Scara Rose, The Warrior

Chapter 23

Snow's pov

Scara is sobbing so hard at this point that her entire body is racking. I gently pull her into my arms. Instead of pulling away like she did earlier, she moves even closer.

"Just let it out," I whisper into her ear.

She cries her heart out as I hold her as tight as I can. Charming moves in to gently rub circles in her back.

I look up from my daughter to see everyone including me has tears pouring out of their eyes and are holding onto each other tight.

I gaze back down at my daughter to see she had stopped sobbing. She looks up at me with tears still streaming down her broken face and then back down again.

I wish I had never pushed her so hard to tell me. I'm glad to know the truth, but I just wish I could take all my baby's pain away.

This should never have happened to her. She shouldn't have been hurt. She shouldn't have died.

After what feels like hours, Scara gets her emotions under control and looks at all of us while rubbing her chest and stomach.

"I'm sorry; I just can't control myself when I think about it."

"You shouldn't be sorry," Emma says, "you don't have to hold it all in."

Scara offers a small smile as she stops her rubbing.

"Now there are no secrets," Scara states, wiping the remainder of her tears, "so let's get back to work on getting y'all out of here."

"Hades must have moved the book," Emma speaks up.

"But to where?" Regina asks, "We've been all over the Underworld, we would've seen it already."

Everyone begins to discuss places to check again.

Scara's pov

I begin to think about Regina's statement.

She's right.

Between all of us, we've been all over the Underworld and haven't seen it. Which means it's either hidden in plain sight or...

"Hold on a minute," I say to get everyone's attention, "We're thinking about this wrong. Hades hid this in a place that he's absolutely certain we won't find. He's a narcissist with control issues. He loves to play mind games, to hide things in the last place we would ever think to look."

Regina's face shows that she's caught on to what I'm saying.

"It's here," she says in shock.

Everyone has smiles on their faces as they split up to search the apartment. About 5 minutes into our search, I hear Henry call out.

"I found it!"

We all regroup in the living room as Henry comes out of the downstairs bedroom.

"Can you guess where it was?" He asks Snow.

"In the back of my closet," Snow face palms.

Henry nods as he opens the book.

"It's just like mine; except it has Hades' story added to it."

Henry skips to the end and shows us the pages.

"The Olympian Crystal," I read, "has the power to obliterate anything, even a god."

"...and it's in Hades lair," Henry adds.

Suddenly the door opens and a lady with long red hair and green dress walk in with Robin's baby.

"Sorry we took so long" she apologizes, giving Robin the baby.

When she notices me, she frowns in confusion.

"Who is she?"

"This," Snow says, putting her hand on my shoulder, "is my youngest daughter."

"Oh my," the ginger exclaims, "well, introductions are needed. I'm Zelena, Regina's sister."

"Scara Rose," I state.

"Aren't you supposed to introduce yourself as an agent?" Henry asks with bursting curiosity.

"I don't have to," I smile to him, "I usually only do that on business occasions."

"Hey sis," Regina says, "think you could distract Hades long enough for Emma and Scara to sneak into his lair."

"Why would you ever want to go there?"

"The only object we can use to defeat him is in there," Regina answers.

"Then sure, after he endangered my daughter, I realized I don't love him, and never did. I'd be happy to help if it gets us out of here."

"Great, how long can you stall him?"

Zelena makes a black raven appear and whispers it a message.

"He's going to meet me now in the park. You guys have 10 minutes once I grab his attention. Good luck," she says, as she disappears in a greenish cloud of magic.

We wait a minute before we stand up to go. Emma urges me to try to use my magic to transport us to Hades' lair.

"Just think about where you want to go."

I remember the motions Zelena just used and imitate her. A cloud of light purplish blue surrounds us and I can feel my feet leave the ground. When it clears, I lose my footing, stumble, and fall. Emma, however, lands on her feet perfectly.

"That'll happen the first couple of times," Emma laughs, as she helps me up.

When I realize that we're in Hades' lair, a chill runs up my spine. This is one of the places that Hades likes to torture me in.

"Are you, okay?" Emma asks me in concern.

"Yeah I'm good," I say, shaking it off, "now let's find a crystal."

Emma's pov

"Where do we even start looking? We only have like 8 minutes," I say, looking around.

"Like I said earlier, Hades is a control freak with the only weapon that can destroy him in his possession. He wouldn't keep that on him. It's the first place anyone would look, it's too risky. He would, however, want it within reach, just in case."

I go over to Hades' throne and start inspecting it. I find a latch and pull it to see the seat lift up to reveal a hidden compartment. I reach inside to reveal an object covered in cloth. I gently remove the cloth and we see the one-of-a-kind crystal.

"I seriously need to learn this profiling thing."

"It's really not as hard as it seems. It's just a matter of observation."

I nod as I use my magic to take us back to the loft.

"Well that was quick," Regina states surprised.

"We found it," Scara says.

Suddenly an all too familiar cloud of dark magic appears.