No Regrets, Chapter 8
Endings and Undoings, part2

As they walked deeper into the cave the walls became further apart until they were no longer visible. A fog seemed to be surrounding them.

"We are here." The Great Mother stopped and faced them.

"One question before this starts" Regina clutched Robin's hand and the blood vessel on her forehead stood out from her anxiety.

"Ask, it will be answered."

"The baby, this will not harm her?"

"She is in no danger, nor is Robin or even yourself, nor those who you face. This is only to free you and the people you harmed. It ends the power darkness has over you and weakens its power to harm others."

Regina nodded "Let's start then."

Robin drew her into an embrace "Remember, no matter how bad it is, I'm right here, always."

The worst were the villages that she, in her broken, crazed madness sent her knights to slaughter, just because they'd harbored Snow White at some point. The fact that the curse had also driven this dark madness only added to the misery. Finally it turned to the last individuals

"Just two more now" The Great Mother said soothingly.

"Okay." Regina rasped out, throat raw from so many apologies.

"Before she does that, perhaps it's time for an accounting of my own." Robin said firmly.

The Great Mother smiled and nodded.

"I've told you, Regina, I had a dark past as well. I want you to know this now." He took a deep breath. "I killed my father."

Regina looked at him stunned. "What-"

"What happened? My parents Sir Adam of Locksley and Lady Matilda of Gamwell had an arranged marriage, as most noble families did. My father was a harsh and deeply unhappy man who frequently drank. When he drank he took out his resentment on his family, striking out at whoever was nearby, most often that was my mother. My fear of my father turned to hatred as I grew into a young man. Finally, one day, I walked in on one of my father's beatings of my mother. In anger I began to brawl with my father. In a blind rage I grabbed up the fireplace tongs and beat my father to death."

"You were protecting your mother." Regina said softly.

"My mother didn't see that way. I had shamed her, she said. Shamed the family. She disowned me and told me to leave and never return. So I left. For several years I was a petty thief, a pickpocket and stealing from food vendors, drinking away every bit of the coin I stole. That's what state I was in when we almost met, when Tinkerbelle brought you to the tavern."

"And I ran away."

"In truth, you didn't run away." The goddess looked angry. "Your story was altered."

Regina and Robin both stared at her stunned. "You mean page 23 actually happened?"

"Yes."

"What happened to us?" Regina wondered aloud

"How do we not remember?"Robin looked confused.

Regina sighed. "Forgetting potion, right?"

"Yes. Overlaid with a spell to make sure you'd never remember, not even in a dream. You were found after only two days together."

"I doubt a drunken pickpocket and a runaway queen would have been terribly good at hiding." Robin sighed but smiled at her.

Regina smiled back at him, the fact she hadn't run away made so much difference to her, even if they'd only had two days together. Then she looked back at the goddess. "Who had done this to us? Mother was in Wonderland, she hadn't shown up until after Leopold was dead."

"It wasn't your mother. Nor was it completely the work of your mentor."

"Gold! I knew he'd be involved somehow!"

"The one who set this in motion, however, was the blue fairy. She profoundly objected to the daughter of the queen of hearts being the savior. Your meeting, which had been delayed by your mother's and the author Issac's actions, would have turned both of you away from the darkness. You should have originally met before Robin killed his father and Regina was taken on the trip that forced her into the marriage with Leopold. But the story attempted to correct this interference by bringing about your meeting again."

"Tinkerbelle."

"Yes. She was to have been your fairy godmother, but the blue fairy prevented this. The blue fairy's hatred of your mother, knowledge of the curse on the women of your family, and determination that the savior would come from Eva's family line, made her go to Isaac and persuade him to change the story. It was easy to write the Dark One discovering you two, and drugging you with the forgetting potion. The blue fairy took care of punishing Tinkerbelle and making her forget she'd seen you two embracing in the street the next night."

"Leopold and Snow didn't return from their trip until the end of the week. I doubt if the servants even knew I'd been gone. No one cared about the prisoner queen. Leopold kept me locked within the castle grounds, sometime locked in my chambers when he wasn't showing me off as his pretty bride. None of the servants even spoke to me, much less any members of court. They wouldn't have needed to even do a forgetting spell or potion on anyone else there, except for daddy and even he wasn't always there, not in those earlier years. Daddy might not have even known I'd been gone either. I'd only been married a year then. "

" The child you miscarried three months later, Regina? Leopold was not the father."

"Leopold blamed the miscarriage on me, that my childish insistence on continuing to go out riding caused the miscarriage." Inside Regina was battling anger at a certain fairy. Regina didn't know how she would keep herself from wanting to attack her, at least verbally, once she got back to Storybrooke. The Blue Fairy had ruined so many lives just out of her own hatreds, resentments and machinations. Shouldn't she finally have to face some kind of justice for this? Hmm, justice. One of the sheriffs back in Storybrooke just might agree with this, the one she shared being Henry's mother with, Emma.

"The miscarriage was caused by the Dark One. He knew if you had this child it would lessen your hatred. You had to be the one to cast the dark curse. You would never do it if your heart was occupied by not only the love you still felt for your father, but love for a child as well."

"That was the only time I ever was pregnant, until now." And now she hated Gold just a bit more.

"This child is that one, she has a bond to both of you. You lost her then, but she is as determined to be your child as you want her to be."

Regina saw a white glowing ball of light hovering nearby

"That's our daughter Regina" Robin murmured in her ear. "She's not quite connected to her body yet. She says that happens right after she's born."

"I can't hear her." But she could see her right now, at least. Regina felt her heart lighten, the lost child returned.

"Think it's because I'm in a similar state to her."

"Regina, do you think you are ready to face your last two atonements?" The goddess asked.

"Yes."

Regina swallowed nervously when he stepped forward from the mists surrounding them- Graham, the Huntsman.

"Why did you kill me Regina?"

"It was unforgivable. I..I had developed feelings for you…"

"Lust, but that doesn't explain your actions."

Regina looked down. "It was more than lust, I'd started feeling something more."

"Something more?" Then he laughed mockingly. "The Evil Queen falling in love with her lapdog? Except I'd stopped being that, hadn't I? That's the problem with allowing your lapdogs free will, they turn on you. You certainly gave me free will with you too, you'd eagerly just follow my every lead in the bedroom-"

"Enough!" Robin shouted. It wasn't jealousy, he didn't care that Regina had once had a relationship with this man, it was the ugliness of this man's words, he wanted revenge not atonement, and humiliating Regina was his choice of how.

"Found a new lapdog, Mayor?"

"I'm no lapdog. Robin of Locksley and Regina's soulmate. You will allow Regina to tell you why she killed you and you can choose to forgive her or not. But that doesn't give you the right to do this."

"It's okay Robin." Regina took his hand and stepped forward, this time looking Graham straight in the eyes. "I did develop feelings for you. I let my jealousy over your developing feelings for Emma drive me to murder."

"You killed me over that?" Graham sneered. "I wasn't in love with Emma. I hate all people, remember. Animals are all I care about."

"But it looked like…"

"That I liked her? Maybe, but it wasn't love. More than I felt for you, which was nothing, but it wasn't love, not interested in that."

"I already said it was unforgivable."

He shrugged then, and cracked a smile. "Now that I know why, it's actually funny. It wasn't because you were the Evil Queen, it was because you had a thing for me. Fell in love with your lapdog… You're forgiven" He shook his head and walked back into the mist, laughing.

A woman stepped out of mist, one Robin and Regina both recognized. "Marion"

"Hello Regina. I understand that's what you prefer to be called now."

Regina nodded. Oh this one will be so painful….

Marion smiled at Regina. "I'm not here for your atonement. I'm here to ease your mind. I know what your sister did and why. But you did not kill me in the original timeline."

"I didn't? But I-"

"Imprisoned me? Yes, you did."

"At least let me apologize for that, I imprisoned you unjustly, because-"

"Forgiven, Regina. Your life since you met Robin and my son Roland, more than makes up for that."

"You told me that if I had a family it would fill my heart. You were right."

Marion nodded. "I could see that in you. It's true I was in your prison, but I escaped and was reunited with Robin and our son. What originally happened, apparently you received some news about Snow White that made you leave with most of your knights. It was easy to escape with so few knights around. I lived another 2 years. I died-"

"Because I got too cocky about breaking into a noble's home to steal something."

"I was too cocky too, Robin. It was my actions that caused my death, not yours. We thought we knew all the booby-traps he'd laid. We missed one. A poison dart went in my arm. We escaped, without the treasure. I died from the sickness the poison spread through my body, a day later."

"If I hadn't been so sure of myself…"

"If I hadn't been so unwatchful when I leaped up. I choose to do that Robin, not you."

"But-"

"Enough, both of you." Regina stepped between them and smiled. "It was an accident, that's all. I'm sorry we only met as enemies, Marion. I wish we could have been friends. "

"I wish so too."

"As do I."

"Perhaps in some reality we did. Could we name our daughter after you?"

"I'd be honored."

"Marion" Robin looked at her earnestly "Are you happy?"

"I am now." She smiled at both of them then disappeared back into the fog.

Regina embraced Robin.

"What's our next step, now? Regina looked anxious at the goddess who gazed at them benevolently.

"Take my hands and hold each other's. It's a matter of showing, not telling." As soon as the circle of hands were made they were brought to the cursed land.

"This is the place of the curse. We must break the curse together. I shall begin and then make a protective circle around you. You must combine your souls and your magics to break the curse, by healing the land itself. The land holds the power of the curse."

Regina felt the strongest hum of light energy she'd ever felt course through her and glow around her hands was brilliantly red. Then a magic, with lightly blended colors of the forest, joined in from Robin's hands. She saw Robin look at stunned amazement at his hands. She grinned at him, and nodded toward the goddess whose whole body glowed with every color light energy that ever existed. The goddess slowly brought the hands she held of Robin and Regina together, so that their energy would form a complete circle, while she held the outer protective circle alone. With one last magical surge Robin and Regina's hands completed the link between them.

"Now concentrate on healing the damage of all you see." The goddess spoke in their heads. "The magic will guide you."

Robin looked confused for a moment, then felt Regina's magic twine around his weaker magic. Their eyes locked and then the magic took them where it needed to go.

The goddess spoke words neither Regina or Robin recognized. She watched the earth itself heave, as the dark twisted things hurled themselves at her barrier.

Suddenly there was a burst of darkness that made a mighty heave against the barrier and an unearthly earsplitting shriek. Then the light overwhelmed the darkness, blanketing the world around them in a brilliant cascade of colors. Robin and Regina instinctively closed their eyes against the blinding display.

Gradually the light faded back to normal sunlight. The land around them had changed. What had once been a blasted, cursed land was now an open meadow with a rainbow color of blooms surrounding them. All three felt a burst of laughter ripple through them. Robin and Regina sunk to the ground and leaned against each other.

The goddess smiled at Regina. "The curse is broken forever." Then she turned to Robin with a hint of a mischievous smile. "You are alive again, Robin of Locksley, enjoy the rest of your long lives together." With a last lingering laugh she disappeared.

Then Regina realized what Robin was wearing. The goddess had changed his clothes to the clichéd image of Robin Hood's. She burst into helpless giggles. "Robin, look down" she gasped out between renewed bursts of laughter.

Robin looked down and then with a smirk at how ridiculous he must look he stood up and did a full turn for her. "Bit drafty" he chuckled.

Regina laughed so hard that she fell backwards onto the grass. Robin dropped to the ground and playfully tickled her.

"Oh stop Robin, please" She gasped and giggled.

"Yes, milady." Then he kissed her and she kissed him back…

Sometime time later Regina poofed his clothes into something a bit less ridiculous. He recognized it as something similar to what he had worn in Camelot, minus the cape.

"So we look from the same social class." She said as they began the long walk back to the Merry Men's camp.

He nodded. "Regina, I don't think I can wait to get back to Storybrooke to get married."

She nodded. "So where?"

"Would you mind more than one wedding?"

"To you, as many times as you want."

"I'd like Friar Tuck to marry us first, then if they wish, I'd like us to marry again on Avalon."

"Yes, to both. We could bring Roland and the baby with us this time."

"Speaking of the baby, but the other one, I'm glad you asked Marion that about her name."

"You think as a middle name? What do you think of Grace Marion Locksley-Mills?"

"I think it's beautiful. I'd like to suggest a slight name change for my older daughter."

"It's your right, and it might be a bit confusing to have two Robins in the house, anyway. What would you like?"

"Hope Robyn Locksley-Mills. And I'm inclined to take back the Locksley name for myself and for Roland as well. I'd like Roland to have the Mills name too."

"So Roland Locksley-Mills. Hmm, he may want a middle name just like all his siblings have, should we let him pick one out?"

"I suppose, although I dread what a six year boy in Storybrooke might choose" Robin laughed.