I do not own OUAT…

This chapter contains a harsh part… so apologies in advance.


/_Storybrook_\

The pale light of dawn came languidly under the door and slid lazily between the slats of the blinds. Sinbad opened his eyes just to be assaulted by a wave of pain, as only answer the man gritted his teeth and let out a big moan. He sat in the sofa, looking for his Ariel. He found her almost immediately, sleeping in an armchair.

"Ariel?" She turned her back to him and defiantly wiggled her toes. "Come on Ariel!"

His eyes felt gritty, his mouth felt awful, but nevertheless Sinbad smiled, his memories of the curse as a poor fisherman were totally under control, but Ariel's old personality took the best of her during mornings, it took her awhile to remember who she truly was. Before the Savior broke the curse every morning was an inferno, trying to get up the crabby, young nurse. Usually he had his coffee and read the papers, while he talked to a sleeping Ariel, trying to wake her; despite his efforts, most mornings he was forced to left without hearing a goodbye, she never wanted to speak to him anyway. In the reality of the curse she was his death wife only daughter, a young girl that had lost her voice in a car accident where his wife died, and Sinbad blamed her, hated her. Despite it the curse had had some benefits; they could talk now sign language. Before the curse they managed quite well, after all they had spent more than three hundred years together. They usually used just their eyes to talk, gestures or, when needed, pen and quill. Now everything was easier.

The mermaid opened her blue eyes as the memories of lasts days hit her. After tricking the Savior to lure Ursula to Storybrook she had fled the hospital. Sinbad had gone to look for Triton's trident into the Jolly Roger and had been shot by his owner. She rubbed her eyes and at last drew enough energy to pull out of the armchair. Not in vain mermaids were known as lazy creatures, she hated activity and hated work, she missed the time spent at the sea, swimming, singing and combing her once long hair.

She approached the sailor, now a poor and old fisherman.

"I'm fine Ariel." She looked at him and side smiled, she knew that look on his face, he was hurting.

"You are not" She said in sign language gesturing wildly, a kind smile on her lips.

"We need to plan our next move." She nodded, but her eyes told him that she was not very happy about that. "I'm not happy neither, he has survived, but now we must focus in the trident, is the only way the Sea Witch can be killed."

"Last time we check it the pirate had it." She sat cross-legged on the rug, in front of him. "But we have no way to find it now, before they leave."

"What about Merlin's pendulum? It was ours before the curse."

"It's Regina's now, it's out of rage, we have nothing to give her in exchange."

"We can steal it."

"No one steals from Regina."

"You will, come on Ariel! She's not Rumpelstiltskin." She shook her head. "You used to be brave and love the excitement, adventure, the danger lurking around every corner."

"Look where it got me." She looked at him with hard eyes. "We don't ever know if the trident is in this world."

"Ariel, please, it has to be done today." He waited for her answer, but she just got up and walked away. "Fine, I will do it! Hurt as I am!"

She turned around enraged. "I will do it! happy?"

After twenty eight years of cursed memories he had almost forgotten how terrifying an angry mermaid could be, even the always smiling Ariel.


-/_Storybrook_ Charming's appartment_\-

Emma opened the door and her parents, Ruby and the pirate followed in tow. Sitting on the stairs, Granny waited aiming her crossbow to the door, as the group entered she aimed to the pirate, following him as he waltzed around.

The Captain perched himself in the kitchen counter, arms crossed over his chest and his blue eyes drinking every detail of his surroundings. It was an odd house, looking much more like a tavern, with bare walls and little furniture, definitely not a palace. The place was unworthy of a woman, a princess, of his Emma.

After checking Henry, Ruby and Mary Margaret prepared coffee, tea and cinnamon chocolate while David and Emma arranged the living room to hold the meeting. The pirate was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed Granny's crossbow permanently aimed at him, Emma stared at him for a second, would he really help them? Sure he would, he had already proved it to Emma. He looked so different clad in the red vest, so appealing... David snuggled her with his elbow. "Oh my! I've been staring!" she felt her cheeks flush red.

The so called guests arrived, David greeted them and Mary Margaret distributed the hot beverages. Everybody but Emma felt the temperature fall two grads when Gold and the pirate locked their glazes. Emma focused in Neal, why was he trying to avoid the Captain?

"So… you're done trying to kill me?" Mr. Gold said resting both his hands on his cane.

"I believe so." The pirate said leaning nonchalant on the kitchen counter.

"Excellent." The pawnbroker grinned impishly. "Then you can live."

Hook moved away from the counter glaring the imp steadfastly.

Blue was surprised, not because Gold's murderous glare wasn't on her, but because Jones was different. She had to suppress a scream, he had undone her blessing! How had he dared! She couldn't believe he had managed to break it. There was no possible way to undo a blessing, they were made from one of the purest magic of them all, her magic. Blessings were born from the love of a fairy godmother to her godchild... That was the problem, she was his mother godmother, not Jones's one, so somehow he had find a way. "You will pay for it. I will find a way to bless you again." Jones was too dangerous without her blessing, he was the fruit of true hatred, she needed to place her blessing back, and in order to do so Blue needed to be alone with him. She clasped her hands together to prevent them from shaking and sat down next to Granny and Dr. Hopper, she hadn't been so angry in centuries.

"So where's the fire, dearies?" Mr. Gold didn't sat, just supported his weight in his gray cane.

Snow White spoke. "Dear friends and allies, we have convened this council because a great danger is upon us." She had both hands around her chocolate mug, but the look on her face was resolute and purposeful. She was a queen once more. "The Sea Witch, Ursula a blood cursed mermaid is in Storybrook." Dr. Hooper looked confused so Snow White explained the situation a little more. "She will feed from our children, she is some kind of vampire, which will kidnap and kill our children." Grumpy cursed under his breath. "We need to find a way to stop her."

"Push her through the line." Grumpy said.

"She was not in Storybrook when the curse was casted. It would be far more complicated to get rid of her." Said Emma, and after glancing into the Captain direction added. "That's the reason because Captain Jones is here to help us."

The Captain pose was relaxed; he was sitting next to Ruby in the arm of her chair, rubbing his thumb and forefinger together, a sexy grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"So…" David said, and after a few seconds in during whom the pirate seemed completely unaware of the council eyes on him, the prince added "Hook, what we do."

"Kill her." Said him without emotion.

"We don't kill people here, we are the good ones, do you remember?" Emma bluntly told him.

"No, Emma, he's right. There's no other way to stop her." Despite Blue hated to agree the pirate, this time she had to give credit to his words.

"Maybe we can send her through a portal?" Snow asked trying not to give away that they currently have means to carry it out… a whole plantation of them.

The Captain shook his head. "She could use a sea vortex and return here."

"A sea vortex?" Emma was puzzled.

The pirate stood up and walked lazily until he stood behind her back. "Sea voids are portals between worlds, some of them easier to find than others." He rested his hand on the top rail of Emma's armchair. "I'm pretty sure there's one in that world too." Emma was getting tense, convinced that at any moment he would lean to whisper into her ear, or that he would drop some nasty innuendo or touch her. But instead the Captain walked away and sat back into his previous spot. "You have heard a story from a place where ships disappear, never to come back? A sea route which from nobody returns? A place where compasses lose the north?"

David verbalized what they were all thinking. "The Bermuda Triangle"

"So there's no way to send her away, she… we… she must be killed." Dr. Hooper said.

"Let's kill her then." Granny was not someone to think too much when things were so clear.

Reul Ghorm smiled kindly to the council. "There's just one way to kill the Sea Witch. Stab her heart with Triton's trident. She is very powerful, her magic and mine doesn't mix well, and she has many resources. So we had to paralyze her in order to… kill her" She motioned towards Neal with her hands. "Baelfire was meant to do it."

"I stole the trident, and after years of preparation we designed a plan to force her to cross a portal to a world without magic, apparently this one." The pirate motioned towards Gold's son. "She was obsessed with Peter Pan's blood, so he casually felt through a portal while we were attacking her…Peter Pan, or as you call him Baelfire was supposed to stab her in this world while she was powerless, and then with the aid of Tinkerbelle both had to come back. She followed them but they didn't come back."

Blue looked down. "I assisted Baelfire with a spell."

Neal cleared his throat "The spell didn't work, she wasn't paralyzed." on his face was seen remorse. "I stabbed her, but not in the proper place… She took the trident and hurled it back through the portal."

"It's impossible. The spell was in perfect working order" She closed her hands together.

Rumpelstiltskin released a high pitched giggle. "Maybe your spell wasn't so good."

"It was. He probably got confused at some point."

"Let me guess… fairy… you are the one who ensures that the trident is the only weapon that can kill her." The word fairy was spoken as if it was some kind of poison inside the imp's mouth.

"What do you mean by that?" Asked the fairy offended.

"Well, I can clearly recall, once upon a time when certain fairy took my son away tricking him, saying to the lad that the only way I could get rid from my magic without dying was coming to a word without magic." The knuckles of his hand were completely white clenched tightly around his cane. "I'm afraid a true love kiss would have been enough…"

"A beast like you cannot find true love, you don't deserve a kindred spirit!" Mother Superior stood up too, so she could look straight into the imp's brown eyes.

"I'm sorry to contradict you Reul Ghorm, but a kiss from my son would have been enough, and by the way… I've found my true love, my kindred spirit." A wry smile appeared on his lips. "So you were… you are wrong dearie."

"You told me I could not love. That fairies could not love… it's not true, I love Nova… you turned me, Dreamy, to Grumpy. You broke two hearts. You said she would be happy without me, she isn't and she had never been since we broke apart." Grumpy was looking at his open hands, not daring to look up and see any reproachful look for his harsh words.

The Captain chuckled "It seems you create more problems than solutions fairy." He gestured his hand around.

"That's a lie." Reul Ghorm clenched her fists and scowled angrily. "How dare you?"

"No, it's not a lie." Geppetto, who had been silently listening, stood up too. "You blessed my puppet so it came to life, so I could have a son, after Pinocchio sacrificed himself for my, you made him human, real." He looked angry, his Italian accent very pronounced.

"You can't blame me for that, Geppetto!"

"No, I can't... but... couldn't you bless my wife to make her be able to beget a life?… no… you choose to wait until she died and give me a son then. But you cursed him; if he misbehaved he would be wooden again. He died a second time, as a grown up puppet, and you kindly decided that he deserved a second opportunity."

"He did Geppetto." The fairy looked completely confused.

"You turned him a child again; I did not thought in it at the time, I was too grateful to have Pinocchio back with me." The puppet master shook his head trying to get rid of a tear. "A child, with no memories, with no knowledge of his misbehavior, with plenty of chances to do it wrong again, you took from him his life, condemning him. You cursed him twice."

"NO!" Blue looked around her in search for any aid. "I cannot curse, I'm a fairy!" She looked directly into Jiminy Cricket's eyes pleading. "You would surely understand…"

He coughed uneasy. "Well, I must say… I was happy at first… like Geppetto, but now, I see it was a little bit cruel… stealing all his memories."

"Nooo, you too? After all the help I gave you Jiminy?" She pointed a finger to the red haired man. "I helped to redeem your sins."

The cricket shifted his gaze. "Mmm, I must admit now, now that I've been living as a human again, that becoming a cricket was not a great idea, I could have helped Geppetto as a man too, if not much better than I did. Now I can see it was unnecessary, I didn't need to be a cricket to get rid of my parents, just to gather enough courage." He sighed in despair. "After a couple of years it felt more like a curse that like a blessing… I realize it was my idea … not that I'm ungrateful… but I could have done better as a man. I could have been a father to Geppetto."

"I'm fully convinced that the prince you cursed into a frog thinks exactly the same." Rumpelstiltskin added with a flourish of his hand. "Or that poor princess condemned to fulfill any order or request." He rocked back and forth happily on his heels.

Blue felt the sudden urge to pull out her wand, instead the fairy turned around to look to the Charming couple. "You will say nothing? You would not help me?" David sipped his hot chocolate and casted his eyes to a suddenly very interesting floorboard.

"Why didn't you tell us about the wardrobe?" Snow White words were a physical hit that made Blue took a step back. "Why didn't you look for any other woodcarver?" The fairy's eyes were wide, and she was shaking slightly. "Was Geppetto necessary?"

"No, dearie, he wasn't." Rumpelstiltskin answered smoothly.

The fairy ignored the evil imp and pointed a finger to Snow White. "Your heart is really black now princess." She looked absolutely affronted. "How is that for gratitude?" No one answered.

Reul Ghorm was in shock. She felt her heart dying in her chest; she could feel the eyes of the council on her body, her cheeks flushed as the blood inside her began to boil. Rumpelstiltskin had attacked her and… as exactly as she expected it… a couple of Jones' words had been enough to make everyone be against her… even her once loyal friends. Jones' father had that power too; attract people, made them loose into his words. That was all Jones fault. She looked around, and after seeing no one was going to aid her she folded her hands in front of her chest and left the council. Once in the doorway she said in low voice "I expect an apology from each of you." Her hands were pressed together with so much strength that her wrists hurt. "You will need me again… and you will apologize." She stomped out the door, thrashing it closed behind her.


-\_Long time ago, near a harbor in the Enchanted Forest_/-

It was pitch dark, the sea essence making the hot wet air nearly not breathable, it was the kind of nights minds worked in slow motion. But his mind was fully awake and in working order. The Jolly Roger's crew was at an expensive whorehouse, spending the newly acquired loot and pawning part of the next. The mighty Captain Jones alias Blackbeard and his seconds in command were out there too, selling his stolen goods. It was the right time; no one was on the ship, just him and his mother.

Killian opened the captain's door; her mother was sitting on the master bed, her nose buried in a book. She had his fathers fingers marked all over the pail skin for her arms. That was the last time his father hurt her Killian swore to himself.

"Mama, we are leaving." He was determined, he already had everything ready, but in the eyes of his mother saw fear and doubt. "Mama, please, tell me you wanna freedom!"

She smiled, and tugged him into a hug. "It's dangerous baby, I don't… he will chase us… he will hurt you. Baby, you are just ten…"

"I'm not a child anymore!" He smiled in the crook of her neck.

"We can't…" her voice trembled. "He's a monster… he will find us…"

"No, listen to me mama." He pulled away and took her hands, both of them were shaking. "I can save you. We can be free." His blue eyes were bright with hope, his smile was heartbreaking. "We must do it now, today." His lower lip was quivering. "Let's do it mama, say you wanna be free!"

She felt a shiver ran through her body. "I… want to be free." His smile was so pure that the fear left her for an instant. "We will be free." Then the image of her owner formed in her mind. "You are too young!" She shriek, her face contorted with fear.

He kneeled down and began to work on the lock of her ankle. "I'm old enough mama, I've money, I've food and I've you." The chain fell to the floor. "I've bought you this." He unpacked a pair of soft leather sleepers. "Don't cry mama, we are free now."

The princess she was once upon a time would have complained because the sleepers were too small, but the woman she was now didn't realize it. She felt the tears gathering behind her eyelids, her little boy, the small man that loved her with all his being pushed her across the room where she had been imprisoned during the last twelve years, twelve long years of pain and humiliation. The sound of her son's boots and her racing heart was the only thing that filled her ears. She was dreaming, she felt light and something akin happy, she was going to be free.

"We are free mama" Killian placed a robe over her, but she was still shivering, she was shaking as she thought of the possibilities of being caught, and punished. Punishment, the single word made her stop, or maybe it was the fact they were on the deck now, there were no moon, no stars. Killian's hands forced her to go on, to keep walking, his palms were sweaty. He was speaking sweet words of comfort, promises of freedom, but she couldn't hear anything, a loud ring in her mind blocked everything, the blood rushing through her ears made impossible to hear her own thoughts. It was hard for her to swallow. She couldn't see him; she just felt his little but strong hand holding hers.

She felt a hand on her arm, then another, and another. There were hundred hands around her, holding her back, hurting her, marking her. Her eyes closed with tears of fear slipping through the cracks. She exhaled as a sudden pain in her back made her bend her knees. She could hear her son crying, yelling her name.

The light began to fill the deck of the ship, the entire crew was there, the entire crew had been there all the time, mocking their sense of freedom. Blackbeard stepped out from the darkness, his shiny red coat glowing in the dark. By the look on his face he was angry, he spoke, his voice was loud and thunderous but clear.

"Where are ye going?" His teeth clenched together and his eyes narrowed, them usually black had twisted into a darker and gloomy shade. "Are ye stealin' from me?" He was talking to her son, he had his little face in his hand, squeezing it.

"It was me!" She liked her dry lips. "I told him… I wanted the boy… your son… to free me…" Her voice was shaking.

He sputtered out a curse. "You? Lily livered lass. Ye be mine. He be mine. Ye tried t' stole from me?" After slapping the boy, the pirate knelt before her. "Bind the lad t' the mast. Co'er his bung hole, me tired of his screaming." The pirate waited patiently until the desperate cries of his son ceased. "Now tell me wrench do ye know what th' punishment fer stealin' from yer captain is?"

The crew begin to shout one word, over and over again. "Keelhaul, keelhaul, keelhaul, keelhaul!"

Blackbeard smiled, and without breaking eye contact with the woman that had shared his bed during the last twelve years, without letting himself look away from the girl he had corrupted, from the only female that had been able to give him a son, he said. "Keelhaul will be." He stood up. "If ye survive, both of ye are free."

They sailed into deeper waters, the city was just a dark point and the coast was a line in the horizon. The sun was raising when they dropped anchor. The boy didn't stop struggling in three hours, his wrists bleed from his efforts, and his shirt had been torn long ago, the skin of his soft body now angry red and bleeding from the friction of the rope.

The time of the punishment came, the boy was released from the mast an Flotsam and Jetsam the two tall twin pirates held him. A thick rope was tied to the woman waist; the line was looped beneath the vessel. Blackbeard made her stand on the railing, she looked down at him with hatred in her fear-filled eyes. "Me Captain Jones, also known as Captain Blackbeard, proud owner of the Jolly Roger condemn ye to death."

The edge of the railing. That's where she stood now. She felt terrified, seeing the dark water made her gasp. Blackbeard was a demon. The pirate she had hated during twelve years pushed her forwards, she screamed, and then the cold water whipped her hair around her face, biting her nose and cheeks, entering her mouth and nose as she tried take some air. Her clothes clung to her body, her insides lurched, her heart beat fast. She focused on the last thing she had seen, the blue eyes of Killian, her baby, a blue so pure that not even the darkest night could dull it. That was the only thing she wanted to take to the other life, the memory of his eyes. There was a pull as she was dragged underneath the pirate ship's keel, from one side of the ship to the other. She felt pain, as every barnacle cut her tender skin, as her body collided and was dragged by the ship's hull. At some point she felt a deep cut on her neck, she felt agony as she dislocated her arm, the cuts in the abdomen were very painful, she wished with all her might to die. She wanted to breathe but could not. She desired, she begged to be able to lose consciousness, but there was a part of his mind struggling to leave the water, to survive to escape with his son.

The body was lifted from the waters, she was still alive, but not for long. "Release the lad, let him see and then tie him in the hold. Savvy?" Blackbeard left followed by many of his fellows.

As he twins released him the lad fell to the floor, an old pirate pulled him into a standing position. "Be strong lad, It's just a woman."

Both twins looked at each other. "Make sure to tie…"

"…him in the hold" Ended the other twin.

As soon as the twins left the pirate released him. "Say your goodbye lad." He said pulling out the cloth of his mouth.

The boy ran to his mother side, his feet slid across the surface of the deck, a light rain began to fall. Killian fell to his knees, his hands were shaking, his eyes were wet, tears fighting to be released. He held her bloody hand, begging her to stay, the words forming in his lips without sense. She blinked and a tear slid down her wet cheek. "Promise me you'll always be a gentleman" Her glassy eyes looked one last time to her child, and she closed them, tears now falling like a waterfall from the corners of her once blue eyes.

"I promise Mama" The woman smiled.

Her eyes opened again, the warm of them gone, Killian watched the light fade out of her eyes, her hand growing cold in his tight grasp. Every single moment the boy had shared with his mother passed across his mind. Now it was him the one who cried, he couldn't make his tears stop, but this didn't matter cause the rain mixed with his tears and his mother's blood on the deck. One by one all his regrets about how he could have saved her kept jumping out at him making Killian feel guilty, his eyes scanning the gore that covered his mama's body.

Killian was left alone in the deck with his mother's body, he was soaked and cold, but he never realised it. He kept thinking she would wake up any minute and tell him to stop crying. Her skin grew cooler under his fingers, but he couldn't tear his eyes apart from hers, vacant of anything, there were just nothing inside them, they didn't hold anything, she was just like an empty shell.

He was unaware of the sunset, he just stared without blinking to her beautiful face without comprehend she was really gone. Without comprehend he would never again see her scolding him because of his pirate talk, he would never read with her, never again would she hold him tight, never felt her arms around him. She'd never smile. A big part of him told him she was still there, and this was just a sick joke. His heart felt like he was sinking. He caressed her wet hair, in a desperate attempt to untangle it. Killian felt like nothing was going to get better, he felt there was nothing to look forward to. Then his hand found it, his mother's hair pin, the one she never dared to use against his father. He put it in his sleeve, hiding it. His eye's were still red from crying but were cool and metallic blue, he was completely alienated by rage.

Killian stood up, a single thought in his mind, he, Killian Jones was going to kill his father.


This chapter is longer than my average ones, but I could not summarize it! I hope you don't mind. It took a little longer to post because I was stuck with Ariel and Sinbad.

Thanks to your reviews and for reading!

I read a very interesting idea in tumblr about how overprotective Hook could be once he fell in love with Emma, I think he will be protective with Henry too cause he is a very important part of Emma's life… and because I think he is very father like, not just because of the finale… so I will explore this side of him in next chapters.