Regina jumped, waking Snow instantly, startled by Cora's voice.

"Mother." Regina said as fear instantly gripped her.

Snow though drowsy, didn't stand like Regina.

Instead rubbing her eyes with sleep spoke. "Grandma can we talk later, I've had a really tough night." Yawning Snow was about to lay back down when Cora acted faster than Regina could stop her.

The vise like grip around Snow's neck instantly choking her as she was lifted into the air, making Snow almost pass out was stopped not but a few seconds later as Regina yelled out and used magic to push her mother out into the hall, and actually causing Cora to go flying out into the hall.

"STOP!"

Snow was gasping to try and get air back into her lungs when Regina moved over to her.

Regina's hands skimmed Snow's pale white skin around her throat, seeing her flesh turn a high tinge of pink where the invisible hand had grabbed her.

Cora stood, almost confused at Regina's display of protection towards Snow, staring back into the room to see Regina checking Snow over.

Regina couldn't believe she was relieved to see that Snow was indeed fine, but feeling her mother's stare she turned and stared at her mother.

"What is the matter with you?! If I wanted to choke her to death I would have done it myself ages ago!" Regina screamed. The confusion of her relief at knowing that Snow was ok making her yell at her mother for the first time since Daniel's death.

And the release it gave Regina seemed to almost bring back the once kind woman she had once been. Regina's eyes shifting once more to see the pink blemish forming on Snow's throat.

But Cora never got a chance to respond to Regina or act again as Sarah rushed to her grandmother's side.

"Grandma what happened?!"

Cora stared at the girl as if she had just been slapped.

Sarah said nothing as Cora turned and studied her.

It was then that both Regina and Snow looked up to see Sarah right next to Cora.

Fear instantly gripped the two and both yelled out.

"SARAH!"

But Cora's hand was already buried in Sarah's chest.

What would happen next would have shocked anyone.

Sarah's normally sweet face became dark and sinister.

"How dare you use black magic on me."

The words shocked Cora as Sarah grabbed Cora's arm.

Cora screamed out as where Sarah grabbed a burn mark formed. Cora released Sarah's heart and fell to the ground grabbing her arm.

"You dare try and take my heart. MY HEART!"Sarah screamed out. Sarah's voice radiated with anger through the house.

Cora for her part seemed too shocked to do anything but stare at Sarah.

Even Regina was shocked with the sudden transformation Sarah displayed.

Snow though was struggling to get up and move towards her sister. Oddly Regina was trying to keep Snow back from the two.

"Mom LET GO!" Snow yelled out as she knew just how bad the situation was. Something in her telling her that neither her mother or grandmother knew exactly how bad this could become.

Cora had finally calmed enough to try magic on Sarah...but Sarah was faster.

Cora suddenly found herself unable to breathe as Sarah lifted her empty hand and slowly started curl her fingers.

Sarah's eyes locked with her grandmother's as Cora gasped as she felt the invisible squeeze on the heart that had not been in her chest for decades.

"You...you who claimed to love me more than magic. More than any power or gold...you try and take MY heart." Sarah's voice cracking as tears came to her eyes.

Finally Snow was able to pull away from her mother and rushed to Sarah's side.

"NO!" Snow yelled and grabbed her sister's hand. The same white light from that morning glowed from their hands and the instant change in Sarah could be seen.

Sarah looked as if she were almost hyperventilating as both Snow and her clasped hands and fell to the ground.

"SARAH! Sarah! Talk to me! Sarah!" Snow was hugging her sister tightly as their hands remained locked together.

Regina made it over to the two girls, not bothering to check on her mother.

Sarah was still breathing hard as Regina's hands inspected Sarah's chest, almost astonished that Sarah had stopped her mother from killing her.

"Sarah! Sarah talk to me! Sarah!" Snow was still in a panic as Sarah had yet to answer her.

Sarah had begun to sweat, and as Regina's hands hovered over her daughters heart she could feel just how fast it was going.

Regina felt horror at how close her daughter had come to dying, how her mother had almost killed another piece of Daniel.

"Breathe Sarah! Breathe!" Snow continued to encourage, once more enfolding her sister in a hug and holding their entwined hands between them.

"I'm right here Sarah! I'm right here!" Snow tried to calm down her baby sister.

Cora said nothing, watching as Regina's hands passed over both girls faces.

Regina's head swiveled suddenly and stared at her mother with open hate.

"Why would you try and take her heart? You don't even know who she is?!" Regina tried to stop herself from raising her voice at her mother. Knowing all to well just what happened the last time she did so.

Sarah was finally calming down, closing her eyes and resting her head against Snow's shoulder.

"It's ok Sarah. Everything is fine. Everything is going to be fine." Snow said softly, still trying to relax her sister.

Cora didn't answer Regina as she stood and stared at the trio on the ground.

Slowly Sarah lifted her head and stared directly into Cora's eyes.

"You're not my grandma."

************************Alternative Fairy Tale Land*****************************

Cora suddenly fell from her horse and to the ground as her heart suddenly clenched madly.

Instantly her children were by her side, along with Emma.

"Mom are you ok?!" James' voice was laced with worry as he watched his mother clutch her chest.

Regina and Emma's hands clutching at Cora. Neither of them having been prepared to jump off their horses, both were breathing hard trying to hold on to the matriarch of the family.

"It's Sarah." Cora knew instantly.

"What?!" Regina exclaimed as Cora fought against the feeling of her heart being held by a vice. Suddenly Cora's legs gave way.

"MOM!" David yelled as he dove and grabbed her before she fell backwards.

"We have to find her! We have to!" Cora exclaimed as David wiped away his mother's red hair from her face. Cora tried to stand but David would not let her move.

"Mom please stop!" David held her thrashing body until she suddenly stopped writhing in pain and breathed normally.

"What was that?" Emma asked with her infamous shocked face.

"Sarah...it was Sarah." Cora said as Regina wiped away the sweat from her mother's brow.

"How's that possible? Why would Sarah have anything to do with..." David began to ask before Cora cut him off almost guiltily.

"I taught her."

The statement caused the family to remain silent as they understood the implication.

"You promised..." Regina began, trying hard to suppress her anger at exactly what this meant.

"It was only for her protection. I wasn't the only one to ever practice dark magic! I was only trying to protect her. It was only to be used for her protection." Cora stated with wounded eyes at her daughter.

Emma was the only one to also make a bigger connection then everyone else.

"Wait...if...if it was Sarah doing that to you...doesn't she have to be close by?" Emma said as she then straightened and turned looking around at the woods around them.

Cora shook her head. "No. No I'm afraid it means she's not here at all."

It took her mother looking at her pointedly for Regina to understand what it meant.

"It means she's in another world." Regina said with a furrowed brow as her heart began to pound.

"Dimension sweet heart. One where there's another version of me there. Apparently this other version must have done something to her, otherwise I wouldn't have felt that pain."

The word pain made all of them well aware of what had happened.

"We need my father." It was Baelfire who voiced what none of them were willing to even fathom.

"Do you think he can really help us? Even after this whole time?" Emma asked her husband.

"Yeah...Yeah I think he can." Bae said as he adjusted Henry in his hold.

Regina felt her stomach knot at the idea of her daughters being in another dimension where her mother was still using black magic.

One of her biggest fears coming to fruition.

"Baelfire. i need you to bring your father back here as fast as possible. We know that wherever they went, the way in should be nearby. We'll continue to search, and if we find it we will go through." Regina stated and then held up her hand as she saw everyone about to protest.

"It's not up for discussion. If Snow and Sarah are in another dimension where they are in danger...I won't sit here and twiddle my thumbs. If they need me like I think they do I'm not going to waste time." Regina spoke with firmness as only a royal could.

Emma knew exactly how her grandmother felt.

Their family was in trouble and no one could stop them from finding them.

Emma looked over to her father to see him nodding his head.

Cora slowly stood upright in the usual confident way that she carried herself. "Wherever she is, we need to get to her soon. If she was able to use dark magic against me the spell is weak where she is.

All nodded, knowing exactly what spell Cora was referring to.

"What happens if the spell wears off?" Bae asked, unsure of the consequences.

The entire family shared one worried look.

"You don't want to know." Emma said as she closed her eyes against the very idea of the spell wearing off.

******************Back To The Main World*******************************

Cora's eyes switched from Sarah's to Snow's, expecting to see the devastation that had been present when she had told her about being responsible for her mother's death.

Instead Cora saw confusion and shock.

"Why would you do that? Why would you try and take Sarah's heart!" Snow's expression changing from shock to anger.

Cora said nothing as her eyes went to her daughter's.

Regina, her daughter, that had placed herself between Cora and the two other young women.

Cora had seen this only once before.

The way she physically shielded the girls from her.

The way her eyes sparked in that moment of hatred, fear, and sadness.

Regina said nothing as she looked back at Snow and Sarah to see if they were alright, her hands grazing Snow's throat.

The worried look on her face revealing to Cora something that Regina herself had not realized. Something that seemed to build anger in Cora like the moment she understood her daughter had been planning to run away with a stable boy.

Regina loved Snow.

It felt like a knife had twisted in Cora's gut as she realized just exactly why her daughter had tried to destroy Snow all these years.

The real reason.

One that she herself had experienced.

Betrayal can only wound your soul, when you loved the person that betrayed you.

There it was.

In Regina's eyes.

Cora understood now that her daughter had not learned anything at all.

Years of experience still had not changed her daughters heart.

It didn't matter though.

Cora was there to help her daughter. To show her that she needed to protect her heart from Snow.

"I know that look on your face. Whatever your thinking of doing, I swear Grandma you better think twice before you cause any mischief around me."

Cora looked repulsed as Sarah spoke to her.

"I'm not your grandmother. I don't even know who you are." Cora's words making both Snow and Regina flinch.

"Wow! I'm impressed you didn't giggle and call me a 'foolish girl.' I guess I'm not use to your bitchiness being directed towards me, otherwise I wouldn't love my grandmother as much as I seem to dislike you." Sarah didn't comment on Cora's actual words. Almost as if she didn't care what Cora had said.

Without waiting for Snow or her mother she stood and actually turned her back on Cora.

The gesture was not lost on Cora.

Unlike Snow this other girl showed a confidence and a demeanor that Cora naturally could respect.

"I don't know who you think you are..." Cora was about to launch into her rant when Sarah turned rapidly and got in Cora's face.

"I'm your granddaughter! Your GRANDDAUGHTER! You know what that means?! It means I know all the little secrets that you might be keeping from everyone! You know...like how you would let Rumpelstiltskin stick his tongue down your throat!"

Cora lashed out once more, but Regina's hands whipped up and separated the two once more before something happened that couldn't be undone.

"Don't touch her!" Regina said in a deadly voice.

Cora had never had the voice directed towards her, it caused her to pause briefly, just long enough for Sarah to say one more thing.

"I love you Grandma. But I'm not going to stand back and watch you hurt the ones you love the most. Love may be weakness to you, but it's also the strongest thing in all the realms. And no matter how far you try and push me aside...I'm going to be here trying to make you feel how strong it makes you."

The words made Cora pause, the same way Regina's had standing over the coffin.

It had been so long since the words 'I love you' had been said to her. The delusion that she had had in her youth had made her heart harden in a way that no one could have known.

She had changed because of it.

Cora had dedicated her life to protect the things she loved most, and she had done things that she knew were wrong. But she had done them out of love.

This Sarah...whoever this girl was seemed to know things she shouldn't.

For the first time in years...Cora stared back into eyes that cared for her.

But could she let herself accept that care?

Was it possible for her to go back? To change a lifetime of experience and hurt.

Staring into Sarah's eyes, Cora didn't know if she could.

Author's Note: I'm waiting for the next episode of the show to see where I can take this story. I'm interested in Cora's back story, and think whatever the show brings I can tie in nicely with this story. Please God...don't let Rumple be Regina's father...that's all I ask! That and for them not to kill Regina. As always...please review!