Chapter 3—"A Change in Me"
Weeks passed before she could manage to leave the Dark Realm again, and Fiona spent all of it plotting and planning. She even ignored the children she kept there, letting them laugh and play if they wanted to. They were unimportant now that she knew her son was alive. She didn't care what they did; all she cared about was finding a way to get to her son. Yet her re-invented version of the Dark Curse was not ready; she lacked the scroll, and recreating the spell from memory was difficult. As was acquiring enough dark fairy dust to do it. No, she would need years yet before she could use that curse, and even then, there was a pesky matter of the price to be paid. Fairy dust might be enough to counter that, but Fiona was not prepared to wait long enough to find out.
That left a Savior's magic, but so far as she knew, there was no Savior at the moment. There would be one soon; the fairies' book of prophecy had indicated that this would be another dark period in which one or more Saviors would be required. Yet she wasn't prepared to wait a generation or two, which only left one option.
Which brought her back to Neverland, of course. But not to Malcolm. If she never saw the pretentious little bastard he'd become again, Fiona would die happily. She still could not believe that her sweet and gentle Malcolm could become that horrible sadistic child, but she knew that he had. Accepting it was hard, and she'd spent more than a few days wondering if she might somehow find a way to save him, to bring him back, but she knew the look in his eye. Pan wore the face of a man very happy with the darkness he'd embraced, and there was no going back from that. She would know.
Asking for his help in escaping the Dark Realm would put me in his debt, and I have a feeling that I do not want to be there. Even Fiona shuddered at the thought. This island was a wild and frightening place, worse, she thought, than even the Dark Realm. It had its own insidious magic that got inside you and refused to let go.
"Tiger Lily?" This time she approached the cave more carefully, not trying to startle the occupants. Assuming there were any. "Are you there?"
"Give me one good reason not to shoot you with this." Tiger Lily practically materialized out of nowhere, some sort of weapon in her hands.
"Are those darts? How quaint." She couldn't help snickering. "Do you really think they'd work on me?"
Her former friend snorted. "I know they would. You forget that I know where your magic comes from."
"True." Fiona shrugged, holding her hands away from her body in the least threatening manner she knew. Doing so was hard—it had been centuries since she had actually wanted not to intimidate someone. "Then I suppose you shouldn't shoot me because I'm here for your help."
"I can't help you with Malcolm. He's beyond help." A shadow fell over Tiger Lily's face. "I tried. He wants to be what he is, and doesn't care who he hurts."
"Is that why you're here?"
"I had to go somewhere when I gave up my wings. Blue made it clear I wasn't welcome back home, and Wonderland was…not very wonderful."
Fiona laughed bitterly. "That makes two of us who Blue doesn't want around. Although I'd take Wonderland over where she sent me."
"Where you kidnap children to, you mean?" Angry eyes met hers, and the blowpipe came up again. "Don't lie to me. I've heard about what you do."
"Well, then, yes, I take children. Mostly unwanted ones. I was trying to fill the hole in my heart somehow when she sent me away from my son." Fiona drew herself up, squaring her shoulders. She knew it was wrong, but she wasn't going to apologize. Going to the Dark Realm hadn't been her choice, and it wasn't like Blue cared enough to stop her, anyway.
That only made Tiger Lily glare harder. "You could have cut your fate instead of his."
"I could have, yes. But I can't change that, now." She swallowed hard, but faced the facts head on. "My son should have been the Savior. Instead, he is the Dark One. And I need to get to him."
"And you're here because you want me to help you find a way to permanently escape the Dark Realm." Tiger Lily sighed. "I didn't exile you, Fiona. I can't undo the magic Blue worked. The wand she used was broken to keep you there."
"She broke the most powerful wand the fairies possess just to exile me?"
"Yes."
"That's certainly flattering." An attempt to giggle fell a little flat, though; Fiona knew she would run out of time before too long. I can't meet my son like this. Bits of conversation weeks apart is no way to rebuild a relationship. "But immaterial. I think you know what I'm here for, and it's not the piece of that wand you have hidden in your cave."
Tiger Lily fidgeted furtively. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, come now. Of course you do. You used to know me better than anyone else, just as I knew you." She swallowed quietly, forcing herself not to dwell upon friendships lost. "I cut my son's fate away, but the power of a Savior remains. You have it here, don't you?"
"Why would you think I have it? Blue would—"
"You were his fairy godmother." Fiona dared to take a step forward, forcing her pride aside. "Please. I need to get to my son. I have to protect him."
"He's the Dark One." Tiger Lily crossed her arms. "I'd say he's quite capable of protecting himself."
"That's not the point! He's my son, and he's alive. I cannot leave him alone. Not now. Not after Malcolm abandoned him as well."
That plea finally made Tiger Lily sigh. "You do know that it's been centuries. He's probably not going to be very receptive of your attempts to become part of your life."
"I don't care." But those words made her blink; the idea that her son might not want her had never occurred to Fiona. But surely he would give her a chance? Surely he would let her explain? "I'm his mother."
"And you're the one who cut his destiny away and put him on the dark path he's on."
"I don't care if he's the Dark One. I'm the Black Fairy. I'm hardly any stranger to darkness. I revel in it."
"Then why should I doom the world by letting the two of you team up?"
Fiona made herself laugh lightly. "The idea is certainly attractive, but that's not why I'm here."
"Isn't it?" Tiger Lily peered at her carefully, and Fiona didn't like being studied so closely. "I know you love him, Fiona, but people can grow too dark to love. Do you really want that for your son?"
"No! I never have." Anger surged within her, the urge to just try to take the required power from Tiger Lily growing stronger and stronger, but Fiona shoved the feeling down. She couldn't afford to make a fight of this. She didn't just need a Savior's power, after all. She also needed someone to wield it and create a portal that she could come through. Tiger Lily could do that—but she had to be willing.
"Then I'll make a deal with you. I'll help you escape the Dark Realm so that you can reunite with your son…on one condition."
"Tell me." Fiona knew that she'd agree to almost anything, but she wasn't about to say the words out loud. She's going to ask me to give up my power, she realized with a sinking heart. Could she do that? She needed the power, and not only to protect her son. I can do good with it. I can help him. I need the power.
"I'm not going to ask you to give up your magic." Tiger Lily's voice was surprisingly gentle. "I want you to do something even harder."
Fiona's heart slammed to a stop in her chest. "What could be harder than that?"
"I want you to restore your son to his proper path."
"…What? That's not possible. I saw the shears work. There's no restoring a fate that has been severed, and even if there was, I am not going to battle my son to the death." Fiona wanted to shake Tiger Lily. What was she thinking, asking something like that?
"You're not listening." Tiger Lily got that teaching look on her face that said Fiona was being a fool. "I said I want you to restore him to his proper path. To the path of the light, not the dark."
Taken aback, Fiona hesitated before answering. She knew darkness well, but centuries had passed since she'd read up on the Dark One, and what being one meant. She didn't know enough to know if that path could be changed—yet she was still inclined to agree. She had taken on darkness so her son would never have to, and the idea of bringing him back to the light, of helping him after having left him alone for so long, was incredibly alluring.
"Did you know?" She had to ask.
"No." Tiger Lily shook her head. "I didn't. I knew about Pan, but not about your son. He doesn't exactly admit to having a child—he's too fond of being a teenager."
"Then why?" Her eyes narrowed. "Why you ask for this if not to make amends for your own failure?"
"This has nothing to do with me. Don't be so narrow minded." Tiger Lily shook her head. "But there was more than one great evil born that winter…and others since then."
"You mean Pan. You expect my son to stop Pan." Fiona felt cold. If not the Savior, could her boy survive being a hero? Surely with her help, he could.
"It's not just Pan. Merlin made a prophecy about the Dark One long ago. He prophesied that there would be a Dark One who would turn the darkness back to light, that a Dark One would finally defeat the curse that power became." Tiger Lily reached out to put a hand on Fiona's arm, and Fiona couldn't bring herself to pull away. "Your son was meant to be a hero. Surely there is no one better to turn the darkness to light."
Fiona bit her lip, her mind racing. "If I promise to do so, you'll help me get to him?"
"I will."
Anything could happen, of course. She could make this promise and fail in her attempts, or her son could reject her utterly and Fiona might never get the chance to even try. Or she could actually help her son, could bring him back to the light. He was not meant to be dark, a quiet voice inside Fiona whispered. And I was not meant to abandon him. Could they find their true destinies together, or was the very idea only a flight of fancy?
"It might not work." The words came out before Fiona could stop them, and she hated herself for the honesty. She'd built the last two centuries of her life on lies and cruelty; why was she telling the truth now?
"The woman I knew before would not let that stop her." Tiger Lily met her eyes squarely. "Fiona would have done anything to save her son. Will the Black Fairy do the same?"
"No." She swallowed hard; all this honesty was going to kill her. The admission came out in a whisper: "She wanted power too badly."
Fiona had spent the first decade imagining that moment over and over again, wondering why she had chosen power over her son. I need my power. She still needed power, but at the cost of her son? She hadn't known Blue would exile her, but in her heart, Fiona had known there would be a price. She had just never imagined that cutting away her son's destiny would also cut him out of her life. I promised to spend every moment of my life trying to get back to him. If this is what it takes, if I must finally save my son instead of betray him…then that is what I will do.
"And now?" Tiger Lily looked curious rather than worried, and part of Fiona was offended that her old friend could read her so well.
"I'll do it. I'll do whatever it takes to get to my son."
The flash of white light was blinding, and it made Baelfire stumble back several steps. He'd come to see Tiger Lily again, mostly because he didn't have anything better to do. It wasn't like Neverland had a lot of ways to entertain yourself, at least if you didn't want to play Pan's games, and Ed was long gone. He was starting to think that Pan had done that, had taken away the one boy who Bae had started to actually like, just because the psychopathic ruler of this island thought tormenting him was fun. Why he went after Bae in particular Bae would never know; but Pan seemed to think that he was extra 'fun'. There were times that Bae wished he'd stayed on Captain Hook's ship, but he knew that wouldn't actually have been any better. Hook just wanted him to use against his father, to get the revenge he babbled on about all the time. This place makes Papa at his worst look halfway decent, Bae thought, blinking rapidly to clear his vision. Not that that helped. His father had no idea where he was, and even if part of Bae wished his papa would show up and save him, he knew it wasn't going to happen.
Laughter drifted down the hill, delighted giggling that made Bae stop cold. People didn't laugh like that on Neverland, at least not after the first few days. And that laughter certainly wasn't Tiger Lily's voice, which left Bae wondering when another woman had shown up on this island. Unless…?
"You did it! I'm free. I'm actually free." Yeah, that was the Black Fairy's voice, and after she'd been all laughing and threatening before, Bae wanted nothing to do with her. "I can't believe you actually did it."
"Yeah, and now you have to leave Neverland. That's not as easy as you might think."
"I'm hardly going to let something like that stop me, Tiger Lily." The Black Fairy snorted out a laugh. "Do you really think I would have come here without a way out?"
"Don't get all high and mighty with me, Fiona. I seem to remember a few half-baked ideas coming out of your head back when this all began."
Bae barely managed to get his hand up in time to muffle his snicker, but the Black Fairy and the ex-fairy didn't seem to notice him. The Black Fairy merely laughed again.
"Dark fairy dust does have its uses, and crossing realms is one of them. How do you think I got here in the first place?" There was a hesitation, and then the Black Fairy continued almost…nervously. "I can bring you back to the Enchanted Forest, if you want. Or anywhere else."
"You'd—you'd do that for me?"
"You were my friend." Bae glanced up at the two silhouettes just in time to see the Black Fairy draw herself up proudly. "And I don't like owing people."
Tiger Lily snorted. "You don't owe me. We made a deal, one you're going to keep."
"Of course I am. Don't look at me like that."
"Then that's all I ask." Tiger Lily was giving the Black Fairy a look that Bae had seen from her before, but usually it was Tiger Lily giving it to foolish boys who were trying to prove how important and tough they were. "So, go. Go to your son, and do what you promised."
"Are you sure you want to stay here?"
"I can do good here. Not much, maybe, since I gave up my wings…but more than I can in the Enchanted Forest." Tiger Lily sounded sad, but much to Bae's surprise, the Black Fairy spoke passionately.
"If Blue thinks she can force you to stay in exile—"
"It's not her, Fiona. I'm staying here because I think I should. Now go, before Pan notices you again and things get messy."
The Black Fairy snorted. "I can deal with that obnoxious little prat."
"Well, I don't want to be here for the fallout, so go. Now. Shoo." Tiger Lily waved her away, and much to Bae's surprise, the Black Fairy suddenly shrank down into actual fairy size, and flew away.
He meant to wait a few minutes before showing up, to maybe hide for a bit so that Tiger Lily didn't realize he'd been spying on her, but the former fairy's voice floated down to him almost right away.
"You might as well come on up, Baelfire. Hiding in the shadows accomplishes nothing."
"Who says I want to accomplish anything?" he shot back before he could stop himself. But Bae did head up the hill. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. Not so long as Pan left him alone.
"Aside from hiding from Pan, you mean?" Tiger Lily's voice was dry, but she looked tired when Bae approached.
Bae shrugged. "Apparently, that's easier than hiding from the Black Fairy. Assuming you want to, anyway. You two seemed pretty cool just now."
"She's…an old friend, I guess." Tiger Lily sighed and sat down on a rock, inviting Bae to join her with a gesture. "Or she was, once. Maybe she will be again."
"I dunno. She seems like a nasty sort, if she can stand up to Pan." In Bae's experience, nice people lost out to Pan really easily. Only the rotten ones could go anywhere near toe-to-toe with him and survive.
"She is, but unlike Pan, she embraced power out of love. That makes a difference, or I hope it does." Another sigh, and then Tiger Lily waved her hand. "But it's out of my hands, now. What about you? I don't think you've ever told me your story."
"Not much to tell." And even less than he wanted to share. "I'm here like everyone else, and it sucks."
Tiger Lily cocked her head. "I heard that you came here to save a family you were staying with."
"Yeah." Bae figured there wasn't much harm in telling the story of his time with the Darlings, or at least a little of it. That didn't say he was the Dark One's son, which he really didn't need Pan knowing. Or anyone, for that matter.
"That's incredibly brave of you to do."
He just shrugged. "Maybe. Didn't work out too well for me, but I'm surviving."
"Sometimes that's what counts."
Cora had left him, but he would make her rue the day she had done so. In the last two months, Rumplestiltskin had sealed her fate. Cora wanted to be a princess? Fine. She could have her fifth son and her fancy dresses, have all the riches that King Xavier's kingdom could offer—but at a discount, of course, because Henry was only the fifth son, and Xavier's second least favorite at that. (His elder brother, Joseph, held that honor, but Joseph was only the fourth son, and far less comely and intelligent than Henry. But more stubborn. He would have survived power-hungry harpy far better, but Xavier didn't realize that yet). Rumplestiltskin didn't care about riches or who got which title; he was the Dark One and above such things.
But he would make sure that Cora never wore a crown. That he could do, because he wouldn't have her as queen. If she'd married him, if she'd kept her damn promises, he would have given her anything. Crowns, power, the entire world if she'd wanted—but no, she had to choose the immediacy of 'power' over love. So he would make sure that her dream of being queen was never realized.
He enchanted Henry's brothers against her, protected them. All four would live good, long and healthy lives, as would their heirs. Xavier would last, too; Rumplestiltskin didn't blame the man for his part in Cora's little charade. Xavier was simply being what he was: power hungry and shrewd. Xavier hadn't lied. Xavier hadn't led him on. Xavier hadn't claimed to love him, hadn't soothed centuries of loneliness only to make it worse in the end. So Xavier would life. That would be his punishment for Cora. Her ambitions would be thwarted. Xavier's kingdom would prosper and shine, but Cora would never sit on its throne. He'd made sure of that.
Revenge was the best medicine for a broken heart, after all, and he'd hit Cora where it hurt the most. Eventually, he'd have her daughter cast the Dark Curse, too, and wouldn't that be sweet? No matter what Cora did, the baby growing in her belly would be his monster. Oh, not his daughter—and that was probably for the best, given what a disaster he'd been as a father and how horrid a mother he'd realized Cora would be—but he'd make her his.
"Hello there!"
Rumplestiltskin sat up straight, almost falling off of his stool as he did. The voice came from the great hall, echoing into his tower and making him scowl. Oh, joy. He had another visitor. Another young woman, even, from the sound of her voice. Someone else to annoy him.
So he teleported into the great hall in a swirl of purple smoke, hoping to scare the life out of the stupid young thing. "I'm not teaching," he snapped. "I don't know why you people seem to think it's open season on the Dark One, but I am not going to teach you magic, no matter what you offer."
Somehow, word had gotten around that he'd taught Cora magic, and now every desperate young woman across nine kingdoms felt the need to come to him. He wanted to kill them all, but if he did that, no one would know he'd rejected the lot. Then they'd keep coming, so he sent them away in various stages of disrepair. Their virtues he left intact—he wasn't that sort of monster, and had never taken anything Cora had not offered freely, nay, hungrily—but he tore their dreams to pieces, scared the wits out of them, and left them with the irrevocable understanding that magic came with a price, and his was not for sale. No matter how they batted their eyes at him and simpered.
Fools. They would have done better to make a deal with him.
"I'm not here for magic lessons, dear." The newcomer turned to face him. She was older than the usual young tart, this one, beyond the idealistic flush of youth, and the mirth on the surface of brown eyes hid a depth of battle and pain. Her hair was a dark brown, falling carelessly around her face, but her bearing told him that she hardly some miller's daughter. Was she a noble, or something more? The way she wiggled indicated jumped up peasant, but if she'd climbed the rank ladder, she'd climbed high. He could always tell, particularly when she laughed so gaily. "Rather the opposite, in fact."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Rumplestiltskin demanded, pitching his voice higher to appear more off-putting, less human. But his scowl did nothing to frighten her. Idiot.
"I am here because—because I am your mother. And I was forced to be away from you for far, far too long."
A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed so far! I'm so glad you're enjoying this story. Next up is Chapter 4—"Sweep up the Years," in which Rumplestiltskin meets his mother, truths are shared (but not full truths), and an alliance is made.
