Little Emma landed on hard ground with a thud. She felt a throbbing pain in her leg and side where she'd landed, and shivered in the cold. She looked around her—she didn't recognize where she was; she wasn't sure she'd ever been here before. There were trees all around her, but she was in a clearing, and snow lightly dusted the ground. In the center of the clearing was a stone well. She looked up. The black shadowy thing that had snatched her from David and Mary Margaret's apartment had dropped her here and flown away. She could still hear Ruby's screams ringing in her ears.
There was a crunch behind her, and she turned quickly. Henry and another boy—the boy from school the day before—emerged from the trees. "Hello, Savior," Henry said icily. His eyes narrowed as he looked over the girl on the ground. He smiled, but his smile was somehow cruel and unnatural, and it scared Emma.
"What are you doing, Henry?" Emma asked, trying to sound more confident than she was.
Henry laughed. "Not Henry," he said, leaning close to Emma and whispering. "Peter Pan." Emma looked confused, and he continued. "I've just borrowed Henry's body. I've been looking for you for some time, Emma."
Emma glared at him, her eyes aflame. She had loads of questions running through her mind, but didn't speak.
"I've been very patient, you know," Pan said. "When I went looking for you, the other Emma found you first and shut my time portal. I was trapped in your miserable world without magic, powerless and alone. I had just enough residual magic to keep myself alive and young."
Emma narrowed her eyes. "How did you get back?" she asked, her curiosity beating out her desire to remain stoic.
A smile crept across Pan's face. "I waited," he said, letting the words sink in. "I waited eighteen long, miserable years, until Henry went and found his mommy and brought her back to Storybrooke." His tone grew sarcastic and he motioned around him. "And when the curse broke, I came here."
Emma tried not to shiver visibly. She was freezing cold, but didn't want to look weak to Pan.
"And then I waited some more," he said. "You see, I needed to let events play out the way they originally did. But you know all about that, don't you?" He shoved his hands in the pockets of his grey coat. "But now, it's time. I've been a patient boy, Emma, and today is the day I get everything I've waited for."
Pan pulled his hand out of his pocket and opened it. He was holding a small scroll with what looked like a ribbon and a piece of paper attached. He worked quickly, moving to the edge of the well and pouring the contents of several small bottles inside.
"What's next?" asked the boy, who was standing next to Pan at the well.
Pan turned to face him with a devious grin. "Next, Curly, I need the heart of the thing I love most."
"Your son? Rumplestiltskin?" the boy asked.
Pan shook his head, almost imperceptibly, and Emma shivered, this time with fear more than cold. "Love can mean a lot of different things," Pan said. "Romance, family, loyalty…"
Curly emitted a small gasp. "You mean…"
"That's right, boy," Pan said, moving toward Curly. "You've been a loyal companion, and I honestly can't thank you enough." His tone was icy. He stretched out a hand and thrust it into Curly's chest, pulling out his red, beating heart, and crushing it. He released his fist, allowing the grey dust to drop into the well. Purple smoke began to rise from the well and stream over the edges, onto the ground.
Pan heard a twig snap behind him, and turned to look. Little Emma had tried to make a run for it, but her foot wasn't fully healed yet, and she'd stumbled down the hill. Pan chuckled and waved a single finger, instantly bringing her back to him. "I do admire your tenacity," he said, as Emma's body slammed against the well and slid to the ground.
"What did you do?" Emma gasped.
"Oh this?" Pan asked, gesturing to the purple smoke that was pouring all around them. "I forget how clueless you are. It's a curse, and it's going to destroy Storybrooke, your family, all of this."
Emma launched herself at the boy, knocking him back a few steps. He countered with magic again, throwing her against the stone well again, and freezing her there. She could see him and hear him, but she couldn't move a muscle.
"Oh Emma," he said. "Let's not make this difficult, shall we?" She glared at him, unable to respond. "Much better," he said, smirking. "Now the last time this particular curse was cast, my son built in an escape hatch, of sorts. It was you—the Savior. You escaped the curse and came back to break it." He looked her over once more, from head to toe. "If I add the heart of the Savior, though, that won't be an option."
Emma strained against her magical bonds, to no avail. Pan came closer, his hand outstretched. Emma closed her eyes. She didn't want to die—not now, not like this. She didn't want the rest of the town to die either. Their faces flashed through her mind—Emma, David, Mary Margaret. She realized that in this moment, as she faced great danger, more than anything else, she wanted her parents. She opened her eyes and looked at Pan again. As she did, there was a flash of blinding white light.
Pan was thrown backwards to the ground. He held his hand as though he was in pain, but he kept his eyes trained on Emma. "My, my, Savior," he whispered. "I didn't expect you to resist, but I do love a fight." He lunged for her again, this time plunging his hand into her chest. Emma gasped and winced in pain. She tried to breath, but it was like all the oxygen had been sucked out of the air.
Then, suddenly, Pan's fingers released her heart, and he began to tremble. He stepped away from her, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. A wave of blue-grey light rippled outward from his body, and as soon as it did, Emma was unfrozen, and collapsed to the ground.
"Emma!" a voice said.
Emma looked up, then drew back quickly as the boy rushed toward her again.
"No, it's me, it's Henry," he said, holding his hands up and stopping a few feet away from her. "I promise; my moms and Mr. Gold figure out how to switch me back."
Emma looked at him warily. Could she trust him? He seemed like Henry again, and something had happened—but was this real, or just another one of Pan's tricks?
Henry drew the scroll from his pocket. "I need to get this to my moms, fast, but I don't want to leave you here hurt and alone." He stretched out a hand toward her.
Emma looked into his eyes. She couldn't explain why exactly, but she believed him. She placed her hand in his, and he pulled her to her feet. He put her arm over his shoulder and his arm around her waist, and they began moving as quickly as they could down the path, back toward town.
Wisps of purple smoke were beginning to appear on the horizon as the heroes rushed out of Gold's shop and down Main Street. They had no idea where Henry would be coming from, but they needed to find him—and, hopefully, the scroll and little Emma—as soon as possible.
They were just past the pharmacy when Henry and little Emma turned the corner behind the library and came into view. "Moms!" Henry shouted, "It worked! It's me!"
The adults ran to the children. Emma, Neal, and Regina quickly enveloped Henry in a hug; Snow and David did the same to little Emma. The parents all checked their children for injuries and spoke over one another, peppering them with questions, verifying that they were okay.
"Did you get the scroll?" Regina asked?
Henry nodded, pulling it from his pocket and handing it to her. Regina took it, sighing with relief, then suddenly falling to the ground. Emma and Henry were immediately at her side. A moment later, she came to and spoke: "I saw what needed to be done."
Little Emma looked from Mary Margaret to David to adult Emma in rapid succession—what was going on? What were they talking about? And now that Henry was back in his own body, where was Pan?
The last of her questions was answered immediately, as Pan appeared in a puff of smoke. Little Emma found herself frozen again, thanks to Pan's magic, and watched in confusion and fear as the next few moments played out. Pan threatened to kill them all, and even moved to begin to do so, but Mr. Gold appeared and stopped him. Emma would have asked what was happening, if she hadn't been frozen in place. She would have cowered in fear, when she saw a dark shadow swooping toward them, but of course, she couldn't move. And she would have screamed when she saw Mr. Gold stab both himself and Pan, sacrificing himself to save everyone else, but she couldn't make a sound. Gold and Pan disappeared, and the others were instantly unfrozen, but Emma stood for a moment, still and shocked. Snow covered her mouth, her eyes welling up with tears. Little Emma watched as the librarian fell to the ground, sobbing.
Regina picked up the scroll once more and held it in her hand, looking at it nervously. Snow noticed and spoke up: "Regina? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," the mayor replied quickly, still staring off into the distance.
"What's going on?" little Emma whispered, turning to look up at David, whose hands were on her shoulders as he stood behind her.
"Pan—Pan cast a curse, on the town, on all of us," David said, looking around at the other adults.
"But he's…" little Emma began.
"Dead," Regina said plainly.
Hook spoke up. "But his curse remains. Now, can you stop it, or should we all start preparing our souls? Because mine's going to take some time."
Just then, Leroy came running up the street, yelling. "It's coming! It's coming!" he shouted. "From all sides! There's no escape!" The wind blew harder, and dark clouds gathered above the town.
"It's not too late," David said. "We can still stop it, right? Regina?"
The mayor looked lost in thought, then suddenly snapped back to the conversation. "Yes," she said, shaking her head slightly. "Yes."
"Wha—what's the price?" adult Emma asked. "Gold said there was a price. What is our price?"
"It's not our price," Regina said solemnly. "It's mine."
"What are they talking about?" little Emma whispered toward her parents. "What is going on?" No one answered her—all eyes were on Regina.
"What are you talking about?" adult Emma asked.
"It's what I felt when I first held it," Regina said. "I have to say goodbye to the thing I love most."
Adult Emma gasped softly and turned to Henry, who stepped forward. "Henry?" she asked, confirming what she already knew.
Regina nodded reluctantly. "I can never see you again. I have no choice. I have to undo what I started."
Little Emma could feel the tension in the air, but still didn't understand what was going on, and the frustration was threatening to boil over in her. "What is happening?" she asked, the urgency clear in her voice.
"The curse—," Mary Margaret said, half to Regina and half to her ten-year-old daughter. "The curse that brought us to Storybrooke…"
"That created Storybrooke," Regina corrected. "It doesn't belong here, and neither do any of us."
"Breaking the curse destroys the town," David said, understanding washing over him. Little Emma looked around frantically.
Regina nodded again. "It will wink out of existence as though it were never here. And everyone will go back to where they're from, prevented from ever returning."
Little Emma's eyes widened. She made eye contact with adult Emma, who stood, similarly dumbfounded. "No, no," the little girl said quietly, shaking her head. Her whole body was tense, and she found herself fighting tears. "I don't want to go back," she whispered.
Adult Emma looked from the girl to Regina. "You'll go back to the Enchanted Forest?" she asked.
Snow reached out to touch little Emma's shoulder, but the girl jerked away, taking a limping step backward to put distance between herself and her parents. She was still shaking her head—her whole body was shaking, actually. "No," she said, her voice thick with emotion. "I don't want to be alone again."
"No, baby," Snow said, stepping toward little Emma, then putting a hand on adult Emma's arm as well. "You were born in the Enchanted Forest," she reminded both her daughters. "You're from there too."
"We'll go back, all of us," Regina said. "Except Henry. He'll stay here, because he was born here."
It was adult Emma's turn to feel her eyes fill with tears. "Alone?" she asked.
"No," Regina said, stepping toward Emma. "You'll take him. Because you're the Savior. You were created to break the curse, and once again, you can escape it."
Little Emma looked at her adult self, trying to process what was happening.
"I don't want to," adult Emma said. "We'll both go back with everyone."
Regina shook her head. "That's not an option. I can't be with him. If I don't pay the price, none of this will work."
The wind whipped around them, and nearby thunder clapped. "Emma, you have to go," Mary Margaret said.
Emma looked at her mother. "But I just found you," she said.
Mary Margaret nodded. "And now it's time for you to leave us again. For your best chance, for his."
"No. No," Emma said. "I—I'm not done. I'm the Savior, right? I'm supposed to bring back all the happy endings. That's what Henry always said."
Mary Margaret smiled sadly. "Happy endings aren't always what we think they will be. Look around you. You've touched the lives of everyone here."
Emma looked around quickly, her eyes scanning the faces of the people standing near her—Neal, Belle, Hook, Leroy, David and Mary Margaret. Her eyes stopped on little Emma, who was looking down at her feet, her hair hanging down in her face. "What about her?" adult Emma asked.
Little Emma looked up quickly. "I want to come with you," she said, the words spilling out so rapidly she nearly tripped over them. "And Henry."
"Uh, I—" adult Emma stumbled over her words, looking first to Mary Margaret, then Regina.
Regina shook her head, then turned to the little girl. "That's… not how this works. You're separated now. You're two people instead of one, and… the curse only allows for one Savior."
Mary Margaret placed a hand on little Emma's shoulder, and tried to hide the hurt she was feeling. "We'll be together," she said. "We'll be okay." She turned back toward adult Emma. "All of us."
"But we're a family," adult Emma said.
Mary Margaret nodded. "Yes, and we always will be. You gave us that."
"You and Henry can be a family, and you can get your wish," David said. "You can be happy."
The two Emmas looked at each other, their matching eyes glued to one another, as though silently communicating the feelings deep in their twin souls. "I don't want to go without you," little Emma whispered. Adult Emma swallowed hard, and gave the little girl a tiny, almost imperceptible nod.
Snow took one of each of her daughters' hands in her own, and looked back and forth between the two blondes. "You can do this," she said, fighting the emotion in her voice. "You both can. It's time for you to have your own adventures." She bit her lip and looked between the two again. "It's time for you both to believe in yourselves. It's time for you to find hope."
Regina spoke again. "We have no choice," she said. "You have to go."
Adult Emma looked at the faces around her once more, then nodded. "Okay."
Soon, they were standing at the edge of town, with Emma's yellow bug parked a few feet from the red spray painted line across the pavement. Little Emma watched as everyone hugged and spoke with adult Emma and Henry. She saw the charged interactions between her adult self and first Neal, then Hook, and it dawned on her that there was still so much she didn't know about adult Emma or her life and relationships. She felt a panic rising in her—a feeling that she needed to find some way to hit the pause button and buy herself the time to sit with adult Emma and ask her a million questions, to get all the instructions she needed for the rest of her life. But she knew that there was no pause button; in fact, the green clouds of the impending curse were drawing closer by the minute. Little Emma found herself withdrawing from the group, pulling herself to the edge and away from the others.
Adult Emma was embracing Belle. She pulled away from her, said a few words, and turned. She stepped toward little Emma, who was staring at the clouds hovering over the far side of the town, and got her attention. "Hey kid," she said softly.
Little Emma turned sharply to see her adult self standing before her. She bit her lip hard, trying not to cry, then flung herself at Emma, wrapping her arms around her waist. Adult Emma enveloped the little girl in her arms, then pulled back slightly to make eye contact with her.
"Hey," adult Emma said. "It's okay. You'll be okay."
Little Emma looked up at her. "I don't want to go," she said quietly.
Emma nodded. "I know. But hey, this can be good, you know? Your life can be good there. It'll be different, but that's not always bad."
Little Emma nodded somberly, and adult Emma continued. "You've gone to new places before. You'll figure it out."
"I'm scared," Little Emma whispered.
Adult Emma nodded. "Me too," she admitted.
David and Mary Margaret approached. "It's time to go," Mary Margaret said. "The curse is almost here." Adult Emma nodded. Snow and Charming wrapped their family in a last, tight embrace—Henry and both Emmas.
Henry and Emma got into the bug, and Emma started the car. Snow held Charming's hand and wrapped her other arm around little Emma. They watched the car drive over the town line just as they were enveloped in thick smoke.
