Chapter 28
Regina and Will sat in the study staring at each other. There didn't seem to be anything else to say. They had said enough before. Regina was afraid of what Coraline would do to Will and Will that she had somehow offended Regina.
"We need to discuss that more," Will told her.
"I don't think that there is any more to say."
"There is, Regina and you know it."
"As long as you defend this family and submit to Ruby's Alpha status, there is nothing else to discuss," Regina told her.
"You know I will do that, Regina. I have sworn to do that. Eventually you will have to let Coraline go and deal with the fact that I have imprinted on her. You will have to see that everything I do, everything that I have been doing is for her and by extension you, Regina."
"You say that now, but I still can't let you go."
"Why NOT?!"
"She is my daughter. I have to protect her…even if it is from herself. There are things about this world that she doesn't know, that she doesn't understand. She doesn't understand what you are either, Will. I know you love her. I know that she loves you, but she doesn't get that you can't die. She doesn't understand that you will live on when she dies. She doesn't understand that she will age as you don't. She doesn't understand that it will drive you insane to watch her die."
"You don't know that."
"I do, Will. I do. I have aged at least ten years. You haven't aged a day since I met you. Snow will tell you the same thing, Will. What are you going to do when she dies?"
"Die as well?"
"Will…"
"Can you not give me this moment of happiness before she goes back to the future?"
"Will, it will do no one any good."
"Why won't you let me try?" Will asked almost defeated.
Regina looked at her. She knew that she shouldn't keep Will from Coraline. She knew that Will would be good for her, but she couldn't forget the past. She was afraid for them. They could both hurt each other very deeply and Regina was scared about that. They were both dangerous for each other.
"I just can't, Will. I can't. She is my daughter."
"And, I love her."
"I know that. Trust me, I do. I can see it. I'll give you this even though every fiber of my being is telling me not to," Regina started.
"What?"
"I'll not deny you Coraline as long as you still swear to obey me."
"Done."
"I'll not condone this relationship any further, until I have some proof that things will be okay. I won't submit her to a fate that she can't understand. She is an adult and as such I cannot forbid her from seeing you. I just ask that you limit her exposure for now. Can you do that?"
"I will do it. I will prove myself to you, Regina. I will earn your trust again," Will stated.
"I am not worried about your trust or your loyalty, Will. I never was. I never will be."
"Then what is it? What are you so afraid of? Can you tell me?" Will asked her.
"I don't want to lose her."
"I won't let that happen," Will affirmed.
"We can't stop it. She'll have to go back once we figure out how she got here. She can't stay here, Will. It will throw off the entire timeline more than it already has. She just can't possibly stay. I can only hope that I have shown her enough love now that she can forgive my future self for dying and leaving her alone."
"She won't be alone, Regina."
"How do you know that?" Regina questioned.
"I wasn't there in her timeline before. I will be there now. I will never leave her side, Regina. I swear to you. She will not be alone. I will be there for her. Even if we can't stop the Blackness, you will still send her off with Red and Belle. I will stay with them. I will protect them."
"I know," she whispered.
"Regina, if you need to take me back to the vault and hurt me, I'll understand. All you need to do is say the word and we will go. I am at your mercy, Majesty," Will told her.
"NO!"
"Whenever you need me, I'll be here for you," Will stated taking a more prostrated position.
"Will stop. We can't do that again. It isn't right. I know that I can take my frustrations out on your flesh, but I shouldn't. You might be immortal, but you still have feelings."
"I do, but I can see that you are hurting."
"It is a good pain, Will. This isn't the Forest. I've learned to process it better."
"I can see that, Regina. Believe me about that. I know you better than most. I can see the changes in you. Emma has been good for you. So has Henry. I can tell that you want what is best for the town. You have learned to put others before yourself. I know, Regina. I know that you will do anything to protect this town, even be stupid enough to challenge Rumple one on one if you think that will help things. You have a singular focus with your family."
"I have always protected what is dear to me."
"I get that. I see it. Trust me, Regina. We all know it."
"I don't want her to get hurt, Will."
"I am not going to hurt her," Will told her.
"That remains to be seen. But trust me when I tell you that if you do, I will end you. That isn't a threat, Will. I will do it. I will find a way to do it. I will not stop."
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Will replied honestly.
Rumple was huddled over the well. The ancient tome was balance on the old stone top. He looked down into the water and smiled. He couldn't wait to get the portal open. He was so focused in his mission that he didn't notice Ruby in the woods nearby watching him.
He pulled out the mixture that he'd made back at the shop. He poured it into the well and waited. Ruby took this moment to move a little closer, silently because she didn't want to alert him to her presence there.
She hunkered down behind a large tree trunk. She could smell the magic from where she was. She thanked the powers that he that she was a Wolf. It meant that she could get close enough without being up under him to see what was going on with him. She decided that it would be easier to spy on his as a Wolf.
She had found a way to retain her memories as a Wolf. It had taken time and effort, but she had done it. Not many Wolves could do that. She wondered if it was an Alpha trait. She didn't have time to ponder it too much because the Imp was moving too much. Something wasn't right.
She lowered herself to the forest floor and watched him with her keen eyes. She continually sniffed the air, trying to discern what magics he was using. She could only hope that she could explain them to Regina when she got to her house. She turned her eyes up to the sky.
The sun was setting just beyond the forest. The rich glows of red and purple in the sky told her that it was getting later than she thought. She needed to make her way to Regina's and quickly.
She was torn. She didn't want to be running at night as a Wolf through town. It could cause a panic and she knew it. She would need to phase before heading back but she would have to do it closer to town.
She sniffed the air again. The magic had changed. She would wait. She needed to know more about what Rumple was doing before she alerted anyone.
For his part, Rumple was still oblivious to Red's presence. He added more of his mixture to the well and waited again. He stared at the book, silently reading the bloody words on the pages and waiting for the portal to open. He knew that spell wasn't easy. He knew that might not work the first time, but he was still hoping that it would. He placed a worn finger on a page and started skimming across it.
"Dragon's blood," he said out loud. "Damn it. I don't have any dragon's blood. Where the Hell am I supposed to get that here? It isn't like Maleficent is still here to drain."
He threw items into the well. The well spewed out a noxious green cloud. Red moved slightly. She wasn't sure if she should run away then or wait. She rustled the leave and Rumple heard it. He looked over to where she was hiding, but he couldn't see her. She lowered herself down to the ground further her, blending in with the undergrowth and forest floor. If he did come looking for her, she wouldn't be seen.
"I wonder what I can use instead of Dragon's Blood," he mused.
He closed the tome and gathered up his vials. He was leaving. He had failed tonight, but Red knew that he would be back and probably soon. She took off towards town as fast as she could. She waited until she was at the edge of the forest before she changed. She took off to Regina's.
She shook herself off. She had run so hard that she was sure that she would be abnormally sweaty once she phased back into her human form. She was pleasantly surprised when she wasn't. She quickly brushed off little bits of the forest from her arms as she moved to the roadway.
She was glad to be away from Rumple. She was sure that if he had spied her out there with him that he would have done something to her. He knew that Belle was staying with her and that he blamed her for Belle staying away. She sighed.
There was too much lust in her head. She knew that the passions and desires, as carnal as they were, always took a little while to calm that part of herself. She realized then she didn't have the time as she needed to get to Regina's quickly. She shook her head to try to clear her thoughts.
She didn't pace herself. She ran full tilt across town. She was glad for the extra speed because it made the trip quicker than normal. She stopped as she made it to the fence in front of Regina's house. She walked assuredly and swiftly to the front door.
She wasn't surprised to hear Regina and Will yelling at each other. She knew that no one else in the house could hear them. She only could because of her Wolf hearing. She let out a deep breath and raised her hand to knock on the door. She rapped on the door twice.
Regina answered the door, surprised to see to Ruby standing there. She could tell that there was something wrong, but she couldn't tell what it was. She could smell the forest on Ruby, though.
"You've been running?"
"I needed to think," Red answered.
"About?"
"Family."
"I know about your relation to Will."
"I figured," Red stated.
"But, that isn't why you are here, is it?" Regina questioned.
"Invite me in and I'll tell you."
"Why do I think I am not going to like this?" Regina quipped, moving out of the way to allow her in the house and into the foyer.
"Because I didn't. I came here first. I didn't know what else to do."
"Come with me, then," Regina told her ushering her into the study where Will was.
Regina watched as both Will and Red sized each other up, slightly. She released her pent up breath when she saw Will bow deeply to Red and welcome her into the room. She knew what Will was doing even if Red didn't. She was protecting the family...all of it and bowing to her Alpha. She was submitting. Red gave her a quizzical look, but nodded back at her in response.
The tension left the room with the gesture. Regina suddenly felt like things would be okay. She still didn't know what was going on, but she knew that they had averted one crisis just then.
"Please sit," Regina told her.
Red sat down and studied her elder sister, the mayor, and Will. There was something off between them. She could smell it, but it didn't matter at the moment. She needed to tell them about Rumple and what she saw.
"What?" Regina asked watching Ruby as she studied Will further.
"You need to get Emma. This isn't going to be something that I am going to want to say more than once. And before you ask, yes, Regina it involves the town."
"I'll be right back," Regina told her, then she gave Will a look as she left the room to get Emma.
As soon as Regina was gone, Red was off the couch. She was in Will's face, who was still pacing in front of the fire place. Will spun around almost into her with the speed in which Red got to her. The fire in their eyes was only eclipsed by the flashes of the Wolf trying to get out.
"Regina is afraid of us," Red said.
"She isn't afraid of us, Ruby. She is afraid for us. She figured out our bloodlines before we did. Sure, Snow warned her when she got all the details, but she is right to be scared. We could destroy this town if we wished and you know that, Ruby."
"What do you mean?"
"We, in other circumstances, would fight to the death for the leadership of a pack. I am not going to fight you, Red. I have no reason to fight you. You are my cousin and I hope a friend."
"I would like that."
"Then there is nothing that we need to do. I readily submit to you as my Alpha. I will do what I can for you as long as it doesn't interfere with my contract with Regina."
"You submit to me?" Ruby questioned.
"I do. I have no want to be part of a pack, Red. I know the blood of a Wolf, but I don't know that I want it. Even when I lived on Vulcannonian, I didn't have strong ties to anyone in my family except my brother. My own father didn't know me once I was I came of age. My mother was a Wolf. Your mother was a Wolf. We are cousins. We are family."
"We are family."
"I don't know what else to tell you, Ruby. I won't fight you. I willingly submit to you. I was born to be a Beta. I was never meant to be an Alpha. I wasn't raised to be an Alpha. I was just supposed to be a princess and then a soldier. I was a knight and that was my job. I was to protect my family at all costs, but not even I could save my mother."
"Cyanae died when you were child?"
"I was old enough to know what I was and what my lot in life was going to be. I never thought that my own father would put me out. He traded me to Leopold for a favor. What that favor was, I don't know. All I know is that Regina became my family. Now, she and you are my only family. I am not going to do anything to jeopardize that. Surely you can understand that."
"I can."
"Then understand that I will not do anything to usurp your role in this town. This is still your place, Ruby. I am not going to do anything to upset this place. I only want to love Coraline and protect my family. I am sure that you will do the same."
"I want to," Ruby stated.
"Then help me."
"How?"
"We need to seek out a way to stop the Blackness."
"And how do you propose we do that? Regina and Belle have been searching for answers. Emma and Snow are trying to figure things out between them and how to survive back in the Forest. Everyone that is around you has been dealing with the same three things," Red told her.
"And what are they?"
"You, Coraline and the Blackness."
"But, now we know why I am here and who I am. We all also know the truth about Coraline's presence. Now we need to focus on the cause of the Blackness and stop it. I can't be reason that it happens, but I will be the reason that it doesn't take Regina and Emma away from Coraline."
"I admire your conviction, but we don't know that."
"I swore to protect this family, Ruby. I mean to do that. Even if I have to die to do it, I will."
"You can't die. You're Vulcannonian, remember? You're immortal."
"I am only as immortal as I want to be," Will told her.
Red regarded what she was saying. She gave her a quizzical look, but she didn't have any time to question her further about her statement. Emma and Regina had come into the room.
"So, what's going on?" Emma asked.
Regina watched her half-sister and her protector eyeing each other. She looked from one to the other and then at Emma. There was some sort of compromise that had happened while she was gone but she wasn't sure what it was. She also wasn't sure that she wasn't going to like it. There was always a chance that Red and Will would bind themselves together as family and protect the town the way they were meant to, but it wasn't going to be an easy alliance. They all knew that, and that is what worried Regina the most. They all knew what would happen if Red and Will went at each other. It wouldn't be pleasant.
Regina had to find a way to keep the town together and save it at the same time. She had to save them all from a threat that no one understood or knew where it came from. This was now Regina's mission. She had to spare Coraline this problem. She was her mother and this was her fight, not her daughter's.
"Rumple is up to something," Red blurted out.
"When isn't he?" Emma quipped.
"I'm serious, Em. He was out in the woods at the well. He was trying to cast some sort of spell. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but I know that it couldn't be good. It's Rumple."
"Did you hear anything that he said?" Regina asked suddenly very interested and solemn.
"I couldn't make out. I wasn't close enough to hear him completely. I was in Wolf form. I was trying to get as close as I could without him seeing me. I came here as soon as he started back to town. I needed to get to you. I needed to make sure that we are ready for him," Ruby asked.
Regina and Will gave each other a look. They wondered what she actually saw. Ruby and Emma were sitting on the couch watching Regina and Will.
"I'm sorry I don't have more information for you."
"It's fine, Ruby. You've given me more than we had before tonight. I knew that he was up to something, but now, we have proof. What else can you tell me about what you saw?" Regina asked her, sitting down and facing them as Will sat down behind.
"Anything you can tell us will be better in the long run," Will added.
Ruby shivered. Emma felt it on the couch and she caught Regina's eye. They were all waiting to see what else Ruby could remember about the encountered in the woods. Ruby sighed.
"What is it, Ruby?" Emma asked.
"I am not sure, but he got real mad at the end it. He seemed like he was cursing at the well. He had some really old looking book," Ruby answered.
"I know that this is going to be a weird question for me to ask, but I need to ask it. The old book that you saw. Do you remember anything about it? Did it have a smell to it?" Will asked.
"Yeah, it did," Ruby replied quickly.
"What does that matter?" Emma asked watching Regina get a little more uncomfortable as to how this conversation was going.
"Ruby, what did it smell like?" Will inquired ignoring Emma's question entirely.
"Blood….it smelt like old, dried blood."
"Tell me that he doesn't have a copy of that tome, Regina. Tell me he doesn't. You are the only one that would know. Tell me he doesn't have it," Will stated turning to face Regina head on.
"I don't know."
"You don't know?!"
"Emma, call Belle," Regina instructed.
"And, say what?"
"Just call her. I need to ask her a question regarding that book. She would be the only other one who would know."
"I'll call her," Ruby added.
"Quickly."
Ruby pulled out her cell phone and dialed the number. She could only hope that Belle was back at her apartment above Granny's and not near Rumple. If she was, it might make things difficult. And, right now, difficult was not what they needed.
"Belle, hey, it's Ruby."
"What's wrong?" she immediately asked.
"Regina needs to ask you some questions about a book that Rumple might have," Ruby told her.
"I'll tell her whatever I know."
"Thank you," Ruby replied.
She handed her cell phone over to Regina. As she took the phone, Will was up and off the couch. It didn't take long for Ruby to realize that she was listening to the conversation between Regina and Belle. She could hear it all and she was grunted in obvious places and sighing in others. To the untrained human eye, she looked frustrated. To Ruby, she was getting pissed and rightfully so about what Rumple was attempting to do in the woods.
Regina handed the phone back to Ruby. She looked at Will. Her face was pale.
"Why does the look on your face make me want to go kill him?" Emma asked her.
"Because we might need to," Regina answered truthfully.
"What do you mean?" Will asked.
"I need to talk to Coraline. I need to find out how much she remembers. There are things that we need to do. If he truly has that volume, we need to be prepared. We aren't prepared. I never thought that it would happen. Especially after Pan and the second curse….I can't do this again….I just can't watch it disenagrate….I can't….I won't," Regina said very rapidly.
Will grabbed her and spun her around. She forced Regina to look into her eyes. Blue meet brown and held. A moment passed and nothing was said.
"Emma, get your daughter. Ruby, go get Belle and Snow. Bring them here."
"Umm…Will?"
"Ruby, go."
"This isn't an Alpha thing is it?" Ruby asked, her body bowing up for a fight.
"No, young one, this is war. Rumple started it a long time ago and I am going to finish it. Contract or no contract Regina, I will end him. Ruby, go. This has nothing to do with us and everything to do with saving our family. GO!"
Red didn't need to hear another word. She was out the room and the front door, phasing before she hit the sidewalk. This was not the time to care about the panic of the townspeople. She had to save them. This was trying to save everyone and everything. They would just have to be angry about it until they understood why later.
"Regina…"
"Get Coraline, Emma. I'll explain everything in a minute. Just trust me. It's bad."
"Can we never just have a quiet night a home?" Emma asked rhetorically, sighing, and going to fetch Coraline from the living room to help them in their time of need.
"Calm down, Regina."
"How do you expect me to be calm when I know that he has that book?"
"You can't slip."
"I am not going to slip. I am going to kill him and be done with it. I should have done it years ago. He made me and I will end him."
"You can't take on his power. It will destroy you further than he tried. Think of Henry. Think of Emma. Think of Coraline. You cannot become the Dark One, Majesty. If you do, I failed."
Regina stopped and studied her face. The tears were there. She, even in the extremity of her anger, was still trying to protect Regina and the family. She never stopped.
"No matter what happens. I will kill him. If you have to, you can destroy me. There are ways. I am prepared. I will be his Omega. I will end the legacy of the Dark One," Will told her, still holding her, stroking her hair and willing Regina to calm.
Rumple was in the back of his shop. He threw the tome down on the workbench and muttered under his breath. He was cussing, but not in any language that any Earthling knew. He debated whether or not that Regina would even know the tongue with as much magic as she had absorbed over the years. It still wasn't helping him figure out how he was going to find Dragon's blood in a world with no magic.
Sure, he could conjure one, but at what cost. He could try to capture Will, but she had proven to be difficult to keep captured once she was taken. And, she was very, very wary of him. She would be the absolute last resort. No, he needed to find an alternative. There had to be something in some book that he owned that would tell him what to do.
He tore his book shelves apart. He didn't find the answers. Then, he hesitated before taking his frustrations out on the bookshelf before him. Belle had been in the shop. He could still smell her perfume. It had once been a calming smell. Now, it only seemed to enrage him more. She had been in the shop.
"What did you take this time, Belle?" he asked as he started making a mental inventory of what he knew he should have and didn't.
Nothing seemed to be missing but the Vulcannonian contracts and parchments that she had taken days earlier. This didn't bother him so much. There was nothing on those pages that would help him. All the Vulcannonians listed on those pages were dead. As were their charges. There couldn't have been anything more valuable in them. He'd read them a dozen times over since he unleashed his curse upon the Vulcannonians.
But there was still something that he didn't understand about Wilhelmina and the curse. Why didn't she die like the rest. She seemed to thrive as she spent countless hours and days searching for a cure that Rumple knew he would never give her. He needed her broken so she would leave Regina. It seems though that he fortified her in some way. She wouldn't leave Regina's side now. Nor, Emma's or Coraline's for that fact. He knew it would cause all-out war if he tried something against any of them. If he had to go to war he would, but he really didn't want to.
Henry would be in the way and he would of course choose Regina over him. He always would. He couldn't blame the boy for that. He would choose a loving parent over a deranged grandpa any day. It also didn't help that Emma was in the picture and her parents. The boy didn't lack in love. And, Rumple knew because of that, he would never turn Henry. Even if he dared to try, Emma and Regina would kill him.
No, he liked his life and he liked his head where it was. He couldn't find Regina. At least, not head on anymore. He would have to find another way. He would have to manufacture a reason.
He sat down. He needed Belle. He thought better when she was around, but he had been a fool and started the fight with her in the diner. He needed to make look good, but unfortunately the dinner crowd hadn't entered the diner when he did. There had been a total of five people in the diner, most of which were staff. Another plan that backfired.
It was the reason he was in the predicament he was in now. He rushed things and it didn't work. Now he had wasted some of his precious stock that he might not be able to replicate or replenish.
"I wonder what the fairies have in their stores. Surely they would have some Dragon's blood. It is very magical and very potent. I wonder what Blue has stored up there," he wondered aloud.
He grabbed his cane and stared for the door. Before he made it to the door, he turned around. He'd realized that he'd left the tome sitting out on the workbench. He trusted Belle, but he didn't trust the lot of them. He knew that if they could convince her that he had that tome that they would find a way for her to sneak in and get it away from him. They didn't understand that he was trying to protect them all.
It didn't hurt that in protecting them, he was protecting himself. He was selfish and he knew it. He loved Belle too much to see her in pain. He was not going to allow the Blackness to take over the town and with it him. Coraline's stories, from what he had managed to get out of them was that he wasn't there in the future, were mostly apocalyptic in nature for the town and its people. It worried him, but it didn't at the same time. And, every time that he tried to see the future that Coraline had described, he failed. He could only go so far and usually it was only a few months after Coraline's birth.
He tucked the tome under one arm and grabbed his cane with the other. He thought it was high time that he visited Blue again. He could only hope that she would be…accommodating for him. He had a strange and a large smile on his face as he walked to his car. He would have to make Blue see things his way. He only hoped that he wouldn't have to be too…persuasive about it.
Snow and Belle had come as soon as Ruby beckoned them. Charming had taken Neal to Granny's and then headed for the Abbey and the fairies. They could only all hope that they were early enough to protect the fairies. It had been Snow's idea. Somehow she just knew that Blue was stock piling potions and other magical items. She had heard from Tink that her inventories were worse than Ruby's weekly ones at the diner. It had been enough to work with and for once, she was grateful for all the planning and strategy that her battles with Regina caused her to learn.
They didn't even knock when they arrived back at the mayoral mansion. Ruby just let them in like she owned the place and showed them into the study. Regina gave her a smirk to which Ruby just shrugged her shoulders and sat down on a couch away from the fire. Her body was still warm from all the changing that night and she was trying to be helpful and cool off at the same time.
"What is it, Regina?" Snow asked immediately sitting down.
"Ruby caught Rumple trying to cast a spell at the well tonight."
"A spell?" Snow asked.
"What kind of spell?" Belle inquired.
"I don't know. Ruby was too far away to hear what he was saying, but she could smell it. The fact that she could smell the magic that he was using is helpful, but that isn't what worries me the most about this incident," Regina told them.
"You're being strangely calm about this," Snow stated.
"She doesn't have a choice in the matter," Will replied.
Emma, Coraline and Snow all turned to Will. The noticed the sheer intensity in her eyes. They decided that they would wait to question that statement…later…possibly individually. Emma was the first to give Will a look but she did nothing more than gape at her old friends statement. Coraline watched her in amazement. She was all fury and muscle and it was enough to keep her mother calm. She could only wonder why. Snow looked between them. She could see that there was more that needed to be said. She would wait. She would bide her time and then she would ask Regina, not Will, what she actually meant.
"But, you called me and asked me about the book?" Belle questioned bringing them all back to the problem truly at hand in that moment.
"I did."
"Why?"
"The tome I was asking you about is very old and very deadly. I don't think even the Dark One truly understands it power. And, with someone like Rumple having it in his possession, I am sure that nothing good will happen," Regina stated.
"What is the book?" Emma asked.
"It is a tome that was written in the blood of its author," Regina said.
"In his what?" Snow questioned.
"His blood. And, he wasn't just the author of the book. He made magic with those pages. It was all types of magic, good and evil. He didn't have a basis for his work. He just thought up the spell and cast it. If it worked, he wrote it in the tome in blood. He was the originator of the portal magic. The book that Rumple has is the portal tome of the first Vulcannonians," Will told as she began to pace the room.
Belle watched her. She saw the anxiety building. Her body was taught with fury and no outlet.
"What does he intend to do with it?" Snow asked.
"I would think that he is trying to open a portal somewhere," Regina quipped as if Snow should have seen the writing on the wall.
"He is the one starts the timeline…" Coraline blurted out and faded into a whisper.
"It would seem so," Regina replied.
"What do we do?"
"We need to figure out which spell he is trying to cast."
"And, how do we do that?" Snow asked.
"We might have to go to war against him."
"Can you handle that, Belle?" Emma asked.
"If he is the cause of the Blackness, we must find a way to stop him."
"He's brought this fight to my doorstep, Belle. I cannot ignore it. I must give him some sort of answer. He is threatening my family. I cannot ignore that, Belle. I just can't. I will not let him harm this family. I will not let him harm this town. I will not let him harm you."
"I know," Belle answered quietly.
"We need to prepare for war," Will stated.
She had finally stopped pacing. Her body was as rigid as it ever was. Everyone could feel the anger flowing through her and the room. Her whole body was aching for a fight. Emma joined her in the pacing. They could read each other. They knew each other and they knew that Rumple would do.
"He is going to do it for Belle," Emma stated as she turned to face her family and friends, her new family, and her child, her future family. "We have to stop him. No matter the cost. He cannot succeed in this quest of his."
"She is right," Belle stated. "We have to stop him. And, I know how."