Chapter 36

Belle:

With Rose's ability to magick them certain distances at a time, it didn't take long for them to reach the beanstalk. Although it did take them quite a deal of time to stop staring at it. It was magnificent, something Belle was sure she'd never seen before.

"Let's go!" Rose said, grabbing the beanstalk. It zapped her, knocking her back.

"Rose! Are you okay?" Belle asked, hurrying over to her daughter to help her to her feet. Rose nodded, glaring at the beanstalk.

"So it's enchanted. Lovely," Rose growled.

"Maybe it just didn't like you. Try being nice to it," Lacey suggested with a smile. She laid her hand on the beanstalk and nothing happened, causing her to beam at us.

"Oh great and powerful Plant-whisperer, show up your magical way," Rose said sarcastically. Lacey frowned at her and, with one hand still on the beanstalk, closed her eyes in utter concentration.

After a few minutes, two cuffs began to materialize on her wrists. Then Belles. And everyone else's. Once they were tangible, Lacey's eyes opened with a smile painted on her lips.

"That should work!" Lacey chirped.

"What are they?" Mulan asked, examining the cuffs with a look of alarm.

"I tried putting the happy feeling into them. So we can climb," Lacey explained, as if that made perfect sense.

It really didn't.

But it seemed to work nonetheless.

Their group climbed slowly, Aurora slower than anyone else. Belle slowed down so she was climbing alongside the queen.

"How are you holding up?" Belle asked her.

"Just….fine," Aurora gritted. When Belle's eyes didn't leave her, Aurora sighed.

"I'm a little scared of heights," she admitted quietly. Belle nodded.

"Just don't think about," Belle tried. Rose laughed from above them.

"Horrible advice, Mom," Rose said.

Although her daughter was criticizing her, something she really shouldn't be doing, it still made Belle's heart swell.

Because her daughter had called her Mom.

She hadn't failed too badly.

Aurora noticed her smiling and smiled at her as well.

"Don't be afraid of heights. Heights won't kill you. It's the fall that does that," Rose said with a laugh.

And just like that, all happy feelings disappeared.

"Rose!" Lacey said in shock. Rose shrugged.

"It's true," Rose said carelessly. Lacey looked down at Aurora, who had turned whiter than a ghost.

"Don't look down to see the heights. Look up to see your goal approaching us," Lacey told her.

"When did you become an oracle, Little Bit?" Rose asked sarcastically.

Lacey subsequently flipped Rose off.

"Lacey!" Belle shouted in shock, staring at her ten year old.

"Where did you learn that?" Rose asked, obviously at least a little bit impressed.

"Mom did it a lot. When she was cursed. I think she did it to Dad sometimes," Lacey said. It was Belle's turn to turn bright red. Mulan and Philip looked down at Belle.

"I take it that's an obscene gesture?" Philip asked and Belle could only nod.

"Lovely parenting skills in this other world," Aurora said with a laugh. Her color was back, but not completely normal.

"I wasn't a parent when I did that!" Belle protested. She didn't have a chance to say anything else because they were at the top of the beanstalk.

Philip and Mulan got up first and helped everyone up.

"Where is this compass?" Belle asked quietly.

"With all of the treasure, I bet," Rose said.

Before Rose could ask where that would be, the ground started shaking.

And a giant appeared in front of them.

"Humans!" he shouted, furious. Lacey stepped forward, a wide smile on her face.

"Hi! We're here because we need help! Do you have a golden compass we can have?" Lacey asked, her face completely open and trusting.

Mulan smacked her forehead at the gesture.

The giant looked stunned.

"What?" he asked, staring at her.

"Lacey, that's stupid. I'll take care of this!" Rose said, pushing forward. Dark clouds started wrapping themselves around the giant's feet but before it could do any real damage, the giant had picked Rose up, trapping her in his fist.

"Rose!" Belle cried and Philip charged forward, sword in hand.

Lacey jumped in between them.

"Stop!" Lacey cried. She turned back to the giant.

"Can you please put my sister down?" Lacey asked him. He stared at her long and hard before shaking his head.

"I like you, kid. But she'll just try to hurt me again," he pointed out. Lacey's forehead scrunched up in thought.

"You're right. She would. My name's Lacey! What's yours?" Lacey asked him. He tilted his head, as if wondering how real she was. And examining the others.

"Tiny," he said. Lacey laughed at this, causing a sharp glare to turn her way. Belle moved close to her daughter, wrapping her arms around Lacey's shoulders.

"Lacey. Stop," Belle whispered, eyes locked on the giant.

"That's a funny name! Is it really your name, or is it a nickname? Cause I'm tiny, not you!" she finally said when she caught her breath.

To everyone's surprise, the giant started to laugh too.

"I like you, Half Pint," he finally said. Lacey gave him a beaming smile. Belle just stared in disbelief.

It seemed that Lacey had inherited her sister's earlier abilities to charm anyone.

"Do you think you could help us?" Lacey asked him once more.

"What were you looking for?" he asked her.

"A compass. A magical compass. One that can help us get home, to our world," Lacey told him.

"What's your world like?" he asked instantly. Lacey smiled at him.

"You should sit down so I don't have to shout!" Lacey said. To everyone's surprise, the giant sat down in front of them, Rose still in his one hand.

"It's not a nice place. There's a lot of bad things that happen. But our town's nice. It's where everyone from this world was taken," Lacey told him.

"Would I be able to come with you?" he asked her. Lacey tilted her head, staring at him. And closed her eyes.

"Don't be alarmed," she said before her concentrating look appeared. Belle moved slightly closer to her daughter, only to stop.

A light blue, warm magic swirled around the giant. Shrinking him.

He stopped shrinking and was still a bit taller than they were, but not unreasonably. Rose stumbled away from him, and he only looked…shocked.

"How did you do that?" he asked her.

"Magic ! Good magic! Now you'll fit in! Can we find the compass now?" Lacey asked.

Tiny nodded and disappeared inside his home. A few minutes later, he returned with the compass.

The group made it back down the beanstalk in one piece, but Rose looked sulky.

Once they'd hit the ground and started heading towards Lake Nostos, Rose froze.

"Someone's following us!" she said, spinning around. Everyone turned as well. Belle had an arrow in the bow instantly, ready.

A man stumbled out of the woods, hands held up sheepishly.

"Knave?" Rose asked in disbelief. Belle lowered the arrow.

It was the man who'd fallen through the portal with them.

But where had he been this whole time? Why hadn't he been there when they all woke up?

"Hey. I woke up and you guys were gone, so I started tracking you," he said sheepishly. Rose stared at him for a moment before nodding.

"Fine. Let's go," she said, turning once more. He walked over to us and we started walking once more.

"Your name is Knave?" Belle asked the young man. Knave nodded.

"I was the Knave of Hearts in Wonderland," he elaborated slightly.

"How did you end up with Rose?" Belle asked, curious.

"He was with Alice when I met her the second time. He went with us to Wonderland and then back here," Rose said dismissively.

"There's more to that story," Mulan observed. To Belle's amusement, Rose's cheeks flushed.

"Rose…?" Belle prodded her daughter.

"Looks like love," Philip said with a wink. Both Rose and Knave were sputtering by that point.

"No! He's been a bastard to me the entire time!" Rose shouted, glaring at him.

"And all she's done has been use dark magic and put us all at risk!" Knave retorted sharply. The two didn't say anything else, just glared heatedly at each other. Belle couldn't help but laugh, looking over at Aurora.

"Remind you of anyone?" she asked Aurora. Aurora laughed.

"Looks like you and Rumplestiltskin when you first met," Aurora said.

"You and Dad hated each other?" Lacey asked, wide eyed. Belle saw Philip cut down some vines from the corner of her eye. The woods were getting thicker. Much thicker than they'd ever been before.

"Yeah. He threatened to take Bae from me. And blackmailed me to marry him," Belle said with a rueful smile.

"Did you ever love Dad?" Rose asked quietly. Belle's footwork hesitated.

"Of course I did, Rose. You should know that. I thought you remembered the Enchanted Forest. Your father and I loved each other very much, during those few months when we were a family while I was pregnant with Lacey," Belle reprimanded her daughter lightly.

"Why only a few months?" Lacey asked, wide-eyed.

"Well, Rose's birth father kidnapped Belle at that point and imprisoned her and then tricked Rumplestiltskin into killing him and turning him evil. And Belle became Robin Hood, and…a lot happened," Philip drifted off when he saw all the dirty looks that were shot at him.

"Rose and I have different fathers?" Lacey asked, eyes wide.

"Technically. Sort of," Belle said awkwardly.

"My father was the Dark One before Dad. And your father was Dad as the Dark One. So they're both partially the same," Rose told her.

"So we're half-sisters?" Lacey asked Rose.

"If you want to label it. Bae's our half-brother also," Rose told her.

"How do you know about that?" Belle asked sharply. Rose shrugged.

"I just do. Bae isn't really Mom's son. But he is Dad's son," Rose told her sister.

"Wow. Our family is complicated," Lacey observed.

"You got it," Philip said once more with a wink and a nudge to the little girl.

"How far away is this lake?" Rose complained after a few minutes of silence.

"It's a ways away. Don't worry. We'll get there soon," Philip promised, wincing as he hacked away at a particularly thick vine.

"Or I can just snap my fingers and we could be there," Rose suggested.

"Have you learned nothing? All magic comes with a price. You can't just go around using it so flamboyantly!" Knave hissed at her. Belle was glad he did, because she agreed to him. But she bit her tongue, remembering what Mulan had told her.

"I haven't found a price yet," Rose pointed out.

"Your hair. And it weakened you," Knave pointed out.

"Hair?" Belle asked. Her daughter's hair was the same shade it had been the last time she'd seen it.

"It used to be gold. Not just in color. Pure gold. But the more she used her magic in the real world, the less golden it became. Or did you forget about that?" Knave asked her. Rose glared at him and there was a minute twitch of her eye and he was gone.

"Rose, what did you just do?" Belle asked quietly, shocked. Rose glanced over at Tiny, Mulan, Philip, Aurora and her eye did the slight twitch. They disappeared as well.

"Getting us to the lake faster," she said.

And like that, Belle and Lacey appeared next to Knave.

Her head was spinning, like she'd stood up too fast. By the time she'd managed to get over the sudden vertigo, Rose was standing in front of her.

"There. Much faster. Now let's get home before Dad does something stupid," Rose said with a smile.

"If he's related to you, I'm sure he's already done quite a few stupid things while we've been gone," Knave muttered sarcastically under his breath. The glare Rose shot him said that she heard him.

"Guys, we have a problem," Lacey said. She was standing a little ways away from them.

"What?" Knave asked, looking glad to have a distraction from the glare that was trying to burn a hole in his forehead.

"The lake's gone."

Those words caught everyone's attention. All heads swiveled in her direction and everyone hurried to the small hill she was standing on. Sure enough, in front of them was a sandy pit littered with seashells and a random set of bones.

"We need a new plan," Philip said quietly, still staring at it.

"No. A new plan will take too much time," Rose said. She climbed down the hill and into the sandy pit, Belle hot on her trail. Near the center, Rose stopped and stared at the ground. After a moment, when nothing happened, her hands went up, as if she were trying to pull water from the ground.

She swayed slightly, only for Knave to steady her.

"You overdid it. I don't care if there is magic here, you can't use it as much as you are. Its price is this," Knave pointed out.

"Maybe I can do it," Lacey suggested, tugging nervously on her golden hair.

"No. You don't need to start using dark magic," Aurora said before Belle could even protest.

But Lacey shook her head.

"I don't have to," she told them. She moved to where Rose was, standing next to her sister. She tucked her hair behind her ears before her hands fell into the position that Rose's had been in.

After a few seconds, the ground started glowing a light blue color. And the sand vanished, leaving a large swirling pool of water.

"There. No dark magic. Just good magic. Where's the ashes and the compass?" Lacey asked, a serene smile on her face. Rose handed the ashes and the compass, almost reluctantly. Lacey took it.

"Okay. Everyone hold hands," she instructed before dropping the vial into the water. Belle's hand locked with Knave's and Mulan's and everyone linked together, standing around the pool.

"Okay. Jump!" Lacey shouted, her one free hand holding the compass.

And the eight of them jumped.

Rumplestiltskin:

They hadn't gotten any farther in dealing with Cora. No matter what they thought of, it wouldn't work. And it didn't help that they couldn't find her. The dwarves were patrolling town, and most of the townspeople stayed in their houses with the doors locked.

Storybrooke was in lockdown.

They were in one of many long, seemingly pointless meetings when Happy burst into the room, looking terrified.

"Cora's striking. She's at the edge of town, destroying houses. She's gotten three in already! She wants Regina!" Happy said in one rushed breath. Everyone lurched to their feet.

Regina looked uneasy but didn't say anything. She looked at Rumplestiltskin and nodded before disappearing.

"Take us with! We need to see what's happening!" Mary Margaret demanded, fear in her eyes. Rumplestiltskin sighed quietly before nodding.

And then they were all in the town in front of Cora.

"And here I thought you would comply. Oh well. It was a nice thought," Cora said, almost disinterested.

"You aren't going to take Regina!" Mary Margaret said firmly, glaring at her.

"Oh, my dear, you don't have a choice" Cora said, her tone condescending.

"HEY!" a voice shouted from behind Cora, near the woods. Every head swiveled in that direction.

Rumplestiltskin had to ignore the sickening feeling that came with that lone word.

A moment later, Rose appeared behind Cora while she still looked in the woods. Looking positively furious. And possibly murderous.

Before Cora could turn back around, dark magic had disabled her. She was hovering in the air, eyes wide, mouth gasping for air.

"Do you have any idea how hard I've worked to get back here? To find my family? And you're trying to threaten it," Rose said menacingly. Cora was thrown against a tree, hard.

"Rose!" Lacey cried from the woods. She stumbled out, followed closely by Belle, Philip, Mulan, Aurora, the man who'd arrived with Rose, and another man Rumplestiltskin had not seen before.

However, Rumplestiltskin's eyes strayed back to Cora.

Who had yet to move.

Or even draw a breath.

"Rose," Rumplestiltskin said, staring at his daughter. Rose turned to him, looking indifferent. But there was a coldness in her stare.

One that looked eerily familiar yet at the same time much harder than he'd ever seen.

"Is she…dead?" Mary Margaret asked, eyes wide, horrified. Rose shrugged.

"Would it matter? She was threatening the town. And my family," Rose said defiantly, angrily.

Regina, who just seemed to come to grasps with what had happened, broke down crying. Mary Margaret hurried over to her, wrapping her arms around the older woman while she sobbed.

Belle, who had been making her way towards them, threw herself into Rumplestiltskin's unsuspecting arms. After a moment of clinging to him, she pulled back.

"I'm scared," she said quietly.

And, at that moment, he understood exactly what she meant.

They went to his house. Bae, Rose, Lacey, and Belle. Rose's friend, who introduced himself as the Knave of Hearts, wanted to come too but Belle reassured him that it was a family matter and that his friends would want to catch up with him.

It was a family matter.

They were finally together. Their whole family, complete. But it didn't feel like it ought to. What should have been a moment filled with happiness and delight and tears was not. It was filled with uncertainty, unease. Discomfort.

Rose had killed someone in front of them without batting an eyelash. From what Belle had whispered to him before greeting Bae in the living room, it wasn't the first time she'd lashed out with her dark magic.

When she'd been younger, she'd been so full of good magic. But now? Now it seemed like the dark magic was consuming her. And he didn't know how to stop it.

How had it stopped consuming him? Had it ever?

It had. Belle and his children stopped it.

He had no idea how to stop it from consuming Rose as it was. He desperately hoped that being around them, her complete family, could stop it.

But what if he was wrong? What if that only hurt them and corrupted Lacey?

He walked back into the living room, taking a seat on the couch next to Belle and Bae.

After all those years of searching, of fighting to find and reunite his family, this was never what he'd expected.

Belle was still upset over learning her part in the death of Maleficent's fiancée. And she probably never would find out exactly what she'd done.

Bae was still angry at him. He wasn't as angry as he'd been when he first arrived at Storybrooke, but it was obvious he was still mad.

Rose was turning dark. And angry. And more like him than he wanted to see.

Lacey was the only one who acted as he'd hoped everyone would happen. Completely overjoyed with being complete once more. And everyone humored her.

But he knew that that was all it was.

Mary Margaret had called him earlier to say Regina was furious over what had happened but Henry was working on calming her down.

One day, maybe, they would be a happy family again. They would be happy and good. And there wouldn't be things like deaths hanging over their heads.

They were together again. The next step for them would be to be a family again.

And who knew if that could ever happen?

The End

Okay, I know that probably wasn't the ending everyone was looking forward to. I was struggling between two possible ways to continue, one being ending it like this and another which would have drug it out longer and followed along the series more, but I had other ideas and I was just feeling that this story had reached its end.

I hope you guys aren't too upset with it. I did my best. It took forever to write this up to get it like I wanted it to be. Let me know what you thought of it, unless you just want to rage. I don't want to hear that.

Anyway, it's been a great few months with you guys. I'm glad I've kept some of you from the very beginning. I appreciate it.

And once more, my newest story is Rumplestiltskin Must Die, and it's already got three chapters written. If you want something to keep reading, check that out! (Shameless advertisement right here. ;)

It's been real. It's been fun. It's been real fun.

But now it's over.

Adieu (for this story, anyways)

Andi