Rumpelstiltskin prided himself in being a strict but loving father. He raised both his children and worked very hard to be the father he needed for them. He kept them safe. He taught them to control their magic; he tutored them in studies while their mother taught them to be good respectable women. They wanted for nothing, he provided all their needs.

And so he couldn't understand what to do when Zelena, at fifteen, started to express more of a desire to see the world outside the gates.

They never left the castle walls; he'd been firm on that. It wasn't safe. The world knew about his girls. Any villager looking for a deal could come up to the gate and see them playing over the years, it wasn't like his family was a secret.

But that had dangers, Rumpelstiltskin knew of several people that secretly offered lordships and money if one of them could bring at least one of the girls in alive…

He wouldn't let that happen, he couldn't lose another child.

Cora didn't care, as long as people came to her and bowed, she was perfectly happy within the walls. Regina was only eleven, her life was wrapped around her studies of being a proper lady, making her magic look…close to her sister's power, and the other studies that he taught her.

Zelena was different. Even at a young age, she couldn't stay still. But twelve years in the dark castle, she'd memorized every brick in the wall, found every secret passageway, knew every room by heart.

She was bored and Rumpelstiltskin didn't know what to do. He remembered when Baelfire wanted to see everything beyond the hovel they lived in, he remembered when Milah did too.

He couldn't lose Zelena to the world too, that was his baby.

"She'll have to leave sometime," Cora told him as they lay in bed one night, "She'll be marrying age in a year."

"What of it?" he asked.

"You need to find a good match for her."

There weren't any good matches for her, maybe some for Regina; Regina was more submissive than Zelena was. Zelena was harder, which didn't help when Cora accused him of favoring her more.

Maybe he did. And it wasn't just because she was more powerful than Regina; it was because she was the first one to call him 'papa' in almost three hundred years. She was the first one that willingly crawled in his lap when he was at the wheel. She was a daddy's girl through and through, she always had been.

He was terrified to let her go…thirteen years wouldn't be enough...

Give her a year and she'd have spent as much time as Bae had with him.

"I'll find her a match when I'm good and ready," he said and turned his back to her before she could argue. That had been the end of it.

But Zelena wanted out…what could he do but let her…just as long as he was with her…

First he had to find a good path, away from people, there was a cliff that overlooked the village, she could observe them and he could figure it out from there if he wanted to take her down there or not.

He hitched up a horse and rode out the gates, determined to find his daughter a good place.

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Zelena…was a lady…by definition…

Her mother gave her all the lessons, the books on the head to teach balance, the scolding when her elbows were on the table, she could curtsey and compliment and flirt and tease with the best of them…at least according to her parents, she was good at it.

But that didn't stop her from putting on a plain woolen dress some days, going to the garden and digging up the vegetables that were ripe. It didn't stop Regina either. She wasn't like Zelena, she was molding herself into the proper lady her mother wanted but if there was a chance to spend time with her sister that wasn't them competing with magic, Regina and Zelena took it.

They were close…they had to be since the only other child they played with was Jefferson and he didn't come by as much anymore. His father said he had acne and was awkward and didn't want the girls to see him.

They were close but they still competed. Zelena admired her sister, she was headstrong. At eleven she worked very hard to produce the same magic that Zelena could. It always fell short, Zelena was a natural but Regina studied harder and longer than Zelena ever had to. That was admirable and so Zelena did what she could to teach her and make it easier.

Regina joined her for a bit, they dug quietly in the garden and chatted about whatever came to mind. It wasn't anything big or important, whatever happened to them to make a conversation turn that way?

At noon, Regina stood up and brushed herself off, "I need to get changed. Tea time."

"So?"

"Mother says a woman never misses her tea time."

"We don't have anyone but each other to take tea with," Zelena said. She'd always felt safe in the walls, she understood that it was dangerous out there. But still there was a pull…a curiosity that she couldn't sate. There were so many people out there to see, so many to learn from….

"You will soon," Regina told her, "When papa finds someone for you to marry."

"Leave one castle to get shut up in another."

"Would you rather be out there?"

She knew the life of peasants…her mother talked about it enough. It was cold and bare, unpredictable, one never knew when their next meal would come from, cabins leaked and were freezing in the winter…

Marriages were marred by alcoholism, mothers died in childbirth, children died when they weren't strong enough…

Better to be shut in walls and have predictability and power than living out there…her parents had both risen from nothing. Neither wanted to go back. Perhaps they were right.

But that freedom…

"I don't know," she admitted.

"Mama won't like you talking like that."

"Mama doesn't like much that I do when it's not what she wants for me," Zelena put the turnips in her basket, "I'm going to take these to papa's study."

The girls weren't really shut out of his study…but he discouraged them from going in. He was constantly experimenting. He created most of his own potions, a lot of what was common knowledge in magic now, he'd invented years ago.

But turnips were needed for some of his magic; Zelena delivered them to him whenever she found some.

She hadn't meant to look at the writing on the table, not really. She was just going to place the basket down and go on her way but the words 'Dark Curse' caught her eye.

Zelena had been told for years that one of them would cast the curse that would get them to their brother. It was just something both she and her sister accepted. Get them to where they needed to go, spend years frozen in time, and then get out to get him. They'd be a family!

So she scanned the document, this should be knowledge she needed to know. She could be the one to cast the curse, she wanted to know everything.

Most of what was on the paper, she already knew…and then she read what the price was going to be….

The sacrifice of the heart that the caster loved most…and a hole in the heart that would never be filled…

No…no no no no no no….

Was that meant for her? Or her sister?

"Zelena?"

She looked up and saw her mother. Her mother took one look at her face and then down at the paper, "What are you doing in here?"

"You never told us!" she whispered.

"Zelena, don't panic-."

"Don't tell me not to panic!" Zelena screamed and backed away, "Stay away from me!"

"Zelena! Pull yourself together."

Zelena flinched at the harsh words, "So this is what you two are grooming us for, then?"

"Don't be insolent and don't jump to conclusions," Cora said and then looked like she had no idea how to handle this, "When your father gets home, we'll-."

"No."

Cora blinked, "What?"

Zelena shook her head. She knew her father's reputation, he talked about it enough. One of the things he taught her how to do was manipulate. She wouldn't be one of his victims.

So before her mother could reaction, Zelena did what she promised her parents she would never do.

She waved her hand and in a puff of smoke, she took herself away from her parents and her sister and landed somewhere outside the castle walls.