A/N: In the final stretch now. One or two more chapters to go! Also, someone please tell me it isn't so! He can't, he isn't, they wouldn't! Seriously, I need confirmation he's not T.T
~8~8~
Dawn was just beginning to tint the pointed crowns of the barren trees in painted splashes of purple and creamy pink as the final plan was polished and agreed upon by sorcerer and sorceress. Rays of intrepid sun broke through the grayness of the frigid morn, yet all near the ominous keep remained swathed in black. Not until the sun was fully risen did the slants of light begin to chip away at the shadows.
"It's done." Rumpelstiltskin murmured dryly as he stared into a black glassy orb in his clawed grip. For hours he had worn and woven a plan Cora would be satisfied with and finally she had agreed on a replete recourse.
Darkness engulfed the fiend as he stood in Cora's dreary apothecary. Blackness clung like shifting banners to the walls and cast all in the somber hue of death. No matter what light the sun tenaciously provided through the scarlet panes and the arrow slits no cheer or luminance truly filled the citadel of the malicious witch. A low, banked fire from the night crackled in the hearth that oversaw so many potions being mixed and tested and brewed for their vile purpose.
Nestled in the corner, her shadowy raven stretched his sable wings and flapped rapidly in wicked anticipation. Finally, his mistress was to be victorious!
Staring at his scaled hand, the Dark One gazed upon the weapon that would knock the fairies in deadened slumber. His black nails curled covetously over the dark sphere in his grasp like a dragons claw curled over a large, mythical pearl.
Oil he and the witch formulated months ago swirled in the glassy orb like restless smoke forming into battling serpents. Tendrils of red and black sliced against each other like warring spirits in the glass seeking to subdue the other. The orb was as big as a large man sized fist and perfectly smooth.
Once broken the glass would release a poisoned tincture that would turn into oily smoke and dispatch the fairies into a black out doze that would take time, even from their powers, to be shaken off. The magic elixir wouldn't last long, for already the good and evil magic would bout for dominance, but any time the dust was unguarded to be plucked up without the fairies guarding their precious stock with their lives was a fair one.
A satisfied grin of evilest delight sprang demurely to Cora's wide lips. Gliding, as a ghostly specter towards the fiend the witch proffered her raven hand out to the orb caught in his talons. "Perfect, Rumpel." She nearly purred, her smile oozing malicious approval. Her hands delicately stroked the orb as though petting some tiny creature. "You've done well."
Taunting struck the fiend like a razor lined whip flaying mercilessly away at his bare soul. She was trying to goad him, he knew instantly; seeking some recourse to bring his helpless ire to boil all over again. Her words poked about attempting to find a spot to rouse his rancor and deny her words. Like a gluttonous slug the malicious witch wished to penetrate his skin with her cruel glibness and suck the rage from the very marrow of his bones as delicious wine to fuel her cruelties.
"Let's get this over with." The fiend sighed and tucked the orb into a pocket on his black, boot-length dragon scale great-coat.
Stashed away, the orb bulged like an abscess under the skin from the pocket. Much like his swollen heart the sphere was close to bursting with some mutated strangeness that filled the easily shattered glass. Despite his desire to respect Belle's wishes and not forge ruin upon the realms, he could not watch her die. He had to enact the magic and steal the dust, for her sake.
An evil chuckle escaped Cora's sharply grinning vermilion lips. "Alright, Rumpel. If you don't wish to bask in accomplishment I suppose we can hasten our plans."
"Your plans." He vapidly turned his head to her like a tiger swerving to hated prey. Dirty, unkempt brown locks fanned over his features, detailing the restless anger stewing within. Everything thing he did gave away the furious inward roar of his helplessness. Anger glimmered in the rivers of sadness that swamped his sable dots. Misery conquered any other emotion. He was more than miserable. He was nothing.
"I couldn't have done any of this without you." She patted a gray-gold cheek as though commending a dutiful child. Taking a step away as a sneer twisted his scaled face she let forth a cunning chuckle, her eyes smoldering. He was so alluring when he was angry. "Now, go bring me the dust. I'll be here preparing the spell and remember. No tricks."
Barely controlled fury tempered his lips into a feral grin. "I wouldn't dream of stabbing you in the back."
"And I wouldn't dream of holding that option out of the question." A brilliant, genial smile flared across her scarlet lips. "Remember I know you, Rumpel. All your tricks, all your schemes. I can predict you like the seasons."
A rough chortle of mirthless anger fled his lips. "Not well enough it seems." Looking down he adjusted a glimmering gold trimmed cuff far too energetically. Angered, he pulled the rim of his sleeve pernicious, taking his rage he would have much rather assailed upon Cora out on the scaled fabric. "I won't do anything to jeopardize my love." He retorted tartly, his mouth a sad, grim line.
"See that your ardor checks your cunning then." Cora parried, her smile never fading. Of course, he would be up to something, she knew with the utmost confidence. She was a fool to think he wouldn't but whether he planned to act was a different matter entirely. Love or plans would win out in his beastly black heart and she was betting on love. For all her cunning and plans, he truly, stupidly, loved the slave girl. Perhaps he would behave.
Even still, she fought a tempting smirk; she had a recourse to make sure every trick he could conjure was thwarted.
Bowing curtly in reply to end his unpleasant battle of words with the witch, the fiend snapped his wiry digits. Clouds of misty purple enveloped him in a bulbous thunderhead of magic that would spirit him away to the enclave of the good fairies. Tendrils of mist vaporized his leather arrayed body into pure power of magic.
In moments he was but a fog winging upon the draft of the ominous castle. The vapors of pale purple snaked about as though finding their bearing in the strange form then slipped from the crimson window into the golden morning; leaving an ever grinning Cora behind to bask in the dawn of her victory.
~8~8~
Happiness flourished like summer wildflowers in the secret place where the fairies trod and called home. Nestled away in a grove wreathed by the heaviest of magic's the fairies world was a place of serenity and utmost peace.
Leaves and branches of beech and ash and oak trees, forever in late spring and summer season, interwove into a wide canopy bower over the magical copse where the fairies dwelt and slept. Interment openings in the canopy allowed sunlight to steal through the coppice and alight the fairies sanctuary with gold in the day time.
Dark green ivy and grape vines intermingled with the branches and spiraled thickly over the trees until most of their trunks were shrouded behind the enchanted entanglement of vines and broad leaves. Enmeshed with the lovely bower that formed the homes of the powerful fae, the vines added a lattice to the entwined roof of leaves and branches looming above their heads.
Boils and knots and hollows not hidden by vines spotted the ancient, magical trees and served as the fairies homes. Habituated for centuries the trees were the perfect dwellings for the good fairies. Old grape leaves and silvery ash bark served as privacy screens and doors for their homes lofted in the trees. Networks spiraled through every tree in a palace that connected each tree together.
The fairies kingdom was not just a glades of serene woodland but a palace for the good hearted fae as well!
Upon the very top of the eldest tree, the base clustered with blue bells, lived the Blue Fairy who could survey the glade and all who dwelled within from the hollow of the tree's apex. From her home upon the most aged of the oaks she governed and gave tasks to the fairies who were new and called council to the veterans of their kind. All knew where to find the Blue Fairy and she never turned away a soul.
Though the tiny winged sisters of magic were but small creatures, and their sanctuary secret, their glade was a wide open expanse. Lush, soft grass grew like an bright emerald carpet upon the woodlands floor. Flowers of daffodils and lavender and lilies tall and vivacious dotted the carpet with colors and scents of eternal summer. The gnarled, snaking brown roots that puckered from the ground were cloaked in soft moss and grass conjuring them into tiny mountains and knolls for the small fae.
Serenity emanated from every portion of the tranquil glade and lay softly like the shafts of sun slanting through the open spaces above the canopy.
In the very center of the fairies home, a wooden table, hewn from the very tree that once was the center of the glade, served as a communal meeting place of the fairies. The tree that once forged the iris of the copse was one that had been deep with magic. Roots pumped power into the land until the tree had given all to protect the realms of the fae and vanished leaving the glade in eternal summer and closed about to be the fairies sanctuary.
Once in the morning all of every hue and expertise would gather to the large wooden table. Hollowed out acorn cups in hand and leaflet plates on the stump, they listened to the days duties from their auspicious leader, the Blue Fairy. In the night when the fireflies danced about like lanterns and the moon beams provided the night luminance, the fairies would congregate again for supper and talk of all the good they'd done and the adventures they had winged upon.
No mortal was ever allowed upon their clandestine coppice, not even their friends of dwarf and human alike. None in memory had ever breeched the copse of the fae, and with the world bereft of turmoil the watchfulness for intruders was lax.
Who now would dare seek their sanctuary? Peace ruled the day and no one ever tried to penetrate their glade. Happiness dripped like thick honey all around for mortal and immortal alike and all the hearts of the fairies were glad.
Sitting like a calm, benevolent empress at the front of the massive wooden table, the Blue Fairy watched her sisters with aloof, checked joy. Sobriety measured with punctilious politeness neatly measured her features. Always remembering herself as the highest order, she tempered her happiness with neutrality as best she could manage.
Glee was as addictive to a fairy as ale to a mortal. As the leader, she held herself in control of the happiness that bubbled just as bright within as the outwards signs that her sisters all proudly displayed. Even with peace she did not possess the luxury to toss her austere nature to the winds.
A congenial smile curved her cupid bow lips as she watched the other fairies freely basking in their happiness. They could let their happiness rise as high as they willed. Certainly after all the years they had spent helping those in mortal peril they deserved all the happiness they could afford.
Rays of soft morning sun trickled through the breaks in the canopy above showering the table with sun motes and pleasant tawny light. Steam swirled up from every acorn cup and each fairy took their time sipping languidly whilst lazily talking instead of winging away to their business.
Their good works were slow in the times of peace. Not much qualified as a fairy stepping in for mortals any longer. Here and there a girl wished to go to a ball or a poor boy wanted a magic bean, but there was nothing more to their acts than that.
From their needs being less and less, the dwarves accumulated a hefty sum of dust for them. Bags of the power filled the base of the great tree where the Blue Fairy called her home and even bags had started to fill the corners of her room!
They would have to find someplace else to store the sacks, she knew imperatively, but for now she was content to pick at remnants of breakfast and listen to the other fairies titter of news from across the kingdoms they had picked up upon their normal journeys through the lands.
"You know Prince Eric and Ariel wish for me to be their fairy god mother." One piped up proudly and bit into some fluffy bread.
Another leaned forward in happy amazement. "Truly? Have they decided to have a child yet?"
"Well… not yet." The fairy replied bashfully and flicked a crumb from her grape leaf plate. "But if they do they said they would surely pick me."
A plump fairy donned in bright pink and wearing a conical hat to her right joined in the conversation. "Speaking of children. That god child of mine Aurora."
A wider smile twitched involuntarily upon the Blue Fairies face as the entire winged congregation gave a unified groan. Pink, or Mary Weather as she was named, never did stop talking about her god child and how she and her two friends raised the lass when the she-dragon Maleficent had been all roars and bluster. Still, there was no malice to their groan for all loved the tale and with their needs being few and far between there was much time to hear it told again.
Contentment washed over the majestic Blue Fairy as the story began as they all usually did, with a birth. Settling down more comfortably in her stick and grass blade seat, the eldest fae leaned against her left armrest and let the peace of the cool morn wash over her senses.
The sun was shining, there was good food, a story was being told, and there was a bit of purple fog slipping through one of the sun shafts from a break in their leafed roof.
Abruptly, confusion wrinkled her placid brow as the thought connected. Purple? An amiss feeling twitched caution in her soul. That wasn't normal….
Wafting against the slight breeze, the smoky purple mist drifted lower and lower to the congregation of fairies. Spirals of dark purple thickened, like thunder clouds, winded to the ground and begin to form into some tangible thing.
Curiously leaning forward in her seat, the Blue Fairy never noticed the breakfasting fairies quieting as they too spotted the purple fog banking vapidly from the firmament. Silence pervaded the sanctuary like the final breath of death of some wizened mortal. What sort of aura was this that slipped into their home?
The Blue Fairies muscles tensed under the twinkling muslin of her azure gown. Her wings twitched in an errant flutter that caused the blades of grass beside her to dip and bob. Instinctive her hand reached for her wand upon the table. Anger and fear both brimmed suddenly in her heart, threatening to spill.
There was only one possible man, no monster, she corrected hatefully, such a purple hue belonged to; Rumpelstiltskin.
"Blue." A wary novice, muttered in confusion, her eyes clasped to the strange descending and hardening mist. "What is that?"
"Not what, Dearie. Who." The mist chirped in reply to the inquiry. In the blink of an eye the fog hardened leaving the scaly creature in their mist. A hard won smile painted his face as gave an exuberant bow. "Rumpelstiltskin." He trilled his name jovially. "At your service."
A collective gasp shuddered through the fairies like a light rain pattering to the dry, cracked earth. Most had only heard of the Dark One in legends of old. Stories about the fiend were normally whispered about the fireflies to scare novices. But this was no story, no mere boogey man. Standing before them he was a terrifying as the legends claimed with the skin of a dragon, soulless black eyes, and the impish chortle of a conniving demon.
Incensed, the Blue Fairy leapt to her feet and brandished her wand like some royal whose court was interrupted. "Dark One!" She snapped fearlessly in her authoritative tiny voice. How dare he invade their home!
Her tiny wings pumped angrily sending motes of blue dust shivering down to her seat. In an instant she came up to his face and glared sternly upon the intruding fiend. What did he want after all the years that had passed? "You have no right to be here." A dangerous growl escaped her normally stern voice.
"But here I am." The beast drawled lowly to buy time. Subtly, his black eyes strafed about the large copse. Where would they keep the dust?
The answer came as the largest oak he had ever clasped eyes on tree loomed to his right. Like a beckon, the majesty of such a tree gave the answer to him on a sliver platter. A faint smile twitched his thin, gray lips. Fairies never did have any sense of clandestineness. They were truthful and naively trustworthy. None would steal from them so they would keep their vaunted dust where it most made sense; out in plain sight.
Righteous anger twisted the Blue Fairies normally tranquil visage. Her hand clutched the gnarled wand tighter until her knuckles where as white as the snows. "Leave." he commanded firmly. For all her anger she didn't wish for a fight. Not in their sacred home.
"Oh I will, Dearie." The beast giggled impishly, his lips contorted into a feral smile. Digging into his dragon scale great-coat, the Dark One plucked up the orb. "But first, a gift."
Before the elder fairy could react the fiend let the globule drop to the trunk table. Forever the orb seemed to fall to the sacred wood, then disaster struck.
Glass shattered in all conceivable directions amidst the fairies breakfast. Deadly sharp shards whistled through the air and defaced the lawn with sharp, black spears. Pointed, jagged breaks sang a tune of pain as they shot like arrows and darts amongst the fae, seeking to eek out pain.
Fairies ducked for cover and fought to brandish their own wands by their sides as they fought down a wave of fear. Horrid, bloody screams of the struck tore through the air cracking the serenity of the vale like the broken glass.
The syrupy liquid of the potion oozed through the table and defaced the sacred, ancient stump with vile bile. Golden slants of sun that hit the liquid began to work their heat in the potions favor. Streams of foul black mist rose up from the liquid in vines of noxious fumes that clogged the air that once was perfumed by the scents of summer.
Before most of the fae could gain flight, the smoke over powered them. Wobbling upon their feet and swaying dangerously a few inches in the air, the fairies collapsed in a heap where they stood. One by one, as though struck down, the flying winged sisters fell in a nightmarish doze. All at once their eyes closed as deplorable slumber overtook them.
The angered Blue Fairy had only a moment to raise her wand before the smoke took her thrall. Her wings flapped vapidly as the smoke coiled about her senses and choked them into submission.
Tenaciously she wavered and veered to and fro through the air as though drunk. Shaking her head stubbornly she tried to fight the effects. He couldn't do this! She couldn't become trapped in whatever he was planning. Still, the potion was too great a power to be ignored.
"You will suffer for this." The winged leader stammered sleepily, her voice awash with fear and the promise of vengeance.
Finally, unable to fight of the affects, the fairy slumped and hurtled to the earth. The soft grasses caught her, but the damages were done. The fairies were all subdued.
A frown quickly forged the Dark One's lips as he looked down to the unconscious fairy and her kind strewn about like broken, forgotten dolls. All feigned, sly cheer evaporated like the noxious mist. "I already have." Came the sad reply.
Stepping over her, the fiend muttered a curse as he made way towards the towering oak tree hoarding the magic. Tinges of good magic brushed against his gray-gold flesh like cobwebs as he neared the tree. A grim smile flew to his thin gray mouth.
Yes, the magic was very close.
Slipping his lanky arm into the hallowed boil of the ancient beech, the fiend plucked up a small bag from the home of the Blue Fairy. Pulling his arm out, the fiend fondled the small bag in his grip. Even filled, the dust was oddly light. With a sharp motion of his thumb, he slit a hole in the side of the sack. Light pink and blue dust glittered and flooded out into his grip confirming what he already knew.
Magic.
Beckoning dark magic to his call the powerful fiend sent his power through the hallowed tree to collect the dust. Purple mist rose from the ground like fog evaporating in the golden sun. Snaking through the tree, the power gathered the sacks of magic. Little by little the sacks of power were gathered until they all melded into one bag by the Dark One's boots.
Stuffed, the sack was impressively light even stuffed with magic. Every bit of magic the fairies had had been in the tree and now the power was his.
Satisfied as well as he could be, Rumpelstiltskin heaved the sack of magic over his shoulders like he would have a sack of wool in his old life. If everything went accordingly he wouldn't have to use the magic. Still, he knew Cora could predict him fairly well. Her words hadn't been all boast before he left on his vile errand. She perhaps had some measure of what he had in mind.
But what choice did he have, he thought disparagingly. What else could he do? What more did fate wish to give him but a tiny-
"Blue! Blue!" A tiny voice shrieked in sudden delight about the glade.
Hate darkened the fiend's face as he looked up through the opening in the leaves. A curse murmured past his lip. He had missed one.
A pinkish blue mote darted through a open portion of the canopy high above, momentarily shadowing a ray of golden sun. Nova, the novice of the fairies dived from her task with joyous news.
Buzzing down, the tiny figure screamed the name of the elder fairy exuberantly. "Oh Blue, it's wonderful! She's here! She's.…" The words dribbled from her lips at the sight before her. Hovering in the air, she stared in surprise at the travesty.
Fairies of all different hues and stations lay like fallen upon a battle field. Some were slumped over the tables, other lay face down in blood. Vibrant blood and glass shards glimmered in the sunlight telling of some unspeakable violence. In her absence something horrendous had indeed happened in their sacred home.
Amazement froze her face in shock. Her jaw hung open in abject disbelief. Who had done such a thing? Eyes frantically searching the meadows of lush green amidst the grove, the fairy could do nothing before the Dark One was upon her and grabbed her by the wings.
Holding the iridescent winged creature betwixt his pinched fingers, the fiend brought the novice close to his face. His sable eyes pinioned upon her bright pink form in hateful disgust. As much as he hated his task, he loathed the fairies with almost the same utter hatred. "Well it appears I didn't get all of you." He hissed menacingly in his impish falsetto pitch.
"Who are you?" Terror crackled along Nova's pleasant voice. Who was this beast that assailed her home and left all her sisters lying motionless upon the grassy carpet?
Hatred gleamed like liquid silver in his black orbits. "I would give introduction, but…." He canted his head like a cat looking over a tasty morsel to be consumed. "They don't really matter do they. You'll be dead soon enough."
"You can't kill me." Nova burbled anxiously. Her mouth moved rapidly in explanation. "Snow and Charming's daughter has been born! Blue was to be her fairy god mother! A child born of true love!"
Child?
Despite his hate and self loathing that caught the Dark One's attention! His eyes puckered suspiciously towards the fae. "A child?"
"Yes." The fairy beamed explicatively. Perhaps the thought was softening his heart. "A child of the highest magic! Someone who is truly special!"
All knew the story of the king James and Queen Snow. There life had been fraught with hardships before they became king and queen and brought forth peace in their lands. Because of them the realms were at peace with one another and the ogres vanquished.
For years they claimed to not be able to conceive but rumor told of a nearly dried spring that was said to renew the lost. He had heard tell of them go on a quest for the waters, but if they had ever found the liquid he hadn't known or cared.
Apparently though, he realized they did. At the thought, the gears in his mind began to churn with the budding of a new plan. Epiphany brightened like flares of white and gold in his mind, alighting a new plot before his eyes.
A child forged of true love. No, he pondered, that couldn't be a coincidence. Was fate actually…? Did he dare believe in the most powerful magic of all?
"It's your lucky day, fairy." The fiend sneered lowly, his eyes glinting. "I need you to go on a mission for me."
Nova struggled in his grip, her wings caught. "Why would I do anything for you when you've done this thing to my sisters?"
"Because!" The fiend roared, clicked his tongue, then sobered. He cursed himself inwardly for losing his temper. Now was not the time to frightened anyone. "Because." The fiend began again quieter, but just as dangerously. "If you don't things will be very bad for a very long time. I need some insurance and you're about to give me some." He pointed a dirty, black nailed finger at her. "Go to the Charming's, tell them I shall hold an audience with them soon." Flicking his wrist, he let the fairy free, his voice dark. "Mark my words, fairy, do as I say."
Fierceness traced Nova's face now that she was out of his grasp. The look of arguing branded her skin like a sign easily read, but she dutifully fluttered away. Something in her heart said this was more than met the eye. Blue would have never done such a thing, but Blue was always so stern and refused to hearken to her heart.
Left alone in the glade, the fiend bowed his head, his mind whirling. Running a hand through his straggly hair he let the warmth of the sun and the serenity of the glade fill him. For the first time in days a white spine of lightening arched through his heart beating the darkness of despair back. A new breath filled his lungs.
Perhaps fate had not abandoned him, he dared ponder.
There was a small window open, one that not even Cora would suspect. Now he had to make sure he took the opportunity for all the chance was worth.
Snapping his fingers decidedly, his blackened heart renewed with an ember of hope, the fiend disappeared from sight. They might have a chance yet.
~8~8~
"Something is terribly wrong, James." Snow breathing weakly in barely subdued panic as she looked on to her darling husband. Worried, that should have been tired joy, laced her worn ragged face. After birth glow radiated from her features but was largely entwined instilled with anxiousness.
Nova had come bringing tidings of terrible news from a man who always played the fences. Rumpelstiltskin was on the prowl again and he held them in his devilish sights with the talk of "news".
Pacing akin to some guardsmen standing patrol over his wife, the king rubbed his chin and marched nervously. His sword sheath slapped against his leg with each strong step. "It could be nothing." Charming protested lamely, striving for an inkling of hope. He bounced his sword calloused fingers off the side of his head as though trying to pull some explanation out to comfort his wife. "You know Rumpelstiltskin. He likes to keep people on their toes."
"We haven't heard from him in years." Snow protested, her voice crackling with worry. Rumpelstiltskin, she knew very well, did not bother people until he needed them. Mortals were of no use to him except for entertainment or plots.
A sigh fell from the king's mouth. "He's a trickster Snow. He likes ruining things like these happy days."
"Not this time." Nova wafted about the chamber frantically. "I've never met him but even then this seemed serious." She turned her eyes to the babe resting on her mothers chest. "He acted so strangely when I mentioned the child."
At the motion of the precious babe, Snow held her child close to her sweat drenched sleeping attire. Her heart beat a rapid tattoo with the terrible though of Rumpel turning some plot towards their child.
The sweet baby, slept in her mother arms blissfully unaware of the change in their happiness. What did Rumpel want with their baby?
Fear, plain and consuming paled Snow's beauty face. "What does he want with our Emma?"
"Help." The Dark One remarked softly from the shadows. Stepping out from the black corner of the chamber, the fiend kept his distance from the bed of the queen.
Taken off guard, in a moment the king spun about to face the fiend that entered unawares. Brandishing his blade with an expert grace, Charming turned the point to the Dark One. "Stay away." He firmly growled, his tone dangerous as he stalked towards the fiend. Determination steeled his eyes like jewels. There was no way the beast was getting near his family.
Hands clasped before him, the magical monster motioned with a flicker of his wiry fingers. "Stand down. I mean you no harm." He replied softly and kept his face calmly at ease.
"Not going to happen." The protecting father and husband replied. Not taking his guard down him eyed the fiend warily. "What do you want?"
"To warn you and give you hope." Rumpelstiltskin explained lowly, his gray lips pursed tight. "Something bad is about to happen. A darkness such as had never been seen in all the realms will soon wash over our world."
With that, the fiend waved a hand and sent a stream of purple in Snow's direction. There was no use trying to explain everything. There was no time.
A breath of dismay tore from Snows lips as the clouds raced towards her daughter. Enraged, James tried to cut at the magic but to no avail. The snaking mists of magic softly wafted down to the sleeping girl and slipped beneath her skin as she breathed slowly in slumber.
Furious, the king slashed at the beast who refused to move. "What did you do?" He all but roared, his tone seized in fear and panic.
"Fear not." The beast comforted in calm assurance. Charming's blade had been nowhere near him but even had it, he would have taken the deserved strike. "Your daughter will be able to save us from this evil that comes."
Panicked, Snow looked down to her sleepy daughter. "What did you do to her?" She breathed in terror. Hot tears pricked her eyes as she stared at her precious child. Why was the Dark One doing this to them?
"Only helped." The Dark One reiterated calmly. "Please. Believe me. I've not harmed her in any way. I've simply given her the means to save you all from the evil that comes to take all you hold dear."
Charming paced a step forward, his eyes glinting. " You give this insane task to a baby? She's defenseless! If this evil is so terrible then why haven't you stopped it oh mighty Dark One!" He shot back, his breath heavy with emotion of a helpless parent. "Why put this task to our daughter?"
"I would stop the evil if I could." The fiend huffed lugubriously, a sardonic, sad smile upon his mouth. "But I won't be around."
Cora had been too smart. She knew what last resort he had been planning and had gotten there first. With his last plot he had hopped to avoid the deal with the Charming's baby altogether, but alas the witch's words had been true. She knew him far too well.
Consternation wrinkled Snow's brow at the odd reply. "What?"
"The details don't concern you, majesty." Rumpelstiltskin replied soberly in an all-suffering sigh as he turned his body a bit to look at her. "Only know that what is about to happen won't be forever, and that is the best I can do. Other than that…." He paused for a moment then nodded. "You have my apologies."
There was hope. Even through the breath of belief was small and fleeting. If the chosen one could survive then perhaps everything would work out in the end. Cora wouldn't see her coming and that perhaps was her greatest asset.
Snapping his fingers the fiend coaxed forth the last hope he could. Something soft weighed his hands in the adumbrating cloud of magic. "This is a special blanket. Knit from a fleece of gold. It can subdue some magic's." He held it out to the protective father. "Put it around your daughter. It will protect her."
"I can protect her." James rumbled challengingly, desperate.
A sad smirk came to the fiends lips. "Not from this."
Leaving the soft Golden Fleece on the glinting tip of the king's blade the fiend preformed a small bow to the new, exhausted and frightened mother holding her babe close. Fear and anxiousness laced both parents faces in a new tapestry of indecision and pain tat should have been joy and elation.
Regret and guilt stung that Dark One's heart like a lance. Belle certainly wouldn't approve but by heaven he was doing his best to at least make things right in the end. Pain would be unavoidable but at least their misery wouldn't be forever. The agony would be gone someday, even if he wasn't part of it.
What was about to occur wasn't fair to them. It wasn't right that there child would become what she would. He knew what was to come, but still he felt sorry for them and what they would endure. But the pain would end, he consoled himself. It would pass in time.
Snapping his talons once more without further goodbye, he disappeared in a puff of purple. In his heart he knew the Charming's would listen to his words. For all his cunning they knew he had only really helped them in the grand scheme of things.
Now all he had to do was deal with Cora and meet the tortuous fate that awaited him when he returned.