It's here it's up at last.
Had a little delay in putting this up so apologies but here it is so happy reading.
I would like to thank 'Always-a-Villain' who commented - much appreciated. Anyway as always don't own OUAT and if any mistakes are here - gloss ovr until I find that dammed spell check button.
:)
Stepping out the door of his shop Gold looked up to the sky. The air was mild and the colour of the clouds promised rain. Something he enjoyed, not the hot, sweltering heat of the sun. Thankfully though the small seaside town he had inhabited for the past six years rarely brought such annoyance.
He started his way down the road smiling tightly at those that passed him. Day in day out ever since he and the rest had arrived, it was all they had done. The continual routine of it all was enough to make him dislike the people around him – more so then he ever had before. Here he was forced to interact with them, see them in all their mundane plebeian ways.
At least back in the enchanted realm he had the sweet relief of being able to vanish on a whim. Get called by those only who wanted to deal- be it willing or not so. He still smirked when he saw sweet little Cinderella. All niceties' and smiles but really she was naught but a mutinous little coward.
Hypocritical words he knew but at least he never went back on deals. He hated those that did and the only person to have done so was now in the blissful unknown. He would have liked it by his hand but knowing was just as good. But silver linings was that though they might have not remembered at all who they were they still seemed to be wary of him and so if they could, had as little to do with him as possible.
Small mercies seeing as he could only tolerate so much and the wide berths gave him the peace and time it took to figure out his next move - here there was no magic, no easy fix to his conundrum he so desperately wanted. But he knew it was always going to be hard. Three hundred years had already proven that and he was in no way stupid enough to think it would be anything but here.
Especially given the fact that here he was on an equal playing field to the rest of them. Here he was as he was born, mortal. Pre his dark one era, it felt…
It left him with a sense of hollowness that wasn't brought about by the curse. Without his power the fears he had returned to him at night, the taunts the jeers he received when he was nothing but a simple wool spinner.
The town weasel was what they dubbed him. The man who ran, the crippled coward, for years he and his family had to endure the mockery of the town they lived. His poor son was taunted endlessly, his sweet Bae – always put on a brave face no matter what was thrown at him.
God he missed his son so much.
He also missed his then wife to an extent, the face of his fears that plagued him at night, she may have run off with the one-handed pirate and left both him and their son alone but she had also stayed.
She had stayed until she could put up with being made fun of no more, in a way he did understand. He knew what she was thinking when he saw the side looks of contempt and longing in her face the desire to be anywhere but in that small hut they lived – with him.
But that had all changed when he finally got the power he craved to better their lives. In a way her running off was the spark it took for him to finally step out of the title and the shadows to take what he wanted and never let it go, oh it had felt so good when he took his vengeance, the pirate who had looked so distraught when he saw the woman he loved lying dead on his ship.
The look of loathing was simply too much but he wasn't completely satisfied until he had the wandering rogues hand. The gasp of pain emitted was like sweet music, only then was he content and had left. He had heard sometime later that the pirate – going by the moniker of hook, was after his head in the name of his lost love.
But by then he was much too powerful to fear anyone anymore. Much less a man who most likely was only after him due to his hand, he doubted the man knew what love was, it wasn't Milah he wasn't doing It for – it was himself, he was pretty sure that was part of the pirate's code after all.
But it had also cost him dear. The price of fearlessness and power had taken the only person he had loved with all his heart from him. His own folly that had driven his son from him on learning of the boys assisted escape – with the help of the blue fairy, he had sworn to never give up until he found him once more.
That had never changed. Though it had been placed at the side when some two hundred and so many years later he got involved with the wench named Cora, he may have regretted ever allowing himself to fall in love with her and to have that thrown back in his face but for those few years they did have, he felt understood.
Things got steadily worse the more she learnt and though her lust for power finally outweighed the love for him. At least the one good and only good thing to come from their time together was Regina.
As soon as he had seen her, what love lingered for her Mother was gone as now he focused on the tiny bundle in the crib, he knew that Cora was gone – the woman had removed her heart and was not the same person that he felt drawn to, he also knew that Regina was not safe with her.
The name alone spelt of the intentions the older woman designed on her and with how she acted he knew that the young baby would only grow up miserable. A flash of Bae's face came into mind. The despondent and sorrowful looks whenever he came back from learning class, he knew he was teased every day and he felt shamed his son had to pay the price for his actions.
Well no more – finally having that power he could make sure the only other person he know loved wouldn't suffer the same fate of a life that was lonely and full of hurt. Sure he may have once again been taking his child away from their Mother, but the two women he had felt affection for proved their fallibleness by falling to the demons that urged them.
Both his children were better off in his eyes. Sure Bae may have ran away from him but that was still a few years down the live since Milah ran off and he had killed her, with Regina – sure he may have cursed her but he always knew where she would end up.
Maleficent may have been a lot of things. A terror that spanned legends in many realms but she had looked after Regina like she was her own.
He stopped outside the small diner as his mind drifted to the blonde Fae. He knew he still had an obligation to keep but he had been saying that for a while now and was no sooner inclined to start looking when he had his own far more important priorities to tend to, yes he could be a bit nicer to who was essentially the guardian of his daughter, but it was just that person he happened to be searching for.
As part of the deal in the fine print of the contract he had drawn up when getting his apprentice to cast the curse. Because he wouldn't be coming through with him the deal made it so that he had complete control once in the new world. It would be him that decided where people went, what they did and what new names they would be gone by.
Truth be told he wasn't at all bothered about them. If he could have he would have just found a way to bring himself over but as it was the curse he created was far too powerful to merely bring a single person across. It needed an outlet and the rest of the kingdom was its price.
But seeing as he couldn't very well allow them to keep their original names he had come up with a few that he had found in passing, or at least found them to be fitting. It seemed their occupations just fell into their laps and so now he was free to stroll around the merry town of his creation plotting and planning all the ways he could find his son.
If only that was it.
It dawned on him when he was in the middle of re-arranging people's lives. That the one person he was looking for wasn't in the group. Once he had sorted everyone else out. His next move was to make sure that Regina was taken care off.
He would make it so she would never need for anything. A place of power within the town, a house that befitted her and all where he could watch on from a safe distance, only that little vision never came around when he realized with a cold dread that she wasn't within the curses grasp.
His heart pounding, the former dark one rushed around the frozen group oblivious to his presence. As he searched every face for chance that he had missed her, only to find that he had gone through every one of them twice. He stopped on the edge, his throat dry as the truth finally came to him that Regina wasn't there.
His mind immediately went to work on the reasons why that might have been. There was the possibility that she was outside of the curses reach when it struck. He remembered seeing the blonde though in her dragon form, she must have had reason to be in her other half and so had put her in the only place big enough to house such a creature for he no longer had magic to turn her back.
But right now she was the least of his worries. If indeed that was the case then that meant she was back in the enchanted forest. His heart lurched at the thought, it wasn't like she was merely lost and a quick search around would find her again – she was an entire realm away.
With a heavy heart he realized that this was Bae all over again. That he had lost his son to worlds unknown, his daughter was to, gone from his reach. All that he had worked for all that he had strived to achieve and put in motion suddenly didn't feel so victorious anymore as he lamented on his loss.
He knew that there was no chance of him ever being able to reach her again. Not until the curse broke and he was able to retrieve the potion. But that would take years; he idly thought about the baby saviour that Snow and charming had to sacrifice. He glanced to the said parents with a thoughtful expression.
He was aware of the blue fairy, that she was the Whites go to bug, she had known about the curse and was quick to inform them. He also knew that in order to find a way to protect if not themselves then at least the expectant princess. The use of the enchanted tree had been fashioned by the carpenter.
He didn't know what was said but surely the head fairy would have saw fit to inform her charge of the fact that the tree could be used as a shelter of sorts. That the wardrobe could be used to house two and not a singular being, he knew about the present delivered as it was he who had fed the idea to the old woodcarver in the first place.
But then why, if she had told the newly crowned Queen, was she within the frozen time bubble along with her husband. Wouldn't she have wanted to go with the baby, having one parent was better than none or did he have the fair Queen wrong. Was she more selfish then he first thought, was the fact of living without her beloved more important than making sure her child was safe?
Questions he would never get answers to but he didn't care. His work was nowhere near done and now he had another to try and bring back.
But that had was years ago. And he was no closer to finding a way to find Bae then he was Regina. But he was a patient man, after all. He did know that the monotonous life he and the rest of them went through day by day would be broken. He just had to wait for that day to arrive and only then would he have the means to further his searching.
Once magic was brought back and he could fully be himself again. He would find a way to return to the enchanted land and bring back his missing daughter, once he did then his family would finally be complete.