Hey guys, the new chapter is finally here. I'm sorry you had to wait this long for it, so I won't make you wait any longer. I hope you like it!

All mistakes are mine.

Enjoy!

WARNINGS: Heavy angst and emotional torture.

Chapter 10

Emma slowly started to regain consciousness. She blinked her eyes open and groaned as she slowly sat up. Her head felt like it was about to burst open, she was dizzy and nauseous. When she was sure that she was not about to throw up or lose consciousness again she looked around herself trying to see where she was (because she definitely was not in Mr. Gold's shop), and trying to find Regina and Brad. She saw nothing but walls and darkness around her. It wasn't totally dark, it was strange, dark enough so that you would feel afraid, but light enough to see around yourself. She sighed with relief when she saw that both Regina and Brad a few feet away from her, that she wasn't alone. There was something about the place that made her feel uneasy and unusually afraid. She definitely wouldn't want to be alone in here. Regina was sitting up, massaging her temples, her face uncharacteristically pale and Brad was still unconscious.

"Regina… Are you ok? Where are we?" – she asked panicking a little, because only then she realized that she could not tap into her magic. She was used to the feeling of her magic flowing freely inside of her now and it felt strange that she couldn't access it – "What is wrong with my magic?"

"We Miss Swan, are inside Pandora's Box and nothing is wrong with your magic. The box is blocking it and is preventing us from accessing it." – Regina said darkly disregarding her first question – "I'm going to kill the imp if I get out, I don't care if I become the next Dark One." – Regina murmured as she stood up and went to check on Brad.

The fact that they were inside Pandora's Box, the box that contained anything and everything evil, coupled with the fact that both Regina and her couldn't use their magic and the IF in Regina's last sentence was enough to push Emma into full panic mode – "What do you mean IF you get out?" – Emma asked breathing heavily.

"You see Miss Swan, we can only get out if somebody from the outside lets us out, which is something I doubt that Rumpelstiltskin will do." – Regina said.

"So there is nothing we can do?"

"No. All we can do is wait until somebody lets us out."

"Why would Mr. Gold do this? Do you know what he wants?" – Emma asked and stood up to help Regina drag Brad's body near one of the walls.

"No. I honestly don't have any idea. The only thing he said was that if we didn't come to his shop I…" – Regina suddenly changed what she was going to say – "… that if we didn't come to his shop something would happen to you."

"Yeah, he said that to me too. So are we going to be imprisoned until we die, or…?" – Emma quickly changed the subject, before things could become awkward.

"Do you know this world's story about the box Miss Swan?" – Regina took off her blazer, folded it and put it underneath Brad's head. She sat down with her back against the wall next to his unconscious body. Emma nodded and sat on the other side of her. – "You don't really believe that a box that contained everything evil would just be a prison, do you? Time doesn't exist in this place, you cannot die in here, but it will make you wish you were dead. It will make you live through your darkest moments, it will awaken your deepest desires, your biggest wishes, only to crush them, it will bring to live your greatest fears. This things won't be visions, you will live through them, but the box will not let you lose your mind, it will not let you die and it will not let you kill yourself, and believe me you will think about suicide. So no Miss Swan, we will not be imprisoned until we die. This is a fate far worse than death."

Emma was officially freaking out right now. She couldn't understand why would Mr. Gold do this to them, what did he want. He and Regina were always at odds, but they never took it to this level, they respected each other enough to never put the other through hell like this. She was the Savior and maybe she had become a threat, now that she started to get used to her magic, but why not just kill her, why go to this level and more importantly why Brad? She still didn't know anything about him. Nobody beside Regina and Rumple knew anything about him, and they were not sharing with the class.

"Why isn't he waking up?" – she asked.

"His system is trying to fight the magic of the Box and that's exhausting him. He will wake up eventually." – Regina said looking down at him.

"So his magic is not blocked?" – Emma was confused.

"He doesn't have magic." – Regina said matter-of-factly, but Emma didn't believe a word of it.

"Now that's bullshit. I have seen him use magic."

"When Miss Swan? When have you ever seen him use magic?"

"When he extinguished your fireball that night in your backyard…" – Emma saw Regina's look of guilt when she said that – "We were both out of line Regina." – she reasoned quietly thinking about that night – "And… and I saw him use magic that night after the Welcome Back Party."

Regina eyes shot open when she heard Emma.

"You…" – she cleared her thought and continued – "You came for me that night?" – Regina asked quietly. She knew that Emma felt something for her, that she cared for her, but she wasn't used to the feeling. The feeling that it mattered to someone whether you live or you die, whether you would be alright or no, whether you would get hurt or not, so every time someone showed her that she mattered, that they cared for her, she was caught by surprise.

"Yes." – Emma breathed out – "When Mr. Gold told me that you had absorbed a Death Spell I panicked. I didn't know what it was, but I know that anything with the word death in its name is bad. So I went to your house to see if you were alright and to help any way I can, but you already had someone helping you." – Emma's voice got quieter and quieter with each uttered word until she finally whispered – "I was too late."

Regina knew what Emma was feeling, what she was thinking, what she was trying to say with that last sentence. Emma thought that she had lost her chance with her the moment that Brad had stepped into the picture and she was wrong. They had lost their chance the moment they had made that unspoken agreement not to talk about their kiss, to continue like nothing happened. Regina had wanted to say something back then, she really had, but she had been afraid that they would lose what they had had if she did. They had lost it because they didn't say anything and now they were back to being Madame Mayor and Sheriff Swan to each other. They had lost their chance and now it was too late.

"That wasn't him using magic." – Regina got back to the topic that they were discussing – "That was him destroying it." – she said and Emma gave her a questioning look.

"He is immune to magic…" – she started to explain – "…any magic that touches him is destroyed. Pandora's Box is filled with the strongest, darkest magic known in all the realms and his body is trying to destroy it. So eventually his immune system will weaken and it will stop trying to destroy it and then he will wake up."

"Who is he?" – Emma asked – "Nobody in town knows anything about him. Nobody except you and Rumpelstiltskin. Who is he?" – she repeated – "Where is he from? I gather he is not from the Enchanted Forest, because nobody knows about him."

"No, he is not from the Enchanted Forest."

"So who is he Regina?" – Emma insisted.

"His story is his to tell." – Regina said. She knew how it felt like to have your story be told by others and she would not do that to anyone, especially not to Brad.

Regina waited for Emma to say something, but she was quiet. She had a distant look in her face.

"Emma…?"

"Hey guys." – Emma said with a smile and Regina's heart sank.

"It has started."

Emma greeted her parents as she closed the door to her former apartment. She started to take her jacket off, but stopped when she heard no one responding. She turned around to find both of them seated on the dinner table with their hands clasped in front of them.

"Mom? Dad?" – she asked when she saw the hard look on their faces.

"Do not call us that." – her father said darkly.

"What? Why?" – she asked walking closer to them – "I thought you guys loved it when I called you that. What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" – her father gave her a hard look – "You're wrong."

"Dad?" – she asked hurt by her father words.

"I told you not to call me that!" – David screamed standing up from where he was seated on the table – "You're not my daughter! You will never be my daughter! I was right when I sent you through that tree."

"What have I done?" – she asked her voice wavering by the tears in her eyes – "Why are acting like this?"

"What have you done?" – her mother finally spoke up – "You were born." – she bit out bitterly – "I'm ashamed to have given birth to you."

"This isn't you guys. You must be under some spell." – she said quietly. Her parents would never say things like that. They must have been put under some spell or curse, but cursed or not the things they were saying hurt, they hurt like hell. She used her magic to check for any spells or curses, but she found none, and that hurt even more. The things that they were saying were not caused by anything, it was how they felt.

"I wish I was under some spell." – her mother said – "I wish I was still cursed. I wish you never came to town to break the curse, I wish I never met you."

"Under the curse we would've been apart, but at least we would never have known that you are our… daughter." – David said that last word like it hurt him. He said it with so much hate that Emma couldn't handle it anymore. She wanted to turn around and leave but she couldn't, something would not let her. She wanted to know how her parents really felt about her, but at the same time she didn't. She wanted to run, but she also wanted to stay, she wanted to scream, but she also wanted to let them go on and say what they wanted to say.

"You are nothing."

"You are no one."

"Stop, please." – Emma pleaded. She couldn't take it anymore.

"You are such a disappointment!"

"You are a disgrace!"

"Stop! I'm begging you!"

"I can't believe you're ours!"

"You are the biggest mistake we've ever made!"

"STOP!"

Regina was kneeling in front of Emma trying to shake her out of her vision. She knew it was to no avail, the Box would wake Emma up when it felt it was enough, but she just couldn't keep watching and do nothing while Emma was crying, screaming, begging her parents to stop.

"Emma, come on, wake up." – Regina kept shaking her. She felt powerless and afraid. Powerless because she couldn't do anything to help Emma and afraid because she couldn't imagine what the box had in store for her, it certainly had a lot of memories and fears to choose from. She had never seen Emma like this, this hurt, this broken and Emma was one of the strongest people she had ever met in her life.

"Stop." – Emma whimpered quietly, painfully – "Just stop."

Regina's eyes filled with tears. There was so much pain, so much despair in Emma's voice. – "Emma…" – Regina stopped shaking her and just took her hand. There was nothing she could do.

Emma was leaning against her car, waiting for Henry's classes to end so she could surprise him and take him out for an ice cream and maybe a walk in the park. The school bell rang and the kids started to run out of the front door looking like they were finally escaping after years of imprisonment and torture. She laughed when she remembered that she felt exactly the same way when she was their age. She looked for Henry and waved him over when she finally saw him. He gave her a strange look when he saw her and walked over to her.

"What are you doing here?" – Henry asked her with a serious look on his face. It was strange but she shook it off and blamed it on his teenage hormones.

"I thought maybe we could go and grab an ice cream." – she smiled at him.

"Why would I want to do that?" – he asked, now frowning.

"You don't want an ice cream? Ok, how about a hot cocoa, hm?"

"You still don't get it do you?" – he said – "I don't want to spent time with you. You gave me up. You. And when you did that you gave up your rights to be my mother. You're angry at your parents for giving you up, but you did the same thing to me, you left me. I was just a baby and you left me. You didn't even want to look at me."

Emma couldn't speak, couldn't think, she could just feel little pieces of her heart being torn out by each word Henry uttered. She wasn't angry, she couldn't be angry when he was telling the truth. She had left him. She had left him in order to give him his best chance, but she did leave him. She had left him.

"You are not my mother." – Henry kept going – "You will never be my mother. I have a mother."

"Henry I'm sorry." – she whispered.

"You should be. GET OUT OF MY LIFE!" – he screamed and walked away.

Emma's heart burned, she felt sick, her legs gave out and she fell down on her knees while constantly repeating – "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Regina had given up trying to wake Emma out of her vision and was just kneeling in front of her holding her hands. She knew that this vision had been excruciatingly hard on Emma because it had been about Henry. She couldn't even imagine what was going on in the vision, but she knew that in the matter of moments it turned from Emma inviting Henry for ice cream to her repeating that she was sorry. This vision had Emma in agony. Regina knew this just by looking into her eyes.

"I'm sorry." – Emma repeated for two more times and then she woke up. She just stared blankly at Regina for a moment and then suddenly broke. She started crying like a child, she whimpered, she sobbed, she cursed and she screamed.

"It's not real." – Regina tried to comfort her – "It's not real." – she said again. It pained her to see Emma like this, it hurt to see her so crushed.

Regina didn't know what to do, so much time had passed since she had comforted anyone but Henry that she had forgotten how to. She had become so good at hurting people and she had forgotten how to make them feel better. In that moment she realized that she really was the monster that everyone thought she was.

Emma felt broken, desperate. Never in her life had she been so heartbroken, never had she felt such torment.

"It's not real." – Regina said to her again, but it had felt so real. Like Regina had said before, she had been living those moments, she had not just been seeing them.

"Fucking box." – Emma cursed and gripped Regina's hands tighter.