Hi so this is sort of an update? I rewrote the second half of this chapter because I wasn't happy with it. The next chapter will be up within 24 hours and I'll include a proper AN there :)

Two days later and they were ready to go. Belle had ended up staying with Zelena until they left, she didn't want to have to deal with Rumple and it was clear that Gideon was siding with him over her. Whilst leaving her son was tearing her heart out, she just couldn't deal with hearing him call the Black Fairy mother, it hurt too much. After scouring the shop for a wand, and indeed finding one made of wood from an Ozian tree, Belle had started gathering up her things so she would be ready when Rumple inevitably found her, at least she had hidden the wand before he did. She recalled her very brief conversation with him,

"Rumple."

He had returned to his shop while Belle was still packing. He seemed confused,

"Going somewhere?"

Belle answered, not pausing in what she was doing,

"Away. I'm leaving you. For good this time. You lied to me again."

Rumple just nodded his head in acceptance,

"Okay, Belle, okay."

A swirl of red smoke and he was gone. Belle wasn't naïve enough to think that nothing would come of this. She quickly finished grabbing everything she would need before heading towards the outskirts of town where Zelena would be waiting in her newly acquired car.

She had told Zelena about what happened and she believed that Rumple merely thought she was moving to somewhere else in Storybrooke, rather than a different realm entirely, and so wasn't especially worried. Their plans continued, and after a 2am mission into the mines to get some fairy crystals, they were ready to go.

Zelena had explained to Belle how the crystals would help.

"They act as a kind of temporary magic. It'll give me enough magic to summon and direct the cyclone to take us where we want to go but after that we'll be without magic until I can restore mine. Luckily, I can take us directly to the castle so we won't have to wait long."

Belle found herself incredibly interested in the crystals after that and inquired as to whether she might be able to keep some for herself to experiment with.

"You want to experiment with the crystals? Do you even know how?"

Belle just smirked,

"One learns a lot as the Dark One's maid, and as his wife,"

Zelena was suitably impressed.

They were now stood in the field behind the farmhouse. Belle was holding a sleeping Robyn as the sun crested over the trees of the Storybrooke Forest. They had decided on an early start so nobody would see the giant green cyclone that was taking them to Oz. Zelena was busy crushing up the fairy crystals (it took a while longer than with innate magic) so Belle double checked that they had everything they needed. They had decided against bringing clothes because they took up too much space and they could easily find some when they got there. The main things they had thought to bring were most of Robyn's things that could not be found in Oz as well as a few other necessities. Seeing that Zelena was done, Belle made her way over to stand next to the taller woman. Zelena then did something that Belle didn't think she'd ever see, she pulled out her own heart.

Belle observed it curiously. It was almost completely red, but there was a tiny pulse of green and black at the very centre. She watched carefully as Zelena poured the crystal dust over her heart, and humming in satisfaction as it pulsed with magic. Quickly shoving it back into her chest with a wince, Zelena shivered as she felt the magic course through her. Fortunately, it would stay in her system until she actively used it. Turning towards the town, Belle looked for any distant signs of life but found none. It was still too early at 6am. She continued gazing at it silently until Zelena spoke,

"Will you miss it?"

Belle contemplated the question, in a sense it should be the easiest answer in the world,

"I don't know. It was my home for over 30 years, although 28 of those were awful, but it just doesn't feel like home should anymore. Maybe I will miss it, but not yet. Will you?"

Zelena nodded quietly,

"I think so. It's one of the first places where I've been accepted for who I am, regardless of the wickedness. But Regina always ran so hot and cold with how she treated me, and nobody else particularly liked me. But I'll still miss it."

Abruptly, Zelena turned around, facing the open expanse of field rather than the quaint town she had come to love somewhat. Drawing the wand with one hand she wrapped her other arm securely around Belle's waist, drawing the smaller woman closer. Belle kept both her arms tucked around Robyn but leaned into Zelena's side, taking comfort in the tight embrace. Zelena waved the wand in a pattern that Belle didn't quite catch and seconds later she saw the swirling green smoke descending towards the three of them. Closing her eyes tightly, Belle burrowed her head further into Zelena's neck, not wanting to see what cyclone travel was like. With a start, she felt her feet leave the ground but at the same time they appeared to not be moving at all. Nonetheless, she still didn't open her eyes and her grip on Robyn remained secure. Belle didn't even register that they had landed until Zelena was whispering to her,

"You can open your eyes now, we're here."

Belle opened her eyes a crack before they flew open in absolute wonder. The building around her was astonishing, nothing like Rumple's dreary castle and it wasn't as grand as her father's old castle. She liked it at once.

"This is where you live?"

Zelena nodded, enjoying the absolute look of wonder on the brunette's face,

"Here, give Robyn to me. You can look around if you want. Don't worry about getting lost, I'll be able to find you."

Belle smiled widely and immediately set off walking around the hall they were in, looking at anything and everything, no matter how mundane it appeared. Zelena cooed gently to Robyn, trying to wake her up (amazingly, she had slept through the cyclone) so she could show her daughter her new home. Zelena knew that she would have a lot of work to do, both in and out of the castle. There were parts of the castle that still needed repairing as well as getting her old rooms set up. And rooms for Belle, of course. Then there was the matter of the people of Oz. When she had left, they had still been terrified of the 'Wicked Witch', but that was no longer her. For starters, she wasn't green anymore which was something the people had always associated with 'wicked' and secondly, she just didn't feel like the Wicked Witch anymore. She hadn't since she had returned from the Underworld if she was completely honest with herself. She had what she always wanted, her mother's approval. It didn't matter if Regina had something she didn't anymore. Especially after the Hades/Robin fiasco. Speaking of that, she needed to get to her vault so she could return her magic,

"Belle! Would you like to come to my vault? I need to get my magic back, plus you can see if there's anything about fairy crystals there to help with your experiments."

Zelena smiled as Belle almost seemed to skip over in her excitement. She had forgotten that the woman was also a history enthusiast. She would take Belle on a proper tour later. As Zelena led her guest down a series of hallways, she kept up a commentary about the history of the castle and some of the artefacts they passed on the way. She liked that Belle was fascinated by everything she saw, even though she had probably seen a lot of it during her stay at Rumple's castle.

"And here we are, my vault. No one but me has ever been in here before, you know. Consider yourself special."

"I do, don't worry about that."

With a deep breath, Zelena open the door, wincing as the hinges screamed in protest. She hadn't used the door for years, she just poofed in and out. Resolving to fix the door at a later date, Zelena made her way over to the chest that lay in the corner. Opening it, she turned to look over her shoulder, seeing Belle already absorbed in reading the book titles on her shelves,

"Hey, you remember that necklace I had that helped with my magic?"

Belle glanced over to show she was listening but quickly turned back to the shelves, making Zelena chuckle,

"Well, that wasn't actually the real thing. It was a partially working replica, some of my finest work if I'm honest."

Zelena could see that she now had Belle's full attention,

"Essentially, it did store my magic, but only a fraction of what the original did. That's what I'm looking for. Before I went to Storybrooke, I stored around half of my magical essence in the necklace. Putting the necklace on will release the magic back into my body where it'll soon get back up to full capacity again."

Belle walked closer, wanting to get a look at the necklace. Seeing Zelena was struggling with holding Robyn and searching the chest so Belle quickly took the baby from her arms and began talking to her as she blinked blearily. With a triumphant cry, Zelena rose to her feet clutching a long rectangular box in her hands. Setting it on the table, Belle watched with intrigue as Zelena flipped the box lid open, running long and delicate fingers around the rim of the box. Ever so slowly, Zelena drew the necklace out of it's hiding place. Belle thought it was even more exquisite than the one everybody had assumed to be real, although they were virtually identical.

Zelena quickly fastened the necklace around her neck, sighing in satisfaction as she immediately felt the magic begin to trickle into her system,

"How long does it take?"

"It should finish transferring by the end of tomorrow. And then after that it's only a matter of time before it goes back up to full capacity."

Belle nodded, turning back to the books. Running her finger along the spines, Belle's face lit up as she found a useful book. Pulling it off the shelf, she flipped through a few pages before showing it to Zelena,

"Am I allowed to take this with me to read? Of course, I'd do any experiments in here but I much prefer reading comfortably."

Zelena nodded, taking Robyn back,

"That's fine. As long as you put it back when you're done and don't take it out of the castle, you can take it out the vault. As for your experiments, I think I'd prefer it if I observed you for the first few, just to make sure you know what you're doing. And I know you learned some things from Rumple but it would make me a lot happier if you would allow me to watch."

Belle nodded excitedly,

"I would like that a lot. It could be quite dangerous and I'd feel safer with you there."

Belle looked away suddenly, blushing, as if embarrassed by her confession. When she didn't hear a response, she turned and found Zelena studying her curiously,

"You…you feel safe around me? Why?"

Belle just shrugged, she didn't really know,

"I don't know. I think it's because you don't treat me the same as everyone else does. To most of them I'm just a bookworm or they feel sorry for me because of Rumple. But you just see me as Belle, and I love that."

Zelena blinked a few times, looking at Belle strangely.

"Nobody has ever felt safe around me before. No one has even liked me before, except Hades. And maybe Regina at some point."

Belle smiled brightly at Zelena,

"Well, I like you. And hopefully maybe you like me too?"

Zelena huffed and rolled her eyes, although the effect was ruined by the small smile on her face,

"Okay, you got me. But in my defence, you're far too likable for your own good."

Belle grinned at her, causing Zelena to blush lightly. She didn't do emotions and feelings; she was going to have to get used to how open Belle was. Most people remained guarded around her, but not her new companion. If she was honest with herself, it was refreshing for Zelena to not have to analyse every single thing Belle did to look for an ulterior motive. Of course, she still occasionally caught herself doing it; it was a hard habit to break. She was broken from her musings as Belle walked over to look at a softly glowing stone in the corner of the room,

"What does this stone do? Do the colours mean anything?"

Zelena looked over at the stone in confusion,

"Colours? As in, more than one?"

Belle nodded,

"Yes, there's two. Although one does keep fluctuating."

Zelena walked over to stand next to Belle, her eyes trained on the stone.

The stone had been something of her own invention. She had created a clear stone of almost six feet (it looked like a crystal but was nowhere near as precious as one) that glowed whenever there was someone with magic, whether they actively used it or not, in the castle. It had taken her years to perfect, as there were very few people with magic in Oz so she couldn't be sure if it was working, but she had been pleasantly surprised when Rumpelstiltskin had shown up in her vault one day and the stone had immediately added a second colour to it's glow. It had taken her a while to work out, but she eventually realised that the colour of the glow related to the person's magic.

Looking at the stone, she saw that her own magic was represented as a bright, emerald green colour as it always had been (Rumple's was a dark red colour) but it was the other colour that confused her. There was a soft grass green colour, although it appeared to change from green to light blue and back again the more she observed it. That was rather interesting.

"What does it do?"

Zelena had forgotten that Belle was still there; she was too wrapped up in figuring this out. There were only two possible reasons for there being two colours on the stone.

"It glows when there are people with magic in the castle. That there are two colours is highly unusual as magic wielders are quite rare in Oz. Normally, only my own colour is there…the emerald green is mine. So, unless you have magic, the other colour is Robyn's."

Belle's head whipped round to look at her so fast that Zelena was almost scared she'd hurt herself,

"I didn't realise babies could be born with magic?"

Zelena's lips twitched upwards in a smirk,

"They aren't, usually. I was, although I know Regina and my mother weren't. There's a small chance Emma might have been but growing up in a world without magic would've made it impossible to tell. I suspect Robyn was due to the magical interference with my pregnancy."

Belle looked like she was trying to figure something out,

"Why is it two different colours then?

Zelena started to speak but paused. She didn't know for certain but she could make an educated guess.

"I suspect her true magic is the green colour, but because of Emma's interference some of her magic is left over. It will likely vanish or be absorbed in time."

Belle nodded, that made sense. She looked at the baby snuggled in Zelena's arms, smiling when she saw the girl's pale green eyes looking around the room. A pang of sadness hit her as she thought of Gideon; how she would never get to hold him like that. How she had missed all of his firsts, his first steps, his first words, his first day of school. She had missed everything. Overwhelmed with the sudden urge to cry Belle squeezed her eyes shut, her hands clutching almost painfully at the fabric of her dress.

"Hey, you okay?"

Belle's eyes snapped open at the soft tone, a few tears falling from her eyes. Zelena was looking at her, the concern in her eyes so prominent that Belle just wanted to start crying all over again.

"Yes. No. I don't...I don't know. It's so hard, I hate that I missed out on Gideon's entire childhood! I missed him even though he was right in front of me. And I know that I'm the one that gave him up but I shouldn't have had to! That, that woman; he calls her mother...I couldn't stand it."

Tears fell unbidden down Belle's face as she stood there feeling utterly helpless staring at the other woman. Zelena held her free arm out in Belle's direction, making a beckoning gesture.

"Come here, love."

Belle shuffled forward, swiping her hand across her eyes as she went. When she got closer, Zelena firmly tugged her until she had her arm wrapped around the brunette's shoulders. Comforting people wasn't Zelena's forte but she was willing to put aside her own insecurities to help Belle.

"Don't...I'm not going to tell you everything will be okay, because it won't. Not for a long time anyway. But I'll be here to help you through it, for as long as you need me."

Zelena kissed the top of Belle's head, hugging her as much as she could with only one arm.

A few moments later, Belle pulled back and wiped away the rest of her tears.

"Thank you, I think I needed that."

Zelena smiled at her, squeezing her shoulder gently.

"You're welcome. Now, shall we go see the rest of the castle?"

Thanks for reading :))