Chapter 19: History Haunts

In which Neal confronts Ralph and Regina and Rumple's plan finally backfires

Neal was weighing his options whilst fiddling with the hand gun he had brought. If he could make the Dark One do his bidding, that would be the best. But did magic work out here? For a long time he had assumed this was a world without magic, but various strange events over the years had planted doubts in his mind. This man might have the key to return to the Enchanted Forest…. If Ralph was the Dark One, then his father wasn't. So did he die? Or did he change his life around? He couldn't take all the questions anymore. He had to act!

In a moment of sheer stupidity and dumb luck, he opened the door and shot at Ralph's leg. The sudden movement and shock took him off guard and as he clenched his hurt leg, the dagger fell to the ground. Neal picked it up, smiling like an idiot.

"I command you, Dark One!" he said with a strange voice. "You shall answer to me, Radolph."

"Neal! What the hell are you doing? You shot me! What on earth is going on, you crazy bastard!"

"Like you don't know… Ralph!" Baelfire sneered.

"What are you doing with my hunting dagger?" he asked through clenched teeth as a trickle of blood was pouring out of the, thankfully, superficial wound. It had been a grazing shot.

"We'll see, shall we… I command you to stand up!"

"I can't stand up, you crazy… my leg…!" Yet despite himself Ralph moved in standing position, but placing very little pressure on his hurt leg. "How? What? What have you done to me?" He shouted.

Neal grinned. It worked! It actually worked!

"You are Radolph and you are the Dark One, but because I hold your power now, you will do as I please. So the first thing I want to know is… Where are you from and how did you came to possess this dagger?"

"I don't know, honest. It's my hunting dagger and it's extremely good for slicing meat. It's beautiful and has my name engraved on it, but I have no idea how it got into my possession."

"Don't lie to me. I saw the letter: I read what it said. You knew it was a magical weapon!"

"Neal, you need help, I think. I'm serious, here. That letter is probably some strange thing I bought with it at a Renaissance Fair or something…. It's even calligraphed, I mean, obviously it's some sort of souvenir. A very nice one, but a souvenir nonetheless. You seriously need psychiatric help."

"No, I don't! You need to stop lying!" This was not how Neal had envisioned the confrontation. He'd expected Ralph would have blurted out the entire truth.

"If what you say is true, I am not even able to lie" Ralph said slyly.

Neal was puzzled for a minute. He then attacked Ralph with a series of questions about their jobs, the militia, anything he could think of that he knew the true answer to. Ralph answered every single one of them truthfully, including their devious plans and corruption schemes.

"So you don't know anything about this, Radolph?" Neal held the dagger closer to him, yet not within his grasp.

"No, nothing. I guess it's my full name…"

"But you don't even know..? And you don't know what you did, before you came here?"

"I was a hunter up North, that's all I know."

"What like Oregon? Washington?"

"No, the other coast…"

"We'll have to go there then. Come on," Neal said casually.

"Some help here, please…." Ralph begged, but he followed him nevertheless. He did not have a choice.

Granny put the plate with mashed potatoes and fried chicken in front of Mr. Gold. A voluptuous lunch. Her famous recipe was quite popular; nice and tender on the inside, crispy on the outside. She scowled at him, her least favorite costumer, and her smirked back. However, his smirk was wiped from his face as he felt a sudden pang near his heart the moment Belle cut through the red string. He cringed, but felt quite fine only a moment later.

"Mr. Gold? Are you all right?" Granny asked, sick customers being very bad for the food business.

"Have I told you already that you look radiant today?" he replied.

Granny scowled again; he was mocking her! But as she put down his drink, he grabbed her arm and said: "Your eyes are the finest I have ever laid eyes upon."

"Let go of me! Stop it, Mr. Gold!" Granny was not amused but he kept glancing at her doey-eyed during his entire visit, as he kept ordering more and more food, to prolong his stay.

At the end of the evening, at closing time, he did not want to leave. Ruby and Granny were surprised at the strength of this little man as they shoved him out of the diner. He stayed right outside the door, sitting at one of the terrace tables.

And, sure enough, after they had cleaned and were ready to lock up, he was still sitting there, glancing and waving at her.

"He's got a crush on you!" Ruby grinned with a very wide mouth.

"I never thought I'd acquire a stalker at my age…" Granny snorted.

Meanwhile Regina's fate was less pleasant. She had been busy in her office when Belle cut the strings and she slipped from her chair onto the ground with jerking limps, like she had some sort of seizure. She couldn't get her control back and wasn't found until Daniel walked in, closely followed by Belle, who was going to demand that she lift their spell of them, since they didn't feel any different even though the harp had been damaged.

"Regina!" Belle was startled. "What happened?"

"I can't… I don't know what's going on… I fell and this.? I can't stop it!"

"Regina, listen to me!" Daniel took charge. "Look! Belle, show her!" he commanded.

Belle showed her the harp. "We cut the strings so we would be free from the curse…" she explained.

"When?" Regina asked

"This afternoon, just after lunch…"

Regina thought deeply. If the curse backfired, she should be dead… Life changing into death? Love changing into hate?

"Do you hate Gold now?" she asked Belle. "Or does he hate you?"

"We haven't seen him yet, we wanted to visit you first…"

"I think I should be dead…" she mumbled, "but I'm not…."

"Death doesn't like to be cheated." Daniel remembered a wisdom from his childhood. "It doesn't want to collect someone and hand them back to Life again."

"Like you, you mean?" Regina asked as she wondered for the first time if Daniel had even wanted to return to life.

"Or like you…or Rumple…or Henry.." Belle suggested.

"Henry!" Regina called out, shocked: "We should check on Henry!"

Belle shushed her. "I'm sure Henry is fine… It's you who needs help…"

Regina's body was shaking, almost like she was being pulled apart. She slowly became paler.

"Who can we call for help?" Belle asked her.

"If only Cora was here…" Regina lamented which darkened Daniel's brow.

"The Blue Fairy then," Belle said. Regina grimaced at the idea but Daniel agreed: either her or Emma as Rumple might be indisposed himself.