A voice in a blinding light has taken the harp. Radolph and Neal have found Storybrooke, but just after they arrived, their presence was noticed and Radolph, the Dark One, is drawn towards the Mayor's office where Belle and Blue are confronted with the mysterious figure inside the light and where Daniel and Regina are trapped in a battle between the entities of Life and Death.

Chapter 23: Glorious Gifts

In which Death receives an offer that should not be refused…

"Papa?" Neal asked. "Isn't the Dark One supposed to listen to commands? Did this ever happen when you were…"

Mr. Gold shook his head. No, it hadn't. Something strange was happening here, something unforeseen.

As Neal was deliberating on his next course of action, he himself began to walk. It was as if he had turned into a marionette. He did not control his own limps anymore. It was scary as hell.

"Neal!" Emma called out to him. "What are you doing? Are you alright?"

"I am… I can't stop this. I'm drawn towards… I cannot stop this!" He yelled. Neal followed Radolph, as he was drawn to the Mayor's office like he was ruled by invisible strings.

After a few seconds of indecisiveness, Emma said: "I'll go in there too. You can come if you want to.. I've no idea what is going on here." Despite her own fears, she ran towards the building, leaving the others to decide for themselves.

Ruby and Mr. Gold stared at each other. They had no idea who or what they would encounter once they entered the office, but neither of them wanted to be branded a coward either. Rumplestiltskin had had his fill of that particular accusation and Ruby generally did not back away from danger.

"Let's go," she said and the both of them followed Emma, though a little slower than the sheriff herself.

Emma ran up the stairs, drawing her gun; whoever it was, they would meet the mighty arm of the law… She gritted her teeth as she entered Regina's office; the room where the blinding light was located.

The first thing she saw was a figure standing right in the middle of the light; someone she did not know or recognize. Both Daniel and Regina's bodies twisting and turning on the tiled floor like they were bound on the rack. Blue and Belle were gawping at the lady in the light, Neal and Radolph seemed equally petrified.

"Who are you? Why are you here? What are you doing to Regina….and what's his name?"

"I am not doing anything," she replied. "Mere mortals have decided to use my harp, playing with life and death. Now those two are fighting over both their fates."

"Life…and Death are fighting?" Emma asked, her voice trembling a little. "What do you mean…? Are they here? Can they be?"

"Oh, yes, they can and are. They are present right here, at this very moment…"

Emma gulped. She glanced at Neal, and at Blue; this seemed beyond their experiences also…

Neal found his voice back, just as Ruby and Rumplestiltskin entered the office. "What can we do? To stop it?"

"First things first," she said. "My harp was stolen from me, a long time ago, I have searched for ages to reclaim it. Now, it is broken…" She looked sternly at Belle. "And you admitted to that crime…"

"Yes…" Belle said in a soft-spoken voice. "I wanted to lift the curses that the harp has put on us.. and our loved ones." She glanced at Mr. Gold, who was still affected by his sudden and maniacal love for Granny. When she looked at Regina and Daniel, Belle began to tremble and nearly fainted, Blue caught her just in time.

"Yes, the harp is not a toy to be meddled with by mere mortal hands… Curses may backfire.." She paused for a moment as she looked at Regina. "Cora searched far and wide for it… but never succeeded in obtaining it.. her daughter, however, is now paying the price…"

"I was the one who found it!" Mr. Gold spoke up. "I located it in a spell book but needed Regina's knowledge to use it…"

"And you would be Rumplestiltskin… The former Dark One… One in a long line of trouble makers, here on earth…" The mysterious figure turned to address Radolph.

"And you are the current one… brought here against your will, by the son of… This is rather interesting, isnt'it? Such a diverse group of people and motives…" She laughed. "Time to put an end to this misery I suppose…"

With a change in voice, both tone and key, she commanded the fighting parties to stop. Regina and Daniel stopped trembling, lying very still instead. Next to their bodies two hands appeared, one light as feathers, scaly and shining like a pearl; the other dark and bony, with fingernails like pointy claws.

"You must hand them back to Life!" was the further command.

"I will not!" Death hissed. "They are mine! I have been cheated out of them before!"

"I know. You are right. Therefore, I will offer you something in return…"

"What can you trade?" Death scorned. "Two souls cannot easily be replaced…"

"I have something, or will do at any moment, that will peak your interest…"

"What is it? What?!" the voice grew loud with frustration.

"A powerful tool that may not lightly be wielded. I trust you will take good care of it…"

"Surely it cannot be your harp?" Death wondered.

She chuckled, "No, not my harp… I will need to mend that first… But you will surely like this gift… as I'm sure others will be to be relieved from its burden…"

"Reul Ghorm…"

"Yes?" Blue said in a whisper.

"When all is said and done…you are the ultimate reason for all this mess…"

"How so?" she asked.

"I knew it!" Emma proclaimed loudly. "The Original Power.. You were behind this from the start! Didn't I say so…? Didn't I tell you?!"

"By bringing the Dark One into being… Bringing a force into the world that should not be there…"

"I didn't mean to.. I never wanted this to happen, any of it…" Blue stammered. "I merely wanted to save his life… to keep my loved one out of the claws of… of.."

"Death.. Like so many before you, and after you… interfering with these matters can have consequences! Regina wanted to restore her love, and see where it has brought them! All of you!"

She remained silent for a moment. "However, perhaps a solution may be found; one for either side of the spirit world and for your realms as well. The blade, the Dark One, has done enough… has served its purpose, at least in the hands of…."

She looked at Death… "It may be a gift, you'd wish to have. A chance to wield and control… Only with my permission, of course…"

The figure in the light now addressed Neal. "Baelfire, perhaps you would like to give the dagger to me. It will be well taken care of, I promise. Such a power should not belong in the hands of men…"

"What will happen to me?" Radolph panicked. "I do not want to die!"

"You will be restored to your old self… provided my gift be accepted. All curses of the harp will be broken, now that it is once more in my possession. Regina and Daniel, however, may remain weakened for some time…"

Neal handed the dagger over, a little reluctantly. Radolph trembled as she touched it but his life was spared.

Death's claws reached out to the dagger, eagerly. "Will you use it with care? And release your claim on them?" She pointed at the two former lovers on the floor.

"Yes, of course, it is a good trade!"

"Your power will be restricted; the weapon may only be used on those that truly deserve it…"

Death was accustomed to taking orders. Both Death and Life needed to follow the rules strictly, if not, all worlds might fall into utter despair. The fragile balance between both forces needed ever to be maintained, controlled, and supervised. Even then, mistakes happened…

The figure handed the dagger to Death. Eager and pleased the hand disappeared from their sight. On the look-out for new victims, dictators and serial killers, now at the mercy of the force they had often wielded themselves.

Life disappeared as well, with as a passing gift, Daniel and Regina's breath. They sat up, white as sheets and looked at the light. "Who are you? We can never thank you enough…"

"I have been called many names…" the figure stated. "Lady Luck, Fortuna… and many more. I have been depicted with scales, or a wheel of chance…"

"You cannot really exist?" Emma was gawping…

"You see me before you… The fate of mortals may be in the hands of Death and Life, but even they need to be ruled or restricted. Famine or baby-booms cannot happen every day…" she smiled. "It falls upon me to supervise these matters and I do so to the best of my ability. Without my harp, however… Let's just say, I am glad to have retrieved it…"

As suddenly as she had appeared, she left, leaving a group of baffled mortals behind. Radolph fell trembling on his knees and Regina and Daniel were still shaking too..

"It has truly gone. It is vanished…" Mr. Gold whispered.

"It is now forever out of your grasp…" Belle smiled as she saw his fallen face. "And out of everyone else's too…" She moved towards him and cupped his face in her hands.

"Will you forgive me?" she asked him.

"If you forgive me…" he replied. They gazed into each other's eyes and, at their mutual yes, fell into each other's arms.

Neal witnessed their conversation with interest and shock.

"I told you your father was dating someone..." Radolph grinned, quickly having recovered from his ordeal. In fact, he felt better than ever; he never knew being stripped of one's powers could feel this liberating!

AN: So I borrowed a bit from various mythologies which gives harps or lyres quite an amount of power: causing people to sleep, rivers to divert… As the pied piper and the sirens already knew, music may alter one's state of mind and make it quite easy to influence others. Anyway, just having fun with it!

Probably only one more chapter to go, maybe two. Mostly to give people their well-deserved scoldings and/or teary-eyed reunions.