Falling asleep from sheer exhaustion, it wasn't long before Regina once again awoke with a start.

Cora was sitting on the edge of her bed, by her feet, almost as if Regina had dozed off in the middle of a bedtime story.

"I know I said I would wait for you to come to me," she spoke breathlessly, as if she had run all the way there to deliver the good news, "but I know how to get your boy for you."

Regina considered the statement. She did wonder. If anyone could come up with a plan for Henry it would be her mother. Though it very likely would be very unpleasant for most parties involved, and Regina was determined to remain strong. Her mother's plan, whatever it was, would be no way to win back Henry's love.

"Mother, there's no way…Henry will never willingly leave the people he loves, and unwillingly…he'll hate me. I can't do that to him. I can't do that to me."

"I know, darling, which is why I have a plan." She smiled in anticipation of her big reveal. "We'll get rid of them."

Regina's heart sank. Why had she even dared to hope? Death was her mother's forte. And she had to stop her.

"Mother, Henry will never come back to me if I, or you, hurt anyone he loves. That includes Snow White. We cannot kill them."

Cora reveled in her daughter's refusal, bolstered by the poorly hidden disillusionment.

"Oh, but my dearest, your thinking is so limited! Where's your determination? Your thirst for revenge?" She purred, inching her way towards her daughter. "There is a way to keep you entirely blameless for the tragic ends of Snow and her Charming and their precious daughter. And when they are gone, Henry will have no one to turn to but the mother that he loves."

Regina was beginning to recognize that she didn't want Emma gone at all, but she couldn't help her curiosity at her mother's words.

"How?"

Cora grinned as she saw her daughter snap up the bait. The sell wouldn't be difficult at all.

"The Dark One, darling."

Regina froze. She couldn't tell whether she was glad or disappointed her mother's plan was indeed flawed.

"Gold may be a sick son of a bitch, but he would never kill the idiots. Or try to kill the Savior. Especially if it could help me in any way."

Cora sneered. "Ah yes, dear, but you forget. He does not have to be willing."

Regina's confusion grew, adding to the twisted knot forming in the bottom of her stomach. She hadn't been able to predict any part of this—but instead of worrying about what that meant for defeating her, she found herself being drawn into her mother's snare.

"…What do you mean?"

Cora's eyes glinted in the moonlight. This was it. Regina would be hers soon enough.

"Find his dagger, control the Dark One."

Regina took in a little gasp. That explained Hook, why her mother wouldn't let him chase his crocodile.

It could work. In theory. Rumple killing the whole Charming line…Henry knew he was a villain—it wasn't inconceivable that Gold would kill to advance whatever cause he had in mind.

It could work.

"That's what you wanted him alive for? To help me?" Regina couldn't help the hope building back up. It was perverse, but it was her mother's love.

"Of course, dear, haven't I been saying that all along? I want nothing more than to help you be happy. And I know that your happiness is your son, and you have been unfairly torn from him. I just want you to have him back. Like I want you back."

Regina felt her defenses crumbling away. To be teamed with her mother…to have Henry all to herself…it was more than appealing. It was her happiness. She had to remove herself before there was nothing left to hold her back.

"Mama, I…"

"It's alright, darling," Cora comforted, so entirely pleased by how well she had played her daughter. Enough to even overwhelm her displeasure at having raised a naïve, loving fool. "I know it won't be easy forgiving me, but could you try? Could you try for me like you hope your boy is trying for you?"

"I…" Regina hesitated. "I think I could. " She was reduced to being five again, before she truly understood that things with her mother would never change, when she still believed in fairies and wishes and her mother's love.

"Oh darling, I'm so glad to hear that." Cora beamed. Looking to remove any last possible obstacles, she placed her hand on Regina's shoulder, and meeting no resistance, brought her in for an awkward hug. She knew Regina needed it, but Cora was by no means comfortable with it.

Regina was dazed, as if her mother's arms were a narcotic. It was awkward, even a little cold, but it was all she wanted. All she ever wanted. Her mother's embrace. And suddenly all of her planned resistance melted away. She would let her mother do anything for her. A little voice in the back of her head said that didn't include letting her hurt Emma and that killing Snow and Charming would in fact constitute hurting her, but that didn't matter right now. It couldn't matter.

Cora practically had to push her away, ending their embrace after no more than a few seconds, but Regina was convinced. She could see it. And she was glad all of her years of preparation had proved useful. Regina was just as easily manipulated as ever. She would have to thank Rumple before she killed him.

"Well, my darling, shall we get started?"

"Yes, Mama…" Regina replied, still somewhat unsteady, "But I have to see Henry first. He asked for Emma and me to come over in the morning."

"Of course, Regina. It will be in our best interest to keep up appearances, as they are, for as long as possible. And we wouldn't want to break a promise to Henry."

Regina gave a little smile at her mother's apparent care for her son, but Cora couldn't help but taste the repugnant name in her mouth. Her husband had been a spineless excuse for a royal, a necessary evil on her rise to power. She had never understood Regina's affection for him.

"Henry. What an interesting choice for a name. What an interesting choice to have a child at all, Regina. And not of your own blood!"

For the first time in ages, Regina felt ashamed of her shortcoming, once again feeling she had let her mother down. And Cora counted on that guilt and her ability to relieve it to reinforce their new bond.

"I…I couldn't conceive." Regina unconsciously smoothed the silk of her pajamas over her stomach, remembering her forgotten desires.

Cora once again played on her daughter's need for contact, rubbing her knee consolingly.

"Oh, darling, I know."

"You do?" Regina looked up wide-eyed. She assumed her mother would have guessed from her having adopted on her own, but this was certainty. Cora knew something Regina didn't.

"I do sweetheart, and it's not your fault."

"It's not? But how…?"

"Well, darling, before you were married I gave you…a little something in the way of protection, shall we say."

"What?" Regina felt the bile rising in the back of her throat, unwilling to believe what she was rapidly determining to be true.

"It was not supposed to be permanent, darling. I did not want you to have to give that horrid Leopold the male heir he desired."

"You…you did this to me?" Regina could barely spit the words out, her rage and anguish tearing through her body.

"My darling girl, I didn't want for you to have to dethrone your own child." Things were not going as smoothly as Cora had hoped. Her daughter's temper was bubbling to the surface, and what was worse, she was losing the fear that was always present in their interactions.

"I had always meant to reverse the spell after you were unchallenged as Queen, though as you know, I was a little indisposed," Cora intoned, hoping the return to guilt could help.

"But now we are reunited, you shall not worry. I will return you to your proper self as soon as we return to our land."

"You."

The words couldn't even come out, stuck in the back of her throat. All of those nights of extra visits from Leopold. All of those horrid old world treatments that had her in bed for hours, that kept her from riding, that made her gag from the smell. All of the looks from the women of the court, the glares and jibes and perhaps the worst, the looks of pity, of fear on her behalf. Of course her mother had influenced everything even without being in the same realm. Of course she had. And of course Regina had fallen for her dirty manipulation once again. She hated herself. Despised herself for being so desperate. So easily played. And never learning. Never, ever learning. Was she really so easily swayed? All it took was a fake hug? She wanted to tear her insides out and stuff them back in again. She wanted to throw her body, her fists, her feet into a cement wall until it broke or she bled. But right now, most of all, she needed her mother gone. Because if she stayed, there was a good chance that Regina was so broken she'd fall right back into whatever trap her mother set for her. And it would hold her just as tightly as any of her enchanted restraints.

"Get out." The strength it took her to say those two words was more than she had ever used. The fear she overcame, greater.

"What, Regina…" Cora was flustered. This wasn't supposed to happen. She had her. It was done.

"Get. Out. Right now." Regina used every tingling nerve in her body to stand and growl out, the rage spilling out from inside of her.

"Regina, darling-"

"Leave."

Cora did everything she could to rein in her fury. She should just whip the girl into submission. But her darling girl was a grown woman now. A former Evil Queen herself. And as this so spectacularly backfired conversation showed her, harsh reality was not going to work. Not now. Her best bet was still in the comforting mother figure. She could be patient. This was not over.

She rose from the edge of the bed, summoning her own regal command.

"I understand you're upset, darling. Of course I will go, if that's what you want. I only want you happy. Just remember your promise to me. I love you, dear."

For the first time in her life, Regina saw those words for the empty lie they were, and as her mother vanished in a cloud of purple smoke, her knees gave out.

She collapsed to the floor, whispering to the air around her, the last words she could manage before bursting into sobs.

"I love you, Mother."