I love this chapter, but I had such a difficult time writing it. Cruella de Vil is one of my favorite villains in Once Upon A Time. I really liked the way they did her character. Stylish, sassy, and downright bad to her black heart.

Chapter 4: Fashionable Discount, Darling


At a time, half past seven in the evening, Madeline De Vil opened her front door.

The person had knocked three times, and she felt compelled to see who it was even though she was not expecting guests at this hour. Madeline put down the cannister of foul yellow liquid she was about to carry up to the attic, and hustled to the door before the unknown visitor made to leave, thinking no one was home.

She had been expecting to see maybe a salesman or gentleman caller.

Never did she think there would be a man standing there with garish gold skin and a baby sleeping in his arms.

"Ah! Maddie! Good to see you, dearie!" the man exclaimed, bustling past her into her home.

"Excuse yourself, dear sir! You are trespassing in my home!" she retorted, and made to stand in his way.

"Oh, it's all okay." The man waved her off without concern, turning his attention to the attic entrance he was below. "Ya see, because I don't particularly care about you, dearie. It's actually your daughter I'm here to see."

"My daughter? How could you possibly know of my daughter?" Madeline's eyes were bulging, and her hands went shaky.

"Of course, I know your daughter, Maddie!" the man looked at her as if she were hard of hearing or just plain stupid. "This is her baby, after all!"

"Her baby! Why I don't believe! What utter nonsense! How—How dare you, sir!" Madeline was about to command her dogs to her side, and have this man torn to pieces while she dialed the police.

But then he waved a hand in front her face, and all she knew was the heaviness of her own eyelids and the soft darkness that overtook her senses.

Madeline collapsed at Rumplestiltskin's feet, sound asleep and without another protest on her lips.

"That actually took longer than I thought possible…" Rumple said to himself with a shake of his head. "Maybe I'm getting to be rusty or going soft… Nah!"

With his free hand, Rumple made a yanking motion at the attic entrance, which ripped the bolted attic right open. He twisted the hand in the same motion, creating a whirl of purple smoke that crafted stairs up into the darkness of the attic.

Just beyond the attic landing a shadow hung back in darkness. Rumple could see it though, and he smiled up into that darkness where the shadow stood.

"You might as well step out into the light now, dearie. Especially with Mama dearest falling asleep on me so suddenly. A shame really that she didn't even get a good look at her new grandchild."

The voice that answered him back was less harsh than he expected. It was feather soft and more than a little skittish. But the biggest surprise came when he actually saw who that voice belonged to.

Bright yellow hair was the first thing to catch his attention. It actually made him do a double take and blink a few times before settling down. For a few seconds he thought he might have been wrong, as shocking as that was to believe. Him, the Dark One, having any doubt in his skills? His magic? But it was true. He thought to himself, maybe the magic had been off on this one. Perhaps, even, taken him to the place Cruella would be born instead of where she already lived.

But then he saw the eyes. Not the right eyes either, mind you. Deep blue beauties that looked all the world like crystal pools in which a mortal man might swim in for days without daring to look away.

But he smirked when those sheepish eyes looked upon him and met his own. He saw that which mortal men might not see, or even that which they might ignore.

He saw her soul.

And it was just as inky black as he knew it from his visions. The darkness of her essence was unmistakable. Her look of innocence was betrayed by this. Even as she shied away from him and looked with wide eyes at his magically crafted staircase, he could practically smell the sins of her soul in the air. She tested the stairs with a foot, then cautiously put her weight on them before coming down to stand in front of him. The girl was shorter than he expected. Still taller than him by a head, but that was smaller than he thought she'd be when they first met. And thinner, too. The girl was like a reed in the wind with her petite frame. Though at least she appeared to have style. Even if her clothes weren't in the best condition, Rumple could see that she took care to appear nice had any given moment. Her skin and nails were very health. As were her eyebrows, which didn't appear to be drawn on her face at this point in time.

Yes, the girl standing in front of Rumplestiltskin wasn't the Cruella de Vil he had been expecting, but she was certainly Cruella de Vil none the less.

"Hello there, dearie!" Rumple gave a flourishing bow at his waist, being sure not to disturb the baby in his arms too much even though the child was under a small sleeping spell. "The name is Rumplestiltskin, and Ma Chere Mademoiselle, it is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that I present before you tonight… your very own bundle of joy. A bouncing baby boy! Enjoy!"

While the girl was gaping at him with wide eyes and open mouth, Rumple giggled manically to himself a little. He slipped the baby into her arms, turned on heel and was about to walk right out of the house.

That is, until a pull of his magic stopped him. He turned back around, and was both a little shocked and a bit amused that Cruella's previous expressions of naivety and surprise were cleared away from her face like someone taking off a festival mask. Now her face resembled what his visions showed him. A woman poised to kill with detached interest as her arms were empty and the baby bundle was floating magically a couple of feet above the floor where she tried to nonchalantly drop the kid. Cruella's arms were crossed over her chest, hip pivoted to one side as she sneered at him like he was wasting her time.

"You must be joking," Cruella spat at him snidely, only glancing down once at the baby to see it floating back up in front of her.

She pushed the magically airborne child aside as she went to the living room where her mother was sound asleep being levitated to the couch. Cruella didn't even appear to care about her mother's wellbeing. The young woman only scoffed once at her sleeping mother before rifling through her purse where she took out a few paper bills of money and stuffed them into her own pocket.

So she likes money, Rumplestiltskin purred to himself in thought as he smirked viciously behind the girl. Good, he had plenty of gold and such. He really should have known, given what she would one day become.

"Thank you, stranger, for freeing me of that ghastly attic. I've been ever so fretful since my poor ill mother locked me away up there." Cruella said, parroting a nervous and hopeful woman perfectly.

"Yeah… that might have gone over a lot better for you dearie," Rumple began as the child floated again in front of Cruella, this time orbiting around her, "if you had done that song and dance before you chose to drop the baby. Seems your fresh to villainy, but me thinks not so fresh by the stench of you."

"Stench?" Cruella seemed more outraged by being thought of as stinky than as evil. "I'll have you know that I bath regularly you garish little toad!"

"Well, your hygiene notwithstanding, you are still a terrible liar. Though you've never had to do it much anyway, am I right?" Rumple smiled maliciously as wisps of purple smoke gathered in his open hand to form a little black book. This book he used whenever a visions struck him at random, but was reserved only for important pawns—urh, people that he would encounter in his life. He licked his thumb as he flipped through to the notes he wrote about her. Sometimes visions blurred together, but luckily with his affinity for magic he was always ready to jot down whatever passed his mind's eye. "Says that your mother does all your lying for you. And that you've been through two fathers so far. Tsk, tsk. Naughty, naughty young lady. This simply won't do at all. Seems to me that a child is exactly what you need to drive that wild strike… a mile higher! Heh, heh, ha, ha! Ha, ha! Ha, ha!"

Cruella gave him a rather sour look, rising her nose in the air as if he were something foul. "Listen to me, you unsightly little peon. I will have no part of your odd baby-exchanges! I don't care what those rag papers in town say about a woman being barefoot and pregnant by age twenty. I don't want children, and certainly don't need them. Now, out of my way, darling."

Cruella made to move past Rumple and bump shoulders with him, but he snapped his fingers once and she found her feet rooted to the spot instantly. She tried to move, but with another snap of his fingers she was floating just as effortlessly as the baby next to her. Rumple made a disappointed sound at the back of his throat before wagging a finger at her.

"No, no, dearie. You see, I don't much care what you want. You will do what I need of you before I leave here." He then began to walk outside the house, and Cruella was forced to follow along with the sleeping baby as they stepped outside and into the road which lead up to the De Vil's secluded manor well out of town. "Besides, young lady. If you play your cards right, you just might get a gift from yours truly out of it for your troubles."

Cruella was glaring at Rumplestiltskin now, no longer even vaguely interested in what he had to say. "I'm quite afraid that you've caught me at a bad time. You see…" and just like that Cruella whipped out a gun that Rumple was surprised the girl even had hidden on her, "I don't much like older men. Or golden-skinned freaks like you. And I especially hate being told what to do by anyone. So you either put me down and peddle your baby off on someone else, or die here as I play the part of the terrified girl defending herself when the police come to find your corpse the next day."

Rumple couldn't help it. He laughed. Long and hard with tears welling in his eyes. He doubled over, wheezing. He slapped his knees and hopped around several times. He was uncontrollable in his amusement. "Oh, oh, oh! Heh, heh, heh! HA! Ha, ha, ha! Oh my stars, this is too rich! This is just priceless! The girl doesn't even bat an eyelash at magic or me pawning off a baby, but heavens forbid if it messes with her cushy life in her attic! Heh, heh! Ha, ha, aha!"

The young blonde was now absolutely livid. So mad was she that Cruella was visibly shaking as she tried to wrestle herself from Rumple's magical grip and shoot him where he stood for mocking her.

"Oh please, dearie. As if you'd actually shoot me!" Rumple threw sharply at her, finally gaining control of himself as he wiped away his tears. "That'd be entirely too messy to explain. Especially with the baby here and everything. Not at all like doing away with Papa bear and Daddy dearest, aye. Now those were clean kills, dearie. A little poison here, a small accident there. No one thought little Cruella could ever do such a thing. Had to be accidents, right?"

Cruella went unearthly still then. Her blue eyes were narrowed fiercely, like two pools of ice honed to needles at Rumple's head. She spoke low, in a whispered tone that promised death if she were free at that exact moment. "How did you know? How could you possible know about any of that?"

"The kiddies don't call me the all-powerful Dark One for nothing, darling." He threw back at her with a mocking sing-song tone of voice. He gave another flourishing bow. "Rumplestiltskin, the darkest and cruelest being in all the worlds. At least as far as you'll ever know, dearie."

The young blondie woman was now regarding him more suspiciously. Her shoulders were tense as he released her from his power and floated the baby into her arms. She didn't drop the child this time, and Rumple was thankful for that. So far away from his home was putting a strain on his powers. Cruella watched him with caution in her eyes, but also gave the baby a few glances.

"So," Rumple went over to her, slinging an arm around her shoulders casually. She gave his leather jacket a disgusted look, but then returned her attention to the baby in her arms. "Just between us friends... Exactly how many fathers have you killed by this point? Two, three?"

"If you must know," Cruella sighed as if she were explaining how a lover might be doing in a menial job instead of outright murder, "I killed my father for having an affair. I thought his mistress was uglier than my mother, and I simply would not have people think my family slummed in the mud. He could have done so much better than that horse-faced woman."

"And the next one?"

"He was an improvement. Certainly more handsome than father, darling. But… he still left much to be desired. And I didn't much like the way he looked at me when mother wasn't around. He simply had to go. You understand." Cruella waved a hand aside as if she had fired a maid rather than killed her own stepfather.

"To truth, too true." Rumple nodded, and pretended to sip tea. "Good parents are so hard to find these days."

"Oh, tell me about it." Cruella smiled, and Rumple saw a hint of the woman from his visions peek through in all her evil glory. "I love my mother dearly, but very soon she too will have to go. She's getting old, darling, and I'll not be stuck in the house taking care of an old bag of bones for the rest of my days."

Rumple smiled evilly this time, showing purely white teeth. "Me thinks someone enjoys a little dip in the dark waters."

"Why not have a fun time if you've got a job that needs to get done?" Cruella shrugged, moving the gun in her hands as it was now becoming awkward to hold it and the baby. "Oh, Rumple darling, do you mind?"

"Certainly not. Allow me to help." Rumple reached forward.

Cruella had been trying to hand him the baby. Rumple took the gun. She swore under her breath while he mocked her with a grin.

"A little to green to trickery for me to fall to that one, dearie. But you get points for trying. Nice execution of casual conversation, too. You have all the making of a high-functioning lunatic."

"Thank you," she snapped dryly while giving the baby a distasteful look.

"You're so young, dearie. To find the darkness inside you and take hold of it. Seize it and let it bloom in your soul… well, I must admit that I had already had a wife and child by that time. And my child went away. Balefire was his name." Rumple looked over at Cruella to see if the name registered with her. It appears it did not as she was eyeing him oddly. He sighed before making a sound at the back of his throat. "Ratty little boy, all the same. No good was he. Ran off and got himself killed. Terrible for him, but lucky me. I don't have to leave my riches to any snot-nosed brat."

The way Cruella's eyes lit up at the mention of wealth told Rumplestiltskin a lot more about her than she would probably ever guess. He had a show of stretching his arms and yawning as the gun disappeared from his palm in a whirl of purple smoke. Cruella looked mildly surprised at that, but she kept her cool. She was beginning to see that Rumple was not someone to be underestimated. If he had to guess, the girl was probably thinking of ways to make a friend of convenience out of him rather than an enemy. Magic and money, she was more than likely thinking, were two powerful allies to have on your side.

"Yes well, all the same the baby can't stay. My mother torments me enough with her dogs, I'd hate to see what she'd do if I suddenly had a child she didn't even know about. I'd probably end up as dog chow along with this mangy thing." She sniffed at the baby blanket but found that it was surprisingly fresh. It must have been magic.

"Oh, I don't think Mommy dearest will be much of a problem. She'll accept the change almost… magically, you can say." Rumple winked at her, and Cruella did not find it as amusing as he probably did.

"What about the attic, then?" Cruella asked, and Rumple was sure it was more about her than the baby. "I'm locked up there most hours of the day. Can't be good for the baby, darling. Not to mention that this little thing doesn't even have a name. When my parents named me Cruella, they were just begging for me to turn out a psychopathic killer."

"True enough. After all, names do have power and purpose. By the way, the baby is a boy and his name is Ronald. Take a good look at him. Let it sink in."

Cruella sneered at Rumple while pulling back the baby blanket. She was angry with herself for gasping at the little baby. His red hair shocked her, it was so foreign to her senses. Never before had she seen a ginger baby, only heard about them and read about them in the papers. Some called them devil children, and others said they possessed no souls. Her mother called all the people idiots and that every child should be loved.

Not free, Cruella thought with a scowl, just loved.

"Oh, he has the softest little skin." Cruella cooed at the child, her hand lightly stroking his fresh baby skin. "You would make just the most darling pair of gloves to date, little baby Ron-Ron."

Cruella nearly leapt out of her own skin when Rumple was suddenly in front of her, his golden skin glistening in the moonlight. "He's not to be harmed. That baby is not for wearing, but I suppose he can still make an excellent fashion accessory. You are going to love this baby boy. Doing everything in your power to see him loved and cherished as his birth parents could not. They could not provide for him, and so you will shower him with all the gifts in all that they could not because of their lack of wealth. He will want for nothing, and live with you in comfort and love."

"And if I should refuse, darling?' Cruella narrowed her eyes at him.

Rumple smiled. "Then you die. Tonight. Quite literally."

Cruella growled a little at him. "I find that very hard to believe. If you so much as lay a finger on me! You wouldn't dare—!"

Rumple lifted a finger in dramatic fashion. "Oh, not by my hand, dearie! No, no, no! Far too direct for my learned methods. No, by the hands of fate! They will be the ones to snip your mortal thread, as the term were."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Cruella looked confused, angry, and worried.

Rumple took her by the shoulder and led her further down the road and away from the house until it was a good distance away.

"You see, dearie. There are some things that no one can really see coming their way. Decisions we all make, big and small, have rewards and sometimes consequences. Your actions thus far in life… well, let's just say that you've had it coming for a very long time now. Your mother wrestles with one decision nearly every waking day inside that house of yours."

Cruella looked bored of the conversation. "And what is that?"

"Whether or not you're even worth saving." Rumple said in all seriousness, his face stern and uncaring. "You dear mother knows you killed her two husbands. She knows there is a powerful darkness in your soul. But she is also your mother. She doesn't want to have the police take you away, or send you to a mental asylum. She wants to save you. To save your soul. Not religious, but you get the jest of it. She wants to help you. Problem is… are you still able to be saved? Are you even worth it? Those are the questions your mommy wakes up with in the morning and goes to sleep with at night."

Cruella looked like a different person, scared and confused. "I don't… I don't understand…"

"Wel, understand this, dearie. Putting off that decision of saving you or not for so many years has forced Fate's hand. Your mother makes the decision tonight."

"T-Tonight?" Cruella's blue eyes went wide.

"Yes, tonight. Tonight the Fates have decided that they need to take action. I only see visions in the sparse, but basically let's say they flipped a coin. And the result of that is you die tonight. The decision was to either keep you locked away in the house, or to kill you by having the attic filled with a poison gas as you slept. Though really, you can't blame her. Poetic justice and all that. You did kill your father with poison tea."

"You're lying!" Cruella snapped, looking wild and defensive. She instinctively clutched the baby boy close to her, smoothing his red hair with a frantic hand. "I know you're lying! I know it! My mother would never—! She could never kill me! My mother loves me! More than anything!"

Rumple shrugged. Honestly he hadn't care about her sentiments of love and affection for her mother, or what she thought her mother felt for her. He just needed her to accept the child. "Yes, yes. Right on both accounts. Your mother does love you more than anything in the world. But the same way that you believe your mother incapable of killing you… well… Your mother thought the same of you regarding your father, affair or not. Yes, she knew. Your mother isn't stupid. In fact, I'd wager you got her share of the brains."

Cruella looked like her entire world had been shaken to its core. The girl most likely thought she'd just live a quiet life until her mother either slipped up one day so she could kill the woman, or grow too old to threaten her any longer. It was a little sweet to see such evil in someone so young, but the look on Cruella's face now as she hugged baby Ronald so close gave her the appearance of a mother scared of losing their child. Rumple wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. Cruella was pure evil in the appearance of a nice young woman, but here he was pawning a child off on her since he knew the riches and wealth she would one day have. Though magic led him here, it still spoke to some part of him that was still human deep in his own heart and soul about how wrong this deal was.

Then the bigger part of him that was the Dark One told the human part to stuff a sweaty sock in it as the deal would prevent Cruella from being unusually cruel to the child and ensure that she stayed well within the guidelines of the deal he had made with the boy's birth parents.

Even if keeping in those lines came out of his coffers. And speaking of coffers, Rumple summoned a sack of gold and jewels to his hip where it appeared in the chink of coins that returned Cruella from her thoughts and back to the present.

"Wh-What do I need to do? I don't want to die. I'm so young. And I certainly don't want my mother to kill me. She'd dress my funeral in ghastly colors while in her double grief of murdering me and then pretending she didn't do it."

Rumple wanted to roll his eyes, but refrained from doing so as he made a magical contract appear in his hands.

"This basically has everything I told you about raising baby Ronald, who from this night forth shall so be named Ronald de Vil. It says that you cannot bring intentional harm to the boy or mistreat him under any circumstances. You must give him every comfort available to you, and all which he desires. In exchange, you Cruella will find yourself with wealth and riches beyond your wildest dreams. Also, on the night that your mother finally dies, you will age more slowly, almost not aging all together… depending on how the boy feels about you once he turns eleven years old."

"And you can guarantee all this? The money and youth and protection—for me and Ronald?" Cruella didn't seem to doubt Rumple's power, but more asking out of genuine curiosity.

"But of course, ma'am! I am the great and powerful Rumplestiltskin, after all. The Dark One. You'll never be in safer hands." He gave another over the top bow.

"And if he loves me… I stop aging completely?" this seemed to peak Cruella's interest the most.

"Of that, yes. There will come a time where you find yourself in possession of an item that grants you youth. It will be temporary, but if you save some of that item and your new son Ronald loves you with all his heart, he will gift you with eternal youth and beauty using said item."

Cruella quickly signed the contract and even questioning how an inky quill appeared in her hand.

"Oh, and if you were thinking of just killing your mother tonight… I would advise against such hasty action. Patience, dearie, patience." He mocked her, waggling his finger in front her face. "The day will come where you have the opportunity. Then the decision of the Fates will fall into your hands. Which choice you make, however, even I cannot say. But the decision will not be made today."

With all of that said, Rumple took the jingling bag of gold and jewels from his hip and placed it firmly in Cruella's already waiting hand. "This is just the first of many to come your way. You will find bags like this appearing to you and your son. They are from me. His parents were very poor, barely able to raise the children they already had. They made sure that wealth was a definitive part of the deal, so the money comes straight from my spinning wheel, gem mines and wishing wells. I don't mind though. I have no want or need for money, especially since I can literally make as much gold as I want."

"Can you teach me?" Cruella asked, eyes sparkling. Rumple threw his head back with a laugh.

"Oh, you've no magic, dearie. But maybe someday you'll find the right man to put a little bit of magic in you." He winked, and Cruella looked disgusted with him.

"You nasty little imp!" she yelped at him, swatting him with his own bag of gold. He only laughed more though.

Rumple turned on heel and began to walk down the road, slowly disappearing in purple smoke as he did.

"Go on while you have the time and buy baby Ron-Ron the latest trends. After all, your mother would think very little of you if she saw that you weren't taking good care of that baby. She might even think she failed with you. Might even take that baby and kill you to start over from scratch."

All Cruella heard after that was the cruel laughter of Rumplestiltskin as he disappeared in a whirl of purple fog.

Cruella looked down at baby Ron, cooing to him and whispers words of how she'll someday murder her mother and everyone else some day soon. Cruella rocked him in her arms a few times before huffing and making her way down the road. After hailing a taxi and going through different baby stores that were about to close until they saw she was a new mother with her child, Cruella purchased plenty with her newfound wealth. The taxi driver was very nice about getting a few of his buddies to help carry all her purchases. She talked and laughed with them, but was glad that her gun was in her pocket along with the money she had taken from her mother's purse. If these boy got rough with her and tried to rob her, they'd find that Rumple was not leaving her defenseless for a moment, it seemed. Once they got up to the De Vil manor, Cruella saw her mother hurry out of the house in her evening attire looking haggard and worried.

"Darling girl, where have you been?" Madeline asked, eyeing the men that were carrying loads of bags and boxes into the house after greeting her. She didn't return their greetings, too shocked was she by their mere presence along with the bundle of baby blankets in Cruella's arms.

"Oh you know how these things go, mother. I was out getting some new things for the baby. Feels like he almost popped into my arms just minutes ago."

Madeline's lips went thin as she refused to draw attention to the fact that, yes, the baby was not a normal part of their family. Especially with that stock of red hair she could see poking above the blankets. Finally, she was able to fake a smile and gently guide her daughter into the house. "Yes, yes, of course. How silly of me. I just thought you'd be up in the attic, darling. Getting his crib from up there. You know that sleeping with a baby in your bed is highly unusual for our family."

"Don't worry mother. These nice and strapping men are going to build the baby a crib, among other things. I've paid them well enough." Cruella smiled at her mother's confusion and shock before taking out the money she stole and handing it to her mother, who instantly understood where it had come from. "A strange man came to me with riches. Said he had more than enough to share and that I looked like I needed a change in my life. He gave me a bag of gold and told me to ensure my baby Ronald de Vil had every comfort life could afford him. So there, I won't be needing the money I borrowed from you, Mommy. Thank you anyway. It was sweet of you to help me out in my time of need. I'll never forget it."

"Of course, dear." Madeline was growing more and more shocked by the minute. Her daughter never returned what she stole unless her dogs were at the blonde's heels.

Cruella smiled again, this one sharp and pointed. Her mother understood it, but the men who were constructing the baby's crib and setting up his room didn't even notice the tension in the air.

"I think I'd like to pay you back some way, Mommy darling. You've protected and sheltered me all these years from the harsh world. I simply must see to it that I do the same for you, darling. I will attend school, and go into fashion. I will make you the most wonderful clothes. I'm thinking spots. They'll be to die for, darling! And you'll even be able to die in them! Wahahaha!"

Madeline looked horrified, but Cruella stopped laughing when she realized she was still holding the baby so close. The baby began to stir, but didn't awaken thanks to Madeline taking the child and rocking him expertly in her arms while shushing him back to sleep. Cruella watched this with a smirk.

"Oh yes, mother darling. There are certainly going to be some changes around here from now on."

"Yes, dear… Of course." Madeline said in a resigned sort of tone as she looked down at the baby and continued to rock him in her arms.

She could only hope that Ronald de Vil turned out better this his new mother.


And so the devil has her baby, Ronald de Vil, the Red Devil. Ooohhh, I like how this story takes a shape of its own some times!

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All questions, comments, concerns, and ideas are welcome!

Until Next Time, See Ya!