Emma gulped and tried not to do anything stupid. She had known what she was getting into, but it still didn't prepare her for watching him die again. Beside her, Rumple seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"We have to time it exactly right," he said, and she could hear how strained his voice sounded. "The us in the past have to believe he is dead, or we will alter the timeline and could do serious damage."

Emma nodded. "So... like, seconds before he died?"

"Something like that," he replied. "Mind if I cast the spell? I have a bit more experience."

Emma nodded. "Do your thing."

They waited for an agonizing couple of minutes before Rumple raised his hand and directed the preservation spell at his son, making him freeze and appear very much dead. With that accomplished, both looked away and covered their ears for the next sequence of events. With Zelena and the past Rumple finally gone, they moved to take the body, but Emma froze. "Wait," she said, "If we take the body... what will we bury?"

"Bury..." he said, and then, with the realization, "I missed his funeral."

"Well, we would have invited you, but -"

"Yes, I know, I was slave to a witch," he said. "Anyway, I can make a copy that looks exactly like him."

Emma nodded. "Ok. Then do it."

He cast the spell, and a body appeared to the right of Neal's. Then Emma opened the portal, and Rumple carried Bae into it, Emma jumping in after them.


"We did it," Rumple said when they arrived. "He's alive."

"But still under a preservation spell," Emma added, "Which he will die seconds after the removal of."

"Oh... yes," he said. "But we'll figure it out."

"Yes," Emma said, "We will. We have to."