The Dark One Vault wasn't far, Guinevere and Lancelot would be there soon enough, even if they didn't know where they were going. So, with the pair on their way, he used his magic and beat them to the vault. Merlin's Tower he'd returned to time and time again since learning about it, and the conversation he'd had with Nimue at the forge was not the first he'd had, but this vault…it was the first time he'd been back since he'd become the Dark One. It had been well over one hundred years. Like the stone, the forest looked hardly any different. It had been pitch black when he'd first arrived here then, and other than some overgrowth, it appeared just as it always had. There was the spot he'd first seen Zoso. There was the place he'd first discovered he'd no longer needed his cane. Over to his left was the place the Dark One who had shown him water to view Baelfire had waited for him. And where he was standing now was the first place he'd caught a glimpse of Nimue. He wasn't at the forge now, but as he looked down upon the platform he'd once arisen out of, he channeled her knowledge to see it as he hadn't that night. It wasn't a platform. It was a door. There were symbols around the metal platform, symbols he'd seen in his work and in the work of the Dark Ones that came before him. But here, they were more than that. They were the key. Nimue whispered away in his ear and he reached his hand out over them, using magic to touch them: the Eye of Providence, the Pentagram, the Sun.

He stood back as the vault opened to him. How the Guinevere and Lancelot were going to get into the vault was a mystery to him, but the Seer hadn't been wrong yet. Somehow, they were going to manage. And he would be ready for them when they did.

The inside of the vault was not unlike a mining passage. In fact, it reminded him a lot of the tunnel he'd encountered at Bald Mountain, only instead of draining his magic, as Bald Mountain had, the magic he felt around him now had a signature that matched his own. There was no fairy magic here. Only very, very Dark Magic. He could feel traps that were set, he recognized them, even felt as though Nimue was warning him they were there. But they were traps meant to keep intruders out, not Dark Ones. In the end, all he needed to do was allow his own magic to flare so that their magic recognized his own and they stayed hidden from sight, and, with a little extra push, for the foreseeable future. Lancelot and Guinevere were on their way, his vision showed them getting to the dagger and he wanted the Gauntlet on her arm. He saw no reason to try and keep them out. He stopped the traps that he could and left the ones he couldn't for them to figure out. They'd never know, they'd never be grateful.

Finally, up ahead, at the end of the tunnel, he saw a door. It was the same door he'd seen in his vision. He used his magic to open it and observed as something like the surface of the water appeared behind it. It moved and flowed to an invisible current, another trick of magic put there by Nimue herself to scare people away and keep them out. He, however, was the Dark One. He knew what was on the other side. So he walked through the door with confidence, and on the other side…

Yes, this was certainly where he was supposed to be.

The vision had passed by him fast before, and the focus had been on the dagger and the pedestal, but the second he saw the world around him, a tropical paradise, he knew that it was right. It reeked of Dark Magic. And there, in the center of the room, on a gray pedestal held up by black, snake-like legs, was the dagger. Or rather…a dagger.

He let out a sigh of relief as he came closer to it and found confirmation that it wasn't his dagger. He could feel his own in his boot. Someone would have been an idiot to put it here for anyone to find, even with the traps outside set. It was a fake. And as he looked it over he was assaulted with a memory of another time, from another Dark One. His name was Lucifer, he'd set it there as a trap, a warning. The second he removed the fraudulent dagger from the pedestal, he heard a ringing in the back of his head that told him the dagger was in danger. Lucifer wasn't a fool. He'd done it this way on purpose. This way someone could take a false dagger, but the Dark One could be alerted that someone was after them and destroy them before they ever figured out the fraud and carried out the actual deed of collecting the real dagger. In his heyday, when Lucifer had set the spell, it was a very clever decoy. Now it was ancient and nearly forgotten, but still helpful. The false dagger still bore the name of Lucifer, a reminder of just how little magic it carried. For a moment, he considered leaving it alone, not risking the pair learning his name, but if he had it his way, and if Lucifer had done his job right, they would never get their hands on it. With a wave of his hand, he inscribed his own name on the blade, then placed it back in its trap and just in time it seemed. In his head, he could feel another warning, one that Nimue herself had put there telling him that someone was at one of the vaults. This vault. They were coming, coming for the dagger that they didn't realize wasn't real with Merlin's Gauntlet and a broken kingdom on their minds. Knowing his dagger was safe was reassuring, but that didn't make this trip useless. For the first time in a long time, something had been removed from Merlin's Tower, and he would take it for himself. This could work out for everyone, just so long as he was clever about it. He wanted that Gauntlet and they wanted the dagger, or at least they thought they did. They didn't know what he knew. Magic could solve anything.

He cast a quick spell to turn himself invisible just as the door opened. And then there they were. The two he'd seen in his vision. Queen Guinevere and noble knight Lancelot at her side!

"There it is!" the woman exclaimed, coming closer at a quick pace. "Excalibur will finally be complete."

She was excited, and he stood by the little table and the fake dagger watching to see what would happen as she extended her hand to take it and-

Magic pulsed through the air and through him, magic that was tied to him but not set by him blasted the couple back so that they landed a dozen feet away on their backs. The magic was not unlike what Merlin had used at his tower, only, if he had to guess, and he didn't because he knew, it worked in reverse. He was free to take the dagger because he was the Dark One. No one else was. Well now, that was a handy little trick.

"Not exactly a sword in the stone, but it still does the trick!" he announced, allowing his spell to disintegrate and show him to them. He laughed as the pair noticed him but didn't miss a beat. They rose to their feet and pointed their swords in unison, showing off that cord he'd seen in his vision that they were either ignorant to or purposefully ignoring. Given their comfort around one another, and their loyalty to Arthur, he'd guess they were blissfully unaware of one another's feelings. But there were ways around that, just as there were ways around those swords. With a wave of his hand, the blades were gone, and the pair looked at each other with worry and shock. It surprised even him. Those couldn't have been the only weapons on them, or else the King greatly underestimated his knights! Not that he'd worry about another weapon, he was more concerned with what the girl was wearing now that the sword was gone: the glove that had led them here. He could feel the magic coming off of it from here. It was powerful, and he wanted it for himself. The question was how to get it. "So, that's how you found this place, Merlin's gauntlet. That's quite a powerful object, at least for a wizard stuck in a tree."

"That dagger is Arthur's birthright, and you will surrender it to us," Guinevere declared bravely.

He smiled. Was that what she thought? Birthright? Had he inherited it? Or was it something else? The Gauntlet suggested the latter.

"So, that's King Arthur's weakness, is it?"

The girl didn't respond, just held her head up high and eyed him with suspicion at his knowledge. A sweet thing to be sure when he could do so much better than know about magical objects.

"So that must make you Guinevere. Sadly, I can't give you what you want, though I might be willing to part with the next best thing, assuming, of course, you're willing to make a deal for that gauntlet."

"What's the next best thing to completing a magical sword?" Lancelot questioned sarcastically, unbelieving. The dear Queen was just silent, she didn't respond one way or another, but her gaze told him that worked in his favor. Now why would that be? Was it because perhaps the Good Queen didn't truly want the sword to be whole again?

"Making it appear like it's been completed," he answered the Knight. "With this…"

From his workshop back home, he summoned into his hand a small vial of fuchsia grains that Jefferson had once retrieved from him. "Enchanted sand from the mystical Isle of Avalon." It was powerful magic, and it had taken a lot for Jefferson to retrieve it. He hated the idea of giving it away, but he was willing to part with it for a price. And much to his delight…the Queen appeared willing to bargain. "One pinch of this can 'fix' anything."

"Even Excalibur?" she questioned.

He smiled. Perhaps Arthur's Queen was not as loyal as he thought. "Your husband need never know. After all, what's one little secret if it means getting your husband back? Assuming, of course, that's, uh, still what you want," he stated, looking between the pair of them before he began to circle. He was examining something. That cord of love they shared was stronger now than it was in the vision. Something had happened on this trip that had strengthened their bond. Did they sense it? Would Arthur?

"And why should I trust you?" Guinevere called out, turning to meet him.

Well now, that was a question that he hadn't considered. Nor had he planned on it being asked. He didn't have a great answer for her, only a shot in the dark based on the tether he could see flashing between her and Lancelot. And a vision.

A vision of sitting at a table with the pair of them when they were older. There were children there. They belonged to both Guinevere and Lancelot. All but one pale little boy with sandy hair who couldn't stop talking with the children and rambling about being in a castle. He felt a great affection in his chest for that little boy. Arthur was nowhere to be found as they ate and yet, he felt a hand wrap warmly around his elbow as they had dinner together. But as he turned to respond to the gesture...

The vision faded before he could see who it was...

How…interesting.

"Because I know what happens when a woman's heart is torn between duty and desire," he dared to guess as he moved around them and concentrated on the little bottle. "And believe me, it never ends well."

He was trying to get the vision back, trying to see the person who had touched him, who was eating with the three of them like they were old friends. But nothing sparked. It was as if the Seer was keeping a secret from him.

"Please, Guinevere," he heard Lancelot whisper affectionately behind him. "Don't listen to this demon."

Demon! That was a new name. Harsh. Interesting that one day they might be friends.

"I will accept your deal," the Queen declared.

He forgot the vision and instead laughed as he spun back to look at her removing the Gauntlet from her hand and Lancelot looking him over with distrusting eyes.

"Good girl!" He didn't know how they'd ever get to be friends, but handing him the Gauntlet certainly would go a long way for that. Perhaps…so would a little warning. "But be careful. Love is a weapon, dearie. The most dangerous weapon of all, which means the pain you should worry about isn't the kind inflicted by a broken sword, but the kind that comes, from a broken heart…" he stared up at Lancelot as they spoke, suddenly aware of how much time there was between now and the vision he'd had.

Guinevere took off the Gauntlet, and he took it as Lancelot snatched the bottle from his fingers and said, "Let's go!" to his Queen. The Knight's eyes were on him the entire way as they backed out of the room, and he was graced with one more small flash of a vision.

Watching Lancelot and Guinevere ride through the streets of Camelot with their children as he watched in the crowd. They both wore crowns.

His Queen indeed. He couldn't wait to see how their future would play out.


This chapter was a bitch to write and frankly I'm not really happy with how it came out. If felt like there were a lot of details in this scene that were just too much considering the small part it played. I felt like it left us all with a lot of questions and not so many answers. I can honestly say I did my best with it, but was it enough? I'll let you be the judge. But hey, good news, we know that while Camelot ends here, the story of the Gauntlet is only just beginning.

Thank you Grace5231973 and Jennifer Baratta for your reviews on the previous chapter. I'm interested to hear what you'll think about this one. There was one thing I liked about this chapter. Those visions...it perfectly illustrates the beauty of waiting until after the entire series was finished to write Rumple's side of the story. Readers from Moments Beyond will recognize that vision he has at the table and watching Guinevere and Lancelot ride through the streets, you'll recognize who the sandy hair boy that he feels affection for is, and the person who wraps their hands around his arm...well...we all know who that is. Truly, at this point, I think even he has idea...nay...perhaps a hope of who that might be. I think that's what he's so desperate to recall the image but also why the Seer chooses not to show it to him. Just some food for thought. Peace and Happy Reading!