Chapter 1: Hearts can tell :

Shortly after Princess Cordelia's fifth birthday, Queens Regina and Emma were relaxing together in their sitting room enjoying the time of peace within their joined kingdoms. As they sipped glasses of Regina's homemade hard apple cider, they were interrupted by a frazzled Cora. "Regina, Emma I am so glad I found you…" wheezed Cora as she struggled to catch her breath.

"Mother? Why are you so frazzled? Is it Henry? Or Cordelia? Did something happen to Zelena or my niece or nephew?" questioned a rather shocked Regina, as she never expected to see her mother so out of sorts. Emma though remained as calm as she could be as she got up out of her seat to help her mother in law onto one of the chaise lounges so that she could relax and catch her breath before continuing with what she had clearly rushed over to tell them.

"Here Cora please sit, you look like you could use the rest," was all Emma said before moving back to her own armchair she only recently vacated to help Cora who silently thanked Emma with a simple nod as he was still calming down from the ordeal she had just witnessed.

"No our family is alright, that isn't what I rushed up here to tell you. Please listen and don't interrupt there isn't much time…"explained Cora once she was seated. "As you know I was just out in the courtyard with your sister, we were just minding our business when we saw dark swirls of magic flying through the air. At first I was worried that it was a new curse or perhaps the Chernabog had been released somehow; but no it wasn't that at all. I fear that Rumple has died," Cora managed just as the dark swirling magic had made its way into the sitting room.

Regina and Emma immediately jumped into action preparing to blast the dark magic away. At first, the magic swirled around Cora but couldn't find what it was looking for now that Cora had redeemed herself was too old for what the darkness wanted. The magic knew she wouldn't be the right candidate and so it moved onto Regina, swirling in earnest. Emma didn't panic, instead she blasted the dark, swirling magic with all of the light magic within herself drawing from her love for Regina and their entire extended family. It was only with her sheer determination and love that the dark magic was pushed away from Regina and into Emma herself.

Since the darkness targeted Emma out of nothing but desperation, its only desire was to snuff out the light magic within Emma with all the power it had in its arsenal. All that could be heard from the blonde was her scream as the darkness consumed nearly all of her light magic, turning her heart dark with only a small portion of goodness and love left residing within her. For no matter what the Dark One's magic tried it just couldn't take away Emma's love for Regina or her love for her children and family.

Even so, the effect of the dark magic was starkly noticeable. Emma's hair had lost its golden colour. Emma looked haggard in her struggle to maintain the last remnants of her light magic. The war within her heart, mind, body and soul a constant battle between the darkness now residing in her heart and the purity of true love fighting with all its might to push it out. Emma's magic, which was once a delicate balance of light and dark magic living and working in harmony, was now out of control and she barely contained it within her hands. She gave Regina a loving, yet longing look before she was engulfed in dark grey smoke that took Emma away from her true love without her permission, to the once seemingly abandoned castle of the former Dark One. Now that same castle was occupied by Tinkerbell and Cruella De Vil who alongside Maleficent were smiling with evil glee.

Their plan to destroy the fated couple's happiness had only just begun. Tinkerbell's wings quivered as she flew around the castle in victorious celebration, for she had managed to find the Dark One's dagger. With Cruella's and Maleficent's help, she was able to procure vials of Regina's and Emma's blood, as well as a separate one containing the strands of their hair and the power of actual true love.

They had combined all three ingredients in a small cauldron that Maleficent often brewed her potions in. She was the one that procured the dagger by getting into the Dark Castle rather easily, as Regina never thought of preventing her former flame and friend from safely passing through the protective barrier, unaware of the grudge she may hold against her. Mal was sure though that if she tried visiting Regina now, she would no longer be able to cross the protective magic that would surely include the dragon-shifting sorceress.

But entering the castle was the easy part.

Staying hidden from its many inhabitants was a difficult task but fortunately for her she had managed to avoid detection. Mal had expected to see Regina's name written on the silver dagger but was surprised to see the Saviour's name written across it instead. "Looks like Emma lived up to her reputation and saved the ex-evil queen from becoming the new Dark One," stated the black and white-haired Cruella as she sipped from her martini glass and lovingly threaded her fingers through the long, blonde tresses of the dragon shifter's hair, whose head was currently resting in her lap.

The trio was startled out of their celebration of both the death of Rumpelstiltskin and the creation of a new Dark One that they believed they could mold to do their bidding, by the appearance of Emma in the cloud of dark grey, smoke that soon cleared to show her in all her new Dark One glory. "You summoned me Greenie?" questioned Emma as she glared at the fairy who was holding onto her new dagger.

"Yes, I want you to take me to Blue!" declared Tinkerbell. The first thing she wanted was to see her mentor who just happened to be her mother, not that Blue would ever admit to that fact. Emma glared at the fairy as she tried her best to resist the command. The pull to obey was strong, but thankfully this time Emma was stronger than the call of the dagger.

"No! I will not take you to Blue. She can't help you anyway. She was stripped off all her magic. Whatever it is that you want to achieve will have to be done without that nutcase," retorted Emma as she glared at the green fairy. She made her way over to the lounges where Maleficent and Cruella were currently sitting at and sat on the lounge opposite the two women, awaiting the next hairbrained command the Green Fairy might come up with next.

Maleficent got up off of Cruella's lap so she could get a good look at the woman who managed to win the heart of her former flame, Queen Regina. Upon the first glance she couldn't see what the big deal was about. Sure, she was a blonde and had strong magic, but other than that Mal couldn't understand why Regina would fall for the daughter of her enemy. Let alone have two children with her.

Mal, of course, was jealous of Emma. She got to have the one woman that the dragon shifter had wanted for a long time. She once thought that maybe Regina would be the one for her, but sadly it wasn't meant to be. This lead Mal to fall into the arms of another dragon shifter, commonly known as Zorro. Then of course those two idiotic 'heroes' Snow White and her Prince Charming stole her egg and sent it into a portal, all because they didn't like that she burned a few villages.

So suffice it to say, Maleficent held a long standing grudge and what better revenge than to use their own daughter to cast a dark curse? There is only the small matter of Tinkerbell being the one to have control over the Dark One's dagger. Mal turned to face Cruella and they shared an evil grin. She could tell that Cruella was thinking along the same line of her own. They were going to have to outmanoeuvre the fairy.

Meanwhile over in the Dark castle Regina was now very much freaking out, bordering on the edge of letting out her inner evil queen. Something she hadn't felt in many years.

"Why would Emma do that? Just take on the Dark one's powers? Who the fuck dared to steal the dagger and summon her?!" Exclaimed Regina, as she lost herself to the multitude of emotions swirling around inside her.

"Don't worry Regina we will find her. You need to be calm for both Henry and Cordelia. Especially for your daughter, she is too young to fully understand what is going on so you need to get yourself together so that we can figure out a plan to find Emma.