"I was just thrown out of there!" Wolfgang exclaimed. "Damn it, Toby, you have to fix whatever it is that's going on!"

"Why am I the one that has to fix it?" Toby asked.

"He probably meant because you're the natural telepath", Catriona clarified.

"Guys, please, let's not fight", Tessa begged. "We'll only be able to figure things out if we work together, right?"

"Yes!"

Clarissa's triumphant scream caused the rest of the group to look towards where she still stood by her door. Unlike before, when she had been unable to make it unlock, it was now wide open.

"I can get through to Emma!" she said with a wide smile. "Talk to you all soon!"

Before anyone was able to say anything else, she stepped through her door, which closed with a bang behind her.

"That can't be good", Chris remarked, referring to the fact that on earlier occasions the doors had shut themselves silently.

"Oh", came Clarissa's voice in the hidden speakers, "this is... weird..."

"Clarissa, are you with Emma?" Rowan asked.

"Actually, no", Clarissa replied. "I'm myself. Hold on, I'm just going to check... yep, Ollivander's concealment spell still works, so others will see Lady Belinda instead of me, but still; not inside someone's head."

Emma studied the ring she had seen Mary Margaret wear every day since they met. She had discreetly placed it on her finger upon her capture and, like the diadem adorning her head, the guards had let her jewellery be. She now removed the ring from her finger and tilted it so that the light of the torches shone upon the green stone.

"What's that?" her cellmate asked and knelt down on the other side of the bars, a plate of cold porridge in her hands. Emma had not touched her portion; she just was not hungry.

"It's my parents'", she answered. "I guess you could call it their wedding ring."

"And they entrusted you with it?" the woman guessed. Emma sighed.

"Sort of. I need to get it back to them."

The woman nodded slightly.

"Being away from family", she said, "is a terrible, terrible thing."

"Yeah", Emma mumbled, "it is."

"The longer I'm separated from them", the woman said, then sighed, "the pain doesn't dull; it worsens. Maybe cause I know I'll never see them again."

Emma nodded and placed the ring back on her finger, then found herself smiling slightly at the thought of Mary Margaret and what she would have said in this situation.

"If my mum was here", she said, "she would have told me to have hope. Maybe you should, too. Who knows; maybe you'll end up with them again."

The woman smiled sadly and shook her head.

"I don't think so. I'm fairly certain they already think me dead. And soon that'll be true."

Emma was about to respond when she spotted the spoon lying next to her untouched porridge. It was old and broken, the shaft mended with a piece of steel thread. Once, many, many years ago, when she had just met Neal, he had taken her to a closed amusement park for their first date. To get inside the park he had taught her how to pick a lock.

"Maybe not", she whispered to herself and picked up the spoon, removing the steel thread. It was the perfect tool, but she needed one more piece for it to work. Looking around she saw that her cellmate's spoon was mended the same way.

"Give me your spoon", she said. The woman obliged, although she frowned as Emma unfurled the thread.

"What are you doing?" she asked. Emma looked up at the lock of her cell and smiled.

"It's all about the tumblers", she said, quoting what Neal had said to her all those years ago. She then placed the ends of the two pieces inside the lock and started turning them, listening intently for the sound Neal had taught her to recognize. After many years of practice she did not need long before she got it right and the lock fell open. Her cellmate gasped.

"You did it!" she said, smiling widely. Emma quickly rose and pushed her door open, grinning widely. She was free!

Then, she turned back towards the woman in the other cell. Her companion quickly shook her head.

"Go", she ordered. "What are you waiting for? Go! Get out of here!"

The tunnels running beneath the black castle to the dungeons were only occasionally lit up by torches this far out. That, however, did not matter for a wolf. Killian stayed back while the wolf – which in fact was Red – walked up towards a guard, crouching down and snarling. The guard, naturally, panicked at seeing a wolf ready to attack and have him for a midnight snack, which made him unaware of Charming sneaking up behind him and knocking him out.

Killian let out a breath of relief; this was the third time they had used this tactic and, frankly, he had started to think that their luck would soon run out.

"I'm glad the wolf's on our side", he commented as he walked out of his hiding place and threw the cloak over the back of the furry animal. In no time at all the wolf vanished and was replaced by Red, who fastened her cloak around her neck as she rose from the ground. She had told them before that the cloak was what made it possible for her to stay human during a full moon, when people like her would be forced to change shape.

"Better hurry", Charming said and nodded at the guard. "They won't stay down for too long."

They walked towards the crossroads ahead, Killian moving left and Charming right. They knew they would have to split up to cover more ground.

"Wait", Red suddenly said, her human ears moving like an animal's as she listened to a sound that was too faint for the men to register. "Someone's coming."

Charming and Killian quickly drew their swords, while Killian also made a mental note of teaming up with Red's Storybrooke counterpart next time they were on a manhunt; her wolfish traits could really come in handy.

The next moment two women came running around the corner of the tunnel. The blonde in the lead stopped just in time to avoid getting pierced on Killian's sword. He had completely forgotten to sheath it, despite recognizing her; his surprise at seeing her here was too great.

"Swan?" he blurted out. Emma grinned.

"Hook!"

"What the hell are you doing; you're depriving me of a dashing rescue!" Killian hissed, feeling a bit disappointed at not having been able to play the 'knight in shining armour'. Emma shook her head at him.

"Sorry", she said, "but the only one who saves me is me. Speaking of which..."

She raised her left hand and removed a familiar ring from her finger.

"I'm not going to be around much longer unless we find where this belongs."

"I think that belongs to me", Charming said and stepped forward, accepting the object. Emma froze momentarily, before she nodded and smiled.

"You guys have a way out of here?" she asked.

"Follow me", Red said. "Snow told me where to meet her."

"Thank you, Leia", the unknown woman said as they started to head out. Killian stopped, causing Emma to stop as well.

"Swan", he groaned, "please tell me you didn't..."

"She was supposed to be executed in the morning", Emma hissed. "I couldn't just leave her there to die."

"Actually, if she is to die, she pretty much has to", Killian argued.

"I hate to break up a reunion", Charming suddenly said, having walked back to make sure they did not disappear in the maze of tunnels, "but we have to keep moving. We have to find Snow White."

Emma glanced back at Killian briefly before hurrying after her future father. Killian groaned once again inwardly, before running after her.

They had not gone many steps before a scream sounded through the tunnels. Charming quickly drew his sword and ran forward, followed by Killian. Once he saw what was going on he stopped dead in surprise, for who knew what time that night.

"What... how?"

"If I knew the answers to those questions I would be very happy", Clarissa replied.

"You know her?" Charming asked.

"Yes", Emma quickly cut in. "She's my... sister."

"Belinda", Clarissa added.

"How did you find us here?" Red asked, frowning.

"Followed your tracks?" Clarissa suggested and when no one protested she quickly continued. "You should probably have used some sort of magic to cover those."

"She's right", Killian said, "which is why we need to get out and away from here, fast."

"Snow told me to meet her up in the north courtyard", Red explained. "This way."

Here comes trouble... anyway, hope you enjoyed these chapters and look forward to the absolute final ones :) Just so you know; while I was writing a draft for one of them before I let out a manic laugh without realizing it (my friends call me Moffat and there's probably a good reason for that...) and a few minutes later my landlord (I rent a re-done basement so he's just a set of stairs above me and we can hear each other quite well) showed up in my door with a very surprised frown on his face X)