"Now keep watch, I'll call out to you if I need your help," Belle had insisted before leaving him alone outside.

He didn't fight it. He was useless to give in to that command not because she had the dagger, because she most certainly did not have the dagger, but rather, because he finally found himself unable to overcome the shock the last few minutes.

Fuck!

He was an idiot.

This was a new feeling for him, a new position. He'd always been so careful in all his planning, meticulous in knowing what was coming and who he was dealing with. But he hadn't seen this coming. How could he? He'd lost that power of foresight right inside this very cave in the Underworld! He'd traded it in the hope of getting back to this land, back to Belle and Bae and Henry. What had it gotten him?

Imprisonment. Slavery. Betrayal.

He paced. Walked back and forth before the yawning mouth of the lair, his fingers twitching and itching and snapping.

This was new to him too. He didn't pace. He didn't have nervous ticks because he'd never needed to be this nervous. Everything he'd been working on, it all suddenly hung by a single, poorly spun thread that seemed to be unraveling before his very eyes.

He wasn't sure he could stop it.

He could let Belle explore and let her realize the hat was not with the Ice Queen, but what was he to do when she demanded that he take her to the hat itself? Or the Ice Queen herself? Belle was relentless with things like this; she wouldn't stop just because she didn't find the hat, and he couldn't let her walk into danger! Hell, the only reason he'd brought her here was that it bought him time! Time to come up with something that didn't potentially end every fucking plan that he had for freedom!

He could go inside and fetch Belle back, take her back to the safety of the shop where they could discuss whatever the fuck was happening in her head. But to do that would be to give himself up; she'd realize that the dagger she held wasn't her own. And smart as she was she'd put two and two together, that's why he couldn't erase or alter her fucking memories! If he erased them, she'd know there was time missing and could simply demand he restore them. If he refused, she'd have questions and could always use the "dagger" on him. And if he altered her memories, then whatever the fuck had caused her to do this would still exist, and they might end up here again but this time with the Ice Queen actually here.

If the Ice Queen was here…

He stopped pacing and looked into the cavern Belle had disappeared into.

The command that she had given him was to keep watch. He needed to get a grip. If she had the dagger, the real dagger, then he'd have already seen a dozen ways to manipulate a loophole like that! The possibilities were endless. But what was the safest way?

He could tell her the Ice Queen was coming, but if she demanded that he allow her to stay and face the Ice Queen…

She would be doing exactly what Zelena had done with him. Using him as a weapon. And he wouldn't hesitate to bring that up. She'd hate him for a statement like that. Hell, he hated her for using the fake dagger as if it was real in the first place. This was going to culminate into a very loud screaming match, probably a few slammed doors, but-

Suddenly, something rolled almost lazily out of the cave. It was chilly and cold, like an invisible fog had just swept over the land. It was magic. Something magical was happening inside. It was happening inside the place that Belle was supposed to be alone!

He sent a quick pulse of his own energy through the cave, which signaled back that Belle was the only living body within it. But the magic, the very active magic…that hadn't been there before.

He danced on his toes, looked back out over the forest and looked back into the cavern all over again, he tried weighing his options, but the scale hadn't quite settled yet when another flare of magic seeped out.

Fuck the dagger. He had at least half a plan in his back pocket. Angry as he was at Belle over this, he couldn't leave her in there.

"Belle!" he called, heading into the lair. "Belle…"

A big lair meant it wasn't difficult to lay eyes on her.

"Belle, the Snow Queen's approaching the cave!" he lied, tapping her on the back. But she didn't move. She was quiet and motionless, staring into…a mirror.

That was it! That was the source of the magic he'd felt wafting in the air outside, the thing hanging on the wall and covered up when he'd been here earlier. It was a mirror. Only now that he was seeing it clearly, able to look into it himself, he knew exactly what it was.

The Spell of Shattered Sight.

It was no ordinary-looking glass. If it were then when he looked inside of it, he'd have seen himself and his wife exactly as they were now. But instead, the image he saw before him…it was unfamiliar. It was grotesque. It was one of the reasons that he'd kept the mirrors in the Dark Castle always covered. Not just to keep others out but because-

"Careful, Dearie!" he giggled at himself with a little wave and a smile that was something to be desired.

His hair was wavy and greasy, his skin thick and scaled, his nails dark, and his teeth rotted.

"Just like your soul. You know what we say! 'When you look into a mirror, you should always keep in mind that you never know what might be looking back…'"

Indeed. The Dark One in the mirror, he, gave another laugh. The urge to stare was almost overwhelming.

Almost.

If it had been just him, then he'd have been left helpless to it, but because of the Dark One Curse, he managed to pry his gaze from it and turn to Belle. She wasn't as capable of turning away as he was. She was left staring into it, caught in its grip. He'd warned her once, a very long time ago, about mirrors. Clearly, she was going to need a reminder when they got back. He had to get her away. Now!

The mirror wasn't shattered, which meant it only worked on her only so long as she stared into it. If he couldn't make her get away, he'd make her look away.

He stepped in front of her as close as he could get to the mirror to block as much of it out as possible. Her eyes blurred, focusing and then unfocusing as they landed on him.

"Belle."

Fuck!

He'd hoped a word would help to ground her, but instead, she brandished the dagger in his direction. It had no power over him, true, but it was still a sharpened dagger that would work just as well to cut and stab and defend and Belle…

She looked at him with wide, angry eyes. What had the worst part of herself told her?

"Look at me!" he begged. He had to get her out of her head and back into reality, with him. "Don't look in the mirror! Look at me! We have to leave!"

She attacked. She swung the blade forward in his direction. To her credit, he was sure that she'd given it all her might, and as he dodged out of the way, he felt the sting of contact it had made. But he was a trained soldier. Dangerous as this entire situation was, there was no way she could best him.

It was quick, soldiers' instinct took over, and before she could bring the blade down for another blow, he'd lunged forward, took the wrist with the blade in her hand down away from her body, and held her at her waist impossibly tight.

"Let me go!" she cried, struggling uselessly against him.

"You don't know what you're doing!"

Because even if her gaze was broken, the magic of the damn mirror was too thick in the air. He had to do what he'd wanted to do originally, dagger be damned. He had to get her out of here.

"No!" she screamed, as if sensing his intention, but it was too late. He'd already used his magic to transport them back to the shop.

"Just let me go! Let me go!"

"We're back in the shop!"

"No!"

"You're back in the shop!"

"No! No!"

"It's okay!" he breathed, more for his own sake than her own, as he released a wave of calming magic over her, hoping it would help to wash away the Curse's residual magic that still clung to them. A minute. It would only take a minute if she'd just stop squirming!

"It's okay…" He eased the grip that he had on her. He didn't let her go as she wished, but he hoped that if he didn't restrain her, she might fight back a little less. The slower she could breathe, the more she could take in his magic and rid herself of the other magic…

It worked. Was working. She'd stepped away and stopped fighting but now she was looking around the room, her eyes focusing and her brow slowly unclenching. His heart was racing as he watched her, slowly counting the seconds. A moment. A moment was all she needed.

"No…you were outside the cave!" she realized suddenly. "I commanded that you wait there!"

She was coming back to her senses. And now he found himself in the battle he'd expected to find in the lair.

"You commanded that I keep watch. I sensed she was coming back; I came to find you, and I'm glad that I did!"

He squeezed the wrist that still held the dagger in her hand. Last time, that sent her wriggling and fighting more. This time…

This time her gaze moved down her arm to the fist she held the dagger in. She stared at it, her breath becoming longer, her heart slowing down until-

She looked up at him, her eyes unfocused but in a good way, a softer way that told him the danger was ending. Still, he didn't release her, didn't give an inch as she took in the scene around her.

Not until he heard the thump of the dagger falling from her hand and onto the floor.

Logistics were really the only problem with this chapter. It's funny the stuff that makes it into these chapters sometimes. His thoughts are occasionally just my own as I let my mind imagine what it would be like if we lived in a world of magic. As I approached this chapter, why Rumple couldn't just alter her memories or erase them altogether were two questions I asked myself. They seemed, after all, the most natural way to get what he wanted. So I had to ask myself why he couldn't. And what you see is what you get. It's really nothing to do with magic that he can't do those two things, really more to do with how well he knows his wife.

Thank you, Rsbeall12 and Grace5231973, for your reviews. I'm not sure what you'll think of it, but the part where Rumple's old self greets him in the mirror was really just sort of something that happened as I was writing. Yes, of course we know that the Spell of Shattered Sight doesn't work on Rumple, that's made perfectly clear, but it doesn't mean it can't be effected by his presence in this form. It didn't seem terribly out of left field, so I kept it. Hope you don't mind! Peace and Happy Reading!