They'd dispatched of half the town and Mulan still felt no better. She'd created a baby with Aurora, out of true love and the light magic she hadn't known she had ever possessed. And Aurora had let Philip kill it. He would do anything to protect Aurora from being discovered.

Not that it saved her, in the end.

Mulan had taken no pleasure in burying the couple alive, listening to their bones break as her magic pushed them deeper and deeper into the heavy earth, their lungs filling with blood and sand.

Elsa had rather enjoyed the show, and had taken to doing the same to random townspeople, crushing them slowly under banks of snow.

All the usual heroes were still battling it out, but none of them could come close to touching her or Elsa. They were too powerful, too full of righteous indignation. The heroes were too full of hope to give up on their dying comrades, so half their forces were distracted with the hopeless task of reviving half-frozen lovers.

Some of them came back, of course. Snow and her prince had each taken a shard of ice to the heart three or four times. Elsa laughed each time one revived the other, and cast another shard into them.

"Shall we finish this?" Elsa asked, more bored than tired.

Mulan surveyed the survivors and spotted her favourites backed into a corner by one of Elsa's giant snowmen. Regina, Emma, and the precious son who always brought them together. She scowled as she spotted the pirate and Robin Hood in their corner. Roland was still alive, too.

Why she hadn't started with him was beyond her, but she was glad she'd spared her nemesis.

She nudged Elsa and pointed towards the group of heroes. "Watch. Shard the pirate."

Elsa did as she was told, and the two watched, hand in hand, as Snow White called across the battlefield to her daughter.

"Kiss him, Emma! True love's kiss is the only way to break the spell!"

Mulan laughed as Emma grimaced. She looked like a child caught in a lie.

"Swan!" the pirate urged her.

Emma shook her head. "I can't. I'm sorry, Killian." She placed a peck on his cheek and shook her head again.

"Aw, little pirate boy!" Elsa exclaimed, a cheery smile on her face as she watched the ice glaze over his face. "If only there was someone out there who loved you."

The heroes' group continued to battle the snowman. Mulan shifted the ground beneath them, raising Regina, Emma, Henry, and Robin onto a great earthy arch over the town. With a twitch of her finger, the ground beneath Henry faltered. His mothers worked together to pull him back to safety, while Robin notched another futile arrow on his bow as though the gesture of protection helped the women at all. Neither of them noticed, too busy wrapping their arms around their son in a group hug.

Elsa laughed. "I see what you're doing." She pointed one hand at Robin, the other at Emma. "Watch this." A shard of ice pierced both their hearts simultaneously.

"Mom!" Henry cried, but Mulan had the dirt drag him to the bottom of the arch, as helpless as Roland to revive his parent from the spell.

Mulan watched attentively as Regina looked between Robin and Emma, too far apart to save them both.

"Emma!" Charming screamed from the ground below. He was running for the arch, but he would never make it in time.

"Come on," Mulan urged her old friend. "Make your choice."

She squeezed Elsa's hand as she watched Regina run towards Emma, take the saviour's head in her hands, and kiss her square on the lips.

Mulan wasn't sure if she heard Robin squeak out a last cry before he died. Charming was screaming too loudly for her to hear anything else.

"No!" He pushed Regina off his daughter and watched, horrified, as the ice faded from her body. "No! Not Emma! Not my daughter, please!"

Slowly, Mulan sunk the bridge back into the ground, and Elsa dissolved her snowmen, so the whole town could watch the scene unfold.

"What happened?" Snow asked, catching up to her husband. "How did she—" She looked at Regina, cowering near the statue of her former soulmate. "No! True love's kiss?"

"Mom!" Henry yelled, running to Emma and throwing his arms around her. He looked at Regina and smiled. "You saved her!" Looking back at Emma, he asked, "Does this mean we can all live together now?"

Charming grabbed Henry and pulled him away from his mother. "No, Henry. It doesn't."

"Oh, Henry," Snow cooed. "You've read the book I gave you how many times now? You know women like them don't belong in our stories. And they certainly don't get a happily ever after!"

"Mom?" Emma squeaked. "What do you mean?"

"Emma, you're a princess from a fairytale," Snow explained. "Children learn from the examples we set, and we can't have them exposed to degenerates. I'm sorry I transported you to a land that didn't teach you any better."

"I'm sorry!" Regina cried, surrounded on all sides by sneering townspeople. "Emma, I'm sorry."

"There's only one fate for people like you in our stories: find a prince, or be expunged from our pages."

"But I'm your daughter."

"That's why this hurts so very much." Snow grimaced as she notched an arrow on her bow.

Mulan nearly jumped as Regina appeared behind Snow and plunged her hand into her chest. Snow dropped her bow and arrow and stood limp.

"This is getting good," Elsa cheered.

"You forgot the third fate," Regina said, her voice shaking as she squeezed Snow White's heart. "Evil."

"Mom, no!" Henry shouted, trying to keep the peace between the two sides. Just as Regina had said he would. "Don't let them turn you evil," he pleaded. "I don't want to lose any of you, to death or to evil. I'm sure we can work this out. There has to be another way. You saved her with true love's kiss! You should be able to be together."

Mulan's heart swelled as Regina resignedly returned her nemesis's heart and took her place next to Emma. Maybe there could be another way, for them.

"Damn," Elsa muttered. "I thought we had two new converts."

But Mulan wasn't listening. Her mouth grew dry as she watched Charming point his sword under Henry's chin.

"Henry, we don't have enablers in our stories, either." He wiped a tear from his eye. "You're all degenerates." He looked at his wife. "We can start over, with Neal."

Snow nodded solemnly.

"Are you out of your mind?" Emma screamed. She looked at Regina imploringly, and Mulan watched as they both seemed to make a decision.

But she couldn't let them.

"The prince! Now!" she commanded Elsa.

As Charming started to freeze over, Emma and Regina took advantage of the distraction and pulled Henry from the tip of the prince's sword. They clenched their teeth in worry as the townspeople closed in on them, and clasped each other's hands in relief as the ground swelled and formed a bridge past their foes.

They ran together, dodging those that would have them killed, following the earthy bridge as it led them toward the town line.

Mulan steered them with bated breath, plunging any attackers who came near them deep into the earth. It was too late for her to walk any other path but evil, but she still wanted someone to find a fourth way. Deep down, she knew that even if she crossed the town line without the last memory potion, her heart would still be bitter. She would still be evil, even if she didn't remember what she was.

But Regina and Emma didn't need to end up like her. She could still give them her best chance. It wasn't exactly selfless, but it was something worth sacrificing herself for.

She breathed a sigh of relief as the trio crossed the town line, then turned her attention to those who remained. She knew her heart darkened with every life that snuffed out under the rising dirt and falling ice. She knew she was truly evil now.

But she was finally a hero, too.