Italics are flashback. So basically this whole chapter is a flashback.

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Regina has just returned from the king's chambers and she was absolutely furious. She almost ran to the balcony of her chambers and smashed her hands on the fence, she was still mad so she just kept hitting her, she didn't think about anything but her anger, not until the fence started to fall and Regina with it. A thousands of thoughts were running through her head as she kept falling, she was maybe inches away from falling when she felt something surround her, she immediately thought it was magic, because it felt so familiar yet so strange, it wasn't the magic she was used to – dark, meant to hurt people it was light, meant to help.

She floated back to the balcony and she walked inside, what she didn't notice however was a fairy, flying just above her head.

"Why did you jump, Regina?" The fairy asked as she turned into her human form.

"I didn't!" Regina defended herself and then she looked at the fairy, really looked at her. "Tink." She said as she remembered her, Regina had helped her once… while he was still alive.

"Glad to hear that you remember me… Now, where's that guy you were with? Robin was it?"

Regina flinched visible at his name. "He's dead." Regina whispered as she tried to keep the tears at bay.

"What? How?" Tink asked, clearly surprised, that wasn't meant to happen, he was supposed to save her, to re-write her destiny, he was supposed to make her believe that love wasn't weakness.

"He… he was going back home but his carriage crashed and he… didn't make it." Regina said, tears starting to fall.

No, no, no – the words repeated in the fairy's head, Regina needed love, true love, to insure that the prophecy wouldn't happen. The first thing Blue told her when Tink became a fairy was about a prophecy of a queen – so stunningly beautiful but with the blackest of hearts, the evil queen, they called her, it said that the queen would lose so much and she'd focus on revenge instead on the love she could of have had. One day, the queen would cast a curse, a curse so powerful that would take them away from their homes and make them forget everything about their lives. Ever since the prophesy was made, the fairies kept trying to figure out who it was about, trying to find a way to save her from going dark. The answer was obvious and extremely difficult, they decided that the queen would need love but they had no idea who it was supposed to be, not until Regina married king Leopold.

"Let me help you." Tink offered.

"What could you possibly do?" Regina snapped at the fairy and felt just a little guilty afterwards.

"I could help you find your soul mate."

"I already lost my soul mate – two of them in fact." Regina answered.

"You need to open yourself to love again… and I owe you so consider this the least I could do."

"Oh, fine." Regina sighed as she agreed. "How is this going to work?" Regina asked, starting to feel nervous.

"Pixie dust will draw out a path on the sky to your soul mate."

"Seriously?" Regina asked skeptically.

"Yeah, seriously." The fairy said and then started to work her magic, she blowed the dust of of her hand and watched as the green started to appear on the sky.

"How do we get there?" Regina asked when she saw that the dust wasn't moving anymore.

"We fly, of course." Tink said before using the rest of the pixie dust to make Regina fly.

Regina couldn't believe it – she was flying. She watched as the houses and cottages started to get smaller as they went higher. Everything got a little better, the moon was a little closer and the stars seemed to shine brighter. It was unbelievable and extremely beautiful.

They landed in front of a tavern where the green light appeared to have stopped.

"What now?" Regina asked as Tink moved closer to the door, she looked through a small window on the door and then called Regina closer.

"Do you see him? The guy with the lion tattoo?" Tink asked as she put her finger on the glass. Regina nodded as she noticed the lightest of green above him.

"Can you… Do you think you could leave me alone?" Regina asked as she stood staring at the stranger's tattoo.

"Of course." The fairy said and Regina could hear as the fairy turned into her much smaller self and heard the clapping of the wings, meaning she was flying away.

Regina bit the inside of her cheek, was she really going to do this? To go in and meet her alleged soul mate? She thought about her lessons with The Dark One and of her mother. Her mother kept repeating to Regina that love was weakness and after losing Robin, Regina started to believe the words. The Dark One said that she was full of anger and hatred and that she should hold on to those feelings, that they would help her be a better sorceress. For a moment, just a moment, she decided that they were both wrong and she opened the tavern door, that moment was gone just as quickly as it came, she shut the door, turned around and ran away.

Had she stayed just a bit longer, she would see the man with the tattoo turn around, she would see his familiar blue eyes and the oh, so wonderful smile. Had she stayed, she'd see that him turn around looking for the source of the sound, had she stayed she would see Robin Locksley of Sherwood – alive and drinking beer. Had she stayed everything could of have turned out differently. Had she stayed their lives probably wouldn't be so messed up, had she stayed she wouldn't have the blackest of heart, had she stayed The Evil Queen would never be. Had she stayed she would finally have her soul mate back, she could of have broken free of Rumple's grasp on her… Oh, if only she stayed.

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I know, I know and I promise – next chapter, the present, the continuation of where the previous one ended. I have no idea what happened in that last paragraph but I quite like it so I decided to leave it in the chapter and just go with it. This was written in the the middle of the night, so if anything seems off than it is probably off. I also changed this scene (obviously) because I already had Regina meet Tink and this is an AU so, yeah. Oh, I don't know how many (or if any) noticed that I'm trying to update every Sunday. Anyway, leave a review or PM and tell me what you think. Thanks for reading! You're awesome, I love you! -K