Condemning Wishes
Chapter 1: Fate Denied
Rumpelstiltskin was happy for the first time in so long. His son, Neal, was once again with him, together as a family. Belle still loved him after her release from the asylum, even after he had released the wraith that had failed to kill Regina. The Dark One did follow Belle's advice and had stopped any further possible acts of vengeance on her behalf. It seemed that his loves constant presence near him had cut off the feeling of endless darkness that the Dark One should always feel.
Life is good.
Rumplestiltskin and most of the inhabitants of Storybrooke held the same thought.
It was really amusing how Storybrooke ended up. The town was supposed to be a place where no happy endings would ever occur aside from the Evil Queen's, but it seems as if the opposite was beginning to occur.
People were actually happy to be in Storybrooke. Many families that were separated were reunited and hidden prisoners thought forever lost or dead were released. Many, even Rumpelstiltskin, thought that an angry mob would occur to try and kill off the Evil Queen, but somehow Emma, the Savior, had quickly intervened and pacified to stop the occurrence. The Savior had subtly voiced out the multiple good things that this new world has given them and also pinpointed that the Evil Queen had brought them plumbing, that was the clincher.
It still seemed as if Regina was the only one not moving on or not going to have her happy ending. Rumpelstiltskin chuckled at the thought that he didn't even have to get revenge himself. Regina Mills was already destroying herself, well, the boy had actually done most of the destroying. Leaving his mother for his birth mother and living with the Charming family was only one of the few blows that were dealt to straight into the Evil Queen's heart, ex-Evil Queen, but to Henry, that didn't matter. He could only imagine the day when the fatal blow would come with her own son fully severing ties with his adoptive mother.
Savoring the little pleasures in life.
Rumpelstiltskin decided to use one of the powers that he acquired from the Seer. It didn't hurt to take a peek at the future, maybe a decade or two from now. Maybe his little Baelfire would finally get the Savior as a wife; he was fine with that, as long as his son was happy. Or maybe, Belle and he would finally be granted a child of their own?
The Dark One smiled a real smile and since there wasn't anyone in his home at the moment, he began to use his power of foresight to see a little bit of what the future held.
...
...
Nothing?
That could not be right.
Rumpelstiltskin decided to reduce his foresight to just five years ahead.
...
...
Nothing. Nothing, but darkness.
How?
The Dark One kept trying over and over and over, reducing his foresight, until a vision finally came to him.
Impossible.
A vision that he had to stop!
It was a beautiful night with all the stars on display. The view was unobstructed by any clouds and might have been the perfect time for stargazing. Sadly, the sky went unnoticed as a loving mother and a stubborn child fought beneath it.
"Henry-" Regina Mills, Mayor of Storybrooke and ex-Evil Queen, still tried to plead with her son even after several months of being unheard and ignored.
"NO! I said I'll stay with my real mother!" Henry shouted again, knowing that there must be another plot being hatched by the Evil Queen. He knew she had plots upon plots and had probably raised him just to use him for an even bigger evil plot, but, thankfully, it didn't happen thanks to his birth mother.
I won't be fooled!
"I just want to talk, Henry." Regina begged and tried to keep herself calm, but couldn't help choke on her unshed tears. She knew she had made mistakes in the past, a lot of them, but she was always trying to do what was best for Henry. She loved her son and she did not know how she would go on without him. Regina was strong, she had to be after playing with the cards that life had dealt to her, but there wasn't much left.
It was painful how much power one small child had over her. She had just regained her magic, saved the Charmings and her son and still she was being rejected as if she had a hidden agenda. Regina looked over to Emma Swan, the Savior, and knew that the woman was feeling just as torn about all this as she was. She knew now that Emma really didn't want to take Henry away from her, but that was the sad thing, she didn't even need to. Her son was doing it all on his own.
More than ten years of raising her son and it was just all thrown back at her face. Every pain she had soothe, every story she had read him, every kiss she had given, every hug, every thought, everything was just disregarded. It had already been several months since Henry had even stayed at the mansion. And, it might have been over a year since she had any decent conversation with him.
"Talk?! We have nothing to talk about! I'm going home with my family. Your plans for revenge have all failed! Your curse is broken! I won't listen to your lies!" Henry shouted, took Emma's hand and tried to start walking away.
"Henry!" Emma scolded; she needed to stop this before things got even worse. She knew how much this was tearing Regina up and Emma wouldn't wish that on anyone.
The Savior could see the tears beginning to fall down Regina's cheek and Emma just couldn't leave it like this. Seeing the Mayor in pain had always somehow managed to tear at her own heart.
"Come on, kid. I've been wishing that you and your mom would get along after all that crap we went through. If it wasn't for her, all of us would still be stuck in Neverland or dead." Emma had wished while they were on the Jolly Roger going to Neverland that everything would go back to normal and that Emma would still have a place in Henry's life, but not as a replacement for Regina. No, Emma Swan did not want to take Regina's place. Emma had given birth to Henry, but that didn't mean she was his real mother. Regina was the kid's mom, Emma knew and accepted that, but it seems everyone else had different opinions.
Regina in that moment would have jumped into the sheriff's arms as she said that, but was instead faced with the glaring face and accusing eyes of her son. It was as if he thought that Regina was trying to pit Emma against him.
"Wish?!" Henry shouted. Emma noticed that there was already a small crowd around them, not close enough to hear them talking, but close enough to hear Henry's shouts. She was actually contemplating of giving the boy a small slap for the amount of disrespect he was showing his mother.
Everyone was so intent on listening to the shouts of the boy and watching the drama scene unfold in front of them that they all missed the shooting star that had just shot across Storybrooke.
Henry's eyes bore into Regina's own. The brunette could somehow feel all the damning emotions coming from her son and even the emotions of satisfaction coming from the townspeople that had started to gather and watch sad spectacle. Only the Savior had warming emotions, but it was easily overwhelmed by everything else.
"You know what I wish? I wish you were never my mother! I wish that Storybrooke never existed! And, I wish that you were never a Queen!" Henry shouted at the top of his lungs. He didn't want the Evil Queen as a mother. If Storybrooke never existed, then they would all be in Fairy Tale Land! It was her becoming a Queen that started this all!
As soon as he said those words, Emma could see Regina's heart just break. The normally strong and infallible woman's legs began to buckle and Emma had quickly swept in and held the brunette before she could hit the pavement.
"Henry!" Emma shouted, aghast at what the boy was spewing out. Regina was limp in Emma's arms, eyes open and tears still streaming down as if she wasn't even there anymore.
Before anything else could happen, Rumpelstiltskin appeared from the shadows, eyes blazing.
"NO! What have you done, BOY!" Rumpelstiltskin screamed, but it was fairly obvious that he was panicked.
The Dark One knew he was too late. The vision he had was happening at the same time as he was viewing it a while ago.
Everyone was quiet and confused as to what the hell was happening all of a sudden.
"Decades of planning and scheming! Ruined! You stupid child!" The Dark One glared clutched at Henry's shirt and the boy only recoiled in fear not really sure what he had done.
"Rumpelstiltskin? What the hell?" Emma wasn't even sure what the fuck was going on anymore. It seems their family problem was now having one too many people in on it.
"The wish! Those wishes!" The Dark One cried out. He could already feel it. The area they were in, no, Storybrooke itself, was starting to illuminate, but nobody else was noticing it yet.
Emma started to feel the magic filling the entire area and began to see that it was getting brighter even though it was currently night time.
What the hell? Another curse?!
Rumpelstiltskin knew it was too late. Everything he had planned for, schemed for and bled for lost in a careless child's wish.
It was as if fate wanted to click the reset button.
"You stupid, stupid child... This was supposed to be our happy ending. Storybrooke was our happy ending." Rumpelstiltskin's pain filled last words echoed through the populace as everything was engulfed within the bright white light of a falling star.
Dark eyes opened to blackness, but it wasn't the darkness of night that he had last seen. It was the darkness of the prison he was in decades ago when Snow White and Prince Charming had paid him a visit on how to defeat the Dark Curse. It was the same prison he was locked in when Regina came to him asking why the first casting of the Dark Curse failed. A prison he could have always escaped whenever he wanted.
Rumpelstiltskin remembered everything. The Dark Curse. Storybrooke. The Savior. Henry.
He couldn't believe that small slip of a boy had reset everything...
…
..., but there was still time to redo everything, right?
The Dark One always had the power. He began to get up to teleport, but realized that his movements were restricted, which never was the case when he was imprisoned here. A small piece of fear gripped him when he realized his powers weren't working.
"Ah. Rumpel. Finally awake again I see?" The Dark One quickly recognized the Evil Queen, albeit looking a bit younger for some reason. He needed to ascertain what had already happened to recreate all his plans to let them all end up in Storybrooke so he could find his son again. This time, everything would be going according to his plans perfectly.
"Hello, dearie." Rumpelstiltskin grinned. He wanted to move around, but the chains keeping him down were actually effective. Surprising. "I see you haven't enacted the Dark Curse yet? Why wait?"
"The Dark Curse? What are you going on about, Rumpel?" The Evil Queen tilted her head as if not understanding what he was saying. The Dark One was sure that the current timeline was after he had already spoken to Snow, Charming and Regina, most likely just before the Dark Curse was cast. What was the woman spouting about not knowing the curse?
"Don't play coy, Regina. The Dark Curse! For your happy ending! Wouldn't you want your happy ending? You will have everything that you have ever wanted. All their happy endings would be in your hands! All for the price of the one you love the most." As long as Regina casted the Dark Curse, all the current bindings he had did not even matter anyway. He had to goad her more and taunting the Evil Queen using Snow White was always easy enough.
The true look of confusion appeared in the Evil Queen's face caused Rumpelstiltskin's own smile to slowly falter. The confusion truly looked real as if she didn't know what he was talking about. He could also feel the darkness inside her lacking...?
"Happy ending? Sacrifice my love? I'm afraid I do not understand what you're prattling on about." Regina shook her head and Rumpelstiltskin could feel his shriveled heart pound faster in panic.
"Yes, you do!" The Dark One snarled and tried to move with his chains. "Don't you care about your vengeance against Snow White anymore?! All you have to do is to sacrifice your father's heart!" He shouted bluntly since he knew the woman was playing coy. He refused to believe that the timeline could change that much.
"Snow White? Why would I have quarrel with her? And, my father? He died serving as Royal Advisor to Queen Snow. I just arrived here fairly recently." Regina arched her eyebrow, not sure what the Dark One was getting to. "Rumpel, I haven't seen you since your battle with my mother three years ago. Well, around thirty four years ago for you probably." The words Regina spoke hit Rumpelstiltskin like a ton of bricks.
Three years? Thirty four years?
…
What? Nothing made sense at the moment. He needed information! He needed to keep calm.
"I know you're here for something, dearie. Why not make a deal with me? A trade! A bargain!"
"Not really, I have only come to check up upon you as per requested, yet, you've been in some type of magical coma for the past several weeks since I've returned." Regina kept the information vague, just enough to keep the imp curious, but not enough to satiate his missing knowledge. She truly didn't desire anything at the moment, but having a one-up on the Dark One was something she could not pass up.
"Surely there must be something! I'll answer any question or give any one thing if you answer my questions!" Rumpel knew that simple trickery wouldn't work on the Evil Queen. A real trade was needed in order to get her cooperation.
"Very well. I'll reserve my favor for the future though. Also, this should answer your questions. Private questions will not be answered though." Regina knew she had the upper hand with that one favor. She began to cast a spell that would implant the answers to any of Rumpelstiltskin's questions within his own mind using her own memories as fuel. She was taught how the spell works and was sure it had no fault, she was also careful not to let anything too private slip.
Rumpelstiltskin braced himself as Regina's finger touched his forehead and all his questions about what had happened were cleared up. It was almost as if he was watching memories in a video. He saw things that had happened that weren't supposed to have happened.
The Dark One then just realized how badly the timeline had changed due to those three blasted wishes! That blasted boy changed things further than he had expected!
Rage overcame Rumpelstiltskin as all his plans had been laid to waste. He tried to summon all the dark magic he had to break through the enchanted chains and to burst out of the prison. The prison had no use for him anymore...
..., but he couldn't.
Everything held.
NO!
"I haven't been idle during your long sleep, Dark One. At first, I thought it was a ruse, but I knew that this prison was hardly holding you. Eventually, I decided to call your buff. Lo and behold, it wasn't a bluff." The look in the Dark One's eyes told Regina that she wasn't getting anything out of him. It was fine; she had gotten more than what she came for. Securing the Dark One in his prison wasn't hard after all. "I believe this is the end of our short conversation, for now." Regina slowly dissolved into smoke while Rumpelstiltskin still tried to break his bonds.
All the stupid child's wishes came true. Regina was not a Queen nor was she his mother and Storybrooke never existed!
Was this really the timeline if the Dark Curse never happened? Why did he even have his memories in the first place?
The Dark One opened his mind to try and read the future.
He needed to see the possibilities...
The tangled lines of the future...
His eyes widened as realization began to seep in. There were only two end possibilities. One good, one bad.
The only way the good possibility for everyone to come to pass is if the idiot boy dies.
Apparently, the boy somehow existed in this timeline as well. The boy needed to die.
First thing's first.
Rumpelstiltskin needed to escape.
AN: I detest Henry, just saying.
This will be an Enchanted Forest AU. I'm still debating whether it will be a Dark or Gray AU. There will come a point in the story where I will have to choose, if it gets to that point. I will also be building this story from ground up to where the divergence began.
I have only watched a couple of episodes of the first Season, so please don't expect my knowledge to be spot on. Most of my knowledge comes from Wiki and reading other stories. Besides, this whole story is an Alternate Universe/Alternate Timeline.
This Prologue is in the current present, but I will delve a little into the past. This will make more sense a few chapters in.
Updates for this story won't be too often yet as I'm focusing on my Twilight story.
Feedback and comments are always appreciated!
PS: This was actually made several months ago (Even the author note) and I just decided to post it anyway. No idea when I'll be able to update this if there is interest in it.