Killian's Inferno

Chapter Six

While they all continued to walk through what seemed like endless tunnels along the banks of the river that flowed slowly throughout the Underworld, the walls appearing to take on different forms as they passed through each cavern, the Savior's family and friends grew more and concerned for Emma as she remained silent ever since the attacks. It was clear that Emma had fallen into the back of her mind and had become lost deep within her thoughts, thoughts about him.

Emma looked over at the pirate she had grown fond of in confusion as he stepped forward with his back to her and asked nervously, "Hook, what's wrong? You gave Ursula everything she wanted."

He turned his head to the side, but didn't completely turn around to face her until part way through as he responded broodingly, "But I almost didn't, love. I was so desperate to figure out what the Crocodile was up to, I almost became the man I used to be. You have no idea how easy it is to fall back into the darkness."

"Whatever mistakes you made with Ursula, you fixed," she replied as she moved close to him and looked into his eyes and he into hers.

"Aye, but it's a stark reminder of something," he continued, his fear becoming darker the more he spoke as he continued to look at her.

Still confused as to what he was trying to say, she simply asked, "What?"

He answered despondently, "With all this talk of authors and the book, we've never discussed one fact... I was a villain."

"But you're not anymore," the Savior responded as she finally understood what had him so worried.

"Neither is Regina, but she still lost her happy ending," he immediately continued as she lowered her head trying to let his words sink in. "If we're to believe the rules of the book, then it's only a matter of time before I lose mine."

Upon his last words, she quickly looked up at him in surprise as she asked again, "Wait, if you're afraid of losing your happy ending, that means you found it. What is it?"

Killian looked into her eyes again with sadness as he questioned her softly, "Don't you know, Emma? It's you."

Just as Emma remembered the moment that she leaned in to kiss him, her thoughts were suddenly interrupted, when a few feet ahead of her, she suddenly saw a figure standing with his back to her, and seeing the familiar long leather coat and the light from the torches bouncing off of the silver metal in place of his left hand, she suddenly ran toward him as fast as her feet could take her as she cried out, "Killian!"

"Emma, what are you doing?" her mother called out after her in fear.

The moment she reached the man she loved, he faded away and the Savior quickly realized that he was actually never there. It was only a cruel trick of this wretched place they were all trapped in because of her and it made her angry, so angry that she couldn't stop herself from slamming her fist into the stone wall beside her.

"Are you alright?" her mother asked worryingly when her parents came to her side as David ripped the bottom of his shirt and tied the strip of cloth around her hand to bind it. "What happened?"

"I saw him," their daughter replied in frustration. "I mean… I thought I saw him. He was standing right here, until he wasn't. This place is messing with my mind. How could I be stupid enough to believe for a second that finding him would be so simple?"

When Snow and Charming pulled Emma into their arms to try to comfort her, Regina stepped forward as she said grimly, "That's what Hell does. The evil that's down here, it has the power to make a person crazy. And if we're not careful and fight to hold onto the reason why we've all come, then we won't survive."

No one spoke for a few minutes as they continued walking again until Mary Margaret took her daughter's hand in her own as they stepped ahead to walk side by side, then the Princess stated quietly, "You've been lost in your thoughts. Do you want to talk about it? It might help a little?"

"I don't really know where to start," Emma answered sadly as a single tear fell down her cheek from the corner of her eye. "I was thinking about how after we saved August from Rumpelstiltskin, Cruella, and the others, and when Killian had reunited Ursula with her father, I remember seeing fear on his face. It was the first time I think I ever really saw him afraid. When I asked him what was troubling him… He told me that I was his happy ending, that he was afraid of losing me because he was once a villain. It was in that moment I knew that I loved him and I don't mean in the way that I loved Neal, but had truly and deeply fallen in love with him. And it was in the moment that I thought about that, when I saw his phantom. I just want him back so badly, to have him hold me… Oh God!"

"You're going to have all that back, baby," Snow responded and squeezed her hand tightly as her daughter broke down while they continued walking, then Charming moved up to walk with them at Emma's other side to help strengthen his wife's comfort for her. "We will find him, just so long as you don't give up."

In another part of the Underworld…

Down in the bottom of a deep crevasse within the void where he was being held, Hook found he was once again laying unbound upon the cold, hard ground as he slowly opened his eyes and immediately felt the terror from the horrible flashes forced into his mind by Hades and the intense pain that came along with the memories. He couldn't move.

All of the sensations he was feeling, including his pain, were strange to him. He was dead, he understood that much, but he could feel the God's fire hot hands on his face as Hades grabbed hold of his head before. He could feel the coldness of the ground beneath him and he could feel the chains that had previously bound him as they dug deep into his skin, or spirit as though he were still alive. If he were, he knew that his body would be bleeding and broken. But the worst of it all was that he knew none of it was ever going to end.

Killian tried to force all that to the back of his mind as he struggled to focus on simply trying to sit up and leaned back heavily against the wall. It was still dark, but in this part of Hell there was at least a beam of light coming down from somewhere above like in the first place he first woke up in. Though he longed for the light, Hook remained inside the darkness out of fear of what might happen should he try to make himself a bit more comfortable, no matter how small that comfort might be to him.

Within a few minutes after he awoke, a small voice called out from the darkness asking timidly, "Killian, is that you?"

Hook backed further against the wall as far as he could, though he tried to appear more like his old self he replied weakly, "That depends… on who you might be, love. You'll forgive me… if I don't… stand. I'm not quite feel… feeling myself… at the moment."

"It is you," the woman answered as she slowly stepped into the light so the pirate could see her, then observed him as he stared up at her in shock and fear.

"Milah, but how… why are you…?" Killian stuttered as she took a few steps forward, then knelt down before him and shushed him as she reached out her hand to gently caress his face.

She leaned in closer and began to kiss him, the longer her lips remained on his, the deeper her kiss became until Killian suddenly turned his head away and whispered, "I can't..."

Milah looked at him in confusion as she asked, "What's wrong? I thought that after all these years, after centuries, you would want to see me."

"It's not that, love," he responded wearily as his head fell back against the wall, then he took her hand in his own. "It's just, I've come to… love another. I had to… to let you go… to free myself from the vil… villain I had become. I may be dead… but I will forever love her. I'm so sorry."

"That's it?" she asked angrily as she stood up and glared down at him. "You're sorry, after everything that we went through together, after all I gave up for you, this is how you repay me? By falling in love with yet another woman? I left my son behind with my husband! Why is it you think I've been trapped in Purgatory for all these centuries? Because I yearned for you?"

Killian struggled to use the wall behind him to help him to stand too, though without success, having no choice, but to give up as he replied with remorse, "I did love you, truly Milah, but… after you died, after the Dark One… killed you, my life… changed. I lust for revenge on that monster, for so long. Then, someone… entered my life and… made me a bet… better man, a good man."

His former lover knelt down before him again as she looked at him with hate and answered cruelly, "If you are such a better man than you were when you were with me, then exactly why is it that you're now stuck here in the Underworld and have become one of Hades' favorite playthings? I'll admit, I heard rumors that you finally arrived here after all these years. I had to come to see for myself if the rumors were true and it turns out that they are. If you still had a heart that beat in your chest, I would tear it out just as Rumpelstiltskin did mine, but I suppose I will just have to settle for something else instead."

"Here, perhaps this might help," Hades responded when he suddenly appeared at Milah's side with a scorching branding iron in his hand, the letters of his name carved out of the metal, and handed it to the woman with a cruel smile on his face. "What can I say, I'm a big fan of myself. If you take a look at this pirate's right arm, you'll find he has a tattoo of a heart being pierced by a dagger with your name on it, his way of honoring your death. Burn it off. He'll feel the pain you want him to feel, oh so badly and in doing so, I will also grant you a brief passage into the Elysian Fields to see your son, Baelfire. Perhaps you might even be able to gain your closure after all and a chance to stay with him for the rest of eternity. I'm the God of the Underworld. I can do whatever the hell I want."

"I'm grateful for your deal," she replied coldly as she glared at the God until she turned back to the man she once loved and did just as Hades demanded by branding Killian's arm until the tattoo burned away, causing Hook to cry out, though not nearly as loudly as he had from his earlier torture session, as he struggled to stifle his pain. "But I really don't need your generosity to convince me to hurt him."

When she was finished, and Killian had collapsed back down to the ground upon his back as he pulled his arm close to his chest, without looking back, Milah walked past Hades, as well as Rumpelstiltskin who had come in time to watch this turn of events with sheer pleasure, she handed the God the iron back and disappeared from the void as Hook tried calling out for her, only to no avail. Once she was gone, Killian allowed his head to fall back roughly against the floor as the agony of his loss of Milah once again brought back all the anger and hate he held inside for the Dark One, only this time he placed it all upon himself. And when Emma suddenly appeared before him as she knelt down and gently began to caress his face as Milah had, it destroyed what little fight he had left.

Hades looked at Rumpelstiltskin asking smugly, "So, did you enjoy the show? I know I certainly did. There's plenty more ahead. And she's just arrived."

Gold smiled as he answered gleefully, "Immeasurably. I do wish I could stay to see what you have in store for my enemy next, but alas… I'm afraid I have things to do that include devising a plan to try to kill your unwanted visitors, as well as finding a way to return to my beloved up top, without having to pay your price of course. Tell me, do you suppose I could borrow your pet Cerberus for a bit? I think that he will do quite nicely, or at least enough to perhaps take one of those blasted heroes down. What do you say?"