Author's Notes: Special thanks to Snapegirlkmf for her help with the Loki scenes
Ephesis
The Ozian Hell Realm
"Well daughter, you seem to have lost two more Dark Ones," Hades chuckled and set his seeing globe aside. Once Dorothia and her Tin Man were resurrected and their bond consummated, the circle would be complete and Alemedia would be locked in her prison once again.
Unfortunately, it also meant that a certain contract he held would never be honored.
"Yes, good lackeys are so hard to find these days," drawled a familiar voice. "But then dark curses always are a bitch to keep hosts alive with." There was a flash of brilliant green light and a tall slender man with wavy dark hair and bright green eyes appeared in the room, a scowl riding his normally handsome face. "Hello, cousin. Long time no see."
"Well, well, well if it isn't my Neanderthal cousin. What are you doing here, Loki? Woman hunting?"
"No, I am quite happily married. Even if I wasn't, I'd hardly start here," the Asgardian snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. His eyes narrowed. "Someone has been playing with the Balance, Hades. And taking lives that weren't theirs to take." There was black ice and steel in Loki's tone, and he twirled the triskelle pendant about his neck in his fingers.
"Not in your realm so it's none of your business, now is it?"
"Anytime the Balance is upset it is my business, cousin. Because you cannot upset it without the ripples impacting every other pantheon. Including mine!"
"Nonestica and the five realms created with it are MY domain so I cannot see how anything that occurs in them could impact your little hole in the wall. You've been drinking too much ale with Thor again. Or smoking some of that crack they call it on Earth."
"You wish! Your daughter's meddling has cost me my son Narfi! And my baby granddaughter!" Loki snarled, and the temperature in the room plummeted to sub zero as his temper unraveled.
"What? How?"
Hades attempted to cast a heat spell, cursing when it failed, his powers still weakened by his brother's and Alemedia's machinations. No matter. All he needed was true love's kiss to restart his heart and restore his magic. Zelena's kiss, but she'd sent him away ages ago.
"Alemedia cannot interfere in your realm. She knows that."
"Watch!" the Mischief God summoned a Seeing Globe with a snap of his fingers and spoke a few words in Norse. The globe glowed and then showed the two gods the fate of Loki's son Narfi, Narfi's wife Kyra, and their baby daughter Daria.
"All I see is a lovesick fae behind that plot, not my daughter."
"Who do you think put Titania up to it?" Loki snarled. "Alemedia was the puppetmaster behind the scenes. Look!" The scene changed, to an earlier time, and showed the Queen of the Fae sharing a goblet of summer wine with Hades' daughter, who wore the guise of Queen Mab of the Unseelie Court, but Loki's magic stripped away the illusion, showing her for her true form.
"I must congratulate you Alemedia."
"And yourself. Masterful work with the Norse. I for one cannot wait to see Loki weep when he learns the fate of his descendants."
"You fancied him a bit, didn't you?"
"What woman didn't? Ah I could've made him my consort but alas I had to content myself with my sister's leavings."
Hades paled.
Loki's fists clenched. "I'd not have had you if you had danced naked on a pole before me, you traitoress bitch!"
"Let me handle this."
"And how will you handle it?" Loki spat. "You have lost control over her, Hades! She makes a mockery of you as both god and father."
"Your father, Hades Demonio summons thee
Ozmalita Diosa, appear now before me!"
Adora gasped when she teleported into her father's chambers, clenched her hand into a fist, pressed it against her shoulder and knelt before the Norse god. "Papa, why is Loki here?"
"Alemedia has been meddling in his pantheon, daughter. We must contain her before she harms anyone else."
"The only one can defeat her is her successor. You know that Papa."
Adora turned to Loki. "I am sorry cousin. You will have your justice, but I fear it will not be until the time the realms unite."
Hades sighed. "The only person who could contain her was her mother and she had my Seph killed by a wraith."
"Do you promise, little Hopeful One?" Loki asked softly, raising her to her feet. "For I would hate to call a blood feud upon your House. There has been enough bloodshed."
"We must find and neutralize Alemedia's remaining Dark One daggers. As each one is neutralized, more of her power passes onto her successor, Dorothia Ozopov. Dorothia can destroy her once she is at full strength." She smiled. "The Strogoff heir has already inherited Lurline's power and will balance the light."
"Right now, her soul lingers between life and death...her fellow Guardians must restore her heart and surrender part of their life force my light," Hades reminded her.
"So I have felt the Balance begin slowly to shift," Loki nodded. "Perhaps this may yet be set aright. Well, as aright as it can be. My family will grieve our loss for centuries. As it is I had to cast a strong calming spell on Vali and Thor lest they come here seeking vengeance."
"Let our Guardians do their duty cousin. I will guide them but there are certain events I cannot interfere in," Adora pleaded.
"I understand. Keep the Balance, child. I shall deal with Titania later," Loki said grimly, his smile terrible to behold.
"May I speak with you privately?"
"What are you plotting Ozmalita?"
"Nothing, Papa. I just want to talk. It's been some time since I've seen him."
"Of course. Do you need me to create a room?" Loki teased, something of his old demeanor surfacing.
"If you wish," she giggled.
Hades groaned and rolled his eyes. "Manwhore. And he says he has a wife!"
"Oh do be quiet, you old sourpuss!" Loki shot back. "Adora is like one of my daughters, so quit your grumbling. I swear, you could give a stone lessons on sobriety!"
"Dick. Oh I so love this modern Earth insults. They put our oldies but baddies to shame."
He gestured and the Victrola began to play.
Adora cast a silencing spell on the room and took Loki's hand in hers. "Our dear Lilliana is the key to many things, cousin...righting old wrongs and healing old wounds."
"She is her mother's daughter," Loki murmured softly.
"But missing the pieces of her heart," Adora said sadly.
"And is there one who holds them? For I think there must be, somewhere."
"We've met one before. The former cricket in the fifth Storybrooke. The other is her son."
"Consort and child. That will work nicely," Loki said approvingly.
"One of Daria's children lives in that realm. He is a counterpart of Lilliana's son."
"My great-grandson," Loki declared with pride.
"One of twins. The other I saw in the OZ eleven years ago. The third was once held captive by Aramon's mortal enemy, Irina Fedorovna but I believe she used the name Baba Yaga."
"The Witch of the North," Loki growled.
Adora conjured a seeing globe and handed it to him. "Rumplestiltskin, Robert and Rhea. They do you proud, cousin."
"Identical twins, like my Narfi and Vali. And my great-granddaughter is as lovely as her mother," Loki murmured, his eyes sheening with tears.
"Well versed in both light and dark magic but she would not have been able to save her brother had Lilliana's son not unlocked his demigod powers so that he could give her part of his life force to restore her. All magic comes with a price, dear cousin."
And love was the strongest magic in all the realms.
"Which is as it should be. They are strong in the rune magic, and the frost magic of my Jotun father," Loki noted, pleased.
Adora laughed. "Then I suppose there'll be some snow battles in that house!"
"I doubt it not," Loki giggled. "We frost bloods love to play in the snow. Which should have been a clue to Irina that her apprentice was more than a Seer, for only those of Jotun blood can survive in the Frozen North."
"Irina wasn't known for her intelligence."
"No, which is probably a good thing," Loki snorted.
He cocked his head to one side, as if listening to a conversation, which he was.
"Papa! Modi is chasing me scissors and threatened to cut my hair off like a shorn lamb's!" his daughter Miri sent to him via her communication pendant.
"Uncle Loki, the brat turned my hair blue!" Modi added. "Payback's a bitch, Miriamele!"
"Enough!" the exasperated god snapped. "Stop bickering or by the Nine when I get home you will both be scrubbing the dungeon with toothbrushes! Now behave!"
"Yes, sir!" the two teenagers replied sulkily.
"Kids!" Loki sighed. "Gonna drive me to drink!"
Adora giggled. "Yours or fosterlings?"
"Miri and Modi are at it again," Loki replied. One was his adopted daughter, the other his nephew, who he had practically raised alongside his own because Thor and Sif were away so much.
"You should tell Thor he owes you back child support!"
Loki started laughing. "He would be in debt to me for a few centuries! But he does tell me that his sons are better raised with me than they would have been with him, so that's worth its weight in gold."
"Yes it is."
"He's also lucky I love kids." Loki admitted.
"But you will miss them when they're grown. My Jeb is a man now and soon he'll make me a grandmother."
"I am sure you will enjoy that. Because you can spoil them and send them home!" Loki winked. "A pleasure I missed with my Daria. But I do have Fenris' Ragnar and Lokiya to spoil."
"And the grandchildren Daria's family gives you."
"Yes. Once I reveal myself to them."
"And Norns forbid I forget my Astra, who is going to turn my hair white before I am three thousand the way she is going." the god said ruefully, referring to his toddler daughter.
"But that's what children are made to do!"
"My parents will tell me it's their revenge for what I put them through," Loki said.
"But they forget Thor was the one who blew a huge hole in the palace roof trying to use Mjolnir the first time! Even after Mother told him not to! Then he blamed ME for it."
"Lurline and Alemedia are and were the troublemakers in our family as you know."
"Yes, and they were worse than either me or my brother or any of my children. You were an angel compared to them, darling."
"I try to be but I've made my share of mistakes. I've interfered in a Guardian bonding twice and now...now I must make it right."
"But you learn from your mistakes, which is the most important thing."
At that moment she could feel DG and Wyatt's souls calling to her, begging her to take them to Paradise for their final rest.
"I must go now. We will see each other again cousin."
But she suspected he wasn't finished with her father yet.
"Until we meet again, darling." He kissed her forehead and gave her a hug. "The Norns bless you, little cousin."
Adora smiled at him as she vanished.
Hades was still listening to his Victrola when the silencing spell was lifted.
"There is very little I can do about my daughter without all my powers, Loki. Ozmalita will do all she can to keep her contained but unless all those daggers she tethered her life force to can be found and neutralized, her reign of chaos will continue. You can thank my dear mother-in-law for that."
"You can't blame ALL of Alemedia's misdeeds on Demeter's curse Hades so don't even bother trying."
"Then what do you suggest I do blame it on then?"
"I may spend most of my time in Asgard but that doesn't mean I haven't been monitoring the other realms. Alemedia inherited her cruel streak from you."
"I..."
"You groomed her to be your instrument of revenge against your pantheon, but you never expected that one day she would strike against you, did you?"
Hades glared at him.
"That's the trouble when you treat a child like a pawn. Eventually they turn on you. Odin learned that the hard way too."
'Yes, my father treated me like dirt once upon a time. And yes, I took my own brand of revenge, BUT I never disrupted the Balance and killed innocents. I confined my rage to him and our enemies. I exiled him and Thor for a time, I didn't murder them. And then I learned to let my pride and anger go. So don't begin to compare me with your twisted daughter, cousin!"
"I never thought she'd go as far as murdering her own mother..."
Loki shook his head. 'You unleashed a monster, Hades. She has all the power and pride and ambition of your family and none of the compassion."
"All I can do now is hope the Guardians will do their duty and find those blades."
'You had best pray they are successful. Or else I may need to settle this myself and that's the last thing you should want."
He knew well that Loki's idea of justice was swift and severe, far worse than any his daughter could ever dream up.
"I think this concludes our conversation. Just remember though, you owe me wereguid for my son, and I will be watching. Because no one breaks deals with me." Loki growled.
"Oh, I'll remember. Farewell cousin."
'Until we meet again.' Then Loki vanished in a swirl of green and gold sparkles.
"Show off," Hades muttered.
He gestured and a scroll appeared in his hands.
"Are you ready to make a deal with me now, Papa?"
"Give me my powers back then we'll talk, daughter. Until then, take a hike as they say in up there."
"How do you expect me to do that when my Dark Ones are breaking their curses?"
He looked up, seeing streaks of gray in her dark hair. "You've been weakened but you bounce back. You always do. Just like I taught you."
"I still have a Dark One whose soul hasn't been claimed yet. And he just so happens to be the one whose name is on that contract you're holding. He can't have a second son if he's dead, now can he?" Alemedia grinned. "And we both know your reasons for wanting to 'own' Rumplestiltskin. You think it will bring your witch running back into your arms."
Hades' eyes glowed fire red. "I'd chose my next words very carefully, daughter."
"We can both have what we want. I get one of my vessels back, you get your witch, a pet and the son you've always wanted. I'd say you're getting the better end of the deal."
"And how do you plan to resurrect him?"
"The oldest way. A blood sacrifice."
"Ah….so you're going to use his firstborn as the sacrifice. Risky but clever, daughter."
Alemedia froze suddenly. "No! NO!"
Seconds later she vanished.
He reached over the side of his chair and pressed a button, several pages of a book falling out of it. He shuffled through them until he found the page he was looking for.
"Soon Zelena," he murmured. "Soon you'll be with me again and I can give you everything you've ever wanted."
Paradise
The Ozian Heaven Realm
DG awoke to find herself standing on the gazebo at Finaqua, tears in her eyes when she saw her mother sitting on their old swing, singing her favorite lullaby.
"Two little princesses dancing in a room
Spinning fast and free on their little toes
Where the light will take them
There's only one way to know
Two little princesses dancing in a room…"
"Mother," she moaned.
"DG. My angel. My light," Lavinia said softly and held out her arms.
"I've failed Mother…he's not with me….he's gone to her….the Balance is still shifting," she wept.
"Years ago I surrendered part of my life force to you because I knew one day you restore the Balance and save the OZ."
"But I didn't….it's gone! It's all gone!"
"One day it will return my angel but not as you remember it. I cannot return. My place is here now with your father." Lavinia cupped her daughter's face in her hands. "And yours is back in the mortal realm with Wyatt. Go back my angel and live the life you've always been meant to. Marry him. Have children…and remember us."
"I will Mother. I will. I love you both so much. Where is Daddy? Why can't I see him?"
"You didn't look hard enough," Tyler joked from behind his easel. DG ran to her father and embraced him. "Still a pistol, like your mother. Wyatt's gonna have his hands full with you."
"I want to go back…but I don't know how."
Tyler pressed her hand against her chest. "That's how you find your way back honey. What did Hank always tell you? Home is where your heart is. I had him modeled after your grandfather, my father. That's what he always told me. Find your heart and you'll find home and all life's answers can be…"
"…Found along the old road," DG finished and kissed his cheek, the brick road appearing behind her. She smiled, recalling her first trip down that road centuries earlier. She started walking down the road, singing the song that made her think of Wyatt every time she heard it.
"Lovers forever face to face
My city your mountains
Stay with me stay
I need you to love me
I need you today
Give to me your leather
Take from me my lace…"
Paradise
The Ozian Heaven Realm
Find my prison and release me Dottie, Wyatt thought from inside the iron suit that had been his prison for many years in his second life. It was not where he thought he would be in the afterlife but Fate or something else had decided to play a cruel prank on him once again.
Our love wasn't strong enough. I wasn't strong enough and I'm in this damn dark hellhole forever.
"I have my own life and I am stronger
Than you know
But I carry this feeling
When you walked into my house
That you won't be walking out the door…" he heard a voice singing. It was a song he'd heard before and he smiled at the memory.
The Dream Realm
Two years before the Double Eclipse
"…But that time I saw you
I knew with you to light my nights
Somehow I'd get by…"
"I think I'm starting to like this modern music of yours, Dottie," he said to DG one evening while they were dancing in the yard to the music playing on what DG called her 'CD player'. "What is this song called?"
"Leather and Lace."
"Are the people singing it married?"
"No but they sang it for a couple that was getting married. It didn't work out but it's still a great song." She laid her head on his chest. "And you're learning these dances pretty fast Tin Man."
He chuckled. "I'm not stepping on your toes as often now though I wish you'd listen to me and wear shoes out here more."
"I like being in my bare feet."
"You like doing a lot of things you shouldn't," he joked.
She raised her head and caressed his cheek. "I wanna dance like this every night when we finally get to meet Tin Man."
"You're gonna have to teach me it all again."
"I'm gonna look forward to it…." she murmured and laid her head on his chest again, wishing time would stop and she could be in his arms that way for the rest of her life.
Storybrooke, Maine
10AM Four days after the Final Eclipse
"DG!" Az sobbed, cradling her sister's body into her arms. "You can't leave me now, you just can't! Come back to me! Come back to us."
A few feet away a heartbroken Jeb held his father. "There has to be a way to bring him back. There has to!"
"There is," Henry said. "The box you have Jeb. Open it now!"
"Their hearts," Archie whispered. "Dellia, DG's box! We have to put her heart back in and restore it before her soul crosses over!"
"It will take more than that to bring them back dearies," Rumple spoke up. "Is it a price you are willing to pay?"
"Tell me what to do!" Jeb demanded.
Az's eyes met Archie's. He nodded.
"Rumple don't you even think about it!" Regina cried. "You've already given enough!"
"And I would give my last breath if that was what it took!" he snapped. "What she has given to me I must give back to her! I gave her mother my word that I would watch over her and I will."
"Then you're not doing it alone. What you give, I give," Belle said, taking his hand in hers.
Az removed DG's heart from its box and pushed it back into her chest. She took Archie's hand and they placed them over her heart.
"Part of ourselves do we give
Now by our will let her live," they chanted.
"Part of ourselves do we give
Now by our will let him live," Jeb and Xenia chanted as they held their hands over Wyatt's chest.
"Let me in there! Let me in there dammit." Ambrose begged. "Take whatever you want from me if it will bring them both back!"
"Raw give too," Raw murmured.
"Oh hell, take some of mine too!" added Elmer. "But I am gonna enjoy teasing that kid over this!"
Rumple conjured an orb and held it up as white mists emitted from all their mouths.
"Part of ourselves do we give
Now by our will let them live!" he and Belle chanted as the life force flowed into the orb. It floated over to where Wyatt and DG lay.
"It's not working! It's not working," Az sobbed. "DG, please don't cross over! Come back!"
"Come on DG," Archie begged.
"Nothing can hurt us if we're together Deege. Hear me!"
"Father! Come on Father. Don't give up now. You can't!"
"They're about to cross over," Henry said gravely as their life forces returned to their bodies.
"NOOOO!" Az screamed.
"Father!" Jeb wailed.
Paradise
The Ozian Heaven Realm
"Lovers forever face to face
My city your mountains
Stay with me stay
I need you to love me
I need you today
Give to me your leather
Take from me my lace…"
"Wyatt!" DG cried, running to the tin suit that had been his prison in his second life, fearful that she would find it empty. She pressed her hand against the lock. It began to glow and the suit opened, Wyatt falling into her open arms.
"Dottie…..Princess…." he whispered and kissed her.
"Wyatt," she sobbed and kissed him back.
"You came back for me…"
"I love you Tin Man and nothing, nothing is ever gonna take you away from me again!" she cried passionately and kissed him back. He broke their kiss and gazed deeply into her eyes, asking the question she'd waited centuries to answer. She nodded through her tears.
He swung her up in his arms and started to carry her back to the cottage, kicking the door open with his foot and kicked it shut again. She giggled as he carried into her into the bedroom and deposited her on the bed.
"This isn't exactly what I had in mind for our first night together," he confessed.
"Am I complaining?"
"No."
"I have one request though…lose the hat."
Wyatt burst out laughing. "Did you really think I'd wear my hat to bed?"
"Wouldn't surprise me."
He sat down beside her and leaned forward, capturing her lips. He could feel her body trembling. "Dottie? We don't have to do this now if you're not ready..."
She pressed her fingertips against his mouth to silence him and began to speak, her voice thick with the desire that was raging within her, the desire of the dragon for her mate, the desire of a woman for her man. "I've been ready for centuries. And this time nothing is going to stop us."
Wyatt longed to touch her yet he still hesitated remembering how nervous he and Adora were on their wedding night more than twenty years ago. He'd planned on marrying DG first but it seemed that the OZ had other ideas and he wasn't going to argue with it. He was as tired of waiting as she was.
"It's going to hurt a bit at first sweetheart and you know I don't like hurting you..."
She smiled softly as she reached up and caressed his cheek. "Now do you understand why I love you so much? Not very men would even give a thought to that. What did I do to deserve a lover as wonderful as you?"
"I keep asking myself what I did to deserve you every day of my life, sweetheart," he murmured.
They kissed again, this time slower, deeper. As Wyatt's icy blue eyes met her sapphire ones and their mouths fused as one she felt as if she were sinking into a warm ocean, never wanting to come up for air. She didn't need to. Every breath she took was his and every breath he took was hers and in the world the darkness could not breach they at last became one heart, one body, one soul….
Storybrooke, Maine
10:20 AM Four Days after the Final Eclipse
The orb in Rumple's hands shattered and a powerful shockwave scattered everyone on the street, their life forces reabsorbed into their bodies and the ice covering everything in the town began to melt as they slowly got to their feet.
"DG! DG!" Az cried, frantically searching for her sister's body.
"Father?" Jeb asked.
"Where are they?" Archie asked.
"Looking for us?" they heard DG ask. She and Wyatt stood in front of Granny's Bed and Breakfast, their joined hands glowing.
"DG!" Az sobbed and ran to her sister, throwing her arms around her.
"Father!" Jeb hugged his father.
"Umm, does someone want to tell me what the hell just happened?" Emma demanded.
"The circle is complete," Rumple murmured.
"And now its time we sent that bitch back where she belongs." DG growled.