The bullet lodged deep into the cave wall, grazing Pan's left forearm as he barely dodged the shot. His metal knife clattered onto the stone ground by Emma's hands. She abruptly got back on her feet.
"Henry can feel that, you know." Pan smirked and wiped the small trace of blood from his wound. "You're not making this any easier for him."
"Yeah? Can he feel this?" With one swift swing of her arm, Emma slapped her hand across his face. She tried to give him another hit but he was quick enough to anticipate it. He caught her wrist just inches from his face, though threw it back in shock when he felt his palm burn. He stumbled back into a ray of light, allowing Emma to notice the bright red burn mark trace along the lower half of his jaw. She didn't falter for a second. Just as Pan looked back up at her, she barreled into him and knocked him down onto his back. All of those years as a bounty hunter were finally coming in handy. She expertly pinned both of his hands up over his head in a tight hold. He growled and squirmed but there was no chance in hell he could break loose now.
"How does that feel? Huh?" She yelled. At this point she was driven blindly by her raw hatred and desperation. His skin sizzled and crackled under her grip. The foul odor of burning flesh infiltrated Emma's nostrils. She wasn't using any magic on him; it was her mere touch that he couldn't stand. Pan screamed out shrilly as his cheeks burned red. "Look at me!" Emma took a firm hold of his chin. The lower half of his face sizzled under her grip. He squeezed his eyes shut and shrieked furiously. "Does that hurt, Pan?"
Immediately after he pulled the trigger, Killian set off to the rocks towards the sound of Pan's cries. The boy's furious screams echoed all throughout the interior of Skull Rock. Killian knew that those screams could be heard all throughout the mountains. This is what made Skull Rock such a treasure; the convenient sound acoustics it has in accordance with the Never Peaks. The Lost Ones were likely on their way, if not already here.
Emma didn't let up for a second. Pan's face, Henry's face, continued to crackle and burn under her touch. She had gone mad. There was no denying it any longer. Before Neverland she had boundaries. Burning a child's face, for instance, was beyond those boundaries. Burning Henry's face was unthinkable. Yet here she was charcoaling her son's face into something that would belong in The Phantom of the Opera.
"Henry I'm not letting go of you!" She growled as Pan continued to snarl, kick and roar. She dug her nails into the sides of his cheek to silence him. "You hear me? Henry, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you from all of this. I'm sorry that I lied to you about your Dad. I'm sorry that it took me so long to believe you about the curse. I'm sorry that I wasn't brave enough to keep you when you were born. I'm sorry that it has to be this way but it has to be. I love you so much and I always have."
She exerted all her focus into Pan's eyes. There wasn't a spell that she knew to mutter nor was there a trick she knew to do. She followed her gut and sent all her magical force down through her fingertips and into Pan. The boy suddenly let out a new disturbing roar that was lower, louder and far more demonic. She had finally reached Pan's core. Emma knew no matter what she saw or what she heard, she couldn't stop. Not now. Pan reacted by sending his own strength out in an effort to throw her off of him but it didn't work. Emma's strength was coming at him at full force and it was nothing he had ever encountered before. Her eyes burned with tears of fury and wrath.
"Henry you can fight him! You can force him out!" He dug his sharp contorted nails deep into her skin just as he felt his heart throb with a new excruciating pain. It felt as if his heart began to beat fire through his veins. His body quivered and shook with spasms. The pain got worse as Emma's eyes narrowed into his watery gaze. Get out of my body! Pan heard from inside his head. Get out! The fire in his body worsened tenfold, like now his heart was battling to pump thick heavy lava out from his core. His howls turned into cries which then turned into weakened yelps.
Killian didn't register how Skull Rock was infatuated with the revolting odor of burning flesh. He didn't register how two spears, which were thrown at him from the entrance of the cave, nearly lodged into his back. He could only look up and climb as fast as his debilitated limbs could carry him. "Emma," he yelled though not nearly loud enough for her to hear. When he finally reached her level, he was overcome with the horrific sight of a dark shadow weaving out of Henry's body and up Emma's arm. The shadow slithered out from the center of Henry's chest like a serpent, and had its claws sinking into her chest. "No!" He screamed mid-run and bashed Emma on the side of the head with his hook. She fell off of the ledge and hit the water down below with a great splash.
The shadow began to retreat back into Henry's body. "Like hell," he growled. Killian got ahold of the ends of the black shadow and brutally yanked it fully out from Henry's chest. Like a panicked fish out of water, the shadow squirmed in Killian's tight grip. Just as it had done with Emma, the shadow curled around both of his arms and quickly made its way to the center of his chest.
"Hook!" Emma screamed the moment she came up for air. She hastily swam over to the shore and began feeling for any ledge she could reach. The water was freezing and had sent her body into shock. Not to mention the fact that her skull was pounding and she could taste copper from the trail of blood leaking from her temple.
"Emma," Snow called out nervously. Standing over the bodies of two unconscious Lost Ones, Snow, Rumplestiltskin and Belle were fully armed. She quickly ran over and helped Emma out of the water. "Emma, what's happening? What happened to your head?"
"It's Hook... he's... he's up there!" She pointed up at the ledge as she gasped in air.
Belle nudged Rumplestiltskin and anxiously motioned outside of the cave to figures that were quickly approaching from the shore. Strange sounds erupted from outside of the caves as if there were bombs being set off. Emma could hear the sounds of sharp metal colliding with metal: the sound of sword fighting. "Stay here, Belle." Rumplestiltskin muttered and urgently ran out to meet whatever battle awaited him on the shore.
"Pan's up there with Hook!" Emma yelled as she began climbing the rocks. Snow compliantly followed her daughter up the slippery sharp rocks. "Hook!" Emma yelled again. It was chillingly silent up on the ledge, which was the first red flag. Snow dreaded the worst for him, knowing that Hook didn't stand a chance one-on-one with Pan.
Emma was already kneeling over his convulsing body by the time Snow pulled herself up. His legs twitched side to side as his eyes kept rolling in and out of his head. "Hook!" Emma shouted and tried to shake him out of it. It was too late. She knew what had happened and she knew that by now there was no stopping it. "No! Don't you dare take him from me!" She growled out as tears welled in her eyes.
Emma climbed on top of his waist and shook him by the shoulders. "You can't do this! You can't have him!" She had her hands on both sides of his face and tried to establish the connection again. Using every ounce of strength she had left in her, Emma jolted his body with magical force. It wasn't the same. Pan was buried deep down in his soul. "Damnit Pan, you can't fucking have him!"
His lips parted and it sounded like the air was being pounded out from his lungs. "Emma," he breathed unsteadily. His fearful blue eyes focused into hers for just a moment before they rolled into the back of his head.
Emma leaned over and kissed his lips, leaving his mouth wet with her salty tears. Snow immediately felt a delicate surge travel through Hook's one good hand that she was holding. She studied his face and hoped to God by some miracle what she thought she just felt would be enough. Though despite Snow's desperate wishes, he didn't snap out of it. She knew True Love's Kiss could revive someone from a curse but this was different.
A large throb suddenly pounded out from Killian's heart like a bomb, causing a translucent ringlet to pulsate out of his chest. Just like the breaking of a curse, the ringlet traveled out of the cave and rolled over the entirety of Neverland in a matter of seconds. The bashing of the shore calmed as the light from the moon immediately brightened.
The convulsing began to calm. A shroud of thick black smoke suddenly rose out from his body through his pores. Emma surged out more magic through her hands. This time there was no reaction. Snow looked up and noticed Henry lying on the ground a few feet away, still as stone. "Emma..."
"No," Emma mumbled quietly in between two silent sobs, "this wasn't supposed to happen... not like this. Not him." She squeezed her eyes shut and slowly lowered over him. Painful seconds passed of her crying into his chest. "No, no, no..." Her bloodied hands fisted the fabric of his damp shirt.
Snow rubbed Emma's back at a loss of words. Really, what could she say at this point? "Emma," Snow finally took hold of Emma's shoulders and pulled her off of him. She limply fell into her mother's arms. Snow bit her lip in silence and held Emma closely.
David pulled himself over the top of the ledge and looked up at the horrific sight of Emma's undoing. Snow met eyes with him for a brief second before squeezing out a few tears of her own. "Snow... Emma," he muttered quietly. "What…" His eyes gravely traced over the pirate's lifeless body and looked back down at Emma in understanding. With eyes still stuck on the sight of Hook's limp body, David carefully shuffled around him and knelt down beside the two women.
Snow brushed a hand over Emma's tangled curls, giving gentle kisses over the top of her forehead. Suddenly and silently David's grip around Snow's shoulder tightened. Snow looked up and caught sight of what it was that had set David on edge. A shadow, about the size of a young boy, stumbled up from the rocky climb. It slowly began to approach them. The shadow awkwardly paused once it was just a few feet away. Its head bowed down at Emma with a strange interest. Snow urgently shook her daughter's shoulder.
Brushing back the hair that stuck to her wet cheeks, it took Emma a moment to compose herself enough to look up from Snow's shoulder. "Oh my god," she mumbled as the shadow reached out to touch her cheek. The silhouette of its hand sunk into her hot wet skin. It quickly retracted its hand and stared at it in shock, as if it didn't realize that it was nothing more than a ghost. "Henry?" Emma hiccupped at the figure. It looked back at Emma and then leaned over to get a glimpse of the free corpse lying near the edge of the rocky cliff. The shadow quickly bounded past them and leaped into the pale corpse.
"Henry," Emma mumbled again and ungracefully crawled over to his side. At first there was no sign that anything had changed. A few seconds passed when his hair, which had been manically perked high in the air, fell over his face. Starting with his face, Henry's white skin warmed and glowed back to his natural fair color. The charcoaled half of his face sealed together and healed back to an even complexion. Even his hands, which were also burned, healed. In a matter of seconds, all scar markings and burns had mended. Emma pressed her lips together in a firm line, still trying to hold back anxious sobs as her son slowly came back to life before her eyes.
Henry's right index finger was the first to twitch. His eyes began shifting in the back of his head when suddenly he sucked in a deep breath. His eyes flashed wide open in shock. He was disorientated the second his eyes caught a glimpse of the three faces hovering over his body. David read the situation and held him down before he had a chance to jolt his head up and thrash out his arms.
"Take it easy, Henry. It's us," David spoke calmly yet sternly. Henry kicked and tried to fight his way out of David's strong grasp. "You're alright now. It's over. He can't hurt you anymore."
"No!" Henry squeezed his eyes shut and began to huff out tears. "No! He's going to kill her! Emma! He's going to kill Emma!"
"Henry!" He froze, immediately recognizing his mother's shaky voice. A few seconds passed before he realized that the only voice in his head was his. His breath was panicked and his forehead was moist with new beads of sweat. Emma gripped one of his hands in her own trembling grasp, "Henry." He weaved his fingers through hers. His eyes slowly widened in disbelief.
"Mom?" He mumbled inaudibly. Emma smiled weakly. David let go of him just as he went to jump into Emma's arms. In a matter of seconds Emma was back in tears. Henry kept mumbling "Mom" in between his sobs into her chest. Snow bit her lip as a smile curved up from one ear to the other. David grinned and rubbed Henry's back.
"Henry?" Regina's voice shook with disbelief and joy. He poked his head out from Emma's shoulder to meet eyes with her. Regina stood up from the climb and beamed down at him.
"Mom," he muttered with a weak laugh. Regina ran over and practically fell by Emma's side to grab ahold of her son. Emma didn't want to let go of him. Henry's arms wrapped around both of them; Emma was on one side, Regina on the other. "Mom," he cried into Regina's jacket.
Emma didn't try to suppress any tears. Of course Henry's safety was paramount. He survived. He was going to go home. She had done everything that she set out to do in the first place. Though despite the long months she spent fighting, hunting, tracking, running and surviving, the relief of it all wasn't there. Her gut was sick at the glimpse of Killian's legs lying just beyond the group, still and lifeless. His hook reflected the excited movements of the people that walked passed his body.
She expected this moment to be filled with sheer joy and relief. All Emma wanted to do was to scream and throw up. She felt like a little girl trapped in a nightmare.
All of the dark shadows that had infested the interior of the cave unnaturally dispersed all at once, bringing in more light. Down near the entrance of the cave, Rumplestiltskin suddenly let out a foul scream and dropped to the ground. Emma and Regina gripped onto Henry in case by some disaster Pan managed to survive. David jumped onto his feet and looked over the ledge.
"Rumple? Rumple look at me!" Emma could hear Belle cry out. His course green skin was sizzling and letting out black smog into the air. He kept screaming and screaming. Emma was sure she was going to throw up. David jumped off of the ledge into the water.
Snow pulled Henry onto her lap and blocked his ears. Emma couldn't hold it in any longer. The smell of Henry's burned flesh still hung in the air. The sight of Killian's corpse turned her gut. Rumplestiltskin's screams set her over the breaking point. Emma turned over the edge of the cliff and hurled out the remains of rotten bread and fruit into the water below. Snow tucked Henry close to her so that he couldn't hear or see anything.
The commotion from Rumplestiltskin stopped all at once. "Rumplestiltskin?" David yelled out. "Rumplestiltskin, can you hear me? Belle, I can't tell if he's breathing."
"Rumple!" Belle cried out hysterically. "Come on Rumple, wake up!"
"Henry keep your eyes closed," Regina whispered sternly into his ear. Emma rolled over onto her back and let a few more tears roll down the sides of her face into the roots of her ear. She was lying a few feet away from Killian's body. His head, which had fallen over to face Emma, was vacant of any emotion and expression. There was no sign of Killian or even Captain Hook left. It didn't look so much relaxed as it did empty. There was nothing. Emma bit her lip and felt her empty stomach twist over again.
"Mom?" Henry worried. Snow passed him over to Regina and knelt down to help pull Emma to her feet. Her head was spinning, not just because she probably regained that concussion or because she had just vomited anything and everything that was inside her stomach, but because the reality was sinking in. It was the oh-so-sweet reality that Henry was safe and Pan was dead. It was also the undeniably bitter reality that the one man she couldn't afford to lose had just given all that he had to make it possible.