A/N: Yes I changed the function of a dream catcher to something else from the show.

Emma looked down at her hands cradling a most precious object in her hands. She sucked in a breath in nervous tension. There would be no turning back after this. She smirked at herself at the thought. The line had already been crossed a long time ago. This was just the pinnacle of all her plans and she wasn't about to back down now. It was too late for that. There was nothing else for her to lose. Rumpelstiltskin was right after all. Merlin too. But what those 2 didn't know was that she had found a way. Their mistake was that they thought they could cheat the universe and its laws. But Emma knew better than that. She had grown up in the real world. You couldn't cheat the system because eventually it caught up with you no matter what. You either had to be the one to make the rules or follow it. All her life Emma had accepted her defeats and there had been many. Well no more. She had drawn her own line in the sand. This time she would beat it.

She stepped into the middle of the vault. The vault where all her troubles began and now would end them. She squeezed her hands while chanting:

Ruler of the darkness

Holder of the light

Under the earth

Above the sky

Forever separated by the gods

United in one shall destroy all boundaries

"Are you ready for this?" Merlin asked Hook.

He nodded his head and Merlin touched his head. He felt a surge of magic coursing through his body.

It was like watching a movie, something Emma had introduced to him. He was seeing himself but detached from it. He wondered what he had felt like in that moment because all he was feeling now was numb.

(Flashback)

Emma looked at him from the side of her eyes. They were sitting side by side in their garden. Well technically it was Camelot's garden but he thought of it has his and Emma's now. He was a bloody pirate after all. If he wanted to stake his claim, he'd welcome any challenge to it. He could feel the tension rolling off of Emma even though she was trying so hard to hide it from him. But open book and all. He could tell her smile was a little strained and forced, her eyes tinged with a hint of panic, with what he knew not. Something had happened on her journey with Merlin. Hook wanted to pound out his frustration but he knew that wouldn't help Emma. The wizard was the most powerful wizard in all of the realms, what was his bloody problem? So far the man made a lot of noise but nothing was happening.

"Will you marry me?" Emma blurted out.

He froze. No it couldn't be. He did not hear what he thought he heard. No way no how. It had been a couple of days since he last cleaned his ears. Maybe he could excuse himself, take a quick bath and rejoin her?

"Killian? Killian? Killian?"

Startled out of his reverie, he turned to face her, "Yes, love?"

She sighed. "Did you hear what I asked?"

He frowned slightly. "I'm not sure I heard you right Swan. Could you repeat it? Slowly perhaps?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. She couldn't tell if he was surprised or was teasing her. Carefully enunciating each word, "Will. You. Marry. Me. You. Dumb. Pirate?"

He gaped at her, sure his jaw was somewhere around his ankles. Then his thoughts cleared and he realized what was going on. She wanted to use him as her talisman. He knew it. She told him that when he was around, Rumpelstiltskin or some version of him disappeared. Whatever had happened with Merlin hadn't helped her.

He thought about it for a second. He wasn't sure if Emma would've wanted this under normal circumstances but what the hell, their lives would never be normal. He had known it from the first time his eyes settled on hers.

Emma had another surprise up her sleeves however. "Let's do it right now. Here."

"Emma, love, is this what you really want? What about Henry and your parents?"

"We can celebrate with them later. But right now, let's do it. If you trust me."

He smiled fondly at her. Dark One or not, he did trust her. Would always do so.

He held out her hand to him and swiftly Emma pulled out the dagger under her dress and sliced his hand. She quickly did the same with hers and mashed them together.

"Whoah what? Emma! What are you doing?" he asked in surprise. Then he felt a searing pain from his hand that slowly burned the rest of the way throughout his body. His instincts were screaming at him to snatch his hand back and stop the pain but he gritted his teeth and held on to Emma's own cut hand. Her head was bent over their joined hands while she was saying something that he couldn't quite make out. When she finally looked up at him, here eyes glowed an eerie white that froze his soul.

A second later she unlinked their hands and her eyes returned to the lush green of before. He blinked. Was he imagining things. He quickly looked down at his hand and sure enough, there was nothing there. No wound, no blood, nothing.

"Emma?" he questioned.

She turned away from him. "It is done."

His heart stopped beating for a second. What did she mean? And why did she sound so cold about it. Before he could say anything else, she disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

He blinked and looked at Merlin. "Emma and I….." he trailed off. Unable to form words. Of all the things that he thought his lost memories were of, this did not feature in any of them. He had spent many sleepless nights trying to figure out what had made Emma turn on them. Nothing made sense.

Merlin shook his head slightly in the negative then grimaced. "Well I guess you could say that you are married I guess. That was your question? But that was not Emma's main goal."

He closed his eyes briefly in pain, wanting to see Emma. Wanted to speak to her and know what was going through her head. "This doesn't explain why she…"

Merlin handed him a dream catcher in response. "Look into it and you will have all your answers" he said solemnly.

Hook gripped the dream catcher with his one hand and watched as Merlin waved his hand over the object. A rush of images slammed into him, along with a wave of nausea.

He slowly turned to Merlin, "I died? In Camelot? And this is what made Emma…" he trailed off.

Merlin looked at the man beside him. This one man that started it all. He could be the reason for the ending of everything or he could be the one to stop it. Like always, there was a choice. There was always a choice even if you were standing on the edge of a cliff. Many others had made their choices that lead up to this moment. Now it was up to these 2 to make theirs. The two people that life had decreed up until now to make their choices for them, until Emma had rebelled in spectacular fashion.

"No Killian, that is not the past you are seeing." Merlin waved his hand all around the room that held all of Emma's dream catchers. "These dream catchers don't hold memories of the past." He paused, in an unneeded dramatic fashion, Killian thought.

"They hold visions of the future."

"What? Wizard, stop with your bloody cryptic statements for once. This is all your fault. We went to Camelot to find you so that you could help Emma. How did everything go so wrong?" He glared at Merlin.

"You, Killian. Your fate went wrong. And it has gone wrong multiple times." He stopped to gather his thoughts, "You see they call it the Gift of Sight but it truly is a curse. To be able to see the future and know that no matter what you do you can't defy the universe?"

Merlin paused, steeped in his own misery and bitter memories. "I knew that. I too once tried to change our fate. Mine and Nimue's."

"Who's Nimue?" While he wanted to tell Merlin to stop with his stories and just tell him about Emma, he sensed that this was an important piece of information.

"My true love" Merlin stated simply. Then added, "And the first Dark One."

Hook took a deep breath. He could see where this was going and it wasn't anything good. Merlin and Nimue. Killian and Emma.

"We both paid for it. I saw her. As the Dark One, as the one that would trap me in a tree. I saw it all. I thought I was powerful enough to change the course of our fate. In doing so, I made it happen. It's a painful lesson many have learned."

"That's what Emma is trying to do? Stop me from dying? At the expense of her own soul?" he said to no one in particular.

Merlin shook his head. "It's more than that. Most who try to change the future tries to stop the events leading up to it from happening. Only the realms have a way to course correct. Emma has chosen another path."

"And that path is?"

Merlin looked at him. "What do you remember about your father?"

Hook blinked in surprised. "My father? What the hell does he have to do with this?"

Merlin remained mute, waiting for his answer.

"Fine damn it. I remembered being on a boat and then he left me" Hook bit out in annoyance.

Merlin gave him a slight smile. "That was the second time your fate veered off course."

"Second? Did I miss the first time? And what is my fate anyway? I don't believe in it. I make my own" he boasted.

"The first time was your birth."

Hook glared at him. "If you say anything against my mother's good name…."

Merlin laughed. "Calm down pirate. Do you even remember your mother? No? What I meant was the union between your father and mother was never supposed to be. It was forbidden. Your very existence defied the law and ever since it's been trying to correct it."

Hook looked confused. "Forbidden? By whom? Start making sense old man!" He was a second away from putting his hook through the guy. All this circling around to his past, future and Emma's was making his head throb in pain.

"You'll soon understand. Now let's go find Emma."

He growled. "All this time you knew how to get to Emma and we wasted our time on this nonsense?" He stepped threatening towards Merlin who waylaid him with an outstretched arm.

"Actually only you have that ability. You can go to wherever she is, if you so choose to." Merlin nodded towards his hand. "You have at least one lost memory back. You saw what she did. She bound your life to hers. All you need to do is find that link."

He rubbed the palm of his hand with his hook. There was no scar there that he could see. He looked questioningly at Merlin before closing his eyes and picked out a special memory of him and Emma together.

Feeling the cackling energy in the air, Hook opened his eyes and saw her. His Emma. But the person standing next to her, shocked him even more.

"Papa?" he whispered in utter shock.