Author's Note - I fully admit that I hated season four. Specifically the Rumple and Belle stuff, so more to make myself happy than anything else, I wrote a quick pre-amble re-writing the season four midseason finale & a few other events from 4b to make it more palatable to me personally. If you liked 'Heroes and Villians' as it was and thought it made Belle into a stronger character instead of a weaker one, please feel free to skip to chapter one. My retcon doesn't really affect the rest of the story since I pretty much just pick up where season four ultimately ended (whether I liked that ending or not). I just like to forget most of what happened in season four regarding the Rumbelle storyline.

Chapter 0 - Justice

Rumpelstiltskin's hand hovered over the defeated heart of his enemy as he paused to enjoy his triumph. In a few moments the spell would be complete and he would at last be freed from that cursed dagger! No longer need he fear being forced to hurt the people he loved at the whim of whichever evil soul came into to possession of the dagger. He and Belle would be free to go wherever she desires... finally their happy ending was upon them! And all it would cost him was the death of the filthy pirate who had seduced his first faithless wife and shot his darling Belle in the back. "And they call me a coward... ". Rumple smiled and began to squeeze the heart...

"Gold stop!" Rumple's eyes lit with rage as he felt his hand freeze around the heart, mere seconds away from crushing it to dust. Guess he shouldn't have paused to gloat. He turned to face his adversary as he felt his fingers loosen around his enemy's heart which he was now forced to cradle gently in his hand.

"Miss Swan?" his surprise was impossible to hide, not at seeing Emma Swan interfering in his plans, but at seeing what she held in her hand. "Where did you get that?" he growled pointing to the dagger with his free hand.

"From Belle." Emma enjoyed the shocked look that flashed across Gold's expressive face, the golden mask dropped for the moment. "Anna told us about the hat. I went to Belle for help and she just gave it to me." she admitted. "Gullible isn't she? She actually thought I was going to save you from yourself."

Gold glowered, "Belle is a good person; she's always trusting people who are unworthy of it. But you...", with some visible effort he turned to face dagger, "You Miss Swan don't trust anyone."

"That's right." she said, "I don't." she raised the dagger and began to advance on a frozen Gold.

"Emma! NO!" Emma turns in annoyance to see her parents running into the building. Late as usual. "Don't do it Emma! He's not worth it!"

"I'm standing right here." Gold muttered, mentally reminding himself not to lift a finger to save the town next time these idiots opened a magical can of worms.

Emma ignored her parents raised the dagger again. "Take us to the town line, Gold." she commanded through the dagger.

Gold obeyed carrying himself and Emma Swan to the town line, bringing her charming parents and Belle along in the vain hope they might try to stop Emma.

No dice. She raised the dagger again, "Rumplestiltskin, I command thee to leave Storybrook." Not quite as much fun as stabbing the bastard, but she'd take what she could get.

"No! Please No!" Gold's lower lip wobbled adorably as he slowly began backing towards the town line, fighting every step of the way.

Emma's expression was dark and dour (as usual), "Do you think I would let YOU ruin my happy ending?" with one last shove of magic, Emma pushes the town pawn broker over the town line where he immediately where he became lame once more. She turned to face the sobbing Belle (that's right sobbing. Her true love just got banished she should be upset!), "Remember Rumple," she spoke into the dagger since Rumple could no longer hear her, "If you ever attempt to come back into town, I'm going to crush your true love's heart the way you tried to crush mine. Understand?" he understood.

"Let me go with him!" Belle cried, not wanting to be separated from her true love.

"Not a chance."

"Emma..." her parents try to reason with her. But to no avail.

"I'm afraid." Rumple's voice quavered as Emma forced him over the line.

00000 Season Five 00000

(Warning preamble is also retcon)

Previously on Once Upon a Time... Emma banished Gold from town*, threatening Belle's life if he returned. Then she had Regina steal Belle's heart, a pesky little detail she didn't share with her parents who continued to use Belle as a nearly constant babysitter, completely oblivious to the fact that heartless Belle was letting baby Baelfire crawl around near the top of the stairs without supervision and drink milk that had not been tested for temperature, all while leaving the toilet cleaner and hot coffee lay out where anyone would reach it. When Gold tricks a couple of displaced fairytale characters into sneaking him back into town, he immediately figures out about Belle's heart is being held as leverage and tells The Charmings, who confront Emma while Gold scampers off to rescue Belle's heart and his dagger from Regina, who is too distraught after Gold tells her that her evil sister Zelena is boinking Robin Hood, to stop him. Meanwhile...

Snow to Emma: "It's wrong to take away another's person's free will, Emma." Charming nods.

Emma to Snow: "Oh yeah?! Well what about what YOU did?" she asked, reminding her parents about all the stupid crap they did back in the Enchanted Forest, most recently applicable the kidnapping and darkness filling of Maleficent's daughter Lily, a fact she learned from Regina, who learned it from Snow, who knew because she did it.

Subsequently Emma and Regina go into the real world and come back with Robin Hood, a pregnant Zelena and Lily in tow. Gold, who is dying in Belle's arms, uses his last ounce of strength to free The Sorcerer's Apprentice from the hat. The Apprentice realizes that a dead Rumplestiltskin is bad for everyone and attempts to pull the darkness out of Rumple and into the hat. But the hat can't contain the darkness.

Cut to Emma stabbing the darkness with her dagger and disappearing.