DISCLAIMER: Not mine, I'm just playing in E&A's sandbox while they're out planning a billion ways to kill us each Sunday. Tittle's from Daughter's Tomorrow.

Your thoughts are more than appreciated!

Nothing happens. No flash of light, no surge of magic. Nothing.

For a moment, she believes that the curse didn't work. That they've won.

But her vision is blurring at its edges and her legs are giving out.

She's falling.

Down.

Down.

Down.

His arms wrap around her, strong, steady, warm, and it almost seems she's just falling asleep.

"Swan! Emma!" The panic in his voice tugs at her.

It's okay, she wants to tell him, it was never a choice. She can't find her voice, so she just smiles instead.

She thinks she smiles but it feels like it's someone else's body that's limp in his arms.

"Oh, young love. So tragic," Zelena laughs, an ugly, booming sound. "But don't you just love a good twist?"

His eyes are colour of the raging sea, cruel and unforgiving. He unsheathes his cutlass in a flash, surging at the witch. She's gone just as fast in the cloud of green smoke.

"Can't catch me, Captain," mocks her voice from far away.

He lunges forward, the blade slicing the air where the witch just stood.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

The steel clashes on the ground as he falls to his knees.

Defeated.

Broken.

Empty.

Her name falls from his lips as a prayer, a smallest hint of hope hidden in one word.

His lips brush against hers again, gentle, begging.

There's warmth slipping through her pores and...

She's too far gone this time.