OS 9 : He didn't let her fall.
[7x22] : "It's the vortex scene and it's not. Different characters, different situation. It's the vortex scene repeating itself, but with a different ending." Or : the thoughts of the two Rumple as they realize Wish!Hook didn't make the same mistake as they did. KnightRook.
Some things never changed.
Maybe that he should be surprised by the fact that the villain of the day was literally himself(well a version of him from another universe, but that's still him, in a way, a more lost, broken, twisted and mad version of him, and yet, that's definitely him), but hell, after all the crazy things they had been trough over the years (curses and dark curses, again and again, spells, villains who were him sometimes, his original self of course) he didn't even succeed to be surprised by anything else now.
Not even the fact that he somehow befriended the daughter of another version of the pirate he used to hate more than anyone else in the world, but hey, his grand-son did marry another version of Cinderella, so that wasn't that awkward, right ?
But that wasn't the point, the point was that…
His other self was trying to send them in other worlds, where they would be alone and lost, and the saddest thing about it was that he was using his own grand-son to do so, and maybe that before the Dark One would have been sure that he would have never done such a thing, but sadly, he had the proof in front of his eyes that it was not true because he was indeed doing this.
And Alice…
Hell, it wasn't a coincidence if she was going to fall into a portal, just like Baelfire did centuries ago, right ?
Or if it was, it was a cruel one, he didn't know if it was fate or if his other him did this, but for sure, he wasn't going to let it end the same way it did the first time, except that…
Except that there was nothing he could do now, and it wasn't his fight, but Hook's, and oh the irony, yes it was so ironic that his former enemy (another version of him, again, it was definitely not a coincidence, the other Rumpelstiltskin did it on purpose, he was sure of it now) was confronted to the same choice he had to face such a long time ago.
To keep his daughter's hand in his own, or to let her go…
Except that, except that, except that…
Everything is different, not just because the pirate is not him and never was, not even in his worst moments, but because the consequences of his choice would not be the same.
Saving his daughter would literally kill him.
And yet, and yet, and yet…
He is not letting her go.
He is going to die if he keeps her in this world, and that what he does, and yet, he still doesn't let her go.
Funny, how things can change from a person to another, from a universe to another one, from a Dark One to a pirate…
It's the vortex scene and it's not.
Different characters, different situation.
It's the vortex scene repeating itself, but with a different ending.
For one simple reason, and Rumplestiltskin knows, he knows that the other him, from the Wishverse, the man who lost Belle, who lost his son, who lost his mind, is thinking about the same thing, about how the two scenes ended differently, just because…
He didn't let her fall.
Then…
Then the pirate dies and he know what to do, what he must do.
For Alice, and maybe for himself as well so the other him disappears and doesn't burn the world to ashes, and for the pirate who proved himself being a better father that he himself was centuries ago (he is different now, he changed) by giving his life for his daughter.
Now it's his turn to do the same…