Beautiful Lily

Henry's burden

What do you mean you don't have magic? Didn't you just use it recently?" Robin asked Regina still confused over what was happening.

"When that monster disappeared, Hades and I both lost our abilities, that can't be a coincidence," stated Regina. They descended the stairs through the fire escape of the building and made their way out onto the street towards Elsa's ice wall. As they got closer to the wall, Hercules could be seen climbing over it and down on the other side to greet them.

"Regina!" shouted Hercules towards Regina, "You're Henry's mother. I need to see Henry right away. It's important."

"Woah, woah, woah... slow down. What happened? Where's Hades?"

"Hades killed Elsa for her deity magic because he somehow lost his. He was able to open a portal to escape this world and I need Henry's traveling device to go after him."

"And then what?" Regina asked.

"I'm going to go after Elsa," Hercules replied with serious determination.

"How? You just said he killed her," Robin inquired, the confusion compounding exponentially.

"Hades deals with the dead... and I'm going to go get her back from him."

"A man on a suicide mission... great," Regina quipped, inserting her own opinion, "Well, wherever you go monsters seem to follow. So by all means, let me do the honor of kicking you out of Storybrooke."

... ...

"Henry..." Gold called softly to his grandson. Henry opened his eyes and looked up at his grandfather. Both of their faces met with a mutual and solemn grief. Gold attempted to move closer to Henry, but when he did something felt different. There was something in the air that felt off, almost lackluster, and it gave him pause.

"Rumple?" Belle noticed his hesitation, looking at him with concern. She could tell from looking at him that something else was the matter; something beyond Neal's sudden absence. "Rumple, what is it?"

"Nothing," he lied. He turned looking back at Henry, turning the direction of focus from him to Henry, "Henry, are you alright?"

Without so much as a word, Henry got up from the couch and stormed out of the house. Emma, stunned by Henry's reaction, stood up more slowly and gestured her intent to follow after him. "I'll... go see if I can talk to him."

Emma wiped a few of her own tears away as she made her way to the front porch and saw Henry standing there leaning against a post. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his mother approach him. She went ahead and leaned against the opposite post from him, mimicking his stance as they both stared off into the distance. When Henry couldn't stand the awkward silence anymore, he bluntly replied to his mother, "I don't want to talk."

"Good because I didn't want you to talk. I came out here so that I could talk to you."

Henry coolly glanced at his mother briefly, acknowledging her intentions with his reserved silence.

"I... just wanted to say that, what you did back there... was remarkable. I'm sorry Hades put you in a position to break your own heart. And I'm sorry, that as your mother and the savior, I failed to save and protect you from that pain. Your grandfather's right... I don't embrace the magic within me as I probably should. Perhaps... if you saw me demonstrate my gifts more, or if I was more receptive to magic, you would have felt comfortable enough to talk me about your abilities. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong about that too. All I know is that I failed you Henry and I am so sorry."

Emma looked up into the darkened sky, taking the time to inhale and exhale slowly. She glimpsed over at Henry and saw that he was unmoved by her apology. She could see on his face a mixture of complex emotions; sadness, shock, anger and apathy. She tried to flatter him again, "What you did back there... changing your beliefs like that, was maturity beyond your years. You did what most adults couldn't... what I couldn't."