Once Upon The Underworld (Once Upon A Time)

Chapter 17: "Let's Do This."

Emma's POV:

"It is you!" Neal exclaimed joyfully, pulling me into a hug. "Yes, it is!" From the corner of my eye, I could see Pan's sour expression at our reunion. "Emma how is this possible? How are you here?" I curled my lips in. "I came here to get Hook back. He uh...he was killed." I could see Neal was already getting confused. "Besides the point. Your dad tried to get us here, but he accidentally brought all of you to the real world again." I held up my hands in mock glee. "Surprise." Neal examined himself, looking at his arms and feeling of his skin. "Wow," he murmured. "I mean...I feel the same. But I guess it does feel a little different, this world and all." I nodded. "Yeah. Your father has his ways." Pan cleared his throat. "Excuse me. I hate to break up this happy, happy reunion, but we have work to do." Neal and I both looked in his direction. "Work?" he asked. Pan nodded. "Our friend Emma has a bit of a dilemma," he explained. "She made a mistake with her friend Killian. Long story short, she helped your father kill his daughter." Neal's eyes widened. "You helped Papa kill someone?" he asked me. I nodded, feeling even more ashamed of myself, more so than when I was confronted by Killian. "Yes, yes, yes," Pan drawled, obviously bored with the topic of conversation. "She needs a way the fix what she's done. The way." Neal looked at him, then back at me. "The way?" I asked carefully. "Is that going to help me or hurt me even more?" Pan raised his eyebrows. "Oh, this will definitely help you, Emma. It will be as if this dilemma of yours never happened." I looked at Neal. He was nodding, and seemed to be hanging on Pan's every word. "This sounds way too risky," I said. "I don't know if I want to do this." Neal spoke up. "No, he's right Emma. You need this." "Need what?" I demanded. "Time travel. You need to go back in time and stop my father from killing the girl."

Regina's POV:

I sat alone at the kitchen table. Ever since Mother's groundbreaking news, I hadn't wanted much contact with anyone, not even Robin. However, he'd busied himself with trying to uncover where Zelena was hiding out with her child, and he told me he'd come back when he'd found it. I just couldn't stop thinking about my parents. After hearing the whole story, everything made sense; why Mother felt she had to keep me so high up in society, why Rumplestiltskin chose me to mentor, why I was the one to cast his curse. It wasn't because I was special, it was because I was his kid. The doorbell rang and I hopped up, thinking it might be Robin. But with a draw back of my front door, I found Rumplestiltskin. "What do you want?" I was actually kind of happy that he was here, hoping he was reaching out after all these years. But I couldn't allow myself to show that. He smiled slightly. "Just thought I'd pay you a visit," he said. "May I come in?" I stepped aside and he strode into my house. We sat in the parlor. "Are you holding up alright with the news?" he asked as I poured two glasses of red wine. "I'm fine, I suppose," I replied, setting a glass in front of him. "I never meant for things to happen this way," he said carefully. I took a large sip and promptly set the glass down. "Yes, you and Mother have said that a many of times." "Yes, but I mean it," he said, staring into my eyes. I broke contact and focused on the ceiling. "I was more than prepared to raise a child with Cora. That's why I altered the deal, and she owed me my child. But when she found out she was having you, well, she got cold feet. She told me she would have no part with me and that the child she was carrying would be passed off as the king's. The man you were told was your father all your life." I downed the last sip and began to pour another. "You have a mouth too. You could have told me." "Regina, getting yourself drunk won't make this go away," he said sternly. I sipped anyways. "But it will make it hurt less." He reached for my hand but I quickly yanked it away. "And what is so painful about this?" he asked me. "Because I want to let you in," I replied. "But I just don't know how." I sighed and clasped my hands together. "Mother had my whole life figured out. She told me what she wanted me to know and didn't tell me what she wanted kept a secret. This is just another example." I stood up and began to nervously pace around. "And I guess I shouldn't blame you for keeping it from me. But then again, you seem to regularly defy Mother. So I'm back to not understanding why you kept her secret." Gold sighed. "I suppose I didn't want to rip your fantasy away," he said. I snorted. "What fantasy?" But he remained serious. "Your fantasy of life. I met you once when you were still very young, but your mother made it very clear that she wanted us to have no contact. So I agreed." I came to a realization. "Because you knew one day I'd need you to be my mentor," I thought aloud. He nodded once. "Precisely. And considering I had all the time in the world, I figured I could wait." A smile formed over his face. I tried to force a smile myself. "I'm still angry," I mumbled (if you get this reference you're the real mvp). He nodded. "I know." After a moment of silence I said, "You know I always had my doubts." My father's ears perked up. "About?" I smiled and cocked my head. "You. I always knew there was something more about you than Mother told me. You were her mentor, so what. But out of everything I imagined you might be, this was never one of them." Gold laughed uneasily and stood up. "Well now you know." He checked his watch. "I hate to cut this short, but I must go. We'll talk later, okay." I nodded. "Okay." He walked through the foyer and out the front door. "Dad."

Emma's POV:

"Wait, wait, wait?" I said, shaking my head. "Go back in time? Neal, you're serious?" Neal nodded his head. "Yeah, Emma, I am. Think about, it could fix everything." "Yes, but it could also ruin everything." "Enough," Pan grumbled. He locked his gaze on me. "Do you want to fix this or not?" I nodded slowly. "Then it's settled. We're going back in time." I shoved my hands in my jeans pockets. "Let's get on with this." Peter Pan laughed a snarky laugh and rolled his eyes. "Please," he scoffed. "It's not that simple, Savior. You should know that by now." I looked at him questioningly. "We need a set of ingredients," Neal went on to explain. "What ingredients?" "They're quite simple, actually," Pan said. He paced around the cemetery. "The blood of the most evil, a strand of hair from the most innocent. And a baby. A specific baby." I narrowed my eyes. "A specific baby?" I repeated. They're aren't that many babies in Storybrooke. "Pan, who's baby are we taking?" He smiled devilishly. "Trust me, Emma. You won't mind." "Pan!" "Okay, okay. Robin Hood and the Wicked Witch's." I got a sickly feeling in my stomach. "But...Regina," I murmured. Neal looked at me. "You don't have to do this, you know," he whispered. "You don't have to remind me," I replied. I glared at Pan. "I know I don't!" He smiled evilly and shrugged. "Your choice, Savior." My eyes darted around. "Neal," I said in a quiet voice. "If I do this, I could cause even more trouble. Regina would kill me if I did anything to Robin's baby. So would Zelena!" "May I cut in?" Pan interrupted from behind us. "Go ahead." "You do realize that if we were to get the child long enough to enact the portal, your friend Regina wouldn't remember a thing." I hadn't thought of this. Plus, at this point, what other choice did I have to get Killian back? "Yeah, okay," I agreed compliantly. "Let's do this."