Emma couldn't keep her eyes off of him while he spoke with David. Her emotions were torn between stubborn disbelief that this was really Killian's long-dead brother instead of an elaborate ruse perpetuated by Hades, and confused longing as she searched Liam's face for traces of Killian. There were vague similarities in the broadness of shoulders, the facial scruff and blue eyes, the strong muscular build of a man used to hard labor... But mostly, the Jones brothers resembled each other in the haunted look settled deep within their eyes that spoke of abandonment, loss, and more regret than any normal human being should ever have to shoulder alone.

She knew that look, because it was the same look Killian had called her out on when they climbed the beanstalk. And it made her heart ache with a ferocity that made her wish she didn't even have one at all.

"You should go talk to him," her mother prodded quietly, settling down beside her after she had tended to Liam's wounds. There had only been so much they could do for him. Years of damage from the thorns had left Liam covered in ugly scars from head to toe. The eldest Jones brother took it in stride, however, grateful simply to be free from his painful, centuries-old prison.

Emma glanced over at Liam again. He was still speaking in low tones with her father. No doubt David was explaining a number of things to him. There was so much that had to be disclosed just to explain their mission into the Underworld for Killian.

"He needs your reassurance as much as you need his," her mother continued. She watched Emma with a mixture of hope and concern. No doubt she was worried for Emma's emotional and mental stability after finding the wrong Jones brother inside the mess of thorns.

She swung her gaze away from Liam and eyed her mother. "The only one who needs reassurance right now is Killian," she insisted quietly. "He doesn't even know I'm here, that I'm coming for him."

"Well-yes," Mary-Margaret agreed, "but Liam-"

"No," Emma interrupted sharply. Her mother's eyes widened with surprise. Guilt washed over her for a brief moment. "I just...I can't," she lied. "Not yet."

"I understand. Maybe when you're ready."

Emma nodded, but that too was a lie. She didn't know if she would ever be ready to face Liam Jones. Sooner or later, the truth would come out and he would know the truth: that Emma Swan had been the one responsible turning Killian dark again and sending him to the Underworld in the first place. And she just couldn't stand to see the resentment and disappointment that would alight in the eyes of Killian's beloved older brother once he knew.

So, she would simply have to save Killian first. Then the rest could sort itself out later.

-/-

Liam returned Emma's quiet, distant watchfulness in kind. She would feel it frequently, that prickle of awareness just underneath her skin that told her Liam was studying her again. Emma tried not to be annoyed by it as they fought their way through the Underworld. After all, fair was fair; she'd been observing him too. But there was something unnerving about the way Killian's brother watched her, and Emma couldn't help but feel that he was judging her-every word, every movement, every shift in mood or facial expression.

She was an open book to him, just like Killian. But she feared his reading of it, of her, wouldn't be half so kind as his brother's. And if Liam didn't like her...

Emma gripped the pommel of the sword she had sheathed at her hip. She wouldn't let herself think of that just now. The only thing that mattered at all was Killian.

Let Liam think of her what he will.

-/-

He surprised her after they drove off the Melinoƫ. She was too exhausted, mentally and emotionally, to fend him off. He settled in beside her and simply lent his presence to hers for a while, grounding her with his physical presence until she felt her sanity return. "You wear the ring," he said simply, when he finally spoke.

"What?" She peered at him with exhausted eyes, unable to form the sort of sarcastic answer that might have pushed him away. Perhaps she was simply out of practice, pushing people behind her walls. Or maybe there was simply nothing left of them anymore. Maybe deep down she'd known that, and had tried to avoid Liam because of it.

"The ring," he repeated. "It used to be mine."

"What, you want it back or something?" she sighed, shifting her position so that she could lean more comfortably against the wall.

"No."

"Good, you won't get it."

He chuckled, soft and low. "I can see why he gave it to you."

"Why are you so sure he gave it to me?"

"I saw the way you crushed your hand around it when the Melinoƫ got in your head. Like it was your lifeline. It means something to you."

"It does," she confirmed.

"I know my brother," he said, standing up. He offered her a hand to help her to her feet, and Emma accepted with only the briefest hesitance. "And if he gave it to you, that meant something to him, too."

-/-

Their brief conversation didn't defuse the odd tension between them. If anything, it only served to make it worse. And while she no longer actively avoided Killian's brother, she didn't seek him out of her own accord, either. But Liam, apparently, had very different ideas.

"You know," he said quietly, falling in to step beside her, "we Jones men can be quite vain."

"So I've noticed."

"My point is, a man might think that his scars make him rather repellent to others."

"If your brother's missing hand doesn't repel me, a few scars aren't going to bother me."

"Killian's missing a what?" Liam halted in his tracks, blinking at her. "Never mind," he shook his head, dispelling her attempt at distracting him from the subject. "So why are you still avoiding me, then," he asked as he caught back up to her, "if the scars don't signify?"

"I never said I was avoiding you."

"You didn't have to. I'd say it's pretty obvious. Now why is that?"

"Look, Liam, I know you're being nice and honorable because that's what you Jones men do, but I just want to find your brother, all right?"

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Why does it matter?" she said in frustration.

"Because Killian wouldn't have given my ring to a woman he didn't intend to marry," Liam told her with an earnest expression, "and if I'm going to have a sister-in-law, I'd like to get off on the right foot with her for the brief time I have with her."

"I can't talk about it," she whispered. "I'm sorry."

"Can't or won't?" he asked perceptively.

"Both."

-/-

She'd say this for the Jones brothers. They never gave up on anyone they'd taken a fancy to. Emma wasn't sure whether Liam's dedication to earning her friendship meant he'd be more amenable to forgiveness once he learned the truth, or less, but she would have been lying to herself if she didn't admit that his perseverance made her a little happy.

"So riddle me this," Emma began when they stopped to rest, since Liam was lurking nearby anyway. Something Liam had said had been bothering her for...well, what felt like days.

"I beg your pardon?" He looked over at her with a confused expression.

"Sorry. It means I want you to explain something." He nodded at her to go on, and Emma stretched her legs out, crossing them at the ankles. "This unfinished business that everyone in the Underworld has... What happens if someone leaves the Underworld before they finish it?"

"You're referring to Killian?"

"Actually, no. But pretend we are."

"They go back to living as any other normal person would, I suppose. But getting Hades to let anyone leave the Underworld with unfinished business is next to impossible. Many have tried and been tricked or trapped here themselves in the process."

"Eurydice," she muttered, remembering the woman's cryptic explanation of why she knew the Underworld so well.

"Precisely."

She pondered that for several moments, wishing she could speak to Eurydice again. There had to be a way to bring Liam back with them. She couldn't reunite Killian with his brother only to have him lose Liam all over again. But there simply weren't enough spaces on the boat going back to take Liam with them. Not unless they left someone behind. She was sorely tempted to make that person Rumple, especially after he disappeared on them, but she needed him to return them all to Storybrooke.

But Eurydice's talk of a gateway between life and death indicated that an alternative might be possible. (If they could get around the not so little problem of Liam having no body to return to.)

"Henry," she said, brushing her hands off as she stood up. "Come over here. I need you to tell us a story."

-/-

Their descent to the ninth level brought their most harrowing encounter yet. It was a relief when they reached the final level, and at first Emma's heart beat faster with anticipation at finding Killian. But when they emerged from the passageway, stepping off the staircase, a graveyard of bones and half-eaten corpses littered the floor, telling a frightening tale. Emma unsheathed her sword, hoping that whatever had been responsible for the mess hadn't gotten to Killian. "What happened here? I thought people couldn't die in the Underworld," she frowned.

"They don't," Liam agreed as everyone turned to peer at him. "But just because your soul is eaten alive doesn't mean it stays that way. Hades won't let it. But the mind reflects what it believes to be true. Or in this case, the soul."

"So you're saying that all of those-those bones and corpses represent people whose souls have been eaten?" Mary-Margaret asked with disturbed expression. "They turn into corpses because they believe they should? And then they reanimate?"

"Something like that," he agreed soberly. "Think of it as a macabre way for his pets to keep track of meals."

"How do you know all this?" David demanded. "You were trapped in thorns for hundreds of years."

"I wasn't at first." The haunted look in Liam's eyes told them more than they needed to know about why he knew. "Come on. We'll want to get as far as we can before we draw Eurynomos's attention."

But in the end, they never drew its attention; instead, it drew theirs. Or rather, the screams of the person it was attempting to eat did.

Emma shoved Henry behind her and Regina. "Spread out," she ordered. "Robin, you and Mary-Margaret attack from the flanks. Regina and I will combine our magic and attack together, giving you the chance to move in close. Henry, you stay put."

"And me?" Liam asked.

She handed him her sword. "Go with David. Try not to get eaten."

Their combined onslaught confused the enormous demon for a moment. It was just enough time for the blonde woman to scramble to her feet, her glittering ruby encrusted tiara falling out of her disheveled hair to the ground. It hit the floor with a soft echo as she darted away, and the demon snapped out of its daze. With a roar that rattled Emma's teeth, it turned on David with rage.

"Now!" Emma snapped at Regina. Together, the two women channeled their magic into a forceful stream of cold energy. It was a trick she'd learned from Elsa before she had returned to Arendelle; one that had become very useful in the Underworld.

It hit the demon on the shoulder, knocking it off balance. It stumbled backward, trying to regain its footing, and Liam surged forward, sinking his blade into its side. The demon pulled the blade out, casting it aside as if it were nothing more than a used toothpick, and turned to Liam. It tilted its head as if in recognition, drawing back like a cat that was preparing to pounce.

"Liam, move!" Emma shouted at the same time that a pert female voice yelled, "I don't think so, darling!"

A blast of magic hit the demon from the other side, knocking it squarely into the path of Emma and Regina's combined magic. "Up!" Emma yelled, raising her hands in unison with Regina. Their magic arched upward and hit Eurynomos in between the eyes.

The demon exploded, splattering everything within the chamber, and the only sound that remained was their party's labored breathing.

Regina was the first to recover, glancing down at her gore-soaked clothes. "Hades better pay to have this dry-cleaned," she grumbled.

"Are you all right?" Emma asked Henry, who peered around the stairwell archway.

"Yeah, I'm fine. So who's that?" He nodded his head toward the blonde woman they'd rescued from Eurynomos.

"I don't know, let's find out."

She crossed the chamber, pausing to check on Liam (who seemed none the worse for wear, save for his ruined clothing) before she approached the stranger. "You're responsible for the other magic?" she asked her.

"I am."

"And who are you?"

"Anastasia Tremaine," she answered, "formerly the Red Queen of Wonderland."

"Red Queen?" Emma's mind flashed back to the page Will Scarlet had ripped out of a stolen library book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It had been a picture of a queen dressed in red from head to foot. "Does the name Will Scarlet mean anything to you?"

The answering tremble of her lower lip told Emma everything she needed to know.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to upset you. I'm Emma. Emma Swan."

"Emma Swan?" she sniffed, dabbing at her face with a lace handkerchief that had frankly seen better days. Her eyes lit with recognition. "I know that name."

"What? How?"

"He keeps moaning it at all hours of the day and night."

"Who?" Emma said breathlessly, hope kindling in her anew. "Who does?"

"Why the prisoner that Cerberus guards, of course!"