Chapter 31

The room was dark and dank. It was cold and unforgiving. There was so much despair in there that she couldn't believe that she had made it this long, even though she didn't really know how long she had actually been there. Her body was racked with pain. The blood was caked on her, the walls, and the floor of the dungeon cell. She pulled the blanket up around her shoulders further, trying to stave off the chill in the air. She hunkered down in the corner and waited for the Black Queen to come back.

She hissed as she gingerly touched her forearm, surveying the damage that she had sustained from her last meeting with the Black Queen. The cut was deep but clean. It wouldn't scar too bad. She knew that the blanket would help with that, too.

She didn't have much cloth left from her clothes to patch herself up and she wasn't about to rip the blanket apart to help. She looked at the small plate of water across the cell longingly. She didn't have the energy to get up and go to it. Instead she wrapped the blanket around her tighter and leaned into the wall, hoping that sleep would come over her. At least her dreams didn't hurt; they only gave her a sense of hope, which she knew was dangerous but addictive.

She knew that only in her sleep would she find the reprieve that she needed to get well. She still didn't understand why the Black Queen let her keep the resurrection cloak. But, then again everything that she thought that she knew about the Black Queen hadn't turned out to be all true. Sure she was sadistic and evil, but there was some sort of humanity behind her actions. She would just have to keep pushing in their sessions until she found the right button. Once she did then she would be able to pursue it further and find a way out of that dungeon and back home to Rumple's castle on the far side of the Enchanted Forest.

She shivered. Her whole body was a mess. She could feel the fractures mending. She could bear the pain of her body knitting itself back together. She suffered with each organ repairing itself. She could taste the blood in her mouth as it faded further into memory. She couldn't comprehend the need to be pummeled only to be healed the next moment.

She knew that it was a fear tactic. She sat in wonder each time that she was brought back to her cell. Each time she would spend thinking that this might be the last time that she entered that cell alive. She didn't know how much more she could experience this craziness of pain. There was no rhyme or reason to the torture. It had just become a constant in her life since she had been captured.

Another chill ran down her spine. The damp stone walls did nothing to keep the heat of the day inside at night. She looked out through the bars across the expanse of the dungeons to a barred window. The moon was just rising. She would have a scant few hours to mend herself under that blanket. Time was the enemy of the night for her. Torture was the enemy of the day.

Sometime later she awoke, fresh and mended. She sighed. Another day meant more torture. Her body felt new, like it did every morning. She stood, still wrapped in the blanket and moved towards the door of her cell.

She grabbed the bowl of water and slacked her thirst. She thought about dropping it, but set it back down with almost no sound. She looked out into the blue sky and wondered if anyone was close to finding her. She wondered if Ruby and Belle had started a man hunt, but then as soon as she thought it, she hoped that they hadn't.

"Are you awake?" the small frail voice from the cell that was next to hers asked.

"As I can be," she replied.

"Is it worse than yesterday?"

"About the same," she replied.

"Do you need anything?"

"To be free," she quipped.

"Besides that," the other prisoner stated, with a pained laugh.

"We could talk," she suggested.

"About?"

"Anything really. I miss being able to converse with my aunts. They could keep me sane."

"They sound special," the prisoner stated.

"They are."

She was trying to hide the pain in her voice. She didn't want to seem weak because she knew that the Black Queen had spies everywhere. This voice wasn't a spy. She had never revealed anything to the Black Queen. Coraline knew. She'd tested the voice several times, telling her things and waiting. But, the Black Queen never used those facts against her. Somewhere besides her guts and her tests, Coraline knew that she the inherent ability to trust the voice.

"Why are they so special to you?" the voice questioned her.

"They made me who I am," Coraline answered moving back to the far corner of her cell.

"And, who are you?"

"I am a strong woman that came here to free the world from the Black Queen."

"How is that working out for you?" the prisoner asked.

"Not very well, I must say. I haven't got out yet. But, tomorrow…tomorrow will be the day. Tomorrow, I will have another chance. I will find a way," she told the other prisoner.

She wanted to laugh but her sides were still mending. She could feel the pain in her slight mirth. The levity of the situation wasn't lost on her. It actually gave her strength and hope that tomorrow would really be the day that she found her way out.

"Tomorrow is always brighter than today."

"It is always brighter when you have someone to share it with," she told her.

"That is true. I was so lonely before you came. I miss all those I love, but I know that I will never have them again. I can't wait for my tomorrow with those I love. The Black Queen thrives on hatred and anger. Love is her enemy. She has forgotten how to love. But, Love makes things magical," the prisoner said in response.

"Love…love is a farce. All Love has ever done to me is take things away. All Love has done is die. Love is not going to save me. It never has," she spit out with a little more venom than she felt, but she couldn't stop the thoughts if she wanted to.

"Do your aunts not love you?" the other prisoner asked, suddenly very worried about her.

"I don't know what real love is," she replied.

"Be thankful for that, Coraline French. Love is weakness. Do you see what it has done for you?" the Black Queen stated standing before the cell door. "It has delivered you here. There is no one coming for you, dear. You are dead to them. And, you're better off because now…now they cannot hurt you completely. Here you are safe from the trappings of love and foolishness."

Her dress was black as always, frilled, and very courtly. No skin was to be seen as it was covered in silk, lace and velvet. Her hands and her face were covered. A pale mask was the only visage that anyone ever saw of her face, but all who saw it wondered what hideousness could lie underneath the simple white mask. There was no fluidity in her movements, but if one watched her long enough they would see a grace that was once there. Her movements weren't choppy, but more defined rigid, more purposeful, like she had to think each movement through before executing it. The light seemed to sink into her, like she was the darkness itself. There was no light radiating from her. There was just an aura of shadow that surrounded her. She was the Black Queen. She was the manifestation of the Blackness that was still ravaging the land.

Coraline made her way to the front of the cell. From her vantage point she could see only the queen. She knew that there was at least one other prisoner in this grouping of cells, and she was the voice that she had been talking to for some time. The only problem with knowing that was that she couldn't see the other cell. She knew that the other prisoner was a woman, but other than that…

"Don't worry about your little friend over there," the Black Queen started. "She is going to be just fine. I like her just where she is. She…livens up the place for me and gives it a…flare."

"Then what is my point? Why am I here? What do you really want from me?" Coraline asked her, leaning into the cell bars and staring in the blank face mask before her.

"You are going to tell me where the rebels are hiding."

"What rebels?" Coraline asked walking away from the cell door and turning her back on the queen.

She knew it had been a mistake as soon as she heard the sound, but she couldn't seem to make herself care. She wanted the Black Queen mad. She wanted to see what she would do beyond the normal torture that she inflicted. She knew it was wrong, but she didn't care. She took another step, her back still to the door. She felt her heart drop at the sound of the door. She heard the click and her body went rigid in preparations of the coming pain.

The cell door unlocked and opened wide, hitting the wall with a loud and reverberating clang. The Queen was upon her before she could stop it. The blanket was ripped off and tossed across the cell. Like many times before, she was lifted off the ground by some unseen force and held in the air. Her feet were dangling as the invisible whips started across her back.

The pain shot through her skin and into her muscles. She knew each and every agonizing slice through her flesh like each stroke was place for optimal tearing and searing anguish. She felt her body contract with the pain. She couldn't stop the scream that flowed through her body. She couldn't stop the anger that was building inside her. She couldn't suppress the deep rooted, anger fueling, power growing inside her body. She felt the all-consuming rage building to a fever pitch and she thought that today, she would lose the battle.

Her mind was at war with itself. She could unleash the power within and destroy the queen, but she knew in doing so the darkness that surrounded her would consume her. She had to find another way into the Blackness. It was feeding on her, pushing her to her limits and hoping that she would break. But, Coraline dug deep into herself and found the one thing that her heart and her body knew more than her own mind ever could…LOVE. It needed her darkness. It needed her to find her anger and embrace with both hands the way she had done with the notion of Love.

"I can't tell you what I don't know!" she screamed as another lash crossed her body.

"More's the pity. I could do this all day to you, little one. But, I have more important things to do. People to kill. Villages to burn. You know…have a little fun. Won't they all be delighted to hear that their newest savior couldn't help them?"

"The Savior is dead!" she spat out through clenched teeth with some blood as she fell onto the cold stone floor beneath her.

She stared blankly at the stone floor. Seeing for the first time the blood filled spittle that had come from her own mouth. She spat to rid her mouth of more of the metallic liquid pooling there. She scrambled to her feet. Trying to find purchase on the floor with her feet as she glared with building hatred for the sable clothed woman before her.

She felt herself losing the war. Her pain was fueling the balling anger in the pit of her stomach. Her eyes rolled back as she tried, desperately to calm herself. And, then it just happened. A warm feeling enclosed her like a hug from a far and the anger subsided. She shook off the hatred and waited for the queen to do her worst.

"Ah, yes, the Savior is dead. But, there is still another. She had a daughter. I believe they call her the Survivor. She is what I want. Give her to me and I'll spare your friends, wherever they may be. Because Coraline, I will find them and when I do, I will kill them all."

Coraline stared up into the mask. She couldn't find any eyes. She was beginning to believe that the creature before her had no soul. And, if she had no soul, there would be no way to reason with her for the safety of anyone. She fell back to the floor still trying to find some much need strength for this daily battle.

Her mind wasn't refreshed. Her body might have been healed but it wasn't immune to the sinister actions of the queen. She wasn't prepared for death and it didn't look like the Black Queen was going to let her go…quietly either. She knew that her mind would break first. She knew then that was the queen's endgame. She was trying to break her mind, not her body.

She had heard stories of the Dark One, but this woman bore no resemblance to the menacing man of the stories. She was evil. There was no reasoning with her. She was nothing but shadows and vice. There was nothing human about her. It didn't matter how much she looked for it; it was not there.

Coraline decided to change her tactics. She needed to keep her wits about her. She needed to get as much information as she could. Information was power and she knew the truth in that because of Belle and Ruby's teachings. She would need that now.

"How long have I been here?" she asked, rising to her knees but swaying.

The Black Queen regarded this gesture with wonder. She took a step towards her, then around her. She studied her own psychotic handy work. She pondered the heap before her. The girl on the floor wasn't breaking like the last few that they had captured. She truly was an anomaly.

"Does it hurt much?" she asked Coraline, continuing her torture with words.

"How long have I been here?"

"Does it really matter when I fileted your back open so…beautifully, dear?"

"How long have I been here?!" Coraline shouted trying to hold in her rage.

"Ah, there is fight in you yet. Good. I wasn't done playing with you. I'm glad that you are still well enough to play along. I do so hate it when all the fight is gone with my toys."

"HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN HERE?!" she screamed out at the top of her lungs.

"SIXTY DAYS!" the call came back from the other cell.

Coraline knew that the information had come from her fellow prisoner. She also knew that she would be punished for her actions. Coraline winced in the knowledge, but didn't let the queen see it. She needed to make sure that she kept the queen's attention on her.

The Black Queen's head turned sharply towards the other cell. A muffled cry was heard and then nothing more. She turned back to Coraline before her.

"What does it matter, Little One? One day or sixty, I will still break you. I've won already. You will tell me what I want to know because your mind will go before your body."

Coraline rose to her full height. It wasn't much, but it was enough to get her point across. The queen could beat her. She could torture her, but Coraline would not break. She pushed the thoughts about the pain the other prisoner could have experienced away. She had to stay strong.

"Sixty days? I still haven't broken. Sixty more will give you the same," she taunted the queen.

"You will break. They always do. I will find your weakness, dear. It is what I am good at."

"I have none. You said yourself: 'Love is weakness.' I don't know love. I have no weakness for you to exploit. The rebels mean nothing to me. They were just there to keep me alive so that I could come here and kill you. I will do that. I will destroy you. I will win."

"Funny…I don't see how you are going to do that behind bars, dear, and you are at my mercy. You can't get out. You're on an island, surrounded by miles and miles of water. No one will set you free. I like to keep my play things close. I think that I will keep you a little while longer."

"I don't need to be completely free to kill you. Once you're dead, you're dead. Then the Blackness will answer to me. I am not afraid of it or you," Coraline told her.

"You don't seem to understand, Little One. The Blackness answers to no one but the darkness itself. It has no master but rage and evil. Killing me will only make you the newest target."

"You don't know me."

"I don't need to know you to feel the rage that wafts off you like a stink. You smell like forest and blood. I am sure that you can't help it. You are just a lowly knight and a peasant. There is nothing that someone with such a low birth as yours could do. You will just give them false hope and platitudes that will just cause more death and destruction. Anything that you think that you can do will just cause more grief for those who think that supporting you would be a good idea."

"That much remains to be seen," Coraline replied.

"Who are you really?" the Black Queen asked, taking a calculated step forward.

She sensed the change in Coraline. There was something more about the way she carried herself that the queen hadn't noticed before. She was confident, almost to the point of royalty or high born upbringing. There were just some things that couldn't be unlearned once taught.

"I'm your destruction."

The queen watched her. She saw the fire in her eyes. She could see her breaking point coming to fruition. She just needed to bide her time and keep pushing. She just needed to study her some more. There was something with this prisoner that was different than the rest.

"And, how are you going to destroy me?"

"By giving you what you want," Coraline stated.

The queen took another step forward. And, then another, until she was almost on top of Coraline. Her broken body, barely covered, beaten and bleeding, held itself up. The power in her magic had already started to mend the unseen wounds inside. The scars upon scars were slowly tightening on her back under the watchful gaze of the Black Queen.

Coraline wished in that moment that she could see the actual face of the queen. She couldn't read her. There was something just so closed off about her gloomy appearance and her dark demeanor that Coraline recognized. She didn't know what it was or why she did, but there was just something there, something below the surface that she understood on some strange level.

The Black Queen watched her intensely. She could feel the queen's eyes on her without being able to see them behind the voids in the mask. She could picture a faint smile gracing an unknown face. She cocked her head and let the magic flow through her, hoping that it could somehow help her learn more about the queen.

"And, what do I want?"

"Me," Coraline said loud enough, hoping that she would take the bait.

The queen stopped her pacing and turned sharply at the standing corpse before her. She cocked her head trying to gauge the authority of the tone, the authenticity of gestures, and regality of a glance. She couldn't find it. She was too…pedestrian.

"Ha," the queen laughed. "You are no more than a simple woodsman's daughter, possibly a trained hunter, but you are no one of consequence. You have learned to speak well, but you don't have any authority among the people you think that you are protecting. You are not worthy of the esteem in which you think they give you. You are a pretender."

"Then show me your face," Coraline demanded.

The queen moved again. Constantly struggling at a nagging feeling in her brain that somehow she knew this young woman before her. She couldn't see the connections. Her coloring was all wrong. The girl she was looking for was blonde not brunette. Her eyes were like walnut in the spring, not coal in the winter. This woman was not the girl she sought.

"I don't have to do anything for you," the queen told her.

"Then I have nothing to tell you."

A fireball exploded into the queen's hand. She cocked her head again and again like she was scanning Coraline for a mark or something, something that would betray her true identity. The cloth slipped from her shoulder and she saw the tattoo. A knight…she was a knight and a member of the elite guard. But, she was young, far too young to have earned that tattoo.

"You are nothing more than a poser."

The queen absent mindedly threw the fireball at her. Coraline ducked and it hit the stone wall behind her. She rose to her full height again, barely towering over the Black Queen. Again, another fireball appeared. She loosed it at Coraline, who caught this one and threw it back at her. It hit the mask, dislodging it, and knocking it to the floor.

As the clay mask shatter on the floor, Coraline straightened her body. A calm came over her like nothing she ever felt. Her arms tingled and her eyes started to see things that she had forgotten.

"I AM THE PRINCESS REMY OF THE WINTERLANDS. I AM YOUR SURVIVOR. I AM THE SWAN PRINCESS THAT YOU SEEK AND I WILL BE YOUR DESTRUCTION!" she yelled as she ran towards the momentarily distracted Black Queen knocking her out of the cell and onto the stone floor just outside of the cell.

Coraline stocked the woman like a lioness to a deer. Her feet, unshod, slapped against the terribly cold stone, but she didn't feel it. Her body was wrapped in that cloak and it was mending itself like it had done every night before. She raised her face to the sunlight from the windows and sniffed the fresher sea air.

"Remy?" she heard from the other cell.

She looked up and found a round faced older woman with greying hair. Her hazel green eyes looked over Coraline like she was seeing a ghost. There was a glint in her eyes that Coraline thought she might have recognized years before, but now, it meant nothing.

"Remy?" the prisoner asked again.

"Yes, I am Princess Remy," Coraline confirmed.

The Black Queen still hadn't made a move to stand. Coraline didn't know what to do. She studied the crumpled creature before her, careful not to get to close. She knelt down and her back protested every movement. The pain seared into her flesh like fresh wounds often do.

"Who are you really, Black Queen?" she asked as she reached down to turn her head.

Fingers gently touched the side of the Black Queen's head, turning towards the sun light. Much to her dismay the sunlight did nothing to exposed pale and ghostly white skin. Coraline cocked her head and held a gasp as her eyes finally lay on the true face of the Black Queen.

"Kill me already," she begged.

Coraline hadn't even touched her in anger and she was begging for death. This was a new and very unusual development. Her dark eyes met the dark eyes in the sunken face and recognition flowed through her like ice cold water.

"YOU?!" Coraline screamed falling backward as she tried to scramble away. "It was YOU this entire time. How? How could you do this?"

"I have no choice. I have no control. The Blackness controls me. You have to go. You have to leave. Do you know the spell?"

"What spell?" Coraline asked as she continued to seek the relative safety of her cell.

"Your arms, Remy. Look at your damn arms. Those tattoos will save you. SAVE US!"

Coraline looked at her arms. Black and blue ink swirled into patterns and shapes that she swore she'd never seen before this day. Her arms burned like they were raw. And, then they started glowing. She looked over at the queen and then her arms again.

"What SPELL?"

"Gather your things," the queen whispered.

Coraline grabbed her satchel of items. All thought to be meaningless, but all have a meaning to the family Swan-Mills. Any of them might have given her away if they had only looked hard enough, but they hadn't. They'd thrown her into the cell like a common criminal, no trial, no witnesses, no visitors, just a cold and dark cell.

"What am I doing?" she thought aloud.

"Repeat the words I tell you," the queen told her.

Coraline just nodded. There was nothing that needed to be said. They were both in shock but were both preparing to die at the other's hands. There was nothing that they could say in that moment that would prepare them for the craziness that they were about to unleash. The queen knew what she had to do. Coraline could only obey.

"Tempus fugit…lux dimitte…tenebris amore…familia inveneris…portum aperta…ius iniuriam[1]…. Say them!" the queen howled at her.

Coraline repeated the words, but nothing happened.

"Say them and thrust your arms together. It will send you back. You will be able to stop this. Your sacrifices will be rewarded to you later. Say the words again."

"Remy?!" the other prisoner called out to her.

With her mind distracted, Coraline didn't know what to do.

"Do it, Remy!" the prisoner called out.

She looked at the woman again. The familiarity was there but she still couldn't place it. She had dimples and strangely warm eyes. Her smile was fixated on Coraline, just as her eyes were pleading with her to say the words.

"SAY THE WORDS, REMY!" the prisoner shouted as the queen started to regain herself.

Coraline turned from the prisoner to the queen mumbling the words and wrapping herself tighter in the cloak. She looked up into the face of the once hidden queen and her heart faltered. The gaunt face had filled in and a light shown in the dark eyes that were so much like her own.

"DO IT NOW, REMY!" the prisoner yelled.

"Who are you?" Coraline finally asked as her mind finally caught up with her situation.

"My name is Snow, Snow White. I am your grandmother. Now, please for the love of your mothers cast that curse and go save us. You are truly our only hope. I love you, Remy!"

The queen threw out an arm and Snow was tossed to the back of her cell. Coraline winced as she heard her body hit the wall and then the floor. She steeled herself for the coming blows from the now revealed Black Queen.

"Go, now…" the queen whispered.

"I don't understand…"

"You don't need to understand, Remy. I can't hold her back much longer. Go. Save us all. You're the only one strong enough to do it. Cast the spell."

"But, Mom…" Coraline stated, dropping to her knees and weeping.

"Please, Remy, for once in your life obey and cast the spell. We will see each other again. Please my darling daughter do IT!"

Coraline stood back and began to recite the words over and over. She held her arms out like she had remembered watching Regina do countless times, bent at the elbows, fists skyward. She closed her eyes and imagined a world that she had never seen, a time she'd never known and place that she'd only read about in fable: Storybrooke.

"Go. Now. And, never forget I love you," the queen bid her before the darkness took over.

"TEMPUS FUGIT!" she screamed.

"You will not succeed," the Black queen cackled.

"LUX DIMITTE!"

"No one can help you now," she hissed at Coraline.

"TENEBRIS AMORE!"

"There is no one who can stop me."

"FAMILIA INVENERIS!"

"I will kill you," she spat out closing the distance a little more between them.

"PORTUM APERTA!"

"I will own your body and your soul. You will be my new slave. You will be the new Queen."

"IUS INIUNRIAM!"

"I WILL HAVE YOU!" the queen screeched.

"I forgive you, Mother," she whispered as she threw her arms together, slamming her pinkies, fists, elbows, and forearms up together in front of her face.

The light that formed was blinding and quicker than lightning. The ground beneath her feet moved and gave way. Suddenly she was falling. She was falling fast and there didn't seem to be an end in sight. She was just tumbling into an abyss.

Then her body hit something solid, something damp and green. Her fingers splayed out against the new ground and found dirt and grass. Her body screamed out in pain but no words would come from her lips. She heard voices in the distance, then birds, then feet. She couldn't move.

"Mother Superior, come quick, there is a woman in need of help."

Blue gathered her cloak and made her way out the convent to the gardens. She was surprised to see a young brunette woman no older than twenty-five lying there in the garden grass. She was battered, bruised and burned.

"Help me get her inside, Sisters. I'll take care of her. Until I know more, don't speak of this to anyone from town. She may need our help," Blue told them.

Once they had her in a room, Blue shooed everyone out. She sent Nova to get some supplies. When Nova came back into the room, Blue asked her to stay.

"I am going to need your help," Blue told her.

"Yes, Blue."

They slowly washed her body. The more dirt they washed away the more wounds they found. Nova gasped as they saw the burns and scars upon her arms and back. There didn't seem to be a place on her body that hadn't been touched by whatever torture she had suffered.

"Those are…those are…"

"Magic burns, yes, I know. This poor woman has survived a lot. I don't know why she was in the garden, but judging by her wounds, she needs our help."

"I agree."

"Nova, when we are done cleaning her up, I'll need these items quickly," Blue told her handing her a list.

"Yes, Blue, I'll go get them now."

"Don't worry, young one. You're in safe hands now. I'll heal your body."

"Hmmpf…"

"Don't try to speak. Rest now. I'll make sure that no one knows you are here. When you can tell me what has happened to you, you will. Then, we will decide what to do."

Regina dropped the dream catcher. Her body swayed but before she hit the floor Will caught her. She eased her down to the floor, cradling her head. The look of horror in her eyes only rivaled the look of terror and anguish for Regina in Will's. She turned away from her, unable to meet her gaze and unwilling to see any emotion in the Vulcannonian's face.

"I did that to my own flesh?" she asked rhetorically, pulling out of Will's grasp.

"You didn't do that, Regina. You couldn't. It was the Blackness."

"I burned my own daughter and for what? Information on her own whereabouts. I tried to kill her. Or, did you not see that?" Regina questioned, shuffling away from Will.

"Regina, that wasn't you," Will stated firmly.

The air in her lungs was gone. Her body was on fire and the rage that was always just below the surface was trying to manifest itself. Only this rage wasn't directed outwardly at someone who had wrong her or slighted her. No, this rage was pointed directly at herself. She didn't know how to not hate herself for the crimes that she hadn't actually committed yet, but she was learning quickly. She was the one that hurt Coraline. She had no one else to blame.

"Were you watching the same memory that I was, because that was me. I was older and darker than I ever thought I could possibly be, but it was still me. I did that to my own daughter. I caused those scars on her back which still haven't healed. I can't heal them. I don't know how. Emma can't either. We've tried. I disfigured my own daughter. I hurt her! That was me, Will! Did you see anyone else in the room with her? NO! Because, I am the one that did that to her. I am the one that ripped open her flesh and made her bleed. I burned her!" Regina yelled at her.

"You didn't do it. The Black Queen did. She is the one that hurt Coraline. You fought the darkness and released her. You sent her to the past to help stop the Blackness. Regina, you did that, not the Black Queen. She is the evil one, not you. As soon as she told you who she was, you fought. From whatever deep recesses that the Blackness forced you into inside your own mind, you clawed your way out and helped her to freedom. You sent her here to help us stop it."

Regina just looked at her like she had two heads. She couldn't believe that Will was defending her actions. She was horrified at what she had seen. She had magically hurt her own daughter in some veiled attempt at an interrogation. There was no true interrogation. It was all a sadistic mind fuck that she enjoyed giving her prisoners. She'd done it before and now, she knew that she would do it again. Only this time she would her pleasure in torturing her to the point of insanity rather than death. It was more pleasurable torturing on her part and physical and mental anguish on Coraline's. She couldn't stand herself at that moment.

She felt the bile rising into her throat. She wanted to purge herself so deeply in that moment that she didn't realize that Coraline had warned her of this weeks ago. She hadn't listened to the warnings because they didn't make sense. She was more worried about her relationship with her daughter than seeing what her daughter was truly trying to tell her.

She knew that darkness was a part of her, but to see it so…unadulterated as that frightened Regina to the core. She didn't know what to do. She was as clueless as the rest of them, but now…now she was determined to let that future happen.

"I have to stop that from happening."

"No, Regina, you don't," Will told her.

"Yes, I do!" she said with more force, her eyes swirling with violet.

"No, you don't, Regina. We do. We will find a way. We will stop it. I promise you that."

"Don't promise me something that you obviously can't deliver," Regina quipped.

"She may not be able to," Emma said, rejoining them, "But, together we can do anything. I think that we have already proven that. We will do it again. We will stop the Blackness."

"How much did you hear?" Regina asked, tears in her eyes.

"Enough to know that you saved our daughter from the Black Queen. Your darkness may be the Black Queen, Regina, but she isn't you. She may look like you and sound like you, but she will never be you and do you know why?" Emma asked her.

"No," she replied with a breathy whisper.

"Because you've found your Love and you are willing to fight for it. Against all the odds put against you, you found your happiness with me. We have a daughter and in the moment when she needed her mother the most, you, Regina broke free and sent her home. You did that. You didn't hurt her. You never would. You've proven that to her time and time again, here. Everything that we have done has been for her and her future. So, stop pitying yourself. Stand up and own up to the fact that you are a powerful sorceress and you are going to help me…us… defeat the Blackness. Cause if you can't do that, then I need to know now before it is too late."

"I will stand with you!" Will told her.

"Regina?" Emma asked.

"I will not let that future happen. I cannot. I will not. Blackness or no Blackness, no one hurts my daughter while I can still fight," Regina vowed.

"Now, that's my girl. Let's go. Rumple is still hard at work and we don't need to be here when he finally gets through the barrier."

"I need to see Coraline."

"Of course, Regina, of course," Emma replied taking her hand and leading her away.

[1] "time flies…light forgive…darkness love…family find…port(al) open…right wrong", as translated from Translator.