Cold, dark sea,
Your waves are rocking me.
I close my eyes and fall asleep.
All eyes on me,
Your eyes on me.
Rumplestiltskin opened the lid on the wooden trunk that he had asked Bae to fetch for him before he had sent him to Hook's ship. Inside were vials and bottles of all kind of shapes, sizes and colors. Most were cork stopped; others were screw down lids. He pulled a few up to look at their contents and let them down again as he determined they weren't what he was looking for.
He heard Cora at the door; he felt the magic, his magic - his dagger tearing at the magic shield surrounding the building. It wouldn't hold her at bay much longer. Regina...where was Regina? He should have felt her pressure on the shield, but he didn't.
He didn't have time to ponder it, the ending was coming, and the water was rushing up. He finally found the vial he had been searching for. It was unassuming and the greatest of his possessions, well certainly the greatest of his potions. It was what remained of True Love.
His True Love. There was barely a thimble full of swirling blue-gold, nearly translucent liquid. He had concocted it in the days after he had thrown Belle out of the Dark Castle. He had brewed it and put it up on a high shelf for it to cure, he didn't want to know, not for a great while what became of it. He was scared of what he would see. If it hadn't of been True Love the liquid would have turned black, would have thickened to tar, it had only been as he prepared his things for the transition to the new world that he dared look at what color the potion had become.
He had wept anew for the love that was lost to him.
The little bit in the vial had been of no real use, there hadn't been enough to lace The Curse or break it. There hadn't been enough to bring back magic or memories for his Belle. It was a scant thimble, a shining tangible truth that he had been loved and had loved in return.
He had treasured it, but also loathed it in a way. He knew Belle had loved him, even as he had thrown her out. Of course he had known, it was, if he was being truthful, the reason why he had actually thrown her out.
Love was a weakness and a lie. Love was perhaps the greatest illusion; the greatest jape because, until Belle, love had done nothing but desert Rumplestiltskin.
He was alone now. Again, love had deserted him, left him alone. It was different this time however, he realized as he pulled the cork stopper from the vial.
He had sent Bae and Emma away. Sent them away not in anger but in love. He sent them away because he loved them, sent them away to save them. He closed his eyes; he was feeling the poison working harder to slow his heart. He had come so far. He was sacrificing himself for those that he loved, for his family.
Family.
It was true, it had always been true, Henry - the boy - was his undoing but now, as things found startling clarity he realized it wasn't at all how he had thought.
He was being undone by love, by family, by things he had never fathomed he would have again. The feelings rolling through him were undoing, they were shaking free an icy, numb heart. The curse – his curse was being undone, he felt it slipping from his fingers, felt the magic draining from his veins. Oh yes, that little boy who brought the Savior, who wormed his way into his heart, who reunited him with Bae...the little boy that had his eyes and something too of his smile. Not to mention it seemed his guile and his wit…he had Bae's heart though, Bae's goodness. Yes, Henry was his undoing but what was being undone was everything he never wanted to be in the first place. Not truly.
Rumplestiltskin tipped back the vial and swallowed the contents just as he felt the last of the shield give way. Cora had breached the shop.
Rumplestiltskin felt the liquid running through his body, meeting and combating the witch's brew. It wouldn't last for long and it wouldn't be able to bind it completely, it was a show, a front to buy a few moments more.
The potion did its job and Rumplestiltskin was able to stand, though he was leaning heavily on his cane, when Cora crossed the threshold.
He straightened his spine and held his head up. He met her gaze brazenly, lips curling back in a hateful sneer. She tipped her head at him, a threatening smile of her own plastered across her face.
"Rumplestiltskin...it's been a while," she stepped closer to him, eyes never leaving his.
Rumplestiltskin's gaze missed nothing, he saw that his name was all but gone from the blade in her hand; she had to know that too. He was without a doubt the weakest party here. She could end him with a flick of her wrist.
Or so he wanted her to believe.
True Love was in his veins, weaving and knitting health and magic back to his body. It wouldn't last long, he knew, but if he acted quick and sure it would last long enough.
"Not long enough...Cora," he spat the name; it was vile in his mouth.
"Oh, you wound me Rumple, you sound almost like you're not happy to see me," she mockingly pouted.
"Why Cora, whatever makes you think that? The fact that I've tried, with the assistance of your daughter to either trap you or kill you a minimum of twice?" he knew the potion was reaching it's zenith, he would have to make his move, and soon. But where was Regina? He couldn't neutralize them both. "Where prey tell is your daughter? I thought the both of you would take pleasure in ending me..."
Cora half circled him, "She'll be along...it gives us some time alone, just us...as it was, so long ago..." she gave a breathy sigh.
Rumplestiltskin turned himself on his heel, following her arc, she was so predictable, and he thanked the gods for that.
"I've always been curious Cora," he kept the tall mirror in his sights without looking directly at it, "Did you ever love me, truly?"
Cora actually looked surprised for a moment, her eyes widening a fraction, "I had to rip out my own heart Rumplestiltskin...what do you think?"
Rumplestiltskin had to act, this would be his only chance he'd have, and the poison would start to burn its way back.
They circled each other once more, "You just loved the power more, more than me, more that even your daughter, has it been worth it, Cora?" he asked it softly, but it cut deep and true.
Cora's lip parted slowly and her eyes again went wide in shock, not entirely from his words however.
Rumplestiltskin dropped his cane, lifting both of his hands. They had finally circled to the full-length mirror that was partially hidden with an old quilted blanket; he only needed a sliver of the surface visible. He gestured to the mirror grandly, making large ripples appear, with another motion just milliseconds from the first he sent Cora heading for the mirror, it was the last bit of magic he had left in his bones.
Cora screamed as she flew backwards toward the rippling portal, throwing her arms out, the Dark One's dagger was still clutched in her right hand. Her retreat halted then, inches from the portal that still rippled in the mirror.
"Oh, you'll not trick me twice with that Rumplestiltskin! How foolish! Foolish, foolish, foolish!" Cora screamed, the scales of her apparent sanity were tipping.
She lifted the dagger in front of her and gave it a violent turn, whatever small hold the dagger still had on Rumplestiltskin was enough as he jerked and crumpled to his knees in a puddle of gasping, tormented pain.
"How the tables have turned my little Imp," Cora cooed, voice laced with steel and malice, "It's now you, helpless and vulnerable. You know I have to kill you...I need your power you see," Cora kneeled next to increasingly frail Dark One.
"Love is a weakness, it's always been your greatest Rumplestiltskin, do you know that?" Cora petted his hair, brushing it away from his brow.
The poison was back, full force, tightening the fist around his heart, crippling him. He gasped for air like a beached fish. He tried to control, tried to will himself not to flail in front of her, not to show weakness, but he failed.
He always failed. She was right love was his weakness. He might have been craven, mad, sadistic, selfish, and to points - evil, but it had always been a madness lit by love, twisted love at times, but at the beginning and at the end love of something was always what spurred him forward.
Love of power was not True Love, but thank the gods it was True Love that fueled him now.
Cora was still talking, but he wasn't listening, he focusing, he was summoning anything that was left in him, strength, magic, love...courage, he was summoning and binding it, cleaving it into a motley bit. It was something, it might not be much what he found was true and deep, the marrow of his bones, the forgotten bits that were left after everything else had burned away, he could overcome.
With focused deliberation, he knew the next action would kill him, if he succeeded or if he didn't, so he could not fail. He lightning quick lashed out his right to tightly grip over Cora's, where it was wrapped over the hilt of his dagger dangerously close to his throat. With everything he had left in him, that he had gathered together he flipped the dagger to poise over where her heart would have been and plunged the dagger down, hilt deep.
Cora was too stunned to do react; she only was able to blink as the dagger sparked in her chest with the escaping tangents of magic that had been in residence in her being. The dagger's hit had been true, heart or no, the dagger found it's target and it was done. By the living Dark One's hand Cora had been slain. There would be no transfer of authority this day.
The R was fading fast from the blade as Rumplestiltskin let go and collapsed back on the floor, Regina lived...but Cora was dead and that threat was the greatest there had been to face. He would be dead soon as well, his mind was hazy, vision was blurred by black dots as he began to lose consciousness.
This was how it had to be. The greatest evil two realms had ever known was dead and the only rival was dying now. The Curse of the Dark One would finally end, no longer would it perpetuate, it would end, the name and curse fading away, a beast would finally find peace...would finally find rest. The Dark One would surrender to the night, surrender up it's life and fall back to the arms of hell and sin – the Dark One's only ever constant friends.
Rumplestiltskin's eyes went vacant and the last breath escaped and he breathed no more.
Belle screamed his name when she burst through the archway into the back of the shop, finding Rumplestiltskin on the floor, the body of a woman next to him, lifeless.
"No...no, no, no!" she screamed falling frantically to her knees, "No! Rumplestiltskin, no...don't you dare...no!" she pawed at his suit, checking for a pulse in his neck. "No!" she could only scream, her throat tight and her mind whirling, swimming, drowning.
"No...Rumplestiltskin, I remember! I love you! You can't...oh you can't!" she wailed even as she shook his body, lifeless but still warm to her hand, he had not been gone long.
"It's not supposed to be like this! It's not!" she screamed, tears running rivers down her cheeks, nose running. She didn't care.
"Damn you Rumplestiltskin," she collapsed on his chest, breath heaving from her too tight chest.
"I was too late, I...tried, but I..." she moaned, feel dizzy, feeling nauseous.
She stayed that way for who knew how long, she surely didn't, it could have been hours, it could have been minutes.
"Belle..." Emma was suddenly, from nowhere, beside her, Belle felt her hand on her body, "Belle, he's gone..." Emma tried to pull her away.
"No!" Belle said ferociously, arms across him, she wouldn't let him go.
"Belle...you're Belle?" a male voice penetrated Belle's blurry bubble.
"I'm Bae…I'm...I'm his son," the man was kneeling across from her now, she felt his shadow cross hers, not waiting for confirmation of who she was, it had been rather obvious answer, she thought.
Belle didn't move, or speak for a long moment, "He was looking for you..." she sniffed, rubbing at her nose, but not looking the man even as she saw his hands move to check for a nonexistent pulse in Rumplestiltskin's body.
"I know, he found me... I heard his phone call to you today...you found him. You found my Papa...somewhere in that cursed man...you found him, I heard him with you and that was the first time in more years than I can remember that…that I heard the man I remembered, that I thought was gone. You found my Papa...thank you Belle..."
Belle looked up then, hearing the anguish, ...the pain, in the man's voice as it cracked and tore over with his words. She met his gaze and saw the face of Rumplestiltskin son, eyes full of unshed tears, ache and regret.
"I love him...and in what time we had he talked of you, everything he did, good or bad...all the wrong he did he did with what started as pure intentions, he has a pure heart in there...I've seen it and I know how much he loved you…" she whispered, even as her voice was strangled her, her agony was almost too much to bear. They should have to be doing this.
That seemed to be what broke the dam that had been holding Bae back, or at least his tears.
In slow motion tears fell from Belle and Bae's eyes, a sea of tears washing down haggard faces, born of broken hearts. They were the only hearts that had loved Rumplestiltskin purely, without malicious, conceit or with ulterior motives. They were only hearts that he had loved purely, wholly, truly. The hearts he had given up everything for...the hearts and the family he had ultimately died for.
As the wetness splattered Rumplestiltskin's face, the sleeping, drowning man woke up.
After all, it was easy to die for what you loved; it was easy to surrender to the sea, to the dark arms of what was known and easy.
The hard part was living.
Rumplestiltskin gasped in a breath, yes, the hard part was living.
Cold, dark sea,
Your waves are rocking me.
I close my eyes and fall asleep.
All eyes on me,
Your eyes on me.
-the end-
AN: The Drowning Man is by of Monsters & Men, not mine – OuaT characters also not mine, no infringement is intended. Thank you so much for reading!