AN: Based on the finale spoilers and my dream I had afterwards ;) So spoiler alert!

It was here.

Regina ran. She tried to outrun them all. She tried to save them. She knew the curse was here for her after all.

Still she heard the footsteps heavily stomping against the ground as they ran after her. For once she wanted them to give up on her. She didn't believe there was a way to save her.

"REGINA!" Emma shouted with all the breath remaining in her lungs. She was in better condition than most, so she picked up her pace and left her parents, Hook and Hood behind.

But Regina didn't stop. She tried to run faster.

Until she got to the middle of the town. It took only seconds until the other sets of footsteps stopped in tracks just behind her.

The spell was hanging in the air above them like a thick grey cloud.

All of them were panting and trying to catch their breaths.

"You're. Not. Doing. It." Emma grumbled towards Regina.

"It's the only way-"
"I won't let you." Emma said fiercely. She knew the look in Regina's eyes. They were wide with fear and the determination Regina claimed with her words to have, it just wasn't there. She wanted there to be other way, but lost hope.

"Emma's right," Snow said and David nodded.
Robin walked to Regina and tried to pull her into embrace. She quickly sneaked out of it and paced quickly towards the cloud.

It was like the cloud sensed her presence. It started thickening and formed a thorn, floating towards Regina. It has started.

The curse wanted to engulf her whole. Everything she was and used to be.

The curse was making it clear. Upon the cloud, there began to emerge images, as if drawn with pencil. Each scene appeared for only a few moments before transforming into another.

There was a sketch of beautiful woman, holding her baby up in the air. The image disappeared in smoke, which created another image. The same woman, years older, with a young raven haired daughter, being raised in the air and bound by three bands. The woman was angry. The scene dissipated. The raven haired girl was older and riding a horse. The woman was standing afar with unpleased grimace, the man by her side excited. The girl jumped off the horse, hugged the man and then her face crumbled at something the woman said. The next image reverberated happiness. The raven haired girl was kissing a stable boy.

The curse paralyzed everybody around. Emma breathlessly watched the story playing out in front of her. It made her angry. So angry. She looked at Regina, who was standing and shaking with every inch of her being. She was tortured. And Emma put the pieces together. It was Regina's story.

Emma ran towards her and raised her arms. She focused more than ever to feel the magic rushing through her body. She sent a silver ray towards the cloud. The pencil sketches dispersed, but the cloud didn't lighten.

Regina wanted to help Emma, but she couldn't. The cloud drained all of her magic.

"Swan, NO!"

Emma felt a thud into her body and fell to the ground under the weight of somebody else.

"Hook?! GET. OFF. ME!" she was furiously trying to fight him off, but he refused.

"I won't let you sacrifice yourself for the Evil Queen!"

"That's not your decision!" Emma grunted and continued struggling in his embrace. She spotted with corner of her eye, that the story was being narrated again.

Raven haired girl stood with a happy smile, watching her mother and the boy she kissed. The expression disappeared in a fraction of moment. Her mother buried her hand into the boy's chest and ripped out his heart. She crushed it and the raven haired girl broke down. Fog exchanged the image into a sketch of a wedding, where there stood an old king and the raven haired girl wore the saddest expression fairly hidden behind a mask. Then followed quick memories showing the king leaving his new wife abandoned in the big castle. The king playing with his daughter while his wife was sitting alone at the table, crushed dreams painted on her face. The king taking advantage of his young wife and raping her, while the girl tried to push him away and free herself.

Emma kicked Hook off herself. She just couldn't watch it anymore. She had known Regina suffered, but this was worse than she could imagine. 'Evil isn't born, it's made.' she heard Regina's voice reverberating again and again through her head.

Emma shot up to her legs and used her magic to erase the hurtful pictures off the cloud. This time not only the pictures not dissipated, but the thorn withdrew from Regina and floated towards Emma.

"No! Emma no!" Regina shouted and wanted to run towards the Savior to stop her. A pair of strong arms around her chest stopped her and the next moment everyone was paralyzed again.

The course was now pointing towards Emma and showing off her life story.

A little crying baby stolen from her mother's embrace and put into a wardrobe. The same baby carried by a little boy. The little blond girl in a foster home, fighting with the other kids for attention and touch. The little girl being handed back by unknown foster family. And another and another. The girl running away with a backpack. The girl stealing and meeting her first friend. The heartbroken blonde leaving her first friend. The girl living alone. The girl nearly adult, stealing a yellow bug and meeting a guy. The girl kissing the guy, shining with happiness. The girl crying in prison, holding onto her growing stomach. The girl crying after her baby was taken away. Fragments of her job, chasing bad guys. Henry finding her and leading her home. To him and to Regina. The blonde crying over Graham. Over Neal. A picture of the whole family including Regina in a group hug.

The last picture faded into a fog.

Emma turned to her parents and Hook.

"Sorry," she mouthed towards them, checking swiftly the closeness of the thorn above her. "I love you," she mouthed to her Mom and Dad. Then she turned to Regina, ignoring Hook behind her, ignoring Hood holding Regina from running.

Emma thought maybe she should say something, but she didn't know how. She hoped her eyes would say it all, because her voice would betray her. All the love was poured into the look she dedicated to Regina.

Regina looked lost and broken once again. Tears were streaming down her face and eyes glued to Emma's, all the desperation and love written in them.

The thorn sank enough to touch the top of Emma's head. The cloud surrounded her and kept darkening until Emma wasn't seen.

"Emma!" Regina's desperate cry pierced the air and it was the last thing Emma would hear. The fog swallowed her and disappeared. Nothing was left behind the curse. Emma was gone.

"No." Mary Margaret whispered, broken, and hid her face in David's chest. They both started crying, clutching onto each other for support. They lost their daughter. Again.

Hook stood there, the shock restraining him from saying or doing anything.

Regina yanked herself free from Robin's tight embrace and ran to the spot where Emma had disappeared. She fell onto the ground and started crying with heart-wrenching sobs.

"Emma no."

I should have saved you.

I will find you.

I promise I will find you.