Back with new chapters, people! Three of them - hope you don't mind being spammed right away ;) My goal is to finish this story by the end of September so that I can get to work on the sequel right when the next season starts and so far things are looking good. Enjoy the new chapters now!
Spinning.
Spinning.
Spinning.
That was what Zelena had ordered him to do that morning. Gold did not know how many hours he had been at it but the pile of straw had lessened to a quarter of the original amount and the pile of golden strands on the floor somewhat left of him had grown accordingly. It was worth a fortune, even more so if it was cut up in smaller pieces, but he doubted that was Zelena's plan. She wanted it all in one piece.
The Curse was broken, he had felt it just as he believed everyone else had, and he remembered what had happened in the Enchanted Forest. He remembered being resurrected by Baelfire and Belle, the former having been tricked by Zelena and an enchanted candle to use the key to the Dark One's Vault. Without knowing that the price of using this key would be his death. A life for a life. He had already lost his son too many times and thus Gold, or Rumplestiltskin, had absorbed him. It had been painful and, when looking back at it, perhaps a very foolish thing to do, seeing as their minds and wills constantly clashed, making him go mad. During the absorption process Zelena had gotten hold of his dagger and since then he had been her prisoner, a time that was shambled and wrecked in his head due to the madness of two minds.
He remembered the final weeks before the Curse was cast quite clearly as they involved guests at the castle and less of Zelena. Belle had asked him for information about Glinda and Indira had appeared somewhat later, asking about the other prisoners that Zelena kept. He had been able to answer them, but not as clearly as he would have liked. Considering the outcome he believed they had managed to solve his mad riddles.
When the Curse was cast Zelena had been triumphant; Charming had died at the hands of Snow White, she had defeated the Children of Magic and taken some of them prisoner, and now they were going to Storybrooke where she would be the only one able to remember the past year. She had brewed a memory potion for herself and for him. Gold had never managed to drink his share; when Zelena left Baelfire broke free from him and sent the small potion bottle with a dove to Captain Hook, along with a message telling him to get the potion to Emma. As the Saviour was now back in town Gold could only believe that the pirate had succeeded in his mission.
He had started to feel numb a while ago. Not physically, but mentally. He felt sluggish and his mind seemed to be moving much slower than it usually did. Possible plans of escape were not a good idea to think of now, he reasoned, because he was unable to look at them from every angle and see their loopholes. It was easier to go through the past, remembering his own history and skipping minor details that he could not be bothered with now. Every thought of his long life, however, made him number, sadder and madder at Zelena.
The door of the storm cellar squeaked and steps sounded on the stairs leading down to his prison. He did not look up; he was ordered to stay focused on the spinning. However, he did not need to look up because he knew that it was his captor. Any other person in Storybrooke who somehow managed to come here would have reacted differently. Zelena only stood there outside his cage, watching him spin the wheel.
"There", she suddenly said and opened the door to the cage. "That'll do."
He stopped spinning and she bent down, picking up the plate holding the long golden thread.
"You said it yourself", she said as she straightened up. "Spinning clears your mind."
She swept her hand over the golden strands and they transformed into a golden brain. His brain. He did not feel any further pain or numbness, but he believed this was just like when someone ripped out a heart; you were still able to function but not as well as when the organ was inside your body. He was thus able to think, talk and act as normal, but not with the same efficiency and clarity as he had done before. Zelena glanced at him with a triumphant smile.
"Or should I say your brain?"
He did not meet her gaze; instead he looked at her gloved hand that now picked up his enchanted, golden brain and placed it in the box in the corner of the cellar. The box that also held Charming's sword and Regina's heart.
"Now", Zelena said and closed the lid of the box, "there's just one more ingredient to collect."
She smiled at him.
"Come. Before we head into town to welcome the newest member of the family there is one thing you must prepare for me."
He rose and followed her up the stairs. His eyes flickered in the direction of the box as he passed it, but he knew that it was useless; she controlled every one of his actions and if he so much as tried to break free he would lose the little of himself that remained.
It had snowed, he realized as they came up above ground, but the sun had started to warm up the ground again. Only patches of the white flakes remained in the shadows cast by trees and buildings. Zelena did not stop; why should she? She had been above ground this whole time; to her the snow was nothing new. Instead she aimed towards the old barn next to her house. She flung the doors open and handed him a pickaxe.
"Dig", she ordered. "Follow this pattern and make it cover this entire area."
He had no choice but to obey and grabbed the pickaxe, before intently studying the object in her other hand; the one with the pattern. A compass.
He started with the outer circle, digging a chute about eight inches wide. He was sweating when he was done with it, but Zelena would not allow him to have a rest. Instead he continued, creating a chute going from east to west, then another going from north to south. After that he moved back to the first circle he had dug, then stepped about two feet further in and dug another, smaller circle. He also made two chutes in every quarter connecting the outer circle with the second circle.
Finally, he dug a circle surrounding the compass' centre, about two feet out from where the chutes going east-west and north-south met.
"Extend those by two inches", Zelena ordered and pointed at the straight chutes. "They have to move outside the circles."
He did as she ordered, extending each of the four points by two inches outside the outmost circle. Once he was done with a chute he watched as she placed a roughly made stone plate by the extension. He instinctively knew that these plates would hold the ingredients of her spell and that the chutes he had dug would serve as a connection between them, as well as a focus point. He huffed at the complexity of it all.
"You think I'll fail", Zelena said, her voice calm and certain of herself.
"I think destiny", he said and dug out the third extension, "is destiny."
Zelena chuckled and bent down. He realized she had brought the box with the collected ingredients there, quite possibly by magic. If he had not just lost his brain to her he would have noticed. Now she picked up the golden object and walked over to the stone plate placed in the north.
"You're wrong", she said, the amusement clear in her voice. "I can change it."
She placed his brain on the plate while he finished the extension pointing south. He could see her rise and walk back to the box while he moved to work on the extension pointing west.
"And once I fix the past", she said as she knelt down by the box, "my mother will keep me, Regina will never have been born, and I'll get everything she ever had."
She straightened up and flicked her hand in the direction of the newly finished southern extension, causing a stone plate to position itself there while she walked towards it. In her hand she held Regina's glowing heart.
"With the right ingredients", she continued as she placed the object down on the plate, "I can do anything."
"Whether it works or not is irrelevant, dearie", Gold said, his back turned towards her as he finished the western extension. "Because no matter what you change of your past, one thing shall remain the same."
Metal clanked against stone and he knew, without turning around, that she had placed the hilt of Charming's sword on the plate in the east. He finished his work and shook some of his hair out of his face as he glanced back, seeing her smug face.
"Who you are", he finished, gritting his teeth, "and that is a fate you can never escape."
This only seemed to amuse the ginger-haired Witch further, as she chuckled again and walked over to where he was now standing, pulling out her compass for comparison again.
"We shall see", she said. A satisfied smile grazed her lips.
"Perfect."