"Where's the entrance to the mine supposed to be, Sheriff?" Gold stood a few feet from the rubble and glanced around.
Emma tried not to look annoyed as she pointed to the largest amount of rubble, which was directly in front of him. "Well, up until the day before yesterday, it was right there."
His eyebrows rose in surprise. "There?"
She decided to stop looking annoyed. "Yes, right there, and, as you can see, there's nothing there but a bunch of rocks now. David and I tried to figure out how deep the cave in was yesterday, but," she shrugged. "We figure it's pretty deep."
Walking carefully through the rocks strewn about the ground, Gold made his way to what should have been the mine's entrance. He leaned over, examining various spots before pulling back and holding his hand out. A glowing ball of light appeared in his outstretched palm. He casually flicked his wrist forward, propelling the ball at the rubble. It disappeared, going through the rocks and into the mine.
Emma watched, trying to figure out what he was doing and coming up short. "What was that?"
"Just something to help determine how deep the collapse is." He stared at the rocks. They waited for a solid five minutes before the glowing light popped out of the rock face and returned to his outstretched hand. A second later, it disappeared, and he narrowed his eyes in thought as he leaned in to again visually inspect the rocks. "It's at least 25 feet deep."
"You're kidding me," she said, astounded. "There's no way we wouldn't have felt something from a cave-in that massive. Something magical had to have caused it."
He hummed in thought. "Perhaps, though cave-ins are known to happen randomly without any help from someone or something magical. Maybe the timbers finally gave way? They are, after all, thirty years old."
She crossed her arms and huffed. "But there was no explosion. No one heard anything, and no one is owning up to blowing up the entrance to the mine," she held her hands up, "not that they would, but still."
"I suppose we would have heard a very loud bang, at the very least," he conceded. "That still doesn't mean this was magical. However, I'm going to do a few tests just to make certain. After we find it was, in fact, a simple cave-in no one noticed, I'll be on my way." He picked his way back through the rocks scattered across the ground until he was in the center of the cleared area for the mine. "You may want to come stand by me, Miss Swan. I doubt you'll want to get caught up in what I'm about to do."
She grunted, coming over to stand beside him.
Casually, he raised a hand and turned in a circle, Emma turning with him. Emitting from his hand was a pulse of magic which covered the open area. The ground glowed an electric blue followed by a deep red which seemed to center on where the mine's opening had once been.
Gold dropped his hand and tilted his head in thought. "Interesting," he mumbled to himself before walking back the mine. This time, Emma followed without prompting, and they stopped about a foot from the opening. Again, he waved his hand, and, this time, a very dark purple cloud surrounded the mine's former entrance. A rancid smell was suddenly so overpowering both of them gagged and had to step back.
"Oh God," Emma chocked some more, coughing trying not to wretch. "What the hell is that smell?"
Gold held his composure better, though he did pull out his handkerchief and put it over his mouth and nose. "Sulfur, Miss Swan. That is the distinctive smell of sulfur."
"What did you do to make that smell happen?" She covered her mouth and nose with her hand. She gagged again, and her eyes started to water. "What was that spell? A stink bomb?"
"No," came his muffled and somewhat annoyed tone. "Step beside me again, Sheriff. I believe I need your assistance for this last test."
She scowled at him but complied. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder facing the mine's entrance. Emma shifted uncomfortably, trying to not breathe while Gold seemed to be considering something. Finally, he spoke, his demeanor giving away nothing of what conclusion he might be reaching. "This test requires light magic, which is much more your specialty than mine. I want you to focus on the rocks I just tested and try to encompass them in light."
She stared at the rocks. "What will that do?"
"We'll find out, won't we?" He pointed ahead of them, lowering his handkerchief as he did so. "Now focus."
"Is this going to make another nasty smell hit us, or should I be worried about getting blown up or something? Because, if any of that might happen, I don't…"
"It's perfectly safe, I assure you." He closed his eyes and took a moment. "I'll be here the entire time, and I'm prepared to produce a protective shield if we need it. Now, if you please," again, he motioned toward the rocks in front of them, "focus?"
Sighing, she closed her eyes and focused her magic on the rocks. She felt, rather than saw, light encompass the area, and, a moment later, she heard a sound like a snake hissing. Snapping her eyes open, she found her magic spotlighting a small creature she'd never seen before. It had been a rock. She was sure it had been a medium sized-ish rock, but now it was something with sharp, pointed teeth and claws. Covered in dingy fur, it had a pointed tail, and, she squinted to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing, horns.
It had horns.
She took in a sharp breath. "What the hell is that?"
"I believe that is what you in this world would call a demon," Gold calmly replied. "Though, I would call it more of a minion than anything remotely demonic."
"Is my magic holding it there?" She was trying not to panic, but it wasn't working well for her. She could feel the fear rising up her spine. "Will it attack us?"
"Yes, your magic is holding it there, so do try to maintain your focus, and, no," he slowly shook his head, "I suspect it won't attack, but it's hard to tell." He turned his head to address the creature, yelling out to it, "Well? Are you?"
Emma jumped when the creature replied in a voice that actually sounded like a typical human male's voice, "No!" It snarled and groaned. "Call off your dog, Dark One. This stuff hurts."
"It can talk?!" She couldn't be bothered to care about the squawk in her voice. "Gold, what the hell is going on here?"
"That's a very good question, Sheriff, and it's one I'd like to know myself." He stepped closer to the creature. "Which one are you?"
The creature huffed. "Pain."
Gold smiled. "Well now, that seems appropriate, doesn't it?" He looked down his nose at Pain. "And where is your master?"
"You know I'm not going to tell you that." The creature tried to move and howled in discomfort as Emma's magic held it in place. "He'll show up when he feels like it."
Gold tilted his head in question, calmly asking, "How did he get here?"
The creature rolled it's large, black eyes. "He's a god. He does whatever he wants."
"Well, go tell your god," Gold said, leaning over and lowering his voice to a threatening level, "that he doesn't get to do whatever he wants here. These people and this town are under my protection, and he'll very much regret it if he chooses to cross paths with me again."
Pain snorted. "What makes you think he's after you," it spit out.
Gold stood again, towering over the creature. "Go give him the message. I'm sure he can find me if he wants to discuss anything further. Otherwise, he can leave the same way he arrived." He turned back to Emma and nodded to indicate she should release the creature.
Her eyes bolted from the demon creature to Gold and back again. For the briefest of moments, it registered with her how ridiculous it was that she was more afraid of something Gold had dubbed a minion than she was of The Dark One.
Steadying her nerves, she relaxed her focus and the white light spotlighting the creature disappeared. As soon as the light completely dissipated, the creature vanished in a flash of black smoke.
"What the hell is going on here," she asked yet again. "What was that thing? Who is its master? Did it say his master was a god? And what do you mean 'these people and this town are under your protection'? What people? The town? Since when do you care?"
He let out a long, heavy sigh. "You're not going to like this answer, Sheriff."
She crossed her arms and waited.
He shrugged. "That thing was a minion for Hades."
"Hades?" She furrowed her brows and cocked her head to the side. "Hades? As in Hades, God of the Underworld, Hades?"
"Do you know of another?" He shrugged again. "I don't know why he's here. The last time I saw him, he was whining about losing out on gaining Hercules's soul or some such something as that. It's been a few years. Details get a little blurry over time, you understand?"
She could feel her jaw had dropped, and there wasn't a thing she could do to stop it. "Seriously?"
"Yes, Miss Swan, seriously. I don't see why this comes as a shock to you. You've encountered everyone from the Evil Queen of the Enchanted Forest to the Wicked Witch of the West from Oz to Dr. Frankenstein. Why would it shock you to learn that Hades is real as well?"
Her eyebrows rose of their own accord, and she fumbled through her words for a moment. "Well… because… those people are… well, yeah, they're fairytale characters… mostly, but they're people, you know? Like people people. They're not…" She motioned toward the sky, "Gods! They're not Gods. You mean to tell me Gods exist?"
"No," he shook his head, exasperated already by this conversation. "I mean to tell you that magical beings who possess uniquely specialized magical abilities and prefer to think of themselves as better than the rest of us exist. The fact they like to call themselves gods because they've somehow managed to fool the peasantry into worshiping them doesn't make them any better than the rest of us, however."
"So," she drew the word out as she tried to grasp this new bit of information, "Zeus and Athena and Artemis are…"
"Just as real as you or I," he confirmed with a shrug.
She nodded dumbly. Then a thought struck her. "What about Wonder Woman?"
He gave her a strange look. "What about her?"
"Is she real, too?" She made a vague motion with her hand. "I mean, she's supposed to be a child of Zeus, so, if he's real, then is she real?"
"No, of course not. Don't be ridiculous. There's no such thing as superheroes. Those are just tales made up to tell children and entertain adults." He scoffed at her.
"Says Rumpelstiltskin to the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming," she grumbled under her breath. "Okay, so let's go with the idea that the Gods of Olympus are real."
He rolled his eyes at her. "They are real."
"Right… that." She took in a deeply calming breath. "Why would the God of the Dead be in Storybrooke, and what did you do to tick him off?"
"We may have had a deal go sour," he nonchalantly commented, "but that was rectified years ago. At the time we came to affable terms regarding our deal, we both agreed not to enter the other's domain. That arrangement was part of agreement of our new deal."
"Which is why you sent the message that this town is under your protection? Because, as far as you're concerned, we're… what? We're your kingdom or something?" She clearly didn't like where this was going.
"Honestly, Miss Swan, I could care less what happens to any of you, but my son gave his life to protect this town, and I'll be damned before I allow that imbecilic Hades to stroll in here and destroy it now." Gold straightened his posture, swallowing down the rant he wanted to give. "The price for the protection of this town was too great. I won't allow it to be in vain."
She frowned, giving him a nod. She couldn't argue that logic. "Okay, fine." She looked around as if she could find answers hidden away somewhere amongst the rubble. "What do we do now?"
"Nothing." He held his hand up to stop her protests. "There's nothing we can do. He'll show himself when he's ready. In the meantime, there are some preparations I must attend to, and I suggest you put up your own protective spell about Regina because, the last time I encountered Hades, I may have accidentally killed his favorite apprentice."
"I'm not going to ask." She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I don't want to know." Wiping at her face, she groaned. "He might be here to take out Regina because he thinks she's your favorite apprentice?"
He gave a shrug, which served mostly as a nonanswer. "We both have work to do, Sheriff. I suggest we go. Time isn't on our side at the moment."
Giving one more glance around her, she took off toward her squad car as she mentally cursed her life. There were places, she fumed to herself, where the most complicated thing a small town sheriff had to worry with was keeping the pickle making contest from getting out of hand.