Chapter 9

Emma wanted to run away, couldn't face standing to watch her father sob over the body of her mother, pressing a few desperate, hopeful, useless kisses to her lips. She wanted to take her sword, a dagger, something else dangerous, and go to Regina and make sure she would never kill anyone ever again.

But at the same time, she didn't want to leave her father's side, because he was bound to need her, need someone to comfort him even if it would be impossible for him to ever feel okay again.

So she stayed close, busying herself with searching the unconscious guards for a dagger, wanting something less unwieldy and obvious than her sword, should she get to face Regina.

"Emma?" Her father sounded completely broken, his voice quiet and hoarse. "I don't know what to do."

And she didn't know what to do either, but he looked so lost, holding her mother's body gently, his forehead resting against Snow's. Tucking a short dagger into her boot, she crossed the short distance to her father, kneeling down to wrap her arms around him.

She should have felt more devastated, but it seemed too impossible to believe that they could have come this far and still failed to save Snow. And now that they had, she couldn't accept it was real. She didn't feel the despair she had felt when Graham died before her, or when she'd realized Pinocchio was truly gone. She just felt empty.

"I wish there was something I could do." she muttered, hating how her father was trembling in her embrace. "But I don't think there is. I don't think anything can bring her back, not now. Not even magic."

She had expected her words to make things worse, but a hopeful expression bloomed on her father's face. She couldn't even attempt to guess what he was thinking, what could make him look so optimistic when his true love was lifeless in his arms.

"Magic." he breathed, gazing at Emma as if she should know exactly what he was talking about. "We can talk to the Dark One. He's here, he can help us. If anything can bring Snow White back to me, it's him."

Emma was uncertain. She'd made deals before and she imagined the price of bringing someone back would be too much, but the light in her father's eyes made it impossible for her to let him down. "I'll bring him here."

She hurried back around the corner, hoping desperately that he hadn't vanished away in a puff of smoke, and was relieved to see that Rumplestiltskin was still there, involved in a rather passionate embrace with Belle, Grace standing near them and looking as if she wished she was anywhere else.

And she didn't particularly want to interrupt them, but if her mother's life could be saved, it wasn't something that could wait.

So she cleared her throat, and although Rumplestiltskin seemed reluctant to part from Belle, the noise seemed to have startled Belle into pulling back, and when the older woman turned and saw Emma, a look of worry appeared on her face.

And that was already more compassion than Emma would have expected from an apparent lover of the Dark One's, and she felt a vague stirring of hope that maybe, with Belle there, any deal she had to make might not be too bad.

"What is it?" Belle asked, stepping fully out of Rumplestiltskin's embrace and tottering over to Emma, still unsure on her feet. "What's wrong?"

Emma didn't answer - couldn't say the truth out loud - so she silently turned on her heels and led Belle, Rumplestiltskin and Grace back around the corner to the devastating tableau made by her parents.

"We need you to do something. To save her." Emma begged and Rumplestiltskin only laughed. "Please! Surely there's something you can think of, something you can try. Soon."

Rumplestiltskin seemed to consider it, tapping his fingers together, and then took a light, quick step closer David. "There might be something. But it's never been done before and it is risky. For true loves like yourselves, it might be survivable."

"What is it?" David asked hurriedly, finally looking up from his wife to gaze up at the Dark One. "Tell me. I'll do it."

"I could split your heart." And Rumplestiltskin said it like it was nothing, as if it's a simple spell that will do no harm, but Emma was starting to know heart magic, and she doubted anything would be easy. "You keep half, she takes half. You both live. You both die."

"And if it doesn't work?" Emma asked, because she wasn't sure she could bear it if it didn't work and she lost both of her parents at once.

"Charming here just dies a bit sooner than he would have." Rumplestiltskin said, and Emma looked down to see her father gazing up at her. And she knew he wanted to try, that he would have already agreed if not for her, if not for the chance that it would go wrong and he would die and leave her too.

As much as she didn't want to risk it, she'd thought enough about regret to know that if she stopped her father from trying, she would never forgive herself. "Do it." she choked out, and her father looked both shocked and grateful. "It's what Mom would do. She would believe."

And David smiled, a tremulous, absurdly hopeful smile, and he nodded. "I'll do it."

Rumplestiltskin suddenly seemed to shudder with pleasure, letting loose an ominous giggle and arching his fingers like he was preparing for something.. He looked far too happy, and Emma felt uneasiness spread through her, but it was too late now. "Alright, dearies, but first, we must discuss the price. I can't just bring someone back to life for free or then everyone will expect the same and I can't have that."

"A price?" Emma hissed, and it appeared Belle was going to say the same thing, because the soft look that had been in her eyes whenever she looked at the Crocodile had faded instantly with his words. She couldn't think of anything worth the same as bringing her mother back, and she couldn't bear for her father to lose any more, to have to promise any more, when he was suffering so much. "No. You do this, and I'll kill Regina for you. I won't use this mirror. I'll kill her."

Rumplestiltskin looked tempted, a frighteningly exhilarated gleam lighting his black eyes. "Oh, I do like that." he trilled, and he stared at Emma as if he was trying to read her, as if to see if that was a deal she really was willing to make.

"If that's the price, I can't do this. I can't make this deal." David said quietly, sounding even more broken than before. "I can't get Snow back if it means you lose yourself, Emma."

And everything was taking too long, because surely it had be less possible to bring Snow back with each minute she was dead. She wanted to tell David to do it, because that she fully intended to kill Regina whether he accepted the price or not, but she didn't want to see how he would look at her, especially if it did go wrong and he died too.

Except maybe she could convince Rumplestiltskin to help anyway. Belle was looking horrified by what Rumplestiltskin was promising, and although Emma had only just met the woman, she had seen the way she gazed at Rumplestiltskin, the way he gazed back at her, and if she could appeal enough to Belle, then the Dark One might be swayed to help them without any demands of his own.

"Please, Rumplestiltskin." Emma began, feeling everyone's focus on her and having an awful desperation to succeed, because she feared that if this attempt failed, her mother would truly be dead and nothing would convince the Dark One to bring her back. "She's family. Can't you help her because she's family?"

"Family?" The wizard looked intrigued, but unconvinced, but it was Belle Emma was looking at. She was clearly concerned, watching as David stroked Snow's hair, held her close and muttered words to her as if she could hear him, as if she was the one needing reassuring, even though Emma knew the words were meant for him. "How?"

"She's Henry's grandmother. Henry will never forgive you if you stand by and let her die, and Henry is willing to forgive a lot." Emma pleaded, hoping he had some love for the grandson he had looked after for months. "You may have taken him from me, but you cared for him. I know you did. Henry told me. He calls you grandpa when he talks about you. He wouldn't do that if his time with you with horrendous."

"She's not family." Rumplestiltskin laughed, as if Emma's statement was nonsense. "You chose to make your family with the pirate, not my son. Henry doesn't make us family."

"I loved Baelfire. I did. But true love is different and special, and I didn't look for it, but it found me, and I know you understand, because I know that you made a deal with Killian to save Belle, even though you weren't even sure if she was alive, and because I've watched my parents look at each other the way you look at her." Emma stated desperately, sobs choking her words as she tried even harder to make him to do the right thing. "I could never be sorry that I found Killian, but Baelfire and I will always have Henry, and Baelfire will always be Henry's father. And we're not together, we're never going to be together, but we're going to be as much of a family as we can be for him. Henry is lucky to have so many people who love him and are you going to let him lose someone you could have saved?" And Rumplestiltskin looked taken aback, and Emma could see her words had reached Belle, a pleading look in the older woman's eyes. "What would Baelfire want you to do? What do you think Belle wants you to do?"

Rumplestiltskin looked more human for a second, turning to Belle with wide eyes and a questioning gaze. And Belle simply nodded at him, a trusting, expectant smile on her lips, and Emma knew he would help.

David lowered Snow to the floor gently, standing up and reaching out to pull Emma into a quick, final hug, his arms tight around her, pressing a kiss to her temple. "I love you, Emma." he said, and Emma pressed her lips together, stopping herself from crying. "And I know that this isn't goodbye. I believe it."

And then he let her go and stepped in front of Rumplestiltskin, a nod the only thing needed before Rumplestiltskin plunged his hand into David's chest and David groaned in pain, his hand darting to his chest once Rumplestiltskin drew out the pulsing, vibrant red organ.

It felt surreal to watch the Dark One twist her father's heart in his hands and tear it in two, a surprisingly neat split down the center, and Emma hated seeing her father's heart outside of his body, knowing that all that Rumplestiltskin had to was clench his fist and David would be gasping and dying.

Except Rumplestiltskin didn't do that, he just plunged one half into Snow and then returned the rest to David, her father gasping deeply when his heart was back in his body.

For a few moments, nothing happened. Her father didn't collapse, half a heart not enough to sustain him, but her mother didn't wake either, and Rumplestiltskin shrugged, as though he had expected it. "I said it was risky." he said, as if it was nothing more than an interesting experiment, not Emma's world collapsing around her. And then he took Belle's hand, and they both vanished in a puff of deep red smoke, so it was just Grace, Emma and her family left in the corridor.

"Please, Snow, please come back to me." David murmured, pressing a last desperate kiss to his wife's lips and then there was a gasp, and Emma couldn't believe it, but her mother's eyes were opening, she was awake, and she was herself again, looking at up David with such unadulterated love in her eyes that Emma had to look away.

And as much as Emma wanted to go to them, to hug them both, to have her mother back, the boiling hatred for Regina couldn't be suppressed by despair anymore, and she wouldn't let Regina hurt anyone else again, wouldn't let another town be burned the way Whitekeep was, or let another family be destroyed because of an old woman's bitterness.

Emma knew her parents wouldn't want that. But she couldn't let them stop her. So she left her mother and father, pressed together in a soft, thankful kiss, and ran off down the corridor, hearing footsteps behind her but unwilling to stop.

But she had to halt when she felt someone take hold of her wrist and pull her to a standstill. "Don't stop me." she bit out, twisting to see it was Grace that had stopped her. "You know what I'm doing, what I have to do."

"I do." Grace said, nodding her head. "So I'm not stopping you. I just want to tell you that I know a quicker way to the throne room. I want to help."

With Grace leading Emma through the palace, they reached the door to the throne room quickly. And even though Emma was reluctant to face Regina completely alone, she understood when Grace refused to enter the room with her. After all, Grace's heart was held by the Queen, and Emma knew Regina would have no qualms with crushing it if Grace revealed how she had helped them.

She understood why Grace didn't want to risk that.

So Emma pushed the door open and walked into the large room, one that looked even bigger due to the multitude of mirrors decorating the walls. Regina was already there, examining a tall old mirror that Emma just knew was the one Rumplestiltskin had told them to use.

And the Queen was just looking at it, a strange wand held in one hand, and all Emma needed to do was cross the room and push her, send her away, but she didn't want to do that.

She still wanted her dead.

So with the small dagger held in her hand, knuckles white, she started to cross the room. She could see herself in the mirror, and she doubted she'd ever looked so unhinged, with her body tense, eyes furious, cloak stained with blood, limping closer and closer to the woman who had crushed her mother's heart.

But Regina could see her reflection and a cruel, thrilled smile spread across her face. She didn't even turn around to face Emma before speaking. "Hold fast."

"What?" Whatever she had expected Regina to say, it wasn't that, but she couldn't move her feet anymore. It felt like her cloak was weighing her down, keeping her in place, and Emma didn't understand why, but Regina was laughing and Emma felt helplessness overwhelming her, horrified at how quickly she'd failed.

At least it looked like Regina's words about Killian were just a bluff, for he was nowhere to be seen.

Regina stepped away from the mirror, striding slowly over to Emma with the smug expression that came with victory and leaned in uncomfortably close to Emma. "How did it go? Oh, I remember. A gift of good faith for the bride."

And it took Emma a few minutes to realize what she was saying, the note that had been gifted to her with the cloak having left her mind almost instantly after reading, but now, with Regina repeating the words and smirking at her, the mystery she had never cared about, who had given her the cloak, was solved in just a few words.

"It was you?" Emma breathed, feeling herself giving up when she realized what trap she had run head-first, into. "You gave this to me? I don't understand."

"Didn't you even wonder who gave you something so beautiful?" Regina gloated, the triumph twisting her face. "I've had decades to plot my revenge. Do you think that simply killing Snow White was enough for me? After she took everything? I knew how irritatingly persistent your family are, I can predict what Snow and her precious Charming can do. But you, I don't know you. Although, given your parents, I'm not surprised you're here and trying to stop me. That's why I needed something I could use."

For a second, hatred bubbling through her, Emma wants to gloat back, let Regina know that her plan still failed, that Snow White is alive in David's arms. Emma wants to see the look on the Queen's face when she knows that, even know, she still can't win. But she doesn't want her parents to be subjected to any more, especially now that Emma's failed so spectacularly at stopping Regina, and the longer it takes Regina to find out the truth, the better.

"I will admit though, that this is even more delicious than I had hoped it would be." Regina reached out to run a finger along the feathers of the cloak, the touch making Emma shudder in disgust. "I gifted it to you in the hope that this would stop you from interfering when I tore your mother's heart out at your wedding. But this, for you to have come all the way here just for me to stop you now, with a simple phrase? I couldn't have planned this. You can't even begin to imagine the excitement I felt when I saw you in the hallway and you were wearing this. Do you even know what this is?"

"Get on with it." Emma retorted, not wanting to listen to more of Regina's bragging. "Surely you want this to be over just as much as I do."

"I don't want it to be over yet. I want to enjoy it just a bit more." Regina said, a cruel smile curving her lips. "This cloak, it's thought to be just a legend. A swan whose feathers trapped anyone who touched it, should someone say the correct words. Those people had to follow the swan around until they were released. But you, you're stuck right there, trapped underneath the cloak you've taken to parading around in."

"I know the story." Emma interrupted, remembering Jukes' telling the so-called legend to Henry, how she'd not even considered it to be the truth. And yet, she remembered how Rumplestiltskin had refused to touch it, even back when she first tried to take Henry back, and she should have known, should have suspected something. "I don't need to hear it. Magic swan, magic wand, I know the whole thing."

Regina deflated slightly, and Emma smirked. She may not be able to escape Regina, but she could irritate her. "It appears you do know it. So you'll know that with this wand, I'm the only one who can release you."

"Not that you will." Emma said, shrugging her shoulders and resigning herself to the fact that she was not going to get free, that the Evil Queen might have failed in killing Snow White, but there wasn't a chance she would failing in killing Emma.

Except if she could shrug her shoulders, maybe the only thing this cloak stopped her from doing was travelling. She could move her hands, move her arms, and Regina was so sure of her victory that she was standing within arms reach, waving the wand before Emma tauntingly.

And Emma was still holding the dagger.

She didn't even think about it, just slashed out and sunk the dagger through the back of Regina's hand, causing the Queen to drop the wand and screech out in pain, rage sparking in her eyes,

Emma tried to reach out, bending and trying to stretch her hand out as far as she could with the cloak holding her in place, but the wand was just out of reach, her fingers unable to even brush the wood and try to roll it closer.

And Emma was certain that once Regina was no longer crumpled to the floor and clutching her hand, she'd be able to heal her injury, that as painful and bloody as it was, it was only a distraction. She needed to get free, need to take Regina's preoccupation as the opportunity Emma needed to kill her.

Or just push her through the mirror

Emma didn't know anymore. She just wanted her gone.

But then she heard footsteps behind her, and she didn't know who it was, but Regina's tear-filled eyes widened and she gazed up at whoever was behind Emma with horror and anger. "You? You came for her?"

"Of course I came for her." And of course it was Killian. She didn't want him here, didn't want him in the same danger she was in, but at the same time, she was so glad she wasn't alone anymore. "You know what I was willing to do for my revenge. What do you think I'll do for her, Regina?"

"So that's how it's going to be?" Regina hissed. "You'll kill me for her?"

"No." Killian said quietly, and he was still out of Emma's line of sight, even when she tried to twist around to see him. "I'll spare you for her."

Regina looked utterly confused, and Emma took the chance to reach out her arm and gesture towards the wand on the ground, hoping Killian would understand what she was trying to tell him, even if he couldn't know that she was unable to move.

But he seemed to know what she wanted, as Emma saw him step in front of her, bending down to pick up the wooden stick. "Emma, love, what is this? Why do you-?"

"Jukes' story was true." Emma said urgently, hoping that was enough for him to understand, because Regina was climbing to her feet and Emma was certain she would escape any moment.

Killian might have been willing to spare her but Emma wasn't.

Killian canted his head to the side, eyes narrowing as he tried to remember what she was implying, and then he cast a wide-eyed, surprised look at the wand in his hand and then reached out cautiously to tap the wand to her cloak.

The instant it touched the material, she felt the unnatural weight lift off her and she could move again and the first thing she did was wrestle the cloak off her shoulders, refusing to risk being trapped by Regina once more, and then she lunged, pushing past Killian and knocking Regina back to the ground, one hand pulling at Regina's hair until she whimpered in pain, her other hand scrambling to get a hold of her sword, struggling when Regina was fighting back, using her uninjured hand to claw at Emma's face and trying to push her away.

And then she felt Killian's hand warm around her arm, pulling her up and away from the Queen, and Emma couldn't let him stop her, didn't know why he was stopping her. "I have to do this, Killian." she sobbed, seeing the way Regina was scrambling to her feet and fighting desperately to break loose from Killian. "She's gone too far, I can't let her live. The pain she's put me through, put my family through. My mother has spent her whole life looking over her shoulder and feeling guilty for every soldier's death because this monster can't move on from a petty grudge."

When purple smoke started to swirl around Regina's feet, Emma choked out one final plea for him to let her go and felt his hold loosen, just enough for her to stumble forward and finally pull her sword from its place at her side, and she raised it, ready to strike and stop Regina for good.

But she felt Killian forcing her to the ground, slamming past her to tackle Regina, pushing the Queen back towards the mirror, and Emma looked up and watched in horror as the mirror appeared to liquify, the surface molten and silver, and when Regina touched it, it appeared to catch her within its grasp, sucking her through.

And he'd done it.

Except when she looked up Killian, he wasn't looking triumphant, wasn't grinning down at her like she wanted. He looked resigned, devastated, and Emma felt her heart stop when she saw the silver creeping up his arms, when she realised that in pushing Regina to the mirror, he'd been caught in it's hold too, and with each second, he was being pulled through to whatever was on the other side.

"Why did you do that?" she sobbed, unable to say anything else as she watched the man she loved slowly get pulled away from her, halfheartedly trying to tug his arms loose but appearing to simply speed up whatever the mirror was doing. "Why?"

"I couldn't let you do something you would regret." He said, voice hoarse, and he couldn't even look at her. "I'm sorry I have to say goodbye. I will always love you."

"Goodbye?" Emma repeated, and she was shouting at him, furious that he was letting himself be taken from her, that it was all her fault. "It can't be goodbye."

"Maybe not." he said, and his lips quirked just slightly, and he looked hopeful and Emma was so tired of losing people. "Don't lose hope, sweetheart. If there is a way to come back to you, and there has to be, I will find it."

And he was almost gone now, only his face and the ends of his toes still free from the molten surface, silver clinging to his hair. Emma struggled to her feet, the throbbing pain in her leg returning now that all her adrenaline had left her, and crossed the room to him, knowing from his warning look that he wanted her to stay as far from the mirror as she could, but she needed one more kiss.

One last kiss.

Keeping distance between them, she let her fingers trace the lines of his face and then leant in to press her lips, lightly, to his. "I love you."

Her nose brushed against his and then she had to pull away because the detestable silver was too close, and then she watched as he was engulfed and vanished from sight, the mirror solidifying and shattering the second he was gone.

And she couldn't hold herself up anymore, couldn't be strong, because he was gone. She fell to her knees, the glass from the mirror sharp underneath her but she didn't care. She reached down and picked up the largest shard, hoping that she'd look into it and see where he was, where he'd been taken, but all she saw was herself, eyes empty and cheeks tear-stained.

There was nothing.

She broke, holding the shard to her chest, uncaring that she could feel the sharp edges cutting into her skin. "I'm sorry," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry. Killian, please."

But she knew he couldn't hear her, couldn't respond, and even when she felt the warm arms of her father wrap around her, lifting her up as he whispered soothing words that she couldn't understand, her mother taking her hand, she couldn't do anything.

Killian had gone somewhere she couldn't follow and without him there to hope for her and promise everything would be alright, she couldn't believe she would ever get him back.

I'll just apologize right now, shall I? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter - there's actually only one chapter left in the whole thing (and maybe an epilogue), and I can't believe soon I'll be finished with the trilogy that I've been writing for over a year now. Thank you for all the reviews for last chapter, as well as anyone who added this to their favourites or to story alert! Thank you to BlackDragon733 for betaing!