It Still Works (A CaptainSwan Fanfic)

Two

Emma's POV

And there is was. Glittering slightly sinisterly in the sun, the Well was where it always had been. 

"Are you sure you're prepared for this?" Regina asked, her voice scratchy from long nights with Robin. Or at least that's what I was guessing. 

"Yes. He is mine to fight for. Who else will if I don't?" I replied, thinking of everyone he's lost. Milah, Bae, Liam, his father. Everyone good in his life. He wasn't going to lose me too. "Do it, Regina." 

She nodded curtly, pulling the sleeves of her blue blazer up, all business. I swallowed, looking at her hand extending towards me. Towards my heart. 

"Remember, you have five minutes once I do this. Exactly five. So you better work quickly," she reminded me, for the fourth time. I nodded, and shut my eyes. 

The pain was almost unbearable. Like losing everyone I had ever lost again, only this time with the added agony of feeling like a truck hit the area of my chest where my heart was only a moment before. I noticed a strange buzzing, and then nothing. I barely felt any emotion. Moments later, however, when Regina was breaking my heart, perfectly red except for a splash of dark-leftover from being the Dark One, apparently-in two. This time, I couldn't help as a slight grunt escaped my lips. 

"Remember: five minutes," she said again, looking stern. 

"Yeah. Got it," I said, taking my heart back once I had recovered from the pain. I held one of the halves, putting it back in my chest, and felt that rush of emotion yet again. This time, however, tears pricked my eyes. The added pain of what I had to do next. 

As I walked up to the well, I turned back to Regina at the last minute. "Tell Henry I love him," I said, holding the other half of my heart over the well. She just nodded, sighing, but I could see tears in her eyes as well. So she did care about me. After all this time. 

"Five minutes." And just like that, she was walking away. There was only one thing left to do, and yet still I didn't do the inevitable. I was always in danger, but had never actually considered the possibility of death. And now here I was. If the plan worked, I wouldn't be dead dead, just dead enough to get Killian back. If the plan didn't work...well then I'd be dead. I looked at my watch. It had been three minutes. This was the time. Now or never. I closed my eyes. 

But I still didn't squeeze. Come on Emma, I said to myself. I had been prepared. This was my idea. So why wasn't I doing it? What was stopping me? 

Him.

It was Killian. I remembered some of the last words he said to me like it was yesterday.

"Your family needs you. If anyone should go to the Underworld it should be me."

"Let me make up for it now by being strong."

"I don't want to lose you...You have to let me go."

"It's okay." 

He didn't want me to die, I thought as I watched the scene play out in my head. I realized I had started sobbing, hearing his words, remembering his pained face, his voice cracking. He didn't want me to die.

"Then that's why this has to work," I said out loud, and squeezed. 

***

When I woke up, I realized there were still tears on my face. But not my own tears. I opened my eyes and saw Henry's face over me, tears splashing down. He thinks I'm dead, I thought. 

Wasn't I? 

"Mom?" he gasped suddenly, seeing my open eyes. There was a cloud of dust everywhere. Red dust. "Mom! MOM!" He started laughing, pulling me closer. My mom and dad were hugging, bouncing, and crying from relief all at the same time. I realized I was in Granny's. Shit always went down at Granny's. 

"Henry, Henry it's okay, I'm okay, it's fine," I said over and over, until he finally calmed himself down. 

"What the hell happened?" Regina asked, suddenly appearing from seemingly nowhere until I realized she had been in the corner the whole time. I just sat there, confused. And then it all came back to me, as if from a corner of my mind that had not been in use for years. 

Arriving in the Underworld, fully clothed, breathing. Walking around. Seeing her face. Her smirk. Her hand pulling the stopper out of a purple bottle. Dumping the contents over a fire. It was all blurry, but I knew I hadn't imagined it. And I knew that face anywhere.

"Regina!" I gasped, and beckoned her over. She knelt down beside me, looking pissed. 

"Your mom," I managed to gasp-whisper before the corners of my brain started going black. "A potion. Fire. Near where I entered the Underworld. Purple clouds. New curse." 

And then my head hit the floor with a thud.

***

"No, I think it came here." 

"What? I thought she was going to the Underworld!" 

"We are in the Underworld! Can't you Charmings follow a simple conversation?" 

"Regina, this is anything but simple!"

"Oh, I'll show you simple-!"

"Regina!" I said sharply, sitting up before stars popped in front of me. "What's going on?"

"What's going on is that your parents can't understand anything!" she said, clearly pissed again. 

"I meant with the whole Storybrooke is a red cloud thing!" 

"Well, it appears that my dear old Mum brought a new curse, and that curse has brought everyone from the Underworld up here." 

I beamed. Killian! Apparently realizing my happiness, Regina rolled her eyes. 

"Can't anyone in your family think?" she asked, exasperated. "Everyone from the Underworld! Pan, Cora, Milah! Every villain ever is back!"

This snapped me back into reality. But at least Killian would be with me to fight this. I shot up, feeling dizzy but determined. 

"Okay, what's the plan," Mom asked with my dad, Henry, Robin, and Belle nodding nearby. As I opened my mouth to improvise an answer, someone burst through the door. 

"Killian?" 

***

HEy enjoy!