Robin -
It's the strangest feeling, not having a heart in your chest. After the initial pain subsides, (and it hurt like hell as Emma, inept, pulled and yanked at his heart, apologies tumbling from her lips, sweat beading at her brow yet he's glad it's her and not the Dark One despite the agony), he feels numb, empty.
They take a moment, Robin, peaceful in the quiet emptiness. Guilt, horror, fear all gone. He supposes he should find humour in this situation. He remembers his pleas to Regina to return her heart to its rightful place, now he thinks he understands.
Until he remembers it was never like this for her, for Regina who feels with her whole soul while he feels only with his heart and without it beating in his chest, he feels nothing except a mild inferiority that is soul is perhaps not worthy of hers, his so weak it can be stalled by the mere removal of a organ.
Emma, a bundle of nerves to his side, fascinating to watch anothers emotions while detached. It's the physical signs he watches, how her hands clench at her side, how she stalls for extra time, though time is their enemy, how she seeks reassurance from the stranger by her side.
He waits, feels no impatience, doesn't think to steel himself against the onslaught and he really should have done because once her heart is in, that cold frozen heart, once the agony of the physical fades, he is on his knees, gasping for breath, clawing at his chest.
After what seems an eternity of howling pain, his soul ripped and torn as the frozen heart, cold in his chest pushes and punishes, searching for magic, finally finding none, quiets, allows him to breath easy again.
Emma helps him to his feet, he is shaken. He expected to feel Regina, her essence, to find something remaining of her in her cursed heart, a immediate connection perhaps but instead he feels only the cold. A sour taste in the back of his throat, a itch that burns, irritates, she is not here in this cold empty vessel.
It is only when the ice queen wields her magic, gives rise to their prison, when his heart is placed into the still body of hers that he feels her, feels himself again, calms the angry beat inside, that demands vengeance and blood.
When he looks at her, finally awake and menacing, power flowing from her hands, he does not see Regina, does not feel her inside.
Searches her features, suddenly afraid to see her there, relief swells his soul, when he does not.
She flings hate at him, scorn and mockery. Flings his words back at him, she may not be his Regina but she knows their shared past. She laughs at his care, the colour of it, its shallow depth, to walk away so easily she taunts.
He will not be swayed by this demon, this is how he cares, how the true the depth of his love, how he walks through hell with her, she gave him her heart and now he gives her his.
Emma -
She hangs up the phone, puffs sheer relief into the cold forest air "it's working" and thank God because standing here in the dark forest, body drained from the magic she had performed, (it's not lost on her that her first magical act since Zelena's curse has been to plunge her hands into a chest and remove a heart but why she could only pull the magic with the Ice Queen's hand on her shoulder she does not know), watching Regina awake, cursed and terrible, witnessing the raw power Elsa wields, creating from ice and snow the prison that holds the Queen and her thief, she feels small and so very alone.
Her mom is nodding clearly delighted yet unsurprised, through everything that has happened, Mary Margaret has never lost her belief that it will all be okay, just like after the first curse broke and they all found each other, just like Pan's curse when they all rescued Henry and just as Zelena was finally defeated but Emma remembers Baelfire and thinks that, whenever they have "won" it has not been without loss and heartache.
David has promised her Henry will call her and she palms the phone in her hand, willing it to ring, she needs to hear his voice, needs that reassurance that Henry is okay. He is a strong boy, resilient like his adopted mother, hopefully like his grandparents but he is still a boy, a boy mourning the death of his father, a boy who sends too much time worrying about both his mothers when he should be rotting his brain with video games and too much TV.
When this is over and the town yet again safe (because it just has to be and that's her mom's voice in her head), Henry's safety will be her top priority, whatever is happening between her and Killian, whatever is holding her back from him, will have to wait. She needs to understand magic, to learn how to use, the Ice Queen is a warning one which she will heed.
Gold
His part is done, he said he would un-freeze the town's people and he has. Now he needs to take back control, as much as Regina wishes to believe this is her town, it's not, its his, its always been his.
He spent twenty eight years cursed, waiting for Emma, living as dulled and as stupid as the rest of them, for one reason only and now that reason is dead and buried, rotting in the cold ground of this town, built on blood and broken dreams. He will not lose the things he has left, not his Belle and not his power and yet again, he will not pay the price of the magic he needs, some one else can.
If he is here, that the creature will be and if not, can be called. He wastes no time with pleasantries, answers no questions, takes pleasure from the gleam of fear in the man's eyes. Did he think he could return to StoryBrooke unnoticed again, did he think that he would not be looking for him once he discovered his secret, a secret that could have saved some many years and perhaps his sons life.
Oh how he hates his powers of foresight, how cruel they are with what they show, one glimpse of that creature would have been all that was needed all of those years ago. So it is with frustration that he brings his cane down harder than needed, with a burning need that threatens the thin control he retains as he squeezes the man's throat with a magical grip but in the end, as always with those pure of heart, it is the promise of death and destruction to others that causes the man to relent and to give him want he wants.
Robin -
The thin wall of ice that separates Robin from the Dark Queen is slowly cracking, Robin never takes his eyes from her, hoping now to catch a glimpse of the soul inside, but he can hear the ice shifting.
He can feel her again, a warmth inside, it gives him hope, renews his strength. He chances a look behind, through the walls of the ice prison. He can make out the figures of those beyond, Mary Margaret, Emma, Elsa and sees that Hook has joined them which must surely mean that the ice curse on the town is broken. Mary Margaret appears to be leaving, Hook too Robin guesses that he is escorting her back to the town to her husband and child.
He is glad for them but guilt rises like bile in his belly as he thinks of his boy, his wife that he has forsaken for another. He pushes the thoughts away, he must remain focused on love and love only, the ice queen was very clear in her warning. That whatever happens he must not allow himself to feel anything other than this. Lest the darkened cursed heart that beats in chest drag him down into its madness. He must have faith that his soul is strong enough, he has fought the demons of his past and won and he must do so again otherwise he is lost and he will take Regina with him.
He closes his ears to the Queens taunts as she pours scorn upon him, yes he did break Regina's heart (temporary, he hopes) but not out of hate, out of confusion and loyalty, he will not allow this demon to use it against him, he is only human, he makes mistakes.
He does not know how much time has past but Hook has returned, David has been and gone and the three remaining sit huddled in a tent, waiting.
Robin's voice is cracking from use, from the words of love that he issues, love he tells the Dark Queen who rants and raves at him, who is growing tired from the constant stream of energy that flows from her, her one and only goal now to break that thin wall and rip him limb from limb.
Oh how this cursed heart hates his tales of love as he talks of Henry, of flying monkeys, of late night walks through castle gardens, of stolen moments in green corridors, of white magic and admiration.
He calls and calls for Regina to hear him, hear his words but she does not perhaps, cannot.
Words, he thinks just words as he sinks down to the ground. The Queen is panting,stumbling back, exhausted and so is he. The cold of the prison sinks into his bones and he is so tired of this, it's obviously not working.
He had such great hope that with his heart inside the Queen she would feel him, it would have been enough but it is not. He is not enough, his words are not enough and so he quiets and thinks of her. Her dark shining hair that so captivated him in the missing year, her smooth soft skin, those tempting lips.
The intimate moments they have shared run through his mind on a loop, her soft cries as they explored each other bodies, her taste, his desire for her and oh how he desired her, wanted her and found her wanting.
But it's the after that he dwells on, the softness and care between them. The way that she fit in his arms, and it had felt so very right just to hold her. Her head on his chest as she looked at him with such wonder, kissed him so gently while gripping him so tight, afraid he might leave.
That last kiss, not the stolen broken hearted kisses on Emma's balcony but the last kiss before his world fell apart. That kiss full of passion and then so much tenderness as he held her gaze, full of promise, of future promises, and her eyes which previously held so much fear, so much sorrow had shined with hope and love, unspoken but not hidden, in their eyes.
Robin allows the tears to roll down his face unashamed and as the cold heart burns in his chest, Robin draws his hand there unthinking, head snapping up in shock. The Dark Queen mirrors his actions, stumbling and panting, little gasps of pain, hand pressed to her chest. Robin wants to laugh of course, of course his Regina would reject his words of hope and love but heartache and pain she knows.
Then it's all over so quickly, no longer can he feel her, it's darkness and madness, screaming and angry shouts not his, not hers, not at first.
Then he is screaming as the walls come down, he knows he is fighting as hands pull at him, cruel laughter in his ears, it's sharp pain in his side as a kick to the ribs takes him down but its a blow to the head that brings dark spots to his eyes, forces him towards blackness, the last thing he sees, the Queen unmoving trapped once in the clutches of dark magic, not hers but used against her by the soldiers that have attacked them.