"What's it doing?" Robin cried.
"What Darkness does," Emma replied, eyes wide in horror, "it's snuffing out the light." Regina's light. Her light. Her Regina.
"Well I'm not going to let it," Robin exclaimed rushing at the swirling Darkness.
And Regina called her an idiot.
"That's not going to work on this thing!" Emma yelled over the roar as the Darkness rebuffed Robin, "The Apprentice told me, we have to do what the Sorcerer did and tether it to a person to contain it!" With determination set in her jaw, Emma strode forward.
"Emma! No!" Regina screamed, using all her strength to grit out her words. "There has to be another way."
"There isn't," Emma told her, deflating as she watched Regina struggle, "you've worked too hard to have your happiness destroyed." Emma reared back, ready to plunge the dagger into the night-colored monster.
"No!" Charming yelled. Emma turned, wishing her parents would just understand she needed to do this.
For Regina.
"You figured out how to take the Darkness out of me once," Emma reminded them, her voice wobbling, "you need to do it again. As heroes."
"Why?" Regina yelled, her eyes locking with Emma's. A tear escaped as Emma focused in on the woman set before her.
"Because I love you," she said, her normal volume, barely heard as a whisper. With that, Emma stabbed at the Darkness, which immediately receded-loosening its grip on Regina.
Regina stumbled back, watching as the Darkness consumed Emma, swirling and pulsing faster and faster until there was nothing but a hollow clatter on the ground. Regina dropped to her knees, reaching for the cool metal of the dagger. She traced the name Emma Swan as a sob caught in her throat.
