𝑶𝑪𝑬𝑨𝑵 𝑬𝒀𝑬𝑺 - Rumplestiltskin [1]

SEVENTY THREE

73|GRIEVING

Celeste held Rumpelstiltskins hand tightly as Cora approached them. Neil and Emma hiding Celeste from seeing who this Cora was.

"You two, out of the way." Cora waved her hand and the pair disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke.

"You!" Celeste stood up as she realised who Cora was.

"Celeste." The older woman smiled at her. "When you told me you were trying to break a curse to find your lover, I wasn't expecting it to be Rumpelstiltskin."

"And when I heard Regina had an evil mother, I wasn't expecting it to be the Queen of Hearts." She retaliated, standing between Cora and her husband.

"Did Rumpel ever tell you about the time we use to be lovers?" Cora smirked, trying to get under her skin. "You weren't the only one to win his heart."

"Yet I seem to be the only one who hasn't betrayed him and broke it." Celeste narrowed her eyes, wishing she had magic to protect her and Rumpel in this moment.

Cora waved her hand, knocking Celeste aside and into the oak cupboards. Her eyes blinked in and out of vision as a ringing echoed in her ears.

The dagger dropped by her as Cora staggered backwards, coughing as she clutched her chest. Regina watched her mother with worried eye before the pair smiled lovingly at each other.

"Mother." Celeste barely heard Regina say as she reached for the dagger and held it tightly.

Rumpelstiltskin stood up slowly, wound healed as Cora fell to her knees, Regina catching her and calling her name. He waved his hand over Celeste and healed her before helping her to her feet and taking the dagger off her.

"This would have been enough." Cora said through laboured breaths. "You would have been enough."

"What's going on?" Regina cried up to Rumpel, her voice breaking with pain. "Mother. Don't leave me, please. What am I going to do?"

"Your mother did you no favours." Rumpel spoke up, towering over the two women with his dagger in one hand and cane in the other.

"Shut up!" She sobbed. "You stole her life! You cast some spell."

"I did nothing."

"Regina! Stop!" Snow White screamed as she ran into the store but it was too late.

"You did this."

~•~

Celeste followed Rumpel down to Regina's vault, dressed in all black with a single rose in her hand. Her heart broke as they found Regina crying over the casket.

"Black always was your colour." Rumpel announced their presence as they walked further into the light.

"I'm here to bury my mother. So if you've come to gloat." Regina snapped at him with narrow eyes.

"I came to pay my respects." He lifted up the rose in his hand. He lay the rose next to Regina's while Celeste did the same thing, staying silent. "We had our differences, but Cora will always have a place in my heart."

"You killed her to save your own life."

"Sadly, desperate times call for desperate measures." Rumpel stated and rested his hand on the small of Celeste's back.

"Like getting Mary Margaret to trick me into killing my own mother?" Regina growled with anger at him. "You may be able to hide behind your dagger, but she can't. She is going to die for what she did."

"Oh, come on." He sighed, stepping closer to the grieving woman. "We both know killing her will cost you the thing you want most. Henry. Why don't you just give up this obsession with vengeance? You know it can never make you happy."

"Yes, it will."

"You had a whole curse worth of vengeance and what did it get you?" He continued to lecture her. "A gaping hole in your heart."

"That was your curse." She corrected him.

"Which you cast." Rumpel stated sternly. "Still haven't learned your lesson, have you?"

"What lesson?"

"The same one your mother learned a long time ago. You can't have everything." Celeste glanced down as she felt like she should not be here but wanted to pay her respect. "She wanted power, ripped out her own heart to get it. You want vengeance? Henry's the price you'll pay. Time to cut your losses."

"Never." Regina said with determination, shaking her head in disagreement. "I will have my son. And I will have my vengeance. I will find a way to have everything."

"I will meet you in a second." Celeste mumbled to him, watching him leave before turning to the woman. "I actually knew your mother, lovely woman. She was the one to help me remove the curse you placed on me, but that became useless as he was locked away."

"What can I help you with?" Regina glared at the woman.

"In payment of helping remove my curse, I owed your mother a favour. A favour which she chose for me to look after you." She sighed in defeat and grabbed her hands. "Your mother loved you so dearly. She was not this horrible monster everyone makes her out to be. I remember she told me the only reason she hadn't killed me is because I was the only Queen she had ever met that held so much power without ever using magic. She respected me for it."

"Thank you." The two women quickly embraced, Celeste rubbing circles on her back before she left her to mourn her mother.

"I heard what you said." Rumpel greeted her as she walked back into daylight.

"That I'm very powerful unlike you." She teased, linking their arms as they slowly walked through the graveyard. "So now that I have my memories back and you're not dieing. About the cane."