X Marks the Spot
Chapter Twenty-Five
When Black Beard reawakened sometime again early the next morning, he blinked several times to clear his vision in order to get a better look at his surroundings, believing that he was once again trapped within another memory. The sunlight coming into the room through a large window beside him made it difficult, but once he was able to see well enough, he found that he was lying within a large bed with bars on the sides, while tubes had been attached to his arms and what appeared to be strange boxes with blinking lights beeped around him.
He attempted to raise his hand in order to rip out the tubes, but immediately discovered that his right wrist was cuffed to one of the bars on the bed and attempted to break free while he angrily called out, "What the devil happened? Where am I? I demand answers!"
Within a few minutes after the prisoner started hollering, David finally walked into the room, followed by Emma, August, and Regina, who moved to stand in the back of the room behind the others in order to let them talk to Black Beard first. Emma was about to say something until her father placed his hand gently on her shoulder to keep her from doing so for now, then spoke for her instead.
He moved around to the right side of the pirate's bed and said steadily, "You're in the hospital still here in town, just like you were when you first woke up a few hours ago. You became pretty sick for a little while, but Dr. Whale said you're going to be fine. It appears you've suffered nothing more than a side effect of the curse taking its course, while it took a hell of a toll on Hook."
"What I saw and felt was more than just some bloody side effect, Sheriff," Black Beard responded curtly, then wriggled the cuffs again as if to bring them to David's attention. "It was the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. Why am I lying here chained to this bed?"
"Because you're still a prisoner," Emma answered in frustration. "You won't be going anywhere. It's no less than you deserve for what you've done."
August reached out and pulled her back before his closest friend's temper could get the better of her while David continued, "You're pretty lucky though. Our doctor said that you would have died had you remained trapped inside your mind with Hook. But Whale gave you something to pull you out, so we could save your life. You were barely breathing when we did."
Black Beard then became smug as he looked between the two sheriffs and asked, "And what about Hook? Is he dead yet then?"
"Hook wasn't as lucky as you," Emma sadly replied. "He's still alive, but he's struggling to hold on. He was barely breathing like you, until his body finally stilled. It wasn't long after that when he began to spit up water that had magically filled up in his lungs as if he was drowning. But he was able to recover from that as well. Whether it was thanks to Dr. Whale or not… I don't know. The point is we haven't been able to save him yet. But at least we know who helped you to curse Hook in the first place, Rumpelstiltskin. We just need to know where you hid Hook's missing hand."
"Forget it," the villain sneered cruelly. "I won't help my oldest enemy escape from the hell he's trapped in. I came here to see Hook dead and now, he finally will be. As for your prison, I've been in a number of brigs in fact. Yours doesn't scare me, wench."
Emma looked over at her father and August again, then finally turned her head to Regina as she too stepped forward to approach the bed while she locked eyes with the Savior who only nodded and the former Evil Queen turned to Black Beard as she responded, "We figured you'd say something like that. Which is why we've come up with a new way to get you to talk. Tell me, Black Beard. Have you felt anything off since you woke up? I mean, you're still recovering of course, but… Does your left arm feel a little strange to you, or surprisingly in a bit of pain?"
Black Beard immediately glanced down to where his hand was resting on the bed upon feeling the sudden pain the dark haired woman just spoke of begin to flare up and discovered that his hand was gone, cut clean off by the sword that Regina was now holding in her hands as she raised it up for him to see as if to taunt him with it.
He struggled harder against the handcuffs while the pain only continued to worsen and he screamed angrily shouting, "What have you done to me? You cut off my hand, witch!"
"That's right, I did," Regina answered proudly, then tossed the sword over to David, who caught it easily. "Just as Rumpelstiltskin did to Hook over two hundred years ago. We warned you to tell us what we wanted to know to save our friend. Now you've left us no choice, but to carry out your punishment for hurting him and maybe even killing him. You better hope that doesn't happen. I can restore your hand if you want it back. It'll be just like new and you won't feel a thing. All it takes is a bit of magic on my end."
"You just need to tell us where you've hidden Hook's hand," David continued sternly. "If not, you'll be sent back to the Enchanted Forest once we find a way to get rid of the protection spell around our town that's been keeping us all trapped here."
August cut in saying, "You'll be forced to sail the oceans, to pillage and plunder as another one handed pirate. People will laugh at you and mock you, saying you're trying to be just like your arch nemesis, Captain Hook."
Emma finally chimed in as well as she stated, "Like you've told Hook in the past, you're not much of a pirate or a man with only one hand and a stub."
"Perhaps we could give him a hook of his own," Regina added. "Cutting off his hand and letting him go to fend for himself in the wilds of the open seas should be plenty harsh I think."
"Whatever it is you heroes want to know!" Black Beard finally snapped angrily. "I will tell you. I'll tell you where it was that I buried Hook's hand. I placed it inside a small chest that I purchased from the Dark One's shop after he told me to take it and hide it, then I buried it down on the beach by an old chunk of driftwood I found embedded into the sand near the cliffs. I marked it so that I would easily be able to find it again before I left this cursed land for good. I wanted a souvenir to take back with me in order to prove to all other pirates and sailors that it was I who killed Captain Hook."
Emma glared at him as she used her gift to sense if he was lying and when she saw that he was speaking the truth, she turned to leave until the villain called out to her shouting, "Do you really think that you can save him now just because you'll find it? He's dying, Savior. And you can't stop it. You have no idea what kind of hell he's trapped in."
She froze with fear for a moment without turning around to face anyone until August stepped up behind her and placed his hand down on her shoulder gently like before as a way to reassure her that everything was going to be all right, then together the two of them walked out of the room to go in search of Killian's hand needed to save him.
Once they were gone, Black Beard said again, "I told you lot the truth about where to find his hand. Now give me back mine! We had a deal, witch."
"Call me witch one more time and I'll take your hand for real no matter what kind of deal we made," Regina countered in frustration and with a wave of her own hand, his suddenly reappeared as though it was never gone to begin with because it never really was.
"This was all some bloody trick?!" Black Beard angrily cried out.
While he fought to stifle a laugh, David replied, "Of course it was a trick. A simple cloaking spell over your hand from Regina, along with the power of suggestion to induce the pain you were feeling was all it took. You said it yourself, pirate. We're heroes. We never would have cut off your hand for real. But now you've had a chance to understand a little of how it feels for Hook every day since he lost his. My gut tells me that you'll never change and remain the same bastard of a pirate you've always been, which is why we'll be seeing you later to escort you to your new prison cell beneath this hospital, where you'll remain for a long, long time. Feel better, Black Beard."
The pirate shouted, "Not bloody likely!"
When they finally finished their business with Storybrooke's latest villain, David and Regina both turned to leave the room as Whale walked back in to check on his patient. Until Emma and August returned to the hospital with Killian's hand, the Savior's father and the town's Mayor then entered their friend's room again so they could watch over him while they were gone.