Hook… I Will Always Find You

Chapter Five

Emma finally arrived at Gold's shop and when she walked inside, she was glad to find her parents were already there with Neal in her mother's arms, as were Henry, Blue, Regina, and Robin like she had requested. She was also glad to see Belle among them, as the beauty was sitting on the bed in the back room beside her husband who was still unconscious just like Gold had been the last time the Savior saw him on the night that her hope of a life of happiness with the man she loved was suddenly destroyed within a terrible single moment.

Tears were falling from Belle's eyes when she entered the room and Emma immediately looked down at her worryingly as she asked, "Belle… are you alright? Is Gold…"

The red haired woman reached up to her cheeks to wipe the tears away the best she could while she answered despondently, "Your parents told me about Killian and his sacrifice just before you walked in here. Emma, I am so sorry. My God… this is my fault. If I hadn't come to you seeking help to save Rumple… If I just could have been what Rumple needed me to be so that he never would have come to be so evil… Killian never would have been forced to take the darkness into himself and both he and the Apprentice would still be alive."

"What happened to them isn't your fault, Belle," the Savior replied to her assuredly. "The darkness did all of this, but it's been destroyed at last thanks to Killian. And a few people we met in Camelot are also to blame for Killian's death. So am I."

"No you're not, Emma," Mary Margaret responded worryingly when she and David looked over at their daughter.

Emma glanced over at her sadly until she quickly recomposed herself again, then turned back to Gold as she raised the cutlass she carried with her and continued, "Right now whoever's to blame doesn't matter. We're here because I need Gold's help to save Killian, but to get it I need to wake him."

The beauty looked among the others standing around her in confusion, then looked down at her husband as well, then she questioned, "Can you really wake him?"

"I hope so," Emma stated again, then lifted Killian's blade above the former Dark One's chest. "We need something that once touched Gold back when he was a man, before the darkness ever corrupted his heart. Thanks to the storybook, we know this cutlass did."

The Blue Fairy then took the sword from Emma when she handed it over to her and summoned her power into her hand holding the blade's hilt as she suddenly disintegrated it, then allowed the remnants to fall over the man lying still beneath her as they became implanted into his body. At first nothing happened, until a few seconds later when all of a sudden, Gold weakly began to awaken as if from a deep sleep and Belle immediately sat down beside him again while she wrapped her arms around the man she loved so she would be the first person he would see when he opened his eyes.

"Rumple… I'm right here," she whispered gently while she waited for him to fully come to, as Emma stepped back a few feet in order to wait for the right moment to talk with him about going down into the Underworld. "Can you hear me? You're going to be alright now."

At last he looked up into his wife's teary eyes as she smiled down at him, then turned his head to look at those around him and in confusion he asked, "Belle… Miss. Swan… What's happening? How is this possible?"

Belle smiled down at him as she answered, "Emma found a way to save you. And not just now, but from the darkness as well. It's gone, Rumple. The darkness has been removed from your heart and you're no longer the Dark One. You're going to be okay."

"Then who is?" the weakened man questioned again. "The only way you could have saved me from the darkness is if you tethered the entity to someone else. It needs itself a host."

"The Apprentice used a very powerful spell to pull it out of your blackened heart before it could consume you once and for all," David reluctantly replied when Emma turned away to try to push back down her despair over losing Killian when his death was about to be spoken of again. "However, the spell wasn't powerful enough to keep the darkness contained for long and it escaped."

When he stopped for a moment to try to think of his next words more carefully, it was then that Regina spoke up to finish instead saying, "The entity almost consumed me because like you said, it needed a host to become tethered to and of course being the Evil Queen… it chose me. Emma was about to offer herself up to it using the dagger in order to save me, only Hook grabbed the dagger from her and sacrificed himself instead. The darkness consumed him making him the new Dark One, dragged him away to Camelot where the darkness was born, and we followed after him to try to save him too. However, once again he wound up saving us and in the end…"

Suddenly, Emma pronounced angrily, "Killian used the dagger and Excalibur to take his own life to save us all and to destroy it once and for all. He lost the battle and allowed it to consume him fully, but he did manage to find his way back. Only he couldn't live with the terrible things he was forced to do as the Dark One like you've been able to do. He couldn't live as the Dark One any longer. Now, Killian's trapped in the Underworld with a cruel and ruthless God who calls himself Hades. And I'm going down there to bring him home. Which is why I need you to tell me where the portal to the Underworld is here."

"If I knew where it was, if it even exists… You can't possibly think that entering the Underworld even if it is to try to bring the pirate back from the dead is a wise choice," Gold responded sternly as he struggled to lift himself up from lying back against the bed for so long with Belle's help, while he looked directly up at the Savior standing in front of him.

"Hades said you would know," she retorted more gently than before. "He wants something from me, so I know he wasn't lying about there being a way to enter the Underworld without dying first. Please, Gold. I know you and Hook have had your differences and there's a lot of hate you've harbored for him, but he's changed and so have you now."

Rumple answered, "Miss. Swan… I sympathize for your loss. However…"

The former Dark One finally stood on his feet as he looked between everyone again while he continued, "The Underworld is worse than you can possibly imagine. It's gonna make you wish the old stories of fire and brimstone were true. It's gonna make you wish for death. And then the realization will hit… that death has already come, and this fresh torture is all that's left."

"We won't be entering the realm already dead," Robin replied worryingly when the smaller man turned his head to glance over at the archer. "We'll have the advantage."

"If you go down there believing that, then it won't be long before you do become a dead man," Gold curtly responded. "None of you can go down there thinking like that or you will all die. You should be scared if you really insist on making this suicidal journey, but you must keep your wits about you as well."

David quickly asked, "So you'll help us then?"

When Rumple finally looked into Belle's eyes again, he let out a sigh of frustration and then reluctantly answered, "It appears it's the right thing to do even if I don't agree with all of yours decision. The pond in Storybrooke Heritage Park… there you will find the portal that will allow you to enter into the Underworld. Once opened, the boatman known as Charon will arrive to take you down into Hades' realm. However, you will be needing one more thing."

"The blood of a man who's been there and back," Emma replied, as Gold glanced back at her with surprise that she already knew what he was about to tell her. "Hades told me when he came to talk to me onboard the Jolly Roger as we were travelling back from Camelot. Please… If Belle died, don't tell me you wouldn't be willing to make this same choice on your own in order to save her too. You may hate Hook, but he died saving you too. You owe it to him to help me save him now."

"The portal can only be opened at a very precise moment within the night as the moon shines over the water," he responded quietly as he turned and walked to a window in order to look outside. "Seeing as the moon is hidden tonight behind the clouds in the sky, it appears you will have to wait until tomorrow night to begin your next quest. I will meet you there about midnight in order to give you what it is you need. Just don't expect me to join you. It's like you said, Miss. Swan… I'm no longer the Dark One. I wouldn't be of any help to you even if I wanted to be. Now if you'll get out… I'd like to be alone with my wife."

Emma simply nodded as she sensed the frustration, even anger swelling up within the former Dark One, then reached out as she gently squeezed Belle's arm comfortingly and finally followed her family and friends out of the shop to do like Gold asked so he could be alone with his wife.