Chapter 9: Old as Time

"Why Aurora, Dearie?" Rumplestiltskin asks, watching Maleficent inspecting his wand collection. She is one of the few powerful beings in the Enchanted Forest he has had little dealing with. Apparently what she wants she gets for herself rather than wanting him to solve her problems. Which, come right down to it, is something he respects about her.

"It's nothing personal," she says, smiling. "I've known her family for generations and been cursing them one way and another for as long. It's important to keep a hand in the dark arts, keeps me sharp. It is a long standing revenge because they sided against me in a battle a very long time ago and it cost me, well, it cost me this," she says, picking up the Black Fairy's wand. "You shouldn't keep something this powerful with average wands," she comments, then closes her eyes as the magic washes over her. Rumplestiltskin can feel the charge of magic in the air as she reclaims her power.

She throws her head back and laughs, a high, thin, terrible sound.

"I forgot how much I missed this," she says.

"Why now?" he asks calmly. She looks a little annoyed that he isn't cowering in fear. Cowering is second nature to Rumplestiltskin, but the Dark One has nothing to fear from a fairy, however fearsome. The most she will get from him is healthy respect.

"Opportunity," she replies. "I've been watching for a chance, opening doors where I could. I have a lot of power, but I had the sense not to murder a seer so I haven't been confounded by images of possible futures."

"Possible?" he asks, nearly hissing the word. "Possible? Oh no, the futures I see always happen. Not always as expected but they always happen. There is no preventing them, or getting around them, or changing them. They happen. Always."

"Oh, very well. Whatever you say. It still sounds very distracting. Anyway, in all the casting and breaking and recasting of the curse, I managed to get lost in the shuffle. They lost track of where I was because no one cared about the ghoul in the cellar. So I seized an opportunity and unmade the curse."

"And you had nothing prior to the curse to bargain with in order to retrieve your wand? I find that difficult to believe."

"You forget, Blue had it long before you did and she wasn't going to bargain with me."

"Ah yes. Reul Ghorm. We've met," he says coldly. "Still, you could have waited until she was desperate enough. In the end she even bargained with me."

"And then she ended up with it again after the curse. How did that happen?"

"There should have been a certain amount of shuffling around of items when the curse hit. Most of the items would have ended up with me but all magic comes with a price and I believe the price of that was that I would not be able to gather any items of Fairy magic." He studies her face for a long time. "And what is the price of Fairy magic I wonder? Or do you all make sure others pay it for you?"

"Oh, that's rich, coming from the magical broker himself."

"I don't deny that others often pay some of the price. I never denied that. But I have already paid. I've never actually seen a fairy pay any price." He frowns. She didn't have any useful information on Bae, just a lot of excuses about having been stuck in a basement the whole time.

"We try not to," Maleficent says with a smile. "So what now?" she asks him. "I go back to my castle, you go back to yours, and we each pursue our own vendettas?"

"You sound like you have another idea."

"Oh, I just thought you might like to handle one of my vendettas for me."

"And why would I possibly want to do that Dearie? I expect a significant price for that sort of work."

"I think you will make an exception. See, I know where your wife… oh wait, girlfriend… no… whatever. I know where she is, just not who she is to you at this point."

"My wife is dead," Rumplestiltskin says shortly. "I should know." He giggles. "She has been for three centuries. And as for who she is to me now, she's no one." As he had once been to her.

"Who are you talking about?" Maleficent asks. "I'm fairly confident she wasn't even born three centuries ago."

"My wife. Milah. The only woman I ever had the misfortune to wed. Who are you talking about?" he asks, leaning closer to her.

"Belle."

He freezes for a moment. That isn't possible.

"Belle's dead too," he says, trying and failing to sound like it doesn't tear at his blackened heart to even think of her at all.

"No, not as of thirty years into the curse. She looked very alive to me. Of course I realize I'm not the biggest expert, having died a couple times myself, but she was upright and speaking so I'm going with probably alive."

"Belle is alive?"

"I rather thought that is what I just said. Yes. Alive and well, mostly. She is sort of a prisoner…"

"Of who?" Rumplestiltskin demands, his voice going cold.

"Oh, that. You should find her in the Evil Queen's dungeons."

"You aren't telling me this out of the goodness of your heart, Dearie. What do you get out of it?"

"No. Of course not. I'm telling you out of the darkness of my heart because I want the Evil Queen dead. And I have a bigger enemy who I wish to conserve my strength for. I'll be all too happy to let you deal with the Queen and I trust this will provide sufficient motivation."

"Of course. I have a meeting with the Evil Queen. You should get going Dearie." He turns away from her for a moment before turning back. "One last question. Not that it's important. I was just wondering. Call it idle curiosity. Why did you call her my wife?"

"You wouldn't remember I suppose. I never did get the chance to congratulate you, what with being locked in a basement as a ghoul at the time."

"That isn't possible," he says flatly. Belle being alive is possible, maybe. Regina is a liar and her keeping Belle prisoner isn't too much of a stretch. But Belle choosing him? Simply not a realistic possibility.

"Suit yourself. But I know you want to go find her and kill Regina. Don't let me keep you." With that, the Black Fairy vanishes from the hall leaving him alone.

He picks up the chipped cup, turning it over in his hands. It could be a lie, all of it could be. The last part certainly is. Maleficent just wants him to kill Regina and isn't above a lie to achieve her ends. He tries, unsuccessfully, to convince himself that it isn't true so he can't be disappointed, and failing that he tries, also without success, to convince himself that he doesn't care that much one way or the other. But there is no harm in checking the dungeons of Regina's castle, just to be certain.


Rumplestiltskin appears in a swirl of smoke among Regina's cells. One of her unfortunate guards tries to stop him and is turned into a snail for his trouble. Rumplestiltskin regrets it immediately; the man might have been of some actual use if he asked him about Belle before crushing him under his boot.

By the time he enters the second hall of the dungeon he is starting to get a feel for why people call her the evil queen. Even he has no need for this many cells.

"Rumple? Rumplestiltskin, is that you?"

He freezes for a moment when he hears the familiar voice.

"Belle?" he asks, his voice echoing down the hall.

"Rumplestiltskin," she says and he can hear the relief in her voice. "But what are you doing here?" she asks and he steps to the door of her cell, disintegrating the whole thing with a wave of his hand and a puff of purple smoke.

"She told me you were dead," he says. "And I believed her. For months I believed her. I'm sorry Belle. For everything."

She throws her arms around him in a hug, nearly bowling him over in her enthusiasm. She leans up to kiss him but he places his hands on her shoulders and gently holds her back.

"Does me losing my magic while we are in the Queen's dungeon seem like a good idea?" he asks.

"I guess not," she admits with a smile. "I missed you."

"I missed you to," he admits, then decides not to press his luck and adds "The place has been filthy without you."

She laughs.

"I'll be right back," he says, looking up.

"Wait, where are you going? You can't just leave me down here."

"I'm going to kill the queen."

"No! You're better than that Rumple. Show me I'm right. Show me you're better than her. Please, just take me away from here."

"I can't just let her get away with this, Belle."

"Then don't." She catches his arm as he tries to storm upstairs. "But you don't have to murder her."

"You're right of course Belle. I can imprison everything she holds dear and…"

"Or," she insists, "You could free all of her prisoners."

"What good does that do?" he asks.

"For one thing, it's the right thing to do. Most of the other prisoners also have people who care about them. How would you have felt if one of them broke in, rescued their loved one, and left me in my cell?"

"Yes, but I've rescued you now. I don't need one of them to do it for me."

"Baby steps I suppose," she says, shaking her head. "The other reason is because the Queen wants them as her prisoners. So take that away from her. It might teach her a valuable lesson of why it's a bad idea to use me as a hostage. She can't learn that if you kill her."

"That makes more sense," he agrees. "And I expect they will be willing to pay handsomely for their rescue."

"Or you could remember that you already have your reason to save them," she says, taking his hand in hers. He stares down at her hand for a moment, then up at her face, blinking his glassy eyes in surprise.

"Yes," he says, with wonder in his voice. "I… I think I might." He waves his hand and they both vanish and reappear along with a few dozen other people just outside Regina's castle.

Once they are all safely in the forest he reaches out and crushes one of the stones at the base of the castle. There is a loud crack and a tremor runs through the castle, stones skittering down and crashing to the ground. One of the spires crashes down altogether.

"That was petty," Belle says, but a tiny smile plays at the corner of her mouth.

"Yes," he says, sounding a bit proud of himself. "Yes it was. Under protest I'm not killing her. For now. But I am still the Dark One, Dearie."

"About that, we aren't in the Queen's dungeon anymore." Her eyes search his face as she speaks.

"Belle, I can't just… The Dark Fairy," he says, latching on to the one reason she might accept. "She is my responsibility because I had her wand most recently. You wouldn't want me to turn my back on that."

"No," she says thoughtfully. "I suppose not. But is that really the reason? Or are you still choosing your power?"

"It's the most important reason, Belle. You've had a trying day. And longer than that. Let's get you home."


Note:

I will be wrapping up the first of what will probably be three parts to the story in the next few chapters before I go out of town. It will, sadly, have to go on hiatus after this week until late-August because I am doing a full immersion foreign language program for the rest of the summer so I can't be writing in English. I will return the last week of August and the story will continue. There are still a few chapters that I will finish before I leave to wrap up the first part of the story.