Author's Note: Hi! First of all, thank you to all the lovely people who have read and reviewed this fic. I feel like I should let you know that we're almost at the end now. This is the last "real" chapter, and I'm working on wrapping it up in an epilogue that I'll hopefully be able to get to you soon. I've had a great time writing this, and I really hope you've enjoyed reading it.

Regina approached the wall, sensing the presence of magic. She looked back questioningly over her shoulder at the others.

"Do you feel it, too?" she asked.

Most of the group stared back in blank-faced confusion, but a few were nodding. Emma, Rumple, Ursula, Maleficent – those with magic.

"There's some sort of concealment spell," said Maleficent. "Hopefully not blood magic."

Regina shrugged.

"Well, there's only one way to find out."

Stepping forward, she gathered up a ball of fire in her hand and threw it at the wall. Nothing. The fire fizzled out as soon as it hit the wall. Regina groaned with frustration.

"Let me try," said Rumple. He approached the wall slowly, cautiously, and lifted his hand to touch it. The moment his fingertips made contact, he suddenly let out a gasp of pain as he was thrown backwards off his feet. Falling to the floor, he looked from his hand to the wall with an expression of outrage on his face.

"What kind of magic is this?" demanded Ursula, reaching out to help Rumple to his feet.

"I think I know," said Emma.

All eyes were on her.

"The author is obsessed with heroes and villains, right? So maybe the reason you can't get through is because you're in his villain column. Maybe only a hero … someone he sees as a hero …"

"Well, you're welcome to try, Ms. Swan," said Regina. "Just be careful."

Emma nodded and walked toward the wall, her hand outstretched. As she touched it, the wall dissolved, leaving only an open archway in its place and revealing a spacious hidden room. On the other side of what had once been a wall stood the Blue Fairy, and beside her, a man who none of them recognized, seated at a writing desk.

"Well, it looks like heroes are good for something after all," muttered Ursula.

The author rose from his desk and addressed the crowd.

"This doorway is enchanted," he said in a calm but powerful voice. "No villain can pass through, and nor can their magic penetrate it. I will speak to the heroes, but the villains must leave. Now."

"Not a chance," snarled Maleficent. "We're not going to leave until you give us what we want."

"Maybe this is better," Snow said, turning to Charming and Emma. "We can talk to him about Regina, convince him that she deserves a happy ending, but the others …"

"No," said Regina fiercely. "Look, I appreciate everything you've done for me, but I didn't come this far to let other people decide my fate. I need to speak with him myself."

Emma nodded and exchanged a glance with Robin, who met her gaze in silent understanding. Then the two of them lunged through the archway and grabbed ahold of the author.

"You don't get to be a coward and hide behind magic and labels," Emma said as they dragged him forward across the threshold.

"They – they'll kill me!" the author gasped, his bravado gone.

"No, they won't," said Snow. "We won't let that happen. We just want to talk."

"No – stop!" The Blue Fairy cried out in protest as she, too, was shoved through the archway. "You can't do this. You're siding with the villains, Savior, and that is a dangerous path to take."

"You think I care about heroes and villains?" Emma demanded, pushing the Blue Fairy forward. "I wasn't always some perfectly pure Savior. I've done things that I shouldn't have. And the same is true of everyone here."

The author pulled himself free of Robin's grip and looked around incredulously.

"There's a difference between a villain and a hero who has made mistakes," he said. "You're supposed to be good people. Surely you don't really believe that the Evil Queen and the Dark One deserve happy endings?"

Snow opened her mouth to speak again, but Regina silenced her with a glare. She turned to the author.

"I know you don't think so," she said. "But I've really been trying. I know I was wrong, before, but I'm not that person anymore. And I know I don't deserve a happy ending –"

"You most certainly do not."

"But doesn't it matter at all that I've changed?"

He didn't need to reply. His stony silence was louder than any spoken "no".

"Why do you hate me so much?" she demanded. "Why can't you even believe in the possibility that I've changed?"

"Because change is impossible for people like you," he said. "There are some things that can never be made up for."

"Don't you think I know that?" she was breaking down now, almost begging. "Don't you think I understand that better than anyone? But I can't undo what I did. All I can do now is try to atone for what I can and move forward."

"Then you need to accept that it will never be enough."

She couldn't cry in front of him – in front of all these people.

"What did she do to you?" David asked.

"That's not it," Regina said. "I've never met him before in my life."

"But you did meet my family," said the author. Regina was frozen in place at his words. She looked away, unable to meet his gaze.

"What did I do?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"What do you think? You murdered them. All of them. Even the children."

Her heart sank.

"I'm sorry," she said, forcing herself to turn and look him in the eye. "I truly am."

"And yet, your apology won't bring them back."

"That's why you're doing this, isn't it? You want me to lose the people I love. Just like you."

He nodded. There was no sympathy in his cold gaze.

"And you?" Snow's voice was furious as she addressed the Blue Fairy. "You agree with him? I thought fairies believed in second chances!"

Blue shook her head.

"Not for villains."

Snow recoiled with horror in her eyes. Looking around the room, Regina saw expressions of anger and dismay on the faces of everyone around her.

"Enough of this nonsense."

Rumple's voice came from across the room, which had somehow become divided once more, heroes on one side and villains on the other, with the author and the Blue Fairy in the middle. Rumple reached into the bag that he carried and pulled out a glowing, pulsing human heart. Regina's blood ran cold.

"Whose is that?" she demanded.

"The heart of a hero," said Rumple. As he held it up, Robin stepped forward, as if in a trance. "You didn't think your old friend really let him go, did you?"

Regina's gaze fell upon Maleficent.

"I was going to!" the dark fairy gasped. "I tried to, I swear! But they found out, and I didn't have a choice but to go along with their plan. I'm sorry!"

Regina turned away, tears pooling in her eyes.

"Let him go, Rumple. Please."

"That's not up to you anymore, dearie," he said. "I'll let him go when the author gives us our happy endings. All of us. If he refuses, well, one of his precious heroes dies." Turning to the author, he added, "What will it be?"

The author and the Blue Fairy exchanged a glance. In unison, they shook their heads.

"Never."

"Are you sure about that?" Rumple asked, squeezing Robin's heart. The outlaw let out a cry of pain and fell to his knees, clutching at his chest. Regina rushed to his side, overwhelmed by panic. Just like Daniel.

But not like Daniel.

Instead of falling to her knees beside him, she stood tall, her love for him pulsing through her own dark heart and out the palms of her hands in a jet of white light. Robin's heart fell harmlessly to the floor as Rumple, both Queens of Darkness, and even the author and the Blue Fairy were thrown backwards. Regina picked it up gently, almost reverently, hardly able to believe it was still intact.

She knelt beside Robin and pushed his heart back into his chest as tenderly as she could. He let out a gasp and looked up at her, and as she leaned down to kiss him, he reached up and wrapped his arms around her. The crowd around them almost ceased to exist.

He was safe.

He was in as much danger as ever.

She broke off the kiss, looking into his blue eyes and trying to memorize them.

"You have to go," she told him.

"What?"

"You heard the author. There is no happy ending for me, and I …" her voice broke. "I want more than that for you."

He shook his head emphatically.

"No … no …" pulling himself to his feet, he turned to the author. "Please, you have to see how much she's changed. She's not a villain anymore. Give her a chance."

The author silently shook his head.

"Those are the rules," he replied. "No matter how much you think she's changed, she will always be a villain. They all will. Do you want a happy ending for the people who took your heart?"

He glanced across the room at the Queens of Darkness, the word "no" on his lips. But then he caught sight of Maleficent helping Ursula to her feet, meeting Robin's eye with a silent apology. From the other side of the room, he saw Belle's tearful face as she watched the man she still loved no longer trusted. Suddenly, "no" felt wrong. Instead, he turned to the author with anger bubbling up inside of him.

"I want to know why they felt they had no choice," he said.

"They're villains. It's what they do."

"No," said Robin. "It was their decision, yes, but it's your fault, too. You think that you can play the judge, jury, and executioner. But the truth is, you're no better than the villains you hate so much. Much worse than some. You force changed people to suffer for of things they did a lifetime ago. You even let your precious heroes suffer if they love someone you consider unworthy. And I don't just mean myself. I'm talking about everyone here – everyone you would consider a hero. What about our happy endings?"

The author's eyes narrowed, and his next words were like a knife to Robin's heart.

"I gave you a happy ending. You had your wife back. If you're suffering, it's only because you couldn't get over the Evil Queen."

"Regina is my happy ending. I don't want one without her."

The author only laughed

"Then you won't have one."

From somewhere to the side – the heroes' side, as if that mattered to anyone but the author right now – Will Scarlet turned to Belle.

"We don't have a choice," he said. "What we talked about earlier – you have to do it."

She nodded and stepped forward, holding a circular box decorated with stars in one hand and a curved dagger in the other. Fear filled the author's eyes as she waved the dagger over the box, transforming it into a hat that seemed to contain a universe.

"I'm sorry," she said, pointing the opening of the hat in his direction

"No! You can't do this! I'm …"

Then, in a burst of light, he was gone. Just one more star in a miniature galaxy. The Blue Fairy raised her wand, a furious expression on her face.

"How dare you!" she shouted.

Maleficent smirked and sent a ball of fire soaring across the room, barely missing the Blue Fairy.

"You're outnumbered ten to one," said Emma. "And it seems like some of these people really want you dead. If I were you, I'd find a place to hide."

From where she still knelt on the ground, Regina recognized the familiar words and almost laughed. But before the Blue Fairy could flee, she was floating in the air, gasping for breath.

"I said I would have my revenge," snarled Maleficent. "And I will."

No. Regina pulled herself to her feet and approached her friend, gently placing a hand on her arm.

"Don't do this," she said.

"She is going to die for what she did to me," said Maleficent. "I need revenge. You of all people should understand that."

"I do," said Regina. "But I also know that revenge is not a happy ending. The best thing you can do is let go of your anger. Trust me on that."

Maleficent turned to look at Regina, startled, and the Blue Fairy collapsed to the floor.

"Is that really what you did?"

Regina nodded.

"And you can, too. Now that the author is gone, we can all decide our own destinies."