They waited there at the top of the mountain, right by the well, for what was to come. They had to. This wasn't a sealed barrier, and it wasn't a brick wall over the portal into their world. It was a net. It was meant to catch anyone who came through and shift so much lightning and electricity through their bodies that they'd never survive the arrival. Whoever came through would be dead, but that also meant that there would be bodies. Likely the body of Cora, and this time he wanted to see it for himself instead of leaving it to chance. He wanted to be sure that Cora was dead and gone from this world, a threat no more. If that meant that he had to stay here for the next seven years, then that's what he'd-
Behind him, he heard footsteps over the crash and wind of the storm brewing inside the well. His stomach turned as he heard the faint call of "mom" and felt the wolf's familiar power, probably masked by the power in front of him, far too late. He'd felt Ruby leave the shop just before they'd struck up their trap, leaving the dwarves behind; if he was honest, he expected something like this if Regina was right and she had managed to put it together. But Henry had no magic. He hadn't realized that he'd left with Ruby. Not until now. He couldn't have planned for him being here now. And Regina…
Fuck.
"Mom?" he cried as she turned to realize he was there.
Her face fell, her back straightened. She'd been caught. She'd been caught by the worst person she could possibly be caught by. Regina was trying hard to be better, she'd said that herself and been conflicted with this from the start. Even he knew this was bad.
"You're not helping Emma and Mary Margaret, are you?" Henry asked in an accusatory tone.
Regina swallowed and then stepped closer to her son. "I'm helping you, Henry."
"What are you talking about?"
"You're going to kill them!" Ruby shrieked, glancing at the storm in the well. Ruby, Belle's friend. No matter how this ended now, it would surely be the end of his relationship with Belle. But if Ruby raised the alarm, if she stopped this from happening and Cora came through…
"Sorry, dearie," he raised his hand and flung her backward so that she hit her head and didn't rise. It was easy to do with Ruby after what she'd done to Belle. She wouldn't be hurt badly; she'd wake soon enough with her healing abilities. Fair was fair. But Henry…that was a far more difficult situation.
"Mom, what are you doing?" he begged.
"We can't let Cora come through the portal," she reasoned. "You have no idea what she would do to us."
"Emma and Mary Margaret are going to defeat her," the boy insisted. "They're the ones that are going to come through."
"Henry, your mother's right," he urged, knowing, full well, there was nothing he could ever say to make the boy stop believing or make this easier. He shuddered to think what might happen if Cora came through with Emma and Mary Margaret. He tried not to picture it. "It's going to be Cora."
"No. It won't. Good always defeats evil," he argued before turning back to Regina. "You should know that more than anyone."
"What I know is my mother will destroy everything I love, and that means you. And I can't let that happen," Regina stated.
"NO!" the boy roared. Then he turned his gaze on the well and took off toward it.
But he was a boy, not a knight or a sorcerer. There was nothing he could do to stop the magic inside the well, and there was nothing he could do against a full-grown adult. Regina caught him around the middle before he could make it too far. He wished, desperately, she'd do something to put the boy to sleep so they didn't have to endure the screams and so he didn't have to endure whatever came out of that well. But he fought her every step of the way. He screamed.
"You can't! Stop it! You can't! You're going to kill them! Please! No! They're going to make it through! We have to turn it off! You're going to kill them!"
His heart jumped into his throat when Henry managed to get free for a moment, but Regina pulled him back the moment he got to the well. With strength that only a mother could have, she whipped her boy around as if he were a sack of flowers and leaned down to look him in the eyes.
"Henry! What are you doing?"
"Emma and Mary Margaret are going to come through. I know it," he stated. "You said you wanted to change, to be better. This is how. You want me to have faith in you? Have faith in me."
There was a shift in Regina, a softening in her face that he hadn't seen in years, not since he'd first met her as a frightened little girl who didn't want to be married off so young. She was grown now, all the magic of her mother and the madness of the Evil Queen, but the clarity on her face now, brought about by Henry and his challenge…it scared him.
"Regina," he called as she turned away from Henry and approached the well. He couldn't do anything. The magic in the well was partly her magic. If he harmed her or killed her, there was no telling how the magic would react, if it would hold on long enough to kill Cora when she came through. And yet…he had a terrible feeling he knew exactly what she was planning on doing.
Fuck.
Before he could say or assume anything more, the girl had thrown her arms out over the electrified fishing net. She withdrew her magic from it, which would make it less fatal to her, but their magic was so intertwined there was no way to remove it without absorbing the shock. She was the sorceress, and it would hurt. It did hurt, obviously. Regina went ridged as she called it back into her body and took his own in with hers. It overpowered her. Her muscles went taut with the energy and spread wide as her head flipped back. There was a rumble, a shake in the ground that he recognized as a portal opening.
It was happening! It was now! If the magic held for just another minute, thirty seconds was all he needed, and Cora would be dead!
There was a flair of bluish-white light, and Regina was thrown back, away from the well, where she landed on the ground as if she were a ragdoll. The magic was spent. The Earth was quiet. He held his breath as he watched the well. No one emerged.
"No!" Henry cried, taking a step toward the well, watching it nearly as intently as he was. There was nothing. No one rising, but no splash of water from a body falling hard into the water below either. And then…
A heartbeat.
"I'm sorry, Henry," Regina cried. "I'm sorry."
Panic rushed through him as he realized…there was a heartbeat that wasn't accounted for. He readied his magic. He was going to have to check. He was going to have to-
He startled as a hand suddenly emerged on the side of the well.
Just one.
Female.
White…
His heart raced as a dark leather sleeve followed. Elbows hauled up a torso…
A familiar blonde Savior. And next to her, another set of hands.
A second heartbeat.
Emma reached down to help, and Mary Margaret emerged beside her, climbing to her feet.
"Mom?" Henry screamed.
"Henry!"
"Mom!" The girl launched herself off the well to hold the boy, and Mary Margaret followed. He watched the well. Waiting, trying to distinguish between heartbeats. His skin crawled as he waited for the other shoe to drop. "I missed you!"
"I missed you, too."
"I missed you so much."
He exchanged a glance with Regina and then looked back to the well as if expecting to have been wrong. But he wasn't. No one further came from the well. The women appeared unworried. If they'd shared the portal with Cora, then they would know. They'd be looking back over for her. But there was no one and not a single sign that there ever had been. The boy appeared to have been right.
He was shocked. Too shocked to participate in the reunion happening. He turned away and walked back to his car as Ruby woke.
I don't know if this translates well from screen to page. I know that it's not terrible, but I feel like a bit of the excitement is lost. Heavy action tends to do that here.
Thank you so much, Grace5231973, for your reviews on the last chapter! I hope that you'll like this one and join me in the next chapter as Emma and Rumple have the opportunity to have a really good talk! Peace and Happy Reading!