When it came to dealing revenge to those that had wronged him, Rumpelstiltskin believed in elegance. Unlike the queen, who never thought ahead as far as she should've, he was smart enough to believe in subtlety. He knew to hide his hand well enough so that no one saw it coming. The queen went after everyone in a blind rage that they could see a mile away.

The curse had given Regina the power she wanted but she was very ill equipped for it. The power she wanted so badly would come back to bite her. She was convinced that this was it. This was her happy ending and she would become lazy and spoiled and used to getting her way.

He had come out a lot better in the end. He kept his memories and gained his own type of power over everyone including Regina and he owned everything. But that was just the surface of it. All these people, all these sorry people that tried to screw him over at one point or another were controlled by him. And he had that for 28 years and there was nothing that any of them could do because that was the way things were and they blindly accepted it

It was VERY satisfying watching all of their arrogance leave their faces whenever they laid eyes on him. He may not have had his magic anymore but he definitely had power and that was what he thrived on.

Now that game was about to change. 'Emma' was here. The daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White had finally returned with the boy that he'd secured for Regina Mills in tow.

The board had been set back up; he needed to get a strategy together before the pieces started moving. He never lost control of this little game, but he'd been playing by himself for years and it was time that he got used to having an opponent again.

Regina didn't know that he remembered. Oh sure, she suspected it. She always had. After all, he was the one that gave her the curse; it would make sense if he'd put a loophole in there somewhere that allowed him to keep his memories.

She suspected but she didn't know. And as long as he had that he knew that he would have some edge. But when that blew up in his face and he knew that it would, he needed to have something else.

That move was simple. He saw her in Granny's Inn. Once he got control of Emma, he would have a major step in gaining control of the board.


Once upon a time….

Rumpelstiltskin didn't understand why they had to go from town to town trading during the summer. It was horribly hot and transporting the sheep wool from one village to another made it insufferable. It made it worse this year because the crops were good, the summer was mild and they were going to have enough to survive.

But it was always that need to have more…just in case. Something could happen to the crops, the Ogres could start another uprising, a summer storm could turn deadly and destroy the crops. The animals could get some kind of sickness.

But there was no evidence of any of that. There had been no storm or animal plague in years and the Ogres wouldn't think to move this far south as it wasn't strategically sound. There was nothing here that they could possibly want here.

He realized how wrong he was the second day of the journey home and they came across a destroyed caravan in the middle of the road. It didn't take a nobleman to realize that the people that lay strewn across the road had been killed with weapons too large for a normal man to hold.

"Keep the women back," Dauis said and walked forward. Disgust was written on his face as he turned a body of a child over with his foot, "I suppose the duke of the front lands is too busy behind stone walls to bother telling his people about any advancement of the enemy THEY keep provoking."

"What would they want this far south?" Rumpelstiltskin said before he could think.

Dauis rolled his eyes, "Because us humans keep encroaching on their land and so they're going to kill anyone they come across and they don't care who it is or if they're involved in the war or not."

"The Duke is probably going to use the anger this massacre will generate for more recruits." Someone in the back said.

"Which is why we need to get out of here as soon as possible."

"We should bury them," Rumpelstiltskin said.

"We don't have time," Dauis said, "We need to get out of here before they come back."

Rumpelstiltskin looked down in embarrassment; he knew it would probably come. Dauis had a way of beating back people that he didn't agree with.

"There are more than enough people to have it done," Another of the men argued, "If we don't bury our people then what makes us better than them for God's sake?"

Rumpelstiltskin looked down and saw it was Baelfire, the closest thing he could call a friend had taken his side. Baelfire had a way of arguing that struck at the emotion and conscience of people that made Rumpelstiltskin wish he'd been born with that ability.

And Baelfire had a way of getting the people behind him immediately. Dauis was their leader technically, but they all listened to Baelfire on what to do when a problem arose.

Dauis saw that he wasn't going to win this argument and shrugged, "Then bury them if you want."

Rumpelstiltskin nodded his respect to Baelfire and bent down towards the body of a redhead woman who lay face down in the dust. Large arrows pierced her shoulder, thigh and side and the way the blood soaked her dress gave some indication of how long she'd been laying there.

He grabbed her by her shoulder and turned her over on her back. Her body went at an angle and he realized that perhaps he should've thought to remove the arrows before doing so.

The minute the ground pushed the arrows deeper into her skin, her eyes flew open and she let out a gargled scream. The sudden move nearly made Rumpelstiltskin fall backwards but he regained control of his mind quickly enough to pull her into a sitting position.

Her eyes weren't focused on him, but rather something up in the sky. It was probably some hallucination brought on by the loss of blood.

"It's going to be alright," he told her, although he wasn't quite sure of what she could hear him. Not with the effects of her own injuries and the people rushing to help but he didn't care. "You're safe now."


Present day.

If it was rent day, then Dawn knew that she was probably going to be eating alone. People always gave him trouble on this day. They didn't want to abide by the contracts that they signed. And he had to hassle and one day someone was going to snap and try to hurt him.

Not that she cared or anything.

She heard the door open and looked at the mirror in the hallway for confirmation that it was her husband.

It was.

"You're home a bit early," she called.

"It went better than normal."

"That's a first," she muttered and tossed her plate in the sink, "You know I stayed up all night for nothing? He didn't even print that stupid story this morning."

He came up behind her and kissed the back of her ear, "Well then that means that he has material for the newspaper tomorrow and we don't get bothered tonight."

Dawn sat on the counter so that she could face him, "Oh Mr. Gold, does that mean you have less than honorable intentions on your mind?"

He gave that little smile that he had and kissed her with enough passion to make her think they really cared about each other, she returned the gesture immediately but it still felt a bit empty on her part. They never lied to each other about what wasn't there. However it was gestures like this that hinted that there could be something more for them if it wasn't for the wall that neither one of them wanted to lower. And she didn't like that feeling because it was not what she'd signed up for.

"I always do, dear."