a/n: my first rumbelle fic, I hope you enjoy!
Maybe you should have listened.
Maybe you should have realized you were going to get caught eventually.
Maybe you should have tried to change.
Maybe you'd still have me.
But you ruined that, all of it.
You lied to me, time after time.
Was everything a lie?
At least, I surely think so now.
That gauntlet, it should have led me to myself.
I was hoping, praying, that it would.
Instead, it led me to what I knew it would.
What I was hoping it wouldn't.
Your dagger.
But not the one in my purse. The one you had with you.
The gauntlet led her to the library, as she followed the silvery magic up the stairs of the clock tower, Emma and Snow frozen in place by Rumple's enchantment, glowing a faint red.
Up the stairs, the silver magic dissipated after it had located Rumplestiltskin's true weakness, falling on top of the dagger that had been etched with his name. Belle watched as Rumple held Hook's heart in his hands, not thinking before she grasped the handle of the dagger, her thoughts reverberating from her brain and into her wrist, into the dagger.
Don't crush the heart.
She could hear the confusion in his voice, dumbfounded as to why he could not crush the glowing orb in his hands before Belle finally spoke up. She was already on the verge of tears, but held them in her throat as she commanded Rumplestiltskin to drop the heart, release Emma and Snow, and transport the beauty and the beast to the town line, knowing exactly what she had to do.
Power mad, that's what he was, what he had always been. He had always been a coward, one who had used his magic as a mask. Even as her true love, it was something she couldn't overlook, not after seeing him so willing to crush a heart to get his way. His true love was no longer her, even if he was hers. Rumplestiltskin's true love was his power, and her own heart was broken.
She watched him cry, watched his heart fall to his stomach as she forced him backwards, knowing the cold hard truth that he would never be able to return before her gaze shifted to her left hand, the diamond he had given her placed on her ring finger, and felt nothing but betrayal.
He had been willing to do whatever it took to cleave himself from the dagger. Little did he know he wasn't going to get what he wanted. Instead, he turned something that was once so sweet, and made it so very bitter.
It took her two minutes to drop her hand to the side.
Five to look at what she had done.
Another ten to stop crying, pull her gaze from the broken man who could not see her, wipe her tears and walk away. Even so, the pain of her actions had not dulled. She could hear him as she distanced herself, his ugly sobs crying out for her to come back, unable to see her walking away from the line, refusing to look back at the mess she created.
Deep down, she knew that he could never change, knew that his love for her was strong, but his love for power was stronger. And the fact that she believed her twisted fantasy, the one where she got her happy ending, could last forever, only made it worse.