A/N: When I was first writing this chapter, I was going to have Rumple give them some info that would help their investigation. But then I remembered in the 1st chapter I wrote he didn't know anything, so I had to figure out something else. I hope it's not too out of place or anything. Anyways, enjoy the chapter.

Regina's POV

The fireplace burned quietly on the side of the room, its frequent pops not taking away from the silence in the room, but rather adding to it. It created a cushion of sorts against the small sounds the people in the room made. How paradoxical was that? Regina wasn't sure why, but that was how it was.

She was sitting on her cushioned couch, reading a heavy tome and sipping a glass of cider, doing her best to glean anything of importance from the dry words. On the floor to her left sat Henry and Emma, each reading a book and hoping to find much needed answers. Every so often Emma would twitch her head toward the other side of the room, and Regina had found herself wondering why (to no avail).

Emma had been awake for four days now. Four very strange days. In that time, a strange atmosphere had pervaded the air. Regina wasn't sure exactly how to describe the atmosphere, it was both heavy and light, both heart clenching and relaxing. It caused strange feelings to rise up in her that she didn't really want to acknowledge. It had been niggling at the back of her mind, and made her do something she normally avoided: getting distracted watching Emma.

After rolling her neck to release some tension, she managed to turn her mind back to the words in front of her. It was an old text, 600 years to be exact, and the only reason it was still in existence was because of some restorative magic Cora had cast on it. The person who wrote it was claimed to have had close contact with a Dark One (the name of which had not been written), and this book contained some of their musings (only a few of which talked directly about the Dark One). Regina had only just found this book today: her mother's collection, something she did not like to rummage through often. But she had put that aside in order to find answers, and answers she finally found.

The 23rd entry of the book went as such:

They did it again. Of course they did! How could I have ever believed otherwise? Constantly they reassured me, but it was in vain. They were not like this before.

Before they killed to gain power.

A terrible power such as theirs could not come from a land such as ours.

Here, magic is a tool, as bound to a user's whims as a sword; eventually it runs out.

No, magik here does not have origins as dark as theirs.

When my friend talks of it, they describe it as a living thing.

A creature that whispers and connives, breathes out desires and temptations.

I have heard of magik like this, once, in one of the many books I have come across.

It described a land where magik becomes alive, and merges with the user, changing both irrevocably.

From what I have seen, I believe this is where their magik comes from.

In the margins of the book Regina read the names of different realms Cora believed the author was talking about.

This was their breakthrough.

"Emma, I found something." Regina leaned forward and handed the book over to Emma, pointing at the passage. Emma and Henry read through it together.

"Oh." Emma whispered, seemingly shocked.

"Do you think this is where the sorcerer is?" Henry asked.

Regina nodded and stood up, "That is the hope." Out of the corner of her eye she saw Emma jerk slightly.

"So, what do we do now?" Emma asked, standing up with Henry. Regina glanced at the clock on her phone, it read 11:30 pm. How quickly time passed. "Right now, Henry is going to go to bed."

"But mom!" He moaned and crossed his arms. "We just found an answer! We can finally start doing something!"

Regina fixed him with a stern gaze, "It's a school night Henry, I shouldn't have even let you stay up this late." She had lost track of time, like she'd been doing quite often lately.

Emma came up behind him and put her hands on his shoulders, "Come on kid, it's not like we'll even be able to do anything tonight. We still have to figure out which one of those places is the right one."

He sighed and mumbled something under his breath Regina couldn't quite catch. With a slight push from Emma, he got moving. Both women watched as he made his way out of the room and disappeared around the corner. Rubbing her eyes, Regina turned around and started picking up some of the discarded books on the floor. She watched Emma reading from the same book out of the corner of her eye. Once she finished, Regina placed all the books on the nearby coffee table.

"What do you think they did?" Emma asked softly. Regina looked at her, confused, "Who?"

"The Dark One, the one they were talking about."

Ah, the one from the passage. Why did Emma even care? That wasn't even the relevant part. Eying Emma curiously, Regina recalled the author's words from a previous passage, "I believe they… lost control and harmed someone quite brutally. The author mentioned such an incident in a previous passage."

Emma was still for a moment, staring at the book in her hand (her fingers were tapping on the cover in a rhythmic pattern), and Regina got the feeling she wasn't actually seeing it. Not quite sure what had come over Emma, she stepped forward and gently took the book away, "Come on, Emma, it's late. Why don't you head to bed?"

It took a few seconds for Emma to respond, but when she finally nodded she walked away.

With a sigh Regina glanced down at the book in front of her, contemplating the implications of the author's words. Whoever wrote this was quite adamant that the Dark One had not been like that before. Was that why Emma asked? Regina knew she was worried about losing to the darkness, but exactly what had she meant? That she thought she would become someone else, and not just addicted to the power? In all her time with Rumplestilskin he had never mentioned what becoming the Dark One was like. Regina had assumed he had always had dark desires, and that the curse only allowed him to act on them (like her own magic).

But if the Dark One's curse was alive, and 'merges with the user', then what did that mean for Emma? If it could put thoughts in her head and make her pick up a knife without noticing, what else could it do?

'This is just all the more reason to find the sorcerer quickly.'

She decided that first thing in the morning she would gather every and all books on those realms and see if any have tales about a sorcerer or a Dark One. One of them had to be a match. They would figure out a way to save Emma from her current fate.

Tiredly Regina made her way up the stairs and towards her master bedroom. On the way there she stopped by Henry's bedroom and wished him goodnight. Like a teenager he shrugged off her kiss playfully with a soft "Mommmm."

After closing his door she paused in front of the guest room, listening quietly for any sounds Emma might be making. Regina could barely make out her friend saying, "I know, I know," in an irritated voice. Curious, she peaked through the crack between the door and the frame. All she saw was Emma laying on the bed with her eyes closed and face scrunched up.

'Miss Swan, being eccentric as always. Right?' Emma has been known to talk to herself once in a while (hasn't everyone at some point done that?), so Regina put the strange actions aside and finally entered her own room. She got dressed into her satin pajamas and climbed into bed. She spent several minutes just laying there, not quite thinking of anything, before she fell asleep.

————

Morning came too soon. Her alarm beeped loudly next to her ear, pulling her from a deep sleep. With a groan Regina rolled over and hit the 'off' button. She took a few minutes to just wake up and gather her wits. Once she felt ready to face the world she sat up and glanced at the clock, it read 5:50 am.

It took her only a few minutes to get dressed (she wore a blue blouse and grey slacks), then she made her way downstairs to get breakfast made. As Henry grew older and more mature Regina found herself making breakfast for him less and less; but today she wanted to make him a good meal. Everything had been off, and Henry surely was feeling the stress. A homemade breakfast would help him get a good start to the day.

Just before she got into the kitchen, though, she heard Emma muttering curses under her breath, and she smelled a slight hint of something burning. Stepping into the modern kitchen, Regina saw Emma standing at the stove, cooking (or rather, burning) pancakes.

"Emma," she said with a laugh, "What in the world are you doing?"

Quickly, Emma flipped the burning pancake onto the nearby plate then got started on another one, "Come on, come on." She whispered at the food. Regina waited only a few more seconds for a response before walking up to Emma. On the nearby plate she could see a medium size pile of pancakes ranging from black to dark brown. Regina moved her hand forward and had barely touched Emma when she jumped, sending the spatula crashing to the floor.

"God! Regina! You can't just sneak up on people like that!" Emma half-yelled as she bent down to pick up the spatula. Regina didn't even have time to threaten Emma before she simply used the spatula to flip the pancake. 'She didn't even rinse it off!' Regina thought incredulously. "Emma!" She cried out and yanked the spatula out of her friend's hand. "That's dirty, what were you thinking?"

Emma rubbed her eyes wearily and glanced at the spatula like it has done something wrong, "Sorry. I… I wasn't really thinking actually."

After washing the spatula thoroughly Regina turned back to look at Emma, taking in her disheveled appearance and slight twitching. Her eyes were dark and didn't hold their usual brightness, her hair was in disarray, white strands sticking up randomly. Swiftly Regina reached past her friend and turned off the stove, setting the pan to the side.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" She asked as she turned to face Emma. "A bit." Emma replied and shifted, trying to reach past Regina to get started on the pancakes again.

"Regina, let me make the pancakes!" She huffed, irritated.

"Emma, why don't you take a moment, you seem irritated." Regina said, giving a pointed glance at the white-haired woman, who seemed to be a bit out of it.

Emma attempted to maneuver around Regina, but was quickly outmatched by the older woman. "No! I can make them myself. I know how to make pancakes, this was just a bad batch. I can make them better."

They had a staring contest for a good minute. In that time Regina got a good look at Emma's face, and saw a hint of desperation in her features, and felt the slightest bit guilty. "Okay," She relented and stepped aside.

3 pancakes later and Emma finally seemed to be satisfied with the result. It was evenly golden-brown on each side.

"Here," Emma offered to Regina, "Take this one. I placed the syrup on the table." Regina took it and thanked Emma, still worried about her actions even as she sat down at the table. Five minutes later Henry made his way into the room, a plate full with a large pancake in one hand and a cup of orange juice in the other.

"Hey Mom," He yawned.

"Hello Henry. How did you sleep last night?"

"Mmm. Okay I guess. Still tired though." He dug into his pancake with fervor, "So, what's the plan for today?"

"You are going to go to school while I find some more books to read." She tapped his forehead. He mumbled an acknowledgment and sipped on the orange juice. There was a comfortable silence, and a few minutes later Emma joined them, a large pancake filling her own plate.

It felt like they were a family, and that filled Regina with warmth.

Once everyone was finished, she grabbed their plates and placed them in the sink, making short work of cleaning them. She could hear the indistinct voices of Emma and Henry moving from the kitchen up the stairs, likely going to get ready for the day.

While they did that, Regina mentally made a list of the books and things she would need to get for the day, and some people she might need to talk to. She had barely finished with that when her phone chirped. After grabbing it from her pocket she looked at the screen and saw she had a text from Robin.

Hello Regina, how are you doing?

I was wondering if I might be able to help you with your search today?

The past few days she had been spending with Emma, and practically ignoring her soulmate. Being reminded of his existence made Regina feel quite guilty that she had almost forgotten about him, so she responded:

I've been doing fine, and of course.

Meet me at the crypt in an hour.

The current time was 6:30, so she would have to arrive by 7:20 so she could be a bit early. 'It pays to always be early'. She thought, giving a small laugh at how Emma was practically the opposite of her in that regard.

Putting her phone away, she walked into the living room and waited for Henry and Emma to come back downstairs. They both came stomping down several minutes later.

Henry hefted up his backpack onto his back then made his way toward the garage to grab his bike, "I'll see you later, moms! Should I meet you back here or at the crypt?""

"Come back here after school, we should be back by then." Regina responded.

" 'Kay, bye!" Henry called as he went into the garage and left.

With a soft smile on her face, Regina turned back to face Emma, who looked deep in thought and still a bit off.

"Would you like to walk together? Or, I could teleport us." Regina asked.

Emma's face was stuck in a small frown as she continued staring off into space. With a sigh Regina stepped forward and waved a hand in front of Emma's face, causing the woman to finally look up.

"Hey, what's going on? Are you sure you're feeling okay today?" Regina felt like Emma needed to get some more sleep, if nothing else. Emma nodded stiffly in response, "Yeah, um.. I'm fine. I just… I just wanted to ask you something." Regina nodded once to signal Emma to continue.

With a shaky sigh, Emma held out her left arm, the one with the leather cuff, "Please take this off." Regina stared at the offending arm, unsure how to move forward. When she looked into her friend's dark, dark, green eyes she couldn't help but feel a pang in her heart.

"Emma… I'm not sure that's wise."

A soft growl came from Emma's throat, and she jerked her arm towards Regina again, "You said you trusted me!" Her voice was wavering between anger and the slightest hint of pain. Regina knew she'd have to handle this carefully.

"Emma, I do trust you. What I don't trust is the Dark One's curse."

She flung her hand to the side and glared at Regina, small tears making her eyes shine, "So what?! You don't think I'm strong enough to resist? I'm not you, Regina."

Regina had to take in a deep, calming, breath to ignore the rising hurt before responding, "No, you are not. But you also aren't above temptation." Or an ancient curse that may or may not be able to change who you are as a person, she thought to herself.

Emma stared at her for a moment, seemingly struggling with an array of emotions. In a quiet, pained, voice, she asked, "You don't think I can win?"

Regina moved forward to touch Emma's shoulder, "That's not what I said. You can win this. We just shouldn't take any risks."

At the touch, Emma started to calm down a bit, doing her best to hold back tears. It was a few minutes before Regina thought she could handle talking again, "Emma, did something happen to make you feel like this?" She thought back to Emma's confession a few days ago, about the implantation of thoughts into her head.

Emma quickly took a deep breath and stepped away from Regina's touch, "No, it's— I don't want to talk about it." Taking a deep sigh, Regina waited a few seconds to respond, watching Emma's jerky movements intently. "Okay."

It was an awkward moment as Regina reached into the hall closet and grabbed a coat. With a quick look down at her phone, Regina saw that it was now almost 7. Not enough time to walk to the crypt and still be a few minutes early for her meeting with Robin. Sighing, she summoned her car keys and, still facing away from Emma, asked, "Did you still want to drive with me to find some books?"

She heard shuffling from behind her, then Emma's now-soft voice saying, "No. I think I'll go cool off at the station or something."

With that, Regina walked out of the house and into her car, heading off towards her family crypt.

———————

The search for relevant books went smoothly. Between her and Robin, they were able to find 8 books (two for each realm they were considering) in about 3 hours. Only 2 had come from her personal collection, the rest came from Cora's. A large part of her wished she had been the one to collect those books, but the rest knew her mother's methods had been less than desirable and was glad she hadn't done that as well.

With a groan of relief, Regina placed the last of the books she had displaced away and turned toward the table Robin was standing next to. "That should be all," She told him, "Now we can put them in my car and we'll be done for today."

"That's good." He chuckled as he carried up four of the eight books they needed, "I take it you will be reading through all these the rest of the day?"

Regina unlocked the car and gently placed the books in the back seat. "No. I have to stop by city hall and get some work done. I've been falling behind these past few weeks. It would seem the world does not stop to wait for even the Saviour's problems." She told him bitterly.

He nodded knowingly and got into the passenger's seat. As Regina started the car and moved toward the graveyard's exit Robin offered, "I could help you get started. I have little to do today, so I could read through one of the books."

Regina looked at him thankfully, "That would really help. Thanks."

"Of course. What's important to you is important to me." He gave her shoulder a friendly pat.

Once they got back to the mansion and were loading the books onto the living room coffee table, Regina remembered something, "What about Roland?"

Robin sat down and picked up a book, "I asked Little John to pick him up from preschool today. I figured, since I haven't been able to help the last few days, that I could spend some more time today with you."

Regina gave him a small side hug, "Again, thank you. I should be back by 3 at the latest."

"It's nothing." He smiled at her.

She quickly packed herself a lunch and left some extra in the freezer for Robin to eat. Then she teleported herself to city hall, startling her secretary and some other people milling around. Of course, Regina ignored it and got to work.

Budgeting, budget requests, and so on, filled her time, making it pass by quickly. You know the phrase "Time flies when you're having fun"? Well, it really should be, "Time flies when you focus so hard on something that you forget time exists."

But that doesn't sound quite as nice.

Once she was finished, she teleported back home and found Henry, Snow, and Robin reading the books in the living room. With only a short greeting, she joined them in the search for answers. Once again, time passed quickly as she focused on the words in front of her. Legends, myths, and history of a foreign realm filled her mind, and she was so focused that when her phone rang around 4:30 pm she was startled, along with the rest of the people in the room.

Answering it, she saw that it was from David, "Hello?"

"Hey, Regina, could you come to the station? By yourself?" He asked, sounding uncertain and nervous. Glancing at Henry, she responded, "Sure. Give me a moment."

"Who's that, mom?" Henry asked, catching her eye.

"It's David. I need to meet him, When I get back I'll get started on making us dinner."

Snow looked up at Regina, "There's no need for that! I can get started on dinner while you're gone."

Regina shuddered obviously and locked Snow in with a glare, "No. I will make dinner when I get back. Do not touch my kitchen."

Snow leaned back and put her hands up, "Okay."

A second later, Regina disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke, only to reappear in the station, standing in front of David's desk.

"What is it you need to talk about?" She asked him. He looked ragged, his face drawn and weary. David ran a hand through his hair and leaned forward in his seat, "Something… happened."

"Could you be a little more specific, quite a few things have happened today." She responded.

He gestured toward the chair right next to her, and she sat down. "It's about Emma. She… she did something."

Concern rose up and wrapped around Regina's heart as she leaned closer to David, "What did she do?"

He sighed and dropped his head, taking a moment, "She beat up this guy— and I don't mean like she normally does. She went absolutely wild on him! There was blood everywhere, I think she broke a couple of his bones. And she just kept going! It was almost like… almost like she enjoyed it"

Regina stood up quickly, "Where is she?"

David joined her, "I put her in a cell to calm down."

With purpose, Regina power walked toward the jail portion of the station. Once there it wasn't hard to find Emma— she was pounding against a wall. Coming to a stop in front of her cell, Regina crossed her arms and glared at Emma, "What the hell were you thinking?!"

Emma stopped her pounding and turned around, "Regina."

Her hands were dripping with blood, a mix of her own (from the scrape wounds) with her victim's. There was some blood on her face as well, splatter marks indicating the kind of wounds she left. Her eyes held a wild look in them, one that was only now starting to decrease.

There was silence for several minutes as Emma started to actually take in what she had done. Once she was fully herself again, tears began filling her eyes and she looked down.

"I'm sorry." She whispered

"What happened?" Regina asked, voice softer now.

Emma plopped onto the cot, "I lost control."