Author's Note: This is a long one guys! Or at least a lot happens in a short amount of time...
After several attempts to find Isaac and Regina, Eve eventually found the pair sitting in Regina's vault in intense conversation. The sight of Eve appearing in a cloud of golden smoke made Regina take a step forward with hands blazing with fire.
"Regina" Eve rose her hands in surrender. "I'm not here to hurt you."
"You!" Regina barked. "Since when can you do magic?! How did you even get into my vault that way?"
"Regina, she's here to stop our plan. Get rid of her before she succeeds!" Isaac interjected, scampering behind Regina in hiding.
"Oh shut up Isaac!" Eve hissed. "Listen Regina, you can't trust him. I don't know what he's promised you, but trust me when I say that this is the only man I've ever come across who's even more selfish than Rumplestilskin. He can't be trusted, because whatever plans you have together; I promise you that he's looking out for himself and has every intention to screw you over!"
"I can't trust him can I?" Regina sneered, taking a step forward. "That's pretty big talk from the nobody who turned out to be a sorceress – and a pretty powerful one at that! It's the only way to explain how you got into my vault!"
"Regina, I was trapped in the book with Isaac for the last year." Eve calmly explained. "The sorcerer's apprentice put me there because he thought I, as the Pure One, would be a danger to the story – whatever that means."
"The Pure One?" Regina asked doubtfully. "You think you're the Pure One? The Pure One is just a myth, it doesn't exist."
"Regina, get rid of her. She's wasting our precious time!" Isaac egged on behind Regina.
"With pleasure" Regina muttered, her hands igniting again with flame.
"Regina, I really don't want to hurt you" Eve warned.
Regina let out a dark laugh. "Oh, sweetie! Don't flatter yourself!"
Regina was about to fling a stream of fire, but before she could; Eve lifted the Evil Queen off her feet and then slammed her into a wall. The woman slumped to the ground, and didn't get up.
Isaac stared at Regina's unconscious body for several moments as Eve simple glared at the man. When their eyes met, Isaac simply smiled and took out his pen and paper. He grinned as smoke surrounded him, but at the last second Eve leaped forward and hitched a ride on his teleportation spell.
The pair crashed to the tarmac road with a painful thud and Eve registered that they had landed at the crossroads underneath the clock tower, where Snow, Emma, Ruby and the others all stood staring. Eve was on her feet within seconds, and Isaac slowly rolled to his feet unimpressed with the landing.
"I can't let you hurt these people for your own benefit, Isaac!" Eve warned, her hands beginning to glow with golden light.
Isaac readied his pen and paper, but Eve rose both hands into the sky and within seconds created a dome around the entire crossroads. If luck was on her side, Eve's magic would prevent Isaac from writing his way out of the dome – at least for a certain amount of time anyway. Unfortunately, Eve couldn't keep everyone out of the dome and as well as her and Isaac trapped; so was Ruby, Snow and Leroy.
Muffled cries of outrage and panic erupted from the other side of the dome, and Eve could see Archie standing amongst the front of the crowd calling her name. Snow and Leroy were standing together holding hands, but Ruby shrugged away their hold and took a step forward.
"Eve…" Ruby began.
Eve waited for Ruby to continue, but got an awful shock when she saw her friend collapse to the ground reaching for her neck as she began choking. Snow cried out her name and both her and Leroy rushed to her side; completely helpless. Eve's head snapped in the direction of Isaac and she saw him finishing a sentence on his paper.
"The red-hooded wolf girl, Ruby, stops breathing as she watches her friend betray her trust." Leroy read aloud with a pride to his voice.
The triumphant grin on his face sparked a rage in Eve that she hadn't felt in a very long time. With all of her might, Eve thrusted her hands forward and a beam of golden energy charged towards Isaac. Isaac was instantly sent flying backwards until he hit the edge of the dome, but he wasn't Eve's target. Instead, she was concentrating all of her energy on the pen that Isaac had dropped to the ground.
"You're crazy!" Isaac bellowed, as he struggled to his feet. "You won't survive that! Pure magic can't destroy itself!"
Eve's eyes shifted to gaze down at Ruby as she continued clutching at her throat, unable to breathe.
"You're right!" Eve yelled, the energy of the magic beginning to fill the dome with a deafening buzz. "But unlike the neutrality of the pen's pure magic, I'm a person!"
With a grunt of effort, Eve increased the amount of magic she was pouring into her attack on the pen. She felt beads of sweat beginning to pour down her face.
"I may be the Pure One! But I'm also a person! The pen can't defend itself with human experiences like hatred, or vengeance, or love! But I…I CAN!"
With a scream, Eve poured every bit of energy she had left and there was suddenly a bright light filling up the dome and blinding Eve and everyone else. A thunderous noise filled her ears and Eve was suddenly off her feet before quickly skidding across the ground. Her ears rang with white noise and it took an age for her vision to finally return.
Eventually, Eve was staring up at the sky without a dome blocking her view. Her body ached and her magic was running through her veins in weak sparks as opposed to the typically strong current of energy.
Archie suddenly appeared in her vision, and Eve saw his lips moving. She heard herself ask him to help her to her feet and so she was soon on her feet with one arm around Archie and the other around someone with long blonde hair…It must have been Emma Swan.
The scene before Eve was busy. Everyone who had been watching the whole thing unfold was now staring at Eve with a mixture of fear and appreciation. In the spot where Eve had last seen the pen was now a blackened tarmac that looked as though a bomb had just gone off in its spot. Ruby was on her feet and rushing over to Eve. Isaac was nowhere in sight.
"Isaac? Where's Isaac?" Eve mumbled tiredly.
"He burned up along with the pen." Emma explained, just before Ruby rushed forward and threw her arms around Eve.
"Eve!" Ruby cried, her voice raspy from the air deprivation. "You just saved me!"
"From the looks of it, you just saved this whole town." Emma added, still holding onto Eve as Ruby practically strangled her in a hug.
"I'm glad you're safe Ruby" Eve said slowly, unable to hug Ruby back.
Ruby pulled away with tears streaming down her face. "I'm so sorry I didn't listen to you Eve. I should've given you the chance to explain everything…But I was so horrible…You didn't deserve it."
Eve slowly shook her head. "No, I deserved it. I deserved worse really. I still do. I've been able to do magic this whole time, but I never helped any of you in the countless times when help would've solved problems and…and even saved lives."
Emma stared at the ground, obviously thinking of Neal. Eve suddenly remembered something important, and her head turned to Archie who was the main support for Eve's ability to stand.
"Archie, I need you to take me to Rumple. He's in trouble, and I can help him." Eve mumbled.
"How can you help him, Eve?" Archie asked in shock. "You can't even stand by yourself, let alone help him with his dark heart."
"Archie, just bring me to him. Please" Eve begged.
It took a gruelling three minutes to get to Rumple's shop instead of the usual minute walk, but Eve was practically dead weight as she was carried between Archie and Ruby. Eve told them that Rumple would be in the back room, but when they entered the shop, Rumple was slumped on the floor; half-sitting upright against a glass cabinet. He looked minutes away from death, despite Eve's remedy an hour earlier.
"What the bloody hell are you all doing here?" Rumple gasped, glaring up at the three of them with dissatisfaction as more people filed into the shop behind them.
Eve ordered Ruby and Archie to set her down beside Rumple, who was watching her with wary eyes.
"You survived the war with the author then?" He noted scathingly.
"Didn't even break a sweat" Eve joked with a shaky breath.
"I didn't use your stone, you know." Rumple sneered, but he was too weak to add much venom to his voice.
"I know" Eve huffed, straightening herself so that she was mostly turned in Rumple's direction.
"You look awful, dearie." Rumple stated, looking her up and down.
"You can't talk" Eve breathed, giving him a weak smile. "Now stop interrupting me for a second while we solve your little problem."
"Eve…"
Eve looked around and remembered that the shop was full of faces looking down at her and Rumple.
"Whatever you're planning to do, I don't think you'll survive it." It was Regina, who had a bruise on one side of her head.
"I agree with Regina." Emma stepped forward. "The amount of magic you just used to defeat the author…That would've been enough to kill me – and Regina combined."
"What you're about to do is dangerous" Snow spoke up. "I know you want to right your wrongs but dying isn't the right thing to do here."
"None of you know for sure that I'll die." Eve explained, purposefully sounding stronger in her voice.
"Dying for me won't make up for everything you know"
Eve turned back to look at Rumple, who was glaring at her through weak eyes.
"The power that you have?" Rumple continued, despite his poor condition. "You could've helped so many times. You may as well have been every villain that we have faced in this town. And as for saving me from Zelena? You could've done better than that. You could've saved my son."
Eve's eyes filled with tears as Rumple stared back at her, but suddenly, Rumple's eyes began to roll and his head slumped forward as he passed out.
"No…" Eve leaned forward with outstretched hands.
"Eve, don't!" Archie cried, but it was too late.
The moment Eve's hands were on Rumple's chest, she poured every last bit of magic remaining in her system into Rumple's heart. People were shouting at her to stop, but the sight of Rumple's eyes fluttering open was enough to spur Eve to continue until she got to a point where she was sure that she couldn't stop even if she wanted to. It was as though her hands were made of metal and Rumple's chest was magnet. She felt the magic dissolved from her veins as her heart beat slowed and her lungs began to exhale the final bits of air from her body. The voices around became muffled and her vision began to fade on the edges with only Rumple's waking face in focus, until eventually even he became blurred and then, all at once; everything went black.
Eve woke up lying down on her side. The grass beneath her was dying and brown, with a faint red tint to the blades. She looked beyond the ground surrounding her and eventually realised she was lying in the middle of a cemetery. Eve knew she had died. It wasn't the plan, but she knew it was a possibility. She didn't even feel like crying, because her misery was too strong for something so therapeutic as tears.
Rising to her feet, Eve dusted herself down and gauged her surroundings. The cemetery was vast, and she couldn't see an end in any direction. The idea to walk in any one direction occurred to her, but Eve didn't have the patience. Instead she closed her eyes, breathed in deeply, and then bent her knees before kicking off the ground. When she didn't feel the wind rushing through her hair, she opened her eyes and frowned in confusion to find herself still standing on solid ground.
Keen to suss out the issue of her magic immediately, Eve stretched out her arms and stared intently at her palms. She concentrated on her palms, visualising a ball of fire bursting alight in each but nothing happened after over a minute of intense concentration. She dropped her hands down to her sides and thought for a moment, and the silence made her realise that her heart wasn't beating anymore. With that realisation, she willed her heart to start beating – not even sure how she managed to do it. Once her heart was pumping blood and magic through her veins again, Eve attempted a second time to ignite balls of fire in her hand. She was immediately successful.
Slightly smug with herself, Eve turned her attention back to her original plan to find a way out of the cemetery. She looked up at the sky and repeated her movements, and within moments she was soaring through the air. At higher heights, Eve could see what appeared to be the ruins of Storybrooke to the West, tinged by the red sky above. Instead of letting herself descend completely, Eve used her knowledge of elemental magic and manipulated the wind in order to allow her to glide through the air at a height high-enough to have an idea of which direction to head. Within minutes, she reached the edge of the cemetery where she finally landed back to Earth and continued in a walk towards the outskirts of the town.
Eve spent the next several hours wandering through her strange, new surroundings. From what she could see, this place was the sadder, decaying version of Storybrooke – she figured it was Storybrooke in her mind, as it was the place where she died, but that was only a theory. The only concrete facts she had were that she had most definitely died and was still dead, but that she had her magic to protect her from whatever situation she was in now.
The puzzling part of the whole experience was that Eve didn't feel panic. She wasn't scared and the lack of explanations didn't trouble her. Instead Eve walked through the alternate Storybrooke with a sense of dread swirling in her stomach. Her final moments of life had been spent listening to the words she was most frighten to hear, and they came from the mouth of the person she loved most. The only reason she had the will to investigate her surroundings was knowing that she had most definitely saved Rumple's life. Plus, she was pretty curious to see if she was in any particular danger in her current situation – not worried; just curious.
The people she passed on the streets looked equally as miserable as she did, but she recognised none of them. It seemed as though the town was a dead version of Storybrooke, and the people occupying it must have been – like Eve – very dead. No one interacted with her, or even gave much time to looking in her general direction and so Eve didn't stop and ask people questions.
Eventually, Eve found herself walking into the Rabbit Hole bar. She summoned a wad of money into the back pocket of her black jeans and sat down on a stool at the bar. The bartender was relatively handsome with dark hair, broad shoulders, and surprisingly kind eyes that crinkled in the corners when he gave Eve a welcoming smile.
"What can I get you?" He asked, his accent much like Emma Swan's man; Killian.
"Double vodka, please." Eve rasped, realising that they were her first words as a dead woman.
"Sure thing."
Eve watched the man get to work and within a minute, he slid a large shot glass full of clear liquid towards her. Eve rooted in the back pocket of her jeans and produced a ten dollar bill, and the bartender froze.
"Oh…" He noted, giving Eve a knowing look, and then a smile. "You're new here then."
"Money isn't the currency here?" Eve asked confidently, although on the inside she felt incredibly dumb.
The bartender shook his head. "Favours are, usually. Personal belongings…"
"The barter system, really?" She asked doubtfully.
He smiled at her reaction. "Unfortunately so. It's the only currency worth anything down here."
"Okay…Well what do you need?" Eve asked, leaning forward slightly over the bar.
The bartender shrugged. "What do you have?"
"I asked first." Eve stated bluntly.
The bartender folded his arms and thought deeply. "For now…Just your name."
"My name?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Yes."
"I'm Eve Claro."
"That's a nice name" He gave her a smile, watching her gulp down the vodka in one.
"You said 'down here' earlier…" Eve began. "If this is down, what is up?"
"Up is the land of the living…" He answered.
"So…Is this what you would call Hell then?" Eve asked, furrowing her brow.
"Hell?"
Eve turned her head to follow the new voice. There was a group of ragged-looking men entering the bar, with one man clearly leading the way in and seemed to be the owner of the voice.
"You must be a newbie, sweet cheeks."
The man already sounded drunk, and Eve didn't appreciate the name-calling so she chose to look back at the bartender and ignore the man completely. She heard him snigger, and heard him approach her before she could smell his stench invade her personal space.
"Leave her alone" The bartender warned, placing both his hands on the bar in balls of fists.
The man turned to the bartender and grinned – the group of men behind him chuckling. "Liam Jones."
Eve's head snapped up to study the bartender's face. He must have been Cillian's brother…Or father, if he died at a young age.
"Do you here this, men?" The man growled at his friends. "Liam Jones, of all people, thinks he can tell me what to do. What should I do, I wonder?"
Eve heard a variation of threats and encouragements of violence from the group, all the while studying Liam's face. He looked angry, but there was a hint of guilt in his eyes for some reason.
"I agree!" The man declared.
He started walking around to Eve's other side, where there was a small hinged door that led to the inside part of the bar where Liam was starting to back away. The man was about to step through when Eve's arm jutted out and hit the man's chest like a barrier.
"Listen here, sweetheart" The man stepped to his side and was now only inches from Eve's face. His voice was menacing. "You just stay out of my business, because believe me honey; you don't want to get involved with me and my men."
Eve stepped off the stool and stood on her feet, keeping eye contact with the man the entire time. "I would recommend leaving now. You're threatening a bartender in his own bar, and on top of that, your nicknames are starting to piss me off."
The man opened his mouth to say something else, but something behind Eve caused the man to shut up and step away from Eve; his head bowed slightly in sign of respect.
"What seems to be the trouble here then?"
Eve looked over her shoulder and saw David standing in front of her. Her eyes went wide and her jaw slacked slightly. She turned around to completely face him, and stared up and down before realising that it couldn't be David. She had heard of his twin, James, who apparently had been horrible.
"This lady just got into town" The man explained with a sneer. "Thinks she can get involved in other people's business and cause trouble."
James looked down at Eve with a cocky smirk that made her want to slap him in the face. "Well that's just unacceptable!"
"They were the ones causing the trouble" Eve replied bluntly, folding her arms.
"Is that right?" James said sarcastically, and then bent his knees slightly to be at eye level with Eve. "You see, little miss – these fellows here are a part of Mr. Jones' punishment. It's the Lord Hades' orders, and getting in the way of the Lord's orders? Well…that has consequences."
"Lord Hades?" Eve glared up at James, unfazed by the threat.
"That's right. He's the boss in this town, and I'm his deputy – the sheriff of this town. And I'm afraid you're going to have to come with me."
James went to take hold of Eve's arm, but she caught his wrist before he could touch her. James looked outraged, while the rest of the audience filled the air with shock and tension.
"That was a big mistake" James warned with a dark smile.
He twisted his way out of Eve's grip and swung his other arm with an open palm – probably having the intentions of slapping Eve across the face. Eve easily ducked out of harm's way before responding with a palm full of energy that hit James square in the chest and sent him skidding across the floorboards until he hit the wooden framing of the front door.
"She can do magic?!"
Eve looked around and saw all of the raggedy men back away from her with a hint of fear in their eyes. Even Liam took a few steps back, looking surprised. James, however, looked angry more than anything else as he straightened up and coughed.
"You'll regret doing that, just you wait." James hissed angrily, before exiting the bar with the group of men following closely behind them.
Unfazed, Eve sat back in her original stool and sighed deeply before ordering another double vodka. She only looked up when Liam didn't reply to her order. The man was still standing at what he thought was a safe distance, and his eyes were wide as he stared.
"You can use your magic?" He asked in a stammer.
"Em…Yeah?" Eve replied with a frown. "I helped you out?"
"And I'm grateful, thank you – please don't mistake my question for ungratefulness. It's just…None of the sorcerers are able to do magic down here." Liam explained, coming to his senses and began to pour Eve's drink.
"How come?" Eve asked, taking the shot glass from Liam.
"It's Lord Hades' wish." Liam stated.
"Right…" She replied. "And what? He's the boss of this place?"
"He's the Lord of the Underworld, yes. The god of death." Liam explained, clearly astonished by Eve's lack of concern.
"The Underworld, huh? That's what this place is called?"
"Yes…It's the place for souls who have unfinished business."
"Unfinished business…" Eve repeated thoughtfully. "I see."
And with that, Eve knocked back the vodka. "I'm assuming that one is a freebie considering what I just did for you."
"Of course…" Liam replied with a frown. "Listen…You don't realise what you've done. James will report you to Lord Hades…They'll come after you."
"Do you think it'll be today?" Eve asked calmly.
"Most-likely, James is speaking with the Lord right now…"
"Oh right…" Eve replied. "In that case, I'll have one more round before they come and fetch me."
Liam stared at her, unmoving.
"What?" Eve asked, looking up at him with a slight smile.
"You're not worried?!"
She shrugged. "Ever since I died, I haven't felt worry or panic or fear. Is that not a part of the whole being dead thing?"
Liam shook his head slowly, still staring.
"Huh, well then maybe I'm just a bit crazy in the afterlife." Eve summarised. "Now can I please have that drink?"
With a small frown, Liam poured her another drink and passed it to her. He pretended to wipe down the bar for a few minutes, while Eve watched him instead of paying attention to her drink.
"Did you know those men? When you were alive?" Eve asked eventually.
Liam didn't look up from his task. "Yes I did."
"I couldn't help noticing you looked a bit…guilty in their company." Eve stated, looking down at her shot glass.
Liam stopped and looked up at her. "You have a keen eye."
She shrugged. "Responsible for their deaths?"
Liam looked slightly horrified. "How could you possibly know that?"
"I know that guilt." Eve gave him a sad smile. "I have that guilt."
"I'm sorry you have to bear it." Liam replied in a tight voice.
Eve opened her mouth to play off his politeness, but she was interrupted by the sound of footsteps entering the bar's front door.
She turned and saw the silhouette of man standing in the door way with his hands resting inside of his black coat pocket. Behind him, she saw James and the leading ragged man. She looked back at her drink, and then at Liam, before looking back at her drink and then knocking it back. When she placed her glass neatly back down on the bar, the three men entered the bar. The unknown man walked forward and sat in the stool beside her. James and the ragged man stood to the side awkwardly, clearly expecting something more dramatic.
"I'll take a brandy, Mr. Jones." His voice was overly pleasant, like a snake charming its food before devouring it.
Liam didn't hesitate and got the man's drink within seconds, as Eve continued watching just Liam; ignoring the man who she was certain was this Lord Hades.
"I hear a certain newbie has caused a spot of trouble in my town." The man commented while breathing in the scent of his brandy.
Eve glanced at him, noticing that he was staring straight ahead like she had been. He had short blonde hair that was slightly spiked at the top of his head. He had a distinct jawline, and frown lines framing his thin, smirking lips. His hooded eyes were a piercing blue with smiling lines at the corners. He wore a suit underneath the black overcoat, and had a deep blue handkerchief neatly jutting out of the breast pocket of his coat. He was handsome, in a strange and unsettling way.
"You don't say?" Eve replied endearingly calm. "I hadn't heard…"
"Apparently the newbie attacked my pet sheriff" He mused, taking a sip of the brandy. "Quite the serious offence."
"I see…" Eve nodded, staring straight ahead. "I'm sure this sheriff went straight to his boss and tattled rather than staying to fight his own battles."
The remark resulted in a growl erupting from James in the background, but a chuckle from the man sitting in the seat beside Eve.
"You have a fair point" He chimed with a laugh. "But I'm afraid that's not the whole story."
The man then turned in his seat to face Eve, so she slowly turned her head to look at him after a few moments dragged by.
"You see, word on the street is that this new arrival used magic to attack my poor little pet." He explained with bright eyes and a smile, as if they were two old friends gossiping.
Eve didn't say anything and just gave the man the smallest of smiles.
"Magic doesn't usually work around here without my permission, did you know that?"
Eve shook her head slowly, keeping eye contact with him the entire time with the calmest of expressions on her face.
"So I suppose knowing that, you could understand why my poor pet sheriff ran away to tell his boss what happened – don't you agree?"
"I think any good sheriff would have stood his ground. No man with authority should run from a battle, he has a responsibility to fight his own battles as a way of example for the people he oversees." Eve answered coyly, glancing over at James who was turning a shade of bright red.
The man smiled at her again, shaking his head and then bursting out into a fit of laughter. "Oh James, I'm jealous you found this fine woman first! She's a delight!"
James' face fell, as did the ragged man beside him – but neither protested and instead remained silent. Eve could feel Liam standing frozen behind the bar; too tense to move a muscle.
"Would you care for a tour of my town?" He asked suddenly.
Eve was caught-off guard, and she blinked at him. "I'm sorry?"
"I understand that you're a new arrival" He explained earnestly. "Who better to show you around than the god who's running it?"
He slid off the stool and stood to his feet before giving Eve a small bow. "The name is Hades. Lord of the Underworld, at your service."
Eve whirled in her stool to fully face Hades before she stood to her feet calmly, and then she curtsied. "Eve."
To her surprise, the god took her hand in his and kissed it. "I can already tell that you and I will get along just fine."
Author's Note: So this is a pretty mad chapter, and I'm sorry if it's too rushed but I love the Underbrooke storyline so much that I had to get to it as quickly as I could! I'm in the middle of writing the next chunk of chapters, but it'll be a while before a post a lot of chapters in a short amount of time. I'm starting my second semester next week so this story will act as procrastination more so than a dedicated project. I hope you can be understanding! Thanks again for all the love the story has received so far!