New York City
New York City was big. Bigger than any building or castle she ever saw in the Enchanted Forest, and there had been a lot. The city seemed never ending, one building one after another loomed over them as they sat in the taxi taking them somewhere in the SoHo district of the city.
That was the location Gold had got from the globe in his shop that told him where his son was. Their ride coming to an end they let themselves out of the cab gathered on the sidewalk as the driver was paid by either Emma or Gold, not that Amelia took notice as she continued to take in her new surroundings.
"What's wrong? Is this the right place?" Emma asked the man as he was doing to same thing as the redhead
"Yes, it is" he simply replied
"Let me guess, he isn't expecting you" Gold stayed silent at Emma's semi-question "Well, who doesn't like surprises"
"I don't" Amelia said softly to herself.
Gold gave her quick order to use her sixth sense to try and pinpoint the location of his son. Amelia's world turned blue trying to concentrate on anything hat might help but coming up with nothing quickly, the world around her was too loud and busy for her to concentrate.
"Have you found anything?" Emma asked the woman
The world got its colour back on as she turned to the blonde letting out a frustrated sigh "Nothing. Too many people, noises. I can't get a full reading unless I find a viewpoint"
"So how does that work exactly" Emma asked as they walked down the street as Henry's curiosity got the better of him "David mentioned you had a way of finding things"
"What work's exactly?" annoyance lacing her voice at the blondes question
"Your vision-thingy or whatever"
"You mean the eagle vision" Emma nodded "It's a sixth sense. Touch, smell, sight, taste, hearing. It allows me to merge them all together into one sixth sense. Very few people have it from birth, the Brotherhood find these people and train them. it allows someone like me to find a target in any terrain, it divides out allies from enemies. Helps me track a target down" she explained to the blonde as they caught up to Gold
"Any luck Miss Montague?" the older man asked the redhead
"None" she tells him "I need more time to find a viewpoint narrow down the area"
"Well we don't have the time for that nonsense, we're on a tight schedule"
"Then we go door to door" Emma tells them as they get to work
The morning wore on as they found themselves in what it seemed like the hundredth apartment building. Hanging back Henry helped assisted in the search by reading through countless resident lists.
"No Baelfire" Henry announced to them
"Yeah, that wouldn't fly as an alias" Emma turned to Amelia and Mr. Gold "Your magic globe or x-ray vision give you an apartment number?"
Amelia shifted her eyes to glare at the blonde unamused by the blonde use of words to describe her gift
"It doesn't work that way" Gold answered the blondes queries for both persons
"Do any of these names mean anything to you?" Henry asked the older man refereeing to the list of names on the wall
"Well, names are what I and Miss Montague traffic in, but sadly, no" Emma points to the buzzer to apartment number 407, the only apartment that does not have the name of the person living there
"Here's your boy"
"No. Or it could just be vacant" Gold argued
"You may traffic in names and magic" she looks to Amelia "And apparently knifes, but I traffic in finding people that don't want to be found, and those sorts of folks don't like to advertise their whereabouts" she presses the buzzer "UPS package for 407" she says into the intercom and disconnects the line
"Maybe you should have said FedEx" Henry tells his mother as a crash and clank is heard in the distance.
"He's running" Amelia is the first one out of the door followed by the others. Amelia blinks on her sixth sense to see the figure that is hurriedly climbing down the fire escape turned gold. It was her target, blinking it off she turns to the old man "it's your boy" she tells him, the familiar feeling of the rush of adrenaline that pumped through her viens whenever a target was on the run.
She loved this part.
"Go, get him, bring him back" Amelia nodded and runs off at his command, weaving in and out of pedestrians with ease "The favour you owe me" Gold starts to tell Emma "Get him to talk to me. I can't run"
"Watch Henry I'll be back" Emma ask's Gold as she ran following Amelia down the street.
The assassin was on the man's heels as he ran down the street to get away from her, barging people out of her way to keep up with him without apologising. If they knew why she was doing this, they would be doing the same thing.
The guy wasn't slowing down despite her quick feet as he ran into traffic hoping to put some sort of obstacle in her way. Car's and taxi's screeched to a halt seeing the man in the middle of the road, angry drivers letting out their anger displeasure at the man's actions with their car horns
Running through some traffic Gold's son halt's a yellow taxi making it's driver angrily honk at him as Amelia simply slide's across the bonnet of a yellow cab. He thought he had got away from her, only for the confident assassin to slide herself across the wet car bonnets quickly finding her feet again ever on the wet ground.
She continued their chase back on the side walk when he collided with another pedestrian to run off to a pathway to the left. Continuing forward Amelia blinked on her sixth sense to see him through the brick buildings to see an alleyway that would take her in front of him on his current course.
Blinking out she veered into the connecting alley way. At the end of the alley she saw her way of ending the chase as a two stacks of box crates and a metal industrial dumpster sat at the end. Pushing herself to go faster her adrenaline kicked in just as she heard her man's footsteps quick approaching the gap between the buildings
Using the crates to push her up onto the dumpster she threw her body onto the lid of the container as she sliding across just as the man came into the gap her, the inside of her jean covered thigh catching the man around his neck halting his run, she wrapped her other thigh around to pull herself up so that she sat on his shoulders before throwing her weight back to make them twist onto the ground.
A painful groan leave the man's mouth as she untangles herself from the man's neck just before they met the ground landing on her feet low on the ground with only a hand on the ground to stop her from faceplanting the ground.
Standing up from the crouch her man was still on the floor as her lungs burn for much needed air as he tried to get back onto his feet
"Oh no your not" she sighed out as she grabbed him by his collar easily hauling up back onto his feet only for his back to meet a brick wall. Pulling the hood off his head her green eyes met a pair of familiar brown which took the assassin by surprise. She knew those eye's from somewhere but not the face that surrounded them.
Pushing the feeling aside she saw him glance down at her hand that held him against the wall to see her silver ring with the arrowhead symbol engraved on it
"Assassin" he gasped, hint of anger lacing his voice
"Good you know what I am" she panted out with a small smirk "I know who you are Baelfire" his eyes wideden in surprise at the use of his real name as a pair of heeled boots caught up to them "Better yet I know who your father is" she continued as the man went deadly silent, as Emma saw the man for the first time in eleven years being held up by the redhead
"No" she gasps" Neal" Emma said in shock.
Her voice makes him look away from the assassin to the blonde "Emma?"
"Neal?"
"You know him?" Amelia interrupted the pair looking at Emma
"I don't understand. What are you doing here?" he turned to Amelia "Who the hell are you?"
"Lia, let him go" Emma asked the woman who kept a tight grip in the front of his hoodie
"He's our target" she argued with the blonde
"Please" Amelia huffed and pushed herself off her target letting of his jacket and stepped away from the man as he rights his footing having been held up against the wall. His eye's hadn't left the blonde as they continued to stare in disbelief.
"What are you doing here?" Neal repeated his question
"What am I doing here?" she spat back at the man
"Yeah"
"I'm not answering anything until you tell me the truth. Are you Gold's son?" the blonde demands out of the man that left her to rot in a cell
"What are you talking about? Who's Gold?"
"You played me. You're from here" Emma looked towards a still confused Amelia "You played me" she accused the red head "You both knew all along"
"Emma you need to calm down, I don't know what you're talking about" Amelia tried reason with the blonde
"You both played me! You and Gold!" she continued to yell at Amelia as she closed the distance between them
"What are you talking about? Who's Gold?" Neal yelled back interrupting her exchange with the former Assassin
"Your father! Rumpelstiltskin" Emma snapped angrily at the man
"He's here?"
"Why else would I be in New York?"
"You brought him to me! Why would you do that?!"
"Hey! I am the only one allowed to be angry here! Did you know who I was. where I was from, the whole time? Was this just some sort of sick twisted plan Did-did you even care about me at all?"
"Emma, do not-"
"I wanna know! I want the truth, all of it!"
"Fine! We- we gotta get off the street. We can't do it out in the open. I spent a lifetime running from the man. I'm not gonna let him catch me. There's a bar down the street. We can talk there" he offered.
"I am not drinking with you! Whatever you're gonna tell me, tell me now!"
"No, bar's better. Don't worry, you can keep yelling at me when we get there, even your assassin can yell at me" Emma snapped her head towards the red head she forgotten she was even there so focused on the man that broke her heart
"Lia" she sighed
Amelia shook her head at the blonde woman "I can't let him go" she tells the woman "he's my final contract to being free of him"
"You work for my father?" Neal scoffed at her
Amelia ignored his comment and went back to Emma "Emma. I have never begged in my life, don't make me start now" Emma could see the desperation in the red head's eyes as the green-eyed woman pleaded with the saviour
"I know. I'm sorry okay, but can you please just go back and tell him you lost him, give me some time"
"You know that's a death sentence even out here without his magic"
"Then maybe you shouldn't be working for my father" Neal scoffed at the red head. Amelia sent the man a pointed glare before looking back at the saviour
"Lia I'm sorry but this is too important" Emma pleaded with her, her was full of desperation towards the former Assassin
"I can't go back alone" she told her shaking her head "I'll wait out here while you talk"
"Thank you" Emma said softly. Amelia gave the blonde a nod before Neal or Baelfire led Emma in a bar. She could only hope the saviour would make the right call.
Storybrooke
With the news that her old teacher and pet Widow were out of town Cora would be able to search for the two items she has been after for years. The Dark One's dagger. And the Apple of Eden. With the two in her possession, she would be able to become the most powerful sorceress in all the realms with the power to control anyone that got in her way. Her daughter was easy enough to break to get her work with her, but she needed to break her further.
Her affection for the assassin would be her downfall. Love was weakness after all. But they had hit a dead end for the Apple. Even with Hook's help by breaking into the assassin's apartment and turning it over he couldn't find the small stone pendant that was the key to opening the vault that held the god-like devise. The assassin must have it. She would return to the town eventually with the Dark One, she just didn't know when
Regina took her mother and Hook to the town's library under the clock tower to further their search for the dagger for the time being. With the dagger the assassin would have no choice than to hand the Piece of Eden over to her. If she knew her old teacher as well as she knew she did he only trust two people in town with the dagger that would kill him.
Belle or Amelia. And the young brunette was closer to home than the assassin. The former Queen scanned the shelves of books for the number on the piece of paper she found in the bookworms purse
"Shouldn't we be pillaging his shop or ransacking his home?" Hook voiced from across the library to the older woman
"That would be the obvious choice, yes" Cora tells the pirate "But Gold wouldn't risk crossing the town line and losing his memory without entrusting the dagger's location to someone. And he's taken the Widow with him"
"Belle" Hook answered the open question
"My guess, is she hid it in one of her beloved books" Regina voiced her hypothesis to her mother as she continued to her search
"Impressive, Regina" Cora praised her daughter
"Thank you, mother"
"I'll be impressed when I'm holding the dagger in my hand" Hook tells the woman as Regina finds the correct spot, but there is no book, just an empty space.
"No" despaired to her mother "It should be here" Regina
"Well, it's not, is it? May we go now?" Hook added "Perhaps you ladies will find something I missed in the Widow's abode"
"Hold on" Cora sticks her hand in the space between the books and finds a folded piece of paper "What's this?" She unfolds the paper and shows to Hook and Regina
"Oh, yes. Crude" Hook comments "To the untrained eye, a child's scribbles, but to a pirate… It's a map. Gold may not have hidden the dagger here, but I believe he's left us the next best thing – its location"
"Can you read it?" Cora asks the pirate
"Well, lucky for you ladies, I'm quite adept at finding buried treasure"
New York City
Leaving Rumple's son behind was something the redhead didn't want to do once Emma emerged from the bar she sat in with the man, but after some convincing the blonde managed to persuade her to accompany her back to Gold.
And by convincing her she meant telling the redhead the secret she had been keeping from Henry for the last year or so. The man that Amelia had chased through the streets of New York was Henry's father. Missing out a few details she told the assassin that Baelfire or Neal as he went by now didn't know of Henry's existence after the blonde was arrested and thrown in jail.
She allowed the blonde to call her mother about the latest development. The Assassin sticking close by for some support. She was just glad she wasn't apart of that family mess. It was getting more complicated by the minute.
"That's heavy stuff Swan. I'm just glad we don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Could you imagine how that would go?"
"Yeah" Emma sighed glancing to the redhead as they walked back to the old man "Look thanks for letting him go, I get you didn't want to go back to Gold empty handed"
"Don't worry about it" she says looking the blondes seeing how troubled she was "What's wrong?"
"I just- I don't know what to do with Henry. I told him his father was a firefighter, that he died a hero. I don't want him to be angry"
Shit. She wanted advise from her.
"Listen, I don't think I'm the right person to give you advise on this. I've been where Henry is, not knowing who your father is then finding out the hard way. It's messy"
"What do you mean?" Emma said looking at her in confusion coming to a stop in the middle of the sidewalk "You said your father was Romeo Montague. He and Juliet are one of the famous characters ever, probably even more than my own parents"
"That may be true, but he was an Assassin first, in all it entailed" she tells her getting agitated by her line of questioning "You wouldn't understand, no one does" she tries to dismiss the blonde to continue their walk back to Gold and Henry
"Hey wait!" Emma stops her "Make me understand"
"Being a part of the Brotherhood isn't just some club you join and go to weekly meetings. It's a way of life. We give up a normal life like everyone else gets to serve it to the fullest. Meaning we can't fall in love, get married,..have children" she gulped as her mind thought of her own son "We live and die for the creed. It's our family" Emma's face softened in as the redhead trailed off as her head shook off the emotions that came from dredging up her past.
"I never knew he was my father. After my mother died when I was five, he took me in as his apprentice to keep me safe, no one could know he had a child, let alone one with one of our greatest enemies, they would kill me if they found out"
"What happened to him?" Emma didn't want the question answered
"They found out when I was eighteen. They executed him for treason. That's how I found out he was my father. Next thing I knew I was running for my life"
Her heart broke the redhead in front of her "I'm so sorry"
"It doesn't matter. It doesn't change anything" at that the redhead turned to resume their walk back to Gold and Henry with Emma running after her once again
"It matter's Lia, you were a kid"
"Henry has a right to know who if father" she changed the subject "even if you think it's not right"
"You sound like Mary Margaret" Emma sighed as they continued down the sidewalk.
With their previous conversation forgotten they reached the apartment building they had left Gold and Henry. His nerves seemed to get the better of him as his eye's lit up as the door of the building opened to reveal Emma and Amelia's return, he looked behind the assassin hoping that his own son would be behind her, only to be left disappointed.
"Hey" Emma greeted the pair re-joined the man and young boy in the lobby
"Did you find him?" Gold asked looking between the pair
"Sorry. Your son…Got away" Amelia informed the man. Gold looked to the blonde in desperation, but she could only shake her head at the older man.
In frustration he turned away from the woman and started to frantically hit all the buttons on the intercom as Emma jumped in protest "Gold, wait. What are you doing?"
Someone responds on the other end and allows the older man to enter the building, he opens the gate and walks through
"I'm finding my son" he tells her and starts to climb the stairs. Amelia quickly followed the old man up the stairs with Henry and Emma behind her
"What do we do?" Emma called after the red head as they climbed the stairs urgently after the older man
"Just go with it until he kills someone I guess" she replied
"What!?" she exclaimed at Amelia's answer "He's gone" she tells the man again
"But he lives here. He'll be back, and I'll be waiting"
Gold reached the apartment door that belonged to his son and turned to the red head "Miss Montague if you would" he offered taking something out of his hand she snatched the set of keys off him to find a lockpick attachment of the keyring, shrugging she started to pick the lock when Emma pulled her away
"Stop. You can't just break in" the blonde tells the redhead
"Yeah, well that's something Miss Montague is quite adept at" Gold retorted
"He's not wrong Swan" Amelia went back to the lock and slid the tension wrench into the small lock
"No don't do this. There are things called laws" Emma argued yelling in Amelia's face
"I'll be lookout" Henry stated to his mother much to her dismay and left the adults at the door
"I'm an assassin, everything I do is illegal somewhere" Amelia tells the blonde
"it's illegal everywhere. You could get arrested"
"Then my son will have to testify against me and Miss Montague, and we will be reunited" Gold tells Emma just they heard the audible 'click' in the lock. She opens the door and allows it to swing open standing aside to let Gold through first.
Amelia slowly entered the occupied apartment taking in the clutter that sat in the room.
"Gold. Come on, please. We really shouldn't be here" Emma pleaded with the man from the door
"I don't think he's listening" Henry tells his mother as Amelia heads for the small kitchen joining the Dark One to investigate the apartment. Emma spies the dream catcher hanging in the window. She takes it down and stares at it in her hands. Mr. Gold notices her interest.
"You find something, dearie?" The older man enquired with the blonde
"Nothing. Uh, it just looks like a dream catcher" she answered him
"Yeah, well, if it's nothing, why are you still holding it? You're lying to me" he points at her accusingly as the assassin senses the sudden change in the room and quickly forget about her current task as she see's Emma return the dreamcatcher on the window.
"Just get back to looking, okay?" Emma tries to brush the man off but Gold isn't budging.
"No, no, no. You saw something. Tell me" he continues to probe the woman
"You don't know what you're talk-"
"Tell me!" he yells in his impatience. Amelia jumped in front of the blonde
"Calm down Rumple" the red head tells the man
Emma turned to her young son "Henry, go wait in the bathroom" she suggests to him
"But I can help-" he protests
"Henry, go" Amelia tells the boy firmly knowing the look in the older man's eye. Henry follows their instructions, leaving the three of them alone. Amelia steps back but near in case Rumple decides that his cane is the best way of getting more information out of her.
"There's nothing here. The guy's a ghost" Emma tells the man clearly lying
"Well, you think me a fool? You're holding back. I want to know what, and why"
"I'm not holding back" she insisted
"Did he tell you something?"
"Gold- "
"Did he tell you something?!" he yells at the redhead
"Nothing" Amelia interrupted the heated conversation "He didn't say anything!"
"But you both talked to-"
"Don't put words in my mouth-"Emma tells the older man
"Tell me! You tell me, or I'm going to make you tell me" he tells the woman stepping towards them
"You don't have magic here" Amelia seethed at the old man stepping towards him putting herself in front of Emma
"Oh, I don't need magic" he reminds her "You know that Miss Montague"
"You really want to do this, old man?"
"Do not push me"
"Don't push me!" Amelia repeats standing her ground all his focus was on her.
"We had a deal!" he yelled at the woman pushing over a bookcase in his anger making the women step back in fear. The redhead having the push the blonde behind her "A deal! No one! No one breaks deals with me!" the three looks towards the apartment door to see Neal barging in and interrupts the growing fight
"Hey!" he yells at his father "Leave them alone"
Storybrooke
Back in the library the Queens and the pirate stood over the tracing paper that outlined the location of the Dark One's dagger over a map of the town where the leather clad pirate had easily deciphered the map. Not only did it tell them the location of the dagger, but they were also one step closer to the object the would stop anyone from hurting them again.
"I give you the location of the dagger" he announces to the women with a smirk
"And soon the Apple" Cora whispers to herself before turning to the man "Well done, Hook. We'll take it from here" Cora tells him snatching up the map off the table and she and Regina begin to leave.
"No! You promised me!" he protests to the woman only to be magically blasted back into a bookshelf, knocking him out.
"The kris dagger's much too powerful to be wasted on you" she tells the unconscious man
"So… Is… This what it was all about? Getting Rumple's dagger so you could obtain his dark powers?" Regina asks her mother
"If we possess the dagger, we control the Dark One. And when he returns to Storybrooke, we can command him to kill Snow White, Prince Charming, and Emma. Even that little assassin of yours. Our enemies will be vanquished, and you, will be blameless in the eyes of the only person who matters"
"Henry" Regina whispered to herself .Cora gave her daughter a sad smile which went noticed by her daughter "Mother? What is it?"
"I'm afraid Amelia has been keeping secrets from you my dear" taking her by her shoulders
"About what?" she asks her mother in confusion
"There's a weapon, it can control people like us, her little creed has known about them for centuries. One was brought here through the curse, but only she can find it. But now we can find it first before she can use it against us if she has truly gone against you" Hurt and betrayal flashed through her daughter's eyes thinking that this had been the redheads plan all along when she allied herself with the Prince. Her revenge for cursing her for 28 years
"This isn't the first time she's hurt you isn't it?"
"No" she croaks out, her mother reaching up to wipe the tears that escaped her eyes onto her cheek
"Well, we'll show her how much it has"
New York City
The assassin stood frozen in her place as Neal confront his father for the first time in God know how long. She kept a weary eye on the man as he took a hesitant step towards his son "Bae… You came back for me" the dark one started
"No. I came to make sure you didn't hurt them" Neal told his father referring to the two women behind him "I've seen what you do to people who break deals"
"Please, Bae, just let me talk" Gold pleaded with the man. The redhead had never seen the man so vulnerable as he was now, it was strange.
"I have no interest in talking to you" Neal told his father sending a pointed look towards Amelia "And you can go and take your assassin with you"
"I'm not going anywhere" Gold protested
"Get out of my apartment!" Neal yelled at his father
"Neal…" Emma appealed to Gold's son
"Emma, I got this" Neal insisted to the blonde
Gold saw how familiar the two were straight away as the pair went silent after their mistake "You two know each other… You two know each other. How?" he asked the pair
"You sent me and Lia chasing after him" Emma tried to get out of the mistake
"No, no, no. Stop it! You're lying" he called the blonde out "How do you two know each other?!" he asked the pair again as Henry, who was still in the bathroom, entered the living room having heard the raised voices
"Mom? W-what's going on?" Henry asked his mother going to her
"Hey…" Emma sighed at Henry
Neal looks between Henry and Emma in confusion "Who's this?" he asked the blonde
"My son" she tells him
"What?"
"Is that Baelfire?" Henry looks between Amelia and Emma for an answer
Emma looks up at Amelia and asks her with her eyes to take Henry away "I need you to stay in the other room for a little while longer, okay? Go with Lia" she tells her son
"Come on" the redhead tries to encourage the boy to leave the three by guiding him by his shoulder out of the room
"Wait. H-how old are you?" Neal asks Henry
"Don't answer him" Amelia tells Henry trying her best to get him to move, but he's putting up a fight with her
"How old are you, kid?!" Neal repeats himself yelling out to Henry
Henry takes himself from Amelia's grip and turns on Gold son "Eleven!" he shouts "Now, why is everyone yelling?"
Neal looks at Emma in shock "He's eleven?"
"Mom?"
"Is this my son?" Neal asks Emma
"No. My dad was a fireman" Henry tells the man "He… He died. That's what you told me. You said…"
"Is this… My son?" Emma take's Henry's face in her hands gently as she answers Neal's question
"Yes…" Emma whispered to her son. Amelia stayed quiet as she let the revelation sink in to the clearly shocked Neal as Henry backs away from Emma, and then exits through the window leading to the fire escape. There is a brief pause, then Emma follows Henry.
"Henry. Henry?" Emma crawls through the window, leaving, Amelia Neal and Mr. Gold alone. Neal goes to follow Henry and Emma, but Mr. Gold stops him
"Baelfire…" Gold tries to stop him only for Neal to shrug off his hand off his shoulder "Please, please. All I want is a chance to be heard" he continues to plead with his son
Neal looks between Amelia and Gold with a clear "Get out"
"Look, you came back to protect Emma. To show that she had lived up to her end of her bargain with me.
"And now she has. You can go"
"No. Our deal was for her to get you to talk to me. If you truly want her deal to be fulfilled, you have but one choice. You have to talk to me"
"You got three minutes"
"I'll be outside" the redhead tells the Dark One only to be replied with a sharp nod. Neal watched Amelia closely as she walked past the man and out of the door giving the father and son some privacy
She didn't bother listening in on the conversation between son and father as she stood on the other side of the apartment, leaning against the wall fiddling with the small stone pendent that was threaded on the leather cord around her neck as her mind wondered back to her own father.
Would she be better off if she knew the truth?
No. It wouldn't. He had plenty of time to tell her the truth, not to make her feel like she had no one when she ran from the only family she knew. But if the tables were turned, and she had to ie to her own son about his true parentage to keep him safe. Would she?
In a heartbeat, she answered herself silently as the door opened to see Emma come through to join her, closing it behind her. She looked like hell.
"Did I do the right thing?" the blonde the redhead taking a place opposite her
"You did" she tells her truthfully "It would've come out eventually, it's better he heard it from you"
"How did you do it?" Emma asked her "Finding out the way you did must've been hell, how did you get over it?"
"I didn't Swan" she tells her much to her disappointment "I used it to fuel my anger for the next 15 years or so as I killed those, I once called my family. Darkened my heart in the name of revenge and turned into the Widow"
"Did you ever forgive him?" she asked next
"No" she tells her making the blonde frown in worry "But that doesn't mean Henry won't. He isn't me. He just needs time"
AN: Hello there!
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