Chapter Fifteen

March to Doom

One fine day. One precious day together. Marveling at the chance to comb fingers through each other's hair, to touch, caress, slowly dress and undress each other. Smelling the roses, massaging hands and feet, looking to the sky frequently to track the sun that occasionally peeked through, and the passing of treasured hours with the swiftly moving clouds. Sometimes Emma Swan would look questioningly into her lover's eyes.

With a deep breath, she began, "I know... my family, this town, they're a lot to deal with. They're a handful. And a Hook full, if you will." They shared a smile. "Hook, honey… a town full of Dark Ones will be worse…"

"Aye, but more fun for me, don't you think? "

Emma's youthful, tan face had a vacant expression when she spoke about her family. There was no cunning in her look or tone, nothing sly or bargaining. He had loved his resourceful, impassioned Emma who was always up to something - but now this Emma had let some of that fire die, and her eyes were soul-searching, as they got lost in his.

"You never give up, Emma," Hook said, a nod to what he had loved about her. "You never give up on them..." He swallowed back his realization then: You never give up on me."

The Dark couple sauntered along the walking path, with peaceful, gray-hooded Emma on the arm of transformed, wild-eyed Killian. He was about to start his reign in a long red seafarers jacket, torn by the hooks and spikes and scales growing out of him, wide three-cornered hat for clear vision in any storm, and his trusty old black boots for crushing his enemies under his stacked heels.

Other Dark Ones milled about in black robes and various accessories stolen from the people of the town as trophies from their terror so far. They toasted stolen bottles of wine and lounged on the grass with little picnics, anticipating the beginning of their new lives. They hid from each other the hunger to gain magical powers again and kill each other off. That was just what their victims were counting on.

The atmosphere was electric, the buzz could be felt in every Dark One and every marked mortal soul- something drew them all to the placid lake, just as the full moon shone its highest and brightest on the opposite side of the world. The ferryman came rowing, blurry like a mirage on the water, but he was there all the same, pulled from his routine rounds to bow to the magical summons of an arrogant immortal.

The Redheaded witch Zelena of Oz stumbled through the park, not knowing why her feet brought her here, away from her sleeping newborn. Her life was just about to mean something to someone; she finally had someone who would love her. After a lifetime of loneliness, being told she was wicked by her adopted father and then owning it- after being rejected by Rumpelstiltskin, the teacher she had an odd attraction to, rejected by her estranged sister, and kept a prisoner for most of a very strange pregnancy- now she would lose her life! And to a soul more nefarious than her!

She heard a ruckus in the distance. Shouting and singing, the banging of kettles and makeshift drums, and the occasional blast of a truck horn. The song became clearer as a procession of men, women and children followed a dusty fire truck down the street, then onto the bike path, people crowding endlessly into the grassy park.

"When we are gone,

They will remain.

The Wind and rock,

The Fire and rain

They will remain,

when we return...

The wind will blow,

and the fire will burn!"

Regina had hoisted herself above the crowd, atop the ladder on the side of the truck, and her voice above others led the pagan song of courage. It was the six dwarves who had started singing it as call and response, and the song had spread and grown in volume and beauty among those marching. Now people were singing it as a round, like an anthem, making the Dark Ones stare and stir.

"Leave it to you to showboat," Zelena grumbled to herself, though really she was glad to see her sister hadn't lost her pluck. Though every magical assault and conventional weapon had been tried on the Dark Ones throughout the day, to no avail, they ought to give the Dark Ones a hell of a final fight, anyway.

The marked living faced off with those who would take their lives, standing up to them before the people who would be left behind. They wanted to stop marching then, but their feet compelled them to edge forward still. Little, reluctant steps towards the water.

Bit by bit Henry neared the Dark One who had marked him, shuddering at the cold draw of death. He struggled to stop, and to look away from the hungry, mocking eyes of Nimue. "There is still hope for you! You lived a normal life once," Henry said, and gulped. "You can right things… by letting us go, letting us live our lives!"

"Of course you would try to get in my head, figure me out…" Nimue hissed. "Well take this down, Author. I am going to make things right. The blood of the newest Dark One brought us here, all of us who were tethered to the dagger. But there's someone else who can still come forth from death, in the same way. Someone who was tethered to the sword that was in the stone." She glanced up at an owl that circled overhead, hooting at them. "Provided this little exchange works, Henry, I do have hope. Hope that I can use another mortal life, and restore his!"

Meanwhile, Maleficent fought the urge forward best she could, staying in the driver's seat and looking for that blasted pirate amid the tense crowd in dim light. She spotted him- Killian stood in the weeds at lake's edge, surveying his work, next to a woman covered by her robe and hood. He was casually holding the long, wavy-ended sword, Excalibur, with its hilt in his hook! Maleficent screamed with rage as she pressed on the gas, turned on the sirens and sped towards them. She could ram them into the point of the only weapon that would hurt them, if luck were on her side- but the fire truck was flipped and crashed mightily, with a quick wave of Killian's only middle finger and a toss of his unkempt hair.

There was a shocked silence. Snow and David looked over there, almost bowled over by what they saw.

"EMMA!" Charming yelled. He opened up his arms and then quickly realized the young woman wouldn't run to him for a hug. The desperate parents hurried to her, going through every emotion they had within them. They were used to the never-ending roller-coaster ride of facing the line between good and evil, if not the ride of parenthood.

"Oh, Emma," Charming said, hugging her and kissing her head. "At least after all this, you get to live...and not as a Dark One, not if you choose to live differently!"

Snow hugged them both tightly and implored, "PLEASE look after your brother, Neal. He's safe with the nuns but -he needs family! Don't let him grow up feeling like an orphan!"

Emma shook her head sadly, hurt.

Her boy broke away from his staring contest with Nimue to come see her one last time in this life. Seeing him now, after meandering the afterlife, Emma recognized his father's hair, his grandmother Milah's nose, and his great-grandfather Leopold's thoughtful, confident walk. It broke her heart, to see that he was marked—just a child!

"Mom? Which of us did you mark?" Henry asked, jogging towards her.

Emma threw back her heavy hood and smiled. "No one, Henry! I'm not staying! No one is being sacrificed for me, don't worry... My parents already took care of that, before I was even born." She cast them a shady look, and commented to her guilt-ridden mother and father, "Surely you remember driving the 'darkness' out of me and into Lily. You didn't trust me to make my own moral choices. And surely you remember, now, what you did in Camelot… you went behind my back to- again, try to drive the darkness out of me. You didn't want me to hold the dagger that controlled my soul! You trusted King Arthur with it, more than you trusted me!"

They tried to apologize, but she turned away abruptly. "Sorry, sorry, that sure came out-wrong- uh, guys, we'll have the rest of the afterlife to talk about this, OK?"

Her family, horrified at her aloof attitude, backed away, leaving her to stand supportively at Killian's side. The people started up their chant again, but their courage fled. The murmurs, cackles and jeers of the Dark Ones grew in intensity, as they circled around the marked ones, mocking their show of strength in numbers.

Regina grabbed Robin's hand tightly and led him through the crowd, shouldering aside Zoso and two other hissing, cackling Dark Ones- a robed coil of a shape-shifting serpent and a hairy creature that was a gazelle crossed with a prawn. "Step aside, you don't scare me," Regina said. She pushed her way out of the encircled crowd to her old nemesis, Emma Swan. "Well, I suppose this is goodbye, Miss Swan." Regina pursed her defined burgundy lips and, with a look, dared Emma to try to scare her with death or anything else. "I'm surprised you didn't spend this whole day with your family, at least trying to save them... What were you up to, savior?"

Emma brushed aside the question with a charitable look. Even as death was all around them, it made her smile to see that the woman who raised her son and overcame everything to be a better mother- and her friend- she was still providing a great example of bravery for Henry. "Our son is strong," she said, nodding over at the teenage boy in the middle of the protective circle of the living. "Regina, I've already said my goodbyes. Thanks to Killian. But actually -I'm not staying in Storybrooke. Though we say goodbye to life, I will be with you, even unto the end of this terrible age..."

Robin and Regina couldn't stay and puzzle over this- their feet and legs jerked as they were drawn forcibly to the lake's edge. The living were all being pushed to the rocky shallows, then farther and farther out, by the gang of Dark Ones that had rounded them up.

Killian and Emma held each other and talked privately, over all the screaming and wailing.

"Wow. Are you really doing this? Are you going to fulfill what all Dark Ones have long wanted?" she asked.

They glanced over at Nimue, who mouthed her mantra, "Snuff out the light!"

"My plans are my own," Killian said roughly. Then, he looked deep into her wide eyes and said, desperately, softly, "I have to, Emma. I have to bring them back and free them... In order to make them pay... because, even in beating Rumpelstiltskin at the duel, I didn't get my revenge, really. If I killed only him, I wouldn't truly get my revenge either. They all were there, they all killed Milah. Since becoming the Dark One I figured out... that all Dark Ones are present, egging on every murder of the current Dark One. Rumpelstiltskin, the man, may have hated Milah and me, but he never would have caused her needless death... It was so senseless and so cruel! Milah died because all Dark Ones were there; it was all Dark Ones who did it."

"Except me!" Emma protested, trying to bring him back to practical matters of the present. "I wasn't a Dark One at that time… but if that's what you have to do, well, you don't need me, then…" Emma stepped back from his embrace. "You were telling me all along you didn't need my guidance. I guess you really don't. You believe in a future with no light magic-so you won't be needing me. All you have to do now is let me go." She had a surprising peace about her. "Unless..."

She hoped that all her kisses and caresses had done something for him. She added, "I know how unfair it is, to bear the weight of saving everyone. But... you still can. You still can choose a future with these people in it- or, with twenty-one past Dark Ones in it, as they're living out new, pathetic lifetimes in a constant power struggle over a small town. It's up to you." She tried to let go and walk away, but he clenched his fingers that were entwined with hers and held on, suddenly needy.

Killian rejected the idea of being a hero for the sake of these other heroes (and Zelena) who had all assumed the worst of him. He wanted her to trust that he had a plan, so he could have it all. "I'm not ready to let go of the darkness- and I'm not ready let go of you," Killian pleaded.

"I'll always love you, Hook. Now it's time to let me go." Emma spoke of the inevitability of her return to the dead, and looked skyward. Somewhere far 'round the world and above these heavy clouds, the moon pulled on her, the marked ones, and the ferryman. The clouds seemed to hang low, thick, dark, and menacing, and the lantern light of the little ferry on the lake was a seemingly welcoming glow. Emma kissed each of his ringed fingers and then pried her hand away. She waded out past the weeds and cattails, to point the unwilling living towards the boat, and help each crying innocent aboard.

Killian scratched his whiskers with his hook, trying to push tears from his eyes with its metal curve. He nearly collapsed with emotion, for the first time since Emma's death. There would be no summoning her again- not if she didn't want to be summoned! This was the real goodbye!

Nimue and the other Dark Ones whooped with victory. Nimue hiked up her robe and skirt, kicked the water and came over to clap Killian on the back.

"I won't be haunting you anymore," Emma called out to the man she loved, no matter how he treated her and her loved ones. "You've chosen her."

The lake was beginning to churn, to open up in the middle for their departure.

"NOW!" Killian yelled. King Arthur came out from his hiding place in the bushes, shaking as he nervously flipped open a book. "Now, maggot!" Killian cued. Arthur opened a book he had brought from Camelot to find the Sorcerer's ancient tethering spell. He hesitated as he read each line out loud for Killian to then repeat, and with a high wave of Excalibur, Killian brought forth a bolt of lightning from the sky. The lightning instantly zapped the long sword and sucked up every waiting Dark One into its plasma. Right at the point of transition from visiting souls to real bodies and souls—in that instant, the Dark Ones' souls were all absorbed, tethered to an earthly artifact. Their plans were destroyed. They were all gone, in that flash- all but Killian and Emma.

Emma jumped and cheered at this, and helped Dr. Hopper and her parents down from Charon's ferry.

"The marks are gone!" everyone marveled, and ran back to the grass. Arthur laughed and breathed deeply with relief- he had actually succeeded in tethering and trapping every Dark One in that miraculous sword! The clouds cleared at last.

"I now possess all the combined power of every Dark One!" Killian announced boastfully. "They are in my control, and I won't be controlled by them!" Their many voices were gone from his head- but something else felt different. With that incredible feat of dark magic, his skin became all scales, the barbs on his shoulders and back pointed farther upward, and these hardened hook shapes spread to the top of his head. He blinked his newly long-pupiled eyes. He had fully avenged Milah- but he still felt the drive to eliminate all others who had magic. Killian glared at Regina Mills and Zelena West, who were sharing an unexpected hug in their celebration of life.

"No rest for the wicked… or the reformed," he said.

As Emma looked on from the ferry, Killian swung Excalibur about and charged the magical sisters with his new horns. All the sand around him rose up as he ran, becoming a moving dune that knocked over all the rest of the gawking crowd.

"You want a fight, pirate?" Regina asked with a huff, and quickly transported everyone else- except the overwhelmed King Arthur- to safety, back to Town Hall. She dodged his charge and put up her dukes.

"Whatever happened to staying classy, your majesty?" the transformed Captain asked.

"Robin taught me to loosen up," Regina said, grinning and flipping back her shoulder-length raven hair.

Killian called on the fog of the lake to surround and choke her, while he drew up its water into two enormous fist shapes around his arms. "But you still fight like a girl!" he laughed, and raised one of the watery fists to hit his magical opponent.

Regina's fists became fireballs rapidly punching the air, dispelling the fog and making the Dark One's watery attack dissipate into steam. "Thank you!" she said. "You fight like… a desperate old man!" Her manicured hands were ringed by magical flames that she threw at Killian Jones again and again- he opened himself up to be burned but wasn't even singed.

Arthur felt compelled to help the Dark One, since it was only by his graces that he was allowed to live. "The chant without words!" he called out to Killian, finding this spell in his reference book. He vocalized the ancient chant for Killian to quickly repeat- and shortly it conjured up a palpable darkness, like an ink spill flying through the air. The jet-black void took an unpredictable path towards Regina, threatening to blot out her senses, maybe even her existence.

"Robin also taught me to -ask for help!" Regina wiggled her finger and brought Mr. Gold back to the park, with a spiral of white and gray smoke. She shrugged with arms wide, giving him a pleading look. "Any ideas, Gold?"

Bewildered, the graying former sorcerer looked between the two and barked, "Divert it! Now!" It had been ages since he had gone to a wizards' duel. He had experience to share- but didn't appreciate being brought here where he could be collateral damage.

The striking middle-aged woman took out a compact and caught the rays of the emerging afternoon sun, shining her handheld mirror at the shapeless darkness. It fled, far off into the sky.

"I'm glad you're here, even if you're in her corner," Killian remarked to his archenemy. "You and I can duel again, just wait your turn! I'll even let you use Excalibur!" He flashed a toothy grin.

Regina aimed her compact at Killian, getting in his face. "Look at that crocodile smile," she said. "Go on about how ravishingly handsome you are, like you always do!"

His transformed appearance startled him, made him sick and cracked the mirror. Many little Horns had ripped through his hat- his late brother's hat- and his weary eyes looked a bit more like a snake's.

His cheering section had been drifting away silently. "Goodbye Killian," Emma shouted from the underworldly ferry, with an approving smile. "Thank you for not tethering me to the sword!"

Killian and Regina looked up at her, devastated that she was really drifting away into the slow whirlpool of Gentleman's Lake.

"The afterlife will be… a lot more bearable, without the other Dark Ones hanging around!" she called out.

Killian ran out into the lake as deep as he could. "Don't you mean, see you later?"

Emma shook her head.

"Until we meet again?"

Emma leaned over the side of the boat, fighting back tears. "We may not go to the same afterlife… but...You… you found a way to save my family 's lives and be free of Nimue - and hold more power than any Dark One ever has! You've really made a better Light Dark One... than either of us expected. I love you!" Her face was taught with the strain of trying to smile, hot with emotion. "I- I won't be holding you back anymore..." she said, wishing for one last kiss but knowing it would be too painful.

Killian broke down, hyperventilating. "From what? From this?" He gestured widely with a flourish, as Rumpelstiltskin used to do. "This- isn't enough for me!" he cried, as Emma disappeared back into the fog that clouded the middle of the lake.

All the years he had artificially extended his life by staying in Neverland's waters, Killian thought he would still die young. Die fighting. Now he no longer cared about dying in battle. He tossed Excalibur up into the air and made it levitate before him, made it spin so the wavy, somewhat jagged end pointed at his belly. At least Emma wouldn't have to watch him die. Arthur, Rumpelstiltskin and Regina looked on with bated breath. The last Dark One commanded his sword forward with a jerk. No last words, no cry of pain, no blood. Impaled, he doubled over, looked around in despair, then withdrew the long blade from his gut.

He still stood.

The mended sword of destiny fell to the bottom of the lake. No one saw the name engraved on it disappear; the sword lay in the sand and pebbles, blank.