Emma paced back and forth across the large Dining Hall in Merlin's castle. It didn't really feel like pacing, though, since it took at least a minute to cross the room and another minute to make her way back. This bothered Emma as she didn't know what else to do to calm her frazzled nerves. The plush carpet, adorned with golden swirls and elaborate designs, sunk underneath her heavy steps. "So, we're trapped in Camelot, we can't get home to Storybrooke, and Merlin's no help." Emma shook her head at the ornate ceiling. "This sucks. This sucks so badly I don't even have a word for it."
The décor of the room wasn't helping, either. The deep red and yellow fabrics layered everywhere, on every wall and every table and every corner, made Emma nervous. The colors were so intense that they felt like they were dominating, rather than accenting, the room. She would have much preferred muted colors, like blues and grays. The bright colors excited her senses too much for her liking.
Lily didn't know exactly how this whole Dark One thing worked. She had an extremely basic and limited knowledge of what it was to be the Dark One, but she had no idea exactly how one became the Dark One. Nonetheless, she was eager to help the situation. She figured se couldn't possibly make it any worse, so she offered her ideas to the group. "Maybe we could let another person take the Darkness," Lily suggested. "Or, we could hand it off from person to person so that nobody gets pulled in."
Regina intently studied this strange girl. Half dragon, half human, yet so oblivious to the workings of magic. Even Emma, who hadn't lived with magic for much longer than Lily, understood how all of this worked. "Oh," she said, raising an eyebrow at Lily, "so now we're playing Hacky Sack with the Darkness?" She smirked. "I'm sure that would be a blast."
Lily frowned at the older woman. "I don't see you coming up with anything!"
"Regina," Snow scolded, her voice taking on the low, serious tone of a mom. It was strange having Snow telling her how to behave- Regina had always been the adult back in the Enchanted forest. "She's just trying to help."
Regina rolled her eyes.
Every time Emma passed the group, a blast of cold air trailed behind her and hit them like an icy wall. They braced themselves the best they could, holding onto each other so as not to topple over in the wake of her mini-tornado, but the breeze was still inevitable. Sometimes, Emma would walk by and nothing would happen, and they would sigh in relief and let go of each other. But the wind would always come, delayed, and blow powerfully around them. Hook shivered in Emma's whirlwind of emotions. "Love," he said, reaching for her hand. She stopped and turned to face him. "Stop pacing. You're not doing yourself any good."
"Sorry," she apologized distractedly, her eyes staring blankly ahead at the door, then began to pace the length of the room again.
"Merlin said it needs to be Emma who gets rid of the Darkness," David reminded them. "We can help, but only she can ultimately stop this."
"Mmhm," murmured Mary Margaret, unsure of what else to say.
"I have a feeling that Emma has to make a monumental mistake with her Dark Magic," Regina hypothesized. "It probably has to be so horrendous, so abominable that Emma just- Emma just-" Regina paused abruptly and glanced back at the woman who had saved not only her but her happiness. That Saviour was now just a broken girl once more. Emma deserved her happiness more than anyone in that room, and Regina had let her revert back into Little, Lost Emma because she wanted to be with Robin. She suddenly realized the severity of the consequences Emma faced for saving her.
"Gives up," she finally finished.
Emma stopped directly in front of her family. The dagger dangled loosely from her thumb and forefinger. "Do you think," she said, flipping her wrist so that the dagger's handle landed in her palm, "that I could kill myself with this?" She drew the blade gently across her wrist. "It's kind of paradoxical. I can't die, but this dagger can kill me, right? And I can't kill myself. But, theoretically, shouldn't the dagger be able to end my life, even in my hands? But what would happen to the Darkness, then?" She paused, thoughtful
Taking advantage of Emma's thoughtfulness, Henry stepped forward. He placed his hand around her wrist in a gesture that said, Slow down, we're still here, gently tugged the dagger from her grip, and slipped it into one of her brown leather boots. Emma smiled sadly at him and ran her fingers through his long, brown hair. "You're getting so big," she whispered, placing a loving hand on his shoulder.
She turned to Regina. "You think I have to do something I regret?" She asked this with complete seriousness. Sadly, the idea made sense. Back in school, she had only truly learned after making a mistake. Dodge ball. She had to be hit by a ball before getting the idea to run away from it. Pronunciation. She pronounced the words poppy seed "poopy seed" in front of her entire third grade class, and the embarrassment prompted her to double down on her reading studies. Family.
Family had never seemed to last for Emma.
Emma swallowed.
"Yes." Regina nodded genuinely. "I wouldn't be saying this if I didn't wholeheartedly believe it was the only solution."
"Actually, Love, that makes sense," Hook said to Emma, blue eyes darting back and forth between the two women. "How would you ever totally know that being the Dark One was one-hundred percent shit if you never regretted anything you did?"
"I don't get it!" Mary Margaret exclaimed (which she was starting to feel like was the sole phrase everyone had been using as of late. Them being so clueless was starting to get old.). "I thought we were trying to keep Emma from going bad! What's to stop her if we let her get away with one terrible thing? She'll just keep doing whatever she wants! We don't know what, if anything, is going to stop this!" She drew in a deep breath. Her next words were calm and measured. "I think we should play it safe. We don't want to get hurt, and we don't want to push Emma too far. We don't know that Emma has to make a mistake to end the Darkness, so let's not jump to any conclusions yet."
"Jumped-to conclusions are all we have," Lily argued. "If we ignore them, then we're back to square one. I agree with Hook; what Regina said makes sense."
"I just can't imagine the proportions of what Emma would have to do to get rid of the Darkness. It would literally have to destroy her," Regina admitted quietly, shoving her hands into her pockets. At the moment, guilt was gnawing at her insides for allowing Emma to take such a drastic fall for her. By now, Emma's life should be filled with butterflies and dancing and holding hands with the fairies. Instead, she was battling the most devastating force anyone could possibly imagine.
All because of Regina. Regina had done nothing but make Emma's life a living hell from the start, keeping her away from her son, trying to kill her, and, when those didn't work, trying to push her son away from her. Yet Emma hadn't hesitated to step in when the Darkness was threatening Regina's life.
Though Emma was the Saviour, that wasn't why she'd let the Darkness into her body. Emma was pure good. She was the kind of person who made mistakes, but never at anyone else's expense.
Though spaced a little ways away from the group, Emma had heard Regina's comment. She nodded solemnly in agreement with the ex-Evil Queen. "Regina's right, most likely. She had to realize that she didn't want to be evil anymore before she could change. So, I should have to, too."
"But this isn't just something you can choose to go along with or not, Emma! The Darkness controls you," Mary Margaret protested, waving her hands wildly in the air to punctuate her point.
Emma spun around to face her mother. "The Darkness may encourage me," she said, "but all of my decisions are my own. The only thing that changes that is the dagger." She paused and glanced at the ground. "I don't know why you don't think I can keep myself under control," she added. "You keep saying I'm going to snap, and that's not true at the moment, but every time you say that, it almost becomes true."
"But, Emma-" Mary Margaret started to respond.
"No!" Emma said insistently. She held up her hand simply to get her mother to stop talking. She didn't want to hear any more of Mary Margaret's discouraging buts.
Snow flinched back, away from Emma's outstretched hand, as if she feared her own daughter would hurt her.
That was it for Emma. That was the final straw.
Emma silenced. She simply turned angrily on her heels and strode out of the room, plotting her revenge on her distrustful mother with every step. If it was Dark Emma Mary Margaret wanted, it was the Dark Swan Mary Margaret would get.