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|Storybrooke|
❃

Robin and Emma were talking when August rushed up to them. "Hades...Lily...he..."

"What happened?" Emma jumped into defense mode.

"Long story short, Hades is Lily's dad and Hades threatened me so he could get Lily to lead him to Gold's kids and Meg. ...And I don't have a heart at the moment."

"I told Regina you two were together!" Emma exclaimed. "She owes me ten bucks."

"You're not going to get anything from her if we don't stop Hades!" Robin said. "We have to warn them!"

"We don't have time to warn them and stop Hades," Emma argued.

"Then we split up. I'm going to warn Regina."

"Fine. August, with me. Robin, go somewhere quiet and call Regina to warn her."

❃
|New York City, the Next Day|
❃

Regina had just gotten back from the store, Evelyn in her arms, when her phone rang. She and Neal had agreed that one of them would be with Meg and Evelyn at all times and neither would be stuck with both. And since Evelyn was screaming bloody murder unless she was in Regina's arms that morning, Regina had to take Evelyn shopping with her.

Neal took Evelyn from Regina, who hurriedly answered her phone. "Robin?!"

"Regina, I'm not sure why you didn't pick up, but Hades threatened Lily into working with him and they're headed to New York to find you guys. Whenever you get this, call me back after you're gone."

"What?"

The call ended and Regina looked down at her phone. Her last call to Robin was marked as being nearly twenty hours earlier. She called him back, but it just went into voicemail. "Robin, I just got your call! What's going on--?" Regina was cut off by a knock on the door. Meg locked it before backing away. "Robin, I think he's here. I'll call you back." She hung up and slowly backed away from the door while sliding her phone into her pocket.

"Who--?"

"Little pigs, little pigs, let me in!"

"Hades!" Meg whispered in a panicked voice. "We need to get out of here."

A knock on the window caused everyone to jump, but when Neal saw it was Lily, he rushed over to let her in.

"Wait!" Regina intercepted Neal. "That call was from Robin, twenty hours ago. He told me Lily was working with Hades because he threatened her or Mal or something. I don't know what's going on here, but it can't be good."

"I'm going to help you!" Lily called from the other side of the window. "But only if you help me."

Regina opened the window. "With what?"

"Hades has August's heart and I need your help getting it back. That's the only reason I'm even pretending to work with him."

"You lead him straight to us!" Meg hissed.

"I thought they would have warned you!"

"Robin tried, but the call didn't come through until just now," Regina explained.

"Why not?" Lily jumped through the window so she could stop crouching.

Meg tensed. "Something...something's happening in Storybrooke," her voice trembled. "Something bad."

"What?" Regina asked.

"I don't know, but I can...I can feel it. It's like my magic so desperately wants to be able to be used that it attached itself to Storybrooke in attempt to tether me there. But something's wrong."

"We have to get back," Regina decided.

"No, you and Evelyn need to run," Neal corrected. "I'll take Meg back and you two escape while Lily distracts Hades."

"No! Robin could be in danger, I need to get back to him."

"But what if there's nothing to get back to?" Meg asked quietly, desperately trying to hide how worried she was.

"We have to go, right now. There's no time for arguing," Regina said.

"Fine," Neal gave in, "we all leave through the window. Lily, you need to go back to Hades so August doesn't get hurt."

Lily nodded. "Alright." She climbed back out the window and Neal followed her. They helped the others through before Regina shut the window behind her. Lily dashed down the stairs to go back to Hades. It was a struggle to get Evelyn down, but eventually all four of them made it safely back to Regina's car.

Once the doors were all shut, Neal started up the car and it sped down the road, heading back to Storybrooke.

Regina tried to call Robin again, but she only got his voicemail again. Regina sighed, but left a message anyways. "We're headed back to Storybrooke now. Lily helped us escape after we agreed to help her retrieve August's heart. If you get this, please call me back. I need to talk to you." Regina almost hung up, but before she did, she added one last thing to her message, "I love you." Regina ended the massage and turned her phone off. If they didn't get back to Storybrooke fast enough, well, it wouldn't end well for anyone.

❃
|Storybrooke, Eight Hours Later|
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Neal slammed on the brakes and Regina's car skidded to a stop outside of Granny's. The road beyond that was blocked by several people Regina had not expected to see as well as Hades and Lily.

"What are they doing here?" Neal whispered.

"Hades is probably using them to find us," Regina responded.

"Look at that! You four are just in time!" Hades exclaimed. With a wave of his hand, Regina, Neal, and Meg were standing across from the group of villains. Evelyn appeared in Neal's arms.

"Just take me back to the Underworld with you and call your army off," Regina said.

"But, see, you tried to escape from me. So now, instead of just one of you, my price is all of you." Hades stepped back towards his army, "And you four were stupid enough to drive straight into my trap."

Regina glanced over at Neal and Meg before looking back to the army. Hades had resurrected several villains, and, of course, he had Lily. Pan, Cruella, the Blind Witch, Cora, Prince James, and Nimue all stood behind Hades and Lily, waiting for Hades' command to move.

An arrow whizzed past Hades and Regina caught it, a smirk growing on her face. "Don't think you'll be taking us with you so easily."

Hades turned around to see Robin, Mary Margaret, David, Hook, and Emma all with weapons at the ready. Regina pointed the arrow at Robin. "Thanks for the message."

"Of course, Milady."

❃

Author's Note: I won't be updating my current fanfics very much for the next week because I have a Bible quiz meet this Saturday and I need to study for it. I should have plenty of time to write after the quiz meet, though, because it's about six hours away and I won't need to study on the drive back. But don't worry, I'm not abandoning my fan fictions.