Snow stared down into the cauldron, the ingredients of the Dark Curse boiling as if they were nothing but an oily soup. Yet every bubble that rose to the surface acted as a countdown; a countdown to the moment when David would no longer be by her side. When she would have to crush his heart and kill him.
A blazing light blue pillar appeared in the distance and Snow inhaled sharply at the sight. That must be the others; they must have activated the spell in the cowhide in an attempt to keep Zelena away from them.
"It's ready", Regina said, not taking her eyes off the dark liquid. Snow shook her head in protest. She was not ready for this.
"No. There has to be another way to get to Emma."
"There isn't", Regina said and looked up to meet her gaze. The Queen's dark eyes were sad, unlike last time when she had released the Curse to take her revenge on them. Now she was family, true family, and she clearly did not want her stepdaughter to go through what she had felt.
"You know if there were, I'd have gone back to Henry", she continued, her eyes shifting to David. "This is it, this... sacrifice."
"Snow", David said and turned to look at her, but she stubbornly shook her head at him. "Snow, we have to do this."
He led her away from the cauldron and Regina quickly stepped back as well, realizing that they needed some time to themselves. David took Snow's hands in his and gazed into her eyes. Blue, she thought, and so sincere and beautiful, and honest and kind.
"You have to do this", he said.
"I can't", she replied, not managing more than a whisper. "I can't crush your heart; I can't lose you!"
"You could never lose me", David softly replied, "but this... this is our only chance. Think of our baby, Snow; think of being a mother."
"Our child will never know its father!" Snow protested. David smiled sadly at her and pushed back a strand of her dark hair from her face.
"Of course it will", he whispered. "It will through you."
Snow desperately tried to swallow down the thick lump of tears in her throat and David stepped closer, his face only inches from hers.
"We have always shared one heart", he said. "It'll only grow stronger when you look at that baby's face... and see the love I have for you in its eyes."
A tear escaped from her right eye, burning a trail down her cheek. She had no choice and she knew it, but stubborn as she was she would have preferred not to go through with it. She did not want to be responsible for his death. She did not want to feel what Regina had felt when she had been forced to kill her own father in order to enact the Curse.
Slowly she raised her hands to cup his face, felt the rough stubble against her white gloves. He had not shaved that morning; she had asked him about it but he had not answered. Now she knew; he had not seen why he should.
"I've loved you", Snow begun, "since the first moment I saw you."
David smiled sadly at her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her as close as he could with her swollen belly.
"And I'll love you until my last", he whispered. She saw the determination in his eyes, those beautiful blue eyes she now hoped their baby would have. Then she raised herself on her toes and pressed her lips to his.
The kiss was gentle and despite them both knowing they did not have much time, that Catriona had said the shield would not be able to hold Zelena for far too long, they took their time. Snow was grateful Regina did not try to rush them; she needed this, she needed to feel that he was still there, she needed this to be her last memory of him.
Slowly David pulled back, but Snow refused to open her eyes to see him step back. She needed this moment to last just a little bit longer.
Then David cleared his throat.
"Okay."
Her eyes snapped open and she saw that he had turned towards Regina. Regina had kept her back towards them and now turned around, her dark eyes briefly gazing at Snow with such a deep compassion that Snow was overwhelmed by the older woman's shared sadness. Then she focused on David.
"Do it", he said, squaring his shoulders as if he was about to head into a fight. Regina stepped up to him.
"I won't lie; this is going to hurt", she said, "but it will work."
David nodded and Snow saw how Regina took a deep breath before plunging her hand into David's chest. He gasped in pain and almost fell to the floor, eyes wide. Snow gripped his arm to steady him as Regina pulled her hand back out, holding his beating, bright red heart in her hand. For a moment she looked torn, as if she both wanted to go through with this and immediately place it back inside him. She truly had changed.
"Charming?" Snow whispered, using her husband's nickname to draw his attention. He turned his face towards her and smiled as he once again squared his shoulders.
"Don't say goodbye", he ordered. He was right; she should not do that. A goodbye would make it all definite.
"I love you", she said instead. "I love you more than anything."
A flicker of amusement appeared in his eyes as he kept smiling, kept her gaze on him.
"Which is why you have to crush it", he said as Regina placed his heart in her hand and guided it so that it was above the cauldron, above the bubbling oily soup that was the Dark Curse. She was crying uncontrollably now, tears making hot trails down her cheeks, dropping from her chin and down onto her belly. His heart was warm in her hand, as warm and kind as his smile, which he kept on his face. She could not look away from him and, perhaps, that was good, because if she had looked at the cauldron again she would have refused to go through with this.
Then she squeezed.
There was a crushing sound as the heart crumbled into fine powder in her hand, but she hardly noticed. She only looked at David, saw as life slowly went out in his eyes and his knees gave away, felt how his arm slipped from her grip and heard the thud as his body hit the floor while the powder slipped through her fingers and down into the cauldron. The liquid behind her fizzed as the remains of his heart became part of the Dark Curse.
The moment she felt that all of his heart had fallen away from her hand she moved, falling to the floor next to him and clutching him to her. He was still warm but his breath was gone and soon he would be cold and left behind here in the Enchanted Forest as the Curse could only bring the living to the other realm. He would have no funeral; he would become food for the birds that remained here. She could hear Regina draw a shuddering breath behind her.
"This won't be in vain", she assured her stepdaughter. "We will get back to Storybrooke. We will defeat..."
A crackling sound as if from a thunderbolt caused Snow to gasp and look up from David's corpse. From the darkening sky came the Wicked Witch on her broom, elegantly swooping down into the courtyard and flying above the cauldron containing the Dark Curse. She dropped something into it, a spell or a potion, causing it to fizzle again, before she flew past Snow and landed by the stairs leading back into the castle.
"Zelena", Regina hissed. The green witch smiled.
"Did you really think you could enact Rumple's Dark Curse and I wouldn't know about it?" she asked, sounding amused.
"No, but I didn't really care", Regina replied. "You're too late."
"Actually, I'm not", Zelena said. "Those... children you sent to stop me might have made me miss the actual sacrifice, but other than that I'm just in time."
She turned towards Snow with a triumphant grin.
"I'm afraid you sacrificed your charming husband for nothing."
Snow's eyes widened and she looked up at Regina.
"Regina, he can't die in vain", she pleaded.
"She's bluffing", her stepmother replied, sounding confident. "Once the Curse is enacted it can't be stopped."
Zelena smiled.
"I may not be able to stop it", she agreed, "but that doesn't mean I can't spice it up a bit. How does a forgetting potion sound?"
Regina's eyes widened somewhat, but before she could reply there was another thundering sound behind them. As they turned they saw a thick, dark cloud rising from the cauldron. It was shifting between multiple dark coloured hues; black, grey, purple and green, and inside it there seemed to be thunderbolts of pure dark magic. It rose slowly to the sky; it was a slow curse, but it would grow and spread until it covered all the land and this time there was no Cora who could place a shield over half of it. Everyone would be affected.
"Sorry", Zelena said, drawing their attention again, "did you need your memories in the new land? Were you planning to stop me, or for that matter; recognize me?"
"We'll find a way", Snow replied, feeling anger boil inside her.
"Without knowing any of this?" Zelena asked, sounding amused. "I doubt it. You'll be too busy looking for your husband. You won't even know about his sacrifice; just endlessly wondering where he could be, always fearing the worst."
Snow felt her throat constricting and she looked down at David again. She would not know about this. He would have died in vain. Zelena's wicked cackle caused her to look up once again. The green woman was now facing Regina with a triumphant smile.
"Pay attention, sis", she said. "This is how you take away a happy ending."
Then she stepped back up onto her broom and flew away.
It felt as if someone was using her head as a drum and all she wanted was to slip back into the pleasant darkness, but she forced herself to remain awake, at least for a little while. She rolled over onto her back and stared up at the white cupola still surrounding them. It was weaker now, and smaller, but still there. A thundering sound from her right drew her attention and as she turned her head she could see the thick cloud approaching. The Dark Curse. The shield seemed to be able to stop it, but in a couple of hours they would be swept away by it as well.
Another sound, this time from her left, caused her to turn around. The Dark Castle was unseen from where she lay, but she knew that it was there and she knew that the white bird that now flew towards the sky had been sent from there. A white dove with a message, perhaps to someone that would be outside the reach of the Curse. Perhaps to someone who could help.
As the Dark Curse engulfed their protective sphere she slowly felt herself drifting off again. Whatever happened now they would get through it, together.
The Witch might take away their memories of this year, but they would still remember Orlando.
And that's the final EF-flashback!