The Evil Queen's Black Widow

by 06bromleys

Nothing is True. Everything is Permitted. Cursed for betraying her Queen, Amelia Montague must figure out how she wants the rest of the world to perceive her. As the villain she became, or the hero she wants to be, but will her feelings for the Queen be a help or hindrance to the Master Assassin or she will she always be known as the infamous Black Widow (Rated M for safety)

92. Chapter 92: Swan Song

Somewhere in the Endless Ocean

Many Years Ago

Thunder and lightening never usually frightened her like this before, only she wasn't in the middle of the ocean alone in the Captains Quarters' tying to hide from the lighting that lit up the dark room around her as the Jackdaw rocked its way through the stormy sea.

At eight winters old, this was her first time out at sea for any length of time with her Master and teacher at the helm of the brig, but as the thunder roll in the sky above her it felt like the heaven itself were about to fall upon her as she pushed her hands into her ears to stop the sound from reverberating through her head as she squeezed her eye's shut.

"Amelia!" she barely hear her name being called out before a pair of gentle hands rested themselves against her own still held against her ears, her frightened eye's snapped open to see Master Romeo sat in front of her cot as he tried his best to sooth the girl.

The rains that lashed down from the sky above them had soaked through his robes and hair as he managed to gently take her small hands way from her ears, stroking away the tears that had fallen down her cheeks, with his wet hands.

"It's alright I'm here" he cooed to the girl after hearing her screams from the top deck. His daughter blinked up at him feeling how dry her throat "There's not need to scream, it's only Thor defending the realms of gods and men from serpents and frost giants that threaten them".

"Thor" she croaks out to her master.

"Yes, nothing to be afraid of Amelia" he tells her as a flash of lightening flashes through the Captains Quarter's as rain hit the glass pane ceiling like thousands of small pellets "Remember what I said about the lightening, little one".

"It's Thor throwing Mjolnir" she answered him as she breathed through the fear that crept through her chest.

"Exactly. And thunder?" he asks just as one rolled in making her flinch and whimper.

"It's Thor riding into battle on his chariot".

"Thor protects us and the gods that live in Valhalla. He will protect you when I won't be able to" he says.

"I don't want Thor to protect me, I want you to Master" she tells him only to be met by silence "We'll always be together, right?".

"I won't always be able to nightingale. One day I will have to pay the same price as everyone does, but it won't be by choice. But that doesn't mean I won't be with you, as long as you look up at the stars that guide us at night, I'll be there right here" he says pointing to her heart "And so will your mother".

"But if there is a day I won't be there to protect you, Thor will protect you as long as you believe he will" reaching to his neck the older assassin finds the leather cord that held the pendent his father had given to him when he was younger. Unclasping the cord he quickly threaded around his daughters slender neck as she found the old pendent that hung from the cord in her her fingers, her thumb across the metal pendant. Even in the dim light that same through the windows above her, she saw the image that still remained.

"Do you know what it is?" he asked her.

"Thor's hammer" she answered with a shy smile.

"You will always have the protection of the Gods, if you ever find yourself parted from me, even long after they have forgotten you" the young girl nodded as she clutched the pendant in her hand afraid she would lose it the second she let go of if as her Master pulled the blankets back over her body that had fallen away

"Now close your eye's and sleep. I'll be here when you wake up" Romeo tells her as he soothes her hair back as she felt herself relaxing under her maters soothing touch and voice, letting her eye's droop "Go to sleep Amelia. Go to sleep".

---

Year's Later

As thunder and lighting rang outside, Amelia's green eye's snapped open to see herself on a different ship this time as her hand flew up to the small pendant that hung from her neck. But this time it wasn't the noise Thor was making in the heavens that woke her from her sleep. it was her young son's cries from across the room that her shaken her out of her dreams. Sitting up from the bed she shared with her husband she glanced to her left to see the mans still deep asleep, undisturbed by the calls of their son in distress.

"Shh, shhh. It's okay" she cooed to her two-year old as she held him close to her breast trying to hush his cries from being woken up by the thunder and lightening outside the Godspeed. She felt his chubby hand instantly reach for the pendant that hung from her neck, pulling at the cord that kept it on her neck. Threading her fingers through his brown curls she sat herself on the trunk that held her old life in as she gently swayed with the rock of the ship.

"It's only Thor, he won't hurt you" she told her son as his cries lessened the longer she held him "He would never hurt you my love. He protects the realms of man and gods with Mjolnir, against serpents and frost giants as he rides upon his chariot being pulled by goats" as she retold the story she felt her son falling back asleep on her shoulder as she heard the sound of small snores escape his mouth, his hand falling away from the pendant he clung onto for dear life as it fell onto her chest.

As gently as she could the redheaded mother and wife placed her young son back into his cot as he quickly got used to the the thunder and lightening outside as the woman lingered a second or two as she gazed upon the thing she loved more than her own life.

"I will always protect you Thomas" she whispered against his head as she placed a loving kiss on his forehead as her mind drifted to the second child that grew in her stomach. She knew the signs when a healer confirmed her thoughts only a week ago, she had been elated knowing what was waiting for her and John over the next few months as their child grew "You and your little brother or sister".

---

Storybrooke,Maine

Several Weeks Ago

Thunderstorms in Storybrooke were a common in the coastal town in Maine, she had grown used to them even during the twenty-eight years she had spent cursed but somehow as she slept beside her soulmate in the house that was slowly calling her home, this storm had woken the assassin from her slumber as a partially bright flash of lighting made her sixth sense wake her up.

Her fight or flight instincts had kicked in as she grabbed the dagger that she had hidden between the bed and the nightstand next to her, quickly drawing it to face the invisible danger that had woken her, her heart pounded in her ears as her eye's sought out whatever had woken her as the thunder rolled in the night sky above as she was met by nothing. Looking to her right she had seen her sudden movements hadn't woken her love next to her as she slipped out of bed to try and find an answer.

Slipping on a robe, the former Widow silently crept down the hall to the rooms that were occupied by their sons. Finding Tom's first she quietly opened the door far enough for the redhead to see her teenage son still asleep, sprawled out in his bed as snore's left his nose. Leaving her son's door, she crept across the hall to see Henry's door open, taking a closer look, she peaked inside his room to see his bed empty as she heard someone moving around downstairs in the usually quiet house.

Gracefully going down the stairs the redhead found the Mill's pre-teen in the kitchen with a mug in his hands as he watched the rain hitting the kitchen window seemingly lost in thought as the assassin made herself known by gently knocking on the wooden door frame to gain his attention.

"Can't sleep?" she asked her little cousin as he looked at her like a deer caught in headlights.

"Lia, sorry did I wake you up" he asked in slight panic seeing her there.

"You didn't" she says joining him on a stool next to him "I'm more worried why you're awake".

"It's nothing" he quickly tells her.

"You know I used to be afraid of storms" she tells him keeping the conversation going as she took a seat next to him.

"You did?".

"Hmmm, the worst one was when, I was on the Jackdaw with Romeo, we were out in the middle of the ocean when we were swept into a storm during the night. I remember it being so loud I thought the sky above was falling down on us. I hadn't realized I had screamed until he came down to find me".

"What did he do?".

"He reminded me that it was only Thor protecting the realms of men and gods of serpents and frost giants in his got driven chariot".

"Do you really believe in that stuff" he skeptically asks his older cousin, making her scoff and roll her eye's at him.

"As much as I believe in you little cousin" she rebutted making him chuckle "We all did. It was when he gave me the hammer pendent I gave to you when you traveled to the Netherworld to get the message to Aurora".

"Really?".

"He told me what I told you. That the gods would always protect me, especially when you don't believe in them. Now that, is possibly the most importantly time they protect you or when you think they've forgotten about you because of the things you've done".

A comfortable silence engulfed the pair as they listened to the rain hitting the widow as the storm continued outside, the assassin waited for the boy next to her to speak.

"Do you ever, think about the future?" Henry gently prods the assassin with the question.

"What about it exactly?.

"I dunno" he shrugged "Like with you and my Mom".

"Sure I do" she tells him truthfully "I think about it all the time".

"Like what?".

"Like, what it would be like to live in the same home together. Someplace we could watch you and Tom grow up, somewhere we could could put our old lives completely behind us, without any villains or monsters plummeting the local economy. Somewhere we can gracefully grow old and panic over finding grey hairs together".

"Aren't you old already" he teased her.

"Watch it!" she quietly snaps at him with a stern finger pointed at him "I'm not that old. Just remember I'm three years younger than your mother".

"Got it" he quietly laughed as she joined in before the pair sobered.

"Do you ever think about getting married again?" Henry suddenly asks her taking by surprise.

"No. Not for a long time" she tells him. She just about got out of her first marriage, unscathed, the thought of getting married, even if it was to Regina, terrified her. She hated the feeling of failure, but the hurt she felt of her failed marriage was all still too fresh, let people like Emma and Hook get married first, then maybe then she would think about it.

They had time now.

"What if, it was to my Mom" he gently broached the subject to her but it felt like a knife to the stomach as wash of guilt came over her.

"Oh honey that sounds wonderful, but that's a big leap even for me at the moment. And I've jumped off a two hundred feet snow covered cliff before".

"But it's something you've thought about before now right?" he said with a sparkle of hope in his eye's.

His questioning met by a pair of furrowed brows as she tried to understand what h was trying to say to her "Henry, where are you going with this?".

"What if I helped you getting to the future you were talking about".

"But would that be something you would really want Henry. I can dream all I want, but you know your mother and I would always put you and Tom first in these kinds of decisions".

"Lia, I've seen just how happy you've both been since you've back together. I know John leaving was hard-".

Grabbing his hands in her's she got him to stop talking "Just being happy together isn't the basis on why people get married. Believe me I would know. I love your mother so much, I don't think there's anything I wouldn't do to see her happy".

Reaching up the redhead head gently brushed his short hair back with the gentleness his own mother held whenever she did this "And I love the way you're so passionate about us. I would love to marry her one day and call you my son, but things like this take time, but you know what would make me even happier?".

"What?" he asks her.

"To see you and Tom safe and happy".

"Okay" he relents as she takes her hands off his "But that doesn't mean I can't suggest to my Mom of what you would want. We can take it slow, it'll be our secret mission" he says with an impish smile on his lips.

"Like Operation Cobra with Emma".

"Exactly. But this is about you and Mom. For now was just need something to call it. Step One-identification. One that relates to Mom, hidden in plain sight" he goes on as she see's the bowl of shiny red apples that always sat on the kitchen counter "We could call it Operation..".

"Red Apple" she tells him taking him by surprise, understanding the reference.

"That's genius" he chimed into the redheads idea "Operation Red Apple it is".

---

With their memories of their failed trip to Camelot back, the Dark Swan marched her family down main street with determination in each step ready to stop Hook and Juno from bringing all the Dark One's back to life to snuff of the light once and for all. The others followed her as they tried to keep up with her under the night sky.

"Emma, slow down" Her father tried to call out to his daughter as they trailed behind her "We need to talk about this. We need a plan".

"The plan is find Hook and Juno before they resurrect all of the Dark Ones. You think dealing with one is bad" she quips as the dwarfs join the small 'army' Emma was leading towards her former love and friend.

"There's more than one Dark One?!" Leroy asks group as he and the other remaining dwarfs join the 'army' that were heading straight into battle "And what the hell is a Juno?".

"It's a long story" the Prince tells his old friend as they continue down main street.

"Well, no matter. There's seven of us" he tells the Prince ready to fight whatever and whoever they were facing.

"Six" Happy corrects him "Dopey's still a tree" he reminds the grumpy dwarf from when they tried to cross the town line when they got back to Storybrooke.

"We may be down a dwarf, but we're ready to fight".

"You won't have to. I'm going to take care of this" Emma tells them.

"You think you can talk him out of this?" David questions her "Even if we somehow found a way to speak to Amelia, Juno is the only one who's keeping her alive" he argues trying to hold onto the sliver of hope that their friend was still in there.

"There's no talking. Not anymore" Regina tells them knowing that her Amelia was well and truly gone from them "We have to hit them with everything we've got".

If there was one thing was she was sure of is that she wasn't going to hold back any punches if she ever saw Juno again. She wasn't going to listen what her soulmate had told her in the voicemail, she was going to give the deity everything she had.

"Well, it's not their fault. He didn't want to become the Dark One" Mary Margaret argued "And Amelia didn't want to become Juno, you heard her" she reminded the group remembering how she begged Emma not to save her on the floor of the diner. She would've rather had bled out than be subjected to Juno possession again. Even if it saved her daughter.

"But he did. Because of me. And Juno will only make it worse. None of that matters anymore" She stops and turns to face the group "Regina's right. We need to hit them both with everything".

"This is a man you loved" Mary Margaret reminds her daughter "This is our friend".

"That man died back in Camelot" she sadly tells her family before looking over to Tom, John and Anastasia "And so did our friend. Now all there is, is the Dark One and Juno. So, no matter how hard this might be, we need to split up, find them both, and stop them. No matter what it takes".

---

Going their separate ways to find Hook and Juno before they could start their plan Regina and Robin headed for the harbor for Hook while John and Anastasia took on finding Juno is Amelia's body with the blonde assassin adamant on finding the sister that still remained underneath.

Emma had warned them that finding Juno would be harder due to the powers the woman possess and the ability to disappear by simply lifting up the hood of her robe. But her warnings didn't deter the teenage assassin as it only seemed to spur him on after returning the Apple of Eden to her only that afternoon.

"Come on" Robin directed the former Queen down a side street "This is the fastest way to the harbor" the thief tells the former Queen as the hasten their footsteps to their destination.

"And you think we'll find Hook just sipping rum by the sea? He's not exactly a pirate anymore" she argued to the man her love once loved. Like her the thief seemed to understand that the woman they loved at some point was gone to them.

"Once a pirate, always a pirate. Take it from a reformed thief, old habits die hard".he retorted looking over to his friends love, she was trying her best to keep it together but even he could see her concern over her soulmate after getting their memories back.

"They certainly do" Zelena suddenly appeared in front of them in a poof of green smoke making them stop in their tracks.

Lifting his bow with an arrow notched pointing straight at the Wicked Witch they had allowed to see her daughter "Careful who you sneak up on" he warns her lowering his weapon to face the woman.

"Get out of our way, Zelena. We don't have time for this" Regina tells her sister in annoyance at her sudden appearance.

"I'd like to have a little chat about my daughter" the Wicked Witch tells Robin who lowers his bow

"Our daughter" he corrects her.

"About that" she trailed off "I've worked up a teeny alteration to our custody arrangement. I've decided to grant myself sole custody. See, I'd like to raise her by myself without you two getting in the way seeing that Amelia is no longer in the picture. I'm going to teach her how to be wicked" she tells her sister with a wicked smile on her face.

"You try and take my daughter from me" the thief says raising his bow and arrow at her again, to which was only laughed off by the woman in front of them.

"Oh, come on. There's no point in us fighting over our darling baby girl, because soon enough, you'll both be dead, and... then I can just take her"

Regina's eyebrows furrow at her sisters choice of words "What do you mean we'll be dead?"

"Just ask Juno" Zelena says pointing to something behind them as two hooded dark one's heading towards them.

Whirling around the archer faces two dark hooded figures approaching them as Zelena disappears leaving the pair alone "Dark One, stand back!" he warns them but his warning isn't enough as they keep walking towards them.

All around town the same thing was happening to the family. two dark hooded figures appeared behind David and Mary Margaret while they headed to their truck. Six surrounded the remaining dwarfs in the middle of the street while one appeared behind Henry while he and Emma searched the pawn shop. And three were waiting for John, Tom and Anastasia as they let themselves into the Hidden One's down the street.

Her plans were coming together for Amelia and Hook to get their vengeance on Emma. Even if it took her family with her.

---

Back on main street a hooded figure that Emma recognized as Nimue had just walked through Henry as she searched the pawn shop "Henry! Henry, are you okay?!" Emma asked her son in panic.

"I-I think so" he shivered out as her family and the dwarf returned to them all converging onto main street.

"What just happened to us?!" Regina exclaimed to Emma as she and Robin returned from trying to find Hook at the docks, as with John, Tom and Anastasia quickly rejoined them after running from the bar. Tom ran straight to the former Queen, who quickly sought him and Henry out, only to see that they were just as confused as the rest of them.

"I think I may have the answer to that" Gold announced as he walk towards the large group "Check your wrists" he suggests to the group. The all do as he say's pulling up their right sleeve to see all of them held a mark on their wrist. John nervously gulps at the mark on his wrist knowing exactly what it was.

"That... is the mark of Charon" he answers her.

"What is that?" Emma asks the former Dark One.

"Charon?" Henry questions his grandfather "He was the ferryman in the old myths. He navigated a boat. To the Underworld".

"Smart lad. You see, the Dark Ones only have a temporary pass into this world, like a like a tourist visa. The only way for them to stay, is to trade places with living souls".

"Meaning us?" David added.

"Exactly" Gold confirms before pointing to the sky "And when the moon reaches its peak, the ferry from the underworld will arrive and drag us down there".

"That doesn't sound good" the Prince gulped.

"Speaking as one who's died and been there, it's not".

"So, how do we stop it?" Regina spoke up.

"We can't. The Underworld is worse than you can possibly imagine. It's gonna make you wish the old stories of fire and brimstone were true. It's gonna make you wish for death. And then the realization will hit that death has already come, and this fresh torture is all that's left".

"Gold, you're scaring Henry and Tom" Emma warns the man as Regina takes the teenager's hand into her gloved one.

"Good, because we should all be scared" he tells them "This is Death itself. This is a fight we cannot win".

"No. I'm not marked" Emma tells him "I'm not going to give up. There has to be something we can do".

"You're right. There is something. Use this time wisely. Use it to say goodbye" at that Gold turned and headed for the pawn shop leaving the family in silence

---

With Gold's warning fresh in her mind Regina ventured to the dock in hope to find either Hook or Juno. In truth she was hoping for the former, maybe she could get through to Hook that his and Juno's plan was wrong. Between the pair he seemed to be reasonable than the deity that had taken over Amelia's mind and body.

The Queen was relieved when she saw the familiar figure of the pirate looking out into the horizon as Dark One's marched down the street led by Nimue herself as they became accustomed to their new home in the land of the living.

"Thought I might find you somewhere with a view of the sea" she said to him as she approached him stopping a few feet from the newest Dark One.

"Oh, there's no use in hiding now" he replied without looking behind him.

"You can't go through with this, Killian" she tried to appeal to the mans lighter side, he seemed to find in his relationship with Emma.

"Oh, "Killian"?" he retorted with a smile "No "Captain Guyliner,"" he turns to face the former Queen "No "One-Handed Wonder"? Where are the bon mots tonight?".

"I understand you think Emma betrayed you, but do you really think dragging her family to the underworld's the answer?".

"This from the woman who enacted the dark curse to punish Snow White for telling a secret. You of all people should know how far someone will go for revenge. And, unfortunately for you, so do all the people you've killed who are waiting for you in hell".

"I'm not that person anymore" she argued.

"Oh, tell yourself what you want, love" Hook started rolling his eyes "Even your precious Amelia saw that deep down that the Evil Queen will always sit deep within you, just waiting to come out. It's a shame really, I think Juno would've enjoyed seeing the Evil Queen at her best" he sneered at her.

Ignoring his harmful words aimed towards her soulmate the former Queen continued to try and talk the man down from his plans. "You may be the Dark One, but we both know you aren't the man you were when I recruited you to kill my mother" she retorted "When I... tested you... and when you.." she was cut off as Hook raised his hand using his magic to choke the last words from her mouth.

"Not. Another .Word" he growls at the woman slowly walking towards her and stops in front of her, still holding her "No, we agreed we would never speak about this again. Don't test me again. Whoever you think I am, I'm not. You've got no idea the kind of man I truly am" he continues continuing to choke the former Queen.

"Let her go" a familiar voice say's from behind the Queen. Looking over the former Queen's shoulder he was met by Juno herself stood there with her hands calmly clasped behind her back as she waited for her Dark One to follow her order.

"And why should I?" Hook challenged Juno continuing to choke Regina. In blink of an eye Regina's eye's widened as she saw Juno behind Hook pulling him back by a fistful of hair and sinking a hidden blade into his neck making him let go of the hold he held over the dark brunette.

Regina gasped for air as she watches Juno pull Hook's head back by his hair exposing his neck to her as she kicked his knees from under him, visibly wincing at the strength she held as he tried to get her off him.

The blade didn't harm him but the humiliation of being so easily beaten would send a message if he ever dared to deify her again.

"I said" she lowly growled into the mans ear "Let her go" she seethed thought gritted teeth as she held back the anger she felt towards her Dark One at that moment. Juno's eye's flickered up to Regina's shocked and confused one's as he struggled under the deity's strength as she continued to speak to the pirate in a low threatening voice

"Let's get one thing straight pirate, I gave you your power, I can take it away. Defy me again and I will end you" she warned the man as he strained under her hold "You know. I couldn't help but listen in on your little conversation with the Queen. I can't help to think you've only half the story" she says as her emerald eyes look back up to the woman in front of them.

"Shall I tell him, or will you, seeing as you're so eager to make him relive the past" the Queen's stunned silence was her answer as she pulled the blade out of his throat allowing him a gasp of breath only to sink into back into the flesh and muscle that held up his head.

"Let him go" Regina finally found the words that were on the tip of her tongue seeing Hook in visible pain in the god's hold.

"I'd stay out of this, if I were you Queenie" she quipped at the woman making her flinch at her love's use of her nickname for her.

"Did you ever wonder who recommended your services to the Evil Queen? The one person who knew you would do anything for a fat pouch of coin. Even to tear apart a family he never knew or would ever care about if it wasn't for his own vengeance".

The man tried to answer her only to struggle to make a sound" Oops" she chimed seeing her mistake the deity pulled the blade back out allowing the Dark One to speak "Now you can answer" she says pulling the blade back out.

"Amelia" he growled out in anger.

"You're not that stupid after all" she drawled out as she met his angered eyes "And who do think suggested that specific test?".

Reaching out the Dark Captain tried to grab the deity that held the likeness of the Black Widow only for the deity to easily push him back onto his knees.

"Ah ah ah" she warns him pushing the man back onto wet ground "Now be a good boy and run along before I change my mind" at that the Dark Captain was engulfed in red smoke as he disappeared from the deity's hold, leaving the pair alone.

"You're Welcome" the deity huffed out before walking straight past the Queen to find her Dark Ones once again.

"Wait!" Regina called out to Juno as she ran after the redhead "Why did you save me?".

"I need your soul to trade with one of my Dark One's. I can't have him kill one of you before the full moon" she tells the Queen continuing down her path on foot "Don't think it was for sentimental reasons. I have your Assassin locked up nice and tight up here" Juno told her tapping her head with her finger.

The mention of her true love spurred the Queen to continue questioning the deity that had 'saved' her from Excalibur's cut.

"What have you done to her?" Regina demanded to know from the deity as she overtook the woman, blocking her only way out of the docks.

"You are a persistent one, aren't you?" Juno hummed out as she looked the woman up and down, scrutinizing every detail of the Evil Queen under her hard gaze, she could easily get away from the woman, but she was..intrigued. Something about her that made the deity stop and listen.

"You have no idea!" the Queen stated with conviction in her voice standing her ground against her.

"I need a change of scenery. Sea air always made me thirsty. And I know the perfect place for a drink" she says ending her sentence with a signature wink of her eye as a swirl of dark gold smoke engulfed the pair taking them away from docks.

---

Regina had no idea where Juno had taken her until the gold smoke disappeared and she found herself in an empty Hidden One's. No one was there, no staff no customers. It was completely deserted, except from her and Juno.

"I'm not feeling this place, it's a little too sad for my taste. We need to change that" reaching into the set of robes the deity brought out the Apple of Eden as the former Queen felt the power that seemed to pour from the sphere that Juno expertly held in her hand. Gripping the ball, the Apple shone bright as their surroundings changed from the inside of the Hidden One's bar, to that of a tavern from back home. Tables and chairs had been replaced by long wooden benches and tables, as hay and straw covered the wooden floor beneath their feet as a great hearth with a roaring fire appeared beside them.

Looking around the former Queen was taken aback seeing she was back in the tavern Tinkerbelle had taken her to decades ago as they followed the pixie dust that unknowingly led to Amelia with her husband and Robin Hood, right down to the smallest of detail of the black panes that crisscrossed in the windows.

"Much better. Don't you think?" Juno voiced to the Queen placing the Apple on the table next to them. "Now tell me if I'm wrong" she went on as Regina watched the deity turned her back on the Apple of Eden to walk to the bar where a pitcher of mead was waiting for them with two tankards sat next to it.

"But weren't you meant to meet your Amelia again in a tavern?" she questioned the former Queen as she poured the drink into the metal tankards.

"Yes, but-".

"You ran" Juno finished for her returning to her with the two tankards in each hand, once stood in front of her again Juno hands the Queen her drink who reluctantly takes it as she continued the story on how she missed meeting her soulmate again.

"Leaving her, to go on her merry way with her husband and unborn child, until one day after said husband and child are taken from her, she is sent to you by Rumpelstiltskin to kill your weapons master at the time Iago, and the rest is history".

"It's funny how fate works right? No matter how much you resist it, or run from it . Without fail, it finds you. Much like Star Crossed Lover's. No matter how much they fight it, they will always find each other and they will always die at the hands of the curse I set upon them" with a mocking salute with her tankard the deity brought the mug to her lips and gulped the mead down before slamming the empty tankard on the table.

"Curse?" the former Queen questioned her as she sat herself on a bench. Gold never mentioned a curse. Taking the seat opposite the deity the brunette pushed her drink to one side in hopes the deity in front of her would accidentally tell her how her story could help them.

"Rumple didn't tell you, but I don't see the harm in telling the story now. It is true what he said about me, all I want to do is die, and I can now, thanks to Emma. Believe or not, long ago. I was happy, I lived in world that was beautiful with my husband Aita by my side. But your world knew him by another name. Adam".

"We tried for years for children of our own. Something to pour the love we shared for each other into, but I never seemed to be able to fall pregnant. As the years drifted by and other things took our attention we seemed to only drift further apart. But then a suggested another way for Aita to have children. I should've seen it coming, but I didn't care at the time. I just wanted him to be happy".

"What dd you do?".

"We had a human slave called Eve. Fair skinned, hair like fire. One could call her attractive. I suggested he use her as a surrogate. That way whatever child she would bare would be his for us to raise together. The day we found out she was with child was the happiest we had been in years. But as the humans started to rebel against their masters and the great catastrophe was upon us. My fellow scientists and I had found that one of our Apple's was missing. This Apple" she adds pointing to the Apple of Eden that sat between them "Turns out, the human slave we chose was the leader of the rebel faction that had stolen it. She and my husband used the Apple to rip a hole between realms to escape to the land you called the Enchanted Forest".

"I was sent to clean up the mess Aita had made. They didn't get far. I found them, not a week later as they tried to hide in a pokey little shack that barely kept the cold out in the middle of a forest. When I saw them through the window, in their perfect little Eden. When I confronted them, Eve called themselves, Star-Crossed Lovers for the stars fated to be together. Her a human and he an immortal. Slave and Master. Two sides of the same coin".

"So instead of killing there and then. I cursed them and the child they had made. For the following centuries, their doppelgangers would find the other again to make a child I could use as a vessel to walk the land again. Only they kept dying before they could. So I made Merlin the man he was, to ensure their survival, but when he wanted to die. I had to make something else that would follow my orders".

"The Dark One" Regina stated.

"Each Dark One from Nimue to Rumpelstiltskin's only job was the ensure the survival of the next pair of Star-Crossed Lovers. Romeo and Juliet. The final pair that will ever walk any world".

"What happened to your husband and Eve?".

"Killed by their own sons. Abel and Cain, before Cain killed his little brother to gain the Apple for himself. My followers built a temple in my name on the same ground their little shack was built upon. I thought it poetic".

"So that's why you want to die. To get revenge on the man that broke your heart". her hypothesis was answered by a roll of Juno's eyes.

"I want to die because I'm tired of living. Simple as that".

"Then why are you doing this. Why are you hurting Amelia's family?".

"Who said it was me doing this?" she asked the Queen, making her furrow her brows in confusion.

"What do you mean?".

"I may be the one in control here with the power to send you all to the Underworld. But the brains behind this venture are not mine for once. There is one person here no one has even mentioned, someone who's been hiding in plain sight this whole time, just waiting to get revenge on the woman that freed me from Excalibur to 'save' her life".

"No" the former Queen shuddered as it dawned on her who had really behind the plan "Not her".

"Finally! A smart answer" Juno exclaimed hitting the table in front of them with a flat palm "I have to say The Black Widow is very creative. She's willing on sacrificing her own family to make sure Emma suffers for everything she done to her since the first curse broke. She really hates her for not letting her die in Camelot. And so she should. But before you leave to say your final goodbyes, I wanted to show you something".

Reaching over to the Apple the deity simply tapped the Apple with her finger as their surroundings changed once again, the bench disappeared from underneath her as the former Queen quickly stood to see a world around them being build brink by brink until the image clearly showed them back inside the corridor of Snow and Prince Charming's castle twenty-eight years ago.

"How did I know you'd do this" the menacing voice spoke from the former Queen's left to make her snap her head to see herself as the Evil Queen as the curse was descending upon them at one end of the corridor.

She knew this memory well, it served her for the next twenty-eight years to fuel the hate she felt whenever she saw her cursed soulmate around town. Looking to her right she saw Amelia stood in the middle of ten or so of her knights either dead or dying from stopping them reaching the nursery the redhead had just sent Snow towards.

Slowly turning around the assassin was met by Evil Queen's dark glare "Vengeance has consumed you. I won't let it consume me" Amelia readied her fighting stance with her sword.

"So be it" the Queen stated conjured a fireball in her hand and threw it at her lover. Regina was quickly pushed back against the wall by Juno as the fireball came inches from hitting her. It wouldn't hurt her but it would mess with the memory the Apple was conjuring for them. The memory continued interrupted as the ball of fire continued its journey from the Queen's hand to the assassin's armored chest, taking the assassin off her feet and onto her back as the Queen stalked her way down the corridor pass the onlookers as her focus zeroed in on the woman that betrayed her.

Stood over her assassin the Queen blocked the redheads view of the ceiling above her "Just tell me. Why now?" the Queen asked from above.

"She's innocent" Amelia forced out of her teeth as the Queen saw the deep cut on her thigh was was bleeding. The corner of her lips quirked up seeing that the woman hadn't gotten away without getting hurt.

Placing a heeled foot on the injury the dark haired woman sneered at the woman on the ground as she pushed down making the redhead groan out in pain as more blood escaped the open wound.

The sound of her love in pain made her wince as tears threatened to fall having to relive her worst moment as the Evil Queen.

"Stop" Regina pleaded to the deity next to her as they watched her hurt her true love "Just stop whatever this is".

"Not yet"Juno tells her seeing her looking away from the scene in front of them "Watch or I'll make you".

"So was Daniel" the Queen went on as she continued to push down on the redhead's injury not caring about the blood that coated the bottom of her heel.

Only this time instead of letting the Queen go, the Widow turned the tables pulling her thing out from underneath the Queen's foot, quickly sweeping her legs under the Queen's legs she made her stumble and fall onto the floor beside her.

The assassin quickly jumped onto the woman not allowing the Queen to breathe, a hidden blade slide out of her gauntlet, sinking the sharp blade into the Queen's heart as a gasp in shock left her lips as her chest flared up in pain.

"I'm sorry" the assassin whispered above her as she gasped for breath "I'm so sorry" the tears fell freely from the redheads eyes as she watches the light slowly leave her eyes until her body falls limp onto the floor as Amelia's screams of anguish could be heard from other side of the castle.

The tears that threatened to fall had slipped down her face now as she heard the screams of heartbreak come from her love.

"This is the image that went through your love's mind as she waited for you to kill her at that moment. She knew how to kill you. She'd been trained how to get out of that situation a thousand times, but in that moment she wanted the curse to take her.

"This is my favorite part coming up" Juno whispered to her as the thunder of the curse came to a sudden halt, the castle stopped shaking and the fighting outside was cut short as the purple smoke that thundered towards the castle abruptly dissipated like a candle that had been blown out. The Dark Curse was over. Just like that.

Silence enveloped the corridor as Charming and Snow stumbled back through with baby Emma nestled in her father's arms as they found Amelia holding onto her love long after she had taken her last breath.

Regina stood astounded at what she had witnessed. Nothing stopped a Dark Curse, not even the most powerful sorcerer could do it

"Rumple didn't tell you" Juno suddenly said to her, snapping her out of her thoughts "But that curse had another fail-safe other than the products of True Love. He wanted to see how far his niece was willing to go for the woman she loved. He knew

"The product of Star-Crossed Lovers. All she had to do was to kill the caster of the curse. You. And there would be no curse. Emma would've never been taken to the Land of No Magic, life would've carried on as she would be seen as the hero for slaying the Evil Queen".

The surroundings around them once again changed back to inside of the empty Hidden One's bar.

"Now, I say this with the utmost sincerity" Juno addressed the former Queen "Don't waste what little time you have trying to stop this. It's only going to end one way Your Majesty. And that's with me and Amelia dead" with a wave of her hand gold smoke engulfed the deity as she was whisked out of the Hidden One's leaving the former Queen to do whatever she wanted with what little time she had left.

---

With what little time they had, the Charming family headed to the vault to find anything that would help them escape the mark on their wrists. While the family focused on research Tom was left o his own devices on the cold hard ground as he gently traced the mark on his wrist with his thumb, staring absentmindedly at nothing in front of him.

He was sick of fighting, sick to death with research. All he wanted to do is find his sister and be with her for as long as he could before Juno would take him to the ferryman. He was done. There was no use looking through the codex's. there was nothing about cheating death itself. All assassins believed death was inevitable, they were taught to welcome it whenever it came for them, because fighting something that would get you in the end was not a life worth living.

"Gold has to be missing something, right?" Henry voiced to his grandparents and mother as David entered Regina's part of the vault with a stack of thick books as he found his best friend on the ground not moving to help them and Emma was looking through every vial of ingredient in the vault that might just help her family escape their fate "There has to be a way to escape this mark".

Silence filled the room as David stopped looking through the book in his hand, this made the Dark Savior pause was she was doing as she wondered what was going on with her parents.

"Maybe Gold's right" the former Princess said, breaking the silence of the small room "Maybe this is a fight we can't win" Mary Margaret was the one to say his thoughts out load.

"Mom, you're Snow White" Emma replied in disbelief of what she was hearing "You don't know how to give up. Hope is in your blood" she argued to her mother.

"And I do hope, Emma" Mary Margaret tells her daughter as she faces her with baby Neal in her arms "But I don't want to spend what could be my last moments with my nose in a book. I want to make the most of my moments with my family".

"Dinner at Granny's. That's what we should do".

"Yeah" David agrees closing the book he was looking through "Dinner at Granny's. That's a great idea" he says turning his back on the pile of books he had found to stand behind his wife.

"What about Neal?" Emma asks her mother looking down at her little brother "He'll be left here all alone".

"He won't be alone, Emma" she tells her "He'll have you".

"I will not give up on my own family" the savior defiantly tells her mother.

Holding back her own tears the former Princess quickly turned to hand Neal over to his father, before turning back to her daughter "Emma, we're almost out of time. And time is what's most important. Time with those we love" Reaching up she takes her daughter's head in her hands to place a loving kiss on her forehead "I know you won't stop trying. And I hope you succeed, but... promise me that you'll... come meet us at Granny's, come say goodbye".

"I promise" she tells her mother with tears falling down her face before she is engulfed in a loving hug that she quickly mirrors.

"I love you, Emma".

"I love you, too" she replies before her mother pulls away. The Leaving Charming family turn to leave only to see Tom stood on his feet facing them.

"Tom?".

"I'm going to find my sister" the teenager tells them "That's what I want to do. That's what our Mom would be doing right now".

"No" Mary Margaret tells him taking his weary face into her gentle hands "We are going to get her and bring her to Granny's with us. You're spending what time you have together. That is what you mother would've wanted for you, to be surrounded by a family that loves you both".

An involuntary sniff left his nose as he looked upon the people that had so readily brought him into their family as one of their own. This was everything he had been dreaming of since he ended up on Neverland. To have a family that loved him, that wouldn't abandon him, one that would fight for him on every front. They would be there when his mother couldn't. This is what she was talking about when she way trying to say goodbye to him, before he knew she was his mother. This is what he had to fight for everyday.

"Okay" he found himself agreeing with the pixie haired teacher in front of him. With a comforting arm around his waist Mary Margaret guided him and the rest of her family out of the vault leaving Emma to find a way to fight going to the Underworld.

A moment later, Regina found the lone savior in her vault having met the other's on the surface with the news that they were giving up finding a way out of the mess they had found themselves in. Putting on a brave face for the other's after her 'talk' with Juno in the Hidden One's the former Queen found the tear streaked Dark Swan in her vault.

"So, I hear we're giving up" the former Queen greeted her.

"No. Not tonight. Not ever" the Dark Swan defiantly tells her "If I can destroy the Dark Ones, no souls will be owed, and you will all be spared".

"How?" the dark brunette asks her not sure whether to believe in her new plan. Especially after the conversation she just had with Juno.

"Do you remember the promise you made in Camelot... to do whatever was necessary to get rid of the darkness?".

"I don't like where this is going".

"I need you to keep that promise now. And I need you to swear not to tell anyone else".

"But to get rid of the darkness, you still have to put it in someone... and sacrifice them" she reminds her "Who?".

"Me".

---

Trying to talk Anastasia down with like trying to stop the divine twins Apollo and Artemis from controlling the sun and the moon. Impossible.

Following the tornado that was Anastasia into the small apartment they shared, the blonde assassin stormed her way through the living room to the master bedroom. She was in denial that her sister was really gone, that there was no way of her getting her back from Juno. Even at half her power, she was just too strong.

"Stasia stop!" John tried to call out to her only for his pleas to fall on deaf ears as she wrenched the door open to the closet nearly off its hinges that sat in the corner of the bedroom to start pulling out boxes of stuff that Amelia had left behind that the redheaded hadn't quite gotten to look through, to see what she wanted to keep and what to discard.

"Never" she tells him delving deeper into the closet in case her sister had left something behind that would give her a clue on how to save her "Not when there's still a chance to save my sister".

"She's gone!" his voice boomed inside the small apartment as his temper finally got the better of him, making the blonde flinch and stop her from trying to find the next solution "The Amy we know is gone Stasia. Emma's right. She died in Camelot".

"No" she chokes out as her frustrations got the better of her "Don't say that" she says whirling around to face the man that once broke her sisters heart "Don't ever say that!".

"I'm sorry, but its true" he tells her as he thought back to the way she looked when she finally made it back to the diner in the middle of the woods "You should've seen her Anya. She looked so sick. She fought her for as long as she could as hard as she could. And that's my fault" he gulped out as he felt his throat tighten as the tears of guilt he tried do hard to fight back finally fell from his eyes

"It's my fault she was ever cut with Excalibur in the first place. It's my fault Emma had to save her. All because I couldn't-" he cut himself off as sat himself on the edge of the bed in pure anguish trying to hide his face from the blonde as he sobbed.

"You couldn't let her go" she said for him taking a seat next to him "Yeah I know the feeling" she admits to the man next to him "She's was the only family I had until I met Dimitri. The only who looked out for me. Most of the scars on her back were because of me, because I wouldn't listen to our Masters, because I got into trouble. Each time she would tell them it was her, grin and bare the lashes she received from Iago. And I repaid her by leaving her".

"I can't believe she's gone" saying the words out-load made her heart break further that it already had that day.

"Me too" was all Anastasia could say to the man next to her as she finally let herself believe that her sister was gone.

"What kind of a pair are we huh?"

"I can see why she fell for you thought. You 're a good man John Smith" Anastasia tells him "Whatever happens, promise me one thing".

"What?".

"That you stay who you are. Not the perfect Captain, but a good man".

"I promise" he tells her looking straight into her green eye's as they felt the air thicken around them like it did while they danced together.

"Good. because if we somehow survive this. I don't want to regret what I'm about to do" with furrowed brows the Captain didn't get a chance to reply as the blonde assassin smashed her lips upon his full as the sparks he felt when she kissed the corner of his mouth in Camelot ignited as he kissed her back. In a frenzy of sloppy kisses and groping hands the clothes quickly came off as the pair found comfort of their impending doom in the other for as long as they could before their time was up.

---

Declining Emma's invitation to join the other's in Granny for a last meal together, the former Evil Queen decided to find Robin to find a way of protecting what was left of her truelove's family in her close friend Robin Hood, his son and his newborn daughter, with a trick up her sleeve that would see the woman gone for good from the sleepy town of Storybrooke.

Letting themselves into her office, the Mayor and thief found her sister sat behind her desk, with her feet propped up on the edge of the desk as the Wicked Witch had already made herself at home in the office by the bowl of green apples that sat in the middle of the long conference table.

"Gina! Robbie! Come on in" Zelena greeted her sister and former lover into the room as she through a color booklet in preparation to re-decorate her little sister's office.

"What do you think you're doing?" Regina demand out of her sister as they approach the desk together.

"At the moment, I'm trying to decide what color would look best on your walls. I mean, my walls" she informs them showing them he many different shades of green she was considering "Kelly? Hunter? Pistachio? Oh, my God, I just realized that all three of those work as baby names" she realizes laughing manically at her discovery "It's all just coming together".

Reching over the desk the former Queen snatched the booklet off her desk the mayor quickly threw it into the nearby trashcan.

"Cheeky" Zelena chimed at her sister.

"You're not moving in, sis" Regina tells her.

"Well, perhaps I'm slightly premature, but in an hour, you'll both be dead, then everything that's yours... will be mine. And, of course, I get the baby".

"Is that what Juno promised you" her sister asks her narrowing her eye's at the witch in front of her as the thief watched the former Queen at work.

"Oh good you've met her, I must say she's a vast improvement from the assassin you were head over heels for Regina" she chimed with a wicked smirk before a mocking pout grew on her lips "It's a shame she has a die in the end. I think she and I would get on swimmingly".

"Zelena" Regina warned her sister.

"And it was in fact" she adds "As long as I stayed out of her and the many, many Dark One's way, she would give me this" she says gesturing to the room around her "And my daughter".

"No" Robin speak up "You see, our child deserves her best chance" he tells her.

Pulling out the Apprentices wand from her coat she shows her sister the trick she had up her sleeve of ensuring her removal from her life "And that's not with you" she adds.

"Oh, yes. The withered knob of that sad old man" the witch observed "Uh, if memory serves, the last time you tried to use it, you weren't powerful enough to make it work".

Flicking out her hand with the wand, the Apprentice's wand shone purple as she controlled its magics leaving her sister st in disbelief that she had manged to get the wand to work for her.

"If my memory serves... last time, I didn't believe in myself. But now I do, as does everyone in this town. So, let's go somewhere, just the two of us".

With a confident slick of her wrist purple smoke engulfed the sister's taking them to the inside of the clock tower. While Regina stood at the railing with the wand in her hand, the cogs of the large clock methodically turned as each second went by, the Wicked Witch was stood in front of the large glass clock face.

"Oh, such a letdown" the witch sighed out in disappointment "I thought you were gonna use the thingy".

"Oh, I am. So you better hang on" with a smirk of her own the former Evil Queen used the want to summon the same green tornado that took the residents of Storybrooke to Camelot, the twister made land down the street as it quickly approached it destination of the clock tower. When the twister hit it's mark the glass of the clock face smashed as the Wicked Witch was swept off her feet, the magical tornado sucked the woman into the howling winds as she managed to gold onto a piece of the cock that hadn't broken trying and failing to fight against the powerful winds as Regina laughed at her misfortune.

"I am not done! You will see me again!" she screams over the tornado before she's sucked into the powerful twister, taking her away from Storybrooke once and for all and back to OZ were Robin's children would be safe from the Wicked Witch of the West.

Rushing forward the former Queen caught herself on the broken clock face unaware that someone was listening to her from the entrance of the library

"Somewhere over the rainbow!" she yells back to her sister "Enjoy Oz, Witch".

Juno couldn't help but chuckle to herself stood in front of the library doors as the Wicked Witch was carried away in a green tornado back to OZ. She was impressed, by the woman's prowess of the Apprentice's wand. She wanted to applaud her work, demand an encore, but she was needed somewhere else at that moment.

Taking herself from the library in a cloud of gold smoke, the deity reappears behind the Dark Hook as he watches Emma sneak away from the diner after leaving a note behind, telling what she was planning on doing now that she held Excalibur from a dark alley opposite the diner.

"Are you done sulking?" Juno asked her Dark One as he continues to watch his love walk away from her family with a clenching jaw. Hearing a grunt of reply she took it in the affirmative "You know what you need to do".

"Aye. I'll get it".

---

Holding his baby sister in his arms felt surreal to the teenage assassin as he ate dinner with his family. Mary Margaret and David watched with a close eye as he tried to get used to the feeling of trying to support her in the crook of his elbow. He couldn't believe how small she was. At only a couple days old the youngest Montague slept soundly in her brother's arms feeling as safe as she could as be at that moment.

Gently placing her in the car-seat they had found for her, the youngest Montague stayed asleep wrapped up in the blankets John had found in the boxes of their mothers possessions that still remained in the apartment. Tucking her in, the teen found his meal again as Henry made a fuss of his Uncle Neal in his own car seat as Mary Margaret stood from the table to take an empty plate away.

"Oh no. David" Mary Margaret called for her husband making him and Henry look up to see her stood in front of the jukebox with a letter in her hand.

"What's wrong?" he asks her joining her at the jukebox as Tom watches on.

"It's Emma" his wife supplies giving him the letter in his hands to read his daughter's words.

"We got to stop her" he quickly tells ready to leave to stop their daughter from her plan only to stop as Nimue and four Dark One's appear behind the boys making them jump from their seats leaving their sister and uncle in their car seats to step away from the imposing threat.

"You don't have to worry" Nimue tell the family "Captain Hook's already seen to that. Which means there's no way to stop your trip to the underworld. Juno will be so happy to see you all there".

Using her magic Nimue activates the marks on each of their forearms making a bright white light emit from the Mark of Charon making the four of them groan out in pain before disappearing from the diner leaving the two infants behind.

---

Neither Anastasia nor John said anything as they pulled their clothes back on knowing that much more could be said between the pair knowing it would be the last thing they would do before they went to the Underworld.

All was said as the pair paused at the closed bedroom door as the former Captain leaned down to catch the young blonde lips in his own, breathing in the content feeling that washed through his mind as Anastasia reached up to wrap her arms around his neck to kiss the taller man back, melting into the loving kiss as he held her as close he could before they would have to leave to find the other's at Granny's.

Pulling away from the kiss his forehead remained on her's as he looked down heavy lidded at the woman in his arms as her eye's met his, not ready to face the outside world just yet. Reluctantly pulling away from the other, the Captain opened the bedroom door for them to step into the living room, only to completely freeze at who greeted them on the other-side.

Sat at the breakfast counter with a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich in her hand was Juno with two hooded Dark One's stood in the living room waiting for the two to emerge from the bedroom.

"I have to say. I did not see that coming" she grinned at the pair before taking a bite of the sandwich in her hand. "Mmmh" she moaned out as she tasted the sweetness of the jelly mixing with the nutty taste of the peanut-butter "This is delicious. I can't remember the last time I had human food like this".

"What are you doing here?" John demanded out of the deity that sat in front of them as he held out a protective arm in front of the blonde assasssin.

"Well" she starts pausing to swallow the food in her mouth "I was outside Granny's looking in on your son and daughter having dinner with those insufferable royals and their tiny son, when I suddenly got this craving for PB and J. And I thought I'd come here, and join you two in the last few hours of your lives only to hear what you were doing from out here".

"I hope you enjoyed yourself while you could. I know Amelia did" she adds looking at Anastasia giving the blonde assassin a cheeky wink.

"I'll kill you!" the Duchess suddenly exclaimed as Juno's words hit a nerve, pouncing forward to attack the deity only to be quickly grabbed and pulled back by the strong Captain, frustrated tears left her eye's as she no match for the strength the man possessed to keep her at bay.

"Anya enough!" he pleaded to the blonde as she strained in his arms as she tried to get to the deity that had taken her sister from her.

"Now, ignoring the Freudian nightmare in front of me. You're both needed elsewhere I'm afraid" with a snap of her fingers, the deity activated the Mark of Charon on both Anastasia's and Johns' left forearm as the blonde assassin was distracted from her homicidal rage to groan out in pain as the Captain did the same before a blinding white light took them out of the apartment to where they needed to be.

---

Appearing at the lake with the other's, the blonde assassin had to take a double look of where she and John had ended up as they stood on a pathway with the lake on one side and a line of Dark One's on the other. They were surrounded.

The Charming family with Henry blinked into existence in front of them with Regina, Robin and Gold behind them ready to be traded for the souls of every Dark One that had walked the realms.

Seeing Henry and Tom appear in front of her, the former Queen quickly moved to find them both, taking a a fist full of the the pair in each hand she had to make sure they were both still there and not somehow another trick Juno wanted to play with her. She knew she could conjure just about anything with the Apple in her possession.

"Henry. Tom. Are you all right?" she quickly asks the pair in fright.

"I-I-I think so" Henry answered for them as Tom tried to keep himself calm. They had left his sister in the diner. All alone.

"Where's your sister?" Regina asks him.

"Back at the diner with Neal" he answered as Mary Margaret started to panic alongside him as his father heard him.

"Roland and the baby where are they?" David hastily asks the former thief.

"They're safe" he tells the royal couple "They're with the fairies. They'll take Neal and Amelia's daughter, as well" Robin tried to reassure his friends who took a cool collected breath as they paused to see what was surrounding them.

"So, this is really it" Tom stated to his second Mother held him and Henry as close as she could.

"I'm afraid it is, lad" Hook announces his presence as he emerged from behind the Dark One's with Excalibur in his hand as the hooded figures waited patiently to take their place in the land of the living once again. "Look. The S.S. Purgatory" he prompts the others to turn towards the lake to see think fog emit from the back of the lake for Charon to make his appearance ready to take everyone marked with his symbol to the Underworld.

"Mom, Dad! Henry!" Emma yells for her family as she runs out from behind the Dark One's to find her family after letting Excalibur be taken from her. Her family ran to meet her engulfing the Dark Swan is a group hug as she cried out to them "I'm sorry! I tried!" she cries to her family.

"We know. It's okay" her mother tried to reassure her daughter as they tried to comfort one another as Hook watches on.

Taking her opportunity to talk the man down from his and Juno's plan the former Queen stepped towards the Captain ready to finish the conversation from earlier that evening.

"It's time to drop the act" she says calling the man's bluff, seeing the look on his face as he saw his love with her family "It may be too late for Amelia, but you can't just sit back and watch another family be destroyed to get your revenge".

"What makes you think I can't?" he retorts to the Queen.

"Because of what we swore to never speak of again. I know the real reason you don't want to talk about what you did to your father".

"I believe we've already had this conversation".

"But this time you're going to listen because if you don't... you're gonna regret it for the rest of your life, which, in your case, means forever. So, you have to ask yourself the same question you did that night. What kind of man do you want to be?".

---

The Enchanted Forest

Many Years Ago

Suggesting to the Evil Queen that she should test Captain Hook by making him kill his father was impulsive, something she never thought she would regret suggesting to the Queen, but as she watched Hook stab is father from the treeline near the small cottage he lived in with his young son. The Black Widow couldn't help but feel guilty as she watched the young boy discover his father's body the next morning after falling asleep to his comforting voice.

He was the intentional victim of her vendetta against the man that tore her family apart. He didn't deserve to be apart of her plot of vengeance. She she did something no one did for her when she needed it most years ago.

"Where are you taking me?" the young boy who's name she eventually found out was Liam asked her again as they walked through the busy dock. He could barely keep up with her long strides as she moved trying to evade the persistent merchants that setup shop at the dock looking in to cash in on the wage the sailors earned on their travels around the Enchanted Forest and beyond.

"Somewhere safe" she simply tell him as she tries to find the metal ship the Captain she was trying to find sailed under the water.

"No!" he pretested to the woman that had taken him away from his home "Not until I find the man that killed my father".

This was a recurring saying she had gotten sick of hearing from the boy from the moment she took him away on the back of Achilles.

Grabbing the front of his jacket she made him stop as she knelt down in front of him as the world around them continued as he looked at the woman in fear of what she might do. She was armed to the teeth with weapons from the swords on the belt on her hips to the blade that hid in the leather gauntest on her arm.

"Listen kid. Do you know what the word 'orphan' means?" he meekly shakes his head at her "It means there is no one to look out for you, no one to care about you when you get hurt and no one there to help you when you desperately need it. It means you are completely alone in this world. And that is the most terrifying thing out there, not me, not the man that killed your father or any evil sorcerer. I am giving you your best chance".

"So you have two choices. I can either leave you here to continue down the path that will eventually take you back to me, or you could make your life worth living, with people that will come to see you as their family. That would die for you at a moment's notice".

"What if I went with you?" he quietly asked her.

"My life can't involve children. Not even my own" with a small nod from the boy the assassin let go of his front as she finally saw the man in uniform she had been looking for. Moving her feet forward Liam quickly followed the woman towards the bald headed man that waited patiently for the redhead to arrive.

"Nemo!" she greeted the man with a wide smile that was mirrored as he quickly gathered the young woman that was the mirror image of her mother into his arms in a friendly embrace.

"Miss Amelia" he replied into her shoulder "It is good to see you again".

"You too" she replied giving the man an extra squeeze before pulling away to find Liam waiting patiently for her to call him forward.

"Liam" she ushered the boy forward to stand in front of the Captain "This is Captain Nemo of the Nautilus. He's an old friend of my Father's. You'll be staying with him for the foreseeable future"

"Pleasure to meet you Liam" Nemo greeted him holding out his hand to him.

"Nice to meet you sir" Liam nervously stuttered out taking the Captain's hand into his to shake it.

"Please come aboard, we're happy to have you join us".

Liam hesitated climbing onboard the metal ship as he looked to the woman that had taken him to the Captain

"Go on" she prompts him with a reassuring wink of her eye before one of the sailors that worked under Nemo helped him climb into the ship that had surfaced at the docks behind them.

"Are you sure this is the best solution for the boy?" Nemo voiced to the younger woman beside him.

"It's better than what he wants to do" she replies knowing the reason why she was taking him to Nemo.

"You know it's never too late for you Amelia" Nemo suddenly tells her "I spent decades hunting down the men responsible for what happened. And when I was finished, all I was left with was an empty heart and a bloodied harpoon. Your father wouldn't want to see you like this. He was a good man".

"Good thing I don't have a bloodied harpoon then" she tells him ignoring his pleas for her take the same path Liam was about to take.

"Goodbye Nemo. Until we meet again" at that the redhead walked away from him pulling the dark hood over her head as she blended into the crowd leaving him with the boy that she unintentionally hurt in her own venture to hurt the man that had torn her life apart for a pouch of coins.

---

Present

"It's time" Juno announces making her presence known to the group of hero's as she walks out from the Dark One's. Quickly retreating to her sons' the Evil Queen took a hold of the elder of the two's arm as they saw the image of the one of the people they loved the most make her way towards them with the Apple of Eden in her hands.

"No! You're not taking the people I love!" Emma protested to the deity as she stepped towards the god that she had a hand in freeing from Excalibur. Raising her hand with the Apple in, the ball shone bright at it's owners silent order as a golden hue takes a hold of the Dark Swan in front of her, choking the woman where she stood in defiance against her once again. The object shone bright against the darkness of the night as the deity smirked at her pain she was causing the woman that had hurt her vessel.

"I might not be able to kill you with this, but I can stop you from interfering and I intend to enjoy every second of it for what you did" she sneered at the Dark Swan Juno continues to choke Emma, preventing her from fighting.

As the saviors family watched on helpless, the Dark Swan continued to choke looking to Hook to help her, as he watched the woman he loved. The seconds dragged as the savior choked as Regina's words reverberated through his mind.

What kind of a man he wanted to be. And this wasn't it.

"That's enough!" Hook growls at the deity turning to face Juno with the sword in his hand.

"What do you think you're doing?" Juno questions the man she created.

"Being the man I want to be" he tells her.

"You can't stop us Killian" Juno tell him with an amused smirk seeing that the former Queen's words had finally resonated with him "You can't stop fate!".

"Yes. I can" raising Excalibur in his hand. slowly, all the Dark One's behind her that surrounded them are absorbed into the sword taking all that darkness as Emma and the others watched on in shock and awe of what Hook was doing. Within seconds Juno's Dark One's had been vacuumed into the sword, making the dark engravings of Excalibur blaze red as if it was being held over intense heat.

Hook's actions distracted Juno enough to let Emma got of the Apple's power as she looked at the Captain in a mix of disbelief and rage. Turning his attention to Juno, the Dark Captain sent out a burst of darkness aimed straight for her chest, sweeping the deity off her feet as she was sent hurtling backwards away from his love and her family.

The Apple of Eden fell out of her hand and was sent in the opposite direction towards the huddled onlookers as the teenage assassin saw his opportunity to be the person his mother wanted him to be. He was going to be brave for his mother.

Tearing himself out of Regina's protective hold, he leaped forward to take the Apple for himself that was sat on the wet dewy grass. Ignoring the other's call out his name, his father quickly followed him to drag him back to the group unaware that he had the Apple of Eden nestled within his arms the same way he held his sister earlier that nights as he felt the bronze sphere react to his touch as they watched the scene in front of them.

"Killian, you can't do this" Emma pleads to the man she loved as she saw he was going to do what she was planning to do earlier before the sword was taken from her.

"We both know there's no other way, love" Hook replied under the strain of the power in his one hand. It was too much, even for a Dark One "We have to hurry. The darkness won't stay trapped in Excalibur much longer. Take it" he tells her turning to his love.

"No" she refused.

"You have to help me, Swan" he pleaded "Take it".

"I can't. It should be me".

"Your family needs you. If anyone deserves to go to the underworld, it's me. You were right. I was weak. So, let me make up for it now by being strong"

Emma has tears falling from her eyes and still refuses to kill the man she loved "I don't want to lose you"

"And I don't want to lose you. But you have to let me go. Let me die a hero! That's the man I want you to remember, please!" Hook is holding the sword out for Emma, and she slowly steps forward, trembling herself. She takes the sword from him, her hands lingering over his for a few moments. She takes a couple of steps back and is shakily holding the sword as she can feel how powerful the darkness is

Emma steps forward she takes his head into her hand bringing their face's together "I love you" she whispers before kissing him.

"I love you, too" he replies nodding at her encouragingly to do what she needed to do.

She steps back she hesitates as his eye's bore into hers but can't bring herself to kill him.

"It's okay" he tells her waiting for the killing blow.

It came quickly as Emma pushed forward in one swift fluid movement as the tip of the sword went through Hook's chest through to the hilt as Emma caught him with her free arm as he did the same.

Pulling apart Emma rested her head on his forehead as a bright light engulfed the Dark Swan before dimming again to reveal the return of the savior in her red leather jacket. Pulling Excalibur back out the savior looked to the pirate to see the original cut the blade had made in Camelot back on his neck. Dropping the sword onto the grass she quickly caught Hook as he weakly fell to the ground succumb to the injury the immortal killing sword had made, gently guiding him onto the ground as he slipped away from her into the next world.

"What had you done?" Juno's voice reverberated in the open space as making breaking the heart wrenching scene of the savoir losing the man she loved. The deity limped her way back to the scene as a trail of blood tricked down the side of her head to see one of her Dark One's dead on the ground with the other crouched over him having defeated the darkness.

"Your dead Swan" Juno gritted out through clenched teeth, as she held out her hand to use the Apple to finish the farce once and for all only to realized it wasn't in her hand anymore. In panic the deity searched the ground where it should have fallen only for a small but strong voice to confirm where her only weapon against the others was.

"Looking for something?" Tom asked the deity as he stood in front of his family as Juno's green eye's snapped to him as a trickle of blood escaped her nose. The Apple gently shone in the palm of his hand as it reacted to the next Hybrid to control the Piece of Eden.

A deadly smirk twitched up on her lips seeing the boy shake like a leaf as a dry chuckle left her throat. Emma watched from the ground with one hand on Killian's body, she reached back for the pommel of Excalibur ready to step in if needed.

"I can smell you fear from here boy. Didn't I tell you, you had to choose your battle's. This doesn't look careful to me".

"It's not. But its the only way to stop you".

Gripping the object in his hand it felt like a bolt of lighting striking him as the raw power ran through his nerves in his hands and arm, its power consuming every cell in it's wake, as the Apple took hold of the deity in front of him, dragging her towards him he poised a hidden blade ready to sink into her chest only for a strong grip on his forearm to stop any movement making him blink to see Juno gripping the offending forearm in an unforgiving grip that made him wince out in pain. Eve through the thick layer of the gauntlet around his forearm, he still felt her fingers dig deep into his skin and muscle until the pain reached the bone underneath.

"You gonna have to do a lot better than that" she growled as a hidden blade slipped out of her gauntlet ready to end the pathetic boy's life. Sensing the danger Emma jumped from the ground with Excalibur to stop the deity killing the teenager only for the hidden blade to suddenly be redirected into her own chest.

Emma's eye's widened in shock as Regina and John ran forward to stand either side of Tom as he clutched his arm to his chest, the Apple being taken out of his hand by the Captain who yelled out in pain as it burnt his hand before being dropped to the ground once again.

Juno gasped in surprise as she stumbled back away from the savior and the novice assassin, her brows furrowing in confusion as the blade was involuntary wrenched from her chest.

"What's happening?" she shuddered out in fear, more blood escaping her nose as she felt her arm and hand move independently from her own control as a hidden blade a buried itself to her thigh making the deity scream out in pain as she fell onto her knee onto the ground, blood oozed from the injury. That one hurt.

"Are you doing that?" Emma asked Tom not sure it was the Apple that had made hurt herself.

"No" he told her as Juno looked up to look Emma in the eye to see a steady stream of blood escaping her left nostril.

"What's happening to her?" Regina asked from Tom's side.

"It's Amelia" Emma breathed as the hidden blade was wretched from her thigh only to thrust into her thigh again "She's fighting back" Juno eye's blinked gold before she blinked again going back to their normal green.

In a blink of an eye Juno turned back to Amelia as the redhead looked to the savior.

"Emma" she called out to the blonde "I-I can't hold her for much longer, you need to kill her".

"How?".

"Excalibur" she groaned out as she felt Juno try and to push her way back into her head, she twisted the blade in her thigh to keep the deity at bay. The pain was the only thing that seemed to be working "She tethered herself to the sword. It's the only way".

Looking at the blade a shiver was sent down the saviors spine as she saw Juno's name engraved on the blade where Hook's name was as she realized what her friend needed her do again.

"N-no" Emma stammered not wanting to lose someone else she cared about "N-No I can't".

"Emma please, it hurts" Amelia pleaded with the woman once more as she winced in pain "Let me end this".

"There must be something else" she desperately asked the woman in front of her. There must be something, someway to beat Juno that didn't involve their family losing someone else.

"There isn't" she groaned holding her head "She made sure you couldn't find any loopholes. Give her what she wants" she tells the woman "Let me go" she whispered to the blonde before she blinked at her not able to fight Juno's presence in her mind anymore.

Pulling the hidden blade from her thigh the deity stood from the ground, ready to face the savior and anyone else that got in her way. Seeing Juno back the savior didn't hesitate this time as a hard look came over her face as she plunged the sword into the deity's stomach, the same way Merlin did centuries ago making her double over the sword that would finally end her immortal life catching herself on the saviors shoulder as Emma continued to slide the sword further to the hilt.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry" she whispered in her ear hoping her friend would be able hear her.

The deity saw the other's watching as they tried to look away with the only one totally engrossed with what was happening was Rumpelstiltskin as the deity gave the man a shaky knowing smirk as the sword was pulled out of her body. With Excalibur still in her hand Emma watched as the legendary sword disintegrated out of existence having expelled all the power it held to kill the Dark One in it's final form and it's creator.

"Finally" the heard Juno sigh out in relief feeling the the sweet release of death finally end her existence on any plain as a bright light shone the open wound that the sword had made making Emma and the other's look away as the light grew brighter and brighter until gold light engulfed them pulling them into the inevitable Amelia wouldn't wake from again.

---

The Land of Endless White

The bright light engulfed the pair as the world around the savior fell away to be replaced by a sky of pure white as she whirled around to find anything that would tell her where she was until she heard a voice she had only heard seconds ago urging her to send Excalibur again through her once again.

"Before you say it" Amelia's voice rang through her ears as she whirled around to see the redhead stood in front of her back to way she looked before they went to Camelot. Her long redhead sat in waves down to her shoulders "There was no other way Swan".

"What is this place?" Emma asked her friend.

"Limbo, in-between life and death" she said standing up to face the blonde "I was brought here every-time I killed one of my old family. And now it'll take me to wherever they went".

"Alone?" she fearfully asked the redhead thinking she's be all alone to face whatever was next.

A tight smile graced the redheads lips as she looked over the blonde savior's red leather shoulder to see who she would be journeying into the next life with. It seemed fitting somehow. He was there at the start of her journey as the Black Widow. And now, he would be there with her has they took a step into the unknown.

"No. Not alone" the blonde's brow furrowed in confusion as she whirled around to see what her friend was looking at to see her love stood there with his back to her, looking straight into the eternal room that went on for miles.

"Killian" she breathed out "Killian!" she yelled after him trying to move towards the leather clad pirate only to find she was stuck to the ground. Whatever this place was didn't want her to go near him.

"He can't hear you" she informs the blonde "He's here for me".

"What going to happen?" she asked full of fear for her friend and true love, to what was going to happen to them.

"No idea" she answered shaking her head as she heard the sound of thunder roll in the distance, whatever was going to happen was coming, she wasn't afraid of the thunder and lighting anymore.

"You need to go. Look out my kids for me, make sure they don't get into too much trouble without me" she asks of Emma "And I'll look after him" she adds glancing towards Hook.

"I will" she promised her friend as a sad smile grew on her face "Goodbye Lia".

"Goodbye Emma" she ended with a tight smirk on her lips that reached her eye's before she sent the savior a signature wink of her eye.

---

In a blink, Emma found herself back in the present knelt over her friend's stilled body like no time had passed since leaving the plain. Looking over her friend the cut from Excalibur had returned to her throat as the self inflicted wounds over her heart and thigh was coated in blood as no sign of life came from the pale ashed skinned assassin that had used all the strength she had to come back long enough to tell her how to end everything.

Strangled sobs left the saviors mouth as she forced herself to crawl back to Killian to bury her head into his still chest not able to look at her friend anymore.

The former Queen hadn't realized she was crying until she heard Emma's sobs coming from where she knelt over her love until she made her feet to move forward towards her soulmate leaving Tom to throw himself into his father's arms the Captain clutching the back of his son's head as he bawled into his chest hanging onto the man in desperation that everything that had happening was just a dream, his mother couldn't be dead, it just wasn't real. She had saved him. The former Captain didn't fight the tears that fell for his first love that lied lifeless on the ground as he held onto the boy in his arms.

Behind them Robin tried his best to comfort Henry under his arm as the thief wept for the woman that fought for her family until the end as her sister crouched on the balls of her feet as she stared at her sister's body with vacant eye's as tears ran streamed down her cheeks as her arms wrapped themselves around her.

Mary Margaret had her head buried in her husbands chest as he tried his upmost to comfort the woman in his arms as the few tears escaped the Prince's eye's as they felt felt the pain of their daughter grieving for the man she loved and the woman she had looked up to as a hero.

Reaching her love the former Queen didn't wail in grief nor sob for the pain she felt her heart breaking once again for losing the person she loved as she gently knelt beside her love's head. Instead she took the assassin's hand in her's knowing she had said everything she wanted to say back to her dying soulmate back in Camelot.

"I'm here" she gently told her love as she felt her eye's sting and blur knowing she wouldn't be able to hold back her grief for much longer "You're not alone. We're going to be okay. You can rest now" the tears finally fell as she leaned down to place a gentle kiss, pouring every ounce of love she held for the woman in that moment to guide her onto Valhalla.

---

Emma nor Regina had left their love's side as the EMT's arrived to take their bodies away. As Amelia was being gently put on the gurney Regina forced herself not to look as she found Henry, who met her halfway engulfing his adopted mother into his arms as she took his head into her shoulder allowing him to cry into her shoulder for the woman he saw as his third mother.

John stood staring at his wife's body as Anastasia did her best to comfort the man by taking his larger hand into hers as he stared at the image before him as the medics were about to cover her face with a blanket. Tom stood silently by himself as tears continued to fall down his cheeks not afraid of anyone seeing him in pain as Robin joined him, placing a firm but comforting hand on his shoulder as they watched the one of the woman that had brought them altogether being taken away from him.

As they stood comforting their daughter as Hook was being placed on his gurney, David kept his eye on the redhead's body to see they were about ready to take her away. He needed to keep his last promise to her in Camelot. Excusing himself from his family he walked over to the other gurney with his heart in his throat, hoping he wasn't too late in keeping his promise.

"Wait" David stopped the paramedics with Amelia. At his voice the medics stopped pulled the blacker covering his friend as he eyed the leather gauntlets that he himself had once been threatened with on her forearms. Despite their differences in the past, they always united when the situation called for it, especially when the curse first broke. He owed her more than his life at this point. She had protected his true love, his daughter, his son and his grandson. And all she ever asked for in return was a chance to prove she wasn't the Black Widow.

He was proud to call her his friend.

"I'm sorry" he whispered to his friend as his fist clenched by his side as he prepared to touch her cold skin. With kindness, he gently took her arm into his hand taken aback he felt a trance of warmth that still lingered on the Assassin's skin as he took the leather and metal gauntlet from her body, until it was off her arm. Doing the same to the opposite arm he nodded to the EMT's allowing them to take her away.

With the gauntlets in his hands, he waited until they had covered her back up before he headed straight for Regina who still had an arm around Henry as she looked around to see David in front of her instead of with his daughter.

"Here" David said holding the gauntlets out to the former Queen "I think she'd like you to have them" unwinding her arm from Henry she gently took the gauntlet's from the Prince with a thankful nod, before he left her to re-join his family.

Regina's eye's glistened with fresh tear's as she looked over the old worn leather gauntlet's Amelia had refused to replace with newer one's she had gifted to her after their first year together a smile grew on her face at the memory before they quivered quickly covering her mouth before another sob escaped the Queen.

This time it was Henry who comforted her mother as she clenched the gauntlets to her chest to ease the ache that resided in her chest as she heard Emma cry for Hook as they took him away for her.

---

She had no idea how much sleep she had gotten once they had returned home. Instead of waking up to Amelia's sleeping form next to her like she had gotten so used to in resent weeks, she was met by her empty side of their bed perfectly pristine sheet's that hadn't been slept in, only the leather gauntlet's that rested on her pillow. A reminder that their owner no longer needed them.

She didn't want to leave her bed as the weight of grief and emptiness that she felt without Amelia's presence, but she had to, for her children's sake. After showering and dressed for the day ahead, black seemed like the only color that appealed to her as she found her kitchen full of people.

Tom, Henry and Roland sat at the counter with long face's on the older boy's faces as Robin, John, and Anastasia between themselves cooked breakfast for all of them. Pancakes by the smell of it, and it was a work in progress with the sight and smell of burnt batter in one of her pan's. They all had stayed the night in the mansion, finding whatever sleep they could on her sofa's.

John and Anastasia had spent the night in the living room with the Captain's newborn daughter by his side, not wanting to be too far away from the last reminder he had of his late wife.

Henry had ended up on the floor of Tom's room with Roland soon joining them as Robin joined the family in the house after finding his own children with the fairies. With Zelena's banishment, he would raise his daughter by himself if needed with John and Anastasia already offering their services to the former thief to raise two children in this world.

Walking into her own kitchen the former Queen silently greeted Henry with an affectionate kiss to the side of his head before moving onto Tom. By the dark ovals under his eye's he had not slept a wink as she left a motherly kiss to the side of his head. He hardly reacted as he stared at the full plate of what was pancakes on his plate only cut into tiny pieces, his mind not sure what else to do with the food given to him.

The only sound that made her smile even a little bit was the gentle gurgles than came from the car seat's that sat on her kitchen counter near her big brother's. Her niece was in her father arms while Amelia's daughter was on the counter dressing a pale-yellow baby grow and that the former Queen approached the new-born as she started to fuss gently stroking the girls soft cheek quietly shushing to her in comfort as she calm down from whatever had upset her.

"Morning" John greeted the woman having turned around from the stove. Regina tried her best to smile at the man. Robin and Anastasia glance over their shoulder to see Regina dressed in back making a fuss over the baby girl as they continued to cook around the well-built man.

"Have you thought of a have a name yet?" she inquired with the privateer not taking her eye's off the girl in front of her. She looked out for any features on the girl that came from Amelia, only to see John in her instantly. But the devilish look in her eye, that was all her mother.

"Helen" he stated folding his arm's across his chest "After my mother" he continued clearing his throat as he fought to keep his composure.

"Helen" she repeated as a real smile grew on her face as she stoked her tiny hand "It's perfect" she mused as Baby Helen grabbed her finger in her small fist "Hmm, I think she likes the name too" she mused to herself as

"Listen" he started in a more serious tone "I was hoping to stay in Storybrooke for a bit longer, just until everything's settled, Anya and I have the apartment and we have the spare room-".

"You can stay as long as you want" she tells him as she continued to fuss over Amelia's daughter "You don't need to ask permission" she tells the man.

John braced himself for the fight he that was about to ensue between them as the next words from his mouth "I want to move Tom back into the apartment as well".

Regina felt a pang of panic in her chest at the thought of losing one of the connections she had with her soulmate, but she quickly pushed it down. This wasn't the time to get possessive.

"It's fine" she made herself say to the Captain "If that's what Tom want's, that's no problem" she turned her head that she was looking at the teenager to see him looking straight back at her "So long as you know that there will always be a place for you here with us".

"I know" he told her with watery eye's "Thanks" Regina stepped away from baby Helen and wrapped her arms around the teen as he did the same resting his forehead on her shoulder. She threaded her fingers through his curly brown hair as she held him tight against her. she stopped the tears that were threatening to fall as she pulled back taking his chin in her hand.

"Come on, I'll help you pack" she tells him putting on a gentle smile for the teen "Work up your limitless appetite with some real food" laughter left John and Anastasia's mouth at Regina's small dig at their attempt at cooking breakfast as Tom left to start packing this things.

"You're really letting him leave?" Henry inquired with his mother his voice breaking at the thought of this best friend of leaving him.

"I am" she tells him putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder "He needs to be with his Dad for a while, and John needs him. He'll come back though".

"He will" John spoke up from the other side making Henry look at his cousin through marriage "I'll make sure".

---

The Mills/ Montague household full of people was the stark contrast to that of Emma Swans' new home, it was empty and quiet as the owner herself lied on the couch clutching the ring Hook had given her in Camelot.

Hook had sacrificed himself to let her get rid of the Darkness. And Amelia had sacrificed herself to stop Juno from getting her vengeance on the town for stopping her's and Dark Hook's plan.

She clenched her eye's as tears escaped her eye's once again at the thought of the two people she depended on for hugely different reasons. She could let her walls down with the former pirate while she could speak her mind to the former Assassin and not worry about being judged. She would be the one to tell her when she was being stupid, make her get up from the sofa and woman up. She wouldn't let her wallow in her own self-pity, and guilt like she did with her own mother.

She'd taken her away from Regina again. She'd taken a mother away from her children, and she's taken away a friend to the town.

She just wanted to save them. Not make it worse. Now she had to grieve the life she wanted with Killian in this empty house. Regina would have to grieve another love lost without taking a turn into her other side to help with the pain in her heart.

That's when she heard the whispers in her head. They were calling to her making her sit up from the sofa as she heard the familiar sound of the dagger calling out to her. There was only one person that know why s hearing it in this whole town.

---

After sending a very stern text to the man she waited in his pawn shop for the man himself to show up as she waited at the back counter for the bell to ring out indicating his arrival.

"Now, you see" the older man said as she saw the back of Emma's jacket greet him in his own shop "This isn't the library or Granny's or some bus station, Miss Swan. This is my shop. Unless the sign says "open"... you're not invited" he says making his way over to stand on the opposite side of the counter.

"I think I was invited" she argues with the man "I hear whispering. It's the dagger. It's calling to me".

"You're upset, imagining things" he tried to dissuade her.

"No, I'm not" she insisted "It's here, isn't it? You have it, don't you?".

Mr Gold relented knowing he wasn't going to be able to sway the woman in front of her "Yes, I do" he finally confirms as he takes the dagger out of a rag and lays it on the counter top, which once again has "Rumplestiltskin" written across it.

Emma looks down at the dagger in shock "You are the Dark One. Again".

"Yes. Had hoped to keep that secret. Wasn't expecting you to hear it. But then, most ex-Dark Ones are dead".

"How is this possible?".

"When you came to me, asking for the sword, I saw an opportunity. A chance I had never imagined would present itself again. As fate would have it, a small vial of magic was close at hand, given to me by a mutual enemy. One sprinkle... and I knew I could get it all back. I turned the sword into a conduit. So that while Hook thought he was destroying the darkness, he was actually... moving it. Channeling it someplace safe".

"Into you" she finished "Who gave the vial to you?" she asked remembering he said a 'mutual enemy' had given it to him.

"I don't think I need to tell you that Miss Swan"

"Juno" she realized out load as her eye's widened.

"Yes" he confirmed "She came to me at my lowest, and offered me a deal I couldn't refuse and I did".

"What about Juno? I killed her with the sword".

"And you did, along with my niece" he reminded the blonde making her wince "The magic she possessed was the same as all Dark One's possessed. They had no idea. And now... things are as they should be".

"Hook and Amelia sacrificed themselves. And you took that from them!" her voice raised in anger as she thrust her have to strike him with her magic only for him to mirror her actions and stop her.

"Do you honestly think that you can hurt me?" he asked her as she slowly lowered her hand "I now have the combined power of every Dark One who ever lived... including you".

"You found a loophole, betrayed us all again. Betrayed your niece"

"My niece knew that better than anyone here" he rebutted at the woman's attempt to make him feel guilty "It's what I do. It's the man I am" he tells her.

"Well, then, Dark One.." she paused standing up straight to face the man "Now that you have your power back, you're going to do something for me".

"And why would I do anything for you?".

"Because I still have magic. And I'm willing to bet I can get to Belle and tell her everything before you can kill me".

"Don't test me" he warned her.

"Don't test me" she retorted with angry tears in her eye's "You really want to take that chance? That she will, once again, know the kind of man you really are?".

"What do you want, Miss Swan?".

---

"You're going to hell?" Mary Margaret told her daughter as she told her family about her plan to bring back Hook and Amelia from the dead.

Regina had kept her eyes down as she sat at the breakfast bar with John stood beside her with newly names daughter Helen, placed on the breakfast bar and Tom and Henry at the other end. The blonde had jst told them what Gold had done at the expense of the pirate and the assassin.

Anastasia was sat on the staircase with a hard face that could rival the Black Widows as she hunched over with her hand clenched in the other as she stopped herself from leaving the loft and heading to pawn shop and killing him.

"The Underworld" she corrected her mother.

"That's quite a distinction" David added next to his wife.

"I'm getting them back. This isn't fair to Killian or Lia. Gold tricked him" Emma paused to look at Regina and John "And he let her die. Everything they gave up was based on a lie".

"Fottuto bastardo" they heard Anastasia quietly seethed loud enough for the group to hear her from the metal staircase "I think I'd have better chance killing the Imp than what you're suggesting savior. I'll do it myself" she went to stand to make good on her promise only to feel a hand on her shoulder as Robin tried to simmer the angry Duchess from trying something that could end up in her own death instead.

"Emma, you know how this works" David continues "It's a two-for-two trade. To get them both back, two other's will have to die".

"And you just got back from being the Dark One" her mother spoke up "You can't give in to darkness again".

"I won't" Emma tells her mother softly "I'm giving in to love. I'm doing this right. I learned my lesson. I'm taking a page out of your book. You two share a heart. So will we" she looked to Regina who still hadn't said a word to her plan on getting Amelia back "So could you two".

Regina paused looking at the blonde as she thought through her plan before answering her "It could work" she agree's with Emma's hypothesis.

"It will work" Emma insisted.

"Uh" Robin spoke up as he stepped towards the counter "Forgive me if I'm missing the obvious, but, um, how does one get to the underworld?".

---

With their plan set everyone met at the edge of the lake where Juno and Dark Hook were going to meet the ferryman to trade their souls for the souls of the former Dark One's.

The family stood on the back waiting for Emma and Gold at the water's edge as they waited for Gold to call the ferryman forth to take them the Underworld to find Hook and Amelia.

Tom stood with Henry with his own hidden blades strapped to his forearms with Anastasia flexing her forearms making her golden hidden blade jump out their gauntlets, admiring them as they jumped in and out of the top of her hand next to Robin who had his bow and quiver strapped to his back, ready for what and who they would face once they reached their destination.

With a comforting weight in her coat pocket, the former Queen stood with her son's and her soulmates worn leather gauntlets in her hands

"Do it" Emma instructed the Dark One Rumpelstiltskin.

Letting out a sigh the Dark One cut his hand with his dagger with a wince, cupping the blood that welted from the cut looking back at the savior next to him "Are you sure about this?" he asks her.

"Do it" she presses him before Gold turns his hand so the blood drops into the water sending a ripple into the water. Fog swept from the back of the lake until they saw Charon appear in his ferry.

Clutching the leather gauntlets to her chest tighter, the former Queen felt the comforting weight in her coat pocket as they watched the ferryman make his appearance on his boat that would take them to the Underworld. Looking to her right to see Tom staring at lake with a hard-unreadable expression on his face clenching his jaw. The same one Amelia would have whenever she was about to face death in the face. The one she had learnt to put on whenever she was nervous or scared as his fist clenched and un-clenched at his side.

He was being brave for all of them as she reached out to place a hand on Henry's shoulder. As Charon neared Emma was the first to step onto the invisible walkway below the waters surface, taking a leap of faith to get her love back, as her parents followed her with Regina and her son's close behind. She clutched onto Henry's arm as Tom stepped out by himself towards the boat with this sight's set clearly on the mission ahead.

They going to get back the people they cared about most.

Whatever it took.

---

AN: And we made it to the end of Season 5A!

Thank you for your continued support of this story and apologies for the late update (It's late to me) but as you have read it was a BIG chapter.

A trip to the Underworld next!

Woohoo!

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