The In Between. Resurrected.
Soā¦ this story has been a long time coming. Like, āfirst-drafted-it-in-2013-and-then-stared-at-it-for-ten-years-like-it-wronged-me-in-another-lifeā and "I-used-to-go-by-OutlawQueenLuvr-but-now-I-go-by-BelleoftheBallpoint" long.
Back then, I started writing this during peak OUAT obsession, right after Season 3A aired, when the āMissing Yearā arc had so much untapped potential. I posted it exclusively on ff.net. I had a vision: Regina, grief-stricken, angry, trying to lead a kingdom she didnāt ask for through the Missing Year while she slow-burn falls in love with Robin Hood. At the time, I started writing it with a friend, but somewhere between work, life, a dozen half-finished Google Docs, and deciding to rewrite the story from the beginning on my own, the story got buried.
But it never really let me go.
Now, after years of rewriting (and re-rewriting), Iām finally ready to finish this beast. Itās dark, emotional, full of magic and monsters and messy feelings just like Regina. If youāre reading this, whether youāve been here since the start or just stumbled in now, thank you. Iām so excited (and a little terrified) to bring you with me on this journey.
Original 2013 summary: Regina groans, pushing herself off the ground. Tiny cuts on her palms sting, mud stains the cream night gown she wasn't very fond of anyway. Leaves and twigs embed in her hair. She's stuck, somewhere in the in between, without her Henry, without her everything. Grief and sorrow call all her attention, and she doesn't see the hooded man stalking her from the trees.
If you're joining for the rewrite? 2025 summary: The Curse is broken, and Regina Mills has been dragged back to the Enchanted Forest, a realm that remembers everything she tried to forget. Trapped with Snow, David, and the remnants of their kingdom, Regina must lead a fractured people through the heart of a haunted land. As old enemies stir and the land itself turns hostile, Regina must reckon with the person she used to be, the mother she longs to become again, and the terrifying possibility that she may not survive the journey home. But the forest isn't the only thing that sees her clearly, and sometimes, the way back isn't about magic. It's about the people who choose to walk beside you.
:.:
The In Between, Chapter 1
The trees breathed around Regina, tall, silent things that blotted out the sun. Damp earth clung to her boots. A root jutted from the forest floor, nearly tripping her as she walked, but she didnāt curse or scowl like she once would have. She only blinked down at it, eyes tracing the splintered bark, the moss curling like veins across its surface. Her hands twitched, but not from the cold.
Somewhere in the distance, a raven called out once, then went quiet.
She pressed her palms together, fingers curling inward, trying to remember the shape of it. Not the magic, sheād never forgotten the feel of that, but the other thing... the weightless relief, the rush of it.
Sheād been nineteen, maybe twenty. Ruth had sliced her hand wide open on a chipped basin in the servantsā quarters. Blood had spilled fast, too fast, soaking the apron at her waist. Ruth looked up at her with those round, fearful eyes. She wasn't supposed to be in the servants' quarters; Mother would punish her if she found out. She should have fled, but instead, Regina, foolish, trembling Regina, had reached out.
She didnāt think, sheĀ felt, and the magic, for once, didnāt burn. ItĀ warmedĀ and threaded itself through the air, through her fingers, through Ruthās skin, knitting it closed like a promise. Ruth had cried. Regina had smiled. It had felt like salvation. Sheād told herself that day meant something. That it proved she could be more than her mother, more than fear, more than fury, but that was before. Before grief nested in her ribs, and before she started flinching at her own reflection.
Wind moved through the trees, sharp and sudden, slicing across her face like a warning and bringing her back to the present. Regina didnāt flinch. She just let it pass. The forest didnāt care who she used to be. It reached for her regardless. Thorny branches tugged at her sleeves like fingers aching to tear. The air reeked of damp earth, rot, and something older and buried. She walked ahead anyway.
A branch snapped under someoneās foot behind her. āWait up!ā Snowās voice, breathless, too hopeful, cut through the hush like sunlight where it didnāt belong.
āThis isnāt the part of the forest I remember,ā David muttered. āWeāre too far west.ā
Regina bit her tongue before she could say something cutting. Too far west, too far east, what did it matter? It all looked the same now. The same gnarled trees, the same choked underbrush, the same haunted ache in her chest. They passed a hollow log, collapsed and slick with fungus. Something skittered inside.
Snow jogged to catch up, her steps crunching dead leaves. āWeāll find shelter soon. Maybe near the riverbend?ā
Regina didnāt answer. Her gaze drifted to a knot of trees twisted so tightly together they looked like they were strangling each other. She could still see the blood on the bark, memory or imagination, she didnāt know anymore. Once, Cora had brought her here to learn how to make a heart stop with just a look. Once, she had begged not to try.
āRegina?ā She blinked. Snow was beside her now, close enough to touch. āYou okay?ā
A ridiculous question. Regina turned away. āWe should keep moving. You said the sun would set early.ā
Snow hesitated, then nodded. David pulled ahead to scout the incline, and Snow lingered for just a second longer before following.
Regina exhaled slowly. Magic prickled at her fingertips, subtle and sharp like static caught beneath her skin. She didnāt release it. Not yet.
Everything here remembered her, and she remembered it right back.
Continuing reading on AO3.
