Chapter Seventeen

An Evil Laid to Rest

Rumpelstiltskin had his item delivered to his somewhat overgrown backyard. Gepetto brought it in with a dolly, carefully setting the heavy, wrapped up stone on the ground in a shaded corner of the high-fenced yard. Rumpelstiltskin tipped him, hoping Gepetto would leave without a word.

Once alone, he saw the large slate plaque read Malcolm, "Peter Pan," followed by estimated dates of birth and death. He poured out a little strong-smelling ale from a small vial shaped like a stein, and waited.

"They say the ale of Dun'Broch could wake the dead… Wakey wakey, Pan!"

The faint image of teenage Peter Pan in a black three-piece suit appeared, standing over his memorial plaque. He looked all around, shook his sideswept light brown hair, and grinned.

"Here I was about to haunt someone- when my boy is haunting me! And, aww, what's this? You finally set up a headstone for ol' Papa. What's the occasion? How many years have I been dead?"

"Almost two. Strange to see a smile on your face," Rumpelstiltskin acknowledged. "Usually you're pretty deadpan."

Pan looked down at the dates on his stone. "That… can't be right."

"Don't care." Rumpelstiltskin sighed in frustration. He and his father had avoided each other when they both had wandered the afterlife. Avoiding fatherhood and responsibility was what Pan was all about. He broke the news anyway. "You're… about to be a grandfather again! -Though I'm sure… nothing would interest you less."

"I know. I have my own crystal ball. Everything you have- I have a copy of it, down here. I created your little trinkets."

"What?"

"I made everything. Every magical treasure you sought after- every bit of dark magic in all the realms- I made it out of the darkness of the Shadow. And I left these shiny things laying around for you to find. The Sands of Avalon… 'Pandora's' Box... the magic-binding cuff… the Ale of Dun'Broch you're using now. Yeah! Just concentrated Crimson Crown, it is. You're welcome. Don't say I never got you a gift."

Rumpelstiltskin was at a loss for words.

"How, you wonder? Well, I hope you've a lot of that ale left, because we've finally got something to talk about, eh, laddie?"

"What- what is all this about the Shadow? I- I wanted to talk to you for-"

"For parenting advice? Come on!"

"Well, to learn from your mistakes! I need your perspective on being a father- so I can do the exact opposite! And I already know all that I can know from Bae. He and I shared a body, shared a mind, for a time. I saw his- tortured memories, through his eyes. Poor Bae..."

"Ah, poor Baelfire. Then you know… that the Shadow went after him, in his life. And, it went after his young son. Think, laddie!"

"The… the Shadow… and that horrible hourglass! It fed off your descendants! It gave you magic- as long as it was fed by your sacrifice of- of me, then of Henry!"

"You're getting it. Think of the Shadow as the unconscious, primal instincts…"

"Oh, like- like eating your young? I've never had that instinct!"

"Ah, but everyone does. What do they call it in your world? The id. And, not too far off from Neverland, the home of the Fairies! Think of them like the superego, the good dreams, and the prophetic dreams people have."

"Ugh. What about Fairies?"

"Well, if you want to learn from parenting mistakes… why don't you ask a certain Fairy? Your mother."

Rumpel rolled his eyes and shifted uncomfortably. "Arghh. I can't use this on her. She's not… dead…"

Pan shook his head, struggling against the whirl of thoughts and memories. He had died thinking that his son's mother had abandoned them, met with an accident and died. He started to weep. "Look at me. Reminiscing is not my style."

"What else do you have to do, in death?"

"My only mistake was- not keeping a closer eye on your mother!" Pan snapped, bitterly. "She had some kind of accident, I was told- while trying to go against fate. But if she really didn't die… then she was sketchier than I even thought!"

Rumpel started. He turned on his heel and left the apparition, rushing inside to check on Belle. He imagined her dusting and accidentally touching Excalibur- or, drawn to it by her natural curiosity! He had to keep a close eye on his child's mother, alright!

"Belle! Don't touch that!"

"Hey… want to tell me how you got this?" She had cleared the clutter from in front of the sword on the mantel.

"I- you- you wouldn't believe the truth, if I told you!"

"You snatched it up after Killian died, right?" She folded her arms and shrugged.

"No- you know, Belle, that many historical items just show up at my shop, they just end up with me, by way of the magic of the Curses!"

"Rumpelstiltskin, of all the lies you have sold me, this is sounding like the dumbest! This is not what you would tell someone when you respect their intelligence!"

"Now, now, I wasn't finished! It was just… given to me, by, uh…"

Belle took his hands in hers for a softer approach. "It takes courage to be honest with someone. That's what I want in a man. Someone who tells the truth, whether the other person believes them or not, and whether it's convenient or beneficial, or- not. It's the only way that I can know you, Rumpel, and who you are, now. We're both mortal. We really never know how long either of us has. A bus could hit us both tomorrow, for all we know-"

"Sweetheart, why are you- we're not going to die, Belle. Storybrooke is safer and quieter now, than it's ever been!" Rumpel was about to tell her everything would be fine, but she interrupted.

"-And I don't want to die not knowing the man I love! Knowing someone is love!"

Rumpel hid his embarrassed expression as he hugged her.

"Honey, what does it mean, that you have that sword? What does it do?"

"I honestly don't know," he said. He told her everything. He confessed that he had been looking for it because he felt he had a right to it. He explained the spirit of the lake as best he could. He still felt like a mortal who had no magic, but having access to Excalibur must mean something. He went over the encounter he'd just had with his late father, the boy who refused to grow up and acknowledge that he was a father. The couple agreed that if Rumpel had his father to thank for every bit of magic he stumbled across- it was too high a price to pay. No matter how hard life got, he would not resort to using derived magic again.

The docks bobbed up and down gently, slowly. The bay glimmered with sunshine. A few groups had turned up for Killian Jones' service. His girlfriend's family, his former allies, Regina and Robin, a couple of the Lost Boys of Neverland who had been staying at Granny's Inn since their rescue, and the few sailors who remained from the Captain's old ragtag crew. Mr. Smee, Mr. Collins, and the cook. Those attending stood quietly on the narrow wooden docks next to the Jolly Roger, and heard a few words from David, the shepherd from Misthaven, the reluctant prince and Sheriff.

"Hook was my friend," David began. He spoke haltingly, stopped every once in awhile by wordless emotions. "He saved my life once… And with that, he began to win over… my daughter. He won her heart. Those two, they would… do anything for each other.

"I haven't been able to accept Emma's… gone, she's really gone. And in her last days, we know she was very conflicted… She bore the burden of being the Dark One, until… We- we still don't know what happened. But we do know that somehow, Hook took that burden from her.

"Then, we got a glimpse into her afterlife- and we know… that whatever Hook had done, my smart, mature, decisive daughter, she- she wanted to be with him. Now he's gone as well. And- it's another- loss. Even though his last days were terrible, too, and he did some unforgettable, terrible things- it's still a loss to my family. Emma forgave him, Emma accepted him, and that's how we'll… try to remember him."

Before scattering his ashes on the sea and setting his ship adrift, another wanted to speak. Henry had been working up the courage, working on the words- his stomach roiled and his heart beat louder than his thoughts.

The usually confident, tall boy stood on a wooden step leading up to the ship, and addressed the few there. "Captain Hook- I knew who he was, and I knew who he wasn't," he said. "I found out exactly who he wasn't when we were trapped in an alternate storybook- the universe of Heroes and Villains. That was a time when everyone but me- became somewhat their opposite self. And when Captain Hook became the lowly sailor Hook. His opposite was nervous, self-conscious, and sober… He played it safe. He was pretty much alone in the world, too. Compared to that time in our lives, you look at the rest of Hook's life and- you know he was exactly the man he wanted to be. He was his own person. In the rest of his life, he was daring. He reached out to people. He was his own man."

Henry didn't know what else to say.

The Charmings invited everyone to a small ceremony in the graveyard after that, committing some of Killian's ashes to the ground next to Emma's tombstone- just a sardine tin of his ashes. They couldn't imagine that he wholly wanted to be buried next to Emma Swan- he had been too conflicted a person, much too drawn to wandering, to expect him to stay put for eternity. They didn't expect anyone to come, either.

Rumpelstiltskin showed up to this little ceremony for Hook just as the assembly was breaking up, and families were leaving. Belle had stayed home, conflicted over the man who had pretended to be her friend. She would grieve in her own way.

Rumpelstiltskin waited for his first chance to spit on Hook's grave. Alas, Henry Mills spotted him and came over to visit.

"Grandpa? Hi… I… want you to meet my girlfriend," he said.

The young lady following him did a short curtsy. "Violet Morgan, how do you do?"

Henry didn't miss a beat. "She was wondering if she would ever be able to visit the city her dad is from. And see the rest of the Land Without Magic… What do you think?"

"Anxious to leave, and see what there is to see, are we?" Rumpelstiltskin tapped his cane handle.

"Well is it possible?" Henry pressed. "Is there still a way to cross the town line?"

"I don't have that kind of magic anymore," Rumpelstiltskin said dryly. The only good thing about admitting his weakness was getting out of helping people all the time. "But… is it possible? Anything's possible, you know that, Henry." He winked at the youths, feeling slightly optimistic that he could still have a connection to his late son- through his grandson. And since Belle was- expecting- wouldn't his next child want a relationship with- nephew Henry?

"Why don't you come over to my place, after lunch?" He wrote down his home address on the back of a business card.

When Henry showed up at the Gold estate, walking inside slowly, impressed by the sculpted mahogany and stained glass, his grandfather got right to it.

"We need to talk… about your father." Mr. Gold welcomed him in and sat him down at a low table in the study. "There's little I can do about the town line at this point. But your father… he may have found a solution. He was researching the destruction of magic, for years… before you met him. Before he came here. I looked through his old journals when I had lived in New York- his things were reduced down to just a box." Rumpelstiltskin lifted a dusty brown document box onto the table. "I didn't even feel worthy of opening it, because the man he grew to be, Neal Cassidy… well, I didn't really know Neal Cassidy. I hadn't tried hard enough to get to know him…

"But you deserve his old things. You deserve to read his journals, from the time he had lived in New York. He worked as an office temp. He had friends, a fiancé."

"Wow. Can I keep them, then?"

Rumpelstiltskin nodded soberly. "In here, you'll find some notes I skimmed over-from some very esoteric, obscure books that are kept under lock and key in New York' s oldest library. A previous Author must have been there, because… how else would Bae-Neal- have found and read the storybooks? Storybooks just like yours, and just like the ones in the Sorcerer's Mansion? There's books and artifacts there... that come from our stories, and related stories."

"So, maybe my dad figured out a way between Storybrooke and the wider Land Without Magic?" Henry had a flicker of the slightest hope that his father had been trying to get to him, all his life. False hope. He batted it away. Henry took the box home. "Thank you, Grandpa Gold!"

Once alone with the box of journals, tapes, records and ties, Henry felt sick. He had never cried over his father- over not knowing him, then knowing him but being separated from him, and then his father's untimely death. Tears would not come, but dizziness and an upset stomach would.

He called Violet at her new house. "Do you like to read? Do you want to come help me with something?"

"It's hard to move on, isn't it?" Maleficent asked.

She had been still as a statue in the graveyard, covered up by her black and gray dress, unnoticed in plain sight. She had been staring in the direction of Lily's stone, but waiting by Emma's. "How can we move on," she asked Snow White, "knowing that... some people don't have to…? How is it that... Regina's boyfriend got to come back from death… Rumpelstiltskin got to come back… but our daughters don't get to?"

Snow White was taken aback. She wasn't sure how long she'd been staring off into space here, by the freshly covered little hole next to Emma's tombstone, but Maleficent had been watching her at least that long. She tried to comfort the other bereaved mother. "Well, we try to be happy for those who… do get their happy endings."

"And mine? Lily was mine."

"Everyone dies sometime," Snow choked out quietly, between sobs that came upon her suddenly. She sobbed without tears, "Even Robin Hood and Mr. Gold will die someday, though they were given second chances at life. So… you have to move on and-" Snow found it hard to breathe. Her tone was not convincing.

"Not yet we don't!" Maleficent insisted, suddenly close to Snow. She fumed through her nose in anger. "Let's bring back Lily and Emma. They deserve it! More than Gold, certainly!"

Snow took a long moment. "How?"

"There's still a Dark One around... to summon the ferry to the afterlife. Former Dark One, still, Gold can do this for us. He can bring us there. And he's been there before. We get him to guide us to- Lily's afterlife and- wherever Dark Ones go when they die."

"You're saying we should go down there? And how would we bring the girls back?"

Maleficent folded her bony hands and stared at her intensely. "Being together is the point. I am not proposing a trade. A trade of lives- something you're all too familiar with," she said snidely, making Snow wince at the memory of the time she'd used a magical candle to trade Queen Cora's life away, for Rumpelstiltskin's recovery. "No," Maleficent went on, "it never works out, to exchange people. I'm proposing a heist. We get the girls, hop back on that boat from the afterlife, and high-tail it home!"

With an awkward handshake, they decided to work together- perhaps that was the reason their daughters had been linked by fate.

"What if- what if Emma doesn't want to come with us?" Snow asked in a small voice. "I imagine her… sailing the seven seas of the afterlife with Hook, I guess…"

"Then you make her!" Maleficent asserted. "A mother knows what's best for her daughter!"

Henry and Violet pushed aside the piles of comic books and remedial school workbooks that cluttered his desk and dresser. "Thank you…" Henry said, and implored his girlfriend to be gentle with his father's things, with a look.

"Anything I can do to help," she said. "I don't have anything of my mother's, now that we're living here in this realm. She died when I was five."

They read silently for some time. Henry hoped it was a comfortable, trusting silence, and not an awkward silence.

"There is a land of untold stories, and we only have the most basic hints of what they might be," Henry marveled. "Wow, I wish I could see these other storybooks my dad had found, myself! It looks like he was making a short index here, for the sake of- needing a place to escape! Just in case!"

"This is heavy stuff," Violet remarked, taking a break from reading a pencil-smeared notebook. "He found a way to destroy magic, sure. But it was this horrible thing. A cup, or basin, or cauldron, maybe, from the beginning of time. A one-of-a-kind sort of cup… thing… I guess your dad didn't really know, but- he did know, from more than one story, that it did more than just destroy magic."

"What?" Henry scooted his chair next to hers and used this opportunity to lean over her lap. His heart raced, looking at the small, timidly scratched letters crowding the college-lined page. A different style of writing than Neal's usual loose penmarks in capitals. Drawings of a creepy-looking cup- and shaded cauldron. Mention of a Black Cauldron that could raise someone from the dead, if you threw a living person into it! "This thing could suck away magic, and it had its own dark magic!" Henry felt sick all over again. "Let's go outside for a second, huh?"

Violet's dark eyes seemed far away. "If only we had it," she said. "We could suck away the magic of the town line. And still keep the rest of the magic of this place. We could bring our mothers back to life!"

"But the life they would have…" Henry reasoned aloud, "The notes say that it would be hollow, something dark. Not a life but an un-death. It would be like- when my other mom's first boyfriend was brought back to life, here! He was… enraged, he couldn't think! He strangled me, randomly! He ended up being destroyed…"

Their morbid talk had led them on an aimless walk towards the beach.

"I still wish we had the thing," Henry said. "It would be a solution to… everything! Every time there's a magical problem- that happens very often, around here- the cup or cauldron could just suck it away."

"Where I'm from, there's like a hundred different stories people tell about a special cup," Violet said. "The Holy Grail. Some of them involve an opposite cup… maybe this one, that your dad studied, is its twin?"

"Yeah, its evil twin," Henry said. He kicked rocks into the sand along the beach, causing the gulls to scatter. Clouds swiftly shifted their shapes and headed towards the horizon on the bay. The Jolly Roger looked as small as a toy boat, out in the middle of the water. It gave Henry an idea.

The next day, the blonde queen of darkness and the brunette princess of her realm stormed Mr. Gold's Pawn Broker shop. Dark windows, quiet, locked storefront- for the second day in a row. But there was shuffling and shifting heard upstairs! Maleficent and Snow White climbed the fire escape steps to spy Mr. Gold in the upper apartment, moving filing cabinets and boxes. They weren't used to seeing him with no suit jacket, and his sleeves rolled up for once.

He leaned out the open window. "We're closed, ladies."

"What if we paid you upfront?" Snow blurted out.

"For what?" He raised an eyebrow and pulled his thin hair away from his face.

"We need your help… getting somewhere," Snow wrung her hands.

"Well I'm very busy, and not with starting a taxi service," he said. "Legal consultations will be available after I put up my sign."

"You. Have. Excalibur." Maleficent's voice shook the building. That stopped him in his tracks. "Don't you? That means you are a leader, not a lawyer!" She transported herself and Snow inside his bare upper office. "Need I remind you, you are mortal? If you don't step up now, and escort us below, your new life will be very short! I'll make sure of it!" She started growing out her dragon claws and tail.

It took a second to register. "Below? You mean to the realm of the dead. Let yourselves out, ladies. There is nothing you could possibly pay, that would be worth it. I won't make that trip, while we're all alive. And threats will not get you there. I'm all too aware that you're less dangerous than- the different levels of hell you want to visit. You want to bring your children back to life? Well, don't we all."

Snow and Maleficent were derailed for a moment. They didn't want to poke at a nerve, which Rumpelstiltskin had just exposed.

"I think there is something…" Snow said, slowly. "Something that would be worth it to you. The making of an extraordinary life, for you and your family. If you take us to the afterlife, and help us steal away Lily and Emma, and we all get back here alive… then you and your family can live much longer than the average life. Take a bit of the sting out of being mortal. You can have magic that will keep you three young!"

"Excuse me?"

"I saw Belle at the pharmacy the other day," Snow remarked confidently. "She was pretty discreet, but- I saw she was buying pregnancy tests. And talking to Granny, well- I didn't bring anything up, but Granny did. She has a really keen instinct for knowing when someone's expecting. So- congratulations are very likely in order!" Snow folded her thin arms and leaned in towards her longtime nemesis. "I did say we would pay upfront. The youthful power of- dragon egg, for Belle and the baby! And, should we all return from our errand, enough dragon egg for you as well!"

"WHAT." Maleficent's tone was cold.

Snow elbowed her and gave her a look that said Just go with it. They had a reluctant leader on the hook.

Meanwhile, a different duo was hard at work. Rowing and rowing. Rowing across the choppy waters of the bay- it felt like hours. Water everywhere, and none that could quench Henry's thirst. The brightly painted pirate ship seemed closer than before, but still impossibly far, like a mirage. Violet had quit rowing some time ago, resting her arms to help Henry later.

"I'm sorry this is taking ages," Henry panted. "And it's not very romantic." They had packed a picnic and borrowed a neglected rowboat from the marina, to go retrieve the Jolly Roger and bring her back in. Then they could prepare her for a final purposeful voyage: to New York City harbor.

"It's alright, whatever it takes to save the town," his easygoing girlfriend said. "Seems hero stuff is in your blood."

"We'll do more fun stuff when we take our families on the trip," Henry wiped his brow. "And… We'll see the things my father saw in New York." He was betting on the magical capabilities of the timeless ship of legend, which had carried him across a protective boundary before- from New York to Storybrooke, through the waters that connected all realms, which this particular ship could navigate. Back when Henry had first met his father, they had borrowed Hook's ship and sailed it home with Rumpelstiltskin and Emma, against the clock and against all odds. "We'll go to Connecticut and… then we'll keep looking for that Black Cauldron that can remove the Curse of the town!"

"HENRY DANIEL MILLS!" came a voice from shore. His adopted mother was a dark figure in the distance, yelling for him to come back to safety.

"Oh boy," the teen squeaked. "I'll be back in a sec with the Jolly Roger!" he yelled back to her.

In a flash, Regina Mills was aboard the boat and had him by the ear. "You want the Jolly Roger huh?" She transported the three of them to its deck in a whirl of magical smoke.

"Wow, thanks mom! You're faster than Nightcrawler when you do that-"

"Save it," Regina growled. "What do you think you're doing with the ship, then? This is supposed to be a floating memorial to…" She bit her lip. She pulled Henry close with no regard for embarrassing him in front of Violet. "Do you miss him? Tell me honestly Henry."

He explained his plan in a hurry.

"Of course you would want to pull this off yourself, and not ask me…" His mother paced the deck and tried to choose her words carefully. "Do you… do you want to find this Black Cauldron to… bring your birth parents back to life, Henry? Is that what this is about?" She opened up her arms for a hug- for anything, from her somewhat secretive son. When he didn't move, she felt she was on the brink of tears.

Henry leaned against the side of the drifting ship, hands in his pockets. "Please don't be offended… I still love you Mom."

Regina sighed. "I-we haven't talked about your mother much since… I miss her too." The tears were coming despite her best efforts. "She was a good friend. I thought we were going to be a team-Team Henry, of course- forever! She challenged me, she kept me on my toes, and I guess I needed that in a friend. There won't… be anyone else like her… The time when she was growing into her magic, trying to learn from me- honestly, it was one of the best times of my life!"

Henry felt grateful for her sudden openness- uncomfortable because he didn't know what to do. "Uh-there, there." He managed to hug her. "So… will you help us sail to New York?"

Regina dabbed her eyes, and smoothed her son's hair and shoulders. "Sweetie, it's not going to work like you think." She explained how the Dark Curse she had cast was wholly different from the Dark Curse Killian had cast. When Henry and his father had sailed from New York, New York to Storybrooke, Maine, they sailed through a Curse that hadn't impacted them- but the current Curse of the Storybrookes definitely impacted all the questers.

Straightening her posture, Regina encouraged Henry to do the same. "I'm not giving up on breaking this Curse! And neither should you."

Regina, Henry and Violet decided to search the cabin and lower deck for clues. It was eerie, seeing how the last Dark One had lived. His presence still seemed to loom, always at the blurry periphery. "We still may find his failsafe or his escape clause, if he was smart enough to put that in his Curse," Regina said.

She was inspecting the hammer and anvil that still stood next to the slate fireplace, and the desk in one corner of the cabin, when the feeling of a dark presence became the most unnerving. She sensed that she was close to something forbidden, like when she had discovered her mother's collection of hearts. Nothing in the desk, or under it, or the rugs- but something, perhaps something was hidden in the wood-paneled walls.

"Miss Mills, did you find something?" Violet asked.

Regina wanted to break open the wall and make sure. But that could be too dangerous. She snapped her fingers and the three of them were back in the rowboat, drifting around to the back of the ship, looking up at the shuttered windows of the Captain's quarters. "Maybe there's more, we can get at from outside," the sleuthing mayor said. Looking close, one panel between the windows did seem to be a little different from the others. Henry stood, to try to jiggle the panel, trusting that Hook's soft spot for him would continue to let him into such magically protected places. There was a compartment there- surely accessible from Captain's quarters as well as from this way. A hidden little shelf of bottles of rum and assorted cups.

"You did it, Henry!" Regina said. "I'll bet that pirate wasn't prepared for us to get in this way." She snapped a picture of the opened compartment with her phone. "There's definitely something significant here- but Henry, I think we should go, & come back later." She sat down, feeling light-headed and weak suddenly.

Her son reached for the decorated cups, and one small, plain one. He didn't feel he could just turn back now.

"Miss Mills, are you alright?"

"Mom? Do you feel… anything different with your magic?" The most horrible thoughts crossed Henry's mind as he reached for the cups and glasses before him. Maybe, somehow, among these was the unholy Grail, the thing that could allow him to draw away his adopted mother's magic any time she crossed him… He would have power over her, for a change…

Violet made him sit down and row with her, frightened for the woman who had crumpled into the middle of their rowboat, as though seasick. "Henry, we need to get her back home! Now! We need to get help!"

Regina didn't feel like herself again until she was back home on her black and white couch. Zelena was trying to heal her and her magic, with the gentle green glow emitted from her hands. "Thank you… for trying," Regina said groggily.

"I've long felt like it just comes natural, to try to heal people this way," Zelena admitted to her. "So, what does that earn me?"

"You know, one day you won't ask that. You'll just- do it- because that's what decent people do," Regina said, shaking her head. She realized she got that from Emma Swan, and missed her all the more. Her waiting son and his friend stirred, worried- Regina pulled them aside for a private talk in the study. Henry and Violet got a stern lecture about keeping today's discovery top secret. She was as clear and specific as she could be- but she still worried about any tendency to blab that Henry may have inherited from his grandmother Snow. Just in case, she would have the teens followed, bugged and monitored.

"The Black Cauldron… it had to be right there! Hiding with Hook's emergency drinking glasses!" Henry spoke in hushed tones with Violet as he walked her home.

"So it must have come from Camelot with the Curse?"

"Yeah, right along with Excalibur… and who knows what other treasures that Hook had wanted!"

"Umm, your mom said the Dark One had to have had a- failsafe?"

"Yep. When she had cast the Dark Curse, it was a diamond hidden in the mines, which could obliterate Storybrooke. Kill everyone in it. Just in case… things went wrong for her. And when Hook cast the Dark Curse, he brought… something that could obliterate magic. I'm hoping it's like, just one magical thing or person at a time. Not all of it."

"Now what's the plan?" Violet asked.

Henry gulped. There would be no plan. He hated to let her down, but- he was faced with a situation just like having the Author's pen, a few months ago. A situation where a very unique power was in his grasp- but too great a power. Too great for anyone to have, lest it be misused. He would have to find a way to hide or destroy the Black Cauldron, as it was surely too dangerous to ever use. He pecked her on her cheek and said goodnight with a grin, trying to be coy about all this and keep their options open.

They had been recorded. Listened to.

They had also been watched. Watched by a man who had been sleeping on park benches, traveling through alleys, foraging in abandoned homes and cars. He watched from afar and he heard enough, too. He heard there was treasure, waiting to be claimed.

Rumpelstiltskin was up early as usual, but moving slower than usual to get ready for work. He wondered if his real work in this new life was to earn the bits of magical dragon egg that could sustain his family for a good many years. Wonderful, blessed extra years with Belle and their potential children. Was it his fate to perpetually be chasing after magic? If the magic was neutral and came from a dragon or a spirit in a lake- did that necessarily make it any better, than the magic of the Shadow?

He heard Belle having morning sickness in the bathroom. "Sweetheart, is there anything I can do?"

"I don't know! And I don't know if it's too early, to think of baby stuff, but-" She rinsed her face and came out of the bathroom wearily, saying, "I want to do baby stuff. Let's find some nice things for a little one that may be coming-"

"If not now, then in the coming years!" her husband said optimistically. Quietly they both doubted the pregnancy would result in a healthy baby- because of the father's age.

Belle had this thought even yesterday- about baby stuff-she had already pushed boxes to one side in a neglected upper story room and thought of it as a nursery. Of course Belle had already peeked in each box, including a drab, dusty box labeled "Early Years."

"How about this baby blanket, were you saving it for… anything?" she asked, as Rumpel made a mental list of all the work that this room needed to make it a nursery. He became tense when he saw the thick yellow crocheted blanket.

"No. There's no reason why I should still have anything my parents made for me," he said angrily. "It's not like I'll need such a relic... for spells, ever again."

"Wait, this is your baby blanket? It's special, Rumpel, we shouldn't just toss it out…" Belle thought better of having Rumpel hold it. "Didn't your vision of your father say… that you should learn from your mother as well? If she made you this, it might be a clue… it might still offer something, that can be learned from her."

"You know my mother was the Black Fairy. The only fairy to… seduce a human boy… then, to try to live with him, as man and woman… the only fairy to become evil, to go about stealing and switching children, and creating horrible curses." Rumpel turned to leave. "At this point in my life, I don't want to learn anything from her!"

Belle sat on the bay window sill, alone with the blanket for some time.

Eventually her husband came back, sat behind her and wrapped his arms around her, warming her as she was still in a light nightgown. He touched the soft knitted blanket incidentally, and his mind started to drift.

He remembered humming and rocking and the smell of a dusty chimney, and hay. He remembered looking up at the wooden rafters of the little shack that belonged to Malcolm as an adult. And the smell of liquor, too. His parents drinking, to ease their worries and nerves. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the voices, long ago voices saying the same thing excitedly, over and over, and in different ways. His mother must have said it a thousand times, with a thousand different emotions, for him to remember the words at all. He had been just a small baby. And his parents, just terrified youths, really. Their voices said, over and over, "Prophesied to be a savior! But all saviors die!"

Rumpelstiltskin's eyes opened wide. "I remember, " he said, breathing fast. "I remember what they said. They said something about my fate! They knew about it, when I was just born!"

As he went over the memories with Belle, Rumpelstiltskin realized that when his mother had left home- and when it was said that she had been trying to change fate- she was actually trying to change his fate! He was prophesied to be a savior! And she just didn't want him to die! Isn't that what happened to Emma Swan, and every savior in history?

"That word, savior, it really stuck with me all my life. Now I know why it stood out to me," Rumpelstiltskin ruminated. "I was supposed to be a savior."

"You still can be, Rumpel. No one decides your fate- but you."

Rumpel and Belle left Granny's Diner holding hands, after breakfast and discussion about how they would continue trying to learn from their parents' mistakes. To be better to each other, and to potentially be better parents.

Regina caught them right before their car. "I need to speak to you. In private?" She beckoned towards her Mercedes, parked in front of their Cadillac.

Rumpel was offended. "Whatever you have to say to me, you can say in front of Belle."

"Fine. Please. It's important." Regina led them to all sit in the back seat of her car. "My son… has discovered the Black Cauldron," she said gravely. She showed Rumpelstiltskin a photo on her smartphone, of a shelf of various jeweled cups, glasses, bottles. One of the old carved cups was plain, black, set apart from the others.

"That's it….?"

"Yes, I felt its power, and it fits the description," Regina sighed. "And Henry's done his research... Thank you, for that." She gave Rumpelstiltskin the evil eye. "You gave him the ideas and, lo and behold, he found it."

"Why is it here in Storybrooke? Such a dangerous item… ought to be kept safe in the Land Without Magic," Rumpelstiltskin said, furrowing his brow.

"Hook's Curse, that's why. It seems his plan was- not just to wave around a sword that could kill immortals. He wanted to be able to bring them back, again and again, for the torturous, hollow existence… of the undead. So... what do we do? I know I can't touch it."

"Consider… trusting your son," Rumpelstiltskin advised, after a moment. He had never been good about following that advice, but it seemed to be time to start.

"He's not even fourteen!"

"There's something I have to do," Rumpelstiltskin announced to the women on either side of him. "One more use for- what magic I still have. And after I'm done, Henry can… go ahead and destroy magic as he sees fit." He waved his hand dismissively. "I won't be needing it."

Belle gave him a hug and a smile.

Maleficent did what she had to, to coax her body into producing an unfertilized magical dragon egg. If she wasn't moody and menopausal enough already, the price of the journey that Snow White had negotiated made her even more hormonal. Snow couldn't know just how personal a thing this was, that she had promised away to Rumpelstiltskin! But she knew enough… Somehow she had known that Maleficent's eggs' shells could keep someone young, even in the Land Without Magic. That was a secret that few other students of magic knew- Cruella de Vil and Ursula had exploited it. Snow must have pieced it together.

It had been many decades since Maleficent laid an egg without the prompting of procreation. It felt like a miracle when it happened, after weeks of stomping around the Sorcerer's Mansion in dragon form. It would be worth it, for the miracle of seeing Lily again. She didn't even care if the heist worked- she just wanted to see her beautiful, sassy, grown daughter again.

"At the full moon's zenith, the ferryman cometh, smelling the blood of an immortal…" Rumpelstiltskin was reciting something and looking upon the surface of Gentleman's Lake anxiously, as he and Belle walked Dante. Tonight was the night.

"I'm so scared for you," Belle said plainly, honestly.

"Please don't be, it makes for a stressful environment for the baby." He hugged her from the side.

She swallowed any protests of his coming journey. She understood that her handsome husband had to be the leader he was meant to be, and sometimes that meant an unpredictable, self-sacrificial quest. It was taking off to Neverland to save Henry-or ending Peter Pan even though Pan's magic seemed to consume Rumpel's and would kill him-or dueling Captain Hook in order to force out the truth about him. Now it was wading into the spiritual waters of the afterlife, to spirit away a lost savior- hopefully, bringing her and another innocent back to the living. He was as prepared as he could be, in his best pinstripe suit, with his shoes and black cane polished, and Excalibur sheathed securely and strapped to his back. She still wanted him to be more prepared, with her picnic basket for the afterlife. "Can't I convince you to take some of this food? You know what the legends say, that you can't eat anything down there or you'll be trapped there."

"No, my dear, I don't need any motivation to make this a long journey, like stopping for a snack. Your biscuits are too delicious- they should just be waiting for me up here! We'll try and be home by tomorrow night, at the latest."

They walked Dante in a circuitous path until it was time for Snow White, Maleficent, and their friends to show up. They didn't even know if it would work, for a former Dark One to spill his blood over the lake and chaperone the living to the afterlife- while staying living. David, Regina, Robin, Zelena, and Henry were there to see them off.

"If something should happen to you down there…" David said, emotionally, as he held and kissed his wife all over. "I'll know it, I'll feel it. I'm glad we share a heart, but- I don't want us to both die at the same time and leave Neal alone! Still, if…. If death comes, I'll know, it's because you went to the edges of existence to save our daughter. I love you."

"Don't worry," Snow breathed in his ear. "I'll protect our heart. We WILL find a way back to you."

Regina cleared her throat. "Of course! Of course we'll be back!"

"We? –You?"

"Yes. Emma was my friend, too. Don't you think I miss her too? Don't you think I want to be part of this?" Regina had caught wind of the plan and made her own arrangements to take leave for the afterlife. It was still a difficult decision, one that she hadn't felt comfortable committing to until this very last minute. Robin would stay home and tend to Roland, Henry and Baby Hood, as well as matters of the town- no issues were expected. It had become a ghost town now. Regina was confident that with Gold bearing the sacred Excalibur, and with the power of three witches giving their quest a magical boost, they had good odds. "You'll need us, really," she explained to Snow and Maleficent. "Many spells require the power of three. Zelena, Mal, and me."

Zelena stepped forward and forced a half-smile from her thin lips. She was dressed in layers of black and green, not knowing whether it would really be hot down below- and an inner jacket pocket held the powerful wand passed from Sorcerer to Apprentice to her. She patted it for reassurance. As long as she kept both her light and dark magic potential alive, she could wield this wand like no one else.

"That's right, I'm coming too." She nodded to Maleficent. "Since Lily ended up dying in place of Robin… I guess my little family owes yours." Zelena waited at the water's edge next to Maleficent, trying to think of this as an opportunity to learn from the dragon woman. Her brain and heart still struggled with the logic of owing someone, and the motivation of heroism.

Robin Hood, the unwitting, unwilling partner that had made their daughter possible, zipped up his heavy canvas jacket and tapped his foot. "Remember," he said to Zelena, "Whether you succeed or not, this effort… is how you get the privilege of having the kiddo for more than a day at a time, by yourself. This is how you get the privilege of deciding her course of education, as well." He nodded at her calmly, condescendingly. They had decided to wait on naming their girl until the search party returned from the afterlife, so she would be protected from the manipulation of forces below- the god of the underworld used names. Zelena anticipated she would have to work for that naming privilege as well.

She looked off past the circles illuminated under lampposts, back towards Main Street, where Granny's Inn sheltered Roland and her little broomstick baby for the night. Granny could watch over her expertly-but- a child needs her mother. Someone to sing her the alpha-beta-gammas and teach her how to judge other people, for safety, protection and profit. If Zelena got stuck in the land of the dead… She would be as good as dead, her daughter basically abandoned.

Regina nudged her shoulder. "Hey, we'll be alright. She'll be alright. We'll be back soon-it's impossible for a living soul to stay among the dead. We'll be kicked out as soon as the people in charge realize we don't belong there," Regina said confidently.

"But they won't realize it, because we'll be gone in a heartbeat with Lily and Emma," Maleficent added. She adjusted her crown of curving black bull's horns, and gave an appreciative smile. She had her staff, Zelena had the Sorcerer's old wand, and Regina wore a Coach bag full of spellbooks. The sorceresses were as ready as they could be.

Henry gave his departing relatives quick hugs and reassurances. "Don't worry, mom. I won't use the- thing. You may need magic, to get back," he whispered to Regina.

Rumpelstiltskin pricked his finger with the pin of a broach from Belle, and pushed out a couple drops of blood onto the lake. "A little ought to do a lot," he said. Dante howled up at the full moon. A barn owl swiftly swooped between the lampposts and trees. The ferry came towards them out of nowhere, silently rowed by hooded, mournful Charon. A grizzled man looked on from the shadows, unnoticed; a man who once was king and now saw his chance to be a future king of this land.

Hugs were broken up and kisses were thrown as the heroes waded out into the ice cold water. Belle, David, Robin and Henry waved tearfully, knowing they would be back here the next night and the next, keeping candlelit vigils until these questers came back.

"To the realm of the dead… it will be an awfully big adventure," Snow White said, hoisting herself aboard the boat. She looked at Rumpelstiltskin, Maleficent, Zelena and Regina, all former enemies that she now was close enough to calling family. "And you know, I'm glad we're doing this together."