Thanks for the feedback, and send some more. I hope you enjoy! This part in the story is where I'm going veer off the story, because I don't want every chapter nearly quote-for-quote, and also to delve deeper into Snow and Regina's relationship. This chapter will be longer, so I can actually get into the head canon stuff.

Disclaimer: I have been getting complaints about this ship being incest, among a whole bunch of other things, but I would like to clarify something.

Regina is now technically widowed, and can marry once again. It isn't illegal and I don't see it as incest if she dates/marries her former stepdaughter. Because the marriage was terminated when he passed away, she was now widowed: unmarried. This makes it perfectly legal and not at all incest(depending on how you look at it), because the only familial ties they had was through Snow's father; like I said, now dead. They are both "allowed" to date each other without it being incest or unconsentual. I doubt I've changed your mind by now, so if you still think it's gross, kindly leave. Again, please no negativity. Thanks!

Snow

It was hard to believe that nothing was threatening Storybrooke at the moment, but I had a feeling, one that spat danger throughout me, that that was about to end soon.

At least Gold said he was finished with the antidote for David's dreamshade. Right now, I need to focus on the positives before the negatives make their grand entrance.

The diner was almost filled to the brim with people either celebrating our arrival or trying to ignore it all and drink their coffee in peace. David was beside me while Gold was across from us. He could clearly tell something was wrong by the way David was a foot away from me and keeping his hands in front of him instead of around my shoulders. For the moment, I let David stay in the loft, while I was biding my time in a room at Granny's.

Gold slid a vile of murky liquid across the table and into David's desperate hands. Upon receiving it, he quickly popped the cork off the top and chugged it in one swift gulp. Once he finished, he grinned and opened his shirt, finding no sign of a scar on his abdomen. His face slowly lit up in a grin. He almost went to hug me, but flinched away from me and crossed his arms. Gold looked between us before leaving the booth.

"Congratulations," he said to David before leaving. After Gold, David was immediately leaving after. This time, I didn't stop him. He was just getting out of the booth when my phone buzzed against my hip, from Regina.

I need you at the mansion. Henry's acting strange. Before I could respond, a nerve-breaking scream sounded from outside. I snatched up my jacket and purse and sprinted outside.

Blue was laying on the sidewalk with a crowd of people surrounding her. Emma ran towards me while Hook talked to David.

"What happened," I asked.

"David was talking to me and Pan's shadow just…killed her." I nodded slowly. What would it mean for Storybrooke once our most powerful fairy dies at the hands of a shadow. I crept in closer to her and brushed past people gaping and muttering amongst themselves.

I had to let Hook and Tink handle it though; we need to release Pan if he's able to control his shadow from inside. I climbed into my Station Wagon with Emma while David fetches Gold and Belle.

We drove through Main Street and parked a few feet from the town line. We waited inside the car for David's truck to pull up.

"What are you doing with Dad," Emma asked as I parked.

"I'm sorry?" She ignored my stuttering.

"Are you just going to string him along a little more before choosing Regina?"

"Emma, That's not what's happening. I need time to myself to figure out what all this means." I gestured around my head and Emma looked like her walls were layering more bricks. "I want you to know that whatever happens, you mean the world to me." Emma let it sink in.

"So, who are you choosing," she asked slyly.

"I'm not sure yet, and if I did choose, you'd be the third person to know." She grumbled jokingly and faced forward as David's truck was pulling up beside mine. David, Gold and Belle were all climbing out of the truck, Gold carrying the box Pan found himself trapped in.

"So how are we doing this," Emma asked.

"I have my shawl on, so Emma and I will cross the town line. I will let him out and we kill him. Understand?" Everyone nodded around him. They went over the town line while the rest of us stood at the edge, waiting for the devil to be unleashed.

Gold waved his hands over the box and set it down in front of him. Pan began materializing beside Emma.

"Mom," he exclaimed. Emma flinched back and Gold restrained him.

"Mom? Where'd that come from."

"It's me, Henry." She rolled her eyes and Gold pulled him back.

"Shoot him," he ordered. I almost jumped out to put Emma's gun back in her holster, before David was pulling me back slightly. I composed myself and watched the situation on the other side unfold.

"If you're Henry, tell me something only you would know."

"Snow, you and I all prefer our hot chocolate with cinnamon, you drive a yellow buggy that you stole from my dad, and we reconnected at my castle on the beach, before Mom tore it down. Then you found-"

"Stop stop stop," Emma said. "I know it's you, kid." Henry broke free from Gold's hold on his elbows and ran towards Emma, pulling her into a fierce hug. They came over the line together and Gold apologized for not believing him. I hugged Henry and climbed back into my car.

"Let's go see how your mom's holding up," I said to him. Emma and Henry followed behind me and climbed into the backseat.

"Can we get ice cream," he asked.

"Now's not the time, and I'm not sure your first meal back in Storybrooke should be Double Fudge ice cream with extra sprinkles. At least that's what Regina would think." They both giggled in the back, triggering a smile to break out on my own face.

"Can I use magic," Henry wondered. I almost slammed on the brakes.

"No," I exclaimed, closing his open hands trying to summon a fireball. "Not in here at least." He giggled and went back to making conversation with Emma.

We pulled up to the vault, where everyone else was waiting, including Hook, Neal, and Tink. Gold undid the protection spell cast around it and threw the doors open. Henry and I were the first ones down the stairs and standing over Regina's unconscious body. Henry whimpered from beside me, so I pulled him close and held his head against my waist as his small arms wrapped around me. My heart skipped a beat; I will never get used to the tug of dread when she's passed out or in any sort of danger, especially after being electrocuted by Pan's henchpeople.

"Dont fret just yet," Gold said from behind us. He broke through Henry and I and knelt down beside Regina. He pressed three fingers to her head and a small wave of purple magic covered her temple. Her eyes flew open and her hand jumped to her chest.

"Mom," Henry cried. Regina was nearly in tears as Henry jumped to his mother's waiting arms. I grinned and almost went over to hug her, but I stopped myself. Now wasn't the time for anything like that, I don't know if it'll ever be the time.

Gold was wandering off into the vault and knelt to the ground.

"What was in this," he asked, holding up a small glass tube and cork.

"That's where my curse was. The Dark Curse." Her voice dropped at her realization, all of our realizations.

"Are you kidding," Emma mumbled.

"There's a way to stop it," Gold cut in. We all snapped our attention back to him, as he explained. "You will need the scroll to do it," Gold said, pointing to Regina holding onto a nearby dresser to stand up, with Henry still holding onto her waist. "You are the only person who can destroy it, being the one who enacted it, but it comes at a price. I might also be able to switch Henry and Pan back, but I need something: The Black Fairy's wand."

"So let's get it," Emma piped up.

"I don't know where it is. Mother Superior has it."

"Had," Neal said. "Past tense."

"You need to get her shadow back from it, and she should be fine."

"I'll go," David said.

"Aye, I'll come along," Hook said.

"I'll come," Neal muttered.

"I'll tag along," Tink said. They left, snagging the coconut trap before they went to the convent. The rest of us went back to the Pawn Shop to get Henry ready to go back to his body.

We waited around an hour for everyone else to bring the wand. Once they came, Gold waved his hands with the wand and the once sweet, clever eleven year old was gone, he was replaced by a grumpy malicious teenager with some serious problems.

"Everyone leave. I have some family business to attend to," Gold ordered. We filed out the door to find Henry and the scroll. Our plan was absolutely flawless.

We found Henry in the library with the scroll. Regina rushed over to him and reached for the scroll, but I sudden flash of light stopped her. She collapsed to the floor unconscious once more.

"Again," Emma groaned. I stifled a chuckle and knelt next to her. She quickly woke up again.

"I know what to do," she murmured to herself. We all ran out into the street, stopped by a certain sociopathic villain without the bracelet. He waved his hand slowly and all of a sudden, I couldn't move, and neither could anyone else.

"I'll take this," he said, plucking the scroll from Regina's outstretched fingers. "Now, who shall I kill first," he mused. "Ah, Nealy my boy, you're first." If my body could shiver, it would.

"Not just yet," Gold called out. Gold's shadow dropped his dagger into his hand.

"Belle, Bae, I love you," he said, before pulling Pan towards him and stabbing the both of them. We were released from our frozen positions. Belle dropped to the cement in the street and a small gasp escaped my half-open lips. In another flash of light, an old man replaced the young teen.

"Rumple, my boy. We can start over, we can get a happy ending together," he begged.

"Ah, but I'm a villain. Villains don't get happy endings." He twisted the dagger violently and they disintegrated into air. Belle sobbed on her knees, and Neal bent down and rubbed her back soothingly.

"Is there any way to stop his curse," Neal asked Regina.

"The only way to stop it is to give up the thing I love most." She didn't have to say it for everyone to know she meant Henry. "You two will have to leave Storybrooke."

"I want to go back with you," he begged.

"You won't. Once the curse enswarms us all, everyone returns to their realm of birth. Everyone was born here, except you. Emma will stay with you."

"No. I'm not leaving you. We can figure something out."

"We don't have time for that."

We all met at the town line, watching Emma and Henry depart.

"Emma, no matter what, you mean everything to me," I whispered into her ear as I hugged her close. David waited behind me for a hug.

"Your mother's right, nothing matters more than you." She nodded and brushed a tear off her cheek. She said her goodbyes to everyone else and as the purple fog swarmed over us, I felt the familiar feeling of my souls leaving my body for a moment, before they left.

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I looked down at my clothes and felt the familiar corset cinching around my chest. David was beside me, standing tall and proud in his royal mantle, despite the crushing feeling in both our stomach's. Regina was near tears in her purple dress that flaunted her cleavage and made her look five inches taller.

"Well, what do we do now," I asked.

"We can go back to my castle. We'll bring everyone, assuming they don't have any home to go back to." I nodded and led everyone back to the castle.

"Thank god you're so good at tracking," Regina whispered to me.

"And navigating," I added. We walked alongside each other, while David talked with Thomas. "Would this be a good time to talk about…well, everything?" Her head snapped back to me.

"Anything to take my mind off my son, I guess." I took a deep breath, then stopped.

"David, may I talk to you a moment," I called in front of him. He pulled back from his conversation and I pulled them both off trail.

"I thought about…everything, and I want to be with Regina," I admitted. My voice went from a confident volume to barely above a whisper. David's heart broke in his eyes and Regina almost leapt at me. "I'm so sorry, David," I whispered. He grumbled and went back to find anything to distract himself from his two lost loves today.

"Give him time, he just lost two reasons his heart beats every day." I nodded and ignored the thought that spread through my mind like a virus. What if I made the wrong choice. What if this was a mistake, what if I didn't love her? All those thoughts washed away at Regina's triumphant grin masking her pain. My heart fluttered and I shyly offered her an arm. She looked from my arm to me to my arm again and took it.

The journey back to the castle was harrowing, and also frightening. We were scared by a flying monkey and an almost-ambush by the Merry Men. Mulan was with them, which I was excited for and I got to catch up with her a bit, before she was pulled away to talk with another Merry Man about God and I know what bandits talk about.

When we got back to the castle, I cleaned Regina's scratch on her cheek from the flying monkey.

"You did a good thing for that boy today," I mentioned as I placed the wet cloth back into a wooden bowl next to my thigh.

"He reminded me of Henry," she muttered to herself. I thought for a moment, then kissed her cheek without the scratch gently. She smiled softly and patted my thigh before standing up.

"I think I should go back to my own bedchambers," she said. I grabbed her wrist, tugging gently.

"You could stay here. You shouldn't be alone."

"Yes, but if people start talking?"

"They were talking since we walked through the forest arm in arm."

"But-"

"Let them talk. If you really don't want to, I won't stop you." She bit her lip in thought, then sat back down on the bed beside me. She looked lost in thought for a moment, one of my favourite facial expressions of hers, before she leant forwards to touch her lips to mine for a moment.

"I'm going to take a bath," she whispered, before leaving once more for the lavatory. I collapsed back onto the bed once I heard the door shut behind her. It was hard to believe, but I lost a daughter and a husband and gained my dream woman. It stung, but Regina helped a little. Not all of it was fine, but I could only hope that the curse broke soon.