Disclaimer: My headcanon, my rules, but I'm borrowing the characters from Once.
Her Sacrifice
Of course it would end where it all began. Granny's Diner, Fate wouldn't have it any other way. They had set the trap hours before and now...
It was time. Tick-tock, dearie.
They came together again, heroes and villains, to save her. Just like in Camelot. Only this time, this time, the price was so much more than she could bear. I can't lose you too.
Killia- no, not Killian anymore. The goodness in him was gone, suffocated by the crushing weight of darkness. A vengeful pirate with dark magic, a terror of a combination that wreaked havoc on the town for the past few days, calling up old debts and settling ancient scores. Shall we finish what we started, Crocodile?
The second Dark One was frozen, trapped in a cage of squid ink that held him rooted in place. That place, the same place where only weeks before, she had cradled his dying body as he told her to save herself. Where everything had gone wrong. Why didn't she listen? Why did she ignore Merlin's dire warning? If only she had let him go... I don't want to pay this price.
But there was no time for wishes and what-ifs. This had to be done, it was the only way. She held Excalibur stiffly in her hand, the cold steel burning her palm. Leave Excalibur alone.
The Dark pirate snarled where he stood, his voice gravely and... wrong. "So it comes to this, Dark One," he snapped, motionless except for his facial expressions. He looked at her with such hate, an anger she had never seen in him, even when he had been mired in his revenge against Gold years before. Even demons can be killed, I will find a way.
"Stop talking," she whispered. He ignored her, eyes flashing darkly as he glanced around the room.
"Or are you going by Emma now? I always knew you'd gone soft." He smirked. "Didn't have what it takes to truly be the Dark One, did you. Even this," he spat toward Gold, who was leaning against the bar, the bruises from their battle standing out darkly in the fluorescent lighting of the diner. "This coward, he never had the guts to embrace the power."
It's not really him, she told herself. The ink had been only used on Hook, but she was just as motionless.
He sighed, loudly. "Well, let's get on with it. I suppose you're meant to kill me with that?" Excalibur was forged to cut immortal ties.
She tried to hate him, tried to think of all the terrible things he'd confessed to doing in his unnaturally long life.
I killed him in front of his wife.
I was the villain in that story.
I've succumbed to darkness before in my life.
Other scenes kept invading her mind.
I won't stop fighting for us.
You've got a piercing-eyed smoldering pirate here who loves you.
I love you, Emma Swan.
"Enough!" she cried out. His knowing grin deepened - it was almost as if he could feel her emotions. It didn't go both ways; all she saw, all that she knew of him now, was this empty echo of the only man who ever loved her more than she could have imagined possible. Don't you know, Emma? It's you.
She turned to Regina, passing her the sword. "You do it," she said softly, tears threatening to take over. I'm afraid because I do want a future with you.
"I- I can't, Emma," the former queen replied. Her mother was openly crying beside her, even David and Robin looked as if the masks of determination they had so carefully placed over their features were about to shatter. And Henry...
"Ha!" The black pirate laughed, a cruel sound. "Don't you know, Emma?" Don't use those words, his words! "You did this to me! You saved me, brought me back to be with you," he taunted viciously. "You made me this, you're the only one who can undo it."
You can do this, love.
His voice came from nowhere and everywhere, all at once. His voice. Killian's voice. Encouraging her. He always encouraged her, he knew her strengths better than she did. And now... she needed every ounce of that strength. She drew up the sword and stepped forward, steadying breaths to calm herself. As you wish.
"Tell me, love," he whispered, eyes narrowing as she approached, the blue electric under his kohl. "Will you miss me?" He broke out in a wide smile.
She raised the sword, touching the tip to his chest.
"I loved you."
She shoved the cursed blade as hard as she could through his body. He screamed, bile rising in her throat as he arched against his magical bonds in agony, face contorted in a mask of pain. She felt the darkness unlatching itself from around her as it was sucked toward him, inky tendrils wrapping around his frozen form. Soon he was cloaked in a cocoon of obsidian, blacker than night itself, and then, with a flash, he was gone.
Our future is now. I will follow you, to the ends of the earth, and beyond.
The silence never sounded so loud.