Chapter 13

So I have to really get back to work right now so my A/Ns are going to be short. Keeping it simple, please review, its' because of your reviews I'm posting this a day early! (Yay right?)

Also, I have to interrupt this chapter with exposition. Hopefully you will still enjoy it.

Robin's eyes fluttered open. For a few moments, his vision was blurry, he could make out light which felt very bright against his face. Then his eyes focused and Regina's beautiful face appeared. He had to take a quick intake of breath, she was so lovely, and her gaze held so much emotion, from the worry lines around her eyes to the frown appearing on her gorgeous red lips. He could get used to this.

But then she had to ruin it by opening her mouth. "You're an idiot!"

He grimaced. He started to argue but there were remnants of pain. All he could do is agree with her. "Aye."

She helped him sit up and he realized they were back in the forest. The area looked quite different than the trees around the dark castle. How did they get here? Remembering his last thoughts before he blacked out, Robin wondered how he got anywhere at all. "At least I'm still alive."

"Which you can thank me for her." He turned to her, surprised at her admission.

Being so close to her again, he was immediately struck with an idea to thank her. "I'll be happy to."

She narrowed her eyes at him, but the desire wasn't quite hidden. He wished she would stop trying to deny it. Ignoring his comment, she crouched down beside him. "Come on, you need to stand up." With her help, he did so. He was expecting to be dizzy but luckily he felt fine, other than a little sore.

"What happened?"

"You foolishly insulted Rumplestiltskin in his own castle. You're lucky to be alive!" She hadn't released him yet, Robin wondered if she could feel his heartbeat. Once she became aware she was still holding onto him, she dropped her hands and walked away.

How did she keep him from being hurt? "So you…begged for my life?"

She turned quickly, an angry scowl marring her features. "I don't beg!"

He almost grinned at that. He wanted to say something to it, but right now he needed to find out if his stupid mistake cost them their chance at finding out what the hell was going on. "Yes, your Majesty. But what happened with Rumple after he threw me against the wall? Did you learn anything?"

She regarded him for a moment, carefully keeping her expression blank. "Yes, I learned quite a bit, about our enemy and how to defeat him."

"Well, okay." That seemed too easy. "How do we do it?"

"We…" she stared, "aren't going to do anything. At least you aren't. You are to get back to your camp. Rumple and I will take care of this, rest assured."

Snorting, Robin stomped up to her. "Just like that. It's over?"

"It is for you."

"If you think I'm going to just walk away-"

Regina held up her hand, a potion in it. "Rumple wanted me to give this to you."

Robin sneered. Of course he did. "Sorry, I don't feel like poison right now! Ask me again later when I'm thirsty."

"It's not poison."

Robin laughed. "Sure, if you believe that-"

Regina shook her head. "I saw him make it. It's…it's a forgetting potion, Robin."

"What? Why?" he asked, trying to ignore the leap his heart gave when she called him by name.

She broke eye contact and put the bottle away. "Because I told him that there was no way you would walk away from this coming fight."

"I don't understand, what would the forgetting potion make me forget?"

Still not looking him in the eye, she whispered. "Me."

Now that was insane. "I very much doubt I could ever forget you, your Majesty." He started off saying it sarcastically but he realized how very much he believed it.

"Come on, Robin, let's get going." She walked off in the direction of his camp. He followed wondering how he was going to get her to open up.

"Put him down!" Regina ran over to Robin, fear gripped her heart when she saw he was no longer breathing.

"What do you care?"

She whirled around to her mentor, a fireball in her hand. His face changed from sharp anger to amusement. "You're not serious?"

She couldn't beat him and Rumple knew it. "You might have taught me, Rumple, but I've learned a few tricks on my own. You'd be hurt pretty badly by the time you finished me and in spite of me being a hated ruler, even the dark one wouldn't be allowed to get away with murdering the queen!"

He giggled, if she had the power, she would prevent him from ever making that noise again. "If you feel that strongly about it, dearie," He help up his hands in a mock surrender and behind her she heard Robin drop to the ground.

She immediately went to the outlaw, cursing herself for it. Rumple would think she was in love with him. That was ridiculous. But Robin didn't deserve to die especially when she had a sneaking suspicion he only confronted the dark one because of the intimacy they were showing. Stupid thief.

He was knocked out, but overall fine. She let go the sigh of relief before she steeled herself, trying to salvage the conversation she originally planned with Rumple. She made sure Robin was laying out flat, then turned her attention back to the sorcerer in the room who was obviously quite entertained by the attentions she was showing to his former target.

He smiled, "I take it he isn't married anymore?"

"I don't want to talk about Robin Hood." Actually she did but they had more pressing matters.

"Pity, I wondered what happened to my wand he stole."

It galled her to ignore what was really important and ask instead, "Why did he steal it?"

Again with his giggle. Regina wondered where his dagger was, not to control him but just stab him. "Apparently he needed it to save his wife from an illness."

Regina hadn't expected that. "What kind of illness?"

"Fever," his golden form shrugged. "Not sure what. I did notice she was quite pregnant."

Now that was interesting! "He used the wand on Marian while she was pregnant with Roland?"

"My, my, my, you have gotten to know the outlaw very well!" He laughed now and Regina rolled her eyes. Enough about that. "Tell me what you know of this leader bringing orcs to our land."

Now Rumple's face fell. "I told you, I would take care of it."

He held her glare for awhile, part of her wanted to walk away from this. But could she trust Rumple to put an end to the matter or would he ink out a deal forging a new alliance? She couldn't take that chance. "Who is he?"

"I'm not going to tell you!" Rumple exclaimed.

"Why not?"

He walked to his table, sitting down. Waving his hand a glass appeared and he began drinking it. "I don't need your help."

"I don't think that's true." She was becoming surer of that the more she realized Rumple knew of the situation.

He stopped drinking and tilted his head. "Really? Why?"

"If you could stop him, you would have done so in Tripp's Landing yourself."

"That god forsaken land? Larc could have it."

His name! She rushed to the table and slammed her hands down. "You do know who this is!"

He matched her voice and slammed his cup making the wine spill. "I told you I did, didn't I?"

"Who is it? Who is coming from Toomey?"

"I can take care of this, Regina!" Rumple stood up and walked off.

With a flip of her wrist, she shut his own room's doors in front of his face. It was a bold and dangerous move. Rumple whirled around shouting, "How dare you? You might be the queen out there but here you are my student!"

"Is that who this is, too? A former student?" She was so close to the answer. If he would just tell her what was going on!

"No, Regina, his time came well before my-" Rumple stopped realizing he slipped and gave something away. "Now, I've had enough of this."

He was about to wave his wrist and Regina knew she and hopefully Robin would be transported out of his castle. Without missing a beat, she shouted, "I have Belle!"

That stopped him. His eyes wide, his voice strained. "What did you say?"

She'd not really planned to reveal her trump card, not this soon, but damned if she wasn't going to enjoy it. "Careful, Rumple, your feelings are showing."

In a flash he was right in front her face, his hands around her throat. "I can kill you right now."

"And if you do, she dies!" He pushed her away. Regina took a few steps back and on instinct glanced behind her at Robin, thankful now he was unconscious.

Rumple was pacing now, this had thrown him. Regina enjoyed watching him in agony. Eventually he stopped his pacing, "You've had her this whole time?"

She shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. But I don't need her anymore. Let's say we work out a deal?"

"Let's say I keep your little pet over there alive."

She shook her head. "Oh you will. Also, whatever we plan to do about Larc will exclude him." She pointed at Robin's body. "Robin is too noble for his own good. I don't want him involved in whatever fight is coming with this Larc person."

The look on his face was complete astonishment. To be fair, Regina was surprised at her own resolve to keep Robin safe from this. Rumple folded his arms across his chest. "Larc is too powerful for you. He would crush you in an instant."

"Do you really care?" She didn't. The only person that probably would wasn't able to hear anything right now.

"No."

"Good, let's quit wasting time."

From there, Rumple filled her in some details of Larc. His full name was Larc Rowan. He'd been a pupil under Rumple's predecessor and then tried to turn on him. He had stolen the dagger and controlled the dark one for a time, but he had a much bigger aim. Larc knew if he simply killed the dark one with the dagger, thus becoming the dark one himself, he would be at the daggers mercy just as Zoso had been. Rowan wanted to be truly the most powerful of all, someone that no one should be able to challenge. Thus, he wanted to absorb the dark's ones powers without actually absorbing his weaknesses. Zoso managed to steal his dagger back and should have just killed Rowan but he felt death was too good for his former pupil, so he vanquished him to a godforsaken land. Somehow over there, Rowan had managed to find a way back to this realm and create an army, probably with the help of some dark elves.

Hearing all of this, Regina felt shivers go down her spine. She could see why Rumple wanted to keep this secret but should Rowan succeed, things would be far, far worse than anyone could imagine. "How long have you known he was back?"

Rumple drank some more. "The minute he entered our realm. Zoso put an alert spell on Rowan should he ever manage to return."

Regina thought it through, "Wait, if you knew that, then you must have known about the army?" Rumple giggled. Regina's eyes narrowed at him. "You were going to let him get so far into our world with that army? Why?"

"I had to see how powerful he'd become. Orcs are stupid creatures but they can be quite the menace if trained properly. Was Rowan patient enough to go about training such creatures? Tripp's Landing and possibly beyond that would tell me."

"But we stopped them."

"Actually, your Robin Hood stopped them. I was there, dearie, watching from a distance. His strategy against the army was genius, I must give him that credit."

Regina blinked, not expecting Rumple to ever praise anyone, much less her outlaw. "He has his good moments."

"Doesn't he though?" Rumple glanced back at him. "He also has some annoying ones, for example, now that you insist on helping me with this, he's going to insist too."

She shook her head. "That's why you can help me dissuade him."

Rumple laughed realistically, it sounded quite different than his tacky giggle. "I tried that before, but you stopped me from killing him."

She slammed her hand on the table. "He isn't to be harmed, Rumple."

"Well, you better think of something else, because if he enters this fight, Rowan will see to it he dies. He blames him for his giant defeat."

Her heart practically stopped at that. "What? He knows about him? How?"

"You can thank your former commander for that, Johnson."

She jumped up, furious. She stepped closer to Robin who still remained out to the world. Looking at him sleeping so peacefully, her memories of him at camp were vividly clear, smiling with the men, laughing. Roland jumping in his arms. Roland! Should Roland lose his father…

"You must have some idea on how to trick him to leave." He was about to give an answer but Regina cut him off. "That does't hurt him in any way."

With the new parameters, Rumple sat back and thought. Eventually, he found a solution. "We could do a memory potion."

"Memory potion." Regina realized what he was speaking about. "To forget what?"

"You, my dear!"

Regina had expected his answer but it still hurt to hear. "Forgetting me might get him to leave, but unless we make enough for his merry men to forget me as well as-" she didn't say Roland, "he's going to realize something happened to him. He will come back expecting answers."

"I doubt it. Will the merry men really care why he's lost interest in you?"

"No but there are-" she didn't want to talk about Roland. Not with him! "I don't think that will-"

Rumple's patience had worn out. "Enough of this. Your deal for me to have Belle was to let you join in against Rowan AND keep Robin out of the fight. I can do both but it's out of my hands to keep him permanently safe, especially now."

"What do you mean?"

Rumple giggled revealing his own trump card. "Rowan sent an assassin, he's on his way now looking for Robin and he will find him. This man always finds his targets!"

Regina kept her eyes on the forest around her while Robin was close behind. Every time he started to speak, she would lunge forward forcing him to close his mouth and follow. Finally he had enough.

Grabbing her arm, he stopped her. Getting in front of her, he reached out taking her shoulders in his hands. "Regina!" His eyes were pleading and she felt her resolve melt. "What is going on?"

She brushed off his hands. She couldn't think straight with his touching her. "What is going on is I want you to return to your people. Be safe. Let the dark one and I-"

"Dammit, Regina!" This time he stopped her with a kiss. She wasn't prepared for it, his lips crushing down on hers, instantly her arms went up to his chest, her intention to push him away. But feeling his broad chest while his arms wrapped around her, she instinctively parted her lips and allowed the kiss to deepen.

His right hand began massaging her lower back and now her arms wrapped around his body. The warmth radiating from him surrounded her while she continued to kiss him back. Desire swept through her going all the way down to her toes. His left hand eventually made its way up to her cheek. Gently he stopped the kiss and pulled her away.

They both were quite affected by the kiss. Regina realized she was no longer standing on her own while Robin seemed unable to speak. Eventually Robin recovered first. "Please, Regina, tell me."

She almost did. She almost told him everything but movement to her right got her attention. Her eyes caught sight of a shadow in the woods. He was holding up something to his lips. Regina just had a moment, she let go of Robin and using both her hands she held up a shield spell. It was just in time as it stopped a poisonous dart mere inches from Robin's neck.

So very little OQ interaction because I had to talk about that darned A plot again. LOL. However, I did end it with a kiss so I figure that will excite you. I hope it did.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I love them all. Hopefully this chapter, in spite of the heavy background, inspires you to continue to do so.