Blue watched as the people she had known for years moved around her, completely oblivious. It was so easy to plant seeds of doubt and anger into their minds. Easy to manipulate them with kindness, the truth distorted by pretty little lies. It wasn't as though she always lied, sometimes she was vague and left the assumptions up to those poor souls who called out to her to begin with. When you have power, when you are THE power it makes it easier to understands things. To understand people. Blue had always had her own intentions, but just what were those intentions? She wanted a curse to be created, and she wanted that curse to be broken. Funny how people can refuse to question your words, your choices, when they believe that you are unconditionally good. Although, no-one is ever unconditionally good. All she had to do was plan everything out carefully, and then she'd get what she desired. But was there one thing in particular she desired? Or was it more than one thing? Had she already achieved it and seen more since then? It was impossible to know.
Sitting comfortably at a table at Granny's she watched as the saviour and Hook spoked in hushed whispers with a concerned Henry watching at a distance. No-one ever suspected her of wrong doings, and if they did they were easily ignored or convinced otherwise. Or even forgot of the possibility she could be a danger. The smartest villains are those who hide their manipulative ways and dress up their actions with soft words and misguided kind intentions. As she watched, she thought back to the actions she had taken so far and how they'd played right into her hands.
"… Reul Ghorm…"
Well, that was a name she had not heard in so long. Back when the dark one was revelling in his power, his son had called out to her. He was easy to convince. Such a good, and innocent boy. And that was exactly how it was so easy for her to manipulate things. She needed the dark one to thirst for a world with no magic, but she couldn't get him to make the sacrifice. She needed the dark one's soul so dark that the last shimmer of humanity was snuffed out. And that shimmer was Baelfire. She needed the dark one to be so consumed with his end goal that anything in the middle would be a foolish distraction, but she also needed him to remain hateful. She needed him to forever battle an internal conflict with who he was and who he will be. And with that the case, he should never be able to truly find and live out his days happily with his son. She needed to take time and twist it into a weapon, and she needed Baelfire to kick start things into motion.
And so she did.
She knew from the very start that the cowardice of Rumpelstiltskin would make him shy away from a world that would make him powerless, in time he may have been able to do what Baelfire asked. And that was precisely why she had to act when she did. In truth, she could have given other advice, could have brought more light to the dark one. But if she did that, she wouldn't have things in place the way she wanted it to be. And so she gave Baelfire a bean, she encouraged him, got him excited about the prospect of being in a land with no magic. She even avoided his question. She said she was on the right side when it came to light and dark magic, but young Baelfire never thought to ask what she considered to be the 'right' side. If Baelfire would have looked back before he ran away, he would have seen her watching him intently, planning decades ahead, accounting for every last detail. Funny, she mused, how Rumpelstiltskin would believe he was the one puppeteering everything.
When it comes to being a puppet master, you cannot have any of your own emotions, morals, fears, or ethics weighing you down. If you do, you may lose control along the way. Rumpelstiltskin would learn this lesson the hard way. Blue, however, didn't have to be concerned with that.
Blue remembers back when she first decided that Rumpelstiltskin should be the dark one, the man to bear the burden of darkness and all its power.
Zoso had the potential but he no longer wanted to be a dark one, and he was useless in the hands of another. It would not do. She reached out to him with delicate kindness, claiming she heard his desperation. It was all much too easy.
"Y-You're a fairy..." Zoso breathed as he huddled in his cloak against the cold of the evening air. Blue smiled easily, the wheels already turning in her head as she spoke. Desperate people were easy to trick. "You came to help me."
"Yes," She said. "If you called out to me, you a dark one, then it is proof enough that there is enough light to make anything possible. You wish to be freed from the darkness, don't you?"
"Yes." He breathed, cracking a lopsided smile. "I know the price, I do, but I need help regardless." This was almost too easy.
"I am afraid I do not have the power to take the darkness from you and make you the man you were," She said, her voice full of easily convincing sorrow. "But I can tell you that to get rid of it, another must kill you with the object of your despair."
"With the dagger…" The man wheezed, realisation dawning on him. "But I cannot reach it, if I could, this would not be a problem." Now, here's where things become important. This man could very well tell Rumpelstiltskin about her if she openly suggested who should take the dagger, and that would throw things off track. She had to appear good, and condemning another man to the endless torture of being the dark one was not an easy thing to explain away.
"Perhaps there is someone out there who may take the dagger for you, someone you could then get the dagger from yourself. That way, you will be no-one's slave." It was subtle, but the seed had been planted. Blue was fully aware that Zoso wanted to die, wanted to pass the torture onto someone else. What she was suggesting was for Zoso to find someone spineless, someone who would act only if he thought his life depended on it. She watched as realisation dawned on Zoso's face. There was only one coward in town, one coward who would do anything for his son and who could be easily manipulated and overpowered. As Zoso would know, desperate men and women can fall for anything.
"I know just the person…" He said with a twisted grin. And now was the chance for Blue to show her pretence of concern.
"I hope you're not going to turn another poor soul into the dark one, you know what desperation can do to a person." Zoso smirked and assured her he would do no such thing, but Blue was the master manipulator. She would not be fooled by a thinly veiled promise. As Zoso hurried off, Blue faded away with a smirk. It was so easy to control things.
After all, it's why she was THE power, with all the ambiguity that came with it.
AN: The next chapters will include other moments in the show where Blue could have manipulated situations that we didn't see. Hope you liked it!