Dark Hollow
Emerlyn sat alone on a rock, away from all of the adults as Neal explained his plan. She looked down, scarred and calloused hands tucked into her lap tightly as she listened. It was the only chance they'd had to get off of the island, and he'd promised to help her. Granted, she hadn't held up her end of the deal yet. She just couldn't bring herself to talk to her father about it all just yet.
"Pan's Shadow?" Emma asked in disbelief, looking at Neal in concern. "That's your way off of the island?"
Neal sighed softly. "Unfortunately it's the only way."
"Oh," David said slowly. "We thought you learned how to navigate the stars."
Neal laughed a little. "I know how to navigate the stars. But I can't fly."
"I'm guessing that's where the Shadow comes in," Mary Margaret said simply.
Neal nodded. "That's why we have to capture it."
"Capture it?" Emma asked in shock. "We've never been within ten feet of Pan unless he wanted us to be. Sneaking up on him to steal his Shadow, that sounds insane."
"Pan's Shadow isn't attached to his body," Emer snapped, looking up at Emma with icy blue eyes. "We don't have to go anywhere near him."
Emma seemed a little surprised at the hostility from the teen, though she knew why it was there. She'd heard her secret just like the others, knew that she was a large part of the rift between her and Hook, she just hadn't expected the Lost Girl to be so forward about it
"His Shadow is an entity unto itself," Killian continued to explain, not quite looking at his snappish and impertinent daughter. He still wasn't sure how to fix things between them, but it was all he'd been thinking about until now. "It can carry out his will from miles away."
"What does that mean for us?" David asked.
"It means we can get his Shadow without having to be anywhere near Pan," Neal explained quickly. "As long as we know where to look, I know where to look."
"Okay," the Savior replied quickly, pushing to her feet. "You and I are on Shadow duty."
"As am I," Killian interjected quickly. "This trek won't be easy. You could use another veteran of the island."
"Yeah," Neal said slowly, a little sheepish. "We're going to need Emer, too."
"What?!" Emerlyn, Emma, and Killian all demanded at the same time.
Emma thought that was stupid.
Killian didn't want to put his daughter anywhere near Pan's Shadow.
Emer didn't want to go anywhere with Emma or Killian, no matter the reason.
"Okay, easy!" Neal defended quickly. "Just hear me out. We need Emer's magic. Her voice is the only thing I've ever seen that was able to hurt the shadow. We might need the extra juice."
Emma sighed, conceding rather quickly.
Killian wasn't backing down, though. "Are you mad? That would only make it easier for Pan to take her back."
"It's also our best chance at catching the Shadow," Emer said sharply. "So I'll go."
Killian sighed, but didn't argue any more.
"In the meantime," David said, trying to change the subject to keep the group in some semblance of calm. "We'll give Tinker Bell a heads up. See if she can make good on her promise to get us into Pan's camp."
"Okay," Emma said quickly, back to business. "We'll meet back at Tink's. Then we'll get Henry and get the hell back to Storybrooke."
Emer stood and slipped out of camp without a word to any of the adults. All she wanted to do was get the hell out of Neverland.
They made it back to Neal's cave, where he began digging around, looking for something.
"I don't think we're going to find Pan's Shadow in here, mate," Killian said, watching.
"Yeah, we're looking for something else," Neal said quickly as he dug around. "It's a coconut that's carved in two. One part holds a candle, the other part goes on top—"
"Yeah, your star map," Emma said quickly. "We hid it. I'll go grab it."
"I owe you thanks for being so understanding," Killian said after Emma had moved off to get the coconut.
"Yeah, of course," Neal said simply. "I don't have a good relationship with my father. I don't want this to tear you and Emer apart when you just got each other back."
Emer snorted. "That's not what he was talking about."
Neal looked at her in confusion before turning back to Killian. "Then… understanding about what?"
"Emma and me," Killian said slowly.
Neal turned his body to square up to him. "Emma and you?"
"Our dalliance," he said, like he was confused that Neal didn't know what he was talking about.
Emer snorted, shaking her head. This wasn't going to end well.
"You don't know, do you?" Killian asked slowly, suddenly more hesitant. "Well, this is awkward. The two of us shared a kiss. Apologies, I assumed she told you."
Neal looked him up and down for another moment before he spoke. "Honestly, it probably slipped her mind. We're kind of focused on getting our son back. And if I were you, I'd focus a little less on Emma, and focus a little more on making your little girl feel like she's able to trust you again."
Killian's jaw ticked. That had struck a nerve, but he tried to stay composed otherwise. "Of course."
They were still in a stand off when Emma returned with the coconut, faltering in front of them as she looked between them. "Everything alright?"
Emer looked between them with a frown. She wasn't in the mood to watch the two square off in a who-gets-the-Savior contest.
"Couldn't be better," Neal assured.
Emma handed him the coconut. "Here it is. Your star map."
"It's not a star map," Neal corrected as he pushed it into his bag. "It's what we're gonna use to trap Pan's Shadow."
"A coconut?" Killian asked in disbelief. "Are you daft?"
"You came to Neverland on a pirate ship, through a magic portal, but you draw the line at a magic coconut?" Neal responded, raising an eyebrow.
"Fair enough," Killian said simply.
"Where to next?" Emerlyn asked, her tone holding some slight dread. She had a fairly good idea.
Neal looked at her a little apologetically. "Dark Hollow."
Emer cringed a little. "I was afraid you'd say that."
"Really?" The Savior asked with a small huff. "Why couldn't it be called something like Sunshine Valley or Rainbow Cove?" She looked between the two men, and Emer. "What exactly is it?"
"Just what it sounds like," Killian said simply. "The darkest spot on the entire island. Any light that makes its way in is snuffed out by the shadows that call it home. Even I manage to avoid it."
"Well, time to break tradition," Emma replied. "Dark Hollow it is. That's where we're gonna find Pan's Shadow, right?"
"Yeah," Neal confirmed quickly. "It's the only way we'll ever get back to Storybrooke." He left toward the exit of the cave.
Emerlyn followed him out without a word to the others. She wasn't sure what to do about her father anymore.
Neal led them through the woods, stopping at the edge of thick brush. "We'll have to cut our way through."
"Here," Emma said as she pulled her blade from the sheath on her back. "Use this."
Neal looked at the blade in surprise. "My cutlass? You find it in the cave?"
"No," Emma answered, "actually Hook gave it to me."
Neal looked at Killian in surprise. "Since when are you sentimental?"
Emer couldn't think of a time he hadn't been sentimental, but maybe that was something else that had changed.
Killian shrugged a little. "I thought Emma would wish to have something to remember you by."
"Oh. Thanks." Neal's tone had gone flat. "She's got me now." He turned to hack at the overgrown jungle in front of them.
Emma stopped Killian. "What was that about?"
Emerlyn pushed around Emma before moving forward, following Neal.
"You really need to talk to your dad," Neal said as he cut apart brush in front of them.
"Why do I have to start the conversation?" Emer asked with a sigh. "I'm not even sure where to start. He heard everything I had to say."
Neal sighed. "I know, Emer, but you're going to be miserable for a long time if you don't talk to him."
"I'm trying to figure it out," she promised. "But I don't know what to say to him."
"Okay," Neal conceded softly. "You know if you need anything, just come talk to me."
The Lost Girl nodded. "I know. Thank you, Neal, for everything."
As the two of them stumbled onto the Dark Hollow, Neal turned back to get the other adults.
Emer waited at the edge of the Dark Hollow, watching the portion of land carefully to make sure nothing tried to jump out at her while she stood there, waiting.
Killian was the first adult to reach her, his blue eyes wide as he let out an audible breath of relief to see that she was okay.
Emer looked at him with a little surprise before Neal and Emma caught up, and they stepped into the Dark Hollow.
Wind rushed around them, whistling eerily through the mostly barren trees as they dodged brambles and fallen branches.
"This is where the victims of Pan's Shadow reside?" Killian asked as they pushed through the dark and dank and twisted portion of land.
Something roared behind them, and Emer jumped.
Killian ached to reassure her, but was afraid there was no use.
"Yeah," Neal answered as he glanced back at them. "Forced to spend eternity in this darkness. Come on. Let's be sure not to join them."
Emer swallowed nervously before she kept moving forward slowly, cautiously.
The group crept through the Dark Hollow slowly, Neal leading the way, Emma behind him, and Emer and Killian bringing up the rear.
Emer's heart hammered in her chest. Even Pan had never been cruel enough to hide her in here. He might've been playing cruel, cruel games, but he had at least wanted her alive. If Pan's Shadow found them, and tore theirs out… well, that was an unlucky fate, indeed.
"So we just wait for Pan's Shadow to show up?" Emma asked as they stopped beside a fallen tree that made a small crook a single person, child or adult, could tuck themselves away in.
"Yeah," Neal informed. "And when it does, we'll be prepared."
"Wanna tell me how that coconut works?" The Savior asked, frowning slightly as he pulled it out of his bag.
Neal began to walk forward, looking for somewhere to put the coconut down so he could light the candle as he explained. "We light the candle and the Shadow's drawn to it. When it gets close enough, the flame'll suck it in. We put the lid on, and it's trapped inside this bad boy."
"Sounds like a fine plan, except for one thing," Killian said as he stepped up behind his daughter to get a closer look, and place his unlit lantern on a fallen log. "Our lanterns went out. How the devil are we going to ignite that bloody thing?"
Emer stepped from in between Killian and Neal. She still wasn't overly happy with her father, and if he and Neal were going to get in another pissing contest over the Savior, she wanted away from it.
Neal turned toward him quickly, snapping open a metal box like the one David had used to light the coconut in Neal's cave. "Welcome to the 21st Century," he told the pirate sharply.
He kept flicking at a small metal bit that continuously sparked, but would never actually catch a flame. The gusting winds of the Dark Hollow made sure of that.
Emerlyn rolled her eyes and started to wander away slowly, thinking. She'd never tried to light anything with her magic. She wondered if she could.
"How's it coming over there, guys?" Emma asked as Neal finally got the tiny flickering flame to stay, covering it with his other hand as he inched the flame toward the candle.
"Hang on," Neal said quickly.
"Let me help," Killian offered, leaning toward him.
"I got it," Neal said in a quick rejection of Hook's offer.
Hook snorted, not taking the rejection that there was seemingly no reason for well. "I've only got one hand, and I could do better than that."
Emer rolled her blue eyes from the log she sat on, watching the adults bicker as the gusting wind only succeeded in further tangling her thick dark hair.
"You know what?" Neal snapped, losing the flame on the small metal box. "Now's not the time to try to impress Emma."
"Oh, you think that's what I'm doing?" Killian replied sharply.
"Yeah, I do," Neal said again, tone only growing more fed up. "So why don't you go make sure a shadow doesn't snatch up your daughter while we're in here instead of me having to be her dad while we try to save my son?"
"You're the one that thought it was a good idea to bloody bring her here!" Killian snarled. "If anything happens to her, it's on you."
"No, it's on you," Neal shot back. "You're the one that doesn't know how to take care of your little girl."
Killian let out another low snarl, moving like he was going to knock Neal's lights out before Emma spoke and it cut him off.
"Really?" The Savior demanded. "You're doing this now?"
"Finally," Emerlyn said as she stood up and walked closer to the adults. "Something Emma and I agree on. Stop arguing and light the candle."
Neal huffed and handed the little metal box to Killian for him to try lighting the candle himself.
When the pirate couldn't manage to light the box in the first few clicks, Neal jumped to take it back. "Harder than it looks, huh, pal? Give it to me."
Killian didn't let go.
"Give it to me!" Neal insisted again, now trying to pull it from the pirate's hand.
The two began to grapple.
"Stop it!" Emer shouted, trying to shove herself between them before something bad happened.
The little flame box flew from both of their hands, and Emerlyn frowned deeply at the both of them. "Really?" She snapped, shaking her head. "I thought adults were supposed to be mature."
The two adult men huffed, walking to the other side of the tiny clearing they were in.
Emerlyn turned to follow as Emma picked up the coconut, but the Lost Girl froze at the sound of a roar behind them. Pan's Shadow was here. She turned back around slowly and saw glowing white eyes looking her up and down.
Emma pulled the cutlass from its sheath on her back. "We really don't have time for this. Is that Pan's Shadow?"
"Yeah, that's Pan's Shadow," Neal shouted over the rush of harder winds blowing in their ears.
Killian pulled his sword free and stepped up beside Emer, moving like he was going to push his daughter behind him.
Emer wouldn't go. Her heart was pounding, and she had to clench her fists to keep her hands from shaking, but she had the only weapon that would work against him, that could hurt him until they managed to trap him in the coconut. Her voice.
Two other shadows appeared beside Pan's Shadow.
"What about those other two?" Hook asked in a shout over the howling winds.
The Shadow roared and lunged for them alongside its two extras.
"He's controlling them!" Neal shouted as the group tried to duck around the swarming shadows.
Killian and Emma sliced at them with blades, as if they wouldn't just pass straight through, but it was all they had.
The shadows continued to roar over the sounds of wailing winds, the attempted act of hurting them doing nothing but angering Pan's Shadow.
Emma ducked into the crook of the broken tree, curling around the coconut that could be their only chance.
Hook let out a shout as he was shoved into a tree by one of the extra shadows, hitting it with a loud thud.
"Papa!" Emerlyn shouted in a panic, heartbeat picking up speed as Neal was dragged away by the other extra shadow, and he shouted for Emma.
Pan's Shadow turned its attention on the Lost Girl. "Pan ordered me to bring you back to him," the Shadow growled as it rushed forward, pinning Emer to the ground. "But Pan's not here. You've come into my territory. I'll do what I like with you."
She heard Neal and her father crying out in pain as the two other shadows began to try ripping out the shadows of the adult men. Emer wasn't sure what was worse, their shouts in pain or the tearing sound of their shadows being removed.
Pan's Shadow laughed cruelly, but the sound came out as more of a snarl as he began to reach inside the Lost Girl and rip out her own shadow.
Pain shot through her entire system, like she was being pulled apart by a team of horses. Every joint in her body screamed in agony, every muscle burned like fire, and her head throbbed. Her cries of pain were drowned out by the blood roaring in her ears.
She had to get him off of her. There was only one thing she could do.
She summoned as much magic as she could manage in such pain, brought down to the most basic of her instincts to save herself and her family, and with everything she had in her, she screamed.
The sound itself would've brought anyone normal to their knees. It was high-pitched, and desperate, but it was the magic behind it that managed to save her.
Pan's Shadow wailed in pain and anger as the force of the magic from the ear-damning sound knocked it backwards, almost to the edge of the small area they'd invaded in the Dark Hollow. The dead trees around them, standing or fallen, cracked down the middle like a shock-wave had hit them.
The intense and powerful magic from the sound destroyed the two shadows that had attacked Killian and Neal, and the two men were dropped back to the ground in heaps, ears ringing and bodies aching, but they were alive and conscious.
Emerlyn, on the other hand, was trying everything in her power to push herself up, but she couldn't manage it on trembling, weak arms and a dizzyingly throbbing head. She done too much with the magic. It had completely and utterly drained her of energy.
Pan's Shadow roared, starting to soar back to the Lost Girl and finish ripping out her shadow, knowing that this time she couldn't save herself, before it faltered.
Emma had managed to light the candle.
It flew toward the light, but got too close, and was sucked inside.
The Savior closed the lid as quickly as she could.
The world around them went still.
Killian pushed himself up as quickly as he could, groaning quietly at the achiness through his whole body before he scrambled to his daughter on his hand and knees, finding no point in standing when he was just going to kneel beside her again.
Emerlyn tried to push herself up one more time before her arms gave out again.
This time, her father was there to catch her before she collapsed completely onto the ground.
He pushed her hair back from her face gently, looking over her quickly for any sign of external injury, still breathing heavily himself. "Em, are you alright?"
Emer wasn't sure how to answer that. She couldn't even find the energy to speak.
"I'll take that as a no," Killian whispered, his blue eyes filled with more concern than she expected to see there. He slowly, carefully scooped her into his arms. After so many years on this island, she weighed practically nothing. "Rest, Em. I promise everything will be alright."
Emer laid her head against her father's shoulder and closed her eyes.
Neal looked at Killian as they all stood to leave. "She alright?"
"She will be," the pirate replied, careful of where he situated his hook while carrying his daughter. "For now, she needs rest."
Emma looked between the Jones's before turning to Neal, the ringing in her ears beginning to subside. "You said we needed her because of her magic. Did you know she could do that?"
"Yeah," Neal said slowly, "but not at that level of intensity. Thank God she could, though."
Emma nodded slowly, agreeing. If she hadn't, it didn't matter whether Emma had managed to light the candle or not, Pan's Shadow was too distracted by the Lost Girl to pay the light behind it any attention. It would've killed all three of them first.
Killian carefully adjusted his daughter in his arms before the group left to meet back at Tinkerbell's.
Emerlyn was beginning to rouse up again as leaves ruffled around them when they made it back to Tink's tree-house. She started to lift her head up, but she was still exhausted, and couldn't find it in herself to put forward the effort.
"It's okay, Em," Killian whispered into her hair when she began shifting slightly in his hold. "We just made it back to Tinkerbell's. You can rest for a little whle longer."
She took a deep breath before managing to speak for the first time since the Dark Hollow, her voice hoarse and a bit shaky. "We need to talk, Papa."
Killian sighed softly, nodding. "Indeed we do, my little star."