The extended family found themselves including the newly discovered Juliet Capulet, found themselves in and around Underbrooke's library trying to open the elevator that would took them to Hades himself.
While the former Queen worked on breaking the protection spell on the elevator itself, Emma, Hook, Amelia and Anastasia between them waited on rooftops surrounding the library keeping an eye out for any curious residents looking to impress the God of the Underworld himself.
With John and Robin somewhere in the wood's looking after Baby Hood and for the newly discovered demigod to keep away from his Uncle. Leaving Juliet Capulet inside alone with Snow, her husband's Goddaughter, David and more importantly, her daughter's own soulmate, the infamous Evil Queen.
The redhead watched the witch with her grandson's nearby as she chalked in symbols on the metal doors that divided them from Hades himself. She recognized the symbols from her younger Templar days. They taught their recruits everything they knew about magic, just like the Assassins so they would know a way to fight them, to give them some sort of advantage over magic users should the situation arise.
Approaching the former Queen, the dark brunette hadn't noticed her presence until someone clearing their throat behind her made the witch look back to see Amelia's mother stood there with a pale hand held out towards her.
"May I?"she asks the woman on the step-ladder. A curious brow grew on the former Evil Queen face as she looked down from her step ladder the young-ish redhead.
"Sure" Regina finally answered giving her the stick of chalk she had been using to the woman before finding another piece for herself to continue on as the former Templar found a space to work on herself.
"Do you know what you're doing?" she asked the woman curiously on how she would know what to do having been from an order looking to control people such as Regina.
"Do you?" Juliet retorted in the same accent Rumpelstiltskin spoke in as Regina watched the woman perfectly start to chalk in the next rune "I may not wield magic, but I know enough to help" she tells the witch.
"You mean your order taught you enough" Regina stated to the woman. She may be Amelia's mother, but that doesn't mean she can trust her and far as she could throw her. Even with her magic.
"Is that what my daughters been telling you for all these years?" she asked the woman.
"Isn't she right?".
"Partly" she tells the brunette "While our order seeks control. Freedom, ensues chaos. The Assassins profess their faith in humanity, they also reject that any objective truth. My husbands worst mistake was to allow our daughter to be manipulated by those leeches she called her family. But, it was also the best decision he ever made".
"My upbringing didn't make me completely useless to you lot. I may not be able to save her, but I can get her family out".
"Then you do know what she wants".
"I do. And you want to change her mind. That's why you had Ophelia look for me, so I could change it".
"She's punishing herself for letting Juno turn her" Regina tried to tell the redhead.
"And for good reason" Juliet interrupted her "Every second her heart beat's is every second something like Juno can happen again and next time no will be able to stop her in her wake, not even the person she loves is safe" she trails off as the last moment of her life come to her mind of how she really died.
Pausing what she was doing the former Queen took a minute to look down her honorary mother-in-law and a hand on her hip.
"And here I thought your order wanted her to wreak havoc on people like me" she blinked at the woman knowing that the Templar's wanted to use Juno's power and her hatred for the species to give them an advantage over all the realms. She also been kidnapped and tortured by a so called 'Templar' who was trying to find out what had happened to his father not so long ago.
"We do" Juliet told her straight "But not my daughter. That's where I cross the line. My brother tried to warn me of her prophecy when she was born, but I ignored it. Because it was my daughter. I would've been there to stop her becoming the Black Widow if I was there".
Juno knew that and used it to her advantage. If she was there she'd be able to sooth the anger she felt for the Brotherhood, for she had done it herself when she first came to the protected city.
Regina stood there silence as she took in the information that her mother knew of Amelia's past, which mean she knew who she was.
"I know what she's done, everyone down here know's of the Evil Queen's Black Widow and what you've done. Half of people here are here because of both of you".
"I'm not that person anymore".
"Then I'm not a Templar" she quips to the former Queen "My father would be so disappointed" Juliet retorted to the former Queen "You can keep saying that until you die dearie, but it still doesn't make it true. Amelia can keep telling herself that she's not the Black Widow , but deep down she knows the truth-".
"That is why she can't go back, because next time not even you or her own children would be able to stop her".
Across the street Amelia could see Hook on the edge of the library roof as they waited for the signal from the people inside the telling them Regina was ready to break the protection spell on the elevator. She felt the chill even through her jacket. She'd been feeling the chill more often. Maybe it was part of being technically dead. The slight shiver she felt didn't go unnoticed by the former Duchess next to her.
"Cold sister?" the blonde Assassin asked from next to her.
"I'm fine" she answered brushing off the woman's question.
"Really? Because I can hear your teeth chattering from the pavement" she retorted dryly.
"I've been cold ever since I've been down here, makes no difference" Amelia told her sister as she closely watched the movements within the library. She could see Regina and her mother scratching the spell onto the elevator door's while David and Snow kept watch from the window's with Tom and Henry in the background.
"You don't trust her" Anya stated to her sister looking in the same direction as her sister.
"No" she admitted "Does that sound wrong?".
"It makes you smart, you don't know her. Not really" she replied.
She was right she didn't know her mother really, only what she's been told or she remembered, she just remembered her mother being there and suddenly she wasn't. Just like that.
Paola had told her that she had died. She understood as well as a five year old could to try and understand that she would never see her mother again. But then again, there was that woman she saw once.
She was stood on the deck on the Jackdaw, looking straight at her. Long flowing red hair and thin face. She looked like a ghost until Romeo told her who she was.
But then the strangest thing happened, when he returned like he always did , he seemed..different.
"But there is something else you're not saying isn't there?".
"She's.." she paused trying to think of the right word to use to describe the woman in the library "Older. Than I remember her being" she admitted to her sister.
It didn't sit her stomach well of how her mother looked. The youthful glow she remembered her having had dimmed and her hands had a lot more callouses than she remembered, like she had been doing rough work instead of the small job she had in the tavern.
"How much older?" Anastasia inquired with her.
"Five, maybe seven years" she guessed.
"Maybe you're just seeing things" the blonde tried to reason with her.
"No" she trailed off "Something doesn't feel right. I don't think I'm getting the whole truth from her" she voiced to her sister next to her.
"Anne Bonny is certainly a mystery" Anastasia hummed to herself out-load as she watched the watched for anyone on the empty street as the redhead heard the name, her father had once used as the woman she saw on the deck of the Jackdaw.
"Anne?" she questioned the blonde assassin next to her "Who the hell is Anne?" she blinked at her sister.
"That's the name we found her under, not Juliet" Anastasia tells her "Anne Bonny" she repeats the name as the lights in the library slowly flickered on and off. Signalling that they were ready.
"Let's get this over with" Amelia announced as she headed for the ladder that took them off the roof with her sister following close behind. She had some questions she needed answered.
She and Anastasia were the first to re-enter the library despite coming from the across the as she saw something that made her pause at the door.
Her Templar Mother stood at the elevator doors with a piece of chalk in her hand helping Regina etch in the runes on the metal doors that would take them to Hades himself.
She was distracted from confronting her mother as Tom stepped forward to find his mother and aunt as the Capulet woman had just finished up with her half of the doors. Seeing the way her sister looked at the her mother, the blonde assassin quickly took her nephew to one side as the redhead continued her journey to find her partner as her mother stepped away from the metal door covered in symbols.
"How was she?" Amelia quietly asked her partner out of ear shot of Juliet as she kept her eye on the woman across the library with her son's.
"Pleasant" Regina answered "She even helped" she informed the assassin as she inspected the symbols the Capulet woman has helped her write from her place on the small stepladder.
"Really?" a doubtful eyebrow quirked up on her face.
"Yes, and they're even correct" she tells her partner "Whoever taught her was good".
"I know exactly who taught her and that's what worries me".
Hearing this the former Queen looked away from what she was doing to look down at the distrustful assassin below her as she took her loves chin in her finger to make her look up at her. Her hard gaze softening as she looked up at the woman above her.
"What's up with you?" Regina asked the woman making the assassin raise a brow at her "Other the obvious" she quickly adds "I thought you'd be happy to find her again".
"She's a Templar" she reminds her Queen "Would you trust Cora if she were here?" the redhead questioned her love.
The Queen paused for a second as she thought of her answer. As much as she wanted to, she would always be a plan.
"No" she finally answered her love "But she did find you for us. Otherwise you wouldn't be here" Regina reminded the redhead as Emma and Hook finally made their appearance as they came through the front door with the former engulfing her mother in a tight hug that took the pixie haired former Princess and the other's by surprise.
"Oh! Is everything okay?" Snow asked her daughter as she caught her daughter in her arms.
"Yeah" Emma told her mother "It's just good to see you".
"When you're done hugging it out, Emma" the brunette called out the blonde as she checked the symbols one last time "I can use a little help here" she remind her, reaching out to the grab the hand that was already there to steady her as she stood down the small step ladder as her eyes double checked the symbols once again.
Like she said to Amelia. Juliet did well for someone who had no magic to speak of. How good? Well, they were able to find out.
"So, this is what you've been working on all night" Hook addressed the former Queen pointing to the doors as Emma joined the dark brunette "This is our new plan to defeat Hades and go home. A bunch of squiggly lines?".
"Hades put one hell of a protection spell on his elevator" Regina tells them "And these "squiggly lines" are the only way to crack it open" she tells the pirate.
"Hopefully that elevator will take us straight to him" Snow voiced to the group.
"Maybe with surprise on our side, we can get a shot at him" David added.
"That's a lot of "maybe's and "hopefully" Hook tells them.
"Ditto on Jack Sparrow" the redheaded assassin chimed in voicing her own doubts.
"It's all we have right now" Emma told the redhead behind her "Okay. Let's do this" Emma announced as the room fell into silence to let the two magic users concentrate on the task ahead.
Standing side by side with their hands held out in front of them, the symbols chalked onto the metal door's started to the glow a dim gold color as the mechanics on the front start to turn by themselves.
After a second or two the metal doors finally slid open to reveal a solid brick wall behind it, as the group let out a collective breath as sense of disappointment dawned on the group.
"So much for surprising him" David sighed out voicing everyone's thought out-loud.
"Oh, we'll think of something else. We always do" Snow tried to keep the groups morale up at their first stumble to defeating Hades.
"What if...?" the blonde savior suddenly voices in thought before she turned to face her family "What if I could burn our names off the gravestones that Hades made for us, the ones holding us here?".
"I looked for a spell like that. Doesn't exist" Regina supplied to the woman as she tried to figure out
"Actually, it does" Emma corrected her "It kind of came to me in a dream".
"In a dream?" the former Prince queried with his daughter.
"I know it sounds crazy, but I can remember every detail. It would be a long shot, but...".
"Well, as for "maybe"s and "hopefully"s, I've learned never to question yours" Hook told his girlfriend "I'm coming with you".
"Snow, Anya and I will take Henry and Tom back to the apartment, keep them safe" the Prince told the group as the blonde assassin nodded along with his plan.
"No, actually, I'm gonna go with Emma" Snow announced to the group.
"No! no, that's not a good idea" her daughter tried to dissuade her mother remembering the dream.
"I promised to take down Hades and get back to our son, remember? If this is how we do it, I'm in".
"Emma, I wouldn't argue with your mother" David spoke up "Trust me" He added before he and Henry turned to leave the library as Tom turned to his mother to give her a kiss on her cheek that was mirrored by the redhead.
"See you later Mom" he told his mother before looking at his grandmother "See you Grandma" a small smile grew on the matriarch's face that didn't go unnoticed by her daughter leaving his family with Anya trailing behind him leaving the women and Hook in the library.
"Get going, and I'll... I'll meet you at the cemetery" Regina told the group "First, I should talk to my sister. Apparently, she has some history with Hades".
"You think she'll talk to you?" Emma asked the former Queen.
"I don't know" she said grabbing her coat "But if he does have a weakness, she might be the only person who knows what it is" they all started walking out of the library into the dark street as the two-redheads trailing behind the blonde savior.
"What about you guy's?" Emma turned to Amelia and Juliet behind her catching Regina's attention as she stopped to see where her truelove would be doing "Got anything that could help us?" she asks the mother/ daughter duo for former to answer the blonde.
"I have a few contacts down here that should be able to help" Juliet tell the savior "They've been down here a bit longer than you guy's, if its information you need, they're the best to go to".
"When you say contacts?" Amelia inquired to her mother with a raised brow.
"Templar's" Juliet supplied to her daughter with a smile. She knew it would be difficult for her daughter accept her life before she met Romeo, but it was all they had to figure out how to leave.
"There it is" her daughter chimed in rolling her eyes "You know that's a trap waiting to happen" she told her mother.
"Not when you've got a Capulet by your side" she voices to her daughter "Come on Amy where's your sense of adventure gone?".
"It left closely after leaving Neverland when I watched Dad die" Amelia plainly retorted making Juliet's face drop. She didn't know she had been on that island. Hell, she didn't know anything about her daughter's life.
"Just find out what you can and meet us later, it could help" Emma spoke up interrupting the mother/ daughter conversation that was being closely followed by the other's.
"Aye, aye saviour" Amelia drawled out sarcastically to the blonde with gritted teeth.
"Whatever" Emma huffed out before she, Snow and Hook started their journey leaving Amelia with her soulmate and mother. Juliet turned giving her daughter and her soulmate some space.
"Good luck with Zelena" Amelia started their brief farewell.
"Only if you are" Regina replied reaching into her pocket she pulled out the dagger she had brought with her handing it to the Assassin "Here, you need this more than I do".
"Regina.." she starts only for the dark brunette to stop her.
"You're about to go into the lion's den, just take it" she says making the woman take it from her, curling her fingers around the handle of the dagger as the Queen kept her grip around them as she looked into her love's emerald eyes "Let me keep you safe this time. I couldn't do it in Camelot, I can do it now".
"What happened isn't on you" the assassin tells her Queen.
She couldn't let her carry that blame on her shoulders any more than she could blame herself for letting Juno win the battle in her mind. It was her fault she let the deity use the darkness that remained in her heart to control her, it was her fault it got as far as it did.
"It is" Regina corrected her "I should've done something to stop Emma using Excalibur on you. Even if it meant I lost you".
Hesitantly the assassin takes the dagger from her soulmate, quickly slipping it into the belt of her jacket before placing a gentle loving kiss on her cheek lingering on the soft skin as the former Queen enjoyed the warmth that came from the redheaded assassin "We'll talk soon. I promise".
"Just be careful" the former Queen tells her.
"In a room full of Templar's? Always" she promises the woman before turning and leaving her to meet up with her sister as she followed her Mother towards the den of lions ready to rip her apart at a moment's notice.
Further down the street as Anastasia was escorting her nephews's back to the loft with David, catching sight of the one handed pirate coming out of the library, she couldn't help but think about the way her sister reacted when she mentions her mother's second name Like she had heard it before. And her suspicions that she was older than she originally thought she was when she died.
In any case she needed to know everything she could about the Bonny pirate, her sister could be in more danger than they first thought.
"I'll meet you at the loft" she tells the former Prince who nods before she look's over to her nephews "Try not to get kidnapped again" she scold the older one giving the back of his head a playful slap "Otherwise I'll be spending the next eternity with her down here. And believe me that sounds just as bad as you both think".
Stopping and turning, the blonde assassin walked back up the street just to see her sister saying goodbye to her girlfriend before walking away with her mother.
Ignoring the bad feeling she got seeing her sister following her mother down the road she focused on the man headed to the cemetery with Emma and Snow White.
"Jones!" Anastasia called after the one handed pirate, pausing the man stopped letting his love and her mother continue as he turned to see the blonde Duchess walking towards him "You've been alive a couple of centuries now" she huffed at the man when she was close enough.
"Aye" he slowly answered her, not sure where she was going with this "What of it luv?".
"What does the name Anna Bonny mean to you? She was a pirate years ago".
"Bonny" he said to himself as he remembered the name from his former life as a pirate "Aye I know it, it was the name of a mate of mine's Jack Rackham's partner. They captained a vessel called the William together. Why do you ask?".
"Do you know what happened her?" she asked the man.
"Heard rumors that she ran off with an old love of hers. Left Rackham a broken shell of a the man he was" he reported to her remembering how the man had given up after seeing his love sail away from him and never return when she promised she would. His drunken tirades about assassin's went ignored as he was left to sleep off the drink in his system, before he started again.
After it looked like he wasn't going to dig himself out of his own grave, his men left him for other vessels including the Jolly Roger.
"When was this?" the blonde pressed him.
"Why do you need to know?" he rebutted in confusion.
"Something's not adding up with Miss Capulet" Anastasia tells her "She went under the name down here and obviously when she was alive. What if she's literally taking Amelia into a put of snakes".
Nodding in understanding the man paused as he thought of the woman's next move while he followed Emma and Snow to the cemetery.
"If there's something worth finding out it will be in the Underworlds version story book, it has our stories in it".
"And if its something we won't like?" she gulped in fear of being the bearer of bad news to her sister.
"We tell her anyway" the pirate tells the younger woman "It's better she know's what she's facing than without".
With a sharp nod the blonde turned to catch up with her nephews and David to find out what she could as the story book would tell her.
Walking in the lions den was right.
Her mother had taken her to a small book store on main street that had gone unnoticed by the redhead as she mainly went between Granny's, the pawn shop and the library. It was small by size, but she knew from the other shops that it when further out behind than you would think from the front.
Letting herself into the building a small bell rang out above the door as the Capulet kept the door open for her hesitant daughter to enter behind her, double checking she had the dagger to hand.
Stepping into the shop, she was greeted by Templar's straight away who were sat and stood on the main shop floor in groups as with books in their hands as other's browsed the shelves as ornate armchairs were littered throughout the space that were occupied by faithful disciples of the order that had died for it.
They ranged from men and women, young and old. New recruits to the most loyal servants. With all the same cause carved into their hearts and minds. To use people with magic to control the land they lived in, willing to kill kill those who would stand in the way. Assassins.
As the door shut behind her all eye's were on her as Juliet pushed forward leaving her daughter to ignore the insults that were thrown at her as she followed her mother to the back of the shop were they were stopped by someone the redheaded assassin had last seen in his cabin on the Morrigan. Still alive, but dying.
"What is she doing here Juliet?" the man smoothly demanded out of the woman glancing towards Amelia "You know she ain't welcome here".
Looking away from her mother, the man looked up to meet her gaze as his eye's softened seeing the young woman he had sent her a lifeline before he died.
"I wish I could say it was good to see you Amelia, but under the circumstances.."
"She's is my daughter Shay" her mother told the defaced assassin in front of her "We need to see my father".
"Is that her!" a voice called out from the back of the store catching their attention.
"Yes, Grand Master it's her" Shay confirmed to the former grand master from his place.
"Well send her through" he orders the Captain of the Morrigan "and that daughter of her's as well".
"Sir, with due respect" he voiced in concern only to be interrupted as an older gentlemen stepped into the store to see his daughter and her daughter stood there.
"The Black Widow is a little late to kill me Cormac" the voice replied as the mother daughter duo saw a tall old man walk through the threshold "It's about time you came to see me daughter" Tywin told Juliet with a tight-lipped smile.
"I'm sorry Father" Juliet told her adopted father.
Waving is hand dismissively at the woman, he didn't seem all that concerned that it had taken a while for her to find him again in the Underworlds version of Storybrooke.
"Save your apologies girl, now come you must be desperate to let your daughter step through that door" at that the old man turned to walk down a narrow hallway to be followed down by his daughter and granddaughter.
Following her mother down tight hallway, she couldn't help but look back and check she wasn't being followed down by another Templar, only to see Shay Cormac's kind eye's see her down to the lions den.
Entering a small lounge she was met by the old lion himself Tywin Capulet as he sat down in a deep armchair with a lgf over his knee next to a roaring fireplace surrounded by piles of books stacked on various pieces of furniture and even from the floor as Juliet took a seat opposite him.
She did spot a third place for her to sit but she decided to remain on her feet as she made her way around the various stacks of books that even over towered her as the older man watched her.
"Do you know who I am girl?" Tywin addressed Amelia who had taken up curiosity on the books around them.
"Tywin Capulet, The Old Lion" She answered the man "Grand Master of the Templar Order for thirty year's until your son sent a crossbow though your heart. On the privy I heard".
"Rumors" he told her as an impressed smirk grew on the old man's face as he continued "During those years I kept your Brotherhood on their knees" he proudly tells her "Alive, but quiet for the most part. Now tell me how someone like you can take it down in only a few?".
"Patience" she answered the man "Something your son had nothing of when he killed my father's family in cold blood".
The older man grimaced at the thought of his only son. Jamie Capulet was never a clever boy, always choosing to fight with a sword than with words or thought.
"My son was never the clever one of the family, always making rash decisions" he tells the assassin "I admit now, that I never put in the time to nurture him as much I did your mother".
"To be fair I did have some help" Amelia added.
"Ah yes, the Evil Queen" he hummed to himself "They tell me you two make quite the partnership… among other things" he trailed off with a pointed look toward his 'grand-daughter'.
"Father" Juliet caught his attention back "We need information on the Shroud".
Amelia's green eye's looked between the pair not sure what her mother was talking about, but if it get's her family out of the Underworld, she was more than willing to work with the man opposite her mother to get it.
"That's a big request daughter" he drawled lowly like a lion warning its prey.
"Amelia needs it" Juliet pressed the older man.
"And why would she need it?".
"To get my family home" the assassin spoke up gaining his attention "Hades engraved their name's into some headstones, and they can't leave".
A chuckle left the old lions throat at the woman naivety taking her by surprise as she looked to her mother for any context towards his amusement.
"And here I thought the Brotherhood taught you everything about the Pieces of Eden".
"Excuse me?".
"The Shroud of Eden isn't a tool for save your family girl" the older man told her before turning back to his daughter "Although I 'am curious of why you think it's down here".
"Because I was the one to send it here" Juliet tell him.
Back in the loft under Hook's guidance, Anastasia had taken the Underworlds version of the story book into her possession as she went through it page-by-page sat at the dining room table and as both teen's hovered near here wondering what she was looking for.
"What exactly are you looking for Aunt Stasia?" Henry asked the blonde assassin at the table skeptically as he waited for her to assist her as the Author.
"A smoking gun" she tells her youngest nephew as her eye's went over each word in the stories.
"That..doesn't really help" the young Author tells her.
"I'm looking for Juliet Capulet's story" she tells the others in the loft with her.
"I thought their story was written by Shakespeare" David voiced to the woman, thinking of the play he had written.
"Shakespeare's play is useless, it's not the real story" she corrected him.
"Why do you need to find out the truth so much?".
"Because she's been lying to us" she tells those around her "When we went out to find Juliet's headstone, her name wasn't on the list Cruella list. But I did find one name; Anne Bonny".
"Cool, you mean the famous pirate" Tom exclaimed at the blonde in excitement.
"Exactly, I found her on the Jackdaw with a gun pointed at my head".
"But why would she be on my Grandpa's ship?" the older teen asks her.
"Because she is really Juliet Capulet. She took on the name to keep her safe. You need to keep up boy!" she scold the older teen slightly needing him to keep up on current events as the teen thinks about what she had just told them.
"Hey, hey hold on" David made her take a breath and to stop her from scolding him further "Why would she be a pirate?".
"I spoke to Hook and he said he knew of a pirate name Anne Bonny, apparently she another man Captained a ship together, before she suddenly left to never return, if she's the Anne Bonny he's talking about then.."
"She didn't die when Amelia said she did" the former Prince finished for the blonde.
"Yes!" she excalimed "Finally, and here I thought you were as dumb as I thought you were"
"What does this mean exactly?"
"It means it doesn't matter how fucking long it take to go through this book. I'll find out
"Language" David scolds the woman for swearing in front of the boys.
"Unless...there's another book" Tom suggests out-load.
"What?" the blonde assassin blinked at him.
"Mom said it the other day" he reminds them "Isaac only wrote about everything that happened AFTER she got on my Dad's ship. Nothing about her training or Romeo. It's only about her days as a villain with the Evil Queen that was ever written about".
"Yeah, that's true" Henry agreed with his brother's theory, having read the book cover to cover "There's nothing on Romeo and Juliet either because they're not fairy-tale characters, like Dr. Whale".
"What are you guys saying?" David asks the pair.
"Romeo and Juliet's story isn't in either story books, because she's not a fairy-tale character. My grandparents are from Shakespeare's play, some aspects of the stories are the same but it's been changed. And my Mom is never mentioned, they both die before they could have a baby".
"A product of Star-Crossed Lovers" Anastasia supplied.
"Shakespeare changed the story" Henry realized "But why?".
"To protect her" Anastasia told them as she figured out why as a sense of defeat washed over her "He hid her, in plain sight, so that no-one knew she existed to free Juno from the sword. And we fucking failed".
Without speaking a word to her mother as they left the bookstore to make their way towards the cemetery and more specifically Regina's vault where the Apple of Eden was originally hidden in Storybrooke.
She couldn't believe she let herself be fooled into trusting her. She was supposed to help her get her family out of Underworld, not her.
Tywin told them that any Pieces of Eden that died in the land of the living ended up in the same place, away of the God of the Underworld himself. That was pairing she could not afford. The key to the hidden space int he stone coffin remained on her necklace around her neck. Even dead she would never be done with the Pieces of Eden.
Armed with a crossbow, taken from the bookstore at her father's order, Juliet glanced to her daughter who hadn't said a word since they left the bookstore, Amelia hadn't kept her displeasure of being deceived by her mother she stormed pass the headstones that littered the large graveyard.
"I know you want to say something" Juliet pressed her daughter.
"Say what?" Amelia scoffed out "That you lied to me?".
"It was the only way I could get you inside" Juliet told her "You don't trust me".
"I barely know you" she fumed at her mother "I barely knew you when I was five and now I'm barely scratching the surface. And I'm just finding out you know more about the Pieces more than I do. If the roles were reversed would you trust me?" she rants at the woman as she hears something in the distance.
"I wouldn't but you have no one else to help, because you've pushed everyone else away! Even the woman you love and your sons".
"Shut up!" she suddenly snapped at her mother hearing something in the distance "Something out there" she tells the other woman trying to seek out the source of the sound.
"Don't be silly there's nothing out there" she told her daughter not hearing anything.
But the assassin stayed quiet as the low growling continued to reverberate throughout the forest, it was getting closer. They needed to go
"We need to get out of the open" Amelia started to head towards the graveyard for their temporary sanctuary.
"What about your daughter? Don't you want to get back to her?" A scowl grew on the assassin's face as she stopped at her mother's words and looked back.
"Don't. You. Dare talk about my daughter" she growled slowly at the woman. Juliet had seen she had hit a nerve mentioning her daughter "You don't get to, because I know for a fact you're lying about something".
"About what exactly?".
"Who the hell Anne Bonny is!" she yelled at her mother as mass of black fur landing on her daughter, tackling her to the forest floor.
"Amelia!" she yelled for her daughter as the assassin ended up on her back with the wolf like beast standing over her body with his snarling jaw's inching closer to her face.
"Hey!" the beast was taken away from it's next meal by Juliet voice as it looked up to see the other woman with a crossbow pointed straight at the beasts head "Get off my daughter" she told the beast before pulling trigger.
The bolt flew agonizingly inches way from the hell beast's heads as it seemed to yelp in fear before jumping off from Amelia and running back into the forest leaving the pair.
Dropping her crossbow Juliet ran to her daughter as she remained on the ground throwing herself on the ground to see that the beast had left it's mark on her daughter seeing her black leather jacket torn to almost pieces on her right arm but no injury as she saw her daughter was out cold. She must've hit her head on the way down.
"It's okay nightingale, Just a bump on your head" she whispered to Amelia's sleeping form "I'll get you out of here" standing back up Juliet grasped Amelia's arm and pulled her off the ground catching her waist and sliding her arm around her neck.
Even if her daughter didn't trust her. She wasn't going to leave her out here alone, even if it killed her.
Half-way to their destination Amelia had woken up with her mother supporting her whole body as she tried to make sense to what happened. Feeling discomfort on the back of her head the somewhat conscience assassin steered her mother towards the mausoleum as Juliet saw her daughter's love heading in the same direction.
"Regina!" Juliet called out the former Queen's name in hope of a little help of healing her daughter, it seemed to work as the woman stopped and turned at the sound of her name to see Juliet holding up an injured Amelia, her eye's went wide in surprise as she doubled back hurriedly towards the pair.
"What the hell happened!?" she demanded an answer out of Amelia's mother.
"Something attacked us in the woods. She hit her head as she hit the ground".
"You think?" Regina snapped at the woman as she gently took Amelia's head and face in her gloved hands to see the redhead groaned at being man handled before the sorceress waved a hand over her head to heal the bump that had knocked her out. Quickly the pain in her head disappeared as her face softened to open her eyes to see the former Queen in front of her.
The Capulet woman watched in a mixed of astonishment and awe at the trust she had letting Regina use her magic to heal her. Romeo hated magic, especially if it was used on him. The Creed hated magic; it was taught from root's of the Brotherhood upwards. But the trust between the pair went way beyond their relationship.
"Hi" Amelia breathed out in relief to see her love in front of her after it seemed like hours since she had seen her.
"Hello" the former Queen replied with a gentle smile as Amelia took her arm off her mothers neck.
"Thank you" Amelia whispered "Did your talk with Zelena go just as well?".
"Something like that" Regina hummed tugging on Amelia's hand towards to head towards the vault "Come on let's get you cleaned up".
Amelia happily went with the sorceress towards the stone building leaving Juliet to herself in the graveyard to contemplate what Amelia had told her in the woods.
She tried to warn her mother that they weren't alone, but she didn't listen to her and she got hurt. Maybe the way to gain her daughters trust was to trust her skillet more. She had been trained as an Assassin after all.
Meanwhile in the vault Hook, Snow and Emma were in the vault fleeing from the same beast that unknown to them had attack Amelia and Juliet.
"I think that monster's gone away" Hook said to the pair just as they heard rumbling in distance coming from the entrance. Hook quickly picked up a dagger as Snow notches an arrow in her bow as he hides behind the wall next to the entrance ready to kill anything that was coming down only to be met with Regina and Amelia coming down the step's. The former gasps at the sharp weapon at her neck before sighing seeing Hook on the other end of it.
"Sorry, love" the pirate apologizes.
"Well, I'm glad your reflexes are better than your sense of style" Regina retorted as she and Amelia entered the vault to see it was already occupied "Well, this has turned into quite a day. Why are you all in our vault?" she asked the three only to be met by silence and nervous eye's.
"Ten words or less if it helps" Amelia suggested at the group's reluctance to answer their question.
"Short version... thing with fangs trying to kill us" Snow explained.
"Funny you should say that. I think I've met it already" Amelia informed the group holding up torn jacket sleeve.
"Are you okay?" Emma panicked from her place further in the vault.
"I'm fine, got away with a bump on the head. Luckily mother dearest was there to scare it away".
"And you're hiding instead of fighting?" Regina questioned the group.
"I saw the same monster in my dream" Emma supplied to the couple "And in the end, it..." she stammered.
"It killed me so..." the blonde's mother finished for her daughter.
"I thought it was a message or some sort of vision of the future".
"Well, you dreamt it. It's not like it'll happen" Regina tried to reassure the blonde "Maybe this dream isn't just about the monster. It's about you working out some issues".
"I don't have any issues" Emma said stubbornly.
"Whatever" Amelia scoff out audibly rolling her eyes at the woman "While you guys have a heart to heart, I'm going to sort this out" she says before heading to her end of the vault, she needed a change of clothes desperately, hopefully the Underworlds version of the vault will be just as stocked up as it is in the land of the living.
A frown grew on the blonde face as she watched the redhead walk away from them. Regina knew what half her problem was at least, Amelia was unforgiving at times, but she usually forgave and forgot, but since having been possessed by a deity. Well, she's just thankful some of the old Amelia still remained. Or at least some of the old her she hoped.
"Much as it pains me, I have to agree with Regina" Hook spoke up "Emma, What's going on?".
"Maybe I... feel like I failed everyone" the blonde savior tells them.
"Failed?" he questioned the blonde "You saved Amelia and I".
"But we're still trapped in the Underworld" she reminded the pirate "What the hell was I thinking bringing everyone down here? Bringing Henry and Tom down here? This was a terrible plan. I should have done this alone. Now I'm always frightened. I'm frightened that someone will die, and it'll be my fault. And I'll never forgive myself".
"Emma, you didn't force any of us down here" Snow told her daughter "We all wanted to come with you. We knew it would be hard. These things always are, but some things are worth it. Love is worth it. Now, if you want to get home, let's do what works. Let's face this monster together" she tells the blonde.
"But first.." Regina spoke up from her place in the archway of the room "I think you should talk with the one person down here that doesn't feel like being saved".
"She doesn't want to talk to me, she's made that clear"Emma sighed in frustration.
"Emma" Snow spoke up to her daughter "Speaking from resent experience, she would rather have it laid out bare in the open than for something stew for too long. She's just waiting for you to make the first move, because she won't".
Nodding at her mother, she knew what she had to do, to get past whatever was wrong between them "Okay, I can do that".
Taking hesitant step towards the other end of the vault she saw the opening to the assassin's part of the basement from the ray of lights that emulated were she heard a string of swear words in another language coming from the room. She wasn't happy that's for sure. Rounding the corner, she had to quickly avert her eye's as she caught Amelia half naked body.
"Jeez sorry" she exclaimed tearing her eyes away from the woman only in a black bra on the top half of her body to see something the redhead wanted none of her family to ever see.
Whirling round the redhead was met by the image of Emma in her part of the vault with her eyes wide and mouth agape at what the assassin had been trying to hide from everyone, especially Regina.
"Holy shit" were the only words the blonde could say as gasped in horror seeing the words that had been carved into her chest and arms.
"Emma" the assassin tried to calm her down only "Don't-".
"I'm getting Regina, she needs to see this".
"No! Stop!" with a click of her fingers gold smoke engulfed the archway to quickly dissipate to reveal a door appeared in archway making the blonde stop in her tracks of finding Regina and dragging her down to her loves part of the vault.
"Ah! Fuck!" the redhead cursed at herself for letting herself use it. but it was instinct she couldn't let Emma leave and tell Regina what she had just seen, but as a price she had just let out her biggest secret.
Slowly turning round the savior met the eye's of the assassin that had just used magic to trap her inside the room. "How the hell did you do that?" she asks the redhead.
"You can't tell anyone" the woman pleads to her.
"Tell them what? You just used magic!".
"It's not mine!" she yelled at the blonde hoping she wasn't heard even through the new door's that locked the savoir inside the room "It's not mine" she repeats to the blonde savior.
"What? What do you mean by that? Not your magic" she asks as the assassin pulls on a dark low cu tank over over her head, not caring about the words that had scarred on her body at that moment, it was the least of her problems right then.
"Emma, in all the time you've known me, when was the only time I was ever able to use magic".
"When-" the blonde thought to herself before "Juno" she breathes out recognizing the gold smoke that the deity seemed to be associated with "Juno's still alive isn't she" Amelia could only nod in confirmation "That's why you've been pushing Regina away.
"Since I woke up here" the redhead admitted to her "You just killed her physical body in Storybrooke, not her. She's still in my head. Alive, but not in control like last time".
"Then how did you get those scars?" just the thought of them made the savior feel sick to her stomach.
"I wasn't exactly counting on a rescue mission" she simply told the blonde.
"The Assassin's" the blonde quickly figured out "So you were just gonna stay there? Let them hurt you?".
"What other choice did I have? Let her run rampart in the Underworld with Hades as her new BFF, or keep her trapped in my head for the rest of eternity. The pain kept her away, it keeps me human. So I went to the people who I knew who never let me go again".
"She's the reason I can't come home Emma, because next time..I won't be able to stop her. That's why I need to find I way out of the Underworld, moving on is everyone's best chance of surviving her wrath".
Agreeing to keep her secret for the time being, and a little assistance to remove the door from the entrance of her part of the vault, Amelia and Emma rejoined the other's and putting on a face that told the others that their rift has been resolved for the time being, the group of former villains and hero's left the sanctuary to find the monster that had managed to sneak up on Amelia and troubled the others in the cemetery.
With a fresh button up blouse on her body that covered up the scars the blonde had seen and a new jacket the redhead kept her eye's and ears peeled with her sixth sense.
"It's close! Keep your eyes peeled" Snow instructed the other's as the assassin look for anything big a furry as her vision found a golden target she nearly missed
"There!" the redhead called out pointing in the distance to where the creature was going. Stepping forward in unison the former Queen and the savior shot their magic toward a blur of back mass, hitting it's intended target, sending it on the forest floor.
"Nice shot" Hook voiced to the pair.
"Not nice enough" Amelia tells them snatching up the dagger Regina had given her that morning into her hand "It's only stunned. It owes me a new jacket".
Rushing forward the group ran to find it and finished it off only for the blonde to voice her concern to the other.
"Wait, everybody stay back!" Emma warned them form getting too close only for her mother to stop her.
Emma, stop! Don't kill it!" Snow tells the group as the archer drops her quiver full of arrows on the the ground. "I think your dream was a vision. But it wasn't about saving me" Snow tells her picking up familiar red hood from the ground "It was about finding her".
Throwing the hood over the sleeping wolf, a whoosh was heard as it turned back into the dark haired she-wolf they knew from Storybrooke.
"Little Red?" Amelia stated out loud in confusion to see her there as Snow crouched down to try and wake up her friend to find out why she was in the Underworld.
AN: An update! And not just any old update. It's...
CHAPTER 100!
The Evil Queen's Black Widow had reached 100 chapters! Woooo!
I'm gonna take this opportunity to say thank you once again to everyone that has followed and favorited this story so far. And hello to a few new followers. HELLO!.
You've all been amazing this past year and a bit with your continued support.
I never thought I would ever get the courage to publish this in first place let alone be publishing its 100th Chapter, its been and amazing journey to get to this milestone, of:
"Be carefuls" and "It was my job".
"Queenies" and "Melias".
To celebrate, please feel free to comment your favorite moments/ lines of dialogues of this fic so far as a review on this chapter, or just say hi!.
Also, if you haven't already checked it out, I've published a brand new OUAT story; The Portrait of Elijah Mill's, starting from season 1 of the series. First 5 chapters have been published already. I really want to get this story on it's feet so I'll try and balance these two stories as much as I can.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Until next time.
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-06bromleys
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