As the rain stated to splatter on Main Street, it didn't seem to hit Emma's skin. Her skin was as pale as a ghost but also emitting a glow which seemed to produce a light aura around her. It was as if Snow's death and the rain droplets had collided and produced a new being inside her. The prophecy had been fulfilled and this was the result. She was the epitome of the Fairest of Them All as her skin truly was the palest and she had acted out of kindness and love.
"Mother!" Lily screamed as she rushed over to the edge of the boundary. In her despair, Lily hadn't even noticed Emma's new look. She had just dropped to her knees beside the former princess and tried to access the magic she'd had but the power that she had so mercilessly used seemed to now evade her. Numerous flicks of her wrists and waves of her hand were rendered useless. No magic appeared despite Emma's presence beside her. The blonde also didn't wince or feel any pain as her half-sister attempted to steal her magic once more.
"Oh, you won't be able to use any magic anymore," Emma said, her voice seemed to hold a lilt of power and omniscience that she'd never experienced before. She slowly made her way over to Lily. "That definitely includes mine."
Lily flung herself away from Snow's body and rushed towards Emma, blood still dripping down her arm. Her arms were held aloft and upright as if she was about to strangle Emma. However, Emma didn't even move but Lily froze where she stood but her face was still able to move.
"Unfreeze me and fight me!" Lily hissed.
"No," Emma replied calmly.
Despite what had just happened, she felt no anger towards her half-sister. It was as if becoming the Fairest of Them All had rid her of all negative emotions towards her brunette half-sibling. It was time to settle the past calmly but quickly. The people around them were still pushing against the boundary, Emma's family especially, in an attempt to join them. They could no longer wait on the side lines and Emma wished to be reunited with them.
Emma could hear the calls from her family, but she merely flashed them a reassuring smile. "There will be time for a reunion but not yet."
Everyone, especially Henry, looked confused but they accepted Emma's request and stopped yelling for her attention. Henry took hold of his adoptive mother's hand and held it tightly until it was time for their Emma to come back to them.
"Look at you!" Lily spat, still frozen but she had now realised Emma's new form. "You've turned into a freak, but you clearly have power. Bring her back!"
"No," Emma repeated, her voice still calm and collected. "Snow White got what she deserved. She was the Darkest of Them All. She was the antithesis of everything I have ever stood for. I may be able to bring back the dead, but there are things that no sorcerer or magic wielder should mess with. What's done is done- Snow is gone."
Before the fight, Emma had had none of this knowledge, but now it felt like it was pouring from her as if she'd known it all the time. Silently, she was slightly annoyed that she hadn't known it before now.
"She was the one who wrote the prophecy, although she did not remember doing it when it started to come to play," Emma continued, again surprised by the flow of information. "Along with the Author, who has now been disposed of, she wrote a story that would mean she would be the most powerful woman in the world. She sacrificed her own daughter so that it would come true."
Lily's face dropped from fury that her mother was dead to pure confusion as Emma spoke. "But she wanted me to fight in her honour?!"
Emma nodded. "Exactly."
The blonde noticed that Lily was no longer fighting the freeze charm on her as she was too baffled by the revelation. Emma decided it was time to drop the spell, however, she uttered no counter curse aloud so that Lily wouldn't know that she was unfrozen unless she tried to move once more.
"By doing so, you completed the prophecy, but it was foretold long before that," Emma continued. "Do you remember why our father went back to Snow and tried to call things off with my mother?"
"My mother told him she was pregnant," Lily replied, knowing the story after Snow had told her. She dropped her arms, finally realising that she had been unfrozen, but she didn't move towards her half-sister as Emma remained a few steps away from the brunette.
"Snow was lying," Emma revealed. "She got pregnant by David, yes, but it was after she found out that he had been with Maleficent and after Maleficent was already pregnant. Snow White lied to get him back."
As gasp was heard from behind her. Emma recognised the voice as her father's, understanding dawning on him as she spoke, but she couldn't acknowledge it at that moment. She had to continue explaining, both to Lily and to herself as she was finding all of this out as she told her half-sister everything.
"However, you were only created as a means to an end," Emma continued. "Snow arranged with the Author for her pregnancy to be sped up so that you would be born first to make it look like she was already pregnant. It had to be thought that David impregnated her at the same time as Mal, or before, otherwise he would have no reason to stay. As it happens you were created by written word and through carnal actions.
Then we were switched at birth, but she never knew that. Therefore, it made sense that after I broke the curse, she believed I was her daughter because I was called Emma. The Dark One had said that the Saviour would be called Emma. Cleverly, he only spoke to David when he referred to Emma being his daughter. So once the curse had broken, Snow spent all that time getting to know me to find out if I was the daughter she thought I would be but I wasn't, I was too good which is why she detested me. She wanted a daughter that was rotten to the core, just like she was. I suppose she must have been relieved when you finally arrived."
Lily still looked confused, appearing to have missed Emma's dig at referring her to be rotten. "But she was convinced that you were her daughter. How, if she hated you?"
Emma winced at the brutality of the question. It had been hard to accept that her mother (which was what she believed Snow to be at the time) hated her for no reason it seemed. However, she pushed through it and nodded again.
"Because I have magic," she answered simply. "She was so in love with our father that she thought they were True Loves which would mean that their daughter would have magic as foretold in so many folk stories. So, when her daughter, which she thought was me at the time, was killed during the prophecy, Snow hoped to receive all of that magic. That's what she'd always wanted, more power, I have the most powerful magic she had ever seen, even before I became this- the Fairest of Them All."
"But even if her plan had been successful and I was dead, she wouldn't have got any magic because I don't have any?" Lily asked.
"Because her prophecy wasn't written clearly," Emma replied. "The Author accidently wrote a loophole in it. You can only see it if you know the outcome of the prophecy. 'One mother will receive the ultimate betrayal'," Emma quoted, "and Snow did receive this. She was betrayed before the prophecy had completely been fulfilled."
"How!?" Lily was starting to get angry now. A clap of thunder echoed across the sky to match Lily's frustration. Oddly, it seemed to be at the exact time she growled out her question.
"By you," Emma said as if it was obvious. "She was betrayed by you because you killed her."
Lily's jaw dropped. "How is that betrayal?"
"Because you promised her that you would never hurt her when you first teamed up," Emma said. "You promised she would never get hurt in your presence, that you would offer her protection." Again, she had absolutely no idea how she knew this, but she realised this must be what if felt like to be the Dark One with all the information. She was just the reverse of it.
"But I didn't mean to kill her!" Lily spluttered as anger started to take over the confusion. This time, a bolt of lightning shot from the sky and sizzled to the ground barely a metre away from Lily, but she ignored it, too lost in what was going on. She wasn't having the murder of Snow pegged on her when it wasn't her intention to kill the only person who ever appeared to love her. If everything had gone as it should, Emma would be a crumpled heap on the floor and she would have had all the magic Emma possessed and more. She would have been the Fairest of Them All.
Just looking at them showed their differences. Emma, already pale, was now even paler, an iridescent glow surrounding her. Her white dress draped over the floor but didn't seem to be getting dirty despite trailing behind her as she walked. Her long, ash blonde, almost white hair still remained dry and seemed to float around her shoulders in natural waves.
Lily was the complete opposite. Her dark hair was sopping wet and the clothes consisting of dark jeans and a black tank top were just as wet from the rain. Her eyes were just as dark and full of fury as she glared at her half-sister.
It was just as when Maleficent and Snow when to fight. They were the same but the exact opposite. Instead of being the partners of Prince Charming, they were the daughters. Tied together by one man but the complete opposite of one another in temperament and belief.
"You should have read up on the death ball curse," Emma advised wisely. "Should the target be missed, which in this case it was because I survived, the death ball will fall on the darkest soul in the surrounding area. You, Lilith, placed the shield charm around the crowd so that only yourself and Snow were the possible targets. However, even if the shield wasn't up, the target would have remained the same. You hit it away from yourself in an attempt to preserve your life and it hit your mother and killed her. You created the death ball that caused her death. In my books, that means you are the murderer."
"I don't understand!" Lily screamed. Another clap of thunder echoed around them, this time lounder than the first one. Her eyes turned red once more and her hands started to shake with fury but this time, no fire illuminated her palms.
"Let me put this simply for you," Emma said, her voice still as calm as it had been when she'd started telling Lily why the events had unfurled as they had. "Snow White fell in love with Prince James when she was young and promised herself that she would have him. She was completely unaware that James was killed and replaced by David, she believed him to be the same Prince she'd fallen in love with when she was young. They met and that was it for her from then on.
"When she found out that he was being unfaithful to her, she couldn't control herself, so she lied to him to get him back. She didn't see it as being anything wrong, after all James belonged to her and Mal was a dirty monster, a dragon, not human at all.
"Then she found out that Maleficent was also carrying his child so she created a prophecy with the help of the Author, who was completely head over heels in love with her so that he would do whatever she said. Once the prophecy was fulfilled, Snow believed that she would have all the magic in the world to make David love her. If that were the case, Maleficent would have received the ultimate betrayal of David leaving her.
"What Snow didn't realise is that her actual daughter wasn't the destined Saviour who would become the Fairest so she tried to train you to become powerful which is how you could steal my magic. The prophecy also meant that you always had the siphoning ability when it came to me, but she made it so that it would consume you eventually. She wanted it so that you would steal it all and when you killed me, it would have been yours. She would have then killed you for the magic, but it failed. You used the wrong spell to kill me and it all backfired. Snow White is dead."
Lily let out a shriek that was met with a bolt of lightning that landed now half a metre away from her, again ignored, as she was reminded again that her mother was dead. "Did you know she would die when you entered the battle?"
"No," Emma confirmed. "I only know of all of this because I won the battle."
Emma ignored the growl that Lily emitted at the statement and continued. "Now we have your punishment to look to. We could lock you up below the library, but we would have to bring you food which would waste our time. No, you're to be banished from Storybrooke with no way to return."
"You promised me a life here!" Lily snapped.
"I did no such thing," Emma replied, still as calm as ever. "I brough you back so that our father could meet you. You tried to kill him and now your mother is dead by your own hands. You have no place here."
"But Snow promised me! She said we would finally be a family here. She loved-"
"She never loved you, Lily. She wasn't capable of it," Emma said finally and Lily broke, screaming like a madwoman.
Her entire life was a lie and everything Snow had ever said to her was a lie and the woman had never loved her. Her fury was boiling around her body and with no magic to emit the anger, she was starting to self-combust. Her eyes, still red with anger, seemed to turn black as her head and arms shot out from her body. Black smoke emitted from her arms as powerful as when she'd launched the death ball and her mouth was open as if she was emitting a silent scream.
Thunder bellowed loudly above them and a bolt of lightning flashed and hit Lily's body causing her to start shaking violently until she fell from to floor, fitting crazily. Her body glowed red as if the lightning had set her on fire. The black smoke was still pouring from her hands surrounding her, almost becoming tar-like as it touched the ground.
It was too late to throw her over the town line. She had to be disposed of in an alternative manner. Still calm, Emma waved her hand and a familiar deep purple hat appeared in her palm. She slowly walked towards the convulsing Lily and brought the opening of the hat down until it was just above her half-sister's head. Slowly, a dim blue light surrounded Lily's body until it started being pulled towards the hat and disappeared.
However, as soon as Lily's body disappeared, the strength of the added power on Emma's shoulders seemed to weigh heavily and for the second time in two days, Emma fell to the ground, out cold.
oOoOo
Unusually, the next time Emma awoke, it wasn't to the steady beeping of the heart rate machine in the hospital. In fact, when her eyes flickered open, she wasn't sure she was even still in Storybrooke at all. Everywhere that surrounded her was white. She wasn't sure if she was in a vast space of pure white or a room where the walls were disguised so she couldn't get out.
Slowly, she got to her feet. Looking down, she saw that she was still wearing the white dress that had appeared after Snow had died but now her feet were bare or perhaps they'd had been the entire time but telling Lily the truth had been more important than the feeling in her feet. As she walked, she realised that the ground matched the view, it was a white, glassy surface and looked like it should be freezing to walk over, but it was warm and comforting underfoot as she walked across it. It glowed as she moved, illuminating a pale orange glow underneath her feet.
At first, she was convinced that she was dead and this was the gateway to heaven, but she wasn't sure how that was possible. The prophecy only spoke of one death and that didn't look like it was going to be hers. No, it couldn't be the Pearly Gates. Mainly, because there were no gates. Despite it looking like there was nowhere to go, Emma didn't feel trapped, per se, but she still didn't feel one hundred percent comfortable with her surroundings. She just wanted to be home with her family.
"Confused?" Asked a voice out of nowhere.
Emma spun on her heel so see a figure leaning almost casually against what appeared to be a wall but had the same design as everywhere else that Emma hadn't been certain that it was a wall. "Ingrid?"
The woman she had almost considered her adoptive mother stepped forwards. Like Emma, Ingrid was dressed in all white, the same dress she had been wearing the night that she died. The sight of the familiar face relaxed her, but it also confused her. Ingrid was definitely dead, so was she?
"I am not Ingrid," the person said, still leaning against the wall. "I have chosen to take the form of someone with whom you are familiar and comfortable with so that you would not be agitated immediately and would listen to me. Who I am is not important, I wished to speak with you before you wake."
"So, I'm not dead?" Emma asked, unable to keep the question in.
The Ingrid, who was not really Ingrid, seemed to smile, slightly amused at what Emma had said. She stood up and started to walk towards the other blonde slowly as to not spook her. "No, Emma Swan, you are very much alive and recuperating at home with your partner, parents and son. No, I just have some information I wanted to pass on to you somewhere we could not be disturbed."
Emma's brow furrowed in confusion. "Could you not have told me when I woke up but private?"
"No," Ingrid said. "For I am not in your Realm to pass this information on."
"What is it?" Emma asked, starting to get a little bit impatient. If she really was alive and just passed out, she wanted to get back to her family and not hang around with someone who looked like a friend when they could be a foe.
"You know your true destiny now," Ingrid said. "You have power far greater than you had before. The death of Snow White has unlocked this, which I know you are aware of. You know all there is to know about the prophecy and how it came to be, including the reasons as to why Snow White was the Darkest of Them All. As you said to Lily, Snow was your equal as your opposite. Where you thrive on love, she flourished with evil and hate which included murdering her mother and unborn brother in cold blood. You need to be careful how you proceed with all of this. You will be the target of many as the one who kills you gets your magic."
"I don't want it," Emma said quickly. "I never wanted any of this. When I went to Storybrooke, it was to return my son to his mother. I didn't want to break the curse or become the Saviour, let alone the Fairest of Them All. How do I go about getting rid of it?"
Ingrid looked perplexed at the thought of Emma ridding herself of the power she had deserved. "You wish to get rid of the magic that you've been bestowed? Why?"
"Because I don't want to be hunted for one," Emma said sarcastically, her own self was starting to poke through now that she was over the shock of everything and was starting to get used to being the Fairest of Them All. "I don't want the extra power. I'm happy enough with how it was. From what my mother tells me I was already the most powerful sorceress to exist, I don't need more, I need to know how to control what I already had. That power is better served elsewhere, I don't need it, nor do I want it."
At that, Ingrid still looked utterly confused. "I don't understand."
"I have everything I ever wanted," Emma revealed. "I have my son back in my life, I have Regina, the woman of my dreams, the best friends in the world and finally, I have my parents who I have wanted to find all of my life. Everything else is extra and unnecessary. I love my life without the extra power. I am no Dark One. Now, tell me how to get rid of it."
"You cannot!" Ingrid snapped, her face turning red in anger in a way that the real Ingrid had never possessed. On the rare occasions that she'd gotten angry, her face had screwed up in anger not flushed red. It made Emma nervous. "You are the Fairest of Them All, Emma Swan. It is your title to hold and live up to. Only you can wield that much power. Besides, you need your magic now after what you've done!"
At that, Emma blanched. "What do you mean?"
Ingrid smirked. "You think you have the right to use the Sorcerer's hat? Even you cannot wield that properly. Only the Sorcerer or m- his Apprentice can use that successfully." She quickly stuttered over the slip of the tongue, but Emma had heard it.
"You're the Sorcerer?" She asked despite knowing the answer. "Show yourself."
Unable to lie, Ingrid nodded before shifting back into her usual form. Emma was scared what the Sorcerer was going to look like, but after not even twenty seconds, where Ingrid had original been standing, female and pale, a young black man stood in her place. He was wearing a tailored suit which surprised Emma even more than his physical appearance. She had presumed he would be wearing a toga or something.
"I am Merlin," the Sorcerer greeted with a dip of his head. "I cannot hide it any longer."
Emma took a couple of steps back. She understood now why he had first appeared as someone she was familiar with as she hadn't been scared. The Ingrid she knew at the end would never had hurt her; she loved her. However, she did not know this man and the fact that he looked nothing how Merlin had always been portrayed, old and off his rocker. This version was young and neat and she didn't trust him at all.
"What have I done?" She asked, not wanting to concentrate on who he was. She thought it more necessary to find out about the mild threat he had made.
"As I said, you cannot wield the hat, Emma Swan, the Fairest," he murmured in reply and Emma hoped that she would never be referred to as the Fairest again. "For someone else to trap another inside, you let someone else escape. I have several monsters and beasts in that hat for people's protection and two have now been released to make room for Lilith."
Emma swallowed nervously. Using the hat had been the only option she had thought of to capture Lily. They couldn't throw her out of town while she was convulsing in pain. Emma never wanted her dead and this way she would remain alive.
"Your Fairness blighted you," Merlin said when Emma didn't reply. It was as if he was reading what she was thinking. "Anyone else would have thrown Lilith over the town line the moment they had a chance but you sucked her into the hat so you wouldn't have to. Now the worst of my prisoners have been released once more."
As Merlin spoke about the released prisoners, Emma felt a niggle in the back of her head. It seemed even after becoming the Fairest of Them All, her lie detector still worked. Whoever had been freed were not as fearsome as Merlin was making them out to be, but Emma was too tired to bite.
"Then I'll do whatever I can to defeat them because that's what I do," Emma said. "Not because I am the Fairest of Them All, but because I am Emma Swan and I make my own destiny. The prophecy has been fulfilled and I want nothing more to do with it. Stay out of my life, Merlin."
And with all the power that she had inside, Emma concentrated on what the real Ingrid had once said to her when she was a young girl and she was having a nightmare.
"Just pinch yourself," Ingrid had said softly as she stroked Emma's hair. "You'll wake up."
So, Emma reached up to her arm and pinched the skin harshly like she would as a child. The white box room she was in started to whirl away, dragging Merlin along with it until she was in the dark once more.
Taking a deep breath, she re-entered the world of the living, in her own realm. She was back in Storybrooke, where she belonged. The Hat and Merlin were another day's problem.