Future Time
"Are you sure?" Emma asked.
"I'm sure," Nadia replied. "Someone will die if Lily doesn't fix this. I just can't see who."
"If we knew how, we could fix it," said Bae.
"If Lily does her job, we're fine," Henry said. "I trust my little sister."
"We should be safe," said Belle.
"Agreed," said Snow.
"But how would we find out?" David asked.
"I might be able to help," Rumpelstiltskin said, and they all turned to him. "Nadia did get her seer abilities from me."
"I thought yours didn't work anymore," said Henry.
"Only because I don't want them to."
"You don't have to do this," Belle said, concerned. "Lily will probably fix it!"
"You were right, Belle," he said. "We should be safe."
"Papa, are you sure about this?" Bae asked.
"I'm sure, Bae." He turned to his daughter and took her hand. "Nadia... think about the sense you got, and give it to me. Show me the future you envisioned. Show it to me."
He shuddered as the vision spread from Nadia into him. He saw them all losing their memories, felt it, even. He saw them all turn on each other, he felt the rage towards all his family. Then...
He dropped Nadia's hand, his face white as chalk.
"Rumple?" Belle asked, concern growing over her own face. "What is it?"
"It's-" he choked on the words, unable to say them. "It's Nadia," he got out finally, looking into his daughter's eyes.
Belle gasped. "How?" The word came out like she was being strangled.
But this part he couldn't say. He swallowed.
"It was him," Nadia whispered. "I saw the vision too. He killed me." She looked like a deer staring down the barrel of a hunter's gun. "By accident," she added quickly, in response to the shocked reactions of the group. "Well, not exactly accident, but-he didn't know who I was, he had false memories... it wasn't really him, and it wasn't really me, either. I attacked first-" She halted in her rambling justification of her father. "I attacked him. It was him or me."
"But I would always choose you, Nadia."
"Not if you didn't remember me."
There was a silence.
"It's fine," said Henry. "Lily will fix it."
Bae nodded and looked from his father to his sister, then at his son. "She will."
Present Time
"Have you found out what curse it is?" Henry asked.
"Not yet," Belle replied.
"Nope," said Lily.
"Still looking," added Bae.
"Have you?" Emma asked.
"Yeah, Mom, that's why I asked. I would have said if I found it."
"And so would we."
"Found it," said Lily, as if on cue.
"Are you sure?"
"I think so." She showed them the page. "The Proximity Curse. When in proximity to the caster of the spell, anybody who has not had contact with magic will start to experience random bursts of magic; with each one, they will lose more of their recent memory, in an attempt to make them forget magic. Unfortunately, if they remain in the proximity for too long, they will lose all of their memories. Will eventually affect those who have had contact with magic, but not for a long time. If affecting a group of people, may also lead to hatred for other members of the group."
"That seems like the curse," Emma agreed. "And your beacon put Mary-Lynn in proximity with magic... I diluted the spell to everyone to cure her... and it sent us away probably because we went to somewhere in her past, and I guess it was taking information from her mind... that all makes sense I think. Then... the powerful true love of Henry's kids being born awakened dormant magic... that all seems fine... but why would the curse still be affecting us if we weren't in Regina's proximity?"
"My guess," said Belle, "Would be that if it was Henry's kids who reawakened the curse, it was proximity to them that was causing it."
"Sure," said Bae. "Is there anything about breaking it in there?"
Lily read on. "Other than the removal of the caster, ways to break a proximity curse include; the death of the caster-"
"No," said Emma.
"A memory freeze on the affected, a magic dampener, or a targeted counter-curse; one has yet to be attempted."
"Memory freeze?"
"It freezes someone's memories," Lily explained. "No memories lost, but no memories gained, either. Not a good option."
"And a magic dampener means neutralizing all magic in the town?" Emma guessed.
"Yeah."
"Let's try the counter-curse."
"You'd have to basically make one up."
"Sure, no problem."
"Make up a counter-curse," Rumpelstiltskin repeated.
"Yes."
"How?"
"Well, it says how to cast one. We just... do the opposite."
He blinked. "Fine... I suppose... we could try that."
"Awesome. Lily?"
Lily read them the ingredients for creating the curse, and Belle, using a separate book, found the ingredients that neutralized each of those. After an hour of this, they had it ready.
"Okay. And casting it?"
"You pour it over yourself and say these words." She showed them the words.
"So I guess we say them backwards... but who do we pour it on?"
"It would have to be Regina," he said.
"Uh..."
"Yeah, exactly."
"How do we do that?"
"We'd have to capture her first."
"How?!"
"With magic." He grabbed a vial and showed it to her. "Squid ink."
"You just have that?"
"Yes. Let's go."
They looked at Regina, frozen in squid ink.
"Okay," said Emma. "Do it, then."
Rumpelstiltskin sighed. Reading backwards the words Lily held out to him, he poured the vial over Regina.
"So?" Lily sounded anxious. "Did it work?"
A/N: The next chapter will be the last one.