Chapter Text
Henry's grandfather retrieves the items he requested and goes someplace he deems safe enough to prepare. The beach. He sits down a large grey case on a log and holds up Belle's mirror, arms length away from his face and speaks. Praying that someone is watching.
"So, uh, I'm not sure if any of you on the other side are listening, but if you are... I'm sorry. I tried to keep Emma from losing belief, but it wasn't good enough." He says, sitting the mirror down on a large log, to give the people on the other side a larger view. "But that doesn't mean I'm going down without a fight..." He then walks over to the case, flipping up the clasps, and opens the lid. Inside, is the sword, used by Emma on many occasions, and supposedly has the power to vanquish evil; sitting in a perfect sized indentation of red velvet. He wraps his hand around the smooth metal handle, relishing in the feeling of holding such a magnificent and powerful weapon.
Henry says once more line, that worries the party on the other side of the mirror.
"If Emma's not around to take on the Black Fairy... I will."
He walks toward the only place the Black Fairy could be right now: the Mayor's office. Walking down the street, he contemplates if this is really a good idea.
'Let's not dwell on it before I change my mind. This is probably a really, really, bad idea...'
Henry strides through the building, sword in hand, and stops at the end of the hall. He squeezes his hand around the hilt of the sword tighter, and stares down the extent of the hallway determinedly; willing his legs to move forward. Suddenly, Gideon comes around the corner, with a deadly glare in his eyes.
"You're not the Savior." Gideon denotes.
"I may not be the Savior, but i can still try and hold you off until Emma is ready to be."
"I don't think that's a very wise choice, boy."
"Okay, for one, I'm technically older than you. Two, I know its not the smartest idea right now, but its the only one i've got. So why don't we stop talking and get this over with?" Henry quipps.
With no reply, Gideon lunges forward. Henry parries the attack- their blades clanging together. Henry pushes some force into his sword, shoving Gideon backwards. He takes this opportunity to quickly position his blade forward and thrust. The sound of metal hitting metal could be heard echoing through the halls. Gideon uses magic to teleport behind him and Henry quickly turns around, slamming the hilt of the sword into Gideon's nose, on accident ironically, and jumps back. Gideon then swiftly teleports again, right behind Henry. It seems Gideon is fighting dirty. Henry turns again but doesn't have enough time to block the oncoming attack. Gideon Thrusts forward and Henry glides to the side. Unfortunately he didn't move quick enough and the sword slices his side; not deep enough to hit anything major. Henry hisses from the sharp pain of the cut, but keeps fighting- The adrenaline keeping him from feeling it too much.
"What, You have to use magic to beat a kid?" Henry taunts. Gideon huffs angrily and tries to slash at Henry, but this time its sloppy and uncalculated. He deals a front kick to Henry's stomach, knocking him back against the wall. Gideon is letting anger overrule his focus. Henry blocks the unfocused, oncoming attack and takes this opportunity to get a jab in. He forces himself forward, pushing off the wall for momentum, and swings the sword, slicing Gideon in the arm. He growls with anger. The duel continues for several minutes, and after watching Gideon and calculating his next moves, a figure comes from around the corner.
"Henry!" Emma shouts in relief and worry.
"Mom?"
"Henry, watch out!" While Henry was distracted Gideon rushed forward and attacks. Henry jumps back, but is still pierced in the upper leg.
"Get away from my son!" Emma jolts forward kicking Gideon to the side and takes the sword from Henry.
"You came back. Does that mean...?"
Yeah, kid. I remember. Now go." Emma orders and he obeys. He runs out of the hall, ignoring the pain in his leg, while Gideon starts to get up.
"A little late are we, Savior? Any longer and your son would be finished." Gideon sneers.
"I don't know about that, he seemed to be doing a pretty good job." She countered, gesturing to his bleeding nose, and arm.
The smug grin on his face fell, and he attacked.
Henry sprints towards the exit, panting. He leans against the wall next to the door and slides down to the floor, catching his breath. His leg doesn't seem to be bleeding too much; its not stopping either, leaving an ugly red-ish brown patch on his beige pants. He stands up- albeit slowly, when his phone goes off. He pulls it from his pocket and unlocks it, to reveal a call from... Mr. Gold? That's new. I don't think he's ever called me before. How does he even have my number? Actually i can't say I'm surprised.' He answers the phone, and Gold explains that he killed the Black Fairy, but she still has Gideon's heart and is making him kill Emma. He also says that he's going to try and find Gideon's heart to try and save both him, and Emma. They hang up the phone and Henry decides that he has to relay this to, right now. He dashes through the halls, realizing that Gideon will be a problem. He sees the fire extinguisher hanging on the wall; with a shrug, raising his eyebrows for a moment he thinks. 'That'll do.'
"Gideon. You don't want to do this." Emma pleads, as Gideon strides forward, making her back up into Regina's office.
"You can't win." Gideon asserts.
"Maybe. But i also can't give up." Emma retorts. Gideon raises his sword into the air, ready to strike, before Henry slams the fire extinguisher onto the back of his head. He falls to the floor with a thud. "Henry?!" Emma shouts in disbelief, while Henry has a look of almost exhilaration. "Lets go." She says, pushing Henry out the door while Gideon recovers. "Go!" She closes the door and puts a barrier spell on it, right before Gideon reaches the door.
"You did it." Henry says, as they quickly walk towards the exit.
"Kinda. That won't hold for very long."
"That's okay. The Black Fairy's got his heart. Gold's gonna get it. Everything's gonna be fine." He assures.
"I appreciate your optimism, kid, but we gotta go." Emma responds pushing him out the door.
They run through the streets as fast as they can, with Henry having a little trouble keeping up, but not enough to slow them down. They stop at an intersection to catch their breaths, when it starts to rain lightly.
"Can you see him?" He asks.
"We lost him, but he won't be far behind. I'm so sorry that I ever doubted you." Emma apologizes.
"I know. It's okay, it was the curse. I just happy that it's broken." He replies.
"We are too." The voice of his Grandmother comes from behind and a feeling of happiness washes over him.
"Mom, Dad." Emma says hugging them.
Henry turns around, bolting to his other Mom, grabbing her in a tight embrace. Tears of relief threaten to fall from his eyes.
"Mom. I missed you."
"I missed you too. Every second." She says kissing him on the forehead.
"So Henry, what all did Gold say?" Emma asks. Henry turns, to face the rest of the group.
"Well, the Black Fairy is gone for one thing. Gold killed her with her own wand."
Henry is met with "What?" "Really?" and one "Bloody hell." coming from the group.
"Yeah, but that's not all. She still has Gideon's heart. And she left him with one last command: Kill you no matter what." Henry says grimly.
"Well, then we'll kill him." Hooks says unsurprisingly.
"No. It's a trap. If Gideon kills Emma, then light will be destroyed; and if Emma kills him, she'll darken herself, and light will be destroyed anyways." Regina denotes.
"You don't have to kill him. Just hold him off until Gold his heart." Snow suggests with her usually tone of optimism.
"Well there's no holding him off... And she's right. It's a trap, and it's perfect. No matter what, darkness wins." Emma says softly, as if she's already lost.
"I'm not telling you to give up. You can't. Emma, you of all people should know, there's always a third way." Regina encourages, before sighing and gesturing for them to talk in private. They walk a few feet away from the group, out of earshot.
Henry shoves his hands in his pockets, forcing his coat to come down further in the front, to try and hide his leg injury- which isn't easy, considering he's surrounded by six people, and the blood stain on his pants seems to being growing larger by the second. A breeze blows by and Henry shivers for moment, wondering why he's so cold even though he has a coat and a scarf on. He distracts himself by fiddling with the pen and notepad he keeps in his coat pockets. Hook glances over at him, then down to his leg, then back to his face, brows furrowed. He starts to say something before a puff of orange smoke appears behind Snow, to reveal Gideon. He has his sword in hand, pressed up against her throat. As soon as he appeared, Regina darted to Henry and held him close, to protect him if need be, but also to comfort herself.
"I'm afraid that time has indeed come." Gideon says, although it doesn't hold any malice.
"Son of a bitch!" Dave yells.
"Dad, stop! I got this." She asserts. "Let her go." Emma pleads, and Gideon does as she asks. They slowly circle around each other.
~~~
Gold makes his way through the cave to a collection of boxes, where his mother kept her important things. He opens the large crate to find a small trove of magical items. He sees multiple ornate boxes with small holes cut into them; one with a gold glow, which he ignores, and one with a red glow. He opens the box to reveal the thing he's been looking for: Gideon's real heart.
"There's your heart, Gideon." Gold mutters to himself. He gingerly picks up the heart, being careful not to squeeze it. His inner Dark One tries to convince him not to do it but he ignores it and does what he came here to do.
"Gideon, stop. Do not kill Emma Swan." He waits for the words to take affect but nothing happens.
The the heart's thump goes quiet, and it turns a dull gray color. A cloud of black smoke develops and reveals none other than the Black Fairy herself.
"You didn't actually expect it to be that easy, did you?" Fiona sneers.
"You're dead. I killed you." Gold says in disbelief.
"Now now, I've been alive for centuries, and you think you can kill me that easily, with my own wand?" She asks rhetorically with a small laugh. She pushes him with magic, sending him flying, only to slam into the cave wall.
"All Saviors die." Fiona says and smiles cruelly.
~~~
"No ones going to save you." Gideon states, staring at Emma with a sad look in his eyes. They lunge at each other and attack; their swords clashing together. Gideon spurs her saying she can't win and she retaliates with words of hope, while swinging at each other. Henry still stands by Regina, both of his wounds starting to ache and throb, his whole body starting to shake. Thankfully Regina is so caught up in watching the battle, she doesn't notice. He can feel the blood from his side, sliding down his torso, soaking the waistband of his jeans, albeit covered by his coat.
Everyone's watching Emma and Gideon fight intently, but Henry can't shake the feeling that something is wrong, and it's not because of his wounds or the battle. It's a deep, growing sensation of something being off, but he can't place it. A shiver trails up his spine and goosebumps develop on his arms, sending his hairs on end. He lifts his head up further and searches the streets for the source of this feeling, when he sets eyes on the Black Fairy.
'Nononono, she's supposed to be dead. Does that mean Gold betrayed us again? No, he would never let this happen to Gideon.' He tries to get someone's attention but he can't move, he's paralyzed again. He looks over to her again and sees her, holding his heart. It's glows, casting a gold light on her face.
"Miss me?" She speaks into his mind.
'Not particularly. What good does still having my heart do anyways? Why couldn't you just freeze us with magic?'
"Oh, because then the rest of your dreadful family would know that I'm still here, Dearie. And we can't have that. If I'm going to... take care of them, they can't see me coming. " She whispers evilly. He looks back at Emma and Gideon.
"-I will do what all saviors must! I will give hope!... no matter what the cost." She whispers the last part, and Henry knows what she's going to do, but he's powerless to stop it. He furrows his brow anger at what she's about to do. He tries to move and save her but is immediately stopped by the Black Fairy, and Regina.
'This is so stupid, why is she doing this?' Henry thinks almost forgetting about the the Black Fairy. Emma drops her sword on the ground.
"No!" Hook yells in desperation, while David holds him back.
"I'm sorry Emma. I was hoping you'd save us both." Gideon says on the verge of tears. She give a sad, defeated smile, as Gideon plunges the blade forward, making contact in a burst of white light, sparks flying everywhere. She drops to the ground and Gideon disappears. Everyone rushes to Emma's side, except Henry. Crouching next to Emma's body, Regina looks up to see Henry still standing five feet away, his face blank except for the stream of tears coming from his eyes.
"Henry?" She asks cautiously. Everyone else looks over to see him standing there, when a figure comes from behind him. Fiona. She places her free hand on his shoulder- the other, still holding his heart; he squeezes his eyes shut on contact.
"Quite the show." Fiona says, squeezing Henry's shoulder.
"No..." Both Snow and David say at the same time as every stands. David draws his sword.
Get your hand off my son, witch! Henry, are you okay?" Regina adds.
"I'm afraid he can't answer that. Not while I have this." She says holding up his heart, and squeezes. Henry gasps.
"Henry!" The group shouts.
"I thought you were dead!" Hook shouts, but Fiona ignores him. David charges, and Regina and Zelena go to take a shot with magic, but Fiona freezes them.
Fiona leans in next to Henry's ear and whispers. "You see, now we can freeze them." She backs away and walks slowly, inspecting the frozen group. "It's all about making a good entrance, and invoking fear." She circles back around to the start of the group. Regina. "Now Henry, you've been quite the thorn in my side since that first night. You even got Emma to believe again, and you convinced Rumple to be good again, ripping my own son away from me; and for that... I will make you, and your whole family suffer!" She seethes, slightly loosing her composer, but quickly recovering. "So, who should I kill first?" Henry can't respond. "Ah, right." She says and allows him to speak.
"Please don't! Don't hurt them, take me instead!" Henry pleads, which makes his family tear up. Although he's starting to get angry.
"Not this again. That's not an option. Fine I'll choose. How about I start with your mother?" She says smiling. Henry is shaking with rage now. Fiona walks over to Regina and touches her face in a patronizing way.
'Come on... I was able to break away from her hold before.' Henry thinks. Fiona reaches inside Reginas chest and rips out her heart. 'Come on, come on..'
She starts to squeeze- Regina falls to the ground in pain, unfrozen; and that's all it took. Henry breaks the hold with a yell and reaches in his pocket, knowing exactly what to do. He pulls out the paper and pen, his hand glowing, and taking a page out of David's book– figuratively- he writes:
The Black Fairy gets what she deserves.
Everybody unfreezes and Fiona yells in anger. "NO!" She drops Regina's heart, and everybody watches in astonishment as she screams, crumbling in smoldering bits of charcoaled skin. Although not that gory, Snow still looks away, as Fiona turns into a smoking pile of ash. Everyone stares at the ash in silence and shock at what just happened, while Regina takes back her heart.
'Mom!' Henry remembers and quickly runs over to Emma body on the ground. He crouches next to her and silent tears drop out of his face, anguish written all over it. "I love you." He says quietly, and kisses her on the forehead.
A pulse of magic resounds through the town and Emma opens her eyes with a gasp. "I love you too." She says giving him a tight hug. She stands up and everyone crowds around her with group hug. They break the hug and Emma notices the pile of smoking ashes on the ground. "What's that?" She asks.
"The Black Fairy." Zelena replies.
"Wait, how did she get here? I thought Gold already killed her?"
"So did we. But apparently it wasn't that easy." David says..
"So, who killed her this time?" Emma asks and everybody looks at Henry with a 'Do you want to tell her, or should I?' look.
"Technically, I did." Henry states.
"What? How?!"
"With these." He says holding up the pen and notepad.
"I know they say the pen is mightier than the sword... but this is ridiculous." Emma jokes. "How did you do it without the Authors's pen?"
"Like this." He focuses on his hand and it starts to glow blue, surrounded with magic, almost like a flame. He take the pen and writes on the paper. Then suddenly an apple appears in his hand, and he hands it to Regina, since he still doesn't eat apples.
"How is that possible?" Snow asks.
"I'm not exactly sure. But I'll tell you everything, later."
"I'm actually okay with that. I'm exhausted." Emma says.
"Me too." Henry adds, when Snow calls his name, while picking up something.
"I think this belongs to you." She says handing him the story book. He runs his hand over the cover - something he thought he'd never b able to do again, and opens it to the last page. Small black text glows across the page and Henry reads them aloud.
"When Good and Evil both did the right thing, faith was restored. The final battle was won." He closes the book. "That's it."
"That's all? No 'The End'?" Emma asks while still in Hooks arms.
"No." Henry says shrugging his shoulders.
"Course not. Because this isn't the end. I mean, maybe of this book, but... it isn't the end, end." Snow says optimisticly.
"So, what now?" Regina asks.
"Now? Now we get to see what's next. Believing and even the possibility of a happy ending is a powerful thing, but living with that kind of belief... that's the most powerful thing of all. That's hope. So you asked 'What now?' Now we get to keep going on. We get to keep doing what we love… With the people we love." Emma smiles and grabs on to a Henry's hand. "An ending is a happiness. Being together is." Everyone looks at each other and smiles. Regina looks at Henry and frowns, noticing the paleness of his skin, and the thin layer of sweat on his face.
"Henry are you okay?" She asks, and Henry looks down, slowly opening his coat to look at the damage. It's worse than he thought. The wound on his torso bled so much that the whole left side of his shirt is dark red, as well as the waist of his pants. The cut on his leg isn't much better.
"Oh god- Henry why didn't you say something?" Regina asks worriedly.
"Bloody hell." Hook breathes.
"Wasn't important at the time." Henry replies with his words starting to slur. Spots cloud his vision and his legs give out, pitching him forward. Hook thankfully being able to catch him before he hit the pavement. He reaches his arms around Henry, his head falling on Hook's shoulder, and Hook slowly lowers him to the ground.
"Henry!" Regina, Emma, and Snow yell at the same time.
"I'm sorry, I noticed something off about him earlier, but then Gideon appeared and I got lost in the moment." Hook apologizes, turning Henry so that he's laying on his back, on the ground, instead of being in Hook's arms.
"It's okay, we all did." Snow says to console him.
"How did this happen?" Regina asks, inspecting the wounds.
"He fought Gideon for a while before I found him." Emma states. "I didn't realize it was that bad."
"That makes sense. Before he went off to fight Gideon, he spoke into a mirror, knowing i would be able to see him, and said that if you weren't around to fight Gideon, that he would. But you can't blame yourself Emma, you were under a curse. Plus if there's one thing we know, it's that Henry is stubborn. So even if any of us could try to stop him, do you think he would listen?" Regina says while healing his wounds.
"Nope. He gets stubbornness from all three sides of his family." Emma replies and everyone smiles.
"Henry." Regina says, shaking him awake. "Wake up." Henry bolts awake, yelping, and skittering back. "Whoa, calm down! It's just us." He let out a breath of relief.
"What happened?"
"You passed out, because you didn't tell anyone that you were bleeding to death." Regina chides.
"Sorry, i got... distracted."
"I would give you more of a lecture, but given what's happened, it's a valid excuse."
"So I'm off the hook? No pun intended." Henry asks, glancing at Hook for a second.
"Not completely. Even though I healed the wounds, you'll still need to take it easy and regain all the blood you've lost."
"So, no dangerous adventures?" Henry asks jokingly.
"No dangerous adventures." Regina confirms with a smile.
He stands up slowly, stretching out his aching muscles and bones, and Emma walks over with his heart. "This- is yours." She puts it back into his chest with a shove, and he gasps from sudden lack of oxygen that usually comes with the pain of losing, and receiving a heart.
"Thanks. Now, I don't know about you guys... but I'm starving." Henry says, sounding tired.
His question is met with a round of 'God yes' and 'Yes please'
"Granny's then?" He suggests.
"Sounds good to me." Emma says. "Although you might want to change first." She adds gesturing to Henry's bloodsoaked clothes.
"Oh, right! Granny would probably have a heart attack." Henry says.
"I don't know... she's pretty tough for a woman her age..." David counters.
"Not when it comes to her lasagna. You say one negative thing about it and she crumbles." Emma mentions, and everyone starts laughing. "Why don't we just order a pizza at our place?" Emma suggests and everyone agrees.
Back at Emma's place, Henry changes out of his clothes, and it wasn't until he took his shirt and pants off that he realized how much he actually blood he had actually lost. The whole left side of his torso smeared with red in some way or another, half of his boxers stiff since the blood had long since dried, he tries not to freak out. He decides taking a shower will be the best option.
He scrubs his skin slightly raw, red blood diluting to light pink before swirling down the drain. He leans there afterwards, hand on the tile, hot water flowing down his back until the lingering anxiousness fades.
After his shower, Henry heads downstairs, knowing the pizza will be here soon. What he didn't expect to see was everyone in the living room, watching Peter Pan of all choices. Although Henry can see a logo in the bottom corner of the screen, so that means it must've just been on TV. Surprisingly, Hook hasn't seen it yet.
"That's me?! Why did they make me look so ugly?!" Hook yells angrily. "They're making Pan out to be some kind of hero!"
Henry shakes his head laughing softly, before the doorbell rings. The pizza. It isn't until Henry smells it that he realizes he hasn't eaten since before the wedding. Every gathers at the table and the kitchen and eats, while talking and sharing funny stories. He ends up eating six slices before starting to get really tired. Zelena, Snow, and David already left after dinner since they have babies to take care of.
"I think I'm gonna head to bed." Henry says to the group and a few make noises of disappointment.
'Wow, i didn't think they enjoyed my company that much.'
"Okay, Goodnight." Emma says with a wink.
"Goodnight." Hook adds.
" 'Night guys." He responds.
He goes to his room, and changes into his usual nightwear: a t-shirt and plaid pajama pants. He the collapses dramatically onto the bed when Regina walks in.
"Mom, I'm sixteen, I don't think I need to be tucked in anymore." He says with a smile.
"I know, I just wanted to say goodnight. Plus after everything that's happened, you deserve to be tucked in."
He gets under the covers and she notices the look on his face which usually means he's deep in thought.
"What's wrong?" She asks gently.
"I'm just thinking about everything that's happened. I still can't believe that I..." He trails off. She knows exactly what he's thinking. He feels bad about killing the Black Fairy.
"Hey, if you wouldn't have done that, I would be dead. Hell, we would all be dead. So don't feel guilty. She's killed hundreds, probably thousands and thanks to you, nobody else will die by her hand ever again."
"I know, but we usually try to solve things without violence first, and that was pretty violent; she practically burned alive."
"We did try that first, but she's just too evil to change. And you didn't choose how she died, the author abilities did."
"I guess your right."
"Wait, did you just say what I think you said?" Regina asks jokingly.
"Don't push it. I'm not repeating it." He says in mock defiance.
"Alright fine." She kisses him on the forehead. "Goodnight, my little prince." She says, using the the nickname she had used when he was younger.
"Goodnight Mom." He responds, and she walks back downstairs.
"How is he?" Emma asks.
"Still a little shaken up. I mean from his prospective, he just burned the Black Fairy alive, so I can't blame him." Regina states.
"He'll be alright in do time. The lad is strong." Hook says.
"That he is." Emma adds.
The next few days, things are back to normal. Well, normal for them anyways. To anyone else, living in a once cursed town fill with fairytale characters from other realms would be crazy. But here... it's home.
Henry is back to school, after a couple days of rest. He says goodbye to his moms at the bus stop and greets Violet, who is leaning against a tree waiting for him.
"Hey!" She greets cheerfully.
"Hey, so I know your probably wondering what's been happening and I know I haven't really talked to you that much since everything that's happened and-" Violet cuts him off with a kiss. She pulls away with a smile on her face. "Sorry, I was rambling again."
"It's alright, you can tell me everything later." She takes his hand in hers and they get on the bus.
Although Henry is starting to get bored without any threats to their lives at the moment, he's content. His family is happy, all the realms are restored, everything is peaceful.
For now. *wink*
The End