Henry's eyebrows raised at the mysterious woman's words. "How do you know about magic?"

The woman's expression softened.

"How do you?"

"Drop the knife, and I'll tell you."

The woman looked at him doubtfully. "You lower yours, and I'll lower mine."

Reluctantly, Henry slowly lowered his gun and placed it in the holster while the woman simultaneously dropped her knife in the dirt and walked over to Henry.

"Have you ever heard of the dark curse that ripped everyone alive from our land and brought them here?" asked Henry.

The woman's expression faltered. "Th…that's what happened? Why? How? Who would do such a thing? Is everyone here cursed? Is that why they think I'm crazy?"

"No one in this realm believes in magic because it doesn't exist here," Henry explained. "Everyone in this town is cursed so that they don't remember who they really are or that magic exists. You're not crazy."

The woman's face lit up. "Thank you so much for telling me that. I'm Aurora. Princess Aurora." She held out her hand with her palm down. Henry took it and shook it firmly, realizing too late that he was probably supposed to bend down and kiss it. Or something.

"Did Maleficent make it to this land?"

"I haven't seen her," said Henry. "What I'm wondering is how you remember who you are. Why don't you let me give you a ride back to town, and you can tell me on the way?" The princess agreed and got in his car.

The next morning, Helena collected her meager belongings from her room, most of which she'd bought in Storybrooke. She knew Henry would be ready to go as soon as he was out of the shower. He wanted to get the road trip over with as soon as possible for his own reasons. Admittedly, this town had a certain quaint charm and friendly vibe to it that Helena might miss. Or at least find pleasant if she ever had occasion to return here to visit her brother. But her life was in Boston and, right now, she couldn't wait to get back to it.

As she expected, Henry emerged from his bedroom a few moments after she locked her door. "You ready?" he asked.

"Yeah." Henry locked his door, and the two siblings began making their way downstairs.

"Want to have breakfast at Granny's one more time before we leave? It's on me."

"Sure."

"By the way," said Henry as they stepped out the door of the hotel, "Thanks for coming here with me. I know you probably still hate me right now, but I needed you here."

Helena unsuccessfully tried to suppress a smile. Why did Henry have to make himself so hard to stay mad at?

"I owe you, sis."

"Oh, I know you owe me." Helena smiled as she got into the passenger side of the car. Henry got into the driver's seat and put the key in the ignition.

"Does Graham already know you're taking the day off?"

"Yeah." A moment later, Henry frowned and his brow furrowed. "I don't believe this."

"What?"

"The car won't start."

"That's impossible." Helena reached over, grabbed the key, and turned it. Nothing happened.

Twenty minutes later, a tow truck arrived. The driver got out and introduced himself to Henry and Helena as Michael Zimmer.

"You're Deputy Stable, right?"

"Yes," Henry replied. "I hope you can get this fixed soon. My sister is quite in a hurry to get home."

"Eh…let me take a look." Michael opened up the engine. Henry noticed two small children getting out of the backseat of the truck and running over.

"I can help, Daddy!" said a boy with dark brown hair.

"Daddy, Nicolas keeps poking me!" whined a blonde girl.

"I am not!"

Michael sighed warily. "Both of you, just stay out of the way!" The twins looked at each other and ran off in the direction of a tree. Michael spent a few minutes examining the inside of Henry's car. "I'm afraid there's something terribly wrong with your engine, Deputy Stable. There are a couple of things in there that aren't working, every one of your spark plugs is shot, you need an oil change…" the mechanic's voice trailed off. "Bottom line, it's going to take a while to repair. Definitely. It'll take two weeks just to get the parts."

Henry raised his eyebrows. "Where exactly are you ordering parts from?"

"I'm not sure yet. They may not even be available in this state."

"How long should the repair itself take?" asked Helena.

"Once I've gotten the parts in…eh…twelve business days?"

"No, no, I can't stay in this town for another month," Helena insisted. "I'm going to use up all of my vacation days!"

"Good," said Henry. "You never take enough of them." Helena shot him a murderous glance.

"Look, I'm sorry," Michael said pleadingly. "Truly I am. But I'm the only mechanic in town. I can barely manage it on top of my…" He stopped what he was saying, glanced around frantically, and realized that his kids were about twenty feet above ground level. "Nicolas! Ava! Both of you get down here right this instant!"

After wrangling the six-year-olds into his truck, Michael hitched up Henry's car and drove off. Henry sighed. He didn't actually care that much about the fact that he wouldn't be able to get his things back for now. He'd learned decades ago not to get too attached to his personal belongings. But he knew Helena cared, and he never enjoyed seeing her as cranky and upset as he anticipated she'd be for the next month.

"This is crap," snapped Helena. "How can there be no buses or cabs or anything that leaves town?"

"Maybe you should just walk to the next town," Henry suggested.

"Are you kidding?"

"Why not? Kayla did it." Helena just glared at him and stormed away. Henry pulled out his phone with the intent of texting Graham to ask if he wanted him to come into work today after all, then remembered that the phones in Storybrooke didn't text. And then he remembered that he had valuable free time that he could be using to concentrate on Operation Zebra and took off.

Two hours later, Mr. Gold heard the little bell above his door ring, looked up from his paper work, and smiled. "Ms. Stable? What can I do for you?"

Helena strode up to the pawnbroker's counter. "I need to get out of town, my brother's car broke down, and the auto shop doesn't have the parts they need."

"I'm afraid I can't help you there," Mr. Gold replied nonchalantly as he finished the note he was making regarding the missing angel figurine. "When I say that you can buy anything at this shop, that's meant as a figure of speech."

"Is there anyone who'd be willing to lease me their car?" asked Helena, her jaw tightening with impatience. "I've already asked around all over town, at the flower shop, at the diner, at the…"

"As I am sure you've noticed, Ms. Stable, this is a small town. We don't have anyone here who leases cars or even sells them." Helena sighed.

"What about the bus stop in town? Do any buses ever actually stop there?"

Mr. Gold shrugged. "Not as long as I can remember." He looked down to mark something on a piece of paper. "A little advice? Why don't you try picking up some work around town, even if it's only temporary? It will give you something to do…and come to think of it, the pay just might turn out to be better than you're used to."

"The work that I do back home isn't just about the pay," said Helena, her tone firm but not cold. "It's about speaking up for people whose voices are rarely heard and never listened to. That's a lot more important to me than money." She was about to rehash the same monologue she'd once given Henry when he had questioned her decision to major in social work in college. But then her eyes fell on a pair of gold wedding rings sitting in a porcelain cup near a shelf full of glass and porcelain figurines. Luxury items that served no purpose whatsoever, not even to beautify someone's home, just to sit on a shelf in the pawn shop. And she remembered she was talking to a man who surely had more in his coffers than any family of three could possibly need. "Forget it. You wouldn't understand." Helena turned around to exit the shop.

"Actually, I might understand better than you think."

Helena half turned around, tossing her long brown locks over her shoulder in the process. "Really?"

"Yes," said Mr. Gold. "I get it. Everyone who meets you and your brother sees him as the hero, because he's the one who puts himself at risk to do what he does. But so do you, Miss Stable. You've given up a lot of yourself to put all that time and energy into saving people, haven't you?"

Helena half-smiled. That wasn't quite what she was going for. But she'd take it.

"If you haven't tried yet, stop by the animal shelter," Mr. Gold called out after her. "I have a feeling they might have exactly what you need."

"So basically…your plan is to find the witch's heart and use it to force her to break the curse?" Henry could tell the princess felt strange even saying those words out loud.

"Yeah, something like that," said Henry. "Is there anywhere you can think of that it could possibly be?"

Aurora shook her head. "No. I've seen many strange things Henry, but a woman who keeps people's hearts locked away in a vault isn't one of them. I've heard of The Dark Lord ripping out people's hearts and crushing them, but I've never heard of anyone keeping the hearts."

While Henry and Aurora continued their brainstorming session about where Cora could be keeping her hearts-with limited success, of course, because Aurora knew almost nothing about the town or its mayor-Helena was at the animal shelter speaking to David Nolan.

"No…no way out…not that I know of," said David as he gazed off into the distance, clearly preoccupied.

Helena sighed, feeling the disappointment even though his reaction was exactly what she had expected. "Thanks anyway."

"Okay, here's what you need to do," Henry said to Aurora. "Just keep going about your business, go to your sessions with Dr. Hopper, let him feel like he's making some progress with you. But don't act like you've stopped believing in magic altogether. That could make him suspicious." Aurora nodded.

Helena was just about to exit the animal shelter when she noticed a sign on the desk that said, "Volunteers always welcome". Huh. Helena hadn't volunteered anywhere in years because her job took up too much of her time, but it might be nice to have something useful to do in Storybrooke.

"What about Phillip?" Aurora asked Henry. "He thinks he's an accountant named Kevin."

"So call him Kevin. I suppose that doing little things that might jog his memory could help, but I don't know how possible that is at this point." Aurora nodded.

"You're interested in volunteering?" asked David, suddenly perking up.

"Sure," said Helena. "Is there any kind of training required?"

"Just a little," David explained. "I'll show you were everything is and teach you about the animals." Mostly he was excited about the possibility of teaching Helena how to do the nightly check-up on them so that he could spend longer evenings with Mary Margaret.

"So, does all that sound good to you?" asked Henry. "Are we a team?"

"Yes."

The word escaped Aurora's lips in the same instant that Helena agreed to start her training at ten the next morning . You'll need this." David reached under his desk and pulled out a button that said "volunteer". Helena took it.

Henry smiled at Aurora and held out his hand.

Aurora grasped Henry's hand in hers. Helena snapped the badge onto her shirt.

And then they all heard the explosion.

"What the hell was that?" asked Helena.

"I don't know," said David. The animals erupted in a cacophony of growls, yips, and squawks. He ran to the back room, presumably to calm them down while Helena left and headed for the center of town. Several dozen of Storybrooke's residents were running in the direction of the noise. A few minutes later, she found Ruby.

"Do you know what that was?" asked Helena.

"I think the old mine just blew up," said the younger girl breathlessly as she jogged in the direction of the noise. Helena broke into a run to keep up with her.

"Storybrooke has a mine? What? If it was a lobster mine, that might make sense."

"It was abandoned a long time ago," said Ruby. "No one has used it for anything as long as I can remember!"

Henry and Aurora, the only two people to have actually witnessed the explosion, ducked into the forest. Henry tried to stand in front of Aurora to shield her, but she insisted she was fine.

"What just happened?" she asked.

"I have no idea," said Henry. "Did...did we do that?"

Graham was the next person to arrive on the scene in his police car, sirens blaring. Soon some more emergency personnel followed and helped him clear the area. Henry and Aurora stayed hidden and watched a group of firemen peer at the entrance of the mine while Graham put up "Caution: Do Not Enter" tape across it. The crowd began to draw nearer.

"In about two minutes we'll join the crowd as inconspicuously as possible," Henry whispered to Aurora. "You find somebody you know, so that they don't wonder why you're missing. I'll go straight to helping Graham block the entrance, and then-"

Henry froze when he heard a woman yell, "What is this?"

All fell silent. Several small children began to whimper. The crowd stepped back, clearing a path for her as her black flats crunched the gravel.

"Who's that?" whispered Aurora. Henry put his finger to his lips. If this was who he thought it was, staying hidden would be imperative.

Panic flashed across Graham's face for a split second. Then he put his calm, serious demeanor back on like a mask before turning to face her.

"What can I do for you, Mayor Mills?"

So this was her. This was Henry's grandmother.

"What have you done here, Sheriff?"

"I'm just blocking off the entrance to ensure that no one gets hurt."

"I can see that," said the mayor. Her smooth, cold voice was almost painful to hear. She wore a displeased expression in a conscious effort to force the sheriff into a deeper level of subordination. Henry saw this. There was no concern in those eyes for the safety of the townspeople, or Graham, or even herself.

This woman had no soul.

How in hell had she gotten like this?

"What happened to this mine?" asked the mayor.

"We were just about to go down there and look into that," Graham assured her.

"No," said the mayor quickly. "You weren't." Now the expression on her face dared Graham to contradict her. She raised her hand and shooed him away as if he were a fly. Graham stepped back as the mayor pivoted and faced the people of Storybrooke. "No one is to come within two hundred feet of this mine until further notice!" she shouted. She turned to face Graham. "Not you…" she said more quietly. "Not anyone."

Graham turned to take the necessary measures to ensure that everyone would know exactly what two hundred feet away from the mine was in every direction, knowing they would be more afraid of the mayor's wrath than the actual explosion at this point.

"As soon as this mine becomes safe to build over, I'm having something put up there," Mayor Mills muttered to herself as she strutted away. As soon as she climbed into her car and started the engine, Henry heard a collective sigh of relief from the townspeople.

"She's hiding something down there," said Aurora matter-of-factly. "Either that or the mines here are a lot more dangerous than they are back home, if people have to be kept so far away."

Henry half smiled at the princess. "No, I think you're right. There's only one way to find out."

"Rest assured, our little agreement has given me exactly the result I desired," said Mr. Gold into his rotary phone. Moments later, the little bell rang. The pawnbroker looked up and smiled when he saw who was there. "Call me again if anything changes." He hung up the phone. "What can I do for you, Mayor Mills?"

"You know exactly what I'm here for." The mayor marched up to the counter. "What did you do?"

"I have no idea what you're-"

"That explosion," said the mayor sharply, or sharply for her anyway. "I'm not happy with all these changes, Mr. Gold. First the clock tower and now this."

"I had absolutely nothing to do with that noise," said Mr. Gold with a smile. "I've been here in my shop this whole time."

The mayor eyed him carefully. He seemed to be telling the truth. But she knew more than anyone that the dark one wasn't always what he seemed.

"Besides," said Mr. Gold. "Why the sudden objection to change? It's always nice to keep things interesting in a small town like this."

"You would know, Mr. Gold," said the mayor. The man raised his eyebrows in apparent confusion. "If you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work." Then she turned and left the shop.

One of Rumpelstiltskin's few weaknesses was the habit he'd developed of underestimating his enemies, because thus far they'd never come close to being as powerful as he was. Cora liked to think that her curse had leveled the playing field, since she had had the power to make all the decisions concerning the town thus far. And she missed nothing. She knew Rumpelstiltskin had procured a baby girl eleven years ago for himself and Belle and that he had his reasons for wanting to keep it a secret from her. There was no doubt in her mind that he remembered something, if not everything, about the curse. But he never spoke of it, so for all the mayor knew, a pleasant retirement to a land without magic with Belle and his fortune was all he had ever wanted. If he made no move to threaten her position of power, she wasn't about to start a fight.

As soon as every last one of the residents of Storybrooke returned to their homes, Henry and Aurora stepped out of hiding.

"I need to go look down there," said Henry.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Aurora questioned. "It did just…explode."

"I'll mark my trail with this," said Henry. He pulled a piece of red chalk out of his bag. "If I'm not back in half an hour, come look for me. If you need any help, ask Graham at the sheriff station."

Aurora hesitated. "All right."

She sat behind a tree and watched him enter the mine. Five minutes passed. Ten. Fifteen. Twenty.

And then the entrance crumbled.