Megzs: Thank you for your comment on the last chapter. I tried to make it as cheeseless as possible, which is why I went with a song that practically everyone knows. And if you're reading this and you don't, you should go listen to the feel goods.
Warnings: graphic violence
Songs: Daughters of Darkness by Halestorm
Belle's accented timbre rumbled through the small third story platform in the warehouse-like building, and David listened to the story she read Henry and glanced around his environment. Snow had offered to stay with Granny at the hospital, so he and Hook followed Belle to the cloaked stronghold. Hook had since disappeared with his flask and a pained look of guilt in his eyes.
Cots were strewn along the walls and supplies neatly stacked on rusty shelves on the ground floor and other larger platforms. Two cots were in this particular area, one for Belle and one for Henry. Despite the Spartan furnishings and the moist air, a warmth of camaraderie and mutual support in the energy. If a dispute arose, Belle was the final say and in her absence Mother Superior, and no one argued with her ruling. She was quite an impressive leader, but then she'd been trained to be a ruler. She found no joy in it. He saw that in her haunted blue eyes. She took the responsibility of each and every life, those still living and dead. She felt each of them as if they'd been Ruby or Emma. That's what made her a good leader, but it's also what tortured her now.
He glanced at the cot where she sat reading to Henry for the hundredth time and observed the scene. She leaned against the wall with one boot propped on the bed, supporting the book, and the other on the floor. Henry laid beside her on his side, back to his grandfather with one hand wrapped around her ankle and the other tucked beneath his chin. Belle alternated between rubbing his shoulders to running her fingers through his hair absently as she took him on an adventure away from the horrors he'd obviously seen in the past month. Why had it taken them a month to attack? Why not immediately after they left?
Charming mulled on the thought and watched his grandson's breath even out and grow deeper with each expansion of his ribs. He jerked one time, like an infant fighting sleep, and then closed his eyes for good. Belle continued to read and stroke his hair. After about ten minutes of reading to no one, she glanced down. Her face softened, and her fingers traced the shell of his ear, his face. Silently, she closed the book and eased off the cot, turning back to brush his hair one more time and then kiss his forehead. He'd grown up in a way a child should never have to, by losing his innocence.
Belle sighed and unzipped Emma's coat, shrugging it and her swords from her shoulders and draping them over the foot of the cot. Her hands tugged Ruby's cloaked around her as her head bowed. It last about five heartbeats before she released the comforting fabric and moved to the waist-high table on the other side of the platform from him and Henry. He studied her profile.
She was clearly exhausted, but in great shape. The muscles of her arms bulged and rippled with definition, and the shirt she wore looked like one he'd seen Ruby wear, which means the miniscule amount of softness in her body she'd once had was gone now, replaced with tight abdominal muscles and bone. She rolled her neck again and squeezed the muscle connecting her shoulder and neck, discomfort obvious in her posture.
Without thinking, he crossed the platform quietly and covered her shoulders with his large hands. He gasped and held them in the air at his shoulders, however, when Belle broke free and turned on him. The barrel of the cocked gun pressed against his chin. She snarled and jerked away, releasing the firing pin and returning the gun to the holster at her hip. David gulped as she turned away from him.
"I'm sorry," he said sincerely. "I just wanted to help."
"Make noise the next time," she said and presented him her shoulders of her own volition. He took a deep breath and returned his hands to the tense muscles.
"Where did you learn to fight like that?" He asked absently, keeping his tone light intentionally. They'd been in a minor scrape earlier, and she'd blown past him in skill and speed. She was death in the compact package of a bookworm. Her shoulders tensed beneath his hands and then fell as she reigned in her emotions. The silence stretched so long that he thought she refused him an answer.
"In The Enchanted Forest," she whispered suddenly and then cleared her throat when it cracked under the words. She'd taken time to regain control of her emotions before answering him.
"I traveled nearly a year with a warrior named Mulan. She was rumored to be the best warrior in the entire land. I believe that rumor. Between my knowledge of monstrous creatures and her skill with a sword, we rid several kingdoms of many dangers. She taught me during those nine months how to use a sword, a staff, dagger defense, and these," she held up a throwing star for David to see.
"She was, for a very long time, my only friend after my family shunned me for trading my life to Rumpelstiltskin for theirs." She explained sadly and then sighed into the feeling of his huge, strong hands soothing her aching muscles. He honed into her reactions and focused his attention on the particularly sore spot he'd obviously just found.
"Sounds like you were happy. What happened?" David asked carefully and felt muscles bunch beneath his hand at the question. Belle sighed and dropped her head. David never stopped his gentle untangling of her weary muscles, so she stayed still rather than run away from that question as she normally did.
"Magic happened," she said quietly, and David almost missed the confession.
"You've heard of the Rockslide Massacre of Breck, I'm sure." He swallowed and nodded, realizing a moment too late that she couldn't see him.
"Everyone has. Rumpelstiltskin killed hundreds of men, women and children that day when he collapsed the canyon." David said succinctly. What part had Belle played in that tragedy?
"Rumpel didn't do it," she admitted almost inaudibly and then moved away from his hands. Shaking fingers plucked a rag from the table, and he simply watched the tortured woman clean and polish her weapons.
"A few of the men had kidnapped Mulan, caught her in a moment of weakness. I thought she was dead. The magic… Like Regina's, it consumed me slowly until there was nothing left but the addiction. All magic, even Earth Magic comes with a price.
"She returned a few days later, beaten and tired, but alive. She escaped, and I'd killed innocent people for a murder no one in that town had committed because the magic whispered in my ear that it was the right thing to do." She returned her weapons to their proper place on her body and then narrowed her eyes at him.
"No one but my father knows this, not even Rumpel, and my father isn't telling anyone anytime soon. He got the blame, but he never figured out who had done the crime. Not that he minded the boost to his ruthless reputation. Mulan didn't leave me, but she gave me an ultimatum. Her or magic. I chose magic, at least as long as it took me to feel the loneliness and complete debilitating weight of my guilt. When I couldn't find her again, I returned to Rumepl's castle. That's when Regina found me on the road that day and took me prisoner." Belle studied his neutral face for a moment. Licked her lips. Scratched the scar on her face.
"I'd appreciate this staying between us," she said, daring to allow a sliver of hope in her voice. "No one was ever supposed to know."
"Why tell me then?" He blurted the question, apparently in shock over what she'd said.
"Of all the people I trust, David, you are the only one with whom I am not particularly close. If I lose control… if I start killing needlessly, you need to put me down." His eyes widened and he stepped away from her involuntarily. Her forehead furrowed, and the muscles he just unkinked coiled tightly into knots once more.
"Here," she said and pulled a metal vial from a pocket of her pants. "Make me drink this. Don't confront me directly. It's a potion I took from Rumpel's shop. It's designed to temporarily disable the vocal chords. I have no idea what he used it for. I don't want to know, but I do know that I can't use magic without saying the incantations. This will give you exactly 24 hours to either get through to me or kill me. If you can't stomach another death on your hands, cut my tongue out."
"Belle," he protested but reluctantly took the container and tucked it into his pocket. "I… do you think there's a possibility of that happening?" No response. "Belle?" Coiled shoulders and a turned back. "I don't think you are capable of doing that Belle, killing someone you care for. I mean, there is no justifying what you did, but when I look at you and Henry together, I know you'd never hurt him." He tried to get through to the hurting woman in vain. She'd shut down already, ended the conversation with her silence.
"Did you mean to do it or was it an accident?" He asked. She faced him, something dark and dangerous and tortured and malevolent in her eyes. She breathed evenly and stared him down. He reacted visibly to the palpable energy emanating from her, and he knew. She had sought vengeance that day.
A blaring alarm saved him from her gaze. She moved immediately to Henry who had already sat up and looked around dazed and confused. She pulled him from the bed and hoisted his small body onto a platform above them. They locked gazes for one moment before he nodded and continued up the next ladder. They were already on the highest platform made into sleeping quarters, and now he moved to the platform furthest from the floor.
"Defensive positions!" She ordered in a loud, booming voice that her petite body hadn't seemed capable of producing. She adjusted her the straps of her sheathes as she blew past him.
"With me, Charming!" She said as she leapt from the railing and snagged a chain attached to a pulley system.
"Defensives!" She called again as she hit the ground running. "Get the children to higher ground!" A few non-warriors scurried with babes and school aged kids alike, Astrid and Grumpy among them. He was their last defense if they breeched the barrier.
Charming joined her on the ground a moment later. Archers and snipers took positions behind slight cover on the upper levels, staggered for optimum effect. Belle knelt in about 30 feet in front of the huge sliding door, the only entrance and exit. Swordsman gathered behind her, the cavalry so to speak. He drew his sword and crouched beside her when the hair on the back of his neck raised.
He studied her focused eyes and empty face and realized that she fully tapped into the power of Nature. Her hands circled around an invisible ball and grew in size. A loud bang against the door startled him, but Belle never even flinched or acknowledge the sound in any way. He really just wanted to stare at her but forced his eyes to the door. When her hands shook with the effort of containing the energy ball she'd created, her eyes flicked to the door. She jerked her head to the side and muttered an incantation simultaneously.
The door flew open, revealing at least 30 men and women with pistols, shotguns, swords, and bows at the ready. She muttered something else and pushed her hands towards the group of intruders. Bullets flew the moment they recovered from their shock, but they only had one shot. They bounced around them, flinging chunks of cement and bouncing off steel support beams. A ripple of energy pulsed off the walls, and the guns in their hands glowed brightly. Some of them exploded as their bullets discharged within the gun from the heat.
"Archers!" She screamed and pulled the swords from the sheathes at her back. Ruby's cape furled and whipped as she charged into the group, followed immediately by the group of foot soldiers. Arrows zinged and whistled by his head as he followed her.
Belle grunted at the first clash of her sword against another. She blocked high, spun on the ball of her foot, bring the very sharp blade of her other sword across the man's gut. Blood sprayed, the scent of tangy iron filling her nose. She immediately moved to the next sword, not bothering to check for signs of life from the life she'd just cut down. The time to mourn her actions came when Storybrooke was safe. She blocked and attacked as fast as the swords moved towards her, taking down each one with cold exacting patience and precision.
"Belle!" A frightened voice called to her, and she kicked a woman in the gut as she whirled. The woman fell back, still living and dangerous, but Belle abandoned the easy prey and slashed at necks and backs as she sprinted towards the edge of the battle.
A fairy lay on her side, holding her stomach with one hand and trying desperately to pull herself away with the other. She jerked to a stop, grabbed one of the sharp stars at her waist and loosed it towards the man standing over the injured woman. Lucy was her name, Belle reminded herself as the star stuck into the man's neck. Lucy grabbed the dagger from his belt and plunged it into his stomach. She was fine.
A sharp pain in her forearm rattled one of her swords loose from her grip. She blocked the next swipe of the sword as she spun, cape billowing like a red flag of fury. The woman she allowed to live had come for her. She sneered, set her stance and blocked swipe and parry as they came. The woman was skilled with a sword. They brought better and better warriors each time after discovering she disabled their guns with magic to even the playing field.
A whistling sound flew by her ear. A spray of blood and chunks of skull accompanied the sickening thump as one of her snipers effectively ended the fight. She grabbed her sword from the floor and moved on to the next threat. A stabbing burn in her thigh tripped her and she skidded across the floor on her chest with the momentum of her sprint and the force of the wound. Blue eyes sought out the culprit and found an arrow sticking out of her leg. She cut the shaft with one swipe of her sword and pulled herself to her feet and out of the pool of warm, slick blood spreading over the concrete from the woman's gun shot wound. It covered the front of her shirt, and she jerked Ruby's cape away from it before more than the edges were stained with the crimson liquid.
She screamed in frustration and blocked a sword. More and more, she became injured. They'd singled her out as the leader, the top fighter. They targeted her, knowing the rest would have fallen into submission out of fear without the sheer strength of her will. She blocked, parried, winced at the weight on her injured leg. Over and over, swords clashed and foes fell beneath her blade. She spun in a circle, fighting through the pain and caught a man's throat with the tip of her second sword as she knocked his off kilter with the first. His big, terrified eyes met hers. He fell. She whirled, looking for the next threat. It never came.
The ground was covered in blood, chunks of flesh and intestines, broken or discarded weapons. The battle had ended. Her chest heaved and the swords remained at the ready in front of her body as she slowly assessed the loss of life before her. A few of her own lay amongst the dead. Her eyes slipped shut, and a haunted but triumphant cry tore from her throat as she raised face and her swords towards the ceiling. The rest of her army joined in, creating a cacophony of pain and victory.
"Henry!" She called when it ended, and the boy peaked over the rail on the top platform.
"We're okay, Aunt Belle," he called down and then disappeared. Her shoulders drooped in relief. She allowed herself to feel it for exactly one second before she motivated her troops into actions.
"Medics! Astrid, call Zambrano and tell her about the wounds of the seriously injured! You know the drill, people! Get to it!" A flurry of motion filled the room as each person hopped to their assigned task. Some treated the wounded, and others dragged corpses towards the door.
"I'll drive out and escort her in. Grumpy, get some extra crew together and get these bodies out of here. I want this place clean by the time I get back. Henry!" She called, and the boy dropped off the ladder but stopped short of touching her blood soaked front.
"Charming, you're in charge. Find out who the hell tripped my barrier spell by leaving without checking with me so I could reset it!" She bowed her head for a few seconds and then snapped her fingers in sync with a mumbled incantation.
The blood disappeared from her clothes but remained spattered across her face, a testament and badge of her position. She sheathed a sword, and Henry ducked beneath her arm, offering her support on her wounded leg. She'd already been limping. Now it was ten times worst.
"Seal these doors behind me. This was a full scale attack. We'll not see more action tonight, not while they lick their wounds!" She brandished her sword above her head as she rallied morale. Crimson drops of life dripped from the blade, and her people roared in triumph once more.
By the time they reached the Mercedes just outside the door, her hands shook from spent adrenaline. She and Henry dropped to their bellies on either side and checked for wires or any type of explosive or tracking devices. Seeing none, they nodded to each other under the car and then repeated the process with the seats and dashes. She popped the trunk and hood, and they each moved silently to opposite ends of the car. She shut the hood after finding nothing and nodded to the boy when he glanced at the passenger door and then at her. They were safe for now.
"Put your seatbelt on," she ordered as she spun gravel up.
"Yes, Aunt Belle," he obeyed easily. He realized when the war started that Belle protected him at all cost, whether that meant forcing him to wear his seatbelt or taking a shard of broken wood to her face when she stepped between him and one of Pan's minions trying to stab him with the improvised stake. That was the first day he'd watched her take a life. She never scared him, though. She was his protector, his very own personal superhero who lived and breathed to keep him safe.
"Do you want to listen to music?" She asked, a hardened edge still in her voice despite her best efforts to lighten it. She'd just killed more than a few people that she knew of, not including any she may have fatally injured while slashing her way through the crowd to save that fairy, and lost at least three, maybe more if their wounds were too severe.
"Can we listen to that old country station you like?" He asked hesitantly. She always brooded after a battle, and more often than not, the gentler music reminded her of Ruby and made her cry.
"Sure," she said, surprising both of them. One side of her mouth quirked upwards as she glanced between him as he adjusted the station and the road. It slid away when she clamped down on her emotions, resetting her connection with the earth in order to maintain the main barrier spell around Storybrooke. She gripped the wheel in relief when the spell no longer pulled at her own life force. They had maybe a week before it drained her completely. They needed an offensive plan.
The second they arrived with Eva, she shouted for the doors to open and kept a vigilant watch for another ambush as the doctor practically sprinted inside with Captain. The warrior turned nurse turned deputy had been the doctor's constant escort and companion since the attacks began. Without them, they'd have lost many more than they already had. Henry entered next, and she struggled with the giant sliding metal door. It surged forward suddenly as another's strength joined hers, and she glanced up into the sad eyes of Prince Charming.
"You're hurt. Sit down." He ordered, and she nodded, not steeled enough to fight the command from her self-appointed right hand. He led her to a wooden crate they'd repurposed as a chair and lowered her onto it. She watched him work on her forearm for a moment and then took a steadying breath.
"I can't hold the barrier spell much longer, David. We need a plan. We need to lower it and attack first when they aren't expecting it. Ideas?" She spoke without raising her eyes from the wound on her arm weeping blood. Henry joined her on the crate, and she immediately accepted the boy's weight against her side.
"I put your kettle on, Aunt Belle," he said in a tone that said more to the woman than David understood. A sharp sting pulled across the gash on her arm, and she winced, squeezing Henry tighter.
"Thank you, Sweetheart," she whispered with a tight throat and kissed the crown of his head. As her adrenaline completely left her, the pain surfaced, and she swallowed every few seconds to keep the bile pushed down.
"What if one or two of us go to the roads where they're waiting and lure them to the center of town. We could set up archers and snipers on practically every building on the main stretch of street. Pick them off as they come through, and then meet them head on in the square." Charming distracted her from his work and dug the tip of her dagger into her leg, prying lose the arrow head stuck there.
"We'd be trapped in the center with no way out," she pointed out the flaw in his plan and gripped Henry's shoulder painfully. The pain worsened every second, and she almost called for Eva and some local anesthetic. Blue eyes scoured the warehouse, finding the doctor frantically patching Lucy, and clamped down on her pain. It wouldn't have killed her, but distracting Eva right now might have killed Lucy.
"Not if you're there waiting for them. Without the barrier spell sapping your power and focus, could you conjure enough magic in the five minutes it took for us to get from the line to town?" He wasn't keen on relying solely on magic to win battles, but this was a completely different world.
"If I rest properly for the next few hours, it's possible. I know I can summon enough to at least blow some stuff up or send out a wave of fire," she said honestly.
"If you get us that far, take out their guns, we'll take care of the rest, Belle. You've brought them this far, let me take them the rest of the way," he said gently. Their eyes locked, and an understanding passed between them. He wanted to save her soul from the darkness she embraced in order to save their town.
"It's worth a shot. Without Regina here, I'm the best we have. She's much stronger, but I'll give it my best shot, David. Brief the troops and Captain. She's been building a militia on non-magicals in secret. Even if they're not, they have to be ready now." She clipped and accepted the responsibility of their lives on top of the others.
"Hook tripped the barrier," he changed the subject. Anger flared in her eyes and then dissipated. "I found him out back passed out drunk. He must not have realized he'd cross the boundary."
"I'm going to slit his throat. I lost people because of him!" Belle yelled and then winced.
"Aunt Belle, reconnect," Henry encouraged the angry woman and ran his tiny hand over her hair, soothing her rage. After a few minutes, her body collapsed, slouching forward as she neutralized her emotions and pulled the energy all around her into her chi, replenishing the little bit of her own life force that she could.
Charming watched the interaction with curious and grief-filled eyes. The boy had grown up. Regina and Emma had given him a second chance at a childhood when they moved him to Boston and away from all of this. There was no coming back from what he'd seen, not anymore. He gritted his teeth and plucked the arrowhead from the toned thigh in front of him.
A grumbling, growling hum vibrated Belle's throat and her hands jerked, but she endured the pain gracefully. It was nothing compared to the guilt of losing more to this senseless battle. Grief flared in her chest, and she released it into the universe with a deep, steadying breath.
She hugged the boy, trusted the prince, and prayed for the strength required to survive their insane plan.
