Well then. Yes hi. I have no excuses. Well I have many many excuses but at the end of the day do they really matter. For anyone still invested I present c11 of 12. I'll post c12 later today. It's too long to be one chapter but I know you all have waited long enough.

Where were we. Liam and Milah are trying to help Killian escape the underworld right under Hades nose. Away we goooo:

Chapter 11

The pages blurred in front of Liam's eyes, he wasn't certain if it was his fitful sleep the last few days or simply the dozens of books blurring together, none of them with any reference to the phone at all, much less how to fix the damn thing when their malevolent overlord rips it out.

He glanced up at a sound from the hallway and Milah entered, annoyance radiating off of her in waves.

"Tell me you've found something," she said tersely.

"Not unless you want to hear a grand tale regarding zoning regulations for the cemetery. They're... rather complex."

Milah sighed in exasperation, picking at her gloves self-consciously. She was frustrated, clearly. At the moment, going through books was logistically difficult for her and however many times he warned her to give her hands time to heal she had all the patience of a caged dog.

"We'll find something," Liam murmured, "you must have patience-"

"Patience?" Hades voice echoed through the room before he appeared in their sight, "is a virtue I have just run out of." When Hades appeared, he was not alone. His fist was clasped tightly in Killian's hair who stumbled and fell to his knees despite Hades' grip. Blood dripped steadily from his sagging form, slowly staining the carpet at his feet.

"Killian!" Milah cried, starting forward then stopping abruptly when Hades jerked Killian's head back in warning.

"Little brother hasn't been following the rules," Hades drawled, turning his attention to Liam who had yet to speak. He was frozen in place, his hand still poised on the page he had been turning. "He had one job, swab the deck. Every day. All day. But what should I find when I dropped in? He's been poking around below. I think he means to sail away!"

"To where?" Liam finally spoke, his voice a practiced calmness that he'd often had to employ when Killian had gotten into trouble with their masters. This was no different, One more angry master to appease, for just a little while longer… "There is nowhere to escape to. He knows that." Killian managed to lift his head ever so slightly to meet Liam's eyes, there was an apology there beneath the blood matted hair and bruised skin and Liam's heart clenched. Just a little while longer...

Hades released his grip and Killian crumpled to the floor, a whimper escaping him at the pressure on wounds Liam didn't dare think about just yet. Then Hades was offering Killian a flask, dropping it in front of him when he didn't take it. Liam's eyebrows furrowed at the sign of civility from Hades of all people, but Killian shrank back from the offered flask.

"My patience is at its end." Hades shrugged, "I'm tired of your games, of your disruptions. Drink. End your pain and your games. Or they will."

"Or they will?" Milah retorted, unable to keep the mocking tone from her voice. "They are not afraid of a little rum."

Hades smirked but didn't say a word and Liam could practically feel the blood drain from his face. River water. Only that could make Hades smirk like that.

"Don't-" Liam started, jerking forward, but Hades held up a hand.

"One step, Captain. One more step and I snap my fingers and all three of you will take a swim."

It was enough to make him freeze but not enough to keep him quiet. Not when Killian slowly reached for the flask, uncorking it and narrowly avoiding Liam's eyes.

"Killian, don't- please, don't-"

Hades grinned. "It's up to you," he taunted Killian. "You or them."

Killian looked up, finally meeting Liam's eyes briefly.

"I'm sorry-" Killian whispered, his voice barely loud enough to be heard but the decision already there in his eyes. He raised the flask in a mock toast and put it to his lips and then, before Liam could say another word, he was gone. A damp spot of water and blood on the carpet the only indication that he had been there only a moment before.

A cold stillness settled over him, shock, denial, horror- then Milah's cry of anger broke him free. It lasted only a moment before Hades snapped his fingers and she was gone too. Hot tears slipped down his cheeks though the lump in his throat prevented him from saying a word.

The walls began to melt away and when Liam blinked he found himself below again. Familiar stone walls replaced the mayor's office, the fallen flask on the floor in the middle of the cell.

Hades leaned easily against the wall watching him for a reaction. Liam searched for the anger he should have felt, but the place he expected to find it was empty and cold and he sank to his knees, the hard stone jarring him.

Hades kicked the flask closer to him from where it had fallen with a smirk. "You look like you could use a drink, Captain. They may have left some for you." Hades vanished, leaving Liam alone in the stone cell, staring at the still open flask.

He reached for it in a haze, the weight of it indicating that despite the puddle on the floor of the cell in front of him it was not yet empty.

Killian would hate him for what he was about to do.

Killian was gone.

"Liam?"

He froze, her voice echoed from nowhere and everywhere at once and he glanced around the cell. It couldn't be. Hades destroyed her, just like he destroyed-

"Liam!"

He shook his head hard. He was going mad…

"LIAM!"

He blinked and suddenly the stone walls were gone, the sharp pain in his knees where he'd struck the stone was gone, replaced by a dull aching in his neck and back. Milah's face swam into view and around her, the mayor's office.

"Milah-" he murmured in amazement, his mind still foggy, trying to figure out why he was using an open book as a pillow. "You're alive."

"Not … if we're being technical about it," she corrected with a half-hearted smile. She raised a gloved hand to his cheek and wiped gently at the tears that had fallen while he slept. "It was just a dream, Liam. We're all fine."

He reached for her hand, remembering at the last minute to hold her wrist rather than her still healing hand. He pressed a kiss to the inside of her wrist instead and she smiled. He took several steadying breaths before glancing to the middle of the room, half expecting to see water-soaked carpet. He breathed a sigh of relief when his own eyes confirmed what Milah had said. Just a dream.

He'd been running himself ragged these last few days, early mornings at the mayor's office and late nights at the bar. Desperate to find some way to contact Emma. The whole plan hinged on being able to reach her… He looked around guiltily. There was still so much to do. Still he knew he wouldn't be able to relax until he was absolutely certain…

"I have to go," he said quietly. "I need to see him."

"Go," Milah replied, voice soft. "I'll see you tonight."

Killian had played the drunken deckhand for days while Milah and Liam scoured the mayor's office for a clue to getting the phone booth working again. He put on a particular show at the beginning and end of every day, on the gangplank when Hades often came to see if today would be the day he didn't make it across.

But while Hades wasn't watching he had almost free access to the bowels of the ship for final repairs. He worked inefficiently, maintaining the facade of drunkenness at nearly all times in case of a surprise visit from Hades, but eventually Hades grew bored of taunting him and his visits grew less frequent.

He'd grown careless, he realized abruptly, when there were steps on the deck above. A momentary panic made his chest tighten until he realized he knew those steps. Liam was in a hurry, but his steps on the deck above were familiar. Killian dropped what he was working on and hurried towards the ladder to meet Liam, the urgency of his brother's steps making him nervous. Had something gone wrong?

Liam was faster and was already making his way down the ladder before Killian could begin to climb.

"Li-" Killian started to ask what was wrong but before he could say a word Liam had dropped down the ladder and wrapped him in a tight hug. Killian returned the embrace with eyebrows furrowed, but waited until Liam let go before pulling away. "Are you alright, Liam? Is everything-"

"Fine. Fine, little brother," Liam insisted.

Killian nodded, eyes still suspicious, and too worried to bother correcting him. He jerked his head for Liam to follow him, giving him a silent update on the state of the ship. Words were too risky when Hades could always be listening, but after a brief tour Liam could see with his own eyes what Killian could not say aloud.

The ship was nearly ready.

The ship was almost ready and they still had no way of contacting Emma.

He needed to come up with something else...

In the end it wasn't some secret in a book in the mayor's office that gave them the phone booth. It was a campaign of whispers through Liam's bar, resulting in a public appeal to Hades himself to fix the phone booth which Liam and Milah appeared to have nothing to do with. After all, Hades had put in the phone booth for a reason, he knew the despair that resulted from people calling into the void and never knowing if the recipient had heard. The phone booth was finally repaired nearly two weeks after Emma and her family had left. Hades own doing.

Milah's job was to contact Emma without Hades noticing while Killian did final checks of the ship's seaworthiness and Liam finally returned to the stone room he'd been avoiding for centuries.

It was the last thing he wanted to do, even after all these years, even after seeing Killian again and being assured that it was all just a part of Hades torment, even so the thought of reentering that room made him break out in a cold sweat that he pretended was from the pace of his movement and the chill air in the caverns.

But it was hardly the first time he's done something he didn't want to for Killian. Painful things, terrible things, things that two hundred years have not been enough to wash away. He can do this too. For Killian, he reminded himself with every step.

For Killian.

The passageways were familiar, even centuries since he'd mapped them. Dark and damp but reassuringly quiet. Still his pace slowed almost without his volition as he grew closer to the cell, his breath coming faster even as he slowed to a walk, reasoning that he must be on his guard now. There was no reason for why he stopped frozen in the hallway just outside the stone room, staring inside and unable to force his legs to move another step.

He can barely breathe through the panic that feels like it is going to crush him. He knows what it feels like to be crushed. It was one of the many ways he'd felt Killian die so many years ago. He remembers the grip of the Kraken's arms, the cracking of ribs and bones. The taste of blood in his mouth.

He has to go in. He knows that. Killian and Milah need him to go in. But he can't bring himself to take another step

And if they were here, maybe it would be easier. Maybe he could focus on them instead of the memory of his little brother's body lying broken on the cold stone floor. If he could just touch Killian, know that he's really there and not lying in that cell.

He tries to force himself to take another step, just one more, just get a little closer to his goal, but he can't.

Damnit, Killian needs that crystal. Unless this is all part of Hades' trick? Convince him his brother is well and then drag him right back to Leviathan Shoals. What the hell is he even thinking, trying to get back to Leviathan Shoals. He's playing right into the demon's hands.

He shakes his head.

That isn't real. Killian is real. Killian needs the crystal.

Still his feet refuse to carry him forward, his breathing remains ragged and labored.

Killian needs that crystal.

He's letting his brother down, he's letting Milah down. They both are doing their part and now he must do his. Get it over with and move on. Don't look back. As he's always managed before. He has no choice but to do it again.

He manages a few steps more, but once he's inside the room he drops to his knees. Even the stinging pain of striking on stone isn't enough to draw him back to the task at hand. He can't breathe... can't breathe.

A sob escapes him. "I'm sorry, Killian," he says brokenly to the empty room; unsure if he is speaking to the brother somewhere outside the dungeon or to the brother he is now convinced is lying still on the cold stone floor. "I'm so sorry."

He couldn't stand if he wanted to, just breathing is too much. He can feel the kraken's limbs constricting around Killian's chest, can feel Killian dying, himself dying.

Again.

He curls around himself, the stone room forgotten, the crystal forgotten, the plan forgotten. He's alone, curled up in the corner of an unlocked cell, feeling his brother dying.

Again.

When Liam was late by a minute, they thought perhaps it took him longer to find the crystal than he'd anticipated. At 5 minutes they wondered if he took a wrong turn. By 15 minutes they're trying not to admit to each other that they are afraid and by 20 they've both decided without a word that they're going after him.

Killian thought at first he might have to fight Milah for the right to go after Liam, but she had a more visible job than he and if Liam hadn't actually been captured by Hades the last thing they wanted to do was alert Hades to their plan by all vanishing simultaneously.

"If you're not back in an hour," she warned, "I'm coming after you too."

"He's probably just looking for the crystal," Killian whispered back, trying to convince himself more than anything else. "Keep Hades distracted."

Killian told himself he'd likely run into Liam on his return trip, have to endure a lecture about endangering the mission. He told himself that all the way through the caverns, because the alternative is unthinkable. If Liam had been captured…

He made his way to the dungeons without interference from Hades and he was not entirely certain if that's a good thing or bad. Perhaps he's distracted by Milah. Or perhaps he's distracted by Liam.

He slowed as he approached the dungeon, on guard for a trap, but when he heard agonized noises coming from one of the cells subtlety was discarded in an instant. Killian raced down the hall, half expecting to find a stone door between himself and his suffering brother, but the door was wide open, with no sign of Hades at all.

He stepped into the room and saw Liam, curled into a corner facing the wall. He was gasping for breath and sobbing out something that sounded like an apology but Killian didn't wait to find out before darting to Liam's side.

It's a trap.

He was certain of it and somewhere under his panic he knew that the stone door was going to close behind him and they'd be trapped here together.

He didn't care.

"Liam?"

Liam curled tighter away from him and Killian bent closer, trying desperately to see what wound Liam was hiding from him. "Liam, let me help-" Killian insisted, looking for blood, or any sign of what was hurting Liam so. The little gasping sobs continued on unabated until finally Killian simply tugged him forcefully over, apologizing under his breath for the gasp of pain he knew would come.

Only it didn't.

There was no blood, no bruising, he ran his fingers along Liam's torso in search of some hidden wound but found nothing. Liam was entirely unscathed.

"Liam?" Killian called again, somehow more worried now than he'd have been if he had found a wound. His brother's eyes were screwed tight, tears leaking from beneath the lashes as he struggled for breath. "Liam, look at me. Tell me what's wrong." The stern tone had no effect on Liam and panic rose in Killian's mind. Was it some magic that tortured Liam, some new torment of Hades that left no marks? "Liam, please-" Killian begged, his voice shaking. "I need you to open your eyes."

Liam's eyes snapped open, wide and terrified. Without warning he was off the floor tugging Killian off balance. Killian tripped, stumbling towards the wall in surprise, but Liam caught him, pressing him against the wall and putting himself between Killian and the door.

"Liam, what the dev-"

"Stay still," Liam hissed, "be quiet." Killian complied by habit, Liam's eyes were locked fixedly at the door as though he expected at any moment someone to come in and try to take Killian away.

"Liam-"

"Quiet, brother, I won't let him hurt you. I won't let him take you away again-"

Finally something snapped into place and Killian's heart sank. He'd seen this before. He'd have recognized it instantly in anyone but Liam, it simply hadn't occurred to him that it could happen to Liam, who had endured so much without faltering.

He'd seen it first in a boy, barely older than Henry's age. He'd been trapped in the hold when a storm nearly flooded the compartment, barely made it out with his life. For weeks he would get like… like this… wide terrified eyes and gasping for every breath. He'd thought the boy too young, too soft for his crew and left him (without any objections from the lad) at the next port.

"Liam?" he asked carefully. "What did he do?"

"Stay behind me, little brother- He won't take you again."

He'd seen the panics take older crewman too, after Leviathan shoals, and the echo caves. He'd seen grown men weep for fear that the shadow was coming for them too. He'd locked men in the brig to keep them from seeking the ocean's rest rather than risk the wrath of Pan. Liam had suffered so much more than those men, had walked right back into his worst nightmares alone. And Killian had let him.

He needed to get Liam the hell out of this place.

He needed that crystal.

Without that crystal their plan fell apart. Without that crystal they had no way to fight Hades. Even if he managed to get home to Emma, without the crystal Liam and Milah would be left to face Hades alone and unarmed.

They needed that crystal.

"Liam, there's no one here but us. It's just us," he insisted, trying to force Liam to meet his eyes. It took a few moments for Liam's gaze to settle on Killian again. Confusion and fear waring for dominance in his eyes before confusion won the victory.

"Killian?"

"Aye, brother, you with me?"

"Always." His voice was shaky and Killian pulled him into a hug. Liam's grip was as shaky as his voice but with a desperate fierceness that Killian did his best to return. When Liam finally pulled away Killian caught his arm to keep him from retreating too far.

"Brother, what- what can I do?" Killian asked quietly. It was his brother's own language that escaped his lips. An oft repeated plea from their childhood, begging Killian to tell him what course of action could make it better. (Keep the lamp burning, tend the wounds, don't leave me alone.) He understands the words better now than he did as a child. The desperation to make it better somehow when you aren't sure how.

"Find the crystal," Liam said quietly, his eyes dancing over the room rapidly, every instinct warning him to run, to escape this place before it took everything from him. "We have to find the crystal and-" Get out. The words didn't quite escape his lips but Killian heard them anyway.

Killian nodded as Liam finally broke away, taking one side of the room and examining each stone with eyes and fingers while Killian took the other side, glancing back every so often at Liam.

The minutes ticked slowly by as they searched in tandem, making their way around the periphery of the room first. Killian found nothing, no loose stones, no secret hiding places. His stomach began to knot nervously, if not here than where?

"Killian-" Liam whispered finally and he turned. "Help me with this-"

Killian moved to the other side of the heavy iron cot, the only furnishing in the room and helped Liam to shift it away from the wall. Liam knelt and then... the sound they'd both been waiting for. The shifting of stone under Liam's probing. The stone came loose with a slight effort and a grin spread across Liam's face as he reached into the space below to pull out a fabric wrapped object. He pulled away just enough of the fabric to reveal the broken crystal inside before shoving the thing inside his jacket and turning back to Killian.

"Let's get the hell out of here."

When they got back to the ship, Milah had very nearly worn a groove into the floor of the captain's cabin. She'd retreated below eventually, in the hopes that her absence would not be missed just yet, and knowing that her frantic pacing topside was bound to get someone's attention.

She sighed in relief when they came down the ladder into the cabin but didn't say a word, still nervous that speaking aloud would somehow clue in Hades sooner than necessary.

By unspoken agreement they hesitated a moment, knowing that this might be their last moment of peace for sometime. Finally Liam spoke.

"Ready?" he asked simply.

"Aye, Captain," they responded.

"Drain the ballast," Liam ordered, "it's time our girl got some exercise."

Honestly, I'm mostly convinced no one remembers this. *I* barely remember this. But it's done (after i post the second part later today) and I hate not finishing things so... tada