A/N Next chapter is up! I hope you all like it! If you are interested you can also follow me on Instagram, my name is _evil_pitit_. On that page I post updates and teasers on my fanfic. I also make art about my fanfic, for example designs of the outfits that appear in the fanfic. And I also make memes and other content about ouat in general. So make sure to take a look if you are interested. But for now, enjoy reading!

Regina's POV

I walked past the fake coffin that had once concealed my vault from curious visitors and I carefully placed my feet on the stairs on my way in. I could feel the magic energy that the place contained, sparkle against my skin.

I just hoped that it was a sign that the magic could fill my body again. It had been now almost four days since the splitting, and I still hadn't felt a sign of my magic inside my body. So, I decided to go to my own personal collection of magical energy in my vault in the hopes to get it back. The space where my magic mirror hangs on the wall and where all my potion making ingredients were stocked was the place where the magic was at its strongest.

It was incredibly dark in the room because the room was always lit with candles that I gave light with my magic. But now I had to do it by hand. Luckily had prepared for the situation and brought a flashlight and matches.

I put the flashlight away to set my hands free for the matches. I wiped them past the box to give them light. With the lit match in my hand, I went in search for one of the candles that were in the gaps of the walls. I could barely see a thing now that the flashlight was elsewhere. I searched and searched and… Ouch! The fire had burned my finger.

What most people didn't know about me was that I could be pretty clumsy without my magic. Well with my magic I could be clumsy too. Everyone just expected me to be this neat and skillful person, but I got myself bruised several times. Only when I got bruised, I healed myself quickly after with my magic. I just realized how much I depended on my magic.

After failing a couple of times, I got all the candles lit and I could finally see where I was. Of course, I knew where I was, but seeing it was also very helpful. I opened a drawer and took out a crystal ball, a scroll, a diadem, and a necklace. All had magical properties and I could certainly feel it by the sparkles on my fingertips. I put it all on and focused on those sparkles. It felt a like tiny fireworks exploding in my hands in a pleasant way. I made a wave with my hand, but nothing happened. I sighed.

I put the objects away and began to wander around through the whole vault.

Why couldn't it just work? Why was all this gone? Why did I need to feel so weak because of it? Where did it go? It couldn't just have vanished. If it wasn't in my body then it needed to go somewhere, right?

We never should have done that splitting. It only caused more trouble. I had barely seen and felt darker magic than what I experienced that day.

But did I blame Emma for that? Hmm… not really. It was that weird feeling again. The feeling when I was supposed to be angry, but I actually wasn't. Emma should have done more research. She should have included a real magic expert on the search. Even though she had been the dark one, it didn't mean she was immediately a magic expert. She really didn't think enough about her actions. But she did it all for me, to make me feel better. And I think I sort of felt a little better than before. At least I didn't feel angry all the time.

I wandered of and ended up in my room of hearts. But something was off. All the compartments were dark while they usually shone bright red when there was a heart in them.

I always felt uncomfortable about keeping the hearts, but I didn't manage to get rid of them yet, until now.

Where did they go? Who took them? Were they back to their owners or in the hands of someone that could use them for evil?

The only person I could think of that could had taken them was Emma. My vault was sealed with blood magic, with exceptions to Emma and Henry. I always talked about giving the hearts back with Emma while I was teaching her magic. Did she give the hearts back on her own without saying it to me?

I grabbed my phone and dialed Emma's number. The beeping sound stung in my ear for far too long. Why didn't she just pick up?

"Hey, this is Emma, please leave a message after the beep…" Emma's voice sounded in my ear. Beep.

An overwhelming feeling came from the senses in my ear swirling around through my body by hearing the sounds of her voice. It was like the feeling I got when she was touching me, so I ignored it.

"Emma, please, pick up. I think we have a bigger problem than Henry getting sexually active, right now." I answered the voicemail.

I began to feel a bit scared. Emma and I were so close and now she didn't answer me at all for four days. She was always a bit set on her privacy and doing things on her own, but this? Did I do something to her? Maybe I did something to her after I tried to kill the queen and my mind came in a blur. Henry said I still was conscious. Maybe I said something that upset her?

I dialed another number. This time it was the number of Mary Margaret. Although our difficult past, she was someone I trusted. Not with everything, because she never really could keep a big secret, but I was aware of that. At least I could talk to her about what was on my mind.

I needed to know where Emma was, so I could ask her about the hearts. And the Charmings were the first ones to know that. The past few days Henry was with me, so he didn't know it either.

"Hey, Regina!" I heard from the other end of the line. She always sounded so happy and optimistic.

"Mary Margaret, did you see Emma the last couple of days?" I asked sounding more concerned.

"Uhm… no…, but I'm sure she is alright. After we destroyed the evil queen, she said to me that she needed to get a bit of air. She wanted to be on her own for a bit to process things. We all know how she copes."

"Well, I tried to text her and call her, but she isn't responding to any of it."

"I think she doesn't want to be disturbed for a moment. Splitting you from the evil queen wasn't something to take lightly."

"But that doesn't explain why all the hearts from my vault are missing."

"You still had those hearts?" she asked surprised and confused. In the main time I heard some noises coming from the background of the other line.

"I wanted to give them back… but that's not the point I'm trying to make here."

"Leroy, calm down! Tell me what happened?!" I heard David yelling in the background. After that I could only hear some noises but couldn't understand anymore what was said.

"Regina! You need to come over to the sheriff's station now!" Snow said after some time in kind of a panic.

" I'll be on my way!" I answered immediately.

I didn't know what was going on, but Mary Margaret sounded too desperate through the phone all of a sudden. I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with my hearts and Emma who didn't answer her phone. The Charmings may always have been so naïf, but I wasn't. We were going to face another enemy and I had a feeling it was going to be the worst one we had ever faced.

"I came as quickly as I could. What is going on?" I spoke while barging into the sheriff's station.

Leroy was nowhere to be seen anymore. It was just me and the Charmings in there.

"Four!" David said as if it was obvious what he meant. He leaned on one of the desks with files in his hand and touching his temple with his other hand.

"Four, what? Sheep? Cars? Boomerangs?" I sassed with disappointment of his answer. This man was sometimes such an idiot.

"Four victims of which two badly injured survivors." He said seriously, flying his arms through the air.

I gaped at him and didn't fully understand anymore what he said. "Wait, WHAT?! How is that possible?!" I almost yelled perplexed.

"Two didn't survive a brutal attack with some sort of knife. All of them where cut with a knife and one of them had a limb removed." He explained.

"That work didn't we ever see before. If people are killed here, it usually has to do something with magic… this is just sweet old murder." I stated enjoying my detective side, because of my experience.

"You are right, Regina." Snow said with tears in her eyes.

"Wait, you look more upset than I expect you to be. Were the victims people we know?" I asked concerned and a bit scared.

David nodded and a lump formed in my stomach. "Whale, Nova, Ashley and Sean"

"Ohw…" I needed to think for a second. "You and Ashley were friends right" I said to Snow, and she nodded. "And didn't she have a child with Sean?" she nodded again. "Oh my god, is the child okay? Please say that they are the two that survived." I said with much more concern.

For some reason I always prioritized children over adults. I didn't really care anymore about the dead people only about the child's safety.

"Nova and Sean didn't make it… but the child is in good hands, Regina." David said calmly.

I had troubled feelings. On one hand I was relieved the little girl didn't lose both of her parents, but on the other hand she did lose one of them and her other parent was badly injured. Complicated situation.

At least I also knew why there was so much trouble in the station when I called. Leroy had lost his, secret, not so secret anymore, girlfriend. I knew that pain…

I didn't have time lose the priority of what was going on.

"So do you have an idea about who the murderer could be?" I asked shoving the thoughts about those people away.

"No, we were maybe hoping you would have a clue." Snow said with her high-pitched voice.

"Ask the survivors, they were there." I stated the obvious, because clearly, they hadn't thought of that yet. I looked a bit troubled from one to the other and I sighed. "But to be honest I have a strange gut feeling I think whoever did this, has something to do with the missing hearts and why Emma isn't here and doesn't respond to anything at all. I feel like it's all connected somehow."

"I think Regina is right, Mary Margaret. We haven't seen or heard from Emma in four days now. Regina tried to text and call her, but even to that she doesn't respond. Don't you think that's a little suspicious?"

"I trust Emma, so if she says she wants time alone, then she'll get it. She is an adult and she has her own home. Some parents don't hear from their children for more than just four days." Snow started to sound a bit nervous.

"I know that, but I'm just worried that those four people weren't the only ones who were attacked. Maybe we just have to check on her to know if she is alright."

"No! I don't believe that!" She snapped and looked to the floor.

"Hey, calm down. It's just a worst case scenario." David said with a calming voice.

"I-I I just don't want to lose her again, David!" she confessed with a cracked voice.

"I know, and we won't!" David tried to stay calm. He put both hands on her shoulders. But the slight twitches in his face gave away that he didn't fully believe in his own words either.

"We lost her the first 28 years of her life. And then you lost her when Emma and I got trapped in the enchanted forest. And with Pan's curse for a year. And then she became the dark one. And last time, after Hook died, she was with us, but she just lived in a completely different world. She wasn't Emma anymore. She was in so much pain that we couldn't get through to her. I don't want something like that to happen again." Snow rambled desperately.

It was creepy to see her lose hope. I always thought she was invincible for negative thoughts. Like there was always rainbows and unicorns inside of her paradise mind. Sometimes I forgot she was also human and was capable of breaking. It always seemed like she had the perfect mindset, and nothing did go wrong in her mind, but it wasn't as black and white. She could feel as much negativity as anyone else.

"Then the best way to find out is to visit her." I said not letting my heart get in the way of my actions. Although I felt some spikes forming in my stomach.

"That's a good idea Regina, but I think I need to go check on the survivors. We really need those answers to the case, whether it's related to Emma or not. Just call me if she is alright, okay?" David said and Mary Margaret and I nodded.

Together we went to Emma's home in my Mercedes. On the way I thought about the situation. I tried to have faith about Emma, but that gut feeling still took control. Normally I wouldn't really feel worried before I knew for sure something was wrong. But this feeling was really strange. It felt like I was connected to something. It felt like everything was connected. The hearts, Emma, the assaults, all connected even if there were no clues. It almost felt like a voice saying those things to me.

Snow didn't say a thing the whole time and just stared out of the window. I could say she was hurt. Ever since Emma's depression she had been more anxious and protective over Emma. She had witnessed it from up close and I wouldn't be surprised it would have done more to her than she showed off. Emma and I weren't the only ones with walls in the town, in fact every human being has walls for something.

In front of the house stood Emma's hideous yellow car on the parking lane. A bit of weight fell from my shoulders by the sight of it. Then she couldn't be far.

Snow and I walked towards the front door and Snow rang the bell. We waited for a response. The longer we waited the more fear I saw appearing on Snows face. I couldn't let myself fall into a scared mood. Her bug was up front and she had said she wanted to be left alone. She probably was as stubborn as always. With my fist I started bouncing on the door, so she needed to hear it through the whole house.

"Emma! Open the door! You can't hide in there forever!" I yelled towards the door.

Although I did as if I knew for sure she was inside, I still felt that gut feeling. It even became stronger and stronger the closer I got to seeing her. Working against my gut feeling made me feel my temper inside me rise again. For some reason that felt like I could finally breathe again after four days. I felt more like myself.

We waited another second and I became impatient. "For God's sake Emma! Open the fucking door! Your mother is getting worried about you!" I yelled again while bouncing again against the door. Snow looked a little offended at me.

"Regina, stop. She is not going to answer." Snow said with a calming voice. "We'll just use the key."

"You have the key? Why didn't you use it in the first place?" I said surprised.

"I don't want to enter unnoticed." She said full of innocence.

I rolled my eyes at her. This woman was unbearable.

I followed her inside and I looked around. Two brown leather boots were kicked out on the stairs and her red leather jacket hang over the railing of the stairs. My stomach flushed at the sight. Whether I liked to admit it or not, I loved that jacket on her. She looked so confident and strong in it, and it gave her so much character.

"Emma! Are you upstairs?" Snow called.

"I said I wanted to be left alone." Emma's voice sounded from above. I looked at Mary Margaret with a confirming smile. There was indeed nothing wrong with her, just stubborn. Always so stubborn.

Then I felt a wave of magic against my skin and it startled me. This wasn't just the gut feeling this time.

"Are you coming downstairs?" Mary Margaret called again.

"Go away!" the voice sounded again.

"Okay, I'm done. I'm going upstairs. There are more important things than just her stubbornness." I said with feeling my temper rise.

"Regina-" Snow said to me while I marched up the stairs, but I ignored it.

"Miss Swan, don't be so selfish. I've been calling and texting you for days now. Don't be so rude and just talk to me."

I walked through the first door that I assumed was her bedroom door. Except it was the bathroom door. She wasn't there at least.

I opened the next door. That one did indeed lead to her bedroom. But nobody was there. The room was messy. There was a pile of clothes in the corner which contained several types of red leather jackets. The bed wasn't made up and her nightstand was full of junk. There was much to be seen in the room but there was no Emma to be found.

"She isn't here" I stated to Snow who just came upstairs and stood beside me again.

"What? No. How is that possible? We heard her voice." She said with those high pitches in her voice.

She went to open every other door on the second floor, but every room turned out to be empty. Then she went into the bedroom and looked around. Her gaze stopped by the nightstand, and she grasped something from it.

"Look! Her phone. She needs to be here. She doesn't just leave her phone at home. And her bug is also parked in front. We heard her voice… EMMA!" she yelled through the whole house.

Denial. Now she got some hope again, but that hope turned into denial. Or how I like to call it, stupidity. We both knew someone was playing with magic here. That was the only explanation. With that thought I frowned as I felt the magic that swirled through this house hit me again. It was more overwhelming this time.

"It's magic." I said out of nothing. "Snow, it's a trick! I could feel the dark magic swirling this place since the moment we set foot in here." I stated to make her back to reality again.

The moment I said that I heard a huge clattering sound of breaking glass coming from downstairs. We both jumped and shot a look to eachother. We nodded as if we could read each other's minds and we stormed back down the stairs. The person who did this wasn't going to get away!

"What de hell!" I said as I saw how all glasses were shattered all over the kitchen floor. No one was to be seen, but I knew that the magic I felt was connected to the person who did this. "Who is here?!"

"Maybe it is Emma." Snow said.

I rolled my eyes. "You do really not give up on hope in the most stupid moments, do you?" I sassed. She just looked at me with a tired look. "I'm certain it's not Emma. Why would she shatter all of her own glasses right from the shelve?" she looked straight out stupid now. "She isn't here." I tried to clear out.

"But where is she then?" I did understand her concern, but at the moment I got only frustrated by her question. How the hell was I supposed to know that? I was not some sort of clairvoyant. I just shrugged and ignored the frustration that came up. "Can't you do a locater spell?"

I widened my eyes as a grieving spike went right true my heart. I was weak.

Then Snow's phone rang freeing me from answering that dreadful question. She tabbed on the phone and brought it to her ear.

"Hey David, is everything alright there?" she was silent and then frowned. I heard David talking on the other end but didn't hear what he said. "Are you sure?" her eyes widened and briefly she looked at me. What was going on there? "Okay I'll watch out." She hung up and then got her full attention on me. She looked me up and down with an emotion I couldn't really place.

"Well? What did he say? How did it go in the hospital?"

She didn't answer, but instead moved her way around me. The tiny woman now went to stand behind me. I frowned. What stupidity got in her mind this time? Then with one swift motion she grabbed my wrists and softly held them together.

"What are you doing?" I asked confused. I didn't fight back though.

"I need to check if you are really Regina." she sounded not knowing what she was doing.

"What? Why? Why wouldn't I be? I think you need to rest for a second, you're not thinking straight."

"Well, you can also be the evil queen."

I widened my eyes. My mind took me to the memory when the queen was standing right in front of me. All those jewels on her dress, flickered through my head. From the diamonds on her chest to the diamonds on her collar reflecting the lights of the graveyard and the light of the moon. 'You need me!' the queen said right into my face. I knew exactly how her poisonous words escaped her lips.

"Of course, I'm not the evil queen." I said when my mind was back to the place I was. "We destroyed her. She can never come back." I said trying to be confused, but something about that felt as a lie. The gut feeling again.

Then I heard a swirling sound behind my ears. The grip tightened around my wrists and it felt like snow had suddenly rings around her fingers. I wanted to get free of her grip as it began to hurt me.

"Naah, I wouldn't be so sure of that…" a far too familiar deeper voice rang through my ears from behind.

My heart began to beat a thousand times faster and an ache formed in my stomach. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I turned my head around slowly to see if it wasn't again something to mess with my mind. Was the voice just in my head as it was supposed to be or did, I really hear it?

When I had turned around my head I startled. I managed to pull my hands away out of her grip and could take a better look.

This had to be a dream or better to say, a nightmare. This couldn't be true. What the hell was happening?!

I was met with a figure casually leaning against the wall checking her nails. She wore a tight silver dress with a high collar and shoulder pads. On the front the dress was parted, and soft black leggings came from underneath it. Her hair was dark brown just like mine but much longer.

"No!" I said with a mix of fear and anger in my voice.

She casually rolled her eyes and then smiled. "Missed me?"

"No, this can't be true. We killed you…" my voice broke a little out of fear.

Was I really like this? Did I really look this intimidating? Was I really like this monster in front of me, destroying every spot of light on her path? No wonder people were afraid of me.

"Correction, Emma… killed me." she said with so much thought to every word.

That was the moment I knew for sure she had to do something with Emma's disappearance. The thought that came with those words was unmistakable. And I didn't like anything about the feeling that came with it.

"But you just threw me away… like I had never existed!" she sounded angry now as she continued.

I stared at her, trying to follow what she had just said. But what was I actually looking at? This was my face, my body, my voice. She looked exactly like me, well at least my past me, the evil queen. The person I was always most scared of, right in front of me. The one that I hoped to never see again. And actually, never see in front of me at all.

Somehow, I felt lots of strength rising in my soul that could turn my fear around. I could feel the emotion I thought I would never miss, anger. I was angry because she didn't deserve to live, she had only caused me pain and no chance for a happy ending. Thanks to her no one believed in me. Maybe now more people believed in me, but there were still lots of people who would never be able to forgive me even now that I was a better person, and she was out of my body.

"No! I threw you away because you existed!" I shot back. "What did you do to Snow? And tell me where Emma is!"

"Snow is at home, I replaced her when you went upstairs." She explained. "ohw and is Emma missing then?" she said as innocent as possible. "I thought I heard her voice just minutes ago…" she placed her forefinger and thumb on her chin and looked upstairs.

"Ohw… drop the act. You and I both know the truth."

"Yeah, actually I think you're right about that." she pointed at me. "We both know the truth, but just only one of us is willing to admit to it."

"I'm not afraid of the truth if that's what you mean. Emma is missing and I know that you have her!"

"Ohw, Regina don't be so naïve."

"Naïve. Naïve? What are you talking about?"

She laughed loudly and let the smile stay on her face. She pushed herself from the wall and walked around the kitchen island. With her heels she made crisping sounds through the broken glass.

"I'm just trying to make my dreams come true!" she made a wave with her hands when she said that while walking a bit more towards me. "Or should I say our dreams?" she pointed at us both and then locked eyes with me immediately.

I raised a brow as if I wasn't impressed but actually, she got my attention right there. What the hell was she talking about? Our dreams? What kind of dreams? Things we wanted to accomplish in our lives? Seeing Henry graduate? Seeing henry grow up and getting his happy ending? Getting a happy ending? No! That's all too good for her. What dreams did we share?

Wait. What if she meant actual dreams? We shared all of our dreams before the splitting, I guess. But which dream was she referring to. Had it something to do with Emma…

That was the moment I felt my whole body warm up to like 1000 degrees. I closed my eyes trying to wish to be somewhere else at that moment. But since I had no magic, that would be practically impossible. A headache got me and I started to feel slightly dizzy.

No. No. No! No! No! Fuck! She couldn't. Those dreams were to be never spoken about. She knew how much a secret meant. Nobody was supposed to know the slightest bit about them, especially not… the person those dreams were all about.

"What did you do to her!?" In one swift motion I grabbed her at the collar and shook her back and forth as I yelled right into her face.

She smiled sadistically.

"You know exactly what I did to her." she said with a low voice.

My eyes went wide, and I didn't believe anything that was just happening.

"You… and… her… actually… f-fucked…?" I stuttered with much effort, not wanting to pronounce any sound of the words.

I didn't even want to know the answer. I felt like I was punched right into my stomach without having tensed my muscles.

"Well, technically I fucked her, but yes." She said simply but teasing.

I instantly felt my stomach turn over and over again. The picture of the two in my head kept expanding. Actually, seeing someone with the exact same face as you getting turned on over something she wasn't meant to be turned on by, already made me sick, but picturing her having sex with someone you would never have sex with… What the hell!?

I could swear my whole body got dehydrated by the amount of sweat I lost. My breathing was heavy and deep, but I felt like I couldn't get any air. Besides the ache in my stomach, I also felt, weather I liked it or not, a bit of arousal.

It all started with that one dream about her right before the curse was broken. That stupid dream that I still remember all too well. When Emma came to my house to take me away and tie me to a tree in the middle of Mainstreet. And then choked me because she knew I cast te curse.

That was the first dream about her, and it only became worse after that. They became more sexual every time. They also became more frequent over time until I had such a dream at least once every week.

What would it be like to see that blonde naked on a bed? How would her skin feel like underneath her clothes? How would she look when I would touch her? STOP! You can't think like that!

A long silence settled in the room as looked her up and down with disgust and confusion.

"So… how did you get her to work along?" I broke the silence with the burning question that couldn't leave my mind.

She laughed confidently. "She almost begged me to do it, when I got through to her…" she said withing laughs.

My mouth fell open. How? When did she…? What? No! It couldn't. She was sure it was the real Emma?

"She begged?" I couldn't get out any more words.

I thought the situation couldn't get any stranger. I looked around me, searching for anything that maybe did make sense, but I couldn't find a single thing. I was in my best friend's house searching for her. Then it turned out my evil doubleganger ghosted around the house, trying to mess with my mind. And making a total mess of the whole interior. Only to find out that she also took that blonde friend to have sex with her? Why couldn't anything just be normal for once?

"Where?" I broke the silence again. "Where did you take her?"

She laughed devilishly. "Do you really think I'm going to tell you? Definitely not! I have you all right where I want you to be and I want to keep it that way!"

"I am not going to let her stay with you!" I demanded.

She laughed right into my face. She just saw this as one big game.

"Because you are afraid I might fuck her again?"

"No, because you are dangerous." I lied. "Because you tried to kill four people."

She pouted her lips slightly and looked up with a fake thinking face.

"Hmm, yes that I did. Don't you think I did an impeccable job at catching your attention?" she said with the confidence that made me feel even more sick.

I was this downright annoying, was I? I was cold and vengeful, but much less playful. She wasn't the evil queen we all knew from before. This was an evil queen with much more knowledge and skills to make everyone absolutely crazy.

I just looked at her with my mouth slightly open. how could she just be this person? She frustrated me.

She chuckled. "I see, I've done everything here what I came for. See you again, Regina."

Right before I could answer to any of that she flicked her wrist and disappeared.

I was left with utter confusion and a raging headache.

What just happened? I didn't understand any of it. How could someone who lived inside my head my whole life be more than 20 steps ahead of me?

I looked around me and sighed deeply. My eyes stung with tears that threatened to come up.

The red leather jacket that hung over the railing of the stairs caught my attention. I traced it with my fingers, feeling its smooth textures. I grabbed it and held it close to me, letting its scent penetrate my nose. It was the sweet scent of vanilla and cinnamon, her scent.