The group had been out on the search for Rumpelstiltskin throughout the day, the group splitting up into twos to expand a wider search which included Nadri and David heading over to the Dark One's shop in a bid of maybe find some sort of trace of him or where he might have gone. Nadri wasn't sure how she would react upon seeing Rumpelstiltskin's face again after what had happened in the far past and in the Underworld but something deep inside of her was trying to persuade her that erasing him from the Earth would be the better option for everyone.
Nadri and David headed through the front door of the pawnshop, the heavy wooden creaking open as they peered around the door. The shop was dark, only the light from the front windows streamed through and lit up the shadows that were cast across the floors. The displays were full of all sorts of knickknacks and curiosities, there was enough of a magical aura that Nadri could have felt it humming through her.
"I was at least expecting a protection spell." David aired his suspicion, closing the door behind them as he watched the dark-haired woman go ahead in front of him. She walked up to a glass cabinet, her violet eyes scanning every detail of the artefacts on display. Her eyes traced the details of a crown that was once on the head of a great, vicious King – only to be stolen away by a madman obsessed with power. Her palm rested on the glass that was protecting it, its obsidian jewels glaring back at her with the sickness that surrounded it. "Nadri?"
"Why is this here?" A croaked whisper left her lips, gazing at the crown in the case as she felt the dragon sickness try and consume her like it did the others. "It shouldn't be here." She wanted to smash the case open, shatter it into bone dust so it could never curse another person that had a hunger for power and control.
"When Storybrooke was made this shop held all of the magical items of the realms. My sword was here, Emma's mobile…Is it yours?" David questioned her as he approached the smaller woman, towering behind her as he watched carefully at Nadri analysing the case.
"We Dovah never had the pleasure of being royalty." Nadri sighed, looking down. "Dovah don't have royalty. It is a matter of how many can destroy cities and kill Kings. I…I killed the King of our realm and this was his."
The fierce dragon flew down on top of the castle with such a speed that as it pushed its strong legs down, it pushed and broke through the stones of the roofing causing a wide collapse on the tower. Screeches and roars were heard from the dragon as it flied around, breathing fire rapidly down on the castle to ensure that every soldier that attempted to fight back or guard it were burnt in a flashfire.
Elves fought below, pushing their way through as they fought bravely with the enemy. Fire and black smoke engulfed the Kings Reach. It was a massacre and all of the carnage that ensued was all down the dragon flying in the clouds within the darkness.
"We can take it, Nadri!" The rider on her back yelled, holding the sword tightly in his hand so hard that his knuckles were white. He held tightly to golden bracelet around the slender neck of the dragon, the only thing left after he had set her free. "We don't want to burn the castle to the ground."
"What makes you think that I don't want to, wunduniik? The King will burn and the ruins will be his grave."
"Nadri no! We need make him surrender the city to the Elves!" Nathaniel yelled down, the wind blowing through his hair fiercely as she flew at full-speed. "We need to go in, slow down!" Nathaniel shouted again, Nadri looking back to the man on her back with a snarl before turning sharply in the air, talons hitting against another tall city building as she turned so quickly. Nadri headed back towards the castle, smoke and destruction following in her wake as the rage of imprisonment consumed her.
She swooped down into the keep, slowing down as she got closer into the hole that she had made from the explosion. The beast's feet hit the ground and Nathaniel slid off Nadri's back, stumbling on the floor of the throne hall. Nadri snarled, grumbled and growled as she began to walk forward, her intimidating features angering. The dragon shouted harshly at the tall walls and doors that stopped her in her tracks, the explosion ripping them from the hinges as if she had barely made an effort towards them. Nathaniel followed, huffing trying to catch his breath from being in the air for so long, his hair wet and sticking to his face.
They were met with the King lounging in his throne, a gristly old smile sitting on his face as the outside world burned to ashes. The crown glinted from his head, a crown formed of broken dragon teeth and shattered obsidian shards that had taken the creatures down. He was dressed in his finest robes, a mixture of sheer gold and deep black that elaborated just how dark this man was. His old face was worn, black beady eyes glaring into the two beings in front of him.
"The village traveller waged war upon the city with a dragon. How quaint." The old man spoke, his voice gravelly and dark. Nathaniel raised his sword to the man that sat there, Nadri's teeth gleaming ready to burn the man alive and pick her teeth with his bones. "So what now, you plan to wear the crown yourself? Give it to the slaves? You've burnt the city into ashes."
"You will surrender the city into my hands to give back to the leaders of the Elves. They would rather a free city over a terrorized one. If you surrender, you will be imprisoned in the mountain and if you don't…well…wrong choice, old man."
"I won't part with a single coin of my treasure!" The King roared and Nadri screeched, the noise shaking the walls and rubble around them.
"Then I suggest you pray to the Gods, jun because where I will send you won't be pleasant."
"It should not be in this realm, or any realm. I can only imagine the Dark One brought this here." Nadri told David, staring at the case, tears glossing over her eyes as David rested a hand on her shoulder caringly. She reached up for it, looking up at him over her shoulder. "It must be destroyed."
"Gold isn't here, we can take it with us. After all, he has taken enough from us as it is." David told her, patting her shoulder before approaching the case and his fingers reached out to clasp the edges of the glass box but Nadri slapped his hands away. "What's wrong?!"
"Dragon sickness is a fate worse than death for a mortal man. You will kill those you love for all of the power, jewels and coin in the world and even that is not enough." Nadri told him off with a hiss, not wanting him to put himself at risk of what it could do to him. David held his hands up in defence and Nadri rested her hands on the glass before carefully pulling up the box that enclosed it. The sickness hummed within the crown, she shrugged off the cardigan that wrapped around her and used it to cover her hands as she picked up the crown fearfully. "You must not touch this. No matter how much it speaks to you."
"Nadri-" David shook his head as she steadily pulled it from the cabinet and held it protectively in her hands. It was like dismantling a bomb from going off in her hands, the crown bought a fear within her that she had not felt since Nathaniel placed the thing upon his head.
"You think I jest?" Nadri staggered. "This crown is made from teeth of befallen dragons and sealed together with the gold from my mountain. Infection can happen to any mortal. The man who killed me pulled my heart out because the gold and power of the Dovah wasn't enough. The Dark One has owned enough of my things."
"We'll see if Regina can help us destroy it without anyone else getting their hands on it." David promised her as she wrapped the crown tightly and held it against her chest. "Will you not get sick?"
"I was surrounded by this sickness for all of my life, kulaan even in this human form." David had a quick rinse through the store, trying to search for anything else that might have been left behind by Rumpelstiltskin. They left the store briskly, hurrying back to the apartment where everyone was told to go once they had finished searching around for any trace of the Dark One. Nadri entered the Blanchard apartment first, looking around wildly for something to contain the crown and hide it away.
"Where's the fire?" Regina was the first one to interegate Nadri as she came steaming through the apartment, rushing up the stairs to find the box under the bed that she had come across previously in the Underworld. She just hoped it was still here in the land of the living. "No Gold then?"
"No Gold, but we found an artefact from Nadri's land in Gold's shop. It's dangerous to say the least." David announced to the others who were waiting for them, Killian, Emma and Snow sitting at the table waiting for their return.
"Great! Something else we need." Regina exclaimed and David shot her a glare.
"It just needs to be destroyed. It's some sort of sickness."
"Dragon sickness?" Killian piped up curiously, his eyes glancing to his partner who had pulled the chest out from underneath the bed and shoved the crown inside hurriedly and shut the chest.
"How do you know that?" Emma asked and Killian's eyes still laid on Nadri as she picked up the chest with a grunt, coming back down the stairs with it lugged in her arms.
"Dragons and gold mate." Killian shrugged, reaching out for Nadri as she came over to the table and rested the chest down with a thud. "What is it, love?"
"I need this gone. Canon fire, obliterated, I don't care for how it disappears but it needs to go." Anxiety overwhelmed Nadri, feeling her blood run cold just knowing that the crown was in her possession. "Can you destroy it, saviik?" Nadri turned to the Savior and the blonde nodded, still worried for Nadri's state of mind as she looked as if she was going to feint. "I can't imagine anyone falling ill under this." Nadri opened the box up and Emma peered inside, seeing the crown sitting there intimidatingly.
Emma and Regina shuddered as the energy influenced the room, almost as if it laid a blanket of ice in the air. Nadri took the jacket of Killian's arm, pulling him away from the table forcefully to keep him away from the box. He protested at first but Nadri held her hand up to his chest not wanting him to get any closer to the crown.
"Raaviirs and treasure, Killian. If anyone is more drawn to a sickness like this it would be you, lokaal." Nadri told him, concerned for his life, as Killian looked down sheepishly. Emma brought her hand above the crown, a white light emitting from her hand as it tried to push down and crush the crown's dark energy. It pushed back at Emma angrily, humming a language that she couldn't understand. "Don't listen to it, Emma." Nadri could understand its trancing words, trying to lure Emma in.
She continued, focusing harder and the light managed to completely cover the dark cloud, smothering it and snuffing it out with the light.
The crown fell apart into bone dust and minerals of golden specks and obsidian pieces.
"What was that?" Emma dropped her hand with a groan, feeling the weakness to her magic. It was like every moment she was trying to crush the crown within the force it was just pulling the magic from her further and further.
"It was trying to overcome the light. Dragon sickness is a very powerful sorcery." Nadri explained, still weary of the crumbs of dust on the table. "I'm sorry, I had to make sure it didn't fall into the wrong hands. It should never have been in that shop to begin with." Nadri profusely apologised, sitting down on one of the spare chairs and placed her head in her hands. Her eyes still darting over at the remains, still expecting it to hold powerful danger.
"It's been sitting in the shop as long as I can remember. I've never noticed it before." Snow voiced her opinion at the end of the table next to Zelena, they had stayed behind with both babies while everything was occurring with Rumpelstiltskin and the Olympian Crystal.
"You don't have a darkness for power and wealth." Nadri retorted and Killian sat next to her, rubbing her back soothingly as she felt her anxieties rocket up and down. She breathed deeply, slowly, trying to calm herself down. "I'm sorry for worrying you all."
"If you had your own power you'd have been able to destroy it yourself." Regina shot spitefully, Nadri snapping her head up at the witch with a furious face.
"I understand Robin died, I liked him. He was on my side. You are nothing but spiteful blaming the wrong souls for his death! Is this it? This is what I'll have every day because I was given a second chance after I was murdered? My first concern was making sure that thing was obliterated for your family's sake, for the town." Poison laced Nadri's words as they left her mouth sharply. The atmosphere ran cold, tension beginning to thicken between them. No one in the room was expecting the massive rage that came from Nadri's mouth. Regina pressed her lips together about to give Nadri as good as she can give but was cut off by the intermittent beeping from her mobile in her pocket.
Regina reached down, rummaging in her pocket and pulled her mobile out. Her face changed, raising her eyebrows and shortly after Emma's phone also vibrated and beeped as the message came through.
"Mom, there's only one way to fix everything that's tearing us apart. I have to destroy-"
"-The source of all of our problems.' I got the same text." Emma announced as she finished Regina's sentence as she read out Henry's message. Nadri lifted her head up, frowning as they all looked around each other with confused expressions.
"What does he mean? What is the source of all of our problems?" Emma asked back to Regina and back down at her phone, knitting her eyebrows. "What is he going to destr-"
"Well, I think I can answer that." Another voice strolled through the door. Nadri shot up from her space at the table, almost knocking Killian out of his chair at how fast she stood up. She clenched her fists tightly, feeling her body powered by anger. "Well, you're looking lovely dearie." Rumpelstiltskin flashed her a smile, but there was a mask of annoyance behind it. "Retrieving old things from home were you?" He gestured to the table where the dust lay in the chest and Nadri approached him.
"If I had my power I would obliterate you."
"Funny. Last time I heard you have no power at all, all for love eh?" Rumpelstiltskin brushed past Nadri as if she was a part of the furniture, not giving her a second look. "If you had power, we wouldn't be here right now, dearie. You no longer have anything to offer me." Nadri balled her hands into fists, almost feeling an overwhelming need to pound on Rumple as he strolled past her. "It would appear my grandson has outsmarted us all, used his authorial power to steal the crystal right out from under my nose."
"Would Henry even do that... destroy magic?"
"We'd better hope he doesn't." Rumpelstiltskin's voice was fed up and angry after being duped by his own grandson.
"Why? What happens if Henry succeeds?"
"Considering this town was built with magic, what do you think will happen?"
"He would never destroy magic if he knew it could hurt us." Emma shook her head, not believing a single word that came from the Dark One's mouth. The man built his career of darkness on lies and manipulation through his contracts and everyone in the town knew that they couldn't trust him at all.
"I'll be sure to tell him that right before I take the crystal back." Rumpelstiltskin threatened and Regina stepped in front of him, raging with fury. The look that Regina gave him could have turned him into dust.
"Don't you dare go near my son."
"Sorry, dearie, but he's threatening me now." Rumpelstiltskin turned his head to Nadri. "If I was you, dearie, I'd stay on my good side after the stunt you pulled with your contract." He flicked his hands and a gulf of red and black smoke appeared around him and he disappeared from their sight.