The Mischievous of Them All {OUAT/Henry Mills} [1]

The Evil Queen

Henry reached up and was fixing his bird feeder while I was up in the tree, putting mine a little higher. I don't know why, but today I just felt like climbing something. My bird feeder was purple and turquoise, my two favorite colors, and it was in the shape of a house. Whenever I fixed it the way I wanted it, I came down a little to one of the last branches and I hung upside down on it. Henry would glance at me every so often and would give me the most curious face which I would respond with a shrug.

"Good morning, Aria and Henry." I heard a voice say. I raised my body up to where I sat on the branch and I jumped down. I looked over to where I heard the voice and saw that is was Regina.

"Um, what are you doing here?" Henry said to the woman, who was coming around the white picked fence.

Regina laughed a little, "I've missed you. And I wanted to show you something," Regina reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a plastic bag with a magic bean inside. My eyes widened in shock. There haven't been any magic beans here before. "Emma and Mary Margaret and David have been keeping this from you, darlings. They've been growing magic beans in secret. They want to take you two to the Enchanted Forest, without me." Regina put on a sad face, but I could see there was something about it that set something off in my mind.

"Maybe we're all going and they just haven't told you yet?" Henry suggested, shrugging.

"No, they won't let me help. They don't see the good in me. The good you've seen. All they see is the Evil Queen, which they made me. And I don't want to be that any more." Regina bent over to look us in the eyes, "This is my chance to go back and start over, for me to be the hero. And you'd like that, right?" Regina asked us.

"W--We'd love it." Henry responded, smiling. I just nodded, not wanting to give a verbal answer. There was something off about this, but what?

"Here's how it will work—there's a fail-safe built into the curse, a trigger." Regina whispered, looking around for people.

"So, It's like a self-destruct button. It will make it like you never did it in the first place?" I asked her.

Regina nodded, "Yes. It's the next best thing to turning back time."

"That's amazing," Henry said, excitedly. My best friend paused for a moment before asking, "What happens to Storybrooke?"

"It disappears. Forever. But no need to worry, dear. We can get away first, back to the Enchanted Forest, using this." Regina said, holding up the bag.

I asked the question nagging me in my mind, "What will happen to everyone else?"

"They die." Regina said with fake sadness.

My eyes widened, along with Henry's, and I started protesting, "We can't just let them die. If we are going then they are going to."

"I don't have any other choice, Aria. As long as there are other people in our lives, you both can never fully be mine. You both loved me once. With them gone, you'll love me again. And you can see me for what I truly am—a hero." Regina said, trying to reason with us.

"Not if you kill everyone. You're a villain!" Henry spat, backing away from her.

"Me? They're the ones that have been keeping us apart, they're the villains!" Regina said.

"How can we ever love anyone who would do such horrible things? Why would you even tell us this?" Henry asked.

"Because I don't have anyone else to talk to." Regina replied.

I crossed my arms and said, "We're going to stop you whether you want us to or not."

Regina reached in her bag and pulled out her spell book, "Everything I just said will come to pass."