A chapter written from many different perspectives... Hope you'll enjoy!

Chapter 5: Chained

Belle:

It slipped and the moments her fingers lost contact, her rapidly pounding heart faltered. The howl, heartbreaking in its emotion-filled pain, had made her want to reach and now, instinctively as the metal dropped, she took a step forward into the pale light of the full moon, making its way in through the stained glass of the high windows.

Metal found the floor in a clinking sound and the howl abruptly stopped as Ruby, eyes feral and glistering in the darkness, looked up. Pupils widening and dilating, narrowing in on source of sound before finding her and widening in shock.

'Belle!'

So much different now, her name escaped from those lips. Filled with an angst-ridden pain, with a mortified fear.

'Ruby, I…'

'No!'

She had taken a step forward, but the brunette scrambled up and held out a hand to her, as to keep her at a distance as the next words clearly confirmed.

'Don't come near me…'

The hesitance she felt was only of the shortest of moments. Because then, she did as she always had. She saw. Saw beyond the layer of varnish, beyond the mask of Darkness, or the growling fire, raging around the neck of a frightening beast. She looked and saw the fear, lingering behind the feral gestures. Saw the yearning in the fierce eyes. She saw the reason behind it.

'Don't!'

'Ruby…'

Soothing… Knowing… Loving was the sound of her voice which made its way to the woman before her. It was almost as if she could see it, in a light blue hue merging with the deepest ruby-red, float and reach the struggling woman. But when she blinked it already had disappeared and all she could see was emotion swirl in the dark eyes before her while she took another step.

'Ruby…'

Breathless this time. Filled with an edge of the want and desire she still felt pounding through her body, but enveloped with a carefully shown affection, a warmth, a tenderness. The kind that made her want to reach out and make the tips of her fingers graze over the soft skin of those cheekbones. To kiss away the panic she could see building in those eyes. To hold and protect the other woman and show her she was not afraid.

The wooden floor creaked under her as she took another tentative step and her foot aligned with the links she had dropped. In instinct she bent her knee to retrieve the objects, but the moment her fingertip met the metal, it seemed to come alive.

It rose, as, mesmerized, so did she. Lingered in the air, signaling her to follow in a direction she needed no urging to take. For now, knowing what she knew, feeling the tug of her heart towards the woman who owned it, she could let go of everything in the past and simply step.

Step towards her destiny.

'Ruby'

Ruby:

This could not fucking be happening…

She was dreaming, or the wolf had finally managed to drive her insane. Whatever it was. This. Could. Not. Be. Happening.

The scent of her desire still hovered around her, enticingly mixing with the one she had imagined to be Belle's. Or maybe not so much imagined as… What?

She tried to shake her head, to clear her thoughts. To, somehow, try to wrap her head around what was going on. But she couldn't get her eyes to break away from those light ones, shining brighter than a thousand stars. She heard herself beg the woman to stop, the spines of the books met hers as she backed away, scared of the raging fierceness of the emotions running through her. She felt even the wolf struggle with conflicting urges, a defensive stance versus an Kodak-moment resembling act which would make her look more like a puppydog than Pongo ever had. She could still smell her own arousal, feel the power of her orgasm weaken her legs, the way it made her head spin. She tried to take it all in, the mirror image moving in her peripheral vision, showing a true loves kiss she never had even allowed herself to hope for. Fantasies, ok. Actual hope? Never…

But now…

Now Belle was here, looking at her with fire and tenderness and all kinds of feelings in those eyes and she just felt it rage up inside of her. The thing she told herself she never should feel anymore. The thing that left her the moment she had found Peter's blood on her hands.

'Ruby…'

But that was Red…

And Red and the Wolf had been so separate. Even when she had accepted and embraced the wolf, it still they still had felt as 2 different beings trapped in one. But with Ruby… With Ruby she felt like she had merged everything together. Red, the wolf and the waitress, all borders blurred, just melting into one.

And she only realized that now, because she saw something terrifying in those beautiful eyes before her, lighting up in a hue of what had to be Magic, but still paled in comparison to the way those eyes shone. Something in there she couldn't really grasp but that made her shiver.

Because Belle didn't see Red, or the wolf.

She saw…

'Ruby…'

Belle:

She sensed it. Smelled it. It was rather odd, really, if she thought about it. She had spend 28 years, being locked up in a room without any of it surrounding her. Which was longer than she had in the cellar where it had been known to linger, or in the castle she had cleaned, where it had ran freely. And yet she recognized it instantly.

Magic.

A strong, feral pull of it she could not and did not want to, fight. And she knew what it was. The books had tried, some of the better ones had come close, but this, the bookish woman had to admit, was something no pen would ever be able to describe.

The extend of it, the intensity of it. The purity of it, the raw sensuality of it. It was like the perfect balance of all these different, and sometimes opposite emotions and Belle found it marvelous and quite incredible that someone had managed to try and capture all of it in that word…

Love.

Reaching out to Ruby's shoulder, Belle saw how the woman's fear grew in the way the bodypart pulled back from her, making her hand hover in the air.

'Please Belle… please. I don't want to hurt you.'

She smiled, she couldn't help it, it pulled the corners of her lips at the same time a tear found its way from her heart to her cheek. Because she saw, what Ruby herself could not.

'You won't.'

'You don't know that…'

'You won't.'

Adamant her eyes found Ruby's and the other woman's gasp almost sounded like a sob.

'How can you be so sure?'

Their eyes locked, the darkness around them forgotten or chased away by the magical light surrounding them. But that didn't matter. None of it mattered. The only thing that did, was the answer Belle felt in her heart. The answer that would change it all.

She hoped…

'Because I see you, because I know you. Because… Because I love you.'

Her hand found its destiny, her destiny, at the moment the last words freed themselves from her lips and the magic that surrounded them spread, erupted in an explosion of light, merging blue with red into a soft shade of purple as the linked metal quickly began to multiply.

Before she could even do as much as breath, she felt the chained links find her skin, caressing it almost as her hand found Ruby's.

'Belle, I…'

'I love you…'

She repeated the words as the chain found its way around her, making what looked like a circle and pushing, or was it pulling? her closer to Ruby. Red lips beckoned as they parted in surprise, or perhaps in another uttering of the name she now loved simply because it was spoken by the woman tied against her and Belle did the only thing that made any sense at all.

She leaned in and pressed her lips against the red ones, sealing and confirming the words she had just spoken as a rush of the strongest Magic in any realm washed over them.

And as true love's kiss was shared, neither of them was aware that the two ending links of the chain found each other and merged, effectively creating an unbreakable bond.

…

Emma:

'What the actual fuck has gotten his boxers in a twist?'

She muttered the words as she parked the cruiser and cringed at the sound of the weird sentence, or probably more at the visual they created, as she got out of the car and followed the creepy shop owner. He was moving fast, but his limp seemed to have grown a lot more visible since the last time she'd seen him, which was, now she thought of it, only that morning and she had no trouble, what so ever, to keep up with him. Something about him was way off, though. Fear oozed from every movement, urge, rush and something close to panic.

What the actual fuck was going on?

She almost called out to him when she heard the footsteps, her response to them once again Pavlovian, telling her instantly the identity of the owner of those feet…

'I knew you would come, Rumple. The offer still stands. A new deal can...'

'You are going to pay for this! I am not striking any deals with you, you evil, evil witch!'

Regina laughed as she stepped out of the shadow of the wall, the clock tower rising high above her. And as the sound of the laugh, deep and dark, washed over Emma, for the first time the blonde could see how anyone could call the brunette 'Evil'. They'd had their fair amount of clashes since they'd met. And Emma would be the first to admit Regina could be all kinds of intimidating, but this laugh brought chills to her bones and for a moment she couldn't move.

'I am only what you made of me, you treacherous, little imp.'

Regina smiled after she had breathed out the words, or grimaced more like. And white teeth blinked in the sunlight as the once Queen stepped aside to reveal the library's door.

'By all means, Rumple. Don't let me stop you. Your quest seems… utterly important to you.'

The condescending tone Emma knew so well from when she'd met Madam Mayor was just… fucking intensified, multiplied by a thousand. The cold, cold voice was not something she had ever heard, as if the woman using it had no emotions of her own, except maybe contempt.

Was this who Regina really was? Had she really been fooling herself so fucking much, seeing something else, seeing Regina and not Madam Mayor and sure as hell no 'Evil Queen'? Had she just been blinded by her lov…

Whoaaaaaa…

Lust for the brunette? Had she blinded herself into hoping, maybe, it could work, 2 parents for Henry? A life with, you know…

Oh who the hell was she kidding!? She had fallen in love with the mother of her son! She had fallen so fucking deep and hard it embarrassed her. She had allowed herself to hope again. To want… To want something she had given up on so early in life. To find a family. And now, here, while the sun was finding its way down the sky and its beams found the woman she wanted to create that family with, fear overwhelmed her.

Because what if she had seen it all wrong. And all that Regina had done was sleep with her to get back at Snow? To, perhaps, have a way to manipulate her when it came to Henry? To, simply, scratch an itch? What if all they'd had, every moment they had shared, the heated passion but also the softening of those brown eyes. The calling of her name, her first name not the joke, referring to the first family she had stayed with, that was her last, not only in ecstasy, in climax, but also before sharing of softer kisses. Before unspoken words seemed to be said by their eyes. What if it all was nothing more than her own fucking imagination?

And while Rumple made his way past the woman who was so obviously enjoying whatever caused him to panic, Emma tried to control her own by focusing on that the fuck was going on…

At least it was better than to focus on that the fuck she was doing with her heart.

Rumple:

He scolded his failing body as he tried to use the cane to get ahead faster. He would have used Magic to get where he wanted to go, had he not already long ago protected the clock tower from any Magical visitors, including himself. It had been a price willingly paid for the protection it brought to the object he had hidden there. He thought. But he had had to dismiss the spell now, in order to see…

And what the Dark One had seen had not pleased him, not one bit.

He had suspected since the first moment of interaction between the women, but in a way, Regina had always been right about him. He was a coward. He had always been afraid to see… To know for certain who was the person who could take his precious Belle away from him. To know for certain, or for uncertain, knowing the utter vagueness of prophecies, what destiny held for him. If he did not know, or see, he could always pretend that perhaps it would not come true.

But the moment he had rushed to the back of his shop after the unsettling conversation with Regina and had found the one possession he valued above all others missing, he knew he'd have to…

He did not even need the words, written in the mirror's dust to conduct what had happened. They had taunted him however, the visions slowly appearing in the reflection they exposed.

"I know."

She knew. And thinking back about words spoken between him and Regina, words she must have had overheard, he knew her clever mind had linked together most of it much faster than another ever could. Not only because she was well-read, sensitive and intelligent, but because she had lived it and… was aware of his weaknesses more than any other. It was a terrifying thought that the only person who could stand him would actually disappear. Out of his life. The familiar, swirling feeling of helplessness in the pit of his stomach intensified. As it had with Milah, as it had with Bae.

But for Milah, he had not picked up the sword. And he had let go of Bae's hand.

This time, he would fight.

He grimaced and could feel his own Magic build up in the tips of his finger as he smelled, sensed the familiar tingling and followed it.

Ready to fight for what was his.

He heard the footsteps behind him follow and had not expected any less. He took in the sounds of the door, the second pair of footsteps and smiled as he saw despite the fact she was nowhere near his line of vision, who had just entered, knowing he would someway be able to use the blonde's presence to his advantage.

Or rather use Regina's feelings for the savior to his advantage. He'd giggle at the irony had the situation not been so dire. Snow White's daughter saving the Evil Queen by the means of twue lowe… And the weakness that it brought to the woman who was now clearly seeking out his demise. Making the act of saving actually one of destruction.

His small smile however froze as he saw it, the hue of Magic and what it enlightened. The rush of it as it was shared, time and time again.

True love's kiss.

His Belle…

With that… That… MONSTER.

Regina:

She closed her eyes and halted, for the shortest moment, controlling her shivering hands. And all she saw, as she did every time the selfchosen darkness of shut eyes engulfed her, was the image once conjured… The one of her son, lifeless and the blonde rush, making its way to him and to her certain death. Her heart winced as she opened her eyes, jaw tight, her fingers curling into her palms to create a fist.

She had made sure he was safe. She had to focus on that. No matter how much hatred there was lingering between them, she knew the woman she had asked, told, begged to protect her son would do so with her very last breath. Henry was safe. But the same could not be said for Emma.

She had tried to call. Had stood with her phone in her trembling hand for the longest time, just staring at the name she had just recently changed, for Henry's sake she had told herself, to the 4 letter variant that was starting to associate with another word with an equal amount of letters. And she'd known, right then, whispering the name ever so softly, she couldn't. She could not give herself away now. Not now that she was going face to face with her destiny. With unknown result.

A tear escaped her and lingered down her cheek as she thought of the hurried goodbye she had shared with her son, the embrace, the way he had clung to her as he had not done for such a long time. As if he knew what she had been planning to do. As if he was aware of the dangers it held…

Death. Or a fate worse than it.

But then again, hadn't hers always been?

The urge to break free for the chains binding her had left her long ago. She wasn't sure if she could pinpoint the exact moment, although the first heart she crushed, she knew, had everything to do with her giving in to the stream, and letting it drag her to the sea Rumple had picked for her. She had tried to fight it, swim against it, the most forceful attempt perhaps her taking Belle. But that had only worked in her disadvantage and at a certain point she had simply let the stream take over. Let herself flow with it and at times even swim along, progressing faster. She had chosen to remain chained.

And now, for the first time in more than 28 years, maybe even for the first time ever, she felt the strong yearning, the urge, the longing in her abdomen to break free. Because there was something, hope, hope of a chance she didn't dare to believe in that yet made all the difference. Because now, there was something to fight for. Something… Someone, the chance of a life, worth fighting for. And the simple glimpse of that made the weight of the chain unbearable.

If she could finally be free, maybe she would have that chance.

She closed her eyes and saw the waving of blonde hair once again before she opened them, the shaking of her hands stilling as she moved, determined, forward.

Because a chance was so much more than she had ever had. And her heart pounded the name of the woman who personified everything that made the risk worth it as she stepped forward into the hue of the Magic created by true love.

"Em-ma Em-ma Em-ma"

Emma:

She almost tripped as she sneakily made her way through the heavy, squeaky door. Geez, for someone who had done this sorta shit for a living since, erm, actually like forever, she was really bad at it today!

Really, some savior! She just managed to save herself. That was what it had been like all her life, the reason she had given up her son, the reason she had chosen a lonely life.

But it was not because she was the savior that she was following the Queen and the Dark One into an abandoned building. It was not even because she was the sheriff that she followed the shop owner and the mayor. If she looked deep down inside, something she actually preferred not to do, she knew it was because of her.

Because only Regina could mess up her head so bad, that for a moment she forgot she was supposed to be looking for her best friend. And the ache in her heart to see the ruthless queen she had heard talk about in those dark eyes she had thought to have seen melt… Oh for fuck sake. What was she, a sap? Regina, THIS Regina, certainly did not need saving. If anyone did, it was the shaking, panicking Mr Gold.

She stopped in her tracks when she saw the regal form and held her breathe as she suddenly saw the shoulders slump slightly. She pulled back into the shadows of the dark and watched how Regina glanced at her hands before clenching them into fists. A strong pull in her chest made her eyes widen and her heart jumped and dropped at the same moment. Hope and despair, pain and joy, fear and determination all swirled and clicked, as opposite ends of a magnet, merging into one giant knot of emotions weighing heavy on her stomach.

She felt the name rise up to her lips and was about to let it slip from her lips as her hand lead a life of its own, it seemed, and reached out. From cold to pained, these sides of Regina were ones she had never been allowed to see and in the strangest way she wasn't sure which one scared her more. But the shoulders she was reaching for were pulled back already and the eyes, glimmering in the dark, turned cold once more as Regina took a step forward towards what seemed like a Magical light.

Looking at the bodypart that had betrayed her, hoping once more that she, Emma Swan, was needed or wanted, she shoved it quickly in the pocket of her jeans before following.

Although she wasn't sure if she was following a lead, as she was trying to tell herself, or simply, and oh so very sappy, her heart.