Hello, everyone! It's me, 64thVanSull back with a new story! This idea has been in my head for the past month and I've finally decided to act on it. Don't worry if anyone who has read my Avengers/Percy Jackson Crossover I have not abandoned it. I'm just lacking good ideas for it at the moment and I haven't received any inspiration for it lately.

As for this story, as the name implies, this story is about my OC, The Evil Queen's/Regina's brother. As far as I know, this is the only story where Regina has a younger brother. His name is Nicholas and he has an even darker past than his sister's. He is a character from old stories, but you'll have to wait and keep reading if you want to find out who he really is.

Hope you all enjoy and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or its characters. (That was the shortest disclaimer I've written in months!)

Over twenty-eight years ago, in a land called the Enchanted Forest, the handsome Prince Charming dressed in red rode his steed hoping to win his race against time. As he rode further into the forest, he came upon the sight he prayed he wouldn't have to meet; Snow White, the woman he loved, lying in a glass coffin surrounded by seven weeping dwarves. At this sight of his true love, Charming too began to silently cry.

"You're too late." Doc said sadly.

"No, no!" Charming refused, "Open it." he demanded.

"I'm sorry, she's gone." Grumpy apologized.

"At least let me say goodbye." he pleaded. Understanding the prince's pain, the dwarves removed the glass covering Snow White's face. Charming then kneeled down to kiss his love one last time and not a second after their lips met, a wave of magic erupted from them. It was then that Snow White woke up with a loud gasp causing everyone around her to be filled with joy.

"You found me." she said to her prince.

"Did you ever doubt I would?" he asked playfully.

"Truthfully, the class coffin gave me pause." she replied happily.

"You never have to worry," Charming reassured, "I will always find you."

"Do you promise?" Snow asked.

Months later at their wedding, Charming gave his response. "I promise."

"And do you, Snow White, take this man to be your husband and love him for all eternity?" asked the minister.

"I do." she said smiling like never before, not once taking her eyes off of Charming.

"Then by the power vested in me, I pronounce you husband and wife." the minister declared causing the huge crowd around them to cheer at the top pf their lungs. But just as they were about to have their first kiss as husband and wife, the Evil Queen, dressed in black, interrupted them simply with her presence.

"Sorry I'm late." she mocked darkly as she approached the happy couple. As two guards attempted to stop her, she simply waved her arms and sent them flying with her magic.

"It's the queen, run!" Doc cried while Snow took Charming's sword and pointed it at her step-mother.

"She's not the queen anymore!" she cried, "She's nothing more than an evil witch!"

"Don't stoop to her level, there's no need." Charming coaxed before he spoke to the queen, "You're wasting your time, you've already lost. And I will not let you ruin this wedding."

"Oh, I haven't come here to ruin anything." sweetly corrected the Evil Queen, "On the contrary, dear, I've come to give you a gift."

"We want nothing from you!" Snow snapped.

"But you shall have it." the queen retorted, "My gift to you is this happy, happy day." she said in disgust, "But tomorrow, my real work begins. You've made your vows, now I make mine. Soon everything you love, everything all of you love will be taken from you. Forever. And out of your suffering will rise my victory. I shall destroy your happiness…if it is the last thing I do."

With nothing more to say, the Evil Queen sharply turned and made her way out of the castle. But just then, Charming cried out to her as he threw his sword. But just as it was about to impale her, she disappeared in a puff of purple smoke. In an instant later, Regina was back in her castle huffing in anger at the memory of Snow White's happiness.

"So," asked a young man, roughly a few years older than Snow, from a desk in the room, "How did it go?" He had dark brown hair, slightly lighter than Regina's and wore a forest green trench coat over a matching vest and black button down shirt with black slacks. He also wore crescent moon reading glasses over his hazel brown eyes and had his desk covered with papers and scientific equipment.

Regina responded by smacking a few perfume bottles off of her cabinet in anger before plopping on a love seat. "That bad, huh?" he asked not wanting to poke the bear. "Vowing to destroy everyone's happiness. Big words. Think you can deliver?" he asked.

"I can and I will." Regina replied hotly as she stared at the outside view from her seat, "You don't think I can, do you?" she asked as she glared at the young man.

"I'd rather you didn't. But I know just how stubborn you can get."

"He does prove a valid point, your Majesty." remarked the face of her magic mirror as Regina's father came in with a tray.

"Would you like something to drink?" Henry asked his daughter.

"Do I look like I need a drink?" she asked hotly.

"I was only trying to help." he defended gently as he handed her a glass of wine.

"Thank you." Regina replied as she calmed down. Henry then went over to the young man with a clay mug.

"Here's your coffee, Nicholas. Though I suggest you save it for later and get some rest."

"No time, I'm in the zone." Nicholas replied not taking his eyes off of his research, "Out of curiosity, how do you plan on taking away their happiness?" he asked Regina who smirked darkly.

"The dark curse." she replied.

Twenty-eight years later in a small town in Maine called Storybrooke, a young man named Nicholas was napping in his cozy little office he had in the large home he shared with his sister. He wore a black vest over a forest green button down shirt and wore dark jeans and hiking boots he had propped on his desk.

His slumber was interrupted by his cell phone ringing in his pocket. With a groan and stretch he answered his phone. "Go for Nicholas." he said groggily.

"Nicholas, Henry's run away!" a frantic woman shouted on the other end.

"What?" he asked suddenly awake.

"He never showed up for school this morning- no one's seen him all day!"

"Okay, okay. Regina, calm down." Nicholas soothed, "Everything'll be alright. Call Graham and tell him what happened and come back to the house."

"Okay, I'll be there soon." she replied no less worried. It wasn't until past midnight when Regina, who'd been staring out the window all day, spotted her son coming up the yard with a blonde woman wearing a red leather jacket.

"Henry!" Regina cried as she ran out to hug her son, "Are you okay? Where have you been? What happened?" she asked.

"I found my real mom!" Henry shouted as he ran into the house completely ignoring Graham and Nicholas.

"You're Henry's birth mother?" Regina asked trying to keep her emotions under control.

"Hi." the blonde sheepishly greeted.

"Oh, boy." muttered Nicholas knowing that Regina was already unhappy.

"How would you like a glass of the best apple cider you ever tasted?" she offered.

"Got anything stronger?" the blonde asked. After leading her into the den, Nicholas poured the two ladies some cider while he got himself a mug of beer. "How did he find me?" the blonde now known as Emma Swan asked.

"No idea," said Regina, "When I adopted him, he was only three weeks old. Records were sealed, I was told the birth mother didn't want to have any contact."

"You were told right."

"And the father?" Nicholas asked.

"Doesn't even know. No reason to be worried about him, Mr…" Emma carried off.

"Nicholas, Regina's younger brother." he replied.

"Do we need to be worried about you, Ms. Swan?" Regina asked.

"Absolutely not." she reassured as Graham came down the stairs.

"Madam Mayor, you and your brother can relax. Other than being a tired little boy, Henry's fine." he informed.

"Thank you, Sheriff." Regina replied as he left, "I'm sorry he dragged you out of your life. I really don't know what's gotten into him lately."

"The kid's having a rough time," said Emma, "It happens."

You have to understand, ever since I became mayor, balancing things has been tricky. You have a job, I assume?" Regina asked.

"Uh, I keep busy. Yeah."

"Imagine having another one on top of it. That's being a single mom. So I push forward. Am I strict? I suppose. But I do it for his own good. I want Henry to excel in life. I don't think that makes me evil, do you?"

"I'm sure he's just saying that because of the fairytale thing." Emma replied.

"What fairytale thing?" Nicholas asked after taking a drink of his beer.

"Oh, you know, his book. How he thinks everyone's a cartoon character from it. Like his shrink is Jiminy Cricket."

"I'm sorry, we really have no idea what you're talking about." Regina replied, she looked at her brother who just shrugged in confusion.

"You know what, it's none of my business. He's your kid. And I should really be heading back." Emma said hopping to avoid an awkward situation.

"Of course." Nicholas nodded. After Emma had left, Nicholas and his sister went upstairs to talk with Henry only to find his door locked. "Hen-Henry, open the door!"

"Sweetie, we just want to talk." Regina reassured gently, her brother was a bit more upset.

"Henry, you know the rules: no locked doors in this house!" A minute later, Henry opened the door dressed in his pajamas and his hair messed up like he was already asleep before; not a bad trick, but Nicholas wasn't that easy to fool.

With a yawn Henry said, "What's up?"

"Oh, don't you 'what's up' us, young man." Nicholas snapped, "And none of this pretending like you were just asleep nonsense either. Especially when it's only," he then checked his watch and noticed how late it was, "Quarter 'til two. Alright, you can go back to bed. But don't expect that this the end of this discussion. Got it?"

"Yes, Uncle Nicholas." Henry mumbled before his uncle and adoptive mother got on their knees and pulled him into a tight hug.

"Don't ever do that again." he muttered as he stroked Henry's hair. The next morning, Regina went upstairs to wake up Henry for school while Nicholas made breakfast. As he was pouring himself a cup of coffee, Regina yelled from upstairs causing him to spill the hot liquid on his hand.

"Nicholas, Henry's gone!"

"Sigh, again?" he asked.

As quick as they could, the two siblings went to the Sheriff's Station and as soon as they went inside for Graham, they saw Emma behind the bars of one of the two cells. "What is she doing here? Do you know where he is?" Regina asked as she approached the cell.

"Lady, I haven't seen him since I dropped him off at your house." Emma replied, "And in case you haven't noticed, I got a pretty good alibi."

"Well, he wasn't in his room this morning." Regina retorted.

"Did you try his friends?" Emma asked.

"He doesn't really have any friends." Nicholas replied, "He's a bit of a loner."

"Every kid has friends. Did you check his computer?" she asked, "If he's close to someone, he'd be emailing them."

"And you know this how?" Regina asked.

"Finding people is what I do. Here's an idea. How about you let me out and I'll help you find him."

"Done." Nicholas replied before Regina had time to think.

In Henry's room, Emma browsed through his computer hoping to find something. "Smart kid. He cleared his inbox. But I'm smart too. A little hard disk recovery utility I like to use…" Emma trailed as she used her little device.

"I'm a bit more old fashioned in my techniques." said Graham trying to sound cool, "Pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, that sort of thing."

"You're on salary, I get paid for delivery." Emma replied, "Pounding the pavement is not a luxury that that I get." she said before pulling up the last website Henry went on. "There's a receipt for a pretty expensive website. He has a credit card?" she asked.

"He's ten." Regina bluntly replied.

"Well, he used one. Let's pull up a transaction record. Mary Margaret Blanchard." Emma informed, "Who's Mary Margaret Blanchard?"

"Henry's teacher." Nicholas replied with a sour look, he didn't exactly feel like watching his older sister act like a bully to the poor woman again. When they arrived at the classroom, they saw Mary Margaret say goodbye to her students as they left the room. She was a beautiful young woman with short black hair around Nicholas's age if not a year or two younger and had a natural friendly attitude.

"Madam Mayor, Nicholas, what are you doing here?" she asked slightly nervous at the sight of Regina.

"Where's my son?" she asked hotly.

"Henry? I assumed he was home with you."

"You'd think I'd be here if he was?"

"Regina," Nicholas warned as he began to grow annoyed with her attitude.

"Did you give him your credit card so he could find her?" Regina asked as she pointed at Emma.

"I'm sorry, who're you?" Mary Margaret asked.

"I'm-I'm his-"

"She's the woman who gave him up for adoption." Regina cut off.

"You don't know anything about this, do you?" Nicholas asked already knowing the answer.

"No, unfortunately not." Mary Margaret replied as she searched through her purse for her credit card, "Clever boy. I never should have given him that book."

"What in the hell is this damn book I keep hearing about?" snapped Regina.

"Just some old stories I gave him. As you well know, Henry is a special; so smart, so creative, and as you might be aware, lonely. He needed it." Mary Margaret replied.

"What he needs is a dose of reality." Regina countered, "This is a waste of time. Have a nice trip back to Boston." she said to Emma before leaving in a huff but not without knocking over some books.

"Well, that wasn't a nice thing to do." Nicholas muttered as he went over to pick up the books. "Sorry about, Mary Margaret."

"It's alright, Nicholas. I'm used to it." she replied as she helped him out, "Besides, I feel like this was partially my fault."

"How was giving Henry a book supposed to help?" Emma asked as the three of them began to walk through the hall.

"What do you think stories are for? The classics?" Mary Margaret asked, "There's a reason we all know them. They're a way for us to deal with our world. A world that doesn't always make sense. See, Regina hasn't always been the most easy going person."

"Yeah, she seems like a real…" Emma said before she and Mary Margaret realized who they were saying this around.

Nicholas noticed this and shrugged before saying, "Hard-ass, prima-donna, uptight, bitch? Ladies, I've been dealing with that woman for almost thirty years. I know better than anyone how she can get."

"Not only that, he's like any adopted child." Mary Margaret added, "He wrestles with that most basic question they all inevitably ask: why would anyone give me away." As soon as she said that, the young school teacher immediately regretted it and quickly apologized.

"It's okay." Emma replied.

"Look I gave him that book to him because I wanted Henry to have the most important thing anyone can have; hope. Believing in even the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing."

"No arguments here." Nicholas agreed as he checked his watch, "Damn! I'm late!" and with that, he ran out of the school as fast as he could. About twenty minutes later, Nicholas was on the roof of a strange little building he owned. He was working on a strange looking machine that was clearly hand made from scraps.

"Alright, it's almost ready." he muttered.

"I hope you don't plan on recreating your little 4th of July fiasco with that gadget of yours up there, Mister Mills." an older man wearing an expensive suit with a cane called from the ground.

"Oh, you kill one cat and seven squirrels with fireworks one time and suddenly you're a hazard to society." said Nicholas, "Sounds like you're still holding that over my, Mr. Gold." he yelled back in annoyance.

"On the contrary, I'm just being a good citizen and looking out for the safety of my neighbors." Gold replied flashing his gold tooth.

"Good citizen my ass!" Nicholas spat, "You're just upset 'cause one of my Roman Candles broke your window."

"I still haven't received any compensation for that window." Gold reminded, "You may be the mayor's younger brother, Nicholas, but this is still my town."

"Oh, really?" he asked sarcastically, "Gee, and all this time I thought you were just wondering around town every day to show off that cane of yours and the compensation it has for you."

"And some people say that you're the genius of the town." mocked Gold.

"And other people say you're the Ebenezer Scrooge of the town even when it's not Christmas." Nicholas shot back.

"Well, as much I do enjoy these little conversations of ours, I do have places to be." Gold relented, "Have a lovely day, Mister Mills. Oh, and tell that dear nephew of yours I said hello."

"I hate that guy." Nicholas muttered before he continued to inspect his invention. It wasn't until hours later when Nicholas returned home only to see Henry in his room through his window and Regina steaming with anger in the den.

"So," Nicholas trailed as he sat in his usual leather chair and pulled out a long pipe from his coat and lit a match, "How was your day?" he asked as he began to smoke.

"She's staying." Regina growled.

"Who?" he asked already knowing the answer.

"That Emma Swan. She's staying for the week at Granny's Inn."

"Really? You don't sound too happy about that."

"That woman is here to take away my son-your nephew. How could I be happy?" Regina snapped.

"Is she, Regina? Is she?" Nicholas asked bluntly as he continued to smoke, "You're being paranoid. All she did was bring Henry home after he ran away and has been trying to make sure he's safe."

"Safe from what, Nicholas?" his sister asked hotly.

"Anything that would hurt him. But if you continue to make yourself look bad in front of her, that perspective will change to where she will want to protect him from you." he warned as he met Regina's glare with his own, "She may not have raised him, but that woman has just as much maternal instinct as you do for that boy. And if you start a battle with her, the one who gets hurt in the end will be Henry. He already thinks you're evil, try not to make it worse for yourself."

As soon as he finished speaking, the two of them could hear the sound of the town's old clock tower chime; for the first time since anyone could remember. "Well, what'd ya know? The clock's started ticking." Nicholas said with a devious grin while his sister continued to glare at him.