This is the final chapter! Enjoy! xx
xxxxxxxxxx
The four women made their way slowly to the ridge that surrounded the lake. Mal turned towards the other three, breathing deeply as she tried to calm both herself and her magic.
"Walk confidently, but don't forget the postures that you are trying to imitate. That means no slouching, Emma," Mal smiled wryly, watching as Emma, disguised as Dot, pulled herself up straighter, "I will rescue the hearts first and transport them back to the castle, because we need those safe no matter what happens, and then I will administer the sleeping potion. It should take literally seconds, if we can catch her unawares."
"Good luck, Mal, please be safe and don't take any chances," Emma pleaded quietly, "we will keep her as distracted as we can."
Regina, who was disguised as Lily, and had captured her mannerisms brilliantly, turned to them all, "this will all be over soon, and then we will go home and spend time with our family, in peace."
"Ok, let's do this this," Ruby prompted, checking her watch, "it's a minute to midnight."
Emma shot forwards and hugged Mal fiercely, "don't take any chances," she repeated in her ear.
"I promise," was whispered back, as Mal released Emma, and watched as the three of them walked up the ridge, over the edge and then dropped down into the area that the lake was contained in.
Not even five seconds after they had arrived in the basin next to the lake, a swirling blue mist cleared to reveal Blue, who had not even bothered to disguise herself as Granny.
The air around her was shimmering with dark magic, like the heat waves that rose off of the roads in summer, back in the Land Without Magic. Jet black eyes swirling with darkness, a cruel smile, and a stench of pure evil were a startling thing to be faced with. Blue was not how any of them remembered, but it was undoubtedly her.
"Nice of you to show up," Blue smirked, before calling over her shoulder to Snow, "NOW!"
None of them had time to react as a silver tipped arrow shot towards them from the side and impaled Ruby's shoulder, dropping her to the floor.
"Ruby!" Emma shouted, ducking as Blue sent a blast of magic at them.
Emma sent a bolt of lightning back, but Blue just laughed tauntingly, and flicked it away from her, with ease. Emma and Regina both dropped the magic they were using to disguise themselves, so that all their power was at their disposal to fight against Blue.
"Regina, help Ruby, I'm going to draw her away," Emma hissed under her breath.
Regina dropped to the floor next to Ruby and managed to pull the arrow out, but the wound was bleeding heavily. Trying to ignore the fight between Blue and Emma, she summoned her magic and drew on a small amount of Emma's light magic to help her with healing. She knew that Emma would likely be drawing on Regina's own dark magic anyway and could spare it.
Emma shot blast after blast of magic at Blue, unrelenting in her attack and was managing to hold her own so far.
Blue was gleefully sending back just as much as she got, enjoying the fight far too much, and didn't notice that Mal had suddenly appeared behind her.
Mal snatched the pouch with the hearts from Blue's waist without her noticing as the fairy continued to fight Emma. Holding the hearts in her hand, she whispered a command, "stay still and do not hurt anyone," before using her magic to transport the hearts to the vault at the castle for safe keeping.
Emma could do nothing but watch as the events unfolded, as if in slow motion in front of her.
Blue, had realised that Mal was behind her, and rather than attack magically which would have been expected, she withdrew a long dagger from her belt, and plunged it behind her, cackling with insanity as she felt it go all the way through Mal's torso and out of the other side.
"Nooooo!" Emma screamed at her, as anger started to get the better of her, bringing her own darkness to the surface. Her eyes began to glow violet as she drew on a combination of her own and Regina's magic.
Blue flicked her wrist, and summoned Ruby's cloak, transporting herself out of harm's way, the other side of the ridge, so she had time to complete the spell. Whilst Emma was looking around for her, wondering where she had gone, Blue uncorked a bottle and tipped the potion onto the cloak, effectively turning it into a device to collect the magic from Emma, Mal and Regina. She was the only one protected from it by a pendant she wore around her neck.
Blue slipped the cloak on, knowing she had to stay close to the other three magical users for their powers to be drained, and then materialised back in front of Emma.
Regina could do nothing but trust her wife to be able to hold off Blue, as she summoned Mal to her and laid her carefully next to Ruby, to try and heal them both together.
Mal was in a worse way than Ruby, whose bleeding was at last slowing down, "Mal? Open your eyes for me," Regin whispered desperately, "you can't leave us! I need you! Emma needs you! We all need you!"
Mal's eyelids fluttered open to reveal glazed eyes, "I love you, Regina, I love you all. Please tell Lily I'm sorry," she said in an exhausted pant, as her eyes slid closed again.
"Do not say goodbye, Mal!" Regina begged, tears streaming from her eyes as she poured as much magic as she could into Mal.
Regina felt the very moment that the magic started to drain from her, it was like the air was being sucked from her lungs and she found it hard to breathe.
Lifting her head to see where Emma and Blue were still fighting, she noted with horror the expression of fear on Emma's face, as her wife felt her own magic starting to drain.
Regina looked between Mal and Ruby, both of who had stabilised somewhat, and she made a decision. If she didn't help Emma then they were all dead anyway, so she stopped using her magic to heal Mal and Ruby further. Instead she focused and sent as much of her power as possible through their bond, to aid Emma in her fight.
Blue laughed maniacally as she noticed Emma's power starting to fade, though the woman was still strong, and she knew it would be a while for the ritual to be complete. She revelled in the agony that crossed Emma's face every time her magic broke through the woman's defences. Now that their enchantments for protection were draining with the rest of their magic, Blue was able to inflict physical damage on Emma for the first time since they had begun to fight.
Emma was angry. She was furious. Eyes blazing, she let the anger consume her, as she faced this demon that was trying to kill everybody that she loved. Feeling the raw burst of power sent her way by Regina, she used it to send more and more magic at Blue, grinning to herself when Blue faltered.
As the anger consumed her, Emma's magic changed again, from vivid lilac lightning, darker and darker until she was controlling black lightning, powerful and deadly, aiming as much as she could towards Blue. Maybe she could win this thing, she hoped, her face reflecting her sudden confidence as she watched Blue struggling to keep up with her.
Regina felt the defining moment that her energy reserves drained and she was no longer able to send her energy and power Emma's way through their bond. She watched as her wife's face fell, and the earlier confidence melted away, leaving stark terror on her beautiful features.
Emma's strategy changed then, no longer did she have the power to attack so intensely, only able to protect herself defensively. As she became weaker and weaker, her defences became sloppy and Blue hit her over and over with dark magic. It burned away her clothes and blistered her arms as she tried to defend herself, leaving her in agony as she desperately tried to hold on.
This was the end. Emma knew it was coming, and shouted as loud as she could to Regina, "I'm sorry… I love you."
Regina heard her wife and looked up, just in time for Blue to hit Emma solidly one last time, sending her crashing to the ground in a silent, bloody heap.
Blue watched Emma's body fall, and stood, head back, cackling as more and more magic entered her body.
A swirling pink mist of magic appeared behind Blue, and Regina was horrified to see Willow and Henry standing there with Lily. As she watched, all three of them moved as one, raising their hands and blasting Blue with a combined bolt of magic that sent the fairy flying through the air, right into the middle of Lake Nostos.
Willow and Lily stood confident and proud, but Henry was white and shaking, staring at his hands in disbelief, not understanding what had just happened.
The explosion that followed in the lake was as loud as a crack of thunder, as Blue sank under the water and disappeared out of sight.
Henry stared down at his hands, "I did magic?" he asked, not quite believing what he had just done.
Regina ran towards her children hugging them, and then Lily, "I need to help Emma, please go to Mal and Ruby. I've stabilised them but help them with your magic if you can," she told her desperately, as her eyes found Emma's crumpled body and she started to run towards her.
"Emma!" Regina knelt down next to her, and rolled her on to her back so that she could assess her injuries. Leaning down, she put her ear to Emma's chest and was relieved to find a heartbeat and hear her shallow breaths. She was covered in magical burns, and she had a lump on her head, when she had landed hard, after being thrown like a rag doll.
She was alive.
Taking a few deep breaths to ready herself, she was about to call on the remaining magic she had to try to heal her, when she heard Willow screaming, "Mom! The lake!"
Looking over, she watched as a cloud of black smoke started swirling up from the lake, and started spilling out onto the land around it. She transported herself and Emma to where her children, Mal, Ruby and Lily were waiting.
"Mom, what is that?" Henry asked, terrified.
"I don't know for sure, but the legend of Lake Nostos is that it will restore what is lost," Regina told them, thinking on her feet, as it all started to make sense to her, "Blue absorbed our magic, and the magic from Storybrooke. If Lake Nostos restores it, then we should get the magic that was taken from us back."
Mal opened her eyes, "I can feel it. I can feel it coming back," she whispered tiredly, "heal Emma, she needs it more than any of us."
Regina turned to Emma again, emptying her mind and then refilling it with thoughts of her wife and the love they shared, allowing herself to use their combined magic to send a stream of light magic into the woman. Mal got shakily to her knees, checked Ruby briefly, who was unconscious but otherwise not in immediate danger, and then added her magic to Regina's.
As they worked, the colour began to come back to Emma's cheeks and the burns on her arms and chest began to heal as new skin replaced the charred flesh.
Henry went to join them, instinctively holding his hands out and letting something he hadn't even known he had, flow through him. Pure, white magic, leaving him and entering Emma's body.
"You have magic?" Regina said stunned, watching her son work, like he had done this a million times before.
"He's Emma's biological son, it was always likely he had magic," Mal told her, "but sometimes it takes an extreme event to unlock it."
Willow sat down next to Ruby, and put her hands on her shoulder, allowing her own pink magic to stream into the woman, healing her too. Her wound had already mostly closed, but Willow knew, without actually consciously knowing, just how to repair the hidden damage, and after only a few moments, Ruby's eyes fluttered open too. She looked around, unable to find her voice yet but feeling grateful to be alive.
Emma was next, taking a deep shuddering breath, a wince of pain crossed her face, as she opened her eyes and looked up into Regina's tearful ones.
"We did it?" she asked.
"We did. Well, our children and Lily did," Regina told her calmly before completely breaking down and crying on Emma's chest, "I nearly lost you," she cried, "I nearly lost all of you. I thought you were dead."
Emma was in pain, and hurt all over but nothing in this world or the next would have stopped her raising her arms and holding Regina to her, stroking her hair as she cried.
"Mom, look, it's coming," Henry warned them, as the black cloud from the lake, started towards them, seeming to gain more speed the closer it got.
"It's the curse," Mal realised, "our magic isn't the only thing being returned from Blue, the curse is being restored."
"What does that mean?" Lily asked.
"I think we're going home," Emma said, feeling strangely sad to think of leaving the Enchanted Forest, even though she had been missing her own realm so much.
"What about our memories?" Henry worried.
"Don't worry kid, no matter what happens, we will always find each other," Emma said confidently, whilst panicking on the inside.
"What about Baby Belle?" Willow asked, scared for her little sister.
"No matter what happens, she is safe with Belle," Mal told the girl, "she will protect her, I promise."
They all found the hand of the person next to them, and held on tight as the magic washed over them, and everything around them faded to black.
xxxxxxxxxx
It was dark, but Emma realised her eyes were still closed. As the events of the last couple of hours came back to her, she reluctantly opened her eyes, more than a little scared about what she might see.
Sky. Blue sky above.
Sitting up, she looked around her. They were all on Main Street!
Regina and Mal, the kids, Lily and Ruby were all there next to her, so she jumped to her feet and started looking around, noting to her relief, that in a group in front of Granny's diner were the rest of her family. Running over, she fell into Kathryn's arms first, who had Neal on her hip, hugging her tightly, and sighing when David wrapped his arms around all of them, kissing her head gently.
Pulling back, she looked around, grinning when she spotted Belle who had a bundle in her arms that could only be Izzy. Belle started to walk over to her, "I knew you would do it!"
"It was touch and go for a moment there, Belle, I have to admit," Emma confessed, reaching out to take Izzy from her, "thank you for keeping Izzy safe."
"This is crazy! What happened?" Belle asked.
"I think a lot of people are going to be asking that, so maybe we should have a meeting at the town hall?" Emma suggested. "However, I can tell you now," Emma said and started to fill her in on the happenings of the last couple of hours.
The family all gravitated toward one another, standing together in the middle of the road, as they took turns relaying what had happened at the lake.
"Hey! There she is!" a voice that could only be Leroy shouted, as he pointed to Snow White, sat at the edge of the road.
"Why is she still sitting there?" Emma wondered, "I would have made a run for it!"
"Before I sent her and Granny's hearts to the vault, I instructed her to stay still and not hurt anybody. Apparently that command still stayed in place despite the change of realms," Mal explained, flicking her wrist and retrieving the pouch of hearts from the vault that was now in Storybrooke.
Opening the bag, she retrieved the pure red heart that could only belong to Granny, and walked up to the woman, wasting no time in pushing the heart gently back into her chest.
Granny gasped as a rush of feelings and emotions flowed back into her. Ruby caught her up in a hug and the older woman cried as the realisation of her actions sunk in, "I'm so sorry, you all could have died because of me!"
"It wasn't your fault, Granny, we all know that," Regina reassured her, "it's good to have you back."
"What do we do now?" Henry asked the adults surrounding him.
Emma shrugged, "now, we go home. Family dinner at the mansion?" she asked.
"Let's deal with Snow first, and then yes, family dinner it is," Regina smiled, "shall we do this, ladies?" she asked Mal and Emma, as the three of them walked over to Snow.
"I don't want to hear excuses, Snow, so don't even try. I know you well enough to know what you are about to say," Emma told her, before turning to Mal, "can I have her heart?"
Mal handed it over without another word, trusting the younger blonde completely.
"Snow, I have your heart so you will have to answer me honestly, did Blue have your heart in Storybrooke?"
"No," Snow answered.
"Did she have your heart when you kidnapped and tortured me?" Emma asked.
"No," Snow replied.
"So all those plans were yours?" Emma checked.
"Yes," Snow said simply, unable to deny it, no matter how much she wanted to.
"Finally, where is Blue? She went into the lake but I can't see her here?"
"I don't know," Snow answered honestly, "she could be dead if you hit her with enough magic, but the lake could also have revived her."
"I don't know what's best to do with you," Emma mused, "I want you to suffer, and to do that you need your heart, but I am unwilling to give you any control yet. Tonight I want to relax with my family and all the people I love, so we will call a meeting tomorrow to deal with you."
"What are you going to do with me now?" Snow asked in a detached voice.
"Tonight you will spend in your cell under the hospital, and I am magically sealing the door," Emma told her, turning to her wife and Mal, "I'll be back in a moment," before disappearing with Snow.
Less than two minutes later she was back, grinning happily, passing the heart back to Mal, who sent it to Regina's vault with her magic.
"Well she won't be disturbing us tonight!" Emma laughed, feeling lighter than she had done for weeks.
"Let's go home," Regina told her, and they started to gather the others.
xxxxxxxxxx
Emma looked around the table, feeling giddy with happiness. This was her family, and she could never have imagined that it was possible. They had changed the dining room table with magic, so that it was large enough for them all to sit around.
Regina had just finished explaining exactly what had happened at the lake, because she was the only one that was conscious throughout the whole thing. The children were there, but she felt no need to hold back because they had been there and witnessed the events with their own eyes. Neal had eaten his dinner and fallen asleep on Kathryn's lap, so she had taken him into the lounge and tucked him in on the sofa with a throw to keep him warm.
"We were so worried," Belle admitted, "especially when Lily started feeling like something was wrong, and then Willow came out and told us of her vision. They all just disappeared! We didn't know what was happening!"
"Lily is a dragon, so it's possible she has the gift of sight, trying to make itself known. It could also be the bond we have as dragons, and the bond she has with her mate, that she was feeling," Mal explained, "time will tell, eventually, though it's certainly something we can work on," she smiled at Lily.
"They arrived in the nick of time," Regina admitted, "without them, none of us would have survived."
"How do we all have our memories?" Kathryn asked.
"The curse that brought us to Storybrooke last time, didn't have any alter-egos built in. We all knew who we were, we had just lost our memories from our time in the Enchanted Forest. Zelena had tampered with the curse after it was cast. The memory part of the curse was broken, when Henry and I shared true love's kiss," Regina explained, "so there was nothing in the curse to take our memories this time."
"Henwy did magic," Willow told them all proudly, "and he helped heal Mom."
"Henry, you have magic?" David asked, "I didn't expect that!"
"Neither did I," Henry grinned, "when I arrived at the lake with Willow and Lily, I saw what was going on, and just reacted. I didn't know what I was doing, or that it would work, but suddenly magic was blasting from my hands toward Blue with Willow and Lily," Henry explained, still looking a little shocked himself.
"We can teach you how to control it," Emma told him, "we'll have fun together."
"Three magical children," Regina laughed, "this is going to be a handful."
"You'll manage," Kathryn told her, "you have us all to help."
"We're going to be surrounded with children," Granny said happily, thoroughly looking forward to all the youngsters on their way.
"Henry, Willow, Izzy, Neal, Kathryn is pregnant, the three Lily is carrying…" Emma listed, stopping when Belle cleared her throat pointedly.
"I'm pregnant," Belle said shyly, "I wanted to tell Mal on her own first, but this is the perfect time," she smiled at Mal, "we're having a baby."
Mal smiled the widest smile any of them had ever seen grace her face, "we are?! I'm so happy! I love you so much, Belle!"
Belle laughed, "I know you do," she told Mal smuggly, "we couldn't be having a baby otherwise, could we?" she told her, waiting for it to sink in.
"You're my true love?" Mal said in a tone of wonder, "marry me?" she blurted out, without stopping to think.
"Of course," Belle leaned forwards to kiss her, sealing the deal.
"We're getting married!" Mal announced happily, despite the fact they had all just seen and heard the proposal anyway.
They had a lot to do, helping people settle back into town, and they also had to decide what to do with Snow White, but all of that could wait. Tonight was about them and their family, and they were all just content to be in each other's company.
Life over the last year had certainly been adventurous, and they had crossed realms twice, but now? They were all looking forwards to a different kind of adventure.
An adventure called life.
Snow and Blue had lost, and would never bother them again, because both of them had forgotten one important thing.
Love. Always. Wins.
xxxxxxxxxx
I will be starting the 3rd fic "An Adventure Called Life" soon, but after 2 months of daily updates, between this and the last fic, I need a few days off! Back soon though! Thank you so much to everybody that has been following along and reading this fic, and for all the lovely comments, ylu inspired me to keep going! All the love, V xx
