When Emma Swan was six years old, she went to see the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Sword in the Stone with her foster mother and siblings. It hadn't been like when normal families go see movies. There was no popcorn, no candy, no drinks.
The woman and children she was with also weren't her foster family.
Not that her real foster parents ever realized she was gone. No, her foster parents had been at the bar next door, getting drunk. As usual.
She'd also managed to sneak a woman's candy bar out of her pocket without her even realizing. Apollo chocolate bar with peanuts in it. Her favorite!
Emma smiled as she settled down into the chair, clutching the Apollo bar as the movie began to play. She longed to be a hero like Arthur was, even if he seemed a little silly in the beginning. In fact, she got so into the movie, she almost forgot about the Apollo bar she'd been holding. She was about to open it when she heard someone clear her throat.
Innocent green eyes looked up, meeting those of a worker. Oh no. She was in for it now.
"Hello," the man said softly, as to not disturb those that were watching the movie.
"I'm sorry," she whimpered.
The man sank into the chair next to her. "Don't worry, you're not in trouble. What do you think of the movie?"
Emma, still frozen, shrugged, the half-open candy forgotten in her hand. "I… I like it."
"Wouldn't it be cool to be a hero like him?" the man asked.
She nodded, slowly. "I want to be a hero like him."
The man smiled. "You will be, Emma. One day, you will be the savior to many people," he said. "All you have to do is find the sword."
She frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You will be a hero, Emma. One day, you'll be just as great a hero as Arthur."
"I don't… I don't understand," she said softly. "Magic isn't real like in the movie." She might have been young, but she wasn't stupid. Magic wasn't real. There were no fairy godmothers that existed. Or wizards that were going to help someone become a great leader. Still, Emma like to think that it could. But most of her didn't believe in it.
She wasn't sure what to make of the man's face. Was it pity? Shock? Well, it wasn't like she hadn't seen those faces before.
"Why don't you believe in magic, Emma?" the man asked.
She was surprised no one else had asked them to be quiet at this point. Usually it only took two words and someone was turning around, a sour look on their face as they pressed their finger to their mouth as if begging someone to save them from the taste of a lemon.
She bit her lip and looked down at the candy. "Because no one wants me."
The man stiffened next to her. "What?"
"No one wants me," she said softly. "I'm six years old and I've been to three different foster homes. My parents didn't want me, and neither did anyone else. My new foster parents are next door."
"In the next theater?" He sounded almost hopeful.
"No. At the bar."
She turned to look at him as he frowned in concern. "I see," he said softly. "Well Emma, I bet if you believe in magic, and believe that you'll be a hero, your life will get better."
"How can I do that?"
He smiled. "Have you ever seen Peter Pan?"
She nodded slowly.
"Well, do you remember in Peter Pan when Tinker Bell is injured, and they have to believe in order to bring her back? That's what you can do with magic. Every time the world disapproves or disbelieves in magic, the more likely it is that magic will cease to exist. And then the fairies would die."
She didn't know why she was so entranced by this man's words, but she knew she hated the thought of anything dying, so she took a deep breath and looked at the man. "Okay," she said softly. "I'll believe."
The man smiled. "That a girl. Oh – and don't forget, Excalibur's twin can be yours one day."
She frowned. "Twin? What twin?"
He nodded at the screen, and Emma turned to it, seeing nothing more than Arthur and the knights at the round table. When she turned back to ask for clarification, the man was gone.
Emma's eyes were wide as she sank into her seat, confusion written on her face as she tried to focus on the movie.
As much as she wanted to think that things were impossible, just to protect herself against bad things happening to her, something told her to hold on to the hope like the man had been telling her to do.
One thing that gave Emma hope that something would be going right, was that, later on that night, Emma Swan was removed from the home, and placed with one that was safer.
And then, that night, when she was six years old, Emma Swan had a dream…
She was in a small town, but there was something wrong. Really, really wrong. She couldn't tell what it was but there was something… scary that felt wrong.
"Emma, please help us…" a woman's soft voice said. Emma looked around, eyes wide as she tried to find the source of the voice. "Please my darling…"
"Where are you? What can I do to help? I'm just a little girl…" Emma replied softly.
"No, Emma. You're so much more than that. You're our little girl," a second voice said. This time, it was a male voice. Like the woman, his voice was kind.
"No. That can't be true. My parents didn't want me," Emma said stubbornly.
"Emma, sweetheart… we love you. We know you'll save us," the woman said. She sounded sad, and slightly scared. If these people were in trouble, that was a bad thing. They sounded too nice to be in trouble.
Her eyes widened. This was her chance to be a hero, like Arthur in the movie! "What do I do?" she asked.
"Find us…" the man whispered. "Find us Emma…"
It was only then that Emma could see shadows, mere outlines of them, and she pouted. She wanted to see what these people looked like.
"How?" she asked. "How can I find you if I don't know where you are?"
"You will. We believe in you, Emma," the woman said. "You just have to have hope that you can do it. Wait – Regina – no!"
A third shadow became visible on the wall, silent, and deadly, and Emma screamed as the shadow waved her hand, and the three shadows disappeared in a burst of inky blackness.
"Emma? Emma, wake up!"
Her eyes snapped open, face clammy with a cold sweat as she stared into the eyes of her foster sister, Jane.
"What happened?" Jane whispered, sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling Emma into a hug.
"I – I it… it was a nightmare. People got hurt…" Emma stuttered. Or, she could only assume that the two nice people had been hurt. It didn't seem to end peacefully, that was for sure. "They were looking for me. They wanted me to find them."
Jane rubbed her back. "Don't worry Emma… it was just a dream. It can't hurt you."
"Just a dream," she whispered, her voice small. "It was just a dream."
Little did six year old Emma Swan know, this would not be the last time she dreamed of people asking for her help…
"It's just a dream," Lily would say ten years later after Emma had fallen asleep one day when they were hanging out together.
"It's just a dream," Neal would say a year after Lily, the day before he left her pregnant and arrested.
"It's just a dream," the guard in her Phoenix jail would say, the day after she gave birth and gave her son up for adoption.
"It's just a dream," she whispered to herself after waking up in Storybrooke, Maine, the day after her ten year old son showed up on her doorstep.
But after a meeting with a woman named Regina the night before, she couldn't shake the feeling that something in this town was wrong.