A/N: I won't say I'm not ashamed at the long delay in posting, but I won't apologise either. This is a flaw of mine, the struglling to end a story. Certainly beginning one is the play of a moment.

RL hasn't helped either.

For the kind readers, who haven't forgotten me yet, thank you for your support. This is not a long chapter, but I'm posting chapter 25 alongside this one, to make up for it. I sincerely hope you guys enjoy it.

All mistakes are mine.

Chapter 24: Running to the finish line, all the way back at the beginning

Enchanted Forest

The past

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Cora couldn't understand why her daughter would choose to lay there so lifeless for a mere stableboy. Even when her heart had been broken, she had not considered lying prostrate due to a trivial thing such as grief for the man who had deserted her with child. Even as a young girl with her heart still in her chest, she could not have phantomed any emotional pain that would transform her so.

Love was weakness.

Regina had always been a weakling, too much of her father in her.

And that would not do at all.

Cora moved and Regina didn't even flinch as her mother's hand dove into her chest and removed her red, vibrant, though pain-filled heart. Cora considered leaving the heart out, passing on to her daughter the wisdom of never being governed by one's own weak heart, but in the end, that wouldn't help Cora in her plans and so the fleeting thought was quickly discarded.

She need Regina to embrace the power, the darkness and finally grow strong as she had always wished her daughter could be. And a vibrant, red heart was not the way to go.

Cora had just the curse, too, to help her darling daughter along.

Maybe Regina would have flinched after all, had she glimpsed the evil smile her mother bore at that moment, but even with no heart in her chest, Regina still felt and what she felt was mind-numbing pain and endless despair.

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Storybrooke

Present day

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She couldn't control it.

The ground was shaking, glass was breaking, winds were blowing and the whole universe seemed to vibrate to the magic coming out of her in waves. Dark shots of light. Light strokes of magic. Purple smoke rising and twirling. It was a mess of colors and bursts that she had no control over, leaving marks on her body and the sense of growing pain upon her skin. She wanted to scream, but no sound came. She wanted to silence the screaming voices in her mind, but they refused to relent.

What was happening to her?

Regina had run from idiotic David and the revelation that the hearts in that secret vault had been hers. She had run fast and hard, pain shooting up her side and air leaving her lungs in pants, until she found herself amid trees and nothing else. Then had she collapsed, exhausted from it all.

Her thoughts had been wild and angry and guilt had filled her lungs instead of air. How could she do that to all those people? Countless people without hearts. Fear in the eyes of so many she had crossed. David's careless, but probably true words… She was a monster.

A sob had left her parted lips and that is when the magic had been released, disrupting leaves and dirt, breaking branches and making the ground tremble. The more the word monster echoed in her thoughts, the louder the voices in her head grew, screaming in agony, demanding justice, crying in despair. Those voices were her fault, she realized. Those voice were her punishment for being a monster.

Tears streamed down her face and still the winds danced wildly around her, tangling her loose hair and pulling it from the scalp, in an effort to add to her pain. Her desperation was so great that her fingers came to claw at her skin and her face and her hair, willing the guilt and the agony of all those souls she had wronged to be let free. Blood came to paint her pale arms and legs and face. She deserved the pain. She deserved to be punished.

She was a monster.

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Robin ran, legs reaching far and wide to make each step longer and faster and to carry him that much sooner to Regina. He ran without really knowing where he was going, though somehow he knew that he ran directly towards her. Must have been the soulmate connection urging him along, the thought briefly flitted through his mind. Robin didn't usually like to delve into that and simply let the notion go.

He focused only on running.

His lungs burned and his legs, though used to running, started to cramp. Still, he persisted, needing to reach Regina in time. And just like that, a ball of magic and smoke and lights came into view, trees dancing violently in the wind that seemed to go in no direction and all directions at once. Robin paused, bent at the waist to try and catch his breath, eyes caught in that mess of magic up ahead.

Was this it, then?

Was the Evil Queen finally making an appearance? He had certainly heard about the evil monarch that pursued Snow White so relentlessly and all those who aided her. He had heard about her beauty, about how vicious she could be. Had heard tale of the coldness hidden in her eyes and the fury of her hands, that could kill a man with a simple twist.

Robin had no doubt that such a woman had, in fact, existed. Regina herself had admitted to earning her reputation. But what he could see and few others could, was that the Evil Queen was gone. It was not who Regina was anymore. And Robin of all people could understand being different people in life.

So it was not so much that he paused out of fear of facing the Evil Queen in some way.

It was the fear that his presence was not helping at all and that he had fallen in love with a woman who no longer existed. Regina was still real and alive. But she was not the woman he had met in the Enchanted Forest.

It was all too confusing.

Robin straightened up and breathed in deeply, before continuing towards the smoke and lights playing among the trees. His pace was sadate. Calm. He had no idea, though, was he would find there.

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Regina could see him, could actually feel him there. The wind was strong, the purple smoke swirling in a vortex about her and the lights almost blinding in their intensity, but she could see him there, trees towering over him. She wanted him to go, despaired at the thought of him seeing her this way, for the monster she really was. And the more fearful she became, the stronger the wind blew and the more powerful the magic surged.

She couldn't control it at all.

And at the same time that his presence caused her fear, she could feel, now that magic flowed freely and the voices spoke more clearly, that he was not only a man she may like. A man that may like her back. He carried within him a part of her she still lacked to be complete. A part of her soul that was still connected to her body, but was held back in his for some reason.

She didn't have all the answers, but she knew that.

With a purpose more clear than she could remember having since waking up and with a strength and determination she didn't even know she had, Regina rose from her crouched position and trekked through the smoke and the winds to meet him halfway. Her skin bled and hurt, her head swam and screamed, her body protested loudly the abuse. Still she walked, one step stronger than the one before, until Robin stood in front of her, blue, caring eyes searching hers.

A hand rose to rest upon his chest and it was there, in his heart, that she could feel it, the missing part of her.

Rising on the tip of her toes, she allowed her resting hand to form a fist, using him as a point of balance as she brought her face closer to his. Perhaps there were words she might say to explain. Maybe some explanation that made it clear how she needed to do this and that all would be alright in the end. Even if she failed to understand how she knew that to be true.

But words are so hard to come upon in moments like this. So, she said nothing.

And as their lips came together in a kiss, eyes still connected, Regina realized that words were completely unnecessary.

Robin kissed her back, deepening their touch at the same time his arms came to embrace her body against his. Their tongues came out to meet each other, and there was no moment of hesitation or tentative exploration, as if this was a dance they had performed together thousands of times before.

And in the midst of this reacquaintance, Regina finally felt it, the darkness being reigned back into her heart, the voices fading into the background, the magic settling into her bones. She felt the memories rushing back to their nooks and crannies, settling into their rightful places. Her mother, her father, Leopold, Snow, Charming, Emma… Henry. She remembered it, remembered them, not at all like a movie playing in the back of her mind, but a single second of just knowing, of just being herself again.

Of knowing who Robin was. The average man in the woods, the desperate father seeking his son, the gentle soul offering her comfort, the infuriating man smirking at her, the familiar face looking at her as if he could see it all, when no one could even see her there. Her soulmate.

Tears streamed down her face, relief at the forefront of her mind. It was not until she found herself again, that Regina realized how out of sorts she had been before. And it felt wonderful.

Robin's kiss wasn't so bad, either.

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