Storybrooke, Maine
Dark Woods
8:15 PM
"I probably shouldn't have brought you here," Caitlin said as she paced through the vault, her fingers lightly grazing against the walls. "But you were going to follow me whether I wanted you to or not."
Henry smiled. "I'm glad you've figured out who I am."
She paused for a moment, sighing heavily. "You're perceptive, aren't you?"
He grinned. "Isn't that great?"
"I am too," She said, her fingers lingering one of the boxes. "But I suppose your book shows that."
Henry hesitated. "I don't want to get too into the book."
"That's not like you," She noted. "Not the you I've been shown, at any rate."
Caitlin was silent for a long moment, brushing her fingers over the box in an attempt to unlock it though to no avail.
"That should be impossible…" She murmured. "It should be…with my magic…for all of my powers…"
"How strong are your powers?" He asked her. "The book depicts them as pretty strong –"
"And they are," She said quietly. "But not always strong enough."
He looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"I got into a duel with Rumpelstiltskin that almost killed me," She told him, trying to take in everything about her surroundings. "And…I…I don't even…"
"Are you okay?" Henry said worriedly. "Caitlin, are you crying?"
"I…" She bit her lip. "Henry, this is the closest thing to home I've seen since I came to…and I don't care that we only managed to get in here today…I can feel the magic running through here, and I know this is from home…and all I want is to go back to that with everyone else. I want…I want things to be the way that they used to be…with me as the princess, and my mother as queen…"
Henry raised an eyebrow. "I don't understand why you would want that?"
"All I've known has changed," She said, resting her head against her arm, leaning against the wall. "I don't even know who I am anymore, how someone like me can fit into a world such as this…I'm nothing more or less than a…I've always been outside of conformity, but I don't feel like me here, I feel dangerous here, and I hate myself more than ever…"
Henry sighed. "You're a good person, Caitlin."
"I…" She shook her head. "I don't know what I'm even doing…"
"Caitlin…" Henry said slowly, pausing over a page in the book. "What's this?"
And her blood went cold as she saw the page.
"What are you doing here?" Regina demanded as she walked up to her vault only to find her mother staring at it. "Mother –"
"Oh, Regina," Cora said, turning slightly towards her. "I shouldn't be surprised that you brought some of your magic into this realm…and I shouldn't be surprised that you got it back. What still eludes me is how your daughter just…has it in this realm. She shouldn't…for more reasons than one, that should be completely and utterly impossible."
Regina crossed her arms and glared at her. "What exactly are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about how I don't understand a damn thing about your daughter," Cora shook her head. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that she's an enigma. After all, she is the daughter of a stable boy and a queen."
Regina sent her mother a dark look. "Don't you dare do anything else to her."
"That depends," Cora said, rubbing her neck. "I –"
"Leave, mother," Regina said, taking an imperious step towards her. "Now."
Cora rolled her eyes, but used her magic to leave her daughter alone as she was, it seemed, too often.
"Caitlin?" Henry repeated, looking in concern at his sister. "What's this?"
She bit her lip as she shut the book. "If I tell you, I need to ask you not to judge me too harshly."
Henry's brow furrowed in confusion. "Why would I judge you?"
"Because I am a flawed human being," She informed him. "And I've done things that I more than regret."
Henry began to read through the pages of the Storybook. "You…you threatened Snow?"
Caitlin swallowed hard, upset clear in her grey eyes.
"She tried to…" Caitlin collapsed against the wall and curled into herself on the floor of the vault. "She tried to kill me in order to get to my mother…and Charming was the one that spurred her onto it…or, at least, that's the way it seemed. She shot an arrow that nearly hit me, and…"
"Caity," Henry said, shutting the Storybook delicately. "I don't want to read it…I want you to tell me what happened."
She stared at him. "You trust me?"
He nodded. "I do."
She sighed heavily. "I…I was on my way to the palace from a meeting between my mother, myself, and King George…"
"What the hell was that for?" Caitlin exclaimed, activating her magic. "Snow, what the hell have I ever done to you? I don't care what's going on between you and my mother, why in the hell would you try and kill me?"
"I wasn't trying to kill you," Snow protested, although she could not deny that she had fired the arrow. "I had to make a scene, though, I needed to do something that would make it clear to Regina that this is hurting more than –"
"So I'm a pawn?" She snapped. "I'm nothing more or less than a pawn to you?"
"Where's your mother?" Snow asked her. "Caitlin Leanne, where is –"
"I'm ahead of her…" She said softly. "But –"
"Snow!" Charming yelled. "Regina's just down –"
Caitlin reactivated her magic defensively as he came running down towards her and Snow with his sword drawn. "Don't you dare –"
She attempted to pulse her magic to throw him back, expecting him to kill her, but she was unsuccessful and his sword, expecting her to try to kill him, pierced her clean through her upper shoulder and partially down her side. She collapsed to the ground in agony, too weak to use her own magic to heal herself. Just as she fell into the mud, her blood staining her lavender gown as well as the mud, Regina and her guard reached the scene. Immediately dismounting her horse and running over to her daughter, Regina healed her with her own magic before turning to Snow and Charming as her daughter fell unconscious.
"What have you done?" She hissed. "What –"
Snow and Charming began to run, and only barely evaded Regina's magic which ended up only distracting her guard. By the time they were gone, a cold rain had begun to fall and one of the guards ran over to aid the Queen. Within a few minutes, he carried her into the carriage with the Queen who held her fifteen-year-old daughter as if she were a child. There was nothing that felt right, and she could not deny the anger she felt towards Snow and Charming in that moment. Fear ran through her as she brushed her fingers through her daughter's tangled dark hair; if she lost her daughter, she lost the single stable thing in her life. Though she had not expected Snow to play fair – neither of them were – she had never thought that the woman could fall so low as to harm her daughter, the most innocent person amongst them. She had never done anything, and yet she hated herself, and yet she still had cuts and scars on her wrists from her self-loathing and hopelessness…
"My mother filled in the gaps in my memory…" Caitlin said softly. "And I…I still can't decide who was in the right and who was in the wrong that day…I just can't…"
"Sidney," Emma said, scowling at the man who was standing before her. "What do you want?"
"You know what I want," He said, adjusting the hat upon his head. "I need to discuss something regarding Regina."
Emma could barely resist the urge to groan. "If you're still in love with her –"
"This has nothing to do with your relationship with her," He said. "Although I wish that it were I and not you who had access to her heart."
Emma grimaced at the thought. "What exactly do you mean by that?"
"I mean romantically," He said. "Not literally, of course. I can't imagine you being able to rip out the Evil Queen's heart."
Emma buried her face in her hands. "Sidney –"
"You have no idea what evil she's capable of," Sidney told her. "Absolutely no idea –"
"Oh, the Savior may not," A silky voice said, stepping into the room. "But that doesn't mean I don't."
Emma narrowed her eyes. "Cora."
"My daughter sent me away," She said, brushing her fingers over the sheriff's desk. "And I'd rather not get into a duel with her right now. Especially considering how much she worries about her daughter and that boy."
"That boy is our son," Emma said, sending Cora a sharp look. "And I don't appreciate you acting as if he is nothing but a –"
"Do you have any idea who my daughter is?" Cora asked as Emma stood up and reached for her coat and bag. "Do you have any idea how horrible she is, what she's done?"
Emma glared. "I know what she's done, and I –"
"Where are you going?" Cora shook her head. "I don't think I'll ever understand you…or anyone like you…"
"You feeling any better?" Emma called out upon seeing Regina sitting on the steps of her vault. "Regina, I know things were difficult earlier –"
"I'm not angry with you," She told her, pressing her hand against her forehead. "I'm just…contemplating something."
Emma sat down beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist. "What are you thinking about?"
"I…" She sighed heavily. "I'm just worried about my daughter…let alone Henry."
Emma gave her a loving squeeze. "It'll be okay."
"I can almost guarantee that she's in the vault," Regina said, biting her lip. "It's sealed with blood magic…aside from my mother or…or my father if he were still alive, she is the only one who can get in."
"Then why not go in?" Emma asked her. "Why not go ahead and talk to her, be with her? I know you've been separated from her for too long –"
"Being separated from your child at all is too long," Regina told her, hesitantly standing up and activating her magic as she ran her fingers through the small slit between the doors. "I…I'm going to find her."
"Wait," She said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Let me go with you."
Regina hesitated but then nodded. "Alright, fine…let me show you one of…one of my best kept secrets."
