Broken Heart

Emma could only watch in horror as Hook saw the memories she'd been forced to take from him playing out over his dreamcatcher, of how she had turned him into a Dark One, his expression furious and betrayed the longer the memory played out of waking in the Middlemist field just after she took his heart, of her tethering him to Excalibur, of him appearing out of the Dark One's Vault, before it cut off. She could only be grateful he hadn't seen the conversation she'd had with Piper before taking his heart, she was sure it would have made all of this worse.

"I'm so sorry, Killian," Emma breathed, though her voice was steady, "But I did not have a choice."

And now...now would begin his test anew.

He had failed it in Camelot, hence the reason neither he nor the town remembered what happened in Camelot, she couldn't risk anyone else letting it slip to him. This had been an unintentional second chance. She hadn't planned for him to ever remember what happened, had planned to explain it after the Darkness had been removed from him. But part of her had been aware that things could go wrong and he might remember, and if he did...perhaps being here, in Storybrooke, with more heroes around than in Camelot, he might have a different reaction. Piper doubted it, in honesty she did as well, but there was a chance he could have.

Looking at his face now, after this had been kept from him, she could tell that this test would likely be fairly short, he didn't seem like he was about to react rationally or calmly to any of it.

"No, no, no," Hook shook his head, his voice laden with betrayal, "No, there has to be some other explanation."

"Aww," Zelena mocked, "Are you finding the truth hard to swallow? Here. Have a look at the sword," she turned and grabbed it out of Emma's frozen hand, holding it up for him to see her name etched near the tip of it and waved her hand…to reveal a second name, HIS name, below, "A glamour spell. It was there the whole time right under your nose, and you didn't even see it," she laughed tauntingly at that fact, "Ooh, I suppose it's not the Dark One anymore, is it? More like the Dark Ones."

Hook turned a glare to Emma, "So, that's why you saved my life twice tonight. I was never in any danger. You just wanted to keep me from the truth!"

Emma nearly scoffed, "I stand there and let you be attacked and you would call me a villain, the Dark One, for not helping you," she argued, "You would question my love for you if I let you be hurt. You were never meant to remember, that's true," she agreed, "But I saved you because I care about you and wouldn't want to see you hurt at all. Why do you think I did that?" her gaze flickered to the dreamcatcher, "You were dying!"

"You should have let me!" he shouted at her, "How could you do this to me?!"

"I won't say I'm sorry for keeping you alive."

He scoffed at how unapologetic she actually sounded, how like a villain to not care what others felt or wanted so long as they got what THEY wanted. She had done this, she had turned him into a villain right along with her, cast him back into that darkness he'd crawled out of. Well...if his efforts to change meant so little to her, he would be the villain he was always meant to be, "So much for our future, Swan."

Zelena grinned, "Now, tell me. Are you ready to learn what else happened in Camelot?"

Hook looked from Emma to Zelena, but held Emma's narrowed and warning gaze long enough that his next words were sure to hurt her all the more, "Aye, but first we have to take care of her."

~8~

It was with an oddly calm demeanor that Piper and Gold moved about his shop, gathering items and books and ingredients they may need to assist Emma for they were not foolish heroes set to burst into her home to face down a threat without items to help them do so. The fact that Zelena and Hook had escaped, that Emma had banished them there…she was fearful for their safety and it would never bode well. August had done a good job of keeping the shop safe during their time away, everything appeared in order, nothing out of place, though Gold had noticed a bottle of squid ink had been taken which had set Piper on edge. The only reason to take squid ink was to paralyze a Dark One and, as far as anyone knew, there was only ONE in town.

Or, it seemed, now there was two, for in the middle of the shop, Hook appeared in a swirl of black smoke.

Piper tensed, Gold, beside her, stiffening at the sight, for the only way he would have done that was if he knew he possessed a Dark One's magic, and the only way that would happen would be if his memories had been returned.

And if Hook was there, what did that mean for Emma?

Damn it, Zelena!

It had to be her, Emma would never have done so, nor would Emma have allowed that to happen…the witch must have gotten the ink and used it to stop Emma stopping her.

"Hello Dark One," Gold spoke, moving to stand easily, his hands calmly resting on the top of his cane as he faced Hook.

From the moment Piper and Emma warned him of what happened, warned them all of where the second Darkness resided, he had known this would come. Memories could only be hidden so long before they resurfaced or were restored. He had hoped their plan to cut the Darkness out of Hook before he became aware of it would work, and it appeared it would have had Zelena not gotten free. But a part of him had been preparing for this moment, for longer than any would realize.

He was not a fool, even when he had been the Dark One he had never underestimated Hook's desire for revenge. If the man ever sought it again after he tried to poison him, the pirate would do so when he was powerless and unable to stop him or 'defend himself.' Hook was a coward in his own way, waiting till his opponent was weakest to attack. He knew, had prepared for, the day when Hook would dare confront him, challenge him, knowing the man would only do so if he had a trick up his sleeves to make it 'even.' Learning that Hook was now a Dark One while HE was powerless, he expected this to happen the moment Hook became aware.

"I suppose now you've come for your revenge."

Hook nodded, considering his words, "The thought had crossed my mind," he began to wander about the shop with ease as he spoke, more to the annoyance of Piper than inciting fear in her. If he was trying to intimidate them, a different method would have been better than idle chit chat, "For this lovely piece of hardware," he held up his hook, "I think I'll take your hand. For Milah, your heart. For filling Emma with the Darkness...hmm, I think your head will do quite nicely."

"So what are you waiting for?" Gold taunted right back, speaking before Piper could remark that it was the heroes' fault Emma ended up filled with Darkness in the first place, that it was them who had chosen to pull it from Gold and Snow White who had made Emma a target for the blackness of that magic, not wanting to draw attention to her or anger Hook into attacking her with his magic. He knew the pirate, what's more he knew a Dark One, and he could handle both, "Get on with it."

It was just as he expected when Hook refused, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. I've been waiting centuries for this moment. And I really want to..." he took a deep breath, "Savor it," he moved over to a shelf where a sword was lying across it and threw it across the floor to Gold's feet, "Get your affairs in order, dearie, for we duel at noon on my ship. Where it all began."

"How poetic," Gold remarked dryly, "But we both know this weapon cannot kill you."

"Ah, true," Hook smirked, "That sword can't kill me. But this one..." he conjured Excalibur to his hands, Piper inhaling sharply at the sight of it for not only could it kill Hook, but Emma as well, "Can. Now that it's whole, it can no longer control me. But it CAN kill me. All you have to do is take it from me. So, what say you, Crocodile? Shall we finish what we started?"

"Indeed," Gold tipped his head and Hook disappeared with a flash of black smoke, "Pathetic," he muttered, rolling his eyes as he turned to Piper.

She eyed him a moment, taking note of his expression, the curl of his lips, the stillness of his hands, and smirked darkly in return, knowing he had a plan in mind to deal with this pest.

She could not wait to see what it was.

~8~

"Emma?" Piper called out as she and Gold arrived at Regina's house, having gotten a message from Henry that the others and Emma had gathered there.

"Gold!" Mary Margaret gasped, seeing the man walking into Regina's living room with Piper.

"You're awake," David frowned at the man.

"For quite some time, dearie," Gold smirked at them, ignoring the fierce glare Regina was sending him at the knowledge he'd been awake and working behind the scenes and she hadn't realized.

Piper ignored them all, moving straight for Emma, seeing the magic suppressing cuff on her wrist, about to reach for it to remove it, when Regina called out.

"Try it and we see what burnt Siren smells like," the woman threatened, a fireball in her hand.

"Try that," Piper shot back, a fierce glare on her face, "And we shall see what a brain aneurism does to a person."

"Enough," Mary Margaret shouted, her and David off to one side, having been speaking to Regina, "No one is attacking anyone."

"And no one's touching the bracelet," David added, sending Piper a pointed look.

"It's fine," Emma murmured to Piper, giving her a look the others couldn't decipher, but Piper had.

She was wearing it for a reason. She could guess Zelena or Hook had gotten it on her, now sure the squid ink had been used to restrain Emma long enough to slip the bracelet on. But something had been done or said by Emma that had made the heroes think she was still a threat to them, still the Dark One, otherwise her parents would be rushing to free their daughter. And she did not wish for HER to remove the bracelet, she could guess why. A villain releasing another villain would not make the point Emma had wanted when she first began this plan.

In truth, there was only one person who could that the heroes would give pause to.

"Emma," Piper began, a tone in her voice that had the woman nodding her head that she was sure. The 'revenge' they had planned to help Piper had been complete with her threatening the heroes the way she had, with Snow White's breakdown over the Darkness in her daughter, now it was time for Emma's lesson to begin.

If Mary Margaret looked away at how the two appeared able to communicate with just a look, the way she and her daughter never had, no one needed to know.

"They know I turned Hook into a Dark One," Emma told her, "And that he stole my memories also, before he took all the dreamcatchers."

Piper straightened at that, gathering enough from her words what had truly happened. Emma had not given the heroes much to go on, had not defended herself for clearly they thought her the villain. But she had furthered the ruse. To tell them she had made Hook into a Dark One would make them think she wished to team up, have double the power to use against them. And to say he took her memories, well she was sure that was more to explain the situation to her than to them.

If she had to guess…she could also attempt at what part of information had been taken. Anything Emma knew, SHE would know, having been in on the plan from the start, so there would be no point to remove those memories when Piper could easily fill Emma in on them. Hook would know that now that the Darkness shared between him and Emma was coursing through him again, whispering to him. But there was only one thing Emma knew that she didn't.

Where Hook's heart was.

Damn it!

He had not only obtained the knowledge of where Emma had hidden his heart, but he also had the dreamcatchers Emma had made and stored everyone's memories of Camelot in. She'd kept them safe in a shed in her backyard, with a magic only the Dark One could break, and Hook had. Now he had all their memories to do with as he pleased...but that was neither here nor there nor important to her. Those memories held nothing useful, nothing to contribute to this situation as it was. It was the heart that was truly alarming. If Excalibur could no longer control Hook then the heart would have been their last line of defense before forcing Emma to face him down.

"That's why we're here," Gold spoke up, moving to Piper's side, seeing her anger rising and resting a hand on the small of her back, "Your pirate came to the shop," he gave Emma a look, "He challenged me to a duel."

"Once a pirate, always a pirate," Regina muttered.

"As a man, Hook spent centuries trying to kill me. It makes sense that revenge would be on his mind."

Emma had to look away for a moment, more proof to her that Hook hadn't actually changed, that it was just like Piper had warned. Give him an excuse to be dark and he'd take it. She had hoped, thought, once that...that it was the fact he didn't have his heart in him that had made him embrace the Darkness, that things were muted and different when there was no heart to guide you. But he'd acted exactly the same as always here in Storybrooke, when he didn't know he didn't have his heart in him. And he hadn't known he didn't have his heart in him in Camelot either, and he'd made those choices thinking his heart was there. She'd seen Aurora acting like normal, no change at all in her behavior when she hadn't known she was missing her heart, it was the knowledge that it was missing that made people act differently, it seemed. Just like with the Dark One's magic, it was knowing he possessed it that had changed him, because he'd acted like normal when he hadn't remembered he was the Dark One.

She couldn't ignore it any longer, Hook had made those choices none the wiser.

And by now he must have gone and gotten it back, he might have even put his heart back in his chest to keep it safe, and if that was true...he was still doing this, seeking revenge the second he could.

But that made her think of something, "Why wipe my memory if he was going to announce his plan anyway?" Emma frowned at them, "There must be more to it."

Piper gave her a subtle nod that there likely very much was. As she had often said, misdirection was a villain's best weapon, distraction and assumption too. It could be Hook's way of distracting them from his true plan, giving them a false lead. If she had to guess...Emma had likely learned something in those last few moments before her memories were taken, when Hook had embraced his own Darkness, that he didn't want her to remember.

"What about Merlin's message?" David added, "He said this 'Nimue' is the key to stopping the Dark One."

"Nimue was Merlin's true love," Piper spoke with a sigh, "And also the first Dark One."

"We could start with the Dark One chronicles," Gold suggested, and both Piper and Emma saw it for what it was, a ploy to distract the heroes once more. Both Emma and Gold had the memories of the Dark One, what they had already learned would not be erased. The heroes though, seemed to think he lost all that knowledge when he became mortal.

Emma bit back a smirk, seeing the other opening he was trying to give her, a way to tempt the heroes into allowing the removal of the cuff, to 'help' without all the time they'd waste on the chronicles, "As much as I appreciate devotion to scholarship, there is an easier way. I am still a Dark One. I can stop him," she turned to the heroes, holding up her wrist, but they hesitated, "You don't trust me?"

She didn't sound surprised, she didn't even have to really ask them to free her when she knew they wouldn't. There was a reason for it though, she could sense Henry approaching and she wanted their lack of trust to be prominent in their minds for what would come next.

"Mom," Henry's voice called out as he entered the room, having been in town at the Diner when he'd found out about Emma being taken by the heroes, he'd gone to warn August before stopping there, "You're here!"

"Henry," Emma smiled, nearly sagging when Henry rushed forward to hug her tightly, pulling away after a moment to look at him, "I need you to tell them it's ok to take off this cuff," she held up her wrist to show him, making a show of asking him because, as far as they were concerned, he didn't trust her and thought her a true villain, his trust and vouching would be a shock to them, "It's the only way to figure it all out."

Henry looked from her to Piper, waiting for the woman to give him a softer look and a nod, telling him that the plan had been a success, that there was no need to pretend any longer that he didn't trust Emma...though his reaction and hug had likely let that cat out of the bag. He just turned back to Emma, "I don't need to tell them," he told her, before reaching out and pulling the cuff off himself, "I can do it."

"Henry, no!" Regina shouted, the one person she could never threaten or use her magic against freeing Emma's magic.

Emma smiled, flexing her wrist as she wiggled her fingers, "Thanks kid."

"Henry, what have you done?" Mary Margaret gaped at him.

"Why would you do that!?" David demanded, moving before Mary Margaret as though expecting Emma to attack.

Henry gave them an unimpressed look, "She's my mom."

"She's the Dark One!" Regina snapped.

"So was grandpa," Henry argued simply, exasperated, "And so is Hook."

"How do you know..." Regina began, her eyes wide as none of them had told him that.

But he ignored her and kept going, "We have to fight fire with fire and mom's the only one powerful enough to stop him."

"We could find another way," Regina countered," Now there are two Dark Ones on the loose!"

"There's really not," Henry stated, so factually that the heroes fell silent. This has been part of their plan too, that the big reveal should start with him, he would be the one the heroes and Regina would most likely listen to and believe about the plan. It was irritating to see Piper's guesses about their reactions proven right. He huffed, rolling his eyes, "You REALLY think Aunt P would let mom become a full blown Dark One?"

All eyes turned to Piper, who shrugged, a smirk on her face, ignoring the displeased look Emma was sending her for giving Henry the go ahead to reveal all this, she'd been hoping to sneak in more 'dark talk' first, "You all seem so keen to blame me," she remarked, "To claim I pushed her to this or led her to this. She said she wanted to become the Dark One."

"And you let her?" Mary Margaret cried out, horrified at the thought that the Darkness had been manipulating her daughter for so long and Piper had encouraged it.

"You act as though she is the greatest villain you have ever encountered."

"She's trying to destroy all light magic!" Regina snapped, "That seems like a pretty big deal to me!"

"And yet none of you have listened to me say that light cannot be destroyed any more than the dark could," Piper started to grow angry with their willful ignorance and forgetfulness, how they seemed to just look past things she had stood for and said over and over to believe the worst, even if it was just the point they were trying to make to the heroes, "I would not allow that, nor was it anything Emma actually wanted."

"What?" David shook his head.

"It is a ruse," Piper rolled her eyes, "There is no plot to destroy the light, not from Emma. She is no more evil than any other Dark One, you built that up yourselves."

Emma sighed, "It was my plan, all along," she told them, "You hated the dark so much you cursed another child for it, you betrayed your own family, your blood, to do it. It was only fair you be betrayed by the darkness in your family in return."

"It was never meant to be real," Henry added, "They let you think Emma went dark. They didn't even have to do much for you to believe it, you all thought the worst right from the start so they just...let you keep thinking it. It also helped that it was revenge against Snow White to help Aunt P's heart soften, before they got to the real plan...transferring the Darkness back to Grandpa," he looked at the trio, "Because mom didn't want to be the Dark One forever."

"Henry…" Regina frowned, "How do you know that?"

"Because I helped them make the plan," Henry told them, "Me and August have been helping them the entire time. For Operation Bluebird."

The heroes looked stunned, absolutely flabbergasted that all of this was apparently some giant trick.

"I think I did a damn good job playing the part," Emma shrugged when their gazes flickered to her, "Should have considered a career in acting than bail bonding," she ruffled Henry's hair, before facing her family, "It wasn't real."

"You're…NOT trying to destroy the light," David spoke slowly.

"No flies on the shepherd," Piper remarked dryly, "It only took you all weeks to work out. Brava."

Gold chuckled beside her, "You can't blame them, Pip, heroes aren't the brightest lot."

The pun against heroes being 'light' and yet not bright wasn't lost on them.

"It wasn't real?" Mary Margaret repeated, looking like she was about to faint, her head spinning with the bombshell that had just been dropped.

"I AM the Dark One," Emma stated, "And you did fail to get the Darkness out of me in Camelot. Because I wanted you to fail and I sabotaged it all. Me and Aunt P and Henry. Things just got…" she sighed, "Complicated, near the end."

"Yes, a Dark Pirate was not in our initial outlines," Piper deadpanned.

Regina scoffed, seeing the looks on Mary Margaret and David's faces, "Why should we trust you?" she demanded, "How do we know that THIS is the truth and not some 'ruse' to gain our trust."

"I could not say," Piper spoke dryly, "With all the destruction Emma caused in Storybrooke, all the threats, all the chaos and death and reckless use of Dark Magic and...oh wait," she gave them a look, "What has she actually done that was of a Dark One's nature?"

Regina opened her mouth to list them...and found it quite short.

Really, what HAD Emma actually DONE that was so 'evil' they thought she'd be willing to destroy all light magic? Excepting her shouting near the end...there hadn't been much. A stolen Dwarf Axe here, a glimpse in a dreamcatcher there (which they were also coming to guess was something they didn't understand if Henry could be standing there with his arm around Emma as though she hadn't ripped a young girl's heart out to hurt him), Hook's own paranoia, their...their worst beliefs...all of it made them so fearful that she was out to destroy everything in her anger at them.

But she hadn't really done anything.

...how had they let it get this far as to think their own daughter could...that she would...what had they done?

And even if Regina wanted to argue that the end plan of Emma's could still be destroying light magic...Piper HAD been saying not to destroy the light or dark since before this even happened.

"You always do this," Emma looked at them, "You think the worst of anyone labeled a villain, or dark, you question everything, you assume things about them without getting the entire story. You found out I had Excalibur and instantly thought I had to be trying to destroy light magic, because Arthur mentioned it. You trusted him, thinking him a hero, instead of just looking into what else Excalibur could be used for. And it has to stop," she gave them a pointed look, "You can't turn to the dark when you want something and condemn it every other time. There has to be balance and it's about time you actually started working towards that instead of seeing nothing but good. The world, people, are not that black and white. Villains see the bad in themselves and in YOU, it's time you started seeing the bad in yourselves also, instead of thinking it's just them. That's how all this started, not accepting the light and dark inside everyone."

David shut his eyes and shook his head, trying to push past the way it felt like it was going to explode, "We'll talk more about this later, right now we need to work out Hook's plan."

Piper snorted, rolling her eyes at that. While she understood time was of the essence, part of her couldn't help but think how expected this was. Emma had not even gotten through more of her points but it was enough of a confrontation that the heroes would brush right past their shortcomings and mistakes to 'talk later' as though they might forget about it. A look at Mary Margaret though told her that the woman, at least, would not be able to think of anything but this for quite some time, she looked torn and devastated and so utterly guilty.

"You get started," Regina looked at them, trying not to let her disappointment and betrayal at Henry's involvement show in her face, how he had taken a villain's side and helped them when he hadn't her so long ago, "I have to do something first. I'll be right back."

Emma sighed, not happy that her sticking points about all this, the things she wanted the heroes to realize, had to be put on hold...but even she could see that Hook was far more important to deal with right now than a hero's self-righteousness, "Hook took my memories, which means I must know something. Something I had to have gleamed right at the end when he connected to his Darkness," she looked at the others. She knew what the Darkness wanted, Piper and Gold did too, just because SHE didn't plan to destroy the light didn't mean the Darkness didn't want it to happen. That was likely Hook's goal, but the HOW he planned to do it, that was something she didn't know. But he had to have taken the memory from her for a reason, "If we can get it back, I can help everyone."

"A locator spell!" Henry offered, "There's one at Grandpa's shop. All I need is the stuff you used to make the dreamcatchers. It will take us to the others."

"That brings up the problem of Hook though," David reminded them, "He'll have some sort of charm protecting them. If we find them, he'll know."

"Not if we distract him," Emma offered, turning to Piper and Gold, "Between the three of us we can keep him from noticing."

"He's set the duel for noon," Gold remarked, "That buys you time to take the catchers then if we find them before."

"And I can handle Hook for now," Emma agreed, turning to the others, "Henry, you go with Mary Margaret and David, get the locator spell," and back to Piper and Gold, "You two head for the ship, by the time you get there I should be done with him and they should be heading for the dreamcatchers."

They nodded and scattered to do as they were bid.

~8~

The smirk on Hook's face, the darkly pleased expression that was there before he even saw them approach set Piper ill at ease for it wasn't focused at them and she knew the only thing that would happen before this was a confrontation with Emma. She had to trust Emma was alright, that her magic had protected her from any magical threat Hook might have posed to her. But she knew the man wouldn't resort to that, not with Emma. Hook was a pirate, he was adept at cutting down people either with sword or word and Emma had revealed enough of her heart to the man that he had enough ammunition to wound her without lifting a single weapon to her.

She was almost relieved Emma had sent her with Gold to the ship and not stayed beside the woman. She was fairly certain she would have tried to rip his tongue out or gouge his eyes out or see just how much pain she could inflict on the man with her music before she ran out of breath and he'd likely attack her for it, which would put Emma against him and also risk herself and her child, which would distract Gold from this battle. He had a plan in mind, she knew that, he had spent 300 years knowing the pirate was just waiting for the right moment to cut him down, with Hook only refraining for he did not want to become the Dark One himself. Gold had ample time to work out a plan, to study his opponent.

She would check on Emma as soon as this was finished, ensure the girl was alright, learn what Hook said so when he could be killed she would know exactly how much torment to inflict upon him first before she ended his sorry life.

But for now, she had to be on guard and aware as they came nearer the deck of the Jolly Roger. She probably shouldn't be there, she could be used against Gold by Hook, but part of her knew Hook would not harm her for two very good reasons. The first, he wanted to cut down Gold with his own power, prove his own might, prove he was better than the man who had had to attack his love first to get him distracted enough to obtain a victory. And second, he would want her to watch as he 'humiliated' Gold, he would want her to watch as he killed the man before her eyes.

"I wasn't sure you'd show," Hook remarked.

And in just those five words, Piper understood Gold's intention, the advantage he had garnered. Hook knew him as Dark One and when he had been a man, a coward. He still saw the man as such, if he was not the Dark One then he MUST have reverted to coward once more. He thought this would be easy, he thought the man crippled by his limp, by his cowardice, by his dependence on magic over physical weapon.

Clearly the pirate had not done nearly as much research on the Dark One, on Rumpelstiltskin, as he kept claiming he had.

"And miss my chance to take your other hand?" Gold scoffed.

"No," Hook shook his head, eyeing the man as he limped across the ship to him, having handed Piper his cane to hold onto while he gripped his sword, "This won't do. This has to be a fair fight. I can't have your surviving family members blame this loss on your limp," he waved his hand and Gold's walk eased, the limp vanished.

It was an advantage down for Gold, Piper knew, though not a large one. He had been hamming up the limp he had to make Hook more falsely confident he'd win, that he had a larger weakness than he did.

"It's been centuries since I stood here a mortal," Gold remarked, looking around.

"Oh, you mean when I took Milah?" Hook smirked, "I remember thinking, that day, what type of sad little man is too afraid to fight for his own wife?"

Piper only barely refrained from snorting at Hook's attempt to anger him, to bait him. Hook may have 'loved' Milah enough to spend 300 years seeking revenge for her, but the Dark One had spent 300 years thinking he should have crushed her heart sooner, no amount of baiting him about his ex-wife would cause him to falter. Especially not when any wound there could have been had healed over time and with her own presence in his life.

"Yeah, well, I'm not afraid anymore," Gold spoke dryly, unperturbed by the dig, which made Hook frown, "And, if it's all the same, I would say fighting for my mate is a far greater motivation that fighting for Milah."

THAT got to Hook though, the man gritting his teeth and glaring fiercely at him for the slight, "Don't you mean die for your mate?" he taunted, pulling Excalibur out of its sheath as though to remind him of the power he possessed.

Gold offered an easy shrug, "We shall see," before he lunged at Hook, the fight beginning.

Piper was sure she should have felt more angry or on edge as she watched Gold duel with Hook, swinging and ducking and locking blades, but there was just a quiet confidence about him, a surety that had put her at ease. She shifted slightly, moving so her hands, rested on the top of the cane, brushed against her stomach, a fluttering in her middle as well that seemed to swell with an assurance that this would not end the way Hook wanted it to.

And, with that feeling pulsing through her, she could better appreciate her mate's skill with a blade. She had seen the finesse he had with knives, with carving and slashing and skinning and stabbing…to see him fight like this…it sent her heart racing in her chest.

Even when Hook knocked him down onto a lower level of the deck, even when the man managed to land a sound punch with his hook, the fluttering in her was a calming presence and…if the child really did have any sort of magic already, she did not doubt it would come about to protect its father.

It wasn't needed though, for Gold managed to twist and stab Hook through the middle with his sword.

Hook merely chuckled, "We can do this all day. But until you have Excalibur, it won't make a lick of difference," he swung out at Gold, his hook slashing him across the shoulder as he fell to the deck of the ship, and the flutter in her turned into a stab, not a painful one, but something that felt...angry, "They say the first cut is the deepest. Well, they lied," Hook sneered down at Gold…

Piper tensed, feeling the flutter again, but repeated over and over, and her gaze was pulled to a rope nearby...a small swirl of black smoke had begun to circle around the base of it…

"Well, I have to hand it to you, Crocodile," Hook continued to taunt Gold, not taking his chance to end the man but boast as a rookie villain would, "You lasted a lot longer than I expected. If you'd fought me with such vigor back in the day, I might have given you your wife back. Soiled, but returned."

Piper, though Gold's eyes flickered to her, stared at the rope as the small swirl ate through the fibers and a part of the ship came crashing down on Hook, knocking him to the side, giving Gold enough time to get to his feet, grabbing Excalibur as he went and aiming it at Hook's neck.

"Well, get on with it, Crocodile," Hook urged.

"There's nothing I'd like better than to run you through. But," he smirked, the only thing keeping him from doing so was the knowledge that his mate would very much like the pleasure of ending him herself but…not knowing how his confrontation with Emma had gone…she would be very cross if she ended the man's life too quickly, "I think...I think I'd rather let you live, knowing for the rest of your life that I bested you."

"Today," Hook reminded him, before waving his hand and disappearing in a swirl of smoke.

Piper was at Gold's side in a moment, the flutter within her almost a tugging sensation now, and moved to look at his arm as he clutched it, Excalibur in one hand to keep from releasing it. She reached out and pulled the fabric of his coat away to see the angry red slash…

Only for the same swirl of black to waft across it, healing the wound.

Gold stared at it, his eyes wide, before he looked at her, "How did…"

She took his free hand and lowered it to her stomach, "More and more I am starting to believe we have a very powerful child," she told him, "Who, it would be best, should go to sleep for the next little while."

"Why should it slee…" he began…only to be cut off when Piper put her hands on either side of his face and pulled him close, kissing him soundly, thrilled by the fight and his victory.

The fact that he managed to keep hold of Excalibur in the minutes after was a miracle in and of itself.

~8~

A quick call to Emma once the battle was done had Piper and Gold magically transported to the Mayor's office where the others had gathered with Henry and Regina, the dreamcatchers lying in a pile on the mayor's desk. Both their plans had been a success for the moment, thanks to Hook's greed and ego and lack of self-restraint, but they still needed to know what Hook's end plan was. Between Gold and Emma, there were too many possibilities for how it could go, there were quite a number of ways to destroy the light and they couldn't put everything on that being Hook's plan, they had to be absolutely sure.

It took Piper all of one look at Emma to know something was wrong and to walk over to her while Henry caught Gold up.

"What did he say?" Piper murmured to her quietly.

Emma glanced at her, then around the room to make sure no one was paying attention while she sorted the catchers, before muttering, "I hate that, you know."

"You do not," Piper countered easily, "You have spent far too long with others not knowing, not able to tell, when something has hurt you to not appreciate when someone does."

Emma sighed, "Hook just…said things. Things that got to me."

"He prayed on your worst fears, the confessions you made in private that cut deepest, and said things he knew would hurt you."

Emma glanced at her, "How'd you…"

"Villain, Emma," she reminded her, "Half-Siren, too. I am quite adept at knowing what words hold power and what can harm the quickest."

Emma huffed a little breath and shook her head, "He said the only thing he felt for me was anger, hatred, and disappointment. That I was just a pretty blonde distraction meant to hold him back from what he really wanted."

And worse...she had tried to say he didn't feel that way, had tried to say that he only did it because he didn't have his heart in him. Only for him to reach into his chest and pull his heart out to show her he very much did. Not only had he found it, he'd returned it to his chest, he was doing all this with his heart inside him. She didn't have that excuse to fall back on, that hope to look to, no...this was all Hook.

"His darkness is his hand," Piper reminded her of the tale of his date with her, "It has always been there, but if he is given a loophole, to say and do as he pleases and have an excuse that absolves him of fault, he would take it."

"He, um…" Emma hesitated, unsure if she wanted to say it aloud, repeat it, it hurt a lot the first time, "He said I was so afraid of losing the people I love that I push them away. And I'll always be an orphan because of it. That I destroy my own happiness every time."

Piper nodded slowly to herself, "It does settle it," she remarked, drawing Emma's attention, "I should eviscerate him, at the very least, before I kill him."

Despite the absolutely disturbing and gory depiction, Emma found herself laughing, "He's a Dark One, Aunt P, you kind of can't."

"We have Excalibur," Piper reminded her, "I very much can."

Emma shook her head, feeling a little lighter after the small laugh, "I know it's the Darkness in him, that he can use it as an excuse. But something tells me he won't, once we get it out of him, that he'll…I think he'll feel bad enough that he'd actually let you…do that to him."

"You think I would stop at that?" Piper gave her a look.

"Not a snowball's chance in hell," Emma smiled a little, "But I'm asking you to hold off. If…if he's still an ass after the Darkness is gone then, by all means."

Piper nodded, accepting that bargain, that condition. Hook was always an ass, even when he was trying to be good. It would only be a matter of time before he revealed his ass-ness and she could act swiftly and decisively. Emma was giving him one final chance, to see if he'd be repentant and guilty after the Darkness and the excuse was gone, if he'd still try to claim it or if he would own up to his own failings and fall to temptation. SHE doubted he would, but her niece was asking for this one final chance.

"Come on," Emma murmured, gathering up the six dream catchers they needed for the moment.

As they were turning, Mary Margaret hurriedly moved away, making it seem like she hadn't been eavesdropping on the conversation her daughter was having with her cousin, trying to quickly gather herself and hide the tears threatening to fall from her eyes. She had seen something was bothering Emma when they called her to the clocktower where Henry's locator spell had led them to the dreamcatchers. She'd asked about it, but Emma brushed it off, she had pestered her and tried to get her to open up to them again until Emma snapped at her to leave it alone.

Yet…Piper asked a single question and Emma revealed her pain to her.

Her daughter was closer to her cousin than HER.

And she knew it was her own fault.

All she had been able to think about since Henry removed Emma's cuff was how awful a mother she had to be to think so poorly of her own daughter. How many conclusions had they all jumped to? How little had she defended her daughter? How many assumptions had they made? Just how many times had they used Emma's magic in Camelot and then turned their back on it that she felt so stung by it? How had they not been there for Emma here in Storybrooke to try and get through to her? How could they just step aside and leave Emma alone instead of try to seek her out at every turn and help her? They had seen her what felt like only once, when they first woke up, and then when she was shouting at them, and how could she call herself a mother when she abandoned her daughter like that? What else had Emma been through, done, plotted, that skirted around being Dark or falling to darkness? How many more things had they gotten wrong about Emma?

...and how much had she gotten wrong about Piper?

"We're sure this will work?" David's hesitant voice pulled her back to the moment, he was holding one of the dreamcatchers Emma gave him, glancing around as Mary Margaret stepped over to take the last one. He, Mary Margaret, Regina, Robin Hood, Henry, and Emma formed something of a small circle, Piper and Gold off to the side as neither needed memories restored.

"Yes," Emma stated, sending him a look that dared him not to trust her about this.

The group glanced at each other, but held the catchers up before their faces. Emma waved her hand, activating the spell to restore the memories, a soft golden light drifting from the catchers and to their foreheads.

Piper watched their expressions carefully, only Henry and Robin Hood seemed to truly react, Henry with relief to now have all his memories of their plans returned, happy to know it only filled in the gaps between the pieces he did know and not changed them, and Robin touching where his wound had been before Emma healed it. The others were more calm and subtle, there wasn't much they had learned or done that would change much of now. None of them had truly known Emma's plans, had not known what was happening with the Dark Ones till the very end.

"Emma," Piper called out, seeing the woman take a few steps back in shock, "What have you remembered?"

Emma looked at them, her eyes wide, "I know what he's doing. I know what they are doing," she looked at Gold, the one who might understand the magic she was talking about, WHO she was talking about, the images of the other Dark Ones that had tried to push her, "There's a pond that holds a portal to the underworld," and then to the others, "He's going to bring all the past Dark Ones to Storybrooke."

And if he succeeded…the light was sure to be destroyed.

A/N: I know a few things Piper and Emma did in the forest may seem pointless given events in this chapter, like...what was the reason to take Hook's heart if he got it back so fast sort of thing. But they didn't KNOW he would, they didn't plan for him to remember, and, like Emma once feared, Villains don't always get their way because others are ready to thwart them :( Sometimes plans don't always go the way we want and we end up wasting time and effort on them anyway :(

I hope you enjoyed Gold's interactions with Hook, the duel and all. I feel like he would be the first person, once he got power, to think about what it would mean if he lost it or couldn't use it. I imagine he likely honed his skills for 300 years because if he was ever without his magic, he needed a way to protect himself. Hook is going into this thinking he's relied so much on magic and being the Dark One, it hasn't even crossed his mind that Gold might have spent some of those 300 years learning sword fighting and other things.

And the baby! O.O well, at least it definitely has Piper's protective instinct, not wanting its father hurt :) But that does complicate things, because now she sort of has a better understanding that it IS the baby doing magic, and she has no control and no way to control its use. She may just experience quite a lot of fear and take different measures around the heroes to ensure she can protect the child as much as possible :(

I also hope the scenes when the 'truth' was revealed to the heroes didn't fall flat. With Hook being on the loose, there wasn't much opportunity for the villains to really divulge the entire point of the plan, to really ram home the lessons Emma wanted them to consider :( She tried to get as much in as she could, but Hook was a threat they couldn't put off dealing with :( There WILL be more about it, more of the heroes rethinking things and perhaps coming to understandings as the story goes, all triggered by that moment. If only Hook had waited till it was all said and done with, we'd have probably gotten a bigger reaction out of the heroes. But they had a lot to take in in a short amount of time.

At least Mary Margaret seems to have started to piece together things }:)

As for the memories...I'm not sure if they fully said in the show what Emma knew or how she knew what Hook's plan was, if it was the plan the Darkness was trying to get her to accomplish or something else. Here, she gleamed the plan off of Hook when he embraced being the Dark One, and that, along with where his heart was, were the memories he took from her. His heart because he had to get it back and the plan because he didn't want her to ruin it. There really wasn't any point in him taking other memories because Piper was in on everything and SHE would know what was going on if Emma forgot. Those two things were the only ones she wouldn't know ;) Hope that made sense :)

Some notes on reviews...

I've definitely got a few twists in mind for the upcoming arcs ;) As for Lyssa...I can say her version of Season 5 is probably going to be the most divergent from the show, compared to Piper and Graham's OC's ;)

I agree, Hook came across as too much a villain to me for a very large part of the show and by the time he maybe sort of almost seemed to change, it felt like too little too late :/ I think Emma, in this story, will really try with Hook as much as she can, because so many of her other relationships have failed, she sort of wants one of them to succeed so badly she's going to sort of have different ways of convincing herself it can work, but she'll also be very aware of some red flags (courtesy of Piper) that might make her reconsider down the line ;) I can say that Zelena's baby is not Rumple's, nope. I think Zelena would have to have a monumental death wish to try and do that to Gold O.O With Emma, she's definitely not blind, but she will sort of make excuses until she just can't anymore and has to sort of admit to herself that things might just not be able to work out, and it wouldn't be for lack of trying or lack of care. I agree, part of the reason Emma did what she did to Hook in this story is that she doesn't want to lose that opportunity for a happy ending, she's sort of put so much time and energy and care into being with Hook that it would just sort of feel like she was cut short and that, after all the happy endings she made, she deserves a chance to a least really TRY for one :( She's not sure if it'll work out in the end, but she wants that change to at least SEE. With Hook dying, that chance is denied to her and she'd be left wondering if he would have really been her true love and her happiness. I think she's also lost so much that she just clings to what she thinks can make her happy and only though exploring that potential happiness can she really decide if it DOES make her happy or not. Which we'll see here :)

I can say for the Underworld, it'll be a combination of pre-planning (with a dash of a few other emotions eating away at Emma), ulterior motives, and unintentional 'guests' coming along that Emma actually had no intention of inviting with her lol :)

I agree about Emma. She tries these relationships, and they don't work for reasons beyond her control, death, disappearance, more death, transformation, and each time she feels like its her fault. She's unwilling to lose Hook because, by then, if she's going to lose someone it's going to be because of something normal like the relationship just didn't work, not because of supernatural or magical effects or death :(