The dark figure lurked over the prison cell, casting a shadow over Belle as she slept. The lingering figure caused Belle to stir and wake, opening her tired eyes to search for the disturbance in the darkness.

Gaston, after all these years there he stood, just feet in front of her, his snake like eyes narrowed at her. The Beauty remained frozen in fear, completely stunned by what was right in front of her. She had imagined what it would be like to see Gaston again after all these horrible years, but now that she was there, Belle found herself unable to find words to say.

"Belle, it's been too long" he spoke, his deep voice forcing shivers down her spine.

"Not nearly long enough" she hissed, backing away to the back of the cell, trying to catch any sign of Rumplestiltskin in the prison next to her. This became apparent to Gaston, the Beauty was searching for the beast, yearning for him, seeking him out with a desperate set of blue eyes filled with fear.

"The imp isn't going to save you" he whispered.

"I don't need him to save me, come any closer and I'll show you what I can do myself"

"Such hostility" he marvelled, teasing her. "I have to say its turning me on a little"

"You're a pig" she spat, disgusted of the proximity of his distasteful voice.

"I can see why that beast was so attracted to you, your beauty has only blossomed over these past years" he opened the cell now, creaking open the door and slowly walking in.

"I could say the same for you, but I'm afraid I would be lying" she eyed him down, backing up until her back was against the back end of the bars.

"Oh, come on now Belle, we used to be inseparable- we were engaged to be married-"

"Before you left me in that tower to rot!"

"I could of killed you, I gave you mercy-"

"The way I see it, you gave me something worse than death, you never gave me any type of mercy, you kept me in there for three years! You stole my life from me!" she yelled, angrily.

"I could kill you now, if I wished it" the brute came closer and closer towards her while Belle reached and attempting to cover her belly as much as possible to hide the spouting baby bump. "But maybe I'll demonstrate on the beast next to you instead" he spoke softly, grabbing her chin with his rough hands.

"Don't you dare touch him!" Belle hissed, defensively.

"I've never understood you, Belle. You refused to fuck a royal, yet you would fuck a monster, my darling Belle, I'm glad your father isn't alive to see this, I wouldn't want him to see what a little slut you've become-"

"Don't you dare talk about my father- you have no right!" she protested angrily, fighting back with all her might to not allow him to win, not again.

"Take it as a blessing that I killed him when I had the chance." Gaston cooed into her ear, he was on top of her now, pressing all his weight, pinning her down. He stopped as he glared at the bump which became more evident as he felt it.

"So you have been fucking that monster, you carry his devil seed inside you!" Gaston began to hitch up her skirts, as she further struggled to get him off of her.

"Don't you worry, I'll make sure that thing inside you never gets the chance to be born"

She felt as if everything had gone into slow motion, she felt herself struggle against his body, fighting to be released from his terrifying grasp. Belle wanted nothing but to just disappear, evaporate into the air in that very moment. Then suddenly, a sound alerted her, which did not catch the notice of Gaston, who still busily attempted to unlace her bodice.

Her dull eyes scanned for the cause of the noise, searching through the dark for a miracle. She felt her heart leap of adrenaline when she spotted a shiny sharp piece of metal laying at the end of the cell, just close enough for her to reach out and grab it. Where did the knife come from? It was almost like magic-

Rumplestiltskin.

Belle turned her head towards the cell next to her, hoping that she would be able to see him, able to stare into his gaze and let him know that she loved him, because deep down she knew that her body was beginning to give up the fight. She stared across at the weapon, blankly looking at it as if it wasn't really there.

He had tossed it over into her cell, he knew that she needed his help and giving her the knife only further proved that even though Rumplestiltskin did not have his heart in his body, he still cared.

He still cared.

A fire lit within Belle, she felt her muscles tighten as her arms pushed her off of him, sending him into the nearby wall. The Brute had threatened to kill the helpless little person growing inside her, he threatened everyone she had ever loved, and he had to pay.

Gaston got up faster than she expected and lunged towards her once again. Quickly and calmly she picked up the weapon, pointing it in his direction while he came at her.

Belle felt the knife strike something and immediately closed her eyes, the sheer sharp piece of metal dug deeper and deeper into his front. She opened them once again as Gaston let out low groans of pain.

"You bastard" She spat lowly, digging the kitchen knife deeper and deeper into his stomach. "That's for my father" she hissed, then taking a step back she kicked him as hard as she possibly could between his legs.

"And that" she leaned down to the cowering brute, just close enough to his ear that he could hear her whisper. "That's for ruining my life" her words echoing in his ear as Gaston remained mute from the unimaginable pain.

Sprinting, Belle ran out of the cell through the opened door, fumbling as she ran, bumping into the stone walls while she tried to find her balance. Now there was one thing on her mind. She needed to find Bae before someone else did.

Regina and Daniel remained in the throne room, wrapped up hopelessly in each others comforting embrace. She felt as if this all was a dream, a dream that she never wanted to wake up from.

Suddenly, alarming both of them, Gaston stumbled in, crashing into the sides of décor, smashing it the ground. He held his side, cringed over the wound which covered it shirt in his own blood.

"Gaston, what in hell?" Regina broke apart from Daniel to face the disrupting brute.

"She's escaped-" he started to ramble out clearly out of breath "Belle's gone"

"How did this happen!?" Regina demanded.

"The bitch stabbed me, I don't know how she got the knife, the imp must have given it to her-" he continued to ramble, his broken up sentence barely making any sense.

"What were you doing in her cell?" Regina hissed at his stupidity.

"I just wanted to have a bit of fun, sure you can understand that Regina?" He let out a smug smirk, before cringed back to the painful wound that Belle had inflicted on him. The Queen approached him, waving her hand above the wound and healing it, allowing him to continue speaking.

"Her escape isn't the only important thing you need to know" He began, standing up straight he took another labored breath "the girl is pregnant"

Regina's eyes grew wide at the realization of what that meant. Not only would this child be a child of true love, it would be the child to the Dark One, who knows what powers it would of inherited from its father.

"You're sure?" Regina questioned.

"Absolutely, her belly has already started to swell. We must kill that child at once, who knows how powerful it will become"

"No Regina you can't!" Daniel spoke up, opposing and interrupting the brute.

"Who is this fool?" Gaston turned to face the unrecognizable man, who joined Regina by her side, protectively. Daniel stood strong, standing his ground firmly beside the Queen.

"Who are you?" Daniel retorted back, slightly offended by the rudeness and vulgarity of his character. Both men looked at Regina who for the first time ever, look flustered and uneasy.

"Gaston, this is Daniel, my true love" she spoke, while Gaston seemed to brush off what the Queen just said.

"True love or not, we have an escaped prisoner, one that will guarantee that we fail. She will want the imp's heart back"

"Then you must give it back to her!" Daniel intervened, concerned about his friend. "Belle has done nothing wrong" he further protested.

"How dare you-" Gaston interrupted "How dare you come in here and tell her what to do-"

"He's right" the Queen's voice was a little more than a whisper. Gaston instantly stopped at glared at her, his green eyes filled with hate and furiousness.

"What about our plans to kill Rumplestiltskin? We would be the two most powerful beings in this whole land, and we will kill the infant to secure our power-" he started to raise his voice to the point that his tone became a shout.

"I cannot go through with it, if it means losing Daniel again" she turned to face her love, exchanging glances with him as he took a hold of her hand. "I mean what good will this do? Killing Rumplestiltskin or killing the princess?" Regina paused.

Killing them wouldn't make her life any better, she would lose Daniel all over again, an innocent baby would be robbed of their life, allowing with its parents. Belle had never been a threat to her, maybe, just maybe, Daniel was right.

A pure look of disgust came upon Gaston's face at Regina's response. "What about me Regina, what about us? What about the plans we made!?" He demanded answers from her violently, taking his anger out by smashing down the paintings, shattering the class into millions of pieces.

"There has never been an us, Gaston, there has and only will be Daniel. As for the princess, she is no longer any of my concern." She declared.

A growl rolled in the brute's throat as the Queen spoke those words. All this time plotting and planning to take down Rumplestiltskin, all for nothing! He knew one thing for sure, if Regina was not going to claim the power for her own, he would be more than happy to claim it, he would just have to kill Belle himself.

...

Belle had to stop running for a few brief moments to allow herself to catch her breath. She rested against a wall, holding herself, trying to get her heart to calm down. Every room in this castle looked the same, the same corridors, same colours, it made finding Baelfire seem almost impossible.

Then entering one of the rooms, she noticed that one curtain was slightly lumpier than the other. Slowly and sneakily, Belle crept into the room and tugged gently on the curtain to reveal a wide eyed Bae, nearly scared to death by her appearance.

"Belle!" he nearly shouted with joy, wrapping his arms around her waist. "I thought you were one of the guards, how did you get out?"

"it's a long story" she admitted. "We cannot afford the time to tell it now, for now we must go, they have your father in the dungeon-"

"Have you found where Regina is keeping his heart?" He asked, coming out from behind the curtains.

Belle shook her head sadly. "There is only one person who knows where it is, and if we can't find the heart ourselves, we will just have to go directly to the source."

"What do you mean?" Bae asked, slightly confused.

"We're going to find Regina"

Gaston had stormed out of the room angrily, leaving Regina and Daniel alone once again. Belle and Baelfire stood outside of the room, both holding an ear to the door and listening.

"I want you to wait out here" the Beauty instructed. "If you see any guards coming, I want you to come in and warn me." Bae nodded, comprehending the plan that Belle had set in motion.

The Beauty walked in to the room, her knees shaking, undetected by anyone who was in there. The moment Belle set eyes on the back of the Queen, she froze. She felt as if she could run, run away from Regina. No, Belle scolded herself. She was done running, it was for her to do something she should of done long ago. She felt the blunt knife she had found in the dungeon in her hands, gripping it tightly. Before Regina could realize what was happening, the Beauty came up behind her and held her tightly, holding the knife directly against the Queen's revealed throat.

As Belle held the sharp knife up to Regina's throat, she kept her arms tucked around her neck, making it very difficult for the Queen to struggle.

"Like you would actually do it, princess" Regina mocked, knowing exactly who was standing behind her holding the weapon.

"You know I would. After everything you've done, you even sent Gaston down to my cell, to torture me, as if stealing my true love away from me wasn't bad enough!"

"Belle stop!" Daniel rushed to Regina's side defensively. "She had no idea that he went down to see you"

"Daniel- what are-" she started, confused at what was happening. Then Belle felt her own jaw drop as she connected the dots. "The woman you told me about, on the road, your true love, the one you were separated from- it can't be- not Regina!" She staggered backwards, blindsided by such an occurrence.

He couldn't find the proper words to say before Belle cut in once again. "This woman has gone out of her way to make my life miserable! she's a terrible person! How could you love someone like that?"

"Says the girl who fell in love with the Dark One" Regina scoffed, crossing her arms and raising a brow at the Beauty. "I am not as evil as you make me out to be, I'll even prove it to you. I don't want to be that person anymore"

"People don't change overnight." The Beauty interjected, skeptically.

"Sometimes, people just need a reminder of who they were before" Regina replied.

Somehow the Queen's words hit Belle like a ton of bricks.

Reminder of who they were before. The words seemed to stick and echo through her mind.

Before becoming the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin had been nothing except a poor lonely spinner, trying his best to care for his son. She had seen the worst parts of him, the horrible parts that made her want to run away from the dark castle in the first place.

However, there were moments in the very beginning that Belle had seen goodness in him, the true Rumplestiltskin. Had she reminded him of who he was before becoming the Dark One? He had changed, grown to be compassionate and became tamed, all at the Beauty's doing. His heart was true, and maybe deep down, so was Regina's.

Belle felt herself still hopelessly lost in her own thoughts as she felt Regina approaching her closer.

She held out a red beatiing heart out towards her. Belle took it, and looked Regina in her brown eyes, searching for an explanation for this. Why of all people would the Evil Queen give her the one thing that would cost her everything? The one thing that would prevent her from becoming the most powerful being in the entire Enchanted Forest.

Unless Regina really wanted to change.

"If this doesn't prove it, I don't know what will" Regina confessed, not knowing what to do to prove it to Daniel that she could be the woman he fell in love with all those years ago. After experiencing the pain of losing him the first time, she would not dare to lose him by her own actions for a second time.

Without another word and without any trace of hesitation, Belle ran back down to the dungeon, the beating heart in her hand. Once Rumple got his heart back, they could be reunited, they could go home, and finally get their happily ever after. But somewhere in the back of Belle's mind there was something telling her that this wasn't over yet.

Hey everyone! There are two more chapters after this one, I will probably end up posting both of them together. Thanks for all the follows and reviews this story has gotten. I have loved writing it because of all the positive feedback I have received. Thanks for reading! You all rock! ps if you want to make a happy writer leave a review and let me know what you think! :)

Next Chapter: With Rumplestiltskin's heart back in his body, everything seems like its going to be alright, until things take a deadly turn. Will Belle, Rumple and Bae finally get the happy ending they deserve?