The crowd stood stunned, whispering to each other as the scene unfolded infront of them.
"Ruined your life? What the hell did I ever do to you?" Regina asked.
"Now, now." She said, wagging her finger. "Airing our dirty laundry in front of everyone isn't very Queen like, is it? Not that it matters. Knowing won't stop me. I've been dreaming of this for a long time."
"Then why wait so long to ruin me?" Regina asked.
"Because, I was stuck in Neverland, until you oh so conveniently joined the realms one day, and suddenly, I could just walk right out." She said as she smiled devilishly. 'Well, that explains the lost boys.' Regina thought.
"The last time I saw you, you'd lost your magic." Wish Hook said.
"Well," she said lightning a fireball. "It appears I have it back." She proceeded to blow out the fireball.
"I'm sorry, haven't we already done the whole Regina fighting herself thing? Are we just reusing old story lines now?" Zelena snarked. The Evil Queen glared at her, and turned back to Regina.
"This storyline will have a very different conclusion, I promise. Because you're going to do exactly what I want." She explained.
"What makes you think that? In case you haven't noticed, you're extremely out numbered." Regina stated. The Evil Queen smiled at that.
"Am I?" She laughed a bit. "Even if that were true, it wouldn't matter, because I have leverage." She poofed a magic mirror into her hand and held it up for Regina to see, and what her eyes found confused her. There was Emma lying asleep in a very familiar looking glass coffin. She looked over at the Emma standing behind her and back at the mirror.
"What kind of trick is this?" Regina demanded.
"Oh, no trick. I have your precious savior in a place you'll never find her."
"Umm, last I checked I'm standing right here." Emma said, gesturing toward herself.
"Oh dear, no you're not...well you are, but you're not you." The Evil Queen explained.
"Come again." Emma said.
"I think this other you is a few apples short of an orchard." Zelena whispered in Regina's ear.
"Oh, this is perfect, you have no idea, do you?" The Evil Queen laughed. "It's going to make everyone so much more miserable than I'd expected when I tell you." She walked up to Emma. "This...is not your Emma. This Emma is from my realm, and this..." she held up the mirror "...belongs to you."
"Well, considering I'm Emma, I think I would know if I weren't me." Emma said.
"Apparently not dear, because you aren't." She replied.
"And we're just supposed to believe you, even though none of this makes any sense. How do we know you aren't just making all this up to get what you want?" Snow interjected. The Evil Queen snapped around to look at her.
"I could care less what you believe, you're old news, I have new fish to fry. Besides, little blonde savior isn't my only bargaining chip. I know where it is." The Evil Queen said leaning in close to Regina threateningly.
"Where what is?" Asked Hook.
"The heart." She said simply.
"Whose heart?" Inquired Charming.
"No, no, I mean 'the heart' the shiny piece of crystal that's storing all the little fragments of real hearts that hold the realms together. I know where it is, and I also know if I crush it, all of this..." she raises her hands "...crumbles to dust."
"How did you..." Regina began.
"I have my ways...Point is, I'll trade her life for yours. Do we have a deal?" She asked. She could tell she wasn't yet convinced. So she looked deep into Regina's eyes and spoke with purpose. "It's a simple choice, really. Because I know you'd rather suffer than see that pain on the people you care about. It's your fate. You're trapped."
Regina's eyes grew wide with realization. The Evil Queen was telling the truth, because she remembered those words. Words she'd said to Emma once in private. Words only she would have known.
"We aren't just going to let you take her." Snow said.
"Oh, do shut up." The Evil Queen magically sealed her lips shut and turned one last time to a still stunned Regina. "I see you're in need of some processing time. I'll tell you what, I'm feeling generous. I'll give you twenty-four hours to decide." Then she poofed out, taking her lost boys with her.
Regina only paused milliseconds to think and then poofed out right behind her, unsealing Snow's lips as she left.
"Regina!" Snow yelled the second her mouth could open.
"Where did they go?" Emma asked.
"You don't think Mom would just hand herself over do you?" Henry asked. They all looked at each other knowingly, realizing she probably would. Charmings, Mills and Jones all took off out the door, Granny and the dwarves in toe, not knowing exactly where they were going, but knowing they had to find them.
Somewhere out in the middle of the woods The Evil Queen and Regina appeared and stumbled to the ground.
"Piggybacking off someone elses magic is rude, didn't anyone ever tell you that. I knew you couldn't resist following me." The Evil Queen said as they both stood up and straightened themselves.
"I wasn't just going to let you leave without you telling me what you think I did to you." Regina said.
"What did you do? You stole her from me." She hissed.
"What?" Regina asked confused.
"Emma. I'd been trapped in Neverland for years, and one day she just fell out of the sky. I loved her, and I thought she loved me...until I tried to kiss her. She pushed me away and told me she couldn't ever love me...because I wasn't you." The Evil Queen explained as her anger rose.
"That's not possible. Emma doesn't love me." Regina said.
"'It just isn't the same.' She said. Too much history, too many memories. I might look like you, but I'm just not." She continued. She paused a moment and collected herself.
"If you really loved her, you would never hurt her." Regina said.
"Oh, I don't plan to. I only said that for the benefit of those idiots in there. You see my plan is going to get me exactly what I want...your happy ending." She began circling Regina like a vulture circling it's prey. "You see, you're going to tell everyone that you have a plan to defeat me, but you have to do it alone, then you are going to come to me tomorrow and wake Emna from the sleeping curse, then I'll kill you and take over your identity...and your life. Then Emma will be mine. When we return everyone will think you defeated me and won the day, like the hero you pretend to be."
"Why give me twenty-four hours then, why not just take me now?" She asked, trying to keep her composure.
"Well, I needed to give you time to come up with your fake plan to defeat me didn't I?" Se answered. "Now if you try to deceive me, I crush the heart and everyone you love will be dead."
"The heart doesn't work that way, all it will do is sepereate the realms again." Regina corrected.
"That's what it is supposed to do, but with a little magical interference..." The Evil Queen revealed. She grinned. "See, while I was putting on my little show earlier, I kind of put a little tethering spell on everyone in the room. Now if one piece of their heart is crushed...the whole thing goes with it."
"But you still need to get to it, which is why you really gave me the extra time." Regina figured.
"Don't go getting any ideas now. There's a fail safe around Emma's coffin. If I don't lift the spell by the end of your twenty-four hours, it explodes, if you try to use magic inside the perimeter of it, it explodes, if try to enter before the allotted time..."
"Yeah, I get it, it explodes...I thought you said you wouldn't hurt her." Regina said.
"I said I didn't plan on it. But if you should betray me, I'll do what I must." She said.
"And you think that's love?" Regina asked.
"What it is, is winning." The Evil Queen pulled a peice of paper from her pocket and handed it to her. "Meet me here tomorrow. Once you get to me, the perimeter spell will start to crumble. You'll have exactly ten minutes to help me finalize my plan and then die, otherwise, Emma goes boom." Then they heard a branch crack and voices. "Your friends seemed to have found us, time for me to go. You ARE going to die tomorrow. The question is...how many people are you going to take with you?" She she laughed as she poofed away. Regina just stood there, stunned into silence.
"Regina! Regina are you okay!" Snow yelled as they approached.
"Mom! What happened? Did she hurt you?" Added Henry as he checked her over.
"I'm, I'm fine Henry." She assured.
"What did she say to you?" Zelena asked.
"Exactly what she needed to." She answered.