Killian's Inferno

Chapter Fifteen

Inside Henry's mind…

The sorcerer's apprentice stood up and prepared to leave Henry alone again with his thoughts after patting the young man's back for being strong enough to resist the temptation of the quill by breaking it in two, then walked away. When he was gone, the fifteen year old looked around him once more to make sure he was really alone, then pulled another quill identical to Isaac's from his pocket and stared at it as if in a trance as it began to glow and whisper to him, calling on Henry to use it.

The quill he broke had been a decoy Henry had used the real one for to create so that the apprentice, nor his family and friends would be suspicious of him for awhile, long enough for him to decide whether or not it was wise to keep on using it. The longer he held on to it, the more it pleaded with him to use it to write. It also fed on the young man's yearning to use it to bring back his father, despite what the man had warned him of. Maybe he didn't mean that the dead couldn't be brought back, but really that they shouldn't be brought back. What harm could raising one man from death really do?

"Despite the warning told to me by the sorcerer's apprentice, I, Henry Mills and new Author, resurrect Neal Cassidy my father, otherwise known as Baelfire," Henry said slowly as he finally wrote out these words on a blank page of the book of his family's stories were written in with ink left over from what his grandparents had taken away from Isaac after their misadventure the former Author had written for them.

The quill and ink became enacted as the young man wrote, glowing while the words came to life, and it was in that moment that his mother's office shook as a burst of light suddenly projected outward throughout the entire town, then everything became perfectly still once again as if nothing changed. Little did Henry know that something did, or that tragedy would soon come from his actions.

A short time later, Henry ran outside to find out what had come from his own first use of magic, just as he found that several other townsfolk had come out from their shops to see what was going on as well. The fifteen year old ignored everyone as he passed by them on his way toward the cemetery and when he reached his father's grave, there was no change. The headstone was still in place with Neal's name still engraved there, and the ground remained undisturbed.

"Henry!" Emma called out worryingly as she and Hook came running over to him after seeing him come running out of his other mother's office from where they were relaxing at Granny's diner. "Are you alright? What the hell just happened and why did you come running out here?"

Her son looked between Emma and the man who was currently dating her, which was when he realized that maybe it really was a mistake to do what he had done, and when Hook snapped his fingers in front of Henry's face to get the boy's attention as he froze, he immediately responded, "I'm sorry, what?"

Killian looked at him strangely as he asked again, "Your mother wants to know what brings you here? You wouldn't happen to know where that light came from, do you lad?"

"I don't," Henry replied nervously. "I mean, maybe I do, but you wouldn't understand, neither of you."

"Henry, please tell me that you didn't do whatever it is that that wave of magic just did," Emma responded again with worry in her voice. "Because I know that you know better than to mess with power you don't understand."

The young man pulled away from her as he answered angrily, "Don't you get it? I had to. I've missed Dad so much. We should have found another way to bring him back a long time ago, especially when he sacrificed his life to save a villain. Why should Rumpelstiltskin get another chance to live after all the evil he's done, and not his son? And why did you just move on, with a pirate?"

Emma looked up at Hook sadly as she saw the brief moment of hurt on his face until he shook it off and spoke again saying, "Perhaps it'd be best, if I leave the two of you alone, to talk without my interference. I'll be back at Granny's if you wish to see me later."

"After everything Hook's done for us… He didn't deserve that, Henry," Emma stated sadly after Killian slowly walked off, then she looked at her son with worry over his strange behavior. "What has gotten into you, is it the quill? What exactly did you do?"

"I brought Dad back," he replied in frustration. "I'm tired of everyone else being happy, but me. Where's my happy ending?"

All of a sudden, Neal appeared from out of the woods as he made his way toward them and responded somberly, "I think, I'm right here."

Henry immediately raced into his father's arms as he cried out with both joy and amazement, "Dad! I can't believe it, it worked!"

"What worked?" Neal asked in confusion. "Did you… Am I really alive again?"

"Yeah," the young man quickly answered as he pulled out from his father's embrace, while Emma just stared at him with disbelief. "I brought you back. I have magic of my own now, Dad. I'm the Author."

Emma came out of her shock as she replied sternly, "You may have meant well, Henry, but what you've done was a mistake. Bringing someone back from the dead using magic like this surely has severe consequences. All magic has consequences. You know that just as well as I do, even more so, or so I thought."

Neal looked at her sadly as he responded, "Perhaps so, but we'll deal with that when the time comes. Right now, we should be happy. We can be together again, like we always should have been. Don't you want that, Emma?"

"I can't!" she exclaimed nervously. "I mean, I'm with someone now and you're not… I can't believe that you're really, you?"

"You're with someone?" the man who is the Dark One's son asked coldly as his face changed from relief of being alive again to that of anger. "You mean you're with Hook, is that right?"

Emma took a few steps back as she immediately grabbed Henry and pulled him back with her upon seeing the change in Neal's countenance, just when Killian suddenly appeared again from behind them and stepped out in front of Emma and Henry as he answered cautiously, also seeing the danger before him, "Aye, that she is, mate. I don't know what you are, but it's clear that you're not really the man we once knew."

Just as David and Mary Margaret came running over to see what was going on, Neal was glaring at the pirate standing between him and his family as he replied, "And you're not the man I knew either it seems. Emma cares about you, maybe even loves you. I can see it in her face. Even my own son has come to care for you. Now that I'm back, I can't have you in my way."

"No!" Emma shouted in shock when Neal suddenly lashed out by shoving Killian back into a tree behind him as he grabbed his hook and thrust it hard through his chest, killing him almost instantly while he collapsed to the ground. "Killian!"

"How… how could you?" Henry asked his father fearfully when Emma raced to Hook's body as she pulled the man she had already watched die once earlier that day into her arms and wept openly while she held him close. "This isn't what should have happened. The magic was supposed to bring my dad back, not a monster!"

Charming quickly raised his gun and aimed it at Hook's killer as he called out to him saying, "Get on your knees! You're under arrest."

Snow rushed to her daughter's side and held her as they watched the standoff between David and Neal who swiftly blasted everyone, but Emma to the ground with a wave of his hands, magic somehow flowing from them as he walked to stand over the woman he loved and grabbed her by her throat, choking her with more strength than an ordinary man with no magic should have had.

Before Emma blacked out as he slowly killed her, Neal leaned in close and whispered cruelly into her ear, "I loved you with all that I had and yet you chose him over me, a pirate! I should have killed Hook back in Neverland. If I had, it wouldn't have to be like this. I'm sorry, Emma."