'Rumplestiltskin thinks she is more powerful than I am.'

'Why care what that imp thinks?' Robin answered brassly.

'Because if the man who taught me everything I know about magic thinks she is stronger than I am,' she answered with a lump in her throat, 'then there is no way I can win this fight.'

She stared at him intently and he shifted his gaze from her eyes to the forest floor, trying to come up with a plan. The only thing he could come up with was an old saying.

'Well, one who is not strong has to be smart.' He offered with a shrug. He wasn't afraid of her, he had already seen that she wasn't the Evil Queen everyone said she was. When he looked at her now, all he felt was sadness. He really wanted to help her, but a witchfight wasn't really his field of expertise. When Regina didn't answer, he shifted his gaze back to her and found that she wasn't looking as broken as she was before. On the contrary, she was looking like she actually had a plan. Regina now looked at him and smiled.

'That isn't even so very stupid, thief.'

'Well, thank you m'lady, that I could be of your assistance. But… what is this plan you conducted out of my brilliant words?'

Before he finished his sentence, Regina reached in her own chest and retrieved a red, pulsating object. It took him a moment to recognize the organ as her heart. His expression changed from surprise, confused, to horrified within seconds.

'What are you doing? Put that back!' He almost shouted. But Regina was not planning on doing anything like it. On the contrary, she was staring at her pulsating dark ruby heart in the palm of her hand with a contemplating look, like she was going to use it for something. Robin was still weary, but since Regina didn't seemed to be in harm in any way because of her heart beating out of her chest, he granted himself some time so observe the organ. It was red with a dark glow and some black spots. He was just wondering if all hearts looked the same, when Regina's voice shook him out of his thought.

'Are you quite finished staring?' And with that she stood and walked back into the forest. Robin scrambled to his feet as fast as he could, following Regina into the woods. He knew now wasn't a good time to ask her questions, so he just observed her every move. She seemed to be looking for something, her eyes taking in her surrounding and traveling over the forest floor. When she reached a tree stump she halted and crouched at the bottom. With her hands she started to dig a little hole. When she gently lay her heart in the cold ground, Robin couldn't contain himself any longer.

'What are you doing?'

She didn't answer him. With a large stone and some sticks, she covered her heart. It was only when he couldn't see her heart anymore and she was apparently satisfied with the result, that she turned to face him.

'I need you to do me a favor. I need you to guard my heart.' She said, while she looked at him intently. He could see she was still terrified, but there was something else there as well. Determination. Hope. Before he knew it, before he even questioned it, he nodded his head. With that Regina walked up to him, placing her hand on his upper arm and sent him a small smile.

'Thank you.' It was almost a whisper and then she left.

'Be careful!' He shouted after her, but she had already disappeared into the woods.

It had already gone dark when she hurried back to Storybrooke's main street. She didn't know what Zelena would do when she thought Regina wouldn't show up, so she almost jogged through the woods, not wanting to use her magic yet on a transportation spell. With Rumple's letter, she knew she would have to use all the strength she had. At least, now she felt prepared. She felt empty without her heart, but she knew it was a good decision. When the thief had said that she had to be smart, when she couldn't win by strength, the thought sprung to her. She had to use knowledge. Knowledge that Zelena didn't have. With that, she lost her knowledge, and also strength, she gained from Rumplestiltskin. However, Regina did posses knowledge that Zelena didn't. And that came from Cora, the one thing that bound them, but now also gave Regina an advantage. Regina still didn't think she could win this showdown, but at least she had done everything in her power to make it her wicked sister as hard as possible. Now it was time for her to destroy the green bitch.

She ran back, surprised that she survived, but still afraid that she celebrated too soon. Before she could reach her hiding place, however, a dark figure sprang from behind a tree. A soundless yelp escaped her, before she recognized Robin in the darkness.

'Did the plan work?' He asked, with a hint of concern in his voice.

Concern laced her voice when she responded 'That depends, is it still here?'

'Right where you left it.' He assured her. Before she could retrieve it, Robin was already on hands and knees, looking for the precious object.

'Well, then it worked.' She sighed in relief. She realized that she couldn't have come up with a better plan.

'I just needed to find the one thing I had, that Zelena didn't.' She explained to him.

While he reached for her heart, he asked 'And what exactly was that?'

When Robin handed back her heart, all she could see was his tattoo. She knew that it was crazy of her to just trust him because he was her supposed soul mate. She couldn't help it though. And when she answered him, she was glad she had trusted him.

This was my first Once fanfic, so I hope you liked it! If you want to see other scenes or have a prompt for another story, PM more or sends me a message on tumblr. Im onceuponajisbon there! All mistakes are mine and I don't own the show!