Shaya

Chapter 25 - Thy life I seize, my wrath to appease

Rumplestilstkin exited the pawn shop, locking the door behind him. He looked at his right: the battle was raging under the clock tower, somewhere in the middle of the thick, magic mist. He smirked, proud of his creature, then serenely walked away, aiming at Pan's so said " hidden" refuge in the woods.
He found himself thinking about Belle, forcedly asleep in their house. He couldn't risk her life, not now that he had found her again. He was sure that he would have died in Neverland, and he probably would have, if Shaya hadn't helped them. He was powerful, but the prophecy was clear. He had been very lucky to find Shaya in Neverland, and, moved by an unusual sense of sharing, he had told her, that morning on the island, when he had took a walk with the warrior while the others were still sleeping. He had told her everything about the prophecy, and she had laughed on it and asked him if he wanted to come back to that Storybrooke. He had nodded, and she had said that, if Rumplestiltskin wanted to do something, then not even destiny could stop him. And he had never felt so grateful with someone. Well, except for Belle. A warm sensation had raised in his chest, something close to love, yet it wasn't it. And in that moment he had understood, even though it was more like remembering something, that she was his friend. His only friend. And she fixed things, and people. And that day she had fixed him. From that morning on he knew that he would have seen Belle again. Not that he could stop being afraid that it wouldn't happen, that was impossible, but he had hoped that he would have looked again in those bright, gorgeous, smiling blue eyes.
Exactly the opposite he could think about a couple of hostile dark-green eyes.
All because of a certain woman, the same woman who froze as she saw him, appearing from behind a low hill, smirking at her. She was standing in the middle of a little camp, filled with tents made of woods, ferns and moss, open-mouthed. She held a gun in her right hand, and she suddenly aimed it at him.
" Don't move!" she intimated, but her voice was shaking, as her body. Rumplestiltskin pursed his lips and opened his arms, dropping the cane.
" Why, dearie? I'm just an unarmed man, can't you see?" he asked with a smile, lifting his brows. Tamara swallowed, tightening the grab in the gun.
" You're the Dark One, you yourself are a weapon." she said between her teeth. She was terrorized, and Rumple felt his eyes glitter at that awareness.
He gave a nod. " Well then..." he stepped forward, descending the hill.
" Stay still!" Tamara warned him, but he ignored her, going on speaking.
" ...if you're so informed about me, you should know..."
" Rumplestiltskin, stay still or I shot, I swear!"
" ... that poor damage a gun can make me..."
" Mr. Gold!"
Tamara's gun was pushed against Rumple's chest by now but, when she pulled the trigger, nothing happened. The Dark One smiled.
" ... dearie."
Tamara pulled and pulled the trigger again, uselessly. Rumplestiltskin tilted his head, the raised a hand, closed in a fist. When he opened it, the bullets shined in his palm.
" Yet I thought you were fast shooting, Tamara."
The woman looked at him in horror, then tried to walk back, but she stumbled on what was left of a campfire, falling on her back.
" Please, Mr. Gold, please, I didn't mean to..."
" Actually, I guess you did, dearie..." he interrupted her, dropping the bullets. They fell before her feet, hitting a stone, startling her.
Tamara tried to shrank form him. " N-no, please, I was forced to shot him..."
" Forced?" the Dark One angrily asked, gritting his teeth. He raised a hand, and his cane flew to it. He grabbed it, stepping forward, and quickly pushed it against Tamara's throat, stopping her going back. The woman grasped the cane, trying to move it, trying to breathe, but Rumplestiltskin was stronger, and held it where it was.
" Forced, uh?" he repeated, leaning forward, making her goggle in pain, careful not to kill her yet. " That's not what Emma has told me."
Tamara opened her mouth trying to speak, but Rumplestiltskin shook his head with a devilish chuckle.
" Oh, no, dearie. You may have fooled Bae with your lies, but I won't listen to your falsehoods a second more."
He slightly waved his free hand, and the bullets lifted in the air, making Tamara widen her eyes. She frantically shook her head, crying, trying to escape, but the Dark One's magic held her on the ground. The bullets slowly flew towards her body, and soon they were pressing against her belly and chest, making her moan in pain, the only sound she could emit with the cane pressed against her throat. Rumplestiltskin moved the free hand forward, and the bullets entered the skin, digging through her flesh, causing her suffocated screams. No bullet touched her heart.
She passed out before that the bullets could kill her, much to the Dark One's disappoint.
He left her there, walking away with an old ballad he thought he didn't remember in his head. Yet he used to sing it to Regina in her cradle to put her to sleep, when Henry wasn't around.