❃
|An Hour Earlier|
❃
Henry groggily walked down the stairs to find Robin holding Megan in order to keep her from crying and waking Roland up.
"Where's Mom?" Henry asked.
"At the hospital with Belle," Robin answered. "She left a couple hours after midnight."
"So what's for breakfast? Granny's?"
Robin shrugged. "If you want, but Regina said you could make hot cocoa if she wasn't back."
That seemed to wake Henry up. "Really?" Robin nodded. "Awesome! Do you want a cup? We have marshmallows and cinnamon to go in it."
Henry was about to rush off to the kitchen when the doorbell rang. Robin stood up, but Henry interrupted him. "I got it." He opened the door, expecting to see either Regina or one of the Charmings. Instead, Dorothy was standing there with her sword pointed at him. "Where is Megan at?"
Henry would have shut the door if Dorothy hadn't stepped inside, causing him to back up further into the house. "Robin, take Meg out the back door!" Henry shouted.
"NO!" Dorothy slashed Henry's arm, putting a gash in it and Henry dropped to the ground in pain.
"ROBIN, RUN!" He shouted, hoping Robin would take his advice.
Dorothy ran past Henry and into the living room, but Robin was gone. She searched the entire lower level of the house, but he and Megan were nowhere to be found. Dorothy was about ready to leave when Roland emerged from upstairs. "Henry?"
Dorothy grinned. "Perfect." In a flash, her sword was at Roland's throat and Henry could only watch. "Tell me where Robin took Megan and I'll let him go."
"Henry!" Roland cried.
"I don't know!" Henry answered truthfully. "Probably wherever my mom is!"
"And where would that be?"
If it had been his own life hanging in the balance, Henry might have lied. But he didn't want Roland getting hurt, so he gave in and told Dorothy the truth. "The hospital."
"See? That wasn't so hard." She lowered her sword and Roland ran down to where Henry was. Dorothy left the house to go find Robin and Megan, who would hopefully be at the hospital.
Henry stood up and Roland watched as he stumbled to the bathroom, searching for Regina's first aid kit. He wrapped gauze tightly around the wound from Dorothy's sword. It would probably need either stitches or magic, but that wasn't top priority.
"Roland, I'm going to need you to stay with a friend, okay?"
Roland nodded. While he was searching for gauze, Henry had texted Violet, asking her to watch Roland. She was at the door by the time Henry was done wrapping his wound.
"What's going on?" She asked as Henry ushered her inside.
"I don't know," he answered truthfully, "but Dorothy's back from the Underworld and she wants my sister."
"Henry, you're hurt."
"I know," Henry was halfway out the door at this point. "That's why I'm going to the hospital. I'll be back as soon as I can, okay?"
Violet nodded. "Okay."
❃
A few minutes after Henry left, there was a knock on the door. Violet froze before stepping in front of Roland, not about to go open the door.
"I'll knock this door down if you don't open up!" A man's voice shouted.
Violet turned back to look at Roland and pressed a finger to her lips. He nodded and Violet led him to the back door, letting him out first.
As the door crashed in, Violet followed Roland outside and shut the door behind her. She whispered for him to run and Roland took off, Violet right behind him.
"I AM HADES, LORD OF THE UNDERWORLD!" The man bellowed from inside Regina's house. "I WILL FIND YOU!"
❃
Dorothy intercepted Henry on his way to the hospital and he stopped short. "What--?"
"He's not there." Dorothy drew her sword and held it out at Henry. "Find out where he is."
"How?"
"Use your phone. I know you brought it with you."
Henry reluctantly pulled out his phone and texted Robin.
Where are you?
The reply was almost immediate.
The vault
"He's in my mom's vault," Henry answered. As he was talking to Dorothy, he sent a one-word message to Robin;
Run
Dorothy nodded. "Okay. And you're going to come with me in case he's not."
❃
|Fifty Minutes Later|
❃
Zelena plunged her hand into Regina's chest and pulled out her darkened heart. "Oh, how I've missed holding this. Too bad you wasted protecting your heart from being ripped out on someone else."
At that moment, Robin, Violet, and Roland burst into the room, Megan in Robin's arms. Zelena turned to face them. "Oh, I'm so scared of two kids and a man with a baby in his arms." She froze them in place as well and turned to Arthur. "Get Belle's baby and I'll get someone's courage." She walked over to Violet.
"You look terrible, dear, have you been running? Oh! Let me guess, you were protecting Roland. Because why would you be with these idiots unless your boyfriend needed your help watching his baby brother? I must say, that takes real bravery. Or should I say..."
"No," Regina muttered.
"...Courage?" Zelena used her magic to suck a deep purple substance from Violet's body and trap it in a jar. "Mmm, fresh courage. This will work much better than David's from last time. Now let's see...heart, courage, brains, oh! Of course. Arthur, dear, grab the baby."
"I'll let you have her if I can have yours." Hades appeared next to the bed Belle was laying in. "I think that's a fair trade."
"What are you doing here? Trying to win my heart again?" Zelena sneered. "Look, living boyfriend," she pointed at Arthur, who seemed shocked to be referred to as Zelena's 'living boyfriend'.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I noticed. Which is why I'm here. So go ahead, take Belle's baby and see what I do."
"Oh I think I will." Zelena handed Regina's heart and Violet's courage to Arthur and picked Baby Gold up out of Belle's arms. She turned back to Arthur. "Let's go." When they disappeared in a cloud of green smoke, everyone unfroze.
"NO!" Belle cried.
"We'll get her back," Emma assured her. "Right, Regina?"
"Oh yeah."
Hades walked towards Robin. "So sorry, but I'm going to be needing her."
"Not a chance," Regina blasted magic towards Hades. "I won't let you take her."
Hades turned to face Regina. "But wouldn't it be so much easier? You don't even want her, do you? Part of you wants to let me take her and not care what happens. After all, a child that is purely yours would be worth so much more, wouldn't it?"
"NO!" Regina shouted and another blast of magic shot towards Hades even though Regina didn't summon it.
"Get your emotions under control," she heard Merlin's voice warn her, but Regina was too enraged to listen to him.
"Meg is just as valid as any of the rest of us! I know what it's like to be defined my who my mother is, and I am not about to let that happen to Meg. If you want to get to her, you're going to have to go through me!"
"Regina!" Emma forced the Sorceress to tear her focus away from Hades. "Get your emotions in check!" Regina took a deep breath and realized that the lights in the hospital room had begun to flicker.
"Get out of here," she growled at Hades. He did as he was told and vanished in a cloud of smoke. "Come on, Emma, we have a baby to save. Gold, put up a protection spell in case Hades comes back after Meg."
Emma followed Regina out of the room and Gold put up a protection spell after they were gone, hoping Zelena wouldn't summon him and take him away from Belle.
❃
Zelena placed Baby Gold on the westernmost plate before taking the rest of the ingredients from Arthur one by one, placing each in the place where it was supposed to go.
"Since when am I your boyfriend?" Arthur asked.
"Can we focus on something else? Like opening the portal?"
"Just wondering."
Zelena sighed and turned to face the former King of Camelot. "I told Hades I had a boyfriend so he would quit trying to get with me. It was just a lie because he was being so annoying."
"It doesn't have to be just a lie."
Before either of them knew what was happening, Zelena had pulled Arthur into a kiss. When Zelena pulled back, she mumbled, "Right. Back to making the portal..."
❃
|The Hospital|
❃
Mary Margaret was comforting Belle, telling her to trust that Regina and Emma would get her newborn daughter back just like they rescued baby Neal. Belle nodded halfheartedly, not really comprehending what Mary Margaret was saying.
"So do you have a name picked out?"
"Dunno," Belle muttered.
"Have you narrowed it down to a few different names?"
"Dunno."
"Do you think you could try and get some sleep?"
"Dunno."
Mary Margaret opened her mouth to ask another question, but was interrupted by Dorothy knocking the door down. "Hello." She pushed Henry in the room in front of her. His sword wound had bled through the gauze and he had several other scratches on his face and arms.
"Henry!" Mary Margaret gasped and rushed over to him, but Dorothy stepped in front of him and held her sword out. "If you don't let me have Megan, Henry will die. So it's time for you all to decide; is Henry or Megan more valuable? The son of the savior or the daughter of the Wicked Witch?"
❃
Emma and Regina knew Zelena wouldn't try to find a new place to open her time portal, so their biggest problem was getting there fast enough.
When they arrived, Zelena was opening the time portal. The tell-tale yellow light was shining up from the ground, illuminating the cold early morning air.
"STOP!" Regina shouted. Zelena and Arthur both spun around to see Emma and Regina ready to fight for Baby Gold. Arthur drew his sword.
"And why would I stop?" Zelena asked innocently.
"Because you remember what happened last time," Emma said. "We beat you and Regina changed right in front of your eyes.
Zelena laughed. "You think you beat me last time? My original plan may have failed, but I won. I have a child who is waiting for me through that portal and I will get her."
"I will not let you hurt Meg," Regina summoned a ball of magic. "You've spent all this time trying to win her over or steal her from Robin and I because you think we don't want you to have anything to do with her. But Zelena, we're just trying to give Meg her best chance! She was screwed over before she was ever born and that's not fair for her! If we could trust you, we would let you be a part of her life."
Zelena laughed. "You think you're so special just because you're raising children that aren't biologically yours. Well you're wrong about one thing! Meg's best chance is with me! She is my daughter, not yours! I went through the pain of childbirth, not you or Robin!"
"Zelena--"
"NO! I don't CARE what hope speech you want to give me! I am going to get Meg for my own and you cannot stop me!"
"Go?" Emma turned to Regina.
Regina nodded, defeated. "Go."
❃
|The Hospital|
❃
"Henry..." Mary Margaret muttered.
Henry shook his head, "Don't save me, save Meg. I'll be fine in the Underworld; my dad is still there. Whatever Dorothy has planned for Meg is worse than death."
"No! We won't let you die!" Belle shouted. "Rumple, take Meg."
"But Zelena--"
"Just take her."
Robin hesitantly handed his daughter over to the Dark One and Gold vanished. Dorothy was ready to kill Henry, but Robin tackled her and pinned her hands to the ground. "If you want some advice, I'd suggest you don't threaten someone related to half of the town."
"HADES!" Dorothy shouted. The god materialized in the hospital room. "Gold has her."
Hades nodded and vanished. Henry grabbed the sword from Dorothy and turned to Robin. "Go after her," he handed him the sword.
Robin took the sword, thanked Henry, and rushed off.
Mary Margaret walked over to Dorothy. "What do you and Hades have planned?"
"Revenge."
Mary Margaret was about to reply, but Belle cut her off. "Why would you do that?"
Dorothy looked over to the woman lying in the hospital bed. "Belle, I swear--"
"Meg is nine months old! She wasn't even supposed to be born until two months ago! Wasn't killing Zelena revenge enough? Is it really worth it to not only hurt one innocent child, but also take mine away from me?"
Dorothy just stared at Belle. "I... I don't know. Hades just made revenge sound so good... Belle, you're right. What have I done?!"
"It's not too late to change," Belle said. "Hades still thinks you're on his side, you can still save Meg."
Dorothy nodded. "You're right. I'm sorry, I'll try to fix this."
❃
Emma charged at Zelena so Regina could both take on Arthur and rescue Baby Gold. Emma's light magic was a fair match to Zelena's dark magic and Regina had to be careful to avoid deflected blasts of magic. She knocked Arthur to the ground and ran over to the crying baby that was lying on the ground.
She picked her up and turned to see Arthur coming at her, sword in hand. She tried to blast him back, but the magic she summoned only tossed him to the side.
"Emotions!" Merlin warned.
Regina took a deep breath and focused on what she needed to get done. She knocked Arthur to the ground and looked over at Emma and Zelena, who were still engaged in a battle of magic. Regina was about to join the fight when Hades appeared next to Robin, who was holding Meg.
❃
Robin found Gold holding Meg in his shop. When Gold looked up and saw that it was Robin who had entered, he relaxed. "What happened?"
"Mary Margaret texted me on the way here. Apparently Belle talked some sense into Dorothy and she's on our side now."
"What about Hades and Zelena?"
"Hades knows you have Meg, so I'll take her somewhere else. When he finds out you don't have her, he should leave you alone. And obviously Regina and Emma went after Zelena and Arthur."
Gold handed Robin's daughter to him and Robin held Meg in one arm and Dorothy's sword in the other. "Go take her somewhere Hades won't expect."
Robin nodded. "That was the plan."
As Robin was on his way to hide with Meg somewhere, Hades appeared in front of him. "Wonderful. I'll take both of you, then."
Before Robin could even comprehend what was happening, a cloud of smoke surrounded both he and Meg.
❃
"Robin?" Regina asked.
"Regina--"
Emma let out an 'oof' as she fell to the ground. When Robin and Hades had appeared, she was distracted enough for Zelena to knock her down.
Regina spun around and blasted Zelena backwards before she could jump into the time portal. Zelena jumped back up, but her attention was drawn away from Regina when Dorothy ran onto the scene.
"Good, you're here," Hades said. Dorothy nodded and stood on the other side of Robin, ready to protect Meg from the god.
"DON'T. TOUCH. HER!" Zelena shouted before lunging at Dorothy.
"I won't." Dorothy took her sword back from Robin and attacked Hades, making him back away from Robin and Meg. Regina used her half-sister's distraction to push her back to the ground. Dorothy's enchanted sword easily deflected Hades' magic and he was beginning to regret allowing her to keep it.
"Dorothy, I thought we were working together?"
"There was one flaw in your plan," Dorothy deflected another shot of magic, "Belle is my friend. And putting her baby in danger made me realize that I was wrong in helping you."
"Curse mortals and their friendships."
Hades finally knocked Dorothy down and Robin was the last defense against Meg left. Regina felt fear rising in her stomach and creating a lump in her throat. No. Hades couldn't hurt Meg. She tried to summon a blast of magic, but with her emotions so mixed up, her magic had all deserted her.
"Don't let fear control you."
But Merlin's advice wasn't going to work now. Regina was already holding Baby Gold in her arms and the fear of her being hurt combined with the fear for Hades hurting Meg was too much.
Arthur and Zelena were both still down. Emma tried to stop Hades as Robin backed away from him, but the Lord of the Underworld easily deflected her magic and grabbed Meg from Robin.
"NO!" Dorothy shouted. She would have tackled Hades, but she didn't want Meg to get hurt, so all she could do was threaten Hades with her sword, but he simply knocked her back down again.
For fear of hurting Meg, no one did anything as Hades walked towards the time portal. Once he had her in his arms, the battle was over.
Hades stood over the time portal and dropped Meg in. He used his magic to seal off the time portal and then vanished.
"NO!" Zelena tried to jump to where the portal had been, but Emma held her back. Dorothy followed Emma's lead and held Robin back as well. Regina just stared at where the time portal had been open moments before.
❃
The hospital room was silent as Regina walked in and handed Belle's daughter back to her. Doctor Whale had taken Henry to a separate wing to get his sword wound stitched up, and Mary Margaret pointed Emma and Regina in that direction. Neither one talked on the way there.
The nurse outside Henry's door didn't dare argue when it came to letting Emma and Regina into the room, so she simply opened the door and told Henry that they were coming in.
"Hey," Henry smiled weakly.
"Henry!" Emma gasped. She and Regina both rushed over him, Meg out of their minds for the moment. They both began launching questions at him, making sure he was okay and asking what had happened. Eventually, Doctor Whale had to force him both out (though it took an awful lot of convincing for him to go against the mothers' wishes) so Henry could get some rest. Belle needed sleep as well, so everyone save Gold, Belle, and Henry gathered in the waiting room.
Robin wasn't speaking to anyone and all Regina could do was hold his hand in hers and mourn with him. "I'm sorry about Meg," she told Robin. "We didn't want to hurt her."
"It's my fault," Dorothy said dejectedly. "If I hadn't teamed up with Hades in the first place... I feel terrible. Honest."
"You were driven by revenge," Regina replied. "I know what that's like."
Robin nodded absentmindedly. "It's Hades' fault, not yours."
"If we could only figure out when she was," Mary Margaret muttered. "If we knew when and where Hades sent her, we could reopen the time portal and go get her. But I don't know any Megans in Disney movies..."
"How do we know her name is even Megan?" Dorothy questioned.
"The blanket Granny made her-- Oh my gosh," Mary Margaret gasped with realization. "Her name wouldn't be Megan, it would be Meg!"
"Well what Disney Meg is there?" Robin asked.
"Henry would know, but we can't talk to him right now," Emma answered.
"We can if we threaten Whale," Regina muttered.
Emma looked over at her friend. "Is is worth it?"
"Yes."
❃
Henry was trying to fall asleep when the door to his hospital room opened again. He was thankful he had an excuse to be awake for another few minutes because he really wasn't tired at all.
"We have a question," Emma began before she was even through the door. "Is there a Meg in any Disney movie?"
Henry nodded, "In Hercules. Megara goes by Meg. Why?"
Emma and Regina's eyes both widened and they looked at each other. "...Megaera?!" they said in unison.