The star he had placed around Belle's neck stood before him, tall as the day he had first proctored it, and it glowered at him, its light ripping through the forsaken scene before it.
Rumpelstiltskin, panting heavily with a club in his hands and the shattered pieces of china around him, stared up at the creature, eyes swamped with pain and anguish. He ran a hand wildly through his hair and glared at the creature fiercely.
"What are you doing here, dearie?" his voice crackled with the strain of the emotion he bore.
"What have you done, Rumpelstiltskin?" The voice of the star whispered through the castle. Glass shivered around the imp, but he paid it no heed.
"I did what I had to do, dearie." He replied sullenly. "I have no patience for liars, as you so know."
"You fool!" There was light, all light, and it was harsh and burning against his eyes. He was on his back as the star swept over him, a look of fury radiating like power off of its form.
"What kind of selfish creature are you, Rumpelstiltskin?" it declared, anger spread through its voice like poison. "Do you see the heartbreak you have caused? Things could have been better, things could have changed!"
"Maybe I didn't want them to change!" the monster yelled back suddenly, on his feet again.
"You might not know of such things like this, living in your perfect world above us all," he sneered. "But down here, people die. People exist like that witch, who will kill and kill again!" he threw the club he held across the room, and a suit of armor crumbled beneath its weight. "She can twist minds with ease, dearie." Rumpelstiltskin hissed. "Apparently, she can even fool pretty little girls into believing monsters can be loved."
"Then why are you punishing Belle, if it is Regina who is to be blamed?" the star asked. "Why is she imprisoned in your dungeons, Rumpelstiltskin?"
"The better question, dearie, is why are you out here, blathering on to me about something that will not change?" Rumpelstiltskin replied nastily.
"I love that girl," he turned, his voice dropping to a whisper. "You know this well." His finger shook as he pointed at the creature, staring it down.
"Everyone might as well know it now!" he spread his arms wide, as though inviting the world in to share his heartbreak. "But you know, as well as I, that it is not right!" Destruction fell upon the various objects in the room around them as he expressed his fury.
"Do you not think it hurts me to lie to her?" he shouted. "To tell her those things? To hurt her?" His voice broke into a sob. "I love her, you blasted demon spawn! But I know what Regina can do, I taught her."
"I know the lies she can spin and how she can fool even the brightest minds." He rubbed his temples, trying to block out the light around him. "Belle is no exception. Now that she's met her, there's no telling what kind of damage she could do, to both of us."
"Why didn't you tell her the truth?" The star said quietly, watching the man with caution.
"No, no, my dear." He laughed mockingly. "That'd be too simple."
"I don't know what the truth is anymore!" he cackled, cradling his aching head in his hands. "But I know this: There is no one who can love me after everything I've done."
His voice broke in sobs, and the star watched on in silence.
When Belle's tender petals had pressed against his, earlier that evening, he swore his breathe had stopped. For a sheer, unforgivable moment he had wanted to gather her in his arms and hold her close and never let her go again.
But then he remembered Bae.
He couldn't lose his power just yet.
And then, Belle had gone and told him about the Queen. He nearly laughed at the memory, the look on her face as he flew into rage.
Maybe now she would see him as a monster.
He lost his temper completely at the mention of his girl near that creature. That Regina had caught sight of Belle at all was a casualty to him, and put her in danger as well. And then, that the woman had the gall to tell the little innocent lamb that she could break him! The fury built up inside him once more.
In his anger, he had wrenched the perfect little star from Belle's neck, throwing it into some abandoned corner while he raged.
Said star now stared him down with the power of eons behind it, full of fury and disappointment at his cowardliness.
"You disgust me, truly, Rumpelstiltskin." It told him softly, hissing like a snake.
"You are only one of many who despise me, dearie," He responded sarcastically, turning away. "Do not flatter yourself."
"I led her back to you, you know." The star told him as he started to walk away.
"And what, dearie, in your foolish little head inspired you to do that?" he asked, bite entering his tone. "You've only done more damage, clearly."
"You are the one who has done the damage Rumpelstiltskin!" The creature roared suddenly, light swelling throughout the room once again. "As her heart broke I grew colder," it told him, appearing to almost pace before the magician. "But once she began to return to you, her heart flushed and I grew bright once again."
"I am the star that guides her home when she is lost," It roared. "I am the one who will guide her back to you even when you forsake her!"
Rumpelstiltskin stared wide eyed at the creature, shock written into the corners of his face. Then, his demeanor changed, twisting into a wicked scowl.
"Then I am not the fool, dearie." He whispered. "No, that is you!"
"Can you not see there are more important things at work here than your precious true wuv?" He spat out the words, pain working onto his face. "My son needs me! The entire kingdom needs me!"
"There is nothing more important than such a thing as love, Rumpelstiltskin," the star told him. "You know that more than anyone else." The creatures glowered at one another, neither relenting.
"What will you do now, seeing as you have alienated the girl for good?" The star asked, changing the subject, eyes batting with mock pity.
There was a long pause, and Rumpelstiltskin bowed his head, grimace gone, as a sharp pain stabbed into his chest.
"She will never return to you." The star continued on, voice still soft. "And for good reason. I will guide her away from you, take her to people who will love her and keep her safe."
"You are no longer the one she needs," it went on, light shining brighter as it continued to stab deeper into his soul.
"And if I have anything to say about it, you will never be the one she needs again."
"You wouldn't dare." Rumpelstiltskin growled, hands tightening into fists. "You abomination! I brought you down from the Heavens, I can easily return you!" Vile obscenities threatened to pour from his lips as the star danced gaily before him.
"You wasted your chance, demon!" the star told him, voice full of sing-song melodies. "The woman who loves you is locked away, because of you!"
"You belong with the scums of the earth below, Rumpelstiltskin." The star told him, voice suddenly full of bitter victory. Rumpelstiltskin nearly laughed at the change.
"You seek love for the false prince and princess thief, do you not?" The star asked. "What a hypocrite you have become." It spat before the man. " You find love for others, treat them with respect and peddle your foolish deals without a whim in the world, but when it comes to matters directly tied to you, you consider yourself alone, with no one to guide you, no one to help you." The tone became sing-songy once more, and the star sneered mockingly. "You pathetic little creature. Still a coward, only buried beneath a shell of dark magic and leather skin."
With a roar Rumpelstiltskin lunged, grabbing the creature by the throat and hauling it to the nearest window. "You see, dearie," he hissed manically. "You know not with whom you toy."
"Oh, I think I do." The star responded.
Swifter than the eye could see the magic was enacted, and once again, the star shrank in form, just as Rumpelstiltskin hurled it out of the window of his highest tower.
He sighed and collapsed on the floor, drained.
"Well fuck." He whispered, holding his aching head once again.
The night passed on, and Rumpelstiltskin remained where he was, unwilling to move, unwilling to think.
Regina had met his girl. She had endangered him, Belle, and everything he intended to set into motion. Regina could easily come to his castle and try and take the girl from him, he knew, but what foolish endeavor that would be. She could not defeat him.
Belle would be safer with him.
But.
He had frightened her, more than ever. He had harmed her, and he winced as he remember the dark bruises he saw forming on her wrists from where he had shook her.
No one could love a monster, he thought to himself, moving to stand and walk to the cell where she rested. Even if he offered, she would not stay.
He couldn't let her stay.
By the time the sun had risen above the horizon, Belle was gone, and Rumpelstiltskin had collapsed, alone once again.
XXX
The forests lost their charm for Belle, as she traveled the roads of the kingdom for months on end. Rejected from the Dark Castle, she was left to whatever fate now awaited her, one free of magicians and curses and magics she could not understand.
And so she went on.
She was been refused entrance at her father's gate, those guards once loyal to her spitting and calling her 'goblin's whore'. Unwilling to tolerate the disrespect, she left without seeing the king, eradicating herself from her family for good. The loss weakened her for a moment, but she paced the dirt with her chin held high.
So she walked on, until that dirt beneath her feet changed into sand, and she found herself on the brink of the desert her father had once told her of, one in which you could get lost for thousands of years and still not understand it all. The sands of time crept back and forth, dancing with the people who dared to traverse it.
Belle was alone in the world, with nothing to lose. She dared, and began trekking through the waste with no fear in her heart.
She found there was little to be afraid of, after what she had endured.
The bruises on her wrists slowly healed, and the further she traveled, the fewer people knew of her legacy, and soon she was welcomed in the desert villages as readily as any other road weary traveler.
"Where ya headin, love?" patrons in the downtrodden taverns would croon, calling to the pretty girl with the windswept hair. "Only onward." She could reply, and then would return herself to the meal or drink before her. Few dared to ask what had driven her from her home, but those who did came away with little information. A cruel and unusual lover, they said, one that had caused her wrists to blacken and her eyes to dart back and forth like an animal's until she no longer knew what was safe.
They pitied the girl and took care of her best they could, and she thanked them gladly before going on her way.
As her skin browned and her hair grew light, though, only a rare few could distinguish her from the rest of the desert people.
Her transformation, as she referred to it loving in her own head, was completed when she arrived in an otherwise unknown town that scratched the southern border of the desert: the furthest place Belle had ever journeyed in the realm. It was there she sought out the master of henna and asked him to cover her body in tattoos, make her unrecognizable to anyone who had once known her.
The master had hesitated before he began, taking in the young woman whose brokenness was hidden deep within her. He insisted on hearing her story before he covered her in ink, and, because she had been told to trust the man, Belle told him the truth of her life.
The entire truth.
The master was not surprised by what he was told, and soon after Belle had completed her story, full of stars and magic and monsters, he began his work.
Belle departed the southern border soon after, as a beautiful young woman with the stories of thousands written into her skin. Stars adorned her crest and constellations wrote themselves on her back, followed by lyrics and winding galaxies, all intertwining and caressing the curves of her body.
This was her story, the master told her as she waited for her body to heal. This is the story her skin wanted to tell the world, and he was in no position to deny it.
And so the wandering woman transformed completely, leaving the land of innocence and princesses behind, content instead to ride upon the desert wind without a care in the world.
She journeyed back to the northern edge of the desert, where she had begun, and found that things had changed little since her departure. She laughed and smiled with the village children, and vendors called out to her from the various stands, and no one, not one, mentioned the 'goblin's whore' who had passed through so many months before.
"Goods! Goods and treasures for sale!" vendors shouted as she walked into market, her clothing torn from the long journey behind her. Young children waves as they passed her by, and she waved back and smiled, her long brown hair loose and flowing in the hot wind.
She approached a particular vendor with a wide smile on her face. He looked up from his dealing and broke into a toothless grin, nearly leaping from the stand to lift her off her feet.
"Belle, my love!" he shouted, adding another voice to the racket of the market. "It has been too long!"
"Too long indeed." The young woman grinned wryly, wiggling from his embrace. He held her by the shoulders and looked deep into her eyes before moving to examine her newly charted skin.
"What a transformation you've underwent, darling." He exclaimed, turning her round twice to see. "Not so broken anymore, are ye?"
"I've grown some, Alazar." Belle laughed. "I decided to shed the skin I wore in favor of this new one. Do you like it?"
Alazar smiled at the peak of innocence in her voice, though he knew his girl was not as innocent as before. "It speaks of you, darling." He told her wisely, bringing her beside his stand. "Let me see what I have for you, love, that will better suit your new skin." He winked and began to pull odds and ends from the various drawers of his contraption.
"The finest I have, darling." He proclaimed. "Reduced cost for a weary traveler." With a flourish he returned, holding white breeches and a tunic of faded gold. "Breeches will suit you better anyway, darling." He told her, vaguely indicating that torn and faded skirt she wore now. "The freedom seems to become you."
Belle chuckled darkly and gathered the clothing in her arms. "Bless you, Alazar." She said to him fondly, kissing him on the cheek and starting to depart.
"One more thing, darling!" he called, guiding her back from the dusty street.
"I found this on one of my journeys to the cooler country." He told her slyly, pulling an object from his coat pocket and dangling it before her. "It was hanging from a tree branch in the largest forest I have ever seen! Wasn't sure what it was, but figured it was valuable and decided to take it with me." He shrugged and eyed her carefully. "It'd look awful pretty on that dandied up skin of yours."
Belle took the strange necklace in her hand and cradled the star at the end with care, her heart crackling with pain and pieces of anger from the days of old. Amazing, that with all the time that had past, it still got to her.
The star whispered softly to her, and Belle looked back to her friend, a different light shining in her eyes.
"How much for it?" She asked him abruptly.
Alazar laughed and waved her away. "For you, love?" he told her. "No price can be placed on beauty."
XXX
A few days after, Belle stumbled upon another lost soul out to seek redemption, a woman going by the name of Mulan. She was out searching for the army that had attacked her own family and stolen them away from her, desperate for any form of help she could receive.
Belle, tattooed, scarred, and star-adorned, followed the woman when she departed the town, and the two journeyed on together. Over the course of many weeks Belle told Mulan about the stories she had gathered on her skin, and Mulan told her of the scars she had obtained, through battle, loss, and love. They became sisters, of sorts, helping each other recover from the lies which had spun them into existence.
It was during this time that the wicked Queen, all but forgotten in Belle's mind, came across the two. She whisked the girl away from her companion, wrenching her back into a world of pain and hurt with only a lonely star for company.
Belle sat in a new sort of prison, kept in place by wards she was all too familiar with, and was left alone with memories and painted skin.
When Regina enacted her powerful curse, Belle did not suffer.
She bore the star around her neck proudly, staring out the window of a jail cell as the world fell into ashes, silently praying for a chance at redemption.
A/N This...got excessively huge. I think I should apologize for that, but I'm not so sure. Our story is nearly complete, and what was originally meant to be short collections of drabbles about stars has now become something with a plot. Wow. Good job, me. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, despite the pain involved. Sorry not exactly sorry :) You're all phenomenal, and I can't thank you enough for all the support.
~The Mad Queen