Hello again! This chapter is a bit longer than the prologue. I hope you enjoy it!

I do not own Once Upon A Time or any of its characters.

Chapter 2

It had been two months since anyone had seen Emma. Two months since she disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. For the first few weeks, it seemed like everyone was proposing ways to save Emma from the darkness. The Charmings, in their frantic effort to find a way to save their daughter, had decided that all ideas should be considered. Regina conjured a large board in front of the town hall on which they listed all of the potential methods for saving Emma. One by one, the suggestions were struck from the list. After a month of trying everything they could think of, almost all of the ideas had been eliminated. One of the few that remained read, "Write the darkness out of the story." It was Henry's suggestion. He knew, deep down, that it wasn't possible, but he wanted so badly to have his mother back that he almost didn't care about the consequences. Not that it mattered, though, because Henry had broken the magic quill that would have allowed him to try; a realization that led to his recent emotional breakdown.

When Henry's suggestion had been one of two that were left on the list, he'd run to grab the broken quill, the ink, and one of the storybooks. He used the half of the quill that was attached to the nib to write on one of the blank pages. When that hadn't worked, Regina had used magic to reattach the two halves of the quill. Henry wrote in the book again, but still nothing changed. To test whether or not it was that writing away the darkness was impossible or if the quill simply was not working, Henry had tried using the quill to change other things. He'd tried making different objects appear, changing minor details about existing objects, and so on, but nothing happened; the quill was no longer working. Henry had fallen apart right there in the town square. Regina picked him her teenage son and transported both of them home. It had been three weeks since Henry had left the house or said anything to anyone. No matter what Regina said, she couldn't convince him that what happened wasn't his fault.

After the town watched Henry fall apart, people quickly began to lose hope that they would ever find a way to save Emma. The only other idea that was left on the board was, "True love's kiss," which was Hook and Belle's suggestion. They hadn't had the opportunity to try it, however, because no one had yet been able to summon Emma. Thus, the efforts to save Emma had dwindled, until eventually all but a handful of people had given up.

Regina sat on the bench in front of the town hall, glaring at the suggestion board. For the last two weeks, she'd been the only one still trying to find Emma. Snow had a nervous breakdown and wouldn't leave her apartment, nor would she let Neal leave. David would venture out from time to time, but only to get groceries and to see how Henry was doing. Belle was busy tending to Rumple, who was still in a coma. Killian still came to see Regina from time to time, to see if she'd found anything new, but he'd quickly realized that there was too much about the situation that he didn't understand. He helped Regina get any books or materials that she needed, but he was afraid that there wasn't much he could do outside of that. Regina had assured him that he was, in fact, doing more than he realized. Killian, despite having lost Emma, was using the majority of his energy to stay strong and care for Emma's family as they struggled through dealing with her absence. Even if he didn't realize it, just being their and trying to give them hope was keeping Emma's loved ones from giving up completely. Regina tried to remind him of how he was helping, but she got the impression that he didn't believe her. She could see the hope slowly fading from him, and that terrified her. If they all lost hope then Emma truly would be gone forever. Regina knew that they were running out of time.

The previous night, she'd cast a spell on Henry that replaced his memories of his life with memories of living in New York with Killian, who he would believe was his adoptive father. Regina had decided to send Killian and Henry over the town line to stay in New York until she found something. She told Killian that she would update him daily about whatever she found that might help Emma, and that she would tell him when she was close enough to finding a solution for he and Henry to return. It killed Regina to send her son away again, but she knew that he was getting worse each day that he was in Storybrooke. She also knew that she couldn't go with him. With Rumple in a coma, she was the only one who knew enough about the Dark One and magic to be able to find a way to save Emma. She also knew that she owed it to Emma to save her. So, in the middle of the night, with Henry asleep in the passenger seat of the yellow bug, Killian at the wheel, Regina watched her son leave with no memory of her for the second time. She hadn't slept since that moment. Going home and seeing his room empty was not something that she could handle. Instead, she'd stayed in her vault, pretending that perhaps her books had rewritten themselves and now contained the answers she needed. Of course, they didn't. In her frustration, she'd gone to the town hall and thrown at fireball at the suggestion board. She'd destroyed most of the board, not that it mattered, since all but Killian's idea had been crossed off. There was no point in keeping a record of how many times they'd failed to save Emma. She then retired to her office for the remainder of the night to look through the books she kept there for a second time, as well.

Regina had left her office just as the sun was peeking over the trees. She was tired and needed to rest. She also knew that Robin was probably worried about her, since she hadn't spoken to him since she told him Henry would be leaving with Killian. Robin wasn't given an explanation as to why; he didn't ask and Regina wouldn't say. Seeing that Regina was just barely keeping it together as Killian carried Henry down the stairs, Robin knew that this was not the time to ask for an explanation. He'd given her shoulder a tight squeeze and told her that he'd be there when she got back.

As she crossed the lawn in front of the building to get to her car, Regina looked over her shoulder to see the damage she'd done to the suggestion board in the light of day. That's when she noticed the detail that had prompted her glaring. Sometime after she'd gone into her office, someone had written something on the board. Well, it wasn't really written so much as carved into the charred remains of the board, "under the fire."

Was this some kind of joke? What did that even mean?! Regina was tempted to burn the board to cinders, but something in the back of her mind stopped her. There was something about the message that was nagging at her, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was exactly. That nagging feeling was what had kept Regina on the bench. She was tempted to go home to Robin, to save contemplating this cryptic message until later that day, but she could think of more reasons not to leave than to do so. In addition to not wanting to see Henry's empty room, Regina didn't want to face the guilt of laying next to her true love knowing that Emma was still out there somewhere, being consumed by the darkest magic in existence. Regina pulled the page of she and Robin kissing out of her pocket. It didn't seem fair that she should get to be happy at the expense of not only Emma's happiness, but also Emma's family's happiness. She stared down at the now very familiar illustration, wondering why finding her happiness always seemed to be at the expense of everyone else's. At least this time it wasn't on purpose, she thought to herself. She looked up from the page, wondering if she and Robin really could be happy in the wake of what happened.

"What've you got there?" August came walking over to Regina with two coffees in hand.

"It's…It's a page from the book that Robin found. I thought it meant that my happiness was possible, but I'm starting to think that it's just a cruel joke." August offered one of the coffees to Regina, which she took and then handed him the page.

"Huh," August huffed as he examined the edge of the page. "Did you rip this—"

"Yes, I ripped up the page when Robin left with Zelena after the whole Snow Queen ordeal," Regina cut him off. "That's not important."

August paused for a moment, recognizing that Regina was on edge from all the stress. He'd interacted with Regina enough to understand that she would lash out when she was hurting. If he wasn't careful, he knew he wouldn't be able to get any more information about the page. "Okay…" He paused again as he tried to determine how best to proceed. "Why did you rip it out of the book?" he asked, running his finger over the left edge of the page.

"What do you mean? It was never in a book."

"It clearly was, Madame Mayor." August held up the edge of the page for Regina to see. "See this fraying here? Each page of the storybook is printed on the same sheet of paper as another, then the larger sheet is folded in half, and the pages of the book are all bound together by sewing along the crease." Regina looked at him sceptically, as though she wasn't sure just how the former puppet knew about bookbinding. "I took apart Henry's storybook to add in the Pinocchio story."

"Right," Regina sighed as she remembered that Henry had told her about the Pinocchio story before.

"So, this fraying means that someone ripped this page away from the one it was attached to. Someone took this out the storybook."

"That's not possible. Page 23 is already in Henry's storybook. This page could not—"

"Have come from Henry's storybook," August finished for her.

Regina stopped for a moment, confused about what August was implying. "But we checked every book in the Sorcerer's mansion before Isaac tried to rewrite everyone's stories. All of the books are blank."

"Well," August thought for a moment, "Are we sure there aren't any books hidden somewhere else? From what I can tell, Henry's book doesn't cover the entire history of the Enchanted Forest. There must have been other authors."

"Which means there must be other books," Regina said as she started to think more about what that would mean. "No one has ever seen another storybook before, at least not one that contains writing."

"Really? I would have figured someone around here would have. There are certainly enough magical, seemingly immortal beings around here, I would have thought at least one of them had been alive long enough to have been in more than one book. Although, I guess we didn't ever see the storybook when we were back in the Enchanted Forest" August closed his eyes, leaned back, and took a long sip of his coffee. For a moment, he'd thought that maybe, just maybe, the realization about the page might have been a breakthrough. Without open his eyes, he tried to offer the page back to Regina. When she didn't take it from him, he opened his eyes and looked over at her. She was staring straight ahead looking as though she's just had an epiphany. "What is it? Did you see the storybook back when we were in the Enchanted Forest?"

"No," Regina replied. "But I know a seemingly immortal being who already knew about the author before we asked her." Regina took the page from August and stood up from the bench. "I think I've got someone I need to see."

"Oh yeah?" he grinned. "Who?"

"The Blue Fairy." Regina smiled, partially because she sensed that she was finally making progress, and partially because this seemed like an adequate enough reason to give Blue hell for not having bothered trying to help save Emma in the first place.

• • •

The Apprentice opened his eyes and stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling. Where was he? He'd never been in this place before. How had he gotten here? The last thing he remembered was having tried to put the darkness in the Sorcerer's hat. He sat up, looking around the small room and then out the window. The lawn seemed familiar somehow, but he couldn't recall ever having seen it from this angle.

"I told you to tell me what you know about the books! You're lying to me, I know it!"

The Apprentice could hear someone yelling from the floor below. Slowly, he got up and walked into the hall. He quietly walked to the top of the stairs where he could see the two women arguing.

"I have nothing to say to you, Madame Mayor—"

"Oh cut the crap, Blue. You knew about the author before any of us even considered that he might exist. You knew and you never said anything! And now you're keeping you mouth shut again and avoiding everyone when you might be able to help us save Emma!"

"As I said before, I have nothing to say to you, Madame Mayor." Blue turned away from Regina. "I don't throw in my lot with those who have given into the darkness, and I certainly won't help someone as dark as you Regina. Now that the Dark One is no longer in Storybrooke, you're the darkest one here, and with Emma gone, how long before you slip back into your old ways?" Blue knew that would fire her up. She waited a moment for Regina to explode, but she turned around when she realized that it wasn't happening.

"What do you mean, 'not in Storybrooke'?" Regina said in a calm voice. Although she did not raise her voice, the look in her eyes made her soft tone terrifying.

"I…um…I guess I just figured that…well, because no one has been able to summon her that she must be in another realm." Blue was nervous. She was hiding something, and Regina could see that she was not hiding it well.

"And you didn't think that was worth sharing with the rest of us?" Regina could feel her blood starting to boil.

"I told you, I don't help people who have given into the darkness—"

"Emma didn't give into the darkness, she was consumed by it! She too it into herself to save all of us!"

"I meant you, Madame Mayor. I am not going to help someone like you."

"Someone like me? I came back from the darkness, didn't I?"

"It doesn't work that way—"

"Of course it does! People can change! How do you, with all of your infinite wisdom," she gestured sarcastically, "not get that?!"

"Oh really? Then why are you still using dark magic if you have truly turned away from the darkness?" Blue shot back at her. She assumed that would get Regina to shut her mouth.

"I-I'm not," Regina said, looking confused.

"What?"

"I can use light magic. That's how I overpowered Zelena after the second curse."

"Right, sure. I'll believe it when I see it." Blue started to walk out of the room. As she walked through the doorway she told Regina, "Close the door on your way out, I'm finished talking to you."

"Wait!" Regina pleaded, holding out her hands, but Blue had already walked into her study and closed the door behind her. Regina stood in the entryway for a moment, staring down at her hands. The bright light from the white magic she had summoned illuminated the whole room, as well as the staircase where the Apprentice was still sitting. Regina sighed and closed her hands, making the light disappear. She was tired, and this was getting her nowhere. She turned and left the convent, feeling the full weight of her guilt over Emma's fate even more so, now that realized she had actually not gotten any closer to helping Emma.

A few minutes after Regina left, the Blue Fairy came back to the entryway and locked the front door. She did not want the former Evil Queen coming back to bother her.

"She used light magic, you know," the Apprentice said from his place on the stairs. "Just as you turned your back on her, she was actually showing you that she'd changed." He waited a moment for what he had said to sink in before continuing, "You know that only pure intentions can fuel that kind of magic."

Blue stared at the Apprentice, saying nothing in response.

"You can fool all of them," he said with a smirk, "but you can't fool me. You're afraid of something. Something has changed and you're not quite sure what to do, are you?" He chuckled to himself, knowing that he was right and that there was nothing she could do to stop what had been put into motion.

• • •

Regina closed the door quietly behind her as she entered her home. It was still very early and she was sure that Robin and Roland were still asleep; at least she was certain of that until she saw Robin waiting for her in the kitchen. He was seated at the island reading a book. She slumped into the seat next to him, not sure how to feel about anything that had happened in the last twelve hours. Robin waited for Regina to speak or act; he wasn't sure what she was feeling, and he knew that comforting her would only be helpful if that was what she wanted.

"How did we get here, Robin?" Regina said with a defeated tone as she rested her head on Robin's shoulder. He turned, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her onto his lap. She curled into him, burying her face in chest and holding onto the back of his shoulders. Finally, after hours of holding herself together, Regina allowed herself to fall apart in Robin's arms.

Robin held Regina as she cried. She didn't want to talk and he didn't push her, so they stayed that way until Regina gave into sleep. He carried Regina to their bedroom where he continued to hold her as he slowly moved them both beneath the blankets. Robin stayed with her as she slept, watching as the stress of the day that she wore on her face was replaced with the peace of sleep.

Regina had counted her experiences that day as yet another collection of setbacks. She saw the encounter with Blue as less than helpful, but the Apprentice saw things differently. He knew Regina was getting close.