United In a Second Chance

Chapter Twenty-One

Inside Morgause's lair…

Upon their return, Gothel stared at Morgause in confusion while the sorceress helped her by sitting her in her own chair, conjured up a blanket for her and wrapped it gently around her shoulders, then sat down on the ground of the cave in front of her, before she finally spoke softly saying, "Everything is going to be all right for you now. At last, you're free. I wish I could have freed you sooner… Or that I could have been with you before that young girl turned you into that blackened tree so I might have been able to save you then, but… How do you feel? Is there anything I can get for you?"

The tree nymph looked away from her as she looked around the open cavern and then she responded sternly, "I'll be better once my daughter is taken care of permanently so that she will no longer be a threat to me. I gave her a chance to take her rightful place at my side, but she refused because she has too much of her father in her. Who was that who saved her just now from my wrath? Alice called out to him by his name, and some pretty blonde cried out for him as well. It's clear he wasn't the bastard of a pirate who's thwarted my plans time and time again, yet he had Hook's face."

"He's another version of Hook, from this realm we're in now," Morgause quietly replied as she remained on the ground in front of her. "The original version of Captain Hook, before his Wish Realm was ever created it would seem. A lot has changed since you became trapped within that tree, sister. And you're no longer in Hyperion Heights, but in a land now known as the United Realms, or simply Storybrooke… as it was called before all realms were brought together in another curse. Please… rest and I promise, I will tell you everything."

"Why did you free me, after everything that happened between us the last time we saw one another all those years ago?" Mother Gothel then questioned the sorceress, as she finally looked down upon her. "Why risk your life and your own freedom for me?"

Before answering her, the sorceress's mind momentarily became lost while she thought back to the early morning so long ago in New Wonderland, when she failed to become the sixth member of the witch coven and was cast out as well as shunned for being unable to fulfill her test Gothel had tasked her with.

Fourteen years ago…

Meanwhile, on the hill just above the village, Morgause and Madame Leota stood while they looked down upon the huts below and listened to the breeze in the air through the silence which surrounded them, as the villagers had yet to awaken because the sun had yet to begin to rise.

The sorceress breathed in and out as she prepared herself for what lay ahead for her, then upon seeing the look of concern for the people she was tasked to kill, the medium at last said to her harshly, "Those people down there… they are nothing. They are strangers, who do not know who you are and will never care to. In one moment, if they were to discover you are a witch, they would not hesitate to kill you. Nor me. Anyone who is not one of us, does not deserve to go on breathing. Humanity is a sickness, which we have all been asked to eliminate. Do not think of them as innocents. Think of them as if they were those who murdered your son. Who forced you to run from your own home. Think of them, as those who forced you to hide who and what you truly are. If you can destroy them all, Morgause… you will not just become one of us. But you will finally and truly be free. Is that what you want?"

The younger woman not yet a member of Gothel's coven turned to her as she then answered in sincerity, "It's what I want more than anything. I'm not thinking about the guilt I might have when I kill everyone down there, Leota. Not anymore. I'm just thinking about finally having the chance to avenge my son and making those who ended his life pay at last. I need my anger to fuel my resolve if I am to succeed here. And now I've found it."

"Then it is time," Leota darkly responded again, as she smiled at the other woman standing beside her. "Dig deep down inside of yourself, and show us your true gift. Destroy them all."

"Thank you," Morgause replied to her, then she raised her hands out in front of her and suddenly ignited the unlit torches below to light up the village, before she slowly began to walk down the hill towards them while she began to cast a dark spell over all those still fast asleep.

As she did so, Madame Leota saw that this sorceress she had been asked to look after by her sister excelled in spreading deep rooted fear through a mastery of delusions and hallucinations. Morgause unleashed her raw magic against the people, conjuring images of what every one of them were most afraid of by making them believe that they themselves were each other's demons.

Soon enough, the people began to awaken as if from a nightmare and it wasn't long before their screams could be heard throughout the village, as those they went to sleep believing to be their sisters, mothers, sons, brothers, fathers, and loved ones, had become their worst fears and enemies. And then, they soon began to attack one another upon being unable to tell what was real and what wasn't. Death wasn't far behind.

Morgause smiled cruelly upon watching as man suddenly struck his neighbor in his head with a staff to knock him down to the ground, then began to beat him over and over until the man at his feet was dead. She couldn't see for herself what or who he believed he had just killed to keep himself from being killed, but she didn't have to in order to feel the satisfaction of watching them destroy themselves because of her power.

Others began to die, as wails of grief and shrieks of anger and fear sounded all around the sorceress while she continued to emit her dark magic. Eventually, the village caught fire and the homes started to burn to ground, while more deaths followed. Everything was perfect… until Hook and Nessathorn suddenly interfered as they appeared before her, and the witch formerly from Oz swiftly blasted Morgause off her feet to try to break off her enchantment she had cast over the village.

Once they saw what was happening around them, Hook swiftly struck one of the men closest to him attempting to kill a young woman, upside his head with his hook to render him unconscious, then he turned back to the witch he hoped truly was currently on his side and pleaded, "We have to save as many people as we can. Help me get them out of here."

Upon seeing Nessathorn and the pirate appear as well, Leota walked down into the village to join her sister and she swiftly commanded, "Kill the pirate. Leave the witch to me."

"You're too late to stop what I've already unleashed, pirate," the sorceress darkly called out to Hook as she approached him, while he helped another young woman who had been freed from the spell upon it being weakened by lifting her from the ground, then demanded her to run from the village, and swiftly knocked one of the huts down atop of another villager who attempted to attack him by breaking away two of its support beams away with his sword. "How dare you try to stop me!"

"Stopping you wasn't initially what I came here for tonight, but these villagers have helped me when I needed them," he coldly answered her, then raised his sword out in front of him to defend himself against her for as long as he could. "And if you're one of Gothel's sisters… well, then I have no qualms in killing you. Just as you clearly have no qualms with killing all these innocent people. Fancy a duel? Your magic's become weak, witch. So long as you're focused on me, you can't continue to force your fear upon them."

Not far away from where they stood, Nessarose used her magic to snuff out the fires the best she could, as well as to try to break the trances over a number of the people until she was interrupted when Madame Leota appeared behind her and struck her down with blasts of electricity from her fingertips. However, before the medium could attack her again, the witch who refused to become a member of the coven fought back to defend herself by firing her own magic against hers.

Morgause then glared at Hook while she responded to him, "My name is Morgause and I'm a powerful sorceress. What makes you think you can keep me from killing you… a mere human without magic, when all you have is that sword and hook of yours to try to protect yourself with?"

The Captain kept his eyes firmly on her as he steadfastly replied, "You'd be surprised by the battles I've survived and the villains I've faced in all my years. You may not have magic, but I do have a few tricks of my own."

The sorceress summoned a fireball into the palms of her hands and attempted to strike him down, yet Hook dodged the first blast, then dove beneath her second one as he flipped over until he landed just behind the witch. She then spun around to face him again. However, before she could grasp what he was about to do, the pirate swiftly thrust his sword's blade into the flames from a wagon of furs close by him and it immediately caught fire, then he swung it around towards the villainess standing before him as the burning blade slashed her across her cheek, causing the fire to spread across the right side of her face while she screamed out in pain until she managed to snuff out the flames.

"I swear… I will kill you!" she then screamed at him in anger, and swiftly conjured a burst of magic to force the pirate off his feet high through the air until he landed roughly against the ground again not far from where the other two witches continued to fight as well. "You may have saved some of these people, but the night isn't over yet. And I'm not finished."

"You're right," he weakly answered her as he struggled to sit up again, before he finally saw Mr. Smee standing not too far away behind the witch, while he showed him the magic bean he brought for him in his hand.

Hook glanced away from his former first mate, now Captain of the Jolly Roger, as he glared up at Morgause once more and then he added, "But you haven't exactly completed your test like I imagined Gothel wanted you to… did you? Not if even one innocent person survives."

Morgause at last summoned another blast with enough dark magic to kill the man before her. However, the moment she threw it, Hook shocked her once again when he suddenly lunged forward and dove beneath her again, just as her magic struck Madame Leota by mistake. And when the medium erupted into flames as both women screamed, one in pain and the other in anger, it took no more than a few seconds before she abruptly burst into nothing but ash. Then without hesitation, Hook swiftly jumped into the portal which opened up behind her after Smee tossed the bean into the ground to help his Captain avoid her attack and to escape, knowing he had done all he could for the people.

The sorceress continued to scream in anger and despair upon seeing she killed one of her sisters she had come to care about, as she and Nessathorn stared down at the ground between them in shock. And then all of a sudden, large roots burst up through the ground as they began to wrap themselves around the former Witch of the North, until they killed her and dropped her coldly to the ground.

Morgause stared down at the other witch in confusion, until Gothel at last walked out from the shadows into the light from the fires surrounding them, while the surviving villagers continued to flee all around them. And when the younger woman saw the nymph appear before her, she collapsed to her knees and bowed at her feet in an attempt to plead for forgiveness.

Mother Gothel just glared down at her while she stated furiously, "You failed me. And you killed Leota… one of my dearest sisters. You couldn't… even kill the man who tried to stop you! Instead… you allowed Hook to escape! You deserve to suffer in your misery and with the pain of these burns for the rest of your life."

"Please… I can hunt him down, and I will kill him," the sorceress begged with her, in hope that she would give her a second chance at redemption. "And I can still complete my task. I will kill everyone here. I can become one of you still."

"You will never be one of us," the dark villainess cruelly responded, as the other three witches within her coven stepped up behind their leader and glared down upon Morgause as well. "I do not give second chances. Return home to your Camelot, or stay here and remain as pitiful as you truly are. I don't care. I never want to see your face again. If I do… my face will be the last sight you ever see."

And with that said, Mother Gothel, Seraphina, Sage, and Hilda all suddenly vanished within clouds of smoke taking their sister's ash with them, leaving Morgause alone in misery and anguish among the flames and all that was left standing of the village now in ruins, while the last of the villagers fled.

Back in the present…

At last, Morgause looked up at Gothel from the ground again as she finally replied, "I saved you despite everything because… because you helped me when no one else did all those years ago. I was all alone and you took me in. You helped me to enhance my power, even though it took me a few years longer to claw my way back from the misery of my failure so I could become who I was meant to be. I never stopped seeing you as my sister. And now we have both failed. But now that I have finally freed you, we can kill these heroes and destroy this world together. We can make Hook and his daughter pay for what they've done to us. Please tell me, I have earned your forgiveness. That is all I've ever wanted."

The tree nymph looked away from her once more while she thought a moment, then she answered sinisterly, "Help me to kill the girl who has the power still to entrap me, as well as her father, Morgause… and perhaps you and I can begin again. It would seem I've no choice, since I did fail. Because I underestimated the love Alice and Hook share for one another. Now… tell me everything that's happened since my daughter turned me into that damned tree."