Emma stood in front of the two Killian's, hoping that perhaps she could find a physical difference between them, but they looked exactly alike, they were even wearing the same clothes as one another. Emma knew that she had to find out somehow who they were, and only one thing came to mind that would set the real Killian apart from the Cora imposter.
"Alright Hook and…other Hook, whoever can answer this question, I'll believe you're the real Hook." Emma said and hoped that this would work. "What is my son's name?"
The Killian who was holding the knife appeared to be completely confused by this question, he was sure that despite Emma mentioning that she had a son more than once, she never said his name. The other Killian however, knew exactly what her son's name was said it with such unwavering confidence that the real Killian almost felt bad for not knowing his name.
"Henry, of course." The other Killian said.
Right at that moment, both Emma and Mary Margret knew who was Cora and who was Killian. Shortly after giving her answer, Cora turned back into her normal self with a smile on her face while Killian kept the knife to her neck.
"Even after I offered to give you one more chance, you couldn't just stay away, could you?" Cora asked Killian.
"What can I say, 'pirate' and 'follow the rules' don't exactly belong in the same sentence together." Killian said.
"I must admit though Emma," Cora said, now facing the blonde. "For someone who tries so hard to keep those walls of yours up and keep people out, it didn't take very much effort on my part to make most of them crumble down, now did it? Just a few harsh words while wearing the pirates face and you looked just so…broken." Cora stated with a wicked grin. "So broken in fact that you didn't even realize when I took your precious compass from you."
Emma frantically began checking her jacket and realized that the compass was in fact gone now, Cora must have taken it from her when she was frozen in place. Cora took out the compass, keeping it just out of Killian's reach, almost to taunt Emma and the others with the fact of that she had outsmarted all of them.
"Now, if you all don't mind, I have a daughter and a grandson to go pay a visit to." Cora said as she put the compass away.
With a flick of her wrist, Killian went sailing backwards into one of the trees, the tree cracking when he hit it. Snow sent one of her arrows sailing right towards Cora, but she had managed to catch the arrow and snap it in half in one swift motion before her eyes landed on Emma again.
"I'll tell Henry that his mother sends her best." Cora said as she then sent Emma flying back as well, almost landing right on the still smoldering pile of ashes from the fire last night.
Cora was turning to leave when Mulan came charging towards her, taking her by surprise and landing on the ground momentarily next to Killian. Killian saw the compass shinning on the ground in the sunlight, and Cora had become so overwhelmed with rage towards the girl who had managed to surprise her, that she rose to her feet without even noticing the compass. Cora made Mulan freeze in place and went charging up to her, thrusting her hand right into her chest and grabbing a hold of Mulan's heart. It was Snow now who had come to Mulan's rescue with a dagger in hand and pressed up against Cora's throat now.
"Let her go or I will kill you right now myself." Snow said in such a harsh tone that Killian almost had to look twice to be sure that it was in fact Snow threatening Cora.
"Perhaps another time then." Cora said and before Snow could even move the dagger, Cora had disappeared into thin air and Mulan collapsed to the ground, clutching her chest and taking deep breaths.
Killian rose to his feet, the compass in hand, and he saw that over by the campfire, Aurora was kneeling next to Emma now, trying to shake her awake.
"Emma? Emma, wake up!" Aurora said, then pressed her ear to Emma's chest to see if her heart was still beating. "Snow!" Aurora called out as panic began to set in.
Snow ran over to Aurora and Emma without a second thought, Killian wanted to do the same but seeing Mulan fighting to stand up to race over to the group as well, he offered the warrior a helping hand to stand up, and she took it reluctantly. When Killian and Mulan reached the others, Snow was checking for a heartbeat now as well, just as Aurora had been.
"She's breathing but she won't wake up," Aurora said to Snow, desperately. "I-I don't know what to do."
"There's nothing we can do, she has to wake up on her own." Mulan said. "She was thrown back pretty hard, it's most likely a concussion."
"I don't know what to tell her when she wakes up," Snow said in a defeated tone. "Cora has the compass and is probably on her way to Henry and Storybrooke right now. We may never see him, or Charming, or anyone in Storybrooke ever again."
"I wouldn't lose that hope just yet." Killian said as he held out the compass to Snow. "She dropped this right after Mulan knocked her down."
"The compass…"Snow said, shocked as she took the compass from Killian. Her entire attitude seemed to shift into a much happier mood as she held the compass in one hand and Emma's hand in the other. "We still have a chance."
"We just need to get the ashes from Cora now." Mulan said. "You must know where she's hiding them?" She asked Killian.
"Sorry to disappoint ladies, but I don't. She didn't exactly hand them over to me on a silver platter or give me a map to show me where they were. However, we don't even need them anymore." Killian said.
"What do you mean?" Aurora asked now, just as confused as the others.
"In my short time stuck with Cora again, I overheard her talking to one of her many other friends that are still here, they were talking about a mirror. One in the Evil Queen's Castle that her daughter used on her." Killian said. "She was talking about using the mirror as a portal to Storybrooke. She was planning on using the ashes with the compass, but from what I heard, fairy dust will work too."
"Just where do you plan on getting fairy dust?" Snow asked.
"Well, it's the Evil Queen's castle, I imagine she must have some of it still laying around somewhere." Killian said. "It's worth a shot, or do any one of you lovelies feel like getting your heart ripped out instead?" He asked, everyone was silent. "Thought so. Now, I can't imagine Emma will be thrilled to wake up in a pile of ashes, we should probably move her."
By the time Emma became conscious again, she didn't have the strength just yet to open up her eyes, but she could feel something touching her hand. At first she panicked thinking that maybe it was some animal from the forest deciding to pay her a visit, but then she realized that it was someone else's hand on her own, unraveling something. Her eyes cracked open and she saw that it was Hook, taking the scarf he had originally put around her hand off now. Part of her wanted to wake up and stop him, but she decided against it and just waited, pretending to still be unconscious. Emma watched as he fully unraveled the scarf and looked at the wound on her hand, it was barely visible anymore except for the faint red line that was still there. She felt Killian's thumb trace over the cut and for a moment, it felt comforting. Wait, what I am even thinking? Emma thought as she opened her eyes now, but Killian still didn't seem to notice until she pulled her hand away.
"What are you doing?" Emma asked as she sat upright now and kept her eyes on Killian.
"Ah, so the princess awakens from her slumber." Killian said as that smirk of his returned.
"Don't call me that." Emma grumbled and rubbed the back of her head, feeling where a bump had formed after being knocked out.
"As you wish, princess." Killian said while Emma rolled her eyes at him. "The cut is all healed up I see." He added.
"Yeah, I guess." Emma said looked at her hand now, her hand felt like it was almost missing something now without the scarf around it. Focus, Emma. She told herself. "Where's Mary Margret?" She asked.
"She went off with the other one there to go hunting or something like that. She really didn't want to leave you alone here with me, but I can't imagine why." Killian smiled.
"Wait, what about Cora and the compass?" Emma asked, the panic finally returning to her now.
"Relax, love." Killian said and took the compass out of his pocket and handed it over to Emma with his hooked hand. "There it is, safe and sound." He said while he watched Emma hold onto the compass as if it was her life line, and deep down he knew that it was the only thing that could take her back to her son. "You might want to have your mother tell you about the new plan then later." Killian said while rising to his feet and held his hand out to Emma who looked at him puzzled. "You have a giant lump on the back of your head lass, you might not want to go back to sleep anytime soon."
Emma knew he was right and grabbed his hand, heaving herself up off of the ground and rubbing the back of her head once she was on her feet. She knew she would somehow have to keep herself awake that whole night just to be sure now that she was actually okay. She saw Hook pick up his scarf and he seemed to be debating between just leaving it there or handing it back to Emma, however neither or which happened since before the two could say another word, Emma heard Snow and Mulan coming back from the woods. She quickly let go of Hook's hand that she hadn't realized she was still holding and went to ask Snow what this new plan was that Hook had been talking about.
Note: First of all I wanted to thank all of you for all the reviews again, they made my day :3 I also really wanted to thank JustWriter2 for sharing that funny little part with me, it did make me laugh, and LiterarySiren for the advice about getting them back to Storybrooke. Because of that I remembered Regina's mirror that was on earlier in the season and decided that maybe that could work to get them back home! Also I have no idea if Hook knew Henry's name or not, but I just kinda assumed he didn't and went with that to pick out Cora (again). Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter!