Disclaimer: I wish I owned Once Upon a Time, alas, I do not.

False Leads

Twenty-One Years Prior, the Dark One's Castle

"She has magic," the dark-haired Snow White intoned, tilting her head curiously. "I want to know if…"

"If it will be enough to defeat the Evil Queen?" The scaly green man trilled, grinning with wide eyes. He cooed, making noises eerily similar to that of a pigeon's. "If her white magic of true love will be capable of triumphing over her darkness?"

"Yes," Snow White confirmed. She glanced anxiously around the foyer, though she could hardly see further than ten feet in each direction. She'd arrived at the forst around his castle in the middle of the night, and though she'd intended to call upon Rumplestiltskin in the morning, he'd appeared out of thin air and disrupted her plans.

Rumplestiltskin eyed Snow White curiously. "Where is this child, dearie? And where is your dear husband?"

Snow White stiffened. "They're safe, at home."

"Safe because you've yet to tell them," Rumplestiltskin sang, creeping closer to Snow. She edged back carefully, warily. "What name are you going by these days, dearie?"

Snow sighed. "They call me Mary Margaret."

Rumplestiltskin giggled gleefully, playing with his long scaly fingers. "Well, Mary—Can I call you Mary?—you've come to the right place! I have the answer you seek!"

"And what do you want in return?" Snow White knew how these deals with the Dark One worked.

"A year from now," Rumplestiltskin started, pacing closer to Snow White. "A year from now, you will need to make a deal with me. All I ask, dearie, is that, when the time comes, you will leave your home to make that deal."

Snow White stopped her backwards steps, stared at the imp in confusion. "Your deal is that, in exchange for the answer I seek, I agree to make a deal with you a year from now? A deal to ascertain that I make a deal?"

The Dark One shrugged. "Call it insurance."

Snow White steeled herself. Frowning, she nodded. "It's a deal," she whispered.

The Dark One's eyes narrowed. "Then your answers is yes. Your daughter's magic is enough to defeat the Evil Queen."

Now

The woman was beautiful, just like the legend said. Her hair was long, curly, and dark brown with a few streaks of elegant silver. Her eyes were a wise, stormy blue, framed by thick black lashes. Her eyebrows were arched in interest as she watched Emma pacing the length of her living room.

"You have magic," Belle French blurted out.

Emma stopped. Turned. Glanced at the closed door, on the other side of which she knew one pirate would be waiting. Looked back at the older woman.

"Please, have a seat," Belle implored, spreading her hand out towards the couch in front of her. "I've just made tea; would you like some?"

"That would be nice, thank you," Emma replied, smiling gently. Belle got up and walked to what Emma assumed must have been the kitchen, her blue and white skirts swishing around her ankles. She came back a minute later, holding two cups of tea. One cup had an intricate design of spiraling vines and roses and birds. The other was light blue with a geometric design. Both had small chips around the edges.

Belle grinned slightly. "Sorry, I have a terrible habit of chipping these things. I hope you don't mind?"

"Not at all," Emma replied, taking the chipped cup and saucer. "Thank you. How did you know I have magic? I wasn't even sure…"

"You learn to recognize it." Belle nodded, not really at anything in particular. "When you're around it as much as I was…you can start recognizing the signs. You're holding your hands mostly pointing towards your sides, as if you're trying to protect others from them. You have an air of…lightness about you," Belle breathed, nodding to herself again solemnly. But then she grinned. "Of course, there's also the fact that I know who you are."

"How?" Emma wanted to know.

"That's another story for another time. What is the real question you would like to ask me?" Belle wondered, taking a sip from her tea cup before placing it on the coffee table and smoothing down her skirts.

Emma had to admit, for a woman who lived hours into the woods, she was fairly well off. Every wall in the living room was lined with bookshelves, stuffed to the brim with books. The floor was hardwood, polished to a pretty shine. She had three couches, one underneath the large window, and two couches facing each other. They were all comfortably stuffed, and soft enough to make you think you were sitting on a cloud.

"I need to know where the Dark One is, and I…well, I was kind of hoping you would be able to tell me. There's this story…"

"Beauty and the Beast." Belle smiled softly down at her lap. "The beautiful girl whose heart of gold was pure enough to see through the Beast's cruel and ugly façade, to the man that was hidden beneath." Her smile turned stiff, abruptly. "Only, there is no man hidden beneath the Dark One. Tell me, Emma, would you like to hear the tale of Beauty and the Beast?"

Once Upon a Time, there was a young woman who loved three things; her family, her books, and her people. She was the daughter of the proud Sir Maurice, who inspired in her a love of her people, and the late Lady Colette, who had bestowed upon her daughter her love of books. She lived in happiness with the prosperity of her people for several long years, until one day when the Ogre Wars came to her doorstep.

Then, she was forced to make a decision; ensure the prosperity of her village, of the people she'd grown up with and had grown to love, or let her people die. It really wasn't a difficult decision to make.

So, the young woman made a deal with the one known as the Dark One. She agreed to be his servant for the rest of her life, and he agreed to keep her village safe from the Ogre Wars, promised that no one she'd grown up with would see any harm, any bloodshed from their loved ones.

And he kept his promise, and she kept hers. For months, the young woman tended to his castle, kept his things organized and clean—and, when she had the time, she was allowed to peruse his rather expansive library. As shocking as it was, she was happy, living with this cold, dark man in his cold, dark castle. She would not, however, remain happy for very much longer.

Because the young woman realized that she had fallen in love with the Dark One; she'd fallen in love with the shell of a cold, dark man, who gave her books and pretended to be cruel to her when he simply could not be. Because, the Dark One realized, he too had fallen in love.

But it was not enough. When the young woman confessed her affections, the Dark One was conflicted. He wanted so badly to accept her love, to break the dark curse that held him captive. But there was something that he loved more than her—he loved his power, and the thought of being the weak, crippled man he was before he had power was worse than the thought of being without the young woman.

So, she left him. He did not stop her, and when she returned to her village, everyone in it was safe. He'd not broken his promise, though she had broken hers.

Wrought with emotion, the young woman fled into the woods, searching for a place where she could live out her days with the companions she'd had since the first time her mother read her a story—books.

What no one else knows is that, twenty years ago, something happened to draw the Dark One from his Dark Castle. Something caused him to seek out the woman, and give her something that no one else could claim—a way in to his castle while it, along with the Dark One himself, was gone. For the Dark One had made a deal with a woman called Snow White, and he was to go into hiding until the time came that their deal was completed.

"Did you say Snow White?" Emma asked, her voice rising in pitch.

"Shh, shh," the woman pressed a finger to her lips, "My name is Snow White. Follow my lead, I'll get you out of here," Snow White promised, and rushed up the stairs.

Emma shook herself, recognizing the name as the bandit the Evil Queen was searching for the night of the ransacking.

Why does it seem, Emma wondered, staring at Belle with a blank look, that everything keeps circling back to Snow White?

"Yes," Belle confirmed. "I don't know what deal it was that she made with the Dark One, only that it would force him to stay in hiding until something happened. No one has been able to find his castle since then, or him for that matter. But…" she trailed, glancing around the room they were seated in.

Standing, Belle hurried to one of the many bookshelves that lined the room, browsed the shelves until she saw what she was looking for. Grabbing the book in question, she flipped it open and pulled out a thin silver key which had been hiding in the pages. Striding back to where Emma was seated, Belle produced the key and offered it to Emma.

"That key will get you into the Dark One's castle." Belle promised, her lips a thin line.

Emma nodded. She couldn't help but believe the woman. "And what do you want in return?"

Belle shook her head. Her smile was sad and familiar, as if she'd worn if far too frequently. "Nothing. I'll just…I'll just be glad to be rid of it."

"You're bloody brilliant, Swan!" Hook exclaimed, grinning down at the key in Emma's palm, glittering red, yellow, and orange in the light of the fire. Emma grinned in response, pulling back slightly when Hook made to take the key from her palm. It wasn't that she didn't trust him with it, it was just that—well, she didn't trust him with it. She didn't trust the pirate as far as she could throw him; he was a pirate, after all. And while he'd assured her that he was a man of his word, Emma didn't have any previous experience with him to trust him on that fact.

In all the stories she'd heard about him, man of his word was never mentioned. Only pirate, and womanizer, and the most feared captain on the sea. While Emma wasn't one to judge based on what others said about a person, she did have to take this into account when considering the fact that not only was he her only method of transportation to the Dark One's castle, the key was her only clue towards the Dark One. The Dark One, in turn, who was the only one who would be able to tell Emma how to defeat Regina.

And it all hinged on Emma keeping her leverage over the pirate.

Not that Hook seemed to mind her seemingly not trusting him. He just nodded, as if to say he knew where he stood, and turned back to stoke the fire in front of him.

They were camped in a clearing, sitting on a log a couple paces away from the few other crew members who'd come along on the journey with Emma and Hook. So that they could discuss their next step in private, Hook had explained.

"So you know that I need the Dark One to defeat the Evil Queen. But why are you so quick to help?" Emma wondered, glancing at Hook's face for a reaction. His jaw clenched, and a storminess appeared in his eyes, but other than that, he showed no outward signs of a change of emotion.

"The Dark One took something from me, a very long time ago," Hook explained, looking down at his gleaming silver hook.

"Your hand." Emma surmised, frowning. What kind of deal had Hook made that required the exchanging of a hand for a hook?

"Aye," Hook confirmed. "But tell me love, why do you wish to defeat the Evil Queen?"

"I don't know," Emma shrugged. "I just woke up with this…gut feeling that I need to stop her. Not—not that she needs to be stopped, but that I need to be the one who breaks her reign of terror. I need to—to defeat her."

Hook nodded, as if he knew the feeling. As if he understood. And Emma didn't know why, but the idea that someone could relate to this foreign feeling within her, the idea that someone understood, made her heart feel warm, if only for the few seconds that their eyes held. When they looked away, the warmth was gone, and Emma wasn't even sure it was there in the first place.

Author's Note: Hello, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! I did tweak Belle and Rumple's story a bit so that it would fit more with my story, and with the events that happened in 4A of OUaT, sorry if that upset anyone, but I think it was a reasonable change.

I am really glad everyone liked seeing Red save Emma! Honestly, I felt it was a bit too early to showcase Killian as Emma's truest desire, and at this point in time that really would be her mom. I wasn't sure how people would take Emma being saved by Red, but I'm really please with the response!

So, hope you all liked this chapter! Thank you for reading!

-Ashlee Frame