Hello everyone! I don't even remember how this idea came up to me, I have it written for months, so now that I'm finally free of exams and college (I think and I hope so) why don't post it?

Had this first chapter written for months like I said, and I just wrote the second chapter, so I'm excited about this story. It's not gonna be a long story, since I've got everything already planned out, but if you have anything in mind you'd like to see, don't hesitate to tell me!

Regina sighed in frustration to see that the small fireball that she was trying to conjure up wasn't any close to showing up. She'd been taking classes from Rumple for more than two weeks, and she still couldn't make a fireball.

She knew she had to let the dark thoughts get under her skin, but it wasn't that easy. Most of time, her thoughts would be sad ones, not enough to be angry ones.

The young Queen closed her eyes and focused her mind in only one person.

An image of her mother ripping Daniel's heart out made her have that feeling again. The feeling of wanting to have her mother's throat in her hands to crush it just like she did with Daniel's heart.

Regina's eyes opened and a small smirk curved her lips to see sparks above her hand. It was working.

"Regina?" Snow's voice echoed in the room as the Queen quickly dropped her hand and turned around, forcing a smile on her face as the princess ran into her room. "I'd been searching for you everywhere!"

"Well, here I am. What's wrong?"

"Can we go ride?" Snow's face light up as she put her hands in front of her, in some kind of begging position. "Please, you promised!" Only then, she added a pout in her face, also giving her the best puppy's eyes she could have.

Regina rolled her eyes and chuckled. "You're right, I promised. Okay then, let's go."

The ten year old clapped and went over to her to take her hand. Both of them got out of the room and started walking down the hall, Snow chattering up about everything she did in the day. Most of time, Regina would listen to every word, but now she knew them by heart; it was only the girl that didn't seem to realize that their days were always the same.

And if there was something new that happened to her, she'd scream it to her out of excitement.

Now, while they were walking down the starts, Regina took a deep breath. It was never easy to go to the stables. Mostly with Snow White.

The girl did warm her heart up whenever she could, but sometimes it wasn't enough. The pain of seeing her mother taking Daniel's heart right in front of her eyes was still so fresh. It would always be.

And going with Snow only added more pain, knowing that the princess didn't have any fault in any of this, but she had. Regina could always feel the guilt overcome to her, thinking that she should have been with Snow all that day; she should have been there knowing that her mother would try something. And indeed she did.

She put a spell on Snow for her to tell her any secret that she could have. Out of all the innocent secrets that the princess had, there was the one that her mother was trying to find out. Of course Snow didn't remember any of it; she wasn't conscious, it wasn't her fault, at all.

It was all her mother's. And she hated her more than anything because of that. Lucky for her, she took care of her.

"Regina, you're not listening to me!" Snow complained, pulling her hand. The Queen quickly got out of her thoughts and looked down at the girl. "I finally convinced Father to let me take archery lessons, isn't that amazing?"

Regina smiled at her and nodded, pulling an arm around the young girl's shoulders. "I'm not very surprised, though. You always get whatever you want out of your father, young lady."

Snow giggled and incredibly, stayed silent all the way till the stables. She must have noticed that she needed some silence.

Regina was grateful that Snow was getting those manners; she'd been a very spoiled girl the last weeks, but since she sat her down and told her that she needed to behave like a princess would, the girl got better. She was still spoiled by her father, sometimes maybe by her, but any princess was. There were worse spoiled princess than Snow, much like Abigail.

She smiled at the memory of Snow meeting the princess and clearly disliking her for her actitude with everyone that wasn't royal, and even with some of them. After that, Snow realized that she couldn't be like that girl; she didn't want to treat anyone like she did, and she didn't want anyone to look at her like she was such a brat.

Which sometimes people looked at her like that, but those days were long gone. Or so she hoped.

Regina wanted to get quickly on the horse, only then she could get as far as possible from the stables. Snow followed her close, sitting just in front of her. No matter how many times Regina told her that she would be an excellent rider if she only let go of the fears of it, Snow still wanted to ride with her.

The princess was pretty stubborn, though.

"Oh, Regina, look!" Snow pointed foward; Regina could imagine the big smile on her face to see so many birds flying around the trees that were meters from them. "Can we go to there? Please?"

Regina looked back as Rocinante started to hurry up; they were going far from the stables, but that was what she needed. In a matter of minutes, Snow was jumping off her horse and running to the birds, that were like waiting for her, flying only inches above from the ground.

The Queen guided Rocinante to a near tree and tied his reins to it. "Oh, so it is true what everyone says." Regina was startled to hear a voice that she knew she shouldn't be hearing. Not now. She turned around to find Rumple smirking at her. "She really is the fairest of them all."

She didn't even have to follow his eyes, but she did to be sure that Snow didn't notice his prensece. Of course she didn't. She was too busy looking and caressing the birds.

Brown eyes looked foward again, finding shiny, brown ones. "What are you doing here?" She tried to sound strong and dark, but it wasn't anything more than only a whisper, knowing that Snow wasn't very far from them.

"Well, I have a lot of free time, and figured I could stop by and give you a visit."

"I don't need –"

But she was cut off by her stepdaughter's piercing voice. "Regina!" She turned around to find her running back at her, her green eyes lying on the man in front of them. "Oh…"

"Hello there, Snow White. I'm glad we finally met."

Snow frowned slightly, looked at her, and then back at Rumple. "How do you know my name?"

"Who doesn't? Aren't you the princess? The fairest of them all?"

Snow's frown went deeper, but after seconds, she giggled and shook her head. "I'm not the fairest of them all. That's Regina."

The young girl looked at her with a smile, and Regina tried her best to give her a smile. Rumple was trying to get in her nerves, for a reason that she didn't quite understand, but she couldn't let him. "Oh, Snow, he is…"

"Rumplestiltskin." He bent down to her a little bit, just like he always did, and gave her those funny giggles of him. "Do you like the birds, Snow White?"

To the mention of her favorite animals, Snow's smile got wider. "Oh, yes. I can actually –" Regina sent her a glare, which Snow quickly got so her mouth went completely shut. "I – yes, I like them a lot."

Regina specifically told her that she couldn't go telling everyone that she could understand animals, hearing them talk to her; that was some kind of magic that Regina couldn't still figure out, but she knew that magic was a topic that a few people liked. Only the closest servants, the King and she knew about Snow's ability.

Her father didn't want people to look at his daughter like she was different. Regina didn't see any harm in that; she only understood animals, it wasn't dark magic. Nothing like what she was taking lessons to do from that man in front of them.

"He's got lost, and I was telling where he had to go." Regina finally said after the awkward silence. Why did Rumple even want to know if Snow liked the birds? Everyone in the kingdom knew about Snow's love for animals.

"Oh, all right… it was nice to meet you, Rumpl – Rumplestilshin –"

If she wasn't so nervous, Regina would have laughed, but she only nodded at her, letting her know that it was okay.

"Rumple it's okay, dearie, don't worry."

Snow gave him a polite smile and ran back to the birds. Regina let out a long sigh, one that she did know that she was holding, and turned around to look at Rumple again. "What the hell was that?"

"Adjusting to dark magic, I see?" He only chuckled, his shinny eyes going back to the girl behind her; probably playing with the animals. "You're getting too attached to that girl, I must say."

"She's my stepdaughter."

"She's the reason your stable boy is dead."

Regina's eyes narrowed at that, confusion showing all over her face. What the hell was Rumple trying to do? Put her against Snow? That made no sense, but that was exactly what he was trying to do.

"No, she's not. My mother used a spell on her. You know that; you taught her."

"That I did, like I'm teaching you. And dark magic isn't for weak persons."

"I'm not weak." It was her automatically response. Love was weakness, that was what her mother taught her, but she liked to think otherwise.

Her love for Daniel wasn't weakness. The love she'd been building for Snow wasn't weakness. Love was just not weakness.

"As you say, Your Majesty."

Regina's face must have showed all the disgust she was feeling for him, because he only giggled at her and disappeared in a purple smoke. She quickly turned around to find that Snow was unaware to all of this, and let out a sigh of relief for it.

Green eyes looked up at her, as a frown appeared on the princess' face. "Is he gone already?"

"Oh, yes. He found the path he was looking for."

Snow smiled at that; always believing in good things. She walked up to her and looked behind her, shrugging. "He was strange. His skin was… different, as his eyes were. He had a funny voice, though. But still… he made me a little umconfortable."

"He did?" Regina's eyebrows went up, taking a hand to Snow's black curls.

Snow shrugged once again. "He looked like an imp from my books."

Regina actually laughed at that. Such a wonderful nickname. She nodded at her stepdaughter's confused face and took her hand, starting to lead her to Rocinante. "I think that's a perfect description of him. Imp. He really looks like one."

Both of them laughed at that, and soon enough they were in the castle again. Still, when the next day came, and Regina went to have lessons with Rumple, he didn't answer any question.

"What were you up to?"

"What do you have such insterest in her?"

"Why did you ask her about birds? I know there's a reason behind it."

"What were you up to?!"

He cut her off by disappearing, not before telling her that when she wanted to do magic, he'd come. She was left alone in the woods, angry, frustrated, and not knowing what else expect from this man.

One thing she knew for sure; she wasn't going to let him get near Snow.

She didn't expect this day to ever come, but she should have imagined.

Snow was staring at her, in shock, whilst she did the same. Both of them shocked for different and same reasons.

She'd been practicing her magic; fireballs were the smallest thing she could, but she liked to do them in her free time. Taking hearts out while Snow or the King were in the castle wasn't fun; she had to worry for any of them to realize in the moment that there was a guard missing.

Dark magic was consuming every part of her. Except one.

The thirteen year old girl standing in front of her.

She was conjuring fireballs and throwing them against the wall; she was so angry for some reason that she didn't know. She stopped trying to look for a reason after a year that she embraced the dark magic inside her. But now she had to make up a reason to tell the shocking princess in front of her.

She wasn't going to use a spell on her so she could forget. No.

"You – you were doing magic?" Were the first words that came out from Snow's mouth. She swallowed and put her hands in her lap, taking a little breath. "Yes, you were."

She hated when Snow would run into her room. Three years passed, and the girl still didn't learn the lesson. Maybe she would now.

"Snow, no one can know about this."

"But – why – why were you throwing fireballs? How do you do it? Since when? Wait… are you a witch?"

"No!" It was her first reaction to jump off her chair, which made Snow jump. Was she afraid of her? "I – I just can do magic, just like my mother. You told me you saw her once."

"Yes, but I never believed that you… what she did seemed to be a different… magic."

"Dark magic, yes. She did dark magic…" Like mother, like daughter. "That's why I banished her from this land. I couldn't stand her magic any longer."

Or her for all that matter.

"Dark magic?" Green eyes's grew wide, her mouth opening a little bit, showing how shocked she was. "But – but what you do… it's not dark magic, right?"

"Of course not."

She hated lying. She really hated lying to Snow, but she gave her no chance. Still, Snow kept confused.

"But I do have magic. I've inherited it from Cora, and I never wanted it, so I had to keep it for myself. No one can know about this, Snow. You know what your father thinks about magic; he hates it. He can see me as a witch…"

"He would never." Snow quickly interrupted her, her eyes growing even wider to the implication that her father could hurt her. Oh, if she only knew. "You're our family; he would never look at you as witch."

"Snow, you can't tell him. You can't tell anyone. Even if your father accepted it, people don't like… witches."

"But you said you're not a witch."

Regina sighed. "I know." She took steps closer to her, biting her bottom lip. "But people see other people with magic as horrible things. They'd want me out of this castle, out of this land…"

"My father would never let them. I would never let them hurt you, Regina."

Such hope in her eyes; still an innocent girl. But naive. Like a young princess could stop a whole village wanting her head.

She couldn't help but smile at her and take the last steps to her, to then take her pale hands in hers. "No one can protect anyone forever."

A sad truth, because she wished she could protect her stepdaughter forever.

"I only do it when I'm alone and bored. It does no harm."

Another lie, but Snow didn't see it, and she was lucky for that. Most of time, Snow could see right through her; maybe she could with little things, or maybe she didn't want to see the real truth. Eventually, the princess sighed and nodded.

"Okay… I – I won't tell anyone. I promise."

Regina gave her a bright smile which Snow returned, and quickly pushed her into her arms, hugging her tightly. She couldn't put her chin on the girl's head anymore; she was getting taller. But she did caress her rebel, dark hair. She knew she could trust her; more if there was the fear that if she ever said something, she could get hurt. It was awful enough she had to lie to her like this, but she had no other option.

"Thank you, dear."

Snow moved away from her and gave her that smirk that meant she was going to ask for something. "So, can you show me the magic?"

Regina sighed and moved her hands, knowing she had to think clearly. Nothing dark could come out from her, but once again, looking at Snow's bright and hopeful face, she knew she wouldn't hurt her. Not with her magic, not without it either. She gave the princess a smile before opening her palms and showing little sparks coming out from them.

Regina didn't know that green eyes could get so bright.

Months after the princess discovered her secret, the Queen found her crying her eyes out in a corner, like never before. Snow didn't cry; except for the few tears when wound animals she'd try to help died in her hands. But this crying was far worse than a wound animal dying.

"Snow, dear? What's wrong?"

The young girl quickly looked up and stood up, hands moving to her face to wipe away all the tears. "It's nothing." Her weak voice said.

Regina narrowed her eyes to her, taking a step closer and reaching out to remove the hair from her face. "You know it's best for you to tell me now, because I will find out sooner or later."

"It's just a children thing, it doesn't matter."

"I believe it does."

Both of them stared in each other's eyes for what felt forever, but Regina knew that Snow knew better. The princess let out a sigh and shook her head. "I'm just a foolish girl, that's all."

"No, you're not. But why would you say that?"

"I thought – I thought a boy liked me…" She broke into tears, hands moving to her face to cover it while she sat in the corner's chair again. "But it was just a bet."

Regina frowned and moved closer to her, feeling the desperation already. What could a boy do to a princess? Not very much, right? No. A boy couldn't do to Snow what the King did to her. They were just children.

Still, she was a child also when the King married her.

"What did the boy do to you, Snow?" Regina's voice grew with impatience.

Snow cleared her throat and moved her hands from her face, yet her green eyes stayed on them. "He kissed me. But then he ran off with his friends and they all laughed of me… all the boys, all the girls… I thought they were my friends."

Regina sighed. She didn't know the feeling, because she never had friends. Not until Daniel. He was the only friend she'd ever had. But she could feel Snow's sadness as her own. She'd been lied to, and humiliated. That she knew about.

"It's all right, my dear." Snow frowned and quickly looked up to her, feeling as confused as ever. She thought Regina would understand the situation; she had no friends now, they all laughed of her because she was the most idiot girl in the land. "It's their lost if they don't wanna be your friends. You deserve more."

"But I'm an idiot!"

"No, you're not." She put a hand on her shoulder, which often Snow would take as an indication to not move her eyes from her. Clever girl. "You're a wonderful, beautiful, smart girl. No boy, no stupid pesants deserve your tears. Listen to me, Snow." The princess blinked and nodded quickly, her crystal eyes showing how much curious she was now. "You're turning into a woman, and you need to know that many people see women as weak people. They're gonna try to make you look weak, they're going to try to humiliate you, make you beg even, but you don't low your head. You have to keep your chin up, always. Even in the weakest moments, your chin shall be up. Did you understand?" Snow's eyes grew wider and nodded as much as she could, to which Regina smiled and put a finger under her chind, to lift it up. "You're a princess, and most important, an honorable woman. Keep your chin up."

Snow nodded slowly as Regina's finger moved away from her face, but she kept her head up. "Always."

The Queen's lips curved into a smile and moved the rebel hair from the princess' face. "Now go on, you have to take your lessons." Snow did as she was told and got up, but the older woman quickly put a hand on her shoulder, earning the girl's eyes. "What boy did this to you?"

"The stable man's son."

She managed to give the girl a smile as Snow turned around and walked away.

Later that afternoon, both the King and the Queen were standing in front of two boys. The stable man's son and his best friend; the idiotic King was giving them a lecture about why they cannot treat women that way, with his most gentle voice. Regina sighed and rolled her eyes at his words; she only told him because she had to; for him to do this, and for the boys to lie to him telling him that they were very sorry.

Once the King was finished and out the stables, the boys stayed in place to see that she wasn't moving.

"Oh… Your Majesty, we are very – "

Regina cut him off by raising a single hand and shaking it. The boys looked to each other and back to her, lowering his heads. A smirk grew in her face as she started walking back and fourth in front of them.

"Do you like the stables, boy?" Both of them looked up, and the blond boy, the stable man's son, saw that her brown eyes were on him.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

She gave him a cold smile as she looked back and fourth between them. "Do you both like your comfortable houses?" They both nodded quickly, and she could almost see them swallowing. "Then I do not understand why you would risk it like that."

"Risk it, Your Majesty?" The black haired boy raised an eyebrow to her, and she stood in front of them, bringing her hands together.

"Why, of course. Didn't I ever mention it?" Regina took a step closer to them, feeling how the anger was showing all over her eyes, her brown eyes probably going darker as any situation in which she'd dark magic. "If you ever lie to the princess again, if you ever humiliate her again, if you ever only upset her again, I will make sure that you know what living in the poorest village feels like. Do you want that? Do you really want your fathers to lose their jobs because their sons couldn't obey a simple rule? To always respect their King and Queen, and therefore their princess?"

She smirked to see the color out of their faces; their eyes grew wide as ever, and she was sure they were shaking, even if only a little bit. "N – no, Your Majesty. We – we will apologize to the Princess, we will never –"

"I'm sure you won't." She smiled down at them, and walked over to the door. "Oh, and I know you two are leaders of your group, so I'm hoping that you will tell all the others that laughed of my stepdaughter to apologize to her, too."

When there was no answer, she looked back, the smirk on her face disappearing. The thirteen years old boys quickly nodded and said in unison, "Yes, Your Majesty."

"And I better never, ever hear again that you treat a woman like that. Even if it is not the princess."

When she saw out of the corner of her eye two pair of heads nod, her smirk grew as she walked out the stables.

That night, Snow came to her running before dinner, telling that all the boys and girls apologized to her, saying how sorry they all were, begging for her to take their apologizes. She accepted, and of course she was glad that they all could see their mistake and apologize as honorable children. Regina only nodded and gave her smiles.

When they were having dinner, the King was proud that his words touched the boys, and Snow was proud of the boys, but the Queen knew better, and so then her smirk grew wider while she drank her wine.

Doing dark magic and making sure Snow was happy and protected was all that mattered now in her life. Usually, making Snow happy meant doing pure things, you could say, so she really enjoyed it when her darkest part could make her stepdaughter happy.

It was an interesting combination.

Regina couldn't believe she had to be in this disgusting village. It was the poorest and less safe village of the land, and yet the King decided to pay a visit to them, bringing her and Snow along with him. What was he thinking to bring her, and most of important, bring the fourteen year old princess to here?

Of course Snow was happy to come to help others, and that was all she chattered about on the way here. She'd been here before, two years ago, but it was most safe back then. Everyone knew that the Kingdom wasn't going through a good time, the thieves around were becoming common lately.

Yet, here she was, sitting on her horse while the King was – along with all his guards, of course, he wasn't that idiot – speaking to the most needed people. She'd had an eye on Snow all the time, but she'd missed a second for going for food for Rocinante and coming back to him, and now she couldn't find her from where she was looking.

It was beginning to worry her.

"Claude?" She called out; looking to her right as the guard quickly appeared to her side. "I can't see the princess. Find her."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Five guards started their search while Rocinante started to walk foward, as Regina's eyes were trying to be everywhere in the hopes to see a tangled black hair somewhere. All the peasants would bown down as she passed by, but there was no trace of Snow.

She'd never gotten herself lost in a village before. Yet, this was her first time here.

Soon enough everyone was looking for Snow White. The King and his guards, the peasants, herself, but no one was close to finding her. She got tired of it.

Regina jumped out of Rocinante, and seeing that everyone was too busy looking for Snow, she went in the woods. She hid behind a tree and turned around to face it as her hand moved in front of it, and an image drew on the tree.

"Lukas? Lukas!" Snow was screaming out a boy's name, to which Regina rolled her eyes, thinking she really ran off with a stupid boy. But she quickly remembered a little boy with her before she went for Rocinante's food; he seemed to be lost, and Snow was talking to him. Now she was in the woods, apparently alone. "Where are you?"

Regina was ready to go back to the guards and suggest to them where Snow could have gone, but her brown eyes grew wider and darker when she saw men starting to walk out behind trees and bushs around Snow. The princess quickly closed her mouth and started to look at them all, fear spreading all over her face.

Regina was sure fear was already on her face too as they both realized they were bandits. Probably six bandit men. It was a tramp. The boy led her to them, so they could take her? Over her dead body.

The King and the guards were off to the woods already, but they wouldn't get in time. Her despair grew wider when she saw them starting to get closer to the fourteen year old girl.

"Stop! I – I have nothing!"

"Of course you have, you're the princess." One of the men said, walking over to her. "We're gonna get so much for your rescue, little princess."

Snow frowned and tried to step back, but soon the man's hands were on her. "Let me go!"

Enough.

Regina shook her hands around her and disappeared in a purple smoke, appearing only a meters from the bandit and the princess. "Take your hands off her, you disgusting peasant."

All of them turned around to see her standing there, and only Snow's face grew with fear, for her, not for them. Foolish girl. A smile appeared on all the men's face as they started walking to her, with the exception of the one that was holding Snow back.

"Stay away from her!" Snow cried out, trying to get rid of the man.

"I suggest you follow your princess' words." Regina raised her hands to them, taking a step back. She really didn't want to do this in front of Snow. "I will give you the gift of leaving if you leave us alone, now."

"We're so lucky. The princess and the Queen. How rich are we gonna be?" One of them said, raising his bow and arrow.

They weren't going to surrender, and she wasn't going to let them take them. She had no choice.

"You have no idea, my dear." She said before moving her hand and throwing a man off to a tree, knocking him out in a second, or killing him, she wasn't sure. She didn't care.

"Witch! The Queen's a witch!" The man that was holding Snow said; Regina didn't want to look at her face yet.

The one with the bow and arrow relased his arrow as Snow cried out, but Regina only took it just in front of her eyes, and made it ashes. How dare he try to kill his Queen?

She moved her fingers as the dark magic was going through her veins and showing all over her face. With a flick of her hand she broke the man's neck, as other was running up to her. She moved her hand to him and threw him off to a tree. Others two tried to run to her with their swords, but she threw them off to rocks, and didn't even measure the strenght she was using.

But quickly enough she felt a sharp pain in her right arm, and she turned around to find a man with her sword up. The man's face drew horror as he must have realized what he'd done and to see her dark eyes. He was a dead man.

Her hand reached out and into the man's chest while he cried out. "How dare you hurt your Queen?" She whispered as her hand moved away from his chest, taking his heart with it. The man fell on her knees and she looked right into his brown eyes as she crushed the heart in her hands. The bandit couldn't even scream in pain as he fell unconscious on the ground, and the ashes slipped in Regina's fingers.

"You're a monster!" A male's voice screamed, and she turned around, looking straight in the blue eyes of the man that was holding back Snow.

"I warned you." She hissed and raised her hand as her fingers started to appear in the man's neck and his body started to move away from the ground. "And you didn't hear me. This is what happens to bandits."

"Stop!" Another voice cried out, but she only smirked as the man's face was going from red to blue. "Regina, stop!"

It was Snow's voice.

Her hand quickly dropped as the men fell to the ground, gasping for air. She blinked and looked up to find watery green eyes looking back at her in shock and fear. Was she afraid of her? She couldn't. How could she think she could ever hurt her?

"Monster!" The man she was choking before cried out and stood up to then run away from them.

The young Queen frowned and looked around to see all the bodies on the groud. Half of them unconscious, the other half dead.

"What did you do?" Snow whispered, and Regina looked up to her once more, seeing how much she was shaking. No. She couldn't be afraid of her. She took a step closer to her, but Snow only stepped back quickly.

"Snow, I won't – I won't hurt you. I could never hurt you."

"You…" She looked for a second to the bodies around them and then back to her eyes. "You killed them."

"I warned them!" Regina raised her voice, which made Snow jump. "No, I'm – I'm so sorry, Snow. I warned them, they gave me no choice. They were going to hurt you."

"You – you didn't have to kill them… you –"

"I was protecting you." She said in the softest voice she could find, her own eyes creating tears at the mere thought of Snow fearing her; hating her. "Bandits have no heart; they were going to take you and god knows what they would do to you even if your father gave them everything they wanted."

Three of the unconscious men that she thought to be dead woke up. They wasted no time in getting up and running away. That only meant that she killed two men. In front of her stepdaughter.

"Snow, I'm so – so sorry… I – I did what I had to. I've never done it before…" She lied, but she had to save herself from this. "I – I don't know what came on me. I only knew I had to protect you… at all costs."

Snow's sobbing seemed to be stopping and they both fell silent as the princess looked back and fourth to the dead men on the ground. Regina wished she could use her magic again to dissapear them, but she knew she couldn't do magic in front of her. Not now, not ever again.

Bastards. They tried to kill her. They got what they deserved. But Snow had the purest soul in all the lands, she would see different.

"You're not a monster." Snow said after seconds, and Regina looked up to her to see her staring back at her. The crying was gone, but the tears were still there. "You got out of control, right?"

"Of course I did." Regina said, feeling a single tear rolling down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away and sighed. "I shouldn't have done it; I just don't know what I was thinking."

"I won't tell anyone, but you cannot use magic, ever again." Regina nodded quickly and felt a smile curving her lips, but decided to put it off. "It was so… awful. I – I thought you were going to kill me too."

"No, I would never." She took a step closer, and this time Snow didn't step back. "I will never use magic again, Snow."

"Promise it."

Regina bit her lower lip and sighed, but eventually nodded as she took another step to her. "I promise."

Only then Regina let her lips form a small smile when she saw the same on her stepdaughter's lips. "You were trying to protect me."

"I was."

Snow nodded and wiped the tears from her face. She let out a long breath and took a step closer to Regina, as some kind of blue magic trapped her stepmother, freezing her in place. "Regina!" She tried to run over to her but quickly strong hands were holding her back. She looked back to find one of their guards, as others guards and her father himself walked over to them.

"I can't believe I've married such an evil witch." The King yelled, walking over to Regina. He stood up in front of her as she kept her eyes on him. "Now you will never hurt anyone ever again."

The blue magic that was trapping her got off her, as Regina fell to the ground, weak. Snow tried to get rid of her guard but he only clung to her. "Father, what are you doing?!"

"She's a witch. We all saw how she killed those men. Now she's going to pay for it." Regina looked up at him with all the anger she had left, but felt no magic inside her. "We removed your magic, you can't hurt us now."

"She would never hurt us!" Snow screamed, still trying to get rid of the man holding her back.

"You're too innocent, my princess." A fairy flying above them said. The blue fairy. "But what the Queen did was dark magic, dear. Really dark magic."

"And she's gonna be punished." The King cut off the Fairy, and moved his eyes up to his guards. "Take her away."

"What?!" Snow screamed as she saw two guards making Regina stand up. "She was protecting me, Father! They were going to hurt me!"

"She still had no right to do all the things she did. She's a witch. We don't have witches in our kingdom, Snow. You know that."

"She's not a witch! Wait, no!" The young princess screamed again as the guards started to take Regina away, and she could only fight in vain against her guard's strenght.

"Take my daughter back to safety, and far away from her."

"No, Father, listen to me! Please, you cannot hurt her! Father, listen!" She screamed and screamed, but two guards took her away in the opposite direction of where they took Regina.

She tried to get rid of them; she kicked them, screamed on them, cried on them, but nothing worked. They took her to real carriage, and she tried to find her stepmother with her eyes, but she was nowhere to be found. The guards made her enter the carriage, and all Snow could do was sit alone in it as they returned to her castle.

When she got out of it, she'd find Regina. She would talk to her father and make him see clearly, make him see that Regina wasn't evil, she wasn't a witch. She had magic, and she just got out of control because they were going to hurt her. She promised her she wouldn't use magic ever again. She wasn't a bad person. He couldn't hurt her.

She wasn't going to let him hurt her.

I hope to hear your thoughts about this, reviews are very important to me!