36

Revelations

Emma found she was near tears at the emotional reunion taking place before her. She surreptitiously wiped her eyes, and saw that Belle was wiping her own with her handkerchief and so was Alice. Alina was using her sleeve and even Bae and Henry looked rather emotional, though they were trying to hide it.

Gold squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again to stare into his sister's green ones. "You've got our mother's eyes, you know."

"Do I? I'm afraid I don't remember her," Vasilisa whispered.

"Well, you do. And her hair too. She had beautiful hair, I used to help her plait it sometimes, especially after she took sick and needed help with it," Rumple told her.

"How did she die, Rumple?"

"I was seven. It was some kind of sickness . . . probably a flu or something. In a week and a half . . . she was gone and I was left alone. Some spinner women, who used to be her friends, took me in to live with them. But I always missed her . . . and you," he said sincerely. He lifted his hand and wiped the tears off her cheeks, just as she did the same to him. "It's like . . . a miracle . . . having you back . . ."

"Yes. And once you meet my children and Jack, we'll all be together," Vasilisa said quietly.

"Children?" he lofted an eyebrow.

"Yes, I have a girl and a boy. They're quite close in age, about a year or so apart," Vasilisa told him. "Right now they're with their father, helping him find an old enemy."

"Your husband . . . is he a sorcerer too?" her brother asked curiously.

"No. My husband and son don't have magic, but my daughter does," Vasilisa answered.

He gave her a wry smile. "How very strange. I'm a brother and an uncle, all in one day."

"Well, you always were. You just didn't know it," she grinned.

Rumple withdrew from her embrace and went to sit down next to Belle.

She put an arm around him and whispered, "Oh, Rumple! I'm so happy for you!"

"So am I," he said, and smiled back at her.

Henry glanced at his parents, and then at his new aunt, at least he thought she was his aunt, or maybe great-aunt was the correct term. "Umm . . . I was wondering something," he began, looking at Vasilisa. "If you're my grandpa's sister . . . how is it you're so much younger. . .?"

Vasilisa looked amused. "Time never runs true for sorceresses, Henry. Let me see if I can explain it. Technically, Rumple is three years my senior, and if we aged like normal folk, we'd be hundreds of years old. Well, we are that, but we . . . don't age like regular people because of our magic. The magic . . . alters us . . . changes how time affects us . . .and there's also the stasis spells we employ on our homes and other places, that slow time down or halt it altogether. Your Storybrooke is under such a spell, and only now that Emma is here has time begin to almost resume its normal flow. Where I grew up, in the Trackless Waste in Baba Yaga's palace, time was not the same there as it was in the rest of Fairy Tale Land. Time was slowed down to a crawl, because that was how my mistress wished it. I could age there, but very slowly. She wanted it thus, because as a Seer, my gift is very difficult to master, and even worse trying to interpret the Visions I See or Dream. It takes centuries for a Seer to truly master her power, and even then, it's not an absolute. So . . . I spent centuries there in the Waste, and never knew it until I tried to escape and got back into Fairy Tale Land again. I started to age then, but once I was back in her palace, it stopped. Once I left her for good, I could then grow up normally, and I did."

"Do you age now?" Alina queried.

"Yes and no. Because of my time in her palace, my aging is slowed, now that I'm an adult. I'm not immortal, nevertheless, I shall love longer than regular people. A great deal longer," her aunt answered.

"When you defeated Baba Yaga, you didn't kill her?" was Henry's next question.

"No. That was on purpose. I could have killed her," Vasilisa said, her green eyes stormy. "I didn't because killing her would be too easy. After everything she had done to me, I didn't want her death . . . I wanted her life. So I let her live . . . but I stripped her of her powers, reduced her to the magical equivalent of a turnip, and made her keep her shape of an old beggar woman, and then I set her out into the Waste, to wander that frozen hell forever and know the pain and anguish I felt as her captive for all those years. It was by far a worse thing than killing her."

"What did you do after that?" asked Emma.

"I wandered the realms trying to find a way to be with my brother, but all of my efforts were in vain. Even though I can sometimes walk between worlds, this world was closed to me. My Sight showed me it would be so for a long time, so in the meanwhile I met my husband and we married, went on a few adventures together, and then I had two children. I spent much of the last twenty years raising them, they're almost grown now, my daughter is seventeen and my son sixteen. I was only able to find a way here because the curse over Storybrooke is starting to weaken."

Alina was thinking hard about something she had read a long time ago. "Umm . . . Aunt . . . uh, what should I call you?" she began.

"Well . . . I've been Vasilisa for over half my life, but that's a name Baba Yaga gave me. My real name, as your papa said, is Rhea. It's probably best if you all call me that," Vasilisa said.

"Um . . . so . . . Aunt Rhea, I remember reading in a Russian folktale book that Vasilisa in the tales had a magical doll that could do things for her," Alina said. "Is that true?"

Vasilisa nodded. "Yes. Though much of what is recorded here is not, that particular instance is. Back when I was Baba Yaga's student, in her icy estate, she had me doing all manner of chores for her, trying to make me compliant with all the work she gave me. But I was anything but, and I enchanted a doll and made it do a lot of work for me. So the part about the doll is true. I still have her, and when my daughter is grown, I shall pass it down to her."

"Do you . . . want the Once Upon a Time Book too?" Henry asked diffidently.

"No. That belongs to you," Vasilisa replied. "You too are a chronicler, aren't you, Henry? And thus my history is yours also. Though I may ask for it back from time to time, to record new stories in its pages. You see, stories are meant to be shared and everything I write is intended to be given away at some point. For what use is a book without someone to read it?"

Rumple chuckled at that. "I can see, Mistress Scribble, that you and Belle will soon be best friends."

"Oh, yes!" she agreed, and her smile mirrored her brother's. "Trust you, old dragon, to marry a bookworm! It must run in the family."

Emma cleared her throat. "Rhea . . . would you happen to have anything that I can read that might help me break the curse?"

"Well . . ." the Seer looked thoughtful. "I may have something. But Emma . . . all you need to break the curse is inside of you."

"I don't understand."

"I know. But you will soon. It's something I can't explain. You have to figure it out, for only by coming to your own conclusion will you understand truly."

"Now I'm really confused," Emma said.

"She's being deliberately enigmatic," Gold put in. "Seers like to talk in circles."

"Like certain sorcerers," Vasilisa snorted. "And you know perfectly well why I do, Rumple."

"Because some things can't be told, you need to find them out on your own," he answered crisply.

"Exactly," she answered, then she took a cookie off the tray and ate it. "Shortbread. One of my favorites. You'll have to give me the recipe, Alice. Although I'm not as good at baking. But I make a mean popsicle."

At that, Alice started laughing. And so did everyone else.

Page~*~*~*~*~Break

It was decided that Vasilisa would stay over the Gold residence, in the green guest room, for the time being, and after some hot cocoa, Henry went home with Bae and Emma to the apartment above Fire Mountain dojo. Emma said they'd have to stop by Regina's tomorrow and get his things, hopefully Regina wouldn't give them a hard time.

"Why do we have to deal with her at all, Em?" asked Baelfire as he plumped up some pillows on the sofa for his son. "We'll wait till she's gone to the office and I'll pick the damn lock and Henry can go and get his stuff and that's it."

"I don't feel right breaking and entering like that," Emma objected.

"Oh, good God!" Bae rolled his eyes. "We're not stealing anything, we're just retrieving Henry's property."

"While Regina's away."

"Yes . . . and who cares? I really don't want to have to deal with her, Emma. She's libel to make me lose it and punch her out . . . or something close to it and I don't want to make you arrest me for assault," Bae pointed out.

"Mom . . . Dad's right," Henry said, calling Emma by her true title for the first time. "It's better if we don't have to deal with Regina. She'll try and start something. I just know it."

Emma felt her heart almost melt at the fact that Henry had called her mom. "Okay. This'll be Operation Take Away."

Henry raised an eyebrow. "Operation Take Away?"

"So I'm not good with names. And you are taking stuff away, so it fits," she smiled at Henry, and ruffled his hair.

"Your mom's right, tiger," Bae laughed. "And y'know, it's almost eleven, and you've got school tomorrow, so . . . I think you ought to get to bed."

Henry cocked his head at him. "Now you're starting to sound like a real dad."

"What? I didn't before?" his father asked, his brown eyes glistening with laughter.

"Nope. Well, only sometimes," his son said. "But now you do." He hopped off the couch and then said, "Uh . . . guys? I don't have any pajamas over here."

"Oh . . right. Uh . . . you can wear one of my T-shirts," Bae said. "And tomorrow, as soon as Regina leaves, we can go over and pack up your stuff."

He headed into his bedroom to get a shirt for his son, and Emma went to make some tea, because for some reason she wanted some.

After Henry was asleep on the sofa, the Book sitting upon the coffee table, Emma sipped her tea in the recliner across from where her son slept and looked at her husband, who was sitting on the second recliner opposite her. "I can't believe he's really here . . . and he doesn't have to go back to Regina ever again, Bae."

"Yeah, I know. Now he's here to stay . . . and we finally have our family back together again," Bae said. "Henry with us and Rhea with my dad. I'll tell you, Emma, that was the last thing I expected her to tell us tonight. I thought my dad was going to fall over in shock when she said she was his sister. I never even knew he had a sister until tonight."

"Maybe he found it too painful to talk about," Emma said. "But what a great thing . . . to find somebody you thought was dead actually alive. I guess there really are no coincidences."

"Papa always said there weren't. That most everything happens by design," Bae said. Then he yawned. "Well, I'm starting to nod off, so I'm going to hit the hay. Coming, Emma?"

"In a minute," she said softly. "I just want to . . . look at him like this." She gazed at her son, and her eyes softened and misted with sudden tears. Her little boy. Now he was back where he belonged, and she would never give him up . . . not ever again.

She set her mug down on the coffee table, it was empty now, and got into her sleep shirt, the one that said I'm a princess but . . . I can ride like a man, shoot like a pro, climb down from my own tower, and kick a dragon's ass. All before lunch and twice on Sundays.

It had been a gift from Bae on their second night together as man and wife. He said he'd had it made especially for her. When she asked him where, he'd just shrugged and said somewhere in Storybrooke. Emma was willing to bet half her bank account he'd gone to Mr. Gold.

Bae was curled up half on his side, and Emma snuggled next to him.

"Hey!" he yelped. "Your feet are like ice!"

Emma chuckled. "So? You'll warm them for me," she gave a wicked chuckle and rubbed her foot along his calf.

"Gee, thanks!" he muttered.

"You know what they say, don't you?" she teased. "Cold feet, warm heart."

"I thought that was a cold nose," he returned.

She rubbed hers along his cheek. "That too." She wrapped herself about him. "Bae, I'm cold."

He pulled her to him, and kissed her hard. "Okay, wild swan. Let me warm you up."

She smiled happily and allowed her husband to work his own brand of magic on her, and soon she was very warm indeed.

Page~*~*~*~*~Break

Bae woke up the next morning to find Henry already dressed in his school uniform and eating a Pop Tart and some milk for breakfast. "Morning, tiger. Got everything you need for school? Cause I'm gonna drop you off there as soon as we get your stuff from Regina's."

"Uh huh," Henry said, still eating his Pop Tart. "Are we taking Mom's car then?"

"Yeah. We have to. I'll bring your stuff back here and give it to her after I bring you to school," Bae told him, and removed a peanut butter chocolate power bar from the cabinet and made some coffee.

Once Bae had drunk a cup of coffee and taken some in his travel mug, which had the Fire Mountain logo on it, they left for the Mills mansion.

It was strange, Henry mused, as his father drove through the quiet streets, that he was going over to the house he'd lived in for ten years, his whole life, not to stay, but just to visit, just to get his things and then go home. Home to Fire Mountain. Home to his parents. Then he thought of something else. "Hey, Dad. I just realized something. I'm not a Mills anymore. Now I'm . . . a Gold."

Bae slanted a glance at him and nodded. "You're right, tiger. You're a Gold now, just like me. Only you can't let anybody know yet. So for right now . . . you're Henry Cassidy."

"So I guess I'll tell Miss Blanchard that from now on, she can call me Henry Cassidy . . . until the curse breaks and then we can tell everybody you're Baelfire, son of Rumplestiltskin, and I'm his grandson."

"And it doesn't bother you . . . that you're related to the Dark One?" Bae asked softly.

"No. Because here's the thing, Dad. He's not the Dark One, not anymore. He started to change when Belle kissed him, and he changed further when Alina came with Alice to stay at the castle. He might have the dagger still, but . . . he hasn't been the Dark One for a long time now. He's just . . . Mr. Gold."

"But Henry, with the dagger still here, he's still cursed. It's just that the curse is inactive," Bae said. "But what happens when Emma breaks the curse on Storybrooke and everyone remembers. My dad will get his magic back . . . and that damn dagger's always been bad news. Its magic is dark and it'll make him into a monster again . . . like it did before."

"Unless we can break it, Dad," Henry argued.

"Break it how? That dagger's what makes him immortal. It's his life."

"No. His family's his life," Henry corrected. "But the dagger's curse binds him."

"I know. It has since he became the Dark One to save me," Bae said, a trace of bitterness in his tone.

"But Dad, what if we can break it?"

"Henry, how can that be possible?" Bae asked, a touch exasperatedly.

"I don't know . . . but somehow I know it can be, Dad."

"Have you talked with him about this?" asked Bae curiously.

"No. Because I know what he'll say. He thinks it's not possible too. But somehow . . . I know there's a way. I just have to talk to the right person."

"Maybe you should talk to your Aunt Rhea. She's the Enchantress of the North, so perhaps she can help," Bae said.

"All right. I will, as soon as I come home from school today," Henry said eagerly.

They drove up to Regina's house, and Henry climbed out of the car along with Bae. Bae went and picked the lock, then Henry and he went inside. Henry led the way up the stairs to his room, and they began packing up everything in several large duffel bags that Bae had brought along from the dojo.

Bae paused when he saw a familiar blanket upon Henry's bed, beneath his blue quilt. He gently picked it up, holding it to his face and inhaling the familiar scent of sheepskin, soap, and smoke. "Hey . . . I remember this. I used to sleep with it every night. Did my papa give you this?"

Henry turned from shoving some clothes into a bag and saw his father holding the blanket Gold had made. "Yeah. Don't you remember how I told you he gave me some things he'd had of yours the day of the storm?"

"Uh . . . yeah. Now I do," Bae said, raising his head. "You know, this was my favorite blanket as a kid. I'm glad he saved it and gave it to you." He gently tucked the blanket into a bag, then helped Henry pack up the rest of his things, thinking that in all the turmoil of his childhood, still there had been spots of warmth and light and laughter, which he had forgotten about until now. It hadn't all been desperation and despair, the way some people thought. There had been good times too, though eventually the Dark One's curse had overshadowed them.

In about twenty minutes, they had taken everything Henry wanted, and then Bae led the way back downstairs and they packed everything into the Bug. As they pulled out of the driveway, Henry bid a silent farewell to the house, then faced forward, thinking that his new life as a Gold had just begun.

Page~*~*~*~*~Break

Regina parked her Mercedes alongside the curb across the street from Storybrooke Elementary and watched as the children streamed out of the school and got onto the buses or into the cars waiting for them. Her eyes were trained on the doors. Then she saw him, the familiar figure with his backpack, and without really thinking about it, she got out of the car and started towards him.

Henry looked up to see his mom—no, the mayor—coming down the sidewalk towards him. For one moment he felt his heart seize, and he wondered if last night and this morning had been a hallucination. Or was he truly free of her? He glanced about wildly, then he saw Emma's Bug and breathed a sigh of relief. He was safe.

"Henry!" Regina called. "Wait! I just want to talk to you."

"No thanks," he muttered, and kept walking towards the Bug.

"Henry! Stop!" Regina ordered.

He almost did, accustomed to obeying that tone of voice.

Then he recalled he no longer had to, and kept walking.

Suddenly Bae appeared, standing next to the car, waiting for his son.

As Regina drew nearer, he gave her a look that spoke volumes. Keep your distance, madam mayor, he said without speaking.

Henry came over to the car, and said, "Hi, Dad."

"Hey, tiger. Get in. Where's Alina? I told my father I'd pick her up too today."

"Asking Miss Blanchard something about birds," Henry replied, opening the door of the Bug.

"Henry!" Regina called again, halting as she saw that Henry was already beyond her reach. She lifted her gaze, her heart cold within her, and met Cassidy's eyes. "This isn't over, Cassidy!" she growled. "Nobody crosses me!"

Bae met the empty black gaze, unflinching. Little did she know, he'd seen worse before—as a slave of the Queen of Hearts, even as the son of the Dark One, though reptilian as his father's eyes had become, still there had always been a spark of warmth in them. But it had been Cora Miller's eyes that had been flat and empty as black ice. Regina's eyes . . . almost reminded him of them.

"Leave him alone," he told her, with a warning growl in his tone.

"He's my son!"

"Was. Not anymore. Now leave him alone, before I get a restraining order," Bae hissed, his tone dark with the promise of violence.

"Against me?" Regina laughed mockingly. "You forget who I am, Cassidy."

"No. I don't. But you don't have absolute power. Not here. Now go."

Regina stiffened, then she caught sight of Alina coming over to the Bug, and she spun on the child. "You! Tell your . . . father that he'd better watch his back. Because someday he might find a dagger buried in it!"

Alina backed up a little, one hand coming up in a defensive gesture. "You don't scare him, Mayor Mills."

"Tell him!"

"Get away from her!" Bae snarled. "Alina, get in the car."

Alina walked quickly around Regina, giving her a wide berth, before climbing into the Bug beside Henry in the backseat.

"This is your final warning, Cassidy!" Regina snapped.

"And here's yours, Mayor. Go home. Worry about yourself," Bae declared, then he turned and got into the Bug, feeling her eyes boring into him like lasers as he did so.

As they drove over to Fire Mountain, Alina said worriedly, "Bae, she told me to give a message to Papa. She . . . threatened to kill him!"

Bae sighed. "Well, she would, but don't worry about it. She's just trying to scare you."

"But Bae . . . she mentioned the dagger," Alina bit her lip worriedly.

"She might know about it, but she can't do anything," he reassured the two children. "Trust me. Papa's kept that dagger hidden for three hundred years. She's all talk."

Alina seemed to accept his words, but Henry was still anxious. So long as Rumplestiltskin was still cursed, even inactively, it meant she could harm him. She was the Evil Queen, after all, and hundreds had died by her command. And in this world, Gold didn't have his magic back. How hard could it be to kill one aging disabled attorney? All Gold had in this realm was the remnants of his reputation as the Dark One and his penchant for deals and the fear that he could buy and sell anyone twice over. Phantom power. It had kept him and his family safe, but what if it were no longer enough?

Page~*~*~*~*~Break

Vasilisa looked up from her latest set of notes that she was transcribing and found Henry at her elbow, and Alina as well. "Hello," she greeted them, setting down her pen. "What can I do for you? You look troubled."

"How do you break a curse?" Henry began.

"And how do you protect somebody from one?" Alina asked in the same breath.

"Well, that all depends. On what curse it is and who's casting it," Vasilisa answered. "Can you be more specific?"

"How can you break the curse of the Dark One?" Henry asked.

"And how do you protect Papa from Regina?" Alina queried.

"Can it be done?" was Henry's next question.

Vasilisa nodded gravely. "It can. But it requires . . . much knowledge and magic."

"Can you do it?" Henry wanted to know.

The enchantress was silent a moment, her eyes suddenly far away, as she gazed upon Visions only she could see. At last she replied. "Yes. But not alone. I'll need help. From both of you. And Belle. And Baelfire. I also need to speak with Rumple."

"But you can do it?" Henry stressed. "It's not . . . impossible?"

"Nothing is impossible. You just need the proper determination, will, and motivation," Vasilisa answered. "I'll speak with Rumple after dinner about it."

Henry let out a sigh of relief. "Okay. Alina, we'd better finish our homework," he said.

The little girl nodded. "And you can protect him from Regina?"

Vasilisa smiled. "I've already been doing that. Only she doesn't know it."

"Does Papa?"

"If he doesn't now, he will soon," the sorceress answered.

Page~*~*~*~*~Break

Rumple looked up from filing away the last of the papers on his desk in the study pertaining to Henry's custody suit. "Rhea," he said happily. "What can I do for you?"

His sister came and sat down in the chair before his desk. "Rumple, how inactive is your curse?"

"My curse? You mean the one that affects Storybrooke?"

"No. The one you absorbed when you took the power of the Dark One," she replied.

He frowned. "It's . . . inactive now, because there's no magic here."

"And when the curse breaks, what then?"

"I don't know. I suppose . . . if magic returns . . . then it would awaken," he said.

"What if it didn't?"

He shook his head. "It's kind of inevitable, dearie, much as I don't like to think about it."

"And what if it weren't, Rumple?"

"What are you saying, Rhea?" he leaned forward, his brown eyes glittering.

"I'm saying what if there was a way to break the dagger's power? Would you take it?" Her green eyes glowed.

"That's false hope, dearie. No one's ever broken the power of the dagger. Once it's claimed you, you're done. Unless another takes it and kills you."

"How do you know?"

"Well, I am the current Dark One. I know everything my predecessors do."

"But what if you're wrong and there is a way? Would you take it?"

"It's not that simple, dearie. The dagger is the source of my magic . . ."

She shook her head abruptly. "No. It's not, Rumple. It was a catalyst for your talent, it didn't give it to you. Magic runs in our bloodline. You had the seeds within you, you simply didn't know it."

"Then why did it never show itself until after I became the Dark One? I was desperate plenty of times before I stole the dagger."

"Maybe not desperate enough to break the conditioning that was set on you," his sister answered.

"What conditioning?"

"I didn't speak of this before, because I doubted if you wanted everyone knowing . . . but . . . Baba Yaga told me one other thing before I banished her. That night . . . when she stole me away . . . she cast two spells. One to glamourie her changeling and the other . . . to keep your latent magic dormant."

"What?"

"You heard me. She knew, even then, that you had it. Those with the Art can always sense others of our kind. And she could feel it within you. She would have tolerated no rivals."

"Then why not simply kill me?"

"Because her deal was to take me and leave Mama with her son. So she couldn't harm you. But she bound your power."

"Rhea . . . that's crazy!"

"No it's not. She would have done it. I can See the remnants of the binding if I look for it."

"Even if that was the case . . . so what?"

"So . . . it means I'm right, old dragon. You have your own power . . . you don't need the dagger."

"Yes, I do. I need it to stay alive," he argued.

"Unless the curse is broken," she insisted.

"I've been under that dagger's curse for three hundred years, Rhea! And all of a sudden you think you can break it? What brought this on?" he asked abruptly.

"Your grandson and your daughter. And a threat from Regina," she replied, and told him what Alina had told her.

"And you told them you could break the power of the dagger?" he repeated incredulously. "Good God, Rhea, why would you say that?"

"Because I believe it can be done," she answered.

"It's never been done. Little sister, when I took the Dark One's mantle I knew the price. Forever."

"No. Nothing is forever. Save true love. And true love breaks all curses. Even that one."

"Belle tried. She failed."

"No. She began it, but it remains unfinished. Rumple, I'm a cursebreaker. Baba Yaga taught me much when I lived with her. I know counters to every dark spell."

"There is no counter to this. I was a willing sacrifice," he pointed out.

"Some might say being here is the counter. Your curse is dormant now. t's never been so before. That's the key. What if I could remove it? Would you be willing to let me do it?"

"I don't think you can—"

"Rumple! Would you? Or are you afraid I'll strip you of your magic in doing so? Or do you think this some kind of . . . penance for what you did back in our world as the Dark One?" she demanded.

"If you could . . . then yes, I would allow it. But I truly doubt it."

"Nothing is impossible, big brother. And you've spent all your life searching for Baelfire. Not trying to break the dagger's curse."

"But you can, little sister?" he asked, with a hint of mockery in his tone.

She glared at him. "Don't make fun of me, Rumplestiltskin! I learned well how to break curses, how in hell do you think I survived being her puppet for all those years? She put dozens upon dozens of compulsions on me, to try and break me. None of them took. Not for long. Because I broke them all. It can be done. You simply have to do one thing for me."

"What's that?"

"Trust me, dearie. And then you'll be free."

"What if you're wrong?"

"Then you'll still be the Dark One once magic returns." She gripped his hand. "But I'm not. Well?"

He stared into her eyes. "You really think you can do this?"

"There are no coincidences, Rumple. You know that and so do I. What I endured in that frozen hell had a purpose. It needed to happen, horrible as it sounds. And now I know why."

"This is . . . insane! You could kill yourself!"

"All magic comes with a price. And it's one I'm willing to pay."

He shook his head. "I just got you back. I don't want to lose you again. Not like this."

"You won't."

"Have you Seen it?"

"No. A Seer cannot see her own future. Don't you know that?"

"I . . . never knew that."

"See? You don't know everything, big brother. I'm here now for a reason. And this is it. This is the calm before the storm. And there's no better time for me to free you from the dagger's curse."

"It's not worth it."

"Oh, yes it is!" she insisted. "You are worth it, Rumple."

"Not if the price is your life. No!" he snapped.

"It's not yours to pay."

"Dammit, Rhea!"

"You don't even know the cost."

"Neither do you."

"I know I won't die."

"How the bloody hell do you know that?"

"Because I've Seen myself in another Vision."

"I thought you couldn't see your own future."

"This future wasn't mine. It was your grandson's," she replied. "And I was there."

"And me?"

"Yes. But not as the Dark One."

"What then? As Mr. Gold?"

"As Rumplestiltskin. Let me do this. What have you got to lose?"

"You."

"No. Trust me."

He stared into her eyes again, eyes that were filled with hope and love and a conviction he felt he lacked. Finally he said, "I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. You'll try anyway. All right. Do it. But if you die, Rhea Gold, I'm going to the afterworld and kicking your stubborn ass, you hear me?"

She laughed. "I love you, Rumple."

He snorted. "You're insane. But I love you too."

She patted his arm. "It'll be all right. Trust me."

"With my life."

"Then that'll be enough." She rose to leave.

"Wait. What's your husband's last name? In case I have to contact him for arrangements."

Vasilisa sighed. "You won't. But his last name is Sparrow."

Rumple gasped. "Sparrow. As in . . . Jack Sparrow?"

"The same. Rumple, half the stories aren't true . . . you know what rumors are like . . ."

His eyes flashed. "Rhea . . . you married him?"

"Eighteen years ago, yes. Rumple—"

"Gods and hells! You married a pirate!"