He shut Belle out and turned his attention to Sherwood Forest where the Sheriff had said he had been hiding. He began to work his magic. Robin Hood. The name was Robin Hood. And he had the wand. With those two pieces of information, he should be able to track him easily. And so he did. Nearly as soon as he'd closed his eyes to concentrate on him, the wand's signal magic flared again. It was close. Really close. He forced the horses to stop and looked around the forest around him. Magic had a look to it, a pulse of sorts, just as much as it did a smell and taste. He'd been living with the wand for so long down he could sniff it out like a hunting dog. It was there. In the forest. It was still a fair distance from them, but it was in the forest, off the road. They could no longer take the carriage. They'd have to go on foot.
Excitement stirred as he silently hurried Belle out of the carriage. He considered for a moment leaving her behind, wondering if what she'd gone through was enough, but the last thing he needed was to underestimate that Sheriff, leave her alone somewhere, and return to find something terrible had happened. He didn't need that kind of distraction. What he needed was to get his fucking wand back! Besides, he didn't want her to think he had sympathy for what she'd endured, or that he'd gone soft.
"What are we doing in the middle of nowhere?" she questioned when he finally got her out of the carriage and down on the ground.
"He's close by," he snapped by way of explanation, then took a breath and began to follow the scent of the wand's magic. Behind him he heard sticks snapping, branches breaking, and the ruffling sound of her dress and cloak dragging on a forest floor. It was a good thing he didn't need to hear the magic…
"You can't do this!" she called after him suddenly.
Well now, someone had finally found her voice again. How lovely to see that she'd recovered and just in time for the main event.
"I can and I will," he responded, calmly throwing the words over his shoulder before stopping and taking another breath. Up ahead and to the right.
"But it's wrong!"
"So was his decision to steal from me!" he called back. If she didn't stop screaming, he'd take her tongue too just to keep her quiet. He'd had enough time alone in that carriage with her he wanted this to be done and over with and if she spooked him away, so help him…
"But there must be a reason why! Something we don't know."
"If he truly needed it, he could have made a deal, just like everyone else in this realm who wants something from me!" That was how being the Dark One worked. If he did everything for free, he'd never have anything, and he'd look ten times worse than he did because of magic that hadn't been paid for. Not on his watch. No Dark One had ever done things that way and he wasn't about to be the first.
"Because making deals with you always works in everyone's favor!" she choked out desperately.
He spun around just in time to see her pull her dress free from some obstacle, his teeth clenched hard in his jaw. He didn't hear her complain a little bit ago when he'd taken her would-be rapist's tongue.
"That, dearie, is the-"
He didn't finish his sentence. He couldn't. He couldn't hear magic, but he'd just heard something up ahead, something capable of distracting him from the snarl of the woman before him. He heard it again, and this time focused on the one constant thing about it. The thing he'd heard was a horse's whinny. And the sound that was constant was the sound of wheels. Unstable wheels, like those on a cart.
They were here.
He forgot about Belle and turned back to follow the sound he heard. But she didn't give up, not easily at least. "You know, it's still not too late to turn back!" she urged as they continued to move through the wood. He ignored her and moved forward. "You know I'm not going to stand by and watch you kill a man!"
"Well, you're welcome to sit if you like!" he shouted, turning back to her direction. Persistent, stubborn woman! "But you are going to watch! That's the whole point of our little expedition, remember?" There…another whinny. A horse and cart was coming. The question was, did it carry Robin, or was it coming to rescue him? "To see what your actions wrought…" he finished off-handedly, moving forward toward the noise. And a pulse. The magic was crying out for him, or maybe trying to warn its captor that he was near. Whichever it was, it helped.
The place they'd been walking suddenly dropped off, leaving nothing but a steep bank below them. They could easily get down if they didn't mind stumbling along but with the bow in his hand…it was too perfect. There he was. The thief, Robin Hood! He was leaning against a tree, probably waiting for the wagon to come and take him far from here. Probably to a place where he could sell the wand or use it for himself for whatever mysterious reason. He was so bold as to have it in his hand now, out in the open, as if he believed himself to be perfectly safe. Fool. He was about to get the surprise of his life.
"Found him!" he muttered to himself.
"He's…he's waiting for someone," Belle muttered beside him.
Odd, if he didn't know any better, he'd say she was curious too. He watched as a horse with a flatbed cart rounded a corner. Robin saw it too. He moved from his spot and quickly made his way toward it. He was certain he was going to jump on the back of it and they'd take off!
But he couldn't. As they rounded the bend, he saw that the cart was already occupied. And the men driving the cart…they didn't wait for Robin Hood. As soon as they spotted Robin Hood they unhitched their load mounted the horse as one and took off leaving behind Robin Hood, the cart, and…
"That woman!" Belle exclaimed.
That woman. He knew the woman…how did he know the woman? It wasn't simply because the Sheriff had mentioned her…was it?
"That must be the one he stole from the Sheriff," he commented, but even as he explained it, he knew that wasn't right. He'd seen her before! Where had he seen her before! It was difficult to say. She was very clearly ill, probably deathly ill. Her skin was pale and sunken. She was wrapped in blankets. Her heart rate was far slower than it should have been, except for whenever she coughed, then it beat wildly but also dangerously erratically. It was something in her lungs. And her body was working to rid itself of it rather unsuccessfully. She was familiar and yet…not. Who the hell was the woman?!
He watched as she coughed again, and Robin Hood stood by her side and moved his hand delicately over her forehead, brushing her hair away. And then there was the wand, in his hand, and he knew what he was going to do before he even saw it. Why was he wasting time? He could kill him and put the girl out of her misery before taking back his wand!
He notched an arrow, set his sights on the woman so she wouldn't have to suffer much longer than she already had, prepared to shoot and-
Belle placed her hand over his arm and gave it a shove, forcing him to lose his target.
"She's sick. She's going to die!"
"And so is he," he muttered, attempting to raise his arm again.
"Stop!" she commanded, applying so much pressure that he was forced to drop his arm. He watched the couple at the bottom of the ridge for a response to her shout, but there was none. Instead, Robin moved his wand over the woman on the cart. He felt magic radiate from that area, begin to pulse and weave. The energy was focused into the woman as the wand moved over her body.
He healed her.
Her.
Marion.
Maid Marion…
The second her skin got its color back, the olive tone was what gave her away. He'd never met her, not personally. There was a time he'd watched her for a bit once. And he'd had a vision about her...a vision where the Sheriff of Nottingham had propositioned her. But she'd turned him down, rather clearly, if memory recalled, partly because he was a pig and she hated him but aside from that...it was because she was married. She was married to Robin of Locksley.
Suddenly he felt dizzy. Robin Hood…Robin of Locksley. And the way she smiled at him and he smiled at her…it wasn't possible! Robin of Locksley had sandy hair, a stalky build, a square jaw! The thief, Robin Hood was thin and tall, his hair was so dark it almost looked black, his chin was pointed, even the color of his eyes had been different! They were two different people. And yet…
What was the chance that dear Marion, who had been pursued by the Sheriff of Nottingham and so determined to stand by her husband in his vision would be involved with Robin of Locksely and Robin Hood? Could they be the same person? In his castle, the thief had smelled like magic, it had shimmered around him, but he hadn't known exactly what it had been. It wasn't a glamour, he knew glamour spells, he'd just put one on Regina! But if this was Robin of Locksley then whatever charm he was using certainly behaved like a glamour! He couldn't identify it.
But suddenly he could identify something else. Oh, he'd been a fool! When Robin had returned from Oz, he'd also smelled of magic; unfamiliar magic. It was a smell he hadn't had before he left. At first, he'd thought it was just the smell of jumping through portals, but now he glanced at the bow in his hand and recalled the memory to his mind of Robin telling him he'd failed. Yes. This bow had the same feeling some of that magic had! But it was only one part! The other part…
Robin Hood was Robin of Locksley.
Regina's heart.
"I'm right about him, about why he stole the wand!" Belle gloated next to him. "He did it so he could heal the woman he loves."
But not the one he'd love forever. The vision of Regina and Robin came back to him as he watched Robin and Marian stare at one another now. They'd kissed in that vision. And everything in that vision, from the look in their eyes, to their body language to their intimacy suggested it was "they" in every sense of the word. It wasn't Regina doing all the work, Robin had actively participated. "She will be his heart," the Seer had said. But he now had the feeling she would be his as well. What of Marian then?
"He's still a thief," he countered, fighting against Belle and the Seer in his mind. He'd stolen his wand. He wanted to kill him for it! He wanted to take it back and make him pay.
"She would have died if he hadn't stolen your wand!" she argued.
So?! That was life! People died all the time! Perhaps that was how it was supposed to go! Perhaps she was meant to die and that was how he and Regina found each other! Perhaps by letting the prisoner go, she'd altered time! Had she altered his way back to his son?!
"And now he gets to die!" he roared back at her, anger flaring hot within his chest. "And she can tell all of Sherwood Forest what happens when you cross Rumpelstiltskin! There!" He waved his hand, he shifted dirt and grime with his magic and buried his maid half in the ground so she wouldn't be as much a distraction to him. "That should give you a good view!"
"You don't have to do this!" she shouted as he notched his arrow and drew back.
Now he just needed a good shot even as he debated the best coarse of action. Should he kill Robin and risk the future? Or kill her and set the future back on track? There seemed to be one obvious answer.
"There's good in you! I was right about the thief, and I'm right about you!" Belle whined away.
But it was needless. As if the Seer and her visions didn't already have a grip on his mind suddenly, he felt something cease upon his heart as he watched Marian, now healed, rise up from her spot on the cart. The blanket fell away, her cloak parted…
She was pregnant.
Not due any moment now, but still obviously, heavily pregnant.
"Look! She's pregnant!" Belle exclaimed, seeing it too.
Torn. He felt torn in two. That was the problem with having so many voices in his head. The Dark Ones demanded justice. They wanted the thief dead. They wanted him punished. They wanted the girl to see it and tell everyone to stay far away, not to risk their lives stealing from the Dark One or else…
But the Seer rebelled against them. She placed image after image in his head. Some he'd seen already, others were unfamiliar to him.
Regina and Robin embracing, familiar.
Himself inside some kind of carriage-like contraption, Regina at his side, as he watched Robin and Marian and a small boy on the black road. Unfamiliar.
Robin of Locksley in the burgundy room as he lay on his back struggling to breathe. Familiar.
Robin of Locksley handing him some kind of brown crate with odd things inside that he knew belonged to his son as a wave of sorrow he'd never felt before washed over him. Unfamiliar.
Important! Intact! The Seer cried.
His son.
Not her daughter.
The witch's daughter, the unreal pirate's daughter, two halves, one whole! Important! Intact! Preserve it! Guard them!
"You are not the kind of man to leave a child fatherless!"
The Seer spoke gibberish, but then there was Belle beside him. She was half-buried in the dirt, but her voice was just as strong as ever, just as clear as the Seer she didn't know she agreed with.
The future is a puzzle with many pieces to be sorted, in time you will learn to separate what can be from what will be.
Neither familiar nor unfamiliar…that hint was a memory of his own. And as he looked over the scene before him, Marian and Robin of Locksley, somehow disguised as Robin Hood, happily embracing with a child between them, he knew. His future, seeing his son again, was only what could be so long as they stayed alive. Why and how...he didn't know that yet. But he had to trust one day he would, just as he had to trust that one day, he'd learn why Belle mattered so much in all of this and what a chipped teacup had to do with it.
The Dark Ones squabbled and squawked at his decision at the thought that he'd get away, but he silenced them, took aim at the cart just behind them, and let the arrow fly.
Belle cried out as he did it, but he watched as it embedded itself in the wood just as he wanted. A warning. One that was received. The couple parted, Robin looked frantically around the wood for where it had come from then murmured a quick "we have to go" to Marian. They mounted the remaining horse and left together.
He had a feeling that though they would meet again one day, it wouldn't be in this realm. For now, he would leave them be. He'd let fate run it's course, whatever course it may be.
Belle, on the other hand…
"What happened?" she questioned, her voice half-filled with fright and half with confusion.
"I missed," he grumbled before waving his hand so that she could stand on her own two feet again. All he wanted to do was get back to his castle. He hadn't heard Regina's call for days now, if she'd given up on summoning him, then she'd be on her way to his castle to have him break the spell. He should be there when she finally arrived. They should go. "Get back to the carriage. I'm bored with this forest."
"You're…you're not going after him?!" she questioned further. Women! Would he ever understand them? One moment she wanted him to go back to the carriage, and now that he'd released them, she was the one who just couldn't let it go!
"He's not worth the efforts," he lied. His future told him he owned those wands and yet…as he stared he realized…that wand hadn't been part of his vision. He was destined to lose it…and gain another.
"You spared his life," Belle stated, sounding confident in her victory.
He wasn't looking at Belle but he could feel her smile, feel her gloating beside him. She beamed brighter than any woman he'd ever met before, and while that might have been impressive to some at the moment, today it was just downright annoying.
"What?!" he roared, trying to shake himself out of the future and ifs and maybes and back into the present. When Baelfire was on his mind, it was difficult to do. "I did nothing of the sort."
"That bow has magic in it. It never misses its target," she trumped.
Honestly…the woman had no sense of tact.
"Well, perhaps the magic just simply wore…off…"
She was closer than he'd thought she was. Probably because she'd been screaming at him since they arrived, now that she was speaking normally he expected her to be a distance away, not right there at his shoulder. And the look on her face, it wasn't one of gloating or winning as he'd thought it would be, but rather pride. Not in herself. For him. She wore it well. How had she-
Suddenly thoughts of the past and questions of the future faded away. He was in the present again. Pulled violently back into it by a set of arms flung tight around his neck. For a moment he was caught off balance by it, he worried he might fall backward as he tried to adjust to the extra weight and the instability of a forest floor, then he felt the world stop as she lingered. He felt one of his hands around the wood of the bow and the other…it was just hanging there in the dead space. He wasn't quite sure what to do with it.
He could remember hugging Baelfire, bone-crunching, hardy hugs that left him breathless. He could remember putting his arms around him and trying to leave the same impression on his son but with her…he already felt like he couldn't breathe and it was so light. He wasn't sure what to do with that extra hand! He couldn't remember the last time someone had touched him, much less-
And then it was over. She backed away from him and settled back on her feet. He hadn't even realized she'd been on her toes. He felt his mouth go dry as her happy smile continued, and she patted down a part of his cloak that she'd upset and then turned to walk away, leaving him feeling odd. Empty.
What the hell had just happened?
She paused suddenly and looked back over her shoulder at him as he continued to stare. He felt as though he'd just been struck by lightning. How was he to recover from that? What spell had she cast?
"Aren't you coming?" she asked, her eyebrows raised expectantly.
Coming...
Back to the carriage.
Yes!
Back to the carriage that would take them home, to the castle.
His castle!
His mind began to work again as he collected the quiver of arrows he suddenly couldn't remember dropping and glanced back up at her to see if she'd noticed. She blushed, smiled again, and turned her back to return to the carriage.
He felt himself smirk but couldn't bother to question it. Because at the same time he made the decision to follow after her, the Seer whispered the oddest thing he'd ever heard in his head.
To the ends of the earth and the Edge of the Realms…
I enjoyed writing this chapter more than you know, but not just because it's an iconic Rumbelle scene. It was fun to watch the 2x19 chapters come together for Rumple, with Robin Hood as well as with Belle. I loved putting a new twist on why Rumple didn't shoot Robin. That's not to say that Belle isn't the reason in this chapter or in my version, I think she is certainly one of the reasons. But with everything else he knows about the future, after watching Rumple for seven seasons, it seemed plausible that not killing Robin could be more complex than just "Belle doesn't want me to and I want to impress her." I like getting him to the point where he realizes what's going on, Robin Hood, Maid Marion, the bow, even the wand! And I really loved giving him another glimpse of something important for the future.
Thank you, thank you, thank you MissAmande, Jennifer Baratta, and Grace5231973 for your reviews on the previous chapter. I told you this would seem like a lot of chapters for 2x19 but hopefully getting to a much loved Rumbelle scene makes up for it! Of course, there is another one coming at you for 2x19 before we can really say we are wrapped up here. It's also an iconic scene and I'm hoping you'll love it, just as I'm hoping you'll love this one. Onward we go! Peace and Happy Reading!
