Chapter Thirteen.

Rumplestiltskin cast a small spell over them that allowed them to pass through the halls unnoticed, if not entirely unseen. It was a simple spell that used very little energy, and he was pleased to note that he could only feel the pull of it in the smallest of ways. Bae seemed perfectly content to help him break into the treasury and he was certain that that should concern him more than it did. The fact that everything seemed to be falling into place - with the exception of the length of time that it had taken to find just the right place to start applying pressure on George that would free them up to leave - made the trip worth wild. Even more, his son was by his side and he didn't have to worry about obnoxious royals was a bonus, and a rather large one at that. This could turn into a decent trip after all.

"I'm actually kind of surprised you know how to pick a lock," Bae murmured as his papa pulled a set of lockpicks from thin air. "I figured you just opened any place you needed to get into with magic."

"There was no magic in Manhattan when I picked the lock on your apartment door."

"I think it's hilarious how you think I was never pissed over that," his son answered as he leaned against the wall, watching Rumple work the lock carefully. "You know, it'd be quicker if you turned it… Here, let me."

Rumplestiltskin didn't argue, but did quirk a questioning eyebrow as Baelfire knelt down where he'd just been and had the lock jimmied open with just a few clicks. "I'm not going to ask you where you learned that."

Bae flashed his papa a grin as he pushed the door open and both men winced at the creaking sound it made. When no guards came rushing around the corner they slipped inside and Baelfire gave a long whistle. "Damn."

The room obviously wasn't just for magical artifacts that the royal family had collected over the years, but for all of their jewels and treasures. Gold glittered, gems shined, and a few stones that might have been large diamonds sparkled. Bae's eyes were wide as he looked over it. "That's… wow. Okay. Makes me wonder if David and Mary Margaret have a room like this."

"Somewhere, I'd imagine. I know Regina did, though her sister may have ransacked it by now," Rumple mused softly as he started forward.

"So what does this stone look like anyway?"

"About so big-" his father answered, measuring out the size of the pendant with his fingers- "and it will be a light colour. Perhaps a very light blue or milky white. Zelena will need to corrupt it to her purposes."

"What do you think she's going to use it for?" Bae asked, kneeling to look through some gems as carefully as he could.

"It's a power enhancer, mostly."

"So you don't have any idea what she might be after?"

"No, not yet, but I have a few things in place to find out. You'll be one of the first to know, Bae, I promise you that."

"Speaking of first to know," Baelfire said slowly, standing and turning his gaze towards his father. Rumplestiltskin blinked at him, feeling like he should be worried about what was to follow, but not quite sure why. "You were kind of off on our way here this morning. Anything you want to talk about?"

The elder man watched his son carefully, trying to gauge if Bae knew and was giving him the opportunity to tell him or if he just had a general feeling and was worried something was wrong. Either way, he probably should tell his son that he'd proposed - if one could call it a proposal, the way he stumbled through it - the night before. "I asked Belle to marry me," he said after a moment.

"Seriously?"

"You don't have to sound so surprised, son," Rumple groused.

"No, it's just… I don't know. You're not the world's best at handling stuff like that. Congrats."

"You don't know what she said."

A smirk tilted Bae's lips upward. "Of course I do. That woman loves you more than anything or anyone. I'm just shocked she didn't ask you first."

Rumple sank down to look through a chest, finding nothing. "Well, I think we were about at that point," he murmured honestly. He glanced over, finding Bae's boots next to him and he looked straight up into his son's eyes.

"Congrats, Papa. You two deserve something good."

He stood, feeling a warmth spread through. He'd always loved Bae, and he'd loved Belle dearly under his curse, but there was a deeper reach to the love now, like so much of it had been kept behind a dam to keep from drowning the curse out. "Thank you, Bae," he managed, his voice breaking slightly.

"Woh."

Both men startled, spinning around and found Henry standing and looking straight up at a particularly tall pile of treasures, oblivious of the conversation he'd just interrupted. His eyes were wide and full of awe and the grin that spread across his features was brighter than anything he'd given off yet. The excitement rolled off him in waves as he bounded over to his father and grandfather. "This is awesome!"

"Now Emma's going to kill me," Bae chuckled as he ruffled son's hair.

"The lad can keep a secret, can't you, Henry?" Rumplestiltskin asked with a smile.

"Sure I can!"

"That means 'of course not' in twelve-year-old," Bae groused, but he didn't seem as put out as Rumple might have thought.

"Just because you couldn't keep a secret to save your life at his age doesn't mean he can't," his father returned. "Come on, Henry. You're here. You might as well help us look."

"Did you tell a bunch of secrets as a kid, Dad?" Henry asked, nearly bouncing between the two men.

"Not that I remember."

"You didn't keep quiet about a lot either," Rumple chuckled.

Henry turned towards his grandfather, almost as if he meant to block Bae out of the conversation. "I never hear stories about Dad when he was a kid. I don't ever hear stories about Dad at all. Mom won't even tell me how they met."

"Well, I don't know that particular one-"

"Your mom was stealing a car. I got her out of trouble," Bae input and that regained his son's attention.

"Really?"

"Now Emma is going to kill you, son," Rumple teased and received a half-hearted glare in his direction. He cleared his throat, but couldn't quite contain the smile that tugged at him. "Henry will be fine, and he can keep a secret. There's no reason to worry."

A loud crashing sound ripped through the room and both men immediately stepped closer to Henry, protecting him between them. The crash was followed by a howling screech and Rumplestiltskin pulled magic to himself, fire collecting in his hand to throw at the monkey that had somehow made its way into the treasury.

"It's looking for the stone," Bae growled.

"Keep Henry down and out of the way. There's only one."

"Papa," Bae hissed.

Rumplestiltskin was already moving towards the monkey, magic swirling around him. The wards that had kept them from teleporting in did not negate his magic once inside and as the angry creature came flying down towards him he lobbed the attack in its direction. Zelena's pets were surprisingly agile and it swerved out of the way, screeching loudly and darted last second before Rumple could catch him, coming up behind and slamming the sorcerer into the floor hard enough to knock the breath out of him. Claws would have torn through skin had it not been for the sturdy leathers he wore, certainly more practical for this than the linens and silks that those that had come with him were in. Not Bae, though. Bae had always been practical.

The creature slammed him hard again as he tried to regain his bearings, and in that moment a flicker of recognition swept through him. The monkey was angry, true, but it was also trying to hold back. It was desperate to hold back. He'd missed a small thread that allowed Zelena her control - she didn't have it completely, but the cursed man was mostly at her mercy at the moment and had likely been told to let nothing stop him - and he was ready to give it a sharp tug when the monkey went flying back, grabbed by the wings and flung a few feet.

Bae came into focus, reaching down and helping his father to his feet. "We have to go."

"No, it's alright. I have this under control. Well, I do now, at any rate," Rumple answered and he pulled on the magical string, watching it unravel as few could. The monkey stopped then, cocking its head to one side and gave a mournful sound.

"What did you do, Papa?"

"Oh, stop your crying," Rumplestiltskin groused at the creature and smoke enveloped it, replacing it with Captain Hook knelt down on the stones of the treasury floor.

"Killian?" Bae managed. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm fine, don't worry about the fact you just attacked me," the pirate growled.

"But you were..." Bae turned a sharp gaze on his father, but Rumple was sure it could have been worse. "You were locked up in the a Dark Castle waiting my my dad to figure out how to unravel the curse."

"I found a way and the captain volunteered his services to help deliver information in a way that no one else could," Rumple answered easily.

"Volunteered might be a bit of a stretch, crocodile."

"Don't be sour. Everything comes with a price."

"Papa," Bae started, but his father frowned.

"Would you rather continue at this whole endeavor deaf and blind?" He smiled crookedly at his son's expression. "I thought not."

"Hey, Captain," Henry greeted as he made it out of the hiding place his father had no doubt tossed him into.

"Hello, lad."

"Focus, Hook. What have you learned?"

"Well it's not like I'm her personal confidant, is it?" he growled as he was brushing off his long coat that had somehow reappeared around his shoulders even though it had not been there when he'd first transformed. The two men squared off for a moment, the battle of wills raging between the one that had taken the other's wife and the one that had killed the other's love. For a moment, it looked like nothing good would come of releasing Jones from the spell, but he rolled his eyes at last. "She sent me here after a stone. This one," he offered, holding out the glittering gem.

"She sent a pirate for buried treasure. Fitting," Rumple said and reached for the pendant.

Hook pulled back. "Oh no. I know better than to give it to you without something in return."

"How about you get to keep your other hand? Remember what happened last time you tried to snatch something of value away from me?"

The pirate sneered, but he didn't even have a chance to hand over the prize as smoke swirled around his hand and the gem suddenly appeared in the sorcerer's. "This is what I'm talking about, Captain. Trust. You most certainly haven't earned it, and at the slightest thought that you might win favour with Zelena, you think about darting off to her with the prize. Does not instill faith, you know."

"At least Zelena doesn't keep dangling my freedom in front of my face."

"She doesn't dangle it because you'd never get it from her. That's the real trap, sunshine." Rumple lifted the gem up to inspect it. "Anything else that might hasten a belief that you've chosen a side?"

The pirate captain snorted. "I couldn't tell you what was important and what wasn't. Pan's there off and on, but I think he's playing her. They've talked about… Oh, what was it?"

Rumple opened his mouth to remind the younger man that the question was being posed to him, not the other way around, but Bae's expression cut him off. They both knew Hook was stalling, but his son was a bit more inclined to let him, so he went back to studying the pendant, his magic wrapping around it and snaking through.

His grandson had inched steadily closer. "Is that the real one?"

"Yes, I do believe it is, Henry. We have what we came for."

Hook froze, blue eyes widening. "You're going to send me back empty handed, aren't you?" he demanded. "You don't have the spine to kill me yourself, do you, crocodile? You're going to have Zelena do it for you."

A familiar spark of hatred lit through Rumplestiltskin, but he forced it down. Bae and Henry were both there, and even if they knew what he was, they expected him to be better and he had to try. It didn't matter if the Dark One's curse had left a stain behind, marring his outlook on life and the world around him for the rest of his days, his child and grandchild felt differently, and he loved them too much to allow their opinions to slide into nothingness. "If I wanted you dead you'd have been dead," he growled out instead and with a flick of his hand another stone appeared in the opposite palm. It was identical in every way to the one he'd taken from Hook and he handed it over instead of the real one.

"Won't she know?" the captain asked, his voice holding a bit less bite to it.

"I've wrapped enough illusion around it to keep her thinking she has the real thing. What I need you to do - and then you may go wherever you like - is to find out if she has the second stone already and what she needs them for. This-" another spell leapt from his fingers to wind around Hook - "is your assurance that I'll make good on my end of the bargain. Should she find you out, should you be in danger in any way you will immediately be pulled back to the Dark Castle where I can return you to yourself."

"I thought that you couldn't teleport in or out of the Dark Castle right now," Henry piped up.

"Well, at the gates," his grandfather corrected with a small smile. The boy did have a good memory on him.

"Fine."

Rumple nodded. "Fine," he murmured in agreement and Hook melted back into the winged monkey without any further delay. He clutched the fake pendant in his hand and nodded before taking off and out the window he'd broken through in the first place.

"Thank you, Papa."

The former Dark One turned, his son offering him a tight smile. "For what, Bae?"

"I know you and Killian… have a past. He's irritating as hell sometimes, but he's saved my life more than once. Thank you."

Rumplestiltskin reached forward and rested a hand on his son's shoulder. "Come on. I'd like to be back before…"

"Grandpa?" Henry called, tugging on his shirtsleeve and Rumple's eyes turned towards the window. "What is it?"

"I don't know," he whispered. "Something's coming."

Rumple didn't wait for acknowledgement as he tore through the door to the treasury, making sure that all three of them were outside of the wards before he gave a sharp tug with his magic and they landed in the room they'd left only a couple of hours before. Bae looked slightly nauseous at the sudden displacement and even Henry swayed a little, but Rumplestiltskin was at the window before a surprised sound could leave George's throat from where he had still been talking. Just as he'd feared a dark cloud was rushing towards them, tinged green with Zelena's scorn, and perhaps even backed by his own father's power. It would rip apart anything in its path and it was coming straight for them.

"I'm going to kill Rumple," Regina said as the three women stood looking straight up at the fortress that was perched on a structure of some sort at the base of the Forbidden Mountain.

"It kind of looks like the mountain just fell away and the castle forgot to go with it," Emma said slowly, the thoughts bouncing around in her mind until they fell from her mouth.

"Fortress," Regina corrected. "Never call it a castle to her."

"Why?" Belle piped up and the Evil Queen shrugged.

"Because she's determined it's a fortress."

Emma crossed her arms over her chest, pulling in a deep sigh and letting it out through her nose. She knew it was possible for someone other than Maleficent to enter because her father had before the curse had swept them all away, but there was no visible path, no staircase as far as she could tell, and it looked like an impossible climb. "So how do we get up there?"

"Well, your father probably scaled the wall," Regina said and somehow managed to make it sound like he'd been a fool for it. Emma would have liked to see Regina try to scale that wall. That would be funny. "But we'll be using magic."

"Won't that tell her we're coming?" Belle asked innocently.

"It would if it were my magic," Regina countered and Emma didn't like the way she was looking at her now, "but we're about to have a teaching moment, Miss Swan. You're getting us to the top."

"I'm… what?"

"You heard me."

"Yeah, but I think you're forgetting that I've barely figured out how to block magic thrown at me, and even that took me the better part of the week. I'm supposed to do what? Poof us all up there?"

"Oh no, dear," Regina said with a smile that Emma was sure wasn't even supposed to look friendly. "There's a place… here. This is the best one that should lift us straight up. Like you did the plate a couple of days ago."

"The one that fell and shattered?"

Belle took a step forward, studying the steep incline. "Rumple always says that magic is based in emotion and some of the most powerful magic can come from wanting to protect those you love. A plate had no meaning to you, I'd think, but getting to the top does because it gets us one step closer to winning the fight against Pan and Zelena, which keeps those you love safe."

Emma blinked owlishly at the younger - elder? - woman. She hadn't thought of it like that. Regina's method of teaching thus far had been to throw her into a situation and find out if she succeeded. If there'd been a bridge or a ledge for her mother's stepmother to toss her off of, the blonde was pretty sure she would have done it just to see if she could protect herself. Belle was right though. Gold had always linked magic with emotion and the man might be a little crazy sometimes - most of the time - but he knew what he was talking about when it came down to magic. That begged the question why he wasn't teaching her instead of Regina. "Okay," she said after a moment. "I can see it that way."

"Seriously?" Regina choked out.

"It makes sense."

"It… Fine. Whatever gets us up there."

Emma smirked and then closed her eyes, focusing everything she had on the three of them. She couldn't let them slip, because even if Regina did reach out and catch them, it would alert Maleficent of their arrival a bit earlier than any of them thought would be useful. She could feel her feet leave the ground and somehow she knew that the others were coming with her. Slowly, climbing, she pictured Henry and focused on his face. She thought of how afraid she'd been when Pan had him and how she wanted - needed - to prove to him even now how much she loved him and that she could be a good mother to him. His face was joined by her parents' after a moment and how much she wanted to see them smile, restored to their kingdom that they loved so much and to really see the life that they spoke of so fondly. Then there was Neal… His face flickered in with that smile that wasn't shy, but wasn't quite cocky either. It was something unique to him and she found herself wanting to protect him too somehow.

"Emma," Belle's soft voice broke through and images in her mind flickered out and hazel eyes blinked opened.

Storybrooke's savior came crashing down, but thankfully just to the ledge that she'd been hovering over. Belle and Regina were already standing there, but if Belle hadn't said anything she might have just kept going. Regina would have let her too, she knew, just to prove a point.

"Ow," she grumbled as she picked herself up.

"Let's get this over with," the Evil Queen growled and Emma brushed her trousers off, about to snap out a sarcastic response about terrible teachers, but Belle's hand came to rest on her shoulder.

"That was truly impressive, Emma."

"Thank you, Belle," Emma answered, shooting a look at Regina as if to say At least someone appreciates my skill.

Regina ignored it and they continued on into the fortress.

"What is that?"

"Magic," Rumplestiltskin answered David in a taught voice. It was still too far out to get a good reading on it with his new limitations, but even as far out as it was he knew that he didn't have enough time to protect the whole castle or even the wing in which they stood.

He glanced back, and he saw something in George's eyes beyond the underlying nervousness that had taken hold of the room and in that moment he knew - he knew beyond anything - that Thomas and his father were simply pawns. Stupid, ignorant, and easily manipulated pawns, but pawns nevertheless. They didn't know they were being moved around the board. George, though, had thought he'd taken the upper hand. He'd thought he had made a deal that would give him his power back. He'd always been a foolish and greedy man, but Rumple had never been on the receiving end. In that moment a rage took over him and he wasn't sure if he simply crossed the room that quickly or if he'd actually flickered out and back in, but he had the former king up against the wall with his hands around his neck. George was taller than the sorcerer, by quite a bit Rumple realized in the back of his mind, but that didn't seem to weigh in on the fact that Rumple slammed him hard against the wall, snarling in his face. "Did you think you could get away with it?"

"Rumplestiltskin!" David called out, but the man was smarter than to approach him.

"You can't!" Thomas tried and Rumple only tightened his grip and ground out his words through clenched teeth.

"I'm going to let you breathe in a second and you're going to tell me exactly what I want to know. You should speak quickly, though, George, because you know I'm not a patient man."

He eased his grip ever so slightly and the former king sucked a breath in. "I can't tell you anything. She'll kill me if I do!"

A laugh bubbled up, low and angry and certainly not something that gave anyone in the room any encouragement. "That wasn't the question," Rumplestiltskin said and tightened his grip again if only to watch the man squirm. "Now, Zelena has already proved you are more than expendable to her to get what she wants, but you just might still have a chance to win some favour from me. Choose your side wisely, dearie, but know that if any harm comes to my family that I will make sure you're the last that her curse she's sent our way kills. It'll eat through you until you beg for death, do you hear me?"

George gasped again as fingers loosed. "The wine. At lunch," he managed, gulping in air. "She gave me a small vial of potion. It's meant to follow all of you. There's no escaping it."

"Papa, can you counter it?" Bae asked, eyes darting to the window and he had a grip on Henry.

"There's no time," Rumple managed and he focused on his grandson. "Henry, did you have any of the wine?"

"I'm twelve."

"That's not what I asked," he snapped, hating himself for it, but there wasn't time for kindness. Not now. Not if he wanted to save at least one life that evening.

"No, I didn't."

His grandson was gone in a swirl of magic and Rumple's eyes met his son's. Bae looked shaken but not angry. His son would be safe and that's what mattered. Above everything, and that was something that they could understand each other on.

"It'll take everything out," Thomas managed, sounding sick and he turned his terrified eyes towards George. "Ella and Alexandra are here. They're innocent!"

"It'll take out where we are if it's chasing us," Rumplestiltskin said as his mind whirled, fitting ideas together with bits of the future at a pace few would be able to follow. He could split them up, send them to all parts of the castle. No, that wouldn't work. It would destroy everything then. He could teleport them away from the castle, to a field or something, but even if the potion that they'd drunk hadn't made it so that they couldn't leave - how had he missed it? How could he have possibly missed it? - that would set the head-on with the attack and Bae would have no chance of living through it. He needed something around them to help build the shields to protect his son with. "There has to be a place. Not far, it can't be far," he muttered, almost to himself as images flickered through his mind. "Deserted."

"The Southern tower's under construction," Thomas said. "No one's there."

The words had barely left the younger man's mouth and Rumple's magic pulled them there. They landed almost in a heap and George stumbled to his feet. "I didn't drink it!" he growled out, as if that somehow meant that he should be the one to live.

"If we die, you're going with us," Rumplestiltskin bit back.

"Can you stop it?" Philip asked, looking out the window at the cloud that had followed them without missing a beat. It seemed closer than it had even in the war room.

"Get back," the sorcerer demanded and pulled roughly to stand with the others. He had to thread together some sort of protection and he had to do it fast. Even with his curse this would have been a rush, but his limitations were still greatly untested. "Just stay back."

He heard Bae and David moving the others back. There were eight of them all together including Thomas' father and George, and trying to leave one person out from behind the wall of protection would take too many extra threads than he had time for. The strands of magic obeyed his command like an old friend coming to his aid and they wove together, bits of gold and red threading together into a shield and he put everything he knew and felt into it. All the promises he'd made and the hopes that he had. Every failure he'd made had taught him a valuable lesson, but he couldn't afford a lesson here. He couldn't afford failure if he wanted his son to live.

The green smoke poured in and the whole structure shifted. Stones scraped and wooden beams cracked. He could hear the people that were depending on him trying to remain quiet, but the noises that accompany nerves of that magnitude were like screams in his ears. They were taunts telling him that he failed, like that little voice that had been so ever-present in his mind for so many long, long years, telling him that he was nothing without his curse. He'd given it up and now they'd all die because of it. Because he'd been fool enough to think that someone could love him and that he could love her in return. He'd failed them all.

Magic bore down on his shield and Rumplestiltskin felt himself sliding back. The palms of his outstretched hands burned and he bit back a cry. "Take cover," he managed instead and he heard the sound of those with any sense scurrying to do so.

"Papa?" Bae's voice sounded so young in that moment. He hadn't moved and if Rumple weren't careful, the blast would take them both out, but Bae knew that. He had to have known that. "You have to take cover too."

"I will. Right behind you son," he lied out the promise.

If Baelfire were going to heed him or not, Rumple couldn't have known, but he was being overpowered, so he did all he could do and gave one last push against it, pulling only a bit of his magic away from that push way to make sure his son was clear of the actual bast. He tried to move too, but he felt it hit him hard and throw him, tumbling forward, but alive. He was alive enough to feel the ceiling come in on them before everything went black.

Belle wasn't sure what she had expected, but this wasn't it. She remembered there being guards posted at every hall when she'd been a prisoner in Regina's castle and Rumple's magic kept people from entering his home without permission. So far they hadn't run into any guards and no magic had picked them up to deposit them in some other kingdom. Despite its name, the only thing that seemed overly forbidding about the fortress was the height at which it was built.

The three women moved silently into the fortress, and the only company at this height seeming to be a raven that swooped down and squawked at them, receiving a glare from Regina that looked distrustful.

Emma snorted. "Got a problem with birds?"

"Just those," Regina answered carefully and studied the bird. It seemed to be studying her in return, cocking its head quizzically and finally gave a loud squawk as it dove past her and down a hallway towards the interior of the fortress.

"That's not just a raven, is it?" Belle asked, gaining the Evil Queen's attention.

"What makes you say that?"

"Its eyes."

Regina hummed softly to herself and started down the hallway that the bird had flown down. Belle and Emma exchanged looks before following, winding through the halls behind the dark haired queen. The bird was just ahead and seemed to circle around when it felt it was getting too far ahead and Regina kept her eyes fixated on it as they followed. Belle didn't dare argue, but somehow it seemed like a terrible idea to wander into a sorceress' home after a bird that was more than a bird without an idea of where they were going. Regina, though, seemed to know something more than she was willing to say.

Finally, once they'd wound around the labyrinth of halls and were deep inside the fortress, the queen let out a huff. "We didn't come here for your games, Diaval. Where is your mistress?"

The raven squawked at her and Regina flicked her hand, releasing magic from her fingertips and the bird went spiralling. It seemed to bring the desired result, though, because her painted lips stretched as the air grew chillier around them. Emma reached for her sword and Belle steadied herself against the magic that gust around them like wind, threatening to topple them as Regina had the raven.

Footsteps echoed against the stones and a woman appeared, tall and blonde and amused. She called the bird - Diaval, as Regina had called him - to herself and he flittered over, landing on her arm and she stroked its feathers gently. Her blue eyes danced with mischief barely controlled and she smiled, though it was hardly welcoming. It reminded Belle something of a predator playing nice with its prey before gobbling it up.

"Get tired of the unicorn?" Regina asked, stepping forward and towards her old friend that she'd managed to trap below the library for nearly thirty years before helping the savior kill her. Obviously that hadn't stuck.

Maleficent continued to stroke the bird's feathers. "Diaval can take many shapes. You know that." Her eyes shifted, falling on Emma and Belle in turn. "I see you brought friends. Hello, savior."

Emma tensed, gripping her sword a little tighter. She didn't move forward, but she didn't fall back either. The reluctant princess simply stood her ground against the sorceress that was known to transform into a dragon from time to time and met her eyes bravely.

The blonde sorceress tutted. "Such a serious expression. Really, Regina, this is what you get when you start toddling around the Enchanted Forest with Snow White's daughter. Perhaps you wouldn't be quite so desperate for friends if you hadn't betrayed me quite so badly."

Regina didn't rise to the bait and the elder woman looked put out by it. She sent the bird flying and magic slammed into the Evil Queen so suddenly that the others couldn't follow it. Emma rushed in to try to help - after all, she had defeated her in dragon form once, hadn't she? - and was sent skidding across the stone floor. "Silly child, this isn't your fight," the sorceress said airily.

"Please, we're only here to speak with you," Belle said as she took a step forward.

She could feel Maleficent's power come to do her bidding, but the woman wasn't able to say anything as the magic rebounded on her before it came close enough to do Belle any harm. It slammed hard, perhaps harder than Belle would have been hit by it, and Maleficent was thrown against the wall. She sank down, looking as if her head might be spinning and for a moment even Regina looked worried for her. A slow, musical chuckle left her throat and she pulled herself up to her feet. "Now who are you, my dear?" she all but purred.

The sound of what was left of the roof creaking ominously overhead was the first thing Baelfire could place. He wasn't entirely sure where he was between the ringing in his ears and the sharp pain in his head. It was like an explosion had gone off, throwing him clear across, and as he tried to sit up he was certain that's what had happened. It was dark and dusty. Very little light made its way in, but the few streams that did come through showed nothing that instilled any more faith in the stability of the room than the creaking had.

Bae reached back into his mind, grasping at memories and trying to put them into order. They'd left that morning at the break of dawn to travel to Thomas' castle. They'd gotten there around midday, eaten, and gone into a terribly boring discussion with some dethroned king that Bae was certain he wasn't a fan of before the man had promptly kicked his father out after Rumplestiltskin had goaded him.

His father's name brought memories crashing in. The stone. The attack. His papa sending Henry away to save his life and then pulling them all… to this place. This place that was falling down around them because his magic hadn't been strong enough to save them all, so instead of letting it hit the others, he'd protected all of them. It was strange, but he'd done it, and somehow that notion made Bae all the more desperate to scramble to his feet and find him.

"Neal?"

Bae squinted against the darkness and could barely make out Philip's silhouette. "Yeah. You okay?"

"I believe so," the young prince answered, though he seemed a little rattled. "You?"

"I got my bell rung a little, but I'm okay."

"Your… what?"

"Nevermind. Have you found anyone else?"

"We're over here, looking for Grumpy," David called softly, as if he feared speaking too loudly might remind the ceiling it hadn't taken them out quite yet.

As if on cue Bae could hear the sound of debris shifting and a dwarf sat up swearing and cursing.

"Have you found your dad?" David asked.

"Not yet." Bae carefully picked through the rubble, careful not to disrupt anything that might bring it down on their heads. Nothing was completely clear and he hoped that was the lack of sunlight making its way in and not an injury. He felt strangely intact for having been so close to the blast itself, and besides the headache he thought that he was mostly just bruised. They were deep bruises, but nothing that wouldn't heal.

Dark eyes latched onto a form that looked more human than destroyed masonry. As he drew closer he could see his papa's outline becoming clearer and he felt a panic bubble up inside of him as he realized that he was half buried and not moving. "I found him," he called, the desperation sounding in his voice as he sank down to the floor next to him, pushing back dark hair. "Papa? You've got to wake up," he whispered, hands moving to check for signs of life. "Please, Papa, open your eyes."

His pleas did nothing and Rumplestiltskin didn't stir, but Baelfire kept begging. He would hear him, he was certain. His papa wouldn't leave him again. Not after everything they'd both been working so hard to fix everything. He couldn't let him go.

TBC

Notes: Cliffhangers of doom. Got to love them.

Next time - Rumplestiltskin makes a choice, Zelena goes after Henry, and Maleficent decides Belle is very interesting.