"You want me to do what!?" Emma sputtered, glaring at Lily.

"Please, Emma, you're the only one who can help me … I'm overwhelmed by darkness, no matter what I try to do, but when you're around … things seem so much brighter. I need you."

Emma took a step backwards. "No. You need to get away from me now. I am not going anywhere with you."

The other girl's lip trembled. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. Emma almost felt sorry for her. Almost. But what she was asking was just too much.

"You kidnapped me, Lily. The only reason I got away was because my parents brought in an army to save me. You don't honestly think I'd go back with you? I don't care how much you think you want to be friends, I do not belong to you!"

"But you can help me," said Lily, practically begging. "You and I, we can figure this out, break this spell. You want that, don't you? You want to help me be a good person again?"

Emma was shaking now, her eyes stinging with tears. She shook her head. It was a lie, but she couldn't let herself consider the possibility that she still did want to help. Anyway, her mother had said …

"You can be good!" Emma cried. "I think you're using my parents' spell as an excuse. If you really wanted to, you'd find a way, but this – this is not it."

Lily's face crumpled, and now she really was crying. There was something so desperate about her tonight, and Emma couldn't help but wonder what had brought this on. Well, whatever it was, she didn't care.

"Leave. Now."

For a moment, Emma thought Lily would protest, maybe carry her away by force again. But then she just sighed and turned away, and Emma breathed a sigh of relief. With one final glare, the other girl sprang out of the window. One moment she was human, and the next, a scaly dragon was flying away from the castle.

Emma slept restlessly that night and woke up full of guilt the next morning. Not guilt over refusing to go with Lily, because that was just ridiculous. No sane person would ever agree to that. But still, she couldn't help feeling sad for the other girl. Maybe her mother was right, maybe not, but either way, weren't the cards stacked against her? And if Emma continued to benefit from what her parents had done, at the expense of another girl's soul, could she really call herself a hero?

She paced her room restlessly, refusing to leave and refusing to eat. She knew this wasn't her fault, but she still couldn't help feeling like it was. Surely there must be some way to help Lily, aside from running off with her in the middle of the night. If she really was the hero she claimed to be, surely the right thing to do would be to look for that way. But … from what she had been told, there wasn't one. Once the spell had been enacted, it couldn't be undone. She and Lily were stuck like this for the rest of their lives.

Unless that wasn't true. If there was a way, Emma knew exactly who would have the answer, and she might even know where to find him. The rumors said he was held in the deepest, darkest part of her parents' own dungeon.

She stopped pacing, a new kind of determination in her eyes. She knew now what she had to do.

The path down to the dungeons was dim, and the air smelled of something foul, but Emma didn't look back. She walked with purpose, squinting into the darkness in the flickering light of the torch she carried. Her heart was racing, but her mind was made up.

From somewhere up ahead, eerie laughter echoed off the cave-like walls. A shiver ran down Emma's spine as she approached the cell that contained the source of the laughter.

"Hello?" she said, unable to stop her voice from trembling. "Dark One, are you there?"

All of a sudden, there he was, with bulging eyes and scraggly, tangled hair. His skin was scaly and gold, and Emma couldn't help thinking he looked more like a monster than a human. But no, she shouldn't think that. He might be hideous, but he was still human, she reminded herself. Just like Lily was human.

"Indeed I am," said the man, gesturing with his hands as he bowed to her. "Rumplestiltskin, at your service. And you are … Emma, aren't you? Snow White's daughter, all grown up."

"How did you …?"

"Oh, you'll find there's much that I know," said Rumplestiltskin, his voice suddenly rising, almost singsong in tone. "But you already know that. That's why you're here, isn't it? You want to know about what your parents did to Maleficent's daughter."

Emma nodded, frightened that he knew so much.

"I know what they did," she said. "What I need to know is, can it be undone?"

The Dark One shrugged his shoulders vaguely. "That's going to cost you something."

Of course. Everyone knew Rumplestiltskin couldn't resist making deals. Emma had also been warned, what seemed like a thousand times, that his deals always turned out badly, but what other choice did she have? He was the only one who might be able to help her.

"What do you want?" she asked.

A creepy smile crept up over his face.

"How about this?" he said. "You'll owe me a favor."

Emma frowned.

"Any favor?" That sounded suspicious. Surely he didn't think she would agree to something so vague. But he nodded, and a realization came over her. No one came to him except as a last resort, which meant he could set the price as high as he wanted. The people he made deals with were too desperate to bargain, and Emma was no exception. But that didn't mean she had to go into it blindly.

"Fine," she said. "But I have a few conditions."

"And what might those be?"

"First of all, you can't ask me to free you."

"Fair enough."

"And you can't ask me to kill someone for you."

"I wasn't planning to. What else?"

"And …" Emma thought back to the story of Cinderella and the deal she had made. "You can't have my firstborn."

At that, Rumplestiltskin let out a high-pitched giggle.

"Oh, Princess, I like you," he said. "You're clever, you're not afraid of me … I'd rather have you on my side."

Emma privately thought that was unlikely to happen, but she knew better than to say it.

"So, do we have a deal?" she asked.

"I believe we do," replied the Dark One. "The spell your parents cast is an old one, and very powerful. They were told it couldn't be undone, but that was a lie. There is a way."

"Is it True Love's Kiss?" asked Emma. "If I find Lily's True Love and get him to kiss her …"

Rumple laughed again.

"What?" Emma demanded. "It worked for my parents."

"Ah … when you see the future, things can be quite ironic. But no, True Love's Kiss is not the answer. The solution to your problem is both simpler and more difficult than that. You must both choose to go against the spell."

"That's all?" Emma couldn't contain the derision in her tone.

"It won't be as easy as you think," Rumplestiltskin taunted her. "You will both have to go against your very natures if you wish to break the spell. You must fill your heart with darkness, in spite of what your parents' spell did to you. But it isn't as simple as that. She must also choose to embrace the light. Only a great act of evil from you and a great act of heroism from her can truly set you both free."

Emma's brow furrowed.

"I don't understand," she said. "What does that mean? How do we … what do I have to do?"

But the scaly-skinned man was done being helpful, and Emma was left to walk out of the dungeons, her heart even heavier than when she entered. Embrace darkness? How could she? How could doing the right thing, saving someone else, mean that she had to lose her own goodness? If she did that, would she be a hero … or a villain?