Thank you Fiend89 for editing!

Regina and Henry are eating at home, eating in silence, until the doorbell rings. Looking at Henry weirdly, she takes a quick glance at the clock hanging in the room. How odd for someone to come knocking at her door at this hour.

"I don't recall us expecting any company," Regina says as she wipes her mouth with a napkin. Getting up to answer the door, Emma stands at the dining room's doorway.

"Emma, how did you get in?" Regina questions, not hearing the front door open, or heard the said woman enter the house.

Emma tilts her head, staring darkly into her eyes. "Henry invited me."

Regina raises an eyebrow, giving the blonde a puzzled look. "The door was locked, dear."

"Does it matter?" Emma snarls.

Regina shakes her head. She learned quickly that if she just lets Henry have time with his birth mother, he's nicer to her. But it doesn't stop her thinking of why Emma would use that excuse sharply at her. "Why are you, dear?" Regina questions the blonde. Something was odd with Emma. Something was off. The electric feeling every time they look into their eyes wasn't happening. The magnetic pull wasn't begging to have contact.

"You."

Confused, Regina looks behind her into the kitchen and discovers that Henry is gone. She turns back to Emma, where several other Storybrooke citizens have gathered behind her.

"We all do," Emma points around her, darkly.

Swallowing, Regina turns around and starts to retreat into the house, when she sees Henry holding a noose at the top of the stairs.

Regina eyes widen, "Henry."

All of the sudden Regina is being dragged through the mob to the main street, where an apple tree has sprung up in the middle of the road. They tie her to the tree as she protests. The rest of the town watches on with satisfied looks in their eyes.

"No… No…. Let me go. I command it!" Regina yells. This can't be happening. She will not be killed against her own tree.

"After everything you've done to all of us?" Ruby snarls, her inner wolf surfacing.

"My apologies, Your Majesty, but my conscience is clear!" Archie yells.

"Tighter! She needs to feel our pain!" Granny commands.

"You took our love and ripped it apart!" Margaret snarls in Regina face.

"And now, you're going to pay!" David snarls into her ear.

Regina watches Emma approach her and picked one of the blackened apples off the tree. She holds it in front of her and crushes it in her hand. "Rotten to the core," Emma's voice full of venom, as the black juice dripped out of the dead, sick fruit.

Regina shakes her head, not believing she lost again. "I just wanted to win… For once."

Emma grabs Regina by the throat. "You took away our happiness, and now it's our turn to take away yours."

Emma lets go of Regina's neck and walks towards the crowd. David pulls out a sword and hands it to Emma.

"I thought you would still love me, looking past all of it," Regina pleads to Emma.

Emma laughs evilly, "love someone like you? You took me away from my family. Cursing them forever. Clearly you were naive."

Regina sees Henry from the corner of eye. "Henry. Henry, please don't let them do this to me." Would the boy she raised for ten years, never once raised her hand, or ever done anything that harmed the boy, let her die?

"You did this to yourself," Henry speaks with venom.

Wielding the sword, Emma aims it at Regina. "Any last words?"

Regina looks into the cold hazel eyes. Seeing hate, anger and darkness. "That I did truly love you."

Emma doesn't even blink at the confession. She swings the sword, stabbing Regina into her chest. Piercing through her heart. A heart that finally feels once more. Emma twists the sword and pulls out. Regina's chocolate eyes remain open, not wanting to take away from the hazel eyes that once hold light. Blood gushes out of her chest, pouring out of her body. She fights as long she could against death, until the damn devil laugh echoes in her head, as the darkness took her away once and for all.

Jolting upright in her bed. She quickly gets up and heads to Henry's room to check on him. Inside, she sees him underneath the blanket, still sleeping peacefully.

Taking deep easy breaths, she tries to calm her pumping heart. Regina exits the room, slowly making her way down the stairs. No point of trying to go back to bed. Both her heart and head was pounding, too restless to go back to bed. She brews some coffee, hoping it'll calm her nerves. This dream has been repeating itself every night now. Always the same, nothing changes no matter how much she wanted to. But she feels herself getting killed by Emma.

Emma Swan.. The birth mother to Henry. The daughter of her enemy. Snow White and Charming...

She finally figures out why Emma looks familiar. Same personality and attitude that she remembers from her parents.

Hazel eyes as her mother, blond hair as her father. She gets her hard head from Charming, believing that everything comes together sooner or later. Stubbornness comes from Snow, clearly. Or maybe from both?

Regina shakes her head, not wanting to think about her enemies, taking a sip from the hot bitter black coffee. Emma seems to be forever in her head. In every thought. She can't stop thinking of the Emma. Not that she wanted to stop either. She's just saying, for the sake of talking to herself in her head.

The daughter of her most hated enemy. The woman that she ripped her family apart, cursing them forever. And she loves her.

Love...

A word she doesn't use lightly. But after everything she finally realize that she fallen for the blonde. That she would die for her. Even be killed by her if it means she was happy. A weakness that she hated but welcomed. Because it's that love that broke her mask, that opened her heart and pulled her to the light.

She pinches the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache was coming along. "This is just great. It takes me to curse an entire village, freeze time, adopt a kid just so the kid can find the birth mother and drag her here to change everything. Now the curse is breaking, I'm realizing my feelings. Just great."

As the sun rises, she stares out of the window. Regina notices that her apple tree is wilting. When she goes to investigate, she finds that the apples are beginning to rot.

The end of the curse was near. She can feel it in her gut. And only one person will know the outcome.

"Your Majesty. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Mr. Gold asks when he sees the dark brunette enter his shop.

"My tree is dying. Why?" Regina knew the answer; she just had to hear from the man who created it.

Mr. Gold shrugs. "Perhaps, it's your fertilizer."

Regina raises an eyebrow, clearly not amused. Crossing her arms over her chest. "You think this is funny? Well, I'll tell you what I think. I think it's a sign of the curse weakening because of Emma. An important fact that you clearly didn't warn me about. But do you care? No. You're content to just sit back and do… Whatever it is you're doing, which is planning."

"That's not all, is it? Come on. You might as well get everything off your chest."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Henry. Miss. Swan..." Mr. Gold hints.

"Over my dead body will you use them against me," Regina snarls.

"The curse was meant to take away Snow White and Prince Charming's happiness. Perhaps, you feeling love once more is breaking the curse," Mr. Gold tells her.

"I will lose everything no matter what," Regina whispers. She knows nothing can be done. That she's doom from the start.

"You're going to have to be quite creative. We both know what the outcome is capable of," Mr. Gold replies. "I warned you to take care of it. You choose to ignore it. Not my problem anymore."

"The curse will be broken. That's because you designed it that way," Regina speaks. "This all part of the plan, the game. A chess game."

"You know… Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. Magic… Well… Is in short supply around here and dwindling by the minute," Mr. Gold points out.

Regina shakes her head. Why was she so naïve? Why couldn't she see this before? It starts to make sense now. "You want the curse broken. Why?"

"That's not something I care to discuss," Mr. Gold states, leaving no room for discussion.

"Don't bother. You can shove your reasons," Regina huffs. There was no point. "What is left to do?"

Mr. Gold shrugs. "Unfortunately for you, you only have two choices."

"Is it either end my life before they realize who I am or make another deal with you?"

"You no longer have anything I want, dearie. But I will give you a piece of advice, free of charge. You either wait it out and get what you deserve or you run. Because, once people wake up and remember who you are and what you did to them… They are going to be looking for blood."

Mr. Gold leaves the brunette to her thoughts and decisions she will have to make as he went to pack. Everything was going as planned. Soon it'll come to play. Soon he'll be reunited by the one he did this for.

Regina stares out at her dying precious apple tree from the window of her office in her home. She grew it when she was just a little girl and took care of it throughout her life. The only thing that was sane thing in her crazy life that stayed with her, no matter how dark it got. Now like everything else in her life that she cared about is dying. Leaving her alone in the world.

Feeling a presence in the room, Regina stiffens. "Jefferson. So, you got my message."

"How could I miss it? You know I watch her," Jefferson huffs.

"It must be painful, your daughter Paige being oh, so near."

"Grace. Her name is Grace. You should know that – you changed it," Jefferson snarls at Regina. "What do you want?"

Regina finally turns her head away from the window. Looking the crazy Mad Hatter in the eye darkly and serious. "Your help."

Jefferson crosses his arms over his chest. "And what makes you think I won't kill you after everything you've done?"

"Because you don't have it in you. If you did, you would have done it twenty-eight years ago when I brought you here. Or when you had me tied up. Trying to make me beg, to break me," Regina says dryly, sounding bored with the topic. "Because you know if I'm dead, you'll never get back to your daughter. And I have a way for us to both get what we want."

Regina bends down to retrieves Jefferson's hat box and places it on the table.

"My hat."

Regina nods, "I want you to use it again."

Jefferson shakes his head, "I can't make it work. No one can. Not here. Not without magic."

Regina smiles. "Well, then you're in luck, because I happen to have some. Not a lot… But hopefully, enough… For one last journey."

If it works she'll be one step into completing her plan. The only thing she could come up. The only way to stop all this madness. She'll finally will do something for someone else, and not for her.

"Where?"

"Back to our land. Where there's a solution to a very delicate problem I have… How to repay back for my crime, to get this game over with. To get the one person who could break my curse to believe and do what she was born to do," Regina explains tiredly. She's done.

Jefferson just looks at Regina, blinking, processing what she just said. "And why shouldn't I let you do just that? End the madness and go home, sounds like an easy way out for you. You need to pay what you did."

"My problem, Jefferson, is the same as yours. It's family. Loneliness is the worse curse anyone can ask for. You know better than anyone in this town," Regina points out. "I'll suffer until the day I die." There is no way they would let Emma and her love each other. And over Snow and Charming's bodies will they let Henry be anywhere near her.

"Why should I trust you now?"

Regina shrugs, side glancing at the man. "You shouldn't. But it's the only offer you've got. After we're through, I'll wake up your dear Grace, so she'll remember who you are."

"No. Remembering is the worst curse. Two lives in her head, like me. I want to forget. I want you to write us a new story, a fresh start, here."

Why was she not surprised? A deal for a deal. "Well, my dear Jefferson, then that's exactly what you'll have. After we take care of Miss. Swan."

She just hopes that this works, or all her hard work was for nothing.

Regina leads Jefferson down a set of stairs, leading to what looks to be an underground tomb. Several urns and boxes line the walls.

"Watch your step," Regina warns.

Jefferson looks around the place. "What is this place?"

"Where I've kept the last bit of my magic. The only magic in this world is in the things I brought with me," Regina tells him, looking around, letting it all sink in.

Jefferson walks to the center, placing his hat on the tile floor. They stare at the hat, waiting for the magic to be absorbed but nothing happens.

"It's not spinning. It's not working," Jefferson points out the obvious.

"It needs to absorb the magic that's here... I have some things left. A few trinkets." She goes over to one of the many drawers in the room. Picking a certain box from one of the side walls, she dumps its contents into the hat.

Once again, nothing happens.

Jefferson shakes his head, "it's not enough. You need something that still works."

Something that still holds magic, and value. Lifting a hand to her neck, she pulls out Daniel's ring and holds it up. Produced by magic, the love that was once felt. Daniel's face can be seen in the middle of it.

"Who's that?" Jefferson asks curiously.

"Someone long gone," Regina answers monotonous. Daniel is a touchy subject to the brunette. His death has been the seed that made her follow the dark and cold, lonely path.

"Well, whatever or whoever it is, it still has magical properties. Give me that, and let me see what I can do with it," Jefferson reaches out a hand.

She hesitates. Is losing the last thing of her past that she cared so much, the last proof of her old self, worth it? Just so her heart is stabbed to be able to give Emma a happy ending?

"If you have any kind of feelings for Emma or Henry, give it to me," Jefferson pushes for the ring once more.

Regina takes one last look of the ring. Daniel was the past. Emma and Henry are the future. She'll do anything to have them happy. Dropping the ring into the hat, a slight purple vortex begins to form, but the hat stops spinning.

"What's wrong? Why isn't it opening a portal?" Regina demands.

"The magic – it's not enough. We can't go anywhere," Jefferson tells her.

"Then you failed," Regina says coldly.

"There's enough magic to touch the other side, just not to get us there. There might be enough to… Reach through and retrieve something."

"I can bring something back?" Regina asks with hope in her voice.

Jefferson nods. "Is there an object that can help you? Perhaps, I can open it enough and reach through and grab it. It would have to be small. Something that you can take with your hand. Is there anything like that, that can help you?"

The only thing that can convince the lovely, beautiful blonde... "Yes. Yes, I believe there is." It was her only hope, it had to work.

"Then, you need to direct me to the time and place where this object exists." Jefferson hands the hat to Regina.

Regina looks at the hat to Jefferson. "How?"

"Think about it. Guide the hat," Jefferson instructs.

Closing her eyes, thinking for a moment. Smiling, she places the hat back on the ground, a proper vortex begins to form.

Jefferson smiles, looking at the purple magical vortex. "Excellent. It appears to be working. Now, what is it we're after?"

Regina smirks. "An apple."

Regina enters Mr. Gold's shop once more in the same day. Smiling at the older man as she leans over the counter. "I hope for your sake our land isn't completely destroyed."

"And why's that?" Mr. Gold lifts a questionable eyebrow.

"Because I've rewritten the prophecy," Regina tells him simply.

This got the older man's attention. "Oh, really? And how are you going to do that? The prophecy has been written before you or I been born."

Regina just shrugs, just details that were now meaningless to her. What matters is that she won't be going down alone. "An old, reliable solution."

Mr. Gold just looks at his student dumbly. "A sleeping curse. Might I ask how you managed to obtain one here in Storybrooke?"

"By sacrificing the last bit of magic I had left."

Mr. Gold blinks, letting it sink it. "So, you made magic from magic. Well, I'm sure I don't have to remind you that, all magic comes with a price."

"That's what I'm hoping for," Regina says with a dangerous smile. "Because the price will be breaking this damn curse that I was so naive to cast. A lesson learned that I won't be making twice," Regina speaks with venom. She had thought this thoroughly. Not wanting it to back fire on her like the other plans has. This had to work. She planned it to the finest detail. "So, whatever plan you had… Whatever reason you wanted the curse broken… I hope it didn't involve using me."

In the kitchen, Regina stares at the apple. The apple that will solve all her problems. Or at least she hoped. There was no guarantee, but something told her it will. For once in a long time, she's going to have faith, and believe its going to work this time.

The doorbell snaps Regina from her thoughts. Taking one last glance at the apple, she goes to the front door, opening to find Emma staring at her with a conflicted look.

"We need to talk."

Regina nods. "Yes, I imagine we do. I'm glad you came. Come right in."

Letting the blonde into the house. Regina leads Emma into the kitchen, walking to stand near the bitten apple. An intense silence comes between them, as they escape to their thoughts, thinking of what to do and say.

"I think it's time that we end whatever is going between us..." Regina finally spits it out. It took a lot to keep her face blank, not wanting to admit the pain of those words made her feel. There wasn't much time left, and even as a death stare aims at her, she's never going to beat around the bush.

"Wait… What?" Emma was completely thrown off. She thought they past that damn stage just a month ago...

"I'm no good to you. I'm broken beyond to repair. I'm holding you back and that's not fair," Regina explains, pushing through her plan. "It's selfish."

"And who died and put you in charge of who I should be with or not?" Emma snaps. She won't let Regina to push her away. Not when she starting... No. Not starting. Is falling in love with her.

"You know how wrong it is to be with me?" Regina points out. She's technically the blonde's step grandmother by marriage. Emma is the savior, and she's the Evil Queen. That's a whole lot of wrong.

"Because you are a woman? The adopted mother of my son? Older than me?" Emma asks but she didn't wait for a reply. "I don't care. My heart wants what it wants. And it wants you."

"I am the Evil Queen," Regina argues angrily.

"A royal pain in the ass and a cold ass bitch is what you are," Emma huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Why can't you open your damn small, slow brain to what I'm tell you?!" Regina yells. "I'm the Evil Queen. The fairy tales are real. Not a fantasy but a cold reality."

Emma can't believe this. Not this again. "What's with you, Henry, August, and Jefferson about this stupid, crazy theory," Emma says in frustration, pulling her hair.

"Because it's true. I cursed the entire fairy tale world to this world, taking away any chance of happy endings."

"And what's your proof of this theory?" Emma places a hand on her hip, clearly not amused of where this conversation was going. If Regina doesn't love her or care for her, why can't she just tell her straight forward, not bullshit?

"This is your proof," Regina points at the bitten apple.

"An apple?" This is worst than what August showed her to convince her. At least he had a good act going on. A bright dark red, juicy apple that was bitten was going to convince her? Emma sighs, waiting for Regina's explanation.

"This is the apple that I tricked your mother into biting. This apple has the sleeping curse hex on it," Regina explains, with a cold distant voice as she remembers the memories.

"Sure," Emma mocks, "and I have the magic carpet in my room, waiting to take me to see the world."

Regina wasn't amused with the blonde's reply. "I'm not joking..."

"I'm not either, Regina," Emma cuts her off. "I think the time you shared with Jefferson messed up your mind more then we thought."

"I'm not crazy, Emma," Regina states, feeling hurt that Emma would think that.

"Than why the sudden change?" Emma demands.

"I'm doing this to give your happy ending," Regina replies. She reaches for the apple, gripping it as she lifts it off the table. "Once I take one bite into this apple, I'll be put into a deep sleep, making it look like as if I was dead. Never to wake up. By doing this, it'll prove to you that the fairy tales do exist and you will break the curse," Regina explains to the blonde.

"Why would you do that if you are the Evil Queen?" Emma asks, confused of why Regina would do this in the first place.

"All I wanted to do is win. For once, I would prove that heroes don't always win. To finally get my happy ending, to be happy but sadly the curse has been weakening slowly since you came into town," Regina replies truthfully. "By doing this, you and Henry can be happy together without me in the way. And that this way I go down by my terms, not the townspeople."

Everything that Regina just told her as been true. No lies. Even as Emma looks into Regina's eyes, she can see it wasn't an act. That she wasn't kidding.

"Emma? Mom?" Henry's voice comes from behind them. "What's going on?"

Regina walks around the stun blonde and goes over to her son. Bending down, looking into the concern eyes. "Finally taking responsibility for once."

"What do you mean?" Henry asks, confuse at the intense situation in the room.

Regina smiles softly, lifting her hand to show the apple. "I'm going to give you what you been wanting. Your true mother and savior."

Henry eyes widen when his eyes lies on the bitten apple. "That's not what I think it is..."

"It is," Regina nods. "And I know I wasn't the best mother but can you make sure my apple tree isn't touched."

"You can't do this..." Henry begs.

"I'm the Evil Queen. I have to pay for I did."

"I don't think you are the Evil Queen anymore. I was blinded by the thought of fairy tales that I didn't see what I was doing to you," Henry wraps his arm around Regina, holding on tightly, as he begs for her not eat the apple.

Combing her fingers through his brown hair, feeling it once more before she takes the plunge. "It's to break the curse and have things back to normal..."

"This is crazy, Regina. You sound like you are going to commit suicide," Emma speaks up.

"I am," Regina says truthfully. Lifting the apple to her lips, taking one last look at Emma and Henry. It'll be the only thing that will keep her company in the endless sleep. She doesn't want to forget their faces or memories of them.

"No!" Henry grabs the apple from Regina.

As Regina was about to open her mouth, the apple was snatched out of her hands. "Henry… What are you doing?"

Henry shakes his head, taking a step back, putting distance between him and the two adults. "I'm sorry it had to come to this," Henry apologizes to his mom. Looking over to Emma, "you may not believe in the curse… Or in me. But I believe in you." He takes a bite of the apple. He chews the sinful juicy fruit, swallowing every piece.

When nothing happens, Emma turns to Regina, not impressed. "How was that suppose to convince me when nothing happened?"

"It didn't work?" Regina whispers to herself, disbelieving. She has failed once again.

Even Henry was shocked, but suddenly a deep pull of endless sleep took over his body, causing him collapse on the floor.

Regina froze in place, damn wishing this wasn't happening.

"Henry? Henry? Henry!" Emma snaps into action, when Henry's body drops dead to the cold tiles of the kitchen floor. Rushing to his side, she shakes the boy. Trying to wake him up, to open his eyes.