Belle snuck down into the dungeon again, a letter clenched tightly in her fist. When she arrived, Rumple looked up at her hopefully, and she smiled back.

"You have good news?" he asked.

"Not the news you're hoping for," she said. "But I think … I think it can be good news."

Without saying another word, she held out the crumpled paper in her hand. In the dim light of the dungeon, he squinted to read it:

Dear Belle,

Thank you for everything. You helped me to realize who I truly am – a hero who saves the monsters, not one who destroys them – and without your help, I might never have fulfilled my destiny. I need you to tell Rumplestiltskin that his plan isn't going to work. The curse has been destroyed, but if he wants to be reunited with his son, I know of another way he can do that. There's a wardrobe in my old nursery that is said to have the power to transport two people to the land without magic. You're welcome to use it.

Sincerely,

Emma

Finishing the letter, Rumple looked at Belle through the bars of his cell. She was grinning.

"We don't have to hurt anyone, Rumple. I can get you out of this cell, and we can go to this new land together to find your son."

He frowned, hesitating.

"What's wrong?" she asked, reaching out and taking his hand.

"I'll have to give up my power," he said in the soft tone that he reserved only for her. "I'll be weak. Like everyone else."

"So you're afraid," Belle guessed.

"I've always been a coward."

"But you won't be alone," she said. "You'll have me. We can look out for each other, Rumple. We can be together. Please, just do this for me."

He smiled and squeezed her hand, giving an almost imperceptible nod.

Snow White paced back and forth in the bedroom she shared with her husband. Weeks had passed, and still no word from her daughter, no sign that Emma might regret her decision or want to come home. Meanwhile, their most dangerous prisoner had escaped, and the castle librarian, Belle, had gone missing along with him. The old rumors that her love affair with the Dark One had never ended seemed more likely every day. The betrayal stung, but there was nothing to be done about it now.

Neither she nor Charming had admitted out loud that Emma was gone for good. It seemed he was determined that she would return, even if it took her years. Snow knew better. She knew that the people she loved really could just turn against her; her stepmother had done it, and now her daughter. (Did Charming understand now why, despite everything, she could never kill Regina?)

But hope was in Snow's nature, and so she continued to hope, day after day, that the next person to come to the castle's gates would be her daughter, ready to be welcomed home and forgiven for everything. It might never happen, but Snow would never stop hoping.

Weeks turned into months, and the inhabitants of the Forbidden Fortress had settled into a routine, albeit one where family arguments were likely to include fireballs along with slammed doors and tense dinnertime discussion. Snow White wrote once a month, and her letters left Emma in tears. Soon, she stopped reading them at all and just threw them into the fire.

Regina was bitter and hostile, slowly learning to live with the fact that she wouldn't be able to get her revenge, but not quite willing to accept it yet.

"It will get better," Maleficent assured her. "Sooner or later, you'll find something that's more important than revenge, and that's how you start to move on."

None of them were quite sure that the Evil Queen was capable of that. But who knew? Maybe it wasn't too late for anyone, even her. Maleficent had made it clear she was welcome to stay at the forbidden fortress as long as she liked, and Emma decided she would do whatever she could to help. She was the one who had convinced Regina to destroy the curse. Making sure she didn't regret it was the least she could do.

It was a struggle for Emma, dealing with the darkness that had suddenly invaded her. But it was her darkness. She would learn to cope with it sooner or later. At the very least, she decided, it was better to struggle with having a part of her be dark than to maintain her so-called purity at such a high cost.

To her surprise, Lily struggled as much as she did. Relieved of the extra darkness she had carried all her life, she was flooded with regrets. Some nights she would wake up in tears over some awful thing she had done years ago, and Emma would just hold her and whisper words of comfort.

"You're sorry now," she murmured, stroking Lily's hair. "That's what matters. We all have our own regrets."

Before long, almost a year had passed, and Snow's bird messengers stopped coming. The queen apparently had nothing more to say to her wayward daughter. Emma tried not to let it show, but she couldn't deny the sadness she felt, realizing her parents had given up on her.

"So write to them," said Lily.

"Absolutely not."

"Hey, I'm not saying you have to forgive them. Just write and tell them how you feel."

It wasn't bad advice, and an hour later, Emma was finishing off her letter to her parents:

Mom and Dad,

I'm not really sure where to start. I'm not going to apologize for loving someone you don't approve of, and I'm not going to apologize for the fact that part of me is dark now. That's how people are supposed to be: not storybook heroes or villains, but in between.

I miss you. I love you. But I'm not asking for your forgiveness. I don't think I've done anything that needs forgiving.

I'd like to see you again.

Love,

Emma

She sent the message off with one of Maleficent's ravens and watched it fly away with a sad smile on her face. She wasn't sure whether her parents would even want any sort of reconciliation, and maybe her message had been too harsh, maybe it would just offend them even more. But she couldn't worry about that. She had said what she wanted to say, and it was up to them now.

She turned and went back into the Forbidden Fortress, where Lily was waiting. This was who she was now. The fairy tale princess who lived among villains and was halfway one of them herself. The one who was carried away by a monster only to find that the monster was not so different from herself. The dragon's princess, who had made her home in a place where most would be afraid to go. She was tainted by darkness now, but so was everyone.