Work Text:
🍎🍎🍎
At the center of Storybrooke, the entire group stood tense, facing the Black Fairy. Shadows of fear stretched long across the cobblestones. Even from a distance, the battle seemed hopelessly one-sided.
“Well,” the Black Fairy’s voice slithered through the air like smoke, “this should be enough for an introduction.” Her gaze swept across each of them, sharp and merciless.
A pause. Then she smiled, faintly, wickedly. “Ah, right. One more thing.”
Her eyes locked on Regina. “Since your sister snuff out her magic from the fairy crystals, you will do nicely as a replacement.”
“REGINA!” Emma shouted.
Regina reacted purely on instinct. She shoved Henry backward toward Emma and Hook just as the magic struck her square in the chest.
The spell pierced her heart.
Regina gasped as darkness exploded from the wound like spilled ink. It coiled around her body, thick tendrils of shadow wrapping her arms, her throat, her chest. It crawled across her skin. Into her veins. Into her mind.
Voices erupted around her.
“Regina!” “Mom!” “Hold on!”
But the panic in the voices around her began to fade, muting into a distant echo. The darkness pressed closer, threatening to swallow the last spark of her being. And then, without warning, a burst of white light exploded from her chest.
Time seemed to shatter. Everything froze. The chaos, the fear. Even the darkness clinging to her wavered, loosening slightly. Regina sank to one knee, trembling, her chest still glowing faintly, as if the light itself were fighting to keep her tethered to the world.
And then… a figure appeared before her.
Regina’s breath caught in her throat. She could not—would not—forget the face that stood there, so impossibly familiar.
“Daniel,” she whispered, almost afraid to speak the name.
“Hello there, Princess.” His voice was calm, casual, almost teasing, as he lifted a hand in greeting. A smile touched his lips, warm and steady.
Her heart stuttered. “Why… how… you…” Her words faltered. Trembling, she searched his face, afraid it was an illusion, a trick of the darkness.
“Yes,” he said simply. “It’s me.”
That single confirmation shattered her restraint. Tears streaked down her cheeks, unbidden. Her soul felt raw, ragged, a tempest of emotion she could no longer contain. She wanted to leap into his arms, to hold him, to never let go.
But a glance at her reflection in the sword beside her froze her in place. The woman before him had changed, scarred by choices made in love and in vengeance.
This woman had ruled with fear.
She had destroyed many lives.
She had murdered countless people.
She had become the Evil Queen.
The girl he had known, the innocent princess he had once adored, was gone.
And yet, love surged from her heart anyway. It poured into words, raw and unfiltered.
“Daniel… I…”
She faltered, swallowing the lump in her throat. “Since that day… I’ve done terrible things. Lots of terrible things... I… I hurt so many people.”
He chuckled lightly, a sound that was both gentle and sad. "Yeah. You sure did."
"I… I killed people," she admitted, each word a blade against her own heart.
"I know," he replied simply.
She searched his face, desperate for some sign of anger, disappointment, anything. But he remained calm, patient. The gentle smile still remains.
"Daniel?"
“I'm sorry, Regina,” he said. “You see... There are some things I never told you back then.”
He looked at her with gentle eyes.
“I may be just a stable boy.” He paused. “But I was gifted with something else.”
Regina frowned.
“Foresight.”
Regina blinked, bewildered. “What?”
“When I first saw you, I saw your future,” he said. “I knew… what you would become.”
“I saw the Evil Queen,” he continued softly. “The tyrant. The curse. The hatred. All of it.”
Regina’s chest tightened painfully.
“You really knew…?”
Daniel just nodded.
Her voice cracked. “Then… why didn’t you avoid me? You.. You literally died because of me!”
He smiled faintly, almost rueful. “Curiosity,” he said. “I was curious to see how this lovely, innocent princess would become… a cold, cruel tyrant. So I entered your life even when I'm not supposed to.”
His hand moved slowly, deliberately, and he took hers with a tenderness that made her heart stutter. “And… beyond my control…” His gaze met hers, and for a heartbeat, the world seemed to shrink to nothing but that look. “…I fell in love with you.”
Regina’s throat constricted, a lump forming that made every word she wanted to say dissolve into silence.
“I couldn’t shield you,” he admitted, his voice quiet, almost haunted. “Not from your mother. Not from the Dark One. No matter what I tried… you would still become the Evil Queen. The world would still twist your heart against Snow White. You would still cast the Dark Curse.”
“But I could… give you something else,” he continued, placing his hand over her heart. “A small piece of my own soul. So that no matter how dark you became, there would always be a spark of light within you.”
A shiver ran through her, and her breath caught in her chest. “In a way,” he added, a playful sorrow in his voice, “I became both your curse… and your blessing.”
Tears blurred her vision. “Daniel, I—”
He chuckled softly, a mischievous warmth in his eyes. “You aren’t the only one with a fierce love, my dear. Though I admit… I was a bit jealous to learn I wasn’t your soulmate."
Regina let out a startled laugh through her tears.
“But if that person makes you happy,” he continued, shrugging, “I suppose I can accept it.”
Regina shook her head in disbelief. “You’re unbelievable.”
Daniel grinned.
“Yes,” she whispered back, voice trembling with raw honesty. “I love Robin Hood. And in the future, who knows. I may have fallen for some else again. But you… you were the one I loved the longest. The one I loved until it almost destroyed me. The one I loved first. The one who stayed in my heart, even through the darkness.”
Daniel’s hand cupped her face. He wiped away her tears with the gentlest touch. “You nurtured the light within you,” he said softly, eyes glancing at Henry.
“Messily,” he added with a teasing tilt of his head. He tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, the motion gentle, intimate. “Clumsily.”
“Even when you keep on backtracking... you never stopped trying.”
Their eyes met. His bright blue against her deep brown locked in a shared understanding that words could scarcely convey.
“So this time too…”
He took her hand, holding it firmly.
“…don’t give up.”
“Alright, My Princess?”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. Then, slowly, their lips met. Tender, hesitant, and yet full of the promise of hope. The darkness that had surrounded them melted like morning mist under the sun.
Time began to move again.
“What the bloody hell just happened?” Killian exclaimed.
“That… that was light magic, wasn’t it?” Emma asked, eyes wide.
“Mom! Are you okay?” Henry ran forward, worry etched across his face.
“I-I think so,” Regina said, closing her fists to steady herself. “I think… I’m fine.”
Snow stepped closer. “We should check with the fairies, just in case.”
Regina nodded, letting Emma and David help her to her feet. For a moment, she lingered, lost in thought. Slowly, she opened her hand—and there it was: the ring Daniel had given her long ago, the one she had thought lost forever.
“Mom?” Henry called again.
She slipped it onto her finger, a small smile playing at her lips. “Yeah… I’m coming.”
And with that, she caught up with them, her heart lighter than it had been in years.
🍎🍎🍎