There is a lot of flashback in this chapter- it explains some of the deviation from Once Upon A Time cannon.

Once again thank you so much to everyone who has followed/favourited amd/or reviews this story since last week.


Three: Rise of the White Enchantress

(Three years earlier)

'A kiss born of true love will break any curse.'

The woman's words resounded over and over again in Belle's mind- she would kiss Rumpelstiltskin and break the curse he was under and they could have their happy ending. The heir to the throne of Avonlea rushed back up the path to the Dark Castle ready to free her master from the curse which buried the man within the monster.

Belle let herself into the spinning room and sure enough, there he sat; spinning wheel slowing as he looked up at her.

"You're back already," he said with the ghost of a smile playing at the corners of that very kissable mouth. "Good... I mean. I'm all but out of straw."

Belle rolled her eyes. "You're happy that I'm back."

"Of course I am," he agreed immediately before backpedaling. "I mean, who else would fetch me my straw?"

Repressing the urge to laugh at her master, Belle moved to sit on the edge of the spinning wheel. "I've brought your straw now you have to tell me why I was the price of your deal for my kingdom's safety."

"I uh..." She didn't miss the way his eyes kept darting to her lips. "I told you sweetheart the place was filthy."

'Sweetheart?' If that wasn't an invitation to kiss him, Belle didn't know what was. She had always wanted to be brave, and leaning in to kiss this man was taking all of the courage she had. A sudden burst of confidence washed over her.

"Wrong answer," Belle told him huskily and captured his lips in a gentle kiss. The kiss set the young princess tingling all the way through her body from where their lips met right down to the tips of her toes. The tingle became a buzz; became a glow, a burning ache.

'What is this magic?' She wondered in panic right before the darkness rose up and swallowed her.


That kiss had started everything; and Belle had the woman, the evil queen to thank for her happy ending. She sat in the nursery singing a lullaby to Bae- her voice was nothing special, but her little boy didn't care. He teetered on the edge of sleep, gazing up at her with those beautiful whiskey eyes. It worried her that he didn't respond to his name- she knew that for the past three months he had been called Harry, but they'd change that. Children his age had short memories.

"Sleep Baelfire," she cooed, brushing her lips against his brow in a butterfly kiss. "Mama loves you so much Bae."

"And so does his papa."

Belle didn't flinch, she'd not known he was there, but for Bae's sake she refused to allow her husband to startle her. "And so does papa."

So saying she laid her sleeping son in his cradle and rose to meet his father.

"I thought you'd be in your tower until nightfall." She remarked once he'd kissed her. Rumpelstiltskin had retreated to his laboratory almost immediately after Jefferson had left.

"I had a potion to finish darling." He told her. "Come to the kitchen love, I have something to discuss with you and a need for tea."

"I almost wonder if you don't love tea more than you do me, dear." She teased him and followed him from the nursery confident that the wards that both of them had laced the room with would allow nothing but the air and light into the room.


(Three Years earlier)

Belle groaned and opened her eyes. Why was she in her bed? she'd been in the hall hadn't she? In the hall with Rumpelstiltskin and she'd kissed him.

"Oh good," she heard him say from the doorway. "You're awake."

She looked at the man she loved and was oddly relieved to see that her kiss had not broken his curse. " What happened Rumpel?"

"True love's kiss, darling." He told her and her heart leapt at the new endearment- better even than sweetheart.

"But your curse...?"

"Oh so you do know about that." Rumpelstiltskin said, evenly. "Well dear heart let me be the one to disabuse you of the notion of this," he gestured to his impish exterior. "being the result of a curse."

"It's not?"

"No," he crossed to her bedside and perched on the edge of the mattress. "The Dark One isn't a curse- it's... more of a symbiotic lifeforms. It needs a body to live in and in return it allows its host to use its magic, amongst other things- immortality and the like."

"Why are you telling me this?" She asked the usually tight lipped man who was her true love.

"You're my true love," he returned as if it should be obvious. "If I can't trust you, who can I?"

"I love you," she told him- touched by the trust he was putting in her.

He chuckled. "I know, and I you. Although I've never known True Love to bestow magic on a person before."

She froze. "What?"

"Belle darling, you have been unconscious for an entire day and in that time I've begun to feel phenomenal magical power in you. When it peaks I would guess you will rival, if not equal me in terms of power. Which is why I am very glad to have you on my side."

"Who says I am?" She asked, playfully.

"True love my darling," he purred, leaning in to kiss her. "I'd have my suspicions if our kiss hadn't had such an obvious effect on you."


"You want to bring down the Blue Fairy?" Belle echoed, staring at her husband over her teacup. "Rumpel, I know she's the monster who took Bae from us, but she has a lot of supporters all over the Enchanted Forest."

"Which is why we must be clever, darling." Rumpelstiltskin replied. "Prove that the so called paragon of light magic isn't as pure as she makes herself out to be. If she was, I'd get a lot less business."

"Alright," Belle nodded. "Let's get her."

~v~