A/N: Thank you all for your lovely feedback! :-)
Disclaimer: We do not own Once Upon a Time. If we did, the episodes would air every evening instead of every week! May credit be given where credit is due.
~Chapter XIX~
The blaze of Neverland's afternoon sun warmed the back of Rumplestiltskin's neck as he descended the rungs of the ladder to the brig. The thick odors of must and mildew filled his nostrils and settled heavily in his lungs, but they did not shake the calm determination with which he moved. His feet landed upon the wood floor of the bowels of the ship with a quiet thud.
Though sure he was making the right decision to stay aboard the Jolly Roger, Rumplestiltskin's stomach twisted in knots as he rethought his move to leave the dagger behind. Perhaps it was foolish of him, a serious lapse of judgment, but he had hoped by doing so he would make a point to his son that he wasn't ready to give up on him. He had gone through great lengths just to find his son again, and he wasn't about to leave Neverland without him. Hook had chosen to relinquish his control over the dagger, to let his prisoner go, and though nothing could prepare Rumplestiltskin for the cruel man his son had become, he had to trust that this meant there was at least a small part of the boy he raised still in there.
"To the southeastern shore!" A gruff voice shouted from the ship's deck suddenly, bringing Rumplestiltksin back to the present. The order was echoed by several others as the sounds of running feet filled the air like thunder.
Brow furrowed, Rumplestitlskin returned his attention to his grim surroundings. A thin, gray mist floated lazily in the air, clinging to his flesh like a starved leech. Even the golden sunlight filtering through the grimy porthole seemed subdued, reflecting dully off of the dust motes in the air, as though wishing it did not have to enter the dreary place at all. But it was the barred door of the brig which swayed to the rocking of the ship that caught his attention. Its rusted hinges creaked and moaned despairingly, and Rumplestiltskin could not help but cringe as the sound eerily reminded him of something else…
He heard the harsh screech of metal against mental as his mind recalled the memory: his son, dragging his silver hook along the cursed dagger, the same knife he used to control him.
No, that can't be right, Rumplestiltskin shook his head. His son would never control him. His mind felt crowded and hazy, thoughts blurring together disjointedly. Were the effects of Neverland causing him to forget even more? Was it his son that tormented him? Was it his Baelfire who had vainly stolen the life of a child with no remorse? Was the monster who captained this ship truly his precious boy? Or was it the negative effects of Neverland that somehow misconstrued his memories, making him think his son could be capable of such heinous crimes?
A sharp stinging sensation on his chest as a bead of sweat slid under his bandage drew Rumplestiltskin from his thoughts. He looked down, his eyes tracing the areas where spots of blood seeped through the white cloth. This wound was not a mere figment of his imagination.
Rumplestiltskin felt every bone in his body freeze, every muscle paralyzed. A chill ran down his spine as he realized in horror that no, Neverland was not the enemy. His son was.
He heard more pirates scurrying across the deck, and he wondered if the captain had changed his mind and decided to not let him go after all. White-hot adrenaline surged in his veins, launching his heart into a near painful sprint. For one wild moment he was standing amidst of the carnage that was the Ogre War, once more faced with the fateful choice no man wanted to make: to fight or flee?
The Blue Fairy had prophesied that his son was in mortal peril. Had he not removed Hook from the danger when he pulled him from the water just this morning? Perhaps his actions had altered the time continuum, obliterating the possibility of the fairy's prophecy coming true.
The discordant clanks of the anchor's chain grating against the gunwale as it was raised echoed throughout the brig. "Tick-tock, tick-tock," the metal links seemed to taunt. Another bead of sweat slid below his bandage, the resulting sting registering in his mind like a battle cry, a warning of worse to come. Soon the ship would set sail and become an inescapable cage once more.
Rumplestiltskin's eyes darted to the porthole, taking in the sliver of green land leagues away. Belle was still out there. At least half a day had passed since he heard her sweet voice singing. She could be hurt, lost... She might need him now, more than this wreck of a man who possesses his son's memories.
The door of the brig slammed against the bulkhead with a clang as the Jolly Roger lurched eastward, the wind beginning to howl between its massive sails. Rumplestiltskin's flickering desire to flee now blazed like a brushfire as he whirled about to face the ladder.
But the worn wooden rungs were not there to greet him. They were concealed behind the scarlet coat and slender frame of the man Rumplestiltskin's heart hurt to call "son."
For a long moment Rumplestiltskin could only stare, his eyes darting from Hook's expressionless, weather-beaten face to the dagger clutched in his right hand. He had neither heard the man's entrance nor sensed his presence, and the eeriness of it all made him wonder anxiously if this was yet another hallucination.
Hook slowly raised the dagger, his cold eyes tracing the length of its' curved blade. Rage and terror welled in Rumplestiltskin's chest; his muscles tensed and he was seconds from attacking the pirate when the latter spoke in a calm, casual voice.
"You forgot something," he said, holding out the cursed weapon.
Rumplestiltskin opened his mouth to speak, but no words escaped him. Paralyzing disbelief mingled with something acute like shame roiled in his stomach as he gaped at the composed features of the ship's captain.
Wordlessly, Rumplestiltskin reached for the source of his curse, his eyes still glued to the face of his once-compeller. When the tips of Rumplestiltskin's fingers grazed the black hilt, Hook's calm demeanor vanished. His eyes narrowed, his lips curled back in primal sneer, and before Rumplestiltskin's fingers could fully encircle the hilt, the pirate lashed out.
Hook's silver namesake snagged the collar of Rumplestiltskin's shirt; the captain yanked his prisoner toward himself, using the momentum to catch the latter's arm in the crook of his hook and twist it behind his back. Before the older man had a chance to pull free, Hook raised the crooked dagger to his throat.
"For once, you should have run," Hook's voice hissed in Rumplestiltskin's ear as his struggling abated. "Twice now you could have taken the dagger, but failed," he continued, his voice thick with sinister relish as he pressed the cursed knife closer.
"A mistake I won't be making again," Rumplestiltskin grated through clenched teeth. With as much force as possible, he jabbed his right elbow into Hook's ribs. The pirate grunted as the air left him, lowering the hand that held the dagger and allowing Rumplestiltskin to pull his captured arm free.
Heart pounding furiously, Rumplestiltskin pushed back with all of his strength until he had the ship's captain pinned between his back and the bulkhead. Hook swung the fist holding the dagger toward Rumplestiltskin, but the older man had the upper hand. With a triumphant smirk he caught Hook's wrist, banging it against the adjacent iron bars until the dagger fell free into his waiting hand.
"The advantage of having two hands," Rumplestiltskin derided, chuckling when he saw the pirate's features twist in outrage.
Hook landed a solid punch to Rumplestiltskin's side, but the adrenaline coursing through Rumplestiltskin's veins spared him the full intensity of the pain. Dagger blessedly in hand, Rumplestiltskin whirled around, facing his pinned tormentor and raising the weapon before the man could resist.
Panting but otherwise still, they both stared at the blade poised an inch above the pirate captain's chest. The notes of a dark chuckle floated out of the younger man's throat.
"Ah, ah, ah…" he said tauntingly, wagging his finger at Rumplestiltskin, "I don't think you'll be using that."
Rumplestiltskin glared, maintaining his resolve. "You sound awfully confident for someone at the end of a knife, dearie," he derided, once more donning the thick armor of both the pawnbroker who terrorized Storybrooke and the imp who terrorized the Enchanted Forest.
Hook smirked, his black eyes glinting. "I have reason to be."
"Do you?" Rumplestiltskin asked snidely, moving the dagger closer so that the point rested on the fabric of the pirate's lavish coat.
"You see, dearie," Hook leered, "Whether you like to admit it or not, you have always had a weakness."
Nothing but the twitch of a muscle in Rumplestiltskin's clenched jaw indicated that he had heard the younger man.
"I could bleed every last one of those pathetic orphans," the captain taunted in an unnervingly blasé tone, "Murder your true love right before your eyes..."
Rumplestiltskin thrust his forearm against Hook's throat, momentarily cutting the man off as he pointedly readjusted the dagger.
"I can control you," Hook continued, his voice raspy but no less haughty, "Bind you, force you to kill whomever I wish…"
Rage swelled so potently inside Rumplestiltskin that he could scarcely distinguish Hook's features through the red haze clouding his vision. Hook pushed back against Rumplestiltskin's grip, leaning so that his mouth was inches from the older man's left ear.
"And you would still love me."
In a voice no louder than a whisper, Hook had completely shattered Rumplestiltskin's defenses. All at once the man standing before the point of the wretched knife was no longer just an enemy waiting to be slain. He was Baelfire; almost completely unrecognizable in his cruelty and scorn, but Rumplestiltskin's son nonetheless.
Rumplestiltskin's arm slowly dropped from the pirate's throat, the hand clutching the dagger following suit.
Hook leaned his head back, his black eyes bearing into Rumplestiltskin's brown ones, triumph twisting his lips into a smirk. "And that is why you'll never stop me," he finished spitefully.
Too many emotions to name warred within Rumplestiltskin at this ghost of his son's words. He stared trance-like at the young man standing before him, barely registering the movement when Hook easily removed the dagger from his grip.
Only when the tip of the blade was now pointed at his own chest, shining harshly in the sunlight, did Rumplestiltskin regain his awareness.
"This isn't you." Rumplestiltksin said quietly, numbly, and though the words were his own, he found it hard to believe them.
Hook laid the dagger against Rumplestiltskin's skin, right below the bandage, pressing just enough to draw a trickle of blood. His smirk vanished when Rumplestiltskin did not flinch or gasp in pain.
"You made me into this," Hook snarled, his usually lifeless eyes momentarily filled with burning hate. In the next moment, the dark irises once more resembled a corpse's.
Shuffling back a few steps, Hook pointed the knife he held towards the iron door of the brig. "Get inside."
When the magic possessed his willpower again, forcing his body into motion, Rumplestiltskin felt he might choke on the wave of sheer revulsion that welled within him. The invisible chains felt heavier, colder, now more than they ever had.
As his feet obediently stepped into the prison, Rumplestiltskin heard his own dejected voice ask, "You were never going to let me leave this ship, were you?" The heavy door clanged shut behind him.
"I was," Hook responded after a moment, his gaze fixated on the green island visible through the grimy porthole. "Until I received some rather pleasing news," he added with a sinister grin. His only hand snaked beneath his crimson coat, withdrawing a scroll of fine parchment.
"A pixie delivered this to my cabin," he explained, using the tip of his namesake to unroll it. "Strange, I thought I'd killed the lot of them..." A dark smirk twisted his lips and it was not far-fetched for Rumplestiltskin to guess that Hook was reveling in the memory.
"Anyway, I've been called to a rather important meeting," Hook said nonchalantly, his eyes lazily reading over the letter once more.
"Such a lovely name," Hook leered when he reached the end, lifting his gaze to meet his prisoner's, "'Belle.'"
No amount of self-restraint could have prevented Rumplestiltskin from launching himself at the brig's door, an arm shooting forward in attempts to snatch away the letter.
"Ah, ah. It's not polite to read other people's post," the captain sneered. "She wants me to meet her at dawn, to discuss your fate."
"No!" Rumplestiltskin shouted, his fists gripping the iron bars until their knuckles shone white. His chest heaved and hurt as though Hook had plunged his namesake into it. "Leave her alone. She has nothing you want," he snarled.
"Oh, on the contrary, she has exactly what I want," the pirate said covetously, gently grazing the letter with his hook. "To whom do you think she sang that lullaby? How do you imagine she obtained a stretch of parchment that was stolen from my ship by the Lost Boys? Your darling Belle knows where Pan and his league of brats are hiding."
"Touch a hair on her head, and I swear—!"
"You'll what? Glare at me? You are powerless, Rumplestiltskin," Hook interrupted with a derisive laugh. He looked down at his silver appendage, running a bejeweled finger along its length.
"Tomorrow I meet your true love," the pirate declared mockingly. "And I have no doubt in my mind she'll give me all the answers I need," he added darkly as he inspected his hook in the light filtering through the glass pane of the porthole.
A thousand images of Belle tortured and torn by Hook's namesake bombarded Rumplestiltskin's mind at the gesture, each more horrifying and gruesome than the last.
"Please, son. Don't do this," Rumplestiltskin begged, his voice hoarse with emotion.
Hook's steps halted. He turned on his heel, his brow creased with something like concern.
But it was only a façade, and a moment later his teeth were bared in a grin that sent fear trickling like ice water down Rumplestiltskin's spine.
"You will stay here." Hook commanded, his gaze fixed unblinkingly on Rumplestiltskin. "Until I say otherwise." He turned about once more, ascending the steps of the ladder with catlike ease.
"No! Please!" Rumplestiltskin roared, futilely yanking on the iron bars of his prison even as he felt the command sink into his bones. "Bae!"
Silence, but for the sounds of wind in the sails and waves lapping at the ship, was Rumplestiltskin's only answer.
"No..." Rumplestiltskin gasped, his chest tight as though bound with steel. His head fell against the bars, a solitary tear sliding down his cheek. "Oh, Belle..."
A/N: Please review! :-)