Mr. Gold knew every inch of Storybrooke. Not because he wanted to but out of necessity. He was, first and foremost, a savvy businessman and given that the entire town belonged to him, he'd taken it upon himself to know everything about it.

But the drive Belle was leading him down now, the gravel road and well-trimmed hedges…this hadn't been here before.

He was almost positive about it.

Mr. Gold knew every inch of Storybrooke on paper, but that didn't mean he'd been out to inspect every inch personally. This plot of land was his own, but as far as his records from before Zelena's Curse suggested, it was merely a patch of undeveloped land. As far as he knew, it had no renter, and he'd never sought to build something on it. So, the mansion that suddenly loomed before him, shimmering with a kind of ancient Light Magic, didn't just worry him; it confused him.

"There!" Belle shouted unnecessarily as he pulled the car closer. "Right around the bend! I ah…I found it on a morning hike."

He pulled to a stop as both Mr. Gold and Rumpelstiltskin examined it. There was something familiar about that shimmer of Light Magic. But it wasn't strong enough for him to quite put his finger on.

"It must have come over at the last curse…no one's claimed it, so I thought there'd be no harm if we borrowed it for our honeymoon…" Belle suggested with a sly look that had him smirking.

No one had claimed it. Yet it held magic and was well-manicured? Ordinarily, he'd be looking to a villain to have owned a place like this, but the fact that it was Light Magic he felt coming from inside… was a different story altogether. A different curiosity altogether, one he was having a most difficult time turning down, especially when Belle said, "Come on, let's go!" and got out of the car.

It wouldn't hurt to look around.

As Belle took the lead in front of him and he watched her walk away, he realized it wouldn't hurt to do a little bit more than look around the house as well. They were on their "honeymoon". A little bit of misbehaving should be required. But…he'd also promised himself that at the first chance he got, he was going to switch the dagger back. Given the circumstances, that would certainly fall under the category of misbehavior, though not the kind he wanted to think about when he was with his wife and the sun went down.

Still that taste of Light Magic…

"Are you sure no one lives here?" he asked as he gathered their bags. Mr. Gold had no new information, but he knew what he would have Dove investigate the second he turned his phone back on. Belle said herself it was new in the curse, and it wouldn't have just put itself here for no reason…

Either Zelena had willed it here specifically, or Regina had not willed someone here in her curse. Which was it?

"Sure," she answered quickly. "Let me take you inside and show you around. You'll love it!"

Oh, he was bound to love anywhere she was. And the fact that it was Light Magic made him feel safe enough to let her in. But the sudden appearance of it still made him feel nervous.

But ignorant of his pessimism, Belle took her bag from him, the bag he was suddenly aware contained the dagger, and walked right over to a side door and opened it up wide, as if she'd known it would be unlocked. If she'd found it days ago, as she'd claimed, perhaps that was how she'd known, though breaking and entering, as well as morning hikes, were a bit out of character for her. Not to mention, days ago, Zelena had been in power, and she'd told him herself that she hadn't left the shop during that time. There was more to the story than she was letting on. Perhaps that was the reason for her confidence. He made a mental note to retrieve that story from her later as she ushered them both inside.

He glanced inside the wood-paneled room she brought him into. Fairly clean. Too clean. Too clean to be abandoned and yet also too clean to have anyone in residence. It was like that hotel he'd stayed at with Emma in New York. Nicer, of course, but clean as it had been, it had lacked warmth; everything had been staged. This had that same feeling to it. Only with Light Magic…

"You know, I wonder who lived here?" Belle blurt out, walking into the space and-

She set her bag down. The bag that contained the dagger, she'd set it down and walked away from it!

"Come on. Take a look around! It is spectacular. You can see the ocean from nearly every room!"

His heart drummed violently against his ribs, and the voices in his head were reeling. On instinct, he raised his hand and froze Belle in place, right by the window she'd gone to gaze out, with only a snap of his fingers.

And then he was there…just him and the dagger in her bag as well as the real one in his coat pocket. He went to her bag, found the scarf she'd draped around the fake one, pulled it free to set off to the side, and then pulled the real one from his pocket.

And paused with it in his hands.

The first chance he got…he'd promised Bae. He'd promised himself he'd do it at the first chance. There was absolutely no denying that this was that chance!

The Dark Ones inside him screamed, roaring at him not to do this, not to trust anyone or submit as he'd so recently been forced to submit!

But the gravestone with his son's name filled his mind's eye.

Courage. He'd asked for courage to do the right thing. He wanted to do the right thing. He wanted to be the man she deserved, the grandfather Henry deserved, the father he should have been with Bae…and that started here. It was a risk, given how very recently he'd broken trust and murdered Zelena, but he'd wiggled his way out of difficult situations before. If he found himself in the middle of one, he could do it again.

"If we're gonna do this…we're gonna do it properly," he muttered, more for his own sake than anything, as he covered his own, the real one, with her scarf and replaced it, then hid the false one away in his jacket to be disposed of later.

And before he could even allow himself to overthink it, he snapped his fingers, unfreezing the scene before him and preventing himself from undoing what he'd done, despite the groanings in his head.

At the very least, his chest felt a little lighter.

"You haven't even seen the best part yet!" Belle suddenly squealed, turning back to him and none the wiser as to what he'd done. Good. Hopefully, it would be a long time before she realized…

"Come on…" She grabbed at his shoulders before moving around him and wringing his hands. He took a step in her direction, only to find-

He felt his resolve stumble as silence rang out like a warning bell in his head. Or maybe it was just the blood rushing to his head. Was he breathing? He wasn't sure anymore; he couldn't be, not as he stared at something on the table, something radiating the Light Magic he felt around him now, the answer to the puzzle of familiarity!

A gold cylinder. Small ornate bumps raised over it. And over the top of it, a blue surface with silver five-pointed stars. There were ridges raised over that surface, making it look as though it was a pond someone had just tossed a stone into.

In this world, it looked like nothing more than a cheap plastic toy. But in their world…in their world, that cylinder had once been the Holy Grail. A relic he'd never gotten his hands on.

Something that would have solved every problem he had and more.

"Is everything okay?" Belle asked in a worried tone from somewhere behind him, breaking his concentration.

"Yeah…"

Yes. Yes, everything was okay. Potentially better than okay if the voices in his head already plotting were to be believed. But for now…for now, she didn't need to know that. For now, he had no proof that the cylinder was what he thought it was, even if it looked identical, smelled identical, and had the same kind of magic leaking out of it. The tone on this one was muted, more so than before. To see if it was what he thought it was would take experiments and testing and…

His dagger.

But his bride was with him now. Completely unaware of what she may have stumbled into, a solution to a problem they both might want fixed was before them. And with her eyes on him as they were there was no way to freeze the scene as he had before, not without also stealing her memories and there was certainly no need for that.

No need...

There was no need to worry her about what she might have found. No need to perform those experiments right this moment. No reason he should get his hopes up.

Now was the time for something else. Anything else that might take his mind off that...

"It's just whoever this place belonged to…has interesting taste," he explained, managing to put one foot in front of the other and leave the relic behind.

For now, at least.

I know it's a short chapter and I probably could have included the next chapter in with it, but I just couldn't stomach putting this discovery in with what's coming in the next chapter. They needed some separation in my opinion. I hope you'll agree.

Thank you so much for your comments on the last chapter, Rsbeall! I know, it's a doozy to try and explain it all away, but I'm gonna give it my best shot with this fiction! Up next, that other wonderful scene we're all dying to see! You know what's coming, I know what's coming...enjoy it while you can! Peace and Happy Reading!