Still reeling with shock, Regina looked up from the dreamcatcher and stared at Emma.
"I had no idea …"
"Now you see, don't you?" said Emma.
She did. It made perfect sense now: Emma's attempt to seduce her, the comments she had made that love might not be worth the pain, the way that her wrath had vanished the moment Regina admitted her true feelings, all of it. But one question remained:
"What about the Dark Curse?"
Emma smiled. "There is no Dark Curse."
"What?"
"Storybrooke already existed. I used the wand that brought us to Camelot to send us back, and the dreamcatchers to erase everyone's memories. King Arthur would have tried to kill me with Excalibur, but now he doesn't even remember."
"You took our memories, too," Regina pointed out.
Emma nodded reluctantly. "I was too proud to let you remember what I had said … what I had done …"
Regina softened and approached her, reaching out to touch her cheek. "I wish you had told me sooner."
"You really want to do this, then?"
"Be together? Yes," said Regina. "I've been in love with you for a long time."
"What about Robin?"
"I'll just have to tell him the truth," she said. "I loved him, too, and I know it will be hard on him. But I choose you, Emma. I would always have chosen you, if you had just let me know how you felt."
"That's … I don't even know what to say," said Emma. "But you're forgetting one really big problem. I'm still the Dark One."
"But you don't have to be," said Regina.
"I'm a murderer," said Emma.
"So am I. What you did was wrong, but if I can be redeemed after everything I've done, then so can you." She spoke fiercely, leaving no room for argument.
"Maybe you're right," said Emma. "If I can light the Promethean Flame and re-forge Excalibur, we can still get the darkness out of me."
Regina smiled. "Emma, I don't think we even need Excalibur."
"What are you talking about?"
"A long time ago, when Rumple was still the Dark One, I tried to trick Belle into breaking his curse. It almost worked, too. But he rejected it, and for as long as they were together, he kept on rejecting it every time they kissed. That's the thing about being the Dark One: in order to break the curse, you have to be willing to give it up. Are you?"
Emma nodded. "I think I finally am."
Regina leaned forward and kissed her, softly and gently, surrounded by the dreamcatchers. They broke apart a moment later, surrounded by a pulse of rainbow light. Something was changing in Emma's face. There was no crocodile skin, not in Storybrooke, but the coldness in her eyes melted away and her white bun spilled out into blonde curls. She stood there for a moment, in shock, as the memories poured out of the dreamcatchers around them and floated away to find the people they belonged to.
"We did it," Emma whispered.
"Yes," said Regina. "We did."
A tear trickled down Emma's cheek.
"What am I now?" she asked.
She had been so many things. A lost girl, a criminal, a bail bondsperson, a princess, the Savior, the Dark One. Regina knew what that was like, having so many fragmented identities. But only one of those things really mattered.
"You're Emma Swan."
Emma smiled. "Yeah, I guess I am. Now come on. We've got an evil king to get rid of."
They found him easily. He wasn't exactly trying to hide. Like the coward that he was, he sent out his knights to fight them while he himself stayed safely back, but knights couldn't do much against two powerful magic-users. There was no need to kill them. A simple sleeping spell would suffice. Guinevere stood at King Arthur's side, an empty shell of a queen, and Regina felt a pang of recognition. This wasn't all that different from her own marriage to King Leopold. In the back stood Merlin, chained and bound, but struggling with all his might. Acting on instinct, Regina aimed her magic at him, not at King Arthur, and cast a simple spell to free him. The chains fell harmlessly to the ground.
"Stay back!" King Arthur ordered him. "You're still bound by Excalibur."
"Which you don't have," said Emma, smiling. "We do."
She summoned the broken sword in a puff of smoke and held it out to Merlin. "Here. Take it. I don't know how to unbind you from it, but you deserve to control your own destiny."
As his fist closed around the hilt, King Arthur must have known it was over. Regina could see the fear in his eyes, and a knot formed in her stomach. She didn't think she would ever help to defeat a villain without remembering what it felt like to be in their place.
"Give up now," she said. "It's not too late. You can go back to Camelot, tell your people the truth, and do right by them."
"I'll never surrender."
Of course. He was far too proud, and that would be his downfall. Meanwhile, with a wave of his hand, Merlin had lifted Guinevere's enchantment. She looked around in horror as if she was seeing clearly for the first time.
"No!" she cried.
Regina wasn't sure where the Queen of Camelot had gotten a knife, but before any of them had a chance to react, it was buried in King Arthur's chest and Guinevere was standing there with tears on her face and blood trickling down her arm.
Later, after Guinevere, Merlin, and the knights had set off on their own quest to make Camelot into the kingdom it was always meant to be, Emma and Regina made their way to Granny's to meet the rest of their family. One glance at the two of them, hand-in-hand and glowing with love, was enough to tell Snow and Charming what had happened, and a clumsy explanation filled in the gaps as they sobbed with joy over having their daughter back.
"I've always just wanted you to be happy," said Snow. "Both of you," she added, turning to Regina and hugging her as well. If David looked like he wanted to pull her aside and tell her exactly what he would do if she broke his daughter's heart, it didn't really matter. And best of all, Henry was there, grinning with joy. He pulled them both into a three-way hug, and Regina remembered the first time they had done that, after they had saved him from Peter Pan. She should have known even then that Emma and Henry were her happy ending, because she had never felt happier than when she held them in her arms.
"I'm so proud of you," he said. "Both of you."
They say that pride is the worst of the Seven Deadly Sins. And it had certainly caused them enough problems, Regina thought to herself. If only Emma had told the truth instead of instead of taking their memories to save her own pride. If only King Arthur hadn't concealed the broken sword and pretended to be something he wasn't. But then again, Regina herself had always been too proud for her own good, rejecting kindness and mercy time and time again because she was too afraid of looking weak. That sort of pride was destructive.
But there was another kind of pride, too: the pride that they took in keeping Storybrooke safe. The pride that kept them going even after everything they had been through and fighting for what they knew was right. The kind of pride that Henry meant when he said he was proud of them, and the pride that Regina felt towards Emma and Henry and the family they had built together. That sort of pride was a virtue, because it came from courage and love.
And as they sat down to dinner together, Regina didn't think she had ever felt more proud of anything in her life.