The two witches stood face to face, staring defiantly at each other. "Just what the hell are you planning, Zelena?" "I will destroy you! And for that I need your heart!," Zelena seethed in her younger sister's face. Regina stared at her defiantly. "And what exactly do you want with my heart?" "Time travel. I will make sure you were never born and then I'll have everything you ever had," the green witch cackled. "Why didn't you say that earlier? You could have saved us a lot of fighting." Regina grabbed into her own chest and pulled her heart out. "Catch!" She carelessly tossed it into her sister's hands, who was so stunned, she almost dropped it. "Good luck, sis. I'm counting on you." "Very well, sis." The green witch threw up her hands and both dissolved into green dust.
Only to reappear at an already prepared carving in the ground. The hero clan plus Rumplestiltskin arrived the same way, looking around stunned. Charming's courage, Rumple's brain and the Charming's baby, were laid out around the huge symbol Zelena had carved into the ground. The Wicked Witch obviously had a thing for the theatrical, since she forced everyone to watch helplessly, having them bound with magical ropes. "Welcome, my spectators. Enjoy the show. For today, I will be rewriting history." She bent down to place the heart she was holding in her hands onto the last empty spot, finishing the preparations. Snow and David were struggling in the magical restraints, desperately trying to get to their son; Neal and Robin Hood were flexing and looking for a way to stop the witch. Only Regina just stood and let it happen. They watched as the Wicked Witch lifted her arms and mouthed a silent incantation. Suddenly, bright lights erupted from the four ingredients, weaving around each other before clashing together, opening a portal. "Any last words, little sis? For in a minute, you will never have existed." "I have no words for you. Only pity. Go on, do your thing, I don't have all day." "I imagined this so much more fun, with you begging and fighting me, but this is pretty nice too. Goodbye sis." With that, the witch jumped into the time portal.
The bindings around them fell loose, just like the Dark One's dagger clattered to the ground. Mere seconds later, Regina began to fade away into nothing. "What's happening?", Snow cried out in shock. "Regina has never existed", Rumple stated nonchalantly. He didn't seem concerned at all, which made the princess furious. "Why don't you care at all about her?", she shouted, but he was totally cool. Then, Neal disappeared. Rumple still seemed unaffected. "You see, Zelena has created a butterfly effect. Regina was never born. Thus, there was no one able to cast my curse. We never left the Enchanted Forest, which means that Emma and Neal never met, Henry was never born…" Snow faded into the nothingness as well, her son followed suit just after. "Oh right, I forgot. Snow White died at the age of ten, when she was thrown from her horse. She never met Charming and never even had Emma. Or their new child." Suddenly, the portal changed its color. From bright green to deep red.
Zelena was catapulted out almost immediately, shocked at her failure. Snow, Regina, Neal and the baby reappeared right where they had left, looking around confused. "Why? Why didn't it work?", Zelena shouted at no one in particular, trying to grasp what had happened. "You see", Rumple laughed. "By eliminating Regina, your portal was missing one of its ingredients. Time can smooth over that, it wouldn't have been a problem. But you failed to take into account that you would also eliminate the princess and thus her spawn. Two ingredients gone, the spell couldn't correct that. You failed spectacularly, dearie." The disruption of the spell was taking its toll, forcing the witch to crumple on the floor. Her green skin faded into black ash until there was nothing left of her. The group cheered happily. They had made it. They had won!
"Congratulations, dearie. You defeated your sister without even lifting a finger, by simply letting her destroy herself. I've always known you were the smarter one", Rumple patted his former apprentice's shoulder, who let out a snort. "You've never even considered that I might have actually wanted her to erase me from existence, did you?", she shot back. "Regina, no!", Snow shrieked from behind. "What, Snow? I was going to kill myself anyhow. I can't live like this; I don't have any fight left in me. But when Zelena came around and said she wanted to erase me from history, I thought that was my chance to erase my mistakes along with myself. To undo all the pain I've caused, the suffering, the killing, the despair, the curse. All the things I've done to you would have never happened. I wanted to have never existed, so you all could live a happy and good life. You all would have been so much better off without me." "But not all of us would have. While Zelena was in the portal, you weren't the only one to temporarily disappear. Neal, Snow and our son were also gone. The curse was never cast and Rumple never got his son back. Snow died on that horse, never having Emma or our son, and thus Henry would have never been born either. With you gone, Snow died. Zelena didn't save her, but you did. You have goodness inside you; you just have to open your eyes to see it." Regina was stunned by Charming's speech. Him of all people. She was about to disagree when Rumple, who had by now taken his brain back, cut in. "Come on, dearie, accept it. Join the side of the heroes and be where you were always supposed to be. I only led you astray for my own purposes; this is where you truly belong."