Mirror of Alternates; the outtakes.

Here are a few things that were in the very first draft of TMoA, but failed to make the final cut. Italicised indicates an Alternate Future from the Mirror, regular font indicates Storybrooke. It's mostly a non-sequential stream, each segment stands alone though if you care enough, you could see where it possibly inserts into tMoA.

As always, enjoy!

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Zelena is the one that Rumplestiltskin goes to in the end, having relinquished his grip on Regina, the combined hairs of her and the thief glowing purple in his store of potions.

True love. The most powerful magic of all.

Zelena is corrupted by the Dark One; convinced that casting the Dark Curse she will get her happy ending. Heavily pregnant with her first child, Regina recognises the dark green fog as it washes over the mountains, crashing towards Sherwood where she and Robin live. Robin holds her tight as she sobs, citing the worst of all magic is bearing down on them all.

She hopes Rumplestiltskin doesn't intend for it to last.

In an alternate Storybrooke, Regina and Robin own a small camping gear store, right by the woods. Twenty-eight years pass in a blur, Madam Mayor Zelena Oz adopting Henry, the truest believer, Emma coming to town, becoming sheriff and breaking the curse, time moves forward once more.

Regina is driving home to Robin when labour hits, her car screeching to a halt in the middle of the road as a contraction hits hard. She is screaming, the door being wrenched open, a head full of blonde curly hair loosening her seatbelt and pulling her from the car. Sitting by the wheel of the car with Emma's hand being crushed by her own when contractions hit, they wait for the ambulance.

Emma walking into the camping store shortly before a storm hits, looking for replacement emergency storm supplies to load into the sheriff's car. Baby Callie coos from where she is wrapped up tight against her mother's chest, leaving Regina's hands free to pick up various ropes, batteries and tarps to hand to Emma. Robin is with Marco and David as they help secure shop front windows, taping them up in case they are blown out by the storm.

Mayor Zelena runs in, Henry in tow, looking miserable at being dragged out in this weather, the winds already picking up.

She mumbles on about something to do with official council business, dragging Emma away from Regina and leaving Henry behind. The boy grins, the camping store being a favourite of his; likes to come over when his adoptive mother starts a new argument with his biological mother. Regina likes having Henry around; was asked by Zelena to babysit him a few times over the years. He took a liking to her apple muffins from a young age and now it's a special treat they share whenever he visits. Now he's positively gloomy, his backpack drooping off one shoulder.

'What's a matter kid?' she asks him.

'Mon said I'm grounded for going with Emma to the Diner yesterday.' His face contorts to a grimace, 'we were only discussing Operation Cobra.'

Regina smiles, after his school teacher gave him a fairytale book almost a year ago, he had become obsessed with a theory that the whole town of Storybrooke was cursed. She listened to Henry when he first started trying to convince people, telling her that she was Snow White's former step-mother, that had she not run away with Robin Hood, she would have become the Evil Queen. Upon seeing the book itself, and reading through its pages with Henry, she came to realise that the stories inside were not the most traditional ones.

Red Riding Hood being the wolf terrorising a village; Snow White bravely entering the Wicked Witches stronghold to retrieve her true love; The Wicked Witch of the West trying to turn Doctor Frankenstein into a monkey whilst Cinderella makes deals with Rumplestiltskin. Regina thinks this version might be a little bit more liberal than the ones she remembers reading.

But a sliver of conviction remains, though Zelena puts the boy in therapy, and Emma isn't convinced that her biological son isn't just a tiny bit crazy, Regina can't help but feel that Henry doesn't have it all wrong. When it comes to the images in the book, the lack of detail in the faces and people makes Regina look at them twice. Snow White really does bear a strong resemblance to Henry's school teacher Mary Margaret, Prince Charming like the owner of the Pet Shelter; she thinks she is just flattering herself, but upon reading the story of how Snow White's stepmother meets and runs away with Robin Hood, the archer and thief, Regina can't help but feel a pang of familiarity there.

Henry drops his backpack at his feet, his running shoes scuffing on the floor as he looks around, Regina carefully puts all of Emma's purchases on the counter, careful not to wake Callie, and pulls Henry in for a hug.

'I know it's rough, sweetheart, I'm here for you.'

He returns to embrace, careful not to squash the baby between them.

'Thanks Regina,' he says, 'it kinda sounds like my moms will be arguing for a bit, anything I can do to help?'

He smiles, and she returns it, glad to have the boy back to his normal self.

'Well,' she pretends to think about it, 'I did make a fresh batch of apple cinnamon muffins this morning, and I'm not going to be able to eat them all myself.'

His grin grows, 'that I can help you with!'

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Henry refuses to budge, even with Emma trying to physically drag him out at Regina behest. He got so tall in the year they spent apart that Regina feels a pang of loss whenever they hug, her little prince is not longer little. But she knows he is still too young to see this, and to see his adoptive mother being assaulted by his maternal great grandfather is one thing Henry should never know of.

But he sees it all, his eyes glued to the mirror his mother stands in front of. He's seen images of King Leopold, and heard so much about him from his grandmother, but they were all good things; what he's doing to Regina is in no way good and even though Regina is looking straight at him, telling him to go with Emma, he cannot move. All he wants to do is hug his mother, to shield her from whatever horror lies in her past, to go home with her to Mifflin street, to help her bake an apple pie and have it for dessert with ice cream after a dinner of lasagne.

Emma finally succeeds in dragging him out of Gold's pawn shop, but by then the fight in Henry is gone, the years of abuse from the King has passed, moved on already to the next scene in the mirror, he sees his mother falling to her death of a balcony, and then Emma has shut the door behind them, and with a firm arm around his shoulder, steers him away.

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Cora escapes from Wonderland, it's taken nearly sixteen years of painfully bright saturated colours, and she returns to the Enchanted Forest to discover her daughter is no longer queen. Upon entering the royal castle, she sees the King Leopold astride his white gelding, frown lines on his forehead and his hairline receding even further than she remembers.

She demands to see her daughter, only to discover she was kidnapped nearly fifteen years ago, with no success in her retrieval. Leopold dismounts and takes her hand in his own, vowing that is still doing his best to have her found and returned safely. She strikes him, in full view of Snow, and the King's personal guard. He waves off any attempt to have Cora restrained, knowing the blow was deserved.

'I spent sixteen years in exile, in a land my daughter pushed me into at Rumplestiltskin's whispering command and I return home to find you've let her run away?' she screeches, knowing that if Regina got her foot out the door, there would be no stepping back inside.

Leopold looks ashamed, and cowers a little when Cora's sneer does not waver.

'I will find her.' She hisses to him, 'I will do the one thing you should have done fifteen years ago and bring her home.'

It takes nearly two years for Cora to find them. Rumple provided no assistance, merely giggling and suggesting that love is a truly powerful thing. Instead Cora had to use her smarts, with Henry back at their manse with failing health, her poor, weak husband could not join her, but Cora soldiered on, as always.

She uses her people skills, keeps them talking, offers consolation in monetary form for information, hears names and locations, rumours and town gossips, and finally hears something of value from a washerwoman,

'Regina's just had her fourth, little girl.'

Cora disguises herself and find out more from the village of Sherwood, they live out toward the forest, has two sons and two daughters, Regina married the only decent son of the overthrown Lord Locksley, the man has won every archery competition in Sherwood in the last five years.

It's enough to go on, and she sets off to find her daughter.

What Cora didn't expect was to find Regina's doppelganger viciously firing arrows into a target, mere feet from the path leading to the house a grazier pointed out for her. The girl is in her early teens, long black hair carelessly tied back as she fires another, hitting the black mark in the centre.

The girl turns upon Cora making herself known, disguise removed. Announces herself as Callie, and Cora can see that she hold her bow ready to fire until Cora makes herself less threatening. She eventually comes closer, though still wary. Though similar, Callie does not have the exact face of her mother, the cheeks either side of her lips bear dimples, and the eyes have more blue in them. This girl is also taller than Regina, her arms more shapely and strong.

Cora follows the girl the last few yards to the home, where two young boys screech with laughter as a man leads their ponies around the field, and Cora sees Regina, watching them as she sits beneath a tree, holding a bundle close to her. Callie steps forward whilst Cora remains in the shadow of the trees sheltering the path, her arrival being announced. Regina's form looks unchanged, though she's born more than one child and wears a gown not cinched in by a corset.

Callie steps back to her and pulls Cora towards her daughter. Upon stepping into view, Regina instantly recognises her mother and stiffens.

'Callie, take your sister over to your father.' She commands, the girl obeying instantly, hyper aware that the stranger is not necessarily someone to trust. Even with a quiver of arrows and a bow, she effortlessly makes it over to her father, who instantly is on high alert, the boys no longer giggling from atop their steeds.

Cora takes in Regina's appearance, she aged well, and even with her children at a safe enough distance, she can see how Regina does not manoeuvre from her position between her mother and her family.

'What are you doing here, mother?' comes the inevitable.

'I came to find my daughter.' Is Cora's curt reply, 'I came to find the queen, and instead find she's slumming it in Sherwood Forest with a brood of little ones and a man who is not legally her husband.'

Regina glares at her mother, saying nothing in response.

Cora lets out a dissatisfied "humph" and takes a moment to look at the house and expanse of land which her daughter lives on.

Regina leans forward ever so slightly, the same way she did as an inquisitive teenager, rephrasing her first question,

'Why are you here?'

Her breath is metered out, each intake and exhalation carefully controlled. Cora can tell that Regina's rage is simmering just underneath the calm surface. She's close to the same point that Cora had pushed her to when they were at the King's palace, right before the wedding.

Cora's eyes flicker to the family behind her youngest child her only child she reminds herself, the man has his sleeves rolled up, a black tattoo on one wrist, the bow and quiver Callie had is now in his arms, the two boys dismounted and holding onto the reins of their own mount. Callie holds the babe, wrapped up and still asleep.

She makes a decision in that moment, she cannot rip Regina away from this family she has created, if it had been one child, even two it might has been possible to achieve, but four children and the man to contend with is a small step too far. All she has fought for, all she had to endure and the atrocities she dealt with and deals she made to get out of being the poverty-stricken miller's daughter is gone. Gone because her child couldn't handle the power of being queen. At her more advanced age, Cora knew she could not handle dealing with her insubordinate daughter going back to the King, and having only recently reunited her body with her heart, she can now love her daughter like she should have done from the start.

'I-I'm here to meet my grandchildren.'

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Robin is hesitant to accept her idea, the opportunity to gather more gold to redistribute to the community a tempting one, the idea of breaking into King Leopold's castle to do so making it less appealing.

Regina manages to convince him though, tells him stories of a room with stacks of gold thread, traded between her grandfather King Xavier's kingdom and Leopold's, countless jewels and necklaces in her own Queen's chambers, crowns of solid gold, a heavy burden.

He makes a deal with Regina, his beautiful, pregnant woman that won't let the subject drop, even as they lay down for sleep, curled up in each other's arms. She can come, because it's what she wants, but they will do it when Leopold is away, lessening the risk of them being caught.

Though they have been together for nearly two years, the King still searches for his kidnapped wife, offering ludicrous sums of gold for her safe return, a King willing to pay the unasked ransom for the return of the wife he doesn't love, the wife he uses, but doesn't love all the same.

Regina's belly swells with Robin's child, with less than ten weeks until she's due to give birth, if the village's midwife is to be trusted. The child kicks and squirms inside her, Robin's hands feeling the kicks late at night when Regina sleeps. Robin thinks the child a girl, Regina convinced it's a boy.

Allowing Regina to join him carries more risks than benefits, but she insists that she knows the castle better than he, and knows the best paths to take to avoid capture, and so she goes with him.

Break into the castle was easy, with the King away organising a trade agreement, the castle is near silent, most the cavalry relegated to Snow's tower on the far side of the castle. In hindsight, it was too easy, the sort that should have spelt a trap.

They made it to Regina's old chambers without difficulty, and set about stripping the vanity table of its heavy necklaces, earrings and bracelets. Regina then strips the hidden cupboard dedicated to the crowns, diadems, circlets and tiaras she was required to wear as Queen. They have a heavy sack filled with all that glitters; Robin throws it carelessly over his left shoulder and surveys the room that Regina calls her "prison cell". It's a velvet prison in reality, lush and ornate, with plush cushions on a soft bed, a polished silver mirror and wardrobe full of beautiful gowns; the whole room is beautiful, but a cage nonetheless.

It quickly becomes a trap.

He turns to the woman he considers his wife, his beautiful, pregnant wife and kisses her, soundly on the mouth. He cannot wrap his arms around her, one hand on his bow, the other holding their haul, but her arms wrap around his neck, pulling him in deeper into her embrace.

That's when it all goes wrong, a metallic twang ring out from the door behind Robin and milliseconds later a yell rips out of him, his lips wrenched from Regina's and the tip of a crossbow bolt bursts through his front, piercing his leather jerkin. The bow and bag are dropped as he weakens, a soldier coming from the side, sword drawn, slices across his chest, separating the cloth and leather like it's butter. Robin's knees give way and he is collapsing to the ground, Regina falling with him.

There is so much yelling, the King is being called for, guards encircle them in Regina's old chambers. Regina doesn't care for what's going on around her, she's cradling Robin's head as his breathing becomes more laboured and the blood from the cross bolt wound spreads along his torso and onto Regina's dress.

It was a trap, Apparently the King had received word, one of the Merry Men have snitched, or talked and they've been betrayed, he had sent out notice that he was to be leaving the castle, knowing that a mostly unoccupied fortress is a haven for thieves. And a thief that has access to the inner workings of the castle is doubly suspicious.

Robin draws his final breath, his hand encompassing hers as it rests below his sword wounds, there is so much blood, but they do not care.

'I love you.' He mouths to her, and then is gone, his body limp and his eyes closing.

Regina is living a nightmare, one she lived once before. She leans down and kisses him, willing him back to life, back to a life with her, back to life the way she couldn't bring Daniel back.

Leopold arrives and she's still trying to kiss Robin back to life, one arm cradling him, one bloody hand resting over her belly as she tries to breathe in between kisses and sobs.

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It is Henry. It is always Henry. He is there when she presses her palm to that malicious looking spike, he's there when her worst memories are played out, and he's there to help pick up the inevitable broken heart after Tinkerbelle lets him know the Mirror has finished playing out its futures. She is curled up on the ground of Gold's shop, arms wrapped tightly around herself, shoulder shaking slightly and Henry knows she's crying.

Having never studied magic, though his interest in it is growing, he doesn't fully understand what this mirror was supposed to do, but he got to see his mom be the Evil Queen, so it must have a mirror that shows the past.

Gold said something about alternate futures and decision making, but Henry was ushered out just as things got interesting, Emma heeding what Regina said, making sure Marian and Roland were out the door first.

He reaches his mother, and shuffles down onto his knees, wrapping her into a hug, his gangly pre-teen arms now able to encircle her with ease. She sniffles, wiping her eyes, ashamed to be seen so undone.

His voice breaks as he says 'I love you, mom.'

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A scream rips through the camp, it's long and filled with agony, a couple of men around the main campfire wince as the scream peters out, the woman running out of breath. Female voices whisper encouragement inside the main tent, telling the woman who is in labour to breathe, breathe deeply before the next wave of contractions hit.

Regina wasn't meant to give birth for another fortnight yet, but the birthing pains started over lunch, got prominent in the afternoon and the water broke a short time after dinner. Any food she had eaten was brought up in the first waves of pain-induced nausea, emptying her stomach entirely.

One of the Merry Men's wives, a sweet woman named Rose, keeps a damp towel on her forehead, soothing back the hair that escapes the braid, dipping it in cool water to keep Regina's temperature down as she pants through the pain.

Another wave of contractions hits, this time longer, with less time in between. Another of the wives is down between her legs, cloth and water prepared for the child to come, she tells Regina she will need to push soon, that it's almost time.

Robin has been banished from their tent, one of Regina's first major contractions had her snarling at him and had sent him packing. She loves him, oh how she loves him, but the pain she's in makes her hate him just a little at the same time.

'It's time to push.' Says the woman at her legs, 'let your body guide you as to how hard and how long for each push, if I tell you to stop, you must stop otherwise you will tear yourself.'

Regina nods at her midwives and prepares herself for the oncoming contraction, another scream breaks out, she grips Roses hand so hard a thought in the back of her mind pops up, concerned she might have broken her fingers, but the pain comes through again, even worse than before.

'Push!' is the only thing that registers and it's the one command she follows.

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Her hand raised to awful mirror, the spike pressing into her palm, she wants to, she wants to see it so badly.

What would her life have been like had she not become the Evil Queen, if she hadn't gone down that path? She wants to know, the sick, sadistic part of her wants to know if she pays retribution for all the horror she caused in this life in her alternate life.

Henry escapes Emma's hold and walks towards the woman he called mother for ten years of his life. He can see that her resolve to activate the mirror is weakening and he chooses that moment to speak.

'Don't do it, Mom. You've got me and the rest of us, you've got a family; you don't need to worry about what could have been.'

Regina turns to smile at her son and he grabs her free hand, tugging her away. She steps toward him and wraps him in a hug, not daring to look at Robin or Marian, both standing by the door with the others.

She has Henry, with Marian returned, she assumes Robin won't want to continue their relationship, but she has Henry, and that has to be enough.

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