Chapter Seven
Tests of Courage
At Mr. Gold's pawnshop, he was experiencing a break-in as well. He was wearily nodding off in the back room after fighting the sleep of a normal man, long forgotten after years of being the Dark One, when a window shattered. Mr. Gold cautiously put out the oil lantern and edged along the wall to the back exit- he saw glass shimmering on the floor- it had been a window high in his workshop that someone broke! Mr. Gold was now fully awake, hyperventilating as he changed course to leave out the front. They were near! It could be anyone, seeking vigilante justice against him in the dead of night! Then he heard splintering wood- the front door was being hacked at, taken off its hinges! He felt surrounded. Something hit him in the dark- before he even knew anyone had entered. He hadn't been quick enough to grab a weapon- but what hit him was just a rope. A rope thrown over one shoulder, then another heavy rope thrown over his other shoulder. "Stop!" he cried out in panic. The ropes tightened around him, and someone grabbed his neck until he passed out from a lack of oxygen. That someone was following very careful instructions to steal something and haul him away.
When Gold came to, he found himself tied awkwardly to two poles, lying on them on the forest floor. His abductor had dragged him here on a travois. How? He heard a horse snuffling and stomping, not far away. He felt cold eyes watching him. Waiting until it was light to try to move, he focused on calming down his breathing and his scattered fears. Just before dawn, he craned his neck to see a red headed woman out of the corner of his eye, brushing the horse and looking off into the distance. The binds were loose enough- he could actually wriggle free, in the moments when she faced away. Mr. Gold crumpled into a sore, boney old man, making himself small so he could slip away as skillfully as anyone with a broken foot. He looked ahead at the travois tracks deep in the earth, which would lead him along the way he had been dragged. But the woman and horse caught up to him too quickly! Fierce blue eyes looked down on him.
"So much for that test!" she said, in a very strong and familiar accent. Due to her accent and dress, she must have come from Rumpelstiltskin's land! "You didn't even see the staff lying there. Just thought you'd take off without a weapon? And don't ya figure that I laid traps along the way?"
"That was a test? Who are you, what do you want?" he asked, baffled.
She swung her leg down, hopped off her horse and picked up a walking stick.
"Fight!" she commanded, and jabbed his chest with the stick. "Fight for your life!" She swung the bough at his left arm, then thwacked his right. He screamed as she raised it up high and prepared to jump with the force of another swing.
"I can get you magic! I can get you money! What do you want?" He cried desperately. He dodged her blow from above.
"No ya can't! Your magic's gone, everyone knows that Rumpelstiltskin. And I've already had a chance to raid your shop, thanks very much." The wiry young woman nodded towards the saddlebags on her horse that bulged full.
Rumpelstiltskin backed away as quickly as he could, fumbling while reaching back behind him for any weapon. She had said that he passed by a staff- keeping his eyes on her, he managed to grab a walking stick that lay in the brush! "I can get you answers! Information! What do you want to know!?"
"Already have me source. I'll get just what I need if I first deal with you!" She flipped her long mess of red hair back and tossed her staff from hand to hand as she strode towards him. The staff struck him low- in the gut- then pressed against his neck, tilting his head up to the sky. "Seems like you need answers. So how about you get 'em out of me?"
Rumpelstiltskin gulped. Usually he could goad an enemy into talking instead of fighting, and talking led to trading. "Y-yes I want answers -and I would beg of your help- I would buy your help- with a few ingredients, I still have the ability to do a- beauty spell!" he gasped, as he tightly gripped the staff behind him.
At this the warrior woman gritted her teeth and furiously shoved her staff forward against his throat with both hands - he backed up, took a knee, ducked low and to the side, then swung his stick at her feet. She fell forward with her momentum from pushing against his neck. Rumpelstiltskin struggled to stand tall, leaning on his walking stick. He pushed his sweat and shoulder length hair out of his face, then got ready to just stand on his good foot long enough to strike her with the staff.
The woman's calloused hand caught the blow above her head.
In a treetop a few yards away, Killian watched them through his spyglass. He chuckled and passed the spyglass to his playful vision of Emma as their legs dangled from the tree branch they sat on. "It's finally getting good!" They saw Merida wrest the staff from Rumpelstiltskin.
"That's the spirit! And for tryin," Merida said, "I'll answer one of yer questions. I am to be queen Merida. Queen of the strongest clans."
"A strong queen indeed! You don't want a soldier like me, queen Merida. Believe me… so how about saving yourself the trouble of... dealing with me, and just let me go back to town?"
"What do you have to go back to, Rumpelstiltskin?"
He thought of the shop. It still had safeguards - of Dark One magic. So how did this woman get in last night? She didn't seem to have magic, hadn't used it for anything else. She'd had help! He wearily suspected that the Dark One hadn't really gone away. Everyone said that Emma had died but the Dark One- must have persisted, and assisted that break in! Rumpelstiltskin had so many questions now, and the only way to get anything out of Merida was to pass her little tests!
"Fight!" she ordered, coming at him with two staffs swinging. He backed up and grabbed the black horse's bridle, hard. He twisted it tight so as to choke the animal, staring down Merida with a look of challenge. She gave a particular whistle and the mighty horse shook off his grip, bucked and galloped away down the trail. "I know you can fight dirty Rumpelstiltskin! But you're no match for Angus."
"Would you ever take a hostage?" he asked quickly, just dodging her swings. His panic grew as he thought of Belle- Merida seemed to know plenty about him! "Is that fighting too dirty for you?"
"An innocent hostage- that would be no better' n the lords kidnapping my brothers!" she blurted in anger. "An' I'll get them, good gods, an' yer going to help me!" She knocked him off his feet with one stick and jammed the other stick's end against his throat as he lay on the ground.
Rumpelstiltskin figured he could anger her and then get her to talk, but how would he keep his strength until then - enough strength to escape again?
"Show me how!" he cried desperately.
The young woman narrowed her fiery eyes, eased her shoulders, then lowered the makeshift weapons. She helped him up, with a stern look- training could really begin.
"Why are you pitting people against my daughter?" Maleficent paced the floor as she spoke with Regina Mills on an ivory rotary telephone."What are you up to? What happened between the two of you in Camelot?"
"Lily went to Camelot?" Regina asked.
Maleficent nearly melted the phone in her hand with the heat of her fury.
"Look, my memory's as fuzzy as anyone else's. If there's anyone you should ask about our absence, it's"- Regina stopped herself from spilling Hook's name, as much as she wanted to gossip with her old friend.
"Who?"
"The man who claims to selectively remember... I'll get you his number! But first, I may need your help…"
"Of course you need something. It's always about you."
"No, it's about my boyfriend, Robin."
"Awww, Robin... I'm glad you finally took my advice about getting a pet!"
"I could easily trap YOU as my pet lizard again, if you don't listen! Sending men to hit on Lily would be the last thing on my mind- but Robin! Maybe with our magic combined we can help him..." Regina's voice betrayed how helpless she felt. This was the sort of conversation she would have with Emma- but Emma was gone forever. She glanced at Robin, who was staring out the window in the other room, bundled up in a gray hoodie.
She began with an understatement, "Last night was rough. There was-"
"Your night was rough! The entire round table ganged up on Lily, at the bar! That was organized by someone, Regina!"
"She's a big girl, she's surely dealt with the attention of many men before -Ask her. -BUT Robin is being hunted! By a flying banshee, or something! I tried everything to ward her off!" Regina rubbed her eyes, weary and afraid. "The only thing that kept the bitch at bay was a torch, until dawn..."
"How old-school. " Maleficent commented.
Regina leaned against the kitchen counter, thinking of what this could mean. The creature appeared last night, when the moon was full, and was kept from carrying off her beloved Robin just by the threat of a broom on fire. None of her magic spells had any effect, and she and Robin had not been able to hide in the basement or her magically protected vault. That did remind her of other magical creatures she'd faced-like an insatiable wraith. But this winged menace was new to her. It had clawed at him blindly, eyes closed, long wet hair in its face. Flew with tattered wings into the sky at dawn- nocturnal like a vampire or gargoyle.
"Do you think the creature appeared because of the full moon- and will it be back tonight and tomorrow night then?" Regina asked. It had been pale as a ghost, its long thin body and limbs scantily clad in a shredded corset and skirt. "And-It was dressed like a truck stop whore. Does that mean anything?"
"No self-respecting monster would dress like that!" The women shared a laugh, surprising themselves. "It means the monster has a male chauvinist master somewhere...?" Maleficent suggested.
"Then when it comes back tonight, we'll trap the thing to draw out its master!"
A pause. "My dear, the dragons are keeping to themselves at this time. You'll still have to be a lot more helpful to my family, for us to help your family," Maleficent asserted.
"But I-! I've kept you alive!" Regina said, trying to keep the desperation in her voice hidden with anger. "I made you part of my Dark Curse... so that the magic of this town would sustain you, in whatever form you are in. Don't tell me you thank Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum for bringing you back from the ashes!" She referred to their old partners in crime, Ursula and Cruella de Vil, with a frustrated breath. "No one comes back from the dead!- Unless I have preserved them." She felt the wounds from preserving her late fiancé, Daniel, all over again. Daniel had not been successfully re-animated with magic like Maleficent...
"Duly noted. All the more reason to keep my daughter out of whatever danger you're in."
Lily was in the kitchen, making waffles and coffee on the large stainless steel stove. She set out breakfast for herself and her mother on the marble island, and when they both sat down, she demanded to know what that call was all about. Her fairly new, close relationship with her mother was built on honesty. Refreshing and-difficult for both of them. But it meant the world to them.
Meanwhile, Robin Hood decided to stop worrying and go to a friend who may be able to help him with the monster that was likely coming back for him. He walked to the local pawn shop with his six year old son Roland skipping along at his side, grateful that at least the children were safe from being carried away- it had shown no interest in them last night, and so Regina and he had been able to lock the kids in the house and flee.
They found Belle Gold in tears, looking about the empty little store that she had just unlocked. Everything appeared to be in order, but-
"He's gone!" she said. "Yesterday he insisted that we should... have some space, or something, and today, not a word, and..." She dabbed her face dry with a handkerchief. "He must have just taken off!"
Roland gave her a consoling hug.
"Would you be ready to have him back in your life, if he hadn't left?" Robin asked her. "Would you be ready for your husband back, when he had lied to you so...?"
"No, no, I just wanted to be here for him as a friend!" She said, slowing down as she realized how inappropriate that sounded, considering that he wanted space.
"Well, I don't know about him, but I could use a friend," Robin said, with a hand on her shoulder. He played with Roland as she looked through the books in the back for any reference to the thing on wings that had chased him all over town last night. The search led them to the library, where Belle had been mixing public and private library books quite liberally behind locked doors. She didn't like what she found out, translating and cross checking myths, legends, and spell books of warning.
"It flies at the full moon's zenith, when the ferryman lets it loose," Belle summarized quietly for Robin. Roland was reading a picture book by the window. "Since the ferryman cannot leave the ferry, and the Lord of the Underworld cannot leave his realm... the Fury collects souls from our world. Souls that are supposed to be dead..." Her mouth was too dry to finish. She figured it wouldn't help anyway to tell him that the Fury would not stop until it had collected a soul.
"Why am I its target? What happened in Camelot, that would mean my death? And how did I...?" Robin blanched. "Maybe the answers will be waiting for me in death. Please, Belle, be good to Roland, be there for him if he is ever too much for Regina to handle..."
"Don't just say your goodbyes and give up!" Belle eked. She hugged him tightly, hoping that it was not for the last time.
"I know, I know, and Regina won't let me anyway," he said. "We delayed the beast until its curfew at dawn- with fire. So Regina was thinking we'd stop it with a cage of fire or what have you. But from what you learned- it has a reason for hunting me. Maybe I deserve to be dead. And it will just find a way to hunt me next full moon, if I delay it during this one."
"Yes-or another Fury will be sent if you stop this one." Belle stepped back from him and looked with close attention on yet another friend she could lose- without her recent memories, without Rumpelstiltskin, and without friends, how would she go on?
In a quiet clearing, just a few miles away, Rumpelstiltskin's mind was still with drowsiness. Merida and her horse napped while her student struggled against ropes and chains and sleep deprivation. She had beaten him again, bound him again, and was so confident that he would succumb to weakness, she could rest easy in the middle of the day. He had gotten nothing else out of her, and his thoughts were tired from going in circles: she must have had help with the Dark One magic of the shop, she didn't need his help and couldn't be bought, she had someone else as a source of information- and there was still a Dark One out there, escaping recognition. The Dark One persisted somehow, he figured, as Rumpelstiltskin had thought he heard in the back of his mind, in quiet moments alone. He heard the dagger of Kris whispering to him still. Where was the Dark One, and what did she- or he- really want?
A scabbard rested against a rock just a couple yards away. Surely Merida had left it there to entice him, and to begin another sparring round. If they were moving on to swordplay, he could really get hurt- he suspected Princess Merida didn't care. He would rather sneak away, get back to Belle to warn her that the Dark One lives- and together they could research who Merida was and where she came from. They could find a way to reason with her- stop her!
Rumpelstiltskin slowly made his way over to the blade, and frayed the rope that tied his hands behind his back on the edge of the scabbard, careful not to cut himself as his hands broke free. Chains clanked as he moved, for they tethered him to a tall aspen tree. Only so many links to bind his feet, not his whole body- and one of the links must be weak because Merida hadn't used a lock, just forced a couple links together to make the loop. She wanted him to try and escape, with the weapon this time.
Instead Rumpelstiltskin searched for the weak link as silently as he could. Still, the wily young warrior woke, spotted him- and was in his face in a second.
"No rest for the wicked, eh? You had your chance!" She waved a sharp short sword in a circle in the air, then steadied it before him. He glanced at the dull scabbard lying there, then at his feet. "Sometimes you have to fight in chains," said she. "Fight for your life!"
He felt weak, almost ready to give up. "You could kill me. Then I can't help you. You could maim me. Then I may be useless in your quest. Or you could consider me useless now, which is the truth…"
Merida moved swiftly even in a tight old world dress, slicing away his sleeves and the middle of his shirt. She was inches away from closing in on a blow to his heart-but he didn't crouch down to get the weapon.
"Tired of fighting against somethin- yea, and my father taught me that men need something to fight for." She was prepared for passive resistance. From a bag sewn to her side, she delicately removed a porcelain teacup and balanced it on the tip of her sword. A decorated blue and white cup. A cup that had once been chipped-
Rumpelstiltskin's rage shook him like the quaking aspen he was chained to. He kicked up the chain that was tight around each ankle but slack between him and his anchor, and used the slack to quickly encircle Merida. She tried to jump out of the way but was still caught up in his chain. She lost balance- he caught the cup as it fell. In a second she was up again, with both blades pointed at him, and with a surprised grin.
"Hey! That's the spirit, when you find something you care about-" she said, cut off by his deft attempt to catch her swing of the sword with a length of chain and entangle her again.
"How did you know about this?" he demanded, cradling the cup with his sorer arm.
From Killian's perch not far away, he watched and laughed. Killian was surprised to hear Dark Emma laughing with him and elbowing his ribs. He loved the company, whether she was a ghost or vision or fractured part of him, but the Emma he knew in life would not laugh. She would consider this torture. She wouldn't put up with his crap.
"I like Merida," Emma said. "She knows how to motivate people. Knows a lot about family-and music, and a fair share about magic. She just never gives up!"
"Aye, love. But she's come too close to revealing too much already," Killian mused. "And… she did say she'd never take a hostage. If that's what it takes…"
"You'll take her heart and make her," Emma said, with a flip of her long white braid. "You'll control her carefully- I know you won't kill her or the hostage. Just scare him."
"How do you know I won't kill someone?" Killian asked. His future as a Dark One might very well be fraught with crimes, for which he could evade consequence.
"You stopped me from crushing Merida's heart, back in Camelot-it would have been the first murder that the darkness pushed me towards," Emma said, leaning over and nuzzling his ear. "But you guided me towards mercy and light-and now I'm here to do that for you." There was still doubt in her tone.
Below, Merida and Rumpelstiltskin fought for hours over the cup, always precariously held in his grip or hers as they circled each other and tripped on the chain plenty. He did wrest the scabbard from her, but wasn't able to parry for very long before she would relentlessly point out the fatal flaw in his fencing or footwork. He got not another word out of her until dusk.
"Your freedom," she said, lowering her sword and pointing it at the weak link in the chain. They wiped sweat from their brows, as Rumpelstiltskin cautiously knelt to examine the link with just enough gap to force it open. "You've worked for it."
"I was a soldier, long ago! And they didn't train me this hard!"
"Long ago, you would have done anything to get out of it, wouldn't ya? Now, Rumpelstiltskin…" Merida raised an eyebrow and looked at him levelly. He didn't like her knowing tone. He pushed the loops of chain off his feet and hobbled away down the travois trail with his precious cup and scabbard. He was sore everywhere, exhausted, bleeding from little nicks and cuts that Merida could have made even worse if she wanted-his wrists and ankles and ribs were deeply bruised from being bound. He didn't care if the way forward was full of booby traps, nor that Merida didn't seem to be done with him. He just had to get to Belle. As much as he had to get away from the realization that Merida was leading him towards: that the old Rumpelstiltskin would have hurt himself to get out of her tests.
Regina and Robin tucked in little Roland after assuring him the monster wouldn't get him. "Your daddy is a monster fighter," Regina said, wrapping up a bedtime story that she had just come up with. "And I am too. We'll trap the monster, and come morning it will disappear." They sat on his bed silently until Roland fell asleep.
"Can you find a way… so he gets back to the Sherwood Forest, every summer break?" Robin asked. "Because I assume you'll be putting him in school…"
"No, Robin," his beautiful girlfriend insisted, "I won't let anything happen to you! We already decided, we raise our children together!"
She went downstairs and shouldered the weapon she had just bought from Lizzie B's Armory. Out on the front steps of their house, the Merry Men were ready, similarly armed with the flamethrowers she had treated them to.
Later that night, the light of the full moon they anticipated shone from behind clouds, as a terrifying howl seemed to rip apart the sky. All of Storybrooke and East Storybrooke heard the screaming Fury that blew trees down in its wake, speeding from Gentleman's Park to the merry men's empty camp, through the woods and above the town, screaming a name in its own garbled language. Its bat-like wings carried it fast to the mayor's two-story mansion that was surrounded by an armed guard like a mobster's compound.
But the trees and lampposts trembled from the wind of larger wings. Robin and Regina looked up - a black dragon bigger than their house was circling their yard! It clawed at the flying Fury- even with the height of two men, it was no match for a dragon!
"Friend of yours?" Robin yelled to Regina over the noise.
"I'm not sure!" she yelled back. The dragon didn't have quite the same face or proportions as her friend Maleficent. Whoever it was, it caught the Fury in its claws and flew away with it.
The edge of town wasn't far as the black dragon flies- that was where knife like teeth nearly bit the dragon's feet off, and, letting go of it, the winged guardian took an impossibly forceful flying punch to the gut. The plan had been to roast the Fury, but now the wind was knocked out of the dragon. She was out of practice when it came to mustering a fire breath, and for the moment she had no breath- she landed on her bleeding feet for a second near the gravel road and watched the screeching hellion jet back to town. Meanwhile, the people of East Storybrooke watched the skies in horror- a ghostly white creature, followed by a coughing dragon, both flapped their wings so forcefully the marina was rocked by waves.
"Dragons!" Someone shouted.
"Gear up men!" King Arthur shouted with a grin. "Grab thy helm, gird thy loins, and follow me!" The knights were prepared for this moment- Arthur had told them there was a beast that would be unleashed. They had swords, crossbows, even a catapult ready. They would prove that they could protect both little towns, and deserved the honors of dragon slayers.
The sky cleared, the moon shone bright, and a fearsome creature whizzed past, darkening the townsfolk's view of its full face. The blind Fury knew the crowd around the mayor's mansion had dispersed - it smelled its prey underground. It dug up the lawn before city hall in a flash, plowing along the path that the underground tunnels took. Hot on its heels were the toothy jaws of a dragon, who ran clumsily, unaccustomed to being so low to the ground. The two had a terrible fight, which rose up into the air, above the power lines at last. The Fury howled and darted between the dragon's wings, shredding them with impossible strength, just as her scaly chest glowed and filled with fire.
The knights were on their way in borrowed trucks and vans, thinking they could take on both monsters- and other help was on its way too.
A great bellowing dragon with white, curving horns flew up to them. This elder dragon looked disapprovingly on the younger, but still helped her fight off the Fury. They managed to fly opposite each other in a circle, kicking the lethal creature between them, and spiral higher and higher into the night sky. The people looked up in wonder- they gasped and screamed when a fiery blast was seen, illuminating the dragons' darkened faces and roasting the whirlwind of claws that was the Fury. Its jaws opened wider than its head was long, but its tattered wings kept flying through the pain. With alternating breaths of fire, the two dragons kept the underworldly hunter caught in a cloud of flame until break of dawn.
Below, the Knights of the Round Table gave battle cry after battle cry and shot up all their ammunition, to no effect. Whether they killed a monster or the monsters killed each other, it mattered not to them. The band of Merry Men crowded around and lauded them for trying to fight the monster- not knowing that they were not just there for the Fury.
Regina and Robin Hood didn't emerge from their hiding place until first light, when the inhuman screaming died away and the messenger of Charon flitted back whence it came. Regina realized that Maleficent was their protector, landing majestically to glower at them. The smaller, injured dragon- she fell from the sky, exhausted, transforming as she fell, into a bloodied young woman- Lily. Maleficent caught her gently in the webbing of an outstretched wing. The dragons took off before anyone could say anything.
Rumpelstiltskin had hardly heard the rumble of battle that shook the town. He made his way to Main Street, Storybrooke- and the sight of him made someone call law enforcement, which made them call a concerned citizen, Belle Gold.
"Help me bring him home, I'll take care of him," she said as he collapsed in her arms. "He wouldn't want to stay at the hospital."
She whispered to him on the ride home, "I thought you just left without a word! But-" She looked over his bruised and cut arms and ankles, darkly encircled by the marks of bondage. She concluded, with quiet rage, "You were abducted- again!"
He tried to tell her that it was a warrior like none he had ever known -and she had had help! Magical help, he knew from the looks of his shop- the front door was whole, and no one seemed to know of the break in. All that dehydrated Rumpelstiltskin managed to say was "Help..."
He let her wash and bandage him in the comfort of their home- but he wouldn't let himself fall asleep. Their home. His problems were their problems, and his trouble with Merida was their trouble. It couldn't continue to be this way. They both were in danger- and he could not protect them like he used to.
He was scared, too scared for his usual filter he had when speaking even with Belle. "Merida will come back for me - and she has Dark One magic, somehow. Whenever I'm alone, I hear the dagger, Belle. I hear it in my head…"
"Merida did this? Who's Merida?"
"We've got to leave town, or go somewhere she wouldn't expect! We're sitting ducks here-for once, my enemy knows things about me while I know nothing of her!" He caught his breath as he looked over his closet- what loose clothes did he have, with no buttons for his swollen hands to deal with? What could he manage to take with them? He had no idea where they would go or for how long they'd be gone. "All I know is she's from somewhere in the Enchanted Forest! So, she'll be stopped at the new town line. By the new Curse."
"Rumpel, the new Curse -you'd rather us transform into trees, than face this person?"
"I'm sorry, sweetheart," he sighed. "I confess… I wasn't listening too closely when you tried to update me on everything, the other day."
She stopped cleaning up all the bandages in the bathroom and looked at him, expressionless. Suddenly she was sweetheart again-when he was apologizing, when he was asking something of her. And every time he had apologized before, he hadn't turned back from his error. He had always left something out, always found another way around to the same old things he wanted to do.
He continued, "Whether it's memory loss or tree transformation… Either way, my dear, I know there's something in the shop that will help us."
"And just us?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest. "We're not the only ones facing a new enemy Rumpel! I am not ready to just leave town- my friends- and our family- is here!"
He didn't have a good answer to that. She set out a quick meal and they ate in silence. Then-
"I'll drive you to the shop. We'll face this Merida together -you think we should be armed with magic? I think we should be armed with knowledge- of anything and everything about her. We ought to be able to find something about her or her family or what she wants, in the library. "
"Thank you Belle. The library might be a decent hiding place. Just -one more thing - do you still carry that gun I gave you?"
She shook her head, disturbed by the possibility of having to take it out of the gun cabinet, load it, carry it loaded -even shoot someone, for both their sakes. She got up then, to do just that. She muttered to herself, "Do the brave thing, and bravery will follow…." Only when the gun was in her purse and Rumpelstiltskin was carefully brought to the car, could he allow himself to sleep on the ride.
Belle had time to think, letting go of her anger towards both Rumpelstiltskin and his abductor. Ideally he would act more grateful. Ideally he would respect how she and her friends had gotten along without him. And want to know all about Camelot, if anything for the sake of knowing her better. Ideally he would trust law enforcement to protect them and they could stay in town to find out what happens- be there in case they could help in any small way. But Rumpelstiltskin wasn't in an ideal situation, and he still wasn't ready to trust, to work with others… Belle could remember Emma's death vividly and he couldn't, so of course he had his reasons to be paranoid. He thought the Dark One was still out there, and that could be his excuse for running away-now, and every time he felt threatened. She wanted him to continue to change, but they had to survive Merida first…
Snow White rang the doorbell of her stepmother's mansion, almost ready to bring Henry and Roland back after baby-sitting all day. Robin and Regina were surely exhausted -and thanks to Henry, ever the mediator between their families, she at last knew why. She had to talk with them -it was always a difficult talk she anticipated, all the times she had stood on this cool, clean doorstep. One time Snow had stood here offering her life to Regina, in penance, because she had caused the death of Regina's mother- and, incidentally, her fiancé, so many years ago. Regina had decided not to kill her. They had found ways to help each other, and still, Snow felt she owed something to the older woman, who had her chances at happiness ripped away from her too many times.
"Where's the kids?" Regina asked, when she and a yawning Robin came to the door. Their hair was tousled and their pajamas seemed to have been put on in a hurry.
"On a little walk around the block with David," Snow said. "They both just love pushing the stroller and making Neal laugh."
"And? There's something else isn't there?" Robin asked, showing the deep worry lines in his face.
Snow took a deep breath. "Yes... I heard there's a monster, flying by night, and it's after you, Robin. And, that dragons were able to come to your rescue last night... but just barely."
"I don't expect Maleficent and Lily to do that again, after the beating they took," Regina acknowledged. "But the Fury fairy will chase Robin again, every full moon until it-harvests a life."
"It will destroy everyone and everything here to get to me," Robin said, with conviction, "and it won't explain why, all we know is that I was meant to die! I'd rather face that fate than turn everyone's lives upside down for me!" He had such conflict brewing in him that was so familiar to Snow White. He wanted to live, to be a parent- but he didn't want to selfishly put that above the community. She felt that she had been selfish, mourning her daughter and keeping her family safe and isolated lately.
"I won't let that happen, Robin," Regina stated quietly. "The monster demands someone's death- and really I'd deserve it more, I'm not needed here as much as you, I would-" He stopped her with a look and a squeeze of her hand.
"I thought you'd say that, Regina," Snow said. "You can be… really noble sometimes. But not this time. This time, you get your happy ending- life! The two of you! You've just started to live together, and to make up for all I've done... I'm going to make sure you get to really live together."
They were speechless. "I'm prepared to give up my life to this thing, and so is Charming, if that's what it takes- because you deserve happiness." She shrugged. "We're just following our daughter's example."
"You have a baby!" Robin protested.
"We've already arranged for the Fairies to raise Neal if needed," Snow said, looking away to try to stop the tears. "And, he'll have his uncle looking in on him..." She smiled at Henry who was coming up the path.
Rumpelstiltskin woke to a car door closing. "I've found an old legend that may be relevant!" Belle said, sitting beside him in the back seat. The car was parked in an alley behind the library, and the evening sun shone beautifully on his wife's wavy brown hair. "In an exposition of Celtic folk tales- one that mentions a Princess Merida!"
"Have we been- you just left me here in the car, out in the open?" He couldn't blame her, he figured she hadn't been able to wake him or carry him inside. "I -we- we don't know when she'll be back. She wanted to let me recover and then force me to fight again! Either it's some big game to her, picking on a gimp… like me… or she's preparing me for something bigger!"
"Calm down honey!" Belle blurted.
"We've got to get to m-my shop-the safe-"
"Ok, it's just a block and a half away…"
"Just drive me there, would you, sweetheart? Er-we'll have to go around the block to go through the alleys." He panted with the pain of just trying to shift in his seat, he was so sore. "My foot, my leg…"
She was cross all of a sudden. "Rumpelstiltskin, you walked all the way to town from the middle of the woods last night. The shop is right there -and no one's on the street right now."
"Belle I can't just- I'm really just a coward, the same as I've always been!" He was hyperventilating. "I need your help! And I need a… corner to hide in…"
She got out, slammed the door and sat in the driver's seat. "You have not always been a coward, don't go changing your story. You told me, Rumpel, how you hurt your foot so you could leave battle, and live to be a father to your son! That's how the whole coward thing got started but- you did it for your son, you did almost everything for your son- or for me! You've been brave, you just didn't realize it!"
She idled the car up to the entrance to the street and drove them across to another dim alley, tossing her notepad back at her husband. It had a heading of The ancient king Fergus fights the transfigured Mordu, over a family tree diagram. Clans of Dun'Broch -Merida was one of the names at the bottom! Rumpelstiltskin had once come across a witch from the isles of Dun'Broch- no one else. There were other names that had to be the brothers she was looking for. If nothing else worked, perhaps Rumpelstiltskin could still locate them with remnants of magic he'd stowed away, to get Merida off his back.
It wasn't long before he found these remnants in hidden wall panels in the pawnshop, as well as the anti-transformation powder in the wall safe.
"Now we can leave town until-she's caught, or the Dark One is found-" He was interrupted by an arrow whizzing past his face, embedding into the wall between him and Belle. Merida was using the same tactic as the other night, attacking while coming in the front door! And that meant she must have blocked their escape out the back preemptively- again!
Merida kicked the front door open further and loaded another arrow in her longbow. "Wait!" Belle cried as they both ducked her second shot. The tall young woman's expression was blank; her determined eyes did not shine.
"No, Belle, the Dark One has her!" Rumpelstiltskin said, as they hurried past the curtain- trapped in the back room. "Get down!"
She motioned for them to crouch just so- so they could hide and see the entrance in a mirror. Her hand was on the gun but she prayed to unknown forces that she wouldn't have to use it. Upon entering the back room, Merida saw the reflection of them crouching, in a large mirror that sat on the floor, with its frame blending in with all the other odds and ends about. The mirror crashed apart with her next arrow. Merida was quick to draw the bow again -Belle was just as quick. She grabbed the rug that Merida stood on and yanked with all her strength. Their attacker fell backwards in a flurry of frizzy red hair- knocked out by Rumpelstiltskin's old projects falling on her! Belle and Rumpelstiltskin hurried to confiscate her weapons and leave out the front, for the car.
"Let's go somewhere safe-the cabin! And then we can call the sheriff!"
He drove them out of town, still hyperventilating, staring ahead.
"Rumpel? You're not going-"
They went faster and faster with his panic.
"Rumpel, I told you I'm not okay with leaving town!"
He handed her one of the bags of anti- transformation powder as they sped towards the western town line.
"Rumpel you don't get to decide things for us, anymore!" She yelled. He wouldn't listen- she had to make him. She opened the passenger door and prepared to jump out.
"What are you doing?" he screamed, slamming on the brakes and swerving to the shoulder of the darkening country road.
She hopped out, slung the bow and quiver over her shoulders, and held the gun with both hands. "I'm not just leaving while my friends are in danger!" she said, and started marching angrily back to town.
"Get back in the car, Belle!" He yelled. "You're just a target- Merida will chase me! She will use you to get me to fight- until we both die!" He panicked, watching her walk further… around the bend. "This is the only way I can protect you!" he called out.
Rumpelstiltskin's love was leaving him, yet again. Sometimes when she did this she wanted him to follow… He sat down hard on the front seat of the car, fumbling with powders and potions he had grabbed that may be able to heal his aching body. If they worked here, in the only town in the Land that had magic… would the effects remain, after crossing over to the rest of the Land Without Magic? They had to. He wasn't ready to leave magic behind. As he felt his muscles ease and restore under the old spells and mixtures, it became very clear to him- he wasn't ready to leave Belle behind and he wasn't ready to leave all magic behind. The times he had visited New York -it was miserable without magic! His place was here, and he had to fight for it!
Belle kept walking. Anger turned to confusion, fear and sadness as she walked the lonely road. He was likely driving off into the sunset without her. She wasn't going to see the world with him. She was dooming herself to a life of fighting other people's fights- heroism wouldn't keep her warm at night. Her hands sweated around the revolver's handle - she had never fired this thing. Or a bow!
Her thoughts were interrupted by galloping hooves heard in the distance. A tall, muscled black horse raced towards her-the rider hopped off and glared at Belle and her weapons.
"Stay back! I know! I know about you -your father. And your brothers!"
Merida's look softened for a moment -then her confusion was gone, and she mechanically pulled out a clear vial, opened it, and sipped the sparkling fluid within. The sun set and Merida was just a looming silhouette, unreachable in her silence.
"Merida of the isles of Dun'Broch! Someone's controlling you aren't they? You can resist them!"
It was too late for Merida to resist- she bent over forwards and backwards, racked by the pain of transformation. The thin young woman was growing, taller and hairier, ripping through her corset and long dress- growling a lower and lower growl. Belle wasn't that frightened by the emergence of another beast. Before her, a towering, huffing brown bear got ready to charge. Belle fired the gun, intending to maim and slow it down - she missed terribly! Belle ran down into the ditch, zigging and zagging away from the roaring bear, and struggling to arm the weathered wooden bow.
Behind them, Belle and the bear heard a car speeding up the road! "Rumpel!" she called out from among the trees. "Rumpel, it's her! Rumpel, help me fight her until- that potion may wear off!"
He parked and ran up to the bear, ignoring his foot and the remaining pains. "Hey, it's me you want to fight!" he yelled. He couldn't believe that sort of thing had come out of his mouth! He didn't get the bear's attention until he threw a couple heavy rocks at it. It turned around- his idea was to blind the enemy with a flashlight, or somehow get her back on the road so he could run her down with the car- but all ideas escaped him, in the shadow of an angered, hulking carnivore.
A thumping heart weighed down a large leather case snapped to Hook's belt. It weighed on his heart as well. Hook withdrew, as he turned the great wheel to steer the ship. "Why do you want to haunt me, Emma, I'm a terrible person."
"It's your mind that causes me to be here. Your mind needs me. And I'm glad! I can tell you you're not a horrible person. You're an improving person, always becoming better!"
"Oh? You know I hid things from you, Swan. You know I tried to be that better man, so hard.. that I kept the dumbest things from you."
"You didn't have to…"
"Remember when Ursula came to town? I thought I could hide my past with her… and so things were awkward between us…"
"But now, we share almost all our thoughts and memories!"
"Aye. And don't you care? What I did to her?"
Hook spun the wheel at the helm and got lost in the past.
A beautiful siren, the sea creature Ursula had sung a hypnotic song as she sashayed about on this very deck. She had taken refuge on this ship, from her father, the sea god Poseidon. She was just a girl then. Unaware. When Poseidon came for her, she did find out that Hook was really no friend to her. Not a protector or benefactor.
"You may have fooled my daughter, but I know exactly what you are! You only care about one thing- your vengeance!" Poseidon had yelled.
"I'm not the only one after vengeance!" Hook had yelled back. "You sick your mermaids on sailors, you lead men to wreck their ships and drown! All because a pirate killed your wife once? And so all the rest of the seven seas should care?" He had laughed and glared, and rallied his men to mock the powerful, armored God of the Sea. "I killed her, for all I know! It's been too many sea-witches to count! And I don't care if Ursula never sings again!" He had trapped the young mermaid's singing voice, then, in an enchanted shell. "I don't care if you hunt me the rest of my days!"
He had stolen something precious from Ursula and enraged her father so- that both father and daughter had lunged for Hook. The rage behind their attack had made them careless, weak. The pirates of the Jolly Roger had been able to wrest the trademark trident from Poseidon's hand before he knew what was happening- then trip him, beat him and throw him overboard. Hook had kept the trophies of this fight under lock and key ever since- the magical shell holding Ursula' s singing voice and the long trident that stored Poseidon's power. He had thus ensured the seas were quieter, calmer and safer- just one little family had paid the price.
Emma brought him back from his memories. "Forgive yourself, Hook," she said gently. "Remember, whatever you broke between Ursula and her father- you later fixed! You brought them back together. They forgave you!"
"Ah, but I don't know if I can."
At Granny's Diner, Merry Men took shots and toasted their leader and friend. Robin Hood and Regina Mills sat at the lunch counter, soaking in the camaraderie that came from knowing it might be the very last party for one of them here. They'd had a leisurely supper with the Charmings, talking about everything from bad dreams and parenting styles to past injuries, aches and regrets. The evening stretched on. Robin and Regina linked their arms and held up glasses of fiery whiskey to each other's lips- knocking it back, they tried to summon their inner fire breathers.
"Where the hell have you been?" Regina asked with mild interest, as Killian Jones walked in.
"Just… growing tired of drinking alone."
Robin took him aside to ask, "What do you remember? You're the one who cast the Dark Curse, you retained more memories than everyone else! What can you tell me about -the reason the Fury is chasing me? Anything? "
Killian concentrated. It was surely hard on everyone to think they'd lost their memories for no reason - now, for Robin to die for no reason? He had to give the people something. He saw Emma at the lunch counter, nodding and smiling encouragingly.
"Hook," she said in a breathy voice, "The truth of how he should have died- he can accept this truth. They can accept that I put off paying the price of magic, when I broke the rules… and brought him back from death."
Killian bit his lip. "Aye, mate. You'll want to sit down for this…"
In the trees near the edge of Storybrooke, an enemy was vanquished. A ferocious bear had swallowed the magical powder thrown at her, and had transformed back into a pale young woman mid-leap, falling to a devastating impact. The woman was knocked out by the fall, then tied up, bound to a tree so near the town line that one wrong move upon waking would make her transform again…
After all that, Rumpelstiltskin and Belle finally could let their guards down. Belle wondered if it was possible that they actually made a good team! They sighed with relief and fell into a familiar embrace. She felt like he had more than proven himself to be brave and true-he hadn't known how to beat Merida, he hadn't an exactly calculated plan, he had just given it his best shot- putting his life on the line for her! He had sacrificed his transformation powder, his escape - following her lead, for once!
"My dear, do you believe me now? That the Dark One lives?"
Belle didn't disbelieve him, but she still wanted proof that her own memory of watching the destruction of the Dark One dagger-was wrong! "If that's... true, Rumpel, we ought to go talk this over with our friends..."
His body tensed in her embrace. "Granny's, then? To warn everyone?" His agreeable tone was forced. They slowly walked back to the car. "What if Regina's there? Based on your story. ...of finding the Dark Miss Swan in Camelot... Regina's the most likely to have kept the Dark dagger, and tricked you all into thinking otherwise!"
"She doesn't have the dagger- Regina would have used the Dark One powers by now!" Belle said. She held his hand tight as she drove them to Granny's new exotic location. She explained the situation with Robin Hood that seemed so hopeless, all the while hoping… hoping that her husband would finally care about her friends. Hoping he was ready to join the heroes.
The crowd at Granny's dismissed Rumpelstiltskin as damaged and confused, from his coma and recent abduction. Regina and Robin had all their friends stirred up about the threat of the Fury this night, and they were not willing to rehash the destruction of the Dark One, dear Emma Swan, yet again.
The moon rose higher in the sky. A crowd gathered in Gentleman's Park. The word had spread that Robin Hood of Sherwood would take his fight right to the Fury, that nighttime terror that would haunt the town every full moon.
Mr. and Mrs. Gold had followed everyone from Granny's there, to sit on a park bench and to watch an old friend fight valiantly - to say goodbye. It seemed either Belle's friend Robin or Rumpelstiltskin's former student Regina would be sacrificed, if there was no stopping the Fury.
"I heard about your great bravery," said a voice from the shadows, complimenting Rumpel. He and Belle looked to the edge of the crowd- just beyond the circle of yellow lamp light on the bike path. It was Killian, unnerving them with a lower, more serious tone than they were used to. "So... you fought off some warrior woman? She attacked your shop? I'm impressed."
"Well… I'm a new man now," Rumpelstiltskin said, overstating things a bit for Belle's sake.
"You're still the man who killed Milah," Killian stated gravely. "I'd never been able to avenge her death, because you were… immortal. But now, you can allow me that chance."
Belle asked, "Killian, what's gotten into you?"
Rumpel acknowledged Killian with a sidelong look, "Grief... can drive you mad… Old grief or new grief. It all blurs together, doesn't it?"
Killian said abruptly, "Have you spent one second honoring her memory, in all these years? If you have any honor, new man… meet me at the place she died. Tomorrow. Noon."
Rumpelstiltskin shrugged this off, thinking to himself, If I have any honor. ...
"Get your affairs in order!" Killian demanded, and walked away. "Tomorrow we finally honor Milah's memory!"
The sheriff rolled by in a squad car, shouting into a bullhorn that the crowd should disperse. It didn't. Fog rolled in from the lake-the crowd hushed and watched a bobbing head emerge from the water. Up floated the pale, dripping lady with long black hair in her face-the Fury's holey wings shook off the water and flapped forward. The people cowered and covered their heads to block out its scream. It flew towards its waiting prey, the strong, determined Robin Hood, with the force of a shock wave. He and Regina lit up the park with their flamethrowers, nozzles up towards the monster. With all their fuel, and all the fire shot up by the Merry Men, with all the torches and lighters of Storybrooke, could they fight her till her curfew at dawn?