A/N: I'M BACK! And I'm so sorry if I worried/scared anyone with the lack of presence online :'( Things went from calming to completely crazy shortly after I posted on tumblr my plans to return Mid-September. My sister moved out, my dad got a pneumonia, I quit my job, got a new job, started Master's courses online, began a tiny candle 'company' for supplemental income, got a tutoring position, and it's just been insane.

But I am back now! There will be a few changes to when I'll post and what I'll be posting, I have more about that at the ending A/N and I'll be posting a more detailed schedule on tumblr either today or tomorrow about it, but most importantly is, for the most part, I'll be updating every other day due to the new responsibilities in my life. I'll also be trying to spend the next few days responding to my PMs in my inbox here and on tumblr too.

I want to say again how sorry I am that this took so long, but I am officially back and ready to go, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

~8~

Heart of Stone

"Where would you like me to start?" Piper asked as she and Emma took to walking through the cemetery, neither of them wanted Emma to be caught so near the vault, if Emma were found there it could jeopardize Regina more than she already was, and Piper was not about to risk the other Queens attacking her niece, especially when she wasn't quite at her best strength at the moment. She knew that Gold planned to send Maleficent and Cruella off when Regina started to wake, it was time to let the former-Evil Queen in on a new piece of information regarding Robin Hood and his forest maid, so she wanted Emma farther away from Maleficent and Cruella's notice.

Emma rubbed her head, "Did you know?" she began, "About Snow White and Prince Charming, what they did to Maleficent's child?"

Piper was silent a moment, "No," she answered, "I had no more knowledge of it than you did, Emma, not till Rummy and I were about to enter the town once more. While I did keep watch over Snow White in the Enchanted Forest, I did not see her every waking moment."

She would check in more often when Regina had actually been a threat as opposed to when Snow was back on her throne and safe. She had missed that event in Snow White's life and when it came down to how long she'd known, it hadn't been long at all really.

"And when I found out?" Piper shook her head, a small scoffing breath leaving her, "I was…quite a few things. Angry, hurt, guilty…"

"What did you have to be guilty about?" Emma shook her head at that.

Piper sighed, "For as long as I can remember, Emma, I have always tried to protect Snow White from darkness infecting her heart. I have striven to protect you and her, my family, from it."

Emma nearly snorted in derision at that, "Then you agree with her?" she almost spat, "With what she did?"

"Hardly," Piper DID snort, "Emma, there is a difference between what I do to protect my family from darkness and what Snow White did."

"And what's that?"

Piper took a breath, feeling a stirring of irritation rise at her at Emma's tone, but forced herself to push it down, it was likely a combination of her own situation and knowing that Emma was deeply hurt and betrayed as well that was making it seem worse, "What I do, in the course of protecting my family from darkness infecting them, typically affects only me, makes only ME a target of retaliation. What Snow White did doomed another innocent life, condemned it to a burden it should have never been forced to bear. She effectively cursed an unborn baby to a life of misery, where as I, once my music has passed, only affects it at one single point in life."

Unless it was Charming irritating her, then she used her magic more frequently.

But it still stood. A majority of the time she only encountered a victim of her magic once, that was all it took for them to know not to cross her again. And despite her claims that she had turned men, women, and even children into murderers, she had always had a soft spot for children. She never did something as cruel or terrible to them as what Snow White had done. She had never ruined a life in such a way that every single cell in a child's body had been altered, that every waking moment was cursed.

What's more, she never denied when she did something dark to another soul. She never played it off as for the greater good, she called it what it was. She never proclaimed that her reasoning was good, she never justified it or defended it to others in the extreme way Snow White and Charming had. She never tried to pass it off as being something different than what it was. If she killed someone in cold blood, it was murder. If she used her music to cause pain to someone, it was torture. If she used her magic to sway another, it was manipulation, even enslavement to a point. She understood when she did something dark, she owned up to it, she never denied it or hid it or lied about it. She accepted the consequences of her actions.

"Yeah," Emma breathed out at that, her voice shaking as she thought on that particular.

It was a baby, an innocent baby. Her moth…Mary Margaret had tried to play it off when they told her the truth, describing it as dragon spawn, saying that it would be half-monster anyway, dark already and what was more darkness to such a creature?

It made her SICK to hear that.

Because Piper was 'demon spawn' as she'd told her she'd been called as a child, she was half-siren, half-creature, she was dark already and it was upsetting to think that Snow White's reasoning would mean that she'd be perfectly ok with someone doing that to her own cousin, shoving evil and darkness into the woman as a baby before they could decide for themselves if they wanted to be good or evil. She doubted Mary Margaret realized what she'd said or how it came across, but the point still stood. That other baby hadn't had a chance to be anything, be good or evil, and they'd been left with twice as much darkness in them than normal. Her parents had condemned an innocent baby to a life that would ONLY lead to them being a villain just to make sure she would only be a hero, as though they didn't trust her enough.

"Emma, when I speak of darkness infecting my family, that is exactly what I mean," Piper stopped walking and waited till Emma looked at her, "When a heart is pure, darkness acts like an infection to it. Every dark deed you do, every dark magic used can darken a heart. It is…like a disease to most. I am an inherently dark creature," she emphasized, "My heart does not work the same way as for others, it is not affected or afflicted in the same manner. What might darken your heart would hardly touch mine. That is why I would take the burden of the darker deeds from Snow White, what would eventually kill her would barely affect ME. And every deed I have done in her name, it never affected another person the way what she did affected Maleficent's daughter and you. I felt guilty, because I have spent most of my life trying to protect Snow White's heart from darkness…and she did that."

"Did she even realize it would do that?" Emma shook her head, "How could a HERO ever think that doing that would be GOOD?"

"Heroes are often blinded by their righteousness," Piper shrugged, starting to walk on with Emma, "As I think you recall from saving Robin Hood's wife?" she glanced at Emma, not having wanted to rub salt in the wound, but needing Emma to realize that she had been just as blinded as the other heroes could be in her feeling of being in the right, though it wasn't as heinous an act as what happened with Maleficent's child. Emma's flinch told her all she needed to know about Emma realizing how she herself had sounded in defending her actions, that she was going to think long and hard about it, "So long as they can justify it in the eyes of the majority, a hero's more villainous deeds are not quite so villainous. History is written by the winners, Emma, what is an invader to some is merely an explorer to others. It is about perception and how much a person can convince themselves what they have done is right. You would not believe the times I have heard 'for the greater good' come out of the mouths of heroes."

Emma swallowed hard, she had heard the exact same thing. Just a short while ago she had been thinking of how sick and tired she was getting of hearing nothing but 'for the greater good' coming from her parents' mouths, "How many things have my parents done that weren't quite heroic but that everyone else thought it was?"

How many things had SHE done that she thought were heroic but were truly the wrong thing to do? She understood now, what she had done in saving Marian was wrong, it altered nature, it disrupted the balance of life. She finally understood it, she finally regretted it. She hated that it took seeing what her parents had done and how they were so adamant that it was the right thing to do for her to realize it, but she did. So what else had SHE done that was wrong that she tried to justify with heroism?

"I cannot answer that, Emma," Piper told her honestly, "As I said, perception. And what I view as good or evil, morally right or wrong, may not be what the majority see. What I see and think when I turn my thoughts to what Snow White did…I may be entirely wrong to feel betrayed."

"Betrayed?"

Piper was quiet a long time, "All my life, I have only had a handful of people that I thought accepted me exactly as I was, WHAT I was. By the time the Dark Curse was cast, that number had dwindled to only two. Rummy and Snow White," she looked away from Emma, up ahead, needing to focus on something else to say what was festering inside her, "I thought that Snow White understood what I was, what it meant to be what I was, that she would accept me and that she loved me regardless of the darkness inside me, as she claimed so many times," she shook her head, "And yet at the first sign that a child could have a hint of the darkness I had…she chooses to rip it out of the child instead."

Emma winced at that, "You know why Snow White did it then?"

"There is magic in this town, Emma," Piper gave her a small smile, "Regina is not the only one with a magical way to spy on others with," she nodded, "Yes, I know why Snow White did what she did, she saw what was becoming of me and my darkness and refused to allow you the same," she sighed, "She had only seen the tip of the iceberg in how dark I could truly be, imagine what she would have thought seeing me then as I am now."

"It's bullshit," Emma said bluntly, she truly did believe what she had told Mary Margaret, at this point she would have rather been like Piper than Snow White.

"Oh I agree," Piper nodded, "There are…so many things wrong with that logic. I am equally upset by the idea that someone who claimed to accept my darkness in truth feared it and despised it so much that she would tear a part of a child's soul out of them just to prevent it in the child itself. I am upset as well by what she has done to YOU, Emma," she looked over at her.

"Done to me?" Emma frowned.

"When I was a young girl," Piper looked away, "I made a choice to request my parents remove my magic from me. I had…hurt someone, many people, and I did not want to do that. I was young and scared of what I could do and I begged them to remove it, to find some way to take it from me. And they did. The fairies tried to remove it, for more than one reason," she nearly scoffed at that memory, no one knew what the Blue Fairy had said to her, not a soul but Gold himself. Snow White didn't know, her parents didn't know, she had been so scared and so young that she hadn't breathed a detail of it or the visit she'd gotten from Blue to anyone save Rumpelstiltskin years later, "It was the most…agonizing moment of my life, trying to have light magic rip the dark magic from me. It would have killed me had my mother not stopped the ritual," she swallowed hard at that, crossing her arms almost in protection of the memory, "If that was what it felt like to have something dark pulled out of me at just 4 years of age…" she shook her head, "What Snow White did, it could have very easily killed you, Emma," she glanced at her niece, "She was so desperate to prevent a darkness from possibly taking root that she was willing to risk your life to do it," she looked away again, "I do not know if she even realized the true danger she put you in. Had you been born, had you been older, that very same spell would have killed you. Perhaps it was because you were so young, so new, that it did not. I cannot say. I do not know if the spell used was the same or not, but I know what it felt like to have it done to ME, to imagine it done to a baby?"

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Emma muttered, growing a little pale as she heard Piper talk about her experience. She had alluded to it, briefly mentioned it at the docks, but this…to know how close she really had come to dying, to realize her own mother might have had the same spell done on HER…

"I cannot forgive her endangering you the way she did," Piper continued, "Especially not for the reason she gave."

"Yeah," Emma huffed, "I um…might have told her that I would have rather been like you, darkness and all."

Piper gave her a small smile for that, "As much as I appreciate the intent," she began, "I more meant that she feared you would possess a darkness."

"Well according to her, Maleficent said that I was going to either be a great hero or fearsome villain," Emma rubbed her head, "Mary Margaret said a unicorn showed her a vision that proved it, something about my potential meaning any future was possible."

Piper scoffed at that, "Brilliant reasoning Snow White, listen to a villain," Emma nearly smiled at that, it had been her thought as well, that Maleficent could have just as easily lied to throw Snow White off, "And a unicorn?" she shook her head, "Whatever vision she saw Emma, it was merely a possible one. My god," she bit out, growing angry now, "A child has potential to be anything! They are neither light nor dark but a blank slate. I knew, I KNEW, the moment I found out Snow was pregnant that you would be a hero," she looked at Emma, "With parents like them, raising you with love and care?" she shook her head, "My poor little darkened heart had to come to terms with my family being paragons of light," Emma cracked a small smile at the almost-teasing note in Piper's words, "But I knew Emma, that your path would undoubtedly lead to the light with Snow and Charming at your side, guiding you. But it seems Snow White, the beacon of hope, lost faith in her ability to raise you well, her fears and doubts are what preemptively condemned you to light and Maleficent's daughter to the dark."

"Dark," Emma muttered at that word, "Ursula," she looked at Piper, frowning, "She said that your plan, that Gold's plan, was to turn me dark so that the villains could get their happy endings."

Piper almost smiled at the tone Emma took, the girl didn't sound like she believed it at all.

Well, that was a nice feeling, to have someone believe in you.

"Assumptions," she mumbled, "A villain's greatest asset," before she sighed and looked at Emma, "We told her and Cruella that we had a way to get them their happy endings, through the Author, but we withheld how exactly we would do that so that the two would allow us into town. Rule 1, Emma, never reveal your entire plan, make sure those you join with are aware you possess a knowledge ONLY you have and they will not abandon you."

"Then why the hell did Ursula tell Hook that the plan was to turn me dark?"

"Because, once we retrieved Maleficent, they wanted to know the next step of the plan," Piper explained, "Rummy informed them that the reason villains never got happy endings was because the light-savior had only gotten endings for the heroes. He misdirected them towards the thought that, for villains to get happy endings, they would need a dark-savior. Ursula and the others assumed that meant we had to turn you dark."

"But you're not."

Piper smiled again how sure Emma sounded, that she didn't doubt for even a moment that they really were NOT trying to turn her dark, "No."

"Then what are you planning?"

Piper looked at her a moment, "Maleficent's child, they possess your darkness. The Author is the only one that can make a magic quill that Rummy has work. The ink is magical, often infused with light magic, to the benefit of the heroes. He would require ink made of the savior's dark potential to rewrite stories to help the villains."

"Is her kid even alive?"

"We hope they are," Piper nodded, solemn, "You survived a trip here, as did August, through a magical tree. Baelfire survived a journey through a portal, even Zelena appears to have survived a trip through a tornado as a baby, it stands to reason that Maleficent's child would survive as well. It was why we needed to resurrect her, her blood could be used in the magical globe Rummy has in his shop to locate her child. We would NEVER actively try to turn you dark Emma," Piper reassured her, "We needed your darkness, yes, but we would not try to force you to become something you are not nor want to be."

"Unlike Snow White," Emma muttered, still very unsettled about that thought. Was she really HER? Was THIS the real her? If she was nothing but light inside her was it really the person she was meant to be? No, the answer was no. Because she was missing part of herself and it was because of her parents.

"If you had possessed your darkness Emma, I would have loved you regardless," Piper spoke after a moment, "Light or dark, it matters not to me what you are, you are family. And I am in no position to judge others for their darkness."

Emma let out a breath at that as her words struck something else inside her, "Would Mary Margaret have loved me? Regardless of the dark? If I was dark? Would she have loved me too? If she didn't want me to be dark SO badly that she had it ripped out of me?"

Piper looked down at that, watching where she was walking, "Once upon a time, Emma, I would have said yes, indubitably, Snow White would have loved you light or dark. Now…" she could only give Emma a helpless look, "I cannot say. She has proven in her actions with you that she did not love me as I was as she once claimed to do. I would hope, I would hope very deeply, that she would have you, for you are her child and not merely her cousin."

"That doesn't matter," Emma shook her head, "Family is family."

And what did it mean for her and her mother? If her mother, who had once said she loved her dark-cousin really hated the darkness in her so much she'd risk her child's life and soul to remove the darkness from her. What did it say about whether Snow White would accept a dark-child too?

"Family is family," Piper murmured, "Until they are not any longer. Until betrayal strikes."

This time it was Emma that hesitated speaking, "Henry told me. About sirens, about what happens to them when they're betrayed. You're trying to take revenge against Mary Margaret."

"Yes," Piper stated bluntly, honestly, "I do believe Rummy was trying to help it along, telling Ursula and the others that we would be attempting to turn you dark. Make Snow White fret and destroy herself with lies and half-truths, with paranoia about you going dark…prove just how much she really does fear it happening, force her to see just how far down a dark road she would go to prevent it, how much of a hypocrite and pseudo-villain she became in the process."

"Really?" Emma eyed her, "That's…that's your revenge? Psychological warfare?"

"I am not certain yet," Piper could admit, it wasn't something SHE had come up with, it didn't strike the same cord in her that the revenge against Regina had, it didn't feel personal or meaningful enough to her that she could be certain it would work. Even now, even now that Emma knew the truth, she still felt that anger and hardness against Snow White, "It is, after all, Rummy's idea. I am not sure if it is enough for me," she hummed, considering the alternatives, "I can say, if it would not harm you or Henry, Emma, I am quite certain I would kill her."

"That…doesn't sound like revenge," Emma frowned, that was a little further than mere revenge.

"A life for a life," Piper muttered.

"What?" Emma stopped, reaching out to touch Piper's arm, making her turn, only to blink when she saw Piper's eyes were wet, "What happened? What did Mary Margaret do?" she was quiet, waiting for Piper to speak, "Was it New York?" she almost faltered when Piper looked at her for that, seeing a flash of pain in her eyes that was so devastating she nearly felt her own heart break to see it, "Henry said New York was important. Something about it was enough to get Henry AND August on your side and against Mary Margaret…Aunt P," she began, squeezing Piper's arm gently, "What happened?"

"I was pregnant when I crossed the line."

Emma blinked at that, "You…" but then something else in her phrasing broke through her shock, causing her heart to stop, "WAS?"

"I still am," Piper reassured her, though her voice cracked, "Barely," she put a gentle hand over her stomach, "I almost lost the baby, Emma," she looked up at Emma, seeing the woman's horrified expression, "When Rummy freed himself of the Dagger, it released him from a good majority of the protections that were placed on the Dark One and his power, namely the darkness that would infect his heart. We had a ritual prepared to protect it from being infected…but it had to be performed in the first light of day after he was freed."

"But Mary Margaret sent him over the line…" Emma realized, that very night.

"He could not complete the ritual, his heart started to weaken, to darken."

"But it was in YOUR chest!" Emma looked completely disturbed now.

Piper lifted her hand to just above her heart, rubbing her chest, "It was," she nodded, "In New York, it was weakening and failing. I suffered two heart attacks Emma, the last one nearly killed me. It…it nearly killed my baby," she couldn't stop her voice breaking at that, couldn't stop the tears from starting to fall from her eyes, "I nearly died. I would not have cared, not at all, if MY life ended in the course of keeping my family safe, of helping Rummy, if it had been at Snow White's hand even that my life ended…but it was not just MINE in danger any longer, it was my child's. My baby nearly died. Because of Snow White."

Emma let out a breath at that, before she looked down at Piper's stomach, she could see it now, it was hard to notice at first, Piper was wearing dark clothing, it was dark out, her shirt was baggy, but with the woman's other hand on her stomach, she could see the smallest of bumps, the woman couldn't be more than two or three months pregnant given her weeks in New York and if it happened some time close to after they defeated Zelena, and the baby…

She stepped forward and hugged Piper tightly, not knowing what else to do or say, not knowing if it was possible to make up for what Snow White had nearly done to her and her child. It was different, the hand Piper had in separating her and her mother in the curse. She knew it was coming, but she also knew that Emma would be safe, would be reunited, that the family would be whole again. She knew that she'd either be trapped in the curse and unaware for decades or, once she realized she'd escaped it, she spent decades searching for her.

Mary Margaret...Mary Margaret had nearly killed Piper's child in sending Gold over the line, even if she hadn't realized it, even if Piper hadn't gone with him her heart would still be affected by the ritual being incomplete, her baby still in danger. No one would blame a grieving mother for not seeing it that way. No one would blame a mother that lost her child not to blame the catalyst for the events that caused the loss. Mary Margaret herself had made it abundantly clear, she knew, that she still blamed Gold for the curses and witches that separated her from her children.

"It is why we returned," Piper added as she pulled back, taking surprising comfort from Emma's gesture, "His heart is still weakening, in his chest once more. Rummy is dying, Emma, and I...I cannot tell if I shall follow him when he does. I am only half-siren, but there is too much at stake. If I pass with him, the child does too, if I do not, it loses its father. We need the Author to help relieve Rummy's heart, so he might be well again, so he will be stronger. We care not for Ursula or Cruella or their happy endings, it was a ruse to get them here and distracting the heroes, we just need a way to save Rummy's heart. But," she faltered, "I...I cannot do this alone," she admitted, Emma able to see the genuine fear in her eyes, "You have no idea the thoughts that plague me, Emma. Would Snow White have done the same thing, sending Rummy over the line, if she had known? Would she have condemned my child to die? If she had been able to restrain me, would she have condemned my child to be an orphan? To be fatherless? And the town?" she shook her head, gesturing around wildly, "No doubt they think me a villain once more, would they try to stop her? For all their talk that people are made to be good or evil and not born that way, would they have believed it of MY child? Would she see my child as with Maleficent's? A child that was BORN evil instead of made into it? Would they do the same to my child? Would they try to force my hand, rip the evil out of my child instead?"

"No," Emma shook her head, now understanding why she hadn't known Piper was there till so recently, she was keeping herself out of sight and in hiding for the sake of her child. She and Gold had sent the Queens of Darkness out to do their dirty work so that they could remain in the shadows and safe, the fewer people who knew she was back, the better for her and the baby.

Her words though, about Mary Margaret, she couldn't help but feel that it shouldn't matter if Mary Margaret knew beforehand. A child being present shouldn't affect what someone did, it shouldn't be a defining factor, not in something like this. Because all it meant was that someone WOULD have done something if only the child hadn't been there, and that was worse. It should never have been done in the first place.

"No?" Piper scoffed, "This child is quarter-siren and half-DARK ONE. If you thought people reacted oddly to Neal, being Rumpelstiltskin's child, a boy born while he was human and not the Dark One, what do you think they would fear of this child being born of him AS the Dark One? They would try to kill it Emma, they would fear it before it had even drawn breath. I have SEEN that happen, I have lived it. They would have it die or be rid of its darkness too…"

"No," Emma stepped forward, grabbing Piper's hands, "That will NOT happen."

"I would not see it happen," Piper told her quietly, "Light or dark, I would love it."

"I know," Emma nodded, not for the first time wondering what SHE might have been like had Piper found her, raised her to accept all of herself, light and dark, if…if Piper had actually been her mother? What would she be like now, with both her light and dark halves still in her? She'd never know, "I won't let it happen, Aunt P. I won't, I promise, this baby," she reached down and placed a hand on Piper's stomach, able to feel the firmness of it there, feeling her heart racing at the knowledge that this was real, it existed just under her hand, another member of her family was coming, was in danger and needed her to protect it, "This baby will be protected. I will NOT let anyone in this town hurt it. Or they will have a very pissed off Savior after them."

Emma reached out and pulled Piper into a hug once more, closing her eyes as she swore it to herself. This baby would NOT end up like she had, the baby would have a chance to be born, to be safe and protected and loved, to decide for themselves what they wanted to be.

And so help anyone that dared try to defy that, even Snow White.

~8~

When Emma eventually returned to the apartment, she didn't even give her parents a look, focusing instead on August and Henry sitting back by the window across the room, "August!" she smiled, what felt like the first genuine smile in forever at seeing him awake and looking much better, more refreshed and stronger than he had been, "How are you?"

"A bit tired, but better," August smiled up at her, before it started to falter at the tightness in her smile, "Something's wrong. How are you?"

"I'm fine."

"You forget I know lying," August gave her a gentle look at her quick response.

"She went to see Aunt P," Henry informed the man, before glancing at his mother, knowing that would be the only place she would or could go for answers about all this, "Did she tell you?"

Emma nodded, "Everything."

August's eyes widened at that, "Everything?"

He knew that HE knew everything, and Henry did, about Piper and what happened in New York, about the baby and how close she'd come to losing it, especially about Operation Bluebird, something Gold had told him about when Piper had left the room for a moment, but he couldn't quite see Emma knowing about it, or at least not Gold's version of it, he honestly wasn't sure Piper even knew about that particular Operation. But it was ok with him if she didn't, so long as she knew the other important things, things he knew Piper would tell her when confronted about and with time to tell it.

"Yeah," Emma nodded again, "Unlike other people, she's always been honest with me."

"Emma…" Mary Margaret began, stepping over with David.

"Anyway," Emma blatantly ignored the woman, focusing on August, "I have a surprise for you. Look what Henry found," she pulled a key out of her pocket and held it up to August to see, Henry had brought it to them just after he'd given his mother the fake picture.

"You did it!" August exclaimed, beaming, looking between her and Henry, proud.

"That's right. Now, what do you say we let out the Author," she reached into her pocket and pulled the page of the storybook that had the Author's door designed on it out, Piper had given it to her before she'd left when she had offered to help her and Gold with their plan, "I have some questions..."

"Emma, please, think about this," Mary Margaret tried again, "This isn't just what Regina wanted. This is what Gold wanted, too. He was doing it to turn you dark!"

Emma's entire expression darkened as she stood up to face her parents, "I'm not worried about it. Are you?" she looked them in the eye, as though daring them to tell her that they were actually concerned that she would still turn dark after everything they had done to prevent it. Because if they were, then every pain they caused in doing what they had would be for nothing, it would have been pointless and she would never forgive them for it, "Cause now I have some questions about me, and he can tell us everything."

"If he's the one who wrote your story," August corrected and warned.

"What are you talking about?" Emma frowned, looking at him, her mind racing for what he could mean. The Author had to have written the book right? This was the man that Piper and Gold needed to save him, he HAD to be.

"Something you need to know about this author," August sighed, "He wasn't the only one. There have been many authors throughout time. It's a job, not a person. And the one trapped in here was just the last tasked with the great responsibility," it didn't really matter when it came to Piper and Gold's dilemma, they just needed whatever Author was the current one.

"Which is?"

"To record," August shrugged, "To witness the greatest stories of all time and record them for posterity. The job has gone back eons, from the man who watched shadows dance across cave walls and developed an entire philosophy, to playwrights who tell tales in poetry, to a man named Walt," he smirked as Henry's eyes widened at the implication that Walt Disney was an Author, "Many have had this sacred job, great women and men who took on the responsibility with the gravity that it deserved…until this last one," he nodded at the page, "He started to manipulate rather than record. He did something, I don't know exactly what, but something that pushed them over the edge. That's why the Sorcerer and his Apprentice put him in there. They're the ones who choose the Author, and they took responsibility for their error."

"If they did, and he's still in there, he still has the ability to alter the book, to alter the course of things," Emma murmured, thinking about Piper and Gold.

Mary Margaret and David were likely convinced that the master plan was to turn her dark, turn her against her parents. Well, that last half didn't need a plan at all, Mary Margaret and David had done that on their own. But the first one? If Mary Margaret really thought that her cousin would do that to HER, that she would turn her own niece dark just to spite her cousin? That Piper would do something that would HURT her? She didn't know the woman at all or trust her like she claimed.

She didn't care though. Thinking on it now, knowing what she did about everything, she honestly wasn't sure if going dark would be a bad thing. Everyone kept making it out to be horrible and horrifying, but she just couldn't help but look at Piper and, yeah, she was a little unhinged at times and her complete apathy for anyone outside her family could be brutal and cruel to witness, but the woman wasn't evil. Dark didn't mean evil, she firmly believed that. And if she happened to go dark during this, she doubted it would be the torture and hell that everyone seemed to think it would be. She was ok with it, IF it happened, she felt like she'd be ok.

After everything Piper had done for her, for her parents, for her son, to protect them, she could do this for her. Piper wasn't the sort to ask for help, and she was now. She was genuinely terrified and hurting and she needed the support of her family. And she would be damned if her parents kept her from giving it to the woman that had given up so much for them and still suffered for them even now. She had Henry and August, but now Emma was determined that Piper would have her too.

"You sure have come a long way from the woman who wouldn't believe," August remarked gently, pulling her from her thoughts.

Emma smiled at that, "Yeah. I have."

She stood up, picking up the door page as she went, shooting her parents a warning look not to dare interfere, before she focused her magic and held the key up to the page.

A moment later a bright light shone out of the page, causing Emma to drop it and stumble back as something was nearly fired out of the page, tumbling back onto the edge of the small coffee table.

"Oh!" a man with dark hair and eyes, dressed in the garb of the Enchanted Forest, gasped, "Whoo!" he took a breath and looked around, "It was cramped in there! I couldn't even reach this," he pulled a small flask out of his pocket and took a quick gulp, "And I was parched."

Emma moved to begin her questioning when David spotted the flask, a very familiar flask, one he hadn't seen in years, HIS flask, "Where did you get that?"

"This?" the Author held it up, shrugging, "Uh, a nice young couple I met on the road gave it to me. You want some? Sort of nutmegy."

"You!" Mary Margaret gasped, recognizing the man as well. She and David had been on their quest to try and find a way to free Emma of her potential darkness in the Enchanted Forest and come across a peddler that had warned them of Maleficent and how she had laid an egg. David had given the man his flask with that very nutmeg-like beverage in it to warm him up from the chill and to keep in thanks for the information. And that peddler…he was standing right before them, "You are…are the Author?"

"The peddler?" David recognized him.

Emma shook her head at them, focusing on the Author, "We have a lot of questions."

The Author chuckled lightly, "I bet you do," he smiled genially at them, before pulling on the curtains just behind August, causing them to fall with the curtain rod attached, Emma diving forward to cover the man as the Author made a break for it.

"Hey!" Emma pushed her parents off as they moved to help her and raced after the man, her parents followed her, down the road and towards the woods where she'd just barely glimpsed the man entering the dense forest.

"The Author, where is he?" David gasped as he caught up.

"We lost him," Emma glared at the trees.

"We know him, Emma," Mary Margret told her.

"What?" Emma spun to face them.

"We met him a long time ago, before you were born. He, um…" she looked to her husband for help.

"Manipulated us," David offered, "It's because of him we were put on the path to causing Maleficent to lose her child."

"It's true!" Mary Margaret nodded eagerly, looking hopefully at Emma…unfortunately the blonde was just glaring at them in return.

"No," Emma shook her head, "Whether he pointed you to Maleficent or not, you said it yourself, he set you on the PATH but YOU still did what you did. YOU chose to do it, he didn't make you, he just gave you the option and YOU were the ones that took it. And you lied to me about it! You've been lying to me about everything! About you, about me…"

"That's not the case," David argued, "It's one incident from our past…"

"Don't downplay it!" Emma snapped, as though that made a difference or made it all better. It wasn't the amount of times someone did something wrong, it was how enormously it affected others and how many others and how innocent the others were, how they dealt with it after, the responsibility they took for it, if they owned up to it and all of it. She would be equally as disturbed if she found out Piper and Gold had done this to Maleficent, but she doubted she would feel as angry or betrayed, because had Piper done it she wouldn't have hid it, she wouldn't have lied, she wouldn't have tried to pass it off as necessary or righteous. She would call it what it was, she wouldn't defend her actions, and she would accept that Maleficent was coming after her instead of playing the victim.

No, what was upsetting her most was how her parents were STILL trying to argue that it was the right thing to do to someone else's child.

They had condemned a BABY, two babies, risked their lives and souls, and tried to act like it was just and right and necessary.

Heroes didn't do that, GOOD people didn't do that.

"Well, we've changed," Mary Margaret defended in what sounded to Emma as a lame attempt, "We've tried to become the parents you deserve."

"I am only the Savior because you altered the entire state of my being at the expense of someone else's soul!" Emma pointed an accusing finger at them, tears in her eyes. It was even worse, because she knew what that sort of magic could be like, what it could have done. If it was in anyway close to what Piper had experienced as a child, and to be fair it might have been even worse or more powerful a spell considering how powerful her own magic was, that spell could have KILLED her and Maleficent's child. Her parents valued her being a 'hero' over being ALIVE and had no thought or care for what happened to Maleficent's child either.

"You're right," David took a breath, trying to speak calmly, trying to calm down Emma, "What we did, it was wrong. But we…we didn't fully understand what we were doing."

"And that makes it better?" Emma shook her head, disgust in her voice, that just made it all the worse, "I could have DIED because you didn't know what you were doing!"

Mary Margaret winced at that, though her expression told Emma that she hadn't even considered that till just now.

"We acted out of fear," David tried again, "We're human."

"Yeah, well, right now I don't care," Emma shook her head, "None of that matters now. We have to find that Author before the others do."

She honestly didn't care if Gold found him first, or if Piper did. Both of them needed the Author more than anyone and if SHE found him first, she was tempted to just bring him straight to the two to help them. But there was still Cruella out there, Maleficent too, either of them, she doubted, would be very concerned with getting the Author to Gold instead of just using him for themselves or even killing him in revenge for making them villains.

Whatever the case, she wanted to find him first, she didn't fully trust him and she knew better than anyone what desperation could make a person do. She doubted Piper or Gold would EVER become that desperate as to fall into a trap or loophole by the Author, they had too much experience seeing how others were taken advantage of from their desperation, but she wanted to be sure. They were…family, both of them, even Gold, and she was going to protect them. She had to make sure the Author was going to do what he promised, find out what he could do, and make sure that Gold came out of this alive.

~8~

Piper and Gold stood in the woods, looking down a small incline to where the Author was frantically trying to snap branches off a tree to, what they would guess, make a quill.

"Well, I'm not much of a writer," Gold called, "But I do know something about magic quills," he would have been happy to watch the man continue to make a fool of himself, but time was of the essence.

The Author spun around, gasping when he saw not just Gold but the Piper standing before him, above him, looking down at him, "Such as?" he cursed inwardly as his voice shook.

"Well, for starters, they must be sculpted from the wood of enchanted trees, which, unfortunately for you, is not an attribute any of the timber in Storybrooke possesses."

"Damn it!" the Author threw down the twig and started to stalk off, "I need to go."

Piper, however, moved in his way, "You need to come with us, you mean."

The Author just laughed in her face, "Why would I do that? Your true love up there is quite possibly the biggest pain in the ass I have ever had the displeasure of writing about," he shot a glare at Gold.

Piper just smirked, "Because you are well aware that I can make you go with us, in either a kind or more…forceful way," her smirk widened as the man took a step back, his eyes flickering down to the pipe in her hand instead of her boot, "Though using my music will mean the others after you will likely hear and I am in no mood to confront Snow White at the moment."

"And," Gold called, just seeing the Author about to snidely comment on Snow White and their falling out, not about to let him upset Piper anymore than she already was. She had come to him to reveal that Emma had spoken with her, had been told the truth, and was all too willing to help them, but the course of telling her the truth meant that it had been a trying and emotional night for Piper, "There's also this," he held up a pen, a magic quill pen.

"What do you want from me?" the Author swallowed hard, his eyes flicking to Piper as she brought the pipe up, absently rolling it between her hands.

"You are gonna write us a whole bunch of new happy endings," Gold informed him.

The Author looked back, hearing the calls of the Charmings in the distance, of the two evils before and behind him…Gold and the Piper were actually the lesser of two, "Fine."

"Glad you see it our way," Piper reached out and grabbed his arm tightly, leading him back towards Gold who, with a flick of his wrist, had them disappearing in a swirl of red.

A/N: I cannot apologize enough for the delay in continuing this story :( It was supposed to be picked up the middle of September 2015, but my sister threw us for a loop by declaring she was moving out and in with her boyfriend, but that the apartment had to be fixed up by October 1st, so we were all hands on deck scrambling to help fix it up for her and move her in. And then my dad ended up getting a pneumonia, and with his immune system still being weak from the chemo it lasted almost till almost Christmas, he was hospitalized for two weeks of it. And then, by Christmas, I realized I was miserable at my job and quit, and ended up getting a job at a Barnes and Nobles near my town and was in training for the last month. But I've reached a point where I now feel more stable and confident in my scheduling and time and family and am back to writing.

Unfortunately, 2016 seems like it is going to be a busy year for me. I'm now in a Master's program for English, I have a new part-time job (where the hours and days change every week), I'm tutoring my sister's boyfriend in an undergraduate course for the first few months of the year, and I'm also starting a candle business (I might put a link on my tumblr today or tomorrow), while trying to work on some more original novels.

As a result, there will be a few big changes to my posting schedule for the stories and the order that it will happen (a more detailed scheduling will be up on my tumblr soon):

1. All TV-stories (like this one) will be updated every other day. All movie-stories, when I get to them, will be updated every day as they are shorter. I plan to finish this story, then post Athena's Age of Ultron story, then pick up my other TV-stories again.

2. My Big Bang Theory story for Claire will NOT be posted every two days. Instead I am going to alternate posting a season of BBT with posting a season of Lyssa's OUAT story. So, for example, I will post all of say Lyssa's Season 2, then a movie-story, then all of BBT season 3, then a movie-story, then Lyssa's Season 3, etc.

3. For Doctor Who, I will resume my OCs on April 14th, the day after the Angel/Marayna/Piper crossover story as, by then, I should be done tutoring my sister's boyfriend and have more time to edit/write/focus on stories. It will start with Angel Series 8, then Mac Series 8, then Judge Series 8, and pick back up with the Professor (then Evy, etc) Series 9. This is also true for the DW-OC Spinoff stories as well as the AUs for Proffy and Angel, they will be resumed in April. I will be posting a new chapter every other day just for this year. They are very long chapters and take a lot to edit and with classes and work I need a little more time to edit properly. This will continue to the end of Series 9 for the OCs, after that I will post TL5 likely in 2017.

I am really sorry this took so long to get back and posting and that things will probably be drawn out for 2016, mostly with catching up and finishing current stories (only really introducing new Movie-stories), I'm also sorry that the updates will be slower in being every other day instead of every day for a few months, but at least I'm posting again, which makes me happy and I hope you will all like the stories to come :)

I hope you liked this chapter though, I feel like it was about time that all the truths came out, not just about Snow, but Piper and Gold's plan, so a lot of dialogue and talking, but Emma wanted answers and Piper was NOT going to just brush it off this time but talk to her about a lot of things.

Some notes on reviews...

I agree, I find Henry to be very upsetting in the first few seasons. Like I understand what he's going through and how he's coping with it and that he's 10, but at the same time…that is your adoptive mother. She CHOSE to keep you and love you and raise you and everything when your biological mother gave you away, no matter who she was in her past, you show her more respect than that :( In a way, it's similar to Regina, to all villains, in my opinion of how I view them. With villains, I like to understand their actions, even if it doesn't justify or excuse them. I'm glad you like Piper, I really wanted to try to write a character that is a villain and embraces it, but still has soft spots and weaknesses. I don't think it's morbid, it would be a very large push in the plot and it's still a very possible future for them, especially with events from Season 5 coming }:) I hoped for more in Season 5 with the Dark Swan, even in her plans for Zelena not even being seen through. There was so much potential, especially after the disturbing Zelena-baby bomb went off. I was disappointed greatly by Season 5 and I think I spent most of it going 'this is ridiculous/stupid' instead of 'this is awesome!' which is sad :( I think the actors did what they could with what they had, but too much was lost in back stories and characters that did little to actually move the plot along :/ I can say Piper was the only thing that got me through watching Season 5, her commentary was what kept me watching even when I was more apathetically observing than entertained.

I actually thought the 'crazy' part for Henry was more he was in therapy because he found out he was adopted and wouldn't talk to Regina. If you watch the first episode close, when Emma remarks on the 'Evil Queen' thing and fairytales, Regina legitimately has no idea what Emma's talking about, which implies Henry was seeing Archie for another reason. After that point, I can somewhat understand Regina's need for Henry to stop trying to break the curse, I don't think he realized it, but Regina did, that if the curse broke…cue the angry mob coming to violently kill her and being justified in doing it. I don't condone what she did in not telling him the truth, but overall…the curse wasn't entirely bad. Modern tech, education, protection and more rights for women, indoor plumbing, more, she could have separated people in a much worse way. I got the impression, with Belle, that after she did get permission to take Belle's heart but made her forget permission as given. Killing is always bad, though I think Katherine's was more staged than real, though I do think women/mothers will go to extremes to protect their sons and for a woman that had every single shred of happiness ripped away from her at every single turn in her life for decades, she would be a little insane and hold onto the one thing she had left with a deadly passion. Again, not condoning it, but in a world of fairytales where people are poisoned and killed in just about every story, the Evil Queen poisoning someone with an apple is expected. I think he sought out Emma because some adoptive kids do, they want to know where they came from and try to find their birth parents, it has nothing to do with being happy or not, just a fact of life and a question of your past/history. A big thing, to me, is that, she was tempted by the Empty Hearted curse, but in the end made the right choice and that was a catalyst to trying to turn her life around. Did she relapse at times, yes, but so do all addicts. What is significant for me is that she fought back and kept pushing herself to do better each time and finally did become the mother he wanted and needed. I agree, people come in shades of gray, it's not as clear cut as Henry first believed, something he's learning in the story :) I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter! :)

So far the baby is safe for now ;) We won't know for sure if it will be completely safe till it's born though, there are a lot of events coming up that might put Piper in danger or stress her out in Season 5, but we'll have to wait and see }:)

Yup, she's still pregnant :) Came very close to losing it though :'(

Snow, oh Snow, I can say her reaction will depend a lot on when she finds out about Piper and from who and how }:) But August and Henry, and now Emma, know about the baby though ;)

Lol, you can smack Robin if I can too ;) I think, for Gold, it's more that he's spent 300 years making and keeping deals that it's just ingrained in him not to break one. That and I think he naturally assumed eventually Regina would learn the truth on her own and leave town to find Robin, which would make the town less protected and one less sorceress down for him to work his plan with so he kept the deal going. And thank you! I went back and fixed it :) I think they explained it in the show that he used a magic clover from Oz to disguise himself when he went to steal the wand from the Dark One, so the Robin we see is the real him, the one we saw in the earlier episode was him disguised. But I put a small twist here, it just made more sense to me that Gold would do something that made his life difficult, he couldn't just let someone get away THAT easily to me. I'm sorry about that happening with your father :( My brother has, so far, gone back and forth about being with her. He legitimately proposed, then 3 months later wanted the ring back, then gave her a chance to change, then last month wanted the deposit for their reception hall back, then wants to give her the chance to change, and so on. We may be having an intervention if he's still with her by summer though. The heroes bother me more and more as the show goes on too :( I agree, I just feel like the show is going downhill and the writers are resorting to shock value instead of legitimate and well thought out stories. If we had one episode dedicated to seeing, say Regina and Robin actually TALK about the things they mention talking about, instead of a flashback of Merida that wasn't needed, I'd feel like we saw more character development than we got. The flashbacks were not needed, some characters weren't needed, and more time could have been given to really developing the story than what we got. I actually hope season 5 is the last one which is sad :( I'm actually almost hoping for the show to end because I have an original season that has some Blue being shady in it and explores some other villains that were mentioned in passing too :)

I'm glad you like the Little Golden Rosebud :D I hope it's a girl too, but we'll have to wait and see ;) Aww, Henry would be like the best older cousin/uncle/brother-figure ever. Though now I have no idea what he'd actually call himself when it comes to the Rosebud, he's technically like Piper's First Cousin Twice Removed, which makes him Rosebud's Second Cousin Once Removed or something like that? Families are confusing. But he could be an uncle, but he's also close enough in age to be a cousin. I feel like Henry would change his titles when it comes to Rosebud and other younger family members. Like pulling the 'I'm your uncle' card when he's in charge or needs them to listen to him, but the 'I'm your cousin' card when he wants to be friends and talk to them. I've definitely got a few twists to handle Zelena and what she did }:)

I didn't see the point in bringing Cora or Zelena back either :( I feel like they were the writers trying to grasp at straws. It was a way to drive the knife in deeper with Cora, that now Regina can 'never have kids' (even though Snow drank the same potion and CAN have kids from drinking at Lake Nostos, like really, did the writers think we forgot the Wishing Well Water is Lake Nostos?) and Zelena is having one with Robin. I got that feeling too, that the writers were more like 'This will be awesome if we…' and then they were horrified that the audience was like 'WTF did you DO!?' and were really disgusted by their 'epic twists.' Season 5 killed me with the flashbacks, did we really need like two whole episodes for Merida instead of actual character development for the actual regular characters? No. I think the only thing that made sense to me, when Gold told Cora his history, was that it could be what led him to not telling Belle everything instantly, that he learned from his mistake with Cora. But a lot of the rest of it, I agree, it's like the writers focus on Snow and Charming for a monumental thing that alters everything, then forget about them and focus on other convoluted stories and flashbacks. I'm glad you like the idea of the BBC Robin/OC, I have some big plans for that one :) Oh my brother, it's mostly just that he gets steadily more miserable the longer he's with her, and it makes him lash out at us and take it out on our family because he just won't tell her it's over :( Family is definitely complicated :/

Piper didn't go after the fairies for a few reasons. Before the curse broke, it wouldn't be as fulfilling if they didn't know why she was after them, if they had no knowledge of what they did to regret or defend and fuel her. There's also a part of her that is a little scared of Blue, a very small part, but one where she wouldn't feel confident enough targeting her without Gold beside her. Gold, I think, in his research on how to free himself from the Dagger, knew that there might be a possibility that the Fairies would be needed, for their magic, to free himself. He might not have had the Sorcerer's Hat back then, but it would be more prudent, to him, to keep them alive till he knew without a doubt that they were useless to him. If he had ended the fairies before finding the hat, he might have ended up needing to trap Emma, Piper, and even Regina in there in order to get the magic he needed to free himself, and he couldn't hurt two of the three lol. So he sort of kept Piper from rampaging on them. Now that he's free though, once his heart is stronger… }:)

So far the baby is alive ;) Most of Piper not showing is others not noticing her showing, she's taken to wearing dark and baggy clothing to hide it. The last thing she wants is the other villains (or even heroes) to notice she's expecting. For Gold, it's mostly Piper hasn't been in a situation where he wasn't there to help her or that he felt she was in true danger so he had no need to really bring up to watch out for the baby just yet ;) I know it's a little late, but I hope you were able to catch up on your summer assignments! :)

I'm glad you like it! I'm back to posting now, but every other day for the time being ;)

Everything is ok now, had a bit of a scare with my dad near the end of the year, but he's better and I'm at a better place in my life, more stable, to get back to updating ;)

I'm glad you like the series :) I am back and updating now, but every other day for the time being. That's actually one of the reasons I'm shifting to every other day, I'm trying to write some more original works and see what might come of it :)

I'm alive! Sorry for worrying you! :)

I'm back, sorry! I'm ok and alive, I'm sorry for scaring you. Had things to settle and sort but I'm back ;)

I'm ok! Sorry! A few things happened between my last update/tumblr post and now, my dad had another health scare, my sister moved out, I got a new job, and started a Master's degree, so a lot's been going on, but I'm back now ;) I'm sorry I worried you though! :(

I'm alright, sorry to worry you! :( I'm not dead, no worries there, just had way, way too much going on that kept me away from the computer for longer than I would have ever liked :( But I'm back now! :)

I'm glad you like the story so far :) I can say that Emma will definitely be facing some consequences in my stories, if it doesn't seem like much in this series, then definitely more in my other OUAT story featuring a Hook/OC }:) I'm glad you're enjoying Piper too! :)

Not sure what you mean by badfic as I've seen it in two contexts so far. Badfic as in, a villain/bad person centric one, the bad guy stories, in which case, yes this is a story focused around a villain/bad guy. Or badfic as in you just think it's a terrible story or badly written, in which case I'm sorry you feel that way, but if you'd like to offer any advice on how to make it a goodfic, I'm always very open to it! I try to improve with every piece of constructive criticism :)

I'm glad you're enjoying the series, and thank you about my father and job, he's gotten much better and I've switched jobs to something that makes me much happier which is always good :) I'm very happy to be back and posting, though I'm sorry if I worried you!

Lol, Piper's reaction has been legitimately the only thing getting me to watch and keep watching Season 5. I've just been so disappointed with the writers that picturing Piper there and her commentary is what gets me through the episodes now. Lol, whenever I get even a single review I do a little dance in my chair no matter where I am, so I've gotten a lot of odd stares for it ;)

I always wondered that too, if Belle considered the after effects of her efforts. He'd be powerless against his enemies, he's being forced into ultimatum after ultimatum and also creating an unhealthy situation for her as well in lying to her, and she does seem a bit blinded by how she can 'save him' instead of what's really in front of her :( As for the kid, they're definitely planning to keep it a secret from as many people for as long as possible (save Emma, Henry, and August, the only three they trust at the moment). With the enemies they have and what they know will be the prejudice against a quarter-siren/half-Dark One child, they want to keep the baby safe. Sadly, I get the feeling that that is exactly what the writers will do. Hook is just too special for the laws of Magic to apply to him not being resurrected when other characters couldn't be :( I can say that I do have a Swanfire story or two coming, one will feature a bit more in my Hook/OC (if Hook is taken, then maybe Emma would consider Neal more), and the other, well, let's just say if Emma had siren-instincts and was raised all her life by a woman that approved of Baelfire more than Hook, she might be a bit more keen to get to know him than Hook };) Oh the twists for this story though, Emma's entire take on her parents will be shaken much more here than in the show, because here she has Piper as an example and it hits home to her SO much more knowing how Snow White feels about her cousin than in the show where Piper doesn't exist ;)

Lol, yup, she's pregnant and still has the baby! :) She's told August, Henry, and Emma, but that's it so far. Though Maleficent might be a wee bit suspicious at the moment ;)