"Belle!"
He was outside of the town line, in a place without magic, where the Seer couldn't have warned him this would happen.
"Belle!"
Whatever "this" was.
He was still trying to put it together, waiting for his heart to catch up, to believe the undeniable truth he already understood logically enough.
There had been a bang.
Belle had stumbled, damn near fallen into his arms.
His ankle screamed.
He lowered her to the ground and noticed which side of the line she was on too late.
She'd crossed the town line. She'd glowed blue; he'd caught a brief flash of it. He just hadn't wanted to believe it.
She was human. She wasn't magical. There was a chance, a hope that because of that, the line might not detect her…might not steal what wasn't there to steal…
"Belle!"
He glanced down at her. His mouth was dry. He might have been praying.
"Who-who's Belle?!"
Oh, his heart ached. It throbbed as he looked her over, too stunned to form a complete sentence. He was suddenly on a roller coaster ride he couldn't get off of or take back! The world was spinning.
He knew this woman better than any other person in the entire world. He knew every look, the subtle messages her eyes conveyed, the meaning behind each twitch and tweak of every muscle.
"Oh no!" he cried out as she shrank from his touch. "Oh, no, no, no!"
Looking back at him now was someone he didn't recognize. It was her body. But a stranger was occupying it.
In the stranger's face, he saw pain and confusion. He saw anguish that mirrored his own and…blood!
Her shoulder was bleeding.
The boom! The pop!
He knew that sound and looked up beyond that town line to find the source, only to come face to face with his oldest nemesis. Rage roared to life in him.
Hook. With his own damn gun in his hand!
"Oh, fear not, she'll live," he stated as if it was nothing, as if Belle had fallen and scraped her knee, not been shot and lost…lost…herself. "She'll just have no idea who you are!"
Bastard! Fucking one-handed pirate! He would have been worthy of a punishment like this, but Belle…she didn't deserve this. This terrible fate he'd tried so hard to spare her from weeks ago! Blood feuds, like magic, always had a price, but Belle shouldn't have been the one to pay it! She shouldn't have been part of this!
"What you've done cannot be undone!"
He meant to shout it, to scream it at the top of his lungs, but staring down at the only woman he'd ever loved, it only came out as a cry, a whine…the sound of a coward.
"Now you finally know how it feels!" Hook roared back at him.
Revenge. Belle was revenge. Milah for Belle, that was what he'd done. Long ago, he'd stripped him of love by removing Milah's heart. Now Hook had stripped him of love by removing Belle's heart…in a way.
Oh, he should have killed him when he had the chance. He shouldn't have listened to her. He should have obeyed the Dark Ones, should have followed his instinct and taken his life to protect Belle and-
"Go ahead, Crocodile. Do your worst!"
His worst. Oh, he was going to do his worst. He wasn't just going to kill him; without Belle as an anchor, he was going to let the Darkness out. He was going to stun him, to hide him, to take him to a place where they could spend days together, and no one would ever hear him scream. He was going to break every bone in his body, strip him of every meaningful limb he had, rid him of his skin, unleash hell with his magic and-
Magic…
Belle contracted when he touched her; the image burned into his mind and seared his heart, but he managed to move her, and himself, back over that orange line. He watched her as he did it, hoping, praying even that the magic might reverse, might give her back to him as she had been. The moment he crossed, he felt his strength return, felt the buzz and hum in his head from the other Dark Ones coming back into his mind. But from Belle, there was nothing, no recognition, no understanding…no spark between them.
He turned his gaze on Hook. Do his worst, he'd demanded…
"Oh…" he whispered as he reached his full height and gathered his magic into his hand. "I intend to."
He had plans for the monster, for the wretch before him…but first, he had another idea. A conjure that was simple when someone was as angry as he was. He summoned fire into his hand, a gesture that was much more fitting for Regina than for him, but a fireball to the face was capable of so much damage and pain and-
Light!
There was a light on Hook's face, a white light that had nothing to do with the glow of the fire in his hand. Despite the voices in his head, it was Gold that screamed at him that he and Belle were in the middle of the road, that told him to turn and to look. Behind him, there was a car careening down the road, heading straight toward him, straight toward the place where he'd placed his injured love.
He didn't think, and he didn't consider; he didn't pause, just let his body react. He dove on top of Belle to save her from the car. The force of it rolled the pair of them as the once quiet night filled with noise.
First, the blare of a car horn.
Next, the sound of a sickening thud and crunch.
Finally, a crash.
Belle was squirming beneath him, trying to get away, a sure sign she was no worse than she'd been, but he risked a glance over his shoulder to see the damage himself. Hook was gone. He had a feeling that he knew exactly what the thud he'd heard had been, and he couldn't bring himself to care. The car itself had crashed. He watched for a moment, waiting for a driver to get out, but no one did. Through the window, he could see that the airbag had deployed, but he couldn't make out a face, and he wasn't sure what good it would do if he could.
That car had come from outside of Storybrooke, from somewhere in the real world, the World Without Magic…
His heart jumped into his throat. What he'd prepared to guard against after fetching Baelfire…it was too late.
There were strangers in Storybrooke.
Hi! For those of you that are just checking out this fiction, welcome! For those of you who are a fan of the Chronicles of the Dark One, welcome back! I hope you'll enjoy this fiction. It's the 7th in the Chronicles, a series that is an attempt at an accurate portrayal of Rumple's perspective during the Once Upon a Time series. This fiction features everything that happened in The Realm Without Magic from the moment that Belle crosses the town line in "Outsider" up to the moment that Rumple departs for Neverland in "...And Straight On Til Morning". It is currently only "in progress" and will be updated every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday through Saturday.
The Dark One Chronicles is meant to be a companion series with The Moments Series, which explores Once Upon a Time from Belle's perspective. This means that everything you read in the Chronicles where Belle is concerned will show up in Moments as well. It is just told from a different point of view. If you'd like to see Belle's chapters from her perspective, Moments Seen and Unseen, Moments Missed, and Moments Shared and Unshared are each, in part the companion stories to The Chronicles of the Dark One: Family Bonds! You can find The Moments Series by checking out my profile.
If you enjoy this fiction, please review! I always enjoy those wonderful gems waiting for me in my inbox and I love writing back to thank you personally for reading! It helps me know that I'm doing a decent job! Peace and Happy Reading!