Here we go with another adventure! Hope you'll like it :o)

Disclaimer: I do not own anything unfortunatelly.

Big thank you to my Beta!


Chapter 1

It reminded Emma of the Duchess' fields. Regina was so concentrated, so deep in herself, of her essence that if Emma didn't know, she would think it's someone cursed to the stone (not literally but frozen like statue). It took a few hours. Emma didn't know what to do with herself. She knew it wouldn't be a good idea to disturb Regina from her hanky panky. She paced around, tried to sleep for a while, she even went for a little walk; then watched as some parts of the castle were reconstructed. She watched Regina. Her face wrinkling in focus on her task, a light film of sweat glistening on her forehead, a few drops running down the sides of her face. When everything was done, Regina collapsed to the ground, dense grass carpet protecting her body from too much damage. Emma was immediately on her knees, touching the sore shoulder of the erratically breathing queen. The older woman offered her a smile through a wet strand of dark hair.

"Now we can… make some… coffee." Regina closed her eyes and Emma carefully helped her to sit down. The brunette laughed.

After a while even Emma got herself infected and laughed along with Regina. When they finally calmed down Regina silently motioned Emma to help her stand up. Emma supported an exhausted (or high) Regina all the way to the castle or to the new chambers Regina restored, situating her in a very comfortable bed. Regina moaned. What a pleasure it is to be back home. In the meantime, Emma started a fire in the fireplace and the room was flooded with the dim light and soon enough some warmth too. Emma didn't bother undressing herself or Regina. She just lay down next to the already sleeping queen and dozed off.

The next morning (or was it an afternoon?) the warmth and stunning soft smell of apples didn't allow her to get up. She wanted to stay like that. But she forced herself to open at least one eye, catching a glimpse of Regina's muffled hair peeking from under the cover. She didn't remember putting Regina or herself under the covers. It meant that Regina woke up much sooner than her but had no intention of staying awake; maybe just to put some logs into the fire because of the cold air in the room. Emma closed her eyes and breathed out loudly, the sound almost identical to a moan. She shifted to get closer to the brunette and sneaked her hands around the sleeping figure from behind, falling into the depths of Dreamland again.

The few days in the castle which were spent mostly in bed were more than refreshing. After long, long years (maybe a few lives) Regina finally could breathe easily. The freedom she felt was so satisfying. She knew she made a hell lot of mistakes but didn't want to release her chance of having love, once she grasped it. Whether she liked it or not, there was the daughter of her nemesis offering her that chance. She went through lot of states from that – feeling 'hatred', then sensing a trap, thinking it was just a bait to catch her. Then feeling lust and finally admit something was there, something that wouldn't leave her heart nor mind.


One day Regina woke up, sensing something. Maybe it was the silence, or only rain knocking on the window panes. She shot out of the bed and sneaked out the door to the dark hallway. The shuffling sounded more and more like footsteps. She prepared herself for defense but when she heard high pitched tone of voices somewhere ahead of her she just chuckled and relaxed. She magically put on her regal dress. She put on a stone cold mask and lit up all the torches at once to see who exactly was wandering through her palace. In the light, two figures of very ugly sick-looking men jumped in fear rather than surprise. They kind of held onto each other to give themselves a moral support but one started to push the other in an encouraging gesture. They slowly approached the queen, their teeth were visibly chattering.

"What are two imps like you doing in my house exactly?" Regina asked looking at them from the height.

"I…we…we've…here…" started one.

"My friend here wants to say…that we…somehow…accidentally saw some…light…here before…and we…wanted to check if someone's…anyone's here," finished the other.

"Yes! Yes! That's right! We realized no one could come here but Her Majesty…" he gulped. "So we went to check on it…"

"At night." Regina looked at them quizzically.

They looked at each other. "Well, if there were any intruders…I mean…someone else…we would help them out."

"At night?" Regina repeated, putting her hands on her hips.

"Well…"

"Yes…"

"But if it were you…" the first one started explaining again. "We thought we might come back later to offer you our services."

Regina raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

The men trembled even more. "Yes…yes, that is true, Your Majesty." They were nodding vigorously.

"Hmmm…" The queen put a finger to her chin, thinking for a while. "Come back to me in the morning if you're so anxious to serve me."

They hurriedly bowed and ran away bumping into each other, trying to get to the nearest exit. Regina burst into a fit of laughter. They were comical.

She was fully awake now and didn't feel like going back to bed so she just took up the men's hobby of walking around her estate. The rain had almost stopped falling; just a few drops found their way to the roof and holes in it. The reconstructed parts of the castle were soon behind her, as she didn't have the time or energy to renew it, so she walked through her old garden for a while in cold dawn. She was at a large patch of grass when a lot of people and other creatures walked to her carefully from all directions. That stopped her in her tracks. The brunette frowned and looked around herself, not sure if she should go defensive or stay in place waiting for denouement. She recognized a few faces in the crowd. It was like gigantic waves speeding to reach a small isle in endless ocean. Suddenly as if a red light showed, everyone stopped, watching the queen from a safe distance. This was a stalemate. No one wanted to make the first move.

Emma was watching, the whole scene from the window, dumbfounded, and her nose almost touching the cold glass. In a second she had her clothes on and hurried outside.

The eye battle on perfectly cut grass continued, nothing changed; only loose parts of clothes were silently moving in the soft wind.

"Regina, what the hell?!" Emma yelled running to the circle around the queen. Every head turned to the direction of the voice. But those faces weren't very friendly. The circle allowed Emma to enter and step up to Regina.

"What's going on here?" Emma whispered searching for an SOS signal in Regina's eyes. It was there. The queen had no idea what all of the theatre meant. They both looked warily over each others' shoulders.

Then everyone got to their knees. As if someone ordered them to. The duo turned in surprise, their eyes jumping from creature to creature.

"Hail to her majesty! The Queen is back!" Still on their knees, they raised their sticks and axes or any other weapon they were holding up above their heads.

Regina gently touched Emma's elbow. "I'll take care of this."

She stepped from behind the blonde and spoke up, "Welcome, my dear friends!" She paused dramatically. "Speak for yourself and tell me what your wish is!"

"To serve our Queen!" they shouted simultaneously.

"Listen up then to what your Queen says!" Regina's voice echoed in the silent, freezing fog. "If you're here to find satisfaction in darkness, if you're bloodthirsty or lusting for misery, go home."

The circle rustled in surprise. A few heads rose to look at the Queen in disbelief.

"Your Majesty?" one or two asked falteringly.

But the royal pointed her finger in the direction of the gate. "I said leave if you don't like what's your Queen saying!" Her features not moving one bit.

Emma expected something like that but not really that ice queen towards her own, now maybe former, servants.

Everyone stayed in place, even if it looked like a wave shuddered through the crowd, because everyone was shifting nervously, deciding if this was just some kind of test or the Queen was serious.

She was deadly serious. All the hustle started again when some of the men and other beings jumped to their feet, looked at her in distaste, some of them snorted and spitted on her boots as they were passing by. But the majority stayed in place, in order to pass the test, or simply because they were too afraid of their lives. Everyone was waiting for those who left to be burned to dust or smashed with stony rain. Nothing of that happened and the guys walked out of the gardens with no harm befalling them.

"Now," Regina walked around the inside of the sieve circle and smiled at the rest of them. Emma crossed her arms at her chest, a grin settled on her lips as she watched Regina play with those people. She's not gonna change.

"Now, rise all of you, who chose the path of real duty! Don't be afraid because now you're gonna be heroes! Is my army ready for serving its queen?"

"Always ready for a fight!"

Regina smiled kindly. "So let's rebuild our empire!"

That's where Emma frowned and unfolded her arms. She looked at Regina warily. The Queen just smiled and winked at her. Now the blonde was confused.

Regina turned on her heel, her cloak flying after her in effective wave. The dismissed army gradually rose from their knees and instead of heading outside to estate gates; they followed Regina, not paying attention to Emma. Well, they didn't know who she was, did they? She caught up to Regina and few guys watched curiously but from respectful distance, as if they noticed her just now. Still, the blonde felt as if they were sticking their dirty necks right between her and Regina like turtles to hear every word of the conversation.

"What are you playing at again? What do we need them for?"Emma breathed through her clenched teeth, so the men couldn't hear her.

"What do you mean, dear?" Regina said with a faraway look.

Emma grabbed her by arm and forced the queen to look at her. Few men pointed their weapons in her direction. "We're not building an 'army', are we? What do you mean by rebuilding the empire again? You're not gonna fight… THEM, are you?"

"That would be quite an interesting…family meeting." Regina grinned.

Emma frowned even more and came to halt, so did the Queen and everyone behind them.

"Of course I won't, you silly!" Regina pushed Emma's forehead with her index finger and the blonde smiled with a slight rolled of her eyes and a big weight fell from her chest.

They were walking once again when Regina added: "But I can't promise you no defending when attacked."

Emma imagined how Mary Margaret…Snow…would manage that kind of meeting. It was ridiculous to imagine her as a warrior. But she had a perfect picture of her and Regina shouting 'curses' at each other from the opposite sides of the table pointing with forks at their opponent. That made her almost burst in laughter. They should definitely go slowly with something like these gatherings.


At the end of the day, during which Regina made a great feast for everyone who stayed, and after she told everyone to spread the word that anyone is welcome if they want to start over, that no one will judge them for their past. Few men offered to stay in the castle as guards. Regina gave them some money for the start but not much so it wouldn't tempt them to go to buy more wine.

In a few hours, in the shadows of the hallway which was leading to her bedroom, she flashed her eyes to the window unconsciously and stopped, turning fully to the window and watching the peaceful yard down there. This night was completely different from the previous one. Clouds were gone and the gigantic moon sailed the velvet darkness of the sky. She breathed in and the freshness of the cold air gave her new energy, suddenly she wasn't tired at all, feeling adventurous and powerful. But in these moments nothing seemed to give her that adventure her whole being cried for. She wanted to run through the woods and dance and run and cry and sing, anything. Just when she was dreamingly tipping the window frame, the adventure knocked on it. To be exact, the light in one of the towers caught her attention. She blinked twice to be sure it's really there, and then ran as fast as she could. With almost no breath left in her lungs she got to the door at the top of the tower, not that she would be scared but it's better to be a little careful. When she was ready to breathe normally she pushed the door open to see all the old candles of the library lightened. The light was very strange after years of dust falling on the wax. But the figure sitting at the study table was too familiar.

"Daddy!" Regina beamed and ran to her father for a hug which occupied them for a few minutes.

When they parted they still held onto each other's hands. They were looking at each other rather inquisitively as people who haven't seen each other in a few decades did. Tears were rolling down both faces but they didn't stop smiling at all. It was happiness showing in all its forms.

"Daddy," Regina rasped. She touched her father's face as if it could disappear in a moment. Nothing like that happened. Her father smiled and nodded.

"Honey," older Henry grasped Regina's hand in his own and tried to stop the new stream of tears that was coming. "I missed you, my dear."

Regina was visibly trembling. "I missed you too, daddy. But how…"

Henry put a finger to his lips to silence her. "Let's sit down, daughter. I'll tell you."

He dropped back into his previous seat and Regina took another chair she found, it didn't look like it would survive more than a few more hours but she risked it. Who cares in moments like this?

Just now she noticed her father was pale as a sheet and looked a little bit sick. Well, but even more alive than the last time.

"Honey, can I get a glass of water?"

Regina shot to her feet and took the shining jar and glass from dusty window sill. She poured the liquid to the glass and gave it to her father. He took it gratefully, drinking it in one big gulp. He brushed the wetness from his lips with back of his hands, sighing in relief.

"Thank you. You have no idea how long I've waited for that." He put his hand to his chest.

Regina watched him without a word. Just now fear started filling her to the top, fear of what her father would tell her, how disappointed he is with her and how could she kill him only to have her vengeance, which she didn't really have anyway. That's how she wasted the life of the person she loved most. Pain of that truth made her cry again.

"Don't cry honey, I know." Henry tried to comfort her with his calm, rather thick voice.

"But…what I did…" The Queen shook her head.

"Now you have something else to focus your mind on."

"I do?" She raised her head to look at him hopefully.

"You were born to be Queen, a hero, something."

Regina frowned. "This is not what my father say." Her senses came to attention, trying to stay with reality.

But the look in Henry's eyes was kind and comforting; no danger was hidden behind those eyes, never.

Woman, you have become too paranoid.

"I'm sorry, daddy…"

The old man raised his hand to silence her again. "Something is going to cross your way."

Confusion usually strikes full force, this was no exception.

Darkness devoured Regina when the big face of something really ugly and noisy almost bumped into her and in that moment she sat up in her bed, cold sweat covering her body. Emma had her hand already on the brunette's arm, stroking gently, whispering something about a bad dream. It took few minutes for Regina's eyes to shake off the haze. But the feeling in her intestines was too intense. She bent over the edge of the bed and disgorged almost everything she ate that day. Even Emma's hand on her back felt like poison to her at the moment. Her stomach rocked wildly like a decrepit boat on a raging sea. Strands of dark hair were glued to the sides of her face with the wetness of her sweat. Emma was trying to pull her into an embrace but that just reminded Regina of a dream so she pushed her away, still not looking at her. She wanted, needed to be alone. However, the stubborn blonde didn't have the same idea.

"Regina, honey," Emma was on her knees leaning to her, pushing the strands of hair away from the older woman's face, trying to identify the look.

Those words, maybe mixed with the disgusting smell of her own vomit hitting her nostrils didn't make it any better as she felt another wave of nausea. She was afraid to put her knees to her chin even if that was actually what she wanted to do. To make a human ball of herself and vanish into thin air. So she just stayed as she was, staring at her pale hands, praying for the sickness to leave her body, or her mind. Finally she looked at Emma. And she burst into tears. She didn't know why she was crying. Was it because her father was not alive? That it was just a dream and she didn't do well even there? That it would haunt her for many days from now on? That she can't tell Emma about it? She would think me insane.

Emma finally managed to pull Regina's shaking figure into her arms, squeezing her lightly, stroking her hair and back in a comforting gesture.

After minutes Regina stopped trembling but resolutely denied to go back to sleep. For those hours they had till the sunrise they were laying in bed, staring to the ceiling, Regina even tried to read, but it didn't work, just then Emma started slowly talking, telling funny stories from her bounty hunter days, her voice more confident with every sentence. They were rolled on the covers with laughter till the morning, forgetting the night for a while.

But when the first rays of sun entered the bedroom, touched the furniture and revealed the mysterious world of dust flying in the room, a sharp pain cut Regina's head like a dagger. Something is gonna cross your way. She got up and took few steps to the drawer and back.

Someone knocked on the door. "Your highness?" The guard's firm voice called. "There is someone asking for audience."

Regina stared at the door for a minute. "Yes, I will hear them out." If I can make myself busy… She looked at Emma who nodded encouragingly.

They both dressed in no time and went to the throne hall. All the guards at the doors were fully awake, staying at attention when their Queen walked the castle in anticipation.

The first audience in the land since the curse was enacted, that was an event not to be missed. All the guards from the inner castle made it to the hall to see the ceremony. If they were disappointed they hid it well. Regina didn't care about ceremonies now. She wanted to hear what they had to say and do her best to solve the problem.

The Queen's crew wasn't of the same opinion as one of the guards stepped to the front and bowed with his forehead almost touching the floor. "My queen! The herald of her majesty, Queen Snow White is waiting for your audience. Are you giving him your kind permission for his requirements to be presented?"

"Sure. Bring him in." Regina commanded.

A small and very skinny man entered the hall and dropped to one knee in front of Regina handing her the scroll he brought from Snow White. The Queen motioned for Emma to take it. She opened the wax seal and showed the message to Regina whose face showed mixed emotions. She didn't know if she should cry or laugh.

"Well speak of the devil…" She eyed Emma significantly.

Emma remembered the conversation about their family gatherings. That memory put smile on her face as she slapped Regina's arm playfully. "Oh come on! It'll be fun! And look! Henry's saying hello and sending hugs!" Emma pointed to the last line. Regina smiled at her too. Then turned her attention back to the herald still kneeling in front of them.

"Tell your queen we will come in a week. And to tell our son that we love him."

The herald smiled and hurried out the room to deliver the message. It went better than he expected. When he was told to go to the Evil Queen his heart almost sank to his pants. And that feeling got even stronger seeing all the fearsome men guarding her estate.

Back in the castle, the ceremonial guard stepped up to his mistress again and called: "Your highness! The herald of his majesty, King Abner of the Dark Land is demanding audience with you!"

This time Regina frowned. The same look appeared on Emma's face. They saved the horse and brought it to the Dark Land. What more did the king want to ask for? Or is he organizing a celebration? Emma doubted it. Regina was absolutely clueless.

"Let him in."

The common man entered and just as the one before he kneeled and bowed his head, nervously squeezing the cap in his hands.

"Your majesty…king Abner would like to invite you to his kingdom…demanding your help."

The nausea was coming back to her. Is this some kind of allergy to good deeds or something?

"What does he need help with? Why didn't he send you to King James?"

"His majesty said…you are our only…hope."

Regina narrowed her eyes. What is he saying?

"Why?"

If the man wasn't trembling before, he was now. "You…you…didn't hear…?"

"What?" Regina's patience was gone since a few minutes ago. She could feel the tension in the hall. Everyone leaning forward to hear every word of the herald.

"C-c-creatures…from nowhere…nameless…are attacking our people in darkness. The Sun horse is not enough…"

Regina turned her back to the herald, putting a hand to her chin, musing. "Guards!" she called as she turned around effectively. She pointed to the ones at the door. "You two! Go after Snow White's herald and add to my message: we will come immediately. And tell him to hurry up. Go!"

They rushed outside to catch the man.

Regina looked at Abner's kneeling servant. "You'll go with us. I will give you an answer for your king at their castle. Now give him some food and a bed."

The Queen's men understood it was a dismissal and they lead the herald to the kitchen where he could have some bread and vegetables.

Regina went straight to her bedroom with Emma at her heels. They started packing immediately without any words. But the brunette caught a few gazes from the younger woman. She sighed. "I know. I don't care about the king but his people do not deserve this."

Emma processed the thought, and then nodded quietly.

"So we're gonna fight for them, not the stupid pig of a king. And I'm sure your parents are gonna help us."

"Just pray for it not to be like bringing your parents to the date."

"Oh, you didn't!" Regina threw a small pillow from the nearest chair at Emma.

They were still giggling when they left the bedroom. Their horses were ready and a few men decided to go with them again. It seemed some of them didn't want to part with their queen again, following her even to hell if necessary.

Thanks for reading! Reviews are welcome.