This chapter was revised by my incredible beta Ethereal Wishes.

Warning: This chapter has some rape content, so if you're not willing to read anything related to that, please don't.


They materialized in the middle of the woods, where the black and red carriage was still left aside, abandoned after the attack its owners had suffered. Roland looked around, hoping that the Dark One was wrong, and Rose was in fact laying unconscious in a hidden corner of this forest, his bow and arrows slung over his shoulders. Even though he had magic, the boy always carried his father's most cherished weapons, because he was good at using then, and felt secure having them in his reach.

His parents were glancing at each other like a new argument was about to erupt between them, but he was trying to ignore it, because he didn't want to think that he had brought more problems to them, and he was too worried about Rose. Rumplestiltskin kneeled on the ground, picking up the purple fabric that was laying on the ground.

"The scarf," Roland muttered.

"This was the place Gideon and Dove last saw her," the imp confirmed.

Regina sighed, resting both her hands on her hips as she looked around unpleasantly. "It's almost like she vanished from this realm."

Something clicked inside Roland's mind at his mother's words. There were only two options possible to look at if the tracking spell couldn't locate Rose, the first one was what Regina pointed out, but the second - well the second gave him some hope that Rose might be as close as they were. He turned around to face Robin in an attempt to confirm his suspicions, pointing at the forking paths ahead them.

"Wait, those three roads go to where, dad?"

"The middle one is the Queen's road," Robin explained, "and it goes straight to Snow White's castle. The left goes to Aurora's, and the right is the path to Avonlea."

"That's it!" Roland exclaimed happily.

"What?" All three of them asked simultaneously.

Rolling his eyes, the boy gestured to the path his father had pointed to, attempting to understand how they couldn't have realised what that meant. They were adults, had already lived through enough adventures, and he didn't think it was difficult to follow his line of reasoning.

"Avonlea!" Roland exclaimed.

"I'm not understanding your point, boy." Rumplestiltskin said. "Why would she be in Avonlea? And if she was, the tracking spell would take us there."

"No, milord, and that's exactly the point," Roland bounced. "Some years ago, King Maurice bound the place against magic using the help of the fairies. This kingdom is invisible to the tracking spell."

By his side, his mother gasped. "I raised a prodigy."

"Well, I do have to admit that this was clever, boy." The Dark One agreed, and he felt flattered with this small compliment, and if Rose was here he would have asked her to repeat her father's words for decades.

"Thank you, milord," Roland said with a smile. "But, we have a problem. I don't know if our magic will work once we reach the limits of Avonlea."

But that wasn't exactly a problem for Rumplestiltskin. He may feel uncertain and useless without magic, as if he was just a coward again, but that wouldn't prevent him from saving his daughter. He would enter Avonlea and slay anyone who tried to get in his way if need be.

"With magic or not, I'll get my daughter back," the imp assured him.

"But why would she be there?" Regina wondered. "I thought Maurice hated your family."

"Oh, yeah, he does and my guess is that this is the reason she is there," he said, twisting the scarf in his hands. "But if he harmed my Rose, he will pay."

Robin inhaled deeply, tapping his hand on his son's back as he glanced at the worried Dark One. "We can't waste time."

"Aye," Rumplestiltskin muttered in agreement. "We can't."


Rose was tired, eyes almost closing with the need for sleep, but she was too frightened to do so, and for the first time it had nothing to do with her visions, actually on that day, she would have been grateful if they were the only problems she had to face. Her grandfather was even worse than she'd ever thought him to be, he claimed to want her alive. She wasn't counting on that, and adding to the fact that this creepy guy Keith was eager to get a chance to take his foolish revenge over her father and Regina by destroying her reputation, she'd rather stay awake, although she knew that she was nothing without her magic.

For the first time, Rose understood what her father meant by feeling like a coward without his powers, because it was exactly why she was terrified. She felt uncomfortable on the bed, starring at the bookshelf and wondering if her mother had ever felt so miserable as she was. Her stomach was aching with hunger, however nobody seemed to have remembered that she needed to eat, otherwise they wouldn't have bothered in selling her to Nottingham, because she would starve to death before she asked him for a favor.

Hugging the pillow beside her, Rose sighed, telling herself that she was the Dark One's daughter and he would find her before anything worse could happen. She looked up upon hearing the sound of the door opening behind her. Alerted, Rose sat up, but instead of the King or his stupid lecher, one of the knights appeared.

"King Maurice wants to see you," he said.

"Again?" Rose asked with a bitter laugh, straightening her messy curls. "The last slap wasn't enough and he thinks he needs to repeat it?"

"Keep your mouth shut and come with me," the knight commanded walking towards the bed and grabbing her by the waist, pulling her forcefully to her feet, "your insolent, witch."

He dragged her out of the chambers like she was a priceless prisoner, not Rumplestiltskin's heir, not King Maurice's own granddaughter, like she was no one and that made her blood boil in her veins, because she was pretty sure that not even the workers on the Dark Realm's mines were treated like that. Rose stumbled with every step and she could feel her eyes burning with unshed tears.

"My father will kill you all," she warned, but the guard ignored her.

They crossed the hallway, stopping in front of a big wooden wall with two soldiers standing on each side of it, accompanied by Keith. A knot formed on her throat, the fear coming up again.

"I'll be waiting for you later, doll," the former Sheriff of Nottingham announced, winking at her.

"I'd rather throw myself through the window." Rose muttered under her breath.

And she wasn't joking either, she had really been considering an escape by jumping from one of the windows. Unfortunately, she knew there wasn't a good perspective of survival. Rose let the guards open the door and the knight behind her almost threw her inside She righted herself on her feet. She lifted her chin and looked directly at King Maurice who was laying on his bed, looking even worse than he had been when she saw him earlier, like some mere hours were capable of destroying all of his health.

"So, you hate me, but you keep calling me all the time," she pointed out sarcastically. "This is a little contradictory, grandpa."

"You cursed me," Maurice accused in a husky voice.

"Cursed you?" Rose asked with a roll of her brown eyes. "I've already said that I'm not a witch. A sorceress, but not a witch. There is a slight difference."

However, as she was starting to realise, apparently, she had no voice there, because no one ever seemed to hear what she said. Rose remembered that her mother used to say that women had no chance and no opinion on her kingdom, and only now she understood it completely. She had been raised to be suborn, to show her opinion and never let others pull her down, and she couldn't even begin to imagine how terrible it was to have to keep your thoughts to yourself, because people didn't think you were worth hearing.

On his bed, King Maurice coughed various times as if he was choking on air.

"I was getting better from this illness, but ever since I found you, I feel like the life is fading from me."

"You were fated to die long before you found me on that road, King Maurice, and you were going to, even if you didn't decide to bring me here," Rose explained.

Narrowing his eyes, he dared a question, that came hoarsely through his lips: "You can really see the future?"

"I'm a seer, that's what I do. And before you ask, no, I can't control it," she shrugged, tapping her fingers together. "I only see tragedies in my dreams."

"Exactly like the daughter of a monster is supposed to do," the King whispered harshly.

Taking a deep breath, Rose felt herself about to lose her nerve. "Are you done, your Majesty? Because if that's all you wanted, then I'll go back to my little prison."

"You're not going anywhere," Maurice said, pointing at the chair near his bed, with another command. "Sit."

She breathed in, finding herself without any choice but to do as he said and take the seat near him, a sensation of déjà vu filling her, because she had seen this scene in her dreams, many, many times, even though it was always blurry, only showing her what really mattered - her grandfather's death. It was time for it, Rose thought darkly.

"I don't know what kind of amusement you find in bothering me," Rose said harshly, "but it's unfair."

"You're a demon's spawn. The daughter of a monster," Maurice said between coughs, just like he had done in her dreams. "You shouldn't exist!"

Shaking her head, the girl looked away from him, feeling crushed by those words, because she wanted to be seen for who she was and not by the weight of her father's reputation, and she hated that the King was too blind by hate to see that she was nothing but a girl. A gifted one, but not an abomination as he claimed her to be.

"So why don't you tell your men to kill me?"

For the first time, he let his glance fall from her to the coral sheets that were wrapped around him, the hate fading from his expression, being replaced by something that almost resembled regret.

"Because you look like her," he whispered.

"And as much as you want to think of her dead, you can't kill something that is like, Belle, right?" Rose questioned with sad eyes. "You can't kill a child of hers."

"I've seen the magic, the proof that you're that beast's own spawn," he stated, gesticulating in her direction, "but you don't seem to be. You look like my daughter."

Nibbling at her lower lip, she worried with the soft fabric of her gown. "If you care about her, King Maurice, then who my father is shouldn't matter to you."

Those were the sincerest words she'd spoken to him since they'd met, and she expected to hear more offenses, but his face had softened. He still looked like he was about to pass out, all pale and seeming to be having trouble breathing, but all that remained of his hate was some mistrust that still shone in his eyes.

"How old are you?" He asked.

"Sixteen."

"Just a girl," the King mumbled, coughing and pressing a cloth on his mouth. When he pulled it down, she could see the red marks of blood on it, which made a shiver pass through her body. "Can you talk about her? My Belle?"

"My father uses a spell to keep her young," Rose said with a sigh, a little smile playing on her lips. "She is the best mother I could wish for and everybody respects her and her wisdom."

King Maurice nodded, adding in the most uninterested way he could: "What about the dark children? Your siblings?"

The dark children, so that's what the whole world thought they were. Rose would give anything to be back to her bubble in her own home, where the rumours didn't reach her and everything was good and right. There, there was only her beloved family that would live and die for one another, where appearances didn't matter and darkness was only an old friend.

"Well, there is Gideon, who is the eldest, Aiden, and little Colette," she told her grandfather, remarking: "We are happy, despite everything we've faced."

"And you are a Rose," the King said, almost smiling. Just almost. "That was my wife's favourite flower. Mainly the red ones."

"It's mine too."

"Beautiful, but covered with thorns. Like you."

"Like me," she agreed, because for the first time something he said sounded like the truth.

Maurice started to cough again and this time he couldn't manage to cover his mouth with the cloth, so blood started to drip from the sides of it, and Rose watched the life fading from him.

"I release you from Avonlea. Tell Belle… That I am sorry," the King requested breathlessly. "Rose..."

His eyes fixed themselves on her and then, stopped moving. Sighing, Rose moved ahead, closing his eyelids and touching his forehead for a brief second before pulling away. "Rest in peace, grandpa," she whispered.

"The King is dead!" One of the guards proclaimed.

And just like that, she needed to hug herself at the thought that she had really predicted the death of another member of her family. If she got the chance now, Rose would have gone to Maleficent to find that old spell book Lady Heart had told her about, because she decided she didn't want these powers anymore. They were a curse, a curse she wanted no part of any longer.

The door slammed open, but the girl didn't even move, her glance on the King's dead body. She didn't need to turn around to know who had entered the room, she was pretty sure that man eager to claim his part on a deal would do so very quickly when it was time.

"Finally!" Keith exclaimed. "This poison took too long to work."

A gasp left Rose's mouth as she finally looked up to face the former sheriff. "You poisoned him?" She asked in disbelief. "Why?"

"You should know, doll, that nobody enjoys when a man tries to step back on a deal, and old Maurice was so bewitched by you that he was considering breaking the one he'd forged with me," he shrugged. "I couldn't allow that to happen."

In a minute, he was talking all soft and slow, like the cold blooded murderer he was, and in the other, he was grabbing her by the arm and dragging her out of the king's chambers, using all his force to contain her as she attempted to wrench away from his grasp.

"No! The king released me before he died," she tried to say. "All the guards witnessed it."

Keith took her back to the same chambers where she had been kept as a prisoner, closing the door behind them so they were alone, except for the same two idiots who had been watching her and seemed to be willing to watch him ruin her. The former sheriff pushed her to the bed, gripping her wrists and bringing them to the top of her head.

"But the guards don't have a king to follow anymore, and now," he grinned, "you shall be mine."

Rose's heart was tumbling in her chest, tears starting to fall from her eyes. She wasn't going to be saved in time and the fear of what Keith was about to do made her blood turn to ice in her veins. This wasn't supposed to happen, she was a lady, she was the Dark One's daughter, she deserved better. She deserved to be loved. Tossing herself again and kicking Keith with all of her strength, she tried to run away.

"I swear I wasn't joking, I'll will throw myself out the window before letting you touch me!" Rose shouted, behind clenched teeth.

If only that freaking black cuff wasn't blocking her magic, then she would have a chance to free herself, to show him that nobody messes with someone who was trained by the greatest sorcerer in the realm. But today she was helpless and when he managed to push her back against the mattress and pull her skirt up, all she could do was to keep fighting, even though she knew this was a battle she wasn't going to win.

"You won't get the chance," Keith answered, pulling down his trousers with just one hand. "Once your father denied me a night with his whore, now let's see how he reacts when I make you mine."

He managed to let his trousers fall down around his knees, exposing his erected member, and Rose looked away, because she didn't want to have any memory of his disgusting anatomy on her mind. It was already suffering enough to know what was about to happen and when he bent his body to hers, pressing her against the bed while holding her the stillest he could, she freaked out, because she couldn't let this happen.

The former sheriff had some trouble to part her legs, because she started to kick blindly. "Take your hands off me!"

"You have no power, dear," Keith reminded her, pulling her undergarments off and setting himself in place right above her.

"You will pay for this with your life." Rose promised, glancing at the man who were watching them. "All of you."

She felt something hard brushing against her inner thigh, more tears streaming down her cheeks as Keith moved to reach for her neck with his mouth. Rose closed her eyes tightly. Suddenly a gasp came out of the former sheriff's mouth, but it wasn't a pleasant one, it was a sound of pain, and his body smashed hers against the mattress just for a second before it was thrown out of the bed. Eyelids fluttering open, she saw Rumplestiltskin right in front of her, and Keith laid still on the floor by his feet, his neck hanging in a bizarre angle.

"Papa!" She exclaimed happily, sitting on the bed and throwing her arms around his waist.

"Aye, sweetheart, you're alright," he assured her, caressing her hair. "You're safe."

She wanted to speak more, to thank him and say that she knew that he would come for her, but the noise of the guards choking behind them made Rose turn around, noticing for the first time the other three people that had accompanied her father. Regina smashed the two hearts in her bare hands, the dust crumbling beneath her fingertips like wisps of smoke. She walked towards the bed giving a quick look at her exposed legs before pulling her skirt down further.

"There is no blood," the dark-haired woman informed them. "We arrived just in time, she remains untouched."

"Oh, Rose... " the boy with a bow and arrow hanging from his shoulders muttered.

Her eyes met his as a sob left her mouth. "Roland - " she cried, letting him approach and hug her, his heat warming her, taking away the coldness left from Keith's assault. "I want my mother."

Rumplestiltskin pushed him away and lifted his daughter in his arms like she was a helpless child. He still couldn't believe the scene he had walked into and how someone had dared to try doing something so horrible to his girl. But the Dark One knew something for certain, in that moment his urge to kill and give more into his darkness was growing too large to be ignored, and he was only stifling it, because he needed to look after his child.

"I'll take you to her," he whispered to Rose, letting his magic make them appear back at the Dark Castle.

The great hall was silent, and children must have been entertained by the maids, and his wife should be taking care of their injured son. In his arms, Rose was trembling and crying painfully. He glanced at Regina and her family as he started to climb up the stairs.

"Belle!" The imp called in despair. "Belle!"

When he reached the floor where the family bedrooms were, Rumplestiltkin could see his wife exiting Gideon's chambers and looking for him, her eyes growing wide when she saw that he was carrying their daughter in his arms with a whole retinue following them.

"Rumple - " she gasped, reaching for her husband with tears shinning in her eyes as she touched Rose's face. "My little girl!"

"Let's take her to her chambers," Rumplestiltskin said, gesticulating to the closed door near Gideon's chambers and making it open with magic.

Belle rushed inside and pulled the bed covers away so he could lay Rose against the mattress before they covered her. She was still crying and Rumple muttered a hurried explanation about everything that had happened in Avonlea to his wife. A haunted expression overtook her face, but Belle didn't break down in tears like he expected her to. She swallowed hard, nodding and telling him to take care of their guests who were watching them anxiously from the doorway.

The tiniest of the smiles passed through his lips as he thought of how much he still underestimated his wife. She was tougher than she appeared to be and sometimes he just forgot that. Rumplestiltskin watched her pull Rose into a tight hug, carding her fingers into their daughter's curled hair. He sighed, gesticulating for Regina and the others to step back into the hallway as he walked towards them, closing the door.

"No one will ever say a thing about what you saw in that room today. You all know what I am capable of. " the imp coerced, before turning his attention to his apprentice's son. "You boy, come with me."

Roland shrunk, muttering: "Alright."

His mother, however wasn't willing to cope with the Dark One. Regina knew that Rumple was still affected by what they saw in Avonlea, she knew the call of the darkness in someone's eyes when she saw it. After some years fighting it herself, the former Evil Queen could call herself a professional in recognizing an inter battle when she saw one, so she placed herself in front of Roland, a protective arm preventing him from following the imp.

"No, he won't."

"I won't kill him, Regina," Rumplestiltskin rolled his eyes, waving his hand to make him and Roland vanish from the corridor and appear outside the castle, right at the front gardens.

He could see how nervous the boy was just to be alone with him, but Rumple started to walk, gesturing for him to follow and taking some moments to form the right question, because he didn't know how exactly to do it, or if he wanted to, but it was for Rose's sake, so he breathed in and put on his harshest face.

"How long have you been with my daughter?"

"What? I - " Roland tried to say, his cheeks flushing in a bright shade of red.

"I'm not a fool, boy. Just speak."

Tipping his fingers nervously around his bow, Roland confessed: "About three years."

"And for the sake to know for sure if I should make a potion for her right now or not, I need to know if you two have been intimate."

"No!" Roland said in a gasp. "I respect Rose, milord."

For the first time since they'd left Avonlea, Rumplestiltskin sighed in relief. He had reached his girl in time, and Keith had no time to do what he was intending to and although Rose's soul would need time for healing, at least she remained untouched.

"So, she is safe," he contemplated. "No blood, no mess."

"You saved her," the boy agreed.

There was a kind smile on his lips, one of those that only people that held a extremely goodness in their hearts could show, the kind of one Belle used to wear even when he was being a beast, unworthy of her. And now Rumplestiltskin realised that he feared that his children couldn't get the same kind of love he shared with their mother.

"Roland," the Dark One began, hesitantly, "will you still want her after what happened?"

"Why wouldn't I? That doesn't change a thing about Rose to me, sir, it only makes me feel disgusted of men like Nottingham."

Smiling he decided, that he might like Regina's son.

"You're not bad," Rumple dared to say, but still used his impish tone to do so, just to make sure that he still sounded a little threatening. "But I'll keep an eye on you and you'll come for dinner and talk about an engagement when she is eighteen."

"Oh, I - "

"Until then, Agathe will accompany you whenever you want to see my daughter."

Roland gave up trying to protest, instead he smiled and nodded. "Yes, milord."


Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the delay, but I hope you all enjoyed it.