He needed to speak with the Snow Queen.

Belle, too. But given the events of the last few days, the Snow Queen took precedence.

Unfortunately, after waiting for Belle and her new assistant from Arendelle to safely lock themselves in the library, by now the rest of the group was out hunting her down, which meant that he had to be extremely careful how he went about finding her. The last thing he needed was to magically show up at her side when she was surrounded by Charmings. He was confident he could navigate that situation, but he didn't particularly want them to know his magic had that kind of ability. Given how frequently people went missing in this town, he was unwilling to become their magical bloodhound.

So, instead of using his magic to seek out Ingrid, he used his magic to search out her magic across Storybrooke. And just as before, he found himself staring up at the ice wall surrounding the Storybrooke border, still reeking of her magic. That was no matter. With a little bit more of his own magic, and a fine-tuned sense of her own magic, he closed his eyes once more, let his magic carry him out to-

When he opened his eyes he flinched, his mouth fell open in a silent contained scream. He was in the woods, somewhere he'd never been in Storybrooke, but somewhere that he had gone to in the Underworld.

It was a cave.

No, that wasn't accurate.

It wasn't just a cave…it was the cave.

The cave that the Seer had taken him to when she'd crossed over, the cave that he'd taken shelter in just before being summoned back to the land of the living. Last time he'd seen this yawning mouth, warm air had poured out of it, a result of the pit of fire the cavern contained within it, but now…now it was frozen over. It was either ironic or a sick joke, and he couldn't identify which. Beneath his feet, the soil of the forest floor began to sparkle and turn white the higher his eyes climbed to the entrance of that cave. Gray rocks became icy blue and glistening white. Icicles hung from the ceiling both outside and within.

The Ice Queen's Lair. He'd found it. It sounded utterly cliché, but he'd be damned if he'd ever known a villain not to have a lair. Back in their land, they were often in the form of castles, but the nature of Storybrooke required creativity. Regina had her mausoleum, he had the basement, Hook had his ship, Maleficent had…well…the library. It appeared that Ingrid had an ice cave that just so happened to be the spot that the Underworld used as their point of either redemption or damnation.

That thought, that memory alone, nearly had him turning on his heels to leave. But his curiosity…that pushed him forward. Slowly. Up and into the chilly unknown, where he used his magic to warm his body. What he found inside was the exact opposite of what he'd seen in the Underworld. There was no fiery abyss, no soot-covered walls, no heat. The entire cavern was white. Almost blindingly so. It was covered floor to ceiling, wall to wall, in ice and snow. And as for lacking the warmth of home, well…the warmth was missing, but the comforts of home were undoubtedly present.

There was furniture. Hell, the more he looked at it, there was practically an entire studio apartment! A chair and vanity, a chaise to relax on, several candelabras with candles that carried a simple enchantment to light the space and never die down even as icicles hung from…everything! Every surface not attached to the floor featured those pointy little death traps. Everything…except that.

Something was hanging against the wall, dripping with some familiar dark magic but covered in a sheet. It called to him, and he made his way over to it-

Only to bump into something and hear it fall to the floor in a crash.

A vase, it appeared. Well, it appeared that the Ice Queen had spared no expense in crafting a place for her as welcoming as her palace in Arendelle might have been. But if that was the case, why wasn't she here?

He'd found her lair, but the lair was never the goal. He needed to talk to her. And while he'd love to keep exploring this little ice palace she'd built, he was aware that every moment spent looking around a place where the queen wasn't was a moment that the Charming family could use to find her and rob him of his opportunity to have that little discussion they needed to have.

He would have loved to explore some more, but time was of the essence, so he used his magic to gather up the vase that he'd tripped over, then used the same magic he'd used on Marion's Hair to break down the magic that had crafted it into its original form, snowflakes, and followed. Back out of the lair and into Storybrooke's forests, he followed for minutes until he was confident that by now, the others would have found her first only…suddenly the snowflakes died and dropped to the ground at his feet. They hadn't reached their master, but if their intended had seen what he was doing and called them off, called forth her magic…

She was here. In the clearing. He couldn't see her, but he could feel her. It was a cute trick.

"You can show yourself, dearie!" he called out. "I'm not the one you're hiding from."

"No, you're not."

There she was. Leaning against a tree as if she'd been waiting for him and gotten bored.

"To what do I owe this intrusion?"

"A warning," he muttered before taking some steps forward, an inviting way of taking her for a walk. "Emma Swan is onto you. She knows your history began long before you came to Storybrooke."

"I'm aware," she answered coolly before pushing herself off the tree and walking onward.

No…not onward, not in the inviting way he was doing. She was circling. Her path cut him off from moving any further than he'd already gone. An interesting technique. One he'd probably used himself a time or two when he'd sensed it was appropriate. Which was why it was a futile technique on him. As if he'd ever be scared of her.

"Do you really think she would have discovered that if I hadn't wanted her to? It's all part of my plan…a plan you thankfully know little about."

He nearly laughed. That was both true and false. He had a feeling that he'd put together far more than she thought that he had, far more than she'd ever intended for him to have since he'd already had the hat when she'd offered it up to him so tantalizingly. Not that she needed to know that yet. It was all part of the role he was playing, the role he sensed she needed him to play: the desperate Dark One longing for a freedom only she had the key to.

"You're being awfully secretive," he pressed.

"You didn't come to warn me. You came to find out my secrets."

"Or offer up a deal. Whatever suits you best," he offered, letting her think that she was still in charge of the situation.

She stopped at his words, her heart skipping a beat just as he'd wanted it to. He'd hoped that little phrase might force her to call into question exactly how much she thought that he knew. Saying it with confidence like that…well, he hoped that right now she was considering that he knew exactly what she'd want.

"But if you decline, I'd be careful."

"There it is. There's the warning. You want something out of me? Why don't you just ask for it?"

"If I wanted something out of you, dearie, believe me, I'd take it."

"But you can't, can you? Otherwise, you would. You and I both know…to get what you want, you need one thing I have, and you're sorely lacking…leverage."

Now, that was…an interesting piece of information. Not necessarily the information he had come for, but information all the same.

"And until you get that…I have a warning for you. Stay out of my way."

She disappeared in a chilly fog of snow and ice. Oddly enough, it was his own words that echoed in his mind as she did. "When two people both have something the other wants a deal can always be struck."

He'd thought he had her because he had the ribbons, but he hadn't reverse-engineered that just yet. He had something that she wanted. What would he be willing to trade for it? What did she have that he lacked?

Nothing overly exciting here. Just more hints to Rumple that there is something he is missing and hasn't put two and two together with.

Thank you to Grace5231973 and Rsbeall12 for your reviews. I believe for the next several chapters we'll be with Rumple and Belle through the parts that we're not so fond of in this half season. Please, don't fret too much and give it a chance. As I've been saying I ended up liking this episode a lot more than I thought that I would. It was really later that the hardest stuff to write came into play. Peace and Happy Reading!