No. Not again. Belle screamed inwardly. They had just saved their son from one doom, and now another one threatened. When Rumple had hinted at danger for Gideon in the Final Battle, she had hoped that it was only a false vision. Then, when the possibility of alternate prophecies came up, her hope had grown stronger: maybe Rumple couldn't change things, but the gods could. Maybe a better future was possible. And then hope twisted like a knife in her heart...
Gideon dies.
Rumple's words came weighted with all of a seer's certainty. For once she wished he was lying, but she knew better. It was all true. The darkness closed in around her, and she felt as if she would suffocate. She couldn't bear to listen to those words, couldn't bear to let her son hear them. Overcome by the need to escape, she took herself away on a thought, instinctively returning to the crag where they had initially landed.
The blast of icy air across her face was enough to shock her out of her daze, and she hugged Gideon close, fighting back tears. She couldn't lose him again. Not even if the gods wanted him dead. Why would the gods want him dead?
"For the greater good..." came the mocking voice of the darkness. For someone's good, your son must die. The needs of the many outweigh the petty desires of a nobody like you. Or don't you have the stomach to make this sacrifice... hero?
"No," she said. It was one thing to sacrifice herself, but to sacrifice an innocent child? Even if it was for some greater good... what kind of greater good could that be?
"Belle!" Rumple materialized in a cloud of smoke. "Are you all right?"
"How can I be all right? After what you just told me!"
Rumple flinched, looking as guilt-stricken as she had ever seen him. "I'm sorry." He reached hesitantly for her, but she shuddered and turned away.
So that was what he had meant before, about being on the wrong side for the Final Battle. But was it the wrong side? "So the gods are trying to change the story. They're supposed to be on the side of good, but are they? What about Hades? What about Zeus? Why did he resurrect Hook but not Neal? What about the Holy Grail? How did an artifact of the light give birth to such darkness? How could the gods want our son dead? A heaven willing to sacrifice a child is a heaven not worth saving..."
When she ran out of breath, panting, eyes stinging from the cold, Rumple said softly from behind her, "Belle, stop. You don't have to rationalize it. Of course we have to protect Gideon."
She turned back to him. "I just... I just want him to be safe. Why do we always have to... why is it always so hard?"
"It's never been easy for us..." This time, when he slid an arm around her, she leaned closer, drawing comfort from his support, her initial panic seeping away at his touch.
"But a future of darkness, Rumple..." She looked down at Gideon, who was still peacefully asleep. In less than the time between one feeding and another, everything had changed for him. "What future is that for our son?"
"The best one that we can make. If there's no light, we'll have to create it ourselves for his sake. And think...for the fey, the world has been dark for a long, long time. The gods' story may look bright to some, but their happy endings come at a cost. As does ours..."
"You mean we have to help the ogres." Belle swallowed her distaste. "And the elves. If this other prophecy is our only hope, we have no choice."
"I know it doesn't seem very heroic," Rumple admitted. "But at a time like this..."
"At a time like this, can we afford to be heroic?" Belle finished. Then she shook her head. What was she saying? "No. But we can't afford to be selfish, either!"
"You sound like my mother," Rumple mumbled, then apologized. "Sorry."
"I mean, we have to help everyone. That hasn't changed. Maybe we do have to use darkness. But we can't only use it to help ourselves." The voice at the back of her mind told her she was a fool, that selfishness was the way of the world, but she knew that they had to try anyway. Justice demanded as much. To lose sight of that was to lose themselves.
Rumple sighed, his arm tightening around her. "You're right. It was selfishness that led to all my failures. Selfishness and cowardice."
"You're not a coward." That he was here, now, proved that much. She had once blamed him for being afraid to trust anyone, unable to believe in her love, but that had been the rash judgement of someone lucky enough never to have been betrayed. Only now, after so much pain between them, did she understand how much courage she had demanded of him. "And whatever needs to be done, we'll do it together."
"All right." He looked grateful, even relieved, for her forbearance. Belle realized then that he must have been terrified that she would leave him again, and a pang of sorrow twisted in her heart. Some of the desperation lifted from his eyes. "I'll offer the fey my help in return for restoring those lost in the Dark Curse."
Convincing Rumple was the easy part. The elf and the ogres were a different matter.
"No." Shrike the Ancient glowered at them, every line of her face set in determination.
"One doesn't invite a thief back into one's house." Yvanne's tone was more gentle, but just as unyielding.
"We're not thieves," Belle snapped. "Whatever our ancestors did, we had no choice in it. Let us make reparations, but let us live. Peace can benefit us all."
"She's right, you know." Rumple had conjured a chair for her this time, a human-sized piece of furniture dwarfed by the vast expanse of the table underneath its legs. He stood next to the chair, one hand gripping Belle's shoulder in reassurance. "And it's not as if the land can't support us. In the Land Without Magic, they have ten times as many in the same amount of space."
"That's as may be, but we don't want them here," Shrike said. "This isn't their home."
"It's become our home," said Belle. "Where else can we go?"
"Anywhere. Not here." The ogre matriarch scowled. "If that means we don't have the Dark One's help, so be it. We never asked for it in the first place."
"Not yet, no. But you've asked before, twice. Third time's the charm... and I wouldn't wait too long, or you may find my price going up..."
"Rumple!" hissed Belle, wishing he wouldn't antagonize them. Then she was struck by curiosity. Twice? Once for the Wolf War, as Dove had told her. She twisted her head around to look at him. "What was the other time?"
He seemed to deflate slightly, then muttered sheepishly, "...potatoes."
"What?" Belle blinked, not sure she had heard right.
"They needed a crop that could grow up here in the hills," he said, rallying. He took a step back and gestured broadly. "Hence, potatoes! Luckily for the ogres, I'd come across many a botanical wonder while looking for a way to the Land Without Magic."
"I see. And what did you get in return?" The ogres must have been starving if they had gone to the Dark One for help. She hoped he hadn't driven too hard a bargain.
Rumple shrugged. "Their agreement to stay away from the Dark Castle and the land around it."
Was that all? Relieved, Belle turned to the ogre matriarch. "Was it worth it?"
"It was and it is." Shrike shook her head. "So what? It has no bearing on our current situation."
"It does!" Belle thought furiously, looking for anything to persuade them. "Potatoes... potatoes were foreign invaders, too, but now they're part of your way of life!"
Yvanne chuckled. "Are you saying that we should retrieve the humans in order to feed them to the ogres? I've never partaken myself, but I'm told human flesh is quite the delicacy... M'lady Shrike may indeed agree to those terms."
Shrike snorted in derision.
"No! Of course not." Belle flushed. "I just meant... even if something is new and strange, in time you can find the value in it."
"Well, that's true enough," Rumple put in. "For example, when Belle first came to my castle, I had no idea that she would become..." He stopped, and the note of wonder in his voice turned to something darker. "But we're talking about more than potatoes and land deals here. If heaven is turned against us, we need every advantage. Don't underestimate the power of three million independent souls. The fewer the pieces on the board, the easier it is for them to be manipulated, whereas the sudden addition of so many people is a wild card that can turn in our favor."
"Or against," said the ogre matriarch. For a moment, no one spoke. Belle knew, as they all knew, that Rumplestiltskin could offer no guarantees for human behavior.
Then the elven ambassador looked at him, a hint of curiosity slipping past her usual bland mask. "Why do you fight for them? You're the Dark One. They have no right or power to command you. What profit for you to bring them back when they hold you as their common enemy?"
"They're innocent people who were caught in a curse they didn't deserve."
"Didn't they? They came to our land. With their magic they turned us into beasts, then hunted us like beasts. They had no mercy even for our children..."
"As you had none for ours," Rumplestiltskin reminded her.
"What of it?" Shrike snapped before Yvanne could answer. "You breed like flies; you throw away your own young, your people. We hold our children to be precious, while you..."
Belle bit back a furious retort. Anger wouldn't help their case. The fey were angry, too. She remembered how Gaston had tortured an ogre child. He hadn't been the only one. Her father's soldiers had done the same, and worse, to any ogre who fell within their grasp; that was why she had tried to let the ogre child go free. Once war had started in earnest, there were atrocities to spare on both sides. She shuddered. Not another war...
"Don't tell us what we hold precious." Rumple reached out a hand to calm Belle, sensing her agitation. "And you've had your price in blood. You've tanned our hides to make your shirts, you've ground our bones to make your bread. Let it be enough."
"Please," Belle begged, trying to banish the horrific images his words conjured out of her worst memories. "Peace must be possible."
"What peace, when your people were brought to this land to destroy us?" Shrike's hostility seemed implacable, to Belle's despair.
The arguments dragged on, going nowhere. Gideon stirred. Belle could sense that he would wake soon, and if she didn't get up out of this chair, he would pee on her. She wanted to scream.
At which point the elven ambassador gave her a long look, then broke their impasse with a simple request. "If we're to be allies, perhaps a little trust would be in order. Lady Belle, isn't it time you introduced us to your child?"
Belle gasped in shock. Rumple's fingers tightened on her shoulder, but he didn't speak, leaving the choice up to her. Names have power. She didn't need to hear the words aloud to know what he was thinking. She swallowed, frozen in indecision. Finally, she nodded. Do the brave thing... They had to make this alliance work. "And it's time you tell us why you think our people were brought here to destroy you."
Shrike and Yvanne agreed readily enough.
"Well, then. This is our son, Gideon." Belle let the useless obfuscation charm drop away, revealing the infant cradled in her lap.
"Not to be confused with a potato," said Rumple in a tone that promised death to anyone, god or mortal, that tried to harm his son.
"Hmph," grunted Shrike. "Tiny thing like that would barely fill the gap between my teeth."
Belle glared at the ogre matriarch. "I've told you his name. Now for your part."
Shrike nodded, glancing at Yvanne, as if to say, this was your idea.
The elven ambassador smiled faintly. "It was prophesied that the gods shall be brought down by one bearing elven blood."
"Typical oracular vagueness," Rumple said.
"Vague or not, it was to prevent this prophecy that they tried to exterminate our entire race," Yvanne said. "Oh not directly, never directly, but we could see their hand behind the invasion. It's said the Blue Fairy serves Hera, the Great Queen. Is she not responsible for the bonds of love among mortal beings, the benefactor of kings and queens, and the promoter of civilization?"
"A civilization that we have no part in, lacking love," growled Shrike.
Rumple snorted. "She didn't have much use for the Dark One, either. You're not the only ones she tried to remove from this realm..."
"Yet here we all are," said Yvanne.
"Indeed."
"But you'll have to do without me for a moment. Excuse me." Belle stood up and teleported outside again, this time remembering to bring a bubble of warm air with her. By the time she had finished taking care of Gideon's needs and returned to the ogres' hall, Rumple, Shrike, and Yvanne seemed to have come to a new understanding.
"I doubt it'll go so smoothly once the humans are back in the Enchanted Forest," said Belle. She and Rumple were alone for the moment, outside once more to speak privately. "Will they all agree to this?"
Rumplestiltskin shrugged. "Agree, leave, die... any of those must be better than non-existence. Would you prefer we settled it with another Ogres War?"
"No. But how do we prevent one?"
"Well, let's hope they listen to our sensible counsel when we present the case to them." He explained that the fey wanted the two of them to stand between the races and maintain the balance.
Belle could see that he was uncomfortable with the idea; he had never liked that kind of responsibility. "I suppose it makes sense. You're the one who says you're a man and a monster. Who better to build a bridge between the two?"
"To get trodden on by all sides, you mean." He grimaced. "Perhaps a wall would be more practical. The elves have agreed to raise the mists again to hide the fey from human sight, rather than fight, if it comes to that. As for me, I haven't promised to incinerate the first human or fairy to step out of line, but then again, I haven't promised not to, either."
"You won't!" Belle had seen his violence in Storybrooke, but it had been far more controlled than what she had known of him in the Enchanted Forest. She hoped that it had been Rumple himself that had changed, that it wasn't merely a side effect of changing realms. Magic and darkness both simmered closer to the surface here, but so far he had not reverted to casual murder. "Rumple, you can't."
"No?" Then he relented, sighing. "I suppose not. You can do the incinerating."
"What?" Belle was taken aback for a moment, then horrified to think that such a thing was now possible. "Do... do they know about me?"
"Well, you did poof out of there in a cloud of smoke, so that ship's already sailed. As to whether they realize it's anything more than ordinary human magic, we didn't discuss it. Does it matter?"
"I... I don't know." She hadn't told Mulan or anyone else while at the Dark Castle. Tinker Bell knew, of course, as did the Lost Boys still in Neverland, but none of them had anyone to tell. She didn't think anyone in Storybrooke knew what had happened. When she had saved Gideon from Hook, she hadn't waited for the pirate to turn around and see her.
They'll never accept you, not if they know what you are. Look how they see Rumplestiltskin... a beast to be caged, to be used when convenient and forgotten otherwise. That will be your fate if you aren't careful.
"The elf was looking at you oddly. I don't know if it was because of Gideon, or if there's more. If it will make you feel better..." Rumple drew the Dark One dagger from his jacket and ran his palm over it. Belle's name smoothed over and vanished. "There. Another obfuscation charm. No one who doesn't already know the truth will stumble across it. No one human, anyway. Be careful around magical creatures."
"Thank you," she whispered, feeling ashamed at her relief. She didn't want to live a lie, yet if she was known as a Dark One, that was all that most people would see. If she could just prove herself first, then when she revealed the truth, they would understand that she was still herself.
Hypocrite, sneered the darkness. Coward. Are lies sweeter when they fall from your lips?
Seeing her expression, Rumple's eyes softened. "You shouldn't have to bear the guilt of the Dark One's name. What you are... you're not like me. You didn't murder a man for this power. You didn't take pride in the darkness, nor did you go on a killing spree the moment you possessed it."
"I was lucky. I wasn't alone in the darkness." Belle shook the thoughts away. "It's probably too late to hide. You said the fey wanted both of us."
"Yes. We still have to hash out the details, but that's the gist of it." Hashing out the details took them into the next day. Rumple insisted on having a free hand, while the ogres claimed large swathes of territory, including areas where humans had been settled for centuries. As for the elven ambassador, her demands were few, but she dropped enigmatic hints about fate and destiny.
"Can you speak for all the elves?" Irritated by Yvanne's air of smug superiority, Belle was moved to question her authority to negotiate on behalf of her entire race.
"Oh, she'd like to think so." The new voice came with a rush of wind down the chimney that sent flames and sparks flying out. A woman solidified out of the air and nodded with cold formality to the elven ambassador. "Sir Yvanne."
Yvanne's eyes twitched, but she maintained her calm. "Owlflower. The king's monster. What brings you here?"
The newcomer, this "Owlflower", was neither elf nor ogre. She could have been human, by appearance a few years younger than Belle, with a face that might have been called beautiful if not for the bleakness of her expression. "The news has reached the king's court, of how you extend your embassy to the Dark One himself. I came to see for myself..."
"See what you will. Report what you will. The king is a relic of the past. It is the future I am assuring for our people..."
Owlflower's gaze went to Belle, then lingered on Rumplestiltskin. "It's true? You seek to undo the Dark Curse?"
Something in the woman's eyes made Belle's blood run cold. There was an emptiness that reminded her of Regina's eyes looking into her prison cell after the the Dark Curse had been cast. The touch of Rumple's hand on her back brought her out of the memory.
"It's true," he said. "Sir Yvanne has agreed that is the course of action that serves us all best."
"Then you betray your king." Owlflower glared at Yvanne. "You know what price he paid for the Dark Curse... would you throw it all away?"
"I act in his best interests." Yvanne held up a finger as Owlflower started to object. "No, no, I know what price he paid. Yet what is gone is gone, and can never be recovered. This is false reasoning, to count such costs against the choices we face now, in deciding our current path."
"All the pain, all the suffering — it counts for nothing?"
"To be ruled by it, that would be the greater betrayal," Yvanne said.
Belle looked over at Rumple, and their eyes met in a moment of understanding. He nodded slightly, and she found her voice. "Sir Yvanne is right. I don't know your past, or your king's, but this, today, is a chance to move forward into a better future. As someone who's had some experience with such choices, I know it's not easy, and it doesn't always work, but it is possible..."
Owlflower stared at Belle, eyes narrowed. "Who are you to say such things?"
Yvanne answered before Belle could speak again, "She is Belle, the daughter of Colette and Maurice of Avonlea. Also the Dark One's wife and mother of his son."
Owlflower's head whipped back and she stared even harder at Yvanne. "What? I thought she was lost in the Curse."
Yvanne met Owlflower's gaze without flinching. "No. She wasn't. As you see. Or are you still blind?"
Then the two were silent, some unspoken argument passing between them. Belle glanced at Rumple, but he seemed to have no better idea than she did what the argument might be. The ogre matriarch sat unmoved throughout, with a face that suggested that she found elven politics unspeakably tedious.
Finally, the silent conflict resolved in Yvanne's favor. Owlflower nodded and backed away to lurk near the fireplace, lips pressed together in unhappy concession.
Yvanne smiled and looked around at the others. "It's decided then. We have a deal?"
"Huh," grunted Shrike. "We do."
Rumple nodded. "Yes." He paced along the table, then came back to stand next to Belle and gave the others a hard look. "As everyone knows, Rumplestiltskin never breaks a deal. So, you first. Return the people lost to the Dark Curse, and I'll do everything in my power to help with your prophecy."
"Agreed." Yvanne waited. She and Rumple eyed each other expectantly. Then, "There's no time like the present..."
"You're an elf. It's your curse. You undo it," Rumple said.
Belle clamped her mouth shut, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach.
"You're the Dark One," said Yvanne. "You undo it."
Belle didn't know whether to laugh or cry or tear her hair out. Rumple, you idiot! He had been bluffing. Of course he had been bluffing. He hadn't known back at the Dark Castle how to undo the curse, and he was no wiser now.
"You don't know how. Neither of you knows." The ogre matriarch was the first to state the obvious. She cocked her head and listened, waiting for someone to contradict her, but no one did. She bellowed a laugh, then shoved an oversized drinking bowl towards Rumplestiltskin and Belle. "Talk, talk, talk, and for what? Nothing. Here, your mouths must be dry. Drink up!"
Belle caught a strong whiff of alcohol and waved a hand in front of her face. "Um, no thank you."
Rumple eyed the bowl and wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Potato vodka. We're not likely to find much inspiration there."
"No, for that you'll have to go to the one who wrote the original Dark Curse," Owlflower spoke up, turning back from the fire.
It was Yvanne who answered, "Surely that would be you."
Owlflower shook her head. "No, I cast it from my heart. The king was the one who inscribed the words onto a scroll."
Belle stared at the woman. "You cast the Dark Curse?" When had that been? She had never heard anything about it, but wouldn't something like that have ripped the realm apart? Unless they had somehow reversed it.
"I cast a dark curse. Not the same one, nor to the same purpose."
"That's right," said Yvanne. "You had your revenge. But the king learned from it, enough to craft a more powerful magic."
"If anyone knows how to undo it, it will be the king."
"The elven king?" Shrike was incredulous. "You must be joking. You'll have to find some other way, then. He hasn't seen anyone in four decades. At least that's what the ambassador here told me. Are you saying she lied to me?"
"Well, he sees me," said Owlflower. "But he'll make an exception this time, too. For her." She nodded at Belle. "If Sir Yvanne is correct in her supposition..."
"What? Me? Why?"
"I suppose he would." Yvanne smirked, then added in explanation, "After all, you are — we think — his granddaughter."
Author's notes: I originally wanted Colette to be the Rani (the renegade Time Lord from Doctor Who) for reasons that made sense to me but probably not to the rest of the universe. But sanity prevailed, so she's an elf instead (alas, that means she's dead-dead instead of merely regenerated). As for Owlflower (Blodeuwedd), she was one of the originators of the Dark Curse in my AU as told in "Of Love and Flowers": www DOT fanfiction DOT net /s/12595526/1/Of-Love-and-Flowers.