Chapter 21

All the people in that meadow had their eyes glued to what was happening in the middle, observing every expression of the boy and his grandfather. They were so wrapped in what was happening that the vines, subtly approaching them, were only perceptible when they pulled them backwards and imprisoned the travelers inside the trees just like Belle was.

"I don't want them spoiling it…" Pan explained when Rumplestiltskin looked at him with surprised eyes.

"You promised you wouldn't hurt them. A promise between magical beings can't be broken!" the man said, while his arms started to feel numb.

"Don't worry, I'm not the one who is going to hurt someone in here…" Peter said, with a smirk

Pan snapped his fingers and the tree that was incarcerating Belle disappeared behind its neighbors. She fell to the floor, her hands now held captive behind her back with ropes that sliced her wrists with the minimal movement, cutting any kind of escape she could come up with.

"Kill her!" Peter growled, pointing a gnawing hand at Belle.

She saw Rumplestiltskin's back tense, but he couldn't move, trapped under the power that Henry was emanating. The boy, with his eyes wide in fear, tried to suppress his powers, but Peter was much stronger than the child and his control was unwavering.

"NO! WE HAVE A DEAL!" Rumplestiltskin roared, trying to get free, but Pan only kept smirking while someone walked out of the shadows, a blade in its hands.

Belle felt the others trying to break free and help her, but the only thing they were able of accomplish was imprison themselves even more inside the trees. Even Regina was unable of fighting it and Emma couldn't find that spark of power inside of her while her son was held hostage, it made her feel weak, trapped between a rock and a hard place.

"I love you…" Belle murmured to Rumplestiltskin when Tamara stopped in front of her and with a slicing sound impaled her with her blade.

"NO!" Rumplestiltskin roared, his body under spasms. He tried to get free from Henry's hands, he tried to run to Belle, he tried to save her, but the only thing he could do was watch helpless while his True Love fell to the floor, her pale face hidden from view, behind the shadows of the forest. He wanted to see her one last time before his death, but not even that they could grant him.

"Belle… Belle… Belle…" he echoed over and over under his breath, while the last sip of his powers disappeared from his body and Henry and he fell backwards, an electric current running through their bodies.

The small boy tried to get up and run, but, from the ground, branches appeared, trapping his feet and hands, while his grandfather was left on the floor, barely breathing. Through his veiled eyes he could see Belle's body and to her right his son's leg, a puddle of blood from his recently opened wound neighboring his body, probably mixed with Belle's.

"I'm so sorry…" Rumplestiltskin said, the tears running freely from his eyes.

All he could see was Belle, her hair waving through the wind while she ran behind a fox in the forest, her rosy cheeks after an afternoon playing on the snow surrounding the Dark Castle, her glistening eyes when he showed her the library, her small fingers playing over his skin when they thought they were going to die and wanted to go together, her last kiss, with her eyes shining with hope… Now all that, all his dreams of her, all his unspoken hopes of seeing her again and having their happily ever after, their family, their small baby ruined, destroyed, all because of him… It was like a hot iron just cut through his chest, cutting out his heart, smashing it in the process. It felt like he couldn't breathe, like every molecule of oxygen in the world wouldn't be enough to let him live for much longer… It was nothing like when Regina told him she was dead, it was a thousand, a million times worse… now he didn't only lose her, he lost their miracle as well…

Snow's eyes were glued to the fallen form, her shock-stricken expression frozen over the last developments, the tears falling silently down her cheeks, while, in front of her, the man she saw as the most powerful magic being, cried, reduced to his innermost being, swollen by grief and pain. She felt Charming moving uncomfortably beside her, his eyes holding a furious shine that she saw rarely marring her husband's normally peaceful expression. He wanted to avenge their companion. He wanted to free himself, grab his sword and impale Tamara with his own hands and Snow wanted to be right beside him, helping. She only held that kind of hate for Regina and after the last weeks, even that feeling was disappearing.

Regina looked at Hook, feeling like an invader into that personal hell of her old mentor. She wanted him destroyed, once, in an old life time; she kidnaped the girl to have his suffering under her control, but to see someone so human holding so much power over another being, this one magical, made her think. She knew Belle was an innocent bystander, she knew her son liked her, she knew that even with her imprisonment the girl never wavered in her love for Rumplestiltskin and, if the pirate's expression meant something he agreed with her that killing Belle was a crime. It appeared Hook even held some kind of respect for her, probably after the way she was able of finding him when even Rumplestiltskin was unable to.

Emma felt her heart hammering inside her chest, her blonde curls in front of her face obstructing part of her vision. She wanted to close her eyes and erase all of it, she wanted to forget the way Belle's body fell to the floor, the sound it made when her flesh touched the hard ground. She turned her head and looked at Neal, who was watching with shock stricken eyes the body beside him. She noticed the blood from his wounds and how it dirtied the ground around them.

Rumplestiltskin couldn't move his face from that point, his eyes glued to her form, while around him, the shock was wearing off, giving space to range and fury.

Henry tried to get up, but Peter, still controlling his body, stopped the boy's movement.

"Now, you will do as I command you!" Pan said, with a masochistic smile in his face.

Going to hide behind a rok during the next few days! Don't despare, true love is the strongest magic of them all!