"Allow me to tell you a story," Cora passed two full glasses of wine to both of the young women sitting across from her before setting down one in front of herself. "About how a certain family who were once in the right became in the wrong, and how I revealed their true nature to everyone…except themselves. And thus is the greatest irony of those from our realm. They always see themselves as all good or all evil, and never acknowledge the in between."

Zelena watched her mother closely, as if hungry for every word Cora spoke. "Well, then," She purred. "I'm enthralled enough already."

"Agreed," Lily said, taking a sip of her wine. "They're all a bunch of damned hypocrites."

"Yes," Cora said, sitting down and taking a sip of her wine. "Allow me to begin…"

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me," Cora had offered the wealthy couple a charming smile. "I trust you understand the importance of this meeting."

"We do," Stephen Watson had said, motioning her into his study, his wife behind them and closing the door. "You're the only person who has reached out to us from our PI's attempts to find someone to explain the…shall we say, situation with the Mills family."

"Indeed I am," Cora had said, shifting a folio under her arm as she pulled out a USB drive. "I have both electronic and physical materials you'll be more than interested in."

"Oh?" Leah Watson had raised an eyebrow when Cora plugged in the USB and began to pull up materials. "How much information do you have?"

"More than you could possibly imagine," Cora had replied. "But, firstly, I need the two of you to keep an open mind. Are you familiar with the many worlds theory?"

Stephen had nodded. "Absolutely. It's almost certainly true, considering the wide spread of the universe."

"This isn't your first life," Cora had waited as the couple took her words in. "And I have proof of it. Can you see this?"

Leah had taken a step back with a gasp when Cora pulled out a box with a glowing heart inside of it from in her bag.

"Is that a human -" Stephen had exclaimed.

"Yes," Cora had pulled out the heart, holding it in her hand. She had then pulled up a live stream of a police department. "You see," She had went on. "This is the Storybrooke Police Department, and that man? He has no idea I've set up hidden surveillance cameras for this purpose. Nor does my daughter know I accessed her vault and stole his heart."

"How is that…" Leah had breathed.

"I should come clean, now, and confess that I know the mayor of Storybrooke, the woman you and your husband so desperately want information about, quite intimately. She is my daughter. Regina MIlls, in this world, but, in the other world, the world all of you are from," Cora had smirked. "She has a different name. I'll show you one of her favourite games to play, even now, and that ought to remind you of her true name."

Leah and Stephen had both sat down when Cora tightened her grip around the heart before speaking again:

"Say the name of the woman you secretly sleep with, and her children."

Though the video was grainy and the audio was not its best, his words had still come through.

"...Regina. Lynnetta. Henry."

Stephen had gasped. "What in the -"

"That control, however, is not what she enjoyed most," Cora had turned towards them, held up the heart in her hands, and begun to squeeze it. The man in the video had suddenly shouted, clutching his chest in pain, before suddenly returning to normal the second she had stopped squeezing his heart. She had set the heart back in the box, staring at the horrified couple with a smile. "Do you recall what my daughter's real name is?"

"Her!" Leah had stood up, fists violently clenched as she turned to her husband. "Regina cursed our daughter! She's - she's the fucking Evil Queen!"

Stephen had swore too before turning to Cora.

"How have we been unaware of this?"

"Because she was successful at more than just cursing your daughter," Cora had silkily replied. "She cursed your entire world."

Zelena burst out laughing, nearly spilling her wine on herself. Lily reached over to steady her, setting down her own wine.

"You are diabolical," Lily said, sharing a smirk with Cora. "Truly diabolical."

Cora chuckled. "Yes, dear," She said. "I am. I always get what I want."

When she awoke, she was screaming.

The years and times it had been since the last were immaterial. Each time - and there were only a few - stood out painfully in her mind.

In the first few weeks following her wedding, she had woken up screaming, more than once, and each time had been relieved to find herself completely alone. Never had she and her husband slept in the same bed, not after he had become disgusted upon learning she was pregnant. Fear of what he would try to do to her baby had terrified her then. The horror of his attempts to rape her before learning of her pregnancy and after the birth of her daughter had never truly faded.

The next time had been after her mother had first terrorised Lynn, but had been quickly overshadowed by Lynn's kidnapping. Even after her little girl had been returned to her, she had not slept well. Both mother and daughter had been plagued by nightmares, and had always co-slept for both of their sakes. Her hands began to shake at the memory. Lynn had curled up tightly against her every night after waking up screaming. Her mother had done her best to quell her own upset to protect her daughter. Some nights, still, it always felt as though it were never enough.

Nothing was ever enough, even now, so many years on, there was nothing enough to make her feel less afraid.

The nightmares had begun again when they had first arrived in Storybrooke. Lynn had been lucky, then. She never knew her mother was struggling with the nightmares she had brought upon herself in killing her father. Lynn's nightmares had gone away, for years, after they had arrived in Storybrooke. That changed after Henry came home. But it was okay. She had calmed down soon after. The nightmares had stopped for Lynn, for years, though her mother never slept well in fear for her children. In fear of what she had done. In being mocked by the memory of her father, in being forced to recall how she had taken his heart out of his chest and killed him for the curse.

It was all for one purpose. To ensure nothing would ever come near ruining her life again.

It hadn't worked.

The night Lynn had been attacked was the first time she had nightmares, again, in a long time. She had woken up in terror in the middle of the night, having nightmares about her daughter being kidnapped by Snow, as she had when she was little, but then murdered by her and Charming in revenge. When Henry had woken her up, the next morning, she had managed to put the nightmare out of her mind and get a few hours of dreamless sleep.

Seeing the state her daughter had been in when she was brought into hospital had almost killed her mother. It was the first time she had ever felt the desire to kill in decades. Had Lynn died, she knew she would have found the Watsons, killed them herself, and then found some way to prevent herself from ever getting caught. Henry. He would have been the only person left for her to care for.

He would have been the only person standing between her and committing the most violent murder suicide she could have created, torturing the Watsons before swiftly - and as painlessly as possible - ending her own life.

What she could not understand was this night.

It was the first time she had a nightmare since Emma had arrived in town.

And, for as much as it had terrified her, she had forgotten it nearly as soon as she had stopped screaming.

Shaking badly, Regina pulled herself out of bed.

Ran down the stairs.

Checked to ensure every door to and from the house were locked.

Then, she walked quietly into the living room where her children had fallen asleep.

They were still there. She let out a soft, low sigh of relief.

In a sleeping bag on the floor, Henry was peacefully asleep. On the couch, just a few feet away and a little above him, Lynn was asleep, too, peacefully cocooned in blankets.

Life looked so idyllic, normal. As peaceful and lovely as it had been meant to be.

"Why can't things stay this way?" Regina whispered to herself as she hesitantly went back upstairs. "Why can't things be perfect?"

Her mind whispered a more treacherous thought she dared not utter aloud nor acknowledge any more than she fleetingly had to.

Was the curse truly worth it? Was all the pain truly worth this?

Leafing through the storybook, Emma knew better than anyone her mind was beginning to wander in the exhaustion of the week. Yet she could not sleep. In a way, she felt compelled. Every day, she woke up with more questions. Every day, she went to sleep with few to no answers. She wrapped the light blanket she had brought with her into the living room of the home she was sharing with Chloe and Sherry further around herself, shivering at her thoughts. None of them were reassuring. She closed her eyes, for a few seconds, rubbing her temples. Could this be any more complicated? None of it is rational. Not even… She shoved the sudden feelings that rose up in her chest as far down as she could. No. Regina is not someone I should get attached to. It all comes down to something more simple. Henry is my biological child, and someone I'm integrating back into my life. Lynnetta is someone I'm hoping to continue to protect. That is the whole of my feelings. Aren't they? She swallowed hard. Nothing made sense. She turned back to the book, flipping through the pages to the beginning of Lynn's life. All of the images the book contained of Lynn's young life made her stomach and heart sink. She had been such a happy child. But she wasn't anymore, just a troubled, young -

"Emma? What are you still doing up?"

She let out a short, startled yelp before realising the woman who had stepped into the room was only Chloe, who was having a small glass of wine. Emma tried not to laugh at the first thought that came to her mind. You look so much older now you dyed your formerly pink hair black.

"I should be asking you the same question, but you're a notorious insomniac," Emma shook her head and gestured to the storybook. "I can't stop trying to figure all of this out. Why did some of your names change? Why did anyone target Lynnetta in the first place? What is the point of all of it?"

Chloe sighed. "Far be it from me to attempt to understand how the curse works, but the best way I can explain it is two fold: Regina wanted revenge on Snow, and she wanted to create a world within which nothing could ever happen to Lynn to harm her again."

Emma eyed her strangely. "It doesn't seem like either of those things have come to fruition."

"The first one has, largely," Chloe shrugged. "But you're absolutely right," Her voice darkened. "The same cannot be said for the curse protecting Lynnetta, at least, from getting hurt. I would argue it was what prevented her from dying because of Aria and Cindy, but that's neither here nor there."

Emma recoiled at the names. "Those two girls might be the most disgusting human beings I've ever heard of. Although Aria's parents are certainly a close second."

"Which is why it's probably not for the best you try to figure everything out through this book," Chloe came over to her and gently pulled her hand away before shutting the book. "It's apocryphal. Yes, it recounts true events, but not from the objective angle which could allow you to draw your own conclusions. Its characterisation of the Watsons - or, at least, who they were then - is proof enough of that. People are not one thing, and morality is not simple, so much as we would all like it to be."

"Yeah, no shit. My job has been the epitome of that, even though I have definitely seen some of the worst, most miserable fucking bastards in the world," Emma tiredly rubbed at her eyes. "Chloe, tell me something: is the whole 'true love's kiss' thing real? Is that why Regina doesn't want Mary Margaret to wake up David Nolan? Because they'll eventually kiss and break the curse?"

"I'm not convinced that whole thing is real," Chloe admitted. "But I know Regina well. She wouldn't want to take any risk, and certainly not after what has happened to Lynn these past few years. So, yes. I imagine she does not want Mary Margaret near Nolan - whether or not he ever wakes up - out of fear she will break the curse."

"The curse is already breaking, though," Emma swore under her breath. "How else would Henry be able to figure things out? How were the Watsons able to figure out who all of you truly are? How else would Regina's mother end up here when I sincerely doubt Regina would ever have made it possible for her to come near the town when the curse was in full effect? She clearly doesn't have control of its strength or weakness anymore."

"And you're right," Chloe hesitated. "That said, can you blame Regina for wanting to avoid it fluctuating much more? If you were her, wouldn't you want things to stabilise?"

"Of course I would," Emma fell silent before meeting the woman's gaze again. "Chloe, tell me: why do I want to kiss Regina?"

The woman's wine glass fell to the floor, shattering.

"Love. That's Regina's journey," She whispered, almost in a trance like state. "And that love would break the curse…that…that must be how you're the saviour."

Authour's Note: hi! it has been a LONG time since i've updated this fic, and i'm so sorry about that. i hope this chapter does not disappoint! also, a bit of housekeeping: yes, i did change Chloe's name from the original, and have updated the fic accordingly. she's the same character, but is now known as Fenella in Misthaven and Chloe in the Land Without Magic. i thought it made more sense for the sake of consistency with the rest of the characters, and thought those names sounded more mystical and therefore suiting the story. hopefully that clears up any confusion! tol kuv (be well, hebrew)!