Killian's Inferno

Chapter Twelve

While Merlin struggled to pull the Captain along through the caves of the Underworld in search for a safe haven as he slowly grew weaker the more that they walked, Merlin broke the silence that had fallen over them in hope of encouraging Hook to keep fighting as he spoke up saying softly, "Don't worry, I promise you that we are almost where you will be safe."

Killian scoffed and then responded, "And for how… long will that last? Surely you have not been condemn… condemned to an eternity as I so deserve. Why risk… risk yours… for me?"

"I will admit, I sensed back in Camelot that you held a high regard for yourself, at least on the outside," Merlin replied as he looked down to check on the man whose head hung low and whose arm was slung across his shoulders. "I didn't understand at first how you and Emma were in love, but it became clearer every day. It also became clear that the mask of conceit you hid behind was not the real you. You are a good man who became tormented by the mistakes of his past and lived the rest of his life to correct them."

"In the end it didn't matter," the pirate answered regrettably.

The sorcerer smiled sadly as he responded, "You're wrong. Everything you've done mattered far more than you know, especially to those you love; to Emma, her family, and your friends from Storybrooke. I failed to help you, Killian. I should have tried to help you fight off the darkness as I did for Emma. Perhaps if I had, things would have turned out differently for the both of us. You saved the woman you loved when no one else could, including me. Even I couldn't save my Nimue. This is why I have come and chose to risk my eternity."

Finally, Merlin led Hook into another cavern, but as they entered, the hollow opened up into a vast space as if the cavern melted away, revealing Storybrooke. Only it wasn't the way Killian knew the place he had come to call home to be. Instead the town was on fire, most of the houses and businesses burning before them, while the rest was in total ruin.

Hook stared fearfully ahead of them as he struggled to stand straighter with Merlin's continued help while he asked, "What the… hell is this?"

"Everyone sees the world inside this hollow differently, as it shows them the shadows of what they most fear," Merlin replied worryingly, being able to see what it was that Killian saw, instead of his own fears. "You see before you what might have been should you have failed to fight against the darkness."

"Storybrooke is destroyed," Killian answered as he pushed himself away from the sorcerer and weakly made his way over to what little remained of Granny's diner, but then stopped dead in his tracks as he found Granny's still hand partly buried beneath the rubble, as well as Archie's and Belle's bodies lying on the ground a few feet away from where he stood until he collapsed to the ground out of fear. "Our friends… de… dead. Everyone's dead! Why bring me here? Another punish… punishment? Who are you really? Answer me!"

Merlin knelt down before the pirate and responded gently, "I am Merlin. And I brought you here to show you what it is you have done for those you love."

Hook turned to look at the man before him for the first time since they left the void as he replied with confusion, "But I saved them! I defeated… the Dark Ones. I destroyed the darkness…"

"Yes Killian, you did," the sorcerer answered with a small smile when Hook cut himself off. "And now that you know this, you can push aside your fears and find a place of refuge, a place where you found comfort when you were alive, if only for a short time. They will not think to look for you here until they cannot find you anyplace else."

"What's wrong?" Killian asked when Merlin rose again as he slowly began to fade away, though he didn't appear to seem alarmed.

The man quietly responded, "It appears I must leave you now. I have atoned for my one regret in life, by helping both you and Emma destroy the darkness as you have, the darkness I unleashed upon the world. I righted my wrong, even if I couldn't save Nimue. Thank you, and remember that you are no longer alone. Help will find you more than I."

Hook watched as he disappeared and cried out, "Wait… Sorcerer!"

What was hours later, though it felt like days to Hook…

"Well, well… Hello again!" Rumpelstiltskin called out as he suddenly appeared before Killian, who had found what he believed to be the safest haven among his nightmare; aboard his ship that had been capsized upon the land, in the Captain's quarters of the Jolly Roger. "Did you miss me?"

"Bloody Crocodile, I thought I've finally rid myself of you," Hook replied as he raised his head from his bed he had laid down upon to try to rest after finally being able to drag himself down to the docks of the town through the destruction and fire, then let it fall back again in frustration upon seeing his darkest enemy standing in the doorway. "I am no longer a Dark One, so get out of my head."

Rumple laughed and answered, "I'm afraid that I cannot do that, dearie. I am a part of your worst fears. And I must say, I really love what you've done with the place."

Killian weakly sat up, leaning back against the far wall behind him, then responded, "I don't care why you're here. I know that this isn't real. I didn't allow myself to fully give in to the darkness as you have. I destroyed the darkness. Storybrooke is still intact and your enemies are still alive."

"You think so?" the villain replied as he swiftly placed his hands on the sides of Killian's head and suddenly forced his way inside of his mind, causing Hook to cry out in pain. "Shall we see what really happened?"

"Killian, you can't do this!" Emma pleaded with him in one last attempt to get Hook to stop with his plan to destroy all light magic by bringing back all Dark Ones from the Underworld.

He smiled cruelly as he answered, "We both know there's no other way, love. This is what you made me. I told you, I am going to hurt you, the same way you hurt me. If you really loved that weak minded fool I once was, you would have just let him die. And now your family is going to pay the price of your weakness."

Nimue stepped forward to stand beside Hook as she spoke up saying, "It's time."

"No, you're not taking the people I love!" the Dark Savior responded angrily as she attempted to step forward until she was held in place as Nimue used her own dark magic to choke her.

"I might not be able to kill you, but I can stop you from interfering," she replied as Hook walked down to the edge of the pond, ignoring the cold glares from the people Killian Jones used to care about, then sliced his hand with Excalibur, letting his blood drip down into the water to open the portal to the Underworld where the boatman would rise from to drag all of the living souls down."

David shouted, "I thought you had changed! We thought you changed. After everything we've done for you!"

The pirate looked back at him as he called back, "After everything you've done for me, mate? You mean, willingly allowed me to date your daughter? Cause a lot of good that's done for all of us! It's because of you lot that I've become the very monster I've sworn revenge on for centuries. And now you're all going to suffer for it."

"Mom!" Henry cried out when the Dark Ones who had marked each of the heroes, forced them all back aboard the boat with a burst of power, then stood in the shallow end of the pond as everyone, including Hook and Emma, watched them all get dragged away as they screamed. "Mom!

"I warned you, love," Hook said again coldly as Emma collapsed down to the ground and cried, especially upon hearing her son beg for her to save him. "You wanted to turn me into a Dark One? Well now you've got him."

The pirate smiled as he ignited a flame within the palm of his hand and then spoke up again saying, "And now, it's time to finally burn down this cursed town once and for all and anyone who resists me will suffer as well. Try to stop me, Emma, but we both know that I am now the stronger of the two of us. I'll be seeing you."

It was then that the pressure upon his mind immediately let up as Killian gasped in horror and anguish upon seeing what he might have done, then before he could say anything, Rumpelstiltskin laughed again and asked, "Now do you believe that what you see around you isn't real? This may be an illusion, but up there… You failed, Captain. You gave into the darkness and Emma, at last thrust Excalibur through your chest to destroy that darkness, once and for all. She is the only true hero. You've just forgotten because you've been here in the Underworld for nearly as long as you had been alive. Miss. Swan no longer loves you and like it or not, you are once again the villain you feared you'd become, Hook."

"You're lying!" Hook shouted angrily. "Get out of my head!"

"The sooner you accept what I've told you, the easier this eternity can be for you," the Dark One answered smugly. "Hades will welcome you at his side, if you be the man I know you really are."