He released Archie immediately and moved down the dock. He was a fool. A bloody, ignorant fool. When logic was lacking from a situation, the answer in their world and now in Storybrooke was almost always magic! He'd been unable to find Hook, the way the man had snuck in and out of his store, how he'd known exactly what to take, how his ship remained hidden. It was magic! And, fortunately, magic was a thing he knew.
He'd glanced down this dock but stayed off it, far away. He'd been desperate to find Hook but hadn't dared to search where his eyes saw nothing. Fool! Ignorant Fool! Even the Dark Ones thought so. Now he just had to hope that he hadn't risked Belle's life as well, that it wasn't too late!
He could feel it now; the closer he got to the dock, he could feel the magic in the air. It called to him, to his other senses, dared him to look for what he had too easily dismissed: Birds perched on the air, the break of the ocean below against an invisible hull, the creak and groan of old wood, and a smell he recognized. Magic. It was here. The ship was here but hidden from all eyes. But how to get onto it, how to get to where Belle was, how to find a gangplank or a bridge or a rope or whatever godsforsaken thing pirates used to get aboard their ships he wasn't-
He didn't need to find it. He had magic. He expanded his senses, teased and tested the magic he felt. It was strong magic, familiar in a way, but he hadn't the time to concern himself with how he knew the magic or where a plain and ordinary pirate had gotten it for himself. All that mattered was that his magic was stronger than it was. He closed his eyes, letting his senses guide him, letting them paint a picture for him in his mind's eye. The invisibility was like a fabric, a cloak of magic woven over the ship. Every fabric was made of the same thing…string, yarn, wool, spun and strung together in just such a way. No one knew more about that than he did. And so, he plucked and pulled at the strings of the magical blanket he felt, cut and tore away each until he felt the magic begin to unravel, and when he opened his eyes…
It was there. The ship was before him. The ship that he hadn't seen in centuries, the one that he'd seen carrying Milah away. There wasn't a chance he was going to let it take his Belle away too!
His heart hitched as voices reached out to him, two that he knew.
Belle.
"How-how'd you-"
"Oh, I know this ship like the back of my ha…well, you know…"
Hook.
His magic drew him onto the ship without giving himself command, and before he knew it, he was standing on the ship looking out over the waters.
"I suggest you give that back to me now," Hook's voice growled from behind him.
"Give that back"…the shawl…he knew she had it before he even turned to look at them.
"Or what?" he growled, turning to step up to him.
He caught only a glimpse of Belle out of the corner of his eye before focusing his attention on the real threat, the real problem here, the one he should have taken care of centuries ago. Hook. He looked as he always had as if the last twenty-eight years hadn't passed, as if he'd just sailed into Storybrooke from their world yesterday. He was a shadow in black; black duster, pants, boots, and that annoying black eye make-up he'd worn before but was now thicker under his eyes. He had that infamous hook now in place of a hand he'd taken, the very same hook, if memories recalled, that he'd last seen buried in his own chest. But the worst part of his ensemble was the blade. He had a sword on her, raised in threat against his Belle. No more.
"You look different in this world crocodile…like the coward that I met so long ago…limp and old," Hook sneered, throwing out taunting words that he supposed were to intimidate him or make him shrink from the insults. But the fire in his chest only burned brighter with anger. And his eyes only grew bigger with revelation. The dagger was still in the tower… which made that all very tough talk with little action behind it.
"Yet…you still can't kill me!"
"Let's have it, Dark One. What magic are you going to hide behind today?"
Why use magic when he carried a weapon that had faired him rather well in this world.
"Oh no," he chuckled, changing the grip on his cane, "not magic."
He swung it so hard against his skull that the sound of it drowned out Belle's screams beside him. It felt good to do that, to watch the pirate fall to the ground to see him suffer and struggle after all the suffering and struggling that he and Baelfire had gone through on account of the lowlife in front of him. And the power…the power of doing it this way was exquisite.
"Let's go!" Belle was urging by his side. Over and over and over again, she was saying it. And over and over and over again, he couldn't bring himself to abandon this.
"Not yet, Belle," he breathed before bringing his cane back up and then bringing it down on him again, harder, hard enough that this time Hook squawked in pain, and it was…lovely. Freeing. Glorious.
The Dark Ones cheered him on, and he felt as though he'd been unlocked from his cage, that he was finally freer than he had been since the Curse broke, since he'd brought back magic! This was why he'd done it. For power like this! For safety and the ability to protect his family. To stand over those who would dare to make him kiss their boots and see them squirm and weep and writhe in agony. To-
"This!" Something brown flashed in the corner of his eye as Belle's voice pierced his thoughts, cut through the roar of the Dark Ones, the pain of the past. Bae's shawl in her hands. "This is what you came for! This is what's going to get you back to Bae!"
Bae…not Hook but Bae…
The temper that had been boiling over a moment ago was suddenly simmering.
Baelfire…that was why he'd brought magic, that was why he'd done all of this, for the chance to get back to Bae, for the opportunity to see him again and tell him he was sorry. And Belle… a chance with her he hadn't known he'd ever had before all this had happened. An opportunity to have both her and his son by his side, his family, to cherish them both before any boy became his undoing-
"Oh, you're wasting your breath, love," the pirate screeched out, daring to talk to the person he'd just threatened. "He can't resist. He has to prove he's not a coward!"
In a flash, he was back to a boil.
"You might want to turn away, Belle. This isn't going to be pretty!"
Rage poured out of him, channeled through him and into his cane, and he pommeled his enemy. He had to prove he wasn't a coward. After Hook had stolen his wife, taken Bae's mother, after he'd rocked and torn and disintegrated the foundation of the life he had built for his family that ultimately left them all torn apart. Milah, gone. Baelfire, gone! Belle-
"Do it!" Jones yelled at him between blows, giving him pause to look at his bloodied nose, at the welts that would no doubt be bruised in the next few hours. "Do it! Kill me! He has to show you how powerful he is!"
He had to show…Belle. For a moment, he'd forgotten she was there, onboard, watching him. Was that what this was? A show for her?
"No!" Belle yelled out. "Rumple, this…this is what he wants! To destroy every bit of good in you."
Good? Nimue taunted in his head. Hasn't this child spent enough time with us yet to know? What good is there in a Dark One? What good is there in any of us?
"And what good is there in this one, Rumpelstiltskin?" Zoso hissed in a hushed voice over his shoulder as he stared down at Hook.
"Rip my heart out," Hook urged, touching his chest. "Kill me like you did Milah, and I'll finally be reunited with her!"
Zoso laughed. "That's the first thing any of you have said that makes sense! Give one good reason why this lowlife, the creature who destroyed your life, shouldn't die?! Because of that girl beside you? What does she know of it?! He's already threatened her today, twice! He'll come after her next if you don't!"
He was right. There was no reason. There was not one single reason he shouldn't die here and now. It was the only way to protect those he loved, the only way to ensure this ended! He dropped his cane and turned to Belle, hoping to find understanding in her eyes but not surprised when he didn't.
"He has to die, Belle!"
And then he flung himself upon Hook, placed his hand precariously over his chest so that Hook ceased up and closed his eyes, preparing for his imminent death!
"Yes…" Zoso hissed.
"NO!" Belle shouted. "No, he doesn't!"
"Ignore her!" his old mentor growled in his ear. His hand shook, poised to obey until he realized…
Zoso was there…not just a voice in his head, but there. In front of him, beside him…
He hadn't had a visit, physically, from one of the Dark One's, not one that he himself hadn't commanded since-
Nimue. When Belle had been in his castle. When he'd brought the book back to his tower with the hope it might someday free him, and she'd said, she'd admitted…"we only appear when you are filled with doubt."
Doubt.
Doubt about his future, about who he was, about what he was doing. They only ever showed up to preserve themselves. Zoso…he wasn't there, not really, not physically. The only one who could see him was him.
But Belle…she was there. She was there, and she was real. She wanted for him what the Dark Ones didn't…
"There's still good in you," she whispered, her voice harsh as if she were on the verge of tears. "I see it. I've always seen it. Please. Please show me I'm not wrong!"
He glanced up at her only to find that Zoso had moved, that he stood over her shoulder, sneering at her as though she were the infection, not the cure. An odd thing, considering how grotesque Zoso looked beside her.
"She will destroy you. She will destroy us…show her the part of you that is strongest. Show her who we were."
He glanced back at Hook, at the hand he held over his heart, and realized…this was their plan. They'd been so quiet when Belle was around, so much more than last time. Part of it he'd assumed was her, but now…he saw it. This had been their plan. It wasn't to tempt him away from her slowly. It was to bide their time. It was to break them at the most opportune of times.
Hook was that opportune time. Hook would break them. Not the same way he'd broken his family before, no. But to kill him now, to obey the voices in his head, to let his desire for revenge take over in front of the one person he had in this world, the one person truly here and on his side…it would break them.
No more dinners. No more weekend excursions. No more secrets shared in the back of the shop, or stories, or laughter, or sex, or joy, or kisses, and embraces. No future.
He wanted to break Hook. He wanted to rip his heart from his chest and squeeze it until it was dust and his body was nothing but a rotting corpse.
He wanted that!
But he wanted to go home with Belle more.
He shook as he withdrew his hand from Hook's chest.
She will destroy us in the end, Zoso whispered inside his head.
"You take your little ship and sail until you fall off the edge of the world," he commanded of the pirate through clenched teeth. "I never want to see you again."
The shaking ceased as he slapped his palm against his jaw, one final release of energy before he found the ability to cobble together the courage to push himself away, reach down to pick up his cane and hold out his hand for Belle.
"Let's go," he requested, noting that Zoso had gone and the voices in his head were quiet again. There was only Belle again. The one constant he might not always want but certainly needed in his life. She was unhappy with him; that much was clear from the look on her face. She was disappointed with the entire situation. But still, she stepped forward, took his hand, and led him back to shore.
And so there you have it. Surprise cameo appearance by Zoso with the voice of Nimue close behind. Anyone call that? Now, before I get too many complaints about breaking canon, let me explain. Adding Zoso and Nimue and other Dark One's into my story is nothing new I did it all the time in the Enchanted Forest after he became the Dark One. There were all kinds of moments I added them into the story for seen stuff. And at one point in the Dark Curse, Nimue mentions that they only appear when he is ripe with conflict and torn over what he is. I agonized for weeks leading up to this scene, not entirely sure how to write it, not sure how to get the back and forth going and adequately show the tug of war between Hook and Belle. Then one morning, it hit me that it wasn't really a tug of war between Hook and Belle; it was between the man and the beast. No one represents the man more than Belle, being that advocate for him, and no one represents the beast inside of him better than the Dark Ones. And in a moment like this where he is struggling, truly torn, wanting Belle and wanting to kill Hook, it seemed like a good time for Zoso to make a reappearance.
Thank you so much, Grace5231973, for your reviews on the last chapter. Oh, I'm so nervous to hear what you think of this chapter. It's one thing to keep the added stuff to the unseen stuff, but when I go ahead and add something to the seen stuff, it's a little more nerve-wracking. I hope you don't think I ruined the scene and that Zoso's reappearance is good for speaking to Rumple where he is. I also sort of loved it because I felt very much so like "Rumbelle" was the theme of this fiction, and I felt like this was a perfect climax for that as well; having him actively choose her was needed. I hope you agree! Peace and Happy Reading!