Only Human

by FoundersDaughter

Do you ever wonder what would have happened if after hearing the rumours of the Dark Ones True Love, Cora had gotten jealous and decided to manipulate circumstances to ensure there would be someone to kill them both? What if that someone only pretended to follow the commands Cora set, but was never going to complete them? After all they are Only Human.

2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I again do not own OUAT. The first few chapters will be short, as they are really just setting everything up.

Chapter 1

Once upon a time there was a land where a terrible war raged for hundreds of years against an army of terrible creatures that were far harder to defeat than their opponents. A call to serve in the human army by the ruler of the lands affected was a call to certain death. However, one man decided to change his fate, to change his future.

The man that was to accomplish all this was a poor wool spinner. When he was called to the front he went, hoping to better the lives of he and his wife. He journeyed to the training camp and began his training to become a soldier to the Duke of the Frontlands.

It was in this camp that he met a witch who saw the future. She told him of what would come to pass. It was soon after that the man was injured and the witches' prophecies began to come true. Rather than stay and face the certain death that would befall him if he tried to fight with his injury he chose to leave, to return to his wife and because of this action was branded a coward for running away.

He returned home to find his wife had given birth to a baby boy, his son. His son soon became his world as his wife drifted away from them before ultimately leaving the pair to travel with a pirate she had fallen in love with. The spinner tried so hard to earn a living to support his son and often went hungry to ensure that his son ate.

The spinner was treated poorly by the people in and around his village. His defection from the army was apparent to all in the limp in his right leg that resulted from his injury. It wasn't until his son turned fourteen and was drafted into the army that it all changed.

He hatched a plan with an elderly beggar man who had aided him to kill the Duke's sorcerer, the Dark One. The spinner broke into the duke's castle and stole the dagger that controlled the Dark One. Once away from the castle and safe, hidden in the forest he summoned the Dark One by reading the name etched into the blade, the sorcerer Zoso, appeared before him. The spinner killed him and found as he revealed the sorcerers' face that it was the old beggar man.

It was only then that he began to feel strange, like something was coursing through his veins and he learnt two valuable pieces of knowledge. One was that the Dark power must always have a vessel; it had chosen him and was slowly taking over his body. The second was that it was the dagger in his hand that could kill him now he was cursed. The dagger that now showed his name, the name people would use to summon him, the name that they had once mocked and would now fear. Rumplestiltskin.

And so it was that the spinner, peasant and lame coward became the most powerful magic user in all the realms. Despite gaining the powers of the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin tried to fight the darkness that came with the powers, tried to use the powers to protect and provide for his son, but the darkness would not be ignored it manifested itself in Rumplestiltskin's temper and skin, turning his skin scaly and a mottled grey colour that shimmered like gold in the light.

The people began to fear him, his own son Baelfire began to fear him and when the boy tried to find a way to get his father back, Rumplestiltskin lost his son instead of his powers. Baelfire fell through the magic portal that would have taken them away to a world without magic. It was through this act that Rumplestiltskin learnt the biggest lesson of all. All magic comes at a price.

Magic and his own actions had cost him his son, the one person in all the realms who was capable of curtailing the darkness that was threatening to consume his heart. Over the next three centuries Rumplestiltskin gave into the darkness, become truly feared as he worked his magic by making deals with those who called for his help. He soon earnt himself a reputation and stories were told of the monstrous Dark One.

He became known as the man who span straw into gold, who saw the future, made deals with the rich and the poor alike, demanded the first born child of any woman he helped as part of the price of his magic, for never lying, for being cruel and ruthless. It was well known that he used the darkest of magics and that once a deal was struck it was bound by magic until the terms were fulfilled. Soon all who dealt with Rumplestiltskin learnt the same lesson he did, Magic always had a Price.

He took many apprentices over the years, many who wished to learn small amounts of magic enough to get by. However there was one who at the time he thrilled in teaching, but later regretted it. She was a miller's daughter and lied to a king saying she could spin straw into gold. As was his standard entrance he appeared behind her and began to entrance her into magic, teaching her the way to spin the straw into gold.

Over the course of the night he managed to seduce her into a contract and when she showed the king she could spin straw into gold he promised her his sons hand in marriage. He conspired to have the miller's daughters, Cora, rip out the king's heart and run away with him. It never happened as she took the knowledge he had given her and broke the contract with Rumplestiltskin. Breaking his heart and cementing the thought in his mind that no one would ever love him in this monstrous form.

How wrong he was.