A/N: Here we are, at the beginning of another one. I'll warn you from the start that this is going to be one very angsty journey, but you can rest assured there will be a happy ending - eventually. I hope you like this story, and please let me know your thoughts on it, what you think will happen, how long you think it's going to take Emma to come back, etc. Your reviews always brighten up my days and I wish I could send each and every single one of you a fresh batch of cupcakes for taking the time to be so lovely.

And without further ado, here it is! Thank you for reading!

Far Away (For Far Too Long)

Prologue

"Swan, whatever happens, know that I love you." He said in an almost whispered, raspy voice.

His words hit her like a sucker punch, taking her breath away and leaving her there, gaping at him, reactionless. She noticed his face seemed tense but otherwise neutral, like he was already resigned to their fate. The lack of that sparkle in his eyes - the one that never failed to take her breath away whenever he looked at her this intensely - in addition to the clear note of worry in his normally smooth, soothing voice were the only things betraying his carefully-built exterior.

They had been dancing around those words for a while now, letting so many moments go without saying them because it just wasn't the right, perfect time, and she would be mad at him for saying them now if she, too, couldn't read him like an open book.

He was afraid, so very afraid. Not of the imminent threat itself, but of what it would mean for them. But of course, being him, the man would probably rather lose his eyeliner than letting his fear show.

(The fact that she knew it was for her sake that he was trying so hard to keep it together only made it worse.)

"The curse! It's HERE!" Leroy's voice echoed all around Storybrooke, its inhabitants rushing to the established meeting point in front of Granny's in a mad frenzy of panic and shock.

And then suddenly she saw David give up all remnants of his regal stance, stopping mid-speech to rush to Emma when he saw her and Killian approaching the spot where the entire town was gathering, Mary Margaret breaking into tears and following soon after.

The prince wrapped his arms around his daughter, a bit too tight to allow her to breathe properly, letting a few thick tears flow down his face and fall into Emma's hair. Her mother quickly joined them, both her parents embracing her and refusing to let go for a long time - refusing to believe they were about to lose their daughter to a curse for the third time around.

Both royals knew everyone looked up to them as leaders, especially at hard times like this, and, now more than ever, they knew their loyal subjects needed to see in them the strength and the courage they would have to find within themselves to face another curse together.

But, at that moment, they were not royals, they were not leaders, they were not a prince and a princess. They were simply Charming and Snow, David and Mary Margaret.

They were two parents being forced to stand back and watch helplessly as their little girl would be taken from them and thrown into a cruel world all alone once again.

Henry was being the bravest of them all, which was no surprise really. Her kid had always had shown himself worthy of his powerful heart. There was more hope and unwavering faith to be found there, Emma would swear on her life, than in all of the townsfolk put together. It's quite ironic how Henry had really taken after Snow, despite having been raised by the Evil Queen, when you think about it. Speaking of, even Regina was showing an unusual amount of affection towards Emma.

"Don't worry, you're the Saviour. You'll break the curse and then you'll bring back our happy endings one more time," Regina said reassuringly. She gave Emma a quick hug and moved back to wait for the curse to strike by Henry's side.

Emma went around shaking hands and exchanging hugs and words of encouragement with everybody until there was only one person left to take leave of her.

Of course he made sure to be the last one she would say goodbye to. And if the whole situation wasn't maddening enough, there he was, trying his damnest to look as though she was only going away for a few days.

The truth, however, was a bit more gruesome.

Emma was being separated from him and everyone she loves for god knows how long, and she had absolutely no idea how she was going to endure their absence, much less how she would comply with her end of the deal with Rumplestiltskin and the Queens of Darkness.

"Killian, I- I can't do this..." She trailed off, her chest suddenly too tight to contain her lungs, even though she could almost feel them withering inside her as all air escaped her.

She was struggling against the overwhelming urge to drop to the floor and let herself cry until all of this was forgotten. This had to be a nightmare she would soon wake up from, it simply could not be real. Having to fend for herself in the real world with the burden of knowing she was an orphan - knowing whoever her parents were and wherever they lived, the two people in the world who were biologically programmed to love her unconditionally had given her up - had been terrible enough.

But now this, this was even worse.

It is one thing to live your life on your own without your parents, and it's an entirely different one to have finally found your family only to lose it again.

(It is one thing to be heartbroken and never allow yourself to fall in love thereafter, and it's an entirely different one to have learned to love again, to have learned to believe there really is such a thing as true love, only to not have it by her side when she needed it - him, she needed him - the most.)

Perhaps the price of being the Saviour - i.e. being perpetually busy giving everyone their happy endings - was that she'd never get her own happily-ever-after; and it wasn't lost on Emma how the realisation that this is what she had secretly dreamed of her entire life was still quite new to her.

"I know, love. You're not a tearful goodbye kiss person." He gently brushed away a single tear that escaped her eye. "But given the possibility that we might spend centuries apart can you blame me for hoping I'd get one?"

"I can't do this without you, Killian." She tried to stifle a sob with little success. "You've always been right beside me on everything. I can't- I don't want to do this on my own."

"Swan..." He felt his heart squeezing in his chest, his composure starting to break as he couldn't hide his concern anymore. He looked at her with so much anguish flashing behind his eyes that she could see how he hated himself at that moment for not going with her clear as a cloudless, blue summer sky.

She leaned her head into the hand he cupped her cheek with, her own coming up to his chest, hoping the steady beating of his heart under her fingertips would soothe her own one last time before she had to go. And, as usual, he could read her like an open book.

"I assure you it'll be beating for you every day until your return."

She sniffed and more tears rolled down her cheeks with his promise. She shook her head because, unlike him, she was more of a realist, and she had no idea if she would ever make it back. She wasn't really afraid - she was fucking terrified. She wanted to lock her arms around him, make him come along with her somehow. Frankly, she had no idea how she would do this without his unfailing trust in her, even (especially) when she didn't trust herself.

She had only been in the Enchanted Forest twice before, and both times she had been with people who were from there and who knew how to not get killed by an ogre for one thing. So how the hell was she supposed to survive there on her own and find the damn storybook and bring it back to Storybrooke?

(The irony in the town's name had never been more infuriating.)

"You can't know that, Killian."

"Oh, but I do know it." He brought his arm around her waist and pulled her to him, holding her close to his heart as she let herself indulge her tears burying her face on his neck.

"You will find the book sooner than you think, love. And then you'll come back to me, like you've always done." That earned him a little huff of laughter and he could feel her lips forming a sad smile against his neck. "I know you'll succeed, Emma. I've yet to see you fail, remember?" He whispered, pressing his lips against her hair.

Emma pulled away a bit to search his eyes, but where she had expected to find signs that he was merely lying to comfort her for the first time in their acquaintance, she didn't. He genuinely believed in her so much that somehow he knew she would get the book and make it back to her family, to him. And seeing such conviction in his eyes at a moment when she was giving in to despair made her feel stronger than ever.

Bringing her hands to both sides of his neck and pulling him down for a kiss, she let her feelings do the talking as she couldn't voice the words she desperately needed him to know. She ran her fingers through his hair and he gently cradled her face in his hand, his other arm holding her firmly against his chest, giving her all the love and support she needed, hoping and praying and believing she would make herself remember this in the future when he wouldn't be there for her.

"There's not a day will go by I won't think of you, Killian," she said, managing a sketch of a smirk more for his sake than hers as she echoed his unforgettable farewell back to him, cursing herself immediately for conjuring the painful memory because god, hadn't they had way more than their fair share of goodbyes by now?

"Good." He smiled, pressing his lips to hers one last time. "Listen, Emma. If there's one thing the last curse taught me is that we were never really apart."

She tilted her head slightly then, looking at him in confusion.

"During the year we spent away from each other you were always with me, in my thoughts, and in my dreams. Haunting my every waking and sleeping moment. Even when I tried to make myself forget you and return to my old life. And you-" his voice then began to break, "you couldn't remember a bloody thing about me, yet you still had one too many nautical memorabilia all over your rather austerely decorated living room. Don't think I didn't notice it, Swan," he said, poking her nose with a smile so sweet she didn't think she could muster a proper response in that moment.

So Emma simply gave him a sad smile and entwined their fingers together. He leaned down so his face was closer to hers, their foreheads touching. She could feel his warm breath on her lips and briefly wondered whether he could taste her tears on his.

"I know better now. I will never leave you, my love. I'll be there with you the entire time, just as you'll be right here with me, too. You know where to find me." She nodded and raised her free hand to his chest, placing it above his heart. "That's a good girl."

He kissed her forehead and she was leaning in to capture his lips again when they were interrupted.

"Alright, that's quite enough now," Cruella said, the Queens of Darkness and Rumplestiltskin having magically puffed themselves in the middle of the town. "I'm afraid your time is up."

Acting on pure instinct, Killian held Emma's hand tighter and brought his other arm around her protectively.

"How's the heart doing, dearie? Feeling a little squeeze?" Rumple asked, shooting a nasty look at Killian, who clenched his jaw and held Emma even closer. "Worry not, Captain. That's not what we're here for."

"Right," Maleficent said, "and it's a good thing the two of you look so... close. Now I know just who to cast the spell on."

Maleficent waved her hand towards the couple and Killian was lifted off the floor, a purple glow gradually enveloping his whole body as he floated above their heads.

"What are you doing?" Emma shouted. She could feel her magic sparking to life in her palms and clenched her fists, trying to hold it back lest she made everything even worse by opening fire on them. "You said I was the only one allowed to leave Storybrooke and everybody else would be cursed."

"Don't say you've never heard about Aurora's sleeping curse?" Ursula huffed in annoyance.

"I have," Emma replied, "and I clearly remember the entire kingdom was put to sleep."

"Indeed, but the spell must be cast on one person, and from there it will then spread to the others. How would you be able to break it otherwise?" Maleficent explained, a challenging look on her face.

"So, I can break it?" Emma asked, sighing with relief when she looked up and saw Killian looking down and meeting her eyes.

"Well, that depends on you, darling," Cruella intervened, approaching Emma and eyeing her from head to toe, as if she could assess her competence to accomplish such a task from a mere once over. "And on the pirate too, I suppose."

"What do you mean? And why did you choose him to cast the curse on?" Emma narrowed her eyes at the woman in the pompous fur coat.

"Listen here, Saviour," Maleficent said, clearly losing her patience. "The only thing that can break the curse is true love's kiss. So, you'd better hope this little dalliance you've got with the pirate is not as pathetic as it seems, or I'm afraid your family and the whole town will be condemned to sleep forever."

Feeling the cold grip of fear crawling around her heart, Emma immediately looked up at Killian then, only to find everything she already knew confirmed in the way his eyes at that moment seemed to be of a blue brighter than the sky beyond him. He was looking back at her and she figured it had got to be love, sheer, pure love that was making his irises shine brighter, and in the soft, reassuring smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, she knew they could do it.

Together, they could.

"I wouldn't worry about that," Emma replied, arching a smug eyebrow, something she had picked up from a certain cocky pirate she happened to like a lot.

"Great. However, we've made a deal. First, you get us the book. And then we'll let you go about kissing him." Maleficent said as she lowered Killian down close to where she was standing.

The second his feet touched the ground he tried to move towards Maleficent and strike her, but he frustratingly found his sword couldn't go through the purple cloud forming around him. He quickly put it back into the scabbard and reached out with his hand, touching the the purple-tinged wall. It seemed he was trapped inside a bubble.

"We'll send you through a portal to the Enchanted Forest, and all you have to do is find the Sorcerer, take his storybook, and bring it back here. It's not too complicated, right?" Ursula offered with a sarcastic smile.

"And how exactly am I supposed to get back to Storybrooke?" Emma asked. "I thought there no more portals in the Enchanted Forest after we undid Regina's curse."

"You're right, dearie, there are no more portals," Rumple said, laughing in that creepy, shrieking way of his. "Which is why we're using Maleficent's last magic bean to take you there. And you'll use this to return." He gave her the same wand she had used to get back from her time travelling adventure with Killian, "I trust you still remember how it works?"

"Yeah. I can use my magic to re-open the portal and it'll take me back here." Emma held the wand firmly in her hands wondering whether she could use it before even trying to find the Sorcerer. Maybe if she had a good plan, or if she was fast enough she could-

"I wouldn't even think about it if I were you." Ursula suddenly interrupted her train of thought. "You might be the Saviour but you'd be up against all four of us. And Rumplestiltskin here tells me you can't even control your powers properly yet," the Sea Witch continued, her laughter producing a sound as hollow as her soul. "It would be ridiculous to even attempt it."

With a thoroughly done roll of her eyes, Emma simply decided to ignore Ursula altogether.

She tucked the wand safely inside her boot and turned to Maleficent to ask the one question that had been making her restless ever since she had made a deal with the villains.

"What if- what if I die before I get the book?"

"Well, we can't have that now, can we, dearie?" Rumple cut in and answered for Maleficent, who shot him a glare that made him step back raising his arms in a mock, non-verbal apology.

"You won't die. I'll make sure of that," Maleficent said with a look on her face that sent a shiver down Emma's spine, her gut telling her the worst part of this curse was about to be revealed.

"How?" Emma braced herself for an answer she already knew she wasn't going to like.

"I added a little twist to this curse. Should you get killed you'll simply start over from where you left off, however many times it takes until you get the book and reopen the portal," Maleficent said, looking extremely pleased with herself. "Until then, you'll wake up with all your wounds healed each time, and you won't age at all."

Killian then started to furiously claw at the purple bubble surrounding him with his hook. "Take me in her place! You don't need the Saviour to be the one to fetch you the bloody book. Let her stay here sleeping peacefully with the rest of her family. My kiss can break the curse just the same as hers." He was shouting at the top of his lungs but not one of the so called Queens of Darkness spared him so much as a glance.

"You're right, Captain," Rumple chimed in. "It doesn't have to be the Saviour specifically, but the Sorcerer has a very strict policy as to who puts their hands in his magical artifacts. He has a certain tendency to only trust those with hearts that have been tempted by darkness and turned away from it. I've taken a good look at yours and I'm afraid it won't do, he would never trust you."

Emma saw the despair written all over Killian's face and rushed over to him, placing her left hand on the wall keeping them apart above where his right one rested on the inside, willing him to feel her touch.

"It's okay, Killian, I'll be fine. Didn't you tell me I would succeed?" She said, unable to hold at bay the new tears that streamed down her cheeks when she saw his desperation for her.

"Aye, love, I know you will," he said in an unmasked hoarse voice. "But I wish I could spare you this torment. I can't bear to think of you going on this bloody quest on your own, and we don't even know how long it's going to take."

"And I can't even think of letting you go in my place." She touched her forehead on the purple wall and he did the same from inside the bubble. "I'd never let you go alone either, but we have no choice. I have to do this."

Killian nodded as a single, traitorous tear managed to find its way down his cheek. "You'll come back to me, Swan. I know you will."

"I promise you." She paused for a moment before asking him as a shy laugh escaped her lips, "do you think you'll still love me even years from now?"

In response, he gave her a smile - a true, whole-hearted smile for the first time that day.

"And far beyond that. How could I not, Emma, when you're taking my heart away with you?"

"Good. Because I have something very important to tell you when I get back."

"I'll always wait for you, my love."

Emma lifted her head and saw Maleficent approaching them.

"I guess we're ready then," Maleficent said.

Emma looked back to find her parents, Henry, and the rest of Storybrooke watching them, their faces steeled, not with fear, or worry, but with hope. Even Mary Margaret had stopped crying and was now smiling at her daughter, and whether she was sending her warm, fuzzy thoughts Emma couldn't tell, but she could swear she felt herself getting stronger just by holding her mother's gaze for a little while.

Maleficent waved her hand in Killian's direction and the bubble around him disappeared soundlessly. Emma saw the thick, purple smoke enveloping his whole body again until his comforting smile faded from his lips and his eyes fell closed, his handsome features softening into a tranquil expression. Then, the fog lifted and he was slowly lowered to the asphalt where he was to lay for who knows how long. When Emma knelt beside him, she turned around to find everybody else already asleep on the street too, a thin violet haze floating around all of them.

Emma turned back to Killian and brought her hand to his face, stroking his cheek fondly and tracing that scar she was so fond of with her thumb, committing to memory every single line in his countenance. She knew she'd need to see that face in her dreams otherwise her sanity would quickly abandon her.

"I'll come back to you as soon as I can," she whispered to his sleeping form, hoping he could hear her in his dreams.

Emma stood up with a sharp intake of breath. She looked at the four villains with her chin held high, glaring defiantly at each of them as a warning that when she returned, she would make sure they paid the price for their deeds.

"Open the portal. I'm ready to go."