A/N - Cannon divergence. SQ done with a dark edge. If you like the complexity of these strong women, their dualities of light and dark, then this might be for you. Emma loves Regina. All of her or so she thought… but the feet she currently knelt at did not belong to the woman she fell in love with… When Emma proposes to Regina she does not get the answer she expects and it leads her to cast a spell and travel back to the Enchanted Forest to learn why… and she fucks it up.

Disclaimer - Dark Evil Queen and Savior Emma Swan. Mature themes, Dominance/submission, light bondage, whip and cane play, mild humiliation, consensual rough sex in later chapters. SwanQueen, slow burn - they will get there, I promise. Give it to chapter 4 before you burn it, chapter 7 they get a breakthrough. I reveal nothing early on, but the ride will be worth their hard start... Don't like = don't read. Constructive feedback appreciated, but bashing not accepted.

The Dark Realm - Black Castle Hall - Before the dawn of the hunt…

Emma was forced to her knees on iced black marble by a gloved hand clutching the back of her neck. Head jerked back by another gripping the blonde knot her hair had become from the days, or was it weeks she had slept with the vermin, in her own filth of the Evil Queen's dungeon. Someone was saying her name, but the ringing in the shell of ear from hunger and thirst drowned out all other sound.

A gasp escaped her as cold water was thrown over her head, soaking the thin tunic she'd been allowed to wear today. Breasts heaved as her tongue struggled to lick the drops clinging to her upper lip. A voice… No, the voice spoke again drawing her eyes open against the flickering torch light, grazing over the dais several paces ahead where an ebony throne rested and the voice came from.

"Ready to show me how far you can fly swan girl?"

'Regina.' A thought from another life, a forbidden name here, at least to her. An invisible hand thundered against her cheek, nearly snapping her neck when her response hadn't been immediate and she realized, when that name had leaked from her mouth.

"I thought you had learned some manners by now." Red lips pursed and eyes darkened in wait.

"Majesty?" The title lay thick on her dry tongue. She didn't want another lesson, not so soon. There had been many of those, ones that scraped the inside of her mind raw and weakened her body.

The Queen tapped fingertips against the armrests of the throne, nails scraping the bound leather on top. "We are going to play a game and if after, the lesson is learned, you will be rewarded. If not, well… You have twelve hours to enjoy the rest of your free life, to go as far as your little wings will carry you." She waved a hand sending the doors at the far end of the hall wide open. The beginnings of a winter wind spiraled in whipping sparks in the fire of a great hearth.

Emma shivered as she was forced to her feet, the rope binding her hands cut and with a shove between her shoulders she was pushed toward the openness. Too long in confinement, too much space around her quickened a heart. The game became clear; prey and predator. Frozen in freedom she dared a look over her shoulder.

"My hunt begins at dusk."

She flew.

Hunted

Emma Swan had been given 12 precious hours to live or so she thought, to get as far as she could from the Black Castle and it's Mistress. Less now as the rose of dawn broke across the tops of the trees in the Enchanted Forest.

'Enchanting my ass.' A wasted thought of precious energy she couldn't afford.

A distant howl made her move again from the rock pile she had tucked into, catching a breath that wouldn't come. The underbrush tripped at her heavy feet and still she lifted them as fast as she could, winding further into the dense wood. Direction didn't matter, speed did and her lungs burned for another rest hours later. Sweat glistened on her upturned face, thirst painful now. Wind echoed in ear or was it a stream? Sandpaper tongue swiped at cracked lips. How long since she'd had water or food?

'What day is it?' Another waste and wild tangles of blonde shook.

Pale feet moved toward the sound. About fifty yards away water sang over stone and gravel kissed Emma's knees as she plunged lips into the cool stream. She drank with earnest and for a moment without care. Shrunken stomach sloshed madly when she finally stood.

'Move Swan. Keep moving.'

Beast of a sun throbbed overhead, teeth scratching at hot skin as feet followed the river, hesitant to stray far from the source of life. Kneeling in the mud brought relief to aching knees and an idea struck. Scooping great handfuls of wet earth, Emma covered her limbs, face and neck with mud. Makeshift sunscreen and camouflage in a pinch. Taking another long drink, she forced her body onward.

Hours passed forward and back as her mind pondered the future and the past. She paused once more, sitting back against a great pine, bark digging into her back and knocking dried mud from skin. A short rest would be okay, just a small one. Her head fell back against the tree, eyes heavy, and she closed them for only a moment…

The cool air woke her first before the hoot of an owl. Eyes dilated in fear as branches rustled overhead from the wind whistling through trees. She had until sundown before they would come. Twelve hours to get as far as she could. Stars pierced the velvet night and the howl of a predator came again.

'Move! Damn you!'

Emma bolted upright, tunic flapping at her bruised ribs. Harder to see in the blackness surrounding her vision. Harder still to breathe. She relied on ears instead to trail the river's sharp edge. Feet slipping on stone, she fell, cheek hitting the earth and she heard it then; hoofs slapping in the distance. An upturned root cut the top of her foot as she stumbled up. Something hot dripped down her ankle. Hounds can smell blood. Using teeth, Emma ripped the hem of the coarse fabric sheltering her body, using the strip to tie off the bleeding cut. Up again; forward momentum to nowhere certain.

A horse's whine, gruff shouts closed in.

Up, up, up. Hands scaled a tree with low hanging branches, climbing towards the mocking smile of a glowing crescent. Lips pushed against the bark, muffling hot breath.

Hoofs roared underneath and the din echoed in the direction she'd been heading in. She waited, sitting bait for whatever followed as a starved brain tried to work. Somehow she found the ground or it found her and she took off toward the river, ice water hitting bare flesh bringing mind to present. Shallow enough to wade, waist deep and with the sliver of light afforded her enough to make it to the other side.

Soaked and torn Emma moved through the night. Dazed with fatigue, but nerves on fire she crouched, tucking under a low rock ridge. Pulling leaves and dirt over her body and a dead branch as a shield she finally stopped moving.

The stillness brought vertigo and she turned her head to retch, dry heaves and bile spat from lips. Sleep came in broken waves, teasing behind eye lids. Mornings hand rudely slapped her cheek and in the light she listened; birds, water, a crack above. Teeth bit rolled lips, nostrils flared, heart a machine gun trapped within bone. Emma closed her eyes, tears washing dirt trails down, down her face.

Another crack and then nothing. Minutes tangled with the blood pounding at temples.

"My, my, what do we have here?"

A gravelly voice that turns cells to ice chips in veins. Green eyes dared to open. Violent dark orbs bit back. Perfect white teeth, no doubt ready to reach for a pale throat sat over a full blood red lip.

"Do be a good girl and come out from there." A command veiled with honey tones.

Shaking, Emma crawled, keeping to her knees, her eyes on the dirt near heeled leather boots. Fingers snapped and a rough rope, noose like was tied around her throat, jerking her head back. Her hands were taken, palms in prayer and tied together behind her neck. Knees were next and ankles.

Bound and helpless. Helpless and bound.

Boots moved to a great black steed, large hoofs pawed the earth in impatience as the handler mounted. Emma became sick again as she was lifted bodily and draped stomach first over the horse. Pained ribs pulled tight and balanced between the thighs of the rider. An easy canter was taken up and even the half day ride back toward the black castle broke something inside her. Hunted and caught by the same claws that set her free the day before.

An evil game she'd never win; not when the Queen of it was taking her to task.

The black veil shading her eyes was a small mercy for what was to come.

A/N - Not all is as it seems... big reveals coming! Please Review!