A/N: So I know I have pending fics which I need to update, but I was watching season 5 again and an old idea - the way I thought the rest of the season could go the first time around - revisited me. I just couldn't resist it.
Why I thought Emma should be the one to sacrifice herself:
- She was the one who started this whole thing, so its fitting that she end it.
- I was really really really pissed off at Killian after Broken Heart. He deserves the full force guilt of Emma's death after what he did. Killing him off and naming him 'hero' is the easy way out, I wanted the difficult one.
- Aand because if Emma dies, we can always be sure that she'll return lol. I didn't want months of angsty wait, pulling my hair out wondering if my ship will survive.
Anyway, the reason's mostly the second one, so expect loads of angst. If I can pull it off, that is *hides her face*
Swan Song
"You can't do this."
She turned, Excalibur held protectively in her hand.
"Killian" she greeted formally, her voice devoid of emotion. "I have to. If I don't, my family will die."
"But if you do, you will die." Killian said, his voice wavering for a moment before he controlled himself.
"So now you care what happens to me?" Emma asked coldly.
Killian chose not to respond. "You can't fight us. Better give in right now."
"I'll never give up on my family." Emma said vehemently.
"You're fighting a lost battle then, love." He poofed behind her and tried to take the Excalibur, but she turned in time to point it at him. He tried again, but Emma was quick enough.
"Tell me truthfully, Killian," she said, "why are you stopping me?"
Because I can't let you die.
He crushed the response the moment it formed. "Because, love, you know as well as me how badly I need my revenge."
Her stance dropped slightly as she gave him a sad half smile. "You're lying."
Before he could absorb her statement, she snapped her fingers, and caught off guard, he was frozen.
She walked up to him and lightly touched his cheek. "I'm sorry it had to come to this, Killian, but I can't kill you or let my family die. This is the only way to sort out the mess I created."
His eyes were wide with fear, telling her what his eyes couldn't. Don't do this. Don't leave me alone. Don't die for me.
She quickly poofed them beside the lake, where all the dark ones were gathered along with her family.
She could hear her family scream her name, but she couldn't make out the words. She took a last glance at them all, saw them running towards her. They couldn't save her today - she wouldn't let them.
She held the Excalibur up, gathering all the darkness in it. She looked at Killian one last time, and she hated what she saw; the fear, the helplessness, the guilt, the despair. She hated that she had caused it - caused this all - and was making him go through this pain again.
But she had to do it.
Without another thought, she plunged Excalibur into herself, vanquishing the darkness, freeing Killian, freeing herself. Finishing what she started.
As the world went black, the last thing she saw was Killian's broken expression as he collapsed next to her, the last thing she heard was her mother's scream of despair, while somewhere behind them her son was crying.
The only thing she could think was 'At least I'm not alone in a tiny apartment with no one but a pet cat to miss me.'
She was loved. She smiled, because while she had just lost everything, she had also gained everything.