"Magic is part of you, Swan. Don't forget - I was there when Cora tried to steal your heart. I saw the power inside of you. It's about time you embraced it."

This bloody frustrating woman. Who was she, to think she could just take the compass and run with it, taking away his best shot at getting revenge?

Who was she, to help him get to the compass, to give him a glimmer of hope, and then rip it away so suddenly. She'd left him up on that godforsaken beanstalk. Just...left him there, without the knowledge that the giant would in fact, not kill him. He was stuck there for hours. And there was only one thing on his mind that whole time: that bloody frustrating, bloody brilliant woman. How her green eyes sparkled when she showed him the compass...the thing that would take her home. The thing that would help him get what he'd been searching for for so long...But then she just fucking left him there. It wasn't fair. He'd only wanted her to trust him. But he could see long before they even climbed the stalk, that getting her to do that was going to take some effort.

And now here she was, swinging a sword at him, fighting him over this damn compass. She was okay with a sword, but he could tell she'd had no training. But what she lacked in sword yielding skills, she made up for in passion-not a second after he'd knocked her sword out of her hands had she lunged at him, eyes full of desperation...and something he hadn't quite seen in her eyes before...she was utterly raw. And he couldn't get enough of it. Bloody brave, beautiful woman.

He'd knocked her to the ground finally, and honestly it hadn't been so hard...he was almost enjoying this. That was until he saw the bag with the heart of Princess Aurora inside of it flying through the air-almost falling into the portal-almost...

The handle of the bag fell right onto his hook, and he tossed it back to Mulan.

"I may be a pirate, but I bristle at the thought of a woman losing her heart, unless it's over me."

And again, there she was. Sword at the ready, coming at him.

"I had no idea you had such a soft side."

Ugh. "I don't. I just like a fair fight!"

He was such a liar, he knew it. He was Captain Hook for gods sake, it had to be this way. Anyway, he knew that fighting her wasn't fair at all because yet again she was terrible at sword fighting. The passion was still there, though. She fought him back as best as she could.

"Good form," he grunted, getting closer to her. "But not good enough."

His hook wrapped around her ankle, and with one swift move, she was lying on her back below him. He tried to fight it, but the opportunity was too perfect. He snarked,

"Normally, I prefer to do other more enjoyable activities with a woman on her back. With my life on the line, you've left me no choice. Bit of advice? When I jab you with my sword, you'll feel it."

Her eyebrows arched up at that last comment, surely she'd caught the real reference he was making. Either way it didn't matter. He just needed to grab the compass while she was down and get the hell out of there.

"You might wanna quit," he advised, feeling her trying to move beneath him.

"Why would I do that," she asked, "when I'm winning?"

Goddammit. This bloody frustrating woman.

In his moment of shock at seeing the compass in her hand once again, she was able to free her leg and kick him off of her.

No, this was not how this was supposed to go. How was he losing? She did have a good reason for all of this. But so did he.

Somehow, he knew that she was not going to give up. Better just let this one go, Jones. You'll find another way.

In one last feeble attempt to stop her, he ran her sword at the ground. To which she replied, "Thanks," and swiftly punched him right in the face.

The world around him quickly began to blur, the sparks behind his eyes fading to black almost immediately. His body hit the ground with a thud.

Moments later, he awoke, eyes fluttering open, head pulsing with pain. He didn't stir too much, but tried to look around as his eyes came back into focus.

He hadn't been out long, apparently. Because there she was, lunging at Cora with all her might. Bloody frustrating woman. Didn't she have any idea who Cora was? How powerful her magic was? This was going to be interesting to watch.

But something odd happened next. As Cora's hand crashed into Emma's chest, her eyes flew open at the pain and strange sensation. That wasn't even the odd part, though. The odd part was that the second Cora's fingers wrapped around Emma's heart and began tugging, he could feel pain within his chest, too.

What the bloody hell?

Why did this woman effect him so much?

His eyes fluttered back up to Emma, as Cora taunted her.

"Don't you know? Love is weakness."

Cora began tugging and pulling, and god it hurt so fucking bad, what in the hell?

Emma's eyes turned upwards, and in a voice that was more to convince herself than anyone else, she said,

"No. It's strength!"

And not a second later, a wave of magic burst out of her chest, throwing Cora backwards and knocking her out. He inhaled a deep breath, realizing that he'd been holding it in watching her fight.

This woman, this bloody frustrating woman, who had bested him, left him on the beanstalk, talked to him about love, made him smile, knocked him out, and taken his only available means of travel to find the Dark One...she had more powerful magic than Cora?

It was magic unlike any he'd ever seen before. It wasn't tainted with darkness or flashy...it was raw. It was pure and true.

She was bloody amazing, the Swan girl. Emma.

The last thing he saw was her golden hair as she vanished into the swirling portal alongside her mother.

She was headed home, to Storybrooke. And lucky for him, that's where his journey was going to lead, too. Maybe there was a chance they would cross paths again.