Sorry I'm late, but the other story I've been working on has taken up a lot of my time.

Thanks to hollz2283 and Scribes and Scrolls for their help and critiques. I am not there yet. But I hope by the end of this I will be.

And to be upfront...I know where I want to take this...I just don't know the road right now. So I claim no spoilers, and this is AU.

Just do me a favor...be detailed in your comments, but do comment. At least give the illusion someone is reading/

I know ABC owns this. I'm just taking their basic characters and turning them into something...we'll see.

Regina Mills awakened in a white room. She was dressed in white..shoes, pantsuit, everything all white. Her olive skin and brunette hair the only things non-white. She looked around for anything or anyone familiar. She screams out names.

"EMMA...!"

"SNOW...!"

"JAMES...!"

"RED...!"

She even called out a non-familiar name..."HOLLY! HOLLY! ANYONE..!'

Nothing. Nothing but white and silence.

This is not what they said death would be like. At least for her. She imagined rocks and molten lava. And a tuxedo-suited man with a pitchfork who would look strangely like a certain pawn-shop owner. Strange...the last man to lay hands on her (albeit around her neck, squeezing hard, would be the first man to meet her in hell). But not even.

Regina cried out once more..."ANYONE?...IS ANYONE THERE...?"

"You don't have to shout Gina..."

Hearing another voice she turned around. There was another person. Not Emma or God or Satan.

It was Ginger. The blind witch.

The anguish was evident in Regina's voice as she replied, "Where am I...?"

The Ginger she saw was not the evil child-eater she set ablaze. Nor the frightened-beyond-belief woman she left at the sheriff's office before leaving for Boston. This Ginger was different. Insecure and humble. And, from the looks of things, she can see."This is not heaven or hell. And you're not dead." Ginger said matter-of factly.

"So if I'm not dead, what..."

"I don't have time, and neither do you," Ginger interrupted with urgency. "You are on a great mission. You and all of Storybrooke."

"What mission."

"To save all our worlds...all our worlds."

The sentence stunned the mayor, as she continued listening to her one-time adversary.

"I've been given the power to feed you and your friends information...that led you to Boston. When you are done, you must return to Storybrooke. The real danger is there."

What danger, Ginger...?"

"Cora."

If there was color in her face, it drained at the word. "Mother...is she...?"

Ginger continued, almost deadpanned: "Yes...she is alive. She has developed great power since you last saw her. She has allies from the real and this world...it is your mission to do so. You will have help. One who is as powerful as you, but they don't know it. That person needs healing and guidance..."

"And this person...?

"You have already met that person..."

Two plus two were starting to add up to four. The crush. Holly? She remembered a glow from her hands and it seemed that she was ready to attack the dragons who had destroyed Boston when she went out...

"You have to heal her. Your healing will make her stronger, and she will be loyal to you for life."

Then the blonde woman in white started to step away from Regina, fading into the whiteness that surrounded her. The former queen yelled and screamed for her to return. Then she started feeling a shaking of her body, a shaking she could not control, as if her entire body was being held by another. And as the shaking started Regina felt weaker, almost drowsy. Her eyes closed.

Once.

Twice.

And she heard a voice. A familiar one.

"Gina! Gina!...can you hear me...Gina...wake up"

"Emma?"

And as her eyes opened a third time she realized that she was being held by the woman loved. She recognized the other people around her...Snow White...James...Mallie...Mallie?

Maybe she wasn't imagining things when she heard a familiar dragon's cry. Maleficent's dragon wail was very recognizable. So was the beaming face of one Holly Morris and her niece Maddie. "Welcome back to the land of the living, love!" Holly was as effusive as ever, while Maddie was proclaiming "Miss Mills, you missed it...you missed the whole thing!"

Well it was obvious that she missed something. Between all the people who were surrounding her was of all people Sidney Glass, or what looked like what was left of her, sitting against a building in the alley. and to her right, the tear-stained face of Red Lucas, holding the limp body of someone who looked like...like...Graham.

There were three other things that Regina could notice as consciousness was slowly coming back to her: No Gold. No Dragons. And...it could not be.

"Help me up." She was weak, but Regina was not requesting. It was an order.

"Honey you should rest," Emma was showing concern, but Regina needed to check something for her own sanity.

"Help me up..now, Miss Swan!" Regina getting back to formalities meant that she meant business.

Emma and James lifted Regina off the ground, and the former queen indicated to the, to bring her to the street. Snow followed. What she saw, Regina could not believe..

When she went unconscious, the city of Boston was on fire. But now the sky is clear as the sun was setting. No smoke. In fact, the city of Boston looked untouched...as if nothing had happened.

Emma took notice of the look of bewilderment on the face of her lover. "I'm gonna sit you down, and tell you everything. Like the girl said, you missed a lot.

Storybrooke

Inside, the masses who were there to monitor what was going on in Boston were just as bewildered as Regina. They of course were not concerned with what was happening outside. It was cloudless. A beautiful day turning into a beautiful night. And shadows already were being cast over the town, especially surrounding the Mills mansion.

But these shadows were unusual in the fact that they seemed to be cast by humans, but there were no humans attached to the shadows. Further, if Emma Swan and Ruby Lucas were there they would swear these were the same shadows that attacked Ginger at the pawn shop. Only there would be more of them. Surrounding the mansion. Ominously waiting for something or someone. Waiting for something to happen. Knowing that when the sun finally goes down, something will.

And within those shadows, a wheezy laugh.

TO BE CONTINUED.