Chapter Twelve
The First of Revelations.
Hades snaps his fingers and the next thing I know we are standing inside a long corridor of dark stones. The stones are bare except for lit torches every few feet and old painted portraits that run down the length of the great hallway.
"What can I say? Sometimes I'm a bit morbid." Hades smiles as he guides them further in.
A couple of his slave women accompany them as well. Three to be exact. Emma presumes they are his slaves; if she were to take any indication from Persephone in the matter who ironically is nowhere to be seen. Emma was dying to have words with her.
"Your pirate is up ahead. Through those doors." He gestures with his hand, adorned in lavish and almost feminine rings, towards two wooden doors that appear only closed by a metal latch.
"Let's go Emma." Regina entwined her arm around Emma and moves forward.
"I'll be waiting. The ladies will fetch you in a moment." Hades is so calm and controlled.
Emma turns her head back and looks at him as Regina and Rumple lead her away. She should be more excited about seeing Killian but she can't shake this feeling of dread that has taken over her. 'This is too easy.'
The slaves open the doors making a loud creaking sound as they walk into a barely lit courtyard. In the distance Emma can see Hook being tended by someone. 'He's alright!' She thinks relieved. He looks up and catches her eyes.
Regina and Rumple are both about to be escorted by the two slaves. "Let us go." They each say.
Emma quickly turns to object and finds Rumple pulling away and walking past her..."Mila?"
Emma turns expressionless, taking a better look at this woman who is 'tending to her Killian.' She looks at Gold who appears as if he's been kicked in the gut and groin at the same time.
"Rumple?" This woman says as she stands up locking eyes with Gold.
The red-haired slave woman reaches for him, "We must go at once. Can't keep the master waiting."
"No! I shan't go anywhere." Rumple says breathlessly.
"As you wish." She retreats joining the blonde slave who has Regina by the elbow.
Emma charges her, "Take your hands off her!" The woman hisses at Emma like an animal.
"Emma stop. Listen to me. Talk to Hook, find Persephone and get us out of here!"
"I am not leaving you alone with him."
"Then you have no deal. The master will not let you take the broken pirate." The blonde slave dances around Emma laughing and giggling as her bare breasts bounce with her movement; seemingly uncaring of her nudity.
Regina looks into Emma with such intensity, "You will find me."
Emma is at a loss for words again. She nods her head unable to do much more with the swelling emotion that fills her chest and lungs. She feels overpowered by her feelings of devotion, fear of loss and other feelings so strong that right now she cannot place. But more than anything she feels trapped and out of control. She wants to stop this but she knows it's useless.
"Go save him. I'll be waiting." Emma's eyes glisten with her pent-up emotion and for a moment she believes she sees the same in Regina's eyes. 'Why is everything always so intense with us?'
Regina turns and walks through the creeping doors with the two devious slaves. Emma takes a deep breath and turns to Hook, Rumple and Mila.
"Emma." Hook can barely stand but he's trying. Mila turns to him after what felt like years of staring at Rumple.
"No darling don't try to stand yet." She tells him.
"I can see nothing has changed." Rumple snidely remarks.
"That's where your wrong Rumple. Emma, please don't be afraid. You can come. I am a friend."
"Aren't you Rumple's ex-wife?"
"That I am too."
Emma takes a good look at Mila. She is stunning. Even though she appears tired and thin her eyes are distinct and her smile is captivating. She can see why these two men fought over her.
"Killian what is going..." Emma is cut off by Rumple.
"I'll tell you what's going on Miss Swan, even in death, in the bowels of hell, the pirate seems to find a way to my ex-wife!" Gold's anger is rising quickly.
"No Crocodile that is not what is going on." Killian stands with the help of Mila.
"Then what is? Because we have risked our lives to come here and rescue you." Emma is feeling like a woman scorned and betrayed. She wants answers now!
"Emma." Hook's eyes soften as he walks towards her. "Love, do you know how long it's been since I've seen you?"
Emma incredulously looks at him, "What three, five days? You couldn't wait a couple of days?!"
"Try forty-nine years."
"What?" Emma's world stops spinning.
"It's been approximately forty-nine years since I asked you to kill me."
Emma immediately starts to cry, "No. No you're mistaken!"
"Emma please." He reaches out for her but she pushes his arm away causing him to lose his balance and fall.
Emma, regretting her actions kneels to help him up. She notices that he is crying too.
"Time is different here in Tartarus. It's also different for the dead. I've been serving a punishment that will soon be over." He looks at Mila. "We both have. Our destinies have been tied together."
"What happens when it's over?" Emma can't wrap her mind around all of this.
"I don't know. But it's better than this."
Mila chimes in, "After all these years of repenting and paying for our sins we get to leave. God help us to some place better."
"They are giving you a pass out of hell?" Rumple asks.
"Not a pass. I've been here almost one hundred and fifty years. I wronged you in so many ways. I hoped that someday I would get the opportunity to apologize for what I did to you."
"So that's what's kept you here." Rumple's eyes are softening. As much anger as he's had towards her a part of him still loves her. He always will.
"Yes but more so what I did to our son." Mila looks down sobbing. "I abandoned him. I can never forgive myself for that nor do I expect you to forgive me."
Gold looks down with the weight of all his guilt, "I left him too."
Mila whispers to him, "I forgive you. I forgave you a long time ago. Rumple I am so very truly sorry I ever hurt you and our family."
"I killed you...I'm sorry I was such a coward." Rumple cries out. Mila reaches forward and embraces her ex-husband. Emma feels like an intruder on a very private moment. After a few minutes they part.
Emma looks at Hook, "Now what?"
"You've got to go. You must get out of here now!"
Emma, heartbroken and bewildered whispers, "Forty-nine years. We never had a chance."
"I know but I never stopped loving you Emma Swan. I am so sorry." He looks at Emma with such turmoil and pain in his eyes.
"So am I." She begins to stand.
"Wait." Mila kneels by them and turns to Emma. "You came here to save him, to take him with you...how?"
He looks at Mila, "I won't abandon you here Mila."
"Killian I love you and I always will but I know how much you loved her. If there is a chance for you to have life again, please take it!"
"No! I can't do that!" Killian stands and walks away from both these women. Here he stands with the two women he has loved, both so caring that one came to hell to save him while the other is willing to live in hell without him so that he may have life. He felt he didn't deserve any of them. "What of the years of punishment? It will all be for not once I die anew."
"I don't know that it will...If you live a good life Killian. Emma, please, would you still save him? Forget me, forget all this. I know he loves you. He told me everything about you. And about how much you loved my son...I will be eternally grateful for that. Take Killian with you; I know you'd make him happy again."
As if all this wasn't enough to deal with, 'That's right...she is Neal's mother. She's Henry's grandmother.' Even as these crazy revelations come into the light, right now Emma could only see her as the woman Killian had loved and still loved. Emma looks at this woman and as much as she believes she should hate her she can't. Here she is after all these years of dwelling in hell with the man she loves, willing to give him up because she loves him. They both love him. Emma selfishly wanted nothing more than to save him from this wretched place but right now Mila is the better woman despite all her past wrongdoings.
"I don't know that..." Hook is interrupted
"Rumple! Emma!"
"Persephone?" She's turned back into herself and is trying to catch her breath.
"Where's Regina?" She asks while looking around the room.
"She's with Hades." Emma is reminded and she feels her gut churn again.
"Oh no. Lole." Persephone turns grey.
"Who?"
"Emma listen to me. I know you have unresolved issues here but you need to go find her. You must find her and leave here at once."
"I agree but.."
"I will stay here with them. You and Rumple need to stay together and find her."
"What does he want with her Persephone?" Emma's wheels are turning, "He never wanted me or Rumple, he wanted her didn't he?!"
"The story is too long and deep and now is not the moment. In time you will understand child but now you need to find her before he takes over."
"Takes over what? Stop being cryptic! Besides you are his wife! Why are you helping us?"
Persephone takes a deep breath, "Because in my first life I was born Persephone, daughter of Demeter and Zeus, taken by Hades to be forced to serve as his Goddess wife. Persephone, also known by some as Kore or Cora."
Her form briefly changes to that of her late nemesis, Cora, and returns back to the Greek Goddess Persephone.
Emma jumps ten feet back. "In my last incarnation, my only human incarnation, I took my ulterior name, Cora."
She walks towards Emma, "Regina was my daughter, I failed her Emma and I need you to save her now. When you return I will explain all. Look into my eyes Savior and see that I speak the truth."
Emma doesn't sense that she is lying, "How will I find her?"
"Use your thoughts. Focus your mind's eye. It will lead you to her."
Emma begins to walk away.
"But beware of your magic Savior. Do not harness it unless you have no choice or it can confuse you and throw you further away into strange dimensions. When you're ready to return take this," she hands Emma a white smooth gem with strange patterns inside that look like a snowy hill. "Say my name and it will bring you here to me."
"I can stay here. You should go with her." Rumple tells Persephone worriedly. His head spinning with the knowledge that she was his Cora. 'What a twisted world.'
"He will sense me. He will sense her too but he doesn't see her as a threat."
Rumple whispers to her, "Is she?"
Persephone half smiles, "Just go."
Emma looks back at Killian knowing that they have unfinished business. She's now filled with a new defeat. She's risked everyone's lives for a man who's love for her became like the dust from an old library book. She turned a page and there he was anew to her, as fresh as seen from a day before. But she was like an old legend to him. She was to him now what Mila had become when he lived and loved Emma; for Mila now was his present and his past. Emma is tormented with the depth of everything now experienced. She wasn't sure what was more painful...watching Killian die in life, watching him die again in hell, or learning he no longer loved her as he had before.
"Emma, focus. Think of Regina." Rumple urges her.
'Regina' she thought. That was the most painful thought of all. The notion that she had put her only friend in such danger. The possibility, that until now had not occurred to her, that she would walk away from hell alone, without Hook...that was painful enough; but it was a pain she had prepared to face. What she had not considered, what she could never face, was walking away without her most beloved friend, Regina.
Hey guys! A few months ago when I started writing this fic I decided to brush up on my Greek mythology. I always knew that Cora would be in the story but it wasn't til I realized that Persephone was also known as Kore and Cora that I thought...'I have to make her Cora Now.'. It totally felt like fate! Lol. I hope you are all enjoying. Let me know you're thoughts! Thanks for reading...more to come soon.
P.S. Sorry for misspellings and or typo's. I tried to get this chapter out faster. Someone (you know who you are) inspired me with their kind words. Thank you!