A/N: So obviously 'soon' translated into four months later. Oh well.

This story was inspired by two amazing pieces of music, both from Disney movies:

What Have You Done? - Hans Zimmer, The Lion King (00:00-01:45)

And He Shall Smite the Wicked - Alan Menken, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (00:06-01:02)

To Die For

Everything was still.

The Dark Swan stood triumphant as the dust settled, her quick and shallow pants the only thing breaking the quiet. Dark green eyes quickly scanned her surroundings for Regina, and her heart stopped when she spotted the very still and very silent form of the brunette lying on her side, faced away from Emma. Terror immediately seized her.

"No," she whispered as she took off in a run. Uncaring of her own injuries, Emma fell to her knees beside Regina, worried eyes scanning her body for any immediate signs of damage. Seeing none, with trembling hands Emma touched the older woman's shoulder and gently shook her. There was no response.

Dark hair obscured Regina's face and Emma quickly moved some of it aside, noting Regina's closed eyes and slightly pained expression. If Emma didn't know any better, she would have easily mistaken this unconscious state for sleep.

Was she just unconscious…?

Holding her breath in trepidation, the blonde leaned down and close to Regina's face, fearing the worst. She strained to listen for even the lowest of sounds, the blood pounding in her ears all she could focus on until she told herself to calm down. She heard the faintest of breaths leaving slightly parted lips and exhaled a sigh of relief. She just sat there a moment, eyes squeezed shut as she allowed that thought to truly sink in.

Regina is alive.

Emma slowly opened them and looked down at Regina once more, noting the slight movement of her chest as she inhaled and exhaled; something she had missed in her initial scan because of the all-consuming panic.

She tried to swallow though her throat felt rough and raw, and she once more attempted to gently shake Regina awake.

"Regina?" she murmured, unable to keep the worry from her voice.

No response.

Emma shook her again, putting more force behind the action this time, and waited for Regina to wake up. She waited for those beautiful dark brown eyes to open and sparkle with barely hidden amusement, her full lips quirking up into a smirk that Emma both loved and hated to see. She waited for Regina to just wake up and annoy her with some quip about surviving worse things and, 'It will take more than a simple curse to kill me, Miss Swan.'

She waited, but nothing happened.

Emma leaned back slightly as dark green eyes widened in fear. She grasped Regina's shoulders firmly and rolled the older woman onto her back, her head lolling to the side from the change in position. She was immediately gathered into Emma's strong arms, her limp form nothing but dead weight but Emma held her firmly and closely.

"Regina? Regina, please. Wake up. You have to wake up. Please, Regina." Each plea was accompanied by a shake as Emma tried to wake the woman up, sheer dread filling her darkened heart as the seconds ticked by and Regina had yet to even respond.

Emma released a shaky breath that sounded suspiciously like a sob. Her chest ached and her stomach felt like it was twisted into the tightest of knots. She looked up and around her, craning her neck to properly search for any other signs of movement, and noticed that she was completely and utterly alone. But Regina had come for her. Regina had protected her. Regina…

"Why did you do this?" she questioned in the softest voice she had ever used. Despite her power and control, the Dark Swan doubted her ability to speak soundly in anything louder than a whisper.

"Tell me why, Regina." Again she waited, but nothing came of it.

Seconds ticked by, seconds that could have been hours to Emma, distraught as she was, and the dead air was disturbed by an almost violent outburst of, "WHY!?"

Emma refused to accept that Regina was truly gone. She had vital signs. She had been through worse. She had survived Cora and Rumpelstiltskin. She had survived assassination attempts and torture and magical abuse and what was one little curse to someone as powerful as the (former Evil) Queen?

"Please…"

Emma had never sounded so desperate or pathetic in her entire life.

She barely noticed the tears as they streamed unbidden down her face, shoulders shaking and chest heaving as the sobs wracked her body. Her grip tightened on the woman in her arms and she clenched her teeth.

"You can't leave like this! Wake UP, Regina!" It was a harsh command, a desperate plea, a forceful demand that left no room for argument. "You can't leave me, you can't! After everything I did, after everything I sacrificed for you, you can't do this!"

Emma broke.

The feared and powerful Dark Swan crumpled as she held Regina tight, arms wrapped protectively around the vulnerable form, her head dropping onto the brunette's shoulder as the tormented cries rang through the air. Hot tears leaked through eyes shut tight and soaked through Regina's coat as they fell, and Emma only held her closer.

Any hope she had left in her once brightly shining heart was crushed. If Emma were to be completely honest, she thought she could actually feel the marred and blackened organ crack and slowly break apart. It filled her with an agony so acute and so crippling in its intensity, Emma thought it would destroy the rest of her. Through the uncontrolled sobs and the searing pain in her chest, Emma could barely breathe.

In her bereaved and grief-stricken state, the blonde did not notice the very subtle shift of the limp body in her arms. She continued to cry, unable and unwilling to accept that Regina had finally met her end trying to protect her, trying to save her worthless and miserable life. After everything that had transpired, after everything Emma had done, Regina did everything she could to cast out the darkness and bring back the Saviour.

"You were supposed to be happy…" Emma lamented through hiccups and choked breaths, burying her red and tear-stained face further into Regina's shoulder.

"I'm happy…that you're alright…" a quiet voice rasped, followed by a hacking cough. Emma immediately pulled back, eyes wide and frantic and shock written clearly across pale features. She looked to see Regina smiling the barest of smiles at her, dark orbs half-lidded and chest heaving with the effort to speak and breathe at the same time.

"Regina! You – You're alive!" Emma gasped, still not quite believing.

Regina slowly raised her right hand and cupped Emma's face, her thumb carefully stroking the blonde's wet cheek as she breathed out a quiet, "You are alive, Emma…"

Emma closed her eyes and leaned into the touch with a sigh. She sniffled a little, the crying having ceased once she heard Regina's raspy voice, and opened her eyes to see Regina staring at her with the most adoring look Emma had ever been given. She only ever saw Regina smile like this for their son.

Their son.

"Regina! You have to get up," Emma urged in a low voice, afraid that if she spoke any louder it would somehow break whatever spell was cast and Regina would disappear once more. "They've all been looking for you. Henry-"

She stopped when she saw Regina shake her head.

"What? What is it?"

"I can't… I can't let Henry see me like this."

"But…you're fine. Aren't you?" Emma asked with a slightly puzzled but painfully optimistic smile. "Everything's ok now. I can bring you back to the group and then you can all go home. It's alright." She looked up and noticed that there truly was no one around save for the two of them. It was no matter. Emma could easily transport them wherever they needed to go and-

"No, Emma. It's not-" Regina paused as she started to cough, her chest aching from how hard her body was working to expel whatever it was that was inside her. "It's not that simple," she continued once her coughing fit had ceased.

Emma's eyes narrowed and she leaned down closer to Regina's face, asking in a low tone, "What do you mean? Of course it is. You're going to be fine."

"No, Emma, please listen to me," Regina begged, placing a shaking hand on the blonde's chest to halt her movements. It was so painful just lying there, and she couldn't imagine how it would feel if Emma started jostling her around. She just wanted to lie there in Emma's arms, wrapped in that feeling of safety and security that she always felt with her Saviour.

The Dark Swan merely glared at her. In spite of everything that she had done, both to her own family and to Regina, the brunette still found it difficult to accept that Emma had become as evil as everyone said she was. The way that Emma held her so carefully and so closely was not how a ruthless monster would hold someone.

Even through the glare, Regina could still see Emma Swan.

"Fine. Tell me why you took that spell aimed for me." It wasn't a request.

Regina sighed and wet her lips as she began to explain, "It wasn't just a simple spell… It was a terrible curse. A deadly one if enacted properly." The brunette paused, fingers fiddling with the black leather Emma wore, thinking how red suited her so much better.

"It was going to kill you, Emma. I couldn't…I couldn't bear the thought of it," Regina murmured, tilting her head up and looking at Emma with the saddest eyes the blonde had ever seen. Emma sat there stunned for a moment, but recovered quickly and snarled, "I don't care what you thought, you should never have done something so fucking stupid!"

Regina merely chuckled, though she held her side as searing pain radiated throughout her body. Everything hurt, and her vision swam no matter how hard she focused.

"Just as you refuse to listen to me, Miss Swan, I do not take orders from you," Regina drawled in the most austere tone she could muster, reminding Emma of how they used to interact when she first arrived in Storybrooke…

"I'm the Dark One, dammit! A curse isn't going to kill me!" the blonde growled.

Emma did not want to fight with Regina after almost losing her, nor did she want to be so angry with her, but it was too much. The only way Emma knew how to express herself anymore was through anger and violence. The darkness inside had warped her sense of self and made it difficult to connect with people anymore, or to feel much besides the negative emotions of hate and rage and regret.

"Even the Dark One isn't invincible, Emma. You know that…" Regina trailed off, closing her eyes as she focused on just trying to breathe.

"Only the dagger can kill me. You know that." She paused. "Where is the stupid thing?" she muttered to herself, glancing around though she knew it wasn't there.

"This curse can, and it would have killed you, dagger or no dagger," Regina retorted. She coughed hard, and Emma looked concerned again as she shifted her arms to hold the older woman more comfortably.

"No one's heart is immune to the dark effects of magic." Regina rubbed a hand over chest, directly over her heart, and Emma knew she was speaking from experience. Emma was all too familiar.

"But why…" Emma trailed off when she felt unsure fingers softly touch her face as a palm rested against her cheek.

"Over a year ago, I made a promise that I would protect your heart. Even now, I would do anything I could to keep it."

Then Regina smiled at her, and Emma felt tears prick her eyes once more.

"Regina, what did you do…"

"What I had to," the brunette responded simply, her voice raspy as if she was speaking with a throat hoarse from crying.

The sudden realization that followed was almost enough to knock her back.

"No!" Emma cried, her entire figure stiffening as she looked at Regina with wide and panicked eyes. Regina's hand had slipped and Emma grasped it tightly in her own, holding onto Regina's hand like a lifeline. "You took it! You took the spell for me and now it's going to-!"

Emma sat back, horrified. She couldn't finish the thought. She noticed that Regina's eyes were glassy as the brunette desperately tried to reign in her emotions, but the normally controlled woman didn't have the strength or the will to hide from Emma. Not anymore.

The Dark Swan was afraid. For the first time in almost a year, she was truly and utterly afraid.

"You can't. Regina, you can't!"

Regina wanted to agree with her, wanted to say that there was a way to fix this, but she wouldn't give Emma any false hope with meaningless platitudes. All she could do was shake her head solemnly, her gaze sorrowful as she stared at Emma.

"You wouldn't do this. What about our son? What about Henry? You can't just leave him like this! The Kid needs his mother!" Emma yelled wildly, desperate to make sense of the situation. Regina's pained expression returned as she thought of their son and how he would feel. She would never willingly abandon him, and the consequences of her actions never entered her mind. At the time, Regina could only focus on one thought: Save Emma.

"Henry has you, Emma. Two mothers, remember?" she attempted to tease, but it fell flat as Emma glowered at her.

"I'm not his mother," she grunted, "Not anymore." The pain of losing her son was still fresh, no matter how much time went by. He always saw her as the Saviour, this White Knight that would come and save everyone and bring back the happy endings.

Instead, she was nothing but a shadow of her former self, a failure, and a villain. She was nothing like she used to be. Henry didn't need someone like her in his life.

She was snapped out of her lamentations when Regina used what little strength she had left to grasp tightly onto Emma's front and gasped, "No!" This prompted another coughing fit and Emma looked on helplessly as Regina twisted around from the pain she felt throughout her whole body.

"No, do not ever think that, Emma Swan!" Regina tried again around her coughs. "You will always be his mother, and he will always be your son, no matter what happens."

"But…I can't take care of him. Not like this…" Emma said through sudden tears as she looked at herself. She was a monster.

"You'll have help. I promise you that."

They were quiet for a moment before Emma's tearful look became determined. Keeping Regina close with her left hand, she placed her right just above Regina's still-beating heart. It was much weaker and much slower than she wanted it to be, but this had to work.

It had to.

"Emma? W-what are you doing?" the older woman questioned softly, looking up at the blonde with tired but curious eyes. Emma didn't answer. Instead, she plunged her fist through and into Regina's chest, as gently as she possibly could in this mindset, and grasped Regina's heart.

Regina cried out from the sudden intrusion, her chest burning as she felt Emma's hand close around her heart and grip it tightly, almost too tightly.

Her eyelids fluttered from the pain, but she managed to stare up into hard green eyes as the Dark Swan looked down at her almost coldly. Feeling a hint of fear, Regina weakly grabbed onto Emma's arm and attempted to pull it away, though it was futile.

"Emma, stop… Don't do this…" she forced out through the aching in her chest.

"Hold still," Emma snapped before she closed her eyes and concentrated. Her arm started to glow and her face twitched, but she could feel the curse taking hold of Regina's heart slowly, its dark essence pumping through Regina's veins with every faint beat.

She focused more, attempting to visualize everything she was feeling so she could destroy whatever it was that was…that was killing Regina, and bring everything back to normal. It was elusive, this curse, and Emma was experiencing extreme difficulty in ascertaining its exact point of origin within Regina's heart. She grit her teeth as sweat started to form on her brow; this was taking much more magical energy than she thought.

Eventually Emma thought she located the origin point and attempted to magically pull the curse out of Regina's heart. She could only maintain her grip for so long when there was an excruciating burning that made Emma scream and yank out her hand. She shook it out as if it were actually on fire, and she noticed that the deathly white skin of her hand was completely scarred. Her hand ached with every small movement, and Emma glared at the offending appendage as if it was at fault for failing to remove the curse.

"Emma, stop. You can't do anything ab-"

"No! I can try again!" she countered before plunging her hand once more into Regina's chest. This was much more excruciating for Regina than the first time, but after a few minutes they were met with the same result. This time Emma's forearm was scarred by the magical burns from the curse, but she tried again.

And again.

Emma was crazed in her attempts to rid Regina of whatever evil had taken root inside her, and each time she was magically forced out and practically screaming from the burns. Regina was not faring much better, as the pain was becoming too much and she felt as though she was suffocating.

"Emma, stop, you're hurting me!" Regina begged breathlessly, her voice wavering at the sheer agony of feeling like her chest was being ripped open every time Emma drove her hand inside.

Emma froze, arm poised just above Regina's rapidly rising and falling chest. She could see how in pain the brunette was as she shuddered at the treatment her body received and the magical assault from the inside. Emma did not care about the burns or the scarring or any potential danger to herself, for the only thing on her mind was saving Regina. Nothing else mattered in that moment.

She had to save Regina.

"Regina, I…." she trailed off, breathing rapidly and her mind working as she went through every possible spell and method of extracting magic or destroying curses or-

"There's nothing you can do, Emma," Regina told her through the tears; the pain had become unbearable. "Just let it go. Let…me go."

"Don't say that!" Emma shouted vehemently, her voice thick from crying. "I can find a way! I will find a way!"

Regina merely shook her head and wrapped her fingers loosely around the blonde's wrist, bringing it down slowly to her chest but clasping their hands together.

"There isn't, Saviour. Not this time," she whispered sadly, dark eyes shimmering.

Emma looked away. She couldn't see the understanding look in Regina's eyes, or the acceptance that this was truly the end for her. She couldn't.

"The Dark One…" she mumbled, so quietly Regina asked her to repeat herself.

"I'm the fucking Dark One! I'm this hated and feared creature with unimaginable power at my disposal, and yet I can't use any of it to protect the people I care about!" she yelled angrily, her face contorted in rage and self-loathing at another failure. Her shoulders slumped and her head hung in defeat. "I can't even save the woman I love…"

Her voice was barely a choked whisper, but the suffocating silence that surrounded them made it sound like a gunshot.

"Emma…?"

The blonde looked at Regina with a small, heartbreaking smile.

"Why do you think I did what I did?" she asked softly in a strained voice, dark green eyes shining. "I don't give up everything for just anyone." She chuckled darkly and shook her head, fighting the urge to cry as her lips trembled from the effort. "Your happiness mattered –matters– to me more than my own, Regina."

"But…Hook," Regina reminded, wondering not for the first time why Emma left her love and happiness behind just to give Regina a chance at her own.

"He doesn't matter right now. No one does. Just…" Emma trailed off, her face crumpling as she felt her heart breaking all over again. She wondered half-heartedly if a heart really could break. She wanted to ask Regina.

Emma felt a hand on the back of her neck and fingers tangle into her long white locks.

"Reg-" she began, but was cut off as a pair of soft, full lips connected with hers in the most tender of touches. She responded quickly, savouring the moment that she had longed for since…the beginning, really.

Instantly the two women were filled with magic, warm and light and powerful, and it overwhelmed them as it begged for release and exploded outwards in a cascade of bright and colourful light. They gasped as they pulled apart, and Regina found herself staring at a pair of familiar, but long missed, forest green eyes.

"Of course, True Love's Kiss!" Emma cried. She leaned down again and captured Regina's lips in a searing kiss, everything she had ever felt for the woman being poured into it as Emma willed Regina to get better.

Emma herself was filled with light, and there was an inexplicable warmth in her chest that she only ever felt with Regina. The blonde held her close, and Regina kissed her back with equal intensity, if a little less urgency. Emma didn't care. This was it. True Love was the most powerful magic of all, and True Love could break any curse.

Emma slowly pulled away, her lips just brushing against Regina's as she inhaled the scent of her, feeling content and whole for the first time since she became the Dark Swan. It was invigorating, and she basked in the feeling of completion before opening her eyes.

She expected to see bright eyes staring back at her with all of the fire and passion that Emma had come to associate with the former Queen, or a true and genuine smile that Emma rarely got to see but was elated when she found it directed at her. Instead Regina looked the same, if a little happier, but tired eyes and gaunt features revealed that, physically, nothing had changed.

Then Regina looked closely, and brought up a shaky hand to run through Emma's now very blonde tresses as she took in the once deathly pale features of the woman above her. Regina couldn't stop the slow grin from forming and she started to laugh, the rich sound bubbling up and catching Emma entirely off guard. The brunette noticed Emma's puzzled expression, but touched the blonde's face with reverent fingers as she gazed at her True Love.

Emma had changed back.

"Emma."

When she was the Dark Swan, everyone had stopped calling her 'Emma'. She was no longer the Saviour, the White Knight, or the Sheriff. She had become the new Dark One, and they had taken to calling her "The Dark Swan" as if it was some kind of sick in-joke that everyone knew about except her. It enraged her, to be so carelessly tossed aside after everything she had been through to protect these people, but she knew, deep down, that she would eventually be left with nothing. That was how her life went.

Her family never gave up on her, not entirely, and neither did Regina. Even when everyone referred to her as the Dark Swan, Regina only ever called Emma by her name. No matter what terrible atrocities she committed in the name of anger or betrayal or vengeance, Regina wasn't afraid to stand up to her or try and reason with the still human part that resided just beneath the heavy layer of darkness. Regina found her, saw her at her worst, and stayed because she believed in her.

She loved her.

And the way Regina just spoke her name, like it was the most precious thing in the world to her, caused Emma's heart to swell with love and adoration for the woman who never gave up on her.

"Regina?" Emma called softly, her own smile creeping up as she gazed into beautiful brown eyes that shone with love and something else she couldn't quite identify.

"You changed back," Regina answered in an equally soft voice, playing with the ends of Emma's hair and caressing every inch of skin she could reach. She marvelled at the transformation. She didn't think it was possible. It was an ancient evil that inhabited the Dark One's dagger and stained a person's heart and soul for eternity, yet The Curse of the Dark One was just that: a curse.

"What?" the blonde asked incredulously. She leaned up slightly and tugged on a piece of her hair, bringing it in front of her eyes for inspection, and was shocked to see the stark white had returned to its original golden colour. Her skin had lost its ghostly pallor and she felt warm for the first time in a year. She touched her own face, not quite believing that she had changed.

Since her kiss with Regina, she hadn't felt the all-consuming presence of the Dark One's curse inside of her, whispering terrible things and showing her the many evils of the world and the darkness that lied within her own heart. She had grown so used to it that to suddenly be without it was incredibly liberating and Emma felt a huge weight being lifted off her shoulders. The heavy burden of having to live with this curse was gone.

She smiled wide then, forgetting about the scars she had received or the darkened heart she still had, but instead focused on the beautiful woman lying in her arms and looking at her with a happiness she had rarely seen on Regina's dark features.

"I'm… I'm me, again," Emma breathed, completely awe-struck. She paused and then exclaimed, "Regina! That means you were cured, too! Right? True Love's Kiss can break any curse!" Emma was animated and excited, thinking that she had done the impossible and staved off Death, preventing him from taking her True Love away from her so prematurely.

Expecting to see a similar reaction, Emma's face fell when Regina's smile slowly disappeared and was instead replaced by a mournful look. Emma didn't understand. She gazed imploringly at Regina, silently asking for an explanation to her unspoken question.

Regina felt her heart break at the earnest look she received. It was tentative and hopeful, yet so full of confusion Regina felt her throat close up and the tears form as they stung her eyes. She closed them swiftly and turned her head, unwilling to see Emma fall apart again.

"Regina, look at me," the younger woman pleaded, needing some kind of answer. "Please, Regina. What's going on?" She was starting to panic now.

Regina finally opened her eyes and answered in a wavering voice, "It didn't work, Emma. It – it couldn't work." She let out a shaky breath and chanced a look at Emma. Her mouth hung open almost comically if not for the soul-crushing despair Regina saw in forest green eyes. Suddenly she became angry.

"What do you mean, 'It couldn't work'? True Love breaks any curse, and that was a curse just like every other damn thing we've ever had to deal with!" Regina could feel the rage radiating off of the blonde, and it cut her deeply to see this.

Suddenly the pain came back tenfold and Regina let out an ear-piercing cry as she twisted and writhed in agony, clutching at her chest and screaming as the curse reworked itself into her heart and spread like wildfire throughout her body.

Emma looked on, terrified at the sudden change, and attempted to calm Regina down as she held her.

"Regina!? Regina, what's going on? What's happening!?" she called out as she held the crying woman close to her.

"T-The curse! I-!" Regina attempted to speak, but the agonizing pain rushed through her at an alarming rate. Her nerves were screaming, and forming any kind of coherent thought was next to impossible.

Emma was positively horrified as she had to watch Regina go through this. The older woman had experienced magical torture and absorbed a death curse, yet Regina had found a way to recover after both incidents. What had gone wrong this time?

"What about the curse? It should have disappeared by now!"

"T-Too much. T-Too f-f-far!" Regina answered through gritted teeth as a painful spasm wracked her body. She clutched Emma's hand for support, but she knew that this was it. There was nothing that could make this any easier.

"It's too much?" Emma's rattled brain couldn't process the situation and could contribute nothing at all. She was panicked and angry and terrified at the prospect of having to face this life she had made for herself, alone and without Regina there to help her.

"But the death curse!" she exclaimed then, her voice shrill and high-pitched. "You absorbed a fucking death curse and you survived it! Why's this so different!?"

What Regina couldn't say was that the death curse placed on the well was entirely different from what she was currently experiencing. That curse would kill anyone it encountered, in that particular case anyone who travelled through the well.

This death curse was designed with a far more painful application. It took root in one's heart, the darker and more damaged, the more effective it would be. Once it finds a blackened heart, it grows and feeds on the darkness within it, gathering power from any source it can. While Emma was the intended target, it could affect anyone, and Regina wasn't going to risk Emma's life when she had been good and so full of light her entire life, no matter what she had experienced. She would never forgive herself if she let Emma die when she was needed by so many people.

True Love could break any curse, but once this particular curse spread too much, the only outcome was death. It was far too late for her.

Groaning and squirming in Emma's tight grasp, Regina opened her eyes to Emma's tear-stained face. She wanted to look away, to be selfish and not have to see that haunted expression, but she was never a coward. Emma deserved this.

She squeezed the hand in hers until her own was shaking and her knuckles were white, and with as much control as she had left, she murmured a low but powerful, "I love you, Emma Swan."

And then it was over.

With one final spasm, Regina's eyes shut tight as she took her last breath and finally went limp in Emma's arms. The hand that clutched the blonde's so tightly released its death grip on her fingers and fell to the side.

Emma's final scream of anguish was the last thing heard as the sobs erupted from her heaving chest.

Everything was still.

A/N: Reviews, and death threats alike, are welcomed.

I haven't given much thought to the whole "Dark Swan" thing, but this idea wouldn't leave me alone. I'm not too comfortable writing from Emma's perspective just yet, which is why it isn't entirely from her perspective, but I think I did alright.

Also, I've read quite a few Death Fics where Emma's the one to go, and I can only think of two or three fics I have read personally where Regina's the one who dies (and one of them, technically, was a faked death so it doesn't count). So I thought I would have my contribution go against the grain a little.

I really hope you enjoyed this, in spite of the subject matter. I loved writing it.