Chapter 3: The Resistance

Killian stared at the woman standing in front of him, she was small in size, but he could tell that she meant business. He was sure he would not want to go up against this woman. "While it's a pleasure to meet you, I'm sure. I'm not quite understanding what the Resistance wants with a cook from a vintage diner."

"See, the bigger question I would like to know the answer to, is what has got the Mayor so concerned about a cook from a vintage diner."

"The Mayor?" He asked with a look of confusion or desperation on his face. He wasn't sure if everyone he had met recently had gone mad or if perhaps he had hit his head and was lying in a hospital in a coma somewhere, stuck in a nightmare he couldn't wake from.

"Do you remember anything about your childhood, James?" She asked quietly, stepping closer to him to brush his hair from his brow.

He paused, frowning for only a moment. "Of course, I do." He laughed, a smirk growing on his face. "Who doesn't remember their childhood? Nervous quirks, first crush, it's all there." He pointed to his head.

"Tell me about your mother." He felt the pang zip up his back, landing at the back of his head, the sharp electric current that caused him to flinch. "It hurts doesn't it? Remembering?" Hairs stood up on the flesh of his arm, the back of his neck.

"I just need my medicine." He looked down toward his pocket and she reached into it, pulling out the long injector.

"Does this help you remember, James? Or perhaps forget?" He shook his head, his anxiety growing stronger the longer she spoke.

"It makes the pain stop, please." He begged, but the woman handed the needle to the other woman.

"Have Victor test it; we need to know what causes the memory block."

"Memory block? Have you all lost your bloody minds?"

"Sadly, it is only you who has lost your mind, Killian, but we're here to help with that."

He groaned, it was that name again, the one the other crazy bastard had called him that sent him into a blinding head spin. He looked away from the woman, trying to calm his breathing, he couldn't allow the pain to overtake him without his medicine. He needed to focus on anything except for the woman's words.

"Take him to a room, let him rest, he's going to need all the strength he's got if he's going to fight this."

"Fight what?" He asked defiantly. "I'm not interested in joining the Resistance."

"Right now, we're you're only chance of getting out of this alive."

"Getting out of what?" He asked angrily. "You're the one who kidnapped me. Why should I trust you?"

"Because I'm the one who's going to help you remember who you really are."

Suddenly arms were grabbing at him, pulling him backward through the metal walkways. He found himself at the end of a tunnel, a steel door pushed open as they guided him inside and sat him down on a small cot, turning and shutting the door behind them. He got up, tugging on the handle, the door not budging. He kicked it, "Bloody hell, so much for helping." He screamed, slamming himself down on the cot in anger.

Emma tried to calm her screaming child, he wasn't latching on to her breast and Will had not returned from his supply run for formula and food. With the amount of noise he was producing, someone was going to take notice of them.

"Henry please, mommy really needs you to stop crying." She begged the crying babe in her arms, bouncing him as she paced the room. She heard a crash at the other end of the dock, small bells jingling in the distance. Something had tripped the alarm.

Hurrying to the other side of the small room she opened the metal box that was lined with blankets and laid the child inside. "Shh, mommy will be right back." She whispered as she secured the lid over the box. The muted sounds of her child still ringing in her ears.

She stood up and went to the window, crouching lower to peer through the dirty film on the glass, she could see a figure at the other end of the dock, skulking in her direction. She sat on the floor, her back to the wall as she tried to figure out what to do. She dug around on the ground, trying to find anything to use as a weapon.

"Can I help you, Mate?" A familiar voice sounded outside the window.

"What are you doing out here?" Another voice bellowed.

"I live here." Will said defiantly. "What are you doing out here?"

"You live here? Why?" The man's voice was anxious. "Are you…do you have…"

"Been sick for a few months actually." He coughed loudly. "Banished me two weeks ago."

"Stay away from me." The man said angrily as his voice got further and further away.

"Nice meeting you." She heard Will shout after him before the locks on the door clicked and the door swung open. Emma rushed toward him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Oi, it's ok, he's gone. Where's Henry?"

"I had to put him in the box. He won't stop crying." Will handed her the bag and Emma dug through it to find what she was looking for. Will opened the box, pulling Henry into his arms and over his shoulder, patting him on the back as he sang softly to the boy.

Lullaby and good night,

Those blue eyes close tight.

Bright angels are near,

So sleep without fear.

They will guard thee from harm,

With fair dreamland's sweet charm.

Emma watched with a smile as the boy stared up at him with a quiet interest. She sighed as she brought the bottle to him, Will taking it and feeding the boy as he walked quietly around the room.

"So how did it go?" Emma finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Not well, I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm crazy now though." He paused in his spot. "Emma, he remembers nothing, I even called him by his name. He went right for his inhibitor. He's gone, Emma, you need to face that."

"No! He's still in there. I won't give up on him."

He sighed. "Well, he's not going to help us get into that station if he has no idea he's a cop."

"I know." She frowned. "We need to find another way to get into that data port. But I don't trust anyone else."

"Maybe it's time we find a new ally."

"Who would possibly be able to help us?"

"The Resistance." He said with a smirk.

"Are you out of your mind? Gold and the Hive are actively trying to destroy them. I'd be on his radar in a second if I joined forces with them."

"But who better to help you take down Gold than the very people trying to destroy him."

"No one knows Gold is behind the Hive, why would anyone believe if I said he was?"

"Because you may be their only hope at winning this war. And with that kind of desperation, they have to be willing to listen to anyone."

"How are we even going to find them?" She laughed. "It's not like we just step outside and start yelling Viva la Resistance."

"I might know someone who can help." He said with a growing smile.

"I don't know what to do."

"You have to get out now, Emma. Before you get hurt, before the baby comes. Once Neal has his child, I fear for what he will do to you."

"But we don't have a plan yet."

"We don't have time; we can figure it out once you're safe. I promise."

"I have to go, someone is coming."

"Stay safe. I'll be in touch with Will."

"I love you."

"I love you, Swan."

He hung up the phone, turning around suddenly at the noise behind him as he felt something hard hit him on the back of the head.

"Hello Jones, remember me?"

James sat upright on the small cot, sweat beading on his forehead as he tried to process the odd dream he had just had.

"Nightmare?"

He jumped once again at the voice at the other end of his room. "Who's there?"

"Sorry, it's just me, Ruby."

"Lass, you can't sneak up on a man when he's sleeping."

"Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were feeling alright." Ruby said sincerely. "The nightmares can be kind of intense, so I'm told."

"It was just a dream." He dismissed.

"Have you ever heard of the void?" she asked, and his stomach turned in knots.

"Pod people?" He laughed. "That's a myth."

"A year after the plague hit, a group called The Collective began experimenting with citizens of Storybrooke, loved ones went missing across the realm." She sat down next to him on the cot. "The first known victim was named Jefferson Hatter. He went missing in year 1, left behind a daughter, Grace. He returned a year later, with no memory of his daughter, or himself."

"I remember seeing him on the news, they determined he was quite mad." Killian laughed.

"There have been others, they return to society, no memory of their previous life, but there have been murmurs of hauntings, nightmares of the life they once knew."

She leaned back on her hands and stared at the ceiling. "Rumors started that they were looking for something in the blood of those who went missing, something that might bring a cure to the plague. But we don't believe they want the cure to save Storybrooke, these people aren't in this for the good of the world."

"And you think these people got to me and turned me into one of their victims, this void nonsense?"

"I think that in the beginning, they were looking for something in the people they took, but that changed a year ago. They started targeting those who were close to the Resistance. People who were against the idea of the wall, of exile. Those that wanted to handle things a different way. Whoever is behind the Collective, whoever is responsible for doing this, I think you're a threat to them."

"Me?" He laughed. "I'm a cook. I'm hardly threatening."

It was her turn to laugh. "You really think you're a cook?" She shook her head. "I can't tell you anymore than I've already told you, the consequences of you learning too much, too fast, are dire. All I can say is that whatever it is they tried to erase, it's important."

He continued to shake his head in disbelief. "I don't know who you think I am, but you're wrong. My dreams have nothing to do with my past. They're just that…dreams."

"There have to be things that you can't explain, things that you were sure about that suddenly don't make sense." He stopped to think about the issue with his alarm. "What is it?"

"Nothing. It's just…" He laughed. "No, it's nothing."

"Just tell me, maybe it's not."

"It's a technical issue, with my AIM system. I set my alarm for work every night for 7am and yet the alarm kept getting reset to 9am. It has to be a technical problem though because the blasted machine told me that I was the one resetting it in the middle of the night. Why would I do that? It makes no bloody sense."

She smiled brightly as if she knew something he didn't. "Why is it so hard to believe? The migraines, the fact you can't remember being a child, the alarm. Why is it so impossible that something else might be at play here?"

"Because the woman in my dreams couldn't possibly exist. If she did, she sure wouldn't be with me." He chuckled. "I'm not the kind of man who could have a woman like that."

She stood up and walked toward the door, turning back to smile at him. "Maybe you don't know yourself that well after all."

Emma stood nervously at the end of the pier, her son strapped to her chest with her cloak draped over her body, her face covered by the fabric surrounding her. Will had told her to be at the corner twenty minutes ago. He should have met her by now.

She listened anxiously for any movement in the fog covered water, but the waters were still, barely a ripple across its surface.

"It's not safe out here for a woman." The voice behind her made her heart still. She recognized it as the one who was snooping around her hideout earlier. She kept her back to the man, aware that the moment she turned around he would recognize her. Felix was a low-level employee of Gold's, he didn't have access directly to the boss, but he did side jobs for Neal, dealings his father was unaware of.

Emma knew that Neal ran a successful drug business on the side, he was never satisfied with the money his father provided him, always wanting a bigger piece of the pie, trying to prove to his father that he was capable of being even more vile than the old man.

After the plague started, those infected were exiled, left on their own outside the walls, many living in fear and constant pain from the disease. When the experiments began, it was purely by accident that they found that injecting the subject with spice, eased the suffering.

Spice only grew inside the walls near the Gold compound, and Neal capitalized on the monopoly. Creating his own band of thugs and thieves, they began selling spice outside the walls to those in exile. Exploiting those in need to fill their pockets and inflate their own greed for power.

When those in need were unable to pay with cash, Neal would use them for his dirtier jobs, not wanting to get his own hands messy it allowed him to get what he wanted without fear of being caught.

Neal was a real piece of work. Emma wished she could have seen through him sooner, before she found out the secret, before Killian, before Henry, she thought sadly, staring at her son as she contemplated her next move.

She started with a cough, loud and dry. "Stay back. I don't know how long I have left." She said weakly.

"I got something that might help with that." He sneered. "Spice." He announced.

"I don't have any money."

"I've got other ways you can pay." He laughed.

Suddenly Henry stirred beneath her cloak, a silent cry erupting from his mouth and she froze.

"What you got there?" He inquired and she could hear his footsteps coming nearer. She started walking to the other end of the dock. "Hey, where you going?" Henry began to cry louder, his body squirming in the makeshift cocoon she had him bundled in. She bent down and picked up a pipe leaning against a crate and turned around to hold it over her head.

"Stay back. I don't want to hurt you."

The man stepped toward her, his eyes narrowing. "Hey, I know you." He reached into his jacket, pulling out a communicator and Emma rushed toward him as he darted to the side. "I don't want to hurt you bitch, but the boss is gonna be real interested in getting you back home."

She knew she couldn't let him send a message to Neal, the moment he knew her location, he would send everyone his father had after her. She swung the pipe, connecting with Felix's shoulder as he limped toward the crate, turning to glare at her. "I'm not afraid to hit a woman." He smirked.

"Then come and get me." She taunted, bouncing on the balls of her feet as he picked himself up off the crate, stalking toward her. The moment he was in range, she tugged on the rope that was lying at her feet, pulling his legs out from under him as he crashed to the metal plank beneath him. She advanced quickly, swinging the pipe at his head, narrowly missing, and connecting with his outreached arm. He grabbed the pipe and yanked it firmly out of her grasp, grabbing her foot and sending her backward as she smashed into the crates behind her.

Henry was screaming as she shielded him against her chest, Felix stood up before she could get her bearings, advancing on her with the pipe in his hand. "Just stay down, bitch. I'm taking you home."

Suddenly his face turned ashen, his mouth pinched together in pain, and she watched as he fell face first into the crates beside her, an arrow sticking out of his back. Emma scrambled to her feet, looking in all directions around her when a woman appeared out of the fog, a bow in her hand and William following closely behind her.

"You're alright, I'm a friend." The woman announced, looking back at Will who ran toward her, sweeping her into his arms.

"I'm so sorry, lass. We ran into trouble on the water, I tried to get here as fast as I could."

She yanked the cloak off her, looking down at Henry whose face was red from screaming. Will pulled him from the contraption on her chest, rocking him in his arms. "Uncle Will is here, kid. It's alright now." Emma closed her eyes, breathing in deeply as she tried to calm her heart. "Are you ok?" He turned toward her.

"I'm fine, I just…I thought something happened to you." He reached over, pulling her into his arms, Henry cooing quietly between them. "I can't lose you too." She cried.

"No one is bloody losing anyone, you 'ear me?" He laughed. "And I brought help." He turned toward the woman watching them both. "This is Ruby. She's going to help us." She looked at Will with apprehension. "You can trust her. She's with the Resistance."

"You're Emma?" The woman asked and Emma stared between her and Will. "It's ok, I get it. I wouldn't trust me either. But I think we're on the same side here."

"How do I know that for sure?"

"How about I take you to our leader, listen to what she has to say, and if you don't like what she has to offer, you leave, no questions asked."

Emma bit her lip. "No questions asked?" The woman shrugged her shoulders and Emma quietly agreed.

"But I gotta ask you to wear this." She held out the cloth bag. "In case you decide not to stay, we can't compromise our location."

"Fine." She agreed reluctantly, following the woman to her boat, and sitting down on one of the benches, she and Will covered their heads and she reached out and took his hand. "You're sure about this right?"

"We need help, lass. We can't reach Merlin on our own."

She sighed. She knew he was right. Without Killian, she would never get the information she needed to get to Merlin, and without that, Storybrooke would fall under the hands of Gold and the Hive. They had no choice but to trust the Resistance.