As I have said, I have several chapters written in advance and had planned to post this yesterday. I didn't. I wasn't happy with one section. So I rewrote it and that changed the whole chapter so I had to fix it. I apologize for the delay, as I have not been feeling well, had a horrible couple of days at work, and am now sleep deprived and hungry.

So thanks to those of you who have written comments, followed, favorited, liked, and given kudos. I must say you are more than motivating me right now.

Snow had a nightly ritual that she had kept since she was a small child. She would splash cold water on her face from a basin or other nearby water source, brush out her long dark hair, section her hair off and braid it into a thick rope before tying it off and heading to bed. David had long since learned that she was not to be deterred from that ritual or he would find her up in the middle of the night completing the missed steps.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked David as he sat at the reading desk near the bed they shared. Many married couples of royal birth stopped the sharing of rooms and beds after an heir had been produced, but these two had no such ideas.

"It's Emma's decision," David said distractedly. "She can say no if she wishes. And we should support that."

"I hope she's ready for this," Snow lamented as she began to section off her hair. "She doesn't even know Regina. I at least remember her before she turned so…"

"Nasty?"

"I was going to say bitter," the Queen answered. "Emma's so young. She doesn't know what it was like when Regina was ruling and Rumpelstiltskin was at his most powerful. How close we came to losing her to that awful curse."

David placed the book that he and Robin had been looking at in the library after dinner on the table and looked at his wife. "Emma is a grown woman and capable of her own decisions. She's older than you were when you and I were finally settled into running this kingdom. She's aware of the risk. It's not as though we are planning to send her into battle with the Dark One alone. It's…"

"We don't have a plan," Snow reminded him. "We could very well be sending her into…"

David stood up abruptly. "You can't think I'm going to let her face him alone. Snow, I love my daughter. I won't sit idly by as she destroys her life, especially for someone like Regina. We're simply going to use her power and abilities to scare Rumpelstiltskin. He knows from legend that she is special. He has heard rumor of her abilities. We are going to play that up. Make him paranoid and scared to face her."

"And if that doesn't work?"

"It will work," David said forcefully. "What happened to my optimistic wife who was always telling me how we would triumph?"

Snow's hair was now fully braided and she was pulling back the covers on their bed. "She's scared for her daughter. Why are we doing this? Yes, Regina seems to have changed and it is horrible that her son is in danger. I feel for her and Henry. But how is this our concern?"

David blew out the two candles that adorned the vanity and joined his wife in the massive bed that had been built specifically for that room by Marco. "When you ask it that way, I am not sure why we should help Regina. But she is a member of this kingdom, a kingdom we have vowed to protect from the evil of people like him. And Robin makes a good point, how are we to trust that Rumpelstiltskin would stop at Henry? What if he has bigger plans that would destroy us all?"

Snow adjusted the blanket across their laps and then leaned into his chest as his arm went around her. "Do you think Robin truly loves her? I was surprised to see she is married with a family now. No word of that has ever been spoken to us." David's laugh was a bit too loud and she slapped his chest playfully. "I'm serious. What if he's after her for her money?"

"Just a moment ago you were worried that we were being too kind to her to help her protect her son and now you are worried that she may need our assistance with Robin?"

She groaned. "I know. I know. But she deserves happiness. Everyone does."

"And I will trust that Robin and those boys are her happiness." David said. "Look, we've got a lot of planning to do. Regina's certain that Rumpelstiltskin will come after Henry, but we want to strike first. So we've got to find him. We've got to be ready for him."

***AAA***

Emma's eyes stared toward the ceiling of her room, an ornately designed motif of a night sky that had been there since before she was born. It had always been a comforting sight, a beautiful reminder of just how loved and cherished she had been even before her birth. Growing up she had actually believed it to be her own personal window into heaven, a view that not all were so lucky to see. However, she later learned it was paint that had created it.

Now it seemed to mock her as the morning birds began to chirp and the sky outside her window lightened with the dawn of a new day. She had not slept at all, her mind replaying conversations and moments that she had preferred to keep hidden.

The most prominent in her mind was four years ago. She had stared up at a night sky much like the one in her room and felt the searing pain of childbirth as she labored on the way to the summer palace where she had been hiding. She had bit back the screams of agony as the midwife moved effortlessly to deliver the child she had been carrying for not quite nine months, her anticipation of the moment growing. There was a final wave of pain as she screamed out in agony and then nothing. An eerie silence replacing what had been loud and confused. Her head had raised from the makeshift bed, sweat matting her golden hair to her scalp as she looked toward the kindly woman who was cradling the newborn in her arms. The baby made no noise and other than a thatch of dark and matted hair, Emma did not see the child.

"Is the baby?"

"He's gone," the woman had said almost instantly. She had hurried him away, not allowing Emma even a glance at her son. She longed for that moment, longed to call out that she wanted to see him, hold him and for a moment know what he would have felt like in her embrace. She regretted her mute reply, the quiet tears that fell instead of words.

She'd imagined her son over the years that followed, pictured his firsts, his growth, his coming into boyhood as though he was really there. So to see a boy who was just as her son appeared in her mind's eye had thrown her as sure as a bucking horse would have done. She knew that she must move past this feeling of exhilaration and despair she felt upon seeing Regina's son. It would be hard, but perhaps the concentration on the search for the Dark One would tide her over.

***AAA***

Snow was up with the sun, pacing in the small alcove between her children's rooms. Her long dark hair was twisted into a knot at the base of her neck and her right hand seemed to check on it constantly in a nervous habit. Her ritual of walked four paces and then looking to Emma's door continued until the sound of her daughter's awakening alerted her that she could now speak to the young woman.

"Emma?" she asked, rapping at the door with a closed fist. "It's your mother."

It seemed silly to identify herself in such a way, but she did it as both a sign that she was hiding nothing and a hope that her daughter would be pleased with the visit. The movement in Emma's room stopped and then just as suddenly the door opened. Mother regarded daughter with a concerned yet suspicious eye, taking in the dark circles under the younger woman's eyes and the bleary expression that complemented it.

"Oh my sweet girl," she said, pulling her daughter against her. "You have been up all night?"

Emma continued the embrace for just a moment longer and then pushed back with her palms on the Queen's shoulders. "I wrote to Elsa," she said in a voice much calmer than her demeanor appeared to dictate. "I wanted some advice about magic."

It was a sore spot for the mother who had never embraced the path herself. She had watched both Regina and the former queen's mother struggle with the power of it. The light had given way to murky and then to a sultry dark that both enticed and frightened her. She did not want that fate for her daughter, who seemed to throw about magic as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. Snow would never have been the first to be called by her daughter for advice on the topic, but to hear that her daughter was seeking outside counsel was disconcerting.

"I know that her answer will be a comfort to you," Snow said. Her daughter's white gown gave the tired young woman a ghostly appearance as the long material brushed the floor.

"You needn't worry about me," Emma told her mother, gripping the woman's hands tightly in her own. "I want to do this."

Emma's mother nodded her head and began to explain the day to her daughter. "I have sent for Red and Granny. They should arrive by supper tonight. Graham has called upon some men he knows to help find the Dark One. He is known to cloak his home in an effort to keep people away. Yet some claim to have seen glimpses of it over the years."

"He said he will always leave some clue," Emma said, backing her way into the room. "Just before Baelfire and I were to leave. He told his son that he would always leave a clue to allow Baelfire to come back home. I don't know what he has left, but there must be something."

"It's been four years, Emma," Snow said, following into her daughter's sanctuary. "Surely even the Dark One has given up on leaving clues to allow his son to return home to him."

Emma glanced toward the closed and leaded window. "He isn't easily deterred, quite obsessive really. You know that."

"He has demons within him, Emma," her mother said as she tried to compose herself. "You should have seen him before you were born. He was desperate to learn your name. Said it in the most sickening of ways." Tears were forming in her mother's eyes, but the queen brushed them away with the back of her hand. "We went to him at our most desperate. You were due to be born and the curse was upon us. He told us then that you were special, that you would be the one to undo the curse."

Emma had heard of the curse, but she had never been told the full extent of it. "What do you mean undo the curse?"

"The man speaks in riddles, but he was clear about that. He said that it would be you and that you would be 28 years old. I don't know any more than that. It was a comfort at the time to know that it would someday end, but then it failed. It didn't work."

"Love won over hate," Emma said, repeating the phrase that her father had often used when describing the curse to his daughter. "Your true love was stronger."

"Perhaps," Snow said. "But I would think it likely that Rumpelstiltskin has some sinister sort of plan for Henry. Regina, Robin, and your father are headed to the library vault today to study up on some of the curses and spells that might fit."

"And you will be staying behind to wait for Red and Granny?"

"Yes, I should. I was thinking that perhaps we should summon Blue. She might help you prepare?"

***AAA***

The Jolly Roger's sails were freshly made without the benefit of magic, but that was not that big of a deal to the men planning to sail with her. It was Killian who had the harder time looking upon the crisp white material with anything but disdain for what should have been there. That was one of his last thoughts as he returned to the inn for a final inspection of his belongings he had been keeping there in what had been his home until late.

The doorway on the side of the building was a low one, probably meant for the seven men of not much height who visited with Granny and Red on a regular basis. He had to duck to enter it and avoid hitting his head on the low overhead beam. Killian covered the brass knob with his hand and tried to turn it, finding the door locked for the first time he had ever encountered it.

"They're gone," Lily said as she rounded the corner. "Locked up and set off for some place. I don't know what they were thinking."

"Aye, just as well," Killian muttered in reply. He gave a half salute kind of gesture with his hand and turned.

"She put a spell on you, didn't she? That Emma girl?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, lass," Killian answered. He had his suspicions, but talking about them with Lily made no sense. "Emma and a spell?"

Snorting inelegantly, Lily turned to face the water. "Fine, don't listen to me. But she's a witch. Makes sense she'd be close with a family of lycans. But you falling for her is a disaster. Women like that…"

Killian tuned her out, waving a quick goodbye as he crossed over the alleyway to the dry goods store. "Have you heard from the Lucas women?" he asked, feeling strange at their sudden disappearance. "Any word from them?"

"Something about old friends summoning them for help," the middle aged and accented man behind the counter said. "Now are you buying or just looking."

"Asking," Killian said, running a hand over the counter's built in measuring device. "Tell me what you know."

"I just did," he said impatiently. "Now I've got customers."

Killian took a step back as the man helped two young women pick out lace for the dressmaker in town. They were excited about their first ever dance that was supposed to take place in a few weeks to mark the beginning of summer. He glanced about the practical items, inventorying his supplies in his head when he saw the necklace glinting out from under a thick catalog. He pulled it out and stared at the pendant of an anchor, its fine details remarkably intricate and accurate for such a small piece. He let the chain dangle over the fingers of his right hand, trying not to consider the implications of buying a bauble such as that. However, when the clerk came back and asked after the item, Killian dropped a few coins on the counter and carried it back to his ship with excuses pouring out of his brain already.

***AAA***

Elsa's letter arrived by midmorning, announcing that she would travel as soon as it was safe to do so. "I cannot leave you to face this foe alone, Emma. This is not a statement of your not being fit to face him, but one of my desire to join you in the task."

Emma was secretly thankful for the support that was coming in a magical form rather than an emotional one. Though her mother had yet to contact the Blue Fairy, Emma was sure that she should at least get in some practice before anyone else arrived. So kissing her mother's cheek after breakfast and trying to ignore the pangs in her chest as the innocent eyed Henry watched her leave, Emma stole into the inner chambers of the palace. Snow had ordered this area constructed for her archery practice, though Emma preferred the cross-bow that Granny had taught her to use.

Emma stood in what felt like a long stone hallway with a ball at one end. Her hands were raised and she felt the tingling release as she levitated the ball and then lowered it with a less than graceful drop. Frowning, she tried again.

"You can't celebrate too soon," the unfamiliar voice of Regina cut through the haze of her concentration. "You have to visualize it to its completion, fully engage." Emma's head whipped in the direction of the voice, the ball wobbling in the air as she did so. "No, don't look at me. Look at the ball. Imagine a hand holding it steady."

Emma's green eyes narrowed onto the orb that her brother liked to lob over the stone wall of the garden. There were a few moments of instability but the advice worked and she steadied it. Regina offered her no praise as Emma would expect from Blue or even Elsa when she performed such a task.

"I did it," she said proudly, again causing the ball to dip.

"And you celebrated too soon. Steady it." Regina's voice was crisp like the morning weather. Her tone echoed off the stone walls. "Now lower it. Slowly. It's not a race. Control is much more important than speed at this point. Picture the ball as a person you are moving out of the way. You don't want to drop them. You don't want the jostle them."

Emma's lip indented as her teeth bit into it. The ball shook for a moment and then came to rest on the floor without incident. Lowering her hands, the Princess turned to the other woman and smiled brightly. "Not bad, right? I should thank you for your…"

"It was a ball, Emma," the former queen admonished. "You must have been doing that particular trick for years. If not, we are going to be grossly outplayed by the Dark One. That's a child's game, not true magic. Turn the ball into something. Make it a weapon. That's what we need." She thrust one hip out, a fist at it as if she was holding back the magic she didn't have any longer. "Magic isn't we dabble in. It's a path for the strongest souls. Don't feel ashamed if you aren't ready. Just be honest about it."

Emma's anger boiled as she tried to ignore the fact that this woman criticizing her was the same woman who came begging her parents for help. The binding cuff was peeking out from beneath the sleeve of her dress and Emma realized that Regina must want so badly to do this herself. "I am a bit rusty and out of practice," Emma said, hoping to squelch the woman's fears. "I was just trying…"

"We don't have time for children's games, Emma. We need to be ready." And though she did not disappear into a cloud of smoke, she was gone from the area in a hurry and left Emma with a gnawing feeling in her stomach that she was hiding something.

***AAA***

Well brought up ladies took naps in the afternoon, at least that is what Johana would say to her as she encouraged such a thing for Emma. There were few things Emma hated more, especially when her little brother outgrew the concept. Snow did not encourage it, but after a night of no sleep, Emma gladly took advantage of the rest at the same time as Roland and Henry were scurried away to the nursery on the same floor.

Despite her exhaustion, Emma's sleep was fitful. She would sleep for only a few minutes at a time and then stare at the ceiling in abject horror over a dream or thought. Maybe that was why she heard the whimper and the shuffled steps of a child outside her door. Emma threw open the door to see the chocolate brown eyes and hair of the little boy she had fled from hours earlier. "Henry, are you okay?"

The boy nodded, asked for his mother and then jumped as the sound of the servants moving some piece of furniture sounded too much like a thunderous crash. Emma held her breath as she knelt before him and clucked sympathetically over his obvious distress. "I don't know but we'll find her," Emma told him. He took her proffered hand, his own small and stubby with youth. "Let's see what we can find."

The two stole down the corridor, Emma peeking into the room where the boys had been sleeping to make sure that Roland seemed to be slumbering. She swung his hand a bit in playful manner to put aside the feelings of fear and uncertainty that they were both feeling in that moment. Through his tear filled eyes, he gazed up to her and offered a cautious smile of hope. "This place is so big," he said with a bit of awe in his voice.

"It isn't so bad when you get to know it," Emma said. "And there are plenty of places to hide and play. Perhaps we can find some of them for you?" She looked around as though there might be spies afoot. Focusing on a large tapestry that appeared to depict a door in the middle of a garden, she knelt down to the boy again, lifting his left arm and using his index finger to point at it. "See that door there? Well, it's a real door. Only the most special people can make it open. Perhaps you and Leo and I can explore it sometime?" She meant to bring up Roland too, but she couldn't for the life of her remember the child's name.

Looking less traumatized and more curious, he stared up toward her again. "Can Roland come too?"

"Of course," Emma promised him. The two passed by some of the lesser used rooms, including the ballroom and adjoining sitting areas where her parents typically entertained. She could see the servants bustling about to prepare spots for Granny, Ruby, and Elsa who were all due in soon. Her mother was supervising them, instructing on where the sheets needed to be changed and special touches each room should have.

Her mother jumped as Emma said her name. "Emma! You scared me!" The Queen threw her hands over her chest and laughed. "And you brought a guest."

Emma felt the tiny tug of Henry's hand in hers. "Mother, you know Henry. We're looking for Regina, as he's missing his mother right now."

"Oh my," Snow said, frowning at Emma before turning on her best motherly smile. "Regina and Robin have gone with your father to speak to some of the guards. They won't be back for a bit."

Emma's heart sank as the little boy's bottom lip trembled. "Oh that's quite alright, mother. I was telling Henry of the secret passage in the great hall. Perhaps we could go explore it now? Your brother should be waking up soon."

Smiling sweetly at both of them, Snow clapped her hands together. "Wonderful idea," she exclaimed. "I haven't thought about that passage in so long." She bent forward to be more on Henry's level. "Emma used to play with her dolls in there."

"Dolls?" Henry asked in a petrified voice.

"It's okay," Emma said. "I'm sure Leo has some toys we can borrow."

***AAA***

Killian's shoulders slumped as she dug his hand into his pocket and stared over the edge of the railing into the water. He was, he thought forlornly, an idiot. Every part of his body was telling him that Emma was in need of something. That had to be where the Lucas women were going. Yet she had not mentioned that need to him. She had not turned to him when he could surely offer her some sort of support.

"Blackbeard's ship was spotted not more than a day from here," Smee told him. Killian nodded and pretended to smile the best he could in a way that would show he was looking forward to the battle. To tell the truth, he couldn't have cared any less at that moment. The gnawing at his gut was growing from annoying to a burning sensation.

He almost asked Smee of the developments of Mist Haven, as the first mate would assuredly know more than most people. He was always listening, observing and taking in his surroundings. But Killian didn't ask, again settling back on the fact that Emma seemed to not want him to know and had not requested his assistance. He might have let his mind jostle this a while longer had that yellow bird not landed on the wheel of his ship and stared toward him with practical assurance.

Leaving the ship in his crew's capable hands, Killian was quickly shutting the door to his cabin with the rolled paper in his hand. His eyes quickly scanned the page, considering the narrow writing and lack of flourish as a sign of her stress.

Dear Killian,

I hope that my letter finds you well and that your sea voyage is everything that you wish it to be. It has been weighing heavily upon me that I never fully answered your question as to my powers. I am reluctant to say too much in writing for fear of this falling into the wrong hands. Your assessment has been right and I do possess something beyond others.

She never directly referred to any pending danger, but she did speak of her magic in terms of learning to wield its powers to protect her family. And though he could not see her, he detected the nervousness at this revelation. She was clearly not herself as she revealed this truth about herself, one that he would be remiss to not see as a true step forward. She did trust him with this secret.