Into Temptation, an once upon a time fanfic

I had a few requests for fix-it fic after the last episode, so here it is. I'm pretty proud of this, even if I do say so myself.

Once Upon a Time is the property of Adam, Eddy, and ABC: I'm just attempting to heal a few hearts :)

Into Temptation

I don't know that I wanna make it work.

Her words kept sounding in his head, crushing his heart further. Why had she come to him, then? Surely she'd known how he would interpret that? Surely she'd know he'd take her coming as a sign that she wanted to fix it as much as he did, but then to hear her say she didn't know if she wanted to: it sounded to him like she didn't love him like he'd thought she had, and that hurt so badly.

He was angry too, angry that she'd led him on by coming, given him false hope. If she wasn't sure, why not write him a letter saying that? Why come and dash all his hopes? She'd never been deliberately cruel before, not even when she banished him. That had hurt her as much as it had him, he knew: he'd seen it on her face. This was different, though: her face — that angry, mistrustful scowl, and the anger and impatience in her voice…

What had happened to 'It's never too late'? She'd said that only last night. They could have taken it as slow as she wanted: he was prepared to be led by her, but not to this, not to this pain, not to it's over, which is what it felt like.

She had said she loved him, though, and that part of her always would, and she'd said she needed to work out whether or not she wanted to make it work on her own. But why be so unkind to him? Had he hurt her so much that she couldn't get past being angry? But he'd promised to do better by her and she'd said it wasn't too late! Now it was? Now that he was the man she had always known he could be? Why? What had he done wrong? He'd done everything right! Everything! And he'd lost her anyway!

Why comfort him? Why stand by him at all if she was just going to do this? Had she ever really loved him at all? It hurt so badly that he was starting to question that. Why hadn't he just died? Why had he held on? For this? For yet more pain and suffering?

Why had she come? Why would she do that? To punish him? Or had she been trying to do the honourable thing and explain herself in person? That would be like Belle, but the cruelty was not: the impatience and anger were not. Belle had been so patient with him yesterday, so soothing, so compassionate. There was none of that at the well, only anger, annoyance, impatience. He'd never forget the way the corners of her mouth turned down when she said she didn't know that she wanted to make it work, that uncaring, almost disdainful look: he'd never be able to get that out of his mind. He'd never forget her harsh bluntness either, the uncaring way she'd said those words. What happened to her compassion, one of the things he'd loved so much about her? Gone in a flash.

Why not just tell him outside Regina's that she wouldn't be meeting him? She hadn't known what to say to his declaration about how he wanted to love her, he remembered, and he could see her uncertainty then. That was why he'd left it up to her whether to come or not. If she hadn't come, it would have hurt, certainly, but not like this, not this searing agony that he was quite sure would never go away. Maybe she'd decide she wanted to make it work after all, but he was no longer sure that he did. If she could hurt him like this, give him hope and then take it away so cruelly, then she wasn't the woman he thought she was.

His mind churned as he wandered through the forest. It was completely dark now, but he didn't care. He couldn't face going back to town, not to the places where there were so many memories of her. Every three steps had the same refrain repeating in his mind: how could she, how could she, how could she, how could she, how could she?

Anger, pain, despair, love, yearning: he felt it all, and he felt bereft. What was he without her? How could he a good man without her compassion and wisdom to guide him? What compassion? He pushed back at the darkest of his thoughts. No, he could never hate her: never, but he didn't know that he could forgive her either.

He'd wandered so far he was almost lost. He had a vague idea where he was, but it didn't matter anyway: what would it matter if he wandered off and never came back?

He stumbled over a tree root and came to his knees, gasping. He realised it was the first sound he'd made since speaking Belle's name and saying 'please' yet again to her.

'The crocodile on his knees: why does that make me smile?'

Rumplestiltskin looked up to find his second replacement standing before him, a smirk on his face.

'I'm not that man any more,' he ground out, 'and I'm not in the mood for your games or your taunting or your talk of revenge, Dark One.'

'Ah, bravado: always the last thing people let go of when they're dying inside,' Hook taunted. 'What's the matter, Crocodile: meeting with the missus not go as you hoped?'

Rumplestiltskin frowned. 'What do you know about that?' he demanded. Suddenly something leapt in him: hope, but he had no idea why.

'Hmm, what do I know about that?' Hook repeated, a secretive little smile on his face.

'Tell me!' Rumplestiltskin shouted.

Hook came closer and leaned over him menacingly.

'You're in no position to give orders, Crocodile,' he spat, 'but I am feeling in a sharing mood, so I'll share my secret with you,' he added magnanimously, every bit as mercurial as Rumplestiltskin himself had been as the Dark One: a consequence of those unrelenting voices in his head. 'Would you like that?' Hook asked indulgently.

'Please, tell me what you know,' Rumplestiltskin begged.

'That's better,' Hook returned, enjoying himself as he prowled around, mimicking Rumplestiltskin's own movements and gestures when he was the Dark One. All of them had hidden the man inside, and he knew there must be a real man in Hook, struggling with the Darkness as he had.

'Please,' he asked again, hoping to reach some core of humanity in the other man.

Hook smiled, part indulgently, part menacingly, and it made him shiver. Whatever he knew, Rumplestiltskin knew he wasn't going to like it: he was probably going to hate it. He was suddenly terrified.

'It was actually quite clever of me, you know,' Hook bragged. 'You see, I overheard your conversation with your little wife. Admirable words, Crocodile, quite admirable, I must say, coming from you.' He sneered.

Rumplestiltskin swallowed the lump in his throat. Those words had been for Belle alone, when he'd had hope, when he'd had the dream of a future with her. Now, the memory turned to dross. He couldn't believe he'd been so open, so naive as to think… And Hook had heard it all.

'I watched you walk away, full of hope,' Hook went on, 'but I could see her face, the uncertainty written on it. She told you she didn't know what to say to your words, Crocodile? Well, let's just say I helped her figure it out.'

Rumplestiltskin stared at him, shock coming first and then outrage.

'You took her heart?' he demanded.

'Oh, no,' Hook scoffed: 'far more subtle than that, Crocodile. No, what I did was simply…accentuate the negative.'

What…what did that mean? He'd…he'd done something to her personality, to her memories: what?

'What do you mean?' he asked.

'I'm sure you can figure it out,' Hook returned, smiling viciously.

Rumplestiltskin thought for a minute. He'd accentuated the negative… He had to mean her feelings about him, what he'd done, how she felt about it. Was that why she'd been so cruel: because Hook had made her that way?

He got to his feet, hand on the tree trunk for balance. He felt so weak, suddenly.

'You made her cruel,' he said: 'you made her say things she didn't mean.'

'Well, not quite,' Hook said, smiling triumphantly. 'You see, she does have those feelings: she's not sure she can trust you, not sure you won't hurt her again, not sure you truly love her. All I did was emphasise those feelings and allow her to act on them. You're her weakness, you see, Gold, the thing she loves most, and there's a part of her that doesn't want to have that weakness, because it hurts her. I just gave her the freedom to tell you that straight, without all her other feelings for you getting in her way.'

'I knew she would never be deliberately cruel,' Rumplestiltskin breathed, relief flooding him.

'Did you forget the part where I said she has all those feelings?' Hook asked nastily.

'No,' Rumplestiltskin said, surprising the other man. 'I could never forget the ways I've hurt Belle, and I understand her wariness: I could see it on her face earlier, but wariness is not the same as what you made her do to me. You took all those complicated feelings and simplified them into mistrust and anger, but I'll undo it: I'll save her.'

'Good luck with that,' Hook returned: 'hard to save her when she's out of your reach.'

'What do you mean?' Rumplestiltskin was suddenly terrified again.

'She wants time away, to escape: best way to do that is far from everything that reminds her of you.'

Rumplestiltskin gasped. 'You're making her leave Storybrooke!'

'I might have made a few changes to her memories while I was at it,' Hook admitted, pleased with himself: 'she might possibly somehow have gotten the idea that the curse was broken. Oops.'

Rumplestiltskin pointed a shaking finger at him.

'I won't let you do this to her!' he snarled.

'Oh, and how do you plan to stop me?' Hook demanded, laughing.

'I'll stop you,' Rumplestiltskin promised, and turned away, intent on finding Belle and saving her.

'Not without magic, you won't,' Hook taunted. 'That got your attention,' he said, seeing Rumplestiltskin stop in his tracks. 'Should've killed me when you had the chance, you know: then you'd have all the power you need to protect her.'

'And lose any chance of winning her back,' Rumplestiltskin growled.

'Perhaps, but the only way you're going to stop my magic is by taking it from me. Why d'you think I left you with the sword?'

Rumplestiltskin looked down at Excalibur still clutched in his hand.

'You know very well I could've taken it from you,' Hook said, advancing on him. 'I could take it now and you wouldn't be able to stop me. The only way you can stop me,' he hissed, leaning in, 'is to become me.'

'I won't,' Rumplestiltskin declared. 'If I didn't take the power back on your ship, why would I take it now?'

'Because there's more at stake now, Crocodile,' Hook said, stepping back and smiling: 'I have your Belle under my control, essentially, and you can't stop me without magic. This is different from a sword fight: the stakes are much, much higher, and I want to see how heroic you really are!' He stepped back further and threw his hands up. 'Come on, Crocodile: your love or your newfound heroism: which will it be?'

Rumplestiltskin was shaking. Why did it always come to this? Why was there always a choice to be made? He must save Belle: he must, but doing so in a way that would surely take her from him forever? She wouldn't accept it: wouldn't understand him becoming the Dark One again to save her. Bae hadn't understood it: he had been frightened of him, hurt by him. He'd made him a promise at his grave to be the man he should have been: how could he break that, again? But how could he lose Belle?

'You want me to kill you?' he asked Hook.

'I want my revenge,' Hook said, 'and knowing you'll be miserable for the rest of your days is good enough for me. Kill me and save her, or don't and she turns into a tree.'

'I lose her either way,' Rumplestiltskin returned bitterly.

'And that's where the miserable for the rest of your days bit comes in,' Hook said, grinning.

'You'll be dead,' Rumplestiltskin reminded him: 'you won't even be around to see it.'

'I'll be free of this Darkness you inflicted on me!' Hook shouted.

'I didn't do this to you.'

'Emma would never've been the Dark One if you hadn't come back and messed around with the story book!' Hook spat, 'so, now it's time for you to take this back.'

Rumplestiltskin shook his head. 'No. I know how the Dark One thinks,' he said: 'it tricks, deceives. It's deceiving you.'

'I know exactly what it wants,' Hook snapped: 'it wants you to suffer as much as I do.'

'What are you talking about?' Rumplestiltskin asked.

'Why do you think I cast this curse? To get back to you so the Darkness and I both could get our revenge. It wants you to suffer too, Gold. You're the only one who escaped it, and it doesn't much like that.'

'Well, I don't much care what it likes or doesn't.'

'You should, because, thanks to you, the Darkness is about to get exactly what it wants.'

'What do you mean?'

'Oh, I think you'll like this next bit,' Hook said. 'I needed something from you, Gold. You're special, see? You're the only one around here who's been to hell and back, and that makes you important.'

Rumplestiltskin stared at him. He knew what Hook was saying, and it made his blood run cold.

'You didn't,' he breathed, voice barely a whisper.

'Oh, I did.' He looked so pleased with himself, but, surely, there must be a man in there, cringing at what he'd done: surely?

'You're going to snuff out the Light, bring back all the previous Dark Ones.' He wanted to collapse to his knees again.

'Well, they're already here, but there's one missing,' Hook told him, stepping closer again.

'Me,' Rumplestiltskin breathed.

'Very good. And now that you have nothing to live for, you might as well join with us.'

Rumplestiltskin backed away. 'No: never.'

'You can't get Belle back without magic: you can't get magic without killing me. I'd say you're stuck, Crocodile.'

'I will find another way, a better way!' Rumplestiltskin shouted. And he turned and fled, terrified, whether of Hook, the Darkness, or himself, he did not know.

Emma transported herself right into the shop, the dreamcatcher containing Belle's memories in her hand. She would have used the door, only this wasn't the time for politeness.

Gold had his back to her, bent over the front counter. Something about him looked old and he reeked of desperation. Funny how she could smell that now.

'Gold,' she called.

He spun to face her, Excalibur gripped tightly in his hand. His face was wet with tears.

'What happened?' she asked, approaching him.

He held his hand up and she stopped in her tracks.

'What do you want?' he asked, turning away and wiping his tears.

'There's a problem,' she said, as gently as she could: 'I just tried to return Belle's memories from Camelot, but I couldn't. Something's wrong.'

'You might wanna ask your boyfriend about that,' Gold spat.

'He did something to her?'

'Altered her mind, gave her false memories. She thinks the curse is broken: she's going to leave town, and I don't know how to stop her.'

He looked ready to cry again.

'Let me help,' she requested.

'Help? You help me? You did this! If you hadn't turned him into a Dark One, this wouldn't be happening!'

She'd never seen him this angry before, never seen him this desperate either.

'I did that to save his life,' she said quietly. 'Haven't you ever loved someone so much you wanted to save them?'

Wrong thing to say, she realised, and she actually backed away from the rage spitting from him now.

'How dare you ask me that question, Miss Swan? Don't you think I would have saved my son if I could?'

'You would've, I know: I'm sorry,' she backtracked quickly, looking down.

'Do you know why I didn't?'

'Why?' she asked, looking up at him.

'Because he asked me not to, and even I drew the line at channeling the Darkness into someone I love, Miss Swan.'

'I didn't have another choice,' she defended.

'There's always another choice!' he shouted, and collapsed back against the counter. 'At least there's always another equally bad choice,' he said tiredly.

'How did you find out what Killian did to Belle?'

'He told me, even gave me a way to save her,' he spat.

'How?'

'This is where two equally bad choices come in. I can be a hero and lose her, or I can take back the Darkness and save her, and still lose her.'

'He wants you to…'

'Kill him, yes.'

'And you'd become the Dark One again.'

'That's why he let me take this on his ship,' he said, holding up Excalibur. 'There's a bigger problem, though.'

'What's that?'

'What the Darkness has in mind for all of us. On his ship, Hook scratched me with his hook. He took my blood, the blood of a man who's been to hell and back, who died and was resurrected.'

Emma gasped. 'He's going to do it: he's going to snuff out the Light!'

'You know what had to happen first.'

'Bring back all the previous Dark Ones: Nimue, Gorgon, Zoso, all of them. They're here?'

He nodded. 'According to Hook, there's one missing.'

'You,' she realised.

He nodded again, and looked even more desperate.

'Without magic, I can't save Belle: with magic, I can save her, but I become part of the Darkness again.'

'What are you going to do?' she asked.

He shot her a mystified look. 'I don't know.'

'If you become the Dark One again…'

'I lose her forever: I know that, but she'd be safe, and herself, and I'd let her go, as I have in the past, only this time, she wouldn't come back to me, ever.'

He was shaking, and didn't bother to hide his tears now.

'Could you live with that?'

'No,' he said, voice broken: 'no, I couldn't. I became that once for a good cause.'

'Neal.'

'Yes, and I lost him anyway. I can't-can't do that again, but if I don't, I might never see her again.'

He was really torn, she saw.

'I know how you feel,' she said. 'Killian was dying: I had to make a choice, and now we're all reaping the reward. You really think he wants you to kill him?'

He nodded. 'He hates the Darkness, at least, the part of him that's still a man does. What he wants from me reminds me of the man I took the power from.'

'Zoso.'

He nodded again. 'He tricked me into taking it, told me the burden was too much. He must have been at the same point I was at when I went to the Author.'

'Losing his humanity,' Emma breathed. 'Do you think Killian is at that point already?'

'He had darkness in him before. You should never have done this to him.' He shot her a look that was trying not to be judgemental, but, ultimately, he couldn't conceal it, and she couldn't find it in her to blame him: she judged herself, after all. That was why she still looked like this in Storybrooke, when she could have looked like herself: she'd become a monster, and she needed daily reminding of that, so she looked like this.

'I know,' she sobbed: 'I know that now.'

'The regret always comes too late,' he said sadly, and with great compassion. It surprised her how compassionate a man he was, though it probably shouldn't have: there had been moments of compassion from him from the earliest days of their acquaintance. Now, the compassion seemed amplified because there was no evil in him.

'Gold, we have to stop this,'she said urgently, banking on that compassion now.' I'm gonna go see if I can talk some sense into Killian. What will you do about Belle?'

'I'm not sure there's anything I can do,' he said, obviously torn. 'I have two bad options in front of me, and I must choose between them…and lose either way.'

He was tired, she saw, and devastated. The man who'd spoken of honour earlier today was hanging on by a thread and he honestly looked about ready to give in to the Darkness once again.

'I'll stop him, Gold,' she promised.

She hadn't been able to stop him, of course: he hadn't expected her to be able to, and when he saw those hooded figures swarming down Main Street, he knew they couldn't win. He told them all as much.

'We have to try!' Mary Margaret protested.

'Yes, we do,' he agreed, sighing. Every moment, he was worrying about where Belle might be, whether she had left yet, but he was hoping against hope that stopping Hook would somehow save her. If he had to kill him to do that…

'He'll kill all of you if we don't stop him,' Emma said.

She'd reported on her meeting with Hook. He'd threatened her family's lives, so now she was determined to stop him.

'We'll kill them anyway,' a voice said, and they all turned to see Nimue standing in the doorway of Granny's, several hooded Dark Ones behind her.

'You see, we need them,' Nimue went on. 'We were able to come here with the blood Rumplestiltskin provided, but we can't stay unless we make a trade.'

She raised her hand and Henry cried out.

'No!' Emma and Regina screamed together.

Emma put her hands out and a blast of her magic knocked Nimue back.

'You will not take my son,' Emma growled.

Nimue was quickly on her feet again. She approached Emma like the sly, wicked creature she was.

'We will take everything from you Emma, for your betrayal of us. We don't much like being cheated.' Her eyes flicked over to Rumplestiltskin as she said this, so he knew she was speaking to him too.

'I never promised you anything,' Emma declared. 'I told you I didn't need your power.'

'But you used it, and that comes at a cost. Rumplestiltskin cheated us out of our reward, but we won't let you do the same.'

'I will stop you,' Emma promised. She waved her hand and she, her family, Regina, and Rumplestiltskin all disappeared.

They rematerialised in Regina's vault.

'Henry, are you alright?' Emma asked.

'I'm fine, Mom,' he said, but he was holding his arm awkwardly, hiding his palm.

'Henry, let me see,' Regina demanded.

Reluctantly, he offered his wrist and she and Emma bent over his hand.

'There's a mark here,' Regina said.

'Nimue's marked Henry as one of the souls to trade for when Charon returns,' Rumplestiltskin said.

'Charon?' David asked.

'The boatman who ferries souls to Hades,' Regina explained.

'You mean, if we don't stop this, Henry…'

Mary Margaret did not continue: they all got the drift.

'Henry and many more,' Rumplestiltskin said.

'Gold, you said you were the missing Dark One, right?' Emma asked: 'they can't do this without you, can they?'

'No,' he agreed. 'I was a Dark One: they need me, need my heart blackened again.'

'So, they want you to kill Hook?' David asked.

'Yes.'

'And take his place?' Mary Margaret asked.

'Yes.'

'And Hook's ok with that?' David asked.

'He wants revenge on me: he's prepared to die to get it. Plus, the man inside hates the Darkness and longs to be free of it.'

'But what would that do?' Regina asked. 'Surely, you'd go back to the vault like Emma did. You wouldn't be here.'

'It wouldn't work that way this time,' Rumplestiltskin told her. 'The Darkness is here, all of it: there's nothing in the vault to recreate me, it would happen here, and I was already the Dark One, so it would be easier to do this time.'

'But if you don't kill Hook, it won't get what it wants,' David pointed out.

'If I don't,' Rumplestiltskin agreed darkly. Without Belle, he had nothing to live for anyway: why should he care about the fates of people who never cared for him unless they were in danger or he could do something for them?

'You're thinking about doing it?' Regina asked, shocked.

'Oh, don't sound so shocked, your majesty,' he snapped: 'haven't you done questionable things to save the man you love?' He was pleased to see her look away uncomfortably. Good, he wanted her to feel guilty for what she'd done to Belle.

'Gold, we're gonna figure this out,' Emma promised: 'we will save Belle.'

'No, I will save her,' he retorted. He was not going to feel this sick sinking feeling, this worry, any more, not when he could take some control back. He headed for the stairs.

'Get out of my way,' he snarled as Robin stepped into his path. He raised Excalibur. 'You know what this does: a cut from it can't be healed.'

'Robin, let him go,' Regina begged, afraid to lose him.

Rumplestiltskin stepped around him and headed up the stairs.

'We have to stop him,' Mary Margaret hissed as he moved out of earshot: 'if he does this…'

'He won't,' Emma said, sounding certain.

'How do you know?' Regina asked.

'Because he's a hero now,' Emma said, 'and, even more than that, he knows what Belle would want for him.'

He was going to save her. He would take the Darkness back and he would bend it to his will this time. He would do good with it.

Listen to yourself! You've said all of this before, and look how that turned out: you lost Bae! Don't do this!

He shook his head, trying to shake away the voice of his conscience, the voice that sounded a lot like Belle, but the exclamations made him slow his steps.

But I'll lose her, he tried to reason with himself.

You'll lose her for sure if you do this! The Darkness came between you before: your love would not survive this time! Don't!

But how can I live without her?

With honour, the way you know she'd want. It will hurt, but, eventually, you'll find peace knowing you did the right thing and she would be proud. And, one day, the curse might be broken.

One day…when I'm old, or maybe when I'm gone. I might never see her again.

And the flip side is that you live for eternity without her, only accompanied by that terrible Darkness you fought so long to control, to defeat. Please, Rumple!

The plea was definitely her voice. She made him stronger: she always had, even when she wasn't with him, even when they were apart. Could he be strong now, knowing he might never see her again?

Nimue smiled.

'Rumplestiltskin,' she greeted.

'Dark One.'

'Have you come to do what you know you must?' she asked.

'Yes,' he said.

'Well, here I am, Crocodile,' Hook called, coming to the front. 'I must confess, I wondered whether you were man enough, but I suppose even a pathetic coward has his moments. Even the weakest can find strength sometimes.'

'They can,' Rumplestiltskin agreed. He looked down and to the side. He was standing beside a gravestone. He looked at Hook; then, without warning, he raised the sword and slammed it side on against the edge of his own son's gravestone. The sword broke apart again, the dagger landing at his feet.

'No!' Nimue shrieked.

Rumplestiltskin quickly bent and picked up the dagger and put it in his inside pocket.

'On your knees, Dark One,' he commanded.

Hook had no choice but to obey and did so, glaring hatefully at Rumplestiltskin. Every other Dark One obeyed too.

'Do it, then,' Nimue purred: 'it's the only way you'll save your Belle.'

'She's right, Crocodile,' Hook chimed in. 'Even now, she's driving out of town.'

She wasn't completely lost to him yet, then. That gave him hope.

'I know what you want me to do, Hook,' he said: 'I know you just want peace, but I'm sorry, I won't save your soul and damn mine at the same time.'

'Then you'll lose her,' Nimue reminded him.

'I'd lose her anyway if I did this, if I became the man I fought so hard not to be any more, for her, for my son. You've already taken him from me, and now Belle too. You think I'd give in to you again, knowing that? You think I'm that much of a fool? I'm stronger than you think: I always have been. She gave me my strength, and you cannot take that from me. I know she loves me, and I will find a way to save her and bring her home. I will not become you, not again: never again.'

'Gold,' Emma called, and he turned to find her and her family, all apart from Henry and baby Neal, standing behind him.

'I believe this belongs to you, Miss Swan,' he said, pulling out the dagger and handing it over.

'Thank you,' she said, coming and taking it from him. 'What are you going to do?'

Rumplestiltskin looked down at Hook.

'Dark One, I command you to send Nimue and all the previous Dark Ones back to where they came from,' he intoned.

'I can't,' Hook said: 'I don't have the power to do that.'

'That's because we're part of him and we don't want to go back,' Nimue said determinedly. 'We like it here; besides, if we go back, the boy I marked comes too.'

'Not happening,' Rumplestiltskin growled.

'Gold,' Emma said quietly.

He looked at her and saw something in her face that made him step back towards her, though he kept the sword pointed at Hook and the others.

'What are you thinking, Miss Swan?' he asked her.

'I created this problem: I'm the one who has to fix it.'

'How?'

'By letting him go,' she said tearfully.

He knew what she meant and nodded understandingly. He wouldn't be the only one who lost someone he loved tonight in the name of the greater good.

'Emma, what will that do?' Mary Margaret asked.

'Take the Darkness from him,' she said, 'save his soul, but he'll also die, and that will take them back to hell, and save Henry.'

'But why will killing Hook undo it?' David asked.

'He's the one who brought them here,' Rumplestiltskin said: 'killing him undoes everything.'

'But you killing him wouldn't?' Regina asked, confused.

'I'm already a Dark One,' Emma pointed out, 'and I'm the one who did this to him. I'm responsible for all of this, so I have to undo it.'

'Emma, do you realise what else this will do?' Rumplestiltskin asked.

'Yes.'

'You're ready?'

She looked him in the eye. 'Completely. May I have the sword, please?'

'Sure you know what you're doing, Gold?' Regina asked warily.

He looked at her. 'Regina, doing the right thing sometimes means taking risks and putting faith and trust in someone who needs it, even if they've done terrible things. Everyone needs someone to believe in them. I don't know where I would be if Belle hadn't believed in me. Here, Miss Swan.' And Rumplestiltskin handed Emma the sword.

'Thank you,' she said, taking it from him. Rumplestiltskin made her realise more than anything else how the pendulum between good and evil could swing back and forth many times in a single life. He'd once been a good man who only wanted to do right by his son, he'd made mistakes, become a villain, done wrong things for good reasons sometimes, and sometimes done wrong things for selfish reasons, and now he was a hero, making difficult choices and putting the interests of the many above the interests of the few. Of course he wanted to save Belle, and she could see his heartbreak, but if this worked, she'd help him save her. Her 'thank you' was for his sacrifice as well as his trust.

He nodded and stepped back, urging the others backwards too.

'This is gonna release a lot of energy,' he told them.

'Emma, be careful,' her mother entreated.

Emma nodded, smiled at her mother and father, and Regina.

'Just in case, tell Henry I love him,' she requested.

'You can tell him yourself when it's over,' Regina returned, her way of saying she believed in Emma.

Emma nodded and walked forward. Hook was watching her warily.

'What are you doing, Swan?' he demanded.

'What I should have done instead of starting all of this,' she said, her voice shaking. 'I love you, Killian, and I'm sorry. Now I have to do what's best for you and for us: I have to let you go.'

'Swan, no!' he shouted, watching as she raised the sword. The other Dark Ones started hissing.

'You do this, you go back to being a pathetic, unwanted little girl!' Nimue spat at her.

'I'm not unwanted,' Emma returned determinedly, casting a look back at her family: 'I have always been wanted.' She looked at Hook. 'I'm sorry.'

'Swan!' Her name turned into a pained cry as she plunged the sword into his chest. The cry was echoed by the rest of the Dark Ones too, and Nimue shrieked the loudest of them all.

The Darkness began to rise out of Hook and Emma in inky black tendrils.

Emma pulled the sword free and saw that Killian's name was gone. She looked at the dagger and saw that her name was gone too. She'd done it: they were both free.

'Thank you, Swan,' he said.

She blinked, gasped, and brought the car screeching to a stop just centimetres before the town line.

What was she doing here?

Breathing hard, she tried to process everything. Rumple wanted her to meet him at the well if she wanted to make things work between them, so, then, why was she here, driving out of town? She was pretty sure there was a curse on the town line that would turn her into a tree if she crossed it, so why…?

Hook! He'd been outside Regina's: he'd cast some spell on her that made her think only of the bad between her and Rumple and not the good, not the way he had changed, not his bravery or heroism or goodness. She'd gone to the well, thinking only of the negative, and said things to Rumple she did not mean. She'd hurt him, gotten his hopes up and then crushed them in the cruellest of ways.

Crying, she put the car into reverse and turned it around. Driving as fast as she could, she headed straight for town and Rumple, hoping and praying he'd let her explain and that he'd forgive her terrible cruelty. She'd broken his heart as surely as he'd broken hers now, and her heart broke all over again as she remembered not letting him touch her, backing away and telling him she needed to be alone.

She'd been alone, though, and hated every moment of it. How could she think that being alone would provide any answers? After everything that had happened, she just wanted to be with him and work things out.

Seeing him save her and then Merida, and hearing all he had to say over the last twenty-four hours, she knew more than ever that she wanted to be with him, that he loved her, that things could be good again. The only thing she wanted was for them to go slow, not pick up exactly where they left off, but get to know each other again, because they both needed time to process the way things had changed now that he was no longer the Dark One. She wasn't quite ready to be his wife again only because things had changed so much that they needed to address that before they could resume their marriage. They needed to get to know each other as they were now. That was why she hadn't said anything to his declarations and confessions since their reunion yesterday: she just hadn't wanted to hurt him by telling him she felt they should take it slow. Well, now she had hurt him, because of Hook, and he might never forgive her.

It was a wonder she was able to keep the car on the road, she was crying and shaking so much. She had to get back, had to explain, beg him to forgive her.

She parked the car haphazardly on the street, scrambled out of it, and all but hurled herself through the door of the shop.

'Rumple!' she cried, half crying, half screaming: 'Rumple!'

Quick footsteps sounded and then he was there, standing in the entryway to the back room, staring at her like he'd seen a ghost. He'd looked at her like that once before, on the day they were first reunited.

She couldn't order her thoughts to explain herself and there was a long moment before she spoke.

'Rumple, Hook put a spell on me: I didn't mean to—'

'I know,' he said, cutting across her.

'You do?' she gasped.

He nodded. 'Are you alright?'

So gentle, so concerned: his question made her cry.

'Belle,' he breathed.

'Rumple,' she sobbed.

Over her crying, she heard the sound of his footsteps and she realised he was coming to her. He was coming to her, and all she wanted was to feel his arms around her, so she rushed to him.

Rumplestiltskin wrapped his arms around her at once, shushing her, soothing her. She buried her face in his neck, clinging tight to him.

'It's ok, Belle,' he soothed: 'it's alright now.'

He thought he'd lost her, but she was here, warm and safe in his arms, and he just wanted to hold her and never let go. Oh, the relief!

Long moments passed and she realised she hadn't yet told him the most important thing.

'Rumple,' she said urgently, pulling back a little so she could look up at him. 'Rumple, I do wanna make it work: I do! I love you more than anything in all the realms!'

He didn't answer her, only smiled tenderly and looked at her like she was the most perfect thing he'd ever seen. He raised his hand to her cheek and, this time, she caught it and held it there, leaning into it, rubbing her cheek against his skin.

Rumplestiltskin smiled at her, but he remembered Hook's words, remembered him telling him that Belle did have those feelings of uncertainty about their relationship, and, though she was here and wanted to fix things, he knew he needed to be the man she needed, and that was a man who put her needs before his own wants.

'Belle,' he murmured, taking his hand away and stepping back.

'W-what are you doing?' she asked, reaching out with both hands. 'Rumple?'

He caught her hands in his, squeezing them gently.

'Belle, I know that despite what you've just said, you do have reservations about me, about us. The spell Hook put on you didn't create those feelings: it only amplified them. I know that us resuming our marriage isn't what's best right now.'

She swallowed hard. 'I know you've changed. You're the man I've always seen inside and I know we can make it work.'

'I believe we can too,' he agreed, 'but I also understand that I was presumptuous in thinking we could just put the past behind us. I broke the trust between us and that's not something that can easily be gotten over.'

'What are you saying, Rumple?' she asked, a little frightened.

'I'm saying that I wanna live up to all I've said to you over the last twenty-four hours: I do wanna do better by you, Belle, love you with honesty and courage, and that means accepting that you're not ready to be my wife again, even if I'm ready to be your husband.'

'I'm sorry,' she said, her lips trembling. She hadn't known how to say it without hurting him. She should have known he would figure it out.

'Don't be,' he said, smiling at her. 'Belle, we can take this as slowly as you need to. I wanna earn your trust again, win you back. I want you to be with me without reservation or regret, and I know that that's gonna take time. You need time to see that this change in me is permanent, that I'm not gonna hurt you again, and I need time to figure out who I am without magic, without the voices in my head pushing me to do terrible things.'

'Who you are is a good man who deserves far better than me,' she said emphatically, realising that if he could accept her reservations and still want to make it work, he was a far better person than she was.

He smiled sadly. 'Belle, tonight more than at any other time in my life, I've realised that I'm hopelessly flawed.'

'What do you mean?' she asked.

'I was gonna take it back, Belle,' he admitted quietly. He was almost afraid to say it, but he'd promised honesty and courage, and that was what she would have.

'The power?'

'Yes. Hook left me with the sword for a reason: he wanted me to kill him and take the power back, and I was going to.'

'But you didn't,' she said, pulling her hands from his to grab the lapels of his jacket.

He wasn't sure why she was smiling, why she was looking at him with that light in her eyes, like he was the sunlight and she'd been in darkness for too long.

'I was very tempted, Belle,' he told her. 'He said I could only save you with magic. I felt useless without it.'

'But you didn't take it,' she repeated, 'so, tell me why you didn't.'

'I thought about what you saw in me, who I wanted to be for you, what you'd say if I did it, and I realised that I would ruin everything between us if I did. I realised that I'd be going back on everything I told you. I realised that I couldn't do that, even if it meant losing you to the curse. I knew I'd lose you anyway if I gave in to temptation. I could never win back your trust if I saved you the wrong way, if I gave in to darkness again. I realised that even if I couldn't save you, you'd want me to live an honourable life, and I wanted that for myself too, more than any power.'

Belle was still smiling, crying now too, and she nodded emphatically as he finished.

'You chose me over the power,' she said softly. She raised her hand to his cheek, staring at him. 'Rumple, I always hoped that one day that would happen, but now I realise there's something even better.'

'What's that?'

'You chose yourself. You finally realised that you don't need power to be special: you are already wonderful.' She smiled brightly at him.

'Even if I was tempted?' he asked uncertainly.

She squeezed the hand she was still holding. 'Rumple, you've lived with magic for so long: it was natural that you would be tempted, but you stayed strong and resisted.'

'I can't promise it won't happen again,' he said.

'I'm not asking you to,' she said, stroking his cheek: 'all I want, Rumple, is to be allowed to know when you feel that way. You just told me that you were tempted: do you think you can tell me if it happens again?'

'Yes,' he said at once. 'I promised honesty, Belle, and I meant it.'

'Good,' she said, 'and I promise to be honest too. I was afraid to tell you how I was feeling because I didn't want to hurt you after everything you've been through, but I do need to take things slow.'

'I understand, Belle, and don't ever be afraid to tell me what you're feeling: don't hide your feelings to spare mine.'

She nodded. 'I think sometimes I'm afraid to open up to you because…because you think so much of me. I'm afraid that if you see my flaws and my fears, you'll stop loving me.'

'Never, Belle,' he swore. 'Oh, sweetheart, I had no idea you felt that way. Why didn't you tell me?'

'I was afraid,' she said in a small voice.

'What a pair we make, eh?' he said, pulling her into his arms: 'both of us too afraid to share our fears in case the other stops loving us. It's no wonder things went to hell.'

She nodded against his shoulder. He was right: how could they hope to build a relationship if they didn't allow each other to see their true selves?

'So, we take things slow and talk to each other about things honestly, without fearing that we'll lose each other,' he said: 'do we have a deal?'

She couldn't help the giggle that erupted as she was reminded of his former persona. The flamboyant imp had made her smile many times, perhaps more times than he'd exasperated her, and it was pleasant to find that some of him remained in Rumplestiltskin the man.

'And what, pray tell, is so amusing?' he wondered, a smile in his voice.

'Just that you want to make a deal,' she said, pulling back and smiling at him. 'I'll make it with you, though, happily, Rumple. I love you, always.'

'As I love you,' he said, smiling back.

She leaned in, intent on sealing it with a kiss. He looked surprised, but then happily followed her lead, and they met for a chaste kiss.

'Oh!' Belle cried, pulling back.

'B-Belle?' he asked, seeing the shiver of magic run over her.

'I remember what happened in Camelot,' she said: 'I… Oh, Rumple.' She started to cry, realising what a terrible mistake she'd made.

'Please don't cry,' he pleaded, seeing that she understood that he had never loved power more than her.

'I trusted in that stupid gauntlet instead of our love!' she cried, disgusted with herself.

'And what reason did I give you to believe in our love, Belle?' he demanded, equally angry with himself.

She threw her arms around him, holding him tight. They'd both made mistakes, but what mattered was that they wanted to work it out.

'I'm sorry,' she whispered.

'So am I,' he returned, hugging her.

She pulled back, smiling. 'True Love's Kiss,' she breathed, stroking his cheek.

'Most powerful magic in all the realms,' he said softly, smiling.

They would be ok: they both knew it. It would take time, and things would undoubtedly be different now that he didn't have magic and they were both promising honesty, but different was good. Their love would be stronger than before, more enduring, and the next time trouble came their way, as it inevitably would, they would face it united: they would face it together.

The end: thanks for reading :)