Author's Note: I do not own Once Upon A Time which is a show on ABC where ONE JOB. ONE JOB. Anyway, forget that. Thanks for your reads and reviews. Please let me know what you think and happy reading!

In Hell

The bifrost dropped them in the middle of a street that looked eerily familiar.

Beatrice and Belle turned slowly, taking in their surroundings.

"Are we in Storybrooke?," asked Belle. "Lady Sif said the bifrost could only take us to the Underworld."

"Why is the sky red?" Beatrice looked to her mother. "Is it like a subjective thing? Like this is Hell to us?"

"You think Storybrooke is Hell?" Belle turned to see the clock tower crashed on the street. "Gods, what happened?"

"See, that's hellish," said Beatrice.

"Hello, ladies."

They spun around to see Cora.

"She's definitely dead. This is the Underworld."

"Yes, thanks to you and your boyfriend."

"Well, you crushed your own heart so..."

Beatrice earned a look from her mother.

"I mean, come on, she's supposed to be the Queen of Hearts and she can't pick out her own. How dumb is that?"

Belle pulled Beatrice closer. "We're just passing through."

"How original. No one passes through here. This is where souls with unfinished business wait."

"Well, surprise, we're not dead. Now, where do I find the ferry?"

"No one you want to visit?"

"Um, everyone here is dead," said Beatrice. She looked at her mom. "Come to think of it, it is a really good thing that I didn't know this was a thing when I thought Joseph was dead. That would have been a dumb idea to go to Hell to get my boyfriend back, right?"

"You're certain that there's no one you want to see, Belle?"

Belle shook her head. "What do you mean?"

"No one with any unfinished business? No mother?"

"My mother didn't have any unfinished business. She died saving me."

"Then I suggest you pay a visit to the library." Cora looked at Beatrice. "You'll find the ferry at the docks. It's in the same place as in Storybrooke."

"Okay, so not nice to see you again. Mom, let's go."

Beatrice saw Belle's gaze turn towards the library.

"Mom, allons-y." She looked down at Hero in the carrier. "You. Tell her."

Hero gurgled back.

"Come on," said Belle, taking Beatrice's hand and beginning to march towards the library.

"Mom, we need to get to the ferry-"

"What if my mother is here?"

"Mom, you read the Odyssey, you know how screwed up this place is."

"Beatrice Elizabeth Gold-"

She groaned as her mother dragged her towards the library. The door was dusty and the windows boarded up. They stepped inside to piles of books and torn pages on the floor.

"Mother?," Belle called.

Beatrice looked up in amazement as Reinette stepped out of the shadows.

"Belle..." the woman gasped. In her eyes, she looked terrified.

"Mother, what are you doing here?"

A Long Time Ago In The Enchanted Forest

Reinette walked into the nursery. Fifi, Belle's nanny, was dressing the six month old. Reinette conducted her usual inspection of the room, making certain everything was just right.

She soon found an object she could not identify.

"Fifi, where did this book come from?"

Fifi turned. "I don't know, madame. I thought you had brought it for the mademoiselle."

Reinette scowled. She knew very well who had placed it.

Now

"Mama," Belle's voice broke. Without thinking, she handed the carrier to Beatrice and went to embrace Reinette.

"Well, this is fun," said Beatrice, rolling her eyes at Hero.

"Mama, I didn't think I'd find you here."

Reinette's eyes turned to Beatrice and Hero. "Won't you introduce us?"

Belle smiled, eyes beaming as she looked at her daughters. "These are your granddaughters, Beatrice and Hero."

"Hey," said Beatrice.

"Hey?" Reinette looked at Belle disapprovingly.

"Sorry, usually when I interact with a grandparent, it's followed by them trying to kill me so excuse me if I keep my distance."

"Beatrice," Belle said disapprovingly.

"Moe, Peter Pan, Gormlaith. Three out of four, I don't like those odds."

"Belle, what does she speak of?"

She faced her daughter. "This is my mother, Catherine and Alec's daughter. You're worried for nothing."

"Well, I'm sorry, she's still on the dangerous grandparent tier. Merlin is the only one looking out for me."

"Merlin?," Reinette asked.

Beatrice nodded. "Oh, right, you guys probably want to talk about that."

Belle turned back to her mother. "Is that it? Is that your unfinished business? You never told me Merlin was my true father?"

She groaned. "This is going to take a while." She walked over to an armchair and put Hero's carrier on the floor. She began rummaging through her red bag. "Do you have wifi?"

Belle looked at her daughter. "Do they have wifi in the afterlife?"

"They had it on Doctor Who, granted it was actually Missy storing a bunch of dead people to make Cybermen, but, come on."

Reinette went back to a cart of books and began fruitlessly stuffing loose pages back in them. "How did you find out?"

"How did I find out? He told me or I might still not know." Belle shook her head. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"What is one supposed to say? You're not the Heiress to Avonlea, you're actually the daughter of Merlin."

"Yes!," Belle exclaimed. "That is exactly what one is supposed to say! I spent so much time wondering what I had done to make Maurice not love me."

"You loved your father."

"I was a child. A child who didn't know better than to waste her love on someone who didn't deserve it."

"And what would have happened next, Belle? You would have continued to live as a lady in the castle or more likely you'd have been cast out as a bastard?"

"I needed to know who I was!"

"Belle, you're really being overly theatrical."

"No, Mama, you don't get to tell me I'm not taking this well enough. You were the one who lied to me."

Beatrice looked at Hero. "You know, I wish I could tell you that it's not always like this, but..."

"She is rather impertinent," said Reinette looking over at Beatrice.

"And you don't get to call my daughter impertinent!"

"Do you intend to just shout at me? It is most unpleasant."

"No." Belle collected herself. "I want to help you. I don't want you stuck here because of me."

"Belle, if I am trapped here it is certainly not because of you."

"How can I help?"

"You can help by leaving."

"What? I can't just leave you like this. You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me."

Then

"What are you doing here?"

Reinette looked to Fifi, the girl seemed to be passed out on the chaise lounge. She looked up at Merlin. He sat in a chair holding Belle.

"What have you done to her?"

He cuddled Belle closer. "I supposed she could use some actual rest seeing as she is the one looking after our daughter and all."

"She is Belle's nursemaid."

"Well, what sort of experience does she have? Did you even ask for references?"

"She was an assistant in the court nursery at Queen Eva's-" Reinette stepped forward. "Why am I explaining myself to you?"

"Because she's my daughter."

"You chose to abandon us here."

"Abandon you? Whoever said I was abandoning you? My father, that's abandonment. In fact, I know someone whose father abandoned him in exchange for eternal youth, now that was abandonment."

"You simply cannot flit in and out of her life when you please. I told you to leave. Now, put Belle down and go wherever it is you go."

"I can't go. Belle isn't finished with her bottle yet."

Reinette stepped forward. "I could summon the guards."

"And tell them what exactly?"

She glared.

"No, I'm genuinely curious," said Merlin. "Have you got an explanation that doesn't end with you confessing to adultery?"

Reinette turned on her heel.

"You're still wearing the pendant," he said.

"It was my mother's," she said flatly as she walked out.

Now In Storybrooke...

It had been days since Belle passed through the portal and the town was mostly back to normal, save the presence of some new characters.

That is because most of the townspeople weren't waiting for anyone.

Joseph was.

"Where did you even find drugs in this town?," John finally asked in amazement. "Or did you snort pixie dust?"

"Yes."

"You did what?"

"I snorted pixie dust."

John shook his head. "No, you're just having me on."

"There was some confiscated at the sheriff's station. I felt as if I could fly, might have actually."

"Shut up."

"The ground did seem further away..."

They entered the sheriff's station.

Emma looked up. "Here to turn yourself in?"

Joseph looked behind him.

"She means you," said John.

"For what?"

"You were going to kill Hook in the middle of Main Street," said Emma.

"He challenged me."

She narrowed her eyes. "And there's the matter of the missing pixie dust."

"So do we now have a criminal justice system in this town rather than just a system of laws loosely enforced depending upon how closely related someone is to you?"

Emma stood.

"Oh, I forgot. You're the special Savior character who can do no wrong incidentally because your parents kidnapped someone else's egg and poured your darkness into it?"

"Are you trying to sound like Beatrice just because she's not here?"

"No, if I was trying to sound like Beatrice, I would note how unfair the general response of the town is to this latest crisis considering it wasn't her fault and then I would make a Doctor Who reference." He turned to Isaac as he sat in his cell. "Particularly when it's his fault."

Isaac scowled. Joseph approached.

"After all, you threatened Belle thereby forcing Beatrice to play the part of Young Adult novel villain pitted against Emma, the center of all light, a cliche down to the love triangle you put her in. Oh, it's the bad boy and the boy next door, which shall I choose? You might as well have made one a vampire and one a werewolf."

"Everyone's a critic..." muttered Isaac.

"You know what your mistake was?," asked Joseph. "My tragic backstory made me too complex a character. If you had never written in those flashback scenes of Oswin and Reinette, I never would have pursued Beatrice."

Emma frowned. "Who are Oswin and Reinette?"

"My twin daughters."

"Yeah, but that was just in this stupid story," said John, motioning at the novel.

Joseph froze. "Perhaps the drugs haven't quite cleared my system."

"Spoilers," said Isaac.

"Wait, how do you know about children named Oswin and Reinette?," asked John. He looked up. "Wait, who were Jenna and Louise?"

"Wait, Jenna and Louise were your kids? From the future?," asked Emma.

"Well, they weren't from the past," said Joseph. "Enough of that. Memory potions for everyone, I suspect. Anyway, where is Beatrice?"

"I don't know-"

"You didn't appear back in this world when everyone else did. You appeared later," said Joseph. He pulled out the Dark Princess comic. "And I know where you were at least part of that time."

Belle couldn't understand her mother. What was she hiding? What would keep her in this terrible place? Why wouldn't she say what it was to leave?

"Okay," said Beatrice, "could I make a suggestion?"

Belle turned pulling her sweater down. She had just retreated to nurse Hero, mulling over what her mother's problem could be.

"Does it involve leaving?"

"Yes."

She picked up Hero and walked towards her eldest. "You have to understand that I can't just leave my mother here in this awful existence. We have to help her."

"Which is great and all, but my probability rating on her trying to kill me is seventy five percent."

"She's not like that, Beatrice."

"Yeah, well, there's something keeping her out of Elysium with Russell Crowe and whoever."

"What?"

"Gladiator. It played at the movie theater for ten years during the Curse?"

"Is that what you think of me, child?"

They turned to see Reinette.

"Mama, she-"

"Well, something is keeping you here-"

"Which is not the concern of such an impudent child."

"Mama, what is the matter with you?!," Belle exclaimed.

"Well, she has been dead a while..." said Beatrice.

Then

Reinette looked up from her book to see Merlin standing before her in the hedge maze.

"What are you doing here?" She glanced around the garden. "You could be seen."

"What sort of wizard do you think I am?"

"Nonetheless, what are you doing here?"

"I made a mistake."

"You must be able to see how shocked I am," said Reinette.

Merlin got on his knees.

"What are you doing now?"

"I'm begging. This is how people do it, right?"

"Begging for what?"

"I can't be without Belle. I can't be without you. I never planned for this, it was never in my vision-"

"A great many things were never in your vision."

"What do you want? What do you want me to do? Pour poison in Maurice's ear?"

"What?," she shrieked.

"It's a literary reference from another place. You wouldn't get it. The point is I want the three of us to be together."

"I asked this and you refused."

"I was wrong. I was trying to keep to a vision and gods forgive me, I don't care anymore. Sod the stupid Ogre Wars."

"Ogre Wars?"

"Forget it, it's a thing from the future. May or may not happen. Either way, it's asinine. So?"

Reinette looked at him. "I need time to think."

"Of course. Perfectly understandable." He stood. "I'll await your answer."

"And you'll stay away until then?"

"Of course."

He disappeared and she was alone.

Or so it appeared.

"Faithful fairy, I need your help."

The Gold Fairy flew before her.

"I am here, child."

Now

Reinette stood at the dock as Beatrice summoned the ferry.

Belle turned to her.

"You really won't tell me?"

"It's not your concern."

"Why won't you let me help you?," asked Belle.

Reinette was silent.

"Mama, what could you have done to deserve such a fate?," asked Belle. "I didn't even think you would be here. You gave your life for me, for mine, so I could have the family I do."

"Are you happy, Belle?"

She nodded. "I have the most amazing daughters and a husband I love and it's because of you. All to you."

"Then I am happy for you."

"Um, ferry? Coming?," said Beatrice.

"Return to your life," said Reinette.

Belle hugged her mother.

"Great, so let's get going-"

"Not so fast."

They turned to see a man standing before them.

"Sorry, we haven't met. I'm Hades."

"The god of the Underworld?," asked Belle.

"She's quick."

"Yeah, well, good for you, but my great grandmother is Venus so..." Beatrice shook her head. "I kind of have this ferry to catch."

"You're not going anywhere."

"Yes, I am."

"No, you belong to me."

"What?," Belle exclaimed.

"Look this better not be some weird Persephone thing because I have a boyfriend."

"Hardly. There's a contract."

A contract unfurled out of Hades' hand.

"This would be a contract for Rumplestiltskin's second born child."

"My dad would not be so stupid as to-" She peered closer "Okay, that is his name, but Rumplestiltskin is spelled wrong. It's l-e, not e-l, a lot of people screw that up."

"Don't believe me?"

"No, not really."

"Read further."

"The undersigned hereby signs away the rights to any second born child in exchange for saving the life of Baelfire..."

Belle handed Hero to Reinette. "Let me see that."

"You'll find everything is aboveboard."

"Rumple would never-"

Hades waved his hand. "Want to see for yourself?"

There was a projection onto the red sky. Rumplestiltskin long ago and another man with a painted face.

"Fendrake the Healer?," asked Reinette.

"See, your brother was poisoned and dear old dad couldn't be bothered to pony up the gold pieces..."

"How did you get the contract?," asked Belle.

Hades snapped a hand and the picture changed to the Dark One ripping out Fendrake's heart and crushing it.

"That's how." He squared his eyes at Beatrice. "The Dark Princess belongs to me."

"No! No one owns her!," Belle shouted.

"He sold me," said Beatrice.

"What? Of course not!"

Beatrice turned to her mother. "For Bae. You don't think he'd sell me for Bae? Because apparently, yeah, he would."

"Your father loves you."

Beatrice shook her head. "I don't think he loves me enough."

"Silence," said Hades. "As fun as it is, I don't really need the emotional baggage. I just need her."

"No-"

Something as fine as a needle appeared in his hand and he stabbed Beatrice with it. She opened her mouth to say something and didn't finish.

"Beatrice?"

She turned. "Who?"

"Oh, that's you," said Hades. "Just to save me some time coming up with a new name."

"What did you do?," demanded Belle.

"That was a shard of a very useful crystal. The whole thing can even kill a god, but just a little, well, it kills everything else. All that pesky inner spirit nonsense." He motioned at the water. "Your ferry's coming. Beatrice, get us out of here."

"No!," Belle shouted as they disappeared.

They stood in silence a moment.

"Belle, I'm so sorry-"

She turned to her mother. "I need her back! How do I get her back?!"

Reinette shook her head. "There's nothing. He's Hades. You should take Hero on the ferry and return home."

"She's my daughter! I can't give up on her! When did you become someone who gives up?!"

"I'm afraid I always have been."

"Well, I'm not! How do I get a message back to Storybrooke?"

Then

Reinette looked at the vial.

"You summoned me," said Merlin.

She clasped the tiny thing in her fist and stood, turning to face him.

"Yes."

"I take it you've made a decision?"

"Indeed I have."

"What would you have me do?"

"I can never see you again."

Merlin looked around, gobsmacked.

"Would it be ungentlemanly to- well, sod it, I'm no gentleman. Why? Do I get a reason?"

"I was reckless with you and look where we are."

"So what? Everyone's a bit reckless from time to time, we can fix it. Nothing has been done that can't be undone."

"Where would we live? What would we do?"

"Where does anybody live? What does anybody do?"

"No, you spoke sense when you refused me before. There is a plan in place. Belle will be raised as a lady in this house and by the gods, I do hope it leads her to True Love."

"You want a house? You want Belle to have a title? How does daughter to an all powerful sorcerer sound?"

"Like the flight of fancy it is." She clutched the fist holding the vial to her chest. "You told me once that not all love is good."

"That's not wrong, but I don't think it applies here-"

"I think it does. I won't be hurt again."

"I won't hurt you again. I'm sorry."

Reinette took the stopper from the vial and downed its blue liquid in one swallow.

"What the hell was that?"

"A gift from an old friend." She looked up at him. "As I said, I can never see you again."

"What friend?," he snarled.

"It will take effect in a moment. I will never hear you or see you again except at her discretion."

"The Gold Fairy." He approached. "Why would you do this?!"

She stepped back, her gaze fading from him, a little uneasy at the sudden change. She turned back towards the library window.

"That's it, is it?," asked Merlin. "That's the answer I get?"

She stared out the window. She must have realized he would still be there, but didn't care.

"You don't see me. You'll never see me. I thought I could change the future, but..."

He trailed off in light of no response.

"Yes, it was wrong, but I thought you understood. I thought you knew the Dark Princess..." He sighed. "She's important to me, I thought if you loved me, she would be important to you, too. I was very wrong..."

Merlin could only stare at her back.

"No, not all love is good, but I thought yours would be... As I said, I was very wrong."

Merlin took the steps to the nursery and waved Fifi to a deep sleep. He found Belle wide awake in her crib.

"Hello, Belle..." he whispered pulling her into his arms. "It's Papa. Your real Papa, not your fat, ugly fake papa."

He turned towards the window with her.

"I tried, Belle. I did and now there's nothing more for me to try. I wanted us to be together, I could have taught you to trap fairies..."

Belle stared up at him with big eyes.

"I won't always be able to visit you like this," he said. "It wouldn't be fair to you, to make you lie when you can't understand..."

He looked back down at her, matching her gaze.

"Know this, Belle, when you need me I will come for you."

Now

"Come on," said Joseph.

"What?"

"What happens next?" Joseph opened the comic to the next blank page. "Tell the story."

He slid the book through the cell and put a pen next to it.

"What? You think you can torture writing out of me? That's not even the right pen."

"No, you can't be trusted with that one, so I got this one at W.H. Smith's."

John patted his pocket. "That's my pen."

"You still can't make me write."

"But I think someone here can." Joseph turned to Emma.

She raised her hands, sparks of magic traveling to Isaac's. He grabbed the pen and it flew across the page, sketching out new panes of the Dark Princess' adventure.

There

In a cell inside SHIELD hedquarters, two vilains met for the first time.

Isaac looked at Zelena.

"Can I just say it's a real pleasure?"

She scowled at him.

"I haven't gotten to do a lot of work with your character yet, but I'm looking forward to it."

"Do I know you?"

"No-"

"Then shut up."

The door opened. Coulson and Beatrice came in.

"Oh, god, there's another one?"

"You can tell them apart?," asked Coulson.

"She didn't walk in humming showtunes."

Beatrice looked at Coulson. "Who is this girl?"

"Well, now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about you," said Coulson. "You were going to kill baby Hero. That's not going to happen. They're already far away from you."

"Wonderful," drolled Zelena.

He turned to Isaac. "And you were trying to kill Beatrice. I guess you can gather that's not going to happen either."

"I hate her..." muttered Isaac.

"Well, I hate her more," said Zelena.

"Why do you hate her?," asked Beatrice.

"Because she has everything! A family that loves her, a True Love-"

"She has what?," Beatrice interjected.

"Oh, that Sherlock Holmes boy, you must know."

"Sherlock?!," Beatrice said incredulously.

"Yeah, you might want to give that guy a break..." Coulson whispered.

"Magic, destiny-"

The building began to rumble.

"Stop it, Zelena!," Coulson shouted.

"I'm not doing it!," the witch exclaimed.

The building alarms sounded and a fiery portal appeared from the floor. Coulson hit a button and handles popped out of the wall. He and Beatrice grabbed one each as the portal consumed the floor taking Zelena and Isaac with it.

It finally closed and they stood on a solid floor once again.

Beatrice looked at Coulson. "Where do you think they went?"

"No idea."

"Well, who did that?"

"No idea."

"Sherlock Holmes?"

"I'm just going off what she told me and let's face it, Doctor Strange is too old for you."

"Scarlet Witch has been dating Vision, why doesn't someone worry about that?"

Coulson turned. "She what?"

Here

The magic broke. Isaac fell unconscious.

Joseph turned to Emma. "Well?"

"Well what? The guy's unconscious."

"We don't know where he and Zelena went. What if she's in Storybrooke?"

"Then we'll find her and stop her like we always do."

Joseph shook his head. "I don't recall any 'we-'"

"Hey, that's not-"

"Beatrice and I had our True Love's kiss break the memory curse twice. She gave her life to undo Zelena's first foray into time travel. I killed Cora. Belle took Zelena's power from her. I don't recall you or your whole incompetent family having very much to do with it, if anything!"

Emma crossed her arms. "You done yet?"

There

Hades turned to Beatrice. "Good work."

"Who are they?," she asked.

"Slaves don't ask questions." He pointed. "Back to your dungeon."

Belle rushed to the telephone booth as Reinette hurried behind her with the baby carrier.

"I don't even know if it works!," Reinette called after her.

"This is the only way to get a message home, it has to!"

Belle pushed past the people in the queue, much to their dismay.

"Hey!"

"I'm sorry, but..." She took a breath. "Well, you're all still going to be dead after this."

"Belle!," Reinette admonished.

"You raise Beatrice and see how you start to think," said Belle.

Merlin sat in the library. Rumplestiltskin had barely moved from the wall since Belle went through it.

"You're going to wear a hole in the floor..." he said. "Belle certainly won't approve of that."

"Father..."

He turned his head. "Belle?"

Back in the Underworld, Belle was taken aback.

"Father, can you hear me?"

"Of course I can. Where are you calling from?"

"Are you talking to yourself?," asked Gold.

"Shut it," Merlin warned.

"What?," asked Belle.

"Not you, my dear. Where are you?"

"The Underworld. They said this might not work, now I can hear you-"

"Never mind that," he said holding a hand up for Gold to be silent. "Why are you there?"

"It was the only way home. Hades took Beatrice."

"He did what?"

"He said Rumple sold her, Father, you have to-"

On Belle's end, the line went dead.

Merlin turned to Gold slowly.

"Why does Belle think you sold Beatrice?"

After failing to persuade Emma to help him again, Joseph departed with John to go back to the library.

"So," said John, "you have kids now."

"Not now. At some point."

"You named them."

"Not yet." Joseph looked to John. "When I touched the blank pages in Beatrice's book, I saw them. I held them. I knew them."

"And you traveled to Victorian England with them."

"Edwardian-"

"No one bloody cares."

"Do you understand what it's like to be willing to do anything for something? You have limits."

"This is all mad."

"Not the first time I've heard that."

They saw a fireball in the distance, the townsfolk screaming. Joseph ran towards it, followed by John.

What they found were Merlin and Rumplestiltskin standing across from one another in Main Street. Regina strode down, a fireball of her own in her hand.

"What the hell are you two doing?!," she shouted. "We just paid off Doc's Miata from last week!"

"Stay out of it, queenie!," Merlin shouted.

"Not while you're on city property!"

"Mind your own business, dearie!," Gold snarled.

"Are Merlin and Rumplestiltskin-"

Joseph nodded. "Wizard fight."

"What the hell is this about?," demanded Regina.

"It is about him being a colossal moron as usual!," said Merlin, lobbing a fireball at him.

"You can't kill me like that, dearie!"

"Yeah, but I'll feel better."

Regina turned to Merlin. "Agreed, he is a moron, but what exactly has he done this time?"

"He sold his second born."

"I didn't mean to!"

"What? Did you forget how to count?!" Merlin lobbed another fireball at him.

"You sold Beatrice?!," Regina exclaimed.

"You sold Beatrice?!," Joseph repeated, coming to the fray.

"It was hundreds of years ago and I really don't want to hear about it from you two!"

A fireball appeared in Regina's hand. "Beatrice is the only one who can defeat the Author, who can get me a happy ending and you sold her!"

Regina launched the fireball at Rumplestiltskin. He lobbed it away, straight into the window of Mr. Drury's bakery.

"This really isn't about you!," said Merlin.

"The hell it isn't!"

"Who did Beatrice get sold to?," asked Joseph.

"Hades," Merlin said with contempt.

"Hades is real?," asked John.

"My mother is Venus."

"Right, sorry, I forgot."

"And what do we do to get her back?," Joseph demanded.

"Go to Hell," said Merlin.

"Well, that seems a bit-" John paused as Regina, Merlin and Joseph turned to him. "You meant actually..."

"Yes."

"And how does one get to Hell? Besides the obvious."

Merlin turned to Rumplestiltskin. "It would seem someone has one more useful function for me."