Furies' Anger

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this.

Killian stood in the middle of the deck, his arms folded and his face serious. The crew were still in the town they had docked in and ship was silent. Aoife stood in front of him, her hands behind her back and her eyes glued to the floor.

Killian took a deep breath before asking his daughter, "Do you have any idea how much trouble you are in?"

Aoife glanced up at him, frowning. "I'm sorry Papa but that boy dared me to climb that tree. I couldn't let him win!"

"That tree was too thin for anyone to climb!" Killian exclaimed, "You are lucky that you did not injure yourself which is more than I can say for that other child who got hit by that branch."

Aoife was getting frustrated and she stamped her foot. "But Papa that boy dared me to do it! It's his fault!"

Killian pinched the bridge of his nose before asking, "Was this boy holding a sword to you?"

Aoife paused, confused, and she shook her head. "Then he didn't make you do anything; you chose to get into that tree and what happened afterwards was your fault Aoife."

The sight of tears forming in her eyes tugged at his heart so he knelt down in front of her. "Sweetheart, when you get older, you will realise that you make your own choices in life and you cannot blame anyone else for the outcome. That boy was being stupid and you chose to be stupid with him. Now that other girl isn't too badly hurt but you must apologise to her."

"I already did," Aoife said through her tears, "After I pushed that boy into the mud."

Killian managed to hide his grin and he stood up again. "Well then, you can go below deck and wait for Cook to get back; you will be helping him clean the galley for the rest of the week."

Aoife sighed and he added, "There will also be no sword lessons this week."

She groaned and kicked the deck slightly before stomping off below deck. Killian sighed and watched her go. He had let her go play with the local children and she caused a fight, a broken tree and his temper to rise; so much for hoping she'd behave herself.

Henry stayed up most of the night, exhaustion catching up with him around dawn. It was the smell of meat being cooked that finally woke him. Through the narrow opening in the tent, he could see people moving around the camp area. There must have been fires crackling and breakfast was being cooked.

Henry stretched out his arms and then looked towards Aofie. She was still asleep, the thin blanket thrown across her legs. But the cuts on her face were healed and she seemed to be breathing much more easily.

"The magic worked," Henry mumbled, only to hear a voice behind him. "Of course it did."

Henry turned to see the man from last night standing by the entrance to the tent, two bowls in his hands. He walked over and placed them on a nearby table, which barely looked like it could support their weight. He frowned at Aofie, seemingly caught between wanting to check her wounds and never even being in the same airspace as her.

"She'll be fine by afternoon," he said gruffly, "Eat and then you can leave."

With that he strode away out of the tent. Henry reached for one of the bowls, staring down at it. There seemed to be chunks of meat in soup but Henry wasn't sure what kind of meat. Still, he ate it.

He was half way done when Aofie stirred and opened her eyes. She sleepily met his gaze and gave him a smile. "Good morning Henry."

He replied, "Good morning," and reached over to get the other bowl.

Aofie wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "No thanks; I think the healing potion is making me too queasy at the moment."

Henry put the bowl back on the table and Aofie pushed herself into the sitting position. She blinked rapidly to wake herself up and then looked out the gap in the tent. "Did anyone give you any problems?" she asked, carefully taking note of where her weapons and bag were.

"No; nobody came in here all night. Although, I was asleep for a while."

"It is fine Henry, I just don't feel safe or wanted here. We should leave soon."

Henry gave her the once over. "Do you feel well enough?"

Aofie twisted around slightly, moving her neck around and checking her cuts. "I'm a bit stiff but everything seems to be healed. We should be able to leave within the hour."

"You really don't want to be here," Henry commented, "Is it something to do with that nickname? Why do they call you Fury Girl?"

Aofie let out a low sigh, loosely wrapping her arms around her knees. She seemed to stare at the wall of the tent for a while but finally she began to speak. "I told you before that the Furies can spread the anger anywhere and it can seep into you. It makes you so angry that they can feed off it. But what is not usually known in the other worlds it that sometime, if you're angry enough, the rage can change you. It can actually turn you into a Fury."

Henry's eyes widened and he looked her over again for any signs of a tail or wings. Aofie, who saw what he was doing, chuckled. "Don't worry; the transformation didn't really take. It was years ago when I was around your age. I had been here since I was seven and finally realised that my father wasn't going to sweep in and rescue me. My anger grew until the Furies paid me a visit. They said all the right things and made me feel wanted again. So I went with them and in no time at all, I was the one terrorising the people of the land. That's why they call me Fury Girl; because I was the one that hurt them and they knew it."

Henry frowned, the bowls of food forgotten. "But how did you go back to being human?"

"Well, I technically wasn't a full Fury; I didn't have any extra limbs and I hadn't killed anyone like the others. But one day, the Furies told me that I could be. They said that all I had to do was give into the anger fully. That way, nothing would ever hurt again. But through their lies, I realised what they were really saying. Furies feed off other peoples' anger because they don't have any of their own. They aren't human so they don't care. To be a Fury, I would have had to forget all about my old life. The memory of my father would be wiped from my mind. And in that moment, I just...stopped."

"Stopped what?" Henry whispered, almost afraid of anyone overhearing them.

"I stopped being angry. When I knew that I was going to lose all the good memories and love that I had for my father, I forgave him. I loved him more than I resented him. The Furies' power left me and suddenly I was enemy of theirs. I wasn't welcome with the other humans either as you've seen. They all hate the Furies and to finally have one on their level? Well, clearly that makes me the most hated girl in the Land Between Worlds."

She grinned at him, even though she looked so weary. "I bet you wish someone else had found you now, huh kid?"

Henry stared at her, then shaking his head slightly. "No...who better to fight Furies than an ex-Fury?"

Aofie looked surprised for a moment but quickly recovered. She stood up, despite Henry' protest and walked around the tent to test her muscles and healed wounds.

"How did you do it really?" Henry asked suddenly.

Aofie frowned at him, not really understanding the question, so he swallowed and explained. "How did you just stop being angry at him?"

Aofie was silent for a moment and then she said, "Well, my father always taught me that you make your own choices in life. And while it's ok to feel angry and upset, after a certain point, you chose to be angry; you chose to be resentful. Mostly because, I think, it's easier to blame someone else than work through what your feeling. But once you do, you can heal. I chose not to be angry any more Henry. That's all."

Henry nodded and he couldn't help but think about his family back home. Did they sometimes chose to be angry too. But he couldn't think about that now; he had a job to do.

By the afternoon, before the campers were even thinking of cooking lunch, they were both gone.

It had only been a few days in The Land Between Worlds but the same couldn't be said in Storybrooke. Nearly a week had passed and Henry's family had exhausted every possible object, book and spell in both Gold's shop and Regina's vault. Even the Blue Fairy didn't know what to do. Still, they refused to give up hope and Regina was making plans to talk to Jefferson about using the hat. They might not have been able to go to the Land Between Worlds but perhaps there was something else that could help. Now that magic was back, it was easier to travel to the Enchanted Forest and Wonderland but only for a while and with strict rules.

Hook was sat at the Charmings' dining table, trying to keep his mouth shut. Neal and Charming were sat across from him and were examining maps of all the different worlds.

"There has to be something we've missed. My father had a million different things in his palace and Regina must have collected a few goods we don't know about," Neal said, his arms folded across the table.

Charming nodded, his eyes skimming over the maps. Hook clenched his jaw, choosing to stay silent once more. He had been doing that for the past week, especially every time they came up with some plan or idea that he knew would fail.

The problem was that some of the others had started to ignore him completely. Neal, Regina and Gold thought that he wasn't even trying to help; they thought there was no way he had looked at every object, every door, and every scrap of magic that might lead to the Land. But he had; of course he had. Snow and Emma seemed more patient with him while Charming stayed neutral. But Hook knew that they were just running in circles and he had to say something.

"I don't doubt Gold and Regina's ability to horde shiny objects but there is a limited number of them that can send us to another place."

Neal sighed with barely hidden frustration and he looked at Hook. "And you've heard of them all, I bet?"

Charming seemed to sense a fight brewing so he tried to play peace keeper. "Hook did search extensively after his friend went through the portal; technically he knows the most about the Land."

"Well judging by his attitude, he didn't search enough!" Neal snapped. And so did Hook's temper.

"Excuse me," the pirate hissed, standing up from the table. Neal followed him and Charming was left to once again try and calm things down.

"I looked through every inch of every land and there was nothing!" Hook exclaimed, "Do you honestly think that giving up was easy? It took all I had to stop searching and now here's the Hero group running in and saying that I didn't look enough?"

The past week had been a constant reminder of Aofie and finally the stress had taken its toll. Hook didn't know if he was going to punch something or cry or just drink an entire bottle of rum in one go but what he did know was that he was done with being patronised.

Neal let out a deep breath through his nose and said with gritted teeth. "After all we have been through I refuse to give up just because you say so! You were looking for a friend Hook; this is different!"

"No it's not!" Hook roared with Charming physically having to hold him back. "She was my daughter!"

The other two men froze; blinking at the pirate. Hook took deep breaths, shrugging off Charming's now loose hold.

"You-you had a kid?" Neal asked, in almost disbelief.

Hook could only nod. "She was seven and the portal took her away from me. I did everything I could but after years of searching, I had to accept that she must-must have been killed."

Charming reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder but Hook quickly backed away. Without a word, he grabbed his coat from the back of his chair and walked out of the door. He kept walking, down the stairs, out the door and onto the street. Ignoring anyone who looked his way, Hook carried on until he reached his home. Passing the house itself, he made his way to the end of the dock, where he sat down with his feet dangling over the water.

He needed to sea; needed some sense of calm.

A while later, he didn't know how long, Hook heard footsteps behind him. Charming appeared and sat by his side; he handed Hook a bottle of rum. "I thought this might be a good peace offering," the prince suggested.

Hook took it, the setting sun glinting off the brown bottle. "It's not you I'm angry at mate," he said, "Of all people, I think you understand."

Charming nodded, looking out at the horizon. "What was her name? If you don't mind me asking?" he said quietly.

Hook took a gulp of the drink before replying. "Aofie. Aofie Jones. Her mother was a woman I barely knew from a city I don't remember; she gave Aoife to me when the girl was only a few weeks old. At first I wanted nothing to do with my daughter but...but then, you know, I actually looked at her and there was no going back."

Charming chuckled. "It surprises you how much power such a tiny thing can hold right?"

Hook had to laugh at that too. "I would have looted every treasurer store in all the kingdoms if Aofie had asked me to. I would have even given up being a pirate. Back then, I was just Killian Jones. Aofie was before Milah, before I lost my hand...before I became Captain Hook."

The two men both took swigs of the rum, Charming grimacing as he did so. It felt good, after all these years, to talk about Aofie; to say her name.

"We were at a city in the mountains when I lost her. There was an execution and the portal opened. Before I knew it, the wind had snatched her right out of arms. I tried to get her back but I had to make my peace with her death. I, uh, I used to have nightmares of how she died. If she was scared or if it was quick or-or if she called for me-."

He broke off, choosing to stare down at the water his hands pressed against his face. Charming swallowed thickly as he glanced at his friend. He did understand the other man's pain of losing a daughter but at least giving up Emma had been a choice; at least they had thought they were saving her.

He patted Hook on the back but the other man straightened up, his face now composed.

"None of this will help Henry," Hook said, "He is the one we have to focus on."

Charming knew that Hook was just avoiding the situation but there was nothing he could do about it for the moment. "Well the others were on their way back to the apartment when I was leaving so everyone should be there."

Hook simply stood up and grabbed the half empty bottle. The two men turned back and walked away from the dock, the sun practically disappeared over the horizon.

It was dark by the time they got back to the apartment but the lights were on and the place had a warm glow to it. Hook didn't really notice because when he walked in the door, Snow attacked him with a hug.

Hook awkward stood there with the woman's arms wrapped around his shoulders, sending Charming a panicked look. "You alright there, darlin'? I think you've mixed me and your husband up."

Snow pulled back, tears in her eyes. "Neal told us about your daughter."

Hook sent Neal a glare but Emma walked into his eye line. "Don't blame him; I could tell he was covering something up and made him tell us."

Gold and Regina stood to the side but their cold looks from before were replaced with curiosity. The last thing Hook wanted was for those two to be examining him. Snow finally let go of him and went to take Charming's hand.

"Right," Hook said, clearing his throat, "Where were we with the hat?"

The others took the cue and surrounded the table, with Regina retelling exactly what Jefferson had told her-after he stopped yelling at her and waving scissors about. Before Hook could join them however, Emma grabbed his sleeve. She stared at him with a look that said more than any words could.

"What was her name?" she asked softly.

"Aofie," Hook replied quietly, "She was the spitting image of me; lucky girl."

Emma laughed quietly and walked towards the table, only letting go of his sleeve at the last moment.

"Come one Henry! We haven't got all day you know!"

Henry grumbled as he carefully dropped down the three feet to the ground. They had been walking for a few hours but had been slowed down by some large rocks that created huge obstacles to climb over. Aofie seemed well rested though and Henry was starting to wonder if he should have taken some of that healing magic.

"Alright, alright," he said, hurrying after her. He shrugged his jacket back over his shoulders and matched her pace. The older girl grinned at him and threw an arm around his shoulder.

"I really do owe you Henry," she said, "I wouldn't be able to move right now if it wasn't for you."

Henry, glad that she was warming up to him, just smiled. "It's alright, I know you'd do the same for me. That's the kind of person you are...the good kind."

Aoife made a "pfft" sound and kept walking. "No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are. But don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

The two of them walked on, hoping to reach the Furies' lair in two days. After that, everything depended on Henry.