Regina's magical intervention could not have come at a better time. When the clouds first started to darken and swirl, Snow was struggling, and failing to keep one particular soldier at bay, while she instinctively another approaching her other side. She was able to jerk her elbow up in time to smash him in the face, but she knew she could not keep up this level of ferocity. There were too many of them. But then she saw them begin to cower in fear even before she turned to see the black twister touch down and rampage throughout the battlefield. She pressed herself back against her husband, holding her breath and waiting for the battle to be over, her short hair blowing violently around her face. It actually had grown quite long, though not nearly as long as it had been when she had last lived in this land more permanently.
When the clouds and the swirling winds subsided, for a moment, Snow and Charming just stood back to back, frozen and panting, waiting in the post battle lull. Then, nearly simultaneously, they turned and reached for each other in a passionate kiss. Snow never wanted to let go, but she knew that time was of the essence. They broke apart and caught each other's eyes for one last moment before they turned towards the now unguarded gate to the castle, which Neal and Hook had already reached at top speed.
Charming charged through the door to the main throne room with his sword held out in front of him threateningly. It was empty, and as they continued to throw open doors and search the castle, there was no one to be found.
"He's not here!" Neal grumbled in frustration as search of yet another room proved futile.
"Where could he be?" Charming asked, running a hand through his hair and looking worriedly at his wife.
"I know where," came Hook's ominous voice from where he stood peering out one of the windows. Snow came up beside him and mimicked his glance far into the distance where the edge of the forest met the meadow. At first, she didn't know what he was looking at. Then she saw it. An unnatural flash of harsh blue light cracked from just beyond the tree line.
"No!" she nearly shrieked, her heart dropping as she put two and two together and realized what this meant. It meant that King George had left the castle. Had probably used what magic he had left from Emma's blood to teleport and avoid the battle after he surmised from Regina's magical aid that she had been helping them all along. The entire point of the battle had been to gain entry to the castle and take down the king, but now that they were inside, he was outside, laying siege to their weakened daughter on the horizon.
Hook strode immediately and pointedly from the room towards the front of the castle. Snow, her breath caught in her chest, could not move for a moment and as she saw a second magical flash from the woods. Neal and Charming had darted forward at her reaction, squinting out the window in the direction of the woods to see what had caused the commotion.
"No," Charming whispered, reaching out to touch his wife's shoulder comfortingly. Neal, white faced and terrified, fled the room in Hook's wake without a word or reaction. The royal couple followed him, their hearts in their throats as they vaulted onto their horses outside the front gate, hoping beyond hope that they wouldn't be too late.
Emma was on the ground, curled in a writhing ball. Henry knelt beside her, his face devastated as he held her hand for lack anything else to do.
"Stop!" he was shrieking as he watched his injured, bruised, bloodied mother bare the brunt of the magic King George was throwing at them. "Stop, please, stop!"
Sweat dripped down Regina's brow, her son's screams behind her tearing away at her heart as her fingers flexed in an attempt to keep George's supernatural attack at bay from the three of them. When she felt a pulse in the onslaught she attempted flicking a few fearsome spells of her own in his direction, hoping he would slip up, but he deflected each of them easily and quickly put her back on the defensive. A defensive that was slowly draining Emma of the little life she had left in her starved, beaten body.
She wrenched the force he wielded back and fell back panting as King George did the same, allowing for a brief interlude.
"You keep fighting me," George panted, a deranged smile on his face, "and she'll pay the price."
"Until that little vial around your neck is empty and you've used all the power you have up," Regina retorted, fire in her eyes. George's smile only widened.
"You really want to take that risk?" he said, eyes flashing down at Emma's wheezing body. "I bet she dies before I run out of blood in here." He tapped the amulet on the chain around his neck. "So the way I see it, you have two options. You can either fight back against what I'm about to throw at you next, and most likely kill Snow's precious Emma in the process, or you can take it yourself. The choice is up to you, I only hope you can decide before it's too late, because rest assured, it is coming."
Already the potential of the magic was balling in King George's hand. Regina turned to look behind her, where Snow and the rest of her party were already in pursuit, charging quickly up the field towards the scene. Her gaze swiveled to the blonde all but collapsed on the ground, barely holding onto her consciousness. Then her eyes fell on her son kneeling beside her. In his wide, terrified eyes she saw something she did not expect to see there – doubt. There was uncertainty in them as they darted from one of his mothers to the other. She marveled at it for a moment with the comforting realization that her son did in fact love her and did not want her to die over Emma. And that all she needed to do to earn that love was to act out of love for him in return. She turned her attention back to her attacker, her mind set.
"The choice is yours," he goaded, raising his hand and preparing to strike. Regina released her defenses, her decision made. With any luck, Snow and Charming would arrive in time and find some other way of subduing the king, and Henry would be able to grow up with the rest of his family, and finally be able to remember her as the hero she so wished he would see her to be. She closed her eyes, ready and waiting.
"No!" came Henry's small, cracked, fearless voice.
Then, a number of things happened in rapid succession. Henry's young, lithe form darted protectively in front of his adoptive mother, blocking her from King George's wrath. George had raised both his hands menacingly, a deadly force shooting forward from him. Emma's body involuntarily wrenched itself to its feet as Regina screamed in anguish, attempting but unable to pull Henry out of the way in time.
Then, a sharp, powerful pulse blew King George yards back, where he met a tree trunk with a sickening thud and crumpled to the ground. Henry stood trembling, his eyes pressed shut, confused that he was still alive, as Regina pulled him to her, thinking she'd already lost him before she blinked and realized King George was gone. In the next moment, their confusion was replaced by a devastated understanding as they turned in time to see Emma's body flop limply to the ground. From somewhere, she had pulled the strength and instinct to perform one final bit of magic, sending King George flying back and protect her son from his wrath. Involuntary as it had been, it had taken everything she had from her, and she lay completely motionless on the forest floor.
"No!" came Snow's hoarse, frightened scream as she pulled on her horse's reins and dismounted in the same movement, only seconds too late to catch her falling daughter. The rest of the party did likewise and they converged on her lifeless form in shock and disbelief.
"Mom!" Henry cried, darting out of his adoptive mother's arms to his birth mother's side as Regina only stared in shock. He knelt beside her head, shaking her shoulder vigorously.
"Swan!" Hook barked harshly, attempting to mask his fear with anger.
"What happened?" Charming asked, his eyes darting around to everyone, none of whom had an answer.
"He just appeared out of nowhere, and I tried to keep him at bay, but the effort would have killed her, he was using her magic. So I let me defenses down, and Henry… and she… I don't know, she…"
"Mom, wake up," Henry whimpered, tears dripping from the bridge of his nose. "Please. Please wake up."
"Emma, come on," Neal said, his rough voice cracking as he physically grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her with his powerful hands. "Don't do this to me. Not now, not after everything…"
Emma's head bobbled limply on her neck as he shook her until he stopped, hopeless. Her features remained entirely flaccid, devoid of any kind of expression. No pain, no relief, no nothing. No Emma left at all. Neal sat back on his heels, allowing the tears brimming in his eyes to spill forward as the realization wafted over them all. Emma's body sank back to the ground, still as stone. Snow could not control her sobs, burying her face in her husband's chest as Charming wrapped his arms around her, squeezing his grief into her as tears dripped from his own eyes. Hook stood and backed away from the body, his jaw hanging open.
"This can't…" he choked in denial, but the words only confirmed for him that it, in fact, could and did.
Regina stood paces back, unable to move. The last few moments had ripped her entire world apart. The decision to give up her life to save her arch-enemy's daughter. The bolt of panic that wrenched through her heart as Henry had darted in front of her. The overwhelming relief to realize he was unharmed, followed by the extremely unsettling and confusing emotions of realizing that his other mother had given her life for him and now lay, dead, on the leaves littering the forest floor.
Wasn't this everything she wanted? For Emma to be out of the picture, for Snow's happiness to be ruined, for Henry to completely and truly belong to her? As she looked at her son's devastated, disbelieving face as he leaned forward and began to sob into his mother's dead body, she decided no. No, this was not what she wanted at all. Not even close.
She swallowed hard, then stepped forward, sweeping Henry and the others back as she approached the body.
"What are you…?" Charming started, stepping forward threateningly, but Snow held him back. She knew that look in Regina's eye she'd seen it before a few times when Regina had attempted redemption at different points in her life. Regina paid the pair no mind, no did she look to where her son's father had grasped him firmly by the shoulder. She looked directly at the blonde woman lying dead in front of her and took a steadying breath.
Then, without a word, she plunged her hand into her chest, wrapped her fingers around the still heart inside and wrenched it out.
The entire party held their breath, half in outrage, half in anticipation, and entirely in confusion drowned by grief. The heart in Regina's hand did not glow. It was pastel and translucent and entirely still. Snow's face cringed in grief.
Regina closed her eyes as she closed her fist around the heart. She wasn't exactly sure what she was trying to do. She was following a small strand of instinct, hoping desperately it would yield some kind of result. She squeezed the heart ever-so slightly, feeling a warmth transfer from her hand to the organ. She could have sworn she felt it flare, but the effect did not take. Regina tried a second time, and then a third.
And then, the heart burst forth with a burning red glow and began to beat in her palm. Emma's body, dead moments before, inhaled a deep, sharp breath, her eyes shooting open. For a long moment, they simply stared unblinking at the leafy roof above her head has she gasped a few more shaky breaths, her lungs feeling air inside them once more. Then her eyes flicked down to her own heart, glowing outside her chest just inches from her face. She did not have the energy even to lift her body, so she just looked at it, then into Regina's eyes hovering above her.
"I don't know if this is going to work," Regina admitted in a whisper meant just for and the blonde woman lying below her. Emma swallowed hard and blinked. Regina hesitated for a moment of uncertainty.
Then, she pressed Emma's heart back into her chest. Emma absorbed it with a sharp, stifled cry, her body exploding in all kinds of pain before her mind, again, went black.
The next chapter will be the final one, tying up all the loose ends (I hope). Just in time for us to begin our season finale episodes, about which I am extremely excited. Part of the reason I wanted to finish this up was so that, should the inspiration strike me, I am free to focus on a new fic throughout the summer based on where the finale leaves off, so if you are a fan of my writing style, plot development or characterization, feel free to stay tuned and check it out! But anyways, there is still one more chapter in this fic, so it's not over yet ;)