"It worked," Emma said holding up her ribbonless arm.
Mary Margaret frowned as understanding dawned on her. Emma had done it on purpose. "I hope it was worth it." She stood and went to the stairs to look for Regina.
"I'm sorry. But I had to set off her temper. We needed to get the ribbons off. We're running out of time," Emma tried to explain to the group.
"Well, whether that was the right approach or not, the ribbons are gone, so we should move forward with the plan. Someone without magic is going to have to trap the Snow Queen in the hat," Elsa said.
"I'll do it," David volunteered.
"But we're going to have to draw her out somehow. Maybe Emma and I could serve as bait?" Elsa suggested.
There were nods around the room and the group began discussing the details. Henry slipped away to follow Mary Margaret in her search for his mom.
Regina had locked herself in her bathroom. She was sitting on the floor shaking and staring at her hands. She'd come so far, but everyone had been right. She was a monster. She couldn't change. She'd never be good.
Mary Margaret knocked softly on the door.
"Regina? Regina, please open the door so we can talk."
"I'm done with the mother daughter bonding sessions, dear." Regina snapped. "You'd do well to stay away unless you enjoy running for your life."
"Regina, you're not the Evil Queen. I know you aren't going to hurt me."
"I do believe your daughter just proved the opposite."
"Regina, she was manipulating you. She needed your anger. And it worked. The ribbons are gone. We can stop the Snow Queen because of you."
"I'm so thrilled that my true nature could be of benefit to you heroes."
"Will you open the door? I don't want to have this conversation through a door."
"I don't think there's any need to continue this conversation. You've gotten what you needed from the Evil Queen. Be on your cheery way, Princess."
Henry walked into his mother's room to see Mary Margaret talking to a closed bathroom door.
"Mom, I know how to pick locks. Just open the door."
Regina paused at her son's voice. He'd seen her. She didn't want to face him after what she'd done.
"Henry, go back to Emma."
"No. I want to be with you," Henry stated. He began fumbling through Regina's jewelry box until he found a hairpin. He moved toward the door and Mary Margaret stepped aside to let him do his thing.
Finally. Silence. Maybe they had realized their efforts were futile and left her in peace. Then she heard a click and she nearly fell over as the door she'd been leaning against moved backwards as Henry opened it. Before she could react he had wrapped his arms around her giving her a tight hug.
"I love you, Mom."
Regina felt the tears pooling in her eyes again.
"You don't know me, Henry," she answered.
"Yes, I do. You're my mom. You love me and I love you. No one's mad at you. Emma wanted you to get mad at her. That's why she said all that stuff. So you'd flip out and use your magic on her."
Regina couldn't tell Henry she hadn't even been aware of what she was doing until it was too late. She couldn't let him know that she had that little control over her emotions. She sat in silence, but didn't move from his embrace.
"Regina, we could really use your help with the rest of the plan. No one is upset with you."
Regina smoothed Henry's hair and placed a kiss on his forehead.
"Thank you, Henry. I'm okay now. Go on back downstairs. I'll be down in a minute."
He looked up at her. "Promise?"
She nodded. "Promise."
He got up and started to head back downstairs.
"And Henry?"
He turned back.
"We're going to have a talk about picking locks when we've finished dealing with this spell."
He looked contrite and nodded before exiting.
Regina looked down at her hands. Snow waited.
"Regina?" she prodded gently.
"I'm scared, Snow," Regina muttered softly and then finally looked up to meet Snow's concerned gaze. "I didn't even know what I was doing. It just happened." She stared back down at her hands like they were ticking time bombs waiting to go off.
Mary Margaret sat down next to Regina. "You lost control. Emma knows how to push your buttons. Next time, don't listen to her. You're not evil. You did a lot of evil things in your past, but you are not evil. Don't ever believe that you are."
Regina didn't answer. Mary Margaret took her hand. "Now come on. We have a spell to break before it destroys our town."
Elsa filled Regina in on the plan. Regina avoided Emma and Robin completely, and avoided eye contact with the rest of her houseguests, but she listened to the plan and agreed to help.
Regina paused halfway through pulling on her pea coat. She felt his eyes on her. But it wasn't a pleasant feeling as it normally was. She glanced up to see him glaring at her.
"We should go. We're running out of time," Belle suggested.
"Henry, are you sure you're going to be okay watching Neal? Maybe I should see if Ashley can come over." Mary Margaret worried.
"The boys will be fine. Let's stop wasting time," David said and the group took off.
Elsa led the way. Now that she was aware of it, she could easily sense her aunt's magic. The group ventured farther into the woods.
Regina was following the group at a distance. She didn't want to talk to anyone so she was doing her best to separate from the group. Emma slowed down and fell in step with Regina. She reached out to touch Regina's arm, but Regina swatted her away.
"Don't touch me," Regina snapped.
"Regina, I just wanted-"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"I just want you to know that I'm sorry about what I said. I didn't mean it."
"I said I didn't want to talk about it."
"I know, but-"
Regina waved her hand and she appeared at the front of the group with Elsa. "Shall we lose those without magic now?"
Elsa looked a little surprised at Regina's sudden appearance, but she nodded. "Yes. I think this is close enough. I'd feel better if we could draw her out a little further."
"Then let's send them back a little and you can call to her from here. She'll come to your aide."
Elsa nodded again. Regina ordered Mary Margaret, David and the others back. Emma stepped forward to meet Elsa and Regina.
The others fanned out and hid in the woods.
"Everyone ready?" Emma asked.
"David, you remember the signal?" Regina asked.
"Yes, yes. I've got it."
"Let's go." Regina said.
"Ingrid!" Elsa called.
Regina raised her arms as if to throw a spell at Emma.
"Regina, no! You'll hurt Emma! Just give us back the ribbons and let us go! Please! Stop!" Elsa screamed loudly. "Ingrid! Ingrid! Please we need your help!" she cried.
Regina formed a fireball in her hand and prepared to throw it at Emma. Before any of them saw Ingrid, the fireball in Regina's hand turned to ice. Regina yelped and dropped the ice ball. She spun around, but as she did, Ingrid hit her with a spell that knocked her to the ground.
"Oh, Ingrid! Thank you! You arrived just in time." Elsa said. "Regina just went crazy attacking Emma and she burned the ribbons with her fire."
"But you're not safe from the spell without them," Ingrid said concern lacing her voice.
"But you don't really need to cast it, right? I mean we're here now." Elsa asked.
"But they'll never leave us alone. You saw what she just tried to do to Emma." Ingrid argued.
"But the others will be hurt as well. There's no way to stop the spell once you cast it," Elsa said.
"Besides killing you," Regina interjected as she began to push herself up from where she'd fallen.
"If you're going to be a nuisance, I'll finish the job now, Regina," Ingrid said.
Regina straightened up and stood tall trying to act unaffected. That spell had hurt.
The second David saw Regina stand he whistled. Regina, Emma, and Elsa all disappeared in clouds of smoke and David ran forward and set the hat facing Ingrid. Her eyes widened in fear as the hat began pulling her forward toward it. She was throwing magic at the hat, but it wasn't working. Some of her magic went wild, missing the hat and headed straight for David. Emma screamed from the trees where she was waiting, but Regina appeared in front of David knocking him out of the spell's range just in time and the spell hit a tree behind them.
The Snow Queen disappeared.
"You did it, David!" Mary Margaret ran to him. Regina had rolled away from where she'd landed on top of him in the dirt. She was breathing hard. There was a shooting pain in her wrist. Mary Margaret wrapped her arms around David embracing him lovingly.
"You okay there, Regina?" Emma asked.
"I'm fine, Ms. Swan." Regina said forcing herself to her feet. She wouldn't look weak in front of these fools. She was dizzy, and her wrist was definitely sprained if not broken, but she would not let them know. "Will one of you get that hat before Gold comes to retrieve it?" she snapped.
Ruby made a move to get it.
"No! Not you!" Regina screamed grabbing Ruby's wrist to stop her and immediately regretting it as pain once again shot through her arm.
Ruby turned to look at Regina like she was crazy. She started to say something, but stopped when she saw how the color had drained from Regina's face.
"You're magical…I don't know how it would affect you. David, you get it." Regina ordered.
Elsa moved toward Regina and Ruby backed away. "Where's the injury, Regina?" Elsa asked softly.
Regina met her eyes and held out her wrist. "I think it's sprained."
Elsa took Regina's wrist gently in her hand. "Broken." She waved her hand and an ice pack appeared. "Are you not able to heal it?"
"Healing spells have never been my specialty. And I'm a bit drained right now. I'll heal it later after I rest. Let's get out of the woods. I just want to see my son right now," Regina answered.
Will grabbed Regina's good arm as she stepped out of the car. "Do you have the antidote yet?"
"Antidote for what?" Mary Margaret asked.
"The memory spell she put on Robin."
"It wasn't a memory spell. It was a potion." Regina said. "And no. When have I had a moment to work on an antidote?"
"He's getting worse. I thought he was going to start a fist fight with Hook."
"Why would he do that?" Mary Margaret asked.
"Because Hook told him to stop aiming his bow at the Queen."
"He was just trying to protect us." Mary Margaret defended.
"Not the Snow Queen."
Regina rolled her eyes. "As if a simple arrow would kill me. You already tried that didn't you, dear?" she said to Mary Margaret.
"Are you bringing up the execution again? I stopped it didn't, I?"
Regina waved her hand dismissively. "I'll work on it, Will."
Gold had felt the Snow Queen's magic disappear. But Belle had never returned with the hat. He was beginning to worry. If Regina had done anything to his Belle she would regret it.
The store bells jingled. Gold looked up and sighed in relief. "I was beginning to think something happened to you."
"We took care of the Snow Queen. You were right. The hat trapped her."
"Why didn't you bring it back to me? It's very dangerous, you shouldn't have tried using it on your own."
"I'm not made of porcelain. And I wasn't on my own."
"Oh?"
"There was a whole group of us. I was perfectly safe."
"Good." Gold moved toward Belle. "And the hat? Where is it?" He looked at her not seeing it in her hands.
"I don't have it. They didn't give it to me. Just used it on Ingrid. I believe David took it because Regina was nervous about having it around anyone with magic."
Gold smiled. That was good. It would be much easier to retrieve from Charming than Regina. He never was the brightest. Though they were both easy to manipulate, Regina was definitely a more worthy chess opponent. It should be easy enough to fool David into handing it over. He glanced at the clock. He didn't have a lot of time left though. He needed to get a move on. The Snow Queen was pretty powerful. Maybe her power would be enough and he wouldn't need to trap anyone else. That would simplify things.
Robin stepped out of David's truck grumbling. Roland raced toward him in excitement.
"Papa! We missed you!"
Robin glanced around. "Who's we? Is your mother awake?"
Roland's face dropped. "No. Monkey and me missed you." He held up the toy Regina had made him.
"I thought I told you to get rid of that filthy thing."
Tuck stepped in and took the monkey. "How about I take Monkey for a bath while you have dinner with your Papa?"
Roland nodded. "Okay. Then can we go get ice cream with R'gina?
"No. Absolutely not. Roland, go wash up for dinner." As soon as Roland ran off, Robin looked around at the men. "Why is my son so infatuated with the Evil Queen?"
"You were infatuated with her too until recently," Will said.
"I don't know what's come over you, Robin. You were her biggest defender," Little John said. "We didn't want to trust her, but you said she wasn't evil."
Will saw Robin's face turn red with anger. This was not going to help. "Has anyone checked on Marian? Maybe with the Snow Queen vanished, the spell will be lifted," he suggested.
Robin looked surprised at the thought. "Let's check."
They raced off to the tent Marian was in, but she was still on the bed frozen. Robin sat next to his wife and picked up her hand. The men slipped back out of the tent giving him his space.
"I'm so sorry, Marian. I don't know why I can't wake you. I've failed you. I'll go see the Dark One. Maybe he'll be able to help. I'm not going to leave you like this. I will bring you back."
Henry peaked into Regina's study. The light was still on. It was 2 a.m. and she'd promised she'd be up to tuck him in. He wasn't a little kid anymore so it wouldn't have been a big deal, except Regina always tucked him in. And he was worried about her. He stepped into the study. She was face down in a book.
"Mom." He lightly touched her shoulder. Startled, she jerked up. Some of the ink from the page was now marking her forehead. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He reached up and wiped the ink from her forehead. She blinked at him trying to orient herself. "You never came up to tuck me in."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Henry." Regina apologized and she moved to stand up. Henry put his hand on her shoulder pushing her back down.
"What are you doing?" he asked. "I thought the Snow Queen was gone. Is it to help Elsa get home?"
Regina paused. No more lies. "It's not about Elsa. I'm trying to find out what went wrong with a potion I made and how to fix it."
"You made a potion? For who?"
Regina looked down not meeting her son's eyes. "Robin. So he could forget me and wake Marian. But something went wrong. He still couldn't wake her. And it seems to have done something to his personality as well. He's not himself."
"Like when Rumplestiltskin gave Snow the potion to forget Charming and she turned evil and tried to kill you?"
"What?" Regina didn't know anything about that.
"It's in the book." He went and brought the book from the table to Regina flipping it open to the story he was talking about as he walked. He set it down in front of her and she began reading; her frown deepening the more she read.
"What did I do? I didn't think this would happen. I've used memory potions before without this result."
"Maybe it's because you tried to make him forget his soulmate…and Snow tried to forget her true love…it's probably more complicated than forgetting your next door neighbor or something, right?" Henry said.
Regina smiled. "How did I end up with such an intelligent son? Must be from the dark side of your family tree." She winked at him. She turned somber again as she turned back to the book. "So Charming broke the spell with a kiss?"
Henry nodded.
Regina frowned. Then what could she do? "Well, then. We're back at square one. Marian's still frozen and Robin hates me and is generally just a miserable person. If only I'd had this much luck with Snow White, I wouldn't have needed a curse."
"Mom. You just need to make Robin fall in love with you again. Then you can kiss him and break the spell."
Regina smiled at Henry's simplistic and hopeful solution. If only real life was that simple.
"It's way past your bedtime. We can talk more in the morning."
"Are you going to bed too?" Henry asked.
"Yes. I'm clearly not accomplishing anything here," Regina said and stood up, careful not to use her broken wrist. Maybe she'd be able to heal it after she got some sleep. She'd managed to dull the pain a little with her magic, but that had been exhausting enough. She clearly wasn't up to a healing spell tonight.
Gold needed that hat. The prince may not be that intelligent, but he wasn't going to just hand it over. No. He'd need some leverage. But David didn't need anything. He had his true love, his long lost daughter, and a brand new baby. They were all healthy and from their point of view safe. Gold's lips curled up into a smile. Charming might not need anything, but he knew someone who did. Time to pay the thief a little visit.