Cora wanders room to room in her daughter's and son in law's private living quarters. Each time she thinks she hears the tell-tale patter of tiny running feet; she rushes to throw open the nearest door or peer behind the nearest set of draperies. No sooner than she spots her grandson, the adorable little urchin giggles and disappears again. Since there is no longer any source of magical power to be had or manipulated in the underworld, this means the boy has the upper hand, and she is rapidly losing her patience for his little game. There's no doubt in her mind, that's exactly what he thinks this is. A game. The worst part is, he's winning. After nearly 20 minutes of chasing the little half breed, she throws open the door to a bedroom that couldn't possibly belong to anyone other than her granddaughter. The room is decorated in pink and white striped wallpaper with golden accents. Shelves line every wall, and every shelf is full to bursting with any and all variety of frilly-little girl toys.

The room is more than large enough for its heavy Grecian style furniture, and she trots across the room to the closet door left standing barely open and flicks on the interior light to discover a positively gargantuan closet that would rival the one she kept in life. She cannot fathom how one six-year-old girl could possibly need this many party dresses, unless Zelena has her attending three formal balls a day, and the child never wears anything more than once. That's odd. She cannot remember any balls ever being thrown in the underworld. She shoves the thought aside and continues pushing hangers aside looking for a small boy hidden somewhere between the endless yards of fabric. At last, she knows she is in the wrong place when she hears a young voice somewhere behind her whisper.

She trots back to the closet door, listening hard.

"Elwia, no cry."

A slightly older voice whispers back, "Go away Theo! I don't want you!"

Crossing the room, Cora drops to her knees and lifts the dust ruffle to peer under her granddaughter's canopy bed. She finds, not one grandchild but two of them. Eliana's face is currently tear-stained and red and, despite his sister's obvious displeasure over the fact, Theo is currently crouched beside her in their dark little hideaway, patting her on the head as if she were a lonely puppy in desperate need of cheering up.

Cora forces patience that she does not feel into her smile. "Well, what do we have here?"

Eliana finds herself too stunned in the presence of an unexpected stranger to speak, but her brother doesn't.

Theo grimaces. "You go way now. Teo no like you! You make Elwia cry."

Eliana groans and tries without success to duck her little brother's head patting as Cora scolds, "I haven't done any such thing, and it is very impolite to speak to your grandmother that way young man!"

Eliana squints in surprise.

Theo growls. "You go way. You not mine! I tell. I tell Papa Henry!"

Cora squints briefly in confusion as she tries to decipher this message. It's utterly absurd! No one has rejected her this vehemently since… Since Regina was Theo's age.

When understanding dawns, Cora laughs drolly as Eliana makes a strident attempt to explain. "Theo, you twit, Mr. Henry is Norah's grandfather, not ours!"

Theo scowls and then shakes his head wildly as if his sister's words were of no consequence. He repeats. "I tell. I tell Papa Henry!" At which point, he sticks out his tongue, and yanks the upheld dust ruffle out of Cora's hand and back down to its proper place, concealing the pair of them from view once again.

Cora's fraying patience finally snaps, and she raises her voice. "That man is not your grandfather, and you will come out from under this bed instantly!"

In reply, Theo shouts, "Yes is! At the same moment his sister shouts, "Hey! He can't help it if he's just a stupid baby! Don't you yell at my little brother like that!"

As soon as her father's horse is out of sight, Regina sighs in disgust. There is no point in acquiring her own raincoat. She's already soaked to the skin. The only concession she makes to the weather is to magically swap her high heeled footwear for a pair of Robin's muddy boots left lying on the porch to the right of the front door. They are several sizes too big for her, and more than a little heavy, as they are resistant to all manner of things, including snake bites, but it doesn't matter. Regardless of the fact that they provide more than she currently needs, in this weather, anything is better than a pair of her stilettos.

With that accomplished, she pulls the waterlogged bandanna that is knotted around her neck, back up around her mouth and nose, and transports out. Back in the forest, calling for Eliana at the top of her voice, straining hard to hear anything, and getting as near as she dares to the flames, she tries a simple flame freezing charm, and when it appears to work, she steps forward, only to jump back and reapply within a matter of mere seconds, when the freezing spell loses its effect.

She tries again and watches the unexpected phenomenon repeat itself. She stares at her hands, palm up, at a loss to understand why it isn't working. She digs deeper, uses more power, and watches the flames freeze for a few seconds longer than they had before, and yet, they do not stay frozen anywhere near as long as she thinks they should. She bites her lower lip and thinks hard, making a decision she does not want to make. On the verge of attempting the same charm again, this time, while shadow casting, she jumps nearly out of her skin when a maddeningly calm voice just behind her left shoulder says, "That's not going to work."

Regina whirls around, takes a step back to keep from losing her balance, and snaps angrily, "Hades, Zelena!"

"That's not going to work." He repeats evenly. "Unless your goal is to get yourself killed… Roasted like a sacrificial lamb, actually."

"Do you want to tell me what the hell will work, or do you want to waste your time standing around making bad jokes while we all die of smoke inhalation, because, you're a little late to the party! I have news for you Hades. Your daughter is out there somewhere!"

"And you're just going to walk through fire to find her? Freezing it for only 10 seconds at a time?"

Regina shouts. "If that's what I have to do."

Her brother-in-law shakes his head. "You will exhaust your power long before you make it through, and then you will die… An unimaginable death. Regina, that's not ordinary fire. It's divine fire, the breath of the gods. You cannot stop it."

"Eliana, she's…" Regina gestures wildly, aimlessly.

Zelena reaches for one of her sister's hands. "She's fine. She's in the underworld. We've had word from Mother. The kids can't get out. We can't get in. I have no clue what's going on. They're not particularly happy at the moment, but they are safe."

Something dark and hard flickers in and out of existence in Regina's eyes. Fighting against the words screaming to be let out, she asks quickly, "You're sure?"

Hades nods. "We're sure."

She nods. "Then, if I can't stop this fire, what will?"

Hades simply snaps his fingers and just like that, the forest fire around them vanishes. It doesn't simply extinguish itself. It vanishes completely. The only evidence it ever existed is in the smoke-filled air, and in the badly charred trees and foliage around them.

In a flash, it occurs to Regina that this is the quintessential reason why her niece and nephew are so spoiled. There is nothing they can do, there is nothing they can get into, that their father cannot get them out of. Rather than waste her time, of which there is precious little, voicing this thought, Regina lifts her face to the sky, getting her bearings as she declares, "You two better head to Granny's. Everyone else is probably there by now." Once again, she starts to transport out, purple smoke gathering at her feet.

Zelena grabs for her arm. "Where are you going?"

"First, I'm going to the Merry Men's camp to find Roland. I will drop him at Granny's shortly thereafter so that he can be with Daddy and Norah in case they have to jump ship and blow town. Then I'm going to find Robin and bring him back."

"Regina, you're not making any sense. Bring Robin back from where?"

"I don't know. I have no clue. All I know is he's missing." Trying to hold back the roiling tide of her emotions, she bites down on her lower lip hard enough to draw blood, and she doesn't even flinch.

Zelena wipes the trickle of blood away with the pad of her thumb. "I'll come with you."

Regina slaps her hand away. With acid in her words, she declares, "Actually, you should do yourself a favor, and stay as far away from me as you can get." She disappears in a tumultuous puff of regal smoke before her stunned sister can utter a single contradictory word.

Three miles away, Regina re-emerges at a run, charging through her customary cloud of royal smoke and vapor in the large clearing that surrounds the newly built home of John Little. She finds the place surrounded by sweaty men with sooty faces, throwing meaningless bucket after meaningless bucket of water against the house's wooden exterior that is blazing with flames that will not die. The only men who are not fighting the fire are busy trying to physically restrain the house's owner who is easily twice as big as all of them. He screams, curses, sobs, and throws blind punches, gone completely out of his mind. Trying anything to break free, as the seven men surrounding him dig in their heels and pray their strength lasts long enough to save him from himself. One of them sees Regina arrive, does an unmistakable double-take, and then waves her over.

"Percival, why is Little John fighting so hard to go inside? I know it's new. They haven't even found time for a housewarming party yet, but it's just a house."

"The stairway is blocked by fire. We can't go up. They can't come down. His wife and only boy are trapped on the second floor."

Regina inhales deeply for all the good it does her. The air is churned with smoke. "Is there more than one way up?"

Percival shakes his head regrettably. "Uh…"

"What is it?"

"I really don't wanna be the one to tell you this, Your Majesty…" He grunts with the effort of holding back his agonized friend, and just barely ducks a meaty fist.

"What?" Regina demands in a much louder voice.

"Roland when up a few minutes ago to try and bring them down. We don't know if he reached them, but he didn't come back out."

Without another word, Regina breaks into a dead run. With the sound of her pulse drumming in her ears, she starts toward the house. Thinks better of it. Reverses direction, grabs a soaking wet heavy woolen blanket off a nearby clothesline, and just for good measure, she drops the large blanket in the horse trough that the impromptu fire brigade is drawing water from. As she wraps the dripping blanket around her shoulders, Percival tracks her with his eyes, knowing without question what she's about to do, and hating himself because he knows he cannot stop her.

As she passes by on her way to the front door the second time, she yells to the Merry Men fighting the fire. "Let the house burn. It's already lost. You can't fight it, it's divine fire. Stay with John."

Percival glances upward toward the sky that is filled with fat black clouds that are dumping a completely useless, yet unyielding tidal wave of rain on them. He shouts, calling out to Regina. "The roof is nearly fully engulfed. It's gonna come down any minute!"

Regina waves, signaling her understanding, takes the deepest breath she possibly can, pulls the blanket up over her head like a cloak, and steps over the threshold, disappearing instantly in the thick black smoke that comes billowing out of the burning house.