A Savior Too Late

Chapter 8

Everyone had finally gathered in Regina's mansion. The Savior and the Queen purposely sat away from one another. Only two people in the room had a clue as to what was going on between them. Avalon paced back and forth with arms crossed. Regina followed the time traveler carefully with her eyes, feeling like she had seen the woman's leather jacket from somewhere before.

"Ok, so," Ava began after she stopped to turn towards the group, "You should know that this is the first time I will have ever used time travel with anyone other than myself. So, we need to be prepared for anything."

"And what does that mean?" Robin inquired.

"It means that it is entirely possible we could be split up after the portal spits us out on the other side," the time traveler responded, "Space and time is pretty hard to travel when you aren't using a spell to map out exactly where you're going."

The Queen's perfectly sculpted brows came closer to one another with worry. "Then how are you even able to accomplish such a task?" she asked. This whole plan was beginning to scare Regina a bit.

Avalon turned her gaze towards the hardwood floor becoming silent for a moment with a grave expression. "My life energy," she replied, "Each time I open a time portal, I practically use a piece of my heart to do so. It amplifies my magic enough to be able to rip through space and time."

Mr. Gold shook his head, not believing her. "That's impossible," he interjected, "Not even I have the ability to do that."

"Not to brag or anything, but it requires the power of a special and pure heart," Avalon replied, "You may be the Dark One, but you do not have a pure heart."

Charming leaned forward in his seat to interrupt with, "Wait, if you came to kill Robin, then how did you intend on returning to the future?"

"He's right," Emma agreed, "If you killed someone, you would no longer have a pure heart."

The time traveler turned her back to the group in order to give her time to fight back her tears. Her jaw clenched as she refused to let the river break the dam. "I wasn't planning on going back," she answered, "It was a sacrifice I was willing to make." Ava sighed and shook her head before turning to face them again. "That's not what matters though. My life is small in comparison to this situation."

"Maybe there's a different way other than killing Robin," David offered, "Perhaps we can help you fix your situation in the future."

The Savior nodded and said, "Yeah. That could work. We could stop this King."

"If that's even possible," Ava replied, "If you mean trying to kill the King…well, I've tried, but…"

"But?" Regina urged the woman to continue.

"Family ties," the time traveler said with regret in her voice, "I really can't say."

Robin rolled his eyes and rose to his feet. "Perhaps we should stop discussing it and get on with it," he said with annoyance evident in his tone, "I'd like to keep my life."

"Right," Ava said, "I can't make any promises to that, though."


The sky became dark as night over Storybrooke as the town began to rumble from a thundering boom. The party had decided to open the portal from the woods to prevent more damage to the structures within town. A ball of light formed in Avalon's chest and grew brighter as it traveled up her lifted arm. Beads of sweat appeared on Ava's face as she concentrated the magic flowing through her body. The others watched in awe as she propelled the magical ball into the sky, which exploded when it reached a certain speed. From the exploding light was born a purple beam of light that shone down on the group. The wind began blowing very violently as if a tornado were bearing down upon them.

A calloused hand wrapped itself around one of Regina's own. Her heart skipped a beat when she met the eyes of its owner. Emma looked back into the dark eyes and gave Regina a reassuring nod. No one else noticed the gesture or exchanging looks since they were too busy gazing into the sky. The two women gasped when their feet lifted from the dirt. Everyone began levitating toward the portal in the sky along with any loose debris nearby. The Queen quickly tightened her grip on the blonde's hand only to have Emma let go and wrap a protective arm around Regina.

A certain teenaged boy should have been behaving himself under the supervision of his quite young grandmother, but this was a once in a lifetime occasion. So, of course, Henry found a way to sneak out of Mary Margaret's apartment. He stayed concealed behind a tree until the group was far enough into the air that they would not notice him. When he saw his chance, Henry bolted towards the beam just in time for him to be engulfed into its light. The boy began flying towards the portal and he looked down to see the beam fading below him.

"It's about to get a little crazy!" Ava shouted over the roaring wind around them. Just as her words were heeded, the group was suddenly sucked into the portal.

It felt like being on one of those theme park rides that took you up to the top and dropped you without warning. Avalon felt every muscle in her body tense up in reaction to this feeling. Her eyes shut tight in an instant as she tried to get a grip on herself. She hated this feeling. It was the only time she actually felt completely helpless.

Emma's hold around her Queen tightened when she felt the woman suddenly grip her jacket. The blonde took a moment to look at their surroundings, but all she saw were thousands of lights beaming at them at an unreal speed. It reminded her of what it looked like when spaceships went into hyper speed in sci-fi movies. However, this was nothing new to The Savior.

The pirate appeared unimpressed as well since he had once been through the same thing. David, on the other hand, did not seem to be taking it so well. The prince looked like he was falling in and out of consciousness. Hook would have happily let his rival continue in this state, but he knew that Emma would never forgive him should something happen to her father. Killian reached forward and smacked David across the face. Charming snapped his head back, opening his eyes wide. He growled at the pirate, but did nothing else. Robin just kept his eyes closed and fists clenched, hoping it would all be over soon. Mr. Gold kept his amusement of the rest of the group's reactions to himself and remained silent. He was merely here to ensure his life.

Suddenly, a literal light at the end of the tunnel appeared and they were shot out from the other side of the portal. The group was suddenly falling from the sky. This was something Avalon had forgotten to inform them about. Everyone let out some sort of expletive when they noticed this trip had suddenly turned into skydiving.

The woman Emma held captive was breathing heavily. When she realized this, the blonde brought Regina's face towards her own and said with a firm tone, "It will be alright." As if she had jinxed them both, she caught the form of a smaller body diving quickly past them. Her heart almost stopped when she realized just who it was.

"MOM!" Henry cried out as he flew by his two mothers. His body had closed up and froze in fear causing him to descend much more quickly than the others.

"HENRY!" Emma and Regina screamed at the same time, their fear blatantly obvious in the boy's name.

The Queen felt Emma loosen her grip before the blonde's hands thrust her into another body. Hook let out a grunt as he caught Regina.

"Protect her, or so help me!" The Savior shouted at the man she now considered a trustworthy friend. Emma placed her arms at her sides and pointed her head down in order to dive, hoping she caught up to her son in time. However, she had no contingency plan for when she managed to get to Henry.

Regina was already in a panic, but her expression turned into one of sheer terror when she realized exactly what Emma was doing. Her hands reached out for the blonde before The Savior dove away. "EMMA! NO!" she shrieked loud enough to make her voice hoarse. It was happening again. Pictures of Daniel's death began flooding her mind. Tears would have shed had the wind not dried them instantly.

Avalon held out a hand as Emma went for the boy. "No! Wait!" she shouted, but it was too late. Her plan was to protect everyone from smashing into the ground by slowing their descent with her magic. She could not help Emma and Henry now without abandoning the rest of the group. Ava prayed that Emma had enough control over her magic to save herself and the boy.

The Queen began struggling against the pirate's hold on her angrily. The vein on her forehead made it clear the emotions running through her at the moment. However, Hook managed to hold the woman back even though he knew the sorceress could obliterate him at the drop of a hat.

"Let me go!" Regina yelled as she elbowed Hook, "I have to save them!" She looked at Gold, who simply looked unimpressed, and then to David, who looked just as worried as she did.

"They'll be fine, woman!" the pirate blared back, ignoring the pain in his ribs.

"Have faith in Emma!" David shouted to them. He looked down in time to see that the two diving bodies had disappeared from sight. A small gleam of light blipped for a split second above a forest of trees. The prince hoped that light was Emma's magic.


Emma was about a foot from her son before she reached out to grab his leg and pull him into her arms. The frightened boy clung tightly to his mother.

"Henry! What the hell were you thinking?!" she shouted, obviously upset with Henry's reckless decision to follow the party.

"I'm sorry, Mom!" he whimpered into her chest, "I didn't know it would be like this!"

The Savior was about to reply until she saw their impending doom, which was snow-covered tree tops, just beneath them. "Shit!" she exclaimed beneath her breath before clenching her grip on Henry. Emma spun so they were in opposite positions with her back facing the trees. She protectively covered her son's head with one palm. The Savior closed her eyes tight as fear flooded her veins. Everything next happened in slow motion.

Emma's magic engulfed the pair in a flash of white light just before they hit the trees. Every branch felt like a major league player taking his bat to the blonde's spine. She felt the first one slice open the back of her jacket before the next branch sent a large splinter of itself into her lower back. Every other branch her back smacked into sent wood chips around them, some of them getting tangled into her golden locks. The ground felt like the weight of the entire world slamming into her. Emma blacked out when the back of her skull collided with the cold ground.

When the fall came to a rough stop, Henry realized that his birth mother had just saved his life. He felt a piece of wood scraping against his side and suddenly pushed himself off Emma. The boy looked down to see a foot long splinter impaled through Emma's lower abdomen. Crimson had begun staining the snow beneath them. His blood ran cold when he noticed his mom was not moving.

"Mom?" he said softly before giving her a gentle nudge. When she did not respond, he became terrified. "Mom!" Henry shouted as she shook her body harder. "Mom, wake up! Please, I'm sorry!" He feared the worst.

The blonde groaned lightly as she began to regain consciousness. Her face scrunched up in agony when she realized how much pain she was in. "Henry," she spoke with a hoarse voice.

"Mom!" he yelled again with relief in his voice, "Don't move! You have a stick in your side."

"That's just great," Emma mumbled before wincing. She painfully moved her hand to her holster and pulled out her pistol.

"What are you doing?" he asked as became very confused when his mother began putting the firearm in his hands.

"You have to find the others," she groaned, "But you have to protect yourself."

"But mom," he whined.

Emma pointed at a certain place on the weapon and explained how to operate the safety. "Take the safety off, point, and squeeze the trigger. Always hold with both hands. You've seen me do it. Never pull the trigger, only squeeze. Do not shoot unless you are certain. Understood?"

Henry gulped and gave his mother a curt nod. "I-I got it, Mom," he replied hesitantly.

"Now go," Emma ordered. It was an unfortunate thing that she still had no idea how she healed Regina before because it would be great if she could figure it out now. One thing remained certain though, the Queen had healing powers of her own. That was if the older woman would even heal her after letting their son run off into the woods by himself with a loaded gun. Regina's gonna have a field day with this one, Emma thought before blacking out again.