Chapter 17 Choices to Make

Rumple pulled on the door frantically several times before he gave up and began pacing the room. The Dark One, Zoso, the great and powerful sorcerer had his Belle alone somewhere in this castle, perhaps not even there, perhaps he had taken her somewhere and was making her do whatever it was she was supposed to be doing, and he felt his hand grip the handle of the stick he was using until his knuckles became snow white.

He knew he was no one of importance. He didn't have a prophecy spoken about him, he did not have the bravery that Belle had-no he was just a lame spinner, but Belle was the most important thing to him, and the idea that she might be facing some sort of danger without him being there to at least pretend to try and protect her made him both unimaginably angry and his chest sore with fear at the same time. He had no idea how long it was that he had been pacing-it could have been half an hour, it could have been 5 hours, but he continued to pace in a haze of fear and anger until suddenly the big black chair was suddenly empty no longer.

'Where is she?!' Rumple yelled. His heart taking over his cowardly mind, so afraid for Belle that the thought of who he was addressing had not even registered. 'What have you done with her?' He questioned afterwards, not even shifting where he stood, his head so slightly above Zosos, even with him sitting down.

'Calm yourself, Rumplestiltskin, I've done nothing to her, I merely had a chat with her and she is making us tea for us that we will drink when I am done talking to you.'

Rumple was still unconvinced, though the realization of how he had spoken and who he had spoken to was finally dawning and his body began trembling where he stood.

'Show me.' He said, though his voice was quieter than before.

'What?'

'Show me you are telling the truth.' The being was magical, surely the thing was not beyond reasoning.

Zoso motioned him to sit down, he conjured up a mirror, pointed it towards him and flicked his fingers across it. In the mirror Belle was sitting beside the stove in the kitchen on a wooden stool with the blue book in her hand and another book that Rumple had never seen before beside it laid out on the small table they had seen before and it looked like she was comparing the two. The kitchen no longer looked filthy and Belle looked fine, Rumple eventually nodded his head and slumped his shoulders forward in some relief.

'I'm glad to see you have some spirit.' The sparkly man said drolly. 'For a minute I was completely questioning all my confidence in magic.'

Belle would have asked what he meant but all the adrenaline that had made him confront the man about Belle, had drained and been replaced with his usual amount of cowardice and all at once he was again fearful.

'I see you don't question such things.' Zoso sighed. 'Very well-I meant the true love you and the girl-Belle- are supposed to share. Belle acts exactly like how I would have pictured her to act, perhaps excepting that she would have been taller.' He chuckled, which made Rumple dare to narrow his eyes before thinking. 'But she has enough spirit for a much bigger person.'

Rumple couldn't argue with that particular assessment.

'You on the other hand are quite-shall we say, more careful.'

'Coward was the word you were thinking.' Rumple muttered, the thought that this trait always followed him around like a heavy chain.

'Not at all.' Zoso was looking at him seriously now. 'You were not afraid to confront me just now about where I sent Belle. That's what I meant. You are careful and I thought that perhaps you were a bit boring too, but your outburst shows you are not above confrontation, it's just that something must happen before you throw out the risk of doing so.'

Rumple didn't know what to say to that, so he said nothing at all.

'So-now it is time for us to talk about what happens next.'

The feeling-a feeling he had been getting since he first heard that Belle was a part of some prophecy, a part of some greater bigger plan than he had ever dreamed possible. It made his chest hurt and his body tense up and it had plagued his thoughts from the moment the worry had been planted in his head. He knew he was prone to overblown panic-though not blind anymore, his worries about the future continued to persist. He didn't want to hear about the next, dangerous step that Belle had to take. The feeling grew so strong and hurt him so bad that he swallowed hard and interrupted the great Dark One.

'Belle-I um, I have to ask a question about her.'

Zoso did not seem annoyed, which was good, he also didn't seem surprised which he was unsure how to take.

'This prophesy about her-I don't understand it at all, nor do I care so much about the details, as much as I, uh….' He swallowed again. He felt no stronger for it, but carried on. 'I care about Belle. I've heard bits about overthrowing the fairies, and the fact that somehow she's supposed to be the one to do so, but I've heard nothing about afterwards. She'll be alright, won't she? Not hurt, or dead, or anything?' His voice got smaller the more he spoke, but Zoso crossed his arms and bobbed his head a time or two in acknowledgment that he was being heard.

'Everything that I know points to the fact that she will live, if that's what's worrying you.' Rumple breathed a sigh of relief. 'I can give you no guarantees, other than my strong suspicions. However, both you and her will be in danger no matter what happens.'

Rumple sighed. 'I assumed as much. I just don't want her hurt.'

Zoso stared at him for a moment, as if examining him. 'There is a way that you can be guaranteed the ability to protect your family no matter what. To have the power to ensure their safety at all times.'

Rumple was certainly listening now.

'They would never starve, in fact you would be able to provide them things, comfort-a large house and good clothes when this is all over. Belle could use some new clothes, I think…'

Zoso snapped and an iridescent image appeared of Belle in the dress she had tailored from one of Milah's dresses, the one she had worn to the Dark One's abode. It was ill fitted, no matter that it was hemmed. Milah and Belle had been two completely different sizes and it didn't help that Belle had gone several months without a proper appetite. Another snap and she was clothed in a long blue dress, even in the unrealistic image, he could tell the fabric was well done and of high quality-and blue, blue the color of her eyes. Rumple tried to take deep breaths and think things through properly.

'The price…' His voice wavered.

'You have just as much capability of weiding power as Belle, you know. You just weren't seen- You were the second part of that true love's kiss, light magic. But you could wield other magic too.'

A flick of his hands produced the very dagger they had seen inlaid in gold on the blue book. This one, however, was so real and just looking at it seemed to speak all sorts of dark thoughts to his heart and soul. It sent out waves of unknown power, and authority.

'This dagger belongs to me, right now, but I have grown tired of this-' He flicked his hands again, but this time he did it to demonstrate the castle, and an assumption of his power.

'It can be lonely sometimes-but you, you have someone-you have a family, people to care about and people who care about you.'

'H-how did you become the dark one?'

'I killed my predecessor. With the dagger-that's how the power is transferred.' He spoke as if describing the weather and Rumple nearly toppled over from the shock of it.

'What?! How can you think that I would…How could I even think about…' He fumbled, not yet wrapping his brain around such ideas-that meant that this thing in front of him had murdered-killed someone-for power. He would not lie, the idea of taking care of, and providing for his family, giving Belle the kind of home and clothes, and things she deserved, giving Bae a better chance at survival, giving him what was left of his childhood-all those things were tempting, more than tempting even. If the fairies were to disappear tomorrow and they were free to live their lives as they wanted, they would be scratching out a meager existence for years at the very least, since they would be starting with nothing. Every night as they laid on the ground, heading towards the library, he could only think of what a failure he would be, how hard it would be to look Belle in the eyes when he couldn't provide for them, how he would wish for his blindness back so he wouldn't have to watch his son starve. But to do such a thing as this thing was suggesting. He couldn't' do it. And that is what he tried to convey as he stuttered out the phrases he did.

'You don't have to kill me, though. I may be tired, but I am not quite ready to die, I don't think.' There was something in his eyes. Something shifty, calculating that Rumple didn't like at all.

'The dagger, it controls me. Whoever holds the dagger controls the Dark One. You don't have to kill me to get the power, you just have to hold onto the dagger.'

'And you want me to control you?' He was beyond skeptical.

Zoso sighed. 'I was an old and cynical man when I took on this.' He flicked his hands towards himself. ' I had lost everything-my livelihood, my family had grown and gone, some killed, some hated me, or at least I thought they did, my wife had died years earlier. I was sure the entire world had conspired against me. My predecessor found me in one of my dark spells, and he truly was dead and tired. Somehow convinced me that killing him would bring relief and peace to the both of us. I refused at first. I wanted to show the universe I was more than a bug to be squished under its foot. I was tired and angry. I wanted something-anything that would prove I was something. So I did it. The man before me made me angry enough that in my mind I thought I had lashed out in self defense, but it hasn't lowered the amount of guilt that I feel now, of course.

For the first few months, I was in glorious power. Everything was in my grasp. I made this castle, I subjected the people around me, I forced people to do things for me, and obliterated anyone who got in my way-it's where the rumors came from that I'm sure you've heard.' Rumple nodded. 'As time passed, I changed. My face changed, my teeth rotted where I stood, I became ugly from the inside out. By the time I realized that everything I did had a price, I looked like what you see now.'

Rumple had not the heart of Belle and yet he somehow felt sorry for the man in front of him-for it turned out that he was indeed a man after all.

'And you want me to turn out the same?'

Zoso held up a hand to him. 'I haven't finished. Magic, as Belle and I discussed earlier, feeds off our emotion. The emotion you conjure will determine the price and the consequence. To do something for some else's' good, it's something that feels almost like purpose.'

'And again I ask, you want me to control you?

'No one wants to be controlled, but-the fairies, the minute I step outside this castle, whether in this realm or the one you come from, my power is dampened. BUT if you destroyed the fairies and returned my power, to help you would be almost like the price to pay, and maybe-maybe if I see someone actually be helped, maybe it will undo some of the mistakes from my past.'

Zoso shrugged his gruff shoulders in something akin to shame, and in this moment he looked the most human that he had thus far.

'You can't want this for nothing. Power is one thing, but I would control you, how would that be any better than what you have right now?' Rumple's courage to ask these questions surprised him, but he had to know.

'I want order. The older I get, the more I've studied, and the more I've figured out that there has to be order in the universe. Light has to balance dark, wrong has to be balanced by justice, time can't be corrupted like it's being done in the fairy realm. And I told you-I'm tired. I'm done. If you killed me, it wouldn't be so bad, but teaching you magic? Showing you how to use the dagger? Maybe better?'

Rumple squinted at him, trying to figure him out.

'No.' He finally said.

'No?'

'You can't want this, and I sure don't want it. Magic feeds off emotion? I've got dark emotions in spades, and I would become just as corrupt as the worst fairy. I'll do anything for my family and it probably would never be enough. I might not look forward to having to look my family in the eyes as they starve, but I sure can't' look them in the eyes as I control you so they can have fancy clothes and a nice house.' He looked and sighed at the dagger in the Dark One's outstretched hands and closed his eyes and turned against it. 'I won't do it. I won't be corrupted-I'm not desperate enough for it.'

'And that's your final answer?'

'It is.'

'Ah well, good.' Rumple opened his eyes noting Zoso's amused smile in disbelief. 'Congratulations, you didn't die.'

'What?!'

'You didn't actually think I wanted you to take the dagger and control me, did you?'

'Well, I, didn't…'

'This isn't the real dagger, and touching it would have incinerated you on the spot. No, your lovely wife has the real one.'

Rumple stood up quickly, ignoring the pain in his leg and glared at Zoso.

'What?! Why did you do such a thing? Belle would never, could never…'

'She is safe and in no danger-Don't worry, her test was a bit different. She won't be controlling me, or at least, I'm putting my faith in the fact that she won't control me. Her motivations are only slightly different from yours.'

Zoso looked so calm, but Rumple was pacing as his mind reeled with the overload of information.

'What do you mean? What is going on?'

'Sit down, Rumplestiltskin.'

Rumple dared glare at the Dark One, but he sat down anyway.

'You are here because you love Belle and will protect your family at all costs, Belle is here to save the world and yet loves you at the same time. Belle is supposed to take my dagger-you see, I told the truth, I am almost powerless outside of this castle, but I can transfer some of my power to the dagger. I've been working on this scheme since I first lost it. I'll be powerless and unable to come to your aid until Belle defeats the fairies, even powerless in my own home for a time, but according to what has been seen, it has to be done this way.'

'Then why the tests if you knew it had to be done this way no matter what we answered?'

'So you do have a bit of curiosity about these things, hmm? The dagger, once I transfer the power and Belle gains control, she can use and wield control (just as much as you could take the dagger from her and wield it, yourself) once everything is said and done. I might understand the inevitability of prophecy, but I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I thought I was placing the essence of myself and all my power into the hands of people-less worthy than yourselves, of course.'

Rumple still looked warily at Zoso, still utterly confused as to how Belle was supposed to use a dagger to defeat the fairies, and knowing how kind she was, how she was even supposed to get her emotions built up to actually do such a thing against them, even if they were fairies.

'And now-before you set off on your journey, I have a parting, though temporary gift.'

Rumple's nerves were raging again. He didn't know how to take a 'gift' from the Dark One.

'You are going to be doing some more traveling, and your limp is very inconvenient to this whole thing-so…'

Zoso waved his fingers and purple smoke engulfed his leg which caused Rumple to gasp at the tingling sensation. When the smoke cleared, he noticed that the pain he had felt from the pacing had completely gone away, in fact, all pain in that region had left him entirely. He stood and tested out his leg-it had been healed! He could, for the first time in over a decade, put weight on it. He took a few steps, mesmerized by his new ability.

'Thank you!' He breathed, then remembered. 'Temporary? You said this is temporary?'

'Yes, once this is complete, you'll go back to your injury.'

Rumple grimaced at the thought. Why? He wondered, and as if reading his thoughts, Zoso replied,

'This is a reminder of your past, a good one.' Rumple gaped in disbelief. 'Yes, you heard me, a good one despite the pain I know you've felt, and will feel. It reminds you of the lengths you will go through to be with and protect your family. This is not such a bad thing. There were other soldiers that day who heard similar prophecies made about them and their families. Most knew they were dead men walking. You were the only one to take fate in your own hands, not to save yourself, but out of a refusal to abandon your son. This is commendable, and something I had hoped would be seen in your refusal to try to steal my dagger. I was not wrong, and I hope I continue not to be wrong about this. So yes, your limp is not your curse, it's a reminder of your strength, and you'll do well to remember it.'

Author's Note:

Is it too far fetched? You'll have to let me know, lol It was a struggle to give a scenario that would be both tempting and yet a no brainer for Rumple to refuse. He isn't desperate like he is in the show. I also wanted something that would sound good in Zoso's head that would having him feeling better to entrust his dagger to Belle and Rumple, and yet weird enough that Rumple is going 'wait a minute...'. I still think my readers might have to suspend disbelief for a chapter or two, but maybe you'll forgive me.
Also, you may notice that Zoso is neither good nor evil. I was thinking about one of those charts that have the different types of good/evil, and I was thinking he's either a chaotic good, or really a chaotic neutral. I also tried to see what OUAT had for Zoso's backstory and see how I could integrate it with my plot, but there wasn't a whole lot. I made up most, tried to integrate some things that would have Rumple seeing himself a bit with him-(in the show) they were both dark ones, and to make Zoso less evil, I put in some elements we think of in Rumple's Dark One.
I hope all of this makes sense! More details are coming as far as what they are going to do, how they will do it, why Zoso's power has been dampened and what that means (or at least, I think I will give all of that, I'll add it to a note in the future if I see that my plot moves on without me). I hope to answer any questions you may have now. I don't mind you asking me, if it doesn't give anything away but just clarifies, I will answer any question I can!
Thank you for reading, let me know what you think!