Quelling My Bloodlust

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Meanwhile…

Upon returning to the castle where Arthur waited for those now under his control to follow his orders, Merlin and Hook stood across from the King while the Sorcerer continued to hold Emma within his grasp as she struggled against him. Smee stood off to his Captain's left side, though slightly behind him out of concern, especially when Arthur glanced towards him with wonder as to why the Dark One had brought him along as well when it wasn't one of Hook's orders to do so. Finally, Arthur looked to Emma when Merlin shoved her down into one of the chairs surrounding the round table and smiled cruelly, while Zelena laughed upon seeing the Savior had been rendered helpless in part because of the man she loved.

Arthur spoke calmly saying, "Welcome back, Savior. You'll forgive me for not treating you with the same courtesy I showed to you and your family the first time you came into my home. But it's like I said, you all lied to me about bringing the Dark One here. And you protected the monster he is at great risk to me and to my people."

Emma glared at him as she angrily retorted, "Don't pretend what you've done and what you're doing is for your people, or even for your kingdom anymore. It might have been once a long time ago, but you've long since become as corrupt as any other villain we've faced. As far as Killian's concerned, it's you who made him what he's become. I know the man I love is still in him and that he'll break free again when he needs to. But for now you're the one who forced him to become the Dark One when you turned him against those he loves. You're the only one to blame for him being a threat!"

"It appears you might be right about him having some good left in him," the King answered smugly as he turned to Hook and saw the struggle belonging to Killian Jones within his eyes while Emma spoke, until he looked away in shame. "Which is good actually. And the reason why I've had Merlin bring you here. I need you both to help bring out the good in the Dark One once again even though he has finally surrendered to the power of the darkness. You see, I need the flame that will allow me to reforge Excalibur in its entirety. However, the only way to do that is if he can resist the darkness enough to get it."

"So… now you expect me to get you this all-powerful flame that requires there to be enough good in me, after all you've done to try to bring out all the bad?" Hook darkly questioned Arthur. "It's just as Emma said, Your Majesty… Thanks to you, there's barely any good in me left. You saw to that, the moment you stole the dagger away from the only heroes here in this kingdom anymore. And bringing out that good man again… it isn't just something you can command of me."

Zelena chortled once again as Arthur glanced towards her along with everyone else, then he walked over in front of the Dark One while he gripped the dagger tighter in his hand and responded, "Maybe not. I may not be able to command you to be good, but I can threaten the woman the man inside of you loves. One more reason why I had Merlin bring her here. You're going to join Merlin on this quest to get the flame. Allow Merlin to help bring out the side of you whom you despise so much because he makes you weak. Fail me, and I will order you to kill Emma when you return. What is it you truly care about most… Dark One? Your love for her, or your power?"

Emma immediately looked to the Sorcerer as she called out, "That's how we can rid Killian of the darkness too… isn't it? By reforging the blades together by means of this magical flame? Can it destroy the darkness once and for all?"

"Yes, it can," Merlin replied gently.

"Killian… you need to do this so we can help you defeat the darkness," the Savior continued as she rose to her feet and started towards the man she loved until Merlin reached out to grip her shoulder when Emma stood an inch away from the pirate captain, while Hook stared down into her eyes. "You don't have to do this to help Arthur. Only yourself."

The King raised the dagger again to his chest, and gripped the hilt of Excalibur, then he shouted, "Enough! You're to get the flame and bring it to me, or Emma dies."

Merlin then turned to Arthur as he stated, "If you wish for us to succeed, we'll be needing the dagger."

"Are you mad?" the King asked curtly as he glared at the Sorcerer coldly. "If I give it over to either of you, I lose my control over him."

"It's the only way Hook can pass the test required of him so he can get the flame," Merlin firmly answered. "Without it, this quest is impossible. You still have your control over me. And I am more powerful than even the Dark One. Should he attempt to escape from me with the blade in his possession, I can and will stop him. That is… should you command me to do so. You also have Emma here as a prisoner. The Dark One might not care, but Killian does. He won't ever abandon her no matter how much power the darkness has over him."

Arthur stared at him in search for any sign of deception in his eyes and then finally handed the dagger over to the Sorcerer while he responded crossly, "Then I command you keep him in line. You're to stop him should he attempt to escape. Either of you fail me, Emma dies."

Just before nightfall…

Upon the beginning of their journey, neither man spoke as they started out. The strain between them had been mended somewhat before Hook had given into the darkness, but now that the darkness had taken over, his distrust in the Sorcerer was even stronger than it was before and Merlin understood why.

Finally, the Dark One was the first one to break the silence that had fallen over them as he turned his head to look at him and said crossly, "You look dire. What is it?"

"When we get there, we will need to deal with the first Dark One," Merlin replied desolately as he kept his head turned down and his eyes on the path in front of them.

"The one who wore the mask?" Hook immediately questioned, as he thought back to the rest of the conversation between him and Merlin on his ship just before Emma and the others arrived early that very morning. "The one who killed the woman you love?"

The Sorcerer nodded and then answered, "The very same. This is not a trivial task."

Hook glared him as he angrily retorted, "I've been seeing Rumplestiltskin. Like, a voice in my head. And now you want me to let another one in?"

"Yes, and not just anyone," he responded sternly when Merlin finally lifted his head to look over at the man beside him. "This is the first Dark One, the original, the one from whom all the evil that followed was born."

"Will we win?" Merlin swore then that Killian Jones asked of him in fear, instead of the man whom the darkness had taken over.

Merlin sighed and then spoke again saying, "I see two paths for our journey, Killian. On one, you resist the darkness and we succeed. On the other, you succumb even more to the darkness and I do not return. I die."

Hook again stared at him in confusion as he uttered, "You die? But…"

"Even immortality has exceptions," the Sorcerer replied to him before his friend could finish. "A Dark One does have the power to kill me."

"But they won't even be there," the Captain answered. "Not really."

When Merlin looked down, Hook understood then what he was trying to tell him and continued, "Oh. It would be me. If you died, it would be me."

Merlin looked at him once more as he responded, "If I die, it means that you lost your battle and the darkness stained your soul. Everything and everyone that you know will be at the mercy of the most powerful Dark One ever… Yourself. No pressure."

"I've already embraced my powers and have accepted the darkness," Hook replied ashamedly as he looked ahead of them again to avoid seeing into the Sorcerer's eyes. "It has already stained my soul. Do you honestly believe that I have a chance at succeeding?"

"Only if you allow for Killian Jones to come back out and let him be the man to finish this quest we've begun," the all-powerful being strongly answered. "He can save us all, or condemn us all. If you do fail, not only will I die, but so will the woman you love. I believe in the strength of that love. And in the strength I saw in the man whom I spoke with this morning on your ship."

Upon coming to some old ruins deep within the forest…

Merlin spent the rest of their long trek through the forest in the dark of night trying to remind Hook of the man he wanted to be, the man whom Killian had expressed to him of aboard the Jolly Roger, and who loved the Savior above all else, until they finally arrived as the Sorcerer spoke again stating, "This structure marks the end of Prometheus' theft. The stolen flame burned on for a great while… Long enough for Excalibur to be both forged and broken here. This is where the first Dark One killed Nimue, the woman I loved."

Hook stared ahead of him at the stone altar now in front of them as he questioned, "What happened to the flame?"

"The first Dark One took it and still possesses it in the form of a single ember, with the spark deep inside," Merlin responded reverently.

"So that's what I need to get," the younger of the immortals uttered coldly. "Okay."

At last, Merlin pulled the Dark One dagger from beneath his cloak and handed it over to Hook, then said worryingly, "You need its power to talk to the first Dark One, to reach all the way back to the origin of dark magic."

Hook stared coldly at his name across the blade now in his hand as he felt its power become more and more intense and he called out to Merlin saying, "It's buzzing, like… ants crawling up my arm."

"Is it safe?" the infamous pirate captain suddenly asked as he spun around to look at Merlin once more.

"Of course not," the Sorcerer darkly replied. "Your power is totally unchecked, and I've just handed you the power to kill me. Now… Call on the spirit of the previous Dark Ones."

"Take the right path," Hook answered to himself shakily, upon understanding what it was that was needed of him, though his hand shook while he continued to hold the dagger out before him, as he did then as he was told.

The Dark One dagger suddenly began to scroll back through the names of all previous Dark Ones while he concentrated hard on his task at hand, breathing heavily in and out upon doing so, until a figure in a robe and mask appeared before the Captain, then when the Sorcerer saw the dark being as well as Hook, Merlin stated, "You did it."

"Yes," the current Dark One dreadfully responded. "You can see him too?"

"Yes," Merlin replied as well. "Power has its advantages. And it's not a him."

Hook looked down at the Dark One dagger once again and saw the name now engraved upon it instead of his own while he answered, "Nimue."

When the first of the Dark Ones finally reached up to remove the mask in order to reveal herself, she also pulled back the hood over her head and responded, "Yes. I'm Nimue. And you are Killian Jones. Or rather… Captain Hook."

"It makes sense," Hook continued. "You killed the woman he loved because you killed the woman you used to be."

"Why didn't you tell me the full truth?" he sternly asked when he turned his head again towards the Sorcerer still standing a few feet away from them.

While Nimue looked at the man she once loved, Merlin turned his head to face Hook as he replied, "I did tell you. The creature over there is the first Dark One. It's not the woman I loved."

She gently lifted her chin as she then said, "It's been a long time, Merlin."

"I've thought of you every day," he despondently answered while he struggled to keep his tears from falling as he confronted her.

"And now, on your last day, I'll be your last thought," the woman responded to him cruelly, then was suddenly about to use her power to harm Merlin when Hook attempted to step in, only to discover it was his own power that did as Nimue wanted him to do. "How poetic."

Hook looked to Nimue again as he asked, "Why are you doing this? You loved him."

The first of all Dark Ones replied sinisterly, "Even when you love someone, you have to say, 'No, this is mine. You can't take it away from me.' And if they don't listen, if they try to stop you from being you, then you have no choice. You have to kill them."

"Oh…" she then mumbled coldly when the magic flowing through Hook now despite his struggle to stop it began to choke the Sorcerer, whom the man buried deep inside of him now considered a friend. "…and you're doing this…"

"…because we are one and the same now," Nimue continued, as Hook suddenly appeared over Merlin who was lying on the ground while he struggled to breathe against the force over his throat when the pirate wrapped his hand around it. "All Dark Ones, and we must destroy the threat to us. We must destroy Merlin."

Merlin looked in Hook's eyes and pleaded, "Killian… please."

Hook shook his head against the strain he was fighting against as he retorted, "It's… not me!"

"Finish the job!" Nimue shouted at him angrily as she knelt down beside Hook.

"Don't listen!" the Sorcerer uttered.

The woman with crocodile like skin taunted him cruelly saying, "He wants you to make a sword to destroy me, to destroy us."

Merlin didn't look away as he added again, "You can control this."

"Don't listen to him!" she shouted. "He doesn't understand what you and I do. He doesn't understand the power. If you don't kill him now, you'll go back to being powerless."

"Killing is the dark path," Merlin whispered, as he was almost on the verge of death.

Nimue cried out, "No! It's power to protect yourself and your loved ones!"

Merlin weakly uttered once more, "Let the light win."

"Kill him!" the villainess shouted again. "Don't go back to being nothing!"

"I'm not nothing!" Killian suddenly shouted angrily despite the darkness' power over him, when the good man within him emerged against all odds and released his hold against Merlin's throat, then rose back to his feet to face Nimue while he held the dagger out in front of him to keep her back, as the name once again changed back to Killian Jones.

Killian looked at her darkly as a single tear slipped from the corner of his eye and fell down his cheek when he continued, "All my life I was told I was nothing. And all my life I believed it. But then Emma… the Savior, came into my life and she made me believe I was worth more. That I could be a hero. And I was. I want to be so again. More than I want this power to destroy."

At last, Killian finished, "The power you have I don't need!"

"Now I am going to take that ember from you, and you are going to let me," Killian said firmly as he walked to stand in front of the woman before him and immediately ripped the ember from her chest using the magic inside of him to do so.

"The spark you need is in there…" she answered him coldly, gasping in pain as she breathed heavily against the strain of his actions. "But the sword you will make has more than one use, and I am not dead yet, pirate. You know where to find me when you want me."

She then reached out to touch his forehead and added, "I'll be right in there."

Nimue finally vanished from before him and moments later, Merlin rose again from the ground, then slowly approached his friend and walked around the Captain to see the ember glowing within the palm of his hand while he said proudly, "You did it."

"I did," Killian whispered weakly, unable to look into the Sorcerer's eyes out of shame for nearly killing him.

"How did it feel to take the right path?" he asked once again.

Killian stared at the ember, until he finally raised his eyes to look at the man before him while he responded, "Honestly, I… I didn't believe it was possible. I thought all good in me was gone. Thank you… Merlin. For reminding me as Emma did."

The Sorcerer smiled and said sincerely, "You're welcome."