Author's Note: Honestly? Not my best chapter, although I do happen to like the ending of it myself. But that's just me. Any suggestions or comments on what you liked or didn't like with this chapter are very much appreciated as I'm more than willing to go back and hash it out and fix it up. :-) Thanks to all of those who have reviewed, it means a lot. I hope you'll continue to enjoy the story.

Chapter Two
'The Queen Returns'

-Earlier Today-

In the reflection of the carriage door's window, the Evil Queen watched as the world slipped behind her. It had been nearly three years since she had been in these forests. The scenic route, at least it had been once upon a time, had a different taste to it. Meaning, one she disliked.

Immensely.

Now that Snow White, Aurora, and Cinderella ruled over their respective kingdoms with their Princes turned Kings, the path was crowded. People attempting to get in-between the flourishing cities marred the road and picked at the former Queen's patience. The sound of laughter and wails from babes in their mother's arms, the shrill of a donkey or mule filled the small passage way. It couldn't get any worse.

Twirling a string of her cape around her finger she dazed off as she stared into the nothingness between her and the window, a thought creeping into mind about simply pushing all these insignificant farmers out of her way.

Did they not realize that she had things to do?

Past the squabbling nuisances with their pets and pesty little children was a castle, hidden deep away in the dark forest. Her home, one she had not set foot in for what felt like an eternity. She had kept a watchful eye over the property, her magic mirror assisting her in securing it. They, Snow White and her Charming Prince James had not found her unwelcoming abode. They had searched, as she was sure they would but their tasks had been unfruitful. They bore neither the knowledge nor the location of her home. It was just the way she liked it, or had, before she'd left.

Escaping the clutches of this awful little fairytale comatose world had been pleasant. She'd enjoyed herself, even dare she say it, found some happiness. But there was always something missing. Always there was that little itty bitty piece of something nagging, poking, and tickling her in the recess of her mind.

It had taken years, long years that had passed in a blur, before she finally understood what it was that was prickling the back of her thumbs. It was not a foretelling of something wicked. Rather, something good…too good. So, she had left the home she had come to know and returned to the land she'd sworn off like the plague. It seemed even she, a woman whose heart was as cold as ice and black as night could not fight off the power this wretched realm held over its occupants.

It was a curse that kept them all here, or made those that escaped return, she was sure of it.

No matter, she was back now and as she waited, albeit impatiently, she wondered what had become of this world in her absence.

The last she had seen of it there was happiness abound for everyone. Everyone but her. She had long ago lost her happy ending to the foul little hands of Snow White.

Revenge was all she had known, it was all she could remember and all she'd strived for. That revenge however had been destined to end with the casting of one spell, the darkest known to any witch. So dark that even she had stalled at its price.

Her majesty could remember clearly the day she had gone looking to retrieve the curse she had bartered away to a dear friend and the warning she'd been given before taking her leave.

"Don't do this. This curse, there are lines even we shouldn't cross. All power comes with a price and enacting it will take a terrible toll. It will leave an emptiness inside you…a void you will never be able to fill."

She had been foolish enough to think that she was capable of going through with the curse, as nothing seemed more important than ending the happiness of that wretch Snow White.

"So be it." She'd said, a declaration in the three words that none could truly grasp. Not even her.

"All power comes with a price and enacting it will take a terrible toll. It will leave an emptiness inside you…a void you will never be able to fill."

Did she want that? Was she willing to lose happiness, her chance at happiness to ensure everyone else's was taken away? Wasn't what she was after her own happy ending? If no one was to receive their happy ending, then how could she? Why would she even consider this curse?

It was worth it, she had thought.

Killing Calamity and stealing his heart had been as easy as taking back the curse from Maleficent. Finding that it was not what she needed had been a bit harder to deal with.

The former queen smirked as her finger brushed across the soft felt of her cloak, remembering just how easy it had been to sneak into the white castle within the enchanted forest kingdom.

Back then the royals really did need to work on their security, she wondered if they were still as lax with it as they once had been. Especially in her absence, had there been anyone else to test their strengths and weaknesses while she was away? It was certainly an interesting line of thought, one she couldn't answer now but would be sure to follow up on later. She couldn't have anyone encroaching in on her territory now that she had returned.

Slipping in to see Rumpelstiltskin was far too simple, even for her. The dungeons of good hearted people were nothing compared to what her own once looked like. She had hoped one day that she could watch Snow White wither away to nothing behind the bars of her dungeon cell. Alas, that was not meant to be. In the new world she had planned to create she would have no need to put Snow White in a dungeon. The woman would suffer all on her own, unable to ever meet Fate's destiny for her. To live a life without Prince James? Now that, would be the cruelest world of all for the little brat. It was why she had been solely focused on enacting the curse. It was all she'd wanted for so long given to her on a (seemingly) silver platter.

Laughing over the issue seemed easy. At the time, there had been a moment, brief in existence where she had damned herself and her soul and done what that ratty little demon spawn had wanted. She had seen it clear as day, she pressed her opened palm into her father's chest, squeezing and yanking her arm back. His chest cavity free of one: beating heart. She had seen herself offering it to the darkness, to the flames and had even seen a glimpse of what was waiting for her on the other side of the curse. It was magnificent, no one found their happy endings.

Not even her. There in lie where her pause had come from. Not the fact that she'd been about to take the life of her own father, no, it had been in the moment where she'd faced the reality that she was not meant for happiness. Not even in a world she would create for that sole purpose.

It was then she realized how truly dark her soul had become.

-Eighteen Years Ago-

"The heart must come from something far more precious." No, there was no way.

"Tell me what will suffice." He had to tell her, she could not fathom anything more that this curse could need.

"The heart of the thing you love most." Ha…that, had been long lost.

"The heart of the one I loved most died because of Snow White."

She winced at the feeling of his hand wrapped around her neck. Her own hand grasped his and she swore that she would incinerate his hand if he kept it on her longer than a second. He was angry, and it seemed rightfully so. Still, no one touched her without her explicit permission.

"This curse isn't going to be easy. Revenge never is. You have to ask yourself how far are you willing to go?

"As far as it takes."

"So then…you know what you love." He shooed her away. "Now go kill it."

The evaporation back to her own castle had been quick, her pace brisk as she stormed through the halls ignoring the calls of the magic mirror. Shouldn't he have seen what had happened already? Shouldn't he know? Know that she would have to…

"Did Rumpelstiltskin tell you what you needed to know?" She'd turned to see her father looking to her, almost hopefully.

Hopeful of what, she never asked him.

"Yes…"

"And?" Why could he not understand that she was too raw to handle this. She could not look to his face or hear his voice knowing what she must do.

"I'm not sure I should say. I'm conflicted." More than he could understand. More than anyone could understand. It felt as if her heart…her own heart had been ripped from her chest.

"How bad is it? Maybe I could help."

"I..I have to cut out the heart of the thing I love most." She turned to him then, her internal war, her conflict seen clearly upon her face and within her eyes. Two very different entities, desires, waged for dominance over the other just beyond her glassy eyes.

He knew, just like he always did. She was foolish to think that he did not know. "Me…" He seemed shocked. Did he truly not know how much he meant to her?

She sobbed, even as tears did not fall. "Daddy…I don't know what to do." He needed to tell her not to do it. To not even think it. She needed him to be strong for the both of them and tell her she was wrong.

"My dear, please…you don't have to do this."

But she couldn't just do nothing.

"I have to do something...!" She couldn't just sit by and watch as Snow White retained her happiness, it was torture. It would drive her insane, much like how Aurora's happiness had driven Maleficent insane.

"Then move past this. I know this may sound self-serving, but you don't have to enact the curse."

There, yes, that was what she needed. She needed to know that she had other options, that there was another path for her to take. One that led to salvation rather than damnation.

Even as she'd thought about listening to his words there was still a dark part of her, strong in nature, that could not take his words to heart.

"But I can't keep living like this…" The pain was unbearable, the only thing that made it livable was replacing it with her strive for vengeance. "What Snow did to me.." Her voice broke as she felt the first of her tears fall. "What she took from me? It's eating me alive daddy. Her very existence mocks me. She must be punished!"

"But if the price is a hole that will never be filled? Why do it? Stop worrying about Snow White and start over. We can have a new life."

"What kind of life? All I've worked for, all I've built will be gone. My power will disappear. They already think I'm nothing." She had worked far too hard and for too long to just give up now. To give in to the reality that she was never going to win against Snow White, she was fated to lose. It was just what had been dealt to her, and not even she could escape Fate.

"Power is seductive, but so is love. You can have that again…" The moment his arms opened she fell into them, desperate for the comfort she could only ever find while in his embrace. He had always been there, unending in his support, in his love.

"I just want to be happy…" She admitted feeling shameful that it had taken her so long to achieve just an ounce of happiness when it seemed to be given freely to others. Why was she undeserving? What had she ever done to deserve the fate she'd been cursed with?

"You can be, of this I'm sure. I believe, given the chance, we can find happiness together. But the choice is yours." Her father…the optimist, who knew?

"I think you're right." She truly did. "I can be happy…" She smiled, a genuine smile for the first time in what felt like ages. "…just not here."

She could never be happy here, not watching Snow White and Prince James raise their child together in marital bliss. She felt her father stiffen in her arms as if expecting her to take his heart for the curse. She had been about to…until she'd seen it. Seen the smallest glimmer of what her new world would be like, and saw how it would end. She would be alone, truly alone in the end and that was a destiny far worse than remaining here in this realm to watch Snow White live happily ever after.

"I'm sorry…" She apologized as she released her father, running her hand across her forehead as she turned away from him looking around her home. "We'll…yes, we'll leave. It cannot be that hard." It was genius really. It would be easier for her to slip two people out from this horrid world rather than an entire population. "Mirror!"

"You rang?" The slimy bastard…he'd been there listening the whole time.

She rolled her eyes and let him slide, this one time. "Yes…I need you to find me an exit, the place where this reality is the weakest. Find it for me and do not fail me." The threat need not be completed as he was already disappearing, her tone sufficient enough.

"Yes, your majesty." The illuminated face disappeared as he went to do her bidding.

Turning back to her father she felt a smirk overtake her face. "You were saying about finding happiness elsewhere?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Chuckling at the memory the former Evil Queen sighed, resting her head against the glass window. It had been a long time since she had thought of that day. Closing her eyes, she relaxed, her carriage driver well-endowed to get her to where she needed to be. It was time to go home.

But first, there was a stop she needed to make and a few people she needed to say hello to. Just to be polite of course.

-Present-

Polite, that need, incessant as it had always been to be a prick in the side of Snow White had been too much to pass up. The surprise should have been in her favor, not the other way around. There had been no reason the bounty hunters should have been there waiting for her, that the royal guards waiting, lined all nicely in a row just outside the castle would suspect her to drop by.

It wasn't like she had called ahead to inform them that she was coming for a visit. She had been gone for three years! There was just no way those bounty hunters were waiting for her outside the castle walls for three years. They couldn't possibly be that desperate…could they?

Pushing the thoughts aside, she pushed forward. The ground beneath her feet shook a bit with the force of the water pressure, the rush of water finally drowning out the beat of her own heart.

She'd finally made it. Thank god!

There was a deep white mist surrounding the entire area, the air so wet that the moment she stepped into its reaches her face was covered in droplets of water. Or maybe that was sweat? Either way, the mist of the waterfall hid her enough for her to hide from the hunters perceptive little beady eyes.

Not five feet from her across the wet rockface of the top of the waterfall was where the water from the river fell down at least two hundred feet into a pool of rough rock-strewn water. Anyone that fell into the mouth of this waterfall was never seen again, alive that is.

Catching herself, her heart jumped into her throat as she nearly slipped and fell to her death. Her nails scratched into the stone of the ground, breaking, as she caught herself and stood up. Moving more carefully towards a risen rock structure, erosion creating what could be pillars, she pressed her chest against it. The satin of her dress absorbed the water and weighed her down as she listened…and waited.

Here, here she had a chance to beat the hunter at his own game.

All he need do was step up around this small cliffside and she could push him over with her magic, she wouldn't even have to dirty her hands. He just needed to come closer…

Closer…

She heard him. His breathing.

The shuffle, schuffle really, of the arrows in his quiver gave him away more than his heavy breathing. He tried to keep himself calm, still his panting, but she could still hear him even with the roar of the water passing beneath her feet. She focused, her heart pounding erratically against her ribs as she held her breath. The huff of his breath coming from his nose, made her smirk. The step of his boot on the granite surface of their ledge was soft before…

*SLICK*

He slipped!

She heard, even felt his body fall to the ground. The bow that had to be wrapped around his chest snapped and some of his arrows fell from his sideways quiver. The scratch of metal, maybe his sword or one of his blasted knives, moved across the rock, the screech enough to make her want to cover her ears.

Still, he was down and judging by the frantic movements of his cloak flapping about in his attempt to stop his fall, he really was done. She wouldn't even need to 'help' him fall either. He'd done it all on his own.

Fool. He hadn't realized whom he was dealing with.

Smiling she moved out from where she had stood hidden. She wanted him to see her face, to know that he had meddled with the wrong witch. Her lips twitched, a smirk forming even as her hair and dress stuck to her uncomfortably and more of her legs were showing than she felt comfortable with. She ignored all of that, because she had won.

She wanted him to look at her and realize that he had lost. Even with all the odds in his favor, he had failed. He would receive no reward for her head. He would die, nothing but a failure.

What surprised her though was even in his fall his hood hadn't flapped back, she couldn't see his eyes or his face. Maybe that was for the best. It would save her the image of another face that would visit her in her nightmares. There were so many already, one more couldn't really hurt, she just…didn't want to see another one among the sea of the dead.

Watching, her smirk growing as his gloved hands tried to find purchase on the slick surface of the rock ledge, she turned away from him. Careful of her own step she hit him where it would hurt.

She turned her back on him, shaming him all the more. She felt no fear in doing so anymore. He was no longer a threat to her.

Laughing lightly she made to leave.

"Ugh…no…no-No!"

That…
No…
That was a…
No, hahaha…no.
This couldn't be.
They wouldn't, would they?

"WAIT…please…please! I…mercy, please, hel-p me." Turning around slowly, she looked at the hunter behind her, eyes wide.

He was begging for his life, for her assistance. Except, that voice. There was no husk to it. There was no deep baritone. There was just a feminine groan, a light airy voice panicked and frightened by its impending death.

"A WOMAN!" She cried out, shocked, and maybe a bit insulted, or impressed. She wasn't sure which yet.

She made no move to help the hunter…or rather huntress. She stood there, watching as the gloved hands reached for some kind of purchase but found none, and her legs—already over the edge—kicked and lashed out at the air trying to keep her from the fall.

She waved her hand, making the wind blow a bit more. Some of the purchase the huntress had on the rock was lost but so was her hood. The material flew away from her face and allowed for her former majesty to look into the huntress' eyes. They were a shockingly beautiful blue-ish green. She could not tell which they were, blue or green as the mist and light seemed to be playing tricks on her. Making her think it was one before making her think it was the other.

The woman was…beautiful. She had long flowing blonde hair, and an unscarred face. Soft around the edges. She was young, no more than twenty years old.

So…so why was she a bounty hunter? What had driven her to this kind of life? Her curiosity was slowly winning out.

The blue-green eyes looked away from her, down at her hands as she tried, whimpering a bit when she couldn't keep her grip on the slight uprise of the rock she'd just grabbed onto. Her gloves were too thick and the rock too wet. She was going to fall, and she knew it.

So she looked up, right into the hazel eyes of the woman she'd been chasing, and begged, one last time for her life.

"Please…"

The Evil Queen looked away from the girl's eyes and bit into her tongue as she growled. She refused to look at the woman, the huntress. The same person who had just chased her through her own woods trying to kill her!

The huntress had almost succeeded more times than the witch wanted to admit.

She raised her hand and outstretched it towards the blonde before pulling it quickly against her chest. Ten feet away from her the blonde, whose hair was starting to stick to her face, moved up the rockface, her booted feet now the only thing that hung over the edge.

She knew, the moment she saved the girl, that it was a mistake. She should have let the girl die, but she couldn't. Not after seeing her face. Not after looking into her eyes. She couldn't bear the soul of another innocent taken away by her hands…even if this innocent had tried to kill her.

"There…" She said to the panting blonde. "…now…"

The witch disappeared into nothing but a cloud of black smoke for a few seconds before she reappeared in the same spot she had been in, but upon her face was a scowl that would turn the bravest of men's legs to jelly.

"You….did…NOT…just try and kill me after I saved your pathetic life." She growled darkly. Thank god she had enough power to evaporate for a few moments or else that knife would have been sticking out of her left shoulder.

The stupid wench!

And people thought she had no human decency. What had that been? Five…ten…twenty seconds after saving the bitch and she went and tried to kill her?

The blonde huntress just smiled. It is only looking into her eyes that her majesty could see the worry there just beneath the surface. "That wouldn't have killed you. Just kept you from running away."

"Oh why you little bitch…I should have just let you fall!"

A beat later. "So, why didn't you?"

"I…wha..tha…ugh…" She was unable to come up with an appropriate answer and that inability frustrated her into a rage. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that I saved you. You could at least show me the same courtesy!"

"Nope…" The huntress shook her head from side to side, as she slowly got to her feet. One of her hands was a little too close to a pocket that probably had another knife, for the witch's taste. "…can't do that."

"Ah, ah ah…! Don't even think of reaching for that dagger. You try and throw it at me and I'll push it right back at you," the threat even seemed hollow to her, "except I won't go for the wounding shot. I'll send it right to your heart…" Not that she thought the huntress had one now.

The hand stopped reaching for the weapon in question. The witch smirked and the blonde shuffled her weight, a bit uncomfortable. It took the blonde a few minutes but she called her bluff.

"I don't think you could, even if you wanted to. You're too soft…"

"SOFT! SOFT!" The air around the two shifted swiftly. The mist broke apart like a seam and the ledge beneath them rumbled as the witch's rage finally awakened the magics in her. The same magics she hadn't been able to tap into for the last few hours. It seemed that her father was right. Her magics were attached to the anger she held in her heart. Sadly for the huntress she had passed anger about ten minutes ago. Now she was in a fury. Staring at the presumptuous little twit of a huntress, she couldn't be bothered with letting her live.

The Queen laughed internally, soft…? She'd show the girl soft.

Without even moving an inch, the blonde found herself dangling over nothing but thin air, nearly ten feet out from the ledge she had just been standing on.

The blonde's eyes shifted from the open air beneath her, the rocky death this drop promised her, and back to the eyes of the witch holding her in place. Dangling with not even a string over her own demise, she swallowed thickly. Maybe, more like finally, coming to the realization that she shouldn't have tempted the evil witch.

Smiling, the Evil Queen crossed her arms as she stared at the huntress. "You were saving about soft?"

Without another word, whatever held the blonde two hundred feet above the ground left her and she plummeted.

End Chapter Two

And so, the real fun begins. Regina's magics are back and she's ready and now more than rearing to go. :-) What'd you think? Reviews are 3