AN: A few (a lot?) of you might be wondering what happened to the chapter that had been posted (Epilogue I). It has its own home now in a completely separate story. That's what the epilogue became: A separate story. And, unfortunately it took a reviewer and a couple of good friends to make me realize that this separate story took away from the real story. So, this is a much shorter Epilogue that I feel stays truer to the story (*if there are reviews dated before September 25, 2013 or before they belong to the chapter I took down).

If you are interested in reading the other version of the epilogue, the story is not-so-cleverly titled "The Alternate Epilogue of The Games."

Now, I hope you enjoy this ending.

The next few months for Emma and Regina were a blur of excitement. The hustle and hubbub around the castle was happily personified as everyone learned that they were going to be welcoming a little Shadow Princess to the world.

Chip and Allison's initial visit turned to regular visits. After Allison met everyone she fell in love with them and liked coming to see them; of course, she also came to check up on the pregnant Shadow Queen—she gladly accepted the offer of being the woman's prenatal doctor.

Regina was now eight months pregnant and completely exhausted. Emma just wanted to be with her wife. She would be the first to exclaim all the ways that she loves her wife, and that she'd been in love with her since she saw her—that it hit her like a bolt of lightning. Everyday that passed she only loved that brunette, brown eyed, angel of a woman more. And she absolutely adored the sight of her wife pregnant. Knowing that her baby was in Regina's belly was the biggest turn-on to Emma.

Emma had spent the evening with her wife alone in their room. She gave the woman's aching muscles relief as she massaged the knots out from neck to toe, and now, as Regina was falling asleep, she simply let her fingers trail over the exposed skin of her wife's stomach.

Regina's pajamas hadn't changed; she still wore silk and lace babydolls, only now, she only wore them with flyaway fronts. As Emma's fingers circled her wife's protruding navel for the umpteenth time, Regina giggled softly. Emma stopped and let her hand splay out on the brunette's belly and looked up to the woman's face.

Regina opened an eye, checking to see if she had her wife's attention before closing it once more, "She loves you." Her voice was soft not unlike her giggle.

"Yeah?" Emma grinned wide.

"She's trying to follow your finger and kick it… It's not working in her favor. She keeps kicking my side."

"Then how do you know that's what she's trying to do?"

A gentle smile washed over her face as she opened her eyes and looked up to her wife, "Because I just do."

Emma leaned down and pecked her wife's lips, "That is a very good reason." She kissed the woman before her again before pulling away, concentrating on trailing her fingers over her wife's rounded stomach once more.

"Emma?" Regina's eyes locked with the blonde's once more.

"Yes, my love?"

"Can it be bed time?" She sighed.

It was Emma's turn to giggle lightly, "We're already in bed, darling…"

"I know. But it's still rather early." Regina deflated as she looked to their bedside clock to see that she was right.

"I suppose compared to the time we used to go to bed, it is early, yes."

"Can we turn the lights off and go to sleep?" The brunette's eyes were pleading.

Emma merely smiled a warm smile and looked around the room, turning all the lights off as she glanced at them. She then, scooted down the bed and cocooned her wife and herself in their blankets, letting Regina turn on her side before wrapping a secure arm around her wife's stomach protecting her and their baby.

"How's that?" The blonde asked as she dropped a kiss on Regina's shoulder.

"Perfect." Regina tilted her head, waiting for a kiss goodnight, "Just perfect." She said after receiving what she wanted.

~0~0~0~0~0~

"AAAAHHHH!"

Emma's scream broke the quiet hum of sound sleeping in the room. Regina (and the baby) jumped in fear. Regina had made it far away from her wife all the way to the very edge of their Alaskan King bed. Rubbing her belly to sooth the baby, she turned and stared, wide eyed at her wife. She could tell by the light provided by the moon that Emma was still fast asleep.

"Emma?" Regina finally whispered as she got over her sudden irritation that Emma could sleep through anything including her own screams.

"Grandmother?"

"…No… It's your wife. Emma…?" She stared, waiting for her wife to wake. Nothing. She glared at the woman, jealous that Emma was still conked out while she was very much awake. But as she narrowed her eyes, she zeroed in on the blonde's pink lips and found them moving as if she were talking. A smile fell over the original Shadow Queen's face. Eva had come to Emma for a visit.

She sighed and settled back down; she would forgive her grandmother-in-law for scaring her wife and in turn scaring her—she would forgive her just this once.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Emma walked along the corridor of Rumplestilskin and Cora's underground castle; something she often ventured back to a simulated version of the castle in her dreams to make sure everything was still as it should be: Completely quiet to the point of creepy.

This time though, something was different. Something was off. She could feel something else in the castle. She walked into the room that Dr. Frankenstein had used as his 'lab'. The pain of the electric shocks came back to her as the table she'd been strapped to was still there. She turned away from the lab and made her way into the cell.

"You come here often?"

"AAAAHHHH!" Emma jumped and turned around, her axe drawn quickly.

Eva rolled her eyes and moved the blade out of her way as she looked about the cell she'd first come to her granddaughter in, "It's kind of a dark and dreary place to dream about, don't you think? I mean of all the places for us to come back to…" She trailed off and turned back to her granddaughter, "I guess it's ironically poetic in a way…"

"Grandmother?" It took a while, but Emma finally processed that the other spirit in the castle was none other than Eva.

Eva looked to her granddaughter and smiled, "Hello, my dear."

The new Shadow Queen put her axe in its rightful spot before she moved to the woman, "What are you doing here?"

Eva's smile stayed the same, but a certain twinkle in her eyes faded, "I decided to come in and check on you; make sure everything was all right with my great-grandbaby…"

Emma rolled her eyes, "Regina wants to name her after you…" She shook her head.

Eva crossed her arms, "Should I feel as insulted as I do right now?"

This made the blonde Shadow Queen roll her eyes again, "I guess not, but I wanted to name her after the two of us…"

"The two of you…?"

"Remma." Emma said plainly, "It's got a nice ring to it."

Eva kept her arms crossed, "Eva does too."

The words made Emma grin, knowing they could argue for hours if they wanted. She smiled and looked around, "What's going on?" She sat in the spot she'd been chained to before and glanced over to her grandmother as she played with the shackles; she knew Eva couldn't just come for a visit. Eva had come for a reason.

The dark haired woman inhaled a suddenly ragged breath, "Another land is in trouble."

"Who's?" She stood up ready to take action, "Is it the Forbidden Mountain. Did something happen with the goons?"

The undead woman smiled softly, shaking her head, "No dear. Another land entirely…" She swallowed, "Have you been to your cave in a while?"

Emma knit her brows as she sat down once more, "I guess not, no…" She bit her lip as she thought, "Why?"

"It seems the gods saw something more in you than they did the other Pure Ones; that's why the originals grew extinct."

Emma crossed her arms, clenching, "What did they see?"

"They saw you protecting worlds. Realms." Eva gave her granddaughter a look of complete and utter pride before she sobered with her next words, "Your first test will be coming up soon. Hook and Bae will return with it when they get back from their 'round the realms' trip that in my opinion has taken much longer than it should." She shook her head.

Emma smiled at the ending of her Grandmother's speech, "Now, now, grandmother. They've sent post cards and are bringing us presents…"

Eva's smile didn't last. Her features were grave and she looked concerned, "Emma, you need to prepare for battle with this one. It's much bigger, smarter, faster, stronger than anything you've faced thus far." She swallowed hard, "Everyone is going to join you. But you're going to need to leave Regina and the baby here. You have to, for if you don't… Well, let's just say that it would be bad."

Emma started shaking her head. She couldn't stop, "But… No. I… I… I can't. We can't… It's not fair! The gods basically said—!"

"But they didn't. They didn't say anything of guaranteeing you happiness forevermore after taking care of Cora and Rumple. They helped you out last time because they knew that you were ready to give up; they knew they needed to let you and Regina conceive so that you would stop at nothing to rid all the lands and all the worlds of evil…"

Tears made their way down Emma's face. She slowly inhaled and quickly blew it out. She knew there was no arguing with her grandmother over the gods' fate for her.

"How long do I have?"

"A fortnight."

The blonde's chin quivered as she took the information in, "I won't even get to see my baby before I go…"

~0~0~0~0~0~

Emma jumped from her sleep. Regina was turned from her, snoring softly. She brushed her hand over her wife's short hair gently before she got out of bed. She had too much energy; she was riled and angry and crestfallen and heartbroken and down right pissed off.

She wiped the tears from her eyes, summoned her axe from the wall and put it horizontally a few feet above her head. She jumped and grabbed hold, then began doing pull-ups.

Regina woke up for the second time that night to the grunts and huffs of her wife. She glanced at the clock surprised that it had been such a small window of time that she fell asleep and woke up again. She sat up and looked around before her eyes settled on the form doing pull-ups in the moonlight. She waved her hand at either nightstand that lined the bed, magically turning on the lamps, "Emma? Darling, what are you doing?"

"I couldn't sleep. Did I wake you?" Emma dropped from her axe, waved her hand, telling it go back to its place on the wall, and moved around to sit on the bed. She leaned forward and kissed Regina's cheek then leaned down and kissed her stomach.

Regina stared at her, really taking her wife's disconcerting actions in. Sure, they were normal actions, giving her and the baby affection, but it was the way it was happening that had Regina scared. "Okay, what in Hades is going on?" She gave her wife a full stare down, "In our entire life together, you've never done pull-ups when you couldn't sleep. You've also never made that face."

"What face?"

"That face that I imagined you had when you thought you were going to die and never see me again."

Emma looked away from her wife, standing to give them further distance, "I saw Grandmother Eva." She gave a half smile as she turned to sit in a chair that faced the bed.

Regina nodded, "I know. You screamed in my ear then started talking to her."

Emma crossed her arms defensively. "She scared me…"

Regina smiled, but sobered as she took her wife in, "…Emma?"

"The gods built me different then they built the other Pure Ones; that's why the others went extinct before I came here. Everything we've been through up until now has apparently been a walk in a park."

Regina knit her brows, "What?"

"I'm supposed to save and help save basically everything. Lands, countries, continents, worlds, realms. I'm supposed to help with it all."

Regina's features were now pensive, contemplative as she looked off at the bed sheets. She had a couple fingers pressed against her bottom lip, keeping it in place while she bit at it.

"Hook and Bae are coming back with my next challenge… My first challenge according to Grandmother Eva."

Regina's stare made it back to her wife, concern and anger in her eyes. "What? When?"

"Two weeks."

"But…" The brunette was calculating how much time that actually was, "That's not… That's…"

"Yeah. Grandmother Eva said that I'm supposed to leave…" Emma sucked in a harsh, ragged breath as tears suddenly blurred her vision, "She said that…" she swallowed trying to collect herself. She wiped her hands over her face and started a different direction, "Everyone is going to come along with me…" She looked down and back up, "You're staying here."

Regina scoffed a laugh, "Hardly…"

"No!" Emma's tone was hard. "You're staying here. Grandmother Eva said that you were going to stay here. She said if you didn't that you and the baby would die. I'll not have you die."

For a pregnant woman in her eighth month, Regina was quick to stand, anger lacing her tone, "And I'll not have you die!" She turned as the tears came.

Emma stood, staring at her wife. She had tears in her eyes and wet cheeks, but she couldn't help but smile, "I won't." She shook her head as she walked over to her wife, "I'm not going to die. Not if I know that you and the baby are safe. If you stay here; I'll come back to you." She took Regina's face, now just as wet as her own. "I will always come back to you."

Regina held onto her wife's wrists as the blonde's hands moved to line her neck, Emma's thumbs stroking her cheek. "You promise?" She looked into Emma's eyes, her chin quivering, more tears ready to fall.

"I promise." Emma nodded leaning in to kiss her wife.

~0~0~0~0~0~

A letter had been sent out to everyone. Genie, Chip, Allison, Red, Belle, Artie, Gustave, Dunstan, Alexander, Patrick, Arely and a humanized Cordelia had come to the castle. Allison had been asked to stay behind to take care of Regina and the baby when the time came.

But, just as Emma suited up to wait for Hook and Bae's arrival, Regina let out a cry of pain in the bathroom. Emma ran in, sliding, catching herself on her knees, on the tile where her wife's water apparently broke. She looked up with wide eyes, "Is..?"

Regina stared at her wife from her spot at the counter, her knuckles white as the pain coursed through her, "Go get Allison…"

"Is..is she?" Emma needed to know.

Regina smiled, "Yes, Emma, she's coming. Go get Allison."

~0~0~0~0~0~

Everyone waited in the living room of the Shadow Queens. Artie, Arely and Cordelia leaned against a wall, and everyone aside from Gustave who had slid to the floor was sitting in chairs. Chip though was pacing; he could hear every grunt of pain the Shadow Queen made and it made him antsy. Red was calm enough and sat with her wife though she and her son would share looks as particularly filthy-mouthed cries came out of the original Shadow Queen's mouth.

A loud scream was heard and everyone stared at the door. After what seemed like forever, a small, loud, boisterous cry gave way.

Charming and Snow hugged each other then Snow turned to Maleficent, Aurora and her grandfather, hugging them as well. She and her Charming were now grandparents.

Everyone else started clapping. As the applause died and everyone settled with content, patient smiles on their faces, Allison came out. She looked to Charming and Snow, "They've asked for you." She smiled kindly as she walked to her boyfriend.

The former king and queen jumped up and quickly made their way in the Queens' bedchamber.

They saw their daughter back faced to them and didn't see a bundle in Regina's arms; they did see a loving smile on her face though. Emma turned around, making sure to hold the little girl's head carefully with one hand and held her body with the other, "Mom? Dad? I'd like you to meet your granddaughter." She spoke softly and looked at them with a smile on her face.

Snow and Charming stared at the bundle with tears in her eyes, "Oh, hello, precious." Snow reached out and touched the baby's cheek. She looked up to her daughter, "What's her name?" She asked looking over to her daughter-in-law.

Regina smiled, "We were hoping you could help us out with that. You both know what our choices are. And, we've decided that they will be her middle names…"

"We were hoping that you would name her?" Emma looked up at her parents.

Snow and Charming looked to each other for an entire fourth of a second before they looked back to the other women and together said, "Bailee."

Emma and Regina looked to each other approvingly.

"Bailee?" Regina asked, wanting to know why their answer came so quick.

Charming nodded, "It's what Emma's sister would have been named had she had one… A daughter will do as well…" He smiled.

"Oh, I can't stand it, come here, Bailee." Snow reached for her grandbaby.

"Careful. She's really little." Emma said as she handed the baby to her mother.

Snow gave her daughter a look, "I'm aware. This was you once…And I was Regina."

Emma gave her mother a disgusted look, not needing the visual, as she made her way back to her wife, sitting on the bed with her. She kissed Regina's temple and wrapped her arm around the brunette's shoulders.

~0~0~0~0~0~0~

Bailee had been presented to the group and they slowly made their way out of the Shadow Queens' chambers, leaving them with their little girl, leaving Emma with her girls for as long as they could.

It was a regretful knock that came to the door and a morose Chip and Allison that walked in.

"Bae and Hook just reached the castle gates." Chip looked down.

Emma looked up and nodded, "All right." She brought the bundle in her arms up to her face and kissed her daughter's cheeks and nose a few times. She then looked to Regina, who was waiting for her cue to lean in and kiss her lover.

This was when Hook and Bae barged into the room, "Regina, Emma. You need to help. Emma, only you can…" Bae said seriously as he looked down at the bundle in Emma's arms; he looked up between the two women and back down.

Hook, though had looked to the other occupants in the room and after spotting Allison, he had to do a double take and shook his head. But as it registered that it was an Emma clone, he jumped and looked to the woman a third time.

"What…?" They both said at the same time as they pointed at the person and baby they were looking at. Bae came forward and stared at the baby closer; Hook looked between Emma and Allison.

Emma smiled, "Boys? Meet Allison." She pointed to the doctor, "And Bailee." She gestured to the baby.

Hook and Bae's attentions swapped, Bae pointed to Allison and Hook to the baby, "…What?!" They said again.

"Allison is Chip's girlfriend, my doppelganger and a very, very good doctor. Bailee is our baby, Bae? Meet your niece." She stood and gave the baby to Baelfire, letting him and Hook look her over.

She made her way back to her armor that she had long before taken off and started putting it on again, "Emma?" Regina reached out for her and the blonde quickly made her way back to their bed. "I love you." She whispered.

"I know. I love you too." The blonde nodded, reaffirming her response. She leaned in and kissed her wife before moving back to her armor.

"Emma…" Hook spoke softly as he walked over to her, a letter in his hand.

Emma glanced to Bae as he gave her daughter back to her wife.

"Emma, they need you. There is no one else."

The blonde Shadow Queen nodded, "I know. I knew you guys were coming and I knew I was going to have to leave them. I didn't know that I would get to see my little girl though." She swallowed hard before finishing the buckles and clips on her armor and putting on her belt.

This was when everyone else slowly started to file into the room again.

"If there was anyone else…"

"There's not. That's the point. I'm a new breed of Pure One. I'm made to travel through realms and worlds and lands and fight for the good. What you're bringing me is a test from the gods." She looked at him seriously before reaching her arm out, summoning her axe from its resting place. She took the letter from Hook's hand and read it over. She let out a calming breath.

Then she walked over to her wife and baby and kissed them both a few more times. "I love you." She whispered.

"I love you too." Regina whispered back.

"I will always come back to you." Emma gave her one more kiss before she turned to everyone else, "Well folks. What say we save this Princess Abigail?"

AN: Hope you enjoyed this ride; and please, if you are interested, be sure to read "The Alternate Epilogue of the Games."

For the last time, thoughts and feels? Please read and review.