In the aftermath of the Darkness no one seemed to really know what to do for a moment. They were all too stunned by what had just happened to truly process the implication of it all. The Darkness was out there, somewhere...on it's own.
"Mom, Dad, go after it! Go! I'll be right there!" Emma finally yelled, bursting their silent shocked bubble and setting the world in motion again. Mary Margaret and David did as they were told and ran out the door as Emma tiptoed around the body on the floor. The man, the stranger. Not the body. It was feint, only a fraction better than Rumple's state but she could see that his chest was rising and falling. He was breathing. Somehow he'd made it through whatever it was that had just happened to him.
"Help me make him comfortable," Emma ordered without missing a beat. Killian and Henry stepped forward to assist her with him. She supposed that she should have gotten up and assisted, but it couldn't have taken more than the three of them to move him and besides, it wasn't as if there wasn't something for her to do in this room. They may have forgotten, but she hadn't. There was not one but two bodies lying on the floor of the shop. The apprentice handled, the blackness being tracked, she did the only thing that she could think might be helpful: she allowed herself to sink back down next to Rumple and check on him.
She placed her hand over his heart and felt for his heart beat and his breathing…nothing had changed. It was all as it had been only moments before everyone had burst into the shop only now…her eyes found the dagger laying on the floor, the place that he had thrown it only…could that really have only been minutes ago, barely an hour that they'd sat here together and he'd passed out for the last time?! It seemed like hours, like the entire world had changed in that hour time…and more than just the world.
The dagger. It wasn't the same as it had been when she'd first entered this shop or when she'd found it hiding in his jacket pocket. It was still jagged, still menacing looking, and still felt…awful! Like it filled the entire shop with blackness even though she'd seen the blackness disappear for herself but that wasn't all there was to the dagger that was sending shivers down her spine! Something was missing. Something important.
"Emma!" she called as Henry and Killian worked together to move the apprentice. She grabbed the dagger and examined it once more, making sure she wasn't wrong, or it hadn't been turned on the wrong side. She wasn't wrong. His name was no longer written on the side. No one's was. The significance was clear, but what it meant for them...she had no idea how this would change things.
"It…it's gone!" she remarked as Emma joined her by his side. "His name…it's not here anymore!"
Emma stared at the item in her hand with wide eyes for a moment as the boys bumped around in the back. "Well...that's good isn't it?" she questioned. "That means he's not tied to it anymore."
She nodded but she wasn't sure she was ready to call it "good", not after they'd seen the curse itself pour uncontrolled into the outside world as it had. "He may be free of it," she corrected, "but we're not. Not having a name on here…that might be worse than having one."
Emma's eyes changed as recognition appeared behind them, then a moment later determination. "Well then we better find out. You mind?" she asked reaching out for the blade. For the first time she handed it over without a second thought. Why not? It wasn't attached to Rumpelstiltskin anymore and if anyone could be trusted with it against the darkness it was Emma! "Are you good with him here for a few minutes."
She nodded and placed her hand back over his chest, confirming what they already knew. "Yeah but-"
"Great, I'm going to get us some answers!" Emma declared before moving into the back room. She'd heard the wood creak and groan and then the squeak that she recognized all too well as the cot. For a moment her body went through the motions, her legs shifted and twitched preparing to get up and follow, to help and listen…but she felt an anchor on her soul and looked down.
It was Rumple. He was the anchor, but not in the good way he'd once been.
She couldn't go. She didn't know what had happened to him, what was happening to him but the Apprentices words continued to echo loud and clear in her head. "If". "If he could be helped." What was that "if" supposed to mean…and the preservation spell…she hoped it didn't mean what she thought it did, but if her body's refusal to get up and leave his side told her anything it was that she didn't trust "hope" right now. And she couldn't leave this spot and leave him alone in a room…the idea that he might not be well when she came back, or worse, that he would give up his fight for life while she was away…it was too terrifying to consider.
So she stayed by his side and she listened. In the past she'd always been able to hear what was going on in the back…but only when she purposefully snuck up to the curtain and listened. She was about to, about to stand in the door way, but the pulse against her palm stopped her. The doorway was simply too far to move.
She couldn't hear anything, not words at least. Other sounds leaked out of the backroom and through the curtain shielding them from the others. She couldn't make out the words but she could hear tones, the hush of whispers, feverish and worried and also a forced gentility. It was the tone that a mother would use with her sick child when urging them to say what hurt, the tone her own mother had used with her when Samuel had died and she wanted to let her mourn but knew that she had to get information out of her at the same time. That alone told her that the Apprentice's condition couldn't be good.
The curtain whipped aside. Emma and Killian emerged with Henry on their toes. "We'll be back as soon as we can. Henry stay here!" Emma commanded, causing Henry to freeze in his footsteps as though he'd hit an invisible brick wall.
"But-"
It was too late the pair were already out the door and she could see the energy moving through Henry, pushing him forward, urging him to disobey and go. But with that thing out there, the way that Killian and Emma had left the shop so fast…
She couldn't let Henry go.
"What happened?" she demanded from her place on the floor. She nearly stood again to reach forward and pull him back off the brink. But once again her body betrayed her and she hesitated, then realized that she couldn't touch him for the rest of her life and at least Henry was in the same room as she was. With that in mind she finally forced herself off the floor and made her way over to Henry, turning her body so that she could still see her husband out of the corner of her eye but could also keep a hand on Henry. "What happened back there? Where are they going?"
"I'm not sure," he answered, his own attention divided between her and the outside world. "The apprentice…he said that the Sorcerer is responsible for the curse, that he tethered it to the dagger in order to keep it from wreaking havoc on the realm. The Sorcerer's the only one who can stop it."
It wasn't much information but it was enough to make her blood run cold and glance out the window like Henry was. Tethered to an individual so that it wouldn't reap destruction on the land. She was right to panic when she'd seen there was no name on the dagger. Now the curse was out there, all on it's own, not held back by a human soul. She glanced over at Rumple, double checked his chest was still moving and turned back to Henry who was still looking out the window, she felt like she could hear both their heartbeats.
"Alright so…we need the Sorcerer. Did the Apprentice say who or where or…"
"Merlin," Henry inserted. "He said his name was Merlin and…he said he's in a place far away from here. Do you know where he is?"
Merlin. She'd been researching the Sorcerer for months, ever since Killian told her about the hat. Merlin had come up a few times. But so had a lot of other "names". And none of her sources had ever mentioned a place to find him! He was missing and had been for centuries. And the Apprentices instructions? Well, "far away from here" wasn't exactly a precise location.
She shook her head and glanced at Rumple before looking back at Henry. "I've read books but…he's ancient! There is no record of anyone seeing him for centuries, he just…vanished. But…we'll find him Henry. If that's what it takes to stop the Darkness and keep Storybrooke safe, we'll find him and-"
From the back room she heard a groan and a squeak. The Apprentice. He wasn't getting up, but he was moving. Maybe if he was coming around he could tell them more. She took a step in the right direction but the sight of Rumple on the floor stopped her again. She couldn't do it. She couldn't leave him, she couldn't be that far away. And yet she couldn't let it be just Henry, he was only a boy, he probably didn't know much more than she did. They needed help.
"Okay…Henry, check on the Apprentice. I need to make a phone call."
When life gives you lemons...make lemonade. What ever am I to do with all the awful leads the end of season 4 gave us that season 5 just kind of left there? I turn it into a minor theme. Now...technically, what Henry said to Belle about what the Apprentice said and why the Darkness was tethered could all be considered true. You have to squint your eyes a bit and see the underlying truth to it, but the truth is there. Where Belle takes that however is not true. This is a common thing in today's society, so common we have a whole game for children based on it! (Telephone, Whisper Down the Alley, same game different version.) I've explored this topic a little bit before in past Moments Fictions, the idea that when all the characters are not in the same room together or not working in perfect tandem things get left out or warped or just outright missed! This is a very minor use of that right now. With what Henry tells her and what she's just seen she assumes that the Darkness was tethered to a soul so it wouldn't reek havoc on the land, a natural conclusion for someone who only has the facts that Belle has. It's wrong, but understandable. The real fun with this little theme isn't going to come until a little bit later and you know...I think your going to enjoy this little bit of knowledge I gave to her.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Skitzoeinhoven, Teirae, TwistedMidnight, Rumbellefan, Grace5231973, Teresa Martin, Fox24, Adaasgard, and my Unknown Guest for leaving me awesome reviews! I'm so happy to hear that so many of you have been looking forward to this! I do hope that despite what we know is coming you will not be disappointed with this fiction and enjoy where I take it! Peace and Happy Reading!