Author's Notes: I do not own Once Upon A Time which is a show on ABC where they take a perverse joy in making you cry. Anyway, thank you so much for the reads and reviews, I so enjoy getting them. Please let me know what you think and happy reading!
"What are you working on?"
Rumplestiltskin turned to see Belle had entered his workshop. She was holding a book as usual.
"Didn't I give you a library?," he asked.
She put the book down on an empty stool and placed her hands on his shoulders.
"You have been in here for hours," she said.
"I'm working on something."
"And what could be so important that it makes you not notice that the sun set hours ago?"
Rumplestiltskin looked up. She was telling the truth.
"Is it about finding Bae?," she asked, resting her chin on his shoulder.
"Yes."
"Can I help?," she asked.
He wanted to laugh. The idea that Belle could help with a Dark Curse? The idea that there was anything dark about Belle? No. She was light itself. His light and that idea would have been so laughable if it wasn't so true.
"No, sweetheart," he said.
"Is it to get to the Land Without Magic?"
"It is."
"Is it a portal or something?"
"Belle..."
She took her hands off. "You don't think you can trust me."
Rumplestiltskin turned around to face her.
"I don't trust anyone with these plans, Belle. It's to find my boy."
"And I don't get to know anything. I want to help."
"I know you do, but there are things that have to be done, Belle..."
Things that required manipulation? Things that required making deals with dubious characters? Things that involved making Regina completely and dangerously irredeemable.
Things that his darling Belle was in no way equipped to deal with.
Things that he would never ask his darling Belle to do.
Luckily, she provided him with an out. "You need magic."
"That's right," he said. He took her hands in his. "When I am closer to finding Bae, I can tell you more."
She nodded and wrapped her arms around him.
She couldn't know the truth. She would try to stop him.
And gods help him, he might let her.
"We start simple," Merlin announced, waving his hand to magically clear the table.
"I start," said Gold.
Merlin looked at Gold. "Do you think that's the best idea? Do you even know where to start? You've only started with spinning straw into gold or pushing an overbearing mother through the looking glass."
Beatrice's eyes widened. "The first one sounds kind of okay, but I definitely don't want to do the second one."
"I can start simple," said Gold. "A spell book."
Merlin shook his head. "You can't start her on a spell book."
"What happens with a spell book?," asked Beatrice.
"It's like learning math with a calculator," said Merlin. "It's pointless."
"A jump start," Gold argued.
"She is far too gifted to be using shortcuts."
"Maybe it's not too late to get me into Hogwarts," said Beatrice.
Merlin shook his head. "If you haven't gotten an owl by now, it's not going to happen."
"What?," asked Beatrice. She turned to Gold. "Dad?"
Gold glared at Merlin.
Merlin sighed. "It was a joke, sweetheart. There's no Hogwarts."
"That was not funny," said Beatrice. "I kept my window open for two months after I turned eleven. I got pneumonia."
"That's surprisingly un-cynical for you," remarked Gold.
"It was a phase," said Beatrice, crossing her arms.
Merlin stood from the table and walked around. Waving his hand, he conjured a glass of water. He handed it to Beatrice.
"Make it ice."
Beatrice looked at Gold and saw his puzzled expression. She looked back at Merlin. "Which one of the X-Men do you think I am?"
"Your great-grandmother could do it easily. It came as naturally as breathing to her."
"And who was that, might I ask," Gold inquired.
"Why Catherine the Ice Princess, of course," said Merlin. He motioned at Beatrice's necklace. "She wears her pendant."
"Mom said it belonged to her mother," said Beatrice.
"Catherine the Ice Princess?," Gold asked in disbelief.
"Oh, wishing we'd bothered to ask Belle about herself, are we, sunshine?," asked Merlin.
"Catherine the Ice Princess?," asked Beatrice. "She didn't like go around slaughtering people with bolts of ice, did she?"
"She froze some people on occasion, but only when they really irritated her," said Merlin.
"Did she happen to mention how she did it?," asked Beatrice.
"The word 'how' isn't going to help you," said Gold.
"Then maybe you want to," said Beatrice.
Gold pulled a chair closer to her at the end of the table. He sat down. "Why did you spin that hat?"
"Because I'm a moron."
Gold shook his head. "No. Why did you really do it?"
"Because they said they would hurt Mom," she answered honestly.
"And how would you feel if something were to happen to your mother?"
"What?" The thought paralyzed Beatrice.
"How would you feel? Because, Beatrice, assuming we get out of here, if Cora follows us, she'll want to use you to avenge herself on me and if that happens you and I both know who is going to die first because she loves you and she will stop at nothing, no matter how powerful the woman is-"
"I think you can stop now, sunshine," Merlin said softly.
Beatrice realized her hand holding the glass was cold. She looked to see a solid cylinder of ice.
She looked back at Gold. "You manipulated me."
"I told you what you needed to know."
Beatrice stood up and marched off.
"Magic is emotion, Beatrice," Merlin called after her. "You need a direct line to the soul. Your mother is your soul."
"Would you people just give me five minutes?!," Beatrice snapped as she stormed out.
"Which is what made that such a very clever choice," Merlin said as he turned to Gold.
"Happy?," asked Gold.
Merlin didn't answer right away.
"See, she's tried very hard to bury her feelings," said Merlin. "No friends, a world she wasn't meant to be a part of and a father she wished for that never came. If she didn't bury them, well..."
"We're done," said Gold.
"We're not even close to done, sunshine."
"Yes, we are. Whatever needs to be done, I'll deal with it."
"I didn't see her touch the doors," said Merlin. "Did you?"
Gold realized he hadn't.
"You flipped the switch, sunshine. You are so very good at that."
Rain started. Gold looked to Merlin.
"Tell me that's a coincidence," said Gold.
"That's a coincidence."
Gold glared. "That's a lie, isn't it?"
He walked back to the table and sat next to Merlin again.
"You mentioned the storm the night you came to my shop."
"Was it a storm?"
Gold tried to remember the event. Everything under the Curse was such a haze. He vaguely recalled seeing the storm clouds, growing and some news reports about it. A storm that ran from Maine, it now occurred to him, perhaps from Storybrooke all the way to Manhattan. There was the usual weather panic: lots of rain and thunder, freakish October snow in some places.
"You called it a tempest," said Gold. "A storm born of magic."
"I did."
"And why did you call it that?," asked Gold. "What was happening?"
"Your daughter was being born, of course."
Belle stood in front of the Dark Castle, ready for the magical carriage to take her to her father.
"You didn't have to put me in a new gown," said Belle.
"Yes, I did," he said, looking over his handiwork. It was a gold gown, actual gold thread that he had spun and woven into fabric. Her necklace was more gold he had spun, many threads he idly made into a braid that he had given her for her birthday. He didn't want Sir Maurice to think he was merely looking at a slave on furlough, that sort of thing was always important to these so-called noblemen and he had spent the night toiling on it. Belle, of course, didn't care, but that was Belle.
"Are you sure you won't come?," asked Belle.
Rumplestiltskin shook his head. He didn't want to send Sir Maurice any quicker to his grave. Well, mostly. "No, but you will call me if I'm needed?"
She nodded. "Of course."
She hesitated. He still couldn't shake the feeling that there was something she was not telling him.
"Was there anything else?," he asked.
She smiled and shook her head. "No." She hugged him. "I love you."
"And I love you," he whispered back.
She stepped back. "I'll be back soon. Well, I hope not too soon, but I'll be back."
Rumplestiltskin helped her into the carriage.
"Call me if I'm needed."
Belle smiled as if she thought he was being silly and the carriage set off on its journey.
Beatrice had found the library.
The library.
The tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme library.
It was spotlessly maintained, she guessed through magic and showed no signs of age. She couldn't ponder thumbing through the titles, though. She was too... well, she couldn't decide if it was sad or mad.
"Beatrice?," Gold asked softly.
He came up the stairs.
"I see you found your mother's favorite room."
She scowled and didn't answer. Gold nodded. This was how she was. He sat down next to her and she turned away.
"What I said was true."
"You said it to manipulate me into doing what you wanted."
"Beatrice, you have powerful magic..."
"So I hear."
"Though it pains me to say it, Merlin's right. It's too powerful to be left alone. Cora saw it immediately and will want to use it. Better me than her, you have to believe me on that."
"Right, this is great for you then."
"How is this great for me?"
"You get the kid you wanted, not me."
"What are you talking about?"
She shrugged. "I have to say it?"
"You think I don't want you?," he asked. "What could have possibly given you that impression?"
"No, I get it," she said dismissively. "Congratulations, you have a kid. Sorry, she's a totally pointless nerd who is just going to annoy you and not be anything..."
"Beatrice, the simple truth is that you don't have to be anything. You don't have to do anything. You're mine. I don't understand you, but that doesn't matter because you are mine." He paused. "When I first saw you at Granny's, do you know what I was thinking?"
She snorted. "How could this freak show be related to Belle, let alone be her daughter?"
"No and you need to stop saying you're not beautiful because you are Belle's daughter and you're every bit as lovely as her, which is not a compliment I give to just anyone," he said seriously. "What I was thinking was 'Please, let her be mine because I don't think I could bear it if she wasn't.'"
Beatrice looked up at Gold. "What?"
Gold curled his lip. "That's the response I get?"
"Why? I mean, you didn't want to deal with some kid who wasn't yours-"
"No." Gold was still incredulous at this point. "Just being Belle's daughter would have been enough for me to care for you, but I wanted you."
Beatrice looked away. Gold knew she wasn't going to say anything, but took it as encouragement when she didn't shirk away from his hand in her hair.
"What if she had shown up with a husband?," asked Beatrice.
Gold responded without thinking. "Well, her last romantic interest ended up as a flower, what do you think?"
Beatrice turned back at him sharply. "You have a jealous streak."
"I like to think of it as protecting what's mine."
"Right. Because that's not scary at all."
He leaned in. "It's meant to be scary."
It had been days.
Then a week.
Rumplestiltskin has not left the Dark Castle. He had not gone on any calls, made any deals. All because he wanted to be certain he was here when Belle returned or when she called for him.
One visitor cared not that he was not doing business.
"Good morning, sunshine."
Merlin was waiting at the table in the great hall with breakfast as usual.
"I thought you might be hungry."
Rumplestiltskin took a piece of fruit off the table. "I'm not doing any deals, dearie."
"Oh, I'm not here to do any deals," said Merlin. "In fact, I might have some good news for you. This is a particularly joyous occasion."
"Joyous?," he sneered.
"You'll see what I mean in a bit," said Merlin. "Now, where is that maid of yours?"
"What do you care for my maid?"
"All will become evident soon. Where is she? Belle is her name, I believe?"
Rumplestiltskin narrowed his gaze. "What do you want with her?"
"Don't get any ideas, sunshine. As I said, there is joyous news. You may not see that at first, but life is what happens when you're making other plans."
"What?"
"It's an adage from the Land Without Magic. Do you like it? Now, where is your maid? She ought to be here for this. In fact, it's fairly important that she be here for this."
"She's gone home."
Merlin froze. He stopped and turned slowly towards Rumplestiltskin.
"She what?"
"I don't need to justify what happens with my servants to you."
Merlin looked at Rumplestiltskin in a manner that indicated he clearly thought he needed to justify himself. "Did you release her?"
"She's visiting," said Rumplestiltskin. "She found out her father was dying."
"And have you heard from her since she left?"
"She has not summoned me."
"She didn't send word to say she had arrived safely?"
"No."
Merlin narrowed his eyes. "And how long do you suppose her father needs to die?"
"I ask again, what do you care?"
"I merely say it seems suspicious, sunshine."
Merlin disappeared before Rumplestiltskin's eyes.
Which made him realize it did sound quite suspicious. It wasn't like Belle to not send word for a week.
Beatrice wasn't used to being ripped from the Netherworld. She had learned to control it, but suspected several days of magic lessons had exhausted her. At any rate. she awoke in bed to see a man in black leather. He was holding her glasses.
With a hook.
"You don't look like a crocodile..." he remarked.
"Oh, you are kidding me," said Beatrice.
"It's a shame you're so lovely."
Beatrice sat up. "Okay, your creep factor is basically off the charts right now."
He frowned. "I don't think I understood any of that sentence. Allow me to introduce myself-"
"Captain Hook."
He looked taken aback. "That was surprisingly prescient."
"Hold that thought. Dad!"
Hook swung his hook forward towards Beatrice and they were both surprised when instead of it going in her flesh, Hook went flying back. Beatrice bolted towards the door and ran in the hall.
"Does anybody ever plan on coming when I shout?!," Beatrice screamed.
She marched downstairs to find Emma and Mary Margaret had returned, looking a bit rough after their journey.
"We'll figure out something else," said Mary Margaret.
"Yes, Your Highness, because there are so many other ways to transport oneself to another realm," said Gold. "I was just bored when I created the Dark Curse."
"Don't yell at her," said Emma. "This is my fault."
Gold turned to Emma. "Yes, dearie, I caught that from when you said 'I burned the wardrobe.'"
"Again, guys," said Beatrice.
"Give her a break, Gold. She's new here."
"I couldn't let Cora get to Henry," said Emma.
"Right, because I'm sure she just gave up."
Merlin cleared his throat.
Beatrice turned behind her. "Where did you come from?"
Merlin held up a vial. "I was just collecting the ashes of an Enchanted Wardrobe."
Emma looked at him in amazement. "Wait, could that work?"
"Cora seemed to think so when I found her," said Merlin.
"What did you do to her?," asked Mary Margaret.
"Took her ashes, used several cunning insults, might have said she had the face of a boiled hen..." Merlin shrugged.
"What do we do now?," asked Emma.
Gold examined the ashes in the vial. "Now we have the problem of navigation," said Gold.
"Oh," said Beatrice, "that reminds me. Captain Hook is in my room?"
Beatrice watched as her father's expression suddenly turned very, very frightening.
"Captain Hook?," asked Emma. "Really?"
"So, like, do you know him or-"
Beatrice didn't really get a chance to finish her question as Gold had already taken the sword Emma had been using off the table and headed upstairs.
"Gold!," Mary Margaret called after him. "What are you doing?"
She then followed him up the stairs. Then Emma.
Beatrice turned to Merlin. "You know, it seems like we spend a lot of time chasing after this guy because he's about to kill someone."
"What do you suggest?"
"Well, I don't know what the guy did."
"Stole his wife."
"What wife?"
Merlin shook his head. "Oh, that is so like him."
"He was married?"
"Gold! You can't do this!," shouted Mary Margaret.
Merlin sighed and looked at Beatrice. "Excuse me one moment."
Merlin disappeared into another plume of smoke.
Beatrice sighed and began up the staircase. "And now I'm a psycho if I don't go try to stop him from killing the Johnny Depp wannabe..."
Beatrice joined them back in the bedroom.
"What did I miss?," Beatrice whispered to Emma.
"Well, your dad ripped out that guy's heart and then Merlin made him put it back..." Emma said sideways to her.
Beatrice nodded. "Sounds about right."
"Now," said Merlin, removing Hook's hook, "what did Cora send you for?"
Hook looked at Beatrice. "Her heart." He looked up at Emma. "I don't believe we've been introduced."
"Are you serious?," asked Beatrice.
"I never jest around beauty," said Hook.
Beatrice looked at Emma. "Don't buy it. He called me lovely like five minutes ago.'
Gold raised his hand. "And now he's dead."
"Gold, stop!," yelled Mary Margaret.
"For once, the fairest of them all is correct," said Merlin. He held up Beatrice's glasses. "How did she enchant these?"
"To see everything she sees," said Hook. "I used them to get past this crocodile's magic."
"Oh, he's the crocodile..." said Beatrice. She shook her head. "I don't get it."
Merlin threw the glasses in the fire. He looked at Gold. "Put the pirate in your bloody dungeon already."
"I'd really rather kill him."
Merlin glared. Gold waved his hand and Hook disappeared into a puff of garnet smoke.
"I thought I'd hang on to the glasses," said Beatrice.
"What do we do?," asked Mary Margaret.
Merlin and Gold exchanged glances.
"We need to move, Your Highness," said Gold.
"What about our navigation problem?," asked Mary Margaret.
"How long will it take you to get to the lake?," asked Merlin.
"We can travel through the night," said Gold.
Merlin nodded. "And we'll use blood to find blood."
"You're going back?," asked Gold.
"I really wish I could follow this conversation," said Emma.
"Tomorrow. Sunset?," asked Merlin.
Gold nodded. He looked at Beatrice. "Get ready. We're leaving as soon as I return."
Mary Margaret and Emma followed Gold.
Beatrice went looking for her shoes. She noticed Merlin had picked up a leather satchel and was putting books in it.
"You need reading material for wherever you're going?," asked Beatrice.
Merlin smiled. "Something like that. You might want to find a cloak. The weather here has been quite erratic."
Beatrice nodded. "Right..." She walked to the wardrobe and opened it, finding an array of gold gowns. "Oh, look, straight from the Disney Princess collection. Yeah, there's a blue one."
Merlin smiled and put more books in the bag.
"Are you taking the whole library?," asked Beatrice.
"Not the whole library," said Merlin.
Beatrice selected what seemed to be a sort of aqua cloak.
"My mom and I met Princess Belle at Disney World, you know."
"Do you now?"
"Yeah, I've got a picture. It was pretty hilarious. Well, now it seems hilarious."
Merlin looked at her curiously.
"She told her that she thought the opening song was a little harsh on the villagers," said Beatrice.
Merlin smiled. "That does sound like her. This would have been your house, you know."
Beatrice looked up at him.
He continued. "You probably would have been born in this room. You might have slept in here when you were a baby."
"You like hypotheticals, don't you?"
"You never would have had a nurse, you see. No one would willingly work for the Dark One and your mother would never tolerate keeping a slave."
"Why do you know so much about my mom?," asked Beatrice.
Merlin shook his head. "Not that much."
Beatrice suddenly had a flash of Merlin. He was holding her hand.
"No, I know you," said Beatrice.
"No, I think you must be mistaken," said Merlin.
"I don't think I am."
Gold returned. He was carrying his own bag.
"Beatrice?," he asked. "Are you alright?"
"I'll see you on the other side, sunshine."
"You had better," Gold warned.
Merlin nodded and then disappeared.
"Sweetheart," said Gold, "you were supposed to get ready."
"Yeah, sorry." She walked back over to her shoes and started putting them on. She stopped and looked up at Gold. "Would I have lived here?"
Gold shook his head. "Of course you would have lived here. Where else would you belong?"
"Well," said Beatrice, starting to tie the laces, "that explains my whole life."
"What does that mean?"
"Nothing," shrugged Beatrice. "Let's go home."
Since his daughter's return, Sir Maurice was not getting much sleep.
Especially with the Dark One standing at the edge of his bed.
"Where is she?"
Sir Maurice sat up. "I don't-"
"You're looking well, aren't you?," Rumplestiltskin interrupted. "I thought you were at death's door. A pity you didn't go through it."
"She's not here."
"I have eyes, don't I? Now, where is she?"
"I don't know."
"I saved you. I saved your whole kingdom. And what do I ask? All I ask is your daughter forever. I've held up my end of the agreement, what about you?"
"You will never have her," Maurice snarled.
"Then the deal's off."
Maurice looked out the window and gasped in horror as fires burned at the far corners of his lands. The footsteps of the ogres could be heard in the distance.
"You know where to find me if you change your mind."
"You beast!"
Rumplestiltskin stopped.
"You claim to love my daughter and this is how you show your love! By hurting the people she sacrificed herself to the likes of you to protect?!"
He turned slowly. "When did I claim to love your daughter exactly?"
The ogres screams stopped. There was a different look in the Dark One's eyes now. A new level of coldness.
Sir Maurice realized he had let his hand show. "I don't know, I-"
"Where is she?"
"No, I-"
"Where is she?"
Maurice fell back on the only explanation he could think of. The only one that would suffice. "She's dead!"
Rumplestiltskin froze in horror. Maurice continued.
"She's dead and it's your fault. The clerics tried to cleanse her soul and they couldn't! You have damned her with your black magic!"
"My fault?!," he asked. "My fault?!"
"If you truly care for her, you won't use your powers against the people she sacrificed herself to protect at such a cost."
"Are you daring to tell me what I won't do?"
Maurice shook her head. "I don't expect it to have any effect, beast."
Rumplestiltskin turned around. "I'm amused at this recent spat of bravery, but your words do move me. Instead of wanton death and destruction throughout your land, I shall use my powers on the people who deserve it." He pointed a finger at Maurice. "You."
The Dark One vanished as quickly as he had arrived.
When Maurice awoke the next morning, his men gave him word of the first peasant uprising.
Merlin finally found Belle. In the interim, Rumplestiltskin had gone mad, terrorizing Sir Maurice and his knights, killing the Gold Fairy and making himself a menace.
It had taken Merlin some time to find Belle in the woods. The Blue Fairy had hidden her well.
It didn't take the fairy long to find him.
"A blood tracking spell," said the Blue Fairy. "Whose blood did you use?"
Merlin turned to face the fairy. "Whose blood do you think I used, you trollop?"
"I always suspected," said Blue.
"And yet you did nothing to help poor Sir Maurice."
"Sir Maurice made his oath to the Round Table."
Merlin smiled. "Oh, the oaf made an oath, did he? That's a bit of word play, by the way. Release her from your curse."
Blue scoffed. "And let that monster inside her live? It would be the end of this realm."
"You will be the end of this realm, one way or the other, release her now."
"No."
"Very well," said Merlin. He shrugged off his coat. "How shall we do this? Swords, pistols or magic?"
Blue suddenly became human-sized appearing with a blade in her hand. "Swords."
"How very cocky for an elderly woman in a tutu," said Merlin, a sword materializing in his right hand. "En garde!"
They fought and the fairy was not much for sword play, but she lunged at him and nicked his arm.
That's when Merlin realized something was wrong.
"You tart," he said falling to his knees.
She panted, out of breath. "I had to."
"You tart." He looked up at her with a sneer. "It was the Sword of Damocles, wasn't it? You had it all this time."
"When will you see that my way is the only way for magic?," Blue asked as if she was tired.
"This is no way, Blue and I will have my vision." He felt himself slipping away. "This only works for so long, you know. I shall return and when I do, things will continue as I have planned."
Blue shook her head. "I don't think so, Merlin."
"I do, you winged trollop."
And that was the last thing he said for thirteen years.
