Once on Instagram II

A Bitter Draught

bit•ter
/ˈbidər/
adjective

(of people or their feelings or behavior) angry, hurt, or resentful because of one's bad experiences or a sense of unjust treatment.

Enter; Mr Hyde and a Middle Eastern woman with her hands bound behind her back

"Aladdin will find me!" The woman shouted at Hyde. "He won't stop searching until I'm safe in his arms!"

"You soulmates and your fighting for each other." Hyde rolled his eyes. "Soulmate love isn't allowed in the Land of Untold Stories."

"Too bad you can't stop it," the woman spat.

"Oh can't I, Jasmine?" Hyde said the woman's name as if it were an insult. "Hades almost accomplished it, and I'm going to finish his work."

"Hades? I've never heard of him before." Jasmine was confused. As far as she knew, the only soulmates in existence were her and Aladdin. Brought together by a sprinkle of pixie dust and a genie who happened to be in the right place at the right time, they had the most powerful love of all; soulmate love. But Jasmine knew soulmate love was extremely uncommon and often times, soulmates were kept apart from their soulmates their whole lives by enemies of the powerful love magic, such as Hyde, Jafar, and apparently Hades.

Hyde barked out a laugh that would have gotten him a spot in a mental asylum. "You're really naïve enough to think that you and your pretend prince are the only soulmates being targeted?"

"He is a prince!" Jasmine shouted after Hyde as he began to walk away. Just as Hyde reached the door, he turned and looked Jasmine in the eye. His bloodshot eyes were hard to look into, but Jasmine forced herself to not lower her gaze.

"I'm going to make sure Aladdin never finds you," he vowed. "And I'll lock Regina right up with you. Soulmates don't deserve happy endings, not after what they do in order to get them."

"That wasn't my fault!" Jasmine called after Hyde, but he ignored her. "I couldn't stop it! And whatever this Regina person did, I bet she couldn't stop it either!"

"She hasn't even encountered it yet. And I'm going to make sure she never does." Hyde shut the door and Jasmine heard the lock click. Not that she could have gotten out if the door hadn't been locked, as her feet were bound by chains that were attached to the wall. But she was sure of one thing; whoever Regina was, she needed to be warned about what was coming for her and her soulmate.

~

"Guys!" Emma shouted, "It's eight! Whatever's gonna happen with Hyde and Regina is going to happen in the next hour."

"Who's ready to burn Hyde alive?!" Regina pumped her fist in the air. "Let's do this!"

"You're going to jinx everything, sis," Zelena warned. "By the way, did Roland give you a feather from one of Robin's arrows?"

Regina turned to look at her sister, a confused expression on her face. "Yeah, why?"

"Because he gave it to me to give to you in the finale dream, but I think I lost it in that premier dream we can't remember much of." Zelena shrugged. "Just wanted to make sure he had gotten it to you."

"You lost it?" Regina raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know, maybe. I wouldn't actually lose it, I promise. It was probably just some pointless thing Adam and Eddy pulled to make my redemption arc tougher for me or something."