PartII: All Magic May Come with a Price, but Choice comes with a Price too.

AN/ I still don't own any of this but the idea...and it will get pretty A/U from here on out, although I'm not sure how long it's going to be, I have a lot of it mapped out but room to expand if I'm feeling up to it. Thanks so very much for the reviews, private messages, favorites and follows...hope you keep enjoying :0) The next update will probably take a little longer but I had this part finished so I figured I'd post it.

There was a blinding flash then and he closed his eyes for the briefest of moments...only to open them again the ring still in his hand but the remains of Storybrooke and Emma completely gone. He stood in a small seaport village outside a tavern. A tavern that he recognised right away, a tavern from his past, the tavern that he had first met Milah...

He had foolishly assumed that the Blue Fairy would send him back a couple days, weeks or even months. Instead he finds himself back over 300 years, back to where his true journey to Emma really began with a choice he made to fall in love with another woman, a choice he made that eventually led to the light being extinguished in her eyes as well. Oh how the Gods must enjoy toying with him, but alas nothing in his life has ever run a smooth course. Why should this be any different?

"Capt'n!" A firm smack connects with his back, and he turns to face Briggs "are we goin' in Sir?" "t men be gett' n restless."

"You blokes go ahead, I've got some business to take care of first...and save me some ale."

"An a beauty or two...right Capt'"

"Aye Briggs.." "Aye." His voice lacking any real conviction.

And all of a sudden it really sinks in, that he's twenty-five again, has two hands and is the youngest Pirate Captain in all the realms. But now he's all those things with the knowledge of what's to come. He looks down at his clenched left fist, opening it slowly to reveal the small silver ring, its glow having extinguished. He's slightly confused though, as he's so close to Milah he assumed it would glow as well but then it dawns on him that he let her go and his heart was so full of Emma even now, 300 years before her birth. It's then that he suspects you can only have one true love at a time.

He's all of a sudden hit with the realization of what this really means, and the choice he has to make. If he goes into that tavern now and Milah falls in love with him, she's doomed and he will again have to watch another person he loves ripped from him. Everything will happen as it did only this time he will be leading her to her death instead of saving her from an unhappy life. If he spares her the grief of their love, of losing Bae then he risks the chance that Emma will never come to be.

He looks into the tavern window and he can see her. She looks radiant, full of life , she's laughing and drinking with his crew. She is just as he remembers her, and he feels his heart swell a little. He longs to go inside and wrap his arms around her, feel the warmth of her body, and celebrate the fact of her very existence. His crew would think him mad though, and she while she would probably be receptive to his roguish charms, at the same time he's a stranger to her, just a dream and a hope of adventure right now.

He takes a small step back from the tavern, looks up at the bright night sky and prays for guidance.

"Did you need something?" a little voice comes from behind him.

He turns around to see a miniature sized Blue Fairy, hovering just above his line of sight.

"I have an important choice to make and I'm not sure what to do." He remarks casually, unsure of what to tell her, how much she might know.

"Well all choice comes with a price, much like magic, which by the way is radiating off you...Killian." She quirks her head at him, a telling smile on her lips.

His eyes shoot up and boar into her now "You know who I am?"

"Yes, there are many things I know, of course the future is always a puzzle and choice can lead it astray but some things are meant to come to pass no matter what." She gives him a tender smile.

"If I don't go in there I can change Milah's life, I can give up the seven years we spent together. If I go in there I will watch her die. Or I can choose to let her go." His voice comes out more broken then he suspected it would, he's trying very hard to remain strong.

"You could always save her from her fate, not ever return to this port, spare her and yourself the pain, live a longer life together?" Her suggestion sounds to him like a question.

"But then I'd never know Emma and our love, As long as I have this ring I'd just have the memories of her and is it fair to be with Milah when I'm so deeply in love with the memory of another?" "And even without the ring I fear there may always be an empty spot in my heart." "And what if Emma doesn't come to be, regardless?" He stares down again at the circle of destiny that he's holding in the palm of his hand.

"Well if she's the product of true love, the truest of loves is always meant to be, you would just have to have faith that her parents would find each other.

"What if I choose to let Milah go and I give you this ring...it's said to lead one to their true love. Could you insure that it finds its way into the hands of her father's ancestors? It will mean I won't remember any of my future but it will also insure that both Emma and Milah are safe, safe from ever loving me"

"You would do that, you would give up two great loves, that's pretty selfless...are you sure?" She looks at him like she's intent to draw something out of him. " I can promise that Emma will be born but this choice will change the fates for a lot of people in many ways both good and bad, including yourself."

"I've had two great loves in my life and that's more than most men get..." his voice trailed off and suddenly he was alone again.

Another little voice comes from his feet and draws him from his thoughts once more. "Are you a real pirate Sir?"

He allows his eyes to trial down then, his face pale as he is pretty sure what he'll find. Sure enough it's a young boy with Henry's eyes... Bae.

Not once had he thought what his decision would mean for Henry and his existence.