Killian's Inferno

Chapter Twenty-Three

Rumpelstiltskin cautiously made his way through the depths of the Underworld in search for the passage to the Elysian Fields, hoping to get the chance to see his son for one final time before he found his escape. When he finally arrived and stood outside of the entrance, Rumple reached out his hand before trying to enter, but as he expected, there was a barrier in place meant to keep out the souls that didn't deserve to be there. Because he himself was alive, as well as was a villain, entry was not permitted for him.

"If you want the chance to see Baelfire again, you won't be able to do so that way," the boy who was his father said with scorn from behind him. "We villains don't get our happy endings, remember?"

"I should have known that I would have run into you sooner or later while down here," the Dark One replied coolly as he slowly turned around to look at another of his enemies. "And how is it that you knew where to come and find me?"

Pan grinned as he answered, "Because I know that on some twisted level, you still love your son and that if there was ever one other person aside from that pretty little wife of yours who could make you change your vile ways, it was him. At least, until recently."

Rumpelstiltskin glared at him and sneered as he responded, "The darkness was pulled from my body back when it was blackening my heart so that death would come for me, but now it has been restored, back to its rightful heir again, and if you think for a moment, that I have any weakness left in me still, you are surely mistaken. I am far more powerful than I ever was before."

"And yet you are standing here longing to see the boy who made you weak, not to mention the fact that you are still trapped down here, with no way of escape," Peter replied smugly. "What exactly do you plan to do about that?"

"Don't you worry about that," Rumple answered coldly. "I know the opportunity will present itself, in time. Which is why I'm here now."

Peter responded cruelly, "All of the power of all the Dark Ones, and there is still nothing you can do to get inside. The only way you will see Baelfire again, is if he were to come out, which you and I both know will not happen, at least not for you."

An idea came to his mind as Gold looked at his father and asked quickly, "Wait, are you saying what it is I think you're saying?"

"All of the good souls that gain passage in there have turned a blind eye to what is happening around the rest of the Underworld," the boy continued. "They have the ability to see if they wish, but they choose to remain ignorant so that their eternal happiness isn't tarnished in any way. If you can find a way to at least get a message to him, show him a real reason to come out for a short time, then perhaps you might get the opportunity to say goodbye to him after all."

"He wouldn't come out to see me after all I've done, but if he were to learn that Miss. Swan was here…" the Dark One stated. "Bae would surely risk leaving paradise to help the woman he loved, even if it was also to help that pirate that won her heart as well. A message I can do. Why exactly are you helping me? If you think that I'm going to help you break free of here as well, then you must be daft. There is nothing in your rebirth that would help me out any."

Pan slowly began to walk around the man who was his son as he replied, "Actually, I have it pretty good down here. I get to help Hades torment most of the souls that pass through, which isn't really a whole lot different than what I did in your world, except that up there I was my own master and not some lackey for the devil. You must remember how that was, back when you died killing me?"

All of a sudden, Pan grabbed the palm of his son's hand as something began to burn into Rumpelstiltskin's skin and when the boy finally released him, the villain still living held his wrist to help keep his wounded hand upward as he stared at the burned flesh in the shape of the letter that stood for who his father was, then asked angrily, "What the hell is this?"

"It's my way of making you pay for killing me!" Peter answered cruelly as he glared back at the monster before him. "You may be the Dark One, and I might not be able to kill you, but I can make you suffer. That marque, is no ordinary marque. Every time you use your powers for any reason, you will feel the same intense pain I felt as you plunged your Dark One dagger into my back down your arm and throughout your body. Down here, you learn all sorts of new tricks, especially if you have the right teacher on your side. Hades might like you, Rumpelstiltskin, but he doesn't appreciate being out a soul when you found a way to cheat death, again."

"At least I'm still alive and one day, I will find a way to have this marque removed," the Dark One growled, as Peter Pan swiftly disappeared again with a cruel smile on his face, leaving Rumpelstiltskin alone again to continue with his plan to see his own son once more.

Meanwhile…

The torture session went on and on for a period of time, Killian could no longer remember. To him, the white hot pain felt like it lasted for years while the villains, each and every one of them, all took their turns beating him with their own lightning infused whips as Cruella had begun, leaving behind obscure, silver tinted lashes caused by the implements all across his back. It was to his own astonishment that he was still conscious, though it wasn't for everyone's lack of effort that he was so.

When the people from Hook's past finished their turns and Hades finally put an end to his prisoner's torment, the shackles suddenly vanished as Killian collapsed to the ground in a heap and remained lying face down with his eyes closed tight, his incomplete arm tucked up underneath his body while he struggled for control over the anguish burning within him.

One by one, the villains filed out of the hollow after they had been given satisfaction at making Hook pay for his sins. The only three that remained behind along with Hades were the three people believing the pirate to have wronged them the most; Milah, his father, Brennan Jones, and his younger brother, Liam.

Hades patted each of them on their backs in a congratulatory manner as he spoke up saying, "I've got to hand it to you, that was quite a show, but I think for now he's had enough of the physical torture. It's time to let him rest for awhile. Besides, it's not like we don't have all of eternity to continue our fun and games."

Milah knelt down beside the man she once loved as she gently traced her fingers along his face and responded with mocking in her voice, "You really aren't the brave and dashing man I thought I loved all those years ago, are you, Killian? Are you refusing to look at me? I'd say that makes you every bit as much of a coward as Rumpelstiltskin was."

"Enough talk!" Liam called out impatiently as he swiftly and cruelly kicked the helpless and weakened man before them in his chest, eliciting a groan from him as the younger man used his foot as leverage to push Hook over onto his back. "I'm tired of waiting. He deserves worse than just this for making me the man I am. He deserves far worse."

"I agree with his brother," Milah replied as she looked over at the God of the Underworld and smiled when the man in a tailored suit no longer looked like a regular soul, but had transformed back into his natural form; an immortal giant with dark red eyes while his entire body became illuminated by blue flames. "Killian has been broken enough, Hades. It's time you push him over the edge, so that even if this Savior he loves so dearly does come for him, he will be too far gone."

Brennan was the last to speak up as he said, "For me, the son that I once loved died the night I abandoned him. That is on me and why I belong where I am. Killian still refuses to admit the kind of man he really is. It's time we show him once and for all. I am in agreement with both my son and Milah."

Hades grinned and summoned a circle of fire around the pirate as he lay gasping as if gasping for air while the pain slowly intensified. When the God loomed over the soul of the man on the ground before him and continued the ritual, darkness and fear began to envelop him as Killian suddenly began to scream and writhe in sheer anguish while all of his sins and evil deeds committed throughout his three hundred years of life manifested themselves and coursed within him, as is done for the worst of sinners who enter into the world of the damned.

Outside of the library in Storybrooke…

Hook looked at Emma as he held up his hand to show her his rings and stated, "You see this? Belonged to a man named Barnaby. Called me 'One Hand Jones.' I killed him in front of his wife, took his ring. This one, Edgar. Fine sailor. I caught him drinking the captain's wine. I drowned him."

Aboard the Jolly Roger before Rumpelstiltskin became the Dark One…
"A man unwilling to fight for what he wants, deserves what he gets," Hook spoke cruelly as he smiled at the weak man before him.

"Please, sir. What am I going to tell my boy?" Rumpelstiltskin asked sadly.

The dark haired pirate answered, "Try the truth. His father's a coward."

Outside of a cabin late at night…

Killian glared at his father as he came out to join him after the man had finished tucking in his youngest son, then said furiously, "You named your boy Liam. After my brother, after the son... you abandoned. Was he really that easy to replace?"

"I wasn't trying to replace him," Brennan responded with worry. "I was trying to honor him, to honor you both. So I'd remember never to make the same mistake."

"No, people don't change," Hook replied. "I saw what you said to him in there! It's the same thing you said to me! It was a lie then, and it's a lie now!"

Realizing then that his son was about to go back on his word, the man tried pleading once more, "Killian, please, it's not true. I have changed. I would never leave him."

The pirate sneered, "But you would leave me."

"Killian, please, what are you doing?" his father asked quickly upon watching his son toss the letter into the fire beside him.

"Deciding what kind of man I want to be," Killian answered as he swiftly plunged a dagger into his father's chest. "You see, if the queen discovers that I've deceived her, I might not get what I need, and I can't have that. You're just not worth it."

Inside the cave where Cora had imprisoned Emma, Snow, Mulan, and Aurora…

Hook looked into Emma's eyes coldly as he held up the old magic bean he had stolen from the giant and spoke saying cruelly, "Now look at it. Dried up, dead, useless. Much like you. The time for making deals is done, just as I'm done… with you."

At the town line just after Hook shoots Belle and holds his gun on Rumpelstiltskin…

Rumple held the woman he loved tightly within his arms as he stared down at her fearfully and pleaded, "Oh, no. No, no, no, no…!"

"Oh, fear not," Hook responded curtly. "She'll live. She'll just have no idea who you are."

"What you've done cannot be undone," Gold replied with worry as he turned to glare at the man still pointing a gun at him."

Hook shouted, "Well, now you finally know how it feels! Well, go ahead, crocodile. Do your worst!"

Inside Emma's house in Storybrooke…

Hook looked at the woman he once loved smugly as he stated coldly, "As long as I get what I want, I don't give a damn about the rest. And you of all people should understand that."

"Everything I did, I did for you," Emma answered sadly.

"Well, you see, that's your problem, Swan," he responded with hatred. "You're so afraid of losing the people that you love that you push them away. And that's why you'll always be an orphan. You don't need some villain swooping in to destroy your happiness. You do that quite well all on your own."

A tear fell from her eye as Emma asked, "Why are you doing this?"

Dark Hook moved in close as if he were about to kiss her until he simply glared at her as he whispered cruelly, "Because... I want to hurt you... like you hurt me."

In Camelot…

"Killian… your revenge is not your happy ending," Emma pleaded with the man she loved. "I am. You told me that. If you destroy this heart, you will destroy your happy ending along with it."

"No, Killian Jones told you that," he replied. "Your lovesick puppy dog. But that man died the moment you turned him into a Dark One."

Inside Emma's house…

Hook glared at Emma as he said angrily, "If you didn't want me to change, you should have let me die."

Liam grinned in satisfaction upon seeing the brother he never knew continue to writhe so greatly, while Milah looked over at Hades as she asked, "How long is this meant to last?"

"However long it takes," the God answered smugly. "Three centuries is an incredibly long time. You've watched others suffer as he is. Is this not what you wanted?"

"Of course it is," the woman responded without feeling. "But what comes next once he loses his vitality?"

Hades replied curtly, "He will either choose to join me at my side as you three have done, or he'll spend all of eternity trapped within his mind, a sniveling mess as Cruella so eloquently put it earlier."

Brennan answered, "He'll choose servitude. He's always only done what's best for him."