Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20151109131548/@comment-25926288-20151109140713

Killian Jones wrote: Perhaps the Original, Nimue, was indeed as powerful, but not all of her power is able to pass down the line? Yes, that might have been possible. It could be possible that each DO holds on to a little bit of power to continue to exist.

Nimue told Emma that she's not dead yet or soemthing along those lines. She even said that she was looking thru Dark Rumple's eyes. So, like Darkness within Darkness multiple times over. That's probably why every Dark One's darkness still exists. And like a parasite, their darkness (and the previous darkness) just jumps to another host.