A/N. Congratulations Oncers! We've weathered the first week of the hiatus! Thank you so much to all my reviewers and Alpha19 and Beans827 especially for reviewing every chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these wonderful characters—that right goes to Adam and Eddy now on with the story!


Chapter 7


HENRY POV


Henry watched as his mother vanished in a cloud of black smoke, giving no hint to her destination. She was gone. Again. He wanted to help her so bad, but he couldn't. He felt so helpless—so useless.

Henry turned his attention back to the pirate beside him and noticed with overwhelming clarity that he was on the ground, clutching a bleeding wound on his stomach. Henry's eyes flared wide in panic as he called the rest over frantically. He remembered Killian pushing him back when the magical barrier had exploded, and had just assumed the pirate was okay. He was too focused on Emma to pay any attention to the man beside him.

"You can save him, right?" asked Henry as Regina approached him. A slight feeling of guilt was growing in the pit of his stomach. Killian had pushed him out of the way when the barrier had exploded outwards. He had saved Henry and now he was hurt because of it.

"The injury isn't fatal," said Regina as she inspected Killian's grievance. "I can heal it, given a few minutes." He could see the leather-clad man blearily blinking his eyes, oblivious to the world around him.

Henry's mother laid her hand against the pirate's belly and it began to glow softly with a white light. Killian screamed suddenly in pain. Henry frantically attempted to keep him calm during the healing process, but to no avail. Sweat was pouring down the older man's face and Henry was so focused on keeping him calm, he almost didn't hear the footsteps approach them from behind.

Henry turned around briefly and gasped when he saw a man standing over the dagger he had forgotten on the ground, smiling down at them with crooked, yellow teeth. Before any of them could react, the man had lifted the dagger, gripping it tightly in his gnarled hands.

He cackled loudly. His laugh grated against Henry's ears—it was a harsh, screeching noise. "The Dark One shall dread the moment she decided to make an enemy of me," he snarled. "I shall be king once more—the land shall forever remember the name of Mordred!"

The sky abruptly became dark and overcast, rumbling with thunder. The air was moist and Henry could feel a storm coming on. That name. Mordred. He recognized it from somewhere.

"Give the dagger back!" Henry heard his grandfather shout. All of the adults were now standing, glaring at the man in anger, with the exception of Killian who was now laying unconscious on the hard dirt beneath them.

"Oh, I don't think so," jeered Mordred, dangling the weapon in front of them like it was a toy. "In fact, I think I'll go now."

Mordred snapped his fingers and was gone the next moment, a fireball thrown by his adoptive mother just barely missing the man as he disappeared. "This is bad," hissed his mom, casting a grave glance at the two Charmings and Robin. "This Mordred, whoever he is, has the dagger now. And it seems like the new Emma has already managed to get on his bad side."

"What are we going to do?" fretted his grandmother, Mary Margaret. "He can control Emma now with the dagger. Who knows what he'll make her do?" Her eyebrows were furrowed and worry lines creased her face.

"I don't know," sighed Regina, "but we can start by waking the pirate here," she said, jerking her head toward the unconscious man lying on the ground. "I've mostly healed him. His body just needs a little time to recuperate."

"So he'll be okay?" asked Henry, relief flooding through his body.

Regina nodded at him in confirmation and turned her attention back to the comatose pirate. She waved her hand over his face and his eyes shot open. They were bloodshot and red and his hands were trembling. Killian took deep breaths, sucking in air like his life depended on it.

"Emma!" he gasped, leaping to his feet, although it looked like the action caused him great pain.

"She's gone," said Regina plainly.

"The-the man," spluttered Killian, "I-I saw him! He had the dagger!" Henry knew that the pirate's reaction would be far from happy when he learned that Mordred had vanished with the Dark One's dagger.

He was proven correct as Regina explained the events of the past few minutes to Killian. The one-handed man's expression was unreadable. "We have to find her!" he said quietly.

"And we will," said David softly, laying a hand on the man's shoulder. Henry smiled as he saw his entire family united in a single cause. He liked when his family worked together—no matter how bad the actual cause was.

"We need a plan," said Henry urgently, speaking up to get the attention of the rest of the crowd. They looked down at him, deep in thought. "Even if we do find Emma, Mordred still has the dagger. And you saw her when she was just here—she couldn't control herself. We need to get the darkness out of her somehow."

"And how do you propose we do that, Henry?" asked Regina dryly. "It's harder than it sounds."

Henry sighed, mind racing. "The book!" he said suddenly. "If we get my mom's blood, then I can use it as ink and write the darkness out of her!"

"Will that even work?" asked his adoptive mother skeptically. "I mean, if there was a way to write the darkness out of her, then Rumpelstiltskin would have done it with himself, wouldn't he? And besides, we don't have the book, or the pen."

"The boy could at least write something that could help us," murmured Robin, stroking his chin. "Getting Emma's blood and using it to write something in the book would be better than nothing."

"There's still the fact that we don't have the book or the pen!" snapped Regina, her temper getting the best of her.

Henry smiled at this part. "Or maybe we do," he said, holding his hand out in front of him. There was a pop and the book appeared in his hand, along with the two broken halves of the pen.

Regina seemed to be at a loss for words, along with the rest of them. "How in the seven hells...?" muttered Killian in shock.

Henry grinned again. "When we came back from that alternate reality, some of your blood was still on the pen," he said, directing his answer at his adoptive mother. "I used it to write one more thing before breaking the pen. That I could summon the book and pen whenever I wished it, because well," he shrugged, "a lot of stuff seems to happen in Storybrooke and you never know when I might need it."

He had indeed done the very thing he said as soon as he had known everyone was alive and well. Having the book with him at all times might help them sometime in the future—and it did.

His mom smiled and surprised Henry by hugging him tightly. "You are such an amazing, clever boy," she said softly, caught up in one of her rare bouts of affection.

Henry held out the two halves of the broken pen.

"Can you fix it?" he asked quietly, not daring to think what would happen if she couldn't.

Regina hesitated. "I could try."

His mother closed her eyes and waved her hand over the pen, gritting her teeth. A slight glow arose from the pen within his palm and when his face broke out into a grin when he saw the now whole utensil sitting in his palm. Regina gently took the book and pen from him and slipped it into the satchel at her side.

"Mordred and Emma will probably be close to each other, since he has the dagger," murmured Killian. "He may have summoned her already."

"So to find Emma, we need to find Mordred. That way we can get both Emma's blood and the dagger," said Henry eagerly.

Regina nodded and placed a hand on Henry's shoulder. She looked him in the eye and smiled. "Let's go find your mother."


EMMA POV


Emma blinked back tears as she appeared in the forest. She didn't know where she was, really. She had just willed herself to be gone from that place and here she was, in some unknown forest in the middle of nowhere.

They had all come to Camelot to find her. Mom, Dad, Regina, Robin, Henry, Hook...Hook. She had hurt him. She remembered the shield around her shattering and Killian jumping in front of her son. Emma remembered seeing the gushing wound in his stomach and the pain in his eyes. She had snapped. What had happened to her? She had hurt Killian! Emma didn't know if he was alive, or if he was...no, she couldn't think like that. Killian couldn't be dead because of her. Regina would have healed him.

And if Hook hadn't saved her son? She would have hurt Henry. She would never forgive herself if she had mortally injured her own son. They would come after her—she knew it. But Emma couldn't let them. She would just hurt them. The darkness inside of her was slowly eating away at her. Soon, she would just be a shell of her former self.

Emma shuddered. You can never go back, hissed the voice she had grown to dread so much. You know that as well as anyone. If you ever see them again, you will hurt them. They fear you, Emma. You hurt the one you love. Didn't you see the betrayal in his eyes? The hurt?

"Shut up," hissed Emma, but a part of her agreed with the voice. What if it was telling the truth? What if they were scared of her? What if Killian was scared of her? What if he never wanted to see her again?

They all hate you!

They didn't hate her, did they? She knew her darkness had hurt them, but they didn't hate her. Did they? That settled it. Emma needed to find Merlin. She needed to get the darkness out of her so she could go back to her family.

What if Merlin doesn't agree to help you?

Then she would make him agree. She would hurt him if that were what it would take.

Emma's eyes widened. Did she just think of torturing the Sorcerer? No, she would ask him nicely and if he refused, she would figure out some other way. She wouldn't hurt him.

Would she?

Emma nearly laughed. She was fighting with herself, and she could tell which side was winning. And what was so laughable about it was that she didn't mind that the dark side was prevailing. She enjoyed the darkness within her.

No she didn't. She hated it. What was she talking about?

Emma liked the feeling of power. She liked authority and supremacy it gave her. She liked seeing people cringe in fear when they saw her.

No, that was wrong! She didn't like any of that.

Emma felt a sudden tug in her gut. Something was willing, compelling her to come to them. She couldn't resist the tug. It felt like she was on the end of a fishing line and someone was reeling her in. The dagger. Regina. Emma scowled. The Evil Queen would rue the day she was born.

Having no choice, Emma disappeared in a puff of black smoke, her mind bringing her to wherever the holder of the dagger decreed it. Anger pulsed in her veins, as she appeared in what seemed to be a large cavern underground. This was a strange place for Regina and the others to be camping out.

"Hello, Dark One," sneered a voice. This wasn't Regina. This was someone else.

Emma whipped around, eyes narrowed. No one was there. She was staring at a blank wall. "Behind you," hissed the voice tauntingly.

She turned around carefully, wishing she had a weapon on her. Unfortunately, whoever held the dagger was in complete control. "Show yourself!" she shouted, swivelling and turning to catch a glimpse of the elusive man.

"I'm right here, Emma Swan," jeered the bodiless voice. She recognized the voice from somewhere; she just couldn't place where she had heard it. Emma shivered at the way he had said her name. He had said it with such venom that Emma almost felt afraid. Almost.

"Come out!" she hissed. "Or are you too afraid to show yourself?"

The man laughed finally coming into the light. She gasped in recognition at his twisted features. It was Mordred, the man she had nearly killed. "So, you're the new Dark One?" he asked snidely. "You managed to kill Rumpelstiltskin?"

"I didn't kill Rumpelstiltskin," she snapped. Anger rose within her. How dare he speak to her that way?

"Really?" asked Mordred, amusement showing clearly on his face. "Then how did you..." he shook his head, "no matter. What matters now is that you are in my control."

Emma growled as he pulled the dagger from within his cloak. She felt such a need for the weapon, but she knew she had no control over her actions. It was driving her insane. "What are you going to make me do?" she snapped, annoyed.

"Oh, Emma," he sighed, moving closer. She didn't like the way her name sounded on his lips, but she was helpless to move as he approached her. His gnarled finger came out to stroke her cheek and she growled at him, wanting to rip his finger clean off with her teeth. "You have such power," he continued. "I can sense it within you. You had great magic even before you became the Dark One, didn't you?"

She could only scowl.

"Well, then," smirked Mordred, backing away from her slightly. "On to business!" He clapped his hands together like he was some excited schoolboy. "I really don't know what I'm going to do with you," he said frowning, "but trust me, I will hurt you."

Emma stood rooted to the spot, unable to speak or even twitch. Mordred sighed softly. "I'll see you tomorrow, Emma," he said softly, snapping his fingers.

In an instant, Emma was deposited in a cell, chained to the wall with heavy metal restraints. They chafed at her wrists and her entire body felt like lead. Mordred was nowhere to be seen and she could only guess that she was in a dungeon of some sort. The cell was dark and dank, and she knew she would never escape if Mordred held the dagger.

Emma knew her family would come for her, no matter what.

But she hoped to God they wouldn't find her.


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