Hi! This is my first OUAT fanfic, but please judge harshly. i decided that the best practice to writing is doing it with already established characters. Feedback is DEFINITELY appreciated, I want to know how to make this better!

I don't own OUAT, but I do own the character Azalea Lockes. She is my BABEH!

Ch. 1

Regina Mills

Regina sat on her couch, curled up on the end, with tears flowing onto her reddened cheeks. She felt worthless, betrayed and utterly alone.

Emma had brought Marian to Storybrooke, and she couldn't help but feel as if it were on purpose. Regina wanted to hurt Emma so bad, and she knew that the only way to properly hurt her was through her family.

For some ungodly reason she remembered talking with Sidney once. They had reconnected briefly after the curse was broken, only to acknowledge that each was in fact back to normal. He asked for an apology she refused to supply him with, and he chuckled under his breath. He said that he was just checking, and kicked some dirt near his foot. Regina had been obsessed with regaining her powers, and really had no patience for the meeting.

He apologized for taking so long. Then he said something very deep. He was so forlorn when he said it, most likely because of his rekindled memories of lost love.

"I was always just your reflection. The truths I spoke were only that of my heart. A mirror is only as good as what's in its glass."

She had watched him walk away with relief at the time, but at the current moment she wanted to ask him about it. He was the person she had gone to in order to feel good about herself.

There was a person she had gone to for hard truth. But why was she thinking of this now?

Oh, right. She wanted to know if Robin loved her or Marian more. Sidney would say that there was a possibility. He would give her hope because he had loved her. He wouldn't squash it easily, he'd try to salvage her feelings.

There was someone, however, who would tell her the truth. Someone she had honestly begun to forget about. The girl wouldn't know the contents of Robin's heart, sure, but she would know what his patterns reflected. She could be watching him right now for all she knew.

Slowly Regina inched towards the basement door.

Once she got there, she flicked on the light. The light only shone upon a staircase, which led to a door. She reached the door and knocked three times.

There was a long pause before she heard a younger voice say "Come in!"

What lay beyond the door was a deep purple room with sea green accents. There was a desk at the far end, littered with notes, binders, pencils…anything and everything really. The computer was large and had multiple windows open at once on the screen. One was security footage, of Granny's no less. The rest were documents, ones already typed and some still waiting to be finished.

Nearer to the door was a black wrought iron bed with light green sheets. It was messy and littered with snack wrappers. The trash can next to it was overflowing, and Regina realized that in the past few weeks she had neglected to take care of her house pet.

"Regina! Thank god, I was beginning to think you'd died!"

The girl was sitting in a wheely chair. She didn't look too good. Her eyes were rimmed with pink and her long, brown hair was extremely messy.

"Z. I'm so sorry." She honestly was. Back in the Enchanted Forest, Z had helped her find everything she needed for Rumple's curse. Constantly scouring the woods, she'd come back and sit in a dusty old room making sure everything was correct. When the curse hit, Regina let her keep her memories as a thank you. Well, almost all her memories…

"It's fine." Her smile was weak, and didn't reach her blue eyes the way it usually did. She was smaller than Regina remembered. Z was a full-figured girl, and now she was just skinny. Not rib-showing skinny, but not healthy for her.

"Here's my list. Can you..?" Z hesitated. "Can you get it by tomorrow? No rush or anything, but I'm dying here."

Z was of course being figurative, but Regina paled anyway.

Regina sniffled, chasing away the last of her tears. Z looked up, scared, as she strolled over. But Regina only took the paper with the list and went back upstairs.

Z sat for a minute, lost in thought, before slowly turning around and going back to the computer screen.

Regina sat in her carriage, her eyes scoping out the terrain. Bandits here were pathetic, she knew. She wasn't worried about being attacked.

She was still trying to get Rumple to think she was ready to cast the curse. He had been a bit hesitant at handing it over, but she was ready. She wanted to do this and become the strongest in the land. She wanted to rule.

She had to admit, most of those feelings were hate or spite. Deep down she was still Regina, who loved Daniel and wanted nothing to do with magic. But that was buried way down, at the bottom of the emotion box. She didn't have time to deal with sad, pathetic Regina. She had a Dark One to win over.

The men driving the carriage called for a stop. Regina huffed. This was the third time they'd stopped, and the past two were only little logs in the road. She couldn't deal with another minor irritant.

So she threw open the door of the carriage and yelled "Unless one of you is bleeding to death, I suggest you cease this stopping and starting!" She walked to the front of the carriage. The men stared not at her, but at the road.

"Hey! Are you even listening-"

She was stopped by two of her men parting to reveal the road in front of the carriage. There, not even an inch away from the front wheels, was a body. It was a girl of about nineteen, with brown hair. Her wrist was cut and she was bleeding profusely onto the ground.

"She's got a pulse."

And right there, Regina saw herself. So many times she'd thought of ending it the exact same way. Slow enough to feel her death, but quick enough not to suffer. She saw the dagger next to the girl's arm. It had a glass blade and a wooden handle. It was stuck together with string and tree sap. She had made the blade herself. It must have taken hours, maybe even a few days to make it. And she had patiently made a beautiful weapon with which to take her life. This girl clearly had no second thoughts. She wanted the perfect end.

And as much as Regina didn't want to take that away from her, she didn't want to leave her there to die.

"Stop the bleeding. I'll take care of her." She sneered as she said it, but the men were still surprised. Regina wasn't one for random acts of kindness. They stood, staring, still in the circular formation around the girl.

"Well! Do you want her to die?"

Two of the men quickly bound her wrists and carried her to the carriage. "Get me a cloth soaked in water from the river." One of the men ran to do so. The other stood there, and Regina bid him to get the knife. When he returned, she dismissed him. She did the same with the one who had gone to the river once he returned.

"Let's get out of here."

A few seconds later the carriage began to slowly start on its path once more. Regina turned to the girl on the seat opposite her. Awkwardly she kneeled, cloth in hand, and wiped the blood off her arm. The dress was ruined, not only from the blood. It was covered in dirt, with sticks stuck to the petticoat. There were tears on the arms, most likely from quick stumbling through the woods. She had been running.

Regina put the cloth on her forehead. If the girl was comatose, she'd leave her in the nearest boarding house. But she wouldn't be sure for a week. Until then, she'd have to keep her at the castle.

Regina sighed.

This was going to backfire, she knew it.