The Heart of Everything: The Gold Chronicles: Book I Chapter 48: The Final Eclipse, a Tin Man + Once Upon a Time Crossover fanfic

When the crimson moon appears in the skies

That is the time when our world dies

Aramon's Prophecy

Author's Notes: As with chapters past, this one also references The Gold Standard series by Snapegirlkmf and our crossover work How The Queen Stole Christmas

Elba

Oz (The Outer Zone)

Two hours prior to the Final Eclipse

His sacrifice bought them some time, but Wyatt feared deep in his heart that it hadn't been enough. The first blade would be neutralized yet it would only make a slight shift in the Balance. Midnight was approaching and he had to remain in control of his body long enough to stop Katia Zero from destroying the stone Lurline had tethered her life force to. The moment the goddess took her last breath, the destruction would begin and at the stroke of midnight the following day Nonestica would be nothing more than a distant memory for those fortunate enough to survive it.

When DG and the others escaped through one of the few remaining portals Wyatt sought refuge at his cabin in Elba, keeping watch over them through his seeing globe when he wasn't trying to hunt down Katia and the other Sons and Daughters of Shadowlands.

Having so much of his soul under the control of the Dark One had its advantages and disadvantages. It gave him full knowledge of Alemedia's plans to destroy Nonestica in hopes that she would at last be able to escape the prison she'd been placed in by her father centuries ago and walk the mortal realm in her own right, but he had his doubts she would succeed. Hades was subdued yet he was no fool. And Wyatt, as long as his soul remained trapped in her darkness, was preventing the circle of Guardians from being completed.

Temple of Shadows

Two hours prior to the Final Eclipse

"The time has come my brothers and sisters for us to do as our mistress commands and DESTROY Lurline and all her followers!" Katia shouted from her pulpit. "Do her proud and we will take our place in her glorious kingdom…fail and we will perish. Now go!"

She watched them leave, a small smile on her lips. The years of waiting she'd been forced to do would at last be worth it once she took her rightful place as Queen of the new OZ, a new OZ that embraced the darkness rather than subdue it. She summoned the pickaxe she'd taken from the abandoned mines in the Enchanted Forest and teleported herself to the site of Lurline's original temple. The heart of the goddess remained in safe keeping behind those walls but not for much longer.

Temple of Lurline

One hour and thirty minutes prior to the Final Eclipse

Wyatt sat on the floor of the High Priestess's chambers cradling the bruised and bloodied corpse of the woman who had been a second mother to him from the day he met her. Alana Kantrine, High Priestess of the Temple of Lurline had always been fiercely loyal to her goddess, defending her until her last breath.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry I was too late," he sobbed.

"You must hurry Wyatt," he heard Adora advise when she appeared beside him. "There is not much time left. If Katia gets to the emerald…"

"I know," he croaked. "But she was your GRANDMOTHER, Adora! She gave her life for your sister!" He glanced over to where Callux and Medira Benu lay. "As did they."

Adora conjured a globe and waved her hand over it. Alana, Callux and Medira's bodies vanished in a puff of blue smoke and floated over to it.

"The others….Adora, they killed them all."

"I know," she sobbed. "I must take them to their place of rest."

"If it's still there," he added bitterly. She glared at him.

"You are all that stands between this world's destruction and its salvation. Now do what must be done!"

Grey Gale

Twenty minutes prior to The Final Eclipse

Lavinia and Ahamo dismounted their horses, two glowing green doors appearing before them Lavinia held up her hand, the circular marking on her palm glowing as the double doors opened. Ahamo took his wife's hand and followed her inside, recalling his last visit with DG.

She placed the stone on the pedestal, clenched her arm into a fist, pressed it against her shoulder and knelt as a final sign of respect to the eldest of their clan.

"…Rumplestiltskin, now that your memories of your Ozian heritage have returned you should be aware that there is a second prophecy regarding the Eclipse and I have begun to see signs that this prophecy may come to pass."

"Now that you have the Strogoff Emerald in your possession it now will only harness the last of the Ozian magic you carry inside you as well as the magic you have inherited from your ancestors from that land leaving our emerald the only one that still holds the magic and life force of our common ancestor Lurline, the bringer of magic to Oz, Wonderland and the Enchanted Forest. Our emerald is hidden inside the vault of my ancestor Dorothy Gale. Word has reached me that there will be an attempt to locate it and destroy it."

"My life force is fading quickly but I will use all the strength I have left to protect the emerald. If I fail the realms will fall. In my carelessness I have destroyed any chance my own people have of survival from the destruction that will come. If you can locate portals to Wonderland and the Enchanted Forest the combined magic of your magic along with that of my daughters can force your emerald to hold it open long enough to allow people to escape before all the realms are destroyed. I wish you luck, dear cousin...and I thank you with all of my heart for I know you will come to love my daughters as your own, especially my Azkadellia. Her own journey to return to the light after being lost for so long in darkness has been a painful and there is no one else who can bring her more comfort and give her hope more than you and her dear Archie."

She took a deep breath.

"My Azkadellia, had I known the dangers you faced so long ago in that cave I never would have allowed you to become their prisoner. I was such a fool. I should have tried harder to free you. Instead I sent you away, but it was also the will of the OZ that I do so for you and Archie to grow to love each other as the bondmates you were chosen to be. I leave your heart in safe hands now my Azkadellia. I love you. I know I do not need to ask you to continue to protect and love my daughter, Archie. You have already proven that you will do so no matter how great the dangers you face in your lives. Give my angel the loving family she never had."

"My DG, sending you to the Other Side with no memories of us was the second most difficult choice I had to make as mother, but you too have come far in your journey against the darkness. You have fought the darkness before and defeated it. Now you must do so again, but this battle will not be as easy for the darkness you face is the darkness that has been rooted in you from your first life to this one. You now know that love is the strongest light against it. Use it my angel. Use the love your father and I have for you, your sister has for you and banish the darkness back to its origins! Reclaim the love you lost in your first life and live it, my angel!"

She glanced over at Ahamo, "Darling, there are some things I must say in private."

He nodded and left the room.

The moment he was gone Lavinia activated the spell again.

"My darling daughters, among my many sins as a mother, queen and wife, I fear my greatest was withholding certain truths from you. Now those truths must be spoken."

She paused.

"The fault for Bastinda's release is neither yours nor Azkadellia's my DG. It is mine. It is mine because I was not at a council meeting as I claimed to be. I was with a man, a man you know well and that man, that man my DG is your real father."

Tears streamed down her cheeks. "I do love your father, my Azkadellia but I also loved this man too and it was difficult for us to end our affair once Archie learned of and confronted us with it. I know concealing this truth was difficult for you Archie, but you did so not only to protect Azkadellia but DG as well and I thank you for that."

"Forgive me, Ambrose. We made a vow many years ago that we would take this secret to our graves, but I must now break this vow. Too many secrets have been kept already and this is what is giving the darkness its power over our child. She must use it now to return her soul to the light."

"DG, even if Ahamo knew the truth know that he still loved you as if you were his own and you must NEVER forget that. A spell of mine may have given you his artistic gift but not his love. That you earned. Continue to carry it with you my angel."

"I love you my angels."

The double doors opened again and Ahamo returned, also in tears.

"You heard?" she whispered.

"I knew," he said sadly. "I wasn't a fool, Vinny. I just had a hard time accepting it."

"And you still love me?"

"I wasn't faithful all those years in the Realm of the Unwanted either," he confessed. "I think part of it was because I was so angry at you over Ambrose, but the other part was my fear we'd never see each other again. I don't want the last hours of our lives spent regretting our mistakes." He pulled a gun out his pocket. "We're going to spend them fighting for this realm."

She handed him the stone. He tucked it into his pocket and followed her down the hall to their daughter's original burial vault. The first Dorothy's spirit no longer resided there now leaving Lavinia the only member of her bloodline left to guard the precious stone within its walls. She pressed her palm against the marking on the door to the second vault and it opened. Inside was a simple marble pedestal and on it a box. Lavinia opened it and took out an emerald shaped heart. The Heart of Lurline.

"Your kin begs of thee

Share thy power with me!" she chanted.

The heart shaped stone began to glow as did she as part of its power was absorbed into her body.

"Vinny, what are doing?"

"What I have to," she replied. "Wyatt has most of the Dark One's essence tethered to him. I cannot allow it to escape…but by doing so…." She paused. "I condemn those who stayed behind to death."

"What are you doing?"

A small portal appeared on the wall.

"Give me the stone," she ordered. Ahamo reached into his pocket and handed her the stone. She tossed it through the portal and quickly closed it. She then returned the stone to its box and they exited the crypt.

"Now nothing can enter the OZ…nor can it leave."

"That's what you think. Hello Lavinia," Katia greeted as she sauntered into the crypt flanked by two of her disciples, a pickaxe in her hand.

"You don't understand...if you destroy the Heart...you'll die...we'll all die!" she cried.

"No more of your lies, bitch. Open the vault or your husband dies."

"Don't do it, Vinny!" Ahamo shouted.

"Darling..."

"You're the Queen of the OZ. Your responsibility is the safety of your people!" he reminded her.

"She's the queen of nothing now," another added coldly and fired his gun. Ahamo sunk to the marble floor with a bullet hole in his chest. Lavinia moaned in anguish and tried to get to her fallen husband's side and was pulled back. "Now you open the crypt!"

"No!" she said firmly. "Kill me if you wish but you will never enter that vault! Katia...please...think about this."

"I already have," she said angrily. "You have brought enough misery to this land and it ends now. Hold her!" She uncorked the vial of Lavinia's blood she'd taken earlier and threw it on the Ozopov family symbol lock on Dorothy Gale's tomb while her disciples held Lavinia. The circular markings began to glow, and the double doors swung open while the queen looked on in horror. The magical lock had recognized the blood of one of its own and would allow the intruders entrance. The queen, without her magic now could do very little to prevent it yet she would try. Remembering the fighting skills she'd learned from Ambrose, she brought her foot down hard on the toes of one of her captors, forcing him to release her and spun around, kicking the other in his groin. Their guns fell to the floor. She picked one of them up and fired, killing both men. Lavinia Ozopov was not a violent woman by nature, but she would shed as much blood as she had to in order to save her realm and the people still in it.

She managed to shoot two of her captors dead and followed Katia into the tomb where the Heart was kept.

"KATIA NO!" she screamed. Katia stood over the emerald, the pickaxe poised and ready to strike.

"Are you going to kill me now, sister?" Katia inquired smugly.

"I will do what I must. To save the OZ," Lavinia said coldly, her finger poised on the trigger. She gasped when she felt a hand being plunged into her back, her eyes wide with horror when she heard Wyatt's laughter in her ear.

"Brave to the last," Alemedia taunted, squeezing the fragile organ, forcing her captive to face her. "Too bad it's all for nothing."

"Wyatt, please…..fight her!" she sobbed. "Do it…do it for DG…for the OZ!"

"Dorothy," he snorted. "I've been waiting centuries for the moment when I can make that bitch watch while I crush her cold heart to dust for what she did to me…to EVERYONE who has ever loved her. That girl has rivers of blood on her hands. And now…now she'll have your blood too. Destroy it!" he commanded Katia.

"Katia," Lavinia sobbed. "Whatever she's promised you, it's a lie. You're going to destroy us all if you destroy that emerald. Please, do the right thing now!"

"Are you honestly going to listen to that nonsense, Ekaterina? Have you forgotten that she is the reason why you spent all those years in exile and that you'd still be a poor exile without me? I gave you everything you have and now it's time for you to prove your loyalty to me. Destroy that stone. NOW!"

No! Wyatt screamed, fighting to regain control.

Lavinia's heart was shoved back into her chest. Wyatt pulled his gun out of his pocket and fired a single shot. It struck Katia in the chest. She fell over the pedestal and knocked the stone to the ground. Lavinia picked it up and carried it back over to the pedestal and then to Wyatt's horror she picked up the pickaxe and brought it down. The stone split into two pieces and a bloodcurdling scream echoed through the walls, out across the realms until it was suddenly silenced.

"Lavinia, what have you done!" Wyatt cried.

"Your will is done, Mistress." Katia in Lavinia's body said as she knelt at the feet of her mistress's vessel.

Wyatt howled with rage and fired again, this time killing his intended target, but it was already too late. Cracks began to form on the floor in front of him. He screamed as he fell into one of them.

Storybrooke, Maine

12:00 AM

"Wyatt!" DG screamed. "I have to get him! I have to."

Henry summoned his dragon's head staff and slammed the tip of it into the concrete. Nothing happened.

"Something's wrong! I can't open a portal to the OZ!"

"Keep trying!" she pleaded.

"I AM!" he yelled. "Grampa, what am I doing wrong?"

Rumple placed his hand over his grandson's.

"Chant with me Henry," he instructed and began to chant in Ozian. "It's sealed off! It's sealed off!"

"What?" Archie exclaimed.

"Everyone in here. NOW!" Rumple commanded. Regina, Emma, DG, Archie and Az gathered around them, placing their hands on Rumple and Henry's chanting in Ozian. A small portal opened on the street. It remained open long enough for an object to fly out of it and closed again.

"Our stone!" Az whispered.

"It has to be a message from Mother or Wyatt. Az, activate it!" DG demanded. She created a large puddle in the middle of the street. Az skipped the stone across the puddle and Lavinia's image appeared in the water.

"It's already here!" Emma muttered, earning glares from everyone.

"Katia," DG hissed. "It can only be destroyed by someone with a blood connection to Lurline and she's the only one who would do it!"

"How?" Rumple demanded. "Think, Dorothia! You have more access to Alemedia's memories than I do. How does she plan to destroy it?"

"She needs something strong enough to break a gem."

"A dwarf's pickaxe!" Regina whispered. "The same way Greg and Tamara activated my trigger! But where can she get one?"

"The Enchanted Forest," Snow replied. "You brought all of them over except for one….the one that belonged to their brother…the one who died."

"But I don't understand….did the Eclipse start already or is it going to?" Bae inquired.

"We have to assume that it already has, son."

"So why are we just standing here! We have to DO something!" Belle cried.

"Form the circle!" Rumple shouted, summoning the Strogoff Emerald from its box at the shop. "It may be too late for the OZ but the other realms are still in danger. We have to get everyone we can out of there before midnight!"

"Bring them all…here? Is that possible?" Regina wondered.

"We're going to MAKE it possible!"

"Wyatt," DG sobbed.

"Don't let his death be in vain DG. Focus," Az commanded softly. "We need you to make this work."

Loki's Palace

Asgard

12:30AM

Loki rarely had nightmares but when he did, they were bad ones that left him wondering if they were even dreams at all and this one was scaring the living daylights out of him. He'd seen the movie The Wizard of Oz but his dream was more like the Armageddon of Oz. He could hear the screams of the people as the they tried to run while a massive tsunami swept through Central City, destroying buildings and burying the city in thousands of feet of water, leaving no chance of escape. Just when he thought it was over, he watched a volcano exploding with burning hot lava pouring down the hillside directly into the path of a small town. Once again, he could only observe in silence as people attempted to flee from the burning river only to be swept up in it, screaming in agony as they burned alive. His own screams of terror and violent thrashing woke his wife out of her own slumber and she shook him awake.

"Loki, Loki! What's wrong?"

"Nonestica is dying," he replied somberly. She threw her arms around him and held him close as he wept into her shoulder, his tears joining those of the gods in every pantheon, all of them unable to do anything but watch…and hear the screams of the dead and dying.

Boston, Massachusetts

12:30AM

Lilly was uncertain whether she was hallucinating but nothing she did could silence the screams or cease the terrifying images passing before her eyes.

"Stop, stop…please stop!" she moaned, her hands clutching her head. "Please…..please my son….save them….save them!"

"Mum! Mum! Open the door," she heard Cassie yelling from the other side followed by a crash as someone threw their weight against it. "Victor, break it down!"

"I'm trying! Hold on Lilly! We're coming!"

"Hurry!" Cassie pleaded.

The door swung open and Cassie and Victor ran into the bedroom finding Lilly thrashing about on the bed, babbling incoherently.

"She's burning up! Cassie, we have to get to the hospital right now! There's no time to wait for an ambulance. Go start the car!"

She ran out of the room and grabbed his keys off the table.

"Only my son….can save them now…" Lilly muttered.

"What's wrong with her?" Cassie demanded as Victor placed her in the backseat.

"She's delirious. We have to get her fever down. Floor it!" he ordered.

"Hold on, Mum. Hold on!" Cassie chanted as she sped away.

Wonderland (Enchanted Realm Five)

Gold Standard Verse

1:00 AM

The Queen of Hearts poured herself a glass of sherry and raised it to the image she was viewing on the mirror in her throne room.

"Well done Katia. Well done," she praised.

"What are you celebrating Mother?" her eldest daughter inquired when she walked into the throne room. Cora glared at her.

"Where is our guest?"

"Where I left him. His prison. Relax, Mother. He'll never be able to get out."

"He'd better not Zelena. He's too dangerous on the outside."

"You never answered my question. What are we celebrating?"

"Take a good look daughter."

Zelena gasped. "Is that….Nonestica? Your old world?"

Cora smirked and took a sip of her sherry. "It is, indeed, dear. Were I still Zorinda Strogoff, the First of all Dark Ones, I would've had the honor of destroying it, but I will enjoy seeing it disappear into oblivion!"

And bide her time until the time the worlds collided, and she could make her second dark mark on history.

Baltimore, Maryland

2:00 AM

Isaac Wallace was accustomed to hearing his phone ring at all hours of the night. He sat up in bed and turned on the lamp before answering it.

"Wallace."

"Isaac? It's Tony. Our scanners picked up something you need to see. Turn on your computer!" he heard his friend order on the other end of the line. He got out of bed and walked over to his desk, moving his mouse to wake his computer out of sleep mode. He blinked his eyes several times to make certain his contact lens-less eyes were not playing tricks on him.

"Mass destruction activity in Nonestica?"

"Oz is already gone! It's starting in Agrabah now. A whole realm wiped out in thirty minutes! This can't be the work of the Home Office! What the hell's going on Jiminy?"

"It's not Geppetto," Isaac said, referring to his friend by his original name, something he only did in private as Geppetto often did.

"Then what's going on! Why is Nonestica being wiped out?"

"Because it was prophesized to be five hundred years ago."

"I thought that was…"

"…Only a legend. No. It's not. The scanners picking up anything else?"

"Yeah. Portal activity. A lot of it!"

"Where?"

He heard several mouse clicks.

"Most of it in Nonestica but the rest is all over the map here."

"I'm pulling it up now."

"What's going on?"

"People are trying to get out of Nonestica before it's destroyed. What the hell are they doing in Storybrooke One? Sitting on their asses? They need to open a portal there now because Nonestica's weak magic is scattering the survivors to the four winds! You and Pinocchio keep an eye on it. I gotta call Seattle. One of the largest portal drops was there. You see any spikes here you get out there and pick 'em up!"

"Okay Jiminy. Will call you later."

Isaac went into the kitchen to brew himself a pot of coffee. It was going to be a long night.

FBI Field Office

Seattle, Washington

3:00 AM

Special Agent Baelfire Weaver added another set of crime scene photographs to the already thick folder full of shots displaying the work of what the press had started to call 'The Cosplay Killer' but he knew the killer's victims weren't just people dressing up as fairy tale characters. They WERE fairy tale characters from a land that had long since been destroyed by the terrorist group known as the 'Home Office', a group his family spent decades trying to bring to justice.

"We're gonna get 'em," he heard his wife Emma say when she handed him a cup of coffee.

"I hope so," he muttered and took a sip. Seconds later his phone rang. "Weaver. Wait…hold on. Em's here so I'm gonna put you on speaker."

"Bae, there's portal activity all around Seattle," he heard Isaac say on the other line.

"Why?" Emma asked.

"Nonestica is being wiped out as we speak."

Emma reached out and grabbed Bae's cup to hold it steady before he dropped it.

"Is it them? Are they destroying Nonestica like they did our world?" the former princess demanded angrily.

"No. This isn't the Home Office. This time. That prophecy you've all heard about? This is it. Nonestica is being wiped out and the survivors are being scattered across the country because its magic is too weak to direct the portals to Storybrooke One. You need to intercept the ones headed your way before those bastards find them."

"I'm gonna call Mom and Dad. They'll wanna help," Emma said and took out her phone.

"We're on it. I'm gonna get off here and call Papa to get him up to speed. You have any idea where exactly those portals are opening."

"Sending you the coordinates now."

"Mom and Dad are on their way over," Emma informed him. Bae nodded while he dialed his father's cellphone number.

Hyperion Heights Police Station

Washington

3:45 AM

"Weaver! Your phone's ringin!" Officer Killian Rogers yelled to his partner while he pounded on the door to the men's restroom.

"So answer it, dumbass!" Bobby Weaver yelled from the other side of the door.

"Rogers."

"Where's Rumple?" Isaac demanded.

"In the john."

"So, tell him to zip up and get his ass down to Seattle. Nonestica is being wiped out and there's portals opening up there. You need to get the survivors off the streets before the Home Office finds them!"

"Holy shit….Weaver! Hurry up! We got portal activity!" Rogers yelled. The door opened and an irritated Weaver emerged.

"What do you mean, 'portal activity'? Gimme the phone!" Weaver snatched the phone out of his partner's hand. "Yeah."

"The prophecy has been enacted."

A former Dark One himself, Weaver needed no explanation.

"The weakened magic is messing with the portals people are trying to use to escape. How many of them opened up here?"

"Ten so far. I've already called your son."

"I gotta call the girls. They'll wanna help us grab 'em up before the Home Office does. I'm sure they're watchin."

"They're opening up in different places all over the States Rumple. We need the Guardians to redirect them to Storybrooke One."

"Well what the hell are they waitin for?"

"I don't know. Do what you can. I'm calling everyone in on this."

"Okay. We'll call you back when we finish roundin' em up."

Kelly and Roni's

Hyperion Heights, Washington

3:45 AM

Roni Weaver Hood grabbed her baseball bat from underneath the bar counter while her husband turned off the lights and locked the doors. It was the first time they'd ever closed the bar early but desperate times called for desperate measures and their patrons would be back the following night. Once they were outside her sister Kelly pulled up in a Jeep and rolled down the window.

"Papa said there's an open portal a few miles away. We gotta hurry!" she cried. The pair jumped into the Jeep and they sped off.

"Where's Robin?" Robin demanded of his ex-wife.

"At Papa's with Belle, Alice and Gideon," Kelly explained and turned on her CB radio, hearing her father's voice.

"Make a right at the next light, Kelly."

"I can see it! It's still open! There's at least fifty people there!"

"We got buses coming. You armed?"

"Papa, what am I again?"

"Over and out, Captain Weaver dearie," he chuckled.

"Regina, get my duffel bag out of the backseat and load," Kelly ordered, using the name her sister hadn't used in decades.

"Jesus, Kelly! You brought enough guns for an army."

"That was the idea. Come on. We have to get these people to the hotel so the fairies can take care of them. They're the only ones left from our world that have magic."

"All but one," Roni murmured.

"She'd still help if she could."

Portland, Maine

4:00 AM

"…Pinocchio should be pulling up in a few minutes." Isaac was saying over a speakerphone while a woman was tossing clothes into a suitcase.

"You're sure no portals opened here?" Tracey Connor was asking once she finished packing.

"We haven't seen any. Most are on the West Coast, primarily Washington. Hold on Blue…I just got a message from Weaver. They've taken the survivors they're rounded up to Nova's hotel."

Tracey heard a car horn beep outside. "That's Pinocchio now. We'll see you at the airport." She picked up her suitcase and went outside to where Pinocchio waited.

"These are the days when you really wish you had magic, eh Blue?"

"It is but there's no time to dwell on it now. I'll do what I can without magic. Come on. Jiminy's waiting."

Seattle, Washington

4:15 AM

"Once that you've decided on a killing

First you make a stone of your heart

And if you find that your hands are still willing

Then you can turn a murder into art

There really isn't any need for bloodshed

You just do it with a little more finesse

If you can slip a tablet into someone's coffee

Then it avoids an awful lot of mess

It's murder by numbers, one, two, three

It's as easy to learn as your ABC's…." Silas Finster sang while his victim whimpered from behind the duct tape covering his mouth. He picked up the crowbar and swung it like a baseball bat, his victim pitching forward.

"Now if you have a taste for this experience

If you're flushed with your very first success

Then you must try a twosome or a threesome

You'll find your conscience bothers you much less

Because murder is like anything you take to

It's a habit-forming need for more and more

You can bump off every member of your family

And anybody else you find a bore

Because it's murder by numbers, one, two, three

It's as easy to learn as your ABC's…" he continued to sing while he threw the body into his van. He returned to his lawn chair, grinning when a portal opened and three terrified women stepped out.

"Hello ladies," he greeted warmly.

"Where are we?" one of them asked.

"A land without magic," he replied. "Come, sit down and have some coffee. You must be exhausted after your long journey."

"Now you can join the ranks of the illustrious

In history's great dark hall of fame

All our greatest killers were industrious

At least the ones that we all know by name…" he whistled while he dumped a bottle of sleeping pills in the thermos of coffee he brought with him and brought it back to where the women were sitting. Ten minutes later they were asleep.

"But you can reach the top of your profession

If you become the leader of the land

For murder is the sport of the elected

And you don't need to lift a finger of your hand

Because it's murder by numbers, one, two, three

It's as easy to learn as your ABC's…" he sang as he pulled a machete out of his duffel bag.

Wonderland

6:00 AM

"We have to go, now!" Cyrus shouted.

"Go where?" Anastasia asked.

"Storybrooke," Will spoke up. "It's the place I told you about. It's where the Queen of Hearts' daughter sent everyone to with her curse. Dig, rabbit, for the love of the gods!" he cried.

The rabbit scratched into the air, opening a large portal. On the other side of it he could see the familiar town he dug into the middle of a short while ago. "Hurry. It won't stay open for long!" he pleaded. Cyrus grasped Alice's hand in his and jumped through, landing on a hard surface. When he looked up, he saw a middle-aged man with graying brown hair standing over him, a pendant with a glowing emerald stone in his hands. There were two women and a boy with him.

"Where are you from?" he asked.

"Wonderland. Please, help us!" Cyrus pleaded. The man released the pendant and joined hands with the two women and boy, their hands glowing. The pendant hovered in the air before them.

"How many of you are there?" the man asked.

"I don't know..."

"We'll hold the portal open as long as we can, the rest of you come through quickly!" the man called out.

"Who is that?" Alice asked.

"Rumplestiltskin," Anastasia replied.

"The Dark One!? He'll kill us!" Will exclaimed.

"No, I think he's here to help," Silvermist said.

The rest of the survivors formed a line and began jumping two at a time into the portal and reemerging in the middle of a strange place, Anastasia and Will being the last two. Rumple released DG and Azkadellia's hands and the emerald returned to his hand.

"You're the last Strogoff?" Anastasia asked him.

Rumple nodded then focused his gaze on the white rabbit. "We need your help now. The Enchanted Forest is going to be destroyed as well. We need you to dig the portal and we can hold it open."

"Where do you need me to dig?" the rabbit asked. Rumple joined hands with Azkadellia, Henry and DG, and the emerald floated between them, harnessing their combined magic to widen the portal and hold it open. They were tiring but they knew they couldn't falter. Too many lives depended on it.

"It's working Grampa! Our magic is redirecting the other portals here!" Henry called out as portals began opening all over town.

"There's one open to the Enchanted Forest!" Charming told them.

"Regina, hold that portal open!" Rumple instructed his former apprentice. "Archie, hold the one open to Agrabah, quickly! There are still people trapped and it only has a little time left before it's completely destroyed!"

"Nova, I want your team to help Archie," Blue instructed the fae. "Regina, what are you doing!" she cried as Regina jumped into the portal open to the Enchanted Forest.

"Hold it open. Robin, Robin, hold on! I'm coming!" she cried.

"Dammit Regina," Emma growled and began to blast at the portal to hold it open.

10:30 AM

"Rumple! We've lost Agrabah!" Archie yelled.

"And Wonderland," he said sadly, joining Emma and Blue at the open portal to the Enchanted Forest. It was the lastlast realm left.

The Enchanted Forest

10:30 AM

"Everyone start going through. Now!" Regina ordered. Although only a few of them had any idea what their final destination was, they were too terrified to argue with the former Evil Queen.

11:45 PM

"Regina, come out of there! We're running out of time!"

"I have to make sure everyone is out!"

"Your magic won't work there now! Come on!"

Suddenly she saw a man in a green leather tunic and breeches running toward her carrying a little boy in his arms.

"Regina!" he cried.

"Robin," she sobbed. "Thank God. Thank God…"

"We can't hold this open much longer..." Rumple mumbled weakly as he, DG, Henry and Azkadellia struggled to stay on their feet while their energy was being drained. Archie quickly grabbed his wife's hand.

"Bound heart and soul are we

I surrender my power to thee!" he chanted.

Belle grabbed Rumple's hand.

"Bound heart and soul are we

I surrender my power to thee!" she chanted.

"We need everyone who has a drop of magic in them to hold this portal open...NOW!" Rumple commanded. Emma and Anastasia moved into the circle while the fairies flew over them, pointing their wands and sending their magic into it.

Regina grabbed Roland out of Robin's hands and held him into the portal.

"Someone get him!" she cried.

Charming reached through and took the boy from her hands.

"Regina get out of there!" Snow pleaded.

"Hold on Regina! We'll get you out of there!" Rumple called back over the howling wind.

Regina shoved Robin through the portal as cracks began to form on the ground in front of her.

"Grandpa, we gotta hurry, the ground's getting ready to collapse under her!" Henry cried frantically.

Robin dived to the ground and stuck his hand inside the portal. "Regina, my hand...can you reach it!"

"You're too far away...Robin...tell Roland and Henry I love them. "

"You can tell them yourself," he said sticking more of his body into the portal.

"Robin, no!" Regina screamed.

"Just a few feet more and I can reach you!"

Charming fell on the ground behind Robin's feet and grabbed his ankles. "Robin, I've got you...try to reach her."

"Not close enough..."

As he moved further into the portal he started dragging Charming in with him.

"We need to make a chain, quickly!" Snow shouted, falling to the ground behind her husband to grab his feet. She was followed by Ruby, Baelfire, Little John, Mulan, Phillip, Cyrus, Will, Eric, Raw, Ambrose and Jeb. Ariel rabbed a long length of rope from the back of Eric's truck and tied one end of it around the flagpole, the other end around Jeb's ankles to anchor them.

"Robin, can you reach her now?" Jeb called out.

"I've got you!" Robin cried grasping Regina's hands in his.

"Robin, please there isn't enough time. Save yourself!" Regina pleaded.

"I'm not letting you go!" he said firmly.

"And I'm not letting you die, Mom!" Henry yelled.

"Pull!" Charming shouted to the others lying on the ground. The dwarves joined Ariel at the end of the human chain and helped them pull the others back away from the portal. Inside it, the earth split under Regina's feet, her castle crumbling into a fiery lava pit as she hung in the air, her hands clasped tightly in Robin's. "Close the portal...we're out!" Robin shouted to the magicians in the circle.

They released each other's hands and fell to the ground in exhaustion. The emerald floated back to Rumple's hand. Belle kneeled beside her husband and helped him sit up while Ambrose assisted DG and Archie saw to Azkadellia. Henry ran over to where his mother lay entangled in Robin's embrace and hugged her while Will tended to Anastasia.

"Mom!"

"Henry...Henry..." she sobbed as she embraced him.

"We did it, Mom. We saved them."

She looked up at the newest residents, many of them crying and clinging to each other. She stood up, brushed the dirt off her clothing and smiled faintly before she too collapsed from exhaustion. It was now midnight. The Final Eclipse was over and for those who'd survived the effects would still be felt for years to come.