Thank you, My Lovelies, for the reviews and follows! We are nearing the end. I'm estimating 4-6 more chapters, depending on how long I take with a couple of plot points. And, if you are super sweet and responsive to this one, you may get a double post today as I am trying to be finished by Saturday or Sunday. I only encourage one for each chapter because I reread them along side the story after I've completed to critique myself with your suggestions, see what's working and what isn't, etc.

Anyway, enjoy, my doves!

Songs: Hero by Mariah Carey (Regina), Tourniquet by Evanescence


"Graham!" Emma yelled as she opened the front door to the mansion, kicking it out of the way the second the latch clicked. Regina clung to her tightly, practically allowing herself to be dragged by the stout arm around her waist.

"Graham!" Emma yelled again, voice hoarse and commanding. They ascended the stairs into the foyer. The hike wore Regina out, not mentioning her inability to connect with her magic. She felt the phantom pain of its absence throughout her body. She'd never been this long without it before, and the strain of it hurt worse than her physical wounds.

"Emma," Graham called from the living room a moment before he appeared in the foyer. He scooped Regina into his arms and carried her into the living room, setting her gently on the sofa beside Mason.

"The house was clear. I found Mason in the stables. Colin has fallen," he explained and then turned the boy bodily to keep him from seeing too much of Regina's injuries. Mason's guard fell victim to The Dark One and Graham's sword, no doubt.

"Emma, get this off me," Regina demanded, raising her wrist. The desperation in her voice etched the task as a first priority. Regina needed her magic like an addicted needed a fix, except this was a naturally occurring phenomena in the sorceress' body. Lack of magic to Regina felt like a lack of oxygen to everyone else. Emma nodded and sat on the coffee table in front of her lover.

"Graham, I need Mason to watch this," Emma said softly. Graham turned the boy to face them, knowing that he needed to understand magic before this battle occurred.

"Regina, how do I do this?" Emma asked for guidance, holding her lover's wrist in her cupped hand like a precious gem. To Emma, it was. Her love for Regina transcended realms, capable of loving any version of her the universe tossed at her. She caught them all willingly.

"Focus on the bracelet, pull on your magic, and imagine it in your hand. Stay completely focused, Miss Swan. I have no desire to have a piece of leather protruding from my breast because you cannot control your thoughts," Regina sassed, unknowingly giving her magic fuel. Now she thought about Regina's tits…

"Damn it," she muttered. Shaking head and shoulders, she released a stuttered breath and refocused her attention, pulling gently on the swell of magic tingling around her heart.

Sucking another deep breath and holding it, Emma followed instructions.

Regina hissed as the band disappeared from her wrist, releasing a flood of magic into her system, a warm and soothing, comforting balm… the embrace of an old friend. She sank into the instant relief, allowing a moment for it to was away the ache and pain of separation. The power soothed her, but she'd been born with natural blood magic. She needed to feel its power, it's presence. Without her, her body struggled to function properly and might have eventually killed her.

Ignoring her own wounds and Mason's small sounds of disbelief, Regina leaned forward and took one of Emma's palms between both of her hands. She examined the cuts and bruises made by the glass all over the diner and the fight with her mother and guards. She healed first one and then the other. Emma enjoyed the moment while it lasted. It might have been the last tender exchange they ever experienced if Rumpel got his way. Regina put her first.

"Thank you," Emma whispered and tucked a strand of black hair behind Regina's ear. Regina nodded and began the laborious process of healing herself.

"Graham, I need water and protein. Eggs, any type of meat available in the kitchen," Regina ordered, already recovering with her magic accessible. "Please," she added, surprising everyone. Graham smiled and nodded, feeling intuitively that Regina asked rather than ordered with that one simple word.

"You okay, Kid?" Emma asked as the other two got Regina back on her feet.

"Magic is real," he said as though it explained everything.

"Yeah, it is. Storybrooke is full of people from fairytales. Regina was The Evil Queen. Snow White and Prince Charming are your grandparents. Belle and Ruby are Beauty and the Beast, though it's debatable which is which sometimes," Emma quipped, hoping to ease the knowledge into her son's brain.

"This is…" a mischievous grin spread on his cheeks, "totally awesome."

Emma recoiled from the easy acceptance. Though, Henry possessed the heart of the truest believer in magic, which stood to reason that Mason also held such a belief. She smiled at her son and squeezed his shoulder. "You're pretty damn awesome yourself, Kid, you know that?" His grin stretched into a smile and then dropped into a deep frown when a pained hiss came from his adoptive mother.

Regina moaned as the gash on her chest came together. Emma glanced between her and their son. "You're fine, then?" Mason nodded. Emma returned it and then sat on the sofa beside her lover, cupping the back of her neck with a warm and loving hand.

Regina met her eyes, clearly grateful for the silent support. With each moment, the shock of the ordeal faded and an hysterical energy built. She survived, and now her mind struggled to acclimate those anguished hours into her reality. Emma kissed her shoulder and held her lips there lightly, grounding her. Mason grinned contentedly at them, truly not seeming bothered at all by the existence of magic.

"Ems! Regina!" Ruby's wavering voice called from the open front door, clattering up the stairs noisily.

"Living room!" Emma called back, unwilling to leave Regina's side.

The wolf trouped in with her most loved, Granny on one side and Belle on the other with Horace bringing up the rear carrying an unconscious Cora over his shoulder. A cut on the side of the wolf's head wept a slow trickle of blood, and at some point during the journey, both Belle and Ruby found a sword they now held over their shoulders. The battle had begun. They were a ragtag bunch at best. A wolf at half or less strength, a sorceress worse off, an untrained magic wielder and untrained warrior, a partially trained warrior with the strength of a piss ant, an old woman and a child.

Regina raised her eyebrow at Belle's sword, and the librarian shrugged. "I traveled with Mulan. I learned a few things," she explained nonchalantly, pressing closer to Ruby in the presence of her former tormentor.

"Awesome," Mason squeaked, his voice cracking in his excitement.

"Here, child," Granny cooed, breaking the awkward moment as she presented a to-go box of food and hefted her crossbow with the other hand. "Started it as soon as those two idiots became your rescue party." She jerked her head towards Ruby and Emma. "Roast beef sandwich with swiss and some au jus and horseradish sauce. Should bring your protein and iron levels up quickly."

Regina nodded gratefully and ripped open the foam box, downing the sandwich with Emma-like fervor. Graham appeared with a pitcher of water and a glass, filling it to the brim before sitting both in front of Regina. With no need to obtain food, he settled in behind the group beside Horace, both ever vigilant.

"We need a plan, guys," Ruby needlessly pointed out. "Basically, anyone opposing The Dark One is being slaughtered. We've sent as many as we've seen into the woods to give them a better chance, but it's only a matter of time before even that is unsafe."

"Emma, please confine my mother's power," Regina bade softly, nodded at the bracelet in her hand. Emma nodded without speaking and followed the command as Horace set the woman in the arm chair. The leather attached immediately to the skin of her forearm, prohibiting any magic she may have conjured in her sedated state.

Regina stared hard the unconscious sorceress and shoved another monstrous piece of the sandwich in her mouth, chewing mechanically like all the flavor disappeared the moment she acknowledged her mother's presence. Emma returned to her spot on the sofa between her lover and her son and wrapped an arm around the boy's slightly trembling shoulders.

"I need a moment alone with Mother," she spurted suddenly. "You may stay, Emma," The Queen added and dropped the last quarter of her sandwich into the box. With a shaking hand, she chugged the glass of water while everyone else reluctantly left the room.

"Go with Belle," Emma murmured into her son's ear, and the boy nodded, tucking immediately beneath the librarian's free arm.

"Belle, can I have a sword?" He blurted with the excitement of a puppy tripping over his ears.

"No!" Emma and Regina forbade in a firm, unison. The entire group paused to stare at them for just a moment, shocked by their united parenting front. Regina waved her hand, shooing them off in irritation.

Once alone with Emma and Cora, Regina stood numbly and crossed to the woman who had caused so much pain. How wrong had she been about the torture her mother inflicted? How right? Which was worse? She healed the obvious wound on the back of her head, hoping nothing had been damaged internally. Cora groaned after a moment, still groggy from the sedative Whale had given her.

"Regina," she whispered, a stupid grin on her face.

"Mother, now that I know The Dark One holds you heart, may you speak to me freely?" Regina asked, tears already burning her eyes, blocking her throat.

"What?" Emma blurted from behind her. Cora wasn't Cora this entire time?

"I'll explain later, Darling," Regina murmured without taking her eyes from her mother's. She leaned over the chair, holding her weight on both arms on either side of the hazy woman's head. Emma took the answer at face value, believing Regina fully intended to explain the situation.

"You need to kill me, my little queen," Cora whispered harshly. "He'll come, and any who stand in his path shall be cut down." They both knew it to be true, but that reality remained too painful for Regina to face just yet. She knew she could. She simply needed to regain her strength.

"Mother, who is under his thrall?" Regina demanded, ignoring the previous comment completely. She needed her mother, needed her guidance and love. She wanted to feel her love, just once. Cora shook her head, unable to say specifically.

"I did it all for you," she whispered instead. "You are my weakness, Regina." The Queen bowed her head under the hefty meaning of those words, unable to stop the streak of lightening quick grief that struck her heart.

"He has prevented you from telling me you love me, hasn't he?" Regina laced all of the information together. "Only the rare occasions when it suited his purpose," The Queen deduced. Cora said and indicated nothing but dropped her eyes meaningfully.

"You must kill me," Cora reiterated. "I cannot be trusted. I will betray you."

"I know, Mother." Regina sobbed wetly but almost inaudibly and kissed her mother's cheek. "I don't know what to do, Mommy. I don't understand." Everything hurt. Of the many ways she envisioned her mother's death, by her own hands never made that list in all those years. Even when Cora hung in her web, Regina never intended to kill her.

Cora smiled brightly at her daughter. "Rise up, Regina. Do not be afraid any longer." She tipped her chin towards Emma. "Your savior will guide you when you get lost. I cannot help you, my darling girl, except to say rise up. Be the queen you always imagined for yourself. Lead your people to victory against The Dark One, against the odds, as you've always lived."

"Mommy," Regina sobbed.

"You are my weakness, Regina, and you would have been enough," Cora whispered so low that Emma nearly lost the words beneath Regina's soft gasps and sniffles.

"I love you, Mother," she said and kissed Cora's cheek once more.

"Wait, there has to be another way," Emma interjected before she watched Regina kill the woman of her six-decade obsession.

"There isn't," Regina spat over her shoulder, barely turning her head. "Rumpelstiltskin controls her heart, Emma. He's controlled her since my birth." She cupped her mother's face tenderly. "Death is a kindness," she explained. Cora nodded, blinking tears onto her cheeks. Regina wiped them with her thumbs.

"I'll find my strength, Mother. I will destroy him," she promised. Cora smiled one last time.

"You would have been enough," she repeated, unable to tell Regina the words she so desperately longed to for some many years.

"I love you, too, Mommy," Regina responded, understanding.

Finally, she understood. With a wave of her hand, The bracelet appeared in Regina's quivering fingers. Clarity often brought pain, and Regina felt a flood of it when she spun violently from her mother and fell into Emma's arms. The Savior caught her, confused until one arm wrapped around her neck like a boa constrictor after its next meal and the other twisted in the air at the wrist. She watched Cora's neck twist at an unnatural angle, just like the man who attacked Ruby.

Bile rose in her throat, and her arms tightened around Regina's waist involuntarily, seeking her own comfort. The Queen sobbed into her neck, grabbing at her back like a life preserver. Cora stared up at her, unseeing, lifeless. She dropped her face to Regina's shoulder, eyes shut tightly, and sucked deep breaths as the world wavered around her. Regina needed her strength in that moment, leaving no space within her mind for the shock of what Regina had just done. They remained still but the tiny gasps of tears and grief that passed between them. Where Regina found the strength to release her mother from Rumpelstiltskin's hold Emma would probably never know.

Abruptly, Regina pulled away and wiped at her face irritably. "We must go. I have a war to stop," The Queen decreed regally, beautiful with her wet cheeks and red-rimmed eyes. The brown popped more around her pupils, her features more human and less tortured than Emma had ever seen them.

They turned as one and met their group in the foyer. Every, except maybe Mason, understood exactly what transpired in the few minutes since they'd left. Ruby opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Emma slipped her hand into Regina's, showing silent support. Belle stepped forward, of all of them.

"Hold dear to your parents for it is a scary and confusing world without them," she quoted quietly. A quick glance around told her that no one knew what she spoke of, possibly even what she'd said. "Emily Dickinson," she explained.

"A wise woman," Regina accepted the quote graciously. She felt lost and confused and scared, but her responsibility came before that. Her mother told her to be the queen she'd always desired, and Regina intended to do just that if it killed her. "Thank you, Miss French."

Belle nodded and leaned into Ruby, done with sharing and bonding for the moment. No matter how horrible Regina behaved towards her in the past, Belle's humanity always won in the end. Someone else's action could not take that from her, it's who she was, who she wanted to be. Somehow, that person pulled them thru perhaps the most poignant moment of the tortured queen's life. It was a proud moment for her, and it seemed as though everyone else appreciated it, too.

Regina snapped her fingers, producing two pewter boxes. She held one to Graham and the other to Horace. If they died, it should be with their hearts in their chests. They took them hesitantly. Regina stepped to Graham first and touched his face tenderly, taking a moment to simply stare at and appreciate the human being who had acted as her sole companion and confidante for so many year. Even though he had no choice, The Queen still chose him every single time. He became more than a guard and a toy over the years, she just failed to notice until then.

"There are two options to you. As much as I've wronged you, I do hope you'll stay at my side rather than join The Dark One in his pointless quest for power," she stated sadly, unsure if their fates had been decided. With trembling fingers, she returned Graham's heart to his chest. He gasped, overcome with emotions and the heady surge of freewill, choice. She repeated the process with Horace before anyone responded to what she'd just done.

Horace bowed his head respectfully, his reaction much less dramatic. "To the end, My Queen," he offered his loyalty graciously in his deliciously deep rumble and placed a fist over his heart. Of the two evils, Regina definitely earned his loyalty in the past few months, despite the trials and suffering she'd inflicted in the past. The Queen was a changed woman. Graham nodded, confirming the sentiment, at least until Rumpelstiltskin fell at their feet in ruins.

Regina nodded, accepting their pledges and then turned on the toe of her pump. As she stalked towards the door, she snapped her fingers, barely missing a width of a stride as her riding leather appeared, boots tapping dully where stilettos clacked only a moment before. Everyone followed.

Before they caught up, she waved her hand, producing three bodies on her posh walkway. Snow and Charming squinted at the bright light and shielded their eyes. Robin covered his as well but adjusted much more quickly. Everyone waited, confused. Emma slipped her hand in Regina's again, much to the surprise and dismay of her parents.

"Robin, you must rally the people behind you and Ruby. Rumpel has declared war upon any who oppose him with the promise of death. He intends to slaughter us all. Please take Miss French and Mason and those two idiots to the relative safety of your camps to await our arrival," Regina commanded, leaving no room for argument.

"Why should I trust anything you say?" The obstinate bandit demanded, crossing his arms over his chest defiantly. Regina rolled her eyes and ignored him, turning instead to her sister.

"Ruby, you must prepare them. The presence of their insipid princess should inspire their faith and confidence," Regina instructed. Ruby nodded, tipping her chin proudly.

"Graham, Horace, go to the convent and ensure the safety of those within if they have not departed for the forest yet. Gather as many supplies as you can and take them to the caves in the North woods." The two nodded and executed their orders immediately, their training automatic even with their hearts.

"What are you going to do, Regina?" The wolf asked, concerned that she'd not be joining them.

Regina grinned wickedly. "Emma and I are going to distract them from the woods and give The Dark One a gushing wound to lick. Go now."

Ruby nodded and headed out with her new charges and Robin, the mouthpiece. He narrowed his eyes darkly at The Queen before moving. "As you wish, Your Majesty," he conceded reluctantly and followed the wolf.

Emma squeezed Regina's hand and offered a sad smile in support. Regina returned it and then glanced back to the mansion. "Come," she requested quietly and returned to the house. Emma followed, silent and confused. With a snap of Regina's fingers, Astrid's body appeared on the floor of the living room, Ruby's blue shirt still covering her frozen features.

"Hold out your hand," she instructed, demonstrating with one trembling limb stretched out before her. Emma followed her lead while Regina twined the fingers of her other hand in her pet's. "Close your eyes and feel for the natural energy that surrounds us at all times, the particles of the air, the potency of the earth. Do you feel it?"

"I think so," Emma answered honestly, not quite sure what it meant to feel the earth's potency.

"Find the magic within, Emma. Find your trigger. I experience instant rage when I think of Rumpelstiltskin's laugh. It may be small or large. Find what triggers your love, Savior," she taught as best she knew how. She'd never instructed one in the ways of magic before, and Rumpel's method took far too long for what they required in such a short amount of time.

That intoxicating tingle lapped at Regina's palm where it connected to Emma, and she knew her lover found a suitable trigger. "Think of fire, of heat, and send that will into the world using the elements of the air."

Again, Emma listened, understanding immediately what Regina intended. Heat exploded from their hands at the same time, creating flames within the house that no one short of a magic wielder stood a chance of extinguishing. They returned to the walkway, closing the door behind them.

The scent of smoke tickled Ruby's sensitive nose, and the wolf glanced back in time from a distance to see a flash of violet smoke as flames engulfed the elegant mansion.