Disney Fan-Fiction - Confessions

Rumpelstiltskin stared out of the window of his guest room, watching the sun play upon the waters of the fjord. He was currently waiting for Queen Elsa, Princess Anna, Kristoff, and possibly Olaf, if the snowman wasn’t busy being over-energetic, to answer his invitation for a long waited talk. It had been four days since the Battle of Arendelle, and Elsa had been busy in making reparations to the damage that she had done. She had opened up the royal treasury to help pay back for all of the damage that had been done by the snowgoons. A committee made up of all classes had been immediately formed to help in reconstruction from the shops and docks to the fishermen and cottage industries. Even Rumpel had helped by returning and repairing all of the damaged furniture, carts, trees, poles, and any other materials that were used for the city’s defense. He had offered to go as far as repairing and replacing all damages but Elsa had declined (with a kiss on the cheek), saying that it was her fault and that she was the one that had to make up for her failures and for all the loss that had been caused by her.

The sudden workload as a result of the aftermath of the Battle had also put a slight strain on their blossoming relationship. He couldn’t help but smile at the moments when the two of them gave passing glances, smiles, winks, blushes, and there were even several times that she would privately and publicly tease him on punching him. After the battle and knocking him into the water, Elsa had offered the guest room that was usually offered to visiting royalty; the same one that he had used the last time he had stayed in Arendelle. He had accepted and wasn’t surprised when he heard a knock later that night to find her standing in a nightgown that accentuated her curves. They had kissed extensively and laid within each other’s embrace from that point until a few hours before dawn when she had to return to her own room, saying with a playful giggle, “I’ve got you now, and I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

At first her sister had been just as furious, adding another punch that knocked him into the water, but, after seeing her sister enjoying his company as he stayed, she grew a bit warmer. Rumpel had magically hid the shiner that she had given him, but his face was still quite sensitive with his still broken nose that he had allowed to remain on his face as a reminder. She had actually been quite persistent in wanting answers for where he had been, the reasons why he never contacted them, or what he had done in the time since his “death”, but Elsa calmed her by saying that when everything had settled down a little, and the workload had eased would they have a talk.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Enter.”

Elsa walked in wearing the teal gown and purple cape of the Queen of Arendelle. Her warm smile stirred his heart, and with every step she made toward him, dozens of butterflies flitted around in his stomach.

“Queen Elsa,” he bowed slightly, returning her smiled with one of his own.

“It’s just ‘Elsa’ between us, Rumpel,” she laughed, but for the wizard it was like a chorus of songbirds. “I thought we could spend some time before the others arrive.”

“Of course,” he answered and pulled up a chair for her from the table that was set in the middle of the room. He then took the seat next to her. “How was your trip?”

“Uneventful, at least until we reached the Ice Castle,” she replied. “There was some tension between the escort and…Puffy, who Marshmallow seemed to have taken a liking to. I had to change him to have a more dog-like appearance and personality, but, like its master, it will revert to its beastly nature when threatened. The men were quite relieved when we returned the snowgies and left the North Mountain at the end of the day.”

“And what of the reconstruction?”

She pursed her lips. “That has been a bit tougher. The good news is that the majority of the destruction has been repaired and those that have lost property have already been reimbursed for their loss. However, there still remains a food shortage as a result from the destruction of the Overtaking especially of wheat and grain. The agricultural kingdoms within France and out to the west have been hard pressed with not only supplying their own food for this winter, but also selling enough to other kingdoms. I’m told that whatever magic that can still be used is only done sparingly with limited results as people still have an overall distrust of it. England has been having some success with new innovations of growing food, and I’ve heard a report that the king and queen are in negotiations with the native tribes that their colony is living alongside with to ask for help in providing more.  

“As for here in Arendelle, we can rely on our fishermen in sustaining us in terms of meat as we’ve almost always have, but we’ve started to ration our fruits, vegetables, and grain. With limited food coming in, the price will no doubt increase exceedingly high, putting an enormous burden on our already shaky economic situation.” She took a deep breath and let it out in a tired sigh. “So comes the reality of ruling a kingdom after a war and a crazy episode.”

Rumpelstiltskin reached over and enveloped her hand in his. “Don’t worry. After fighting me on a dragon with one of your own, this should be easy for you.”

Her laughter was sweeter than the sound of any harp, and her smooth, slender fingers gently curled around his. When her eyes met his it was as if he was looking into a clear summer sky. In fact, if he leaned closer, he could count every one of her freckles on her face…. eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one…wait, was that a new one?

A knock on the door made them both jump, and Rumpel’s hand quickly released Elsa’s.

“Enter.”

The door opened to reveal Olaf leading the way before Anna and Kristoff, with the former bringing a tray of glasses and the latter a pitcher of water.

“See? I could totally have balanced the tray with the pitcher on it from the kitchens.”

“Oh really? I must have missed the part where you nearly tripped on the spiral staircase, almost crashed into the bust of Mr.-Serious-Face, and was close to blundering into Olaf when he stopped to pick up a penny.”

“It was a shiny penny!” protested the snowman. “It would’ve been a nice badge of honor for helping you guys.”

“All right, fine,” said Anna irritably. “Ye of little faith.” She noticed how close Rumpel and Elsa were sitting next to each other. “Oh, are we interrupting you?”

“No,” said the two of them together, which only made Anna raise an eyebrow questionably and smile mischievously.

“You know, the two of you look like you were about to get a little hanky-panky on…”

Immediately, everyone was in an uproar.  

“GAH! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU JUST SAID THAT!” shouted Rumpel covering his ears. Elsa covered her face, which had gone deep scarlet.

“Anna!” said Kristoff warningly.

“What’s hanky-panky?” asked Olaf.

“What?” asked the princess innocently as she set the tray down. “It’s not like I haven’t been noticing my sister visiting your room in the middle of the night and staying there for a few hours.”

“We weren’t doing anything like that, Anna!” objected Elsa although her face was still in a deep flush.

“Doing anything like what?” asked Olaf. “Like hanky-panky?”

“Please stop talking!” demanded Rumpel, whose hands were still clamped around his ears. “Change the subject! Anything!”

“Yes, please, Anna,” agreed Kristoff as he set the pitcher down next to the tray. “We’ve got a kid in the room.”

“All right, all right, I was only teasing,” yielded Anna although she still smiled as she poured water in each of the glasses without a spill. “So, let’s begin.”

“The hanky-panky?” asked the snowman eagerly.

“GAH!”

Once everyone had settled down they all turned to the sorcerer whose exuberant outburst had turned solemn as he stared at the glass in front of him.

“It’s only water,” encouraged Olaf.

“I know. You should have brought something stronger for what I’m about to tell you,” he replied gravely.

“You could always turn it into wine,” offered Anna.

The warlock smiled and snorted at the suggestion. “Perhaps if you ask.” His smile disappeared just as quickly as it had come. “What I’m about to tell you are things that I have not told to anyone else-“

“Oh, are we part of a special club now-ow!” interrupted Anna but Kristoff silenced her with his elbow.

“Quite so. I can promise that some of the things that I will tell you, you will be surprised, disgusted, and I won’t fault you for not believing me as some will be too terrible or too strange for any normal person to believe.” He licked his lips nervously. “I guess a good place to start would be at the beginning.
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Remember when I told my history before I met you and had traveled between the kingdoms and realms? Well, I left out a more personal detail in them. After I killed Jafar in Agrabah, I not only stole his magic but I also began to experience visions. From these visions I gained information of people and places that I had never been before, but will later.  One of these visions also didn’t seem to fit with any realm that I visited: it was of a small girl, sitting next to me but I couldn’t see her face clearly, and she had hair the same color as mine.

I received more visions after I had killed the sea witch, Ursula, with one of them being of someone telling me that I had to bring back the happily ever afters. I don’t know who had said it or whether it really was for me, but I knew that it granted me a purpose. I began to assume that these visions were memories of people and places that I had forgotten before my arrival at the village in the jungle, and I suspected that in order to attain more of these memories, to figure out who I was before this, I had to kill villains. It wasn’t a comforting thought, but I didn’t really have any other options available. I especially couldn’t wait around at Prince Eric’s castle either since Maleficent had threatened to unleash her Curse if they didn’t turn me over.  

With the deaths of the villains Gaston and Judge Frollo, I gathered more history of people and places. That was how I knew of you, Elsa, as well as what you and your family and friends have done here in Arendelle before I met you. It was also how I knew of the song that I hummed to Prince Philip in Maleficent’s dungeon before striking a deal with him. In exchange for escaping out of the dungeon and rescuing his princess, he had to give me a strand of his hair. Using it I took his appearance and left the dungeon with him still in his cell. I then allowed myself to be spotted before hiding and switching back. I confronted Maleficent to make her believe that I was distracting her and allowing “Prince Philip” to escape. When she collapsed part of the ceiling on me, I froze the rubble in place and switched again to Prince Philip and teleported to his horse, Samson, and escaped the castle on him. It was I who you met in front of the forest of thorns, fought, and killed Maleficent. When I entered King Stefan’s castle, I magically transported the real Philip from prison and provided the memories of fleeing the castle and fighting Maleficent over what really happened. After that was done, I teleported back to castle at the same time when you began to look for me.

Later, when we were in the castle of the Evil Queen, I convinced Captain Hook, who was waiting for me in the secret laboratory, to help cure me of the poison that was slowly ending my life in exchange that I would raise his ship for him and get rid of the Crocodile that had been plaguing him in Neverland for countless years. After I freed the prisoners in the dungeons, I brought about the storm over the castle as you were fighting the Evil Queen, and I was the one who directed the lightning to strike at the cliff edge even though you were there. Her death as well as Maleficent’s provided me with more information on the Shadow Man, the Black Cauldron, the Horned King, as well as more glimpses of my past through the visions.

When we took back Arendelle from the Shadow Man and Prince Hans, I told you that Doctor Facilier wouldn’t be bother anyone with his shadow demons. That was a white lie. I had taken the magical talisman that was empowered by his “friends on the other side” and, like any magic, if he didn’t meet the price, then he would be taken as payment. With me in possession of it, he complied to release all of the citizens from their trance and I let him go.

Now I also lied when I told you that the price of removing my shadow was small. I had to give up the more benevolent parts of myself such as compassion and caring, and increase my more malevolent traits such as narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, all of which had already been influencing me ever since I killed Jafar and had been using Dark Magic. Before the separation, it had been subtle with certain actions and ways of speaking, but that grew as I used Dark Magic more and more, and killed more and more despite having it been for noble purposes. When I split my shadow, and gave into the Darkness that had already taken root, I continued to play the parts of what was expected of me: a flawed hero.

With only one major villain left to be defeated, I knew that I had one more chance to figure out who I really was and where I came from. I also knew that in order for the Black Cauldron’s curse to be ended, a life had to be sacrificed. I was never going to be the one to do the deed, so I consulted the Magic Mirror, which I had taken from the Evil Queen’s castle. It provided me with the knowledge and history of a certain sword that could end the Black Cauldron’s curse and defeat the Horned King.

You’re probably wondering why I didn’t tell anyone about this for surely that would provide a great asset to the heroes and would result in no sacrifice? Yes, there were many that I could have given the information to. Unfortunately, I began to suspect that those whose power was derived from Light Magic would grow wary of my presence and my growing power. Those people as well as others had the naïve belief that there is no grey area and that there is only Good and Evil, and one must take a side. My suspicions were confirmed after the meeting when I overheard, through my shadow, that the Three Good Fairies were conspiring with Merlin, Mickey, and his friends to deprive me of my magic after the battle, even if I didn’t kill the Horned King myself and take his magic. I knew immediately that if I presented myself after the battle wielding the sword, they would see it as a threat and would demand me to relinquish both it and my power. Either way you look at it, I would be labeled not as a hero but as a villain. My hope of finding my past, where I came from, and, essentially, having a happily ever after of my own would be null and void as I would be hated, hunted, and/or have my power removed.

I turned the tables on them by faking my death after I ended the Curse and killed the Horned King through the Black Cauldron. I managed to narrowly escape the castle’s destruction and witnessed the Witches of Morva acquire the Cauldron from a safe distance. The death of the Horned King also brought visions that confirmed what I had long began to suspect as I pieced all of them together: that I was not from this world, this realm, but from someplace entirely different. From the moment that I began to delve deeper into the knowledge of magic, I knew that only a curse was strong enough to bring me here. That was why I tried to distance myself from you; a true love’s kiss can break any curse, and I didn’t want to be sent away too early.

So when I told you that the reason why I killed those villains was to take their powers and thereby be different from everyone else, that was a half-truth. I was still looking for any sign of where I came from and who I really was. Of what I told you, that was what I was comfortable with without revealing things that I wasn’t sure about. I was dependent on my power to find out about my past. So, I really was back to square one.