Recently beta-ed by faithoshauntasy
When Milah had first heard the rumors that Rumplestiltskin was the new Dark One, she laughed. Literally laughed. There was no way that the weak, cowardly spinner that she was married to could ever possibly become the darkest magical entity in all the realms. When she heard multiple stories of where the new Dark One came from, while some said the Frontlands, others said places as far away as the Marshlands, she figured there must be some other Rumplestiltskin somewhere that became the Dark One or that they just got the name wrong.
That is, until Killian and some of their own crew came back to the ship from a night at the bar with a tale that spun her world on its axis. Rumplestiltskin, her trembling, crippled ex-husband, was not only in fact the Dark One like they had been told, but he wanted the duel with the captain that he'd previously been challenged to.
Running away was not an option, and they all knew it. The Dark One said he would find them and gut the entire crew, and neither Killian nor Milah were willing to risk those under their command like that. However, both knew that if Killian dueled with the Dark One, he would most certainly be killed.
Milah tried to insist on going with him to the fight because she didn't want the man she loved to face his death alone. However, that idea was firmly shot down. Killian reminded her that he had told the Dark One she was dead in order to protect her from his wrath. He refused to risk her life more than he had to.
Neither able to sleep that night, they made love for what they both knew would be their last time together. With one last passionate kiss, Killian rose from the bed and quickly dressed and armed himself before disappearing into the night.
Admittedly, Milah did try to not follow her lover, but after pacing around the captain's quarters for a bit, a commotion on deck caught her attention. She went upstairs to see what the fuss was about. Some of the crew she had sent out to gain some sort of leverage over Rumplestiltskin had actually managed to come back with something on hand, or rather someone. After her crew told her what Rumplestiltskin wanted with the man, she ordered them to lock up the prisoner below deck and took off to where she knew her love and ex-husband were facing off to the death.
She knew she was getting closer as the clashing of swords grew louder. Just as she reached the alley they were in, she ducked behind a barrel. She glanced around it and saw that while Killian was losing badly, he still seemed to be doing well enough to have a possible chance, and he would not want her there. Ducking back, she crouched facing the opposite direction with her lips pressed together, trying not to make a sound.
The clanging sound of a sword falling and being stepped on reached her ears before she heard the words that made her heart jump to her throat.
"Go on. I'm ready for the sword."
Milah had to cover her mouth with a hand to prevent a sob from coming out at Killian's voice.
"No," an unfamiliar voice growled in an accent she knew well. "Do you know what it's like to have your wife stolen from you? To feel powerless to stop it?"
Milah's eyes grew wider and her breathing got shallower as the growl continued at a higher, mocking pitch, "It feels like having your heart ripped from your chest. Actually, let me show you."
Milah felt like she was a passenger in someone else's body as she jumped from her place behind the barrel and ran out into the open.
"STOP!" she exclaimed. Wide eyes took in her ex-husband's startling appearance as he stood leaning over in front of her kneeling lover with a glowing purple hand in his chest.
The dark creature inhabiting Rumplestiltskin's body turned to her with a look of shock spreading across his distorted face.
"Milah?!" he gasped, reptilian eyes widening at the sight of her.
They both stood frozen for seconds, neither quite capable of speaking for a moment due to the severe shock of seeing their ex-spouse after so long.
Milah could hardly believe this was the gentle, meek man she had once loved before his cowardice caused him to break his own leg in order to avoid the war. His clothes were made of what looked like fine dragon skin that he never would have been able to afford before on a poor spinner's wage. His hair, once so sleek and soft, was now crinkled in shiny curls. Cruelty seeped through every inch of his now golden, textured skin. However, the change that startled her the most were his eyes. Gone were the gentle brown eyes that once looked upon her with the utmost love back when things were still simple. In their place were astonishingly reptilian looking eyes that unsettled her far more than she cared to admit.
"Milah," Rumplestiltskin growled, pulling his hand out of Killian's chest causing the younger man to fall to the ground. "How?"
"Milah, you have to run!" Killian exclaimed from his place curled up on the ground.
"No. I'm not leaving without you," Milah responded quickly, unable to take her eyes off her love.
"Oh, how sweet," Rumplestiltskin interrupted. "It appears there's more to this tale than I know. Tell it to me, Milah."
Looking up at Rumple, Milah pleaded, "Please don't hurt him. I can explain."
"Tick-tock, dearie," Rumple said harshly. "Tick-tock."
Thinking back to a decade before, she began to explain, "That first night, when Killian and his crew came into the tavern, he told stories about the places he'd been, and I fell in love with him."
Milah's heart fell to her stomach as Rumplestiltskin stuck his sword into Killian's side.
"I didn't mean for it to turn out this way," Milah beseeched him, eyes never leaving the sword's tip. "I didn't know how to tell you the truth. I'm sorry."
"And so here we are," Milah winced as Rumplestiltskin responded with a wave of his other hand, noticing his voice shake almost imperceptively, "You've come to save the life of your twu love, the pirate. I didn't realize the power of true love before. It is impressive. I'd hate to break it up. Actually, no. I'd love to."
With that, he dug the sword deeper into Killian's side, pulling a gasp, a pain from the younger man that shook Milah to the core.
Pulling her thoughts together, she interrupted her ex from his vengeance, "Wait!" She said firmly, keeping her eyes on her enraged ex-husband, "I have something you want."
"Well, I find that very difficult to believe," he replied, pulling his sword out Killian's side.
Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her prisoner's signature red hat, showing it to Rumplestiltskin.
"Where did you get that?" he said bemusedly.
"You know who I took it from," she said with a smirk. "I may not know what The Dark One wants with a magic bean, but I have it.
Rumplestiltskin's eyes narrowed as he said, "Oh, I feel a proposal coming on."
"The magic bean in exchange for our lives," Milah said, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. "Deal?"
Rumplestiltskin slowly stalked closer to her, reptilian eyes never leaving hers. Milah breathed in deeply, praying for her courage to not leave her. Never did she think she would be as terrified of this man as she was in this moment.
Once he was a breaths distance away from her, he growled, "I wanna see it first."
Dawn broke into day as the odd bunch made their way to the docks.
Rumplestiltskin trailed behind, watching as Milah supported the pirate as they made their way to the Jolly Roger. In all of his imaginings after that fateful day on the Jolly Roger damn near ten years ago, never did he think this was the situation he'd find her in. The best case scenario Rumple could think of was that she had died quickly. However, from what the charming captain had told him back then, rarely did he picture that being the case. There were many a night that he tried to hide from his boy as best he could where he awoke to nightmares of Milah being the ship plaything. In them, he was unable to do anything but just stand there and watch her sob as man after rough, smelly man took their turn with her thanks to a combination of his cowardice and his bum ankle.
Back when he told Baelfire she was dead, never did he think she would make a liar out of him. By this point in his life, he'll admit to being many things; however, a liar was not one of them. He valued honesty. How else could anyone trust him to keep his end of a bargain if he was also known as a liar? He refused to break a deal again. Not after—
Rumplestiltskin forced his mind away from that line of thought as he watched Milah turn to walk up the gangplank leading to the infamous pirate ship, and he followed closely behind.
"Move it out!" one crew member yelled from above.
"Milah, what happened?" another member said, coming over to help her bring the captain aboard.
Milah shouted firmly, "Fetch some water."
"Get the Captain water!" yet another crew member yelled from nearby.
"And get me that prisoner from below deck along with the booty he carried. Now!" Milah continued.
The third crew member yelled shouted at some men standing idly near the door, "Bring up the prisoner!"
One man rushed over to the Captain and handed him a leather canteen.
"Well, well, seems like you finally found the family you could never have with me," Rumplestiltskin stated, watching the proceedings with mild interest as he stepped onto the ship, walking in front of Milah and sharing a glare.
"All right, get your sorry arse up there," Rumple heard as he turned to see the men he had seen previously working together to haul up the struggling trader he had previously bartered with from below. One passed Milah a small satchel.
Reaching inside, she grabbed the bean before lifting it up to show Rumplestiltskin.
"You asked to see it, and now you have," Jones piped up from behind him once she took it away from sight again, hand clutching his wound on his side.
"Do we have a deal?" Milah asked, fist clutching the bean firmly. "Can we go our separate ways?"
Rumplestiltskin breathed deeply as he circled her, nearing the pirate captain.
"Do you mean, do I forgive you? Can I move on?" Rumple asked. "Perhaps. Perhaps. I can see you are truly in love."
"Thank you," she replied. She walked back around him to stand next to Jones.
Eyes narrowing as he watched her, Rumplestiltskin said quickly, "Just one question."
"What do you want to know?" Milah asked, eyeing him nervously.
Walking closer to her, Rumplestiltskin responded, "How could you leave Bae? Do you know what it was like walking home that night..."
He could see the panic growing in her eyes as she interrupted, "Rumple..."
"...knowing I had to tell our son..."
"Please," she implored.
"...that his mother was dead?" Rumplestiltskin finished dangerously. His eyes never left hers, daring her to try to deny any of his words.
"I was wrong to lie to you," Milah gulped. "I was the coward. I know that."
Coward. Hearing her say that word, even calling herself one, brought up every time she, and anyone else, ever spit that word to his face. You are what everyone thought you were... a coward. Every time she caused him to feel like shit just because he did not wish for his boy to grow up without him. Not that he prevented that in its entirety. The last time he had someone call him that was his precious boy himself as Rumple let him go through that damned portal alone. You coward. He was a coward. However, Milah was right. He was not alone in this. She was a coward, too. She took the coward's way out of their life just to go gallivanting around the world.
"You left him!" Rumplestiltskin shouted angrily. "You abandoned him!"
"And there's not a day that goes by that I don't feel sorry for that," Milah pleaded, tears in her eyes.
With thoughts of how his poor son was abandoned voluntarily by both parents crowding his head, Rumplestiltskin's shouting grew harsher, "Sorry isn't enough!" Allowing his voice to lower to a dangerous calm, he continued, "You let him go."
"I let my misery cloud my judgment," Milah responded quickly.
Rumplestiltskin looked at her disgustedly as he retorted, "Why were you so miserable?"
"Because I never loved you," Milah blurted out. Her eyes widened immediately in panic as she registered what she just said.
In a blind rage, Rumplestiltskin shoved his hand to the side, right into Jones' chest and pulled out the glowing beating heart of the man. She had ripped out his heart, he'll rip her "heart" from her. This way, he'll make her suffer the way she made him suffer.
"Killian!" she gasped, and Rumple flung her backwards with a flick of his left wrist. "No!" she cried as she hurriedly stood back up and rushed over to Jones as he fell to the deck.
"I love you," Jones gasped.
"I love you, too," Milah replied with a sob.
Glaring at the sight in front of him Rumplestiltskin crushed the heart in his hand and pulverized it into dust. With one last shuddering breath, Killian Jones died in Milah's arms.
Choking back tears, Milah mumbled, "No. You may be more powerful now, Rumple, but you're no less a coward."
Not liking that word any more now than he did before, Rumplestiltskin forced himself to ignore his anger and focus on the topic at hand. "I'll have what I came for now."
"You'll have to kill me first!" Milah said bravely as she stood up to face him, blocking his view of the now dead captain.
Smiling ironically at her, Rumplestiltskin replied, "Ah-ah! I'm afraid that's not in the cards for you, dearie."
In one deft motion, Rumplestiltskin unsheathed his sword and cut off Milah's left hand which had stayed clutched in a fist ever since she'd shown him the bean. Milah immediately fell to the ground in pain.
"I want you alive because I want you to suffer like I did," he sneered as he watched her writhe in pain at his feet. Sheathing his sword, he turned to walk away.
Milah looked at her dead love lying next her, and she was filled with an intense rage. Using that rage to fuel her, she fought through the pain and rose from the deck. Reaching over, she grabbed a hook that had fallen to the deck earlier, and quickly ran over to plunge it right in Rumple's heart.
Rumplestiltskin giggled, "Killing me is gonna take a lot more than that, dearie."
Milah said furiously, "But you still can be killed. I will find a way."
"Well, good luck living long enough," Rumple said with a wicked smile before disappearing in a puff of smoke causing the hook in his chest to fall to the deck.
Milah glared at the spot where he disappeared before releasing a body shuddering sigh and falling to the ground with a sob. Holding back her tears until she was alone, she put pressure on her bloodied stump trying to stem some of the blood. Looking at the hook now lying on the deck in front of her without even the smallest drop of blood caused her fury to inflame.
With Killian Jones' death, Milah, as his second in command, promptly took over as captain. After almost a decade of being in command alongside Killian, no one dared challenge her. Even those that had second thoughts about her taking over as captain put that aside once she promised revenge on the demon that killed their fallen captain.
After setting sail from Longborne, the newly instated Captain Milah watched on as the crew gave their captain a burial worthy of a sea captain. They wrapped his body in linens and with a salute dropped his body into the ocean to spend the rest of eternity with the sea. After showing their fallen leader the respect he deserved, they place their hats back on their heads and proceeded to prepare the Jolly Roger for her journey.
"Hey! Hey!" said the muffled voice of the trader she had taken the bean from.
Walking over to the man, Milah said, "Allow him to speak."
Once his gag was removed, he said, "I want my bean."
Raising an eyebrow at his audacity, Milah replied, "Let me tell you how it works on my ship. I make the demands. You follow them. The bean's mine now."
"You have to give me something for it," he demanded.
Milah smiled grimly. "Oh, I will," she responded. "Your life. The chance to join my crew."
Her smile turned a bit more natural. Despite his audacity, she liked him. He could turn out useful.
The portly man sputtered before responding, "So instead of the promise of eternal life, I get to scrub blood off your decks. How is that right?"
Leaning closer to the man, she said, "What if I was to tell you I was about to set sail to a land where none of us will ever grow old? A land where I can discover how to get my revenge on Rumplestiltskin?"
The man smiled broadly, "I'd say I could live with that."
"Good," Milah nodded. "What's your name, sailor?"
"William. William Smee." Smee looked over at one of the shipmates she had given the red hat to and said, "Can I have my hat?"
Milah gestured for Smee's hat to be returned. The shipmate threw it at him, and he promptly put it on.
"Well, Mr. Smee," Milah said as she lifted up the bean and threw it into the ocean. The water where it landed glowed green before a whirlpool opened up large enough for a ship to fit through.
Smee followed as Milah climbed the stairs before taking her place behind the wheel. "Harden up and get ready to set sail, mates!" she yelled. "There's bumpy seas ahead."
"What's the name of the place we're headed, Captain?" Smee asked.
Milah picked up the hook and put it in the place of her missing hand, twisting it into position.
"Neverland!" she smiled ominously. The wind began to pick up as she steered the ship towards the sea portal.
Even after hearing of just some of the horrors of Neverland, Milah was willing to risk it if it gave her the time and resources to kill Rumplestiltskin. First, he ruined her life by becoming the town coward. Then, after she had managed to escape that wretched life, he came prancing back into the life she made for herself and ruined it too by bringing up her old troubles and failures before killing the love of her life. No matter what it takes, no matter how long it takes, she'll make him pay for everything he's ever done to her.
After all, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.