Chapter 10:Contemplation
Rumpelstiltskin wasn't a stupid man. He might've had his dull moments, especially before he recovered all his memories. God, did he do some stupid things in his first few years at Hogwarts. And even in his first life, he was a bit of a village idiot since the curse. But over three hundred years of life experience, being killed by an evil vindictive witch, having that sad sack Voldemort after his ass, and then becoming a ruler of a magical country have taught him to be weary and he did not buy Cora's story that he had fathered her late in life surprise baby.
Though, it was possible and that in itself made him sort of sick.
He had tried to black out the fact that he and Cora had one last roll in the hay for so many years. It had been one of the more embarrassing moments in his life, for so many different reasons.
Thankfully, the topic never came up in their encounters. Then again, he really hadn't talked to her since that day in Wonderland when he woke up in a haze and naked in her bed.
He shook his head in disgust, he had never told anyone about that. Like it never happened, though the fact that Cora had another daughter—Zara—made it a little impossible not too.
Zara it meant princess.
Fitting, he thought. Cora did like to name her daughters in relation to her current place or their father's current place in society.
Though, he wasn't exactly king of any country back then but there wasn't a name synonymous with evil Dark One so he guessed it had to work. And as Cora said, she seemed to name the girl after her position in Wonderland.
It was hard imaging that Cora actually thought about the need for the heir. The woman was always the selfish sort and it always seemed that being a mother seemed like an unnecessary burden to her. Even when they made their little bargain all those years ago, she seemed aghast with the whole idea.
"You want to have my baby?" He asked.
"Well, it seems like a fair modification Rumple. We can continue…well, we can continue doing this. And I guess having your child won't be that bad."
He raised an eyebrow. "You don't want kids."
It was true, he saw it all over her. And at that point, he didn't even know about Zelena. Or the fact that she dumped her in the woods so that a tornado could carry her off to Oz.
Cora sighed. "You and I both know that I really have no choice when it comes to child rearing. It's part of the deal here when you're a woman in the Enchanted Forest. Besides, I can think of a few worse things than bearing your brat. At least the child would have brains."
He shook his head at her, "It would just have my brains. What about my dastardly good looks?"
She laughed at that, "Really, Rumple, if I am going to have a child there's no one else's child I'd rather have than yours."
And apparently, she did have his baby now. Though, he was stillweary. But really who else would she have slept with in Wonderland?
The Hatter?
He doubted it. Jefferson said she wanted nothing to do with him, until he made a suitable replacement hat.
As for the rest of the inhabitants in Wonderland, it would probably be beneath her. So, he did seem like the likely baby daddy. Though, he still didn't completely buy it.
Maybe he would have some answers when he found the girl, whom he had just found out had conveniently been kidnapped. He didn't know if he believed that or not.
Okay, he didn't.
A sneaking suspicion, and just basic logic, told him that this was a stall tactic on Cora's part. He was even starting to not believe the girl's existence that Cora had came up with the child as some last failsafe to stay alive.
He was surprised that she fell into his trap so easy. He used to think she was the smartest out of the Mills' women, but after she got in the dark carriage with him which subsequently allowed him to knock her out and incapacitate her by putting one of those magic-free cuffs on her hand. Well, he was starting to wonder…
But he wasn't exactly going to fall into the trap of underestimating Cora again. He did tell her the truth when he said that she was one of the best researchers he knew, next to Belle and Hermione.
Emma wasn't much into research, he thought, as his thoughts—as always drifted towards his wife. Sure, she could research she had the skills. She was an attorney after all, but he knew it wasn't her forte. The research part. His wife was more about action, she reminded him a lot like he was in his life as Harry Potter.
The part of him that was Harry wanted to do something. He was tired of waiting for Cora to make a breakthrough, when he knew his options were rather limited. He had studied realm traveling for years, centuries. And the only option had been the curse since a portal between this world and the world-without-magic (that really needed a new name because there was magic there) did not exist.
But the curse had created a portal, and now it was somehow accessible. The question though was to tap into its source, and that was the complication in itself.
You would think being a Dark One for three centuries, would've made him an expert on such a thing, but he wasn't. He knew the basic travel elements to open a portal—magic beans, which didn't seem to exist in the Enchanted Forest—Jefferson's hat (which would've been an option if the hatter was in the forest), or mermaids—an no one in their right mind would transform themselves into a mermaid since it took years just to learn how to swim into the damn portals in the mer world. Not to mention most of those spells had disastrous consequences.
He didn't know what to expect from Cora, but she had been his most prodigious student.
She sighed when she saw him, "Well, are you hear to gloat some more, Rumple?"
"I'd thought we talk more about our daughter's kidnapping more." He said.
"I told you everything I know," She said, "That mercenary took her. She's still alive though."
He raised an eyebrow.
"I told you I did a status spell on her, besides I think the mercenary wants something."
Yes, he had heard the story already.
"That's not good enough, Cora, and you know it. I'm not stupid."
"That's debatable," She said.
"Are you forgetting who's the one with magic, dearie?" He asked as a flame appeared in his hand.
It was a cheap parlor trick, but it did do the trick since Cora's eyes widened a bit.
"Oh, I'm not going to kill you." He said as the flame extinguished itself. "I just feel like you need a reminder not to lie to me."
"I told you, I don't know where the girl is." Cora said, "She's gone. The mercenary has her."
"The one that Regina hired to kill you," He snapped. "And you're not dead."
"Obviously, not." Cora said, "I'm not that easy to incapacitate, Rumple."
He giggled.
She glared at him, "Yeah, I know. You're going to tell me how easy it was for you to trick me, but that would normally not happen."
She looked genuinely upset that he had overtaken her and he was glad for it. There weren't a lot of people he hated more than Cora. Well, there was Voldmeort. Cora's various spawn—not counting Zara. And Ron Weasley was sort of on that list too, but Cora was high up there.
Really high up there, he thought as he looked at her.
She did look eerily younger than she did the last time he saw her, in a lot of ways she resembled the young girl he had met all those years ago. She had been doing something more than simple glamour spells, he thought since he knew the magic cuff would incapacitate any sort of charm she would've done on her looks.
She had done something drastic.
"What?" Cora said.
"Nothing, dearie," He said, "I've just been thinking about our predicament and thought it was time to retrieve our daughter."
"Did you?" She asked, "Because you know that's what I would do too if I knew where the hell she was."
"You've heard of a blood globe, haven't you darling?" He asked.
"What?" She said caught off guard.
He smiled as he waved his hand producing the artifact it had taken days of cleaning up the Dark Castle to find.
When he had arrived back at his old home, he was shocked with how much of a pack rat he was back in the day. Or how bad of a housemaid Belle was, he thought. There was so much crap in the house. It would've given Aunt Petunia a coronary.
Oh, how the years of being a Dursley slave made him a bit of a clean freak, he thought, as he looked for the blood globe he had tried to find long ago.
"Are you scared that the blood globe is going to reveal something?" He asked pressing her about the girl's paternity again.
It was sort of ridiculous. He shouldn't be pressing her about such things, but he couldn't help but to be suspicious. And he really didn't want to have a child with Cora. Was that so wrong?
That he didn't want to be reminded of that God-awful night, even though he knew in all likelihood the girl was his.
Cora and him had made a deal. She would have a child at some point. Or there would be consequences because magic always had a price. It would make sense she would bed him, he thought. Though, honestly he thought she had managed to worm her way out of those consequences long ago.
"Don't be ridiculous, Rumple." Cora said clearly seeing where he was going with this. "She's your daughter. And when you help me locate the mercenary and defeat him, you'll see her."
He raised an eyebrow. "You know you told me nothing about this mercenary."
"What is there to tell?" Cora asked.
"A name for starters. As bat shit crazy as Regina was, I don't think she'd send some no name thug to kill you."
Cora sighed heavily.
"I know, him, don't I?" He said as he saw the look on her face.
"Hook." She finally said, "Hook has our daughter."
Killian Jones better known as Hook—also a member of the top ten hate list, but honestly sort of useless and not that much of an enemy now since Rumple had cut his hand off.
At least that's what he thought until Hook told him that Killian Jones apparently had their daughter.
"Really, you let Killian Jones overtake you?"
"It's not like I had much control over the situation, Rumple." She said, "Regina had dipped his hook into squid ink. Powerful stuff as you're aware of."
"And he took our daughter? I thought she was ten, that's a little young for Hook."
"She's a good bargaining chip," Cora said, "And—well, you know the parts he travels in."
Oh, did Rumple know.
Neverland.
He shuddered as he thought of that stupid realm where his stupid father lived.
And then he thought back to Bae, the fact that two of his children were there made him shudder.
"Do you think he's going to sell her to Pan?" He asked.
"He'll die if he does," Cora said.
"Obviously," He snapped. "But why else would he have her in Neverland?"
"I don't even know if he went to Neverland," Cora said. "All I know is he has Zara. She has talents that makes me think…no, he won't dispose of her."
Talents, meaning magic.
It wasn't that surprising. All Mills' women were magically inclined, and supposedly his line was too if Hook had access to a child with magic, God knows what that moron could do.
"Zara is a strong girl though," Cora said as if to reassure him. "If she'll find away to escape, she'll take it."
But she had no idea where the child was, lost just like Jaime.
He shuddered. He had done everything he could to find the lad since arriving here, but it was as if he had disappeared in thin air. The blood globe hadn't revealed that any of his progeny were in this realm—not Zara or Jaime. Which worried him beyond belief.
He couldn't lose another child.
He had lost so much already.
Bae.
The baby that Emma was carrying, it might as well have been dead. He had been researching like mad since Regina had poisoned Emma with dreamshade, and he had been no closer to finding a cure than he had earlier.
Not that he'd ever admit defeat, but right now life pretty much sucked especially since he seemed to be stuck here unless he could get a magic bean to allow him to portal travel again. And even then, he still didn't' t know where either of his children were.
"I think I might have an idea."
He blinked as he turned to hear Cora talking to him.
"What?"
"I think I might have an idea, at least where the access point to the portal would be."
"Oh, really?" He asked.
She nodded. "Lake Nostros."
He frowned, "The lake's been bone dry for years."
She nodded, "Yes, but the waters, the waters were always said to go deep. There at one point was a Lady of the Lake, you have to wonder what her purpose was."
He frowned, "You think it was to guard a portal of sorts."
"Or portals." She said, "I think it was a world entrance point. It would make sense. I'm theorizing that the guardian protected the magic of the lake and since she's dead…well, the lake is no longer accessible until there is another."
It made sense, he guessed. Magical entities seemed to exist for some sort of purpose. The Dark One was a prime example of this, he was the embodiment of dark magic much like the sorcerer was the so called embodiment of light.
But in the end, was there really dark or light magic?
It was no time to get philosophical.
"So, we need a new guardian."
"Yes," She said.
"That won't take care of the passage issue." He said, "We'll still need a magic bean or something to get us through since I'm guessing the guardian won't be nice enough to open the portal."
"One step at a time, Rumple." She said, "We have to find a suitable guardian first."
"A suitable guardian," He said, "I suppose you have some ideas?"
"Why yes," She said, "We just need a sea witch who is more than willing to bind herself to the lake."
Rumple started laughing.
Cora gave him a confused look.
"Are you stupid?" He asked.
"What?" She said.
"Oh, binding a sea witch to guard the witch, like that's going to be a simple feat."
"It should be simple enough," Cora said.
Rumple rolled his eyes, "And to think I thought you were my smartest pupil. Do you know anything about sea witches? Their temperament. Do you know that the old guardian of this lake, was known for killing people?"
It was well documented that sea witches were pretty much feral. One step away from being legitimate monsters. Unlike him, they didn't' t see reason. They only obeyed one thing the sea—and their so-called covens.
Well, the ones of them that were sane enough to join a coven. Most of them had no contact with their kind and were impossible to deal with.
Their magic had always been of interest to Rumple, but he had never had found one reasonable enough to talk to. The closest was Ursula, and she herself was a bit of an anomaly since she was technically a sea goddess not a sea witch.
Real sea witches were another thing in themselves. They kept mostly to themselves these days. Or as long as Rumple knew them, and they were more feral than a damn mermaid, but they still hated land creatures just the same. Only instead of seducing sailors to their death, they'd just outright kill them.
And they wanted nothing to do with land magic too they thought it was blasphemous. Of course, Ursula was a girl who always looked for a bargain—but again, she was a sea goddess. Not a sea witch.
Big difference there.
Cora looked at him, "I know they're monsters, Rumple. I'm not exactly stupid. But there are ways to control them."
He shook his head at her.
He didn't like it, not one bit. Taking away someone's free will was a big no, no for him. In part, because he had a dagger with his name on it.
True, heart pullage could cause similar side effects—but it wasn't exactly the same as being made someone's virtual magical slave. And to be fair, while he had taken a few hears even at his worst he didn't control that many people.
Or at least many people as Cora did.
But controlling a magical being, correction a magical being with a decent amount of power was a whole different ball game.
"Haven't you heard of mer betrothal necklaces?" Cora asked completely oblivious ot the look on his face.
"Of course I've heard of them," He said, "The sea witch Morgana destroyed them in the last mermaid merman war. God, for a species they're really stupid trying to kill each other. It's amazing they even reproduce."
"I'd agree with that," Cora remarked. "But not all of the necklaces have been destroyed."
"So, you want us to get one of the necklaces, I'm guessing and capture the witch…oh, this is going to be a wild goose chase. Isn't it?"
She smiled, "Well, it wouldn't be wild of a good chase if you took off this ridiculous cuff. I'm sure I could figure out a way to procure such a necklace."
"Nice try, Cora." He snapped. "I think the first thing we need to do is go to that lake and see if it's an actual suitable place for a portal to open."
"You don't trust me?" She asked.
He rolled his eyes, "Do I even need to answer that question?"
Lake Nostros was on the other side of the kingdom. Truthfully, Harry could've poofed him and Cora there, but in order to keep the wards up at the castle using the bloody carriage was necessary again.
It was weird how being born in the modern world again, could make him hate carriage riding so much. It also didn't help that he was with Cora who was bemoaning about the magic cuff (still).
"I really don't know why you think I'm going to change my mind." He told her on the week long trip to the lake.
"It's worth a try," She said, "Besides, I'm no use to you this way."
He shrugged, "Seems you found out about the lake. That's a start."
Though, her idea about catching a sea witch so that the lake could be utilized again was stupid beyond belief, but maybe there were other ways to access the portals.
He had to try.
At the very least he had to see if it was a feasible territory.
The landscape had changed drastically since the last time he had been out this way in the forest. Not even the ogres wanted the land near the lake. Well, once lush as the rest of the forest it was now desert.
He shook his head.
"You can blame that on Prince Charming from what I heard," Cora said. "He killed the lake's guardian and the lake, and thus destroyed an ecosystem. Deforestation at its finest."
"I'm surprise you know all the going ins and outs of what was going on in the Enchanted Forest, dearie." He said.
She shrugged. "I was in Wonderland not dead. Rumple."
Yes, he was very aware of it. He frowned as they got closer to where the lake was, when he saw what appeared to be water. "It doesn't seem completely dried up, Cora."
"What?" She said, but she soon noticed it too. "It can't be."
But sure enough there was a large body of water encompassing the lake's bed. It looked very much like it used too—except for being surrounded by desert.
"Well, I'll be damn." Cora said, "Maybe that witch isn't as dead as we thought."
Rumple shook his head as the carriage came to a stop. Something wasn't right; he frowned as he looked at the very much there lake.
"She was dead," He said, "I saw the lake before. It was dry. Barren. Desolate. Hell, the entire region was surrounded by desert."
"Well, obviously, you were wrong, Rumple." She said as she eyed the crystal blue lake. "It's not empty."
"I know," He frowned, when suddenly something came running towards them.
It took him a moment, before he realized it was a child.
Cora's child.
His child.
The resemblance was sort of startling. Well, to Cora at least. From what he could tell, he couldn't really see whether or not Zara was his. She could be, he guessed. But it wasn't as obvious as it was when he looked at Bae or Jaime.
"Mother," The girl cried, "Oh, thank God."
She then turned around and saw Rumple and gasped.
Cora looked at Rumple and gave him one of her classic Cheshire smiles, "Oh, darling, don't be frightened. Don't you want to tell your Papa, hello?"