Author's note: Writing some drabbles to get over my writer's block. This set expresses my annoyance at the show's repeated "the first time you've been selfless" idiocy about Rumple. 100 words each by my count!
1
He raised the post maul above his head. Hesitated. He had a choice.
...leave him fatherless...
The Seer's words burned into his heart, truth undeniable after the rest had come to pass as she said. But she was gone, a question with no answer.
Rumplestiltskin decided, then. Better honorless than fatherless. What matter if he was a coward like his father? No choice after all. He braced himself.
The same weight that drove wood deep into the ground fell to crush his foot, bones shattered along with his reputation, broken on the battlefield.
He was going home for his son.
2
"What a poor bargain that would be, to lay down your soul to save your bastard son."
No price was too high. He would kiss any boot, walk through any inferno, and sacrifice his soul to any curse — if he could save his son.
And he could.
Rumplestiltskin lunged forward, thrusting the dagger with all the strength of his desperation into the larger man's chest.
The Dark One laughed. He was the beggar — the same 'benefactor' who had lured the spinner into murder.
Rumplestiltskin stared down in horror as blood dripped clear, revealing his own name etched on the blade.
3
Death came too easily through his hands. The worst part was how much he enjoyed it. Killing a would-be hero. Incinerating an army of ogres.
Safer, then, to let his son hold the dagger. Baelfire would never allow him to use the power for evil.
He was wrong. Darkness corrupted, inevitably. His son's soul would pay the price.
But it was a father's duty to protect his child, and he would do so, always. He brewed the memory potion. He had to be strong. The burden of darkness was his to bear. He was the monster.
"Drink your tea, Bae."
4
A new life. A land without magic. He had made a deal with his son.
The Blue Fairy gave Baelfire a bean. Where was she during the Ogres War? When Hordor drafted children onto the battlefield?
But now a magic bean, to send the Dark One through a portal.
He remembered too well the appalling green vortex. Another bean, another time, another father and another son.
"No! It's a trick. It'll tear us apart!"
He had promised. He never broke a deal. But he couldn't. He let go. Coward.
"Papa!"
He scrabbled at the dirt, but the portal was gone.
5
"I love you, Bae."
His boy stood frozen along with all the others in the middle of the street.
The world was ending, their brief hope of happiness snatched away. He could save them — he summoned his shadow to him, one last dramatic flick of his hand before he plunged the dagger through his father's back, impaling himself on the same darkness.
"The only way for you to die, is if we both die."
He held onto his father, both of them afraid, but his choice was made. Death came in a blaze of light. No time to wonder why.
6
"You didn't tell him the price."
No need to tell him the price — Rumplestiltskin knew Zelena's twisted jealousy, knew what it would cost: his power, his freedom, his sanity.
He had chosen the dagger once over Baelfire. Never again.
His son's life slipped through his fingers. I wasn't worth it, Bae. Why did you bring me back?
But Bae trusted his father to save them all. That faith would cost them everything. He hurled the dagger into the snow and clung to his son, forcing his heart to beat for both, leaving his mind empty to hold his son's thoughts.
FINIS