Waiting for the Curse to take him felt like being on a ship that was slowly sinking with no hope of rescue. It felt like what he imagined it must be like to age and die. He'd experienced that once in his life, but it was so long ago that for the life of him he couldn't remember what time, what aging and dying, actually felt like. But he remembered the day he felt like his soul had gone away. He remembered the one choice he'd made that had led him to this place. He remembered all too easily the choice he could have made that would have led back to aging and dying, but also kept him at his son's side.

"Where are we going, boy? What kind of world is this we're going to? What kind of world is without magic?" he'd asked of his son, his first mistake. Baelfire always had eyes for the right thing, he should have trusted him with that even at his tender age and not asked questions at all.

"A better one," Bae announced, abruptly turning to meet him and opening his hand.

And there it was. There was the answer, a reminder of an answer he'd once had long ago to that had failed him. For there in his son's fingers he saw the unmistakable shape of a bean. A clear, magic bean. A feeling of fear he'd held inside of him ever since he'd seen it roared through his chest.

He'd been on his end of one of those beans before and it only held destruction for the family he'd known! But this one, it was the saving grace Baelfire had searched for, it was the solution to the deal they'd made. He'd be normal, human in a World Without Magic. He should have been happy to go.

Before he could say anything, Bae threw the bean at the ground. There was a pause, but then just as it had when he was a child a swirling vortex of green opened up before him, loud and strong and just as intimidating as it had been when he was a child.

He grabbed hold of Baelfire and drew him backward away from the peril as the world around him shook and the sound of rushing water and crashing waves filled his ears.

"My gods, boy! It's like a tornado!" he cried.

"We have to go through it!"

"No, no! I don't think I can!" He couldn't do this! Not again!

"We must!" Bae screamed back easily. "It's the only way!" Bae reached for his hand and began to pull him forward, he was so afraid he was easy to drag along.

"No, no, no, no, no, no!" he exclaimed as they stepped closer. He pulled Bae back from the brink; another mistake. "It's a trick! It'll tear us apart!"

"It's not! It'll be okay! I promise!" There was too much going on to make sense of what happened. There was the feeling of Bae tugging on his hand, pulling him toward the vortex, there was the sound of wind, the crashing of trees and branches and suddenly his body lurched forward as Bae lost his footing.

"Papa!" Bae cried. Instinct forced him to hold tighter to his son's hand. He looked only to the face of his boy clinging to him for dear life…or was he? Baelfire wasn't holding on to this life, only to him. Just has he had ever since he was born. "We have to go through! What are you doing?"

His next mistake. He was securing them both. He removed the dagger from its hiding place and thrust it into the ground, anchoring himself in this realm! In their world! It allowed him to pull the pair of them up and away from the portal that seemed desperate to swallow them both!

"Papa! It won't stay open long! Let go!"

"I can't! I can't!" he realized, with agonizing fear that he couldn't hold both of them. Bae wasn't fighting against the portal as he was, and his hand didn't hold as tight to his own. He was slipping. He was letting it happen! He couldn't! But he did. Bae released his hand and it was only his quick action that he caught him by the sleeve. If he held on like this, he wasn't likely to be able to hold both Bae and the dagger! It was either let go of Baelfire and spend the next hundred years creating a Curse to get back to him, or let go of the dagger, relinquish his power and live out the rest of his life in a land that had no magic where maybe, just maybe, the Dark One Curse might die away if he did.

"Papa, please! It's the only way we can be together!"

His hand slipped a little more as the vortex pulled the fabric of Bae's sleeve further out of his reach. His hand hurt from how tight he was holding on to it. And he realized that everything Bae had said was true. It was the only way that they could be together. And he would do anything to be with his son.

"You're right!" he cried out to his son and then, with more strength than he knew he had, he let go of the dagger and slid into the portal with his boy's hand in his own, knowing that wherever they went, at least they'd be together.

"The Savior…"

As the winds in the tunnel began to pick up the Seer roared to life in his mind right along with all the other Dark Ones who had been silent ever since he'd been in these tunnels. The Curse was changing this world, altering it, destroying magic that had always been here. This was part of it. As the magic ripped through his cell he could feel the power come back to him. The Dark Ones were angry, chastising him, criticizing him for what he'd done and how he'd changed the course of their history. A World Without Magic bound them, but he would be free, free to be with Baelfire. And that, he hoped, was why the Seer sounded so optimistic in his ear.

"The Savior has escaped!" she reported.

Before his eyes, the cell and the wind and the darkness faded around him into a vision, maybe his last for a very long time.

Somewhere, not to far in the past, Snow White lay on a bed, crying out in pain, her legs spread in childbirth.

The vision shifted.

Snow and David, the baby in her arms before she tearfully handed her over to her husband. "We have to give her her best chance," the Queen whispered before kissing her on the head. "Good-bye, Emma."

She kissed David, who then took the child, drew his sword, and left Snow crying in the room. His sword came in handy. As he raced down a hall to a room Regina's guards found them. He hadn't held the witch off long enough and she'd managed to get there. But David fought off the guards, one handed and one at a time, Emma snuggled safe against his chest until he escaped into a child's room, a nursery for Emma…one that would never be used.

And there in the center of the room was something that didn't belong. It was a wardrobe, one made from a tree that glowed and shimmered with magic only he could see.

Huffing and puffing David set the child down inside. "Find us," he whispered hopefully before shutting her inside. Again, the magic of the tree worked, it shimmered and glittered with Light Magic, powerful Light Magic that he'd never seen before.

And then the Queen's guard burst into the room, following the pair. David was injured, fatally it seemed as he slid to the nursery floor and the guards beat the doors to the tree open to reveal…

Nothing. The baby was gone. Emma was safe.

"Now," the Seer whispered. He opened his eyes as the winds begin to roar. Down the long hall that leads to his cell he sees the walls start to crumble, black smoke crept in poured around him and the bars to his cell shook, but held fast. The Curse wasn't coming for the bars, only for him.

He was afraid. So terribly afraid he thought he might cry. But as the sound began to fade around him, he turned his back to peer into the place he'd left his parchment. Be brave. He had to be just as brave as Bae had been, just as Belle had been. He wanted to make them proud. This was the plan all along, if he didn't do this last thing with the magic he had then all was lost.

Heart pounding, he cast a spell in less time than it took the Curse to reach him; the name Emma echoed in his mind when all sound disappeared and the world around him began to fade into nothing.

He'd succeeded.

Well, welcome to the end. I really hope that you enjoyed this story! The next story in The Dark One Chronicles is The Chronicles of the Dark One: Storybrooke, Maine. It covers everything that happens in Storybrooke from the time that the Dark Curse is cast to the moment that Emma arrives and Rumple awakens.

Of course, if you liked what you read please review! I love getting those wonderful little gems in my inbox and communicating with the people reading on a personal level. And if you want to read more (and review more), please check out any of the other fictions in The Dark One Chronicles. For more information on The Dark One Chronicles, The Moments Series, upcoming fictions, posting and publishing dates, or a reading order check out my profile for updates. Peace and Happy Reading!