Flashback the in between: (before Whale got her pulse back)
Emma slipped into darkness then there was a light behind it. She found herself lying down on the white ground she looked around the light.
"Hello?" Emma got up and walked around looking and wondering where the hell she was.
"Emma you wonderful girl look at you all grown up" Emma turned around to see an old man with a crown on his head and a women with dark hair and blue eyes, they seemed familiar and nice."Who are you?" Emma asked confused eyeing the couple who just smiled at her lovingly. "I am your grandmother Eva, and I am your grandfather Leopold"
"Lets have a walk" Emma walked over to them so she was in the middle between the two, they hooked arms as they walked.
"Okay,Where exactly are we?" Emma asks the couple who just smile at her like they have known her all their lives.
"We were going to ask you that" Emma looks at their face to make sure if they were telling the truth she found no signs of lies.
"We would never lie to you my dear" Eva tells her granddaughter, Emma looks at her and all she see's is her mother. Eva see's the same thing only with Emma.
"Where do you say we are?" Leopold asks Emma with a kind smile enjoying this field trip out of heaven with his wife, he was happy he got to meet his granddaughter especially after what snow had to live through with them gone.
"Well it looks kinda like Main street in Storybrooke, only cleaner without Leroy drunk some where" Emma assumes glancing around, she could see white images of the light posts and shop across from them.
"and without all the people and cars" Emma glances around a couple more times then turning to look at them.
"You are like your father David but you have snow's chin and most importantly her eyes" Eva takes her hands in hers as she studies her features smiling.
"You remind me of her" Emma smiles at her grandma missing her mother who she thought was dead.
"Am I dead, are my parents here?" Emma asks looking around in search of them.
"No they are not, it is just us here"
"But they died I saw it"
"That was a nightmare they wanted you to believe so you would want to die, these people wanted you dead until their plans changed"
"Why I have done nothing to them, what do they want"
"They only did what they were told, a monster controls them he plans to use you as a weapon to take over the realms but you can stop him. I believe in you Emma "Eva tells her holding her face in her hands looking her granddaughter in the eyes that remind her of her daughter.
"I suspect you realise what the prophecy of the savior means"
"I have to die"
"Yes, but at the proper moment"
"so when the time comes I must die, why?"
"It was written, nothing can surpass it I am sorry"
"It isn't your fault, it's just the way it is" Emma looked down in thought.
"I have to go back don't I?" Emma asks thing about it, her parents are alive and those people were out there.
"That's up to you" Leopold and Eva sit down on the ground next to her, Eva moves back her hair from her face.
"I have a choice?"
"Of course, were in Storybrooke you say. I think if you desired you could simply hop into your yellow beetle and it would simply drive away"
"And were would it take me?"
"On" Leopold announces to her, they hug her.
"Will I remember this?"
"When the time is right. Please Emma sweetheart give them a chance with the time you have left together" Eva responds taking Leopold's hand and walking with him into the light leaving emma sitting there on the ground.
Emma decided in her head, then she hears a loud horn from her car before it goes dark again.
They restarted her heart, and she returned to the land of the living.
Emma shot up from her bed from her dream, she remembered everything from the in between with her grandparents. She remembered she had to die.
Emma got up out of bed, she walked down stairs into the bathroom to take a shower. Many things came to Emma's mind, Neal, Her parents, Henry she tries to get the image of the in between as much as she can. Emma get's dressed quickly for the day trying not to wake her parents who were still sleeping. Emma got her things and made her way to the apartment door.
Snow started to wake up for the day, she was lying dow next to David who was half asleep. Then she heard the door close.
"Charming wake up, she did it again"
"Again!" Charming just stayed in the bed, Snow just laughed.
"Where do you think she went?" Snow asked curious, maybe David knew.
"Probably with Neal or Henry"
"Okay how about we stop by the station to check on her and we can all have lunch together"
"Sounds good" David got up out of bed for the day, with one question why was his daughter really at work.
Emma walked outside into the sun, she clenched her car keys in her hand thinking if she should use it. Emma decided she wanted to walk and she would be harder to spot, she made her way down the street headed towards the station.
"Another day, another moment" Emma whispered to herself as she steeped into the station and then into her office to finally get back to work. Where she belonged protecting the town of Storybrooke and it's people.
"Alex wake UP!" Nathaniel kicked his brother who was sleeping in the hideout on the ground.
"WHAT!" Alexander shot up and threw a dagger into the wall of the hideout behind Nathaniel's head.
"You idiot get up we have to see Rumpelstiltskin, pack a bag" Alexander got up from the ground and started to pack a light bag of weapons, gadgets and provisions.
"Lets head out" They flew on their broomsticks to Rumpelstiltskin pawn shop, they found out this information by asking people around town.
Nathaniel entered the shop first with Elizabeth and Alexander behind him, Alex closed the door politely behind them unlike his brother.
"Rumpelstiltskin"
"Can I help you Seekers?"
"Good you know who we are, we require your assistance"
"Well it was good while it lasted, a nice quiet twenty-eight years"
"Well time is up, when are you naming the Savior?"
"Her birthday like prophesied"
"Has she read the prophecy yet?"
"No she hasn't"
"You were supposed to train her and prepare her, make her read the prophecy let her know who SHE IS WHAT SHE IS MEANT TO DO!"
"She didn't believe in the curse how was she to believe that she is the Savior, and when she did there was always something in the way of me doing so"
"My parents gave up their lives so that I could be here to aid the Savior and she is absolutely clueless to what is to come"
"It was better for her not to know, tell me Seeker what is better knowing or not Knowing?"
"Did it ever occur to you to give her the slightest inkling that she is the most powerful being in all the realms, she has a destiny"
"Who are you decide someone's destiny"
"It is not me it's the prophecy"
"Prophecy be damned!,I averted the prophecy when I created that curse and brought her and everyone from the enchanted forest here. Until you opened up a way for them to reach her, and said right this way to the Savior ladies and gentlemen" Gold gestured to outside.
"So it doesn't matter that the shadow is growing more powerful each second, if the people of this world and any other are getting killed by the thousands"
"You know nothing about the Savior boy, the Savior is a hero who rises in a time of darkness and suffering and seeks out evil and defends the people they love when ever they can"
"If you wanted her to be protected, why did you make her be the one to break the curse?"
"Because of love, she has it in her she needed her family as well"
"You need to tell her the truth and protect her or we will" Nathaniel then turns to walk out the door but stops when...
"Fine but we do it my way"
Emma started cleaning up the station after doing paper work it was almost 1:00 pm, David did not like to keep anything clean at all. There were coffee cups littering the floor near the garbage can, papers all over her desk, files all around the office. When Emma moved papers around the deputy's desk cleaning up she noticed a frame under the papers, she moved them out-of-the-way only to see a picture of her smiling away at the camera. She remembered that day it was taken, it was the day after her and Mary Margaret got back from the enchanted forest. Her new mother wouldn't leave her alone, she wanted to take as many photo's of her daughter as she could because she didn't get to for the last 28 years.
Flashback:
"Put the camera down Mare!" Emma puts her hand in front of the lens blocking the camera's view of her. Mary Margaret wasn't giving up, David even had to help her a bit before he himself gave up.
"Stop taking photo's already, it's annoying" Emma tried to cover herself up and hide from mary margaret and the camera in her hands.
"well I want one of you to keep on me at all times"
"Why"
"Because you have one of henry and I only think it would be fair"
"That's different he is a kid"
"And you are mine come on, it's just a picture Emma. How about you let me take just one, then I will stop"
"Fine" Emma stood still for the shot crossing her arms.
"Smile" Emma smiled and she took the photo happily looking at her little girl inside the women in front of her. That photo that Mary Margaret took, she always kept on her where ever she went staring at it with a smile time from time.
*Flash*
Emma put the photo down on the desk, shaking the memory of that day out of her head. Not that she would admit it, she loved that day no one ever wanted to take her photo so enthusiastically before except.. she wasn't going to bring up memories that made her cry so she stopped herself and went back to work.
Emma surfed through the domestic disturbance files, that have taken up half her desk since she was asleep. Most of which were vandalizing, Leroy, Leroy, and some new one's from the party Neal through for her from old people complaining about the noise.
Emma was filling out papers when something appeared on her desk in a shimmer of golden white light, Emma stopped what she was doing as took in the object on her desk. Emma slowly went to go touch it, she discovered it was a thin metal cover book. Emma touched the lock on the book and it opened, which took her by surprise. curiosity got to the best of her, so she opened it.
The pages were blank, she went to go smooth them out thinking the pages were dusty or smudged. The the book glowed white at her touch and words appeared. Emma noticed the writing to be in a language she had never seen before, but for some reason knew what it meant so she began to read's the first word and she knows what the book holds so she reads out loud.
"The Savior does exactly as the name implies; she saves. She and seekers seek the answers to things. Things of her own choosing. If she is the right person, she will seek the answers that will help others, not just herself. The whole purpose of a Savior is to be free to quest on her own, to go where she wants, ask what she wants, learn what she wants, find answers to what she wants to know, and if need be, do whatever it is the answers demand"
"The wielder of the Savior's ring will seek out something that is kept from touch for only the wielder shall find it from within-" Emma shuts the book knowing where it was going, she knew that part of her tale and did not need reminder's. Emma wants to know thinking it would help her change the future, but Gold's voice comes into her head 'what is better knowing or not knowing?'. She takes her head in her hands as she tries to regulate her breathing as starts to cry a little, she hears people coming into the station so she scrambles to close and hide the book somewhere.
David and Mary Margaret went to go check up on Emma to make sure she was indeed at work and hadn't gone off on a field trip with Neal or Henry. They slowly walked in the door, but stopped when they heard Emma's voice 'In the end the savior will have to pay a painful price-' what does that mean, what is reading. They heard a slam then someone crying, they move more quickly into the station to see what was going on. They saw Emma at her desk in her office with her head in her hands crying, she seem's to hear them so she quickly moves around her desk trying to hide something on it, then opens a drawer in her desk and puts something square-shaped inside.
Emma put the book inside one of her drawers and locked it, she rushed to wipe her eyes and face who ever interrupted her. "I can hear you"
Her parents step out from their hiding place and into her office to talk with worried glances.
"Can I help you with something, let me guess there is a troll loose around town" She tries to joke hoping they didn't see or hear what she was doing.
"Um.. we were wondering if you wanted to grab lunch with us" Mary Margaret hoped Emma agree's they really needed to talk.
"I am not really hungry, and I got a lot of paper work to go over" Emma puts her head down and opens a file on her desk trying to make it look like she was busy.
"The files aren't going anywhere Emma, there is plenty of time to do those later" David tries to convince her to join them, knowing Emma was trying to avoid them for some reason it could have been about last night or some thing entirely different he had no idea. They wanted to spend time with her.
"That's an understatement" Emma whispered speaking out loud not realising she said so, her parents faces saddened.
"Please have lunch with us, we can just sit there and say nothing. Emma you have to eat, I will buy you a cheese burger" Mary Margaret tries to bribe her daughter to go with them.
"I'm fine, I have a job to do you know be sheriff protect the town and everyone I love" Emma said not realising her words still writing in the file with her pencil which she is gripping a little too tight.
"Please Sweetheart have lunch with us" Snow begged as she reached across the desk and gripped Emma's hand which she was writing with, the pencil broke in her grip. Emma felt a rush of warmth and a fuzzy feeling in her heart at her mother's touch, Emma looked up into her mother's eyes noticing the similarities between her grandmother and her mother. Emma got reminded of her time in the in between alright so much that she shed a tear which went down her cheek as she looked into her mother's eyes she saw her Grandma telling her ' Please Emma sweetheart give them a chance with the time you have left together' Emma started sobbing, so snow went around the desk and hugged her.
Emma buried her crying head into her mothers stomach as she held on to her mother by wrapping her arms around her. "Oh Honey, what happened" Emma just cried louder as she hugged Snow tighter, snow started stroking Emma's locks of hair and tried to calm her down. She held onto her daughter loving the moment between them.
Emma knew what was happening snow showed her love which enacted her magic inside her heart, making her wall non-existent as she cried for everything that has happened letting it out holding on to her mother not caring in the world what people thought. "I don't want to go" Emma whispered into her mother as she cried and sobbed
Charming just stood there not knowing and not believing what he was seeing. His daughter was crying even sobbing into snow wanting her mother for once let everything out all from a touch from snow. That's all it took her mother's touch to make her let everything out finally, they didn't know what to expect when Emma was back home if she would stop talk or brush it off or that she would finally break from it all.
"What do you mean go, go where?" When Emma didn't answer her she got worried, Emma just held onto her tight not letting go she wasn't complaining.
"Is that what you meant to tell us before you were taken?"
"how did you know?" Snow looked over to her husband who she found was staring at them, she silently begged him to come over knowing he already wanted to but was too polite to ruin their moment.
David came over to Emma and Snow, he kneeled down on the ground to be at Emma's chair height. "Emma" He whispered as he rubbed her back trying to comfort his daughter. He and Snow shared a look of knowing they would tell her of what happened while she was gone.
"Emma after you were taken from us by Greg and Tamara-" He started he noticed that Emma started shaking when he said there names, but he had to continue.
"We searched every inch of town we could, we made search parties, we went home and found your journal open on your desk. We read it in hopes it would help us of what you suspected of Tamara's actions,we found the entry you wrote before you went to the inn" David was hoping she wouldn't get mad at them, and she didn't she held onto snow still crying.
"I know that we shouldn't have read it but we wanted to be near you. I don't know if that makes any sense"
"It does I love you too much, ever since the took me and it's so hard for me to handle, and for once in my life I can't take it!"
"I want my life back" Emma whispered mostly to herself, she wanted to go back to before the council ever came to town before everything turned to crap.
Snow walked up to her and took her face in her hands"We love you Sweetheart we always have, you are not alone anymore you have us and we are not going anywhere. We are so sorry we didn't believe you, we were just hoping for once something would just be normal and not crazy. We just wanted you not to worry about something, after everything you had been through lately" she took Emma in for a hug wrapping her arms around her, Emma hugged her back in a way to accept the apology which made her smile through the tears in her eyes. David joined them in the hug, they stayed like that until Emma let go separating the hug.
"Let go grab that lunch"
"I agree to that"
The family took each other's hands as they walked to Grannies to eat lunch together
Emma was the first one through Grannies door in search of a bear claw or a burger either one she would be happy, she would be happy just be with her parents.
Snow and David held hands behind her smiling that Emma forgave them, they had waited for her to since they found her. Neal was there waiting for David and Mary Margaret and most importantly his lovely fiancé Emma, he stood up with a smile on his face when he saw her she noticed him and she rushed over and gave him a huge hug. He was surprised by the hug, she hadn't done something that spontaneous since they were last together before she went to jail and he left her.
"Hey you okay?" Neal asked while laughing a little, she held him then she let go.
"Yeah just it's been a day and I haven't seen you"
"I missed you too"
"So Neal when's the wedding?" Snow asks interrupting their conversation with a knowing smile on her and Neal break eye contact to look at snow, Emma was getting nervous by that question knowing she might not be able to have time to marry Neal. She went to her ring finger and started turning her engagement ring around it not knowing what she was doing in the first place.
"I don't know we haven't had time to discuss it yet" They all sat down at a booth to eat together and talk.
"When do you think Emma" Snow, David, and Neal turned to Emma who was turning the ring on her finger, she realised what she had been doing and stopped immediately hoping no one saw it. No one did except her mother who just smiled at her.
"I don't know, soon I guess"
"How soon?"
"I don't know..soon"
"When do you want to get married Em?"
"When do you?"
"When ever you do" Neal put his hand over hers on the table across from him, Emma smiled at him he always knew what to say.
"How about at the end of the week"
"That sounds great, but Emma why so soon?" David and Snow were getting suspicious, Neal knew something was going to happen that she would be gone, but did not know how or that she had to 's parents didn't know anything for their protection.
"It has been something we had planned when we were previously together, we wanted to settle down together in Tallahassee." Neal goes to explain to Emma's parents why they wanted to get married so soon, to throw them off from the real reason.
"Neal" Emma tried to protest him to tell them, afraid of what her father might do to her fiance's face if he knew.
"It's fine Emma, they should know"
"fine but let me start it"
"Um... before I tell you why we want to get married so quickly you should know that before storybrooke I was in a bad place. I had just gotten out of the system and no one would hire a orphan so I had to steal to survive" Emma waited for the parent disapproving talk, then she noticed how her mothers face turned to a look of sad thoughts then to shock then she started laughing alongside her father.
"What's so funny?!"
"It's just when Regina banished me from the kingdom and wanted me dead, I was a bandit in the woods I only stole from her to survive and get enough money to go some place isolated"
"Wow..um.. so me and Neal met in a car believe or not and it is outside on main street now" Mary Margaret now understood why Neal acted the way he did when Emma showed him her car.
"You mean your bug" Emma nodded her head as she took a sip of her drink, as Neal just smiled.
"The one and the same, it wasn't originally my car. It was Neal's"
"Neal told us when you were in the hospital how you two met, but how do you split up?"
"Um.. we stopped in a motel one day after stealing from a convince store,that day I decided that I loved her so much that I wanted to settle down and get job to start a family together. I picked up a map and told her to point any place she picked would be our home"
" She picked Tallahassee, we continued to steal until we came up with enough money to settle down for good and stop stealing. I walked into a post office one day while we were moving around, there was a warrant out for my arrest for some watches I had stolen in Phoenix"
"Neal told me that he had to go to Canada and cross the border and that Tallahassee was out, he didn't want me coming with him in case he got caught. I proposed that I would steal the watches from the train station where he stashed them and that we could pawn them for money to start over in Tallahassee"
"Which I did and I didn't get caught, we would have gotten away and lived together started a family with Henry" Neal squeezed her hand telling her she didn't have to finish the story.
"We were supposed to meet later, then go but apparently the curse got in the way. August tracked us down and told me about the curse and Emma's role in, he provided me with a choice to leave her so she could get home or stay with her and be happy myself. I didn't want Emma to be robbed of her family, if she would be happy it would be worth it. So I turned her to the cops, she got eleven months in a minimum security prison in Phoenix. He wouldn't tell because he didn't want me to act on impulse and try to bail her out, I pawned the watches and told him to give the car and all the money to her"
As soon as Neal said this David's face changed from anger to sympathetic, but he was confused if Emma had that much money why did she give up Henry.
"He never gave me the money, but sent the car key"
"If he did send the money then I would have kept Henry, but I wouldn't have found the town"
"I am mad at August because of it, but then I wouldn't have broken the curse and I would have lost you forever"
Little Pinocchio walked in the door with his Papa, he saw Emma and quickly walked over to her.
"Hey Emma, did you see those big car's outside. There so cool, they have been driving around town"
"Pinocchio what cars?!" Pinocchio pointed outside to the window where there were huge trucks, driving kinds of trucks have never been in Storybrooke before, everyone was watching them with fascination at something they never encountered.
They noticed men with trench coats and sunglasses step out of the trucks, and head for the diner door.
A group of men walked in with expressionless faces the one in the front scanned the diner with his eyes.
"We are now in control of this town, if any of you try to fight us you will be killed on sight"
Emma went to stand up in her booth, but Neal pushed her down trying to hide her from the council agent's scanning eyes.
"If you know where the Savior is then report to the town hall, and if it is discovered you have withheld information on the Savior whereabouts you will be punished severely" Emma clenched her fist on the table so wanting to take down those men, they were in her town and threatened people. They were going to pay.
"This town is now under The Council's control no one leaves and no one enter's" Emma's eyes started to Glow white a little in flashes, she was getting angry.
They left the diner before Emma could burst, as soon as they were out of sight Emma stood up from the table wanting to go after them. Neal stood up after her and held her back, Snow and David joined them worried for their daughter and what those people were going to do to the town.
"LET ME GO NEAL, LET ME AT THEM!"
"YOU WILL GET YOURSELF KILLED EMMA" Neal shouted back trying to knock some sense into her, which didn't seem to work he gave looks towards her parents for them to help him with her.
They just stood there watching as Emma struggled her white eyes shining full blast, Emma was acting like this because a threat had appeared in town and her family was in danger.
"THEY COULD GO AFTER HENRY!, THINK ABOUT OUR SON"
"I think Regina would have taken him into hiding with her, he will be safe. We have to think about you right now, why do they want you so much?"
"I don't know"
Everyone's phones went off in the diner, except Emma's; Neal answered his phone and saw it was his father.
"Is Emma with you?!"
"Yes"
"You have to meet us in the woods, tell Emma to bring the book"
"What book" As Neal said this a big riot broke out on main street, sounds of guns, swords, crossbows, and prods could be heard.
"she will know" Then Gold hung up his phone, before destroying it so the call couldn't be traced by the council.
Neal lowered his phone as he hung up to face Emma and her parents, he went to ask Emma.
"That was my dad, he says to meet them in the woods. He asked you to bring 'the book'"
Emma tensed when he said book, she started fidgeting in place.
"We need to go back to the station, I have a job to do"
"Give me your hands" Emma stock out her hand for them to join her, they did with a nervous glance then joined hands.
"Hold your breath" They were gone in a flash of bright light from the diner leaving the people inside hopeful of their savior to protect the town and joined in on the fight outside.
This was it. The start of the fight that would lead to the final battle in the land of the saviors birth.
The Enchanted forest.
Light should prevail over the darkness