Emma had picked up Regina before she, Regina and Hook drove into the woods to meet David. He had had quite an adventure. He had faced his inner demons. His inner fears. That he wouldn't be a good father, but he did succeed in facing them. He stabbed the projection of his worries – caused by the Night Root – with the helm of his sword before it was taken away – in a cloud of green smoke.
Emma raced to her father as he slowly got up. "David! Are you okay?"
David nodded. "Yeah," he said, sitting up, and panted, trying to catch his breath.
"Well, where is she?" Regina asked.
"It wasn't her," David said, dusting himself up and standing up. And saw Hook. "Hello, Hook." What was he doing here?
"Then who was it?" Hook asked. "You look whiter than a fresh sail." "Myself."
"Come again?"
"It's the Witch," Regina answered. "She's toying with us."
"Did you find out where she might be hiding?" David asked.
"A farmhouse," Hook said. "Emma thinks it's hers."
"Then let's end this," David said. "Send that witch back to Oz."
They all walked back to the yellow Volkswagen Beetle on their way to the farmhouse that Emma and Hook had found.
"Any particular reason she would send a demon who looks like you?" Hook asked.
"No idea," David said. "It was just there, wearing my face, harping on my deepest fears." Regina stopped. "It knew your deepest fears?"
"Yeah. Things I've never told anyone. Even Mary Margaret. It wasn't until I admitted them that I was able to defeat it by stabbing it with the hilt of my sword."
"Where is it?" Regina asked. "Your sword?"
"That's the strange part," David said. "After I killed it, the hilt, it disappeared." "What's that mean, then?" Hook asked.
"When we face our deepest fears, our true courage comes out," Regina said. "When you used the hilt of your sword to vanquish your fears, your courage transferred into it."
"Then why did it disappear?"
"It didn't disappear. She took it."
"Hang on," Emma interrupted. "The Wicked Witch stole his courage?"
"Well, a symbol of it at least. And symbols can be powerful totems," Regina said.
They all then got into Emma's car, and she drove them to where she found the farmhouse. They got out one by one and went to where the storm cellar was. But, when they got there, someone had broken the lock.
"That lock," Emma stated, noticing it first. "The lock didn't bust it before." She took out her gun again. "Ready?" she asked, aiming the gun at the door, and her father opened it.
"So far, so good," Hook said, taking his cutlass out.
"Everyone stay alert. Come on," Emma said, and they descended the stairs. One by one – into the dark cellar.
"There's dark magic down here," Regina said. She could feel it as if it was electricity making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. They all looked around. "Can you feel it?" Regina asked them.
"I don't know. Maybe," Emma answered. "Whatever I feel, it's not good."
David looked at the cage in front of them. Another broken padlock. Something had escaped. But what?
"What would the Wicked Witch keep in a cage?" Emma asked. "Monkeys?"
David looked around the ground and saw the faint silhouette of a spinning wheel in the cage. "No. Not monkeys," David said, reaching up to the light string and pulling on it, giving them light to see. And then they saw it too—a spinning wheel. David bent down and picked up a piece of straw. Golden straw. "Now, how many people do we know who can spin straw into gold?" David asked.
Emma was silent as she looked at the spinning wheel. This made no sense. She saw him die. A year ago, to defeat Pan. So how was it possible? "Rumplestiltskin," she answered.