Chapter Forty-Four—"The King of Loopholes"

Rumplestiltskin collapsed when they appeared in a swirl of dark magic and toxic fairy dust, his body screaming in pain and still trying to shake spastically. Landing hard on his knees, he barely caught himself before he could wind up on his face, staring through blurry eyes at the oddly textured surface he had landed upon. But he was unable to make out any real details; his head was spinning too hard. He and Danns were in the middle of a field, out in the middle of nowhere, and yet there was something here that he could feel deep in his bones. Finally his vision cleared enough for Rumplestiltskin to make out the intricately carved surface he knelt on, the symbols that dredged up half-forgotten memories. The circle Danns had deposited him in the center of was not made of wood or stone; there was nothing natural here. No, this was solidified darkness, digging through leather and making his knees burn.

It would have burned someone like the Blue Fairy, he realized abruptly, and there was apparently enough light—True Love, you fool, his mind snapped woozily—in him to make it hurt. Had she noticed that, or was she too distracted? The Black Fairy also stood on the circle, on the entrance (exit?) to the Vault itself, yet the darkness beneath her feet seemed only to make her stronger. She was at home here the way he once would have been, though the rot inside her soul was cleverly disguised by beauty and grace. Yet Rumplestiltskin's own soul was still too scarred for the outer shell of the Vault to do much damage to him; the burn was uncomfortable, but did not break skin.

Though he had a feeling that it would only grow worse the longer he stayed. If he fought her.

"This is where I created him, you know," Danns told him softly. "Where I finally turned Merlin into the Dark One."

She sounded as sad as she did triumphant, and Rumplestiltskin craned his neck to look up at her, still too dizzy to stand. Every inch of his body hurt, and that wasn't because of the Vault. Whatever she had hit him with back in fae territory lingered longer than usual. He was still breathing hard, and it took a moment to force the question out: "Then why do you sound so regretful?"

The word weren't a taunt, but they didn't have to be. Fury still etched its way into Danns' pale features, and her red hair whipped forward to wildly frame her face as power rose in response to her anger. In this place, darkness seemed almost to take on a life of its own, and power rose up from the Vault to slam into Rumplestiltskin, holding him against the outer shell at the same time. It felt like a freight train slamming into him while he was pinned against a wall, and Rumplestiltskin screamed helplessly, convulsing. Two or three minutes ticked by before Danns seemed able to call the attack off, and he collapsed to his hands and knees, struggling for air. He couldn't hear a thing through the roaring in his ears, the pounding agony in every line of his body, and everything burned.

"I did what had to be done," she snapped when she was sure he could hear her, sounding defensive. "And you have no one but yourself to blame when I do the same to you. I offered you better."

"You offered me servitude of a different flavor," Rumplestiltskin retorted, his voice a scratchy and painful whisper. He spat out blood, watched it slip between several carvings on the Vault. Within moments, the Vault absorbed the blood like it had never even been there. "That's all."

Hazel eyes flashed. "I offered you everything. And you do not deserve it."

Straightening was hard, but Rumplestiltskin managed to get back to his knees, so at least his bare palms were no longer being burned by the vault. The skin there was growing red and puckered, faster than he'd expected, and he balled his hands into fists to try to block some of the pain off with pressure. Tremors were still running through his body as he twisted to look Danns in the eye.

"Sooner or later, you're going to have to learn that not everyone sees the world the way you do," he retorted. "Your definition of everything is not mine, and I will not live on your terms alone."

"You have no choice, Rumplestiltskin. My terms are the only ones you will live by, no matter how hard you fight."

"Would you live by mine?" he demanded, anger lending him the strength to snarl at her.

Danns looked at Rumplestiltskin like he had gone insane—and perhaps he had, taunting her and outright defying the woman who could hurt him so very badly with a mere gesture. All while he was completely helpless. She frowned. "Of course not. It isn't the same."

"Why not?"

Her frown deepened, and Rumplestiltskin got the impression than Danns really didn't understand him at all. But…the last human she had known well had been Merlin. Merlin who had loved her, worshiped her, trusted her, and then hated her in the end. Been destroyed by her. Before that, she and Merlin had fought together, side by side, against all manner of threats—in a world that was very different than the one Rumplestiltskin lived in. And the humans she knew then were very different, he realized abruptly. Danns had been in exile for almost a thousand years, and the world had changed while she was gone. Humans, once mere pawns in the battle between greater powers, had grown up and become the dominant force in the Enchanted Forest. Even Merlin, powerful though he had been, had deferred to Danns in most matters.

Rumplestiltskin would not.

"I am one of the oldest sentient beings in the entirety of creation," Danns finally answered. "You are a child compared to me. Even Merlin was—"

"I'm no Merlin," he cut her off in a growl.

"And such a pity it is," Danns met his anger with her own, her eyes dark and posture rigid. Wind was starting to whip around her again, and Rumplestiltskin could feel her fury goading her magic further and further into darkness. A chill ran down his spine, fear making his chest tight; he knew that she'd not wait long before unleashing power and pain upon him again.

Still, that knowledge was not enough to make him shut his mouth, to keep him from getting one last dig in:

"Don't sound so sorry about it," Rumplestiltskin retorted. "You didn't beat him. Merlin loved you so much that he let you win. It wasn't the pain that broke him, dearie. It was you causing it."

"You know nothing," Danns retorted, but he could hear the hurt in his voice right before a wave of darkness slammed into his back, sending him sprawling against the outer shell of the Vault. Screaming in pain, Rumplestiltskin convulsed wildly, his limbs bouncing uselessly off of the burn-inducing surface under him as darkness ripped through his body. A minute passed, and then five. He'd known that throwing that fact in her face might result in more torture, but he hadn't expected it to last this long—

Finally, she let up, leaving Rumplestiltskin in a shaking heap on the ground, whimpering helplessly. Without even meaning to, he curled into himself, clutching his arms to his shuddering chest and feeling the remnants of the magic still racing through him, making bones ache and muscles twitch uncontrollably. Breathing had gotten difficult again, and Rumplestiltskin's vision was jumping all over the place; the distant forest had blurred into a green and brown tapestry resembling a child's sloppy watercolor painting. Several long moments had to pass before the terrible roaring in his ears calmed down, allowing Rumplestiltskin to focus on Danns once more.

Laboriously, he pulled himself back up to his knees, refusing to just lie there and suffer for her. She looked so conflicted that he felt another unexpected flash of pity for her, but it withered under the remaining influence of the pain he was still in. He still couldn't reach his magic—even if he had pulled still more power from that last bout of torture, and was mere inches away from having enough—but he could strike at her in other ways.

"I know that Merlin tied his power to the curse, not you," he panted, his voice growing dangerously quiet as he recovered. "And that's why you have to put it back in me. Someone else won't do, will they? Because if you do that, you have no guarantee that the demon's power will be enough."

Danns' face remained stony, implacable, but Rumplestiltskin still knew he was correct.

"Soon enough, your knowledge will do you no good," she replied instead. Immediately, he felt power gathering, felt her reaching for the dagger yet again, using the power inherent in the Vault itself to draw the curse to her. Thiswas where the Dark One had been born. This was the source of the curse even more than the kris dagger, this was the place where she intended to break him. "As you say, you are no Merlin. You are the same man who shattered before. You will give in to me, and I will take however long I must."

Fear made his chest tighten still further; he knew she was not bluffing. Thirty years meant nothing to her. Longer would be the same.

"Ah, but you hardly saw me at my best," Rumplestiltskin forced himself to say as casually as he could, his tone still soft but now with a slight sing-songy cadence. "I thought I had no magic then. I thought I had no way to fight you, but I was wrong."

Danns laughed, and as she did so, the disk beneath the pair of them started to rotate, slowly drilling its way down into the ground, and taking them towards the lower levels of the Vault. Vague memories of experiences he had never had told Rumplestiltskin that there was a chamber just beneath the surface, one where Danns had kept Merlin for the last decade of the three she had held him, where she had utterly destroyed him and shaped a sorcerer into her slave. She meant to do the same to him there, and despite his anger, his heart started beating faster and faster in terror.

Do the brave thing and bravery will follow, Belle's voice said inside his head, and he swallowed hard. She had always been so much stronger than he—what if he gave in before he could escape? He had his loophole, but…

"Ah, but you cannot fight me," the Black Fairy purred, back on balance after his earlier blows. Smiling, she stepped forward to grab Rumplestiltskin by the wrist, her fingers brushing against the bronze band digging into his skin. "These ensure you cannot."

But her touch held power. Danns' a'Bhàis was an original power, and she was magic. Quickly, too rapidly for her to react, Rumplestiltskin grabbed that power and drew it towards him, sucking magic in dizzyingly fast. It merged badly with the light magic his thoughts of Belle had conjured up, but fae magic ripped through him all the same, filling his senses and allowing Rumplestiltskin to reach.

He met her eyes.

"Never assume that I can't fight you, dearie," Rumplestiltskin told her with a smile, and vanished.

Once, she'd embraced evil so fully that Maleficent thought nothing in the world could be better. It was the best kind of high, hurting innocents, particularly when she'd once been forced to be a stilted, trapped, do gooder who served others above herself and only was allowed to do so according to the rules that Blue put down. Darkness, and the power it brought with it, was addictive, and there had been a time when she had told herself, again and again, that it was enough. Eventually, she had come to understand that she was lonely, but by then she'd gained herself a pet, a shape shifting unicorn (or crow, depending upon her and his mood) who at could at least fill some of the emptiness in her soul. She'd taken lovers, too, and advised Regina to do the same, to fill the empty corridors of her castle with something, at least. Doing so had not made Maleficent happy any more than it would have Regina, of course, but it had been enough.

Now, however, she found herself craving more. Oh, she didn't really care about the measly little humans she trapped and destroyed. They were nothing. She didcare, a little, about the young (budding) sorcerer she had rescued when the fae had gone culling in Argrabah; Maleficent had claimed him as her own lover, although she had no intention of forcing anything upon the young man, including herself. No, she wanted the young thief as a student, not as a toy, though there was no reason to let Nuckelavee know that. Jhudora had tried to claim Aladdin for herself, citing her many years serving the Black Fairy and her greater age, but Maleficent had sidestepped the issue as best she could until Danns' a'Bhàis returned.

Jhudora had been confident that her longtime mistress would side with her, but when the Black Fairy arrived home in a towering fury, Jhudora made the mistake of bringing the issue up right away. Speaking for herself, Maleficent was more than content to avoid the silver and black tornado that surrounded the fae queen; approaching Danns' a'Bhàis at this time seemed suicidal at best. Jhudora was too senior and too loyal for the Black Fairy to purposefully harm her, but the magic burning off of her did the job without being bid to do so, and Jhudora flung herself aside hurriedly. Had her reflexes been any less quick, Jhudora might have been badly burned; as it was, she was only singed a little.

"I think that means you've won," Vidia turned to say softly to Maleficent, her purple eyes following the Black Fairy as she disappeared into her own chambers, still obviously seething.

"I think that means she lost," Maleficent replied just as quietly, contemplatively. They all knew that Danns' a'Bhàis had left with Rumplestiltskin and intended to recreate the curse of the Dark One within him, but she had returned alone. Wasn't that interesting?

I could have told you how tricky he is, but you never asked, she thought to herself behind a blasé expression. Maleficent may not have been as old as some of the fae, but she had lived in the world while they had chosen exile to follow their queen. Maleficent had seen enough Dark Ones to know that Rumplestiltskin was not like the others. He had always been more clever, always prone to going off in unexpected directions. But none of them had cared to ask for her experience, even though they had (more or less) accepted her as one of their own. Oh, she had to weather obnoxious comments from "senior" fae like Jhudora, but Maleficent gave as good as she got.

The fae's so called-family might have been a little more back-biting than that of the fairies she'd grown up with, but the plain 'fairies' would have been rather put out to know that they weren't much better behaved than their darker cousins. All in all, Maleficent rather felt like she'd come home after centuries away, and wasn't that ironic?

"She'll come up with a solution," Vidia said with a shrug, breaking into Maleficent's thoughts quite neatly. "She always does."

"Even if it takes a millennia or so?" Maleficent asked, thinking of how long the Black Fairy had been exiled for, thinking of the victory that the Blue Fairy thought she had won. But the Black Fairy had played a longer game than even Maleficent would have thought could succeed, even given all the centuries she had lived.

"Exactly."

Looking at her friend—because yes, damn it all and the dangers involved, Vidia had become her friend—Maleficent let out a cautious breath. The world was changing. She had lived long enough to know that what faced them now was unlike anything the Enchanted Forest had ever experienced. The world was changing. She only wished she knew where this was going. Or what she could do.

"So…what now?" she said instead of revealing her inner thoughts.

Vidia shrugged. "We wait. Sooner or later, she'll own the Dark One, and then it will be time to make our move."

"And what if she doesn't get him?" Maleficent had been burning to ask that question ever since Vidia had told her what the Black Fairy's plan was, and now she finally let herself add: "I have known Rumplestiltskin for years—and many Dark Ones before him. He's not typical."

"That hardly matters," Vidia replied.

"I think it might…" Habit made her smile mysteriously, thinking of all the ways that Rumplestiltskin wasn't what these people thought he was. Oh, he was far from Maleficent's favorite person, and they'd battled more than once in the past, but she agreed with what he was trying to do. She'd rebelled against Blue because Blue wanted to dictate to Maleficent—and many others—how she should live her life. Oddly enough, Rumplestiltskin offered freedom, freedom to make choices, something neither fairy wanted to allow for anyone except their closest followers. Rumplestiltskin refused to be owned every bit as much as Maleficent did, and in this, at least, that made them allies.

"Why?"

Now it was Maleficent's turn to shrug. She couldn't give too much away, after all. Though saying too little could very well ruin her cover. "He's clever, Vidia," Maleficent answered honestly. "More clever than most everyone in here."

She gestured airily at the fae's homeland, at the carefully magic'd and well-concealed area that the Blue Fairy had once exiled her sister to. Now the Black Fairy utterly controlled this area, and the fae had decided to call it home despite the way they'd originally acquired it. Her companion frowned thoughtfully.

"How well do you know him?"

"Better than some. Less than others. He taught my best friend magic, and we've…battled on and off over the years, mostly as friendly enemies," she admitted.

"Your…friend?" Vidia echoed, looking a little worried.

Maleficent smiled, and her friend (and lover) looked relieved when she said: "Nothing like us. Just…the sorceress that our lady tried very hard to kill until Blue arrived."

"Queen Regina?" the female fae asked, clearly shocked.

"Don't sound so surprised, dear," she purred. "I was exiled for centuries, and not with my own kind as you all chose to be here. So, I fully embraced the 'evil sorceress' role. Regina was my only friend for a very long time."

"She's fighting with our enemies now."

"It depends on who you define the enemy as," Maleficent said with a diffident shrug. "She hates Blue as much as we do, but Regina's not the kind of human you can turn into a slave, either." The very thought made her laugh. "She'd eat the lot of you alive."

"Not our lady."

Coldness crept in to drown her good humor. "No," she said darkly. "Not our lady."

Rumplestiltskin landed hard, but he landed exactly where he wanted to be: in the great hall of the Dark Castle. He was home—home and collapsing, flailing and trying to catch himself, only managing to knock over a nearby pedestal and sending it (and the golden fleece) crashing down to the floor. He followed less than a second later, bouncing hard off the pedestal and hitting his shoulder hard on the marble floor. Unable to stop himself, Rumplestiltskin cried out in pain, rolling to his side and gasping for air. His cracked—or broken; he still couldn't tell—ribs were throbbing and breathing was hard. Everything still hurt, and stealing Danns' magic seemed only to make things worse. The bands on his wrists, ankles, and neck were burning hot. Was it his imagination, or had they tightened once he'd managed to use magic and not just store it?

Moaning softly, Rumplestiltskin managed to shove the fleece off of himself—somehow he'd wound up under it—and struggle to his knees. He wasn't sure if he could stand at the moment, but at least he was here. He'd escaped, and he was certain that his wards would keep Danns out of his castle. For now.

Vision still fuzzy, he looked down at his right wrist. His left arm was locked around his midsection; instinct had guided it there and kept him clinging to himself in hopes that it could somehow make the pain fade. But he could see the band on his right wrist, could see it digging into skin and starting to make him bleed. Tighter, he thought dizzily. Definitely tighter. He had to get the damn bands off. He had to get them off soon, or he might not be able to get them off at all. But transporting himself to the Dark Castle had taken more of the magical reserves he'd gathered than Rumplestiltskin had expected. How far away was the Vault? Or was it just that bypassing the bands took so much power? Maybe it was the presence of so much dark fairy magic at the Vault. He didn't know.

Letting his eyes slide shut, Rumplestiltskin drew on the last of those reserves, the last of the power he'd stolen from Danns. Finding it not enough, he stretched his awareness out further, aiming for the reserves of power he'd long ago stored within the Dark Castle, both intentionally and accidentally. But those were his magic, or at least shaped by it, and too late Rumplestiltskin realized that he couldn't touch those reserves any more than he could summon his own power. The bands tightened again as he fought their hold desperately, looking for a thread he could pull, for a weakness to exploit. But either there were none or he could not summon sufficient power, because dark magic stabbed viciously into his system, finally making Rumplestiltskin throw his head back and scream.

Think. He had to think.

Tink's magic had gotten them off last time. Fairy magic? If that was what he needed, Rumplestiltskin still owned a vast collection of wands. He'd never thought about it, but he might even still have Danns' wand somewhere around here. It had last been in the shop before Regina's reversal of the curse brought everything back here, and most things that had been in his shop had returned to the Dark Castle. Rumplestiltskin knew enough to know that Danns didn't care too much about using a wand except under very particular circumstances, but it was still the right fairy magic and might be what he needed—if only he could gather the strength to walk across the great hall and check the cabinet against the wall.

Not having discovered if Danns' wand had come through with Regina's reversal of the curse was an oversight that he should not have allowed himself to make. Why had he not looked before he'd let something like this happen? If he didn't have Danns' wand, would another fairy wand do the trick? Rumplestiltskin had collected at least a dozen over the centuries, probably more; he'd stopped counting decades earlier. One of them would have to work—besides, that wouldn't be his magic, which meant he could manipulate it. If he could get to a wand.

Walking was not going to be fun. Neither was getting up, because he wasn't sure he could manage that at all. The bands were so tight that Rumplestiltskin was starting to lose feeling in his hands, and breathing was becoming tricky.

"Grandpa?" a familiar voice suddenly asked, and Rumplestiltskin's head whipped to the left so fast that he almost collapsed.

A/N: Stay tuned for Chapter 45: "Trust and Family", in which Rumplestiltskin gets help from an unexpected source.

Thank you again to everyone who is still reading! My questions to you this time 1) Who do you think will help Rumplestiltskin and 2) If I tell you there will be two marriages by the end of this story, who do you think the second one will be?