Neal was dead.
In the events that occurred from Neal arriving Storybrooke, he ended up dead. Killed by the Wicked Witch.
"Zelena," Rumple had sneered while he watched his only son die in front of him.
Emma had been too dumbfounded to comprehend in the moment, but Kyla knew.
Neal had tried to bring Rumple back from the dead back in the Enchanted Forest, but Zelena tricked him, causing him to live inside his father's mind. Once they were separated, Neal couldn't survive. It was a life for a life.
Emma, David and Kyla stormed into the loft, knowing Zelena was with Snow in that very moment. But Zelena had escaped, knowing her identity had been discovered.
They all understood there was no time for mourning. Zelena was after Snow's child. But still, they took a moment to hold a service for Neal. During the gathering after the service, a new discovery was made.
As they sat around in Granny's Diner, Kyla tried to keep her emotions in check. She played it off well, but Rider could tell something was off.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, concerned. She shook her head.
"Bae helped me escape from Neverland. He's saved my life a couple of times and I just...I wasn't able to save his."
"Because of your powers?"
She nodded.
"It's not your fault," he promised her.
"Maybe. And I'd love to say I'll be the one to kill her, but," she paused, eyeing the room, "I think I'll have to get in line."
He gave her a sad smile as they watched the Charmings gathered together. Emma mourning her lost love, and her parents feeling helpless with their child. That much she could feel.
Suddenly, the doors to Granny's flew open, Zelena entering. Kyla stood up from the booth she and Rider were sharing, slowly walking to Emma's side.
"My condolences," she said, a smirk on her face. "So sorry I missed the funeral. I could never pass up a wake."
She held Rumple's dagger in her hand. Kyla could feel Emma's heart beating faster and faster.
"Oh, did I miss the speeches? Shall I make one?" She began to walk through the diner, toward Emma and Kyla. "I am after all responsible."
Emma, furious, began to walk toward the witch, but her mother pulled her back.
"Emma, no, too many people will get hurt," she said quietly.
"Listen to your mother," Zelena said.
"Cocky," Kyla muttered.
"Anyone who interferes with my plan is going to have to deal with the Dark One," she threatened. She moved closer to them and Kyla and David instinctively moved in front of Snow.
"Don't come any closer," he warned.
"Don't worry, I"m not here for your baby," Zelena said, then paused. "Today, anyway."
"Then why are you here?" Regina finally spoke up.
"Now that my cover's blown," Zelena said, "I can finally pay a visit to my little sister."
Regina's stare never faltered, but David and Kyla shared a look of confusion.
"Who the hell are you talking about?" Regina asked.
It slowly hit Kyla, the way Zelena was looking at her, the hate she could feel exuding from the witch. It was the same hate Kyla had felt for Snow.
Regina was Zelena's sister.
"I'm an only child," Regina said as the people of Storybrooke murmured around her.
"Cora lied to you," she sneered. "I'm your sister. Half, if you want to get technical."
"Why should I believe anything you say?" Regina asked.
"She's telling the truth," Kyla blurted out. They both turned their heads to look at her.
Zelena smirked and walked over to her.
"Trying to be the hero again?" She said to Kyla.
"Again?"
"Oh, right, you don't remember," Zelena said with a chuckle, then bent over to speak in Kyla's face. "You still don't realize how powerful you are even without your magic," she said in a quiet, but harsh tone. "But just to remind you, if you try anything, I have the power to make the love of your life disappear in an instant with something that you allowed me to have."
"The love of my life? Are you on something right now?"
"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough," she said, then standing up straight. "I can't seem to keep anything from you heroes, but thankfully, I have the greatest evil of all time on my side."
Kyla could feel her family staring at her, but she wouldn't take her eyes off of Zelena, even as she addressed Regina again.
She demanded a fight. Whatever she thought Regina did to her in the past, she wanted revenge. But Regina had no idea.
"I never even met her before today," Regina said to the heroes after Zelena left the diner.
"Doesn't mean you didn't do something to piss her off," Emma said.
"You did manage to step on a lot of toes back in our world," Tinker Bell chimed in.
"Then there is the missing year. Maybe you did something to her then," Granny added.
"Hang on a second," Kyla intervened. She could feel Regina doing everything she could to keep her cool,, but was slowly losing it. "I don't think this is the time for accusations."
"Why not?" Tinker Bell asked.
"We don't even know if Regina did anything!"
"And we don't know if she didn't," she said.
Kyla shook her head. "Who invited you here anyway?" She asked, confused as to why Tinker Bell was weighing in on family matters.
"Regina, we're just trying to get to the bottom of this," Snow said.
"It's starting to sound an awful lot like you're all on her side," Regina said.
"Regina," Kyla said, but Regina continued to walk. "Where are you going?!" She called after her.
"To find out exactly what this witch thinks I did to her," Regina said, putting on her jacket and leaving the diner.
The group was silent for a moment before Kyla exhaled loudly.
"Way to go, team," she said, standing up from the bar stool.
"You can't blame us for questioning her, Kyla," Emma said.
"She's trying," Kyla said calmly. "I know you think you understand what she's going through, but you don't. You say you have this read on people, that you understand most, but you don't. I do. And it's a curse, believe me. Regina's heart is broken right now and you're just adding to it."
"The witch is after Snow," David contested.
"So we should be trying to protect her! Not taking hits at Regina, who is arguably our strongest fighter!"
"What if Regina is responsible?"
"What would that change? Whether Regina is responsible or not, Zelena is still after the baby. So, maybe we shouldn't alienate the one person that could actually help us through this."
"Kyla," Snow said, attempting to stop her sister.
"You guys are wrong on this. I can feel it," she said and walked out of the diner.
She heard the bell chime from the door and watched Rider run out after her.
"That was intense," he said.
"Yeah," she said, unable to look at him.
"What now?" He asked.
When she finally could look at him, Zelena's words rang through her ears.
But there was no way Rider was Kyla's true love. After everything that happened with Pan, she vowed to never have to deal with that. There was an undeniable connection between the two, but that was as far as it was going to go. She trusted him, but she couldn't love him.
But what if it wasn't even Rider she had mentioned.
Since the curse had broken, she had spent time trying to read up on her fairytale, but to no avail. It was just a story about a girl with long hair, trapped in a tower. The man that came to save her ended up blind and it was just a really morbid story. She couldn't even remember if they had fallen in love.
There was no mention of a Flynn Rider.
Then it hit her. If someone knew anything about her story, it was Henry.
"I have to go find Henry." She said.
"Okay, let's go," he said.
"No," she said, almost too quickly. He paused, looking at her with wide eyes. "I need you to stay here. Make sure they stay on track and away from Regina. I'll be right back, I swear."
"Okay," he said, not questioning her.
She grabbed his hand and smiled up at him. "Thank you for trusting me," she said quietly. He touched her cheek.
"Of course."
She shied away from his touch, releasing his hand and taking off.
Henry was with Hook and the one place she knew Hook would take him was to the docks. Probably on his ship.
And she was right.
When she reached the docks, Henry and Hook were looking out at the water. It was like Hook could feel her approaching from behind because he turned right around before she made a sound.
"Kyla," he said with a smile on his face. Henry turned at the sound of her name and smiled.
"Hey Killian," she said, then turned to Henry. "I was wondering if we could have a quick chat."
Henry looked up at Killian, who was still looking at Kyla.
"Everything okay with..." he trailed off.
"Oh yeah," she answered. "No, I just have a question."
"So, you're not pawning me off to the next one of my mom's mysterious friends?" Henry asked. Kyla laughed.
"No," she said. "Also, other than Killian, I'm the coolest one your mom has."
Hook smiled at the compliment and bowed, like he always did, leaving Kyla and Henry to talk.
"What's up?" He asked.
"How are you doing?" She decided to ask first. Being considerate always got her answers.
"I didn't know him," he said with a shrug. "Did you?"
She nodded. "Your dad and I were friends when we were kids," she said.
He looked her up and down. "You're definitely not as old as my mom and dad," he said.
She chuckled. "I'm older than I appear to be."
"Were you also friends with Killian?" He asked.
"Yeah, we all lived in the same place at one point in our lives, separated and then ended up in Storybrooke on completely separate occasions. It was like fate," she said, looking off at the water, getting lost in the memory of Neverland.
"I wish I had gotten to know him," he said. She smiled a sad smile at him. "Was that your question?"
"Um, no," she said, clearing her throat. "Actually, I have an...an odd question, if that's okay."
He nodded.
"Your mom was mentioning to me that you're into reading and fairytales and the like," she said.
"I mean, a little bit. I've seen most of the movies."
"Movies, right. Well, the Storybrooke library doesn't have a ton of literature on old fairytales, and a lot of people here tell me I remind them of Rapunzel," she said.
He leaned back and took a good look at her. "Yeah, yeah I can definitely see it. Your hair is way too short though."
"So I've heard," she said, grabbing at it. "Do you know much about her story?"
"I only know what I've seen in the movie."
"So there is a movie about her," she said to herself. "Um, did she have any powers? Family?"
"She could heal things from her hair. She was stolen from the king and the queen at a young age to live in a tower. But her true love saved her, and then she saved him."
"Her true love?" She said.
"Yeah, he climbed the tower, got stabbed by the witch and almost died, but Rapunzel was able to save him. Flynn Rider is probably the coolest guy in any of those movies."
She couldn't speak.
"Did you say Flynn Rider?" She asked him, her eyes wide.
"Yeah...that's his name in the movie. I don't think he's in the original fairytale," he said. "Wait, why was that your question?"
"I just...I didn't know," she said. Then, she pulled herself together and sighed. "I guess I'll need to see that movie," she said, standing up.
Hook wasn't far, and she left him with Henry, letting him know all that was going on with Regina and Zelena. He said he would take care of Henry for the rest of the day, so she was able to meet back up with the heroes.
Her mind was all over the place. Rider was really meant to be her true love? Was it possible?
She barely had time to digest the information when a gust of wind stopped her in her tracks. There was nobody on the streets of Storybrooke as the Wicked Witch appeared in front of her. Kyla prepared herself for a fight, knowing well that she couldn't find her if she used her magic.
"Calm down, Rapunzel, I'm not here to fight you. I have to save my energy," she said with a smirk.
"Then what do you want?" She asked.
"I wanted to reiterate what I said earlier. If you come after me, I will kill your boyfriend."
"Sorry to break it to you, but he's not my boyfriend."
"Not in this world. But in the last? You two were inseparable. Oh, kind of like you are right now," she said.
"He's not here, is he?"
"No, but he's all you're thinking about," she said, taking a step closer. Kyla instinctively took one back. "Wondering if what I said was really true, that you two are true love."
"I feel like that's none of your business."
"Oh, but it is. See, you don't remember this, but you gave me a lock of your hair so I would release him from his prison. And ever since then, I've held on tightly to it, especially after the curse was cast. It's the only bit of magic strong enough to kill a fairy."
Her eyes went wide. "How do you know about that?"
"I know all," she said, taking a step back.
Kyla took a breath and shook her head. "You shouldn't have told me about the leverage that you hold."
"Why not?" She asked, her face faltering slightly seeing how unfazed Kyla was.
"Because I'm going to get it back. And we're going to get Rumple back. And you're going to lose."
"I could kill him right now," she said.
"You're too focused on Regina to do anything of the sort. And look," she said, pointing at the darkening sky, "isn't there somewhere you're meant to be?" She asked her.
Zelena took a step back.
"You're wrong about one thing," she said, the dagger still in her hand, "I'm capable of any and everything."
Then a cloud of green smoke appeared around her as she disappeared. Kyla began to run to Main Street. She couldn't miss it.
And in the end, Zelena didn't win like she thought she would. She was after Regina's heart, but Regina had it hiding in a safe place only she was aware of. Zelena magicked out, needing to come up with a new plan and the heroes were safe for the time being.
Kyla met up with Rider after the whole ordeal, allowing herself to be more vulnerable.
"She did it," Rider said, not knowing exactly what to say to her.
Kyla stared up at him, also not knowing what to say.
"Look, Rider, I'm really, really bad with words. And vulnerability, but there is a reason that I didn't want you coming with me earlier today."
"I figured as much, but I didn't want to push it."
"Which I appreciate. But that's also not fair to you."
"Oh, are you about to open up to me?" He said with his famous smirk and smolder that she had grown to love.
She paused for a moment. Instead of saying anything, she reached up and kissed her, feeling him immediately grab her and kiss her back. When they pulled away, he chuckled.
"Yeah, the less words the better," he said, kissing her again.
Kyla knew in that moment, she would do anything to keep him safe.
But she had no idea was she was preparing for.