AN: I had this idea fresh in my mind and I had to write this. I really do want to get back to some stories, but in the meantime, I grant you this…


"We've been in this hellhole for hours and still we haven't caught sight of the pirate."

The blonde savior glanced back at the distraught, former queen. She was really being brought down by her sourpuss mood.

"He has to be here, I know it.", the blonde insisted with a lower tone.

The group trudged on through what seemed to be the ruins of their town, but really, it wasn't their town at all. The air was still, the skies were dark and gloomy with red tints lining the clouds. Most of the buildings that once stood where in shambles; the infamous clock tower/ library was crumbled, its pieces littered on the streets. There seemed to be no signs of life-well it was the Underworld's rendition of their small town.

They slowed down when one of them stopped. The impatient and former matriarch crossed her arms and huffed.

"Okay, what now, Gold?", she asked the man in a suit.

The one known as Mr. Gold shook his head with a chuckle. He sat down and rested his hand on his knee.

"Do you really think that wandering here in circles will actually help us find the bastard? Can't exactly say we're actually succeeding around here.", the impish man replied.

Emma, the blonde, was too focused on staring up ahead, just with the glimmering hope that she would see the silhouette of the man she loved.

"What else are we supposed to do? Every time we think we're getting somewhere, one of us gets stuck behind facing a trace of our past and then we're stuck trying to bring that someone out.", Mary Margaret retorted. "It's like we're in an endless cycle of suffering and we're getting nowhere! First, it's Emma when she claimed to have seen and spoken to Graham, then it was Regina seeing her mother in her office, then you, twice, with your father and your son. Who knows who's next?!"

"Well, I say this is a waste of time. He's obviously not here and I'm sick of seeing people we knew and loved in the afterlife.", Regina spat.

Mr. Gold rolled his eyes at this and stood up to the former queen.

"Newsflash: we're in the Underworld, you're bound to see dead people.", he said, arms thrown up in frustration.

Henry got in between his adopted mother and his grandfather.

"Hey, hey, hey, we're trying, okay?", he attempted to calm them down.

Despite Henry's attempts, everyone was still fired up. They completely avoided Henry and proceeded to rant on. The whole group, except for Emma, started bickering and yelling at each other, angry and frustrated about the predicament that they were in. Emma shut her eyes and concentrated, brows furrowing. The incessant yelling in the background annoyed the savior and she seemed to have picked up something.

"Guys! Enough!", Emma shouted. "I smell something...the sea."

Everyone grew silent and stared at Emma with risen brows.

"So what? We do live by the shore.", Regina commented in exasperation.

Emma shook her head and began to say, "What if the shore connects to the cave? When Graham came to me, he told me about a cave...the Cave of the Undead. After we went across the river, Styx, we were taken here. Maybe, Killian is in that cave."

"The cave...you didn't say that Graham told you something about a cave.", Regina ventured.

"The Cave of the Undead...it's the entrance to the Dark Kingdom. Most souls don't venture there unless they mean to consult Hades. Most don't even make it past the gate.", Mr. Gold answered.

The rest of the group looked straight at the Dark One with shared expressions of frustration.

"You seem to know a lot about the Underworld, Rumplestiltskin.", Regina spoke sourly as she approached him. "Why didn't you tell us about the cave before?!"

Just as Regina leered at this character, Robin Hood gently placed his hand on her shoulder, trying to sate her anger. If he wasn't there, she would have wrapped her hands around Mr. Gold's throat and shake him vigorously to get him to spill.

"Because I thought that when we passed the river Styx, we would be at the very entrance itself. When I was here, I was taken by Charon to where all Dark Ones go...Hell. Where we are right now, is a form of Hell, it is not the cage I was in. Like Paradise, or otherwise known as the Elysium Fields, Hell or Inferno has its different forms depending on one's particular idea of where they come from. We've all been through so much in our very own beloved Storybrooke, hence why it is in its hellish form.", Mr. Gold explained.

Emma sighed and looked down.

"So, you don't think Killian is in the cave…"

"No, but I think we should still go there. We're going to have a talk with the Lord of the Undead and find how to get to the cage. Inferno is not the easiest place to trek, especially with the many forms it has. We'll try the shore. If we see the cave, we'll swim to it and hope it isn't a mirage; Inferno is nefarious for its tricks."

For once, the group agreed with Gold, although Emma was the one to have the idea first.

"Alright, let's head to the shore. Let's try and stay together." She then paused and looked at the older man. "What about Cereberus?"

"I think I might have an idea…", Regina chimed in with a growing smirk on her face.


"Some plan, Regina...you almost got killed!", Mary Margaret exclaimed.

Regina rolled her eyes and held on to her wounded side.

"Well, it got us past the gate, didn't it? Now, they're asleep like cute little puppies..or just a puppy, whatever.", she replied with several grunts.

Robin Hood tried tending to her wound.

"Hold still, stop for a moment."

Mr. Gold huffed and looked back at the struggling pair.

"If we keep slowing down, Cereberus might wake and we'll be his dinner."

Mary Margaret gave the born-again Dark one a glare.

"She's hurt, can you be any more rude?"

Mr. Gold almost growled in vexation before he almost stomped over to Regina and waved his hand over her injury.

"Now, can we avoid getting eaten?"

Regina gave him a pointed look and huffed before fixing her composure and continued walking ahead with the others.

The cavern was gloomy and frigid cold. It was dark ahead, save for a glimmer from what seemed to be candles in the halls ahead. The flames were blue, illuminating the dark walls. What made the stone corridor more uneasy was the silence, pure silence. The group dreaded to hear the growls of the three-headed dog after its slumber, hopefully the magic hold on them would last longer. A shredded curtain was ahead of them instead of a door. Behind the curtain, the gloom of the cavern seemed brighter, which meant they were probably close.

"This should be it...", Henry murmured, staying right behind his birth mother.

Emma took a deep breath before moving the curtain aside. Ahead of them was a throne room. It was dark, but what made the room slightly brighter than the corridor was the chandelier hanging above them with, like the torches, blue flames alight. Instead of finding the supposed Lord, they found emptiness.

"Where...is he?", David spoke aloud.

The group hadn't picked up their volume since their trek back in the Inferno version of Storybrooke.

Emma lightly shushed her father when she heard steps. They all stood still as if movement meant instant death. They expected the Lord of the Undead himself approach them with his grim presence, but instead, they saw a smaller figure in the shadows. The figure emerged from the shadows, a petite figure, a woman with a long and dark gown with thorns adorned around her pale arms like bracelets. This woman had dark masses of curls with thorns weaving around them as well and on top of her head was a thorned crown, as if it used to have live flowers on it.

What surprised them about the woman the most was that she looked familiar, way too familiar. Her presence paralyzed them, made even Rumplestiltskin pale and almost fall to the ground in shock.

The woman's piercing cerulean eyes narrowed before her rosy lips lifted into a small smirk.

"Welcome to the Underworld. I'm Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld."

The group was at a loss for words...when finally, the most shocked of them of all spoke before seeing nothing but darkness...

"B-Belle?"


Annnnnnddd end! I hope you guys liked this so far. I will be writing another chapter soon. I want to know what you guys think, should I write another chapter? ;)