Chapter two

-Two weeks later-

"Emma stop it," Regina tried to scold, though she was clearly holding back a laugh.

Henry snickered as his blonde mother continued building a fort out of her mash potato.

"I'm having fun," Emma pouted.

"Well stop," Regina retorted.

Emma sighed dramatically, and sat in silence for a moment.

Looking from her plate to Regina the mayor held up a hand, "don't even think about it."

Emma loaded potato onto her fork, and without further warning flicked it at her girlfriend's face.

"What is wrong with you?" Regina asked with a sigh as she magically brought the projectile into a small mash ball.

Emma shrugged, "you were against the fort."

Regina turned to Henry, "weren't you ever worried about her being the saviour?"

Henry nodded, and Emma looked at him in mock outrage, only for the ball of potato to hit her in the nose.

Henry shook his head and grabbed his plate, deciding it would be safer to eat dinner away from the magical potato warfare.

Regina woke up with a smile on her face.

Seconds later the fogginess disappeared, and the taunting returned.

They can't love you.

Love is weakness.

Why do you need other people?

Regina groaned, and brought the pillow on her makeshift bed over her ears, though the voice only seemed to get louder.

Emma sighed and threw the book onto the floor, "this is pointless!"

Snow walked over to her daughter and placed a hand on her shoulder, "we can't give up sweetheart."

"It's been t two weeks and no one has heard from her, how are these books going to help?"

"Belle said that it's the best she could do before Rumple wakes up."

"Well, none of these are good enough, why can't we just go to Regina's vault?" Emma asked.

"Your father tried, he said there's magical barrier," Snow replied softly.

Emma let out an irritated growl, before grabbing another book, "I feel like I should be finding her."

Snow nodded in understanding and sat next to the blonde, "you know we have a way to call her here."

Emma closed the dark tome, and leaned back, "I don't want to control her."

"If you want to see her than you can always call her."

Emma gave her mother a weak smile, "I know your right, I'm just..."

"Afraid?"

Emma put her head in her hands and nodded, "it's been two weeks, where do you think she is, mom?"

"You know her best," Snow reminded her, placing her arm around her daughter's shoulder.

"Her vault," Emma sighed.

Snow nodded in agreement, "I guess you know what you have to do then?"

"Go and be verbally abused," Emma sniffled.

"Isn't that the foundation of your relationship?"

Emma laughed and leaned in to her mother's side, "I guess.

Regina leaned against stone wall of her vault feeling deep irritation.

All she wanted to do was to leave this vault, but for some reason she had locked the door magically as she had done during the shattered sight spell. She had to admit that as a hero, she found herself rather annoying.

Grabbing a dark tome from a pile she had meticulously made, she continued her refresher course on dark magic.

Each moment she had to herself had become torture, so she had decided that she needed a distraction, if she ever let her mind wander, she was constantly reminded of all of the wrongs that had been done to her. She remembered in detail, every time that Emma had taken her son, the number of times Henry had told her that she wasn't his mother. Most importantly she remembered what her dearest step-daughter had done to her.

In her waking moments, almost every fibre of her being had returned to feeling complete and utter rage at the woman that had ruined her life. But when she slept she remembered how supportive she had been when she and Emma had revealed their relationship, she had quite literally created her happy ending.

All rational thought deserted her however, when she woke and felt the darkness weighing upon every cell in her body. Clearly her dreams were the only place that it couldn't get to her, but that wouldn't help her much in the long run.

Flipping to a page about the various methods of disembowelling, she was interrupted by a loud knock at the door.

"Are you in there, Gina?" Emma called.

For a split second Regina felt happiness at hearing her girlfriend's voice, but it was quickly replaced. Why would she love the Evil Queen? How could anyone love the Dark One?

Regina took a steadying breath, before placing the book on the floor and making her way over to the door.

"Help me, Emma," she replied desperately, though a part of her wished that the blonde wouldn't be so easily tricked.

Emma smiled, I found her...oh God is that genetic? Shaking her head, she brought her hand up to the door and focused on removing barrier, despite knowing that she really shouldn't.

A moment later the door swung open and Emma was faced with a perfect looking Regina, shouldn't she be a bit dishevelled? She wondered for a second, before disregarding the thought.

Emma launched forward and hugged her.

How can she be so idiotic? Regina internally seethed, though try as she might she couldn't go against what the darkness wanted.

"I missed you," Emma mumbled against her hair that still smelt like apples. "Is there like a bathroom in here?" the blonde laughed.

Regina furrowed her brow, before realising what she meant, "I am quite capable of maintaining hygiene Miss Swan."

"Miss Swan?"

Regina realised her folly, while the other part of her was more than happy that her idiot had figured it out.

"You haven't called me that in a while," Emma laughed nervously. She was beginning to see that she had been rash here, probably because she had been having serious girlfriend withdrawal that she had barely listened to her mother's cautions about being careful.

Regina blinked a few times, and Emma noted the confusion in her eyes.

Did it make her a different person?

The mayor quickly shook her head, the darkness telling her to get what she wanted.

Leaning up, she captured the blonde's lips with hers. As if through muscle memory, Emma brought her hands up to her waist and they stumbled back until they hit a wall.

Emma pulled back, though she didn't let go of the smaller woman, "wow," she breathed.

Regina nodded, get it now! and quickly repeated the action, this time slipping her tongue into the other woman's mouth. They battled for dominance until air became an issue. At the last second, Regina leaned down and pulled the dagger out of Emma's boot, and sent the blonde back with a blast of energy, though it was softer than what the darkness had intended.

Emma paled at the sight before her, trying desperately to wrap her brain around what had just happened.

"G-Gina?" she asked tentatively.

"Don't call me that!" Regina shouted, though she was quite happy about it. Every time Emma did something that was just well; Emma, Regina felt the darkness recede slightly. She could tell that's why it didn't want the kiss to go on for much longer, she just wished that she was strong enough to actually defeat it altogether, and she had secretly hoped her kiss plan would work. She had no doubt in her mind that Emma was her true love, so she knew for once it wasn't the answer to their problems.

Unwillingly, she smiled manically down at the dagger, running her hand over its surface; she turned it over, only to find the name 'Rumplestiltskin' inscribed upon it.

"What is this?" she roared.

Emma swallowed and took a step back, "I don't know," she stuttered in reply.

Despite her best efforts, a fire ball appeared in her hand, and was about to make contact with the blonde's face, when something else stopped her.

"I command you to stop," Snow announced, holding up the real dagger.

"M-mom?" Emma asked in a small voice.

"I knew you wouldn't listen to me," Snow explained.

"How did you get a fake?"

"Belle gave it to me just in case," she replied.

"You're an idiot," Regina retorted.

Snow furrowed her brow, she had been quite proud of her plan, "why?"

"What if something happened and you wasn't here?" Regina swallowed hard thinking about the possibility.

Snow looked from Regina to her shell-shocked daughter, that's something to analyse later, she thought.

"I command you to go to..."

"The holding cell," Regina said quickly, with someone commanding her, she could finally feel the darkness loosen its hold, though she still wanted to rip the woman in front of her limb from limb for daring to trick her. "It's still protected from Zelena," she added, though she could hear the darkness shouting that she was a fool for trying to help them.

Snow looked at Emma, who just nodded still unable to form coherent thoughts let alone words.

"I command you to stay in the holding cell, and to not hurt anyone in the sheriff's station."

Regina disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and Emma walked over to her mother.

"Look, Emma, I'm sorry for trying to trick you, but I thought it was the best way to..."

Emma cut her off with a hug, sobs racking her body.

Snow smiled sadly, and began drawing circles on her daughter's back and making a comforting 'shushing' sound.

A/N With the help of QueenApples I've had a stroke of inspiration for this story, so it's no longer on hiatus XD

Anyway I should warn you that this will be a sad one so I apologise in advance haha

Please review and let me know what you think, it would be much appreciated :)