❃
|The Labyrinth|
❃

Regina wasn't sure how long it had been since they started walking through the Labyrinth again, but she was sure that they weren't getting anywhere. Eventually, the group stopped for the night. Regina still wasn't talking very much, and when she did, it was only to Henry.

But after they picked a room to stop in, Regina spoke to Cora and Gold, "What happened to him?"

Cora and Gold looked at each other, silently debating whether they should tell Regina the truth or not.

"What happened to Robin?" Regina repeated. "I deserve to know. I'm the closest thing to family he has left over age seven."

"He's gone forever," Cora answered. "If a living person dies in the Underworld, that's the end of the line for them. ...I'm sorry."

Regina just nodded a little bit. She didn't look as if the news surprised her. She sat down, laid her sword down beside her, and went back to being silent, the night Robin had died playing over and over in her mind.

Everyone was almost asleep when someone burst into the room, locking the door behind him or her. No one could see who it was until the person shined a flashlight at the group. "Henry? Dad?"

❃
|The Enchanted Forest, Long Ago|
❃

Cora was absolutely, definitely, 300%  not going to let the Dark One ruin her climb to power. No one was going to stop her this time. So if King Xavier wanted her to cut off her relationship with the imp, she would. She would do it so she could get power, no matter how hard it was.

So Cora summoned him and was ready to tell him to leave until his lips met hers and everything went downhill from there. She wasn't strong enough to say goodbye on her own. She needed magical help of some sort.

Cora's search for a magical solution to her problem always seemed to point her to one answer. To remove her own heart. Cora knew plenty of magic and had ripped the heart out of animals and the occasional person before. But ripping her own heart out? That thought had never occurred to the sorceress. And she really didn't like the sound of it.

But ripping her own heart out was the only solution Cora could find, and it might make things a bit less painful than if she were to end things with Rumple with her heart still in her chest. However, living without a heart didn't seem enjoyable.

And so Cora came to a decision. She would remove her heart only temporarily. Just long enough to say goodbye to Rumple and perhaps for the few days after that. And once she was okay again, her heart would go back into her chest and Cora would move on with Prince Henry.

Well, that had been the plan. Until Cora discovered something that flipped the plan on its head.

She was pregnant.

❃
|The Labyrinth, Present Day|
❃

After a lot of hugging and a little bit of crying and several hours worth of catching up, the shock of seeing Neal again was over. Henry had been the first to react, running over to his dad and flinging his arms around him. Then, Gold got over his shock and hugged his late son as well.

After reuniting with Neal, Regina took it upon herself to make everyone get some sleep. They still needed to find a way out of the endless maze and they couldn't do that while half asleep. And though Regina had been the one who got everyone else to agree sleep was a good idea, she could hardly even close her eyes herself. Every time she did, she either saw Robin falling to his death or bleeding out in Camelot or being dragged away by the fury for the first time back in the Overworld.

Neal noticed Regina was acting strange. He had died before everyone truly saw her as a hero, but since Emma, Mary Margaret, David, and Henry had no doubt she was on the right path while they were in Neverland, Neal had tried his best to make himself believe it as well. But in Neverland, during the Missing Year, and even in back Storybrooke right before Neal had died, Regina was always ready to make the absolute most sarcastic comment she could and the tone of her voice was full of sass at least fifty percent of the time. And when it wasn't, it still was the regal voice of a Queen. But now...now she just sounded weary.

Neal sat down next to her while everyone else slept. "Is something wrong?"

Regina simply shrugged, which was unlike the Regina Neal had known before he died, even if he hadn't known her very well.

"I don't plan on telling anyone. I mean, I'm dead, anyways."

"Everyone here already knows."

Neal frowned. So whatever was causing Regina to not act like herself had happened recently? Because Cora died before Neal, but if she was included in the 'everyone here,' then she already knew.

"I don't know."

Regina almost snapped at him, telling him it was too long of a story and that he needed sleep. But how could she tell someone to sleep when she couldn't bring herself to rest? And out of all the people in the group, Neal was the one Regina would be most willing to spill everything out to. Not that that was saying much because Gold and Cora were not very trustworthy people and Regina didn't want Henry suffering anything he didn't have to.

"You remember Robin Hood, right?"

Neal nodded. "Yes. He, Mulan, and his merry men helped me get to Neverland."

"He...he was carried off by a fury and we set off to rescue him, but I couldn't save him. He..." Regina stopped for a minute, choking back a sob, "he's gone."

Neal almost asked why she would care about that, but he didn't want to sound rude. When Neal died, the two were pretending to loathe each other, but rumors were spreading that Mary Margaret had made a bet with Tinker Bell about when they would first kiss. So obviously either the first kiss had happened and they were in a relationship or the first kiss hadn't happened and Regina was now regretting every chance she hadn't taken.

"I'm sorry. I'm sure it sounds empty, but I am sorry."

Regina stayed silent for several minutes. Finally, she spoke in a quiet voice. "Is it true that if you die for the first time while in the Underworld, that's it for you?"

Neal wanted to give Regina some sort of hope, but he couldn't. "That's what everyone says. Why don't you try to get some sleep?" Neal stood up and walked away without waiting for a response. In a few minutes, he was sleeping as soundly as the others.

But Regina was still awake, staring into the dark room, unable to close her eyes without seeing Robin dying or leaving her or both.

Several hours later, when everyone was waking up and preparing for another day of walking, Cora and Gold were talking harshly to each other in whispers. Neal, Henry, and Regina (who had managed to fall half asleep for maybe an hour) glanced at each other, unsure of what was going on. They could only catch bits of the conversation here and there;

"...tell you sooner..."

"...need to know..."

"...already hurting..."

"...maybe you should have..."

"...didn't want to..."

"..who cares if you wanted to..."

Gold's voice grew a bit louder and the three could make out a full sentence this time. "They deserve to know, Cora!"

Cora's voice raised with Gold's. "Not now! They're already going through too much!"

"You can't just lie to them! They deserve to know, just like I did."

"Deserve to know what?" Henry asked. Both Gold and Cora turned and faced Henry, Neal, and Regina, seeming to only just realize they had been eavesdropping.

Gold looked at Cora. "Are you going to tell them?"

Cora threw a death glare in Gold's direction before she focused on Regina. "Regina, dear... I- You're going to hate me after this, but there's something I need to tell you..."

❃
|The Enchanted Forest|
❃

Cora didn't know how her trick had been successful this time, but it was. Henry thought the child was his and Cora gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who was thought to be royalty. A few days after her birth, a ceremony was held so Cora could announce the name of the baby to the kingdom.

"Her name is Regina, for one day, she shall be Queen."

And Regina grew up believing she was the daughter of Cora and Henry. Cora couldn't tell anyone about Regina's true father. It was the secret she would take to her grave.

Even after Regina's birth, though, Cora kept her heart safely locked away. If she ever returned it to its rightful place in her chest, Cora would surely go to Rumple and beg for him to take her back and after that, it would only be a matter of time before she spilled that Regina was actually his daughter. And once he found out Regina was his daughter, he would realize that his contract still stood. Regina was his to do whatever he wanted with.

But Cora was woman of her word, so she allowed Rumple to train Regina in the art of dark magic, but never told him that Regina was his. At least not for over sixty years after she was born.

❃
|The Labyrinth|
❃

"WHAT?!" Regina demanded. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"

"Because I..."

"Never mind," Regina cut her mother off. "You'll probably just lie about the answer anyways. Just like you've lied about everything else. It's no wonder I turned evil and can't hold onto anyone who dares love me. I was brought up by lies and born of the two darkest beings in the entire realm! Next time, a little heads up would be nice. Just so I could prepare for the nightmares I would have to live through."

"Regina--"

She turned away from her mother, picked up her sword, and walked out of the room they were in. Cora tried to stop her, but Henry grabbed her sleeve. Cora looked to him, and he said the one thing that could hurt Cora more than what Regina had already said and done.

"She was beginning to have hope in you again, and now you've ruined it."

With that, Henry and Neal followed Regina out of the room and Gold and Cora had no choice but to trail behind them.