Reckoning
Chapter 20
They stood in the middle of Gold's shop. Robin at Regina's side, the baby staying with Zelena; Snow easily pushing Neal in his stroller, and Charming at her side, and Killian standing with his arms crossed looking less than pleased, "So are we going to have this discussion, or we just going to stand here and look at each other?" Gold asked as he leaned on the counter feigning interest as to why Charming called them all together once again. Belle standing next to him, refusing to let this business go down without her again.
"Well mate you called us together;" Killian stated as he looked at David, "Care to start us off?"
David nodded and looked at the pawn broker, "What we want to know is…" He paused as he looked at Snow, who nodded and motioned for him to get this conversation on the road, "is Emma reverting?"
Gold feigned thinking for a moment as he said, "Depends on what you mean."
"Do not bull shit with us crocodile," Killian warned, "we are not in the mood. Answer the question."
"Rumple." Belle said in a warning tone as she saw he was about to comment something back that was not appropriate to their conversation. He looked at her and she hoped that her face told more than a conversation ever could.
It must have because Gold sighed and leaned on the counter more, arms folded, "I really need to know what you mean, because I told you everything I could the last time you were in my shop." Wasting my time, he added in his head as he looked at them.
Regina began explaining Emma's strange behavior since her return and Killian stepped in offering what he has observed. Snow and David added their bit when neither the pirate nor the Queen had anything else to add. Once they were finished, Gold stood there silently like last time, but unlike then there were no whispers in his head. So after a few moments he asked, "I am sorry, but what are you expecting of me this time?"
"Is Emma reverting back to being a Dark One?" Killian demanded once again, frustrated at how Gold wasn't getting what they were asking, "Is her attitude a sign, are there signs we should look for, do you sense anything off? How much clearer can we possibly be?!" He finished with as he threw his hand in the air and turned around in a circle even more frustrated.
"You told them that Emma was still bound to the dagger." Robin said calmly before Gold could comment as he motioned to the group, since they were too frustrated to speak, "Can you use that to see if the darkness is claiming Emma again?"
Gold pushed off the glass and reached into his coat pocket and slowly pulled the dagger out. The shiny silver metal gleamed in all of its unholy power. Gently placing it on the glass, he waved his hand as if presenting a piece of art work, "Does this answer your question?"
The name engraved in ebony black was 'Rumplestiltskin', "So you are still the Dark One." Belle said mixed feelings of disappointment and relief came to her on Charmings' behalf.
Gold's bravado wore off as he looked at the woman he still loved. Sighing he waved his hand again, and this time it read 'Emma Swan', "Not quite which is what they are worried about." He explained to her, "Since Emma is still semi-tethered, she can still hear the call if she concentrates hard enough."
"But that is what we are asking about, is she hearing the call or is this thing affecting her now that she is back over the town line?" Snow asked this time as she motioned to the dark weapon.
Gold shook his head, "I answered that before; I warned you that she may not be the Emma you remembered when she returned home." Questions started, but he held up his hands and said, "Dearies we already had this conversation. I already explained that once you have been touched by darkness, the addictiveness is hard to fully get rid of. For Emma that seems to be more factual based on what you are telling me."
"You are not answering the question." Belle said firmly as she looked at her husband when she saw their faces getting red with anger, "Is there a way to tell?" She asked enunciating each word firmly with a glare to challenge him to tease her like he was teasing them.
Gold closed his eyes and waved his hand, out of a cloud of purple smoke was a small golden scale appeared on the counter. On one side was a white teardrop shape object and on the other side was a reversed black teardrop shape, "This should do nicely."
There was silence as they looked at the scale and its contents, "What's the purpose of this?" Killian asked as he looked at it closely.
"Just a small twist the ancient Egyptians used to believe in that actually has some semblance of truth." Gold said simply, "The ancient Egyptians believed that, when they died, they would be judged on their behavior during their lifetime before they could be granted a place in the Afterlife. This judgement ceremony was called 'Weighing of the Heart'."
"Ok, but what does this have to do with Emma?" Regina asked motioning to the scale on the counter.
"I am getting to that," Gold said smirking slightly, "the ceremony was believed to have taken place before Osiris, the chief god of the dead and Afterlife, and a tribunal of 43 deities. Standing before the tribunal the deceased was asked to name each of the divine judges and swear that he or she had not committed any offences, ranging from raising the voice to stealing. This was the 'negative confession'. If found innocent, the deceased was declared 'true of voice' and allowed to proceed into the Afterlife."
There was a pause, and Gold continued, "The symbolic ritual that accompanied this ritual was the weighing of the heart of the deceased on a pair of enormous scales. It was weighed against the principle of truth and justice represented by a feather, the symbol of the goddess of truth, order and justice, Maat. If the heart balanced against the feather then the deceased would be granted a place in the Fields of Hetep and Iaru. If it was heavy with the weight of wrongdoings, the balance would sink and the heart would be grabbed and devoured by a terrifying beast that sat ready and waiting by the scales. This beast was Ammit a composite animal with the head of a crocodile, the front legs and body of lion or leopard, and the back legs of a hippopotamus."
"Very interesting history lesson." David complimented, "What does this have to do with that scale and Emma?"
Belle interceded having seen the connection as her husband explained, "This scale would tell the balance of Emma's heart. Yin for light," she motioned to the white teardrop, "and Yang for dark." She motioned to the black teardrop, "If the scale shows the Yin is heavier it means Emma's heart is light, but if it drops the Yang Emma's heart is dark. If there is no change-"
"She is balanced." Gold finished proud of his wife's quick understanding, "Yes what Belle says is the truth. This scale should help some in detecting Emma's balance of darkness and light." He pushed it towards them, waiting for them to thank him and leave so he could have some alone time with his wife.
No one reached for it, "What's the price?" David asked.
"Nothing." Gold said aggravated as he felt his patience waning.
David slowly grasped the cool metal and lifted it off the counter, "Thank you."
"Your welcome, now if there are not anymore-"
"Wait," Regina said interrupting him, "if she should revert back fully to being the Dark One…what happens to you?"
"Then we would have two Dark Ones. That is what happened with our pirate over here." Gold said motioning to the pirate.
Killian was about to interrupt, but Regina stopped him, "Hold on, that was when we had the dagger and Excalibur. Emma was on the dagger, and Killian was on the other half of Excalibur. We only have your dagger. We just saw you waving your hand to show us Emma's name."
"Good point, so what does happen if Emma becomes the Dark One again?" Snow asked, "Do you still stay the Dark One or does Emma take back your powers?"
Small whispering took place now, which made Gold pause in his response. He listened close, but it was as if he was underwater, hearing only garbles. Too many voices and hearing nothing useful. Internally though, he knew that Regina had a point, which made his point mute. Zoso's voice came in now and he felt sick at the response, "Well?" Robin asked now as he saw Gold's face paled slightly.
"You do not want me to answer that question." Gold stated.
"We do." Snow said back firmly as David clutched the scale tightly, eyeing the man.
Gold really didn't want to answer, but when he felt a familiar hand on his shoulder, he sighed, "Fine, I just found out that right now it is like a game of tug or war. I have most of the power since Emma's half is right now dormant. If she should somehow revert, then she will have it and-"
"You won't be the Dark One anymore." Killian answered for Gold.
There was silence now as that made everyone pause and think. However that moment was ruined when Gold had suddenly slammed his hand on the counter, "You have what you wanted and needed, now get out!" Quickly they moved this time and left the two alone, "I am sorry." He whispered to Belle and then left her to go into the back room, but not before taking the dagger with him.
Once outside, they all looked at each other and then down at the scale in David's hands, "So do we tell Emma what we just discovered?" Snow asked slowly.
"The thing with that is we promised her we wouldn't go to Gold for anything…" Regina stated as she gently took the scale from David's hands to study it a bit closer.
"Which means we broke a deal twice now, so what are the penalties by breaking them?" Killian asked just as slowly, as he too studied the object in Regina's hands.
"Doesn't matter, we did what we needed to do." David answered as he took the scale back, "We are going to take Neal back to the fairies and go meet with Emma. She has to know about this and what our fears are. We can't keep ignoring the elephant in the room, especially now that all this is happening in Storybrooke. Besides we do not want her repeating her version of 'best intentions' under dark influences." They all nodded in agreement, and with a final look at the Pawn Shop, they went their separate ways, David and Snow to the car while the others made their way to Emma's house.