"Henry!" Emma gasped in relief, already rushing to her sons side and beginning to untie him. Killian lowered his sword, but for the life of himself couldn't bring himself to sheath it in her presence. Still, he felt at least the gentlemen in him saying, "thank you, again." He swallowed, glanced over at Henry being helped to his feet by his mother and assuring her he was alright, before asking as politely as he was capable of, "now would you mind telling me who you really are?"
No magic came without a price, and certainly no help from such a clearly powerful being would either.
That smile stretched, wider and wider until it seemed to take up half her face, and then it seemed her face truly did split in half. The right side still the angelic figure, the left almost painful to look at in it's ghastly horror of a creature with mottled black and green skin. For one horrifying moment it was as if looking upon Emma and the Crocodiles face ungodly sown into one being, and then he blinked and there stood before him the pretty lass who had done nothing but help, smiling delightedly upon them all.
"I am Janus, the god of beginnings and doorways, choices and endings. I've heard so much of the Savior, I just had to see one of her marvelous decisions in person. That wasn't nearly as much fun as I thought it would be though, I really thought Blackbeard would incite more of a choice than her just waiting for the right moment. Let's try another."
It all shaped together in his head what exactly had passed from those lush lips of hers just as she raised both of her hands, and he was flying. Ropes from his own ship were suddenly lashed upon his throat, and by the time he was no longer moving without permission and instead being dangled above the water, he could see across from him that Henry was in the same predicament.
"What are you doing?!" Swan demanded, launching to her feet, but at a loss of who to turn to first with the three before her. "Let them go!"
"Oh I could," this god agreed with that same lighthearted way of speaking, as if discussing what the weather would be like tomorrow. "But when I do, a door will open beneath each of them, and even I'm not always sure where they lead. So you have a choice to make Emma Swan. I'll release one of them back to you. The other," she let out a little noise close to a sigh of sorrow, as if she genuinely regretted what she was doing. Yet even through the ringing of his ears from his air passageway being restricted he detected the hint of joy she still carried, clearly trying to suppress she was having the time of her life.
"Or option three, you put them both back down here with me, and I don't kill you," Swan vowed, flexing her hands but never moving farther from Henry's rope being dangled right in front of her.
"Swan, what are you doing?" I shouted down to her as properly as I could, my hook using every bit of its power to stop this thing from leaving me a hung man. "Take Henry and get out of here." She had to know he'd get himself out of this somehow, no matter where he was sent. He was a survivor, as promised, and no realm he was left too would change that.
This Janus seemed delighted by everything around her, no longer able to contain a school girls chuckle with her hand caught in the cookie jar by someone she knows won't punish her.
"I suppose you could. You're magic is quite powerful, even more than you've yet realized. But not everything is so black and white Savior, and one day you might just have to choose, and that third option won't be so obvious."
In his vision blurring and blackness beginning to cloud in around the edges, he wasn't quite sure if that flash of white light was Emma's magic finally pulsing from her, or the bright light of a door appearing out of nowhere that Janus slipped through. Either way, he was unconscious before he hit the water.
Thankfully it was that same substance that awoke him, and he spit the salty sea out in surprise. Shaking his wet hair free from his eyes, he made quick work of diving underneath his ship, strong assured strokes having him on the other side and seeking out the form of Henry in these dark waters. Panic gripping him tighter than any lack of oxygen ever could upon finding nothing, he forced his head free of the water for as quick a breath as it was possible before preparing himself to lung right back in when he heard, "Killian? Hook? Come on Henry, I got you, we'll find him."
Looking up, he saw Emma dragging her son over the edge of the ship but still looking all around and calling out to him desperately. Deciding to keep her attention on Henry as long as she could was best, he instead swam back to the makeshift ladder in his ship and find his own way up. He reached the deck, shivering slightly and dripping wet but never more pleased to see the two of them as they kept glancing over the side for him.
"Did you really think a bit of water would best me?" He couldn't help but challenge such faith.
"Killian," she breathed in relief, keeping one tight hand on Henry's shoulder even as she tried to run forward and embrace him at the same time.
He stepped forward readily while keeping his own eye on Henry, who spat a bit more water out of his mouth before grinning up at him. "I mean, can you blame us? For a pirate, you do get nearly drowned an awful lot."
His scowl wasn't nearly as fierce as he'd like it to be in his relief to see no permanent damage to the boy.
I suppose there was no real point to this fic in the end except some foreshadowing of future plot points, and my massive disappointment we didn't get to see more of this shows take on the Olympian gods. Yes Janus is usually depicted as a two-faced male, but I had some fun and liberties with that idea just like the show is so fond of. Hope you enjoyed anyways!