Author's notes: Takes place post-canon for "I Became a God in a Horror Game". Taking some liberties, but I do think half of Bai Liu's soul really is still stuck there in the gate, along with the last remnant of Bai 6. On the OUAT side, this is a Rumbelle AU based on my s4 Rumbelle AU, "Everyone Has a Choice".

"I think he's dead." Belle whispered to him one morning. She had woken up with a disturbing vision (not a dream, she insisted) of her evil god grandfather, Bai Liu(6).

Rumplestiltskin, who knew his wife had a strong gift of Sight, didn't doubt her. He just didn't know what to say — they hadn't even met her grandfather until recently, and even though he hadn't done anything horrible to them, the evil god didn't bother to lie about the horrible things he had done to other people. Belle, who always tried to see the best in people, hoped that he could bond with their son (his great-grandson) and grow a heart. Rumplestiltskin suspected he was more likely to simply steal the heart (as Peter Pan had done to Henry) and watched Bai Liu(6) like a hawk whenever he visited their realm. To be honest, Rumplestiltskin was relieved by the news of his death. He managed to keep that thought to himself and what came out was, "Ah. He got what he wanted, then..."

Instead of being comforted, Belle began crying. She wiped her eyes and sniffled, "Rumple..."

He held her and murmured an apology. It wasn't that they had no inkling of Bai Liu(6)'s plans, but Belle had hoped for a better future. "He reminded me of Zoso. You remember about Zoso?"

Belle nodded slowly. She had shared many of Rumplestiltskin's own memories, and now he evoked one in particular.

My life had become such a burden.

Zoso had manipulated Rumplestiltskin into killing him. But the one who kills the Dark One becomes the Dark One, so in a way he hadn't died at all. The Dark One was immortal, swallowing up the human Rumplestiltskin inside the darkness, haunted by memories of all his predecessors. Something like that had happened with Bai Liu(6) also: his chosen successors who tried to replace him ended up becoming him. To truly escape the cycle, he must have found someone new, someone different from all his other derivatives.

"There are futures where that was me," Rumplestiltskin reminded her. His seer's powers were second-hand, not nearly as clear as Belle's, but he had caught glimpses of himself, alone, lost, waiting for someone to lay the Dark One's curse to rest.

Belle sighed. "I guess I'm just sad that we never had a chance to really be a family."

"There's still the new evil god," Rumplestiltskin said abruptly. "The version of himself that killed him, if your vision is to be trusted. Your uncle, in some sense?"

Belle blinked. "Do you think we could meet him?"

The human Bai Liu wore the same face as the old evil god, but Belle could see that he was not the lonely, bored outsider that Bai Liu(6) had been. He had friends, family, and true love.

He had saved everyone and cheated death.

He liked horror games and hot pot.

Even though everyone was initially wary of the three strangers from another universe, Fang Dian cheerfully invited them all to a hot pot dinner (leaving the cooking to her husband, naturally).

At least Bai Liu and his friends were used to the strange and supernatural, so Belle and Rumple didn't have to worry about sounding insane when talking about their lives. (And whenever they got too many puzzled looks, Rumple blamed the translation spell.)

"Granddaughter of the evil god? And you married a deal-making devil?" Liu Jiayi squinted at her with a scarily perceptive curiosity for such a small girl. She shifted her gaze to Spades for a moment. "A lizard man devil. I'm starting to think there really is a genetic component to attraction..."

Which caused Spades to stare at Rumple. "You're a lizard, too?"

"Crocodile," muttered Rumple. "If you must know. At least according to some."

"Only in the world where we first met." Knowing he was self-conscious about it, Belle tried to lighten his mood. "I thought the scales were very pretty, all gold and glittery in the light."

Rumple snorted. "You're the only one who ever thought that, sweetheart. Just as well Gideon doesn't take after me in that respect."

Belle was fascinated to find out that Bai Liu's friends, like the people of Storybrooke, had ended up with at least two sets of memories, with a few of them remembering hundreds of timelines. All of them had ended badly until this one. "Really puts Snow's 'hope' speeches in perspective..."

Rumple nodded, giving Lu Yizhan and Fang Dian all due respect. "Admirable tenacity. Few can live up to their own ideals as well as you have."

The evening passed amiably enough, the two sides thawing as they got to know each other better.

It was only later that Belle gave voice to her disquiet. "Rumple, Bai Liu split his soul in half. This half is here, living a normal life, free of Bai Liu(6), but what about the other half? That Bai Liu died."

Rumple nodded slowly. It had been the same with Zoso. Part of him had escaped, but a piece of his soul was forever part of the darkness, which implied— "If there's anything of your grandfather left, it will be with that other half of his soul."

"I want to find him." Belle wasn't sure why, perhaps simply for closure, but she wanted to see in person, and a mere psychic vision wasn't enough.

"Of course, sweetheart." Rumple was understanding as always.

An ancient door, carved with forgotten symbols, hung deep in the void between the worlds. It was sealed shut with a silvery blue light around its edges.

Humans were endless in their desires — whether born of good or evil, love or selfishness, wise or wicked. Those desires were transmuted by that divine light into reality, but the price was suffering and the corruption of everything it touched, filling the world with monsters. Desire led to suffering and suffering bred desire in an unending cycle.

Now the gate was closed on the evil god's miracles. The worst and strongest desires were locked away, leaving only the small, natural desires of the mortal world for the mortals to handle.

The price to close the gate was Bai Liu's soul: The Key and the Gate.

Belle remembered reading that in one of Rumple's old books. Together, they reached out with their thoughts into the softly shining seal.

Grandfather?

Bai Liu?

And something reached back. A half-familiar mental presence. Yes and no. If you're here to open the door, that's not going to happen.

Is this the retirement you envisioned? came Rumple's dry question.

It was ordained to happen from the start. It was a complete surprise. The evil god, old and new, answered with a hint of resigned amusement. Their thoughts were tangled together to the point that Belle couldn't tell if it was a single thread looping back on itself or two threads tied together. Having a soul is... interesting. A person with a soul, a monster with a soul, making such choices. Irrational choices. For such meaningless reasons. But the soul insists...

Yes, thought Belle quietly. She watched as tendrils of silvery blue light uncoiled from the doorway, reaching out to them. So it does.

And so you're stuck here for eternity. Rumple waved a hand, pushing back the light, but his magic only seemed to enflame the tendrils, causing them to grow and spread.

Belle had to look away. There was madness in that light. The human mind could not withstand the naked illumination of its own desires.

It was my choice, said Bai Liu's soul.

And you will only become more alone, Rumple mused. The old god will fade away into the past, and you will be left to carry this burden into the foreseeable future.

Bai Liu didn't reply, but they could sense his determination. The sense that it was worth it, that he was dead, but the human Bai Liu was alive with his loved ones in a living, uncorrupted world. That would have to be enough.

You can't stay, he said at last. Not so close to the gate.

Belle saw how the tendrils of light seemed to feed from them, taking shape from their desires. As living creatures, it was impossible to be completely detached. In this place, they would eventually be driven mad and corrupted by their own thoughts. I understand. Good-bye... Grandfather.

Immortality is a curse. The old sorcerer's saying weighed heavily in Rumplestiltskin's mind ever since their visit to that other world and the vast emptiness in which it hung, a tiny orb of light in an endless, lonely darkness. Despite all his efforts, Bai Liu(6) remained, trapped forever with his piece of Bai Liu's soul. Given time, the old consciousness might fade away, or the two might become one.

Bai Liu had been doomed the moment he accepted the evil god's coin and entered the game, just as Rumplestiltskin had been doomed when he plunged the dagger into Zoso's chest, or Belle when she traded half a heart with the Dark One. No matter that a version of them could break free and live their happily ever afters, some piece of them would always belong to that which did not die — not truly.

Belle naturally sensed his preoccupation and a few days after they had returned to Storybrooke, questioned him.

Rumplestiltskin confessed his fears. "Belle, I'm so sorry. I never meant to drag you down with me."

"Who's dragging who? Logically speaking, you could just as well say I dragged you..."

"...up out of hell." Rumplestiltskin sighed. "And I will forever be grateful, sweetheart, but..."

"But nothing. Up or down, I wasn't going to leave you, you know that." Her smile was full of love, and he couldn't argue with that: he would have done the same for her.

"It's just that it's forever. That's all our futures. An eternity of darkness and isolation that we can never quite escape, not entirely."

"It doesn't have to be forever," Belle said. "Not for him, not for us."

Rumplestiltskin blinked, grasping at the hope in her voice. "Have you seen something?"

To his disappointment, she shook her head.

"Then how can you know?" He had never understood how Belle could be so full of optimism, even after everything life had thrown at them.

But she had enough hope for both of them. "It's only logical, if you think about it."

"What do you mean?" He had thought about it. That was why he was depressed.

"Bai Liu(6) played the game over six hundred times, creating one mortal incarnation after another. They were all the same. Until one of them was different. Until the evil god gained a soul." Belle laid out her reasoning with conviction. "Humans become monsters, monsters become human. If the game can change once, it can change again."

"Hmm." Rumplestiltskin allowed himself to be swayed. "Perhaps."

"Exactly. Perhaps someday there will be no need for the gate. Someday it may open and they'll find that their own desires may be faced without fear."

"That kind of enlightenment is easier said than done," said Rumplestiltskin from his hundreds of years of experience in giving people what they wanted — for a price.

"Well, maybe not all at once, but bit by bit, we can do better," said Belle, who had less experience but more faith in human potential.

Since her faith had extended even to the Dark One, against all sense, Rumplestiltskin conceded the point. "Maybe you're right. Most people may be selfish and shortsighted, but a million monkeys typing at a million keyboards may write a masterpiece, given enough time, so maybe there's hope for everyone."

"That's a little cynical," noted Belle. Then a smile brightened her face once more. "But hope is hope."

"Yeah." After a pause, he tentatively returned her smile. "Hope is hope."