A/N: Check out captainodonoghue's tumblr for an amazing gifset for this chapter!
Disclaimer: The characters still do, and always will, belong to Eddie & Adam.
"If someone had kidnapped him, the maid would have noticed," Belle reasoned as they were still standing in the forest. "And the guards would have seen them as well."
Emma bit her lip, searching her mind for any explanation for Henry's disappearance that didn't include violence and her son being hurt or scared. Where was he? Had Morgause taken him, as well?
"So he left by himself, pretended to be sick and snuck out," David suggested. "He's gone off on his own before."
"This is ridiculous, why would he leave?" Regina said exasperated. "He doesn't have anywhere to go, he doesn't know anyone…"
"Actually," Robin threw in from the side, looking at his feet, "he does. He met someone here. A girl."
Emma's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You mean, they… he likes her?"
Robin shrugged. "He said they were just friends, but he's a teenage boy, so who knows?"
"Henry is way too young for that!" Regina snapped. "He's still a child, he isn't interested in girls!"
Killian raised an eyebrow. "He's thirteen. At that age…"
"I don't want to know when and where you started sleeping around, Hook," Regina cut him off sharply. "Henry isn't like you."
The pirate gave her a smirk. "I was going to say I had an eye on the Captain's daughter."
"So he might have gone to meet that girl," Snow said, ending their argument and reminding them about the actual problem at hand. "Do you know anything about her, Robin?"
The thief sighed, searching his mind. "He mentioned that she had magic, and he helped her hide from the guards."
"So how do we find her?" Emma asked.
"Leave that to me."
Gold stirred in the shadows. It was the first time he had spoken since they left the ballroom.
"I can track him down."
Regina raised an eyebrow.
"You're suddenly willing to help us?"
"Believe it or not, but I do care about my grandson."
He looked at Emma and Regina.
"The three of us should be enough to find him. The rest of you should find a safer place, for the sake of the children."
Morgana looked around.
"I could bring us to Avalon," she suggested. "I have to go there, anyway. And as powerful as Morgause is, she still fears our mother. Nimue can help us fight her."
"Should we really split up?" Snow asked.
"He's right, mom," Emma said. "We have to find Henry, but we'll be safer in a small group, and the kids need a place to stay."
Killian approached her. "I don't like this plan," he mumbled.
"Me neither, but it's the only way. And this Nimue could help you find Calie."
He nodded and leaned in for a kiss. "Be careful," he mumbled as he pulled away.
"I always am."
...
Gold tightly held Emma's hand over the mud. Blood dripped from the cut in her palm, drenching the paper. He let go of her and waved his dagger over the dark drops on the ground. She pulled back her hand, healing the cut to get rid of the stinging pain. The mud took shape, forming hills and mountains, and a surface she could only assume meant trees. The blood drops moved over the mood, not mixing with it. Finally, it stopped moving.
Gold pointed at the map with his cane. "We are at the center," he explained, taking a look at their surroundings. "We need to head east."
Emma raised her eyebrows, wondering how he got that from a few lines in the mud, but she didn't object. All that mattered was finding Henry. And while she certainly didn't trust Gold as far as she could throw him, he knew more about magic that Regina and her combined.
"Why didn't we do this for Calie?" she asked instead.
"It's a simple location spell which can be blocked by a simple protection spell," he explained. "Morgause will have thought of that."
"I guess it's never easy," she muttered, following him through the woods.
For someone with a cane, he walked surprisingly fast. But, as Emma remembered, he didn't really need it when he had magic. He just used it, because… why did he even use it?
"Emma?" Regina said behind her.
She turned around.
"What?"
The other woman caught up with her.
"What do you think of this Morgana?" she asked.
Emma shrugged. "She probably saved our lives in the ballroom."
"So you trust her?"
Regina's pressing tone made her feel like she was at the wrong end of an interrogation.
"She's Killian's mom."
"Being a mother doesn't make you a saint. It certainly didn't stop my mother from… doing what she did."
"Yeah but Cora…"
"What?" Regina asked sharply.
"You always knew she was… kind of intense." Emma sighed. "Look, Regina, I don't know her, but I really hope, for Killian's sake, that she's on our side. And nothing she did made me doubt that."
"If she is working for Morgause, we have a problem," Regina insisted. "She is powerful, and we don't need another enemy."
"Just give her a chance. For Killian's sake. For now, let's focus on the enemies we know we have. That's enough for me."
Regina didn't seem convinced, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she fell behind to match the narrow trail Gold had chosen.
"Is this it?" Emma asked, inspecting the cave in front of them.
The entrance was small and hidden, and they'd almost missed it. Still, it was big enough for a person to enter.
"Henry?" Regina called.
No one answered.
"He might not be here anymore," she said, exasperated. "We used the locator spell hours ago, he could be far away by now. He has no reason to hide in this cave."
"Let's take a look anyway," Emma said. "Who knows."
Before anyone could protest, she had entered the cave. Instantly, she felt the temperature drop. She shivered, hugging her body. It was dark as well, and it took her a while to get used to the light.
She didn't have to, as it turned out. Regina appeared next to her, the fire in her hand lighting the way.
Last of all, she heard the steady thud of Gold's cane somewhere behind them.
The cave was longer than it looked on the outside. They followed the path for a while, suddenly coming to a halt when they saw a shadow at the end of the tunnel.
"Who's there?" Emma called.
"Mom?" came the immediate response.
Emma abandoned all care and ran towards what she now recognized as a prison cell, Regina closely following her.
There were more people in the cell, a dark-haired girl – Henry's friend, she supposed – and a woman who looked vaguely familiar.
Henry was standing at the bars, clearly relieved to see them.
"Moms, thank God, I thought we were never gonna get out."
"Henry, what were you thinking?" Regina hissed, waving her hand at the lock.
When it didn't open, she frowned, trying again.
"Morgause sealed it with magic," Henry explained. "I tried to pick it, but it didn't work."
Emma raised an eyebrow. "You know how to pick a lock?"
"Yes. No. A little. I watched a video on Youtube. If you taught me…"
"No, Henry." She turned to Gold. "Can you open this?"
He stepped forward with a crooked smile, pointing his dagger at the cell. The lock sprang open immediately, and Henry pushed at the door, making his way out. He ran right into the arms of his mothers.
"Henry, why did you run away?" Emma asked, tightly hugging her son. "You could have gotten seriously hurt!"
"I know, I'm sorry, I just thought I could help you fight Morgause. You know, be a hero for once.
"You already are a hero!" Regina said. "What were you trying to achieve here?"
Henry freed himself from his mothers and pointed at the girl.
"I wanted to help Kara find her mom. She thought she was being held captive here."
Regina straightened her shoulders, looking at the girl in the shadows.
"So you are Kara?"
"Yeah," Henry quickly intervened. "She's my friend. Oh, and she's Killian's sister, by the way."
Emma's eyebrows shot up. As she looked at her more closely, she could clearly see the resemblance, and it wasn't just her dark hair. But hadn't he said that she was dead? Then again, he'd thought the same about his mother.
"And who's this?" she asked, nodding at the woman who had kept in the shadows, observing them.
"Oh, that," Henry said, his smile faltering. Suddenly, he seemed uneasy.
Gold stepped closer to the cell, and to her surprise Emma noticed that he was completely baffled.
"Milah?" he asked, almost in a whisper.
Emma felt her heart sink to her stomach. Milah? Killian's Milah? Calie's mother?
She remembered a handdrawn picture she'd once seen of her. So that's why she seemed familiar. Wasn't she dead as well? Could the dead, please, for once, stop coming back? Until yesterday she'd been convinced that it was impossible to bring someone back from the dead, and now?
Milah herself slightly lifted her chin, apparently not too thrilled at the sight of her husband.
"Rumple."
"You're dead," Gold said. "I killed you."
"Sorry to disappoint you," she hissed, walking past him out of the cell.
Emma still stared at her, wondering what this meant. Her head was still racing. Milah was alive. It didn't matter how, she just was. Would Killian return to her? Decide that it was better for Calie to be around both her parents?
"We should get going," Regina said. "Who knows when Morgause comes back. We need to get to Avalon."
"Avalon?" Kara asked, surprised. "Why?"
"Your mother is taking the rest of us there," Regina explained to her.
Kara's eyebrows shot up. "My mother? She is not being held captive by Morgause?"
"I don't know if she was, but she's free now," Emma said, tearing her eyes from Milah. The brunette had noticed her staring, and she didn't want to embarrass herself anymore. She didn't know how she was supposed to feel about her, but she certainly didn't want to make a fool of herself.
The girl exhaled, clearly relieved.
As they left the cave, Regina slowed down, her brow creased. Emma looked back at her over her shoulder.
"Everything alright?" she asked.
The other woman nodded. "I think I'm just going to check on something. Don't wait for me, I'll find you later."
"Regina, we already split up, we can't break into any more groups!" Emma said, turning to face her.
The other's had stopped as well, watching the scene play out. Regina gave her a tight smile.
"I won't be long."
She waved her hand and disappeared in purple smoke.
"Regina!" Emma called, half worried, half pissed.
Could people please stop running off on their own? There was no use in waiting for her now, they could as well go. She turned around, her brows still furrowed.
"Let's go to Avalon," she said harshly.
...
For weeks after the incident, she couldn't sleep. Whenever she closed her eyes, unbidden pictures came to her mind, of people dropping dead on the street, an entire village eradicated from existence by her own hands. On those rare occasions that she did doze off, her sleep was restless and plagued by nightmares.
Everybody talked about the slaughter of Dumnonia, everyone blamed it on magic, and yet no one suspected her. Maybe that was what bothered her the most. Even Nimue and Arthur were willing to believe that Morgause had found a way to break through blood magic rather than think of the obvious answer. Brennan hadn't even once questioned that she wasn't feeling well and needed to rest, for two weeks already. Nobody deemed her capable of doing the things she had done.
Her sister's words echoed in her ears.
"All your good will and nobility end when it comes to your children. For them, you would set the world ablaze and watch it burn down to ashes. You may love with an angel's heart, but you hate with the wrath of the seven hells."
The wrath of the seven hells. That was what she felt for Morgause. And yet she was the only one to truly know her. Her dark side, the one she kept hidden from everyone, including herself. All it had taken was a dagger to her son's throat for her to kill a dozen of innocent, good people. No, not just kill, she could have flicked her wrist and sent them all to a sleep they would never wake up from. She had slaughtered them, and she had been covered in blood from head to toe.
Some, she had killed with magic, others with a sword.
And she knew, if given the same choice again, she wouldn't change a single thing.
The door opened, and a dark head of hair popped into the room.
"Mommy?" he asked.
Morgana turned to see him, pushing her sinister thoughts aside and forcing herself to smile.
"Killian!" she said. "Come in, honey."
He closed the door behind him and came to her bed. His cheeks were flushed from playing in the outside, but his eyes were big and solemn as he looked at her.
"Where are your siblings?" she asked, gently brushing some dust of his cheek with the back of her hand, close to the scar that had already started to heal. She had wiped his memory, but not her own. The mental image of him, helpless at Morgause's mercy, was enough to make her shudder.
"Playing", the boy answered, shrugging off his boots and climbing onto the bed. "I was, too, but I missed you. When will you be better?"
She smiled at him, trying to smooth his wind-ruffed hair.
"Father said you needed lots of love to get better", Killian continued. "So I'll try to love you more. I don't know if I can, because I already love you so much, but I'll try."
"It's already helping, honey," she whispered, fighting the tears stinging in her eyes as she remembered what else her sister had said.
"He got more from you than any other of your children. In fact, he is just like you."
He was so pure, so sweet and loving. The very idea of her sweet baby boy filling his heart with darkness broke her heart, and she pulled him closer, protectively wrapping her arms around him.
"Mommy, I love you very much, but you're squeezing me!" he complained.
She let out an amused laugh and loosened her grip, gently stroking his hair as his breathing calmed, until he was finally asleep.
"I will protect you", she said when she was sure he didn't hear her anymore. "I won't let the darkness get you."
Gently she pressed a kiss to the temple of the sleeping child.
"I don't care if I have to sell my soul to the devil to keep you safe."