Once Upon A Time: Hook's Adopted Son (Book 1)

The Price Of Gold

(The Enchanted Forest)

Everyone knows the story of Cinderella, the classic rags to riches story. But this was a different story, where Cinderella ends up making a deal with the Dark One instead of the help of her Fairy Godmother.

It was the night of the ball at the prince's castle, Lady Tremaine and her daughter had left their home for the ball. Cinderella was left behind, she was sweeping away the leaves in the garden wearing the torn-up rags that she had on and covered in cinders from the fireplace. Her stepmother and stepsister had destroyed the dress that she wanted to wear to the ball. The life she has right now is a mess, she's now the maid of her own home. Her fairy godmother had appeared to help her, the fairy godmother pulled out her wand and explained to Cinderella that she could give her a better life.

Suddenly, something hit the Fairy Godmother and she exploded into nothing, leaving her wand on the ground. Cinderella looked at the man who had just killed her Fairy Godmother. "No need to be frightened." He said in a twisted tone.

"No need? You just killed my Fairy Godmother! She was gonna help me." Cinderella shouted in anger.

The man just looked at Cinderella like she was gullible and naive. He asked her if she knew what the wand had held. She told him that it was just pure magic but the man said that it was pure evil. He was saying that he was doing Cinderella a favor since all magic comes with a price. He tries to convince Cinderella to go back to her life. She didn't want this life, her own life was wrecked, and she had nothing here for her.

The man just told her to change it without magic since she could not handle it or the consequences. Cinderella stopped the man by saying that she could handle the magic, she was willing to do anything to get away from her stepfamily. "Do you know how to use that wand, Mister..."

"Rumplestiltskin. And, yes, of course, I do," he answered.

Cinderella was begging for Rumplestiltskin to help her. There was a small smirk across his face as he agreed to help her, for a price that is. Cinderella would owe him one favor, one where she would have to give up something very precious in due time. With her wish, she'll have riches more than she'll know but she doesn't care for riches she just wants to leave. Rumplestiltskin could tell she was desperate so he agreed to help her. All she had to do was sign the dotted line on the contract that Rumpelstiltskin had made appear along with a quill. She quickly agreed to the deal and signed the contract faster than you could say 'A happy ending.'

With a wave of the wand, Rumpelstiltskin had turned Cinderella's ragged clothes into a beautiful sparkling blue ball gown, her hair was up in a bun with a tiara on her head. She had never looked more beautiful in her life. Cinderella looked down and in front of her was a pair of glass slippers. "Glass?" she questioned.

"Every story needs a memorable detail," Rumplestiltskin explained.

With her new look, Cinderella was off to the ball, unaware that this debt would be something that she would regret.

(Storybrooke)

In Storybrooke, Emma was walking Henry to the bus out in the open, she didn't care what Regina would do to her but she wanted to spend time with Henry. Henry wanted to come up with code names for Operation Cobra so that way Regina couldn't figure out the plan. Henry already gave Harry a code name which was Night Fury. Emma just told Henry to call her by her first name for the time being. Henry said goodbye to Emma and headed onto the bus. As Emma watched the bus leave, she saw Graham pull up in his police car with his lights flashing trying to get Emma's attention.

At first, she thought Graham was going to arrest her but he wanted to thank her for finding David. In fact, Graham wanted to offer Emma a job as his deputy with Harry. "Thank you, but I have a job," Emma stated.