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CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
LAST RITES
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"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN ARTHUR ESCAPED?" Teresa said as she stared at the red haired Scottish archer standing before her and Snow, within the apartment. "I thought you were guarding his cell."

"It's not my fault." Merida gestured her hand over to Sleepy, who sat on a stool within Snow and David's apartment with an icebag placed on his head. "This useless lump fell asleep on watch."

Teresa let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose, before staring at the red haired woman. "So, let me get this straight...you put someone named Sleepy on guard duty?"

"You left for weeks," Merida retorted. "It was the best I could do with who I had."

Snow sighed. "Alright, well, we can blame each other later. Right now we need a search party. Gather the dwarfs."

"Let's go, Sleepy," Merida grumbled, heading for the door.

"I told you it was Walter," the dwarf said as he followed her out of the apartment.

"I know. I agree."

Teresa released another sigh as she turned to Snow. "I'll start checking the woods."

Snow gave a nod. "Be careful."

Teresa smirke as she gathered her bow and arrows, having missed them when in the Underworld. "It's Arthur, Snow. I'd like to see him try and hurt me." She threw Snow a smile before turning and stepping out of the apartment.

In the hallway, she ran into non other than Henry Mills himself, and with him was Emma and David.

A wide grin spread out on her face and she lunged forward, throwing her arms around the brunette boys neck, relief washing over her.

Henry stumbled back from the sudden impact, but let out a breathy chuckle whilst hugging her back. "I missed you too."

Emma and David smiled at the reunited teenagers before they rushed passed them and into the apartment, where Merida had told them moments ago where Snow and Teresa were.

As they parted, they could hear the joyful reunion of David, Snow and Emma.

"If I'm being honest, I didn't expect you guys to make it back so soon," Teresa said.

Henry smiled. "I'm just glad to be out of there."

"So, where's Hook? I would have thought he would he with Emma, but I didn't see him."

Henry frowned, which caused all the happiness Teresa had been feeling the moment she seen Henry again, to go away. "We couldn't bring him back."

Teresa's face fell. "Oh. Well, what the others? Regina, Robin, the baby..."

"Mom and Robin Hood searching for the baby, she needed some time. It was hard for my mom to say goodbye to Alice again."

Teresa furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you, searching for the baby?"

"Zelena and Hades have her."

Teresa's eyes widened at the mention of the ruler of the Underworld being in Storybrooke. "What? H-How'd Hades get Zelena and the baby?"

"That's sort of a long story.."

Teresa sighed. "And unfortunately it'll have to wait until later, we have a problem."

Henry's eyebrows knitted together in both confusion and concern as he stared at Teresa. "What's the problem?"

"Merida put Sleepy on guard duty, which resulted in the escape of Arthur."

➳

Teresa heaved a heavy sigh as she stared down at the body laying on the pavement of the bridge. Silently, she reached into her pocket and dialed David's number, seeing as he and Emma were checking elsewhere and woods and they would arrive the quickest.

After a moment, David answered. "Teresa, hey, did you find anything yet?"

"Yep. Troll bridge, and you might want to hurry." With that being said, Teresa slammed her phone shut and stuffed her phone back into her pocket.

She leaned down next to Arthue's limp body and placed two fingers to his neck. She stayed completely still as she felt for a pulse, and when she felt no thumb against her fingertips, she knew the King of Camelot was dead.

She rose into a stand and crossed her arms over her chest as she waited for Emma and David to arrive.

Nearing fifteen minutes, Emma and David soon arrived, and when they did, they stopped short.

"Is he..."

Teresa nodded. "Yep. It's a real shame, too. I really wished I'd get to fire an arrow into his heart for what he did to us."

"Hades did this," Emma said, walking past his body with a dangerous look in her eyes.

"How do you know that?" Teresa asked.

"I know. If we don't stop him, this is just the beginning."

"What do you mean by stop him?" David asked.

"I mean kill him and send him back where he came from."

David's eyes widened and he lunged forward, taking his daughters wrist in attempt to stop her murderous task. "Emma, wait. Wait! Slow down. This is a god we're dealing with, and we still have no idea how to hurt him."

"Doesn't mean I can't try."

David sighed. "Look, I get it. Hook's gone. You're in pain."

"This isn't about Hook."

"Emma, please don't lie right now," Teresa said.

"Emma, we are just trying to protect Storybrooke."

"Are you telling me I shouldn't fight Hades?" Emma asked, glancing from her father, to Teresa, and back to her father.

"No, of course we're gonna fight him, but I need you seeing clearly before we do that. So maybe it's time you start dealing with death the way other people do."

"How do other people deal with death?"

"They grieve."

➳

After informing the rest of the group about finding Arthur's dead body on the Troll Bridge, Teresa, Emma and David met Regina, Robin and Henry at the Town Hall building. Her mayors office is where Regina knew Zelena must be hiding out with Baby Hood and Hades.

Regina let out a sigh as she stared at the large yellow building in irritation. "My sister cast a protection spell on the building, of course..."

"We can't just stand here and do nothing, Hades could be in there!" Teresa said.

"I wasn't planning on doing nothing," Regina told the archer. "As a matter of fact, I know exactly what to do."

"What?" Henry asked.

"There's a secret tunnel that goes right under the town hall. We don't know how to defeat Hades, but maybe we can get your daughter back and talk some sense into Zelena, if you're with me."

"Of course I am," Robin said without hesitation.

'Then I'm going, too," Emma voiced, which earned an immediate disapproving shake of the head from Regina.

"No offense, Emma, but you're too emotional. I-I understand. You had a loss. But you're not thinking straight."

"Is that you th...is that what you all think?" Emma exclaimed.

"Emma," David sighed. "We still don't know how to stop Hades. Until we do..."

"So then we figure it out," Emma said.

"So, well, then do it quickly. Because once we get that baby back, Hades will be coming for us."

➳

As Regina and Robin were traveling through the underground tunnels to get inside the town hall building, this left Teresa and Henry to join David, Snow and Merida in researching at the library for a way to kill a god once and for all.

Teresa sat with Baby Neal in her lap next to Snow, Henry and David off near one the shelves, and Merida at another table.

It was silent, until the door suddenly opened and a frantic looking Emma Swan ran inside. They all looked up from the books they were reading.

"Oh. Emma, where have you been?"

"It doesn't matter," Emma said. "It was a dead-end. You guys find anything?"

"Are you kidding?" Teresa groaned. "We're literally drowning in books."

"There's got to be something in here about Hades, but we just started, so..."

"Oh, we could really use your help," Snow said.

Emma sighed. "I'm sorry. I don't have time to go through a bunch of books. I should've gone after Hades when I had the chance."

Emma began moving toward the door, and before she could leave, David called out to her. "Emma, wait. We know you're hurting. But getting revenge on Hades is not gonna bring Hook back."

"This is not about revenge."

"Then what is it about, Emma?"

"I cannot grieve Hook's death because I know he's still trapped in the Underworld. Alice made a promise that they would move on, but I just know that they're...that he is still in pain, and the last thing I told him was that he needed to move on."

"You're right," Snow said, nodding towards her daughter. "We have to help Hook. So why don't you sit down and help us find a way to defeat Hades...for Hook?"

Emma blinked away her tears before nodding. She walked past her father, and they could hear a chair scrape against the floor as the crying blonde sat down to help search for answers.