108Red dawn
The air was still, as if the time itself was waiting for the battle to begin, holding its breath. Killian glanced at Emma, crouched next to him behind the wall of cars that they'd created, nothing more than her red leather jacket and her tight blue jeans to protect her body. The short sword weakly reflected the foggy light of the ending night in her right hand, nervously clamped around the wooden hilt.
" Hey." he whispered, startling her. She was rightly terrorized. Emma locked gaze with him, showing him a pair of huge grey-green eyes. He softly smiled at her. " We can handle this, Swan.
It's just a battle. Trust me, I've fought many of 'em in my life. We can win."
" But we can lose, too." she objected, her hand that slightly trembled, as her voice.
Killian smiled again at her. " Ah, I doubt it. We have that creepy woman by our side, the Slayer, and Rapunzel, Regina... and your nice butt. " Emma's eyes grew wider at his last words. He grinned, trying to return serious. His defense wasn't needed nor appreciated in that moment. "
You're powerful, Swan. You and the Queen, together, you can do anything."
Emma gave a bitter, suffocated laugh. " I can barely stand this tension..." she said glancing down. " Yet you can stand it."
Emma gazed up at him again. He could do nothing else than smile at her. She was beautiful, even if scared. He could see the bravery behind the fear in her widened, hoping eyes. And the gratefulness, now. She tried to smile back at him. He nodded once, pressing his lips together, wishing to press them against hers, instead, yet unable to find the courage to lean forward and kiss her. He could run laughing towards the death, he thought with bitterness, but not kiss a girl, better, that girl. An inner laughter shook his body.
The pirate watched the empty grey street in front of him from the window of the car, the thick fog that hid the dangerous horizon. The silence was absolute, broken only by his own breaths. Killian looked at his right, giving a brief smile to Victor, eyeing the odd black weapon in his hands that they had called "Uzi". Weird weapon, weird name. Behind the doctor he could catch sight of the sexy wolf-girl, or at least the warning yellow lights of her eyes in the fog. The pirate turned and gazed up, looking at the confused figure of Snow White, hidden together with Granny inside the clock tower, behind all of them, ready to throw arrows against the enemies, protected from theirs by the Crocodile's spell.
Hook turned again, his attention caught by the whispering voices of Swan and Regina, talking to each other. He watched the former Queen, dressed in an incredibly elegant black armor, lean a hand on Emma's shoulder and reassuringly smile at her.
" Henry's safe, Emma, he will be fine. We'll protect him." the brunette was saying. Emma nodded, but he heard her swallow hard.
" Yes, we will." she whispered, too tensely to not being trying to convince herself. There was something close to panic in her voice. Killian sighed, saddened. Seen the last fight, she had her reasons to be scared. He was scared too, for her. She was strong, and, yes, she could use a sword after all, but in a real battle... He would protect her, he swore to himself. He could do this one good thing in his life, and he would do it, whatever that would have meant. Pan wanted them? Well, he wanted his skin too, and from a long time. It was time that his throat encountered his hook.
" We will." Emma repeated.
Killian looked at her put up gorgeous hair. A face was standing in his field of view, three steps afar: Hook locked gaze with Rapunzel and her knowing stare. They slightly nodded once at each other, a silent accordance binding them as a blood pact of brotherhood.
Snow looked at her daughter from a distance, watching her talk with Regina, then turn and go
back to stare at the empty road. The sun was about to rise. The battle would have begun in moments.
Snow had already seen Regina's armor once. She had thought that she was intimidating, scary with that outfit. The embodiment of death, of her death. She had trembled at that sight. Now the only thought that filled her mind was that the poisoned arrow that she was holding, ready to be nocked, could fly straight to Regina's heart, and she would have neither noted it. As that one time in the woods, when the step-mother had pretended to be a peasant, she had her life in her hand. If only she hadn't hesitated that time...
" I thought I would have never seen that look in your eyes, child." Granny's voice awakened her, making her give a start. She glanced at her.
" Which look?" she harshly asked, swallowing. She knew the answer.
" The predator's look, you know it. I saw Red have that gaze, Hook, Rumplestilstkin, Regina, me... But you... I guess that all of us, we all must have that look at least once in our lives. But I believed that you wouldn't have addressed it to the mother of your grandson. Not after what she did in the mines, at least."
Snow couldn't help but feel uncomfortable at that scolding tone. She glared at Granny, then came back watching the road.
" One good thing can't erase a million bad actions." she angrily whispered.
" Henry loves her. Emma loves her."
Snow goggled, suddenly looking again at her. Granny visibly held back a laughter. " Not in a romantic way, obviously. I thought that it was obvious, at least."
Snow couldn't help sighing in relief. The simple idea made her shiver in disgust and horror. She had to force herself to think about something else. Granny helped her with her words.
" I thought you two were finally conciliated. What happened to make you be this angry with her?" Snow let her sight get lost in the light grey fog. What had happened? When did she begin to feel this angry? She had almost forgot it, and she really didn't know how could she had forgotten such a thing. " She used magic... There was an accident, and Emma almost died. Henry was shattered. I was shattered. "
" Red told me that Emma used magic, not Regina..."
Rage filled Snow's eyes with tears and emptied her chest. " If she didn't curse us, Emma wouldn't be the Savior, and she wouldn't be damned by the burden of magic... I know that it will change her. Now, in moments, she's using magic, killing through it, under Regina's lead... " her voice became almost a snarl. " She'll become a monster like her. And I can do nothing to impede it." Nothing but... Snow looked at the inviting arrow, its sharp, deathly edge pointing outside the window, down, almost against the hated black silhouette.
" Are you sure you're talking about your daughter?"
Snow glanced at Granny in surprise. " What?"
Granny smirked. " As long as I can see, Snow, the changed one is you. Look at her." she said, nodding towards the blonde. Snow looked at her daughter, as the older woman said. " She's terrorized, Snow. She's shivering, can you see it? I can smell her fear. Her hands are sweating, see how she holds her sword? She doesn't want to fight, she probably won't kill anyone. Maybe she'll wound them. Maybe. And, yes, she'll use magic, but it doubt that Regina will let her kill someone with it. I smell her fear too, her worrying. Can you see how she glances at her? How she's trying to reassure her? She knows, Snow. Henry has a dark mother, he doesn't need another one. She knows that Emma has to stay good. She'll do anything to make her son happy, so she'll protect her, from them and from herself. I know it because I would do the same, before you ask me." " You're not Regina."
" No. But I'm a mother. And you too are. We do what's best for our children, whatever that means. Even if it means that we have to trust our archenemy."
The two locked gaze for a while. Snow wanted to believe her, she wanted to trust Regina, but she just couldn't. She looked at Emma, talking again with Hook now. Her daughter's life was in a pirate's and an evil queen's hands. She really hated the Three Little Pigs, and Peter Pan, and the fucking Lost Boys. She wanted them death. Worse, she wanted to kill them all.
" I'm not saying that we're dying. I'm just saying that there's a high probability that we'll die."
Ruby sighed at Victor's words, rolling her eye. " Always positive, uh?"
Whale shrugged. " Well, I never get delusional."
Red glanced at him, admiring his unusual macho appearance in that body armor and with the Tommy gun in his hands. He had to feel her gaze, because he glanced back at her, and with such an alluring smirk that Red had to look away to remember that they were going to fight and kill people and that that wasn't the time to have sex behind David's pick up in the middle of the road.
" The white coat or the body armor?"
The girl gave him a quick, confused look. " What?"
" Which one is sexier? The doctor or the soldier? The white coat or the body armor?" he asked, always smirking, and then winking at her as she leaned her eyes on him, feeling her cheeks flush and something similar to an electrical shock between her legs.
" Goddammit!" she whispered, making him stifle a laughter. " Are you stupid or what? If Steven hears you..."
Victor brightly smiled in the grey fog, moving the Uzi as to show it to her. " He'll find out that lead maybe can't kill him, but it surely can tear him up to pieces if a proper weapon shoots it." " Victor..."
" Trust me." he interrupted her, still smiling. " I'm a doctor."
Ruby opened her mouth to answer to him, but a now well known smell almost made her choke. She turned and stretched to the window to watch the road, disappearing in the fog in a few meters, her heartbeat crazily accelerated, still unable to see him, yet sure that he was there. The air brought her other smells, unknown people, full of adrenaline and weapons, judging by the iron smell. She turned towards her right, looking for Regina's eyes. The brunette almost immediately locked gaze with her. Ruby nodded once to her.
They're here. came the steady and silent voice of the former Queen in her mind, as in the other's. Ruby turned her head to the road again. The fog was thick, transforming the sky in a solid grey surface, randomly glittering, confusing their eyes, hiding the young sun, the buildings, the enemies. Granny and Snow couldn't help them.
She herself couldn't help them.
Not in that form.
Ruby shut her eyes, awakening the wolf, herself. The animal, crouched in the middle of her soul, raised her head. Their eyes met for a heartbeat before that they became the same thing, before that their skins mixed, her fur protecting their body, her fangs opening their mouth, her feral warmth filling their heart.
Red opened her eyes, seeing the apparently empty road over the window of the pick up, now at her eye level. She felt the cold asphalt under her paws, the wet air invade her nostrils, bringing all kind of smells and sensations to her, vibrating in her tensed ears, the steps of the enemies reverberate in her deep, light growl.
Still. Regina ordered. Red immobilized, yet she couldn't not foretaste the flesh and the blood between her jaws. She started to drool, her eyes on the close horizon, waiting for the order. Minutes passed, and nothing happened. Everyone was immobile, waiting for Regina's voice in their mind. The werewolf could feel their growing tension.
Steven was right there, just a few steps behind the grey curtain of mist. His brothers were with him, their smells were similar. And they were all still. Waiting, just like them. She knew that he had felt her.
Regina gave her a quick sign of understanding as she caught her thought.
There was a second of silence, the blink of an eye, then everything became a burning hell: the remaining cars on the sides of the road, surrounding the Lost Boys and the Three Little Pigs, suddenly exploded in an unbearable flash of light and heat. The screams filled the air, smell of burnt flesh, of blood, of death. Red opened her eyes, licking her whiskers.
" Gather, idiots! Gather! " a tall boy, covered by a strange armor and holding a sword, was screaming to the others. Half of his face was disfigured by a wrinkled scar. The surviving Lost
Boys assembled behind him, nervously holding their weapons.
Meanwhile, the Three Little Pigs had started transforming. Steven was the first to tear up his tshirt, screaming, howling. Red had never seen someone transform that way. He was getting taller, larger, his face a haired hybrid between a human and a wolf, as the rest of his enormous body. He threw away the t-shirt as the transformation was apparently completed, leaving him in that terrifying form between man and wolf, tall like two men, dangerous as ten.
Attack! Regina yelled, together with Pan, in their mind and with her voice, already sending balls of fire against the enemies.
Red jumped over the pick up, landing on a brave boy who had ran to the wall of cars, immediately ripping open his throat. She gave a brief glance to the enormous black hybrid that Robert had become. He was trying to reach Cruella, but Rapunzel and Regina were holding him with magic. Red looked around, trying to find Steven, but the fog had hidden him. Screams and growls from her right, though, made her understand that he had to be there.
A girl appeared from the grey curtain of mist running against her and jumped, grasping at her neck, a little axe lifted, ready to hit her back. Ruby rolled on the ground, breaking her armed arm, crashing her ribs under her weight. She looked at her for the time to realize that she was still alive, struggling to breathe, before tearing her head off with a single bite. She then turned, ready to fight, or so she thought: Steven was there, a mountain of muscles covered in blood. Whom was that blood? Red felt a sudden rage invade her, and fiercely growled at the reddish werewolf. A sort of smile contorted his face, showing blooded, long fangs.
" My little, ferocious mate..." he said in a bark, stepping forward. Red snarled at him, biting the air as an advice, but he laughed. " It's a pity that I must kill you now..."
He bent his legs, preparing to jump on her, but a burst of gunfire threw him on the ground before he could make a move.
Ruby turned to see a grinning Dr. Whale holding the smoking Uzi, ready to blast away again against the werewolf.
" You should make the most of the opportunity." he loudly said glancing at her.
Red turned back towards Steven, laying on the ground but trying to stand up. Another burst of gunfire impeded him to, almost tearing him in two. Their eyes met. There was rage in Steven's, and pain, and fear. Red jumped, opened her jaws and clenched them around his throat.
The bloodcurdling howls tore the mist. Regina threw another fireball against the black werewolf, Robert, making him step back again. They needed Steven's heart, or they were doomed. Ruby, where the hell are you? she mentally asked, making her power dart around the road in search of the werewolf. She was alive and close, she felt it. They had to hold on just a little bit more. Regina glanced at Emma, who had just thickened the air and pushed Robert back again. She was sweated, tired, concentrated. Hook, at Emma's right but beyond the barrier of cars, was fighting against a tall boy, crossing his sword with his, then his hook, then his sword again. By the way he moved it was clear that he had been wounded while the boy was unharmed, it seemed. But Hook wasn't her main worrying now: Finnegan's howl had made her shiver in dread, but she had yet to see him since the beginning of the battle. Regina mentally asked Shaya, who was massacring boys with one hand and sending lightenings against Robert with the other, if she had seen him. The warrior shook her head with a worried glance at her.
Regina gazed at Cruella, hiding behind her, her flute in her hand.
" I can do nothing without the power of the leader's heart!" she had said with her eyes widened by the anger when she had tried to play the flute, the night before, when they were planning the defense. " The imprisonment has weakened me! It's your fault! Your fault!" she had creaked, trying to attack her with her stretched hands looking more than never like claws. Shaya had obviously stopped her before Regina could even think of a spell.
" If you try to do it again, I'll put a collar around your neck and make you Red's personal pet. Is it clear?" Shaya, better, the Golden Death had threatened her, holding her with her face on the ground with a feet on her back. Miss Lucas had blushed, but at Shaya's wink she had closed her mouth and given a quick, half-hidden smirk.
" She's coming." Regina said to the Slayer. She nervously nodded once, her dark tongue darting over the sharp teeth, her hands rubbing one against the other, reflecting the same greed as her widened, crazy eyes did.
" The wolves' blood and their flesh, the wolves' blood and their furs, the wolves' blood lights the night under the Moon's sight..." she repeated in a hiss for the umpteenth time, eyes fixed on Robert. " Son of the Moon, son of mine..." Regina looked away, locking gaze with Emma for a few seconds. Cruella frightened her, she knew it. Be strong she said to her mind, concentrating on the fight again.
I'm trying. Emma answered with a tensed smirk, pushing Robert away again.
Regina chuckled and threw another fireball to the werewolf, but this time he avoided it. He had finally understood, she thought. Stupid, yet terribly strong. Emma raised him from the ground and then let him fall, but it was clear that he would have just fell standing, so Regina grabbed him with magic and laid him flat while a lightening ran through his body, paralyzing him. Regina couldn't hold a shiver. She knew how painful it was.
Regina... Shaya's uncertain voice came to her mind, silky, calming. Regina looked at the woman. She was a glorious and terrifying vision with the blooded longsword in the right hand, a dazzling light-blue light in the left one, her black leather armor drawing each curve of her body, contrasting with the shining gold of her braided hair. She cut the head of a girl without even look at her.
What's wrong? she sweetly asked.
Regina, for how absurd the situation could be, couldn't help but stifle a laughter. How could one be that way? She gave her a quick smile. " Nothing." she answered, making her frown. A Lost Boy tried to attack Shaya from behind, but, raising a finger as to signal to Regina to wait, the warrior turned with what looked like an elegant spin and pointed the blade against the throat of the boy, who froze with the sword mid-air and the mouth opened in the stopped war cry. Regina saw her nod at him. He turned to run away, but another Lost Boy intercepted him and stabbed him. The tall boy then dropped the body, smirking at Shaya. Half of his face was a web of scars. He was the one who had almost killed Shaya in Neverland, Regina understood with rage burning her heart. The fireball burned in her hand before she could even realize it.
" Rapunzel! I thought I'd killed you!"
Shaya grinned at the boy. " You did. "
Peter's eyebrows jumped up. " Well then, a ghost is gonna die today." he said, frowned but smiling.
Shaya tightened the grip on her sword. " Well, Peter, by now I've killed a dozen of yours, and I'm not even sweating. " she sneered. The anger tightened Pan's figures.
" Isn't that even annoying to you to kill such young people? Children? What kind of monster can do this without batting an eyelid? Or you're just used to it since you were young, Mad Princess?" he asked tilting his head. Rapunzel gritted her teeth.
" Although you may look a boy, we all know that you're an old man, Pan. You should be dust, as your mates. " she spat.
" And dust I'll make you." Regina's throaty voice barely preceded the huge fireball that passed next to Shaya's shoulder to fly right against the boy, but when the fire extinguished, there was no burned body on the ground. A dazzling laughter came from above their heads.
" You can stitch me up just once, Evil Queen!" Pan happily said, turning a somersault mid-air. He was surrounded by a familiar yellow sparkle. Shaya had read about it.
" Pixie dust..." Shaya murmured in astonishment, together with Regina. They glanced at each other, but there was no time for explanations now.
" Yyyessss!" Peter smirked at them. " Pretty useful, really. And pixies, uhm..." he added with a filthy smirk, making Shaya's guts contort in disgust. He really looked just like a boy, thirteen years old to be generous. And fairies had disappeared decades before from Neverland, she had thought that they were extinguished until she had met Blue here, in Storybrooke. Yet it was clear now that they were in Peter's foul hands, prisoners, slaves. Shaya couldn't help but feel a deep, burning rage light her eyes.
" You're disgusting, Pan! Hope you killed them before leaving Neverland."
" Kill them? " he asked before bursting into a rich laughter. " I wish, I wish! But unfortunately I had just three of them. One tried to escape, and one of my boys accidentally killed her with an arrow. He just wanted to hit her wings but, you know they're little things, it isn't easy... I wanted to warn the others that it was dangerous to fly away, so I closed them in a cage with the body of the stupid fairy for a week but, as I opened the cage, another tried to escape. You'll see, I couldn't allow myself to lose another pixie, so I tore her wings up, but I must have done something wrong, because she died the day after. The last one, she's quite brave, she took human form to try to kill me, but..." he softly laughed, hiding his mouth behind a hand. " She's so pretty! I broke her wings, without tearing 'em. " he shrugged. " One must learn from his mistakes."
Shaya tried to jump to impale him with the sword, but he flew higher just in time to avoid the blade, and the fireball a second after.
" Miladies, it was a pleasure to chat with you, but I have to go now. An old friend of mine is waiting for me. To kill him." he sneered before flying away, avoiding their magical attacks with such nonchalance to make Shaya growl in frustration. An arrow, instead, hit him on his waist, making him fall on the ground.
Shaya smiled at the tower, knowing that Snow could see it. She just saw her bow raise as a greet. " I must admit that I'm starting to appreciate her ability with that bow." came the husky voice of the former Queen.
Shaya lowered her gaze on Regina. She tried to smile, but her eyes were still darkened by hate, and Shaya really couldn't understand why. Since when did she care about fairies?
" Why..." she began, but Emma's tired voice interrupted her.
" You guys, I'd appreciate a little help, ya know?"
She was facing Robert all alone indeed, and she wasn't that good with magic yet. Regina immediately sided her, giving her strength. Shaya could feel the powerful stream of power flowing from Queen to Savior, and directly attacking the stubborn werewolf.
" Robert, get the hell out of here! We won't let you pass!" Shaya tried to yell at him, but he answered with a growl so loud to make her ears ache. Shaya shrugged. " As you wish." She began throwing lightenings towards the enemy again.
Emma repeatedly opened and clenched the numb hand. That continuous flow of magic was really proving her. She had never wanted Gold around, but this time she could really appreciate his presence. One more sorcerer wouldn't have been bad. She didn't blame Regina, she had felt from her that that Peter Pan was a shit of a badass. She wouldn't have let Rapunzel alone against him, even because of the result of their last meeting.
Regina's help now had given her the strength to go on with the spell and keep that fucking werewolf away from Cruella before she could do her creepy magic. Cruella de Vil was the freaking Pied Piper. Well, the dark version of it, according to what Regina had said to her. But everyone was the dark version of everyone there, so nothing new. Everyone but Regina, now that she thought about it. She glanced at her. She was concentrated, lightened by her own flames by one side and by Rapunzel's lightening by the other one. Emma thought about it. They looked like a freaking trio of heroines, she knew it. Henry would have loved it. Oh, and her father, right. He wasn't dark, not at all. Well, but that story with Mary Margaret and Kathryn... And the Mother Superior, errr, Blue. She couldn't be dark, she was a nun and a fairy. Fuck, if she was dark too, they were screwed.
" I'm moved, Emma, but you should concentrate now. You're lifting him, it's too tiring for you..." Regina glared at her.
Fuck. She had forgot that she was in everyone's mind to coordinate the defense. Emma grinned at the brunette and dropped the heavy werewolf.
" Sorry."
Regina glanced at her, with the hint of a smile dancing around her eyes. " A trio of heroines, uh?"
Emma blushed. " Yeah, ya know, Henry's comics..."
" Henry's, yes..."
Emma sighed, blushing more. " Hey, look, a huge werewolf, you should try to kill him once again..."
A giant blaze made the werewolf howl in pain. " He's quite tough, isn't he?" Regina thoughtfully asked, gazing at Robert while slightly tilting her head.
" He's fucking fireproof, holy shit!" Emma agreed, guiltily smiling then at Regina's scolding glare.
" Well, Henry isn't listening..." she justified her swearing.
A light yelp made her turn. The big black wolf that Ruby had become was behind them.
" It was about time, Miss Lucas! I thought that you and Steven were doing something else than try to kill each other... "
Emma had to stifle a laughter at Regina's words.
" Keep holding Robert, Emma, or we won't survive this morning."
Oh, right, the werewolf. The one who was just three steps away. Emma concentrated and moved her hands as to push someone away. Robert was thrown three yards away, against a couple of Lost Boys. Their screams were terrible. Emma turned to watch Cruella but, seen what she was doing, she immediately looked away.
" Goddamit." she murmured, trying to concentrate on the only spell she knew, in order to be ready to cast it again. That woman was fucking eating Steven's freaking heart! It was disgusting, and horrible, and disgustinger. Fuck. An arrow flew right against her, but another arrow, coming from behind her, hit it, breaking it before that it could kill her. Another arrow speeded right after, and a muffled scream confirmed Emma that she had never ever really known Mary Margaret. Hawkeye was a child with one of those bright-colored plastic bows confronted to her.
Emma tried to look at her, but she was well hidden in the clock tower. She nodded at her anyway, then turned again, ready to fight, comforted by the thought that her mother was watching her back.
The saber met the dagger once again, and was pushed away. Killian tried a lunge, but Pan flied higher and avoided the blade with a dazzling, childish laughter.
" You coward!" Hook yelled in exasperation at the so called boy. He was beginning to get tired of looking above his head to fight that little piece of shit. He was damn exposed to any other's attack in that position.
Peter frowned. " Coward? How do you dare, Captain? Thought you had a little of respect for you enemies!"
Killian gnashed his teeth. " You don't even dare fight me man-to-man. You fly away! Although the look, you're not a bloody fairy, ya know?"
At first Pan laughed hard, but then he suddenly stopped and glared at him. " I'm no sweet pixie." he murmured. " I'll fight you man-to-man, with one hand behind my back." he declared, flying down.
Killian lifted one eyebrow. How swagger of him. But it was not like he could trust that demon. "
You mean you won't fly?"
Pan nodded once, opening his arms, then bending the left one behind his back. " I give my word, Hook."
Hook locked gaze with him, looking for any trace of a lie. He finally grinned. " Good, then let's have at it!"
The pirate lunged forward, trying to hit his abdomen, but Pan was fast moving, and deviated his saber with the dagger, stepping laterally and parrying the following chop.
" You're slow, Captain!" he laughed, trying a lung in turn. Hook parried it with the sword and tried to hit him with the hook, but Peter avoided it bending back. But doing so he overbalanced as he stretched the wound that Snow White had caused him, so was slow avoiding Killian's next chop. A red line ran through his chest, making him scream in pain. He stepped back. Hook gave him the time to take a breath, taking advantage of it to breathe in turn. Chasing him while he was flying had tired him, after all.
" Not that slow, uh, Peter?" he sneered, whirling the saber to limber up.
The boy grinned at him, licking his own blood from his fingers.
" I'm still alive, Hook, don't worry."
" Oh I wouldn't. You should, though." the pirate said before lunging again, trying to hit him, then feinted, hoping that it would have been enough to wound him another time. It was. His right bicep had a deep wound now. Pan had to change hand and hold the dagger with the left hand. Killian took advantage of it and began furiously attacking the boy, forcing him to move back. A few breaths after the boy fell down after having stumbled on a dead body. Hook aimed the saber at his throat, panting yet victoriously smiling at him.
" I told you." he said. Peter gave a sneer.
" I told you, too."
Killian frowned, confused, but that distraction was enough for Pan to grab his hand, pull him down and sink the dagger in his belly. Killian googled in astonishment and pain, exactly as Pan: the hook had found its way through the boy's chest. Killian sneered, tasting the blood's sweet flavor in his mouth. He let go the saber and held Peter's dagger still where it was, leaning on his own elbow, and pushed the hook further inside Peter's chest, then pulled it out, smirking at his bloody cough. He had been waiting for centuries for that moment.
" It looks like I've killed you, Pan." he said. The huge green eyes of the boy focused his, and a weak smile tensed his lips.
" A honorable fight, wasn't it?"
Killian clenched his jaws. The furor of the fight was suddenly gone, leaving him oddly empty, with a knowledge he didn't want to remember. A tear slipped through the boy's cheek. Killian swallowed hard.
" Wasn't I honorable? " He had to stop to cough. " Answer... Please..." he weeped, clasping his jacket.
Killian gave a trembling sigh. Almost three hundred years of cruelties couldn't be forgotten for a few tears. Yet he couldn't forget the truth he had so hardly tried to erase for so long, too. " I didn't fly, you saw it... I kept my..." Peter coughed again, spitting blood. He was forcing himself to breathe, but his body was collapsing. Killian's swallowed the painful knot that was clenching his throat, wetting his eyes.
" You did, son. You were honorable. For once." he managed to say.
Peter, or what was left of him, gave a tiny smile, being for a second the little boy he had lost too much time before. Killian took a deep breath, and the only tear that he let go fell on Peter's face exactly when his hook pierced his heart.
Killian gave a last look at the boy's face, then turned on his back, letting the dagger slip from his body, moaning and gritting his teeth in pain. He stayed there for a while, watching the grey mist hiding the sky from his eyes, trying not to think at what he had had to do, trying to keep his eyes opened. But his eyelids were heavy, so heavy, and it was cold there, and dark...
" Hook!" David yelled, seeing him fall on the ground next to the boy. A movement at his right caught his attention: Emma had turned to watch him. He made her sign to go to the pirate before having to parry another chop. That damn axe, made of wood and stone, had already damaged his sword, and the boy who held it was very fast using it.
" Peter! Nooo!" he had screamed after a quick look to the boy laying next to Killian. He was now glaring at David with burning hazel eyes. " Y'all shall pay for this!" he growled, whirling the axe. David inhaled, calming down his heart, getting ready for another round. Even if the armor that Regina had kindly given back to him had saved his life, he was wounded, and that bloody sharp stone looked ready to cut off his head in moments. It had already cut his right greave, risking to lame him.
The boy loaded the blow but a black figure suddenly hid him, but not his desperate though short screams. Red turned then, and Charming gave her a brief, tensed smile. He really didn't want her to move from there and show him what was left of that boy.
" Hey, thanks Ruby. I needed a hand. "
Red wagged her tail, but David barely noted it: Emma was still using magic against Robert, but Whale was before Hook, blasting against everyone who tried to come next to him. But still he couldn't help the pirate: he needed someone to cover him. David glanced at Rapunzel, but there wasn't a possibility that she would leave Regina without protection, he was sure. An arrow of Snow's darted next to his head, killing a girl who was taking advantage of Red's distraction ( she was tearing another girl to pieces) to attack him. He innerly smiled: maybe she didn't want him dead, after all. He ran towards Hook and Whale, passing behind Rapunzel, Regina, Cruella and Emma and then jumping over Regina's car. He managed to stop behind Hook, unconscious and terribly pale, with a deep bleeding wound on his belly.
" Hey, Whale, gimme the machine gun and help him!" he shouted at the doctor, who took a moment to load the Uzi and then threw it to him with a smirk.
" Ah, I was beginning to have fun with that!"
David stifled a laughter and jumped standing, grabbing the weapon, and putting himself by the pirate, immediately shooting against one of the surviving Boys. There were a few left, but still they kept attacking them. He felt bad everytime he saw one of them die, they looked so young, but Hook and Rapunzel had explained to them that they were adults in truth, some of them were old men even, so it was a little easier to kill them. And with that Uzi, then... David grinned, even though Whale couldn't see him.
" Yeah, I begin to understand..."
He heard Victor briefly laugh behind him. " You know, it's quite unusual to see a man, no, wait,
Prince Charming in full armor with an Uzi... "
David tried to imagine himself while trying to kill a distant boy, who was throwing arrows at them, missing them though. He hit him on his shoulder it seemed, as the mist brought him his scream and he saw him fall on the ground. A dart reached him, finishing him. Granny, for sure. " Take a picture then!" David said. " Hey, how's Hook?" he then asked. Despite everything, he was really worried. He liked that man, after all. It would have been sad to lose him, even because he was the only man in that town that he maybe could call friend, someday.
" Uhm... The wound is deep, he lost a lot of blood... Honestly I don't know, David. He needs cures and he needs them now, or he'll die."
David felt the blood run away from his cheeks. " Can't you do anything now?"
" Not without my instruments, an antibiotic and a bit of luck."
David clenched his teeth. He shot a girl, then gazed at Regina. " But she could..."
" Of course. Yet she's quite busy at the moment..." Victor couldn't end the sentence that a smooth sound, high and vibrant, covered any other sound. The melody was beautiful, sad, moving, hypnotizing. David could only look at the source of that sound, and what he saw left him breathless: Cruella, still standing behind Emma and Regina, was playing the white flute, covered in the white fur. What shocked David was her appearance: her face, wrinkled and creepy before, was now of an overwhelming beauty: high cheekbones, fair silky skin, soft red lips and deep black eyes leaning on the werewolf, apparently paralyzed over the barrier of cars. She looked thirty, or younger. Her hair were still half black and half white, but they were longer, and shiny as anyone's, slumped in soft curls. Her body, David could guess it even with the fur to cover it, was slender, her long legs shyly showing up under the fur, her bare feet still on the cold grey ground. The melody changed, becoming faster, and David's heartbeat accelerated with the rhythm. He caught a movement with the corner of his eyes: Robert was slowly walking towards the Slayer, evidently struggling not to do it. Emma and Regina moved aside to let him pass. The rhythm changed again, became frenetic, too fast, impossible when the huge werewolf kneeled before the Slayer. She moved the flute and snapped at his throat in the sudden silence.