❃
|New York City, Eight Weeks Ago|
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Now that Robin Hood, Roland, and Zelena disguised as Marian were back in Storybrooke, the apartment they had been living in while in New York was up for grabs. After Storybrooke, Lily wanted to start new some place else, so she talked August into giving her the keys to the apartment in New York City that had been a safe place for fairytale characters since some guy named Neal had lived there years before.

Lily felt a little bad leaving her mother behind, but everyone in Storybrooke viewed Lily as some awful person, just because her mother was a villain. So after the week Lily had promised to spend in Storybrooke was up and the keys to the apartment were in her hands, she left for an eight hour drive south.

Lily opened the door to the apartment and dropped her bag on the floor. New York City was too crazy for her liking, but she'd get used to it eventually. She looked around the apartment. Everything was exactly as she remembered when Regina and Emma had dragged her to this place so they could reveal who Marian really was. But by that point, it was too late...

The apartment wasn't very big at all. Then again, the Neal guy had only bought it for one person; himself. There was a bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen and living area that were connected. All of the movies in the apartment were Disney, and all of the Disney movies seemed to be there except for any version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Lily half wondered if Robin had gotten rid of them because they reminded him of Regina.

She found a folded up map of the New England area of the United States. There was a star on a part of Maine, but no city was there. The word Storybrooke was written next to it in rushed handwriting, probably either Robin, Regina, or Neal's.

In the bedroom, there were pictures displayed on one of the walls. Some were of a younger Emma, some with a guy who must have been Neal. And some were more recent; Robin and Regina smiling. Regina cooking with Roland. Robin teaching Henry how to shoot an arrow. The pictures made Lily sad because everyone in them had something she would never have; somebody to love them. But she didn't take them down because it felt wrong. Those people had lived here, and that was okay. The apartment didn't really belong to anyone anymore. It belonged to the fairytale characters in general. A safe haven outside of Storybrooke for anyone who needed it.

And for that one, beautiful moment, Lily felt like she was a part of something.

❃
|Storybrooke, Present Day|
❃

Belle brought Maleficent to Dorothy after the dragon had agreed to help. Dorothy was mixing ingredients in a cauldron down in Regina's vault so it was hidden from anyone who didn't know it was there. No one dared try and enter Regina's vault without her permission, but Regina had told Belle how to get in before they had left for the Underworld in case Zelena came back and they needed somewhere for Megan, Roland, and Neal.

Okay, so brewing a potion wasn't exactly what Regina's intent was when she allowed Belle access, but Belle could deal with whatever rage Regina had when they were back from the Underworld because there was no way Regina had it in her to harm someone who was pregnant.

Dorothy stood up when Maleficent and Belle entered. "I take it you're Maleficent?"

Maleficent nodded. "Yes. And who are you?"

"Dorothy Gale. You might recognize me from some book in this world. Or not, I've never taken the time to read it myself."

Belle spoke before Maleficent could say anything. "Okay, so we just need Maleficent to provide the final ingredient and then we can get to the Underworld?"

Dorothy frowned. "No. I thought it would be that easy - it would under normal circumstances - but Hades must have done something to cause your friends to not be able to leave the Underworld. And that means no one here can get into the Underworld, even if we die. So he must have sealed it off after Zelena died."

"So we can't get to them?" Belle asked, her heart dropping.

"That's not what I said," Dorothy's words lifted Belle's spirit a bit. There was still some way she could see Rumple again. "We can open a portal to the Underworld on the night of a New Moon. We'll still need this potion and Maleficent's blood to complete it, but we won't be able to use the potion until another New Moon occurs."

"That's nearly two weeks away!" Belle cried.

"It's our only shot at getting down there," Dorothy said. Once we're down there, it might be possible to get Hades to reconnect the land of the living and the land of the dead. If not, it will take another New Moon to open a portal."

As badly as Belle wanted to see Rumple again, she knew she had no choice but to wait. "Okay. So if we make the potion now, we'll have it when the New Moon comes again, right?"

Dorothy nodded. "Yes. And until we open a temporary portal, no one will be able to die. Hades must be dedicated to keeping Rumplestiltskin and the others safely locked in the Underworld if he's risking letting this world overpopulate. Or maybe he just plans to kill everyone down there that is still alive and then he'll reconnect the two worlds."

"Is this the part where I finally come in?" Maleficent raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. I just need a few drops of blood, so the cut doesn't have to be too deep."

Maleficent extended her hand towards Dorothy, who sliced a knife against her palm. Maleficent winced slightly when the blade pierced her skin, but that was it. Dorothy held the knife over the cauldron that had nearly foamed over and let the blood on the knife drip in while Belle wrapped a bandage around Maleficent's hand. She was quite glad she hadn't been feeling nauseous because she definitely would have puked at the sight of blood if she had been.

After the blood was added to the potion, Dorothy deemed it finished and poured the liquid into several different vials. and placed them up where no one would think to look for them.

"Now we wait until the next New Moon."

Maleficent turned to Belle. "I assume our deal still stands? Since you can't journey to the Underworld for awhile, perhaps you should do what I requested before that baby of yours grows too big?"

Belle hadn't told Maleficent about the baby, but Maleficent had been pregnant before, so she obviously knew what it was like.

"What did you tell her you'd do?" Dorothy asked Belle. "Going to the Underworld is dangerous, there's no need to put both yourself and your baby in more trouble than what you need to!"

"I can make decisions for myself, thank you very much." Belle turned to Maleficent, "I will go to New York and find Lily. But I only have enough transformation dust for one other person to go with me. Which means either someone goes with me or Lily can't leave Storybrooke until Emma's curse is broken."

"I can't go with you," Maleficent replied. "If I leave town, the magic keeping me alive won't exist any longer, and I'll die again."

Belle nodded. "Okay. I'll leave for Neal's apartment tomorrow morning."

❃
|New York City|
❃

Lily had started drinking way too much Starbucks since she had left Storybrooke, but she couldn't really stop herself at this point. And since the air had begun to grow colder, Lily was trading her daily frappacino in for a warm cup of coffee or hot chocolate.

She was walking back to the apartment that had become hers with a cup of steaming coffee in her hand when she caught sight of someone who shouldn't have been in New York City.

Her adoptive parents.

Why were they in New York?! Hopefully they wouldn't recognize Lily as long as they didn't see her star-shaped birthmark.

But the problem was they were right in her path. So she could either risk them noticing her or take an extra thirty minutes to get home. If it were warmer and not supposed to rain, Lily would have taken the second option. But the temperature had been steadily growing colder and rain was due to start any minute and Lily had neglected to bring an umbrella to work with her.

So she forged past her adoptive parents, praying to whatever higher power existed in the messed up fairytale world that they wouldn't notice her.

Once she was past them, Lily breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn't noticed her.

She arrived at the apartment building just as the first drops of rain had begun to fall and thanked her lucky stars that they actually existed in the first place.

Lily unlocked her apartment and shut the door behind her, plopping down on the couch. She took a sip of coffee and glanced at the Disney movies displayed next to the TV. There was no way she would be leaving the apartment tonight, so she opened the Hercules DVD case and slid it into the DVD player.

Lily had finished her coffee and was about to throw the empty cup away when there was a knock on the door. Lily paused the movie and tossed her cup into the trash can on her way to the door. She had no idea who would be knocking on her door besides maybe a neighbor who needed something.

She opened the door and was taken aback by the fact that somebody from Storybrooke was standing across from her.

"Belle?"

❃
|Storybrooke|
❃

Belle left for New York early in the morning in the hopes that Merida wouldn't catch wind of what she was doing and try to stop her. The transformation dust prevented Belle from turning into a tree like Dopey had and just over eight hours later, she was in New York City, trying to figure out where she was going through the rain that had just recently begun.

Finally, she found the building where Neal's apartment was and rode the elevator up to the correct floor. When she reached the apartment, Belle could hear noise from inside, like Lily was watching a movie. She knocked on the door, hoping Lily would open it.

When she did, she didn't hide how surprised she was to see someone else from Storybrooke across the town line.

"Belle?"

❃
|The Enchanted Forest|
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Ruby and Mulan were not having a whole lot of luck since they had parted ways with Merida. Mulan stopped picking fights with drunk guys in taverns, which was a good thing, but they always seemed to be running into trouble no matter where they turned.

A week after they left Merida, they returned to DunBroch only to learn that a curse - a Dark Curse - had wiped out Camelot and now it was nothing but a run down ghost town. And Merida had been on her way there when the curse hit.

Which meant the Queen of DunBroch was in Storybrooke with Emma, Mary Margaret, David, and the others.

Only one person from Camelot had survived the Dark Curse, and that was Lancelot. he had been on his way to find the Lady of the Lake and was out of reach of the Dark Curse when it hit Camelot. So he sought a place to stay in DunBroch, which was granted to him by Queen Elinor herself after he explained all that had been happening in Camelot.

Ruby and Mulan had listened patiently while Lancelot told them about Emma being the Dark One and making Hook a Dark One as well in order to save his life. Afterwards, they asked plenty of questions, mostly questioning the sanity of their friends. ("Why on earth would Emma think it was a good idea to give Hook Dark One darkness?!" "Wait, you're telling me The former Evil Queen fell in love with Robin Hood?!" "Why would they bring the Wicked Witch along with them to Camelot in the first place?!")

But after Lancelot explained everything, Ruby and Mulan only spent a few more days in DunBroch. After that, they headed back for the Enchanted Forest to continue their search for Ruby's werewolf friends, as Mulan put it.

The Enchanted Forest was nearly empty. A few people had come from neighboring kingdoms to seek a new start, but between two Dark Curses, the place was pretty trashed.

Eventually, Ruby and Mulan found a tavern where a man was working. He gloated to them about how his tavern had been mysteriously filled with pixie dust decades ago, but neither Ruby or Mulan believed him.

"Do you know of any cities that survived near here?" Mulan asked him.

The man laughed. "You think any cities could have survived two Dark Curses? If the first one didn't knock it down, the second one sure did. The castles of the Evil Queen and Queen Aurora are still standing, but both rulers have vanished. You might want to head south a ways where the kingdom of DunBroch lies or perhaps Camelot, across the river from there."

"Yeah, you might want to stop suggestion people check Camelot for populated cities," Ruby muttered. The man raised an eyebrow, but Ruby didn't offer an explanation.

"We've already been to DunBroch and Camelot both," Mulan interrupted. "But what about wolves? Are there any wolf packs around here?"

The man shook his head. "Some say there used to be, but there haven't been any wolves around here since the Evil Queen rose to power. A few people speculate they fled north, beyond where any kingdoms lie. But most believe the Queen had reason to kill them."

Ruby gasped. "No, they must have went north!" She turned to Mulan. "What's north of here?"

Mulan thought for a moment. "A sea, I believe. There's a kingdom across the sea. Your people may have gone there."

"What's the kingdom called?"

Mulan looked like she didn't want to answer, but she spoke anyways. "Arendelle."

❃
|New York City|
❃

Lily just looked at Belle until she spoke.

"Okay, so this might be an awkward first request, but do you have a bathroom I can use?"

As Lily studied Belle, she noticed the woman looked like she might puke any second, so Lily nodded and stepped out of the doorway. "Yeah, it's just around the corner."

After Belle's breakfast and lunch were both gone from her stomach, she was able to explain why she had come to New York in search of Lily.

"We were in Camelot for a total of six weeks," Belle began. "After that, we returned to Storybrooke by form of a Dark Curse, but we couldn't remember anything that had happened in Camelot. Eventually, Emma gave some of us our memories back so we could help defeat Hook, who she had turned into the Dark One during the six weeks we were in Camelot. But in order to defeat Hook, Emma had to kill him. So now, everyone's in the Underworld getting them back, and Rumple's there with him. But I found out I was pregnant a week after they left and I need to get down there. But Dorothy said we needed the blood of someone who had died before in order to make a portal to the Underworld, so I convinced your mom to help us, but only on one condition. that I bring you back to Storybrooke for a visit."

"Wait, you're pregnant?"

"Why did you think I just puked up my last two meals but was still able to arrive here safely?"

Lily nodded. "Fair enough. But why would I want to go back to Storybrooke? And I can't just...get up and leave."

"You did last time," Belle pointed out. "And you want to return to Storybrooke because Maleficent says she found a lead on figuring out who your father is. But she refused to tell me anything about it."

Lily wanted to be able to tell Belle to just drive back to Storybrooke because she wasn't leaving New York, but there were two things holding Lily back;

1. She could figure out who her father was
2. Belle should not be driving alone for another eight hours if she was pregnant

So Lily reluctantly gave in. "Fine, but we leave tomorrow. It's too late to start the drive now."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," Belle agreed.

Lily found some extra blankets and Belle made a bed for herself on the couch, just comfortable enough for one night.

Once Belle was sleeping soundly, Lily went into the bedroom and sat on the bed so she was facing the wall with all of the pictures on it. Lily had added a few of her own since she had moved into the apartment. Most were just of her doing random things in New York, but she had printed off two from when she was in Storybrooke. One was of her and Maleficent when she was teaching Mal about modern day technology and the other was of her and August when Lily was trying to convince him to give her the keys to Neal's apartment. Maleficent had taken it and sent it to Lily asking if August was her boyfriend (Lily still wasn't sure if she was joking or not).

So the wall of pictures grew and Lily wondered whose picture would end up on it next.