A plan had been formed. Well sort of a plan. Regina had thought about every entrance to the castle and she figured her mother would have pretty much all of them blocked off and covered in guards for security. But there was one place she could probably guarantee her mother would not have thought about as an entrance.
There were tunnels, tunnels that lead into a vault in the castle. A place where she kept all her hearts, her father and well at a time she thought her mother. But she had sealed it with a blood lock spell. She knew her mother would be able to get through the spell being related to her and all but she was certain her mother wouldn't know about the hidden door that lead out to the tunnels.
So the plan was that she, Zelena, Robin, Emma, David and Mary-Margaret would all get into the castle through there. Henry and Roland would stay with Granny and Ruby while they were doing this. Emma, Robin, David and Mary-Margaret would fight off the guards and keep them distracted while Regina and Zelena found their mother and Ellie.
This is where the plan is incomplete. Regina had no idea what they were going to do when they found them. But as Zelena said "I'm sure we will figure that out when we get there." So they went with it. They were now stood in a clearing in the forest and they were all stood in front of a huge rock.
"Okay so where is the opening to these tunnels then Regina?" Emma asked as she looked around her.
Regina lifted her arms, pulling together all her magic and lifted the huge rock high into the air and placed it down to the side of them. "Here." Regina said simply as she walked towards the opening. "Be careful, there are traps all over these tunnels."
"Traps? Why the hell are their traps all over the tunnels?" Emma asked.
"To prevent exactly what we are doing…to prevent sneaking into my castle." Regina replied.
Emma nodded her head. "Fair point."
They all made their way down into the tunnels and began their journey towards the entrance of the vault beneath.
Ellie stood on the balcony in her room, staring out onto the land. She sighed and wrapped her arms around her. She was missing her mother, her family and her friends. She hadn't mentioned anything to her grandmother as any time she mentioned her mother her grandmother would go off into a rant and she really could not be bothered listening to it today.
She was exhausted. Her grandmother had her learning magic most of the day, barley ever letting her have a break and do other things. She was beginning to get a little annoyed with it all but her grandmother had told her it was for her own good and her own protection so she went along with it, for now.
She could feel her magic growing stronger and stronger as each day passed. She was beginning to learn to control it but as it grew stronger her control weakened and she soon had to learn to control it all over again. She wondered if this was how her mother had felt when she gained her magic and started leaning. Ellie had tried to speak to Cora about it but Cora had no interest in whether her mother could control her magic at her age or not. She was beginning to lose her patient. She was beginning to grow tired. Soon she was sure would be the last straw for Cora Mills.
As the group walked further and further into the castle Regina and Zelena could feel the strong essence of magic and Regina knew right away it was Ellie. She didn't know how but she could just tell it was her daughter. Regina opened a door and they all stepped through looking around them.
"What is this place?" David asked the question they were all thinking.
"It's my vault. The place where I kept…things…" Regina said trailing off at the end.
"Things as in your hearts?" Emma asked still looking around her. It was a beautiful room even if it was the place where Regina stored all the hearts she had taken which Emma was pretty sure it was.
"Yes…" Regina huffed out. "Those and other things…now can we leave it at that? We have more important things to tend to, like rescuing my daughter." Regina snipped as she walked to the other side of the room and to the other door.
Everyone just nodded their heads and without another word followed Regina. Once they got to the main hallways of the castle Regina held up a necklace of Ellie's and placed a locator spell onto it. The necklace floated up from Regina's hand and started to move through the air and everyone followed it. They all kept an eye out as they moved through the castle in case any guards or even Cora appeared but so far so good no one had spotted them.
Walking through the castle made both Regina and Mary-Margaret think back to the days when they lived there. Mary-Margaret of when she was just a child, exploring the castle in every way and once her father had married Regina she remembered following her around the castle like a lost puppy wanting to spend every moment with her. Regina on the other hand could only think of bad memories in this castle. Not one good memory came to light and she realised more so then how much she really wanted to leave this land and go back to Storybrooke when they had rescued Ellie.
They turned a corner and Regina gasped as she saw two guards stood at a doorway at the end of the hallway. She jumped back, grabbing the necklace and pushing everyone else back as well. "Whoa! What are you doing Regina?" Emma asked in surprise as she fell backwards against the wall.
"There are two guards over there." She replied as she glanced back round the corner. "I think that may be where Ellie is."
"How are we going to get in there if the two guards are there?" Zelena asked.
"Well that is what we are here for right?" Robin added in. "We will distract them. You two get in there and save Ellie." He looked over at Regina and gave her a comforting smile, taking her hand and squeezing it gently. "Go save your daughter and defeat your mother."
Regina smiled at him. She then turned to Zelena. "Are you ready for this?"
"To face mother for the first time since I was born? Hell yea!" Zelena replied. She then grabbed Regina's hand, holding onto her tightly. "Let's go defeat our mother little sis."
Robin, David, Emma and Mary-Margaret all walked round the corner and headed towards the two guards. As soon as the guards saw them they drew their swords and a fight broke out and they all managed to draw the guards away from the door and distract them long enough for Regina and Zelena to make their way down the hallway unseen and into the room behind the door.
As soon as they entered the room they closed the door and looked around them. It was a bedchambers and as Regina looked around it some more she frowned as she recognised the furniture, the bedspread, everything in this room look familiar and she realised it was her old bedchamber when she lived in the castle. She glanced over to the balcony and gasped as she saw her mother and Ellie stood there talking. She nudged Zelena and motioned over to where she was looking. Zelena looked over too.
"So that's mother huh?" She whispered to Regina who just merely nodded her head. "What's the plan sis?"
"I have no idea." Regina whispered back. She stepped further into the room and over to the balcony, standing to the side of the doors and listened into whatever Cora and Ellie were talking about.
"Ellie this is the only way." Cora sighed in a frustrated tone. "You must do this."
"No…I-I can't do something like that. I won't! No I won't." Ellie said shaking her head. "You can't make me."
"Oh but my dear I can." Cora smirked. She placed a hand on Ellie's shoulder and Ellie stiffened at the contact. "You will do this dear."
"Please…Can't we just leave her alone? Can't we just continue with what we have been doing? We don't need to do this." Ellie pleaded.
"Ellie you will do this." Cora repeated. "This is the only way you will become the most powerful sorceress in the land. You must kill your mother." Zelena gasped as she heard this and Regina nudged her and glared at her telling her not to make any more noise.
"How can you ask me to do such a thing?" Ellie asked turning to look out over the land. "I have no idea where she is."
"Well my dear I think it will be much easier than you think to find her." Cora replied.
"And how do you figure that out grandmother?" Ellie said.
"Because she is right behind us." Cora said startling not only Ellie but Regina and Zelena. Cora and Ellie swung round while Regina and Zelena jumped out of where they were hiding and for the first time in what felt like forever Regina was face to face with her daughter again. "I knew you would come Regina." Cora smirked.
"Well I couldn't very well just let you take my daughter now could I?" Regina replied sassily.
"I did not take her dear. She came with me voluntarily. You are the one who drove her to me." Cora said.
Regina ignored her mother's comment and looked over at Ellie. Ellie looked striking in her long blue sparkling dress, light make up and long cascading brown hair woven into a braid. She looked every bit the princess she was. "You look wonderful Ellie." Regina said, tears forming slightly in her eyes.
"Can't say the same for you mother." She replied as she looked Regina up and down. Regina in her ragged peasants clothing looked nothing like the queen she was.
"Yes you grandmother really did put me in my place." Regina said. She then turned to Zelena and then back to Cora. "Mother have you met Zelena? My sister? Oh forgive me of course you have."
"Hi Mother. Haven't seen you since the day you dumped me in the forest." Zelena snapped, a smirk firmly on her face as she saw the look of shock on Cora's.
"How…How did you…" Cora stuttered looking between Regina and Zelena.
"It's amazing what you can find out when you look hard enough mother." Regina replied.
Cora looked between her two daughters, beginning to panic. Rumplestiltskin had told her what could happen is her two daughters met, how powerful they could be together. She could only hope they had not figured out just how powerful they were together yet. Her hand shot up, magic shooting out towards her daughters. Regina and Zelena both moved their hands, using their magic to deflect their mothers.
They both smirked and Cora knew there and then that her daughters knew exactly how powerful they were together. "Oh mother, you don't think you can defeat us both with your magic do you?" Zelena asked. "Perhaps on our own, but together you know as well as I do that we can defeat you."
"How do you know this?" Cora asked, anger and frustration in her tone.
"Do you think you are the only one who is old friends with Rumplestiltskin mother?" Zelena raised an eyebrow at Cora. "Rumplestiltskin taught me a few things in my time, as well as Regina I believe. Perhaps he was trying to collect us all. I am sure he told you all about mine and Regina's magic."
"What about your magic?" Ellie asked stepping forward. This was the first time she had spoken to them and Regina had found she really had missed her daughters voice.
"Your mother and I have a special kind of magic Ellie…we share something of an identical magic that bonds with one another and is strong enough to defeat the most powerful of sorcerers." Zelena explained.
"And there is no one stronger that could defeat you?" Ellie questioned walking towards them some more.
"Try it dear." Cora whispered to Ellie and nudged her arm.
Ellie gave a slight nod. Her hand shot up, towards Regina. Her magic shot out but Regina was quick to react and her hand shot up, her magic shooting out and colliding with Ellie's. Zelena and Cora stood back for a moment and Zelena smirked. Neither Ellie nor Regina could beat the other. Their magic was just like theirs, identical magic which bonded together.
Ellie pushed harder, trying to do what Cora wanted to her to do but she could feel that no matter how hard she pushed against her mother's magic nothing more was going to happen.
"Stop pushing Ellie, stop listening to her. You know nothing more will happen, you know you are one of us Ellie. You know you are nothing like her." Zelena said. "Listen to me Ellie. You need to come back to your mother. Stop fighting her, stop fighting against her. Fight with her."
Ellie looked to Cora, to Zelena and then to her mother. She could feel tears in her eyes and rolling down her cheek and she knew that Zelena was right. She had known it for a while now. She had known she should not have trusted Cora, deep down she had known it but she let her messed up head tell her differently. But things were beginning to change, she as beginning to see things more clearly. She needed her mother again. All she wanted was for her mother to hold her again. So she let her magic weaken and her hand dropped to her side.
"Mom…" Ellie said in a mere whisper.
"Ellie…sweetheart…" Regina said holding her arms open to her. Ellie ran over to her and fell into her mother's open arms clinging onto her tightly.
"I'm sorry mom. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Ellie cried into her shoulder.
"Oh baby it's okay." Regina said softly into her hair.
Cora watched, hating the fact that she was failing. She couldn't let this happen. She went to raise her hand and use her magic to catch them off guard but Zelena was too quick and used her magic to move Cora and threw her against the wall knocking her out.
"We can deal with her later." Zelena said waving her hand and walking over to Regina and Ellie. "Hey I'm you Aunt Zelena." She said with a grin.