Nadri jolted with a gasp, her eyes blinked rapidly around her at the dark, confiding walls. She raised a hand to her chest, taking in sharp breaths of anxiety as she could feel the gaping wound that was sliced along her chest, the fresh blood sticking to her fingers. Nadri scratched at her skin, feeling more blood dripping down her and she felt around her throat, the golden cuff was still around her throat, still missing its rightful gemstone.

She wildly looked around the room, flinching as she heard the blood-curdling screams from other people in the area that was placed in. She could hear it through the brick walls, the screams sounding like someone was being burned alive right beside her. It was a barely lit room, all she could feel was the freezing cold stone floor and the blood that was soaked to her dress.

"Where am I?" Her voice was shaking, quivering as she thought of the last moment that she could remember. She envisioned Nathaniel standing over her, a blade dug into her chest as if he was slaughtering a pig. Nadri remembered her quaking fear, it engulfed her body when she knew her vision was fading to a darkness that she could not escape from. Nadri rested her hand against her chest, gulping as she recalled the last words that Nathaniel had spoken.

"I need your heart."

It was gone.

She couldn't feel the strong beat of her heart, even in this human form the feeling within her chest should have been hammering down her ribcage at waking up in this wet, dark cell.

Nadri choked out a horrified sob, her hands shaking as she ran them across her face and into her hair, pulling the strands with a maniacal scream.

"Where am I? Where the Gods am I?" She wept tearfully, rocking backwards and forth. She felt an emptiness in her chest, not only was her heart stolen by a man she feared beyond belief, she was trapped in this hell.

She had come into this hell as a feeble, mortal woman.

Was she dead? Was this a dream?

Her body jumped as she heard the sound of a door opening, candle-lit light appearing from a gap that had opened into the room. She shuffled backwards, fearful. The light revealed a man, dressed in clothes that Nadri had never seen in her time as a dragon and a human being. He was wearing clothes of a noble origin she had guessed, his clothing was dark, neat and perfectly tailored with dark and red colours.

"Nadri the Lonely One." Nadri lifted her hand above her eyes at the sudden light in the room, listening to the man's older and seemingly gentle voice. She had not heard that name for a long time, Nathaniel had dropped the rest of her owned name and simply called her Nadri.

This man was not Nathaniel.

"Beautiful name, my dear." He stepped in with a lit sconce, the flames lightening up the room and the man came closer to Nadri, lowering himself down as she sat on the ground with terror in her eyes. He assessed her wound, cocking his head as his eyes looked over her blood soaked dress, her sweet face covered with the claret from her hands.

"Where am I? What is this mindolaar?" Nadri brought her hand down, afraid to look at the man in his dark, overwhelming eyes.

"My name is Hades. I'm the Lord of the Underworld." He introduced himself and he brought his hand to Nadri's face, very softly caressing her cheek and moving her hair behind her ear. "Let's get you cleaned up."

Nadri paced back and forth in the throne room, her heart pounding against her chest and her blood running with anxiety. All she could do was think of Killian and Hades taking him to a place that was worse than the Pit. She couldn't bear to think of the torture that Hades was going to put Killian through, Nadri herself had already gone through the worst of his temper tantrums but Cerberus was dead which meant that Hades was prepared to obliterate Killian in the River of Souls as a punishment. This raaviir had given her hope and he had fueled the fire that Hades had been so desperate to stamp out.

She didn't know what to do or where to start on trying to get out of Hades's throne hall. She stared down at her wrists shakily and the bangles of imprisonment smiled back at her, begging her to do something stupid. Nadri closed her eyes, taking a deep a breath. Nadri remembered the kiss that she had shared with Killian that warmed her soul, she had one more person on her side who was determined to fight for her.

Nadri had to fight back.

Nadri approached the doors of the throne room, beginning to feel the vibrating pain of the bracelets that felt her defiance and her free thoughts. She needed every ounce of strength she could bring together, she needed every memory of pain and agony that Hades and Nathaniel had put her through and place it into one thought: freedom.

Freedom from torture.

Freedom from hundreds of years of oppression.

The scorching burn of the bonds etched into her skin, reopening old burns that had tried to heal before. Nadri cried out as she felt the skin tearing around her wrists, the metal sweltering away into her flesh and blood dripped to the floor.

It's just blood. She could do this.

It's only blood. She had to do this.

Nadri raised her hands to the doors of the throne room, a dark, warm purple light beginning to surround her palms. The injuries worsened, the bangles becoming coated with blood as the smell of burnt flesh became apparent to Nadri's nose. She could have vomited, the feeling creeping up her throat as the repulsive smell kept battling her.

The dragon hide sleeves of her jacket began to burn, the glowing becoming bright and stronger as the fight against her bonds continued. Nadri groaned, grunted and painfully mewed as pushing the magical force towards the doors.

Nadri had been brought to Hades' personal domain. He explained what had happened in the Land of the Living for her to be brought down to the Underworld. Her mind was full of confusing thoughts, sadness and heartbreak. It was hard enough that Nathaniel had betrayed her through the last few months but knowing that the sickness had poisoned his mind to the point he had killed Nadri just to dig out her heart for pure power. She was shaken to her core, her rage became apparent and she felt as if could have burnt the whole place down to ashes.

Nadri lowered herself into the bathtub, the burning water pulled the blood from her skin and muddled into the water. She gently scrubbed at her arms, washing away the pain, the blood and the dirt that stuck to her soul. She repeatedly washing at the magical ties around her wrists, frowning that they were still there.

"How am I still bound to a jul who is no longer on this Earth?" Nadri stared at her wrists, whispering to herself. She looked around the dark marble bathroom, feeling small and helpless in the wide bathtub that engulfed her. Her questions to the Universe went unanswered, sighing and continued to wash before she got out of the bathtub, picking up a warm, fluffy towel that Hades had laid out for her before leaving her alone in the bathroom. Nadri approached the mirror that occupied the entire of one wall of the room, looking at herself intently.

Her cheeks were sunken from the starvation punishment that Nathaniel had put her through, her body was slim but too slim for her own liking. She had become so accustomed to her human form that she had begun to point flaws in a vessel that felt not her own. Nadri opened the towel up from her body, dropping to the floor as she stared at the wound that was now closed a dark pink scar line. The oldest one started underneath her chin from Nathaniel the first time and then combined with the freshest one as it went down her chest into an ugly, spiral of mutilations.

Little did she know she wasn't the only one who was watching her trace her fingers down her body to assess the damage. Hades stood on the other side of the mirror.

Her overwhelming anger, grief, betrayal and heartbreak came out in one combined shout towards the doors, furious words ripped the obsidian within the frames out from the walls, blowing out into the hallway and shattering into small shards as it hit with such an obnoxious force that it sounded like something had exploded within the hallway.

Nadri brought her hands down with a shuddering breath, blood running down her arms and spotting onto the floor as her wrists had been mangled by the extreme lengths that Hades had put on the bracelets.

She wasn't done.

Not even a little bit.

Nadri headed out into the hallway, admiring her handiwork that was obliterated on the stoned flooring. Nadri took a left, knowing her way around Hades' domain enough that she knew what way Hades would have taken him to the river. It felt like Nadri had been walking for ages as she spun around the corner and down another hallway and out into the open where the green waters laid waiting for her and that wasn't all.

Nadri was met with Emma and another man and a woman, around the same age older than the Savior, and Nadri immediately felt a dark energy that she had already been in her presence once before. They were standing by the river with a boat that had come back from Killian being taken, meaning that Hades was already two steps ahead of Nadri. Did it really take her that long to get the doors down? She shook herself out of her thoughts and headed forward, Emma finally seeing her.

"If you're here for Killy, Hades has already taken him." Nadri approached them, her voice hoarse. Emma looked at her with a tremendous gasp, not expecting to see the woman who had tried to fight her previously looked like she had crawled out from under the Earth. Her arms were bloody, her outfit was still covered in dust and dirt from the caves and her face was bruised as well as the collar of purple that laid around her neck from Hercules own hands.

"What the hell happened to you?" Emma could barely look Nadri in the face, just staring at the violence that she had endured all over her body.

"Long story, saviik." Nadri responded back to Emma shortly, feeling as if the only thing keeping her standing right now was the adrenaline running through her body. She turned to the dark-haired woman in the boat who Nadri attempted to smile at but the sight of her was too horrific to do the same. "I didn't think I'd see you this far down Milah."

"I didn't think I'd see you like this again, Nadri." Milah was disappointed, upset that Nadri had been taken back into Hades' sadistic care.

"Well, it's been a very long time since I have seen you, Nadri." The man that was with Emma and Milah looked down at Nadri as she approached them. Nadri was on a mission and she was not going to be stopped by anyone, not even one that she really knew as Rumpelstiltskin. His eyes were still dark, almost black as they stared into her, he still limped poorly. "I see that Nathaniel couldn't keep his hands to himself."

"You knew he'd kill me, lahiik. He had a sickness only more power would cure." Nadri had a venomous tone, her words toxic towards Rumpelstiltskin as opposed her previous soft voice to Milah and Emma. She remembered the moment that Rumpelstiltskin entered her prison cell at Asari Keep, her dragon form trying to render him to dirt on the Earth but with every cursed word in his conjured spell, she grew more powerless until there was only a shout to be heard.

"The contract was continued in this realm as long as someone held the object that keeps my power." Rumpelstiltskin looked down to Nadri's wrists, they were still dripping a trail behind her. Her anger came back up, bubbling as she spoke about her past.

Nadri walked back into the throne room, feeling the fire that flickered and cracked warm her body as she approached Hades, days, maybe weeks now after she had unwillingly been brought to this realm. She had become like a child, easily trusting towards him after her painful past with Nathaniel and relied on him to keep her safe and well.

There was no sight of him, Nadri wondered the town with Hades and it was almost if he had never came to the afterlife at all.

But she had heard rumours.

Nadri looked over at Hades as he read his book contently in his throne, his feet up comfortably.

"I've found Nathaniel." Hades put his book down suddenly, the pale older man looking over at Nadri as if he didn't hear her quite correctly. "There's a story in the town that a man is working down the docks with Hercules. No one has heard of him." Hades interest peaked further into the subject, laying his book down on the table next to his throne and he moved his feet off the stool to stand up. He grabbed his cane and approached Nadri as she stood there sheepishly.

"And my dear, what would you like to do with him?"

"I want to kill him. I want to send him to the Pit." Her voice was trembling but not with fear, with pure hatred for the man who had brought them down into this realm in the first place. She wanted him to suffer as much as she has suffered. She wanted him to know the fiery pain that Nathaniel had put her through.

Hades placed his hand on her shoulder, his thumb caressing her bare shoulder of her dress. The smile that was spread across his face was eager and full excitement to give her what she wanted.

What he wanted.

"I think we can arrange that, my dear."

"This was you?! You can lift this!" Emma was shocked to learn that Rumpelstiltskin was the one who had placed the bonds on Nadri in the first place. Her face looked like it had been slapped, her mouth was open with surprise as she looked back down at Nadri.

"I would but I did not get what I was promised. The deal still stands and I can't go back on that." Rumpelstiltskin denied and Emma could see that Nadri was seconds away from pushing the Dark One into the river herself. "Besides, this is a two part deal, separating your power and enslaving you were two different parts of the bargain."

"Then we make another one, right now." Nadri demanded harshly. "I don't care what it takes."

Whatever it takes.

Nadri had found her voice, it wasn't soft spoken and gentle anymore, it was full of an eternal rage that she needed to take out on the place that has kept her enslaved the longest.

"Free me from my bonds and I will help you get home, whatever it takes." She said again as if she wasn't clear enough before. Emma and Milah stared at Rumpelstiltskin waiting for him to finally speak. The cogs were turning in his mind at what to do, betray Hades and free Nadri from her slavery to help them or leave her to be at the punishment of Hades for going against the magic that was trying so hard to break her and keep her against her will?

"Rumple!" Milah called him, in aweing shock herself at why Rumpelstiltskin had to contemplate on what to do in the first place.

"Whatever it takes? I have heard those words before, Nadri."

"I'm not Nathaniel. I will do whatever it takes to make sure Killian is free." The Dark One looked at her, raising his eyebrows with a surprise. Both Emma and Milah exchanged looks after hearing Nadri's determined words about Killian, knowing there was more to this story than they had speculated.

"Not to bargain your own freedom, perhaps a guaranteed easy life in this realm?"

"My life has never been easier, lahiik." Nadri held a bittersweet, saddened smile over her lips. Her eyes glossy with tears, not only from the pain riddling her wrists but also the agonising heartache she felt towards her existence in this world. "I will do whatever it takes to save him."