Dark One's Daughter *Book Three*

Snow Drifts {2}

Now that we had screwed up bigtime, we started to speed up our trek to my old house. No one really said much as we were all worried about what the hell we had done. If we didn't sort things out soon, Emma will never have been born, nor Henry. But an hour later, we arrived at the top of the hill that overlooked the castle I had once called home.

"Now this, my dears, is the Dark One's Castle or as I used to know it, home," I announced, gesturing to the castle in front of us.

"How come you never mentioned you lived in a castle?" Emma asked.

"Never really found a good time to mention it, I guess," I shrugged.

"Well, it's certainly more imposing than the pawnshop," Emma muttered. "So, what do we do now? Knock on the door and introduce ourselves as friends of Tasha."

"Probably best to refer to me as Amie in front of him. He might get confused and not trust you if he thinks you don't even know my name," I said.

"Might be best if I stay back. The Dark One and I have a rather complicated past that is yet to be sorted out at this time. I'd wager he'd want to kill me on sight," Killian said, and I agreed.

"Oh, I'll take that bet," the familiar voice of my father said from behind us, making Emma jump.

When we turned around, Papa didn't notice me at first as he started doing his 'Rumplestiltskin laugh', waving his hands in front of him in excitement. I glanced to my side and saw Emma's mouth hanging wide open as she saw the Dark One said of my father. From his shining skin to his dilated eyes.

"I can't tell you how long I've been looking forward to this!" Papa exclaimed excitedly; his eyes fixated on Killian. "Oops. I suppose I just did." He then started chocking Killian using his magic.

"Stop!" Emma demanded but Papa just sent her flying to the ground.

"I don't know who you are, dearie, but why don't you run off and let me enjoy my killing in peace?" Papa said to her.

"Papa, stop," I ordered him, stepping in between him and Killian.

"Amie? What are you doing? Let me kill him," Papa said, still chocking him.

"Just let go of him for a second and let me explain, please," I requested as calmly as I could. "He isn't here to hurt you so I need you to listen to me. If you listen to me and let me explain, I will tell you what has become of Baelfire."

Papa paused for a moment, thinking over my offer before he released Killian and turned to me. He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head as he examined me.

"You're different," Papa said before taking a step closer to me. "How do I know that this is really you? My daughter would never have stopped me from killing that man."

"Things have changed," I told him. "You see that woman there." I pointed over to Emma, who was helping Killian off the ground. "That is the person who is going to break the curse we have planned. The curse that we're going to get the Evil Queen to enact for us so we can find Bae, this is the person who will break that curse so we can find him. She's the product of true love."

"But that's speculation. Part of our plans. But we haven't done it," Papa muttered.

"We will, and we will succeed," I confirmed.

"If that's true, then that means..." Papa trailed off.

"We're from the future, mate," Killian said.

"But time travel hasn't been done, mate," Papa mocked.

"Yeah, well, someone's cracked that code," Emma said, making Papa look over at her. "We need your help."