Like the first chapter, this had not been beta read and if you see any really bad mistakes, let me know.


The past

What Rumpelstiltskin had told her left her feeling deeply conflicted. She had to sacrifice the heart of the one she loved the most, she had to rip the heart out of her own Father. Upon arriving, she was relived that Henry was no where in sight. She needed time to think and was not sure she would be able handle seeing him right now. Her relief turned to terror when she saw who was waiting for her. Silhouetted by the fire, and dressed in those awful ivory robes she insisted on wearing, her long ivory hair fell down her back, done into a simple braid and was streaked with more gray then Regina remembered. The woman slowly turned towards Regina and smiled sadly.

"Hello Regina, we need to talk" Morgen Le Fay, the only Sorceress that Rumpelstiltskin and by extension Regina, ever feared. "There is no need to be afraid" Morgan said noticing how tense Regina was at her presence "I give you my word, I'm not here to do you harm. I simply want to talk" Regina's first instinct was to demand that Morgan leave her but she knew better. Morgan would not leave until she wanted to and would not take kindly to Regina making demands of her.

"What is it you wish to talk about?"

"This little curse that my Father has manipulated you into casting. I'm here to ask that you reconsider." Regina didn't respond right away as she tried to figure out how handle such a request. Finally, instead of agreeing or disagreeing with Morgans request, Regina asked why she cared. "Other the obviousness of not wanting my memories striped and forced to live in a land with no magic? Rumplestilskin wants this curse cast, which is enough for me not to want it cast. Anytime I'm able to stop him from causing others pain, I'm a happy woman." The smile fell from Morgans face after that and her face took on a sorrowful look "I told you once, a long time ago, that that path you're on would only bring you pain. You could cast the curse but the act of taking your Fathers heart will destroy yours. It will leave a hole inside of you that, no matter how much you try, you will never be able to fill and you will lose. Evil may produce the results faster but good is patient and will wait many years for its victory. You may cast the curse and for a time you may feel like you have won but eventually the curse will break and you will be left with nothing."

"I can't do nothing! What Snow did, what she took from me! How can I just let her get away with that?!" Morgan looked at Regina with pity in her gaze. Morgan wanted to admonish her, tell her that she was putting blame where there was none but she knew that would do no good. It would only make Regina more determined to cast the curse, if from spite if nothing else. She knew how Regina worked, in many ways Regina was younger version of herself and so Morgan knew how to handle her. She had to divert Regina's attention away from the curse to something else, she sent up a silent prayer for forgiveness and presented her idea.

"You try something new: its called patience. Let Snow and her husband believe they have won, let them have their happiness for a time and then take it from them."

"And how would suggest I do that?" Morgan shrugged and looked away from Regina.

"Isn't Queen Snow about to have a child? It would devastating if after have the chance to be a family, a chance to be happy, that something tragic were to happen to her child. Wouldn't you agree?"

Now

Swan had not spoken to her since last night after Ruth had told divulged her name. While before, Swan had displayed what Ruth would call inpatient tolerance towards her. Now her demeanor was down right icy and she acted as if she could not wait to get rid of Ruth. She was not sure why, after all she had just meant this woman not twenty-four hours previously but for some reason, Swan's cold demeanor hurt Ruth. She wanted Swan to like her but had no clue why it mattered to her to much.

"We will arrive at the village soon, there is an inn there. I will leave you there." Swan spoke with clipped words and short tones. She did not even bother to look at Ruth as she spoke. Ruth stopped Swan from walking away by gently placing her hand on Swan's arm. Swan turned to her, her eyes flashing with rage but Ruth was determined to stand her ground.

"Did I do something to offend you?" Swan's look of anger turned to puzzlement and Ruth rushed to clarify her question. "Its just that, yesterday we were fine and now I can't help but feel you are upset with me." Swan's face was flooded with guilt at her words.

"No, no, no. Its just-you see, the think is-" Swan broke off gathered her thoughts and began to speak again. "I didn't mean to make you feel that way, I'm sorry. You have done nothing wrong. You just remind me of someone, someone I knew a very long time ago."

"I'm sorry if I stir up bad memories for you" Swan reached out and grabbed her hand.

"Not bad memories, good ones, the very best I have. You remind me of that time and-"

"It makes you sad, I get it"

"I am sorry, it was wrong to take it out on you." Swan looked up at the sky and back at Ruth "You know, we can use a rest and I'm hungry. You like rabbit? These woods are filled with them." Ruth smiled and nodded, "Great, I'll be back in about an hour" Swan grabbed her bow and quiver and took off into the woods.

Ruth waited about five minutes before going over to Swan's horse and began to go though the contents of her saddle bags, carefully avoiding looking at the dead body strapped to the back. There was something off about Swan, something that she couldn't quite put her finger on and she needed to figure it out. After a few minutes of searching, Ruth pulled a locket from the saddle bag. She opened it and her eyebrows scrunched together at what she saw, on the left was a small picture of her Mother and the right was her Father. What the hell was a bounty hunter like Swan doing with pictures of her Ruth's parents?

The Past

The curse never happened. After Morgan left, Regina spent hours thinking about the things she had said and eventually came to conclusion that casting the curse was not the right course of action. The idea of killing her own Father filled her with self loathing and she was disgusted that she had even considered the idea. She took Morgan's advice of patience and waited. Using her mirrors, she watched as the Kingdom celebrated the birth of the Princess Emma. She watched as Snow and her husband lived out their happiness. She watched as they celebrated anniversaries and birthdays. She watched as Snow gave birth to another daughter six years after the first. She watched as they began to relax and settle into the false sense of security that they had built up around them.

As she watched them, she noticed something about the Princess Emma that no one else seemed to notice. Emma had magic. Many people assumed that magic was something that anyone could lean but that was only partly true. A person with no magically ability could learn how to brew potions or maybe work enough magic to do small parlor tricks. Sometimes a spell or a curse granted people powers that they did not have before. For the most part however, a person was simply born with the innate ability. Regina was one of those people, so was her mother and apparently, so was Emma.

Regina noticed it in the small things, the way a bird with a broken wing was suddenly able to fly after Emma handled it. 'Must have only been stunned' they reasoned away. She noticed it in the way the weather suddenly turned foul whenever Emma was in a bad mood and no one but Regina seemed to make the connection between the two. Regina's plan had originally been to sneak into Emma's room in the middle of the night and quietly end the young Princesses life but this unexpected development caused her to change her plans yet again. She realized that she could use Emma against her parents, she was still young and therefore still impressionable. It would not take much to turn Emma against her parents, to train her and make her hate them as much as Regina did. It had been almost nine years since Regina had made the promise to destroy Snow's happiness and now she was finally to follow through on that promise.

She planned it meticulously, it had to be done in such a way that they would be left with no answers, no idea what happened to their precious daughter. She created a distraction using their younger daughter by materializing in her nursery just as the dwarf put her into the crib. He was unconscious before he knew what hit him and the infant played her part exactly as Regina had hopped. The wailing that the child was producing would have everyone focused on the younger Princess long enough for Regina to get away with Emma.

As soon as Regina heard footsteps onside the door, she teleported herself into Emma's room. The Princess had yet to fall asleep and sat up with her eyes full of terror at Regina's sudden appearance.

"Don't worry child, I mean you no harm. I'm here to help you." Emma didn't say anything just kept staring at her with wide eyes. "I know this may be hard for you to understand but you're in danger here. We have to leave. Quickly." Regina reached out as if to grab the younger girl but Emma jumped off the bed before she could and ran to the other side of the room. "Please Princess, we don't have time for this. I know this is scary but I mean you no harm."

"Don't lie to me! I can tell when people are lying! What do you want?!"

"To help you"

"LIAR!" Emma began to scream in such a way that would have had the entire palace on their heads in a matter of seconds. Regina darted forward as fast as she could and grabbed Emma who had started to scream 'no' repeatedly and tried to squirm away but it was no use. They vanished in a cloud of purple smoke and Charming burst though the door only to find an empty room.

Now

The distance traveled usually only took Swan a day and a half but this time it had taken her almost three. Having a travel companion had slowed her down even more then she had thought it would. This was just one more on the growing list of reasons to get rid of Ruth as quickly as she could. A very small part of her whispered that she should keep Ruth around but she stomped it down as best she could. While she had many reasons for wanting to leave Ruth at the next village, paramount among them was that the life Swan led was a dangerous one. She had allot of enemies and allot of people out there who might be looking for revenge for slights both real and imagined. Not to mention that Swan hunted down dangerous criminals for a living. She was a danger to Ruth, she knew that and she wouldn't be able to live with herself if anything happened to her little sister. That was a whole other problem: she couldn't keep Ruth with her because eventually Ruth would put the pieces together and figure out who Swan is and if Ruth found out, it would only be a matter of time before their parents found out and they would learn of what became of their oldest. They would learn of all the horrible things she had done, all the people she had hurt. No, it was better that they kept believing that she was dead. Better that they held on to the memories of that little girl who liked to play in the dirt, it was her hope that they will never know about the woman that that Princess Emma had become and one of her greatest fears that one day they would. With those thoughts in mind, Swan hardened her heart as they entered the village.

"Its midday, is it supposed to be this quite?" Ruth asked a valid question, something was very wrong. At this time of day, there should be people milling about every where. Working, bartering, socializing but there was no one. Not even the animals were making any noise. Swan unsheathed her sword, held in front of her and reached down to her boot, pulled out a six inch dagger and handed it to Ruth.

"Somethings not right, whatever you do, stay behind me." Ruth took the dagger and nodded once. Swan tied her horse to a post and the two of them walked further into the village. When they rounded the corner, what they saw practically made Emma's heart stop, Ruth gasped and dropped the dagger that Swan had given her. There were bodies everywhere, it looked as if the entire village had just up and died without warning. Glancing behind her at Ruth, she saw a women who looked like she was the verge of hysterics but Swan had no time to console her. "Pick up the dagger Ruth. Whoever did this might still be around." But Ruth didn't appear to hear her.

"All-all these p-p-people-how-how-" Swan rounded on Ruth, grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

"We can have good cry over this later but for know-" Swan grabbed the dagger off the ground and pressed it into Ruth's hand "-be alert or we might end up joining them" Without waiting for response, Swan turned back around and walked toward the bodies. After a moment she heard Ruth walking behind her. When they reached the bodies, Swan sheathed her sword, rolled one over onto its back and began to check for any indication to what killed him.

"Is there-is there any wounds" Ruth's voice trembled but she seemed determined to hold herself together.

"No, its as if he just dropped dead for no reason." Swan stood up and began to roll up her sleeve. When she was finished, she squatted back down and plunged her hand into the dead man's chest. Ruth gasped and took a step back at the unexpected act. Swan's face paled and she quickly stood up, grabbed Ruth and began to pull her in the direction where she left her horse. "We have to get out of here. Now."

"Whats going on?!"

"I'll explain later but right now we have to leave!"

"I'm afraid you won't be going anywhere" Said an amused third voice. Ruth let out a small scream and Swan pushed Ruth behind her, grabbed her sword and held it out in front of her.

Past

Regina appeared in the middle of the woods with a struggling Emma. It wasn't supposed to be this difficult. She was supposed to persuade Emma to come with her without a fight but instead Emma had proven to be more shrewd and insightful then Regina had given her credit for. Maybe she would have come reluctantly but she still would have willing come with Regina. She set down Emma as gently as she could while keeping a tight grip on the girls wrist.

"Emma-Emma- sweetheart- listen to me! Please!"

"No!" Emma screamed as loud as her young lungs could handle and contained to try to get away. Regina swung her hand back and slapped Emma. Emma stopped fighting and looked up at Regina, shock filling her small face.

"I'm sorry child but you must listen to me. You have magic and I took you away from there to protect you. Your parents hate magic users and might have done something to hurt you if I had left you there. I've seen them do horrible things to humans found practicing magic." Emma didn't say anything, just sniffled and looked up at Regina with her hand pressed to the side of her face. Regina sighed, this was not going at all the way she had hoped, maybe some time alone would be good for Emma. Regina reached out and pulled Emma's hand away from the rapidly forming bruise on the side of her face and laid her own hand across it. Emma felt a warm tingling sensation and the pain faded away.

"I have to leave you here for now, your parents will suspect me and may come after me. I need to keep you safe and right now this is the safest place for you. This is the Infinite Forest, everything you need to survive can be found within these woods." Regina broke contact with Emma and took a couple steps back. "I won't be able to come see you but I'll watching" and with those words Regina disappeared, leaving eight year old Emma alone in the woods.

It would a year before Emma saw her again.