By day, the duck pond (and its surrounding park) was a family-friendly oasis in the middle of Storybrooke. In winter, it froze over, becoming a skating rink if the ice was thick enough. At the moment, it wasn't, but more dangerous than thin ice was the pond's night-time potential to become a portal into the Underworld. So it was that as the full moon reached its zenith, Captain Hook stood on the shore pouring the contents of the black grail onto the frozen surface. It was a mixture of water from the wishing well and his own blood, sanctified by the magic of the grail, and it hit the ice in a blaze of energy. Cracks shot outward from the point of contact, widened, and swallowed up the ice in chunks until the pond was a black rippling sheet of liquid.

As gray mist rose from the water, Hook crouched at the edge of the pond and stuffed the grail into the bag he had been given, a bag woven of invisible thread. He was glad to have it hidden away again — he found its icy touch disturbing, and blamed it for the bad dreams that had plagued him of late. He straightened, then peered out across the pond, muttering, "Come on, Swan. Time to come home..."

"Go home, Emma."

"No way. You got me out of the wish realm. You think I'm just gonna abandon you here?"

Time was always muddled in the Underworld, but Regina guessed that they had been there for about a week already. She and Emma were living in the castle, with the bartender and the eyeless woman from the inn staying on to advise Regina on the magic peculiar to her new station in life (or death).

The two shades were both initiates of the Chthonian Oracle. They had never known each other in life — he had died centuries earlier and she was the last of the order, taken prisoner as a child after her master had been killed. Both went nameless in solidarity with their lost goddess, though Regina had heard his customers calling the bartender "Dook", while the eyeless woman was ironically known as the Seer. Regina had sent them on errands to the far ends of the realm so that she could have this chance to talk to Emma alone and convince her to return to Storybrooke.

"Henry needs you, Emma."

"He needs both of us."

Well, that made a change in attitude from the combative birth mother who had challenged her custody back when they first met, thought Regina. Heartwarming, yet hellishly inconvenient right now. Her stubbornness, which Regina found by turns admirable and infuriating, wouldn't let Emma give up on a friend.

"I'm bound to this realm," Regina explained with as much patience as she could muster. "Magically speaking, I'm as dead as dead can be. More dead, in fact. It means the upper world may as well not exist for me anymore. You could open up a portal right here and I wouldn't even be able to touch it."

"There must be some way," Emma said mulishly. "You managed to wake me up when I thought I was a singing Disney princess."

"I hope you don't resort to such... extreme... measures as I did," said Regina. She hadn't thought the wish realm versions of Emma's parents were real enough to matter, but it was hard not to feel guilty about killing them so brutally in front of their daughter. In the end, it had been the threat of wish-Henry killing Regina which had woken Emma... the implications of which still troubled Regina's heart, but it wasn't something either of them dared talk about openly. She pushed the thought away. "Because the people here may be dead, but they're as real as we are and they need me, too. I can't let you try to sacrifice them for me."

"No, but..."

"It wouldn't work, anyway. Not without serious divine intervention, which we really, really don't want." Regina had learned too much of the history of the cauldron to trust in the gods anymore.

"Well, ok, Hades was a back-stabbing asshole, and maybe Zeus isn't all he's cracked up to be, but aren't there other gods — I can't believe I'm saying this — we could ask for help?"

It would be most unwise, whispered the voice of the cauldron. An honorable god would not abet such dereliction of duty, while a dishonorable god would leave you worse off than you are now.

Regina sighed. "I can't run away like that. These people need my help."

"Yeah, but..." Emma bit her lip, brows furrowed in thought. "But they're already dead. Can't they wait a few years? You've worked so hard and come so far. You deserve a chance at a life, at happiness."

"Tell that to the mob of angry ghosts out there." Regina's personal shades had taken to lurking around the castle and the island it stood on, watching her silently. They didn't actually look angry anymore, but that was only because they had Regina trapped where they wanted her. A handful had moved on already, but the rest lingered here, haunting her. "I don't see myself leaving this place anytime soon, if ever..."

"Regina..."

"Hey, cheer up. We're bound to see each other again, eventually. Even Henry — not for decades, I hope, but... maybe death won't be as frightening if you know there's a familiar face to greet you." She forced a smile. "So get on the boat, go home, and think of it as me taking a job in a foreign country. That's life, it happens."

"I'm not giving up on you. There's gotta be some loophole, something." Emma glared at Regina until the latter lowered her gaze in acquiescence.

"Fine. You investigate." Regina gestured vaguely. "There's a library in one of the towers." Not that she thought Emma would find anything, but hopefully she would come to her senses after her search proved fruitless. "Meanwhile, I have duties to attend to."

"This is it, Zelena. A final good-bye." Regina addressed the bottle in her hand, but the lost soul trapped inside showed no sign of comprehension. Regina forged on anyway. "Our relationship hasn't been the best, but you were still my sister and I won't forget that."

After days of instruction and practice, Regina finally felt ready to use the cauldron on her own. She had already activated the preliminary spells; now she uncorked the bottle.

"You will forget, though. You'll be reborn again in the world of the living. I don't know which realm, or to what life, but it's a new chance. I hope you make the best of it." She paused, then added, "I'm sorry I won't be there for your daughter. I made a deal with Rumple... I hope he's kinder to your child than you were to his."

Regina lifted the bottle and poured the contents into the cauldron. She heard the sizzle as liquid hit iron. Then steam rose in green- tinged tendrils and spiraled away into nothing.

It is done.

Regina let out the breath that she had been holding. "Well, then. That's one down... how many more to go?"

Two days later, as Regina was working on reincarnating her eighteenth lost soul (she hoped to become more efficient with practice), Emma barged in, excitement radiating from every pore.

"Regina! I've got it."

"What?" Regina halted the mechanisms instinctively, but it took her thoughts a moment to catch up. "What are you talking about?"

"You have to marry me."

"What?" Regina gaped. Had Emma just said...? Did this mean... Regina barely dared to hope.

"No, no, hear me out," Emma said hastily, waving her hands in a placating gesture. "I figured it out. I don't mean..." She hesitated a moment before continuing, "...a real marriage. But it's like people in my world who get married to get their green cards or whatever. I'm alive, so if we get married, that means I can share my 'citizenship' in the living world with you."

Regina stared blankly. "Oh. A marriage of convenience." It wouldn't be the first for her. Only this time, it would be arranged for her sake. She suppressed a surge of disappointment. "I... see."

"It'll work, I'm sure it will."

"And how do you come by such confidence, Miss Swan?"

"It was in the law books in the library. Spider's been translating for me. As far as we can tell, it's an obscure rule, but still valid."

"How generous of him to help us." Regina suspected ulterior motives, but was still too stunned to dwell on the thought. "And... how will this work, exactly?"

"That bartender is technically a priest, and since you drank from the cauldron, that technically makes you a member of the same faith, so by the laws of the Underworld, he has the power to marry me to you."

"Hmm." It sounded plausible enough.

"You'll count as a living person once we're married, and you'll be able to leave the Underworld."

Is this true? Regina directed her question at the cauldron.

True enough. Of course, it goes both ways. She will count as a dead person once you're married. For every day you spend in the living world, she will need to spend one here...

"I should have known there'd be a catch!" Regina scowled.

"What?"

And you will not be able to dwell more than half of a year in the upper lands...

Regina explained what the cauldron had told her.

Emma grimaced, looking pale but resolute. "Six months here, six months there. So, it's just a residency requirement. We can handle it."

"It's literally a life and death situation, not a tax dodge," snapped Regina. She took a breath, forced herself to think it through. "And marriage... that's not something to enter into lightly. My last one didn't end well, you know."

"I know. I'm sorry." Emma gave her a sympathetic look — more sympathy than she had ever received from King Leopold. Regina's husband had never seen her as more than a pretty ornament for his court and a substitute mother for his daughter. "And it's too soon, you've just lost Robin. I wouldn't be suggesting this if there was any other way to save you."

Regina sighed. "I appreciate the thought. But this isn't really fair to you. What about your Captain Hook?"

"Ah." Emma's gaze fell and her lips thinned.

"I have no wish to break up your relationship for my sake." Regina ignored the treacherous voice at the back of her mind calling her a liar. This isn't about you, she told herself severely. This is about Emma's happiness.

Emma didn't speak for a while. Finally, she cleared her throat. "Yeah, well. Even if this wasn't the only way to get you out of hell, I... I don't think I could stay with him any longer."

Regina was speechless. Emma had turned her pirate into the Dark One rather than lose him. He had nearly brought death to them all, but Emma had instantly forgiven him when he changed his mind with a last-minute sacrifice to save her. The very next day, she had dragged them all to the Underworld to get him back. Even though they had failed in their quest, Zeus himself had returned Hook to life, and as far as Regina could see, the couple had been inseparable ever since.

Except that now Emma was here and Hook wasn't. Regina longed to ask Emma what had finally brought her to her senses, but the words stuck in her throat.

"This past week, I've had time to think," Emma continued slowly. "No, it started before that. When I met Killian in the wish world. He was... older. And... to be honest, kind of gross." She shook her head. "I told myself I was just being shallow. That my Killian was better than that. That we could be together just like my parents. But... I couldn't help doubting."

"Oh." And in a flash of insight, Regina realized that must be why she hadn't tried True Love's Kiss when Hook had been turned into a snake. Emma must have suspected, deep inside, that it wasn't True Love, and been afraid of confirming her suspicion.

"I thought it was my fault. That maybe I was too damaged to love properly. That if I worked at it..." She sighed, running a hand through her hair. "When Zeus resurrected him and gave us a second chance, I thought it was a sign that we were destined to be each other's happy endings. But if Spider's right, if Zeus really is just some horndog with superpowers, then I've been fooling myself."

"Emma..."

"He really hurt me, when he was the Dark One. Called me a 'pretty blond distraction'." Emma quoted the words as if they were etched into her heart. "He...he wanted to hurt me."

"But you forgave him..."

Emma nodded. "I'd tell myself, he was the Dark One then, he didn't mean it, that he was lashing out because he was in pain. That I was the one who hurt him first. But the things he said... I don't know anymore. I was the Dark One, too, and I didn't stop loving Henry, or my parents, or..."

Regina held her tongue. The gods knew she had spent enough time trying to kill Emma's parents, not to mention anyone else who stood in her way. She had sacrificed her own father in pursuit of vengeance. Anything she said on this point would be hypocritical. Villains could claim to change, could offer their apologies, but in the end that judgement was out of their hands. But even if she had taken on the Darkness — a fate Emma had sacrificed herself to save Regina from — would she have lost herself enough to want to hurt Emma? She hoped not.

Emma stumbled on in the face of Regina's silence, "And the worst thing was, he was willing to kill Henry just to hurt me. Even Henry. He'd have done that to a child..."

Emma didn't cry. Emma Swan did not cry. But she looked utterly wretched.

Regina longed to take her in her arms and hold her until the pain went away, but she was the Evil Queen. The Evil Queen didn't hug people. But somehow she had crossed the distance between them and Emma's face was pressed against her shoulder and Regina was patting Emma awkwardly on the back. "Oh, Emma..."

"Maybe he was actually more honest when he was the Dark One. When he wasn't trying to 'win my heart'. He lied to me about the magic shears, you know," Emma said, her voice hitching only slightly at the end. "He didn't trust me to make my own choices. Just like I didn't trust him when I forced the Darkness into him and wiped his memories."

"But you trust me?"

Emma chuckled weakly. "It's not something I would ever have said when we first met, but yes, I do."

"That's something, at least." Making her decision, Regina rushed the words out before she could think better of it, "All right, then. A marriage of convenience it is."

The ceremony was far simpler than Regina's first marriage had been. The cauldron served as the altar and the witness, while Dook the bartender-priest recited the ancient words of binding. The audience was made up of all the castle's shades, along with a few visitors drawn by curiosity to this once-in-a-millenium event. Regina did her best to ignore them as she and Emma exchanged simple vows of faith and loyalty.

The kiss that sealed the deal was almost chaste, a quick touch between their lips. Regina was afraid to let it become any more than that, so she drew back as soon as the formalities were satisfied. Keep this simple, she told herself. Don't make things more awkward with Emma now that she's stuck with you for better or worse...

For their "honeymoon", Regina summoned a ferry to the castle island. Ignoring the disapproving grumblings of the cauldron and its priests, she and Emma stepped aboard.

Finding a path out may not be as easy as you think, the cauldron told her.

"I don't care. We have a chance, and I'm not going to miss it," Regina said.

Emma glanced at her. "Hearing voices again? Should I be jealous?"

Regina snorted. "Says the woman who once had her own Dark One imaginary friend." But Emma looked concerned behind her snark, so Regina gave her a slight nod of reassurance. She was fine. Moving to the prow, Regina drew on the magic of the River of Souls as Spider had shown her, nudging the boat into motion. "And we're off. Storybrooke awaits!"

But hours or days later, they seemed no closer to their goal. The river had become a borderless sea, mist rising from the waves to swallow them up in a maze without walls.

"We're lost, aren't we?" Emma stared glumly out into the mist. "No stars, no compass, no landmarks, no GPS, no nothing."

"We're not lost," Regina insisted. And they weren't. She could still feel the tug of the cauldron, drawing her back to the Underworld. At first she had though she could use that to orient herself by steering in the opposite direction, but that had only led them into this featureless mist.

Emma turned and stared at her. "Sure. This is just the scenic route. Pull the other one."

"Ok, fine, I can't find Storybrooke. Or any other point in the living realm," Regina admitted. "I've tried every spell I can think of." She eyed Emma speculatively. "But you haven't."

"Me? I can barely fetch a coffee cup. I don't know any spells."

"Yes, but you have the advantage of counting as a living soul. It's my presence that holds us back. Sort of like gravity, pulling me back to the Underworld," Regina explained. "Look, I'll walk you through the steps..."

Regina had never been much of a teacher, and she hadn't tried teaching Emma after the latter had become the Dark One. As it turned out, Emma had operated mostly on instinct when possessed by Darkness, not retaining much in the way of practical magical skills once she was free again. But they had no choice about it now, or they would have to concede defeat and return to the castle of the cauldron.

Hours later, exhausted by their efforts, Emma was sitting on the floor of the ferry, head back and eyes closed, while Regina slumped at the other end, about ready to give up. Then Emma's eyes snapped open.

"There!"

"What?" Regina stumbled to her feet. "What is it?"

"That light, can you see it? All silvery, almost like a path on the water." Emma stood up and stared intently into the mist.

Regina saw nothing. Nevertheless, she nodded. She fought back her weariness and moved to Emma, placing a hand on her arm. "Keep focusing on it."

She closed her own eyes and concentrated, summoning the ferry's magic and channeling it through Emma's vision. With that new source of guidance, the ferry moved again. The mists slowly took on a different flavor, the temperature dropping drastically. The air lost the sterile, haunted quality of the Underworld. Regina opened her eyes a crack, and this time she saw it: a silvery line across the water... the light of the moon!

A moment later, they emerged from the mists, the ferry floating in utter silence into the duck pond. To Regina's amazement, there was someone standing there on the shore, even though it was the middle of a frigid winter night.

"Swan!" called a familiar voice.

"Killian?" Emma sounded stunned. She was still frozen in place by the time Regina had nudged the ferry against the muddy bank.

"Come on, Emma," Regina said in a low voice, offering her a hand to help her back onto solid ground. She turned to the pirate. "Well, fancy meeting you here. I take it you had something to do with providing us a beacon of light?"

Emma took a step towards Hook. "You did that? I didn't know you could still do magic!"

Hook shrugged, his face lost in the darkness, but he sounded smug as he replied, "What can I say? I'm a man of many talents, Swan. You think I'd let the bloody Crocodile steal you away from me?"

"Huh? Well, it was a little more complicated than that..." Emma said.

Regina waved a hand, casting the spell to dismiss the ferry back into the mists. "Not that we're not grateful, Captain." She watched as Hook reached out to hug Emma possessively and sighed. She touched Emma on the back gently. "But... I think you two need to talk. I'll leave you to it."

"No, wait..." Emma turned her head and shot Regina a pleading look.

Regina was already backing away and shaking her head. "I'll wait over there."

Emma watched her go, but didn't follow. Regina found the bench on the other side of the pond and sat down. From this distance, Emma and Hook were dim shadows barely distinguishable from the background darkness. She listened as their voices rose and fell, the words too faint to catch.

In the end, Hook stalked away by himself. Emma stood there for a long moment, then turned and trudged around the pond. She slid wordlessly onto the bench next to Regina, shoving her hands into her pockets and frowning at her feet.

Regina exhaled slowly. "Well."

"Yeah."

Regina touched her arm and tried for a note of optimism as she said, "Maybe your parents will take the news better!"

Snow White had a binder. As far as Regina could tell, Snow had been planning Emma's wedding ever since the first Dark Curse broke. Once she and David had gotten over the shock, the Charmings were disgustingly supportive of their daughter. They weren't so happy about the "spend half a year in hell" clause, but they were eternally optimistic, and Emma managed to sell it as a way of bringing happy endings to all those lost souls.

So naturally Snow insisted that they had to have a proper wedding, a ceremony held on Earth, not some perfunctory oath-taking in the Underworld. David smiled and nodded, not one to argue with his wife on such points. Regina gave up in the middle of trying for the third time to explain the "marriage of convenience" aspect of their arrangement. She sneaked a glance at Emma, who simply shook her head and shrugged ruefully.

Henry was delighted to have both his mothers united at last. He had never really liked the pirate, Regina knew. She suspected that the feeling was mutual, even though she gave Hook points for making an effort for Emma's sake.

Regina spent the next few days catching up on paperwork in the mayor's office. She would have to resign, she thought after she finally cleared her inbox. Maybe Maleficent could step up for the job? Well, the townsfolk could decide. They could hold a special election. She resolved to work out the details once the wedding was over.

Another wedding! Even now, her mind boggled at the idea. At least it kept her step-daughter — who was now also her mother-in-law! — busy, and distracted Emma from her breakup with Hook. With both of the Charmings awake, they had energy to spare. That was one spell she no longer had to worry about. Rumplestiltskin and Belle had apparently woken them up and then vanished, along with baby Robyn as well as their own child, who had been improbably grown the last time Regina had glimpsed him, but was now a baby again, according to David. Well, at least she wouldn't have to invite them to the wedding — the presence of the Dark One would inevitably strain the festivities. As for the pirate... if they were lucky he would stay drunk for the next month, or take off on his antiquated ship and good riddance to him. He had already moved out of Emma's house.

Regina put pirates and Dark Ones out of her mind. She set herself to undoing the last of the Evil Queen's spiteful little curses. The next day, she headed for her vault, accompanied by Henry, who was bored to tears by wedding talk. Emma had been dragged off by Snow to look at dresses, while David took refuge in the sheriff's office.

"What's next?" asked Henry, notebook in hand, ostensibly here to bear witness for his magical storybook, but Regina knew he was hoping to secretly learn some sorcery by watching her.

"The Dragon," Regina said. "We need to free him from the mirror realm."

"Awesome. You're really one of the heroes, now." Henry grinned happily, his tone infused with pride for his mother.

Regina smiled, ruffling his hair fondly. Sometimes he still sounded like a little boy. "Ok, now, stay back. I've already mixed the potion, but it can be volatile." She moved a large standing mirror into place in a relatively clear section of the vault.

It took time and concentration, but Regina unlocked the path and summoned the Dragon back into their realm. He flew towards her as a dragon, but as soon as he passed through the glass, the dragon dissolved into a cloud of smoke, leaving behind the old man. Considering how many fragile objects were contained in the limited confines of the vault, Regina was grateful.

"Regina." The Dragon smiled, patting himself as if checking his own reality. "It is good to be back. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Regina turned to Henry, intending to boast about her success to her boy, but to her shock, he was staring straight ahead, his eyes clouded over with a layer of milky white. He stood with unnatural rigidity except for his arm, which jerked mechanically as he scribbled in his notebook like one possessed. "Henry!"

Henry continued scribbling, not even seeming to hear his mother.

Regina dashed over to him, trying to ease the notebook and pen away from him, but he maintained a death-grip, not even looking at what he wrote. The symbols were strange to Regina, resembling no earthly language she had ever seen. "Henry! Wake up!"

"Oh, this is bad. Very bad." The Dragon had come up behind her. "We have to stop him before he finishes the summoning..."

"Summoning? What summoning?" Regina asked sharply, but she didn't wait for explanations. If Henry was in danger... she focused her energy and snapped the pen out of his hand with a twist of magic.

But it was too late. Henry's other hand opened and the notebook fluttered to the ground, the pages flapping as a harsh wind blasted through Regina's vault. Then she heard an abrupt "huh" from the Dragon, and even as she turned, he was knocked into her, an arrow in his back.

Regina staggered, losing her balance. A stranger had materialized in the middle of Regina's vault. She was dressed like a hunter from the Enchanted Forest, a bow raised to shoot again. Another arrow thudded into the Dragon, exploding on impact into a net of silvery light that tightened around him.

Magic, thought Regina, throwing a fireball at the archer. It never hit. The archer had vanished.

The Dragon gasped for air, but his limbs seemed paralyzed. The net of light sliced through his clothes, through his skin, and into bone and flesh. Then...

...he disintegrated. All in a blink of eye, before Regina could think of any way to save him. The Dragon was gone, leaving behind only a single arrow, its shaft splintered and broken.

It must be the first one that hit him, Regina thought blankly. She turned to her son. "Henry! Henry, wake up!"

Henry blinked back at Regina, a dazed expression on his face. "Huh? Sorry. I must have drifted off... what's wrong?"

So much for a peaceful wedding. Regina declared a halt to the plans until they could deal with this latest threat to Storybrooke. Henry hadn't written any more in that strange script, but if something had gone wrong with his Author powers...

"We can ask the previous Author if he knows anything," Emma suggested.

But when she and Regina went to the cell where Isaac had been imprisoned, all they found was a life-sized cardboard cutout of the man.

"There was a glamour on this," said Regina after she examined it. "To make people think he was still here."

"How long has he been gone?"

"No idea."

They took the news to David, and he organized a search for both the missing ex-Author and the mysterious assassin. No trace of either was found.

"There's no spell on the town line anymore," Emma noted. "They could be anywhere in this world, or any other, if they have magic!"

Regina showed Emma the arrow she had kept. "I still have this. I've cast a spell on it, so that if the archer returns to Storybrooke, I'll be able to find her."

A few days later, in the middle of doing his homework, Henry was seized again by the unnatural writing. Regina wasted no time in walking or driving, teleporting straight into Emma's living room.

This time, he only covered half the page before the fit passed, and he was staring again at his parents with bewildered eyes. "It happened again?"

"It did," said Regina. She took out the enchanted arrow and checked it. "Damn! She's back." She looked at Emma.

Emma glanced anxiously from Regina to Henry and back.

"I'll be fine," Henry said, catching their exchange. "You guys go. Someone may be in danger!"

Jefferson's house.

It took Regina only a moment to recognize it. She and Emma materialized in the foyer. The archer stood a few feet away, with her back to them. Without needing to discuss it, Regina and Emma raised their magic and blasted the intruder...

...and reality, already frayed, broke apart at the seams.

Regina shaped the spell even as Emma pumped more and more energy into it, and shoved the archer through. Then the rift shut again with a sharp thunderous crack, and reality snapped back together again.

Author's notes:

Obviously, the idea of all those souls "lost" forever (Auntie Em! Nooo!) depressed me so much that I came up with this whole convoluted plot to "rescue" them (your mileage may vary). Come on, people. I'm a sentimental fluffy person at heart, wearing my rose-tinted glasses, so why can't we just have some hope...grrrr...stupid show.

Also, I thought Zelena made a terrible Persephone, so here's my version with SwanQueen instead. They are also Hel (half-dead/half-alive) and the granny who serves amnesia soup to souls before they are reincarnated, and bits of whatever other folklore and mythology associated with death that I felt like bringing in, lol. The castle of the cauldron is a version of the underworld castle(s) from the poem "Preiddeu Annwn", although I've given the "Cauldron of Inspiration" role to the black grail/Author/Truest Believer and put the Cauldron of Rebirth in the castle. The Cauldron of Rebirth is the one from the Mabinogion, though not the Disney version, since I never was able to stay awake through all of "The Black Cauldron".

"Dook" isn't any fairy tale or myth in particular, unless he's an aspect of the Hierophant tarot card. Just a random bartender-priest because potioncraft, mixology, alchemy, it's all the same, yah? His nickname is short for "Dukkha" ("suffering"). Spider is Spider (who has not appeared on the show as far as I know), and the Seer is the one Rumple met in season 2.