Killian Jones, still known in some circles as Captain Hook, woke with a start as Jaxon, his first mate, burst into the room.
"Your Highnesses, I am sorry to disturb…"
"Bloody hell, Jax, you better have a good reason to wake us." In the light of the guardsman's torch, Hook could see his wife, Emma, was awake and just as annoyed.
"Sir, there has been a disturbance in the garden. They said there are injured royal members..."
Instantly, the couple was awake, throwing on dressing robes and grabbing weapons. As they bolted towards the garden, Killian saw the figures crowding near something on the ground, and his heart sank.
As they ran closer, one of the standing figures met them halfway. It was Neal, Emma's brother and the middle child in the Charming clan. His face was grave, and tears were threatening to fall from his eyes.
"Neal, who is it?" Emma asked warily.
Suddenly a scream erupted from the group of people and after exchanging looks with Emma, Killian turned his head and walked towards the group of people.
"Charming… please!"
What he saw in the flicker of the torches stopped him dead in his tracks. Five guardsmen were on bended knee in a semi-circle around an unmoving King David. The sobbing queen held his head in her lap with her youngest son, Reginald, attempting to comfort her as tears ran down his own face. Snow was begging him not to leave her, shaking his body as if to try restarting his heart.
No, Killian felt as if he could no longer breathe. The king was his closest mate and the picture of health despite his age. How could he possibly be lying dead?
Another cry of grief erupted behind him, and he knew Neal finally told Emma. He heard her running towards him and watched his wife fall to her knees next to Charming's unmoving body, gently taking his hand.
Killian saw Reginald's twin sister, Ruth, with her guardsman running towards them. Frightened she may trip, he took the young girl in an embrace and held on, carefully leading her to the rest of her family. As he handed her off to her twin brother, Killian turned to one of the kneeling soldiers, "Call for Regina and Henry…" he said quietly.
The man nodded and rushed towards the grand hall, where there was a magic mirror.
Hook searched himself for how he was going to explain this to his own daughter. The entire Charming family was close knit and the king doted on all the children. But they all knew he had a soft spot for both the girls. In his heart, Killian knew this was likely to make up for the lost time with Emma. In any case, his little girl would be devastated.
Then Killian gritted his teeth and turned to the second man, "What happened here?"
"It was him." Neal's voice, hard with grief, came from behind.
Killian turned to face him and saw the fear, the grief, and most of all the anger in the young man's face. There could only be one "him" that the prince could mean. He shook his head, "No, that is not possible." It couldn't be…
"Rumplestilskin, m'lord," one of the men piped up. "I saw him with my own two eyes. The coward used magic and stabbed 'im." The guard, a young man no older than the prince, had tears reflecting from his face as his torch flickered, and his voice was shaking. "He cut our king down with his own sword, sir, and then took the girl with him."
The breath caught in Killian's throat, "What girl?"
The guardsman shook his head, "I don' know, sir, too dark it was. But I know it was a girl because I heard her scream and I came into the garden with Neal and Powell and saw the king collapse and the girl try to help him. Rumplestiltskin just grabbed her and disappeared."
"Grabbed who?" Emma had just tuned into the conversation, and her eyes were as wide as her husband's with the same fear gripping her.
"He says…he says Gold was the culprit and that he took someone," her husband said quietly as he walked towards the spot where the soldier had pointed.
"Aaaah!" he cried out as he stepped on a hard object. It was a sword laying on the ground, which he picked up. The stress converted to rage as he spat at the guards, "Who left their bloody sword here in the dark?"
All the soldiers checked their hilts, and confirmed each held their blades. In the light of the torches, Killian looked closer at the blade. His heart stopped as he saw a swan taking flight, feathers ablaze, reflecting on the hilt. "No…"
He turned to his wife, who looked very confused at the fear on his face.
"Killian, what..?"
"Why…" Killian's voice broke, "Why would Elizabeth's sword be out here?"
The young princess' parents made eye contact and bolted. Forgetting magic, forgetting everything, the pair suddenly was running through the castle towards their quarters. Barging past a confused guardswoman, Mulan, they flew into their daughter's room. Their fears were realized the moment they saw the empty four post bed. She was gone.
"Elizabeth!" Killian cried, checking every nook and cranny where his headstrong daughter could be hiding, his wife doing the same.
"She's gone, Killian," Emma cried hysterically, and Hook went to his wife and held on for dear life as she kept repeating the same terrible words over and over, "She's gone…she's gone." They had failed to protect their little girl from the horrors that they had once faced.
All he could do is just stand holding his wife, trying to reconcile the cold truth. His only daughter was in the hands of his greatest enemy, who took every opportunity to take away all Hook held dear. The danger the girl now faced was inconceivable. And it would only get worse once the Crocodile realized exactly whose child he held in his grasp.
Suddenly, they became aware of someone entering the chamber. Instinctively, Hook drew his cutlass and pushed Emma behind him. He quickly spun to face the intruder only to come face to face with Emma's son, Henry.
"Whoa," surprise and fear graced the prince's face as he raised his hands, "Killian, it's just me." His stepfather quickly put away the sword and embraced him, "It's good to see you, son."
Henry embraced him back but kept his eyes on his mother, who now standing without support seemed so small with grief. It killed Henry to see his strong mother so frightened.
"Mom," Henry went to her and gave her a strong embrace, "I know you're upset. But it will be alright, everything will be alright."
Despite everything, Henry's words gave some comfort to Hook. Henry held the mythological heart of the truest believer and was therefore truest in his belief in all that is good. Since he had begun to learn magic, his heart had allowed him to wield even stronger light magic than his powerful mother.
"Henry," Emma said slowly, looking in her son's eyes, "He has your sister. He…he killed your grandfather."
"No Mom, he's alive," Henry assured her.
Elated surprise flooded Hook's senses and his eyes widened, "David is alive?"
Henry nodded, "Regina and I came as quickly as we could and she revived him! His heart hadn't stopped beating. They were carrying him to the chambers when they told me to find you, come on!"
He led a bewildered Emma and Killian through the halls into the quarters of the king and queen. There, Killian saw the king, still not yet awake, lying in his bed with Ruth sitting in a chair at his side, still silently weeping, now in joy. Snow was on the other side of the bed, holding her husband's hand with her two sons on either side.
"Emma," the moment Snow saw her eldest daughter she got up and rushed to embrace her. "He's going to be alright," she whispered in Emma's ear.
"Killian," Reginald piped up behind his mother, "is Elizabeth…"
"Gone," the words choked out of Hook's throat, "he took her."
All the conscious Charmings just stared at him in silence. One of their own had been taken by the worst enemy imaginable. They all knew the Dark One's history with Killian, especially of the time when he was one himself. The Dark One had taken everything from him: his loves, his hand, and eventually his life. Now it had taken even more, and it felt worse than Excalibur going through his body.
Everyone knew the moment that Rumplestiltskin realized it was Hook's daughter he now held in his grasp, somehow her impossible situation would worsen.
Suddenly, a gasp escaped from Ruth, breaking the silence and all heads turned to her and then to the king. His eyes were open, and he was smiling at his daughter.
"David?" Snow said carefully.
But Charming did not look away from his youngest daughter, "Cry no more, sweetheart," he whispered, "don't be afraid."
With no words, Ruth jumped and embraced her father, who gasped a moment but hugged her back with all the energy he could. Snow reached to her husband and held his face in her hand, "You scared us all. I thought I lost you, Charming," she said with a smile through the tears.
"But I found you again," he said back and they shared a kiss, Ruth still clinging to him.
When Ruth finally let go, Killian went to the king's side, "You had us going there a moment, mate," he said quietly.
"Did he get away?" Charming asked quietly.
Killian took a deep breath and nodded, "Aye."
"With?"
He nodded again and saw his own pain reflect in Charming's eyes. "It's my fault," the king said, "I thought the dagger was in our possession and that he was bluffing. I didn't tell her to run fast enough…I didn't…"
David was getting increasingly upset, and his wife quickly rushed to his side and consoled him, "You didn't know, Charming," she said definitively, "This is not your fault!"
"She's right, Dad," Hook hardly recognized Emma's voice as she spoke, "It's Rumplestilskin's."
"How are we going to get her back?" Reginald asked quietly.
Hook and Emma exchanged looks, and his response was quiet, "By whatever means necessary."
