A/N: Thanks for your continuous support and, let me say: yes, I totally freaked out when Neal said he could sail a ship last Sunday. I had already freaked out when I saw Hook's hook was poisoned; it felt like one of those déjà vu moments to me! Lol. But, alas, whereas I might have gotten a little close to the real thing in those two aspects, I knocked it out of the park by giving Neal dates, instead of a fiancée, right? Pffff…. Never mind, even that wound will heal. I just feel really sad for my girl Swan... Anyways, the show must go on! I initially thought I would only need 2 more chapters to finish "Ashes", but I was wrong. The final battle turned out to be over 7,000 words long, so I'm breaking it into at least three chapters, plus the prologue. Enjoy, and grab your tissues, because angst is back.

Chapter 35: The final battle begins

"Regina," Cora said in a whisper, as she prepared to leave their headquarters. "You stay, and make sure you guard that heart with your life."

"Yes, mother," the other woman said, as Cora departed from the room in a dark cloud of magic.

Regina Mills smiled. She knew the time had come for them to unleash their wrath over that stupid town and once again put an end to all possible happy endings. But still… Something at the back of her mind reminded that her son was out there, and her mother was not exactly the caring kind.

'But she would never kill him,' she told herself, in a futile attempt to put her mind at ease.

Eeeehhh… Sexy lady!

It was rather unsettling to see Mad Dog Majima leading the rest of the Providence's crew in the most bizarre dance scene in the history of human kind, not so much for the dance itself, but because Neal would have never taken him as the dancing type, not after Majima had almost killed him upon his arrival.

Op, op, op, op, Oppa Gangnam Style

Seeing him dancing now, as if there was no tomorrow, was a bit eerie, to say the least.

However, nothing surprised Neal more than a man who could actually find it in him to meditate in the middle of that boisterous mess: Captain Shang was kneeling in one corner of the deck, the tips of his fingers placed together in front of his forehead, in the most absolute silence.

Neal waited until he saw Shang open his eyes and his posture relax to approach him, and when he did, the first thing he realized was that the man had assembled some kind of altar in front of him.

There was a picture of a man right on top of it.

"Your father?" Neal asked, as the Captain rose to his feet.

Shang nodded only once, and his eyes were peaceful. He now looked like a man who just had a huge burden lifted off his shoulders, and Neal contemplated the thought that maybe, only maybe, he had helped the Captain in his own personal journey just like the other man had helped in his, after risking his life, and his crew, to give him a chance.

He then felt a piercing pain on his chest, and his knees hit the wooden surface of the deck as he coughed until he was completely out of breath. He felt his lungs had just torn, and he would drown in his own blood.

As quickly as he could, Shang brought Neal back to his feet, as the other man covered his mouth, shaking violently. When he looked at the scarlet stain in his open palm, Neal understood he didn't have much more time left.

As the Captain reached for a handkerchief in an inside pocket of his coat so that Neal could wipe the blood away, the two men heard a soft thud near them.

"You're alive?" Tinkerbell said, as she landed on the deck of The Providence, and ran to Neal as soon as she spotted him near Captain Shang. "You're alive!"

"I am…" he mumbled. He was finding it hard to stand on his feet, and he felt drowsy. 'Don't know how long for, though…'

"You're running a fever, Bae," Tinkerbell said, when she touched his face and realized it was abnormally hot, and he was shivering. "Do you have any potion left?"

"Nope," he whispered, trying to smile. "How did you get here, anyway?"

"Your ship has been sighted from the pier," she told Shang, "how long til you get to the shore?"

"Minutes," the Captain replied.

"You should be prepared to fight as soon as you set foot in Storybrooke, or maybe even before that," as she spoke, she took out a bluish wand that had been fastened to her belt, and pointed it to the cut on Neal's arm. "Hook will be waiting for you."

"I didn't know you performed healing spells," Neal whispered. "Is that wand yours?

"No to both questions," she answered back. "I'm no good at healing spells, and this wand is not mine."

He then realized she was not about to give him any further information.

"But," she continued, "given the circumstances, even a little healing is better than nothing, don't you think?"

Neal felt a little tingle on his arm, and soon enough the trembling subsided and he could breathe slightly better.

"I'll have to agree," he muttered.

"Neal and I will go first," Tinkerbell told Shang, who nodded without asking for explanations.

"How?" Neal asked.

"This," she opened her hand to show him a handful of fairy dust.

"Hmm…" Neal raised an eyebrow. "Last time you used it on me the only thing that happened was that I sneezed for days."

"I know, right?" she answered with a grin, and Neal smiled as well. "I'm actually kind of nervous, even though there is no reason for it not to work now."

"Just remember I'm not the luckiest individual to walk on earth," he said, trying not to show that he was nervous as well.

Tinkerbell lifted a glance to him, and for a moment Neal though he had seen sadness cloud the fairy's eyes.

"I wish it had worked the first time," she said. "We would have had so much fun In Neverland."

"I'm sure we would," he replied, and then tried not to let the conversation fall into a pit of sorrow, not after all the heartbreak he had already endured. "But then… I guess I wouldn't have Henry."

"Nope, probably not," she answered shakily, and he saw her chin tremble. "Yeah, one can't have it all…"

"I still don't believe you don't have a heart," he whispered.

She giggled at his words. "I had one when I was locked outside Neverland, and I've just returned, so… some of it is still on my system," she said, shrugging. "Just pay no mind to my blue funk."

"Can't you undo it?" he asked. "Like, get your heart back?"

"My heart being untouched by love is what stops time and heartbreak in Neverland, so I don't know if it would be fair…" she answered, with a little smile curling her lips at the corners. "You know, when I got back to Neverland, time had ticked while I was having a blast with all these mundane feelings, and there was this boy, Big Deal, and he was a toddler when I left, and when I returned, he was taller than you, and his voice was all… adolescent," she told him, flinching. "And his hormones are all over the place, and now I have to talk to him about these things and I hate when that happens, I'm just not the mother type…"

"Nope. Definitely not the mother type," Neal said, as he looked at Tinkerbell and remembered the days they had spent together. "More like a big sister," he whispered, as he took her hand in his, and smiled. 'Even with all the limitations', to quote the Blue Fairy, for far too many years she had been the only family he had ever known after going through the vortex. "My big sister."

"Oh…" she whispered, as her chin trembled again. "And with that pang in my chest, I'm sure another Lost Boy has just grown a beard!" she said, breaking into laughter. "Seriously, being with you is bad for business!"

Neal laughed as well, and the two of them hugged.

"I'm gonna miss you," he said.

"Gonna miss you too," Tinkerbell replied, quickly clearing her throat and holding his arms to take a better look at him. "Now, you make sure you stick to Emma when we get to the shore. She needs you, more than you can understand now."

Before he could ask how Emma Swan would actually benefit from his likely useless, lifeless presence in the battlefield, Shang touched his shoulder.

"I think it's time you got this."

Neal swallowed at the sight of Shang's sword. Oh, yeah. He had forgotten. He would end up destroying the dagger. What a nice way to end the day, killing his own father.

"Oh, Shang, by the way…" Tinkerbell then unsheathed an equally impressive sword from her belt, and handed it to the Captain.

"Is this…?" Neal heard him ask with a frown.

"Yeah, I trust you to return it to her when you meet her," the fairy replied. "I've fixed its little… problem."

"What problem?" Shang asked, still frowning.

"Doesn't matter now," she replied. "But I'm sure Mulan has been able to think more clearly since I took that sword away from her. In time, you'll understand."

After she had cast a final look at the Captain, Tinkerbell turned to the Neal again.

"You ready?" Tinkerbell said, as she placed a hand over Neal's arm.

"Are you?"

"Yes, I am."

She sprinkled fairy dust on his face, and Neal felt his whole body go warm as his feet slowly left the ground.

"Yes, it's working," Tinkerbell said, with a broad smile on her face. "I guess you're officially a Lost Boy now!"

And then, the two of them left towards the shore.

Rumplestilstkin stood still in front of his house as fire balls, spells, giants and humans approached from all sides. He took a long, deep breath, holding his cane.

The final battle had begun, and if it all ended well, he would be dead before the day was over.

He tried to understand how Henry Mills would fit into that. After all, the boy was supposed to be his undoing. 'Now that is very poor taste,' he mentally remarked. Not only was his son fated to face death in order to bring into town the only weapon that could destroy his dagger, but now his grandson would get caught in that downward spiral as well?

He genuinely hoped he was wrong.

"Father?"

He turned on his heels at Baelfire's voice.

"Bae?" he muttered, a mix of confusion and surprise spreading around his face. "How?"

"I made it," he saw his son whisper. "And I have it. Shang's sword."

He motioned to the sword fastened to his waist.

"B-but… your m-mother," Rumplestiltskin stuttered, as his heart rejoiced at his son's presence, despite all the alerts his mind was sending him that something was wrong.

"You don't believe me, do you?" he heard Bae say, with an unmistakable strain of disappointment in his voice. "You're going to choose magic over me, again."

"No, Bae," he replied, feeling a pang of shame inside his chest for letting his own son think magic mattered more to him than he did. "I will always choose you, son."

"Then let me destroy it." His son's eyes gleamed with boldness. "Let me put an end to it."

Rumplestiltskin closed his eyes. That was it. His moment had come.

He slowly reached out for the dagger in the inside pocket of his coat, and handed it over to his son.

"Do it, son," he whispered, as he emptied his mind of all painful memories, and tried not to let grief swallow him. He was going to die, and his son still hated him. He could see it in his eyes.

"Dad?" he heard Henry exclaim from the other side of the street, "You're back! I knew you would!"

He saw Baelfire smile, but his eyes were still cold.

And then, he understood.

"No…" he whispered, and panic rushed through his veins as the man in front of him started to walk towards the boy, with the dagger firmly secured in his hand. "Henry, no!" He lunged forward, trying to cover the distance between him and his grandson as fast as he could, despite the agonizing pain shooting from his knee. "This is not your fa-"

He could taste blood rising to his throat as the dagger pierced through his chest, and he found himself unable to complete the sentence.

Rumplestiltskin tumbled to the ground, and before darkness engulfed him, he saw Regina standing a few feet away from Henry, frozen. He couldn't hear anything around him anymore, but he knew the boy was screaming as he tried to break free from Regina's grasp, now that she had awoken and moved quickly to take the boy away from the man who still looked at him with nothing but despise in his eyes.

He let out a final breath, and as blood dripped from the Dark One's Dagger, the name Cora replaced his on the blade.