"A treasure?" Evie wondered aloud. "You didn't mention any of that, Ben. Do you think it has to do with the curse?"
The young king frowned thoughtfully. If he hadn't said anything about a treasure before, it was because he didn't know what treasure they were talking about. They had taken refuge in a dark corner of the docks, away from prying eyes, trying to speak with more privacy. Ben could tell from her expression that Mal was truly off-kilter. He didn't know how much history she had with this girl, Uma, but it must be something really serious.
"I don't know," he confessed. "No one mentioned anything about a treasure, and I don't think there is enough gold on this isle to have hidden one".
"Whatever", Carlos said. "They are not here, so we cannot be sure that Ben's theory is true. And now what…?"
His sentence was cut in half when a large, callused hand covered his mouth, and by the time the others reacted, they were surrounded by a group of pirates. Ben tried to scream, tried to bite, saw the others fight the captors, but they were brought aboard a ship with the ease with which sacks of potatoes are loaded.
On board the Jolly Roger.
"Drop anchor!" Uma ordered, and her crew prepared everything to stop the ship immediately. The wound on her side was almost a blur now, a mere scar, though it hurt a little to make jerky movements. She felt powerful and at the same time restless, and something prompted her to go to find the treasure as quickly as she could. Harry stroked her fingers with his, quickly, a fleeting caress.
"We have arrived," Gil confirmed, glancing toward what was spread out in front of them. It was a piece of land linked to the Isle of the Lost, though the shoreline was completely craggy with stone and Uma saw that it was uninhabited, for there was no way to climb the rugged cliff that stretched inland.
Land full of scars, like those who inhabited it, the Isle of the Lost.
"It's what's marked on the map," Harry agreed, and suddenly he seemed a little nervous. "Gil, there is something Uma and I discovered shortly before the attack".
But that was not easy to say. Gil, like them, was trapped on the Isle. How could he tell his best friend that the Isle would sink if they couldn't break the curse? Harry's heart contracted painfully, but then he felt Uma safe and firm next to him, and he saw Gil's expectant expression, and he just said it.
"The isle is cursed, and Uma and I have activated the curse".
Gil frowned.
"Cursed?" He asked, "do you mean, metaphorically, or, like, cursed cursed?"
Uma exhaled deeply and put a hand on Gil's arm.
"When the Isle was created, Maleficent cursed it, Gil. She wanted power and got it through fear of love, so she cast a spell. If two people fell in love here, the Isle would sink. So, the Isle could end up at the bottom of the sea, and it would be Harry's and my fault".
He could get mad at them, of course. They had all been taught that love made people weak, and perhaps that was the most significant proof of it. Thanks to love they could die, although neither Harry nor Uma thought to take a step back, not when it was about the other. They were children of the Isle, and they lied to others, but they were always honest with themselves.
"So…?"
Harry cleared his throat, a little uncomfortable.
"Well," he began, looking at the tip of his hook as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. "There is a possibility of breaking the curse. This treasure was hidden by my mother, and apparently it is the only thing that can counteract Maleficent's magic. But if we don't succeed..."
Forgive us. We didn't mean to do this to you. To nobody. No matter how horrible this place is, no one deserves this.
Gil understood without Harry having to speak the words. He pulled them into a warm hug in which the three of them spent a long time, thanking each other for their presence, always.
"You deserve happiness," he told them, very serious, still with his best friends in the embrace. And the shape of his grip and voice said what he couldn't utter, so it wasn't a happy, gentle hug, but a painful one, filled with the recognition that they had survived together, the terrible calm and acceptance for what could happen if the curse was not broken, since Gil knew there was nothing to forgive. "We all deserve it, but it's good that you found it. You always had it, you're Harry and Uma, after all".
Uma frowned and pulled away from him a little.
"What do you mean?"
Gil returned the puzzled look.
"What?" He asked, then seemed to understand. "Oh! Well, we could all see it. It was one of the reasons I stayed away for a while. Since we were children, you seemed to have a different kind of dynamic, as if you belonged to each other. And so it is, right?"
Harry and Uma looked at each other, dumbfounded. Sure, they had always been close, and they had gone from being called almost best friends to simply best friends, then to captain and first mate, and that was, on the Isle of the Lost, a claim of belonging. But Captain Hook had realized that they were in love, and apparently that love, although different, had been something notorious since they were children. How had they survived on the Isle if everyone could see that they had chosen each other as partner, that they were part of the other? Such a great vulnerability… anyone could have used it against them.
Of course, it had been Gil, innocent, who made them notice.
"Someday we'll all get out of here, Gil," Uma promised, and she knew she had to keep the promise, even with the last second of her life, because she didn't promise things in vain. Not to Gil. "We are all going to be happy".
Because fierce, tough and evil, that's what everyone wanted. Liberty. The ability to live their lives as they choose. Find happiness in the vastness of the world, in the vastness of what existence, the deep sea and the tireless sky had to give them. Because they were people who deserved to live with dignity and not among the garbage of Auradon.
Uma hoped her anger was enough to break the barrier, even though it had told her the whole life that it wasn't like that. Because no matter how much she screamed, or how her fury hit the barrier, they were still in there.
Although that was before this, the magic, the treasure. Before Uma held Triton's trident in her hands and felt her lineage run from her through her veins, telling her that she was a worthy queen of the sea, that by right belonged to her.
A fallen queen, a stripped goddess who would take back what was hers. And she was not alone for it.
The private moment ended when the ship stopped, and Uma ordered a boat to be prepared to disembark. The three of them would go, so the crew could take care of the ship. Before long Harry, Gil, CJ and Uma were in a boat, rowing towards shore, and Harriet and Sammy were heading in the same direction as them.
When they disembarked and Harriet saw the state Uma was in, she seemed to decide that she would not ask questions and she just shook her head. Uma shrugged.
"Was there any indication on the map?" Asked Sammy. "Something that can tell us exactly where the treasure is?"
"Nothing," Harry said, surveying the place.
"Oh, the pirates and their inaccuracies!" CJ complained, kicking a stone angrily.
Uma took the map out of her pocket, but it was very clear that there was nothing to indicate where the exact location would be. She approached the cliff, all pointy, sharp rocks, and she ran her hand over the stone. It was wet, so maybe the tide would come in at night and lap the rocky banks.
"I think I see something," she heard Gil say, and then added, "oh no, forget it. It was just algae".
She rolled her eyes fondly as she continued to explore, and then she saw an opening, an impossible turn of the boulder. Inward, all she saw was blackness, but her necklace glowed brightly, flailing, making herself feel anxious. If magic called to her, that must be the place, but the opening wasn't big enough for a person to fit in, and although Uma pushed hard, there were no stones held up. It was hard, relentlessly closed.
There must be some kind of cave inside the hill, something. Then Uma's mind clicked, or maybe it was her own magic telling her what to do, guiding her. She murmured the song, in a low tone, barely a sigh… from Tower Hill to Blackwall, I'll wander, weep and moan, all for my jolly sailor, until he sails home. And she felt the words soak in energy, the whisper bouncing inside the dark hole, clinging to the walls, and then she drew back and felt a sting in her side from the sudden movement, as the stones fell one upon the other, detached.
A wider opening, enough to get in, opened in the rock, and Uma wondered, not for the first time, what it was Harry's mother had intended in singing that song for them. Would she, like Gil, know that Uma and Harry loved each other, even then? That they had chosen the other from the moment Harry comforted Uma when Mal threw her the shrimp?
"Hey, it's here!" She yelled to the others, who immediately came over to her.
CJ frowned.
"I'd swear there was nothing here," she said.
Uma nodded.
"There wasn't," she confirmed, then, to the questioning gaze of the others, she added in response: "the song."
"We better get in."
And that they did, one by one, they went into the darkness of the cavern.
Ben heard the sound of wood creaking, and the smell of hard liquor permeated the air, and he believed he had never been in a stranger situation. The world where Ben was born was soft and pleasant, the voices and dreams as tender as the first sprouts of spring. It wasn't perfect, but it was full of love and warmth. The Isle of the Lost, the Jolly Roger, was brimming with harsh sounds and rough surfaces.
They were surrounded by darkness, and the dampness of the old room where they had been kept, and Ben listened to Mal and Jay discussing an escape plan (something a bit pointless, since they had been tied up), but he couldn't think of anything other than how strange the situation was. He had just been kidnapped by pirates. The strangest of all? Ben was not afraid.
A new sound joined the creak of the wood, a thump, dry and rhythmic, slow. And when the room opened, Ben was facing Captain James Hook himself.
Imposing. That was the word to describe the man in front of him, barely lit by the light of a candle held by, who Ben guessed, must be Mr. Smee. If there was something gaunt about him, Ben didn't notice, because his attention was focused directly on the hook. Sharp, gleaming with the light of the flame as if it were made of fire, with his red coat, wide hat, and an expression that said he knew pain beyond pain, that he did not fear the edge of a sword or the burning of gunpowder, because he had absolutely nothing to lose. Nothing.
That scared Ben more than the hook could have scared him.
Yet there was something more in him. Not only did he have a hook hand, but now too - and that was what had caused the constant pounding - he had a severed leg, replaced by a wooden leg.
"Let us get out of here!" Evie demanded, quite emboldened. "In Auradon they will notice the absence of the king, and they will send someone to look for him!"
Hook made an impatient and slightly dismissive gesture and entered the room, followed by some of his men, the ones who had kidnapped Ben and his friends.
"Don't waste your time, child, nor will I waste mine. I have brought you here because I know you are looking for my son, and Ursula's daughter. The weather in Auradon has made you slow and unsuspecting, and you must have known that it would be suspicious to enter the sea witch's shop and just ask". Captain Hook looked Ben straight in the eye. "So, it's you, huh? The son of Beast. King of Auradon. Have you already found out, is that why you came here?"
Ben didn't hesitate when he answered and was inwardly grateful for that.
"The curse," he answered, firm, sure. With the voice of a worthy king, not that of a child. "What do you know about it, Captain Hook?"
Hook seemed a bit impressed by the calm with which Ben spoke.
"More than you, in any case, king. That is why I have brought you here. Right now, everyone that inhabits the Isle of the Lost is in danger, including you, so let's talk business".
It was the most beautiful place Harry or Uma had ever seen, and it was also the most painful place. Uma felt a buzzing, bouncing off the cave walls, like a strange yet familiar vibration, wanting to enter her, being rejected by the very energy that lived within her... magic. Warm as the most inviting hug, fire like the one that ignited in her belly when her desire for Harry was vivid. Passionate, intense.
It made her stop, holding her chest with her hand, feeling a thousand inexplicable things, all running through her at the same time with unusual force. Uma gasped and had Harry and Gil instantly aside, ready to hold her, perhaps believing that the pain was due to her injury. Harry put a hand on her back gently, and Uma allowed herself to lean on him a little, just a little.
"Are you okay, Captain?" He asked.
She nodded, taking several deep breaths.
"The magic," she explained, almost out of breath. "Is strong".
It made sense. A spell as great as that, capable of so much destruction, had to be profoundly powerful. Therefore, a spell capable of breaking it had to be just as strong. At least Harry and Uma knew from the letters they had read, Harry's mother had left in it all that was left of the Neverland magic in her.
Harry nodded in understanding, and he and Gil stayed close to Uma.
For a moment, they could only contemplate the wonder of the place. It was a cool cave where water gushed out from among the moss-covered stones and flowed into a natural pool that should reach the sea. The water was crystal clear, turquoise blue like Uma's braids, and its sound was different from the waves that screamed furiously against the ships, this was almost a song, a thing so sweet that it reminded Uma of transparent and clear things.
And, across the pond, on a stone mound, was a red chest, full of dust, forgotten. CJ raised an eyebrow.
"Is this all?" She asked skeptically, "I thought mom would bring some jewelry, rubies or something, at least".
Harriet hissed.
"CJ!" She growled impatiently. "It's not supposed to be interesting, it's supposed to break the curse. And about that, there is something I have to tell you guys".
Harry sighed dramatically.
"We know," he confessed. "Uma found a letter from our mother where she was talking about the treasure".
Harriet and CJ looked at each other, genuinely surprised.
"Oh," Harriet mused, raising an eyebrow. "Well. Fine. So we must cross first, I guess".
She seemed nervous, something Harry found strange. One by one, they got into the pond and swam to cross to the other side. The water was warm, and Harry couldn't help but feel like he was home. He stayed close to Uma, always within reach of her in case she needed to hold onto something, but she smiled at him when she came out of the water, drenched, her eyes gleaming and happy, as she always did when she swam. Uma loved the sea and Harry loved being sheltered by the water, because it was as if he was surrounded by her.
Gil helped her out of the pond while the others wrung out their clothes, in a vain attempt to dry themselves. And then the six headed for the chest.
Harriet thought she remembered it, barely clouded in her memory, as one of the many chests on the Jolly Roger when she was a child, when there were still treasures among the loose boards and each day on the ship was a day to explore and marvel. Before bitterness entered her heart and ate her from inside.
She watched Harry kiss Uma's braids as they thought no one was watching, and Uma roll her eyes lovingly, and Harriet wondered desperately if it all had to end like this.
The people on the Isle did not know love. It was a concept that was undoubtedly linked to Auradon, to rage and the lust for revenge, and it was the greatest weakness a villain could display. The closest Harriet had been to it was the care her mother provided for all of them, and yet… even with that, she never felt it. She had secretly tried (she was curious, adventurous), but her heart couldn't beat any stronger than it did.
Looking at her brother and Uma made her feel heartbroken, not that she would ever admit it. Each gesture they shared, filled with confidence, and Harriet wondered what it was like… letting down, being able to turn your back on someone without fear of betrayal. Would it hurt? Would it be satisfying, would it burn, or would it be like the thrill she felt when there was some adventure to launch into?
She forced herself to look away. If Harry and Uma knew what to do and were in peace with it, then she wouldn't think about it anymore. There was a lot more love out there, but there was only one Harry Hook, and he had to live.
She walked over to the chest and opened it, which was not difficult to do.
They all leaned in to see its contents.
"Trash," Gil said, a little disappointed. "There are only... pieces of different things".
"Maybe we got scammed," Sammy offered, and Harriet shook her head, reaching out to touch one of the objects, which was a furry fur collar, tied securely by a string.
"Wait!" Uma gasped. "This is magic. I perceive it. Besides, Harry and I managed to get Clayton to deliver us a package that Captain Hook sent, maybe there is something that works there".
Harry pulled the soaked package out of his coat and began to undo the string that bound it. Harriet made a face.
"Our father… what did he have to do with Clayton?"
Uma made a dismissive gesture.
"Long story, Harry will tell you later".
Harry managed to unwrap the object and dropped it into Uma's hand as he tried to read a note that had been written on the paper and was now practically an ink stain. Uma held the object under the natural light entering the cave, examining it.
"A ring?" She wondered. It was silver, with a white stone that reflected the lights of the water, and that called to her with a marine voice that only she could hear.
"Ursula's piece," Harry said, after deciphering some of the words that hadn't been completely erased. "It's what it says here. A real piece for the others to work, so I guess these must be the other villains' stuff, with which Maleficent did the curse".
Gil whistled, impressed, and leaned over to the chest to take another look.
Uma clutched the ring in her hand, feeling something familiar, like when she found the necklace and Harry glued it on for her. Ursula has done well to refuse to give her the piece, even if she did it just because she knew she would be giving up the last of her power. That's what Harry's mother had said in her letter. And maybe that was why Uma could sense her magic, even use it.
She felt a very strange affection for her mother, just for a second, but it was enough to realize that she would not have wanted to be anyone else but her daughter, even when she was her own person, because she could not imagine herself without the sea, because, although she never cared for her and although she made her feel many times like the worst of shames, Uma once saw strength and power in her mother.
That did not erase all the atrocities that Ursula had done, nor all the resentment that Uma felt in her heart, but it reaffirmed what she always knew, that she was not a shrimpy, but Uma. And her name was powerful and broad and bigger than any chain.
Then Harriet held the dagger out to them, and there was something like regret in her eyes as Harry and Uma stared at her blankly, except that the pain in her gaze said everything in an instant that floated endless, infinite, and in which hundreds of things happened.
Sacrifice is also powerful when pure and honest, the phrase echoed in Harry's mind as he felt the blood rush to his head and throb in his ears, making it impossible for him to hear anything else, and his eyes connected with Harriet's.
He felt the weight of truth sink into his stomach, hard, painful. Maleficent wouldn't have given love a second chance to destroy her, so she made sure that the only way her curse could be broken was by breaking those who had activated it in the first place. Harry understood by looking at the dagger extended in front of him and realized that it was a matter of seconds for Uma to understand as well.
What was the option? Refuse, and die and take the entire Isle of the Lost with them? No. Harry couldn't bear to see Uma suffer because of him, drowning when she was part of the sea. He didn't want that to be Gil's fate, either.
And he took a decision at that moment, although he felt the cold run through his body and nest in his throat, and for the first time he did not mind crying in front of the others, because whatever they had been taught stopped making sense, any human artifice stopped being reasonable. However, he did not do it because he did not want Uma to be distressed. Harry acted, almost without thinking, a little on automatic, because only then would he have the courage to do so.
When he acted, understanding was beginning to fill Uma's eyes. He approached her, who seemed stunned, took her face in his hands, warm, alive, and touched his lips with hers, knowing that there was nothing else in the world... nothing, that he wanted to do in that moment. He drank the taste of her hungrily, broken, soaking up from Uma. His Uma, always blue, wide, and free, full of salt and fury. What a privilege to have been hers.
"You were always my freedom, captain," he whispered, close to her ear so only she would know, like a secret. He snatched the ring from her hands and tossed it towards the chest, where it joined the other pieces.
And Uma tried to hold onto his clothes to prevent him from doing so, but in a second Harry had already taken the dagger from Harriet's hands and the next thing he knew he felt the metal inside him, hard, burning, sharp, cutting his meat. Drawing the dagger again hurt too, but it was nothing compared to Uma's scream, terrible, that of a wounded queen, and Harry could only drop the dagger, soaked with his blood, the blood of his sacrifice, into the chest, with the other pieces, before falling into the pond.
Harry didn't come out again.
A strong tremor shook the earth before Uma fell into the pond behind Harry, feeling the worst pain she had ever felt in her life. She heard CJ sob and Gil yell their names, but the only thing she could think about, the only thing that kept her sane, was following the trail of blood that Harry's body left in the water as he sank, away from her, unattainable...
Then her hand closed over a leather coat, and she tugged him, heavy, too easy to move, so lifeless, and she hugged Harry as she swam up into the pond light, out of the water.
She didn't know where she got the strength to bring him to the surface, but the next thing she knew he was lying on his back, but he didn't react, and the blood soaked her. The ground kept shaking violently and Harriet and CJ tried to push her away from Harry's body, but Uma clung tooth and nail to him.
"The cave is going to collapse!" Harriet yelled, her voice cracking, "we have to get out of here, you have to leave him!"
But Uma couldn't. She did not want. This was her place. Sharing his destiny, as he was always to her side, in the misery of the Isle and in brief moments of happiness, at least accompany him while the world fell apart without sense, lacking all logic and all goodness. Without any hope. Stunned, Uma realized that the pain in her heart was stronger than any hint of rage, and that the magic that her body had rejected before her now entered her like an open door. Maleficent's dark and twisted magic, fighting her own, which had mixed with Harry's mother's.
Uma felt something burning from within her, consuming her.
"Take Gil," she asked Harriet, barely holding back a sob, because she couldn't allow herself to be weak at that moment. She could not. If she let her emotions surface, even for a second, she was sure she would break down. "I'm not leaving".
Harry's heart kept beating, albeit so softly, and Uma focused on him, telling him that she wouldn't left him, that no matter what, she would stay with him. Harry must have already been unconscious from the pain, and Uma was aware that his blood was sticking to her hands with which she tried to cover the wound in vain.
"I'm not leaving either," Gil growled, tears sticking to his face as he tried to hold onto something to keep his balance.
Uma roared angrily.
"I'm not asking you, it's an order! I'm still your captain!"
"Uma..." Gil started, but he understood that this fight would only take away her time with Harry, and he could only do one thing. He walked over to her, kissed her cheek, and then kissed Harry's forehead.
Harriet tugged at him as she, CJ, and Sammy ran toward the cave exit. Uma felt another part of herself ripped from her when she saw Gil disappear forever, away...
Large chunks of stone began to loosen from the ceiling. The cave was collapsing, the world was falling on them, and Uma could only think of one thing to do in the middle of that shock, and pain, and nonsense.
"Everything is going to be fine, Hook. I promise you".
She hugged him, took a breath, and as the cave fell apart, she threw them both into the water again. The curse was broken, but the Isle of the Lost was sinking. And in that moment when the magic came together, contradictory, and alive, the magic of the barrier that kept the Isle of the Lost deprived of the world was broken. And when Uma touched the water again, her necklace shone and she was wrapped, still clinging to Harry, her best friend, her first mate, her life partner, in a whirlwind of the sea.