I do not own Once Upon a Time.

Super long chapter. Admit it, you sang the title.

Amelia walked into the library that morning and noticed the note on the front desk right away. It was short and right to the point.

"Meet me at the toll bridge at midnight."

And it wasn't signed. Now who could have sent it? Storybrooke's newest residents were Amelia's first guess. They were the type of people Amelia used to hang out with, a very long time ago, before Neal.

But a part of her was curious. Who could possibly want to meet her at the toll bridge at midnight no less? Nothing about it sounded safe or smart. But of course Amelia was going.

Amelia pulled the hood of her coat over her head. There was a light drizzle coming down. It was a few minutes to midnight. Now where was he… she… whoever? At least she came prepared with a dagger up her sleeve, like the old days.

"You did show up. I doubted you, dearie." A very familiar, very unwelcomed voice cut through the night. Amelia tensed up and did not want to turn around. She knew that voice and there were a million things running through her mind. Well, they were in the middle of the forest, no one would find the body.

She strove to control her emotions. Amelia turned around to see none other than Gold standing a few feet from her. He looked exactly the same as the last time, when she was stuck behind the magical barrier. All smug and all important.

"How the hell did you get back into town? You were banished." Amelia growled. "Let me guess, you made some new friends and you all worked together?"

"More like old friends. How is Belle?" He asked.

Amelia rolled her eyes; at least he asked the most important question first. "She's annoyed at me, not as much as she is at you of course. All because I knew about the fake dagger and doing nothing about it. I told her I wasn't a villain who went all goody two shoes for the person they love."

"Do you want to be?" He asked. Amelia had confusion in her eyes. "You know I always liked you, dearie?" Gold took a step closer. Amelia let out a heartless chuckle. That was a lie, so Gold amended his answer. "I always had the greatest deal of respect for you. I am forming a little group of selected people for a special plan and I was wondering if you were interested in joining?"

"Joining Gold and his Angels? And what pray tell is this special plan?" She asked but not because she was curious.

"Do you want to be a villain?"

All Amelia could do was stare. What exactly was Gold offering her? And why? Amelia was speechless; she could count on one hand how many times that happened.

"Think about it and get back to me. But you don't have much time." Gold told her before he disappeared.

She wasn't scared, no she wasn't. Maybe she was just uneasy. Amelia gripped the bridge for support for her sudden knocking knees. Her knees stopped but the branch behind her broke.

Amelia found herself alone at the bar in the White Rabbit. She had ordered a whiskey but had barely touched it. Her mind was racing. Villain, her? All her life she had carefully toed the line between hero and villain. She never wanted to anyone dead or sought revenge. Except that one time, but that was so long ago and she was not the same person.

Amelia looked up at the mirror in front of her. Her reflection stared back. Or did it?

Her hair had a tighter curl, her eyes were harder and her mouth was screwed into a smirk. And to top it off, there was a strand of pearls around her neck. Villain her, that had to be what she was looking at. Before she could blink or look away to banish it, her reflection winked at her.

"You are a villain; you can't escape it." Said a tiny voice inside her head.

"No." Amelia said out loud.

And a hand touched her shoulder, Amelia panicked and promptly slammed said person into the bar, hard.

Neal stared up at her, shocked, confused, worried. "Amelia, what the hell?"

But the emotion that really got to Amelia was the fear in his eyes. Pure and raw fear. She shuddered, if there was one thing she hated in this world was people to be scared of her.

She let go of him and tried to pass it off as a joke. "I thought you knew not to sneak up on me."

But of course he saw right through it. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." And suddenly she knew exactly who and what she was. Amelia left the White Rabbit in a hurry. She didn't have much time according to Gold.

"Amelia, wait! You can't just run after something like that!" Neal caught up with her and at least this time he had enough sense not to grab her arm.

Amelia stopped, spun around and threw her arms around his neck. She pulled him close and kissed him, making sure to keep her eyes closed tight. Her main goal was to pass something to him. It was all she could do to keep him safe, protect him from anything and everything.

Neal responded even when she went a little deeper and rougher.

She pulled back. "I love you so much Neal Cassidy. I am never going to let anything happen to you."

"I love you too. Now what is going on?" He was not ready to let her off the hook that easy.

"There's just something I need to take care of something." One more kiss then Amelia hurried off.

"I'm going to have to say no to your offer." Amelia came to the toll bridge and was only slightly shocked to find Gold waiting there for her.

Gold turned to face her. "Pity."

"Whatever you have planned, you won't win. Heroes always win and villains always lose."

"Not this time." He sounded so sure of himself and that made Amelia worried. He was the kind of person who didn't stop until he got exactly what he wanted, no matter who got hurt.

"What does that mean?" She asked, she needed straight answers so she could stop him.

"I'm changing the rules of the game. I am finally going to get my happy ending."

"You know you could have gotten your happy ending if you weren't so power hungry? If you had just been happy with what you had." She felt like a broken record, nothing was going to get through to him. So she reminded him of a very important fact. "Whatever you have planned, I'm protecting this family now. So you should be concerned."

"I'm not. Even if you can do more than duck." Gold sounded very sure of himself then he disappeared into a puff of smoke.

Amelia stared down at her hands and wished with all her heart that a certain skill wasn't so unpredictable at the current moment.

Amelia spent a day freaking out, she was on the edge. Blinky was her only company when Amelia would lock herself in a back room at the library. She had to be on her game now.

But she needed help, needed back up. So she went to the loft.

Emma was enjoying a quiet moment with Killian, her parents were out and they had the apartment to themselves. And it would have stayed like that if there wasn't a loud knocking at the door.

Emma got up and opened the door to see a very frazzled and upset Amelia in the doorway.

"Where's your booze?" No greeting or anything. Amelia just stormed inside and found the liquor cabinet. She filled up a tumbler with scotch and downed it.

"Amelia, what's wrong?" Emma asked, very worried. Scotch wasn't Amelia's go to, something was very wrong. "Is it something about Neal?"

A heartless chuckle came out of Amelia's mouth. "If it did have to do with Neal, I wouldn't be here." Then her hand covered her mouth to stifle the "oh my gods" that escaped.

"So what happened?" Emma tried again. When Amelia didn't answer and went for another shot, Emma turned to Killian. "Can you get through to her?"

Killian nodded and stood next to Amelia, watching her helplessly as she downed another shot then actually sink to her knees behind the counter. As if the world had finally broken her. He knelt down next to her and gently touched her shoulder. "Lass, you need to tell us what happened, it's the only way we can help you."

"He's back." Amelia finally got the words out and now it was real. A few glasses randomly fell off of a shelf near her head as did a pile of books in the living area.

"Who? Who's back?" Emma and Killian were confused.

"Seriously you two? Who else would I get this worked up about? Gold is back in town."

"Wait, Gold? Belle banished him. How is that even possible?" Emma shook her head disbelieving.

"How am I supposed to know? The man's loopholes have loopholes." She pulled herself to her feet, ignoring Killian's hand.

Killian opened his mouth to say something but another knock at the door stopped him. Emma went to answer it and Neal stood there.

"Neal… Amelia's here…" She started to say but Neal cut her off.

"My father is back in town." He blurted out, quite shaken.

"Aye, we know that already." Killian said.

Neal looked at Amelia confused and then concerned when he noticed the tumbler and the bottle of scotch. He couldn't get any words out.

So Amelia did it for him. "How did you know he was back?"

"I called him…" Neal looked sheepish.

Twenty minutes earlier:

Neal Cassidy spent a good five minutes staring at his contact list on his cell phone. His father's cell number was still there. Was there any point in keeping it anymore? It wasn't like he was going to have a pleasant conversation with him any time soon. But part of him just wanted to make sure Gold was alright. Where did he go after being banished? What was he up to?

Damn it, part of Neal, part of Baelfire actually, still cared about his father. So he decided to be the bigger man and pressed dial.

The last thing he expected to hear was his ringtone a few feet away. When he turned around, his greatest fear came true.

"Dad, what are you doing back here?" He sounded angry and disappointed.

Gold stood there, uncomfortable under his son's glaze. "Baelfire, I can explain…"

"No! You don't get to talk! Everything you say is a lie! I don't know how you have the nerve to show your face in this town after your last stupid choice! Do you have any idea how much you hurt me? You keep hurting me, everything you do, I am always getting hurt! And Amelia… she had horrible nightmares after you attempted to kidnap all of us!"

"Son… I can explain if you just gave me a chance. I am going to make us all happy. I can do it this time." Gold attempted a step closer.

"I don't want to hear it. We are done. I don't want you anywhere near my family."

Gold sighed. "I didn't want it to go this way…" And he moved his hand across Neal's face.

But to his confusion, nothing happened.

"Are you trying to magically knock me out so you can take me to a better place for a father son talk?" As confused as Neal was, he kept the upper hand.

Gold looked at his son, slightly scared and then he disappeared into a puff of smoke.

"So your father tried to unsuccessfully knock you out? Why did it not work?" Emma sat down, confusion washed over her.

Amelia had the tumbler to her lips but when she heard that Gold could not use his magic on Neal, the tumbler made a loud thud on the counter. For the first time in a long time, she was pleased with herself. Then she launched herself at Neal and held him tight. He responded likewise though he was slightly confused.

"Don't worry; we will take care of your father." Emma assured him. "And Amelia, please don't go anything stupid when it comes to Gold."

"It's not me he has to worry about. You know how overprotective fathers can be. It's Michael he has to worry." Amelia assured her.

"We sent Regina undercover with Cruella and Ursula. We are hoping that maybe they will let her into their little club and tell her what Gold has planned." Mary Margaret somehow got all that out in one breath when she walked into the library.

Amelia looked up. "And? Has she come up with something?"

"Yes, Gold is looking for the author. He wants a new story written, one where the villains, like him, are the heroes and the heroes, like us, are the villains. He wants a happy ending."

"That doesn't sound pleasant. How is he going to find the author?" Amelia asked.

"We don't know yet. But I will call you when I find out." Mary Margaret promised.

But Amelia felt there was more going on. "What else aren't you telling me, Mary Margaret?"

"Nothing." That response sounded so guilty.

"Mary Margaret, you can't keep a secret to save your life. Spill now."

"Maleficent is back too. We thought Emma took care of her in the basement of the library when she broke the first curse. But David and I might have had a hand in bringing her back. Now she wants revenge on us for something we did to her back in the Enchanted Forest."

"Wonderful. A villain with a chip on her shoulder." Amelia said then hung up.

A few hours later, Amelia got a phone call. August was back, in adult form. They had Pinocchio back, the man who helped Emma believe in magic so she could break the first curse. The man who knew all the secrets of the magical book entitled "Once Upon a Time."

The author was trapped inside the book.

Gold is back, great…

And Snow White and Prince Charming aren't as perfect as they seem. Honestly this was my favorite episode. It made them human.

Umm, why wasn't Neal knocked out?

Question, do you think Amelia is/ was a villain? I always saw her as an anti-hero.

Reviews?