"She's my real mom!" the boy had exclaimed defiantly, glaring at the woman who had raised him and running into the house.
Regina had eyed up the stranger, and even as she'd thought that the blonde woman with a utility belt slung around her waist and – two, three – five visible weapons couldn't possibly be a mother, she had also felt a warmth in the pit of her stomach. "You're Henry's mother?" she'd asked in disbelief.
The stranger had smiled sheepishly, shyly, completely at odds with the light body armor she sported. "Hi."
And Regina was lost.
"What is that?" Emma eyed the box before her, and the strange silver object inside.
"This," the odd man with golden skin and reptilian eyes said, "is your father's lightsaber."
Regina sighed impatiently and shifted on her feet, arms crossed over her chest.
Deciding not to ask any more questions, not with the brunette next to her radiating impatience, Emma took the lightsaber, looking it over and nodding. "Okay, lets do this."
Emma followed Regina to the building beneath the chrono tower, looking curiously at the terminals and shelves of holocrons, The brunette hadn't even glanced at them, leading Emma to what first appeared as a blank wall, before a press of her hand revealed the door and the gravity shaft downward. "What am I going to face?" she asked, looking back up.
Regina had the uncomfortable look on her face again, and turned her face away. "An old friend."
"So why don't you go?"
With a small shake of her head and a tiny, wry smile, Regina answered, "She won't want to see me. I trapped her down there, in a form that was… not her preference."
Emma looked curious, but simply shrugged out of her jacket, grabbed the lightsaber from her belt, and took a deep breath. And then she jumped in. The gravity shaft slowed her descent through the air, but the sensation was still unpleasant, and she took a second at the bottom to reorient herself to the ground.
"Okay, where are you…" she murmured, flicking on the lightsaber and using its blue glow to look around. She kept her back to the wall as she searched, until she suddenly realized: the wall was moving. Spinning around and staring into a huge green eye, Emma stumbled back.
The being stood, its wings unfurling, stretching out, as it let out a roar like a rancor.
Emma held the lightsaber out, then glanced between it and the beast. Yeah right, like she was gonna get that close to the thing. The energy blade turned off automatically as she tossed it aside and pulled out her blaster. Before she could fire off a shot, the beast opened its mouth, and Emma barely got behind a rock in time as flaming, vaporous acid streamed through the air. She muttered a curse.
Later, when her blaster was empty and she'd jumped from a tall rock, lightsaber extended to gut the beast, she found the golden object in the pile of ash that remained, and carefully lifted it. The gravity shaft was an older model, and required some on-the-fly rewiring to reverse and allow Emma to ascend, and, predictably because this was her life now, the gravity slowed as she got closer to the top.
And then he was there, the golden man, his strange eyes glinting. He called down to her, telling her that the gravity generator was burning out, but he could help her up. But she needed to toss him the beast's treasure.
Had she been thinking clearly, thinking about anything other than her son, dying and immersed in a bacta tank, she would have never done it, but desperation was clouding her mind, and she tossed the gold object to him. And then he was gone, leaving Emma to strenuously climb out herself.
Everything moved at hyperspeed after that, freeing Regina, being called on the comm about Henry. Running to the hospital because it was faster than trying to find a transport.
By the time they'd gotten there, he'd been taken out of the bacta tank, dried, and laid on a bed, his small body pale and still.
"No…" Emma whispered.
Regina came up beside her, tears streaming down her face at the sight of her little boy. "Henry," she said, her voice a choked squeak.
Elsewhere, the golden man sped through the planet's forest at a dangerous velocity, a confused brunette woman by his side, until he got to a small spire, no more than two feet tall, with a nearly invisibly filament stretching up from the top of it.
He stopped his speeder suddenly, sending the woman forward with a grunt, and hopped out. Opening the golden object in his hands, he pulled out a small rod, and a turn of its base made it glow a purpleish pink. Stepping confidently to the spire, he inserted the rod into its base, and seconds later, it fizzled and sparked.
At the hospital, Regina inhaled sharply as she felt the Force rush back to her, and she instinctively reached out to her son, stretching, feeling for any spark of life still within him. "He's still alive," she breathed, and rested one hand on the center of his chest, focusing.
Emma watched at the other woman's dark eyes went blank, staring into nothing after her confusing proclamation. "Regina?" she asked shakily. It couldn't be true. The medical droid had proclaimed him dead. They don't make mistakes like that. "Regina?" When the other woman still didn't answer, Emma wrapped her fingers around her arm.
Regina's head whipped to her at the raw Force energy that flowed through her, and an instant later, Henry was gasping a loud breath and sitting up, looking at them.
"Henry," Regina sighed, leaning down and pressing her lips to his forehead.
Emma's tremulous, "Hey, kid," followed, and she squeezed his hand.
"Wh-what happened?" the boy asked, looking at the medical droid, the blonde, and the brunette.
"Your mom saved you," Emma answered, ruffling his hair and smiling at Regina, even as tears slipped down her cheeks without noticing.
Regina returned the smile and shook her head a little. "We both saved you," she corrected, reaching out with tentative fingers and slowly weaving them through Emma's.
The blonde's smile brightened, her cheeks flushed, and she shrugged. "Yeah, I guess we did."
"Gross," Henry input, looking between them, although his wide grin gave away his true feelings. He knew bringing Emma here had been a good idea, and if it took almost dying for his moms to realize they were perfect for each other, well, so be it.