Content Warning: Gold's nightmares are not pleasant. Trigger warnings for non-graphic physical abuse and sexual abuse. Also for borderline graphic rats. No descriptive details but heavily implied ones.
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In his worst nightmares, Zelena won. She went back in time, back before her own birth, back to when Rumplestiltskin was only a poor spinner. In some of them, she appeared to him, a powerful, glorious sorceress, offering to save Bae's life in return for Rumplestiltskin becoming her slave. She treated him as brutally as she had treated them during the year he had spent in her cage and in her chambers. Only, this time, he was grateful.
Every beating, every cruelty, every perversion, he remembered what she had done for him, the village coward, a man who was left than nothing, and he was grateful for every blow because they were the price he paid for his son to live.
In some of the dreams, Bae was really dead, murdered by Ogres or by Zelena, getting rid of one more thing Rumplestiltskin loved that wasn't her. Yet, he went on, obeying Zelena's orders no matter how the sickened him when she summoned him to her rooms or decided to step into the cage where she kept him penned like a beast. After, he fell short or failed her in some way, he accepted his punishment—he thanked her for putting up with failures, never knowing she'd left Bae's bones for the Ogres to pick their teeth.
In other dreams, things never got that far. In one Zoso was free. The Ogres that attacked them were under his command. Zelena said she could stop him if only someone could steal a precious, magical object from the Dark One. Desperate, Rumplestiltskin did as she asked only to fail and be captured. Zoso cast a spell on him, leaving him unable to move. He left him on the dungeon floor while rats slowly crept out. They approached timidly at first, sniffing at him, waiting for him to move. When he didn't react, they began to nibble at his skin.
Zoso watched and laughed. But, the face of the Dark One wasn't the face of the beggar he remembered. It was his own face, lizard eyed and covered with scales. Zelena came and stood beside him, smiling. When the Dark One turned and looked to her, Rumplestiltskin saw the fire in his eyes. He knew they were lovers, and this had all—sending him here, setting him up to be caught—been a game they played with him, like a cat with a mouse. She told him as much, but this didn't change that he'd failed her and must pay the price. She waved her hand, and Bae appeared before him. The last thing he saw was Zelena murdering his son before the hungry rats began to lick Rumplestiltskin's eyes.
There were other nightmares even grimmer. Deaths and tortures piled high like hay gathered against the winter. Sometimes, Rumplestiltskin lay helpless, unable to do more than watch. Other times, he served her, happy for the chance to be her kicked dog and lick her feet as she destroyed everything he loved.
He'd been able to hide the dreams in Storybrooke. Small magics, nothing more. A small matter of not crying out in his sleep or letting his body jerk around in ways that suggested nightmares. If he started awake sometimes, his heart racing, well, he'd managed not to trouble Belle with it.
He couldn't do that in this world. There was no way to hide it when he woke in terror, his weakening heart pounding against his ribs. It did matter if he woke up screaming. There was no one to hear or care.
Besides, they were dreams. Only dreams. Zelena was dead.
Until she wasn't.
Until the mask dropped away and he knew she was alive, alive and in the same room as him while he lay helpless, unable to get away as she came for him.