Immediately Belle jumped up from her seat and moved closer to Anna. "Anna," She asked quickly but Anna was still unconscious and did not respond.

"It's all true, my god." Charles Dickens muttered out loud, amazed at what he had just heard and seen. He did not appear to be happy about this news but instead his face was somber and serious.

"Are you okay?" Belle asked Anna but when there was still no response from the unconscious girl Belle picked her up and moved her to a sitting chair where she could lay her down. Slowly as Belle began to use a handkerchief to wipe Anna's face, Anna began to awaken.

Anna looked worried as she awakened and so Belle soothed her saying, "It's alright. You just sleep."

Anna was more worried about the ghosts though and replied, "But my angels, miss, they came, didn't they? They need me?"

The Monster who had stood up and was standing behind Belle, leaning casually against a doorframe, perked up at this. "Yes," He replied to Anna, "They do need you Anna. You're their only chance of survival."

He was going to continue but Belle interrupted angrily, "I told you, leave her alone. She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles." Belle turned and gave the Monster a glare.

He looked at her, not glaring, but his eyes were dark and serious, and he told her somberly, "You are the one who wanted to help. This is your battle, dearie, not mine."

"Well I'll most definitely not have her fight mine." Belle told him, looking slightly abashed before she turned back to Anna and carefully helped her drink some water.

"What did you say they were Monster?" Mr. Sneed asked, taking the Monster's attention away from Anna and Belle, "Explain it again."

The Monster turned toward Mr. Sneed and gave him a polite, if condescending smile, before replying briskly, "aliens."

"Like foreigners, you mean?" Mr. Sneed asked, sure that they was no way extra terrestrials were in his house.

"Foreign indeed. From up above." Gold told Mr. Sneed, flourishing his hand and pointing it to the sky dramatically.

"From Bretton?" Mr. Sneed almost insisted, mentioning a city in England far up in the North.

"Not exactly what I meant." The Monster replied sighing, "But I suppose it'll do. Yes, from Bretton and they are trying to get here, but the road's blocked; only a few can get through. Even then, they are weak, they can only test drive the bodies for so long and then they must reset to gas and reside in the pipes."

"Which is why they need the girl." Charles Dickens surmised.

"They're not having her!" Belle exclaimed upon hearing Charles' words, she would not let anyone harm Anna, especially not because she had wanted to save some woman she had heard screaming. She was the one who had persuaded the Monster to save someone; it was her battle to fight, not Anna's.

"But she can help." The Monster insisted, "Living on the rift she has became part of it. She can open it, make a bridge, and let them through. Don't you want to help them? Or is it only humans that you feel we should save?" He asked the last part with his voice low, seeming to imply there was a hidden message to his meaning.

She wondered if he was asking her if she thought he was worth saving but now was not the time or place for that question and she still didn't want Anna to endanger herself so she gave the Monster a look and left his questions, both spoken and unspoken, unanswered.

Charles seemed to pick up the tension between the two and so continued his musings on ghosts out loud, "Incredible." He said, "ghosts that are not ghosts, but beings from another world that can only exist in our realm by inhabiting cadavers."

"Yes." The Monster responded, "It is actually a pretty good system. It might work."

Belle stood up at Anna's side upon hearing this, mortified by the thought. "You can't let them run around inside dead people." She told the Monster.

"Why not, dearie? It's like recycling. Perfectly logical." The Monster told Belle seriously.

"Gold!" Belle exclaimed quickly, before sighing, "Seriously, you can not do that."

"Yes, I can." He responded, daring her to argue.

She took his dare and continued, "But it's just wrong. Those bodies were living people, we should respect them even in death!" She was beginning to get angry and glared at the Monster.

Gold was never a man to back down though and so he retorted calmly, "Do you carry a donor card?"

"Yes," Belle responded immediately and then seeing the Monster's point tried to argue, "But that's different."

Gold was fed up now, tired of Belle and her morals that somehow placed respecting a dead body as more important than saving an aliens life and he snapped, "Yes, it is different; it's a different morality. Get used to it or go home!"

Belle stepped back immediately from his harsh words and his angry face.

He saw this and immediately regretted losing his temper. He stepped toward her and put his hands on her shoulder before lowering his voice. He didn't apologize but continued his past train of thought, "You heard what they said. Time is short; I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Galth could be dying."

"I'm sorry." She said sadly but unrelenting, "But you aren't using her."

Before the Monster could reply Anna sat up from the chair she had been laying down on behind Belle and said, "Don't I get a say?"

They both turned to Anna and Belle tried to rationalize how protective she was being over the girl, "Of course! It's just that you don't understand what's going on."

"You would say that miss." Anna replied, smiling softly, "Cause that's very clear inside your head." She looked slightly annoyed now, "That you think I'm stupid."

"That's not fair!" Belle retorted, trying to defend herself.

Anna continued though, "Things may be very different from where you're from. But here and now, I know my own mind and the angels need me. Monster, what do I have to do?"

Belle looked away as the Monster answered and seeing this he started with, "You don't have to do anything. They have been singing to me since I was a child. Since I was sent here when Elsa left. Tell me."

The Monster smiled at Anna, ignoring Belle's look of dread, and told her, "We need to find the rift. This house was built on a weak spot so there must be a spot that is weaker than the others. Mr. Sneed, what is the weakest part of this house? The part where most of the ghosts have been seen?"

"That would be the morgue." Mr. Sneed grimly.

"Couldn't it have been a more pleasant place?" Belle asked, half joking and half serious.

The group just looked at her, the Monster smiling gently. Then they all stood up and headed into the morgue, which was located in the basement of the old building.

When they got there, Belle voiced one final objection. "Gold, what happens if they don't succeed? If the Gaith don't come through? Cause the thing is, I know they don't succeed. I know it for a fact. Corpses aren't walking around in 1869."

He sighed, "That's not how time works. Time is changing every second, your cozy little world can be rewritten like that." He smiled devilishly and snapped his fingers dramatically to add emphasis to his words before continuing, "Nothing is save, remember that, nothing, dearie." He smiled again, the corners of his mouth turning up in that grin of his that wasn't a smile at all but a warning.

"Monster, I think it's getting colder in here." Charles interrupted and Belle was glad, Gold was beginning to scare her.

Soon voices could be heard and the glowing blue spirits appeared, swirling around their heads and forming human like forms that floated above the ground.

"Here they come." Belle said, her voice scared.

The spirits began to speak, "You have came to help! Praise the Monster, praise him!"

Anna began to step forward but Belle yelled first, demanding to the spirits, "Promise you wont hurt her!"

They didn't respond but said to the group, "Hurry, please hurry! So little time. Pity the gaith."

"Here's how it is going to work. She opens the bridge and I will take you somewhere else after the transfer," The Monster walked toward the ghost and told her seriously, "Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution. Deal?"

But the Monster never got a response from the ghosts for Anna interrupted, "My angels." She said looking at the ghosts lovingly, "They will live?"

"Yes, but we need to find the weak point." The Monster told Anna, suspicious that the gaith hadn't agreed to his deal, or now that he thought about it, to Belle's promise not to hurt Anna.

"Beneath the arch." The ghosts replied almost instantly after the Monster mentioned the weak point and the suspicion grew stronger but before he could say something to Anna, she had run underneath the arch, standing right in the weak spot.

Belle rushed forward and reached out for Anna, "You don't have to do this." She said pleading Anna to stop but it was to late. Anna was already in the weak spot and the bridge was forming.

"My angels." Anna said sadly and desperately and Belle stepped back as the bridge grew stronger.

"Reach out and let us through!" The gaith commanded Anna.

Anna's eyes grew unfocused and she began to mutter, "Yes. I can see you. Come to me. Come to me! Come to this world, poor lost souls!"

At this the bridge was formed and Anna opened her mouth, a white light streaming out of it and the ghosts streamed through, free from where they had been trapped.

"The bridge has been made." Their monotone group voice responded, "She has given herself to the gaith. The bridge is open, we descend."

As the group stood and watched the creatures descended, but they were not angels. Their forms which had been of little girls with innocent voices and pleading eyes, became the forms of red flaming devils. Their voices dropped and their tone was no longer friendly but had a harsh edge to it.

"You said you wouldn't hurt her!" Charles exclaimed as the gaiths streamed through Anna.

"We made no such promises" The evil creature responded, his voice pausing before he added onto the end cruelly, "Isn't that right Monster?"

The Monster just looked at the creature and if looks could kill the creature would have been defeated right then but instead it began to spread out, flowing into the dead corpses.

"You did promise us your corpses though." The flaming red creature reminded them gleefully.

Mr. Sneed, who had been silent for most of this now stepped forward, "Stop this Anna. Listen to me! Listen to your master! This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling and leave these things alone, I beg of you!" He pleaded with Anna to break the bridge but his words had no effect on her, it appeared as though she hadn't heard them at all.

The gaith had though and one of them, now residing in a corpse, grabbed Mr. Sneed and strangled him to death. Once he was dead a new gaith ghost flew into his body.

"Well this has gone a little bit wrong, hmm, dear?" The Monster casually asked Belle, trying to make light of the situation.

"Not the time for quips." She retorted angrily to him, a man had just died in front of them!

And now that same man was looking at the pair with an evil glow in his eyes. "I have joined allegiance with the gaith. Come, march with us." The body of Mr. Sneed asked the Monster, Belle, and Charles.

"You'll fit right in, Monster." Mr. Sneed continued, his voice emphasizing the word monster. He had stood up now, along with several other corpses and they were walking toward the Monster and Belle.

"Get behind me." The Monster growled to Belle and he pushed her behind him, holding her back and away from the terrible creatures as he himself backed up,

"We need more bodies." The gaith told the pair, Charles being currently on the other side of the room, "We need all the bodies of the human race. The entire human race will be dead." The gaith told the pair and Belle gasped.

"You don't want to do that, dearies." The Monster told them, all the while backing up, "If anyone gets to kill the entire human race, it's going to be me."

"Anna, stop them!" Belle yelled, "Send them back now!"

Anna made no indication that she had heard them but her mouth opened and the gaith's voice spoke, "We need more vessels. We need more bodies."

Finally the Monster and Gold had backed up to the gate and were about to make a hasty exit but Charles was still trapped on the other side of the room. "Charles!" Belle called, "Come on!"

"I'm sorry," Charles Dickens responded, not coming closer but backing away, "I can't. This new world of yours is to much for me." And with that he turned and hid in a doorway.

The Monster pushed open the gate and quickly pushed Belle through the open doorway before stepping through himself and slamming the gate shut. They were trapped now, the Monster and Belle on one side of the metal gate and the corpses inhabited by the gaith on the other side.

"I tried to help you." The Monster told the bodies calmly, "I actually pitied you." He turned to Belle now, "And this is what happens. I told you, I'm not a hero. I don't help people." His face was dark as he said this but his eyes portrayed his guilt. His guilt at having allowed Anna to bring these creatures to this world.

"We don't want your pity." The gaith replied through the gate, "We want this world and all it's flesh."

"No. You will not have it." The Monster replied, his voice somehow louder and yet he wasn't yelling. He was perfectly calm but his voice carried the distinct tone of warning and danger.

Charles, meanwhile, had found an exit out of the basement and out of the house and had run outside. Breathing heavily, he leaned against the door, contemplating the fact that he had just left the Monster and Belle trapped in the basement next to the ghosts. A gaith soul soon found him though, and chased him away from the house. He ran away, the gaith chasing him until they came close to a street light and then screaming, the ghost had been pulled into the gas.

"Gas!" Charles proclaimed, "Yes, gas!" He shouted excitedly, and then he stopped running from the house and turned around and ran to it.

Back in their self-imposed cage, Belle had just realized something. "Wait," She told the Monster, "I can't die." When he didn't see any happier at this news she continued, less sure. "I mean, I can't, right? I haven't even been born yet. It's impossible for me to die."

She looked at him but he adverted his gaze, looking down. "Gold?" She questioned, unsure if she wanted to actually know the answer.

"I'm sorry." He told her sadly.

"But it's 1869! How could I die now?" Belle asked, she believed him but logically, it made not sense that she could die before she was born.

"Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the 20th century and die in the 19th century and it's my fault. I brought you here. I told you I was dangerous, you never should have came with me!" The Monster replied, calmly at first but almost shouting by the end.

Belle tentatively placed a hand on his shoulder, afraid of his wrath, but he did not push her off and so she spoke, "It's not your fault. Nobody decides my fate but me. I chose to come with you." She looked at Gold, who looked as though he didn't believe her and so she added adamantly, "I wanted to come with you.

"Yes, well now we are both dying and I have failed. I saw the fall of Troy. World War V. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. But I did not find him. And now we are going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff." He no longer was shouting and he was not angry as he spoke these words, he was just incredibly sad.

She moved her hand, which had been sitting on his shoulder, to grab his and he squeezed it gently. She wondered who him was, but this was not the time to ask and so she said what had been plaguing her mind since she realized they were going to die, "It's not just dying. It's becoming one of them."

The Monster had no response but to pull her into him and hug her close.

"We can go down fighting." Belle told him as he held her.

"Yes, we can." He replied, and released her from his arms but continued to hold her hand. Together they turned and faced the gaith.

"I'm very glad I met you." He told her and her face lit up.

"Me too." She responded.

Charles, though, had made it back to the house and holding a handkerchief over his nose, he ran inside, turning the gas on but not lighting the lights so that gas would flow freely into the building. He ran from lamp to lamp, turning on the gas and then ran into the basement.

"Monster!" He called out quickly, "Turn up the gas. Turn off the flame. Fill the whole place with gas!"

"What are you doing?" Belle asked Charles.

"Gas!" The Monster exclaimed, "Yes. Brilliant."

"Yes," Charles replied, explaining, "These creatures are gaseous!"

"If we fill the room with gas, it will suck these creatures out of the hosts. It will suck them out of the bodies like poison from a wound." The Monster told Belle.

The creatures had released Charles was in the same room as them now and turned from the Monster and Belle and began to walk menacingly toward Charles.

"I hope this theory will be validated soon." Charles anxiously said, as the zombies walked closer to him.

Luckily it did, and the zombies dropped to the ground, the gaith streaming out of them as ghosts. The Monster unlocked the gate that had been protecting him and Belle and they stepped back into the room.

"Anna" The Monster exclaimed when they walked into the room, "I lied. They aren't angels. You must stop them."

"Liars?" Anna asked them, her voice unbelieving.

"Yes. I do often lie, dearie." The Monster told her, offering her a signature devilish grin before becoming serious, "Anna, if your mother and father were here, if your sister was here, they would tell you the same thing I am. These are not angels. You must have the strength to stop them."

Belle started coughing loudly, the gas filling her lungs, and the Monster, his eyes never leaving Anna's commanded Charles, "Get her out of here."

Charles went to grab Belle but she replied angrily, "I'm not leaving her!"

"They are too strong." Anna whispered to the Monster.

"Remember Belle's world. That weird little town of Storybrooke; all those people and all those new inventions. None of it will exist unless you send them back through the Rift." The Monster urged Anna on.

"I can't send them back." Anna stuttered and then solemnly said, "But I can hold them. Hold them in this place- hold them here." And then her voice took on an angry tone and she reached into her pocket before commanding, "Get out."

"You can't! Belle yelled rushing for Anna but the Monster stopped her, grabbing her hands.

"Go! Now." He commanded her but Belle didn't move so he continued, "Belle, please, leave. I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Now go."

A cough wracked through Belle and she heeded the Monster's words, running out of the gas filled house with Charles at her side.

In the basement, Anna had pulled a match box out of her pocket.

"Leave that to me." The Monster said, reaching for the box. But when he reached for the box and brushed Anna's hand, he realized her hands were cold. He put his fingers on her neck and he found no pulse. Anna was dead, the bridge was the only thing keeping her alive. Realizing she was dead, he placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Thank you." He said solemnly and then left the room himself to join Charles and Belle.

Anna, with tears streaming down her face, lit a match and the house blew up in a huge explosion.

Outside Belle turned and looked at the Monster. Her glare her way of insinuating that he had broken his promise. He had left Anna to die.

"She didn't make it?" Belle finally asked when he offered no explanation.

"I'm sorry. She closed the rift." The Monster told Belle, trying to get her to understand.

"At such a cost. The poor child." Charles spoke quietly, his voice sad.

"Yes, Anna paid the price today. There is a reason I don't save people. There is always a price to messing with past. Time travel is tricky and changing things always has a price. When we intervened at the theater, we changed time. Everything has a price and Anna paid it today." The Monster said almost laughing, his voice sounding ironic.

Belle just looked at him sadly, "The poor girl." She muttered.

"I did try, Belle. But Anna was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes." The Monster was still trying to get Belle to see that he hadn't broken his promise to her.

"How is that possible?" Belle asked, unsure what he was saying.

"I think she was dead from the minute she stood in that arch." The Monster told Belle.

"But she can't have." Belle replied, confused, "She spoke to us. She helped us. She saved us. How could she have done that?"

The Monster didn't respond, unsure of the answer, but Charles did, "There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Even for you, Monster."

"It's my fault." Belle said sadly, "I wanted to be a silly hero. If I had never made you help, if we had just ignored the screaming as you wanted and gone on our away, Anna would still be alive."

The Monster would not deny this but he also knew he had fault in Anna's death as well. "It's not all your fault. I got caught up in trying to save a species. I didn't want the gaith to become extinct as my people had, I didn't want them to feel the loneliness I feel." He said his voice heavy with melancholy.

No one had an answer to ask so they all stood their for awhile, staring at the stars, thankful they were alive, and thankful for Anna's sacrifice.

Eventually the Monster moved to leave and Charles followed Belle and him over to the MAGIC.

"Time to go now." The Monster said, "I'm just going to go, uh, look at this tree." And he walked up to the MAGIC, "Well go on." He added, hoping Charles would leave before he opened the tree.

Belle though, wanted one last conversation with the famous writer, "What are you going to do now?"

"I shall take the mail coach back to London. Quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I learned tonight, their can be nothing I can not amend for with them."

The Monster smiled at Charles, he had become somewhat fond of the man and he was happy to hear he would reconcile with his family, "Well you have cheered up!" The Monster told Charles.

"Oh yes. This morning I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I just started. There are such, huge, wonderful notions!" Charles was almost shouting with glee, "I must write about them!"

"And that's wise?" Belle asked, unsure if the world would believe his ghost tales.

"I shall be subtle about it. The mystery of Edwin Drood still needs an ending. Maybe the killer will not be the boy's uncle but someone not of this world. The mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Element"! Charles happily told the pair.

"Good luck." The Monster told Charles and then opened the door of the tree.

"Goodbye." Belle said to Charles and then gave him a kiss on the cheek. The Monster glared at this but said nothing.

"How modern." Charles responded, "Thank you but I don't understand. In what ways is this goodbye, where are you going? And why does that tree have a door?" Charles did not know the tree they were opening was a time traveling device.

"You shall see." The Monster replied cryptically.

"Always full of riddles Monster." Charles said, smiling, "Can you just answer this one for me? Who are you actually?"

He paused, not willing to give the real answer, "I'm no one. Just a figure passing through."

"You have such knowledge of the future though!" Charles added, "Can I just ask, my books, do they last?"

Belle answered this question, "Oh yes. They are classics, they last forever."

And with that the pair walked into the tree leaving a stunned Charles Dickens behind who watched in amazement as the tree flashed in and out of before disappearing.

"Won't that change history?" Belle asked the Monster, "If he writes about blue ghosts?"

"In a weeks time it is 1870 and that is the year he dies. Sorry, he will never get to tell his story." The Monster didn't seem upset by this, he simply stated it as though it was a fact.

"Oh," Belle gasped, "That's terrible."

"Well in your time, he was already dead. We simply brought him back to life for awhile." The Monster told Belle, trying to rationalize for her why she should not mourn Charles Dickens.

"Yes, well I must say that was probably the best surprise anyone has ever given me. I mean, can you believe it, I met Charles Dickens? I kissed Charles Dickens on the cheek!" Belle smiled at the thought.

"Yes, I remember that quite well." He retorted grouchily.

"Jealous are we?" Belle asked, laughing slightly and leaning up she kissed him on the cheek as well, "Better?"

He laughed and she laughed with him and the MAGIC flew away to take them on another adventure in space and time.