A/N I know that Back to the Start is super old at this point but I just couldn't get the idea of rewriting it out of my head so here is the first chapter.

This is a complete rewrite (as in I rewrote every single word) so it isn't a very quick process, but I have done the first 14 chapters so far and I have a plan to finish at least the first arc (which I think ended in chapter 17/18 in the original story).

Chapter one

Regina felt magic flow through her veins and she closed her eyes against the pain.

She allowed herself a few seconds to try and take in just how it felt to have such an intense power rushing through her and then she finally opened her eyes and looked over to the blonde Charming staring at her, "let me die was Regina."

Emma shook her head adamantly, "Regina, no, there has to be another way."

Regina frowned at her, but quickly put it aside and continued regardless, "I will be able to control the magic, but it will take all of my strength."

The blonde felt her stomach drop at the look on her face. It was apparent that Regina had made up her mind about this. She was going to give up her life for this town so that she could save her son.

"Mom!" Henry shouted followed by his grandparents, which interrupted Emma's further attempt to protest the mayor's plan.

Regina watched the worried expression on his face and she rolled her eyes at the two idiots.

"Henry, you shouldn't be here," she said through gritted teeth, though she was unable to deny to herself that she had wanted to see him in her final moments.

Henry inspected the pained look on his mother's face and he instantly regretted all that he had ever said and done to her. She may have lied to him for years but that didn't mean that he wanted her to sacrifice herself for a town of people that she didn't even like. A small part of him had always thought that she would get redemption.

"You can't give up," he argued, as he ran up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

Regina swallowed hard and tried to blink back her tears. Why did Henry have to wait till now to be affectionate?

"I'm sorry Henry, but it will destroy everything. I can't let that happen…this is all that I am strong enough for," she said with her voice sounding slightly hoarse.

Emma watched the scene with her heart in her throat. As much as she should have hated Regina the thought of a life without her made her physically nauseous. She couldn't explain, but she had always assumed that the infuriating brunette would be a part of her future in Storybrooke with her son and her parents. She could see it in Henry's eyes that he needed Regina just as much as she did and she would be dammed if the boy had to grow up without his other mother.

"You may not be strong enough, but maybe we are," Emma said firmly as she walked over to the glowing diamond.

Regina frowned at the determined look on the blonde's face and she couldn't find the right words to object to whatever she was about to object to.

Henry tightened the hug for a couple of seconds before he untangled himself and ran over to his grandparent's arms.

Emma looked into Regina's eyes as she took a step closer to the Mayor. The blonde tried to communicate everything that she had been afraid to voice for a while now and somehow Regina knew exactly what the look meant. It revealed everything that Emma felt for her. In that moment, the brunette felt intense relief. If she had to die, then she was so happy that it could happen knowing that people cared about her.

The burden suddenly lessened and Regina closed her eyes for a moment, when she opened them the magic was flowing between both herself and the Saviour's bodies.

She was about to give the blonde a smile to show her just how much of relief this all was, but before she could, a magical surge threw them both backwards.

Regina's head smashed against a jagged rock before her prone body hit the ground.

In the last moments, before unconsciousness took her away, Regina desperately tried to look for her family to see if they were okay.

Regina felt her brow scrunch as consciousness returned to her mind. She was aware that her eyes were glued shit and she didn't really feel like opening them right now.

She didn't want to open her eyes to find Emma and Henry (and the idiots she supposed) injured or worse. But then something occurred to her, her back wasn't being supported by cold, hard rock, but rather there was a distinctly soft material underneath her.

Footsteps sounded before she could think further about the possibilities and a masculine voice called, "Regina, wake up."

She expected to open her eyes to find herself either in the hospital or the Charming's apartment and for David to be the one to be prompting her awake.

She finally pried her lids apart and her scathing remark died on her tongue, "Graham?" she breathed.

The Sheriff of Storybrooke didn't seem to have noticed anything off about the mayor, other than the fact that she had fallen asleep on the sofa, so he continued without even a questioning look.

"Archie called, he said that he told a woman where Henry lives. She should be here with him any second now," Graham explained as he held out his hand to help the brunette woman up to her feet.

Regina took a brief look around her living room before she accepted his hand, it all seemed very much real despite the fact that she was almost certain that this had to be a dream or a hallucination.

A few seconds later, the two of them walked through the open door, where she saw a familiar bug pull up to her driveway.

The brunette blinked a few times at the sight as her mind tried to catch up to what was happening, or more specifically, when it was happening.

"Henry?" she said as the boy jumped out of the car, looking much shorter than he had a few moments ago, "how…?"

Henry interrupted her as she ran quickly inside, clutching his story book tightly in both arms, "I found my real mom!" he shouted as he passed her.

Regina felt her heart clench, just as it did when she had heard those words the first time around, though the feeling of him hugging her as he pleaded for her to not sacrifice herself lessened the ache in her chest somewhat. No matter what, she knew that the boy did care about her more than he would be willing to admit right now and she was determined to earn that love this time.

She looked over her shoulder at the boy running up the stairs and she had the urge to run after him and begin apologising profusely for allowing him to believe that he was crazy for so long.

However, Graham's hand on her shoulder made her realise what happened next and she turned to look at the very nervous looking Emma walking slowly up to her.

Regina stared for a moment and considered just how different this woman was to the one who had just taken in immense magic to save Storybrooke from the trigger built into the Dark Curse. The brunette had no doubt that the woman didn't believe anything that Henry had told her about his theories.

She wanted Emma to stay in Storybrooke, but she had no idea how she was supposed to do that considering she had gotten her to stay last time by trying to make her leave. It appeared as though she had been given a second chance but she didn't want to just do the same things over again.

"Emma," she breathed before she realised her folly and just about stopped herself from closing her eyes in frustration at herself.

The blonde stood in front of her and tilted her head in confusion/concern, though she still managed to look Regina up and down for a split second, with a slight blush forming on her cheeks.

"How do you know my name?" she asked with narrowed eyes.

"If Henry can find you, do you not think that I would know your name, Miss Swan?" Regina replied, trying to keep her usual bite in her voice despite how surreal everything currently was.

Emma felt her 'superpower' ping and frowned. However, she quickly decided that it didn't matter, she just wanted to get out of this town and it wasn't as though her power was a perfect lie detector.

"Okay…" she said before nodding and turning on her heels so that she could return to her car.

Regina panicked at the movement and ran over to grab her arm at the elbow.

"Wait," she said and Emma turned around with a frown that morphed into an expectant look.

Regina stood still for a moment as she tried to remember what had happened last time, but she could also only think about how much she needed to talk to a certain pawn store owner.

"There's a storm coming, you should stay the night until it passes…there's a bed and breakfast on Main Street. You just need to speak to the waitress in Granny's diner and she should be able to organise everything for you."

Emma narrowed her eyes at the brunette. She had an overwhelming feeling that this was all wrong, but she also didn't really want to leave, at least not yet.

The blonde nodded slowly, but said suspiciously, "you seem oddly okay with meeting your son's…birth mother."

"I simply no longer want my son to see me as a tyrant and I believe that it would be beneficial for both of you to get to know each other…assuming you would want to of course. For now, could you accept that I simply do not wish for a stranger to risk their life in a storm?"

"And what makes you think that I would be so willing to get to know him?" Emma asked bitterly, with her throat constricting at the very thought.

"There is nothing keeping you here, leave in the morning, if you feel that you need to," Regina replied, hoping that she hadn't just screwed up the future.

The blonde thought about this for a moment and nodded, "okay."

"Before you go, Miss Swan, you must allow me to thank you for returning my son in one piece. Allow me to treat you to breakfast in the morning?"

Emma had the urge to say no since she had planned to depart at the crack of dawn, but when she inspected the slight nervousness behind Regina's eyes, she decided that she couldn't leave without at least seeing this woman one more time. Though, she tried to convince herself that this was because she wanted to find out what kind of woman was raising her son.

"I think I'll take you up on that offer…but I do need to ask…you do know a that Henry thinks that everyone in this town is a fairy-tale character, right?"

"I'm well aware," Regina sighed, "I believe that I now have a better way of dealing with it."

Emma nodded, but she frowned at the vagueness of the statement. However, when she turned to head towards the bug, she found her lips turning up in a smile. She was actually quite looking forward to her breakfast with Mayor Mills despite herself.

After the blonde had driven away, Regina thanked Graham and sent him back to the station to finish the rest of his shift.

Following that, she had all but ran up the stairs and knocked tentatively on Henry's open door, "Henry?"

"Go away," the boy mumbled into his pillow.

Regina bit the inside of her cheek as she looked at the small lump on the bed. She couldn't really remember what had happened last time but she did know that it had probably ended with some kind of argument.

When she couldn't think of anything else to say, she offered, "I'm happy you're back…"

Henry took a moment to take this in, before he popped up into a sitting position with a frown, "you're not mad at me?" he asked with slightly narrowed eyes. He had been sure that he would have been grounded for the rest of his life.

"I understand why you needed to…find your birth mother," Regina replied as evenly as possible as she crossed her arms over her chest defensively. Even if she agreed that he made the right decision, it didn't make what he did any less painful.

"Are you sick?" Henry asked with a furrowed brow and Regina just let out a little laugh and shook her head.

"I'm fine, Henry, I'm just…trying things a little differently this time," she said, which only made the younger brunette more confused.

He decided that she was just being weird and would probably go back to normal in the morning, "I need to go to bed, I have therapy before school."

Regina swallowed hard as she inspected the expression on his face. She had genuinely tried to make her son believe that he was crazy to protect her precious curse and the guilt was indescribable.

With a deep breath, she pushed herself from the door frame so that she could walk further into the room and closer to the bed.

Henry narrowed his eyes further, "what is going on with you?"

Regina sighed, resisting the urge to plop down onto the bed, "you have no idea."

"Then tell me," Henry shot back, his voice a mixture of anger and frustration.

"I promise you that I will. I just need to speak with someone first to understand everything myself."

"Whatever," he mumbled in disbelief, "I guess that you sent Emma away?"

"I sent her to the B&B and I imagine that she won't be leaving any time soon," she replied.

Henry furrowed his brow when he saw the slight smirk tugging at the corner of her lips, though it didn't really look all that malicious.

"Seriously, are you sick?" he asked, feeling genuinely considered for the woman. Radical changes in personality were certainly a cause for concern.

Regina let out another laugh and shook her head again, "I'm fine, I promise, and I will tell you everything in the morning, okay?"

"I'll believe it in the morning," he said as he flopped down to the bed. As soon as his back hit the mattress, his book fell down from under his blanket.

He scrambled to pick it up, but Regina beat him to it as she picked it up before he made it off his bed.

Henry looked up from her in fear, but she simply handed the book to him.

"You need to be more careful with this, Henry," she scolded, "and don't rip out any pages."

With that, the mayor turned on her heels and left behind a very dumbfounded Henry.

S

A bell sounded out through the pawn store and Mr Gold looked up from his ledger with a slight smirk.

"Hello Madam Mayor, to what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?"

Regina rolled her eyes as she walked over to the counter, "cut the crap, imp, I'm here to make a deal."

The man frowned at the intensity shining through her eyes. This was not the Mayor of Storybrooke, it was obvious that something important had happened to this woman but nothing in his carefully constructed plan could have caused this.

However, he decided to play it safe in the unlikely event that he was wrong, "I'm afraid I don't believe I understand."

Regina rolled her eyes again, she hadn't thought that he would have told her everything straightaway, but she had sincerely hoped that she wouldn't have to deal with his usual time wasting and riddles.

"I know who you are, Rumpelstiltskin."

Rumple narrowed his eyes at the woman. On one hand, if she was bluffing to find out the truth then agreeing with her would just reveal the secret that he didn't want her to know just yet, however, if she did somehow know the truth, there would be no point in continuing the lie.

"And what you make you believe something so ridiculous," he asked, hoping to ascertain what her intentions were.

"It's a very long story, the basis of which is that I have already lived through the curse breaking at the hands of the Saviour, Emma Swan," Regina replied.

Mr Gold frowned for a moment. There was no doubt in his mind that she was telling the truth, there was no way that she could know about the existence of a Saviour otherwise, at least not this early in his plans.

"Okay, your majesty," he relented. "what is it this thrillingly long story?"

Regina told him all about the alternate timeline and she continued to receive a look of disbelief right until she got up to the part about the trigger.

"I've always wondered why you would want that thing written into the curse," he laughed with a shake of his head.

"It was a failsafe," the mayor defended.

"For what?" Rumple shot back.

Regina just shook her head. He had a point, that diamond turned out to be nothing but trouble, but she wasn't going to admit that aloud to the imp.

"The point of this is that Emma and I are now living in the past and only I appear to have my memories…I need to know why."

"I suppose the combined power of the Evil Queen and the Saviour partially stopped the trigger. You stopped it from completely destroying Storybrooke but you were still sent back to a time when the curse first started breaking," he pondered, "but surely you can just use your knowledge of the future to get exactly what you want?"

"What I want has changed, I need to know the fastest way to break the curse," she replied.

"Two methods come to mind, you could either kill yourself or the Saviour," he answered with a smirk.

"Neither is an option," she replied with a deep scowl.

"If you say so," Rumple sighed in mock frustration, "the curse is destined to break, if you don't wish to move things along, you just need to play this timeline out. The curse will break eventually now that the Saviour is in town. Now what do I get out of this deal?"

Regina sighed, she didn't feel as though there was any other method other than waiting to see what had happened.

"Years ago, I lied to you and I need to…rectify that…" the brunette replied with her head bowed.

Rumple narrowed his eyes and nodded for her to continue.

"Before I tell you, I need your word that you will not take revenge against me in anyway."

The man considered this for a moment. He couldn't deny that he wanted to know what was going on; plus, he was sure that he would find a work around for his oath if needed.

"Belle is alive," she replied, after a brief hesitation.

Rumple stood still for a moment before his face contorted and he took a step forward before he remembered his oath and stopped herself.

"Where is she?!" he growled slightly relieved that he didn't have any magic in that moment since he was sure that he would have already broken the deal.

Regina brought out the skeleton key from her pocket and placed it onto the counter.

"Her cursed name is Lacey and she is underneath the hospital," she said, regret dripping through her words.

Mr Gold took a few deep breaths, though it didn't seem to have any kind of real calming effect, before he asked, "you locked her up for 28 years?"

"You trained me to become the type of person who would do something like that, so I believe that we're even," the mayor sneered.

He narrowed his eyes, "I suppose that you're right, but this does not mean we're even," he replied with venom seeping through all of his words as he pushed through the counter barrier and grabbed the key.

Regina slowly stirred her coffee and stared blankly across the kitchen. She had been stood there since 5.30 am and it was now closer to 7.30 am. During this stretch of time, she had been considering what would be a good way to explain everything that had happened. Then it occurred to her. Henry was the boy who figured out that the curse existed and brought the Saviour here to break it. If anyone was going to believe her about this, then she was sure it was Henry. Believing wasn't the issue here, it was the trusting part.

After a few more moments staring at the wall, she decided that chocolate-chip pancakes were in order.

The mayor had just placed the last pancake onto a plate just as Henry walked into the kitchen already fully dressed for school. Regina smiled and placed the plate onto the counter and the boy eyed them distrustfully, "they're chocolate-chip, Henry."

The boy seemed to completely forget that he had ever distrusted his mother as he launched forward and began devouring them.

When had finally swallowed the last bite, he seemed to remember what his mother had promised the previous night and looked up at her expectantly.

Regina took a deep breath, briefly wondering whether she could put this off for a little longer. She was so afraid that she would somehow do this wrong and screw up any chance that she would have had to amend their broken relationship.

She took another deep breath and finally admitted, "I'm sorry."

Henry furrowed his brow as he considered whether he had ever heard his mother sound so sincere, "for what?" he asked.

"For…lying to you about the curse, it's very real," Regina admitted, finding that the words were a lot harder to say than she would have thought.

The younger brunette opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He had hoped for this moment but he had never actually imagined that it would happen. Which was exactly why he finally said with narrowed eyes. "what's your plan here?"

"This may be the part that is difficult for you to understand…I have already lived through the curse breaking and a year after. Emma and I stopped something that was going to destroy Storybrooke and I woke up yesterday reliving the past," Regina blurted out hoping that it sounded better than it did in her head.

After a couple of seconds of sitting blankly trying to work through what he had just been told, Henry furrowed his brow in concentration, "the curse broke," the boy said slowly.

Regina nodded and a smile spread across his face.

"I knew it!" he almost shouted in triumph. Regina just continued nodding and tried to keep the pained look off her face. Something occurred to Henry and his furrowed his brow again, "you and Emma worked together?"

"It was the only way to stop the town's destruction," Regina replied, "and now I need to change everything to make sure that things don't get that close to destruction again."

"And how are you going to do that?" Henry asked with a frown as his mind went make into processing mode.

"Absolutely no idea," Regina sighed.

"I know that this all very hard to believe…"

"It's awesome!" he finally announced as he stood from the stool, doing everything but fist pump.

Regina's eyes widened at his sudden change in mood and she choked out, "you believe me?"

"Well…it makes perfect sense, you saw what you did was wrong and now you have a chance to fix everything and get redemption," he replied with a huge smile.

The older brunette just looked at him blankly for a few moments, before Henry furrowed his brow in concern, "mom, are you okay?"

"Belief is a strange feeling," she admitted, "I considered that I might have needed some kind of proof…"

"You have proof?" Henry asked with his brow knit tightly together as he tried to figure out what she could have possibly had.

"Well…there is a dragon hidden under the library…." Henry's smile spread across his face in excitement but it quickly dropped when Regina added, "but you don't have to see it now…"

"But…" he began, but quickly decided that there were more important things to focus on…for now. He was more determined to make sure that his mother got the redemption that his mother got the redemption that he had always wanted her to have so that he could have the curse break and still keep his mother who he never be able to not love.

"So, you really have no plan?" he asked.

"I wish I did," Regina sighed, "the curse took a year to break…last time…"

Henry sighed as well, he certainly didn't want to wait that long now that he knew he was definitely right.

"Well…how did Emma break the curse last time?"

Regina opened her mouth to tell him, but she quickly closed it when her role in what had happened occurred to her.

Henry tilted his head at her expression and he quickly added, "I promise that I won't judge you."

"…really?" she asked in surprise, remembering all of the judgement that she had received in the other timeline.

"You technically haven't done any of it yet and you want to make sure you don't make the same mistake again, so I can't really judge you," he explained.

Regina nodded and took a moment to take this in, before she explained, "I tried to put a sleeping curse on Emma using an apple turnover…but you at it instead. Whale couldn't wake you with medicine…Emma kissed you on the forehead and it broke the Dark Curse and the Sleeping Curse."

Henry nodded and thought about this for a moment, "that…can't be the best way to break the curse…"

"I couldn't agree more," Regina said with a little chuckle when she noticed that there was no sign of disgust in her son's eyes.

A look of concentration overcame Henry's face as he considered all of the options that they had, but he quickly decided that he would need more time to think all of this over.

"We need an operation," he finally said.

"Operation Cobra?" Regina suggested with a smirk.

Henry blinked a couple of times in shock, he believed his mother beyond a shadow of a doubt, but that didn't mean that he had fully come to terms with the idea of the woman actually knowing the future.

"I think we need a different name," Henry finally replied, deciding that it wouldn't be right to name it after the operation he had designed to thwart her, "how about operation…Mongoose?"

Regina nodded, "I like it," she smiled, before she added, "but you need to go to school before you can start planning anything."

"You can't just send me to school after everything that you just told me!" he exclaimed.

"I can, "she laughed, "besides, I need to meet Emma for breakfast."

"So…you're going to become friends with Emma?"

"Yes…friends," she smiled before she pushed herself away from the counter so that she could go and finish her preparation for breakfast and work.

A/N Please pm or review to let me know whether anyone is still interested in this so I know whether or not to post the other chapters, there's no point posting if no one is interested anymore :/ lol but hope you enjoyed this chapter anyway :D