"Love?" Emma asked, her voice tinged with curiosity and the ache of unshed tears.
Regina gave the other woman a smile as she nodded, "Yes, love. You know what they say, True Love is the most powerful magic of all. And you, Emma, are the product of that magic."
Emma cocked her head, "If love can work, to enhance magic or whatever, why do you use your anger?"
Regina was unsure of how to respond to that. She knew the Savior was familiar with at least some parts of her rocky past. Surely she knew why Regina resorted to anger instead of love.
Sighing, Regina replied, finally breaking the awkward embrace she and the Savior had been sharing, "I never had much love in my life, Miss Swan. And-"
"Emma," the blonde interrupted. "My name is Emma. Why do you do that?"
"Do what?" Regina responded, unaware of what Emma was asking.
"My name," Emma replied. "When something gets too personal for you, you call me 'Miss Swan' or 'Sheriff' or something, but when you're, I don't know, being you and nice and stuff, you call me by my name, 'Emma'. How come?"
"Oh," Regina said, not sure if she wanted to go into that with the other woman. They really didn't have time to psychoanalyze why she addressed the Savior by different monikers. "I was unaware it bothered you. I will try to call you by your name, if you prefer. And, for the record, I'm not nice."
"I mean," Emma began, "it doesn't really bother me. I just, it makes me wonder if you're trying to push me away or something. And you are so totally nice. If you weren't nice, we wouldn't be here right now."
"We're here in Neverland to save Henry, Emma, not because I'm nice," Regina said, and upon receiving a look that clearly meant Emma knew she was hedging, Regina amended, "And we are sitting here on the ground right now because I needed to talk to you, to help you understand that you can use your magic, so that we might actually save our son. It's purely selfish on my part, not nice."
"Right," Emma smirked, "and that hug? Totally for your benefit alone, huh?"
Regina ignored the comment as she went on, "As far as pushing you away goes, I tried that already, and if you recall it did not work. I'm hardly a woman who repeats her mistakes, if she can help it. Back on topic, it was always easier for me to hate than to love, for reasons I do not wish to go into at the current moment. But I think you might, considering you are a Charming, find it easier to allow your love to overcome you and help with your magic."
Emma nodded, ready to drop the topic, because she knew Regina was beginning to feel uncomfortable. And, she realized, they had been away from the clearing where they left Snow for a while. She didn't want Snow to have to come looking for them, or, specifically, she didn't want Snow to ruin the moments she had shared with the former Evil Queen.
"You ready?" Emma said, standing up and offering her hand out to Regina. "We better get back to camp before Snow decides we're lost."
Regina accepted the proffered hand and stood up too, "Well, then, you have nothing to worry about, dear, because your parents have quite the knack for finding their family. Something I think that was passed onto the rest of the Charming line."
"Yeah," Emma smiled, "I guess so. And I'm really glad Henry found me back in Boston. Hopefully the 'finding' gene didn't skip a generation and we'll be able to use it to find him here."
Regina nodded, "Hopefully."
The pair slowly started walking in the direction back to their camp site. Each woman remained silent, lost in their own individual thoughts and worries. Neither felt pressured to make conversation. Both felt they had talked enough and were now content to enjoy, momentarily, the companionable silence they currently found themselves in.
Regina was thinking about what Emma had said about being glad Henry had found her in Boston. Although she would never admit it to anyone, she found that part of her was glad Henry had found Emma as well. Things were clearly far from perfect, but the former queen realized that she much preferred it this way, now, than she had when she had been alone before Henry and after he started to pull away from her. Emma may be a reluctant ally, but she understood Regina in ways no one else had since Daniel. And in some ways, the pain each of them had experienced in the past led to the two women sharing a much greater understanding than Regina had ever had with Daniel.
The walk was taking longer than either Emma or Regina expected. Neither woman recalled the journey away from the clearing taking very long, but both of them had not been concerned with distance when they made their way away from the clearing and Snow.
"Are you sure we're headed in the right direction?" Regina asked.
"Pretty sure," Emma said. "Besides, if not, then it'll be just like you wanted before. Us, away from the others. Less distraction, more focus on finding Henry."
"Indeed," Regina said, "but I left Snow with a burning fire and I would hate for her to set the island on fire."
"Ah," Emma said, deepening her voice a little, "and only you can prevent wildfires."
That was when they heard it. Emma did first, her recent experience as a bounty hunter helped her pick up the sounds. Twigs being snapped, perhaps by footfalls. Emma instinctively held out her arm to halt Regina's progress and she looked at her in a way that communicated the need for silence.
If it had been anyone else, Regina would have scoffed and kept moving. And while she hadn't heard the sound that had put Emma on edge yet, she knew it would be best if she did as Emma wanted. If not as an actual precaution for her safety, then to at least demonstrate to Emma what she had said earlier. Regina believed in her, she was enough, and if for some reason she thought they had come into danger in the distance between the camp Snow was in and the trees they had been huddled against moments before, then Regina would stop and let Emma do what Emma needed to do to feel safe.
But then Regina heard it, too. The breaking of twigs, it was getting closer. She looked at Emma, but Emma was not looking at her. Emma was looking around, seeing if she could determine the direction of the source of the sound.
Regina hoped it wasn't another ambush for a brief moment, before she decided that she very much hoped it was an ambush because she and the Savior were ready.
Emma stepped away from Regina, signaling that Regina should stay put and on guard. Regina nodded, unsure of what the other woman was planning on doing. She was proud to note, however, that Emma had already conjured a fireball. She was a very quick study and Regina knew that immediate present threat or not, Emma's strong mastery over the few parts of her magic Regina had been able to teach her to control would come in handy.
It was then that she saw a figure in her peripheral vision and faster than she could alert Emma, whose back was turned, and conjure a fireball herself, she was knocked unconscious.
When she awoke, she was surprised to see that it was Emma's face hovering above her own and not the face of whomever knocked her unconscious.
"Regina, are you okay?" Emma asked, and Regina could tell that the Savior was doing a cursory visual examination of her being to determine whether or not she was indeed okay.
"I'm fine," Regina said, and she could honestly say that she was. She felt no worse than she had before losing consciousness, aside from what she assumed was a mild bump on the head she must have sustained as she fell to the ground. "What happened?"
As an answer to her question, Emma's face took on a look of disgust as she helped Regina to sit up so she could see the figure that was tied to a nearby tree by vines.
"She thought it would be a good idea to knock you out with poppy dust," Emma said, a hint of anger lacing her voice. "She says she knows you. That her name is Ti-"
But Regina did not need Emma to finish, because as she eyed her would-be attacker, Regina realized who it was with surprise, "Tinkerbell?"
"Yes, Your Majesty," the fairy spat.
"How?" Regina stammered, and neither blonde was certain who she was addressing. Then she looked at Emma, "How did you manage to tie her up?"
For a moment, Emma's look of disgust at Tinkerbell disappeared and she smiled at Regina, "I used my magic. The way you taught me with that log. You know, I moved the vines."
Regina regarded Emma for a moment, truly impressed with her control over her magic. "That's quite remarkable, Emma. You really are powerful."
Emma's smile grew brighter, "Thanks. But what do we do with her?"
"It depends," Regina stated as she properly stood up and as Emma, who had been crouching down next to her, stood as well, "on what she's doing here and what she knows."
The queen walked over to where her old acquaintance and inspected her. She noted that Tinkerbell looked very different now than she had when she had first encountered her those several decades ago.
"What happened to you, Tink?" Regina asked, genuinely curious as to what could have happened to make the fairy look so unlike herself.
"You happened to me," Tinkerbell replied, anger lacing her tone. "Because of you, I'm no longer a fairy! Because of you, I was banished here, where I've had to fight for my survival every damn day."
"Me?" Regina asked, wondering how she could possibly be to blame for causing this misery to someone she had once considered a friend. "I don't recall doing anything to you."
"Wait," Emma spoke up, "how do you two know each other?"
Before Tinkerbell could answer, Regina replied, "We knew each other a long time ago. Tinkerbell tried to help me."
"And a whole lot of fucking good that did me," Tinkerbell said. "The queen here was miserable and I mistakenly tried to help her find happiness. But she sure as hell didn't take it, and because of that, because I broke the rules to help her my wings were taken from me."
At this, Regina looked at Tinkerbell in a new light, "You no longer have magic?"
"Were you not listening?" Tinkerbell asked angrily. "No, of course you weren't! You didn't listen the first time I tried to tell you something either. Why would you listen now? No. I don't have magic. The Blue Fairy took my wings, took my magic, and sent me here."
"So you found a way to survive?" asked Emma, sensing an opportunity. "To navigate the island?"
"Yeah," Tinkerbell said, "because I've been stuck on this goddamn island for fucking ever."
"Then you can help us?" Emma asked. "Do you know how to find Pan's camp?"
"Why would I help you?" Tinkerbell asked, incredulous. "You're with her!"
Regina was upset. She didn't know exactly how she was the cause of Tinkerbell's predicament. The events of their friendship, and later estrangement, happened so very long ago, the memory was unclear. It had been another lifetime, a time before her days as the Evil Queen. But she knew that if Tinkerbell had knowledge that could be useful to them, they would have to make her talk. And she knew how to make people talk.
"I don't know what happened to have you so angry with me, Tinkerbell," Regina began. "But you will help us."
"Right," Tinkerbell said, sarcasm dripping heavily, "because helping you, dear queen, worked out so well. I don't have magic now, because of you. I have nothing."
"If you do not help us," Regina threatened, "we will leave you here."
"So I can die?" Tink asked. "Good! I have nothing to live for anyway."
Yet that wasn't true and Regina and Emma could both sense that. Why else would the former fairy keep herself alive all these years?
Regina glanced at Emma, "A word, dear."
The two walked some distance away from Tinkerbell, far enough that she couldn't hear them but close enough that they could still keep an eye on her.
"What are you thinking?" asked Emma.
"Obviously, we need her help," the queen answered. "And I think I know how to get it, but you won't like it."
"Is it evil?" Emma asked, not sounding as if she disapproved, which startled Regina. Because she knew that Emma loved Henry and wanted to get him back at all costs, she just hadn't been aware that the daughter of Snow White would ever agree to anything 'evil' to get the job done. And, Regina found, she wasn't prepared for Emma to have to pay that cost.
"Not as evil as it could be," Regina answered. "But we don't know how much time we have left and this is the only way I can think of that will work."
Emma started to say something but then she paused. After a look from Regina, she opened her mouth again, "What if there's another way?"
"And what's that?"
"Well, like you said, before, you know, earlier," Emma stuttered. "When you were talking about my magic. I could, you know, use love instead of anger. To make it better. What if, instead of whatever you're planning, which I'm sure would be very, um, powerful, we try to do it with-"
"Love?"