Author's Note: Spoilers, kinda so this idea first came when there was a rumour we'd see Hook in his navy days, then A&E said there wouldn't be any more time travel so that nixed this, but then Merlin appeared and he's so irreverent it made it come back to my mind. This doesn't quite fit current cannon (5x05) I've put Merlin in Storybrooke, please forgive me. Also, Spoiler for Steins Gate if you've not seen that.
The original ending was where I've put a double page break (before the epilogue), however for some reason I decided to have a go at writing another ending with some time travel exposition and less angst. Let me know if I should have stuck with the original! Time travel logic is hard to explain.
...
"Bloody hell." The pirate's soft curse was the only warning David and Henry got before he yanked on their collars dragging them back around the corner of the building and into the alley they'd just left. Charming heard the rip as the hook sliced through the material of his shirt and let out a curse of his own.
"What the hell was that?" David demanded.
"Are you questioning the Captain's orders sailor?" David and Henry both stared, that had definitely been Killian's voice but Hook's lips were pressed into a thin line and hadn't moved at all.
"How did you..?" Charming asked before he realised the voice had come from the corner Hook had just stopped them walking around. He shared a wide eyed look of excitement with Henry before they darted to the corner and peered around.
Stood on the dock in front of a large ship not ten feet from them was a straight row of naval sailors and walking along the line inspecting them was a tall figure resplendent in a perfectly starched officer's uniform and tricorn hat, a figure that looked a lot like a certain pirate captain who was standing behind them. Henry kept turning his head back and forth comparing the two men.
"Is that really you?" He asked.
"Aye." Hook replied, his eyes closed as if in pain.
"You look so... clean and straight laced," David pointed out.
"Aye."
"And strict," Henry added as he watched the other Killian criticise his sailors' uniforms.
"Aye."
"Is that a pony tail?" David asked grinning.
"We should kill him," Hook said flatly. David let out his laugh and turned to tease the pirate more, but the look on his face made him stop.
"Are you being serious?" He asked, getting Henry's attention.
"Yes," Hook replied moving to look around the building himself.
"Don't be ridiculous." Charming said, taking his turn to yank the pirate back towards them. "That's you."
"I bloody well know that mate, that's the point," Hook spat back. "You saw him, that naive fool has no idea what's coming, he thinks he's going to be hero."
"You are a hero," Henry declared. Looking down Hook softened but remained resolute.
"I wasn't, for centuries I was a villain lad. Maybe I wasn't as bad as Pan or bloody Rumpelstiltskin, but I was still far from a hero."
"That doesn't mean we should-" David tried, but Hook cut him off.
"Think of all the people I've killed. All the lives I ruined. You could save all those people in a moment." David and Henry were both dumbstruck. Where the hell had this come from? "I'm the reason Cora got out of Wonderland, she'd have never made it to Storybrooke without me. Greg and Tamara, I helped them too, Regina got tortured because I let them catch her. Your father," he said to Henry getting more desperate for them to understand. "I gave him to Pan hoping for a bloody favour."
"And because of that, he lived in Neverland until he escaped and met my mom," Henry replied simply. The wind went out of Hook's sails and he visibly deflated. "I wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for you."
"That may still have occurred even if I -" Hook started.
"You want to risk it?" Henry asked him, his eyes full of hurt.
"No, lad, I apologise. I just wasn't expecting to see myself like that again. Merlin has sent us much further back in time than we realised. " Hook turned back to watch as the lieutenant strode up the gangplank of his ship to inspect the preparedness for sail.
"You got sent with us because you're the one with time travel experience. You gave us that huge speech about not creating any ripples by changing anything. Even the smallest change can have catastrophic consequences you said," David reminded the pirate.
"Yes, yes, I remember. I lost my head for a moment, it won't happen again," Hook assured them, waving away their nagging. "Let's find that damn missing gem from Excaliber's hilt and get back to Merlin's doorway."
"Hawkins what are you doing?" The lieutenant's loud shout drew their attention back to the dock. Killian Jones strode purposefully up to two of his sailors who were hunched over a barrel. The conversation was too far away for them to hear but the severe look on Killian's face and the pleading looks on the sailors suggested they were getting disciplined for something. The lieutenant snatched something from one of the sailors and held it up to the light. Hook groaned.
"I suppose that is the jewel we're seeking?" He asked, as they watched his past self pocket the large shiny red stone.
"Why did you take it?" Henry asked.
"It does not appear that he had a suitable excuse for having it. Criminals are not tolerated in the King's navy and items such as that are not normally allowed on ship. Temptations breed deceit and theft amongst the crew which can escalate to riots once the company is trapped at sea," Hook explained, if David and Henry noticed his speech becoming slightly more old fashioned they didn't say anything. "He's probably taken it to lock up in the Captain's safe."
"So how do we get it?" David asked.
"We'll just walk onto the ship at take it," the pirate shrugged.
...
It had been frustrating difficult to get Lieutenant Killian Jones to leave his post. Henry had eventually managed to lure him away with a sob story about needing help with his grandfather and David and Hook finally ambushed him, knocking him out and shoving him into a long abandoned shop they'd found. The building looked neglected to the point of falling down so hopefully no one would come along and find him while they were gone.
David had been wary of letting Hook attack his younger self but the pirate seemed to have accepted his fate, or was it his history? At least he wasn't trying to murder himself.
They were stood outside the shop deciding the final details of the plan when they heard a voice shouting Killian's name. It was like Hook was electrocuted, he dived into the shadows of the doorway half turning his face away from the uniformed man who was walking towards them.
"There you are, you'd better have a good reason for-"
"I dun think I'm the one you're afta mate," Hook growled, hiding his cultured accent, his voice sounding coarse and choked. The man had broad shoulders and stood so straight in his perfectly pressed uniform that he towered over the three time travelers, even though he wasn't actually that much taller than David. He gave Hook a long assessing look, and was about to turn and leave when Hook risked a glance and their similar blue eyes met. David tensed expecting to have to knock him out and leave him with the lieutenant.
"Apologies for disturbing you," the man said curtly giving them a polite nod and walking back to the main street.
"Come on," Hook said. "Let's get going while he's gone, he's not going to like what we've done to his little brother." He disappeared inside the shop.
"Was that his older brother?" Henry asked his grandfather, his eyes wide. "He didn't recognise him."
"Yeah, looks like," David replied feeling concern flood him for the pirate. This whole quest had sounded so exciting when Merlin had described it, but all that had happened so far was cruel reminders and awkward situations. Henry's face reflected his own concern and David patted his grandson on the shoulder and led him after Hook.
...
Hook tugged on the shoulders of the dark blue jacket and tried to adjust the sleeve. He threw the unconscious and now undressed lieutenant a scornful look as if his discomfort was the younger man's fault.
"Bit tight is it?" Charming asked cheekily.
"Especially around the brace," Hook replied holding up his hook. "Think anyone will notice?" David winced, how had they forgotten this detail? Hook twisted off the metal with a loud click and handed it to Henry. "Hold onto that for me lad?" He asked and tucked his left arm behind his back while drawing himself up to stand to attention. "How's that look?"
Hook had cleaned up his dark scruff, tucked his unruly hair under his borrowed hat and with his past counterpart's uniform on he certainly looked enough like the lieutenant to get them on the ship. But he still seems older, David thought, noting the strain in Hook's expression. It might be because he had the younger version to compare to but for the first time he could see the centuries staring out of the captain's eyes. His brother didn't recognise him, David reminded himself. Hook must have had similar misgivings as didn't meet either of their eyes, gazing at his past self lying peacefully on the floor instead.
"Don't even think about it." David warned.
"I wasn't," Hook said rolling his eyes. "It's just I can't remember any of this. This whole visit at this town. It's just faded in time, this day must have been so inconsequential." Hook's original warnings about changing the past ran through David's head, had they already changed too much?
"You OK, Hook?" Henry asked, picking up on the tension.
"It's Lieutenant Jones, Your Highness," He said, giving them his usual cocky grin before holding his head up and leading them out to the ship.
...
Security was kind of slack hundreds of years ago. Hook had immediately started barking distracting orders as they boarded, only fumbling the long forgotten names of his old crew a couple of times. David and Henry had been introduced as visiting royals who had shown an interest in a tour of the fine ship. Their modern clothes explained away as victims of some new fad. David had been pretty offended by that, which had only added to his role as a spoilt prince. Henry had enjoyed every second.
The lieutenant had had the safe key in his pocket and with Hook's memories of the ship's layout, they had only needed to be on board for a grand total of ten minutes before they were strolling back to the abandoned shop front, Excaliber's missing jewel clinking against the hook in Henry's bag.
As he opened the door David started to congratulate them on how smoothly this mission had gone when he was grabbed and slammed into the wall. Stars and spots flashed in front of his eyes as he tried to make sense of the shouting and banging in the room. He gave his head a shake, the world stopped spinning and he could see what was going on. The lieutenant was awake and not happy at being kidnapped.
Still finding his balance David lunged across the room and grabbed the younger man as he threw a punch at Hook. Yanking him back by his collar he swung him around and let go, watching in shocked amazement as he stumbled backwards and fell through a hole in the rotten floor
"Oh my God!" David shouted. They all scrambled to the edge and looked down through the dust and still crumbling debris. "Can you see him?"
"There!" Henry said as the clouds settled. Killian Jones stared up at them, his eyes unfocused and unmoving, a dark pool growing larger beneath him.
"Oh God," David repeated. "Is he breathing? Can you see a way down?" Hook stood up and staggered back from the edge of the hole, his hand reaching for his chest. "Hook? Hook what's wrong? Do you feel something?" He asked searching the pirate's body for signs he was disappearing.
"I feel fine. Normal. Why isn't anything happening?" Hook replied.
"Because I'm here." Merlin said from the doorway.
"You can save him," Henry cried out, relieved to see the strange sorcerer.
"Kinda," he replied walking up to the hole and tutting at the scene below.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Hook demanded. Instead of answering Merlin waved his hand and Hook collapsed unconscious to the ground.
"Hey! What are you doing?" David exclaimed, moving to check on him.
"Give me Excaliber's stone Henry." Merlin said, ignoring Charming and Hook. Henry bit his lip and stepped further away. "It's not just a pretty jewel, it's enchanted."
"We guessed that when you worked with Aunt Zelena to send us back here to get it." Henry replied smartly.
"You lot don't give her enough credit, some of her theories on magic are amazing." Merlin smiled to himself before focusing back on Henry. "Do you want to save your friend? Give me the stone." Henry glanced at his grandfather but David honestly didn't know what to do. Reluctantly he pulled the stone and hook from his bag and handed the red jewel to Merlin, his other hand clasped tight around the cool metal of Hook's namesake.
Instead of returning to the hole in the floor Merlin moved away and stepped over Hook holding the stone above his forehead. A soft pale light streamed from between Hook's eyes and into the stone.
"There is a lot isn't there?" Merlin commented.
"A lot of what?" David asked, at a loss as to what the sorcerer was doing.
"Memories," Merlin replied. "Can't have him thinking he's a pirate just yet can we? This stone was built to contain centuries of knowledge. I always thought its purpose was to store wisdom for the king, guess we can all be wrong sometimes." As the stream of light ended Merlin stood and finally went back to the hole to look down at the lieutenant. Looking back and forth a couple of times he flicked his wrist and Hook's features changed subtly to match his younger self as well as replacing his left hand. "Right let's wake him up, get behind the pillar there."
David and Henry wanted to object, wanted to fight against what was happening, but what could they do against Merlin? Before either could say anything Merlin had whisked them into the shadows and snapped his fingers waking Hook. They watched as he pulled himself to his feet. He seemed dazed and stumbled a little before gazing confused around the ruined shop. Henry held his breath waiting to hear familiar cursing but the polite and straight laced lieutenant merely fixed his rumpled uniform and walked out the door.
"So that's it?" David asked Merlin. "That's your solution? Just replace himself with himself?"
"Back to factory settings," Merlin joked. Neither of them thought it was funny.
"He's going to live through it all over again? His brother dying, losing his hand and, Er, Milah?" David felt bad but he couldn't help stumbling over the name.
"Didn't you have this conversation with him? He has to be there to do it all again or none of you would exist." Merlin said patiently.
"But why send us back if you were going to come yourself?" Henry asked. "You knew where to find us, so you must have seen what would happen."
"I've never had a premonition about the past before, it was really disconcerting. I decided to let everything happen as I saw it." Merlin studied the unhappy faces in front of him. "I know, time travel always comes with this large dose of tragic irony, you'll come to expect it." The faces looked horrified now. "If it's any consolation, I doubt this is the first time we've played out these events. In the grand scheme of things this may be the fourth, tenth, even hundredth time the Captain has had to replace himself. There's really no way to know." The wizard replied.
"How is that supposed to be consoling?" David demanded. Merlin shrugged.
"So he's just going to keep looping around and around for eternity?" Henry asked. The pain and confusion on his young face seemed to spark a tiny bit of empathy in the great sorcerer.
"I'm sure it won't feel that long for him." Merlin replied. "Well, I'm famished. Let's get home and get some lunch."
...
...
Epilogue
Henry was trying to write the story down, he might not have a magic pen and ink, but if he could structure and frame it right he was sure he'd find the solution, some loophole that fixed what they'd done. This did not feel like an end, and he refused to let it be the ending to Hook's story.
"Oh Henry," his grandmother said coming up next to him as he slumped over the table continually scribbling on the pages of the large blank book in front of him. "Hook wouldn't want you to do this."
"What are you talking about?" Henry mumbled without looking up. " Of course he would. The whole point of Captain Hook's character is that he never gives up." Snow frowned at the top of his head unable to think of anything to say. She looked to her husband for support but saw a matching expression of deep thought and concern marring his features. They had explained to her what had happened and it had been a fantastical and tragic story that had made her heart ache, but it was worse for them. Seeing it happen, being a part of it, had left deep scars in both of them and she didn't know what to do to fix it.
"What's happened to Hook?" Emma's soft voice made them all jump. She materialised standing at the end of the table already holding the book Henry had been desperately writing in. Snow and Charming stared at her not sure where to begin, Killian had told them his and Emma's relationship had fallen apart on their return from Camelot, but despite his words the pirate's love remained evident, was the same true for Emma?
"It's all in there," Henry said, his voice sounding hollow as he nodded to the book in her hand. "I'm sorry Mom, I can't fix it. The story just keeps looping around. There's no happy ending because there's no ending." Emma stared at the heavy tome, using her magic she floated the book before her, the dark powers riffled the pages and Henry's words slipped through her mind.
It was quite the story, all told from Killian's perspective it was difficult for her to distance herself from the descriptions and emotions Henry had beautifully detailed on the pages. Even missing out hundred year chunks and focusing on the events her son and father had been a part of, the soaring hopes and joys brought down by deep pain and regrets, stole her breath away.
"Oh, Killian," she murmured as the story looped for the third time. Henry's handwriting had become more and more illegible as his frustration and sense of futility had grown, by the time he reached the fourth death of Lieutenant Killian Jones, his words were made more of interrupted spiked lines than letters.
Emma looked from the book to her family. What would Hook say if he could see how his departure was affecting them? She thought back over everything her pirate had said and done for her since they'd met. She smiled as she used her magic to add a few paragraphs to the book floating before her. The point of Captain Hook was that he didn't give up? Well stories were supposed to teach you things weren't they? Maybe she should follow Killian's example.
Thinking along those lines, the Dark One didn't sleep and thankfully this Dark One had Netflix to fill her lonely twilight hours. Thousands of stories and tales available to her at the touch of a button, and she knew exactly which one had the solution. She'd have to get that jewel from Merlin, but that shouldn't be impossible.
"I'll use the new time door and go back and pick him up from where we know he'll be," Emma said, letting Henry's book drop back onto the table.
"But he has to go back to replace himself," her son said sadly. "Otherwise everything might change."
"The endless circle," David murmured.
"But it's actually a spiral isn't it," Emma said. They all frowned at her.
"Is it? He always replaces himself and everything repeats over," David replied.
"But the first time-" Emma started to say.
"The first time he couldn't have replaced himself as there wasn't a future him to replace him." Henry interrupted excitedly, before trying to think it through and slumping. "So...what?"
"So. He must have lived. Lieutenant Jones, didn't die," Emma stated firmly.
"Well that doesn't help, he died because of us, because we went back, so the first Hook lived only to come back with us and start the cycle." David said.
"If it was different once, maybe it can be different again. He just has to live," Emma said lightly, as if that answered everything.
"But, he already died," Snow added in slowly, trying to catch up to Emma's reasoning.
"He will live," Emma repeated.
"But we have no idea what'll happen if you change things. Remember what happened when you went back just 28 years? You're talking about hundreds now," Snow said, moving carefully around the table towards Emma.
"So maybe things should be different," she replied harshly.
"Think about what you're saying. We all want to fix this Emma but just think it all the way through," Snow pleaded. There was a long pause as everyone got lost in their thoughts.
"Somehow I don't think more time travel will solve more problems than it causes," David said breaking the silence with a sigh.
"Why not just save the Killian from the past and bring him back here? If he's been round the cycle he'd still be a version of our Hook." Snow asked.
"No that one's not actually been through a cycle yet. Everything up to the point of his death is the first original Killian." Henry replied.
"Ug. My head hurts, let me grab a pen and paper." David said, he moved to the little office they had tucked into the corner and pulled a sheet of A4 out the printer. He wrote birth at one end and drew a horizontal line.
"Right so childhood and life up until that day we were at the docks." He said as he marked a blob on the line. "Then he doesn't die because he doesn't meet us and instead he goes on to Neverland." He drew a continuation of the horizontal line from the blob and wrote hundreds of years under it. Everyone had moved closer together to see the paper no one batting an eye at Emma leaning in with them.
"Then he comes to Storybrooke meets us and ends up back in time," David continued. The line looped sharply back to the blob. "When the original dies." He drops a short line down from the blob. "And our Hook replaces him." He drew over the line denoting hundreds of years thickening it. "And again and again," He said running the pen over the looped line and thickening it over and over.
"So if we save original Killian," Snow said taking the pen off him and drawing a line from the dead Killian line parallel to the hundreds of years. "He could come back here with us and replace the him that's replaced him." She joined the line to the far apex of the loop and continued the horizontal line.
"But he wouldn't be our Hook. Look at your lines. He's basically a different person, while our Hook just loops around and around forever," Henry pointed out. They all stared at the paper.
"Not if we rescue him. Like I said at the beginning," Emma said her frustration starting to grow. Had her family always been this slow?
"But-" David tried.
"But you're assuming that this isn't the first and only time," Emma cut in. Everyone blinks for a minute taking that in.
"If it is the first time," he said slowly, feeling his brain chugging like an ancient computer. "Then there's still just the one Killian, our Killian."
"No there'll still be two, the original past one and ours," Henry said.
"But isn't there really only one anyway, just at different points in his timeline? I mean it's not like you created a new one by going back in time," Snow replied.
"Wait look at the diagram again," David said pointing at the paper.
"It doesn't matter. All that matters is the blob," Emma said waving her hand dismissively at them.
"The blob?" Everyone looked confused. Emma sighed.
"Don't worry yourselves. Save the lieutenant in a way that looks like he died, everything keeps going with the least amount of changes." Emma declared, as if talking to herself. "I've got this." She disappeared in a puff of smoke.
They held their breaths but nothing happened. The time space continuum didn't explode at any rate. At least they didn't think it did.
"What are you all looking at?"
"Hook!" Snow exclaimed as they all stared at the pirate standing at the front door.
"I thought you asked me over to dinner?" He asked, frowning as he checked the time on the wall clock.
"Yes sorry, just didn't hear you come in. Can you tidy your papers off the table Henry?" Snow replied, already rushing to finish the last bits on the food.
Henry looked down at the blank sheets of paper. Then up at everyone going about getting dinner ready as if it was any other day. Regina and Robin picked up Roland and took him to wash his hands like they had been there the whole time. They had been there, Snow wanted a big family dinner to celebrate them returning from the past safely, even if they lost the stone for Merlin at the end. So, why wouldn't they be there? Wait, how did they lose the stone? Henry tried to sort through his overlapping memories.
"Shall I help put them away?" Killian asked the stationary teenager.
"No, it's OK, I still need them. To make sense of things," Henry said with a jump. "Hey Killian, can you tell me what you remember about travelling back in time? Recently I mean."
"You mean that mess with my younger self. I doubt I'll forget it for a long while. Why?"
"I need your perspective, for the story."
"The story?" He glanced at the sheets of paper warily. "Well I suppose I can't deny the Author a tale."
Killian went through all the parts Henry had been a part of quickly, glossing over some of the more painful moments, when he got to the point where he thought he was his younger self Henry could hear some anger in his voice. Before he'd made it to the ship the proper version of himself had appeared alive but covered in blood. Hook had barely a moment to grasp the sight when he found himself at the doorway to meet up with them before they left, back in his modern clothes, his left hand lost again.
"You know what happened then, the fuss Merlin made before he just disappeared and left us to return home." Hook sighed. "My memories still feel distant like they're not quite mine. The whole thing has left me unsettled. We have to instigate some sort of protocol to check someone is really dead before reshuffling other people's memories, even if the supposedly most powerful sorcerer in all the realms says otherwise," Killian finished.
Henry thanked him as nonchalantly as possible as he scooped up his papers and moved them to the side table. His mind scattered and reformed, he could see it all clearly now, the time jumps and changes clicking together like an overlapping puzzle. Emma had saved the lieutenant, but in a way that let Merlin play out the switch without realising he hadn't died, before she'd taken the stone and put Hook back to normal and let history go on as it had the first time. The least amount of changes.
He was glad he remembered it all, at last a perk to being the Author. He looked over at Killian who was helping Robin to corral an overexcited Roland. The survivor, well he proved himself right again and the saviour had given his latest story a happy ending. Hope was a big word in this family and today had definitely taught him to never let it go.
Looking back at the papers, he saw the horizontal line with the previously looped line now bouncing back from the blob to the origin of the deviation and continuing to the edge of the page. Grabbing his pen he quickly scrawled a final line to end the story. People say you can't change the past, but people used to say no one would walk on the moon. Don't forget, if you have hope, you can always find a way.
...
Author's Note: A happy ending? What's up with me? Did it make sense? Let me know please in a review. Thanks to everyone who's supported my writing and left reviews, favourites and follows previously. I really appreciate you all.