Chapter 30

Rumple tramped to through the woods. He was tired and dirty. He wasn't ready to give up and he knew that the fairies would have what he needed. He wouldn't ask. He would take. They had to have the Dragon's Blood. They would know where to find some if they didn't. He was tired and he wasn't going to play this time. No, this time he was going to take everything that he wanted. He didn't care what it cost him.

He felt the ripples of magic around him, but he didn't care. Nothing would stop him from his mission. He had to find his way back. He would get his happy ending.

He continued to stomp through the forest. He was nearing the abbey and he knew it. He could feel the fairies magic getting stronger and stronger. He didn't stop. He couldn't.

Finally, something made him stop. He hit the barrier that Emma and Regina had erected. He couldn't let it stop him. He got up from the dirty forest floor. He ran his hands over the barrier and laughed. His fingers tingled but it didn't stop his resolve to get inside.

"Really, Regina…" he said touching the barrier again.

He ran his fingers over the spell. He tried to punch through the barrier. A shock ran up his arm, but it still didn't dissuade him. He took a step back and glided his fingers over the barrier, again.

"Smart girl…I've taught you well, but not well enough," he stated.

He took another step back and raised his hand. He conjured a fireball, dark and foreboding. It wasn't red. No, it was black as night and its center was green. His eyes flashed and he let it loose on the barrier. It sizzled and faded.

"Well, that was interesting," he told himself.

He looked around and found a small branch. He threw it at the barrier and watched as it passed right through with no trouble. He smiled.

"You're just trying to keep me out. That won't stop me. I'll find another way in. I always do, Dearie. You won't be able to hide behind that spell forever. I'll get what I want. I can be patient when I need to be."

He thought about the town. No one had seen the band of heroes in a day or so. He knew that this meant they were all hold up in the abbey waiting on him. But, they forgot to tell Snow and Charming where they were. Or, did they? He would "barrow" Charming and find his way in. After all, Charming was very protective of his family.

"You should tell her, Belle," Red told her pacing in their bedroom.

"Tell her what?"

"Tell her the truth. She deserves to know that she has magic. She could possibly more powerful than Emma and Regina combined. She is their daughter. It is her destiny."

"We don't know what her destiny is," Belle replied.

"She is to be queen."

"How can she be queen when she doesn't have a kingdom?"

"We get it back for her," Red answered simply.

"How? By dying? We've tried. There is no recourse. The Black Queen scours the forest for her. If she find Remy, who knows what she'll do to her. We can't lose her, Red. I won't let it happen," Belle told her.

"I don't want to lose her either, Belle, but she is an adult. We can't keep her here forever. She'll eventually susses out why she is wearing that cuff. It only dampens her power. That right there should be enough for you, Belle. What else do you need to tell her?" Red asked.

"The cuff should completely block it, but it doesn't. That frightens me, Red. Doesn't it frighten you? She destroyed a host of the Blackness as it almost overtook us in the caverns. Have you forgotten the day we fled to get here? I haven't. She has power. Too much."

"She scares you?"

"The more important question is why doesn't she scare you?" Belle asked her.

"Because we've raised her. I know what she is capable of and so does she. We've taught her to be strong. We've given her home. We've protected her from the dangers that we could. We can't keep her here forever, Belle. She has a right to know. And, I think that we've kept it from her long enough, Belle. She is a fighter and a protector like Emma. She is also a romantic and a sorceress like Regina. If we try to stifle that, what good are we doing? We promised Regina that we would care for her. How is this protecting her, Belle? Tell me how?" Red demanded.

Belled looked down at the table she was sitting at and then up at Red. She could see the old familiar fire in Red's eyes. She knew that this day would come. She knew that they would fight about it. There was no way around it. Red was a fighter. Belle was passive.

"I can't let her go."

"No one is telling you to let her go, Belle."

"She'll leave when she knows the truth."

"She'll leave if we don't tell her," Red tried to reason.

"She's our daughter now, Red. We have to protect her from the Blackness. How can we do that if we unleash her magic?" Belle asked.

"How can we stifle something that is a part of her?"

Belle turned up gaze upwards to her. Her blue eyes were full of tears. But, there was something more in them as Red's hazel eyes met hers. There was something that Red had only seen once before…a very long time ago in another world.

"You're afraid that she'll go dark?" Red asked taking a step back from her.

"Yes…" Belle whispered.

Red didn't remember sitting down until her back hit the wooden chair. It all suddenly made perfect sense. Belle had all but allowed magic in the castle. She had quickly diminished those that she would allow around Remy as her magic became more apparent to those around them. The cuff hadn't been a safe guard; it was a solution.

"You're afraid of her? You think that she'll willing go off and join the Blackness, don't you? You think that she will be corrupted by magic?"

"Regina was."

"But, Henry and Emma brought her back. Hell, Remy is proof of that. She fought that darkness and found her true love, her happy ending and the light she so desperately deserved. She got all of the because of Emma. Emma's light side is in her, too, Belle."

"I know that."

"Then why?"

"Because that wasn't enough for Rumple…"

And, there it was. The catalyst for her fears. She was worried that Remy would seek out revenge for what happened to her family, that her quest to save them would corrupt her magic into something dark and unholy.

Red stood up. She walked over the fireplace in the lavish room that they shared. It was too much for the wolf. It was too much for her to bear or hear. She turned to Belle and even from across the room she could see the tears in her ocean blue eyes. It broke Red's heart, but there was nothing she could do. Rumple had seen to that. Once again he was destroying them, even though he had been dead for over fifteen years.

"He caused this…" Belle tried to start.

"And, Regina and Emma finished it with her. She is to be our salvation. She is the Survivor. She is the Princess. She is a Swan. And, to think over wise… is… is…" Red started before her anger made her begin to stutter.

She picked up a horn cup and threw it into the fireplace. The shatter of the horn on the rock face was only over shadowed by the quick flame that the alcohol inside the cup caused. The flare of the fire matched the flare in Red's eyes.

"I'll never be good enough for you, will I?" Red asked the fireplace, not willing to see the answer in Belle's eyes.

"Red, I…"

"Don't. Just don't. She's fifteen. She deserves the truth. If you don't give it to her, I will…when I get back. I can't be here right now. I just can't…" Red stated before she fled the room, her eyes flashing yellow.

Belle caught the flash and started crying. She'd done this. She'd caused this. She was the one that pushed Red away. And, now, she was going to lose Remy when Red got back. She knew it. There was nothing she could do. She'd let her fear guide her to this place and now, she was watching her world crumble around her again.

She pushed the book she'd been reading away from her. It slid across the wood table and pages flipped as it went. She grabbed her cup and threw it at the wall just to punctuate her frustration. As she turned back to the table, she saw the book, open, pages waving in the castle draft, mocking her with its contents and knowledge.

She grabbed the small tome and pulled it back to her. She stared at the page in wonder. It couldn't be. This couldn't be the spell that Regina had been working on. No, this was a spell that Rumple had tried and failed at many times. Each time was more disastrous than the last.

"What was it about this spell that you couldn't do, Rumple?" she asked the book as she studied the words on the page harder.

And, then it hit her. Reading the words, she finally understood why he failed like so many others in his quest to use this spell. He was meant to fail.

"Only someone split in two can cause the portal to open…" she read.

She skimmed the rest of the build up and went right for the meat of the spell. She couldn't cast it, but she knew that Remy could. Remy was the broken soul that the spell needed, but it would come with a cost…a cost that Belle wasn't sure that she could pay.

"The soul that is bound by two, must make the choice. Live in darkness or die in love, for such is the fate for wielding the power of time. The trip is one way and permanent. The outcome infinite. One the decision has been made, time will tell the truth of the soul bound by two."

Belle knew what she must do and it pained her greatly. She knew that she would have to help Red prepare her for war. A war that they had promised Regina to spare her from. They couldn't hide her destiny anymore. No, they would have to teach Coraline that she was Remy Mills Swan and that she was the heir to the throne, princess to the Realm, and Queen to a people she lived with as a common refugee. They would have to make Coraline a leader.

There was a slight knock on the door and before she realized she'd said anything, Coraline was beside her. She looked into those dark brown eyes, so much like her mother's and wanted to weep. Coraline was about to become the princess she was meant to be, not the princess that Belle had hoped for in their hiding.

"Coraline, sit down here, next to me," she bade her.

Coraline sat down in the old wood chair beside her. Her brow was furrowed in question as Belle reached over and took her hand. She slowly pushed up the old muslin sleeve of Coraline's shirt and looked down at the black leather cuff. Slowly and methodically, Belle's other hand crossed the expanse between them until she was touching the cuff.

"Aunt Belle?"

"Coraline, there is much that we haven't told you…" she started as her finger secured themselves around the back of the cuff.

"Aunt Belle, what is it?" Coraline asked as she felt her delicate fingers brush the underside of her wrist.

"You are the daughter of Queen Regina and Queen Emma," Belle explained.

"I know that," Coraline replied.

"But, you are their only living heir."

"Okay…"

"You are both a fighter and sorceress," Belle told her, firming her grip on the cuff.

"Belle, we both know I can't do magic. You've been teaching me for years. I can't even light a candle. What are you babbling about?"

"You can't, because we have hindered that side of you," Belle replied.

Coraline gave her a confused look, but she saw the tears and the truth in Belle's eyes. She looked at her hand and the cuff. Then, she realized what Belle was about to do. She was about to unleash a power into the world no one, not even Belle, understood.

Coraline had heard the whispers behind her back. She had seen the looks and stares from the older people in the castle and town when she went out alone. They were afraid of her. She could sense it in Belle, too.

"Don't…"

Belle's head shot up. Her cerulean gaze met the mahogany of the young teenager. There was a war between them, but no words were said.

"Don't do it if you are afraid of me," Coraline told her.

Belle's heart sank. She was the closest thing to a daughter that she had ever had. She was the most powerful being she'd ever known. If there was to be a "Light One," then Coraline would be it. Her whole body trembled in emotion, but she didn't release the cuff.

"I have to," Belle told her, sliding her finger tips under the edge.

Their eyes were locked. The line had been drawn and Belle was going to step over it. She had to free her from all bindings so that she could save the day. It was what she was meant to do. She was meant to save them all and restore the throne of the Enchanted Forest back to the House of Swan. She was this generation's savior. She was the Survivor. No matter what life had thrown at her, she always came out on top.

Belle laughed at the thought. She truly was Emma's daughter. Regina would have been proud.

"I can't hide who you are. I can't fight fate. We've kept you here, hidden because we were afraid. Not of the Blackness, but of you and I can't do that anymore," Belle told her.

Her fingers worked their way under the cuff some more. The door to the room opened with a bang and a furious Red tore inside. Yellow still flashing her eyes, she stalked across the room towards Belle. It wasn't until she was nigh on Belle that Coraline moved.

It all happened so fast that Belle couldn't see it. Coraline was in front of her, standing between Red and herself, sword drawn. The rage in her eyes only matched the rage in Red's. Yellow met a strange, swirling mix of green and purple.

Red's yellow eyes darted from Coraline's face to her wrist and from her wrist to Belle's hand. In it she saw the black cuff. She slowly tore her eyes from Belle's hand and back to Coraline's eyes. She watched the storm brewing, circling, growing. Red took a step back and blinked. She felt all her rage leave her as she quelled the beast inside. When she opened her eyes to look inside Coraline's again, she knew that the yellow was gone. Red was buried inside and Ruby was standing before them.

"Ruby?" Belle asked.

"Yes?" she replied, still not looking at her.

Belle's hand shot out to Coraline's arm. The simple warmth of her fingers upon her flesh caused Coraline to falter. She took a step backwards and into the table, blinking several times until the room stopped spinning and wasn't blurry anymore.

"What the Hell just happened?" she asked them, staring from hazel to blue and back again.

"I've unleashed your magic," Belle told her.

"What do you mean you've seen it in their eyes?" Regina asked her.

"It was the same look they were both giving me the day that they released me."

"What do you mean they released you? Coraline? What does that mean?" Emma asked.

"The cuff…"

It was all she needed to say. Regina got it. She might have even understood it, but that didn't change the fact that it was her daughter. She had been stifled, held back, imprisoned in a way that someone without magic would never understand.

"Why?" Regina asked breathily.

"I don't know. They wouldn't tell me the truth. All I ever got was it was for my own good. I was your daughter and if too many people found out, I might be turned over to the Blackness. They couldn't let that happen."

"So they cuffed you?" Emma asked.

"They blocked my magic," Coraline stated.

"They cuffed you," Regina said punctuating her statement.

"Why?"

"Is it obvious, Emma? They were afraid of her. She is more powerful than me. She is definitely more refined in the ways of magic than you. She would be a force to be reckoned with. They cuffed you for their protection as well as your own."

"How can you say that?"

"Because it would be something that I would have done, if I didn't have magic," Regina said.

"Why?" Emma asked, trying to hide her anger.

"Because I wouldn't be able to teach her how to control it properly," Regina added. "I am not saying that excuses it. Far from it. I am just saying that I understand why the Bookworm did it."

"Ruby didn't help her?" Emma questioned.

"No, she would have looked for other avenues, like her cloak."

"That still doesn't tell us what happened that day," Emma stated.

"No, but I know something that might help us."

"What?" Coraline asked.

"This," Regina told them as she held out her hand.

The dream catcher from New York, the same one that had hung in Neal's window, appeared in her hand. She studied it for a few seconds before she heard the collective sighs of Emma and Coraline. She felt Emma get closer to her. She saw her hand moving towards the dream catcher before Emma realized was she was doing or that she was talking.

"What are you going to do? Try to pull the future from Belle and Ruby? I don't think that it works that way. What is that thing going to do for us?" Emma questioned.

"It is going to show us Coraline's past," Regina explained.

Emma's eyes went wide. Why hadn't they thought of this before, she wondered. Then she looked at Coraline expectantly. She had no idea what Regina was about to do and suddenly she was frightened of finding out the truth. What day would Regina pull? Would they see their own deaths through their daughter's eyes?

"Regina, wait!" Emma shouted and grabbed her hand before the dream catcher could touch Coraline's head, much less pull her memories.

"Emma, why did you stop me?"

"Remember the Butterfly Effect?"

"Now, you want to talk about movies?" Regina quipped.

"Yes, because this would be the perfect time to do it."

"We don't have time anymore, remember?" Regina hissed.

"Then we make time. Coraline, go sit over there…in that chair for a minute, will ya? Thanks, Kiddo. We have to be rational about this."

"Oh, yes, we do, because Rumple is being so rational right now."

Regina just gave her a look. They didn't have time for the pettiness and sarcasm. They needed to know what Coraline knew. They needed to know about the portal that she had created, because somehow Regina knew that it was the answer to all of their questions. Coraline was the key, but they still didn't know anything about the lock.

"Um…Moms, what is that going to do?" she asked them, the fear evident in her voice.

"It isn't going to hurt you, Coraline. Like the legends in this realm, the dream catcher holds onto the bad dreams and lets the good dreams through its webbing. But unlike this realm, a dream catcher can be used to look at memories, no matter how deeply buried and repressed."

"You want to use that on me?" she asked them.

This time it wasn't fear in her voice but Regina couldn't quite put a name to it. It wasn't shame because she had nothing to be ashamed of doing. It wasn't love, because she was obviously hiding more than she was letting on. It was darker, more feral, more carnal in nature. There was the obviousness of fear but it was laced with something that Regina knew all too well: regret.

In that moment, she studied her daughter. The vein in her forehead popped out as she sat down in a chair that just appeared beneath her. Regina's eyes swirled with a thousand emotions as she looked into her daughter's matching brown. There was a complete conversation between them in seconds, non-verbalized and non-magical.

Emma watched them. There was nothing else to do. She didn't know what else to say.

"I don't want to use it on you, Coraline. I need to use on you. This can help us see what happened. It can help us pull memories for you that you don't know you have."

"What if they are true?" Coraline wondered aloud.

"Nothing this shows can be false. It can only show us what you've seen and what you know. It will play your memories like a movie. Everything will be from your perspective. It will be your truth and no one else's. It cannot show a lie because it has no consciousness to do so," Regina told her.

"Not making this any easier," Coraline replied.

"I would should you my memories of you but they would all be of you as an adult," Regina said.

"I know."

"What can I do to make you understand? What can I show you to make you believe me? What do you need from me?" Regina asked her.

"Show me something that you haven't shared with anyone else," Coraline stated.

It was a dare and a test. She knew that Coraline had read her diaries and journals, but she wondered if she knew the magnitude of what she asked. There were so many things that Regina could show her, but she knew the one memory that Coraline would know, possibly, that no one else would. It was a test and one that she would have to pass in order to fully gain her own daughter's trust.

She dug deep into the recesses of her mind and found the one memory that she'd never shared with anyone. Her eyes were dark and fiery with emotion as she ran the dream catcher over her own head. She placed it out in front of herself and held her breath. Coraline reached out and covered her hands with her own. Their eyes met and they willed the memory to appear.

The dream catcher swirled. The magic was working and Coraline could feel it. She had an idea which memory Regina would pull. It wasn't so much a test but a confirmation. She needed to know because she knew how to fix it. Coraline was so many things to Regina. She was more than just a happy ending and proof that she's found her True Love. Coraline was her daughter.

"Are you happy now, Mother?" Regina asked setting the now empty cup on the table.

"You are such a foolish girl. You always have been and you always will be. I was wrong. At least I can admit that. But, you…you will never learn from your own mistakes or mine."

"You see that is where you are wrong, Mother. I have learned from your mistakes. I am your mistake. And, that is a mistake that I will never make. I will never have a child. I will not let your legacy continue. Your hatred…your line ends with me. There will be no one else for you to corrupt. Your power dies with me," Regina practically spat at her.

"You wound me, Regina. Everything that I have done has been for you. I made you queen. I gave you a child to raise. You could have been happy. You could have had many children to feel whatever void is in your sickened heart of love. But, you've thrown it all away. For what? A stable boy who is dead? You've cursed yourself, Regina. You've done this all to yourself."

"Go back to Wonderland, Mother. You're not wanted here. Remember: Love is weakness. And, you, Mother, will always be part of my weakness. I am the Queen now. I cannot be weak. Good-bye, Mother," Regina told her walking away.

Coraline stared over the dream catcher at her mother. The tears were in both of their eyes. She'd read about that day, but she never imagined that she would feel the venom coming from her mother or see it aimed at her namesake. She shuttered and shook her head trying to clear the thoughts from her head. She knew that the power of the dream catcher was real, but she wondered what Regina would pull from her own head.

"Mom, I …"

"Don't worry about it, Darling."

"You cursed yourself?" Emma asked as she walked back across the room to join them.

She'd been next to the concrete block wall as they shared their moment. She didn't want to see the memory, but she heard it. She knew that Regina had been in pain, mostly self-inflicted pain after the King's death in the Enchanted Forest, but to have that confirmed…. Emma didn't know what to think.

"It was a long time ago," Regina stated trying to end the conversation.

"Then how does? Where did? How can we have a daughter?" Emma asked, clearly not letting it go until she had some answers of her own.

"Magic."

Simple yet profound, it left Emma dumbstruck. She was the product of True Love magic and she still couldn't fathom that she'd created life with Regina. The proof was in front of her. There was no denying her own daughter, but now, she wondered even more how she was conceived. Did they conjure her? Did Emma carry her instead? What didn't she know?

"You're thinking about this too hard, Ma," Coraline told her as their eyes met.

"How can I be thinking about this too hard?"

"Because you are thinking about things in the confines of this world. There is no rationality when it comes to magic and love. You should know this. Look at your parents. Look at you and Mom. Nothing is rational in the way you are both devoted to each other. You both die trying to save a realm and me. How is that rational? You promised to always be there for each other no matter the price or the consequence. How is that rational? You give your child to your best friends and send her away so that she may live where you will not. How is that rational?"

"It's love," Emma stated.

"Exactly. Love knows no bounds in any realm. That is why it is the strongest magic of all. It can heal the sick, mend the broken, and repair voids created in anger. It is passion and fury. It is light and dark. It is the most powerful thing that a human can endure. It will lift you up and it will destroy you. It will give you the greatest joy and it will cut you the deepest. Its burn is something you learn to crave and fear at the same time," Coraline started. "Love…True love…"

"Is the most powerful magic of all…it creates happiness," Regina finished.

"Yes…" Coraline replied.

Emma looked at them both. She saw the connections and the parallels. They were the same but they were mother and daughter. Broken by love and healed by it, they had endured things that would make most mortals weep and they laughed at it. Their strength wasn't born out of their endurance for pain. It was born out of the love they had for each other and their extremely fucked up family tree. Love had proven to be their battle cry and Emma was going to make sure that it was as loud as ever. She would shout it from every rooftop, every castle, until the world knew that Love had conquered the Blackness and won!

"Love is strength," Emma added.

"What?" Coraline asked.

"I told your grandmother that when she tried to take my heart and kill me. I told her that love was strength. She tried to make me see that my love for my mother was weakness, but it wasn't. It was a strength that had been growing inside of me since I was conceived. It was the basis of my magic. It was my magic. Regina used pain in the beginning because emotion is the strongest thing that we know and it fuels your magic. I used love."

"I do, too," Coraline whispered.

"Love is our magic, Coraline. We will use it to defeat the Blackness. We will use it to have you. Love can break any curse, no matter how powerful. You have to believe that," Emma said.

"Why?"

"Because you are proof of that, my Darling. You are the proof that love will overcome anything. You are my happiness, my love, my daughter. You are something that I sought out to never have. A child form a barren womb, your life is proof that Love is magic. You are magic."

"And, Ma?"

"Just like me," Emma told her.

She gathered her daughter in her arms and hugged her. She knew that Coraline didn't understand what love would make them do in the future, nor did they understand what they would do with their love. In creating a child, the manifestation of their love for one another, Emma and Regina had broken one curse only to fight another. And in their fear, their love for their daughter caused them to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Coraline still hadn't experienced a love like that. She'd been sheltered and protected, hidden and isolated. She was learning though and she was learning fast. Seeing Emma and Regina, her mothers, her true teachers, she was finally beginning to understand what happened that day when she was five. She could see it in their eyes. She could feel it in their words. She was learning what love really was. It was no longer an abstract feeling. It was concrete and finite. And, she now yearned for it more than she thought possible.

"Will…" she whispered.

"You can go to her later," Regina told her, realizing what was on her daughter's heart.

Emma watched as her daughter's eyes lit up at the prospect of seeing Will later. Right now, they had work to do. They couldn't fight Rumple without more knowledge. Unfortunately, Coraline had the knowledge they needed locked in her mind.

"We need to do this now. Here, because here we can fight, here we can find answers to the questions that we don't know to ask, and here we can prepare for the coming darkness that threatens our peace and way of life. We do this now and we know what we are fighting."

"Okay, Mom. I trust you. Just do it," Coraline told her, taking her hand and looking dead into her mahogany eyes with her own.

Regina looked from Coraline to Emma and back. She could see the worry in both of their eyes, but it was a necessity that she needed to do. She knew that they understood why she was doing. She knew that they understood it all, but she also knew that wasn't going to make this any easier.

"Sit down for me, will you?" Regina asked her.

Emma brought her a chair. She sat in it directly in front of Regina. Emma grabbed two more chairs. She gave one to Regina and saved the other for herself, sitting to their sides. She watched as Regina sat down gingerly in the chair before their daughter. The breath that she was holding released as she found the seat and Emma saw it.

She saw the fear of what they would see creep into her eyes. She saw the pain of watching her daughter's nightmare become a reality. She knew the pain that they were about to witness was going to be dark and to the core, but they had to endure for Love's sake. They had to endure it so they could save the future.

"Now, Coraline, I need to you think about everything that happened to you on the day that you came here. I need you to think about every single detail, large and small. Dig inside yourself and just remember. Just think about that day and nothing else. When you're ready, I'll pass the dream catcher over your head. It will take in the memories and show them to us when we're done. Just relax and tell me when you're ready to begin," Regina explained to her.

Coraline took a deep breath. She looked at them like she was being interrogated by the police and Emma had to inwardly chuckle to herself about the thought. She knew that it couldn't be easy for Coraline to tell them what happened to her. She knew that Coraline was afraid that too much information would change things too drastically and they may do irrevocable damage to the timeline they were on as it was.

Coraline looked up at Regina and nodded. She passed the dream catcher over her head. Emma and Regina watched the magic swirl in the dream catcher. To be sure, Regina ran it over her head again. Not wanting to lose anything.

Coraline looked at Regina expectantly as she leaned further back into the chair. It was like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She didn't have to carry the memories alone anymore. She knew that her mothers would only use it to find the information they needed to be prepared. They wouldn't use it for anything further. They would change just enough of the future so they would win the day and defeat the Blackness.

"Well?" Coraline asked them.

"When you are ready," Regina started.

"I am ready now," Coraline replied.

Regina looked at her. She could see the fear and apprehension in her eyes. She knew that Coraline wasn't prepared to show them these memories, but she also knew that Coraline hoped they would find what they needed in them. It was a double edged sword that they were on and tipping the balance could cut them all deeply.

Regina held out the dream catcher before her. She knew that once she started the memory she wouldn't be able to pull herself from it until it completed its cycle. She was just about to focus on the memory and watch performed on the face of the dream catcher when Will came barging into the room. Regina almost dropped the dream catcher, but caught it before anyone else could touch it and ruin the memory stored inside it.

"Sorry, Majesty, to disturb you but Rumple is at the shield."

Regina's eyes turned violet. She dropped her hand to her side and looked into the wild eyes of the Vulcannonian. Will's eyes peeled from Regina to Coraline's. The need to protect them both shined back at Regina in reflection and she knew that the love between them was real. She would do anything to protect her daughter and she knew that Will would as well. She stared down at the dream catcher.

"Has he breached it, yet?" Regina asked her, not looking up.

"Not yet, my Queen, but he's testing it. Hard. It's only a matter of time."

"Emma, go with Will. Make sure that the fairies have the reinforcements in place. Get the herbs and other items to the vault. Once everything is secured, come get Coraline and go. I'll stay here with Red, Will, Tink, and Blue," Regina ordered them.

Emma just stared at her. She couldn't believe that Regina was just going to dismiss her like that. They needed to stay together and fight. They would fight as a family. She wasn't going to let anything happen to any of them.

"I am not going to leave you," Emma replied forcefully.

Will saw the wrath beginning to build and she knew it was only a matter of time before Regina unleashed it on Rumple and the world. She watched the silent interaction between them, but said nothing. Emma grabbed her on the shoulders and kissed her hard.

"I am not sending you away. We'll meet you there. Open up the vault fully and allow them all a room. I'm not leaving you behind, Emma. I am going to distract him long enough and then, we'll be there."

"You'd better. We need to see that memory. Don't forget about that," Emma told her and gave her another fierce kiss.

"Go," Regina whispered to her.

Emma took Coraline and left to do Regina's biding. Will was still behind her awaiting further instruction. She looked from Regina's face to her hand.

"The dream catcher?" Will asked.

"Holds some of Coraline's memories."

"You going to watch them."

"Yes."

"Without Emma?"

"It is for Coraline's sanity and my own."

"Why?" Will asked her.

"Because she told me that I am the one that sent her here," Regina told her.

"How is that possible if you are dead?"

"That is what we are about to find out, Will. And, no matter what we see, you are not to tell Emma about it. She cannot know the truth if it is something that she shouldn't know."

"And, what would that be?" Will questioned

"That I am the Black Queen," Regina replied.