The Queen waited till the sky was darker before she finished her journey. Finally, she stopped at a huge boulder, then stopped. She waved her hands, magically lifted the boulder, and threw it aside before catching the eye of someone who had been following her. Robin.

Robin stepped closer to the Queen. "No," the Queen sighed.

"No, what?" Robin asked, holding a fire torch in his hand. "You're not."

"Not coming along? I do believe I am. I can help."

"I didn't ask for help."

Robin peered into the hole where the boulder was. "Well, that doesn't mean you won't need it. That flying monkey back there wasn't after my son. It was coming after you."

"What makes you think that?" the Queen asked.

"The woods are my home. I've seen many hunters stalk their prey, and that beast came for you. Roland just happened to be standing in between."

"Your point?"

"That was the second time you've been attacked. The Wicked Witch wants you dead. Even the Professor senses it."

"And what? You think you can stop her if she tries to hurt me?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. But I have to try. Even though neither of us likes it, I owe you a debt."

"And why is that?" the Queen asked.

"Even though that winged beast wasn't after Roland, he could have hurt my son. You saved him."

"Hm. Who knew a thief had honour."

"Who knew an Evil Queen had a soft spot for children."

The Queen sighed. "Don't get in my way," she reluctantly said.

"Oh. I wouldn't dream of it." Robin said as they descended the stairs leading to the castle's tunnels. They were a few metres in when Robin broke the silence that accompanied them. "So, where are we headed?"

"There's a fire in the courtyard that powers the spell," the Queen answered. "As long as it burns, the shield will stay up."

"Then we simply need to put it out."

"I simply need to put it out," the Queen corrected. "You need to stay out of my way." She stopped him from walking forward and looked down. Concrete tiles were on the ground, all separated by stones. Dangerous concrete tiles that spelt death if you stood on the wrong one. "Step in between," the Queen instructed and walked forward, ensuring she never stepped on a concrete tile.

Robin followed. "Oh. Nice little surprise." "For keeping people like you out."

"People like me?"

"Thieves."

Robin scoffed at the word. He never considered himself to be a thief. An outlaw, maybe, but he only robbed from the rich to give to the poor. "Yes. True. But we aren't all bad, you know."

The Queen chuckled as she got to the tunnel where the walls had spikes on both sides. "Not when you tell yourself you're stealing from the rich to give to the poor. I may have done some bad things, but at least I own it."

"I own my mistakes too. I hope you didn't let me come with you to walk me into one of these traps. Roland's already lost his mother. I'd hate for him to lose his father, too."

"Well, then you should have stayed with the others." The Queen moved forward, continuing the path of the tunnels, and Robin still followed. "So, Roland's mother … What happened to her?"

Robin sighed. "After our boy was born, I inadvertently put her in harm's way. It's my fault. Like I said, I own my mistakes."

The Queen stopped, looking at an open door ahead. It showed the stairs leading up into her castle. "That's not possible," she let out. How was that door open? She was sure she shut it before the curse. Someone had been in here. The same someone who had hijacked the spell. But who could be that powerful to break magic made from blood magic? Blood magic was supposed to be the strongest of all magic. Only she could undo blood magic since her blood cast it.

"What's wrong?" Robin asked.

"That door," the Queen said, pointing at it. "It's open." "Perhaps you left it unlocked?"

"I sealed it with blood magic. So I'm the only one who can open it."

"Clearly not. It appears the Wicked Witch a formidable foe."

The Queen took a breath, approached the spiral staircase, and ascended the steps. Robin followed, and they came to her vault. She approached the white tomb of her mother.

"What exactly was this place?" Robin asked her, looking around at the small, golden cupboards around the sides. "It must have been important for you to seal it by blood."

"A crypt," the Queen said, walking around the white tomb, running a gloved hand across the smooth, marble lid. "Isn't that obvious?"

"Yes. What I meant was who was it built for?"

"My mother. Like you, I've lost people I care about. More than I'd like to admit." Robin stepped closer. "Including a child?"

"What do you know about that?"

"I saw the way you grabbed Roland back there. You have the touch of a mother."

"I do."

"He's not with us on this trek. What happened to him?"

"He's not dead if that's what you think. He's … He's just lost to me forever."

"If the Wicked Witch is powerful enough to break blood magic, perhaps we should reconsider this plan."

"I don't care how powerful this witch is. I have to go through with this plan," the Queen said as she walked past Robin. She pushed open a door down the hall and entered. A door to her main quarters. Robin followed her closely, clutching his bow – just in case he needed it.

"Make yourself useful. Keep watch," the Queen told him as she went over to a desk and pulled out a black box. She opened it and peered inside.

"What is that?" Robin asked, watching as the Queen took some vials out of the box.

"Nothing that concerns you."

Robin took an arrow out of his quiver and set it in the bow, aiming it at the Queen. He wanted answers. He wanted to know what exactly she was doing. It looked like some sort of potion. Or worse. "I won't ask you again," he said bravely. "What is that?"

The Queen turned around. "How dare you threaten me in my castle!" she boomed. She raised her hand and magically began to choke Robin.

"Even if you choke the life out of me," Robin strained, feeling his throat constrict around the Queen's magic, "this arrow will still leave my bow. And, trust me, I never miss. Now, what manner of dark potion are you making?"

The Queen exhaled sharply and let go of her magic grip on Robin's throat. "A sleeping curse." She turned back to her desk and continued to mix vials.

"The kind you used on Snow White?"

"That spell came from Maleficent. I finally learned how to make one of my own."

"This spell, this is why you wanted to come to the castle?"

"Ingredients like these are hard to come by. Especially when you have Snow White breathing down your neck every second of the day."

"That was your plan? To use it on the Witch?"

"The Witch?" the Queen repeated. "I don't care about her." She moved her hand over the finished vial, enchanting it with her magic, glowing purple. "Then who do you plan to use it on?"

"Don't worry," the Queen said, taking a seat. "No one you'll miss." She moved her hand to her hair bun and pulled out a long hairpin. "No one anyone will miss." She put the hairpin into the vial of the sleeping curse, watching the object soak up the poison.

Robin watched, understanding who the Queen was talking about. Herself. "This is about your son, isn't it?" The Queen was silent, and Robin approached her. "I can't let you do this."

"Then it's a good thing you don't have a say in the matter," the Queen said, waving a hand over the man's feet, magically freezing him to the floor. He was stuck. He tried to move. But couldn't.

"I know how you feel, Regina," Robin said, struggling.

"I doubt that," the Queen said, looking at the end of the hairpin.

"When I lost my wife, I felt there was no reason to go on. But then I found one. My son."

The Queen got up from her seat and turned to face him. "That's where you and I are different. I already lost Henry. I already lost the only thing I care about."

That doesn't mean you won't find a new reason. We all get a second chance, Regina. You just have to open your eyes to see it."

"It's too bad mine will be closed." She walked past Robin towards the door to the hall.

Robin called back after her. "So, that's it? You just want to give up?"

The Queen turned around. "This isn't an end. It's an eternal middle. However, this curse can be broken by the only true love in my life and the only reason I would even want to wake, my son."

"Regina, listen to me. This is a mistake!"

"Don't worry. I'll keep my word. I'll lower the protection spell so that Snow and Charing can be victorious. But then … Then I go to sleep." She walked out of her main quarters, leaving Robin alone – stuck to the floor – as she walked towards the courtyard.

She approached the source of the protection spell in its firepit—the glowing light of green towering its way to the sky and encircling the castle. The Queen took a breath and extended her hand to it, closing her eyes as she did so. She was focusing on what she had to do. Stopping the spell and, seconds later, it fizzled out. The Queen had broken the protection spell.

The Queen then moved to a seat in the courtyard and sat down. She looked up at the night sky and sighed. "I'm sorry, Henry. Maybe one day you'll find me and wake me up. But until then …" She held up the hairpin and was ready to prick her finger when she was interrupted by someone. A voice. She turned around—the Wicked Witch of the West.

"You weren't going to say hello first?" the Wicked Witch asked. "It's not exactly the welcome I was expecting. So what does a witch have to do to get your attention?" She waved her hand, taking the hairpin off the Queen with a cloud of green smoke. "What's the matter? Has life got you down?" She asked, a snarky tone in her voice.

The Queen got up from her seat. "None of your business."

"You don't know who I am, do you?"

"I exactly know who you are. The Wicked Witch."

"Is that all?" the Wicked Witch asked with a slight smirk. Oh, how she loved this. She knew something that the Evil Queen did not know.

"I'm not that interested," the Queen said, reaching forward to grab the hairpin, but the Wicked Witch poofed it away.

"Please allow me to introduce myself. You can call me Zelena," she introduced herself as she walked around the courtyard.

The Queen noticed what the Wicked Witch was wearing. "That's my dress."

"Hm," the Wicked Witch mused, slightly modelling her dress. "I had to take it in a little bit at the hips. But it looks better on me. Don't you think?"

"I think you should never have left Oz."

"You can have your castle back if you want it that badly. I was just trying it on for size. Besides, I have seen everything worth seeing. Your closet. The gardens. Your crypt."

"Yes. How did you break the blood lock?"

"I didn't," the Wicked Witch smugly replied.

"The door was open," the Queen pointed out. "No one is that powerful." "Cora never told you?"

"Told me what?"

The Wicked Witch tilted her head. "The truth about us, Regina."

What truth? "What are you talking about?" the Queen asked, slightly chuckling. "And how do you know my mother?"

"The same way you do." The Wicked Witch smirked. "I'm your sister."

The Queen stared back at her. She can't be her sister. She was an only child, wasn't she? "Actually, half-sister. But details, details …."

"That's not possible. You're … green."

"And you're rude. Cora had me first. Before she wormed her way into the dregs of royalty. You know I'm telling the truth. How else could I have broken the door to the crypt? Our mother … gave me up and sent me away. But you … You she kept. She gave you everything."

"Everything she wanted," the Queen corrected. "If what you're saying is true, you were lucky to escape her."

The Wicked Witch rolled her eyes. "Enough with the martyr complex, Regina. Try growing up without a mother. Try living in Oz. Knowing that no one thought you were good enough. Not your mother, and not the only man our paths crossed. Rumplestiltskin."

"You were his other student?" the Queen asked.

"That's the only thing you know about me?" the Wicked Witch asked.

"The Professor told me. And he told me that you resented him for choosing me to cast his curse." Which makes a lot more sense now. "Well, get over it. It wasn't everything it was cracked up to be."

"Anything would be better than the life I had. But, despite my shortcomings, I made something of myself, dear. And I didn't need Cora. Or Rumplestiltskin."

"Well, it's too bad they're not around to see how well you turned out. But, unfortunately, they're both dead."

The Wicked Witch was silent before letting out a light-hearted chuckle. "That's alright," she said. "You're the only one I need alive."

"Really? Why is that?"

"Because I'm going to take everything away from you."

"Too late. I've already lost everything that matters."

The Wicked Witch slowly shook her head. "No, Regina, you haven't lost anything yet."

"So you are going to kill me?"

"No. That's too easy. For me to get what I want, I need you to suffer. So you see, what's in store for me is all my dreams being realised. But for you? Well … It's a fate worse than death."

The Queen stood up from her seat, glaring at the Wicked Witch. "Go ahead. Bring it, Greenie."

The Wicked Witch smirked at her half-sister. "Indeed I will." She materialised her broom in her right hand and smiled devilishly. "See you soon, sis," she said before hopping onto her broom and flying into the air, cackling as she flew out of the Queen's castle.

The Queen stared at the Wicked Witch flying away before marching into her old quarters, where she had left Robin stuck to the floor.

He was amazed to see her walking in towards him. Towards her dresser. "You didn't go through with it?" he asked.

The Queen waved a hand and magically unfroze Robin. "You were right. The sleeping curse wasn't the answer," she said as she rummaged through her magic ingredients and potions. "As you see, I just needed to find something to live for."

Robin smiled at her words. "And you found it? What?"

"The one thing I haven't had in a very long time. Someone to destroy."