"The Queen, you met her before, on accident, had decided you were different, you were the first to accidentally stumble into our home world, and because of that, you may be the one we have been waiting for. This war has gone on far too long, it needs to end, soon, before the few of us remaining die out.

I'm still not sure how you did it, you shouldn't have been able to open any portal to our planet, and I don't think you did. I think Will had, and you fell in through the cracks, he has always been sloppy with his work, but loyal to a fault.

Neal told you what he could of our story when he took you to the ruins, that creation story, it wasn't just a myth. It was history, a history he had lived through, being one of the first to arrive here.

Daniel and I were brought here together, as a last resort, the Queen is getting desperate to end this. My mother that is, she would never risk my life if it wasn't a cause she believed in, but this has been a turn of events she never saw coming. Daniel was her best knight, trained, raised from a young boy, barely able to speak, to fight for this. We were friends growing up, and I'd trust him with my life."

She paused at this point in the conversation, or rather monologue, stopping to regroup her thoughts, she hazarded a glance at Emma, seeing her still looking intently at her, an unreadable expression across her face. She looked away for a moment, and then reached out, taking Emma's hand firmly in hers as she readied herself to this point.

"We were never together, he's too much of a brother to me, but with having Henry, we created an image of a family. It would explain away any inconsistencies we had. All part of our cover. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you the truth sooner. But I had to protect myself until we knew. Too many have lost their lives trusting too soon, and mother wouldn't have it any other way. She had trained me, as her apprentice, raising me to take her spot later. It was too important to risk if I am to be the next Guardian. It is my destiny to protect every life that I can, see, our Guardian is our Queen, the position holds so much responsibility. We treasure life, keeping order amongst all the worlds, preventing the creation of an excess number while limiting the destruction of others until their time comes.

We can see the past and the future, making sure that everything lines up, it is the most important job and takes thousands of years of training, many fail in trying to find the right one. It was a big risk, not only for a mother to risk her daughter but for all of our people to risk being lost forever. And so she sent me with Daniel as my protector while she stayed behind leading our people.

You can imagine her surprise when you fell through into our world, you were the first human to ever do so, and the panic it caused amongst our populace. When you arrived in Tucson, I was tasked with watching you. But even if I wasn't, I still would have spent as much time with you as I could."

She paused again and looked into Emma's eyes, glistening with tears. Slowly, she licked her lips, leaning in, eyes searching, her hand reached up and traced Emma's jaw. It was Emma who closed what little distance was left between them, their lips crashing together, desperately, hungrily, a renewed passion, burning strong between them as Emma's mind still drank in the truth, that this was happening, that it had all been an act. She didn't even question the rest of what Regina had laid out that night, she didn't want to contemplate what it meant for them with Regina saying she wasn't from this planet even. Everything seemed so completely ridiculously unbelievable at this point in time, and Emma didn't care.

Somewhere deep down, she thought this was probably still a dream, she had to be dreaming this, something so crazy, that or she'd surely be committed soon, especially if she ever said anything like this to another person. The kiss broke, too soon, her mind still reeling from the emotions she felt.

"I can't believe this," she whispered breathily, unwilling to lose contact with the brunette, her hand had made its way up to her cheek, which she stroked with her thumb, green eyes searching brown.

"It is a bit crazy isn't it?" she agreed, a smile on her face as Emma nodded her head, "Don't worry, I'll be here, always."

Emma couldn't help but trust her, believe her, wholly and completely. The moment was honest and innocent; the outside world not mattering at the moment, everything important was here.

It was broken with a ringing coming from Regina's pocket, causing them both to jump and break away. She grabbed for her pocket, answering the call, "Daniel, don't worry, I'm with her. What's going on? Okay, I'll be home soon, we aren't far. Is Henry there? Don't let him out of your sight."

She hung up the phone, Emma stared worriedly at her, and she offered a reassuring look, "I need you to come with me. Something's happening, he wouldn't tell me what. But it's nothing we can't handle, I'm sure."

Regina took her hand once again, "I'm sorry."

Emma didn't have a chance to question it as she felt a tugging, one she had felt before, when she left the cruise ship, but this time, it didn't take her to a crumbling broken place, the place she found herself surrounded by was instead a brighter, happier looking one, if it could be described as happy.

Strange buildings surrounded her, brightly lit, filled with lots of people, all wandering about, not noticing the appearance of two new individuals. She had barely had time to take in the surroundings completely before they all began to fade, but she couldn't shake the image of the world being filled with pinks and oranges.

They had reappeared in a strange room, still touching, it was dark, and compared to the bright world moments before, she couldn't see anything. Slowly, shapes and colors started to emerge as she realized that she was in what could only be described as a dungeon, grey bricks stacked roughly together, torches hanging from walls providing the only light. She looked around questioningly.

"We're back at my home, in the basement; it's the only safe place right now. Gold and his men can't get in. You're only here because I allowed it, that was why there was a moment in that other world. It was our home world you saw."

"But it looked different from the last time I did that?" Emma couldn't help but question, and noticed a look of surprise fall over the faces of the others, she could now make out Daniel and Henry standing by a wooden table just off center from where she stood.

"You've done that before?" Daniel probed, confusion lacing his voice.

Emma didn't see the big deal that it evidently was and shrugged, "Yeah, it was how I got here from the ship I was on.. after, you know, Killian…" she trailed off realizing this may not be the best company to say what had actually happened in.

Regina squeezed her hand, "The world you saw had to be different, remember Gold was banished, so he can no longer have any contact with our world, that includes through you. Can you describe the world that he took you to?"

Emma nodded, "I think I can, I've been there a couple times, at least I think it was the same place both times, it looked the same. Oh and when I died, I've been there three times then maybe."

Daniel stepped forward, "Good, we'll need to know everything we can, we've been trying to find the place he calls home, where he actually is at. He only visits here, and that's been our problem. If we could strike him at home, we could end this. But it'll still take some time to find. And that means you're at risk, he can't know that we know about you. He has to think you're still doing your job successfully. We'll feed you information that you can relay on to him, the majority of it will be false, but some has to be accurate or else it only puts us all at risk."