The Dark Backward

Chapter Six

Emma slowly awakened again like before, feeling the same agonizing pain in her head making it difficult for her to open her eyes until she finally could and then found herself back somewhere within the middle of the woods lying on the cold, hard ground. To make matters worse, she struggled with trying to remember how she had come again to this point. It took her a little longer than it did the first time, but when her memories finally came back to her, she saw Killian's lifeless body before her eyes and his blood staining his clothes and her hands.

It took the Savior all the strength she possessed to fight back her sobs and tears threatening to fall again when she knew in her heart Killian was dead for the second time that night after he had been mysteriously shot inside Granny's Diner. However, once she gained control, she finally managed to get up from the ground and back on her feet. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before she wasn't alone anymore, as her parents came running towards her with their flashlights on and Emma glanced down on the ground and found her own flashlight still turned on as well where she'd been laying down moments earlier.

"The Author… where is he?" David immediately asked as soon as he could get his breathing back under control, just like he had asked his daughter twice before and Emma looked at him in confusion even stronger than she felt before, only this time she didn't respond to him as she had before.

"This isn't happening," she stated out of disbelief while she looked between them with fear in her eyes. "I can't go through this again. Why do you keep asking me that? What the hell is going on?!"

Her parents looked at their daughter with worry as Mary Margaret questioned, "We don't know what you mean? What's wrong, Emma? We know that you're upset with your father and me, but if your anger's starting to get in the way of us working together to find…"

Emma angrily interrupted, "This isn't about finding the Author anymore! I'm telling you I've been through this moment before. Twice. The first time for real, but the last time was more like a dream. Just like it is now. This can't be real. Or maybe I'm asleep. Maleficent… she's known for sleeping curses. Maybe that's what this is. We were fighting earlier tonight. She fired her magic at me and I defended myself, but clearly something went wrong. I have to go find her and… Killian!"

"We just saw him a short time ago when he was saying good night to you back at the Sorcerer's mansion," David said again in concern.

"No… you don't understand," the Savior answered curtly, then turned away from them and started running off again towards town while she shouted back to them the rest of her brief explanation not caring if it didn't make any sense. "He's trapped in here the same as I am!"

She kept running as fast as she could and her parents struggled to keep up with her while they followed after her. It took her longer than she would have liked, but at last she arrived back on Main Street and she kept running just past the library in the direction of the harbor, where she hoped Killian would be coming from like he did before.

Emma's father, once he was able to catch his breath as Mary Margaret and their daughter struggled to do, then spoke up again saying, "We don't understand what's going on, Emma. Talk to us… please. Let us know what you're so afraid of and what you meant when you said you've been through our conversation before. We want to help you."

She glanced at her parents again while she responded crossly, "You wouldn't get it. And I can't keep trying to explain it to you over and over again if that's where whatever it is that's happening here is going. If you want to stick around and try to piece it together yourselves, fine."

"Emma?" Killian then softly called out, as she immediately turned around at the sound of his voice and the Savior suddenly ran towards him, then embraced him tenderly, yet like she was afraid he was going to fade away into nothing at any moment if she let him go. "Not that I'm complaining, love, but… you're acting like we've been parted. For awhile it would seem."

"You have no idea," Emma whispered sadly as she continued to hold him, then finally pulled back just enough so she could look up into his eyes while he could see tears beginning to fall from hers.

He raised his hand to her face and gently wiped away one of her tears that slipped down her cheek, then continued to caress her cheek while he asked worryingly, "Emma… what's wrong? I know something's happened… I was on my way to your loft to talk to you about this strange feeling I don't understand, but then you're here and clearly you're feeling it too."

The Savior shook her head to fight back the rest of her tears threatening to fall and cleared her throat, then she replied, "It's difficult to explain. I'm not sure how, or if I'm even right, but… somehow you and I are caught in some bizarre magical time loop. Or a dream that keeps playing in my mind over and over again. In both of our minds. It's possible we're trapped in one of Maleficent's sleeping curses, only you don't ever remember. You can feel something's wrong. But then you die… You die, Killian. Twice you have. First down in the caves when I confronted Maleficent after she used you to try to get to me and you stepped in front of a blast meant to hurt me. And then you were shot… when we were in Granny's. But I never saw who shot you or even how it happened. I cradled you in my arms both times and there was nothing I could do to save you. The next thing I remember…"

"Is being consumed by a bright white light until it fades away and there's nothing but darkness, then… we wake up again at the beginning before this whole mess began," Maleficent suddenly answered before Emma could finish, as the sorceress walked towards them from another direction once she had heard the Savior share all that she had until now. "You're not the only ones caught up in whatever this is."

"What the hell have you done?" Emma questioned her angrily, when she quickly turned to face her and raised her hands again to defend herself and Killian against her. "Don't try to tell me you're as much of a victim in whatever happened between us down in the cave and expect me or any of the rest of us to care. How did this happen? Is this the work of your magic gone wrong?"

The villainess glared coldly at the Savior while she responded, "Whatever this is, my power isn't the cause of it. I know exactly what I'm capable of. Besides, if I wanted to trap you and your pirate is some kind of dream world, do you really think that I would trap myself inside along with you? Something happened to us as soon as our powers clashed together. I could have sworn there was some kind of portal that opened up. And Hook's alive. I saw him dead just like you did, Savior. Something… or someone very powerful is behind what's happened here."

Mary Margaret finally cut in while she was still standing beside her husband and struggled to understand what their daughter, Hook, and Maleficent were talking about as she turned to look at the sorceress, then asked, "So… you're saying you're trapped in this same time loop Emma's trapped in too?"

"Other than both of us confirming there's a bright white light that overpowers us just before time repeats itself…" she curtly began to reply as she faced the Princess and then continued. "I've woken up twice now just before I've been about to talk to Gold about what happened to my daughter you and Prince Charming stole from me."

"I didn't really understand much the first time through this loop," Maleficent then added when she turned back to Emma and Hook again. "But now that it's happened again, I've no doubt it's going to keep happening until we figure out why and how to stop it. Which means it's probably best that we try working together."

Killian kept his eyes on her while he protectively pulled Emma closer to him and tightened his grip around her hand out of worry, then he answered, "We can't trust her, Emma. If what you said was true about how I died, there's a good chance she's only come here so she can try to kill you again. She's manipulating you."

The sorceress glared at him as her eyes darkened when she angrily responded, "You're right not to trust me after all I've done tonight, pirate… but if you really think I care to be trapped in whatever twisted hell this is with you, you can think again."

"Everyone, just try to take it easy," David calmly replied, then was about to continue until all of a sudden, a number of people started screaming and shouting as they came flooding out from the Rabbit Hole down the street in a panic.

"What now?" Emma uttered in concern, then she, Killian, David, and Mary Margaret all started running towards the commotion so they could find out what was happening, while Maleficent followed behind them without hurrying to try to help.

Once the heroes arrived inside after they pushed their way through the crowd of patrons rushing away from the chaos, they discovered a fight had broken out between two vikings and at least five men from Hook's old crew. They arrived just in time to see one of the vikings throw the two pirates who charged at him back through the air until they crashed and broke one of the tables they landed on.

Hook quickly called out to his men as he shouted, "Starkey… Cecco… Mason… All of you… knock it off!"

One of his men actually stopped and turned upon hearing the sound of his Captain's voice, but he quickly rejoined the rest of his colleagues. Emma pulled her gun from her holster and fired a single shot up into the ceiling above them to try to gain their attentions, but even the gunshot wasn't enough of a distraction. So she, David, and Killian rushed in to try to force some of the men off the others.

Emma glanced over at the villainess who finally joined them inside and cried, "How about a little help!"

Maleficent raised her hand and was about to release a sleeping spell over the men causing the trouble, but one of the vikings suddenly grabbed Killian's cutlass from its scabbard when his back was turned, then thrust the blade towards David to try to kill him. However, Killian turned as soon as he felt it get lifted and immediately stepped between the attacker and Emma's father to protect him, as his sword was suddenly thrust through his chest instead.

The fight finally came to an end once Emma screamed and cried out his name while she rushed over to him when Killian fell to the floor. As she pulled him against her and struggled to keep him alive, David shoved the man who stabbed his friend to the ground so he could cuff the big man's hands behind his back to arrest him. Unfortunately, Killian died once more before Emma could even lay her hand over the wound to try to heal him. When the Savior saw he was gone, she laid over on top of his body and began to weep like the last two times she's been forced to watch him die, while David raised his head again to look on at them sadly, as did Mary Margaret, and Hook's crew who stared down at their Captain in disbelief and with regret.

Her mother knelt down beside her daughter as she wrapped her arms around her shoulders and remorsefully whispered, "I'm so sorry, baby."

The dragon sorceress then felt the strange sense come over her like she felt before and said darkly, "It's happening again, Emma."

And then, Emma tightened her hold around Killian and held him desperately within her grasp when the same bright light that had engulfed the two women like both times before suddenly washed over them once again and sent them back into darkness after the light faded away.