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Fanfic: The Name Bestowed (1/1)

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  • Fanfic: The Name Bestowed (1/1)

    Title: The Name Bestowed
    Type: Gen
    Rating: PG-13
    Character: Belle, Mirror/Sidney, Regina, Rumplestiltskin, O.C.
    Spoilers: Through the finale
    Word Count: 1,243
    Summary: This is the origin of a name.
    Note: The finale inspired me to explore a possible connection between Belle and Sidney Glass.

    Belle stepped out of the tavern too distracted with thoughts of dwarves and fireflies to notice the forest suddenly around her. She walked and walked and walked until she understood the futility of her effort. She remembered a story her uncle Sidney told her of his exploits…

    “My old nemesis, Gargyn, the Irredeemable, wanted the cipher I’d committed to memory in order to intercept our coded battle plans. He thought to break my will with a stint in the Infinite Forest.”

    “Infinite means never-ending,” said little Belle, wide-eyed. “How did you escape?”

    Sidney chuckled. “You’ve been reading the word compilation in the library, again. I escaped by not trying to escape.”

    Little Belle tried and failed to understand her uncle’s meaning.

    Sidney elaborated: “Once I understood where I was, I stopped running about, made camp, and killed a deer for my supper. I’d been there for about ninety meals when Gargyn realized his plan had gone awry. He came to supervise my interrogation himself. We fought epically. He cackled maniacally. I killed him with a rock to the head stoically and rode out of the Infinite Forest in Gargyn’s own magic chariot…”

    Heeding her uncle’s experience, Belle stopped, waiting. When Regina tired of watching Belle wait, she fetched the stoic girl through her mirror into a secret cell within a secret dungeon within a secret palace. The Black Queen cackled maniacally. “Such a transparent little chit. You thought to wait me out and use my mirror to contact your True Love once I brought you here. He and the rest of the Kingdoms think you’re dead, and my mirror will show you anything but dear Rumple.” With those words, Queen Regina left Belle alone in her cell with only an ornately carved hand mirror in shape and detail like Rumplestiltskin’s spinning wheel.

    Belle held back the tears threatening to fall, determined she would not give that witch the satisfaction. “Show me Rumplestiltskin,” she asked the mirror, just to see the result.

    “No,” answered the mirror. “Queen Regina forbids it.”

    To Belle’s astonishment a face appeared in the glass. She had not expected a literal embodiment of servitude. She smiled, a plan forming. “When I exchanged forever with Rumplestiltskin for my loved ones’ safety,” she said to the mirror, “I assumed he would be the only other person I would get to know in my whole life. Apparently, I was wrong. Will you be the second person I get to know?”

    “As you wish,” answered the mirror, “for I may learn valuable information about Rumplestiltskin for the queen through our exchanges. I am not a person, however.”

    “What are you, then?,” asked Belle, genuinely curious.

    “I am now a mirror in Her Majesty Queen Regina’s service,” he answered. “I began as a djinn.” The mirror spelled ‘D-J-I-N-N’ on his surface, anticipating that she would require him to do so.

    “Marvelous,” exclaimed Belle. “My uncle Sidney told me of your kind. He met one of you on his many travels and promptly ran the other way, he said, with no fear of being called a coward.”

    “Smart man,” acknowledged the mirror.

    “Yes,” replied Belle. “May I call you Sidney, since you have reminded me of him, or do you have another name?”

    “I have no name,” answered the mirror. “Names are for such as exist within the worlds. Djinn are born within the fires between the worlds. Would you name a fire that can have a form you have never seen, that can be nourished by vapors you can never breathe?”

    “You do exist within this world,” countered Belle. “I can see your form within this glass, and I can breathe this air while I look upon you. You are a mirror and no longer a djinn.”

    “True,” he conceded. “I am now a mirror in Her Majesty Queen Regina’s service. I will accept the name from this world in honor of my being in this world for her.”

    Belle remembered the home she left behind. Homes have power, just as names have power, and she needed power for the unspoken ceremony between them. This much she had learned from Rumplestiltskin. “You are a spy made of glass. My mother’s brother, Sidney, was the greatest spymaster known in the kingdoms. He prevented three wars by telling his secrets and a further three by taking his secrets with him in death. I name you Sidney Glass.”

    “It is an apt name,” said Sidney Glass. “I would gladly shatter in death to protect her secrets.”

    “Can you envision your death,” asked Belle, “when djinn are eternal?”

    “As you said,” replied Sidney Glass, “I am a mirror and no longer a djinn. I must shatter in the end,” he said with eerie calm.

    “Why?,” asked Belle, dreading the answer.

    “Because the queen is not eternal,” he said. “The woman I love must die; I must die.”

    No! Belle had intended to use the power inherent in naming the mirror to compel him to allow her to communicate with Rumplestiltskin. However, she knew the Dark One would never harm himself, as Sidney Glass implied he would. She decided to use her power to save the life in jeopardy in front of her. “Sidney Glass, I compel you by the power in the name I have bestowed upon you. I compel you to live even after Queen Regina is dead. Love can last forever,” she realized aloud, “even when life does not. Love is hope; hope is purpose.”

    II.

    Rumplestiltskin’s rage threatened to consume the town his curse constructed. He stayed destruction only because he needed Storybrooke as a base of operations. The town existed for him and now for her. The room triggered his rage – the cold, sterile room in which she had languished for every second of his curse. Worse still, she had languished within this cold, sterile room for every second of his curse with no name. That evil soul had not even granted his love the relative peace of false memories. She had simply been an amnesiac, alone, but for uncertainty.

    Belle startled Rumplestiltskin from his seething reverie. “Sidney Glass!,” she exclaimed. “Regina put her poor mirror in the room next to mine.”

    “How do you know about the mirror or his name here?,” Rumplestiltskin asked, astonished.

    Belle told him everything, adding, “Life is ironic. He was an extension of my prison, but he was also my window to whole worlds. I saw talking roses and firebirds. I saw purple seas and green stars. I saved his life, and he showed me life.”

    “You named Regina’s plaything, taking some power over him from her,” realized Rumplestiltskin, taking pride in his resourceful love. “She repaid you by leaving you with no name.” His rage somewhat abated, Rumplestiltsin decided that the witch forfeited her mirror to his Belle, just as she forfeited Storybrooke to his Belle. He would find a way to free Sidney Glass from Regina altogether before he killed her, however. Belle had ensured Sidney Glass would not end himself in the wake of her death, but he feared Sidney Glass might lash out at even his Namer with an unhinged shard or two once Regina was lost to him. Once freed from Regina’s thrall, Belle would likely release Sidney Glass from her service to quest for requited True Love. He hoped the mirror would remain with her for a little while, though. Rumplestiltskin wanted to see firebirds reflected in his love’s eyes.
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