Chapter 18: The Ring's True Purpose
Rumplestiltskin sat on a large rock in the underground cell, watching Jennifer plow with all her might at the wooden-like bars. With all her vampire strength and fury, she couldn't penetrate it. But it wasn't for her lack of trying. They might as well had been cemented blocks covered in titanium. Rumplestiltskin leaned his back against the wall—or what could be described as a wall—and sighed deeply. He could have stopped her ten minutes ago...hell, he could have told her to stop 4 hours ago, but Jennifer's anger wasn't completely directed to being imprisoned. In fact, being stuck in a room with him 24/7 with nothing to occupy themselves but each other was practically her fantasy; and while she was more than happy to know she'd be with him for what might seem the end of the world, Rumplestiltskin knew just what matter fueled her rage and ailed her heart.
The loss of Lydia had taken its toll on her. And while Rumplestiltskin was also unhappy for the loss of what could have been his lovely daughter, he also knew that a child would distract them from finding Baelfire. A child would only have become yet another weakness and he already possessed two, too many. The dagger. And Jennifer.
"Will you stop?"
Rumplestiltskin and Jennifer's eyes both turned to the guard as he approached the cell, looking tiredly at her.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Jennifer responded bitterly. "What the fuck are you truly bitching about, guard—or what are you really? A simple peasant walking around, holding a torch, wearing armor...if you call that armor."
The guard stared at her, probably having to absorb all those insults at a time.
"You're just making a lot of sounds," the guard told her in deep voice. "It's really distracting."
"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry," Jennifer replied sarcastically. "Did I distract you from your do-nothing life? I'm so sorry...please, don't mind me. Go on."
The guard stared at her still.
"You keep staring at me, you're going to find yourself with two less eyes," Jennifer threatened, wrapping her fingers around the bars.
"Okay, back up!" The guard snapped.
"You back up!" Jennifer snarled.
"Will you just stop talking for once?"
"You stop talking for once," Jennifer retorted.
"Oh my gods...I can't believe they put me in charge."
"Now you're preaching to the choir," Jennifer told him loudly as the guard cursed under his breath.
Knowing a battle when he's lost one, the guard looked at her with the shaking of his head, rolled his eyes, and then turned around to walk away. Jennifer watched him leave, and turned to see Rumplestiltskin gazing at her with a great amount of amusement.
"Do you feel better, Dear?" Rumplestiltskin asked calmly.
Jennifer shook her head, crossing her arms.
"The shock of it will eventually pass," Rumplestiltskin reassured her.
"Being stuck underground is not what's making me mad," Jennifer uttered darkly, starting to pace back and forth.
"It's the child's death," Rumplestiltskin told her knowingly.
Jennifer looked at him incredulously, saying, "How can you say it so casually?"
"It happens," said Rumplestiltskin, leaning forward. "It wasn't your fault—"
"—I reacted stupidly, though." Jennifer cut him off. "I shouldn't have tried to take on Charming or Snow White or that...that little munchkin..."
"Dwarf," Rumplestiltskin corrected.
"Whatever," Jennifer muttered, waving her hand. "I knew I wasn't in the right form to fight, but when they put you in that cage...when I saw what they did..." She put her hands on the bars again, looking out into the tunnel and seeing nothing for what she was searching.
"You reacted," Rumplestiltskin said, standing to his feet, "in the same way any mother-to-be would have reacted."
She felt his hands hold her arms, and he turned her so she looked at him. Jennifer always expected to see something of disappointment but inside his eyes loomed the reflected pools of empathy and understanding.
"I can understand more than anyone else why you chose to fight," Rumplestiltskin whispered gently. "You didn't want our child growing up without knowing her father..." He touched her belly which had healed as expected through magic but there would always be a faint scar from where the stake had made its mark.
"But we could have had what we wanted." Jennifer whispered. "We could have had everything."
"We will have everything," Rumplestiltskin told her.
"In this land without magic, how can I bear another child, Rumple?"
"How were you able to do it before?" Rumplestiltskin returned.
Jennifer shrugged, saying, "I don't know. I just remember wishing so hard for our own child. I will be more than happy—deliriously enchanted, even—when we finally find Baelfire. But Rumple, we still have missed out on so much, darling. We missed Bae finding a girlfriend. We missed him getting married—if he is married—and I just wanted so much for this one. And Snow White...She...she."
Rumplestiltskin pulled Jennifer to him when she began to breathe a lot deeper than usual and he had seen the familiar glint of yellow inside her eyes. When he embraced her, she slowly began to calm again.
"The ring I gave you," Rumplestiltskin said, taking her left hand in his, revealing the dark band with the swirling red pixie dust inside, "is more than just a gift for you to walk in the sunlight, dearie."
"But you said..."
"All the things I said are true," Rumplestiltskin reassured. "By wearing this, you hold a part of me very close to your heart—figuratively speaking, and very literally."
Jennifer stared at him with disbelief.
"I'm the Dark One," Rumplestiltskin said, holding up his hands to indicate himself proudly. "I can do just about anything, even putting a little of my dark magic inside my beautiful wife who wants nothing more than to make my happy endings hers as well. I wasn't just being poetic when I told you that you have become a part of me, Love."
"But it's only a ring," Jennifer told him, looking at her wedding band.
"Oh, it's so much more than that."
"How so?"
"While you've been wearing it, you have been sharing about 1/8 of my power. You share something with me that the power reacts to."
"And that is?"
"Darkness, well...and love. Those two things mix, things get a little crazy" Rumplestiltskin said. " And the power I invested in that ring on your finger has become more than just a simple decoration or an easement for you to walk about in the sunlight; it has defied every law to which vampires have, for centuries, been bound. You can't take a simple thing like that and expect the Laws of Nature not to fight back. ""
""So you gave me a wedding ring that has been giving me an eighth of the Dark One's power, enabling me to do what no vampire has ever done, making me more powerful than I am technically allowed to be?" Jennifer questioned pointedly.
"Long story, short, yes."
"So, how does that work with the Dagger business?"
"You're not the Dark One, so you cannot be controlled by the dagger," Rumplestiltskin told her.
"Well, that's a relief."
"But I also designed it that way," Rumplestiltskin stated.
"What do you mean?"
"Let's see if I can put it to you in a form you can understand." He paused a moment despite Jennifer's unblinking gaze. "Have you noticed how easily you respond to me? How you calm down when I simply touch you."
"I've noticed," Jennifer returned, nodding "And I have also noticed that the longer I am around you, I feel stronger, faster, and more powerful. Does that have something to do with this ring?"
"In a matter of speaking," Rumplestiltskin returned.
"Well, that's good, isn't it?"
"With the good," Rumplestiltskin told her gently, "You must accept the bad."
"And that is?"
"Well, here's a hint: You've been doing what I ask a great deal more than what you've done many years ago."
"Hold on a second..." Jennifer uttered quietly. "Wait..a...second..."
Rumplestiltskin folded his hands in front of him as she came to the realization.
"I'm not controlled by the dagger," Jennifer whispered darkly. "Because I'm controlled by you."
Rumplestiltskin held his arms in response to her revelation.
"Unfortunately," Rumplestiltskin said softly, "That is the price one pays when a vampire wishes to walk in the sun by day, and be as powerful as the Dark One."
"That's fucking ridiculous," Jennifer uttered coldly. "I never asked to become as powerful as you, Rumple."
"Fair enough—you didn't have to ask; but I simply needed you to be." Rumplestiltskin responded smoothly.
"WHY?" Jennifer shouted suddenly.
Rumplestiltskin smiled at her.
"You mean a great deal to me, Jennifer. Despite everything that has ever happened between us," Rumplestiltskin said lightly, "You have always come back. Love and loyalty in this world—and most likely the next—is extremely hard to come by, dearie. I needed you to be just as powerful as me because I want nothing to happen to you. And should this next land be different, I wanted to be absolutely sure we would not be separated. The wedding ring you wear has connected you to me...permanently. The price is subservience."
Jennifer stared incredulously at him, but she seemed to allow him to explain before went off.
He continued, bearing his soul.
"I may have to be tied to the dagger and run into the chance of someone forcing me to do their dirty work, but I will never allow them to control you. You have become my weakness, Jennifer. And as much as I hate to admit it...aloud...I need you with me, always. This Curse will rip away everyone's happiness, give everyone false memories of one another. Even in a cursed world, I forbid you to even falsely remember being with anyone else besides me. I want no one else to have you, and I will not allow this Curse to remove your memories of me—us. This was the only way to do it. ." Rumplestiltskin said.
Jennifer continued to stare at him as though she had been betrayed several times over. Being unknowingly forced to become a servant under the man she loved had never been in the cards for her. She turned from him, looking at the wedding band with uncertainty. She could try to take it off, but...
Jennifer couldn't find the means to do so.
Jennifer saw Rumplestiltskin searching her eyes. It wasn't the Dark One to whom she spoke. It was the boy whose father had abandoned him. It was the man who had crawled back home to hear his wife call him a coward and hold a bitter taste in her mouth whenever she said his name. It was Rumplestiltskin, who had tried to get his wife back from the pirates and had to go home and tell his son that his mother had been kidnapped and was likely dead. And, Jennifer knew, it was the man who had taken the power of the last Dark One in order to be brave enough to protect his son from further harm. And despite all of this, Jennifer had been his one true ally.
Jennifer finally spoke.
"You placed Dark Magic inside me so I can have a child I desperately wanted, to walk in the sun that I thought I would never see again, and so you can be sure that no one—not even the one who commands you, not even the Curse of all Curses—can ever take me away from you. And..." She whispered, "You did all this without my consent. Without my approval."
Rumplestiltskin watched her carefully.
Jennifer suddenly smiled.
"I love you for it." she said.
"You've accepted this all rather...quickly." Rumplestiltskin said, watching her turn to the bars and start whacking away at them with her foot.
"Well, how I see it." Jennifer said, looking at him. "You love me so much that you can hardly bear the thought of someone turning me from you—to rip me away from you. The idea of me seeing you and not remembering you is a fate worse than death. And that's the most romantic thing you have ever done for me, Rumple. Personally, I think this evens the grounds because I.." she put her arms around his neck "Feel the exact same way about you."
Rumplestiltskin smiled at her.
Jennifer uttered offhandedly,"Although, I'm starting to wonder if our jealousy is getting the best of us. Dark Magic, subservience."
"Riddle in this, riddle in that," Rumplestiltskin returned, chuckling. "Does it really matter?"
"Nah." Jennifer said, shaking her head. "This entire realm can burn from the ground and up. As long as I am with you, my love, I don't give a damn."
Rumplestiltskin kissed her lightly on the lips; she parted them so he deepened the kiss.
"I love you, Jennifer."
"And I love you too, Rumples."