Finish it.
He sat with his back against the trunk of an oak, looking upwards toward the sky, through branches laced together. Rays of gold fluttered through them, across his eyes. He looked up, waiting to feel something, anything, to ease the pain from the loss of her.
Her.
God, how he ached to see her again. She had gone out of his life as quickly as she had entered it, rolling in like a thundering storm, leaving devastation in her wake. Nothing but dark clouds above and a hopeless emptiness inside.
His fingers twirled the bottle between them, rum swirling inside, matching the ebb and flow of his thoughts. He took one final gulp, the amber drink burning down his throat. As hard as he had tried, he was never able to get her out of his mind. No amount of alcohol could stop that.
His gaze panned over the landscape, across mountains, forest, the golden sky. It reminded him of her, the gold of her hair, the green of her eyes, the strength of her heart.
There was no life without her. This, what he had now, was not living. It was just...existing. It was empty and desperate, like the bottle between his fingers.
Finish it.
The door swung open before him, and though his eyes beheld her, his heart could scarcely believe it was really her. A year of searching had brought him here, to this place in the strange land called New York.
"Swan?"
One look into her eyes, and he knew. You're not dreaming anymore, pirate. She's here. She's real.
Finish it.
"You're glad to hear I got my heart broken?"
He thought of the year he spent without her, entirely devastated from their separation. If there was ever a time in his life in which he truly felt broken, that was it. It was if the light had been snuffed out of his life completely.
"If it can be broken, it means it still works."
Surely, she must know. She must know.
She had cracked his heart wide open when they met. He had never expected to meet anyone after Milah was taken from him. He had never expected any of this.
And yet, here he was. She had cracked his heart wide open. She had been the light which poured through the crevices into all of the darkness within. The light had reached into the furthest corner, which had been hidden and kept secret for so long, bottled up and slowly decaying.
Where bitterness and hatred once festered, there now grew something foreign, a sign of life sprouting up beneath the darkness of the soil of his past. Something that he hadn't felt in so long, possibly ever. Surely he'd never felt this strongly about anyone or anything before.
He had resolved to die, once his revenge was complete. But then he met her.
"You can be a part of something...or do what you do best and be alone."
Bloody frustrating woman. He had been able to read her so well upon their first meeting. He could see that she was a lonely soul just like himself. But she could read him, too. They always understood each other.
So how was it possible that now, as he stood before her, that she did not understand him? What was different now?
Finish it.
Baelfire was gone. That boy he had looked after so long ago, who's hair always fell over his bright eyes when he smiled, who looked up to him, who trusted him, was gone.
Everyone from his past was gone. Everyone who he had considered family was ripped from him long before their time. Taken from him without a chance to say goodbye.
With each passing, his heart grew continually hardened. What hope could a man have if everything he stood for, everything he had wanted out of life, was only meant to be taken.
That's what you get for being a pirate. Its only fair.
He could see Bae within the boy. Henry. He saw a lot of Swan, too. Her tenacity, her spark behind his eyes. She was within him. He was as much a part of her as her own skin, and he was determined to love every part of her.
Finish it.
"You're out of your depth, pirate."
His sword clashed against the wooden panels of the dock, the sound of it echoing around them like the final ring of a bell. Though desperation crept onto his expression, he fought back.
"You'll never win, witch. You're no match for Emma."
Her name on his lips sent a fresh wave of desperation through him. It couldn't end like this. There was no chance for him to say goodbye.
"It's over, my dear." Zelena hissed. "I need a heart. And a heart I shall have."
He tried to step away from her instinctively, but was stopped abruptly by her hand blazing through his chest. He fell to his knees and winced from the pain.
Her nails scratched and tore within him, excruciating pain shooting throughout his chest as she ripped his heart out, past flesh and bone.
He gasped for air as the witch turned the pulsing red organ over in her palms. "Not quite as powerful as the heart of the Savior," she noted, "but it will do just fine."
"What are you going to do with it?" Killian managed to say as he caught his breath.
Zelena bent over and met his gaze.
"I'm going to crush it."
This was it. After 300 years of life, this was it. He had lived a long life, most of it he regretted, but not all of it. He could die with honor, knowing that he was protecting the one thing he cared for, no,loved, most in all of the realms. Swan.
Death is the road to awe, or so he was once told. He had never fully understood what that meant until now. His whole life-every heartbreak, every moment of happiness, it was all for her. She had been pulling him through time, to this moment, here and now. His life was meant for her, to save her. And he knew that she was worth every second of it.
Out of death can always come the chance for new life. Light can always shine through the cracks. There is always hope. She gave him that. And now he was giving her that same chance. The chance to live.
Slowly, with as much resolve as he could, he stood up before the witch and looked right at her.
"Well go on, then," he panted."Finish it."