Since the day she met him, thirty odd years ago, she had been held against her will for pretty much the entirety of three decades, give or take a few days when she had had a beer with a love sick dwarf.
Her captivity with him was by turns frightening and maddening, but not all together unpleasant. She loved him, she truly did.
Her captivity with HER, however, was something else entirely. There had been torture, but mostly it was just mind numbing boredom. When she was transported away, there was no reprieve either- she was in a padded cell with no idea where or even who she was.
Life, truly, had been a treat because of him.
When she remembered him though, out in the forest, wrapped in an old coat and the same shift she had been wearing for 28 years, she felt no resentment. Only love. She told him so. He said he felt the same.
…And then he hugged her, immediately turned about face, and limped away just as fast as he could through the forest, rambling about something he had to do.
…What? He had thought she was dead for 30 years, she knew who he was, and she still loved him even after everything she had had been taken away because of him, and all he can do is give her a half-hearted hug and promise to talk about it "later?"
She followed him however. And now, here was she was, purple smoke welling up around her feet, a power mad look on her erstwhile captor/possible true love's face, and she couldn't help but think that maybe she should have stopped him from tossing that vial down the well. There was something deeply unsettling about his tone, his demeanor, the way his fingers painfully dug into her shoulder.
As the smoke rose to consume both of them- she got one last look at his eyes, which shone with insanity- and she wondered how soon it would be before the newly empowered Queen found her again. Made Belle a pawn between her and the imp again.
Before the magic erased all conscious thought, she swore to herself it would not happen, never again.