Once on Instagram III

Tougher Than The Rest (Part Two)

October 5, 2017

Regina was muttering words in a language no one could understand as she held her hand over the wound in Gold's stomach. He was still alive for the moment. Emma was next to Regina, One of her hands hovered over Gold next to Regina's and the other was entwined with Regina's free hand. Soon, the bleeding began to stop and the wound closed itself. Once the spell was complete, Regina let go of Emma's hand and breathed a sigh of relief. "He may not wake up for a few hours, but he should live. We should probably get him to the hospital so they can make sure everything is okay, though."

As Emma and Regina stood up, Belle kneeled next to Gold. "Who could've done this?" She asked without looking away from her husband. "I thought our enemies were either stuck in the Underworld or not enemies anymore."

"Maybe it's a new villain?" Neal suggested. Regina rolled her eyes at that.

"Any ideas on who it is?" Belle gently pushed a strand of Gold's hair behind his ear. "What Disney villain have we not encountered yet?"

The sound of a twig snapping stopped anyone from answering Belle's question. Everyone looked towards the direction the sound had come from. A figure was standing in the trees, hidden by the shadows.

Regina summoned a fireball. "Who are you and why did you attack Gold?"

The figure stepped into the clearing, revealing himself. Emma gasped.

"It's what he deserves," the figure said. "He will die under the light of the Harvest Moon."

Emma tried to run forward, but Neal held her back. "Let me go!" Emma yelled. She tried digging her fingernails into Neal's arm, but Neal ignored it. "Let me go! Killian!"

The figure smirked. His eyes were pure black. He spread his arms out, his hook illuminated by the moonlight. "The Darkness will get what it wants."

And then he collapsed.

~

Ruby was in wolf form, looking up at the moon. Dorothy sat next to Ruby, absentmindedly petting her. "They call this the Harvest Moon, you know," Dorothy said aloud. "It's the closest full moon to the Fall Equinox. Usually, it's in September. This is the first time the Harvest Moon has occurred in October since 2009."

The wolf gave Dorothy a quizzical look as if to ask, "How do you know this?"

"I got bored and read an article about it today," Dorothy responded. She looked back up at the moon, "It's so pretty. Feels a little dark though..."

~

Emma couldn't explain what she was feeling. She decided she probably needed to go home and sleep for a good eighteen hours, but they were currently in the middle of nowhere with an unconscious Dark One and a potentially still-possessed Killian, so sleeping would have to wait.

As soon as Killian had collapsed, Emma had been able to break free from Neal's grasp and rush over to the pirate. She understood Neal's concern, but she was also probably the person who was most likely to get through to Killian.

The scene looked like beautiful irony to me. Emma was kneeling over Killian. Belle was still kneeling next to Gold, now holding Rose in her arms. And the Darkness surrounded all of them, waiting for the right moment to pounce, looking for the weakest spot, searching, searching, it wouldn't be long now...

But the Darkness was wrong. It should have known better than to head for the daughter of the Dark One because as soon as the Darkness touched her, time seemed to freeze. It looked like a slow motion explosion of Darkness was erupting from where Rose had reached out to touch it (because she's a baby and she was curious). It reminded Belle of something she swore she'd seen before and then something suddenly clicked in her mind.

"You will only succeed by learning from Harry, Hermione, and Ron."

It was like the Darkness morphed into scenes that Belle could see playing out. She could see exactly what they needed to do and how exactly they needed to do it. Because the Darkness had not chosen the weak spot; it had chosen the spot with the most reinforcements. After all, a mother's love is very powerful magic.

"I've got it!" Belle exclaimed, causing time to propel forwards again.

"Got what?" Emma asked, looking away from Hook.

"Did none of the rest of you just see that?"

Everyone slowly shook their heads, looking at Belle like she was crazy.

"Okay," Belle stood up, "so basically we need to make the dagger a horcrux. We need to tether the Darkness directly to the dagger instead of to a person. And then we need to pass it around like Harry, Hermione, and Ron did with the locket in The Deathly Hallows until we can figure out a way to get rid of the Darkness once and for all. Or until we can figure someone who can live without the Darkness corrupting them."

"How are we supposed to tether the Darkness to the dagger without Gold dying?" Regina asked. "Last time we removed the Darkness from him, he nearly died and it would have destroyed Storybrooke in approximately two minutes had Emma not taken it. Not to mention the fact that it killed the Apprentice in the process."

"We need Nimue," Belle said, as if it were the most natural suggestion in the world. "She's the Mistress of Darkness, the original Dark One. She was the missing part last time. Now that we have Nimue, we can find a way to destroy - or at least control - the Darkness forever."