Robin and Regina find themselves standing hand in hand in one of the many chambers of a regrettably familiar cave in the time it takes Hades to blink. Looking around, Regina sighs heavily with displeasure. "Here we are again."

"Come on." He tugs gently. "The sooner we get started, the sooner we can leave this place."

"Good idea. The longer we're down here, the longer Storybrooke is in danger."

"Hey, Madame Mayor, it won't do you a bit of good to worry about that just now. Set it aside. It will only distract you. You left Emma and the fairies on dementor patrol, and Snow can handle your office short term. Storybrooke is going to be fine."

"I suppose it was too much to ask for that Hades might've dropped us off in front of the town hall."

"I think everybody comes in this way. It's probably a rule. Remember the guard dog?"

"How could I forget? He lives in our backyard now. Wait… Since the dog does live in our backyard now, what do you suppose he's been replaced with?"

Robin grins. "A two-headed Cyclops, a dragon, or hey, maybe an ogre."

Regina smirks without comment.

When they feel themselves step though an unmanned, unseen, magical gateway at the mouth of the cave, she squints in mild confusion. It possesses similar magic to the barrier around Storybrooke, but it still feels foreign to Regina. In Storybrooke, people can get out, but they can't get in without a magical pass. Here the opposite is true. People come in, all but a very select few don't leave the way they came.

When Robin reaches back curiously, intending to place his hand through the invisible entryway, Regina quickly stops him with a hand on his forearm, shakes her head and walks ten steps on their intended path. She bends, picks up a small rock, motions for him to stand a safe distance away, and, once he does, she tosses the rock back the way she came. When the rock encounters the unseen entry post it sets off an inglorious cacophony of dark magical sparks.

Regina huffs dryly, "Well, that was anti-climactic."

Robin chuckles. "What? Don't tell me you're actually looking forward to doing battle with some heinous magical creature tonight."

"Looking forward to it? No." Regina shakes her head. "But I am expecting it. After all, we have come to see my mother."

Fifteen minutes later, Regina hesitates outside the door to the underworld version of the Storybrooke mayor's office.

Stalling, she turns and says quietly, "Come here."

Already close, Robin moves still closer; close enough to kiss. He squints curiously, but stands there patiently and allows her to gently smooth his slightly rumpled shirt down over his shoulders more evenly. For two seconds, she adjusts his collar; trying to position it in a less casual manner. Then, suddenly she stops, laughs at herself, and puts it back the way she found it. Quietly, she breathes, "You're better your way. If she doesn't like it, that's just too damn bad."

Regina steals a quick kiss that is a little too chaste for either of their liking. Then she turns and squares her shoulders. She breathes deeply and crosses the point of no return when she knocks.

Her mother's voice sounds distracted and busy when she answers, "You may enter."

As Regina pushes the door open and steps over the threshold, she finds Cora Mills seated behind the desk and carefully perusing some document. As necessity dictates, she waits for Robin to close the door behind them and then take up a post beside it before she steps a little closer to the center of the room where she stands quietly and waits to be addressed.

When the Queen of Hearts looks up from her work, it's quite clear by the somewhat startled expression on her face that whomever she was expecting to find waiting for her attention, it certainly was not her younger daughter.

Cora sets her shock aside and recovers quickly. She rises to her feet, and steps around the desk, "Regina, darling." She laughs wryly. "I must say, this is certainly a surprise!" She hugs her daughter swiftly, and then, placing a hand on either of Regina's shoulders, she pushes her a ½ step back so she can look her over; head to toe.

"You look tired." She announces with an immediate and unmistakable note of disapproval. "You should be taking better care of yourself."

Regina bites back the flippant retort on the tip of her tongue.

Cora eyes Robin speculatively and sighs. "Yes, well, I would tell him that he needs to be taking better care if you, but he looks just as neglected."

"We've been busy, Mother. There's a situation in Storybrooke."

"Come now, Regina. That's hardly an excuse. When isn't there a situation in Storybrooke, and you and I are royalty, sweetheart. We must –

"Uphold a certain standard. I know, I know."

"Don't interrupt, please."

When Regina grudgingly but dutifully, says nothing more, Cora offers her a cool detached smile. "That's better. Now, what brings you here?"

Regina walks across the room to stand in front of a floor-length wall mirror and lightly caresses its shimmering ebony frame. "I need your help with something, Mother."

Cora's eyes widen noticeably. "Oh, my." She laughs snidely. This is unprecedented. Storybrooke must be in worse trouble than usual if you're coming to me."

Robin watches Regina swallow the first reply that finds its way to her tongue. "There's a dementor in town, Mother. They're dark beings who feed on –

"Yes, yes, dear. I know what vile creatures dementors are, and what they feed on. But, if you've come for a vanquishing spell, I'm afraid I have none to give."

"No, Mother, that isn't why I'm here. I'll find the way to deal with the dementor myself. But, to do it, I need to go to the Rowlingshire realm. I've come here to ask you to teach me how to walk through mirrors."

Cora is quiet for several long beats; more than ample time to convey her disappointment before she speaks. "Regina, I'm surprised at you. You can push me through a mirror, but you can't figure out how to push yourself through one?

Regina grimaces. Forgive me! I've never tried to banish myself before, Mother."

"Well, no, of course, you haven't. But even if it was on a purely unconscious level, you've had the power to do it for a number of years. Otherwise you wouldn't have been able to do it to me. You take your gifts - your power - for granted, Regina. You always have!"

"I didn't come down here for a lecture; Mother. I came because the last time I was here, Daddy asked me to try harder. He asked me to be a better sister."

Cora squints in obvious confusion. "What's your sister got to do with any of this, and why would your father care about her? She's nothing to him."

Regina shakes her head in disgust and sighs in resignation. "Daddy cares about me, Mother. And the dementor – what was it that you called it? A vile creature? Words that definitely do not do it, or its kiss, justice; by the way. It may be after Zelena."

Cora suddenly goes quiet; a smidgen of genuine concern finally finding its way to her eyes. "What are you saying, Regina? You've been kissed by one of those demons?"

"We all have; Zelena, Robin and myself. So, I'd really appreciate it, if you would cease and desist with the open disappointment and the thinly veiled insults. It's been a hell of a day!"

"It happened today? And you two are walking upright?"

"Barely. We're lucky to be alive."

"See, this is what I'm talking about. Luck has nothing to do with it. You take your abilities for granted. How's your sister. How's the baby?"

"She's doing okay, and so is he. Hades send them to Olympus for the night."

"Well good. She'll be pampered up there for sure. Gods are notoriously crazy about fami… Wait, did you just say he… As in, the baby is a boy? That's not possible, Regina."

"I don't know what to tell you, Mother. Except, not only is it possible, it's happening. Weil did an ultrasound, just to check on the baby after the dementor attack. Hades has been telling anyone and everyone who will listen for months. Now it's official. He's a boy."

"Oh, a son! He'll have his father's throne for sure!" Cora's devious smile quite literally makes Regina nauseous."

"Not if he doesn't even see his first birthday. Now will you help me, or not?"

Whatever schemes Cora is planning in her head come to an abrupt, if temporary, end and her smile melts away and slides into a repugnant scowl "That reminds me, Regina! I have a grievance to air! I'm very upset with you!"

"I'll notify the press." Regina says dryly. "It happens so infrequently."

Cora ignores her daughter's sass. "I overheard your sister and her husband talking awhile back."

"You were eavesdropping."

"Stop interrupting me! I overheard them talking."

"Okay, and?"

"All the magic in the universe. All the magic that you personally possess – and you couldn't find a way to let me know that I have a granddaughter!"

"I could have." Regina holds back.

"But how?"

"How I would have gotten word to you is really a moot point; since I didn't."

"No, not how you would've gotten word to me! I mean how…"

Regina squints, thoroughly perplexed by the innuendo hanging in the air. She glances at Robin, and though he's doing his best to keep a straight face, his blue eyes sparkle merrily. Making her own effort to keep her smile under control, she points his way. "Well, he and I… We had sex, Mother."

"Ugh, Regina! That is not what I'm asking! I know how! For the love of all things dark! Have you forgotten everything I taught you? A little decorum, please! You've been hanging out with… with… with…" She rolls her wrist and points in Robin's direction. "Forest-dwelling miscreants too long!"

Refusing to be bothered, Robin bows deeply from the waist. "Why, thank you, mi'lady."

Cora scowls but otherwise ignores him. "I remember that day, Regina. I was there. I saw you drink that vile concoction. I saw you poison yourself. I heard the palace physician's damning diagnosis. You mutilated yourself! Just to spite me. So, I repeat, how?" She sneers at Robin. "Surely you're not asking me to believe that this mere man has magic in his loins."

Regina throws back her head and laughs boldly, freely. "Mother, you have no idea!"

Color starts to rise in Cora's neck and her lips all but disappear when she purses them together harshly in disapproval and then demands, "Stop this at once and answer my question! How?"

Regina shrugs as if it's no big deal. "A very kind person healed me."

"Please, if that were so simply done. I could've done it myself. It's next to impossible to heal self-inflicted wounds done with the use of magic; especially those inflicted deliberately. In order to heal something like that, you'd need the power of the gods."

"Not the power of the gods, Mother, just the blessing."

"Which is rather hard to come by. They're usually quite unwilling to share their power with mages. Dark or light makes no difference. The self-righteous lot of them horde their power." She huffs in disdain.

"You might want to be careful, Mother. Lest Zelena not be the only family member green with envy. The woman who healed me was no mage. She was a plain ordinary mortal who died tragically in childbirth. She was no one you'd care to know."

"Then why did she do it?"

Regina shrugs. "She had her own reasons. Perhaps it made her feel good."

"So, we're back to I have a granddaughter, and you had no intention of telling me!"

"No. I didn't."

"Why?"

"Two reasons. First, you're wrong. I didn't render myself barren to spite you. I did it to keep any child I might birth away from you. Second, I did it because, today, you have two grandsons who are older than your granddaughter, and even in life you never would have acknowledged them, simply because my blood does not flow through their veins. To you, they mean nothing. You are only interested in your granddaughter, and you are only angry to be denied knowing her because she is biologically mine. I know you, Mother. You see her as a living, breathing, legacy. In your eyes, she is your continued connection to power and glory; even in death. In my eyes, she is strong. She is kind. She is wild, and beautiful and untainted. She's not afraid to love or to be loved, and you will never be allowed to ruin her for any reason at all, much less, for your undying quest for power."

Cora is silent for a long time before declaring barely above a whisper, "You still don't trust me."

Regina says nothing.

"You seriously think that I ruined you?"

"No." Regina offers her a triumphant but melancholy smile. "I know now that you didn't. But, it wasn't for lack of trying. You certainly gave it all you had."

"If you really feel that way, then why did you even come here?"

Regina lifts one shoulder in a shrug. "Mother, that is an excellent question."

"I'm dead, Regina. What harm am I going to do?"

"Also, an excellent question. You and I both know there are ways around death. I wish it could be different. Truly, I do, because I love you, Mother. But I don't trust you. Not where my children are concerned, and I never will… But, if it's worth anything to you at all, I forgive you."

With nothing more to gained or lost, Regina turns to leave.

The door is open and she has one foot over the threshold and one hand held securely in Robin's when Cora quietly offers, "It's just your basic Specularè charm - one part mirror magic, two parts disapperation, combined, and well mixed with, a strong dash of desire."