AN: I know it's been a while since I last updated and I'm really sorry. But I've got a series of exams coming up and I really have to study, which means cutting back on the amount of time I spend on this story. Things will be much better as from the 30th of June. I promise

Also, for anyone who suffers from arachnophobia, I'm sorry but you'll have to STEER CLEAR OF THIS CHAPTER! In fact, all sensitive person should stay away from this particular one. It contains mentions torture and nasty little beasts. I'll probably come up with an alternative one but for now, I have very little time. Like I said, I'm really sorry.

Chapter 20

They'd been walking through the woods for hours, with next to no results and frustration had started to creep into both of them. The trees were starting to look pretty much the same and were blocking out any natural light, the air was getting thick and they both found it hard to breath. Darius was starting to get worried about Cora and Reina, and Emma was already pissed off, since she wasn't getting any information out of him. To any intrusive question, he'd just smile, shake his head and deflect with his own question. In the end, Emma had given out more answers than she'd expected to ever give in her entire life. Darius would just look into her eyes and she would blurt out her every thought. The worst part is that he found it amusing and once a while he'd let a smirk turn into a snicker. It was the only thing stopping him from letting loose of his magic and transporting them to where they needed or wanted to be, so he let himself loose as often as possible. To stay close to his resolution, he reminded himself of the hostility Regina had warned them about when it came to magic. But such resolution could only last that long in the suffocating atmosphere.

As soon as Emma let out another long suffering sigh, a golden light sprang to life and slalomed between the tree trunks, leaving a bright white light in its wake, causing Emma Swan's jaw to almost hit the floor. Unaware or pretending to be unaware of her reaction, Darius bounces from tree to tree after it, never leaving more than a few centimeters between them and not once looking back to check how Emma was keeping up.

Emma herself only took a few seconds to get over the surprise; she'd never seen such beautiful magic being performed. Compared to it, fairy dust was nothing but glitter. The white light bounced and hopped as if it was alive, in fact, Emma could have sworn it was. Chasing it, Darius seemed to have lost even more of his gloomy persona and looked almost like an oversize child running after his favorite ball.

They chased after the ball for what felt like hours, but to Emma, they could have been walking because she felt no tiredness at all. And when the ball disappeared into the ground, taking with it its joviality and light, she almost disappointed. But it wasn't the right time to pout and tap her foot against the ground like a petulant child; Darius had his ear against the ground and was listening to something. Something apparently very interesting because as soon as Emma set foot into the opening where he was lying down, he lifted up a hand, and then pointed a finger toward the ground, so as to indicate that he wanted her to shut up and sit down. Emma immediately obeyed, her spirits lifted by the chase within the woods.

She sat there, patiently, silently wondering what Darius was up to and whether he had fallen asleep, when the ground started to rumble and shake. The sudden occurrence had shaken her out of her reverie and she'd started to panic. She realized that she had absolutely no idea of where she was, having lost all landmarks while running after Darius and his golden ball.

But she didn't have the time to do anything about it before the ground split into two and they were pulled into a dark hole.

Regina Mills heard the ground rumble, followed by two distinctive thuds, no doubt Emma Swan's body. She cringed involuntarily only to sigh the next second: as sorry as she was for Emma, she had almost reached her destination, and turning back would only make it more difficult to reach her goal.

She weighed her few options: she could either go back to make sure Emma was okay and risk missing her mother, or she could move on, find Cora and then come back for Emma, with the risk of meeting her dead. The tomb was in fact a giant underground maze she had created to keep her mother's body out of harm's way and if her theory was right, she should have woken up by now, in the dark with no idea of where she was, which meant she couldn't teleport out of the place.

Regina sighed again; it seemed like Emma Swan wasn't going to leave her alone any time soon. And as much as she wanted to move on, if she let Emma die, she wouldn't be able to forgive herself, and neither would Henry. So she directed the fireball in her hand towards the exit and started to run; Emma could had fallen anywhere and there were so many bobby traps that she would soon get into one and get herself killed. She resisted the urge to call out, because even that could attract some of the dangerous creatures that where guarding her mother's final resting place. But Emma didn't know that, and Regina could already hear painful moans coming from where she had probably landed.

The moans were immediately followed by the sound of scratching on the floor and walls, coming from an thousand little legs. The sound was amplified, bouncing from stone wall to stone wall, making Regina's stomach drop. Not that she feared spiders, but one spider was nothing beside legions of them. And seeing their number, Emma swan would panic, phobia or not.

A blood curdling scream rose up, followed by terrified whimpers, causing her to speed up. Her fireball grew as she ran, tongues of fire licking the walls, frying spiders as they went. They crunched under her feet and the stench of burnt arachnids filled the air, making Regina's stomach to churn. She vaguely congratulated herself for changing into more manageable boots before going into the tomb.

The maze seemed to go on forever and the exit seemed further away with each step as Emma screams grew louder and more frantic. One could already hear wisps of hysteria sneaking in.

As she grew closer to the screams, she noticed just how many spiders there were. Thousands of them, maybe more crawled frantically, trying to get to Emma. There were so many that there was no way to set foot on the actual ground. Not that she minded, too absorbed with the idea of getting to Emma before it was too late.

When she finally reached Emma, the poor girl could barely on her two feet, but she couldn't let herself fall either. Regina let her eyes roam around, only to fall upon Darius's form spread on the ground, covered in spiders. She out a sigh and called out to Emma as she made a bee line for him. But instead of answering her call, Emma only screamed harder and ran around aimlessly. At multiple times, she missed being burnt by Regina's fireball by a hair.

Regina let out a sigh; handling an unconscious Darius was one thing, but handling Darius and a hysteric Emma was another thing entirely.

By the time she managed to get Emma and Darius out of the maze tomb, the Sun had risen and was making its way to the center of the sky. Emma had mentioned something about her burial being that very same day. She hadn't counted on the whole spider fiasco and seemed to be running out of time. Cora was still locked up in there, neither Emma nor Darius were in shape to travel and to be honest, she was starting to feel the fatigue creeping into her bones.

Like most people, Regina Mills didn't like spiders. But unlike everybody else, she had had to face them more often than she would have loved to. It all started when she was fifteen. Her mother had dragged her into once again another walk and as they were walking in the grounds, they came across an enormous spider. While Cora didn't even acknowledge it, Regina jumped up and grabbed her mother, squealing like mad.

Of course, Cora wasn't with the unladylike behavior and sought out to punish Regina in the most vicious way.

"Mother please! I'm sorry! I'll never do it again!"

"Regina, you must learn to control yourself"

"Yes mother"

"I will not tolerate you embarrassing me that way again"

"Yes mother! Please! It will never happen again. I promise!

"Promises aren't enough Regina! You have to learn! Get in there"

"Mother no! Please! Please don't do this!" Regina begged just as the door was closing in on her.

Her panicked screams could be heard throughout the castle and all of them felt more or less strongly the twinge of pity for the young girl.

Regina shook herself out of her reverie. It wasn't the right time to get lost in the past. And to be honest, she didn't like to think of that particular day. She never even bother to ask when or how she got out of the room. It was just one of those memories she would have been more than happy to forget.

AN: Like I said, this one's a really nasty one. It won't happen too often, don't worry. Nevertheless, why don't you guys pop into the review box to let me know what you think. XD