"So, Savior… Do you want to send your family home? Or not."
Hades' plea for help was more of a threat than a genuine choice given, but Emma wasn't about to let this opportunity pass her by. Not with Regina so close — not with so many lives in her hands.
Zelena had been kidnapped by Gold and Pan, holding her hostage until Hades' relented and tore up the contract which promised Gold and Belle's child to the Underworld. These were terms Hades was more than willing to accept, however, he knew Gold to be a cunning man, and so was not willing to take any chances.
Emma had asked several times — and in several ways — trying to find some point of weakness in Hades' promise to deliver her family home safely if she held up her end of the bargain. She found none. And while Regina and Hook had protested, pointing out that making a deal with the Lord of the Underworld was certainly worse than any deal made with the Dark One — the reward was simply too great to leave behind.
Regina's growing belly, and the number of times she'd tried — and failed — to hide discomfort in the last few days were constant reminders that their time was quickly running out. This was the opportunity Emma had been waiting for. And she would not walk away.
Which is why she interrupted the hostage switch, happy to oblige Hades in safely rescuing Zelena, returning her freedom from the Cuff.
"Look, Gold. He ripped up the contract like you wanted, so leave," Emma said with annoyance in her tone, standing beside Hades — and trying to hide her discomfort at their close proximity.
"Since when does the Savior answer to the King of Death," Pan grumbled.
"Since he's the one getting my family home," Emma gritted in reply.
"You picked the wrong team to back, Miss Swan. You won't get what you want from him," Gold pointed out.
"Really? Because you just did. Which is making me wonder why you're still here."
"Good point," Gold relented, and with the wave of his hand, he left in a cloud of magic, leaving Pan behind.
"You tore up that contract for me," Zelena said with awe, crossing to Hades' side, her eyes glittering with love.
"I told you, would do anything for you," he promised.
"I think I'm getting that."
Zelena leaned in to kiss him, and the two lovers held each other, their lips pressed tight — and there was a sudden rush of light and magic, and even Emma was taken aback because she recognized it easily. True Love's Kiss.
Hades' heart began beating once more — and his punishment was ended. He was permitted to leave the Underworld.
"At the cemetery," his voice changed to low and serious. "There will be a fully formed portal back to Storybrooke," he promised, his eyes on Emma. "But it will close at sunset…"
"First thing's first. I held up my end of the deal. Now it's your turn," Emma said with a nod. "We're going home through that portal, too. All of us."
As promised, Hades removed the names from the tombstones. They were free to leave through the portal. But there had been one last speed bump on their road home — one that would cost them time. Time they didn't have.
Regina had split Emma's heart, but when she attempted to give half to Hook, to ensure that he could return from the Underworld, alive and well, the heart was rejected. Hades had explained that too much time had passed — and Regina tried to conceal her anger at that. All they'd done was waste time. And once again, it seemed that everything had been in vain.
"It would appear you have to return without me," Hook whispered in an effort to comfort Emma. But she was not having any of it. And no one else truly wanted to accept that answer, either. Because then this was all for nothing.
"You're telling me no one has ever come to the Underworld and brought someone back?" Emma asked, her tone demanding, challenging Hades to prove her wrong.
But when the god didn't answer immediately, Emma knew the truth. "They have."
"Who? Who did? How?" she asked, pressing him for more, grasping at straws.
"It was a long time ago," Hades explained. "And it was a rumor. There was no proof it actually worked…."
"Tell me everything," Emma begged.
"Orpheus and Eurydice," Regina sighed, holding the book open with one hand, the other beneath the table, concealing the fact that she was holding the side of her belly gently.
She hadn't left the Charming's apartment all day, at Robin's behest, but if she were honest with herself, she didn't want to. Her back had been aching all morning, and the pain was slowly pulsing downward, beginning to wrap around to her hips.
"I know this myth," Henry chirped happily. "She died and he followed her to the Underworld to get her back."
"Those are the only two souls who ever escaped my realm," Hades explained, standing at Zelena's side.
"But…how?" Snow asked, her eyes narrowed. "I thought you said that broke the laws of nature."
"Orpheus helped Eurydice escape by feeding her Ambrosia — the food of the gods," Hades replied.
"And where exactly do you get some of that? Because I don't recall seeing it on the menu at the Blind Witch's." Regina asked, leaning back in the chair, squirming slightly at the stiffness of the wood beneath her. Thinking to herself that she would only be able to stand a few minutes more of this, she was already resolving to move back to her favored arm chair, practically moaning in relief at the very thought of sinking down into the deep cushion.
With the flip of his wrist, Hades had brought them all to the Library — the elevator opening at his command.
Looking around to gain her bearings, Regina couldn't help rolling her eyes. There would be no arm chair in her immediate future, it seemed. But at least she wasn't sitting in that horrible wooden hip cradle of torture.
"An elevator? I'm the Savior, I've got magic," Emma protested, certain that she would be able to transport herself directly to wherever the Ambrosia was held.
"And I'm the Lord of the Underworld. That should tell you something. The Ambrosia — it's powerful — and like a petty, spoiled child, it wants all the power for itself. Everything else is shut down below. There's no popping in and out in a puff of smoke. This is the only way," Hades explained, gesturing to the clunky metal contraption. "And once you're down there, you're on your own."
"Then what? We're knee deep in a field of Ambrosia?" Emma asked. "How can it be that easy?"
"I'm not really sure. Even I've never ventured that far down," Hades admitted.
"So we're going to the one place in hell that even the devil is afraid to go," Hook grumbled.
"It's not hell, and he's not the devil," Zelena corrected the pirate, quick to defend her newfound, rekindled love.
"Not because I'm afraid," Hades explained. "There's a test to ensure that only those who are worthy of eating Ambrosia can reach it. And it will require offering up your heart for judgement.
"Without magic, how am I going to ta—" Emma asked, interrupted with a gasp by Hades' hand reaching into her chest and pulling her heart out in one single movement.
"You're not," he answered, placing the heart in a small pouch and handing it back to her. "My gift to you. As a thank you," he added, tucking in close to Zelena. "Take good care of it."
"Let's have that be the last time we do that today, alright?" Emma sighed, taking the pouch with wide eyes.
Turning over her shoulder, Emma spun on her heel to face Regina.
"Regina," she began — but the older woman cut her off.
"I know the drill," Regina said with a nod. "If you're not back by sunset…"
"Everybody leaves. Promise me," Emma begged.
"You'll be back," was all Regina said in reply.
"I love you, mom," Henry offered softly, his arms going around Emma, wishing her good luck.
As everyone said their short goodbyes, offering well wishes and promising to see them soon, Regina stepped back, reaching out to her side, grabbing hold of something — the back of a chair — to steady herself as the now-familiar pulse of cramping began at her back and wrapped down to her hips. And with a sigh, Regina watched as Emma and the pirate descended — praying that they would return quickly — or that this labor would take its time.
It had been over an hour, and there had been no sign of Hook and Emma's return. There wasn't even a sign that they had been successful. Unable to sit for more than a few minutes at a time, thanks to the recent addition of a constant pressure between her legs to the already irritating, pulsing ache in her back and belly, Regina was standing in front of the elevator, leaning in to see if she could hear any sound — any sign that they were on their way back.
"We can't just sit here doing nothing," Henry grumbled, pacing back and forth across the room.
"We don't have a choice, Henry," Regina breathed out — a little too heavily — and she sounded more angry than she intended. But everything was an irritation now, and she didn't understand why. As soon as she heard her own voice, heard the irritation in it, she let out a sigh and straightened her back, stepping away from the elevator.
"The minute Emma and Hook get off this elevator, we're going straight through that portal," she promised, hoping to offer a softer tone, hoping to ease the tension she'd created.
Robin came through the front door of the library, his eyes immediately on Regina — then narrowing, because there was something different in the way she was carrying herself. But then they darted to Zelena — and Hades at her side.
"What are they doing here," he asked, unable to bite back his instinctual anger.
"It's alright," Regina promised, making her way — quite slowly — to Robin's side. "They're actually helping us," she began to explain.
"I was just in the cemetery," he explained himself, holding up a chisel in one hand. "I found a way to get our names off the stones. But they were gone. And the clock tower —"
"It's alright," Regina promised, shaking her head, reaching her hands out to hold his arms, to soothe him. "Hades took the names off. And the clock tower… He's already working on opening a portal to get us home."
"Well, then…what are we still doing here?" he asked, his brow furrowing as he looked into Regina's dark eyes.
"He's got a point," Zelena agreed. "We could go to the cemetery now, go through — let them catch up," she pointed out, gesturing to the elevator doors.
"No. Not without Emma and Hook," David replied.
And while Regina might have disagreed otherwise, she nodded her head.
"He's right. We can't communicate with them. We should wait until they come up."
That was enough to appease him for the time being — because something in Regina's eyes told him that this was what was best. And maybe she couldn't be fully truthful here, in front of everyone. But he knew her well enough to trust her.
It was agreed that Hades and Zelena would go to the cemetery ahead of them, to watch over the portal, to keep track of how much time they had. Henry, for his part, had decided to spend the last few hours in the Underworld trying to write as many stories as he could, to help those left behind move on. He'd set up a table and chair just outside the Library, and in little time, a line had formed. So many souls waiting for the tools they needed — the information in their stories — to move on.
With the front door propped open, Regina could keep an eye — and ear — on him while he worked. And she was working, too.
Letting out a long, quiet breath through pursed lips, Regina's eyes were closed in concentration, her hips swaying gently without being conscious of it as she leaned against a table in the corner, her palms pressed firmly against the wood, arms supporting her.
"Regina," Robin spoke softly — and his voice startled her. She had been so lost in her own thoughts, so concentrated on the shifting of pressure in her belly, she hadn't heard him the first three times he said her name. Or the steps he'd taken towards her.
Gasping softly, her eyes shot open, and she stopped the motion of her hips, pushing back away from the table and offering a smile.
"Hey," she breathed out, choking on the word, not realizing how dry her throat had become.
"Regina," Robin said again, his brow furrowed — not in anger, not even in confusion, because he knew exactly what this was — but in deep and terrible fear.
"I'm…it's fine," Regina promised, shaking her head and offering a smile. "I'm fine. I just. I get tired. You know," she stammered — but the look in his eyes told her there was no use in hiding anything from him. He already knew.
"How long," he asked with urgency in his tone, and his hands were moving to her hips, holding her steady, and taking account of the fragility of it all.
"This morning," she confessed, and she could see the disappointment in his eyes, could hear it in the way he exhaled, could feel it in how he flinched, his muscles tensing.
"Regina," he whimpered, wishing she had told him sooner, wishing she had been honest, that she had given him warning — but he shook his head because no sooner was he wishing it was any other way, he realized there could not have been another way. She wouldn't leave her family, her son. She wouldn't leave — couldn't leave — without making things right. And he would have done the same.
"They're not too strong," she promised, her eyes filling with tears, begging him to forgive her — because she was so used to not being forgiven by anyone else. "They're not even regular—"
Robin silenced her with a kiss, leaning in and pulling her close and covering her mouth with his, their tongues dancing together — and then he was pulling back, his hands moving to cup the roundness of her belly — and he was kissing the tears away from her cheeks.
"We're having a baby," he whispered. And in that moment, it didn't matter that they were still here. It didn't matter that they had lost precious weeks of time at home, preparing for this moment. Nothing mattered. Nothing except her. And their child. And the fact that the portal was open — and they would be walking through it soon enough.
"UUuuuggh, that's right, vermin! Scatter!" Cruella's familiar voice pulled Regina from her current focus, and her eyes opened gently. She was hanging on Robin — one arm draped loosely around his neck, the other holding tightly to his forearm, her head pressed to the side against his chest. She took a few quick breaths as she pulled herself up, straightening her back and waddled with unquestionable fierceness towards the open front door.
She narrowed her eyes and placed her hands on her hips, watching as the tall witch sauntered up to Henry's table. "I'm sorry, Cruella — but I don't think your unfinished business is going to take you to any place you'd like," Regina quipped, suddenly aware that she was sweating, the bright red light of the underworld sky glittering against her cheeks.
"No, I'm not here to collect my story. I want to stay in this marvelous realm," Cruella sang, thin lips pulling into a grin.
"You see…with Hades' departing, the Underworld is going to need a new ruler…"
"You," Snow laughed, shaking her head.
"It's the only upside to your daughter sentencing me to this fate. But, the job would be meaningless without a citizenry to torment," she growled through smiling teeth.
"Cruella, we're not going to let you harm these people," David said with confidence.
"Oh…you think I'm just going to keep them here?" Cruella asked with a wicked laugh. "Oh, no. I want to keep all of you here. It's only fair… considering it was your son who refused to write me back to life."
"I'm still waiting to hear how you're going to stop us from leaving," Regina taunted, her bark absolutely worse than her bite as she felt another wave of pressure beginning to build at her core. "Because all your magic can do is make a dog roll over and beg."
"True," Cruella hummed, knowingly, "I don't have the magic to keep you all penned in here…"
"But I do," the Blind Witch crooned, appearing at Cruella's side.
With the flick of her wrist, the witch flung the doors to the Library open wide, powerful magic flinging the row of heroes back with incredible force — then slamming the doors closed, their means of escape, gone.
The impact as they were thrown to the ground on their backs was felt keenly by all, but Regina let out a strangled yelp, writhing where she lay while everyone else scrambled to their feet. Robin was kneeling beside her in an instant, one hand clasped in hers, the other hovering over her belly, worry written over his face.
"Regina…Regina?" he asked anxiously, afraid to move her too quickly.
Letting out a strained grunt, Regina shook her head, her legs twisting to the side, a weak attempt at getting to her feet on her own.
Robin clasped both of her hands in his own, while Snow moved behind her. Together, and with great care, they lifted her back onto her feet — but Regina's knees were buckling again in an instant. She was clinging to Robin as though he were the only thing anchoring her to the ground, her free hand bracing the base of her belly as she breathed in and out heavily. Her face was pinched, twisting in obvious distress — but the only sound she made was a strangled, strained groan — then a heavy, exhaled moan — a quiet 'pop', and a gush of fluid dropping with a heavy splash from between her thighs to the floor.