Darkness is a Funny Thing… It Creeps Up in You
Chapter Seventeen
Inside Mr. Gold's pawnshop…
In the back room, Belle was busy carefully looking over some papers she had found among her husband's things. Papers she found earlier that morning when she had also been searching for another artifact that had once belonged to a man who had recently become nothing more than a friend to her since she had banished the man she still loved from Storybrooke. An arrowhead with nothing more than sentimental value belonging to Will Scarlet, until Rumplestiltskin had stolen it from the thief a few years before Regina's curse. Thankfully, she had found it as well, and was able to give the arrowhead back to him.
Upon the papers she was pouring over, the beauty discovered lists of people from whom many valuables and treasures were stolen by Jiminy Cricket's parents many years ago. A few nights ago, Archie had come to Belle asking for her help to find the lists he had long ago reluctantly delivered to the Dark One along with their treasures in exchange for gold on his parents' behest, with the hope of being able to return the stolen items to their rightful owners if he could now that Rumplestiltskin was no longer in the way of him taking back what didn't really belong to him. The owners he couldn't remember most of without the lists.
Belle was happy she was able to find what her dear friend hoped she could, and she stood up to leave the pawnshop so she could bring the papers to the doctor, until the bell over the shop's front door chimed, letting her know someone had come to see her. Unfortunately, the moment Belle walked out into the main room, she immediately grew tense upon seeing the Queens of Darkness standing before her, along with Maleficent whom Belle knew to be dead like everyone else.
Cruella sneered at her as she spoke tauntingly saying, "Hello, darling. It's nice to see you again after all these years. How long has it been?"
The beauty glared back at her as she responded coldly, "You mean, since you three kidnapped me so you could use me against Rumplestiltskin? Not nearly long enough. What are you doing here? You're not welcome in here, so get out! In fact… you should just leave our town altogether before you all regret your decision to come here so you can make more trouble for us."
"I can't leave," Maleficent bitterly replied to her as she stepped out from beside her two allies. "If I do, then I'll turn right back into the pile of ash I have been resurrected from. The magic here in this quaint little town is the only thing keeping me alive. But don't worry, dear. I didn't come in here looking for trouble. None of us have. All I want is what belongs to me. After I take it back, we'll leave. Just like you want."
"What do you want?" Belle worryingly asked her, as she looked on the villainess with suspicion.
The woman in all black wearing a cowl made with horns on top of her head softened her countenance and then she answered sadly, "To you… it would look like a tiny replica of a staff I once held before it was broken by Regina. On its head, is a purple orb. It has no magic. It was meant to be a gift for my child that I never got to give to him, or to her… before my child was taken from me long ago. A baby rattle. I carry its other half with me."
Belle's eyes immediately softened as well upon feeling sympathy for the woman before her in spite of her being a villain, especially when Maleficent pulled off the bottom half of the rattle from the chain she wore around her neck and held it in her hand for the beauty to see. In that moment, Belle didn't see Maleficent as a villain, but as a woman in pain, who had been deeply wronged when the most precious thing to her had been ripped away from her.
At last, Belle gently responded in sincerity, "I'm so sorry. I'm afraid that I've never seen this rattle around here, but if Rumple has it… I will be more than happy to find it and return it to you."
She then looked between Ursula and Cruella again as she questioned, "I understand that the two of you confronted Rumple out in the world before you came here to Storybrooke seeking your redemption. I don't suppose he mentioned anything to you that might help me find it for Maleficent… did he?"
"You're in luck, because he actually did," the Sea Witch coolly replied with a lie. "We told him that not only did we wish to come here seeking redemption, but so we could try to bring back our dear friend here after he told us she had been killed some time ago. If it's truly possible for us to find redemption, then Maleficent deserves it as much as we do. Your Rumple believed that us finding her daughter's rattle for her might be a good first step in making restitution."
"The Dark One told us we would find it inside a small wooden box lined with gold around its edges, that has a symbol for Mal engraved into its center atop of the lid," Cruella added. "I don't suppose you've seen such a box around here… have you, darling?"
The beauty looked at the lower half of the rattle more closely and then began to look around the room among the shelves surrounding her covered in a number of books, papers, and things her husband had collected long since becoming the Dark One, while she answered, "I think I have. I just have to try to remember… where I might have seen it."
She continued to search the shelves, until she finally came upon the box described to her perfectly by its rightful owner, partially buried beneath some papers and a golden candlestick that laid on top of it since it had been knocked over, most likely in one of her earlier searches around the room.
Upon seeing an engraving of her horns, as well as the gold metals adorning the box once Belle picked it up, Maleficent turned to face her again, then her eyes became cold while she held her hand out to the beauty and commanded angrily, "Give it to me!"
"It's yours," Belle kindly responded to the villainess in spite of Maleficent's darkness once again coming out upon her forceful command, then gently laid the top of the rattle into the palm of Maleficent's hand. "With no price attached. I'm not Rumplestiltskin. I'm so sorry it was ever taken from you."
"Thank you," Maleficent then replied to the beauty in sincerity for her kindness, much to her surprise that Belle was being so kind to her and understanding despite their dark past. "It's good of you to be so magnanimous."
The beauty smiled at her once more, then looked once again between the other two villainesses still standing behind Maleficent with more concern upon seeing them smiling back at her with smugness and cruelty, until they turned and walked out of the shop first, followed by Maleficent.
Once they were outside again, as they started walking down the street, Cruella spoke again snidely saying, "Well… Your sad tale immediately melted away any contempt that maid held for us. At least any she's held against you, Mal, darling. She clearly still holds malice against Ursula and me."
"Can you blame her?" Ursula answered her. "You did after all… lure Rumple's love away with a cute little puppy you stole away from some small child living in the village not far from the Forbidden Fortress. And I did nearly choke the life out of her with my tentacles. I'm surprised she was as civil as she was, even towards us. She really is a goody two shoes. It's sickening."
"It doesn't matter," Maleficent said once more, as she started walking on ahead of the other two women griping about the woman loved by the other villain working as their ally. "It's time to meet up again with Rumplestiltskin in that cabin in the woods he told us about, so we can discuss the next step in his plan. Just like you two… all I want is my happy ending and that's to find my child after all these years. Rumple's maid can't help us anymore. Only the Dark One can. So, come on."
With that said, Maleficent suddenly waved her hand to poof herself and the two other villains surrounding her out into the woods where they expected to find a cabin where Mr. Gold was hopefully waiting for them to join him, as the Queens of Darkness swiftly vanished within a cloud of black smoke.