As the curse brewed over Misthaven, The Wicked Witch was brewing a potion while Rumple watched her from inside his cage.
"Wolf's blood. Dragon's scale," Rumple smirked once he saw the ingredients that she had with her. "I've tasted this brew before."
"We're about to take an unplanned trip, my pet," The Wicked Witch told him with a smirk. "The curse is coming."
"You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed," Rumple taunted her. "You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed~"
"What I need to do can be done from any land," The Wicked Witch retorted as she opened the cage door. "I will succeed in changing the past. My spell will work."
"But only, if you remember it." Rumple reminded her.
"Which I will, with this," The Wicked Witch countered as she showed him her memory potion. "To keep my valuable recollection safe and sound," she then drank up the potion and handed her second bottle to the imp. "Here. Drink it. Dump it out. Sing it a song. Your brains are still mine. If you want to remember the loss of your son, so be it. But, if you prefer to stumble about blind and stupid with the rest of them, be my guest~" she then told him before she heard crying in the distance and walked over to what looked like a bassinet with a baby girl inside. "Hello, my dear... we're about to see a whole new world together and you'll be old enough to enjoy it once we make it there, especially when we see Auntie Regina and cousin Evie~" she then told the baby before she scooped up the baby in her arm. "Here you go, kid... some good old fashioned Misthaven formula." she said before turning the bottle in her hand into a baby bottle with a rubber nipple on it, then put it into the crying baby's mouth.
The baby continued to cry until she tasted the liquid and looked up with wide eyes as she stirred a little.
"We'll see Uncle Rumpy soon~" The Wicked Witch thebn smirked as she picked up the Dark One's dagger and soon disappeared.
"I hope she doesn't call me that in Storybrooke," Rumple grumbled to himself as he wandered around the room before he took the bottle, removing its cork as he was about to drink from it. "Memories are pain. Pain is strength. For vengeance." he then said before he raised his hand to drink the potion. Before Rumple took a drink, suddenly, uncontrollable spasms began to shake his body as he trembled violently. He then lost consciousness and soon, his eldest son broke free from his father's body and came alive.
"We don't need to remember. Emma does," Neal said once he made it out, then tore a piece of cloth from his sleeve and hurriedly wrote a note on it. Whistling, he then stumbled over to the window, bringing a pigeon named Witherspoon who landed on the sill and he soon tied a note and the bottle to the pigeon's leg. "Find Killian Jones. On the Jolly Roger. Find Captain Hook. Go!" he then urged the bird, letting it fly away just as he suddenly fell backwards and re-merged in Rumple's body just as his father suddenly woke up. Only time would tell if Killian would get the note or not, but between you and me, he did because this story is still far from over.
MEANWHILE...
On the busy streets of New York City, an alarm clock struck 8:15 AM and a certain woman began to wake up to start the day with her child. The song "Charley's Girl" began to play around the living space of the mother and son before the woman began to cook scrambled eggs for her and her son's breakfast as well as pancakes and two cups of hot chocolate just as her son finished watering the plants in the apartment.
"Mom, you forgot something." Henry reminded his mother.
"Right, cinnamon." Emma nodded as she grabbed the sprinker and gave it to Henry who then poured cinnamon on his hot chocolate.
The mother and son clinked their cups together before drinking. Suddenly, a knocking came from outside the door.
"Someone coming over?" Henry asked his mother out of confusion.
"No." Emma replied, sounding just as bewildered.
The knocking then resumed and began to be a loud pounding.
"Henry, wait here." Emma told her son, deciding to go and get the door and on the way there, she turned off the music player. Upon opening the door, she saw someone dressed in pirate clothes.
"Swan. At last-" Killian smiled as he tried to enter the apartment.
"Whoa, do I know you?" Emma asked as she blocked him with her hand.
"Look, I need our help. Something's happened," Killian told her, sounding urgent. "Something terrible. Your family is in trouble."
"My family's right here. Who are you?" Emma retorted firmly.
"An old friend. Look, I know you can't remember me, but... I can make you." Killian explained as he came closer and tried to plant a kiss on her lips.
Emma grew wide-eyed and soon kicked the adult pirate in the groin and shoved him back out the door. "What the hell are you doing?!" she then complained.
"A long-shot. I had to try," Killian grunted as he tried to recover. "I was hoping you felt as I did."
"What you'll feel is the handcuffs when I call the cops." Emma retorted.
"Look, I know this seems crazy, but you have to listen to me," Killian urged her only for the door to be shut in his face. "You have to remem-"
"Who was that?" Henry asked his mother curiously.
"No idea. Someone must have left the door open downstairs," Emma replied as she shut and locked the door before she walked back over to the table. "Come on, let's eat."
Killian and Dee Dee could tell that it was going to take some time to convince Emma and Henry to get back to Storybrooke.
"You tried your best, Captain," Smee said to his superior. "I know you're not going to give up that easily though."
"Certainly not," Killian nodded. "I'll try again with Emma Swan later wherever I can find her."
"How are you going to find her when you don't know where she is?" Samantha asked.
"I'll find a way, Miss Smee. I always do." Killian reassured her.
"He truly does." Smee nodded in agreement.
"Also in the meantime, we shall equip Plan D." Killian said.
"Oh, no! Not Plan D!" Samantha gasped until she looked confused for a moment. "...what's Plan D?" she then wondered.
"And shouldn't we go through Plan B and C first?" Smee added, sounding just as if not more than his sister.
"That won't be necessary, Mr. Smee," Killian smirked before he shouted out. "Dee Dee! Front and center on the double!"
Dee Dee soon came over to see the three adults, looking all around her before frowning a little since she felt nervous about being alone with them and without the comfort or security of Leroy and Nova.
"Plan D stands for Dee Dee," Killian told the Smee siblings. "It's fortunate that she came with us when she did."
"It is?" Samantha and Smee asked increduously.
"Really?" Dee Dee asked the pirate captain. "How come, Mr. Killian?"
"Because while I can lure Emma Swan to me, you can lure her son Henry," Killian explained. "It's my understanding that you two have known each other a long time."
"Oh, um, yes, we have." Dee Dee nodded.
"Then that's why we need you, young Dee Dee," Killian told her as he put his hand on her shoulder in comfort. "While I try to convince Emma Swan to come back to Storybrooke, you try to get Henry along for the ride."
"But what if he hates me?" Dee Dee asked.
"Why would he hate you?" Killian replied, concerned about Dee Dee asking such a question.
Dee Dee pouted before shrugging. "Well, uh, I dunno," she then said. "We were best friends in Storybrooke, but we don't know each other anymore because of Queen Mayor Regina's curse price... We used to be best friends, but now we're complete strangers and he might not like me."
"Come now, young Missy, you're a very likable and fun young lady," Smee spoke up. "I might not have known you that long, but I know that you can do it."
"Really?" Dee Dee asked softly.
"Certainly!" Smee smiled and nodded. "Besides, what's not to like?"
"Well, uh, okay, if you guys believe in me," Dee Dee said with a small smile. "What exactly do I have to do though?" she then wondered.
"You'll have to do what you can to make sure Henry notices you and maybe even talks to you," Killian advised Dee Dee. "I'm sure you can charm him somewhat in your own way."
"I'm not like you though, Mr. Killian," Dee Dee frowned. "I can't get Henry's attention like you do with Miss Emma."
"Yes, you can and I know you can," Killian told her as comfortingly as he could. "Just tell yourself that this will help us all get back on track and back to Storybrooke once we get Emma and Henry to listen to us."
"Hmm... I guess I could try, but I'm not too sure..." Dee Dee sighed and frowned a little bit, sounding very nervous.
"It'll be all right, I promise you," Killian replied. "We'll do whatever we can to get their attention."
"Well, all right," Dee Dee sighed. "I'm not too sure, but I'll try to do what I can."
"That's the spirit!" Killian replied. "Now, let's see if we can get a look at what Henry and Emma are up to so we can plan what to do."
"Aye-Aye, sir." Dee Dee said, though she didn't sound very confident at the moment.
Killian brought out his spyglass, holding it in his right hand before he bit the end of it to stretch it out since he didn't have a left hand to do that. He then peeked out from their current location as a school bus was shown just as Emma was hugging Henry before kissing his cheek and waving at him as he began to go onto the bus. "Henry dead ahead!" he then announced.
"What does that mean?" Dee Dee wondered.
"Henry is very close and you shouldn't probably go and follow him," Samantha explained. "You should probably go after the bus right now."
"Well, all right, I'll try to do what I can." Dee Dee sighed before she took a deep breath.
Smee then lowered the gangplank for Dee Dee as the girl headed over and went to walk down it to go after Henry's bus.
"Good luck, young Dee Dee," Killian whispered. "You do your part and I'll try to do mine and before we know it, our Fairy Tale Town will be properly restored."
Smee and Samantha looked unsure, but they still both had faith in their captain, hoping that things would work out well in the end. They usually did of course, but it was hard to say in a world where Fairy Tales became real and the villains started to conquest for their own happily ever afters. Henry smiled as he sat on his school bus while other students were chattering among themselves and going about their own business and he did as well since today felt like just another day for him. He then glanced out the window as something seemed to reach the corner of his eye before he rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing right. In the end, it turned out that he was right as a young girl around his age was shown to be running down the sidewalk beside the bus on the road.
It wasn't a coincidence because it was Dee Dee running beside the school bus. Henry glanced and watched the blonde girl, looking at her like he never looked at anyone else before in his life, especially a girl his age. He just had to wonder: who was that and where did she come from? It wasn't just by the school bus though, she also seemed to randomly appear all throughout the school grounds, but never exactly in a classroom. Henry glanced out the window of the classroom he was currently in as he and the other students were being quizzed.
"Who can tell me what the colonists did to protest the tea tax?" The teacher asked her students, having a cheerful and jovial smile as always that would probably be the envy of Snow White herself until she called on a random student. "Henry?"
"Huh?" Henry blinked once he realized he was being called on before he glanced out the window again as Dee Dee seemed to disappear and reappear randomly out on the school's blacktop. "Uh, I'm sorry, Ms. Foxworth, I just thought I saw something out the window.
"Uh-uh, alright, Henry, but you won't find the answer to this exciting history question out the window." Ms. Foxworth replied, concerned that he wasn't paying attention, but let it slide since he rarely got in trouble.
Henry looked bashful as the other students in the classroom seemed to smirk back at him before they looked forward again as their teacher faced the blackboard to write more on it.
"Hey, you okay, man?" A boy sitting next to Henry asked him quietly.
"Yeah, Avery. I'm fine," Henry replied. "I guess I just must be seeing things."
"Like what?" Avery wondered.
"No whispering in the back, please!" Ms. Foxworth called out to her students firmly.
"Sorry, Ms. Foxworth." Henry and Avery replied bashfully.
"I'll tell you later." Henry then whispered to Avery.
Avery nodded and they both soon kept their eyes forward to pay attention to their lesson. Henry then glanced out the window briefly to maybe catch a glimpse of the pretty and mysterious girl again, but didn't see her that time so he just decided to at least attempt to pay attention so not to get detention.
Later on, the students were at their lockers as Henry held his head, looking a little bit dizzy but not too much. He almost looked sick, but of course he wasn't. "I'm telling you, Avery. Something weird is going on lately," he then told his best friend in New York City. "I feel like someone's following me."
"Someone's following you?" Avery asked out of confusion. "Henry, come on, I think you're imagining things."
"Well, I can't explain it, I just feel like there's someone out there." Henry replied.
"Someone? Like who?" Avery wondered.
"I... I just don't know how to explain it or describe it... It seems to be a pretty girl following me wherever I go or something like that." Henry tried to explain.
"A girl?" Avery asked. "You mean like Morgan Phillip?"
"No, not like that, it was a girl with blonde hair in pigtails," Henry tried to explain to his best friend. "She was beautiful. I want to see her again."
"Ha! You must be dreaming," Avery chuckled as they walked down the hallway together. "No one in this school looks anything like that."
Henry paused and blushed before shrugging. "Maybe you're right." he then said to Avery.
"Of course I'm right," Avery replied. "You probably just feel stressed out. What with that big hairy Math test and being randomly called on in some classes? School isn't as much fun as coloring in the lines or trying to take two cookies away from a cookie jar at snack time."
"I guess it's a bit of stress..." Henry had to admit.
"Maybe you could come over tonight and we can plan out what we're gonna do for the museum field trip next week?" Avery offered. "We'll even get some hot chocolate with cinnamon. My treat?"
"That sounds awesome... but I don't think I can." Henry smiled until he sighed and frowned as he suddenly remembered something.
"Really? How come?" Avery wondered.
"Walsh is coming over tonight to take Mom out to dinner at La Ratatouille," Henry explained. "They went there for their first date and Mrs. Cuse is coming over to watch me."
"Even better," Avery said with a hopeful smile. "Who needs an old babysitter when you can have the coolest guy in school by your side?"
"Thanks for the offer, Avery, but I think I'm just gonna hang out at home tonight and maybe take it easy, but I'll call you later," Henry said to his best friend. "Maybe some video games tonight will take my mind off things and I'm almost at Level 23 anyway. I'll call you later though."
"Well, okay, if you're sure." Avery replied.
"I'm sure, but thanks anyway," Henry nodded. "Maybe it's just all in my head and I know what's gonna happen to my mom tonight."
"Yeah? What's gonna happen with your old lady and the old Wizard of Oak?" Avery asked on the way.
"Come on, man. I know how this guy works with my mom," Henry smirked knowingly. "First date restaurant. A special night out. Writing's on the wall. He's gonna ask her to marry him."
"How do you feel about that then?" Avery asked. "Having a new dad in your life?"
"Well, I never had a dad in my life to begin with, so it feels like nothing's really changing other than having a dad in my life," Henry shrugged in response. "I guess tonight is the night that things change in New York City."
"That's for sure." Avery replied.
The two continued down the hallway together and Dee Dee soon poked her head out from the lockers and continued to wander around without anyone else seeing her.
"Rat Patootie?" Killian asked once Dee Dee had come back.
"That's what he said! ...or at least I think that's what he said," Dee Dee explained to the pirate captain. "Henry said his mother was gonna see a guy named Walsh tonight at The Rat Patootie restaurant with a big question to ask her."
"Somehow I don't think that's the right name." Samantha snarked.
"Did she have to say 'rat'?" Smee added out of discomfort.
"Then that's where I'll go tonight," Killian then said as he patted Dee Dee on the head out of comfort. "Well done, Dee Dee. You were an excellent help, now I just have to try to do my part until we make it back to Storybrooke."
"Glad that I could help, Mr. Captain." Dee Dee smiled and saluted him as she looked proud of herself.
"Now, let's just see where I can find this Rat Patootie restaurant." Killian said to himself.
"Please stop saying 'Rat Patootie'." Smee complained to both of them.
Emma eventually came back home to her and Henry's apartment, coming straight for the living room, seeing her son playing video games after a rather interesting date night with her mainstay boyfriend and another rather handsome, but unfamiliar stranger. "Mrs. Cuse said you were quiet tonight." she commented to him.
"Not quiet. Concentrating," Henry clarified as he looked very focused on his game right now. "I've finally reached level 23."
"Do you mind if a fifth-level wizard joins you?" Emma offered as she picked up a second video game controller.
"At level 23? Good luck with that," Henry smirked, letting her come sit down next to him. "So what did you say? To Walsh?" he then asked his mother.
Emma looked wide-eyed at his question. "You knew? How?" she then asked out of surprise.
"Come on, Mom. First date restaurant. A special night out. Writing was on the wall." Henry stated like it was obvious.
Emma smirked at that a little. "Technically, the writing was on the dessert." she then confessed.
"So, what did you say?" Henry then asked only for Emma to remain silent which then told Henry one thing. "Poor guy."
"I didn't say no." Emma reassured him.
"If you didn't say yes, I stand by my poor guy assessment." Henry countered wisely for his age.
"I just need some time to think about it. I mean, it's like a big step, kid," Emma explained calmly. "We've got a good thing going here, just the two of us."
"Yeah, and we'd still have a good thing if it was just the three of us." Henry retorted calmly in return.
"You think Walsh is worthy of joining our little family?" Emma asked.
"He's okay." Henry replied.
Emma didn't say anything in response to that and suddenly looked emotionally distant.
Henry noticed that, then puased the game and turned around to face Emma, feeling like he knew what she was thinking about deep down. "Mom, not every guy is like my dad," he then told her as mature advice. "Not every guy is just gonna leave you."
"He didn't just leave," Emma replied with a frown. "He set me up to take the fall for his crime and left me in jail. He doesn't even know you exist. He doesn't deserve to."
"This guy is not that guy. He wants to be with you. Us," Henry reassured his mother. "He wants us to be his home. And anyways, I know you like him."
"How?" Emma wondered.
"'Cuz he's the first guy you've dated I've ever met." Henry replied before he resumed the game with a small smirk.
"When did you get so wise?" Emma asked her son, smirking back at him a little.
"Somewhere after Level 16 when I became a knight." Henry stated confidently.
After much convincing and quote unquote "stalking", Killian was able to bring Henry and Emma back to Storybrooke and Emma knew what she had to do after making it back into the Fairy Tale Town she had once forgotten all about. She knocked on the door in front of her and someone answered it, trying to remain calm and patient because of what might happen next.
"Hi. Don't close the door. I... My name is-"
"Emma." David greeted his long-lost daughter who had to lose again.
"David." Emma whispered in relief.
David then hugged her right away. "You remember?" he then asked her.
"You remember." Emma realized in reply.
"Of course," David replied before looking at her. "What are you doing here?" he then wondered.
"Well, Hook found me. He brought me here," Emma explained calmly. "He said you were cursed."
"Yeah, we're back. Or never left," David tried to explain to her. "We don't know. We're trapped again."
"You know who you are." Emma realized.
"Emma, this curse we don't know who did it. Or why," David explained the best that he could. "All we know is our last year it's been wiped away and the descendants were aged down and we don't know if they remember the forgotten year or not."
"Wiped away? Aged down descendants?" Emma wondered.
"All we remember is saying goodbye to you," David nodded. "It feels like yesterday."
"But if you can't remember, then how do you know that it's been a-" Emma began to ask only for another familiar voice to cut in.
"Emma?" Mary Margaret asked as she came into the room suddenly. "Emma?"
"Year?" Emma finished before she looked down and saw that her youthful mother suddenly had a bump in her stomach.
"As you can see, a lot's happened." David told Emma as he put his arm around his pregnant wife protectively.
"We just don't know what," Mary Margaret added. "The whole year is gone."
"Who the hell would have done this?" Emma wondered, both curious and frustrated for not just her family, but all of Storybrooke.