"It can't be. She's dead." Rumple's eyes went wide with horror when Belle told him what she had seen. He staggered back, one hand clutching the door frame for support. He whispered faintly, "I saw her die."
"Just like Maleficent 'died'?" Belle caught him before he slid to the floor and guided him over to the cot in the back room.
"That's different. Zelena is no immortal!" His fingers twisted in the blanket, a panic attack barely kept in check.
"I know what I saw." Belle met her husband's gaze and willed him to believe her. "I know it's not what you, not what either of us, want, but it's true. I don't know how."
"Belle..." Rumple swallowed. "You're certain?"
She shut her eyes for a moment. She had to be calm for both of them. She had to keep her head clear. She sat down next to Rumple. "I know what I saw, but not what it means. Assuming I wasn't imagining things..."
Rumple sighed and lowered his gaze. "I doubt it. Much as I hate the idea, we can't ignore the possibility..."
"...that she's back. But it's not the only possibility." Having had a moment to think about it, Belle listed various options. "Was it her? Was it a ghost? Illusion? Shapechanging? Possession? A vision? A spell, a curse, or an artifact?"
"I need to see for myself." Rumple sounded determined, but one glance at the door and he shrank back, betraying his reluctance.
"We'll go together." Belle waited for him to pull himself together enough to stand up. "She'll be at the diner."
Rumple nodded. "Stay away from her, sweetheart. If it is her. It may be a trap."
"I won't do anything," Belle promised. "I know we have to be careful."
"Here." Rumple summoned a glass flask to his hand and gave it to her.
"The dust from the magic urn," Belle remembered.
"Just in case." He smiled nervously at her before moving to the door. "Shall we?"
The short walk over to Granny's diner seemed to take an eternity. By the time they got there, Robin Hood and his family were already ensconced in a booth by the window, starting on their lunch platters. Belle didn't dare look at them directly.
But what had been seen could not be unseen. Out of the corner of her eye—
Zelena.
Belle's neck ached from how rigidly she kept herself facing forward. She forced herself to the counter for takeout. In a stiff approximation of her normal voice, she managed to place their usual order.
Rumple said nothing at all. Belle could sense his tension as he pretended not to stare at the woman sitting across from Robin Hood.
Belle touched his arm lightly, trying to get him to move out of the way while their food was being prepared. She smiled apologetically at the next in line, too distracted to put a name to the vaguely familiar face.
But Rumple had frozen in place. His eyes, darker than ever, didn't waver in their focus.
"It's her," he breathed. Magic gathered in his clenched fist, simmered under his skin.
Now? They were doing this now? Her blood ran cold, sluggish as ice. Belle allowed herself to turn slowly to face the witch.
A ripple of darkness washed across the room. Even if they couldn't see it, the other diners sensed the change, as if the weather had suddenly shifted. Then the front door opened, breaking the spell.
"Belle!" Heavy footsteps cut across the diner. Suddenly, a large figure obscured their line of sight to Zelena's table. It took Belle a moment to recognize the new arrival.
"...Father?" As she stood gaping at him, Maurice closed the distance between them and grabbed her by the shoulder, pulling her roughly away from Rumple.
"I heard what happened," her father said grimly. "I should never have let the Dark One take you away. I don't know what enchantment he put on you, but it ends now."
"No." Belle slid away from his grasp, but he persisted. "You don't understand..." And she didn't have time to explain, not now! She shot a frantic glance towards Rumple. His single-minded focus on Zelena disrupted, he had turned in confusion at the sudden change in atmosphere.
Her father's hand closed around her wrist. "My darling girl, it's you who don't understand. I have to protect you."
"Protect me? As you protected Mother?" Belle snapped. "Father, I remember. I remember everything." The image burned in her mind's eye: her father, not a trace of mercy on his face, driving the spear through her mother's chest. The agony of betrayal in her mother's face.
Now it was Maurice who let go and backed away, his head shaking in denial. "No, no. Lies. The Dark One lies..."
"I think not," said Rumple in a deadly soft voice. He stepped forward, half-shielding her from her father. "I am not the liar here."
Lies. Had it been a lie all along? If she reached into his chest and looked into his heart, would she find any trace of her mother in it? Without conscious volition, Belle extended a trembling hand, darkness pulsing through her veins. Cloth, skin, bone, and flesh vanished before that darkness. It would be simple to close her fingers around that rotten organ...
So simple...
"Belle!"
...until a sharp spike of magic enveloped her. The diner became the front room of the pawn shop.
"No!" A surge of resentment flooded her. How dared he? She shook herself free. "Don't touch me."
Rumple dropped his hands from her shoulders but held his ground. "Sweetheart, please..."
Seeing the distraught look in his eyes, all her anger drained away. She caught his hands. "I'm sorry. I let my father distract me."
And she didn't want to fight two battles at once any more than Rumple did. The rage she had felt on suddenly seeing her father had caught her by surprise. The darkness fed into it, its magic imbuing her with a sense of rightness in her impulse to avenge the pain of her mother's death. A certainty that she was powerful enough to see justice done.
An illusion. The thought chilled her. Rumple had stopped her from doing something she couldn't take back. Something she would regret. I'm not a murderer. I'm NOT.
Rumple held her as she sank into his arms in sudden gratitude. He whispered against her hair, "It's all right. I understand."
She murmured, "But Zelena..."
"We can deal with Zelena." He paused, then added, "I'll have a word with your father. You won't have to talk to him until you're ready, sweetheart."
Belle pulled back. "'A word'? You won't..." Her eyes went to his cane.
He laughed shortly. "I won't lay a hand on him. But some words are more binding than others. I'll make sure he understands mine... very clearly."
Belle nodded. She wanted to accept it, but it made her feel like a coward. "I should be brave enough to speak to him properly."
"You're the bravest person I know." Rumple smiled and caressed her cheek. "But you also deserve peace. You know the truth now. He knows you know. Let that be enough for now."
"For now." Belle sighed. Surely it was for the best. "Just until after we deal with Zelena."
At this time of year, afternoon turned quickly into dusk, and the sun was low in the sky by the time they made their way to the clearing in the woods where Robin Hood and his merry band of outlaws had their camp. It was empty when they arrived, not much more than a few chairs and stools around a fire.
"Where is everyone?" Belle looked around, the bare-branched trees making the forest seem more open. The ground was still covered in a thin layer of snow, but the area around the camp had been trampled into mud, new and old footprints impossible to untangle easily. Her skin prickled with the sensation of being watched by invisible eyes.
"Gone hunting," someone called, stepping out of a well-concealed shelter. She approached them with a smile. "What brings you to our camp today?"
Belle froze. The pretense, too convincing, too false — the contradiction robbed her of coherent speech.
Next to her, Rumple said, his voice a harsh rasp, "You know why we're here." His hand rose, magic gathering in his fist.
"Well, we can't have that, can we?" The woman's mocking tone was too intimate, too arrogant. Her every gesture and expression drew the eye...
...so raptly that the arrow caught them entirely by surprise.
Thump.
Belle whirled in shock to see her husband staggering foward, gasping at the impact.
He clutched at the front of his chest, but it was his back that arrested Belle's attention, and the arrow protruding from the center. A shimmer of magic blazed up all around him, paralyzing him and dispersing his magic. "Squid ink!"
"Aye, I did learn my lesson from last time," the archer said, stepping out from behind a tree.
Robin Hood? Belle was stunned. Then she realized how it must look: naturally he would defend his wife from the Dark One. "No, no, wait! Robin, it's not what you think. She isn't your wife! That's Zelena! She's using magic to pretend to be Marian..."
"It's true," growled Rumple. He strained to break free of the squid ink, but its power held.
Zelena laughed, a merry, tinkling chuckle. "Oh, he knows that, don't you, dear?"
Robin was silent.
"Robin, why? How could you?" Belle cursed him inwardly. And she had thought they were friends?
Robin flinched guiltily. "I'm sorry. But she has my son..."
"And if you're a good boy, you may even get him back. Which is more than some of us can say." Zelena turned to Rumple. Her Marian-illusion fell away at a gesture, her true face and form reasserting itself. "Hello, pet. Did you miss me?"
Rumple seethed, but was powerless to stop her from sauntering right up to him.
"Get away from him!" Belle rushed at her, strength augmented by the dark magic she instinctively summoned, Robin Hood forgotten.
Until the second arrow hit her and she stumbled, as trapped as her husband. She could only watch helplessly as Zelena patted Rumple down, fishing the dagger from where it was hidden under his jacket.
Zelena held the blade up to inspect it, smiling in triumph. The letters seemed scorched into the metal... but only the letters in Rumplestiltskin's name.
Belle bit off an exclamation of surprise. Why is it like that? And with the question came the answer: to protect me. On the off chance that anyone else saw the dagger, her secret would not be betrayed. For once, Belle was grateful for Rumple's paranoia.
But even without her name being visible, the dagger ruled her all the same. She would not be able to take possession away from the one who held the dagger, whether by magic or by brute force. That much had become clear in their experiments after their hearts had been spliced together. He had tried it with all his pickpocket's skills, with Zelena, he had told her. A desperate attempt doomed to fail. Just as they had this time. Failed catastrophically.
Some hero you are.
No, no, they could still fix this, Belle told herself. Think.
"Zelena," spat Rumple in a voice full of loathing. "You're dead."
"Yet here I am." Zelena patted Rumple's cheek. "How frustrating for you, dear. My life force fled my body before it shattered. I had somewhere to go. Or should I say some time?"
"You followed Emma through the time portal."
Belle nodded mentally at Rumple's deduction. So that's how it was. She wanted to burn the smug smile from Zelena's face, but she couldn't even twitch a finger. So she listened as Zelena explained how she had gone back in time, then waited for the perfect moment to strike down Marian and take her place. All to ruin Regina's happiness. "And Robin and Marian — not to mention poor Roland — are just collateral damage in your disgusting plan?"
Zelena spared her an irritated glance. "Judgy, judgy. How ever does Rumple put up with you? Now shut up and wait your turn."
Belle's mouth closed obediently. She wanted to scream, but dared not risk giving away her lack of choice. She schooled her expression to one of haughty disdain rather than terror and helpless fury. Or so she hoped.
"Leave her out of it," snarled Rumple.
Before Zelena could respond, Robin Hood unexpectedly spoke up.
"The Dark One is right. Lady Belle is a good woman. She has no part in your quarrel with your sister, and you have no need of her. Please, spare her..."
Zelena rolled her eyes. "As dull as a plank and even more tiresome than Rumple's maid." A wave of her hand sent Robin Hood away in a cloud of green smoke.
"You... failed..." Rumple said through gritted teeth. "That man will never love you. Regina... will always come before you in his heart."
"Hmm." Zelena stroked his face with the tip of the dagger, making him flinch away. "What do you know about love? This useless chit here? Persistent, I'll give her that. Always scurrying underfoot like a cockroach. She got away last time, but fate's given us a second chance."
"No, no..." His whisper mirrored Belle's own horrified thoughts.
"But this time we'll do it right." Zelena smiled and tilted the dagger to point at Belle. "Dark One, kill her."
And just as he had before, Rumple shouted out in desperation, "Run!"
But this time, they were both immobilized by squid ink, much to Zelena's amusement.
"Oh, dear. Looks like we'll have to give it a moment." Zelena eyed Belle. "In fact, why don't you give her a head start? It's only sporting."
"Not... a sport," he panted, granted a short, temporary reprieve from the pain of being unable to immediately obey Zelena's command.
Zelena ignored his protest. "A count of ten. /Then/ find her and kill her. Show her the beast she's married. Make it hurt. And when you've finished, pet, come back to me. We're going to have such fun together, you and I."
Belle shuddered at the smiling anticipation on Zelena's face. The witch's sharp eyes did not miss the moment the squid ink wore off.
"Your turn, dear!" Zelena called out gleefully. "Time to... run!"
One command lifted, but another took its place. Belle managed no more than a last desperate look at her husband before she was forced into motion. She had no choice but to run.
She said run, she didn't say how long! Belle thought as she bolted away from the clearing. Behind her, she could hear Zelena counting down and she knew she couldn't stay here, either. She let fear flood through her, let it shape the darkness into a desperate need to be elsewhere.
The walls of the library replaced the trees, the air going from cold and damp to overwarm and stuffy.
Belle glanced around wildly, expecting Rumple to materialize any second. No, no, this wouldn't do. Too obvious. She took a breath, held it, concentrated.
The town line.
She was there at the speed of thought. Dangerously close to crossing the boundary, but wasn't that the point? She knew Rumple didn't want to hurt her, any more than she wanted to hurt him, but she also knew how futile it was to resist the control of the dagger.
Across the line, that magic had no hold on them.
Across the line, they would have no magic and no way to return to Storybrooke. Emma currently had possession of Ingrid's scroll. Rumple had meant to make a duplicate for their own use, but hadn't had time yet. If Belle lured Rumple across the boundary now, they would have to wait for Snow White's expedition to return, but who knew how long that would take, or how much damage Zelena would do in the meantime?
Less than she could if she had the Dark One in thrall?
Another, more insidious thought warned against trusting the heroes to even let Rumple back into Storybrooke. They locked him up once before. Who's to say they won't decide it would suit them more to banish him? Especially if they find out that Rumple tried to murder Zelena in her jail cell?
Rumple could be considered part of their family through Henry, their shared grandson, but Zelena was Regina's sister, and the Charming clan certainly seemed closer to the (former) Evil Queen than to the Dark One. With Zelena in possession of the dagger, they might even count Rumple as the witch's ally — another reason to keep him out of Storybrooke.
Part of Belle wanted to believe that the heroes would do the right thing. Another part of her insisted that they needed to keep control of the situation by handling it themselves. This is OUR fight...
And a third part of her realized that she was out of time.
"Belle!" Compelled by the witch, Rumplestiltskin had found her. His hand was raised, dark power concentrated all around him. He looked like a man caught in his worst nightmare. "No, no. Belle, run!"
Kill her. Make it hurt.
Anticipation was used in torture to heighten the pain. A warning was a threat. But Belle saw the look on her husband's face. The loophole could only buy them enough time for her to see exactly what was coming. Power rose all around them, the pressure churning the air into wild currents that bent the trees. Wind stole any words of love from his mouth and only Zelena's will was left, a mask of darkness turning him into a stranger.
The monster. The murderer...
For the first time since the beginning of their deal, she was afraid of him.
He killed his first wife, didn't he?
She fled, raising her own magic to shield herself. She ran, away from the direction of the town line. She had made her decision. She would stay and fight... in her own way. However she swerved and circled around, Rumple close on her heels, she wasn't going to cross the border.
For the space of a few breaths, it seemed that her inexperience and Rumple's reluctance were in precarious balance.
Then.
The balance tipped. A blast of force knocked her to her knees. Dizzy, out of breath, her limbs trembling too much to support her, she could only crawl another few inches more. She looked up to see the Beast looming over her.
Had she made her last mistake?
Author's note: Seeing through Zelena's glamour is easier for Rumple when he can use magic!