Belle couldn't believe her eyes when she finally made her way back to town after saying goodbye to Rumple at the docks. The town was nearly completely covered in thick green vines and had cracks through the streets from where the forest had been trying to reclaim it. She hadn't really gotten to see how the fail safe had effected the town when Rumple had pulled her out of the back of his shops and to the docks.
"Lacey!" Someone called out to her and she turned hesitantly, shame filling her as she remembered her horrible cursed self in this world. A man she recognized from the bar she used to frequent came running up to her with an angry expression clear on his face. "Where's Gold? He's got a lot of explaining to do for this mess."
"This wasn't his fault," Belle defended her True Love, her eyes narrowing at the man because of his accusation of Gold just because he was the Dark One.
"Since when did you stick up for the bastard?" the man asked in mild surprise at her words. "Even you admitted he was just a rich guy who didn't care about the rest of us."
"Don't talk about him like that," Belle snapped at the man. The man grabbed her shoulders and gave her a hard shake.
"What kind of spell did he cast on you?" the man asked angrily as he shook her. "This is Rumpelstiltskin we are talking about, Lacey, not Prince James."
"Stop it," Belle cried out, struggling against the man's hold on her.
"Belle?" Ruby called when she saw her fellow brunette in trouble. Ruby growled in a very wolfish fashion as she bounded down the steps of Granny's shop to rush across the street. The man released Belled at the sigh of the angered werewolf, knowing Ruby had her wolf powers back. Ruby stopped beside Belle as the man ran off, the wolf turning to the princess worriedly. "Are you okay Belle? Sorry, you like to be called Lacey, right?"
"N-No, it is Belle," Belle replied shakily as she tried to steady herself after what had just happened. "I got my memories back."
"That's great," Ruby smiled, truly happy for the brunette before she nervously stepped away from her. "Where's Gold?"
"This isn't his fault," Belle immediately defended her True Love.
"I wasn't saying that," Ruby said defensively, throwing up her hands as she frowned at the other young woman's annoyed look. "Snow and Charming already explained the fail safe issue to the dwarves and me."
"Then can you help me?" Belle asked, knowing that if the royal couple trusted her then Ruby could be trusted with what Rumple wanted her to do. "Can you get the dwarves and meet me at Gold's shop in a bit?"
"Sure, but what for?" Ruby asked, suspicious of why the brunette needed their help. "Can't Gold help you?"
"H-He just left with Hook and Regina," Belle informed the wolf sadly before she held up his small scroll of instructions. "But he left me a way to protect the town from people who want to destroy magic."
Ruby looked at her for only a moment longer before she nodded. "Alright, I'll see you at Gold's in a few minutes."
Belled smiled gratefully at Ruby as the werewolf quickly headed off to collect the seven close knit brothers. In the meantime, Belled headed for Rumple's shop to make sure it was alright. The small building looked as if nothing had happened to it until she tried to enter it. Belled frowned as the door refused to budge. It was as if some invisible force was on the other side of the door and was keeping it from being opened. Belle stepped back from the shop to look up for any sign of what she should do. She knew Rumple hadn't locked the shop when they had left so there was no way the shop could be locked unless someone else was in there.
"I was kinda expecting to meet inside," Ruby laughed as she and the seven dwarves hurried up to her. The laughter died on Ruby's face when she saw Belle's expression. "What's wrong?"
"The shop is locked when it shouldn't be," Belle replied, biting her lip thoughtfully. For a moment she wondered if Rumple had seen this coming. Looking at the eight people who had so readily come to her aide, she knew she couldn't risk getting them hurt by whoever or whatever had closed up the shop. "You guys wait here while I check this out."
Belle stepped forward once more to try and enter the shop, but was stopped by Ruby's hand on her arm. "A woman in your condition should not be stepping up to an unknown danger."
"What do you mean?" Belled asked in confusion as she turned back to look the worried wolf in the eyes. "What condition? I'm fine now that I have my memories back."
"Magic can't see everything," Ruby murmured as a look of realization crossed her face. This worried Belled greatly. What had Rumple's magic been unable to detect when it had shown him so much in the past? Ruby seemed a bit uncomfortable as she glanced back at the dwarves for a moment before she turned back to Belle. "I don't really know how to say it, but, Belle, you smell pregnant."
"I smell... pregnant?" Belle repeated in disbelief, raising an eyebrow at the werewolf.
"I don't know how to describe it other than that," Ruby said sheepishly before the look on her face grew serious. "But I do know that Snow had the same kind of scent when she was pregnant with Emma."
"Th-This can wait," Belle said, turning back to the shop. She just couldn't be pregnant, so she would focus on what she knew was true and right now that was her getting into the shop so she could protect the town. "We have to get in there."
"Gold didn't leave anything in those instructions of his?" Leroy asked testily, not liking the idea of them walking into the unknown when it came to magic. Belle looked down at the scroll that was still tightly rolled up in her hand. With a small sigh, she opened it slowly. She frowned when she saw one single word on the small page.
"Abraten," she read aloud softly. The word seemed to start shining a strange red color before it disappeared from the page and the door to the shop swung open forcefully. Belled turned to the shop in surprise, but frowned when the shop suddenly felt different to her. The shop had always felt odd to her, even when she was Lacey, but nothing had seemed to call out to her like it did now. She slowly stepped across the threshold and looked around for what was calling her.
"Belle?" Ruby called to her as she hesitantly followed the beauty with the dwarves waiting by the door. "Are you alright?"
"I think so," Belle said as she stopped at one of the shelves and picked up a small lantern. She gasped when her mind suddenly filled with information about the lantern. Everything filled her thoughts, from its name and use to how Rumple had come to possess it. Belle blinked and turned back to the others' fearful looks with a smile, holding up the lantern. "This is how we are going to protect the town."
"A broken lantern?" Walter asked skeptically as he looked at the small, beat up piece of metal.
"This isn't just any lantern," Belle said excitedly as she placed in on the counter to show them. "This is the Light of Sleepy Hollow."
"The Light of Sleepy Hollow?" Leroy repeated, looking at Belle like she was insane. "How is that going to help?"
"Simple," Belle said as she picked it up and headed out of the shop with them following her. "If we set it up at the entrance to town and keep it lit, it'll hide our town from anyone who comes near. It's how the people of Sleepy Hollow dealt with a demon that had been terrorizing them."
"How do you know that?" Ruby asked as she and the dwarves walked fast to keep up with Belle's surprisingly fast pace.
"I think Rum-, Gold, might have cast some kind of spell on me," Belle admitted as she hurried to the town's edge. After all the time she had spent with Rumpelstiltskin, she knew what magic felt like thought it had never been used on her before. "I think he made it so I would be able to find the things I needed to protect the town without needing to be taught. There is one issue though."
"What's that?" Ruby asked as Belle stopped to turn to them at the last building on the edge of town.
"This had to stay lit for it to work," Belle admitted as she held up the lantern. "The charm only works if the candle is lit. Once it goes out, we are open to outsiders once again, but we can't constantly keep watching it."
"Maybe I can be of some help," someone said, drawing their attention to Mother Superior as she stood not too far away from them. The fairy drew her wand from her cloak as she crossed the street to them. She looked very seriously at Belle as she raised her shimmering wand and lit the candle with a small flame. "I do not agree with Gold on many things, but I do agree with your wish to protect our town."
"Thank you, Blue Fairy," Belle said breathlessly as she looked at the small flame, knowing that the fairy's magic would keep it lit no matter what. "Now we can protect everyone."
"No, thank yo, Belle," Mother Superior said with a small smile as she headed back towards the town and left the group to their task. Belle watched the older woman leave for a moment before she turned to continue their trek out to the edge of town where the memory line was.
"No one move to close," Leroy said, spotting the bright orange line he had marked on the ground when the dwarves were trying to figure a way out. "We can't afford memory loss now."
"We'll be fine," Belle said with more confidence than she felt. She remembered clearly the last time she was here and the memory made her nervous as she stepped forward with the lantern. She glanced around the town line for a sturdy place to put the lantern. Seeing nothing more than the town's sign, she frowned. She couldn't just leave the one thing protecting their town out in the open.
"Let's put it in that tree," Ruby said, pointing to a low hanging branch near the town's sign. Belle looked at it for a moment before she nodded, seeing no other option but to put the lantern there for safe keeping. The dwarves quickly lifted her and Ruby up so they could put the lantern higher up in the tree, letting it hang down slightly over the town sign. Once the job was complete, the group stepped back to admire their work before they decided to head back into town.
Just wanted to post this before the new season comes out in two weeks and ruins what I have planned because then this won't be canon. Ah, yeah, so lot's more to come and I hope you liked it. See you next Friday for the next update!