The Evil Queen's Black Widow

by 06bromleys

Nothing is True. Everything is Permitted. Cursed for betraying her Queen, Amelia Montague must figure out how she wants the rest of the world to perceive her. As the villain she became, or the hero she wants to be, but will her feelings for the Queen be a help or hindrance to the Master Assassin or she will she always be known as the infamous Black Widow (Rated M for safety)

117. Chapter 117: Wish You Were Here

AN: Face claims and outfits!

Introducing:

Chris Wood (Supergirl)

as

Wish Realm Thomas Smith

and

Katherine McNamara (Shadowhunter's)

as

Helen

For reference the outfit for Wish Realm Thomas is Edward Kenway's robes from AC: Black Flag.

Wish Realm Amelia's outfit is Ezio's outfit from AC: Brotherhood.

---

Enchanted Forest

28 Years Ago

Surrounded by the bodies of fallen Dark Knight. She stood in the middle of a corridor that led to the Saviour's nursery as the Dark Curse thundered above them. The fresh blood of the fallen dripped from the steel blade in her hand, warm laboured breaths burnt her lungs as her heart pounded in her chest as the adrenaline of what was about to happen to her.

"How did I know you'd do this" the lone assassin didn't need to look behind her to see that her end was coming. Slowly turning to face the Evil Queen, the assassin saw no trace of the woman she loved behind the hate and vengeance that had consumed her heart. The same hate and vengeance that had darkened her own heart lay heavy in her chest, through her efforts to find sort of comfort in her grief.

"Vengeance has consumed you" she glowered at the woman down the corridor "I won't let it consume me".

Wiping the blood off the sword onto the sleeve of her dark robe, the assassin took up the same stance her father was known to use whenever he faced his enemy, with it held up over her head with a steady hand held out before her to balance her attacks as she held the Queen's steady gaze with her own, telling her she wasn't going to back down to whatever she threw her way.

"So be it" the Queen stated conjuring a ball of fire in her hand and throwing it towards the woman that had betrayed her, hitting her square in the chest sending her onto the floor as the brunette stared at the flattened assassin, realising what her love was doing.

She didn't even try and move out of the way. She wanted to die, she wanted her to kill her. Stepping forward, her knights went to follow her only for their Queen to quickly stop them from moving as she approached the fallen assassin laying in amongst the dead bodies of their comrades.

Coming to a stop to stand over her, she found the assassin staring at the ceiling as the curse continued to rumble it's way towards them. Why wasn't she fighting her?.

"Just tell me" the Queen spoke to the fallen assassin "Why now?" the Queen asked her love, making sure the woman couldn't here her heartbreak.

Why did she choose now to betray her? Just as they were about to get their happy ending together.

"She's…" the redhead panted out through the pain in her chest "…innocent" she forced out of her teeth.

The excuse made the Queen look away from the woman to make sure she didn't see the tears that threatened to fall only for the villain to see the deep bloody cut on her thigh. She was going to make sure she suffered for her betrayal before the curse could take her away. Lifting her heeled foot from the ground the dark-haired woman placed it upon the injured thigh before a smirk grew on her lips before pushing her whole weight down on the cut making the redhead stifle out a pained groan as blood poured out of the open wound onto the Queen's heel.

"So was Daniel" the Queen sneered down pushing down further, inflicting as much pain as she could. She needed to make her hurt, see her in pain, make see her how much she had hurt her by betraying her just when they were about to get everything.

Blinking through the unbearable pain the assassin decided that this wouldn't be her end, she was going to get her happy ending even if it wasn't with the woman she truly loved.

Grabbing hold of the Queen's leg that was causing her so much pain, the action took the older by surprise before she suddenly felt her leg being pulled forward, throwing her off balance for the assassin to sweep her legs under her standing foot to make her fall onto the ground.

Defenceless against the Master Assassin's actions the stunned Queen gasped out in pain as a cool hidden blade slid into her chest, puncturing her heart.

"I'm sorry" she heard someone whisper above her to make her look to see her love hovering over her with a pained expression as tears freely flowed from her emerald eyes.

"I'm so sorry" she tells the Queen through the sobs that wrecked through her body as she watched the light of the woman, she loved go limp under her as the thunder above them let out one final roll before coming to a sudden halt.

The Queen was Dead.

The castle stopped shaking and the fighting outside was cut short as Dark Knights and the royal's friends and allies alike looked up to see the clear night sky above them with thousands of stars shining above them before the Knights laid down their swords against their enemy. They had won.

In his cell, The Dark One Rumplestiltskin giggled with glee knowing only his niece could've been responsible for the curse coming to an end. The Product of Star-Crossed Lovers had killed her Queen, his fail safe had worked.

the prince had been moments away from closing the doors of the wardrobe to send his new-born daughter away before the thunder of the curse had stopped and his wife had stumbled into the room to find him, just as confused as he was to what had happened.

Venturing out of the nursery, with his daughter in his arms, the royal couple heard the sobs of heartbreak as They found the Black Widow hunched over the Queen's still body as sobs wreaked her body to see how the curse had been stopped.

The Black Widow had saved them.

---

Knelt in front of his grave seemed to be the only thing she had the energy to do now it was too late to save her daughter from Basim, she didn't know what would happen to her to end up in the vision together. The only comfort she found in the dreamworld with her daughter is that she found her way through the fog that had clouded her mind since New York and that she had a part of him that she could call her own in their daughter.

Their daughter. It was odd to think her as his. She hadn't been sure herself if she were being honest. The weeks had blurred past with no tell-tale sign, she only suspected after the girls night out when she couldn't shake off the hangover.

She just wished she had the courage to tell him when he asked weeks ago, if there was a chance she was his. But she couldn't change the past now, she made her decision and she couldn't go back on it now that she had to find her daughter. And she would find a way for the final vision to end differently.

"I should've known you'd come here" her voice broke through her thoughts as the Queen sauntered up to her with an air of confidence in her steps as she circled the defenceless assassin sat on the ground in front of the thief's grave.

"Nice trick by the way. You nearly got away from me" she grinned at the assassin seeing her bandaged left hand "I see Basim found you first though., but when a pathetic mess like him seeks you out for help, you just can't help but to say. Yes. h" she hissed the last word into the redheads ear, before her eyes flickered over the gravestone.

"Tell me my love, did you ever tell him you forgave him for what he did to you all those years ago?".

"Is that why you've been so..fragile..lately, or is it to do with the one person you really blame for his death?".

"And I'm not talking about my dear Wicked sister here. I'm talking about the same woman that he saved from the Olympian crystal, that obliterated his soul!" her load voice made the redhead snap her head towards the noise to face the Queen as angry tear fell down her cheek.

"You" she answered the Queen as she shook from the anger that boiled in her veins.

The answer made the Queen chuckle to herself "Wrong again dear. You're not as good at this game as you think you are".

"Hey!" her voice broke through conversation as Regina, Emma and Hook ran towards the scene to find the Evil Queen stood over Amelia "Get away from her!".

"Speak of the devil" she heard the Queen mutter before she turned her attention to her other half "Don't worry. I'm not here to desecrate Robin's final resting place. Amelia loved him after all".

"Loved. Past tense" she reminded her other half making the latter glance down at the redhead who hadn't moved, not even to look at her friends and family as the Queen continued "Amelia losing Robin Hood was the best thing to ever happen to us. It pushed you...to liberate me, to free me from the prison of your self-loathing, to make the best version of us".

"As a bonus, you even convinced our love to do the same" she added knowing it would get under her skin.

At the mention of the redhead the three hero's eye's flickered over to the woman that had been freshly cured of Dream shade only to take back her darker-self as a price for the Queen's help as the saviour saw how much her words were effecting her. Especially when she referred Amelia to being her love as well.

"Only drawback, our love's self-loathing after separating herself from the Widow drove her right back to me. Ironic. Isn't it?".

"Regina, don't let her get to you" Emma called out to her friend.

"It's too late" she tells the blonde conjuring a ball of fire in her hand which only made the Queen chuckle at her actions.

"What are you gonna do? Throw a fireball at yourself?" with a wave of her hand the Queen easily snuffed out the fire in her other half's hand "The only way to hurt me is to hurt you, which is why your friends won't be able to stop me. See? Love is weakness".

Turning to leave unharmed the Queen paused in front of the blonde saviour and her pirate "Say hi to Sleeping Beauty" she tells the younger woman "...or is it Sleeping Daddy?".

"Emma, no!" A flash of steel made the assassin jump from the ground the assassin reached out to stop the riled saviour from hurting the Queen only for the blade to leave a shallow cut on the Queen's left cheek, making the redhead panic and look at Regina to see her holding the same cheek only for no mark to appear on her pale skin when she took her hand away.

"Are you.." words failed the redhead in that moment needing to know that she was okay after her other half getting hurt.

"I'm...fine" Regina answered her unaware that the former Queen had seen what was missing from her left hand as the other's looked towards the Queen.

Looking back at the Queen, the woman waved her hand over the cut trying to heal it only for nothing to happen as the assassin looked at the sword that Emma held in her hand to recognise it as the same sword that killed them in the vision.

This was her opportunity. Without hesitation the Saviour's lunged forward, aiming for the Queen's heart only for the woman to disappear in the cloud of purple smoke.

Looking towards the saviour the same thought came to the saviour and her protector "We can kill her" the saviour realised for the pair of them only for the heroes to notice the bandaged left hand that was missing something.

"Oh my god" Regina breathed out seeing what had happened to her since that last time she had seen her as the other's looked on in worry.

Right.

She had a lot to catch them up on

---

Retreating to the loft to inform the Charming couple of the latest development, the small family gathered under the stairs in the downstairs' bedroom around Snow's sleeping form as Charming listened to what had happened with the sword Emma had found in the back of the pawn shop. The same sword that killed her and Amelia in the vision over and over again.

With her son by her side, the teen hadn't left her side as the assassin briefly told the other's what had happened after she had taken the cure for her dream shade poisoning, including using the Apple to take back her darker half. Briefly touching the forced amputation while she was dazed.

Hook was the only one to notice the redhead's discomfort, he knew how it felt to lose a limb to your enemy, as Tom seemed to be the only one to understand the significance of that specific finger as he quickly shut down the other's questions about the symbolism, having read countless codex's on the practise.

Hearing what the Queen had done to her only seemed to push the saviour to going through with her plan to kill the Evil Queen while they had the momentum. It needed to happen tonight.

While Regina leant against the brickwork, Tom seemed to work as a buffer between the married couple as she stood along side Charming as he listened to every word his daughter had to say as she sat on the bed alongside her sleeping mother.

"So, it can hurt the Queen without hurting Regina" Charming repeated his daughter's explanation.

"The Evil Queen needs to die" Emma emphasised to the group to which Regina silently nodded along from her place, before David cell rang out from his pocket.

"Yeah?" David answered his cell, taking it into the living room.

"You sure about this, love?" Hook asked his love as he stepped forward.

"In this case, the cliché is true. I was... born for this".

"Mom" Henry called out to his mother hearing this "Don't do it".

Excusing themselves from the room, Amelia, Regina, Tom and Hook swiftly left the room knowing they needed to leave the saviour to speak to her son.

"Henry, I can stop her" Emma tells him "With this sword, I can save all of us".

"That sword is what kills you and Lia".

"How do you know this isn't how you die... facing her?. What if she's the figure under the hood in your vision?".

"I can't sit out every battle because I think it might be my last" she tells him "I'm the Saviour, kid".

"You're also my mom" he retorted before turning on his heel to disappear upstairs quickly followed by Tom that had overheard the conversation.

In the kitchen as she found the first aid kit she knew would be filled with fresh bandages, dropping the green box onto the kitchen table the redhead suddenly felt her left hand come out in pins and needles originating from the missing finger making it shake as she feeling her lung tighten as flashes of the vision came to her mind.

It was her in a fight against the figure in white, only this time, the hood had fallen to reveal Helen's face to her as Mother and Daughter clashed steel in the middle of main street as the redhead noticed the new change of her missing finger when she raised her left hand to block one of her daughter's hidden blades from hitting Emma, before the blade across her face.

"Hey" David voice brought her out of the vision, feeling her heart thump against her chest "That was Leroy. Evil queen was spotted headed down Main Street".

"All right. Let's go" the former Queen replied as the assassin stepped into action, heading for the door only for the pirate to quickly stop her.

"No, no luv. You can't" Killian quickly stopped the redhead from leaving the apartment while Emma stopped Regina "Not with your hand like that" he added glancing at the appendage, quickly making the assassin uncomfortable enough to hide it from the man.

"Really? This coming from a man missing an entire hand" she retorted "I lost a finger. I'll get over it" she went to leave again only for the man to place a firm hand on her shoulder, pushing her back.

"No, you won't" he quickly tells her "Take it from me that you will always feel like something is missing. You'll miss the feeling of being able to hold onto something you love with your whole hand" he goes on seeing that he had got through to the angry woman "Spend some time with the lad. He's missed you and I give you my word that we'll call you if we need your help".

Nodding in acceptance the pirate left alongside his love and her father to face the Evil Queen leaving the redhead with the former Queen alone in the loft with the sleeping Snow White in her bed and their son's upstairs to wait to hear anything from the others.

Meeting her love's gaze across the apartment the green-eyed assassin couldn't only think of only one thing to break the tension in the room "Drink?" she offered the woman "Swan told me where she hid the good stuff before she moved out".

The offer made the former Queen smile to herself seeing the woman trying her best to fill the awkward silence of the loft "Sure" she accepted making her way to the breakfast bar while the redhead reached under the sink to retrieve the glass bottle that was hidden in among the cleaning products with her left hand while Regina found some nearby mugs to use.

"How are you feeling?" Regina asked her as the assassin made her way to the end of the bar.

"Better than the last time I saw you" she answered opening the bottle only to see her mistake making her pause for thought.

Seeing the redhead's predicament the former Queen quickly took over, taking the bottle from the redhead to pour the amber liquid into the mugs, glancing towards the bandaged hand.

"Your hand?" the brunette broached the subject.

"Hurts like hell" the former Queen's frown only deepened as she placed the bottle onto the counter seeing what remined of the finger. At least she knew now why her wedding band was left behind in their home.

"It's not your fault Regina" Amelia's voice cut through her thoughts making her look back at the woman across from her "I have feeling that it wasn't something she thought of on the spot".

It wasn't. Back when she was still angry with her for betraying her, she knew the significance of that finger, she wanted to do something that would be used as a reminder of what she had done, and now the Queen had carried it out.

"I'm sorry" she cringed to herself.

"For what?" the redhead shrugged "It wasn't you that sent a meat cleaver straight through it" the redhead replied imitating with her hand the motion of the cleaver. At least she hasn't lost her dark sense of humour.

"No, I mean for everything. For not trusting you-".

"Regina-" the redhead tried to stop her.

"If I had just-".

"Regina!" she stopped her from speaking as Regina's phone starts to ring from her coat pocket "You can't always save me. And as much as you want to, there are things that I'm gonna need to do on my own and that includes going to people I don't want to go to for help".

"Now answer that call and I'll tell you everything I know" she instructs her love who sat opposite her looking at her in disbelief as she did as she was told and took out her phone to see who was calling her at his hour.

"It's the convent" she stated with furrowed brows before answering. Amelia didn't need to listen to know what she was being told as her soulmate' frown deepened as she was being told that Helen was missing from the convent.

Looking up at her wife in a state a panic she was only met by a stoic face looking back at her. She knew that look. She knew.

The former Queen didn't need to listen to whatever the fairy had to say to her as she ended the call as she stared up at the assassin opposite her.

"How?" her voice shook.

"Basim" Amelia started "He found me after I escaped the farmhouse with the Apple. He held me in the vault, helped me with my hand, only to tell me that he had been working with the Queen this whole time to find a way to take her without anyone of us knowing. He knocked me out, took the Apple with him and hasn't been seen since".

"Then what the hell are we doing here?!" she exclaimed to her soulmate jumping from the stool ready "We have to go find her!".

"She's okay. She's alive" the redhead tried to tell her, but it came to no avail as it only seemed to rile her more.

"How!?" she yelled across the apartment "How could you possibly know that?".

"Because I see her in the vision" she tells her love "She's the figure in white that kill's Emma and I".

---

With the sword in her hand Emma, Hook and David walked down Main Street in search for the Evil Queen knowing she had been spotted nearby ready to put an end to her once and for all only to hear a voice coming from the diner.

"Help me!" the voice alerted the hero's making them veer towards Granny's Diner. Emma led the charge into the diner as they found Jasmine tied to a chair in the middle of the restaurant.

"Jasmine!" the Saviour exclaimed rushing forward to help the Princess only to be halted.

"Uh, uh" the Queen denies the hero's getting closer to the distressed woman as she emerges from the kitchen with the Genie's lamp to stand beside the captured Princess and the visible cut on her cheek "This is about me. It's always about me".

"Damn right" the blonde spat out moving forward with the sword ready to strike the Queen down only to stop when the Queen uses her magic to choke the Princess in the chair.

"I can snap her neck before you get a step closer" the Queen warns her as Jasmine continued to choke, making the saviour take reluctant step back "That's better" she grins at the saviour letting the Princess go, making her gasp for air as the older woman rubs the genie lamp in her other hand summoning the genie within as a cloud of dark yellow smoke released from the spout creating a mass of smoke on the other side of the captured Princess before it evaporated to reveal Aladdin as the new genie of the lamp, now under the Queen's control.

"What the devil?" Hook cursed seeing who the new genie was.

"Mm, not the Devil. My genie" the Queen corrects the pirate.

"I'm sorry" Aladdin tells the other's knowing he had no choice but to follow his owner's wishes.

"I believe I have three wishes" the Queen starts as she paces back and forth in front of the hero's keeping her gaze firmly on the blonde in front of her.

"Go ahead. Wish. They always come with a price" Aladdin warns her.

"That they do" she agrees with him coming to stop in front of the Saviour "Which is why I'm not going to wish for something for me. I'm going to give you something... something you've always wanted, something you confided about…to Aladdin".

"You heard us?" the blonde asked her.

"Don't you know by now? I hear everything. You wished you weren't the Saviour. So that's exactly what you're going to get" she tells the woman before addressing the Genie.

"Genie of Agrabah, I wish... that Emma Swan's wish to have never been the Saviour be granted".

"No!" Emma yelled lunging forward with the sword only for Aladdin to raise his hand towards the saviour making her vanish.

"What happened?" Hook exclaimed "Where did she go?!".

---

Wish Realm

Blowing out the blue star candle the Princess Emma opened her eyes to a serenade of 'Happy Birthdays' and applause from the courtiers as she looked up to see her mother and Father with beaming smile's upon their faces as they clapped along with the other's as they celebrated their daughter's twenty-eighth birthday.

"Mommy. Daddy" she calls out to her aging parents with a beaming smile matching theirs.

"So tell us, Princess" Leroy spoke up next to Granny once the applause had quieted "hat did you wish for?" he asks the girl who has everything.

"Not a thing" she answers the dwarf "Everything I could ever want is right here". Snapping her fingers, Granny silently orders the guards at the doors to open them for the trays of food by their servants only for the doors to open to two people who were missing from the birthday celebrations.

"Amelia!" Snow exclaimed from her place to see her old friend walk into the hall in her alongside her grown son Thomas Smith beside her returning from the protected, thriving city Monteriggioni just in time to join in with the celebrations "You made it!".

"Sorry we're late" the redhead beamed at her old friends making Emma whirl around to see her godmother make it just in time for her birthday.

"Godmother Amelia" Emma sighed in relief seeing the redhead that had been by her side throughout her whole life "It's good to see you" she adds engulfing the older woman in a warm embrace that was readily mirrored by the redhead as she held the Princess in her arms.

"You too Princess" she tells the girl she watched grow into the woman she was today before pulling out of the hug to reach into her white robe to take out a small wooden ring box neatly tied by a golden bow "Happy Birthday Emma".

"Amelia" she sighed out shaking her head in disbelief "You didn't have to get me anything".

"Good thing it's not from me then" she corrects the Princess offering it to the young woman "Made especially for you by the people of Monteriggioni. They miss their favourite Princess. They expect a visit soon" reaching out to take the gift from the redhead, the box is quickly taken out of her reach by the former assassin making the Princess look back at her godmother "As do I" she reminds the young woman "You know how much I enjoy watching Maria frantically trying to plan your visit".

"I do" she chuckles as the gift is put back into her hand "Thank you. I'll come visit soon".

"Good" Amelia adds seeing a small frown on the younger woman's face. Something was wrong.

"Sir Thomas" Emma greets Amelia's son with a small curtsy by the lightly bearded explorer in front of her.

"Princess" Thomas replied bowing his head at her. He was always a man of few words since he used roam the palace alongside her son, but as he grew older and matured faster, he was drawn to the sea. Leaving soon after his eighteenth birthday he took himself away much to Henry's disappointment as he looked up to him from a young age.

"We'll see ourselves around. Enjoy your gift" taking their leave the former assassin and her son left the Princess to open her present, gently pulling the bow apart, the Princess is met by the box her gift is in, taken aback by the Brotherhood of Assassin' arrowhead symbol that was engraved on the lid.

The Brotherhood had long since been disbanded shortly after her birth by Amelia herself with all it's members now dead. The redhead would be the last Assassin to ever walk the land, it's values and teachings would die with her.

Opening the box to reveal a ring inside, but it wasn't like any other ring she had seen in her life, for one, it was made from stone with small engraving's etched into it.

Discarding the box to the side, the Princess easily slipped the ring onto her middle finger of her left hand, holding it out it front of her, the Princess gazes at the odd gift she received from her godmother only to be interrupted when her mother walks over having seen the troubled look on her face even when she was speaking to one of her favourite people in the entire world.

"Sweetie, something's bothering you" her mother observes outload, as her parents took her aside to speak to her "What's wrong?".

"Last night I had a dream that... that the Queen did cast her curse, and I was the Saviour, as you told me".

"Yes, but with the Queen defeated, all of that was avoided" Snow reminds her through her smile.

"Right. Right" Emma trails off "But in my dream, I was in this strange, fantastical land unlike anything I'd ever seen before, and we were still fighting her... all of us. I-Including Amelia. She was still an assassin" she went on trying to convince her parents that what she dreamt was real. At the mention of the former assassin the royal couple glanced towards the woman that had saved them all speaking to the dwarfs before they looked back at their daughter "And this place... it had a name. It was called...Storybrooke".

"It was only a dream" David said reaching out to take her hand trying to reassure her "Your godmother left that life years ago. She isn't a villain anymore; you know that more than anyone".

"I do. I do" she echoed to her parents "But, then when I woke up, I found this" she says picking up a sword that she say in her dreams from a nearby chair "It was under my bed".

"Well, one of the servants must have put it there" Snow reasoned with her daughter "They were cleaning the armoury".

"Oh, no. Oh, no. I'm so sorry. Did I miss it?" A voice interrupted their conversation as Prince Henry hurried into the hall, running towards his mother and grandparents " I was practicing for tomorrow and lost track of time. I wanted to make sure cousin Thomas would be impressed with my progress when he got back. Can you please forgive me?".

"Of course, Henry" his mother tells him, bringing him into a warm embrace before pulling away to take his hand into hers "I want your knighting ceremony to be perfect. You're going to be the noblest knight the kingdom has ever seen" she tells her son as the young Prince see's the sword in his mother's other hand.

"Is that for me? For tomorrow?" he asks his mother and grandparents taking the sword out of Emma's hand to hold it up himself "My name is Sir Henry, Knight of the Realm. And I shall defend all of you" he proclaims to the small group making his grandmother chuckle to herself.

"Don't let your cousin hear you say that" she teased her grandson.

"Too late. I hear everything." a voice he recognized announced her presence behind him, making him look back to see his cousin Amelia making her way towards "That's my job remember".

"Lia!" he excitedly exclaimed seeing his father's younger cousin approach "You came!".

"Of course we came. How could we miss Sir Henry's defender of the realms knighting ceremony?" she teased him further making him flush in embarrassment having Amelia overhear him.

"Wait we?" he said shaking his moment of embarrassment from his mind "Thomas is here?".

"Somewhere" she sighs out "We've only just arrived ourselves" she adds looking over the young man in front of her "Let me go find him, then you can show us why you should be given the title as the defender of the realm after I'm done with it" she say's winking her eye at him.

"Of course, Amelia- I mean Lady Amelia, Defender of the Realm" he corrects himself using the title that had bestowed on her by his own grandparents many years ago before he was born.

Bowing at the waist with his arms extended out the former assassin scoffed at him while his grandparents chuckled at his antics before the assassin turned and left the small family to themselves in search of her own grown son.

"Your father would be very proud of you" Emma suddenly tells her son making the young Prince look up at the large portrait of this father on the wall behind his mother.

"I wish…I wish I'd known him" he trails off.

"He's watching over you. He's always watching over you".

"Now, then!" David spoke up taking his daughter's arm into his "I believe we have some celebrating to do. Come! The party's only just begun".

"Of course, Daddy" she replies allowing her father to take her around the hall leaving Henry admiring the sword in his hand that went noticed by his grandmother

"Oh, Henry, put that thing away" she tells her grandson "This family is done fighting".

Making her way through the crowd of courtiers the former assassin caught sight of her own son stood before one of the portraits that lined the large hall, knowing exactly which one he was stood at.

Romeo Montague was Queen Snow's godfather and Amelia's father. The man spent his life protecting his daughter from those who would kill her from simply existing and did exactly that when a message was accidently sent by Snow herself revealing his treason by fathering his child. Now years after his death, the man had been immortalised into a portrait that hung in the King and Queen's home for everyone to see the man that had shaped three people into the person they were today.

Taking a place beside her son the former assassin looked up at the weathered kind face of her father stood strong at the helm of the Jackdaw, guiding his ship through the roughest of waters In his signature Brotherhood ensemble that his grandson know wore.

"You miss him" the redhead observes outload to her grown son.

"I do" Thomas replies, "I just happy to know I got to know him, even if I didn't know who he was to me".

"Me too, Tom" she sighed out. Her son had practicably been raised by her father on the mysterious island of Neverland since he ended up there when he was young. Every decent part of him was down to his grandfather's nurturing into the man he was today. Even If he spent most of his time on a ship continuing his father's adventures before he settled down and married her.

"Thank you for coming" Amelia tells him knowing a royal birthday or knighthood ceremony would be the last place he would like to be "I know how you feel about these things. You're a lot like your grandfather that way".

"And my father" he adds.

"Him too" she adds knowing his father was a sore subject. She didn't know until years after the Queen's death, but a man fitting her first description had made his way into the Evil Queen's dungeon along with an old friend of her's on the charge of conspiring with the then Princess Snow. He was executed a few days later.

Looking away from the portrait, the former assassin looked through the sea of people that had gathered in the hall hoping to catch another head of red hair in the room only to come up short.

"Where's your sister? I asked her to meet us here".

Thomas couldn't help the light chuckle reverberating in his throat at his mother lack of awareness of his little sister's rebellious nature "Where do you think she is Mom?" he asked her "She's with her Papa".

"God's" she sighed to herself at the thought of her daughter spending more time with her father "Help us all".

---

"Where did she go?" Henry demanded to know from Hook and David as he, Regina, Amelia and Tom stood in the middle of Granny's with the newly freed Jasmine to find out that Emma had vanished from thin air due to a wish the Queen made to Genie Aladdin.

"We have no idea, Henry" Hook tells him.

"But we're trying to figure that out, right?" Regina questioned the pair "Because I didn't stay behind for you to screw things up".

"Ditto on the Queen" the redhead added earning a glare from the brunette woman next to her "Sorry. Old habit" she quickly told her.

"Hey, take it easy on us. It was the Queen" David argued to the former Queen and the angry redhead.

"I know who it was" she yells at him "Maybe use some of that defensive energy to figure out where she is! You're her father. You must have some idea".

"Yeah, I 'am her father" he retorted "That doesn't mean I know everything" he tells her before looking towards his daughter boyfriend "What about you, Hook? You live with her now. Did she give you any ideas?" he asks the one-handed pirate.

"If I had an idea, don't you think I would have bloody well mentioned it by now?" he retorted.

"How do you share a home with someone and not know their secrets?" he asks the man opposite him making the assassin pause at the statement.

"Because we don't stand around and talk about what happens when a bloody genie appears, mate!".

"Please, stop fighting. Please" Jasmine cuts through the heroes bickering.

"Jasmine's right" Amelia spoke up "Right now we're doing exactly what she wants" as her love nodded along with her observation.

"She said we would tear ourselves apart, and that's exactly what we're doing" the former Queen adds "The Evil Queen has thrown a lot of punches today. But now...I think I know a way to throw one back".

"What do you have in mind?" the redhead asked her soulmate.

"Nothing that involves you" she tells her wife wanting her stay as far as she could from the mess that the others had made taking the others by surprise "You need to stay here and figure out how you fix the bomb you dropped on me in the apartment".

"Wait" David spoke up gaining Hook's interest in what the couple were scrabbling about "What bomb?".

"Nothing that concerns any of you" Amelia spat at the Sheriff before refocusing on her love "I told you because I had to otherwise, we'd be going round in circles, wasting our time for no reason".

"Wasting our time on what?" the pirate looked between the pair for an answer.

"Mom's what are you two talking about?" Henry asks looking between his fighting mothers as Tom watches on with a furrowed brow as Regina saw the desperation in her loves eyes for her not to tell the others about Helen.

"Nothing" she made herself say before looking back to the redhead "Just...do something".

"I am. Trust me" she tells her Queen.

"I do".

At that the former Queen disappeared to face her darker half leaving the other's behind before the redhead turned her attention to the older sister of the man that had taken her daughter from her.

"Princess" Amelia addresses the woman "If you happen to find your brother before I do, let him know I'm coming to kill him, he'll have to tell you why" with that said the assassin turned and left the diner the threat in the air to find the one person who knew more about what she was than anyone in town.

---

Letting herself into the dark pawn shop the bell above the door rung out announcing her arrival as she found the man himself opposite her with his back turned to her, firmly closing the door behind her.

"Oh good. You are here" she chimes to the Dark One "This'll make everything so much easier than I first thought" .

"Whatever this is Miss Montague, this isn't a good time" he tells his niece without looking back.

"Too bad" she replies standing her ground with the man as he slowly turned to face her with gritted teeth.

"Excuse me?".

"For once in your pathetic life you're going to listen to me and do as I ask. Otherwise, you'll be looking at a very messy custody battle not just for your new born son, but you can say goodbye to ever seeing your grandson again".

"What exactly is it you want Amelia?" he asks the woman seeing her bandaged left hand "You're not exactly in the right state to make idle threats against me".

"I'm hurt Uncle Rummy" she feigned hurt to the man opposite her "You haven't you noticed anything different about me?".

Narrowing his gaze the Dark One tries to see what was different about her "You've taken the Widow back".

"How unfortunate for you" she retorted "Now you're going to tell me everything there is to know about Hybrids and the One's that Came Before".

"Uh, let me think on that" he stilled thinking on his niece's request "No".

"Or I could just go pay Aunt Belle a visit and if by some accident, I mention your liaisons with the Queen. I think I can convince her that you are in fact a lost cause with no redeeming qualities. Like we all know you are and that last slither of love she has for you disappears alongside any hope for your relationship to recover".

"You. Wouldn't. Dare" he sneers at her through his teeth.

"I've just had a child taken away from me for a second time in my life" she tells the man in an even tone "Try me old man".

The look on her face told him she wasn't bluffing, and she wasn't lying, she looked exactly the same she did when she first lost her son. Broken. But with all the willpower she had, she fought the Widow's anger that was pushing her to block out those feelings.

"Come" he backed down "I'll tell you everything that you need to know", with his hand he invited the woman to the back of his shop and tell her everything he knew about what she and her children were and the consequences if ever one got into the hands of someone he knew.

---

Sat in the closest thing Storybrooke had to a throne, the Mayor's office. The Evil Queen sat behind her desk with her feet perched on the edge of her desk as she sat back in her chair, the Queen watched as her genie made her a cocktail.

"Appletini? Really?" the genie questions her choice in drink "Isn't that a bit on the nose? Even for you?".

"I like what I like" she answers the former thief.

"So, it's your wish?" he asked her to try his best to shorten his time under the Queen's command as he could as he pours out the cocktail into a garnished glass on the desk.

"No. A request" she corrects him seeing straight through his trick "I suggest you heed it or things will be even less pleasant than they already are" she warns him as she takes her feet off the desk to sit up straight in the chair, placing the lamp in the surface.

"That's ambitious" he comments before the Queen takes herself from the chair to stand up close behind him.

"There's much we can explore in this….master-genie relationship" she suggested tracing her finger down his chest making the man take a deep breath.

"Ambition..." he says taking his hand off her to place the glass of drink in the offending hand " met" he finishes as the door to the office opens making them look back and see Regina step into the room.

"Having fun in my office?" the former Queen rhetorically asked the woman.

"Well, as a matter of fact, I was about to" the Queen replied squeezing Aladdin's bicep with a wink of her eye.

"Ew" he states in disgust.

"I'm not here for your perversions. I'm here to get Emma back" Regina corrects the woman.

"Oh, well, good luck with that" the Queen remarks taking a seat on the desk to pick up the lamp "You're not getting a hold of this lamp. But even if you did, you can't undo wishes".

"Sadly true" Aladdin confirmed from his place stood beside the desk.

"Now..." the Queen states kicking the chair in front of her towards her other half "Take a seat. Have a drink" she tells Regina handing her the Appletini, before making her way back to her desk "And give thanks where thanks is due".

"What the hell are you talking about?" Regina questions her.

"Be a dear and mix another, hmm?" he order's the genie as her other half makes her way towards the desk as the genie leaves to make the extra drink "Don't forget, I know you better than anyone, Regina" she chuckles "I am you" she grins at her "And there was a time when all you wanted was to tear Snow and Charming apart and kick Emma Swan out of your town".

"And I just did both" she remarks taking the fresh appletini from Aladdin as he re-joins the Queen at the desk "I even punished that little wife of yours for hurting us all those years ago" she laughs in triumph holding up her glass to her "A toast. To you. To me. To us".

The former Queen gave the doppelganger a flash of a smile for it feel from her lips, placing her glass back onto the table in defiance.

A sigh of disappointment left the Queen's mouth at Regina's choice "That's why you'll never be happy. You've won, and you can't even admit it" she tells her retaking the seat behind the desk with her feet once again perched on the edge of the desk "If you could, you'd see that victory feels luxurious".

"Yes, I... may not be able to get a hold of that genie lamp, but you're right. We are the same person, which means you're not the only master of the lamp" Regina pointed out with her own look of victory.

"No" the Queen stated as her own smirk dropped from her lips.

"Yes" Aladdin smirked as Regina looked to him to make her next wish.

"Genie of the Lamp, I wish to be sent to the same place as Emma Swan" Regina ordered the genie.

"No" the Queen echoed as she watched her other half make the wish

"Your wish is my command, Master" Aladdin happily obliged throwing his hand out towards the former Queen, sending her to where Emma had ended up.

"No!".

---

In a blink of an eye, the former Queen left the hard floors of her office to find herself on the soft leave and moss covered forest floor of the Enchanted Forest surrounded by trees. She made it.

"Emma?" Regina called out as she moved forward to find the woman "Emma?" she called out again only to hear a people whistling a familiar tune as they walked down a nearby road, through the branches Regina recognised the men straight away from the pickaxe's resting on their shoulders.

"Hey!" she called out in excitement knowing they would help her "Hey!" she called out again to get their attention as she ran towards the to step out onto the road "Hey! Dwarfs!" she managed to make them stop as they turned to face the familiar face, they hoped they would never see again "I'm... I'm looking for Emma. Have you seen her?" she asks them as they remained silent "Have you seen her?" she repeats herself.

"The Evil Queen is back" Grumpy spat at the woman as he stared the woman down.

"No, no, you don't understand. I'm not the Evil Queen anymore" she tries to assure them taking a step forward only for the fearful dwarves to take a step away from her.

"Move! Move! We must warn them!" Grumpy yelled to his brother's as they all turn and run down the road "The war is not over! Run!".

"No!" she exclaimed in protest as she watches them run from her, making her wonder where the hell she had ended up.

---

The forest always came as a comfort to the former assassin as she walked alongside Queen Snow and King David with Princess Emma nearby as she tried once again to reassure the married couple that there were no current threats realm that could harm their grandson's knighthood later that day.

It was decided that the rest of the realm believed that Snow and David defeated the Queen themselves, banishing the woman instead of allowing them to learn that the Black Widow had turned against her and killed her moments before the curse could take them.

After gaining her freedom five years after the Evil Queens death from their own dungeon. She had spent her life defending the realm from all evil that threatened it harm it. Now years later she held the title as 'Defender of the Realm' after facing some of the most dangerous and fearsome of villains.

Dismantling her old Brotherhood from it's roots, Amelia put in place the Creed Altair wrote about in his earliest journals combined with Ezio's vision.

In between those years the redhead had led a somewhat uneventful life. She had found her son on a mysterious island called Neverland, reuniting with her banished father. She had remarried and had another child. A girl, that she had watched grow into a beautiful woman that held her mother's rebellious spirit and her father's morals.

A challenging combination the redhead found at times.

"I don't know what more I can tell you both" the former assassin tells the monarchs as they walked through the forest together, keeping a close eye on the Princess who seemed to be in her own little world hummed a song to herself as she picked flowers "The realm is safe. There is no threat, no sorcerer, no curse to you or any royal household in the Kingdom. Prince Henry's ceremony should go without incident. If anything, that should slip through the cracks, Thomas will be here to deal with whatever comes".

She couldn't recall how long she had remained on the island with her son and Romeo after defeating Peter Pan, it was one of the reasons she remained somewhat youthful in her appearance. But it was the time she needed away from the Enchanted Forest to freely grieve for the Queen she loved without being judged for her quiet moments by the monarch's closest allies.

Returning home, she was welcomed back with open arms with her son beside her ready to move on with her life to raise her son.

"It is always a comfort to hear that from you Amelia" David tells the former assassin as they continued to trek through the forest "These last twenty-eight years would not have been as peaceful as they have if we didn't have you at our side. God forbid if the Queen's curse had-".

"What my husband is trying to say Lia" Snow quickly interrupts her husband not wanting to upset the redhead by bringing up the woman she used to love "Is that we can never thank you enough for the work you've done since that dark day. That we've been able to move past our differences and make a life for ourselves".

"There-" the words caught on the assassin's tongue as she felt something sift in the air, the hair on the back of her neck and arm stood up on end as her sixth sense, senesced a familiar presence in the world as her head turned towards the nearing presence.

"Amelia" King David called out to his friend seeing her odd behaviour as his wife tilted her head "What is it?".

"I sense something" she tells them "A presence I've not felt since…".

Not since Regina was alive.

"Since?" Snow urged her to elaborate looking up to her husband only to met with a look of confusion on his features.

"It's nothing" she brushes off Snow and David's concerns turning back to face them with a smile on her face "I need to go. There's something back at the palace that need's my attention".

She didn't give them a chance to stop her as she backtracked through the forest until she found the road once again that would take her to the presence she sensed.

---

Following down the road she had found the dwarves on the former Queen continued her journey to in search of anything that might be useful in her search for the blonde saviour. As she did, something in the treeline caught her eye making her walk towards it. On closer inspection the former Queen saw a white marble monument of David and Snow with their sword and bow respectfully stood in triumph as she read the plaque that read out:

'ON THIS SPOT SNOW WHITE AND PRINCE DAVID HEROICALLY DEFEATED THE EVIL QUEEN'

"Seriously?" the former Queen scoffed in amusement before hearing the sound of a woman humming nearby. Following the sound, Regina came across something she never though was possible.

Wearing a pastel pink dress with a matching cloak over her shoulders, holding a wicker basket, with more make-up than the older woman had ever seen the woman ever wear as she picked flowers as she sung and danced to herself. Emma Swan looked every bit of a stereotypical Princess as they could, unsettling the Mayor at what kind of world she had wished herself in.

"Emma?" the older woman uttered out in disbelief snapping the woman out of her own little world as she looked upon the woman her parents had spent years fight stood in front of her "What the hell happened to you?".

"You...You're the Evil Queen" Princess Emma shuddered in fear as she backed away in horror, like a scared girl.

"You don't remember me" Regina acknowledged the Princess.

"I know exactly who you are" the Princess continued as she hid behind a tree "My godmother killed you" she tells the woman wishing that the woman was with her now to protect her from the Evil Queen. 'Godmother?' Regina thought to herself as she slowly approached her friend.

"Uh, no, they didn't" she nervously chuckles "None of this is real. I'm your friend".

"You're no one's friend. My father said you were a liar" the Princess sneered at her.

"No, it's not a lie" Regina reasoned "Where we're from, we actually... share custody of a son with my truelove and her son." she tried to explain their family dynamic which only seemed to confuse the blonde Princess further "Okay, it's complicated" she admitted "But... the point is I risked my life coming here because you're the Saviour and your family needs you".

Even though her words seemed to intrigued the Princess, her attention was broken as an arrow flew above Regina's head, imbedding itself in the tree Emma was hiding behind. Much to the older woman's shock, and amusement, Snow and Charming, now clearly King and Queen from the crown on the 'younger' woman's head, came to their daughter's rescue. Only for the former Queen to be more shocked was their silver hair and aged features.

"This is impossible" King David gasped at the woman in front of them in disbelief "You're dead".

"We watched your body being burnt ourselves" Snow added "There's no way you can be here right now" but their words didn't seem to sink on as the former Queen couldn't help but see how much the pair had aged.

"Snow? David?" she asked the pair.

"Show some respect! "King David barked at their old enemy "It's "Your Majesties. This is our kingdom now".

"You're so old" she couldn't help but chuckle at the way her friends looked. If Amelia were with her, she'd be struggling to keep her composure.

"Taunt us all you wish. We shall never back down from protecting our people" Snow declared to her stepmother.

"Emma, these people aren't real" Regina tells the Princess turned her back on the older royals.

"Mom, Daddy, please help" Emma pleaded like a child as the royals readied their weapons to attack her.

"No, they're... they're hallucinations that... a fake reality" she tried to convince her.

"Step away from my daughter" Kind David demanded making the former Queen sigh.

"Emma, you have to believe me" she pleaded to the blonde saviour.

"Never" Emma tells her as her father's blade levels with the Evil Queen's head as Snow aims her arrow at the woman's head.

"This blade may not have killed you before" David glowered at her "But I'll gladly change that".

"Come on. This isn't you" Regina argued with the Princess "There has to be some part of you that knows that!" she continued as the Princess simply looks away from her making her scoff "Please! Damn it!" she cursed in frustration poofing away just as Charming could cleave her head from her neck.

---

The musty smell of the pawn shop filled her nose as Amelia sat herself down at the table while Rumple made them tea, the eery silence stretched out between the pair as the assassin waited for the Dark One to join her at the table as she tried to ignore throb of pain that immitted from her left hand.

She was taken out of her thoughts when the sorcerer joined her with two teacups in his hand, placing one in front of her before take placing his down on the table.

"Where would you like to start" he asks taking a seat opposite her, ready for the questions she had for him.

"The start. Juno. Adam and Eve" she listed off "I only know her story. There were other's I have no idea about. A Dark One does".

"The Isu, as you know, were an ancient hight-advances species that occupied the realms a millennia before the rise of even the most ancient human civilization. They were responsible for the creation of the Pieces of Eden, that augmented their natural abilities as well as forming humans itself. They were largely wiped out alongside their human creations during the Great Catastrophe at that point they had been in a decade long war with a human rebellion led by your ancestors".

"Juno's husband. Aita and Eve" she supplied.

"Or as they are more commonly known as Adam and Eve" he added "Juno, alongside her colleagues Minerva and Jupiter were tasked to prevent the world ending event. Only they had their own idea's. Instead of saving their own world, they created other worlds in which they could rule themselves".

"The Forest".

"As well as many others" he added "While Juno ran rife creating Merlin and Dark One as she sought to find her revenge on the people that had scorned her. Jupiter and Minerva sought a more peaceful existence, using their gift to prevent a similar catastrophe from occurring to our worlds, they were soon joined by a few others, creating numerous sire lines as they roamed amongst humans".

"Basim" she gulped "He's a hybrid, he used the Apple on me before knocking me out in the vault, taking it with him".

"There's a saying about Hybrids" Gold continued "When one is born, a coin is flipped as the world holds it breath to see how it lands. They either thrive able to contain the power that runs through their veins like your family, or they grow mad with it. If you're saying about this man is true, he unfortunately fell under the latter".

"What's this got to do with Helen? Basim took her, saying that he would teach her all she needed to know about them".

"In the right environment, they can become a dangerous weapon. As you know well enough Miss Montague. While Romeo nurtured you as his apprentice, he set out a moral compass that still lives in your mind to this day despite how dark your heart is still, whereas a Hybrid without, can easily slip through the cracks onto a darker path".

"But why Helen. Why not Tom?" He was still young enough to influence.

"Alas he was taken, wasn't he?" he reminds the woman peaking her interest.

"What do you mean?" she asks him as a sense a dread washed over her.

"Your old caretaker. Angelo. You were never able to find him were you?" he asked as she remained silent "Did you ever wonder why he suddenly made a reappearance just at the point you were about to settle down with your thief?".

"You" she stated through her clenched jaw.

"Yes" he sighed "I admit, it was me that put him in that tavern for Robin Hood to find after holding him in one in my cells for what he did to you. However, my mistake was underestimating why it had taken so long for him to be captured int he first place".

"He had help" she concluded.

"Yes" he simply states "From someone neither one of us want to face".

"That doesn't explain why they needed my son".

"For the same reason Thomas was taken from you all those years ago. While your eldest was dumped in a nearby orphanage after realising he was useless to his employer. A new-born hybrid can be made into something that'll be able to face anyone especially with the Apple of Eden in their hand".

"Who's his employer?".

"The Black Fairy" he answered her bracing himself for the story of her grandmother only for Amelia's phone to chime in time, distracting her from the conversation.

Taking out her phone that had been returned to her, the assassin ignored all the voicemail notifications to see a text from David, or as she named him on her contact list 'Sheriff No.2' with a sword emoji next to it.

"Meet me at the Mayor's Office.

It's time we end the Queen's reign once and for all".

"I need to go" she tells the man standing on her feet to leave only to be followed "Charming's picking a fight with the Queen".

"Amelia, if nothing else heed my warning" he tells her "This isn't a fight you want".

"I don't seem to have a choice Rumple" she tells her Uncle, before she swung a closed fist towards his face, hitting his nose, hearing a satisfied crack as he held his face and nose in pain, the man look at his niece in annoyance that she had managed to catch him off guard. But she had to admit, that felt good and worth she shook out her right hand in pain.

"You know what that was for!" she states to the man before leaving him to tend to his nose.

"Yes, I do" he agrees with her as he held his broken nose "I assume that make us even now?".

"Not even close" she glowers at him before storming out of the back room to find Charming before he did something stupid like get himself killed.

---

With no other place to go, the former Queen took herself back to the ruins of her old palace at a loss to next finding herself in a world in which she was technically dead.

The Evil Queen's former home had been left abandoned and left to rot as weed and vines took over and her possessions had been left for thieves to scavenge through as she wandered into her old foyer that held so many memories for her and Amelia.

This is where she fell in love with her wife and now, it seemed to represent their relationship at present as secrets and revelations seemed to be putting more strain on their relationship day by day.

Her thoughts of the redhead were quickly interrupted when she heard the sound of maniacal laugh echo from another room that can only come from one person.

"No" she whispered to herself in disbelief as she turned to follow the sound down to the dungeons to find an old cell with a shadowy figure muttering to himself as she slowly approached the cell.

"There you are" the Dark One called out to his visitor "Come to see old Rumple, have you?".

"Who are you? Come closer" he urges his visitor closer only to appear at his cell door into the light to see her.

"You! The Queen!" he exclaims rattling the cell door seeing his former student "The apprentice is back! Back from the dead, to see the old master! Back again, back again!" he continues pull at the cell door.

"Please. I need your help" she pleads to him.

"Why would I help you, my greatest student... and failure. My dark curse. My most precious of curses" he says backing away from the door as he recalled the moment his curse was destroyed by the fail safe he didn't count on going through with murdering the woman she loved "You failed me. Killed by the Product of Star-Crossed Lovers!" he yelled in anger.

The revelation took the former Queen aback hearing this. This wasn't the first time she had been in this reality, as a observer maybe that time but it was real. This is the reality Amelia went through with killing her before the curse took them away, like Juno had shown her.

"That wasn't me" she tells the man, shaking the thoughts from her mind "I'm not the Evil Queen in this reality...which isn't even a reality. It's all... well, it's all fake. You're fake".

"Now I'm intrigued".

"This world was created by a wish to trap Emma" she tells the man making sure to use the name that broke his cursed self when the Saviour first appeared in Storybrooke.

"Emma?" he echoed the name as it seemed to resonate with the man "Emma...The Saviour!" he exclaimed in excitement remembering the name "Oh, perhaps I can help you, after all! For a price".

The man's words only made her chuckle "A deal?" she questions him "You're not even real".

"Well, no one knows more about Saviours than I" he reminds the woman pulling himself up the bars to stand before her "All I need in return is one teeny, tiny, little thing... my freedom".

"No" she answers "It's not worth it. The world is better off with you behind bars" she tells the man turning her back on her to leave.

"But you said this world isn't real" this makes the former Queen stop "What's the harm of letting a not-real me out of a not-real prison into a not-real world, hmm?".

"You actually have a point, but I know better than to take one of your deals in any realm" turning her back on him again she went to leave only to be stopped once again.

"Do you know why Emma became the Saviour in the first place?" the question made her freeze "You!" he tells her making her turn back as he laughs "Yes! You. Every Saviour needs a villain. The Evil Queen. But the real queen, not this snivelling, pathetic, diluted creature I see before me. A real queen of power and purpose... one that I knew... one that can remind Emma that the world needs a Saviour. Oh, I'm right. Show her your inner darkness, and the Saviour will be reborn!".

The Dark One's giggles echoed through the cavern as he saw his words had gotten through to his former student "A-About these bars?" he remind her making her scoff.

"Sorry. We're just old friends talking. We haven't made a deal. Remember".

"Oh, I'm well aware, old friend" he laughs "Um, but you... you... you may know a way to wake Emma up, but you don't know a way back to... what do you call it... uh, Storybrooke".

"How do you know that name?" she slowly asks him making him impishly laugh.

"That matters not. What does matter is...I can find you a magic bean" he sang-singed at her.

"Where?".

"That..will cost you".

Weighting up her options the former Queen gave in with the man's demands of his freedom as she waved a hand to open his cell door

"At last!" he exclaimed stepping out of the cell before pausing to deeply inhale the air "It smells just as dank outside. I think I need some fresh air" stepping forward to leave the former Queen stops him.

"Uh! The bean" she reminds him.

"Yes, yes, right, right. Meet me tomorrow at noon down by the lake".

"Tomorrow at noon it is" she agrees as she walks past him to leave only for his laughter to make her stop.

"I don't know what happened to you, but you don't exactly inspire fear anymore.
If you're going to play the part of Evil Queen, you should look like one, as well".

With a wave of her hand the former Queen transformed back into the Evil Queen in her jewelled dark dress and long black hair.

"How's that?" she grinned at him.

"Much better! Much, much, much better! Now go on! Be evil!".

"Regina!" a voice they both knew echoed from the main room making them both look back "I know you're here. Show yourself!".

"Ahh, just in time" he giggled to himself hearing the Defender of the Realm make her presence known to them "As an old friend, I should warn you about one wee problem to your grand plan".

"Regina!" Amelia continued to call out to her.

"What problem?" she asks the man.

"The Defender of Realm!" he flamboyantly announced to her imitating a heroic pose, as he puffed his chest out and placed his closed fist on his waist "This worlds Hero. Striking down the Evil Queen before her curse could take them" he retells the story before relaxing before a more serious look took over his features.

"Emma cannot become the Saviour when there's a Hero in the way" he says pointing down the cavern "Once the Hero is gone, Emma can become the Saviour".

"Regina!" her voice echoed down the cave once again as it dawned on the woman what she had to do to get Emma back.

She would have to kill Amelia.

---

Stepping back into the palace she had spent so many years in, the assassin couldn't help but to feel the bubble of sadness that swelled in her chest at the state of disrepair had been left in after it's complete abandonment after the Queen's death.

In the fallout of the woman's demise at her hand, she had tried to convince Queen Snow to try and keep it as something sentimental to remember her parents by. It was her home once after all, but the decision was quickly made for the building to be left to crumble.

She herself could barely stand being inside what was left of the place for too long as it held so many memories for her of her darkest days. She only came down to visit the Dark One from time to time, he was family after all.

But this would be the first place to find the woman who's presence she had felt for the first time in twenty-eight years. Taking a deep breath the assassin braced herself for who she could face again if her instincts were correct.

"Regina!" she called out ""I know you're here. Show yourself!" she demands from the woman.

Stood at the threshold between the palace and the cavern where Rumplestiltskin was being held in behind a cell, the former Queen braced herself to show herself to this realm's version of her soulmate. But she had to remind herself, this wasn't the woman she loved. She was fake. The fake one that had killed her to stop the curse from ever taking them to Storybrooke.

Opening the door the assassin hadn't heard it open as Regina got a look at the woman that stood alone in the foyer. Unlike Snow and David, age hadn't touched her youthful complexion, no winkles nor had the skin on her face sagged. Her short hair hadn't dulled or lost its natural volume as it hung down, stopping short at the base of her neck. Why hadn't she aged?

"Regina!" she called out again making the former Queen out of her starstruck trance. She had a job to do, even if it involved killing the one person she never wanted to hurt.

"Looking for me dear?" her voice brought the assassin's attention towards her as she sauntered into the room for the redhead to see the Evil Queen back in her full glory.

"So it's true" she breathed out "You really are alive" she states outload.

"In the flesh my dear" she grinned at the woman as she prowled around her.

"That's impossible. You're-".

"Dead? Well I have you to thank for that don't I my dear Widow" she drawled out to her, only for the assassin to continue to stare at her trying to decipher what was going on in front of her as her head turned to the side as her gaze narrowed.

"I'm not the Widow anymore" she tried to argue with the woman "The same way you're not the Evil Queen anymore" the former Queen heard the redhead trail off.

"What do you mean?" she asked the corner of her smirk twitched in visible nervousness at the redhead's observation.

"You're not the Evil Queen" the woman tells her.

"And pray tell me what-".

"Regina" she cut the woman off having had enough of whatever act she was putting on for her "Whatever this is, you need to drop it. You might be able to fool the royals, but never me".

At that the smirk on her face fell as she looked at the redhead in bewilderment as her arms feel to her side "How did you know?" Regina asks the woman in disbelief.

"Acting was never your best talent" she winked at the imposter in front of her as she rounded the couch "Now, something tells me you're not from around here, are you going to tell me, or am I going to have to guess".

"You're right. I'm not" Regina confirms as she slowly approaches the woman to join her on the couch "I'm from a reality where my curse took us to a place called Storybrooke and Emma is-".

"The Saviour" Amelia finished for her.

"You remember?".

"Like it was yesterday" she tells Regina "Why isn't she the saviour now?".

"She made a wish in my reality that she wasn't and it brought her here. I came here looking for to bring her back".

"And becoming this.." the redhead trailed off pointing at the dress and hair "Was the only way to do that?".

"She needs a villain for her to remember who she is. A saviour. I'm that villain".

"And let me guess...I'm in the way for that to happen". All she could do is to nod at the redhead's hindsight.

"There's something I don't understand about this world" the former Queen started "I found the statue saying that I was defeated by Snow and David, but then they keep saying that I you killed the Evil Queen. Which is it?".

"I did kill her" Amelia admitted to her "It was a snap decision. I still don't know why I did it, one minute I was happy for the curse to take us wherever it would take us, but them I found myself on top of her sinking a blade in her chest like..".

"Someone had changed it".

"When Snow and David found me and saw what I did, it was decided what to tell the people. It was better for them to know that she had been stopped and banished by their hero's than for it to be known that her loyal Black Widow betrayed and killed her Very few people know the truth, not even my own children know the truth".

"Since then, I've kept the realm safe from whatever dared to harm their happy ending. Every villain, sorcerer, or witch that came out from the woodwork, I've been there to stop them".

"All by yourself?".

"I've had some help along the way" she reassures the former Queen.

"So I've heard. The Defender of Realm? Seriously?" she questioned the redhead with a raised brow.

"Believe me" she grumbled in embarrassment "I wasn't my idea".

"Can I ask you how you've stayed so-" she trailed off gesturing towards her appearance.

"Young? After some time in a cell, I found myself in a place called Neverland looking for Thomas. Only problem, I didn't know anything about the place when a poison laced thorn scratched me as I made my way through the Dark Jungle".

"Dream shade" Regina gulped in fear. Maybe their realities weren't so different, somehow fate had always envisioned her to be harmed by the poison her father had died of.

"So you've heard of it" Amelia states as she pulled up the cuff of her robe on her left arm and to pull the finger less leather glove that Regina hadn't noticed she had been wearing this whole time.

"How are you alive?".

"With this" she says showing her a silk like cloth tied to her wrist that had lines of gold running throughout it. Removing the glove from her hand the former Queen watched as her ring 'finger' seemed to come away from her hand to reveal her pale had covered in dark veins from the poison had invaded her system through a small scratch on the back of her hand.

"It's called the Shroud of Eden" Amelia told the former Queen "It's a Piece of Eden, made by a group of beings called the ones that came before. It heals. And it's what's been stopping the dream shade from reaching my heart" she goes on.

"Unfortunately, I had to have my finger removed after it started to die off. Guess it doesn't matter anymore if I need to die" like ripping off a band-aid the red haired woman pulled the piece of cloth from her wrist, the assassin had to take a gulp of air as she felt the poison that had been held back by the Shroud rushed back through her veins to make it's deadly pursuit to her heart as the former Queen suddenly saw her complexion change from her healthy pink to a sickly pale as she saw the Dreamshade quickly take hold once again.

She was sure it wouldn't take long for the poison to take her.

"Go ahead" Amelia told the woman in front of her as she sat up as straight as she could "Do what you need to".

Turning her head away the former Queen closed her eye's as she reached out and reached into her love's chest to take hold of the darkened heart inside, trying to block out the way the redhead gasped as she pulled.

The sound of her soulmate's beating heart filled her ears as she looked back with the glowing heart between them, the former Queen hadn't realised she had been crying until Amelia reached out with her right hand to wipe away the tears that had escaped with the pad of her thumb before resting her palm on her cheek before Regina reached up to grasp the hand on her cheek, allowing the redhead to see her mother's engagement ring resting on her finger along with a simple silver ring accompanying it that made the redhead smile to herself.

In her realm, they had made it.

"Can I ask you something?" the former Widow asked her in an attempt to distract her from what she had to do, She could see it in her eye's she didn't want to do this, but if she needed Emma as the Saviour, this is what she had had to do to get it.

"Of course" she sniffed out.

"Are we happy in your reality?".

The question took the the former Queen by surprise, she wasn't sure what to tell the woman in front of her as she held her heart in her hand. Were they happy? Everything had seemed to get harder since deciding to elope in the Underworld. Robin had died. Separating themselves from their other half's only seemed to make things worse, and now Emma and Amelia's vision of their death's seemed inevitable since learning that Helen was one of the figures under the hoods that would kill them.

All the while their relationship had taken the brunt of the secrets the redhead had though she had to keep. And now, she wasn't sure what kind of world she would be returning to once she returned home with Emma.

Taking her silence as her answer the former Widow gave her a sad smile before asking: "Do you know what my favourite lie is?" the redhead asks the woman keeping her gaze firmly fixed on her as she moved her left hand to rest on top of the darkened heart in the former Queen's hand as Regina shook her head 'no'.

"It's when someone says 'Time would heal everything'. When sometimes, it only teaches you to live with the scars. A long time ago I loved someone. And I had to do something that I did not want to do, even though it was my job. And it hurt them. She's my scar. You are my scar. I love you, Regina. I love you in every reality".

Not giving the former Queen a chance to change her mind, the former Widow gripped her own heart to crush until it turn dust to fall into the former Queen's hand as the former assassin stilled slumped forward only for her Queen to catch her and gently lay her down on the sofa they had been sat on.

---

Pushing the thought of the Evil Queen's reappearance to the back of their minds, the royals instead focused on the celebration of Prince Henry's knighthood as the kingdom gathered to watch the occasion. Only the royal couple couldn't help but notice Amelia's absence from the occasion as the couple found her grown son stood amongst the gathered crowd waiting for the celebration to begin.

Her reassurances' that the kingdom was safe were quickly dashed when they discovered the Evil Queen alive and well again harassing their daughter. But they must carry on, that's what they always did. But as Queen Snow looked over to her grown daughter, she couldn't help but notice her mind was on something else.

Reaching over the mother took her daughter's hand into her's to bring her out of her thoughts of the Evil Queen.

"Everything is going to be fine" Snow reassured her daughter "We defeated the Evil Queen once. We'll do it again. Let's just focus on Henry's big day".

"I don't know what I'd do without you two" Emma tells the pair before she was interrupted.

"Presenting his Royal Highness, Prince Henry!" the herald announced to the room making the room turn to the set of doors at the end of the room as fanfare blared out around them.

At the end of the hall the door's were opened by a pair of guards to reveal their son and grandson in a set of bronze amour with a matching helm in his hand.

"Look at him. He looks so grown-up" Emma whispered to her parents as the door's closed behind the young prince Henry made his way down the aisle towards his mother and grandparents as his younger cousin watched on with a proud smirk at the man he had grown into while he sought out his place in the world on the Jackdaw.

Once the young Prince made it to the alter where his grandparents were waiting for him, Queen's Snow unsheathed her husbands sword from his scabbard to begin the ceremony. Giving her grandson a look the young prince took a knee before his grandparents.

"Do you, Prince Henry, undertake to accept the accolade of knighthood?" Queen Snow asked the aspiring knight.

"I do" he vowed to his grandparents.

"And will you conduct yourself in all matters as befits a knight of this realm?" King David asked him next.

"I will" he vowed.

"It is with pride in our hearts that we, Queen Snow and King David of the Enchanted Forest, do dub you..." the Queen recited only to be interrupted as the door's opened and the crowd gasped in fright to see the Evil Queen stood at the end of the room.

"Sorry I'm late" The Evil Queen states to the room before she made her way towards the alter.

"It's the Queen! Run!" Doc cried out as guards ran towards the villain to stop her only to be thrown aside.

Pulling the sabres from his waist Thomas stood out from the crowd to step into the Queen's path holding out his weapon towards her.

"Stop!" the stranger yelled out at the woman making her freeze as Regina tried to place who this man was trying to stop her.

"Thomas!" Snow called out to the young man defending them as realization hit the former Queen of who was stood before defending the royal family. This was this realm's Tom.

The teenager she knew was now a man with a stubbled face and chin as she recognised the kind brown eye's behind the hardened face that now stood defiantly in her way.

With a flick of her hand she sent the man into the crowd to crash into the dwarves making him drop both his swords as he was haphazardly caught by the group of shorter men.

"TOM!" Henry called out to his cousin as he saw his older cousin being picked up by the dwarves.

"She's not the queen anymore!" Queen Snow yelled before the Queen froze both her and Charming with her magic.

"Look at them, missing out on this... happy, happy day" The Evil Queen spat at them as she paced before the family "I vowed to destroy their happiness if it is the last thing I do".

"Please. Don't hurt my parents" Princess Emma begged the Evil Queen.

"Oh, but you see, hurting them is the point. Unless you know of some hero who can stop me".

"The Defender of the Realm can stop her!" someone yelled from the crowd.

"Oh you mean my dear Black Widow?" she questioned the crowd "I'm afraid she won't be coming to your rescue any time soon" she feigned with a pout.

"What did you do!" Thomas yelled at the villain.

"I killed her of course" she told the young man with a wicked smirk that made a shiver go down the young man's spine.

"No" he huffed out in protest as tears shimmered in his eye's "No, she can't be".

"You don't believe me? Then tell me, where is your precious Defender when you need her the most" she sent the question towards the room as she was met by silence. They needed proof that Amelia wasn't coming to save them, maybe that will push Emma to become Saviour.

"You need proof?" she addressed the crowd "I shall give you your defender!".

With a wave of her hand a cloud of purple smoke appeared on the ground in front of the alter only for the cloud to evaporate to reveal the dead body of her soulmate to the kingdom, a gasp shook through the crowd at the image of their fallen Hero.

"Mom?" Thomas's voice choked out thought the crowd seeing her still body as he stumbled toward his still mother, his knee's giving out as he reached her. Regina had to look away as Tom reached out to his dead mother, reminding herself that this was all fake still. Amelia wasn't really dead and Tom still loved her back in her realm.

"Mom" he called out to her as he shook her body "Mom!" he yelled only to get no response from her before he gave up and a loud sob left his mouth as he crumpled before her as he gripped at his mother's clothes, before his reddened eye's lifted from the ground to meet the Queen's.

"I hate you" he barely whispered out to the woman through the pain in his chest, before he pushed through the grief to yell "I HATE YOU!".

His words echoed the hall as the words struck her like a dagger to the heart as the Princess stood and watched her friends heart break in front of her. The one person that could stop her was gone.

The Defender of Realm was dead.

There was no one now.

"Mercy, please" the princess weakly bowed to the Evil Queen, making the latter sigh in disappointment. What more would she have to do to get Emma back?.

"Look for that hero, Princess, and when you find one, you know where to find us" she warned the Princess before poofing away with her parents in tow as the crowd once again gasped and murmured among themselves leaving Prince Henry and his mother alone on the alter as Thomas continued to mourn his mother.

"Mom" he called out to his mother catching her attention away from her godmother's body "What do we do?".

"Don't worry, kid. I have this".

---

David's plan was risky to finally putting a stop to the Evil Queen, but at this point they had nothing more to lose, both Emma and Regina were gone, she had more questions than answers, but the half-baked plan seemed to be good enough for her at that moment in time.

A sword sliding across the black and white marble floor of the Mayor's office announced his presences to the Evil Queen stopping short of her heeled shoes.

"Ah, David. I thought I smelled earnestness" she stated turning to face the Prince with a sword in his hand ready to face her.

"Please pick it up" he replied, eager to end her reign.

"Why me? You're the one who dropped it".

"Because I'm starting to wonder if you still have it" he questions her making her turned her back on the window "An assassin, The Black Widow, Gold's magic, a genie? Why don't you try doing something yourself for a change, you snake!".

Lunging forward the man went to attack her only for the Queen to easily use her magic to send him flying across the room, his back hitting the back wall.

"Snake?" she questions the man on the ground as she leaves the desks to round on him as the man looked to the desk to see his and Amelia's plan had worked "You do realize you can't kill me, you imbecilic shepherd".

"Thanks for the tip Queenie" her voice took her away from the Prince as her head snapped up to see Amelia sat on the edge of the desk with the lamp in her hands giving David the opportunity to use the distraction to get back on his feet to join the assassin at the desk "We know we can't kill you. But we can do something much worse" she continues as the Queen see's the drapes move from the breeze that swept in through the open window behind the assassin.

They had fooled her.

"You really shouldn't leave the window unlocked Sweetheart" the redhead teases her "You don't know who might climb in these days".

"Amelia" she purred out her name as a wide grin knowing that she still had and advantage over the redhead. She couldn't stomach controlling her Uncle with his dagger, she wouldn't be able to stomach making someone trapped in servitude on the whim of his or her master, even if it granted her wishes in return.

"You can't use that. It goes against everything your little Brotherhood believes in" the Queen reminds her.

"You're right" she tells the woman "I can't. Good thing I brought I friend that can" at this the assassin hands the lamp over to David to summoned the genie in the lamp. A cloud of dark yellow smoke released from the spout creating a mass of smoke on the other side of the redhead as Aladdin looks to his new master.

"David, are you my new master?" Aladdin asks him.

"Yeah, Aladdin, I am" he gloats the the Evil Queen with a triumphant grin.

"Careful. Don't dabble with forces you don't understand" the Queen warns the Prince.

"Oh, I'm gonna be quite careful" he tells the woman.

"Your wish is my command, especially if it's gonna hurt her" Aladdin tells David pointing at the woman across from them "But remember, all wishes come with a price".

"Oh, I know. That's why I'm not gonna wish for anything to do with Emma or Snow or anyone I actually care about. No, Aladdin. The only one that's gonna pay the price is her.

"Genie...I wish... that the Evil Queen gets exactly... what she deserves" throwing his hand towards the Evil Queen both David and Amelia watched for anything to happen, only for nothing to come of the wish.

"Aladdin, what's going on?" the former Widow asks him as she slips off the table to stand between the former Prince and the Genie.

"I don't know. I granted his wish" he tells the woman in confusion

"No, you didn't" she chuckles out "You wasted it. All I ever wanted was to rip your family apart, and now look. Your daughter's trapped in a wish. And your wife is slumbering forever. And you... you are all left alone. Don't you get it? You can't wish for me to get everything I deserve because I already have it".

"And you" she turns her attention to the redheaded assassin.

"All you're lying, all your secrets. You've been ripping your family apart all by yourself without any villain to do it for you. And now look at you now, your wife's gone running after a scared Saviour, because she couldn't stand to be in the same realm as you all while you've let another child be taken from you again".

The revelation made the former Prince look at the assassin beside her to see the angry tears that threatened to fall. It was true.

"And to think" she grinned at the woman "The only thing I did to you is take a useless finger".

"You poisoned me!" she angrily retorted "You helped Basim take her!".

"For your own good!" she yelled back at the woman "You were miserable without the Widow. And look at you now, you're just as miserable with the Widow back. That girl can so much better than have a mother like you" she sneered.

In a flash, quicker than the Sheriff could stop her, the redhead picked up the sword from the ground the rushed forward to kill the Evil Queen.

"Amelia!" David rushed forward to stop her only for both the former Prince and the former Widow to stop short as the Queen held them both by their neck in a vice grip with her magic, making the sword in Amelia's hand to fall onto the floor with a clang.

"Look at you both" she chimed looking between the pair "Such bloodlust. I always knew darkness would be a lovely shade on you Charming" she tells the man before turning her attention to the choking assassin seeing the darkness swirl in her emerald eye's that had been riled up "Darkness is always a lovely shade on you dear".

"David! Amelia!" Hook's voice broke her gaze away from the Prince and the assassin to find Hook enter the room with a sword held towards with Jasmine by his side as she see's Aladdin across the office.

"Aladdin? You're okay!" she exclaims as she rushed towards her love to catch him a tight embrace as Hook continues to hold the Queen at the end of a sword.

"Let them go" Hook demands from the Queen as Tom and Henry catch up to the pirate "You're outnumbered, and we've got the lamp. You've lost".

Cutting her losses the Queen let's both Amelia and David fall onto the floor releasing them from her hold as they gasped and coughed.

"Death is too good for you" the Queen spit at the pair "I'd rather watch you suffer" at that the Queen disappears in a cloud of purple smoke allowing Tom to step away from his step brother and Hook to find his mother on her knee's hunched over as she caught her breath only for cried of anguish to leave her mouth instead of calm breaths.

"Mom!" Tom call out for his mother rushed forward to help her as she started to cry "Are you okay?" he asks as she only cried harder "Mom?" he questions her with worry lacing his voice as coughs turn into desperate sobs painfilled sobs left her lips as the weight of her grief and the Queen's words.

"Amelia" David called out the woman crawling on the ground to take hold of her as she sobbed, pulling her into his arms as head head found his shoulder as he picked them both onto their feet, holding her tight in his arms as she tried to fight him off. No, he wasn't going to let her go without a fight, especially after what he had learned about Helen.

Hook's brow scrunched in confusion as he heard the redhead's cried out in anguish, he had heard it before but struggled to place the memory that went with it.

"What's going on?" the former pirate asks the Prince held the woman in his arms only for his question to go ignored.

"It's okay, it's okay. We'll her back I promise" he whispers into the redhead's crown trying his best comfort the woman's who's world was falling apart once again. The words of comfort made the pirate look between the former Prince and the woman in his arms as he tried to pin point where he heard the woman cry like this before.

"Get who back?" Tom asks his Uncle David having heard him, only for the man to remain silent as the redhead continued to sob into his chest "Get who back!" he asked louder taking the room by aback from not getting an answer.

"Mate-" Killian tries to reach out to calm him down, he was much in the black as the young teen was, but they needed him to stay calm for his mother's sake who looked the same way she did all those years ago when he boarded the Godspeed.

"Helen" David tells him "To get Helen back".

---

"Whatever you're planning, it won't work" King Charming told the Evil Queen as he and his wife sat on the couch as she waited for Emma to arrive and remember who she really was. "We'll defeat you, Regina. We always...".

"Defeat me. I know. I know" she sighed having heard this all before as she paced "That's what I'm counting on".

"Don't worry. She's not going to hurt you" Princess Emma declared to her parents as she made her presence know to the Evil Queen with a small box in her hands "It's going to be okay" she reassures them.

"I knew you'd find the hero in you" the Queen tells the Princess conjuring a ball of fire into a clawed hand ready to be done with this reality once and for all "Now, let's get this over with" she adds as the Princess approaches with the box in her hands "What is that? Some kind of weapon?" she asks the woman with hope.

Opening the box, the Queen came face to face with a brass key sat in the cushioned box "The key to our kingdom" Princes Emma declared to the Queen holding it up to her as she bowed down to her "Which is now yours, Your Majesty. We surrender".

"Seriously?" she deadpanned at the blonde.

"Anything to protect my parents" the Princess retorted putting on a brave face for her parents.

"Emma, I don't want the key to your kingdom" Regina lectured the younger woman, snuffing out the ball of fire in her hand to pick up the key only to toss it away as her frustration got the better of her "I just...I just want you to remember who you are and get you back to Storybrooke".

"Storybrooke?" she questioned the Queen "Like in my dream? How do you know of my dreams?".

"Oh, come on, Emma. This! This is the dream!" Regina exclaimed at the woman in frustration, gesturing to everything around them "And now I have to wake you up".

At that Regina made the second decision she want to have to make that day "I know you won't believe it, Emma, so, I really am sorry about this".

Turning towards the royal couple the Evil Queen shoved her hands into their chest to take hold of their hearts and rip them out.

"No!" the Princess exclaimed in protest seeing the woman do this "I-I already gave you the kingdom" she wailed falling helplessly to her knees as the Queen rounded her with her parents hearts in her hand "I gave you everything. What more can I do?".

"Be the Saviour and stop me" Regina tells her as the woman cried.

"I...".

"If not, your parents die!" she yelled at the woman squeezing their hearts making the couple groan out in pain.

"I'm not a hero" she wept as Regina continued to crush the hearts "I... I'm not the the Saviour".

"Yes, you are. I know you, Emma. You fight when it matters. You always do. Right now you need to fight!".

"No! Please!" she begged.

"Oh, come on, Ms. Swan!" she snapped in annoyance.

"I don't know how" the blonde wept.

"You don't want their blood on their hands, do you? Like Amelia's blood already is!".

"No" she cried harder at the mention of her godmother.

"Do you?!" she yelled at the Princess as the hearts in her hand turned to dust in her hands, killing her friends as the Princess continued sob for her parents lives.

"No. No! No!" the blonde cried out in anguish seeing her parents dead. Letting the dust fall out of her hands, Regina was at a loss to what to do as her friends laid dead on the couch and Emma continued to sob to herself on the floor.

"You really don't remember, do you?" she asked the woman on the ground "You really couldn't fight me".

"She may not have fought, but I will" a voice caught their attention as the former Queen looked up to see Thomas and Henry enter the room with hard looks on their faces "You murdered my mother, and for that, I will have my vengeance!".

"Oh, no, Henry, Thomas, I...".

"Henry! Thomas!" Emma called out to the pair.

"It's okay, Mom" Henry told his mother as he and Thomas stepped towards the Evil Queen with swords drawn.

"No!".

"We have this" the teen reassured his mother as Thomas took a stance in front of the Evil Queen.

"I won't hurt you" Regina tells the pair.

"But we will hurt you" Thomas told the Queen before he pulled the flintlock from the the holster on his chest to aim at the woman that killed his mother as Henry held his sword "That's a promise" he glowered at the woman.

With his finger on the trigger, Henry lifted his sword above his head as the Queen closed her eye's ready to die at the hands of her son's.

"Stop!" Emma yelled out as a loud boom of a gunshot went off and the sword flew out of Henry's hand only for the bullet and sword to stop short of the Queen as they were encased in magic. Emma's magic.

The boys stood and knelt frozen in place as a look of shock came over the former Queen and Saviour as the blonde came out of her daze like state as she remembered her true self.

"Emma?" the former Queen called out to the blonde across from her "You saved me" she stated to the woman in disbelief.

"Yeah, well, you came to this crazy land to save me, so it's only fair, right?" Emma replied wiping the tears from her face.

"You... remember?" Regina asked not sure if she was really speaking to the real Emma.

"Yeah. I remember" the Saviour confirmed as she approached her son's frozen figure placing her hands on his armoured shoulders as she spoke.

"When you couldn't hurt them, when they were about to actually kill and become everything Amelia and I never wanted them to be" she added looking up to the older version of Tom looking as he held the gun in his hand "That's when I knew" she tells the woman before looking towards her parents "Are they...?".

"Oh, they're not real" Regina reassured her "I didn't actually kill anyone".

"And Lia?" she asked the woman remembering this reality's Amelia.

"Yeah including her" she sighed not wanting to go into much detail of how she had to kill her soulmate to make sure Emma remembered who she was.

"Yeah, I know. You just needed to wake me" she understood the woman's reasonings. "Thank you. Although that was... very dark" she says before taking hold of the sword that could hurt the Evil Queen in Storybrooke "Come on. Let's go stop the real Evil Queen".

---

Sauntering down the middle of the road of Main Street, the Evil Queen took her time to take in her new kingdom now that the hero's had once again been beaten by their own plan to bring her down as she formulated her own plan to keep them quiet for the foreseeable future now that Charming's wish had come to nothing.

"This town is almost tolerable" the Queen remarked to herself as she came to stop front of Granny's to spot two dwarves leaving the darkened diner "..when the peasantry is hidden away" she adds as they see her.

"Call Charming" Leroy whispered to his brother, when suddenly a burst of light came from inside the building behind them, making the shade's shake.

"Portal!" Leroy yells in panic "We've been portaled!" he yells out again as he and Sneezy run away in fear of whatever had come.

"Well, that was faster than I thought" the Queen sighed as she makes her way towards the building, stopping short of the curb when a figure in a brown cloak came out of the building along side a shorter figure in white followed them out, darkness obscuring their faces as the Queen noted the long red hair that spilled out of the white hood as they made their way down the path towards her "Who the hell are you?" the Queen demanded to know from the pair.

The figure in white answered her as it lifted their arm and hand up to see the Apple of Eden resting in it's palm.

Seeing the powerful object in the figure's hand, panic struck the Queen knowing what it could do, but before the Queen had a chance to do anything, a powerful burst of energy emitted from the sphere, sending the Queen flying up in the air, before landing heavily onto the hard road several feet away, after which the figures just kept walking, as if they could care less about her presence.

Pushing herself back onto her feet as fast as she could, the Queen stood to retaliate only for her actions to be seen by the figure holding the Piece of Eden in their hand to turn towards her ready to use the Apple again only to stop when a hand appeared in front of her, stopping them from inflicting more pain on the Evil Queen.

Instead the figure unleashed it's own magic on her as swirl of dark magic engulfed the Queen transforming her in a black cobra trapped in a cage, still wearing the golden cuff Gold had put on her earlier that evening. The pair of figures looked to the other, giving the other a curt nod of acknowledgment before turning to go their separate ways.

---

"Storybrooke felt like a dream" Emma tells Regina as they walked down the stony beach in which the former Queen was to meet the Dark One to retrieve a magic bean back to their reality. Back in her normal clothes the former Queen listened to the blonde talk about the reality she had wished herself in "Now this does. I-I mean, a good person I was here just wasn't fighting and the pain... it's... it's what makes me me. I'm good with that. Even if it means my end. 'Cause, you know, that other person kind of.. sucked".

"Yeah. And singing Princess...Emma isn't my favourite model" Regina agrees with her.

"I didn't sing..." she quickly tells the former Queen "That you saw" she trails off "Although it did feel nice to have a hero looking out for me" she adds looking down at the ring on her finger her 'godmother' had given her for her birthday.

At the mention of the Wish Realm's Amelia Montague, the former Queen went quiet recalling the conversation had with the Wish Realm's Hero before the woman sacrificed herself so that she could get Emma to remember who she really was.

Seeing how her friend reacted mentioning 'Amelia', the Saviour needed to remind her that the woman she loved was still in Storybrooke waiting for her to come back home.

"Regina, you need to remember she wasn't our Amelia".

"I know, I know" she replies "It's just..." she trailed off.

"What?".

"She asked if we were happy, and I couldn't answer her".

"Oh" was all the Saviour could say. In all the drama that had unfolded since the truth about their joint vision, her parent's sleeping curse. They weren't the only one's suffering from the Evil Queen's reign.

"I just wish I could think of a way to fix things for her, she hasn't been the same since New York, finding out about Robin-".

"Are you sure this is all about Robin?" Emma asks her.

"Why wouldn't it be?" she blinked at the woman in confusion.

"It's just, if she loved him that much, she wouldn't have married you in the Underworld. Sure, maybe losing him didn't help, but Regina she died, like.. a lot" she reminded the woman thinking back to their time in Camelot and the "Maybe she just needs time to grieve losing the person she was before, maybe that's why she needed to Widow back to help her".

"She told me once that, the Widow wasn't just a villain that had made a deal with the Evil Queen, it was someone she created to help her cope with her upbringing. She killed people long before she met you, even if she thought it was for a good reason".

"And taking her away. I made things worse" Regina concluded. If her love hadn't felt like she had to take the serum in New York, then she might have saved her a lot of trouble.

"I don't know that Regina. That's something you need to ask her yourself. I'm sure everything will be fine when we get back home. I mean it's you guy's" she exaggerated with a grin "You always seemed to find a way to be together when things are tough".

"Then I guess we should get home" Regina states anxiously looking around for the man that they were set to meet "Where is he?".

"Who?" the blonde asks her curiously.

"Oh, I sort of made a deal with the Dark One and let him out of his cage for a ticket home.

"Regina!" she exclaimed in disbelief "What if he's, like, razing villages or something?".

The former went to argue only for a fit of impish laughter to interrupt her and make the older woman look behind her to see the man himself stood there, leaving against a piece of drift wood. She never thought she would be happy to see the Dark One, and yet she was.

"Well, dearie, on behalf of all Rumpelstiltskin's everywhere, I'm here to make good on my word" he tells the Princess as Regina gave her a pointed look "Sure you want to leave all this behind, Princess?".

"Where is that bean, Rumple?" Regina asked her old friend. holding out her hand.

"As promised" he states placing the bean in the palm of her gloved hand "Just throw it down and think about where you want to go" he instructs her.

"Thank you" she replied.

"Off to raze some fake villages" Rumple tells the Saviour before disappearing a ploom of red smoke before the former Queen looked towards the blonde.

"You ready, Emma?" she asks her.

"Yeah. Let's go home".

---

Separating with Amelia and Tom as the mother and son duo headed home to deal with the fallout of the knowledge of Helen's kidnapping. Charming returned to the loft with Hook and Henry to think over his failed plan to put an end to the Queen once and for all, only to make it worse as his friend was somewhere in town in unimaginable pain. knowing there was nothing he could do to help her.

"What have I become?" David asked himself, while Hook listened on as former watched his sleeping wife from the threshold of their bedroom with his hands on his hips "I wanted to execute the Evil Queen back to the Enchanted Forest, but it was Snow who convinced me to show mercy" he says turning to face the former pirate "What if I'm just like my brother? What if I've become the same person Amelia saw in him?".

The anger he saw in her eye's when they confronted him in the Underworld, just before she pushed him into the water, it was nothing compared to the poised and calm Black Widow he knew back home.

"You're not your brother, mate" "We all make mistakes. It doesn't change who we are" Hook assured the man "Now go kiss your damn wife" he demands the man knowing he needed the rest.

Taking a deep breath the man's words of reassurance seemed to work as his drew calm as the front door opened for Jasmine and Aladdin to enter the loft with the lamp in the Princess's hands as Hook and David stepped away from the bedroom to meet them.

"Perhaps... you could use a wish to break your curse with Snow?" Jasmine tells the former Prince handing him the lamp as Aladdin stood by ready to use his new found power to help his friend.

"Thank you. And the way wishes have been going today, I think it just might make things worse. No, the lamp is yours. You're the genie's new master now. I trust that you will be wise with this power".

"Thank you" she tells the man "And I understand the risks, but Aladdin and I... we have to try. We have to find Agrabah".

Are you sure that's a good idea?" Henry asks them.

"Whatever the price, I owe it to my people, and I'm willing to make the sacrifice".

"We both are" Aladdin adds stepping forward.

"What about your brother?" Hook asked the Princess. At the mention of her baby brother the Princess felt a wave of shame wash through her, knowing what he had done behind their backs.

"Wherever he is, I'm sure he'll face the consequences of his actions. When we discovered that it was him in the vision that would kill Aladdin, you have to understand I had to take him away from his fate. If I had known he would take-" words failed her at the thought of her brother doing such a thing as taking someone's child "If I had known his madness had returned, I would've never brought him here".

"I'm sorry. His madness?" David questioned her hearing this come from the woman.

"He's a Hybrid. Like Amelia" she informs the room "The Oracle once spoke that his kind would either succumb to the power that lived within him or be stronger for it. I'm sorry if this comes as news to you, but I did my best to help him. It seemed it wasn't enough in the end. I'm sorry".

"We understand" Henry tells the Princess as David and Hook nodded along with the teenager "We'll miss you".

"Don't. We'll be back" the genie assures them "And until then, give this to your mom for me" he says handing him the golden scarab that Henry takes from the man "From one Saviour to another".

"Do you trust me?" Jasmine asks her love.

"Always, Princess".

"Then...I wish for you to take us to Agrabah" with a wave of his hand the pair disappear leaving Storybrooke behind to find their home, only for the front door to open again, this time for Leroy to let himself in.

"Big trouble, team" Leroy barked carrying the cage that contained the Queen into the apartment "Big trouble!".

"What the hell is that?" David asked the dwarf in confusion.

Pulling the cover from the cage, the dwarf uncovered the black cobra in the cage that was once the Evil Queen.

"That... is the Evil Queen" Leroy answered as the snake hissed.

"She got what she deserved" David muttered to himself remembering what he had wished for "Who put her in there?".

"Couple of guys in a hood" Leroy informs them.

"Emma's and Lia's vision" David gasped "Did you see them? Did you see who was under that hood?".

"No, but It get's worse".

"How?" Hook asks him.

"One of them, had the Widow's Apple in their hand. Used it on the Queen before the other one turned her into this".

---

In the wish realm, Regina drops the magic bean onto the ground thinking of their home in Storybrooke a green whirlpool opens before the former Queen and the Saviour, as the pair join hands ready to jump only to duck just in time for two arrow to fly over their heads and hit the tree behind them.

"What the...?" the former Queen trailed off only for a voice they both knew to come to their ears.

"Not another step, ladies" Robin ordered the pair of women on the shore, aiming his arrow true.

"No. It can't be" Regina whispered to herself as she stood to her full height to see Robin Hood alive.

"This is a robbery" he adds as the former Queen's feet found themselves moving towards the dead thief.

"Regina?" Emma called out to the woman.

"Robin?" the former Queen mumbled as the man continued to aim at her.

"Let's go! Off with the jewellery!" he ordered the pair "Otherwise my daughter will take matters into her own hands" he tells them gesturing behind them for the pair to look behind them to see a young girl with long red hair stood on top of the drift with a bow and arrow in her hand, aimed straight for them, trapping them in the robbery.

"Helen?" Emma gasped seeing the girl she knew on the other end of the arrow.

"Princess" the girl grinned down at her in greeting "Good to see you too. You remember my Papa?" she smugly reminds the blonde Princess.

"Papa?" Emma questioned the girl looking back at the man with the bow and arrow. She remembered now, things were a lot different for Amelia than in Storybrooke.

"Remember what you said" Emma tried to to stop the woman from going any further "They're not real. He's not real!. We've got to go!" she yelled at the woman needing her to come out of whatever she was thinking as she stepped towards Wish Amelia's husband "Regina!" she tried once again only for the swirling portal to close up leaving them stranded in the Wish Realm.

---

Returning home was the only place she wanted to be after her confrontation with the Evil Queen and truth had come out about Helen. The front door slammed open as the former Widow stormed into the house with her son trailing behind, forgetting to close the door behind him as he chased her up the stairs in the foyer as the older woman started to pace the open space as her mind spun from the events of the evening.

"Mom" Tom called out to the anxious redhead as he watched her pace the marble floor in deep thought as she wrung her hands out in worry "Mom, we need to talk about this, we need to make a plan" he tried to talk to her only to get no response.

"MOM!" he yelled at the top of his voice making her stop and look towards him.

"There is no plan to make" she tells hm straight answering his query "She's gone".

"What do you mean she's gone?".

"It means there's nothing we can do. Everything I've done to try and protect you both, has been for nothing".

"No" he told her shaking his head at her "Not just like that, there has to be something" he argued "We can't just give up-".

"I'm not giving up!" she snaps at him "I'm giving you your best chance to survive what's coming".

"What's coming?".

"I think she talking about me big brother" a feminine voice from the front door made the pair freeze as they both looked to see a figure in white stood inside their home.

"No" the redhead whispered in horror seeing the figure from her vision in the flesh, stood in the long white robe and hood that covered their face. As on cue the figure reached up to pull the white hood from their head to reveal the head full of bright red hair that matched her mother's that sat on her shoulders looking straight at the former assassin.

"Hey Mom".

---

AN: Phew! We made it!.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Hopefully this is the last time I have to post this message on this story, but as we go further into the holiday season, updates on both my active stories won't be as often because of my job. Story isn't going anywhere as well as POEM, etc.

Until next time:

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