He walked Belle and Henry back to his shop when the others left. Mary Margaret stayed within his sights as she followed through on David's promise and went back to Granny's Inn for her son. Was he worried that she was going to take off the second his eyes were off her? A little. But he was banking on the fact that she and David valued truth and honesty in their relationship enough to get her back to the inn as she'd said she would. And if she didn't? Well, that wasn't really his problem, was it? If she made the choice to go off and poke the bear with the other three imbeciles, then that was her choice. At least it was so long as Emma stayed far away from him and his loved ones when they poked that bear.

Belle and Henry, on the other hand, were his problem. And at the moment, he wasn't too concerned for Belle. As much as he didn't particularly care for David giving his wife orders as though she was a soldier in his army, he'd done him a favor with that. Belle knew she worked best in a library, but only so long as she had something to work on. David had given her that. Henry, however, he didn't trust for a second. And while it would have been easy to keep him prisoner in his shop for a time, there were other things he wanted and needed to do after all of this. He needed time to think, space to consider what the Ice Queen was planning with Emma so he could be prepared and keep Belle and Henry safe. And Henry's presence certainly would not be ideal for that particular task.

"It's getting late," he announced when he got the pair of them home. "You should go home. Straight home!" he clarified before pulling the pocket square from Henry's own breast pocket. He enchanted it easily with a spell of his own design, one that would let him know if the boy strayed from his most direct path home. From there, he'd trust that having Henry there would keep Mary Margaret from making any stupid decisions, and he'd be able to do the same for her. "Should you even think about going anywhere today besides right home to your grandparents…I shall know about it," he informed him as he tucked the square into his pocket.

The look on Henry's face made it clear that he was displeased with this particular plan, but it also told him that Henry at least believed in the magic he'd cast. Once the boy was out the door and on his way, he turned to look at Belle.

"I have some work that can't wait. Would you like to be here? Or the library?" he inquired.

To no shock, she wanted to be back at the library. Also, to his surprise, she requested that he look it over, top to bottom, before leaving her there. She didn't realize that it already had half a dozen protection spells on it, and he could already sense that Emma and Ingrid were not there. But he'd never turn down a request to make sure that she was safe. Never. Especially when they moved through the place and Belle finally gave him the information he'd been missing from before and answered one particular question he'd had in mind.

The false mirror…it was in the clocktower.

After Belle took the elemental candle to Emma for practice, she'd gone back to the library. That was when she realized that Ingrid was there, came over to the shop, and called for help. That part of the story, at least, offered him some sense of ease. Not long ago, Belle might have tried to handle her on her own. The fact that she'd willingly sought out assistance when she was over her head calmed him. After the others arrived and Emma took custody of Ingrid, David and Hook reported that she'd placed a mirror in the clock tower. She'd panicked, assuming it was the mirror they'd encountered in her lair the day before. She'd done some research on removing it before she herself had gone to look at it and realized that it was a trick, that the mirror wasn't the one they'd seen before. It wasn't cursed; it was simply a mirror. That was when the others knew it was a trap, and they'd gone to the police station to warn Emma, only to find the doors iced over. They'd come right to him after that, and from there, he knew the rest of the story.

And he had his answers. Belle had unwittingly given them to him as he examined the mirror in the clock tower. Though he could tell immediately that the Spell of Shattered Sight wasn't on that mirror, he wanted to be sure there was absolutely nothing magical about it before removing it. And as he'd examined it, Belle had continued on, speaking her thoughts aloud in a helpful way he hadn't expected.

"I wonder if upsetting Emma was the goal, or if there was something else she was trying to accomplish."

"What makes you say that?" he questioned as he felt around the edges of the glass.

"Well, we figured out far too late that getting Emma alone was her plan. Emma was uncertain, mostly about the candle, before she went into the station with Ingrid, but it wasn't anywhere near as frazzled as she was by the time we figured it out and finally got to her. Something set her magic off, and logic would suggest that it was the Snow Queen. Was that the plan all along? To make Emma a danger to the town? Give herself an ally? If it was, it obviously didn't work. David and the others aren't exactly following that plan. I'm sure they'll make sure Emma is found. They won't let her become their villain."

Her ramblings had nearly stopped him in his tracks, but somehow he managed to use his magic to disintegrate the mirror before him and kiss Belle on the forehead, telling her she was safe and he'd lock her in before he left her where she stood. He was utterly in awe of his wife's mind. He'd put it together. At least, he thought he had it.

Ingrid's goal wasn't to turn Emma against the town. It was to turn the town against Emma. Or at least make her feel that way.

"Monster"…that was what Emma had called herself when she'd been in the heat of her uncontrolled magic. His memory wasn't pure, but he felt like Ingrid had called herself something along those lines the first time he'd met her, when she and her sisters came to him for help, when he'd first taken those ribbons.

A bond, whether it be of villainy, love, or sisterhood, could be forged in many ways. Sometimes it wasn't always a bond of willingness, it was a matter of convenience. Willingness might have been what Ingrid had preferred when she started this journey; she'd tried to convince the girls that they were like her and forge it through their similarities, but now that it had failed, her plan was to forge it through experiences. In making Emma see herself as "other," as a monster, she was hoping that she'd run right into her arms.

He picked up a snow globe that Henry had apparently polished to perfection, gave it a shake, and watched as the little styrofoam pieces inside swirled.

It all fit and yet...it didn't. Ingrid's plan was flawed. He felt like he was still missing a piece of the puzzle. In making Emma see herself as "other," Ingrid was hoping that she'd run right into her arms. In Ingrid's mind the bond would be formed and then...she would release the Spell of Shattered Sight and kill everyone? What was the point of it? What was the purpose? To be a Queen with her two sisters over nothing? And did she really think that Emma would so easily resort to wanting the town dead just because they deemed her a monster?

We're wasting too much time on a mind that is neither sane nor brilliant, Nimue sneered in his head.

Three very valid points. He was used to divining plans for himself that were well thought out, that started with a goal in mind, and then built around that goal. It had always worked for him. But while he sensed that Ingrid had started with a goal in mind, it was as though she felt she had one solid idea in the making of her plan, The Spell of Shattered Sight, and now she was determined to use it whether it was good for her plan or not. She almost seemed more devoted to using that Curse than to the idea of Emma and Elsa.

So, the true question that we should be asking is…

How could he use her flawed plan to his advantage?

In the next room, the Sorcerer's Hat, the tool for his own brilliant plan, still sat, his goal still clear as ever: freedom from the dagger. And his goal was achievable just as soon as he finished getting that hat charged up and figured out how to make the damn magic work.

One problem at a time, Rumpelstiltskin. In reference to getting the thing in working order, perhaps a little chaos that is neither sane nor brilliant might be exactly what we need.

A smile was just starting to twitch at the corner of his mouth when he felt a presence on his property. The same presence he'd mistaken for Elsa's in Belle's library.

Ingrid was here.

Perfect.

"As someone who's created many monsters in his time…I am impressed by the number you did on Ms. Swan," he muttered, not bothering to look up at her.

He heard the sound of heels on the wooden floor behind him. "I'm ready to make that deal."

He smirked, entertained by the fact that she at least chose to wear footwear inside the shop. Obviously, she was a member of the Storybrooke Chamber of Commerce well acquainted with "no shoes, no shirt, no service," but that was irrelevant given the words she'd just said.

"So…" Carefully, he set the snow globe down on the counter and turned to face her. "You finally understand what you didn't so many years ago."

"I want my ribbons back."

Lovely. Just as he'd suspected. But there was also one other little thing she'd obviously failed to consider. It was that matter of leverage again. And given the threat that she posed to his family, the threat that she'd been to his family the day after he'd fucking warned her to stay away, he wasn't sure that he was feeling in the deal-making mood.

"Then you'll also understand that a…a deal requires an exchange of goods. And I'm no longer convinced you have anything I want."

"You still need one more thing to cleave yourself from that dagger."

Her words dropped into the pit of his stomach like lead balls.

Now it was his turn to be shocked.

"And how do you know about that?"

"I had that hat longer than you. I learned many things. Among them…the missing piece of your puzzle. Give me my ribbon, I'll tell you what it is. You see, I've figured out your plan. Storybrooke…is a small town. Too small for someone as powerful as the Dark One to be content."

He nearly laughed. World domination. That wasn't his plan. Not in the least, he'd intended to stop far short of that…before she'd come along, at least. "Well, they did close down that ice cream parlor I was so fond of," he declared, moving away from and back behind the glass case where he'd stored that box earlier.

"You want to cleave yourself from the dagger so you can venture outside of Storybrooke without losing your power or your precious Belle. You want, in short, what all villains want," Ingrid monologued as he set the box on the table before them.

"And what's that?" he questioned, tantalizingly opening the box's lock and opening it for her.

"Everything!" Her breath caught for a moment as she stared down at those ribbons, practically salivating over them. "And I want to give it to you," she muttered, looking back up at him.

"What makes you so generous?"

Ingrid reached her hand out as if to make a quick grab for them. He didn't close the box, but he did move his hand in front of it to the point that if she tried something, a quick flick of the wrist would make her think twice about that decision. But instead, her fingers came to rest over the glass of the snow globe he'd been examining earlier.

"What you want is out there. And everything that I want is in here."

He glanced down at the flare of magic he felt and noticed she'd turned the bauble to ice. Poetic. And telling. So, she did want Storybrooke, to rule over it as Queen. But after the Spell of Shattered Sight took effect what would there be to rule?

Don't get caught up in the flaws of her plan! Nimue snapped. Focus on the glories of ours.

"Do what you want with the rest of the world. Storybrooke will be mine," Ingrid declared.

He plucked one of the ribbons in his possession free and looked it over, carefully considering what this was going to mean. He didn't know how she'd figured out what she knew; the dagger, the cleaving of it, the hat, all of it, but if she truly could turn over what she was offering, the missing element to the magical proofs that had so long eluded Zoso, then it was a deal. But this deal not only held everything he wanted, it also contained one element of surprise which required him to weigh it carefully. This deal didn't just get him what he wanted it; it contained the promise of exile. He hadn't planned on that. Getting what he wanted would mean leaving town. And unless he wanted to go alone, taking those he cared about with him was going to be complex.

How lucky for us that her plan includes complications, then!"

"Do you want your answer?" Ingrid questioned with all the temptation of a professional salesman.

Did he?

He could stop this all. He could stop it all right now. Refuse her the ribbons, turn her in, confess to Belle…hell, he'd been thinking ever since the beginning that one day this would all come to light, and she'd probably forgive him for it. This could be it, that moment she'd be willing to overlook it all because he'd done the right thing.

But then, where would that leave him? A man in love with a woman but still a danger to her because he was bound first and foremost, always, against his will, to a piece of metal.

He didn't want to take over the world, not today, at least. Nimue, however, would be all too willing to engage in that plot, which was, he assumed, the reason she was shouting in his head with the passion of a toddler. But whether or not Ingrid's hypothesis was correct, he wouldn't deny that he needed what she was offering. And Nimue was right, the complexities of Ingrid's poorly thought through plan, they would provide a bit of cover that he needed.

When two people both have something the other wants…

"You know I do."

"Then we have a deal…" she breathed, reaching for the ribbons. He pulled the one in his hand back and away from her.

"You first," he dared. Because she might act like an expert, but he was the pawnbroker here. She knew what she was getting, now it was time for her to prove to him that what he was getting in return was of equal value. "Tell me what I require."

She leaned forward, and he realized she meant to whisper it. Smart girl. "When the stars align in the sky, you must sacrifice the heart of someone who knew the you you were before you were this. Use your magic to destroy the bond that ties you to your formerself and embrace your new self."

He found himself smiling as his mind worked through the spell she was suggesting.

The heart of someone who knew the him he was before he was this. Someone who knew him before he was cursed, she meant.

Yes. Everything fell into place. Typically, objects, usually something that was owned or touched by someone prior to their curse were burned as a way to fill up on power and remove a curse. But this…he should have known…

The dagger, the blade, his leash, it hadn't been designed for him or really any of the other Dark Ones, save for one. Nimue. Merlin had designed this hat and, in his intelligence, likely knew exactly what it could do so he would have made the requirements for Nimue to break the power he had on her powerful. The heart of someone she'd known before she was cursed. He'd seen her past; Merlin knew about it. For as long as those two battled at the end of the day the only one capable of setting Nimue free would have been him, and he'd practically allowed her to seal him up inside that tree.

I'm sure he saw it as poetic justice.

For Nimue, sure…but for him…this was a truly beautiful, poetic development. He suffered the same problem Nimue might have had when the hat was made, that the people she'd known and loved were dead save for one. But for him, the one person still up and walking around all these years later…

His smile grew.

Perfect.

"Not only can I do that…But I shall do it with great pleasure."

Hell, for that information, he might have thrown in a fourth ribbon.

If she asked, of course.

I told you 4x07 would come together. I do love this chapter, for so many reasons. We get a glimpse of Rumple as an over-protective Grandfather, and a husband, and a magician. I have also been pleasantly surprised over the years how often I really have enjoyed incorporating the Dark Ones, in particular Zoso and Nimue into his mind, watching them insert themselves in his plans and conversations. It's been fun for me to play with who is most likely to come forward and I've loved that over the years Nimue has stopped using other Dark Ones and just addresses him herself. I think it says a lot about where Rumple is in his life and his mind. If you'll recall from the previous fiction, Zoso tends to show up when Rumple needs convincing of something, Nimue shows up when orders need to be given and plans carried out.

Thank you, Rsbeall12 and Grace5231973, for your reviews. I'm interested to hear what you'll think of all this. There is still one more chapter in 4x07 but we're really getting down to the wire here, very much so flying by those "exits" we talked about with fewer and fewer second thoughts. Another one of those exit ramps went by in this chapter. Did you catch it? Peace and Happy Reading!