Disaster [Once Upon a Time] (Wattys 2016)

Chapter 2:

Emma's eyes nearly pop out of her head as she realizes that Mr. Hyde has cast an unforgivable curse upon her little brother. Trying to remain calm, she pushes her blonde curls away from her face with her shaking hands.

"I...I...I don't know how to reverse this..." She stutters as she thinks to herself, 'Everyone who had been put under the Cruciatus curse died in the books.' 

David grasps onto Emma's shoulder, "Emma," He says, "Everything is going to be fine, when hasn't it gone wrong?" Trying to reassure her and take guilt and pressure off of her frail body.

"I don't know! When Robin, Neal, Hook, and August died, everything did not go fine!" Emma yells to her father as she turns around and pushes his gentle hand off of her. Emma storms away, but quickly realizes that she only has ten minutes left before both Hook and Neal are killed by dark magic.

"Maybe, Henry was right," She says as she turns around, trying to calm herself, "Magic does ruin everything, and maybe it should be destroyed so that these things can't happen anymore. We all thought that Henry was crazy when he said that, but now that it is directly affecting and possibly tearing apart this family, it doesn't sound like such a crazy idea."

"Emma, we can't do that, you know we can't sweetie," Mary Margaret says, attempting to soothe her "Magic makes us who we are..."

"You're right," Emma says, "But we need to find a way to regulate it so that it doesn't get into the wrong hands."

As she says that, she sees a faint stream of silvery-black magic streaming into Neal. It's Mr. Hyde's curse that's getting stronger as the seconds tick closer to the death of  her beloved Hook or Neal.

"Who would do such a terrible thing to a baby?" Emma yells with anger returning to her voice.

As she yells, a faint white glow protrudes from her hands.

"Wait!" Henry says as he notices the light coming out of his mother's fingertips, "Your anger may be able to save Neal! I've seen this in a movie once; A character got so fed up that they couldn't control their powers, but he ended up saving everyone!"

"Okay kid, maybe I should stop letting you watch so much TV." Emma says as she ruffles her son's hair, "But it's worth a shot, I guess."

Everyone backs up a bit towards the stairs, in fear of Emma's powers, because they have gotten out of control before, and nothing good came out of that.

Emma gently pulls off her red leather jacket and braces herself for what is to come as she steps closer to the crib where tiny Neal is wiggling about.

'Emma what's wrong with you? You abandoned your family you were little, and let yourself become a liar and a thief' She hears in her head, as she begins to blame herself for her parents' problems, but sure enough, the rage begins, and more light magic erupts from her hands.

She continues to burden herself, 'Emma, you have ruined the lives of so many people and allowed others to be killed when you could have saved them,' as she thinks back to Robin and August.

As she cuts deeper into her soul and hurts herself for other peoples' faults, her power becomes almost blinding as it shoots out of her hands.

Emma tries to wield it by making her palms face each other, creating a sphere of magic in between her hands. The ball grows and grows as her voice in her head whispers 'You're a failure, you ruin everything and you are a disappointment to everyone'. 

Finally the light has grown to maximum capacity as Emma begins to feel light headed from exerting so much energy, and tears stream down her face from allowing herself to feel so lowly of herself.

"No!" She screams at the voice in her head, as she thrusts the ball of magic towards the crib where her brother lay, seconds from death.

The light smacks Neal right in the chest, and instead of crying and wiggling as he just had been, he begins giggling and smiling and even clapping his hands.

Quickly, David and Mary Margaret run to the cradle and embrace their very alive son, and David hold him above his head and yells, "Lunch at Granny's everyone! It's on us!"

The memory of Hook fades from Emma's memory as she celebrates the life of her baby brother. Henry, Emma, David, and Mary Margaret all walk down the stairs toward the diner, smiling and cheering.

Suddenly, Emma looks into the corner where Hook had fallen, and stares at it for a few moments, but she doesn't remember that he was even there. His body had disappeared and so has everyone's memory of him. 

Emma turns her head toward the stairs, away from the corner, and quickly disregards the sense of wrongness she feels.

"Mom, Dad!" She yells, recalling the words she had used to enrage herself. Emma runs down the stairs, skipping steps, and crushes them both in between her arms. "I love you." She says.

All four of them walk into the doors of Granny's just across the street, but Emma still feels as if something is wrong. She turns her head towards the apartment, as if something is trying to warn her, but she can't remember...