Spoilers for the season four finale. Seriously, how devastating was that?!
Disclaimer: OUAT does not belong to me. Plus, the lyrics bookending this one-shot (and the title) belong to Kerrie Robert's Rescue Me.
...fight for me, if it's not too late, help me breathe again...
Killian Jones met Emma Swan three times- although from her perspective, she had met him four times (damn memory spells).
He first saw her in an ogre infested forest where she tied him to a tree and left him for dead. Luckily, she let him go and they had that adventure on the beanstalk. Of course, that was followed by her chaining him to a rock so she could take the compass for herself. He later found her in New York. He had tried to restore her memories through True Love's Kiss. She had kicked him in the gut and slammed the door in his face. He met her for a second time (but really for the first time from his point of view, bloody time streams) when she approached him in another timeline. She had taken his breath away. And she then proceeded to distract him so that a future version of himself could temporarily take over his ship. Said future self later punched him in the face for kissing her. The bizarreness of that adventure still gave him a headache when he thought about it. Finally, he met her- half-crazed from her time in a tower guarded by a dragon- in an alternate reality. She taught him the ways of the sword and in return he sacrificed himself for her. For the chance of being with her- somewhere, somewhen.
In every time, in every place, she bested him and he fell in love with her.
And if there was one thing that he had learned, in all those places and in all those times, it was that Emma Swan did not need saving. She did not want to be rescued by a devilishly handsome pirate- or anyone else for the matter, thank you very much. Except for the times where she did.
So, he would find Merlin. He would find his Swan (where had she vanished to anyway?) somewhere inside of that Darkness and pull it out of her.
He would always find her (and blast her parents for getting him into using that phrase).
...no, this can't be how the story ends...