She felt the color drain from her face. He'd become everything he'd hated. But this couldn't be possible. Could it? "Neal. How – why – what happened?"
"You don't remember?" the man asked with a small smirk as he stepped toward her, before his eyes widened a little. "Oh. That's right. You wouldn't remember. You were from that time that I died in."
She nodded slowly. How was this happening?
"Why are you here, Dark One?" Regina asked, breaking Emma out of the stupor she felt.
"I have a gift for the new little prince," he replied, a toy bear appearing in his hand in a puff of smoke.
Emma saw her parents flinch back in fear, clutching the baby close and she stepped forward, staring at him with wide eyes.
"Don't hurt them or the baby. Please, Neal. I know you're still in there."
For a brief moment, Emma saw the old Neal flash in his eyes, but it was masked again by the darkness. "I have no intention of hurting them Emma. After all, I know what it's like to be without parents." There was a visible wince from Rumplestiltskin at the words."I would never want to hurt their child, or any child. You know me better than that."
Did she though? He was the Dark One now. Who knew how that would change the Neal Cassidy she knew in Portland, or the one she'd found in New York, or even the one that had sacrificed his life to save the entire town?
"Emma, please," Neal said as he held out the gift bag she hadn't noticed before. "I just want to give the baby a gift."
"I'll take that," Anastasia suddenly said as she snatched the bag out of Neal's hand, a pulse of blue magic running down the sides of the bag before she nodded once, holding it out to Emma's parents. "It's clean."
Her father took the bag and slowly took the tissue paper out of it, lifting up a stuffed bear with a small smile. "Well thank you Dar- Neal. I'm sure Leo will appreciate it."
Neal smiled, before turning his attention to the rest of the group gathered in Granny's. "Listen well. All of you. I do not plan to harm the innocent. I do not plan to harm the children. What I do plan is to get revenge for those that have been wronged by the villains in this town.."
Emma blanched. "Neal, no. This isn't you."
"You're right, Emma. It isn't me. Because I'm not the man that died that you knew in the other world. I'm someone much, much stronger," the man replied.
"Neal, please, please don't do this," Emma begged. She didn't want to see him turn into a killer. Not like his father had been long ago.
"I have to Emma. The villains in this town have gotten away with too much for too long. It's time someone actually gives them what they deserve. All of those dirty little secrets will be coming out." He wasn't looking at her as he spoke – instead he was glaring right at Hook. "Tell me… did you tell Emma what you did to me before you asked for a kiss in Neverland?"
Hook stepped forward, holding out his hand in a gesture of defeat. "Baelfire – "
"It's Neal!"
Emma's heart sank as she looked between Neal and Hook. She knew, of course, the story of Peter Pan in this world – how Hook was the villain and Pan was the hero, but she'd hoped that it wouldn't be the same when it came to the real version. Pan on his own had been bad enough.
"Oh… judging by the look on your face, Emma… I'd say you don't know what happened. That's so typical of Hook to not tell the full truth of a story," Neal said. Again, there was a brief flicker of the man she knew before it was masked by the darkness and his gaze, dark and cold, turned back to the pirate captain.
"What are you talking about?" Emma asked.
"I'm talking about the reason I was a Lost Boy. The reason I was able to make that stupid coconut pointing to home. It was because Hook abandoned me on Neverland. He turned me in to Pan."
Emma felt sick, and there was a visible shift away from Hook from those standing nearer to him.
"You… you abandoned him to Pan?" Henry whispered.
"Henry, I… it was an accident."
"An accident?! No, Hook, An accident was me landing on your damn ship to begin with when I sacrificed myself for the Darlings. You deliberately sold me out to Pan. You could have taken me home to Mr. and Mrs. Darling but instead you sold me out to a monster." Emma could see the emotions in Neal's eyes, but the darkness was trying to mask them again. But she could only imagine what it was like to be abandoned to someone like Pan as a teenager.
She wondered if she could have been taken to a place like Neverland, or what it would have been like.
Hell. It would have been hell.
"I'm so sorry you had to go through that, Neal," she said softly. "But please… you can't do this. Let me help you find a way to break the Dark One's curse."
"There are only two ways to break it, Emma. You know that as well as I do. True Love's Kiss… or death. But then if someone tries to kill me, well… then they become the Dark One. I don't think you'd want to do that, would you?"
Emma shuddered at the thought.
"I didn't think so. Rest well. All of you. For tomorrow, the real fun begins," Neal said, vanishing in a cloud of black smoke.
Emma inhaled sharply, before she felt herself fall to her knees, overwhelmed with everything that had just happened.
"Oh Emma…" her mother said, kneeling down next to her. "It'll be okay…"
"I-it won't be, mom…" she whispered. "The last time I saw Neal… he was dying in my arms! Zelena had – had led him to his death. She'd told him how to bring Rumplestiltskin back from the Dark One's vault!"
"The price was to become the Dark One. Not to die," Rumplestiltskin said. "That was what the vault was really supposed to be, and what I asked Zelena for after you and the pirate left my castle in the past. I couldn't leave with myself if my son had died. You should understand that, Emma, after all you went through to save Henry in Neverland."
Rubbing her arm, Emma nodded slowly. "But to turn him into the Dark One? The thing he feared the most?" she whispered.
"I didn't have a choice. Magic comes with a price, Miss Swan. You know that as well as I do. It was either become the Dark One… or death."
Emma felt her heart sink. Of course she didn't want Neal to die – he was Henry's father, her first love. There was so much they'd needed to say to each other, and now they could because he wasn't dead. But he was still alive, and that was important, and he wasn't the Neal she knew in… well, she supposed it was the old timeline, or whatever. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to handle this. She didn't think she was true love with Neal, and she certainly didn't want to see anyone die… but she was the Savior. She had to try to save him, didn't she?
"The good thing is, it seems like he isn't going to want to physically harm any of us," her father said, squeezing her shoulder gently in an attempt to comfort her. It didn't work, but Emma was grateful for the attempt.
"Yeah but… with all of the secrets that are going to come out, who's to say that we won't destroy each other?" Emma whispered as she slowly rose to her feet and rubbed at her eyes. "I mean – I'm grateful that he's alive, that Henry has his father because… because in the other timeline, Henry didn't have Regina's spell broken on him until after the funeral."
"That happened," Regina said.
"Which means Henry didn't get to say goodbye to Neal. I was feeling so guilty about it, and that guilt should be gone, but instead it's changed to guilt over Neal being the Dark One at all," she continued.
Rumplestiltskin stepped forward slowly. "That curse can be broken though, Miss Swan. There is no bringing back the dead. It is the cardinal rule of magic."
Emma's breath hitched as something clicked. "Wait. True love doesn't have to just be between a potential romantic couple. It can be between a parent and child. Regina and I both had one with Henry. Why couldn't you have one with him, Rumplestiltskin? You're his father!" This whole thing could have been fixed if Rumplestiltskin had given Neal a True Love's Kiss when the whole mess at the Dark One's Vault started!
"I tried. I believe something additional was added to the Dark One's vault when Zelena planted the book in Belle's library. That… or Baelfire didn't believe in my love for him. But either way, it didn't work with me. I'm sorry."
"You tried. That's all anyone can ask for," her mother said, bouncing Leo in her arms. "You're a hero, Rumplestiltskin."
The former imp shook his head. "If I was a hero, I would be able to save my son from this fate."
"Even heroes stumble."
Rumplestiltskin could only nod slightly. "But for it to be my child…"
"We'll find a way to bring him back without killing him," Emma said, looking at Rumplestiltskin. "I promise."
Emma knew Neal was stubborn. She knew he was bitter and hurt by the past. She knew he hadn't really been able to deal with all of these things since she'd found him in New York. She couldn't imagine how amplified those thoughts and feelings were now that he was the ultimate in darkness.
But as the party tried to get back to normal, no one could suspect what the Dark One was planning as his next move…
"Okay," he whispered to the bird cupped in his hands as he stood in the clock tower. "You know where to go. New York City."
With that, Neal released the bird into the air, watching as it was swallowed by the night sky.