| | To Save a Life | |
| | OUaT | | Gen | | OUaT | |
| | To Save a Life | |
Warnings: Canon divergence, Dark One Henry, strong language, character death
Title: To Save a Life
Summary: It was ultimately for them. Everything he'd done was for them. And now that he had Emma and Regina, he wasn't going to loose either of them again.
A/N: This might become a series depending on how it goes along. I like to make my favorite characters suffer and Henry is just suffering fodder.
Henry had expected more of the Darkness. The dagger was now nothing more than a meaningless ornament quite like any other in Gold's shop. Henry had expected more of the Darkness. He'd imagined the Darkness itself as a force of nature, something like a cyclone that tore apart everything it found. Instead it was simply a large mass of shadows that erupted from the Sorcerer's Hat and attacked the Apprentice.
Well, not quite. The shadows were the deepest shade of black he'd ever seen, swallowing whatever small light it found like some sort of black hole, and it pulsed with life, making the earth shake wildly and small knickknacks fall on everyone. If it had a face, Henry could've sworn it was staring at him with malice— or hunger.
Emma screamed as the darkness flung her and her light magic from the Apprentice and to one of Grandpa Gold's cases, glass shattering and sticking to her. The ground broke as the door to the pawn shop splintered into pieces and the darkness. Hook laid the Apprentice down, holding his head as Emma kneeled next to him and yelled, begged to be told what the hell was that and what's going on and please tell me what to do.
"Long before your stories began," he coughed painfully, "the Sorcerer battled the Darkness."
Henry blinked tears as Emma gripped the Apprentice's hand so hard her knuckles were white. He looked like he was dying.
"He was able to keep it from consuming the realms. He tethered it to a human soul, could be controlled with a dagger."
"How do we stop it?"
"You can't. The Darkness will consume all in its path, every last shred of light in whoever's soul it finds, just as it did to the one who willingly possessed it. It will find the darkest heart and begin there and then take you all."
The Dark One. Henry and Emma shared a look. The Darkness was weak now and it needed something to start with first, something easy to corrupt, that wouldn't make such a fight and was already tainted and would give it strength.
It was going to destroy the last bit of light from whatever it could find, and they both knew it was starting with his mom.
His eyes didn't close like Henry had seen in movies. The Apprentice died with open eyes and the most empty expression he'd ever seen in a person, with the Darkness moving further away from them and closer to Robin and Regina. Emma, his grandparents and Hook bolted from the pawnshop and to the streets in order to find Regina. Henry wrapped his arms around Belle, feeling all again like a scared little child.
There has to be something I can do. We didn't beat Isaac…for this…there has too, there has too…
The Dark One's dagger laid next to Gold, it's blade free from any name for the first time in centuries. Henry picked it up with the reverence he had held the quill and held it tightly in his hand, almost admiring his weight and how it looked.
"I have to go." Henry walked away from Belle. "I have to save them."
Belle's eyes widened in realization and Aja grabbed his wrist. Henry no!"
"Stay here and don't leave. You'll be safe."
For a second she didn't say anything. There was a pregnant silence that was only broken by the distant cracking sounds and screams of other people. Storybrooke and everyone in her was being torn apart. Belle shook her head and sobbed and let him go, turning to Gold and not looking back once.
Henry ran to the street and saw the mass of shadows swallow Regina. Robin was on the floor, holding one of his arms. His wrist looked as if it were bent and his arm was covered in bruises and blood, like he'd fallen on top of it. Underneath it all, Henry could hear his mom screaming. He ran to the darkness and lifted the hand that held the dagger to it.
Please work.
"What the fuck are you doing! Henry get away!"
Emma raced to his side despite her injures, reaching her arms out to pull him away. When her hands touched him she was thrown away like Robin and fell on the street with a crack, David knelt to her side. Henry clenched his other hand and forced himself to face the darkness.
Regina loved him and despite everything he did too. There was still red, love in her heart. Henry thought of the quill he broke and wondered if he could have written her a happier life or banished all the darkness.
You're not the Evil Queen, you're my mom.
Mary Margaret braced herself against Hook. "Don't do this!"
"You heard Emma too, it needs a human host to control it! I can't let Mom's heart grow dark again!"
Henry pressed his hand into the pulsing shadows, and their magic softened. Instead of the earth-shattering quakes it was the soft humming of magic he'd grown used to. He faced Emma.
"Grandma and Grandpa figured out how to get the darkness out of you. They can do it again." As heroes. It went unsaid, because his voice was cracking and he was wasting time, but he knew they knew it. Henry turned to the parting mass and pushed Regina out. Robin quickly lifted her away from him, despite her protests and kicking.
"Please Henry. There has to be another way. You don't have to do this!"
"I love you Mom!" Henry smiled despite his tears. Both of you."
He wasn't scared or worried. He felt absolutely nothing as the shadows swallowed his hand and the dagger. Someone screamed in the distance and he realized it was him.
No being scared. You wanted to be a hero Mills. Do it for them.
It was for Mary Margaret and David. For Gold and Belle and Hook and everyone else the Dark One had ever met and harmed. It was for his Dad, for his Mom. Both of them.
It was ultimately for them. Everything he'd done was for them. And now that he had Emma and Regina, he wasn't going to loose either of them again.
Henry stepped into the darkness.
When the shadows enveloped Henry, Emma only heard him grown in pain. The way she's been thrown had injured her ankle and she was sure she'd broken several bones. Blood pooled at her side, too much to be hers. Maybe Robin's?
But none of that mattered. The darkness was now gone. And with it Henry.
All sorts of people who had been outside were in shocked silence to what they had seen and those who hadn't asked themselves what had gone wrong. Emma didn't cry or drop to her knees, instead she stared at the spot where Henry— her son, their son, this wonderful boy that loved her unconditionally— had been. It was the only place of the street without cracks and something innocently laid in its center, glinting.
She weakly moved from Hook's arms and went to pick it up, neither him or Regina- who was in a worst state of shock, staring blankly as if lost in her mind- or her parents trying to stop her. It was silver, sharp and wicked, with curves carved into his blade and black handle and completely unmistakable: the Dark One's dagger.
In the flat of the blade in large, bold inscription, was Henry's name.