With the Apprentice now a harmless mouse his magic was muted; not gone, not entirely, but certainly it was weaker than it had been before. Prior to today, he knew that it must have taken several strong spells to conceal that little house at the foot of the mountain and the Apprentice from him. But the moment his potion had worked, the spells were so weak they were nearly non-existent. He could feel the light magic coming off the little house from where he sat in his castle now. He was itching to go along with the girl. But why bother rushing about the mountain when it was so much simpler to take it easy and rejoice in how well things had gone and were going. All was according to plan.

He waited the appropriate amount of time before leaving, until the crystal ball informed him that Anna of Arendelle had finally arrived at the Sorcerer's house and was muttering something frantically to herself. He could only imagine what it might be, and ordinarily would have been content to do just that if only he didn't need to finish his Master Plan.

"Careful you don't step on it!" she exclaimed when he appeared before her in the little house. Victory roared through his blood as he felt a small tingle, only a tickle of magic, feebly acknowledging that he wasn't supposed to be here, but it was useless. It was trying to push him out, trying to protect the cabin, but it was a bit like an ogre being pushed about by...well...a mouse! It wasn't enough to banish him. Funny, in his memories he'd never seen beyond the room with the doors, the same room that the Seer had given him his vision of. Now that he was looking about it was rather nice; airy, spacious, free in a way. Leave it to Merlin's brat to come up with that.

"We have to find him!" Anna begged still doing turns and looking around the floor. "You have to change him back."

"Oh, but I can't, dearie."

"Why?" she breathed sounding more frantic than disappointed.

"Because I don't want to," he explained with a smile. "He was protecting something that I need."

It was finally in that moment than Anna stopped moving and talking. The look on her face changed and he could practically feel the brain in her skull begin to work. She was a bright girl when she took the time to be and right now he was guessing she was starting to put the many pieces together. He could see it all falling into place in her mind, plain as day.

"You were the one who poisoned him," she realized.

He let out a gleeful laugh at her discovery. She didn't return the reaction.

"Then why did you send me there with an antidote if you wanted to turn him into a mouse?!" she shouted angrily.

"It was never about him. It was always about you!"

"It was all a test?" she breathed, the prompting helping her to sort out the last pieces for the poor girl.

"And one you performed admirably," he added taking a step closer to her. "You see, he's but the first line of defense. And what he protects is also guarded by an enchantment... a spell that can only be broken by someone who has been tempted by their inner darkness and turned away from it, someone just like you. I knew you wouldn't do it," he sighed turning from her and looking at the fireplace. That was where the door would appear. "I knew you'd see the best in the old man."

Behind him the Princess was silent. Finally, he had her speechless! He could feel his dagger in his jacket and figured he had only a moment or so until she cried and he-

"I never faced my inner darkness."

"What?" he gawked turning around to face her once more. Behind him her voice was strong and certain, unwavering. But that statement was a lie. He simply didn't believe. He'd seen her confront that darkness. Perhaps she was just too small minded to see it for herself.

"As soon as I met the old man, I knew what I had to do. I could never hurt someone to get what I want. Elsa wouldn't want me to. So I was never even tempted by that inner darkness you speak of. In fact, I don't even think I have one. I'm, unlike you, nice."

He laughed at her, laughed and smiled despite the very serious implication of her pretty little speech. It wasn't true of course, she just didn't want to face what she had inside of her or admit to it, most wouldn't. The trick in this case wasn't going to be getting her to turn to darkness, it was going to be getting her to admit that she had one. No one was perfect all the time. No one was "nice" all the time, not privately. Maybe it was a single thought or just a small action, but she had that darkness. She just had to realize it. It was going to be fun!

"Well, then, dearie, I hope you're gonna enjoy spending the rest of your life locked up in my tower. It was part of our deal."

Though he was sure she wouldn't read it, just as she hadn't taken the time to read it the first time, he produced the contract she'd signed before her. She didn't read it, he didn't think that she could at the moment, her eyes were swimming with tears and something else that he'd been waiting to see in her since the very first moment she'd stepped into his story: fear.

"But I have to get back to Elsa," she begged, her voice shaking.

"Then you should never have left home in the first place. Imagine the guilt she will feel when you don't return home from your journey... a journey you only took because of her. She will finally become that monster everyone fears she is." Tears were gathering in her eyes, her jaw was setting, her gaze was steady. This might just work out better than he'd planned. "Oh!" he gasped sarcastically for effect. "I suppose the wedding's off."

He stepped around her, preparing once more to collect the tear he was going to need when he heard a flash of metal behind him.

"No!" Anna cried and when he turned he found that she was standing there with a sword in her hand pointed at his heart. "Rip it up. Rip up the contract now!"

He fought the urge to laugh and dance, if he did it might clue her into what he was doing, how he was planning. Oh, yes, this certainly could turn out far better than he'd ever hoped, he'd been given not one, but two chances to force dear Anna to confront her own inner darkness. If one didn't work the other surely would, he had only to say the right thing.

"Well, I can't do that, dearie," he squealed. "No, I'm afraid the only way for you to escape your fate is by killing...me. And we both know...you're just...too...nice." He admired her fierceness and determination, but he liked the way she stared at him and raised that sword to his chest even more at his comment. That was temptation. "Do it," he taunted moving closer to make it easier on her, not that it mattered. "Go on. Right through me." Oh, she was tempted, so tempted that much was clear. But was she tempted enough? "Do it. Do it. Do it! Do it!" he screamed, louder and louder each time for each time he screamed was more time she had to build it up in her head, more time for her to consider what she needed to do but would never work! "Do it!"

Suddenly Anna took a deep breath, the sword fell from her hands and to the floor a moment before she did. It was as though the strength had gone right out of her. Compromising morals had that effect on a person. Not only did it produce weakness, but also the sounds that she was making as she huddled herself there on that floor. She put her hand to her mouth as she continued to gasp for air and finally began to weep. How perfect for him?

"You may never have considered dosing the old man..." he explained pulling his dagger from his jacket and walking toward the poor girl, "but you just thought about killing me."

He giggled as he leaned down to inspect her and found a single, beautiful tear rolling down that cheek of hers. This was what he'd seen in his vision and it was glorious. He held out his dagger to her and at just the right moment it dropped down onto the metal. It glowed bright for a moment, but then faded once more so that it looked deceptively normal.

"And now I have exactly what I need…the tear of someone who has faced their inner darkness and turned away. The love for your sister was all I needed."

"I should have known," she snarled looking up at him her cheeks well and truly tear-stained. "I should have known the moment I met you...you're a monster. You take the most precious thing in this world...love...and turn it into a weapon."

He smirked at her. If she only knew…a monster he may have been, but he was a monster driven by love. And he hadn't been the one to make love a weapon, he was merely using what the rest of the world had given him to wield it properly. By some miracle he'd seen that the Princess knew how to handle a sword, but metal, no matter how sharp, was not the most dangerous thing in these lands. It was the love she so desperately clung to. Perhaps she could learn that from all this.

"Love is a weapon, dearie, always has been," he laughed rising from his place by her side. "It's just..." he'd done enough waiting. Now it was time to finally lay claim to his prize. Casting a revealing charm was an easy feat for the Dark One, casting it with the dagger in his hand was a powerful feat. The trap doors in the other room burst open so violently that the hay was tossed clear into the rafters. Anna didn't even hesitate. "So few people know how to wield it."

The room was just like he'd imagined it, just as Zoso and so many others remembered it; scarred from the battle of other Dark Ones and Villains trying to claim the hat for themselves. It was tempting, truly it was to savor the moment, to take his time walking down those steps one at a time, to lose his breath as he sauntered through the broken and beaten room and then hold his prize high into the air as he took custody of it. But he wasn't going to do that. He couldn't. History dictated he shouldn't. More than one Dark One had attempted to fetch this hat, all of them had one thing in common, they'd been too slow and therefore the apprentice had stopped them. Upstairs the Apprentice was nothing but a mouse and would be for some time. But he wasn't about to make a mistake like his fellow Dark Ones. He wasn't about to celebrate winning before he'd actually won. The orders from Nimue were always very clear.

Get the hat. Get out.

For that reason alone, he didn't take his time. He marched down those stairs not like a man in victory but a man on a mission. At the bottom he brought the lamps to life with a blast of magic, igniting them so he could see and then he refused to pause. He refused to be breathless. Instead he climbed right up onto the dais. When it didn't refuse him he waved his dagger over the round little box before him. When he once again felt no fight or fire come from it, he pushed more magic into it, silently ordering the thing the open and reveal itself.

It was ridiculous how easy it was with that single tear drop. He watched in amazement as the box shifted and morphed and grew until finally grew into a beautiful pointed hat.

He smiled.


This scene was just one that didn't translate well from screen to page. It happens. I find it's often with these intense action scenes that it really happens with, especially with Rumple because all these actions are so well thought through in his mind.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Grace5231973, Alarda, and Jennifer Baratta for leaving me reviews on these chapters, even if they're not the best. Fun fact, I did you a small favor here. In my original outline Rumple going down into the cellar to retrieve the hat was supposed to be it's own chapter. But when I actually sat down to write the event it was only a few paragraphs so I stuck most of it onto this chapter so you wouldn't have a chapter of only 250 words. My gift to you. Only one more Anna chapter left! Not a happy one but we're gonna get through it and then hey, we're home free! The bad Frozen Chapters that nearly everyone has told me they weren't looking forward to are in the past and there is nothing in front of us but...well...it's Rumple so...you know...misery, death, despair...you know, the usual. Peace and Happy Reading!