A/N There's a T/W for character death and major angst for this chapter

Chapter fifteen

Snow and Charming were each released from their magical binds and fell to the their knees as the woman in front of them did the same.

Blinking a few times to get her bearings back, Snow watched as Regina fell completely to the ground, the dagger lodged in her chest.

"Regina!" Emma shouted and fell to her knees next to her fiance, lightly she placed her hand on the other woman's shoulder and shook her. Much to the blonde's relief, the brunette took a shaky breath, and looked up at her through bleary eyes.

"E-Emma," she breathed as if she couldn't quite believe that she was still there.

"What the hell was that?!" the saviour shouted.

Blood began to trickle down the corner of Regina's mouth and a cough racked her body, the gurgling of blood sounding in her throat, "not strong enough," she repeated.

"Mom?" Henry whispered dangerously quiet. He had read the theory that if the Dark One were to stab themselves in the heart it would end the cycle. For the rest of time, the darkness would be trapped in the body, unable to infect another mortal. The problem was that any Dark One that may have even considered the possibility was not strong enough to fight against the darkness to actually carry out the deed.

Regina took a heaving breath and brought her hand up, instantly Henry fell down next to the brunette, allowing her to caress his cheek, "so...proud..."

Henry nodded to stop her from talking, this sounded far too much like she was saying goodbye forever and that was certainly not something he would ever be able to accept.

"It's going to be okay mom," he replied through his tears, "there has to be a way."

Regina shook her head, "he...will make me h-hurt you..."

Emma watched the blood fall intently and quickly looked over at her parents to make sure that they were still there. Seeing the expressions of pure anguish on their faces, she couldn't help but think that this was truly the end of her happiness, if Snow White didn't think there was a last minute way to save the love of her life.

"Regina," she sighed and squeezed her shoulder lightly, "you can't do this...you promised!"

Henry furrowed his brow and looked up at his blonde mother. He of course didn't know about his mother's promise to not die, so it just looked as though Emma had gone completely mad.

Regina let out a little pained laugh and replied, "I'm...sorry..."

Emma was about to say the goodbye that the redeemed queen deserved, but just as she was about try and get the shaky words out of her mouth, Regina took a final breath as her eyes fluttered closed.

After a moment of complete and oppressive silence, Emma thrust two fingers forward to Regina's pulse point, beginning to hyperventilate, she shifted them to different points, failing to feel anything no matter where she put her fingers.

Henry grabbed the woman's arm and pulled it away, looking at her seriously, he said, "kiss her."

Emma nodded, feeling like a complete idiot for not thinking of it first, she knew that True Love's Kiss fixed almost all of their problems, so why would it fail her now?

Leaning down, she placed a soft chaste kiss to the rapidly chilling lips and leaned back expectantly. When full seconds past with no response, she leaned back down, desperately placing harder kiss's to her True Love's lips.

Vaguely, she recognised someone grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her away from the body. Later she would be grateful for her father's actions, but in that moment all she wanted was to be close to Regina for what she knew would probably be the last time, so she began fighting against his strong grip, "no!" she shouted, "let go!"

"Emma, she's gone," Snow said solemnly as Henry lightly wiped the blood away from his mother's cheek.

Tears tracked down Emma's face as she stared blankly at the mantel of photos in the Charming's apartment. They had their fair share of family moments, and it made the blonde slightly smile that so many of them had the sarcastic brunette in them. In many of them, Regina appeared to be rolling her eyes or just about to be, but in one in particular she looked genuinely happy.

She and Henry had taken the brunette for a picnic in the park, and with her girlfriend's arm around her and her son sitting mere inches away from her, she looked more content than she had in years.

Emma would stare at the pictures for a hours, before she realised that they were just pictures, moments in time that would forever stay in the past. Regina would never appear in another family photo. Worst of all was the moment when it dawned upon her that Neal would never remember her, when she was sure that no one was around, she finally allowed the floodgates to open and cried herself to sleep.

As she shut down, Henry seemed to be doing the exact opposite.

He helped his grandparents with the funeral plans, worked on updating photo albums and even helped Snow as she took on the role of interim mayor until they had time for a real election.

The only sign that he was breaking apart inside was the fact that he had not yet been back to the house in which he had spent so much of his life.

Neither him, nor Emma, had been able to build up the courage to go back there, where they both knew there would be signs of the woman that they each missed deeply.

Emma vaguely recognised people bustling around her in the background, but in that moment she couldn't bring herself to care.

She heard Snow say something like 'what she would have wanted' and desperately tried not to snap at her mother. She was sure that no one in this room truly knew what the wonderfully complicated woman would have wanted. Though Henry had been helping with the funeral arrangements, and obviously knew his mother better than anyone, Emma doubted that he knew what colour Regina would have wanted her tombstone to be.

In the days following what people were now calling 'the incident' Snow and David had been marginally less idiotic than they were usually. They hadn't pestered their daughter to talk, knowing there was only one person that she would want talk to, so instead they had turned their attention to keeping Henry busy as Archie had suggested. The therapist had urged Snow that Henry was the type that needed something to do, he wouldn't be able to deal with just sitting around, whereas Emma needed to just mourn alone. Without question, Snow had listened, mostly because she was desperate for Archie not to notice that she was breaking apart herself.

Working in Regina's office was not something she ever wanted to go back, she knew that she wasn't half as capable as her former stepmother had been at the job, and then there was the fact that she was denying herself the opportunity to mourn. She no longer had any doubt that Regina was part of her family, and at this point, she hadn't actually thought about their past in months. The issue was that she had a daughter and a grandson who needed her to keep it together, and as David took over the position of sheriff, she knew that he felt the same way. When they were sure that it was just the two of them in earshot, they would actually talk about how they couldn't believe that they could miss the woman so much.

Snow had always thought that Emma was the person who held the dysfunctional Charming family together, but with the absence of the person who had essentially brought her a version of her happy ending that she could never have dream she wanted, she knew that it wasn't just her daughter who had filled this position. Without Regina, Henry would never have existed and though she longed for the opportunity to have raised Emma, she knew that if she had than her daughter wouldn't be the person that she loved so unconditionally now.

She just didn't know whether she would feel the same happiness around her family again.

For Emma, moments of half listening turned into hours, hours into days and days into a week.

Ultimately it was decided that the best thing would be for Regina to be laid to rest with her parents, with the open casket service available to those who felt that they needed to say goodbye.

Understandably, Henry had decided to forgo this, with her parents watching him in another room, Emma slowly made her way to the casket. But Emma noted that the room was almost completely full, I guess she got redemption.

Taking a steadying breath she closed her eyes, and came up next to her would-be fiancé.

Regina looked as regal as ever, and Emma could almost pretend that she was asleep.

Looking around, she saw that no one else had approached; they clearly understood the saviour's need for privacy in this moment.

"Hi," she laughed nervously through her tears. "I've never been good at this..." she sighed. Her final words to the woman had haunted her. She wished that she hadn't spent her last words whining about something stupid promise that Regina could never have kept.

After some hesitation, she brought her finger to the woman's cheek and ran the tip across its cold surface.

"Who would have guessed that you would be the hero, huh?" the saviour chuckled through a sniffle. Bringing her hand away, she trained her attention upon the ring finger that no longer had the engagement ring upon it. Whale had asked her if she wished for Regina to be buried with the platinum piece of jewelry and Emma had replied no. Digging into her pocket, she inspected what she had denied the woman. She ran her finger across the swan and apple that she had so intricately magically carved upon the metal.

She wanted something to always keep Regina with her, but she also wanted the woman she wanted to marry to have the ring that she had promised her.

So with a deep breath, she focused intently on what she wanted to do, and a moment later a second ring appeared in her open palm.

Softly she took Regina's left hand, and placed the platinum upon her ring finger, the swan now it's only occupant. Placing it's almost identical twin on her own finger, she took a second to inspect the apple design.

Laying her hand on Regina's she joined the two images for the last time, as a she vaguely heard someone announce that it was time to close the casket.

"You were strong enough," she whispered.

A/N Hope you guys enjoyed this fic, thanks for sticking with it even with the random updates haha XD

I literally started this to get more confident writing angst, so feel free to let me know any ways in which I can improve it.

I need to thank my beta QueenApples for her help, and also Quindecim for helping to talk through ideas XD

Please leave a review, I would love to hear what you thought of this fic