Five years. Regina could barely believe it.
Her little princess was five years old.
And she was now the only heir to the throne.
"Lynn, darling," Regina knelt down to her daughter's height, the two of them in the snow, kept warm but beautiful fur coats. "You need to keep your gloves on," She gently tugged them back onto her daughter's hands, the little girl giggling. "I don't want you to get too cold."
Lynn all but jumped up into her mother's arms, wrapping her small arms around her neck. "Love love momma."
Regina smiled, cupping her daughter's cheek. "I love you too, darling."
"How charming,"
Regina stood up suddenly, nearly falling over when she turned around to see her mother. She drew Lynn closer to her, taking several steps back from Cora, who did not move.
"Don't," She hissed. "Don't you even dare touch her."
"I didn't come here to harm your precious daughter," Cora rolled her eyes. "I don't know who you love more. Her, yourself, or your father…..or that stable boy who fathered her."
Regina started to shake, bringing her little girl as close to her as possible, her eyes wide in fear when her daughter started to sniffle and cry.
"You really ought to remarry," Cora flippantly remarked, taking a small step closer to her daughter. "I also would suggest having another child, preferably a son."
"No," Regina said, taking in a sharp breath before summoning a goblet and a handful of potion ingredients. "I will not, and certainly not under your influence. You've spent my entire life trying to mold be into a perfect daughter, going so far as to kill the man I meant to marry -"
"You shouldn't have gotten pregnant before marrying Leopold to begin with," Cora frowned. "I did you a favour. Now you should take advantage of it now he's gone."
Regina stared her down, dropping the potion ingredients into the goblet, turning them to liquid with her magic. Cora stared at her in disbelief when she realised what she was about to do, her jaw dropping when Regina drank it in one heavy sip, casting the goblet aside. Less than a minute later, Regina collapsed to her knees into the snow in pain, holding onto her baby girl for dear life, the sweet little child holding onto her mother just as tightly. Cora was silent, pursing her lips, not hearing Regina whispering for the Dark One himself to come, fully intending to use him to do away with her mother. Unaware of Rumplestiltskin appearing behind her, Cora began to step towards her daughter, nothing but pure condescension and disgust in her face. Regina did not move to meet her eyes, even when she managed to pull herself up onto her feet. Then, as soon as she could, she glared at her mother, her eyes lidded and narrow.
"You made yourself barren just to spite me?" Cora raised an eyebrow. "You have lost your mind."
"I will never," Regina snapped, clutching Lynn to her chest. "Have a child that isn't Daniel's,"
Cora rolled her eyes. "You have always been a disappointment," She said. "But here you are only hurting yourself."
Within a few seconds, Cora all but ran at her daughter, her magic summoned. Regina, closing her eyes, was faster by a mere moment, pulling her mother's heart halfway out of her chest. She let it go, however, struggling to hold onto it, and Cora stumbled back, struggling to catch her breath.
"Incredible work."
Cora whipped around, suddenly face to face with a man she had once had a tryst with.
"You."
"I have to say, I never thought there would be someone stronger than you that I taught," Rumple remarked. "But if it were to be anyone, it would be your daughter."
He suddenly grabbed her by the collar, summoning a mirror and pushing her through it, destroying it the moment Cora was gone. When he turned to Regina, she was smiling, running her fingers affectionately through her daughter's hair
"I never thought you had it in you, dearie," Rumple said with a dark look. "But I hope you appreciate the reward I have given you for it."
Regina scowled at him. "Leave," She said coldly. "Let me have time with my daughter."
"Of course," He said, walking backwards from her. "After all, I am unable through the magic you forced upon me to harm her and, by extension, you. Enjoy your time with her," He laughed. "As I imagine you always do."
He disappeared in a cloud of smoke, just as Henry ran out from inside the palace.
"Regina/" He worriedly eyed his daughter and granddaughter. "Is everything alright?"
She smirked. "Don't worry, daddy," She assured him. "It is now."
"So," Red said, tossing Snow a piece of bread. "How exactly does one go from being the heir to the throne to being a bandit in the woods?"
Snow paused to take a few bites of the bread, swallowed hard, and then sighed.
"My step mother…." She hesitated. "The Queen," She corrected. "Sent me out on a hunting trip. I got some good game with my escort, and it did help me until….well until I ran into and met you, but…."
Red eyed her, tilting her head slightly. "You okay?"
Snow chewed on the inside of her cheek, though she relaxed a little when Red came over to her from the other side of their tent and wrapped her large red cloak around them both. Snow warmed almost immediately, Red's soft but strong body heat drawing her away from the cold ice outside their tent.
"She meant for me to die," She finally said. Red let out a horrified squeak. "I don't even know why,..." Snow reached up to brush away a few tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "It came out of nowhere!"
Red pulled her into a hug, "Do you want to know what I think?"
Snow coughed a little but nodded. "Go ahead."
"I think," She took in a deep breath. "That she wants her biological child to succeed her as Misthaven's Queen."
Snow pulled away from her, shivering, and horrified.
"Lynn is my half-sister, she's only five, a small child!" She exclaimed. "And Regina….she was horribly sick during her entire pregnancy and for nearly a year after her daughter was born! She loves her more than anything else! Why would she force her own child to grow up knowing she is only going to be Queen because her sister was killed by her mother?"
Red chewed nervously at the inside of her cheek.
"Snow…" She slowly began. "There have been whispers for years that Regina killed your father….and that she never wanted to marry him."
Snow glanced down at her hands. "I remember….Regina had been in love with a stable boy, but he had run away."
Red sighed. "No one will say anything...but King George -"
"The monarch of the northern realm?" Snow's brow furrowed in confusion.
"- supposedly he revealed to his court that Queen Regina's daughter was conceived before her marriage to your father."
Snow stared at her in disbelief.
"Here," Red said, pressing a small mirror into her hands. "I stole it a little while back to communicate with my granny...but I'm sure it will work for you to contact the Queen."
Snow weighed the mirror in her hands and then heavily stood up and stepped out of the tent, facing away from it so as to not give away anything about her location beyond the woods.
"Regina," She said softly.
The mirror started to shift, colour swirling within it. Then, just as she was going to toss it aside, the mirror's cloudy smoke dissipated, revealing the Queen, standing in her bedchamber, her eyes wide in stunned shock.
"Fuck…" She whispered, her eyes narrowing. "What happened to keep you alive?" Regina raised her voice, her chest rising and falling quickly. "You -"
"It doesn't matter, and I would never tell you that," Snow shook her head. "I have something to ask you, and I expect you to be honest."
Regina scoffed. "What might that be?"
Snow began to shake in anger, the mirror wavering in her hands.
"Is Lynn my father's?" She forced out. "Is she really my sister?"
Regina took a small step back.
"She is your sister," Regina replied, laughing a bit. "But she has never been your father's. She is Daniel's and mine alone, and always has been."
Snow's eyes went wide in horror. "No….did….did you do something to him?"
"Your father?" Regina raised an eyebrow. "Allow me to put it this way: you got my daughter's father killed," Snow flinched and Regina snorted. "In kind, I killed your father, taking the throne for myself. But we are not - and we will never - be even."
It was quiet, and the light reflected gently off the freshly fallen snow. Both of them feeling tired, Snow and Red walked, the tent wrapped up and carried on Snow's back, the food sack on Red's shoulder. Their feet softly crunched against the snow, and there was an uncomfortable tension held between the two women. Since the conversation between the Queen and Snow, nothing had felt quite right, and neither of them were keen to broach the subject. Every so often, Red reached over and held Snow's hand, trying to prevent her from tripping, or getting hurt from her distracted thoughts. For how sick to her stomach Snow felt whenever she thought even fleetingly about what she had learned, she refused to stop going. She had to survive, get stronger, and be better. She had to pay that to her father, at the very least. Still in disbelief at her father's death being set up and followed through by her own step mother, Snow could barely keep her thoughts straight.
She could barely believe what happened to her family.
"We're almost to town," Red said, tiredly stretching out her arms. "I'm sure they won't recognise you or even suspect who you are, but if anything happens, I'll keep you safe."
Snow managed a small laugh. "I think I can take care of myself just -"
Red suddenly grabbed her and pulled them back further behind the trees, her heart beating rapidly. Snow turned to her, shocked, but fell completely silent in understanding when she heard the steady steps of horses beginning to ride down the road. As soon as they were hidden but still able to see, both women felt their hearts sink into their stomachs when they saw royal guards and, then, the Queen riding, her daughter in her lap, happily sticking her tongue out and trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue. Her short, dark brown hair, cut into its soft banged bob fluttered around, and her pale skin almost matched the snow she was trying to catch. The Queen looked down every so often, slowly riding, one hand on the reigns and the other holding her daughter steady. Whenever she looked at her little girl, she smiled and her eyes instantly lit up.
That quickly dissipated.
WIthout warning, several arrows flew by. Snow and Red both turned around, only seeing a hooded figure start to run away, albeit seemingly unsatisfied. The two women turned back towards where they had been watching the Queen, only to see five arrows lodged in a tree just by where the Queen had stopped her horse, holding her daughter tight against her chest, the little girl starting to cry. Her eyes, even from the distance, had turned to pure fury, and her hand shook on the reigns. Then she started to speed up her pace towards the town. Snow and Red ran - sprinted - to keep up pace as well as they could, arriving at the far edge of the town, still concealed by the woods, when the Queen stopped. She stepped down from her horse and held her daughter on her hip, soothingly running her free hand through her little girl's hair. The villagers all ran out the second they realised the Queen was in their midst, and all of them bowed, the chief approaching the Queen and bowing the deepest under her dark gaze.
"My Queen," She said, slowly rising to meet Regina's gaze. "It is an honour to be in your presence."
Regina frowned. "Honour," She said coldly. "Is far from it."
Everyone began to whisper, falling silent the second they saw the anger in their Queen's eyes.
"A few paces back," Regina began, her voice wavering in outrage. "Someone from within the woods shot multiple arrows at my daughter. If any of you are at all responsible, I expect you to come forward….now."
Silence.
"Your Majesty," The chief stammered. "I can personally assure you that none among us would ever try to take the life of Princess Lynn Mary Anne."
Regina shifted her daughter higher on her hip and affectionately pressed a kiss to the top of her head, the little girl clutching onto one of her long necklaces while her crying began to taper off.
"And I get the sense that you might be lying," Regina summoned a dark, swirling orb in her free hand. "I don't like to repeat myself."
More silence.
"I can't believe her…" Snow whispered to Red.
"You were right about one thing," Red quietly replied. "She does love her daughter more than anything else….but that is the only good thing I can say about her."