"How do you feel about public executions dearie?" Rumplestiltskin asked over his shoulder as he read a missive that had been delivered by a pigeon – a creature he quickly shooed away from his straw.
Belle was sweeping cobwebs off the ceiling as best she could, perched atop a ladder and with a broom clutched tightly (and a little awkwardly) in one hand. "Is it yours?" she questioned neutrally.
"No, dearie," Rumplestiltskin answered, amused.
"Is it mine?" she pressed, her voice just as neutral.
Rumplestiltskin snorted in contempt at the idea. "Certainly not," he replied.
"In that case, why should I feel anything?" Belle queried as she lowered her broom and began to descend her ladder. She needed to move it over a bit so she could reach the next portion of the ceiling.
Rumplestiltskin grinned. "Ah, but it is Regina who is to be executed," he declared with a giggle.
Belle's foot missed the last rung of the ladder, and she fell the (thankfully short) distance to the ground with a clatter.
"You really must be more careful dearie," Rumplestiltskin scolded fondly.
"The Queen is being executed?" Belle repeated as she clambered back to her feet, shocked. "I thought she was going to cast your curse."
"It wouldn't be the first time I had an accident with someone who I thought would be able to cast the curse," Rumplestiltskin admitted a little ruefully. "It would just be the first time I got so very close. All things considered though, I still think Regina will be the one to do it."
Belle thought about that. Thought about what she knew of all the people who would be factors in this.
"Snow White," she realised aloud. "She won't be able to go through with it."
"Probably not," Rumplestiltskin agreed amicably. "But now the question is: would you like to come with me to watch?" he offered. "Snow is going to need a solution to the threat of Regina, and I'll wager that I'll be their best option by sundown."
"No bet," Belle quipped back at once, a smile dancing about her lips. "If you're really inviting me to join you in watching Regina escape death though..."
"I am," Rumplestiltskin confirmed.
Belle smiled brightly, and set aside her broom. "I'd be delighted to go on your arm," she agreed.
Rumplestiltskin giggled in glee and clicked his claws together in that delighted, twittering manner he had.
"Go get changed," he instructed. "It's a royal execution dearie, we must look our best. Not too fine though," he cautioned. "Wouldn't want to draw attention before time."
Belle curtseyed in deference, and hurried off to put her broom away and trade her slightly grimy tunic and breeches for a clean dress.
She returned to find Rumplestiltskin wearing his crocodile leathers, the ones that were completely laced in place and that she knew he used magic to get into and out of. The garment was far too complicated for him to have changed into it in the given time otherwise. He also wore a large brown cloak that would be enough to hide his face and form among a crowd. He had one for her too, a much plainer thing that the cloak he'd made for her from his spinning. Without hesitation, Belle wrapped it around her shoulders and pulled the hood up to hide her hair and shadow her face.
"Good girl," he approved softly, then he wrapped an arm around Belle's waist and they were transported to the castle of Snow White and Charming in a whisper of purple mist.
They watched from the middle of the crowd as Regina was led to a slightly raised stake in the centre of the courtyard and tied there. A little stage, all for her.
A bright green cricket in a dark blue coat and hat, an individual that Belle had only heard tell of until that moment, flew up to Regina.
"Regina," the cricket said. "This is your opportunity to meet your end with a clear conscience. Do you have any last words?"
"Yes," Regina answered, and her tone was subdued – and almost surprised at herself for having such an answer for the cricket. "Yes, I do. I know I'm being judged for my past," she admitted freely to the crowd.
"Hardly likely to be judged for her future, since no one else but you has any idea of it," Belle quipped lowly to Rumplestiltskin.
He grinned widely at that, as wide as he could, for giggling would not be appropriate, and therefore grinning was as far as he could allow himself at that moment.
"A past where I've caused pain," Regina continued. "A past where I've inflicted misery, a past where I've -" she paused, briefly. "- even brought death."
Rumplestiltskin nudged Belle and, with a directing nod of his head, drew her attention to Prince Henry, Regina's father. The man looked so lost and desperate and hopeful that his daughter was going to repent of her actions before she was forced to face the consequences of them.
Belle responded to this by wrapping both of her arms around the nearest of Rumplestiltskin's, and she leant her head on his shoulder.
They turned their attention back to Regina, focused on her once more.
"When I look back at everything I've done, I want you all to know what I feel." The word shuddered past the woman's lips. "And that is," she choked for a moment before she heaved out the word "regret."
It was almost a moving little speech. It was quite ruined by her decision to continue talking.
"Regret that I did not cause more pain, inflict more misery, and bring about more death," Regina declared. "Above all else, with every ounce of my being, I regret that I was not able to kill Snow White!"
"Arrows!" Charming ordered sharply, reacting to the threat of a woman who was tied to a stake.
A blindfold was granted to Regina. Or maybe forced upon her. Either way, she would see only blackness in these next moments.
"Take your aim!" Charming instructed.
But at the same moment he ordered the archers to fire, Snow cried out "Stop!" - and the Blue Fairy obliged the girl. The arrows, which had been fired, were halted in the air only inches away from Regina, and then they fell to the ground. The witch's execution had been staid.
"Snow?" Charming questioned, confused.
"This is not the way," she answered firmly, and stepped down from the throne where she had been sitting – where she had been watching.
The crowd parted to let her pass, even Rumplestiltskin stepped aside for her.
"Take her back to her cell," Charming ordered the castle guards.
One removed Regina's blindfold – which revealed quite the confused expression on her face – and set it on the stake before he untied her. Everybody present watched as she was led away. Her confusion hadn't lasted long, and a smug, wicked smile took over her lips, spreading wide across her features. Once Regina was out of sight they began to disperse. Rumplestiltskin remained, however, and so Belle remained also.
He plucked the blindfold from the stake, then stepped up to take his ease on the throne that Snow White had occupied not so long before.
"Dearie, you'll be needing this before long," he said, and produced with a small flourish and a gasp of purple cloud the book that Belle had made for the use of recording his deals. Well, the new ones, anyway. The old deals were scribed on parchment and affixed in amongst the other deals of the past as according to the dates he gave her.
Belle accepted the book and tucked it into her chest, arms tightly around it as she stood beside the throne he had chosen. She did not take the other. That would imply she was his equal, rather than his servant.
The hour grew late. Rumplestiltskin hid them with his magic as castle servants set lit torches about the courtyard. He summoned a loaf of bread for their supper as well, as they had not eaten since lunch. The execution had quite interrupted their usual tea time.
They'd not long finished their meagre meal when a figure all dressed in white entered the courtyard, cloaked in a melancholy air as surely as she was cloaked in fur.
"My my," Rumplestiltskin said. "Aren't we troubled, dearie," he quipped. He was straight-backed in the throne, and his cloak was discarded for now.
Belle was still wearing hers though.
"Rumplestiltskin," Snow White said in recognition when she had turned and seen him there. Seen them. "And?"
"My keeper, I suppose," Rumplestiltskin introduced. "I made a deal to protect her home from ogres, oh, years ago now. In exchange, she tends to my needs and records my dealings. Surely you remember her from your visit to my castle?"
Snow White blinked, cocked her head to one side, clearly was thinking very hard.
Belle lowered her hood.
"Oh, yes," Snow recalled, now that she could see her face. "Belle, isn't it?"
"Formerly the princess of Avonlea and the Marshlands," Belle said as she bowed her head in slight deference to the woman. She was royal-born herself, there was no need for deference at all, but she was also a servant, which separated their social standings. That she was servant to the Dark One meant she didn't need to bow before Snow White at least.
"What brings you here?" Snow White demanded flatly, her gaze returned sharply to Rumplestiltskin.
"You have to ask?" Rumplestiltskin countered lightly, and pushed himself up from his seat upon her throne. "We came to witness the Queen's execution. I even had my heart set on a wee souvenir," he explained, and held the blindfold aloft for examination. "It's all very disappointing," he assured her with mock-solemnity.
"I won't apologise for sparing her life," Snow avowed, completely missing his humour. "Not when there's a chance she might change."
Rumplestiltskin giggled. "Regina redeemed?" he tittered, and rolled the Rs theatrically. "What a novel thought," he quipped. "And ah, how do you plan to accomplish such an impressive feat?" he questioned, the smile on his face one that invited confidences.
"I don't even know if it's possible," Snow White admitted with a defeated-sounding sigh. "I'm probably just fooling myself."
"Maybe you need someone to show you if it is possible," Rumplestiltskin offered, his voice high and suggestive, eager for a deal.
"What do you mean?" Snow White questioned at once, desperate – though not visibly so – for an answer.
"Simple," Rumplestiltskin said softly, and his timbre changed, the high register abandoned for the low. "I provide you with a test to see whether the Queen can 'twooly' change."
"Why would I trust you when I know you want the Queen dead?" Snow asked lowly. "You never make a deal without a price."
"You know that, do you?" Rumplestiltskin countered lightly, and waved Belle over. "Belle dear, have I ever made a deal without a price before?"
"Yes," Belle answered at once, and opened the book she held. "The most recent was with Snow White. A bow and arrow, as well as the location best suited for firing upon Regina as she travelled. No payment was requested, taken, or received."
"Do you remember what I said then, dearie?" Rumplestiltskin asked Snow lowly. "The reason I didn't charge?"
"You said... you were invested in my future," Snow White answered slowly.
"That's right," Rumplestiltskin affirmed.
"But don't you want Regina dead?" Snow asked, confused. "You gave me a way to kill her for no charge. You came to watch her execution."
"My thoughts and reasons are my own, and shall remain so," Rumplestiltskin informed her playfully. "What is yours now, is opportunity. I can help you. Do we have a deal?" he pressed with a smile.
Snow White closed her eyes to steel herself. "We have a deal," she agreed.
Rumplestiltskin giggled happily and plucked a long black hair from the blindfold in his hand. A flourish, and it was transformed.
"A dagger?" Snow White asked, concerned.
"A protection spell," Rumplestiltskin corrected. "If Regina stabs you with this dagger, you will be protected. She will be unable to ever again harm you, or your prince, in this land. I don't recommend just handing it over to her though. Not with the way she was talking this afternoon."
"You always say that magic comes with a price," Snow White insisted.
"In this case, dearie, the price for the answer you seek will be the knowing of it," Rumplestiltskin explained gravely. "That is a price that will come whether I charge it to you or not. Yes, all magic comes with a price. Often I can pick the price, but sometimes it is dictated by the magic itself."
Snow White nodded in acceptance, and cautiously she took the dagger from him.
Rumplestiltskin produced a quill with an absent flourish of his hand as he watched Snow White return to the castle, and passed it over to Belle. An ink pot appeared in his hand when she took the quill, and he waited for her to enter the latest deal into the book before she dismissed all three items once more.
"Well, it's been an interesting day," Rumplestiltskin decided softly as he eyed the wisps of grey smoke left behind by Belle's use of magic.
"Do you want me to make us a proper meal when we get home? Or will you just retire?" Belle enquired.
"No meal," Rumplestiltskin decided. "Tea though, and then yes, I will retire."
With that, he wrapped an arm about Belle's waist, and the pair disappeared from the courtyard back to the Dark Castle.
~oOo~
"Imagine, after all I did for them, and they don't invite me to the wedding," Rumplestiltskin complained. It was not an earnest complaint. It was spoken light-heartedly. He had not expected an invitation to the wedding of Snow White and Prince Charming. He probably wouldn't have gone if he had gotten an invitation.
He would have liked one though, even if they were already technically married and in the early days of expecting a child. Even if this was just the big, showy occasion for state. He would have liked an invitation to the wedding of the year.
He'd done more for the pair of them than the blasted Blue Fairy ever had, and the stupid jellyfish still got an invite. Just because she was 'good'. Bah! He knew better. The self-righteous jellyfish had never protected children from being taken from their homes, forced to fight against ogres. He had. She'd never told anybody the full price of the magic she offered them when they called upon her for aid. He always did, or nearly always. He'd only kept back the price five times in three hundred years, and on those occasions he always paid that himself, rather than foisting it off onto some other unfortunate sod – which was what the fairies did.
And the happy couple invited her to their wedding, and not him.
"They didn't even invite Belle," he grumbled softly – and this time in earnest – as he left his castle behind for Regina's. "Dear girl like her, Snow's age, royal herself. They should have invited her, at least."
Prince Henry greeted him at the gate of Regina's castle and led him up to her chambers.
"You have a visitor," Henry announced to his daughter.
Rumplestiltskin, of course, vanished from where he'd been politely following and settled himself on the couch as Regina asked "Who?"
"You need to ask?" he quipped lightly. "What other friends do you have, dearie?" he questioned, though he knew that Regina got along quite well with Maleficent, and counted her in that category more than she counted him.
Oh, and it was delicious to him to know that True Love was safely hidden within the dark fairy's body, inside a golden egg, and Maleficent didn't even know what it was. The egg didn't bother her at all when she changed back from a dragon into her more human-like appearance. She truly had no idea what Charming had been doing in her castle that day, beyond insulting her and breaking one of her windows.
He'd made sure of that, just as soon as he'd sent the boy on his way.
"You're no friend," Regina replied darkly. "Have you come to relish my suffering?" she demanded lowly, clearly unimpressed with his intrusion upon her privacy.
"I thought you'd want someone to help raise your spirits," Rumplestiltskin countered. "Especially on a day like today," he added as he lightly slapped his thighs and stood.
"What's so special about today?" Regina asked.
"Snow White and Prince Charming's wedding, of course," Rumplestiltskin answered. "Didn't you get an invitation?" he teased lightly. "Me neither," he said when she only rolled her eyes at him. "Still, nice to be able to see them declare their Twue Love in front of the entire kingdom," he chirped. "Happy Ending after all."
"And because of you there's nothing I can do to stop it!" Regina growled at him. "No way to harm them ever again," she spat, and stalked away from him to her vanity mirror.
"Yes," Rumplestiltskin allowed thoughtfully. "Yes, I suppose that's true. In this land."
He dangled the bait, and like a creature trained to it – and oh, she most certainly was – Regina rose to take it.
She turned enough to face him once more. "What?" she asked.
"The deal I made was explicit," Rumplestiltskin explained. "You can never harm them in this land," he said with a smile. "Now, were you to bring them to another land..." he scoffed lightly to emphasise the point. "Well," he dangled with a smile.
A smile of realisation crept up Regina's face.
"Told ya I was your friend," Rumplestiltskin teased with a silly voice and a false grin, and let the purple smoke of his magic swirl around him and take him back to Belle.
He arrived back in his own hall just as Belle was setting out lunch.
With a smile, Belle set the last of the meal on the table and stepped up to him, then around and behind him, and gently tugged off his coat.
"I suppose Regina is off to ruin someone's day right about now?" Belle asked with a coy smile.
Rumplestiltskin giggled happily, and that was confirmation enough.
"I sent Snow and Charming a wedding gift," Belle said as she hung up her master's coat, then moved to take her seat at the table. "Along with an apology for missing their wedding."
"We didn't get an invitation, dearie," Rumplestiltskin pointed out with just a hint of a sneer.
"That's the point," Belle explained. "We are returning their slight to us with pleasantry. Makes them feel guilty, at least a little. I reminded Snow that I'm just as much a princess as she, though I haven't set foot in my father's kingdom in years."
"Quite," Rumplestiltskin agreed. "What did you send them?"
"A skein of purple ribbon that I bought in the town," Belle answered. "Such a rare dye, to get such a rich purple, and yet the merchant had several lengths of it. The merchants of the town that supply the Dark Castle really do have the most remarkable things in their stalls."
Rumplestiltskin grinned. "Of course you know, there's one wedding we will be crashing, invitation or no, soon enough," he pointed out.
"Cinderella and Prince Thomas," Belle agreed with a serene nod. "And you'll be telling the girl her price. Hmm. I'll see the glass merchant in town the next time I go, and pick out something for her and her prince," she decided. "Something delicate and fragile."
Rumplestiltskin giggled happily and clicked his claws together in a delighted, twittering sort of motion.
"What will you do with her child?" Belle asked. "You were going to give it to Charming's mother, but she's dead now."
Rumplestiltskin grimaced, just a little, at that. "No idea," he admitted. "Prince Thomas took altogether too long to find her. Regina will likely cast the curse before I get the child. My plans are malleable enough to take advantage of certain circumstances though."
Belle frowned thoughtfully at that.
"The child won't be born until after the Saviour comes," she realised softly, "and any Saviour worth the title probably won't like the idea of you taking the child."
"That is a risk," Rumplestiltskin agreed with a nonchalant shrug. "We'll see how it plays out. It's hard to see, the things that will happen in our Saviour's life. But! That is not our concern for now!" he declared firmly.
Belle nodded in agreement, though she was still thoughtful on the matter.
~oOo~
Rumplestiltskin was dressed in golden silk, and under a spell so that only Belle and Cinderella would see him as he truly was, to better fit in with the party guests. Belle pouted that she didn't get to know what everybody else would see, and Rumplestiltskin graciously capitulated (though he wasn't entirely sure of why she was so curious, or indeed why he was obliging her). For just a moment, Belle got to see what Rumplestiltskin looked like without skin of gilded green and with rich, honey-brown hair that fell with only a slight wave to his shoulders, a portion of which was tied in a short tail by a black ribbon.
"You're quite right to have me see you as you truly are," Belle decided as she took in her master's changed features, and made no comment as to how handsome he was. He was handsome to her with his blackened claws and silvered curls. She had never told him though, and would not tell him now, when his more human appearance was before her – however true those words would still be should they cross her lips.
"I almost do not recognise you, almost, and I would be forever looking askance at you, to be certain of whose arm I am on," she said instead. "And the whole thing would be given away."
Rumplestiltskin chuckled softly at that, rather than giggling, and reset the spell so that she saw him as he was, rather than has he had once been. Gilded skin and grey curls replaced the warm glow of human skin and straight brown locks.
"And really dearie, we must match," Rumplestiltskin insisted lightly, teasingly. "I can hardly have my escort attend a ball in the clothes she cleans my home in. Especially when they'll be announcing me as your escort, rather than the other way around."
"Well, I haven't any fine dresses," Belle apologised insincerely. "The merchants in the town carry many wonderful things, but not gowns fit for royal balls. Even if I magicked one up, I dare say my taste isn't extravagant enough."
"That's alright dearie," Rumplestiltskin dismissed with a warm smile. "I've got this one."
A snap of his fingers, and Belle was washed with the purple mist of his magic. It left behind a golden gown that flowed to the floor. It crossed her arms, but did not cover her shoulders, and were it not for her chocolate curls and the amulet she never removed, it would have left her throat altogether quite bare to the eye.
"Yes," Rumplestiltskin decided as he eyed the golden confection – it was largely unadorned and unembellished, save for some tasteful gathers and draping, that it was a gold dress (and upon Belle's lovely frame) was quite enough beyond that. "A dress fit for a princess."
Belle collected up the wrapped gift for the newly weds, took Rumplestiltskin's offered arm, and with matching smiles on their faces, they left for the wedding ball of Cinderella and her prince.
A footman took the gift from Belle at the entrance to the hall, and once they'd been announced by the herald ("Princess Belle of Avonlea and the Marshlands, and escort,"), the pair slipped in amongst the other guests.
"Should Snow really be wearing a corset that tight?" Belle asked her master softly when she spotted the woman in question, decked out in a purple gown that tightly bound her torso before the skirts expanded voluminously about her lower half.
"This will be the last opportunity she has to get away with it," Rumplestiltskin answered, his own voice low. "She'll start showing soon, and then it won't be safe for the child if she were to wear such a thing. Will the lady dance?" he asked, and offered her his hand.
Belle smiled, placed her hand in her master's, and let herself be led onto the dance floor.
A short time into the dance, Snow White playfully disrupted the pattern by snatching Ella to be her partner.
Rumplestiltskin and Belle arranged for their steps to take them near the two women, to hear some of what was said between them.
"All I did was get married," Ella said.
"All you did," Snow White countered, "was show that anyone can change her life. I'm proud of you," Snow White said in parting. Yes, parting.
The pattern of the dance dictated that the partners drift apart then, and obedient to the steps, they did – and Ella danced herself towards Rumplestiltskin without even realising.
Belle had merely danced around, so that she could wait behind him to be re-taken as his dance partner once more, when he was finished speaking with the new princess.
"I'm proud of you too," Rumplestiltskin quipped as Ella came to stand before him.
"You," she said, a horrified light in her eyes, and it was clear she remembered him, even after all this time. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I just wanted to be sure you were happy with your end of the bargain," Rumplestiltskin deferred as he drew her into the dance once more. "It took so long in coming, but now here you are. True Love, riches, Happy Endings," he listed off with a smile. "Did you get everything you desired?" he asked.
"Yes," she answered shortly. "Yes I did, now what do you want?" she demanded softly. "What's your price? My jewels? The ring?"
"No no dear, keep your baubles," Rumplestiltskin purred. "What I want is something you don't yet possess, but something I know is coming," he teased, going from hissing the words to nearly singing them. A smile on his face the whole time, his last words to her were dark. "Your first born," he told her, and then spun her away.
Belle stepped into his arms once more, keeping up the dance. Both of them though were aware of the fear on the girl's face as she watched after them.
~oOo~
A bluebird had come to the Dark Castle. A bluebird bearing a message.
"Belle!" Rumplestiltskin roared out. She was in the kitchen, he was in his tower. Oh, she had the amulet and he could communicate with her that way, but every now and then he liked to roar.
"Yes, Sire?" her voice answered him through the magic he had crafted for her use.
"Belle, pack your things. We are leaving the Dark Castle," Rumplestiltskin said.
"Leaving? What?" she yelped.
"I need to be more accessible to Snow White, and her dwarf friends have built a conveniently situated dungeon for my use," he explained vaguely as he collected up just a very few items and tucked them away on his person. "You're likely going to have to negotiate a bit with the couple to be able to continue fulfilling your duties to me when I'm in the cage they have made for me."
Belle's reply was not instant. In fact, it was so delayed that Rumplestiltskin paused in his own tidying of his work room.
"Belle?" he questioned.
"Yes, Sire," she answered. "Will you take your evening meal before you go?"
"I will, yes," he replied. "And you will take the carriage. You'll need to leave the castle when I do, moments before, for preference. I'll need to raise the wards before I leave. We should arrive at Snow's castle about the same time, that way."
"Yes, Sire," Belle agreed.
Rumplestiltskin took one more thing from his shelves before he went down for his meal. At the table, he slid it across the wood to Belle.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Squid ink," he told her. "I've some hidden in my flask in my sleeve cuff already. You will pack this bottle of ink in with your other writing things, and you will use it only when I instruct," he ordered her firmly, though kindly still.
Belle took the little bottle of blackness.
"Belle," he called softly.
She looked up at him.
"It will work out," he promised with a small smile. "I won't be in there long. Snow White is less than a month away from giving birth, and Regina will cast the curse that will take us all from this land. I will be taken from that cell as surely as everybody else will be taken from this land, and with you there to care for me, it isn't like I'll suffer too much," he quipped fondly.
Belle took a deep, steeling breath, and nodded her acquiescence.
Rumplestiltskin helped Belle load her trunk of belongings – as economically packed as the day he had taken her from her father's castle – onto the back of the carriage. He let her smooth his vest and jacket, and himself checked that her amulet was still in place and that the clasp of her cloak (the one woven from his spinning) was securely fastened. For one desperate moment she just stared up at him, then launched herself at him, wrapped her arms around him, and held him tightly.
Rumplestiltskin raised his own arms up as well as he could – Belle had trapped his arms to his sides somewhat with her hold – and patted her back gently.
"We will see each other soon enough," he promised her. "Darkness knows we've been separated longer when I've had other deals to make. You'll see me again in mere hours."
Belle nodded, eased her hold on him, and stepped back.
Rumplestiltskin handed her up into the carriage, and watched as it rolled out the gate. As soon as it was beyond the borders of his estate, Rumplestiltskin raised the wards he had long been setting in place over his castle, in readiness for this moment, and vanished away to his meeting with Ella.
~oOo~
She was waiting for him, and she was radiating nerves.
"Well well well," he called, glad enough to play on those nerves. "You're starting to show."
He waited for her to leave behind the arboured walkway where she had been alternately pacing and pausing to rub her growing belly.
"A little bird told me you wanted to speak," he said, a clear invitation to her to do so.
"Yes," she said as she pushed back the hood of her cloak and continued to step, ever-so-cautiously, towards him. "I'd like to alter the bargain."
He knew that, he'd known that from the moment he told her what her price was. "That's not what I do," he told her.
"I think you'll want to," she countered. "I'm having twins."
"Is that so?" he asked. "Ooh," he cooed with a theatrical little shiver, and closed the distance between them, his gaze focused completely on her belly. "Let's have a look," he said, and set a hand on either side of the princess's baby bump.
It was not twins. It was only one child. Still, he played along.
"And you would, what? Give up both?" he queried.
Wordlessly, the blonde nodded in confirmation.
Rumplestiltskin withdrew his hands from her stomach and brought them up before himself in a contemplative steeple.
"Why is that, I wonder?" he questioned.
"My husband, he's... he's having a hard time," Ella lied, and oh, she lied so badly. "Our kingdom is poor, we're losing money, our crops are dying. We can't support ourselves or our kingdom."
"And you would trade your other child for..." he sought the right word for this sin that so many had committed before him. Trading the most precious gift in their lives for something so incredibly fleeting. "Comfort?"
"I can always have more children," Ella said.
The second truth she had spoken that night, the first being that she wished to alter her bargain with him.
"But I can't make crops grow where the soil is dead," she continued. Her third truth.
There was the soft rustling of parchment as she removed a scroll from within her cloak, and she took two quick steps nearer to him, though she stopped with some distance still between them. The girl was wary of being too near the Dark One.
"In exchange for our other child, you will make our crops once again fertile," she said quickly. "I think it's more than fair -"
"Yes," he snapped at her sharply, barely able to keep the disgust from his face. Oh, bad enough that she lie to him so poorly, but to say such things! It made his blood boil with fury within him. "Yes, yes," he agreed. "It is. If what you're saying is true," he said, and he saw the worry appear on her face as he bent to read the contract she held up for him.
"It is," she assured him. "And all you have to do -" she lowered the contract that she held in one hand, and with the other she held aloft a red-dyed feather with a golden tip affixed to it. "- is sign on the dotted line."
He looked up and wondered at how dim those plotting against him must think he was. Or perhaps simply at how dull they were. He could feel the magic floating about the object Ella was presenting him with as surely as he could feel his shoes on his feet and the brush of his hair against the collar of his coat.
"What a loverly quill," he complimented as he took it from her hand. He repressed a shudder at the feeling of the Blue Fairy's touch about this thing. "Where ever did you get it?"
"It's from our castle," Ella answered, clearly uncomfortable. Another lie.
This had come from the sanctimonious jellyfish's hoard of treasures – and she was more jealous of her little hoard than he was of his large treasure trove. She would only part with such a thing if she thought there was truly a chance for his permanent securement. The bug must have great faith in the cell that had been created for him by the dwarves.
"You know, the only way to stop me is through magic," he told her solemnly as he stepped closer to her.
"I'm not trying to stop you," she denied.
"Course you're not," he agreed, his voice low and sarcastic. "Because as we all know, all magic comes with a price," he reminded her cheerfully. "And if you were to use it to, say, imprison me," he suggested. Oh, and he knew that was what she was trying to do. Whoever came up with the idea, she was the one who was following through – she would be the one to suffer most directly for this attempt. "Your debt to me would only grow," he warned, "and we wouldn't want that now, would we?" he asked, his voice a low, dark rumbling as he tipped her chin up with the feathered tip of the quill in his hand.
She flinched away. "Just sign the contract please," she requested, her voice a whisper so as not to give away the trembling in it.
"You sure you're happy with this new arrangement?" he checked. He had, after all, just given her a fair warning of what was to come. The magic she used against him would cost her. She would owe him a greater debt for this act against him. This was her last chance to back out.
She hefted the contract once more. Her decision made.
"Then so it shall be," he agreed as he took the contract from her. He penned his name across the bottom. He held tight to the quill even when he dropped the parchment as his body was enveloped in a magic not his own that tried to hold him fast, tried to take his magic away. It wouldn't last long, however permanent they might think it was. He was too powerful, even for this. The Blue Fairy and her magic might have been older than him, but oh, he had more power than she did – he worked at it. The wretched jellyfish hadn't been at the top of the magical food-chain since shortly after Rumplestiltskin had taken the Seer's powers from her. Of course, he'd been ever-so-careful to make sure she never learned that particular truth, even as he was always sure to never be content to languish in the surety of his power.
"Thomas!" Ella yelled out desperately.
"No one breaks deals with me, dearie," he reminded her firmly as Thomas and Charming rode in with a horse-drawn cage. "No one. No matter where you are, no matter what land you find yourself in, I assure you; I will have my price," he promised her, more to frighten her than for any other reason.
Charming took one of his arms, the dwarf Grumpy the other, and they marched him across the grass to the cage that would transport him to a cell. He offered no resistance.
They probably should have found that more suspicious, but these were people of action, not of thought.
He noted absently that Prince Thomas guided his silly little wife to the stone bench to sit barely seconds after having declared the name of their child. Alexandra. He'd remember that. Then the prince ran off to fetch water for his bride.
Ooh, and he felt the magic wash through, seeking payment for the debt owed over this matter. It had tickled at the child in her belly, but it was claimed by him already. He felt it take the prince instead.
"Thomas, it's okay!" she called out. "It's passed!"
But her prince gave no answer, and she rose to investigate.
Rumplestiltskin was not surprised when Ella charged up to his cage with her husband's sash in her hand and no prince at her side.
"What have you done to him?" she demanded.
"Ella, what's wrong?" Charming asked.
"You're highness, what happened?" the dwarf added.
Oh, her distress was clear. So very clear indeed.
"What have you done to my Thomas?" she railed at him.
"I haven't done anything," he answered. "In case you haven't noticed, I've been otherwise engaged," he said as he looked away from her to the bars about him.
"Something happened to him," she said. "You know. Tell me!"
"I've no idea, dearie," he purred. "But I did warn you; all magic comes at a price. It looks like someone. Just. Paid."
Charming drew Ella away from the bars of the cage.
"Don't listen to him," Charming instructed softly. "We'll find Thomas," he promised.
"No you won't," Rumplestiltskin corrected. "Until that debt is paid, until that baby is mine, you're never going to see him again," he informed them all. "In this world or the next, Princess Ella, I will have that baby," he called out to her in promise as she was led away from him.
Nice to know they still feared him so much, even when there were iron bars between them. Even when they thought him stripped of his powers by the quill they had forgotten he still held. They had that much sense, at least – to still fear him.