Nightmare or Reality
As Rumple stares at Belle laying on that stone table he begins to wander just exactly how and why did things get this far out of hand. How did Belle think trapping herself and their unborn child in a nightmare would make anything better? He knows that this is mostly his fault because in the end intentions no matter if you think they are good or not never matter. The second Belle returned to him even though he was certain he'd never see her again he should have told her everything but when she said she knew his mind went blank and all he could even come close to thinking of at that moment was falling into her kiss. Who knows maybe it would break his curse and the mistake would be remedied before she even really had to find out about it? No, that's not it and he knows he can't use anything to justify it no matter how he feels about Belle, power, or anything else for that matter. With one last longing look at her peaceful face he picks up a hand full of that dust and dusts it over both Belle and himself. He has to fix this; he just HAS to.
'I can feel it! True Love! The curse is breaking; both curses are breaking!' he is so relieved as he tries to deepen the kiss he doesn't even notice she has pulled away from him until she is naming off things that have happened almost all but yelling at him for not doing as she asked. "Belle, please, don't…"
"NO! You don't get a say. I'm staying here until you do as I asked and have my FATHER wake me." Belle is looking at him in anger and he's not too sure but maybe just a little hate too.
Shaking his head as he backs away trying to show with actions that he is not going to trap her or force her in any way to do anything he just lets her say all she's going to say. Biting his lip he finally decides to tell her about the condition set on this dream, "Please Belle just let me wake you. If I don't wake you before time is up then you will go to the fire room where you will be trapped forever."
With an almost violent start Rumple jerks awake. Belle, however, is still sleeping soundly on the stone table. "No! NO! Belle, please, wake up! Please, I'm sorry I truly am just wake up for me now. I'll give anything to have you awake even if you hate me just please wake up."
Meanwhile in the dream a doppelganger of Rumple has replaced him without Belle noticing and Rumple himself is very awake and wandering if he can re-enter the dream or if it was just a one-time deal. In the dream Belle lets their "son" wake her and after informing Rumple she isn't going home with him heads through the door he opened to Storybrooke. Walking down the street she looks at the pawn shop but it is dark and appears as if he isn't there. She is totally unaware that not only is Rumple not in the pawn shop, he is not there at all and she is still trapped in the prison of her mind.
After an attempt to use the dust and three attempts to kiss her there is a noise off to the side of the structure they are in. Looking to his left there is the man from the dream and now he knows that it really was Morpheus he met in the dream. This makes no sense; why would a god trap Belle like that? What has he done to anger the gods so that any of them would take it out on Belle?
"It's quite simple Dark One. Hades is dead because of you." Reading further into Rumple's mind the god just throws back his head and laughs. "No you didn't kill him yourself. I know that BUT you did give mortals a way into his domain and you made no effort to stop them on their fools' errand."
Looking directly into his eyes Rumple says, "That may be true but they are a rather determined lot; those 'heroes'. Even if I refused to go along with Miss Swan's blackmail they would have figured a way to get my blood with or without involving Belle."
Shaking his head the taller man just looks down on him and snorts. "That might be true but the fact that you didn't even try to stop it means you are just as if not more guilty than they are." Taking a glass ball out of his pocket he holds it out and asks, "Would you like to see what your dear wife is up to in that dream of hers? Such a twisted mind she has for someone supposedly nothing but pure good." Shaking the ball like a snow globe in front of Rumple's face a scene begins to fade in of Belle not only staying on the Jolly Roger but waving off the pirate's past deeds of attempting to kill her multiple times saying she's forgiven him.
"She's a good person, far better than I or really anyone else in the thrice cursed town will ever be." A part of Rumple may not like her being so forgiving of the wrongs committed but another part also knows if she hadn't been so forgiving she never would have kept coming back. "They all have her fooled into thinking they are her friends. Some of them like Miss Lucas may be but the wolf girl isn't in Storybrooke now. The rest have all seen her as a means to an end, something to be used, or someone to use against me. She's just so nice that she overlooks it even if I hate that habit I could never hate her if that is what you are trying for."
Laughter shakes Morpheus frame for a full minute before he looks up and shakes his head. "Oh! Such plans I have for your misery. You see dream you is going to be so horrible to her, so monstrous, so dark and dangerous that when I swoop in and finally tell her that it is all still just a dream and I wake her she will be so frightened of you that she will be willing to make any deal I set with her no matter the terms as long as you NEVER get to lay eyes on your child in any realm or reality."
Walking over to the bowl with the dust Morpheus picks up a handful of it and shakes it till all of it is back in the bowl. Laughing yet again he states, "Too bad this won't work for you now and well I don't need it to enter or exit any dream I wish. So…" with that he waves his hand and the bowl is gone. "No more chances for you unless you can talk your way out of this one." Then the god is gone just as silently as he came leaving a heartbroken man staring at the space he once stood in.
Looking down he sees the ball and upon picking it up he notices a tiny crack but the dream is still playing. Maybe, just maybe, he can use this to get Belle's attention and wake her before it's too late. Belle is trapped in a nightmare partly of her own choosing but that doesn't mean he has to stand by and let her suffer. As for Morpheus, well he's had everyone angry with him and either hate him for it or swear revenge; so, how's a god any different? This just means he'll have to be more cautious and fully aware of his surroundings at all times.