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Being alive, episode 1, part 2

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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: 14,587 / Complete.

Rating: M


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Belle’s eyes filled with tears too and she entered the hatch, crossed the storage docks and walked up the corridor before entering the cockpit.
"Nicholas."

Nicholas pressed the button to close the hatch, turned and got up, a joyful energy in his step, until he saw her and froze. She was crying. She was in his ship, and crying. He had a human on board and she was emotional. And he had no clue about what to do, so he acted as if everything was alright in the world.
"I suggest you go into your bedroom while we take off, dearie. I assume I’ll have to go to your house to take your packings and the water tanks ?" At her nod, he went on. "Good. I’ll teleport down the irrigation plans too. Come with me."

The cockpit had two exits, one toward the storage docks, and another corridor leading to the kitchen. In that corridor, there was a narrow staircase leading to another corridor with closed doors appearing after a 90° turn on the left.
Nicholas led her to the closest door to the right and pressed a button on the side of the door.

The doors separated in the middle, letting a bedroom cabin appear. It was small with a large bunk bed against a side of the wall, a small desk and chair on the other side. There was a small round window. It was impersonal, there were no memories of anything, however it was clean and more than she expected.
 
Belle turned to Von Stiltskin and smiled up at him.
“Thank you very much, Nicholas, it is perfect.”
“Yeah. Well,  I’ll be in the cockpit. The room with the consoles, it’s called a cockpit” He figured that if she had never been out of her village, she wouldn’t know a spaceship parts, but then she had recognized his magnetical scanner. He didn’t know on which foot to stand with her, and it was very frustrating. “just stay in here, lay down for the take-off, we’ll fly over the village, teleport the water and your bags onboard, find the elkium, and we’re off. You gave some thoughts to where you want to go ? Your father asked me to fly you where you want to, so… you choose. If you don’t know yet, my plans are to go to Avonlea. Then we’ll see.”

Belle smiled a little. “Alright. That sounds good. I’ve heard Avonlea was a nice planet.”

Nicholas agreed. “Yeah there’s a lot of people there, it is easy to blend in, and it is ideally placed in the galaxy so that merchants and travellers have to stop there.”
“It sounds perfect for a start.”
“Avonlea, then.”
Nicholas nodded at Belle, and took his leave. She stayed in the small cabin, and she heard the engines starting, and the whole structure of the ship vibrated, not much, just enough to notice and to forget once used to it.

Belle sat on the bed, smoothed the wrinkled sheet with her hands and laid. Her pillow was quite firm under her head. She was feeling…both sad and happy. She was torn between excited and terrified. Actually,she was feeling so many things at once she was almost dizzy. Nausea rose in her belly and added itself to the mix of her feelings as the spaceship took off.

Nicholas’ voice cracked from out of nowhere.
“-ver used it before, how I know it works ? Okay. Belle ? We’ve taken off. Any discomfort you’re experimenting will be solved once you’re used to the artificial gravity. Just lay down, get warm, and wait. It’ll go on its own”
Belle looked around and spotted an audiocom in the corner of the room. She decided to listen to him and crawled the covers. She buried her face in the pillow and breathed deeply to try to diminish this nausea inside her. And then the smell hit her. The bed wasn’t freshly made, and the scent of it wasn’t the one of a soap. It was stale, strong, male, Nicholas. He had given her his bedroom, his bed. She was surprised, a little offended he seemed to think she wasn’t worth preparing another bedroom for, but at least he had given her a cabin. Even if he didn’t have the decency to prepare it properly.

She rolled on her back and stared at the ceiling, before sighing again. She felt screwed. She felt the happiest of her life, she felt exhilarated, and at the same time, she felt like she had lost everything. It was probable right. She had lost everything she was familiar with, everyone she knew had been removed from her life the moment she agreed to come on board. Belle knew she would bounce back with time. Her life would be filled with so much novelty,a new life whether sedentary or nomad, new friends, everything new. She tried to cheer herself with thoughts of a happy life, but all she could see in her mind was her father’s tense back, and trembling shoulders as he left.

Tears fell down her face as her stomach heaved and she tried not to vomit. She choke back on bile and she curled up on herself, crying harder and willing for this torment to be gone already. What was happening to her ? She understood her confusion and she hoped her getting used to the artificial gravity wouldn’t take long.


Nick was doing the thing he loved most in the universe : flying his Baby.

He had put the irrigation plans in the storage dock, ready to be teleported down.

He gracefully took his spaceship up, activated the artificial gravity, feeling the gravity setting his weight properly and smirked. Now he could fly his Baby upside down and still feel like he was walking on a planet.
He turned on the bottom camera to see exactly what its teleportation beam was above. He pinpointed it just above the supplies and made the transfer.

A purple see-through ray left the ship, and settled down on the packages, and in a blink, they were on board, and the plans were at the spot they were in on the planet.

A crowd was gathered north of the village and he realised  they were there to see Belle off, to watch her walk to her death. He saw the hooded priests running around, looking for something, or rather someone. His passenger. Such stupidity was blasphemy to him, and he realised that as long as Belle was in his Baby, she would be in his protection.

After all, Nicholas had a deal with her father, and he was going to respect it.

He knew he had to get away from this place as quick as possible, for her sake. They could do nothing, but he didn’t want them to have any ideas.

He entered the coordinates Belle had given him to find the Elkium and find the place 243 earth-miles north of the village, bordering the Hills, directly inside the monster’s territory.
He set the flying course and the autopilot. From his calculations, the flight was about 20 minutes long. He would gently fly over the planet, not wanting his engines to do it any damages to its ecosystem. Hyperspace speed or faster-than-light speed in an atmosphear could be worse for environnement than a ship losing its oil at sea on Earth.

He turned the audiocom back on, and before he could say anything, he heard Belle crying heavily. He was definitely intruding on a private moment. He would definitely need to reset the audiocom. Chats from afar wouldn’t be possible but it would work like talkies walkies : one would have to push the audiocom button to be heard. It would be fairer to Belle. He turned the audiocom off, figuring she’d rather be alone. Noone wanted anyone to be witness to their fit of crying.

Von Stiltskin flew Baby to the Elkium hide and after positioning the spaceship right over the coordinates, he had the displeasure of noticing the elkium was in a cave, and as it was covered, it couldn’t be teleported as it was.

Time to get the lazer cannons working, then. He moved the ship, dipping her nose down, pointing the cannon toward the cave. The 45° dip allowed him to see the Hills through the windshield. More mountains than Hills, truly, rocky, desertic… Quite ugly, actually.  The Marchlands may have been a desert but the Hills were worse than that.

Nicholas sighed and targetted the Cave before opening the cannon and pulverised the roof of the cave. The noise was loud,very loud.

Belle’s voice was suddenly heard and his heart nearly jumped out of his chest. “Nicholas, is everything ok ?” She sounded still queezy and tired, and her voice was still a bit slurred.

She was touching his Baby’s buttons. How dared she ? Why did she think she had the fucking right to touch her buttons ? He glared at the audiocom as if it could kill Belle with his glare and he growled. Then he remembered she could hear him growling just as he heard her crying.

Nick was not surprised she had managed to get the communication stations to work. He cleared his throat and answered in a grim voice to hide his scare and fury.
“Aye. Everything is perfect, I’m getting the elkium back but I have to dig a little to get to it.”
“Is… there a bathroom somewhere ?”
“Yes” Nicholas replied. He figured that after all the crying she had done, washing her face wouldn’t be a luxury, even a vital necessity, but it didn’t mean he had to like it. It meant going out of his cabin, walking through the corridors and touching other buttons she was never meant to touch. He guessed that he could allow her to go to the bathroom. If he kept her confined to his cabin, her bad smell would stay permanently there and he didn’t want that at all. “Door on the right from where you are”
“Thank you.”
“You cannot wash yourself until I plug the water tanks, though. There may be a small reserve for the sinks in the pipes, but don’t try the shower.”
“Thank you” Belle repeated.

She fell silent a few seconds, and then spoke again, in a small voice, quite pathetic actually.
“How do I open the door?”

Nicholas chuckled, trying to keep it silent, but not really managing. He could just picture Belle with a puppy look, lost at not being able to figure it out on her own and furious at herself being forced to ask for help.
“Right of the door, there’s a small button glowing green. You see it ?”
“I do.”
“Great. If you press it, the door will open. Brush it, it becomes red, it means the door is locked and can be opened only from the side where the button which has been pressed is.”
“Thank you.”
“Welcome, Belle.”

She turned the audiocom off on her side. He stared at it, thinking it was disturbingly weird to have it working. In all his years onboard, it was the first time it worked. He brushed his fingerpad against the button as he dropped his hand and focused on the cave.

The dust from the pulverization had been scattered by the wind and a crater with a gray metal cube in the middle of it appeared in stead of the cave entryway.

Nicholas whispered a few words of victory under his breath and flew the ship just above the elkium. With the help of the camera, the metal was promptly teleported on board.

Von Stiltskin allowed himself a few moment of triumph and walked promptly to the storage dock to look at it.
It was a cube of one meter large, on one meter long and it was also one meter high, just as Mauo had described.

He ran his hand on it, finding it lukewarm to the touch, very smooth but dull-coloured. 

Nick used the teleporter to move the cube against the wall and secured it, using straps.
He also rolled the 8 tanks of water in the kitchen, each one having a reserved spot in the walls. He connected the various taps and faucets making water available in the ship. Out of the 8 tanks, 7 were destined for consumption and the last one was used for showering.

It wasn’t a shower in the earth sense of the word. Aboard Baby, showering meant being envelopped in a mist of water, sanitizer and odor remover being mixed together. Nick figured he should have explained that to his passenger but decided it would be more of a laugh if she discovered it on her own and tried to figure out whether it was broken or not.

Nick went to the audiocom situated in the storage dock and activated it.
“Belle, you can shower now.”

The answer came, a bit crackled, deforming her voice.
“Very well. Thank you.”
Nicholas made a mental voice to check the speaker of the audiocom here and the mic of the one in the bathroom. Maybe humidity had got to it ?

Anyhow, now that he had readied Baby for her travel back to Avonlea, it was time to go. Though… fuck, Belle was in the shower. He couldn’t go into hyperspace with her washing herself.
Well, technically he could, but if she wasn’t warned, the spurt could unbalance her and she’d fall and injure herself, then she’d whine, and one thing Von Stiltskin didn’t want to do was listening to a girl – an emotional girl, though the fact she was a girl didn’t matter to him – he just wasn’t in the mood to listen to any human being, especially emotional ones whine to him because of a bruise or a cut.

So he readied his ship. He oriented her in the right direction, he made sure the engines were ready and warmed up, the cooling liquids were good, he checked three time whether the energy stocked was enough to make the trip or if he’d have to stop on the way to refuel…

Baby was as good as she could be. He even dusted the consoles and after 20 minutes of patience – and Nick was really proud of himself, because he’d never had to wait for anyone before, he heard steps in the upper floor.
“Belle ? Go secure yourself. We are leaving.”
“Can I come down and watch ?”

Nick glanced at the copilot chair in front of a console he never turned on, as it was not needed.
That was a real bother. If she came down, maybe she’ll want to stay all the time there, near his consoles. He didn’t want that. And she was only a passenger. She would stay with him one week, time to go to Avonlea and then he’d never see her again. So she didn’t need to see how his Baby worked.
“Yeah sure. Come down, if you want.”

He wondered what the fuck had happened to his words between the brain and the tongue. Never, oh so never would he invite anyone to see how his little wonder worked. Why, why, why in all the universe’s deities he didn’t believe in did he say it was alright for her to come and watch ? He was angry. He was angry at himself. He was angry at her too. For asking questions. For making him answer yes despite wanting to say no, stay in your cabin and never go out before we’ve arrived. And it’s not as if she needed the knowledge, or as if she could ever need the knowledge, so why did she want to come down ? 

Belle came down, dressed as she was before and came to stand behind his chair, effectively shutting his inner voice up. Nick leant forward unconsciously, as if to be the furthest he could be.
He pointed toward the other chair,which was on his right and in front of him, by the windshield.
“Go there”, he ordered “Sit and buckle.”

Belle nodded and obeyed. The security belt was X-shaped, fastening themselves in the middle of her chest, between her breasts. She observed the buckles a few seconds and inserted the smaller one into the bigger one, and it bipped. She looked at him for confirmation and he nodded his approval.

Her belt however was too loose to be useful. Nicholas got up and walked behind her. “Tell me when it fits you. It must not prevent your being at ease but it must prevent your hips and back from leaving the chair”.
He started tightening the buckles slowly, Belle had the impression tentacles were ensnaring her little by little, Von Stilstsin’s breathing didn’t help the little claustrophobic feeling rising in her.

She was slowly realising she was about to go up in space where so much could go wrong with a man she barely knew. She swallowed.

Nicholas tightened the security belt as it should be, and looked over her shoulder to her face to see if she was alright. From her expression, she wasn’t.

He circled her chair and slowly kneeled in front of her, careful of not being too close and not touching her.
“I know it is scary. You’re going to do fine, alright ? We’re going to hyperspace to Avonlea. It’s going to take a week. Despite the fact we’ll be flying, once we’re in hyperspace, you won’t feel a thing. You’ll feel as if you were walking on a planet. You’ll feel things only when I change the speed.” He figured explaining what was going to happen would be a good way of distracting her. He was going to give her info to process. “I’ve done this for a long long time now and I’m still whole. And believe me, I went through my share of problems.” At her slightly panicked look, he added quickly “But it won’t happen this week. Your father has entrusted you in my care, and you can think whatever you want of me, but I will respect my word. You’ll arrive on Avonlea safe and sound, and if you don’t want to stay there, I’ll fly you anywhere you want.”

Nicholas looked satisfied of his little speech and got up to walk to his own chair. Belle craned her head to look at him, not really believing that guy. If he had thought of reassuring her, he was mistaken. She guessed he was doing whatever he could but he could not a lot.
She shook her head in disbelief and looked straight in front of her, breathing deeply in and out. Her nausea had almost gone, she was still a bit dizzy but she was doing as best as she could under these circumstances. She didn’t want to be locked up in his cabin for a week when she could be down here, observing how a ship worked.

Nicholas started pressing buttons, observing the screens in front of him, for any variables going wrong,but so far so good. Everything was normal. The engines purred louder and higher, the shield strengthening bathed the room in gold and the indoor light became stronger as it compensated the loss of natural light.

“Nicholas ? What is happening ?”
“I’m unbalancing the shield power. We’re about to tear a hole into your atmostphear. It’s not spaceship hull friendly. The main pressure will happen to the front.” He pointed through the glass in front of them at the very long nose of the ship. “and on the side,considering her shape. The ozone layer is very thick so my Baby needs extra protection. I’m diminishing the shield protecting the stern and the underside and I’m giving the power saved to the areas in need of it. As it was, it should have been enough.. but.. you never know.” After a while, he added rushingly “better be safe than sorry, as you’re… well… here.”

Right. He meant to make his passenger feel at ease. He was a serious believer of intent being meaningless but he was starting to look for excuses for himself. He couldn’t see her face anymore but her body was all tensed up and her fist on the chair handle was white from being squeezed. Obviously he had failed, and despite what he thought, it bothered him a little.
“Look, you have no reason to trust me, but it’s your first, it’s normal you’re nervous and scared but I’ve done this thousands of time, and it’s going to be ok. In a few minutes, you’ll see stars, and you’ll be in awe. Got it ?”

Nicholas was sounding annoyed and impatient and for a second, he wondered if she thought he thought she was a crybaby or something like that, and he decided he didn’t care. He cleared his throat.
“Ready, girl ?”
“I think so.”
“Good. We’ll start by increasing our speed and it’s going to tremble as it goes through the ozone. It’s normal. Then it’s going to be black and we’ll be up in space. Oh, and the shield and glass are made to protect your eyes from the sun rays, so you can look at them, ok ?”
“Alright.”

She sounded nervous and he heard her exhale loud and short once. Good, she was gathering her guts.

Nicholas started to fly slowly, and saw Belle straightening a little, looking in front of her and though the windows on her side at the landscape. He smiled a little, remembering his first time on board of a spaceship, it wasn’t his Baby though, but the feeling was the same.
He petted the console lovingly, feeling the soft metal under the pads of his fingers had always been a great comfort.
Suddenly the spaceship lurched. There was no impact sound. It just lurched like a plane flying through turbulences, again and again. He didn’t understand what was causing it, they were too low for ozone, and air holes in the cloud weren’t enough to impact Baby.

“Nicholas ? What’s happening ?” Belle asked in a scared voice.
“I do not know !” He snapped at her.

He turned on the underside cameras and looked.
He saw big rocks flying toward Baby, the shield enough to dissolve them before they touched her but not enough to stop the impacting force from affecting the flying course.

He resetted the shield as they were and the lurches stopped. He stopped the spaceship and held it in stationary flight.

Nicholas got angry. His Spaceship was what he considered the most important in his eyes and no one touched her. No one.

He used the cameras to find who the son of  a bitch was, who the fuck dared threaten his Baby.
He pinpointed running little figures on the planet, but then everything was little when up here. He zoomed and saw non-human looking beings.

Some were on two legs, but the running ones were on four. They had yellow eyes, a short muzzle and when they were snarling, the head was almost split in two, teeth in a spiral inside their mouth. They had six limbs, each coming with its set of razor claws.
“Belle ? Red, ugly beings, four arms, two legs, lots of teeth ? It rings a bell to you ?”
“These are the monsters who have attacked the Marchlands for centuries.”
“The Hills… It’s quite the barren area, right ?”
“Yes…” Belle answered “No one have never been able to settle down there because of them. And it’s mainly rocks anyhow.”

“Then Belle… The war is over.”

He targetted the monsters, locking the lasers on their appearance, then had an idea. As the stern was facing the Hills, he had an idea. A terrible but very efficient idea. It was a barren and rocky area. Nicholas grinned wide.
“Belle, what I am going to do is something you must never do under any circumstances when you have your own spaceship.”
“Nicholas, what are you going to do ?”
“I’m going to use your planet’s oxygene, Belle.”

Von Stiltskin didn’t answer but he lowered the stationary flight altitude and pushed the engine to the maximum, before turning on the gas, but he didn’t turn the stationary flight lever off.

Outside, huge flames left the engines and thousand of throats released loud howls of pain.

Nicholas rotated the spaceship to make sure everyone of those things were bathed in fire. He turned off the engine and stabilised the ship back to horizontal and checked the screens. A very large area of the Hills were on fire, and running panicking monsters on fire spread it even more.

He used the laser guns to shoot the rare ones who didn’t catch fire and once he was sure they were all dead, he stopped shooting.

He slowly breathed out, feeling better and turned his head to look at Belle.
She was frozen, hands tight around the armchair. She sounded horrified when she spoke.
“What have you done?”
“Ended the war. Congratulations, your people have won. I’m flying back home. There’s no need for you to depart now.”
“What ? No, this is not our deal.”
“I made no deal with you. I want to talk to your father. The reason for your being here is no more.”
“Nicholas !” Belle was sounding desperate now.

Nick utterly ignored her interruption and went on talking. “No need to leave your planet. You must be happy.” He started typing furiously on the keyboard of the console. “And while I’m at it…” His tongue wetted his lower lip before worrying it with his teeth. “There.”

He turned to Belle, a smirk on his lips, looking mighty proud of himself, the picture of arrogance himself. He hooked his left thumb to his belt and his right hand on his foldable cane in the holster hung to his right thigh. Belle rolled her eyes, and she sighed.
"Why ? Why have you done this ?"
"They attacked us. They threw rocks at my spaceship." He didn’t seem to realise his fingertips were patting the console in front of her.

By now, Belle had realised Nicholas was deeply attached to his spaceship, even if she didn’t understand why.
"But… It’s just a spaceship…" She pointed around her. "All of this, it’s… just metal"
"SHE IS NOT JUST A SPACESHIP !!"

He had yelled.
 
Belle unbuckled herself and faced Nicholas, she was not about to face a yelling man while being tied down to an armchair. He continued shouting, though in a lower voice than before.
"My spaceship is not just metal ! Got it ?? She is so much more ! She is perfect ! She is faithful ! She is so much more than you will ever be !"

She was scared. He was standing, his eyes were darker,he was snarling, his left hand curled possessively around the console. He was almost fuming.
“Nicholas… Calm down…”

She approached him, forcing herself to look like she wasn’t about to flee away in terror. He was staring into her eyes, murder in his pupils, narrowing them slowly, snarling… Belle faced him bravely, glaring back, nostrils flaring.
The console started to bip and blink green fast and repeatedly.

Nicholas blinked and looked away at his own console. He turned his back on Belle and went to see the readings. He sat back on the captain’s chair. “Good girl. Exactly what I wanted… Perfect… Yes…”

Belle rolled her eyes and sat back on the copilot armchair arm, her body turned toward Nick to keep watching him.
He glanced at her and said angrily “We’re going back to your village.”
"No !"
"YES !"

She felt devastated.
"I’ve killed all the monsters" He snarled. "Think of your daddy, sooo happy to have you back…" He sounded so sarcastic it hurt Belle. "Your war is over."
"You didn’t kill all the monsters, Nicholas."
" So you think. My Baby you were so prompt to belittle will take care of that." He pointed at the green lights. "See this ? It means the monsters’ appearance has been recorded in the lazer guns’ memory. As we fly back, they will shoot at every monsters they see. No more monsters, Belle." He sneered.

Belle shook her head, clearly bothered. “No Nicholas…  It’s not about that. You cannot bring me back… The deal…”
"You’re welcome to go sit in my bedroom if you like but you will go back to your village."
"Nicholas"
"ENOUGH !"

They sat glaring at each other again.
"This is pointless" Von Stiltskin muttered and he turned to his console to touch the screen frantically. The spaceship moved and Belle sighed again, sitting down in the armchair again. The spaceship was slower this time, shooting from time to time. At each shooting, monsters were killed.

To be honest, Belle was happy the war was nearly over.
She hadn’t been sheltered from hunts, or men fighting but she had never seen the war itself, monsters fighting and tearing the warriors’ bodies apart. She had heard the tales though and she knew battles were revolting matters…

Who in their right mind wouldn’t be happy ? No more battles, no more dead men, no more villages destroyed and the clerics had no more reason to send her to be sacrificed. And thus, as Nicholas had remarked, no more reason to leave. She could stay there safely with her father and rule the Tribe at his passing.

She had no more reason to leave and she felt like her heart had broken.

Nicholas was staring at her, and she forced herself out of her trance.
“Nicholas… You must calm down.”

Von Stiltskin looked down, then up, at everywhere but at Belle. Nicholas breathed in deeply and sat down again.
“I lost my control… It happens rarely… But I can’t stand for my…” He wanted to say the word ‘family’ but she wouldn’t understand. To Belle, his spaceship was probably just a flying piece of metal. To him, his spaceship was the world. He finished his sentence. “…prized possessions to be… damaged.”

He caressed the screen again, his knuckles touching the buttons with such aching longing… “Without her, I’d be dust.”

Belle signed softly and stroked her brow thoughtfully. That man was a loaded gun. He straightened in his chair and rubbed his eyes, feeling the announcing signs of a migraine. He wasn’t used to so much emotions. At that moment, if he could have decently thrown that girl by the window, he would have. She was only troubles.

The 25 remaining minutes of the trip were spent in a tense silence, Nicholas staring straight ahead stubbornly ignoring Belle, who was thinking of everything she could say to have him keep her onboard. Of course, her father would be glad she was back, he would not be angry at the hero who killed the monsters and brought the Heiress back home safe and sound.

Von Stiltskin landed his ship at the spot where it had landed the day before.
Led by Mauo and the clerics, a small crowd ran to the spaceship and gathered around the hatch.
It opened slowly, and Nick got out, holding Belle’s arm escorting her out. Neither of them looked happy, and it seemed Nicholas was almost hurting Belle, as his knuckles were white around her arm.

One of the cleric exclaimed. “Oh you brought her back !!! I knew the little harlot had run away ! Has she hidden in your spaceship, stranger ?”
Another said “Now she can save us !”

Nicholas glared at the cleric, keeping Belle by his side. “The war is over. I’ve ended it. No more sacrifice. No more killing the girl.”

Mauo looked relieved, his face getting a decade younger and he advanced, hugging Belle tight. “Oh my precious girl…”
She tugged her arm away from Nicholas and he only let go the third time. He was glaring at the priests, looking ferocious, and as soon as he let go of her, his hand settled on his cane handle, twitching maniacally.

Mauo led Belle away from the group, cajoling her with an extreme fatherly tenderness, and to Nicholas, Mauo was stroking soothingly her arm the way himself caressed his screen when his Baby was overheating.

One of the clerics moved suddenly toward Belle and her father. Nicholas watched the priest raising his hand to Mauo’s face and muttering some words. Belle looked distressed and Mauo pushed the man away irately.

Nicholas thought he was going to regret the decision he just made and got down the ramp, walking to the side of the ship to close the hatch. He wasn’t the kind to take any chances of anyone going up. One girl was too much. He strode the quite long way to the cleric and glared at him. Or he would have glared at him if the hood of the man wasn’t so low on his face. Nicholas growled and lifted the hood, and tipped it down in the priest’s back.

The man was bald like every men on this planet, and his face had green paintings, the same colour of his clothes. He was looking totally scandalised. And this time, Nicholas properly glared at him.
Mauo and Belle had stopped walking and both were looking at him. The surrounding crowd were frozen, staring at Von Stiltskin and the Priest looking daggers at each other. People were alarmed, and scared. A priest being unhooded was something never heard of before. The stranger had commited a blasphemy, surely such a crime would be punished. The other priests had assembled, one cleric with embroided hood and cloak, clearly the leader, in front of them.

The situation had a big huge “this is going to end badly” placard all over it.
Nicholas puffed up his chest, trying to appear more impressive before the priest as the man was a little taller than he was.
"You will leave Belle and her father in peace. You will not send her to get sacrificed. See the smoke over there ?" Nick sneered. "It means the Hills are burning. I’ve shot… every one of those pests around these lands. No more sacrifice. No more taking this land for your shitty religion, or what I did to the monsters, I’m going to do to you."
He poked the Cleric’s chest with each word. “Leave this people alone. Leave Belle alone. “
 
The Cleric sneered. “You cannot stay forever, Stranger. Once you’re gone… If we let you go…”
The leader interjected “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re on your own. We are several…” He shouldered his cloak upon his back, letting a small hatchet appear, tied up at his belt. “Go back to your ship and fly away now. You have the water you came for, this planet, this region is not your concern at all. Her sacrifice was to appease the monsters but also let life come back, for her blood would have been the beginning of a new age of abondance.”

Some people in the crowd commented in loud whispers that this last point had never been said before.
"Sounds like a big huge pile of bullshit to me" Nicholas replied sarcastically. "Trying to find excuses not to lose face here?"

The leader took his hatchet out, in a silent threat. Nick just cocked his eyebrow, trying to keep his eyes on the cleric in front of him, and also at the group.

Mauo kept Belle tight against him, he needed her in safety before he did anything. “Belle, go home. I will handle this.”
Belle looked at her father, nodded and walked toward their house. Mauo looked until she entered the front door and then turned his attention back to the Priests and Von Stiltskin.

The other clerics had drawn their weapons too. Mauo’s people had taken a few steps back, they didn’t even know they had a hatchet hidden on them.

Nicholas was still glaring at them, from his body language, he was ready for a fight.

Mauo spoke loud. “This is enough.”

The Tribe turned toward Mauo with big surprised eyes.
"Enough." He repeated.

The leader of the priests retorded in an angry voice. “How dare you speak, Mauo ? This is not your problem ! How da-“
"I will speak because you are on my territory ! You are my guests, here. And you are no more welcome here."

He hoped Belle was right when she said his warriors were loyal and faithful to him.
The leader strode to Mauo, hand and hatchet raised in the air to strike him, but the flat of a blade stopped him from striking them down.
"You will stop" One of the warriors had stepped up. "My chief has said you were not welcome anymore. Therefore, you will leave, you and your friends"
"How dare you ?"

The other warriors started gathering around the leaders, weapon unsheathed.
The unhooded priest growled at Nicholas and whispered mockingly. “I will take care of the girl myself…”
Nick promptly growled back, snarling and his nostrils flared, fists tight.

The warriors circled the clerics, weapons at the ready.
"My warriors will escort you to the limits of our territory. Never come back, or you will be punished. Your reign over my lands is over." Mauo exclaimed.

the Leader scoffed.
"People of this Land ! Your chief will get you damned to all eternities ! If you want your families to live in eternal goodness, you must take him down. Kill him and his warriors in the name of our faith, of your faith !"
"If you want to live your faith, you are free to go with him and never return. I only want the happiness of my people, but this faith is banished from now on."

Noone in the Tribe moved. The warriors started to walk, backing the clerics toward the village limits and on. Seeing that, the unhooded one broke his glaring contest with Von Stiltskin and joined his fellow priests, hooding himself again.

Mauo, Nicholas and the Tribe looked at the reteating group until they couldn’t see it anymore, and Mauo stepped up to Nick.
"Thank you, Nicholas. You have opened my eyes."

The chief slapped him on the shoulder, and Mauo’s big paw nearly send Nicholas toppling. Nick looked at the chief as if he had grown two heads. The faster he was off this overfriendly planet, the better. He was nearly at his limit of socialization. He didn’t like people, he didn’t understand most of the time. He didn’t get what he has done to have opened Mauo’s eyes.
"I’m going to leave."

He started backing out, slowly, walking backward toward his spaceship.
"Wait wait !" Mauo said. "We’re going to make us a nice meal, when the warriors are back. You are our honored guest !"
"No no, really, it’s fine… Don’t bother"
"You are no bother, Nicholas. You gave us the strength to oust them !"
"Really, I’m expected. See you. I’m… glad it worked fine for you. I am going to leave and enjoy a happy life."

Nick congratulated himself on not making it sound sarcastic. He wasn’t good around people and all he wanted now was the quiet and peace of a deep space flight.

Nicholas turned and opened the hatch of his spaceship. He backed up the ramp, waved awkwardly, trying to appear nice. After all, it didn’t hurt to have a planet on which he was thought of as a hero, it could be useful for water replenishement. And there was Belle. He was happy not to have her onboard. But then… No, best to have no thought of this kind.

He closed the hatch fast, not caring if it made him look rude or anything. He warmed the engines and took off. Space was calling him and he needed to answer that call. He had stayed way too long in the same place and did things he didn’t intend to do at all.

Flying through the atmosphear was quite bumpy even after unbalancing the shields to be sure to go though as effortlessly as necessary. This planet had a thicker ozone layer than usual. Suddenly, it was darkness pinpointed of little lights, space and stars, and instantly Nick breathed better. It was as if a veil of light had been lifted and left him in the darkness. And Nicholas Von Stiltskin was home.

He set the course of his ship to Avonlea, fully knowing he’d have to be careful because of the hardening of the local laws, but he couldn’t see where people who could afford Elkium would be apart from Avonlea or Queenheart. It was absolutely out of question to put a foot on Queenheart with this kind of riches in his ship. The Empress and the Queen would be way too interested. Best sell it, then go to Queenheart. Maybe this time, he’d even take the protected roads, he didn’t want to tempt pirates.

A small smile played on his lips as he watched space fabric distort itself as the ship entered hyperspace. He tinkered with his consoles  and when he emerged from his little world at the ding of the timer clock, physical sensations returned and with them, body troubles. He went to the bathroom, and fixed himself a small meal. The girl’s packages were still in his dock area and he had no troubles helping himself to the food. The personal stuff would be returned later by courrier. After all, he would be able to afford it.

Nicholas then faced his worst enemy : exhaustion. To be honest, he was almost falling asleep standing but he couldn’t do it yet. After a few times falling asleep - literally, he woke up several times on the floor - working, he had set a timer and every 48 hours, he forced himself to eat, wash and sleep a bit. Barely seeing straight, he looked into the data of his ship to find a peaceful planet, one deserted area on it and he landed his Baby on it. After activating the various alarms, automatic self defenses and camouflage, he went to bed.

He woke up brutally at the sound of an alarm, he knew that one despite having never heard it before. There was an intruder in the storage. How did they open the hatch without setting the ship body alarm would be a question answered during the questioning. But for now, time to hurt some people.

Nick got up quickly and opened his desk drawer to find a laser gun inside. It was small but would do the job. He hated using it inside for fear of damaging his Baby but that would defend her efficiently. He used the shortcut door from the bedroom corridor to the storage areas, arriving in the higher levels of them. He could see noone so he descended carefully the narrow staircase leading downstairs to the ground level.

He heard noises coming from a bit further and he flattened himself against the wall, trying to be as discreete and silent as possible. Then, right after a thick case containing copper, the thief was there. He cocked the gun and launched himself at the man. No wait, the thief was a woman.

Nicholas Von Stiltskin had the woman thief pressed against the wall, one forearm crushing her throat, the gun at her temple.
"Belle ?"

He let go, retreating, then the enormity of the situation hit him and he couldn’t help himself.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE ?"




End of episode 1
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: 14,587 / Complete.

Rating: M

So I can't post the full chapters because they are too long.
© 2013 - 2024 RipperBlackstaff
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