Author's Notes: I do not own Once Upon A Time which is a show on ABC where they... I mean, what was 5b? My take coming sooner than you think. As for the length of time between updates, I've been struggling with anxiety and illness and I lost a job, found another. So, yeah, but I think I have a great take on the next part of the story. I really hope you're still interested. Please let me know what you think and happy reading!


Beatrice stared at Nick Fury.

"Who the hell do you think I'm talking to, Gold?," demanded Fury.

"Someone else?," Beatrice offered weakly.

Peggy and Natasha exchanged skeptical glances.

"Excuse us," said Coulson.

He quickly pulled Beatrice aside.

"I thought you knew this woman."

"Uh, yeah, she killed me one time."

Coulson's eyes widened slightly. "I don't think I have time to ask how that happened. The point is you defeated her." He paused. "You did defeat her?"

"My mom did."

"Belle?," he said incredulously.

"It needed to be someone pure of heart and at the time I was just a little bit homicidal..."

"Homicidal?"

"She did kill me," Beatrice said defensively. "You just need someone pure of heart to pull her stupid green necklace off."

"Right. Because that's easy. Should I ask the ex-Soviet spy or the woman who punches everyone she can?"

"Um..."

"Don't answer that."

"Look, I didn't ask to come to comic book land. If you want someone to shoot some ice at some flying monkeys, I can maybe do that."

"Great. Suit up."

"Suit up?"


Belle stared at the library wall Beatrice and Hero had vanished from several days before.

"Sweetheart..." Gold implored.

"I'm not hungry."

"You have to eat-"

"We've been through this. I don't want food, I want my children back." Belle turned, taking a breath and walking back towards the circulation desk. Tink and Astrid looked up tentatively from the table they had set up shop at.

"There has to be something."

"Obviously, there is-"

"And if you can come up with someone to crush their loved one's heart without it taking centuries, I am open to suggestions, Rumple."

"Well..."

"Dark magic isn't the answer," Tink admonished.

"I don't see light magic giving a lot of answers at the moment," Belle snapped. "Our daughters are gone and platitudes are getting us nowhere!"

Belle scrambled away to the office, Gold cast a glare at the fairies.

"We'll take a break," suggested Astrid.

"Yes, perhaps that's for the best."

Gold walked into Belle's office. She sat behind her desk chair, face already red from days of tears. He knelt at her feet.

"I will get them back."

"They need me. Beatrice doesn't know what to do with a baby, you remember her plan for babysitting Graham."

"She has magic, she'll manage."

"What if she's gone to a world without magic?"

"Belle, you made her strong-"

Belle shook her head. "No, I didn't."


As usual, Storybrooke was in a fit of equal parts outrage and confusion over the recent events.

"What do you mean time didn't move? I spent years as some weird version of myself!," Leroy shouted.

"We all did," added Aurora.

"I died!," Hook added.

John rolled his eyes. He had been trying to be helpful, it seemed the least he could do.

"Yes, you may have mentioned that a dozen or so times," Somerset remarked.

"And who the hell is that guy?!," Leroy demanded.

"David Somerset. I work for the British government."

Emma looked at John. "Yeah, what is he doing here?"

"My auntie sort of dispatched him to find the Author when you all vanished," said John. "Also, he knows Joseph from the Victorian era."

"Edwardian," Somerset corrected.

John snapped his head back. "Because that's what's important right now!"

"They are two distinct periods of British life. Take it from someone who was there. It was probably such shoddy attention to detail that got you lot in your current predicament," he said taking a hit off a monogrammed flask.

"He drinks more than Hook," a scandalized Mary Margaret whispered.

"And that's saying something," David added.

"I can hear you," said Hook.

"Well, he smells better than the pirate," Regina remarked.

"Look," said Aurora, "I think we all know it's Beatrice's fault."

"Let's not be hasty in our conclusions," said Maleficent.

"Oh, like the time you cursed me to an eternal sleep?," asked Aurora.

"Now, she is on to something," John supplied. "The Author used Belle to get Beatrice to agree to his version of reality."

"Then why weren't you affected?," asked Ruby.

"What?" John looked around the room as Storybrooke's denizens grew suspicious.

Emma turned to John. "She's got a point."

"Well, I'm a first person narrator, I was the only one who had the ability to stay in character in that realm so I had to be the one to go after you."

"First person narrator? What's he talking about?," asked Leroy.

"Sorry, has no one here read a Sherlock Holmes story? Or even heard of Sherlock Holmes before he was Beatrice's boyfriend?"

The townsfolk remained silent.

"Does that answer your question?," sighed Regina.

"Yes, that will do it."

"Where is the Great Detective now?," she asked.

"Yeah, I've got some questions for Prince Sherlock, too," said Leroy.

"Oh, when don't you?," said Somerset.

Emma turned towards him. "Are you ever leaving?"

"Not quite. See, Her Majesty's Government wants a convincing story for the public about what happened to Isaac Heller and for that we need a body."

Mary Margaret gasped. "We can't just kill him!"

"Perhaps you can't. I have a license."

"Let's go find Sherlock, see if he's made any progress before we have a bloodbath on our hands," said Regina.

"We're having a meeting right now, Regina," said Emma.

She waved her hand at the assembled. "They're all idiots. Meeting adjourned. Let's go."


They quickly located the Great Detective sitting on the floor of the abandoned mansion.

"What is he doing?," David whispered.

"How the hell should I know?," Regina hissed back.

"Is it some kind of spell?," Mary Margaret whispered.

"I can hear you." Joseph snapped his head back at them. "Do you mind terribly shutting up? You lower the IQ of the whole town when you speak which I grant you is no small feat, but I am trying to work here."

They finished walking in the library of the mansion. The storybooks were scattered on the floor opened up.

"How is this working?," asked Regina.

"I meant you, too. I am trying to decipher where to find Beatrice and her sister so we can go there and retrieve them." Joseph scowled at David and Mary Margaret. "It may involve a heart, I would make myself scarce if I were you."

"What? Is Gold planning something?," asked Mary Margaret.

"Not yet, but I've devised several different scenarios where someone has to sacrifice the heart of the thing they loved the most and you two are right at the top of his list for not giving a damn. I've seen it all play out already."

"How?," asked Regina.

"In my mind palace. Some of the scenarios would be rather touching if I could be bothered with sentiment."

"Gold's not going to do that," said David.

"I've calculated an eighty-three percent chance he might. I would advise you to leave town, but there's a forty-two percent chance that's the only way to find Beatrice and Hero and a ninety-nine percent chance you're too stupid to heed my advice, so it's really not worth the trouble."

"What are you doing?," Regina asked, already tired.

"Well, I asked myself what the easiest way was to locate Beatrice and I realized that I didn't need magic."

"You don't?," David asked skeptically.

"No, I have access to hundreds of worlds right here in this library. I've been reading them all."

They stared at him.

"You know, it's when you see letters form words that form sentences that become paragraphs, oh, why bother?"

"That would take days."

"Yes, it has."

Regina narrowed her eyes. "Haven't you slept?"

"Who needs sleep? Sleep is boring." He tossed the book across the room. "The trouble is, she hasn't popped up in any of them and there have been so many plot contrivances even my intellect is finding it difficult to keep up. Would a little continuity be too much to ask?"

"Maybe she's not in any of these books," Mary Margaret suggested.

"Or perhaps the book she's in isn't here..." Joseph's head snapped towards Regina. "Where's Henry?!"


Joseph burst into Granny's and immediately narrowed his eyes at Henry.

"Where is it?!," he demanded.

"Whoa, calm down-" said Neal.

John approached. "Joseph, what the hell are you doing?"

Wordlessly, Joseph grabbed Henry's backpack and dumped it onto the diner table as the patrons watched, its contents going everywhere. After the storybook, another book fell out. The Dark Princess comic.

"It was the only one not in the sorcerer's library and therefore it must be the one with an answer."

"But that one just ends," Henry reasoned.

"Have you checked it?"

"Yes."

"Lately? Time could run differently there."

"What even makes you say that?"

"Bubbles in the multiverse, they create different physical laws in each universe. Perhaps if someone actually listened to Beatrice..." He flipped through the pages. "There we are. Beatrice and Hero arrive in the other world."

"Are you sure it's them?," asked Neal.

"She just asked Black Widow if she got her belt at Hot Topic."

"Okay, yeah, that's them," said Neal.

"But that doesn't make any sense," said Henry. "The Author's in that story, but he's here in Storybrooke."

John looked at Joseph. "Are you high?"

"Not right now."

"Oh my God, you are."

"It's been days and I needed to work."

"Bloody hell, Joseph."

"It's fine," he answered walking out of the diner, the other three in pursuit.

"It is not fine!"

"Of course it is, it's only drugs, I've done lots of them."

Neal looked at Henry. "For the record, don't listen to anything he says!"

"Belle!," Joseph shouted down the blocks. "Belle, are you going to take forever?"

Belle cast a wary glance to her husband and they walked over.

"Henry had the solution."

"What?," asked Belle.

"Obviously his intelligence must come from the paternal line."

Henry frowned. "That's my mom."

"Oh, Henry, I would say your loyalty does you credit if only filial sentiment weren't a complete waste of time, particularly in your case-"

Neal rolled his eyes. "Did you have a point?"

"This book. The Adventures of the Dark Princess in a comic book world where she rubs elbows with Black Widow, Captain Britannia, Lady Sif-"

"We've been through this," Gold said impatiently.

"We left off with the Dark Princess being caught up in a mysterious deep sleep. There's more to it, like the visit of a Dark Princess from a mirror universe-"

"What?," Belle exclaimed, taking the book from Joseph running her finger along the panels. Her face lit up as she confirmed the theory. "She's there. They're alright."

"Well, that might be overstating it..."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, only that Zelena's there and appears to have unleashed an army of flying monkeys on Manhattan."

"What?!," Belle exclaimed.

"Sherlock!"

"I'm busy!," Joseph snapped.

"Joseph, Captain Hook is walking towards you with a sword..." John warned.

"Well, it's all he knows how to do, John. He's a man of few talents."

"Joseph-"

"Eyeliner is chief among them."

"Would you take this seriously?"

"I am taking this as seriously as the situation requires."

A sword landed at his feet. He looked up at the others.

"Do excuse me, this won't take a moment."

Joseph took the sword off the ground.


"I can't breathe," Beatrice declared.

She looked at Coulson.

"Seriously, how's anybody supposed to do any superhero stuff when you can't breathe?"

Peggy began walking as if this were normal. "I'll come from straight on, Natasha, Beatrice, you need to come to flank her."

"Still the Flying Monkeys," Coulson added as they stepped in the elevator.

"Oh, right, I forgot to tell you, those are people," said Beatrice.

The other three stared at her.

"Well, I mean, I don't know who they are..."

"We'll have to deal with that later..." said Natasha.

"Killian..." Neal groaned.

"Isn't someone going to do something?"

At this point the townspeople had begun to gather.

"Face me, Sherlock."

"Yes, I am facing you."

"What?," asked Gold.

"We don't have time for this, Rumple," said Belle.

He nodded. "Agreed. Better to let Joseph finish the pirate and be done with him once and for all."

"Papa!," Neal exclaimed.

"Bae, be reasonable. We gave leaving him alone a chance and here we are."

Merlin shrugged.

Joseph approached Hook.

"Am I to take it that you intend to duel with me?"

"You killed me."

"You interrupted me."

"What is it? Too afraid to take me on?"

Joseph raised his sword towards the pirate's neck.

"Hardly. Why should I be? If I've learned anything from this experience, it's that I'm the hero of the story-"

"Joseph, that's asinine..." John said but his brother didn't listen.

"And you are the moronic pirate who ends up dead."

"You can't kill him," said John.

"No, I can. I've done it once."

Hook parried away Joseph's sword and took a step back.

"Try again, mate."

"Gladly."

"This is ridiculous-"

"Guys, knock it off-" Neal warned.

"Look, go again," said Joseph. "I'm hardly trying. I don't even have to try. I'm Sherlock Holmes."

"Yes, but you forget, you were the villain of that world."

"No, I was a tragically misunderstood Byronic hero. Do try to keep up."

"Joseph, stop this right now!," demanded John.

"Why?"

"Because someone's going to end up dead!"

"Yes, but we have established it won't be me."

"Killian, damn it!," shouted Neal.

Suddenly, John swung a punch at Joseph. Neal tackled the sword away from Hook.

"What did you do that for?!," Joseph demanded.

"You are out of control! You are completely out of control, worse than I've ever seen!"

"I'm out of control! He tried to duel with me in the street!"


Not long later, the three Avengers retreated into the elevator, meeting Coulson again.

"There's still Flying Monkeys," said Coulson.

"Can you guys get Iron Man out here or something?," asked Beatrice.

"I thought you had some advantage when it came to this woman," said Peggy.

Beatrice looked up. "I used to..."

"Do you have a backup plan?," asked Coulson.

"Back up plan? I don't have back up plans. I throw ice bolts at flying monkeys. That's it."

"Used to?," asked Natasha.

"She killed me one time."

The women shrugged as if this was the sort of thing that happened quite often and of course it was. Beatrice remembered who had finally been able to stop Zelena and it definitely wasn't her.

"We need someone pure of heart, the most powerful source of light magic."

Natasha frowned. "Great plan. How the hell do you find that?"

"Oh, wait just a minute..." Beatrice looked up. "Rory."

"Rory?," Peggy asked.

"Rory's never shown any sign of having any powers."

Beatrice rolled her eyes. "She's got powers."


"Rory," said Beatrice entering the garden. "Come on."

"What?"

"I need you to pull the necklace off a witch so come on."

Rory frowned. "You want me to do what?"

Beatrice turned back around. "I need the strongest purveyor of light magic to pull the magic pendant off the Wicked Witch of the West and that's you. Come on."

Rory shook her head. "I don't do magic."

Beatrice found herself turning on her heel again. "You don't do magic."

"No."

"Well, that's crap."

"No, Beatrice is the one who does everything. I'm just Rory."

"Okay, I need you to get over that in about the next five minutes."

"I don't have magic!"

Beatrice snorted. "Longest line of True Love in the Enchanted Forest, child of the Dark One. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you do."

"No, I don't!" Rory was near tears now. "Don't you get it?! Baelfire was the one he did everything for, Beatrice is the hero, she's an Avenger and I'm just Rory! I don't matter!"

Beatrice's eyes widened. "Oh, my God..."

"What?"

"I guess I've just been thinking the same thing for a really long time, that I don't matter, next to Neal or Emma, you... well, little you. And it's not true, is it? Not for me and not for you."

Rory shook her head. "But I'm useless."

"No, you're not. I've got the definite feeling that you're not. This is your chance. Come on. Be a hero."

Rory looked terrified.


"Back for more, Dark Princess?," asked Zelena.

Beatrice threw her arms up, knocking another flying monkey aside with an ice bolt.

"I'm not even tired yet. This is like the third or fourth world we've met each other in and if you think you've got anything I haven't seen yet, well..."

Beatrice glanced behind Zelena as Rory snuck around.

"Has anyone given you a good synopsis of the musical Wicked yet?," asked Beatrice.

"Well, it is my favorite adjective..."

"You don't deserve to have Idina Menzel play you."

"I don't know who that is."

"You don't deserve to know." Beatrice glanced impatiently at Rory.

Zelena spun around, catching the younger girl. Rory's eyes grew large and she froze.

"And what do we have here, my pretty?," asked Zelena.

"Rory, what are you waiting for?!"

"I..."

"Oh, my God, just grab the necklace!"

Before Rory could reach her hand out, Zelena knocked her back off the rooftop with a wave of her magic. Rory screamed.

"Rory, no!," Beatrice shouted.

"Oh, Rory, yes," Zelena laughed. She turned back. "You know, I think it will be even more satisfying to murder your actual sister."

"Wait, what?"

"And this is the third world we've fought each other in. By my count."

"No, you've just-" She paused, realization coming over her. "You're not just any Zelena, are you? You're my Zelena."

Zelena smiled. "Not dead. Surprise."

"You killed yourself."

She scoffed. "I'm sure that's what they told you."

"They?"

"What the hell did you do?!," Coulson shouted as he Natasha and Peggy burst onto the roof.

"I, I thought-" Beatrice began.

Zelena laughed. "You thought what?"

Just then, they spotted Rory emerging over the ledge of the building, white magic glowing from her hands.

Zelena shook her head. "What?"

"Zelena, I would like you to meet the newest, strongest practitioner of light magic," said Beatrice.

"What? No."

Rory floated up and ripped the necklace from Zelena's neck, waves of green magic floated away from her, knocking her to the ground. The flying monkeys vanished as a SHIELD tactical team emerged.

"Put her in containment," Coulson ordered.

"This isn't over," Zelena sneered at Beatrice.

"So you keep saying."

"Well done, Rory," said Peggy.

"Pretty impressive," Natasha added.

"Well, I just-" Rory paused, the first hint of a smile appearing. "Really?"

"Really," said Coulson.

Peggy looked at Beatrice. "How did you know she could do that?"

"Well, the longest line of True Love in the Enchanted Forest and..." Beatrice's thoughts floated away from her, a flash of the Author's world appearing. Her mother knelt by her side with her infant sister.

"Beatrice?," Coulson asked in concern.

"I was dying."

"You seemed okay," said Natasha.

"No, there was another world and I was dying... Hero saved me." She looked at Rory. "And I know how you save your sister."


"How's the pirate?," asked Merlin as John and Joseph came in the library.

"He'll live," John grumbled.

"An unfortunate development," said Gold.

"Though not quite the most unfortunate thing to have happened," John snapped.

"Are you still going on about that?," Joseph asked.

"That depends. Are you still high?!"

Belle frantically looked between the brothers. "What is this about?"

"It's nothing."

John looked to the Golds. "I don't suppose my brother bothered telling you he was an addict."

"I never said I wasn't." Joseph motioned at Belle. "Besides, she's read my books."

Gold narrowed his eyes at him. "I thought that was in your past."

"And it will be. Later."

Gold turned back to his wife. "We can't send him."

"Who are we supposed to send, Rumple? In the Author's world, Sherlock was the only one who still loved her."

"Darling, you didn't know who you were," said Merlin.

"I am her mother! That is who I'm supposed to be! And I betrayed her."

"You did no such thing."

"Really? She was only in trouble because she was alone in that world, she only got in that situation because I let her walk away!"

Merlin shook his head. "What?"

"When we told her about Hero."

"You told me not to go after her!," Rumple countered.

"I was stupid and I wasn't thinking about the fact that Beatrice has been in emotional turmoil for over a year!" Belle motioned at Joseph. "For love of him. So, yes, send him."

Joseph frowned. "No."

"No?," Gold demanded.

Joseph looked at Belle. "You're wrong. Beatrice may love me, but it's nothing compared to what she feels for you. She would happily let the world burn rather than hurt you and that was the deal she thought she was making with the Author. It wasn't for me, it was for you. It's always you."

Belle edged closer to him. "She loves you. Being without you devastated her."

"I know, but your loss would kill her. Having a podium finish isn't the worst thing when it comes to Beatrice's love."

"Someone needs to help her take back her life," said Merlin, tucking Beatrice's storybook in the red leather bag. He handed it to Belle. "And that's you. That will always be you."

With tears in her eyes, Belle hugged her father. She turned to Gold. He took her hands in his.

"Give our girls a kiss from their papa."

"I will." Belle embraced him. "We're coming back to you."

"You had better because the next plan will be to have Snow White crush her husband's heart."

"Rumple!"

"Would you rather it be someone you're speaking to?"

Belle shook her head. "I don't want anyone to get hurt."

Merlin kissed Belle on the forehead.

"Hurry back and we'll see what we can do," he said.

He waved the wand and Belle disappeared into the wall.


She looked up to see a man with an eyepatch staring down at her.

"Let me guess," said Fury. "You're looking for your daughters."

"I don't understand," said Rory. "How am I supposed to heal Beatrice?"

"I was dying in this other world because of the Author's ink. It's my kryptonite or something."

"Your what?"

"Different comic book company, anyway. My mom was there and my sister touched my hand, that's what undid the world and brought me back."

"Rory!," Belle shouted.

The two parents approached.

"You went to battle?," Rumplestiltskin snarled.

"She won," Beatrice offered.

"She fell off the building!," Belle snapped.

"She flew back up," shrugged Beatrice.

"Is this how your parents allow you to behave?," asked Rumplestiltskin.

"I just want to say, a lot of the time, I don't really have a choice. And Zelena killed me."

"She what?," asked Belle.

"Let's just get to the part where you fix your sister, okay?," Beatrice said turning to Rory, pushing her past her parents.

"I don't understand how I can-"

Beatrice slammed Rory's hand down into her sister's. The other Beatrice lurched upwards taking a deep gasp of air.

"There," said Beatrice, stepping away from the hospital bed. "Usually I just shut up and try things."

Belle went to hold her daughter, the family happily reunited.

Beatrice stood back, wishing she were with hers.

Coulson entered. "Beatrice, we need you in the situation room."


"Mom?"

Belle looked up at the sound of her eldest daughter's voice. Before Beatrice could say anything else, Belle clambered to her feet, rushing to pull her into a tight embrace, her eyes in wordless gratitude. A sigh of relief escaped her lips.

"I'm sorry, Mom-"

"Shh, what do you have to feel sorry for?" Belle stood back as Coulson approached.

"Phil Coulson."

Belle furrowed her brow and glanced to Beatrice. "But he's-"

"Yeah."

"You have a Funko Pop of him..."

She glanced back towards Peggy and Natasha.

"Agent Carter and Black Widow."

"Henry's certainly going to be sorry to have missed this." She looked at Beatrice. "Is Hero-"

"She's being looked after," Coulson supplied.

"By who?"

"She's in pretty good hands actually."


Belle walked into the hospital room to see Hero being held by...

Belle.

"Belle," said Rumplestiltskin.

The new arrival looked at the room at the mirror of her daughter and Rory.

"Hi."

"So, Mom, I guess you know everybody..."

She motioned at Rory. "I don't know her."

"That's Hero."

Belle blanched. "Gods."

"Belle, maybe you should give her the baby back," Coulson suggested.

"Right," said the other Belle. "Of course."

Belle took the infant from her mirror, eyes filled with happy tears as she took in the scent of her youngest. She looked to Beatrice and back to her family's mirror. "Thank you for looking after them."

"Right," said Beatrice. "Just the matter of getting from one parallel world to home. On the other hand, I do know Taylor Swift here. Then again, my stuff is back at the house."

"What? That stupid concert thing?," asked the other Beatrice.

Beatrice turned to her mother. "I don't understand this world."

"We just have to find a way home first."

"I may able to help with that," said Coulson.


"Beatrice, Belle, this is Lady Sif."

Beatrice looked at Coulson. "Lady Sif is an Avenger? Seriously, what do we even need Tony Stark for?"

"What's your plan?," asked Belle.

Lady Sif spoke. "The bifrost is able to travel between worlds."

"Between universes?," asked Beatrice.

"No, but there is only one Underworld."

Belle narrowed her eyes. "What good does that do us? We'll be in the Underworld."

"The blood of the Dark One can summon the ferry to pass between the worlds of the living and the dead," Sif explained.

Belle and Beatrice looked at her in amazement.

"Everyone knows this," she shrugged.

"No, everyone does not know that," said Beatrice.

"Rumple isn't here-" said Belle.

"She means me."

Belle shook her head. "You're not the Dark One."

"No, but I have the blood of the Dark One."

"Precisely," said Sif.

"Is it safe?," Belle asked.

"It's the Underworld. I would never lie to you about where you are taking your daughters."

"Mom, I can take care of us. I know I can."

Belle looked at her eldest, reached to caress her face. "I know you can and I know you always will, but I'm here to protect you. Remember?"

Beatrice rolled her eyes. "Just let me get us back to Storybrooke and you can protect me all you want."


A short time later, they stood waiting for the bifrost.

Beatrice looked at Coulson.

"So, this was interesting." She shrugged. "Nice to see that I get appreciated somewhere."

"About that," said Coulson. He held out a small package. "I wanted to give you something. Consider it a thanks for helping us out."

Beatrice tore off the paper. "I'm a Funko Pop!"

"I thought you'd like it. Beatrice- well, our Beatrice- she doesn't really appreciate these things."

"Yeah, she's kind of not as fun as... well, me..." Beatrice said looking up at the control room where her doppelganger stood with her fellow Avengers. "I can't believe she doesn't want to be in Taylor Swift's squad. And she's not dating Sherlock?"

"I think she has a crush on Doctor Strange..."

Beatrice frowned. "Well, that's weird."

Coulson looked at her questioningly.

"That's just really weird."

"Belle," said Rumplestiltskin.

She turned.

"I wanted to say thank you," he began. She looked at him questioningly. "Beatrice saved my daughter. She helped Rory find something in herself... I didn't know was there."

Belle shook her head. "You looked after my daughters. We're more than even."

"I wanted to ask you something if I might..."

"Of course," she answered.

"In your world, I get the impression that the Dark Curse worked."

"Yes."

"And Baelfire. Did he find him? Your Rumple?"

Belle nodded. "He did."

"And did he forgive him?"

Belle smiled. "Yes."

"Good." Rumplestiltskin nodded. "At least it happened somewhere."

"Belle," said Coulson. "We're ready if you are."

Belle looked at Rumplestiltskin. "Thank you again for looking after them."

"No matter."

Belle picked up Hero's carrier and walked back next to Beatrice, taking her hand.

"Prepare yourselves," warned Lady Sif.

"Beatrice," said Belle. "Whatever happens, I want you to remember who you are and you can do anything."