A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing! Much love and hugs to all! :3
~8~8~
After so many long decades of living in such a strange land without magic, there the last weapon against the curse sat resting in front of him again. For Mr. Gold, the egg fashioned chest looked the same as when he'd first conjured it into being inside the Dark Castle with exactly this moment in mind and what it represented for him.
A grim smile tugged upon Mr. Gold's thin lips as his rough wiry hands stole across the golden egg shaped chest that was richly adorned with enchanted rubies and emeralds encrusted in meandering patterns about the molded gold container.
The little light from the gray outside filtering through the grimy drawn curtains and dirty windows of his shop cast the prized item in a dusty haze as the former fiend handled it with the utmost care.
The metal and gems were still warm even after an hour of being out of the slain Maelifiecent's belly of boiling flames that had only made the gold layered filigree upon the oval shaped chest sheen even brighter.
Snatching up an old wardrobe looking key that rested upon the shop counter, the usual grisly business man wasted no time in slipping it delicately through the lock and turning it slowly till the knowing click was heard that caused his heart to thud in nervous expectation.
His hands slightly trembled in excitement as he creaked open the enchanted egg to see the vial filled of glowing purple magic lying upon the lavish silken bed of red fabric exactly as it had been those long years ago.
True Love; the most powerful magic in all the known realms. A frown dipped at the edge of his lips whilst his sable eyes searched the lavender hued concoction and his fingers roved down the cold glass bottle. The words were bitter sweet to recall as the fiend remembered his little chat after the unwarranted duel with an angry Prince James; lost in the darkened glades of the infinite forest.
What did he know of true love? Beast do not, cannot, love or so the legends spoke. Monsters were shunned and feared and respected for their powers even, but not thought kindly or tenderly of by lovely princesses with good hearts who had been sold away from their homes to a life of slavery with a beast.
Still, despite the tales of old, he had loved and had been loved in return though he had never deserved such. True Love was not a foreign concept to him, even though he would be a fool to say he knew everything about it.
What he did know he had learned the hardest way that left a pain that would never ease inside his soul. It was wonderful, all consuming in every possible pleasant way that anyone could ever feel, and when it was ripped away it left nothing but a smoldering heap of ash where a heart used to beat and a bloody scarred wounds never to mend no matter how many years passed away into eternity.
There was no way to balm the eternal ache that he felt voided in what little remained of his black heart as he had loved and eventually lost…no, he reprimanded himself fiercely with a muttered curse, let go of his love.
There was never a day he went without thinking once of her, or wishing for her company or even to hear her bright merry laugh echoing around once more.
He would have given all he owned to simply see her soft warm smile once more instead of dreaming of it every night for the last 30 years as he would the rest of his days.
For a moment the business man closed his dark eyes, his breath unsteady as his heart lurched at the consuming, agonizing thought of his true love that swarmed mercilessly in his mind. Belle, his wonderful Belle that he had cast away to die at the hands of the people she sold herself to protect.
He still remembered that one horrid night where he thought his emotions would burst in utter jubilation that she had chosen her home with him, only to have it come crashing down as she dared to show her caring for him with that one simple gesture of a kiss.
And when Regina had so joyously related the gruesome tale of her demise-. No, Mr. Gold shook his head in a scolding manner, forcing the thoughts away. Now was not the time to go down that painful road, not when he had other matters to see to; matters that he could fix with another that he loved and had as well let go.
Using all his will, the Dark One banished the heart wrenching memories away as he picked up the glass vial to inspect it. The sparkling amethyst fluid like substance within still stirred and emanated strong magic that tingled against Gold's senses as the familiar feel of magic came back unbidden to burn through his black blood and race eagerly under his flesh like the days of old.
A small, victorious smirk played upon his lips as he looked at a small bit of his reflection in the glass. "I'll find you, Bae." He stated aloud with a slight nod. "Soon son; I promise."
The jarred clang of the bell above the shop door that clattered sonorously in its jangling ring was the only thing that jerked the fiend out of his inward repose of family lost at his cowardice.
Frowning once more, the business man quickly slipped the vial into this black suit pocket and tucked the grandly ornamented oval chest inside a normal wooden box as he fought to regain his usual cold composure.
The place was very junky Anna noticed as she first entered into the dank pawnshop. Piles of old, dust layered, knick knacks lay strewn in every conceivable direction without rhyme or reason in one grimy mess that had the escaped beauty with a sudden urge to grab a duster even though she wasn't quite certain why.
Pushing tendril of maple chestnut curls behind her ear, the beauty shook the thought away as she padded cautiously through the small annex of hoarded antiques.
As she stepped into the main area of the shop, Anna paused nervously, her azure eyes instantly pin pointing a man with straggly dirty brown hair that was faced away from her and tinkering with an old chest.
A gold handeled cane, crafted in the shape of a hawks beak, was hooked nearby on the counter; telling the escaped woman he had some sort of injury.
"E-excuse me, are you Mr. Gold?" Anna inquired meekly as the rueful warnings from Ruby and Granny reared their ugly heads once more.
That was a stupid question, Gold reasoned with a small distasteful snort. Everyone in town knew who he was and feared him for his infamous reputation. "Yes I am." He chuckled mirthlessly in a dry touch of amusement.
The voice sounded so familiar, but where had he heard it before? Deciding to discard the nagging thought away, the fiend snatched up his cane and limped about trying to be his most detached pleasant self to shoo the unwanted away quickly. "Apologies, but I'm afraid the shops clo-."
Could the entire world literally be ripped from under someone in less than a heartbeat to send them tumbling into a mind shattering void of astonishment?
For Mr. Gold the time itself paused it eternal trek as he stared in shock and awe at the haggard slowly staggering figure before him. The businessman was extremely grateful he'd had the sense to drop the crystal bottle into his pocket; for he was most assured it would have fallen to the floor from his numbed grip and shattered had he been still grasping it.
His ebony orbs widened in sheer surprise as his jaw swung open numbly at the specter he thought never to see again scuffling towards him in the dim, dusty light as some wraith clawed up from the cold earth of old.
She couldn't be real. It simply had to be a trick, a conjuration, his sanity finally and utterly shattered, or a bit of magic Regina saved for a rainy day to thwart him somehow?
How could she…? It wasn't possible! Belle, his lovely Belle returned from the ashes of a pyre in the middle of the king's forest.
Was she a phoenix, an angel, a ghost? Why had she appeared to stand before him?
"I…I was told to find you." Anna stammered hesitantly towards the frozen Mr. Gold whose features had turned ashen, as she neared him. She couldn't help but notice his utter shock as though a ghost had materialized before him. "H-he told me to tell you that Regina locked me up. Does that mean anything to you? Is it important?"
Important? The word would have made him laugh if his emotions weren't all raging and roiling inside trying to vie for dominance inside the cold embers of his heart that were beginning to spark with fire once more.
His throat tightened with a hard lump that wobbled in the middle of his throat as his sable eyes searched her frantically. A trembling hand that felt discontented from his body reached out to grab her shoulder to feel real, warm, solid flesh beneath his touch instead of some magic or fog he half expected his hand to paw through.
"Y-you…you're real. I…I can't believe it. You're alive after all these years." The businessman whispered astonished as if some loud noise would awake him from whatever dream he had stumbled into that claimed his sensibilities.
She was ragged, with an uncombed mess of maple amber hair and ratty clothes that had seen far better days, but from her russet honey tresses, to the glimmering cerulean of her eyes there was nothing un-Belle about her.
Under the collar of the threadbare jacket she had wrapped tightly about her thin form, to ward off the chill of rain, and some sort of gray dress, he could see an upraised scar that circled about her neck as if something had been clamped tightly about there for a very long time.
His finger tips tremulously brushed against the thin fleshy scars about her neck making Anna cast wary glances at the obviously rich business man, but remained prone. "She did this. She's responsible for this misery cast upon you." He muttered more to himself than to her.
A hard glint of steel, forged in an inferno, interwove with his ebony orbs at the very mention of that craven Regina. How could she have done this and gotten away with it?
Belle's azure glance fell to the business mans worn hand that rested upon her shoulder as a pleasant shudder ran up her spine. Why was it she felt her stomach fluttering and her heart pounding when his touch met her? "I was told you'd protect me from going back to the hospital and from the woman who had me put there. W-will you?" She asked waveringly, hoping, praying for some assurance that Jefferson's words rang true.
"Oh yes." Came the immediate reply torn from Mr. Gold's choked throat. His ebony orbs blinked back the misty press of tears as he wrapped his arms tightly about her; determined never to let her get away again. "Yes I'll protect you with my life. Oh Belle, I'm sorry I'm so, so sorry."
Belle, his Belle! Close and real and alive!
"Belle?" The beauty echoed confused; only her father had called her that when she was a little girl in what seemed like a lifetime ago. Her delicate brow knit furtively as she pushed away slightly from his tight grip that clung to her in possessive desperation. "Do I know you…?"
Gold backed up a pace; forcing himself to remember where he was and what job he had to do. This wasn't an enchanted forest this was Storybrooke Maine were an entire town was caught in the tangled web of a sordid curse.
Regret flashed sorrowfully on his rough features as he swallowed down the words he'd been about to proclaim to her in a hard knot of apology. A sad smile bloomed over his scraggly features as he shook his head. "Not yet. But you will, and when you do know that I beg your forgiveness…"
Those words, though gently spoken sat uncomfortable with Anna. What did he need to be forgiven for? With a watery smile the beauty nodded weakly in reply trying to push the unease away. Even though she had only just met him there was a small amount of trust with him that she couldn't explain; perhaps born of her desperation and whatever strange emotions she sparked to life in him?
For a moment it looked at is the business man desired to say more to her. His eyes riveted upon her as though he couldn't comprehend her existence.
"Well, I suppose you have a lot of questions." Mr. Gold finally managed to say as he forced himself to concentrate on his task. "I promise they will all be answered in due time, but first we need to go someplace."
More riddles? Anna grimaced involuntarily at the shrouded answer laced in mystery as she shook her head. "Go where?"
"You'll know soon enough." Gold replied assiduously as he snatched his jacket from a coat hanger and swiped a large set of keys from the business counter.
"That's not good enough." The beauty protested indomitably as she followed the limping Gold to the back of the shop; her frustration now thoroughly at the head. "First Jefferson, now you with all the cryptic words. I want to know what's going on."
A small, genuine grin listed upon Gold's worn features for what felt like the first time in years. There was no doubt that was Belle, always curious and never very off put or afraid of him for very long no matter what form he was in. She probably didn't even know she was acting as such, the fiend considered with a small chuckle as he closed up the shops back door and made sure it was secure.
Leading her through the damp alleyway towards his car, Gold hobbled along pondering what exactly he could explain to his Belle without having her run off in terror. How could one very well explain a witch had taken a whole world into another without magic and he was about to bring magic back without her possibly thinking him stark, raving mad?
"Trust me, by the end of the night you'll know everything and see why sticking close to me is your best option, Dearie." He retorted with a hint of mischievousness lacing his usually cold timbre.
"Trust you?" Anna echoed as she hopped into the passenger seat of the sleek, black luxury car.
The thought that here she was getting into a car with a man she had just met and led to him by a man she had only known for a few minutes suddenly dawned on the beauty making her inwardly wonder was her mind truly broken as the nurses as long claimed it was.
Looking back, there was more desperation than trust with Jefferson, but with Mr. Gold there was something different at play that made her willingly follow him. "I'll be honest Mr. Gold, I do trust you and I'm not exactly sure why. From what some people have told me, you aren't one to be trusted, though."
"That's certainly true enough in some cases." He admitted with an amused snort as he dipped inside the car. Turning towards her, his usually marble black gaze softened to something warm as he smiled querulously. "But you have my word you can trust me. I'll protect you no matter what comes."
His words, so tender and heartfelt warmed Anna like nothing she could recall in all her years. It was as if he had put a shield of safety over her to thwart any malice aimed her way; promising her a safety she had long coveted.
As the sleek vehicle rumbled to life and sloshed out of the sopping alleyway from behind the shop, Anna turned her head away from him pretending to stare out the window to hide the involuntarily blush that fevered through her cheeks.
As her breath misted upon the glass, the beauty drew her delicate finger through the fog her thoughts wandering curiously about where exactly they were headed and how exactly did this Mr. Gold know her when she could recall nothing of him.
~8~8~
The vast tracts of forest that sprawled on the very outskirts of the town proper sat akin to an impenetrable wall that blocked the town from the outside world. The endless undergrowth of greenery interwoven with the towering trees was beauty incarnate to Anna's dulled gray senses that had seen nothing but the iron gray of cement and off white of padded walls, as Mr. Gold's luxury car zoomed like an arrow down the deserted winding roads.
Even taking in the gorgeous sight of growth and blooming and life they sped past, the beauty caught the businessman casting precocious glances towards her more than once. His hard sable eyes stared at her intensely before he would shake his head and concentrate upon the asphalt, his brow furrowed ponderously as if lost in some deep repose.
"Here we are." Gold stated as the car rolled to a gravely stop at the edge of a long stretch of deserted highway that seemed to lead on forever amidst the endless acres of darkened forest.
"W-what are we doing here?" The beauty inquired, vexed as Gold limped out and opened the car door for her.
The air had gotten muggier, and the clouds above a darker charcoal gray that promised trouble sooner than was foretold. Beyond that there seemed to be some force that hummed through the air; something that Anna couldn't explain past a prickling tingling sensation that made Goosebumps rise on her pale flesh and cause a series of faint shivers to crawl up her spine. Something was afoot, she was sure of that much.
The end of Gold's ash wood cane thumped dully against the loamy earth as the pair began to meld into the vibrant greenery of the forest and on to a faint trail meandering deeper into the darkened glades that had been worn by years of use and misuse.
"You could say cashing in on an insurance policy." He quipped dryly as he swatted his gold tipped cane at the encroaching shrubbery that fell across the small deer path. "You might also say I'm weaving a bit of fate into this boring little town."
Belle shook her head mildly as she tracked close behind the well tailored businessman. They beauty was wary to even take one step off the beaten path lest even that turn into a disaster. A small, tired and exasperated sigh escaped her lips as she rolled her eyes at his words. "Why can no one give me straight answer! Is everyone in this town so cryptic and mysterious?"
A bellowing laugh that echoed about the forest and disrupted a few nearby robins, and mildly startled Anna more from the fact that it burst from the grim faced, stoic, Mr. Gold than anything else.
The pawn broker turned back once, his eyes alight in fiendish merriment. "You have absolutely no idea, Dearie."
That at least, pulled a small grin from his Belle, and for a moment the whole world seemed to brighten for the auspicious Mr. Gold.
They walked in silence for a time, the only sound of chirping birds that flittered from their lofty perches in the trees and the sound of leaves crunching underfoot as both combed over their separate thoughts. How he had missed that simple gesture.
Why would he help her? So far as Anna knew he didn't even know her? But when she stared into his ebony orbs she saw a familiarity, a tenderness that belayed a knowing deeper than she ever thought.
The pair marched under the canopies of towering trees for what seemed like an hour, delving deeper into a shrouded plane of secrets layered under the quiet hamlet of Storybrooke.
Belle was almost considering to demand to know where they were headed when she felt a warm pulse race though her body akin to a warm summer zephyr.
The beauty halted dead in her tracts, her azure eyes wide as memories from her true life flooded back into her mind as though she had been struck by lightening. Unbidden, the last moment of her dream before Jefferson had ripped her from the realm of nightmare came back to the forefront of her mind when she had open her mouth and the blackness had recoiled. His name…
"Wait." Anna breathed in a whisper so low it was nearly undetectable. The beauty's heart pounded in a rapid tempo at the sudden regained memories surging through her. She might have moved to stand closer to him, but she wasn't certain her knees wouldn't give way at the force.
The fiend looked back for a moment, concern etched across his face. "It's only a bit further. We're very close." He assured her gently with a small nod. Once his goal was met he could protect her properly.
He didn't wait for a response but began his painful limping trek up the path. The knowledge of being so close to his destination blared through his mind so clearly that he could almost taste the bitter waters that lapped below them.
"Rum." Belle stated his name freely with out a shadow of doubt; her voice tight and strained with emotion.
It was him even though there was no gray-gold flesh of shimmering scales adorning his skin. There was no high pitched, careless falsetto, or impish giggle, but it was him just the same.
How many years, nights, days had she long to see him? That she had wept in the late hours of the night in writhing pain; wishing he would come to rescue her and whisk her away back to the Dark Castle. And now he was there standing a few feet in front of her.
The fiend went rigid upon hearing his endearing nickname uttered from her lush lips. She was the only one who called him that; a special little moniker given to him in the Dark Castle.
It seemed as though he had to gather all his strength simply to turn back to her and walk those few tenuous steps closer.
"I…I remember everything." She revealed, her eyes glimmering with unshed tears that sparkled like gems in her cobalt orbs. "I remember you."
Everything, the word struck the fiend like a blow to the gut, twisting his insides without clemency. The anger, the hurt, the banishment, and shunning her to whatever fate she had met for those long years he thought her dead. She remembered the pain, the heart ache, and the cruel words spoken when he let her go from his dungeon.
His head tiled down sorrowfully, expecting to be bombarded with hate and accusation which he rightly deserved and more. He only wished he'd had a little more time with his Belle; to be close and touch her before the memories were put back into place and the utter loathing for him flared to life.
"I love you." She stated so clearly, that it very nearly rocked the businessman back in astonishment. The beauty had waited years to speak those three words one more time, and she wasn't about to let the chance go now that he was so close.
Blinking in total surprise, Rum tried hard to actually make sense of what words she had so uttered. Had he heard her spoken words correctly? Love? Him? After all that had transpired?
"You…you…" He stammered stupidly, his mind unable to form a cognizant phrase. " Still? After all I have done?"
A soft smiled mingled with her tears etched upon her lovely, pale features as she neared him. "I never stopped loving you, Rumpelstiltskin. Never."
This time he couldn't halt the tears no matter what he did to dam them away. They fell down his scruffy cheeks in hot salty drops as he wrapped his lanky arms about her in a monolithic hug that pressed her tightly against his body. "And I love you, Belle-of-mine. I love you and I was a cowardly fool to reject your love and deny my own. You were right. Everything you told me that day, craven that I was, came to pass."
He had so much to say, so many apologies to make and rights to wrong, but the moment, even though he whished with all his being could last for eternity, had to end far quicker than he desired. If she had her memories back that meant that the insufferable Sheriff, Swann, had partly broken the curse.
War was about to come upon the small province of Storybrooke, a war that would decide the fate of their world and if the rest of the folk below in the sleepy little town would remain under Regina's iron heel.
"You have no idea how much I've longed for you again. To say I'm sorry; to redeem my foolishness." He whispered hoarsely as he bared his raw soul to her.
Her russet curls tickled as they wisped about his face and for a moment he smelled the fragrance of sweet honey suckle that took him back to a wonderful time in the Dark Castle. "But hey, there'll be time for that." He promised as she pulled away. His wiry hand combed through her amber honey locks as he stared lovingly into her cobalt orbs. "There will be time for everything after I finish what I came here to do."
Seeing the steeled determination in his onyx eyes, the beauty merely nodded as she wiped away the brook of tears from her cheek and smiled so lovingly at him, the businessman truly had to fight the instinct to hold her close again.
With that both beauty and beast turned back towards the snaking path, hands clasped together as the trekked onward.
~8~8~
By now the fiend could very well imagine that people were beginning to stir from their shock of regaining their past lives as he and his Belle finally arrived to their distant destination amidst the shrouded forest.
"What is this place?" Belle asked as the pair entered a coppice of dark pines that surrounded a stone well standing in the center like some heathen altar of old.
"This is a very special place, Belle." He admitted in a small whisper as he regretfully released his grip from hers, and limped doggedly towards the well. "There is a legend about this well in this world that it can return something that was once lost."
As Belle padded to stand beside him the fiend slipped the vial out of his pocket and hefted it towards the shafts of somber light that slipped through the trees. The lilac concoction glimmered and sparkled as he uncorked it and let it plunge into the recesses of the swiftly moving waters below with a loud kerplunk that echoed ominously from around the stony walls.
A musty, mold rank wind that sent shivers crawling up Belle's spine heaved up from the stony well and whispered past their faces, for a moment revealing a bit of gray at the fringes of Rum's hair and danced amidst her russet tresses.
Billows of amethyst fog began to vomit from the well, crawling and climbing upwards to spread over the ground like some misty blight that felt akin to spider webs smoothing past her skin.
"I don't understand." Belle admitted as she stepped closer to Rum to ward off the tainted feeling oozing from the lavender hued smoke that skitter and crawled like a ravenous demon clawing out of the belly of hell.
Gold wrapped an arm about her shoulder protectively, calming the beauty somewhat as she nestled closer to him. "This land we were cursed upon is a land without magic or magic that we can tap into. I'm brining magic from our world here."
"Why?" Belle inquired lowly, having a sinking feeling deep in her gut as she felt the sensation of magic curl and climb upon them as the lilac tinted storm began to rumble and grow like some slumbering behemoth just come awake.
"Why?" Rum echoed with a slight laugh and a sinister feral grin that Belle would have known anywhere. "Because magic is power, and if we're going to survive this war we need all the power we can possibly get."
Her azure orbs scanned the mass of purple cloud roiling now about them and storming towards the town at a thunderous pace. "You'll have magic again." She concluded in a hoarse whisper more to herself that to him.
On a sudden instinct the beauty placed her hand upon his cheek, turning his face and pressed her lips against his own in a hard, owning kiss born of desperation and want.
Her breath came out haggard as she parted from him all too soon as the purple shrouds began to ensorcelled them in its amethyst claws. "If you must become the Dark One again then at least I will have that kiss with no regrets." She explained as she fell closer with him and entwined her hands with his own.
The fiend threaded his fingers through the mess of chestnut curls as he brought her chin up meet him face to face. He kissed her again, with a tenderness that held testament to his love regained, and oh could there be a sweeter nectar found in all the worlds compared to the honeyed softness of her lips?
Yes, there was that regret, but it was a sacrifice that had to be dealt with until Regina lay at a bloody heap at his feet and his son reclaimed, and until he could figure out how to have his love and power. For, of course, no matter in what world he dwelled, Rumpelstiltskin was the Dark One still.
