CHAPTER 19 – AN OUNCE OF LIGHT

[A/N: Sorry it's been ages, the Doc Manager kept giving me errors when I tried to upload but I think it's fixed now!]

"That's…that isn't possible."

Robin Hood was in denial. There wasn't any way that this girl could be his daughter, but at the same time it made sense. And it made him sad. He had missed out on so much of her life and at this rate he probably seemed like a complete stranger to her. Had he really failed both of his children?

"Well, I'm afraid it is because otherwise she wouldn't be here would she?", Hades simply said back.

Robin looked awkwardly down to the ground, not knowing what to say nor do next. She also felt uneasy about it, but she knew she had to say something. "It's true. It may be hard to explain, but it's true.."

"If you're really telling the truth then how many years has it been since I died?"

"It depends. If you're talking about the land without magic it would be 6.", Lucy responded out of nowhere.

He still couldn't quite make sense of it all. "Who are you supposed to be then?"

"Look, I don't mean to interrupt but I wouldn't mind if you possibly delayed this heart-wrenching conversation for another time and if we could perhaps continue from where we left off?", Hades interjected as he looked over at Robin.

"What do you mean?"

Hades sighed with the lack of motivation. "Look, to cut the story short, there is a way to get out of this place but I can't guarantee how successful it would be."

"You're being serious?", Robin said back. "You're just going to let us out?"

"Yes.. well under certain conditions.", he said back.

Robin Hood was unconvinced. How could he just let them out this easily, after all of the time he'd spent trying to gain power down here?

"What conditions?"

"Well, that you agree to take me along. And no one else.", Hades stated.

Robin was annoyed. She couldn't let this happen. She couldn't just leave her father down here after finally finding him. After all, despite barely knowing him he was family. And that was one of her main priorities at that point.

"That's not going to happen.", she said back.

"Well, that's going to be a tough one then. Even if you do try to bring Robin here through, it's not going to work."

"Why?", she said impatiently.

"Because in order to get people out of this place you have to use the Olympian crystal, currently hidden in the basement of this house, and if anyone who's been struck by it touches it in order to escape, they'll die in the process.", he said back.

"But you don't have to touch the crystal to go somewhere, do you?", Lucy asked. "Can't you just aim it at someone?"

Hades raised his voice. "Look at this place, do you think that there's any way that those types of beams could travel in this air? Nothing here can support the flow of the crystal's beams. Nothing physical anyway, there isn't even water."

Robin became disappointed, knowing that there really wasn't any way in bringing her father back. It didn't take long for her to wonder why she even thought about the possibility of it anyway, considering the fact that he was already dead. Even down here, he was already gone and had been gone for a long time.

But, at the same time, she'd still do anything to get him out. People needed him. She turned to face her dad.

"There's got to be something we can do."

Robin Hood looked at her in frustration. There was no point in denying it now. This girl was his daughter and he'd not only missed out on her entire life, but now he would once again find himself saying goodbye to her. "I'm sorry.."

It was at that point when they wondered what the point of hoping really was in the first place.

Robin had walked outside, claiming that she wanted some fresh air, whilst Hades had left Lucy and Robin Hood to hopelessly sit down. Robin Hood wasn't exactly happy knowing that his fate wouldn't change, but at the same time it just seemed pointless to think of it any other way. He had been gone for so long, and he'd probably been practically forgotten by most of the people he'd spoken to in his past that a part of him didn't think there was any point.

"I'm sorry about what happened.", Lucy quietly stated after the two of them had stayed silent for minutes on end.

"It's alright, I knew it would have probably turned out like this anyway.", he said back attempting to smile.

"I wasn't talking about not being able to leave.", she said trying to be clear.

"What?"

"I was talking about how you died. In the land without magic."

He looked at her in confusion. "How do you know how I was killed?"

"Well, it says that Hades tried to erase you when you tried to save you and Zelena's baby and that doesn't sound great."

"Where does it say that?"

"In the book.", she said as if it was obvious. "In my dad's book."

"What was the title of this book?"

"Once Upon A Time by Henry Mills. It has all of the stories and people from Storybrooke in it, including you."

He quickly realised that it couldn't have been any other book, and it made quite a lot of sense. But now knowing that Henry had published those stories made him want to ask more questions. He was originally going to ask how she could be Henry's daughter, although that was when he realised that he had another question he wanted to ask. Something he'd wanted to ask for a long time, despite thinking that he'd never have an answer to do it.

"Tell me, can you remember what happens.. after I die?"

Lucy looks away, feeling the need to think about what to say even though she had read the book thousands of times and she didn't really need to think about it. It was just that something made everything seem very sensitive and almost sad.

"Well, after you died, Regina manages to convince Zelena that she's not right by siding with Hades and she ends up killing him. And then..", she didn't know how to continue for a moment. "..and then Zeus manages to find a way to bring back Hook from the underworld and that makes things a bit better but everyone was still upset about you leaving. Roland was adopted by someone as well I think, but I can't quite remember."

He didn't have many words to say after that. Of course he knew that everyone thought he was dead, but hearing about what happened even in the tiniest of detail still made him upset. He was also upset about his son of course, even though he knew that he was looked after. Although there was one person in particular who he wanted to know more about, one person who he'd never dared to have forgotten over the time he'd spent there.

"Do you know what happened to Regina by any chance?"

Lucy sighed, not knowing what was necessary to mention except from one thing.

"Well, she was like everyone else of course. She was sad."

He looked at her, wide-eyed as if wanting to know more of the story, but he couldn't really ask for more from someone as small as her. It wasn't easy knowing that Regina would've been upset about him passing on, and he'd found himself thinking about her and Roland almost all of the time when down here. The fact that he'd just lost the chance of getting his old life back again just made it worse and worse. What was he supposed to do with his life now?

"That's it!", Lucy shouted out of nowhere. He looked at her in confusion before she ran straight outside.

She saw Robin standing in the cold, looking into the clouds that her breaths made. "Robin, I've got an idea!"

Robin turned to see her and quickly responded in the remaining hope she had left. "What? What is it?"

"Hades said that nothing in the air could support the flow of the crystal's magic, but what if it doesn't have to be in the air?"

"What are you talking about?", Robin asked back in confusion.

"It's obvious! Think about it, when Hades told you that there was no way of getting out he was getting rid of your hope, right? But what if we need that hope. What if we got all of the people here to find hope that they could escape this place and then the magic could pass through everyone, including Robin Hood?"

Robin had begun processing what she said, but it didn't seem logical to her. "Look, that's not a bad idea I have to admit, but it seems way to ambitious."

"But we have to do this! When your dad was talking earlier, I realised something. If it's true that you were brought to Hyperion Heights to break the curse then this must be the way that you do it! If you bring Robin Hood back then he could give the true love's kiss to Regina and it could break the curse!"

Robin frowned. It still didn't seem possible to her, and she wasn't sure what she'd do if it didn't work, but then again she knew they had to try.

"Okay then. Let's do it."