A/N: Well this monster took forever. My Emma and Killian muse's were very annoyed with each other and didn't want to talk, on top of that it's been a pretty crazy couple of weeks real life wise. Anyway, because this chapter got so big I had to split it up into two. Meaning that Chapter 8 is already done and edited and I'll be posting it sometime tomorrow!

Special thanks to my beta Rapunzel215 without who this chapter would have taken even longer.

Chapter 7

It hadn't taken them very long, after everything had been sorted, to reach Rumplestiltskin's cell. At the time Emma had barely been able to suppress a smile when Aurora had rejoined them with her message from Ki- Hook. From there they'd headed immediately to the abandoned cave and she'd tried her best to ignore the emotions that were now vying for her attention. He'd saved Aurora and, according to her, he'd done it because of his feelings for her. The night they'd almost kissed flashed through her mind and she'd immediately pushed all those feelings down; though not without a little difficulty. That road lead to trouble and even though she trusted him enough to believe he wouldn't screw her over, it didn't mean she was willing to trust him any further than that. She'd played that game not once but twice now and both times she'd been burned, badly. Neal had left her in prison and Graham had died. Love was simply not in her cards and she'd come to terms with that when August had turned to wood in front of her.

As a result of her common sense's war with her heart she was emotionally raw by the time they'd reached the cave, and thus wholly unprepared to deal with what waited for her there. From the moment she realized that Henry had been right about her "destiny" she'd begun to wonder how much of her life was her own. She'd wondered how many of bad things that happened to her, had happened because of who and what she was. But to actually stand there and hear Snow say that this had all been preordained before her birth was, in a word, painful. It was devastating to find out exactly how much of a pawn she'd been all her life, and it was all just too much. So much so that all she could do was sit and stare at the scroll covered in her name while the others searched for the ink.

"What does this even mean?" Emma asked after staring in silence for some time; her voice a mixture of equal parts horror and curiosity toward the parchment.

"He was obsessed with you Emma, you were the key to breaking the curse," Snow replied, panting as she climbed down the side of the cave. Emma glanced at her before looking back at the paper and frowning as she pushed back tears. She was now hold proof of something she'd always known. That she wasn't special, she wasn't a savior. She was simply a pawn in whatever twisted game Gold and Regina were playing, and she'd been played like a fiddle. It was horrifying to realized how little control she had over her own life. She always wondered, as the years of solitude piled up and person after person let her down, whether she'd been cursed somehow. Now she had proof that she had been. She had been meant to be alone because if she'd ever had someone the chances she'd have gotten to Storybrooke, and play her part, were lessened significantly.

"We've looked everywhere, there's no ink left in this cell." Aurora said, breaking through Emma's bleak musings though she didn't look up.

"No, there has to be; he told David," Snow snapped back and Emma cut her eyes to her mother again briefly. She could tell that Snow was reacting her breaking point and she couldn't say she wasn't far behind.

"You were in a nether world, maybe something got lost in translation?" she suggested, hesitant to look up and see the terror on her mother's face at the idea.

"No, she heard right," Mulan spoke up and pulled something from within a crack in the wall. Both Emma and Snow immediately jumped into action and raced across the cell to look at the bottle that the warrior held.

"You found it?"

"In a matter of speaking," she sighed as disappointment clouded her features and she held up the bone dry ink well. "there was ink in this cell"

"Son of a bitch," Emma breathed out and then she looked at the paper in her hand as a thought occurred to her. Staring at the ink writing on the parchment she almost crumpled it into a ball in a fit of frustration. He'd used it all. The crazy bastard used all of the ink to create this masterpiece of creeptastic obsession and now there was none left to help them. But if that was the case, then why send them here?

Emma could feel a storm brewing inside of her at the realization that they'd wasted precious time coming here. Now all they had left was Killian and his grand plan, which was probably a long shot at best. Emma rubbed her forehead as she tried to think through the situation, ignoring Aurora as she bent down to pick up a rock and threw it. She felt like throwing things in frustration too, so who was she to stop someone else from doing it. Too late, she realized what was really going on as she watched, with both confusion and horror, as the rock sailed through the air and hit the lever that held the gate to the prison open. It stuck the wood with unerring accuracy and the wheel immediately started to spin causing sharp metal spikes to sliding into place.

"Aurora what are you doing?!" She yelled as she made a mad dash for the exit but fell just short of her escape and grabbed the bars to stop herself from slamming head first into them.

"Helping me." said a voice she had hoped to never hear again, and she looked up with a glare to see Cora standing before her with...Kil- Hook leaning on a wall off to the side. Not trusting herself to look at him and not give something away she refused to look at him at all. She didn't know why he was here but she was sure it had to do with tricking the witch into opening the portal for them. So instead she looked at Cora and watched intently as she made a motion with her hand. There was a brief puff of smoke around her hand and before Emma could blink the compass that had been resting safely in her palm was in Cora's possession.

"No, no no," Emma said as she stared at her empty hand. It didn't take long for confusion to give way to panic and she began pulling on the cells bars in a desperate attempt to get out. It didn't matter at that moment that Hook had a plan; all that mattered was that her ticket home was no longer in her possession. She needed to get it back. So she pushed on the bars, even though it was futile.

"Don't waste your energy dear, Rumplestiltskin himself couldn't escape from this cell. Thank you Aurora. We couldn't have done it without you," she laughed and Emma almost snarled as she ceased her efforts. As much as she hated to admit it, the witch was right. So instead she opted to turn on someone she could take her anger out on and glared at the young princess. "Don't blame her, she was only doing what she was told."

Confused, Emma spun back around and her mouth dropped open in horror at what Cora was hold up for all the world to see. "You took her heart?!"

"Actually, I did. It was a gift." Hook said speaking up for the first time and she looked directly at him. He stood against the rock wall, his shoulders tense and his thumb in constant motion on the necklace, the bean, in his hand. For a brief moment their eyes met and she could have sworn she saw something there, some kind of emotion other than cool indifference. But the moment was broken as he looked away and nodded to Cora.

"Forgive us, we'd love to stay, but Storybrooke awaits," she said with the sweetest smile Emma had ever seen on her. Then she turned to leave them behind, trapped in the dark prison.

Emma watched as Killian turned to follow and she panicked. She desperately wanted to believe that she hadn't been wrong to put her faith in him. She'd promised herself that she would trust him, that she did trust him, but this was all too much. What he'd said and done, the fact that she was in almost the same exact situation, again, was giving her doubts. She needed him to turn around and at least give her a clue that this was simply part of his plan. That was all she needed, a wink or a gesture that told her he wasn't really doing this.

"Hook, wait!" she yelled at his back and then took a deep breath, "Please don't do this."

0oo0o0o0o

It was in the instant her panicked calls reached him, and he instinctively turned back to her, that he realized exactly how far gone he was. Cora was there, and he knew that he should ignore Emma and continue walking. All his response would do was further prove to the witch that her assessment of the situation was correct. Really, this action put them both in jeopardy and he knew that; but he still couldn't stop himself. She was calling him, she needed him, and he now knew that he as long as there was hope for them, he could never deny her.

"You promised! My son needs me to protect him!" she said, gripping the bars and staring at him like she was trying to see into his mind. To be fair that was likely the case and he want to smile at her blatant attempt to play upon his sympathies, needless as it was. But, he force his face to remain impassive and annoyed. It was enough that he'd turned to face her at all. He would give Cora nothing else.

"Perhaps you should have considered that before you abandoned me on that beanstalk," he snapped back, trying his best to sound spiteful.

She seemed stunned by his statement, and rightly so since he had forgiven her that. Then in a voice so quiet he almost missed it she said, "You forgave me, we have a deal."

It took everything in him not to wince apologetically, and he moved closer; until all that separated them were the bars. From this distance she should be able to read the lie in his eyes, "That was your mistake. I told you I would take the side of whoever got me there first. Clearly, that's not you."

"You-" she said in a stuttering voice and he smirk as she was stunned into silence. Oh, yes, he was on her side and it was time to cement that fact for her.

"You remember this," he said, holding up the bean that she'd been so interested in the night before. This was his backup plan in case everything else went to pot. If his three hundred years of life had taught him anything, it was that magical items never truly lost their powers. One just had to find a way to revitalize them. "I never did get a chance to tell you why I had it."

As he dangled it in front of her, her eyes lit with fury and she made a grab for it, "You bastard, I bet you did kill him for it."

Hook's eyes narrowed at the sudden attack and sneered at her. She still didn't trust him, even though he'd clearly been lying a moment ago. She wasn't a fool which meant that she was willfully ignoring his attempts to gain her trust, and in that moment, he lost his temper. He wanted to hurt her as much as that statement had hurt him. "No, it's a symbol, of something that was once magical, full of hope, and possibility. Now look at it: dried up, dead, useless. Much like you."

The instant the words were out of his mouth he regretted them; they weren't true and they certainly weren't helpful. Normally, he had a better control of his temper, but his patience with her was wearing thin. However, seeing Emma's wounded expression, he quickly tried to think of something he could do to make it right without risking Cora's notice. The bracer on her wrist caught his attention, and, without really think it through, he grabbed the hand.

"The time for making deals is done," Hook told her in a low voice, and brought the bracer near his mouth; making it seem like he was kissing the back of her hand. Emma was so shocked by his actions that she didn't fight him, and he whispered a quiet word over the enchanted leather. Instantly he felt something shatter in the back of his mind as the spell linking them together ended. An uneasiness settled in his stomach at what he was doing but he pushed it away. This play was desperate, but it was the only one he had.

He was letting her go.

That bracer was his leverage against her, his assurance that she would take him with her when the time came. By breaking that link he was telling her in no uncertain terms that he trusted her not to leave him behind. It was risky because she still could. But deactivating the bracers was the only thing he could think of that would communicate his intention to Emma while Cora was watching. Nothing else would do because she didn't trust him. Thus Hook deduced that a wink or a smile would have made Emma thinking he was mocking her, and that would have been detrimental to his cause; especially after his temper overrode his temperance. It was time to finish this charade and take his leave before he made this situation worse.

"Just as I am done with you," he said coolly, hoping she would understand his ploy. He dropped her wrist before walking backwards and away from her, suppressing a smile at the shocked on her face. Hopefully, once she was given time to cool off from their confrontation - which he would admit was entirely his fault - she would be calm enough to realize what he had done. If not then when he came back to let them out, hopefully that would clue her in. Then maybe, just maybe, she was stop fight him so damn much.

00o0ooo0o0o

Emma stared shell shocked after his retreating back; the now cold and deactivated bracer sitting as dead weight against her skin.

He'd just gotten rid of her reason for trusting him. The one tangible thing she could point to that proved he wasn't screwing her over. It wasn't like she could trust her own feelings on the matter. It had been proven to her time and again that her 'feelings' more often than not were wrong, and she got hurt. Like now for instance, because as he walked away from her and her heart broke in two she could no longer lie to herself that it was the bracers that had made her trust him. She'd trusted him because she liked him, because she'd felt a connection to him, and because against it all she'd started to fall for him.

An old adage ran through her mind as she stared at the empty space before her. 'Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.' She'd been right from the beginning, he was exactly like Neal. Now she was right back where she never wanted to be; in prison while a man she'd trusted and cared for sauntered away with all her hopes and dreams.

In the stunned silence of the cell Emma could hear her heartbeat increasing; as her shock faded and a burning rage replaced it. Her grip on the cells bars became white knuckled and her breathing harder, as she valiantly fought a losing battle against her emotions. Trying her best to suppress the very visceral reaction she was having. She was the calm one, the walled one, she didn't let others see the hurt.

But, like a dam holding back too much water, her control finally snapped. In a quick move she pulled out her sword and slammed the blade against the metal of the bars before her. The force of the hit so great that sparks went fly in all directions. Everyone else in the cell gasped and jumped, but she didn't care as she glared at the metal before her. One hit hadn't been enough to satisfy the burning fury and so she started to beat on the bars. Desperately trying to release all the anger, the sadness and the...heartache inside her. Unbeknownst to her the cells other occupants quickly moved away from the enraged woman and sat at the back of the cave watching her emotional display warily.

"You aren't going to break it down Emma, it was enchanted to hold Rumplestiltskin," Snow sighed once she noticed her swings slowing and she thought her words would reach her daughter. "We don't have a chance."

Emma dropped her arms as she stood and stared at the completely unblemished bars. Even after all of the abuse she'd given them, they still remained firm and undamaged. Though her scratched and nicked sword couldn't boost the same resilience. So, with a sigh that sound more like a sob, she collapsed against the wall beside her and put her head in her hands as she slide to the floor.

"This is my fault," Aurora said in a quiet voice after several minutes of silence broken only by the sounds of Emma's stuttered breathing.

"No, it's mine" Mulan replied, moving to sit next to the princess; placing a comforting hand on the young woman's shoulder. "Cora stole your heart because I failed to protect you,"

"That's very sweet," Emma sighed, and rolled her eyes. Mulan's nobility was usually inspiring to her, but in her current frame of mind it was just sickening to watch. "But I'm the savior. I'm just not doing very much saving am I?"

Everyone was silent as they contemplated their fate for a few more moments before Snow moved to slide down the rock wall and sit next to her."We're going to win this fight you know. Good always defeats evil."

Emma chuckled weakly as the familiar phrase both warmed and hurt her in equal measure."You sound like Henry."

"I guess optimism runs in the family," Snow quipped with a smile as she bumped Emma's shoulder in an effort bring her out of her bleak mood.

It failed spectacularly as Emma stared at the bracer on her wrist. She should tell Snow what had happened. That their one bit of insurance had just been obliterated, but her pride stopped her. To tell her mother exactly how bad she'd been played by the pirate, how deeply that fact hurt her...No, it was still too new, too raw and close to the surface and her mother had already seen too much of her today. "I think it skipped a generation."

Snow sighed and then shook her head as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You should know better than anybody. You broke the curse!"

"What have I done since then?" Emma asked looking her mother dead in the eye, and then told her the truth. "I got us stranded over here, burned down the wardrobe, let Cora get the ashes and now the compass. The only reason I ever broke the curse was because it was exactly what Gold wanted me to do. I had nothing to do with it."

"What are you talking about?"

"He told you I was the savior, it was his plan. Once I'd fulfilled that role maybe that all I was ever meant to do. Everything I've ever done; he had it all mapped out before I was even born! I'm not powerful, I'm not...a savior." she said looking away and then she pulled out the paper with her name on it. "I'm a name on a piece of paper. I'm a pawn and that is exactly why we are in here and Cora's on her way to Storybrooke."

Snow was silent as she stared at the parchment and Emma looked away again, staring through the bars of the cell. That was the thing she hated most about prisons, the fact that freedom was just on the other side of bars. Freedom you could see but never reach no matter how hard you tried. It was a cruel punishment, doubly so for someone who was being punished for a crime they didn't commit. "We are going to get out of here."

Emma blinked, drawn out of her depressing thoughts and turn to stare at her determined mother incredulously. "How? By staring at that scroll? It's not like it's going to magically open the door for us."

Snow smiled brilliantly at her before standing quickly, "Yes it is."

"What?"

"When I was a little girl," Snow said her voice excited as she continued to stare at the parchment. "I used to sneak into Cora's chamber and watch her practice magic. She had a spell book and Emma, the spells were in the book."

"Yea, isn't that what a spell book is? A book that has spells in it." Emma said with not a little bit of sarcasm as a pretty significant part of her wondered if her mother had cracked at the prospect of never seeing David again.

"Watch," Her mother said with an unamused frown before she blew on the paper. For a half a second nothing happened, and Emma raised an eyebrow, but then slowly, ever so slowly the words began to lift from the page and dissolved into a black mist.

"Whoa," Emma exclaimed jumping to her feet as the ink literally flowed off the page. She hadn't even known something like that was possible. "The squid ink! It still works!"

"Told ya," Snow all but crowed as the black mist moved outwards and dissolved the bars before them. "Good always wins!"

Emma's smile fell slightly as she stared at the melted bars before her, then her eyes flicked back to the scroll. That scroll had been here the entire time, Gold had made it, so why had he still been in this prison when the curse hit? He could have gotten out at any point, but he hadn't and the thought made her uneasy. Then another equally disconcerting thought occurred to her. Had he known this was going to happen? Snow had said he could see the future, had he known that they would get stuck in here and need a way out? But if that was the case then why would he let them get caught at all, what was he playing at?

She was jarred out of her thoughts by her mother who squeezed her shoulder before moving past her and out of the cell. Immediately she moved into action and grabbed her things, snatching the scroll from the floor of the cell and shoving it into her pocket as almost an afterthought. She didn't have time to examine it now, but if it could melt the bars of the supposedly unbreakable cell then she was more than will to keep it. There might still be ink left somewhere on it.

"Wait I can't go, you have to tie me up!"

The other three members of the party turned back to look at Aurora with varying levels of incredulity, and Emma could feel her temper rising. They didn't have time for this. "We're not going without you."

"I can't be trusted, not as long as Cora holds my heart," Aurora smiled sadly as she shook her head at Mulan and Emma realized she was right. They couldn't trust her and Cora would definitely use her if she was present. So she remained silent as Mulan tied her up and swore to save her heart. The young princess, brave as she was, just smiled at them and wished them luck. Emma nodded at her, feeling something she never imagined she'd feel for someone she once considered the definition of "spoiled princess", a deep respect for her bravery.

"Mulan we gotta go," she said gently and the warrior nodded at her. Then the three of them turned and ran out of the cave, swords in hand.

She had a pirate to hunt down and hurt.

A/N: Done! Depending on how things go tomorrow chapter 8 will either be up before I go to work or after I get home.

Reviews make me happy and inspire me so leave me a quick one if you can! : )