Chapter 3

Alliances old and new

The books were stacked neatly in piles on the floor. Four towers of literature on dark magic and curses formed a semi- circle, at the center of which sat Belle, scribbling notes on a yellow legal pad. She had been woken by a nightmare again. Luckily this time she had not cried out and woken Rumple. The man had his own demons to deal with and slept little enough without her adding to it. Unable and unwilling to go back to sleep, she had headed to Rumple's library and found solace in books.

And at least I can do some good, she had thought. She had started reading about dark curses in hopes that she could find something that would help him. She knew why he didn't want the curse broken, but if she couldn't free him from the darkness then at least she could find a way to make it easier for him to control. A gentle knock at the door disturbed her reading. She looked up to see Rumpelstiltskin standing in the doorway, clean shaven and impeccably dressed as usual, holding a silver tray.

"Rumple, what time is it? What's that?"

"6 a.m. dearie. I uh…made you breakfast." The last part was added almost shyly.

"I thought that was supposed to be my job?"

"Belle…you're not my maid anymore. Now, may I come into your castle?" he asked, gesturing at the ring of books around her.

"Of course," she laughed. "It's technically your castle. I'm just squatting."

He crossed over to where she sat and settled down beside her on the floor, setting the tray between them. He lifted the lid off the tray, revealing plates piled with eggs, toast, sausages and two cups of steaming tea. Along the edge of the tray lay a long stemmed red rose.

"My lady," he said, taking her hand and kissing her lightly over her knuckles "if you'll have it."

"Why, thank you kind sir," Belle replied and kissed him back on the cheek.

After they had eaten, they just sat on the floor talking. Rumple had wrapped one arm around her. She leaned in closer, resting her head on his shoulder, and closed her eyes.

"You're tired," he remarked, kissing her temple. "Another nightmare woke you?"

She considered denying it for a moment. Since she had regained her memories he had tried to get her to talk about her imprisonment. He already knew that Regina had locked her up for twenty eight years, a fact that enraged him enough to cry murder. She didn't want him to know how much she had suffered. Didn't want him to know that for twenty eight years, every night she dreamed about their last moments together. In the dream she had broken his curse. But instead of a happy ever after, the dream always ended with Regina killing Rumple as the curse broke. And it was all her fault. Every morning she awoke with the memory of her former life, to unsympathetic people who called her delusional and insisted that she was crazy. There had been many days that she was convinced they were right.

But if she told him that, it would only inflame him more and drive him towards seeking revenge. An act she figured would just feed his curse and increase its' hold on him. She had exacted a promise from him that he would not kill Regina, that he would leave justice up to the town. She had felt guilty for using his feelings but she had no idea how to help him otherwise. She really did not want to tell him about the nightmares.

"It's fine. It's not as bad as before."

The frown on his face told her he didn't believe her.

"If it were from a sleeping curse I could make a ward against the nightmares. But this? This is something my magic won't solve." He sounded frustrated, as though it hurt him physically to admit that there was something that magic-the thing he had embraced, lived and swore by- could not fix.

"You need to talk to someone about them. If not me…there is someone I know. That you…we…can trust."

It was strange to hear him speak of trusting. He didn't trust easily and she guessed if he did he wouldn't admit it readily. There was something in his voice that troubled her though. A bitterness and hardness to it. He thinks I don't trust him, she realized. He thinks that's the reason I won't talk about it.

"Rumple…" she started to protest.

"No." he said firmly, cutting her off. "You made me promise I won't kill Regina. There are ways I can hurt her and still keep that promise. But I'll make you a deal. I won't act. But you must talk to this person. He helps people in this land. He can help you. Do we have a deal?"

She should say something to him. Try to explain that it had nothing to do with lack of trust between them. But there was a look in his eyes now, a look that she had seen before in the dark castle when she had told him that what they had was true love, and she knew he would not believe her.

"Yes…" she stammered.

"Good," he said rising. "I'll go make the call."

With that he turned and walked out of the room.


Emma walked into the small apartment that she shared with Mary Margaret. David and Mary Margaret were already there, waiting for her.

"Emma," Mary Margaret greeted her, "you wanted to see us?"

"Yeah," Emma replied, trying her best to ignore the other woman's hopeful expression. She knew what Mary Margaret thought the meeting was going to be about. But she wasn't ready for that, besides they had bigger problems if her suspicion was right. "I think we may have a problem."

"Great," David replied, when Emma had finished filling them in on what she had discovered, "now we have Maleficent free somewhere in Storybrooke. Now all we need is Regina to get her magic back and it'll be just like old times!"

"She may lay low to recover from her injuries. That should give us some time," Snow said.

"To do what?" Emma asked incredulously, "because the old slaying the dragon bit didn't work out so well the first time."

The phone rang, interrupting their conversation.

"I'll get it," Mary Margaret said.

"It gives us time to plan, Emma. At least we can put people on alert and prepare to evacuate if things get out of hand."

Any reply Emma was going to give was cut off by Mary Margaret coming back into the room.

"Guys that was Ruby. We may have another problem. She wants us to come down to the town square now."


A crowd had gathered in the town square. They had been there some time listening to the man speak. Some were openly against what he was saying. But there were others who were nodding and adding shouts of agreement.

"Your Prince has failed you," the man was saying. He spat the word prince, making the word out to be something derisive. "Your Queen has failed you. You gave them your trust and they were supposed to protect you. But they failed. They allowed us all to be ripped from our homes, our lives our very beings to this cursed land. All of us were made to suffer from a vendetta that had naught to do with us! And now they protect the one who condemned us! They deny us justice."

"That's a lie. They didn't let this happen. And you don't want justice, George, you want revenge."

It was Ruby who had spoken. She came to the front of the crowd and glared up at the man on the podium.

"That's King George, to you," the man replied coldly. "But of course I expect you to agree with their idea of justice, having never been brought to account for your own sins."

At that comment, Ruby felt the wolf in her rise.

"You son of a…" her words and her advance forward was stopped by a hand on her arm.

"Let it go, Ruby" David said quietly to her. He looked up at the man on the podium and smiled.

"Hello, dad, inciting a little anarchy are we?"

"You're no son of mine," King George growled.

"Well, now that we have that identity crisis sorted out, why don't we all pack up and go home?"

"Home?" George scoffed loudly. "Which home is that? The home that was taken from us? How do you propose we do that?"

"Well," replied David lightly, "for starters by not executing the one person who may know how to send us back. And while this land may not be our home, it's what we have for now, and there is a little thing called 'due process' that helps keep the peace. You should know that, George."

"Is that the game you want to play? Very well then. You shall have your 'due process'" George replied quietly with a cold smile. "But there is also a thing in this land called democracy. And I say you are not fit to rule. So I challenge you. Let the people decide who shall rule them. A pair of weaklings who cower before an imprisoned, self-styled evil Queen or one strong enough to do what is necessary!"

The last part was said loudly for all to hear. King George's supporters cheered loudly in support of his plan.

"An election. Fine, if that's what you want. May the best ruler win," David said.

"Oh, I plan to see that happen, my Prince."


The idiot dwarf had finally left, to answer nature's call Regina suspected. It didn't give her much time but it was better than nothing. She studied the lock and concentrated. She could feel it, the tendrils of her magic tugging at her being, trying to rise. She just had to focus. At first there was a tingling and then a small glow at the tips of her fingers. She pointed at the lock. A tinny spark shot out and dissolved instantly leaving the metal in tack. Not even a scratch. Useless.

"Not so easy, is it, dearie?" a voice said.

She looked up to see her former mentor standing before her with that all too familiar smirk plastered on his face.

"Come to gloat?" she asked.

"Gloating was never to my taste."

His words were calm and softly spoken, but she could feel the steel in it, the cold sharpness of his rage. A younger version of herself might have been afraid. But the creature she had become felt nothing but empty hate.

"So do it then. If you have the nerve."

"Oh, I haven't come to kill you, dearie. I made a promise. But I do need to ensure that you stay out of my way."

Quicker than she had expected him to move, he grabbed her wrist and slapped something on to the palm of her hand. She could feel her flesh burning and something moving into it. It took several tries before she wrenched her hand free. She studied her hand and the odd brand left there. It looked like a coat of arms, with a giant squid on it.

"What?" she asked, but then she knew. She could no longer feel the magic that was just beginning to wake up.

"You bastard. So that's it then? You take my magic. Do you really expect that the Charmings would do your dirty work for you? They don't have the stomach." She scoffed.

"Maybe. But you've made other enemies who I'm sure would be willing to step up where they fail. And though what I had in mind for you would have been much worse than anything they could dream up, I guess I will just have to be content. As the saying goes, it's an imperfect world. Now, if you would excuse me, I have some other business to take care of."


King George walked up to the front door of his house. He fished his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door. As he crossed the threshold he noticed something on the hallway floor. Blood. But who?

"Close the door, George." A woman's voice commanded.

He stopped in his tracks.

"Mal," he said at last.

"It's been a long time, my love…it's time we got re acquainted."

TBC