A/N: Hello, Oncers! This is my first OUAT fic so I kindly as you to please be kind to me and to how this story turns out.

This story starts off with the scene from "Heartless" where the Queen waits for Snow and Charming to sacrifice themselves. This will be the only scene used as a base for this story, all other events will probably be left head canon because I'm lazy and can't find it in me to watch everything again.

All reviews are highly appreciated as they will keep my inspiration striking.

Without further ado, enjoy!

All she could do was stare. Stare at how her other half held the heart of the ever optimistic couple and wait. Wait because the two idiots had decided to play martyr due to their insufferable hope that lead them to believe that all was possible with a little love.

They were so damn naïve it drove her mad.

How were they so close minded? Haven't they learned by what they've seen? The wolf killed her boyfriend; the bookworm turned her fear into some form of love because how else were she to go on with her captor? The list went on and on and yet aside from her irritation to their obliviousness, she mostly felt fear.

These were the people that gave her chance after chance after god dammed chance, chances she knew she didn't deserve but still was granted because that's what they did. They were good people. People that saw hope in even the darkest places, including the darkest hearts.

And now their damn goodness was making them sacrifice themselves for the whole town. All because of another one of her ignorant mistakes.

She glanced at her side and saw Emma holding back tears. It caused her to swallow her own. She had put the blonde through so much already and here was another torment on the list.

This was her son's other mother, the woman that gave her Henry and all she could do in return was ruin her life once again.

Tears sprung her eyes but she ignored them. Tears never did anything for her, tears didn't grant her wishes, and they certainly would not stop whatever her other half had planned.

She would not break, especially not now. She had to do something; she caused this whole mess.

"I want to give you my pain, the pain of being alone. And since I couldn't accomplish that just by killing you I've come up with something much more cold," the Queen says, before plunging their hearts back into their bodies.

Snow and David looked at each other clearly confused as to why nothing seemed to be happening, but Regina knows better. She knows there's a catch because as the Evil Queen she never did barked without bite.

"Mom? Dad?" Emma asks, a tear rolling down her face.

The fear is clearly etched in her features and it's like a punch in the gut to Regina because the blonde doesn't deserve this. She doesn't deserve any of the hell life has thrown at her. She doesn't deserve to be collateral damage.

If anyone should pay it should be her. As it always should have been.

Suddenly the short-haired brunette and the shepard cry out in agony, falling to their knees.

To Regina's surprise they don't try to comfort each other. It's as if they're too blinded by what's happening. It's as if...no.

Emma rushes in front of them as if she could protect them from the Queen's doing. She searches for injuries, desperate to find the source of their pain. Livid when she realizes that she won't find it.

The blonde turns then to the Queen, tears streaming down her now flushed face, "What the hell did you do?!" She approaches the Queen and grabs her by her ridiculously high collar. "What the hell did you do?!"

To the blonde's surprise the Queen has tears swimming in her own eyes and just as she can read her son's other mother she can see through her dark side as well. Then she sees it, sees the secret the woman before her harbors and gasps.

She says in a low whisper, one meant only for her and the woman harming her parents. "Your pain won't go away just because you inflict it on others. Revenge won't fill the hole in your heart and it won't make you happy. Where has revenge ever gotten you?It'll only make it worse, you know that."

"Shut up before I slice your throat," the Queen sneered back. Her body's began to shake and Emma isn't sure if it's because of anger or because she knows Emma now knows what she's been hiding, what she's desperately tried to keep to herself.

"We both know you won't and we both know why. If you really wanted to, you would have already. You won't hurt me," Emma insisted although her abdomen heaved with the sobs she was trying to swallow down. The sound of her parents screaming in pain would forever be marked in her mind. "Let them go."

The Queen just laughed in her face and for a second Emma was sure that the tears she had been holding back were going to fall. She was of course, proven wrong, because when did the Queen ever show emotion? When did the Queen ever allow herself to feel anything other than rage?

"Please, leave them alone. It doesn't have to be this way. We can figure out a way to help you. I'll help you,"she promised.

"I don't need your pity!" the Queen yelled and before Emma knew it she was being thrown across the floor in between the crowd, Henry and Hook quickly running behind her.

The crowd quickly stepped away from the fallen blonde. The blonde that they claimed was their Savior yet when she needed to be saved, they turned their backs on her. "Cowards," she whispered to herself before feeling a tightness in her chest.

Her hands pulled at her collar and scratched her chest. "What's -" she began to ask herself as she searched her chest when she heard it.

"Let them go!" Regina hissed as she held her own heart and squeezed.

"Regina, what are you - " Emma asked as she struggled to get back on her feet, ready to run but unable to due to the pirate holding her back.

Once she saw what Regina had planned her eyes widened.

No, this couldn't be happening. This had to be a nightmare because the Regina she knew never gave up that easily. She was fighter, it was all she knew.

But then as she saw the determination in her brunette's eyes she knew that this wasn't the Regina she knew. This was the Regina that had lost far too much and never got compensated for it. This was the Regina that was drowning in self-loathing, one so intense that she felt the need to literally rip herself apart.

But she wouldn't let this happen. She wouldn't let Regina give up. She had worked too hard to get to where she was today. She wouldn't let all that effort fly out the window just because Regina didn't see herself as worthy anymore.

She called at her magic but her efforts were foul. Her emotions were running high, far too hectic, making her unable to connect with them.

What the hell was magic good for if it didn't come when she most needed it?

"What the hell do you think you're doing? You're not a hero," the Queen hissed back at her other half. She almost laughed, her other half was clearly brainwashed. People like them didn't get to play heroes. They either played the prey or the predator. There was no in between - there never was.

Regina squeezed harder, falling to her knees. "Let them go or you'll see how far I'm willing to go."

"Mom?" Henry asked from Emma's side.

Regina fought back tears because now was not the time. She couldn't let anything cloud her judgement.

She needed to make things right.

"I'm sorry, honey," she whispered as she squeezed harder causing the Queen to fall on her knees, eyes tightly shut as she fought against the ache in her chest.

"Mom, no! I can't lose you too," Henry cried as he ran to her side pulling at her forearms, pleading with her to let go of the prison she was holding her heart in. Not knowing that it was all she had ever known.

Regina pulled away from his touch, a lump forming in her throat at his cries and the cries of his grandparents.

Here was her baby boy begging her to stay and she couldn't grant him that wish. She couldn't because if she did that would mean he would lose his family. The better half of it.

"Henry, sweetheart, turn around," she told him. She didn't want him to see this. He had already seen too much. He had the Evil Queen as his mother, his father was ripped away from him before he even go the chance to know him, and Neverland had made him a lost boy.

She wouldn't throw another burden on him. She'd rather lose herself before she did.

"Mom, please don't do this. I love you," he pleaded.

She smiled and kissed his temple, whispering in his ear as she struggled to catch her breath, "I love you more than you'll ever know. I hope," she took a shallow breath, "I hope you'll find it in your beautiful heart to forgive me for this. I love you. I love you. I love you…" she continued as she then looked at Emma's eyes.

Emma who had been watching her this entire time without missing a beat. Emma who had tears streaming down her face as she shook her head. "I love you," she continued and squeezed harder.

She looked into her eyes pleading with her to take their son, to love him, and take care of him.

Understanding reached the blonde and so she nodded. Punching Hook in the face to gain release before running to Henry's side, pulling him away from his brunette mother. She wouldn't let him see this. She wouldn't let this happen.

"Regina, please. I'm begging you, don't do this."

She pleaded with her son's other mother as he looked into her eyes. "You are so incredibly worthy. You're family, we need you. Henry and I need you."

She broke their eye contact for a second to look at the heart in Regina's hand, hoping to see if she could make a move and take it out of it's vice grip. She was met with disappointment as she saw how strongly Regina was holding onto her heart. One wrong move and it'd be turned into dust.

She had to prove to her that she was worthy. That this wasn't the only answer.

She had to remind her that she was a fighter, "Regina, don't do this. You can't give up now, look at how far you've come. You've proved to everyone here that people can change. Now you have to prove it to yourself. Show yourself how much you've changed," she pleaded as she held onto Henry, cradling his head in a way that she's seen Regina do when he needed comfort. In the way Regina had done since he was a baby.

Regina shook her head, shutting her eyes tightly. Shutting them because she was sucking the life out of herself and because she couldn't confront what was before her. Because too many had suffered because of her and she couldn't keep hoping that someday that would change.

She was a curse and everyone she loved always payed the price, "I'm so sorry, my love. I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I love you. I love you. I love you, my sweetheart I love you so much, "Regina continued as she squeezed as hard as she could.

Her eyes and the Queen's rolled into the back of their heads, both falling unconscious to the stress and trauma coursing through their bodies - their heart.

"Regina, no!" Emma sobbed as she reached for the brunette, Henry quickly following behind her.

"Mom!" Henry reached first, eager to take his brunette's mother's hand. Needing to feel it, to feel her not squeeze it back, needing to confirm that she was not with him anymore.

That this wasn't all just a nightmare and he'd just lost him first parent, the one that would sooth all his injuries with love and care. The only one that could make this all bearable.

What he found shook him to his core. He quickly let go of his mother's hand and stepped back, bumping into his birth-mother.

"Henry, what-, "Emma began to ask but was cut off by her own shock. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

The blonde and her son locked eyes, understanding evident between them.

"We have to take her."