Chapter Seven - Common Descent

Regina kissed Roland on the head and tucked the blanket under his chin even though it was a warm night. Then she went down to the kitchen and made a couple of mugs of hot chocolate, adding cinnamon to one and whisky to the other, she carried the mugs to the parlor and handed the cinnamon mug to Henry.

"You do know that she'll come looking for you here, Henry?"

Henry smiled and took a tentative sip of his hot beverage, "I'm counting on it." he said.

"Are you wishing you hadn't broken The Author's Quill?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah..." Henry hung his head, "If I hadn't been so stupid I could've fixed all of this... I could've been a hero. Instead I'm just ...ordinary. Again."

"Henry you were never ordinary!" Regina placed her arms around her son, "Remember what we learned in Neverland, you Henry, you have the heart of the truest believer!" she reminded him, "And even without the quill you're still The Author and I don't think The Apprentice would've chosen you for the job if he thought you were 'ordinary'."

"Believe me I remember Neverland mom. I remember that almost got you all killed when I gave my heart to Pan and then when he swapped bodies with me, if it hadn't been for grandpa Gold..."

Regina stiffened, "I'd rather not talk about him." she said setting her mug down on the coffee table.

"Because he's probably dead?"

"We don't know that Henry. He just disappeared, that's all. Happens to magic users all the time."

"But he didn't have magic anymore! The Apprentice sucked it all out!"

"No, he removed the Dark Curse from his heart." Regina corrected him, "I highly doubt he could remove all the magic, his cells must be loaded with the stuff by now. If he had died like he claimed he would, I would've made sure they buried him in a lead-lined coffin under a strict protection spell..."

"I get the point." he said, changing the subject, "She won't hurt you, you know."

"Our frequent trips to the cemetery to put fresh roses on Robin Hood's grave would beg to differ."

"She wasn't herself then! She's really really sorry she did it. I can tell!" Henry said, believing it to be true, "But she can't just keep hiding forever. She'll go crazy out there all alone. If she comes back to town and lets everyone try to help her I think she could keep it under control, you know like grandpa Gold did..."

Regina made a rude sound. Probably gagging on the two successive mentions of 'grandpa' Gold.

"Maybe if we could just find him then we could ask him how he did it?" Henry mused aloud.

"How he did what?" Regina asked, grumpily.

"You know, how he kept the Darkness from murdering us all in our beds."

"I don't think the Darkness wants to kill us Henry. I think it wants to torment us. Some of us anyway." she added.

"Maybe The Apprentice could help us?" Henry's face brightened like a light bulb, "He knew enough about it to get it out of Rumplestiltskin's heart and Rumplestiltskin had been trying to do that for centuries probably!"

"I thought we were waiting for Emma to show up?" Regina changed the subject, "And besides, The Apprentice is still in a coma. I've checked in with Dr. Whale every day on that point."

"I bet I can wake him up." a voice heavy with menace asked from behind the couch.

00EMMA00

A startled nurse ran from The Apprentice's hospital room in terror as Henry and his mothers poofed into the room, right beside the bed.

The Apprentice was hooked up to several monitors, but he appeared to be breathing on his own and according to Dr. Whale, he didn't even need a feeding tube, though how his body was sustaining itself was anybody's guess.

"Magic." Emma guessed, after hearing an update from Regina.

"Most likely." she replied, "But that doesn't help us wake him up."

"Maybe he needs true loves kiss?"

Emma rolled her eyes, "Look at him kid. Does he look like he has a sweetheart back home?"

Regina glared a warning at Emma that said, 'be nice he's only a kid!', then she said, "From what little I've been about to find out about him, he's been basically a hermit for at least a hundred years. Probably a lot longer, so I doubt he has any loved ones left to give him True Love's Kiss, Henry."

"Oh... So how do we wake him then?" Henry asked.

"I know where I'd start," said Emma, sweeping all the monitoring equipment away with a single swipe of her arm. The room erupted with alarms, but nobody came to check on the cause.

By now the whole hospital knew who was in The Apprentice's room.

The noise seemed to have no effect on the sleeping man, but the next thing Emma tried did. Without warning she reached into his body and pulled out his heart.

Henry swallowed down a gasp and backed up a step.

Regina just shrugged. It was worth a try.

Emma spoke into the heart, Wake up, she commanded.

The Apprentice sat bolt upright in bed, a somewhat dazed expression on his face.

"Well that was... easier than I thought." said Regina, somewhat annoyed that she hadn't thought to try this earlier.

"Tell me how to get rid of the Dark Curse old man." Emma commanded.

"It cannot be done." The Apprentice's voice came out in a choked whisper.

"Then tell me how to find Rumplestiltskin so that he can tell me how. I'm sure Regina kept the hat..." she looked to Regina for confirmation and received a reluctant nod.

"Rumplestiltskin's way was not the right way, child!" The Apprentice struggled against the crushing pain in his chest, "The hat could never have held The Darkness forever!"

"But it could hold it long enough for us to bury it somewhere?" Emma asked.

"Don't you think if mere burial could've stopped The Darkness that it would've been done long ago?"

"I don't mean literal burial." Emma rolled her eyes. Literally. It was fun. "I mean that we can use the hat to ... 'suck' the darkness out of me and then jettison it into another realm or something."

"And to which realm would you suggest we send this darkness? Is your personal comfort so important to you, that you would sacrifice an entire realm to The Darkness?"

"Well, it won't be my problem anymore, will it?"

"I see The Darkness has already fed on your soul, Emma Swan!"

Emma blanched as the memory of her encounter with The Darkness flashed before her eyes.

"You must fight it, child!" The Apprentice continued, spurred on by her momentary hesitation. "Every Dark One must fight the darkness within them. It is the only way to keep The Darkness at bay."

"I'm like a walking talking Alcatraz to you! A human prison with a dagger for a warden." Emma accused, adding, "For the first time ever I'm starting to feel sorry for Rumplestiltskin!"

"The Darkness must be contained. Only a human host has the will to do it!"

"And if the host's 'will' fails you have a nice shiny dagger all ready to keep him from doing anything to nasty..."

"A necessary precaution I'm afraid." he admitted, "Not every human ran resist the evil and few can resist it for long."

"Nonsense!" said Regina, "Rumplestiltskin was cursed for centuries and he never..."

"What wiped out an entire village?" Emma offered.

"How did you...?"

Emma tapped her head, "Rumple told me."

"What?!" Regina shouted.

"Oh didn't I tell you? I've been seeing this sort of... 'ghosty' version of Rumplestiltskin. Mostly I think he just pops in to gloat, but now and again he tells me something useful."

Henry's mouth was agape, "But he's been missing for months. Are you telling me he's been in your head the whole time?"

"Not really in my head, kid." Emma corrected Henry, "More like a piece of himself he left behind."

"Or a piece The Darkness TOOK with it when it was forced out." The Apprentice looked grave.

Fighting a sudden urge to squeeze, Emma deliberately loosened her grip and laid the heart on the bed by The Apprentice's feet.

The Apprentice relaxed, even managing a wan smile now that his heart was no longer being crushed. "Rumplestiltskin also had a son to motivate him to hold onto the kernel of goodness within." he said, smiling at Henry, "But beware," his gaze once more fell on Emma, "beware holding on to tightly. Rumplestiltskin's fear of separation from the only person he loved became a self-fulfilling prophecy in the end."

"Yeah," Emma agreed, "Paternal abandonment will do that to you." she added, referencing not only her own childhood, but Rumple's as well." As least HER father loved her. Once again Emma found herself feeling sorry for Rumple and she wished he'd show up right now to say something vague and useless so that she could go right back to hating him.

"He became fixated on making deals, especially regarding male children." The Apprentice continued, "It kept The Darkness amused for centuries. Rather remarkable considering he had his own dagger all that time and yet he managed without an outsider's control."

"Rumplestiltskin is a remarkable man." a warmly accented voice spoke from the door.

"Grandma!" Henry cried, running into the woman's arms.

The woman in the door blushed, "Uh, Henry I thought we agreed to that you would call me 'Belle'?"

"Where have you been?!" bellowed Regina.

"Wow, nice to see you too, Regina." Belle replied, throwing Regina a somewhat hostile (you know for Belle) look, "You might be interested to know, Regina, that my husband put a spell over my heart when he returned it to me... you'll find it hard to play that particular 'trick' again."

Henry looked confused, "What do you mean?" he asked Belle. "What trick?"

"Oh it turns out your mother had my heart for months." Belle told him, "My memory is a little fuzzy on the matter, but after comparing a few notes with Will Scarlett, I'm pretty sure I get the gist of it... Regina here," she addressed the room now, not just Henry, "Took my heart without my permission and she used it to turn me against my husband and then when he finally found a way back into town, she used it to torment him with this fiction that I was unfaithful to him with Will Scarlett... How am I doing, Regina?" she asked, staring boldly into her eyes.

Regina's shoulders slumped under Belle's accusation and Henry's earnestly hopeful gaze. "I guess it's not entirely inaccurate." she admitted, slumping further as Henry's face fell.

"I thought you'd changed, mom!"

"I have!" she said, "I was just paying Gold back for... um, I'm not really sure why. I just really really hated the smug bas... 'er ...him."

"Mom, heroes don't seek revenge." Henry reminded her.

"Ok, so maybe I'm not a hero, alright?!"

Belle coughed, "As much as I enjoy seeing Regina squirm," she said, "her horrid behavior isn't as important as defeating The Darkness." she nodded to Emma, "Back to your original question as to where I've been..." Belle raised her voice slightly and called out into the hospital corridor, "You can come in now." she called to her newest friend, then turned back to face The Apprentice. "Mr. Apprentice..." she said, "I believe I've found your Sorcerer..."