Ch.2: Darkness

        They entered  Granny's Diner together. She then sat down at the bar, Elijah sitting next to her. 

        "It's been a while," Kat greeted the known werewolf. At least to her, she knew she was a wolf. As a vampire, she'd been able to sense it. She wasn't sure if everyone else knew it, but she assumed they already knew. 

        "We weren't expecting you to be returning, Katherine," the wolf replied. "It's nice to see you again, though." 

        "I wasn't expecting to return, either," Kat replied. "This is Elijah," she added. "How about a drink for the both of us. The usual."

        "Of course," the wolf replied, and served them some Bourbon. 

        Kat took a drink of her shot glass, before saying, "This is Ruby. The only wolf that you'll see in this town. Granny's too old to turn anymore." She then asked her, "Since it's been a while since my last visit, why don't you fill me in. What have I missed?" 

        "You've missed a lot. Regina has a half-sister. The Wicked Witch, Zelena. Gold and Belle found each other, and they're back together. Hook got here a few years ago, as well as Regina's true love, Robin Hood. And Zelena tricked him, so she had his daughter. Charming and Snow White are still together, as always. I guess you probably want the current events, though. Gold's past has caught up with him. The last of the goodness in his heart is fading, so Belle's been staying with him," she informed her. 

        She figured there was more to what she'd told her, but she wouldn't pry for more information. Ruby was right. She only cared about what was currently happening.

        "Maybe I can figure out a way to save him. Keep the darkness from fully taking him over. Elijah and I know witches and their spells. Plus, since I'm not a vampire anymore, and because I was somewhere called a prison world, I'm descended from Travelers, and I made my magic active. I had to make it active to survive that psycho, Kai. I never knew I was descended from them, though. My daughter, Nadia, found me years ago and told me, but the only spell I learned from her was how to body jump. It was the only useful thing that she knew of for me. I was dying of old age after the cure was shoved down my throat, and she didn't want her mother to die, when she'd been searching for me for hundreds of years. She wanted me to live, but after a hybrid, Tyler, bit her, I had nothing left to live for," she replied to her. "I died with her, but came back as a demon with nothing but vengeance, and I tried to destroy the entire town of Mystic Falls for what everyone did to me. They destroyed me. Then I ended up in that prison world, having to deal with Kai." 

        Although she hadn't exactly been speaking to him, telling him all of this, Elijah had to say, "I'm sorry, Katerina. If I had known..."

        She looked at him, a hand on the side of his face.

        "I know. You would've dropped everything in New Orleans to save me. Don't blame yourself. It was my own undoing. Elena shoved it down my throat, because I was so angry that I tried to kill her. I thought she was partly responsible for you abandoning me. I didn't know it was in her pocket. Otherwise, I would've taken the cure from her, before she shoved it down my throat. Maybe if you had chosen me, or if I had gone with you, none of this would've happened, but you know as well as I that we can't undo the past. All we can do is move on." 

        She took her hand away.

        "You're different. The Katerina I saw last wouldn't have admitted to being wrong," he commented. 

        "Yeah, well, thank Nadia's ghost if she'd around somewhere. Getting to know her before dying changed me. I even forgave your brother on my deathbed, too," she informed him. 

        "I'm certain that he would've appreciated that," Elijah replied. "Like you in some ways, he changed. He and Hayley had a daughter together by accident years ago. Hope. She's half witch and half hybrid. And like you, we gained a lost family member, too. Freya's our eldest sister." 

        Kat gave a smile at her name. 

        "I met her centuries ago. You should be thanking me. I made her a promise that I'd help her reunite with her family when it was time. I see that it worked. I taught her your patterns in order to find you all. I lost my family, but I wanted Freya to have hers. I felt sorry for her, knowing what it was like to lose a child." She finished her shot glass of Bourbon. "So, you told me in the Enchanted Forest that you died with Klaus. What happened? I know that neither of you would ever want or think about dying. Not unless it was completely necessary. I've known you all too long," she wanted to know. 

        "The Hollow happened," he informed her. "It came for Hope when she was a child. It wanted her, because of how powerful she is. We had to put a part of it inside each of us to keep her safe. For a long time, we couldn't be near each other. When we reunited at last, it was against our will. Hope didn't want us to be apart anymore, so she took The Hollow inside of herself. It nearly killed her, so Klaus put it all inside of himself. You know how he could be, even without something controlling him. He was a ticking time bomb, and we couldn't find a loophole, so our only solution was for Klaus to die. And he accepted that to save Hope. And with Hayley gone, the pain from her death was too overwhelming for me. I figured if I died, I'd be reunited with her, and then my pain would cease. Besides, what would I be without Klaus? He was my only purpose, and I wasn't aware that you were ever in any danger, so I didn't think I was needed anymore. And Hope hates me still, I'm sure, from not trying to save Hayley when my memories were gone. In order for me to succeed in staying away from them, I had my memories compelled away. Hope was the one that brought them back. The others are happy and living their lives." 

        "I'm sorry about what happened," she replied. "I guess that just means that we can stay here for a while, then. You may feel like you don't have a purpose without him, but you still have me." 

        She gave a smile. 

        After a while, she got to introducing him to everyone. Then she entered Gold's shop with him. 

        "Belle?" she called, since Ruby had said that Belle had been staying with him. Plus, she didn't want to intrude. 

        After a moment, she came out from the back of his shop.

        "Can I help you?" she questioned. Since Katherine had only been in town for about a year, Belle hadn't really known her. 

        "I'm thinking I can help you, actually. More specifically, Rumple. I heard from Ruby about his heart. I'm descended from Travelers. You'd probably know them as gypsies. They've adapted to the times, though. The point is, I have magic. I can figure out a way to save him." 

        "Anything to help him," Belle replied, wanting nothing more than to save the person that she loved the most, no matter what world she was in. 

        "Since it's not typical magic, but rather his heart filling with darkness, I thought we could figure out a way to siphon it out of his heart. Since there aren't any siphoners here, we'll need to figure something out," Kat replied. 

        "What if we tried the magician's hat? It can strip any magical being of their power, and trap them inside. Maybe it'll work with the Dark One's darkness," Belle suggested. 

        "It's worth a shot," Kat replied. 

        That night, she came back to the shop.

        ”Do you know where the hat is so we can do this?” Kat asked the bookworm. 

        “I don’t know. The last time I saw it was shortly after I went to go get it from the Snow Queen a while back.”

        ”He must’ve hid it in a safe place then,” Kat replied. “Lucky for us, I know his special hiding spot for powerful objects.”

        Kat went around the glass counter. Then she took the picture down, setting it down on the glass counter. Then she used magic to undo the protection spell, as well as the cloaking spell he’d done on the safe. She also did a spell to undo the lock on it, as to not need the combination number to open it. Then she finally pulled out the hat, before closing, relocking the safe, and redoing the cloaking spell and such. Then she put the picture back. 

        “When you were locked away by Regina for twenty-eight years, and when I was here for a year, he trusted me with his hiding spots, since my vampire self and him were so much alike,” she explained to Belle. “Now, let’s see if this’ll work. Do you know how it works?”

        ”I’ve seen Rumple wave a wand above it. I assume you just point it at what you want to go into the hat,” Belle replied.

        She looked at Elijah whom had joined her in Rumple's shop. 

        "After I open the hat up with this wand, I need you to hold onto the hat. I doubt Belle has any experience with taking hearts out of others, so I'm going to take Rumple's heart out. You just point the hat at his heart. Hopefully, all of the darkness will go into the hat," she instructed. It could've gone the other way around, but Elijah was stronger than she was. Plus, she knew how to be more gentle when it came to taking out a fairytale's heart.

        Belle watched, as the ex-vampiress waved the wand above the hat. Then the hat came to be in the shape of a hat like it was supposed to be. 

        "Stay here," Kat told Belle. Then she and Elijah went to the back of Rumple's shop.

        Once in the back of his shop, Kat sat on his bedside, before resting a hand on the side of his face. 

        "Don't worry, Rumple. I'm going to save you, if it's the last thing I do. I know you can hear me, so I'm going to tell you this. I'm going to use the magician's hat to try and suck the darkness out of your heart."

        After a moment, she got to her feet, before, gently as she could, taking out his heart. It was the darkest of hearts that she'd ever seen. 

        Elijah did as his Katerina had instructed him to do with the hat. Then Kat pointed the heart at the hat. Then darkness from the heart began to go into the hat. They thought it was working, but then the hat got too full, which made the darkness that had left his heart, stop going into the hat. It freed itself from the hat, making its way elsewhere. 

        Kat put his heart gently back inside him, before leaving the back of his shop, wanting to find out where the darkness was going to.

        Elijah followed his Katerina, the hat having closed itself up. 

        "Go be with Rumple. The darkness is out of his heart, but there's too much for it to stay in the hat, so it needs to be stopped, and I'd like you out of danger. Rumple wouldn't appreciate anyone allowing you to be put in danger," Kat told Belle, before leaving the shop with Elijah. 

        After a few minutes of following the darkness, Kat found that it was aiming for the person that had the potential for great darkness. The person that for a long time, actually had been down a quite dark path. A path similar to herself and Rumple's. 

        "I need to stop this," she told Elijah. 

        "Katerina," he stated. 

        "It's not up for discussion. You just have to trust me. I need to put it inside myself. Otherwise, all the work Regina's done to become a better person will have been for nothing. I trust that you'll be able to save me from this, just as you've done with saving me from others. Regina and I have always been friends. This isn't a decision. I need to do this." 

        They shared a kiss, before she stepped away and used her magic to force the darkness away from Regina. Then it all went into her, before she vanished from sight. However, because she wasn't a fairytale character, she technically wasn't a new Dark One.