Chapter 1: Ultimate Sacrifice
"Where is it?" Emma shouts, running up the street of the town.
"We don't know!" David calls.
"It just disappeared into the night." Snow says.
Regina and Robin approach the group having just come back from their walk.
"Hey, what's going on?" the formerly Evil Queen says.
"The Dark One—it's no longer tethered to the Crocodile," Hook says.
"What?! Where the hell is it?!" Regina shouts.
Emma's eyes go wide in realization. "It hasn't gone anywhere. The Darkness... it's surrounding us."
Regina gasps. The large black mass of darkness descends from the sky. Robin is blasted aside as the darkness wraps Regina into a cyclone of itself.
Robin looks horrified. "Regina!" he turns to Emma. "What's it doing?"
"What darkness does… snuffing out the light."
"I'm not going to let it," the outlaw says bravely. He charges forward to help Regina, but he's blasted backward.
"We have to do something before it destroys the whole town!" Snow screams
"That's not gonna work on this thing! The Apprentice told me we have to do what the Sorcerer did! We have to tether it to a person to contain it!"
The Saviour steps forward, towards the cyclone.
"Emma!" Mary Margret and David scream out.
Regina looks distressed "No! There has to be another way!"
Emma holds back her tears and takes another step towards the black mass of evil. "There isn't. You've worked too hard to have your happiness destroyed!"
"No!" her father shouts, running towards her.
Emma sucks in a heavy breath. "You figured out how to take the darkness out of me once. You can do it again, as heroes."
Hook runs towards her. "Emma! Emma, please! Don't do this!"
Emma looks at her beloved Hook, her happy ending, no longer able to hold back the tears. "I love you." She says earnestly.
Suddenly, a powerful force of energy forces everyone onto their backs. They land right in front of the cyclone of darkness, causing Emma to drop the dagger. Emma lands on Hook's chest, the wind still whipping with the powerful force of the energy.
A pair of hands grabs the handle of the dagger and holds it up, stepping towards the centre of the vortex. The Darkness shifts its focus from the formerly Evil Queen to the new target.
The girl closes her eyes and sucks in a courageous breath.
It has to be this way, she thinks to herself. No one else deserves this… No one else can handle this… This was meant to happen…
The girl groans as it cycles around her before it disappears, along with her. The Dark One's dagger clangs to the ground next to the heroes.
"What happened?" Snow says, clambering up from the concrete.
Hook looks down to see Emma on top of him. He feels his heart skip a beat in joy.
"Emma!" David says, her parents rush to her and hug her, taking her away from the man she just professed her love to.
"What happened?" Regina says. Robin rushes to take her into his arms. "Where's the darkness."
"Something happened to it,"
"Where's the dagger?" Emma says.
"There!" Robin shouts.
The blonde and her pirate rush forward and pick up the weapon.
"Oh my god!" Emma gasps.
"What? What is it?" Regina says, she pushes forward to see the weapon in the Saviour's hand. "Oh no…"
"What?" Mary Margret says she and David gather around the crowd of heroes.
"Bloody hell," Killian gasps.
The Saviour's hand shakes with the weapon, tears filling everyone's eyes.
"Like Father, like daughter…" Killian says.
Engraved on the dagger is the name.
Crystal Miller