Dark Swan Rising

Beginning of an End

 She couldn't hold it back anymore. All the pain she'd ever gone through before, she'd go through again in a heartbeat if it meant she didn't have to feel this. The feeling of being alone.

After losing Neil and Graham-even Walsh-she'd thought she could never truly love again. But then Killian had come along. He saw through the troubled Savior, the only person who'd made her feel as though he needed her. That he couldn't live without her. That perhaps Milah wasn't his true love. It was Emma.

No one had ever looked at Emma the way that Killian had. He'd loved breaking down her walls. And now? Now Emma couldn't feel anything. Everything was a haze. She could vaguely hear her mother in the background.

Seeing Killian lying dead on the ground in front of her, Emma felt lost. Alone. Exactly how she'd felt back in the foster system. That no one could ever love her. And she could never love anyone. Not again. No one, not even Neil, meant as much to her as Killian. And now he too had payed the ultimate price of loving the Savior.

Then, reality hit Emma. She was on the ground, her arms wrapped around her love, crying. Crying as if she'd lost everything. And in her twisted, grieving mind, she had. In the distance, as though in the horizon, Emma could hear the sirens of an ambulance, and she managed to lift her head from where it lay, nuzzled on Killian's unmoving chest.

With a cry of protest, she could feel herself being ripped away from him. But that couldn't stop her. As soon as he was placed on the stretcher and raised, she gripped his hand and held it to her heart. A symbol that though he was gone, he will forever be a part of Emma.

But then the people started taking his body away. Emma held on as long as she could, until at last his hand fell from her grasp. She couldn't handle it anymore and turned to her mother and father, whom she had been unaware of standing by her side, for support. She saw Mary Margaret's mouth forming words, but Emma couldn't make them out. It was then her mother pulled her in for a hug, and Emma, being dazed, stroked her mother's arm.

In an act of being lost, Emma felt her body begin walking away. Yet her heart remained at Camelot. In the field of flowers where Killian had proven that he knew exactly how to help Emma. But now he was gone, and deep down, Emma believed she should have turned the blade around and stabbed herself instead of him.

Before she was aware of what was going on, Emma found herself back in her house and on her couch in the living room. She'd felt the presence of her family and Regina following her to make sure she was ok, but she didn't care.

She heard a soft echo of a voice coming through the wall of the house, and could barely make out the words.

"Snow, leave her alone. She just killed her boyfriend. AND she just survived being a Dark One. She needs time. Her recovery isn't going to be easy, and you most certainly won't make her any better. Now, we need to leave her to rest. Who knows how long it'll take her to realize that-"

"Regina not here. Emma could be listening."

"Yes, you're right David. But don't you think that she'll figure it out eventually?"

And with that, the voices grew softer and softer, along with the dispersing patter of shoes clicking on the wood steps.

Throughout the night, Emma had flashbacks of her and Killian. She'd once hoped that they'd become a reality, but that was ruined thanks to the sucking darkness. It'd ripped away her future, but now, now it could never cause anyone pain again.

-

Emma and Killian were cuddling together on the Jolly Roger, the ocean's waves gently rocking the ship back and forth. Emma relished the warmth radiating off of Killian Jones.