"Come any closer and your little brat dies!"
Emma and Regina stopped in their tracks. A few yards away, Cruella dug her nails into Henry's shoulder, holding a gun to his head. He looked at his two moms with eyes widened in terror.
"Henry, it's going to be okay," said Regina fiercely. She glared at Cruella and added: "I'm going to give you one chance to let our son go. One. Chance."
Cruella just laughed.
"Nice try, darling," she said. "But you can have the awful little boy back once you've done what I asked."
As she spoke, dozens of birds left their perches in the trees and took to the sky, hovering ominously overhead as if ready to swarm around the two women at a moment's notice. Behind Cruella, a spotted dog growled, crouching to attack. With a shock, Regina recognized Pongo's collar around his neck.
"I don't think so," said Emma, bracing herself for a fight.
The Savior and the Queen exchanged a meaningful glance. Then, moving in unison, they threw a blast of magic at Cruella, knocking her back off her feet. The gun went flying into the air and landed about ten feet away, too far for Cruella to reach it. Her spell over the animals flickered and went out like a dying lightbulb. Birds returned to their trees, and a very confused Dalmatian stopped growling and looked around at the chaos. Henry, now free from his captor's grasp, ran to his mothers, who wrapped him up in a three-way hug.
"It's all right," murmured Emma. "You're safe now."
Regina didn't ever want to let go of him. But out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Cruella reaching for the gun. She whirled around and waved her hand, and it disappeared in a puff of purple smoke. Cruella snarled at her like a rabid dog. Emma looked from the woman in the furs to Henry and back, with something in her expression that Regina couldn't quite place. Worry, yes, and anger, but there was something else as well.
"Henry, you need to get out of here," said Emma.
Regina nodded in agreement. This was no place for a child.
"I'm going to use magic to send you back home, okay?" she asked. "I want you to go to your room and stay there until we come to get you. Understood?"
Henry nodded. Regina hugged him one more time, reminding herself that he was alive and safe.
"We love you, Henry."
"We do," said Emma.
"I know. I love you too."
Then, in a puff of smoke, he was gone, taken safely back to his own bedroom. They could only hope that he would stay there and be safe, instead of wandering into danger as he was so prone to doing.
Emma took a step toward Cruella, who had pulled herself to her feet. There was a fire in her eyes. Regina realized a second too late what she had seen in her face earlier. She knew that look. She had seen it in the mirror countless times. Then, with a snarl, Emma plunged her hand into Cruella's chest and ripped out her still-beating heart. Pongo barked furiously before slinking away to hide behind a nearby tree. The woman in the furs collapsed to her knees as Emma squeezed the heart, a cold smile on her lips, her eyes filled with rage.
"No one threatens our son."
"You really think you have the guts to finish me off?" Cruella sneered. "Go ahead and crush it if you can. We all know you're too soft, Savior."
"Emma …" Regina's voice was no more than a whisper, but Emma turned to stare at her. For a moment, she looked surprised – almost confused – but then her attention was drawn back to the heart in her hand, and she gave it another squeeze, harder this time. Cruella doubled over in pain.
The heart was shriveled and black, with only the faintest hints of red shining through. Regina cringed internally, remembering her own heart – small, hard, dark. Tarnished by murder, cruelty, and hate. Whatever she had done to let the light back in, nothing would ever erase that stain. But Emma's heart? Hers was strong and whole. Regina knew that heart, and it was beautiful.
She wouldn't allow the Savior to go dark. That would be … unthinkable. She took a cautious step closer.
"Emma, stop," she said. "Don't do something you're going to regret."
Emma turned to face her with angry red-rimmed eyes.
"I won't regret it," she said.
"Please …"
"She tried to kill Henry!" Emma shouted, digging her fingernails into the heart as she squeezed it. Still on the ground, Cruella doubled over in pain. "You want to just let her go? You want to forgive her?"
"I want you to be the person you are," said Regina. "A Savior. Not a killer."
Those were the wrong words. Emma let out a sigh that was almost a snarl and shouted: "I'm only the Savior because they destroyed an innocent child's life to make me this!"
"But you can still choose who you want to be," said Regina, touching Emma's shoulder gently. "The Savior isn't just something that was forced on you, and it doesn't have to be a bad thing."
"How do you know?" Emma demanded, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.
"Because you saved me," said Regina. "In more ways than one."
Emma blinked. Her grip on the heart loosened as she looked at Regina with an expression somewhere between confusion and awe.
"Regina … I …"
"Just put her heart back," said Regina. "Please, Emma. I know what it's like to live with a darkened heart, and it's not something I'd ever want you to have to go through."
Emma hesitated. Her fingers closed tightly around the heart, squeezing it. For a moment, Regina thought she was going to crush it after all, but then Emma crouched down, shoved the heart back into Cruella's chest, and let go. The other woman gasped in pain at the impact; Emma had made no attempt to be gentle.
Emma stood and turned to Regina.
"We should get her to the sheriff's station."
It wasn't a "thank you". But Regina didn't need one. Glaring down at the woman in the black-and-white fur coat, she reached into her purse. Her fingers found the gun that Emma had given her earlier, and it took only a split second for her decision to be made. In a swift movement, she pulled it out and aimed it straight at a horrified Cruella, a finger curled around the trigger.
"What are you doing?" Cruella screeched.
"Making sure you never hurt my family again."
Regina had never fired a gun before, but at this range it would have been impossible to miss. She pulled the trigger. With a loud bang, Cruella collapsed to the ground. Regina felt a splatter of blood. The gun fell to the forest floor as she stared at her hand, marked by drops of crimson.
"Regina, what the hell was that?"
Regina stared at the body – just one more out of hundreds, even Regina didn't know for sure how many, but so still and empty. The first life she had taken since she had started working for redemption. Somehow this was different than when she had been the Evil Queen and crushed hearts in a blind rage, snapped necks on a whim, ordered executions without thinking of her victims as people with lives and dreams and families. Those days were gone. But this … this was something she was still capable of. She was still a killer. And that thought was not a comforting one.
"I did what I had to do."
She didn't look at Emma as she spoke. Her eyes were glued to the body.
"Regina, no," said Emma, grabbing Regina's arm. "Talk to me, okay? You wouldn't let me kill her, but you did it yourself. Why?"
Regina turned and looked at her. Frantic eyes red and puffy, begging for some kind of explanation. As if it wasn't obvious.
"She had to die. You see that, don't you? She was going to kill Henry …"
Emma nodded.
"But I couldn't let you do it. Your heart is too pure, and mine … well, mine is already as dark as they come. What's one more murder?"
She meant to sound matter-of-fact, but her words came out panicked. Suddenly, she felt Emma's arms wrapped around her, and she melted into the hug. Holding Emma tight, she whispered:
"I'll do anything to protect you and Henry. If that means getting blood on my hands, then so be it."
Emma shook her head and pulled away.
"No. I don't want that. You've fought so hard to be a better person, and I don't want you to risk that for my sake. This can't happen again."
Regina raised an eyebrow. "Then let's hope there's no need for it."
Emma sighed and shook her head.
"All right, we'll talk about this more later," she said. "Right now, we have a son who needs us."
With a soft bark, a spotted head peeked out from behind a tree, looking at the two women as if to ask whether all the chaos was over. They exchanged a shaky smile.
"And we should probably get Archie his dog back," said Emma.
Regina nodded. That was what mattered right now. Archie, no doubt worrying himself sick about his beloved dog. Henry, waiting at home or maybe sneaking out and getting into even more trouble. Emma, whose heart hadn't been darkened today. Not the gun lying on the ground, the splatter of blood, the lifeless body. All that mattered was that Henry was alive and Emma's hands were clean.
Emma could say what she wanted later. It didn't matter. Regina would gladly stain her hands with blood for the people she loved.