A/N: Tumblr prompt for the once upon a secret santa.

Post Shattered Sight spell, the afterwards. Outlawqueen, swan queen brotp, snow queen brotp, regal believer.

It all happened in a flash. At first she was sword-fighting Snow and it all felt like a déjà vu. Once upon a time she felt the same way, she thought the same things and she desired Snow's blood as she was doing now. But it was all out of her control, yet if felt familiar to her. She had to kill Snow that was all she was focused on. Then she heard his voice, the accent of a noble in a thief's skin. This is perfect, she thought to herself. At last, another familiar voice came to her ears, Henry. They all came after her, these people that claimed to love her but show remorse instead.

"Well, well, I see the great commission came after me. Unfortunately, I have to advise you to save some of your strength, you may need it to keep yourselves alive."

Henry is accusing her of an abusive home. Robin craves vengeance for his wife. Snow wants her to pay for a lifetime of pain.

"You know, mom" there's so much sarcasm in his voice "you should claim your mothership proudly now-"

"Stop with the nonsense, foolish boy, I thought I taught you better than that"

"And you have. If there was one thing I learned from you, is that what I'm feeling now is darkness."

Snow is still pointing the sword to the Queen with wild eyes and an evil grin on her face, as Robin approaches her slowly. Henry is by the door spitting out words of bitterness and malice.

She has to think quickly, she needs to put an end to this, to them.

"Alright, I guess you're here, thief, to revenge your precious wife's death. I'm sorry to say I don't even remember how I murdered her… Maybe that would give you more ideas on how to come after me, wouldn't it, honey?"

She focus again on Snow and devilishly grins at her.

Yet, It all happened really fast. With a wave of her sword she made Snow's blade fall and at that moment of distraction, she wasn't fast enough to act upon Robin. He pushed her to the wall holding an arrow at her throat, his strong arms restraining her from any movement.

Henry watches everything and gloats on his mother's possible death.

"You had to see this coming, mom, you're a villain after all" He said.

Snow grabs one of the golden pointed arrows from Robin's sack and adds, "I'm sorry Robin, she's dying by anyone else's hands but mine."

Regina is barely moving, her eyes bloodshot with anger and on her mouth a wicked smile that instigated her enemies to go even further.

"None of you have what it takes to kill me"

Snow steps towards them and pushes the arrow on Regina's side. Regina grits her teeth, grunting as Emma comes blowing a sparkly powder onto them, the counter-spell.

"Mom, Stop!" Emma says. But it is too late. As the powder spell touches them, they fall into a deep state of confusion, unaware of what's going on around them. Regina falls helplessly on the floor, blood running from her side. Emma runs to catch her, she kneels beside the brunette, and then her eyes meets Mary Margaret's, whose eyes have nothing more than desolation and guilt.

"Mom, no…" Henry mutters.

"Regina? Emma what have we…" Robin rushes over her and takes her on his arms.

"Robin, we need to get her to the hospital… actually to the fairies." She holds the other woman's hand and says, "I'm sorry, I know how much you hate them, but they'll help."

She wakes up couple of hours later in her bedroom. Her left side is sore as if… as if she's been stabbed. With her eyes closed she has a blurred image of what happened, her hand moves to touch where the wound should be but there's nothing. In fact, there's magic, she feels it, fairies, she ponders. She hears someone's voice but it's too distant and she has to do a great effort to get her eyes opened. Her whole body is exhausted from the evil queen's battles and rebellion against the restrains Regina herself had put to keep her away. It's Emma's eyes she sees in front of her.

"Hey, welcome back" she places a hand on the brunette's forehead, "You're not feverish anymore, that's good."

Regina pushes herself to a sitting position, clearly, trying to put some effort on her unwounded side though she still winces a little.

"It's okay, the fairies-" Regina sends her a disapproval look, "uh, I'm sorry to have them touch you, but they really helped; they healed you from-"

"I remember." Regina says then sighs as if knowing this would happen eventually.

"Good… I mean, not really, but it is good because you have a very upset teenager that also remembers what he said, feeling overly guilty and not willing to talk or see for that matter any of us. He can't forgive himself."

"Henry…" she has some unshed tears on her eyes to the mention of his name and struggle. "Why wouldn't he forgive himself? Is he here?"

"No, but you will have a chance to talk to him. You have to, you're the only one that can ease his pain." Emma says and gives her an understanding smile. "How are you feeling? You really remember everything?"

"Yes, Miss Swan. I have a blurred memory of the facts right now, but I do recall my attempt to kill your mother-" She diverts her eyes to the wall and adds, "I… I also remember Robin and Snow trying to kill me."

"Yeah, about that. They're not as bad as Henry but, you know my mom, she's intense and she's… she would never do what she did if she were in her normal state."

"In my defense, she did try to kill me few times in the Enchanted Forest… but you're right she never had the courage to finish with it."

"Yeah, that sounds like her." The blonde just shrugs.

"What about… What… Is he alright? Robin?" Regina looks at Emma with pleading eyes. She's afraid of what the Evil Queen might have done or said to him.

"He's fine. He's just afraid of-"

Regina cuts her in, "Me. He's afraid of me I knew it-"

"You're wrong. He's afraid of himself and what he almost did to you."

"Oh…"

"You see Regina, all of them… they have seen your worst before. They knew what you were capable of. What they didn't know was how evil their dark side was. None of them was aware of it. So, be patient. You have been where they are now. And for our own surprise the damage you caused was the least for me to worry about."

The Sheriff is leaving the room.

"Miss… Emma?"

"Yes, Regina"

"Thank you for saving us."

She only smiles as a response, then, before she completely leaves "I'll let my mom in."

Regina takes a deep breath and tries to concentrate on her memories of herself as the Evil Queen. What Emma pointed out to her was right, they all knew what she was about to become but no one expected what they would become. She thinks of Henry and how sorry she is that he had a taste of the darkness. Maybe he was right, he would never known what darkness was if she hadn't showed him. She waves these thoughts away, tries to forget the look in Robin's eyes of hatred, and tries to forget the pain of the arrow being pushed into her. She pulls her satin blouse to take a look at the wound, there's nothing there except for redness and the pain, and she touches it gently and closes her eyes at the sensitiveness of her skin, the pain.

"I'm sorry."

Regina is startled by the sudden voice and pushes her blouse down and opens her eyes to see a tired looking Snow standing in front of the door, her eyes are red for she was clearly crying and she can't quite look Regina in the eyes.

"I'm sorry for… kil… killing you."

"Well, dear I'm sorry to disappoint but as you can see you didn't kill me at all." The sarcasm and the roll of the eyes are supposed to break the tension. The younger brunette is still standing, fists closed by her sides.

"Snow," the mention of her true name makes her look at her stepmother, "we were under a spell."

She gets closer and sits at the edge of the bed.

"Do you remember what I did to you?" Snow asks timidly.

It is amazing how at the end they are playing the roles they did when they first met. Snow looks like that little girl that craved for Regina's acceptance and love.

"Yes, I do." The former queen sighs and continues, "I also remember inflicting pain in you for a whole life. So, no, Snow, I don't and I won't blame you. What you did… it wasn't you, it was your anger and darkness driving you to something that normally you wouldn't do. I'm sure you remember the amount of times you had a chance to kill me, but you didn't."

"I know. I just didn't expect it to be like that. If Emma didn't… you would've…"

"But she did and I'm not. You know I'd killed you if I had the chance. But that wasn't me either… It used to be me, but not anymore."

"I would never forgive myself."

"I know." She adjusts herself on the bed, "Snow, look at me." She looks into the older woman's eyes and sighs in relief. "I'm fine, we knew the consequences of the spell. I'm glad we all made through it. Now, is the Shepherd you call husband fine?"

"Yes, we were very surprised with the things we said to each other… but we're okay now. I guess we all have a dark side, isn't it?"

"True, but it's your choice to live by it. And believe me when I say that hopeless Snow is indisputably more terrifying than your dark self. Please, tell me you're choosing to live by the Hope Foundation again."

She chuckles. "Yes, always hopeful, I promise you."

"Great. Now, you should be taking care of that baby of yours."

"It's great to have you back."

"You too."

The exhaustion took over her and she fell asleep a little after Mary Margaret left the room. She woke up hours later to find Robin staring at the window, she could read him all too well, he was tense, worried. He's unaware she's woken up. Regina sits on the bed moving to stand up when Robin realizes the motion.

He's startled and in a second is by her side to support her. "Regina, don't… you-"

"I'm fine, Robin. I'm just tired and somehow the fairies' magic doesn't exactly blend in with mine." She takes his hand anyway to her own surprise she realizes that he's being too cautious. She 's standing right in front of him, involved in a silk robe, her hair in a little tangled, her eyes give in of how tired she is, yet she looks him in the eyes and smiles, the smile that comforts him.

He just looks at her. "There it is, the look that I tried so hard to memorize. I missed you." The former queen holds his hand tighter and brings it to her cheek. He gives in to the touch and with his other hand caress her hair and embraces her.

"Regina… I'm so sorry."

"I know. We both said and did horrible things."

"Regina, I hurt you."

She takes his smell in, forest, tries to keep calm, and tries to forget what happened.

"I didn't want to ever touch you again because I was afraid to hurt you."

"I'm sorry you had to meet her. But I'm back, you're back and you said it before, we're here now and this is true."

"I love you. I promise that will never happen again."

"Don't promise me that, Robin. Just love me now and I'll always remember."

"Are you all right? Did the fairies heal you completely?" Finally coming to his usual worries about her. He gently places his hand on her side where she was hurt.

"Yes, I'm healed, a little sore but it will be fine by tomorrow."

They hug once more and she can feel him relaxing against her.

"Tell me something, Your Majesty, is the sword fighting a skill bound to the evil moniker or is the former mayor also capable of so?"

She chuckles; it feels good to have her thief back.

"As the Queen I went to war, battles and well I really wanted to kill Snow White and I had to be ready for when the opportunity came… So I acquired many skills yet to be revealed to you. And as for the last question, yes, I'm more than capable of doing so. You should be careful, thief."

They exchange a tender kiss then Regina breaks them apart.

"I need your help with something… Henry."

"Oh… The young man is devastated with the things he saw, but most importantly what he said."

"So I heard. He doesn't deserve that, besides he only said the truth-"

"Don't. You know that was not the truth about you, he deeply loves you, Regina, the boy can't bare the idea that he hurt you."

"You're right. Can you take me to see him? Do you know where he is now?"

"Last I heard he was in your vault."

Regina is a little surprise with his choice of a hiding place. But he's her son and he saw her using that as a refuge so many times…

Regina enters the vault slowly and Robin is there to push the tomb out of the way, she's still a little uncomfortable to use her magic with so much fairy's magic in her body. She nods to him as a reassurance that she can handle from now on.

"I'll head to camp then, Roland's waiting for me."

She finds Henry sitting on her wooden chest, blankly staring at the storybook.

"Have you found the author yet?" She asks gently and he looks up with relieved eyes.

He stands, "Mom" he's moving towards her but then he stops insecure about how to approach her.

She doesn't wait, she just beckons him to come to her and he obeys.

"My little prince, what are you doing here?"

"I… I needed to feel you. And this place, this vault is like smelling you and hearing your voice asking me if I wanted to become a toad."

"Henry-"

He holds on her embrace.

"You were never the Evil Queen here. I thought I knew her."

"I'm sorry you did."

"Yeah… It was scary. But I was so angry and I just said things that… I had no control."

"It's alright. I know we were under a spell."

"I thought you wouldn't forgive me."

"How? How can you even think that? Henry, you taught that woman that you met how to love; you helped her to become who I am now. I can't live without your love. There's nothing to forgive. I love you."

She gently touches his chin and places her forehead on his.

"I love you too, mom."

"I hope you haven't touched anything… I meant it when I warned you about the toad." She widely smiles at him.

"Yeah, I'm aware."

- The End