Hook… I Will Always Find You

Chapter Eighteen

Regina raised her hand to her lips and kissed it, then reached out to touch her father's tombstone to send her kiss off to him before she and the man she loved turned to walk away. The Queen and the archer were leaving the cemetery to return to the Rabbit Hole where they expected they would find the rest of their friends, until they were unexpectedly surprised when everyone except for Emma showed up before them instead, looking pretty upset and worried.

"David… what's wrong?" Regina questioned in concern when the Prince rushed on ahead of the others. "Where's Emma?"

"Hades took her," he responded worryingly. "With help from a few other pirates from Hook's past. Hades offered Emma his deal again, but she still refused him. He said he was going to give her stronger motivation that will force her into saying yes. We have to find her before she can."

Robin then glanced behind his friends while he pointed behind the others becoming surprised when the Savior suddenly appeared within a cloud of smoke, clearly disordered by her sudden appearance herself as she looked around her in confusion, and he uttered, "That's not going to be necessary. She's right here and okay by the looks of it."

David immediately turned to look back towards where his friend was pointing to and saw his daughter behind him, then he rushed over to embrace her happily while he cried out her name with relief, "Emma! Thank God, you're alright. Are you? Are you really alright?"

"Yeah… I'm fine," the Savior answered sadly, though she was shaken by the confrontation more than she wanted to admit, to anyone or to herself. "But Killian isn't. Hades showed me what was being done to him in his crystal ball. It's worse than I already feared. We only have a couple of hours to get to him. If we can't in time…"

"What's going to happen to him?" Smee asked her with worry for his Captain when Emma cut herself off.

Emma turned to the first mate as she curtly replied, "Did you ever get around to watching the Disney movie, Hercules?"

Smee shook his head in confusion, then responded, "I'm afraid I only watched a few movies with Henry and I don't think Disney movies were ever among them. Although… I don't actually know what Disney movies are."

"I've seen it," David stated in frustration while the others all turned to look at him with surprise. "Mary Margaret and I watched it and a number of them with Henry when he was doing research on as many fairytale characters from our stories as he could learn about shortly after the first curse was broken. My point is… I know exactly what you're afraid of, Emma."

"I've seen a few too," Regina answered worryingly. "With Henry. Including that one. Let me guess… there's a green river like the one in the movie with a bunch of frail, mindless souls floating around somewhere within the depths of this Hell. Isn't there?"

Emma nodded as fear showed in her eyes, then she replied, "And Killian's really going to become one of them it if we can't find him beforehand. Where's Liam?"

Tinker Bell spoke up quietly saying, "He's back at the bar. He can't leave until his shift is over. Hades' rules apparently."

"Then we need to head back there to talk with him again," the Savior responded. "We can't wait for him to leave, but he may know a way to distract Hades long enough so we can save Killian without his interference."

"That is if he's still willing to help us," August said in frustration, then turned his head to face Emma when she glanced over at him crossly. "You heard him, Emma. He doesn't think it's right that we're trying to save him so he can come back with us. He wants Hook to move on with him."

Regina scoffed, then uttered cynically, "He sounds like a great guy. Either way, he surely wouldn't want his brother to keep suffering at Hades' hands either. He'll help us save him, and then we can decide the rest later once Hook is safe. Was there anything else?"

Emma reached into her left side jacket pocket and pulled out Killian's hook that was no longer still attached to its brace which was now in David's possession, while she once again used her magic to activate a spell she cast, then answered, "Thankfully one good thing came out of me getting taken. I also met that bastard who made Killian his slave for so many years. Captain Silver. And he gave me an idea on how we can find him. Killian… I mean. The pirate tried to steal Killian's ring, but I stole it back from him and cast a locator spell over it, just as I've just done with his hook, then I magicked his ring back to him. I just needed to see Killian in my mind and it was enough. His hook should now lead us right to him. The real trouble's going to be how we're going to get him out without Hades knowing about it. Like I said, we'll need a distraction to lure him away and to keep him busy long enough to free Killian."

"That was a brilliant plan, Emma," Tink replied, impressed by her plan to cast a locator spell over her friend's hook and ring to help them to find him.

"And I think I just might have an idea for the kind of distraction we need so we can save him," Liam responded quietly when he came walking towards them after overhearing the last bit of their conversation, as everyone turned to face him in surprise that he was able to join them.

Grumpy glared at him while he stated, "I thought you were stuck behind the bar? How did you…?"

The older Jones interrupted, "I tested Hades' power over this world that was keeping me inside of there because I need to be a part of helping my brother. Strangely enough, I discovered the magic was no longer in place after you all walked out. I think all of you being here is definitely changing things, and for the better. Hades' power appears to be weakening a little at a time. At the very least… you all are good luck."

"What's this plan of yours?" Emma asked him skeptically when she turned her head to look at him again.

"How about we find that place where we can talk a bit more privately and hopefully without Hades or any pirates around to interfere?" Liam answered quietly when he looked at the Savior again.

Is there any place around here Hades can't go, or is all of 'Underbrooke' completely under his complete control?" Regina questioned. "You know what… don't answer that. It's a stupid question."

The Savior smiled at her friend and then she replied, "Actually, I think there are places around here where we can go without him or his thugs interfering in our planning. While I was being held, I happened to notice something else too. Silver attempted to attack me and I quickly deflected him using my magic to knock him down, as well as his other crewmen. And when I did so, Hades took a few steps back. Like he was almost afraid of my power, or at least he might not be able to stand it like Zelena couldn't… my magic being the reason why she couldn't defeat me unless she removed it. If we cast a protection spell conjured by both yours and my light magic combined, Regina…"

"Then it might be powerful enough to keep Hades out from wherever we decide to hold up for good once we find and rescue Hook," the Queen finished for her, then smiled. "Like Tinker Bell said, that's pretty brilliant, Emma."

"I couldn't agree more," David said proudly in agreement. "Nice work."