The shower was probably the best thing she could have done. She hadn't known how truly tired and run down she'd felt until she stepped inside and let the water fall over her as she breathed the steam in and out. It felt good. She didn't know if she'd ever really been back to the Enchanted Forest in the story book Rumple had spoken of but she felt dirty and grimy as though she had, and the dust in the pawnshop she'd been crawling all over hadn't helped either. Her shoulders ached with tension, she felt panic in her lungs, and sleep weighed on her eye lids but she wouldn't give into that temptation. It was simply out of the question.

In all honesty she would have loved to take longer in the shower than she did, but every few minutes she reached for her phone, flipped it up to check that she hadn't accidentally missed any messages, and realized that while this was a good first run, she'd been away from Rumple long enough.

She changed into something comfortable she had in the apartment and went down into the depths of the library because she may as well complete the mission that the Blue Fairy had given her while Will was keeping watch for her.

Her books; they were still scattered around the floor, the place she'd left them when she'd arrived back in the library after yesterday's short lived curse, it was where she'd left them when she woke up and ran over to the shop to investigate what had happened. A lot had happened. But a lot was happening now and she needed to move forward.

Ten books. She'd come up with ten books that she needed to try and figure out where Emma was, what had happened to her and the Apprentice, and to Merlin of course because for the first time the destruction of the Darkest Curse that ever existed was possible. They couldn't pass it up.

One by one she gathered the books, checking them off her list as she went, placing them in a bag, then locked the back room and the library and returned to the store only twenty minutes later with full arms. "Well…you look better though I 'ad 'oped you'd take a little longer," Will commented.

She shook her head. "Didn't want to be gone too long. How is he?" she asked already moving to his side to check him once again. Heart, breath, head. All normal. That was good. She was beginning to believe that Mother Superior was right. Maybe he was strong enough.

"The same," Will confirmed. "Not a peep out of him. What's all this?"

She turned around to find him examining the bags of books she'd brought in and set down on the table. "Research," she answered, taking a final glance at Rumple and then moving to look at them herself. "I thought I might be able to figure out where Emma went or even come up with a few possibilities to find Merlin. He's been missing for centuries but-"

"In every lie there is a small grain of truth," he finished for her. "Migh' give you a lead. What about the other books, the ones you said you keep in the basement, would those 'elp?"

She hadn't thought of those books. The answer? Maybe. Probably. They were probably more likely to have information on the Dark Curse than on Merlin but it would be a start…if only they weren't so far away.

"Probably but…remember when I told you that I wanted to walk to town? I wasn't entirely truthful. When Regina took my heart she must have erased my memories because what I remember of that day…one minute I was here, the next I was at home, and the car wasn't where I left it. Rumple must have taken it. I don't know where he put it, obviously he can't tell me, and until he wakes up I don't want to walk home and be that far away on foot so…until I find the car these will just have to do."

He nodded, but didn't seem to have taken it all in as she'd hoped, though she supposed that she had rambled on and on a bit. It was just like it was a few months ago, when they'd gotten back from the Enchanted Forest and Zelena was a threat. But she didn't care. For as long as it took she'd live here and the apartment and probably at Granny's. Beyond that…no house. For now. It was just too far without a car.

"Righ'…well, I'll keep my eyes open but…I think I better be...going."

"Going?" she asked, because something about how he'd said it hadn't sounded completely normal. When he said he was going, did that mean he was going back to the forest with the other merry men? Or somewhere else?

"Righ' well, no' much to do round 'ere, I suppose, with Robin back and you alrigh' and doors…doors open and all tha'. Righ'?"

She smiled and resisted the urge to cry. First Ruby now Will. She wanted the best for them, for all of them, truly she did, but that didn't mean that it wasn't bitter sweet to say good-bye, especially knowing that what she'd said had helped him make this decision. Right decision? Wrong decision? Only time would tell. "Right," she concluded before reaching up and wrapping her arms around his neck. "Take care of yourself?"

"When 'ave I ever no' taken care of meself?" he joked. But a moment later he released her and then leaned forward and kissed her cheek like Neal had once so long ago. "You're a beautiful person, Belle. No matter wha' 'appens…don' forge' tha'."

She nodded and wiped her eyes. "Never," she swore.

Then he let her go and gave her a cheerful salute. She watched him from the threshold of the back room as he opened the door to go and-

Ran right into Mother Superior.

The two collided and with a glance back at Rumple she took two steps forward to help before she realized they were fine and she retreated to Rumple's room again.

"Mother…good to see you again. No one knows quite how to ruin a memorable farewell better, if I do say so."

"Will Scarlet," Blue muttered looking wide-eyed at him. "A pleasure. I haven't seen you since-"

"We don' need a recap," Will inserted quickly. "I'm a changed man now. Reformed if you will."

"Really…what on heaven or on earth could have caused that from a man like you?"

"Well…I suppose you could say it was a rabbit, actually. Annoying little thing 'e can be sometimes too."

"A rabbit?" Mother Superior blanched. Not that she could blame her. She'd heard Will make jokes and try to be funny, but this was one she hadn't expected and deep down, she wondered just how much he was joking.

"Indirectly, yeah…in fact…I think I better go and find 'im now. Word around town is there's been a change in the wind. May as well 'op on the band wagon now, 'scuse the pun! So…if you'll excuse me. Belle…" he glanced over at her again and nodded. She returned it and managed only to whisper a final "good-bye" and wave as he dismissed himself from the shop.

"What on earth was all that about?!" Mother Superior questioned as the door closed behind him.

"It's nothing," she excused. "Only good things." She had the feeling it was the last time she'd see Will Scarlet. At least the last time for a very long while. If she was right, and she'd read the signs correctly, it would be because he was worlds away working just as she was on their open doors. It was a good reason to be gone.

"And Rumpelstiltskin? Any change?"

She glanced over her shoulder and watched his chest rise and fall then shook her head. "Still the same."

"You know…he might not be any different when he wakes, Belle. All this time you are spending here, is it really the best thing for everyone involved?"

She shook her head and moved back to sit beside him again. "I don't know what will happen when he wakes up, but I know that things will be different. I'm not leaving him until I can be sure he's alright."

"Very well, did you find anything that might help them locate Emma?"

Locating Emma. She should have had that done by now. She'd nearly forgotten that she should have been done with that by now, but Will…

"I found some books but nothing so far. What about Merlin? Did you have any information on him at the convent?"

Mother Superior nodded and held out her empty hands. A moment later a heavy book sat upon each one. "These are the oldest books we have at the convent. This one is said to contain magic that predates Merlin and this one was supposedly written just after he'd disappeared by his Apprentice. If there is anything there that might help us discover what happened to him, it will be here. But if not-"

"I'll take one you take the other?" she insisted before Mother Superior could offer her a dire warning about what might happen if what they were looking for wasn't in the books. She was tired of negativity. She was just ready to move on, do her job, and get to work.

Only she couldn't. The moment Mother Superior disappeared behind the curtain to the back she opened the book she'd taken, the one that had magic that predated Merlin and realized that it wasn't the only thing that it predated. Language.

She was good at languages, but not this good. She'd confronted this problem with the books at the convent before and she'd had to use outside sources in order to do it. She didn't know if the Oxford Professor she'd used before was available, but she knew that she wasn't. She couldn't go over to the library now. She couldn't leave him here while his fate was so unknown.

So…what else could she do?

Emma.

She glanced over at the other books that she'd brought over from the library. The Dark One. Emma was the Dark One, the ancient evil that had been around longer than anyone could tell for sure. That was where she needed to start. And it was just as hard as it was easy.

The truth was that there was a lot written on the Dark One, but very little was consistent. The Dark One was old, records were lost, rumors were born, and in the end she couldn't figure out the validity of one story from the other! Some said the Dark One had always been in the world, from dawn of time. Others said that it was an accident. According to some stories the Dark One was born out of desire for power and in others revenge.

No, researching the background of the Dark One…it was too involved. So she settled for something simpler. The people.

It was in another book, a book on Dark Magic and how to defend against it, though it sounded more like how to avoid it altogether in her mind. There was an entire chapter on the Dark One. A very long chapter. It was recent, according to this book Rumpelstiltskin was the Dark One and had been for centuries. But he hadn't been the only one. The book talked of former Dark One's and for a few of them…something was different about how they'd gotten the curse, or rather how it had gotten to them.

Lumiere was wrong…or…maybe he was wrong. She couldn't be sure what was real because Zelena had been using him when he'd confessed "the truth" to her and Neal, but what she could be sure of was something he'd told her hadn't been true. In all her readings something was becoming abundantly clear. There was more than one vault.

The vault that she and Neal had visited had been in the middle of the forest, Lumiere had promised that it was where the Dark One had been created but…the very first book she searched though listed another vault surrounded by tall stone ruins close to Camelot.

"A family, a mother, two sons, and a pair of twin sisters brought their father, who had been cursed with the Darkness, to the ruins at the advice of an unknown wizard who told them that it was the place the Dark One had been made and their may be a salvation."

Ruins. That was the clue. She thought back to the moment she and Neal had entered that clearing, there had been snow on the ground then, but the snow hadn't been that deep. There had been no ruins. Ordinarily she would have dismissed this tale but…a wizard? Merlin? She clutched the book closer as she translated and read the terrible tale.

"The wizard promised that if the father was strong enough he could destroy the darkness inside of him, but soon enough they discovered that their father did not have the required strength. The twin girls hoped to spare their father by outsmarting the curse. Together they both placed their hands on the dagger and freed their father. They believed that if two elected to take on the curse then the curse wouldn't be able to choose and they would both be spared. They were wrong. The twins vanished and a few moments later a single girl emerged from the Dark One's vault. At thirteen the girl was believed to be the youngest Dark One known to Mist Haven even to this very day and the girl, it is said, spoke to herself often when there was no one else in the room. The girl used both twins' name's interchangeably when she introduced herself. It was believed that the twins became one, merged together, until their dying day. It is rumored that the moment the next Dark One found the blade and killed the girl, two girls were present at the time of death, and a single being became the Dark One once more."

It was an interesting tale, but a tale nonetheless. She wasn't sure how reliable it was. For one thing it might reference Merlin, but it might not. That wizard could have been anyone. And there were an awful lot of "rumors" and "it was said", and "it is believed" for her taste. But that wasn't the important part in her mind. As she skimmed through a few more useless names and tales, all remarkably ordinary she was beginning to sense a pattern. The procedure for becoming a Dark One was usually predictable: an individual stabbed the current Dark One with the dagger and the curse over took them, the end. But then there were a few other stories that were not "predictable". Like the tale of the two twins. Like Emma. And one other. It was a passage about a fairy gone bad with thirst for power she became the Dark One but not in any ordinary way.

"The Fairy turned against her sisters and sought the magic for herself. The sisters watched in horror as the woman used her magic to call forth the dagger from its owner. She summoned the Dark One and without hesitation killed him with his own blade. Moments later she disappeared in an undefined mass of black. The sisters would not see her again for days, but only a few miles away, a royal family vacationing on a beach were shocked to discover black liquid arising from the sand. When the blackness cleared they saw a metal vault that had been hidden deep beneath the sand and from it's depths emerged the one who would call herself 'The Black Fairy'."

Three vaults altogether.

Two other vaults besides the one that Lumiere had brought her and Neal to! And that had been a story all on it's own!

Suddenly hungry for answers, she quickly found the book that she'd needed that dreadful day Neal had past. The one she'd read from too late. Maybe this time it wouldn't be in vain. Though she hadn't read it since that day, her fingers automatically found the page she needed as though she'd known she'd come back to it all along.

"Though the dagger is the only known way to control and destroy the Dark One, there is some doubt if it would be possible to banish such vast and pure darkness entirely from the realms. The Dark One's Vault is said to be the place that the original Dark One was created. Legend states that the terrible evil created within the chamber scarred the earth and filled it with the blackest of all evil. In order to contain it, the unknown being that created the curse locked the evil away with a special key.

"Though the unknown man had good intentions, he had unknowingly created a source of recreation and life should anything happen to the man that possessed the curse of the Dark One. The blackness within the vault infected the key and burned into it a triangle which is often the symbol of summoning, making the key a talisman. Though the key is missing, its location and existence unknown, if placed within the lock of the vault it has the ability to revive the Dark One from death, recreating the curse, but at a great price. The key is said to brand the individual using it and drain their life in order to restore life to the cursed individual.

"Death is required for life."

That was it. The passage she'd read before…before Neal died. Before he'd paid the price required for his father. She didn't know how much of it was true and how much of it was false but it didn't matter because she had another side of the story.

Rumple had been gone but the blackness wasn't destroyed. So it retreated to the vault. The same way it retreated to the vault when two, not one person, took on the blackness. The same way it retreated when a fairy, a creature that had already been innately magical sought it out.

The twins, the fairy, and Rumple, they'd all disappeared and then reemerged from the vault when they became the Dark One…because they were different.

The twins were two people not one. The fairy had been magical long before the curse. Rumple had been dead. And Emma…

She was the Savior.

The curse, or the cursed individual retreated to the vault whenever it needed to recreate itself.

Emma wasn't just in their world.

She had gone to a vault.


Oh look, Research!Belle! I will not lie, if you are a fan of Research!Belle I think you'll be a fan of this summer's fictions. I found plenty of opportunities for Research!Belle to help even if the writers didn't! I hope you'll enjoy what I did with her here. And I hope you'll enjoy this little bit about the vaults. Did it bother anyone else that "the place where the first Dark One was made" looked really different than it had in season three? Or the fact that Rumple hadn't become the Dark One the same way Emma and Killian were? No way I was going to ignore that. I simply had to come up with an answer for it and this is what I came up with!

Thank you so much Fox24, Grace5231973, Teresa Martin, Rumbellefan, and Skitzoeinhoven for your reviews on the last chapter and also for just being awesome! I think most of the fanbase has moved on, but I'm thrilled that ya'll are sticking around and reading! Thank you! Peace and Happy Reading!