Nadri continued to feel on edge from Rumpelstiltskin's presence in the Blanchard apartment. She felt useless in the group after Regina and Emma had left to go find Henry, Nadri no longer had the power that she needed to put the Dark One back in his place. Everything he did made her feel like there was always going to be a punishment behind it, it was like living under Hades' roof all over again. The artefacts that Rumpelstiltskin had brought into this town, especially those that belonged in Asari, were filled with enough dark magic and devastating properties that the whole town could have been dealing with a fate worse than death that no one would have been able to cure.
Nadri stood next to Killian in the middle of the street as the newer residents of Storybrooke began to leave through the portal that Zelena had conjured in the middle of the crossroad. Killian caught Nadri up of what had occurred before she had come back, new residents had come from Camelot, Sherwood Forest and other realms – if magic was to be destroyed then they would never be able to get back to where they came from.
"Do you think they'll be okay?" Nadri viewed the pirate before glancing to the portal. It was a golden frame holding a thick ebony door in the middle, embossed with small delicate details of the portal's spell. "Going from this realm to another I know how difficult it is." Her arms were folded over her chest, wearing her cardigan again from the chilly wind that rolled through the town. Killian smiled softly down at her with an arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple.
"I hope so, love. They'll be better off there instead of here right now." Killian comforted. Nadri watched as Zelena approached Robin's little boy, lowering herself down his level to speak to him. He seemed like a sweet, quiet boy. Nadri had not been around children until she died, she met the poor souls that were taken too soon and felt her heart weep for them. Children were new to her, they were small relentless beings that puzzled her with their sight in the obvious world. Henry knew more about Nadri that she was expecting when they first met, they seem to have this 6th sense. "Brooding, ey love?" Killian nudged her playfully, tracing her eyes to Roland and Zelena.
"Human children scare me, raaviir." Nadri huffed with a smile, still observing the group near the portal. She brushed her curls back behind her ear, observing the little boy leaving with Little John behind him. "They are small beings with loud and cheerful noise. I have never met souls as pure as children." Killian couldn't help but silently disagree there as she hadn't had the pleasure of coming across the Lost Boys from Neverland.
"Liam and I were never like that. We spent more time scrubbing a ship in our childhood than any other time in our lives." Killian thought, frowning as he remembered back. "I could never inflict that on my child."
"I know, Killy. I imagine that you would have more pride than to give your child to a life at sea." Nadri grasped his hand, squeezing him. His jaw was tensed up, still frowning as he couldn't help but think back to when his father had sold both him and Liam into servitude. Nadri's words were soothing and caring, he could hear the hurt around her words as if she could feel his pain with him.
Well…she could. She knew exactly how he felt.
"I love you, Nadri." Killian turned back to the elegant woman unexpectedly. "As long as the sea is full, I will love you." Her soft features brightened, purple eyes twinkling back at him. The weather began to change dramatically, the clouds darkening around the portal once all of the temporary residents had disappeared through it. Nadri immediately reached for Killian's hand, grasping it as a ghastly wind came roaring through the portal and into their realm.
"What the bloody hell is going on?!" Killian brought his hook up, trying to keep the wind from battering him in the face as it rushed through the air.
"The portal!" Zelena shouted back, trying to control the portal and get it to vanish with her wand. David kept Snow and their son as well as Zelena's daughter away from the magical force that had begun to flood through the portal. They stayed back with Granny as Zelena kept trying to wrangle the magic, it was like trying to stay put on a riled up bull that is trying to buck you off. "It's the crystal, it's messing around with my magic!" The four of them felt a violent pull, sucking them into the clouds of the open portal and with a thundering crack, they were gone from Storybrooke.
Nadri's body crinkled with electricity as she fell into the grass below. Dizziness floated around her head as she tried to push herself up from the ground and adjust to feeling like she had done a hundred somersaults throughout the air at full speed. She breathed deeply, her arms slick with cold sweat and that's when the feeling came up, opening her mouth and puking on the grass below. Nadri coughed and spluttered, trying to stand up on shaky, unstable legs. Nadri straightened herself up and then felt like ice cold water was poured through her chest and she dropped backwards again, this time falling into the arms of the figure behind her.
"Here, let me help you." Nadri felt her body being picked up by strong hands, David Charming lifting her up effortlessly. "What happened to her?" David looked over to what Nadri could just about make out was Zelena with blurred vision. She could barely breathe, it felt as if the portal had taken every ounce of energy from her.
"She's human, Pretty. That was the first magic portal she's been in since we've been back and that wasn't a pleasant one. She might be alright in a few hours. Where are we?" Zelena explained, brushing off their concerns as she looked around at the new forest that they had been brought into. The forest was tremendous, misty and verdant, there was an eerie aura surrounding the trees. They looked over through the forest and saw a rocky verge, beyond that was a towering mansion that almost resembled some sort of hospital or institution.
"Well it's not Storybrooke." Killian shot, brushing himself down effortlessly as he approached Nadri laying in David's arms worriedly. All he could see was when Hades brought Nadri into the throne room, dropping her in front of him like a lifeless ragdoll. All he could feel was dread, pressing his hand against her face and feeling the burning tingles. "Hey love, I'm here." Nadri's cheeks were flushed, barely able to open her eyes to meet Killian's alarmed face. "How was the ride?" A ghost of a smile appeared on Nadri's face, David managing to try and sit her up in his arms. She weakly cradled her head, a pounding sensation on both of her temples.
"I haven't been through a portal that zovodrem…violent before." Nadri mumbled and David helped her up from the grass carefully, Killian lending a hand also. "Thank-you – for catching me." She managed a smile on her paled face towards David, Killian biting the inside of his cheek as he saw her eyes light up on him.
"It was that or I was going to be carrying you everywhere from being knocked out." David warmly spoke, his smile stretched across his face. Nadri rested against Killian, holding her close in his arms. Nadri looked for his comfort and his warmth, still feeling as if she had been hit by a car.
She still looked peaky, the colour drained further from her already pale face. He looked back at the scenery around them and then back to Zelena as she looked torn over the broken wand that laid in her hands.
"Please don't tell me-"
"That this was our only way back? Yes."
"You can fix it right?"
"Do you have any duct tape? We're not affixing the bumper to that God-awful truck of yours. This requires the proper potions, none of which I have with me." Zelena was restless, huffing and puffing as she put the two snapped pieces of her wand back into her coat protectively. "If we don't find Regina and Emma before Henry destroys magic, fixing this wand won't matter. We'll be cut off from Storybrooke for good."
"We've only just got back to Storybrooke there is no way we are going to be stuck here!" Killian exclaimed, barely believing himself that they had once again gotten caught up in another dangerous situation. He promised Nadri that he would keep her safe and they were yet again thrown into something else he didn't think he could get her out of. "Nadri is sick and we need to find those potions, we can go there and see if we can get help." Killian took charge, pointing towards the building on the other end of the forest.
Killian helped Nadri along as they walked through the forest, keeping hold of her as she staggered. David kept close to them as Zelena led the way, the only one out of the four of them that had any magic at all. David offered to carry Nadri if she was struggling to go on but Killian couldn't help but feel that nagging pang of jealously beginning to bite at him. He knew that David loved Snow, of course he did, and they were true love as were he and Nadri. He just wanted to prove to Nadri that he was the one that could look after her and protect her, he didn't want Nadri to doubt him in anyway.
The group managed to get out into the grounds surrounding the old building. A jade patch of grass was enclosed by neatly trimmed hedges and flower bushes. A fountain stood in the back of the garden, offering an element of tranquillity. The smaller flower bushes are in need of some care and love, where David was the first to hear the clipping of sheers nipping at the flowers. David turned back to the group and pressed a finger to his lips, silently moving around the flowering shrubs to see someone neatening up the garden. Blonde hair was combed back neatly to reveal a tired face, eyes focusing as hard as they could on the flowers he was cutting. He was a skinny man, dressed in clothes that were unlike their own, a smaller waist coat underneath his long coat held a small chain watch in the left pocket.
"Excuse me." David's voice alerted the man first, breaking out of his concentration and was paralysed with fear upon looking at the group of travellers. "Can you tell us what land we're in?" The man fled like a wild beast startled by a hunter David catching him by the arm of his coat and pulled him back. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! No need to run!"
"Please don't hurt me." He begged in a measly voice, scrunching his face up as if David was about to physically hurt him.
"We just want to know what land we're in." David approached carefully.
"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." He said again, fearful.
"It's okay, you don't have to be afraid of us, faas gein." Nadri managed out weakly as she rested against Killian, feeling sorry for how terrified and scared this man was. His eyes were darting around for a way out, full of worry that he could be approached by anyone else around on the grounds.
"No, you don't understand. You shouldn't be here. You have to go." He reiterated and Nadri felt nothing but sadness for him. She knew those words, she had said them herself when she warned Killian to go back into his cell in the Underworld. She knew what would happen afterwards.
"We're trying to get home to our families, to a town called Storybrooke?"
"That's a s-strange name."
"We need magic to get back there. Can you help us?"
"Magic? N-No, no, no. M-Magic is dangerous. If I help you, I'll be punished." The man squirmed again, still looking around as he pulled at his coat sleeves anxiously.
"We should leave." Nadri warned David, reaching out for him. "We shouldn't be here. This joor is afraid, we shouldn't get him in trouble."
"Who will you be punished by?" David continued and another figure appeared from behind the bushes, silently creeping up behind the man that cowered in front of them.
"By me." Nadri managed to glimpse the sight of a black rod that emitted sparks and electrical energy before she was shocked with it, her body burning and seizing at the electricity that ran through her muscles and rendered her unconscious in the grass.
"Nadri? Nadri?" Nadri's eyes blinked tiredly, bleary from the agony that still rushed through her body from being put down by the severe shock to her body. The figure cleared above her, being met with Killian's concerned yet handsome face. It was the first face she wanted to see. "You're going through the battle today, love." Killian's comforting warmth was above her, her blood-shot violet eyes adjusted to the inside room that they had been moved into. He tried to help Nadri up from the ground, Killian helping her stand up. She was already beginning to regret running into Emma this morning in Killian's ship, she wished that she had stayed in bed and they could have hidden away in his cabin for the day.
"I guess now we know what that groundsman was so afraid of." David announced as Nadri looked around, the four of the looked around the cage that they had been put in. The rusting metal bars encased them, a prison cell large enough to contain a large beast. There were deep scratches peeling back chips of paint upon the metal, whatever had been in here wanted to desperately get out. The cage was locked up with a big, rounded padlock. Nadri could only assume that the person who had brought them here had the keys to the cage.
"This is not a cage that I have been in before, Ruveyzun." Nadri observed the bars, the damp floors around the cell and the skylight that just barely let in enough sunlight to keep the room somewhat lit. "What a strange dungeon." She still felt tired and drained out from the portal pulling her from one realm to another but the sudden overwhelming anxiety that kicked her in the stomach made her feel worse. She was back in a cage again, trapped.
A prisoner.
Nadri felt her heart begin to race, pushing against Killian gently so she didn't feel so restricted, beginning to take in heavy, deep breaths. She couldn't help but feel the sickness roll through her like crashing waves.
"Killy I can't breathe." Nadri choked out, feeling as if someone was forcing the breath from exiting her lungs. "By the Gods."
"Hey, love. It's okay, I'm here." Killian took her hand tightly as she wheezed, taking in deep breaths to try and calm herself down but her mind was running at a thousand miles per hour.
"I can't be back in a cage, Killy." She struggled to weep. Her hand felt clammy against his, the other hand was against her chest as she could feel every beat trying to escape from her ribcage.
"Breathe, love."
"I am trying to breathe!" Nadri was full of panic, trying to remember Emma's words to get her to calm herself down with breathing in slowly for four seconds and then back out for four seconds. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry, darling. Focus on calming down, that's it good girl." Killian cooed supportively as Nadri internally talked herself off the ledge. He kissed her hand lovingly, leaning against the bars of the cage as she continued to steadily breathe. Zelena ran her hand over the bars, feeling the pulse of magic that kept them from leaving. She refrained from admitting out loud that magic wouldn't get them out of there, pulling David to the side and lowly discussing the situation while Killian continued to comfort his love.
They heard the slamming of doors behind the cell they were in, David and Zelena at the front of the cage where they could see shadows emerging around from behind the locked glass doors of the room they were confined in. The lock turned and the doors opened wide, revealing a man standing there in a neat, well presented suit. His hair was combed back stylishly, a strong, muscular face that held two beady black eyes in his sockets. One of his eyes were severely blood-shot, as if he had been hit around the head too many times.
"There you are…" The voice that came from the man's mouth sounded of someone that had prematurely aged from constant agonising pain. "The prisoners who attacked my groundsman." He stood in front of them, his hands behind his back with a straight posture.
"We didn't attack anyone, zurun gein." Nadri raised an eyebrow to the man standing on the opposite side of the cage, wiping her forehead as she weakly moved towards him. She was still feeling the effects of her panic attack as well as being thrown through a portal unwillingly. "We want to know where we are. We did not ask to be taken here." Nadri leant against the bars and the man analysed her face, approaching the cage even closer.
"Don't you go near her." Killian bit and the dark-haired maniac glanced back at Killian with a lazy eye roll before turning his eyes back to Nadri, barely able to stand against the bars.
"She has got spirit, I can see that." The man complimented to Nadri. "All you need to know is that you don't want to be here, and that you're the ones who are going to be answering my questions. Why are you really here?"
"We just want to get home back to our families." David cut in with a reasoning tone but the man's eyes never left Nadri's. It was like he was trying to scan her over, to find out what she was. She intrigued him. There was something more to this woman and he was desperate to know.
"What…are you? You are not of this world." He raised an eyebrow, her purple eyes gleaming.
"That is none of your concern." Killian hissed behind the bars, the man reached in and plucked him by the throat, pulling him harshly against the bars and Killian yelled out as his cheek came into hard contact with the metal. "Let me go you crazy bastard!" Killian choked out.
"Leave him alone, please." Nadri begged, trying to pull Killian back from the stranger. She may have been small but she tried with all of her might to try and get him to let go.
"I asked you a question. You are in my cage after all." The man's croaking voice gave Nadri the freezing chills that she had felt many times before. "Answer me."
"Dovah. I was a Dovah." He shook his head, throttling Killian more as David came over to help Nadri separate Killian from the man's hands. "Please, let him go. We aren't enemies, we just want to go home."
"You must think me so naive. I know you're lying. I know who really sent you. So tell me... what does the Dark One want?" The man sneered near Killian's face, compressing his grip around his throat further. Nadri felt tears well in her eyes as she desperately kept tugging at Killian's jacket.
"He's too strong." Killian could barely speak, circulation cutting off as his face began to run red.
"Please, please let him go. We have told the vahzen and that won't change if you kill him. Rumpelstiltskin is someone I want to reduce to ash. The reason we are here is because he stole the magic from our suleyksejun…our realm for a mun woman." Nadri hurriedly spoke and suddenly the grip loosened from Killian's throat, the pirate falling back with a cough and spluttering.
"You expect me to believe that the Dark One has found love?" The man looked shell-shocked, as if it would never be able to happen. Well, Nadri couldn't believe it either, everything that she had been filled in on was madness compared to what she had seen of Rumpelstiltskin in the past.
"So whatever grudge you have against him, we have nothing to do with it. Let us go, and you won't have to worry about us ever again." David once again defended the group and the deranged man stepped away from the cage, turning around reeling from the revelation.
"In my experience, if you really don't want to worry about something, you lock it into a cage... A strong cage, like this one. It's when you unlock the cage... that's when the trouble starts."