X Marks the Spot
Chapter Six
"So, what will happen if one of this town's sheriffs or the Evil Queen returns and finds that I'm no longer in my cell?" Black Beard questioned, as they both suddenly appeared inside the pawnshop after Rumpelstiltskin used his powers to transport them there in order to avoid being seen. "I doubt that you want anyone knowing of your involvement in my escape."
"Oh… I wasn't helping you to escape," the Dark One answered smugly, then flicked his wrist once more as a burst of magic swiftly burst out all around them. "As soon as our business is complete here, I'll be sending you right back there. But don't worry, you'll get exactly what it is I promised you. As for these heroes finding out you're missing right now, it won't be possible. I just froze them and time all around us. And when my spell is lifted, they'll all be none the wiser."
Black Beard seemed impressed and began to examine the personal effects surrounding them as he asked again, "So exactly what is it that Hook has done to offend you that would make you so willing to help me? You still haven't answered me. You have me captivated."
Gold paused a moment while he stared down at the display case he was now standing behind in frustration, then he responded, "Hook has done many things for which he deserves far more than I have ever been able to do to him. However in this case, that damn pirate provoked me as a distraction for the Savior by insulting my inability to be a father to both of my sons. I warned him that I wouldn't forget it."
"And now he's about to remember just how steep the price is for crossing me," he added coldly as he bent down to pull something out from within the case, then set the large possession out on the counter for the pirate to see.
"What is that?" Black Beard started to question as he leaned down to examine the entity soaking in some kind of clear fluids within the large glass jar before him.
Gold interrupted, "That dearie, is Captain Hook's hand, which I cut off and stole from him long ago. I've cursed it once before when he came to me to have it magically reattached merely because he felt unwhole. I knew I could use his request against him and I did. I was eventually thwarted, but not before having some fun with our enemy first."
The other villain stood and looked at Rumpelstiltskin with confusion as he asked, "Is what you did to Hook then, what you plan to do again?"
"No," the Dark One replied smugly. "He won't fall for that trick again. But I cannot accomplish what I do have in mind without you. Exactly what are you willing to do, in order to see that Captain Hook suffers greatly before he finally breathes his last breath once and for all?"
"Whatever it takes," Black Beard answered steadfastly while he looked Gold straight in the eye. "Just so long as I am around to see him pay."
Gold smiled and responded eagerly, "Excellent! I was hoping you would say that."
It was then that the Dark One summoned his dagger and then swiftly slashed it deeply across the palm of Black Beard's left hand to drench the blade within his blood as the pirate cried out, "Gah! What the devil was that for? What are you doing?"
"I'm doing exactly as promised," he replied coolly, focusing on his task as he did the same to thing to Hook's hand as well to mix the pirates' blood by way of connecting them together. "This lump of flesh has been long dead for two centuries now. But the blood in it still remains, even if it is dried up. Until now. Magic has a way of making the impossible, possible."
"So, you needed both of our bloods," the other villain stated. "What for?"
Rumpelstiltskin glared at him for a second until he raised his hand to the side of Black Beard's head and carefully began to pull out what looked like wisps from within the man's mind while he answered, "You're just going to have to trust me. Surely the answer to that question is much too complicated for the likes of you to understand, at least for now. But in time, you'll learn exactly what I'm doing and you will take pleasure in it."
When he began to infuse the wisps into Hook's hand as he had done with Black Beard's blood, the darker villain continued, "I assure you, you will be perfectly fine and that all I'm taking from you are merely copies. You won't lose anything of who you are."
"I may not be as brilliant as you believe yourself to be, Dark One, but do not mock me or think me as any less of a villain because I'm a pirate like our common enemy," Black Beard responded angrily. "I'm here seeking my revenge against Hook because he mocks me with every breath he takes. I am not one to be made a fool of. Do you understand?"
"We'll just have to see about that when all is said and done, won't we?" Gold replied and then motioned for the pirate before him to take the hand. "Provided this works and that all this ends with Captain Hook's death. But that of course will completely depend on you. Now, I suggest you take his hand and find a place to hide it where the heroes will never find it, or better yet… bury it in the earth somewhere. That is what you pirates do after all. X marks the spot and buried treasure? The time spell will last long enough for you to do what you need to do, but I suggest you hurry. And when you're finished, you will be returned to your cell so that no one will ever know I helped you do this. They'll never suspect my involvement and they'll never think that a curse I've just placed on Hook's hand could be the reason for the Captain's imminent deterioration and illness. Even should they figure it out, they'll only suspect that you were the one who found a way to curse him. Powerful magic comes in all sorts of ways. A potion, a spell from some dark and ancient book…"
Black Beard began to laugh proudly and then he spoke again saying, "I do like the way you do business, Dark One. These so called heroes can look at me all they want. I will happily take all the credit for Hook's demise. Then, I will finally be the most dreaded pirate throughout the realms. My name alone will strike fear in the hearts of all whose paths I cross, as Captain Hook's once did."
A short time later…
When Gold's spell wore off, the heroes arrived back in the harbor and Emma walked closely beside Killian along the docks, then she looked to him and asked, "Did you want to stop at Granny's to get us some food to take home?"
"I'm really not hungry," he answered quietly.
"Why don't the two of you head home and I'll go pick us up something to eat," David responded as he patted his daughter's shoulder. "Henry, did you want to come with me?"
The teenager nodded and upon seeing that his friends needed some time alone, August replied, "I'll come too."
Regina then appeared before them again and looked between David and Emma as she said, "Black Beard's tucked safely away within a cell and is eagerly awaiting one of yours lines of questioning. I figured I'd save the dirty work for one of you, as you're the sheriffs here, not me. But if you want my help with a different tactic to get him to talk, then I'm here if you need me. How are you feeling, Guyliner? You're still looking a bit queasy."
"Really, Regina?" Emma questioned with frustration, objecting to the woman's callousness even though Killian smiled until he lowered his head and turned his eyes to his hook upon feeling a strange burning pain slowly creeping up his left arm beneath his brace. "Thank you for bringing Black Beard in. I'll go talk to him in a little while, but first…"
"Hook, are you alright?" David asked worryingly as his friend suddenly gasped and struggled to yank off his brace after unlatching the hook when the pain worsened.
Emma immediately held him steady to help him remain standing as she helped him to pull the hook's support off the rest of the way, then she stated worryingly, "Killian, tell me what's wrong."
He began to grow lightheaded as the sensation traveled through his arm, chest, and finally into his head and struggled to focus his eyes on the dead flesh left behind after the loss of his hand as he weakly answered, "I don't… my arm… it's burning. Like when I had it… cauterized after the Crocodile cut off my hand, to keep it from… bleeding out."
"What the hell would cause this?" Emma stated brusquely when she looked to Regina for answers.
"I don't know," she responded ominously. "It's possible this is nothing more than really intense phantoms pains? It happens to anyone who's ever lost a limb of some sort, or so I've been told. Perhaps Dr. Whale might have some answers."
Killian's pain finally appeared to fade as most of his strength returned and he straightened himself upright while Emma continued to hold him, then he shook his head and replied curtly, "I know what bloody phantom pains are and I felt them for nearly a century after my hand was taken from me, but I haven't felt them since. Whatever just happened, it was no phantom pain."
August nodded and then answered, "Hook's right. It can't be a coincidence that whatever this was, happened after Black Beard arrived in Storybrooke. He has to be the one behind this somehow."
"But Black Beard just tried to kill him," Henry retorted. "If he had the means to do whatever this was, why would he shoot Killian when we were all on the ship? If it weren't for all of you arriving when you did, or for Mom's healing power, Killian would have died."
"I'll be sure to ask him that when I go talk to him," David responded coldly. "Your help might be needed after all, Regina. What do you say we head over there now?"
She nodded and then David turned back to his daughter and Killian again as he added, "If that other pirate is behind this, we will get him to tell us what we need to do to fix it."
Emma was about to say something more when all of a sudden Killian gasped again as he collapsed against the deck with his hand firmly against the center of his forehead as if to help lessen his pain despite her grip, causing Emma to fall against the dock along with him, then she looked at the man she loved with fear while her father and August knelt down beside them both and she cried out, "Killian, what's wrong?"
Killian couldn't hear her as he swiftly became plagued by a sudden hallucination as he watched himself set fire to a large white sail tied to a ship's main mast, then called out to the men around him to kill the rest of the ship's crew and grab whatever goods onboard the vessel they could carry. They all roared and laughed as they did as the Captain ordered, then he turned around and rapidly knocked a man standing before him unconscious with the hilt of his sword when he attempted to kill him. Killian lifted the man off the deck and over his shoulder to carry him, back to the Jolly Roger.
"Killian!" Emma dreadfully shouted again until his eyes finally shot open when he gasped awake as if from a terrible nightmare and she immediately took his face gently in her hands to try to get him to look at her. "Hey, are you with me? Killian, what happened?"
"I saw… a ship," he whispered with terror in his voice while staring straight ahead of him instead of into Emma's eyes. "In what felt like a strange memory. I set the ship on fire. There was a man… I knocked him out and took him prisoner. The crew… my crew… they pillaged the ship's goods and killed this man's own crew… on my orders."
David looked between Emma, August, and Regina before turning back to Hook again as he asked, "Do you know who this man was you captured?"
Killian clutched the bridge of his nose and replied sadly, "It was Eric, Ariel's Prince."
Emma wrapped her arms around him and held him, while Henry, David, and August stood again beside Regina. Silence fell between them and no one attempted to break it as they stood still and became lost in thought about the things Killian spoke of from within a memory they had yet to understand wasn't his own.