Summary: A rewriting of Rumple waking up after being captured by Emma. Explores Rumple's mindset without the Dark One.
Warning: A little dark… anxiety is implied. Please be careful reading this if you are bothered by that sort of thing.
(5x03): Alone
The face he first saw when he awoke wasn't hers. He had been expecting Belle's beautiful blue eyes staring into his own, expecting to see her deep brown hair to fall in little waves around her face.
Instead he saw Emma, but she was much different than he remembered. Her already light blonde hair was somehow even lighter, almost white. Ice cold eyes stared at him from a pale face, the corners of her blood red lips upturned in a smile. She was wearing a black cloak which seemed to swallow the light around them.
"Hello, Rumpelstiltskin," she said. "It's so nice to see you awake." Her voice was a steel knife, sharp and biting.
He tried to scramble away from her, but found that he was tied up, the coarse ropes digging into his wrists. It was a painful reminder of a previous time, when his captor used his largest weakness against him, used his dagger to control his actions against those he loved the most.
His breath froze in his throat. It was gone. The weakness, the darkness… the evil. He couldn't feel the Dark One inside his head, couldn't hear the little voice telling him that it would all be okay if he just had more power, more control.
He looked over at Emma again and saw her for what she was.
It was a bit odd staring down the person that he used to be.
"You… why are you doing this?" Rumple asked. His voice felt weak and unused.
"It will become apparent soon enough," Emma said. She walked around to the other side of the little cave, her feet padding against the floor as silent as a cat stalking a mouse.
"Please…. you don't have to keep me here. Just let me go," he whispers. He remembered the days when he wouldn't have dreamed of pleading for anything, even his own freedom.
He realized now, that he didn't care about seeming weak.
That scared him.
"But I do," Emma said. "You of all people understand what I am going through."
"Yes, but I also know how this… this deception… won't work," Rumple responded. He shut his eyes and leaned his forehead back. Pain was pounding in the back of his skull, making his thoughts weak and fuzzy.
"Oh, but it will work, my dear," she snarled, so close to him that he could feel her hot breath tickling his ear. He shuddered.
"Remember what it did to me… please Emma, you have to fight it." He didn't open his eyes.
"Yes, but I have one thing that you didn't have," Emma responded, her voice mocking and sing-songy.
She was waiting for him to ask her what, waiting so she could gloat at him. He decided he would not give her the satisfaction, choosing instead to think about the one thing that could possibly district him from this situation.
He needed Belle. He was desperate to hold her hand, to push her hair out of her eyes, to see her alive and healthy. He wanted her to read aloud to him like she used to when he couldn't sleep. He missed her making him a cup of tea, missed her soft smile when her fingers traced the little chip in the edge of the teacup.
He missed her.
When he next opened his eyes, Emma was gone and the cave was pitch black.
"Hello?" His voice was a shout, and he received no answer.
He could feel the walls closing in on him. The earth was crushing him, making his breath come in little gasps as the oxygen seemed to get thinner and thinner.
"Please…" he says. "I don't want to be alone… I can't… I can't…"
He whispered Belle's name into the dark until his voice faded into nothing, the word echoing long into the silence.