A broken Deal
Emma appeared suddenly in front of one of the people she missed the most: Bae.
"Baelfire," She breathed, running to the man that she had come to consider more than a friend.
He stared at her, holding her at arm's length. Could it be her? The moonlight was highlighting her features just right and he could not believe her eyes.
"Emma?" His voice was deeper, his face harsher. Two years had turned him into a man. She smiled, nodding as his kind, brown eyes filled with tears. He took Emma into his arms and held her to his chest.
"Emma, my love!" He exclaimed, kissing her cheek and pulling away to take her in. "Where have you been? Your family and I have been looking for you everywhere!" Baelfire could not help taking her face in his hands. She was a vision, the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.
She just smiled, placing her hands above his, not bothering to answer.
"He might have cursed you, but you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, my love." he smirks bringing Emma closer, making her cheeks appear as red as apples.
"Baelfire, I have missed you immensely. " She too cupped his face. He smiled at the beautiful Swan.
"Well, well, well," Emma's eyes shut at the sound of that terrible voice. "You just do not learn, Dearie. Here you are, trying to steal my son away…again. This has been quite enough, little swan." She turned to find the man looking quite mortified, which was new to her.
"Father, we made a deal." Baelfire whispered.
Rumpelstiltskin looked down and then up at his son. He had indeed made a promise to Baelfire, but he simply would not fulfill it.
~Flashback~
"Father! Father! I know you're in here! How could you did this to her? Father, please help me find her! She's gone…she ran off and she's nowhere to be found." Baelfire yelled as he walked into the cabin where they used to live before the Dark One had his castle. He walked in with such force, Rumpelstiltskin felt it in his bones.
"No need to shout, my dear son." Rumpelstiltskin drawled, walking towards his son. He expected him to move away, as he always did, but he stood his ground, looking into his eyes with a mix of anger and sadness.
"Will you help me, father?" Baelfire asked, begged. The imp just looked at his son, unsure of what to say. "I know the only way to save Emma from your dark magic must be to make a deal…because as you always say, magic comes with a price." Rumple looked at him, the tiniest bit of pride rising inside him, along with the mortification of seeing what he had done to his son. If there was something Baelfire had come to hate after he had become the Dark One was magic and now he was begging for it.
For her. For the princess.
Unbelievable.
"Are you sure, Baelfire? I assure you she is not worth the trouble, my dear son. She is just a girl you found in the woods. Forget her and come home to me." The beast said, turning away from his son, thinking the conversation was over.
"No! I want to make a deal that can break Emma's curse. It's the only way you will truly have me back," The young man paused as his father turned back around. "If you break her curse, you and I will have a life together. I have found a way for us to go to a land without magic," Was Rumpelstiltskin hearing correctly? "If you break her curse, we can go to that land, where the darkness will consume you no more and we can be together, father." Just the two of them…father and son. The Dark One conjured a contract with a mere yet comical flick of his wrist.
"I shall make that deal with you, Bae…all we have to do is sign." The imp answered.
Baelfire nodded, happy that he had saved Emma from the dark spell. He took the parchment and placed it above the dining table, picking up a quill and dipping it in ink.
Just as he was about to sign his name, he looked up at his father's frightening eyes.
"If you fail to hold up your part of this…you shall lose me forever, Father. You will never see me again. Am I understood?" The young man questioned, staring into the crocodile like eyes. His father nodded.
"As clear as the water, Bae." Rumpelstiltskin said and his boy signed. He took the quill and signed right after.
The deal was struck.
~End of flashback~
"Father, she is here. It's time to hold up your end of our deal and break the curse. " Baelfire looked into Emma's eyes as he told his father this, holding her hands. What he felt for her was so inexplicable…he fell in love with such a young girl in so little time. It was young love, an illusion he wished to pursue, but he could see in her eyes that their love was not True.
Perhaps her heart was for another?
The beast looked down for he knew he would lose his son tonight. This was not part of his plan…this was never what he intended. Baelfire was madly in love with the girl he had cursed, a curse he designed to be broken by true love.
But Baelfire's love was not retured, therefore True Love's kiss would not work on Emma. Rumpelstiltskin had looked for another way to break the spell, but there simply was not.
The Dark One looked at the golden haired woman who looked at him with hate and disgust. He used magic on her, making her collapse against his son.
"What have you done?" Baelfire said, taking the woman and setting her down gently. He glared at his father as he straightened up. "We made a deal! You cannot break it!"
"I am afraid I cannot hold up my part of our deal, son." Rumpelstiltskin said regretfully. "My magic cannot break the curse…" HE hated the words, but he understood they were true. Anger consumed Baelfire, as he held the bean he had gotten from Blue, the fairy, for his eighteenth birthday.
"I told you what would happen if you failed to do this for me, Rumpelstiltskin." The use of his name made the beast stumble backwards. No! "I will use this," Baelfire said, holding up his fist. "And I will leave this forsaken place and you because you are not my father. That man died when he chose darkness over the one thing he had left: his son!"
"Bae, please! I tried to find a way, I tried to do this for you, Bae. Please, don't do this!" The Dark One begged, but his son was kneeling before the beautiful woman.
Baelfire's eyes filled with tears as he looked at his beautiful Emma. He caressed her face with his knuckles and smiled sadly.
"I love you…I think I always will, Emma." He whispered, kissing her forehead glently. "Forgive me for this." He begged, throwing the bean in the ground.
The Dark One watched as the portal opened and his son stood, never looking back and jumping into it without hesitation. Baelfire's joy now was how his father was suffering.
How could a father destroy his son's happiness? Emma was to Baelfire what Regina was to Emma; part of a happy ending, of a future.
Rumpelstiltskin called uselessly for his son and looked at the ground where the portal had been. Now he had only one hope: that his plan would work out and the love between the Swan and the Queen would be as catastrophic as he believed it would.
Rumpelstiltskin walked over to the inert princess, glaring at her. He hated her with every fiber of what he was.
"Oh, Dearie" He whispered, lowering himself on one knee. He touched her feathers, the dark ones that were reaching below her waist line. She was becoming dark, she was fulfilling his plans.
Now more than ever he needed her to do this, to become what he wanted her to become.
"You must rise for me Dark Swan." He whispered before sending her to her lake where she belonged and leaving towards his empty castle.