Summary: "He has no magic here, outside of the town limits, but the dagger is in Storybrooke, where there is magic in abundance. He is truly powerless. All he can hope to do is try to fight its pull, try to delay the inevitable."
Not canon-compliant, post-ep for 'Manhattan'. Cora summons the Dark One, and he has no choice but to heed her call.
Disclaimer: Alas, I do not own OUAT.
Note: This was written in one go as a summary of my thoughts having just seen Manhattan, and inspired by the S2 promo featuring the FTL characters in Storybrooke surroundings. (Link will shortly be on my profile.) I hope you enjoy. :)
Enthralled
Gold doesn't feel it at first, the singing in his veins. He puts the queer sensation down to the emotional day. But as the feeling grows, it becomes harder to ignore, and Gold realises with horror what it is. His dagger is calling to him, its magic reaching across the country to find him.
Someone wields the Dark One's dagger, and it is singing its siren song.
In the midst of it all, he hears Cora's voice.
Dark One, I summon thee.
The blood is pounding in his ears and he can see spots in front of his eyes. He hears his cane clatter to the floor but the sound seems very far away.
He has no magic here, outside of the town limits, but the dagger is in Storybrooke, where there is magic in abundance. He is truly powerless. All he can hope to do is try to fight its pull, try to delay the inevitable.
"Gold?"
Emma's voice cuts through the painful noise in his head and he finally focuses his vision enough to see her, beside him, supporting his weight and trying to get him over to the bed.
"Neal!" she yells, and the sound grates like nails on a chalk board. "Neal! Get in here! Something's wrong!"
X
Gold is shaking, no, convulsing, like he's having a seizure of some kind. Emma desperately racks her brains for what to do when people have epileptic fits.
"Neal!" she yells again. "Neal! Everything aside, this is important!"
"What's up…" She hears Neal come into the apartment and the words die in his throat. She's managed to get Gold sat down on the end of the bed, still shaking, and he's holding his head in his hands as if it's going to split it two if he doesn't physically keep it together.
"Mr Gold, are you ok?"
Henry's voice comes in behind them, and Gold's response is barely more than a growl.
"Do I look ok?"
He lifts his head and Emma starts and stumbles backwards, landing heavily on her rump when she sees his eyes. They're slate grey, opaque with barely any whites to them, the pupils huge and soulless. Evil eyes.
Neal swears, violently, and Emma's too shocked to berate him for using such language in front of his son.
"Emma, take Henry out of here." Neal's voice is scared, and Emma turns to see him approaching them carefully, like one would a feral animal. Emma turns back to Gold.
"What's happening?" she asks, as she gets to her feet with the same measured movements as Neal is using. "I thought you had no magic outside of Storybrooke?"
"Don't need it." Gold's voice is pained. "The dagger's powerful enough on its own."
"The what?"
"The Dark One's dagger," Henry says. "Whoever wields it controls him."
"In three hundred years, it's never fallen into anyone else's hands," Gold hisses.
"He's in thrall, magical thrall," Neal explains. "He'll do whatever he's commanded to, and the kind of people who want a dark magician on tap aren't exactly fairies of sweetness and light so get yourself and Henry out of here."
Emma looks at Neal's fearful face, Henry's expression of mostly fear but a little curiosity, and Gold's agonised features.
"Come on, kid, you heard the man. Let's go."
"But."
"No buts, Henry. Gold's dangerous enough without magic. I don't want to stick around to find out what he's like with magic but without self-control."
Behind them, Gold gives a soft moan. He sounds to be in so much pain that Emma actually feels sorry for him. His entire face has taken on a darker aspect, and she can see that his teeth are pointed and mossy. Tendrils of purple mist are swirling around his fingertips.
"He's turning back into the Dark One," Henry says. "The way he looked back in the Enchanted Forest."
Emma sees clawed fingers, greeny-gold skin, leather and crocodile hide as the mist snakes its way around Gold's arms.
"Right. That's it. Henry, we're outta here."
"But we can't just leave him! We can't just leave Neal! We've got to do something!"
"Henry, there's nothing we can do," Neal begins, at the same time as Emma snaps: "Henry, this is not the time, we are going. Now!"
But she doesn't move.
She wants to get out of the presence of this fairy tale monster made real, but at the same time, she knows that despite everything else he's done, this latest misadventure has been engineered by someone else, and she won't need three guesses who. He's got no control over this.
"There's no need. It's too late."
It's Gold's voice but it's not. Emma can still pick out the Scotch nuances but there's a high, fluting quality to it now. The Rumpelstiltskin of Henry's storybook illustrations is sitting on the bed, looking down at his clawed hands.
"I'm so sorry, Bae," he whispers. "I love you."
And with those words, he's gone, leaving nothing but a scarf and cane, obsolete on the floor.
X
Dark One, I summon thee.
Minutes pass, but still he does not appear.
"Maybe it won't work when he's got no magic?" Regina suggests tentatively. "Maybe we will have to wait for him to come back, like we told Hook?"
Cora shakes her head. She's been waiting too long for this moment to be foiled now. "Oh no, it will work. The dagger itself wields more power than the Dark One, once he is enthralled." She pauses. "Hmm. He's stronger than I gave him credit for. Resistance is laudable, but futile."
"So where is he?" Regina asks.
"I'm right here, ladies."
Even in thrall, he still manages to startle them. Cora turns and smiles. The Dark One is standing in the woods behind them, the most evil she has ever seen him look. His expression is one of pure and utter loathing, and Cora positively basks in it.
"I believe you summoned me," he spits, and Cora can't help but grin at the malice in his voice. Oh, he thought he'd won in the end but she's got power over him now, more so than if she had held his beating heart in her hands and squeezed.
"I have a little job for you, Rumpel," she says. He merely glowers at her. "But first, I think a little chat is in order. After all, we have an awful lot of catching up to do, don't we, you and I?"
The Dark One continues to glare, uncharacteristically silently.
"I said," Cora continues, "don't we? Answer me."
"Yes," the Dark One growls.
"Yes what?"
His voice is barely recognisable behind the sheer animal aggression as he fights and fights and finally has no choice but to spit out the words, dripping with contempt.
"Yes, mistress."
Cora smiles. Oh, she's going to have a lot of fun…
I'm not sure whether to continue this or leave it be, I think I'll have to reserve judgment until I've actually seen the next couple of episodes. Anyway, comments on a postcard please! I hope you liked it.