Chapter Twelve.

Rumplestiltskin shifted from ecstatic to terrified too many times to count between the moments in the ballroom and the next morning when they had gathered to leave. He hadn't fallen asleep until quite late with his mind a whirl of everything and while his visions left him strangely alone, his own strained mind did enough work to leave him a little thin the next morning.

He'd argued them down to seven people traveling - including himself and now Henry - if they wanted him to transport them to hasten the trip. It made sense, even he had to admit that, but his new limits were still only partially tested and while he had no trouble teleporting himself he wasn't interested in leaving half a dwarf behind and getting blamed by Snow White later. He might be willing to leave half a prince behind as long as it were Thomas, but that too probably wouldn't have gone over well.

The blond princeling was hard on the nerves. He had dictated exactly where he wanted Rumplestiltskin to put them down - over an hour's walk from the actual castle because he was quite certain that his father would be unwilling to help should they simply appear in his court without the proper introductions - and had prattled on about what all that included. He second-guessed everything that was said or asked - making it very difficult for Rumple to get any solid information about the stone that might or might not have been in his father's castle - and was most certain that he had more answers than he actually did. While the former Dark One was less inclined than he used to be to simply reach in and pull someone's heart from their chest and force them to watch as he crushed it, the inclination had gnawed at him a couple times over the weeks he'd been free of his old curse. Well, old habits did die hard, he supposed, and if he were going slip up on his path to doing things better, he supposed he wouldn't regret this one too much.

"Hey, Papa."

Bae's voice startled him out of the mental image that had kept him from actually ripping the prince's heart out and he flashed what he hoped was a mostly innocent smile at his son. The younger man paused a moment, obviously not fooled by the look, but shook it off anyway. "I don't want to know because I probably don't have it in me to tell you not to," he grumbled lowly and Rumple snorted out a laugh.

"I have been on my best behaviour, have I not?"

His son's lips tugged into a lopsided grin and his voice dropped to near whisper. "Of course you have, Pop, but let's just save having to find a place for the body until after we find out if they have the stone."

The elder man chuckled. They really had come quite a ways if his son could joke with him about this without flinching. That, or Bae held more animosity for the privileged Prince Thomas than he'd realized. "Henry is turning into quite the knight," Rumple mused before he inadvertently managed to plot said prince's demise with his son.

Bae nodded, but there was a tightness there as he did, even as his gaze followed his father's to where Henry was riding on the back of his other grandfather's horse. "Yeah. That's all definitely David's doing. Especially the swordplay. I mean, the kids around the village growing up played with wooden swords and stuff, but we didn't know anything. I guess I got okay in Neverland, but I don't know any technique or anything. I've always been better with a crossbow."

"I doubt Charming's is much of traditional technique either, being raised on a farm and all that."

"He was... Really?"

"Mm. He doesn't particularly hide it."

"Guess I just didn't know. Thomas doesn't seem to give a damn about that."

Rumplestiltskin risked a glance at his son. They hadn't had much when Bae was growing up, and he certainly hadn't been trained to deal with royals and nobles up until now, and he'd been thrown into the deep end of the pool on that. "Well, he has been a prince for some time now, and our young royal ignores what he wishes to. Like the fact that he was one of those commoners that he turns his nose up at during his stay in Storybrooke."

Baelfire's smirk returned and their conversation was cut short as a messenger from the king came out to greet them. Thomas stepped up to speak with him, closely followed by David to discuss something official that Rumple had no wish to get involved in. The scaly skin and lizard eyes always gained more attention than he did now. Likely he'd be mistaken for a servant or something of the like, and that would work just as well for him. It would give him the movement he needed to search for the rumoured stone.

Henry had piled off the horse and was grinning widely. "That was so cool! There's not much room to ride at the castle. Where do you keep the horses, Grandpa?"

Rumplestiltskin flashed him a small smile of his own. David might be able to teach the boy swordplay and how to waste time on the back of a horse, but the boy's genuine fascination with magic wasn't lost on him. He'd seen how his mother had proven that it was the user that dictated if magic was good or evil and he'd watched with amazement in his eyes as Rumple had put the castle back together. Let Charming play knight. Henry's other grandfather wasn't too worried about falling short on that.

"Well, the castle is enchanted," he answered the lad with a quick wink and Henry's smile only grew.

"Maybe you can show me how it's done? When we get back, I mean."

"Woh there, buddy. Your moms are both already pissed that I took you away from them for a trip. If I bring you back with magic lessons already under your belt I'm going to be in even more trouble." Bae spoke through a laugh, but a hint of unease was rested just below the jovial layer.

"I'm not asking him to teach me magic," Henry promised, but glanced back at Rumple with a glint of mischief that the former Dark One didn't miss. "Not yet anyway."

Rumplestiltskin chuckled and they were starting forward again towards the castle. "I'd have to agree to teach you first, lad. I have to warn you, I'm very picky over my students," he teased.

"If you didn't, Regina would."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that."

"She's teaching Emma."

"Emma's a far cry from her own son."

Henry rolled his eyes but didn't seem too discouraged. Bae, on the other hand, shot his father a rather desperate look and Rumple raised his hands palm-outward in defence. "I would never teach him without yours and Emma's expressed permission."

"Promise?"

"Of course, son, though that's not to say that he doesn't have the aptitude for it." He watched the boy whose attention had quickly been captured by the castle that stood before them, parts of it were still under repair to correct the damage done to it under the Dark Curse. "Everyone has the potential for magic, but Emma - being the product of True Love as she is - lends her own bloodline to having a very strong connection to it. Henry may not give you much of a choice someday."

"Nothing about my son learning magic makes me comfortable, Papa. I've seen what it can do."

"Don't limit yourself, Bae. Your childhood was filled with the Dark One's curse and Pan's magic. He wouldn't need to go down that path. As I said, Henry comes from a lineage of True Love magic through his mother's side. He'd likely be very adept at light magic."

Bae ran a nervous hand through his grey-flecked hair, but didn't counter it. It was not a conversation for moving into a meeting with a king that David hoped to form an actual alliance with against their two enemies, and Thomas' father appeared to be coming to meet them. Along with another man at his side.

"Who's that?" Baelfire asked in a whisper when he saw the way David froze mid-step.

"That," Rumple growled lowly, his voice taught and careful, "would be King George."

Since Belle had returned to the Dark Castle with the others, she felt like she'd contributed precious little to a fight that she very much had a stake in. She'd cared for the wounded after the attack shortly after they arrived and, true, she's sat in on the council meetings, but part of her thought that she'd been asked to do so as a placeholder for Rumple. No one was under any dissolution that he would do well in those sorts of meetings, even if they were being held in his castle, so she wondered if they'd simply taken their next best option.

There aren't a lot of opportunities for women in this land to show what they can do.

Those had been the words she'd spoken to Rumplestiltskin so many, many years before, and they weren't quite right. Not anymore. She'd met women like Snow and Ruby and even Regina, now that she was at least trying to be better. Emma was a spitfire if she'd ever seen one and Mulan had taught her - and continued to teach her - not to let anyone dictate what she could or could not be.

When Rumple had first asked her to be his peacemaker for him, she'd been a little discouraged. The fact that the looming proposal, not-proposal was finally out in the open and done so while both parties were fully conscious had helped to ease her spirits the night before, but as she watched them leave through the gates - not even Rumple could take them outside of the gates through teleportation magic with the wards he'd set up - that bit of dread had set back in and she'd wondered if this were simply something to make her feel better.

Several books, a conversation with Aurora, and hours later, Belle felt better about the situation. That was probably not the most common reaction to what she was looking at, but she felt like she was doing some good for once. That was what led her to the courtyard. Regina and Emma had both been irked by the fact that Bae had told Henry he could come along - though if Belle knew the boy at all, she was quite certain he'd worked his own brand of 'stiltskin manipulation to get himself invited along - and had taken to what seemed to be turning into a rather spirited magic lesson that might have started as Regina teaching Emma to block magical attacks, but looked more like the elder woman simply wanted someone to waylay on.

Belle sat on the edge of a wall, pulling a book open in her lap and waiting for them to come to a stopping point. She'd been around Rumple long enough to know that interrupting something of this nature would never get her what she wanted, so she'd learned years ago how to be patient through it, even if the idea was eating her up inside. She waited until Regina finally stopped, leaving Emma mostly intact but hunched over with her hands against her knees and breathing hard. "Couldn't you find somewhere else to do that?" the Evil Queen demanded.

The blue eyed beauty smiled innocently. "I was waiting on you, actually. Though if you weren't done, please feel free to carry on."

"We're done," Emma panted, straightening in a way that made her look like she'd spent the better part of the day before hauling boulders from one side of the castle to the other.

"Not with that attitude," Regina growled out, rearing up for another hit, but Emma's eyes flashed dangerously and the attack was met and pushed back, sending the dark haired woman skidding several feet. Something akin to approval lit her face and she nodded. "There you go. That's what I was talking about."

"Seriously?" Emma bit back. "You could have said that when we started. Hours ago!"

"We've barely been going at this an hour, Miss Swan."

"This time. A five minute break doesn't really count as a break, by the way." She glanced over to their visitor. "Come to watch the free entertainment, Belle?"

"Oh no. I came to ask a question. Regina, you were once on friendly terms with Maleficent, weren't you?"

Regina perked at this, eyes narrowed slightly. "Once, yes."

Belle smiled, closing the book, her eyes keenly focused on the sorceress in front of her. "We've been so worried about this bit and that bit, trying to keep up and work out what's about to happen, yet sometimes it's like we're a step behind. Going to Thomas' kingdom may help in balancing that, but if we do, Zelena's likely to try to tip the scales entirely the other way."

"What are you suggesting, bookworm? We approach Maleficent before Zelena?"

"Yes."

"Listen, I know you… didn't get around Storybrooke much until the curse was broken, but I trapped her under the library for twenty-eight years-"

"As a dragon," Emma huffed. "That she sent me down to fight without telling me she was a dragon. By the way. Still have not forgotten that little part."

"Yes, well, the fact remains that she won't want to talk to me."

"Surely if Maleficent understood how important it is -"

"You'd have to make it into her castle first, then get her to listen," Regina growled out. "It's not like we could sit down and chat over tea."

"Rumple has told me stories about the two of you doing terrible things to each other over the years, yet you've both put that aside for this. Her castle is the closest one to here. We would be there and back long before the others come back from Thomas' castle, and unless you had something better to do…."

"You could always poof us out if she's still that pissed," Emma pointed out.

Regina shot her a look like she'd lost her mind, but then her gaze turned over to Belle's and both younger women were looking at her like she really didn't have a valid excuse available to her. After a moment she sighed. "Is this your idea or Rumple's?"

"He asked me to take care of making sure she didn't fall to Zelena's side." Belle hopped off her perch and approached the dark haired woman. "I'm not asking you to rekindle a friendship, Regina, I'm asking you to make sure the damage that was caused before - for whatever reason - does not hinder us as we go on." She paused, trying to gage the emotions that were flickering just beyond a well-crafted mask of indifference. "But if you did happen to gain a friend back, wouldn't that count all the more?"

Regina sighed heavily. "Damn him," she growled after a moment, glaring at Belle. "And damn you."

Belle just smiled. "I'll take that as a yes then."

David paused, eyes focused on George. Thomas hadn't said anything about the former monarch being there, and in all honesty David had paid him very little mind since their return. He'd had bigger problems than a dethroned tyrant to deal with.

Blue eyes darted to Thomas and the younger man immediately fell into greetings with his father, though there was a tightness in his shoulders as he glanced over at George. Thomas knew the story, but by the point that he'd become privy to the knowledge that his fellow prince had been raised as less than he, David had proven himself both on the battlefield and in court. It could be difficult to win the admiration of some of those still very much caught up in the old ways, but his and David's friendship was already set by the point that it all came to light.

"Father, I was under the impression this was to be a closed meeting," Thomas said lowly.

"I am not one to turn old friends away," the aging king stated and David didn't miss the smirk that tilted George's lips. To say that they were good friends might be stretching the truth a bit. The two kingdoms had traded with one another for years before Regina had encouraged Thomas' father to pull his support from George - which he readily did - and hadn't come back around until David and Snow had taken the throne.

"I've not come empty-handed to you, Thomas," George assured him. "Though I'd wager this lot has come with more demands than gifts."

David narrowed his eyes, but refused to rise to the bait. Instead he focused on Thomas' father. "Thank you for having us, Sire. I'd like to further the discussions that Thomas has been involved in during the last weeks on how to best protect our kingdoms from the threats at hand." The words sounded scripted to his own ears, much unlike the candid speech he used with the man's son and even the other royals that gathered. Snow had taught him the finer points of how to handle court settings, but he'd always preferred to let her do the talking. Morning sickness had kept her at the Dark Castle though and Doc had advised against her accompanying him.

"And what kingdom would that be?" George cut in. "I understand that after your return that you and several others have been held up in the Dark One's castle deep in the Forbidden Mountain."

"David is not the only one who has chosen neutral ground to come together for the betterment of those that look to him," Philip cut in. He was a quiet sort, prone to listening carefully and weighing options, though David had seen his bravery first hand and had heard more stories still. "Part of my kingdom was left here during the Dark Curse and the Wicked Witch approached my wife and I just before your return. This is not a battle to fight alone if you wish to win it. She will stop at nothing."

Tension filled the air and David heard Grumpy shift behind them. The dwarf was always ready for conflict, but it was it was the silence from Rumplestiltskin that made him the most uneasy. The man had a tendency to hold his own motives close until they were put into play, and that left the young prince relying on Neal to keep him on the right path for all of this. They needed this alliance as much as they needed the stone to be kept from Zelena.

"We wish for our people to be safe," Thomas interjected, glancing apprehensively at his father who gave him a curt nod.

"Of course we do. Come. We'll take lunch and share what we know with one another. Let the past be the past and prepare for our future." His gaze drifted over to Henry, who stood steadily by his father and grandfather. "And this is your daughter's boy?"

"Yes."

"Raised by the Evil Queen?"

"Regina's not evil anymore," Henry piped up. "She's been helping."

The king quirked an eyebrow at the boy's boldness before turning back to David. "And he is... you heir?"

"Emma is, of course, if anything should happen to Snow or I. Henry is her son, so he would be next in line."

"And quite a line it is," George said darkly and his gaze was fixated on Rumplestiltskin. Neal had been an unknown even in Storybrooke, so the rumours had spread much faster that Henry was the grandson of the Dark One rather than the son of Neal Cassidy, or even Baelfire, for that matter.

Rumplestiltskin, in turn, was wearing that almost lazy smile that he'd given them all so many times as Mr Gold over the years. It reminded David of a man that had just run circles around them all and was waiting for that realization to set in. "I'd be careful, dearie," the former Dark One drawled, "that your issues with the boy's other grandfather don't encourage foolish behaviour on your part."

"I'm sure everyone here can be civil," George answered.

"Or at least act as such."

The two men watched each other for a moment before George finally gave, taking a physical step back. Thomas loosed an audible breath and they continued further into the castle.

When Bae was a boy he'd gone with his father to the Duke's castle a grand total of two times. The first was to light it on fire and steal a dagger, the second was when the Duke had requested the new Dark One's presence. Rumplestiltskin had taken his son with him, mostly because he had been afraid to leave him on his own even by that point, and Baelfire had spent the time feeling very small. At fourteen, he was considered nearing manhood in certain parts of their land. He'd been considered old enough to fight, certainly, but he felt like the child he knew his father saw him as he'd been shuffled in and told to stay close. Dignitaries and nobles parted ways for the one-time spinner that they would have spat on, if they had given that much notice. The constant hand on his back or shoulder had been the only thing that had kept him moving as he had looked up with wide eyes at a world that was entirely foreign to a lad from a tiny Frontland village.

To say that the meeting had ended badly would have been a mild statement. Looking back, Bae was certain that his papa wouldn't have brought him along if he'd intended to kill quite as many men as he did, but the curse was wild in those days, barely contained within his thin frame and bursting from him in darkness that needed to take life. It made him a demon, and more times than not, Baelfire wasn't even sure his father was still alive under it all. But the demon wore his papa's face and spoke with a voice something like his, so it had frightened him all the more when he'd snapped, offended by something one of the Duke's advisors had said offhandedly and the man had found himself impaled by what had been a decorative sword hanging over his lord's head. Bae remembered how the Duke's eyes had gone wide and his knights had come at them, ready to defend their master, but there was nothing left of them when the Dark One was finished. The Duke was one of the few that remained that was neither dead nor had fled when Rumplestiltskin seemed to resurface for a moment above the crushing darkness. He'd tightened his grip on Bae - a grip that had slipped only for a moment while his wrath ripped through the room - and they'd been gone from it, back to their hovel.

Now Baelfire sat with his father at a long table in a king's war chambers discussing what had happened, what was happening, and what could happen in regards to the Wicked Witch and Peter Pan. Really, they were saying quite a bit of nothing, and when he glanced over he saw that same flicker of irritation that had been burned into his memory so many, many years ago flash past the mask of calm his papa was now wearing. George had been talking. He'd been doing most of the talking, actually, and halfway through a sentence Rumplestiltskin lost patience. "Well isn't that just lovely?" he drawled, attention in the room swivelling from the king to the sorcerer. "You think yourself quite on top of the situation, don't you?"

George stiffened, but didn't look to Thomas' father - in that moment Bae realized that the elder man had never given his name during introductions, nor had David even called it - for permission to bite back at the other man's guest. "Better than cowering away in that decimated castle of yours. Tell me, Dark One, do you fancy yourself a lord in those mountains, or just a demon with a stolen castle?"

"I seem to remember you calling on this demon for a few favours in your day. Favours that you never treated well, I might add."

George looked ready to boil. "You did me no favours, Rumplestiltskin. I paid you for each fairly-"

"Hardly. You couldn't have afforded my price. Not in the beginning for so high a request. Though you did have your uses in the end I suppose."

Bae watched the back and forth carefully, and put it away in his mind to remember to ask his papa to fill him in later. At least a few present knew the story by the looks that were being passed around, but none dared interrupt the angry former king and the deceptively calm Rumplestiltskin.

George, for his part, had gone very still and was watching Rumple carefully as if a question he'd asked himself had finally been answered and he didn't like the outcome. When he spoke again his voice was low and carefully guarded. "And there was no loyalty for it, nor should we expect any now."

"I've chosen my loyalties, George. Have you?"

"I'm sure you have," the dethrone king bit out. "I dare say that I can expect nothing more from a cow-herder than to be fool enough to trust you-"

"They were sheep, actually," Rumple answered flippantly before David could have, even if he would.

"I don't give a damn what they were!" George growled out. "These are delicate times and not to be trusted in the hands of those that would manipulate them to their own gains."

Bae felt a growing dread as his papa gave a low, dangerous chuckle and he resisted the urge to reach out to him. He had to choose to trust him in that had to choose to believe that his papa was in control and that even though his broken curse did not make him a saint, he was better than he'd been under it. "What are you suggesting, George?"

"I'm suggesting you leave, Dark One. You have no place here."

David was looking back at them now and Rumplestiltskin's dark eyes studied George carefully before turning to the prince that he'd helped match together with Snow White to create a way to break the Dark Curse. Bae was certain that the two men had never been friends, per se, but in that moment a brief flash of understanding past through them and the blond nodded. "That would be best, Rumplestiltskin, if we're to continue with this."

"There will be guards to escort you to the rooms prepared," George added.

Bae watched his father's carefully concealed expression as he stood. His movements were slow and in that moment Baelfire knew that Rumplestiltskin had meant to be thrown out. He wasn't certain what his clever papa had in mind, but there was most certainly a point to it, and dark eyes that were the same as his own caught his and he paused until his father was halfway out of the room before he stood to follow. If it was expected or planned, he didn't know, but Philip seemed to be the only gaze to follow him out.

In the hall he fell quickly into step with the man that had just been tossed out and a guard came up on either side of them. Bae knew better than to ask until they were alone, so he kept his eyes straight ahead, presumably following the guards to the rooms as George had said. Surely the former king wouldn't try anything overly foolish.

"Henry is out at the stables?" Rumplestiltskin asked abruptly, startling his son out of his thoughts.

"Yes. Ella took him out to see the horses."

They rounded a corner into what appeared to be the guest wing for the king's personal guests. The halls were long, with rooms to either side, and when they reached the end of the hall where several rooms were set apart, the guards stopped. "If you need anything at all, m'lords, all you need do is call. We will be right outside."

Even Bae felt a hint of irritation rise up in him. "So what, we're your prisoners?"

"We've been given strict instructions to remain at the doors," one guard said and Rumplestiltskin rolled his eyes.

"Well that won't do," he grumbled and magic visibly kept from his fingers as both men's knees suddenly gave way and they dropped.

Bae's eyes went wide. "Papa!" he hissed, but the elder man only shrugged.

"They're just sleeping, son. They won't remember a thing. We didn't need them snooping and reporting on us."

"What do you have planned?"

"Exactly what I meant to do from the beginning. We're going to go look for that stone."

"By we..."

"Well, if you'd rather just sit around and wait for something to happen, I suppose you're welcome to. I didn't realize you'd have such qualms over making our way into the treasury to look for what we came here for."

A small smirk tilted Bae's lips. It had been a long time since he'd actually broken into a place, and part of him wondered if his father knew that. He did have an uncanny way of knowing things that Bae had no clue how he'd come across the information. "You need me to break in?"

"Hardly, but I wouldn't mind the company," Rumple responded with a cheerful smile.

"Father-son bonding moments. If I'd only known. So, what? You're just going to magick us in there?"

"No, no. They're not the brightest of people in this kingdom, but they'll have had enough foresight not to hide magical artifacts of great power in a room that can simply be teleported into. We'll have to do this the old fashion way."

"Well let's get going. I'm guessing that you'd planned to do this while David has Thomas and the others held up in their lengthy meeting?"

The smirk Rumplestiltskin gave him held no small amount of pride in it and Bae met it with a grin. Maybe he'd inherited more from his father than he'd ever been willing to admit.

TBC

Notes: Father-son sneaky bonding. That's really the best :D

Next time - Rumple and Bae sneak into the treasury to find they're not the only ones while Regina, Belle, and Emma find a way into Maleficent's fortress.