David met the pair of them on the street, as promised, as soon as they were changed and suddenly, as they launched into their discussion, she felt every bit the princess, the Queen, that she was born to be. Or rather the one she'd always wanted to be but knew she would never have been allowed to be. She'd only ever had that feeling one time, when the entire group had gone to Neverland and left her in charge of Storybrooke. She'd been the one to make commands then, to come up with ways to fortify the town. Now, she was doing it again, only David was by her side. A Prince and a Princess, preparing for war. Even with everything that had happened, she couldn't deny it made her stand a little taller.

"We should block off both ends of this street, make sure no cars can get through just in case word hasn't spread by then," he suggested.

"These roads here," she pointed to the intersecting streets, "if we can't block them off we should get someone to stand watch, turn people away."

"Zelena wants a crowd," Tinkerbell added.

"If Regina shows up I doubt she'll care," David commented.

"If Regina doesn't show up we'll need to make sure the streets are as clear as possible," she muttered to herself, still David obviously heard her.

"We don't have that many dwarves left," he nodded. "Maybe closing the street off that much is giving her too much space-"

"You want to contain her."

"-reign her in, make her feel a little claustrophobic."

She agreed whole heartedly. The last thing they wanted was to give Zelena all the room in the world, maybe by narrowing the space she had to cause trouble, it would create problems for her, give the advantage to Regina in a fight. Of course it wouldn't make any kind of difference if Regina didn't show up, or if Zelena pushed whatever barriers they established aside. The Dark One's magic wouldn't be contained by road blocks or dwarves, and frankly, with Zelena, they had no idea what to expect from her. They hadn't even known who she really was a few days ago. The two of them on the same side, willingly or not, could be disastrous.

They amended their plan, restricting the area they would block off to only one square of Main Street instead of the entire length. They discussed the possibility of posting dwarves nearby to turn people away should they approach, Tinkerbell had only just suggested there might be some magical remedy to keep people away when someone called out for them.

"David!" Emma cried from across the street, Mary Margaret following after her. "Did you figure out a plan?!"

He nodded and began crossing the street to meet his daughter. "If we position someone there, there, and there," he began pointing to the places they'd agreed to block off, "we'll have the whole street covered."

"I'll talk to Blue," Tinkerbell suggested, picking up her previous thought, "see if we can get-"

"No, you heard Zelena," Emma interrupted her, "she said no interference! She'll probably order Gold to level half the block if we try something before she has a crack at her sister." And he would do it, she knew he'd do it because he had no choice. She hated that.

"So they really are sisters?" Tink asked.

"She found a letter in her vault confirming it," Mary Margaret answered. The news didn't seem to sit well with David, who began pacing the street, worry and concern oozing out of him.

"Where is she?" he asked, "Regina?"

"She disappeared," Mary Margaret informed him. "Something in the letter upset her." That wasn't exactly hard to believe. If she ever got word that she had a family member she'd never known about, no matter how the news was delivered, she'd probably be pretty thrown off too. If the news came from the family member threatening to kill her the same day and confirmation of that news came from nothing but a letter, she'd be a little more than thrown off.

"Should we try to find her?" Tink asked.

"She was pretty clear she didn't want any help on this one," Emma muttered with worry in her voice, but also annoyance. It was beyond understandable. The Evil Queen was trying to change her ways to be seen as something other than Evil and the first time the town was relying on her to show up she disappeared! Yes, she could easily understand the desperation and fear in her voice. She really didn't know what to do next, or tonight. None of them did.

"Are we going to let her walk into this fight alone?" David questioned. He was confused but also completely serious. The words were just as much a suggestion as they were a question. He'd be perfectly fine to let Regina handle it on her own. Frankly after everything that the Evil Queen had put her through, if it wasn't for the fact that Zelena had killed Neal, or at least claimed responsibility for it, and was holding her true love hostage, she'd be perfectly fine with it as well. Something in Regina's past had caught up with her, it was a long time coming, and if it was just Regina at risk she'd think it was her problem, go home, and not lose an hour of sleep over it. But it was more than that and she knew that she was better than turning a blind eye to something so terrible. It would be cruel. She'd agreed to work with this group. Regina was part of the group whether she participated with them as one or not. She kept her promises, the deals she made, even if others didn't.

"No, she's gonna get help, whether she wants it or not!" Emma stated as if the answer was obvious.

"But-but you just said we can't interfere!" she pointed out. She wasn't against helping but how to do it would be a delicate matter. How were they supposed to help and not interfere at the same time? It required a plan of some kind. And a good one.

"Because Zelena has Gold on her side we need to remove him from the equation," Emma explained. "It's the only way Regina has a fighting chance. We just need to get his dagger!" She turned away from the small group, upset. That was it?! That was all she had come up with?! It would have been a good plan, not interfering with the sisters, just with her unwilling ally. But it sounded like a goal not a plan. There was nothing in that statement that even remotely resembled a plan.

"You saw Zelena," Mary Margaret pointed out to her, "she practically had it glued to her hand!" And if it were that easy to get the dagger wouldn't she have done it already?! That dagger was…not everything.

"Wait, wait," she interrupted. Hadn't she only just thought about this a moment ago with Tinkerbell. The dagger was part of him but it wasn't the Rumpelstiltskin she knew. The Dark One was only part of him, a cursed part. True Love had triumphed over that curse once before, it could do it again. It wasn't the dagger they had to get away from Zelena, just him. If the pair of them were together somewhere, if they were alone, away from Zelena, perhaps they could hold her off. He couldn't enact the orders if he couldn't hear them…better yet, he couldn't be held captive to the daggers magic if he had no magic. Suddenly her heart pounded in her chest as it all fell into place and she knew exactly what they had to do.

"What if..." she turned back to the group hoping they wouldn't dismiss her when she suggested it this time, not like they had days ago in the forest. No. Even if they rejected her idea she was going to do it anyway, with or without them. But with them would be much easier. "What if I can get through to Rumple without the dagger?"

There was silence for a fraction of a second, enough time for her to worry that they'd shake their heads and tell her it was too risky again, but then Mary Margaret glanced back at her daughter. "It's worth a try," she surrendered, desperation and a lack of ideas suddenly making her more willing to allow her to do such a thing. She didn't care, it was something, she'd take it! She needed to see him again. This could work! "Regina can't do this alone," she urged with a shake of her head.

"We don't even know if she's still at the house!" Emma argued. "Or if it's protected, or if Gold is still in the cellar. There are too many variables-"

"So we go look!" David encouraged boldly. "That's where we start and we go in with swords, or guns, or magic blazing!"

"Emma," Mary Margaret breathed, "it's better than anything else we've got. What do we have to lose?!" She held her breath as she looked around the group, watching Emma for permission to go, to see him, to get him, to save him! It had to be done. She had to agree, she just had too!

Finally she smiled and took a small step toward her. "Belle," she said calmly, in a tone that was almost condescending, the tone he used when he tried to get her to see his own brand of reason. It never worked, and she always resented it, no matter who was doing it. "Even if you can get to Gold, she'll still have the dagger! How are you going to keep her from ordering him right back to her side?"

She couldn't help but smile, because she already knew what had to be done and that meant that going to see Rumple was only a matter of an explanation. "I have a plan for that," she assured her. And that plan was perfect.

I had to come up with a plan because my first thought when I heard her say "what if I can get through to him without the dagger" was "Belle, sweetie, what do you think you are doing? You can only hold it off for so long before he can't hold it off anymore." So...I came up with a plan. I hope you'll find it an acceptable.

Thank you to Meredith Pechta, Grace5231973, LaurieAHancock, Sara K M, Katido, Raizen Yusuke, Onlyinyourdreams77, and Deweymay for your wonderful and awesome reviews of the last chapter. I'm glad ya'll liked the interaction between Belle and Tink. There may or may not be more of that coming in a fiction or two! Peace and Happy Reading!