Finding You Always

Unhinged

Chapter 171: Unhinged

Belle looked around the small study that Rumple used at this house on the outskirts of town.

"Is this where you've been living?" she asked curiously.

"No actually...I keep an apartment in the city, about a block away from the precinct. When I got my memories back, I bought this place with re-allocated funds from a seized drug bust, off the books, of course. I knew eventually we'd need a base of operations of sorts when everyone started to wake up," he replied.

"How did you get your memories back? Was there a trigger word this time?" she asked. He smiled thinly.

"Not this time," he said, as he moved the bland painting on the wall behind the desk and opened the wall safe. Her face broke into a smile, as he held up their chipped cup.

"As the curse was being cast, I remembered that you had given it to me before I left Storybrooke. We were sure that you would join us as soon as Gideon felt better...but you insisted that I take it with me," he mused.

"And because of you...I woke up much earlier than I would have without it," he added, as he took her hand.

"And here I thought I was being silly to think that this little cup could protect you," she mused.

"You always save me. Because of this little cup, which ended up in the evidence locker at the station, I awoke and realized what had happened," he mentioned.

"And then you realized you were in the past," she said.

"Yes...that was a bit devastating. I knew that even if we broke the curse that the Chalice was our only chance of even trying to get back to 2023. And Facilier had it in his possession," he replied.

"Well, at least that's no longer true," she mentioned.

"No...but he'll try for it again, as will Clayton. But the Chalice isn't the only thing that Dr. Facilier is after," he said.

"The dagger?" she asked. He nodded. She seemed slightly confused.

"He wants to become the Dark One?" she questioned.

"Not exactly...you see the Chalice and dagger are opposites. One is dark and one is light. They exist together and there is balance," he explained.

"But if Facilier forces Snow and Charming to release their control over the chalice, he could, in theory, turn the Chalice dark," he continued.

"And you think that he could plunge everything into darkness if there is no balance?" she asked, trying to understand.

"That is one possibility. The other is that he could destroy the dagger and kill me, without becoming tied to it. Obviously, this is all theoretical and in theory, because neither has ever been done before," he replied.

"But Facilier's goal is to kill me, as well as to gain the power of the chalice," he added.

"Why does he want to kill you?" Belle asked. He sighed.

"He was once involved with Regina...long ago. He was...is still in love with her. It's my fault they're not together, because I fueled her need for revenge," he replied. Realization dawned in her eyes.

"So she would cast the curse," she surmised.

"Yes...she rejected Facilier and the possibility of love with him away to get her revenge on Snow by casting the curse. He was trying to convince her not to cast it and I made sure to plant the right doubts in Regina to get what I wanted," he confessed. She squeezed his hand.