Sorry that it's been so terribly long. I went on a trip to Italy where I couldn't write. Hopefully now that I'm back I can update more quickly. Sorry for the wait and I hope you are enjoying this!

Henry is walking down the street, kicking a rock in boredom. He wishes that there was something he could do to help his recently returned grandpa, but it seems his dad and Belle have that covered. He still wishes he was useful. He wants to help someone somehow. When he hears the scream of pain, he dashes to the source. Okay, maybe he doesn't want to help someone; someone has to need help to be helped, and Henry doesn't want anyone to be in danger.

Henry finds himself flinging open the door to the flower shop. He is quite shocked to see his grandpa in his pajamas with bare feet, tangled hair, and a battered looking cane. He's even more shocked to see Moe French cowering in the corner of the shop, hands raised to fend off the next blow. "Grandpa!" Henry yells, causing Rumpelstiltskin to turn around. Henry sees an odd glint in his eyes before it disappears.

"Henry?" his grandpa asks, looking confused. Then, he turns and sees Moe. He looks down at the bloodied cane in his hands and then drops it, taking a step back. Then he slips to the floor as well, crying and shaking. Not sure what to do, Henry looks over at Moe. The man is just sitting there, staring in shock at his attacker. Henry pulls out his phone.

"Mom," he says when Emma picks up. "I think we have a problem."

Bae rushes into the flower shop to see his papa on the floor, rocking back and forth and sobbing much like he had done on the bed back home. Emma is over by Moe trying to figure out what's going on. Belle, who walked in beside him, looks torn between going to her sobbing true love or her beat up father. "He attacked me!" Moe accuses as Bae approaches his papa.

"It looked like he was in some sort of trance," Henry pipes up from the corner he's standing in. Bae hadn't noticed him when he walked in.

"Papa?" Bae questions as he painfully sits down next to the man who raised him. Then, he calmly pulls the sobbing man into his arms. "It's going to be okay," he assures him.

"No it's not!" comes the choked argument, just barely forced between the sobs. "I tried to tell you, but you wouldn't listen! I'm going to hurt everyone and there's nothing I can do to stop it!" Then he's sobbing uncontrollably. All Bae can do is hold him close. He looks up at Belle who looks just as lost as he is.

"Guys, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we can't have a guy walking around town and beating people up," Emma says.

"What are you saying?" Belle asks, sounding mortified. Bae is glaring at Emma angrily. If she is going to try to lock his papa up after everything that's happened to him, she's going to have to go through him.

"I'm just saying we have to come up with a solution," Emma says. "I don't care what it is, but he did tell Regina to lock him up earlier."

"After everything that's happened to him, you think we should put him in prison?" Bae asks angrily. "How would you like it if you went through hell and back and when you finally got home, everyone locked you up?"

"Look Bae, I'm just saying that if he wants to be locked up…"

"He's too out of it to know what he wants!" Bae argues back, shocking literally everyone in the room. He feels kind of bad, but he isn't about to let them take his papa away from him. His dad has been trying to protect him his whole life, and now it is Bae's turn. "After being captured by Zelena, the last thing he needs is to be behind bars. Trust me, I know." After all, he'd been captured by the witch too even if his papa had been able to shield him from almost everything that had happened.

"But we have to do something." If it had been Emma who said that, he probably would have gotten mad, but it was Belle. "He wants us to," she tells him gently. He understands. They have to do something, even if it is only for his papa's piece of mind.

"How about one of those magic blocking cuffs?" Henry suggests, making all the adults remember that he's still in the room. Henry shouldn't be here, not for something like this. He shouldn't have to see his grandpa attacking people and then breaking down crying. Then again, Bae shouldn't have to see any of that either.

"That could work," Belle agrees thoughtfully.

"No," Rumpelstiltskin states. He's been slowly calming down this whole time, and now he's finally stopped crying. Bae looks over at him and sees the red rimmed eyes that break his heart. "You have to lock me up," comes the plea.

"No," Bae argues back. "We don't have to lock you up. Everything is going to be okay." The cold, humorless laugh startles him. His papa pulls away from him, looking him in the eye.

"Things have never been okay," he states. If Bae's being honest with himself, then he's more than a little creeped out. But Bae did learn how to be a conman after all, and conmen are great at lying, even to themselves. "They are never going to be okay. Not unless you stop me, and the magic cuff is not going to cut it."

"Yes it is," Belle says with determination as she slides down on the other side of her true love. She moves to give him a hug but he pulls back so she settles for just sitting next to him. "I have faith in you. We can overcome this." But he's shaking his head no.

"Don't you get it?" he asks, sounding angry but Bae can tell it is just desperation in his voice. "All magic comes with a price, and the price for me taking the magic of the Dark One has yet to be paid."

"You're price was losing me," Bae argues firmly.

"No, that was fate intervening to try and help you," his papa argues. "To help you escape from the monster."

"You're no monster," Belle argues back.

"Yes I am!" Everyone in the room starts at that. Bae feels tears threatening to spill out. He's always hated it when his father was self-depreciating, and now he's doing it worse than he ever has before. "I am a monster! I am the beast in the dark, causing death and chaos until the hero comes and kills me. Only, I can't die! So they have to do the next best thing, lock me up." The tears do start spilling down his cheeks at the monologue. Bae looks over at Belle, but she looks lost as well.

"Maybe we should lock him up," Archie's unexpected voice comes from the door. Bae turns, about to argue. But then he sees the concerned look on the psychiatrist's face and realizes that Archie doesn't want this because he's afraid of the Dark One. He wants this because it seems to be the only thing that will calm Rumpelstiltskin down.

"Alright," he agrees softly, brokenly. Belle glances over at him in shock, looking like she's about to protest. Her true love interrupts.

"Thank you," he mutters. The relief is so palpable that it stops Belle in her tracks. She looks at Bae and they share an understanding look.

"Right, but how is a cell supposed to hold him?" Moe questions, obviously frightened by the man who just beat him up. As much as he wants to, Bae really can't hold it against him.

"Emma's parents know how," Rumpelstiltskin informs them. Bae frowns. He hasn't heard that one. He gives Belle a look, but apparently she's been kept out of the loop as well.

"I'll call them," Emma says, pulling out her phone. As she dials, Bae and Belle share another look. Sure both of them can see why this is necessary at the moment, but neither of them are willing to let it stay this way. Once his papa realizes he's not a threat to anyone, they're letting him back out. He claims to still have his curse, but Bae has yet to see him use any magic. His papa's just confused, traumatized. And once he gets a little better things can go back to a semblance of normal. They have to.

He looks up at the ceiling of his new cell in the dwarf mines, finally feeling calm. He can't hurt a single soul in here, not with the job the fairies have done. The only person who can be hurt now is him, but that's not really true because he's not really a person. It's arguable that he's never been a person, but no one can deny that he became less than human the minute he became the Dark One. He's a monster, and monsters deserve to be hurt. He feels sleep coming and tries to push it off, hold it back. Just because he deserves to be hurt doesn't mean he wants to be. But he can only fight sleep so long and soon the darkness claims him, just like it always has.

"Hello," the greeting comes. It makes him start and that causes the others to laugh. But the joke's on them, because he can't hurt anyone anymore.

"You failed," he tells them. They just laugh again.

"Why, because you're in prison?" they question. He frowns as they laugh, realizing that this doesn't faze them one bit. "All prisons are finite. You'll find a way out."

"Good always wins," he echoes the sentiment his grandson is fond of saying.

"So does evil," they inform him. "If there is always evil rising up to be defeated, when it rises it is defeating. Good and evil both always win, but what matters is which will win in the end. And that would be the one that is the most powerful, and right now that's evil. That's you."

"No," he shakes his head, backing away from the others. He tries desperately to hold onto the optimism of those he knows, but it slips away until he has nothing but dread. "Please don't make me hurt people," he pleads. They just laugh. One comes close and whispers in his ear.

"We aren't making you do anything," comes the evil whisper that causes tears to come. "Everything that's happened has been all you." And then the pain starts again. But he deserves it. After all, he's a monster.

Bae and Belle round a corner in the mines to see Rumpelstiltskin sitting on the bed in his cell, staring at his hands. "Papa?" Bae questions, watching as the man turns to face him.

"Hello Bae," he replies, getting up and coming toward the bars. Bae sees an odd flash in his father's eyes, but he ignores it, thinking it's probably the torch light.

"How are you doing?" he asks, coming closer to the bars himself. He can only imagine what being in a cage again must feel like. He knows that he would hate it, but it looks as though his father is managing alright.

"I could be better," his papa replies. Then a hand flies out and suddenly Bae finds himself choking. "In fact, I will be better once you're dead."

"Rumple!" Belle cries, but it appears that the Dark One can't hear his true love. It's either that or he's ignoring her.

"You've done nothing but hold me back," Rumpelstiltskin informs him as he dangles in the air, holding his papa's arms in a futile attempt to make the man let go. He'd never really realized how strong his small papa was until this moment. "You're the reason I broke my leg. You are what kept me from making deals too harsh; you were either there to get mad at me or not there at all, making me search for you. And now all you do is try to tell me to be a better man. Well, I'm not meant to be a better man! I am meant to be a better villain. I will be the best villain the world has ever seen, with you out of the way. Once you're gone, nothing can hold me back."

Bae is vaguely aware of Belle trying to make her true love let go, but it's all in vain. His head starts to spin from the lack of oxygen and he knows he's going to die soon. He looks into his papa's eyes as he struggles to make him let go and sees nothing but cold contempt. "He's your son!" Belle's desperate cry cuts through the fog his brain is in. All of a sudden, contempt is replaced with shock and he falls to the ground as his father lets go, stepping back away from the bars. Belle kneels next to him, calling his name but he continues to stare at his papa.

"Leave," Rumpelstiltskin orders quietly, causing Belle to turn and look at him as well. "Leave and don't come back." Bae can see the fear, the absolute dread is his papa's eyes. He tries to argue, but it hurts his throat too much. He hopes he recovers from this as quickly as Belle did so that he can argue with his stubborn papa more effectively.

"No!" Belle argues for him. "We won't…"

"Leave!" the Dark One interrupts with a yell. Belle helps him to his feet and they make their way back down the mines. There is no point in arguing at the present moment. His dad wouldn't listen if they did. Bae knows that his papa will cry as soon as he thinks they're out of earshot. He needs to fix this whole thing as soon as possible.