Rumpelstiltskin awoke up from his dream feeling a little disoriented, why do they have to be so powerful, why does each one have to be about Bae somehow...Bae and that girl? Who was she? Some princess... Did his mind conjure her up or was she indeed real? He had to think hard to remember if he had ever heard of a Belle, he couldn't recall, perhaps he didn't want to remember, he only wanted to focus on his son, Bae. He had some sort of dream within a dream hadn't he? He could still smell his son, all sunshine and childhood, rolled up into one dark-haired smiling face, looking at him with love but also fear, fear over what he had become, what he was capable of, now that he had power.

He had to get out of here somehow, He was weakened by these bars, by the fairy dust used to put him here... Fucking fairies, if he ever found a way out he would kill them all, but first he had to find his son, first he had to find a way out.

He ran his scaled hand through his dirty hair in despair. It had all seemed so real, it threatened to unnerve him. The things that had gone on, he was not that man. It showed him things that would come to pass. Regina and her perverted sick brother. They had his castle, had him, and probably his son. They were in league with Ruel Ghorm. That little fairy better hope she stayed well hidden he thought to himself. He stretched his tired body, he had no idea how long he had slept, time meant nothing down here. The bars were reinforced with magic, magic that the blue fairy had given the Queen, well..., not his fucking Queen, and she would be no one's Queen lying in the cold grave he had planned for her, with no one but her brother for company.

He crossed his legs and leaned back against the cool stone of his cell, resting there as if he were actually somewhere he wanted to be, he wished he could conjure up his old pipe, but his powers were null here, all expect his powers of sight. His mind wandered back to the girl Belle...she was indeed beautiful but definitely in danger. He closed his eyes and remembered the vision. Gaston had raped her, the dream had seemed so real that it could have been him, but it was as if he were a bystander...just watching one minute and then as if he were Gaston the next...He licked his dry lips before running it over his jagged black teeth, He was thirsty. He looked over at his empty cup. Usually every morning someone came to fill it and leave some sort of uneatable goop, but this morning it wasnt there.

He closed his eyes an took a deep breath but he couldn't get the smell of his son out of his mind...he had been close enough to touch, close enough to grab him straight out of the vision and into his arms once more, and the girl, he could still feel the soft white flesh between his fingers as he had gripped her arm, as he had felt for the vein in her neck. It had been him but not. Had these things come to pass? He suspected not, but they would if he didn't find some way out, and the tower...no one must find out about the tower...but somehow she had found it, and with his help.

He could still hear himself guiding her there, perhaps she can help him out of here. He knew for a certainty that she was not at the castle...well not yet anyhow. He knew he would be able to feel her presence if she were that close, he suspected that it wouldn't be long and her scent would fill his nose as it had in the vision.

The seer had told him that a boy would be his down fall, but now it felt like it might be this girl...this girl that would suffer at Gaston and Regina's hand if she were not careful. He wondered if she knew...if she had any inkling of what lay in store for her. She seemed a bright but willful child...no, not a child he had to admit, but young, no older than perhaps nineteen he'd guess. He could remember the smell of her hair, the taste of her lips.

He got up from his resting spot and began to pace like a caged animal, that was what he was. He walked over to the spiked bars that held him captive and ran his blackened nail down one of the spikes, an oily residue peeled off it. They looked like average wood, nothing special but under the oil the exposed bark burnt him, burnt him with a white magic, something that faked a pureness but was as powerful as anything he had ever been faced with in his short time as the Dark One. He wasn't master of it yet, he still doubted himself, he still had no idea of what he was capable of when Regina had tricked him. He could sence something was very wrong when he walked into the trap, he knew it immediately but then it had been too late.

A ring of fairy dust so powerful that it kept him within its boundries...trapped here, while Regina and her incestuous brother claimed the lands, claimed his castle, claimed him. He had taken the dark powers to protect his son. He had put a stop to the fighting and had brought the children home. Now Gaston and Regina had him trapped, his powers locked tight within him as they ravaged the lands, kingdom after kingdom, building an empire that reached from one side to the other.

They would come to taunt him sometimes. She had showed him how she would transform Gaston from a hulking brut into Rumpelstiltskin's own smaller body...it was like looking into a mirror and they would regale him with tales of others misfortune at what they thought was the Dark Ones hands, when actually it was their own Queen's and her sick, twisted brother's plot to capture the world. sometimes they would finish their little visits by grouping at each other, their mouths finding each other. they liked having an audience for some unknown reason. Rumpel would turn his back, but the noises of pleasure would fill his ears so that he would hear it in the night, their dark and unnatural relationship worming it's way into his mind with their sighs of pleasure as they enjoyed each other as lovers did.

This girl, she was one of many he suspected, but how was it that she was the only one that he had dreamt of, did she posses some sort of magic as well? Was she a seer of sorts or perhaps the product of a kind of magic? It was her that would set him free, find his dagger, give him back the power he would need to get out of this trap layed for him and free the lands of this dark menace, even help him find his boy. He was sure that she was very important, he just wished he hadn't been able to remember everything Gaston had done to her. Even though it hadn't been him, but through Gaston, he had this carnal knowledge of her that made her not far from his thoughts at all times, the sound of her voice and the sweet feel of her breath on his face, his fingers itched to touch her.

He would wipe it away as if it were scribblings in the dirt that he could erase with his hand easily if he could, but the memory those eyes haunted his every step, every time he closed his own, every time he opened them, so blue. He felt sure that the moment she entered his castle...yes, it was still his castle, that he would feel her. Perhaps he could direct her as he had done in the dream. He could whisper into her ear and make her hear him. He sat back down in his spot and rested his head back against the cool stones and waited...

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO

"You look lovely princess" Nina exclaimed as she put the last pin in that held Belle's hair back.

Belle looked at her reflection in the mirror. The soft silken ball gown fit for a Queen and the same hair-do as she saw herself wearing in the vision of him dragging her through his castle halls that fateful day...this fateful day. It would come true, although she hoped not all of it.

She swallowed, but her throat was dry. She nodded to her maid, dismissed her and proceeded to make her way to her father. She found him in his meeting hall. He sat there looking grim until his eyes fell on her and lite up. "My beautiful girl, Gaston will be so pleased that you look as if your his Queen already. He will be here soon, He and his lovely sister Regina, they will make the perfect allies, don't you think?" He always would ask her what she thought, but seldom would he take any advice and now he was in thrilled with this beautiful couple, this brother and sister that charmed the hearts of all they met, all except her. She saw through their façade, their beauty, to see a ugliness that was invisible to all save her.

She looked down at the floor silent, unable to meet her father's eye, to him she seemed so distant. He frowned when he saw this, he hated his little beauty looking so sad. "Don't look so down Belle, your only scared of marriage, it won't be as bad as all that. You'll grow to love him as much as he already professes to love you."

Belle's eyes shot up to her father's, he looked hopeful at her, her heart broke for him, for her mother and today she was destined to lose him...as she had lost her mother. "Of course father." Her soft voice seemed to put him at ease. He motioned her over, he held out his arms as she rushed to him like a child and tucked her head beneath his chin as she always did. Her childhood was over, from this day forward she would be Gaston's wife. She hugged her papa close and smelled his clothes, they smelled like pipe smoke and mint. She tried to burn it into her memory for she already knew what would happen and she was as much a feather in the wind as anyone, about to be swept far away from those she loved, to a nightmare from which she might never be able to awaken, but if she were to truly save her kingdom she would do her duty as their rightful Queen and see where it took her.

As she held on to her father the sound of trumpets that announced Gaston and his sister's arrival found its way to her ears, making her open her eyes that were now filled with worry and doubt. Maybe she could just excuse herself and run away, hide...could she? She realized that somehow she couldn't, she was no coward.

She turned to the doors that now opened and in walked her betrothed.

"Ahhh Gaston" the King waved him over as he untangled himself from Belle and greeted the tall, sour faced young man. The resemblance between him and his older sister were uncanny. Raven hair and cold eyes, beautiful yet dangerous features. The same pouty mouth that could be both so sensual and yet look as if fangs hid beneath the blood-red lips, threatening to bite at any given opportunity. Gaston gave a graceful bow to the King before taking Belle's hand kissing it lightly.

"Your majesty" he greeted the King first. His smoldering eyes met Belle's, "Princess." Gaston followed Maurice over to the large table that mapped out his and the surrounding kingdoms. " a foot soldier came in and approached the King.

"Sir, there's news from the battlefield, Avonlea has fallen." Belle watched her father pale at the news. His face ashen and waxy as he took in what the soldier was saying, there was essentially no hope unless Gaston stepped in or his request to the Dark One be answered.

Gaston stepped forward, "If only he had come." Belle knew of who they meant. The man from her dream, she had never seen him in person but her heart quickened its pace thinking of him. Maurice walked over to his chair and slumped into it, beaten, Belle wanted to help him desperately, she felt useless. She knelt down at her father's feet as he talked with Gaston.

"He could be on his way right now papa" Belle cut in on the mens conversation. Maurice didn't even want to look at her as he slumped lower in his seat his despair evident on his face.

"It's too late my girl, it's just too late." Suddenly a booming knock shook the door. Everyone turned toward the sound, each with either a look of fear or wonder on their faces. Belle noticed that Gaston's seemed to be one of confidence. The dark one was well-known for his tricks and as soon as everyone rushed to the door the imp appeared in Maurice's chair. He seemed not much bigger than a child sitting in the oversized chair but when he stood and announced to them his plans for saving the kingdom in exchange for Belle he seemed a hundred feet tall. Belle couldn't take her eyes from him. It was the man in her vision, the same one who showed his savageness and his weakness all in one moment of time. The one who lay on the work table and shared a vision of his son that she could see so clearly, making a deal with a small boy, who was pleading with him to escape his dark powers. This was just a man only something evil had taken root in him.

She starred hypnotised as he haggled with Maurice with the price for his services but as he was asked to leave Belle saw her chance to follow the vision and go with him, she accepted the deal. She had a feeling there was more than meets the eye with whoever he might be. According to her vision, he was something other than what he seemed and if she was going to save her kingdom she was going to have to play this out.

Gaston had made a feeble attempt to protect her but never uttered a word of protest when she had accepted the deal. She could hear her father's distress, his strangled voice as he watched her go, begging the beast to bring her back... to reconsider.

Belle walked out with him as he escorted her to a carriage, she hadn't expected this, she just figured he would use some sort of magic to whisk them both away. As the horses pulled off with Rumpelstiltskin and his caretaker, Belle felt tears began to fall, hot and wet on her cheeks, she looked back at her home fading off into the distance, one she would never lay eyes on again.

They rode for what seemed like forever, him not uttering one word to her as they went, only his cold reptilian eyes boring into her as they went. Belle watched out the window until she could no longer hold her eyes open.

A jarring awoke her as the carriage stopped. She didn't really know how long she had been asleep but now that they stopped she was aware that her backside was numb and her back ached terribly from being in the same position so long. "Why have we stopped?" She looked over at Rumpelstiltskin across from her. He was looking out the other side of the carriage, his eyes fixed on a man approaching upon a horse. Belle thought perhaps it was one of her father's soldiers. She scooted over to the other side to get a better view and gasped when she recognized Gaston riding up before dismounting and walk up to Rumpelstiltskin who just smiled at him, opening the door.

Belle gasped as the man who she thought was her betrothed faded away like dust in a storm and reveled none other than Regina standing there. She turned and smiled at Belle before taking the offered hand of Rumple and stepping into the carriage, sitting in the seat next too him.

"Glad you could join us sister." Belle looked from one to the other, her mouth open in disbelief. Her father had been duped into thinking Gaston had been himself, but it had been Regina there in some sort of fairy glamor, masquerading as her betrothed. Another part of the vision unraveled and Belle saw the fairy dust fall from the monster across from her to revel none other than Gaston sitting next to his sister as they both looked at their prize.

"That was easier than I thought, don't you agree my Queen?" Regina gave a chuckle as she watched Belle shrink back in her seat trying to keep as far away from the pair before her as she was able.

"Easier than taking candy from a dull-witted King, you did well my brother." Belle felt bile rise in her throat as she watched Regina lean over and tenderly kiss her brother's waiting lips as if they were lovers.