Shaya

Chapter 24 - Red dawn

The air was still, as if the time itself was waiting for the battle to begin, holding its breath. Killian glanced at Emma, crouched next to him behind the wall of cars that they'd created, nothing more than her red leather jacket and her tight blue jeans to protect her body. The short sword weakly reflected the foggy light of the ending night in her right hand, nervously clamped around the wooden hilt.
" Hey." he whispered, startling her. She was rightly terrorized. Emma locked gaze with him, showing him a pair of huge grey-green eyes. He softly smiled at her. " We can handle this, Swan. It's just a battle. Trust me, I've fought many of 'em in my life. We can win."
" But we can lose, too." she objected, her hand that slightly trembled, as her voice.
Killian smiled again at her. " Ah, I doubt it. We have that creepy woman by our side, the Slayer, and Rapunzel, Regina... and your nice butt. " Emma's eyes grew wider at his last words. He grinned, trying to return serious. His defense wasn't needed nor appreciated in that moment. " You're powerful, Swan. You and the Queen, together, you can do anything."
Emma gave a bitter, suffocated laugh. " I can barely stand this tension..." she said glancing down.
" Yet you can stand it."
Emma gazed up at him again. He could do nothing else than smile at her. She was beautiful, even if scared. He could see the bravery behind the fear in her widened, hoping eyes. And the gratefulness, now. She tried to smile back at him. He nodded once, pressing his lips together, wishing to press them against hers, instead, yet unable to find the courage to lean forward and kiss her. He could run laughing towards the death, he thought with bitterness, but not kiss a girl, better, that girl. An inner laughter shook his body.
The pirate watched the empty grey street in front of him from the window of the car, the thick fog that hid the dangerous horizon. The silence was absolute, broken only by his own breaths. Killian looked at his right, giving a brief smile to Victor, eyeing the odd black weapon in his hands that they had called "Uzi". Weird weapon, weird name. Behind the doctor he could catch sight of the sexy wolf-girl, or at least the warning yellow lights of her eyes in the fog. The pirate turned and gazed up, looking at the confused figure of Snow White, hidden together with Granny inside the clock tower, behind all of them, ready to throw arrows against the enemies, protected from theirs by the Crocodile's spell.
Hook turned again, his attention caught by the whispering voices of Swan and Regina, talking to each other. He watched the former Queen, dressed in an incredibly elegant black armor, lean a hand on Emma's shoulder and reassuringly smile at her.
" Henry's safe, Emma, he will be fine. We'll protect him." the brunette was saying. Emma nodded, but he heard her swallow hard.
" Yes, we will." she whispered, too tensely to not being trying to convince herself. There was something close to panic in her voice. Killian sighed, saddened. Seen the last fight, she had her reasons to be scared. He was scared too, for her. She was strong, and, yes, she could use a sword after all, but in a real battle... He would protect her, he swore to himself. He could do this one good thing in his life, and he would do it, whatever that would have meant. Pan wanted them? Well, he wanted his skin too, and from a long time. It was time that his throat encountered his hook.
" We will." Emma repeated.
Killian looked at her put up gorgeous hair. A face was standing in his field of view, three steps afar: Hook locked gaze with Rapunzel and her knowing stare. They slightly nodded once at each other, a silent accordance binding them as a blood pact of brotherhood.

Snow looked at her daughter from a distance, watching her talk with Regina, then turn and go back to stare at the empty road. The sun was about to rise. The battle would have begun in moments.
Snow had already seen Regina's armor once. She had thought that she was intimidating, scary with that outfit. The embodiment of death, of her death. She had trembled at that sight. Now the only thought that filled her mind was that the poisoned arrow that she was holding, ready to be nocked, could fly straight to Regina's heart, and she would have neither noted it. As that one time in the woods, when the step-mother had pretended to be a peasant, she had her life in her hand. If only she hadn't hesitated that time...
" I thought I would have never seen that look in your eyes, child."
Granny's voice awakened her, making her give a start. She glanced at her.
" Which look?" she harshly asked, swallowing. She knew the answer.
" The predator's look, you know it. I saw Red have that gaze, Hook, Rumplestilstkin, Regina, me... But you... I guess that all of us, we all must have that look at least once in our lives. But I believed that you wouldn't have addressed it to the mother of your grandson. Not after what she did in the mines, at least."
Snow couldn't help but feel uncomfortable at that scolding tone. She glared at Granny, then came back watching the road.
" One good thing can't erase a million bad actions." she angrily whispered.
" Henry loves her. Emma loves her."
Snow goggled, suddenly looking again at her. Granny visibly held back a laughter. " Not in a romantic way, obviously. I thought that it was obvious, at least."
Snow couldn't help sighing in relief. The simple idea made her shiver in disgust and horror. She had to force herself to think about something else. Granny helped her with her words.
" I thought you two were finally conciliated. What happened to make you be this angry with her?"
Snow let her sight get lost in the light grey fog. What had happened? When did she begin to feel this angry? She had almost forgot it, and she really didn't know how could she had forgotten such a thing. " She used magic... There was an accident, and Emma almost died. Henry was shattered. I was shattered. "
" Red told me that Emma used magic, not Regina..."
Rage filled Snow's eyes with tears and emptied her chest. " If she didn't curse us, Emma wouldn't be the Savior, and she wouldn't be damned by the burden of magic... I know that it will change her. Now, in moments, she's using magic, killing through it, under Regina's lead... " her voice became almost a snarl. " She'll become a monster like her. And I can do nothing to impede it." Nothing but... Snow looked at the inviting arrow, its sharp, deathly edge pointing outside the window, down, almost against the hated black silhouette.
" Are you sure you're talking about your daughter?"
Snow glanced at Granny in surprise. " What?"
Granny smirked. " As long as I can see, Snow, the changed one is you. Look at her." she said, nodding towards the blonde. Snow looked at her daughter, as the older woman said. " She's terrorized, Snow. She's shivering, can you see it? I can smell her fear. Her hands are sweating, see how she holds her sword? She doesn't want to fight, she probably won't kill anyone. Maybe she'll wound them. Maybe. And, yes, she'll use magic, but it doubt that Regina will let her kill someone with it. I smell her fear too, her worrying. Can you see how she glances at her? How she's trying to reassure her? She knows, Snow. Henry has a dark mother, he doesn't need another one. She knows that Emma has to stay good. She'll do anything to make her son happy, so she'll protect her, from them and from herself. I know it because I would do the same, before you ask me."
" You're not Regina."
" No. But I'm a mother. And you too are. We do what's best for our children, whatever that means. Even if it means that we have to trust our archenemy."
The two locked gaze for a while. Snow wanted to believe her, she wanted to trust Regina, but she just couldn't. She looked at Emma, talking again with Hook now. Her daughter's life was in a pirate's and an evil queen's hands. She really hated the Three Little Pigs, and Peter Pan, and the fucking Lost Boys. She wanted them death. Worse, she wanted to kill them all.