Authors Note:

It's been a very long time since I've written anything at all, and I've certainly never ventured into Once fanfic before. But alas here I now am. This may be a one shot or something more, not entirely sure yet.

SwanQueen with the occasional reference to CaptainHood (is that what it's called? does it even have a name?).

Anyway off we go. Unedited so mistakes are my own.

Chapter One - Popcorn

"Emma" Regina whispered, shock and relief flooding both her voice as well as her face.

Emma didn't say anything, and Regina's heart raced as she took in the vision standing at the opposite end of her bedroom. She looked different now, the darkness evident in every one of her features. Her eyes were black, her clothes were black, even her hair was a darker shade of blond. There was a rage inside the younger woman now. Regina could feel it. And it both terrified and fascinated her. "What are you doing here?" she eventually asked when she realised Emma still hadn't spoken.

The next minute Emma had her by the throat up against the wall. "Did you know?"

"Did I know what?" Regina gasped out, now a little frightened. "What are you doing here Emma? Where have you been for the past few days? Henry's been worried. I've been worried." The former Evil Queen would have been more embarrassed by her little slip up had she not had bigger issues right now. Emma didn't appear to have heard her anyway, too busy tightening her grip around Regina's neck. She didn't even comment on the fact that Emma chose to appear in her bedroom rather than knocking on the door. Considering less than a week before she'd sacrificed herself for the older woman, Regina felt it would be wrong to comment on her lack of common courtesy.

"When you let me" Emma was so close to her face now their noses were practically brushing against one another "sacrifice my soul for your happiness" the blond spat out "did you know I was doing it for nothing". She raised her voice as she said the last word and Regina tried to make sense of what was happening. Unable to and frustrated she finally lost patience.

"Emma can you please put me down and explain what exactly the problem is. I appreciate what you did for me - really I do. But that does not give you the right to just appear in my bedroom and assault me because what? You're mad that you sacrificed yourself so I could be happy with Robin and he's not here right now? He's out with his men Emma. Robin not being at my side twenty four hours a day does not make what you did worthless. He loves me. And I love him. And because of you we can be together. And that means everything to me. Everything!" Regina shouted the last word, desperate for Emma to know that she truly understood the sacrifice she'd made. The price Emma had paid for her happiness.

For one moment Regina thought it had worked. The blond had let go of her throat now and stalked off across the room, her back turned. The older woman hoped that there was enough light inside of her still that she would be able to get control of herself. Realise she'd overreacted and have an actual conversation with her. But then Emma turned around and said with a small, almost spiteful smirk "congratulations your majesty, you were right."

"Sorry?"

"Love is weakness" Emma said barely above a whisper, her whole face screwed up in disgust. She turned her back to Regina again and with a small flick of her hand the large mirror on Regina's bedroom wall started to glow and the brunette's attention was taken away from the new dark one and instead was focused on the scene materialising in front of her.

"Is this some sort of sick joke?" Regina snarled at her, switching her focus back to the blond. "Some kind of punishment?"

A moan in the mirror distracted her for a moment and her eyes flickered back to where her true love was currently in his tent with… no it couldn't be. "Is that Hook?" she snapped, spinning around to Emma.

The younger woman's eyes seemed even darker now and the smirk was gone. "Don't tell me you didn't know your majesty."

"This" Regina threw her right hand out in the direction of the mirror "it isn't real. It's a lie. You're obviously trying to hurt me. Although I have no idea why. When most people sacrifice themselves for the happiness of another Ms Swan, they generally don't try and destroy that happiness less than a week later with this nonsense." She signalled again in the direction of the mirror. Part of her mind was telling her, over and over again, that what she was seeing, what she was - she flinched as another load grunt came from one of the men in the mirror - hearing wasn't real. But the speed at which her heart was beating and the look of horror she knew was on her face contradicted what her head was trying to convince her of.

There was no disguising the look on Emma's face now. She was looking at Regina with nothing other than unadulterated loathing. "Really? You think that after everything I've done for you, everything I gave up to protect you…"

"This doesn't make sense" Regina cried out. "This… it doesn't…" the tears that she hadn't even realised she was trying to suppress were now falling onto her cheeks. Just as she began sinking to the floor one of the men in the mirror reached his climax, screaming out her true love's name and moaning into his back. "Stop it!" the brunette screamed, desperately trying to block out the noise with the sound of her own voice. "Please Emma I'm begging you please make it go away…" She could hear the weakness in her own voice as she buried her face into her knees.

Silence filled the room and gave away the fact Emma had finally complied with her wish and returned her mirror to it's prior state. Regina wept silently, making sure to keep her face hidden, unable to even begin to process what she'd just born witness to.

"i'm sorry" Emma's voice was close now, she must have been right in front of her, but Regina wouldn't look up to find out. "I… I was angry. Not at you. Deep down I knew that there was no way you knew about that. I just… I don't know I… I got an anonymous text telling me where to look and when I saw it… I lost control. I don't know what came over me. I tried to stop it but…" she trailed off and Regina finally looked up.

"It's the darkness Emma, that's what it does, makes everything seem even darker than it already is."

"That's no excuse" the blond threw back looking angry again. "I should have been able to stop it. I should have been able to ration with myself. What I just did to you Regina, it was cruel. It was cruel and it was unnecessary."

"It's really the truth?" Regina whispered; already knowing the answer but needing to hear it one more time.

"Yes" Emma's voice had dropped now and it had a softness that the older woman hadn't heard in a long time. "What I showed you, it's what is actually happening, right now."

Regina gave a small sob before burying her face back into her legs. Emma hesitated for a moment before reaching out an arm to touch her. Feeling the brunette shake she moved around so they were sitting side by side, and pulled the smaller woman against her. Neither of them said anything for nearly ten minutes. Eventually Emma spoke.

"I hate this you know? One minute I feel like I can control the darkness, keep it suppressed and below the surface. The next… Have you ever microwaved popcorn?"

Regina looked up in confusion, unsure where this conversation was now headed but so surprised she forgot she was trying to hide her face from the ex-saviour. "No, why? I'm not about to start now, you have enough darkness inside you at the moment without cavities."

Emma shook her head. "No, that's not what I meant. I'm not hungry right now - for obvious reasons. Okay maybe a little bit hungry, but… that's still not where I was going with that. Although just for the record after sacrificing my soul for you I expect you to let me eat blocks of your sugar if I want. But the popcorn was a metaphor for how I'm feeling. I feel like the one squished at the bottom. I can feel everything exploding around me but I try to hold on, try not to let it take hold of me. But then at the last minute 'pop'. I feel myself suddenly filling up with the darkness."

"That was a dreadful metaphor" Regina grumbled, her face now buried back into her knees. "But I get your point. Just."

Emma would have normally made some sort of response to the insult, but quite frankly she felt like she'd done enough harm without antagonising the broken woman in front of her. She knew Regina well enough to know that despite the fact she was holding herself together sort of okay, inside she was in agony. And it was her fault. Well not the boyfriend fucking someone else's boyfriend bit. But there were kinder ways to tell someone. It would never had been easy for her to find out; but that didn't excuse Emma doing it in the most painful way possible. "God Regina, I am so sorry."

The older woman wiped her eyes while still looking down, and then raised her head back up. "It's not your fault. Thank you for telling me. But now I need some time alone so if you wouldn't mind…" she signalled towards her bedroom door.

"Oh…" Emma was a little surprised by her sudden dismissal. "Are you sure that…"

"Ms Swan can you please just go" Regina snapped at her, feeling tears start to form again in her eyes and determined that she wasn't going to break down with an audience

Emma shook her head. "Regina I don't think that it's a good idea for me to…"

"I wasn't asking for your approval. Simply requesting that you leave my private property so I can take some time to process the fact that the man I thought was my true love is having intimate relations with another; something that, thanks to you, I've just got a very graphic…"

Before she was able to finish her sentence Emma had made a decision. Scooping the brunette in her, now stronger than ever arms, she began carrying her downstairs. Regina fought against her but while she was magically strong she was physically less so, and Emma made sure to block her magic until she unceremoniously dumped her onto one of the bar stools in her kitchen and started rummaging around for a bottle of apple cider. Remembering she had an easier way to do this, and ignoring Regina who was now making angry protests from the seat Emma had invisibly bound her to, Emma conjured up a bottle and two glasses and began to pour.

By the time she'd finished Regina had stopped screaming at her, which Emma was relieved about until she turned around and saw something even worse. The older woman was now shaking violently in her seat with a look of pure terror on her face. Running over Emma put both glasses on the side and looked at her in concern.

"Please, please I'm begging you, please don't restrain me with magic" Regina wept. Surprised to hear how weak she sounded Emma immediately let her go. Free to move now but seemingly unable to do so Regina instead remained seated, still tremoring and with streams of tears pouring down her cheeks. Emma looked at her in horror.

"'Gina I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you. I know I was mad earlier but I'd never hurt you, I promise. I was keeping you there because I didn't want you running off, not because I was planning some sort of violent assault…"

"I know" the brunette managed to say. "I… mother…"

Regina didn't seem able to say anymore but she didn't need to. The moment she mentioned Cora, Emma immediately understood. "God, what is wrong with me? I turn up, make you watch your boyfriend do the dirty with my boyfriend on that bloody huge mirror of yours, and then fucking traumatise you by bringing up dreadful memories from your past. Is screwing everything up part of being the dark one or is that just who I am? A total screw up that always manages to hurt the people she cares about by being stupid?"

Regina opened her mouth to respond but then shut it again. "Are you going to pass me my drink or do you expect me to fetch it myself?"

A little alarmed by another sudden change of tone, it took Emma a moment to realise what she'd just been asked to do. They both sat and sipped on their drinks in silence for nearly twenty minutes before Regina found her voice again. "I think it's time we go and pay our true love's a visit."