Oh my gosh! I am so sorry for the horrendously long wait! I suffered a case of writer's block and couldn't do anything for a month or so. Here the wait is over, have a long chapter to compensate! Once again I'm so so sorry, forgive me! :3

I want to thank my friend tho, before you lads read, because she's the reason I kept writting, she's the one that kicked my ass each time I procrastinated... so a big thanks to you Mickaela, I love you dearie! 3

Okay enough talk! Enjoy!

Regina was grateful that Robin came back to look for her. They had been walking for almost an hour now and she wondered how she had made it that far, back then it didn't seem like she had traveled such a long distance… and now that she was exhausted, she couldn't figure out how she would have made it back without leaning heavily on him.

She glanced up to admire his features, hoping he wouldn't notice, but it seemed her efforts were vain as he was already looking down at her, and she wondered. Wondered why he had said everything he did, back at the fallen tree. His words echoed in her mind and they made her head spin. He wanted to make her feel loved, he wanted her to feel like she deserved to and that should have scared her away, it should have made her run for her life, but it didn't. Instead of instilling fear into her, his words made her glow with a sentiment that she thought was long forgotten, a feeling she hadn't felt for what must have been at least a decade. A feeling she thought she had abandoned at the gates of the castle she now lived in. The Queen felt happy.

Her viridian gaze never left his and the expression he could decipher on his Majesty's face left him perplex. It looked like she was amused, but there was something else, something more that he couldn't quite identify. But it was definitely something new… She seemed carefree and she hadn't even bothered to put her mask back in place. And that was something that made excitement course through his veins. She was being herself with him, no more walls and no more fears, and he was grateful that the moment they had shared earlier had happened.

They kept walking for a while, heads lost in thoughts, when Regina finally broke the silence between them. A smirk tugging at her lips and a playful expression in her eyes made Robin immediately understand he was in trouble.

"Robin…?" her tone was far too sweet as she rolled his name off her tongue.

He stopped moving forward and turned to face her fully. He murmured a faint 'your Majesty?' and hoped for the best.

Reaching out, Regina took both of his hands in hers; her grip was firm yet gentle. Her head titled so she could stare at him, she wasn't smirking anymore and her traits –to an untrained eye- could've been interpreted as deadly serious (but they were more like half-playful and half-I'm-about-to-rip-your-head-off-in-a-very-regal-manner). The Queen wanted to play a bit with her thief and the look on his face guaranteed her that the trick she was playing on him was working, and so she started to talk again, watching every single of his reactions with delight.

"As I said… Robin." He nodded and she let his hands go, "you expressed a quite vigorous envy of having a certain royal between your sheets…" her voice was imperious as if she was dictating a command to one of her knights, he gulped –audibly- and she walked a few feet away from him, "… having thoughts like that, can be very, very dangerous. Especially for a common thief like you." She turned around, facing him, her eyes now glowing with some kind of mad desire and her smile twisted into something almost evil, "it could get you executed." She seemed to have steeled herself now and Robin felt uneasy, heat was rising in his body and he was suddenly sweaty. That was until she started laughing. Robin sighed, relieved and started laughing too.

She stepped towards him, grabbed his right hand and started walking towards the camp once more. She looked at him over her shoulder. "I'm serious Robin, it could've gotten you executed, saying something like that to the wrong person… but you're lucky that this certain royal would also like to spend the night with you."

It was obvious she had wanted it, but voicing her desires in such a way made her feel so uncomfortable. A decade of not having the right to express what she wants will do that to a woman… that stern voice of hers was at it again, but Regina couldn't care less for the time being.

"So…? You're not mad about what I said earlier?" He stepped in and walked a bit faster, allowing him not to be dragged around anymore. "For I thought the Evil Queen would have been a little more reluctant to have an outlaw in her bed…" his thick accent was teasing and she couldn't help the smile that crept at the corner of her mouth.

"Well, if the thief in question wasn't so handsome… I surely would've been a little more averse to the situation bu-"

"So I'm handsome now?" he arched a sable eyebrow and she giggled lightly.

"Yes, you are."

What's your problem Regina!? What happened to the no feelings rule we set up? God you're so stupid! All he wants is to be able to say he got in your pants…

"Shut it!" she mumbled and as soon as she realized she had spoken aloud, her free hand covered her mouth.

Robin looked at her, a strange expression etched on his face and his tone grew concerned as he voiced 'is everything alright, Milady?' and Regina simply shook her head 'yes'.

"Let's hurry back to camp… shall we?" he said and she gladly accepted his sudden change in the conversation.

They kept silent for some time after that. Both of them trying not to come back to that awfully awkward misstep the Queen had committed. Fortunately as they both walked, their silence never grew heavy, they kept stealing glances when they thought the other wasn't looking, kept holding hands, intertwining their fingers together and reveling in each other's presence.

On the moment, Regina had felt so idiotic, she usually was way better at this, she couldn't understand why she had spoken aloud and Robin, being the selfless and honorable man he was, was trying to get her to open up again. He tried desperately to get her to explain to him what was the reason she had spoken aloud such words, but each time he would come up empty handed as the Queen shrugged off his questioning. And so after a while he gave up, thinking it was better for her to tell him when she would feel confident enough to do so, in the mean time he'd just have to forget it.

And he did.

He looked at her and she gave him a warm loving look that was so uncharacteristic of the woman he had met inside the frigid castle he had stormed few days, almost a week even, ago. His heart swelled once more at the realization that he was the reason she had opened up so much in so little time.

After a while of companionable silence and of basking in the sounds of nature, Regina started making idle chitchat with her thief, hoping it would help her get over the never ending noises inside her skull. It didn't, but when Robin started replying to her, then every single atom of her being were focused on him and the nagging voices inside her, those insane personas sharing her body and mind, shut up as well –as if they were hypnotized by his thick accent and his luscious lips.

In less time than they could say, they found themselves to be in the middle of their camp and the little world that had taken form around the two of them started crumbling as Robin stopped talking. He looked around for a couple of seconds, taking in the sight of the deserted camp and realization hit him like a tidal wave. Everything was silent, there were no chitchatting men around the now dying fire, no toddler running around with rocks and wood sticks, no half-drunken laughter and not even the wind was blowing a leaf their way as if it dared not disturb the deadly peace and quiet of the scene before them.

Robin broke out of Regina's embrace in a split second, taking out his bow and arming an arrow onto it, not quite pulling on the string just yet. He examined the surroundings for a moment, looking for anything that would lead him to where his crew was. His features bared a crossed expression and Regina knew something was wrong, not only because of how her thief acted, but because she could feel it deep down in her bones. Something had happened while they were gone…

Her gaze started scanning the tents, and even the outskirts of the woods around them, and she understood. It wasn't something that had stumbled into the camp and took the outlaws away, but someone. She shivered as she spotted a patch of drying blood seeping into the ground, and naturally being the curious, untameable and impatient Queen that she was, she furiously prowled toward the only sign of fight that she had found.

She bent down and ran two fingers into the cooling and squishy mixture. There was a sufficient amount of it to suggest that someone had been gravely injured, but the absence of a corpse nearby left her thinking that it hadn't been mortal. She looked up in Robin's direction and with a brief movement of her hand indicated him to come over where she was crouched.

In a few swifts motions he was by her side. He didn't even need to ask why she had brought him over as his blues eyes landed on the mushy soil that was now a heavy mix of mud and blood. He swore under his breath and looked at her, concern written all over his face.

"Do you have any idea of what might have happened here?" she asked, her eyes locking with his in a terribly intense staring contest.

He shook his head negatively and racked his brain to try and find an explanation to whatever might have occurred while they were away.

"Does anyone, except for me, knows where your camp ground is?" she pressed.

Robin sighed loudly. "No. No one knows, but we are fairly close to a road and even though not many will venture on it, if someone happened to cross path with one of my men that person might have alerted your knights…" the rest of his sentence trailed off as it did not needed to be voiced out loud since Regina knew exactly what an encounter with one of her patrols would lead to. A shudder shook her entire being at the mere thought…

Promptly she got up and started walking in the direction she thought might lead her to the road. If her men really were behind all this they might still be lurking around waiting for the leader of the merry band of thief to show up and in the mean time they would need a cage to keep the prisoners under control…

Avoiding branches and leaves as she strolled in the dense forest, she heard shuffling noise and assuming it was Robin following her she whispered: "I'm fairly sure they will be kept in a cage, the black knights are probably still looking for survivors…" a low hum of approval sent shivers running down her spine and just as she turned around to the voice of her Robin yelling at her, a sharp and intense feeling of pain assaulted the back of her cranium, making her yelp and causing a darkness she knew all too well to creep up the side of her vision until there was nothing left but numbness and silence.

He yelled, he tried, he even fought some of them off of him, but just as they had taken him by surprise as he was trying to follow her, they had jumped out behind her and knocked her unconscious. He knew that he had reacted too late; his bow lowered instead of ready to shoot had forbid him from protecting her. He should have been ready, he should have known and he should have been by her side. He had failed her.

The two tall guards clad in black leather armors that had struck and pinned him down were now trying to get him up, but once again he tried to get out of their clutches and run towards her to save her from their horrible hands. However the low chuckle that emanated from the man hovering over him reduced his efforts to dust as he voiced in a perverted kind of way: "If yae don' wan' an'thin' too bad to happen to tha lady, I sugges' yae stay still, big guy."

Robin's stomach rolled and he had to force back the bile that had risen in his throat as he was taken away by the Queen's men. The situation, he thought, was quite ironic as the Queen was currently tossed across the shoulder of a man she had hired, her body limp and seemingly lifeless. He chuckled lightly and got rewarded with a jab in the ribs and a death glare from the other idiot transporting him back to the road.

When the rest of the patrol arrived with two more prisoners, the Captain, Regina had hired a few years prior, smirked.

"Finally! You've found their leader!" he took a quick look at Robin, his eyes shining with a certain madness the thief had recognized in the Queen's eyes as well. "Robin Hood, how lovely of you to join us after all this time… We've been waitin' you know."

He chuckled darkly and was imitated by the rest of the knights. He didn't seem to notice that one of his men was apparently transporting another human being, but when he did, he whistled. A foul noise that made Robin wish he could just punch the man right in the face.

"What have we got there?" he asked the thief, his voice dripping with lust. "Is that your girlfriend, Hood?"

The Captain's greasy laugh echoed in the forest and Robin could not help the envy of spitting right at him. So he did, which rewarded him with a kick him the lower abdomen and a loud scream from the man in charge. "Put him with the others… her too, but as soon as we arrive to the barracks I want her tied up on a post in front of their cage!"

Robin had a bad feeling about all of this and as he was tossed into the same carriage few of his friends already shared he couldn't think about anything else but her. He got to his feet rapidly, glancing around to take in the number of men and evaluate how much time it would take for him to run to the other portable jail they had stuffed his men in.

This was going to be tricky and getting everyone out of this perilous situation would be a real pain in the ass, but he could do it, he'd just have to wait the end of their journey before attempting anything… he could also ask Regina to change back into herself, but that would mean the end of their… relationship? No… but it would definitely put a break to whatever it was that they shared together… and as loyal and honorable as he was Robin was also a man and he wasn't ready to relinquish his beautiful Queen. As selfish as that may sound, it was the truth…

So as the beasts pulling the jails they were all stuck in started to trot down the dirt road, he and the few of his men present in the cell with him –being Little John, Friar Tuck and Alan- schemed an escape plan.

Regina woke up dizzy and disoriented, her head pounding at the back of her neck and as she made her neck crack and passed a hand at the nape of it she felt a small gash. She automatically winced, but as soon as she noticed she wasn't alone she schooled her features to the best of her abilities.

"Rose!" the voice of a terrified four year old echoed around her.

Sheepishly, she smiled at the toddler who in a second was hitched on her lap, curling up into her as much as he could.

"They caught ev'ryone… I was scared. Where we going?" small tears pooled in his chocolate eyes and she felt sorry for him. She knew it wasn't directly her fault… but her patrols were her responsibility, thus the terrified state of the young child was her doing. She stroked his hair lightly, reassuringly and whispered soft assurances in his ear.

After a little while, the poor boy was finally calm and almost sleeping, his head heavy on her chest. The Queen looked around her, her gaze scanning the faces above her looking for Robin, her heart started pounding when she found no trace of him or Little John… She was about to ask about their whereabouts when the man she recognized as Doncaster, crouched in front of her, giving her a warm smile that matched the one she gave Roland not ten minutes ago.

"They're bringing us to their barracks, Robin and the others are ahead of us in another cage. You must not worry, he'll get us out." His voice was low, as if he was trying not to be heard and that must have been the case, because as soon as one of her knights approached their prison he shot up and looked away.

The man was riding a large ebony stallion, and although she didn't recognize the rider she immediately remembered the horse that shared a special friendship bond with her Rocinante. She smiled earnestly, something she did rarely these days. The knight scoffed lightly, muttered a simple "peasant" and passed them to join the rest of the troops ahead. Regina rolled her eyes and did everything she could to repress the laugh that was bubbling in her throat. If only that poor fool knew…

As their journey was brought to an end, the Queen's mind drifted back to the words Doncaster had spoken in the late afternoon. Why would her terrible Black Knights bring the prisoners to their barracks when she had specifically given the order to bring any bandits straight to her? It was a peculiar behavior, but as night had already fallen upon them a few hours ago, she guessed they thought it would be safer for them to spend the night in their quarters… idiots. She'd have to arrange a meeting with them about it, as soon as possible, she thought.

The carriages pulled to a stop suddenly and if she hadn't been sitting on the wooden floor of the contraption she was stuck in, the Queen would have lost her footing and fell. As soon as everything was steady, she got up, Roland still in her arms, clutching tightly on the fabric of her shirt. Signaling to Doncaster to help her, she got out of the toddler's embrace and moved towards the side of the cell illuminated by the faint glow of the building's candle light. She was about to speak up and ask the reason why they weren't being brought to the Queen, but a strong accented voice cut her off.

"What's going to happen next, Captain?" his tone was defiant and hid a bit of mocked amusement.

Count on that man to say something cocky… at least he's got that.

Regina chuckled lightly at that, but shut up when she saw the predatory smile of her Captain directed her way. He lazily made his way towards Robin, his eyes traveling between her and him as he slowly licked his lips.

"Well like I said, I'm keeping you here until mornin' and the lady is coming out of that cage to be tied up against that post there." He pointed towards a large metallic pole from which hung large iron chains and shackles. He then laughed as he turned around and walked away ordering as he did that his men 'get the lady out of there'.

They took her by the waist at first, pulling her out as she grabbed the bars with a strong grip, determined not to let them win –they'd at least need to prove her they weren't weak and that she had hired them for a good reason… and when one of them started smashing the flat side of his blade hard against her fingers she was convinced she'd made the right choice.

Her yelps and sharp cries of pain made Robin's blood boil and his skin crawl up, all he wanted to do was to get the hell out of here and kill every single of those bastards. How dared they treat a woman like she was just a piece of garbage, whether she'd be the Queen or not…

"You cowards! How dare you attack a woman like that?" Little John's voice tore Robin out of his reverie and he looked at his friend, perplex.

"She's affiliated with you lads, we will deal with her as we please!" the furious voice of the Captain echoed in the silence of the night.

Something in the intonation and the words he had chosen triggered Regina's well known wrath and a warm, cosy feeling developed in the pit of her stomach, slowly feeding off the situation.

"As soon as you get her to stop fighting, tie her up and we'll have some fun…" his dark eyes lurked Regina's body up and down with some kind of sick deviance in them and the Queen knew exactly why his words had triggered such emotions only a minute earlier.

She glanced back at Robin, his eyes were dark with anger, his jaw twitched slightly and he kept clenching and unclenching his fists. Although, as soon as he spotted Regina's own dark gaze on him, he tried to relax a bit, murmuring that he'd get them out of there. She smiled tentatively, trying to tame the inner storm that was growing and that threatened to burst through every inch of her being at any given moment. She highly doubted Robin's ability to get them out of this, but she gave him the benefit of the doubt, hoping it would be enough.

The Queen's focus came back to the present reality as she was kicked behind the knees, making her fall to the rocky soil beneath her. She winced, but didn't get the chance to collect herself before she was dragged the few meters that separated her from the stake. Roughly the guards that held her arms turned her around, so her front was now facing Robin and the rest of the Merry Men and they brought her hands above her head, tying them to the heavy cuffs. As she took in the scene before her, her gaze fell to the two limbs that were splayed in front of her; bloody and full of dirt. That would be a pain in the ass to wash and heal later…

"As I said Hood, we're all gonna have a little fun with your lady…" the coarse voice of the Captain spoke up again and Regina's lips started twitching, slowly turning into a snarl, "… then we're gonna kill you all and tell the Queen we had no choice." He laughed at that and a round of laughter and compliment flew his way, praising him on how he was a genius, a brilliant man and a true leader. "The Queen won't even care if I bring you back dead, she won't even know how much fun we had with the girl, how she'd screamed for mercy before we were finished and how you lads are going to beg us to stop for her sake, she'll never know just ho-"

"ENOUGH!"

The Captain turned around, now facing the slumped form of Regina's shapeshift. Her face was contorted into something almost animalistic, her lips curled up so high her teeth were bare and her eyes were burning with an ardent fire. The foul man stepped closer to her, chuckling.

"Don't you like to know what's waiting for you at the end of the road?" he said archly and she snapped her head up, looking him right in the eyes.

"How dare you disrespect your Queen like that!" her eyes started to glow a deep shade of amethyst as she spoke, her hands were twisting and fighting against the restrains, "How dare you pretend to honor the code she made you swear to?!" the magic running in her veins was concentrated in her hands, and in the dim light of the torches lit a few meters away, they sparkled with the same shade her eyes did. The metal around her wrists creaked and cracked and then it finally snapped open and so did the eyes of the middle-aged knight before her as they widened in shock. "How dare you act upon those animal instincts of yours and blame it on the recklessness of your Queen? How dare you use my violence and my need for revenge and justice as a right to rape and murder people I haven't been able to judge?"

As she spoke, she got up, smoke engulfing her small frame and swallowing her whole. When it dissipated, it revealed a tall and leather clad Evil Queen, her long hair trapped into a ponytail and her heels high enough to give anyone a certain sense of dizziness. Her eyes were circled with heavy makeup and her lips painted as red as blood. She stalked slowly over to her ex-captain, a snarl rising up in her throat and echoing in the dark.

Quick to realize his mistake, the man dropped to his knees babbling and crying apologies in her direction, but deep down he knew it was too late. She crouched down to his level, bringing her hand to his neck, digging her nails deep into the flesh and getting up –taking the poor man with her by the same fact. She squeezed his throat for a second, cutting out his air and at the same time the endless amount of pleas he let out, with her other hand she waved at the cages behind the man, unlocking them both and allowing the Merry Men to escape.

Quickly they gathered around Robin, who was already bending down to grab and hoist his son into his arms as the little one ran to him. The Merry Men stood proud and ready to ward off anything the deranged Queen would throw their way, glaring at her at the same time.

Looking past the sea of hateful eyes and angry scowls, she searched the outlaw's eyes, hoping to find disgust and repulsion, but she found none, which made her heart break even more. She knew she had to do what she was about to do, if only to prove a point to the men she was supposed to trust with her life. And so, without tearing her brown whiskey gaze away from his sad blue eyes, she roared a loud 'LEAVE!' hoping it would be enough for him to go away from her and her wickedness.

The sound of her order, now just an echo in the wind, made every men flinch except for him. He didn't even blink, she knew it was because he saw past her walls, past her schemes and defense mechanisms, and it frustrated her. She didn't want him to see that, didn't want him to realize how much worst then he thought she truly was… But all he did was staring at her, glancing now and then to the squirming man stuck in her sharp claws.

After a few seconds of inaction, he finally moved and broke eye contact.

"Little John?" The tall man beside him nodded, ready to receive his orders. "Take Roland and the others and do as your Highness," the word was punctuated by a quick glance her way, "asked."

"Robin. What about you?"

"Don't worry for me. I'm the one that got you lot in trouble, it is my responsibility to get you out of it…" as he finished his heroic speech, he gave his son a kiss on the forehead, murmuring that they would see each other tomorrow night around the campfire. Roland shook his head and clung onto his father's shirt, not quite assimilating everything that was happening around him.

"Go with Little John, now my boy…" was all that was needed afterwards to get him to let go. The tall man hoisted him on his hips and as he walked away he signaled to the rest of them to follow him… something they did quite reluctantly.

Roland twisted in his father's best friend's arms, a small pout on his face as he looked straight into the Queen's eyes. "What about Rose?" he said, his voice filled with innocent concern and once more it made Regina's heart sink in her chest, but what broke her heart the most was his father's answer.

"She won't be coming with us, she has to go home and so do we."

Fighting back the tears, she waited for the men to be out of her sight, thus making sure Roland wouldn't have to see the horrendous spectacle that was about to take place. The man, on whom she had release a bit of her grip, struggled and clawed at her arm, trying desperately to free himself, while the rest of his troop watched, bewildered by the turn of event.

"Why…? Why didn't you leave?" her voice was barely just above a whisper, her stupefaction crystal clear.

"Because I am not scared of you…" his voice was strong and for every other man standing by it sounded like defiant, but to Regina it was like the sweetest promise of love. Something she had longed for, for so long.

Her eyes softened a bit, not baring a single trace of the hatred and anger that had consumed her earlier. "You might not be, thief, but you won't stop me from doing what I have to do." She sounded and looked confident and regal, but as usual the only things betraying her were her eyes. They were pleading him to make it stop, begging him to take the dandling piece of man that clawed at her wrist away from her, asking him not to give up on her and to help the frightened little girl stuck inside these queenly attires. But he didn't move, he knew better, he knew that it would cause him trouble, knew that in an instant she could turn her back to him and kill him all the same and so he stayed there, feet glued to the ground…

She sighed, something heavy with remorse and self-loathing, focused her gaze back onto the once captain of her guards and her eyes steeled themselves once more, leaving no more place to that little girl and showing only the devastating nature of the Evil Queen.

She didn't squeeze, nor did she kill him instantly, she wanted to make an example out of him. Her brown eyes glowed purple and the air around her became thick and fiery. Her left hand became hot and the squirming man began to scream in agony as if fire was burning inside of him. The guards around them tried to move and help him, but with a swift movement of her hands, the Queen glued them to the ground. She wanted the piece of garbage in front of her to suffer and no one else was to help him get out of this. No one. She dug her nails further into his flesh, making small incisions and allowing blood to run down her fingers as the magic in her hand coursed through his body. He yelled and begged for mercy, tried all that he could, but he was burning up, his insides getting roasted by the fire slowly replacing his blood and as he fought for dear life, tears started to roll down his cheeks, hot and steamy and hurting him more than anything else.

The screams grew faint with each passing moment, Robin flinched as some of them were so horridly close to the noises of a dying beast, but he didn't move. He glanced towards Regina, her eyes, locked with the man in front of her, were empty of all light and the only thing that was left in them was the distinct coloring of her magic. After a few moments, the man expired; it had been horrendous in the last as he had started coughing up blood and as his eyes began to melt out of him.

As soon as life exited his body, she let him go, his large body slumping to the rocky soil beneath their feet. She turned around, facing every other man at her service, her glare showing annoyance and her expression clear that she didn't want to be crossed again.

"Does anyone else want to serve as an example?" she roared and the cowards in front of her quickly shook their head 'no'. She smiled, something vicious and dark, and hummed her approval. "Then I never want any of you baboons acting like that again, or I'll make sure that all of you serve as an example."

She turned back to Robin, his expression baffled, but determined. She murmured a soft "Goodbye Robin" and flicked her wrist, fog engulfing her rather imposing form and disappeared.

For a second, he stayed there, bewildered, looking at the empty space before him and at the corpse on the ground. Then he turned around and started running, in the direction his friend had taken, murmuring to himself "I will find you and I will bring you back Regina. I promise."

For a second after she reappeared, she stayed still, unable to move, unable to talk even unable to breathe, but then the sobs that she had restrained in the forest, made their way up her throat and she burst into tears, her body going completely limp and slumping to the dark marble floor of her bedchambers, the voices in her head stronger than ever, whispering 'the no feelings rule, my dear...' and 'I told you so!', nagging her as she cried every tear in her body until an extreme feeling of exhaustion got the best of her.

Hope you enjoyed! I'm sorry for the mistakes I wanted to post as fast as possible, there might be some updates on this, me rereading it once more correcting stuff... anyway leave a fav, a review or even a PM if you want, it's really appreciated :P One more thing, I might reupload the first chapters, with a more refined and worked up version of it so keep an eye out.

You can also follow me on Tumblr (saskwatche) if you want to have sneak peeks and other prompts :D

Have a great day -xxx-