Darkness is a Funny Thing… It Creeps Up in You
Chapter Twenty-Two
Once again inside Gold's cabin…
It wasn't long after the Dark One and Maleficent left in search of the page August had spoken of, before Cruella and Ursula grew bored just waiting by while they stayed behind to guard their hostages. However, the dog hater discovered a strange new game on her cell phone that apparently involved angry birds, which Ursula worked out from Cruella's mutterings while she played the silly game to help pass the time. The Sea Witch on the other hand, just sat on the floor in front of the cabin's fire place while she hauntingly stared off into the flames whenever she didn't turn her head from time to time to check on August and his father to make sure that they didn't escape. Her mind was elsewhere.
However, Ursula suddenly straightened her body as she turned her head towards the windows and door upon hearing a familiar call she knew only she could hear through a sea shell somewhere out in the distance. A call she hadn't heard at all for a very long time. Not since she ran away from home when she became all powerful like the Sea Witch of old.
"If these ugly birds and pigs were real, I would have them all stuffed for making me angry," Cruella grumbled while she continued staring at her phone's screen as she played, until she raised her head to look up when Ursula rose back to her feet, then slowly made her way towards the door almost like she had fallen into a trance. "What's the matter, darling? Is something out there?"
"It's nothing," the Sea Witch softly replied to her, then opened the door to leave. "Just gonna go stretch my tentacles."
She was just about out the door, until she stopped a moment and popped her head back in the door, then spoke to Cruella sternly saying, "Be sure to keep your eyes on the puppet and his father."
Cruella scoffed and then without looking away from her phone once she turned back to her game, she retorted in annoyance, "Whatever you say, darling. Don't stay away too long."
August and Geppetto, still bound and once again gagged so they couldn't talk to one another, watched the Sea Witch walk out the door until she closed the door behind her upon leaving. Once she was gone, the man once made of wood turned his head to look over at his father and nodded his head to try to assure him help was on the way upon believing without a doubt that whatever, or whoever had drawn Ursula away, had done so to help them.
Somewhere deep within the woods…
At last, Killian stopped in an open clearing not far from Gold's cabin after he had run through the woods from town as fast as he could with the hope of being able to make contact with the Sea Witch so that he could help their friends and find out the villains' plans, not knowing the cabin a quarter of a mile away was where the Dark One and the Queens of Darkness were hiding out with Geppetto and his son as their hostages. Hook didn't even know the cabin existed. The cabin never came up in a conversation between him and Emma, or with anyone else.
Once he took a moment to think through what he was about to do, Killian finally raised the pink conch seashell to his lips and then blew through it to send out a call he knew only Ursula would be able to hear. He lowered the shell as he waited, while he looked all around him through the trees and brush surrounding him. When she didn't appear before him in the time he expected her to, the pirate blew through the shell once more and continued to wait.
"Where is that infernal creature?" he finally grumbled impatiently, when Ursula still didn't appear to him after his second attempt to make contact with her.
"Right here, Captain," she then answered him tauntingly from behind after she stepped out into the open, just as a number of her tentacles suddenly wrapped around him and began to crush him, causing Killian to grunt in pain while she turned him around to face her.
As he struggled to breathe when her tentacles only tightened around his chest and arms the closer the Sea Witch stepped towards him, Killian pleaded weakly, "Wait. I want to offer you a deal."
After she became angrier upon his audacity to ask her for anything, Ursula squeezed even tighter and then she asked, "After what you did to me? I don't think so."
"Gold was wrong," Killian anxiously continued, imploring her to release him. "You don't have to find the Author to get what you want."
"And why should I believe a word you say?" she questioned him after she finally released him, and the pirate gasped once he was able to breathe freely.
When his breathing became under his control again, Killian raised his head so could look into her eyes while he responded ruefully, "Because I know what it is you desire. And I know exactly where to get it."
Ursula looked at him with disbelief the moment she understood he was talking about the only thing that truly mattered to her, and she asked skeptically, "You still have it?"
"I do," he solemnly replied. "I've always regretted stealing your voice. From the moment I stole it from you. I couldn't destroy it or simply toss it away."
"What do you know of regret?" the Sea Witch darkly asked of him, as soon as she moved in closer until she was standing only inches away from him. "Regret is something only people with a heart have the ability of feeling. And your heart… is black as coal, Hook. Do you want to see for yourself?"
Before Killian could grasp what she meant, Ursula suddenly thrust her hand into his chest in an attempt to rip out his heart just like Gold had cruelly done to him six weeks earlier, causing him to stumble back and collapse to the ground on his knees as he gasped in pain. However, she was immediately shocked by light magic and Ursula swiftly pulled her hand back while she glared down at him, while Killian merely looked back up at her with nothing but surprise on his face.
The Sea Witch spoke again angrily saying, "Well… well… It appears the Savior has placed a protection spell around your heart."
Surprised by the revelation, the pirate glanced away from her while he murmured, "I had no idea. She must have done so… while I was still recovering in the hospital."
"No matter," Ursula cruelly answered as she slowly began to circle him. "Just because she is foolish to believe you've changed at all from what you really are, it doesn't mean you have. Whatever kind of deal you want to make… you can forget it. I won't make the mistake of trusting you again."
"I can return your voice," Killian sincerely responded to her once he raised his head to look up at her, then weakly rose back to his feet when she stopped walking around him in order to look again into his eyes in search of any deception behind them. "However, I can't just do so simply to ease my conscience. We need something from you. Answers. If you truly want your voice back, you need to tell me everything I'm about to ask."
The villainess scoffed, then after she thought over his proposal and weighed the price of her finally getting back the last piece of her mother this pirate had ripped away from her, she finally replied coldly, "What answers do you want from me?"
Killian sighed with relief and then he asked somberly questioned, "A few of our friends have gone missing. Are you witches and the Crocodile responsible?"
"We have them," the villainess haughtily answered him. "We needed our own answers from the boy, who's no longer so much a boy, but the man he used to be. Unfortunately, the boy didn't know anything, so Rumplestiltskin transformed him back into August so we could interrogate him. The old man was simply our way of getting him to talk. Before you ask… he and his father are just fine."
"What answers?" he asked once again. "What could August know that Emma and the rest of us don't?"
Ursula turned her head away as she laughed at his audacity to try to get answers for nothing, then she responded coldly, "Not a chance. You get nothing else from me until you keep your word first. You might be seen as a hero by people around here, but I know better. You're gonna have to prove it."
Killian looked her straight in her eyes as he steadfastly replied, "If I return your happy ending, you're gonna tell me exactly what Gold is doing in Storybrooke."
"But first, you're going to take me to our friends," he quickly added on to his first demand, before she could answer. "Call it a show of faith. I swear… I won't go back on my word. We need to know what Gold is planning before it's too late, and I know you won't give the answers I need until you get what you want first. So betraying you after freeing them would hardly be beneficial, You're nothing but his puppets, just as I once was. Whether you want to believe me or not. But you don't have to be, Ursula. You can help us stop him, just like you can have your happy ending back."
"You got yourself a deal," the Sea Witch sternly responded to him in agreement as she searched his eyes once again for deception, until she finally felt satisfied enough to begin leading the pirate to the Dark One's cabin.