Summary: Regina uses the last of her magic to recast the curse rather than curse Emma.
Pairings: Emma x Regina, Rumpelstiltskin x Belle, Jefferson x Alice
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Regina's magic room beneath her father's tomb:
Regina gazed at the ring, her treasured ring from Daniel. This ring was all that she had left of her true love. It also held the last of her magic in this land without magic. Her gaze shifted to a small scroll which once contained Rumpelstiltskin's dark curse. At the very bottom were the instructions to recast the curse. A reset switch which could be used only once. She held Daniel's ring tightly in her hand, not wanting to let it go. But holding onto it would mean the end of her happiness. She needed the magic from the ring to recast the curse and ensure her happiness and to prevent herself losing Henry.
Her love of Daniel or her life with Henry.
Daniel or Henry.
She chose Henry.
With a nod to the 'Hatter' beside her Regina prepared the spell as Jefferson began spinning the hat. The portal opening to the moment she originally cast the spell. She hoped that this would strengthen the recast with the power of the original casting.
She spoke the words of a language of a world destroyed by the very curse she was recasting. A green cloud of magic billowed out of the ring as it dissolved into nothingness. The cloud gathered speeds, spreading over the town as the inhabitants slept not realising their lives were being changed once more.
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Jefferson's house:
Jefferson jerked awake as he felt the curse settling. He immediately turned to see his daughter Grace asleep curled up at his side. The TV playing cartoons in the background.
"I think it's time you took her to bed," suggested a blonde woman in a blue dress standing in the door to the living room. Jefferson stood up and raced over to her.
"Alice," he breathed pulling her close; Alice gave him a puzzled look.
"Jefferson, you're looking at me like you haven't seen me in years, is something wrong?" his wife nervously joked. In truth he hadn't. The hat only allowed the same number of people to enter and leave its portal. Alice had fallen pregnant with Grace while she was in Wonderland meaning that she couldn't leave through the hat. Two had entered Wonderland but now three existed. They'd spent months on the run from Cora the Queen of Hearts. Moments after Grace's birth Alice had told him to take Grace home. He tried to fight her on the matter until she pointed out only a 'Hatter' could make the hat work. With a heavy and broken heart Jefferson had taken Grace with him home whilst Alice fled from Cora's soldiers. Alice had been trapped in Wonderland. He hadn't seen her since. But here she was, in his arms once more with their daughter asleep on the couch.
Regina had kept her end of the deal and had not only given him back his daughter, but his wife as well. For the first time, he had his whole family. He smiled lovingly at Alice.
"Nothing, just a bad dream," he answered.
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Mr Gold's house:
Rumpelstiltskin's eyes shot open as he felt the recast of his curse take effect. The new memories surging into his mind. He immediately began reviewing them and comparing them to his old Storybrooke memories.
With a roar he leapt out of bed.
He remembered Belle now.
No, not Belle. Isabelle French, the town librarian and the youngest of the three French sisters and daughters of the florist Maurice French.
She was still alive.
His new memories told him that he saw her every Thursday when he went and borrowed a new book for the week just so he could admire the young librarian. Glasses perched on her nose which was always in a book. A single rose from her father's florist in a vase and a chipped tea cup on the desk in front of her. She would always smile brightly at each person who entered her library. But she always smiled brightest at him.
Belle was alive.
That could mean only one thing… Regina had kept Belle from him.
The Queen would pay!
The Queen had told him Belle had died. He'd mourned for Belle. He'd erected a head stone over any empty grave and left a single rose beside it each morning for her. The Queen would pay for her lie!
He paused suddenly when a thought occurred to him.
Regina had kept Belle imprisoned for over 30 years, so why release her now? What was Regina up to?
Rumpelstiltskin delved back into the new memories as he searched for other changes. His eyes shot open once more.
"Oh, very clever Your Majesty, very clever," he muttered to himself. Regina had found a way to keep Henry and ensure Emma would never take Henry from her. He lay down as he collected his thoughts. How to use these new developments to his own gain he wondered.
Rumpelstiltskin decided he would wait until the following day before confronting Regina about everything. Tomorrow he was going to the library and taking Miss French out for lunch. And this time, he was choosing Belle first.
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Regina's house:
Regina was nervous. Had the reset worked as she hoped? She padded down the hall to Henry's room. Peering inside she saw him asleep in bed. A small smile on his face as he dreamed of rescuing princesses from dragons and travelling through enchanted forests. Regina sighed in relief.
She slowly made her way to her room. She opened the door slowly. Curled up in her bed and hogging most of the covers was Emma Blanchard. Regina hadn't wanted to change too much about Emma's life in fear of changing the woman. Instead she'd changed Snow White's life to match her own daughters.
Regina double checked Emma's new history:
Emma and Mary-Margaret were fraternal twins found on the side of a road by a seven year old boy. They'd spent most of their life being bounced around foster homes until they ran away at the age of sixteen and wound up in Storybrooke. Granny had taken the Blanchard twins in and raised the teen girls alongside her own granddaughter Ruby. By making Emma and Mary-Margaret fraternal twins Regina had ensured that any family resemblance could be mistaken as that of siblings and not of mother and daughter.
Regina smiled at the changes she'd made to Emma's love life. In this new history Emma and Regina had met in Granny's diner and had begun dating shortly afterward. Emma hadn't cared that Regina was four years older than her, only that she loved her girlfriend. After almost two years of dating the 18 year old Emma and 22 year old Regina had decided to have a child together, to start a family. For a small town that choice had been very controversial. Some people had protested the couple having a son just as they had protested the pair becoming a couple openly but a few quick words from Granny had silenced everyone who was opposed to the young family. No one ever messed with Granny. Emma chose to be the one impregnated by an anonymous sperm donor. Nine months later the two women were blessed with Henry and the pair had raised him together since.
After Henry had become toddler Emma had decided to follow her dream and become a police officer and had signed up for Police academy. After a couple of months of desperately missing her partner and child she had returned to Storybrooke and had taken up the position as Graham's deputy until his passing earlier in the year when she had stepped up to become Sheriff.
Regina smiled with confidence basking in her victory. She'd managed to develop a new past ensuring that Emma would have no desire to take Henry from her and had also enacted a new revenge on Snow White. In this new history Mary-Margaret had fallen for David Nolan in the final year of high school but he had chosen Kathryn over her. When Mary-Margaret had returned from college studying to be a teacher David had already married Kathryn.
Mary-Margaret had been heartbroken. She'd lost her true love and this time she had suffered through the loss. Previously she had been unaware of the loss of her true love but this time she'd suffered watching David and Kathryn's high school romance blossom. A far more fitting revenge. Nothing hurt quite like watching even the hope of love fade away in front of you and being powerless to stop it.
Regina crawled into her bed with her new partner of twelve years. Emma immediately rolled over and pulled her lover closer.
Regina allowed herself to mould into Emma. Regina knew in the pit of her stomach that the reset was only temporary. Eventually Emma and Henry's magical ability to see through illusions and shift truth from lies would allow them to see the lie that Storybrooke was. Eventually they would both start questioning their lives, their memories and their love for Regina. Eventually Emma would break the curse. Regina knew that nothing she could do would stop the blonde. But she could delay her. Regina guessed that she had close to a year before her life would begin to unravel and the curse would break.
Emma's eye fluttered open. Emma smiled at her partner.
"I love you 'Gina," she murmured half asleep.
"I love you to Ems," she said. The phrase sounded so foreign and so… right. Regina smiled. Maybe there was a grain of truth in what she had just said. Emma smiled as sleep over took her once more. Regina placed a kiss on Emma's cheek and drifted off to sleep, content with her new life.
It would be one year before the reset would unravel. One year before Henry and Emma would turn against her once more.
One more year of happiness.
And that one year would be worth it.
Fin