Regina looked at the blond woman hunched over on a fallen log near the edge of a cliff overlooking the center of the island. Self-pity, which she recognized in the defeated curve of the bare shoulders, was seldom productive.
"Well, aren't we just Little Miss Sunshine," she said.
Emma swiped at her face with the back of her arm before turning around. She didn't respond to Regina's baiting but she stood and swept her hands through her hair. "OK," Emma said quickly, "so, let's do this. When we last looked at the map, we both thought we saw a path that might lead into the caverns down there, right?"
"Is that where you think we should go?" Regina sat down on the log Emma had just vacated, giving the blond the superior position. She tucked her hands into her coat pockets to further present a subordinate appearance.
"We… both of us," Emma stressed, "got a vibe when we were working with the map, didn't we? Doesn't it make sense to go there?"
Regina canted her head, looking up at the pleading expression on Emma's face. She recognized it as matching Henry's from the Storybrooke well and felt her heart squeeze in her chest. "It's your decision," she told Emma.
Emma's pleading turned to fear. "Don't you want to find Henry?"
Taking a moment to be sure she didn't sound as as pitiful as the loss of Henry made her feel, Regina finally admitted, "Desperately."
"Then tell me what you want to do." Emma's voice was softer, imploring.
Regina swallowed. "I can't."
Emma pulled back from Regina's calm words as if she had been slapped. "You can't? You mean you won't! Why the hell not? Damn it, I said we all have to be who we are — You're the fucking almighty badass Evil Queen, Regina. Order me! You'd do it if we were in Storybrooke, wouldn't you? You did, so many times!"
Regina waited until Emma subsided. "Miss Swan. Emma," she said gently. "You," she emphasized, "are the leader."
"Why? Why are you abdicating now?"
She closed her eyes. What she was about to admit felt akin to surrendering in war. "Because I have to. For Henry, Emma, I have to. Pan makes the rules here, and he has set it up so that you're the only one who can find Henry."
Emma's shoulders sagged under the weight of responsibility. "So I really am going it alone." She turned her back on Regina and stepped out to the edge of the precipice, looking down over the valley.
Regina exhaled, remembering another ledge an eon ago.
She pushed to her feet with an inhale, accepting the weight and change of what she was about to do. Placing her hand on the back of Emma's shoulder, she felt the warmth of bare skin before she connected with green eyes. "You don't have to be alone. You were right about many things, Emma Swan. We are stronger together."
Emma stepped away from Regina then, with a sudden scream, she was falling. Regina grabbed for the woman's hand and with a wave of her free hand, she pulled them together and let their bodies roll over one another as they fell toward the valley far below.
The scream stopped as abruptly as it had begun, and Regina smiled at Emma's astonishment. "Now, let's go save our son," she said.
Turning them into the air currents, Regina used her magic to float them to a safe landing on the shore of a shimmering, sunlit lake.
She touched down with regal poise. Emma stumbled.
"All right, now, where do we go from here?" she asked when Emma turned to her.
"I tossed away the map, and I don't remember what it looked like here. We have to find the path," Emma said.
Regina glanced down at her coat pocket and slipped her hand inside it gingerly. Emma's gaze followed her hand. She squeezed the parchment and Emma heard the sound. Her eyes widened as Regina withdrew the crumpled map pieces and held them out.
"Try again," she said.
.