She'd been in the back the entire time. But while he'd been talking to the Charmings and Emma, he'd fallen back into old habits. He'd behaved as though he was alone and didn't have to have a care in the world for what he said. He'd forgotten she'd was there. And the moment he laid eyes on those two teacups, a reminder that he wasn't alone, his stomach turned. Had she-

No sooner had he looked over toward the back did he have his answer. The look on her face…he knew that she'd heard.

Fuck.

"Hey," he whispered, unable to make his voice louder for fear it might break or waver with nervousness.

"You lied to me," she accused.

"No, I-I kept my word," he explained, trying not to show doubt, to be proud of himself and not feel shame. It should have been easy. There was no reason not to feel proud, after all. He'd followed her orders, and he'd protected her. He'd done nothing wrong, despite the guilt that the look on her face stirred in him. "I will not kill her."

He knew that she would figure out what happened eventually; he'd just hoped that it would have been in a different way. He would have told her Regina died at the hands of the Wraith, but he probably wouldn't have told her that he'd been the one to summon it. It wasn't lying. It was selective truth-telling. A tool of the Dark One, and yet he could see that to her…

"No," she whispered, stepping forward and shaking her head slightly. "You toy with words like you do people. You're still a man who makes wrong choices."

He shook his head. This wasn't the wrong choice. Regina had had this coming to her for a long time. The only reason she'd survived this long was because he'd needed her to cast the Curse and then needed her to oppose Emma so she'd break it. This wasn't a wrong choice; it was justice, the right thing to do.

"I thought you'd changed," she choked.

He scoffed at the ridiculousness of such a presumption. What on earth had he done that could have led her to that conclusion? "What? In the hour you've known me?"

That was the wrong thing to say. He knew it the second the words left his mouth. He could practically see them fall on her and slap her in the face with how she reacted. He hadn't meant it like that. He hadn't meant to say…

But she was already moving quickly around him and toward the door. She was leaving.

"Belle, I…I'm sorry," he called out as she opened the door.

When he turned, he saw her glance back at him, and he tried to muster up a look of regret, but when he looked at her he saw her in those clothes, and he couldn't deny that he wasn't happy Regina would get what was coming to her.

"Belle, I'm sorry. I am," he lied.

But she'd always been able to see through him. Perhaps that was why she walked out the door, closed it behind her, and took off down the street.

The sound of the door slamming echoed through the shop. It reverberated off his soul as the Dark One's laughed distantly. He stood frozen for a moment, unable to summon any energy to move as he realized what had just happened.

She was gone. Gone again. Out of his life before she could ever really be in it. And he was…stunned. His breath hitched as his heart felt like it was breaking just as it had the first time he'd watched her go, just as it had when Regina told him that she was dead! Oh, that was a stupid, foolish thing for him to believe now, a terrible thing to have just accepted! He should have known! He should have known all this time that she was alive! He could have saved her before but now…

He'd only just gotten her back! Was it truly over before it could ever have begun?

No.

No, he couldn't allow it.

It was like history was repeating itself. He'd said something he shouldn't have, and she'd stormed out, angry and upset, into a world that was dangerous and unfamiliar to her. It was like history was repeating itself, but it gave him an advantage. He'd spent the last few decades thinking about what he might do differently if he had a second chance with her, how he might act, what he might say. So, this time, when it happened again, he knew what to do.

He had to go after her. He had to tell her he was wrong; he had to tell her he was sorry. He had to protect her. With the Wraith out there, in a world she hardly knew, she needed to be protected. If she didn't want to be with him or speak with him or see him, that was all fine, but he had to at least keep her safe from the Wraith.

Finally, he moved. He stormed outside, into the wind and havoc that the Wraith had left behind, but he didn't see any of it. Only empty streets.

"Belle!" he called out into the night. "Belle!"

He screamed her name at the top of his lungs, but the wind was too strong, and the sound only bounced right back to him. He looked in the direction she'd taken off in, but he couldn't see her. She was already gone. Like a shadow in the night, leaving him wondering if she'd ever been real to begin with.

He tightened his grip on his cane. He wasn't going to fall for that kind of thinking again. She was real. She was alive! He'd kissed her, he'd held her, and he'd made her a promise. He had to find her!

But when he summoned his magic to take himself to her, he found he couldn't do it. He didn't understand. He'd managed it earlier in the day; it had only taken a thought. This should only have taken a thought!

But magic here was different. He was still growing strong, and he'd used quite a bit of it today. He'd used it to give her clothes, to find Regina, to cast a protective charm over his shop...and cast one over Belle as well, one that made her difficult for people with magic to track her. Fuck! He'd removed the spell on the shop, taken that magic back into him when he'd returned, but he'd kept the spell on Belle. But that was hours ago! It was his magic he'd used to hide her. His magic should have obeyed his command to locate her by now. Only...he wasn't at full strength. He'd used more of his magic, nearly all he'd had to summon the Wraith. He'd been working on building it up again, recalled the magic he'd placed over the shop to help him, but then he'd used it to clean the teapot and…the crash.

He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as he realized. He'd used the little he had on instinct to keep himself standing tall, proud. Such a stupid thing to waste magic on. It was foolish since it was the little he had left. And now...he was crippled in more ways than one.

No! He wouldn't give up on finding her that easily. He couldn't! It was fine. The Magic of the Dark One wasn't the only magic he had. No, he'd planned for moments like this, for a time when he'd need it! Inside the shop, in a forgotten corner of the backroom, was a forgotten corner where a little black bag sat. A doctor's bag with different medicines and herbs, or at least that was always what Mr. Gold thought it was. In reality, it was a bag that he'd packed himself in the Enchanted Forest, stuffed to the brim with common spells and potions that he needed. Potions like…

The Locator Potion!

During the Curse, he'd kept this bag hidden and only used it once, the first time David and Snow had woken up. He'd used a Locator Potion then too. It had been magic small enough that the Curse wouldn't have recognized it or absorbed it. It had worked then, which meant that even with magic in this state, it would work now too.

He plucked the potion free and turned to grab something of Belle's to attach it to.

But there was nothing.

He nearly cried as he looked around the shop and realized. The hospital clothes she'd worn were now in a heap on the floor, left behind as evidence that she hadn't wanted them and didn't consider them hers. That was all she'd had when she come in. It was all she owned in all of this world, the very clothes on her back that he had given her. He had nothing to track her with, except…

Her cup!

He quickly hobbled out into the front room and retrieved the cup from the locked glass case, ignoring the wind and the screeching coming from the outside. He brought the cup into the backroom set it on her table to drench it in magic. And then he stopped.

His hand was suspended in mid-air, the liquid in his vial waiting to be tipped over. But he couldn't do it. He couldn't do it because he'd only just realized he didn't know what he was doing. Well, he did know. He just didn't really understand. What was his plan? Use the teacup to find her, and then what? The image of her walking out the door again flashed in his mind. She didn't want to see him; she'd made that very clear. He wanted only to protect her, but…how? If she didn't want to see him, how was he going to protect her? His magic was weak. If he couldn't use it to find her, then he couldn't use it to bring her back here or guard her. And even if he could…was he going to take her prisoner again? Hold her against her will? He knew her, and he knew that if he did that, then he'd truly lose her because she'd hate him for it. Last time she'd gone willingly, if he took her unwillingly…

He put the potion back down on the table and stared at her chipped cup, the only bit of her he'd had to hold onto for centuries!

Maybe it was for the best she'd gone. Maybe she was better without him. What was she going to do with him? Settle down? Get married? Start a family? See the world?

He had a family. He needed to find Baelfire. And the Seer had said there was a boy who would lead him to Baelfire who would be his undoing. What was he going to do? Keep her around just to have her until he found Baelfire and then leave her? He was the Dark One, what life could he give to her? He couldn't grow old with her. The thought of "dating" made him sneer. What did he have that she wanted? What could he ever give her that some other man couldn't?

Well, he knew one thing he could give her. Right now, there was one thing in the world that he could do that no other man could, that no other beast could. He could make this better. He could fix it, at least a little.

After he thought she'd died, he'd always swore that he would do anything to hold on to her for longer if he could have her back. And yet today, on that hillside, he'd been tested again and failed immediately. She'd wanted to be with him. He hadn't listened. And now…

He truly did believe the Wraith was Regina's just reward for what she'd done to Belle, but he wanted to be the person that she wanted him to be. Even if she wasn't here in the room, he wanted to undo what he'd done, even if it didn't matter anymore.

He knew the beast hadn't killed Regina yet because of the chaos outside. It would only stop if it killed Regina and had its fill or if the Charmings did figure out a way to capture or contain it. That meant there was still time. So, he retrieved his dagger from the safe, not with magic, but the old-fashioned way. He felt power hum through him when he touched it as if it had been charging itself all this time, just waiting for this opportunity. That was good because he wouldn't have anything to work with without that little boost of power.

"I who summoned thee," he stated clearly, drawing forth every last bit of magic he had in his body, no matter how dizzy or tired it made him feel. He'd tied himself to the creature by binding his magic to the mark on Regina's hand. Though she was far away, he could undo it, even from here. "I who summoned thee, I relinquish my desire for the soul of Regina Mills," he cried out, keeping the dagger held aloft. He held tight to his cane as he swayed, feeling the effects of magic that wasn't fully recovered work through his body. It was working. He could feel it. The hiss in his head was like a question, one final "are you sure?" He wasn't. In fact, he was almost certain he would come to regret it. But still, he held the dagger overhead.

"I relinquish it."

And that would do it. He felt the magic unbind; her to him, him to the creature, the creature to Regina. No, it wouldn't stop the creature. It was free now, out in the world. This allowed the creature to mark another and go after it or allow the Charmings to capture it. But it would stop the being from going after Regina in retribution. For Belle. It was what he'd owed her from the beginning.

So this scene right here is why I was super glad for the "magic works differently here" statement and the main reason I've been A) draining his magic away and B) set the spell over Belle to make her difficult to track. Simply put, without those two things, I could not see this scene happening the way it happened. It's Rumple. Since when has he ever said, "oh, look, Belle's going off to put herself in danger, I'll just sit here and be cool about it"? I couldn't see him not racing after her, not trying to find her, if only to protect her in some way. It's what he does. So, I used the excuse of magic being different and put up roadblocks, some magical, some not. Without his magic, he can't fix his ankle; she's faster than him, she can get away quickly, and that's exactly what she does by the time he gets his shit together and follows her outside. He protected her from others tracking him, he doesn't have anything that belongs to her, and he can't just magic himself to her side. In the end, I liked the idea that the only thing he really could do was take the danger away by using the magic he had to relinquish his bond to the Wraith and hope that the others could clean up his mess. As to how he knew the beast was gone and Regina lived...that's for the next chapter!

Thank you so much, Grace5231973, MerlockVonBaron, and Alarda, for your reviews on the last chapter. Sorry, it all sort of divided out strange. These short little chapters tend to do that. So, Belle is gone for now, but worry not readers, up next she's coming back. Isn't that so much nicer than having to wait for another fiction to get a good Rumbelle moment? Peace and Happy Reading!