#mine: swanfire

[thedarknessoftheendlessmaze]

Ten years later, and I’m still upset that they killed Neal in ouat

[yourflannelcure]

what could've been, would've been you

[exhaustedpirate]

Favourite song?

Also, favourite character/ship to match with aforementioned favourite song?

"mine" by taylor swift for captainswan

(not my favourite song, I don't really have one but I was listening to it and just thought of them and got emotional so bam!) also a favourite song for an anti-ship would be "all too well" for emma and neal, since i'm in this taylor swift boat

[ouatsnark]

back again just saw someone sat that cs is terrible and it's a reason why swanfire is better and has more fics. neal a loser and a deabeat father who contributed to emma's trauma and they want us to ship them goodbye

So I don't read fanfic anymore but I was curious to see... I looked at AO3 and from what I could tell this is a blatant lie? But I'm also not familiar with the fanfiction sites anymore and I've never used AO3 and fanfiction.net has changed so much... Also, I didn't waste a lot of time on this.

I HATE the argument that "oh my ship has more fanfics than yours so mine is better and more popular" for these reasons:

How many unique writers does that ship have? Is it a small number of people popping out 20k 500 word essays about how wonderful Neal is? If so, that's not a sign of popularity.

How many unique readers do they have? You can have a million stories and have less views. Swanfire might have more fics but if they don't have more unique readers than CaptainSwan this isn't much of an argument in Swanfire's favor, is it?

What kind of stories are these? Because what happens a lot with fanfic is people write fetishistic stories with disgusting non-con/abuse tropes. And they're popular because some people get off on stuff like that. Doesn't make the couple popular amongst the general viewership... it just makes them popular amongst fanfic readers due to a certain sick fetish.

This could all be a moot point because what if the majority of the CaptainSwan fandom doesn't read fanfic because they were satisfied with the story they saw on screen and didn't need more? Within a show's universe: It's way more common for crack ships, sunken ships or side story ships (less screen time/less story) to have more fanfics and art because the fans literally have to create their own story or fill in more blanks whereas the canon happily ever after ships already have their story and presumably love the story that was already told.

And if anyone wants to know why CaptainSwan is better than SwanFire then please take a look at this post:

[deliriumsdelight7]

Okay, Anon. I’m posting this on my main, rather than on the @the-chipped-cup-awards page, because this is my personal take on the issue, and not necessarily the opinion of the mod group as a whole.

The purpose of the Chipped Cup Awards (and before that, the Espenson Awards) is to celebrate all aspects of the Rumbelle fandom. All of the categories on this form have been part of this event since long before I joined the fandom. I don’t think it’s any one person’s place - mine OR yours - to decide for the entire fandom whether a category is “acceptable.” If enough people come forward - not on anon, so we can verify that there are multiple people who feel this way - then we’ll take this under consideration. That being said, Rumbelle poly ships still celebrate the dynamic between Belle and Rumpelstiltskin, and many people enjoy putting the Swanfire family into Rumbelle fics, so it’s my personal opinion that both categories should stay (but I invite other Rumbellers to weigh in).

What really concerns me is your incredibly judgmental tone. Gross? Sick? I think you might be in the wrong fandom, Anon. I’ve read smutty fic where Belle is a centaur, or Rumpelstiltskin is a drider. I’ve read age gap fic where Belle is underage and Gold is her boss or her teacher. I myself have a WIP where Belle and Gold are cursed to think they’re father and daughter (and while the smut hasn’t happened yet, believe me when I say it’s coming). This is and always has been a very open-minded fandom, so it disturbs me to see ship-shaming like this.

It’s well-known that the Once Upon a Time family tree is a tumbleweed. Swan Queen is a ship between an older woman and her step-granddaughter. Even Captain Swan - a canon ship! - is between a man and his late stepson’s ex girlfriend/baby momma. Golden Queen and Wicked Gold are both ships between a man and his ex lover’s daughters - both of whom were groomed by said man. If you’re looking for a fandom that’s concerned with moral purity in its ships, you’re very much looking in the wrong place.

I invite you to examine why you feel like it’s your place to cast judgment on members of your fandom when you don’t hold the show’s very writers to the same standards.

[eevylynn]

23 for the salty asks

Easily the most unlikely character that I love would be Neal Cassidy/Baelfire.

I prefer Swanfire over Captain Swan.

While I'm of the opinion that Neal was close in age to Emma in the flashback scenes of Tallahassee, another popular opinion of mine would be that I don't care and still ship it even if they were 17 and 23.

Because they are ✨️fictional✨️

[clairesbeauchamp]

Now that Taylor has released her new album, I need you to tell me which songs are perfect for swanfire 👀

OF COURSE 🫡🫡 the best part of getting a new taylor album is getting to add songs to the swanfire playlist

i’ll say that idk if this is a complete list yet bc im not super familiar w the album yet so there might be more i would add later but after a couple listens these are the ones i got (and also some of the lyrics i like/think fit them best):

loml

we embroidered the memories of the time i was away / stitching “we were just kids babe”

i said “i dont mind, it takes time” / i thought i was better safe than starry-eyed / i felt aglow like this / never before and never since

and all at once, the ink bleeds / a conman sells a fool a get-love-quick scheme / but i’ve felt a hole like this / never before and ever since

if you know it in one glimpse, it’s legendary / what we thought was for all time was momentary

i wish i could recall how we almost had it all

our field of dreams engulfed in fire / your arsons match, your somber eyes / and i’ll still see it until i die / you’re the loss of my life

so long, london

i didnt opt in to be your odd man out / i founded the club she’s heard great things about / i left all i knew, you left me at the house by the heath

and i’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free

two graves, one gun

you swore that you loved me, but where were the clues? / i died at the alter waitin’ for the proof

just in general the vibes of this one fit them so well

the smallest man who ever lived

was any of it true? / gazing at me starry eyed

and i dont even want you back i just want to know / if rusting my sparkling summer was the goal

the whole bridge fits emmas perspective after neal left sooooo well

imgonnagetyouback

whether im gonna be your wife or / gonna smash up your bike / I haven’t decided yet / but im gonna get you back / whether im gonna curse you out or / take you back to my house / i haven’t decided yet / but im gonna get you back

i hear the whispers in your eyes / i’ll make you wanna think twice / you’ll find that you were never not mine

small talk, big love, act like i don’t care what you did / im an aston martin that you steered straight into the ditch / then ran and hid

even if it’s handcuffed im leaving here with you

told my friends i hate you, but i love you just the same

chloe or sam or sophia or marcus

if you wanna break my cold, cold heart / just say “i loved you the way that you were” / if you wanna tear my world apart / just say you’ve always wondered

if the glint in my eye traced the depths of your sigh / down that passage in time back to the moment / i crashed into you, like so many wrecks do / too impaired by my youth to know what to do

so if i sell my apartment / and you have some kids with an internet starlet / will that make your memory fade from this scarlet maroon? / like it never happened

cause i wonder / will i always / will i always wonder?

peter

honestly this whole song just fits them soooo well esp w the peter pan/lost boy imagery?????

preserved from when we were just kids??? I thought it was just goodbye for now??? you said you were gonna grow up then you were gonna come find me??? promises oceans deep but never to keep??? and i won’t confess that i waited but i let the lamp burn as the men masqueraded i hoped you’d return??? lost to the lost boys chapter of your life??? please know that i tried to hold onto the days when you were mine???

PLS let me know ur thoughts also!!!! <3

[shewholovesall]

Swanfire Wedding Playlist 1. I Wanna Dance With Somebody Who Loves Me by Whitney Houston

2.We Found Love (in a hopeless place) by Rhianna

3. Stay by Rhianna

4. Closer by chainsmokers

5. Glass by Thompson Square

6.If I told you by Darius Rucker

7. Mama's Song By Carrie Underwood

8. All of Me by John Legend

9. Marry Me by Train

10. Marry Me by Jason Derulo

11. At Last by Etta James

12. A Thousand Years by Christina Perri

13. The Story by Brandi Carlisle

14. Mine Would Be You by Blake Shelton

15. Satisfied by Jewel

16. I Do by Jewel

17. This by Darius Rucker

18. Nobody But You by Blake Shelton

19. Just by Being You by Steel Magnolias

20. Just Another Day in Paradise by Phil Collins

[cs-rylie]

But like, that anon is right though. You’re really rude to be putting that in their tag. They don’t do that to CS🤷🏽‍♀️ You could be more respectful and less like the stereotypical CSer

PS: I’m an OutlawQueen shipper

I've been trying to decide how to reply to this. It's not mean, hateful, or rude, which I appreciate, thank you, but.. also, does my defending myself matter? People will believe what they want to believe, no matter who is right in any given argument.

Though.. is anyone ever right in any given argument.. especially when the argument is opinions?

I guess I'll say my peace, and leave it. If someone reads this and decides I'm wrong in my logic and wants to learn me something, I'll listen. But I will ignore/delete any further hateful comments. Life's too short for hate, y'all. I love you.

Anyway.

The fic in question is 'Nails'. The upset is about me tagging the relationship Swanfire.. which I do not understand, since I wrote about Swanfire. Actually, here's a comparison of Nails and Beaches- another fic of mine:

'Beaches' - it's a CS fic, Emma left Killian, it's her POV, Killian is mentioned but isn't a character, I tagged CS, it's not a happy ending, I warned it wasn't a happy ending. Neal isn't mentioned at all, I didn't tag him at all.

'Nails' - it's a SF fic, Emma left Neal, it's her POV, Neal is mentioned but isn't a character, I tagged SF, it's not a happy ending, I warned it's anti-Swanfire. Killian isn't mentioned at all, I didn't tag him at all.

I tagged SF in a SF fic. And people are mad at me for that. I don't understand, but I'm prepared to listen - even to the mean ones if they have a point - but this'll be my last reply on this subject. If someone convinces me that I'm in the wrong here, I'll change the tag on ao3.

For the record.. I'm not against anyone for being into any ship. If a ship makes someone happy, by all means, be happy, enjoy that ship. There's room for us all. You don't have to defend yourself for enjoying something. Just be unapologetically you.

I'll love you even if you hate me.

[phoenixwrites]

Oh my gosh finding out that you're rightfully armed to pursue the slander squad (the stalk squad? kinda sounds like lord farquaad a bit for chuckles) feels relieving, the fact it's still going is beyond heartbreaking but maybe they will learn the true difference between reality and fiction, maybe even nuance! Maybe they can go read about fandom history and terms instead of making the world a more depressing place. Ugh, time leachers. BUT THEN TO FIND OUT YOU ARE HAVING A BOOK COME OUT NEXT YEAR!?! YOU'RE THRIVING!!! The squeals, the pure joy! Plus seeing you mention to someone that a Swanfire shipper would enjoy? AHH! This is gonna be fantastic. I'm so so so so damn excited and I'm so freaking happy for you!! I cannot wait to get my hands on it! STAY WINNING DEAR PHOENIX! :'D

STALK SQUAD. AMAZING. That’s now a thing, we’re making it a thing.

I think, luckily, they’re starting to either get bored and will find a new target to harass or a fair amount of people actually looked at my blog and my fics and were like, “wait…none of this is accurate…”

I’ve reiterated it before, but this weird puritanical panic from Gen Z is nothing short of bizarre to me. I was raised in conservative Evangelicalism and to see younger folks using the same exact stifling rhetoric I heard as a teenager but couching it in progressive terms? So fucking bizarre. Like I threw my purity ring in a lake guys, I ain’t doing this again.

NEXT YEAR!!! Contracts are signed, editing meetings are set, and yes, I am feeling absolutely smug about this. Because what an ultimate fail on their part, right? They spent so much time stalking my tumblr, sending me death threats and abuse, only to discover my career has taken off and the energy they put into bullying was all for naught. Cuz I ain’t going anywhere.

My book WAS an original Swanfire fic! (OG readers of mine will remember when I had to take it down!) So you’re going to dig it. Samael the Demon and Emerie are now quite different from demon!Neal and Emma, but the vibes are definitely still there.

[takadasaiko]

Burn the Worlds, Chapter Twenty-Five (a OUAT fic)

Story Summary: Rumplestiltskin had everything set up just as it needed to be for his curse and to find Bae, but when an enemy bent on destroying him makes his way through to Storybrooke as well, he may find that his cursed persona isn't a match for the cleric. Pre-S1. AU. Rumbelle. Swanfire. Eventual OutlawQueen.

Chapter Summary: Rumple finds himself in uncharted territory, Caiden faces a difficult question, and the meeting of OutlawQueen.

FFN II AO3

--

The girl was fast. Even as Silas dove for the loosed dagger that the clerics were convinced would control the Dark One, the blonde wrapped her fingers around it. Her shout was garbled and uncertain, as if she didn't quite know how to wrap her tongue around the name she called. She got it out, though, and apparently it was close enough because magic swirled as a man appeared in the main room of the cabin.

He looked very little like the demon that Robin had encountered when he'd broken into the Dark Castle so many years before. Gone were the gold scales and the crimped hair, leaving behind a thin man - almost fragile looking in the way he leaned against his cane - who appeared briefly startled at being dragged from wherever he'd been before. That didn't last, though, and Robin watched the shift as his dark eyes sharpened and he quickly took in the situation. Silas at the opposite door, he and Soren blocking the back exit, and in between lay a broken and beaten young man and his blonde companion.

Magic swept out, slamming hard into the twins and Robin, and the Prince of Thieves found himself skidding back, Soren tossed even further and out the open back door. It had been a broad attack, but as he scrambled he could see the Dark One levelling a more focused one on Silas. The cleric let out an ear-piercing screech when magic ripped into him. Robin watched, frozen in place more by horror than by the earlier blow, as dark magic ripped at the cleric and - even through the horrifying scream - he thought he could actually hear the sound of bones breaking. He'd been on the receiving end of Rumplestiltskin's ire, but as he watched a man die in front of his eyes, he started to think that the Dark One had let him off easily after all.

Soren let out an angry shout from somewhere beyond the door and startled Robin back into action. He notched his bow, taking aim and ready to fight for his life as the Dark One turned his attention around to them. Behind him, Silas' lifeless body crumpled to the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Those dark eyes fell on him. "Is this what Belle's mercy bought from you, Locksley?" Rumplestiltskin demanded. "She gives you your life and you come for my son?"

Robin set his stance and adjusted his grip ever so slightly on his bow. "They have mine. I have no choice in this alliance."

Strangely enough, the building rage that was directed at him seemed to stall just a little, even if he looked like he was still fighting the urge to do to him what he'd done to Silas. "Your boy? Roland?"

His son's name from the demon's mouth had been the last thing he'd expected and he didn't dare trust his own voice. Instead, he managed a nod even as the sound of footsteps echoed up the back porch steps.

And then the malice in his eyes was fully put away, almost as if he'd won whatever internal battle he'd been waging. "He's safe. Away from this lot."

Back home, whispers about the Dark One flowed. Some were true, some weren't, and some they would never truly know, but one thing that Robin had heard from every corner was that the Dark One never lied. He hadn't believed it before, but in that moment - if it was because it was true or he simply wished it to be - he did.

Soren came barreling through the door and slammed to a stop at the sight of his brother. Robin turned just enough to see him out of the corner of his eye. The boiling rage, the desperation… He let out a wail that echoed through the small cabin as he lurched forward and Robin couldn't swear his mind and body were perfectly in sync as he spun and loosed the arrow that had been notched for Rumplestiltskin.

It flew and lodged deep in the remaining twin's chest, killing him before Soren ever knew what had happened. Well, wherever men like these clerics went once death took them, he'd join his brother there.

Silence followed the thudding body until the blonde girl dragged in a gasping breath. "Gold! He's not breathing!"

The Dark One's curious look sharpened as he turned back towards his injured son and he took a knee next to him. Tears fell down the girl's face as she clutched the dagger in one hand and the dark haired young man against her with the opposite arm. "I can't… I can't lose him. You have magic, right?" she managed. "He's going to be okay?"

Robin stood as still as the two dead men and watched as Rumplestiltskin's thin hands ran over the broken form. "I can't… I don't…" He swallowed hard as if he were trying to gain control of his increasingly unsteady emotions. "Magic's different here."

"You used it to kill them!"

"Darkness isn't the issue. Healing someone else… it's not something I can use my curse for."

She turned wide, hazel eyes on him. "He's dying! You have to save him!"

There was a small flicker in the Dark One's expression that Robin couldn't place. He didn't argue, but instead reached forward and the magic that wrapped around his son shimmered ever so slightly in the air around him as if it were threading together. Bit by bit, wounds stitched up, glossing over and healing right in front of their eyes, and finally - after what seemed like an eternity - dark eyes flashed open and the boy that Robin had heard them refer to as Baelfire sucked in a deep, startled breath. Perhaps possession of that dagger really did give one full command over the Dark One.

The girl bent over him, dropping the knife as she wrapped her other arm around him and loosed a loud sob. "You're okay!"

"Ow," he managed, though Robin thought he heard a soft chuckle in the complaint. Those eyes - so much like the ones his father wore in this world - swept out over the room. "Papa."

The Dark One offered a crooked smile, even as he touched the discarded knife and it disappeared to places only he knew. "How're you feelin', son?"

"Okay… I think." He looked over the two dead men before his gaze fell on Robin. "Hi?"

"Robin of Locksley," the Prince of Thieves said by way of greeting before turning back to Rumplestiltskin. "As much as I'm hesitant to interrupt this…"

"Your own boy. Of course. Fair enough payment for your help in the matter."

He waved his hand, magic swirled, and Robin held his breath as he waited for his little boy to appear.

----

She remembered the day that he'd simply appeared in the Great Hall. Broken. Bleeding. She hadn't really known that he could bleed until that day. There were so many stories and legends that surrounded the Dark One that it was difficult to pick fact from fiction early on, but the one that said he couldn't die had been utterly dispelled as the sun had sunk behind the mountain and Belle had struggled to keep him awake. She hadn't known Magnus' name at the time, but she'd seen the marks that his endless battle he waged with Rumple had left on the man she'd eventually grown to love. She'd nearly lost him that day, and now they were trying to take him away again.

She'd be damned if she let them.

"That's him," Roland managed from behind Regina, cowering back and gripping the fabric of her slacks. "He took me and Papa away."

"Why don't you let me take you back to him, little one?" the cleric offered, his tone neither holding a false kindness nor was it as menacing.

"Why don't you bring him here?" Regina countered. "We'll make a trade. I'll give you Snow and Charming. Two for one."

"Hey!" Snow snapped from her place.

Regina turned to her, her expression insincerely perplexed by the outburst. "What? You want to go to your daughter and I promised the boy his papa. Everybody wins."

"Or you can zap him with your magic and we'll go rescue Emma."

"She can't." The words, a partial echo of the cleric's own, fell from Belle's lips even as a few pieces of what was turning out to be a very complicated puzzle dropped into place. "Magnus used her somehow…. Rumple said the magic here was strange. You can't use your magic, can you?"

Regina's expression darkened, but she didn't deny it. Instead she simply positioned herself a little better in front of Roland.

Blue eyes flickered back to the cleric that seemed to be assessing the best avenue to take as Snow gaped and Regina glared. Interesting. He was calculating, but in those calculations was a patient manner, as if he were trying to take the path of least destruction. It wasn't at all what Belle would have expected from her limited and removed experience with the clerics, and perhaps that gave them the in that they needed.

"What do you hope to achieve in all of this?"

His clear eyes snapped back to her and she held his gaze without flinching. He tilted his chin up a bit. "To rid our world of darkness."

"And you do that by becoming darkness itself?"

He pushed a short breath out through his nose and she wondered if it was a thought he struggled with often. "I know of you, Lady Belle. Your kindness and your selflessness was a story that reached farther than you might have ever known. With that, did you find him kind when he whisked you away as payment for your people's lives?"

"That's not -"

"It is," he answered. "Innocent souls suffer under the Dark One. He manipulates and he warps events around him to his own benefit. He takes and he takes and he takes until there's nothing left in his wake but empty darkness. That is the curse, and it is our duty to rid the worlds of that foul curse."

"And yet you came to the Land Without Magic where it could be suppressed without killing the man it inhabits and you brought magic here. Your master did that. Not Rumple."

In the back of her mind she knew all eyes were on them, but thankfully the crowd of opinions remained silent as the two squared off in a battle of wills and words rather than any magic or steel.

"He'd have brought it himself."

"He came here to find his son, who wanted nothing more than his father without the curse."

"And he would have been content in that?"

A soft breath left her as she thought on in for a moment, her gaze dipping before rising to meet his again. "We can't know now, because you never even gave him the chance."

"He's fooled you, m'lady. Whatever man the demon hides behind is not really there. It's a skin he wears, nothing more. His love for his son or for you… it's not there. It's a manipulation. It's the same with every host the Dark One's curse takes. None can love under it."

The words struck a chord and Belle's gaze sharpened a bit on him. "Rumple's not the first Dark One you've fought?"

"Hardly. I saw the one before him and the three before that, but Magnus… He's seen them all."

"That's hundreds of years."

"Yes. I suppose it is."

"And what does a mortal man give up to see so many centuries?"

His clear blue eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the question, but if he had an answer, Belle didn't hear it. Instead she felt the familiar tug that meant she was being dragged across miles of space in a fraction of an instant. When her eyes focused again, the shop was gone and she stood with Snow, David, Regina, and Roland in the cabin. Rumple was there, no worse for the wear, though Bae certainly was. His shirt was stained dark with blood, even though he appeared to be steady on his feet, and Emma stood at his side. She watched as little Roland raced forward, calling out to his papa as he flung himself into the familiar figure of Robin Hood's arms and Snow launched herself at a very shaken looking Emma.

"You're okay!" the queen managed, flinging her arms around the young blonde who stood frozen, her own arms bowed as if she wanted to return the embrace, but wasn't quite sure how.

"Yeah. We're okay. We're okay. You guys? Are you…?"

Snow released to press her palms against the girl's cheeks, a radiant smile only a mother could wear gracing her face. "Emma."

"Do you… remember me?"

"I do. I don't know how I could forget!"

Belle's gaze lingered for just a moment on the lone figures of David - who clearly wasn't sure what was happening and standing alone - and Regina who Belle wouldn't have wagered would look quite as abandoned by the little boy that had rushed to meet his father. Unlike her step-son-in-law, she didn't have to wait. Robin looked up from where he'd taken a knee to embrace his child to look at the woman who had put herself between Roland and danger just a few minutes before.

"That's Gina," Roland explained. "She saved me."

The Evil Queen gave a painfully awkward smile. "I just got him out of the mines."

Robin stood, Roland in his arms, and crossed over to her. Belle found herself watching the meeting unfold with a sense of something meaningful in the air. Rumple had always said that True Love was the strongest of magic, and she wondered….

Rumple.

Belle turned, finding her own True Love lingering back with his son, dark eyes fixed on her. She felt the corners of her lips tug upward and she threw herself forward in his arms. "You're alright," she breathed into the crook of his shoulder and she felt his arms encircle her.

"Of course, dear," he murmured into her hair, but she could feel the way he held onto her like an anchor steadying him against the waves. Funny, nothing the cleric said stuck with her in that moment. All that was was the reunion of the family she'd never expected to have. Rumple - the love of her life that she'd met through a deal he had struck - his son and his son's love. Emma's parents - both known and unknown - and even Regina, however she fit in here. For a long moment, it was just them, and they revelled in what they'd managed to protect. More was to come, but what good was life if they couldn't hold onto the moments of triumph like this?

----

Centuries upon centuries of study and practice had taught Magnus how to hone his magical skills. They were many, but he'd never gained the power of Foresight. It was a damaging blow the day Rumplestiltskin had added it to his own repertoire. It had put him at least three steps ahead of them on a good day, often further than that. Mangus was nothing if not adaptable though. He'd adjusted and he'd learned, soaking in the texts from all corners of their world and eventually learning the art himself, though admittedly at a much more limited scope than his opponent that had simply absorbed what his predecessor had bequeathed to him. It gave him something. A vision. A direction. He just had to give himself fully to search for it, even if it often only gave him moments in time a fraction of a second before they happened. At least it gave him a wide view, if not a distant one.

The town was under their command, though for how long remained to be seen. The twins were dead and the thief had been reunited with his son outside of their purview. Caiden survived, but he'd failed. They needed to move quickly if they wished to retain their advantage.

Magnus' sightless eyes cracked open from where he was knelt down in meditation in the back room of the convent that Reul Ghorm had claimed as her own in the curse. Caiden stood in the doorway, his entire demeanour saturated with questions and guilt. Interesting. He didn't even know that his delay had cost his brothers' their lives that day.

"The Dark One free, the thief without tether, the Evil Queen with her allies, and even the savior outside of our reach. What information could possibly be worthy of this interruption?"

Caiden hesitated at the door, and Magnus could feel his gaze linger on him long before he spoke. He waited - more stubbornly than patiently - until the younger man said: "You clearly Saw what happened."

"I did."

"Then did you See what happened in the shop?"

He hadn't, mostly because he thought he could trust Caiden to fulfil his commands. He always had before, but something had been eating at his protegee since he'd sent him back to their world after the thief. Caiden was determined, he knew. Dedicated to their cause. One or two Dark Ones prior to the current one - Magnus lost count in all of those years - had obliterated his village. Magnus had found him in the burning remnants. Young and angry and willing. It hadn't taken any convincing to join his cause. Only a promise: to right the wrongs. To protect the weak. Caiden had been his loyal companion from then out. Perhaps it had been three Dark Ones ago.

"I've never needed to look in on you for you to do what is required," Magnus answered and he could feel Caiden stiffen at that.

"I've served you for many years."

"You have."

"Our goals have always been aligned. Intricately so."

"I fail to hear the question."

"I was a mortal man before you found me. Young. A family. Everything stolen by the Dark One."

Magnus turned milky-white eyes towards him, waiting for the point that had interrupted their goal.

"How did it begin?"

"You know that. All dark curses were gathered into one and took over flesh."

"Yes, but how did you come by the power to… face it? To extend all of our lives?"

"Are you asking what was sacrificed for our goal?"

"Yes."

Magnus loosed a breath and shifted to stand. He turned and could feel Caiden steel himself as he moved towards him. With intention, he reached out to place a hand on either shoulder. "We have been called to this, and in that calling, we are given the years to pursue it."

"But why us?"

"Because we've sworn an oath to it."

"And who began it?"

Mangus paused, hearing the question behind the question that Caiden hadn't dared to ask in a half of a millenia. He gripped the younger man's shoulders a bit more tightly, holding him in place with the weight of his words. "Eradicating the Dark One's curse is the goal. There is nothing else."

He waited until Caiden soaked his words in, weighed them, and then nodded obediently. "Of course. Of that, there's never been any question."

His grip tightened and he felt the other man wince ever so slightly. "Then do it."

"It'll be done," his protegee swore, and left him to his meditation.

-----

People often spoke of the quiet before the storm by way of warning, but those that did were not accustomed to being the storm themselves. Raging winds and magic buzzing through the air like lightning, Regina had found a kinship with the angry skies when she rained down her retribution on those that deserved it most. Like the storm, she sent her enemies scurrying for shelter. Like the storm, she left utter devastation in her wake.

All storms eventually dissipated, though. She simply hadn't expected to still be there once it did, but there she was: powerless and forced to side with those she'd sworn to destroy, but they were a means to an end. Magicless though she was, what would it say if some useless cleric was able to sweep in and steal away her town, her magic, and the curse she'd bestowed on everyone? No. She needed her magic back. Once she had it, she'd rip that fool of a cleric's heart from his chest and crush it.

She just had to find her way back to it and quickly.

Rumplestiltskin had always been good for that when he wanted to be. He'd fought the clerics longer than Regina had been alive and had studied what he hadn't seen himself. It was, she told herself, the reason she'd taken a gamble on him when he'd laid dying. She needed him and he owed her. It was time to collect on the rare debt.

The Dark One was finishing up the wards around the perimeter after whisking the two dead clerics' bodies somewhere beyond it. If Mangus or his people approached, all they would find was the forest, looped back in on their path in much the same way as Regina and Roland had been in the mines.

"I hear -" her old mentor drawled out, the two syllables taking considerably longer than they needed to - "that you're in a bit of a bind."

"Protecting you cost me," Regina answered pointedly.

He paused where he was bent down to inspect one of the wards. His thin fingers danced across it, though they both knew it was an idle gesture. He was buying time. He was calculating. As he did.

"And you've come to collect."

"You always said nothing came without a price."

"Indeed," he murmured and stood slowly, his limbs straightening with a sluggishness that spoke of the weight of the day.

There was a long moment, and then another, and finally another as Regina pushed a frustrated breath out through her nose. "So can you fix it?"

"No."

The single word was a punch to the gut. "What do you mean 'no'? You owe me your life, you ungrateful imp!"

"Keep your voice down," he chided, his dark gaze sliding back towards the cabin where much of their ragtag group were sleeping just a handful of steps behind them. "I'm hardly ungrateful. I know what you did and this would be a terribly simple way to rid myself of a rather hefty debt… if it could be done."

The words sunk in slowly, the weight of them threatening to drag her down with them. "Then that's it? He stole everything from me?" she managed, her voice breaking as the words escaped.

That dark gaze she'd become accustomed to for the last handful of years there in Storybrooke shifted to look at her. "Not everything. You certainly have your wits about you, or you wouldn't have escaped him. You'll need those."

"For what?"

That impish smile quirked his lips ever so slightly. "Why, regaining what he took, of course."

That storm built up in her and she levelled a glare that would have made a lesser man tremble. "Stop with the games, Rumple. You said -"

His gaze snapped fully on her, and even though his eyes were dark rather than gold, it reminded her of the early days when he'd grow frustrated in her lessons. He knew the answer. Surely she did too. "I said I couldn't return your magic. Not any more than I could have given it to you if you'd had not an ounce of talent in your bones when I found you. All I can do is all I've ever done: teach you. And you know the lesson needed to unravel a spell put on you."

"Not like this."

He tilted his head as if he were studying her. "It doesn't matter the size of the spell or even the intricacy. The more threads woven together, the more time it takes, but it will unravel if you pull the correct thread."

And with that he turned, leaving her standing at the edge of the perimeter, the rest of their party asleep or on his way in to rest, and she loosed a frustrated breath. Well, she hadn't gotten this far just to lose to a cleric of all things. He wanted her to find the right thread? She'd find it, and Magnus wouldn't know what hit him.

----

TBC

Notes: And again, I need to apologize for the lengthy delay between chapters. I'm really going to have to grovel over on my other multi chapter that I haven't updated in more months than this one O.o We're coming towards the end of this one though. I think two, maybe three more chapters. With everyone together now, things are really going to hit the fan >:D

Next Time: Regina and Robin have a heart to heart, and while Rumple searches for a way to take down Magnus, loyalties will be tested.

[timelordthirteen]

Neal? Emma.

[intothewickedwood]

Ouattober 2022 Day 30 - Home

Home / I've heard the word before / It's never meant much more / Than just a thing I've never had

A place / They say, hey, know your place / But I've never had a place to even know / Or a face that I could go to / If I needed someone there / I'm laughing/ It's hard to hide a smile / My God, it's been a while / Since I have had a reason to

To think / It's been here all along / Somewhere to belong / And a reason / A 'something' to believe in / I've finally found it / A place where I'm wanted / This must be how it feels / To have a home

[anthonybrxdgerton]

once upon a time appreciation week » day 3 | favorite romantic pairing

I need you. I love you. I love you too.

[hesmuchmoreimportant]

Once Upon a Time Appreciation Week | Day 3: Favorite Romantic Pairing → Swanfire

The instant you stepped back in my life, I knew. I knew I'd never stopped loving you.

insp.

[zhoufeis]