Author's note: Well, hi! I am relatively new to the world of Once Upon A Time but have become completely infatuated with the show and most – not all- of its characters. After the first episode I knew I had to do something with Emma and Regina. There is so much potential there. I didn't want to start straight away so I waited until I finished with the whole first season. I then moved on to season two, just to get an idea of what happened after the Dark Curse was broken. That's where this idea came from but some of it has been inspired by things we see later on in season two.
Those of you who have read some of my Harry Potter stories may know my love for fantasy and creating a world inside a world. I like the idea of Once Upon A Time because the way they tell the story is the same way I like to write, without giving too much away at once and leaving questions unanswered until the very last moment, and the fact that in a fantasy world there are far fewer limits means there is a lot more to play with. So yeah, I decided to jump on board the ship. Sit back and I hope you'll enjoy the journey.

Timeline: Set after 1x22 A Land Without Magic and somewhere at the start of 2x1 Broken. I am kind of ignoring the storyline as it was developed in season two so Emma and Snow never fall through the portal and we don't see the wraith trying to kill Regina either or anything else from season 2 but there are a few tiny elements that ended up within this story in their own way and I'm sure you'll recognise them as we go along.

Pairing: Swan Queen Emma/Regina. Other pairings - established ones- like Snow/Charming and Rumple/Belle will appear too.

Other: Characters introduced in season 2 may or may not appear in one form or another and I hope to maybe introduce fairytale characters we haven't met in the show.

Rating: I'll stick to T for now.

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah. Don't own anything, blah blah blah… the usual. I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done.

Side note: I am still trying to figure out what names to use for what characters; Mary Margaret or Snow, etc. Does anyone else find it confusing?! I've gone with what felt right when I wrote but I may make some changes in the future.

"That's the thing about true love, dearie.
It can slip through your fingers.
It's the most powerful magic in the world.
The only magic powerful enough to break any curse.
It must be protected at all cost."

Rumpelstiltskin; A Land Without Magic

Chapter 1

In the blink of an eye everything around them changed. It was as if a fresh gust of wind blew through the streets of Storybrooke, waking up those who had been trapped inside themselves for all this time. Memories that had faded into darkness emerged, filling the minds of those to whom they belonged. They found each other again, in the middle of the street, in living rooms and kitchens, across town in hospitals and schools. Those who had been ripped from each other's side, torn apart by evil and left to dwell in a pool of misery, slowly began to understand that the curse that had been placed upon them was no more. They were free.

As the minutes began to pass and people slowly gathered, something else happened in the forest. A man and a woman walked along the forest paths, a remnant of another life. Her rags hung around her emaciated frame and her hair was tangled. She walked unsteady, as if she had yet to find the strength and confidence. But when she spoke his name, it echoed a newfound hope.

"Wait… Rumpelstiltskin…"

When he turned she walked towards him. Tears glistened in her eyes. "I remember. I love you."

He held her for she was the most precious thing in his life. He held her and inhaled the scent that he had longed for and missed ever since his own memory returned. "Yes," he whispered with the voice of a broken man. "And I love you too." When he let go of her, he knew this was the moment. "But hey, there'll be time for that. There'll be time for everything. But first, there is something I must do."

He took her to the well. When she asked him what it was he explained the story behind it to her. No words could really describe what it meant to him. "This is a really special place, Belle," he answered. "The waters that run below are said to have the power to return that what one has lost."

He stepped up to the well, using his cane for support, and his hand slipped into his pocket as he peered down into the darkness. He had kept the phial for all these years. A rainy day, as he had called it. Though the sun was shining brightly in the skies over Storybrooke, today was that special rainy day. The content of the bottle swirled inside the glass, glowing a vibrant shade of pink as he removed the stopper and dropped the phial into the waters of the well.

What followed was what he expected. The wind whipped around his head, blowing his hair out of his eyes and the purple cloud slowly rose up from the depths below until they reached the edge and started pouring into the forest around them. He pulled Belle back from the well, although he knew she would not get hurt, and watched as the cloud slowly surrounded them, greeting him like an old friend. They were friends about to be reunited once again.

Across town, Regina sat on her son's bed, clutching the pillow on which he slept and still carried his scent. The world around her had fallen apart now that the curse was broken and she knew, sooner or later, they would come looking for her. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Something had gone wrong. But it wasn't until she noticed the cloud in the distance that she realised this wasn't over yet. She got up from the bed and walked across the room. The cloud came closer, engulfing all of Storybrooke, and she knew that this was not the end. It had only just begun.

There was such a thing as magic and there was such a thing as fairy tales. All her life she'd believed that none of it was true. She'd seen too much unhappiness to even consider believing such a thing existed. Throughout her time in Storybrooke she'd played along with Henry's fantasy for that was what she believed it was. Nothing could have been more ridiculous than the notion that the people in this town were characters taken from fairy tales that one of her foster parents read to her when she was a kid. The one that bothered to read to her, anyway.

But here it was, clear as day. They stood in front of her, the people who had become her friends, but they were no longer those people. They were something else, someone else, and to hear her friend speak the words that she wanted to find her daughter was almost too much to bear. The world had lost its mind and she just wished, for a moment, she could stop this damn globe because she wanted to get off. The people she called her friends were real but so were the characters they had been. They were the same and Emma Swan was in the middle of it, whether she wanted to and understood it or not.

"So it's true," she said as slowly the woman she had thought was her friend turned around. Mary Margaret's eyes found hers and she didn't know what to feel, what to think. She almost wished she felt as relieved as she did but she didn't. She couldn't. Not even when she walked towards her and caressed her cheek with a gloved hand. When Mary Margaret wrapped her arms around her, Emma didn't feel like she finally experienced the love of a mother for her child. All she felt was confusion. She had gone from being an orphan, angry at the world for abandoning her, to finding her parents and discovering they were nothing like she thought they were.

"You found us," Mary Margaret whispered through her tears but Emma didn't know what she'd found.

She didn't know what to call her. She didn't know who she was. Was she Mary Margaret or Snow White? Was she her mother or her friend? Could she both, was it still possible to have both those things? Was she really the child of a fairy tale character, of two fairy tale characters, who turned out to be as real as she was?

The conversation passed her by in a blur. They talked about the smoke, the cloud that had engulfed the town, but she didn't know what to say. When Mother Superior, or whoever she was, came over and said that it was magic, she recognised the hint of gear in everyone's eyes. She didn't know magic, she didn't know what the hell happened here, but she knew fear and right now, she saw it. She couldn't speak until Leroy mentioned seeking out the person responsible. The Queen.

The Queen was Regina.

"No," she said slowly and looked at the rest of the group. She knew what they were suggesting but they were wrong. "It wasn't Regina."

She knew it wasn't. It couldn't have been. Despite of what she was, or had been, this wasn't all her fault. She was the one who cast the curse but how it ended was beyond her control. She'd seen the pain in her eyes in the moment they believed Henry to be dead. She'd also seen the devastation. Whether it was solely because of Henry or something else, she didn't know. But she knew pain and she knew Regina had felt it. This wasn't her doing.

She looked around the group and caught the eyes of the woman who was her mother. She released the breath she'd been holding and ran her fingers through her hair. "I know this is crazy but… I don't know what else to do. Is there someplace we can talk…" She gestured around. "About this?"

"Sure," Mary Margaret answered. She seemed to sense Emma's unease and looked over her shoulder at Granny, who had her arm safely wrapped around Ruby. "Last time I checked, you still do the best burgers in town."

The group made their way over to the diner and Emma fell back. Henry, who'd been walking next to David, joined her and looked up at her. "Aren't you happy?" he wanted to know and studied her face with great interest. Emma realised that her reaction was not what he expected. "They remember you."

Emma took a deep breath and briefly closed her eyes. She didn't want him to see that inside she felt torn. It was everything had suddenly been ripped apart. "That's all well and good, Henry, but I don't remember them. You know, an hour ago, Mary Margaret was my friend. Now she's my mother and not only is she my mother, she is Snow White…" She shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair. "This is just too weird…"

"You'll figure it out," Henry said and his hand found hers before walking up to the diner entrance. "You got this far."

"Yeah," Emma answered as the eyed up the diner Henry had just entered. She pushed her hands into the pockets of her jeans and took the last few steps before pushing against the door. "But what else am I gonna find?"

Everyone looked up when she walked in. Suddenly she was back in High School, the new girl in class. Half way through the year, when everybody already knew each other and nobody trusted the outsider. She'd felt so small and right now that feeling came back. She'd never seen so many sets of eyes staring at her at once, in that way. She knew what they were thinking. That she was some kind of hero, a saviour, but how could she be if she didn't feel like one? She wasn't what they thought she was. Her shoulders dropped when she noticed Mary Margaret walk towards her. Gently she took her arm and kind eyes found her own.

"Come," she said as she guided Emma towards one of the booths. "There's a lot to tell you."

Emma reluctantly slipped into the booth next to Henry. David and Mary Margaret sat across from them and Ruby was behind her bar, pouring cups of coffee. Every so often her eyes wound wander in their direction and when she caught Emma's gaze, she smiled.

"So is she really Red Riding Hood?" Emma asked mutely and looked at Henry. "Like, for real?"

"Yeah," Mary Margaret answered. She reached across the table to cover Emma's hand with her own but pulled back when the blonde removed her own hand and dropped into her lap. She managed to hide her hurt and forced herself to smile. "She is. She is also one of my best friends."

"The Curse was broken," Henry said and looked at David. "Everyone remembers who they were but why didn't they go back to the Enchanted Forest?"

"I don't know, buddy," he answered. "Something didn't go the way it should have. When the Curse was cast it sent us all here. When it broke it should have sent us back."

"Back?" Emma asked and arched an eyebrow in surprise. "You mean that, after all of this, you were supposed to leave?"

"That was the idea," David answered. "But something went wrong."

"Wait, wait, wait," Emma began and raised her hands. "The Evil Queen, Regina, cast a curse that condemned you all to a life in Storybrooke without remembering who you were. But I broke the curse..." She paused. "Did you really think she was just going to let you go back to your land, to the other world? That would mean she accomplished nothing. Twenty-eight years wasted."

"Nothing's ever that simple with Regina," Mary Margaret answered.

Emma's eyes narrowed. "Or someone else for that matter."

"What are you saying?"

Emma leant across the table. "Who is the only person darker than Regina?"

"You think he's got something to do with this?" Mary Margaret asked. "Mr Gold? Rumpelstiltskin?"

"If not him, then who? Regina didn't release that cloud."

"There are a lot of things you don't know about Regina, Emma," Mary Margaret said and this time she took her daughter's hand. "She wanted to kill you."

"And when she saw that she accidentally poisoned Henry instead, she stopped," Emma answered. She looked down at Mary Margaret's hand covering her own. She'd often wondered what it would feel like. She'd looked at herself in the mirror more times than she could remember, wondering if she looked like her parents. Now the answer sat across this table and she couldn't see it, or understand it. Her brain wasn't ready to wrap itself around whatever explanations they had.

"What's your name?" she whispered suddenly and realised that, as she spoke, the tears silently chased down her cheeks. She looked up at the man and woman sitting in front of her. They were her parents. "I…I don't know…"

"It's Snow," Mary Margaret answered. "But I'll listen to whatever you call me. Emma."

"Somehow 'mom' feels a little bit awkward."

"They call me Charming but my name really is David, although it was James for quite some time," David said. "I know this is confusing, Emma…"

Her green eyes found his. "You have no idea."

"I do," Mary Margaret answered. "And it's time that we tell you exactly what happened."

The door swung open before her knuckles had even made contact with the wood. A chill crept down her spine, a quiet warning that she was about to walk into something that was out of her control. She carefully stepped over the threshold and her dark eyes scanned the hallway. She had never set foot in this house before, until now. There was a first time for everything. She brushed her hands along the soft material of her jacket and froze when a floorboard creaked under her boot. Before she could blink the door slammed behind her and she spun around. A familiar sight confronted her and a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

"Rumpelstiltskin," she said slowly as she eyed up the man who, until a mere few hours ago had been known as Mr Gold. She cocked her head, suspicion flickering in her eyes. Experience taught her to always remain cautious when in his presence. "You did this, didn't you?"

"Did what, dearie?" he asked. His smile matched hers and he slowly strode towards her.

"You released the magic into Storybrooke," Regina hissed. "How did you do it?"

"You've noticed, have you?" he mocked her. "What else have you noticed?"

She watched him as he walked past her and she followed him into what turned out to be living room. "I gave you everything you wanted, you ungrateful little imp," she hissed. The choice of words was enough to make him turn around and she saw the anger in his eyes. She knew that if she pressed hard enough she'd be able to break through his calm outside demeanour and find the creature that dwelled within. "You did this. You released the magic and you stopped everyone from leaving."

"Did I?" he asked. "Are you sure this is not your own doing, your Majesty?"

"If it was my own doing don't you think I would have given myself the magic too?" Regina snapped and stretched out her hand. She willed herself for the ball of fire to appear but nothing happened. When she first saw the cloud she'd expected the magic to find her eventually but it didn't. When she tried to perform even the simplest of spells, her hands were useless. It didn't take her long to understand there was only one other person who could have released the magic and that same person had every reason not to return it to her.

Rumpelstiltskin grinned. "Ah yes, you would think so, wouldn't you?"

"What have you done?" Regina demanded and took a step in his direction. Her authority was something that would have made others crumble but it didn't work on this opponent. "You did something, didn't you?"

"Shall we say that I… helped… fate a little?" Rumpelstiltskin suggested and noticed the anger flickering in Regina's eyes. He shrugged and let out an almost childish giggle. "Well, if you must know, I released magic into Storybrooke."

"I know that, you fool," Regina hissed. "Why did you do it?"

"Now why would anyone need magic?" he mused out loud, much to her infuriation.

"More importantly, how did you manage to restore your magic but hold on to mine?!"

Rumpelstiltskin shook his head. "Lost our manners, have we?"

"Emma broke the Curse. Everyone should have gone back to the Enchanted Forest," Regina said through gritted teeth. It hadn't been part of the plan to go back there but it was something she'd kept in the back of her mind. When the Curse was broken and nothing changed, she knew something wasn't right. Her eyes narrowed as she studied the creature that she loathed so much more closely. "You did something to our land, didn't you?" She didn't miss the way his eyes moved sideways in an attempt to sever the contact between them. "What did you do?"

"It wasn't me who released the Curse, dearie," Rumpelstiltskin answered. "Don't ask me what I did. Ask me what you did."

Regina took a step back and placed her hands on her hips. "You're the one who created this Curse, Rumple. Just in case you forgot."

"Ah, but you took it from me. We made a deal." His eyes narrowed. "And deals can't be broken."

"Tell me what you did," Regina said. There was a hint of fear in her voice now. Without magic she was weak. The whole town knew who she was, what she had done, and eventually they'd come looking for her. She needed to know what happened, where it went wrong and this annoying little piece of crap could tell her. She clenched her jaw and reached out her hand. Perfectly manicured blood red nails were only a couple of inches away from his chest. "Tell me what you did or I swear I'm going to…"

"Rip out my heart?" he finished her sentence. "I think we both know you can't do it." He turned away from her, circled the couch and sat down. He rested his hands on the cane he used to walk and from this position he looked up to the woman who had once been the most powerful and feared Queen in all the lands. Now she looked weak, bordering on broken, as she realised that everything she had was about to slip away from her. Desperation did strange things to people. Perhaps it was even crueller than love.

"You have my magic," Regina stated and she folded her arms across her chest. "I want it back."

"Of course, dearie," Rumpelstiltskin replied. "But you know that nothing ever comes without a price." He arched an eyebrow. "Not even for you, Your Majesty."

"If I do what you say you'll give me back my magic?" Regina asked. She suspiciously eyed him up. Ever since their paths first crossed she knew she couldn't trust a single hair on his head. "What's in it for you?"

"I can give you everything," Rumpelstiltskin said slowly. He saw the glimmer of hope in her eyes but he too knew that Regina was a worthy opponent. She had tried to outsmart him before but although she failed, he knew not to put too much trust in her. In some ways, they were not that different from each other. Trust and honesty meant nothing. "I can give you your magic, both here in Storybrooke as well as the Enchanted Forest…" His eyes found hers. "I can give you Henry."

"Henry?" Regina whispered and her eyes welled up at the thought of her son. He was with Emma but she wanted nothing more than for him to be with her. "You can give me Henry?"

"I can give you everything."

She swallowed. "You didn't tell me what's in it for you."

"We'll come to that," Rumpelstiltskin answered and slowly stood up. He circled her, like a hunter circled its prey. "Look at you. You've got nothing. No power, no magic. You're weak. Imagine how they'd cower if you got your magic back. You could make them fall to their knees. I can give you everything she took from you."

Regina's head snapped to the left. "Snow White?"

"Emma."

Her breath hitched at the mention of the blonde sheriff. "What will it take?"

Rumpelstiltskin reached into the pocket of his jacket and fingered an object Regina could not see. A grin spread across his face.

"A sacrifice."