Chapter Eighteen

The winds were howling outside now, a storm so suddenly upon them that magic was the only possible excuse. A dark cloud had descended over Storybrooke and Emma could feel the chill wrap around her, working its way into her very being. She glanced over to Regina, Maleficent, and Gold, finding their expression solemn and ready for whatever came their way.

A sharp tapping sound came from the back office, like a bird hammering away at the window on the door, and Maleficent disappeared into the back for a moment, returning with a black bird perched on her forearm. She cooed lovingly at it before magic swirled and Diaval stood tall and proud in the center of the pawn shop. "The last two battles have severely hurt their numbers," the shapeshifter said. "To our nine I only show fifteen of his clerics and their master." He turned coal-black eyes on Gold. "I do not envy you, Dark One. He's howling for your blood."

"Everyone needs to learn a bit of disappointment now and again," the shop owner said with a shrug. "I'm happy to teach him. Emma, are you ready for this?"

She glanced to Neal who stood by her side and to her father who stood at the opposite shoulder. This was it. She had trained before she left and she had trained to defeat Zelena, but in the past months she'd done nothing without access to her magic. Now that it had been freed up she could feel it burning inside of her, ready to leap to her command. The lack of training didn't seem to matter as much with the drive that she found within herself. "To protect my family? Yes."

A smirk tilted his lips. "Good girl."

"It seemed to work well going after the clerics first and then hitting their leader," Regina said, but her eyes were on Gold. "Can you handle Magnus until then?"

"Dearie, you better hope I can handle him with or without you, because they'll give you hell out there. Magnus is all mine."

"You're not in this alone," David reminded him firmly. "We'll take out the clerics, but if you haven't had the chance to cast the spell by then, you may need a distraction."

Gold's lips thinned out, but the expression that he wore said that he was having trouble finding a way to disagree. Instead he nodded. "Don't get yourselves killed."

Belle tipped up on her toes and pressed a kiss against his cheek. "Don't you get hurt either."

"Well, let's not keep this bastard waiting any longer," Emma broke through, motioning towards the door. "He'll rip the whole street apart from the sounds of it."

She started to move forward with everyone else, but Hook caught her arm. She winced, not because of the hold, but because she hadn't known how to tell him what he already knew. She had made her choice, but he was still willing to risk his life. "Be careful, Swan."

"You too," she managed, and as he moved past her she couldn't quite crush the feeling that the words had been meant as his own goodbye.

Even as she watched him she felt a hand take hold of hers and she saw Neal at her side. He offered her a small, encouraging smile. "We're going to win this," he told her.

"I know. We have to."

They stepped out together and Emma felt her magic come to her call. It swirled inside of her and built as she took in the storm that was raging outside. It reminded her of when the wraith had been summoned to Storybrooke and how the destruction could have torn apart the little town. She felt Neal squeeze her hand and her gaze fell on the clerics. They stood in a line, but parted, giving way for their leader.

Magnus stepped forward and she'd never felt so much power radiating from one person before. She couldn't imagine that one person could hold it without it splitting them open. If it was causing him a problem, though, he didn't show it. Instead he looked on with his sightless eyes and a terrible smile pulled at his features. In that moment Emma knew that he cared little for the losses he had suffered, but only for his goal that he was so determined to reach. There was no bargaining with a madman.

It was an impressive display of power like few that Bae had ever seen before. He risked a glance back at his papa and saw a careful mask that he had slipped into place, hiding his own assessment behind it. Belle stood by his side, head held high and the picture of strength. He'd told her once that she made him stronger, and his son knew it was true. He'd never have predicted it, but they had found each other, and she had saved his soul. Blue, for all of her less than honest motives, had once told him that it was his papa's love for him that let him hold onto a sliver of his humanity. It was Belle, though, that gave him the strength to be a better man, and for that Baelfire was eternally grateful.

The winds picked up around them and the line of clerics rushed forward, meeting them in the middle. His papa had enchanted his blade and he deflected a burst of magic, snapping it back at his enemy. His movements were quick, born of centuries of fighting for his life in Neverland. One of the clerics - he recognized him from his time with them, but had never gotten a name - met him with a blade of his own. The steel clashed and he leaned forward. "If your father had taught you magic, perhaps you would have had a fighting chance."

"Go ahead and underestimate me," Bae growled, sidestepping and the cleric nearly lost his balance. He slammed the hilt of his cutlass against the back of his head, sending him to his knees. He dodged the flung magic and met him as he stood, slamming steel against steel in attack and parries. He caught an opening and struck, his blade catching his opponent and downing him.

"Bae!"

He spun, the warning what he needed to catch the magical attack and send it flying back at the cleric that had been aiming at him. Dark eyes flickered to Hook and he nodded his thanks, but the pirate's attention was taken away from his own battle. Bae jumped forward, but not fast enough as a blast of magic hit Killian square in the chest, sending him slamming back, skidding and rolling until he finally came to rest face down on the street.

"Killian!" Emma shouted and Bae had to make a grab for her before another burst of energy landed her in the same heap. There was nothing more that they could do for him where they stood currently and they were closing in fast.

"Feels like a lot more than fifteen," she growled as they came back to back.

"Doesn't mean more aren't crawling out of the woodworks."

"You think your dad is going to be able to do it?"

"My dad doesn't lose," Bae answered with a tight smile. He glanced over to where David had just taken down another cleric and the smile didn't fade. "And neither does yours."

"Guess I should have more faith, huh? Stay close."

He didn't move as he felt magic swirl around them. It built to the point that he could see the swirls of white, gold, and pale blues twirling and dancing. The light magic wrapped around them like a protective shield, and as several of the clerics rushed them Emma let loose and colours exploded outward, washing over their attackers and taking them to the ground. Bae took a quick count and saw six men laid out. "Wow," he breathed. "That was amazing."

"Thanks."

"And look at that. You got the bad guys," he teased.

"Yeah, I guess I did. Now let's make sure one idiot pirate didn't go and get himself killed trying to be a hero."

Baby Neal was crying and Grandma Snow was rocking him as best as she could. The poor little guy could probably feel the tension that weighed down on the diner. There were no patrons, as people had been advised to remain in their homes. Surprisingly enough they seemed to be listening for now, but as soon as sparks started to fly they'd start to inch out to look.

"I'm scared, Henry," Roland said as he tugged on the older boy's sleeve.

Henry offered him a smile. "There's no reason to be scared. Good guys always win. They'll be okay."

"Wish I had your faith, kid," Leroy - armed with his axe - groused as he leaned back against the bar. He, Granny, Ruby, and Grandma Snow were there with the three boys, though he and Ruby were on standby to handle any citizens that got too curious.

Ruby and Grandma Snow shot h a look. "Henry is exactly right," Grandma Snow told him. "Heroes always win."

The dwarf shrugged. "Just sayin' the lines are kind of blurred this time around, what with adding Rumplestiltskin and Maleficent to the battle against clerics. That's kind of like going to war against fairies if you ask me."

"It's nothing like going to war against fairies," Grandma Snow huffed. "These people attacked us. They used David to try to murder Rumplestiltskin."

"Yeah, but all I'm saying is he ain't a saint, sister. Maybe we shouldn't have put the whole town in danger just to save him."

"Henry?"

The teen blinked, Roland's voice pulling him out of his fuming state he'd nearly lost himself to and tugging all attentions over to him. "He saved us once. It's our turn."

Grandma Snow beamed at him and Ruby moved to the window. "Guys, look at this."

Henry inched forward with Roland clutching his hand fearfully. The sky was alight with sparking colours of magic that highlighted a dangerous and dark storm cloud over the pawn shop.

Ruby looked back, brown eyes serious. "It's begun."

David learned long ago how to fight an opponent with a different skill set than he had. He'd fought men with swords, arrows, and magic of all types. It came down to knowing how to approach them and how to use his own skills against their weaknesses. The clerics were no different in that respect, but they were different than anything he'd come across in quite some time.

Magic swirled around him, pulling him up in the air and his sword was worthless against it. It tightened around him, cutting off his air and he felt the weight begin to crush on on him. The harder he struggled, the more it hurt, and he felt it prying his limbs outward, opening him up to a more violent blow.

Without warning it released, dropping him to the ground hard and two of the clerics that had been on the attack fell dead. "Need some help, handsome?"

David looked over, finding Maleficent standing with her hand outstretched and that unnerving smile of hers plastered across her painted lips. She reached up, her shape shifting bird lighting on her arm and she seemed to listen for a moment.

"Thanks," he tried, not able to linger until she was done as another blow fell close and he barely caught it with his blade and redirected it. There were more than they'd previously anticipated, but he thought that there were more than had originally shown. One glance over showed Rumplestiltskin standing against Magnus as if they were the only two sorcerers in all the worlds. Something inside of him told David that when they came to actual blows, he and the rest of them needed to be out of the way.

Then it happened. Power leapt up from them and clashed, sparking and lighting the street on fire. One stray arc pushed straight through a cleric's chest, dropping him without delay. There was no way to tell which sorcerer it had come from and he found himself standing unprotected in the middle of the street.

Another arc struck out and he rolled out of the way, landing hard on the asphalt.

"Dad!" Emma's voice sounded and magic swept him clumsily up, pushing him out of the way before a chunk of the street exploded upward where he'd been.

David landed at Neal's feet and he helped him up. "Stay close," he advised and the prince's blue eyes widened. Emma, Regina, and Maleficent all stood with their hands outstretched and a dome of magic that he could see wove in and around each other in shades of dark, light, and somewhere in between.

Belle reached forward, grabbing David's attention. "It's up to Rumple now."

In his centuries as the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin had seen many different kinds of sorcerers. Some claimed to use light magic, others dark, but rarely did they admit the truth: that most magics tended to reside somewhere in between. They might call it light magic and dark magic, but rarely was it as simply as that. Even he had been known to use magic that tended towards the lighter end of the scale from time to time for healing and the sort, but it took someone like him - someone filled with the darkest of curses - to be able to reach into utter darkness and use the magic found there. Few humans could wield pure light magic. Oh, they could do as Regina had done and summon up a bit of bright magic that tended towards the lighter end, but it was never pure, just as humans were not. There was always something to tug a soul down, even in the best of people, so when someone claimed to use pure light magic, Rumplestiltskin found himself very skeptical. Especially when said person was willing to sacrifice anything in his path to wipe out his enemy.

Even so, few human beings could even harness the kind of power - no matter if they called it light, dark, or anywhere in between - that Magnus was wielding that day, and had he not been waiting for the best opportunity to strike Rumplestiltskin dead, the Dark One might have been impressed. Magic twisted through the air, sparking and crying out for release. The cleric had it pent up dangerously, ready to loose it on his enemy in a way that few sorcerers that claimed to use light magic would have been comfortable with. The clouds had turned dark overhead and a cold was seeping in like a storm.

Dark brown eyes focused in on milky white ones and quietly, Rumplestiltskin started weaving the spell he'd come to cast. Everything had to be set just right and couldn't be hurried, lest the whole thing fall down around him. There was a price to it, just as there was with any spell, but he was certain that he could make sure that Magnus paid it. He'd have to be clever. Very, very clever.

"This world's magic is born of light and it holds no place for someone like you . You've chosen the wrong place to oppose me, Dark One," Magnus rumbled, his voice amplified by the power he was pulling on. Rumplestiltskin hadn't been fool enough to think he would miss the core of Storybrooke's magic, but he'd hoped that he wouldn't be able to manipulate it quite so well. It left the dark sorcerer at more of a disadvantage than he would have liked, but not for long. He had always been good at finding the loopholes.

"I believe it's quite the other way around," Rumplestiltskin answered evenly, threads of magic weaving silently into place. "Three hundred years I lived as the Dark One in the Enchanted Forest and not once did you approach me. Why now? Because you believe me to be weak in this Land Without Magic?"

"And what is three hundred years to my lifespan?" the cleric countered.

That, strangely enough, caught Rumplestiltskin's attention. One of the reasons that he was considered one of the most powerful sorcerers in the Enchanted Forest was because of his age, and the knowledge that he'd gathered through those many, many years. He'd learned to do things that no mortal would have had the time in that life to do, but as he stood and watched Magnus, he wondered if perhaps he'd miscalculated just as all of those petty sorcerers that had come to his castle over the centuries had. They'd thought they could defeat the Dark One and create a name for themselves, but they'd been nothing next to his power. For the first time in over three centuries, Rumplestiltskin felt small.

Magnus must have sensed the brief flicker of doubt, because magic leapt outward, sharp and electrifying like lightning. Rumplestiltskin saw it and teleported, landing just a few feet away. The electricity hit the street where he'd been standing and jumped upward, sparking outward in brilliant colours and jumping at his family and those that he'd aligned himself with. At least Emma, Regina, and Maleficent seemed to be doing their jobs, as they were forming up a powerful shield, pulling the others under its protection. His family was safe and Rumplestiltskin could focus, and he needed all the focus he had to fight a the battle in front of him while weaving the trap in the background.

Dark magic leapt from his hands, pulled from the fury that was his curse. It bit and snapped, winding in and around Magnus' lighting and swept upward with it, climbing until a hidden trap within the spell kicked into play and swallowed the lightning up. The magics exploded overhead, but their casters were both leaping into action below, the shards of light and dark magic - or so onlookers would say - raining down around them. Rumplestiltskin ducked out of the way of another attack, his curse keeping his reflexes faster than any mortal's should have been. The two men dodged and attacked, parried and advanced, all the while neither landing a meaningful blow past the other's shields.

"You can't run forever, Dark One," Magnus growled, electricity erupting from his fingers and flying towards the younger man.

"I don't have to, dearie," Rumplestiltskin chuckled in return. "Just until I kill you." He flickered out of sight, back in, and then back out again. His movements were fast, landing him in different places each time. Even Magnus couldn't follow him exactly, and each time he fell a little further behind. Finally, the moment he'd waited for arrived and he found an opening, throwing out an attack at Magnus' back that worked its way through his shields rather than breaking them, and it brought a cry from the cleric as he stumbled forward.

Magnus spun on him when he regained his balance and roared in fury as he struck. He was faster this time, almost as if he'd predicted where Rumple would be next, and it was all the Dark One could do to toss a shield up between them. It held for a moment, but the electrical assault continued and Rumplestiltskin felt it cracking. He widened his stance, clever mind running his best options. Teleporting at this point would only bring the lightning in behind him, so he pulled in a breath, the cold morning air filling his lungs, and steeled himself. This wasn't going to be pleasant and his curse was going to hate it, because, no matter how it was being used, Magnus was still pulling from the lighter end of magic.

The shield snapped and Rumplestiltskin took hold of the spell, his fingers physically burning from it as he shifted his weight around, using its own momentum to follow through and redirect it back at the cleric. It hit him square in the chest, sending him straight down on his backside. Rumplestiltskin's curse was indeed raging, but he ignored it as he held his head high, stepping forward and smirking at the shocked look that Magnus couldn't keep from his face. "I'm not like any other Dark One you've met, dearie. Time you learn that."

"You should be writhing on the ground."

"Perhaps your magic isn't as light as you think."

"I have been hunting Dark Ones for more years than you can fathom," Magnus snapped, landing on his feet and Rumplestiltskin thought the street might have shook a little under him.

"Still haven't ended the curse, obviously. I won't die to end it. I have far too much to live for."

"No, you have far too much to die for." Rumplestiltskin had never seen him teleport before, but he knew that the clerics could. It still hadn't been something that he had seen coming and it was the physical blow that the larger man dealt that threw him off balance. Magnus appeared directly in front of him, bare fist slamming into his middle hard enough to take his breath away, but before he could double over or fall to the ground, the cleric took hold of his expensive shirt collar and hauled him so that only his toes were touching the street. "You are different, Dark One. I sensed that from the moment that you took on your curse. In many ways you're stronger than your predecessors. Your quick and clever, but once you get past that you have many weaknesses."

Magnus swung him around, Rumplestiltskin's body following without the ability to protest. He tried to teleport away, but something held him tightly in the cleric's grasp and he was tossed him clear across the street. He'd never known a mortal - though if Magnus was still mortal, it was hard to say - to have that kind of strength. He slammed into the hood of a car parked outside of the coffee shop directly across from his own pawn shop and toppled over, falling into the table on the sidewalk before finally crashing to the ground. He lay there for a moment, his very human body stunned by the blow, and could hear the heavy footsteps approaching and the power gathering around his enemy. He had to get up or he really would find out if he could die in this world.

Rumplestiltskin tried to get his hands under him to push upward, his left shoulder aching terrible as he did. Magic wrapped around it, strengthen it, but not before a shoe planted itself in the middle of his back and shoved him back down. "This world makes you weak, Dark One. This world makes you vulnerable."

The trapped man reached out, fingers scraping against the mostly smooth surface of the sidewalk as he struggled to get out from beneath his would-be murderer. A soft huff escaped him as Magnus knelt, his knee digging into the middle of his back and pushing him down hard against the unyielding ground. "You killed Soren and Silas. You killed Caiden and the others."

"I hate to break it to you, dearie, but that's a risk you take when you send someone to kill me," Rumplestiltskin managed and pushed outward with his magic. What might have otherwise just knocked him back turned to daggers in the air, slicing through defences of the startled cleric that just kept underestimating him and left streaks of blood in their path. The younger sorcerer pulled himself to his feet, pushing aside the aches and pains of the battle and met the milky gaze. "But you're welcome to join them."

Magics clashed again and sparked upward and all around. Glass windows in the surrounding shops and cars shattered with the pressure built by it and a small explosion forced both men back, Rumplestiltskin pushed back towards his family while Magnus skidded to a stop a few yards down the way. Dark eyes risked a glance behind him and he saw the focused faces of the three sorceresses whose job it was to keep the others safe. Charming looked ready for whatever fight might come through, as did Regina's outlaw, but Bae and Belle's gazes were the ones that he lingered on and he felt a smile touch his lips. "I am different here," he told Magnus firmly as he turned to face him. "I'm stronger than anything you've ever come across." It was time, and it took the knowledge that his son's and his love's lives depended on it to give him the strength to go through with it.

The Kris Dagger flickered into his hand as the final strings that could be brought together without it did and his gaze fell on Magnus whose sightless eyes were fixated on the knife. "You cannot begin to comprehend my burden of these years," the cleric said. "Today it ends."

"How far would you go?" Rumplestiltskin asked and he felt as if he were using his own soul as bait. In a way he was. "What are you willing to give to end this?"

"Anything," Magnus breathed and the Dark One smiled.

"I do love it when they say that," he chuckled and the final string fell into place, pulling the others taught and Magnus froze, eyes wide in surprise.

"What have you done?" he demanded, the air around them both cracking with power, though he couldn't break free.

"It's what you've done, dearie. Without your consent, I couldn't reach the last thread, but now this ends."

Rumplestiltskin tugged hard on the spell and the cleric that had tried to kill him and his family screamed, the howls echoing through the streets of Storybrooke as he bucked and convulsed against it, but it didn't loosen and he couldn't free himself. Piece by piece it stripped his magic.

"Rumple!"

He turned, finding Belle and Bae rushing towards him even as the storm overhead grew darker. "What are you doing? Get out of here!"

"Not without you!" his wife argued, taking hold of his arm.

"I have to see it through to the end." He didn't know if the elder sorcerer could break free, but he wouldn't put it past him. "Please go."

"We're not leaving you, Papa," Baelfire yelled over the screams of both the cleric and the wind that was whipping around them.

He came to Rumplestiltskin's other side and they stood watching as Magnus was lifted into the air by the spell. He might be fighting it now, but he'd given the word. He was willing to do anything to end this, he just had been fool enough not to specify what this was. For Rumplestiltskin - and therefore for the spell that he'd worked into play - this was the chaos that Magnus and his clerics had rained down on Storybrooke and his family. This was the pain he'd caused them, and this was the endless quest to destroy the Dark One's Curse even if it took the curse's host down with it. This ended today.

Magnus' screams fell silent all at once and he went limp, held up only by the threads of the spell, and it ripped his magic from him. Centuries worth of power exploded outward, throwing everyone on the street to the ground as it shot outward.

To be concluded.

Notes: Well that was a wild ride. Next up, the conclusion! If all goes well that should be up on Friday.

The following week I plan to post a short called 'Just Another Fairytale' which finds Rumple at the very beginning of his curse. It will be a two-parter. The following week will be a two-part prelude to the next full length story (the two-parter is called Burning the Embers and the full length will be Burn the Worlds). Burn the Worlds, as well as it's two-part prequel, will feature Magnus as the main villain, but in a different AU than this one.

Hey, look at that, I have a plan! See you guys Friday! :D