A/n: So I wrote this as an ask fic for Carmina (gavioticaonthejollyroger) and I decided to share it with everyone. Also, yes, I am alive and yes the next chapter of Linked is on the way.

Forging of a Hero

The ground was shaking as she pushed herself up from where she's been thrown. Her head throbbed and everything hurt, but none of it was important now. Henry. He was what was important. It didn't matter that he no longer knew her because of Peter, or even that he hated her because she was an adult. Pan and the Shadow were using her son. He was their sacrificial lamb and if she didn't get up now, he was going to die.

Looking up, feeling the blood slide down the side of her face, she could only stare in mute horror as a sickly green light enveloped Henry, her baby boy. It was the pixie dust, he and his heart were making it work again, because he believed. Desperate, she tried to stand, but the shaking sent her to her knees again. She couldn't do it, she was too weak after all the fighting, and so she began frantically looking for something, anything to stop this.

But there was nothing.

Regina and Gold were unconscious having been knocked out by the rebound of the spell that had gotten them this close. Her mother was defending her barely unconscious father who was dying from the poison in his veins, the toxin having been sped up by Pan's magic, and Neal was locked in a combat of his own with his past comrades. So taking a deep breath, she sucked it up, and pushed to her feet again.

It was only when she was finally standing that she noticed it. The black figure against the green light that was slowly turning white. It grabbed Henry's slowly fading form and yanked him away from the spells epicenter, throwing him as far away as possible and in doing so faced her.

It was Killian.

Smiling brightly she ran to her son's fallen body, tears of joy falling from her eyes; only to find him still glowing. She looked up confused, to see Killian still standing next to the glowing mass of light. He gave her that cocky smile of his, but there was something sad about it. "The spells to far along to stop…and it needs three. Otherwise…"

Emma tilted her head, unwilling to understand what he was implying. He couldn't be suggesting what she thought he was. "What are you -"

Killian took a step back toward the light as the ground shook more violently; his smile falling and his eyes turning serious, "Take him and run Swan."

"No!" She yelled fully understanding his suicidal plan, and refusing to accept it. He was going to take Henry's place! She couldn't, wouldn't allow him to do that. There had to be another way!

"Get them out of here," he said, voice commanding and deadly serious, to someone behind her and she spun to find both Regina and Neal looking on. Apparently having regained consciousness the Queen had moved right to Henry and she held him as the glow faded. Behind her Emma could see that Gold was waking as well.

"No we're not leaving you to die!" she yelled horrified and she moved forward to grab him, but strong arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her back.

It was Neal, and his face was unreadable as he pulled her away from the man before her. Snarling she tried to fight him, clawing at his arms, to get back to the man she…. "NO! NEAL! LET ME GO! I WON'T LEAVE HIM HERE!"

"Emma," Killian's calm, steady voice broke through her panic and she looked at him, he seemed like he wanted to come to her, but that the spell had already latched on to him. He was glowing now, and a brief glace behind her, to Henry in Regina's arms, showed her he no longer was at all. Killian couldn't move away least the magic move to Henry again. "You're boy is safe. You need to let me go."

"Stop! It won't accept you, you'll destroy all of reality." Gold's voice was almost drowned out by the crumbling world around them, and, desperate for a way out, she turned to him. "You need a pure heart to completely the spell, that's why they needed Henry."

Killian glared but it held so much less hostility then it ever had before, " No, all you need is the heart of a believer."

"Oh, and you believe in something now Captain?" He asked as the ground began to split, trees fell, wind whipped around them and the spell started to come apart.

His bright blue eyes, illuminated eerily from the light behind him, slid back to her and her heart stopped in her chest. All sound but his voice seemed to fall away, and every wall she'd ever had shattered to her feet. "I don't believe in something…I believe in her." A small smile crept across his lips and she knew what was coming next, knew what he was about to say. "I love you Emma. And I know how much you love and need your son. That's what make this all so terribly easy."

"Killian…" she whispered and he looked so breathtakingly happy to hear her say his name, but then his face closed and he turned away as Neal began to drag her back. The world was literally falling apart around them and she didn't care because he loved her. Henry was safe, and this man with a capacity to love greater than she'd ever seen, loved her. She would not let that go. So she fought, fought to get away from Neal, fought to save Killian, and fought for something she'd been too afraid to want.

When it all went dark.

Killian bit his lip and clenched the only hand he had as he listened to the sound of Emma trying to get to him. Hearing her yells and knowing that his feelings were returned both gave him the courage to do this and made him want to run back to her, which was why he couldn't turn around. He'd unknowingly waited three hundred years for her, and if he saw her again, with that look in her eyes; he didn't know if he would be strong enough to go through with it. So no choice left he moved forward and stepped past the barrier of light, his heart and mind full of Emma, his savior.

It was strange, he'd expected it to hurt somehow, but really it was like floating. Everywhere he saw white and the only other soul around was a twenty year younger mirror of himself, who smiled devilishly back at him. It was fitting, he supposed, that it should end like this. Here, confronted with and old dream while sacrificing for a new one. The boy, formally nothing more than a shade, folded his arms and eyed Killian critically. "Well it's about time…I supposed you'll do now."

When Emma woke the first thing she noticed was the swaying, the movement of a ship, Killian's ship. And just like that the memories came flooding back and her face crumpled at realization that it had worked. She was still alive, which meant he wasn't. Barely able to breathe past the pain in her chest she grabbed the pillow and screamed into it. Like Graham it was over before it had even started, because she couldn't trust her heart, and now she'd lost the only person who'd ever really known her.

Between one heart beat and the next Killian found himself gasping harshly as his eyes flew open and he jolted upwards. Sitting he clenched a hand over his chest and his rapidly beating heart. It took him a few moments to realize where he was, then surprised filled him. He was in Neverland; sitting in the middle of a crater. Miles of flatten forest that was quickly and unnaturally being filled in again spread around him.

He was back, and he was alive.

Currently formulating the second half, I'll post it later.