then tell me the truth: Why did Blue banish you? Are you the Black Fairy or not? And why are you here now?’

Fiona wiped her face. ‘Because I made a mistake. That mistake resulted in the Black Fairy. And because of that mistake, both our sons are in danger.’

‘What do you mean? From the Black Fairy?’

Fiona opened her mouth to speak, but let out a gasp as a white light shone within her chest.

‘Fiona?’ said Belle, startled by what was happening.

‘Let the day dawn, Light star lost in black. Heed my call, White Fairy, please come back.’

‘Bluebell…’ breathed Fiona.

‘What’s happening?’ Belle demanded.

‘I am being summoned,’ said Fiona as the light within her grew brighter in response to the incantation.

‘Rise into the dawn, Blazing star so bright. Return, White Fairy, step back into the light.’

‘We’ll speak soon. Tell my son I’m coming back to –’

Before she could finish, Fiona vanished in a flash of white light, leaving Belle standing alone in the dining room.

‘No!’ Belle cried. ‘No, no, no, come back! Fiona!’

Chapter Text

I am not perfect. I say stupid things sometimes. I laugh when I’m not supposed to. I have scars left by people who did me wrong. I’m a little crazy, and probably won’t change. Love me or not. But I make one promise, that if I love you, I do it with a full heart. ― James Hilton (Cowboy)

When Rumple woke up, he felt like he had been hit by a bus, then trampled by a stampede of elephants, kicked to death by everyone who ever hated him and finally flattened by a steamroller. Every inch of him was aching and every limb weighed like a lump of stone making them too heavy to move. His bad ankle was on fire.

He forced his eyes open and had to blink a few times before they adjusted to his surroundings. He wasn’t in the shop anymore. He was lying in a narrow yet moderately comfortable bed. The walls were plain and pale blue. But the white statue of Saint Meissa bathed in the colourful lights shining through the stained glass only confirmed his currently location.

He was in Hell.

Something white and bright glittered out of the corner of his eye. Rumple forced his heavy head to move on his pillow looking towards his beside cabinet. Suspended under a glass bell jar was a white rose. An enchanted rose. His health indicator? He looked on his other side. On a small table was a photo frame containing a picture of Rumple and Belle on their wedding day. They looked so happy. Next to it sat a teddy bear with a fuzzy black and white picture balanced on his outstretched paws. Then Rumple realised he was looking at a sonogram photo of his son. And what’s more, the name at the top read GOLD, Belle.

Rumple’s welled up and his throat burned. He didn’t know if he was happy or sad about it. Happy Belle had given him a copy. Sad that she had gone to see their boy without him. Happy that she had used his name. Sad that she hadn’t invited him. It was his baby, too.

A tear rolled down his cheek. No sooner had the thought to wipe it away had formed in his mind did he realise that his arm was wrapped around something small and warm. He looked down to see Belle sleeping beside him, slumped forward in the chair next to his bed, her head pillowed on her arms on his mattress, his arm draped around her shoulders. She was wrapped up in their quilt of memories and wearing the necklace over her neck to protect her in the Netherworld. Her arm curved upwards, her fingers curled loosely around his. Rumple wondered whether she had fallen asleep holding his hand. His arm briefly flexed subconsciously, squeezing her gently before he came to his senses and relaxed his hold.

Careful not to wake her, he extricated his hand from Belle’s slackened grip. But he couldn’t resist running his hand through her soft hair. He’d missed her hair. He’d missed everything about her, and he needed to savour every last moment. Unlike her metaphysical counterparts, this Belle was real, flesh and blood. But that didn’t mean she won’t still vanish when she woke up.

The tender action roused Belle. She sighed contentedly, lifting her head from her arms and turning to rest on her other side so that she was now facing Rumple. Her delicate mouth formed a small smile. She blinked blearily and saw that Rumple was awake.

‘Rumple…’ Belle whispered, smiling in relief, taking his hand in hers and with her free hand stroked his face. ‘Rumple…’

Rumple didn’t smile. His hand was limp in hers, not gripping her back. Belle was happy to see him. He was definitely dead. And yet…

‘You’re real…’ said Rumple, his voice gravelly. ‘…am I alive?

‘Yeah. Yeah, you’re alive.’

Rumple sighed, the news coming as a massive blow. ‘I’ve failed.’

Belle looked confused. ‘What do you mean you failed?’

‘I should be dead,’ Rumple explained heavily. ‘I should’ve died with them. It didn’t work. I was so stupid. I thought I was laying the Darkness to rest. I thought I was changing the future. Bluebell was right. The Darkness can never be destroyed. Our child will never be safe. And it’s my fault. I failed.’

‘No, Rumple. You didn’t fail. Look.’

Belle passed him the blank dagger.

‘The Darkness is gone. Its cursed power has passed from this world. Laid to rest for good. You did it.’

Rumple sat up with great difficulty and stared at the nameless blade in his hands, restored to its former colour.

‘But if the Dark One is destroyed… how am I still alive?’

Belle cupped his face. ‘Any curse can be broken.’

‘…True Love’s Kiss.’

Belle beamed widely.

‘No.’

Rumple dropped the knife on his bedsheets and took hold of her wrists, gently pulling her hands off his face, turning away from her. The smile vanished from Belle’s face, just quickly as it had done after their first kiss.

‘That would mean you love me too. The man and the beast. And you don’t. Not anymore. It’s why our kiss didn’t work in the Underworld. Not because we were both cursed at the time, but because you don’t want to be with me. You said yourself, “threats won’t make me love you again.” You stopped loving me. This is a cruel trick. My hell loop, that’ll always end with me breaking your heart, or you breaking mine, and repeating all over again for eternity.’

‘This isn’t hell, Rumple,’ said Belle, desperately trying to convince him that he wasn’t dead. ‘This isn’t a trick. This is real. I never stopped loving you. No matter how many times I told myself it was over. My heart never stopped loving you. It wouldn’t have hurt so much if I didn’t. And True Love’s Kiss wouldn’t have worked if it was one-side. Or if both parties are cursed in the waking world.

‘Rumple…’

Belle took his face in her hands again and turned him round to face her again.

‘Look at me. I am real. You’re real. The way I feel about you? That’s real.’

Belle leaned in and kissed him. The enchanted rose bloomed, shining brightly in response. Belle pulled back, looking deep into Rumple’s eyes, which gazed back at her in wonder.

‘And that… was real.’

It certainly felt real. Rumple swallowed. ‘Maybe you should do it one more time, just in case.’

Belle laughed softly. Still Rumple didn’t smile. Being glad he was alive didn’t mean Belle wanted to be with him. He would not get his hopes up again like he did at the well. Belle hadn’t been holding out for a tear soaked reunion either, but even so…

‘Why did you do this?’ said Belle, no longer smiling. ‘How could you leave me?’

‘I was saving you,’ said Rumple, defensively.

‘You didn’t even say goodbye,’ said Belle, deeply upset with how he had chosen to end things; with his corpse on the floor.

‘I did say goodbye. I even left you a letter.’

‘You left me a suicide note. And made me a widow and a divorcée.’

A flicker of pain flashed across Rumple’s face. ‘So you signed the papers, then.’

‘No, but you did.’

‘I knew if I didn’t do it now, I feared I never would. I want you to be happy. And being married to me wasn’t making you happy. I was trying to do right by you and the baby. My needs and feelings be damned.’

‘You poisoned yourself. You burnt your insides out. You died alone, in agony. You were dead. You were dead and gone, in my name, Rumple, and you were in hell. Why? Why would you do this to yourself?’ 

Rumple closed his eyes, looking extremely exhausted. Like he doesn’t understand why she would ask that question. ‘After all this time, you must know. I will never be the man you think I can be.’ 

‘Don’t say that. it’s not true. It doesn’t have to be like that.’

‘I’m afraid it does. Because I became that man. And I still wasn’t good enough. And I will never be good enough. You said so yourself; “it’s never going to happen.” No matter what I do. When we met, I told you I was a difficult man to love. But more than that, I think… I know I’m a man no one can love. Not even our son, and he hasn’t even been born yet.’

‘Don’t give up, Rumple. I– I never wanted you to be perfect. I just wanted you to try.’

Rumple looked hurt and deeply offended by the accusation. ‘I have. I tried. You have no idea how hard I tried. None of it worked. None of it made a difference to you. I’m drowning in a sea of expectations of what being your True Love should be. Don’t you dare sit there and tell me I didn’t try. I did. And look what happened. I was free of the curse, I became a hero; the purest whose ever lived; finally I was worth something… and it still wasn’t enough. You still didn’t want me… And you never will. I tried to be everything for you. You were just too wrapped up in your perfect man to notice.’

‘What are you talking about? What man?’

‘Gideon – your Handsome Hero. Your bench mark to which all the men in your life are to be measured. Well he’s not perfect either. You’re so quick to project his virtues on every potential suitor, you’ve overlooked his most glaring flaw: He’s not real. No man that perfect could ever be real. I will never be good enough. That’s the problem with reading too many novels: all the good men are fictional. I’m not perfect, Belle. And you’re not perfect either. And yet we had True Love, not in spite of the others flaws, but because we love them for it. That’s what you said in your wedding vows. You loved me for my flaws. You just didn’t realise how irreparably broken your chipped cup was. And when you couldn’t fix me you threw me out like the oldest dustiest book.

‘I’m sorry I didn’t end up being who you thought I was going to be. If you’re waiting for me to become all that, Belle, then you better ask me to bring Gideon to life from the pages of your beloved book wearing my face, because you’re going to be waiting for a very long time.’

‘I don’t want a fairy tale. I want you.’

‘Is that why you stopped the kiss? I thought that was because you didn’t want to be with me. Or did I misunderstand when you said what we have only brings heartbreak?’

‘We shared True Love’s Kiss. It means I love you.’

‘Today.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘True Love’s not a part time job, Belle. You can’t say you love me one minute and say you need to protect your heart the next. This isn’t a book you can shelve and come back to when you want to continue the story. My heart’s not a toy you can put down and pick it up again when you want to play with it. That’s why you’re still here, isn’t it? To see if I’m worth fighting for now that my curse is gone?’

‘Don’t –’

‘Don’t what? Don’t be angry? Don’t act like I have a right to be angry or hurt? I’m not supposed to play that role, am I? The beast with feelings. I’m supposed to be all evil like Regina’s darker half. Irredeemable. I’m supposed to be the villain, the penitent husband, the one who gets down on his knees and begs for your forgiveness because I’m always the one in the wrong, and you, my long-suffering wife, poor perfect Belle, are the hero who puts up with me, who keeps giving me chance after chance because she believe in me, and she knows I can be the Handsome Hero, Gideon, she’s always dreamed of. And when I fail to meet your expectations, it’s like a massive betrayal. Do you know what your chances feel like? Like lead around my neck. Like a constant reminder that I am not good enough. And every time I fail I prove you right and I’m punished for being human, despite my constant reminders that I’m flawed and imperfect. Gods, the pressure of living up to your idea of me is killing me.’

‘That’s not fair.’

‘My life is the very definition of ‘not fair.’ Sometimes the only choices I have are bad ones. No matter what I do, no matter what side I’m on, no matter whether I do it the right way, the wrong way, or your way, I’m destined to lose everything. I did literally everything I could and more to save my family, more than you know, and you didn’t even care. What proof did I have that reconciliation was even possible? You keep pushing me away, pushing me further into the Darkness. You’re keeping my child from me. How long before you try and take him away from me? Run off to another realm just to get away from me. Be grateful the Dark One is gone. What if I became so terrified of losing the one person left in the world who can love me, that I’ll literally back you into a corner and used magic to accelerate your pregnancy and take him from you? After all, “Rumplestiltskin takes children.” Not only that… the Shears of Destiny are in my possession. Better than being in the Evil Queen’s hands, but in the hands of a desperate soul, cut off from everyone he loves with a malevolent curse whispering in his ear? I’d have used them to cut him off from his future. Tamper with his life. Just to keep him from hating me.’

Belle felt shocked and sickened by this confession, actually drawing away from him. ‘You’d never do that.’

‘You’re sure about that? One hundred percent?’

‘Yes. Because even at your most darkest, you would never hurt me. Ever.’

‘I crushed Milah’s heart. Not for abandoning Bae, but for telling me she never loved me, that it was all a lie. Regina was so desperate for Henry’s love that she was going to cast a curse that would’ve forced him to love her and killed Snow White in the process. Emma wiped Hook’s memory to make him the man who still “loved” her, forgetting how much she fucked up. I’ve hurt your heart. Why not your body and soul, too?’

‘Rumple –’

‘You cannot imagine how much I thought about it. I actually considered putting you through unendurable agony to remove our child from you, just to get what I want. I was disgusted with myself. It doesn’t matter that I never went through with it. For me, a wish is the same as an action.’

Belle suddenly had the horrible mental image of Rumple advancing on her in her library, an unstoppable force of Darkness, beyond reason. She saw herself trying, despite his magic, to lock herself in the lift to get away from him, just like she had done when Hook tried to hurt her, but Rumple slammed his hand of the door, preventing it from closing and forcing it open again. No amount of begging or pleading would sway him from his mission. There was no love in his eyes anymore. No trace of the man behind the beast. There was only a beast. Only Darkness. The man she loved was truly lost to her. Indifferent to her pain as her body was magically stretched and her agony as the grip of contractions squeezed her, deaf to her cries as she was forced to push out their son and, using a pair of golden shears, not only cutting the umbilical cord and their son’s destiny but severing the bond between mother and child. He turned away from her; there was no sadness in him, no remorse as disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke with their son in his arms, leaving Belle sobbing on the floor of the lift, broken, body ravaged, heart shattered twice over and soul ripped out.

‘You’d never have gone through with it,’ said Belle quietly.

’How do you know?’ said Rumple in a voice barely above a whisper.

‘Because the price would’ve been too great. You wouldn’t’ve just lost yourself, you’d have lost me forever. Is that a price that you’re willing to pay?’

‘I’ve already paid it. I lost you forever the moment you forced me over the town line. You’ll never forgive. And I’ll never forget. But I’ll die before I let you come to harm. I’ll always protect you, Belle. Even from me.’

‘Don’t die. If you die, I will die too. I promise you. I will follow you to heaven or to hell or wherever the Gods might send you, but I will not abandon you. Not this time.’

Rumple closed his eyes. ‘Unwilling to live, unable to die. Can’t I ever have peace? Can’t I rest?’

He felt a strange sense of déjà vu. An image of his son standing beside the wishing well flashed in his mind and was gone. …tell Emma and Henry that I love them, and I always will.

‘Of course you can. Just not yet. Your story isn’t over. There’s people who need you.’

Save the world, but the world includes you…

I will miss you, papa. But you deserve your happy ending. Now go find it…

‘I know,’ said Rumple, thinking of what might happen if the Heroes were left to fend for themselves. Storybrooke would fall. ‘They’ll get it all wrong without me.’ Rumple sighed wirily, knowing when he was beaten. ’I suppose one more lifetime wouldn’t kill anyone. Well, except me.’

He saw his son smiling at him before disappearing in a blinding white light… without his papa. Because he’d chosen to return rather than ascend with his son. Now he was trapped in a singular mortal life with no Belle, cut off from his second-born child and a gaping Baelfire sized hole in his heart.

Rumple’s eyes welled up and he covered them with his hand, his shoulders shaking as he cried silently, all the feelings he had be bottling up inside for so long spilling out of him.

‘Hey… hey… hey…’ said Belle, leaning forwards, distressed at the sight of her broken love and raised her arms not sure whether to grip his shoulder’s or hug him, wanting desperately to comfort him, but scared of making it worse, her hands hovering inches over him.

Rumple just wanted to stop hurting. He just wanted his wife and sons back. He just wanted to love them, hold them, protect them. He just wanted to matter to someone and not wish that he had died at birth and forgone all the pains of his endless long life.

Belle placed a hand tentatively on his arm. Though he shuddered as he drew breath, she took it as a good sign that he didn’t shrug it off. He must have been holding all this in for years. Maybe even centuries.

‘Let it all out, Rumple. Don’t hold back.’

At last, clearly trying to regain control of himself, Rumple rubbed his slightly red eyes angrily, lowered his hands and inhaled a massive breath, trying to compose himself until he felt safe enough to speak without breaking down.

‘I’ve brought so much suffering,’ he said thickly. ‘The Dark One, the Evil Queen, the Queen of Hearts, the Wicked Witch, Captain Hook, the Dark Swan, Jekyll and Hyde. All those people dead… because of me. They may have struck the blow, but I killed them.’

Belle’s heart broke anew. Through all Rumple’s faults he never tried to blame others for his mistakes, not even his curse. But now he was trying to take the blame for all the villain they had ever faced. For all the evil that ever existed. ‘No, Rumple. They did. You are not responsible for their choices.’

‘No, just their victims deaths. Collateral damage in their goals that I had encouraged and helped them. Their blood on my hands. Including my Baelfire.’

Rumple was right; none of them knew anything about his pain.

‘I think you’re carrying way too much,’ said Belle. ‘I know what I said about Jekyll and Hyde, but all you did was get his serum to work. With or without your help, everything that happened afterwards… to Mary… that was down to them.  You may have trained Regina in the Dark Arts, but she came to you. We all came to you. And if they’re palming off their sins, their guilt, their bad decisions on you – on the Dark One – that’s not redemption. That’s refusing to take responsibility. That’s worse than being evil, that’s just being too weak to be good. Which you are not.’

‘You don’t understand –’

‘I struggled for a long time with guilt; including survivor’s. I blamed myself for my mother’s death. If I hadn’t delayed us grabbing my favourite book, we’d have never been cornered in the library by that ogre and she wouldn’t have had to give her life to save me. I didn’t even remember what happened… until recently.’

Rumple looked at her questioningly. At least he was distracted.

‘I didn’t want her sacrifice to be in vain, so I tried to follow her example. Be a hero, like her, when all she did was do what any parent would do to keep their child safe. And all it’s done is made things worse. My bad decisions have had consequences. I was so desperate to find out the truth about her death that I let a friend fall off a cliff and be kidnapped by her aunt, the Snow Queen. Then I nearly got us killed by forcing you at dagger point to take us to the Snow Queen’s cave and fell prey to her enchanted mirror.’

‘It wasn’t real.’

‘No, but my intent was real: taking advantage of my True Love to hide my guilt about Anna – if the dagger had been real we’d both be dead. Nearly breaking your curse almost cost you the chance of finding your son. I sent the yaoguai hunting party on a wild goose chase; I saved Prince Phillip, but it still got me captured and locked up by the Evil Queen to be used as a pawn against you. I saved Hook’s life and I got shot in the back and amnesia. I brought you back to life and that got Neal killed and made you a slave to Zelena for over a year. I ignored your struggles to cope with the loss of your son, your enslavement, refused to see the Darkness taking you over until you were holding Hook’s heart in your hand. And instead of helping you, I condemned you, sent you away and on the path to find the Author to change the fate of Villains. I pushed you away at the well and back into the arms of the Darkness. In trying to save Gaston I put you in danger, made you vulnerable, even though he proved he would’ve killed you if he had the chance. Then I played right into Hades hands, pushing Gaston into the River of Lost Souls, and not only voided the deal to destroy the contract but brought despair back to the Underworld.

‘I started the chain of events that led you to try and steal Storybrooke’s magic for me, which sent the others to be trapped in another realm, bringing Jekyll and Hyde back with them, to Regina removing her evil-half which is now running amok and causing havoc and why Snow White and Charming are cursed to never be together again – sleeping or waking – leading us here because of my hurtful words in the library. This is what my actions have wrought: all because I put myself under a sleeping curse.’

‘None of that is on you.’

‘And that’s my point,’ said Belle. ‘It doesn’t matter what the circumstances; whatever life throws at us, whatever other people may do to us, we’re all responsible and accountable for our own actions. You have to stop blaming yourself for thing’s you can’t control. Rumple... you need to forgive yourself.’

‘I can’t.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know how to,’ Rumple admitted. ‘I don't even know where to begin. But...’

‘But what?’

Rumple swallowed, twisting his hands in his lap. At last, he looked Belle straight in the eye and confessed, ‘I want to.’

Belle smiled. ‘I think you just took the first step.’

Rumple nodded unenthusiastically. ‘And yet I don’t feel any better.’

‘Yeah, it’s not magic,’ Belle agreed. ‘It’s not going to change right away.’ She put a hand on his arm. ‘But it begins to feel less heavy. It’s a start.’

Rumple exhaled heavily. Then he nodded. ‘It’s a start,’ he echoed. ‘Still doesn’t change anything. I’m a threat to our child. You heard what he said: I’ll destroy you.’

Belle remembered what Fiona had said in the dream. ‘Maybe you’re not the threat.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Maybe that was our son, but he’s no more than a cluster of cells right now. He shouldn’t be able to form any kind of opinion of us. I was so desperate to get away from you, for anyone excuse to walk away… what if I created a reason? You’re right; it was a wicked curse. It amplified my fears, my doubts, even my memories of being in at your castle into a twisted version of the truth. What if Morpheus was a reflection of my fears? And I believed it. I pushed you away, I treated you like a beast. And it drove you to your death. I nearly killed you because I was so selfish!’

It hurt Rumple to see Belle so despondent. She judged herself just as harshly as he judged himself. He took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

‘No… Belle… you have a child growing inside you. You were putting him first, like any good parent would do. You were not being selfish. When the world threatens to take away everything you love, you’d do anything to protect them – Good and Evil be damned. But you did not kill me. I’m not dead for a start.’

Belle’s mouth twitched but she didn’t smile. ‘But I made you hate yourself so much that you cut your hair off.’

‘It hurt. But nothing could ever hurt more than it has every day of my life just being me.’ Rumple ran his hand ruefully through his shorn hair. ‘It’ll grow back. I know you hate it.’

‘I never said that.’

It was true. She had made assumptions about why he’d done it, but she had never actually said whether she liked it or not. And she didn’t hate it.

Belle ran her hand through it herself. She missed the floof, missed that she could spend forever running her fingers through his soft shaggy hair. But it didn’t make him look any less handsome. If anything it intensified it. Without the curtains of hair hiding him she could see his high cheekbones, his slightly pointy ears that she just wanted to nibble and it enhanced his beautiful brown eyes, making them the first thing you noticed.

‘It’s okay, you can say it. It’s bad.’

‘No. Really, Rumple, it’s not. You look so… so…ssssss…’

‘Stupid,’ Rumple agreed.

‘Striking!’ said Belle quickly. ‘I was going to say striking. I’m just so used to you with long hair. It suits you. It–’

‘I know, it highlights my eyes,’ said Rumple sounding bored. ‘Regina’s already said. Twice.’

‘Actually, I was going to say it makes you look even more handsome. And, don’t take it the wrong way, but it makes you look younger. Good bone structure.’

Rumple snorted. ‘Bone structure?’

‘Hey, just be thankful I didn’t say pixie ears.’

‘Ugh. How dare you,’ said Rumple, jokingly disgusted at being likened to a fairy.

Belle chuckled. ‘I remember everything,’ she told him. ‘What happened to mother… everything you told me at the well… the six weeks in Camelot… the magic glove.’

She looked at him pointedly. Rumple realised what Belle was getting at.

‘I never thanked you for saving my life,’ said Belle softly, feeling a compulsion to tell him what she should have said before the antidote messed with her memory.

‘I never thanked you for not letting your fiancé stick my head on his wall,’ Rumple responded without hesitation, as though he, too, had been wanting to say the words for a long while but had never found the right time.

Then Rumple made a face that all hunted animal heads looked when they were mounted on the wall: bulging eyes and mouth hanging open in a silent scream.

Belle chuckled again.

Rumple looked passed her and saw the small wrapped box decorated with gold stencilled chipped cups all over it. ‘You’ve not opened it?’

‘I couldn’t bring myself to,’ Belle confessed.

‘Why don’t you open it now? Go on.’

Belle opened it, revealing their chipped cup glued back together with melted gold, like Kintsugi.

‘I broke it.’ Rumple still felt ashamed even now. ‘I’m sorry. It was the only way I could escape from Merida. The only way I could get back to you.’

‘Couldn’t you have fixed it with magic?’

Rumple shook his head. ‘No. For too long I’ve used magic as a shortcut, a quick fix. Doing it now would’ve defeat the point.’

‘What point?’

‘If we’re ever – were ever going to fix us, it has to be done by hand, the slow way. And the cracks represent our scars, but it makes it no less beautiful.’

Belle turned the cup over, the lights glancing off the golden cracks. ‘Because it proves that even after everything it’s been through it’s survived. Just like our love. We needed to struggle and suffer because it made us stronger. We shouldn’t hide that. It is beautiful.’

‘I just wish we were as easy to fix,’ said Rumple dully.

‘We will,’ said Belle confidently.

Rumple looked at her, taken aback.

‘And I don’t expect you to understand, but what you did shows you to be a very brave person.’

‘What?’ said Rumple incredulously.

This was not the reaction he had been expecting. Most people’s reaction to his attempt to end his life would’ve been that it was the act of a coward. Milah would’ve rather he’d died in the ogre’s war and been made an honoured window than be latched to the village coward.

‘To inflict such pain on yourself to achieve your goal,’ Belle elaborated. ‘Just as you broke your foot with a sledgehammer for Bae, you injected yourself with corrosive poison for your unborn son. Sometimes a hero has to sacrifice everything to save the people they love. And you did that. You were willing to give your life – again – to save us. You’re a good man, Rumple. Your heart is pure. And nothing could ever be broken that we can’t fix… together. If our True Love can defeat the Darkness after all that’s happened, it can overcome anything. And that gives me hope. You did that.’

Belle threw her arms around Rumple’s neck and hugged him tight, her eyes brimming with tears. She could hear the beating of her own heart against his, the hug had taken her by surprise. But she didn’t care. Rumple had stiffened, shocked, not expecting this little act of hers. A few seconds ago he felt as if there was a chasm between them; he had already grown accustomed to the distance between them and to the coldness in her words. He had almost forgotten the feeling. The warmth of her body wrapped around him, warming. The familiar scent of her hair brought back pleasant memories.

Now here she was. Breeching the Great Divide, as big as the one in Wonderland,

The pure of heart shall make the leap.

He hesitated for moment, afraid to accept it, his hands frozen over her, paralyzed by overwhelming emotion. At last, needing it so badly, the comfort, the reassurance, the remembrance of love, Rumple tentatively pressed his hands to her back. Then he allowed himself to let go as he sank into the hug, his eyes screwed up, his face pressed into the crook of her neck and he clutched her to him like he’d never let her go. His fingers actually digging into Belle’s back. He couldn’t believe she was in his arms again. Like she had never been away. A small sob escaped his lips, and he could feel his heart, hardened by the time he was away from his love, pulsing again, pumping blood and love throughout his own body…

How in the midst of all this sorrow, can so much hope and love endure?

‘What do we do now?’ Rumple murmured, still with his eyes closed. ‘Where do we go from here, you and me? What happens now?’

Belle shrugged, her eyes closed too. ‘We’ll figure it out.’

But not just yet. Belle was enjoying the feeling of being in Rumple’s embrace. She felt warm and safe and loved in her husband’s arms. Too warm… Rumple’s body was giving off so much heat; it was like hugging a radiator.

‘Rumple, you’re warm.’

‘You make me feel warm inside, Belle,’ said Rumple contentedly.

‘No, really. Rumple, you’re burning up. Are you feeling sick or –’

Only opening her eyes did Belle realise the warm glow of love wasn’t just coming from inside her. It was coming out of Rumple – he was glowing like a beacon!

‘Rumple!’

Rumple pulled away in alarm to see what was wrong and stared at his hands. Light was indeed shining from his skin, white and pure.

Light magic.

Even as they watched, the white light retreated within him once more.

‘What’s going on?’ asked Belle shakily.

‘I don’t know,’ said Rumple just as unnerved.

His curse was broken. He should be powerless.

‘It’s obvious, isn’t it?’ Bluebell had returned.

Rumple and Belle looked at her.

‘What’s obvious?’ said Rumple.

Why was Bluebell smiling at him like that?

‘This is your reward,’ said Bluebell happily. ‘By vanquishing a Great Evil as you were destined, you have been given back what was wrongly taken from you. Welcome back… Saviour.’

Chapter Text

Evil isn’t born, Dearie. It’s made. ― Rumplestiltskin, S01E16 Heart of Darkness

Welcome back… Saviour.

Rumple heard, but didn’t believe.

‘What did you say?’ Rumple breathed.

‘Did you just say… “Saviour”?’ said Belle, also struggling to process this new piece of information.

‘Yes,’ answered Bluebell. ‘Your birth right has been restored.’

Birth right? Rumple was born to be the –

‘No.’ Rumple shook his head, because what this fairy was suggesting was impossible. There was no way he could be the.... ‘That’s – that’s not possible. Y-you mean it’s because I absorbed the Saviour magic of Emma Swan. That’s why you think I’m… That’s not possible.’

‘Why not?’ said Bluebell calmly.

‘Because… because if I was the Saviour, if I had any magic to my name – and Light magic at that – I wouldn’t have needed to become the Dark One to end the ogre’s war and save my son, to save all the children of the Frontlands. Whatever magic this is, it isn’t mine. If anything, the Darkness has been turned into Light. There’s nothing magical or special about me.’

‘We’ll see about that. Show me your hand.’

Rumple glared at being told what to do by a fairy. He felt Belle squeeze his arm gently. He exhaled through his nose and raised his right hand, bending it at the elbow, and sat still. His message was clear: if Bluebell wanted to look at his hand, she would have to come to him. Apparently unperturbed by this belligerence, Bluebell walked forwards until she stood right next to his bed and reached for Rumple’s hand.

Rumple instantly pulled his hand back a little. He was still averse to anyone but Belle touching him after his ordeal with Zelena.

‘Don’t,’ he said tensely.

Bluebell made no move to take his hand, but waiting patiently, keeping her own hand extended. If there was one thing she was good at it was patience. Very reluctantly, Rumple lowered his hand into hers with his palm up. Bluebell took it and gazed down for a moment as if she were a fortune teller reading his palm.

The white light shone out of him again.

‘Magic can change forms, but never be destroyed,’ said Bluebell. ‘We’ll simply return it to its natural state.’

She pulled out her star wand and tapped the tip to his palm, converting it to its original state. White light was now tinged with gold.

‘White gold,’ said Belle.

‘As you know well, Rumplestiltskin, each person’s magic is unique. Some may have the same colour or use the same elements, but like a snowflake they are not alike. The magics are similar, though not quite the same. This is not the Light magic of Emma Swan. Nor is it the by-product of your treatment. This is your magic, Rumple.’

She removed her wand and the light faded.

‘Now you must learn how to use it. The Darkness was fuelled by anger and hate. Now that it’s gone, your inner magic is fuelled by light and love. Close your eyes.’

Rumple did so.

‘Think of everyone you love, and everyone who loves you. Let this love be the light of your heart. Let it fuel your desire to protect them. Feel it flow from your heart to every particle of your body.’

Rumple thought of Belle and Bae and Henry and his unborn child. This time he could actually feel the Light flow out from his heart as the brightest light and didn’t need to open his eyes to know he was shining white-gold. The light receded as he concentrated it where he needed it to go. He brought his hands together. When he opened them and his eyes again, a small golden butterfly sat in his hands. It flexed its delicate wings and took flight. They watched it flap around the room and out of the open window.

Rumple was struggling to take this all in. He still had magic. He had always had magic. And not just magic, Light magic! What did this mean? Did this make him the new Merlin? The White Mage? The Light One?

‘Rumple…’ said Belle, ‘you’re the Saviour.’

Rumple rubbed his chin. ‘So it would seem,’ he said.

Belle beamed at him. ‘This is wonderful! You fulfilled Merlin’s prophecy. You turned the Darkness into Light.’

‘Not exactly,’ said Bluebell. ‘The Light magic serum combined with True Love’s Kiss, the Darkness couldn’t withstand it… I think it got so hot it just flashed out for a second, scorched Nimue and her successors and then burnt out.’

‘Well, regardless. The Darkness is gone and you still have magic to protect us all, your Light magic. All these years… all these years I knew there was a good man behind the beast. I just never realised how good. Now you know it too.’

‘I don’t know what I know,’ said Rumple weakly. He looked at Belle, feeling lost, untethered. ‘What does this make me now?’

If he was a Saviour he’d have even less peace and quiet then he’d had as the Dark One. In fact the volume of desperate souls and interruptions from the Heroes would only increase.

‘It makes you Rumplestiltskin,’ said Belle simply. ‘Titles don’t mean anything.’

‘Except trouble.’

‘It’s a lot to absorb,’ said Bluebell.

Rumple lifted his gaze to Sister Agathe. ‘Who exactly are you?’

‘My name is Bluebell… I’m your Fairy Godmother.’

‘I have a Fairy Godmother?!’ Rumple blurted out.

‘You did, until Blue stripped me of my position. But I still have influence over things and I’ve been keeping an eye on you. I’m sorry I couldn’t help when you wanted me. But I was there when you needed me. When you wished for me.’

‘Wished…’ Rumple’s eyes widened. ‘You were the beggar woman with the rose! You saved Belle.’

‘You saved her, Rumple. I merely helped. And I’ve been aiding you in other ways. Guiding you on your journey. Teaching you a few lessons along the way.’

‘You were the stick lady,’ Belle realised. ‘And… Agathe... Agatha – that was you too!’

‘It was. You needed a nudge out of your comfort zone and Rumple needed to see your qualities.’

Belle looked at Rumple. ‘You were there?’

Rumple nodded. ‘You asked all those years ago why I chose you. That was the moment. My whole Dark life, I’ve sought out those who are Light. Like you. Helping a beggar was my downfall. But seeing you help Agatha was your rise, Belle. And mine.’

Rumple turned back to Bluebell… his Fairy Godmother.

‘You said being the Saviour was my birth right. That it was restored… How was it lost to begin with?’

Bluebell bowed her head in shame. ‘The Shears of Destiny. Your fate was cut from you.’

Someone had used the Shears on him and cut his magic power away, tampered with his very being.

‘But if that’s true, how can I have got it back? My fate was changed – cut at its root.’

‘Fate can’t be changed, that’s what fate is. It’s inevitable. The Shears must have suppressed your powers. Made them dormant. Until the power of True Love’s Kiss, ignited those synapses, kicking them back into life. Helped by your dearest wish to destroy the Great Evil that threatened us all. Hand in hand, they rekindled the fire.’

‘Who cut Rumple’s fate?’ Belle wanted to know. Who had decided his fate and changed the course of his entire life?

‘The Black Fairy… when you were just a bairn.’

Belle looked shocked. But Rumple was unsurprised. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t thought about it.

‘That makes sense. “You have to choose power over love.” Where there’s injustice there’s a fairy. And the apple never rots far from the poisonous tree.’

‘The Black Fairy tampered with her son’s fate. You didn’t.’ Belle hesitated. ‘I met your mother earlier. In the dream world.’

This information worried Rumple deeply, that while he was unconscious, his wife had been left to the mercy of the Black Fairy. ‘Sweetheart… Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine. It’s strange, she was… different. Nothing like the woman who tried to steal Jack and Jill’s baby. She was wingless, cutup about being separated from you. The way she looked at her memory of you in the dreamcatcher. She looked like she adored you.’

‘Like my father adored me?’ said Rumple bitterly, refusing to believe that either of his parents ever gave a damn about him. ‘That woman never cared for me, never loved me, never did one thing a mother should. She never even gave me a name. When the Black Fairy dies, I won’t shed a single tear. Whoever that woman was you met in your dream world, she is not my mother.’

‘Unless there’s two of them.’ Belle saw Bluebell bite her lip. ‘Wait… is there?’

‘That’s a long story,’ said Bluebell.

‘Enlighten us,’ said Rumple.

‘Your mother, Fiona, was the White Fairy, who fell in love with a human named Malcolm. One night in midwinter, a child was born. A baby boy. Healthy, beautiful, perfect. All he was missing was the perfect name. That same night he was visited by the Blue Fairy and his Fairy Godmothers. There were three of us: Tiger Lily – Red, Tinker Bell – Green, and myself – Bluebell.’

‘I’ve read about fairy godmothers, and they always come alone,’ said Belle, unable to help herself. ‘So why three? Was there something wrong?’

‘Quite the opposite. A prophecy told us that on that darkest winter’s night, a boy would be born with great Light magic. A child known... as the Saviour. Everyone has a magical light that shines from within. But only a lucky few can make their light shine bright enough for the whole world to see. And your Light shone so bright, Rumple, we could see it through time.

‘We bestowed our gifts. Tiger Lily’s gift was Bravery, so you would always have the courage to do what’s right. Tink’s gift was Love, for you are full of love and to enable you to find your soulmate, as good and pure as you. My gift was Wisdom, for knowledge, like love, is power. 

‘But every Saviour has a Villain to fight. Further research on Fiona’s part revealed that her son would die at the hands of the Great Evil born at the end of the same winter, identified by the crescent moon birthmark. Fiona and the rest of us inspected all the babies, but none were marked. Fiona consulted the Mirror to see into the future and discovered that it was… herself.

‘In an attempt to prevent this fate, Fiona created a potion to separate her potential Dark side. Before she could isolate her other half and destroy it, the Black Fairy overpowered her, using the Shears of Destiny to separate herself permanently from Fiona, accusing her of being too weak to protect her son. She took Tiger Lily’s heart, threatening to enact the Dark Curse to banish every child from this land, not just the Saviour.

‘Blue arrived, returned Tiger Lily’s heart and Tiger Lily tried to persuade the Black Fairy to use the Shears on herself to remove her fate to kill her son. But the Black Fairy saw her son as a threat and used the Shears to remove his fate as the Saviour. All the fairies sensed the change; a new Saviour was born, and we realised that if a Saviour dies another will take its place. The Black Fairy vowed to kill all Saviours, even Light magic itself if she had to. Blue banished the Black Fairy to the Dark Realm. For what Fiona had done, Blue stripped her of her wand, her wings and decreed that Fairies can never form interspecies relationships. Then, using one of the magic beans, banished a powerless Fiona to an unknown land, separating her from her son. Before Fiona disappeared she vowed to her son that she will find a way back to him.

‘Blue, Tiger Lily, Tink and I returned Malcolm’s son to him, telling him that Fiona was dead. That she died trying to protect their child. Blaming his son for his wife’s death, Malcom, in hatred, named his son: Rumplestiltskin.

‘We all paid the price for our failure to protect the Saviour and unleashing the Great Evil unto the world. Tiger Lily gave up her wand and wings and left for Neverland, Tinker Bell was grudgingly given a second chance despite having already broken every rule in the book – Curfew. Dust discipline – until stealing fairy dust to help Regina cost her her wings, and I was demoted to Blue’s stooge.’

When Bluebell had finished neither Rumple or Belle spoke for a few moments.

‘That’s a nice story,’ said Rumple eventually, unconvinced.

‘You don’t have to take my word for it. You were there when it happened. I can show you.’

Bluebell raised her wand. Rumple eyed the tip with apprehension as it seemed to draw his eyes, just as the old beggar woman's rose had. She could show him the truth, show him what happened that day. Prove that Rumple had at least one parent who truly loved him.

‘No.’ Rumple kicked off his sheets and struggled out of bed to get away from her, away from the beckoning star, bracing himself on the wall to support his bad leg.

‘Rumple –’ Belle began.

‘Don’t.’ Rumple held up a hand, deflecting Belle’s words. ‘I’m not –’

Rumple looked down at himself, realising for the first time what he was wearing. Far cry from Mr Gold’s silk blue pyjamas.

‘Sorry, why am I dressed like a 1940s evacuee? And why does a sisterhood of nuns have a pair of men’s pyjamas?’

‘The Sisterhood has taken a vow of hospitality to all in need,’ said Bluebell, conjuring him a dark blue dressing gown for him. ‘Our doors are always open to the weary travel.’

‘A town that hadn’t seen any travellers in twenty-eight years. I thought you nuns took vows of chastity, poverty and obedience?’

‘You’d think given our Mother Superior. Those are solemn vows. We sisters have taken simple vows.’

‘Ah. So you have a right to reserve an interest. Hedging your bets?’

‘Well I’ve never been one to do as I’m told.’

‘Hey!’ Belle clicked her fingers loudly to get their attention. ‘We’re getting side-tacked here.’

‘I think that was the point, Mrs Gold,’ said Bluebell.

‘Rumple,’ said Belle gently, for Rumple looked ready to bolt, limp or no limp, ‘it’s okay. It’s okay to be scared.’ 

‘Belle,’ said Rumple warningly. ‘I admire your bravery, but you are treading where few who’ve dared tread survive.’ 

‘We’re way past empty threats, Rumple. I get it. This is bigger than anything you’ve ever faced. No curse, no monster, is ever going to be as terrifying as finding out why you were abandoned.’ 

‘You think I’m afraid of the truth?’ 

‘Yes. I think it means being vulnerable, and you and I are people who are really bad at being vulnerable. And Emma’s worse. If you won’t do it for you,’ Belle put a hand to her stomach, ‘then do it for your son.’

Rumple glanced at the sonogram photo held by the teddy bear he had made.

‘This is his story too. Everyone deserves to know where they come from. You have the right to know your own story.’ Belle remembered what Sister Lenore said. ‘Anything’s better than nothing. You’ll spend your whole life wondering what really happened, why she left you. Not knowing is the worst. You’ve come this far, Rumple. Just let the rest in.’ 

Belle was right.

‘Okay. Do it,’ he told Bluebell.

Bluebell approached him, the star wand held upright. ‘This isn’t going to be pleasant.’

‘Being abandoned never is. So what now? I’m just supposed to stare at this star and hope my memories appear? ’

‘Yes.’

Rumple stared at the star. Nothing happened.

‘This isn’t working.’

‘You’re holding back. You need to let go of your fear. I understand-’

‘Like hell you do,’ Rumple snapped. ‘You were created from the first baby’s laughter. You have no family, you’re not even human.’

Bluebell went pink. Rumple immediately regretted his vicious attack. She was sticking her neck out to help him at the risk of incurring the wrath of the Blue Fairy.

‘I’m sorry.’

‘It’s okay. I know you’re scared of what you might remember.’

‘Scared? I’m terrified.’

‘We don’t have to do this now. You’ve been through enough today.’

‘No. No more running. I want to know the truth.’

Belle took his hand. ‘I’m here with you, Rumple.’

‘Thank you,’ said Rumple thankfully.

Bluebell raised the wand. ‘Focus on the star.’

Rumple and Belle gazed at the star. At its centre the star started to glow. The chimes of the carriage clock on the side became distant.

‘Days in the sun, when your life has barely begun. Not until my own life is done, will I ever leave you…’

Rumple blinked. They weren’t in the convent anymore. They were standing exactly where they were but inside a familiar looking cabin at midnight. This was the home Rumple was born in. Not that it was ever much of a home, after his mother left. 

‘It looks like your little trick worked, Godmother,’ said Rumple.

Baby coos drew their attention to the happy family. A dark haired woman holding a new-born baby in her arms, smiling happily at her bundle of joy, and her husband, just as happy, with his arm wrapped around them.

‘That’s my mother.’

‘You’re beautiful,’ whispered Fiona to her son. ‘No, you’re perfect.’

‘And that’s me.’

‘Oh Rumple, you’re so sweet,’ said Belle, staring at her baby husband in Fiona’s arms.

‘He is perfect,’ agreed Malcolm, looking at his son with a love he had never shown Rumple in living memory.

‘That’s the nicest thing my father’s ever said to me,’ said Rumple drily. ‘And last.’

‘Now, we just need to give him the perfect name.’

As Bluebell had said, the four fairies flew in through the window – Red, Green, Bluebell and the Blue Star herself, who announced to the stunned couple that they had given birth to the Saviour. They watched as the Three Good Fairies bestowed their gifts on their charge to prepare him for the future.

The scene changed.

‘I cried and called my sweet bairn’s name, but never saw sweet baby again.’

Fiona knelt beside her son’s crib, singing her sad lullaby. The dining table strewn with ancient texts. As Tiger Lily flew in through the window, carrying a bag over her shoulder, a startled Fiona straightened up drew her sword, ready to defend her child.

‘Fiona, careful. It’s just me,’ said Tiger Lily, raising her hand. ‘And since when do you have a sword?’

Fiona put the sword down. ‘Since I found out the truth about my son, the Saviour. Now I can’t sleep, I can’t eat.’

Tiger Lily sighed. ‘I’m sorry. I never should have given you the book of prophecy.’

‘But you did, because a mother deserves the truth. So now I know a Great Evil is coming for my son, and in their Final Battle, he will be killed. Did you bring those other books?’

‘Here.’ Tiger Lily handed over the bag. ‘At this point, you’ve read more fairy lore than most fairies.’

‘And I’ll continue reading until I find this Great Evil.’ Fiona consulted on of the books. ‘I know that it will be born in the same winter as my son, with a scar like a crescent moon.’

Tiger Lily snatched the book away. ‘It’s a fairy’s job to protect him. Your job is to raise him.’

‘And I am both. What we can do, no mere human can. And yet I cannot protect my own son.’ Fiona crouched down beside the crib, gathering her son up in her arms. ‘It’s terrifying how much this little thing changes you, makes you soft and sharp all at once. I have to stop this threat to my child, to all the children of this world. It’s my duty, as a mother and a fairy. If I cannot save my son, then no child is safe.’

And so they searched. Fiona, Tiger Lily, Tink and Bluebell flew the width and breadth of the Enchanted Forest, seeking out all the babies born in the same winter as the Saviour.

Fiona and Tiger Lily inspected the baby girl in its basket beside the washing line of the last family.

‘She’s adorable,’ Tiger Lily smiled. ‘And she certainly doesn’t look evil.’

‘Evil never does. And that’s what you said about the last hundred babies,’ said Fiona, looking apprehensively at the seemingly innocent child.

‘And I was right. Not one of them had this crescent scar you keep looking for. When do we stop?’

‘When I’ve checked every child born this winter. Because one of them is destined to kill my son.’

Fiona checked the baby’s wrist. No scar.

‘It’s not her,’ said Fiona.

Fiona paced back and forth in the middle of the forest, while Tiger Lily tended to the Saviour. Then Bluebell and Tink came flying in.

‘Well?’ said Fiona at once.

‘Nothing,’ said Tink. ‘No crescent moon.’

‘We’ve searched every realm,’ said Bluebell. ‘It’s as if this Great Evil doesn’t exist.’

‘I know. We’ve just checked the last baby here,’ Tiger Lily informed them.

‘I don’t understand,’ said Fiona distractedly. ‘That child had to be the one. Do you know what day it is today?’

‘It’s the last day of winter,’ said Tiger Lily, ‘and that was the last child.’

‘What does Blue say?’ asked Tink.

‘She would prefer to leave it up to fate.’ Fiona picked up her baby wrapped in his gold blanket and held him close. ‘I’m sorry...’ she told her child, ‘but I will not fail you. We haven’t tried everything... Not yet. The Great Evil’s out there, and when I find them I know how to deal with it.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I found two ancient spells. It won’t be easy, but I think, with your help, I could combine them into something very powerful.’

‘You want to create a new spell?’ said Tiger Lily. ‘That’s forbidden. We can’t, not even to help your son.’

‘This is about more than just my son. When this Great Evil arrives, how many more will be hurt? Stop being afraid and help me. Please, I have to save him. Aren’t fairies supposed to protect children?’

‘We are, and so is your son. He’s destined to die so that other children may live. That is the fate of the Saviour.’

‘No! Saviour or not, I will not let my son die!’

‘But we still don’t know who the Great Evil is,’ said Tink.

‘But we can find out,’ said Bluebell. She produced an ornate mirror. ‘This mirror can see into the future. We can see the identity of the Great Evil.’

‘I’m not sure that’s wise –’ began Tiger Lily.

But Fiona ignored her, passing her baby to Tink and taking the mirror from Bluebell. ‘Thank you, sister,’ she said gratefully to Bluebell.

‘You can’t un-see what you’ll see within its depths,’ Tiger Lily insisted. ‘Your fate is sealed when your prophecy is read.’

‘I have to see,’ said Fiona, activating the mirror, the reflective surface shimmering like water, ‘I need to know. Who is the Great Evil that threatens my son, who threatens us all?’

They all leaned in, even Rumple, Belle and the present day-Bluebell. And the mirror revealed…

Fiona.

Her dress and wings were as black as her soul as she glared malevolently up at them all, raising her blackened wand… a crescent moon scar on her wrist.

‘No…’ Fiona gasped, dropping the mirror. ‘That’s not possible.’

‘“And you will know the Great Evil by the crescent it bears,”’ Tiger Lily recited, looking horrified. ‘Evil was not born this winter. It was made. Fiona... it’s you. You are the Great Evil. You and your son are destined to destroy each other.’

Fiona looked down at her unblemished wrist which would somehow, someday, bear the scar of her son’s destruction. Bluebell and Tink each put a hand on Fiona’s shoulders.

Fiona’s face hardened. ‘Then I will change my destiny.’

‘Change it how?’ said Tink.

‘Everything I need is in the Sacred Fairy Vault, and you can get me in. Do this with me, my sisters, so no mother will ever be ripped from her child.’

The scene shifted to the Sacred Vault of the Fairies. Inside were scrolls, artefacts, relics and potion ingredients that Fiona was rummaging through, consulting an open book. Rumple glanced at the illustration and saw a white figure and a black figure seeming joined together, but being ripped apart. His mother was attempting to remove her darkness so that she wouldn’t end up evil.

‘Fiona, this is a bad idea,’ said Tiger Lily seriously.

‘You’re wasting your breath. You’re not going to stop me,’ said Fiona adding a dash of ‘wishful thinking’ to the cauldron.

‘The future is a puzzle. Difficult to read. And never what you think. We don’t know what turns you into the Great Evil. It’s one possible future.’

‘My future, which is sealed because I read it. Now no matter what I do, I’m set on the path to becoming my son’s destruction. There is evil in me. And it must be removed and destroyed.’

‘Please don’t do this, Fiona. We can find another way, together.’

‘We already tried that and failed.’

Fiona scooped up the potion in a ladle and poured it into a phial, ready to drink.

Tiger Lily drew her wand. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t let you do this.’

Fiona drew her own, Tink and Bluebell followed suit in case they need to break the fight up. ‘You’re his Fairy Godmother. Why won’t you let me save him?’

‘Because the cost is too high. You’re tampering with nature. With yourself. This will change you.’

‘I’m a mother. He’s my son. And that means to hell with what happens to me.’

Tiger Lily turned to her other sisters. ‘You can’t condone this.’

‘She’s our sister,’ said Tink uncomfortably.

‘It’s our duty to save the Saviour,’ said Bluebell.

‘Has it occurred to any of you that we’re actually going to cause the thing we’re trying to prevent? Perhaps Fiona removing her potential evil is what makes her evil? So maybe the best thing to do... is nothing?’

No one responds, not even Fiona, questioning her decision for the first time.

‘I’m glad you all thought this through.’

Fiona was left in doubt for a few more seconds and then said, ‘I must save my son. To hell with the consequences.’

She snatched up the phial.

‘I beseech you, stop for a moment. Think!’

‘If I do, I’ll change my mind!’

Fiona drank the potion. She cried out and doubled over as the potion took effect. Then, with a horrible ripping sound, the Black Fairy was forced out of her. Bluebell and Tink acted fast, throwing down protection crystals at her feet which trapped the Black Fairy inside a temporary prison.

Fiona and Fiona looked at each other.

‘Look at what you’ve become,’ snarled her darker half.

‘Fiona, now’s your chance!’ called Bluebell. ‘If you’re going to destroy her, do it now!’

The Black Fairy chuckled. ‘You destroy me? You don’t have what it takes.’

‘Fiona!’ shouted Tink.

‘You’re weak. No matter what you do, you can’t destroy our darkness. Deep down inside, you know the truth. If you want to save your child, then you need me.’

‘No,’ said Fiona, drawing a kris dagger from within her robes, the name Zoso etched upon it. ‘I don’t.’

She stabbed her dark half in the heart with the dagger. The Black Fairy gasped, looking shock and hurt at being betrayed… by herself.

‘I’m sorry.’

But it was over. The Great Evil was vanquished. She had saved her son.

But then the Black Fairy laughed. She raised her wand and the protection spell bursts outwards knocking Fiona, Tiger Lily, Tink and Bluebell to the ground or into shelves.

A pair of golden shears clattered to the floor

‘Looks like you made a deal you didn’t understand,’ said the Black Fairy, echoing Zoso words. ‘I don’t think you’re going to do that again.’

‘Why won’t you die?’ said Fiona.

‘I am part of you. You want to kill your doppelganger? You have to kill the original. You must die. That’s how it works. You think you’re the good one? But even though you separated yourself from the darkness... the capacity for evil remains in you. And it can grow back at any time. You failed.’

The Black Fairy picked up the golden shears.

‘No!’

The Black Fairy waved her wand, immobilising the other fairies. Gold lights appear, linking her and Fiona like thousands of threads of light. The threads of destiny. The Black Fairy cut the strings and the lights went out.

The nightmare was now real. The Great Evil was born.

The Black Fairy bent over to examine the Saviour. ‘Hmm? So you’re the one destined to destroy me? My undoing?’

‘He’s our son!’ Fiona cried. ‘He’s a child!’

‘He’s a threat!’ hissed the Black Fairy. ‘Sometimes you have to choose power over love. I’ll show you how to deal with a threat to our very existence. Now, where’s that spell of ours?’

She snapped her fingers and the scroll flew into her hand.

‘Fiona, stop!’ cried Tiger Lily.

‘You can’t tell me what to do. Fifi let me out. And this was her idea in the first place. Great minds think alike.’

The Black Fairy browsed the shelf of ingredients.

‘Let’s see… a lock of hair from those with the darkest of souls, wolfsbane, and the final ingredient: to sacrifice a heart.’ She looked round at her potential victims. ‘And I have so many to choose from.’

‘Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?’

‘What kind of spell is this, anyway?’ said Tink. Then she realised. ‘No. No, this isn’t a spell at all. This is a curse.’

‘Call it what you want,’ said the Black Fairy indifferently.

‘You’re trying to create something that never should be,’ said Fiona. ‘A terrible curse – a Dark Curse.’

‘And aren’t you proud? Because you designed it. See? That evil was always inside of you. It will send the child destined to destroy me far away, to a Land Without Magic.’

‘Not just that child,’ said Bluebell. ‘It will banish every child.’

‘Collateral damage.’

Tiger Lily looked round angrily at Fiona. ‘You would have banished every child to the unknown to save your own?’

‘No, that’s my little twist. We have a brilliant mind, but Fiona lacks… vision. It’s the only way to be sure.’ The Black Fairy ripped out Tiger Lily’s heart. ‘And if I have to kill his own Fairy Godmother, then that’s exactly what I’ll do.’

Tiger Lily gasped as the Black Fairy started to squeeze –

‘Enough!’ The Blue Fairy had arrived, magically taking back Tiger Lily’s heart back. ‘No one will be crushing any hearts today.’

She released the others, returned Tiger Lily’s heart and embraced her.

‘So, you both want the same thing,’ said the Black Fairy accusingly. ‘To see me die by my son’s hand?’

‘I know how I can break your destiny,’ said Tiger Lily. ‘Those shears can sever your fate. Sacrifice your powers and you will no longer be the Great Evil. You won’t be responsible for your son’s death.’

‘No. I need my power. Power protects. Love loses.’

‘Love never loses,’ said Bluebell.

‘Of course it does. We’re all L’s in “Lover.” And when one leaves, it’s “over.” If I sever his destiny, he will no longer be my undoing, and I will still be strong enough to protect myself.’

The Black Fairy raised the shears.

‘Fiona, no,’ said Blue desperately. ‘Don’t do this.’

The threads of destiny appeared out of baby Rumple like threads of gold light.

‘Your son is destined to be a great hero. Do not take that from him. You do not need the power.’

‘Don’t tell me what I need. The boy will be my undoing. So I have no choice: I must be his.’

And she sliced Rumple’s destiny away.

Belle let out a painful squeak and covered her mouth. Present day-Bluebell closed her eyes.

There was a rumbling noise as if the whole universe had shifted.

‘A new Saviour is born,’ said Blue. ‘The title has passed on. Your doom still awaits you.’

‘Looks like I’ve added killing a baby to my list,’ said the Black Fairy casually.

‘Then another will take their place. And then another. And another. The Light will always win.’

‘Then I will destroy Light magic.’

Blue pointed the Saviour’s wand at the Black Fairy opening up a black diamond portal that would banish her to the Dark Realm.

‘Aah!’ the Black Fairy cried, fighting against the pull of the portal. ‘This isn’t the end! This realm can’t hold me! No child will be safe from me!’

Her last act before she was dragged away was to fire her wand at Blue and break the Saviour’s wand. The force of the act knocked her own black fairy wand out of her hand, which clattered across the floor.

The portal slammed shut and disappeared.

Nobody spoke for a few moments, then Blue turned a cold stared at Fiona.

‘You. You bring Great Evil and shame on us all. Think of the greater good.’

‘I know,’ said Fiona miserably. ‘I thought I needed it to prove to that I was a good mother.’

‘You could have proven that by being a good mother, by listening to me. By listening to your son’s Fairy Godmother.’

‘I was following my instincts.’

‘Which has proven to be far from correct. Not only have you created the Great Evil but you’ve destroyed our one chance to defeat it. It was your son’s destiny to defeat her. If it’s not him, she cannot die.’ Blue sighed. ‘This can’t be forgiven.’

‘Wait. Wait,’ said Tink quickly. ‘Everyone deserves a second chance. We always tell people that.’

‘Traitors to our kind don’t deserve a second chance, Tinker Bell.’

‘Please,’ Fiona begged her. ‘I’ll make it up to you. I promise. I’m so sorry.’

‘You betrayed us all, White. You have failed as a fairy and as a mother.’

‘I can fix this. Give me a chance.’

‘You can’t. For one simple, tragic reason: I no longer believe in you.’

Fiona screamed as her wings were ripped away. Then Blue took a pouch from her dress and pulled out a magic bean.

‘No!’ Bluebell cried. ‘You can’t! He needs his mother!’

The Three Good Fairies moved forwards but Blue put up a barrier to stop them, leaving Fiona alone on the other side, cut off from her son. She threw the bean down at Fiona’s feet and the green portal opened up, ready to swallow her up.

‘No!’ Fiona struggled to hold on.

Bluebell gathered up a crying baby Rumple, who was reaching for his mother, while his distressed grown up-self extended his own hand towards the memory of his mother.

‘I promise you, son,’ Fiona cried looking towards her past and present son, ‘I will spend every moment of every day trying to find my way back to you!’

Fiona fell into the swirling portal of green light and it vanished, leaving a great crater behind, which Blue magically restore with one lazy wave of her wand. All these years Rumple had thought the trauma of losing his father to one of these bean portals was what had made him hesitate to follow Baelfire through one. Now he realised the trauma had run deeper, buried in his memory, for it had torn him and his mother apart, whose only crime was to save him.

Rumple glared at the unrepentant Blue Fairy. Hatred such has he had never believed possible for this sprite raged inside him. If this were not a memory he would have ripped her wings off. Because of her and her magic beans, he had lost both his mother and his son.

Blue now picked up the Dark Curse scroll and tapped it with her wand.

‘What’re you doing?’ asked Tiger Lily.

‘Making sure no one will ever cast this curse,’ said Blue. ‘There: the heart of the thing you love most.’

‘But no one would –’ began Bluebell.

‘Precisely. They would have to have great evil in their hearts. And great evil such as that wouldn’t have something they love most to sacrifice. But just to be certain, this curse will be place deep under Bald Mountain, guarded by the Chernabog, out of reach, behind a barrier of dragon fire and a wall of venomous blood scarabs. Rest assured, the Dark Curse will never be cast in our lifetime. And make sure the Duke of the Frontlands gets his dagger back.’

The scene changed. They were back in the cabin. Malcolm was waiting anxiously for news of his wife and son. He turned in anticipation when he heard the fairies fly in.

‘Fiona.’

There was his son. But his wife was not with them.

‘Where is Fiona?’

None of the fairies answered.

The light died in Malcolm’s eyes. ‘She isn’t coming back, is she?’

‘I’m afraid not,’ said Blue solemnly.

‘It was an accident,’ said Tiger Lily. ‘She was trying to protect your son.’

‘Of course she was,’ said Malcolm heavily. ‘There’s none more caring in all of the realms... Only one of the infinite reasons why she was the love of my life.’

‘And now he will be the love of your life,’ said Tink as Blue handed over his son.

‘How? How can I raise him alone?’

‘By trying,’ said Bluebell. ‘Your son needs his father now. And he also needs a name, so why don’t you start there?’

Malcolm looked down at his son and his son looked back at him and started to wail, as if he knew he was entering a life of misery.

‘Once, this child was perfect,’ said Malcolm in a dead voice. ‘He was supposed to bring great light to our lives. But now my wife is dead, thanks to him. I know a name perfect… Rumplestiltskin.’

And just like that, the man who will once be known as Peter Pan was born.

I remember looking at you... the littlest babe. Helpless and all mine. Those big, big eyes full of tears... pulling at me... pulling away my name, my money, my time. Pulling away any hope of making my life into something better for myself. This pink, naked, squirming little larva that wanted to eat my dreams alive and never stop! …Can’t I be free of you?

Rumple had hoped the memories would end here. He couldn’t take any more. But there was still one last thing to see. Baby Rumple cried, wanting for his mother, while his father was passed out drunk after drowning his sorrows in drink.

What did I do? How did I deserve losing you? Please don’t die. You promised to be here with me forever. And now I’m frightened.

Then a ball of bluebell light came in through the window and solidified into the form of Bluebell.

She cast a disgusted look at the sloshed Malcolm before moving over to sooth baby Rumple.

‘Shhh. Don’t cry,’ she whispered. ‘Hey. Hey, Rumple, watch this.’

Conjuring up the glass ball, Bluebell made sweeping hand motions as she started to perform contact juggling, passing the ball from hand to hand with such fluid motions. Baby Rumple hiccupped into silence as he watched in wide-eyed fascination. Then with a wave of her hand, Bluebell vanished the glass ball, affecting a mock-gasp of astonishment, showing his empty hands.

It worked. Baby Rumple stopped crying and even managed to smile.

Bluebell smiled back. ‘There. That’s better, isn’t it?’

Her smile faded and she sighed. She couldn’t stay long and afterwards she wasn’t allowed anywhere near him.

‘I wish I could tell you that you'll be loved, that you’ll be safe and cared for and protected. But this isn’t a time for lies.’

Bluebell crouched down and took one of his tiny hands.

‘What you are going to be, Rumplestiltskin, is very, very brave. Just like your mother was. You may no longer be the Saviour, but that doesn’t make you any less special. You still have our gifts. You will be brave, wise, and so full of love. And you will find True Love. The truest and purest of them all. A tale as old as time. You’ve got all of that to come. To see you through the dark times. And there will be dark and difficult times. But there is no Light without Darkness. Just because you can’t see the sun behind the clouds, doesn’t mean it isn’t still shining. Darkness can always find the Light.’

Bluebell leaned down and kissed baby Rumple’s forehead, making him shine briefly with blue-white light.

‘Let that be my last gift to you, for the trials that lie ahead. The gift of Light – so that no matter how dark things seem, you will always find the light.’

Bluebell stroked Rumple’s smooth cheek.

‘Rumple, your mama loves you. You are so loved. Be safe, Rumple. Be strong. It’ll turn out all right in the end. You’ll see. Good luck.’

Shrinking down to the size of a bug, Bluebell flew away into the night.

The memories faded and they were back in the present day Storybrooke in the convent. Rumple’s legs gave way and Belle jumped in quickly to catch him, helping sit back down on the bed.

‘I’m so… I’m so sorry, Rumple,’ said Belle, her cheeks as wet as her husbands as he covered his mouth with his trembling hands.

‘I’m sorry that happened to you, Rumplestiltskin,’ said Bluebell. ‘Sometimes the most painful truths are the most difficult to remember.’

‘At least you know now that she loved you,’ said Belle feebly, as if that would make it all better.

Rumple nodded, lowering his hands. ‘And…’ he said thickly. He cleared his throat. ‘And that was the version of my mother you saw?’

Belle nodded. ‘She was in a cage. She said Blue had separated you both. That she spent a lifetime trying to get back to you, to tell you that she loves you… And she’s sorry.’ Then she remembered her warning. ‘She told me our son’s in danger.’

‘From me? From the Black Fairy?’

‘I don’t know. She tried to tell me but she got pulled out of the dream.’ Belle pointed at Bluebell. ‘You summoned her with an incantation. Where is she?’

Bluebell looked blank. ‘I didn’t summon Fiona.’

‘Yes you did. “Return, White Fairy, step back into the light.” You said that.’

‘Maybe I did, but I haven’t yet. But I will have. Time can be funny in dreams, as it is in the Dark Realm. Time travel is also possible in the dream world.’ Bluebell twisted her wand in her hand and said hesitantly, ‘Would you like to see her?’

Rumple raised his head, his heart and mind racing. He could meet his mother? His real mother? The mother who vowed to find him again as passionately as he had vowed to find Baelfire.

‘Bluebell,’ said Belle indignantly. ‘He’s been through enough tonight.’

However, Rumple asked, ‘Where is she? Where is my mother?’

‘With her,’ said Bluebell.

‘Rumple –’

‘I need to know, Belle,’ said Rumple. ‘My story still has missing pieces. Where has she been between then and being trapped in the Dark Realm? What stopped her from coming back to me? Please…’

Rumple’s pleading eyes were big and soulful. How could Belle deny the pleas of her beloved husband?

They stood up once more.

‘You won’t have long,’ Bluebell cautioned them. ‘The rules of the Black Fairy’s confinement apply to Fiona too.’

Rumple nodded in understanding. He unconsciously reached out for Belle’s hand and his wife took it.

But as Bluebell raised her wand and opened her mouth, ready to summon Fiona, an angry voice shouted, ‘Enough!’

It was Mother Superior.

Chapter Text

My mum always said things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end. If not always in the ways we expect. ―Luna Lovegood, Harry potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The Blue Fairy entered the room. She looked angrier than Bluebell had ever seen her.

‘Not only, not only did you disregard my orders with regards to helping Rumplestiltskin, but you were actually going to summon an evil greater than the Dark One himself – here! Have you lost your mind?!’

‘I’m not summoning the Great Evil,’ said Bluebell. ‘I’m summoning my friend – our sister. His mother. It’s their right.’

Blue face turned red with outrage. ‘I forbid you to do this!’

‘And I forbid you to forbid her,’ Rumple countered.

Blue cast Rumple a disdainful look. ‘You should’ve stayed dead.’

‘Just close your eyes and pretend it’s all a bad dream. That’s how I’m able to stomach the sight of my enemies continued existence, particularly those who are unworthy to still draw breath. Present company included.’ Rumple surveyed Blue with mutual disdain. ‘It all makes sense now. What was so wrong with me. Why you refused to help me. I am spoiled in your eyes. And I can never be unspoiled.’

‘Rumple, you are not spoiled,’ said Belle, shocked.

‘Of course I am. I’m damaged goods. Not even recent events can change that.’ Rumple glared at Rheul Ghorm. ‘Just when I thought I couldn’t despise you more. You took my mother from me, just as you took my son.’

‘I didn’t take your son. And your mother chose her own fate,’ said Blue. ‘For the greater good, I banished the Great Evil to the Dark Realm, and I sentenced White as I would sentence any fallen fairy or traitor.’

‘You sentenced me to a life of cowardice. Your lie made me an orphan. My father blamed me for my mother’s death. A life that sent me on a path to becoming the Dark One. Was that part of the great plan, Rheul Ghorm?’

‘Blue, how could you separate a child from his mother like that?’ said Belle, who had always admired Blue, who always saw fairies as a great force for Good. ‘You took her wings, her magic, you made her human. She was powerless. What more could she do? Why couldn’t you leave them be?’

‘Her job was to protect the Saviour. And she failed. A fairy charged to protect the world’s children, who couldn’t even protect her own child. What kind of mother would she have been? She unleashed evil to change her son’s fate. An evil that was always inside her. How long before she became evil to save him from the ogre’s war? By becoming the new Dark One? You saw what fate befell Rumplestiltskin and Baelfire. There is evil in this world because there are villains like them. I only regret it’s taken me this long to do what I should have done myself: banish another Great Evil. Like mother like son.’

Blue whipped out her wand and pointed it at Rumple.

‘Destroy all that which is evil; so that which is good may flourish.’

Belle and Bluebell moved closer, until they stood on either side of Rumple.

‘If you’re here to smite me, here I am,’ said Rumple, standing his ground, ‘but maybe you should look at this before you disgrace yourself.’

Rumple tossed Blue the dagger. She caught it and stared at the blank blade.

The Dark One curse was no more.

‘How?’ said Blue, staring at his Rumplestiltskin in disbelief, as if he shouldn’t exist, as if this was some kind of deception. ‘How have you done this?’

‘Didn’t you know? True Love’s Kiss can break any curse,’ said Rumple.

‘The Dark One cannot love.’

‘No. But Rumplestiltskin can.’

‘His curse has been broken, Blue,’ said Bluebell with a bright smile, proud of her charge and his wife. ‘Isn’t it wonderful?’

But Blue was still in denial. ‘It’s not possible.’

‘Isn’t it? No matter how powerful, all curses can be broken. And True Love’s magic is strong enough to transcend realms and break any curse - even the darkest curse Merlin said Emma Swan had made unbreakable. You can’t still preach that the Dark One is incapable of love when the evidence stands before you. Not even you couldn’t fail to notice the pulse of True Love that engulfed this town, bringing light to the darkness.’

Forced to accept it, Blue decided to go for a different tactic to keep face. She forced a smile, pretending to be pleased. ‘It has never happened before. Most believed the Dark One curse was indomitable, myself included. But yes, it is wonderful. And we have you to thank for this miracle.’ She beamed at Belle, like a proud mother. ‘Storybrooke owes you a great debt, Belle. You are a hero. You’ve defeated the Dark One, rendered Rumplestiltskin powerless and rid the world of his evil.’

Rumple frowned that all the credit was being given to Belle. After all, True Love takes two. But he remained silent. These days Belle’s contributions were overlooked, exploited or passed off as the Heroes own accomplishments. She deserved this moment of recognition, for she was a Hero. She was Rumple’s Hero.

‘Rumple, isn’t powerless, Blue,’ said Belle. ‘He still has magic.’

Blue expression flickered for a moment before she flashed Belle a condescending smile, like she didn’t truly understand what was going on. ‘No, Belle. Rumplestiltskin’s power derived from the Dark One curse. If his curse is truly broken, he would lose his magic. He is now no more a magician than you are,' she spelled out as if she were speaking with a toddler, explaining one plus one equalled two. 'He's completely ordinary,’ 

Belle frowned at being fairysplained the power of True Love magic. She also felt a little slighted that just because she wasn't a magic practitioner, or a Saviour, an Author, a fairy, or a Charming, there was nothing special about her.

‘Books are the only true magic,’ said Bluebell, coming to her defence. ‘A book can take you around the world and back, all you have to do is open it.’

Blue looked unconvinced.

‘Why don’t I make this simple,’ said Rumple.

Rumple tenderly kissed Belle, which she returned and causing him to glow like the brightest star, white and pure.

‘Reign in your magic, Rumple,’ Belle giggled as she pulled back. ‘You’re glowing like a torch.’

Rumple laughed, shining bright as a result. ‘I can’t help it, Belle. You make my whole heart glow.’

‘Well, at least I’ll know when you’re glowing you’ll be thinking about me.’

Rumple smiled and puffed out his chest a little. ‘Then I shall glow all the time,’ he declared.

Belle laughed. ‘It might attract attention.’

Rumple laughed too in agreement and the white light retreated within him once more. ‘Oh well. At least I no longer need a nightlight.’

‘He didn’t lose his magic,’ said Blue, flabbergasted; her aura of calm certainty shattering.

‘No, I didn’t,’ said Rumple. ‘Apparently, the Dark magic of my curse has been replaced with a Lighter magic – my magic. My Saviour magic.’

Blue’s eyes widened in shock. ‘No… you’re…’

‘The Saviour…’ said Rumple. ‘Balance to the universe has been restored.’

Blue suddenly dropped to her knees against her will, bowing deeply to Rumplestiltskin.

‘What’re you doing?’ said Rumple staggered by this.

Bluebell smirked. ‘She has no choice. She knows her place in the presence of true Saviour.’

Rumple face felt very warm. ‘I’m wearing pyjamas,’ he mumbled.

Without his usual armour of Dark One black dragon-hide or Mr Gold Armani suits, Rumple felt inappropriately underdressed given his new status.

‘Didn’t do Arthur Dent any harm,’ said Belle fairly. ‘And the Doctor won a sword fight and saved the earth in his pyjamas.’

‘Who?’

‘I’ll catch you up later.’

Rumple looked down at Blue, still kneeling on the floor, like she was stuck. ‘What’re you still doing on your knees? I’m not the second coming, Mother Superior. Get up for goodness sake.’

Blue got to her feet again, looking unsettled by this development.

‘Are you calling that impossible, too, Blue?’ asked Bluebell sweetly. ‘Are you choosing to disregard the Light magic of the Saviour as well as True Love’s magic… or is it that you can’t believe Rumplestiltskin’s heart is pure enough to wield it?’

They were really poking the sleeping dragon now.

‘True Love may manifest in a number of ways, and sometimes not at all,’ Blue told them. ‘But I find it unlikely the Lightest of magic would evince in one who has been so immersed in Darkness for nigh on three centuries… especially a former Dark One as dark as Rumplestiltskin, who chose power over love, twice.’

At that Rumplestiltskin decided to join the bug baiting. ‘True Love isn’t as rare as it was once thought to be, Dearie. It’s cropping up everywhere these days, in all its forms; breaking barriers; defying the odds – Snow White and Prince Charming, Beauty and the Beast. Our children's True Love was imbibed in the swan necklace. Emma's kiss woke the Huntsman who spared her mother's life from Regina's curse, back when she didn't even believe in magic. Not forgetting Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip, the Red Queen and Will Scarlet, young Henry has achieved True Love's Kiss twice with both his mothers – one of whom is the Evil Queen, who had previous chosen anger and revenge over love – the Wicked Witch and the God of the Underworld, Miss Lucas and Dorothy Gale, between sisters Queen Elsa and Princess Anna. Even one of your own fairy sisters and a dwarf fell in love with each other – a True Love between two different species you asserted could never be possible or allowed after my mother disappointed you. So is it really such a surprise that a True Love such as mine and Belle's could achieve such a feat?’

Blue sniffed imperiously. ‘It’s an anomaly.’

‘No, not an anomaly – true,’ Bluebell argued. ‘True Love never dies, nor does it lie. I told you Rumple and Belle shared True Love, strong enough to not only destroy the Darkness but restored the Light within, but you didn’t listen. If this were a bet you just lost.’

‘Hardly a bet when the game was rigged. Manoeuvring them towards each other. Setting them on a path of your choosing.’

‘I’m not sorry, if that’s what you’re expecting me to say. My magic might have helped bring them together, but it didn’t create this love. They did that all on their own. Rumple needed your help and support and you deserted him. It’s like the second his destiny was cut, the instant he wasn’t the Saviour anymore, you wrote him off and his son too. You give help to the Heroes freely, but not those who truly need our help.’

‘And what gives you the right?’

‘I’m his Fairy Godmother,’ said Bluebell loudly.

‘You were demoted,’ said Blue just as loudly. ‘His godmother’s were disbanded.’

‘Doesn’t mean he didn’t still need us.’

‘Ah yes. Agatha the vagrant. The stick lady. The old beggar woman with the rose. Did you really think I wouldn't find out?’

‘And it worked. Rumple found his True Love. And it saved his life today.’

‘You played god.’

‘We do it every time we raise our wands. So it was okay to send a Fairy Godmother to help Cinderella find her prince with magic, but it’s not okay for me to help two people who pixie dust itself knew were supposed to be together?’

‘Some things are so important that they cannot be left to chance.’

‘Oh yes, I forgot – of course, if Rheul Ghorm does it it’s fairy-like, but when I do it, no, I’m tampering with the natural order. One rule for you, one rule for me – you’ve just got double standards.’

‘You cannot presume to know the ways and workings of –’

‘Oh, spare me your ineffable excrement! You’re a hypocrite and a bigot! A sanctimonious termagant who wouldn’t know True Love if it ripped your wings out! Why do you have to make everyone’s lives so difficult and miserable and… blue!’

Blue slapped Bluebell across the face for her insolence.

‘Blue!’ said Belle indignantly.

‘There is a right way and a wrong way,’ said Blue, breathing deeply, her frizzy hair crackling. She transported Bluebell’s star wand into her hand. ‘And you have lost your way, Bluebell. This is not service, it is self-importance. And that is not all you’ve lost today. You crossed me once too often. You brought this on yourself.’

Bluebell was struggling hard not to cry. She was going to lose her wings. After everything she’d done, this was the price for success. ‘So that’s it, then? I’m out? After all Rumplestiltskin and Belle have been through, everything that I’ve done, what was achieved today… it was all for nothing? I did it for nothing?’

Blue said nothing. Unmoved by her tears. Unimpressed by her efforts. Resolute in her final sanction. Rumple looked at Bluebell and the Blue Fairy, shocked.

Fighting back tears, Bluebell nodded, accepting her fate. ‘Fine. Do whatever you want. Take my wings. Take my wand. Take my cross. If this is the price for being a good fairy? I’ll pay it. You want to punish me for helping my charge – finding True Love, regaining his destiny, defeating the Darkness – so be it. Because I would rather be human than a strict, condescending, pious, self-righteous, stuck-up, manipulative blue bitch like you! Go on, then. You’ve been wanting to do this for centuries. Say it.’

Blue drew a deep breath. ‘Bluebell… I don’t believe in…’

Bluebell braced herself and closed her eyes, waiting for her sentence to fall. But it didn’t come. And though she flinched at the sound of tearing, she couldn't feel her precious wings being ripped from her body.

She opened her eyes and discovered why.

Blue never completed Bluebell’s punishment because Rumple had sealed her mouth shut, as though she never had one. Blue's eyes were wide with panic, unable to make a sound.

‘That’s better,’ said Rumple. ‘A little bit of hush.’ He wrested the star wand and Blue’s wand from the mute Mother Superior. ‘I’ll deal with you in a moment.’ He turned back to Bluebell, giving back her wand. ‘Summon the White Fairy. Bring forth my mother.’

Bluebell wiped the tears from her face and raised her wand.

‘Let the day dawn, Light star lost in black.

Heed my call, White fairy, please come back.

Rise into the dawn, Blazing star so bright.

Return, White Fairy, step back into the light.’

There was a flash of white light and Fiona appeared on the floor. She was wearing the same peasants dress she had been wearing when she had fallen through the bean portal. It was worn and dirty, covered in soot, as were her face and arms, like she had been working in a mine.

Bluebell hurried forwards to help her up.

‘Bluebell…’ breathed Fiona.

‘Sister.’

The sisters hugged each other tightly. Then Fiona spotted her son over Bluebell’s shoulder. She gasped, covering her mouth with her hand, overwhelmed.

‘It’s you… isn’t it?’ she whispered. ‘My boy?’

She moved closer to Rumple, who was frozen, unable to move or breath.

‘You’re real, aren’t you? I’m really here?’

‘I’m real,’ Rumple confirmed, his mouth bone dry.

Fiona nodded, smiling at him. She placed her hands on his face, drinking him in. ‘You were such a beautiful baby. And you’re a beautiful man. My sweet, sweet boy.’

The feeling coming back to his limbs, Rumple stepped back hastily, freeing himself from her touch. Fiona looked hurt for a moment, her hands outstretched. Then she hung her head, her hands dropping to her sides.

‘I know what you’re going to say, son,’ said Fiona. ‘“How could you leave me?” “Do you have any idea what I’ve been through?” If I could just explain –’

‘I know what happened,’ said Rumple curtly. ‘Bluebell showed me everything.’

‘Then you know it was not my choice to leave. That I vowed to find my way back to you.’

‘No. You didn’t leave me willingly. But there’s still a gap in our history. Where have you been all this time? What took you so long?’

‘You of all people know how difficult crossing realms is. Well, unless it’s our family.’

Rumple scoffed in agreement. Bluebell now handed Fiona a baby blanket, that had fallen to the floor when she appeared.

‘What’s that?’ said Rumple, though he already knew what it was.

‘Your baby blanket,’ said Fiona. ‘It was all I had left of my bae. I kept you close, always.’

She handed it to him. Rumple clutched the woollen material. It was the only thing on Fiona's person that was clean and fresh as the day it was made. He brought it to his face and inhaled. Even after all these years, it still retained that sweet baby smell.

‘I travelled from realm to realm, using your blanket to lead me back to you. I thought I came close once. I ended up in Neverland. Your essence was strong there. Then I ran into Malcolm. Or Peter Pan as he calls himself now.’

‘I’m guessing not a tear-soaked reunion between husband and wife – or wife and man-child.’

Fiona shook her head. ‘Your father was angry. He thought I had walked out on him, leaving him to raise… “that maggot” alone. He said I betrayed him. I couldn’t leave the island without his permission. So I spent my time there helping protect the runaway Lost Boys. Every child needs a mother. I lived the most part in a cave. Then I met Baelfire.’

‘Bae…’ Rumple breathed.

‘Hook had given him up to Pan, when Bae refused to be part of his pirate family.’

‘What?’ said Belle in horror. ‘Hook gave Bae up to Pan?’

‘Is that really such a shock, Belle?’ said Rumple, who expected nothing less from the selfish pirate. ‘You turn on Hook and he’ll turn on you. Gods help Emma Swan.’

‘Pan grew tired of my interference,’ Fiona continued. ‘So he gave me the means to leave the island. But the magic would only allow one person to escape. Baelfire had been there far too long. So I gave it to my grandson.’

She had given up the way to find her son, so that Bae would be free.

‘Of course, we played right into Pan’s hands. He let Baelfire go because he still needed the Truest Believer to be born to save himself.’

‘How did you get away?’ asked Belle.

‘I smuggled aboard Hook’s ship, while he was on a job for Pan. The ship returned to the Enchanted Forest. But I was already too late.’ Fiona looked at her son apologetically. ‘You were all grown-up. And had become the Dark One.’

‘Once the Saviour, Champion of Light, only to fall and be known far and wide as the Bringer of Darkness,’ said Rumple. ‘Ironic, don’t you think?’

‘I didn’t care. You are my son. I knew if you ever needed me more it was now. You’re never too old to need your mother. I set off for your castle... but I was delayed.’

‘By who?’

‘The Black Fairy. She was about to steal another child. Whether a potential Saviour or workforce, it mattered not. I had to stop myself. I saved the child, but it cost me my chance of finding my own. As punishment she took me back to the Dark Realm with her. And there I remained, rearing the children she took.’

There was silence.

‘You told Belle our child was in danger,’ said Rumple. ‘That we both were.’

‘With your birth right restored, so reinstates the prophecy that you must battle the Great Evil. And your son is not only a True Love baby, but a child of Light and Dark. The perfect weapon.’

‘Our child is not a weapon!’ said Belle hotly.

‘We all have the potential for Good or Evil. Your son may be a Saviour of Light or a Dark Saviour sent to destroy Light magic. And the Black Fairy has raised him to be the latter.’

‘What?’ said Rumple and Belle together.

‘The hooded figure Emma Swan will face in the Final Battle. All six feet of him. What better opponent then the son of the Black Fairy herself?’

‘No,’ said Belle, refusing to believe it. ‘No, she can’t have taken. He hasn’t even been born yet. He’s right here. Rumple, tell her.’

Belle looked towards Rumple, appealing for his support. But Rumple looked troubled.

‘There are realms of Dark magic beyond even my reach, where my mother would lurk, in the shadow,’ said Rumple. ‘It’s a place of immense Dark power. Time runs differently there. Nothing makes sense. Anything’s possible.’

‘The future is never clear,’ said Fiona. ‘You know that better than anyone, son. Seeing is not the same as knowing. There are many paths. Your son may have been claimed on another. The one where you fought over him instead for him, thus allowing your son to be taken. Of course, he could still be claimed on this one if you don’t tread carefully. But the fact remains that the Black Fairy has spent twenty-eight years in the Dark Realm moulding him into the one who will kill the Saviour: Emma Swan.’

‘Rumple, what could happen to our son?’ said Belle fearfully.

‘Being raised by the Black Fairy?’ said Rumple. ‘What we would call torture, she’d call toughening up. You have no idea the depths of depravity in her soul. Combined she makes Evil, Dark and Wicked look tame. The Dark Curse and all of the darkness you’ve ever faced, was borne out of one twisted soul… She’ll do many things to make him evil.’

‘How do we stop her?’

‘Do you not remember Bluebell’s lesson?’ said Fiona.

Rumple remembered Bluebell as the stick lady and her lesson of stick. ‘We’re stronger together. Unbreakable.’

‘Gold star.’

Rumple gripped his baby blanket tightly, gazing at his mother. All those years travelling alone to find him, whilst still protecting children around her as had been her duty as a fairy. ‘You helped my son get off the island, even when it cost you the chance to get back to me.’

Fiona nodded. ‘Family comes first. I tore myself in two to try and keep us together. You became the Dark One to save your son. I think I would’ve done the same.’

‘We are alike, I suppose,’ Rumple conceded. ‘Willing to go as far as it takes and beyond for our family. Dedicating a lifetimes to find our sons.’

‘Can…’ Fiona’s fingers were twitching, as though itching to hold her child, but she wouldn’t without his permission. ‘Can I hug you?

Rumple paused. ‘…yes.’

Fiona moved forward slowly, her arms extended and hugged her son. Rumple tentatively leaned in. Fiona sighed, hugging him tight. Rumple placed a hand on her back. Belle and Bluebell smiled.

Fiona suddenly cried out as the black diamond portal appeared behind her, ready to pull her back into the Dark Realm. She slid across the floor.

‘No!’ Rumple gripped her hands, the blanket entangled between them. ‘No! Stay!’

‘I can’t,’ cried Fiona. ‘The Black Fairy’s bound me to her life sentence. It’s pulling me back.’

‘I can set you free,’ said Rumple desperately. ‘I’m the Saviour now. Beowulf’s sword can open the door.’

‘And bring the Great Evil. And your death.’

‘We’ll stop her. If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s self-preservation. And if anyone can defy pre-destiny, it’s me. We can be a family. Please… please don’t leave me again.’

Fiona reached out a hand to cup Rumple’s face. ‘I wish we had more time. I wish I had the chance to know you. But I’ve never felt more pride as a mother as I do now. I love you… Charlie.’

‘It’s Rumple.’

Fiona smiled through her tears. ‘Charlie. That’s the name I wanted to give you. It means ‘free man.’ Only you get to decide your fate.’

Rumple tested out his name. ‘Charlie…’

It felt foreign on his tongue. And yet, right...

‘I’ll never forgive myself,’ Fiona told him. ‘I want you to know that, son. I’ll never forgive myself for any of this.’

Rumple looked at his mother. It was like looking in the mirror. Finally, he said quietly, ‘I forgive you… mother.’

Fiona’s relief and gratitude was palpable. She choked back tears. The pull intensified.

‘Protect the child!’ Fiona beseeched them, before she was recalled to her prison. ‘At all costs! Protect the child! Save him! Save our family! Save us all!’

Then her hands slipped out of his grip.

‘NO!’ Rumple cried, watching as his mother flew back into the Dark Realm.

The portal closed. Rumple was left standing there, motherless, holding his baby blanket. Belle hugged him, trying to console him. Rumple clung to her, crying silently at the loss of his mother twice in one day. But this was not over. He will see her again. He will bring her home.

At last he turned back to Bluebell. She bent the knee and bowed the Saviour.

‘Good Fairy,’ said Rumple.

Bluebell looked up. Rumple took her lightly by the arms and helped her to stand.

‘You bow to no one. Thank you.’

‘I wish I could have given you more time.’

‘No, I mean it,’ said Rumple sincerely. ‘Thank you. For everything you’ve done for me. For us. For not giving up on me. Thank you, Godmother.’

‘I should’ve done more.’

‘More? You’ve done more than any fairy.’

Rumple turned to Blue.

‘And as for you…’ Rumple returned her mouth. ‘Have you anything to say to me?’

‘Everything I did,’ said Blue without remorse, ‘I did for the greater good.’

‘The greater good…' said Rumple quietly, 'as you see it.’

‘Please believe me, I did what I believed was best for everyone.’

‘I can’t. I’m sorry, Rheul Ghorm… I don’t believe in you.’

Blue screamed in pain as her fairy wings vanish from her back. Rumple raised Blue’s wand in his hand and held it out to Bluebell.

‘I do believe we are in need of a new Blue Star, to point us in the right direction.’

Bluebell looked stunned. ‘Me...?' she whispered faintly.

‘I can't think of anyone more suitable. Or more deserving. You are kind, caring and you have the right instincts.'

Bluebell looked very flattered. ‘Thank you. But I’m happy with my own wand.’

‘Very well.’ Rumple dubbed Bluebell with her own star wand, as a King would bestow a knighthood. ‘I appoint thee, Rheul Clagghorm. The new Blue Star. And Head of the Sisters of Saint Meissa.’

‘And what of me?’ said Blue, clutching her wingless back. ‘Am I to be cast aside?’

‘That is up to you,’ said Bluebell. ‘With the right help, the right guidance, a person can change, grow, become the best version of themselves. Remember who they used to be. If the Dark One and the Evil Queen can be redeemed, can be saved, then anyone can. Even you, Blue. If you want to help? You can start by alerting Lenore and the rest of our sisters.’

‘Why?’

‘Didn’t you hear? The Final Battle’s approaching. We need to prepare.’

They left, leaving Rumple and Belle alone together.

They looked at each other.

‘What do we do now?’ asked Belle looking scared. The Final Battle was coming and their son was in danger.

‘We have to work together, before it’s too late,’ said Rumple moving closer to her and taking her hands.

‘It’s already too late. Fiona’s seen him in the Dark Realm. Even together we couldn’t save our son.’

‘Belle, even if that’s true, that hasn’t happened yet. He’s right here,’ he placed his hand on her stomach, ‘safe inside of you. And I promise we will take every necessary precaution to make sure he stays safe. If he came from another timeline –’

‘We’ve lost him.’

‘We can still bring him back to us, Belle.’ 

‘How?’ 

‘Because the Black Fairy isn’t here with him now. We are. Whatever damage that woman did to him in the past, it’s over. I promise.’ 

‘Is it too late for us to help him? You must have some plan.’

Rumple shrugged helplessly. ‘I’m sorry. But if there is anything we can do to help him, that’s something we should do together. Not just for us, but for everyone. I fear if we fail, war is coming to Storybrooke. I’ve already lost one son, Belle, I can’t lose another.’ 

‘And you won’t,’ Belle promised. ‘Not as long as his mother’s drawing breath.’ 

‘He’s so lucky to have you.’

‘He’s lucky to have both of us. No one will fight for a child like his father. Just like his own mother.’

Rumple folded up his baby blanket very carefully and placed it on the bed. He rested his hand upon it. ‘Sometimes I feel this is our family’s fate. For parents and children always to be torn apart.’

‘Well, no more. This is where the cycle ends. We will save our son… and we will save your mother, Rumple. I promise.’

‘Then let’s go.’

Rumple looked ready to walk out in his pyjamas, but Belle stopped him.

‘Wait.’

Belle reached into her pocket and took out her diamond wedding ring. Rumple never thought he’d see it again.

‘I, uh… I could never threw it away. So many times I wanted to but… I couldn’t.’

‘Why?’

‘Because if I ever did, then it would truly be over between us. I don’t think I could ever face that.’

‘You’ve carried it all this time?’ said Rumple in disbelief.

‘Changed it from pocket to pocket. I wanted to keep it close.’

Rumple was fighting to keep his mind away from thoughts on where Belle had been keeping her wedding ring on her that day of the docks. That dress certainly didn’t seem to have any pockets.

‘To remind you never to trust me again.’

‘To remind me what I have to fight for.’ Belle held up her ring. ‘This… this is more than just hope… this is a promise. There’s a lot of stuff to work out and our son’s future hangs in the balance. When the time is right, when our family is safe, when we get things properly sorted… I want you to put it back on my finger.’

Rumple smiled. ‘Then let’s seal that promise.’

He took the ring, got down on one knee in his borrowed pyjamas and took hold of Belle right hand.

‘Belle Gold… will you please stay married to me?’

Belle smiled back and nodded. ‘Yes.’

Rumple slipped her wedding ring onto her ring finger and they embraced.

Someday, when their son was safe, when Fiona was rescued, when they were mended, he would put it back on her left hand.

But that would have to wait. The Final Battle was coming and they had to be ready if they were going to save their family, to save Storybrooke, to save their Happy Ending.

No. Their Happy Beginning…

Chapter Text

Wish-Belle scratched another day on the wall with her ruined fingernail. She had covered all four walls of her cell with tally marks by now. Some had stains of blood from the times her fingernails had splintered. Her insides ached with hunger. Her last failed escape attempt had earned her a punishment of no food and being chained to the floor, unable to move any further than the stone slab of a bed.

She was going to die here. She was going to starve to death, her body would never be found. She would be just a skeleton left abandoned in this lonely tower.

Wish-Belle sat bolt upright on her narrow bed as she heard the jangling sound of keys in the door. Had the Wish-Evil Queen decided she was no longer of any use to her? Had she come to kill her?

The door opened and the Wish-Huntsman entered.

Of course not, Wish-Belle thought bitterly. Of course Her Majesty would send someone else to do her dirty work. So Wish-Belle was important enough to use as a pawn against Wish-Rumplestiltskin, but not important enough to kill personally.

Wish-Belle knew that the Wish-Huntsman was under the control of the Wish-Evil Queen and had no choice but to carry out whatever command she’d given him while she held his heart in her hand, but that didn’t stop her from tensing up as he approached her.

Then, to her utter amazement, the Wish-Huntsman knelt down before her, produced a set of keys on a ring from his belts and unlocked her shackles.

‘It’s good to be out those chains,’ said the Wish-Huntsman, helping a confused Wish-Belle to stand.

‘What’re you doing?’ said Wish-Belle. ‘If the Queen finds out you released me –’

‘There’s nothing she can do about it,’ said the Wish-Huntsman happily. Wish-Belle didn’t think she had ever seen him smile before. ‘The Evil Queen’s reign of terror is finished.’

Wish-Belle stared at him. ‘What?’

‘Snow White and Prince Charming stole her magic. She’s powerless. And she’s fled the realm. She can’t hurt us anymore.’

‘Your heart?’

Wish-Huntsman placed Wish-Belle’s hand on his chest, through which she could feel his heart beating rhythmically. ‘Snow got it back from the vault. Returning the rest will take a little longer – no labels. All Regina’s castles are being searched for prisoners and are being released as we speak.’

Wish-Belle couldn’t believe it. ‘I’m free?’

‘Yes. What will you do now?’

Wish-Belle smiled. ‘I’m going home.’

‘You have someone waiting for you?’

Wish-Belle thought of Wish-Rumple. ‘Yes.’

‘Then I won’t delay you. Here.’ The Wish-Huntsman passed her a satchel and her dagger and the clothes she had been wearing when she had first been captured. ‘Your weapon, clothes and some provisions to get you where you need to go. You can take Fidella. She’s saddled in the courtyard. A noble creature. You’ll be in safe hands.’

‘Or hooves.’

The Wish-Huntsman smiled. ‘Take this as well.’ He handed her a whistle, cut from a stalk with two holes drilled into it. ‘If you should need help, sign this. It will bring you aid. You will be lead to safety. Good luck.’

‘Same to you. Thank you,’ said Wish-Belle gratefully.

And without wasting anymore time, Wish-Belle hurried out of the room and down the spiral staircase. She barely had a chance to express her thanks to Wish-Snow and Wish-Prince Charming, declining their kind off to give her lift to wherever she needed to go. She wanted to get home as quickly as possible.

Fidella, a beautiful chestnut horse, was indeed waiting for her in the courtyard and did not object when Wish-Belle mounted her and took up the reins.

‘I’m coming back, Rumple,’ said Wish-Belle.

She rode all the way back to the Dark Castle. Even if Wish-Rumple didn’t want to see her, she wanted to see him.

The Dark Castle was empty when she got there. The stuffed bear had been knocked over and the dead roses were spilled over the table; the white vase they sat in had been pinched. The helmets of the suits of armour creaked as they turned to look at her. Then they snapped to attention, their sightless eyes facing front.

‘Rumple?’ Wish-Belle called. ‘Rumple? Are you here?’

Wish-Rumple wasn’t here. And judging by the thick layer of dust he hadn’t been home for some time. Or his new caretaker was lazy.

The double doors swung open as Wish-Belle entered the salon. The castle had been ransacked in the Dark One’s absence: the golden chalice, the trident, the wizard’s hat, the sword, the golden fleece, the magic gauntlet, the candelabra and pendulum clock from the side table, and everything else that wasn’t nailed down or protected by magic behind the glass cabinet. The only things that remained that the thieves and looters had deemed worthless were the creepy marionettes, the Unicorn in Captivity tapestry, the walking stick, the spinning wheel, and the chipped cup.

‘Come to make a deal, Dearie?’

Wish-Belle’s heart leapt in shock and delight at the sound of that voice. But turning, she was both happy and disappointed to find Wish-Rumple standing there… as a glowing recorded hologram, no doubt activated by her presence.

‘Well, you’re too late. Due to foreseen circumstances, I am otherwise engaged. I suggest you find another magic wizard; preferably one not trapped in a tree, trapped in the body of a winged monkey or locked in a cage so a certain debt dodger can dig themselves a deeper hole. You know who you are, Dearie. Take what you wish – if you dare. May ill-fortune befall you should you take a treasure that is not yours. Fear not! If all goes to plan, I shall breathe the free air again. If this is the Queen come crying to me? Why would I help you? My greatest student… and failure. How you’ve disappointed me. My Dark curse. My most precious of curses. You failed me. See you around, Dearie… or not.’

The message ended and the image of Wish-Rumple faded.

Wish-Belle was alone.

Not knowing what else to do, she picked up the chipped cup from its plinth and carried it over to the long table. The silver tea tray and teapot were gone, but the castle did produce what remained of the china tea-set. Wish-Belle sat down in the chair next to Wish-Rumple’s empty one on the end and set the cup in its saucer.

The magic held within their chipped cup activated and it glowed golden. A hologram of Wish-Rumple appeared in his seat. Unlike the confident deal-maker of the previous recorded message, this Wish-Rumple looked forlorn and vulnerable without his beast façade. His eyes were rather bloodshot.

‘Belle.’

Wish-Belle couldn’t resist reaching out to lightly caress his holographic cheek. ‘Rumple…’

‘It’s foolish to hope that you’ll ever hear this. Death is beyond even my reach. But that’s what I am: a fool. And a drunk fool at that.’

Hologram Wish-Rumple raised a glass bottle of what was once full of whiskey, but now only contained dregs. He set it down out of sight.

‘But in the slimmest, wildest chance those rumours were exaggerated, and if that father of yours really did heartlessly shut you out, know that you will always have a home here. Dearest Beauty, have no fear, you alone are Mistress here. My castle, my gardens, my roses so sweet. All that I have is laid at your feet. My castle is your home. For as long as you want. No amount of gold could ever begin to compensate for the hurt I caused you… but I hope it will buy you your dream. You’ve always wanted to see the world. Well, all of it is right out there, beyond these walls. Go when you can. Have adventures, see all the wonders you’ve dreamt of, and when you’ve tasted it all, I hope one day you’ll come back and tell me all about it. If I ever come back… I wouldn’t blame you if you don’t. Go today and have a life. Have an amazing life, Belle. I hope you find happiness, adventure and love… everything you deserved from me. I will wait for you. Always.’

‘I love you,’ Wish-Belle whispered tearfully.

‘I love you too,’ Wish-Rumple whispered tearfully back. ‘Assuming you said “I love you,” otherwise that would’ve been very outlandish.’

Wish-Belle laughed.

‘But I do,’ insisted Wish-Rumple sincerely. ‘I love you. I miss you. And I’m sorry. Not a day will pass when I won’t think of you. Goodbye Belle.’

The magic receded and the hologram ended. Behind her, the basket next to the spinning wheel was suddenly overflowing with spun gold that Wish-Rumple had made to finance her dream of seeing the world. But what was the point of seeing the wonders of the world if Wish-Belle couldn’t see it with him?

Wish-Belle thought about everything he’d said. Wish-Rumple was locked up somewhere by one of his debtors to avoid paying up on whatever deal they had ill-advisedly entered into. That certainly explained the boldness of people pilfering from the Dark One’s home.

Well, Wish-Belle wouldn’t leave him to his fate. She understood all too well the pain and loneliness of being locked up. Wherever Wish-Rumple was, she will find him.

‘I will see you again, Rumple.’

*

Thirty Years Later…

ON THIS SPOT SNOW WHITE

AND PRINCE CHARMING

HERORICALLY DEFEATED

THE EVIL QUEEN

Wish-Rumple glared at the white marble statue of a young Wish-Snow White and Wish-Prince Charming standing tall, proud and heroic in their fighting array. He didn’t know if he was angry at them for preventing Wish-Regina from casting his curse so that he could find his son, or angry at his ex-student for allowing herself to be defeated by two people without a drop of magic to their name, except True Love.

Though he supposed he should be grateful to the King and Queen of the House of White for finding his Wish-Baelfire, taking him in as their ward, raising him, educating him, loving him, granting their permission for him to marry his True Love and their daughter, Princess Emma, and making him a part of their family. Wish-Rumple only wished Wish-Bae had lived to have known his son, Wish-Henry, for more than one year, and so that Wish-Rumple could have made amends with his boy for everything that happened at the portal and for everything that followed.

But as the Dark One always said, ‘We can’t always get what we want, now can we?’

Wish-Rumple poofed back to his castle.

The front doors opened to receive its long-awaited master. There was no one there waiting for him, though Wish-Rumple hadn’t really expected there to be. Everyone he knew and cared about were dead. And his thirteen year old grandson would’ve been raised on the stories of the Dark One and taught to hate him on principal.

He frowned at the table in the middle of the foyer, upon which was a new vase full of fresh red roses cut from his garden. Those should be dead. He ran his fingers along the table top and inspected his spotlessly clean fingers devoid of dust.

Wish-Rumple strode into the salon. As he had expected, all his old treasures that he had collected over the centuries were gone. But new treasures replaced them: Sisudatu’s dragon gem, the Magic Urn, the crest of the Emperor, Maui’s magic hook, a frying pan (?), a nautilus shell, a turquoise beaded necklace with a silver stone at the end, Snow White’s poisoned comb, a pair of Peruvian boots small enough to fit a cat (Wish-Rumple jumped out of his scales as said ginger cat came streaked across the floor, wound itself around his legs, purring loudly as it rubbed against him, despite the musky smell, before padding out of the room), a pot with a rose and dagger on it, a bow and quiver of arrows with the seal of Dunbroch on it, a tambourine, a glowing blue crystal Atlantian necklace, the Golden Pelydryn, the broken glass slipper glued back together, the spindle that cursed Sleeping Beauty, a genie-less oli lamp, a thick emerald slab showing an image of Wish-Rumple and Wish-Belle embracing, his old walking stick, and a magic wooden staff which curled around a rose in the centre at the top.

Mannequins of Wish-Rumple and Wish-Belle stood next to the covered mirror, wearing the same clothes they had been wearing the last time they saw each other. The Wish-Rumple dummy was holding the hand of Wish-Belle dummy.

All of this both intrigued and unnerved him.

‘Who’s there?’ Wish-Rumple called. There was someone here in his castle, apart from the cat, he could sense them. ‘Show yourself!’

His sharp eyes spotted movement. At first they spotted yet another animal in his drawing room; a handsome scarlet and gold phoenix sitting on a golden perch, staring back at him with bright, dark eyes. Then they uncovered the real intruder: a hooded figure in a black cloak was slowly setting the chipped cup back on its plinth. The audacity of them touching his one memory of Wish-Belle made his blood boil.

‘That doesn’t belong to you, Dearie,’ he growled.

Wish-Rumple charged at the figure, spun them around and removed their hood, revealing –

‘Belle…?’ Wish-Rumple gasped.

Wish-Belle stared just as surprised as Wish-Rumple to see him standing there. She had lines around her eyes and there were streaks of grey in her brown hair, but she was no less beautiful.  

Wish-Rumple immediately took a step back away from her, waggling his finger. ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ This was a trick, it had to be. ‘You’re not real. You’re dead.’

‘What?’ said Wish-Belle. She was standing right here in front of him. ‘Of course I’m not dead. Where – Where have you been –’

‘You’re a vision, just like Bae.’

‘So the Queen tells you I died after she tried to use me to break your curse and you just believed her?’

‘I found the bones,’ Wish-Rumple informed her.

‘What?’

Wish-Belle knew the Wish-Evil Queen had lied about her death, she never thought she had gone the extent of staging it.

‘At the foot of the tallest tower,’ said Wish-Rumple darkly. ‘Did you really think I wouldn’t check? That I would just leave her there? I buried her in my rose garden. But you know that, of course. You’re a manifestation of my self-conscious.’

Wish-Belle had found the wooden cross with her name on it beneath the carved red rose in the castle gardens, handmade by Wish-Marco. She just never realised until now it was actually her headstone.

‘There’s… there’s a body buried under there?’ said Wish-Belle faintly. ‘Whose?’

She really didn’t know, Wish-Rumple thought. This wasn’t right. He was starting to question his sanity. Had all these years of imprisonment, isolation, despair and a devil whispering in his ear finally driven him mad? And even the voices had abandoned him.

‘How deep?’ Wish-Rumple asked quietly, a slight tremor in his voice. ‘How deep did I dig the grave?’

Wish-Belle shook her head, her eyes wide. ‘I don’t –’

She winched as Wish-Rumple gripped her upper arms tightly, his nails digging into her, his big amber eyes bulging.

‘How deep?’ Wish-Rumple repeated, his voice rising in panic, desperately trying to hold on to what remained of his sanity. ‘How many shovelfuls of earth? Did I use my hands? How long did it take me?!’

‘I don’t know!’

‘You would know! You would remember how deep! You would remember every shovelful, every moment! You would remember what it felt like to place her body inside.’ Wish-Rumple’s voice cracked, his already bulbous eyes inflating with unshed tears. ‘You would remember if you buried the woman you loved! Until the end of time…’

Wish-Belle was speechless. She hadn’t known – how could she know? – what her disappearance had done to him. This Wish-Rumple had a look of such despair in his eyes that her heart almost stopped in pity. He looked so broken.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Wish-Belle, her own eyes full of tears. ‘I don’t know which poor girl’s body the Queen used, but that wasn’t me. I’m not a vision or a ghost. I’m real.’

‘Well, that’s relative,’ said Wish-Rumple coldly, releasing her. ‘The fact still remains. Belle is gone. She’s gone forever. She’s not coming back. And I know it’s my fault. And you dare come into my house, make it your own and wear her face to torture me.’

Wish-Rumple advanced on her slowly, a dangerous look in his eye. Wish-Belle wasn’t afraid of him, but she was afraid of him doing something he would regret.

‘No. No, hey,’ said Wish-Belle nervously, backing away. ‘Listen to me. It's me. I was locked up. okay? but I didn’t die. See? I’m alive.’

‘My Belle is dead!’ Wish-Rumple bellowed, actually seizing her by the throat and forcing her against the glass cabinet, making the trinkets rattle. ‘You’re just here to remind me of my failure.’

‘That’s not why I’m here.’

‘My weakness.’

‘Please stop.’

‘You’re here to drive me mad with hopeless longing. Well I’m already mad, Dearie! I didn’t rot in prison for thirty years to have some squatter disrespect Belle’s memory. I may not be real, but I get a funny feeling I can still make you bleed.’

‘What?’

‘Oh, didn’t you know? Turns out this isn’t reality. It’s fake. We’re not real. You, me, this entire world was created by a wish to trap the Saviour. But the danger of what happens when you cross Rumplestiltskin, in any realm, remains constant. As you shall see. It’s been a while since I had a good flay. Tools are a bit rusty.’

‘Please, Rumple,’ Wish-Belle pleaded.

Wish-Rumple frowned, loosening his grip. Only his Wish-Belle ever called him that.

‘I know you’ve been hurt. But I have been just as lost and alone as you. You spent thirty years imprisoned. I spent thirty years looking for you. When I was released after the Queen’s defeat, I returned home to an empty castle… and a chipped cup. I thought I might die of a broken heart… I didn’t think you’d be the one to break it. Again.’

Wish-Rumple stared as he allowed Wish-Belle to gently lower his arm.

‘It’s me, Rumple. Even if you and I aren’t real, this moment is. If you’re right, if I’m not really Belle, then I wouldn’t be able to do this.’

Wish-Belle leaned in and kissed him. Just like before the transformation to normal skin started at his lips. Wish-Rumple pulled back, startled, looking at her from a human face with real human eyes. And just as before, the lizard-skin creeped back in. The last thing to change back were his eyes.

‘Belle?’ Wish-Rumple breathed. ‘Is it… you?’

Wish-Belle nodded. ‘It’s me.’

‘Really you?’

‘Yes. Rumple, it’s me.’

Still a little uncertain, Wish-Rumple grasped her shoulder. ‘You’re real. You’re alive.’ He looked at her in wonder. ‘You came back…’

‘I came home,’ she corrected him.

‘Oh, Belle… I thought you were –’

‘Dead? Not yet.’

‘Where…?’

‘Locked away in Regina’s castle.’

‘Her castle?’ said Wish-Rumple, worried. Then he turned cross, stamping his foot so hard he could’ve created a chasm and fallen in, never to be seen again, ‘I searched her castle!’

‘Not hard enough!’ Wish-Belle countered equally cross. Her arms and throat did hurt. ‘I had to wear a dress that left nothing to the imagination, I got attacked by a pirate for refusing to help him kill you and I had to mark the days with my nails!’

‘Don’t raise your voice at me, you brazen beauty!’

They glared at each other. Then Wish-Belle half-giggled, half-cried as she hugged him.

‘Oh, I missed you so much!’

‘As did I.’

They hugged for what seemed like hours, looking exactly like the image in Bruno Madrigal’s prophecy slab. Then Wish-Rumple stepped back as Wish-Belle stifled a cough. He was after all still wearing the same mouldy, decomposed clothes he had been languishing in for that last thirty years.

‘I must be stinking,’ said Wish-Rumple apologetically. He eyed the red markings on her creamy neck shamefully and trued to increase the distance between them.

But Wish-Belle wasn’t having it and took his hands to stop his going anywhere.

‘I don’t care,’ she said. ‘What I do care about is where you’ve been? You said you were imprisoned.’

Wish-Rumple nodded. ‘Locked in a dwarf mine so that Cinderella could avoid paying what she owes me.’

‘Which was?’

‘Her first-born, which she traded for a night at her future husband’s ball. Then she deepened her debt by making a deal on a pretend second-born – a twin – so that she could trap me. And Prince Thomas paid the price.’

‘Why did you want her baby?’

‘I didn’t. Though anyone who trades their most precious possession for personal gain, I would’ve been forgiven for placing little Alexandra into a more suitable home, instead of growing up fatherless. I only needed her to secure a deal with the Saviour… It’s a long story.’

Wish-Belle smiled. ‘Reckon I’ve got time to hear it.’

‘And I want to hear yours.’ Wish-Rumple glanced round at the treasures Wish-Belle had collected over the years. Not to mention the beasts she’d adopted. ‘It is an impressive collection.’

‘Meow.’ The cat had returned.

‘Oh, hello.’ Wish-Rumple leaned down to scratch his ears. ‘And what’s your name, Puss?’

‘Puss.’

‘As in Boots?’

Wish-Belle nodded, sadly. ‘Retired.’ She stroked Puss’s silky marmalade back as he jumped up onto the long table, sniffing at what looked like a scrapbook with a picture of a rose under a bell jar on the front. ‘I needed company.’

He picked up the book and flicked through the scrapbook that was full of pictures, journaling, tiny trinkets and other souvenirs.

‘Quite the adventure you’ve had in my absence,’ he said proudly but with a twinge of regret, handing it back to his little adventurer and beast tamer.

Wish-Belle hugged her book close to her chest. ‘A lifetime. But I didn’t find the one treasure I was searching for… You.’

Wish-Rumple felt himself blushing. ‘Well, they say it’s when you stop looking that you…’

‘Wonder where all the time had gone?’ asked Wish-Belle, setting the book of memories down.

Wish-Rumple made to cup her face but Wish-Belle ducked her head. He withdrew his hand, scared he’d done something to upset her. She tucked her greying hair behind her ear.

‘I got old,’ she mumbled, as if she had let him down in some way, by not looking exactly how he remembered her.

Wish-Rumple lifted her face gently so that she looked into his eyes. ‘You’re as beautiful as the day I lost you,’ he told her tenderly.

Wish-Belle smiled tremulously. ‘So, what now?’

Wish-Rumple shrugged. ‘I don’t know. My curse failed. And the reason for casting it no longer exists. It’s why I stopped the kiss. It wasn’t because my power means more to me than you.’

‘I know.’

‘I needed my magic to find my son. Baelfire, is his name. He was lost in another realm. Yet it seemed he somehow found his way back here… fell in love and married Princess Emma, the would-have-been-Saviour, had a son… and he died before he could be the father to Henry that I failed to be for him. He never knew his son… He never knew how much I loved him. How sorry I am for… everything. Oh, my Bae –’

Wish-Rumple started to cry. Wish-Belle hugged him consolingly.

‘I’m so sorry, Rumple.’

‘I lost my boy. And I lost you.’

Wish-Belle pulled so that could directly into Wish-Rumple’s eyes. ‘You lost me temporarily,’ she told him gently but firmly. ‘And I’m not going anywhere. It’s in the past. We’re together now.’

‘Well then. I guess there’s nothing left to do, except…’

Wish-Rumple leaned in so close she felt his warm breath on her face.

‘What’re you doing?’ said Wish-Belle, drawing back before their lips could meet.

‘What I should have done thirty years ago,’ said Wish-Rumple. ‘The reason I needed to hold on to it is gone. I wronged you and I hurt us both. And a gentleman always makes amends for his failings. I want to show you how much you mean to me, Belle.’

‘You’ll be powerless,’ Wish-Belle warned him.

‘I know.’

‘You won’t be able to get it back.’

‘Trying to talk me out of it?’ Wish-Rumple teased.

‘I just want you to be certain…’ said Wish-Belle seriously. ‘Is this what you want?’

‘I want you.’ He cupped her face. ‘I am now, and for all the future, yours.’

Their lips met in a kiss. And some fucking magic started happening. Wish-Belle broke the kiss for a moment to see. Wish-Rumple’s face was slowly becoming human again and, despite having broken the kiss, the changing was still slowly peeling the scales back revealing tanned skin.

‘After all this time?’

‘Always,’ said Wish-Rumple in his human Scottish brogue. ‘You still love me?’

‘I never stopped,’ said Wish-Belle.

They leaned in to kiss again and the change speeded up, until the rainbow flash of True Love’s Kiss, signalling the breaking of the curse. The distant screams of the dying Dark Ones echoed inside his head before they disappeared, forever.

Wish-Rumple knew it had worked because of the familiar pain that had returned to his leg. What he had not expected was the transformation that had taken place before his eyes when he’d opened them again.

‘Wow…’ he said softly, staring at his True Love. ‘It appears I’m not the only one given a do-over.’

Wish-Belle looked confused. ‘What do you mean?’

Wish-Rumple handed her a mirror with a long handle. Wish-Belle looked at herself and was shocked to discover that she was young again. She looked exactly as she looked thirty years ago, as if no time had passed, like she was seeing Wish-Rumple again for the first time right after being released from the Wish-Evil Queen’s castle.

‘What did you do?’ said Wish-Belle, touching her smooth skin and her luscious chestnut brown hair devoid of a single grey strand.

‘Nothing,’ said Wish-Rumple truthfully, just as astonished as she was. ‘I swear. It appears fate is giving us both a second chance at the life we lost.’

Wish-Belle lowered the mirror. ‘I’m still technically fifty.’

‘Well you’re looking good for your age. And I’m still technically over three hundred. Everyone’s young compared to me.’

‘And the curse is gone?’

Automatically, Wish-Rumple waved his hand and conjured his blank kris dagger, which appeared in his hand in a flash of Light magic. And he had thought he’d run out of ways to be surprised today.

‘What?’ he said shocked.

‘You still have magic,’ said Wish-Belle stunned.

Wish-Rumple shook his head. ‘No, that’s wrong. I should be powerless.’

‘Maybe you turned the Darkness to Light.’

‘If I’d have known…’ Wish-Rumple began, thinking of all the wasted time. If only he hadn’t stopped the kiss the first time.

‘There’s no way you could have known,’ said Wish-Belle.

Wish-Rumple took a moment to digest this, then he looked anxiously out the window.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Who did I bury?’ Wish-Rumple wondered.

‘Well… I’m sure she’s happier in your rose garden then being left abandoned at the foot of a tower.’

‘Best I take your name off the cross. We’ll call her… Rose.’

‘That’s lovely. Shall we have some tea?’

‘I would like that, Dearest.’ Then he remembered his deal with not-Regina. ‘First, there one annoying thing I have to take care of.’

‘What?’

‘I don’t suppose in all your travels you’ve made an acquaintance with a big friendly giant who grows magic beans?’

Wish-Belle reached into a drawstring pouch on her belt and pulled out a magic bean. ‘Why do you need it?’

Wish-Rumple sighed. ‘Well, I sort of promised not-our-Regina a magic bean in exchange for my freedom to get her and Emma-but-not-our-Emma back to Storybrooke.’

‘What’s Storybrooke?’

‘No idea. Maybe we’ll visit it someday. I always promised myself I’d take you to see the world. You can show me around.’

Wish-Belle reached up on tiptoes to kiss him, causing Wish-Rumple to glow white with pleasure. ‘Come back back to me.’

Wish-Rumple smiled. ‘I always do,’ he assured her.

But they were reluctant to let each other go.

‘Do you have to go meet them right away, or you do have some time?’ Wish-Belle asked.

Wish-Rumple glanced at the pendulum clock beside the candelabra that Wish-Belle had managed to recover. Cogsworth and Lumière, as she had christened them, back together. He had two hours before he had to meet not-Regina.

‘I’ve got time,’ he said. ‘For you, I’ve got all the time in the world.’

‘Good.’ Wish-Belle ran her fingers through his tangle of shaggy hair. ‘We best make you look more presentable for when you go to make the Queen and Princess.’

‘I’m in your capable hands.’

‘Come on. I’ll introduce you to Pongo.’

‘Who?’

‘Oh, he came from the litter of that Dalmatian puppy.’

‘The same puppy that lured you away with its deceptive cutness in order for you to be captured by the Queens of Darkness?’

‘It wasn’t his fault, Rumple. The De Vil made him do it. Poor thing. I couldn’t just let Cruella turn him and his brothers and sisters into a fur coat.’

‘Indeed not,’ agreed Wish-Rumple, who had known a sheepdog or two in his lifetime. ‘But if I find the other ninety-eight upstairs…’

Laughing, Wish-Belle took his hand and pulled him along with her out of the room. Wish-Rumple laughed, too, letting her lead the way as she took him upstairs to take care of him. Let not-Regina wait, he had two glorious Wish-Belle filled hours to enjoy after thirty years locked up in prison.

‘Well at least you haven’t got a dragon in the dungeon,’ said Wish-Rumple, leaning on Wish-Belle as he limped towards the stairs.

‘No,’ Wish-Belle assured him, wrapping her arm around him to help him walk. ‘Not the dungeon…’

*

‘Now let’s go home,’ said Regina, looking around the beach for the Wish Realms version of Rumplestiltskin. It was noon and he wasn’t here. Usually his timing was impeccable. Almost as soon as the big hand struck the hour he would appear. ‘Where is he?’

‘Who?’ asked Emma.

Regina looked sheepish. ‘Oh, I sort of made a deal with the Dark One and let him out of his cage for a ticket home.’

Emma was horrified. ‘Regina! What if he's, like, razing villages or something?’

‘You really do have a low opinion of us, considering how much you rely on us to help you out of messes you yourselves get yourselves into, don’t you, Dearie?’

The familiar impish giggle announced Wish-Rumple’s arrival.

Regina, who had turned smiling toward his titter, did a double-take, staring at the sight of Wish-Rumple standing in front of the fallen tree, and he could not have made any more of a contrast than the Dark One she had released from his cell. He looked exactly like Mr Gold, from his cut hair to the golden handled black cane he was leaning on. All except his clothes, which were replaced by a high-collared white shirt beneath an embroidered brown velvet waistcoat and dark brown leather trousers and boots.

‘Well, Dearie,’ said Wish-Rumple happily with his human voice, swaggering over to meet them, leaning on his new cane that made him look like an eccentric than a cripple, ‘on behalf of all Rumplestiltskins everywhere, I’m here to make good on my word.’

He looked amused by the women’s stunned silence. ‘My reputation precedes me.’

‘Rumple…’ said Regina, taking in Wish-Rumple’s human form and short haircut. She tried to recover herself. ‘You scrub up well. I like it. Highlights your eyes.’ 

‘Well, thank you very much.’ He registered Princess Emma’s unflattering gobsmack expression. ‘Problem, Princess?’

Emma shut her mouth and shook her head. ‘No, just… You’re not what I expected.’

Wish-Rumple raised one skeptic eyebrow. ‘Well, neither are you... Emma. I’ve spent years waiting for… this? Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this moment? Are you sure you’re the Emma? I expected the great Saviour, and our Creator you might say, to be a little more…’ He took in the tiara on her plated blonde hair, her rose red lips, fur-trimmed pink cloak and plain white dress, looking, despite Beowulf’s sword, Hrunting, nothing like he’d imagine the daughter of the late Wish-Snow White and Wish-Prince Charming. ‘…well, more. And, for the record, razing villages was always your MO, Your Majesty.’

‘How?’ Emma wanted to know. ‘I mean… How? You were the Dark One a few hours ago.’

‘A lot can happen in a few hours.’

‘But how?’

‘True Love’s Kiss will break any curse.’

‘Belle?’ said Regina.

‘But of course. I stand before you, not as the Dark One, but the Light One.’

‘I thought Belle was locked up in a tower? She’d be a pile of bones by now,’ said Emma, without thinking.

‘Your concern is positively heart-warming,’ he said coldly. ‘Most fortunately for both you ladies, she was released upon the Evil Queen’s defeat. But trust me, had your parents not thought to check for prisoners of the Queen, and my Belle had been left to starve to death in your tower, we would not be standing here having this pleasant chat.’

‘That wasn’t me,’ said Regina impatiently.

‘On behalf of Reginas everywhere, would you have released Belle upon your downfall, Your Majesty? Or would you have abandoned her to her fate?’

Regina said nothing. Back then she wouldn’t have given Belle a moment’s thought, thinking only of her own misfortunes.

‘How is Belle?’ asked Emma. ‘She must be… advanced in years.’

‘She’s absolutely gorgeous. And you’re going to get old too, Princess. Hopefully you’ll age more gracefully than your rebound lover will.’

Emma looked uncomfortable as she remembered the sight of her grey-haired, rotund, sleazy old drunkard Killian Jones.

‘Ah yes, your pirate was certainly a little more spry in his younger days, wasn’t he? Like seeing all those suppressed years in Neverland all at once. Worry not. You’ll have thirty years before you wake up to that monstrosity and his rum barrel beside you. Maybe he should switch to water.’

‘Where’s that bean, Rumple?’ said Regina, reminding them why they were here.

‘As promised.’ Wish-Rumple placed the magic bean in her hand. ‘Courtesy of the future Mrs Stiltskin. Just throw it down and think about where you want to go.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Sure you want to leave all this behind, Princess?’ Wish-Rumple inquired of Princess Emma.

‘We’re going home,’ said Emma, lift the sword. ‘What’re you going to do?’

‘Off to travel fake worlds with my Belle. Maybe we’ll pop over to yours one of these days. This… Storybrooke.’

‘You know about Storybrooke?’

‘Don’t you know by now, Dearie, that I know everything?’

‘How?’

Wish-Rumple giggled, putting on his imp voice again for old time’s sake. ‘What kind of Rumplestiltskin would I be if I didn’t maintain my air of mystery?’

Emma couldn’t help but smile.

‘But before all that, I’m off to stop the Evil King raze some fake villages.’

The smile vanished from Emma’s face. ‘What?’

‘Do you really expect your heartbroken, traumatised son to sit by and let the Evil Queen get away with murdering his grandparents and kidnapping his mother?’

‘They weren’t real,’ Regina argued. ‘Not really. I... I’m not even from this world.’

‘Oh, I know that, Dearie, just as I know our-Regina is living in exile. But King Henry has to make the Evil Queen pay for destroying his family, and you seem like the best candidate. You did kill them. You two may move on, but this world will keep turning. And when it’s not your story... bad things happen. He’ll destroy you if it’s the last thing he does. So I’d get out of our world sharpish.’

‘And you’re just going to let him be consumed by anger and revenge?’

‘No. I have already said I intend to prevent such a thing. He is after all my grandson. I must save him. I must do it to honour Baelfire and help keep his memory alive. Unlike his mother, I won’t abandon him. I won’t let him fall into darkness as I did. And yes, unlike you, Regina, I intend to steer Henry away from his path of self-destruction. I lost my son, I won’t lose my grandson, too. Pray it’s not too late.’

‘What does that mean?’ said Regina.

‘Well with the death of this worlds Snow White and Prince Charming, so too dies the magic they used to steals this worlds Evil Queen’s magic. Her powers will have been restored, powerful enough to break through any feeble fairy magic keeping her out. Not only will she want to reclaim her kingdom and her beauty, she’ll want to meet the woman who stole her thunder and did what it’s taken her a lifetime to achieve: killing Snow White.’

‘I guess we both have a Final Battle to win,’ said Emma, thinking of the hooded figure from her vision, not yet knowing that it wasn’t the Evil Queen.

‘Then I suggest we get on with it.’

‘You ready, Emma?’ said Regina, raising the magic bean.

‘Let’s go home,’ said Emma.

Regina threw the bean down and the swirling green portal opened.

‘Remember Saviour:’ said Wish-Rumple, ‘the Final Battle is not just a battle for your life. It’s a battle for your faith. If you lose, we’ll all perish with you.’

Emma nodded. She and Regina jumped down the portal. As it closed behind them, there was a noise like thunder and turning to look, Wish-Rumples saw a flare of red magic, like livid lightning, spring up from beyond the mountains into the sky, its violent flashes lighting the sullen clouds with her fury.

The Wish-Evil Queen’s had her powers and her murderous bloodlust back.

‘It has begun,’ said Wish-Rumple, teleporting back to Wish-Belle so that they could find King Henry and prepare for battle.

The House of White Gold, left to right: Wish-Belle, Wish-Rumple, Wish-Princess Lucy before Wish-Prince Baelfire's portrait, and her parents Wish-King Henry and Queen Freya.

Princess Emma and her parents Queen Snow and King David White.

Chapter Text

There are no happy endings. Endings are the saddest part. So just give me a happy middle. And a very happy start. ― Shel Silverstein

@>~~;~~~~~

Storybrooke

“When Good and Evil both did the right thing, faith was restored. The Final Battle was won.”

And so ended the Once Upon A Time storybook.

The first obstacle was easy to overcome. After one last showdown in the Mayor’s office, Regina, having been forced to accept her darkness and that part of her has and will always be the Evil Queen, was able to inject the Split-Evil Queen with an anti-serum that forced her Light and Dark side to remerge together again, making her one person again.

This left them to deal with the greatest threat to this town. The original creator of the Dark Curse that brought them here: the Black Fairy.

But as in any battle, there were casualties, not only on a multiversal scale.

The Black Fairy had mocked the little family circle, pretending to be heroes and never expecting to pay a price. Snow told her that they’d paid plenty, to which the Black Fairy responded that they will keep paying until they lose themselves. They were not invincible. She began by killing the Wicked Witch, by melting her alive where she stood. With her last seconds of life Zelena told Regina to look after Robin’s baby and congratulated Rumple on fulfilling his promise to Bae: her death.

Hook suffered a fate worse than death. Gideon Black cursed the pirate’s heart with a terrible curse that not even the child of True Love could overcome: the Curse of the Poisoned Heart. This refined curse was the ultimate cure against the power of True Love. Hook could not come into contact with those he loved without dying or causing them physical harm. The deeper the love, the wider the radius of the curse, making their victims fatally ill the nearer they got to him. The only way to beat it was for a willing victim to give up their own heart to replace his cursed one. But it must be a fresh heart and be given freely. So they couldn’t use one of the hearts that Regina and Cora had collected over the years (not least because of what happened to Daniel) or take a heart without the consent of the owner.

Once again Emma was faced with another moral dilemma: allow another innocent to die or burden themselves to suffer a lifetime of isolation just so that she could have what she wanted. But a hero had to make sacrifices. There was no loophole – and she had begged Rumple, the King of Loopholes, to find one.

So Emma had to say goodbye to another man in her life, for good this time. She couldn’t even kiss him goodbye without Hook’s love killing him and hurting her. Hook was forced to leave forever and live a life of complete solitude on the high seas, unable to let anyone into his cursed heart.

It did nothing to improve Emma’s opinion of Team Gold whose son had already tried to kill her twice by sword and spider. But as Henry reminded them, without Rumple this family wouldn’t exist. Family never gives up on each other. And if Rumple and Regina, the Dark One and the Evil Queen, can be saved, so can Gideon.

A lifetime of being raised by the Black Fairy had toughened him up so that he was impervious to pain. He’d barely flinched when Emma had beaten the crap out of him. He’d told them his aim was to free the children of the Dark Realm and kill the evil fairy who raised him, by letting her think he was breaking her out of her prison to destroy Light magic, but in reality was bringing her to Storybrooke so they could fight her on neutral ground where either Emma or Gideon would destroy her for good.

The Black Fairy may not have turned him pure evil, but he was neither a Hero nor a Villain, just a man willing to do whatever it takes, by any means necessary. Even if it kills him.

What makes someone a villain? Love – or in Gideon’s case, the absence of love was a much more vicious motivator than anger and bitterness. Evil grows to fill that void, an only friend. If Gideon had real love to replace the darkness, something to live for, he may yet be saved.

Unfortunately, this version of their son wasn’t going to find or accept love from the parents who failed to protect him. To stop him falling into unreturnable darkness, Rumple and Belle were able to get their parallel son on side by rescuing his friend and life partner, Roderick, from the Black Fairy before it appeared he was turned into a bug and squashed. Reunited with his lover, Gideon and the Golds were able to re-enter the Dark Realm and bring all the children and Rumple’s mother, Fiona, to Storybrooke. But their victory was short-lived as the Black Fairy ripped out Gideon’s heart ready to commence the Final Battle.

Emma’s heart was broken, and she had only just recovered from the revelation that Hook had murdered Charming’s father – her grandfather – and then caught him trying to destroy the evidence. But at least she was not alone. She still had her first True Love, after Neal, to keep fighting for: her family. Rumple was able to help her parent’s overcome their shared sleeping curse by putting Snow to sleep with poppy seed powder and a sprinkle of the Sands of Morpheus, so that she could join her husband in sleep and share True Love’s Kiss within the Dreamworld. After navigating a strange, surreal dream where everyone in the Enchanted Forest were singing as if this were a musical,, apart from Rumplestiltskin (though he still spoke in verse), Snow White and Prince Charming, combined with their daughter kissing them in the waking world, where able to share the True Love’s Kiss of family and break the Split-Evil Queen’s curse.

All in time for the Final Battle as the Black Fairy cast her Dark Curse with the black fairy dust she had collected, mined by the children she had stolen.

Both the Saviours were tested during the Black Fairy’s Dark Curse: the Final Battlefield. Everyone apart from Emma, Rumple, Belle, Henry, Gideon Black, Archie and the two Fiona’s remained in Storybrooke, while the rest were sent back to the Enchanted Forest to meet their fate. Emma was cursed to lose her belief in magic and was locked in the asylum, believing once more her fairy-tale family was just a delusion of Henry’s that got out of hand. Henry, Mayor Fiona Black’s son under this curse, once again had the difficult job of getting Emma to believe in her destiny.

Rumple and Gideon worked side-by-side in the pawnshop as father and son, and the Black Fairy presented herself as the perfect mother to her son, and the mother Gideon never had after Belle walked out on them. In reality, the Black Fairy had chained up Belle and Fiona White and taunted them, saying that their family believed that they had abandoned them and that their sons hated them both.

Rumple, with his memories intact, refused to believe Fiona’s lies or the photoshopped pictures of Belle’s travels, believing his wife and Fiona White were still in Storybrooke as a bargaining chip, if the Black Fairy needed them. Using a tracking spell on Belle’s Her Handsome Hero book to locate them in the cellar of an abandoned green house, Rumple released them. After healing the raw scratches from their shackles, Belle was given the task of finding Gideon’s heart in the mines to stop him from killing Emma, while Rumple and his mother went to confront the Black Fairy.

In the mines Belle was confronted by the Shattered Sight reflection of herself, a protection spell setup by the Black Fairy, who taunted her and tried to make Belle doubt herself and Rumple. Belle refused to listen, showing faith in Rumple and that they will save their son. She took the heart, commanding Gideon to stop and not to kill Emma. But the fake heart turned dark and crumbled to dust in her hand, just like her hope. Mirror-Belle laughed, ‘Did another attempt to be a Hero backfire on you? Again?’ and left Belle to her defeat.

In the shop, Rumple confronted the Black Fairy who attempted to tempt Rumple on side, promising to bring Bae back and for them to have everything. Rumple refused her offer, using her black wand to subdue her, ripping out her heart. The Black Fairy warned him, though they have separated, she’d magically tethered her heart to Fiona, so he can’t kill her without killing his mother. But Rumple told her he wasn’t going to kill his mother. He ripped out Fiona’s heart too. ‘I’m here to fulfil a promise: to save my mother. And I’m here to fulfil the prophecy: to destroy the Great Evil.’ Rumple brought their hearts together, sharing their hearts, giving the Black Fairy back the Light and giving Fiona back her Darkness, thus destroying the Great Evil and saving his mothers. If Henry can have two mothers, why not Rumplestiltskin, too?

The act broke the curse and awakened Emma in time to face Gideon, who had just been commanded to kill the Saviour.

For the rest of their family, it was a fight to stay alive, for as Emma’s belief in magic died, so too did the realms, one by one. They used Wish-Jefferson’s hat to get as many people to safety as they could as they fled their Enchanted Forest into the Wish Realm version. But it could only travel to lands with magic.

When Emma burned the Once Upon A Time storybook (save for a torn out page with Neal Cassidy’s picture on it) the destruction of worlds sped up. They ran into Wish-King Henry, Wish-Rumple and a pregnant Wish-Belle at the Royal Castle. Wish-King Henry was not filled with murderous rage he had once felt when his eyes fell upon the Regina who killed his grandparents, but he was not pleased to see her either.

Although the Charmings and Wish-King Henry returned with a magic bean, it no longer had magic in it. Regina suggested she, Wish-Rumple and Wish-Belle can use their powers to replenish the withered magic bean to reach Storybrooke, but Wish-Belle didn’t believe that it was possible even with their combined magic, and the waters of Lake Nostos had dried up. Wish-Rumple, upon seeing how quickly the realm was being decimated, told them to go, especially as Snow had a child. ‘So do you,’ argued Snow, pointing at Wish-Belle, who reminded them that they’re not real. Wish-Rumple told Regina that Henry needed at least one of his mothers and urged her to get everyone back home.

The others, led by Wish-King Henry, fled the castle for the courtyard, where everyone huddled together as the land around them crumbled. Wish-Rumbelle stayed behind, using their Light magic and enchanted rose staff to keep the flux at bay long enough to give the others a chance to escape before they were consumed together.

With the return of Emma’s belief the wave of destruction stopped, and with the breaking of the Black Fairy’s curse, her family were transported back to Storybrooke, leaving Wish-King Henry behind. They returned in time to watch the epic sword fight between the Light and Dark Saviour until Emma threw down her sword, refusing to kill the innocent, knowing Gideon was being forced to kill her as he stabbed her with his sword. Rumple used his Light magic to sew her wounds and keep her half alive. But the magic needed a catalyst. With True Love’s Kiss from her son, Henry, Emma and all the realms and their inhabitants were revived. Thus concluding their story as the whole family embraced one another.

From then on Storybrooke settled into a new normal. Snow went back to teaching, while Charming looked after Baby Neal working on their new farm with Wilby II. Emma and Regina dropped Henry off at school before Regina resumed her duties as Mayor next to Deputy Mayor Fiona Black and Emma, along with her new deputy Gideon; answer a call from Roderick at the Sheriff’s station about a disturbance on Drury Lane. Rumple and Belle had their baby, a beautiful healthy baby boy, who they decided to name Charlie, witnessed by his Fairy Godmother, Bluebell, and Tiger Lily and Tinkerbell, who had come to congratulate the Saviour and his Light Lady on this blessing.

Months after the Final Battle found the Charming-Mills-Gold family enjoying a family dinner at Granny’s. All the dining tables had been removed and the diner’s interior was magically expanded to make room for an enormous round table. The round table afforded no one more importance than the other. Whether they were a Queen, a Princess, a Prince, a Scholar, Saviour, a magic wielder, an Author, a commoner or of a different species – this table upheld the belief in equality in all things.

While Wibly II and Goldie, Rumple and Belle’s golden retriever, German Shepherd and Australian Shepherd mix dog, played together and tried wheedling for table scraps, Emma, Henry, Regina with Baby Robin, Snow and Charming with Baby Neal, Gideon and Roderick, the two Fiona’s and Rumple and Belle with Baby Charlie settled down for dinner. Across the table, Rumple and Regina exchanged happy looks, both holding their new bundle of joy and second chance at parenthood. An emotional Regina smiled at him, her eyes shining, as if to say, ‘Can you believe it? We started with nothing, now we have everything.’ And Rumple responded with a just as ecstatic watery-eyed grin and kissed his second-born child’s head.

Emma looked around the table at her family, talking and laughing, overflowing with love. Three years ago the idea of all these Heroes and former Villains sitting down together to dinner would’ve been as impossible as Emma finding her parents. Now sitting here with her mother, her father, her baby brother, her son who she shared custody with her step-grandmother, who held his new step-sister slash cousin in her arms, his father’s father and his beautiful wife holding his new baby uncle, while his parallel grown-up uncle sat across from her with his partner and her unofficial father-in-law’s two mothers, Emma could never have imagined having the biggest family in the world; a family that spanned across two realms, and how much she loved every single one of them. It was enough to even make her forget the loss of Hook.

It felt good. It felt like home. It was the end of the story, and yet at the same time, it felt like the beginning. As Snow White said, ‘An ending isn’t happiness. Being together is.’

Chapter Text

Wish Realm

Evil always contains the seeds of its own destruction. No matter how well-planned, how foolproof an evil plan, no matter how apparently successful it may seem upon the way, in the end it will founder on the rocks of iniquity and vanish. ― Aziraphale to Crowley, Good Omens S01e02

@>~~;~~~~~

It would be some twenty-six years before the true Final Battle between the Wish-Evil Queen and the Saviour. But she had given the Wish-Realm a lot to contend with in the meantime.

Despite thirty years pass, a vengeful, youthful Wish-Evil Queen laid waste to the kingdoms of the Enchanted Forest, apparently searching for something that would secure her victory and making sure nobody would forget about her. If not for the help and guidance of his grandparents on his father’s side, young and untested new king Wish-Henry would have fallen long ago as he fought to keep back the forces of darkness that rallied around the Wish-Evil Queen.

But he would not have to face this war alone. Seven years and many battles later, Wish-King Henry would marry his True Love, Wish-Freya, the granddaughter of Wish-Sir Lancelot and Wish-Queen Guinevere, who he’d met after she’d stolen his horse after escaping the Wish-Evil Queen’s attack on her village and maintaining the family tradition of meeting their True Love during a robbery. (‘We didn’t meet during a robbery,’ Wish-Belle argued. ‘I did steal you from your home,’ said Wish-Rumple. ‘I went willingly.’, ‘Well, you stole my heart when you chipped my teacup.’)

It was a tense moment when the priest asked the congregation if anyone here objected to these nuptials and the doors burst open, just as they had done at the wedding of the late Wish-Snow White and Wish-Prince Charming. The warriors unsheathed their swords and the magic wielders raised their hands, wands or staffs.

But the latecomer was revealed to be their lost princess, Emma Swan, wearing her red leather jacket over her silver swan princess dress, having travelled over from Storybrooke especially for this blessed event. She apologised for being late and said she wouldn’t miss her wish-son getting married. And she was able to catch up with Wish-Rumple who stood with his wife, Wish-Belle, and their seven year old daughter, Wish-Alice, who was clutching her toy white rabbit.

The aged Wish-Evil Queen spied on the child of her former teacher through her looking glass, one of the two children that would lead her to her finally getting her Happy Ending. Five more years and she would begin the chain of events that her future-self had foretold. She would wait twelve years for Wish-Rumplestiltskin’s child to come into her powers and use her to reclaim her youth and beauty, while her older-self would battle the Heroes for her, until she was able to carry out the deeds herself.

Wish-Regina would have to wait sixteen years more for the second child and the final stage of her plan, but if there was one thing she learnt from her vendetta against Wish-Snow white, it was patience. No matter how long it took, she would do it. She would get her revenge.

@>~~;~~~~~

After witnessing twelve year old Wish-Alice using magic; sitting in the royal gardens, levitating several books, which floated before her, the pages turning of their own accord as she read four books at once, aged Wish-Regina knew it was time to take the child.

Pretending to be an old peddler, easy to pass off given her great age, Wish-Regina lured Wish-Alice away, asking her to help a poor, elderly woman. Upon offering her an apple as red as blood in gratitude, Wish-Alice became suspicious of her true identity and refused to take a bite. But Wish-Regina had anticipated her recognising her weapon of choice, which was why she had laced the outside of the apple with a sleeping draft that was absorbed by Wish-Alice’s skin, causing her to collapse as the soporific took effect.

The Wish-Evil Queen carried away the sleeping Wish-Alice and locked her away in a hidden tower deep within the forests in a realm where time ran ahead of the realm they had left. For six years she would literally groom Wish-Alice for her magic. With every brush with the enchanted golden comb, Wish-Alice’s chestnut brown hair grew longer and more golden as her magic flowed through her locks into the Wish-Evil Queen, until it was seventy feet long and restoring Wish-Regina’s youth… and increasing the price of magic she would have to pay later.

But the comb had the effect of brushing Wish-Alice’s memories from the forefront of her mind. Memories of her parents, the true identity of her captor, why she was here, even her own name. Every time she tried to remember, it gave Rapunzel a headache. 

The woman in black, “Dame Gothel,” came every day to the tower to sponge off the magic of her little flower, paying no mind to the expenditure of her own power. She was already a glamourous woman, yet she desired more; smoother, luminous, wrinkleless skin, sparkling eyes, luscious hair and a kick-start to her own magic before she went off to do whatever it was she did when she wasn’t here.

Then every time she would take off all her clothes, stand before her Magic Mirror and ask, ‘Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?’

And every time the Mirror’s answer was the same, ‘My Lady Queen in life is fair to see, but Snow White in death is fair far than thee.’

And this would displease “Dame Gothel” – the Queen? – because she knew the Mirror spoke the truth. For that was their function. To reveal the Truth. But is it the truth you want to hear?

‘Do you think I’m beautiful, Flower?’ asked “Dame Gothel.”

‘Yes, Dame Gothel,’ said Rapunzel.

‘No I’m not…’ “Dame Gothel” contradicted her sadly, touching her rejuvenated face, staring at her reflection. ‘If that were true, by does my Mirror not tell me so? Why am I no more beautiful than a dead Princess?’

‘Perhaps she was fair in more than looks.’

‘Fair? Nothing about this is fair! I am a Queen! I have the power of the heavens in my hand! Snow White was killed by a lesser version of myself and yet she continues to defy me from beyond the grave!’

There was no appeasing her, so Rapunzel held her silence.

@>~~;~~~~~

Rapunzel knew she had a life before “Dame Gothel” and the door-less tower, but…

She sat spinning at the spinning wheel in the hopes of distracting herself from her nagging thoughts. It felt right. It felt… familiar.

She couldn’t escape from the tower, even with her ever growing long hair, because “Dame Gothel” had bewitched the single window to prevent her from leaving.

Rapunzel had asked many times for her to let her go. “Dame Gothel” had taken enough magic from her to keep her young for decades to come. She no longer needed her. So “Dame Gothel” told her if she could grow her hair long enough to reach the ground, or if she drank the nectar of the golden flower, she was free to go. No one could grow their hair that long in a hundred years. And how could she find the golden flower if she couldn’t leave the tower?

But it didn’t stop people from entering.

One day a young woman, Wish-Robin, leader of the Merry Men, stumbled across her lonely tower after following the flash of sunlight reflected off her golden hair blowing in the wind. She had been tracking down the Wish-Evil Queen to avenge the death of her adoptive grandmother, Marian. It was bad enough that her birth mother was the Queen’s elder wicked sister. Like mother like daughter Wish-Zelena had given her favour away to the first man to show her love and affection before running and leaving her pregnant with an unwanted child that she had flushed out of her as quickly as she could before leaving her to die in Sherwood Forest.

Wish-Robin climbed the tower into the single room, but the Queen was not here. Then, about to steal the golden comb so that it was not a wasted trip, she was discovered by the tower’s occupant, Rapunzel. The female outlaw would continue to visit her every night, talking, reading, playing chess and enjoying each other’s company, even nicknaming each other Tower Girl and Archer.

But “Dame Gothel” would discover Rapunzel’s secret visitor when she found the red rose Wish-Robin had brought her, unaware that the sight of the flower had restored Wish-Alice’s memories of the Evil Queen. Fearful of her retribution, the couple planned to escape, Wish-Alice sending a messenger dove with a letter attached to her parents, letting them know she was alive and she was coming back to them.

Wish-Robin procured the golden flower to released Wish-Alice from the tower, but the Wish-Evil Queen enchanted some thorns to attack her. Wish-Robin escaped but was blinded as one of the thorns struck her and punctured her eyes. By blind chance she managed to return to the tower. Tying the flower to the end of her long blonde hair, Wish-Alice pulled it up and drank the magic nectar, enabling her to break through the enchantment around the window.

Stealing three magic gallnuts, Wish-Alice used her hair to sail down the tower to join her blinded lover, who had a knife held to her throat by the Wish-Evil Queen. Wish-Alice pretended to submit so that the Queen would let Wish-Robin go. Then she used one of the magic gallnuts to unleash a dog unto her, causing her to drop the dagger and Wish-Robin.

Helping blind Wish-Robin to his feet they ran for it, releasing the last two beans to give them a head start. The Wish-Evil Queen turned the dog into a donkey and chased after them, sending more enchanted thorns after them which Wish-Alice severed with the dagger. The second magic gallnut turned into a lion that the Wish-Evil Queen fed the donkey to. The third and final bean turned into a wolf, which she killed with a fireball. But a quarry had already disappeared.

So Wish-Alice and Wish-Robin got away. Wish-Alice cried for her love’s loss of sight, feeling responsible. But Wish-Robin assured her that she didn’t regret meeting her and that losing his sight was a small price to pay to ensure her freedom. When they fell into each other’s arms, Wish-Alice tears of True Love restored Wish-Robin’s sight.

They returned to Wish-King Henry’s castle, following a trail of floating lanterns in the sky, where Wish-Alice was reunited with her parents. What had been six years her time had only been a year for Wish-Rumple and Wish-Belle. But that didn’t mean that they had missed her any less. Wish-Rumple hadn’t slept through one night, keeping her toy white rabbit in their bed with them, her disappearance haunting him every minute of every day. He and Wish-Belle had marked her birthday with the release of lanterns in the hopes she would follow them home.  

Wish-Alice and Wish-Robin told them what had happened and, more importantly, who had kidnapped their daughter and stolen six years of time together in a year. Wish-Rumple would not let this stand.

@>~~;~~~~~

Sometime after, Wish-King Henry and Wish-Queen Freya had a beautiful daughter, Wish-Lucy. Wish-King Henry cradled his new baby daughter in a blanket knitted by Wish-Granny and proudly introduced her to Wish-Rumple, Wish-Belle, Wish-Robin and Wish-Alice of Wanderland – so named after their many travels together – Wish-Bluebell and Wish-Tiana, Wish-Freya’s friend and Wish-Lucy’s godmother, only for the Wish-Evil Queen to pay them a visit to stir up trouble. She gifted them and her new step-great-great granddaughter a prophecy of the terrible fate that will befall them on Wish-Lucy’s tenth birthday and her Happy Ending will finally be achieved.

Wish-Regina prepared to retaliate against the Heroes when they drew their weapons on her, however, she soon found herself immobilized and rapidly turning into stone. As Wish-Regina realized they used blood magic on her, Wish-Rumple revealing he used a drop of her blood to trap her as payback for everything she had done to Wish-Alice. Wish-Regina was unable to stop her own transformation into a statue, but just before she calcified completely, she swore she will be back in ten years’ time. 

Ten years later, the Wish-Regina statue stood in the courtyard of her Dark Palace. Her mother, Wish-Cora, arrived with the rest of the Coven of the Eight to free Wish-Regina before offering her aid in fulfilling the prophecy and their happiness if Wish-Regina would be their eighth witch. The Wish-Evil Queen accepted and promptly stole the magic of Wish-Cora, Wish-Zelena, the Wish-Blind Witch, Wish-Cruella, Wish-Ursula, Wish-Maleficent and the Wish-Black Fairy, before her Wicked half-sister could steal hers.

‘Since when do I care about anyone else’s happiness but mine?’

Wish-Regina gate-crashed Wish-Princess Lucy’s tenth birthday, after it was announced she was the new Author. The Queen looked at the Heroes with a triumphant smile. ‘My, what a nice turnout. No need for a fuss. It’s just little old me.’ Wasting no more time she ripped out Wish-Lucy’s heart and plunged it into her own chest, gaining the powers of the Author. Wish-Rumple barely had time to place a preservation spell on Wish-Lucy, before the Wish-Evil Queen, using the ink from Wish-Cruella’s hair and the fresh raw power of her step-great-great-granddaughter’s heart, wrote out “The powers of the Heroes, and of the Saviour, are no more.”

Before the Wish-Evil Queen departed, she left them a gift of new black storybooks. And for each and everyone one of them, and all the Heroes and Villains of this world, she had crafted a terrible fate. One designed to pierce their hearts and break their spirits. Once she had fully absorbed the Author’s powers, she would rewrite their stories and entrap them in the storybooks, in alternate realms where they would live out Unhappy Endings:

Wish-Belle would live out Wish-Regina’s lie of how her father sent her to the clerics to cleanse her of her love for Wish-Rumple with scourges and flaying until she threw herself off the tower and fell to her death.

Wish-Rumple would be so mad by grief at losing Wish-Belle and enraged at being bested by his ex-student that he would drive his foot so hard into the ground that he would fall into a chasm, never to be seen again.

Wish-Henry and Wish-Freya would be cut off from each other and their daughter, Wish-Freya living alone in a shack in the woods, Wish-Henry stranded on a rock in the middle of the sea.

Wish-Alice would end up in an asylum, while Wish-Robin would lose her head, mentally at being separated from Wish-Alice and physically after being executed for a life of outlawing.

Wish-Bluebell and the rest of her kin would die as the world no longer believes in fairies.

Wish-Captain Hook would be eaten whole by an enormous crocodile like an old codfish.

Wish-Zelena would have the flesh picked from her bones by her own winged monkeys.

Wish-Pan would turn into a decrepit old man from all the centuries of being a boy, unable to fly by lovely thoughts or pixie dust.

Wish-Cruella would be skinned alive for her pelts, the Dalmatian puppies that would’ve been her fur coat happily chewing on shoes made of their would-be furrier.

Wish-Ursula would turn into calamari.

Wish-Ariel would turn dissolve into sea foam after her prince married another princess.

Wish-Aurora would fall back into eternal slumber but continue to age until she turned into a skeleton.

Wish-Maleficent would be slayed as a dragon.

Wish-Cinderella would go back to being a scullery maid.

Wish-Cora would become the miller’s daughter again, delivering flour for eternity.

Wish-Snow queen would stand frozen in her frozen kingdom of ice and snow.

Wish-Tiana and the Wish-Frog Prince would be reduced to amphibians captured by frog hunters.

Wish-Granny would be eaten by the Wish-Big Bad Wolf, who would die of food poisoning afterwards.

Wish-Grumpy would die of a broken heart after losing his brothers, his princess and fairy lover.

On and on it went, an entire library’s worth of pain and misery; the general theme of the fate of everyone in every realm ending in either eternal suffering or an agonising death, right down to:

Wish-Snow White: after the traitorous bandit was caught, Wish-Snow was forced to dance for the Queen in a pair of heated iron slippers, before being banished, dragging her raw, blistered, useless feet; this crippled woman who was once the fairest of them all, while her Wish-Prince Charming would be brutally executed for high treason.

‘Grim fairytales, indeed,’ said Wish-Rumple.

Amidst the black books there was a white one with Wish-Regina’s name on it. For herself, Wish-Regina intended to rewrite this worlds history of how she defeated the evil bandit Wish-Snow White and her consort Wish-Charming and was revered and loved far and wide as the Good Queen, ruling alongside her True Love Wish-Daniel, who she had revived by sharing her heart, and their three beautiful daughters; Victoria, Elizabeth and Queenie.

Since potent darkness within the Author was needed to open the portals to these alternate realms, Wish-Regina’s darkness combined with Wish-Lucy’s powers of the Author was able to open a vortex which pulled her test subject, Wish-Rheul Ghorm, the fairy who helped banish her, into her storybook, where she would live out her miserable existence alone. With this new power the Wish-Evil Queen’s books would condemn her enemies, Hero and Villain, to the same fate, where they will suffer for all eternity, while the Queen celebrated, victorious at last.

As everyone had a chance to look through their own storybooks, Wish-Rumple explained that although the stories were complete, they could still work to prevent the Wish-Evil Queen from making the realms real. 

Using his rainy day magic from his spinning wheel, Wish-Rumple summoned the Wish-Evil Queen to the Light Castle to challenge her to a dual, restricted to swords and one spell, only to be used to rip out a heart. Both magically crossed their hearts, sealing the deal. As Wish-Rumple duelled with the Wish-Evil Queen, the darkness in Wish-Regina’s blood reached a boiling point, enabling her to open Wish-Belle, Wish-Alice, Wish-Robin, Wish-King-Henry and Wish-Freya’s prison portals. The storybook pages turned in the wind as everyone clung onto a dining table and each other to prevent themselves from being sucked into the portals. 

Despite his bad leg, Wish-Rumple gained the upper hand, plunged his hand into Wish-Regina’s chest and took back Wish-Lucy’s golden heart, which closed the portals, and tossed it to Wish-King Henry. Unfortunately, saving his great-granddaughter had cost Wish-Rumple the high ground as the Wish-Evil Queen ran him through with her sword and ripped out his white heart.

‘The student surpasses the master,’ she gloated. ‘Love is weakness, Rumple. I thought you knew that. It’s poisoned you. Made you weak. You lost.’

‘Nothing is worth the loss of a child,’ Wish-Rumple told her.

‘That was your one chance to finish the Great Evil, to destroy what you had created, and instead you waste it on saving a child. Was dear Lucy really worth it?’

‘Every bit of it. She’s family. Something you, your mother and sister know nothing about.’

Wish-Regina’s face contorted. ‘It matters not. All that matters is I beat you. I always said you wouldn’t die by anyone else’s hand but my own.’

‘And I deserve it. Because you’re right. I blame myself for what you’ve become. Cora may have lit the spark, but it was I who blew it into a flame. You would’ve always become the Evil Queen. And I ensured it. I used her child all so that I could get mine back. But I failed, and we both ended up with nothing but holes in our hearts, suffering all those years because of a mistake I made… I’m sorry, Regina.’

For a moment, something in Wish-Regina’s expression flickered, the tiniest inkling of the kind-hearted girl she had been before she lost Daniel.

‘I know you might find this hard to believe, but you can come back from this. There are people out there... your family… our family… that can help you heal, just as they helped me. Our love can cure you. Darkness can always find the light.’

Wish-Regina looked round at her family through marriage and for a moment it seemed as if she wanted to step back into the light and go back to the best version of herself. But then she looked back at Rumple and smiled her widest most evil Wish-Evil Queen smile. ‘Darkness destroys the light.’  She gripped his heart. ‘Oh, I’m going to enjoy this. Goodbye Dearie.’

But before she can crush his heart, Wish-Alice stepped forward. Wish-Regina warned her back, saying if she interfered she’ll be breaking her father’s deal. But Wish-Alice said she wasn’t breaking her father’s deal, ‘I’m breaking ours.’

Using her own rainy day magic hidden in her toy white rabbit, Wish-Alice poured it on her head, activating the magic in her hair and undid her plaits so that it fell like a golden waterfall down her back. She took the Shears of Destiny and cut her magic hair, making her a brunette again. As a result she lost her magic and the Wish-Evil Queen paid the price for all the magic she used to keep herself young. Wish-Regina grew older and older before their eyes, until she crumbled into dust and died, undoing her villainous work.

Wish-Lucy’s heart was returned and Wish-Rumple carefully pulled the sword out of him, healing himself, while Wish-Belle picked up his heart, brushed it clean of Wish-Regina’s dust and pushed it back into her husband’s chest. Before they left to go back to Wish-Lucy’s birthday party, Wish-Rumple placed Wish-Regina’s ashes in her final resting place: her white storybook, so her spirit could live out her dream Happy Ending. He always felt responsible for his part he played in ensuring she became the Wish-Evil Queen, and hoped this would in some way make up for it. ‘Long live the Queen.’

The story ended with Wish-Alice and Wish-Robin’s wedding, Wish-Lucy recording their stories in this realms storybook: “The Final Battle was won. Good and Evil both found their happiness. With the loud tolling of bells at sunset, proclaiming Alice and Robin’s love, marking not the end of the story, but a Happy Beginning. There will be more adventures, more love, more family. And yes, there will be more loss, because that’s just a part of life. And in the end, we can get past it all… with Hope.”