Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters besides Mason and Rose. And I've kind of been ignoring Mason for a while, so oops. Oh! I also own that random assassin.

A/N: Thanks for the fantastic review carpelibrium. I really appreciate it. You're the best. Also, sorry for the shortness.

Chapter 23

Rose

We could go home.

We could go home.

I was finally going to be able to see my family and my Killian again. I would be able to kiss him and hold him closely without worrying about changing the fate of the world. I would be able to talk about shared memories and not get blank looks in response. I would be able to be myself.

But first I needed to do something.

I knew that time was sort of a circle, and that what happened in the past had somehow happened in the future already, and if you changed the past by going back into it, then there was a way that it could have already happened if you were in the future, but I wasn't ready to take the chance that I may have changed something. It would have been terrible if we had gone to the future again only to realize that we had changed everything and our mother was Cora and I was engaged to Cinderella's child.

Princes may have been cute, after all, but pirates were undoubtedly cuter.

So I needed to speak with my father.

"Hello," Rumplestiltskin looked up as I entered the room, away from the gold piece he was polishing. I smiled and sat down on the stool that was in front of the counter.

"I need you to make a spell," I said. He looked at me and I specified. "Kind of a curse."

"You need a curse?" Rumplestiltskin asked. I nodded, feeling terrible about how I was asking my father to once again embrace the darkness, just for me. But I needed to do it, or else there was a chance that when I got back to my time period he would still be dark and the light inside of him may not have won.

"I need you all to forget that Mason and I were ever here," I said. "You know why there's the rule of no time travel in magic. It messes with things. I don't even know how that person pulled it off, but I do know that none of you can ever remember that he has."

"And what about those waiting for you in future? You are asking me to take away their only reassurance that they knew where you were." He asked, raising an eyebrow. I bit my lip and considered. I hadn't thought of that earlier.

"All curses have a loophole, right?" I asked him. "You can make our return the loophole, or savior, so to speak. We'll bring back the memories. So everybody in our time will remember, but nobody in your time will."

"That might work," Rumplestiltskin nodded, and for a second I let the familiarity of the scene I was in wash over me. In my time my father and I would spend hours pondering over the many mysteries of magic. Especially when I had been little, I used to sit and listen to him preach about the rules of magic and how to use it properly without darkness getting the better of you. He had always stressed that lesson, made sure I understood that no matter how tempting Dark Magic was, no matter how heady and intoxicating the rush after using it seemed, I was not to use it or allow it to use me. Once you go dark, it is extremely hard to go back. He knew that by experience and he wanted for me to never have to. I had always paid attention to those lessons because I knew, just like my parents did, that the magic that had been passed down to me could have very well carried the darkness with it. It hadn't proven to be so far, but I wasn't willing to take the chance. I knew what Dark Magic did to you. It made you hurt your family and push away true love.

And those were the people that I loved most.

I simply could not wait to get back to them.