When the world lays in silent ruin, you can hear the remorseful cry.
She hears them. Neil is behind her, his footsteps crunching against the gravel but not loud enough to drown out the sound of Regina's throaty cries. Somewhere in the mix is Mary Margaret's soft voice; it is so recognizable, so easy to hear even against the loudest scream, because Emma knows she has heard it inside her heart from the day she was born until this very moment.
The front of Gold's shop is empty and as broken as it had been when she and Neil were sent away. The sword is still firmly gripped in her hand as she crosses the threshold into the back room. Her eyes first fall on the man standing proudly in the corner, looking as dapper and strong as he had been before a hook sunk into his chest.
Rumplestilskin.
He grins at her and waves her inside, almost as if welcoming her to a party. Emma feels a knot in her throat grow when she notices Cora's body laying strewn at Regina's feet.
She can't walk forward.
She doesn't want to get any closer.
The yelling seems to have stopped. Regina is staring at Emma, and Emma stares back, and for a moment, Emma is sure that Regina is going to lunge at her, attack, kill her, because her eyes are full of fire and the corner of her mouth twitches and Regina has never looked more deadly than in that very moment. But Regina stands still. She looks Emma over, looks at Neil, and then she looks back at Mary Margaret and David and Emma looks at them too. It is the first time she notices how David is holding Mary Margaret, how Mary Margaret is crying and how David, instead of looking confrontational, instead of looking brave and protective, looks shocked.
"Go ahead, Snow White. Tell your daughter what you've done."
Emma's eyes shoot down towards Cora and back up at Regina and then rest on Mary Margaret. She is shaking her head now, thin streaks of tears rushing down milk white cheeks. Her mouth opens and closes, her hand comes to cover it; she looks helpless, broken. Emma's eyes widen.
"You?" whispers Emma.
And Mary Margaret doesn't hesitate to nod.
"When are you going to learn, Emma, that you come from no better family than I do! You are all a bunch of lying, insolent - "
"Hey!" screams Emma. She brings her sword up and Mary Margaret lets out a shriek as Emma points it directly at Regina's throat. Regina laughs. She continues to laugh until the laughter fades into a deep chuckle and then a shadow of a smile. Her eyes glisten. Her shoulders shake. Emma can feel her hand begin to quaver but she refuses to pull her arm away, despite the pleading from behind her.
"Go ahead." Regina says calmly. "What more can your family take from me? Daniel is gone. Henry is gone. My mother is gone. Go ahead, Emma. Prove to me that you are your mother's daughter. Go ahead. Kill me. I'm already dead."
The sword lowers. Emma feels it touch the side of her leg and then lets it fall to a clank on the floor. She takes a step closer to Regina, just enough to make her point. "I'm not going to kill you, Regina," she hisses. "You think this was our plan? You think any of this was our plan? More bodies? For fucks sake. When are you going to wake up and realize that you're blaming your entire life on an eight year old girl, when the blame lays cold and dead on the floor?"
She picks up the sword. The room is silent; Emma's eyes find Gold, she narrows her eyebrows, almost as if warning him that she knows this was his doing, and her hand grips onto Mary Margaret's arm and Emma tugs. David follows them and then Neil, and the last thing Emma hears as the door swings shut behind them is Rumplestilskin's cold laughter echoing off the walls.