Chapter Ten: Deathly Magic

Regina made everyone back up, and even Emma was overpowered by such force of dark magic. Rumpelstiltskin stood twenty feet away. Things were going to get ugly.

"I'm here to make an offer Rumpel. Your son in exchange for all your power," Regina said. "Of course, that means you'd surrender it all to me."

"You'd kill me anyways," Rumpel countered. "That's not a deal, that's suicide! Come on, Regina. You should know better than this."

"Oh you can surrender it without dying. In this world, you can. All you have to do is agree to the deal, and I'll give him back," Regina said. Rumpel looked at Bae, then back to Regina.

It was not because the power had consumed him, but because Rumpelstiltskin had no other way to fight her without his magic. He could never let her have it all. He'd rather get rid of it, let it roam free, than have it be in her grasp.

"No." Rumpelstiltskin began attacking her with magic, and Bae hurled over in the air behind Regina. Her smiled widened.

"Very well, your choice."

Bae couldn't believe this! His father still wouldn't give up the power for his LIFE. It was Bae's life and all his father had to do was give up the power. Still, he could not do such a thing.

Baelfire lay hopelessly in the air, no longer caring whether he lived or died. His father was not changing, there was nothing he could do. He was alone in the world, now in the grasp of the Evil Queen. Somehow, his father still cared about him, but Bae couldn't even see why if he'd always be second to the power.

"Why are you doing this Regina? What did I do to you? I created this, I left you to be Mayor...what did I do wrong?" Rumpelstiltskin asked. "Why is he paying for this?"

"You brought her into town!" Regina shouted, pointing at Emma. "You destroyed my happiness, and now I'm going to destroy yours, well actually-"

Gold never gave her time to finished, the magic was settling in nicely. Regina's magic and Gold's magic had always felt close in power, but now both of them were rusty with it. It just depended on who was the most rusty of the two of them.

"You took my son away from me!" Regina shouted at him, but Gold just kept going, firing anything he could think of to block her light blue magic power. The dark purple simmered in his veins as he struck back at her. But no matter how many hits he made on her, she still kept coming back.

Belle watched from the sideline, seeing a building get torn apart by the Evil Queen and the streets cracked thanks to Rumpel blocking a powerful attack by Regina, which sent the pawn broker thrusting back. The smoke began to reel up from his feet as he skid back further, and he spread both of his hand out at his sides when that was over. But Baelfire, he didn't look so good. Belle stared at him, seeing him in spurts of suffering.

What was Regina doing to him?

Rumpelstiltskin's rage overcame him, but Belle couldn't help it. There was something strange about this whole thing. After Regina threw Rumpelstiltskin into a building, allowing him to crash freely, she let the boy drop, hitting the ground, seemingly unconscious.

Mr. Gold was having a problem with her, which seemed odd to him. His magic was the most powerful in all the land, there was no way she could surpass him. Sighing, Rumpel returned to his feet and had at her, but each time, she seemed to be playing more defense than offense, and she'd been the one to pick the fight. Gold ran back onto the streets, allowing for him to use shielding magic on her attacks when he did conjure them.

Attacking him was one thing, but he didn't see his son anymore high above her, and that was another. Regina must have let him down somewhere. Looking, however, was another curse for him, allowing Regina to catch enough blows to his body to send him reeling back. The pain was becoming increasingly annoying.

There was a loud growl and a low toned bark, and as Rumpel lay for a few moments to recover from the Evil Queen's magical abilities, there was a large wolf latched to Regina's arm, distracting her for an extensive period, just enough for Rumpelstiltskin to catch her by surprise.

Ruby clamped her jaws to Regina's arms, hating the sidelines. This was someone's kid, and although he worked for Rumpelstiltskin, Ruby couldn't stand to even hear what happened to Henry. She didn't want another victim to befall to a similar, more unfortunate fate.

The Evil Queen was thrown back, forcing Ruby off of her, but now she used more magic than before, now that she had to fight Ruby's family curse and Rumpelstiltskin's magic. Mainly focused on Rumpel though, she coaxed him out to use more and more magic.

Belle found that the barrier forcing back the townsfolk was lifted, not that anyone was thinking to venture out onto the field of battle. Well, no one except her. She snuck over to Baelfire, who was barely breathing.

"Come on, talk to me," Belle said, looking for any sort of reaction or mumble. Bae coughed roughly, as though he had a dry cold. The sound through his throat was horrendous, but she listened for anything she could get out of him.

"Papa..." he moaned, but Belle didn't have time to correct him. "Don't...the mag-" he reeled over in more pain, but Belle sensed his body was giving up.

"Spell...don't use..." Bae was hardly saying anything more. Belle looked up at Rumpel, and then she saw when he conjured magic. She looked to Bae, and another sigh escaped him, and his life seemed to fading right before her eyes.

Belle understood, this was some type of spell, and it seemed to be killing Baelfire whenever his father used magic! Still holding Bae, Belle lifted him off the ground, finding he was heavier than he appeared.

"Rumpelstiltskin!" she yelled into the arena of battle, trying to move Bae out of the way at the same time.

"RUMPELSTILTSKIN! Listen to me, you can't use magic!"

Ruby's energy was depleting, for her magic was not the most centered. Rumpelstiltskin appreciated her strength though. The Evil Queen and the others heard Belle screaming at Rumpel, but none of them paid any heed to her. Ruby was thrown aside, almost hitting Belle. She took the opportunity.

"Tell him, he can't use magic. It's killing Baelfire!" Belle exclaimed to Ruby.

"What?" she growled, shooting Belle a look.

"His magic, the more he uses it, the weaker Bae gets."

"How do you know?"

"Just trust me! Please," Belle pleaded. Ruby was back out onto the battle field. Being an animal, thus limiting her amount of speech, she gave the queen a large long bite in the forearm, forcing her Majesty to really fight her off. Then, she let go after blood began to drip from both of her arms.

"Rumpel," she said. "Stop. Don't use magic. It's killing the kid."

"What are you talking about?" he demanded, finding this exceedingly preposterous.

"Your magic, the more you use it, the closer to death the boy gets," Ruby said.

Rumpelstiltskin looked to see Belle holding Bae. He'd heard her screaming at him, but the Evil Queen at the moment was deriving all of his attention. She shot him a look of panic. They had no way to defend themselves. Ruby swung the Evil Queen around and around and around, and around until she finally let her jaws go, sending the witch a good 500 feet.

Emma took out her gun, ready to join Ruby in the fight. Leroy appeared with his pickax at her side. They exchanged a glance. Rumpelstiltskin didn't know what to do. Now not only did Bae hate his magic, but it was the magic that was taking his life away!

"Quick, get him to a hospital!" Emma yelled, and Ashley and Snow helped Belle in carrying the boy to the nearest hospital-the only hospital-in Storybrooke. Doc made haste.