Chapter 16—"Then Somebody Bends"


Tiger Lily didn't spy on the Lost Boys often, but keeping an eye on Pan was her self-imposed duty. She had failed to guide Malcolm onto a good path, even once she'd given up her wings and tried to live a normal life as a human. Malcolm had ignored her then, just as Pan ignored her now. In those early years, Malcolm had been determined to ignore his son, but as if that wasn't despicable enough now he was determined to pit the boys on Neverland against one another. Forcing alliances to shift and change, making friends into enemies, was what Pan loved most. Malcolm had liked games when he was younger, but having become a youth, meant that he reveled in them.

She was certain that whatever he was doing with Baelfire now was just another of his games; Bae was the most rebellious and the clever of the Lost Boys, the only one who emphatically hated Neverland. Unlike the others, Baelfire hadn't ever wanted to be here, and it showed in how he refused to play along with any of Pan's games. That made Tiger Lily respect him even more, and the fact that she hadn't seen him in weeks was at least part of the reason she was here. Tiger Lily missed their conversations, missed Bae's visits, and she was worried for the boy. I could not protect Fiona's son, but perhaps I can protect this boy, she told herself, peeking through a thick clump of trees.

The crackling of the fire could not obscure the laughter coming from the group of boys. Much to Tiger Lily's surprise, Baelfire was laughing, too.

"Did you see his face?" She had never seen Bae so animated, and yet there he was, sitting next to Pan and grinning. "He was so surprised!"

"I think this new game is marvelous!" Pan threw back his head and hooted merrily. "Who else would have thought of creating pirates out of Lost Boys?" He raised his mug. "To Baelfire, the smartest of the band!"

"To Baelfire!" the others chorused, and Bae seemed to turn a little red with pleased embarrassment.

Bae waved his hands for them to be quiet. "We have to build boats, next. We can race them, and see if we can sink one another!"

"What about the mermaids?" Tootles frowned worriedly.

Pan snorted. "Only a coward is afraid of mermaids."

"But they could—"

"Eat some cake!" Baelfire interrupted far too quickly.

The boys eagerly did so, scarfing down the cake created by Neverland's magic, but Tiger Lily was left wondering what in the world Baelfire's plan was. Did he hope a mermaid could kill Pan when nothing else could? The idea wasn't a terrible one, even if Tiger Lily knew that it wouldn't work. Pan was too tied to Neverland for a simple trick like that to work, too much a part of the island's magic. It was a shame, because Tiger Lily knew that Pan's death would leave all of these boys in a better place…but getting rid of him was just not that easy.


Now that the issue of the Blue Fairy's inconvenient truths was dealt with, life in the Dark Castle had returned to normal. Or at least to what passed for normal in this strange little world of theirs, anyway. Rumplestiltskin returned to doing whatever he usually did—which included teaching the Wicked Queen magic, a fact that absolutely befuddled Belle—and Belle returned to doing research with Fiona. Part of her still felt guilty that she hadn't told Rumplestiltskin about the secret project she shared with his mother, but she was beginning to see how the darkness affected his mind. He had said that he wouldn't change being the Dark One if he could, but how could someone who was destined to be the Savior say that?

Fiona did say that being the Dark One corrupts his mind, she remembered, reading yet another book on atrocities attributed to Nimue. Scanning the long list made her frown. "Can one person really be responsible for all of these horrible things?"

"Probably." Fiona simply shrugged like it meant nothing, and Belle couldn't help shooting her a sharp look. "What? Darkness begets darkness. The more you taste, the more you want it. Nimue stole light magic with murder in her heart, and there's no bigger invitation for the darkness to eat you whole than that."

"I'm not sure I understand. Nimue's magic was light magic?"

"It was supposed to be, anyway." Fiona snorted. "Apparently, she was a bit high on the idea of murder when she acquired it, which turned her towards darkness. That strikes me as rubbish, of course, but I got that from as close to the source as you can manage these days." A laugh. "That self-important do-gooder should probably be turned back from a ferret by now, but I'm not about to go asking for more details. He wouldn't share them, anyway."

Belle blinked in confusion. "What?"

"Never you mind. It's not important, and he got better." Fiona sighed, gesturing at the book Belle was reading. "Suffice it to say that Nimue somehow managed to turn the most powerful magic in creation into a curse—how, I am not yet certain. Perhaps it's Merlin's doing."

"Merlin?" Eyes wide, Belle sat up straight. "I thought he was just a legend."

"No, he's a tree."

"What? You're joking, right?"

"Hardly. Apparently, Nimue turned him into a tree before she died and passed that dismal curse along. No one but a Savior can free him, and unfortunately, the only Savior-type we have available is—"

"Rumplestiltskin could free Merlin?" Belle didn't need to ask if Merlin could help them; every story ever said that Merlin was the most powerful sorcerer in the history of humankind.

Fiona shook her head, looking sad. "No. It takes a Savior's magic, and that my boy no longer has. Merlin's lost to us, and more's the pity. He might have been useful. His apprentice is just a horse's ass."

Belle couldn't help gaping. Fiona was always entertaining to listen to, and Belle almost always learned something from her. Unfortunately, none of that knowledge got them any closer to how to free Rumplestiltskin, but it did tell Belle that the source of that curse wasn't some primordial darkness. She'd been half certain that it was, and had despaired of finding a way to save someone who didn't want to be saved. Can he be saved despite himself? Belle didn't know, but the idea felt a little wrong. Surely there was some way to convince Rumplestiltskin.

"But that hardly matters," Fiona continued briskly when Belle couldn't quite figure out what to say. "Merlin's not an option, and the feckless ferret can't or won't help. That leaves us to figure out how to save my boy, and I fear it won't be as easy as unraveling that mess Nimue created."

"How does someone turning light magic into dark become a curse?" Belle had read a lot on magic lately, and that just didn't make sense.

"I can only wish I knew the answer to that." Fiona heaved an over-the-top sigh that Belle couldn't quite disagree with. "Now, I'm going to tell you something, but this time you have to promise not to blab it all to my all-too-paranoid child. Agreed?"

Belle frowned. "Will it hurt him not to know?"

"Of course not! What kind of mother do you take me for?"

One who isn't always free of the same darkness you hate in your son, Belle didn't say. Instead, she gave a small shrug of her own. "I just worry for him. He's so…lost, sometimes."

"I know." Fiona softened immediately. "But he'll not like me sharing this, so you must keep it a secret. But the former Dark Ones are all a part of his curse. I don't know if it's from the way Merlin tethered—oh, nevermind that—or what, but the previous Dark Ones are all inside him, in a sense. He can hear their voices, and sometimes I wonder how they don't drive him insane."

"How…how many of them are there?" Belle felt her chest growing tight with pity for Rumplestiltskin; no wonder why he was so mercurial, so off-balance! Poor Rumple. How can you fight that and remain yourself?

Was that why he'd been so ferociously against the very idea of her helping him? Had the other Dark Ones objected?

"I'm not certain. Records are fragmented, but I'd think twenty or so. Perhaps two dozen of them." Fiona scowled. "They influence him, even when he fights them. And I'm not always sure he can tell their whispers from his own thoughts, particularly when things get bad."

"I won't tell him you told me." Belle was able to say that with a clear conscience. If there were voices inside Rumplestiltskin trying to hurt him, it was safer if he didn't know that others would help him fight them. "I promise."

Fiona smiled. "Good girl. I knew I could count on you."


"You've encouraged this madness." Blue's glare was sharp enough to pierce steel, but Tink didn't back down.

"I've supported a friend." She crossed her arms and jutted her chin out defiantly. "Nova deserves happiness, and so does Dreamy—Grumpy, I mean. Keeping them apart is wrong."

"It's not the fairy way. You know that."

"I don't care."

Blue's scowl only deepened. "This is all the Black Fairy's doing. She corrupted and encouraged you, and—"

"Stop blaming this on her as if I can't think for myself!" Tink cut her off in a snarl. "I am not an idiot, and I'd decided to help Nova before I ever met the Black Fairy. And from where I'm standing, Fiona seems a hell of a lot more honest than you do!"

"How dare you?!"

"You're not even denying it." Tink couldn't stop the very un-fairylike snort. "You're horribly unfair to the younger fairies, and you could have given Nova hope instead of forcing Dreamy to break her heart. Instead, you took the coward's way out and bullied a dwarf."

She had never seen Blue go so red; she thought the senior fairy was going to spit fire at her. "Of course I am not denying anything. I refuse to dignify such ridiculous accusations with a response."

"That sounds to me like you can't think of an answer."

"Be careful, Green." A steely glare. "You're treading on perilous ground."

"My name is Tinker Bell," she snapped. "Like the fairies of old, I want to be more than just some generic color."

"If you keep on like this, you won't be a fairy any longer. I will not tolerate this much insubordination. You have already broken into the Sacred Vault of the Fairies, consorted with our greatest enemy, and encouraged another fairy to defy our most hallowed rules. I would be well within my rights to throw you out of the order here and now."

"So do it." The words were out before Tink really thought about them, but she didn't regret her impulsive outburst for a moment. "Go on. Kick me out because I dared to disagree with you."

After all, she was pretty damned sure she could make a life for herself better than any crap position Blue would give her. Blue didn't like Tink, but that was fine by her—she didn't like Blue, either.

Blue shook her head sadly, but the angry gleam in her eye was obvious. How long had it been since someone had challenged her? "Don't be ridiculous, child. I would never cast you out for something so small as a disagreement. It's your blatant inability to follow the basic rules by which we live that upsets me."

"Fine, then." Tink could read the writing on the wall, even if Blue was going to give her sad looks and blame it all on her. "I quit."

"You can't quit being a fairy." Finally, Blue looked taken aback, and Tink fought to keep her expression neutral. She was too angry to grin, though baring her teeth at Blue would have felt nice.

"I just did."

However, she wasn't stupid enough to give Blue the chance to take her wand, so Tink did the only sensible thing she could do: she took off and flew away, heading out of the fairies' homelands and into the bigger world of the Enchanted Forest. She had no idea what she was going to do or where she was going to go, but any life had to be better than this one.


"Are you doing all right?" Belle's quiet question made Rumplestiltskin jump; he'd been spinning and minding his own business until his maid had approached, and now he wasn't sure what to do with her.

Not that he ever knew what to make of this girl who called herself his friend. Don't be silly, my boy, his mother had said just a few days earlier. She likes you, too. That memory sent a strange shiver down his spine as Rumplestiltskin stopped the wheel with one hand.

She can't love you. Look at what kind of monster you are, Zoso interjected the moment the wheel stopped, leaving Rumplestiltskin to push him aside with an effort. The other Dark Ones were growing louder and louder around Belle; they didn't like her and they didn't want him liking her. Rumplestiltskin maintained enough ownership of his soul to know their dislike of Belle was probably a good sign, but it didn't mean they weren't right. He was a monster, and beautiful, good-hearted women like Belle did not fall for monsters. They just didn't.

"Rumple?" Her hand landed on his shoulder, so soft and gentle. "Are you all right?"

"Of—of course I am." Zoso laughed, and Rumplestiltskin shook his head, trying to clear his mind. "Er, why wouldn't I be?"

"I know you told Blue that you didn't care about your mother cutting away your destiny, but I wanted to make sure you were actually all right."

This again? He waved a hand as casually as he could. "There's nothing to worry about. My mother did what she had to, and I am what I am." Figuring he could test her, Rumplestiltskin twisted to look directly into Belle's compassionate blue eyes. "Why, don't you like me this way?"

Of course she didn't. But what would she say?

"You I like." Belle's smile was a little sad. "I'm still deciding how I feel about the darkness inside you."

"Why, they're one and the same." He laughed, but the high-pitched sound felt weird in his throat. "No differentiating the two."

"I don't think that's true. I think there's a good man inside you, one who is as human as the rest of us." Belle squeezed his shoulder before stepping away to lower herself into the chair across from his wheel. "And that means you can be hurt, so I wanted to check on you."

Flabbergasted, Rumplestiltskin could only stare. He didn't know what to say to that, didn't know how to deal with the fact that Belle worried for him. Belle cared for him. She wasn't lying; he could read the honesty in her eyes far too clearly. She'd meant it when she said that she wanted to be the friend of a monster who was usually friendless. But that doesn't mean she can love me, Rumplestiltskin's own doubts reared up, unbidden. She's too smart and too good for that.

"I, um…I am all right." The words came slowly, lacking his usual imp's voice. They felt more like him, like the man he used to be, and that left Rumplestiltskin reeling.

"Are you still mad at your mother?"

"A little." He wasn't sure why he'd admitted that to her; Rumplestiltskin wasn't furious with Fiona or anything like that, but the fact that she'd avoided telling him the truth for so long still stung. Had Blue not shown up with her ultimatum, would Fiona ever have told him?

"Anger's a good thing, you know. In small doses, anyway." She chuckled softly. "Maybe not at the throwing-teacups level, though."

Rumplestiltskin felt his face heat. "I…I oughtn't have done that." An apology was on the tip of his tongue, but an almost physical gob of darkness reached out and weighed it down, leaving him floundering.

Belle didn't seem to notice. "No, you shouldn't have. But I forgive you, anyway."

"Um, er, thank you." He swallowed hard. That was as good as an apology, right? Even if it wasn't, it made Belle smile, and that was enough to make Rumplestiltskin feel surprisingly good inside.


She waited until Belle skipped up the stairs to the library to wander into the Great Hall; not that Fiona disliked the girl—a fact she sometimes lamented—but she did enjoy speaking to her son alone. She'd only caught the tail end of the conversation between Rumplestiltskin and the girl, but Fiona had seen enough to notice the starry-eyed way the two fools were looking at one another. Leave it to my son to be completely oblivious, even though I told him that Belle has feelings for him, too. How Rumplestiltskin had successfully romanced Cora was beyond Fiona, but she suspected that Cora must have taken the lead on that front.

"I told you so," she said by way of greeting, sweeping into the same chair Belle had vacated. "The maid—should I even call her that now that you don't even pretend to want her cleaning?—has feelings for you."

"You—erm—uh—don't be ridiculous!" Rumplestiltskin's squeaking and sputtering was rather adorable, but Fiona wasn't about to let him off lightly.

"My dear boy, Belle clearly appreciates the leather pants you wear at least as much as she appreciates your winning personality." He turned bright red, and Fiona laughed. "Though she's enough of a treasure that she might actually like your personality more."

"M—Mother!"

Fiona grinned, but she continued doggedly, needing her blockheaded son to see the light. "Oh, admit you like her, Rumple. Unless you give libraries to all of your maids, and also get in snowball fights with them?"

She'd spoken to Belle earlier about ways to unravel the Dark One's curse, but that had mostly been a ruse. All of their research had proven to Fiona that there was no magical (or non-magical) way to undo that curse; it had to be broken. And there was only one type of magic powerful enough to break a curse that was at least five hundred years old, which meant that she needed Rumplestiltskin in a properly loving frame of mind towards Belle. She also needed him to want to let it go, but Fiona suspected that love—True Love!—would help move things in that direction, assuming she could manipulate events to her advantage.

"The girl's well-read. It's nice to have intelligent conversation from time to time." He glared at her and completely sidestepped the second point Fiona had made, but that only told her that she was winning.

She snorted. "Yes, I imagine that teaching Zelena does leave you with a dearth of that."

Rumplestiltskin rolled his eyes, but then he turned to her with a suspicious snarl. "Why are you encouraging this? You've never been exactly welcoming of anyone before Belle."

"My dear boy, you're the one who made the deal for her." Fiona blinked as innocently as she could. It wouldn't do to get his back up, after all; then all of her plans might fall apart! "Are you having second thoughts this late in the game?"

"Mother! That's not what I'm speaking of. I'm—I'm—"

She cut his irate frothing off with a hand on his arm. "Peace, Rumple. You don't have to admit it if you don't want to."

"You're a fool if you think I care for her! I'm the Dark One, and I don't care."

"Do you not care for me, then?" Fiona met his eyes squarely, and watched Rumplestiltskin flinch. "I know how big your heart is, and I love you for it." So will she.

The eyes that met hers were so lost and broken that Fiona leaned in to kiss his forehead gently. Only then did he whisper: "Do you think she can, Mother?"

This was the second time he'd asked almost that exact same question, and the doubt in Rumplestiltskin's voice made Fiona want to resurrect Milah and Cora so that she could kill both all over again. Or go to Neverland and incinerate the teenaged brat Malcolm has become. She had been the first to abandon Rumplestiltskin, and Fiona knew that she'd played a large role in the hurt man he had grown up to be. But at least she was trying to make up for that, trying to love him as best as she was able. None of the others had ever bothered.

"I do," she answered honestly. "Belle isn't Cora, my darling. She doesn't want your power—she wants you."

Rumplestiltskin shot her another startled look before retreating to his wheel, and that look told Fiona all she needed to know. Rumplestiltskin had fallen hard for this noblewoman-turned-maid, and that meant there was a genuine chance of saving him.


"Tell me again how we're supposed to get by the guards?" Regina clutched her sword nervously to keep it from slipping out of her sweaty palm; she wasn't the best swordswoman in the world, but she was better than Robin, and he was the best archer in the Enchanted Forest.

Robin turned to her with a laugh that did not make butterflies do laps in her stomach. "You mean you don't want to depend on my incredible thieving skills?"

"No offense, but when sneaking into my wicked sister's vault of hearts, I prefer to have a bit more power on our side than that."

"Relax." Snow's smile was too easy, and Regina wanted to throttle her. Snow was on the run from Zelena, for crying out loud, yet here she was, insisting that they break into the castle to steal the Huntsman's heart. "I've got it covered."

Regina rolled her eyes. "You've been saying that for days, but some detail would be nice now that we're about to step through the gates of hell."

"I know these guards." Snow gave them an earnest look, and if Regina hadn't liked her longtime friend so much, she would have strangled her. "Or most of them, anyway. They should let us by."

"And if they don't?" she couldn't help snapping. "Because, unless it's my imagination, you also know the guards who have been chasing you around three kingdoms for the last year. That hasn't helped you much."

"The Huntsman saved me! I owe him."

"Yeah, and that helped him a lot. Now Zelena has his heart and she's using him as her favorite pleasure slave. I'm sure he feels like that's one hell of a promotion."

"I hate to disappoint you, Princess, but I'm on Regina's side, here," Robin spoke up before Snow could throw Regina more than a wounded look. "It would be nice to know what the backup plan is. I'd usually go for bribery, but since you don't seem to be hauling a gold mine around in your pocket, I think we might be out of luck on that front."

Snow snorted. "I'm not that stupid, you know. I have some dark fairy dust. If any of the guards won't help us, we can turn them into bugs. I'm sure Zelena can turn them back later."

She won't, but now isn't the time to trouble Snow's conscience. Once, Regina would have been just as worried for those guards' fate as Snow, but her time as an outlaw had changed her. She'd been hunted by her own sister, all for the crime of having been the daughter their mother decided to keep. The fact that Cora had died when Regina was just a baby didn't seem to matter to Zelena; the moment Snow had run to Regina for help—which Regina had provided, given their longtime friendship—Zelena had declared Regina an outlaw. I'm just glad that Daddy is safe, she told herself for the thousandth time. Zelena had killed Daniel, but she hadn't managed to get Prince Henry.

"How did you get ahold of dark fairy dust?" Robin's incredulous question jerked Regina back to reality, and they both turned to look at Snow.

Snow swallowed noisily. "I, um, made a deal with the Black Fairy."

"You what?" Regina wanted to shake sense into the girl. "Have you lost what little remains of your mind? Magic like that is dangerous, and the Black Fairy probably wanted—"

"She wanted me to use it against Zelena." Snow shrugged. "It was strange. I was going to make a deal with Rumplestiltskin, but she showed up and offered me the dust, so long as I 'used it to make Zelena miserable'. I thought this would work."

"Are you sure she didn't ask for something else? Something like your firstborn child?" Regina didn't know a lot about magic—she hated it, after what it had done to her mother—but she knew that dark magic users weren't to be trusted.

"Positive."

Regina sighed. Contrary to what she'd said, Snow wasn't an idiot, and Regina did trust her not to make a stupid deal. She'd dealt with the Dark One without losing her soul—or her firstborn—before, after all. Besides, they were already practically at the outer entrance to the castle, which meant they might as well break in and see what happened. It's not like any of us have much to lose. I've already lost Daniel, Robin lost Marian, and Snow's prince is being forced into another marriage by his father.

"Fine." She heaved a sigh, and adjusted her grip on the sword. "Let's go rescue this Huntsman's heart."

Much to Regina's surprise, an hour later, they escaped with the Huntsman's heart. They'd have to find a way to let him know they had the heart instead of Zelena, of course, but it was a start.

And even the smallest victory could taste very sweet.


A/N: We're back to the Tues/Friday updating schedule!

Next up is Chapter 17—"Beauty is Found Within," in which Fiona plots against Zelena, Graham has choices to make, Tink goes to an unexpected place for help, and Rumplestiltskin grows suspicious about his mother and Belle's plans.