Chapter 27

Dead to the World

He looked worn down. That was the first thing that she realized when the quiet moment had passed. His normally tanned skin was pale, he looked like he hadn't slept in weeks rather than the one week she'd been gone, his eyes drifted closed a few times, as if standing here without something to focus on made his body realize how exhausted he was.

Emma couldn't help but bring her hand to his face again.

Are you in pain?

What can I do?

You need to rest.

But she didn't say a thing. He did instead. "I should go see if Gina needs any help." He said softly, Emma nodded with a smile. He was so kind, always putting others before himself, even when it looked like he was about to drop from the strain of all of this.

"I'll go take care of the fire before those fools hurt themselves." She said looking over at the fools dumping water on the inferno. Neither of them moved, she didn't want to move, she just wanted to hold him, to let him rest, to let him feel safe.

"Killian. I'm going to fix this, I have a plan." Emma admitted. "Don't give up hope yet ok?" she asked. His smile was weak, and his lack of reply worried her.

But he pulled away and she knew the conversation was done. They had work to do after all.

With a spring in her step, Emma walked past the frantic outlaws, and with a snap of her fingers the fire died out. Lily was right, the fire wasn't normal, but it was nothing in comparison to her magic. Once that was done, Emma returned the camp to how she last remembered it.

(She did get some of the things wrong, but she openly asked for them to correct her.)

Her first instinct once she was done was to return to Killian, but she knew she couldn't. There were other things she needed to deal with. Things like Sydney and Marian. She looks around, finding the nervous thief staring at the red hearts in his hands nervously.

"Looks like you did a good job holding onto those." She jests, making the man, Will, jump in fright.

"Dark One." He says, holding out the hearts, turning his head away like she expected her to take his as well. She giggled, taking the hearts from his grip.

"I'm not going to hurt you, you know." She jests with a wink. "Unless you deserve it." His eyes went wide in fear. "Tell me, have you done anything that warrants me getting angry? I hear a lot of you were in on the plan to scare the sisters and my Killian into this marriage trap." The man shakes his head profusely.

"No milady Dark One." The man stampers. "It-It was just Sydney." He insists. "We all love Zelena and Gina, we just went along with it because he said it was for the best." Emma rolled her eyes at the mob mentality proving its effectiveness once again.

"I believe you." She said with a mock disappointed sigh, patting the thief on the head like a good pet. It made him flinch.

"You've done me a favor Will, thank you." She says with a smirk. "I don't forget those who do me favor." Will's eyes grew at her words, flickering between fear and wonder. She had a feeling he was debating whether being remembered by the Dark One was a good or bad thing.

Once done teasing the thief, she headed in the direction the Merry Men were keeping the prisoners. Apparently they rather liked tying prisoners to trees. She sees Marian first, and despite her desire to crush her heart, returns it sharply, making her gasp in pain.

"Take it as a sign of mercy." Emma sneers. "No one died in the fire. Killian is alright." Marian smirks.

"A temporary condition." She reasons. "My mistress agrees that allowing you to watch him die is much more effective in her goal." Emma glares at her, wanting to elaborate, but she sees Robin coming up behind Marian, fury obvious in his gaze. Considering that this man was apparently the temptress's Ex-husband, she figured she'd watch for a moment, see what had him so riled up. There was no one who knew you better than your love.

"Is he him?" The man demanded, stepping in front of her, either oblivious to Emma's existence or uncaring. "Our son. Is he alive? Was he here the whole time?" Marian's sneer faltered for the first time since Emma saw the brunette.

"Yes." She replied. "Roland is here." She could hear the man's sharp intake of breath.

"Roland is alive." The man whispered, like someone who was playing with an idea in his head, trying to wrap his head around it. Knowing the pain of a lost child, even for a moment, she empathized with him. "How could you not tell me? How could you wear a liar's face and not tell me he was alive!" He roared, gripping the collar of her shirt rather than her arm. He pulls away, clenching and unclenching his fists in his hands. Marian's face is stoic.

"I watched you leave, in the midst of my grief for our son, I watched you join her, that charmer Lacey." He starts. Emma knows a beginning of a rant when she sees one. "I thought it was because of grief. I thought she manipulated your grief, gave you something to fill the void because lord knows we couldn't do that with each other." He says bitterly. "I've watch you hurt people Mar, hurt me." She sees Marian attempt to defend herself, but she stops. "Don't tell me that you stayed in our village because you like the atmosphere, you constantly rubbed your new life, new power in my face. I thought it was because you secretly blamed me for his death. I thought I deserved it."

She sees nothing in Marian. Absolutely nothing, her former love was baring his soul and she was nothing. Emma wanted to slap her. Emma didn't even know this man, apart from his moment of warning her of danger to Killian, but she truly felt for the guy.

"But I never thought you were capable of this." He states. "Hiding from Roland, not telling him that his family was alive and missed him. I'm going to get back my son, and when he asks me about you-" His voice breaking. "I will tell him the truth, that his mother is dead." He moves to leave.

"Why do you think I agreed to this?" She snaps angrily. "To be the forest den other to these idiots? Because I liked the smell of forest?" She said with disgust. "So I could see our son, get him back one day." She shakes her head, looking him dead in the eye. "But I realized the truth. I was never supposed to be a mother. The moment I saw him, I wished it wasn't true. I wished he was dead."

Emma thought she was going to be sick. Emma didn't know Roland very much, but he adored Killian and Killian returned the feeling. This woman did not deserve him. Robin didn't reply, looking pale with a horror stricken face and just ran from the clearing.

Emma couldn't blame him. She'd storm off too if the maid didn't have answers Emma desperately wanted. Marian looks at her dead in the eye, sneer back in place.

"What's wrong Dark One? Can't stomach someone with real power?" She taunts. Emma laughs.

She creates dark fire in her hand. "This is real power." She explains, edging closer so the brunette could feel its heat. "What you did, what you are is cowardice."

Marian disagrees. "You've gotten soft Dark One, you have all these precious things, precious people. It makes you vulnerable." She smirks. "Just look what happen when you lost your precious Killian." Emma hates the way his name flickered off her tongue. She wanted to remove her tongue to keep her from ever saying it again.

"I thought it was too funny to watch you cry." Cry? The only ones who had seen her were-"

Aurora.

"You were her?" She demands. "Aurora." Marian smirks proudly.

"Don't worry, the sleepy princess is in a better place." She taunts. Emma feels her body acting against her will, hand choking the life from her.

"She was Lily's sister!" She roars. "She was family, despite being an irritating crybaby."

Marian's laughter beings her back to the present.

"See? Weakness. Your love for the Dragon pixie and her family makes you vulnerable. Your love for the sailor makes you even worse than my sniveling ex-husband. He could never see past his grief to see how the world really worked." Emma clenched her jaw for a moment, then she eased into a grin.

"Weakness? I thought my love for another child of True Love was to be you mistress's undoing?" She teased. "Isn't that why you've hurt me so?"

Marian seemed distressed by this. "How did you find out?" She snapped. Emma laughed.

"I'm the bloody Dark One dearie, testing fate is what I do." She taunted. "I don't care about her prophecy, I wouldn't have cared about her plans, that is, until she hurt Killian, until-" She cut off, knowing her next words couldn't be spoken.

Until you hurt my parents. Until you forced them to be people they weren't. Until you took away my childhood.

"Until you made your intentions known with this silly parlor trick" She said instead. "Now she's made an enemy of me. I'd say to pass along the message, but I'm not letting you go so easily." Emma stated matter-of-factly.

"Fate wouldn't have cared." Marian said. "It was my fate to lose my son, just as it was your fate to be put in her path. This way she has the advantage, she knows you too well."

Emma met her gaze. "And who is she?" Marian shook her head.

"I cannot and will not say." She says, head held high.

"I can make you." Emma warns, and after her display of terrible mothering, she would have no guilt resorting to some colorful means to do so. She tightens her grip on the woman's throat to prove her point.

"There's that Darkness I've heard so much about. You can't make me actually. She charmed me so that even with my heart, I can never betray her." Marian laughed. It irritated her that "Kill me. I know you want to, prove to me that you aren't as weak as you appear to be, that the Dark One hasn't truly seen the light."

Emma really, really wanted to kill her, crush her windpipe, make her bleed, skin her roast her, she wanted to do it all.

Emma stepped away from her, watching her gasp at the return of her breath.

"I'll let the people here who you've hurt decide your fate. But I will do this." Emma raised her hand, coating the woman in blue light. She looked down at herself, and then at her.

"What did you do?!" She demanded.

Emma kept her expression neutral. "I granted your wish." She replied. "I've seen too many children get hurt by their parents, and I aim to stop the cycle here and now. You will never again be seen, heard or felt by your son and vice versa. You will truly be dead to him." She declared. "Goodbye Marian."

She heard her shouts of complaint, of anger, but Emma didn't care. She proved she didn't care for her son, and this way, Roland couldn't accidentally sneak a peek at his mother in chains (or this case ropes) he had a mother in Regina and that was all that mattered.

It took a moment to compose herself, because that had taken so much out of her. Emma couldn't imagine such darkness in a person; it crossed even the lines she'd drawn when she'd first embraced the darkness. She hoped Henry never saw her like that.

"Emma?" a voice called a hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright? You're shimmering." Emma nodded, taking a breath and turns back to her friend.

"Marian is terrible, she did this because of a prophecy." She admitted. Lily raised a brow, arms crossed. Emma sighed and told her everything she'd learned from her parents, especially about the prophecy.

"Oh Emma." Lily sighed. "That's pretty intense, but you know what it means right?" She asked. "If your taking her interpretation of the curse, than it means you'll have another child, one you can raise." She says hopefully. "Or maybe it's Henry."

Emma shook her head. "Neal was nether a Dark One, or a child of True Love." She explained. Lily nodded. "But what about Killian? Its not like he'd have magic if he-" Emma shook her head again.

"He isn't." She said firmly.

"Well prophecies are weird, they can mean different things than you first expect them to. Maybe it's out of context. Regardless of what it means, I know that you will be ok; you're no stranger to cryptic visions. Everything will be alright." She promised. Emma grinned.

"You're really good at that Lily." Emma said softly.

"What? Analyzing the various personalities of Emma Swan?" She joked.

"Giving me hope." Lily slung her arm around her shoulder.

"What are best friends for?" She laughed. "Now go take care of him." She said, nodding towards a tree Killian was leaning against, eyes firmly closed. Emma nodded, approaching him slowly. His head was bobbing slightly. She watched him briefly, hand on his shoulder. She wonders again what was going on in his head.

"Killian?" Emma asks, a hand on his shoulder, trailing towards his neck. He stirs, like she'd risen him from a light sleep. His eyes took a sec to focus on her before he grinned. But it was forced, plain as day. "Are you alright?" She asked.

He nods. "Never better love." He insists, but Emma doesn't believe him for a second.

"I don't need a super power to know you're not." She says softly, wrapping herself around him, allowing him to lean into her.

"I know." He says sadly, desperately even. "Just a little tired." He explained. "I'll be-" His breathing breaks for a moment, she can see him thinking, trying to find something to say, to comfort her. "It'll be ok." He says instead. She wants to scream because she knows what he means.

"We're going to fix this." She tells him firmly.

I'm ready to fight.

"I have a way there, a magical branch that can open a portal, we just need a way to guide it…I will get you there. I will save you." She tells him, both of them, because the more she says it, the more certain it will be.

His forehead drops to hers, touching it with eyes closed. He breathed in slowly and for a moment Emma thought he would fall asleep again, she knows she'd gladly stay like this forever.

"We keep losing and finding each other." She tells him in a whisper. "No more. We're sticking together now alright? I'm going to get us our future, alright? You just have to have faith."

He shook his head.

"I don't have any left." He admits, as if the words he'd been trying to keep silent comes to the surface, but she just didn't understand. Emma was the one who gave up, who would curl up into her darkness, into her shriveled heart. Killian was light, he had faith in people, he fought even when he couldn't. He wouldn't- "Fifteen years of searching, false hope after false hope. I couldn't find even a clue." He says. "And that was before I realized I was dying." He explained. "Magic beans, slippers, curses, none of it worked." His voice broke.

Her heart broke, because he looked like he was in the verge of shattering and she didn't want that. She didn't want to hurt him, not like she'd already done. His hand lifted to her face, wiping away a trailed tear she hadn't even noticed. "No tears Swan. I've accepted it, my fate. I'll be happy as long as you have a future, find your happy ending Swan." He urged.

She wanted to laugh at that, the absurdity of it all. It was like a freaking tragedy book.

"Don't you know?" She said in an equally as shaking voice, because after everything he had to know by now. "It's you." She admitted, hands wrapping around his neck. "It's ok. It will be ok, because I'm ready now." She said confidently. "I'll never stop fighting for our future." She'd have the faith for both of them.

"If I find a way, will you be ok with that?" She asks. "Will you let me help you?"

He nods. "Always Swan." He agrees pressing his face to her neck and she can just hear his words, so low, she thought she'd imagined them for a moment. "You're my happy ending too."

It was enough.

And to make the moment perfect, Emma heard music. It wasn't as elegant as the ball, nor as practiced as in the village, but it was music. It meant life was going on. It meant they got a quiet moment.

"Dance with me?" She blurted out. "We were happy the last time we danced." Emma remembered. They were so happy.

He smirked and Emma couldn't help but tease him a bit. "And perhaps we can have a repeat of what else we did after we danced he teased, taking her hand, and placing the other on her hip." She said in a whisper. She saw his grin widening.

"Sure love, you remember how to do this right Swan?" He teased.

"Yup." she assured him. And then she kissed him. And then they danced.

XXXXXXXX

Emma pretends not to notice how she has to do the leading this time, or how his usual graceful steps are sluggish and choppy. How two songs in, she had to lead him to a seat at a table the Merry Men were preparing. Killian's wedding banquet apparently.

Lily decided to give them both a piece of her mind about communication and that she had every intention to stick with them as they saw this through and Emma was grateful for that. She'd been surprised by how Lily seemed to instantly decide to take care of her pirate when she was hurt.

(Emma blamed the mother in her)

Zelena was sitting at the head of the table, looking much better, saying that they might as well enjoy it, since she was never getting married.

"I thought you had to?" Lily piped up.

Zelena rolled her eyes. "To appease these misogynist pigs? No thank you." She said with a hearty chuckle, lifting her fork. "I challenge any of you men who think I need one of you at my side to run this kingdom."

Emma smirked at her boldness.

"Good." She said simply. "So, when do you plan to make your run at my crown?" She asked. Emma had no intention of ever being Queen but Emma was curious about Zelena too. The red head met her gaze evenly.

"Once I recover." She said simply. "I've had enough of your mother's tyranny." She challenged. "And I don't know if you'd be any better Dark One."

Emma nodded. "I have no intention to be ruler. I just want to live in peace." She assured her. "But despite my reputation I do care about this kingdom, my birthright." She continued. "So I'd like to offer you a deal." Emma could tell Zelena was interested but she remained silent.

"Hold off on your invasion, or attack or whatever your plan is. Just until I get back from my trip; a couple weeks is all I ask." Emma wanted time to get to whoever had her mother's heart, give her a chance to finally rule this place how she wanted to. Emma knew that a heart can control a lot about a person, but bits of the real person showed beneath it all. Emma wanted desperately to see just how much of the evil was her mother and how much was-

"Why?" She asked. Emma bit her lip, picking her words.

"I need to know the truth about something, and I cannot do that if there is a war." She explained. "If I'm right, than I plan to do something that can fix everything, if I'm not, than I will support you, either way, the people will get a just ruler." She explained.

"Then why wait?" Zelena asked. "If you know something that changes things, then act on it now!" She insisted. "What can be more important than your people?" She demanded.

Emma glanced at Killian sitting playing cards with Roland with a goofy grin.

"My family of course." She replied. "Love trumps responsibility every time."

The woman thought for a moment, something deep and painful flickering across her face, before nodding. "Yes, that's how it should be." Zelena said in a faded voice. "Alright Dark One, we have a deal."

Emma smiled, digging into her meal, noticing Killian had left his plate untouched.

"Kill-" She tried, calling, looking around. But Lily shook her head.

"He went over there." Lily pointed. Emma saw him escaping out of sight with Roland. She looked for the kids parents and saw them…arguing, holding cards in a tense battle of wills. Regina's expression was something akin to a snarl, and Robin was red faced and furious. "I wonder what's the matter with those two." Lily said aloud.

Emma snickered, lowering her voice.

"They just learned that they share a son." Lily's brow raised in curiosity.

"Robin is Roland's real dad, he just found him. But Regina loves him and he her." She clarified. Lily snickered, taking a sip of her cup.

"Now that's hell." She snickered. "Its one thing sharing a kid with someone you know." She met Emma's gaze. "But a stranger? Both wanting to be Roland's parent. Now that's going to be an adjustment." Emma nodded in agreement, leaning back in her seat.

Everything seems ok, and Emma lets herself breathe for a moment, to enjoy the sort of peace they'd found themselves in.

So it wasn't too surprising that things went to hell in that same moment.

Emma saw Roland's small body running back to her parent, jumping up and down, pulling at Regina's sleeve.

Even over the sound of the talking, of the music, of everything, she can still hear the child's panicked words. She saw Lily stand beside her.

"Mama! It's Killy! Mama come! Come!" Emma stood, exchanging a look with Regina as they all followed Roland.

Emma gasped, seeing Killian faced down on the ground.

"Killian!" She shouted, surging forward. She flipped him over, cradling his body above her own, she watched his slow breathing and low groans. "What happened?" She demanded.

"He was coming with me to talk to Mama Gina and Papa, but then he got really dizzy and he hit his head on a tree branch." Roland explained. Emma could see the bump on his forehead; she eased it with a touch, pulling him closer until his head was on her shoulder.

"S'rry sw'n." Killian slurred, turning his face into her neck.

"Shhh. It's ok. Its ok, I got you." She said, looking up, Regina was holding Roland's hand and Lily was running her hand up and down Killian's arm and side.

Please don't leave me. She silently begged him. They needed more time, she'd wasted his second chance being insecure, and she begged it wouldn't cost him his life, begged and begged whoever, whatever, was out there.

"It's just exhaustion." Lily replied in relief. "Emma, did you hear me? He just needs rest. He needs some proper rest, he must not be sleeping enough." Regina nodded in agreement.

"Not sleeping, not eating, his hangover, hauling my sister out of a fire, I'm surprised he didn't drop sooner." The bandit listed.

Emma felt his breathing evening out, if he was conscious, it was just barely. "We have time. We have a bit more time. He just needs to rest."

"Ok. Lily, go get Henry." Emma ordered, pulling her magic to the surface, trying to imagine where she wanted to go. Lily nodded, she turned towards Regina.

"I'll ask my mother to come and help you here." Lily said, "I don't want her to be alone while I'm gone." Regina nodded thankfully before exiting the area. Regina turned towards Emma as the blonde pressed her cheek into the top of Killian's hair.

"I take it you're going somewhere too?" Regina asked. Emma nodded.

"He needs to get to Neverland." She explained. "I know you've been looking out for him while I was being an idiot." She reasoned. Regina nodded in agreement.

"Time to look out for yourself pirate, we have some things to discuss when you're not dropped dead." Regina said simply, earning a chuckled from Killian and a glare from Emma for her lack of tack in this situation.

"Bye Killy!" Roland said swiftly, moving towards them before Regina could stop him and kissed 'Killy' on his forehead. "Feel better." She felt Killian smirk, but his eyes didn't open.

"Be good to your parents lad, you will remember what I told you?" He whispered as Roland nodded retreated back to his mother.

"Where are you going?" Regina asked. "I doubt you can just poof to Neverland." She droned.

Emma smiled, looking down at Killian, kissing his head.

"I'm taking him home."

Day one of plotting this out, I wanted this to be how it ended. Lots of set up for things to come.

I hope Marian made a bit more sense. As well as the reasoning for Robin and Regina not to get along (for now).

Guest Reviews:

andria: It's going to be quite the adventure, I'll tell you that much.

Anna: Robin and Regina did like each other, but liking each other is a far cry from ready to share a kid together. Emma's going to continue to be very determined to save Killian, as for Snowing, they won't be tagging along to Neverland so they won't be in a majority of the sequel, but they will be mentioned a quite a bit. Thank you so much for your words of support, and praise, it really means a lot to me.

Stay tuned for the Epilogue.

~Luna