Daughter of Darkness || Once Upon a Time

Chapter Five | Of Locksley

❃
|The Underworld|
❃

Regina, Henry, Cora, and Gold followed the floating pocket knife to the Underworld library. When it hit the elevator door, it dropped. Henry moved to pick it up, but Regina beat him to it. She pocketed the knife and opened the elevator door.

"Apparently there's tunnels underneath the Underworld library too," she ,uttered while giving Henry a look that clearly said he wasn't getting the knife back.

The group rode the elevator down until it stopped at the bottom. Gold was the first out, Regina and Cora followed him, and Henry exited last. They were in a dark cavern and Regina could hear water dripping from somewhere. No one could see and no one had magic that could be used in the Underworld, so the four were stuck in the dark.

Regina took a tentative step forward, not sure what to expect in front of her. Water dripping was the only sound any of them could hear. Regina held her hand out in front of her and felt her hand come in contact with something silky. If she was feeling right, it was some sort of cloaking spell. Regina took another step forwards and stepped through the spell.

Once through, she could see. She was in a dungeon-like hallway with torches hung along the walls for light.

"You guys can come through," Regina called back through the door she had stepped through. However, only Henry stepped through the door.

"Cora and Mr. Gold couldn't get through," Henry explained. "Gold said only those with pure hearts could get through."

Regina shook her head, "That can't be right. Mary Margaret, David, and I encountered a door like that during the Missing Year, and I couldn't get through."

"Were your intentions to, I don't know, kill Zelena?" Henry asked innocently.

Regina looked down. "Maybe."

"And now your intentions are to save Robin, and so are mine. But Cora and Mr. Gold's intentions are probably not just that. ...Or not that at all."

Regina nodded, "That makes sense, I guess."

"So what, we just carry on without them?"

"What else can we do? We have no idea what Gold's true intentions are, and I have a very good guess what my mother's are and they don't make me want to invite her along with us, if there even is a way."

"It might not be like Daniel again," Henry said against his best instincts.

Regina shook her head, "I've given up hope that it won't be like that if my mother's involved."

"You can't give up!" Henry protested. "She's your mom! Back when I was trying to get my other mom to believe, I thought you couldn't love me because you were the Evil Queen and villains are always written as heartless and having no morals. But she was right about one thing; all of us are real people, not perfect heroes and ruthless villains. We're real and we can change and we have regrets and losses, but we also all have feelings and morals and families and we're real. Cora is no more of a ruthless villain than you were, and I believe she could change if she wanted to. You have to believe too."

Regina pulled Henry into a hug. "You really are the Truest Believer."

When she released Henry, she nodded. "You're right. I need to have hope that this time will be different. So let's go save Robin."

❃
|The Enchanted Forest|
❃

A teenage boy ran through the woods, his quiver slung over his back and bow in his hands. He stopped suddenly and looked behind him. "I hear you," he announced.