Snow opened her eyes slowly. At first, the vision in front of her was just a blur of dull light. She blinked, and it came into a clearer focus. Four strong, hard iron bars. She did not move, but swiveled her eyes and saw the bars extended in a row to either side. She blinked again, fighting a dull ache in the back of her head.

And then she remembered. She sat bolt upright as memories of the last moments before she lost consciousness trickled their way back into her mind. Regina's hand wrapped around her heart. Her threat on her daughter's life. The glimpse of something glowing red as she felt it sucked from her own body, and then darkness.

She found herself in a small cell in the corner of a larger room, much like the one at the sheriff's station. Except this room was clearly underground, as the only window was small and high at the top of the wall. Candles cast a rusty glow across the space and caused shadows to dance on the dark, earthen walls.

Instantly, as she blinked her dark surrounding into focus, her breath became tense and taught. She clawed at her chest with one hand, feeling the absence of her heart. She stood shakily and brushed the dust from the harsh floor on which she had been laid from her body.

"I wondered when you'd wake," came a cold voice from a dark corner of the room opposite her cell. Snow squinted into the darkness as Regina revealed herself, stepping into the candlelight.

Snow coughed some dank dust from her lungs.

"Where are we?" she croaked.

"The vault under my father's tomb," Regina said. "You didn't have a chance to explore all of it the last time you were here, I believe. I needed to find a special place for this." She patted a small ornate box she held at her side, and Snow felt a light thudding inside her chest as she did so. A faint red glow emanated from the box. "Congratulations, Snow. Your heart has now become my most treasured possession."

"Why?" Snow moved forward and took the bars of her cell in each of her hands.

"Why, what, my dear?"

"Why is it still beating?" Snow asked through gritted teeth. She had prepared herself for death, but this was a whole new form of torture she had not considered. A witch's threat on her daughter's life and a prison cell she could not escape to stop it. "I offered you my life in exchange for your mother's, which I took. Why haven't you killed me?"

"My, your memory is poor," Regina said, her mouth curling into a smile around the words as she advanced further into the room. "I want vengeance my mother. Killing you won't get me that vengeance. But killing your daughter will. An eye for an eye, Snow. A member of my family for a member of yours."

Snow swallowed hard and blinked back angry, frightened tears.

"And why am I here?" she asked, biting her lip to stop the tears from reaching the surface, afraid of the answer.

"Because you get to watch," Regina growled, enjoying as she watched the despair and dread seep into Snow's pale face. "You get to watch me rip out her heart, get to see it beating one last beat in the palm of my hand. Do you think it will be bruised? You and I both know Emma has such a wounded heart. Broken time and time again from the life you banished her to. I guess we will both find out. You can watch as I reach into her chest and relieve her of that wounded, broken heart, and crush it to dust while she breathes her last breath. You can look into her eyes as she dies and know there is nothing you can say to comfort her, nothing you can do to stop it."

"If you do this, Henry will never forgive you," Snow threatened, hoping Regina's love of her son would be her daughter's saving grace. It had proved to be in the past. Snow saw Regina's face fall, and thought for a moment she may have found the argument that would work.

"Unfortunately that ship has already sailed," she said sadly, seeming to speak to herself more than to Snow. "I gave up on Henry ever forgiving me long ago. I can't hope to gain his forgiveness." She looked up and her dark eyes pierced Snow as a determined rage slid onto her face. "I can only hope to gain justice."

"Emma's done nothing to you," Snow pleaded, although she knew that the more desperate she seemed, the more Regina's resolve to kill Emma would tighten.

"Just as my mother did nothing to you?"

"Your mother killed my mother," Snow reminded her, a sharp anger bubbling inside her. The truth about her mother's murder was still fresh and raw, even though it had happened so long ago.

"I always pictured you as the forgiving type," Regina purred. "But now it's you who've set the standard, my dear, and if the penalty for crimes is death, I'm happy to deal that sentence to our little Ms. Swan. For breaking my curse. For stealing my son. For bringing about the ruin of everything I held dear."

"It was me who killed Cora, not Emma," Snow attempted, her knuckles whitening where they grasped the bars of her cell. "Punish me, not her."

"But don't you see?" Regina sneered, the wicked smile creeping still further up her face. "I am punishing you. I can think of no better way to truly punish someone than to make her watch her child die."

"I came to you to offer my own life as payment," Snow said, unable to keep maternal tears from creeping into her eyes. "I came to you to end this. We can end this right now, you and I. She doesn't need to be involved. You can end this right now. Just reach out and take it. Take my life for your mother's. Grieve and avenge her, and then everyone can move on."

Regina brought her face even with the bars of Snow's cell, grasping one in each hand and leaning forward.

"Emma will die," the queen promised in a whisper, passion piercing her words. "And you will watch."