A/N and apology: Hello guys! I'm super, super sorry for such a delay in this story. I've been really busy with a new job, and when I get days off, I kind of just want to lay around and be a total lazy piece of crap ;) But I've began to get adjusted to the new hours so I think I'll finally get back in the groove!

On top of it all, I was totally stuck on this story. And have been. Since about chapter 7 (I think), I've been flying by the seat of my pants - meaning that I had no idea where the heck I was going with this story. I originally had an ending for it, but the more I wrote it, the more I disliked my original ending. So yeah...it's been a rough ride. I have an ending I want, now, but it's just getting there is the problem. Sorting everything out. That's hard, when you've weaved a web and then tangled it all up even more.

Also, since Disappeared is coming to an end (Sad face), I'm working on a new story. It'll be Outlaw Queen and an AU again, so keep your eyes out for it! And in the meantime, if you're a Swingtown fan, go read my other story "Before the Deckers". I work on it frequently!

Again, sorry for the big delay (and for this long message lol oops), but hopefully it's the end of all these delays.

Thank you all for reading! I hope you enjoy

G.

..

...

Scanning each one of them quickly but carefully, she goes for the fully automatic rifle, grabbing five magazines of ammunition and sticking them everywhere she can. Her back pockets, her front pockets, and the last one was stuck in her bra. Safely. And then she's off again, sprinting toward the doors with an automatic under her arm and a pistol in the hem of her pants. She's fully loaded and extremely dangerous, being in this state of mind.

Once the doors open again to sector four, and her eyes widen with the sight in front of her. She gasps, grabs her rifle, and starts shooting desperately.

..

…

"Regina, no!" Robin shouts, pinned underneath James and receiving a blow to the nose thanks to his shout.

Regina aims for his attacker, but Spike draws a gun on her and holds it. "Don't do it, Regina." He warns, stepping one step closer.

She's deciding what to do, she has so many choices. She could leave, leave Robin behind and run and...no. That won't work. She has nowhere to run. She could start shooting randomly again, hoping to hit more of Francis' henchmen, most importantly James. Or, she could take the pistol out of her pocket and aim it at her head.

And she does.

Spike jumps forward and shakes his head in desperation, "Don't do that." He says sternly, even though she can tell he's trying to stay calm.

"What's in all of this for you?" She asks him, shaking her head with the pistol nestled cozily in her temple, her finger resting on the trigger. She goes on and asks, "Why do you care if Gold's plan is carried out? Some kind of money? Some investment that you two big idiots have put into it?" taking a shaky breath when she cocks the gun.

He steps forward again but she digs it into her skin, making him step back. "You wouldn't understand..." He says, shaking his head. "I just need you alive."

She cocks her jaw to the side, her teeth gritted hard as she looks behind him at Robin with a bloodied nose and a blacked eye, James still sitting on top of him and pinning him down. Why do they need me so badly? She determines what she'll say next, and takes a deep breath, "Tell me what use I am to Dr. Gold, and I'll put the gun back where I got it from, and you give me Robin and assure me that he doesn't get hurt." She demands, her eyes back on Spike's with extreme intensity. "Or else I'll shoot myself."

Her last words come out a bit shakier than she meant, but her adrenaline is dying off – she just wants to be safe again.

Spike steps forward (she's still not sure that's his name), and nods. "You're needed for an experiment."

"What experiment?" She asks, taking her other hand and holding the automatic rifle up to him.

His eyes slowly drift down and he swallows hard, clearing his gravelly throat (he sounds like he smokes too many cigarettes). "Well, it's not an experiment exactly. It's more of a...you..." He stutters and she gives an irritated breath.

"I'm waiting." She says in a low tone, ready to pull the trigger on herself.

He sighs, "He needed your mom to complete a piece of work that he was doing. And when you bumped into him that day, he realized the resemblance and wondered if your blood type was the same." He explains, shuffling his feet slightly, "He hit you, that day, and gathered your blood as you were bleeding out. He came back, he tested it, and then he had to search to find you."

She shakes her head, "You're not telling me why I'm here, Spike." She says, accidentally letting his nickname slip from between her lips. Oops.

He furrows a brow, "Spike? Try Neal." He corrects before continuing on with his explanation, "My father has found a way to switch realities. And because he doesn't like the way his first reality turned out, he made a new one. One that you and that guy over there," He turns and points to Robin lazily, "Got stuck in. You weren't supposed to find it first, but that road you two were on led to the warp in the earth."

The warp in the earth? A new reality? This is starting to actually make sense, why her mind took her to the place where Gold wasn't insane and Robin didn't know her. That's why. "A new reality, but why were we the only two to find it?"

"It wasn't about finding it." Gold says, stepping into the room. He shoots Neal a look that could kill a cat then and there, then turns back to Regina. "No one was supposed to find it. Once you completed my study, I would distribute it into every store, every amusement park, every theater. They install it as 'government mandated', and when you walk through it, it brings you to a new reality. A better one. But the version that you and..." He stops and turns to Robin, "He got stuck in, wasn't completed."

"So is this that reality?" She asks, completely confused. More confused than she was before about all of it. "Or is this the regular world?"

"This is that reality."

Thank God, Henry has a chance. He may be alive. This horrible reality that he put them through...thankfully wasnt even real. "And in order to make this reality correct, this...this world you've created...I have to...?" She asks, not sure exactly what her task is.

He sighs and looks back to James, not saying a word before James throws a gun to the scientist. He aims it at Regina, "You're asking too many questions." He says.

She shakes her head, "You need me. You won't shoot me." She challenges, keeping her strength, though exhaustion was wanting to take over.

"But I don't need your leg." He says, shooting into her calf muscle.

She screams out in pain, and Robin jumps up, trying to get to her. He's quickly pulled down by James, though, and Francis tosses the gun back to him. "Take her to the holding cells and nurse her leg until she's ready to be tested again." He demands to Neal, who is apparently his son.

She never would've seen the resemblance.

..

…

She thinks she was only passed out for one day in the holding cell...at least she hopes it's only been one day. She needs to get back to Henry and find him as soon as she can. She has something she needs to discuss with Emma, and then with Henry. She's determined to tell him the truth about him being her son, not Emma's.

That's the only thing that was stopping her from fighting back when James and Neal came in and swooped her off the floor, the dull aching pain in her leg making her whole body shiver. She'd forgotten about the injury until they made her put some weight on it, then it was quickly remembered.

Same strategy – hooking her up to five different cords and making her float again. She sees Gold through the front again, sneering and shaking her head. Her jaw is cocked to the side, her teeth gritted down tightly as she speaks, "You lay a finger on my family and your finger will be the only thing left." Her voice is low, actually a bit eerie. She sounds evil. Demented. But maybe she is, maybe that's what it's really come down to.

He simply nods, not saying one more word before she's out like a light, tumbling down into a new world. Again.

Her eyes open and the first thing she sees again is Francis. She's lying on the ground like before, and he's not standing over her in a powerful way. She's watching him, and sees a young boy come running up to him with open arms, shouting, Daddy!

Francis smiles, welcomes the boy with his open arms, and he still has no cane, no limp. He's dressed nicely and his hair is much neater.

She's in the same alternate universe that she was in the last time.

Keep playing, Regina.

She stands up with a little bit of a struggle (though not as much struggle as it would've been in reality), dusts herself off, and looks around. She's in the amusement park, looking around and wondering why she's here. She never figured it out the last time before she got shot in the arm.

Again, she's turned one-hundred and eighty degrees before someone smashes into her, tackling her to the ground just like before.

Groaning in pain, she doesn't get angry at him this time. She knows it's Robin...she doesn't want to snap at him. When she opens her eyes, she sees his bright blue ones staring back at her. He's getting up and offering her a calloused hand, "I was looking for my son. I apologize." He says, helping her up as she dusts off.

She looks into his eyes again once she stands up, wishing he actually knew her in this world. It would make it easier. She's depended on him for help when she's stuck, and now she doesn't have him. "Regina." She says, offering her hand and taking a bold leap of faith.

When he looks down at it with confusion, her stomach flips. But he shakes it with some awkwardness in his stance, "Nice to meet you." He says out of politeness, then continues quickly, "Sorry about tackling you." And he's off again in a run, yelling out, Roland! and searching everywhere for his son.

She watches him until he's out of seeing distance, still wishing she had him to help decipher some of the confusion going on around her. Her head is pounding (thankfully it's only her head this time, unlike the last time where it was her arm too).

This is the furthest she's made it. Last time she was already waking up due to the real life gun wound in her arm. Now, she's trekking on.

She walks along the rides, still confused as to why Francis would've brought her here out of all places. Until she heard the sweetest, most angelic voice again. Henry. "Mom! Mom! Let's go on the Cobra...pleeeeease!" He's saying, but he's looking up at Emma...not at Regina. It breaks her heart, shatters her soul into little tiny pieces. She's broken in this world and it's all because of Francis.

Why does he want her to be broken in a reality where he's perfect? She's not her mother...he can't take this out on her. She doesn't understand. She just wants to be back to normal.

She walks over and steals a balloon from the cart, biting her lip and hoping no one noticed. "Hi there, would you like a balloon?" She asks.

Henry just looks at her like she's insane, shaking her head. "I don't know you." He says, "And mom says not to talk to strangers."

Actually, in reality, she taught him that rule. Damn it.

"Well, get your mom over here. It's just a balloon that I bought for my son...but he doesn't want it." She frowns.

He looks at her again, studying her eyes. For a moment, he almost looks normal. He looks like her Henry again, the sweet one. Not the bratty one who begs to go on rides. But that's torn away as he turns to Emma, "Mom? This crazy lady wants to give me a balloon!" He shouts, and Emma walks over.

She stands up to a normal height now, looking Emma in the eye and smiling warmly. "Hi, my name is Regina. I bought this balloon for my son but he didn't like it. Mind if I give it to He-" She almost slips up, almost calls him Henry. "Him?" She quickly corrects, hoping her slip-up will just be written off as a stutter by Emma.

The blonde looks at Henry, shrugging. "Why not?" She says, smiling warmly at Regina. "Tell her thank you, Henry." She says, laying her hands on the boy's shoulders.

Henry looks up into Regina's eyes, pauses, then swallows thickly. "Do I know you?" He whispers, furrowing his little brows.

Regina's breath hitches and she takes a moment to think. What could she say to not alarm Emma, but to also bring Henry out of this? Is he even a real Henry or is he...alternate? She's confused and just wishes she was better-versed in this whole "switching reality" thing.

She nods, "I think you might. Were you a student in Mrs. Blanchard's class?" She asks sweetly, and he nods. "Well, I was the...teacher's assistant. Your name is Henry...right?"

He nods, "Right." He says, still sounding suspicious.

Emma's brows have furrowed, studying Regina suspiciously. "Okay...well then. Thanks for the balloon, ma'am. We should get going now." She says, steering Henry off for a few feet.

She watches and desperately wishes he'd remember. Shaking her head in defeat, she turns around and starts to walk off, trying to figure out what to do – until she feels arms around her hips, "Regina." He whispers, and she turns quickly.

She swallows hard, eying him closely, "Henry? What are you doing?"

"I remember." He whispers.

She gasps and kneels down to hug him tightly, "Oh sweetie." She coos, rubbing the back of his hair and cradling him tightly in her arms. She needed him so badly. She thought he was dead, she thought he'd never hug her ever again. She never thought she'd be able to say sweetheart? And he reply. She never thought she'd have this again. He's alive. "Oh my sweetheart..." She whispers. Once she's gotten her hug in, she pulls away gently, "This is like your video games, Henry. You have to be secret. We're on a secret mission." She whispers to him, looking in his eyes intensely. "You can't tell anyone you remember me outside of school. Okay?" She asks softly.

He nods, confused. "Why are we here, Regina?" He asks nervously and in a whisper.

She shakes her head and rubs the tops of his little arms. "I don't know, Henry..." She says sadly, biting her lip, "But I'm going to figure it out soon. And everything will be back to normal again. Okay?"

"Okay." He says, trying to be brave but she can tell...she knows. He's terrified.

She places a gentle and subtle kiss on his forehead, "Meet me in the line for the Mongoose when the big and little hand is on the one." She explains, looking at his watch and pointing down to it. It's only twelve o'clock now, hopefully she can figure something out by the time they meet up again. "Will Emma let you ride that one by yourself?"

He nods, "Yeah, she will." He assures.

She nods, swallows thickly, and stands up again. "Be careful, Henry. I love you."

He smiles, "Love you too, Regina." He says sweetly, then rushes off like a secret agent to Emma.

She watches, takes a deep and refreshing breath; he's safe. He's okay. Now she needs to get home. Home.

Taking a heavy breath, she turns and starts walking toward an information kiosk. There's a bench beside it, beautiful flowers placed everywhere. It's like a small version of a park. Right here in an amusement park. She grabs a map at the kiosk and sits down, unfolding it in her lap.

She studies it, seeing where each and every ride is. What the hell am I doing here? She can't figure it out. She wishes she would've demanded the purpose of the test from Francis before she agreed, finally, to doing it. But then again, he shot her in the leg when she asked why.

Beginning to walk again, toward the park's information center, she feels a hand tap her on the shoulder. She stops dead in her tracks and looks back, and there's those blue eyes again. Wonderful, beautiful, gorgeous blue eyes that she could stare at forever. The blue eyes that look like oceans, waving to her and she smiles and- "I'd like to buy you some lunch or something...payment for running over you."

Her smile disappears and she furrows her brows, "Oh, well...that's sweet but I really don't have time for lunch. I..." She pauses, closes her eyes and bites her lip, "Do I know you?" She decides to ask, wondering if he knew her like Henry did.

Her question took him by surprise, to say the least. He shakes his head, "Not before earlier, no." He replies, shifting his weight a little and looking up at the ride they were standing beside. "Listen, I-I'd like to buy your lunch. My son is about to get off that ride, so yes or no?"

She furrows her brows sadly, trying not to show that she's extremely conflicted. Knowing the real Robin, she knows that if she looks conflicted, he'll get his feelings hurt. Same as if she turns him down, so... "Sure, lunch will work. But I need to go do something real quick. Meet me at the cafeteria in about...ten?" She asks, looking down at his watch quickly and meeting his eyes again.

He nods in reply, his eyes smiling at her but his face staying normal, "Sounds great." He replies, rushing off to the line where the children are about to come out to meet up with their parents again.

A part of her wants to stay and watch, just to see what his son looks like in person, but she knows she needs to get finished.

…

..

Battling the crowd that was coming in (she was going toward the exit), she finally makes it to the information kiosk. Patiently waiting in line behind parents with their kids, she looks down at her leg. She place where Gold shot her, in this reality, is just a bruise that looks like she hit it on something. She's glad it's not a bullet wound in this reality – scaring all of the children here. "Next." the woman says, and Regina realizes she's been daydreaming through three of the people in front of her.

She steps up to the window and gives a warm smile, "Hi, I'm with the government and I have an important message for the manager of the park. Is he here today?" She asks, keeping her voice sweet and gentle.

The woman, Delores (according to her name tag), nods her head and picks a phone up, "Mr. Gold? A woman from the government is here to see you." She says, and Regina fiddles with her hands nervously under the ledge so that the woman can't see her. She pauses and pulls the phone away, "He needs a name."

Regina bites her lip quickly, but just as quickly she lets go, "It's Governor Humbert's wife, he told me I needed to deliver a message in person to Mr. Gold." She says, swallowing thickly and hoping that Delores isn't a good lie detector.

Apparently, she isn't. She tells Gold through the phone who it is, and then she hangs up. "Go down this street right here, and he's in his office. It looks like a popcorn stand, but that's his office." She says in a quiet tone, "Knock on the door three times, and he'll let you in."

Regina nods and smiles, "Thank you very much." She says, giving the woman a kind look and walking to exactly where she said.

When she arrives, she knocks three times and a little boy answers the door, "Daddy, there's someone here to see you." He says, running to the other room.

"Thank you, Neal." Gold says, standing up from his desk and walking out. He looks up at Regina and freezes, and she smiles.

"Surprised to see me?" She asks in a low tone, the same one that scared herself a little when she was getting dragged by his two bozos. "I don't want your son to see this, you may want to either step into another room or make him do the same."

His Adam's apple bobs as he swallows hard, nodding and looking at Neal, "We'll be upstairs, son. Don't answer the door for anyone else and don't answer the phone." He warns, going upstairs first and Regina follows suit.

Once they're in another office, he closes the door and sits down behind another desk. "Why are you meeting with me?" He asks calmly, though Regina can see the sweat on his brow. She knows he's nervous to see her now that he doesn't have his protection, Neal and James.

She sits down politely, crosses her legs like a lady should, "Why else would I meet with you, Gold? I want to know why the hell I'm here. And don't tell me it's because of the experiment, I know that part. What does this amusement park have anything to do with a mad scientist's experiment?"

He clears his throat and leans forward onto his elbows, looking down at the desk in front of him. "This is my world. This is the world I created, a world of happiness for me and for my son. And no..." He stops and moves his eyes to meet hers, "You don't get a happiness."

"Why?"

"Your mother ruined it."

She scoffs and rolls her eyes, "I'm not my mother, in case you haven't noticed! She's already ruined my happiness once." She says, taking a breath to calm herself down. She closes her eyes, immediately wanting to open them because all she sees is Daniel. His smile, his loving eyes, his hands rubbing her sides when she came to him, crying, explaining that they were going to have a baby. But then, she can't open them. Not now, because she's at his funeral again, looking at him in his casket. She has to open them before she starts crying, "Now tell me why I'm here, Gold, or so help me I'll kill you after I make you watch as I kill your son." She says, dark and deep. Her eyes, even, have gotten a shade darker.

She's angry. She's hurt. She's tired. She wants her son back and Francis isn't cooperating, "Regina," He starts, looking over his shoulder and smirking, "You don't have the strength to kill a child."

"Don't challenge me." She snaps, "I've been through things you'll never understand. And I just want to be done with this, Francis. I want to go back to my life." She states, a break in her voice makes her snap her head back. She sniffles and looks down as she takes another deep breath, trying to get calmer again as she reaches for the knife she'd gotten from the souvenir store. She brings it to her face, smirks, shakes her head, "Look at this? Your son's name used for the park." She murmurs as she reads the knife's engraving, Nealand. "I could kill you with this knife." She smiles deviously, "And I will, if you don't tell me why I'm here."

His eyes widen, but he still doesn't look afraid enough. That's when Regina stands up quickly with anger in her eyes and turns the desk over on top of Gold, making him fall backwards in his chair. She climbs on the desk, sticking the knife to his throat, "Tell me. Now." She growls, "Or watch your pretty little son get slaughtered."

Finally, she sees fear in his eyes. This in itself is a victory. After all the pain and suffering he's caused her – making her think her son was dead, pointing a gun to her own head multiple times, having to see dead people and having to feel like she and this stranger were the only two people in the world that were left. She doesn't care what he says, she's killing him as soon as he tells her what's going on exactly.

He finally breaks, saying, "You have to stay here. That's all...there's no experiment. I knew you wouldn't hook to the machine if you thought it was permanent."

"Permanent?" She asks, swallowing thickly and sticking the tip of the knife even further into his skin. With a bump, it'll break into the top layer. "Is this...this horrible place permanent?"

He looks at the ticking clock on the wall, nodding, "At one, it's permanent."

One. One. That's when she told Henry to meet her on the roller coaster. It's twenty after twelve now, how will she get back before then? Getting back...that's what she needs to know how to do now.

She bumps her hand into him, making him scream out as the sharp knife breaks the top layer of his wrinkly skin. "How do I stop it from being permanent, Gold?" She sneers, her elbow slowly extending so that it agonizingly digs into his skin deeper and deeper. She'll stop at a certain point...she doesn't want him dead yet. When he doesn't answer and she pops it into his skin further, she draws blood. "Tell me, you bastard! Tell me right now!"

He closes his eyes in fear and maybe in pain, she's not sure. "The most impossible thing ever for you! I set it that way!"

She scoffs, "Nothing is impossible. Now tell me." She snaps.

Those words that she chooses makes her mind quickly go back to when she was a child, playing with her cousins in the backyard. She's older than them, so she was always bigger and had more seniority. But one day, Mary-Margaret and Emma decided that it would be funny for them to all go swimming, and then they take Regina's clothes after daring her to go in naked. Being confident and cocky, she scoffed at them and started stripping, then went in. But the little twerps grabbed her clothes and ran off with them, hiding them before Regina could even get turned around to see that they were gone. Once she got to them, naked and cold, she snapped, Tell me where my clothes are! Tell me right now!

The memory makes her want to smile because Emma and Mary-Margaret got grounded for two months, but she can't smile. Not right now. Not out of joy, at least.

He scoffs at her sentence and shakes his head a little, stopping when he realizes it's more painful than he'd thought. "A true love's kiss."

"True lov-" She stops herself and takes a breath, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "You idiot!" She snaps, standing to her feet again and leaving him there to bleed out (hopefully). She grabs the knife and wipes it on his pant leg to clean it, tucking it back into her pocket and rushing downstairs. She ignores Neal talking to her, she can't look at him or she'll feel guilty about what she just did to his father. She can't feel guilty.

Sprinting, she checks the big clock tower in the middle of the park. Twelve thirty-five. She's got twenty five minutes, and she'll have to just skip the Henry date. She knows what she needs to do. She needs to find Robin. She needs to go on a fifteen minute date with him at a kid's amusement park. And then, then, she needs to get the complete stranger to kiss her. Willingly. She tries not laughing to herself at that thought of getting him to kiss her.