Chapter Sixty-Eight: Past Sins, Future Hopes

London – 19th Century

Baelfire's first night in the Paternoster household was restless. He succeeded in drifting off to sleep shortly after he climbed into bed in the upstairs guestroom, but the nightmares that plagued his mind kept him from sleeping soundly. There were visions of himself with his father; he helplessly watched him terrorize villagers with his wicked magic, turning some into snails that he crushed under his boot and setting others on fire – things that he actually witnessed his father do in his reign as "The Dark One." In his slumber, Baelfire realized that these were not just visions, but memories seeping into dreams. The last one he saw was of him holding onto his father's hand as he dangled over the very portal that he hoped his father would agree to jump along with him in – his father cowardly refusing to uphold to their deal and letting Baelfire fall, separating them forever.

Baelfire woke up with a loud scream; he had been sweating profusely – some of the sweat drenched on his pillow. He was certain that he woke Vastra, Jenny, or Strax from his screaming and expected one or all of them to come storming into the room in concern. But none of them came. He dismissed their lack of attention to his screaming as simply being sound sleepers, yet something prompted him to get out of bed and check on them. Stepping out of the guestroom, he saw that the lights downstairs were still on, which discredited his belief that Vastra, Jenny, and Strax were asleep when they were in fact still awake. Why are they still awake this late? He wondered while stepping out of the guestroom in a pair of pajamas and a robe loaned to him.

He headed downstairs and checked every room from the kitchen to the greenhouse. In his search for the three, Baelfire realized how huge the house was. After checking most of the rooms and finding no sight of Vastra, Jenny, or Strax, he realized there was one particular room that he had yet to check. They've got to be in this one, Baelfire confidently deduced. He opened the doors to a room that had a welcoming feel to it, complete with a library of books and a fireplace amongst other things. However, there was an unwelcoming sight that greeted Baelfire as he entered: four extremely pale beings standing over the inert form of Jenny. The beings, upon hearing him enter the room, turned in his direction and hissed at him with their blackened mouths and sharp teeth. Their presence in the house, as well as how they had stood over Jenny's presumably dead body, alarmed Baelfire.

Vastra and Strax, who had been unconscious themselves at a table where the creatures and Jenny were near, suddenly awakened with gasps. Vastra was the first to notice the pale creatures in the room and yelled, "Who are you?" She spotted Jenny's body on the floor and expressed an angry, vicious side that Baelfire had not seen until then. "What've you done to her?"

The pale beings turned away from Baelfire and focused on Vastra and Strax, hissing at them. Seeing how they had ignored Baelfire, Strax shouted to him, "Run, child! Get away from here!"

"I'm not leaving you!" Baelfire cried, feeling helpless as he watched the creatures advance on the only people who bothered to care for him in this new world he was now a part of.

"Strax's correct, Bae." Vastra attested. "There's nothing more you can do for us here. Go! Go now before it's too late!"

Tears fell from Baelfire's eyes while he forced his feet to move along with the rest of his body out of the room. He rushed out of the Paternoster household and into the empty street, the last thing he heard being Vastra and Strax shouting as they bravely confronted their attackers. He stopped to take one last look at the house, which he would never be able to step foot in again after that night. He had only hoped it was not too late to save his temporary caretakers. He shouted for help as loud as he could to anyone who would listen. Unfortunately, no one did.

Baelfire was once again alone.

Storybrooke – Present Day

Regina had the worst headache ever. Thankfully, it was not as bad as the ones she had been having for quite some time, thanks to all of the Doctor's memories contained within her mind. Although details were vague, what she last remembered before blacking out was Greg Mendell's crazed face after she told him that his father, who he came back to Storybrooke for, was dead by her hand. It was something she regretted deeply. She still remembered Greg as the little boy who came to town twenty-seven years ago as Owen Flynn – his weeping face the last thing she saw before he left with the Doctor (or another incarnation of the Time Lord). After raising Henry for eleven years, she had forgotten all about him, but the guilt of what she had done was still there, even though she did not make it obvious for Greg to know. He was already driven insane from what she had done to him, and she nearly paid for it with her life.

Evil isn't born…it's made.

She now found herself staring at the face of the Doctor she knew as of late. He looked upon her with concern while placing a cold compress against her forehead. "You," she said in a groggily voice. "I knew you'd be the one to save me. It's in your nature."

"Actually, it was David and Mary Margaret who saved you."

This surprised her. "What? Why?"

"They're your family. Whether you like it or not."

Regina sighed, slight confusion taking over. "They wanted to keep me in a cage when we all got back to our world."

"I know."

"So what kind of 'family' does that to each other?"

The Doctor was fed up with her ungrateful tone. "They could've let you die, you know. But they didn't. And you want to know why?"

"You persuaded them to do the right thing?"

"No. Because of Henry." He saw how the mentioning of her adopted son's name silenced and even calmed her. "I know it was him you were thinking about when Greg Mendell had tortured you – I felt it…I felt everything you did. You were scared and helpless. You were certain you wouldn't survive what they had done to you, and that terrified you. You would've told them to stop, but you wanted to let it happen because…"

"Because I knew the things I've done wouldn't bring me any closer to Henry." She began to weep as she admitted this. "I saw the look on his face when I told him that I was going to destroy Storybrooke and take him and me back to the Enchanted Forest alone. He saw me as a monster – the same way I saw my mother. I knew from then there would be no way for me to have him again."

The Doctor looked upon the woman who made herself to be such a terror in the eyes of the people of Storybrooke, seeing her as she really was – a scared human being. He gave her a moment longer to pour herself out through her tears before he said, "Greg and Tamara have the trigger and the magic beans, Regina. They're going to use them to destroy Storybrooke."

"By the time we get to them, they'll have already destroyed everything."

"We cannot afford to think like that. If you want Henry to see you more as the mother you want to be to him, then you must do what needs to be done and stop Greg and Tamara from carrying out your plan."

Regina looked in his eyes and saw the determination in them to do what was right; it resonated back over to her and, for the first time since she had known him, Regina wholeheartedly agreed with the Doctor. "Then what the hell are we waiting for," she asked to his delight.

"Clara!" The Doctor jubilantly exclaimed as he reemerged in the console room with Regina. "We've got a lot of work to do! We need to…" His euphoric demeanor was quickly shattered just as he and Regina spotted Clara lying on the floor of the console platform. "Clara!" They rushed to her and the Doctor scanned her vitals with the sonic screwdriver.

As he did so, Regina asked, "Is she dead?"

"No," the Doctor confirmed. "She's very much alive, only…"

Regina noticed him pausing as he stared back and forth between Clara and his Gallifreyan tool. "Only what?"

"She's in a trance state."

"Trance? You mean like she's hypnotized?"

"Something like that, yes."

While crouched beside both Clara and the Doctor, Regina spotted an opened letter on the floor that was addressed to the Doctor's companion. "What's this?" She asked.

She reached for the letter, but the Doctor – taking notice of her action – yelled, "STOP!" He then scanned the letter with the sonic screwdriver and checked its readings. "Just as I thought – she's been induced with a sulfuric that enters her in a trance state across time. Vastra had to have given her this."

"How did you come to that conclusion?" Regina queried.

"Because I told her to do something like this in the event of an emergency." The Doctor verified. "The Intelligence must be getting closer to them."

As he had that revelation, a sudden quake came over the TARDIS, reverberating from outside. Regina knew immediately where the source of the quake had come from and grew heavily tense. "The diamond's been activated. We don't have much time."

There was a brief gasp between them as Clara awakened from her trance. Seeing her conscious again, the concerned Doctor asked, "Clara, are you alright?"

Clara smiled as she looked at him. "I know where it is! I know where Trenzalore is! River Song helped us to find them!"

"Us?" The Doctor recounted that one important word from her exclamation.

"Your friends – Vastra, Jenny, and Strax – were there," said Clara, before she somberly added, "I think someone's murdered Jenny. We lost connected with her before those pale-faced creatures and that Simeon fellow showed up."

Hearing this, it became more evident that the Doctor's presence in Trenzalore was desperately needed, yet it was also required in Storybrooke with the town's destruction now imminent. The Time Lord was at a serious crossroads, and Regina knew this from the indecisive look clear on his face.

"Go," she said.

He had barely caught what she had told him. "What?"

"It's obvious you're needed elsewhere, while I'm needed here." Regina boldly stated. "I know exactly what needs to be." She stood upright and headed for the door.

Watching her leave, the Doctor graciously smiled. "Regina," he called, prompting her to turn back to him as she was exiting. "You're stronger than you know – stronger than I could ever care to be."

His words had a profound influence over her as she harkened back to a moment in her past when she was not certain if that was true. Now, hearing it from him, she knew it had to be. She exited the TARDIS and headed in the direction of Mary Margaret's apartment, where she would find Mary Margaret herself, David, Emma, and even Henry to warn them of what Greg and Tamara had done. She heard the blue police box dematerialize behind her and looked to see the Doctor and his companion depart from Storybrooke, in route to Trenzalore. She sighed uncomfortably, knowing that the actions that she was about to partake in could possibly be the last ones she would ever do for the sake of Henry.