A year prior to the Dark Curse
Rumplestiltskin waited impatiently for the Hatter to return from his excursion to Oz, disappointed when he learned the silver slippers he sought were no longer in the realm and the crystal ball they had given him would not work.
"They're willing to make a trade. They have another crystal, one that locates an individual by a blood link," Hatter spoke up.
"And what does Jeb Mysticos want in return?" the sorcerer quizzed, referring to the man known as the Wizard of Oz but his true name was Jeb Strogoff.
"Dragon's blood. Mates, preferably. Can't he get that in Oz?"
Rumple smiled. "No dearie. Dragons are extinct in Oz. It just so happens I have what he needs." He crossed over to the locked cabinet in his lab and took out the two bottles Jiminy had stolen for him sixty years earlier, handing them to the portal jumper. "Blue for male, red for female. Make sure he remembers that before he goes injecting the wrong blood into the wrong person."
"Why would he want to inject a human with dragon's blood?"
"Protection," Rumple murmured falling into a Seer's trance. "Fill his veins with the blood of the dragon and he shall become the dragon. When his mate calls for him, he will always answer…"
"Rumple…."
"The light's will be done when two are joined as one."
Rumple shook his head to clear. "Bring me that crystal ball. It's time to find my son!"
Wonderland
A week later
"You're getting careless Rumple," Cora chuckled as she spied on him through the crystal Jeff obtained in Oz. She had them in all the realms so that she could use them to spy on neighboring kingdoms to make alliances or root out any potential threats.
She glanced over at the cabinet where she kept all her treasures and took out a crystal ball shaped like a globe; a sharp needled on the top for the user to prick the skin to donate the blood used to trace one of their own. This was the only chance Rumple had of ever finding his son but she would never let him have it unless he gave her back what he stole from her…her daughter.
Nothing pleased her more than seeing the fury her former lover was in when he realized he'd been bested by her again. Oh she'd give him his prize back of course when the opportunity presented itself. Now his only option was to have Regina cast his curse and all she needed to do was wait for an opportunity to present itself when she could bargain the globe for her daughter's love. She would have him on his knees for the rest of his pathetic life or she would take his power for her own. With the power of the Dark One in her soul, her options were limitless.
With all curses and spells, the magic was all in the wording. It was also in making sure all of the pieces of the puzzle you intended to make fit into their proper places. It had taken him far too many years to count...but he'd counted every one and at last he'd found what he was searching for...the curse that would reunite him with his beloved son. That it would take all of them away from their world into another would not matter, nor would the fact that he himself would feel the effects of the curse. It was the price he was willing to pay.
His puzzle pieces in this case came in the forms of easily manipulated and desperate souls in the Forest, the most important one being the queen herself. Regina had inherited her mother's desire to bring others to their knees to achieve her own happiness. Some would say he was to blame for her evil but it was far from the truth. The girl had the darkness within her from the moment she was conceived. Of course showing her how to bring it to the surface was a necessary move on his part. A great curse demanded a great sacrifice, one even he could not bring himself to do since he wanted the curse cast to find the one person he loved the most.
The next two important pieces were Regina's hated stepdaughter Snow White and the poor shepherd turned prince David. Through his visions he learned that theirs would be a true love union and in that union a child would be produced that would break his curse...when she was twenty-eight. It was a long time to wait but time would stand still as long as the curse was active and none of them would be aware of it. Being a victim of his own curse was the price he would willingly pay to find his precious son.
The shepherd masquerading as a prince was due to marry the wealthy King Midas's daughter to bring her grand fortune back to his adoptive father's bankrupt kingdom, bankrupted due to Rumple convincing Regina to cut off financial ties to them so that they would be forced to depend on Midas's generosity. This in turn devastated the outlaw Snow White who was already in love with the false prince she called Charming and wanting to forget him. The wolf girl had planted curiosity about him in the princess's mind and soon she would seek him out...and he would be waiting. He appeared in her boat in a lake.
"How much for this?" he inquired, startling her.
"Excuse me?" Snow asked fearfully.
"Your boat. Exquisite craftsmanship."
"It's not for sale."
"Of course it is, dearie. No one comes to see me without a deal in mind."
"So you're Rumplestiltskin."
"Indeed, I am. I've been looking forward to meeting you." He said as he climbed out of the boat and walked toward her. "Ah. You really are the fairest of them all, aren't you?" he asked, cupping her face in his hands. He could already feel true love's magic working in her. "What can I do for you?"
"I need a cure."
"What ails you, child?"
"A broken heart."
"Ah, the most painful of afflictions. Well, I'm afraid if you want me to make him love you, no can do, and nothing can." And a broken heart is painful, but not as painful as a grieving one such as mine.
"No, that's not the problem. We can't be together."
"Well, that I can help you with." He took the vial he'd been carrying in his pocket out and dipped it into the water, casting the spell to create the potion that would allow her to forget her lost love...for the time being.
"That'll do it?"
"Not yet. No two loves are... exactly alike. We must make this...Personal!" he declared and yanked a strand of her hair out, placing it inside the bottle.
"Aah! So, if I drink that, I will no longer love him."
"The next time you see the object of your grief, you won't even remember who he is."
"I won't remember him?"
"Love is the most powerful magic. So the cure must be... extreme."
"Extreme sounds like an understatement."
"Don't doubt yourself now, dearie. Love makes us sick, haunts our dreams, destroys our days. Love... has killed more than any disease. This cure is a gift."
Love killed my Belle.
...Unbelievable. Threw herself off the tower...over him!
Probably had some spell on her, the poor thing. The clerics said she was beyond salvation. He'd poisoned both her body and her mind...
"What's your price?"
"These'll do," he answered, holding more strands of her hair he'd taken through magic.
"What do you need of my hair?"
"What do you need of it now it's been plucked from your head? Do we have a deal?" he pressed. She grabbed the vial. "Ohh. I thought so. Drink it in good health... Snow White," he said and walked away, waving back at her.
He reappeared in his library and stood in front of the small shrine, lovingly caressing his beloved son's shawl. "Soon Bae...soon. Just a few more pieces to move into place and my curse will be cast," he murmured.
Days later she returned to the castle with a very angry dwarf while he was at his spinning wheel in his library. He couldn't bear to keep it in the dining hall anymore. All he could see when he went in there was Belle's cup...and remember their kiss...their last and only kiss.
"That potion you gave Snow...it changed her. She's not the same!" the dwarf said angrily.
"Well, of course it changed her. It took away her love. Left a big hole in her heart. There is not cure for what she's got. The person she was...there's no way to bring her back. No potion can bring back true love," he explained while he was browsing his potion collection. "Love...is the most powerful magic of all. The only magic I haven't been able to bottle." That and a magic equally as powerful...Ozian magic. "If you can bottle love...you can do anything. But you don't care about that, do ya?" he inquired of the now heartless girl. "Now what is it you really want?"
"I want your help...to kill the queen."
Not going to happen, dearie. At least not until she serves her purpose and reunites me with my son!
"Now we're talkin', dearie."
"Snow don't!" he heard the dwarf plead while he retrieved Artemis's bow from its storage place. He'd once told Belle he would hold onto it, thinking it would come in handy and now was the time. "This...is how you kill the queen," he said excitedly, casting a small enchantment on it.
"How will that help me get into the castle?" she demanded suspiciously.
"No, no, no. That's impossible. You have to kill her when she's on the move. When she's on her way," he said, waving his hand and making a map appear in it, "to the Summer Palace. Fire the arrow from this spot here." He indicated a location on the map. "And you'll be hidden from sight. An arrow fired from this bow will get you exactly what you need."
She rolled up the map.
He grabbed the arrow. "It always finds its target!"
"I can't stand by. If you take that weapon, you do it alone!" the dwarf warned her.
"That was always my plan," was Snow's icy reply. Rumple giggled when she snatched the bow and arrow out of his hands.
"So what do I have to do in return?"
Oh, you learn quickly dearie.
"Do? You don't have to do anything dearie."
"Everything comes with a price with you! Last time you took a strand of my hair. What's in it for you this time?"
"Let's just say...I'm invested in your future."
The next piece of the puzzle had been moved into its proper place. Now it was time to move the other. Word got around that Snow White was planning an assassination attempt against the queen. Eventually it would have to find its way to the ears of certain prince...a prince who would then come to him.
"Rumplestiltskin! Show yourself!" the shepherd prince demanded, storming through the doors of his castle.
"Still dressing like a prince I see," Rumple said from behind him. "Even though you ran away from the life I gave you. How's that for gratitude?"
"You gave me a prison sentence," David said angrily.
"Yeah, one that you've now skirted. Careful, dearie. King George is a vengeful man."
"I'm here about Snow. Rumor has it she's after the queen and she came to you for help."
"Yes, indeed," he said with a smirk.
The prince drew his sword. "What did you do to her?"
"What did I do to her? You mean what did you do to her?" he asked. There were now circling each other like reluctant partners in a dance. "You caused her pain. Without that pain she never would've drank that potion to forget about you. That's what changed her," he snarled.
"Undo the potion. All magic can be broken."
"Oh yes...with twuuueee looove," he mocked.
"So that's it then. True love's kiss will awaken her?"
"Most certainly but it's gonna be hard to kiss her when you don't know where she is," he said and swatted the sword the boy was pointing at his chest away and started walking away to let the boy do a little thinking.
"Name your price."
Magic words.
"How about...your cloak?" Rumple suggested, turning around.
"My cloak? Why would you want my cloak?"
"It's drafty in here," he replied and giggled.
The boy looked at him as if he were insane then tossed the cloak onto the table. "Where is she?"
"On her way to the queen's highway." He conjured a duplicate of the map he'd given Snow. "This is the route she's taking." The boy grabbed the map. "But you better be quick! Because if she kills the queen, she becomes as evil as the woman whose life she takes."
"She could never become that evil," David said.
"Evil isn't born, dearie. It's made. If Snow starts down that road, you'll never get her back!" he called after the boy when he rushed out of the castle. He grabbed the cloak and held it up, giggling again. Later on, after he heard of the failed attempt on the queen's life, he took a magnifying glass and examined the coat, excited when he discovered a small strand of hair on it. He carefully extracted it and took it back to his lab, inserting it into the bottle with Snow White's. The hairs began to glow as they entwined in a sort of embrace and formed the potion he needed.
He sat down at his worktable, the shawl beside him and began writing on a small piece of parchment. "A lock of hair from those with the darkest souls...and the heart of the thing you love the most..."
He waved his hand and the vial of true love potion appeared in it. Opening the stopper he held the vial of the potion over the parchment.
"Through the child born to the ones this potion did make
Let this curse on her twenty-eighth natal year break!" he chanted as a drop fell onto the parchment. The parchment glowed for a second then returned to normal as the spell took hold. He then rolled the parchment up and conjured an elegant holder to place it in. Now all that was left was to deliver it. He appeared in Regina's castle. She'd just captured the shepherd boy and was now holding him prisoner.
"How's your new pet?" he inquired and giggled.
"Miserable...just the way I like him," Regina said. "What are you doing here?"
"I come bearing gifts." He took the scroll out.
"What's that?"
"Oh...just a little curse," he said nonchalantly. "Might come in handy."
"What kind of curse?"
"The darkest of all curses, dearie. One with the power to cast everyone from this world into another...a land without magic."
She frowned. "What need would I have to be in a land without magic? Not interested. And if I was...what do you want for it? Everything always comes at a price with you."
"Your mother's spellbook," he said. "I know you have it."
She flicked her wrist and the book appeared. "I have no use for it now."
"You'll take the curse then?" he asked, taking the book from her and handing her the scroll.
"Why not. I doubt I'll ever use it anyway."
"Oh, I wouldn't count on that, dearie," he taunted and vanished in a puff of smoke.
Now all he had to do was wait for the final pieces of the puzzle to fall into place. There were two more deals he would have to make with Snow and Charming, the first with Charming so that he could get him to hide the true love potion until the curse was broken and he would use it to restore his power so that he could resume his search for his son and be able to protect him. In exchange he would help the boy find his true love and at last they could produce the child that was crucial to everything. Then there was the deal he'd made with Cinderella. She needed a way to break her deal with him and would conspire with the cursed Blue Fairy, Charming and Snow White to imprison him so that he could not take her baby. Little did they know they would be putting him exactly where he wanted to be when Regina finally decided to unleash the curse.
As he'd forseen the shepherd prince now needed his help to locate Snow White, who unfortunately for her was under a sleeping curse Regina had traded the Dark Curse to Maleficent for. Regina sent the boy into the Infinite Forest. There was no change of getting out of there...except with magic...and he was more than happy to pop in to offer his services.
"Lost, are we?" he asked the boy when he appeared on a fallen tree log.
"What are you doing here?" Charming asked.
"I'm just here to help." Help make sure you do what I need you to do.
"Well, no need. I'll be fine," Charming said stubbornly, making Rumple want to box his ears...or turn him into something that crawled and he would have if the boy wasn't so damned crucial to his plan succeeding.
"No I don't think so. This is the Infinite Forest. There's no way out. Well, except... my way."
"I want nothing from you."
Rumple concentrated and summoned Ruth's ring from the purse the prince carried. "Not even this?" he asked and held it up.
"My mother's ring…it was just…How did you get it!?" Charming demanded furiously.
"The same way I get everything I want.. magic! The same magic that allows me to do../this," he said, tossing the ring into the air and catching it in his palm, casting a location spell on the stone. It began to glow. "This ring is now enchanted. The closer you get to Snow White, the brighter it will glow. Interested?"
"Give it to me." the boy demanded taking an imposing step forward.
"Ah! It's not something for nothing, dearie!" Rumple reminded him, closing his hand around the ring. "Time to make a deal."
"No! No more deals!" Charming drew his sword and swung it. Rumple leaned back before he was sliced in half. He swung it again and Rumple caught the blade between his fingers, giggling. He tried again,. Rumple vanished.
"Over here!" he taunted from behind the prince with a sword in his hand. He'd barely been able to use one as a mortal but had gotten quite skilled at it over the centuries. They engaged in a brief duel. Persistent. Had enough?"
"Never!"
The duel served two purposes. The first was to test the boy's strength to ensure he was up to the task he was about to perform and it didn't involve siring a child on Snow White...yet. Charming managed to slice his cheek open with the sword but a quick wave of his hand healed the cut and used his magic to throw the prince against a tree. He fell to the ground and Rumple stood over him, the blade of the prince's own sword at his throat. "Looking for this? So brave.. so gallant. So pointless. Bravery won't get you out of this forest, dearie. Magic will. Trust me. This is a deal you want to make, because we both want the same thing."
"What's that?"
"Why, you and your true love to be together, of course. Hmm?" He summoned the vial of True Love potion. "Behold. The most powerful magic of all... True love. Ah! Careful. This is all I have left of it," he cautioned when Charming tried to take it.
"What do you know of true love?"
That I had it...and lost it because I was a fool.
"Well, not as much as you, perhaps, but not so little as you might think."
"You? You love someone?"
"It was a brief flicker of light amidst an ocean of darkness." It was more than a flicker...only I was too much of a coward to let it be more.
"What happened?"
"She died. That's the thing about true love, dearie. It can slip through your fingers. It's the most powerful magic in the world, the only magic powerful enough to break any curse. It must be protected at all costs."
"I don't understand. What exactly is it you want me to do?"
"I want you to help me protect it by putting in a safe place for me." He summoned a golden egg case from his castle and locked the potion inside it.
"And where is that?"
"Why, inside the belly of a beast, of course!" Rumple exclaimed and tossed the egg at the prince.
"Why hide it?"
"Let's just say... I'm saving it for a rainy day. Come along. The longer we stand here, the longer it takes for you to find your precious Snow."
"How are we...?"
Charming barely got the question out before he and Rumple vanished and reappeared on a beach on the other side of an island where there was a castle.
"Welcome to the Forbidden Fortress...home of one of the most fearsome beasts in all the realms."
"It can't be any worse than you!"
"Well that was rude. But I'll excuse it...this time. Better get going, dearie."
While he waited, Rumple summoned the crystal ball he'd obtained in a trade with an Ozian wizard named Jeb Mysticos, brokered by Jefferson. He never wanted to venture into that cursed place himself and risk encountering an Ozopov or the Strogoff prophesized to be his undoing. The other item he wanted was the silver slippers, unfortunately those had somehow disappeared along with the crystal ball he needed to find Bae thanks to that bitch Cora who made a side deal with the Mystic Man for gods only knew what.
Using the crystal ball Rumple watched while sitting in front of the fire, impressed as the shepherd prince proved himself worthy of the task he'd been given and buried the egg containing the true love potion inside Maleficent's dragon form. Since she was Regina's friend he was certain the queen would take her to the new land as well. He finally spotted Charming swimming to shore.
"Impressive, dearie. Very impressive, indeed. Come warm yourself."
"I have done what you've asked. Return my ring to me."
"Of course, you're in a bit of a rush. How rude of me. With this...Prince Charming... you will find her," he said and held out the ring. The prince eagerly took it back.
"Thank you."
"Something's missing." He thought for a moment and conjured an elegant set of clothing for the boy and dried him. "Now you're ready for your big moment."
"Why do you want us together? What do you get out of it?"
"I'm a fan of true love, dearie, and, more importantly, what it creates."
The prince wasted no time and rode off to seek out his true love. Rumple smiled and returned to his palace. The next move in the game was made as Charming and Snow raised an army to defeat the combined forces of King George and Regina and Regina was scheduled for execution. It was quite a show, Regina expressing regret that she'd failed in her quest to kill her hated stepdaughter and Snow, predictable as ever, unable to bear putting someone to death. All that was left to do was cast a little protection spell with a clause added in that was all the fuel Regina would need to take back the Dark Curse from Maleficent. Using a strand of Regina's hair from the blindfold placed over her ears during her failed execution he cast a protection spell barring Regina from harming Snow White in the Enchanted Forest. Regina was then banished to her palace. He decided it was time to pay her a visit.
"You have a visitor," her father said as she stood glaring into a mirror.
"Who?"
"You need to ask?" Rumple asked, appearing on a chaise behind her. "What other friends do you have, dearie?"
"You're no friend," Regina sneered. "Have you come to relish my suffering?"
"I thought you'd want someone to help raise your spirits. Especially on a day like today," he declared as he stood up.
"What's so special about today?"
"Snow White and Prince Charming's wedding day, of course. Didn't you get an invitation? Me neither. Still, nice to be able to see them declare their twuuueee love in front of their entire kingdom. A happy ending after all."
"And, because of you, there's nothing I can do to stop it. No way to harm them in this land ever again."
"Yes. Yes, I suppose that's true... In this land."
"What?"
"The deal I made was explicit. You can never harm them in this land. Now, were you to bring them to another land... Well..."
Regina smiled. "That curse you gave me..."
"Told you I was your friend," Rumple said excitedly and disappeared.
"Father, bring my carriage. I have a wedding to get to!" Regina cried gleefully.
Now it was time to move the final piece into place...himself...through his deal with Cinderella. He was given a vision that Cinderella and Prince Thomas were conspiring with Charming, the dwarves and the Blue Fairy to bind his magic and trap him in the mines using an enchanted quill that he would use to sign a new contract giving him custody of Cinderella's children in exchange for their lands' prosperity. When a bluebird showed up at the Dark Castle with a message to meet with Cinderella, he smiled. Little did they know being in that cell was exactly where he wanted to be when Regina stopped fooling around and unleashed the curse. What was taking the girl so long?
His cell was not like his grand suite of rooms in the Dark Palace and although he hated to admit it, he missed his daily bantering with the cat Lucky. He was hoping the cat would escape before the curse hit and someone would take him in. He could hear voices in the distance and smiled to himself.
"Rumplestiltskin. Rumplestiltskin! I have a question for you." the guard shouted, pounding on the bars of his cell.
"No, you don't. They do. Snow White—and Prince "Charming"! You insult me. Step into the light, and take off those ridiculous robes. Ah, ha-ha ha... that's much better," he taunted the cloaked figures. Did they honestly think he wouldn't know who they were?
"We've come to ask you about the..." Charming started
"Yes, yes, I know why you're here! You want to know about the queen's threat." Rumple interrupted.
"Tell us what you know," Snow White demanded.
"Ohh! Tense, aren't we? Fear not, for I can ease your mind! But it's gonna cost you something in return."
"No. This is a waste of time," Charming said impatiently.
"What do you want?" Snow White inquired. Oh, she was a smart one.
"Oh... the name of your unborn child?"
"Absolutely not!" Charming protested. Rumple wished he had his magic back. The damned shepherd prince was getting on his nerves.
"Deal! What do you know?" Snow White pursued.
"Ah. The Queen has created a powerful curse. And it's coming. Soon you'll all be in a prison, just like me, only worse! Your prison...all of our prisons...will be time. And time will stop. And we will be trapped, someplace horrible, where everything we hold dear, everything we love will be ripped from us while we suffer for all eternity, while the Queen celebrates, victorious at last! ...No more happy endings."
"What can we do?"
"We can't do anything!"
"Who can?"
Rumple reached through the bars and gestured to her abdomen. "That little thing. Growing inside your belly."
"Next time, I cut it off," Charming growled, slapping Rumple's hand with a sword.
"The infant is our only hope. Get the child to safety. Get the child to safety and on its...twenty-eighth birthday, the child will return. The child will find you...and the final battle will begin!" Rumple declared and cackled.
"Heard enough. We're leaving," Charming said firmly and was leading his wife away.
"Hey! No! We made a deal! I want her name! We had a deal—I. Need. Her. Name! I want her name!" Rumple screamed. Oh, they weren't getting away that easily. The name of the child was the key. It would be his talisman to unlock his own memories in the new land.
"Her? It's a boy," Charming insisted.
Fool. You think you can fool a seer? It is a girl.
"Missy, missy…you know I'm right. Tell me. What's her name?" he asked Snow White softly. She at least had some sense.
"Emma. Her name is Emma."
"Emma." Rumple whispered. Once they left he took out the jar of squid ink he'd hidden in his cell and began writing the child's name on a parchment and touched it, allowing the ink to seep into his skin and activate the spell. Once he heard the child's name in the new land, his true memories would be restored.
Days later he noticed a new addition to the collection of rats that communed outside his cell and sensed one of them was using a transformation spell. The only other person capable of doing this was Regina. "It's just us, dearie. You can show yourself!"
Regina transformed in a cloud of smoke.
"Well, it seems you've finally mastered that spell."
"That curse you gave me…t's not working," she complained.
"Oh, so worried! So, so worried. Like Snow and her lovely new husband!"
"What?"
"They paid me a visit as well. They were very anxious. About you. And the curse."
"What'd you tell them?" Regina demanded, approaching the bars.
"The truth! That nothing can stop the darkness. Except, of course, their unborn child. You see, no matter how powerful, all cursed can be broken. Their child is the key. Of course, the curse has to be enacted first."
"Tell me what I did wrong."
"For that, there's a price."
"What do you want?"
"Simple. In this new land, I want comfort. I want a good life."
"Fine! You'll have an estate, be rich."
"I wasn't finished! There's more!"
"There always is with you."
"Yeah, yeah... In this new land, should I ever come to you for any reason, you must heed my every request. You must do whatever I say. So long as I say "Please". After all, it's good manners."
"You do realize that should I succeed, you won't remember any of this?"
"Oh well, then what's the harm?"
"Deal. What must I do to enact this curse?"
"You need to sacrifice...a heart," he said with a flourish
"I sacrificed my priced steed."
"A horse? This is the curse to end all curses! You think a horse is gonna do? Great power requires great sacrifice. The heart you need must come from something far more precious." Rumple said fiercely, reaching through the bars and grabbing her by the throat.
"Tell me what will suffice."
"The heart of the thing you love most."
"What I loved most died because of Snow White!" she growled and yanked his hand away.
"Is there no one else you truly love?" he asked, stroking her cheek. "This curse isn't gonna be easy. Vengeance never is, dearie. You have to ask yourself a simple question. How far are you willing to go?"
"As far as it takes."
"Then please stop wasting everyone's time and just do it! You know what you love... now go kill it!" he instructed. She vanished.