In all fairness Emma Swan was not just a princess. She was the Savior, destined to break the curse that had tortured the people of Storybrooke for 28 long years. With her blonde curls, signature leather jackets and ask questions later attitude she was like a real life action hero to the people of Storybrooke. She came at a moment of darkness and brought change that even the people who hadn't gotten the chance to meet her could trace back to her and remembered vividly.

Emma was always good at leaving without a trace so I guess it made sense that even in death she didn't leave a body.

The streets were lined with people. Women clutched their handkerchiefs close to their hearts, only moving them occasionally to wipe away the tears that gather in their eyes. The men wore solemn expressions and swallowed too deeply in an attempt to hold back their emotions.

It was a beautiful ceremony. Brief, but heartfelt. Her family refused to believe she is dead, even when Bo Peep's staff doesn't show a heartbeat. She couldn't be. She was so young and they never got to say goodbye.

Hook was despondent. His heartlessness mixed with the loss of Emma rendering him glassy eyed and reluctant to communicate, like a zombie. Everyone attributed his sudden change to grief, no one any bit the wiser about the control Rumpelstiltskin wielded over him.

Mary Margaret swaddled baby Neal and provided a constant rocking as she held him against her heart. She refused to let him go. Letting go is what cost her her daughter, both times, and she refused to repeat that mistake.

Charming was blank. He sat the entire ceremony looking at his hands. He didn't cry and he didn't speak.

On the opposite side of the spectrum was Henry, whose reaction seemed to purposely contrast his grand fathers. He was all tears.

In between sobs and gasps of air he delivered a speech about would never forget the first week Emma came to town. Like most kids he knew about Superheroes. He watched the movies and before he got the Story book he spent more time reading Comics then he did on school work. And Emma, with her blonde curls, signature red leather jacket, and destiny to save Storybrooke, was like a character sprung from the pages, sawing down injustices with as much attitude and ease as she had the branches of Regina's apple tree.

Regina delivered the final eulogy.

Nobody asked where Ingrid was.

Bae's death hadn't been like this. Not that he had been able to attend the funeral but he knew it hadn't been the same. The town hadn't stopped. Bae was loved, true. The prince and princess wouldn't have named their child after him if that had not been the case but things always seemed to work differently for people of his kind.

At one time he thought Emma was like that too. Like him and Bae, but that quickly changed when the curse was broken and the savior was reunited with her family. It seems nature does triumph over nurture as not even a lifetime of struggle can stop the flow of blue blood in the veins of a monarch.

Royalty weren't all bad, of course. Belle was an angel. The sweetest and kindest person he had ever had the good fortune to know. Before meeting her he doubted that he would ever fall in love, let alone have anyone return such affection. People in general were annoying and he did not have much patience for them. He couldn't imagine having that unrestrained admiration for someone that the fools who fell in love felt for their significant other. He certainly hadn't felt like that about Milah or Cora. True, he enjoyed the company of both women at times but they could be trying, getting along with them was a balancing act and that exhaustion that followed most social interactions was present even in their intimate moments.

It wasn't like that with Belle. Even her eccentricities were completely charming. Everything she did left him with a sense of wonder and sometimes it felt like she was of a completely different species from the other women he had met for everyone else felt so common and Belle so enchanting. He would protect her life and happiness with everything he had but he knew he could no longer do that in Storybrooke. The town was cursed, not literally, though sometimes he wished it had been in that sense, had that been the case a common true love kiss could fix everything in a moment. But this ran deeper and it was far more insidious. This town was cursed with bad luck and sour memories that would haunt him forever, regardless of how much magic he possessed.

Banishing Emma into the hat had not been his ideal plan. For all the ways Ms. Swan had disappointed him, she was still the love of his son's life and the mother of his grandchild. Ideally she would have been spared but desperate times had called for desperate measures and after all, she wasn't really dead. Not yet. A certain queen of snow and ice could potentially free her if she had the right trade in mind. That is, in fact, why he had come to the forest at all, despite Belle wanting him to stay and help her comfort the Charming's.

"Lovely ceremony, wasn't it?" He said, hearing the snap of small twigs behind him.

"I wouldn't know. I wasn't invited."

"Well, you are trying to kill them."

Ingrid walked slowly towards Rumple but did not step when she reached his side. She walked further ahead until she was standing a few steps out of his reach, her back towards him.

"Ah it may be my curse that is threatening the town but you're the one responsible for Emma's disappearance."

"And so we reach the true reason for our meeting."

Now she turned to face him. Her eyes were cloudy with tears and her forehead cracked with veins. She was more upset then he had expected and the sight made him smirk. Nothing compromised a person's ability to make decision more than love.

"I know the hat. I know Emma isn't dead.. yet. What will it take for you to spare her?" she said in a strained voice.

"You want to make a deal, dearie. I doubt you have anything I want."

"You need magic to activate the hat. I can give you that magic."

He shook his head. Foolish woman.

"You're going to have to do that either way, if you want the savior to live. No, I need something else. I need another exemption from the curse."

"And who, Dark One, would you want to save?" She had regained her composure and seemed to be crueler in a vain attempt to regain her quickly diminishing authority. Still, he'd tell her, for no other reason than to avoid confusion.

"My Grandson."

The decision to save Henry wasn't one he had given much conscious thought to before he voiced it. His relationship with grandson was complicated. He had always liked the boy, even before the curse broke he had a soft spot for children, especially those that reminded him of his son. Then there was the whole mess with the seer's prophecy and that complicated his everything and ultimately lead to his demise. Now the boy was working at his store and though he was obviously up to something, it was nice having him around. He was more like Bae then he had realized and the idea of his grandson dying at the hands of one of his cursed relatives was becoming more and more distasteful to him.

"Emma's son?" Rumple watched Ingrid consider it. He knew that she was thinking over the ways this could possibly come back to haunt her. "We have a deal, dark one."