Emma knew she should have been eating something that was a bit better for her than a bear claw for lunch, but being back in the groove of finding missing people had made her go back into her old eating habits.

Chuckling, she couldn't help but think about what her parents would say if they saw her eating this for lunch. They'd be more gentle about the fact that she was eating crap.

Then there would be Regina with an annoyed, yet amused "can't you at least order a grilled cheese or something? Honestly." And then of course, she'd tell Henry to actually order food and not a donut.

Finally Neal (her Neal, not the Dark One that was running around town tormenting everyone) would simply laugh at all of them and shrug, joining her in having a donut (his would be jelly filled of course) for lunch because that was just what they did. It was what they'd had to do when they were on the streets. Donuts were cheap. They were broke. It was that simple.

Neal. Oh Neal. She hated this. Neal didn't deserve it. No one deserved to have the Dark One's curse imposed on them, but especially not someone like Neal. Someone who had dedicated their life to avoiding darkness and running from it was forced to carry the world's darkness inside him.

It made Emma sick, and she clutched the bear claw tighter in her fist, feeling the sticky frosting and soft pasty dig under her nails as she looked down at the information she'd managed to find on Lily. She worked at an office in town and came here quite often for lunch. Emma hadn't been able to get in to see her, so she was banking on Lily coming here.

The sudden ringing of her phone snapped her out of her thoughts, and she swiftly lifted it to her ear, finding her son on the other line.

"Hey kid. Everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. I just wanted to see how your search for Lily was going," Henry replied. "So… how is it?"

"Slower than I'd like it to but I'm hoping I'll be able to find her soon," she replied. "What have you been up to? Have your mom or Hook come out of hiding yet?"

"Gramps said Hook tried early this morning, but he ran into a former Lost Boy with a grudge who'd managed to find a posse of people with issues with Hook."

"A posse? Really?" She could have laughed at the irony that out of all the things in Henry's sentence, the word "posse" was the thing she took issue with.

Henry laughed on the other end. "Whatever. You know what I mean. But I haven't seen mom at all. But she's been sending me letters so that's better than nothing."

She frowned, wiping her other hand off on a napkin. "Wow. I'm sorry to hear that kid. I'm sure she's missing you a lot."

"Yeah, I know. But this will blow over soon," the familiar hope was in his voice, and Emma could practically see the smile on his face.

"We can only hope, kid," she said, looking up as the bell over the door chimed, feeling her eyes widen when she noticed who had walked in. "Henry, I gotta go. I'll call you later."

"Okay. I love you mom."

"Love you too kid."

Emma ended the call and stood, going over to the black haired woman. "Lily. It's been a while."

She could see tension build in the woman's shoulders as she slowly turned around. "Emma. How did you find me?"

"Your mom sent me to find you," Emma said with a small frown. "And as for how, well, I have my methods of finding people."

Lily blinked, stepping out of the line. "My mom? Don't you mean moms? And I talked to them a week ago. I don't know why they'd need you to find me. They know exactly where I live."

Moms? Okay so Cruella de Vil was in a relationship with Ursula. Right. Just another thing that her brain was going to have to reconcile when she got a moment to breathe.

"I don't mean them, Lily. I mean your birth mom," Emma said. "Your birth mom is looking for you."

That had Lily pausing, looking at her seriously. "Oh. So Maleficent finally wants to talk to me?"

It was Emma's turn to blink in surprise. "You know?"

The other woman sighed and pulled out her phone, holding up a finger for Emma to be quiet. "Hi, Ken? It's Lily. Listen, I have a family emergency I have to take care of so I'm clocking out for the day. Thanks." With that done, Lily turned to Emma again. "Yeah. I've known my whole life that you're the Savior. I meant to tell you when we were together but you stormed off when you found out I had a family that I didn't have time."

"And odds are I wouldn't have believed you," she replied with a sigh. "Come on. We should talk about why your birth mom took so long to call."

"You killed her?!" Lily asked in a harsh whisper, leaning toward Emma with wide eyes. "What the hell, Emma?"

"I didn't know! Not at that point! At that point she was a fire-breathing dragon who had what I thought was my dying son's only hope!" Emma shot back, holding up her hands in defeat. "But she's alive now because of Neal."

"Neal. Your, what, husband?"

Emma froze, feeling some heat beginning to creep onto her cheeks. "Uh. It's hard to explain. He's my son's father. My… ex." But she did love him. She'd admitted it to him before he was presumed dead, to her parents, but she wasn't sure if she was ready to leap into another life with him.

Lily frowned. "Oh. I see. But you think there's hope for a reconciliation?"

Emma hesitated. She hated that even after all this time, Lily seemed to be able to read her like a book. "I don't know. He's… well he's turned into something called the Dark One. He's the epitome of darkness now. So I don't know if it's possible."

"Oh. That sounds horrible. Um. But he brought back my birth mom so he can't be that bad… right?" Lily asked, looking uncomfortable with the topic.

"I don't know. But anyway… she does want to see you. Come back to Storybrooke with me, please."

Lily gave her a smile. "What took you so long to ask?"

Emma grabbed her keys and rose from her seat. "Let's get your bags packed and go then."

If they were lucky, they could make it back to Storybrooke before anything else happened.

"Ana, come on. Regina and Rumple need your help to protect the town. And really I might need your help to protect the town from Rumple…" Belle called, knocking on the door to Ana and Will's apartment with a frown. The moment Rumple had gotten the text from Emma about who was controlling Neal, he'd been livid and on edge, having locked himself in the basement of their home. She couldn't tell what he was doing, nor did he tell her, but she was relieved she'd managed to coax him out to sleep and eat.

And then there was Regina, who hadn't shown her face in public since the night before when she'd nearly been attacked by the man at the town hall meeting.

Belle was worried. With Emma out of town, it was all hands on deck to make sure nothing happened while she was gone. She and the others knew that they couldn't rely on Emma for everything. After all, they were heroes before Emma had come to town. They knew how to protect themselves.

"Anastasia, please," Belle called again, knocking louder against the smooth wood of the door.

Finally, Will pulled the door open, quickly slipping into the hallway with Belle. "Hey… sorry we weren't there last night to help get everyone settled. Hope everything went okay."

"Will, where's Ana?" She didn't know why there was a sense of dread beginning to form in the pit of her stomach, but she didn't like it.

Will scratched at the back of his neck nervously. "It's… sort of a long story. See… Ana's mum isn't exactly a fan of mine and we sort of… accidentally… knocked her and Drizella into the Land of Untold Stories as we were escaping to Wonderland."

She frowned. That couldn't be right. "Snow told me that Ella lived with her stepmother and two stepsisters during the curse. Like her story says she did before the ball."

"Aye…" Will muttered. "She did. But they were castle servants that she lived with during the curse. Thomas told me that. Ana was in Wonderland, and her mother and sister were in the Land of Untold Stories. But now that those people are in Storybrooke, Ana's scared. She's not very good at confrontation and her mother is scarier than Regina, Cora, and Zelena all put together into one super-witch. And Lady Tremaine doesn't even have magic."

Belle huffed, feeling her nostrils flare. "Then that's all the more reason why she has to confront her mother. Ella could be in danger now that Lady Tremaine is here!" she told him, making a mental note to alert Snow to that little detail as soon as she could. Since Lady Tremaine didn't have magic, Snow would be the perfect person to watch out for Ella, especially since they had been friends in the Enchanted Forest.

"I know," Will groaned, "we're not exactly used to this being heroes thing yet."

The librarian exhaled slowly through her nose as she looked at him. "That doesn't mean you just give up when something terrifying comes along."

"You don't know her mother…" Will tried.

"So you're going to be a coward then?" Belle asked, knowing how much power the word could hold over people. "After everything you both went through, you're going to choose the cowardly way out?"

Will sighed and opened the door. "Come in."

Belle gave him a triumphant smile as she stepped into the apartment, finding Anastasia laying on the sofa in an oversized hoodie and sweatpants, looking very un-Anastasia like.

"Anastasia – " she started with a sigh, before the woman sat up and looked at her.

"Do you know what it's like to have a mother like her, Belle?" Anastasia said. "Do you know what it's like to listen to her day in and day out about how you're so perfect, so beautiful, so talented, and then when someone else gets the glory you were raised to do, to suddenly hear how stupid and worthless you are? To constantly have your dreams shattered because you need to marry a prince, or a duke?"

"I don't. But she doesn't hold the power anymore, Anastasia. You do. Look at you! You were a queen. You have magic! You have friends! You have more than anything she could ever understand. Because she will never understand what it's like to be good."

Anastasia swallows tight, biting her lip. Belle could see the conflict in her eyes.

"What do you say?"

"Okay. What do I need to do?"

Belle smiled in relief. "Well, the hospital could use a protective barrier around it, just in case. And then I'd go see David. He might have something else for you to do."

Anastasia nodded. "Okay. I'll be down there in ten minutes. And Belle?"

Belle turned back around, having started making her way to the door. "Yeah, Ana?"

"Thank you. That's… that's exactly what I needed to hear."

She smiled. "You're welcome. I'll see you later guys," she said, waving as she left the apartment, feeling relieved that she managed to get Anastasia to come out of hiding. The last thing Storybrooke needed was for three of its most powerful witches to be in hiding or out of town for the foreseeable future.

Unless that was exactly what Hyde wanted.

Regina and Anastasia hiding, Emma out of town, Rumple and Maleficent too focused on their children to focus on the town… she wasn't sure how powerful Ursula or Cruella was but regardless, they weren't exactly the noble sort, unless they too had undergone a massive change during their time in the Land Without Magic.

"Oh no," Belle whispered to herself, pulling her phone out of her pocket and dialing Snow's number as she swiftly made her way back to the library. "Snow? It's Belle. Meet me at the library. It's important."

Snow and Charming stared at her with wide eyes as they sat in the library only moments later after she'd told them about the conversation with Anastasia and Will.

"It's a near-perfect plan," Charming said. "But now we're on to him and we can stop him."

"How? He has Neal under his control."

"We find the dagger and get Neal on our side," Charming said, as if it was as easy to find the Dark One's dagger as it was to pick up a loaf of bread at the store.

Belle frowned. "How? We don't know where he's keeping it." And if it was kept on Hyde's person, well, that caused a bigger problem.

Charming didn't seem deterred. "Neal is part of our family. We owe it to him to try to find it, no matter how daunting it feels. So what do we know about Hyde's story?"

"He's a scientist. He and Dr. Jekyll," Belle said with a frown. "Actually, Jekyll is the one that created the potion that caused Hyde to form."

Snow's eyes widened as she bounced Leo on her lap. "I… have noticed a bit of a pattern."

"What is it?" Belle asked.

The woman's green eyes darted nervously around the room as if looking for Hyde to pop out of nowhere before she finally spoke. "Well... I've noticed that the – for lack of a better word – bad things seem to happen around the time when the sun goes down. The airship crashing, Neal's revelation, Maleficent's revival… it all happened when it was getting close to nightfall."

Belle stared, before nodding in agreement. "You're right Snow. That's exactly what's happened so far. Which means… who know what he could be planning for tonight."

Charming looked at his watch and gasped. "It's four o'clock. The sun is going to set soon."

Snow stood quickly, handing Leo over to Charming. "I'm going to find Regina. We're going to need all hands we can get to protect the town tonight."

Belle nodded. "I'll go see if Rumple has anything ready to help us protect the town." He'd sent her the Pandora's Box when he'd been in Neverland. Surely there was something else he had up his sleeve that non-magic users could use.

With a last worried glance between the three, they went their separate ways.

"I still don't know how you could manage to stay on this boat for so long," Regina said, drumming her fingers against the wooden table in boredom as she looked at the captain, who was nursing a black eye with a bag of frozen peas Regina had conjured up from her freezer. The gentle rocking of the ship had made her nauseous at the start, but she'd grown used to it.

Hook only let out a small chuckle. "Well, in times like these, I'd use the ship to make a getaway. But since we're trapped in this town, well… it's safer to stay here than in town. Especially since you put that magic on it to keep people out."

"Which is why you shouldn't have left this morning," Regina shot back, standing to get the now whistling tea kettle on the stove. "What Neal said… was it true?"

The man's shoulders slumped. "Aye. All of it is true. But he doesn't know the full story. The truth was, his mother and I decided to run off together. It was a few years later that we came back, and the crocodile had become the Dark One himself. Baelfire had gone. And when we saw each other again all of that bad blood came rushing back. He and I fought, I lost my hand… but it was his father that dealt the fatal blow to Milah and caused me to go to Neverland in the first place."

She frowned as she looked at him. "I see. I wonder if he knows about that?"

Hook shrugged. "Who knows. If he does he might not even believe it with his darkness. He's not exactly being as rational as he used to be."

"No, he's not. But I suppose this needed to all come out eventually. I didn't think Henry's father would be the catalyst for all of my crimes coming tonight but… here we are," she sighed, feeling her shoulders slump. "I just don't know how we can possibly make up for what we've done with so many angry people here."

"Maybe you were right in Neverland. Maybe we don't deserve a happy ending."

She wanted to agree with him, considering all that had happened to them, but instead, she thought she'd try something new, and shook her head. "No. I was wrong. And I don't know about you, but I'm going to fight for my happy ending, no matter what Hyde wants. The people from the Land of Untold Stories are getting a second chance, and that's what I felt I was getting in the curse. So if they can get a second chance, we can too, right?"

God, she sounded so much like her step-daughter, but at the moment, those little hope speeches were making perfect sense.

Hook hesitated a little, but eventually, he nodded in agreement. "We could have villains in this town besides Hyde. Why do they deserve a second chance and not us?"

"Exactly," Regina said. "So let's get off of this ship."

There was a lingering glance between them as they made their way onto the deck of the ship, only broken by her stepdaughter's cry.

"Regina! Thank goodness! I was so worried about you. Are you okay?" Snow babbled. "Oh – Hook! Your eye…"

"I'm fine. We're both fine," Regina said. "We're ready to take back this town from Hyde. So where do we start?"

Snow grinned at both of them, and Regina could see her eyes were hiding something behind them, and Regina wasn't sure she wanted to know what that something was.

"You can patrol near the town line in case Emma manages to make it back with Lily. We don't want Hyde to prevent them from getting into town."

Regina nodded, vanishing with Hook to the town line, all of them unaware of the man sneaking through Storybrooke hospital, up to intensive care to Mary Lydgate's room, where she lay sleeping.

"Don't worry, my darling Mary. Soon the Dark One will be able to find a way for you and I to be together, and you won't have to worry about Hyde taking you away from me," Henry Jekyll whispered into the darkening room as the familiar jolt of pain which lead to his transformation into his monstrous form, and he quickly slipped out of the hospital through the back door, unnoticed, into the coming night.