Regina hit the forest floor with a thump. Every muscle in her body screamed in protest. She went black for a moment and then she felt it – pain, pain, pain. Pain from her leg, from her head, from her shoulder, arm and ribs…
"Get up," said a lazily cold voice from above. The hairs on the back of Regina's neck stood erect and her heart was pounding wildly, like a trapped bird in a cage. Slowly, Regina got to her feet; her dark hair falling over her eyes.
"Good…good," came the slow, mocking voice of one of the lost boys. The lost boy was tall with an angular face and blonde hair. He carried a menacing club in one hand. Regina looked around. She was still in the forest, in the same spot she had fallen. Her eyes flickered; searching her surrounding warily. There were other lost boys hiding in the bushes. She knew that. She could feel their smugness.
"Regina right?" said the tall lost boy. "The evil Queen?"
Regina nodded and smiled. "The evilest." Act like the Queen you once were, she told herself as she gazed at the boy unblinkingly. "And what's your name lost boy?"
"Felix."
"Well Felix," she said. "Is there any particularly reason you ambushed me?"
Felix smirked. "I think you know."
"No," said Regina. "I don't."
"Well Pan has told me to kill one of you…the one that is the greatest threat…and that is you."
Regina let out a cold laugh, thinking about her weak magic and the fact she didn't even have a sword. Subtly, Regina wiggled her fingers, hoping to feel some sense of magic.
"Me?" she said, still laughing. "I'm not the greatest threat. Emma Swan is….she's the saviour."
Regina's fingertips tingled.
"No," said Felix, "we've heard legends that you enacted a curse so powerful that it ripped everyone away from the enchanted forest and took them to a world where there were no happy endings."
Regina ignored him and changed the subject – "Where's my son?"
"Your son?" repeated Felix. "I thought he was Emma's son."
"He's mine."
Felix laughed. "Messy family relations? I feel that we will have no problems converting Henry to a lost boy after all."
A magical force exploded from Regina's palm, throwing Felix against the trunk of a nearby tree, just as it had done to Captain Hook a few moments before.
"You will tell me where my son is," said Regina, cornering Felix and wrapping a slender hand around his throat. "Because if you don't, I will fight you every step of the way. I will haunt you with the cruellest of curses. I will get every acquaintance of mine to block every lost boy you throw at me, and I will kill anyone that stands in the way of me and my son. I swear, in the end, I will make you wish that you never knew what regret felt like."
Regina felt something cold and slender against her neck. Slowly, she looked down to see a silver blade digging into her throat.
"Let Felix go," said another one of the lost boys. Regina knew she was surrounded by many foes. She stepped away, her hands above her head. Think of something bloodthirsty, she told herself, something that makes you want to kill. She thought of Henry all alone in Neverland. She would kill for him. She will kill a thousand lost boys for him.
Regina looked at the army of boys circling her, all carrying strange weapons; batons, clubs, spears, daggers and bows and arrows.
"This is a warning boys," she said, her hands still in the customary surrender position. "I will let you all go today but if you ever touch me again, I will kill you."
And with that she threw her hands down. The ground began to shake like an earthquake. All the lost boys were blasted off their feet. Regina watched them fall with satisfaction. They weren't dead. Just unconscious.
Regina fell to her knees. She felt exhausted; so sleepy as though someone had sucked all her strength from her. She layed down in a bed of forest leaves, amongst the fallen lost boys. From somewhere in the distant, she heard a stampede of footsteps. The sound ebbed and flowed, getting further and further away, until she didn't hear it at all. Regina felt serene and weightless, happy to be drifting off.
The last thing she saw before the darkness won its battle was a scruff face and the curve of a metal hook.
The last thing she heard was Hook's concerned voice – "Regina? Love?"
His voice sounded like a song.