Rumpelstiltskin stared at Emma and Neal as they paced the room. The first barrier had failed. That was to be understandable. Emma was powerful, but her ability to control her magic was still weak. That didn't stop him from being proud of her when she got the barrier up on the first try. The only person he taught to control their anger through love instead of hate and anger and it had to be his savior.

He had to say that he wished he'd started training Emma earlier. Maybe then they would have a fighting chance once Cora killed him and took his power.

Snow wasn't there. Neither was Charming…had they been killed? No, he doubted Regina had the brains enough to kill them right there. Snow probably escaped and went to find the candle. Gods, he hoped so. He knew his life wasn't worth much to these people but they had to know that it was better to deal with the devil you knew than the devil you didn't.

"It's getting weaker," Neal said, "She's going to get through."

Rumpelstiltskin felt himself slipping away faster and faster. Whatever it was that Dagian had concocted wasn't working anymore. He was going to die. Gods willing it was before Cora drove the knife into his chest.

Dead by the pirate. Well at least he had a far better reason to murder Rumpelstiltskin than Cora did. Rumpelstiltskin felt no regret that he slaughtered Hook's crew…and the people he thought were his family. He knew they'd done horrific things but that didn't mean that he didn't have a reason to want Rumpelstiltskin dead, "Maybe it's for the best. At least this cursed power will pass from this world."

"No," Bae said, "No, you're not dying."

He needed to get things right. He needed to make peace. He had done so with Dagian. He wasn't certain Bae was all the way there yet, and that only left one person, "I am dying. That much is certain. I need to talk to Belle. Emma, please."

Bae looked confused, "Who's Belle?"

Emma dialed the number and handed Rumpelstiltskin her cell phone, "your dad's girlfriend."

Bae gave him a shocked and confused look. Rumpelstiltskin figured that he had seen his mother kissing Jefferson on the dock but he wasn't sure Bae would ever imagine his father with anyone besides his mother.

"Mr. Gold," Belle said once the phone was given to her by Dagian, who had taken Belle from the hospital to protect her, "I told you before, I…I-I don't' remember you."

Gods, just to hear her voice one last time, "I know. I know. It's just….Sweetheart, I….I'm dying."

He heard her hesitate, "Oh. I'm, uh….I'm….I'm so sorry."

He felt the tears come and he choked them back. He hadn't done much for Belle. He'd just made her life more miserable every time they met. The least he could do was do what no one else would and tell her who she was, "I know that you're…confused about you are. So, I'm going to tell you. You are a hero, who helped your people. You're a beautiful woman, who loved an ugly man. Really, really loved me. You find goodness in others. And when it's not there, you create it. You make me want to go back. Back, to the best version of me. And that never happened before."

Not with Dagian who accepted him for what he was because she didn't think he'd listen to her. Not for Bae who he dropped in a vortex and then tried to keep fixing the problem with magic. No, Belle and her simple love just made him want to give up everything, "So when you look in the mirror and you don't know who you are, that's who you are. Thank you…Belle."

He didn't tell her he loved her. Not directly because he didn't want her to put her walls up. But he hoped that she could hear it in his words and his tone. She may never remember who she was again. But this way…she'd always at least know who she was and why he loved her. Before the others in this town took her and molded her into one of them, she'd at least know.

If she lived that long.

"Didn't know you had that in you," Bae said quietly. He saw his son's shoulders sagging like they had the weight of the world on them.

"Oh I'm full of love," he said a bit sarcastically and then softened. This was his one chance to make it right and now Bae was listening. He couldn't ruin it, "I've spent a lifetime looking for you. For the chance to say I love you. And I'm sorry."

Bae gave him such a sad look that it broke Rumpelstiltskin's heart, "I didn't think you would go back on our deal."

He sounded so much the boy still. Almost like the same boy that had fallen in the vortex all those years ago, "I just made the wrong choice."

That was all he could offer. No apology in the world could ever make up for what he put his family through. He knew that. He held out his hand anyway, "May I?"

He saw the walls visibly crumble but Bae held onto the last of his defenses stubbornly, "I'm still angry."

Bae had every right to be. Bae had every right to be angrier than he was. Maybe this would be better. Maybe he would die and Cora and Regina would be defeated and the dark power would be gone…and Bae could move on. He could find a live with his mother, and with his sister and Emma and his son. They could heal better if he wasn't involved to screw it all up, "I know."

Bae hesitated for a moment before his defenses crumbled entirely. HE took his father's hand and pulled into him. They gripped each other like neither one ever wanted to release the other. Rumpelstiltskin didn't know if it was full forgiveness…he liked to think it was. He liked to think in this moment of silence that Bae was forgiving him all his sins while he wordlessly poured out apology after apology.

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When Dagian was pregnant with Bae and alone while Rumpelstiltskin was off at war, she found times in between backbreaking work where she would slip off to a field that they had found shortly after marriage and she would sit there and watch the reddening sky in the distance and cry. She knew that her harmless husband would never survive this war. And he wouldn't have if he hadn't run.

And here she was. Sitting on her boyfriend's steps 400 years later, watching the town for any sort of sign over who was winning. And she was praying that her family would be spared.

But gods, she knew the chances of that being likely.

"Hey," Jefferson said behind her, "It's sort of cool out here; you want me to take Lily in?"

Dagian looked at her daughter in the cradle, "No….I just want her to be with me."

He sat on the steps beside her, "Anything happening?"

"No," the town looked so peaceful. How many actually were aware of what was going on, "Nothing yet."

He looked behind her, "How's your back?"

"Healing," she said, she just felt so dazed and so tired, "is Belle okay?"

"Yeah, she's with Grace."

Dagian looked at him, "Thank you…so much for doing this. When the battle is over, I'll take her out of here so Regina doesn't come here when she inevitably wants to take it out on Belle."

"You don't think they can win?"

"I have very little faith they can," Dagian said, "Emma may be powerful but I don't think she knows what she's doing. The only powerful ally they have is currently dying and nearly powerless."

"Where would you take her?"

"The cabin. And we'd hole up there until this passed."

"What about Lily?"

Dagian looked at her daughter in the cradle next to her. Taking her daughter on a trip where they were hiding from Regina would only end badly for the child, "I don't know."

"You don't have to give up your life to protect Belle."

"I promised Rumpelstiltskin that I would take care of her."

"And I imagine Rumpelstiltskin doesn't expect you to go as far as endangering yourself and his daughter to make sure that's done," he said angrily, "Do you really think you matter that little? I love you too much to let you throw your life away like that."

Dagian blinked at the last declaration and found herself at a loss for words. He waited for her response to that but this was an argument that she was determined to win, "What else can I do? Let Regina have her? I guarantee you that she will. Once she slaughters the Charming family and my son, she will get bored and start taking it out on everyone else."

"I don't know what else we do but we can figure it out," he took her hand, "Dagian, I love you."

She heard him the first time. She wanted to say it back. She'd been waiting to since she'd left for Manhattan but there was something he needed to know first.

"When Rumpelstiltskin and I were on the boat back…we made peace with each other," she whispered, "We kissed each other and told the other we loved them," At his hurt and shocked face, she quickly added, "It was a goodbye kiss…not a renewal of affections but I think you should know."

"Did anything happen?"

"No," she told him honestly, "But I wanted you to know. I wanted to be honest with you because I do love you back. And I want this to work. And for it to work, we have to be honest with the other."

He nodded, "Yes, we do."

Dagian tore her gaze away from the town and struggled to concentrate, "I'm not…a very nice person. Many times you will see that I'm not a very good person either. I make impulsive decisions based on emotions instead of logic. I'm broken beyond belief and I might never be completely healed."

"But that's why I fell in love with you," he told her.

Dagian felt her heart melt at the look he was giving her and she took his hand.

A movement caught her attention and she looked to her right to see her son and Emma, "Bae!"

She leapt out and raced to her son. She collided against his chest and wrapped her arms around her neck, "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Where's your father?"

Emma watched them embrace and Dagian wasn't sure if she should hug her son's baby's mother but thankfully Emma started talking before it ended awkwardly, "Cora teleported us. We need your car, we need to go back."

"It'll be too late for that," Dagian told her and felt her heart racing. They wouldn't reach him in time. Rumpelstiltskin was dead. She was going to kill him. Evil won.

Emma looked back towards the town, "We need to get the town evacuated."

"But there's nowhere to run," Dagian reminded her.

"Then we'll go to the woods," Emma said quickly, "Until we find a way to deal with this."

Dagian nodded, "Let me get some medical supplies and food then."

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They were gone.

Rumpelstiltskin didn't know if they'd abandoned him like Charming and Snow seemed to have. He wasn't sure if Cora had slaughtered his savior and his son…he didn't know what was happening outside the room. Gods, he hoped not. He prayed that his son didn't discover his family just to die the next day. He hoped they abandoned him too…he hoped they got a chance to get away.

Cora walked in and he watched her. No more games, no more defenses, it was just her and him. He wondered where Regina was but he wasn't sure he had the strength to ask. He went right down to it, anything else would be insulting her, "A vision told me about you. Told me this day would come. But it didn't tell me everything. Didn't tell me what I really wanted to know."

Cora sat next to him on the bed, "And what's that?"

All his life he'd been abandoned; through his own actions or the actions of others. He knew that their…romance had been nothing more than lust brought on by both their desire to cause pain. He knew it would never have worked out, he would've chosen Bae over her any day. And he knew her daughter would be important, and so he knew that she wouldn't remain with him because he also knew he couldn't conceive a child with a woman. Sterility was one of the drawbacks to the dark one's power since something so innocent could never be created by something so wicked. Rumpelstiltskin knew this and accepted it. He had told himself that if she strayed and became pregnant with another man's child, he would forgive her. Just so he wasn't alone. And then she took out her heart and chose Henry and he knew that he would be alone again. His hurt at Cora's actions combined with Dagian's made him tell himself that he would always be unloved.

But now that black temper of his had passed and he could see things a bit more calmly now, "Did you ever love me?"

Cora almost looked sad for him, "Why do you think I had to rip my own heart out? You were my weakness. You are the only man I ever truly loved."

Oh gods, that was sad if that was the case.

She stood up and raised the dagger. Rumpelstiltskin waited. Suddenly she stiffened and stumbled backwards and he saw that Regina stood behind her. What had happened? He watched Cora regain her footing and she stared at her daughter. Immediately her whole composure changed and she smiled at her daughter.

Regina smiled back, "Mother."

Oh gods, this was bad. Rumpelstiltskin remembered how Cora was with her heart. If she wanted to kill Ava for tripping her, gods knew the kind of terror that she would inflict to Snow for Regina's imaginary wrongs that the child had created.

Then Cora started to stumble. Rumpelstiltskin felt his strength returning. He looked down at his bare chest to see that his wound was healed.

Snow had done it, gods bless the child. She had found a way to get it done.

Cora fell to the ground and Regina cradled her. Rumpelstiltskin's full strength was returned; he bent down and lifted up the dagger that held his name in its full text. He knew he was going to live.

"This….," Cora rasped and looked at her daughter, "Would've been enough. You...you would've been enough."

Well at least Regina could go on with the rest of her life content with the lie her mother just spouted.

"Don't leave me please," Regina pathetically begged. As if she was the victim for losing her mother after they just tried to murder him and a family so she could kidnap the boy he'd illegally acquired for her.

He should kill her. He could do it now. It'd do them a world of favors because this brat was going to try and attack them again like she actually had the right to. But he didn't. He didn't know why. Maybe it was pity. Maybe it was punishment.

"Your mother did you no favors," he told her. And it was true.

"Shut up!" Regina screamed. You stole her life! You cast some spell!"

She was too delusional to hear the hypocrisy of her words. If he hadn't done something, they would've stolen his life, "I did nothing"

"Regina!" Snow screamed as she ran through the curtain with Charming trailing behind her, "Stop!"

Regina looked up and gave them a seething glare, "You did this."

Rumpelstiltskin waved his hand. Purple smoke enveloped him and the Charmings and deposited them at the steps of the house on the hill. Snow and David looked around in confusion. He ignored them; he ignored Snow's sobs as she realized what she'd done. They had no choice, she would see that eventually.

He pressed his finger against the doorbell and rang it.

Immediately it was opened by Dagian. She had a backpack and duffel and Lily was in her arms. She stopped and stared at him…like she couldn't believe it were true, "You're alive?"

He looked at his daughter and was overcome with emotion. He would see her walk one day. He would see her talk. He would watch her grow up…

"Yes," he told her as she moved his half open shirt away to see there was no wound anno scar. She looked up at him curiously but he wouldn't tell her what he did. Not yet, "I'm alive."

He saw the tears then. He saw how much she was worried for him. He wrapped his arms around her and she embraced him back. She held him tightly and whispered thanks to the gods for saving him.

He looked down the hallway and saw Jefferson and Belle. His heart swelled when he saw her, she was alright. She looked confused but Jefferson looked worried. Rumpelstiltskin gave him a respectful nod, to thank him for what he'd done for Dagian thus far and let him know that he was not interested in pursuing his former wife.

Because now that he had a second chance, he was going to find a way to get Belle back.