She felt weak.

It was the magic of the Enchanted Forest. Better yet, the remnants of her magic from many years ago that flowed through the Enchanted Forest.

When she began magical lessons all those years ago, Rumple had told her that all casters left remnants of their magic whenever they cast spells. That magic remained for a time, slowly diminishing itself and seeping into existence until there remained nothing but Original Magic. Regina had always asked Rumple what the Original Magic was, if it was different from light or dark magic, but he never gave her a concrete answer. She never gave it much thought while her thoughts were mainly on seeking revenge of Snow White.

She knew, though, that if a caster changed over time, their magic changed as well. Rumple had only ever warned her to make sure her magic never changed, because it would never be as powerful. During the times of the Evil Queen, her magic was as dark as they came, that was then though. Now, it was nowhere near the same dark state it was before. It wasn't much, but she felt it was less dark… less evil.

Since the magic she used to cast the dark curse was enacted in the Enchanted Forest, that's where it remained frozen in time, just like Storybrooke was frozen in time, waiting for the curse to be broken. That was one thing she did not realize, the remnants of her magic from before were dark and full of rage, they were sinister, and now, she did not realize what she had done. She had left a boiling surge of dark magic that wanted to reconnect back with its source – with her. It remained there for twenty-eight years, hardening and growing strong.

Once the curse broke, it was then that the magic would start to decrease in strength and eventually disappear. When though, that was the question. She knew it was temporary, the magic would soon disappear like mist, just as it had all those times before whenever a spell was cast. With this particular wisps of magic… well, it had been simmering, marinating for twenty-eight years, it would not leave in just a few hours.

During their treks, she remained silent, isolating herself either far ahead or behind of the group trying to compose herself. Her magic attempted to reconnect with her, the magic that she had left, flowing in the parallel plane, but she was different now, her magic did not easily combine with her old self's anymore. It was driving her insane. It was a constant battle of pushback. Her old darkness that hovered in the parallel plane fought against her, trying to snuff out any light she had discovered in herself.

Nothing around her help though. The incessant singing of the dwarves, the squealing of Snow and David's arrogance. Nothing was working to ease her internal battle.

She needed to balance herself. It was a simple spell. One that required isolation and connection with the natural elements. She recalled chuckling when she had read what meditation was in the land without magic. Those humans did not realize that their meditation was actually a spell to realign the magic they carried within them. "You're realigning your chakras" she recalls someone say on the television.

All realms had it, a parallel world of sorts where all things non-visible went. Where they waited patiently until it was misted away. That's where magic dwelled after it was cast. It remained there, in the same spot that it was cast, waiting to dissipate, but also, waiting for the possible reclaiming from their caster. Because just like magic left the caster, it would return when the sorcerer needed it.

But her magic wanted her, it missed her. It was taking everything in her not to give in. She had Henry here who kept her centered, and for him, she would keep fighting off her darkness.

It had been a full days trek and they had settled in for the night. The group had sufficient tents for everyone to have their own and she could not be more grateful to whatever higher being had made that happened. She would not have been able to last one night with the bookworms grieving cries at night or the old wolf's howling snores.

Her tent had been placed far off to the edge of the camp site, whether it was purposeful or not she did not mind. Just like the rest of the group, she did not care to be around them as more than they wanted to be around her.

Most people were already turned in for the night while others, being the Charmings, the young wolf, and angry dwarf all sat in whispers among the fires.

She had been laying in her tent trying to wait until they had all gone to bed but they were taking longer than expected. So, she decided to go off into the woods either way. Knowing full well that they still did not fully trust her and would notice of she had gone.

She could have apirated herself but her magic was a bit too uncontrollable to cast spells like that yet. She had made her best effort to be as discreet as possible. She trekked for about a few minutes, making sure to be far away enough to have lost sight of the small fire and the silence of the woods filling her surroundings.

She lit a small fire ball to help her find her way around; that was the maximum extent that her magic had at that point. Once she found a clear patch of ground she drew in a circle on the ground and a cross in its center reaching the circumferences of the circle. She drew in entwined circles in the middle section of the bigger circle symbolizing the balance of dark and light.

She knew she did not have time for the entire ritual and would have to do a quick one just to hold off until she reached the manor and was able to perform it properly.

As she finished the last engravings in the ground, she seated herself in the center and began to chant the low hum. The winds joined her moments later, and a thundering roar broke over the skies. The winds flowed fiercely and as she continued, the magical parallel plane opened to reveal her entwined magic, dark and light battling.

Her eyes opened, and her eyes replaced with dark grayed coloring allowing her to see into the magical realm adjacent to her own.

As the invisible plane became clearer, she looked around and saw the streets, bushes, flowers, all nature glittering with magical dust. That's what she needed, she needed to take in the energy, the untampered natural energy of the earth and sky. Her breathing steady, she breathed in and out methodically until her breath released a bright light that transformed into three separate circles that crossed together. The dark, the light, and her own soul. They orbited around her, the trio that resided in her, running around her faster and faster, sparks flying wildly whenever they meet.

As she continued to chant, the glittering light magic flowered towards her, landing on her bare skin her and seeping into her.

The wind blew harshly around her and the trees almost to the point of uprooting themselves from the ground. She dug her fingers into the soil of the earth, as she closed her eyes one last time and centered herself, her magic returning to her and the thundering ceasing, the trees settling and the wind slowly whistling in hums.

"Regina! I said stop!"

As her eyes opened, the darkness clearing from them her vision blurred she heard the muffled voices coming higher and higher.

"Regina, listen to me!"

She blinked, trying to re-group herself from the hypnotic state she was in and her first clear view was a pale faced, dark hared woman, with a bow and arrow at hand pointed directly at her.

Regina tightened her brows, trying to unblur her vision and she noticed it, the look of fear in her eyes.

"Stand up, Regina!" Snow ordered.

"Snow, what are you doing?"

"Stand up, Regina," Snow ordered once more.

As Regina stood, Snow cautiously took a step back, to which Regina noticed. In turn, she scoffed at Snow's apparent distrust in her.

"Relax, I'm not trying to kill you."

"Then what was all of this? What spell was this?"

Regina waved her hand over the ground, removing the engraved markings, leaving the soil as if it never tampered with. She remained silent, closing her eyes and taking in the balance that she now felt within her. She could feel the struggle there, it was a bit faint but still there.

"Answer me, Regina. What spell did you cast?"

"I was not casting anything." She replies as she remains standing. She expected someone to come looking for her, to wonder what she was doing and did not find it a surprise they thought she was up to no good. If she was honest, she did not care one bit that they did not trust her, it was becoming more of an annoyance than a concern.

"Then, what was all of that?"

"It was nothing… none of your business." She replies simply and turns to walk back to the camp without giving further concern for Snow's questions.

"I think it is my concern, especially when there are people who still don't trust you," Snow begins as she starts to walk behind her, "You need me in your corner Regina, or else everyone will start bringing their pitchforks and try to kill you."

With a swift turn, she let out a mocking laugh as she replied, "Let them try. We'll see who wins that fight."

As she turned away once more, Snow obviously would not budge, dared to speak her next words, "Henry wouldn't want this. He's counting on you to be good."

Her fists tightened, and the grinding of her teeth was the only sound she heard in her ears. With the anger boiling in her she marched forward, stepping closer to Snow, who now had wildly scared eyes, "You want to know what I was doing?" she growled through her teeth in a dark whisper, "I was balancing my magic, because there is remnants of my dark self everywhere here and it's taking me everything I have not to rip every single one of you limb from limb."

Snow's mouth opened in shock, and her eyes glazed over clearly awestruck at Regina's confession. For a moment they stood there, staring into one another, Regina full of fury and Snow with her stupidly naïve face not knowing how to reply to Regina.

After a moment, once Snow's shock settled and she managed to swallow a thick gulpy of nerves, Regina leaned forward next to Snow's ear and whispered, "If you ever use my son against me again I'll make sure you regret it."

"I wasn't-,"

"Save it." Regina barked back and marched away leaving a whimpering Snow to compose herself all alone.

.*.

They'd covered a lot of ground by noon. Robin made sure to stop at good distances to rest. With two kids now on their journey, they needed to make sure they were well-rested so that they could cover more ground at a good pace.

Robin loved that both kids had bonded so much already. They were both quite taken with one another and he was so happy to see his boy had a friend that was kind to him.

Roland was a few years younger than Henry but was quite as inquisitive and talkative as Henry was and it seemed that age was nothing more than a number to the two kids.

After the death of Marian, it had been difficult to get Roland to open up to anyone that wasn't the Merry Men. Making friendships was difficult for Roland, not just because of his shyness but because of the lack of kids to begin with. The entire journey, Roland and Henry talked and played game after game from a so called 'I spy' to the typical games children of the Enchanted Forest played. He watched them as they had settled to eat for the day trying to not eavesdrop on their conversation that appeared to be quite intense.

"What else did you do in the Storybrooke land, Henry?" Roland asked as he sat next to him.

"I liked to read a lot. My mom always bought me comics about heroes."

"What are comics?"

"They're like books, stories but they have pictures."

"Pictures?!" Roland yelped.

"They're awesome, they have fighting scenes and super cool cliffhangers."

"They hang from cliffs?" Roland asked as he munched on a handful of berries.

Henry chuckled as he tried to explain, "No. A cliffhanger in my world is when the story ends in a part that's dramatic or exciting. So, you want to read the next book."

Roland's head tilted trying to understand Henry's explanation, "But they don't hang from cliffs?"

There was no response from Henry at Roland's question. Robin noticed Henry beginning to stand and staring onto the sky as Roland tugged at his coat.

Robin motioned to Emma who looked to Henry as well and both began to walk over to see what was wrong.

"Henry, everything alright?" Robin asked.

Henry pointed up to the sky, where a black bird hovered over them circling the sky.

"It's been following us," Henry said.

"Looks like a raven," Robin said as he looked up at the bird, that now was beginning to make it's decent.

Emma turned to Robin as she tilted her head, "How do you know that?"

"The woods are my home, and all its creatures have been companions of mine."

The bird settled on the lowest branch of a nearby tree. It cawed every few seconds as it moved its head from side to side, tilting to get what seemed a better view of the group.

"Is it…?" Emma questioned. The caws that came from the bird weren't the usually cawing of any bird. They sounded different, almost as if it was calling for a name.

"It sounds like its calling for-."

"For me. My name," Henry said finishing Robin's sentence.

"How does it know your name?" Robin asked, but there came no response from Henry who began walking over to it.

"Henry, wait," Emma called after him. Both her and Robin walked over to Henry who stood looking up at the raven who now looked back at him with a questioning tilt of his head.

"It's got a purple feather, see?" Henry noted to the two adults, who stood behind him with concern.

The cawing of Henry's name continued as the bird continued to look at him tilting its head questioningly from side to side.

"I've never seen a bird with a purple feather of that sort before. Is it from your land?" Robin asked Emma.

"I've never seen one like that before, and I've seen a fair share in the past years." Emma replied recalling all the insane magical things she had gone through. This bird seemed different. It looked only to Henry almost hypnotized and continued cawing only at him.

"I'm Henry," the young boy said. At the utter of his words, a small scroll of paper appeared at the ankle of the bird's legs.

"Woah, kid." Emma murmured as she placed her hand protectively on Henry's shoulder.

"I think it's from my mom," Henry whispered as he stepped forward and extended his hand out to have the bird perch onto arm, clearly ignoring the warnings of both adults – and Roland.

The bird flapped onto Henry's arm, to which Henry took the scroll and in that instant the bird began flying away and disappeared in a purple cloud of smoke before it could get too far.

He opened the scroll and began to read as a smile appeared on his face, "It's my mom. She says she knows about the barrier spell on her castle. She said she didn't cast it. It was someone else. They're going to the manor, that she'll see me there soon."

"Did she say how far away they were?" Emma asked as she noticed concerned face from the corner of her eye.

"About a day away."

"We are too, we will meet them there at the same time." Emma replied, "Why don't you go to play with Roland while I talk to Robin, okay?"

When Henry was a good distance away, Emma looked to Robin who stood looking at the ground with his arms at his side, "I sense something is wrong."

Robin nodded, "I'm wary of magic. It's apparent that Henry's mother wields it."

"She does. So do I, remember."

"I know you do too, but you seem inexperienced, still learning and it didn't worry me as much. But, it's clear his mother has mastered the art enough to send a message in the nature that she did. I just…"

"Just ask me, no use beating around the bush."

"I know that many sorceresses use messages via birds, the only birds I've ever seen that are black ravens come from those that wield dark magic."

"So, your question is if Regina has dark magic." Emma asked, and Robin quickly nodded.

"She does. But like you know, she is learning not to use her magic for evil… it's a work in progress for her, just like it's a work in progress for me to learn to use my magic."

"I have a son Emma, I've a right to worry about where I am taking him."

"And I would not lead you to a place I knew was not safe."

Robin nodded at her defense, "I have one last question, but I believe I already know the answer to that from what I've deduced."

"Would you like to ask me that question to confirm your suspicions?" Emma asked him. There was a pause for a moment, while it seemed that he thought it over.

"I rather find out myself," he replied, "We best continue on, given Regina's letter, we will meet them soon enough. We don't want to keep Regina from seeing her son, do we?"

"No, we don't," Emma smiled, "Regina doesn't like to be kept waiting."

Robin smiled as they both began to walk back to the group. He knew he did not want to keep this Regina waiting, especially if he had a good idea of who this mystery woman was, "John, Tuck, let's pass along the word, we're to continue on before nightfall."

.*.

They were now less than a day away. A few hours to be exact and she could not wait to get to the manor, find the nearest room and lock herself in there for the next two fortnights. It was ridiculous, disgusting, to be exact. How could a group of seven child-like men sing over and over without stop; and why in the hell had no one said anything at all about it?

David was useless, not willing to hear her out one moment. Snow was apparently still hurt over the scene they shared the previous night and Regina was not looking to interact with her more than she already had.

The entire journey, she remained at the margin of the group, grumbling and cursing to herself. Mary clearly had stuck everyone against her after that night, since no one would even give an inch of a conversation with her. Of everyone there, Belle and Granny seemed to be the only ones to actually not care what others said.

But Regina was not going to take the conversations offered to her out of pity. Nonetheless, the old wolf insisted on having some kind of conversation with her, "I don't feel like talking." Regina told her.

"Well, I do. Come on now, give an old bag of bones a decent conversation that doesn't involve singing off key to sickly sweet things. Gods know I'll give Grumpy a good bite next time he decides to sing falsetto."

A small smile appeared on Regina's lips, only for a slight instant as she turned her head to the side attempting to dissuade Granny for liking her, "You can laugh, girl. There's no harm in that."

"It's not that I don't want to laugh," Regina replied.

"Then what is it?"

She shrugged her shoulders at the questions, wanting not to over share. She still didn't really quite understand why Granny of all people wanted to talk to her.

"Why are you trying to talk to me? You know the things I've done, why are you insisting on talking to me after everything that's happened?"

"Exactly because of everything that's happened is why I want to talk to you. Everything that happened before you were Queen and during," Granny replied. Making sure not to give away too much, but just enough to have Regina know exactly what she was talking about.

Regina tensed at Granny's confession, looking straight ahead, not wanting to make eye contact with her, "What do you know of that?"

"Enough."

"And what do you want in return?" Regina asked.

"What I want? Nothing," Granny replied, "Poor girl, not everyone who's nice to you wants something from you."

"You'd be surprised how false that statement is," Regina said as she scoffed.

"Well, I'm tellin' ya now, child. I've got no need for anything of yous. I just want to talk. Now, tell me," Granny began with a smirk, "What is the real secret ingredient to that lasagna of yours?"

Regina chuckled at Granny's question, loud enough for most of the group to turn their cautious eyes towards her actions. She chose to ignore their glares at the sight of Regina simply enjoying herself.

"Wouldn't you like to know," she replied to Granny with a sly smirk.

A screeching noise came from the blue sky, as the winds gusted among the group, creatures with wings screeched and hovered over them. Yelling and panic surged, and Regina heard David, "Everyone into the woods!"

Regina attempts to throw a fireball at the two winged beasts but misses one of them. Granny, grabs her by her arm and flings her towards the woods, "What the hell! I was trying to fight them off."

"Stupidly so, do you not know what they are?"

"My next kill if I have any say in it!" Regina replied. Granny's hold on her was strong and the engraving of her talons pierced Regina's skin even through her thick coat.

"Let go of me!" she ordered and Granny did so.

"Just trying to save your life, stupid girl," Granny replied shaking her head as they halted.

"I don't need saving! I can take care of myself."

"What the hell is wrong with you? Someone is trying to do something good for you, take it and shut your mouth."

The screaming of the people came from all around the woods. Regina did not care for Granny's help, did not need it no matter how insistent the old bag was in giving it, "Do you hear that? There's others yelling, go help them. I can take care of myself!"

"Stupid girl," Granny mumbled as she trotted off into the woods, sniffing out looking for people.

The yelling of the people take over her ears and she growls inwardly knowing that no one is capable of fighting off those beasts. The recalls the movie she would watch with Henry when he was younger. They looked exactly like flying monkeys. She knew Oz was real, her mother had always told her that she would take her there one day. That promise never did come true though.

All of that only meant one thing. If flying monkeys were there, that meant that a certain Wicked Witch was there too.

She walked towards the fearful cries to see what help she could lend, with a fireball in hand, she walked cautiously to aid the others.

A sudden force hit her back and winded her as she fell to the ground. The pressure of the person was causing her breathing to fail and she grunted as the person rose from atop of her.

"Regina, I'm so sorry. The beast, it was after me," she dreaded voice said so sweet and innocent.

"Snow White," Regina grunted as she pushed herself off from the ground.

"Are you alright?"

"Never better."

Snow looked around the sky that was not filled only with the tall trees over them, "What are those things?"

"Flying monkeys," Regina answered.

The woods had gone quiet and the screams were only heard off in the distance, "We should go find the others," Snow said.

Regina did not reply, only began walking towards the yelling of the people. The walk was only a few steps when there was a rustling of the bushes nearby.

"You saw that?" Snow asked as she took a step back away, "There's something there… in that bush."

Regina moved branches out of the way to find the covered area empty, "There's nothing here. Unless it flew away."

"It did. Up there!"

The flying monkey was headed straight for them, "We need to find cover!" Snow said as she began to raise her skirts and hop over a log.

"No," Regina replied fiercely. Conjuring a fireball ready to aim at the wing beast, "I don't run from monster, they run from me."

The fireball flew towards the monkey but the beast maneuvered and missed its right wing. They both crouched down quickly but it was for not, the monkey dived and clenched onto Regina's arm tugging her up. The tried hitting it with her free hand as she was lifted up from the ground. Snows yelling her and grabbing onto her foot pulling her down.

A yell escaped her as Snow pulled her causing the monkeys claws to tear her sleeve and created a deep wound on her inner forearm.

As they fall back to the ground, the monkey begins to descend once again heading straight for them.

A voice yells them to get down and an arrow pierces the monkeys arm and a wild screech fills the forest as it fly's away.

"Milady, you're injured," A muscular voice says from behind them. They both turn to find a man, with bows hung on his back and a bow in hand extending his free hand to Regina.

She looks up at him, with a defensive gaze as she replies, "It's your majesty. And I'm fine."

"A simple thank you would suffice." He replies.

"We didn't ask for your help," Regina replies bitterly as she stands herself up.

Snow took Robin's hand as she says, "Well I'm grateful for the assistance."

"Robin, Robin of Locksley," He replies, "And these are some of my merry men." He pointed to a couple of fat tall men standing behind him.

"Snow White."

"At least we meet. You know there was a time when I faces graced wanted posters side by side."

"If you're really Snow White, why are you with her," says one of the men as he nods towards Regina.

"Her?" Regina answers, "Have some respect. Or at least—."

"Mom?" a young boy's voice says a few feet away. She recognizes that voice. That's her son's voice.

Regina turns her eyes to the voice and it's him, her baby boy standing safe and sound, "Henry." She whispers. She stands frozen, smiling at her boy, relieved that he is safe. She sees him run over to her and gives her a hug that she gladly returns.

She kisses the top of his head and hugs him tighter and she bends knees to his eye level, "Let me look at you. Are you okay?"

"I'm great!" He looks Regina over. Taking the sight of her outfit. Diamonds, corset, all black, "You look…"

"Evil?" she finished for him. A timid smile escapes her lips, knowing this is the first time her son actually has seen her in anything that is the semblance of her past self. She attempts to explain to him that this was the only thing she could conjure for the moment, because of the issues with her magic but Henry smiles at her before she can explain anything at all.

"Regal… like a queen."

"Where did the sensible pantsuits go?" Emma asks as she walks over with a little Roland holding her hand. Snow squeals as she attacks Emma with a tight hug.

"Alright, mom, can't breathe."

Once Snow decides to let Emma go, she asks, "And who is this little one?" pointing to Roland.

"My son… Roland," Robin answers.

"You've been with Robin Hood this whole time?" Snow asks Emma.

"He saved us from a couple of those flying beasts." She then goes on to re-tell the events that transpired the past few days and how Robin and his men had aided both Emma and Henry to get to them.

Regina looks at Robin as Emma explains, she holds tightly onto Henry who is hugging her across her waist with his head nestled against her torso.

Robin's gaze locked on her as well, not wavering for a second. Once Emma finishes her story, Regina tells Robin, "You saved my son."

Robin nods, "Well the screams left no choice," he tells her with a small smile.

Her lips purse, attempted to hide the smile at his sarcastic comment. Emma continues to explain the reason why Robin's men had accompanied them, explaining to Snow that they know the lay of the land given the current conditions and they can help aid anyone in finding a place to start once again. But Regina only hears muffled noises coming from Emma because her son is safe and there is thief, smiling at her. This thief that saved her son and brought him to her.

She feels the tug from Henry on her arm, "You're bleeding mom."

Regina shrugs it off, "It's fine, nothing a good ointment can't heal."

"The flying monkeys did it, huh?"

"Yes, but everything is going to be alright. We're going to get to the manor soon."

Roland wobbles over to Henry and tugs at his sweater, "Is that your other mommy, Henry?"

"Yeah," Henry replies and looks to Regina, "This is Roland, he's my friend and he's been keeping me company and showing me things about the Enchanted Forest."

Regina bends down to look at Roland and Roland's head tilts as he examines her. He gives her a knowing smile as he looks at her jeweled gown, "You're majesty aren't you?"

Regina smiles innocently, she nods at him and Roland's smile grows wide from ear to ear and his eyes wide at the sight of Regina, "Papa, that's majesty! That's majesty."

"That she is son," Robin replies as he looks at Regina.

"Shall we look for the others?" Snow asks moments later grinning between Robin and Regina.

/

New chapter darlins! They met and their connection was instant! What do you think will happen next?

How about that argument with Snow and Regina?

Thank you for all the love and support, I appreciate the feedback, likes, and shares of my stories.

This is all un-beta'd so there will be some mistakes. Please bear with me, I do my best!

What do you think will happen next?