With Emma and Regina guiding them together, and Tinkerbell occasionally telling them the general direction to head toward, they covered a lot of ground. Everyone was exhausted at dusk, so they decided to make camp for the night. Emma couldn't shut down her dark thoughts to sleep, so she went in search of food, stumbling in the dark. After several minutes of tripping and catching herself, she decided to turn back. She was unsure which way she had come from and her heart began to race in panic. She saw her shadow cast on the tree in front of her, so she spun around and saw Regina there, holding a ball of fire above her palm.
"Regina, what if you had dropped that?"
"Right, because that would ever happen," Regina retorted. Closing her hand into a fist, she turned it over and the ball of fire disappeared. "It's dark now, is that better? You're angrier than usual."
"And you're less psychotic than usual, so?"
"It was our magic."
"No, Regina. Not everything always has to do with magic."
"Then let's do it again, longer, if you don't believe then you can't be afraid."
Emma looked away. She didn't want Regina to know that she had felt the weight of her magic all day. Sighing, she looked at Regina, pursed her lips and put her hands up, palms out. Regina smirked and lifted her hands to Emma's placing them palm against palm. Emma was watching Regina, and Regina had her eyes closed. She was feeling the magic that Emma was seeing. Regina's features relaxed and she opened her eyes. It was in that moment that Emma realized why Regina was so tragic. She was so intensely and darkly beautiful but she had had such a sad life. Emma stared into Regina's eyes, which were looking more like dark caramel than tar in that moment. She could see Regina changing and it made Emma wonder what the magic was doing to her. Emma could feel Regina having her love for Daniel ripped away from her. She saw Snow's face as a young child, not wanting to see Regina without a mother.
Regina could see Emma's love for Neal, for Henry. She felt the darkness in Emma rising to the surface and immediately decided she didn't like darkness on the other woman. She felt Emma's anger flaring up when Emma saw that Snow was concerned about Regina. Emma was jealous of Regina, that Snow had wanted Regina to be able to have her mother, but Snow had so willingly given up Emma, her daughter. They both felt the other changing, and Emma didn't want that. She dropped her hands.
"What happened, why did you stop?" Regina asked.
"It was changing us, I didn't like it."
"Maybe it was only temporary. I liked it. I mean, maybe not that I could feel you darkening, but I could feel your love."
"That's what I didn't like! I felt everything you loved being ripped away. Daniel... I saw your last moments with him."
"I know, I saw what you were seeing."
"I didn't see what you saw! That's not fair!"
"My personal magic is stronger, I'm sure that's why. I just wonder why we didn't discover this before."
"Well, it's not like we touch often."
"True, but Emma, it was incredible, we need to do it more."
"Regina, what's happened?"
"I don't know, but I feel happier. Do you know what it's like to feel happy after so many years of misery?"
"I do. But I'm not doing this if it changes who we are."
"I don't think it is, I think it relates our emotions to what we see. I think we can manipulate it."
"What do you mean by 'manipulate it'?"
"I think if we think hard enough on something specific to show, we can see that."
"Okay, I'll test that theory. Show we something happy."
They both put their palms to each other's again. Regina concentrated hard on the moment she and Daniel decided to run away together. She could, to this day, feel the love he gave her. She pushed the feeling to Emma. After a minute, she changed it. She concentrated on the memory of being given Henry. She remembered how happy she was, how much she loved the tiny little boy she was given. Emma dropped her hands.
"Henry was a beautiful baby, Emma. You did a good job."
"Thank you for showing me that, I never even looked at him. I knew if I had that I would never be able to let him go."
"So, what do you think? Do you believe this magic is bad?"
"All magic comes with a price, Regina."
"But what price does this have? What price could it have?"
Emma shook her head, she had a feeling she knew but she knew it was something she wouldn't say out loud, not yet.
"You're thinking something you won't tell me, I can feel it." Emma raised her eyebrow. "Oh... the connection," Regina deliberated. "But maybe we have this ability because we're already connected."
"I don't know, Regina, are we?"
"There's Henry."
"You're right on that part, I'll need to think it through, though, before we do this again. I need to know why this connection is here."
"Ok. Let's head back, it's this way." Regina led the way she came. Emma followed. She heard Regina loud and clear. It was like she had read her thoughts, though maybe it was something Regina herself had considered. Emma was curious if the connection of their magic was going to tie them together, and Regina defended their connection. Emma huffed. She felt the draw to Regina, the need to make her happy and make sure she was safe. Emma found herself defending the magic to herself, thinking that she had been protecting Regina for a long time, not just for Henry either, but because she had mixed feelings about the woman, ones that she didn't even understand.
"Regina," Emma started. Regina turned around and looked at her, waiting.
"No, Emma, we don't have to tell anyone about our magic. They obviously have some idea that our magic combined is powerful, but they don't need to know anything else."
"I just think that if we need to hide it, it could be dangerous."
"We aren't hiding it, we're just waiting until we know more about it to tell. Your parents would just die at the thought of a connection between us."
Emma snorted. "This entire conversation sounds as though we're talking about being in love."
Regina laughed sardonically. "No, though true love is the most powerful magic of all. It would come in handy at a time like this."
"Tell me, then, if true love is so powerful, why don't they have magic?"
"Snow and Charming? Magic manifests itself in different ways. True love is the reason why no matter what I do I couldn't keep them apart. Their love is a type of connection where they always find each other. And the result of their love, you, found them and broke my curse, once again bringing them together."
"But then why can you and I do actual magic? I mean, why does it manifest that was for us?"
"I chose to have magic, and trained my magic. It's why I am better at it than you, it's likely why I could see what you were seeing but not the other way around. You are the product of True Love, I've never seen it before, so I didn't know." Regina pursed her lips and shrugged.
"Let's head back," Emma quietly directed. They went back to camp and separated. Emma felt a strange pang, like she needed to be physically close to Regina. That feeling nagged her, she knew there was a downside to doing that magic.