At the Beginning With You

Chapter Fourteen

After traveling on foot for miles through the forest and rocky terrain, Blackbeard and his men, the Enchantress and her own servant, as well as their prisoner, who was being pulled along among his captors while bound, his arms once again tied to the staff over his shoulders behind his head, they all finally arrived at a pool of water at the foothill of the tallest mountain within Arendelle, the shimmering brook leading deep into a dark cave that only revealed itself as the Enchantress bent down and dipped a single finger into the water.

"So, this is it?" Blackbeard asked, seeming to be unimpressed by the cloaking spell that had hidden the portal into the Underworld within this realm. "This is what we have traveled all this way to find? I would have thought it to be far more ominous."

"Do not underestimate the portal's appearance," the servant replied as the Enchantress rose again and slowly walked over to stand before Hook, who didn't say a word as he glared coldly at the beautiful, powerful sorceress in front of him while struggling within the pirates' grasp.

She smiled at him as she spoke again asking demurely, "How does it feel, Killian, to know that you are the only hero who will finally allow me to resurrect my husband and reset the mistakes of your so called Savior and the Evil Queen who tried to destroy everything that we are?"

He continued to look into her eyes and with venom in his voice he answered, "If you really want to know what I think, it's that the term hero has been used far too loosely. I'm not yours, just as I was never theirs."

"Your modesty and bravery are most alluring, as are your handsome features," the Enchantress whispered as she leaned in closer so that her lips were nearly touching his, while she traced her fingers along them as though she longed to kiss him. "These are traits you certainly share with my husband. I am truly grateful that you are the man I have been looking for all these years. He will be most pleased…"

"They're coming!" one of Blackbeard's men suddenly shouted as he came running up from behind the rest of the pirates surrounding them, causing everyone to turn in the man's direction. "That woman and her own small army are right on top of us! They're coming for Hook."

Killian laughed with a hint of relief behind it, then he looked back at the magical being still in front of him as he responded proudly, "It is as I warned you, you have underestimated her."

She smiled and replied with assurance, "You're wrong, Captain. I always expected that she would come to try to save you. However, no matter how many friends Emma Swan might have with her, or how hard she tries to stop me, your wife will fail, of that I am certain. Captain Blackbeard, order your men to attack the invaders. Don't worry, they are not as outnumbered as they appear. Tell the men to kill them all if they must, but one warning, Captain. If the Savior is killed in the battle, then we will fail. She is not to be harmed, only captured and brought here to me. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Enchantress," the other pirate captain answered while she stepped to the edge of the hill they stood upon to observe the army coming toward them, then he relayed the orders as she commanded him. "You heard her men! Stop them however you must, but bring the Savior to me!"

"Sir, would you mind if I remained here, with you and our employer, the Enchantress, I mean?" Smee spoke up asking nervously as he quickly reached out to take over for one of the other pirates holding onto Hook, while the other took off to join his mates in the fight. "I not much of a fighter, as you know."

Blackbeard looked at him and answered, "Yes, Mr. Smee, of course. I know, you're a collector of rare objects. Besides, you did make it so that we could find our enemy. Consider this your reward."

The Enchantress walked back to stand in front of Killian again and used her magic to undo his bindings as the thick ropes gave way and the staff fell to ground, while the two pirates still holding him quickly adjusted their hold on him. Hook struggled against their hold when the servant pulled a small dagger out from beneath her robe and handed it to the being she worshiped. The Enchantress grabbed her captive's hand roughly within her own as she slashed the blade over his palm, then forced him down to his knees at the pool's edge with the men's help while holding his hand out as his blood dripped from the laceration and into the water below, opening the portal and summoning the boatman.

The woman leaned in close to his ear as she kissed his cheek in a passionate manner, then whispered once more, "Your Savior is too late, Captain. Soon, my husband will inhabit your body and your soul will once again be damned to the Underworld, where Hades will welcome you with open arms."

In the meantime…

Down below from where the portal within this realm resided, the guards of Arendelle approached with Queen Elsa and Emma in the front, followed closely by Anna, Kristoff, and the Savior's family and friends. Emma stared down at the pendant in her hands and when the glowing that led her to where they stood stopped, she knew they were close. It was a few seconds later when Blackbeard's pirates began to charge toward them from above, confirming her conclusion that they had indeed arrived.

"Pirates!" the commander of the royal guard shouted loudly to get his men's attentions geared to their charge. "Get ready! Fight with everything you have and take as many prisoners as possible!"

"This is it," Elsa quickly stated as she turned to Emma before the battle began. "Are you ready?"

The blonde woman looked at her nervously as she raised her sword, as did Anna and David, while Kristoff raised his ax, then she responded, "I'm ready to get my husband back. I want to thank you, all of you. I never would have gotten here if it wasn't for you."

She quickly looked back at the dwarfs who stood nearby as they also prepared for the attack, then to Archie and immediately yelled, "Grumpy, you, Happy, and Bashful need to protect Archie! Don't let anything happen to him!"

"Don't you worry about us, sister!" Leroy replied eagerly as he and his brothers quickly surrounded the doctor to do as she asked of them, while Archie nodded to Emma, indicating for her to be careful, which she understood. "You go save Hook. We've got these guys!"

"We're right behind you," David said to his daughter and swiftly struck down one of the pirates as he charged at him, then another who tried to kill Mary Margaret as he tried sneaking up behind his wife.

Emma ran her sword through another of the villains, then she nodded at them and answered, "Good. Follow my lead."

The battle had begun between the heroes from both realms and the pirates that worked for the vile captain, Blackbeard. At first, it appeared as though the sides were evenly matched in numbers, but because the Savior and Else both had magic, the pirates slowly began to become outnumbered as they feared they would.

Emma just finished firing a burst of power at a group of their enemies to push them back as they started to charge her, Anna, and Kristoff, when all of a sudden, two more pirates snuck up on her and pulled her arms back tightly behind her to keep her from doing the same to them, also causing her to drop her sword. Kristoff saw this and ran to try to help her until one of the pirates he believed he had just cut down had risen back to his feet and started to attack him once again.

While they fought, the Ice Master asked in frustration, "How is it that you're still… alive? I thought I killed you."

"Kristoff!" Anna shouted as she rushed forward to help him until she was shoved backward as she came against two more warriors, also already having been cut down. "What is going on? These pirates are multiplying."

"It's the Enchantress' power!" Elsa called out as she froze the pirates trying to hurt her sister, then blasted another pirate back in a gust of icy wind. "She's enchanted Blackbeard's men to try to defeat us."

David and Mary Margaret both rushed over to help them as he responded quickly, "The only way this fight is going to end, is if we stop the Enchantress. Have you seen Emma?"

At the portal…

No matter how futile his fight was, Killian still struggled against Smee's and the other pirate's hold on him, especially as the fog rolled in and Charon appeared in the distance, then as the boatman drew closer, Hook was suddenly swept backward by an invisible force from the Enchantress' hand, knocking him painfully against the base of the mountain, a few feet away from the cave's entrance.

When she was directly in front of him once again, she roughly grabbed him by his chin, and pushed her lips against his in a deep kiss until she pulled back as dark magic suddenly flowed from her mouth and rose up to surround him until it finally entered into his body through his mouth and eyes. The energy still holding him up finally faded as Killian collapsed back to the ground and struggled against the strange power forced into him. After several moments, he slowly rose to his feet and stood straight as he opened his eyes, revealing the rings around his pupils now to be glowing bright blue in color, rather than them being the pale blue his irises were before.

As Smee stared in shock at his former captain while Hook remained standing in place, staring blankly ahead at nothing, he asked nervously, "What's wrong with him?"

"She has put Hook under some sort of spell it seems," Blackbeard replied gleefully. "A trance to get him to obey her commands. I've seen this kind of magic before. Why, Enchantress, did you not put him under your spell when you first came into our camp? Bringing him here would have been much easier."

"Because, my magic can only control someone against his will for a short amount of time," she answered as she stumbled backward, having strained herself after using far too much of her power at once. "I am weak. If I were at my full strength, I would have."

When the two pirates that had managed to capture Emma came up over the hill and brought the Savior closer to Captain Blackbeard and Smee, she finally saw her husband standing still before the Enchantress, while the sorceress came closer to him and gently moved her hand along the side of his face. He didn't flinch and when Emma saw his eyes were glowing, she understood why.

Emma cried out, "Killian! What the hell did you do to him?"

The Enchantress turned her head to look at the blonde woman as she responded, "It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Savior. Your reputation perceives you."

"Yeah, I've heard that before," Emma replied coldly. "Whatever you've done to him, so help me…"

"I am not much for threats, Miss. Swan," the sorceress interrupted angrily. "Your husband is now under my complete control. You would be proud to know that he tried to fight against me and these pirates all this time. But at the end of it all, I have beaten you. Captain Hook, go with Charon. Find Hades. Bring me back my own love."

Emma struggled to break free, even more so as Killian obeyed the woman's order and began to walk toward the boatman, but they held firm as Blackbeard walked over to them and grabbed her roughly by her hair, pulling her head around to face him. He smiled smugly and was about to kiss her when all of a sudden, two more men came charging toward them riding some strange, loud contraption on wheels that neither of the pirates had ever seen before except for Smee, who shouted out a warning to his captain, telling him to get down.

Emma watched in awe as Robin Hood swiftly fired two arrows, one right after the other, at the two pirates still holding onto his friend, just as Blackbeard fell back out of the archer's aim, then jumped off the back of August's motorcycle to stand before the pirate captain, prepared to fight him in combat, however the man chose. He pulled a second cutlass from his person, and swiftly tossed it to the archer, who accepted the weapon, lowered his bow and arrows to the ground, then began the duel between them.

As soon as she was free, Emma quickly picked up her sword, which the pirates had brought with them, then dropped as they were killed, and attempted to race to Killian, until the servant stood in her way and began to fight her with her own blade. The Enchantress kept her gaze on Hook, who was nearly to the boat, until he was suddenly stopped by the other intruder, the same man controlling the vehicle that charged into the clearing moments ago.

The man quickly pulled off his helmet to reveal himself, then looked worryingly at his friend as he held him by his shoulders and upon seeing that he was under a spell, August spoke up saying worryingly, "Okay, uh… well, don't worry, Captain. We're just going to get you back to Emma and she's going to fix this. All right?"

The Enchantress called out cruelly, "Hook, you will kill the man in front of you. You must stop him!"

"No, Killian, you really don't want to do this," August answered when the captain reached for a dagger tucked inside his long coat he wore, then immediately slashed the blade at his friend's arm to push him back away from him. "Dang it. I don't want to hurt you. Look, my bike was really the only thing I brought here with me. I didn't feel right about carrying a weapon of my own. It's not my style."

"Hook, come on," he continued as the pirate charged him again with surprising skill and speed and shoved August back against the cave wall, then shoved the knife up to his throat, while August fought to keep him from finishing the deed. "You're stronger than she is! Please, I know you're in there somewhere."

The powerful being stepped into the pool of water as she slowly approached the two men upon seeing that the power she had over Hook was beginning to falter and just when she was about to reinforce the spell, a sword suddenly plunged into her back and through her chest, causing the Enchantress to gasp in pain, though she didn't collapse to the ground right away even though her legs threatened to buckle. She turned around to see Emma, who had defeated her servant by forcing her back against a tree to knock her out, standing on the water's edge while the Savior's hands were raised in the air wielding the blade at her will as she swiftly pulled her sword back to her from the villain's chest.

As soon as the powerful sorceress fell in death without so much as a word, the enchantment she had over Killian disappeared as he gasped and closed his eyes tightly against the pain in his head, then started to fall back to the ground himself until August reached out and pulled him into his arms. Emma ran to them and took most of her husband's weight upon herself as they worked together to bring him back to the shore. Before she could take care of him, she quickly looked back at Charon, who slowly began to row away again, taking the soul of the Enchantress with him to escort her down into the Underworld, instead of the man whom the dark creature had come for.

After finally knocking Blackbeard back and down to his knees, the pirate glared up at the archer, who firmly struck him in the head with the hilt of the cutlass given to him to knock him out as well, then Robin rushed over to join his friends as he asked worryingly, "How is he? Is he…?"

Emma allowed tears to fall from her eyes as she pulled Killian close and held his head against her chest, then with fear in her voice she responded, "I don't know. He was shot last night, but I don't see any wound."

"Not to mention the fact that he almost killed me just now after wrestling me back against the rocks and forced a blade to my throat," August added while he gently laid his hand over Killian's forehead upon noticing that he was sweating, then pulled the collar of his jacket and shirt down further and noticed the sheen of sweat that also covered his body. "He may not be wounded anymore, but he is burning up. Everything he's been through has obviously taken a hell of a toll on him."

"We need to get him to someplace where he can recover before we all go home," Robin replied as he started to get up again until Emma quickly reached out to grab his arm to stop him a moment.

She looked into his eyes as she pleaded sadly, "Can you go check on my family, and Elsa and her family for me? They were fighting the rest of Blackbeard's men. There was a spell put on them too, but it should be gone, now that she's… dead."

Robin nodded as he answered, "Of course. When I find your parents, I'll send them to you."

"Thank you, Robin," she responded sincerely, then tightened her grip on Hook worryingly as she quickly looked down at him, then turned her eyes to August. "How is it you got here anyway, and with your bike no less? Why?"

"Because, the moment that your parents left through the portal, Gold managed to escape by forcing everyone to take cover when he blew up the doorway here to Arendelle," the man who was once made of wood replied. "We were afraid that you wouldn't be able to find a way back and as luck would have it, Anton's returned to Storybrooke, having found a new way to grow more magic beans. When it's time, we'll be prepared."

Emma laid her head gently over Killian's and then answered, "We first need to find out where Blackbeard docked the Jolly Roger. We're not leaving here without her. She'll be how we get back home."

August looked at Emma with surprise as he responded, "You talk as though the Jolly Roger's a woman."

"In a lot of ways, she is," the blonde stated. "She was the only thing that mattered to him other than getting his revenge on Gold after his first love died. His ship was the only thing he could ever depend on and she makes him feel calm, gives him comfort. I would sail the world with Killian on the Jolly Roger if he asked me to."

"Someday you'll have that chance, Emma," he replied sincerely as he gently began to stroke the back of her head.

It was then that her parents, as well as Robin, Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf came running up over the hill and raced to Emma, Hook, and August worryingly upon seeing that their friend was once again lying ill within his wife's arms. The battle was finally over and the heroes had once again prevailed, but the cost was great. Killian wasn't the only one who had suffered from this fight. A large number of the royal guards were killed, as well as injured, Kristoff had taken musket ball to his arm, Snow had been struck over the back of her head, but was luckily saved by Robin as he ran down to help them, and David had received a knife wound in his shoulder.

Mary Margaret was the first to reach her daughter as she asked fearfully, "Emma, are you alright?"

The Savior looked into her eyes as she whispered, "I'm not really, but what about you? Mom, are you okay, and Dad?"

"I'm just a little bit dizzy, that's all," Snow answered as Emma reached up to feel the back of her head upon seeing the blood dripping down along the side of her neck. "Your father's fine too."

"Your mother's right," Charming quickly responded as he looked at his shoulder. "It's not as bad as it looks. What happened here?"

Emma quickly looked over at the Enchantress' body lying within the pool of water in the distance and over at Blackbeard's prone form still lying on the ground a few feet away, as well as the servant's still lying out cold at the base of the tree, then allowed August and Robin to take Killian from her as they lifted him and started to carry him back toward Kristoff's sled, while the Ice Master and Anna guided them down the hill just as Archie and the dwarfs came up to check on their friends.

Emma stood with David's help and then she replied coldly, "I killed the witch. She left me no choice. She had Killian under some kind of spell. If I hadn't, he would have killed August, then would have walked right into Charon's boat against his will. I almost lost him, again. The others are unconscious. And it looks like Smee got away again. He must have ran off while we were all too distracted to notice."

Mary Margaret sighed, then answered, "That's okay. I'm sure we'll come across Mr. Smee against some time in the future."

"Elsa, back when you guys were in Storybrooke, you told us that the rock trolls have the ability to alter memories," Emma said worryingly upon her mother using the word, future, as she turned to look over at her friend.

"Yes, that's right," the Queen responded in confusion, while everyone else looked over at the Savior in the same way.

David quickly cut in, "Emma, if you're thinking about taking away Hook's or even your memories of all that's happened to him… You know how bad the consequences for erasing memories can be."

Emma turned to him as she replied, "Yes I do. I'm not doing that, as much as I might want to. I learned my lesson, believe me. What I mean is, your mother, Elsa, made it so that your entire kingdom and all of the other kingdoms wouldn't remember that Ingrid or your other aunt ever existed. Do you think the trolls can do the same kind of magic for us? I can't take the chance that someone else will come for Killian again. Can they make it so that no one will ever know Killian died and returned from the Underworld, other than those of us in Storybrooke? Killian's a hero. Some people need to remember that."

"Yes, I suppose they could," Elsa answered.

"Actually, I think that's a great idea," Mary Margaret responded confidently. "We'll make sure that he's safe, Emma. He will be."