Chapter Three
Sacrificing this World for the Next
Captain Killian Jones had never followed a spell before. He peered at a thin yellowed scroll held up before him by a vision of a Dark One past, Rumpelstiltskin, and tried to follow the ingredients list in olde English.
"We haven't much time, before that angry funeral reception comes in here," Killian muttered.
His vision of Emma Swan in a thick black dress and cape helped him by conjuring forth all the dream catchers she had made, and adding them to the makeshift cauldron one by one. Everyone's forgetfulness would protect her boyfriend, and his new identity. They couldn't know what had just happened, because it seemed her family would never accept how she died. "Casting the Dark Curse… that would bring us someplace in my world, the Land Without Magic," Emma reasoned, cautiously, "but Hook- there's no going back from this. We'll no longer have Merlin's help when we're ready to- make the sacrifice that will end the cycle of Dark Ones forever."
"That was what your life was about, not mine," Hook said, engrossed in the spell. "Mine… has been about… my revenge…"
Rumpelstiltskin shrugged and laughed coyly. "Yesssss… come get me then. Even without my old body and soul, I... will go on! I have unfinished business in Storybrooke. And power to seize, in the wider world!"
The small kitchen was suddenly full of cloaked Dark Ones past, leaning towards the tall metal pot, insisting… speaking their intentions into the spell. They spoke of power and magic to discover and exploit in Storybrooke. Hook gathered a lock of hair given from each of these, the darkest souls, and threw them in the pot. Emma was reluctant, conflicted- with a coaxing kiss, Hook got her to offer a few strands of white-blonde hair. "For us," she said.
He dropped the hair in and Nimue stepped forward with the heart of what she loved most. "You treated me better than anyone had," she said softly as she squeezed, hard. "Now that I've a host I can really use- grant me passage to the next world!" The pure, spotless heart was crushed to blood and dust, and fell into the pot, which churned and steamed and then filled the diner with smoke.
A swirling column of smoke rose up from the diner, sucking in dust and leaves, shooting up above the forest canopy. The smoke cloud took on the noise and flashing sparks of an electrical storm, and rolled over the woods and the fortified kingdom of Camelot. The curse enveloped everything, destroying the land, the history, the relics, the people and plants and animals of Camelot and the greater Enchanted Forest. A tremendous sacrifice, for passage to a different world.
Emma cupped Killian's face in her hands. "Focus," she spoke with the wisdom of all Dark Ones. "Focus on where we are going, what we are creating. Only the people and things you focus on can come with us.
"Focus."