Regina walked slowly beside Emma as the group of five made their way toward Regina's vault. While Snow had insisted they go straight to Gold, Regina had talked sense into her by reminding her they should confirm Emma's heart—its remains, rather—were actually gone. It wouldn't take long, she had assured them all, and it was worth checking out before they barged in accusing Gold of something so...heartless.
"How are you feeling Miss Swan?" Regina inquired softly, setting her hand on Emma's shoulder and watching as Snow, David and Henry continued walking a short distance ahead of them. Emma shot her a glare.
"Honestly, Regina, if having sex doesn't even convince you it's okay to call me by my first name, I don't know what will!" Emma's voice was a loud whisper that the others wouldn't be able to hear, and although Regina was fully aware that her counterpart was being serious, she couldn't help but grin. "I'm as well as can be expected for a person living with two hearts."
"One and a half, technically."
Emma elbowed her weakly, but then her demeanor changed to one more somber.
"What can we do to fix this?" the Sheriff asked, looking worried. "If he did resurrect my heart...what's going to happen to you if my own heart still beats?"
Regina winced as she heard Emma question the safety of her partner before herself. It was a trait Regina herself had lost long ago, and one she had longed to regain but she had never stood a chance before Henry and Emma had arrived. Now that they were there...now that Regina had family to put first...she thought she might one day be able to ask a question such as Emma's without first planning to ask it.
"I've never tried to recitfy a situation like this Emma," Regina answered honestly, looking down at the grass as they walked. She used Emma's name to make the woman feel better. "I suspect that your heart will have to be destroyed, and that Gold may have to be the one to do it."
The blonde faltered, looking at her in alarm.
"Why Gold? If he's really the one that brought it back, we'll never convince him to undo it!"
They had reached the vault, and as the Charmings looked back expectantly at Regina, the woman looked away from Emma and disappeared in a puff of purple smoke. When she returned, her body was tense, and her words confirmed their fears.
"It's gone."
It didn't take long for Daniel to find Emma Swan. What he had not expected, however, was to find Regina Mills and the rest of the Charmings alongside her. They were leaving the site of the Mills family mausoleum when Daniel stepped into their line of view. In the bag over his shoulder, Emma Swan's heart beat more rapidly. After a few seconds, Regina Mills looked up and caught his eye. He watched as her mouth fell open in shock. A relieved smile washed over him, and he hurried toward her, stumbling a few times in the process.
"Regina," he breathed when he was closer to them. In his peripheral vision, he saw Emma Swan bearing an expression quite similar to that of Regina, but he paid her no mind just then. His eyes were only for Regina, his sweet, beautiful Regina, and it took everything in his power not to rush the rest of the way to her and scoop her into his arms.
He could see that she was still shocked, for she had not moved at all.
"Regina, my love..." he whispered, and he opened his arms to her, waiting for her to throw herself into him.
For a moment he thought he saw her smile. For a moment...just a moment, he thought she was going to come to him, to wrap her arms around him and let him do the same to her. But then a voice, sharp and cold, interrupted the moment, and it came from the very one he had come there to kill.
"You!" Emma Swan cried, staggering forward as her dual heartbeats grew increasingly erratic. "It's you! You're the one that...you...you're...Daniel!"
Daniel broke his gaze from his lovely Regina to stare hard at Emma Swan.
"Yes, Emma, I am Daniel. I am the one whose soul you bore for so long."
Regina interrupted him before he could go on.
"How did you get here Daniel?" the dark haired woman asked, her tone low, and he saw her take a step closer to Emma. His eyes flickered back and forth between the two. "Did Gold bring you back?"
"Gold presented me with a second chance," he responded, looking at Regina again now. "He pulled me from the heart of the Savior so that now I can live again. For real, this time, as a real man." His voice gentled. "So that I can return to you, Regina, my love. So that we can live together as we intended to do so many years ago."
"Oh...Daniel..." Regina breathed, her head tilting and her eyes saddening. In response, his own eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Daniel...you must never listen to Gold. All magic comes with a price. All of it. Daniel...my heart is...it belongs to someone else now, Daniel."
Before his eyes, colors flashed. Colors from shock, from confusion, and from rage. He began to tremble, and then his eyes locked onto Emma Swan once more.
"She only loved you because I was there with her when she did!" the man cried, every fiber of his being longing for Regina to understand. Emma Swan didn't love her! Emma Swan hadnever loved her! Daniel had loved her, from within Emma's heart!
"That's not true Daniel," came the voice of Snow White, and the man swung his eyes wildly to look at her. "If my daughter didn't love Regina, then they would both be dead right now."
"She's telling you the truth Daniel," Regina added quietly, stepping toward him. "Cora tried to kill Emma, just like she killed you. Emma has half of my heart, because I split my heart to save her life."
"And now Gold's done something terrible, and brought Emma's heart back, and because of that they're both dying!" Henry chimed in.
Confusion...jealously...anger...Daniel's mind was alight with emotion and his heart pounded in his chest.
"But there's still a chance to save the love of your life, Mister Colter."
Gold's voice broke through the situation as he appeared from nowhere.
"Use the blade and kill the Savior...then split your own heart to save Regina."
"Don't listen to him Daniel!" Regina cried, and she reached for him but he backed away quickly. "He's lying to you! It doesn't work that way! Once a heart's been split, it can't be replaced!"
"My dear boy," Gold continued, egging him on, "I brought you back so you could live the life you wished. I always honor my agreements."
"Bullshit!" David Charming snapped, lunging at him but held back by Snow White and Henry. Gold raised an eyebrow but ignored him.
"Think about it Daniel," the sorcerer goaded, his hands clasped behind his back. "Here you are, finally back in the land of the living, and your beloved Regina is smitten by the false love of another. A woman, no less. Surely those feelings can't be real. Kill the Savior, Daniel, then save your fiancé, and live happily ever after."
Daniel's hand wrapped around the hilt of the blade and drew it from its sheath. His eyes locked on Emma as the other hand retrieved her heart from the bag. He watched as the blonde woman's expression transformed into one of the utmost fear when her eyes settled on the sight of her own heart. He raised the blade.
"Daniel!" Regina screamed, and he plunged the golden dagger into the pulsing red heart of Emma Swan.
The Sheriff's dead weight dropped like a stone and Regina fell to her knees beside her with a wail of anguish, desperately scooping Emma into her arms and staring up at Daniel, tears streaming down her face.
"You've killed us both, Daniel! Both!"
Regina's body began to tremble and Daniel looked to Gold in confusion.
"Well done, Mister Colter. Well done."
Daniel dropped the blade and the dust of Emma's heart and started toward Regina, but something froze him in his place. He couldn't move, or speak, or do anything.
Henry Mills stood to one side, his hands outstretched and his face ever-reddening. To his surprise, however, the boy wasn't looking at Daniel himself, but at Gold.
"Let him go!" he shouted, and Daniel saw a flicker of worry in Gold's eyes. "Let him go or I'll kill you!"
Now Gold laughed.
"Henry, m'boy, I didn't know you had magic."
"I do. And I've already saved my family with it once!"
Behind him, Snow and David clung to each other.
"And what is it you plan to do?" Gold asked him, advancing.
Henry's hand lurched, and Gold grunted, unable to move.
"Let Daniel's heart go!"
"Henry..." Regina Mills croaked weakly from where she now lay next to Emma, but the boy paid her no attention. His sole focus was Gold.
"I'm afraid you're mistaken, Henry," Gold continued, in spite of his inability to move. "I'm not controlling Daniel's heart. He did this of his own free will."
Henry's eyes shot back to Daniel now, and the man tried hard to contain the single tear that had slipped onto his cheekbones.
"Is that true?" the boy asked, and some of his magic weakened enough to allow Daniel to nod and speak, though he only nodded and did not yet speak.
"Henry!" Regina gasped, and Daniel saw her son finally turn to look at her. "I can't save Emma. Only Daniel can save her now."
"How?" Henry asked, his own tears beginning to make themselves known.
"My heart is torn between two..." she continued to gasp, her body weakening with every word. "I love Daniel, but I cannot love them both."
Suddenly, Daniel understood what he had to do.
"Henry, free me!" he commanded, and the boy looked at him distrustfully for a moment before agreeing. Once freed, Daniel snatched the golden blade up from the ground and rounded on Gold himself. "You are a liar and a monster," he whispered to the man who was still frozen in place. His powers now longer split between two, Henry had now ensured the pawn broker could not speak another word. Daniel drove the tip of the dagger into the place where Gold's heart would have been, cutting a circle as the man silently screamed. When he withdrew the blade, a flickering appeared at the tip, and suddenly, a heart of the blackest of blacks came into existence to hover between the gold tip and the hole in the imp's chest. Along with it appeared the bent, crooked dagger of the dark one, and Daniel snatched that into his other hand.
Daniel stabbed the black heart with the dark one's dagger, and then sliced the blade in half using the more powerful golden blade. A shower of sparks exploded when the silver clashed with gold. As the Dark One fell to the ground, lifeless, Daniel turned and met the eye of Regina Mills. Without another word of his own, the young man stabbed his own chest with the golden dagger and in a puff of silvery smoke, both he and the Dark One vanished.
Regina Mills gasped as the pain in her heart ceased to exist. Beside her, she felt Emma Swan suck air into her own lungs as well, and they were both abruptly buried under a pile of their son and his grandparents. Everyone but Emma Swan was crying and, as Regina finally managed to wrestle everyone into a standing position, the blonde Sheriff looked around and then rested her gaze on Regina's.
"What the hell just happened?" she asked, and Regina couldn't help but crack a smile.
"You died again."
There was a brief pause, during which Emma glanced around at them all, and then said simply, "Oh."
Her emotions mixed between wanting to sob and wanting to laugh, Regina Mills settled instead on wrapping her arms around Emma Swan's neck and crushing their lips together. Never mind that Emma's parents were watching. Never mind that Henry was instantly groaning and whining, "Mommmmms!" Never mind that she had just watched poor, sweet Daniel pass on for the third time in her life. Her body and her mind and her heart ached for him, but he had been right to have done what he did. He had saved them, had given Regina the life she wanted over his own. She would be forever grateful, and she would never stop loving him for what he had done.
But there was Emma now and, as they separated their lips and placed their foreheads together instead, Regina's heart began to swell. This was where she belonged, and this was where she would stay.