"Enjoy your trip." Ingrid had muttered those words and he'd barely had time to acknowledge the roaring jubilance in his chest when he felt…

Belle. She was at the shop. As he turned to leave Ingrid, his mind set on going to check on why Belle had left the library and gone over to the shop so quickly after they parted, he hesitated. The next roll of thunder he heard overhead nearly had him looking back to check the time he had left and it reoriented his mind, setting his priorities.

Belle was in the shop. She'd gone there after the library, after making calls, when she discovered the storm was actually an incoming curse. Belle was a hero; her instinct would be to stop the storm from coming, and while that was a noble thing, the quick calculations he'd done in his head told him that there was no chance of that happening, at least not with the time they had left. Smart as she was, she'd likely realized this and gone to the shop to seek his aid.

As much as he longed to give her everything that she wanted, he couldn't give her this. There was no answer she would ever accept easily, and it wasn't in her nature to give up when others' lives were on the line, especially if she knew hers wouldn't be. He could go to her in that shop, but to do so risked entangling himself in a plot that would never be fruitful. It would only waste time. And with the permission he'd been given from Ingrid…there was a lot to do, and only a short amount of time to do it.

So, he held his phone tight in his hand, waiting for a call from Belle, assuming when she didn't find him there she would call him and he'd have to come up with some kind of lie. But the call never arrived. Belle didn't leave the shop, and if things were going his way then it wasn't up to him to question that. It was his job to prepare for the inevitable moment that whatever Belle planned failed, and she and Henry were in danger.

He let his magic carry him back to the house. With Belle in the shop, and the hat carefully hidden, he had little choice but to work somewhere else. And there was a lot of work to be done.

Not where Henry was concerned. When all was said and done, Henry was actually the least of his concern, at least when it came to the emergent aspects of his plan.

If they didn't know it yet, then they would likely soon realize what the ribbons meant and where the magic to cast this curse had come from. With Emma and her magic compromised, Regina was likely to take custody of the boy for his own safety. And when the time was right, when he knew that Regina would have figured out there was nothing to be done and all was lost, he'd appear to her and appeal to her desire for her son's safety. She wouldn't like it. And she'd see right through his so-called "deal" to the scheming and planning that had likely gone on behind the scenes. She wouldn't trust him, not willingly, but with a promise to take Henry far away from the carnage that was about to happen, she wouldn't have much of a choice. She'd give him the boy without argument. And while Henry himself might argue and resist leaving, a simple sleeping spell would ensure he couldn't fight.

No, Henry wasn't going to be a problem. The problems would be what came after and Belle. Belle wasn't going to leave without a fight. That same sleeping spell that he was planning on using for Henry would also work on Belle, but once they were across the town line, that was an entirely different problem.

He didn't know the parameters of the Dark Curse that had brought them to this world, not this time. He had hints of it, things that he'd been able to glean from conversations with Belle since he'd been free of the Wicked Witch, but the only way to well and truly know what was different from last time would be to talk to Snow White, Prince Charming, and likely Regina as well. Given the circumstances, he highly doubted they'd be willing to take an hour over lunch to go through the details, and even if they did, his questions would be so prodding they wouldn't come away from that time without having an inkling as to his plan. Besides, he also knew that in the final moments, Zelena had done something to the curse they'd created. The only way to be sure as to what she'd done would be to resurrect her and ask her about it himself, but he had no interest in that.

Which meant he had to assume the worst. He had to assume that beyond the ice the Dark Curse was exactly what he knew it to be before Pan and Regina had taken it down. He had to assume that he and Belle would have their memories compromised beyond the line. And seeing as how he had no interest in raising Henry with Lacey…

A talisman, Belle, was going to need one. And while he was at it, as wonderful as Bae's scarf worked, he had already seen at the airport that it was less than convenient. Something smaller and less conspicuous, that potentially wasn't so hard to wear at night when he slept, was going to be necessary. And he knew exactly what he needed to use.

Upstairs, locked away in a jewelry box, was the necklace Belle had been wearing nearly the entire time they'd been at the castle. She'd been wearing it when he took her away, and even after he offered her other clothes, she'd continued to wear it. He'd learned over the years that it had belonged to her mother and was, therefore, dear to her, dear enough to serve as a talisman and small enough not to be a bother in the world beyond. For Belle, it would work.

And for him? His wedding ring. As it turned out, that trip they'd taken to the airport had been a wealth of knowledge. Not only did he recall that while the security guards asked for metal to come off, there'd been one gentleman who had twisted his ring over his finger, showing the man it didn't come off and so he'd walked through the metal detector with it. If that man could get away with it, then so could he.

The incident he'd had with Emma when he'd taken off the scarf the first time also gave him hope. Belief was powerful. It was magic all on its own and that told him that out there, beyond Storybrooke, magic existed. It was weak, but belief could make it powerful. For now, today and tomorrow, his ring and Belle's necklace would do just fine. But it was his hope that with belief on their side and the Heart of the Truest Believer under their roof, one day they might not need the talismans at all. Assuming, of course, that their memories were still at risk beyond the town line.

Beyond the town line…what came next…

He set to work on the talismans, knowing that last time he'd done this it had taken months, but now he'd have to recreate it in mere hours. It could be done, but he'd have to be efficient. And as he worked, he considered that second part of the question. What would come next? He knew he might succeed in getting Belle and Henry out of the town. When the time was right, he'd get Henry from Regina first, then he'd get Belle and put her to sleep before she had the chance to truly argue. He'd put her necklace on as they drove beyond the barrier, but then what?

They'd need money. That was easy. His bank account was always overflowing, and he assumed that in the real world, he'd have access to that for at least a few weeks before whatever banking system here in Storybrooke was destroyed and his funds disappeared. He'd pack some things to pawn. He had an entire shop full of things that the outside world might not care much about but refined materials, gold, diamonds, silver, that would have value all its own. Before his money disappeared, he'd withdraw as much as possible, buy them a house, then pawn the metals and use that to start his own business. Hopefully, by the time the Storybrooke Bank fell, he'd be okay. He'd be working again like a peasant, but he liked work. And at least he'd be his own boss.

But what came after for Belle and Henry? Well, some of that was an easy answer. Memory potion. For Belle, without doubt, because if she had a memory of him putting her to sleep and taking her away, then she'd wake angry and potentially stay angry. With Storybrooke in shambles, she wouldn't stop trying to get back to help people, and if his magic wasn't as strong out there at first, then there would be no putting her to sleep until the worst of it had passed. The same went for Henry, more or less. He also would try to get back to Storybrooke to save his mothers. While there was a chance Regina might hand him over easily and the boy would understand, a memory potion for both of them would do wonders. Just a drop or two would allow him to come up with a story of a different kind.

It would have to be one filled with death and destruction, one that left him with little choice but to take the pair of them and run. And he'd have to make it look good. That meant that as much as he wanted to go upstairs and pack a suitcase for Belle and himself, he couldn't. Fleeing in a hurry meant grabbing what he could, and if they awoke to a car stuffed with things they valued, then they would both know something was wrong with his story.

So that was it then.

He'd spend the rest of the afternoon packing some precious objects worth high value in the outside world, as little as possible for the highest value. He'd finish working on the talismans. He'd pack away the memory potion. And when the time was right, he'd put Belle to sleep and put her necklace on her, get Henry from Regina, give them both a drop or two of memory potion, and when they were on the other side of the ice wall, and they woke up, he'd break the news. Storybrooke was no more. He'd tell them that he and Regina had figured it out together that his magic was strong enough to get Henry over the town line too late, that he'd saved Belle and tried to get her father for her, but there wasn't time. He'd tell them he grabbed what he could for a quick exit from the shop, including Belle's talisman that he'd been working on since Baelfire, and then…then they'd just begin again.

A good plan? Yes.

A well-thought-out one? Well…he'd work on it as he went. Only…

Magic! He felt it enter the shop, the shop where Belle still was. It was the same magic his mind automatically associated with Ingrid, but alongside it was another signature that calmed him. Emma. To feel Emma and Elemental Magic together almost certainly meant that it was Emma and Elsa in his shop with Belle, not Ingrid. For a moment, he tapped his foot, looking around at his ring and Belle's necklace, and the various brews he had bubbling, and considered leaving all of it to go to her side.

But he stayed where he was. Emma and Elsa were of no threat to Belle. The Ice Queen was. And so was the town line. One of those things he could do something about. He needed to get back to work. Processing magic he'd once needed weeks to create long ago in only a matter of hours was difficult enough, he needed to hurry.

But he'd barely gotten back to work on the ring and necklace, barely felt Emma and Elsa leave the shop before his cell phone rang beside him. Belle. He nearly swore as it went off again. He should have known that staying out of this when she was so close to it all was going to be nearly impossible. And now, he needed a good excuse.

"Belle…"

"Rumple? Rumple, where are you?" she questioned on the other end.

"Making preparations," he answered honestly. "This curse is going to hit and you're going to need to be protected, safe. You should go to the shop and stay there until I arrive."

"Actually, it might not be necessary." He could hear her moving in the background, hear her anxious footsteps and her keys before he felt her presence vacate the shop. "I may have found something, a way to stop the curse, to cure us all."

"What?" he balked, truly astounded and amazed. He'd been dealing in Dark Magic hundreds of years before her, and as far as he knew, there was no way to stop the Spell of Shattered Sight. But Belle, who had only been working with Dark Magic, magic in general, for a few months, had figured it out? Figured out what hundreds of witches and wizards before him hadn't? If she had, then he truly did underestimate her. "You found a way to stop it?"

"No, not stop it," she clarified. "I just came at it from a different place. That necklace of Anna's, the one they've been looking for since the power went out…it turned up. And Rumple, it has mirror dust in it, embedded in the metal, when I looked at it, I could confirm that when Anna put Elsa in the urn she was under the Spell of Shattered Sight."

"What's that got to do with the curse coming at us now?"

"We can reverse engineer it!" she answered with excitement. I gave Emma and Elsa a tracking potion. They've gone to look for Anna. We can use her, someone who was under the spell, to make a sort of vaccine. We can inoculate Storybrooke!"

His mind was spinning, thinking of all the possibilities in what she'd been saying, thinking through the magic like one of those magical proofs he used to make Regina do when she was studying magic, like he and Zoso had done for the hat. His conclusion? Her theory was one that could work.

"Now, I've already called the Fairies; they say this can work, and they're setting up at Granny's Diner. We'll work out of there, but I had to ask, Rumple…is there anything you can do to help?"

The world stopped at her last detail. Somewhere in his mind Nimue let out a peal of laughter before emerging from the shadows under the basement stairs to smile at him like some kind of demon he'd been trying to keep hidden away. A demon he suddenly realized might have had a better plan than he was willing to admit until just now.

The fairies were going to be at the diner. All of them, working to fix this curse. An entire hive of magical creatures. A one-to-one comparison of a fairy to the Savior would easily show the Savior had more power, but an entire swarm of fairies…

"That would be more magical power than that hat might be able to comprehend," Nimue smiled, leaning across the table. "More power than we might know what to do with…if we weren't so busy looking for power to begin with..."

Yes. Indeed, it would.

"And wouldn't it be so nice to leave Storybrooke knowing that you are free of the dagger?"

Yes. Yes, it would.

Honestly, I don't know what the hell this chapter is. It's at least partly filler, but also partly necessary, at least for my brain. Because I don't know about you, but watching things play out through these next two episodes, my mind was constantly asking "what's the plan, Rumple?" My mind kept going through a lot of these questions that he himself is asking and working through in this chapter. Because I wanted the answer to those questions. I needed them. What's Rumple plan to do with Belle and Henry outside of Storybrooke, how does he plan to get through the barrier, how will he keep Henry and Belle from going back to Storybrooke, and what does Rumple plan to do about the town line assuming he doesn't know that he can cross the border with his memories intact! I had to have the answer to those questions. And luckily for me, I needed to be able to get Rumple out of the shop since we know Belle was in it without him for a fair amount of time in this episode. Sending Rumple back to the house to plan for for something that he won't use was a decent way to do that.

Thank you, Rsbeall12 and Grace5231973, for your reviews on the last episode. I'm hoping you'll enjoy this chapter, but I know that it's a little bit of a strange chapter. I'd say that the true highlight of the chapter comes toward the end. Nimue showing up to be the devil on his shoulder is the important part of the chapter. Nimue remaining through some of the next chapters is only going to prove that. Peace and Happy Reading.