A/N Okay so this chapter is rated M for violence. Writing this was really intense, similar to the lake but more… intense. Recently my CS feels have been dominated by the song 'You Found Me' by The Fray. Anyone else? Anyhow, get ready to meet your vultures from the end of the last chapter! Keep following and favouriting!

Chapter 15: Retribution

It was midnight when Emma woke to a sound outside her room. She had been dreaming of… well, she'd prefer not to think of what she'd been dreaming of because it included a swashbuckler that she'd rather not ponder. His face appeared frequently in her dreams and she couldn't help what her subconscious dictated.

Eyes still closed, Emma listened to see if it was Henry getting water. The sound came again and she snuggled deeper into her quilt; it was just Henry. A moment passed before the saviour sat bolt upright. Henry wasn't here, he was at David's. He had called that afternoon and begged to stay at her parents' for the night because her father planned on getting him up early for horse-riding lessons. It was a week since the events in the forest and her son was now past the desperation to be near Emma at all times.

She had resumed work as usual, only taking time out to see a certain pirate four days ago. But she preferred not to think of that encounter, phantom touches tended to ghost her skin when she thought of what happened. Emma's lips tingled involuntarily, damn that ass whole! she thought.

Yanking herself away from her thoughts and back to the present, she listened closely to see if the sound of people moving in the living room would come again. It was only a second before it did and the blonde quietly got out of bed.

She grabbed her gun from the drawer in her bedside table, quiet as she started tip-toeing towards her bedroom door. The wooden floorboards suddenly creaked under her weight and Emma cringed at the loud noise in the absolute silence.

Lithely stepping to her door, she pushed it open gun-first and entered her living room. Emma scrutinised the room but saw nothing out of place and relaxed. There was no one here; she was just being paranoid for some reason. Sagging in relief, she turned around to head back into her bedroom.

The sound of floorboards creaking behind her made Emma stop dead in her tracks, she could now feel a presence behind her. There was someone here. Uncaring to find out who it was, she tensed her muscles in provision for a roundhouse kick.

Before she could even move, black replaced Emma's vision and her head hurt dearly.

8888

The solid back of the chair proved uncomfortable with her hands pulled together behind it. Emma's eyes started to flutter open and she groaned at the throbbing in the back of her head. She tried to touch it gingerly but realised she couldn't, her hands were bound by rope. Pulling roughly, she realised they were extremely tight.

Emma opened her eyes fully and looked down at her feet. They were bound as well. She sighed, still tired, and took in her surroundings. She was still in her apartment, only she was tied to one of her dining chairs. Someone had placed it in the middle of the room, moving furniture so that she was the central focus of the apartment. It made the saviour feel oddly exposed.

Only one light was on, the one overhead – she cursed the bright light that burned her still fatigued eyes. If she hadn't been through hell and back, Emma might have thought it frightening. But there were much scarier things than being tied to a chair in the middle of a room if you asked her.

"Hello?" the blonde croaked, her mouth was dry and she would have killed for a glass of water.

Floorboards creaked under something's weight to her right and Emma whipped her head around, trying to peer into the darkness that was probably the couch and TV area.

"How does it feel to be helpless?" a male's voice asked acidly from the shadows in front of Emma. She shook her head and tried to identify the voice. Something about it sent an evil thing scuttling down her spine, she recognised it but she didn't know where from.

"What? Why am I tied up?" she asked, scrutinising the blackness before her to the point that her eyes hurt from the strain. The male voice laughed and was joined by a dark chuckle to her right. There were two people here.

"'Cause I felt it would make things easier… for me, anyway." The voice was sinister in its comments and Emma felt herself shiver again.

"What?" she asked again, wracking her brain trying to put a name to the voice.

"You've cost me greatly, made me very angry and I just wanted to repay you for it."

Emma had to restrain a smile, "Listen, I've pissed off a lot of people in my life. You'll have to be a little more specific, bozo." The floorboards creaked again.

"I guess you'll need to know what name to beg mercy from," the man said, and she felt her insides contract in fear. She didn't usually harbour such feelings; even the great 'Dark One' didn't faze her too much. But this, being utterly vulnerable to someone who was clearly very vicious, it forced Emma to look at the situation seriously. From within the darkness, she could make out a shadow emerging. Whoever it was, he was fat and mid-height, probably a bit shorter than the woman herself.

As the man's face became visible in the light, Emma glared with all the hate and loathing she possessed. The greasy male before her was someone she recognised from Fairy-tale Land. He was someone she had despised from their very first meeting.

"Grimes."

He smirked with yellow teeth and saliva lined lips at her recognition.

"How did you get here?" Emma spat, holding his gaze evenly. Grimes shrugged and pretended to study his dirty and chipped nails.

"You don't actually think that Cora would 'ave come 'ere alone, she let us come through. In fact she promised us a moment of your time before she killed you in front of Mummy and Daddy but you saw to preventin' that, didn't you?" Grimes' words were laced with sheer bitterness.

"So you became her bitch, then?" Emma retorted and smiled satisfactorily at the scowl that formed on Grimes' face. The feeling was short-lived though because the blonde's head was suddenly jerked back. Looking up, she saw Talice – of course he was here too – and he was gripping her hair roughly.

"I wouldn't talk like that when you're so defenceless." Talice shoved her head back down and walked around to stand beside Grimes.

"Piss off, ass wipe," she spat in their direction.

Grimes was quickly in front of her, face centimetres from her own. His breath was hot and sticky on her face and smelt foul. She could see the fury and violent tendencies pure in his muddy eyes. Grimes abruptly slapped Emma. Her cheek suddenly felt hot and it stung. The hit had been so hard; her head had whipped to one side because of its force.

Emma bit her lip as Grimes roughly grabbed her by the chin and made her face him again. He was purposefully pressing his thumb to the spot he'd just hit. Her eye's met his and she set her jaw.

"I'm goin' to enjoy this," Grimes breathed cruelly, "so much."

Without another word, he stepped back and punched Emma in the stomach. She grunted as the pain knocked the breath out of her. Before she could catch her breath though, Talice had walked forward and had aimed another punch into her shoulder. The saviour bit her tongue, desperate to keep them from hearing her scream in pain. It was what they wanted.

Grimes was only fuelled by his desire to have her shriek in discomfort. Talice was fuelled by anger. Together, they unleashed their rage on Emma but she never made a sound. Bloodied, bruised and panting for air, she watched as Grimes scanned her newly discoloured form.

"Did I tell you what we did to your pirate?" he asked conspiratorially and her head shot up. The alert in her face amused the two men before her and they smiled knowingly at each other.

"What did you do?" Emma managed between deep breaths. Her body was still trying to catch up after the beating. Grimes knelt down in front of her, his grin deepening in repulsive satisfaction.

"Oh, nothing too bad just yet; but never you worry. In fact I think I'd like to see the look on his face when we tell him about you… once we're done," he said. Her anger flared suddenly; she knew his anger was only just contained and she had a feeling that if he lost her, there was no telling what he would become.

"Leave Killian out of this," she said, the vehemence in her words surprised her. It didn't surprise either of her captors though; in fact it seemed to solidify some thought of theirs as their expressions became more triumphant. Emma hadn't even paid attention to the offhand way in which they talked about disposing of her. In that moment it wasn't her top priority; he was.

"Maybe we should leave you alive so you can watch us finish him off. That could be fun?" Talice said, imitating a matter-of-fact tone. The blonde seethed and gritted her teeth angrily. There was only one thing she could do to prevent that and re-draw all attention to herself. It would also prove to be most satisfactory, however short-lived. She had to piss them off – an art she had become quite adept at.

"Not as fun as watching the two of you jump off your own boat. Or as fun as watching Killian knock you both out in quick succession."

The men's expressions dimmed and Grimes stood up. He slapped her abruptly and turned around to walk into the darkness of the shadows. Talice watched him and turned back to the blonde who was glaring heatedly at him. The silence was deafening, only broken by the sound of a drawer opening and cutlery being pushed around.

The wiry man still in her vision smiled vindictively as he watched her reaction.

When Grimes returned, Emma felt her mind scream in horror, her insides contracted in immeasurable fear. The light glinted lightly off the knife he held, it was one she used to cut Henry's apples for school. But it was also razor sharp for such a small blade.

"This'll do nicely." Grimes smiled sadistically at Emma and turned to Talice, "get a rag and put it in her mouth – I don't want people outside this buildin' to be alarmed." Talice quickly secured a rag in her mouth.

You idiot! She scolded herself, if you had screamed, you would have drawn attention! You could have gotten out of this! She watched, eyes never leaving Grimes as he kneeled in front of her, playfully tossing the knife back and forth between his hands.

"Where were we?"

With the speed of a tiger cat, he whipped the knife forward and shallowly cut her arm. Emma groaned painfully as blood started to rise to the cut. Grimes smiled at the saviour's grimace, he was positively psychotic.

Grimes moved the knife toward her collarbone and pressed. Emma was panting loudly as the knife broke her skin, it wasn't lethally deep but it still hurt like hell. Pulling it slowly sideways, the blonde couldn't contain herself and cried in agony. It was muffled by the dishcloth in her mouth but Grimes relished in the sound and continued slowly drawing the blade across to her other collarbone. Blood seeped out of the wound and down her chest in a slow red waterfall.

Putting the blade in his pocket, Grimes stepped back and Talice stepped forward resuming the beating of before. It wasn't long before he accidentally knocked the chair over, sending Emma and the wooden object crashing to the ground. The wood broke at the impact and she felt dazed as her head hit the ground. She could feel that her legs were free and savoured the feeling of blood returning to her feet.

Footsteps echoed close to her ear and a sticky breath whispered in her ear.

"I told you I wasn't finished with you," Grimes said and kicked Emma in the stomach. At the impact, she jerked her arms forward instinctively and realisation dawned on her that her binds were loose. Wiggling her hands around subtly, she felt the ropes slacken.

"You know, I really wish Cora had of accomplished her plan. I would have loved to have seen the look on your face after your bastard kid was slaughtered." Grimes was standing over her, behind him was Talice.

Fury enveloped Emma and gave her new resolve. Adrenaline coursing through her veins, she seized her chance and pulled her arms in front of her, snatching Grimes' legs from under him so he fell backwards in a heap atop Talice.

She scrambled up and sprinted for the apartment door. Even without light, she knew where it was.

Yanking open the door with all the force she could muster, ignorant of the lock that had clearly been in place, Emma could taste freedom. Before she could step outside the apartment, Grimes grabbed her from behind in a move reminiscent to that which he'd used at Lake Nostos.

Emma tried to scream for help but realised the gag still tied securely to her mouth.

Talice was swift to slam the door shut and she kicked and punched frantically as she tried to evade Grimes' grip. The greasy man's voice was like slick oil in her ears.

"I'm not going' to be tying you to the chair this time. This time you're being' bound to the bed." Emma's eyes widened in horror and a fresh wave of fear crashed over her. Limbs flailing, she thrashed in Grimes' arms like a wild animal.

Sick of the hassle, he threw her forcefully to the ground towards the wall. She hit the ground hard but her head hit the brick wall with a sickening crack. She rapidly felt wetness on her face and thoughts collided and slowed.

In her haze, Emma saw the door nearly fall off its hinges as an unknown figure strode into the room. Grimes' silhouette appeared scared by the person and backed away, arms held up defensively. The figure brandished what she assumed to be a sword. Unflinching, the person pushed the sword deep into Grimes' chest. Emma watched as he fell to his knees before the mystery assailant. From behind him, she saw Talice watching petrified. As the sword was drawn out of Grimes and the person looked up, Talice sprinted headlong for Emma's window and jumped out – glass shattering as he went through. The person cursed and turned around.

Upon noticing Emma's crumpled figure, the man – it was definitely a man – dropped his sword and gently untied the gag, lifting her into his arms. Cradling her against his chest, the man ran from the room with grace that the blonde associated with only one male. Straining her blurred vision, she recognised the hardened features. The chiselled jaw line covered in just the right amount of stubble. The black hair that complimented his skin tone perfectly. The piercing pale blue eyes, which were now looking down at Emma's own.

He was clearly trying to remain apathetic, but she could easily see past the façade to the concern that lay beneath. Worry for her condition.

"Killian?" Her voice slurred and she felt like she was flying, they were moving so fast.

"Try to refrain from talking, love," Killian said, looking up to keep an eye on where he was going.

"You aren't going to kiss me to get me to shut up again, are you?" Emma said, remembering the last time she'd badgered him incessantly. The pirate's chest rumbled lightly and she heard his throaty and yet oddly strained chuckle.

"No, lass, I only kiss women who are conscious. And I want you to be the one to initiate our next encounter." He kept running but glanced down at Emma again. Her face was bruised and bloodied, her limbs heavy from the lack of energy. The scarlet stain against her collarbone enacted anger in him that she didn't recognise. His steely blue gaze flashed with the promise of wrath.

Emma felt his stride quicken and suddenly they were passing through glass doors and bright lights were above Killian's head.

"Oi! I have a woman here, her name's Emma Swan. She's been beaten – I don't know how long for." His voice roared through the room and the saviour felt herself dropped onto a soft mattress. As her consciousness began to fade, the last thing she saw was the sky blue of his eyes, pleading her to stay awake.

Things can only get meatier from here. Reviews are well-wishes for Emma.