Thank you, everyone, so much for all the faves, follows, and reviews. It blows my mind that so many people are following this series. (Way more than 15...lol) Anyway, one more after this should tie this installment up.
Henry appears in a swirl of smoke in the middle of Granny's. He's batting it away, moving for the door before his feet are fully on the ground. He's only traveled by magic a handful of times and never when he wasn't prepared for it. "Easy Henry," Hook loops an arm around his waist seconds before the boy would have hit the floor. "It takes a bit of getting used to. I still get sea legs when…"
"She's going to kill my mom!" Henry yells out, interrupting the pirate. He doesn't care about sea legs, or magical travel, or anything but getting back to the place she sent him away from. "They're at her office. My mom and the Evil Queen. She said she was going to destroy her, to make her suffer. We have to go. She's alone!"
Hook has the phone Emma had given him out, before Henry has finished his hastened pleas the call is connecting. "Henry's with me, he's safe. But he says Regina's in trouble," he tells the Savior, trying to stay calm for Henry's benefit, but knowing it's futile. She wouldn't have sent him away if she knew it wasn't going to end badly. "Be careful, love. …Yes, I'll keep him with me," He reaches out an arm to wrap around Henry, but he is no longer there. The door to the diner chimes loudly as it slams shut.
"Well get after him!" Granny orders from behind the counter, but Hook is already hallway out the door.
…
Regina only registered the sound of the arrow whizzing past her ear after she felt the burning pain. She falls to her knees, hands flying to her chest, coming away covered in her own warm blood. The queen mirrors her actions, Regina's heart falling to the ground, rolling haphazardly away as she wraps her hand around the shaft of the arrow and pulls. She feels the pain, sees the blood, but physical pain has been all she's felt for so long it's a welcome embrace.
"Your thief is trying to kill us, Regina." The queen runs her fingers through the blood soaking into Regina's blouse.
"He's trying to save me," Regina pants as she swats her alter's hand away. "Big difference."
"By firing arrows?" the queen still manages to sound cynical with a bleeding wound in her chest. "I don't have a heart, Outlaw." She catches the next arrow that Robin fires without blinking and drops it casually to the ground as she steps over Regina. "Your precious love crushed mine when she set me free. The poor dear thought that would stop me." She walks until she's face to face with Robin, his bow tightly drawn. The queen presses her chest into the point of his arrow with a sinister grin on her face. "I'm glad you've come to her aid. You can watch as I destroy her."
Robin is frozen in place, but it's not by the queen's magic. He could release his arrow (it would go clean through her in their current position,) but she's already proven that won't be near enough. He drops the bow, looks past the queen to where Regina now kneels on the stone floor. There's blood, hers and the queens, puddled and smeared creating a stark contrast against the black and white marble. Her back is to him, but he can tell she's breathing hard. He's hurt her in his rushed attempts to save her heart.
"You forgot, didn't you," the queen clicks her tongue at him, forces him back against the wall when he attempts to move toward Regina. "We. Feel. Everything." She walks her fingers up his abdomen, lays her hand above his heart and begins to push her hand in to his chest excruciatingly slow.
Robin growls out in pain, fighting against the invisible force that holds him in place. She's going to kill him, he realizes. By coming here, he's made it easier for her to destroy Regina. The queen doesn't have to kill her; she'll do far more damage by killing everyone she loves. He returns his gaze to Regina. She's standing now, staring back at him with the same pain in her eyes he knows is in his. "I love you, Mi'lady," he tells her over the queen's laughter as her hands close around his heart.
"He does, Regina," she mocks. "I can feel it. Literally." She pulls his heart out of his chest and runs her fingers along the side, petting it. "Right there," she whispers close to Robin's ear. "Right there is your love for her." She pouts her lips, tapping the part of Robin's heart that shines the brightest.
He should be terrified; he should be begging for his life; he should be yelling at Regina to run, to save herself, but he can only stare as she staggers soundlessly towards them. She holds his arrow in one hand, her heart in the other. "I love you, Thief," Regina says with absolute certainty. The queen turns at the sound of Regina's voice, but not in enough time to stop her from plunging the arrow into the heart they share.
Everything happens simultaneously and yet seemingly in slow motion. Cries of NO! spill from Robin and the Queen. The magic holding Robin in place dissipates as the queen collapses at his feet. Regina never looks away from him. The sound of his arrow as it falls from her hand and rattles against the stone is deafening. He catches her heart in one hand, pulls her to his chest to brace her fall with the other. Emma appears in a whirl of white smoke just as his knees hit the floor.
"Oh my gods," Emma rushes to their side, trying to piece together what had just transpired. The queen is sprawled on the floor, eyes wide, staring at the three of them. She's mouthing something, but Emma can't make it out. She's not given the chance to try again because Robin shoves Regina's heart into her hands. It's cracked, feels like glass in the Savior's grasp as she tries to pour her light magic into it.
"Stop, Emma," Regina whimpers out as Robin leans her back to rest against his thigh.
"Let her help you," Robin begs as he brushes Regina's hair out of her eyes, keeps his fingers gently tracing the curves of her face.
Regina shakes her head, subtly, but they both see it. "…only…way…to stop her…" she manages to say through shallow breath as her eyes dart between Robin's and Emma's. When they settle on Robin, Emma turns her attention back to the queen. Her lips are moving, slower now. Emma is certain she says "destroy" over and over.
"She beat you," Emma tells the dying queen. She's surprised at the sob that breaks through, as well as the ones that follow that she can't control. Emma watches through her tears as the queen sneers one last time, chuckles seemingly to herself before her eyes fall shut. Emma turns back to Regina. Her eyes are still locked with Robin's, but Emma fears she no longer sees the man she loves staring down at her.
Robin's cries unabashedly, his tears blurring with those that fell from Regina's eyes and her blood that he caused to cover chest. The arrow may as well have pierced his own heart; he feels the pain from the blow just the same. "I love you. I'll always love you." He repeats it again and again, hoping to brand the words onto her soul.
"Mom!" Henry flies through the door, with Hook steps behind. Emma turns toward them, hastily wiping tears from her face. She still cradles Regina's fractured heart in her hand.
"Keep him back!" she instructs Killian. The pirate instantly wraps his arms around Henry's chest, pulling him back several feet. Emma is blocking the majority of Regina from view, but the destruction around them, the blood, the fallen queen, the tears of Robin and his other mother, hide very little from Henry's intuition. He doesn't fight against Killian, rather turns in to the older man and releases his grief into his worn leather jacket. Emma begins to stand, to go to her son and offer what comfort she can, but as soon as she begins to rise, Robin pulls her back down.
"Somethings happening," the thief says frantically as his eyes sweep from Regina to the queen. The body of the queen begins to tremble. By the way Robin's grip tightens around Regina, Emma can tell that the same is happening to her. They all watch in awe as the queen dissipates into a back mist. It swirls over Regina's still trembling from, before seeping into the heart Emma still holds, filling the cracks and cervices until the organ is smooth and solid; equal parts light and dark. Emma and Robin lock eyes, both nodding simultaneously at the other's unasked question. Emma plunges the heart back into Regina's chest.
Author's Rant: I say this with the caveat that they should never have killed Robin because it was stupid and I've never been a huge fan of the split queen storyline because if they hadn't killed Robin, I don't think it would have happened...I fucking loved Page 23! The message was outstanding. Regina first admitting that she hated herself and then after all the work she's done being able to say she loved herself was outstanding. Merging her heart back with the Evil Queen so she's basically herself again times two and then knowing that one of them gets to go off and have a life with Robin and one gets to stay and have a life with Henry! Ugh. They could end it right there (probably should) and I would be content. And of course, Lana slayed. I mean, seriously, can we get the woman a better show already?