This was a tricky game he was playing. He'd known ever since the moment he found the hat and took the dagger back that it would be. But he hadn't expected that this was where it would lead, with Belle beside him as they stood in the forest.

"Where is it?" Belle asked, spinning about as if looking for a mailbox labeled "Ice Queen."

"Well, if the magic brought us here, then it must be here somewhere," he answered.

The first play he'd made in this game of theirs was to buy time. He hadn't brought them right to the door of Ingrid's hideaway, instead delivered them a fair distance off, close enough that Belle would believe the magic had worked, but potentially enough time for him to get to the bottom of this situation and figure out what was going on her mind to cause her to break from her usual self. Because this version of Belle was most certainly not the woman he knew.

This insanity was a blow in so many ways, but at the moment, that was the fact that boggled his mind more than anything. He'd always believed he knew Belle's mind better than anyone, and to think that he couldn't conceive of what was happening at the moment, what had inspired this sudden burst of bravado that he knew she was going to regret later, bothered him.

"Over there!" she finally pointed before making her way in the correct direction so quickly he struggled to keep up without magic.

"Belle!" he called after her. He wanted to talk to her, to ask her questions, to figure out what was happening, but her intelligence and skills of observation didn't seem harmed in her clouded desperation. The time he'd bought for himself had already run out. Damn.

"This is it!" she exclaimed, stopping before the mouth of the cave he had discovered earlier. "This is where she's hiding?!"

Who else but an ice queen would cover a cave to hell in pure ice?

Fuck he didn't know if that was his sarcastic comment or another Dark One.

He held back a wince. That statement was at least part question, she'd been looking to him for response and yet…he was sarcastic with people he made deals with. Never Belle. Oh, was there a way back from this?

"Indeed," he answered quickly, his mind suddenly racing with images of the days before this when things had seemingly been perfect between the pair of them. Could they get back to that after she used the dagger?

Why would you want to be with someone who abuses the dagger? Nimue snarled.

The Dark One shook him from his stupor. That wasn't something he needed to worry about right now. Now, he had to worry about keeping his plan intact. Which, unfortunately, included…

"But she's not at home," he pointed out. "I don't sense her magic."

"Good." Belle nodded in understanding. Her back straightened a little as she looked at the mouth of the cave and took a breath. He could hear her heart racing. Clearly, she was frightened in addition to wound up, yet here she stood, putting on her bravery, ready to go inside. It was the bravery that attracted him to her, and yet, without an understanding of what was prompting it, it seemed uncharacteristically foolish.

"Okay. You stay here as lookout. I'm going in."

"Belle!" he caught her arm before she could go any further. Just because he could sense that Ingrid wasn't inside didn't mean he wanted her to go in there. He'd only caught glimpses of the place earlier, and there was Dark Magic, not to mention the place was made of ice. It was a hazard. And he might be confused and angry with her at the moment, but that didn't mean he was ready to throw her to the dogs and walk away. He wanted to understand. He wanted to understand everything. Why she was here? What had been bothering her? What triggered this? And at the moment, he wanted to understand why the fuck she'd bring him out here only to act as lookout?! "You're not going in there alone!"

"I won't be long, I just need to find something."

"What could you possibly want from the Snow Queen's cave?!"

"A hat-"

He felt a wave of cold wash over him, hindering his attempt to try and catch her again as he processed that word. No. She couldn't mean-

"-that can strip a magical being of all their power."

His mouth had gone dry, but his skin suddenly felt drenched in sweat. The world felt blurry and upside-down as he tried to regain his sense of being in his body. Even the Dark Ones grew silent.

She wasn't…she couldn't be thinking of…

The Sorcerer's Hat.

What other hat was there that fit that description?

"Sounds like a remarkable object," he managed, swallowing down his shock. It…it was a coincidence. She'd read about the hat somewhere. That was how she knew about it. He needed to focus. "Almost too good to be true, which means it probably is!"

"It isn't! And I know she has it, and I need to get it from her! It's the only way to force her to tell us where Anna is!"

Belle knew that Ingrid had the hat—or at least had possession of it at one point. Now, it was only a suspicion that she still had it, which meant she didn't have a clue that he possessed it.

It might have been a coincidence that she knew about the hat, but that she'd come here looking for it?! You need to get ahead of this situation you've created, Rumple.

And Anna…

"So, this is about Elsa's sister?"

Belle shook her head and moved closer to the cave. And he…he stopped her. He couldn't believe he hadn't seen it before this. Elsa's sister, Anna, the only other person he'd known to have taken possession of the hat. Anna...she'd only gotten odd after Anna had been mentioned when they'd come back from their honeymoon. Her heart only skipped a beat when Elsa was around. She'd only wanted to use the dagger on him after she'd gone to work in the library with Elsa, Anna's sister. Anna was the connection, but…how?! Why? What the fuck was going on?!

"Why are you so invested in a girl you've never met?!"

Every game one played always involved a little bit of luck and a little bit of risk. That was the source of the thrill of it. With Belle games were usually easy, he didn't need luck because risks with her were minimal. At least they had been before this particular fight. He'd been getting somewhere with her, putting two and two together in his mind to come up with a picture that provided him with the information he craved, and yet he'd forgotten that Belle wasn't in her right might. He'd been playing a game with a particular kind of Belle and never felt that more than he did right this second.

It was a simple question he'd asked, one that his Belle, the one who loved truth and was undaunted by some yet unseen connection, would have answered honestly in a heartbeat. But for this Belle, it was too much.

Her back straightened immediately. He watched as she reeled in that question and held her head high. She was tense and suddenly guarded in a way that his Belle wasn't.

"Because a hero always helps strangers!" she snapped at him, a rote answer, something like what a child would say, not because they felt it but because that was what they were trained to do.

But for Belle to respond in such a way to a question like that…

What had Belle done to Anna?

Again, really enjoyed writing these chapters. I really enjoyed watching him be confused over Belle, I really enjoyed getting to make him torn in his thoughts and feelings toward her at this moment. I liked finding all the little ways that I could have him read her and figure out that there was something more going on that what he suspected, and I loved having him struggle with wanting to move on but knowing that he probably shouldn't want that. I enjoyed it.

Thank you, Rsbeall12 and Grace5231873, for your reviews. Again, I know it's too much to hope that everyone will enjoy these chapters, but I don't think it's too much to hope that you'll think the portrayal of Rumple is as in character as it usually is. It was a tough line to straddle, but in the end I just felt like this was as close as it could possibly be. Let me know! Peace and Happy Reading!