Anything recognizable is the property of the appropriate owners. I do not make any claim to ownership, nor do I make any money from this.

This fic is basically a Reincarnation AU where the Dark Curse was never completed.

A Long Forgotten Past

The young woman tucked her thin cotton nighty closer around her knees and struggled not to sob. She felt like she was being crushed by the very air around her and held her breath. It was one of the few things she could still control in her miserable life, not that it would change her situation. When stars danced before the brunette's eyes in the dark, she gasped in great lungfuls of air and moaned pitifully as the cold sapped even more heat from her body.

It fortunately wasn't so cold that she had to worry about freezing to death, but summer was definitely on the wane. The young woman let her teeth chatter merely to pass the time but clenched her jaw tightly shut the moment she heard movement. As stubborn as she was, the brunette was not about to let anyone know that she was entirely miserable and feigned a deep sleep.

The shadows rippled slightly when he appeared, long adept at remaining unnoticed. Carefully, the cloaked man observed the new place he arrived in, slightly confused to be alone. For as long as he cared to remember, he always appeared in busy places, searching through crowds for one face he would never forget. Something else must have brought him to the meticulously manicured lawns and the stranger studied the grounds.

An enormous manor house had only one light shining on the ground floor but he knew that was not where he was needed. Something tickled at the nape of his neck, a feeling that may have once been familiar, but after so many centuries it might only have been the wind. And then he saw the tiny structure huddled close to the bushes, only large enough to be a doghouse. Curiosity drew the shadow closer to the little shelter until he could look in the opening in the wall.

Instead of a guard dog, he saw a young woman wedged into the space, shivering against the first hints of fall. All he could do was stare at the form, clad only in a thin yellow nightgown as she cried. Something long buried in his heart unfurled and the hidden man wondered why she was there. If she was running from something, surely the people in the house would have given her shelter. And if she was hiding from them, the woods beyond the lawn would be a far better choice.

Part of him wanted to reach out to the shivering woman, but it had been centuries since he had made contact with anyone and he didn't know what to do. As he watched, some small sound must have escaped him and the brunette froze before trying to appear asleep. When she forced herself to relax, light from the house caught on bright metal around her neck and a heartbeat later the shadowy form realized what it was.

A cruel steel collar rested against her pale skin and he felt suffocated by the sudden realization that someone had tied her up like a dog and left her in the cold. Memories of bending to kiss a soldier's boot escaped the mental prison he had created and threatened to strangle him. So the shadowy form did the only thing he could do, and vanished.

The careful cell he had created for his past crumbled, pouring every hated memory and despicable act back into his life and he was at a loss for how to contain it. He didn't want to remember the names of the people he had hurt, couldn't stand to see their faces in his mind's eye. But the harder he tried to force the memories away, the stronger they became until he gave in. Drifting in the spaces between existence, Rumpelstiltskin remembered everything.

It could have been hours or years in the void when he finally emerged to continue the search for his son. Finding Bae was the reason he still walked the world, the only way to redeem himself for all the evil he had caused. Only then could he rest. Unexpectedly, a sound intruded on his cogitations, making him jump. A voice seemed to whisper directly into his ear where he was concealed in shadows.

"Rumpelstiltskin."

Before the shock of being called upon after so many centuries could fade, the Dark One passed through nothingness, lead by the simple plea and found himself sitting in the branches of an old oak tree. Below him, the same young woman sat with a small girl, reading aloud from a book. A moment of shifting silently in the foliage and he could finally make out her quiet words.

"Rumpelstiltskin made a flourish with his hands and a purple mist swirled around the princess. When she opened her eyes, everything she had ever known was gone and her new home awaited."

The brunette closed the book softly despite the story not being finished and the child objected. "But what happens next? Why did that evil Rumpelstilts take her?"

"I don't think he's really evil, Emma, and you'll just have to wait and see. It's almost time for lunch."

The girl groaned at being denied answers but got to her feet without further argument. She brushed off her simple uniform and skipped towards the house, leaving the older woman in the shade of the tree. When the child was out of earshot, the brunette sighed and stared hard at the book in her lap.

"When are you going to rescue me, Rumpelstiltskin?" Finally the young woman got up and followed her reading companion to the house for lunch, leaving the man hidden in shadows alone.

Rumpelstiltskin's heart was beating so fast he thought it would fall right out of his chest. He hadn't heard his name in centuries as technology had gradually replaced magic in the world until no one called upon him. No one even remembered he existed, only this girl who had found his story in a book and wished for her rescue. Except it had been so long since he had made a deal, it no longer came naturally. Magic had no place in the world as people turned increasingly to money to solve all of their problems. If not for the nature of his curse, he might have winked out of existence when he was forgotten.

This was no longer the enchanted forest, the young woman was no princess, and he could do nothing for her. Mind made up, Rumpelstiltskin stepped back into the shadows and resumed his search for his son.