Preface

King Arthur had shown his true colors to the heroes of Once Upon A Time. Among them was Emma Swan, the born Savior who took on the mantel of Dark One.
Emma Swan faced a decision. She could use a magical ember to reforge Excalibur so she could strike down all of one aspect of magic: light magic or dark magic.
Or... she could give up the ember to save her loved ones.

Chapter One

Her Whole World

It was a battle to change the worlds- all the worlds ever touched by magic. Two powerful sorcerers, wielder of ancient light magic and wielder of ancient dark magic, were threatened with slavery under the grip of two power-hungry enemies. It was a battle at twilight in a clearing in the woods outside Camelot, where the vines and trees themselves obeyed the orders of Zelena the witch and Arthur, the once and future king. They were choking the dark sorceress's loved ones to force her hand. Emma Swan's family and friends were hostages, and the ransom was too great.

At the same time the light sorcerer, Merlin, was in a stranglehold of magic, torn by two opposing impulses- the will imposed upon him, to kill the hostages one by one, at Zelena and Arthur's command, and his own will to stop the battle. The will of the light sorcerer was strengthened by magic bestowed upon him a millennia ago, by the Holy Grail left by the gods—still, he was weakened by his recent imprisonment, hundreds of years imprisoned in the form of a tree.

The thin, toned light sorcerer, both youthful and pensive due to his magic, squinted with the pain of resistance. He commanded the roots of the trees of the Caledonian forest to hold down the dark sorcerer's mother, Snow White, her father, Prince Charming, her beau, Captain 'Hook' Jones, her friend, Robin Hood, and her friend and co-parent, Regina the formerly evil queen. The dark sorceress was just a woman named Emma who had discovered her abilities midlife and then had dark magic thrust upon her. She longed to free them all, but she had sworn off using her dark magic, time and time again. She was conflicted and confused, having traveled between realms in the last few years, experiencing more than she ever thought possible when growing up an abandoned child in the Land Without Magic. Emma clutched a box that her enemies desperately wanted & would kill to get, for they thought it held the sacred Promethean flame that could forge Excalibur back together.

Merlin, once a mortal slave who had escaped and stumbled upon powerful light magic, never thought it possible that he would experience this again. Slavery. Slavery under Zelena's spell was worse than what he'd known as a mortal over a thousand years ago, because her will invaded his very soul. He'd tried to prevent the possibility of ever being a slave again by imbuing his sorcerer's hat with such power that the wearer would be free of tethering spells. Where was that hat now?

Now, he doubled over with the effort to resist strangling Snow White with forest vines, as Zelena shouted, "Say goodbye to mummy, Emma! -Unless you hand over that flame you've ignited- or the Dark One Dagger! Either will do, dear, you'll be mine either way!"

Everything was about to change, with the perversion of Merlin's magic to serve Zelena's unquenchable thirst for magical supremacy and King Arthur's obsessive need to rebuild Camelot-and make all other kingdoms bow to it. Emma Swan was about to change. She had bore the burden of the Dark One for six weeks and after much soul-searching, she was ready to leave dark magic behind- that had been the only way to ignite the Promethean flame again! But now, her drive to protect her family was too strong!

"Wait!" Emma called out, and tossed the small stone box to Zelena. The wicked witch fumbled- the box fell- she and Arthur took their focus off Merlin for a second, and Merlin was able to right himself and loosen the hold on Emma's friends and family. It was just enough for Captain Hook to wriggle and cut loose the roots and vines 'round him - the villains didn't know that the hook that substituted for one hand was still imbued with magic and could cut some magical bonds. They didn't know that as they knelt over the stone box, and sought an enchanted flame from an ancient ember from the world's original fire, the heroes were being quickly cut loose, and the cuff that was restraining the magical powers of Regina during this hostage crisis was removed.

They also didn't know that Emma had filled the box with oily serpentine strands that would leap out and trap whoever opened it- her last act of dark magic. Zelena screamed as these strands poured out of the box endlessly, binding her and gagging her.

Arthur took from her the broken blade of Excalibur in a hurry. "Do something!" Arthur yelled at Merlin, panicking. Zelena's spell had tethered Merlin and his magic to this half of the blade so he had to obey, just as Merlin had long ago used a spell to tether the Dark One's magic to the other half of the blade, an improvised dagger. Merlin looked about him-the six friends he had made in the last couple of weeks were now ready to fight, and strengthened by this hope, he pointed at Zelena to help her untangle- as slowly as possible. His friends were circling Arthur. Arthur impulsively rushed at Prince Charming, swung Excalibur at him and Captain Hook- just missed- then thrust the broken sword towards Regina. Even without its tip, it was more than deadly sharp.

The regal brunette woman pushed him and his half-sword aside with a magical flick of her gilded crimson sleeve. She was not about to be taken aback by a man's sudden attack ever again. The last time a knight of the round table came at her with a sword, she was not quick enough to react, and her boyfriend, Robin Hood, had stepped in front of her to protect her from mortal danger. He had died for her then, had been miraculously brought back to life, and she swore that Robin would never have to do that again.

Arthur stumbled backwards with the force of Regina's will and fell, almost landing on his sword. "You're outnumbered, your majesty," Regina said. "Give up."

The splat of blood falling on the forest floor was all that Emma, the Dark One, could hear. Blood spurted out from Captain Hook's neck where Excalibur had grazed him- his open wound seemed to grow- the pitter-patter of dark red droplets were all Emma could focus on. This was the battle to change the worlds, and it was not the fall of the enemies that did it. This man's gasping last breaths from his sliced neck would change everything for her, and she would turn reality upside down to save her lover.

Emma rushed towards her love and caught him, then transported the two of them somewhere safe. In a blink they were lying among the soft grasses and chives of a familiar meadow, where Middlemist roses had been growing all the centuries that Merlin lived here. Emma tried to remember how to heal his wounds with light magic, but nothing happened. "Killian Jones, I won't lose you," she whispered. Somehow she knew, at the back of her mind, that a cut from Excalibur could not be mended. The blade could cut spirit from soul, immortals from their immortality.

"Let me go, Emma," Killian managed to say, looking up into her blue green eyes as his vision softened and dimmed. It was that time of night when the gnats and mosquitos rose up from the grasses, and flies were finding his wound, as well.

The dark sorceress sobbed, "What about our future together?" His promise of a house by the sea, a future with her back in the quiet town of Storybrooke, was what had motivated her to rid the world of Dark One magic yesterday. Yesterday his kiss had helped her ignite a magical ember to create a flame strong enough to weld the fated sword back together and destroy all dark magic. Today she was about to watch her boyfriend die with flies buzzing about, and risk failing to destroy dark magic, which could mean an eternity she'd live alone. "I won't be able to meet you there, in the afterlife."

She pressed the hem of her robe against his wound- nothing would stop the bleeding. She fumbled through her pockets for magical items that would help, and just found the stone box that held the real Promethean flame, and the Dark One dagger.

Swiftly Emma pressed the handle of the dagger into Killian's sweating palm. She leaned over him so he could see more than just her silhouette in the fading light. She clenched her hand around his so he would hold the dagger up at an angle, pointed at her heart.

"No- no- don't make me- I have already lived- 200 years, with darkness in my heart. With you, I- had just started to - Emma! Don't make me go back into darkness!" He pleaded with her through the bubbling blood in his mouth.

"Trust me," she whispered, "I was prophesied… to be the one who can wield this dagger for good. I am the Dark One who it was said, can wield light magic as well. Trust me, and I'll help guide you to the good… even if it has to be from beyond..."

Back in the Caledonian forest, the great and powerful Merlin could hold back his powers no longer, and the tall, tortured sorcerer snapped back into servitude. Regina and her friends did not stick around to face him. She transported Robin Hood, Snow White, Prince Charming and herself back to the diner in the woods that had been their home base for weeks. Granny and Regina's adopted son, Henry, were safe. "Merlin's under a spell, he's working for Arthur- and Zelena broke free!" Robin updated Henry.

"Where's Emma? And the pirate?" Regina asked. "My sister made it clear that they want to control Emma in the same way they're controlling Merlin, and not rejoin Excalibur to get rid of dark magic!"

Henry scratched his head. "They didn't come here- I don't know!"

The sun was setting behind the trees, as Emma lay atop her boyfriend in a low meadow known only to them. He had almost lost consciousness, but passing her immortality on to him could still save him. Killian grimaced, helpless to stop his limp hand from being guided to stab her with the only weapon that could kill the Dark One and transfer her powers to himself. Her last words in his ear were, "You'll see, this is the only way we can be together…"

All was black and silent for Killian. Then he felt a rush of wind past his head and all over his body. He was wrought with pain- all the hateful memories of his life flashed before his eyes. He had never avenged Milah's death, which was his only goal in his artificially extended life. Milah- and Emma- both women he had truly loved, both killed by a Dark One! He howled blindly as he felt himself transform, and then begin to breathe and hear and see again. He had been transported to the source of dark magic, and it bubbled and swirled around him until he was lifted up from it, out of the Dark One vault. Killian peered out at the world from behind a heavy hood, for suddenly he was wrapped in a tattered, thick old robe and scarf. He stood atop a metal trap door on top of a hill, feeling his neck- it was whole again- and his left arm- still a stub at the end. Curiously, he waved his right hand over it, feeling the urge to be whole... His left hand grew back!

"Magic!" he started. He'd never felt so alive, in awe of the power that came from his mere thoughts! "Magic…" he repeated to himself with growing fear. It would always come with a price. The universe would enact some terrible price upon him for every act of magic, which he couldn't predict! He nervously felt for the dagger, which was snug in his belt. He realized that now he was the Dark One, the thing he'd hated almost all his life! He screamed up at the stars that were beginning to shine.

Squinty eyes peered at him from behind a nearby tree. "Yes, magic," came a cold, old voice. "And it's all yours, forever, as long as you hold the dagger." It was his arch enemy, Rumpelstiltskin, glaring at him from behind his wavy, greasy hair, folding his glittering, scaly arms over his vested chest.

"You! Why are you here to torment me?" Killian yelled, lunging at him.

"You know why," Rumpelstiltskin said, appearing easily behind Killian in time to avoid his lunge. "I'm part of the spirit of all Dark Ones past, and I'm here to help you. You need me, you need the voices in ye head, much as ye may hate me."

The former pirate whirled around. "I don't need YOUR help with magic!"

"Suit yourself," said the cold, shrill voice, and the vision of Rumpelstiltskin turned into a vision of a towering centaur with hooves stomping, brown fur matted. His tough, grizzled human face leaned over Killian's. "You would rather listen to Korsen Thesh?" he growled. "You want your revenge? -On that apparition? Or on the man he was? Both can be yours, and in time, you'll seek me out- to use magic to get your revenge!"

Then the vision of the grumbling centaur was gone. A ways down the hill, Killian saw a slender woman appear out of nowhere, looking about in confusion. She had bleached blonde hair in a tight braid draped across her shoulder, a short black woolen dress that flared out at the bottom, attached to a black woolen cape, and black boots of soft leather that were laced up her legs. Killian ran down to her, with two hands open to grasp hers. It was a vision of Emma, solidly transformed into a cold, squinting Dark One, and no longer wavering in the shades of gray like the reluctant new immortal he'd come to know in the past few weeks. Gone were her soft gray oversized robe and her flowing, wavy light yellow hair. This vision did not hold his hands, but stared at her own, for they did not feel real. "I'm not here," she said. "I'm here, and I'm... in the afterlife." She walked in a circle, distractedly looking all around her.

The cold night wind ruffled his hair without chilling him; Emma's hair and cape were not moved.

Then he collapsed with dry heaving sobs- no tears would come. "Oh, Emma…" Killian instinctively wanted to go tell her family and console them. Without trying, he zapped himself to where they were.

He was outside the diner that had been whisked to Camelot's border from the magical little hamlet of Storybrooke, as part of their mission to find Emma and rid her of the darkness. Now she was rid of it, in a way…

A figure appeared between him and the door. His scales shone in the light of the lantern that hung from Granny's diner; his face was in shadow. "You really think her family will be understanding? And they won't try to kill you for what you did?" the vision asked in a tight voice. "You best secure the dagger before you worry about them."

"Crocodile…" Captain Hook grumbled dismissively- making for the door, he walked right through him. With a thought, he turned his clumsy robe into the long black captain's jacket that he had been wearing on the battlefield, and hid his left hand in his jacket pocket as he entered.

The battlefield in the woods was all but empty. Zelena finally wriggled free of the strands that constantly leapt up and around her, with her magic and Merlin's. "Why didn't you just cut me free-?" she yelled at Arthur.

"With this? It could have killed you!" Arthur said, sheathing Excalibur. He had no intention of killing Zelena, but he knew that their interests would only align for so long. While she was bound head to toe, he had searched the forest floor for the magic-binding cuff that the heroes left behind, so that one day, while she slept, the Wicked Witch of the West could be trapped by it again. Then she would have to make another deal with Arthur, should he require anything of her considerable magical abilities, in order to get it off.

Zelena straightened her dress full of sparkling black points and donned her pointed hat again. "My sister and her friends fled, how heroic," she said dryly. "And if Emma took off with her boyfriend, we can still use him, to get the dagger! Let's find her!"

With a nod from Arthur, a stoic Merlin transported them to a faraway hillside that overlooked a wooded valley.

"There's no one here!" Zelena exclaimed. There was just a clearing with a circular platform that she had visited before. "This is the Dark One vault, from whence the dark magic comes… That's not what I meant, you- ancient idiot! You're being cheeky, you're stalling!"

"What exactly is your plan?" Merlin interrupted her with a serious tone. Stalling was exactly what he intended. "Enslaving Emma, by holding the Dark One dagger? Or using that box of fire to mend Excalibur, and kill her?"

"Well- wouldn't that remove all dark magic from the world?" Arthur reasoned. If he could accomplish that, he would be the ultimate hero.

"Tsk, dark magic is everywhere," Zelena chided him. "It would just remove this particular source of dark magic. Soon we'll own and control the strongest light magic AND the strongest dark magic- we could do anything-"

"Well I suppose you want the blade that controls the dark magic?" Arthur asked.

"Don't you know that his light magic is stronger?"

"That's debatable, your majesty," Zelena said snidely. "But yes, I'll control the Dark One and play the villain, so you can continue playing off of me, and shine bright as the hero."

Arthur jumped in, "We'll have all the power to heal and protect- or torture and destroy!"

"And once I've gotten all I want, then we can go ahead and reforge your precious sword… and strike out one source of- a particular kind of magic… forever…" Zelena rubbed her gloved hands together, lost in her thoughts.

"I made that sword. Does your plan involve asking me if this is going to work? Do you really think there can be light without darkness, or the other way around?" Merlin asked, not knowing the answer himself.

Zelena conjured forth a lantern for herself and Arthur. "Just take us to Emma!"

Merlin stared at the closed metal trap door engraved with symbols.

Back at Granny's Diner, no one could believe Killian Jones' profession that Emma had killed herself with the Dark One dagger, so he offered to show them. Regina transported him, herself, Snow White and Prince Charming to the meadow he told her about, where he had taken Emma horseback riding to get her mind off being the Dark One.

Regina held up a lantern and her jaw dropped at what she saw. Snow White doubled over in agony, screaming. "NO- no!" Charming cried. Emma's body lay face down in the grass. She had died on top of him as he died, like Romeo and Juliet, each of them from different parts of the same blade. Charming rushed to the body and gently turned Emma on her side, revealing her hand that still clutched the dagger, drenched in the blood that had poured from her heart.

"What- wait, what? No, it can't be!" Regina struggled to hold onto reason, even as she felt herself sinking into panic and despair. Her friend would never commit suicide to escape her life, or the fight for control of the Dark One.

Regina grabbed the collar of Snow's stiff, royal dress, righting her and leaning in close to stop the screaming. Regina reasoned, "She wouldn't- and- if she really killed herself, why is her body- still here?" Snow's face was hot with tears, and over her hyperventilating, she could barely hear Regina whisper harshly, "Remember when Gold had killed himself! When he was the Dark One, and we all saw him kill both Peter Pan and himself at the same time- to save Storybrooke! There was no body! When a Dark One uses the dagger on his self- remember! The body disappears! It goes back to the source of darkness, in this realm!"

"What are you saying?" Snow sobbed.

Charming stepped back from the body. "Are you saying this just isn't what a suicide would… look like… for a Dark One? Hook! What really happened?"

The old pirate was at a loss for words. "She made me-" He shook his head as Emma's family stared at him wide-eyed. His focus was on the dagger- and then, so was theirs.

Killian felt a ghost materialize behind him. "Hurry! Don't let them get it- and control you!" she urged him. Killian kneeled, swiftly yanking the knife from the body and letting yet more blood flow. Killian Jones was clearly engraved on its side. They saw it in the lantern light and gasped—they would never accept what happened. With a last look of regret upon Emma Swan's still face, Killian transported himself back to the shadows of the trees around the Dark One vault.

Killian concentrated on the platform and its sealed door, willing himself to go back into the slimy embrace of sentient dark magic that lived down there. If only he could hide for the rest of the long, long life he was doomed to.

"Back up- hide!" whispered Emma's ghost. Zelena, Arthur and Merlin were weaving in between the clearing and tree lines, looking for something in the dark.

The embodiment of Rumpelstiltskin was suddenly behind Killian's other shoulder. "They'll have the Sorcerer fight you. They won't stop until they get the dagger from you. What are you going to do about it?" he said.

Killian crouched down, watching from the brush with growing agitation and fear.

"Really, you could do everyone a favor and get rid of them," Emma's ghost said in a slow, low voice. "Now, before they round up hostages again, to make you hand over the dagger."

"Ah, but we've tried killing her," said the impish voice of Rumpelstiltskin. "It didn't work. She was sustained by her magic and only appeared to die. We must do something more than kill her…"

With the force of a splitting headache, Killian recalled memories from the lifetime of a previous Dark One, when the Dark One had approached Zelena, unarmed and defenseless, in her jail cell in Storybrooke. He was avenging the death of someone Rumpelstiltskin, Emma, and Hook had all cared about- it wasn't the reasons for the murder that bothered him, it was its ineffectiveness! He had cornered her, stabbed her, watched her crumble to the ground- and still, she hadn't really died! Killian put his hands to his temples, disgusted at the state he was in, with the life of his mortal enemy in his head.

"Remove their memories," Emma's ghostly voice chimed in. "I will show you how. They mustn't know anything about the dagger- and then they won't be able to seek power in this way."

"Yes," Rumpelstiltskin hissed, "first remove enough of their memories… to obliterate their sense of self… then kill them. Zelena will not be able to seek out the Dark Ones' knowledge and power, even in the afterlife!"

Killian saw no other choice. He stretched out his hand towards the witch and king- it was shaking with the effort of imposing his will that their memories be erased. His focus wasn't clear enough.

Arthur called out, "Merlin, are you sure- I mean- I command thee- sense Emma Swan's magic and find her!"

"She's here somewhere," Merlin insisted, in a somber tone.

Zelena jogged over to Arthur and put her hand on the hilt of his sword. "More to the point, Merlin," she called, "sense and locate the Dark One's dagger!"

The sorcerer turned slowly towards Killian in the shadows.

"Quick!" Emma whispered to the new Dark One, and Killian was transported to the belfry high in one of Camelot's towers, where Emma had spent many a sleepless night while she was the Dark One. Dozens of different dream catchers dangled from the light fixture and rafters. The thrumming of Killian's headache grew louder, steadier, as he looked up at all the hoops woven with sinew. Killian took one of the individually crafted dream catchers from Emma's bony, pale hand, which was just as real and material as he could will her to be. "This is very dark magic," she said, "as you can not only see others' dreams and memories in this, but also remove them from their heads…"