EMMA (Two weeks ago)
No blood, why the hell had there been no blood?
"Regina, does Killian have his heart?" Emma asked suddenly and Regina approached, plunging her hand into his chest, and coming out empty.
Oh no you didn't, Emma thought, the rage flushing through her, the hot anger.
She looked at Regina and at the same time they said
"Rumple"
Emma's eyes flashed. The dark one was going to give her back his heart and then pay.
And pay dearly.
She was going to strike back at him with the two things he loved most, his power, and Belle, and likely in that order, poor Belle. Emma wondered if power was an item that could be held, could be kissed, if that would not have been Gold's true love instead, warming him in the night. Any good will the man had with her from defeating Pan was gone.
Killian's speech about not giving into revenge tried to force its way into her mind and she pushed it back, determined. She would get her revenge, but not as Killian had. She would not cross the lines that would darken her in the process, she would do it in a way so that it would be just. Penalty for a crime. She was the Sheriff after all, and it was her duty as such to correct a wrong. She simply would not lose 300 years to it.
No a single week should do fine.
She would not kill him despite her strong feelings right now on that subject, other than in her mind, but she would make him feel true loss.
Oh yes, he would lose. He would give her Killian's heart.
She allowed herself a minute of imagination, of murdering him in increasingly visual ways. The simplest, impaling him somehow on the dagger that control him was her personal favorite. Somehow using Killian's hook in a creative way would also be a nice tribute.
Her mind began to form a plan. She felt stronger somehow, knowing that Gold would have to account for his crime against the one she had loved. Magic is not the only thing with a price, she vowed, so is evil.
Oh God, Killian. She mourned again, wishing she could cry, but feeling too deeply still to do so. There was such a sharp ache in her chest she should have Regina rip her heart out for a while, to help her focus on her task.
How could he leave her just when she finally had been convinced of his own special talent to survive against all odds... although- she amended- in fairness to him, he did survive a little, with his heart hopefully still beating in Gold's hands somewhere...
Wait- with his heart still BEATING?
NO.
No, it would be impossible.
It was insane.
It was impossible to bring someone back from the dead. Except that Neal had done so with Rumple, and the Blue Fairy walked out of her own coffin.
Yes. yes. yes. yes. Killian, come back to me.
"Regina" she said spinning to look hopefully at the woman, her heart racing and her hope shinning in her eyes "if Killian's heart survived is there a way for him to come back to me?"
"I don't know" Regina said, giving it some thought, "but it maybe. The heart is the most vital organ, if it survived there might be a chance... you will have to research it"
"And the ashes? Emma asked, her brain racing "Can we use them?"
Regina looked at Emma thoughtfully, "If you can figure out what the hat did exactly, and what it was, yes, I might be able to find away to use them..."
"Emma, about Killian's death... I am s..." Regina tried, choking on the word sorry, too unfamiliar to her to get out fully.
She didn't need to. Her consideration in putting him back into one piece and her very presence her beside her while she suffered spoke louder than anything.
Regina looked away, uncomfortable with her own emotion, and Emma did not begrudge her for her part in letting Killian die, knowing that she was trying to do the right thing, just as she had been with Marian.
"I understand Regina, just like with me, with Marian" A moment of understanding and friendship passed between them, and Emma would have hugged her, if Regina had been the hugging type. Instead they both stared at each other uncomfortably, hands in their pockets until
"Bring his body back to the Crypt, take care of him for me" Emma instructed
"I have some research to do, and I know just the person to help me do it."
"Belle"
Emma went home to rest first, to clear her head, to allow Henry, Snow, David and even Elsa to try to comfort her despite all she really wanted was to be alone. But they were hurting for her, and a little themselves, especially Charming, at the loss of a friend, and she gritted her teeth and bore their love despite her instinct to push them all away.
She said nothing of the heart that still might beat, said nothing of her plans against Gold. She could not stand to have them hope and equally couldn't stand if rejected the possibility.
So she sat their quietly, accepting their nurturing as them hummed around her in the awkwardly, on egg shells. She tried to force herself to welcome it, the hugs from Henry, the food from Snow, the strong pats on her arm from her father and the sympathy in Elsa's eyes.
And in the end it helped, as when she was finally let alone, in bed that night she progressed in her grief to the point she could cry, until her pillow was drenched in her tears.
If Belle was surprised to see her at the library the next morning, she was too polite to say, happily accepting Emma's request to help.
She did not tell her about Rumple and his part in it all.
At least not yet.
Belle had not seen the hat from her angle in the crowd yesterday, and they started on that first, searching the books for any reference to it.
When Emma found it suddenly after hours of silent work, they both devoured the information in collective horror. For Belle knew that hat from Anna, and how it collected magical beings, and Emma suddenly understood the panic of Killian's face when she had almost given up her magic.
She had almost lost more than her magic to Gold after all.
That bastard.
Belle did not need to be told who had the hat, she knew in her gut, but was still destroyed to hear the words
"He tried to kill me with it Belle, at this big mansion on the edge of town" And Emma felt bad at the grief on her face, but she deserved to know the truth. She was hurting Belle to strike against Gold, but her heart was not darkened to do so as she was also doing Belle the ultimate favour by releasing her from her illusions about the man that she married.
"My honeymoon home" She cried wounded
Emma paused letting that sink in, before adding
"There is more Belle, we need to research if we can bring someone back from the dead if their heart still lives..."
There were tears in Belle's eyes when she said
"Oh God... what did he do"
"He took Killian's heart Belle... and I want it back"
"How can I help you with that?"
"The dagger Belle, I need you to command him to give me back the heart, I can not risk it being crushed.."
Belle nodded shakily, emboldened by her pain, her own crushing disappointment at what he had done.
She disappeared for a second, returning back with the dagger, holding it out and commanding
"Dark One, I command you to bring me Killian's heart"
and again when there was nothing, more desperately this time
"Dark One, I command you to bring me Killian's heart"
That shit, Emma thought coming to the same realization as Belle at the same time.
The dagger was a fake, he had been dishonest even to his true love. Power his clear mistress.
Well, he was losing Belle now, she thought, and her conscious was clear despite the warm satisfaction of revenge.
He really brought this on himself.
Belle looked at her, hurt, rage, pain, fury all dancing in her eyes
"Tell me what to do"
