Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time, Storybrooke and any recognizable characters are property of ABC Studios and the Walt Disney Co. No copyright infringement intended.

A/N: I am so terribly sorry for the lack of an update last week! I was not in the best of moods and couldn't bring myself to reread all I'd written and get it ready to post, and since I really care about this story, I didn't want to do it half-heartedly, or rush into things. And then, this morning when I went to take a look into the story and make the cut for this chapter, I realized I needed an extra scene, so I got to writing it and finished it just now. It's the whole last one, so I hope it was good. I would like to give a shout out to one of my top reviewers, Draven260, for encouraging me to write more and better, and for being so patient even after I'd promised weekly updates! Thanks for understanding! And also, as always, I need to thank my beta, who puts up with me even when I'm in the worst of moods!

Chapter 5 - The Wicked Witch

Regina had grown accustomed to the sound of Emma's footsteps walking towards her cell almost every day now. More than that, she had grown fond of them, the sound announcing a promise of – and she never thought she'd say that in a million years – good conversation and a not entirely unpleasant company, either.

That was why she was a bit startled when she heard the sound of not only one, but two sets of footsteps going her way. What was even stranger was the identity of the second person.

"Snow," she acknowledged the other brunette, whose hair had already grown during their time back there. Not too much, but enough to remind Regina of the woman's true identity.

"Regina," she answered, politely, and then seemed unsure of what else to do.

Emma just stood in the back, looking between the two as if supervising the visit.

"I trust that everything is well? And everyone is ok?" Regina's tone was uncertain, and, when she looked at Emma, the blonde immediately noticed her apprehension.

"He's great," the blonde smiled, speaking about the only person she knew Regina cared about in that place.

"And you?" for a moment, the older woman ignored the other's presence, focusing only on Emma and relaxing once she got a confirmation with a slight nod.

The concern did not go unnoticed by Snow. She knew Regina better than the woman gave her credit for, which was how she could tell the concern was genuine. It puzzled her. She knew Emma had been going down there to see the former Mayor, and that it was happening more often each week. She could see how much calmer her daughter always was when she returned from the dungeons. For the past days, though, the blonde had become restless, and it only took a few questions until she understood why.

"No one's going to hurt you. You know that, right?" the words came out too quickly, almost rehearsed, not because they seemed fake, but because Snow seemed that nervous about speaking to her.

A look of comprehension flashed through Regina's features, and she nodded, her stance as regal as ever despite the fact that she was a prisoner, "I do."

"Good," Snow started walking around in front of the bars, "Good," she repeated, "because I don't want you to think this is some kind of revenge, it's not. We're just…"

"Just making sure everyone else can get their happily ever after," the older brunette spat, not making any effort to hide the anger in her voice.

"We gave you so many chances, Regina," Snow whispered, shaking her head slightly, "I believed in you, and you proved me wrong so many times."

"Oh, poor little Snow, always hoping for the best, always wanting to believe everyone is as fair and good as she is," she mocked, and, suddenly tired of their games, went back to her bed, where she lied down, facing the ceiling, "You took it away from me," the words held the same venom as before, "You took my one chance at a happy ending, and there is nothing you can do to change this."

Emma watched the scene before her with interest. It was the first time she was seeing the women truly interacting, as their true selves, talking about their past, and, even though it was unsettling, it also made a lot of things clearer to her. It made it easier to see where both of them were coming from, with their distrust of one another. It made it simpler to understand Snow's reasons for keeping her there, and Regina's reasons for wanting anything but to be around her.

"Emma believes in you, too."

Shit! At the sound of her name, the blonde suddenly became more aware, half expecting Regina to lunge herself at them, to yell at them to go away.

Still not moving from her position in bed, Regina spoke again, her tone completely neutral now, devoid of the hatred it once held, "Emma is different."

"Yes," Regina missed the small smile on the woman's lips as she said the words, and started to walk away after looking at her daughter with a nod, "Yes, I suppose she is."

"That went well," Emma approached the cell in a lazy motion, moving her fingers through the bars as she walked from one side to another. "So, I'm different, huh?" she couldn't help grinning when she heard a grunt from the other woman.

"Oh, do shut up! I only meant that you at least don't expect me to go around this castle singing happy songs and loving everyone like your mother does."

"There's an interesting image," she finally sat by the cell, facing the bed and distracting herself by making drawings on the dirty floor until Regina finally moved to get up and sit at the end of the bed closest to Emma.

"You're not like her," she explained further, even without being asked to, her voice slowly going back to the more relaxed, softer tone Emma had become used to, "You know some people are too broken to be able to heal completely, to be able to be happy and good all the time."

Emma shrugged, trying to hide how much the words had affected her, "Most people are. And if that was enough reason to keep them locked up, I would be right in there with you."

"You've never killed anyone."

"That doesn't mean I've never hurt anyone. That I've never done anything to harm anyone. Or that I talk to the freaking birds every morning."

Regina chuckled at that last part. It felt good to be able to do that. "She still does that, then."

"Oh yeah."

Their eyes met, and they smiled.

After a moment of silence, Emma bit her lips, "If I kill the next person who calls me a princess," she seemed deep in thought, focusing again on the abstract patterns she had been drawing on the floor, "Do you think they'll lock me up here, too?"

"What happened to the gardens and the sunlight, princess?" Regina asked, her tone now carefree and holding a smile.

"Be careful, your majesty, I am not as good and kind as my mother, remember?" she smirked, "Plus, it's not fair, it would be no fun being here without the company, so you know I wouldn't kill you."

"I am honoured," Regina rolled her eyes, "Now if your highness would be so kind as to get us some breakfast. I think my stomach has already recovered from Snow White's visit."

Taking a bow and earning a smile for it, Emma walked away with the promise of fresh coffee and pastries when she returned.

"I saw some of the fairies doing magic today," Emma started tentatively, after bringing their breakfast, "just now, really."

"And why would I be interested in what those sparkling little insects do, exactly?" Regina sneered.

Emma's shoulders shook in a small shrug. "It's not them. It's just that, it was different than what I was used to, that's all."

"Me and Rumple?" the brunette asked, but there was hardly a reason for such. She understood what Emma meant. The blonde had seen plenty of magic since the curse broke, but it was mostly Regina's revengeful, or Rumplestiltskin's fearful one. Most of the time, it was one against the other. "Yes, I suppose light magic can be quite different. But now that Rumple is not here and I am stuck in this cell, I am sure it is the only kind of magic you will witness, so you'll get used to it soon enough." When all she got was a mumbled 'yes, I suppose' from the younger woman, Regina's eyes focused on her expression. "Why does that worry you?"

Emma walked around, silently kicking the dirt from the floor and not entirely sure of what to say. "They were casting defensive spells. But it's hard to give them any credit when there's glitter coming out of their wands all the time. I don't know, I guess I'm just afraid they're not powerful enough to protect us, and protect themselves, if anything happens."

"They are," Regina assured her, "I don't know, I don't really understand how things work for them, but it seems to me that they just choose not to tap into all their magic. Blue, especially, is one of the most powerful magical beings there is. The main difference between us is that they protect nature, and that means, mostly, protecting the balance of things. They can do a lot of things, but sometimes they won't, because they know it would cross a line. When dark magic is involved," she gave a heavy sigh, "most of the time we don't really care about these things. About the consequences."

"And that makes you more powerful?"

"No," she assured Emma, "at most, it makes us more dangerous. But also careless sometimes."

"How do you even know all of that? I thought you didn't know anything about light magic."

Regina took some time to consider the question, pondering whether not she was willing to share, and how much. "I never wanted to do any magic," she started with an admission that truly surprised Emma. "I always hated it, I hated the way my mother used it to control me, to take away my freedom. I just wanted to stay as far away from it as I could."

"I assumed your mother was the one who taught you," Emma spoke quietly, choosing to lean on the bars, close to where Regina's bed was.

The brunette looked up at her, from her seated position, a sad expression on her face as she shook her head. "My mother showed me what magic could do, because she used it all the time, it was like she could not go without it. One day before my wedding to the king, I was desperate. I had lost Daniel not long ago, and suddenly my thoughts were… there was so much anger, and I felt it, all the time. I had these visions in which I hurt Snow, and it terrified me. Don't get me wrong, I was indeed angry at her, but she was a little girl, I wouldn't be able to hurt her like that. But I wanted to, and it was as if my mother's magic was feeding on that anger, and turning it into something much darker. She was poisoning my thoughts, and I needed to stay away from her. That was when my father told me about the book my mother kept, the one she had gotten from her teacher."

"Rumplestiltskin?" the voice was so quiet that Regina barely heard it, but she nodded anyway. Her eyes met Emma's, and she was taken aback by the woman's expression. There was sadness and sorrow there, sadness for her. She did not see any pity, though, no. It was more like understanding. The first time someone truly seemed to care enough to hear her side of things, and the blonde was hanging on every word.

So she talked. She explained about the book, and how she had come to meet Rumple, how she begged for him to help her, and how she ended up sending her mother to Wonderland. She talked about wanting to be free, but falling into Rumple's promises of great power, because she believed she could use magic to bring Daniel back.

"It turns out, there are things not even magic can do," she whispered, and Emma noticed how hard she was fighting to keep herself together. "When he said that, I figured there had to be a way, so I looked into some books, and I tried to learn by myself, looking into other kinds of magic. One of our first lessons was on how to take someone's heart out, so I knew. I knew how dark and twisted his magic was, so I figured maybe he only knew how to hurt. But it didn't matter if it was light or dark, there didn't seem to be a way. Until I met Jefferson, and he told me about this… this kind of wizard from another world, who did something other than magic. Something he claimed was even more powerful."

"A wizard? Another world? As in Oz?" Regina actually found it in herself to smile at the way Emma's eyes sparkled and she was once again in wonder of this new world she had discovered quite a while ago, but that never ceased to impress her.

"No dear, this was someone else," much like when she mentioned Harry Potter, the younger woman's smile turned into a frown, "But Oz is real. So is the so-called wizard, who is nothing more than a Neanderthal, if you ask me, and the witches. Although their story, much like the ones from our world, have been… adjusted a little bit."

Emma beamed at the new piece of information, making a mental note to ask about that again at a more appropriate time. She was also glad to notice Regina's smile grow when she noticed how happy her words had made Emma.

"So," the blonde was hesitant to go back to their current topic of conversation, but, at the same time, she found she wanted to know everything she could from Regina's past. It was incredible, how the entire story of her life had been reduced to a few sentences, a side note on Snow White's book. Or even to a single title: the Evil Queen. It still did not make any of it right: the curse, the people Regina had hurt and killed, the plots. But, in a moment of weakness, Emma had to wonder if she wouldn't have done the exact same thing, made the same choices as the woman in front of her. She was sure her mother wouldn't. But she was nothing like her mother when it came to that. In fact, the more she heard the story, the more she was finding she could relate to Regina and what had driven her to make the choices she had. "Who was this guy?"

"Dr. Frankenstein."

"Frankenstein, are you kidding me right now? As in the guy who made the zombie thing out of his brother? That's the guy they got to help you?"

"Like I said, I was desperate. But anyway, it did not work," she lowered her head, and suddenly it was like she was back to that moment. The hope she felt, that she would be able to hear Daniel's voice again, to see him smile, to be with him, only to have it crushed when the doctor left the tent and informed her that the experiment had not worked. And, just like that, on that moment it felt as if she had lost him all over again. "After that, nothing mattered anymore. The hope of having Daniel back was the only thing keeping me from giving into that rage inside of me, and when it was gone, so was I. I went back to Rumple, I took a heart without flinching, I crushed it, and I never stopped. I couldn't stop."

"Until Henry came," Emma whispered, almost afraid to break the silence that had suddenly fallen upon them. She knew Regina had never spoken about any of this to anyone before, probably because no one ever bothered to ask. She knew how hard it was, just by looking at the other woman, and she hoped the mention of their son would somehow make it easier.

"No, dear," Regina took a deep breath, closing her eyes and keeping them that way as she went on, "I loved Henry from the moment I first held him. I would never do anything to hurt him in any way, but I was still the same. Even when he asked me to stop, it was so natural to me, to do certain things, that I had to keep reminding myself that I couldn't do it, that I had to be good, for him. In a lot of ways, that is still who I am. I cannot look at Snow without blaming her, I cannot look at David without wanting to punch him in the nose," she finally opened her eyes and faced the woman again, "I am not proud of this anymore, but I can still reach out and take someone's heart without regret."

"But you won't," Emma smiled. "You said it yourself, you refused to escape this place because you would have to hurt people – people you don't even know, by the way. Don't you see it, Regina? You are thinking of the consequences, and there are lines you are not willing to cross anymore. Lately, your magic seems closer to the fairies' light than to Rumple's darkness."

"Emma, you heard my side of things, and I am grateful for that. You seem to understand in a way few people would," her voice was sweet, but it soon changed, "but if you compare me to a fairy ever again, I will be forced to turn you into a bug and step on you the first chance I have."

The blonde laughed, and it did not take long until a smile graced the other woman's lips as well. "Really? You would prefer to be called a wicked witch than a fairy?"

"As I already told you, Miss Swan, the witches of Oz have a much more complicated story than you might want to believe. But between Elphaba and Nova, yes, I would gladly be known as the wicked witch rather than those flying pests."

"Fair enough," the air seemed much lighter now, and they were both thankful for it. "For what it's worth," Emma sat down and, now much closer to the woman, looked right into her eyes and gave her a reassuring smile, "To me, you're still just Regina."

"Good," brown eyes never broke contact with green ones, "That's all I ever wanted to be."