The world twisted around her. She hunched over, wrapping her arms around herself, trying to stop shaking. Or was it the ground that was shaking?

But it wasn't uneven, gravelly stone under her knees anymore, but a familiar rug. She could feel the pressure of the walls all around that made her want to shrink away. Her chest felt spiky. Her heart beat too fast.

Home. Belle drew in another ragged breath. A sensation of weight pressed against her eyelids. She opened her eyes a slit, but snapped them shut against a flood of blinding white light.

"Belle." Rumple hands gripped her shoulders, his touch easing the pounding of her heart. "Breathe..."

She tried to think, tried to remember. A name, a question rose to her lips. "Mal... Maleficent?"

"Don't worry about Mal. I told her we needed a moment."

"A... moment." Hysterical laughter bubbled up in her throat. No. No. She had to focus.

"How are you feeling? Are you all right?" His anxious questions seemed to probe deeper than sound into her substance.

Magic. She was sensing his magic. She reached out to grasp his arms. "Are you all right? Your heart..."

"...is lighter than it's been in a long time." For a moment his forehead rested against hers, then he pulled back. "But at what cost to you? I'm so sorry, sweetheart."

"It was my choice," she whispered. "I... I'll get used to it."

The darkness would settle into her bones in time. Already she felt less shaky. Her heart steadied under its new weight. Her thoughts, too, felt heavier. Shouldn't she feel happier that Rumple had a new lease on life? But joy was strangely distant, an abstract concept that she could no longer touch. A thousand premonitions of disaster crawled into her mind and stayed there.

Now that darkness has tasted you, it will not stop until you, too, are devoured. Belle tried to ignore the thought, but it only grew and multiplied. Everyone will see your corruption. They will hate you, fear you. Even your family. Remember what happened to your mother!

Then another, more insidious thought: You need to strike them down first, before they can hurt you.

Belle clenched her teeth, forcing back the answering surge of magic. Remember what happened with the mirror! She saw again the line of blood on her husband's neck. No, no, she couldn't hurt anyone again. A whimper escaped through her lips.

"Easy, easy, let it go," came Rumple's soothing murmur. "The darkness sets free your own buried thoughts. Let it excavate as it will. If you fight it, you are only fighting your own mind..."

"But I don't want to think those thoughts! It's not..." Not right. Not heroic. Not the person she wanted to be! "Not the real me."

Ah, but you never were. Not exactly hero material.

"It's not your thoughts that define you, but your choices," Rumple said. "All things can be considered in both darkness and light. Don't torture yourself by becoming the jailor of your own mind..."

Advice he himself can't live up to, sneered the dark voice in her head. How many terrible choices has HE made?

He had lived with this curse for centuries. Belle had only half of his darkness. She refused to let it crush her. She took a deep breath, then another. "I... I'll try. But there's something else."

"What is it, sweetheart?"

She rocked back on her heels and slid her hands over her eyes. "The darkness, I expected. But the light... what is that light?"

"Light? You see light?" Rumple sounded shocked.

"Yes, so bright, it's blinding." It seared through her eyelids with its radiance. She reached out and groped for the source. "Here, I think... something..."

"Here? No, it can't be." Rumple's incredulous mutter was accompanied by a shuffle of movement. Then he was pressing the all-too-familiar hilt of the Dark One dagger into her palm. "...this?"

Belle inhaled sharply, her fingers closing instinctively around the grip. "Yes. I don't understand..."

"Hmm." Rumple sounded as confused as she felt.

That something so tied to dark magic could glow so brightly? "You don't see it?"

"No." He clasped her wrist when her hand began to tremble from the weight of the long blade. "But I doubt you're imagining it."

Then she remembered. She had seen that light before. Blinding white, tinged with gold. Rumple impaling himself on his own dagger, his father clasped close to share his death. The light that had swallowed them both. "It's the same. The same as when you... died."

"Ah," he breathed. Then, "I don't... there was light?"

Belle nodded. She ran the fingers of her free hand along the blade. She felt for the indentations where his name was inscribed. The letters squirmed under her touch.

"Belle!"

The light sank back into the metal. Belle eased her eyes open warily. She could see again. Rumple's worried face stared at her, slightly blurred and translucent. For a moment, she saw the scaled skin and reptilian eyes of the imp. "Rumple?"

"Look." He turned her hand, the dagger with it, rotating the blade to show the name. Names. Snaking in and out between the lines that read Rumplestiltskin were five new letters: Belle.

"What does it mean?" Belle could feel the name as hers, more than a mere collection of shapes or sounds. If someone held the dagger, could it be used to summon her? To command her? "Does that make me...?"

"Well, it was always a possibility." Rumple grimaced. "Perhaps I've only made everything worse."

She shoved the dagger back into his unhappy grip even as some part of her screamed in protest. "Here. Test it on me. I have to know."

He nodded slowly. "Wait."

Even that single word seemed to glue her feet in place. She watched him retreat down the hallway, then up the stairs. She waited, listening to his slow footsteps. Then she heard nothing more until...

Belle. Come here. The words went deeper than sound. They were knives driven into her soul, carving obedience out of her essence regardless of her will.

She drew on magic she didn't consciously comprehend, obeyed without thought. The living room vanished around her. She was here, where she had no choice but to be: the library, two floors up from where she had been the instant before. Freed from the compulsion with the command fulfilled, she staggered, cold panic suddenly catching up to her.

You'll never be safe again!

"Belle!" Rumple transferred the dagger back into her frantic hands. "Here. It's okay, it's okay..."

With the dagger gripped tightly in both hands, the panicked feeling receded. Belle let Rumple guide her gently to her favorite armchair. "I'm sorry. It was just the shock. I didn't know it would feel like that." She smiled weakly. "Another thing to get used to. I assume it still works on you the same way..."

"Assumptions are dangerous."

She didn't disagree. After more testing, they concluded that the dagger ruled both of them equally, and as strongly as it had ever ruled her husband. She gave it back to him, telling herself to be reasonable. "You have more experience in keeping it safe. Though I'm beginning to see the appeal of the Sorcerer's hat..."

Rumple smiled, humoring her feeble attempt to lighten the mood, but he accepted the dagger. It vanished into his jacket, but with her altered senses, she could tell it went into a magically folded pocket of space.

"Everything looks different. Strange." Even though the blindingly bright light no longer emanated from the dagger, it was as if it still illuminated everything with a layer of shifting mirages. When she summoned Rumple to face her, shadowy wings seemed to flare from his back. Books and walls were webbed with hair-thin threads of color. Magic was visible as light and shadow permeating what used to be comfortably solid. "Do you see...?"

He shook his head. "Only a little of what you see. I suspect that is your own gift of sight, awakened by the darkness."

The opening of the third eye, she remembered reading. Was this what it was? Or fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh... given her last memory of her mother's other form.

"You'll sort it out, given time. I have every confidence in you," he said.

She hoped he was right. A glance at the clock showed her it was getting close to dinnertime. She welcomed the distraction. "I was going to make chicken chipotle soup tonight. I found this recipe I wanted to try..."

"Sounds delicious." Rumple touched her arm as she turned towards the kitchen. "You are doing well. Truly." The corners of his mouth twitched upwards. "No murder spree, no collapse into madness..."

"So far," she muttered, smiling despite herself. "I hope you'll stop me if I start yanking anyone's heart out of their chest."

"Ah, well, I think we can start with a few less traumatic spells," he suggested.

"Maybe you can go over the basics with me while I'm cooking," Belle agreed. She knew some magical theory, but had never thought she'd be able to put it into practice.

"There was a wandering sorcerer I once met who specialized in culinary magic," he said as he followed her down the stairs. "He was banned from cooking contests in five realms, so he said, but he made his living as a street vendor. He could divine a customer's origin, history, and weaknesses simply through their response to the food as it cooked..."

More sociable than spinning straw into gold, she supposed.

"You've always had a knack for finding the right passage in the right book, haven't you?" Rumple mused. "I wonder..."

"That's only because everything is in the last place you look, and I read quickly," Belle countered. She continued bickering lightly with him in the kitchen. If it was his way of cheering her up, it worked.

By bedtime, she felt more like herself, whoever that was, and less likely to accidentally misjudge her perceptions and cut off a finger when trying to chop an onion. The next morning, she summoned enough courage to look into a mirror. Closer examination revealed nothing startling. Only... herself. Her changed vision did not extend to the image in the mirror, which reflected only outward appearances.

After breakfast, they went back to see Maleficent.

"I see you've been out and about." Rumple gestured, indicating Maleficent's change of outfit into an echo of Regina's business chic, but in whites and grays, accented with hat and scarf. Only her staff remained as it was.

"I needed to stretch my wings."

But not in dragon form, Belle thought, or the town would be in an uproar by now and someone would have been at their doorstep seeking the Dark One's assistance.

"The one you want to find isn't inside the town limits," Rumple said. "And the world outside those limits is the Land Without Magic. It's a bit of a misnomer, but not completely. Or have you discovered that already?"

Maleficent let out a disgruntled snort. "I am little more than a poltergeist beyond that line."

Of course, thought Belle in sudden comprehension. She wasn't alive or dead in the usual sense. She needed magic to keep her physical form cohesive and animated. It was obvious now to Belle's newly augmented sight, a strange texture that revealed her supernatural composition.

A weakness that can be exploited, whispered part of her mind. Maleficent is dangerous. Never forget that.

"Enough," said Maleficent. "It's time you fulfilled your side of the bargain."

Rumple nodded. He summoned the baby rattle to his hand. "Thirty years ago, your child was sent to this land." Using the rattle as a focus, he showed Maleficent the past, in image and sound. They watched together as a baby girl was adopted by a human couple.

Lilith. We want to name her Lily.

"She's alive." Maleficent's eyes glistened, and she exhaled deeply. "Where is she now?"

Rumple gestured. The images shifted, now showing a grown woman. "Not so far away, by the look of things."

Belle nodded. She knew enough about the geography of this realm to understand the significance of the language and accent they had heard in the vision.

"But still outside this town." Maleficent's expression turned fierce. "I must find her. There must be a way."

Belle shuddered to think what her way might entail. "We'll help you. Just... don't do anything rash."

"She means, don't start a war." Rumple smirked. "But you weren't planning to, were you, dearie? You tried to stop the Dark Curse for your child's sake. A war would be worse. You wouldn't be able to keep it contained."

"Unless I killed them all," Maleficent said darkly.

"That's my line," quipped Rumple. "No, no, they will hurt more if you take the higher ground. They took your daughter from you, you can take theirs... Ms Swan will never look at her parents the same way again, whether she forgives them or not."

"You talk a lot. The question is, can you deliver?" Maleficent leveled her staff at them. "Because if you can't..."

Belle tensed. Without conscious thought, magic surged through her, an instinctive response to the threat. She curled her fingers, reminding herself that they were here to help. A glance at Rumple showed a more casual reaction, which let Belle breathe more easily in turn.

"Now you see, talking is exactly how I'll get you what you want." Rumple eyed the staff, then circled around Maleficent. "Back in our old land, when I first became the Dark One, I was elected as a law-speaker for my village."

"Law-speaker?" Belle frowned. She only knew the term from books, in reference to an obsolete tradition from a time before kings or dukes. "I thought the office was abolished throughout Misthaven centuries ago."

Rumple swiveled to look at her. "Well, Frontlands society tended to lag behind the rest of the realm. Our last law-speakers died shortly after my son was born. The Duke didn't appreciate their attempts to stop his little war, so they were sent to the front line to be chewed up by the ogres."

"Ah!" Illuminated, Belle smiled. He had always been better than he pretended to be. "So you took up their banner and ended the war, then."

"Indeed." He met her eyes, adding wistfully, "Early days. When they still..." He shrugged.

When his village still accepted him, he meant. Before they learned to fear him. Belle didn't know all of it, but he had told her some things.

They will learn to fear you, too... Belle shook the thought away. They knew better than that, didn't they? She had always helped the town when she could. But the insidious doubts lingered. They'll lock you away again. Both of you.

"Fascinating," Maleficent said dryly. "But what relevance does your ancient history have to finding my daughter?"

"Technically speaking, I still hold the office of law-speaker."

"So you can prosecute them for their crimes!" Belle clapped her hands in appreciation. See? If we do this the right way, everything will be fine! "Kidnapping, misuse of magic..."

Rumple shook his head. "Maleficent is considered a monster. By the laws of our old realm, heroes are within their rights to act as they see fit against monsters."

Maleficent scoffed. She narrowed her eyes at Rumplestiltskin. "I heard they locked you up. Without trial."

Belle sighed, her optimism slipping a little. The 'right' way? Whoever has the power makes the rules, and what the humans lack in magic they make up for in numbers. "And everything they did was in the other realm. The laws in this land wouldn't apply."

"I'm waiting to hear more than hot air, Dark One. Get to the point."

"There is one thing we can hold them to." Rumple held up a finger in triumph. "A deal — a contract, an implied promise — is binding, especially when it comes out of the mouth of a hero. No matter who or what the other party may be."

Maleficent's eyes brightened. "Ah. Yes. Snow White said, oh, what was it?" She was silent for a moment, then recalled, "She said, 'We'll bring the egg back when we're done with it.'"

"And considering that she let the egg be tossed into a portal the same day, I'd say she was 'done with it' three decades ago!" said Belle.

"Terrible news!" Leroy dashed across the street to Granny's diner before Belle could stop him. "Maleficent is back!"

The dwarf hadn't even recognized Maleficent until he read the public notice of grievance that Rumple had nailed to the pillar outside the front door of the library. With a wave of his hand, Rumple produced two more copies of the notice and sent them into the ether.

Or to the diner, Belle realized, where Snow White was currently eating lunch with her family. She glanced at Rumple and nodded at Granny's. "Should we...?"

"No need." Rumple touched her shoulder. "They'll be here soon enough."

"I can hardly wait," Maleficent said in her deadpan manner.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Snow came charging across the street, David a step behind, trailed by Emma and Hook, then Regina, Henry, and Ruby. They must have left little Neal with Granny, Belle assumed, as the old woman wasn't out here brandishing her crossbow.

Belle was still adjusting to her altered vision. Extra shadows and odd flares of light added auras to people, buildings, trees, even the air. Mr. Mistoffeles was cloaked in some kind of elusive, furtive magic that she couldn't define. Looking at Ruby now, sometimes Belle saw a human, sometimes a wolf. Emma was a raging storm of light, angry and confused. Captain Hook carried a burden of hatred, steeped in years like a piece of smoked meat. He was the first to speak, jumping in ahead of Snow White.

"I knew you weren't to be trusted, Crocodile." He glared at Rumple, ignoring Belle and Maleficent in favor of getting in a dig at his old enemy.

Snow White pushed past Hook, David at her side. Her eyes darted towards Maleficent in a wary glance before she focused on Rumplestiltskin. "I knew this was a mistake! You betrayed us."

"It's what I do," he replied coldly.

Maleficent scoffed.

Belle was outraged. "Betrayal? Is that what you call it?"

Snow gave her a disappointed frown. "You're helping a villain."

"I'm helping a mother who had her child stolen!" Belle held Snow's gaze.

Emma, a few steps behind her parents, watched them all with her arms folded.

"You're right," David admitted. "What we did was wrong. But we... we didn't fully understand what we were doing. We acted out of fear. We're human."

"So it's all true?" Emma's voice rose angrily. "You really altered my entire being at the expense of someone else's soul, just because you didn't think I was good enough?"

"It's not like that," David said.

"Like what? Like all your talk of heroism and 'doing the right thing' was just lip service to make yourselves look good?" Emma shook her head. "I can't believe you two."

"But we've changed!" Snow was quick to defend herself. "We've tried to become the parents you deserve."

"You could have tried being that from the start!"

"We had to give you your best chance!" Snow's eyes pleaded for her daughter's understanding. "We knew you could never be happy if you chose to go down a dark path. We had to save your future, Emma."

"It was our only option," David agreed.

"Really, dearie?" Rumple broke in with a metaphorical splash of icy water. "As someone well familiar with terrible options, I can say your little stunt takes the cake."

"Not to mention, counterproductive," added Belle. "Did you never consider that the kind of parents who are willing to take their child's choices away — the kind of parents who dehumanize others and sacrifice innocents — are that much more likely to raise a villain?"

Rumple glanced at Regina with a smirk. "Indeed. It tends to lead to an elevated sense of, ah, entitlement. Perhaps even an unhealthy degree of solipsism."

Regina scowled back. "Don't try to drag me into your circus, you twisted imp. Mal, you're not stupid enough to think he's actually going to help you, do you?"

"We have a deal." Maleficent spared Rumple a brief look before turning back to Snow White and David. "And you broke your word. You promised to bring my child back to me."

"I..." Snow swallowed and fell silent.

"And a hero's word is their bond. As law-speaker, it falls to me to hold you to your oath," said Rumple. "As per tradition, you have one day to settle your affairs before facing your accuser before the people, as represented by a jury of twelve disinterested citizens chosen by lot."

It was the same tradition Zelena had mockingly invoked in her challenge to Regina, Belle remembered. So did everyone else.

They all looked at Maleficent. She smiled, a bloodthirsty gleam lighting her eyes.

"Now hold on. I'm not gonna let you hurt my parents," growled Emma. "I took you out once before and I can do it again!"

Rumple held up a hand in warning. "That's not how this works, Ms. Swan."

"You cannot be serious. Yeah, what they did was pretty shitty, but that doesn't mean they should die!"

"Emma..." Snow pulled her daughter back.

"You did what you did. A hero faces up to the consequences of their actions," Belle reminded them. Those who call themselves 'heroes' are putting the noose around their own necks. Don't blame me for pulling on the other end! "Are you willing to do that?"

Snow and David exchanged a glance.

"We'll be here tomorrow," David said at last.

Belle didn't open the library that day. She went with Rumple to his shop, instead. Maleficent had vanished in a puff of smoke. Belle suspected she was spying on the town again, an anonymous bird or insect or passing breeze.

Rumple spent the rest of the afternoon calling up the townsfolk he had randomly selected for his jury until he had twelve who were available and qualified to show up the next day. He explained to each what was required of them. They were to hear out the arguments on both sides, then decide on the guilt or innocence of the accused party. As law-speaker, it was for Rumple to choose the sentence.

"They've already admitted their guilt," he said. "It won't be much of a trial."

"I think we caught them by surprise."

"That, and they're terrible liars, especially in front of their daughter," Rumple agreed.

"They think you're going to call for a duel." That was what usually happened in books, with the injured party demanding 'satisfaction' in blood or death.

Rumple scoffed. "That's because nobles are trained to wave a sword whenever something upsets them."

"I think Maleficent wants to scare them."

"I think she succeeded. But whatever they lack in sense they do make up in idiotic bravery. They'll show up anyway."

The next day.

Main street was closed to traffic. In addition to the twelve jurors, a whole crowd of curious townsfolk had shown up to gawk, despite the threat of imminent dragonfire. Belle couldn't help but search for her father in the sea of faces. She didn't know if she was glad or disappointed that he wasn't there.

The jurors rated cheap folding chairs, set up in a semi-circle in front of the library. Maleficent and the royal couple faced off once again, standing in the center of the semi-circle, while Rumple and Belle stood higher with the added elevation of the sidewalk.

As law-speaker, Rumple prompted each of them to swear the traditional oath: "In the name of heaven and earth, may the four mortal elements strike me down should I speak falsely or fail to answer."

Then he had them give their testimony. It was the same story Belle had heard before, with a few details added. Rumple did not bother to call any witnesses. Instead, he conjured three dream catchers from his shop. He used one to retrieve and display Maleficent's memories, while he had Belle use the other two on Snow and David.

"I think people trust you a bit more, sweetheart."

There was a murmur of surprise from the crowd, but Belle ignored them and concentrated on the spell.

The images (cast into the air to make them visible to everyone) were compelling. Snow and David made no attempt to deny the truth of them. Snow had made her promise and failed to deliver.

"Oathbreaker." The verdict was easy.

The sentence...

Chairs scraped and fell over in the haste of the jury to evacuate the anticipated blast zone. Belle kept an eye on Regina and Emma, in case they tried to put up some kind of pro-active defense with a surprise attack.

Rumple let the moment hang dramatically.

Tick.

Tock.

Then he shrugged and said nonchalantly, "Well, dearies, you lost the baby. Now go out there and fetch her back!"

The anticlimax stunned everyone into silence. Belle suppressed a laugh.

It was Emma who spoke up first. "Wait, that's it?"

Rumple pivoted to face Emma. "I suggest you go with them. Otherwise I'm afraid your parents will end up wandering across the face of North America like a pair of lost sheep..."

"But how? We don't even know who she is, or where, or..." Snow White asked, still looking flustered from the unexpected reprieve. "How will we find her?"

"We can help you with that," Belle put in. She handed them a paper with Lily's picture magically imprinted on it.

There was another flurry of surprise when it turned out that Emma recognized the face as someone she knew from childhood.

"Their fates were tied together by what was done," Rumple said in an aside to Belle.

"Just like the Sorcerer or the Apprentice tied Ingrid's fate to Emma?" Belle wondered why they would meddle this way. What were they trying to achieve? She kept her questions to herself for now. No point in getting the heroes involved; they would only make everything more complicated.

The town felt much quieter the next day. Belle had half-expected to be left to babysit little Neal, but it seemed she was no longer to be fully trusted in the eyes of the Charming clan. Instead, the infant was left at the convent under the care of the fairies. Henry had gone with his mothers. Both of them.

Regina had volunteered herself for the trip. Not because they had any great need of her, but because she wanted to get out of Storybrooke before the pain of constantly seeing her beloved Robin with Marian became too much to bear.

"She doesn't want to revert to her Evil Queen ways," went the town gossip.

"Well, if the Mirror could get over Regina, I don't doubt Regina can get over the outlaw," Rumple said to that theory.

"We should be happy for Robin and Roland. They have their family back together again." Saying it out loud couldn't quite dispel the truth that she felt it only at a distance, in her head but not her heart. Yet her point still stood. "Regina can hardly execute her a second time just for being in the way of her love life..."

"Of course she can," scoffed Rumple. "But the people she cares about wouldn't forgive her, so she won't."

"Hopefully some time away will help her." But Belle found it hard to care very much. They had more pressing issues. "And give us some peace and quiet to find a cure for blackened hearts."

So they went to the shop as usual, along with the day's 'study material' from Rumple's collection. But once the quiet set in, Belle found it impossible to focus. Her agitated thoughts refused to settle. Her eyes blurred and letters refused to line up into proper words.

"I'll just..." Belle cast about for something mindless she could do to calm her nerves. "You know what, the window blinds in the front are getting dusty..."

It was tedious but soothing to wipe the slats down one by one. She could stand there and watch life pass by on Main Street without having to be part of it. For instance, there went Robin Hood and his family on their way to Granny's. Roland trotted on ahead, Robin chasing after him. Marian lagged behind, slower and slower until she paused and looked over at the pawn shop.

Belle froze. Her skin crawled for no apparent reason.

It's light outside and dark in here, plus the blinds are in the way. She can't see me, can she? Not from across the street.

Then Marian smiled straight at her.

Belle shuddered. This was too creepy. She had felt this once before. When? Where? In her mind's eye, Marian's face melted into another. A voice sounded in her memory.

You must be Mrs. Gold.

No. No, this was impossible! But Belle knew. A name forced itself into her mouth and she nearly choked on it.

"Zelena. She's Zelena!"