Hi everyone! Thank you so much for your awesome reviews! And thank you for following the story and making it a favorite. This chapter took a little longer than I would have liked because I was having a difficult time feeling original. I decided to just go with my imagination and keep writing because the season just started again. As I have in the past I will refrain from watching the show as I don't want to cross-contaminate my ideas. Lol

I hope you like it and are enjoying the story. Please keep reviewing and let me know what you think! Xoxo

Chapter Six

A Bloody Beach

The three stand there dumbfounded looking over with trepidation at the water hole. They all had been through many portals by this point in their lives but not the portal that led to hell itself. That changed everything.

"I WOULD HOLD ON IF I WERE YOU."

"Fuck!" Emma, Regina and Rumple run back towards the ropes.

Emma looks at Regina; each silently acknowledging the gravity of the moment. Emma can't help but think of how much they had already been through. And now here they were, side by side entering hell. Henry's smile makes it's way into her mind. She always saw Henry when she looked into Regina's eyes. He was the most important person in the whole world to Emma. She looks at Regina and tears form in her eyes. 'Henry. Why I am doing this? Henry is all that matters. He's all that's ever mattered.' It's dawns on Emma too late. This whole time she was so preoccupied with saving the man that she loves that she failed to realize that the only love that's kept her going is the love of her son. He's the only love she's ever truly needed.

The ship is beginning to descend but Emma fails to notice, her thoughts racing with Henry. It begins to storm again. Wind and rain take over the atmosphere while they begin to tip forward as the ship leans into the sea.

"Regina...I was wrong!"

"What?"

"This doesn't matter. Only Henry matters." Emma is crying now.

"You deserve to be happy too Emma." Regina understands exactly how Emma feels and her heart breaks for her. She herself is fully aware that if not for Emma Swan she would not have ventured into this unknown; not for anybody else save the mother of her son.

"I was happy." Emma barely whispers this. She loves Hook. She will always love Hook but she's never needed him to make her happy. She was happy with Henry in Storybrook; with her parents, her friends and with Regina. She was happy before Killian and now she was risking it all for her selfishness.

"Stop! Please!"

"Emma no!" Regina shouts as both her and Gold try to stop her. Emma staggers her way over to the Grim Reaper her face soaked with warm rain and salty tears.

"I was wrong. Please turn back."

"I SHALL TURN BACK BUT IT IS NOT THE TIME."

Emma looks down frustrated and emotionally spent, "When?"

"YOU SHALL KNOW WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT."

In defeat she turns around and heads back. She's trying to run on an incline as Gold and Regina extend their hands for her to grab on to. She reaches Regina's cold hand first and immediately feels Regina pulling her up as Rumple grabs ahold of her left arm and helps.

"When did this turn into the Titanic?" Regina sarcastically says.

"So you do watch movies." Emma half smiles at her.

"Only with Kate Winslet." She winks.

"Um...I hate to break up Jack and Rose but we need to climb over!" Rumple is already fighting his way by climbing to the other side of the ropes.

Regina wants to punch him across the face for his stupid comment but he's right. She and Emma make there way until the three of them are side by side practically straddling the ropes and holding on for dear life. More water hits them across the face and the ship descends further into the bowels of watery hell.

"I never knew hell would be so wet!" Emma quirks.

Regina raises an eyebrow just as the ship begins to straighten out again and makes its way through an opening that emerges to their right.

As they go through the water tunnel everything begins to dry up. Regina can feel a surge of heat coming through as they near the end of the tunnel.

"WE ARE HERE."

The ship harshly halts and they make their way to where death's metallic fingers are pointing.

"How do we get down..." Emma stops her words as she sees a wooden plank extend itself down to the shore.

As they begin to make their way down Rumple turns to Charon, "How much time do we have?"

"THAT DEPENDS ENTIRELY ON HER."

"But when should we return? Do we meet you here?" Regina can't stand the uncertainty of all of Death's answers.

"I WILL FIND YOU. ONLY WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT."

This fills Regina with dread as she knows the right time can be forever for this timeless creature. She looks down as they make their way and she sees lines of people emerging from the ship. Most of them barely have any clothing to cover their bodies. Big monstrous looking creatures wearing a loin cloth around their waists and leather straps about their bare chests arrive on the beach. They are herding these people. They begin beating them with their whips and they push them forward.

"Those were the people on the ship." Emma turns to them.

Rumple nods his head.

"Why are they being tortured?" Emma immediately feels compelled to protect these people from their beatings.

"Emma, remember we're in hell. Who knows what they're paying for." Regina reminds her.

"Isn't this Tartarus?" Emma pleads wondering if Hook was treated this way.

"Tartarus is hell." Regina confirms.

"Why was Hook brought here of all places?" Emma says this to no one in particular. Except Regina can't think of a very good answer.

'Perhaps because he conjured all those dark ones' she thinks. 'Perhaps because I persuaded him kill his own father. Perhaps because of all those years being a wretched pirate.' She doesn't want to burden Emma with any of these truths right now but she can't sugar coat it either. She opts for silence.

Rumple turns to Emma, "Look all I know is there are many dimensions here. Many different realms. I don't know who or what decides which place a soul goes to. Death has brought you to where your pirate lies." Regina looks at him knowing he is definitely not sharing everything he knows. Even she has more knowledge about what goes on down here. What she can't figure out is why he is shielding Emma from this information.

When they reach the bottom of the wooden plank they look upon on a dark shore hosting a red colored sand that almost looks like blood. This gives Regina the chills. When she looks around she sees there is nothing alive here save them. The trees are dead and barren, the air feels stale and smells of rotting fish. It feels uncomfortably hot for the shore of a beach. No breeze from the previous storm to offer some coolness.

Regina is the first to take a tentative step on the red sand. When she looks down she sees small amounts of blood oozing their way through. The smell of old putrid blood engulfs her nostrils and she feels nauseous. Her eyes light up in horror as she realizes for the first time that the water casting upon the sand is filled with blood. And underneath the tides lie sunken bodies wavering with the dark waves.

"Is that?" Emma looks on in horror following Regina's gaze. Regina just nods her head trying not to aggravate her dizzying nausea.

Far away they hear a creature yell to a man that appears to be turning around. The creatures yell in many languages and then in the only one the three understand, "If you refuse to march you go no further. You end up there! It is your choice!" He points to the shore of bodies.

Emma felt despair in her raging thoughts of what Killian must be going through. 'What if he refused?' She begins to head towards the shore. Each step raising blood.

Regina grabs her arm and pulls her, "Emma wait."

"He might be there!"

"He's not that stupid!"

"But did you see those people?" Emma's eyes water after looking at the trapped, motionless bodies in the water and at the ones further down being whipped and beat.

Regina did see those people. Her heart breaks for the pain they must be feeling. She also wonders what they did to be here. She wonders if they have any remorse for whatever they have done or if their remorse is tempered just as her own is. She wonders if they ever attempted the path of redemption before their lives ended. Regina refuses to ponder the questions that have been desperately trying to invade her mind since they got on that ship, for she knows that Tartarus may be her ultimate destination. But not today. And not for Emma.

"Those people are none of our concern." Regina says this harder than she means to.

"You need to focus and think of the one reason why we are here so that we can go home, back to our son... Capiche?"

Emma nods knowing that Regina is right.

Despite how troubled and sick they feel from the smell of the rotting blood they press on encountering one of the giant creatures. Upon closer inspection they realize some only have one eye like a cyclops. They wreak of foul body odor and have black crooked teeth. Their bodies are muscular and marked with multiple scars. Their wrinkled faces look worn and cruel and they appear to have no hair. The creatures ignore the trio.

"Excuse me, which way to Tartarus?"

They giant creature grunts and looks at Rumple with his one eye. "Only one way." His breath is worse than his body odor. "Follow the sinners," He says harshly.

And so with a heavy sigh they do. They decide to walk far behind one of the lines of the people being whipped. Each minute that passes makes them more uncomfortable seeing the souls up ahead being pushed by these monsters as some groan and wale. The trio sink further away slowing their tracks for the farther they are the less they will hear.

The landscape hasn't changed much in the fifteen minutes they've been walking in silence. They follow the trail only marked by open pathways amongst the barren rotting trees.

"I'm so thirsty."

Regina attempts her magic, conjuring up some soda instead of the prospective water. "Not my intention but here." She hands it to Emma.

"Regina stop." Rumple looks at her seriously.

"What?" She says defensively.

"We don't know what our magic may attract here. Perhaps we should limit its use to only the absolutely necessary."

"I don't know about you but this Coke is delicious." Emma hands the rest over to Regina who gulps down a good amount before handing it to Rumple.

He looks at her with worry in his eyes.

"Just take it Gold, it's already done. Who are you so afraid of anyway?"

Gold doesn't answer as he takes a drink but he knows deep down that even though they are out of the dark ocean they are still treading in dangerous waters.