Killian's Inferno

Chapter Sixteen

When Killian awoke, having no concept of how long he had been unconscious, he weakly raised his head and struggled to move only to find that he couldn't, as his arms were strung up tightly by golden shackles at his sides, the power wielding chains hanging down from as far above him as he could see. Like when he had been chained down before, he found that he had once again been forced down onto his knees, this time having been stripped of his leather jacket, shirt, and boots, wearing only his pants.

While seated upon his throne, Hades was waiting impatiently for his fun to begin again as he stared at the pirate captain kneeling helpless before him. Hook could still feel the pain from his earlier torment, but it had subsided a little thanks to the rest and brief reprieve he had been granted with help from Merlin.

It wasn't long after he had woken that Hook suddenly remembered the horrible sight of the death and destruction that he may or may not have caused in the world he had been torn from as he died. Killian didn't remember Rumpelstiltskin appearing before him, but he did remember the false memories which the villain had forced into his mind and he realized that he no longer knew what was real and what wasn't. Had he actually destroyed the darkness as the sorcerer had tried to show him, or was the fear he had seen within the hollow that he was no longer in the truth? Did he become the monster he always feared he was once again?

Hades smiled when he noticed the pirate was awake and stepped down from his throne, then spoke up first saying, "I've got to hand it to you, Captain, you are tougher than I expected you to be. If I was in your shoes, and I had been tormented by the women I loved, I might have crumbled to pieces, but not you."

With as much strength as he could muster, trying not to appear afraid or weak before the God, Killian raised his head, but refused to look at the immortal slowly circling around him as he answered boldly, "It was Nimue who came to me disguised as Emma. I never once believed she was really there. And what the centuries of being trapped within this hell have turned Milah into may pain my soul, but I never cower before the villains, whose paths cross my own. That includes you."

"It appears I've been too easy on you," Hades responded coldly as he stopped moving around, then knelt down before his prisoner and roughly grabbed his chin once again in order to get Killian to look at him. "Seeing the tormented soul, your beloved Milah has become has shaken you, but I realized that it will take both physical and mental torture to break you once and for all. And I believe I know exactly how to go about it."

"I've found them, Hades," Milah said without any emotion as she walked into the cavern and stood beside the God while she stared down cruelly at the man she had once loved until his betrayal. "They were only too happy to learn that the man responsible for them being trapped here as well, is finally in Hell where he belongs."

Hook looked up at her sadly as he replied, "Milah, I can't apologize enough for what I've done to you, but don't let your hate for me extinguish the strong, loving woman I know you really are. She is still inside you."

She suddenly backhanded Hook hard across his face, causing him to cry out as he collapsed as far to the ground as he could while the shackles placed an unbearable strain throughout his body, then she answered, "You're wrong. You destroyed that woman you knew those centuries ago, just as you've destroyed countless other lives, including those of your own family."

"She's right," another familiar voice responded as two more souls walked into the room from behind him, then moved to stand before him as Milah and Hades were. "Do you remember my final words to you, Killian?"

"Father?" Hook stated fearfully upon seeing the man he had killed because he had abandoned him to the life of servitude, seeing the same fire in his eyes as he himself had when he thrust his dagger through his father's chest.

The man glared at his son as he replied, "That's right. Do you remember? I told you, it's never too late. I told you that you could change and be a different man. You may have tried, but in the end, you failed. And of course, you wouldn't recognize my other son here, my son of only ten years of age when you first saw him, whom you made an orphan that night after you stole my life. He lived to be a man, but because he also grew up without a father as you did, Liam became a cold blooded assassin for hire. He murdered men and women, no matter if they were guilty or innocent. He became a man I was ashamed of, but I didn't blame him. I couldn't blame him. I blame you, Killian."

The younger Liam continued, "I became a monster just as you had, brother. And I liked it, but when I was killed myself, murdered by a woman I had foolishly allowed myself to believe loved me, my soul became imprisoned down here in the Underworld where I found my father at last. It wasn't until then that I knew what became of him. Now, I have a chance to make you suffer for taking him from me."

"We will all get the chance to make you suffer for damning us to Hell, as you have damned yourself and your older brother Liam too no doubt," Brennan Jones added cruelly.

"Liam was a good man," Killian answered when all of a sudden, his father pulled back his head roughly as he grabbed him by his hair, then gripped his chin as well in order to force him to look into his eyes, but Hook held firm while he continued to speak of his brother. "If he's anywhere around here, surely this God you've clearly become so loyal to would have granted him passage into wherever the hell it is the good souls are sent."

Hades finally spoke up again as he looked between the three souls he brought in to help him torment his prisoner, saying, "Unfortunately, he's right. Your oldest son is the one of you Jones boys that didn't wind up here with me."

Brennan nodded, then turned back to his middle son as the younger Liam responded eagerly, "That doesn't matter now. I don't want to talk anymore, least of all about the man I was named for, or about anything else, unless it's to punish this pirate who made me the man I have become. It's time to get this started!"

"Take it easy, take it easy," the immortal replied smugly. "We have plenty of time to enjoy this. You see, Killian? It's because of people like your father and younger brother here, as well as your former flame, that I love my job, or at least, can tolerate my job. It's terrible really, but watching as once good men and women with regrets in life become twisted and slowly become vile creatures of this hellhole, make it all worth it."

"Ah… the others we've been waiting on to join us have finally arrived," Hades said again with a smile when more villains from Killian's past, as well as those who wished revenge on him for crossing them, walked in and surrounded Hook; villains including Peter Pan, Cora, Cruella De Vil, Greg and Tamara, the man Barnaby he had killed just for calling him One Hand Jones, and Edgar, whom he had killed simply for drinking the captain's wine. "I believe you remember each and every one of them. And they all can't wait to see you suffer, Captain. Let's begin."

Pan stepped forward first, a smug smile adorning his face as he knelt down before the pirate Captain he once enjoyed tormenting during the century they had spent fighting each other while in Neverland, then again when Hook had come back with Emma and the rest of the heroes to rescue Henry.

Hook glared coldly at the boy as Peter came into his line of sight, then spoke up as he gloated, "You know, Captain, I thought I loved the look of guilt and defeat on your face back whenever I reminded you of the man you really are, but I think I love this look on you even more. You may have won Emma's love up there, but now you see that it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to keep you from becoming the very monster my son was. Rumpelstiltskin won after all. And because he did, so did I."

Killian's confidence was shaken and the truth was, he didn't really know what to believe anymore, but he refused to show it in front of his tormentors before him as he answered, "I am not anything like that Crocodile, or you. No matter what it is you lot are trying to get me to believe, I defeated the Dark Ones. And I proved to Emma I was worthy of her love. There is nothing that you or anyone, can say to convince me otherwise."

"You're lying," Peter stated arrogantly as he raised his hand to touch Hook's forehead, then forced another memory into his mind. "You really believe that you're worthy of the Savior's love, Killian? See if you feel that way once I remind of this."

"I only did what you asked so I could rid myself of that cursed hand, so I could become a better man," Killian said to Rumpelstiltskin coldly as he stood before the villain inside his shop after Gold had tricked him into helping him rid himself of the sorcerer's apprentice. "Emma will understand that."

Mr. Gold simply responded, "Even when she finds out the truth?"

Hook looked confused as he asked, "What truth?"

"This hand isn't cursed," the monster replied.

"No, you said..." the pirate tried to state in objection until the Dark One cut him off again.

He interrupted, "You were right. Dark one lies. Dark one tricks. This hand is nothing but a lump of flesh. The only thing it did was give you permission, permission to be the man you really are. Not some puppy dog chasing after the object of his affection, but a ruthless pirate who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. I did you a favor. I helped you remember the darkness that lies beneath."

Captain Hook glared at the villain as he answered angrily, "Then you know that that darkness will have no problem crushing Belle's heart."

"If you go after my love., you will surely lose yours," Gold responded cruelly. "You threatened my marriage, tried to destroy the only light in my life, and for that, you will owe me as long as you live."

"What if I'm willing to take you down with me?" Killian asked again.

Finally, Rumpelstiltskin smiled and then replied, "I think... I know you better than you know yourself, dearie."

When the memory finished and Pan released his hold on the bound man on his knees before him, Killian lowered his head down to his chest upon feeling the shame of his actions, then the boy spoke up again saying, "If I recall, thanks to some help from the fates you first met when you arrived down here in this dark Hell, I believe you had already begun to date Emma when this conversation between you and my son occurred. She was already beginning to fall for your arrogant charm, but you still allowed yourself to become pulled back into the darkness of who you really are. It was already inside of you long before the darkness of the Dark Ones came to you. How do you think Emma would react if she were to learn of this secret of yours?"

It was then that Hades handed Peter Pan a small branch from off of a plant from the world above, a device of torture as he had done for Milah, then the boy took it eagerly as he reached out to pull Killian's head up in order to get him to look at him as he did what he was about to do.

"You do recognize this, don't you, Hook?" the villain asked as he scratched one of its thorns deeply along one of Killian's exposed arms, causing the poison to spread into dark, sickly striations. "It's the very dreamshade plant that killed Liam."

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Hades said as Killian gasped as his agony began again. "The dreamshade I mean. You're already dead, so obviously the poison won't work the same as it did on your brother, but I thought this would be another perfect form of torture for one of my favorite pets. It's barely begun, and I'm already having a marvelous time. The dreamshade can't kill you, but it can make you feel the same way Liam felt as he died, until I'm ready to release you from its pain. And that depends on you, Captain."