Poor Belle and Poor Rumpel, both in the clutches of the Dark one. I've racked my brain to find them a way out of this. Now according to the plot the only way out is by death. Now in one of my other stories he got out of it by going to another world which was introduced in the show, so there are other ways. I'm going to come up with something , I just haven't figured out what but I do want to get into Rumpel's better side in this story. After all evil isn't born, it's made...right?

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"You see it now, don't you? you hurt people all the time." Rumpelstiltskin hated seeing that look in his son's eye, after all hadn't this all been for him, to keep his son safe.

"I created a truce in the ogre's war Bae...I walked into the field of battle, and I made it stop. I led the children home. Surely a man who saved a thousand lives would..." He willed Bae to understand one of the reasons he was the Dark One, someone had to put an end to the death that had threatened to take his boy, but Bae stopped him.

"Just don't...a man who saved a thousand lives could be done with it. You can stop doing things." He could feel his son grasping at solutions, answers that would end with more complications, worse than his father being the Dark One.

"I can't I need more power...so I can protect you." He willed his son to understand the predicament .

"I wouldn't need protecting if you didn't have power." Rumpel tossed in his sleep, sweat beaded on his forehead, the dream seemed so real, his son was right there in his grasp, why couldn't he just reach out and...

"Well, I can't get rid of it."

"Have you tried?" Bae watched as his father held out the cursed dagger.

"If someone kills me with this...then they gain the power, now you know that Bae. Is that what you want?"

"It's not what I want." Bae recoils away from the dagger, "I just think that there may be other ways to get rid of the power, have you looked?"

"All I want is your happiness Bae."

"Happiness" Rumple mumbled in his sleep. His eyes slowly opened. He was asleep in his work room. His head rested on his arms as he sat on the stool, his body supported by the tall table in which he conducted his experiments. He raised up his head, he had no memory of how he got there. He tried to remember what led up the events of last night, no matter how hard he tried he couldn't recall.

Then it hit him, he straightened up. It had taken over. Rumpel tried to recall what he had done. His eyes caught something and he looked over at his shirt, he then realized he wasn't wearing one. It lay on the table wadded up, he picked it up, he could smell a faint metallic scent on it, blood... he straightened it out as best he could and stared at the contents, it was stiff with dried Blood,not a lot, just a miniscule amount, what had he done?

He jumped up from the stool to check on his prisoner, he hoped he hadn't hurt her or worse, killed her. It wouldn't be the first time he had killed, nor the last, but she was valuable and he didn't want to take the chance. The dark entity was very powerful that resided in his body and sometimes it became overwhelmingly hard to control. It held him at bay in a place of darkness while it had its own way. The threat of it had grown over the years, as if it fed on fear and death to grow stronger While Rumpel himself grew weaker. Soon it would look for another host and Rumple would die as it moved on to the next unlucky victim, yes that was what he had become.

He hurried to Belle's room, it remained unlocked. He listened, he heard nothing. His heart pounded deep in his chest, She might have been trying to escape... he might have killed her. He imagined her lifeless body, broken beyond repair. How many necks had the Dark One snapped? He had lost count. He slowly opened the door and looked inside.

He let out a loud exhale, he hadn't realized he had been holding his breath. Thank God, she was only sleeping, he walked up to the side of the bed.

She took in a breath, but let out a small whimper, he watched as her brow furrowed up in pain. Her hair was sweaty and the curls lay damp against her neck. He noticed that the bruise where he had slapped her had darkened somewhat. He felt a small sense of regret, he could have held his temper better.

He watched her a moment more, licking at his bottom lip before turning away and going into the bathing room, gathering a rag and a basin of water before returning to her side. He rinsed the rag...squeezing out the cool water before dabbing it lightly against her face. He could feel heat as it rolled off her in waves, she was burning up with a fever. He lay his hand across her forehead, she felt clammy, she mumbled something incoherent.

He conjured up a blanket and covered her up. He needed to break the fever she was obviously plagued with but she would get chills, he didn't care about her comfort or about her, he lied to himself, the blanket was to protect his investment, his way to get Bae home, nothing more, once he was done that the Dark one could have her, all he cared about was his son and he didn't care who he had to use to get him back. Belle tossed her head back and forth, caught in a nightmare.

"No, No you can't, I'm not yours." Her eyes opened for a split second before closing giving Rumple just a glimpse, it was enough, he could see that they were bright with the fever. He wondered what exactly had happened last night, then it dawned on him. The dark one, the blood, he had taken her, and then collected the evidence. That kind of blood was valuable, virgin blood. Rumple wiped her damp hair back from her face where had the fever come from, had she been ill before she came? He couldn't recall, he couldn't remember her saying anything about it, not that he had bothered to ask, he had only one thing on his mind, her value, he hadn't worried what his experiments had done to her physically or that she had been made ill by his hand, maybe the dark one had done something, he could have given her poison or anything.

He didn't want Rumple to find his son, he toyed with the spinner, indulging him his experiments his notions of finding Bae and bringing him home, but lately the dark entity inside had got away from him, setting himself loose more and more, tricking Rumple, telling him lies. It was Rumpel's wish to have Belle for the things she possessed, the Dark One had agreed with wanting Belle but it had been for a completely different reason, a reason Rumpelstiltskin didn't want to admit that paralleled his other reason, a secret one, that he could acknowledge her beauty and therefore his own loneliness.

Belle murmured once more before waking slowly. Rumpel tilted his head to the side trying to figure out what she had said, before dabbing at her skin once more.

Belle felt so odd, like she was dreaming yet she was awake, she had trouble clearing her foggy mind. She looked up to see the Dark One standing over her, She began shaking her head and whimpering. she wanted to scoot away but she was almost too weak to move. "Please, I can't, I'm ill." She began coughing, tears sprang to her eyes as she tried to sit up, she grabbed her belly, everything hurt. Rumpel watched as she winced in pain.

"I'm not here to hurt you, your sick, I can heal you if you'll let me. You need to stay in bed today."

"Since when do you care what I need, you hit me, hurt me, rape me, why don't you kill me, why didn't you let me finish the job. I'll find another way." Tears ran down her face. Rumple tried to wipe her face with the rag, she slapped him away. He tried again, going slower so as not to frighten her away, again she tried to swat the rag out of his hand, he was losing his patience with her, he had strangled people for less. He threw the rag at her, it smacked her in the face but not hard. "Fine, Have it your way then, but I'll not let you kill yourself, if you can't accept kindness when it's being offered then I won't bother."

Belle picked up the discarded rag in her lap and began gently washing her neck, the cool water did feel good, it helped clear her mind. She reached over to put the rag in the basin and let out a small gasp as a bolt of pain shot through her abdomen. Rumpel had walked over to the fireplace, his eyes were staring into the flames, his mind somewhere far away, her painful outcry brought his mind back to the present. Why couldn't he shake the dream, most times they were like wisps of smoke, something he could grab at but never catch. This time he could remember everything about this dream, he could even smell Bae's scent, he could see the pain lurking in the boy's eyes. He had abandoned his son in exchange for this cursed life, not unlike the girl sitting in the bed behind him, she had given up her life as a princess, living in a grand castle, assured of being Queen one day, to save her lands and the people she loved for a wretched existence, no, perhaps it wasn't the same. He turned toward the sound.

"How bad are you hurt?" Belle looked at him in anger, her face screwed up in fury, her hands clenched in fists.

"You don't know? You should, it was you who did it. I am a ruined woman now, a cursed woman, not that it matters now."

How could Rumple explain that he had also been a prisoner, locked in as the dark entity withing him held her in his clutches. He walked over and sat at the side of her bed. Belle scooted away from him. He reached out to feel her forehead, she twisted her head away from his touch. She didn't want him to touch her, she'd rather die. She still had the knife somewhere, she couldn't recall but if he came again for her tonight she would bury it in his skull, see if that would kill him. She bet decapitating him would if nothing else slow him down a bit.

He sighed, he drew his hand back, his fingers clenched, just sitting there watching her. He knew it would just be a matter of time before The dark One killed her, he always killed them, every single one, even the young children. He was called by many titles, baby stealer being one of them. It was for a good reason, he had made numerous deals for children. All of whom the Dark one had killed. It would be nothing for him to wake up with blood everywhere, a helpless broken body laying in the darkness somewhere, and now this girl, he was half surprised she hadn't been lying in her bed with her neck broke, her body bleeding out from where he had injured her so badly she would have never recovered, she was in a great deal of pain, he might have still done some damage. He could fix it, but he was sure he'd have a fight on his hands if he tried. He could force her to the room again, chain her and help her whether she wanted him to or not. He might still have to he thought as he saw her try to get up and sit back down, trying to catch her breath. She tried again and this time managed to make it. wrapping the blanket around her for modesty, even though there was nothing of hers he hadn't already seen, but still it had been against her will, he looked down at her sheets and saw the blood.

He took a small flask out of thin air and with a wave of his hand the blood emerged from the sheets of her mattress and into his flask, leaving her them once again a pristine white. His head jerked up when he heard her try to stifle a cry from the other room. He got up and went to the door, Damit, he shouldn't have let her in there. He hadn't retrieved the knife, she could be at it again. He jiggled the handle, it opened, peaking in he saw her, she was sitting on the side of the tub. It had the water from last night still in it, singed pink from her blood. She was attempting to wash herself, but it stung. "Get out of here, what are you doing" she yelled at him.

Rumpel was growing tired of her behavior. He glanced around and saw the knife at the bottom of the tub. He waved it away. She caught the movement and narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm not going to try that again." she didn't tell him that her next move was going to be trying to kill him.

"Your injured, your going to need my help, whether you like it or not, so get your ass in here. He turned and walked out.

"You can either quit fighting me and lie still or I'll be forced to tie you down, is that better than being a willing patient?" Belle sighed and closed her eyes as she lay on the bed. She was surprised to find the bed clean of her blood. Why did he do that, why did he care one minute and become a cruel monster the next, would she ever figure him out.

Rumple stepped back for a moment as he shut his eyes, he was feeling for his power, doing so always provoked the Dark One up but he needed it to heal or else she would most likely die from her wounds. He felt the magic flow through his finger tips, Belle could feel the tingle running across her body. It seemed to be lifting the pain away, she moaned, it felt strange, like it was lifting her soul along with it. she wanted desperately to move but restrained herself. A piece of stray hair was tickling her face, she resisted the urge to pull it away. She hadn't noticed it before, most likely because the pain and the fever were distracting. She felt the fever lifting as well, he was restoring her health.

She chanced a peek, looking up at him as he ran his hands inches above her torso. He seemed to have stopped there, his hands hovering close, what was he doing? Why had he stopped there, was he healing her insides? They felt as if they were ripped into shreds last night, the burning was beyond barring... The rotten bastard, was he fixing her only to tear her up again tonight? Why would he bother?

Then suddenly the pain was gone, it was just...gone. "You can open your eyes now, it is done. How do you feel?" Belle tried to sit up, she took the offered hand as she swung her legs slowly off the side gently. She wiped at her brow, she was no longer sweating, she was no longer freezing, she did feel better.

"Thank you, why would you even bother?" Rumple shrugged his shoulders.

"Because I wasn't myself last night,and without it, you would have died like so many others and I need you alive a little longer."

"Why? Why do you need me alive?"

Rumple looked down at his hands, they were instruments of death, willing great power but also able to perform feats of magic like any other. He had stopped the ogre wars in his land. He had made some of the most powerful potions known to man but he couldn't save the only person that meant something to him and had been too much of a coward to go with him.

Belle followed his eyes. His hands were scaled and greenish in color yet they sparkled with a gold sheen as did the rest of his body. She looked at his bare chest, she remembered how he had taken his shirt with him full of her blood and his essence. Then it dawned on her, had he seen something in her, was that why he had stopped over her belly, was she pregnant? .

"Did you fix everything" Rumple nodded his head.

"Why would you do that only to hurt me again later? What kind of monster are you? I don't understand you at all. Your a man one minute and a wild beast the next, one that cannot be stopped. What did you see inside me, do I want to know?" Rumple stood up and turned his back on her.

"Nothing, I saw nothing but bleeding and sickness and pain. You'll live now, rest, you need rest."

"Rumpelstiltskin?" He turned to the sound of his name, names had power.

"Can I come out of this room today, please if only for a while, I'm going crazy in here. I need to be outside, if only for a moment, I want to see something green, anything green, Please."

"You'll see something green after you have rested, you deserve that much, I promise." He walked to the door. She called for him once again.

"Today?"

"Yes, today."