Daughter of Darkness || Once Upon a Time

Chapter Thirteen | The Problem With Portals

Dorothy frowned. "No. I thought it would be that easy - it would under normal circumstances - but Hades must have done something to cause your friends to not be able to leave the Underworld. And that means no one here can get into the Underworld, even if we die. So he must have sealed it off after Zelena died."

"So we can't get to them?" Belle asked, her heart dropping.

"That's not what I said," Dorothy's words lifted Belle's spirit a bit. There was still some way she could see Rumple again. "We can open a portal to the Underworld on the night of a New Moon. We'll still need this potion and Maleficent's blood to complete it, but we won't be able to use the potion until another New Moon occurs."

"That's nearly two weeks away!" Belle cried.

"It's our only shot at getting down there," Dorothy said. Once we're down there, it might be possible to get Hades to reconnect the land of the living and the land of the dead. If not, it will take another New Moon to open a portal."

As badly as Belle wanted to see Rumple again, she knew she had no choice but to wait. "Okay. So if we make the potion now, we'll have it when the New Moon comes again, right?"

Dorothy nodded. "Yes. And until we open a temporary portal, no one will be able to die. Hades must be dedicated to keeping Rumplestiltskin and the others safely locked in the Underworld if he's risking letting this world overpopulate. Or maybe he just plans to kill everyone down there that is still alive and then he'll reconnect the two worlds."

"Is this the part where I finally come in?" Maleficent raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. I just need a few drops of blood, so the cut doesn't have to be too deep."

Maleficent extended her hand towards Dorothy, who sliced a knife against her palm. Maleficent winced slightly when the blade pierced her skin, but that was it. Dorothy held the knife over the cauldron that had nearly foamed over and let the blood on the knife drip in while Belle wrapped a bandage around Maleficent's hand. She was quite glad she hadn't been feeling nauseous because she definitely would have puked at the sight of blood if she had been.

After the blood was added to the potion, Dorothy deemed it finished and poured the liquid into several different vials. and placed them up where no one would think to look for them.

"Now we wait until the next New Moon."

Maleficent turned to Belle. "I assume our deal still stands? Since you can't journey to the Underworld for awhile, perhaps you should do what I requested before that baby of yours grows too big?"

Belle hadn't told Maleficent about the baby, but Maleficent had been pregnant before, so she obviously knew what it was like.

"What did you tell her you'd do?" Dorothy asked Belle. "Going to the Underworld is dangerous, there's no need to put both yourself and your baby in more trouble than what you need to!"

"I can make decisions for myself, thank you very much." Belle turned to Maleficent, "I will go to New York and find Lily. But I only have enough transformation dust for one other person to go with me. Which means either someone goes with me or Lily can't leave Storybrooke until Emma's curse is broken."

"I can't go with you," Maleficent replied. "If I leave town, the magic keeping me alive won't exist any longer, and I'll die again."

Belle nodded. "Okay. I'll leave for Neal's apartment tomorrow morning."

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|New York City|
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Lily had started drinking way too much Starbucks since she had left Storybrooke, but she couldn't really stop herself at this point. And since the air had begun to grow colder, Lily was trading her daily frappacino in for a warm cup of coffee or hot chocolate.