Lily was no stranger to hunger. She'd gone three days without food once when she was on the run, but she'd never known hunger like she did after transforming into a dragon. That made Granny's her favorite place in the world. She only wished that everyone else didn't have to love it so much too, especially the Charming family.

Lily's eyes narrowed as she looked at them. Her old hatred bubbled inside of her like a volcano ready to erupt. "Control yourself," she whispered. The last thing she needed was to shift into a dragon in the middle of her favorite dining establishment. She traced the star birthmark on the inside of her wrist and remembered when she'd drawn a similar mark on Emma when they'd been children. She remembered how in anger Emma had smeared it off.

Glancing over at Emma with her family, Lily shook her head. That girl had a temper that far outmatched her own. Lily still didn't completely understand it, but in her heart, she got Emma. She could see what no one else seemed to be able to, a lost girl pretending she no longer had any pain. Even now, she could hear Emma telling her parents that what they'd done to her in the Author's alternate storyline was okay. As if being locked in a tower for years, even fake years, didn't take a toll on a person. She'd been Emma's guard. She'd heard her screams and her cries.

"And you did nothing," Lily thought with regret. It had been the perfect opportunity for her to redeem herself, but she'd messed that up like she did everything in her life. She reminded herself it wasn't her fault. She'd been cursed along with the rest of Storybrooke in the Author's twisted version of reality, but still, part of her had felt it was wrong. Part of her had felt connected to Emma even then.

Emma hugged her mom and then spotted Lily looking at her. Lily quickly glanced back at her food and turned her back to them. It was too late. Emma left her mother's embrace and walked over to her. "Hey, what's up?" Concern was etched into her face. "Something wrong?"

The freedom she felt with Emma had her pulling her half-moon necklace from its hiding place beneath her shirt. "Do you remember this?" she asked.

"Yeah," Emma said, "I nearly got hepatitis stealing it back from your boyfriend's rat infested place."

"Dramatic," Lily thought but said, "It's a piece of the egg I was hatched from." She paused to let that sink in. "It's also the only clue I have as to who my father is."

Emma gave her an awkward half-smile. "Have you asked your mother?"

"She doesn't know either," Lily confessed. That had been an interesting conversation. Things were still rocky between her and her mother to say the least. Maleficent wanted to be close to Lily in a way that Lily wasn't sure her heart could handle.

"What?" Emma asked in disbelief.

"It's a dragon thing," Lily explained, trying to put it as delicately as possible. "You know, it happened in dragon form." Most people were grossed out about the idea of their parents together. Lily was more freaked out and mystified.

"Do you want to find him?" It was more of a statement than a question.

"More than anything," Lily wanted to say. She asked, "Do you mind if I stick around in Storybrooke and look?"

Emma looked into her eyes with an intensity that only Emma seemed to have. She made a single nod. "I think that would be great."

Lily felt herself smile and was about to ask Emma if she would help in her quest when someone burst into the diner. It took Lily a moment to rifle through the list of fairytale characters to land on who she was. The beautiful brunette's name was Belle. She looked frantic.

"Rumple," she started, "his heart...he said it's almost gone."

The diner grew deathly still, and Lily wondered what the significance of what Belle was saying meant.

"And," Belle continued, "he said we're in danger."

The Charmings all looked at one another and seemed to communicate without speaking. In an instant, they bolted out of the diner into the night. The rest of the diner broke out into chaos. From what snippets Lily gathered, once the Dark One's heart was completely black, there would be no telling what Rumpelstiltskin would do.

She desperately wanted to help, but she knew she'd be of no use. Lily sniffed trouble, and it stunk. After years of being a magnet for it, she knew that the best thing she could do was stay far out of dodge. Lily waved her hand to get a waiter's attention. "A shot of Jack, please."

"I'm with you, sister," said a short man as he took his seat beside her. Lily knew he was one of the dwarves, and from his glower expression, she'd have to guess he was Grumpy.

Lily shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Maybe she should just pay her check and go. The tension in the diner was rising. The amber liquid was placed in front of her, and she tossed it to the back of her throat and swallowed it before she could taste it. It burned, just the way she liked it.

"Impressive," Grumpy said. "I haven't seen you around here before, and I know everyone. Did you come through with the last curse?"

"Last curse?" Lily thought. How many curses could one town have?

"I'm new," was all she said. The few people who'd learned who her mother was hadn't taken kindly to her, especially if they were from King Stefan's kingdom. Fear of Maleficent protected her from physical harm, but Lily couldn't stand the looks. She'd been judged enough in her life without adding fairytale bias to the mix.

Lily pulled out a wrinkled hundred dollar bill from her pocket and tossed it on the counter without a thought for the change. That was one benefit to being an evil sorceress' daughter. There was no shortage of cash.

The bell clanged as she exited the diner, and she gasped at the cold night air. She didn't like the cold - never had. Lily figured it had something to do with being part dragon. Reptiles weren't known for their love of anything chilly.

She'd barely stepped past diner's gate when something swoshed past her with a screech. It made her stomach lurch and heart pound. All she could see were streams of darkness running through the streets. "What the hell?"

She saw the Charmings burst out of Gold's shop and start running in the direction the darkness had gone. Lily immediately stepped into the shadows so that they wouldn't see her as they passed.

"Oh, yes," Lily said, "chase after the nasty black smoke." Lily tried to fight her own impulse to follow them.

People began to pour out of the diner, no doubt trying to figure out what happened.

"Damn," Lily said. She knew what she was going to do, and she knew it was a bad choice. She ran off after the Charmings, hiding behind parked cars as she went. She saw the four of them, Snow White, Charming, Emma, and Hook joined by Regina and Robin Hood. The group stood in the middle of an intersection looking around. Lily wondered if she should join them.

"Stay out of trouble," Lily told herself and then got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach again. It was as if the very air was becoming too thick to breathe. Then, the unthinkable happened. The streams of darkness began swirling around Regina. There were blue flashes of light inside the tornado of black.

"Regina!" Robin shouted and then ran towards it. It threw him back the way an angry child might toss a doll.

"We have to tether it to a person so we can contain it!" Emma shouted, and Lily shuddered in fear. Emma ran towards the darkness with what looked like a small blade. Lily couldn't imagine what harm she could inflict with that. All she knew was that everyone was begging her not to do whatever it was she was about to do. She pulled Hook close to her and then pushed him away. He stumbled, and then Emma stabbed the darkness with her blade.

Lily gasped.

Dark streams of black and electric blue pulled away from Regina and began to slip into the knife and all around Emma's body.

"Emma!" Lily screamed and began dashing towards her, not sure what she would do. Somehow, she had to stop it, whatever it was. She hardly made it five feet before the blackness caved in on itself into a blue flash of light.

Emma was gone.

The others clung to one another as Lily ran up to join them. A solitary dagger lay on the ground with the name "Emma Swan" etched into it.

"What are we going to do?" Snow White sobbed.

"The only thing we can do," Hook said as he picked up the dagger. "We must summon her back." He held the curved dagger in the air and shouted into the night. "Emma Swan! I summon thee."

The dagger sent a blue shock through him, causing him to yelp in pain. The dagger fell clattered to the ground, and Emma appeared in a swirl of black smoke. Her eyes were completely black.

"Emma," Snow White said cautiously and took a step towards her.

Emma struck her with a bolt of blue lightening, and Snow White collapsed.

"Snow!" Charming fell to the ground to hold his wife.

Regina threw a fireball at Emma. Emma held out her hand and extinguished it before it hit its mark, then she countered with another bolt of lightning. Just like Snow White, Regina collapsed.

Emma's cold, black eyes landed on Lily. She prepared to strike her as she had the other two women, and Lily raised her hands in a feeble attempt to protect herself. As she braced herself, the dagger flew from its resting place into her hand. Slowly, Emma lowered her hands. "What do you command of me, master?" Emma asked in a voice that was not her own.

Lily wanted nothing more than to drop the dagger and run, but something told her that this was not the brightest idea. She looked around at the women at her feet. "Go to sleep," Lily said and watched as Emma calmly laid on the ground and closed her eyes.

"Bloody hell," Hook said. "It's like the dagger chose you."

"No," Charming said, "Emma chose her."

Lily looked down at the dagger in her hand, not fully comprehending what was happening. All she knew was that once again, trouble had found her, and once again, she was linked to Emma Swan.