At the Beginning With You

Chapter Twelve

Meanwhile…

Several miles away from where the pirates were holding Hook prisoner, Emma, her parents and friends, Queen Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, Sven, and a small army of Arendelle's royal guards were trekking beneath the mountains, following the Savior's guidance as she led them on the path that the Enchantress' pendant set for them.

There wasn't much talking between them, except for the strange talking snowman, who really wouldn't stay quiet while he rode on top of Sven as he spoke with the three dwarfs riding a wagon alongside the reindeer, curious about everything in regards to Storybrooke. Sven pulled the sleigh being driven by Kristoff. Anna sat on the front with her husband, while Elsa and Emma rode in back as the Queen used her magic to guide it along the rocky terrain beneath them.

Behind them, David drove a wagon while his wife sat beside him, as Archie sat in the back along with most of their supplies. The guards were riding horses around their leaders and the newcomers to their kingdom, all keeping a close watch on their surroundings in case of danger.

As the darkness of night fell, the pace set amongst them became slower and their moods became more desolate as time passed. Emma hadn't said a word to anyone for awhile as she simply stared ahead of her, and no one spoke to her as they all understood the reason for her brooding.

However, when Emma suddenly gasped and hunched over in pain as she clutched her chest over her heart, Elsa immediately reached out to try to steady her close friend as she asked quickly, "Emma, what is it? Are you alright?"

Mary Margaret called out to her daughter as David immediately pulled their wagon up beside his friend's sled as she too asked worryingly, "Emma, what's wrong?"

"I don't… I'm fine," she responded with fear in her voice. "But Killian, he isn't. They're hurting him. I can feel it."

"Whoa, you weren't kidding about actually sharing a heart with him," Kristoff said in awe after he had pulled back on Sven's reins to bring the sled to a stop as he and Anna turned around to try to help Elsa guide Emma out. "But how?"

As Mary Margaret rushed to her daughter's side and helped her to find a place to sit upon the ground, David also dismounted and helped Anna down, then he turned to Kristoff as he answered, "I'm afraid that's another long story for another time, old friend."

It was then that the commander of the royal guards rode his horse up beside their Queen as he spoke up saying, "Your Highness, seeing as everyone's already stopped, we should set up camp and stay here for the night. It's grown too dark and the clouds in the sky have covered any light coming down on us from the stars and the moon."

"No, we can't stop now," Emma called out in frustration as she started to stand until Mary Margaret and Elsa managed to keep her from doing so, worried that she was working herself too hard. "We have to keep going."

"I'm afraid that I must insist, Miss. Swan," the man replied with more force. "I understand the urgency to find your husband, but we will be no good to him if we are too exhausted to fight these pirates you say have him, or if we get lost within these mountains and forest. This is treacherous terrain we're traveling through."

David looked down at his daughter sadly as he responded, "They're right, Emma. Don't worry, Blackbeard and his men surely have set up their own camp by now. They can't continue on any more than we can."

Emma glared between those surrounding her as she finally pushed away from her mother and the Queen and stood, then glared at David answering coldly, "You don't know that. Maybe you're okay with waiting until morning, but I'm not. Neither of you can possibly know how it feels to feel as someone you love suffers, while you're powerless to stop it. I'm going to go scout the path ahead so we'll be ready come morning. Just leave me the hell alone."

"She didn't mean what she just said," Mary Margaret stated after watching Emma walk off, then moved to stand beside David as she wrapped her arms around him to comfort him. "She is just scared. I'll go talk to her."

"No wait, let me go," Archie said as he turned to look between the Prince and Princess who led them. "Perhaps Emma will be more willing to talk to someone who isn't her own parents right now."

David nodded and replied, "You're right. Thank you, Archie."

The cricket smiled despondently as he responded, "This is exactly why I've come along. I just want to be of help."

As the sun began to rise…

It wasn't long after the pirates had finished building a fire and set up their camp, that an old woman hidden beneath the large, filthy cloak she wore walked in between them all without fear, followed by another woman close behind her. Upon their arrival, as the first ignored the men surrounding them while she walked over and knelt down beside their unconscious prisoner, Blackbeard stood up and started toward her with his cutlass raised until the other stepped in his way.

"You won't harm us," the hag spoke up firmly. "We won't harm you."

"Who are you?" the pirate captain asked coldly, not knowing that one of these women was the Enchantress in disguise. "You will leave here now, if you value your lives, or I will have my men take you into this God forsaken jungle, where they will throw you off the cliff we passed overlooking the river."

The woman smiled smugly as she continued, "You will do no such thing. We work for the same woman."

The other old hag slowly began to trace her fingers gently along the large scar across Killian's chest made by Excalibur, then did the same to the magical blade's second wound along the left side of his neck and she finally stated softly, "At last. It appears you have truly succeeded in bringing the right man, Captain."

"I gave the Enchantress my word that I could deliver her anything it is she wishes me to procure for her," Blackbeard answered smugly, staring at the woman kneeling over his enemy with confusion. "As I asked before, who are you and why have you come here? The Enchantress assured me she would meet us at the portal to the Underworld herself."

"Have you the pendant given to you still?" she asked coolly, ignoring the man's continued inquest.

He finally lowered and sheathed his sword, realizing these women were of no threat to them any longer, then he replied, "Hook wasn't alone when my men and I caught up to him. He was with his wife, who also so happens to be the Savior, whom I am sure the Enchantress has heard of. That blonde witch stole the pendant from me just before she tried to escape with our prisoner. We were able to retrieve Hook, but she died as she fell off the very cliff I threatened to have you thrown off of herself, fell right into the falls and drown."

The Enchantress slowly healed the wound caused from the musket ball fired by a pirate's pistol while she transformed herself back into the beauty she truly was, then she rose and looked back at the man who gawked at her in surprise, as well as fear, and responded, "The Savior isn't dead, Captain Blackbeard. If she were, then so would he be also. They each share a half of the Savior's heart. Seeing as he still lives, which is lucky for you, then so does she. I should punish you for your careless treatment of my very special prisoner, but you have done what it is I needed most. Fail me again, and I will not be so kind."

"Forgive me, Milady," Blackbeard answered nervously as he moved around the servant, who also returned to her true self, then knelt down before the powerful being. "I meant no disrespect. I did not expect you to come to us so soon."

"Should it matter whether I am a beautiful and powerful enchantress or a hag?" she asked with anger, knowing that the pirate really meant he didn't expect to be confronted by her other form. "The last man who disrespected me while disguised as an old woman got turned into a hideous beast and is now living with the agony of knowing that if he had just been kind enough to take a rose I offered him, then he would have remained the man he once was."

Killian slowly began to wake while he reached down to where he had been shot before and upon feeling no pain where the cauterized wound should have been, he struggled to sit up until he stopped moving upon seeing Blackbeard, his, men, and a woman he could only guess was his enemy's employer, still surrounding him.

The Enchantress looked at the other pirates as she ordered, "Bind him. I will not have him loose, to be free to try to escape again."

Hook glared at her as he asked weakly, "Why are you doing this? I know I don't deserve the second chance at life I was given, but if you kill me, you will also kill a woman with even more power than even you possess; a Savior, who is sorely needed in these worlds."

"This woman matters not to me," the Enchantress replied cruelly. "I have grown tired of my gifts always being ruined by those who believe themselves powerful enough to rewrite their destinies. After the Evil Queen cast most of those living within the Enchanted Forest away within her dark curse to try to change her fate, as well as everyone else's, I knew it was time I did something to make everything right. I just needed to find someone who has died and been to the Underworld, then was brought back to life. That is where you come in, Killian Jones. When I received a gift from Hades from within the Underworld, a message that the person I seek lives inside a magical town surrounded by a land without magic, I found someone to work for me who could pass from this world into yours to find you. You are truly special, as you will help me return everything to the way it was meant to be. By resurrecting my husband from the Underworld, together we will be powerful enough to do so."

"No matter how powerful you are, witch, you will not succeed," Hook responded with confidence, ignoring his fear that Hades wanted him back, and has found someone in this domain, able to return him to the God of the dead. "The Savior will stop you."

Blackbeard laughed at Hook's vigorous belief in the Savior's power as Killian was grabbed by his men and bound again while Hook glared at the other captain, then turned back to the enchantress as she answered, "The woman you love will try to stop me. But she will fail, as will those who have come from your world to try to save you. If they must die for me to bring the man I love back from the Underworld, then so be it. Their lives are of no consequence to me, as yours is not."

Killian replied, "I know Emma. And I know her family. If you keep on this path, you will surely join your husband and Hades will be sorely disappointed that you failed him."