The Shortest Sibling Relationship

"So… David said that you handle relics a lot." Belle said.

"My mother owns a library, it's more of a museum than a library. Alexandria would piss itself over the size of her library. Since I was ten, she and I would go from realm to realm collecting books, art, objects of magical and non-magical abilities."

"I would love to meet your mother," Belle said.

"I'm sure she would love to meet you," Melanie replied, smiling to herself.

Belle walked over to the bookshelf and started pulling down books, handing them to Melanie. There was then a crashing.

"It's him, it's Rumpel!" Belle exclaimed, Melanie set down the books, and Killian joined them to investigate.

Someone was trying to force open a door, they succeeded, and Neal fell forwards onto his face. Belle rushed over, "Neal? Neal?"

Melanie felt his neck, for a pulse. "He's alive, his heartbeat is elevated, about 150 BPM, he must have ran here."

"BPM?" Hook asked.

"Beats per minute," Belle answered. "I'll call Emma."

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"Neal, you're here, what happened?" Emma asked.

"I… don't know. I remember seeing the yellow bug cross the town line, and next thing I know I'm running around a forest back in Storybrooke, where, apparently, there's been a whole lot going on."

"Are you gonna tell him or shall I?" Hook asked Emma.

"Tell me what?" Neal asked.

"Neal," David said. "We think your dad is back."

"Back? I just watched him die, what do you mean he's back?"

"Take it easy," Emma said. Then she noticed a triangle burned into his palm. "What the hell is that?"

"No idea," Neal sighed.

"Belle, can you do some more research?" Emma asked.

Belle nodded, "Yeah, sure, absolutely."

"Okay, I'll send you the picture," Emma said.

"Hey guys can we, can we have a minute?" Neal asked.

"Yeah, of course," David said. Melanie, Belle, Hook, and David all filed out as Emma spoke to Neal.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Elizabeth and Mary Margaret were in the loft, "David told me everything," Mary Margaret said. "About you and Melanie and Merida all being from the future, and he also told me your parentage, that was a little weird, but, wow. I mean, you're my granddaughter. I know I have Henry and all, but, right now I really don't have Henry. It's just nice to meet you. I want to ask you so many questions. I know I shouldn't because of the whole time travel thing, but, god I am curious."

"I don't blame you, but my presence cannot and should not alter your behavior or the turn of events," Elizabeth said. "That would be very bad."

There was a knock on the door, "I can get it," Elizabeth said. "You should sit down, nine months and all."

Mary Margaret smiled and Elizabeth opened the door, it was Zelena with groceries.

"Hi," She smiled.

"Hi," Zelena smiled in reply. "I was told to bring groceries for Mrs. Nolan?"

"Come in!" Mary Margaret shouted from the couch.

"She's just sitting down, I'm Elizabeth," Elizabeth introduced herself.

"I'm Zelena," Zelena smiled. Elizabeth stepped aside and let Zelena into the apartment.

"You got here fast," Mary Margaret said, impressed.

"Well, I could hear a little panic in your voice, but, I am here to tell you, that there is no need to be anxious when you haven't felt your baby move for a while," Zelena said. "It doesn't mean a thing." She pulled out orange juice, "Here."

"Orange juice?" Mary Margaret asked.

Zelena hummed in agreement, "Trust me. See, babies move less right before you go into labor, so it's possible you're closer to delivering than we think. Here."

"Oh, maybe. Maybe that I'm just anxious, because of everything that's been going on, with getting ready for the baby, I mean,"

"And the Wicked Witch," Zelena added. "Everyone in town is talking about it," She shrugged. "Have you found anything our more about her?"

"No," Mary Margaret shook her head. "And I'm cooped up here while everyone else is out there working hard to find her."

"Hey, hey," Zelena smiled, she chuckled, "No one is working as hard as you are right now, I mean, you're creating a whole new person. Now, drink up,"

Mary Margaret half the glass of orange juice, and seconds later, gasped, "Oh, wow." The baby was kicking again.

Zelena set her hand on Mary Margaret's stomach, "Works every time," She said, smiling.

"You're amazing!" Mary Margaret exclaimed.

"Your little Prince or Princess could be here any day, I am not letting you have this baby without me."

"Zelena," Elizabeth said. "Have you ever thought about having kids?"

"Well, that um, I can't say I have but I've never been in a relationship that lasted long enough for me to think about things like that." Zelena smiled.

"I need to use the bathroom, again," Mary Margaret smiled. She waddled off.

"Good job at trying to get information about yourself," Elizabeth said.

"So, you know who I am, but you haven't told anyone?" Zelena asked.

"Well, I assume you recognize me from when I called you a bitch?"

"Who are you? Why did you put that crystal in the Dark Curse?"

"In the future, there's a necromancer, real douchebag, to stop him we needed to cast a realm-wide enchantment but nothing was powerful enough to distribute it. Plus, we had to do it before he started using his talismans, which are made out of corpses. We decided we could use Dark Curse of the past, so we settled on that one."

"How did you travel?"

"A magic hourglass, and we don't have it, it only opens the portal, it can't go through a portal. Don't worry, we're not going to mess up the timeline, what happens will happen, but I'm not going to tell you what will happen."

"Don't tell me how, just tell me if, do I get revenge on Regina?"

"Well, if I said, yes, you would assume your current trend of revenge will be successful, and if I say no, you will work even harder to keep this trend going. So it doesn't matter what I say, you'll still work to achieve your goal."

"Exactly, so what have you to lose?"

"But, won't knowing you succeed make the success not as sweet?" Elizabeth asked.

"I see your point,"

"I'll tell you later, right now, you work on finding the Dark One, eh?" Elizabeth smiled.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"Hi," Melanie said to Neal. "I'm Melanie."

"Neal, or Baelfire."

"I know, I know who you are. I'm gonna tell you something, you can't tell anyone. But, you see, I'm from the future. And the reason that I'm telling you this is, because, I wanted to meet you. You aren't in the future. And I want to meet you because… because I heard about you all my life. You're my brother. But, when I was born, you had died."

"I don't understand why you're telling me this."

"You're going to die. You know it. You feel terrible, your body is sore, your head hurts, you swear you hear whispering. You have that mark on your hand because you tried to bring back your father, but to do that, a human sacrifice is required, you didn't want anyone to die for your father to live, but you."

"That is something I would do."

"When together, between life and death, you're both useless to fight the Wicked Witch. Emma can separate you with her magic. That's what you ended up doing."

"Why then, tell me, if that's inevitably what I do."

"To give you some insight, any questions? About your family?"

"Emma, after I die, does she find somebody?"

"She does," Melanie replied.

"Is it Hook?"

"It is."

"Does he, does he treat her right in the future? Does he love her? Does she love him? Are they happy?"

"They're happy, they love each other, she's the moon and the stars to him, they have three kids."

"And Henry, what happens to him?"

"He regains his memories, they all stay in Storybrooke, he becomes an author. He writes books."

"And my- our father?"

"He will wed my mother, Belle, and they will have me."

"Are they happy?"

"They have their moments," Melanie nodded.

"Will I be remembered?"

"Yes, you'll be remembered."

"Thank you, Melanie."

"You're welcome."

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Emma and David were talking about her going back to New York, Merida lingered behind, "Stop, wait," Merida exclaimed. "I hear moaning." She ran over to where it came from and they followed. It was Rumpelstiltskin.

"Gold! You all right?" Emma asked.

"No, no, no, no, not all right. Not all right! It's I can't quiet the voices!" Rumpelstiltskin cried. Merida took out the burn-phone and called Melanie, "We got Gold, he's hearing voices, I need help."

"We know that you were held captive by the witch, do you know where she is?" Emma asked him.

"Because his soul is part way in between the aether and our world, he's hearing souls, he's hearing Neal, and he's hearing himself." Melanie said.

"Yeah… she's… ah!" He gripped his head. "There's no room! No room! There's too many voices, too many voices."

"We gotta get him out of here." David said.

"Try echo communication," Melanie said. Merida nodded. "Is the witch in the woods or somewhere else?"

"Somewhere else," Rumpelstiltskin stuttered.

A monkey screeched, flying towards them, Merida reacted, and shot green mist out of her hands and towards the flying monkey, it fell, and one of the missing dwarfs was hit the ground. Rumpelstiltskin ran off in that moment.

"How did you do that?" Emma asked.

"Well, has anyone else tried to undo the monkey spell?" Merida asked. "No? Gold is getting away. Did anyone see which direction he went? No? Then let's split up."

And they did.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

After talking to Neal, Melanie went back to the shop with Belle. Killian soon came back, saying Neal had escaped to find his father. Melanie got off the phone with Merida, who just turned Dopey from monkey to dwarf.

"MELANIE! I found it." Belle called. "Exactly what you said," Belle said, she opened the book, "The mark on his hand is of the vault of the Dark One, the aether you spoke of. His physical form was manifested at the cost of another life. The life of the one branded. But Neal is branded, and both he and Rumpel are alive, since you said your friend Merida found him."

"But we know Neal was the sacrifice? Call Emma."

Belle did, "Hi, Emma? Remember what Melanie said about a human sacrifice? The mark on Neal's hand meant that he was the sacrifice."

"Wait," Emma said on the other line. "What?"

There was screaming on the other line.

"Soul melding," Melanie pushed a book in front of Belle. "If Rumpelstiltskin absorbed Neal's soul, and his physical form, then they would both be alive, souls suspended between life and death, explaining the fact that Merida said Rumpelstiltskin was hearing voices."

"Neal is Rumpelstiltskin?" Belle asked.

"Two people, same body, same mind, like the Hulk," Melanie nodded. "Or Jekyll and Hyde."

"Emma!" Belle shouted into the form. "Neal and Rumpelstiltskin, they… melded."

"Yeah, I know, Neal's face is becoming his," Emma said. Then she hung up.

"What would happen?"

"Either Neal dies, and Rumpelstiltskin lives, or they both die and the darkness has no physical form, and eats people," Melanie said.

"So, either way, Neal is dead." Belle nodded.

Melanie nodded, "I'm so sorry."

"Neal is dead?" Hook asked.

"He's a dead man walking," Melanie replied.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Elizabeth and Snow were talking at the table, when Emma and David burst in, weapons drawn. "Emma, David, What's going on?" Snow asked.

"Where's Zelena?" Emma asked.

"In the bathroom, why?"

They both approached a door, and kicked them in, Snow gasped, holding onto Elizabeth.

"She had to know we were coming," David said, in awe, as the room was empty. "Can you set up a protection spell?" He asked Elizabeth.

"I can," Elizabeth agreed.

"Does anyone want to tell me what's going on?" Snow asked.

"I'm just glad you're safe," David sighed.

"Of course I'm safe, why wouldn't I be safe?" Snow asked.

"It's Zelena." David said.

"She's the Wicked Witch," Emma said.

"What, how do you know?" Snow asked.

"Gold told us, Neal brought him back before…" Emma trailed off, choking back tears.

"Before what, Emma? What happened?" Snow asked her daughter.

"Neal's dead," Emma said.

"Emma, I'm so sorry," Snow sighed, hugging her,

Elizabeth let bright light expel from her hands, surrounding the loft, and a protective spell hardened itself into the walls. The protective spell glimmered like a rainbow around the walls and then faded, as if nothing was there.