Made me promise I'd try

To find my way back in this life

I hope there is a way

To give me a sign you're OK

Reminds me again it's worth it all

So I can go on

All of my memories keep you near

In silent moments imagine you here

All of my memories keep you near

Your silent whispers, silent tears

Within Temptation - Memories

Elysian Fields

Paradise

Centuries earlier

"I want my son! I want to see my baby!" Lilliana sobbed. "Send me back! Lurline, I beseech you, send me back to my baby!"

Ozmalita waved her hand over the tear shaped sapphire she held in her hand, her heart aching for the young mother. Unlike the other souls in Paradise, Lilliana Strogoff's was unable to find peace, aching for the child she could no longer see or hold.

"You're going to send Dorothy back. Send ME back. I want to see my son!" Lilliana pounded on the walls of her room in her rage until her knuckles were sore and bleeding.

The young princess had earned the right to be given a new life and her sister, without knowing it, would give it to her. She'd started the West Guardian down the path to becoming the great man, the great sorcerer he was destined to be. She appeared in the princess's room, healing her wounds with her magic.

Lilliana kneeled before the Keeper of Souls and gazed up at her with pleading eyes. "I will pay any price you require...all I ask is that I see my son again."

Ozmalita reached out and stroked the young girl's cheek tenderly. "You will be reborn...but not as he remembers you. You have already paid a high price to ensure the West Guardian's survival Lilliana and this must be rewarded. It is the will of the goddess." It was small lie but it would do. She would deal with the consequences later.

"The only reward I need is to see my son."

"Oh but there is so much more you need in this new life, Lilliana. You must have the love you were denied by your son's father."

"Why did I ever fall for Malcolm's lies?" she moaned.

"We all make mistakes when we're young and in love," Ozmalita said gently. "I chose to give my heart to the wrong man before I gave it to Nick Chopper."

"But he was Dorothy's bonded!"

"As he will be in my second life but I would not trade the moments I had with him and will have in my new human life for nothing. There is a man somewhere in the realms who will heal your broken heart Lilliana but you must be patient. I cannot promise this new life you will be given will not be as difficult as your first until you find him. Your sister Zorinda plans to be reborn and when she is, you will be as well but you will have no memory of this life until the proper time."

"And when is that?" Lilliana demanded angrily.

"The time when worlds collide," the angel said softly.

"Then I will wait," Lilliana said firmly. "I will be reunited with my son. It doesn't matter whether I find love or not. His love is all I need."

She would wait as many centuries as it took.

Storybrooke, Maine

Twenty-eight days prior to the Double Eclipse

Fifty-eight days prior to the Final Eclipse

It was after noon and Belle had been in Rumple's study all morning going through more of his books to help him find a spell to counter the town line barrier while he worked at the shop but none of his experiements seemed to be producing positive results.

"Belle, sweetheart, at least come out and eat something. You've been in there all morning!" he pleaded when he returned home to find the study door still closed.

"Rumple, I've found something!" she exclaimed, nearly knocking him over when she opened the door.

"What is it?"

She handed the book she'd been reading to him. "If you enchant an object with sentimental value to you and wear it while you cross the line your memories will remain intact!"

"That's perfect, sweetheart! Thank you! Where did you find it?"

"In this book called the Book of the Ancients that you gave me the ability to translate."

"Now will you come out and eat."

"If you make hamburgers." she said with a smirk.

"Hamburgers! But...but they're greasy…"

"I'm sure you can doctor them up not to be."

"Well I'll certainly try."

His cursed self avoided any kind of fast food like the plague and if he had the desire to go out to eat, he chose one of the finer restuarants in town. He had nothing against Granny but fast food was all she served at her diner.

"Sweetheart, let the books wait a moment. You're going to get a headache if you read all day."

"But I want to help you!"

"You are but you can't spend all your days with your nose stuck in a book," he joked.

"Remember when I almost closed your nose in one?"

"Oh, how can I forget! And do you remember when I put you in that dust bunny trap?"

"The what?"

"Those things you had to pick out of your broom. They're called dust bunnies here."

"I'd better not find any when I'm cleaning this house Rumplestiltskin or I'm going to put one in your coffee!"

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Try me!"

"You would too, you minx," he muttered. "Ah, I'd forgotten how much I've missed that sass of yours."

"And I've missed getting under your skin."

Their eyes met.

"Belle, please don't think that I intend for you to be a kept woman."

"I wasn't thinking you did."

"I...ahhh...this is not coming out the way I want it to!" he grumbled, leaning against the counter.

"Take a deep breath and try again," she encouraged.

He walked over to where she was sitting and and kneeled, taking her hand in his. "What...what...what I meant to say is that...that...I would like...I would like to marry you. Properly. Oh, that was a horrible way to propose!"

"It was enough for me! Yes!" she cried and threw her arms around him.

"But not until my curse is broken and we find my son. Does that bother you sweetheart?"

"No! We are not getting married until your son is standing at your side as your best man!"

"But who...who...who will give you away? You don't really know anyone here and your father..."

"After what he did to me? I don't want him anywhere near me! I'll ask Archie. I like him Rumple. He's a good man."

"Indeed he is. But don't tell him just yet."

"I won't. Rumple, marrying you is what I've wanted since before we were cursed and our marriage will be different than the life you had with Milah. I'm not going to be a wife who runs away with a pirate. Speaking of pirates, one attacked me in Regina's castle trying to get information on you. It was him, wasn't it? The pirate Milah ran away with?"

"Let me guess. Leather, hook for a hand and more eyeliner than Maybelline?"

"That's him...and Maybelline?" She burst out laughing.

"What did that son of a bitch do to you?"

"He hit me and knocked me out."

"I get my hands on him I'll do more than just hit him. I'll beat the shit out of him!" Rumple growled. "Your father got a dose of it when he stole your cup at Regina's behest. I know you don't like when I lose my temper..."

"But I understand why you did it. You were hurt and angry over what he did to me."

"He was your father! He should've protected you, instead he had you abused worse than I ever could've done!"

"You didn't abuse me Rumple. You just...heart my heart but being here with you now is healing it."

Her stomach growled.

"Oh dearie, dear! I'd better get you fed or it'll be a beast in your stomach!"

"Why don't you show me how to cook? I know I couldn't do it worth a damn back at the Dark Castle."

"That's an understatement," he laughed. "I seem to recall having to visit the stool closet most of the evening after allowing you to make me porridge."

"You said to make it spicy!"

"Not that spicy, dearie! I'm immortal but even an immortal's bowels cannot handle THAT much spice! I will be the cook in this house."

"Fair enough but I'M doing the cleaning!"

Rumple took a package of ground beef out of the freezer and unthawed it with his magic and summoned the potatoes from their container to cut up for French Fries.

"Rumple, will you teach me magic?"

His hands froze in the mixing bowl.

"You want to learn magic? Am I hearing you correctly?"

"You heard me?"

"Why?"

"Because I'm no longer afraid of it anymore. And I want to be able to protect myself in case I come up against someone like Regina and you're not around. If she can learn it, so can I!"

"Learning magic is not easy nor am I an easy tutor," he cautioned.

"I'd be disappointed if you were. Rumple, I'm serious. I want to learn magic, not to use it against you but to help you. To help us." She walked over to the counter and placed her hand on his arm. As she moved her hand toward his they were stunned when they began to glow.

"What...what...what is that?" Rumple gasped.

"I think I can answer that," they heard Archie say from behind them. Rumple spun around, his arm around Belle protectively.

"Archie! No, it's not him. Regina!" Rumple snarled, conjuring a fireball and throwing it. Archie opened his umbrella and held it out in front of him, the fireball being absorbed into the fabric. He slammed the tip of the umbrella into the ground and a glowing shield formed over him. Rumple threw another fireball that bounced off the shield.

"I'm not Regina dammit, now will you stop throwing fireballs or we'll be having a few sessions on the dangers of pyromania! Good album by the way."

"How did you get past my wards, Regina?" Rumple asked coldly.

"I am not Regina."

"Prove it," Rumple challenged.

"Reach into Alemedia's memories and look for Commander Ozopov," Archie instructed.

"Rumple, what's he talking about?" Belle asked him.

"I have both my memories and hers...I don't reach into her memories often because I'm afraid to see what she's done when she's in control but I'm going to have to."

"Why?"

"Because he's going to find out something about me only the Dark One would've known," Archie explained.

Rumple closed his eyes and concentrated, seeing himself standing in front of the mirror in his living room while Alemedia was in control of his body holding a conference with the dark witch Bastinda in the body of Azkadellia Ozopov and her second in command, a face he immediatelty recognized though his facial hair had been shaved off.

"You're an Ozian Guardian," he murmured.

"Rumple, is that Archie...or Regina?"

"It's Archie. So...what I Saw came to be. You were sent to Oz. How did you get past my wards, dearie? And why?"

"The Heart of the West Guardian's magic unlocked and it summoned me," he said softly.

"Because you are the Heart of the North."

Archie nodded.

"Rumple, what's going on?" Belle demanded frantically.

"You need to sit down," Archie said and gestured, sending the bowl of ground beef to the refrigerator. "It'll keep until we're done and there's some things you need to know now because there are dangers far worse than your curse coming Rumple and you need to be ready."

Once they were in the living room the Once Upon a Time book appeared on the coffee table in front of them only this time the cover read: ONCE UPON A TIME: VOLUME IV: NONESTICA

"I don't think I need to tell you what this is."

"Of course not. I created it," Rumple said. "As the talisman that would restore Emma's memories and allow her to break the Dark Curse but that is not the title I gave it."

"One of the oldest spells in the Book of the Ancients."

"Archie, how do you know about that book?" Belle asked him.

"He's an Ozian Guardian. He would and be one of the few people in the realms able to translate it because it is written in an old Russian dialect and Ozian, the languages spoken by the descendants of the gods Hades and Persephone and Aramon and Lurline."

"Then he might be able to help you break your curse!"

"So Belle is a Guardian as well...bound to the West?" Rumple asked sadly.

"She is."

"I knew it!" Belle cried. "Archie, Rumple is one of the four Guardians, isn't he?"

"He is. He's the Guardian of the West Gate and the keeper of the blade of fire. You do him proud, Belle. You knew the truth locked in his heart's memories before he did."

"That's impossible! I...I'm not a member of the houses of Strogoff or Ozopov!" Rumple protested. "My mother was some wench my father seduced and abandoned me like he did."

"If you don't believe me, take out your heart and reach into its memories. You know hearts reveal truths the mind conceals or distorts," Archie instructed. "And many of your mother's heart memories are now yours. Her final gift to you."

"You're wrong but if you insist..." Rumple yanked his heart out of his chest and waved his hand over it, projecting the memories within it on the television screen. He could see Lilliana Strogoff holding an infant in her but as she pressed Aramon's Talisman against the baby's chest, he could feel it as if it were happening to him.

"Rumplestiltskin," he heard her say softly and he felt the pain of intense magical drain as the ruby stone removed powers from him.

Then she created a basket, a blanket and a scroll and walked to a small cottage, kneeling down to place the basket on the doorstep.

"Goodbye my Rumple, my precious one. I am hoping one day we will meet again and you will forgive me but I fear it may be too late for me." The last thing he felt was a kiss on his cheek before she vanished. He was then given another vision of his mother dying as her sister crushed her heart into dust.

"S...She didn't abandon me..." he sobbed. "S...She died protecting me! Protecting me from the same damned darkness I cursed myself to!" he cried. "I failed you, Mama..."

"No you didn't, Rumplestiltskin!" Belle said firmly as she turned his head so that his eyes met hers. "Everything happens for a reason, isn't that what you always say? Maybe it was always your destiny to become the Dark One because it was also your destiny to break its evil curse and you will!" she said firmly.

"My aunt couldn't break it," he reminded her.

"You have one advantage Zorinda didn't. Belle," Archie said. "She is one of your anchors to your humanity. You won't be able defeat Alemedia until you find the other two."

"My son Bae is one of them."

"The other is your grandson. He is the last of your bloodline, the East Guardian, and he must be protected at all costs."

"Oh Rumple, how wonderful! You have a grandson!" Belle cried.

"That I'll probably never see along with his father."

"Oh, you've seen him Rumple. He's been here the whole time. He's the reason why I left the OZ. I was sent here to protect him until his Guardian was ready to do so herself and unlock his magic." Archie scowled. "And getting her ready is harder than I thought."

"I'm assuming Emma is the East Guardian's bonded?"

"No. Regina."

"Regina?! Has Lurline lost her mind?" Rumple asked angrily. "I do NOT want my grandson anywhere near that woman!"

"Rumple, he already is. She raised him."

"Are you saying Henry is my grandson?!"

"I am."

"Lurline bound my grandson to the woman he thinks of as a mother? Oh yes, dearie, she HAS lost her mind! My grandson would NEVER think of his mother in a romantic way!" Rumple snorted. "But then again, why am I shocked? My whole bloodline is the result of an incestuous union between an uncle and niece!"

"Regina and Henry's bond is different, Rumple. It's the bond of a parent to a child, the strongest bond there can be. And we can't deny Regina does love Henry."

"Does Henry know he's my grandson?"

Archie sighed. "He can't be told until you find his father."

"And dinna ye think that will be a bit of a shock to him, dearie?"

"I know but even if it wasn't the will of the Oz, it's better to tell him when he and his father are together. It will give them a chance to bond."

"Henry will think Bae gave him up like I gave Bae up."

"He didn't know about him. And I meant what I said to you a while back. You need to tell Bae what really happened that night at the portal."

"Then Emma needs to make that clear that Bae didn't know about him. Quickly! And that is how she is going to repay the debt she owes me. SHE will be the one to tell my son about Henry and she'd better damn well do it right! AFTER she helps me find him!"

"Archie, what did you mean when you said there were worse dangers than Rumple's curse coming?"

"The eclipses," Rumple murmured. "Aramon's prophecy."

"The first eclipse is in twenty-eight days and my wife needs to be freed from Bastinda. Then..."

"Then I must break mine."

Do you know now what must be done, what is the will of the OZ, Rumplestiltskin Strogoff? he heard Archie ask in his mind.

Belle cannot be told. I want your word as a Guardian and a Talon that she will not be told.

I give you my word.

"Rumple, what is Aramon's prophecy?"

"One so horrible that the mere mention of it makes those who know of it quake in fear, Belle. If the eight Guardians of the Balance are not united in fifty-eight days, our world will be destroyed and we will be trapped her forever," he replied. "And we will see it happening, feel the fears of those left behind in the destruction as the price of our survival. I do hope the Ozopovs have gained some common sense and hidden Lurline's emerald where no one can find it!"

"They have but Bastinda is attempting to enact the prophecy herself during the first eclipse. She's searching for Dellia's emerald and has a machine powered by mortanium," Archie spoke up.

"She intends to lock Nero and Neru behind the moon and open the gates of Ephesis. What idiot designed a device powered by the very element that can conduct magical energy?"

"Ahhh...the queen's advisor, Ambrose Benu. Bastinda removed his brain and connected it to it. He will need a Viewer to connect him back to it to shut it down."

Belle gasped. "They removed a man's brain?"

"Yes." Rumple groaned. "Freeing Azkadellia will not be easy Archie but it is the will of the OZ that you and Dorothia must be the ones to do it. But...if we cross the town line..."

"The barrier doesn't affect us Rumple."

"It doesn't? Are you certain of that?"

"Find out for yourself."

"All right but if you're wrong I am turning you back into a cricket!"

"I can do that myself anytime I want to," Archie retorted.

Rumple took Belle's hand in his and the couple teleported out, followed by Archie. Rumple and Belle stood a few inches away from the orange line on the road, their clasped hands glowing as they walked toward the line. They stepped over slowly, feeling the sparks of dark magic as they crossed and paused on the other side. Rumple glanced down at their joined hands and saw that they were still glowing.

"Belle?" he asked, his lips trembling.

"Rumple!" she cried and released his hand, throwing her arms around him. "Archie is right! We can cross! We can cross! And now we can find Bae! Thank you Archie! Thank you!"

"Don't thank me. Thank the person who created the curse. The Guardian in you was awake long enough that you made anyone affiliated with the Houses of Strogoff and Ozopov immune to the barrier once your curse was broken, Rumple."

The barrier will be removed once I banish the Dark One.

Yes.

They stepped back over the line.

"Rumple, there's more I need to tell you..."

"Then we'd best get back to the house but Belle needs to eat first." Rumple gestured and sent the trio back to the Victorian. He returned to the kitchen to finish making the hamburgers and french fries. As he was forming the ground beef into patties Archie walked into the kitchen and cast a silencing spell. "You need to ease up on the magic dearie. You'll need it when you go to Oz because sending Bastinda back to Ephesis is going to drain you hard."

"I know. But you need to know what else I found out. Your father is after Henry."

Rumple slammed his fist down on the counter. "Why? Who told you this?"

"It's a long story."

"Then tell it! What does that bastard want with my grandson?"

"Henry has the Heart of the Truest Believer."

"That's what HE calls it but what my father is really after is the powers of an Ozian demigod so that he can live longer," Rumple sneered. "He tried to take Bae from me first but Bae doesn't have magic as far as I know. How did you find this out?"

Archie told him about the murders his brother David had been trying to solve in San Francisco and their follow up journey to Maryland to talk with Archie's counterpart from a parallel Enchanted Forest known as the 'Wish Realm'.

"So you're saying your counterpart found entrances to four other versions of Storybrooke? Where we've all led different lives with different choices? And this 'Home Office' is a group that wants to find and kill us?"

"Yes."

"And they're getting their information from my father because he is monitoring the other worlds?"

"Yes."

Rumple poured olive oil into a pan and turned on one of the burners and brought out a skillet to cook the hamburgers. "If I know Regina, she's warded this town so that no outsiders can get in and we can't get out. At least I hope she was smart enough to do that. But, my father is no fool either. He will find a loophole. He always does."

"I'm sorry I had to dump all of this on you at once. It's a lot to take in."

"It was as difficult for you I'm certain."

"You knew this was my fate, didn't you?"

"I don't have the Eye of Aramon yet but I have enough of his Sight that it gave me a few clues. Didn't you find it odd that I had you steal dragon's blood all those years ago? You used it on Dorothia and Wyatt Cain, didn't you? It was the only way to try to break the spell Wyatt cast severing their bond when Bastinda killed her. Odd that I didn't see that Emma would be the one to carry on my bloodline."

"You weren't meant to. Rumple, there won't be much time after the eclipse before..."

"I know."

"Belle needs to be prepared."

"I will start teaching her magic but I want you to look after her while I'm in Neverland."

"I will."

The burgers and fries done, Rumple put everything on his silver serving cart and wheeled it into the dining room where Belle was already sitting, sipping tea from her chipped cup.

"I'll let you finish your lunch," Archie said.

"Oh, won't you stay?"

"I can't Belle. I have some things I need to do but we can have lunch again some other time."

"Next time I expect to see your wife with you," she said with a smile.

"I'll do my best." He teleported out.

Belle took one of the burgers off the plate and put it on a kaiser roll along with cheese, ketchup and pickles. Rumple's eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets at the amount of pickles she'd managed to fit in the bun.

"How on Earth are you gonna eat that without it falling apart, dearie?"

"I'll manage...mmmm this is delicious! No grease!"

"I cook my hamburgers in water."

"Do I taste beef ramen noodle seasoning?"

"That goes in once they start cooking. Gives them a little extra flavor. I take it ramen noodles were part of your diet at the hospital."

"It's all they gave me when Regina ordered it. I didn't mind what I ate as long as I was given something."

"Did she ever have you starved?"

"No, thank the gods. But I am not going to be able to eat all this Rumplestiltskin so you'd better help me!"

"I dinna want to get gallstones, dearie!" he laughed.

"Oh you're immortal! You won't."

After they finished their lunch Belle helped him clean up the kitchen. Belle noticed that her lover was more quiet than usual and she suspected it had something to do with everything he'd been told in the last few hours. Knowing that his mother had given her life to protect him offered him some comfort but she feared there was other news he'd been given that he'd deemed too painful for her to hear. She didn't expect him to share all his secrets with her but she hoped there would come a time when he would no longer need to keep them. She loved all of him, including the beast and would do everything in her power to show him.

I am the Heart of the West Guardian. I will love him and protect him until my last breath, not because the OZ wills me to, I will do so because I choose to. No one decides my fate but me.