Thank you for the reviews! I really appreciate it! I know there are some really fantastic fics where Regina goes under the sleeping curse, so I am going to do my best to be original and look it at from another angle… Hope I succeed!

DISCLAIMER: Not mine

Chapter 10

The house was eerily quiet when David and Henry entered, the dreadful smell of the curse hanging in the air. Henry took the first step inside, taking a step backwards as the smell hit his nose forcefully.

"That's disgusting!"

David shuddered, recoiling from the smell too. It truly was awful, he had no idea how anyone could stand creating such a foul smell. Henry was pinching his nose between his fingers as he glanced around the house. His voice sounded constricted when he spoke.

"It's coming from the kitchen. I guess mom is busy with the curse."

David nodded, trying to breathe his nausea away.

"We should go check up on her."

Henry looked at David glumly.

"Do we have to? I mean… I really don't want to go anywhere near that smell!"

David grinned, covering his nose with his hand too.

"Come on, Sir Henry. We are knights – we can't let a woman handle anything we aren't able to!"

Henry grinned, impressed by the title David had given him.

"Okay, fine! I guess we can do it if she can!"

Flames.

So many flames – she was encircled by them, entrapped, caught up in the burning heat. Flames licked at her feet, her arms, her face. Yet there was no smoke and Regina found it odd, despite technically being asleep. She shrugged lightly.

Well. Technicalities, it didn't matter. If she was going to spend the rest of her life caught in the flames, she really wouldn't mind the absence of smoke.

"Regina?"

She would have recognized the shocked voice anywhere and she turned around, a smirk playing around her lips.

"Snow. Good to see you, dear."

Snow's eyes were wide as she approached Regina and she clapped a hand over her mouth, only removing it when she stood closely in front of the older woman.

"Why are you here?"

Regina shrugged lazily.

"I have a message from Rumple."

"I don't understand… how did you get here?"

Regina smirked – the girl really had no common sense at all. How did she get here? She bit the sarcastic answers forming in her mouth back and sighed tiredly.

"Quite clearly, I am under the sleeping curse dear. However, you are not and before you wake up I would like to have given you the message from Rumpelstiltskin."

Snow nodded, still shell-shocked and Regina stared her down before continuing.

"Go to his castle. You'll find a straw doll and some squid ink in an enchanted cupboard. It needs magic to open, Emma will be able to do it. You need to immerse the straw doll in squid ink and it will freeze Cora. Temporarily. Then you need to find a portal and get the hell out of here before she kills you."

Snow nodded quickly, making notes in her head.

Castle, enchanted cupboard, straw doll, squid ink. Got it.
She looked at Regina hesitantly, afraid to ask the question dancing on her tongue.

"How… Regina, how will you wake up?"

"I won't dear."

Her answer was complacent, calm and Snow shook her head, unable to understand how anyone could be as relaxed about being in a state of eternal sleep.

"I don't understand… Why?"

Regina sighed deeply, unwilling to bare her heart and soul in front of the girl but feeling strangely obligated to do so.

"Daniel is gone. Soon Emma will be back and Henry will have his real mother. I have nothing left to live for. It made sense that it was me who came here."

Snow moved closer and touched Regina's arm, a kind smile on her face as always. Regina couldn't help the pang of guilt she felt as she looked at Snow's friendly face smiling up at her.

"We'll wake you up, Regina. We'll find a way."

She could see the girl starting to fade against her will and in a moment of weakness, she squeezed Snow's hand.

"I'd rather you didn't."

Snow disappeared before she could answer and Regina turned around, away from the spot where Snow had been seconds earlier. It was just her left – her and the flames gnawing at her skin. She supposed she shouldn't have expected it to be pleasant, but the flames were quite an irritation. If she understood Henry correctly, this was the Red Room and it was not the only room in the Netherworld. She just needed to navigate, find all the rooms and stay in the most pleasant one.

Or perhaps the least pleasant one.

After all, misery was exactly what she deserved.

David saw it first – the apple lying on the floor in a macabre sign of impending horror. He moved quickly and his breath hitched in his throat when he saw what he had feared the second he saw the apple. He knelt down next to the still figure, his eyes glued to her face.

"Regina… what have you done?"

"Mom!"

Henry was next to him within seconds and he grabbed onto Regina's hand, his eyes filled with tears.

"Gramps, what's going on? What's wrong with her?"

David reached for the poisoned fruit and held it up in the air. His voice was grim, his face pale.

"She didn't want me to go under the curse. So she did it herself."

"But…"

Henry's eyes were wide with shock and he shook his head.

"She doesn't have a true love! She'll never wake up!"

David looked up at the boy from where he was sitting next to Regina. Henry's eyes were filled with terror and David had to hide his own dread from the boy. He moved quickly, lifting Regina into his arms easily. Her body was ice cold and he shuddered.

"We'll wake her up, Henry. We'll find a way somehow. Let's take her to Gold. He'll know what to do."

Henry's eyes couldn't leave his mother's body in David's arms.

Sure, she was the Evil Queen… but she was still his mom.

"What if he doesn't know what to do?"

David shook his head tiredly.

"I don't know, Henry. But right now, he's our best shot."

The bell to Gold's shop rang when David burst through the door and the sharp voice followed immediately.

"We're closed, dearie. I'm afraid you'll…"

Rumpelstiltskin broke off mid-sentence when he took in the picture in the doorway of his shop – Henry leaned against the wall, tearful and afraid and in the door stood the one and only Prince Charming. With a dead still Queen in his arms.

Over the years he had been unfortunate enough to know Rumpelstiltskin, David had never seen an emotion – other than glee – from the man. In a minute, the man went through more emotions than David ever thought he had.

Shock.

Denial.

Anger.

Fear.

Terror.

Despair.

He moved quickly, taking her out of David's arms wordlessly. David gestured, trying to stop Rumpelstiltskin from taking her, but it was a fruitless attempt. Rumple started walking to the back of his shop without a word. Henry and David shared a worried look before following him, watching as he carefully lay Regina down on a cot that had appeared with a wave of his hand. Unaware of David and Henry behind him, Rumple was bent over the still figure of his apprentice, mumbling softly.

"Oh, dearie… what have you done?"

He stroked over her hair like a father would, more caring than David had ever seen him with anyone other than Belle.

"Was your life really that awful? Is this really what I have done to you?"

David took a large stride forward and his eyes blazed into Rumple's.

"What do you mean? You did this to her?"

Rumpelstiltskin looked strangely sad as he glanced at David before returning his attention to Regina.

"Indirectly, perhaps dearie. The Queen wasn't always evil. She never wanted to be, but I needed her to be dark."

"So you ruined her life."

It wasn't a question, but Rumpelstiltskin nodded anyway.

"We had a complicated relationship… but I care about her. She's the closest thing to a daughter I have ever had."

David's lips were a thin, white line as he glared at Rumpelstiltskin. He had seen glimpses of who Regina used to be and finally knew what had happened to turn her into the evil force that she had become – it was all a game, orchestrated by the man in front of him. The man who now claimed to care for Regina as a father would.

"A daughter? You saw her as a daughter and you ruined her life? God forbid you'd ever have a child whose life you could ruin as you did hers!"

"Get out."

Rumple's words were clipped and angry and Daniel took a step forward, reaching to pick Regina up again.

"Fine. If you won't help, I'll find a way."

"Leave her."

David's eyes flashed shock and Rumple moved to shield Regina's body with his own. The two men stared at each other stubbornly and Rumple leaned forward on his cane.

"Leave her here. Get out."

"I won't leave her with you!"

Rumple took a step towards David, and despite the Dark One's shorter stature, the prince could not help but feel slightly threatened. Rumple's voice was low and venomous.

"Yes, dearie. You will. Because if there is any way of waking Regina up, I'll be the one to find it. You are useless here and you know it. Now I suggest you leave – before I force you out of here."

David left, stopping at the door to look at Regina's still form worriedly. When his eyes moved up to meet Rumple's, his expression turned contemptuous and he leaved wordlessly. Rumple watched him intently and sat down next to Regina's bed again, his eyes fixed on her pale face. He knew just as well as anyone that there was only one cure for this state – true love's kiss. And since Regina's true love was dead, there was no doubt about it – she'd be in this state forever. The only thing he could do was try to make sure that the Netherworld did not hurt her too much.