Chapter Two: When the Smoke Clears

Cora had not changed at all.

It had been years since Regina had seen her mother alive, and she had only spent a few brief moments looking at her mother's supposedly dead body twenty-nine years ago. Some part of her had expected that her mother would have changed – grown older, perhaps, or at least mellowed.

But everything about her from the clothing she wore to the way she carried herself to the constantly calculating look in her eyes was exactly the same, and Regina felt as though she was a child again, caught up in her mother's web.

She was numb. This couldn't be happening. After everything she had built for herself, and everything she had subsequently lost, was her mother really here to take away what little she had left?

But then, it was her own fault, wasn't it? She had allowed her love for Henry to cloud her judgment. Her mother would be dead now, and Henry safe, if only she hadn't listened to that treacherous part of her soul that wanted to believe in love and Good and happy endings.

Happy endings didn't exist – not for people like her. And certainly not now, not with her mother here.

"No! Where are they?! What did you do to Mary Margaret and Emma?" Henry cried, rushing forwards.

It was his voice that spurred Regina into action, and she just barely managed to catch hold of him before he could approach her mother. He struggled in her grip, but she held him tightly, refusing to let go.

Cora wiped her hands on her dress and looked around coolly, taking in the scene, before turning to her daughter.

"Regina," she said.

"Mother," Regina answered quietly, no emotion in her voice.

"Is that all you have to say?" Cora asked, stepping forward. "It's been nearly thirty years, my darling, and you did send a pirate to kill me."

"He failed," Regina commented.

"Indeed." Cora looked down at Henry. "And this must be Henry. My… grandson?" Her gaze flicked up to Regina's face and she said, "Emma did say that you two… shared… him."

Regina's fingers tightened on Henry's shoulders and she saw him wince. She wanted to loosen her grip, but she couldn't force her hands to obey her mental commands. They were acting of their own volition, as though her subconscious was afraid that if she relaxed for even a moment, her mother would snatch Henry away.

"What did you do to Emma and Mary Margaret?" Henry demanded.

Regina interceded quickly, unwilling to allow her mother's attention to drift to the boy she so desperately needed to protect. "Henry, be quiet," she said, her voice firm and unyielding.

Cora smiled at Regina, a cold smile that did not reach her eyes. But then she turned away from her daughter and glanced over at Gold. "And Rumpelstiltskin, too. Quite the reunion." She paused for a moment before saying, "I'm sorry, my dear, but I don't believe we've met."

Regina glanced over her shoulder, and followed her mother's gaze to see Ruby rising unsteadily from the ground. The werewolf froze the moment Cora's gaze fixed on her, her own eyes wary, her stance tense.

"What did you do to Emma?" Henry said again, his voice quieter but no less angry. Regina sighed inwardly – why did he have to be so stubborn? Why couldn't he for once listen to her and stay quiet?

"Nothing," Cora replied, looking between Regina and Henry. "She and Snow are still in our land. With Hook."

It seemed all Gold was waiting for was confirmation of Hook's absence, because the moment Cora finished the sentence Regina felt the ripple of magic. She did not see Gold point the wand, but the air around her crackled with energy that coursed directly towards her mother.

Something inside Regina twisted. This, she knew, was the moment to run. Leave Gold and Cora to battle each other and escape to relative safety with Henry. The boy had slumped against her at Cora's proclamation that Emma and Mary Margaret were still trapped on the other side of the portal, and hopefully it wouldn't take much to pull him away.

And yet…

She could still feel the instinctual pull, the desire to help her mother. To protect her. To love her, and be loved in return. Even after all this time, that had not gone away.

Cora raised her hand and the air shimmered green, a force-field appearing to deflect Gold's attack. The two magics slammed into each other and rebounded, crashing into the trees and stirring up the leaves on the ground. Regina stumbled backwards, still holding Henry tightly, the breath nearly knocked out of her chest.

"So there is magic in this land," Cora said, gazing down at her hand with a contemplative expression. "Well, that is… not what I had expected."

Then she flicked her wrist at Gold and a tidal wave of power came crashing down on all of them.

Regina's reaction was immediate and automatic. She extended a hand to protect herself and Henry. But the power she had absorbed from the well still resided in her veins, and she was rusty with magic after twenty-eight years of not using it, and magic was unpredictable in this land anyway. She felt the flare of heat as her mother's magic smashed into her own shield, and the resulting flash of light was bright enough to momentarily blind her.

She lurched sideways, still holding onto Henry with one hand, and her shoulder slammed against a tree trunk. She winced and bit back a cry of pain. Spots danced in front of her eyes.

"Mom? Mom!"

It was Henry's panicked voice that roused her once again, forcing her to think past the pain in her shoulder and the pressure of the magic-laden air all around her.

"Mom, I can't see. It hurts," she heard him whimper.

She blinked several times to clear her vision and clambered back to her feet. She pulled Henry into her side, hugging him tightly. She wanted to reassure him, wanted to tell him that everything was going to be alright, but the words wouldn't come.

A hand grabbed at her arm and she turned, ready to attack, but it was only Ruby.

The werewolf was bleeding from a long gash on her forehead, and there were bruises on her pale skin. "What did you do?" she demanded.

There was a strange ringing in Regina's ears that made it hard to think, and so she was only able to give Ruby a blank stare. The question didn't even make sense to her – what had she done? Her thoughts were jumbled, confused… tired.

"They're gone," Ruby said.

"What?" Regina asked, glancing around. Sure enough, both her mother and Gold were gone. "I don't…how?"

"The woman… she did something," Ruby said. "A magic spell. Then you did something, and the result… it tore up the ground and I felt… like everything was collapsing in on me. I saw the woman get hit by a… a backlash, and she just sort of… disappeared. And then when I looked over at Gold, he was gone, too."

Regina straightened and released her hold on her son. Breathing slowly to calm her panic, she allowed herself a moment to truly survey the scene.

The well had been torn apart, and only a semi-circle of it remained. Pieces of rock littered the ground, as did branches of the surrounding trees. The underbrush had been ripped loose and flung about, and several large stones appeared to have been shattered. The air was still heavy with the remnants of the magic that had been used, like the gathering of humidity before a storm.

"What did you do?" Henry asked, wide-eyed and frightened.

"I only tried to raise a shield, to protect us," Regina answered softly, speaking more to herself than to either her son or the werewolf. Although both knew a bit about magic, she doubted either of them truly understood how unpredictable and uncontrollable such power was in this world.

"This was more than a shield," Ruby said dryly.

Regina gave her an annoyed look. "I had just absorbed a tremendous amount of deadly magic from the portal, Miss Lucas. I wasn't able to control it." She glanced down at Henry with a softer look, noting with an inward grimace his expression of hurt and distrust, before adding, "Besides, the shield worked well enough."

"It tore apart the well and nearly destroyed the clearing," Ruby hissed.

"It protected Henry," Regina countered. She turned to Henry, speaking to him directly and ignoring Ruby altogether, "I know I promised that I wouldn't use magic anymore, Henry, but you have to understand, I just… reacted. You were in danger. I needed to keep you safe, and I was willing to use magic to do it."

Henry looked at her, then looked around the clearing. Instead of answering her defense, he asked in a tiny voice, "Does this mean Emma and Mary Margaret aren't coming back?"

Regina forced back the annoyance at the question – did he always have to be thinking of the blonde? – and said as gently as possible, "Well, they are alive. My mother said she just left them in our land, and I don't think she was lying, so…"

"That was your mother?" Ruby cut in incredulously.

Regina sent her another irritated look. "Yes," she replied in a clipped tone. She had no desire to discuss her personal life with anyone, least of all one of Snow's old friends.

Before Ruby could respond, Henry scrambled away from both woman and raced towards the well. Regina spun around, feeling a flash of irrational panic as Henry moved away from her, but the words of admonishment died on her lips as she saw him staring into the well with a desperately hopeful expression.

He was waiting for Emma to climb out.

"The portal is closed, Henry," Regina said, trying - and likely failing - to sound sympathetic and gentle. "Miss Swan and Miss Blanchard are not going to come through it."

"But… but they have to," Henry whispered, tears pooling in his eyes.

Regina sighed. If the situation had been reversed, would her absence have driven Henry to tears? Some bitter part of her thought not - Henry had so effortlessly given his love to Emma, and it often felt like he did not have any left over for her.

But, she reminded herself, Henry had asked Emma to protect her from the angry mob that had stormed her house when the curse had first broken.

It wasn't the right time to dwell on this, though, because she had far bigger problems. "We need to return to the town," she said. "I am sure Gold is already back there, and my mother might be as well."

"We don't know what happened to her," Ruby said with some distaste. "What makes you think she's even still alive? Your magic could have killed her."

Regina shook her head, once again torn between relief and horror at the idea. She was willing to send Hook to kill her mother, or even to lend her magic to Gold so that he could create a deadly trap on the portal, but to actually kill Cora herself…

No, she didn't want to think about that. She didn't want to consider the possibility that she might have been the one to strike the fatal blow.

Then she blinked, coming to her senses, and said derisively, "You underestimate my mother, Miss Lucas. And that is never a good idea." She straightened her blouse and smoothed out the wrinkles in her pants, an nervous habit leftover from childhood that she had never quite gotten rid of, and said, "Henry, you will be safest at home. My home."

"I thought Henry was staying with David," Ruby countered pointedly, suspicion once again creeping into her tone.

"Yes, but David is currently in an enchanted sleep, so he isn't going to be much protection for my son, is he?" Regina snapped back, annoyed. Why did this insufferable woman have to keep interfering? She didn't have time to waste on these questions because, no matter what Ruby thought, Regina was positive there was no way her mother had been killed.

Cora was far too strong - and too cunning - for that.

"We can't just leave Emma and Mary Margaret!" Henry protested. "We have to help them. You promised you would help them!"

Regina hesitated, then walked over to Henry and knelt in the dirt before him. "And I will," she answered. "I will keep working on this, Henry. I will find another way to bring them back." Behind her, Ruby made a noise of clear disbelief, but Regina ignored her and pressed onwards, "But things are different now that my mother is here. She will come after you, I know she will. And I can't rescue Miss Swan and Miss Blanchard if I have to worry about your safety at the same time. So I need you to come back with me, come back to our house, and promise me that you will stay there."

Henry hesitated, then asked hopefully, "If I promise that, then you promise that you will find a way to bring them back?"

It hurt. It hurt knowing that her son would only agree to this if she swore to rescue the two women who had ruined her life. It hurt seeing that, even now, there was distrust in his eyes as he looked at her, as though he was simply waiting for her to turn back to evil.

But Henry was asking this, and there was only one answer she could give.

"Yes," Regina replied. "I promise."

Henry nodded, and with one last reluctant look at the well, he allowed Regina to pull him away.

"Do you really expect us to trust you?" Ruby questioned, falling into step alongside Regina. "How do we know that this wasn't some elaborate scheme you concocted with your mother?"

Regina rolled her eyes. "How exactly would I have plotted this with my mother when she was in a completely different world?"

"You have magic," Ruby replied. "And I find it convenient that your mother managed to defeat Snow and Emma…"

"My mother defeated them because her power rivals that of Gold's," Regina interrupted. "Your dear Mary Margaret and her daughter do not have magic, which means that they never stood a chance against her. No other reason."

Ruby lapsed into silence for a moment, and Regina frowned at her own words. Jefferson's hat had only worked once Emma had touched her arm, and although she did not particularly like to dwell on it, even she could not deny that in that moment she had felt the power residing within Emma's veins. The blonde did have some sort of magic – but that did not mean that she would be able to use it.

And it did not mean that she was stronger than Cora.

Regina glanced down at Henry who was walking in sullen silence. She saw no reason to reveal Emma's inherent magic to him, or to Ruby. She hadn't told Gold about it, either, and David was apparently to thick to realize what he had seen the night his wife and daughter had been pulled into the hat. So no one else knew about Emma's ability, and for now, Regina would keep it that way.

All magic came with a price, and Emma would no doubt have to pay one eventually. Regina was even a bit curious to see what that price would be. But at the moment, the less people who knew of it, the better.

"Mom?" Henry asked suddenly.

"Yes?"

"If David is in an enchanted sleep, he can't protect himself. What if your mother tries to hurt him?"

"I doubt my mother would be much interested in him," Regina replied truthfully.

"Yes, but what if she is?" Henry pressed. "Can we… can he stay with us? In the guest room? I mean…he's just sleeping, so he won't be in the way or anything. And you can keep him safe until Mary Margaret comes back."

Regina curled her lip in dislike of the idea and said as neutrally as possible, "He is currently in Gold's shop, Henry. He will be perfectly safe there."

Henry stopped walking, forcing Regina and Ruby to stop as well. "But…," he hesitated for a moment, then said in a rush, "I trust you more than I trust Mr. Gold." Again, he paused, then added, "Please, Mom?"

Regina closed her eyes. "Fine," she agreed, knowing that it would be the only way to get Henry to keep up his part of the deal. She opened her eyes in time to see Ruby give her a surprised look. "What?" she snapped.

"How do you plan on protecting them?" Ruby asked.

"Not that it is any of your concern, Miss Lucas, but I can set up a spell around my house," Regina replied. "With a little bit of work I should be able to make it strong enough to keep my mother out. Or, at least, slow her down."

"More magic?" Ruby demanded sharply. "I thought you promised Henry you weren't going to use your magic?"

Regina pressed her lips into a thin line. "I am doing it to protect him," she said coldly.

"Even if it isn't what he wants?"

"I'm his mother. My responsibility is to protect him, and that comes first."

"I'm right here," Henry interjected. "You don't have to talk about me like I'm not present."

Ruby ignored him and said, "A spell strong enough to keep out your mother would keep out everyone else as well. Are we supposed to believe that you aren't just trying to isolate Henry? To keep him locked up so that when Snow and Emma come back…"

"You are not his mother so this is hardly any of your concern," Regina hissed, and she started walking again, pulling Henry behind her.

"Of course it is my concern. Snow and David would want me to look after their grandson, and I owe them that. I owe Emma that, too. And besides, you say your mother is powerful, but it was your magic that spun out of control. I don't know what kind of woman your mother is, but I've seen the things that you've done and…"

Regina dropped Henry's hand, spun around, and slammed Ruby into the nearest tree. She heard Henry protesting, and saw the fury burning in Ruby's eyes, but none of it mattered. "I was in love," she said, her words quiet, but shaking with barely controlled rage. "I was young, and I had met my true love, my happy ending, but my mother thought he made me weak, so she ripped his heart out and crushed it in front of me. That is the kind of woman my mother is." She paused, took a breath, then said, "So I am going to do absolutely everything possible to keep her away from my son."

Ruby was silent as the anger drained from her eyes, replaced by a look of pity that Regina loathed but was too exhausted to comment on. For a moment, it appeared the werewolf was going to say something sympathetic, but perhaps the look of anger on Regina's face made her hold her tongue. Or maybe it was some sixth sense that told her how unwelcome her pity would be.

Whatever the reason, Ruby merely said, "Well, okay then."

"Let me get this straight," Leroy said, looking between Ruby and Regina in complete bewilderment, "you want to move the prince and Henry into the Evil Queen's house, and then allow her to put up a magical barrier that will keep out the entire town? After she already stole all the fairy dust?"

Regina resisted the urge to simply ignore the dwarf. It wasn't as though she needed his permission, and it was quite laughable that he was even standing defensively in front of Gold's shop as though he could stop her.

"It's fine, Leroy," Ruby said. "Regina explained it to me. She was actually trying to protect Henry. And she's trying to protect him now, too. This is for the best."

Regina wasn't entirely sure what surprised her more: Ruby's casual use of her first name or defense of her actions. However, Leroy did not look convinced, and continued his disgruntled muttering.

Regina glanced away from Ruby and Leroy and looked instead at Henry. He had lapsed into silence during the walk back to Regina's car, and had been quiet on the ride over to Gold's shop as well. She had been expecting more questions for him, or proposed plans with ridiculous codenames, or even protests about how Emma and Mary Margaret should have come through the portal. The unusual silence unnerved her.

The expression on his face was one of bewilderment. He looked… lost, she decided.

"I don't like this," Leroy grumbled, his voice loud enough to pull Regina from her concerned thoughts.

She huffed in annoyance, "I don't particularly like it either, dwarf," she snapped, her patience growing thin. "Believe me, the last thing I want to do right now is play house with Charming. But I promised Henry, and I have no intention of breaking that promise, so I suggest you get out of my way."

"You're not the queen or the mayor anymore, sister," Leroy shot back, unimpressed by her temper. "You don't get to give orders."

There was magic itching underneath her skin, and all it would take was one simply flick of her wrist to…

"Mom?" Henry asked suddenly, his voice shaking slightly, "why are your hands glowing?"

Regina glanced down at her hands with a frown. Sure enough, they were pulsating with a strange green light. She was dimly aware of Leroy taking a step back from her and felt a small spark of vindication at the knowledge that he was at least still afraid of her magic, but Henry was holding her wrist suddenly and she knew she couldn't afford to lose control here.

She took a slow breath and willed her anger to recede.

"Sorry, dear," she apologized. "It must be an aftereffect of all the magic I absorbed at the portal. I imagine it will go away soon enough."

At least, she hoped it would. If she couldn't control her magic, there was no possible way she would be able to place the protection spell around her house.

Henry nodded, though he looked less than convinced.

Regina turned back to Leroy. "Now, if you don't mind, I have work to do."

The dwarf gave Regina a resentful look, but at a nod from Ruby, he ungracefully stepped aside, allowing her entrance to Gold's shop. Regina walked by him without a word, pulling Henry with her.

She could hear the voices of the other dwarves in the back room, but Gold himself was nowhere to be seen. He had not returned to his shop, and although she had no desire to waste time worrying over his wellbeing, she couldn't stop the tiniest bit of concern from creeping into her mind. She was convinced that he had not been killed by her outburst of magic, but what if he had been injured? She would shed no tears over that, of course, but she rather hoped he was still well enough to help her stop her mother.

The imp could hardly be trusted on any other matter, but on this they were united.

"Where is the fairy dust? What did you do with it?"

"If you hurt Snow and Emma…"

"Where are they?"

The questions and accusations assaulted her the moment she stepped into the back room. She gave the dwarves a disinterested look, and then focused on David. The prince was still asleep, lying pale and nearly lifeless on the bed.

"Snow and Emma didn't come through the portal," Ruby said, stepping into the room. She nodded her head at Regina and added, "But her mother did."

"The witch has a mother?"

Regina wasn't sure which of the dwarves had spoken, so she fixed them all with a cold stare and said derisively, "I see the breaking of the curse has caused you all to regress to your previous levels of dwarfish stupidity. Or perhaps your cursed personalities were just as stupid as your magical ones?"

"Regina!" Ruby admonished, but Regina ignored her. She did not answer to some self-righteous werewolf who apparently thought she was now responsible for the town until the beloved Savior returned or David awoke.

"Of course I have a mother," she continued. "I'm not a dwarf; I didn't hatch from a giant egg."

Before any of the dwarves could respond, Ruby said briskly, "We need to take David to Regina's house. She can protect him from his mother."

"Yeah? And who is going to protect him from her?" Leroy demanded, nodding at Regina.

"Grumpy's right. You can't trust her."

"She'll just hurt the prince."

"I assure you, if I had any intention of hurting David, I would have done it already," Regina snapped. She would have said more, but Henry took that opportunity to detach himself from her grasp and knelt down in front of David, holding tightly to his grandfather's hand. His head was bent forward and his shoulders were slumped in defeat and, again, Regina felt her unease grow.

She could protect her son, and she could do her best to bring Emma and Mary Margaret back to Storybrooke, but something else was wrong...

And she didn't what it was or how to fix it.

"I'm not suggesting that we all suddenly trust her," Ruby said, and Regina forced herself to turn away from her son and focus on whatever the werewolf was saying.

"What are you suggesting, then?" one of the dwarves demanded.

"We will work with Regina to keep David and Henry safe," Ruby said. "We're not going to let her make unilateral decisions..." She trailed off and fixed Regina with a challenging stare. "I'll let you take Henry..."

"You'll let me?" Regina interrupted, scoffing at the very notion that Ruby could actually stop her.

Ruby continued as though Regina had not even spoken, "But you aren't going to keep him away from us. Whatever your plan is, we get input. We get a say in how this... conflict... with your mother goes down."

"And if I refuse?" Regina questioned sardonically.

"We beat you once," Ruby replied, "we can do it again."

"Do you really think I am going to fall for the same trick again?" Regina shot back, a smirk on her lips. "Fairy dust won't work on me this time, so I think you'll find, dear, that I am not that easy to defeat."

Ruby crossed her arms over her chest and replied with a smirk of her own, "Maybe not. But if your mother is as powerful and dangerous as you seem to think she is, can you really afford to fight us and her at the same time?"

And that was a question to which Regina could not reply.