Best Laid Plans/Quotes

## Quotes

**Emma Swan**: Killian, what's wrong?

**Captain Hook**: Before Ursula left, she told me what the villains have planned. To get their happy endings, they intend to darken your heart, love, to turn you into a villain so you'll no longer be the savior.

**Henry Mills**: What? You can't just un-savior the savior.

**Captain Hook**: Ursula said Gold has a way. He can use the Author to do it.

**Emma Swan**: That's insane! If that's what their plan is, stop worrying; it's ridiculous. Author or no author, I am not going dark.

**Captain Hook**: But darkness is a funny thing. It creeps up on you.

**Emma Swan**: Hey. No one - not Rumplestiltskin or some author - gets to decide who I am.

**Rumplestiltskin**: Our deal was that you were gonna help me find The Author and our happiness would be secured.

**Maleficent**: Well, I'm altering the deal because, let's face it, you need that page from the book to get the Author. And to do that, you need me.

**Rumplestiltskin**: Do I?

**Maleficent**: I just put the town to sleep. I'm useful. And we all know Cruella and Ursula were a means to an end... me. That's why you haven't shed one tear over our tentacled friend's departure; because you have me. And to have me means you have to give me what I want. It's oh so simple. I need to know what happened to my child after those two heroes got rid of it. I need to know its fate. In return, I will get us both the Author. We'll get you the page. And once I know what they really did to my child, those heroes will pay.

(*about the door illustration that the Author is trapped in*)

**Prince Charming**: I think there's a way we can put a stop to all this. I think... I think we should destroy the page.

**Snow White**: What?

**Prince Charming**: If we destroy it, Gold can never free the Author and use him to turn Emma dark.

**Snow White**: The Author would be trapped inside the book forever! Or it could kill him! Regina wouldn't get her happy ending!

**Prince Charming**: We don't know that! We just know that she won't get it from the Author. We've gone too far down this path. We have to protect Emma.

**Sorcerer's Apprentice**: You see, we are all born as blank slates with the potential for good or evil, and with the gift of free will, so we can choose between the two, which is why there is an equal chance that either of your visions may come true.

**Snow White**: If the future I saw comes to pass, our child's life will be bleak, full of pain and darkness. Is there nothing we can do to ensure our child's goodness?

**Sorcerer's Apprentice**: There is a way to banish the potential for darkness from your child. But, as with all magic, it comes with a price.

**Snow White**: Whatever it is, we'll pay it.

**Sorcerer's Apprentice**: You see, the Laws of Magic would not allow me to simply send your child's darkness away. Another living vessel must absorb it... A vessel that is also a blank slate, unformed in the ways of good and evil, just like your baby. If you wish me to perform this magic, you must secure such a vessel. Discuss this amongst yourselves. Make sure you want to proceed. Because once this spell has been enacted, it cannot be reversed. (*exits*)

**Prince Charming**: Banishing darkness from our child into another. Even if it is to save our own, it's wrong.

**Snow White**: What if it doesn't have to be a child? The peddler said Maleficent spawned an egg. What if we can use that as our vessel? We've seen what she's like in human *and* dragon form. Do you really think her dragon offspring will be any different?

**Maleficent**: What kind of people are you? Threatening a child?

**Snow White**: Child? This isn't a child. This will become a monster, just like you.

**Maleficent**: And what are *you*?

**Snow White**: I'm sorry.

**Maleficent**: Wait! Please. Mother to mother, have mercy. I can't lose my *child*.

**Snow White**: We'll bring the egg back when we're done with it.

**Rumplestiltskin**: (*about Henry*) Did you find the boy?

**Maleficent**: We found the boy.

**Regina Mills**: *I* found him.

(*they show him the "door illustration"*)

**Rumplestiltskin**: This is rubbish.

**Regina Mills**: What?

**Rumplestiltskin**: It's a fake. You've spent enough time with the book. You should know the difference.

**Regina Mills**: (*about the heroes*) They tricked me!

**Rumplestiltskin**: What, you think I didn't suspect you? I've been waiting for this moment. I knew it would come. Maleficent -

**Regina Mills**: Wait, I can expl -

**Rumplestiltskin**: - Bring her to her vault.

**Snow White**: I gave Henry that book to give him hope, and I'm gonna lie and take it away? And what about Regina? She's finally becoming a friend. I went to her for help with Emma, with our secret. She's kept it! She's risked her life for us. And we're gonna repay her by destroying her chance at a happy ending?

**Prince Charming**: Well, maybe there's another way.

**Snow White**: No, David! When Regina showed me my heart after Cora - after I killed Cora - my heart was dark. And Regina thought it was because of what I did to her mother. But that darkness started long ago. We *have* to tell Emma the truth. Because heroes do what's right, *not* what's easy!

**Snow White**: I thought we were doing something brave for our child, and we *were* brave, but we weren't kind. We were selfish. And I think... We are not heroes anymore.

**Prince Charming**: How do we fix it?

**Snow White**: We can't fix it. Maleficent's child is gone.

**Prince Charming**: But Snow, we're still here. So, how do we fix *us*? The people we are now, weighed down by all this... Is that who we want to raise our child?

**Snow White**: Of course not. But do you really think that redemption is possible?

**Prince Charming**: Yes. I have to believe we can earn forgiveness, a chance at grace. But to get there, we have to be the best people we can. Work, spread hope and faith every day. Because otherwise, what we did will stain us forever.

**Maleficent**: Now that you're so confident Regina's taken care of, isn't time we took care of my needs?

**Rumplestiltskin**: You didn't get me the page. You didn't earn your answer. That was the deal.

**Maleficent**: That *was* the deal, but after all I've been through, I've more than earned my answer.

**Rumplestiltskin**: I know. And I want to give you a last chance to preserve what you have.

**Maleficent**: What I have is pain.

**Rumplestiltskin**: And pain fades, unless you feed it. And this? This could be the meal you really don't want.

**Maleficent**: Well, I've never seen my child. I don't even know what I had... a boy, a girl. I don't care how much it hurts to know its fate. I need this.

**Emma Swan**: Now, what do you say we let out the Author? I have some questions.

**Snow White**: Emma, please think about this. This isn't just what Regina wanted. This is what Gold wanted, too. He was doing it to turn you dark!

**Emma Swan**: I'm not worried about it. Are you? 'Cause now I have some questions about me, and he can tell us everything.

**August Booth**: *If* he's the one who wrote your story.

**Emma Swan**: What are you talking about?

**August Booth**: Something you need to know about this author... He wasn't the only one. There have been many Authors throughout time. It's a job, not a person. And the one trapped in here was just the last tasked with the great responsibility.

**Emma Swan**: Which is?

**August Booth**: To record. To witness the greatest stories of all time and record them for posterity. The job has gone back eons, from the man who watched shadows dance across cave walls and developed an entire philosophy, to playwrights who tell tales in poetry, to a man named Walt. Many have had this sacred job - great women and men who took on the responsibility with the gravity that it deserved - until this last one. He started to manipulate rather than record.