A/N: Thank you all so much for the positive feedback! I hope you all enjoy this next chapter:)

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Henry's fingers tapped on the table he sat at in Granny's Diner. He wondered if his family had made it in time to stop the darkness. His uncle, baby Neal, cooed quietly from his stroller next to Henry.

"Don't worry Henry, I'm sure they'll be back soon." Ruby placed a steaming cup of hot chocolate in front of him and after adjusting the blankets swathing Neal, walked back toward the kitchen.

I'm not worried, he thought. He knew if anyone could save the day it was his family of heroes. Even his mom, Regina, once the evil Queen, had finally established herself as a hero in Storybrooke. The town was finally accepting that, after their recent return from the backwards enchanted forest.

Henry wished he could talk to the Apprentice some more. If he was the author now, even without the pen which he knew gave too much power to one person, maybe he had other abilities that he could use to help. He was tired of being left behind as if he were…well as if he were baby Neal, while everyone he loved went off to fight evil.

The door slammed closed as someone came in. Henry looked up to see Regina followed by Robin standing before him.

"Henry," she began, and he knew from her face that whatever had happened, the crisis was far from over, "something's happened."

"Where am I? Come on! Answer me, I know you're there!" Emma yelled for what felt like the hundredth time as she paced the small confines of her crystal prison.

The voice which had called to her earlier when she had tried to escape, had since not made a reappearance. However, Emma was sure that whoever it was they were still there somewhere beyond the walls of her cell. It was almost as if she could sense them watching her.

"You said I couldn't get out that way. Which means there must be some way out of here." She threw herself at one the walls, not for the first time, she was probably developing a bruise from hitting the crystal so much. It would be worth it if she could just break through.

Use magic.

She had already tried magic and it didn't work. So why was that thought still in her head?

Emma wondered if she was still in Storybrooke. She didn't know what happened after the darkness had swallowed her up. Maybe it had erected this barrier to protect itself from the Apprentice trying to imprison it again.

No one can take it from me.

Emma shook herself from the thought.

I didn't think that. She had only just accepted her own light powers, and even though she was learning to control them she still carried the nagging feeling that one day they might get out of hand and hurt someone. Now she also carried the Dark One's magic and Emma wanted nothing more than to be rid of it, even if it had yet to do anything to her or anyone she loved. Except apparently lock her up.

That didn't make sense though, if the magic wanted to avoid imprisonment then why would it imprison her. Henry would know, he had probably read all about the Dark One in his story book, how Rumpelstiltskin had acquired the magic, what had happened to him after, everything she would now have to face.

She hoped Henry was okay. When she had decided that the only way to save Regina from the darkness was to sacrifice herself, part of her had been thinking of Henry. If he lost his other mother again, after she had worked so hard to redeem herself and Emma had stood by and done nothing she would never have forgiven herself.

As she paced the floor of her prison, for what felt like hours or days, she thought more and more of her family. She was sure that she could count on them to protect Henry, Regina would never let anything happen to him. Except, Henry was the author now, he could very well have magic of his own. It was strange to remember him as that young boy who had shown up at her apartment door on her birthday.

Now Henry was becoming a man, without her.

Emma thought of her parents. She was confident they would find her. That's what they were known for. She wished she hadn't spent so much time being mad at them when they were only trying to protect her.

But they lied to you.

That was true. They hadn't loved her enough to tell her the truth before. They had told countless lies to her to protect their secrets. Hell, they had sent her through a wardrobe to another world when she was barely an hour old. And when she had only just gotten them back, hadn't they replaced her with another baby. They would do right by Neal in ways they never had for Emma. What kind of parents were they to her? How could she ever trust them?

Wait. That wasn't right. Emma had forgiven her parents, she knew they loved her just as much as they loved Neil, and she loved them and her baby brother too. So why was it suddenly so easy for her to forget that?

Emma wished Killian was here. He was always able to make things clear for her, to calm her down, he understood her like no one else.

She had told him she loved him only seconds before she allowed the darkness to take her. She had tried to tell him earlier, at the loft. She wanted to but she had chickened out at the last second, part of her still scared of what it would mean to admit to him that she loved him. Killian had proven so far that he was an adept survivor, but watching him die in the alternate story, while forcing her to come to terms with how she felt, also revealed how much it would hurt if she ever lost him. Once she told him how she felt, everything would be real and Emma didn't have a good track record with the people she loved when things got real.

Emma knew that when she finally told him how she felt it was because she couldn't sacrifice herself, leaving him, without letting him know she loved him. At least that was her main motivation; maybe she also thought that it was easier to tell him then, when she was leaving him. There was no risk because they were already doomed.

But she had to believe he would find her and save her. This wasn't another Neal or Walsh. They had faced so much together, she had to believe in that.

Her family would find her. No matter how much time she spent stuck here, Emma knew she had to keep hope. She would keep trying to break free and hope would keep her from succumbing to darkness.