Being Alive, prologue

Summary:  This is a AU Rumbelle. I’ve fusioned Once Upon A Time and Stargate Universe, sprinkled with a little dash of Doctor Who. Belle is stuck in a little corner of her planet, with her father, powerthirsty clerics, and a war against monsters rage. One day, a lonely traveler arrive and strikes a deal with her father for her.

Pairing: Rumplestiltskin/Belle  (It should be Rumshplestiltskin, considering I’ve merged Rumple and Nicholas Rush)

Word Count: 1,423

Rating: T (the fic itself will be M or even E but this part is T)

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Once, the Marchlands had been luxurious and rich. A long time ago, Belle knew her people had lived in a land of abundence, merchants bringing fruits, liquor and so on. That was when the mines were full of elkium, a mineral used in the combustion of fuel for spaceships. Then the mines had been drained and people had started to leave the place.

 Fewer people meant less business. Less business meant fewer merchant. Fewer merchants meant less hability to live there, and thus, even fewer people.
The ones who couldn’t or didn’t want to leave had started to become survivalist, and organised themselves into small groups, and regressed to tribes.
They still had communication devices and links to the bigger cities, and though space travelling became usual with time, the marchlands were so isolated they pretty much missed it all.


The tribes lived, thrived, survived, focused on local legends, on their own microcosm. New religions based on old stories were born, priesthood was created and in the marchlands, the Gods and their rituals became important. So when monsters, with thick fangs and yellow eyes, erupted from the Hills, people turned to Religion to ease their fears.


Those beasts destroyed tribes, leaving blood and dust in their wake. People were afraid. Tribes trembled for their own, but tried to fight back. However they were outnumbered, their weapons, though efficient, couldn’t be enough against the brutal violence of the monsters.
In the end, the clerics and priests reunited and decided a sacrifice was necessary. Those monsters must have been Gods expressing their displeasure at the humans, and to appease them, blood must be spilled, in the old ritual of Arkibalt, when the three moons could be seen at the same time in the sky. But they had to find the one to sacrifice. Though there was time before the ritual, the search had to be undergone.


Mauo had 94 people under his responsibility, the biggest tribe still alive of the Marchlands, and one with comradio in working order. His daughter, Belle, was the gem of his life and it was a shock and a disaster when she was chosen.
She was a maiden, unmarried, and clerics didn’t like her very much. Belle never hesitated to defy them, and she had been to the headcities twice before. She had discovered books and had always brought back those tablets where stories were told, and she was often seen spending hours staring at them, reading. She was an oddity, who refused to submit. It was also a brilliant political move. Mauo having only a child, Belle’s mother having died at childbirth, his territory would be left heirless and the Priests could claim it.


However Mauo wouldn’t abide by their wishes. The sacrifice was monstruous, they expected his daughter to just walk to the monsters and get eaten, then people would hope the maiden blood would weaken their bloodthirst. Mauo thought it was stupid. The monsters had eaten thousands of people, one little girl, his little girl, couldn’t possibly stop that ; and which father in their right mind could let that happen ?


He decided to retaliate. With the help of a few trustworthy warriors, he educated his daughter to the survival and fighting techniques. Belle didn’t like it but she understood the need.
She learnt how to take out a man down bare-handed, she learnt how to throw knives and use them in a close fight. One of the shooter gave her his electric gun for her to use to knock out, or even kill someone from a distance. A gatherer taught her how to distinguish poisons from edible herbs, to plant vegetables and fruits, and a hunter taught her to hunt and fish. They had time before the sacrifice and they wanted to make the most of it. Mauo wanted to make sure Belle knew everything there was to know to be able to survive alone in the wild while trekking to the headcity.


Her father’s plan was to have her walking toward the Hills, then once the village was out of sight, to make a 180° turn,  and walk far away from the village, to leave the Marchlands and go live her life elsewhere. The trip would be tough but it was the only solution for his girl to survive.


The closer the day of the sacrifice, the more pressure Mauo put on Belle. She had soldiered on, put on her brave face, and absorbed the knowledge of the Tribe warriors.


The morning of the day before the sacrifice, she woke up, ready to face her biggest trial. She was ready to go and build a life elsewhere, in the headcity. Books had opened her mind, and she wanted to experiment it all. She wanted to go and sit in a real library, she wanted to travel amongst the stars. She had read about a nebulae where colors were bleeding into each other and making the most exquisite show, she wanted to see it. She had read about a planet covered in snow, water made solid, she wanted to touch that thing. Her heart was yearning for so much. Maybe that sacrifice wasn’t so bad, in the end. It certainly put her on the right tracks, well, thanks to her dad. A less “evoluted” tribe would have her eaten, but her father was probably one of the most practical man she had ever met, a trait she had inherited. And thanks to him, her dreams were now in her reach.


And in the afternoon of the day, they were ruined. People shouted in the streets and a man erupted into her home to talk to her father. Of course, Belle followed them outside.


A spaceship landed next to her village. It was bigger than an independant freight ship but smaller than the smallest of war ship she had seen on her reading tablet ; in any case, twice the size of her village. The design was something like she had never seen before. The ship had a long nose, clearly made for deep space travel, and had a concave triangle shape, its stern slightly rounded. An egg like struture on the third of the ship closest to the stern sat, some windows letting some light in. It rested steadily on three legs with hooky feet. The spaceship reflected gold, though its body was clearly made of greyish metal. Overall, Belle thought the spaceship elegant but weird.


People from the Marchlands knew of spaceships and startravelling, however, their land was so far away from the headcity that noone had ever landed there before. It was… unexpected. Noone would willingly land there, the ship must have been damaged, or undergoing a breakdown… the poor pilot would have to go the bigger cities to find a mechanics. Though if the break was manageable, maybe they could find a way to repair in her book tablet but he’d have to have supplies. Oooh Belle was still excited.


The hatch opened and a man descended from the bunker. He was not very tall, too thin to be healthy, had brown shaggy hair to his shoulders, a short beard, and wore weird clothes, as if he put them on in the wrong order. From the moment he got down, he stick out like a sore thumb. The men from her people traditionally wore their hair shaved or very short. He had blue rough-looking trousers with leather attached to his right thigh, holding a short stick in a T shape, and some kind of short green tunic with two coloured-sleeves, green and white. Over it, he had a short sleeveless vest that she didn’t think had an use.


The man was obviously not from this world, he must have had a bad trip, come from very far, have other traditions, even speak another language ! Belle was happy to meet him, obviously communications would be a problem at first but they would overcome it. Maybe she’d even learn a few words from him.


The man walked to them, looking around him, taking in their surroundings. People were looking at Mauo for clues of how to react, the man must have seen it and deduced Mauo was the chief. Belle was standing next to her father, and she felt the stranger’s eyes lay on her face before facing her father. She was expecting weird words from another world but she was flabbergasted at the words that came out of his mouth, in perfect marchlandsian. 
"Greetings, I am Doctor Nicholas Von Stiltskin".


That day, her life changed forever.