It was not often that Regina found herself speechless. At least it had never been like that before, but perhaps siding with the heroes caused that trait. First, she had been unable to walk through the portal in the door, which had both angered and surprised her. Second, Prince Charming and Snow had returned from whatever place they visited on the other side of the door, suddenly together with Catriona and Rachel, and claimed that they must enact the Dark Curse. It was enough to render anyone speechless; to be honest, most would probably have had to sit down in shock. But Regina did was not prone to such manners.

"Are you out of your minds?" she eventually managed to question, glaring at Snow, who had sat down on one of the nearby stones. "Even if I believe this Glinda, which I don't; to cast the Dark Curse I'd have to destroy the heart of the thing I love most, which for me is Henry!"

"There has to be another way to enact it", Catriona protested.

"I tried that", Regina snapped. "Last time I cast it I tried to use the heart of my most prized stallion, whom I loved very much, but it was not enough. So instead I had to kill my own father!"

"What about a magic bean?" David suggested. "If we had one we could open a portal... or we could use Jefferson's hat!"

"Wait, what are those things?" Rachel asked and frowned at her newly discovered brother.

"Jefferson is the Mad Hatter in your world", Snow responded. "He was able to travel between worlds with his hat."

"The hat was, however, destroyed in Storybrooke", Regina bitterly pointed out. "There are no more portals; not for us, not for anyone the curse brought back. When I undid the first curse to escape Pan, to bring us here, it divided our realms. It placed a wall between them."

"But we got through", Catriona pointed out.

"Cat's right", Rachel agreed. "Maybe there is something we can do."

"Like what?" Regina scoffed.

"Ollivander gave us an enchanted cowhide", Catriona answered. "It can be unlocked if all fifteen of us place our wands on it, within a fifteen pointed star."

"What kind of enchantment?" the Queen asked, eyeing the two youngest girls. Rachel shrugged.

"He did not know, or at least not say. But he did say that it was powerful and filled with light magic; not strong enough to defeat Zelena, but enough to aid Emma. Maybe that aid will come in the form of a portal."

"If that's what will happen then you face another problem", Regina said. "Emma has no memories of any of us; if some of you appear wherever she and Henry may be and tell her that she has to come help some fairytale characters..."

"She'll think we're insane", Catriona filled in. "But isn't that our best shot?"

"None of us know if the hide is designed to create a portal", David sighed. "It can be anything if all Ollivander said was that it would help aid Emma in defeating Zelena. The Dark Curse is the only guaranteed way to recreate Storybrooke and find Emma."

"Haven't you been listening?" Regina exclaimed. "I can't cast it!"

David looked up, his expression thoughtful.

"But someone else can."

"Who?" Rachel asked, frowning. "One of us?"

"No", David said and shook his head, before looking at Snow. "You."

Snow's eyes widened and Regina felt just as surprised herself. David knelt down next to his wife as he explained himself.

"It's the only way. You can use my heart to cast the Curse. We have to think of our child."

"Our child needs you", Snow protested. "I need you."

"We'll find another way", Rachel agreed. Snow nodded.

"Yes, we always find another way."

David looked at both of them in silence, his face set with determination. Regina felt her mouth go dry. The prince was right; they did not know what the mentioned cowhide would allow them to do, leaving them with only the Dark Curse as an option, and for the sake of his family he would give up his own life. Not too long ago she would have felt slightly gleeful at the thought of one member of the pair in front of her dying, but now; now she only felt as if someone had run a branch bestowed with thorns through her heart and twisted it around.

David had to die.

It was the only way to defeat Zelena.

"How big is this place?" Jade exclaimed. "Seriously, why do people have houses like these? I mean, it's exhausting to get from one place to another because it's so big!"

"It's a castle, Jade", Filipi pointed out. "They're supposed to be big."

Robin felt himself smile at the overheard conversation. Ever since Rachel had arrived at the Dark Palace and revealed that they were the Children of Magic and that he was connected to one of them he had become more certain of who that was with every passing moment. Jade had intrigued him from the very first meeting; chipper, quick to speak her mind, ready to defend her friends from anyone or anything. Much like her parents had been. His mood darkened somewhat at the thought of the couple; they had lived with the Merry Men in the years before the Dark Curse had been cast, during which their child had been born. Seeing that the child had magic Robin had offered to bring her north, to save her life. When he had returned the camp had been turned upside down and the couple had been taken prisoner by the Sheriff of Nottingham. Their execution had already been enacted.

"Robin", Rowan called, pulling him out of his reverie, "where does this door lead?"

"The library", Robin responded.

"You sure?" Rowan asked, frowning at the door. "Because Miranda and Tessa said they found a staircase to a large library further down the corridor."

Robin stared at him in surprise, before walking over to the doorway in question.

"I memorized every detail there was to know about this place before breaking in", he said. "This is the way to the library, I'm sure of it, but..."

He paused and pushed the door inwards, revealing a long, narrow stone corridor.

"Considering we're walking through a castle reeking with magic, perhaps I should re-evaluate my beliefs", he finished.

"So, you're saying... this corridor..." Tessa begun.

"It wasn't here when I broke in last time", Robin filled in with a nod, notching an arrow to his bow, "or when me and my men occupied the place after the curse broke."

"The Witch's creation, then", Indira said. "Come on."

"I'll go in first", Robin decided.

"But you have no magic", Jade protested. He glanced at her with a nod.

"Exactly."

"Why is that a good idea?" Maryse asked, voicing the confusion that the others obviously all felt. Robin huffed.

"If this is the route to wherever the Witch is keeping your friend", he said, "I do not doubt that it will be filled with traps. However, those traps might have been set to only prevent the expected people from reaching the end of the line; people with magic."

"So you're just going to march in there alone and hope that you're lucky?" Chris asked. "Are you..."

"He won't be going alone", Jade interrupted. Robin groaned inwardly.

"Jade..."

"Don't Jade me", she argued and stepped forward. "I'm going with you to set off possible traps, because if they only react to people with magic you're going to need someone to activate them with, and there's nothing you can do to stop me, outlaw."

He blinked at her in surprise; he had expected her to argue with him about his decision, but the fact that she called him outlaw all of a sudden was new. Obviously that brief moment of surprise and shock had been her intention with the outburst as she now quickly turned and took the first step in through the door.

"Lumos", she said, waving her wand and causing it to glow. It illuminated the long corridor and bathed the roughly cut stone in a ghostly white light.

"Stay at a safe distance behind us", Robin warned the others, once again readying his bow. He then stepped across the threshold and walked after Jade.

The corridor went straight ahead for about fifty feet before turning right. Once they had made it past the turn Robin could feel the stones beneath his feet sloping slightly downward. They also grew slippery and both he and Jade found themselves skidding forward instead of walking more than once. At least yet there were no traps that either of them had set off.

"So", Jade suddenly said, "who's my father? Little John?"

He turned to stare at her, seeing the amused smirk on her face.

"I'm kidding, Robin", she pointed out. "I know it's not him."

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"Because he hasn't looked at me in the way that I've seen you do", Jade responded.

"And what way would that be?"

"Painfully. For the past year you've looked at me as if I'm someone from the past, someone that you lost and blame yourself for. So I'm guessing whichever of my parents that I look like was someone who you were unable to save."

He turned away, grimacing as he faced down the corridor once again.

"Honestly I never quite understood why", Jade continued, "until Ollivander told us about our pasts and everything."

She paused and in the corner of his eye he saw her turn her head to look at him.

"You saved my life back then, didn't you?" she asked. Robin sighed.

"The Sheriff of Nottingham had ordered that all people with magic would be executed unless they promised to use their powers to serve him", he explained. "It was one of the decrees I found myself not disagreeing with, because I had just lost Marian due to such a deed. Then you were born."

He paused and smiled briefly at the memory.

"When you were two weeks old a ravaging boar entered our camp. It wrecked most of our tents and ate most of our food supply. I was about to shoot it when I suddenly saw you raise your small hand and force it to leave, with magic. You saved all of us that day and you were just a baby."

"Well, considering your skills with a bow I doubt my magic would have been necessary at that time", Jade huffed.

"Yes, they were exactly what we needed", Robin responded, turning to look at her. "Even though I never miss it is not easy to kill a wild boar. They are sturdy and one arrow will never kill them. In order to kill one you need several arrows and a good distance between it and yourself. I had neither."

He smiled.

"Your parents had already known of your powers, of course, but had feared I would turn you in to the Sheriff in my mad grief. You showed me that magic does not have to be dark and terrible; it can be light and good. And I owe you for that."

Jade smiled back at him and motioned for them to continue down the corridor. It was turning again now, left this time, all the time moving further down. Robin started to feel uneasy; they had been walking for far too long, they should have come across a trap by now.

"Something's not right", he said and stopped. Jade turned to look at him, then waved her wand to increase the light burning at the tip of it.

"Looks alright to me."

"There should have been traps by now", he protested.

"Well, maybe she didn't think we would even find the corridor", Jade pointed out. "I don't consider her to be one of the brightest around here."

Robin was about to respond when something cold and hard smacked into the back of his head. Grunting he fell forward, vaguely hearing Jade scream his name, before he landed on the stone floor and everything went black.

And with that I'm caught up with what I've written, so now you just have to sit patiently and wait like you do for other (regular) fanfics ;)