AN: After spending the last few years reading countless amazing SwanQueen fics, I have decided to write one of my own. This will be my first fic in years, and my first SwanQueen fic. I love creative writing, and hope this will be a fun way to improve. It will be a slowburn, and although there may be small hints of OQ and mentions of CS at the beginning, this is necessary for the storytelling. I am still gathering my ideas for this story and don't have a lot of free time to write, but I am excited to finally start a SwanQueen fic and hope some people will enjoy it!

Here is a very short prologue for what is to come.

"You should have left me here."

"I could never have done that."

The two women stood within the remains of the Dark Palace, their voices quiet and defeated, yet deafening within the stillness of their nightmarish reality.

"Storybrooke needs you, Emma. Your parents and Henry need you. You really are an idiot for not jumping into that portal when you had the chance-"

"I stayed for you, Regina." The blonde cut her off, anger momentary and unavoidable. "Don't tell me I should have left you, when you are the reason we're stuck here!"

The wounded expression which passed over Regina's face caused a pang of guilt within the younger woman, and she opened her mouth to speak, searching for the right words. "I didn't mean that."

"Yes you did."

"Regina."

"No. You're right. I'm the idiot." A humourless laugh escaped Regina's lips. She had spent most of her time in Emma's wish trying to prove that none of it was real, and then when faced with her dead lover she forgot it all. "I wanted him to be real so badly."

Turning away from Emma, Regina stepped up to one of the open windows that looked out over the Enchanted Forest with the blonde's stare on her back.

"I know. I'm sorry." Emma replied.

"Why did you stay? That bean was our only ticket out of here."

Regina was no longer accusing Emma. The misdirected anger and frustration had left as quickly as it came and was replaced with confusion.

"You came to save me, Regina. Even if you hadn't, I still would have stayed. You're my friend. It's what friends do."

Considering their rocky beginning, Regina was quickly becoming Emma's closest friend; a person she trusted as much as her parents, Henry, Killian. There were parts of her mind she knew she could share with Regina that the thought of sharing with the pirate made her feel uneasy. She avoided thinking too much into it.

"Most friends probably don't find themselves in situations where they have to risk their life for the other, or get trapped in crazy dreamlands together, but I guess that shows how far we've come from wanting to make each other's lives as miserable as possible…"

Emma was rambling now. In any normal situation that would get on Regina's last nerve, but here, stuck in the crumbling palace with their fake son still as a statue just out of her sight, posed to send a dagger through her heart, she was thankful for it.

"Thank you, Miss Swan."