If Any Would Avenge
Chapter 38: A Soul Forgot
Smiling gently down at his wife, his hands clasped around hers, Gold breathed in the scent of Belle's hair. He stood like that a few moments, basking in her scent and the feel of her body so near his. It'd been too long. Too many years had passed since they lost….since…. He swallowed and pulled her closer, his fingers massaging her hands and paying special attention to the gilded marks on her skin. "I love you." He whispered and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead.
Belle pulled away, avoiding the kiss.
"Belle?" He stared questioningly down at her, confused. The look in his wife's eyes indiscernible.
"I know about Sadie." Belle murmured, her cerulean eyes peering unblinking into his. "Her parents contacted me." She stared up at him, her chin scrunching up and lips quivering.
"I...it's not what you think…." He blurted, squeezing Belle's hands. "It's...just a ruse to piss off that blasted pirate…." His heart clenched seeing Belle frown, and he quickly caught hold of her wrists when she pulled her hands from his. "Fake flirting and dating. I swear. I…."
"Fake?" Belle spoke, her voice just a few decibels above a whisper, and her cheeks a light pink. "So, you and Sadie haven't…."
"Of...course not." Gold replied after a quarter-second's hesitance and his eyes darkened in what seemed to be uncertainty. He understood what his wife was asking and he understood why. The foolhardy deceit he joined Sadie in tormenting her pirate father through ensured such a suspicion. But….He thought of Sadie's visit to his cabin a few nights ago and what she'd told him. "I...I love you." Gold whispered and pulled his wife into an embrace. His mind raced as he thought quietly, his subconscious chortling beside him. "...Nothing happened."
"I see." Muttered Belle, the chestnut haired beauty burying her face against her husband's chest, her voice inexpressive. "So if I were to ask you the question while holding the dark one dagger, your answer wouldn't change?" She asked, listening to the beat of Gold's heart, and when he hesitated before answering she pulled away. Her cerulean eyes were livid as she glared up at her husband, her chin scrunched up in distrust.
xx
"Belle…." Gold muttered as the vision faded, his thoughts and head groggy for some reason. It didn't take long for him to realize why. As the premonition waned, his surroundings came into focus - a copse of maple trees towards his left and a burbling stream hidden just beyond a dense thicket to his right; while in front of him was a cottage, appearing gradually through a thick fog. His eyes widened, recognition ringing in his thoughts, though he couldn't place where he was.
It took him only seconds to realize he wasn't conscious, and that wherever he was, wasn't real.
"...tsh." He glowered at the fog enveloped cottage and made a disparaging grunt, lips spread into a thin line. An idea, that maybe this was the dream world flashed through his thoughts, but he dismissed it. It didn't feel like the dream world, there was an undercurrent of magic about the place that he never sensed during his few forays into the dream world. Nor was it the underworld - he could sense that he wasn't dead and that the dream shade Lacey had poisoned him with had been neutralized. Neither was he simply dreaming. He made another displeased grumble, not caring in the slightest what this place was - all he wanted was to waken and find Belle, to do everything he could to change her path.
He also wanted to figure out exactly how accurate his visions of Sadie's future were and if they were mutable. The last thing he was going to do was trust Lacey's brutally delivered revelation, she was a Dark One and he knew just how knavish and untrustworthy that made a person. If it wasn't for his premonition of Sadie in his cabin, he would've dismissed Lacey's talk of 'seduction' and 'revenge' as simply being lies designed to distract him.
'What if it is true?' He muttered to himself, considering the idea only a moment before shaking his head in disgust. Although his immortality made the whole concept of age differences and related taboos moot - aside from the fairies and a few other exceptions, he was much older than everyone in Storybrooke - the idea of him seducing Sadie's grown self when he held her infant self in his arms less than an hour ago, was just nauseating.
'You weren't so adamant against the idea when you had that vision about Sadie in the cabin.' His subconscious hissed, chuckling and chiding him. Gold waved away the wretched imp, irritated that the maniacal manifestation was present in whatever unreal realm he was currently in. 'But then, she was about to tell you were to be a father again….'
Gold shut his eyes and clenched his teeth, fighting against the dark one imp manifestation inside his head. Nothing else needed to be said though, and the imp fell quiet, leaving the pawnbroker to his thoughts. A moment passed and then another, following which, Gold grumbled and shifted his attention towards the cottage. Anything to escape the conflict burning inside him. As he gazed upon it, the cottage blurred as did the copse and stream.
It all blurred, except for the fog - that vanished, and left behind only the blurred image of the cottage. Gold closed his eyes and grunted, annoyed and feeling a gnawing, numbing pain in his head. Clenching his teeth, he massaged his head until the gnawing feeling faded. The pain was still there, but it was no longer gnawing at his head, and rather just pulsed now and again.
When he opened his eyes again, he was in a new place and standing on top of a cliff. He bristled, the coppery stench of blood in the air chilling him, and he quickly glanced up at the sky. Heavy gray clouds blocking out a starless sky, the ground below his feet made from ash, he drunk in his surroundings. Recognizing them even before he noticed the person sized canvas in the middle of the plateau. 'The Unwritten Realm? Why am I...?'
"Of course. Lacey must've mixed ashes from here into the dreamshade." Gold mumbled, answering his own question before he even finished asking it. "...but why did she? How…"
"Perhaps I could shed some light on that." Came Nemesis' voice, the youth appearing behind Gold. He chuckled, waiting for the dark one to turn around. "Of course, you already know why. Don't you? The reason she's come back. The reason the future doesn't work out - for her, for you, not even for me." Nemesis paused and passed his tongue over his lips, moisturizing the chapped skin. He glowered at Gold, his amused and chiding voice shifting. "I wonder if you were ever going to mention that the page...my page, the one I need to restore myself, is useless. That it'll crumble to dust the moment you touch it."
Gold tensed, and froze midway to facing his would-be son. Centuries old memories flooded back to him, memories of the knight Fortuné and the chest of hers. The damnable chest that could summon anything and conceal anything for its owner. Through space and time, as the successful summoning of the dreamshade cure by Emma proved. A quirk of its Enchantment that he unfortunately hadn't realized all those years ago when he requested Isobelle Fortuné use it to summon an object to help him find his lost son. He'd meant Baelfire, but the chest….
-"Perhaps if you'd been more specific…." Isobelle muttered cautiously, about to offer the imp a retry on the summoning, but he cut her off.
"I only have one son! One." Rumple seethed, scowling at the knight and then the blank page the chest had summoned. -
Gold grimaced, remembering the knight and the deal he made with her - like many of the earliest patrons of his deals, he'd forgotten her. Or rather had pushed her from his thoughts shortly after she'd died. Pushed her and the page her chest had given him from his recollection, neither having seemed important after he received his premonition ability from the seer.
"...when did you realize it?" Nemesis asked, scrutinizing the pawnbroker. His fingers twitched, as though tempted to plunge them into the Dark One's chest or wrap around his throat. "Did you already know when you and I made our deal?"
"Of course not." The pawnbroker growled, his Dark One consciousness hissing at him to not answer Nemesis' questions; he ignored it, his paternal desire winning over his instinct for caution. Regardless of what else Nemesis was, the youth was at one point his son and though that Story was Erased, he didn't want to forsake the boy or push him away. Not now.
"Then when?" The Unwritten one asked, leering coldly at Gold and crossing his arms.
Gold didn't reply at first and instead averted his gaze, his face darkened in thought. "...after I figured what your plan was for Emma and Hook's daughter - that you meant to sacrifice her to restore yourself." He muttered and closed his eyes, the sky above them growing colder and darker. "You need your page to do so."
Opening his eyes, Gold stared at the cold-eyed youth who stood just inches from him. Though he hadn't paid it any mind at the time, a sliver of memory had flashed through his head shortly before he took Sadie from her crib. A small flash of his initial encounter with Isobelle Fortuné and the deal he made with her. He hadn't even considered the memory long enough to consciously dismiss it and it had silently gnawed at him since. Unnoticed except by his Dark One subconscious that had chose to keep it secret.
It was only after he saw the cracked vial of dreamshade cure that the memory broke free and he understood its significance. He couldn't deny nor dismiss it, since his survival at that moment depended on it being true. That the knight's Enchanted Chest had summoned Nemesis' page centuries before Isaac's book was written, proving the Chest could summon objects across time itself. And providing the means for the broken vial of dreamshade cure to be summon to him before it was broken.
"Isobelle Fortuné summoned your page to me centuries before Isaac…." Gold paused, sucking in a deep breath. "...before you were even written." He stared into his unwritten son's brown speckled eyes, searching them warily. "And I…."
"Screwed things up." Nemesis growled, glowering at the pawnbroker. "You sold Isobelle out, broke your deal with her. Mother Lacey already told me that bit. Yes," He smirked seeing his would-be father's face contort with surprise. "...we met up several hours ago. I had plenty of questions for her, and she had plenty of answers. Most of which weren't favorable. One in particular was downright horrible." He reached out for Gold's chest, stopping his hand just centimeters from the pawnbroker's chest. It hovered there, cramping up with the urge to plunge into his would-be father's chest. "I'm to vanish in around ten years. Cease to exist completely."
Gold's eyes widened and the skin around them whitened considerably, horror reflected in his dark irises. He stared into Nemesis' face, and his insides felt like they were trembling though no hint of it was noticeable on the surface. "What?"
"As does the Unwritten Realm itself." Nemesis continued, ignoring the pawnbroker's hastily muttered question. His glower shifted when his would-be father grabbed his wrist, more from instinctive caution than deliberation. "Not really surprising, to be honest. This realm…." He nodded his head towards their surroundings, gesturing to the ash-dirt plateau and the cloudy gray skies. "Was nothing but a void when I first gain conscious awareness. The ground, clouds, trees - everything really - I created. It drained most of my magic to do so, so once I could I substituted in other people's magic." Here he deliberated a moment, letting his words float on the air. And he watched as his father blinked at his words, not missing the wary glint in the pawnbroker's eyes as Gold's Dark One subconscious bristled.
"...what?" Gold growled, backing away from Nemesis and eyeing him closely. His actions influenced by his dark one subconscious, despite his paternal instincts screaming at him not to pull away. Memories from the previous time he was in this realm and how it tried absorbing his magic, flashed through his head. "You…."
"Have you not yet wondered why I created an assassin's guild? It wasn't because I'm heartless and enjoy murder, though the former is true." Nemesis drawled and tilted his head, noting the movement but making no effort to stop Gold backing away. "I require their magic to invigorate this place. Even if they have none - life is magic enough itself here, and just as useful. It tears their souls to nothing in the process, but….I could've kept this realm going for eons, my cozy nook in a vast void." Nemesis turned away, his lips twisting into a smirk as he listened to Gold's sharp intake of breath. Listened to the pawnbroker's footsteps backing away clumsily from a mix of horror, disgust, and dread. "But then...you came along and killed all my assassins…."
"...life…." Gold muttered, too focused on what the unwritten youth had revealed earlier to pay attention to what Nemesis mumbled after he turned away. "You use the life of your kills to…." He blanched and gazed sharply at Nemesis, his voice shaky. "Gideon...did you use his life to…."
Nemesis smiled cruelly, not turning around but only glancing back at his would-be father. A handful of seconds passed as he let the pawnbroker stew in fear and unknowing, breaking his silence only after Gold conjured up a fireball. The pawnbroker forgetting or dismissing Nemesis' identity in anger. "Relax. I didn't use my dear little brother's life force. He wasn't killed using a weapon bearing the Gilded-Scarab seal, so I can't touch his magic or soul."
The pawnbroker let out a relieved sigh at that, and though he realized Nemesis could be lying, he knew the unwritten youth wasn't. He understood his erased son's character, and knew that if Nemesis decided to lie about anything, it would be a lie designed to be crueler than reality. His relief shifted quickly back to horror when the singular image of Fortunato's tanto flashed in his thoughts. It had borne the scarab mark and had been used to stab Belle. To stab her and their unborn child….
Scowling, Gold rushed at Nemesis and grabbed hold of his arms, forcing the other to face him. "...other child. Belle's and my unborn child, the one Fortunato killed when he stabbed her…his sword had that scarab mark...that means their lifeforce…you...this realm…."
Nemesis merely grinned and gave a brief, cruel snort of laughter. Gold bristled, his countenance livid and he pushed Nemesis away, nearly throwing the unwritten youth to the ash-strewn ground.
"You vile…heartless bastard. How can you not care…." Gold clenched his teeth, glaring at Nemesis. "First you have Kidd kill Gideon…now you laugh at your unborn sibling's soul being torn apart to fuel this...horrid realm of yours…how the fuck can you not care about your own blood. Your family…."
"What family? I'm Unwritten." Nemesis hissed, his brown-speckled eyes gleaming with vehemence. "I may have once been your son, but need I remind you that you accepted my erasure. That you made no fuss over it, down right forgetting me. And even after losing Gideon and your unborn, you didn't think of me at all until I revealed myself. Some father you are." He huffed and snarled, spitting out his words like venom. "And here, I tell you that I'm to be completely erased from existence, yet you latch onto the fates of my would-be siblings over me. Well, papa, Gideon is safe in the afterlife, as is the unborn child Fortunato killed. He never returned here with his scarab-marked dagger, so he or she - whatever the brat would've been - is safe. Your preferred children are all safe." Nemesis spat, the next second waving his hand and disappearing into an inky cloud of magic; it dissipated right after, leaving no trace of the unwritten youth except for the imprint of his feet in the dust.
Author's Note: Lately I've started rewatching Once Upon a Time to try to renew my inspiration for this story. It hasn't much yet, but I hope it'll help.