[center][img]http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o620/Vicier/Yoshi%20-%20OUAT%20RP%20-%20Characters/Rumpelstiltskin%20-%20Post%20Gif_zps4lcjvfsi.gif[/img][img]http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o620/Vicier/Yoshi%20-%20OUAT%20RP%20-%20Characters/Kaeden%20-%20Post%20Gif_zpsc4imihsk.gif[/img]
[h1][color=DarkGoldenrod]Rumpelstiltskin[/color] and [color=Sienna]Kaeden Liddell[/color][/h1]
[h3]Wonderland ~ Dungeon Cell[/h3][/center]

[i]Run. That's all that he could do at this point was run. Run as fast as he could through the damn maze that was the only thing between him and the Queen of Heart's castle. That's where she was, that's where /he/ had sent her. That damn Dodo. He was going to pay for this. Pay through the nose for putting Elizabeth into this sort of danger. But that could wait... at least for now. The best thing that he could do was run as fast as he could, run until he reached the castle, run until he found her. She was all he had left... He couldn't lose her like he had the others... He just couldn't... He owed it to them; to Alice, to Jefferson, to Grace. He loved her, and there was no way he was going to do wrong by another person he cared about, not like he had his sister.

Skidding to a stop when he came to a fork in the road, he froze, his eyes searching frantically for something, /anything/ that would tell him which way was the right way to go. He had only been through the maze twice before... both times on the day he had let his sister down, the day that he had left her to die at the hands of the Queen. He had been a coward back then. Nothing more than a scared little boy. So he had turned tail and fled the scene... No. Worse than that. He had turned tail and fled Wonderland altogether, and now he was back. This was all his fault. He never should have let her go in the first place, not after the sinking feeling he had gotten in his chest when she had been telling him about the job that she had been offered. One last job. One last job as a collector before she gave it all up, and the two of them started a new life. Together. The way things were supposed to be... The way they should have been years ago...

Furrowing his brows slightly, he looked over the three paths that lay out ahead of him, each of them obviously leading somewhere, though he knew that at least two of the three paths were going to lead him to either a dead end or... or a /dead/ end... Shaking his head for a moment, he shoved the thoughts as far from his mind as he could manage, there was no time to be thinking about these sorts of things, he had come here for a reason. Come home for a reason. Letting his heart lead him further, he once more began to run, his legs carrying him down the center path, his ears straining, listening out for anything that might be lurking in the maze around him, not that it was going to help him much. He could fight, but something like the Bandersnatch-... Well he just hoped that he could find Liz before he had to even think about pulling a blade on the Queen's little-... okay, the Queen's big and vicious beloved pet.

His heart sunk as he heard the sound of a loud, frightened scream piercing the air, not too far ahead of where he was standing. He hadn't even realized he had stopped again, but the voice, that scream, it was unmistakable... that was Elizabeth. Pushing himself faster than he had in years, he forced himself across the ground, his feet moving as quickly as he could get them to move as he rounded the corner, his eyes catching on her. On Liz. The one person he had been looking for ever since she had missed her deadline in returning home, "Liz... Liz..! I'm coming!" 

"Kaeden, no-..!"

His heart stopped dead in his chest, his eyes widening as he helplessly watched on to what was happening before his very eyes. Her body slowly changing before his eyes, all color in her... all color that she had... changing to nothing more than a dull grey as the stone took control of her body, freezing her in a perpetual state of terror. No... No, this couldn't happen... Not again... He couldn't lose her, not her too... Forcing his feet to move again, he stumbled forward as quickly as he could, his hands coming up to rest softly on either side of her face, his eyes stinging, letting him know that tears were about to fall but he didn't care. Nothing else mattered anymore. He had lost her... The last important thing that he had in his life, and she was gone... nothing more than a statue to decorate the Queen's garden.

He didn't even bother to resist... There was no point... He had lost everything that he had kept precious to his heart... His sister was gone. Jefferson and Grace, his brother and niece... both gone, disappeared from his life without a word. Elizabeth... A sharp pain shot through his heart at the very thought. Lifting his head slightly, his eyes flicked up to the statue that had once been the love of his life, her figure getting smaller and smaller as the guards dragged him away. He knew where he was going. He knew what was going to happen, now he was going to face it. And just like what he had forced upon his sister... he was going to face it alone...[/i]

[center]---------[/center]

His eyes shot open. The pain as fresh in his heart now, just as it was when it had happened in front of his very eyes. It had been two weeks... maybe. It was hard to tell anymore. Not that he truly cared. He had lost everything that kept him going, everything that gave him the hope to live another day. To say that he wasn't terrified of death, that would be a lie. He was... the thought of losing his head and joining the rest of his family in the eternal slumber wasn't something that was easy to come to terms with, if there were another way-... No... He didn't deserve it. He was the joke of Wonderland, a failure in the Enchanted Forest, and the reason that his family were all gone. Maybe the world would have been a better place if he had just never been born in the first place.

The Queen had called his sentence the day he had been caught. Beheading. The same sentence that she had given his sister when she had been hauled in for her so-called crimes against the crown. Alice had been an innocent, she had done nothing wrong... but he had been too much of a coward to stand up for her then, too much of a coward to help her when she had pleaded with him to do just that, and he had been too much of a coward to even stay and watch it happen... Shutting his eyes tightly as he felt a sting go through them, he pulled his right leg in, his elbow resting softly on his knee as he dropped his head down. He hadn't moved in what felt like three days. Sitting at the back of the cell, his back hunched over slightly, though resting against the wall. What was the point in moving? What was the point in living anymore? Everything that he had been living for was gone... and soon he would be joining them all...

"Cozy little place you have here." a mockery of a child-like tone stated blandly, piercing through the bitter silence had had been Kaeden's only company save for the guards who brought him his spoiled curds and whey on a scheduled routine. But it was far too early in the day for his portion though. He hadn't even touched the last few bowls that he had been given. He had simply given up. Perhaps starvation was a better outlet than an outright beheading. "I'd [i]love[/i] to see the Summer home!"

"If you're here to look upon the joke of Wonderland, than please be my guest..." Lifting his head up slightly, he slowly opened his eyes, his gaze drifting up as far as it could go without him having to lift his head up any further. Truthfully, the last thing that he wanted was guests. He just wanted to be left alone... in the silence... alone with his thoughts. But it seemed that at this particular moment, he didn't have the luxury to be making any choices, "Though try and do it quietly, and without all the gloating... Some of us would rather be left alone with our thoughts okay mate."

Lifting his head up completely, he straightened his shoulders, his back resting flush against the wall that was behind him. The same wall that he had been leaning against for god knew how many days in a row. His guest... Could have been one of Caterpillar's men, could have been one of Dodo's, it was hard to tell, and with being away from home and out of the loop for so long, there was no way of knowing if he belonged to either of them without asking... though if he was part of the latter, if he was one of Dodo's men, he would be sure to at least make him pay for the pain he had caused him, even if it was going to be the last thing that he did... "So do what do I owe this pleasure, hm..? Which one of the big, scary men sent you; the bug, or the bird? Oh wait, no... don't tell me. You were sent by the snooty old cow sitting upstairs weren't you? I knew it... Well, you can tell that [i]thing[/i] up there, that she can do what she wants to me... I'm done playing her little waiting game..."

There was a soft chuckle of amusement coming from the dark recesses of the prison before a slight pause.

"Oh no, I don't answer to any of [i]them[/i], dearie. You see..." Another pause... and then, stepping out of the shadows and into the light of the sole lit torch bolted to the stone wall emerged a figure, small in stature and sickly thin, though it was hard to tell from the amount of layers he wore. 

The man was garbed in tight leather from head to toe; from the black leather boots that reached up past his calves, over the top of a pair of dark brown leather pants all the way up to the stiff, rigid-looking, brown dragon-hide coat he wore over the top of what looked like a black vest made from the underbelly of a crocodile that kept the blood red silk poet shirt nearly hidden from view. As though his clothing style weren't intimidating enough, as the man came closer into the light, screwing the cap on a silver flask and reattaching it to his hip, the warm flames of the flickering fire caught the hue of his skin which wasn't at all considered normal.

His complexion was a sickly, saturated green one would expect a novice sailor to achieve while sick at sea. But even stranger, embedded into the skin was what looked like flecks of gold that caught the firelight with each subtle movement the man made as he approached the front of Kaeden's cell and crouched down in front of it to be at eye level with him. The condition of the man's skin seemed to remain with him throughout his body, though only his hands, face and portions of his neck were visible for Kaeden to be unsure.

But even above the wardrobe, the sickly, glittering skin, the blackened fingernails... it was of no match to the man's eyes. [i]If[/i] he was a man. Wide, full amber eyes where there was too much iris and not enough pupil... the eyes of a monster; dead, hungry, piercing right through Kaeden and into his soul. His thin, nude lips split into a smile, the very tips of his ruined teeth visible and making the creases within his older complexion deepen, a trill of soft giggles erupting from his throat as though the man himself didn't even know they were there.

"...I answer only... to [i]me[/i]!"

"Well good for you, I'd give you a round of applause but... I don't want to. So why don't you just hurry up and cut to the chase, who knows how long you have before I lose my head, then you'll be stuck with the thick heads behind you, and trust me, they aren't much fun." Closing his eyes for a few moments, he tilted his head from side to side, the soft sound of joints popping filling the room as he moved, his body stiff from not having moved in so long. Not that he had anywhere to go, and even if he did... there wasn't really anywhere he would go. Life was long and hard, and full of pain, ending it was the only humane thing left to do. Now he just had to wait and see whether the starvation would get him before the beheading did...

"They can barely tell their left from their right, and if you ask them to show you where their nose is-... well, you get my drift... Point is, they're lousy listeners, so I'd hurry up and get to the point [i]dearie[/i]" His eyes widened for only a moment, as though accentuating the last word that came out of his mouth, mocking him though with what he saw from the man in front of him, he wouldn't really give two hoots about his jab. Either way, it was a fun way to pass the time until his sentence was carried out, and while silence was golden... company was amusing.

The man stood in succession with Kaeden though unable to reach his full height, falling a few inches shorter. But his overall appearance somehow gave the illusion that he was much bigger than he was. The man drew back from the cell bars a bit, clicking his tongue thrice in a 'tisk' sound as the smile faded from his pointed features and into something that looked like a frown.

"My, my, my, aren't [i]we[/i] the temperamental one? And here I was, having come [i]all[/i] the way from [i]The[/i] Enchan-ted Fores[i]t[/i] to [i]help[/i] you." the man scorned, though in a somehow very light-hearted, playful manner. His speech was even odd, spacing out words that didn't need spacing, enunciating syllables at the ends of words with an extra breath and changing pitches as though he were singing instead. It was all just very... strange. Even by Wonderland standards.

"Oh my... well then, forgive me, this makes all the difference in the world. Come all the way, from the Enchanted Forest no less, just for little ol' me? I'm flattered, truly I am, but then... there might be one teeny, tiny little detail that I just can't seem to wrap my mind around..." Sighing softly, he turned his head, his eyes flicking about the dungeon cell before once more coming to rest on the man who claimed to be there to help him out of his predicament. [i]Why[/i] he was there to do just that, he wasn't sure. But he would be lying to say that he wasn't curious about it... He needed answers. Especially ones that gave him clues as to just what this guy got out of helping him out of his execution, "Why would someone like [i]you[/i]... give a crap about someone like [i]me[/i]... It's not like my death would affect you in any way..."

Lifting his hand up, he tilted his head slightly, rubbing the back of his neck to get rid of some of the stress and tension that had accumulated within it over his time spent in isolation. The thought of it, the fact that his sister had had to go through it all in her last moments... alone, thanks to him... He felt another pang of pain shoot through his heart, "So tell me, why have you come here... what could possibly come from helping me out of losing my head to the witch upstairs?"

The posture in the man suddenly seemed to raise a little higher, giving him another inch or so as his back arched and his hands waved in an elaborate flourish, accenting the bout of giggles that came from him as though Kaeden had missed some sort of joke.

"[i]Miss[/i]-ing the [i]p[/i]-oint!" the man then said after coming off of whatever high had brought on the spontaneity of his behavior, though still waving his hands together in a 'no' fashion. "You. Freedom. Do ya want it or not?" he then asked, his voice suddenly very serious as he jerked his finger towards Kaeden in an accusing manner, then opening up his palm to slide it flat across the air on the word 'not.'

Freedom... Freedom was a joke. He was never truly going to be free. The weight of his parents punishment was going to be stuck with him for the rest of his life, the weight of his families deaths were on his shoulders and their blood on his hands. Yeah... freedom was what he would be getting from this guy... This was a waste of time, the guy shouldn't of even been here in the first place, but he was, so what was the harm in humoring him for even a while?

"Yeah, cause you can really offer me my freedom. I had freedom, once, but that was a long, long time ago buddy... and with each person I lost, my freedom was taken from me." Clenching his jaw, he narrowed his eyes towards the guy, he was not in the mood to play games, and it seemed like that's all this guy was about. So unless he was able to give him everything he wanted, the guy could just go and jump off a cliff for all he cared, "So unless you can give me my family back, I suggest you stop wasting my time... as you can see, I'm a busy man with places to be..."

"Your family, hmm?" the man chimed, almost in song as he seemed to ponder the supposed outlandish request. "You mean... Elizabeth, Jefferson, Grace..." he paused, then, in a near low-whisper... "Alice..." The man twisted his wrist from where his closed palm had been facing down until it was upright and opened it up flat. The moment he did, a puff of purple smoke appeared over the top of it the size of a small melon before it wafted away into the humid air of the dungeons. There, sitting nestled in his discolored palm was a [url=http://37.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbnqrbOxNr1qzamioo9_500.jpg]small key[/url] of remarkable craftsmanship, the silver and encrusted jewels catching the light even more than the supposed gold embedded into the strange man's skin.

The man, in turn, kept his dead eyes trained on Kaeden, that twisted smile returning to his lips as a ghost of a giggle slipped out between his teeth, clearly amused with himself but trying to hold it back. 

His body tensed up. The sound of their names rolling off of his tongue... it just sounded so wrong, so sinister... how he even knew of them in the first place-... he wasn't sure if he wanted to know [i]how[/i] he knew them or not. But what made it worse was what he saw next. The key. [i]Her[/i] key. The key that unlocked one of his sister's many journals. She had always been writing, every night, that was one thing that you could count on when it had come to Alice. Though whatever it was that was written in the pages of those books, only she knew, and the keys that opened them... he hadn't been able to find a single one. She wore them, kept them close to her at all times. Ever since her execution...

He was up from the ground, and across the length of the cell in what felt like the blink of an eye, his body pressing angrily against bars as he reached through them and towards the guy taunting him with his sister's death, "Where did you get that... Tell me! Where did you get that!"

"Oh, what, this?" The man drew back his open palm, closing his knotted fingers down on it and maneuvering it so that when he made a fist, his thumb and forefinger were pinching the bow of the key, letting the rest dangle almost dangerously, as though he were threatening to drop it. The metal grate covering up the sewer in which he was standing on a sure ending to the key that had once been thought lost. "I'm a procurer of hard-to-find objects, a... collector of sorts. This [i]shiny[/i] little trinket found it's way to my doorstep not a few days ago!" he explained almost too jovially, his free hand expressing individual words with different, small flourishes.

"N-No..! Don't..! You can't do that - please... That key belonged to my sister, that's the only thing that I've seen of hers since she died..." His eyes widened slightly as he watched the man dangle the only part he had left of his sister over the grate at his feet. He couldn't do this, that key was the only part of Alice that was left. To throw it away so carelessly... if the starvation and the beheading didn't kill him, losing the last bit of his sister certainly would. Furrowing his brows in concentration, he pushed himself further into the bars, trying to get his arm as far out as he could, though he knew it was no use... even if the guy dropped the key, he wouldn't be able to catch it.

Closing his eyes, he dropped his head, his knees shaking weakly as he continued to try and reach for the thing he wanted most. His sister, he just couldn't let her go, not when it had been his fault-... not when it had been his fault that she was dead, "Just who the hell do you think you are anyway..."

"Oh!" the man quickly exclaimed, his lips forming a perfect 'o' shape that matched the intense roundness of his wide eyes, as though he had just remembered something important. He dropped the key but it only fell for half a second before his fist snapped out and snatched it from the air, now enclosed safely into his fist. "That's right, we haven't been formerly introduced." The man placed one boot in front of the other, his hips squaring Kaeden off as he extended out both arms into the air and flourished in a deep bow, looking more like he was in the makings of a swan dive. "R-R-R-R-Rumpelstiltskin!" he elaborately introduced himself, bowing his head as though Kaeden had earned his respect. "Or as others know me..." he tilted only his head up, the crinkled mess of his dark hair covering half of his face as his dead eyes looked back to him intently. "...The Dark One..."

"..The Dark One..." Opening his eyes as he heard the name offered to him, he turned his head, his arm dropping only slightly as he eyed the man standing before him. He had heard stories... whispers of a man by those names... The Dark One; Rumpelstiltskin... though he had never had the pleasure of meeting the old coot, and now here he was. Standing in front of him, and offering him not only his freedom, but also a piece of his sister as well, though [i]why[/i] was still as much a mystery as it was when he had first come to see him, "And what in the hell would the Dark One want with me anyway... I'm no-one; a joke. Though, if you are who you say you are, then I'm sure that you know all that already..."

He couldn't help it. His eyes kept flicking down to Rumpelstiltskin's hand, where he knew the key was being safely held. He wanted it, more than anything. He wanted anything that would keep him close to his family, and especially his sister. Even something as small as a key with no lock-... it was the sentimental value that made the whole thing worth it. He had already made up his mind, whatever it was, he had to get his hands on that key. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't at least try... but then if he didn't, he wouldn't exactly be living much longer anyway...

Rumpelstiltskin let out a sort of 'humm' sound that could also pass for a yes. Of course he knew who he was, his reputation, his sob stories, his life. That was why he was here and the smile spreading back across his lips and the eyebrows raising let Kaeden know right away that he already knew whatever it was that he wanted, the answer was yes.

"Well if you must know..." Rumpelstiltskin started, the first few words coming out in a bark-like laugh, "my reasons actually have more to do with a quarrel with your Queen that spans far beyond before you were even born... [i]BUT![/i] I may have my use for you yet." His eyes narrowed on Kaeden, returning to that sinister, serious look about him that often times left people wondering if The Dark One [i]was[/i] capable of stealing souls just by looking at them. "You may have your sister's key..." Rumpelstiltskin started again, the fist in which the key had been nestled inside suddenly leaking out small wisps of purple smoke until the weight of a heavy pendant on a chain was felt around Kaeden's neck and chest.

His eyes closed as he felt the weight of the key pressing against his chest under his top, the cool metal causing his arm to drop and his forehead to press against the bars of the cell. This was it... He had no will to say no to him anymore. The man had just given him exactly what he wanted, something to keep him close with his sister, long after she was dead and gone from the world that she had loved so dearly. Though if the rumors about Rumpelstiltskin were true... there would be something that was needed to be given in exchange for what he had just received. He just hoped that whatever it was, he would be able to give it to him.

"...and you can have your freedom..." Rumpelstiltskin added on. His entire body vanished with the blink of an eye. No smoke, no theatrics, nothing. "For one [i]teensie-tiny[/i] lit-tle job." his voice sounded, this time coming directly from behind Kaeden. His body had reappeared within Kaeden's cell, his body hunched over so that he was able to whisper the last few words into his ear.

Rumpelstiltskin, clearly amused with his showmanship, backed off from Kaeden to stand up, extending out a knotted hand for him to shake.

"Do we have a deal?" Rumpelstiltskin asked, the corners of his lips twitching into a wanting smile though he held it back. The same could not be said for the small giggle that slipped through.

He had been right. There was something that he wanted in return for his freedom and the key, but it seemed as though he wasn't willing to give up what it was until after he got his word that he would do it. Taking a few moments to let his words settle, he stood himself up, his hands slipping down the bars in defeat until finally he turned himself around, his gaze lifting to meet with that of Rumpelstiltskin's. There was no denying it. He hated the old coot already. He was a shabby old man, who showed [i]way[/i] too much off with all the leather, not that he didn't have some style... But his personality didn't leave much to the imagination, and if he wanted what was being offered... he had no other choice but to work with the old dodger. Lifting up his hand, he finally reached out, taking a firm grip of the hand being offered to him, the lack of food over the last few days showing in the strength of his grip.

"Alright, deal... now what the hell do you want from me..?"

Rumpelstiltskin shook his hand back, his free hand coming up where he twiddled his fingers in anticipation while his dead eyes were fixated on the key he knew to be laying on Kaeden's chest. A sly, mischievous smile split his lips as he looked back up to Kaeden, keeping his head bent but his eyes moving up in an intimidating glower... with a smile.