Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review to this story. It means a lot and I appreciate each and every one left, keeps the juices going to know that people are enjoying the story and what they liked and what they didn't. Also thank you to those who've favorite and requested an alert for the rest of the story. I hope that you'll all continue to enjoy the story and it lives up to your expectations (as well as my own). To all the other readers who took the time to read, thanks. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it even if it's to say you didn't like it and what it was about it that you didn't.

ANYWAY This chapter I wrote with a great deal of help from my sister (who is one of the many who insisted I watch the show). She is in love with Rumpelstiltskin and so as we wrote this she worked a great deal with me on understanding his character. She had requested that I ask all of those willing to let both of us know if you think we captured the Dark One's character. Feel free to say whatever else you like as well ;-)

Chapter 1
'A Warnings Little Ditty'

-Two Weeks Ago-
(From Emma's Return)

Rumpelstiltskin slithered up to the teeth like bars, clapping his wrinkled hands together. He could not stand still, his weight shifting from side to side almost like a mirage. The royals stood back from the bars even as he beckoned them forward, reaching out from behind his cage. They knew his game, they had learned how to play it and win a long time ago, so they remained just out of reach of the putrid smelling prisoner.

"What is it that you want? You demanded an audience. You have it. Now out with it." James insisted.

"Oh, that's no fun my King."

"I have no time for a sniveling little bottom dweller like you. If you have nothing of importance to say than…" James took a hold of Snow's hand and turned to lead them away.

"NO! No…wait…wait, I just thought to be polite and chat nicely. Catch up…" His tone even sounded like the snake he was. "You will want to know this, it is rather essential."

"How essential…?"

"Vital enough that even I am…curious." He did not admit such a thing lightly, even looking around as if another person were around to hear his confession.

There was no one there.

"Alright then…what is it that you want to tell us?"

"Oh, tisk tisk my King. You know how I like to play…first there is something you must promise me."

"I will promise you nothing…" King James seethed hand about his sword as he looked to the imp.

"Oh, then what about you my dearest deary?" Rumpelstilkskin's eyes turned to Snow White, a grin forming.

"I…" Snow White shook her head from side to side, exhaling sharply. "…what is it that you want?"

"Snow…don't." James warned.

"Oh, nothing as drastic as previous deals…just something simple really." He seemed positively giddy in his deal making. It had been quite a long time since he'd been able to strike a deal with anyone.

"And that is…?" Snow White stepped closer to the cage, transfixed.

"The next time you hear…" His voice was gentle, betraying nothing. "that I am looking to talk to you…you COME TO ME!" He screamed his arms reached out waving madly as he tried to reach Snow White's neck. Coming away with nothing but her cloak he grabbed it and pulled the Queen closer, his voice a furious mix of outrage and madness.

King James raised his blade and cut at the hand holding and pulling so tightly against the cloth that it had begun to choke Snow White.

Gasping for air, Snow White stumbled backwards, James beside her in an instant. "Are you alright, Snow?" With her hand at the base of her neck Snow White nodded her head as Rumpelstiltskin shook at his cage pulling and pushing at the dwarf blooded bars.

"De..eeall…" Snow wheezed coughing to regain her breath.

The fury that had been within Rumpelstiltskin's eyes disappeared almost instantly. He was light upon his feet again and bouncing in eager joy.

"It is about…" he looked both ways again, shushing someone that wasn't there and waving off another. His time alone in his cage had made him madder than a mad hatter. "You can never be too careful with who might hear you…" He giggled in his oddly boyish way, even if it did sound like a hyena before a kill.

"I've had enough. Lets go Snow…" James insisted, putting his hand out for Snow to take, this time turning his back on Rumpelstiltskin and taking her and himself towards the nearest stairwell. He would be damned if he played another one of Rumpelstiltskin's games. The dark one never played fair.

"What I SEE…" He cried, his voice echoing through the dark dank dwelling that had become his home, caught the retreating royal couples attention. "Not many can accept, should you wish to hear it. It concerns what you hold most dear. Oh, now don't be frightened, not a one will cheer. Do hold out your hearts and don't you sneer! For her majesty is near…"

Snow White felt her muscles tense, her head turning slowly to face back towards the cage that had kept Rumpelstiltskin trapped for the last eighteen years. Even in his confinement he was still as conniving and always as powerful as he had been before. The fact that he had not escaped before could only be attested to the magic keeping him bound and the refusal for any one person to guard him for more than one rotation. He had no visitors and was given his meals by a guard whose ears would be plugged so they did not fall prey to his conniving words. He had nearly escaped; ten years ago he had almost convinced one of the guards whose wife was sick that he could save her should he truly wish him to. It was only by a chance of pure luck that Snow, James, and their friends had found out of his plans. To this day, Snow could not comprehend how they had stopped him and imprisoned him—again. Those thoughts were not for now, she could not think more on the subject. She was far too overwhelmed.

The slack of her arm finally snagged as James realized she had stopped following him out. His eyes were curious as he looked to her staring at the gray skinned merchant. "What is that supposed to mean, huh? Her majesty is right here…" James gestured to Snow White but found no answer or reaction from Rumpelstiltskin.

The crazy mind trickster was too busy staring, almost longingly at his wife. His mouth twitching as its corners raised and his rotting teeth matched the dim light of the torches, practically glowing yellow.

"Answer me!" James commanded, his hand moving towards his sheathed sword.

Rumpelstiltskin no longer even paid James any mind. Rather his eyes, dark and amused, locked and remained trained upon Snow White's, his sly smirk growing as realization began dawning upon the Queen's face. Terror in her eyes.

Snow White knew. She could feel it! The awareness that there was something wrong, something creeping closer and closer as every second passed. It would change everything.

She stared into Rumpelstiltskin's eyes. "Scared yet deary…?" His accent flared as he cackled.

Snow White felt it first in her chest. It continued to the tips of her fingers and rested at the forefront of her mind as she suddenly could see two…possibly three Rumpelstiltskin's standing at the front of his cage laughing manically as she felt James arms wrap around her.

"Snow…Snow?" James sent a glare over his shoulder as he led his wife away from the dungeon, his muscles coiling at Rumpelstiltskin's called out warning.

"Do look after that charming little Princess of yours. Emma…was her name?" He knew her name well, had never forgotten it after all these years though he'd yet to meet the darling Princess. "When she's ready, tell her I'm….waaaaiiitttinnnggg…"

The cackle he unleashed with the telling had been as dark and dreary as a voyage on a dark unending sea with no star or moon to guide it home.

-Emma's Return-

Snow White shook away the memory, her heart clenched tight in her chest as she held fast to Emma's hand refusing to release it. Snow White and King James had known; Snow had known who she was the moment Rumpelstiltskin spoke of 'her majesty'.

They—those around this very table—had all once come up with a plan to save Emma from the wrath of the Evil Queen, but that had been a long time ago. Snow White was afraid that the tree trunk cabinet would not fit a fully grown woman inside of it.

"Jimminy? Geppeddo? Granny? Anyone!" The sound of Emma's hands meeting the surface of the round table brought up the eyes of each person she'd asked. They had tried to shield their eyes from the Princess, unwilling to disappoint the girl when they came forth with no answer to her question.

"Emma…" Snow White chastised her daughter's sudden show of frustration.

"No, you cannot treat me like an insolent child. You are keeping something from me. Something that is important enough to scare you all to silence. What is it? What happened while I was away? Please…mother." Emma turned back to her mother, this time she took a hold of Snow White's hand and held it tightly between her own, her eyes pleading, begging for answers that were being kept from her.

"While you were away there was a disturbance in the dungeons." King James began, breathing deeply as he began the retelling of the evening only two weeks prior.

Emma sat stunned.

Rumpelstiltskin?

She had been told that he had disappeared before she was born, a blessing Emma as well as the other young Princesses and Princes took to heart. They'd all heard the stories of the man who'd tricked, conned and convinced their parents into one malicious deal or another.

Poor Princess Alexandra had never met her father because of Rumpelstiltskin, leaving Queen Cinderella to rule alone by proxy. A fate often times worse than death for someone who'd found true love and lost it before it had ever really began.

Now, Emma was just learning that Rumpelstiltskin was still alive. Alive and kicking! Just three stories below her very feet was he rotting away in a cage she'd never even known existed.

Her parents had been smart about this issue. She, above all the other young royalty loved adventure and danger so much so that she'd thought it wise to go hunting after a dragon on her own at the age of thirteen. She hadn't made it to the lair before her father and his men had her in a back of a carriage sulking the entire way home. She'd always wondered how her parents knew about her planned adventures. She'd learned her lesson after telling Alexandra about one, one to find the Forbidden Fortress.

Alexandra had only done what she'd thought was best and had given up Emma's secret. After that Emma had learned to never speak of her adventures aloud to anyone. Not even her best friend, Ruby or Red as everyone called her, knew about any of her plans after she'd turned fourteen. It seemed that it might not have been friends to give her up every time she went missing. It was plausible that her parents had turned to a man she was…fascinated by.

"Don't even think about it…" Snow White warned. Her voice low as she issued her order to her daughter.

Emma sighed, nodding. Fine, she wouldn't think about going to see Rumpelstiltskin, even if he had asked for her. "Fine…" It didn't mean she had to like not going.

"I mean it Emma. There is a reason he wants to see you, and it isn't to serve your best interests, only his." Only ever his…

Emma could practically hear the fear in her mother's voice, as well as the knowledge. Clear knowledge of just how Rumpelstiltskin worked.

Offering a small smile, Emma put her hand back on her mother's and squeezed it. "I won't go and speak to him." She didn't promise it, because even in her own mind she knew she would go and see him. Just like he wanted her too, and the sad part of it was that Snow White knew it would happen and she could do nothing about it. None of them could. If Rumpelstiltskin wanted to see her, there was a reason and sooner or later she would go to see him, just as he knew she would from the very beginning.

"I say we do what we shoula done twenty years ago," Grumpy began his eyes looking to the people around the round table. "Kill the witch."

"What…?" Snow White gasped. No one denied the idea, everyone just nodded their head.

They couldn't kill the Evil Queen…former Queen.

Snow White felt her breath quicken.

Could they?

"Yes, we were foolish enough once to let her go on with her evil doings and it nearly cost me—us, everything we hold dear. We cannot let her go back to toiling in her magics. Who knows what she is capable of!" James agreed.

"There are plenty of men, capable men with great skill that could kill her."

Emma shot her uncle Grumpy a look of contempt. "Are you saying a woman is incapable of killing her?"

Grumpy rolled his eyes, he'd gotten in one too many bouts of sexism debates with the Princess. She was the only Princess he'd ever met—besides her mother of course—that broke just about all the stereotypical notions on royal women. "I'ma only sayin that there are many hunters who could get the job done."

"Don't you think sending an army of soldiers after her is foolish? From the stories, doesn't she eat men's hearts for breakfast?"

Grumpy's chuckle was deep, "Just stories, exaggerations. Besides, I was talkin' bout sending bounty hunters after the witch, not an army. An army she would destroy easily, but a skilled hunter could take her out before she even knew theys were there. And if you can find me a woman capable, Princess, then bring her here and lets see what she's got."

Emma fell back into her chair, her arms crossed over her chest as she glared at Grumpy from across the round table.

"Put a bounty on her?" Snow White asked, unsure that this was the right route to take. There had to be other ways. "What if, what if she can be convinced to leave? She did it once before? Why can't we just…"

"What? Ask her to leave, nicely?"

Emma snorted as Geppeddo asked what she herself had been thinking. She had never had the bad fortune to meet the Evil Queen, she had apparently escaped this realm before she was born. It seemed odd that she would return now, nearly eighteen years later.

From what she'd read, with all the exaggerations Grumpy knew were told in the tales, this dark witch was not to be toiled with. If any got close enough she alone had the ability to steal your heart—still beating—right out of your chest. She kept them as trophies and often used those poor souls she'd stolen the hearts from as puppets in her evil doings.

Not to mention how she'd worked effortlessly to destroy her mother's happiness and had nearly succeeded. People said that her birth was what had finally scared the Evil Queen from the realm, that there was some prophecy that spoke of the Evil Queen's fall coming at her hands. Emma wondered if those too were just silly hopes from desperate people.

"We can't just send out hunters to take her heart!" Snow White objected, looking to James for assistance. "James, please…"

James looked away from Snow and sighed, he couldn't disprove the need to hunt down the wicked witch. "It's for the best, Snow."

"No, it's not. Do not even think to put my name on this mandate. If you want her head…or heart so badly than you hire the bounty hunters yourself. I will have no part of this." Snow White stood, affronted and stormed out of the room. Her own memories of running through the forest, knowing certain death was upon her, all too fresh even after all these years. She would never damn another woman to go through that fear, even if this woman might deserve it.

James sighed as he watched his wife leave, Emma busy fiddling with her fingers. She wanted to go after her mother and make sure she was alright but was hesitant to leave. Emma wanted to know what the bounty hunters were going to be offered if they actually brought the Evil Queen's head to her father.

"So be it. I'll put the bounty on her head myself. I shall announce her return to the kingdom come morning and pose a reward for bringing her to us alive. Or dead."

-Present-

Looking right and left she tries to summon enough power, enough magic to dissipate, to disappear and reappear in the safety of her castle. Nothing happens. Just like before. She'd tried to summon the power to take herself, her cabby and the carriage and horses with her to her castle at the first sign of the army of bounty hunters.

Nothing happened. At least she'd been able to summon enough power to cast the thorn spell and even the odds a bit. That had at least saved her, somewhat. She'd tried, feebly to do it again now and…again nothing. Some trees lifted their roots or dropped a branch here or there at her wish, but the elden trees of her forest truly did so, on their own accord.

Fighting her rising fear she tried, once again, to summon a great wind to knock the hunter off his feet. Not even a breeze puffed at her. She tried everything she could think of, the smallest to largest spells, uttered the curses, begged in her incantations, and still there was nothing.

Not even a single solitary tingle. Hell, her thumbs didn't even prick!

"Fuck…" She says before pushing forward, taking a right. She hasn't mapped these woods in years! She has no idea where she's going at this point, far too concerned with not ending up on some commoner's mantle.

What an honor that would be for him, she thinks snidely.

The head of the heartless (and now headless) Evil Queen? Upon his lucky wall? He would be the envy of the kingdom. People would come seeking him out, unbelieving that such a man had downed a dark beauty like her. Ha…even in his success he would find people skeptical of his skill.

She however, was not.

She knew of his skill.

She feared it.

It was what drove her onward even now. She stood not a chance against him. She had no blade, no bow, no chance and no courage to try.

Her magics were only slowly beginning to return to her, something she had not expected to happen at all. She never thought to factor in the possibility that she could return to this realm with no magic. Without her magic and without a weapon she had no means to defend herself properly against him. So, she took the cowards route and ran, desperate for escape, for a chance, for life.

Why, why oh why had she decided to return to this realm? The reasons escape her just as quickly as her breath leaves her lungs.

Well, she thought bitterly, she wasn't going to make this easy for him. If he really wanted her head, and her heart, he would need to work for it. She suspected, however, that she was working harder to survive than he was in his attempts to kill her.

Listening intently to her surroundings, she heard her own pants and the crack of twigs and leaves under her own boots, thank god she hadn't worn heels, and the crush of the same material under the footfalls of her tracker. It was the sound of water that stopped her, for only a moment of course. She couldn't afford much more than a single moment.

She feinted to the right, running a good fifty feet before wrapping around a tree with her arm, before pushing off it and running diagonally left. She knew where she was, and she knew now where she could lose this stalker.

Finally, there was a bit of hope in her limping run, and dare she think it, a bit more speed.

End Chapter One

So, what are your thoughts? How'd we do with capturing Rumpelstiltskin's character? Look forward to hearing from you so I can pass the news along to my sister who almost got me to post this story earlier than planned.

Any questions you'd like to ask? If it doesn't ruin the entire story for you I'd be more than willing to answer them through PMs.

I have several chapters finished after this one but will continue to post once a week just in case I find I don't have time to write, you'll still have an update waiting for you that I can just post till I find the time to write more.

Have a great day/afternoon/evening! :-D