A/N: I haven't watched Once Upon a Time in a few months after a certain character death (still not over it, never will be), but the show still holds a special place in my heart so I thought I would write out how I would love for the series to end eventually. My finale includes Hooked Queen, Snowing, Rumbelle, some Robin/Marian, and hints at Swanfire. And again, there is a major character death.
Regina stood in the middle of the main street in Storybrooke, or at least, what used to be the main street. Now it was just a path of dirt and destruction that trailed down the center of what was once the town she had grown to love.
Storybrooke was no more. There was fire everywhere, buildings burned to the ground and chaos in every direction she looked. The town residents stood behind her, watching as their home was destroyed. Gold's shop was now just a pile of rubble. Henry's castle was torn to bits; pieces of its debris blew by. Granny's diner was simply gone.
It looked as if a hurricane had moved through their little down, which Regina supposed was almost true. In their case, the hurricane's name had been Maleficent.
At first Regina was angry. Maleficent had ruined this land. She had taken away so many places that held memories, and she had made the land unlivable. But after the initial shock passed, Regina knew this was inevitable. Storybrooke had always been just a temporary fix. It was never anyone's real home, just a mindless act of revenge. They belonged in Fairytale Land.
Besides, Regina had gotten to take out most of her frustrations by killing Maleficent with a particularly powerful fireball.
So now she stood surrounded by people she once considered enemies. Snow White was crying like a blubbering mess. Marian stood hand in hand with Robin. Emma stood a few feet in front of the crowd, hands in her pockets as she stared at the problem in front of her.
"Tell me again, Gold," she ordered, not taking her eyes off of the wreckage.
Gold sighed and limped forward as he leaned on his cane. "Like I said, I built a backup detonator after Greg and Tamara tried to destroy Storybrooke last year. The difference is, this once has a bit of an opposite end result. Yes, it will destroy this town and wipe away all evidence that it was ever here, but the people will be safe. We will all simply be sent back to Our World."
"Everyone except the person who sets the bloody thing off," Hook added.
"Precisely."
"Why on earth would you set it up that way?" Charming asked him as he looked down at his son in his arms.
Gold put up a finger. "If you recall, last time the people who wanted to set the thing off were evil. I thought I'd save us some time and kill them as they tried to kill us."
"No one could have anticipated that we would want to blow up our own home," Belle chimed in, defending Rumple.
"Or that one of us would have to be sacrificed in order to do so," Snow White said. She seemed to have finally got her crying under control.
"So then… how do we pick who it is?" Henry asked wearily. Regina had almost forgotten her son was here. He was no longer her little boy, but rather a young man, and despite that, she wanted nothing more than to wrap him in her arms and save him from whatever pain they were all inevitably about to go through.
The townspeople all looked from one to the other in silence. It was only a few moments later that someone from the back called, "Send the pirate!"
Hook put on his best mock insulted face and clutched his heart.
"The Evil Queen brought us here, she can be the one to send us back!" someone else called. Regina rolled her eyes at the predictability.
"What if no one has to do it? I have my bow and arrows; maybe I could hit the mark from out here!" Snow White said with her usual optimism. It usually would have annoyed Regina, but now she felt envious of it.
"This wasn't my first magic trick, love. There are no ways around this. A human being must press the button."
Everyone erupted into a debate; names were being called out left and right. Regina wondered if this was the end of the world. It certainly seemed like it. She simply stood there and watched the madness until her eyes fell on little Roland. He was standing beside Henry, looking as terrified as she knew her son was feeling inside, though he was trying to be brave on the outside.
Suddenly, her mayor instincts took over, or possibly her queen instincts. Either way, she stepped forward, waved her hand, and a light flashed out and launched into the sky, successfully gaining everyone's attention. A silence fell over the crowd.
"Fighting isn't going to get anything done. We are not going to handle this by nominating our friends and neighbors to sacrifice themselves for us. No one is forcing anyone to walk to his or her death."
It was the first time she had spoken since Gold's revelation that someone must die, and she had surprised even herself. When had she grown to care for these people? When had she matured from murdering without a second thought, to feeling her heart break at the thought of losing anyone who stood beside her?
As she asked herself those questions, Regina realized what she had to do. "It should be a choice," she said quietly. "And it should be m-"
She wasn't able to get the word "me" out because right at that moment, Emma cut her off. "Me."
"Emma, don't be ridiculous," Charming told her.
"There is someone else who will do this. It is not you," Belle agreed.
"Isn't it though?" Emma asked. She put her hands on her hips, her red leather jacket making her look strong, as if she could actually survive what she was volunteering to do. "I'm the Savior. I'm supposed to save you all. It's in my job description." She somehow managed a small smile.
"Swan, no one is asking you to do this. Don't be foolish," Hook told her. "You're a good person. It should be me."
"I will do this, Emma," Regina said. Hook quickly looked over at her but she didn't let herself look back.
"No one is doing anything!" Snow yelled, putting her hands out as if to stop any further discussion. "We have beaten giants and poison apples and a different version of that very detonator. We will find a way. My daughter is not doing this."
"Don't you see? Look how much we've all been through since I came along. We broke a spell, and then another one came along. We defeated Peter Pan, and then The Wicked Witch showed up. It's my destiny to save everyone, but we always find a way around it. It kind of seems like destiny is just going to keep throwing all this… stuff at us until I fulfill my purpose."
"We've always had adventures, Emma," Charming said.
"This isn't an adventure," Emma said, gesturing to the fire that surrounded them.
"This is destruction. I don't want any more people getting hurt because of me. I think we've all known for some time now what I was sent here to do. I need to start being the Savior; I want to."
There was a deafening silence as Emma walked to her parents.
"Mom, Dad… I can't even begin to explain how happy I am that we found each other. But you know, I think in a way you've been with me all along; my strength, my optimism, my bravery… that's all you guys. And in a perfect world, I would get to stay with you both forever." She was crying now, but she grinned and placed her hand on baby Neal. "But luckily, you have another baby to take care of now."
Snow practically jumped into her daughter's arms as Charming wrapped his free arm around both of them. For a while, there were only sniffles as Snow and Charming simply just kept saying her name. After a few minutes, Regina heard Snow whisper, "Our little princess. You'll always be with us."
"I know you'll be sad, but please, for me, don't let this keep you from being great parents to this little guy. Promise me that you'll still go on adventures and you'll still have hope."
Both parents simply nodded. Eventually, Emma pulled away and Snow immediately turned and buried herself in Charming's shirt, but her sobs could still be heard.
Next, Emma walked to Belle and Gold. Regina couldn't hear what words were exchanged, but the way Gold hugged her, it was easy to guess they had spoken of Neal. After a long embrace with Belle, Emma got to Hook, who was right next to Regina.
She wiped her tears and smiled at him. "Bet you wish you hadn't traded your ship for all this, huh?" she joked.
Hook's face remained stoic. "I'd have traded her a million times over to put an end to this."
"Thank you, Hook. I never expected to find such a good friend in you. I've never drunk so much rum or had so many swordfights in my life."
That finally got him to crack a smile. "You would've made a good pirate, Swan. I suppose I'll just have to teach the lad all about piracy now."
He gestured to Henry and Emma laughed once. "Don't even think about it." She pulled him in for a tight hug. "I mean it, Hook, thank you. And for the record, you are a good person, too."
Next was Regina. Emma took a deep breath when she stepped in front of her and put her hands back in her pockets. "I don't really know how to say goodbye to you. In a weird way, I owe everything to you."
Regina smiled, though she could feel tears threatening to fall. "See? People always jump to bad conclusions when they hear the words "evil curse."
Emma laughed. "Things haven't always been great between us, but I've known you for a while now, and there's no one I'd rather have raise our son. You're a great mom, Regina. You always have been."
In one quick instant she pulled Regina in for a hug so tight she could barely breath. After getting over the shock, Regina returned it.
"Take care of him," Emma whispered so quietly only Regina could hear. "Take care of them all."
She pulled back and Regina nodded to her.
"Hey, kid," she said with her voice cracking. She knelt down so that she was closer to him. "My baby." She ran a hand through his hair, and Regina was sure she could see tears falling down his cheeks but she used all of her strength to not reach out and comfort him. He needed his other mother right now.
"Leaving you like this is the hardest decision I've ever had to make, but if doing this means you get to live a long, happy life, I would make the same decision over and over again."
"You're a hero," he said quietly.
"You're the hero. You made me believe, Henry. You gave me a family, and a real home, and I'm so proud of you. You're the most special person I've ever known."
He wrapped his arms around her and they hugged for a long time. A part of Regina wanted to stop all of this. She wanted to tell Henry he didn't have to say goodbye to anyone. She wanted to run into the wreckage right now and send everyone else back to the Enchanted Forest just so that the Charming's didn't have to lose their daughter. She wanted to do so many things, but she couldn't. All she could do, all any of them could do, was stand there.
"I love you, kid."
"I love you, too, Mom."
"Here, I want you to keep this," Emma said as she removed her swan necklace from around her neck. "Your dad gave this to me a long time ago. It's yours now. Whenever you miss us, just look at it and remember how important you are to both of us.
Emma stood up and wiped more tears away. She started to do some more goodbyes, like to Archie, Robin, the dwarves, and others. Regina grabbed Henry, pulled him close to her and wiped his tears. Hook moved closer to them as well, linking his arm with Regina's.
A few minutes later, Emma retook her place in the front of the group. She took one final glance around at everyone, offering smiles and nods. She no longer was crying. It looked like she was ready now. She had accepted what she had to do. It was time.
After she looked at Henry one last time, she looked at Regina and somehow, Regina knew what Emma wanted her to do. She grabbed Henry and turned him so that he wouldn't see what was about to happen. She was happy to see that Henry no longer cried either. Instead, he looked up at Regina, and his big, brown eyes looked at peace. "She's going to be with my dad."
Regina smiled and hugged him so tight that she hoped he wouldn't be able to feel anything.
Everything that happened next was a blur. She saw Emma walk into the rubble and there was a brief pause of nothingness. She pulled Hook and Henry in close and shut her eyes tightly. After a few seconds, Regina opened them to see why nothing was happening.
Instead of the fire and fallen buildings she saw a few moments ago, she was now in a beautiful forest. She looked down and saw that she was still wearing her Storybrooke clothes, perhaps the only evidence that her time there had not been a strange dream; that, and the boy who was looking up at her.
"This is the place I read about." He sounded amazed, like even though he had believed in fairytales all along, he still wasn't expecting to be proven right.
"This is home," she told him. She knelt down in front of him and looked up at him, absently remembering when he was little and she'd still have to look down to speak to him like this. "You're going to have a great life here, Henry. I promise you we will be happy.
"She did it. She saved us," she heard Snow say.
She looked around and saw that Snow was still wrapped in Charming's arms, and she was holding Neal now. Though she still cried, Regina knew she had realized that this had to be done to stop all of the madness. And deep down, Regina knew the Charming's would survive this. They would be able to bounce back and be the leaders that this group needed, the memory of their daughter at the front of their minds at all times.
Next Regina looked at Gold and Belle, who were holding hands as they watched Emma. Belle must have felt her gaze because she looked over at Regina and offered a small smile. Regina returned it, just as Hook followed her gaze and nodded his head to the couple, showing yet again just how far he'd come.
Them, she glanced at Robin, Marian, and their son. The family, though quiet, was happy. They were together, just as they were always supposed to be. Where once Regina would have angrily stormed off at the sight of it, or maybe ripped a heart or two out, she nodded to the trio. Roland waved, and Robin and Marian grinned.
Everything seemed right with the world. The Savior had done her job. She had saved them all, in more ways than one. She had fixed Regina's relationship with Henry. She had made Hook realize he wasn't much of a villain at all. She had reunited families, and helped people find each other.
The group stood there for a while, as sort of a silent memorial for Emma Swan, their Savior.
A/N: Hope you liked! This was kind of a downer, and who wants to end like that, so stay tuned for an epilogue. I already have it written, so that will be posted in a few days!