Chapter Thirteen: Lost Boys
The first time he'd sailed through the portal on the Jolly Roger, Peter Pan had come with him, and had never once left his side.
Water sloshed over the side of the ship and drenched Hook. His eyes stung in response to the salt, but he ignored the pain as best he could and focused instead of the ship and the storm and the looming portal.
His head hurt. He'd fallen and hit it on something, but he couldn't remember what. His thoughts were fuzzy, blurry. Random thoughts, memories, kept creeping into his consciousness, playing out scenes in front of his eyes.
He needed to focus, needed to…
It took three months, and even if they were all poor excuses for sailors, Jones couldn't help but feel proud of his work. They were not as good as his previous crew, but they were good enough.
Good enough to sail through a portal. Good enough to leave Neverland. Good enough…
But loyal. Too loyal. He needed a crew to steal the ship, and yet none of these men would turn on Peter Pan.
Well, he knew something about their dear chieftain that they didn't.
"Emma!"
He heard the shout and turned his head in time to see the blonde lose her footing and go careening across the deck. She slammed into Mary Margaret and the two of them ended in a jumbled heap, arms and legs twisted together.
He saw Mary Margaret grab Emma's wrist.
Milah had done that, during her first storm, when she had feared the powerful waves might capsize the ship and separate them. He knew what the motion meant, knew the promises it conveyed. But loving Milah had taught him that all the promises in the world, in any world, could not guarantee a happy ending.
The portal pulled them nearer.
Peter threw something into the ocean and opened the portal. The others hadn't questioned that Peter could do this, could open a portal between realms. As far as they were concerned, the boy chief could do absolutely anything.
The sound of cloth tearing drew Hook's attention upwards in time to see the mainsail start to rip. He stumbled forward, trying to think, trying to clear his head, trying to remember what he was supposed to do now…
But his head hurt.
He struggled towards the steps leading to the tiller. The ship rocked, and he slipped, his feet sliding on the wet wood. He threw his hands out to break his fall, but his head collided with the corner of the steps, and the blackness began to encroach on his vision.
It took time, but Jones finally convinced Starkey to tell him the tale of how he'd met Peter Pan.
"There were several of us," Starkey said quietly. "But we didn't trust each other. All of us had come to this land separately and by accident, and we didn't know if the other was friend or foe. I don't know how long it was before the chief got here – time just sort of blends together. But we spent a lot of time fighting each other and fighting the natives and some died and we were always…" He paused, and shook his head. "It's not easy, being like that. Never feeling safe, never being able to let down your guard… It takes a toll."
It was the most Jones had ever heard Starkey say all at once. In fact, the entire conversation was proving to be unusual because Starkey was actually answering questions with more than just a single word and a shrug of his shoulders.
But Jones didn't comment on Starkey's explanation. He was a pirate, after all, and he'd learned a long time ago the dangers of putting trust in anyone. Maybe the constant suspicion did take its toll on him, but it also kept him alive and free.
"Then the chief came. He was escaping a war. He was just a lad then - looked the same as he does now, of course, but younger. Sixteen, I think. And he saw that we were tired and so he convinced us that we needed to join together."
"He convinced you? How?"
Starkey stared at him for a long moment, then said, "We were torn away from our homes and our families, but he gave us a place to belong."
"Once you can sail through the portal, will you return to your home?" Jones asked.
"I've been gone too long," Starkey answered. "There's nothing there for me to return to. And Peter if my chief now. This is my home."
Jones nodded, but some part of him doubted that Starkey actually believed that. He was loyal to Peter Pan, but…
"What war?" Jones asked abruptly. Starkey gave him a bewildered look, and he elaborated, "You said that Peter Pan had escaped a war. Which one?"
"The ogre war," Starkey replied.
He was aware of sudden pain lancing through his arm and saw the blood and splinters. He struggled to make sense of it. He'd been injured and the ship was heaving underneath him and…
What had happened?
The storm.
The memory rushed back to him of the sudden gust of wind and…
Damn it, why wouldn't his head stop hurting? Why couldn't he think straight? Why did he have to keep getting distracted by…
The first time he'd sailed through the portal on the Jolly Roger, Peter Pan had come with him, and had never once left his side.
"Don't you trust me?" Jones had asked.
He squinted through the night, peering for a sign of Mary Margaret or Emma. He couldn't see them, but the mainsail had torn completely free from the mast, and was now lying in a tangled heap on the deck, obstructing his view of the rest of the ship.
He stumbled forward, his steps uneven.
He needed to find them.
No. He needed to protect the ship.
The portal was a giant whirlpool pulling the ship forward. It groaned and creaked and rocked on the dangerously tall waves, and every passing second brought him closer to the other land.
Storybrooke.
"I fought in th' war," Bill Jukes said once as he struggled to learn how to sail the ship. "Didn' have no choice. All them poor folks was recruited."
"Recruited?" Jones asked.
"The family's got threatened. If we didn' fight, us and our whole family went to the dungeon."
Jones didn't say anything else. He didn't really want to tell Jukes that now, instead of sending those living in poverty to the front lines, the nobles fighting these battles sent children.
The ship. The portal.
"Damn you, Cora," Hook growled as he pulled himself to his hands and knees and crawled along the steps. One way or another, he knew that this was her fault.
But it didn't matter. None of it mattered because he would not ever give up his revenge. He'd spent centuries imaging all the ways he could make the Dark One pay for taking his true love, and nothing – not even a powerful witch – was going to stop him.
The ship pitched forward and he nearly fell flat on his face.
The tiller. He had to get to the tiller.
But the memories would not stop.
Jones decided very early on that he hated the fairies in Neverland.
He had never met a fairy back in his own world, but he had heard enough about them to expect them to be wise and caring and paragons of Good.
The fairy flickering around in front of him was nothing but an annoying adolescent with far too much energy.
She was also one of the few fairies who was friendly with Peter Pan.
"You're Killian Jones," the fairy announced cheerfully. "You're one of Peter's new friends. You've been here two months. Peter wants you to train his other friends so that they can sail a ship."
"Yes," Jones replied. "I've seen you talking to the chief before. What's your name?"
"Bell. Tinker. Tinker Bell." The fairy paused for a moment, hovering in midair, and then added, "Peter calls me Tink."
And she flushed furiously.
A childish fairy with a crush. How… perfect.
"I'm worried about the chief," Jones said, keeping his tone soft and gentle. "I think he's upset about something."
"Oh no!" Tinker Bell cried immediately. She darted away from Jones, clearly intent on finding Peter and comforting him, but the pirate called her back.
"Wait, please." The fairy paused and looked at Jones quizzically. "I don't think confronting him about it directly is a good idea," Jones said carefully. "He'll pretend that he's fine. He won't want to burden us with his problems. But maybe if we talk about it, we can figure out what is wrong and how to fix it."
"I don't know," Tinker Bell said cautiously, clearly torn. "Peter doesn't trust you."
Jones bit back a smile and the desire to point out all the reasons he wasn't trustworthy. "I know," he said, "and I wish he would. I'm his friend, and I wish he could see that. But maybe… maybe if you help me… maybe I can convince him that he can trust me. And wouldn't that be good for Peter? Having more friends, more people he can trust." He smiled, and added a little bit of flattery, "Besides you, of course. I know he trusts you most of all. That's why I came to you for help."
That seemed to do the trick. Tinker Bell nodded. "What do you need to know?" she asked eagerly.
He reached the tiller and grabbed on tightly. He could do this. Even half-conscious and with blood pooling in the wet fabric of his clothing, he could do this.
He just had to focus.
He closed his eyes and cleared his thoughts, and then looked towards the portal.
And over the edge of the railing, he saw Mary Margaret tangled in the ropes hanging off the side of the ship, half-submerged in the uncontrollable waves.
He couldn't worry about her right now. She was on her own. He had to focus on the portal.
The first time he'd sailed through the portal on the Jolly Roger, Peter Pan had come with him, and had never once left his side.
"Don't you trust me?" Jones had asked.
"Should I?" Peter had replied.
The wind had started to abate slightly, though the waves still rocked the boat. But the portal loomed directly in front of him, and there was no escaping it now. He was headed for another land whether he was ready or not.
Bloody and befuddled and with a broken ship. He was a reckless fool to be doing this, to be attempting the navigation.
But he had no other choice.
"Why can't you just jump into a portal and travel between the worlds?" Jones had asked once.
"You can't control a portal," Peter had explained. "To make it to a specific land requires a guide of some kind – a compass. Otherwise you could end up anywhere." And he had paused and given Jones a searching, suspicious, look, before adding slowly, "But with a ship, you can navigate to specific worlds. It's just like sailing. If your captain is good enough."
"I am good enough," Hook muttered into the air.
He brushed saltwater out of his eyes and flicked away the droplets that were forming on his hair. The pain in his arm lessened slightly as he gripped the tiller and stared into the portal before him.
"Anyone brought to Neverland does not age," Peter had explained.
Jones noted that Peter did not refer to people discovering Neverland, falling into Neverland, ending up in Neverland. No... people were brought here.
The ship paused for a moment on the very edge of the portal and then pitched forward completely and fell into the abyss.
"Rumpelstiltskin," Hook murmured as he clutched the tiller tightly, "I am coming for you."
It was the ages and arrival dates of Peter's band of followers that finally allowed all the pieces to fall into place. Most of the adults had claimed to have been in Neverland since before Peter Pan had arrived; all of the children had come afterwards.
But nothing was quite what it seemed, and the delightfully gullible Tinker Bell had provided some much needed explanations.
And then had come the planning.
It had taken Jones another month after the first successful voyage of the Jolly Roger to finalize his plans. Everything had to be exactly right. The right people in the right place at the right time.
But he was patient. He could wait. After all, here in Neverland, he wasn't getting any older.
And then came the opportunity.
Jones, Starkey, Jukes, and Teynte took the Jolly Roger out onto the ocean to practice. The first ride through the portal had been bumpy, and it had taken all of Jones' skill to keep the ship afloat. He had insisted to Peter that they needed more work, and had selected the three adults he claimed were the most adept at sailing, adults he wanted to give extra training to so that they could take on more responsibilities.
Starkey, Jukes, and Teynte – they also happened to be the three Jones thought he could most easily turn to his cause.
Peter had agreed, but had insisted on coming along as well, presumably believing that his presence would keep Jones in line and remind the others that they were loyal to him.
Jones smirked at the thought, and slid his hand into the pocket of his shirt where his fingers grazed over the purloined magic bean.
He was so close.
"Did you know," he commented as he moved about the ship, "that the ogre war has been fought for nearly a century?"
Peter gave him a startled, distrustful stare, but Jukes said morosely, "Why you wanna talk about it? Ruined enough lives, didn' it?"
Jones nodded slowly. "I suppose it did." He glanced at Peter and asked with a mock innocent expression, "So that would make you a hundred, wouldn't it?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Starkey freeze with his hands on the shroud.
Peter raised both eyebrows and said, "Not that it is any of your business, but the ogre war had been going on for a while before I found my way here."
"Really? Because that's not the way darling little Tink tells the story," Jones sneered.
"You talked to Tink?" Peter demanded, tensing. "Did you hurt her?" And Jones was surprised to see real concern in Peter's gaze. Apparently the boy chief didn't find the fairy to be quite as much of a nuisance as Jones would have believed.
"I had no cause to hurt her," Jones said dismissively. "She was willing to tell me everything I wanted to know."
"Why does it matter when the chief came to Neverland?" Teynte asked. "We've all been here a long time."
"And you never once wondered why that was?" Jones pressed, taking a step towards Peter. "You never once questioned why you had come to this place? Portals don't just open, you know. Someone has to open them. Someone has to bring you here."
"Maybe, but it wasn't the chief," Teynte said stoutly, loyally. "He didn't get here until later."
"Are you sure about that?" Jones said.
The boy chief's hand moved slowly towards the quiver of arrows at his shoulder, but he did not draw one. He couldn't very well shoot Jones right now, or it would be tantamount to admitting that Jones was right about the story he was going to tell. But he also couldn't let Jones continue talking.
"Stop it," Peter said grimly as he lowered his arm.
"Why? Don't you think they deserve to know what brought them to Neverland? Don't you think they deserve to know what you've done?"
"They know what I've done," Peter snapped back. "I've taken care of them, I've made this place a home for all of us."
"Oh, you've certainly made it a home," Jones shot back. "But only because nobody can go anywhere else."
Peter shook his head, a look of bored amusement gracing his features as though he couldn't be bothered to contradict Jones' obvious lies. He turned away from the others and looked out at the ocean for a moment, as though contemplating Neverland. Then he drawled, "What is this? Some pathetic attempt to turn my friends against me?"
Instead of replying, Jones turned to Starkey and said, "I liked you from the first time we met. There was something about you that seemed just a little… suspicious. It took me a while to figure out what it was, but then I realized… It's that you wondered about Peter Pan. The rest of the lot were willing to accept him as their savior, but you doubted. Even if it was brief, even if you could never put it into words…"
"No," Starkey said, shaking his head and looking between the boy chief and the pirate, "you're wrong."
Jones gritted his teeth. He needed Starkey on his side. He knew he needed to turn at least one of the three men on the ship, and Starkey had seemed the most obvious choice. He hadn't anticipated that Starkey would refuse to play along.
But Jones also knew he wasn't wrong about this, about Starkey. He had seen the way Starkey looked at Peter when no one else was watching, had seen the questioning in his gaze.
And then, to everyone's great surprise, Jukes asked, "How come you got so friendly with the fairies? How come them natives don't like you?"
Peter spun around and stared at Jukes as though he had grown an extra head. "What?"
"You said you got here after us," Jukes said firmly, "but then you got friendly with the fairies – Tinker Bell, anyway – real quick. And them natives didn' like you from the beginnin', from when they firs' met you. Almost like you'd known 'em longer. Like you'd been here longer."
Peter shook his head. "I met Tinker Bell when I first got here," he said, "and we became friends immediately, so it might have seemed like I had known her longer, but I really hadn't. And you know that the mermaids are fickle, and will decide that they love or hate you without even knowing you. And the natives only hated me because I was trying to help all of you."
Jukes frowned, but said nothing.
"Come on," Peter said reasonably, "who are you going to trust? Me or him?" And he jerked his head towards Jones with a sneer twisting his lips.
"You've been here a long time, Peter Pan," Jones cut in, not wanting to give the other three men a chance to contemplate that question. "The truth is, you fought near the beginning of the ogre wars, nearly a hundred years ago." He paused, then said, "But something happened. Something involving a girl named Wendy."
Whatever Jones had expected in response, it was not to have Peter's fist collide with his face.
He stumbled backwards, surprised.
There was something dark and dangerous in Peter's eyes as the boy chief said in a voice of barely constrained rage, "Shut your mouth about her." His entire body was shaking with pent up emotion, and his hands were clenched into fists at his side.
Peter took a deep breath and looked away again.
Jones rubbed his jaw and decided to tread carefully. He licked his lips, then said, "You ran. You got away from the ogre wars somehow, got your hands on a magical bean, and jumped through a portal. You were trying to escape, weren't you? But if brought you to a place where you were alone, where you had no one."
"That's a fascinating story, pirate," Peter said, "but can we get back to the training?" And he gestured towards the rest of the ship.
Jukes was still frowning, but Teynte had already moved away from the confrontation.
This wasn't going the way Jones had planned.
Jones turned towards the others, frantic to prevent his plans from falling apart. "Jukes, you said you fought in the ogre war. How did you come to Neverland?"
Jukes blinked. "I got a break for a bit when m' Dad died. But then I got sent back to front lines, and they say if I didn' report, they'd send m' wife to the dungeon. I went through a portal night before I was suppos' t' leave."
"Portals don't just open," Jones said. "But I learned an interesting fact from Peter's precious little Tink. It turns out that while it is impossible to navigate yourself through a portal without a compass or a ship, it is possible to open portals and pull other people to you."
Jukes blinked, and slowly the implications of Jones' statement dawned on him. "Why would th' chief do that?" he asked.
"Because he was lonely. He wanted friends – followers. He brought people into a hostile land they'd never been to before, left them alone to fight each other and everyone else here, and then swooped in to save the day and declare himself their leader."
"Lies," Peter said angrily.
"But why me?" Jukes persisted, now directing his questions solely to Jones.
"Because Peter doesn't like the ogre wars," Jones said simply.
"So you're saying that by bringing him here I actually rescued him from a horrible fate?" Peter questioned, a hint of humor in his voice. "I saved him from being sent to certain and painful death fighting a war that only the nobles cared about?" He quirked an eyebrow, those unsettling eyes fixed on Jones. "Even if that were true… it still makes it sound as though I was trying to help."
"The ogre wars is horrible," Jukes agreed.
"Yes, and if you had wanted to run away, you could have," Jones replied. "But you didn't." He tilted his head to the side, regarding Jukes. "And why not?"
"M' wife."
"Right," Jones agreed. "You were trying to protect your wife. But the nobles running that little war don't know that you fell through a portal. They probably believe that you simply ran away." He paused, waiting for the realization to sink in, then pressed on, "So where do you think your wife is now?"
He knew he shouldn't take such glee in the suffering of Jukes' wife, but it was hard not to given how brilliantly it would prove his point.
Jukes remained glumly silent.
"I didn't fight in the ogre wars," Starkey said suspiciously, "and neither did Teynte. Why did the chief bring us here?"
"I didn't," Peter said calmly, "and I didn't bring Jukes here, either."
"Was anything bad about to happen to you?" Jones asked. "Anything unfair? Any injustice committed by uncaring and arrogant nobility?"
Starkey didn't answer, but it was clear from his silence and the pursing of his lips that, had he spoken, the answer would have been affirmative.
Jones turned back to Peter and took a step closer to the boy. "See, that's the interesting thing, isn't it? That is how you convince yourself that what you are doing is right. You're saving people from the injustice of a monarchy and a nobility that doesn't care about peasants, that is happy to sacrifice the lives of others for their own gain."
"There is nothing wrong with helping people," Peter said quietly, and Jones realized abruptly that Peter actually believed that.
"But you don't care about them," Jones argued pointedly. "The people you've brought here – some of them have died, and yet you seem more than happy to replace them as soon as they are gone. Their lives don't matter to you at all." He glanced at Jukes and added, "Just like the life of Jukes' wife didn't matter."
"Oh, and you do value life, pirate?" Peter sneered. "How many people have you killed for their money or their goods? How many people have you pushed around, how many people have you trampled, just to get what you want?"
Jones ignored that, and, turning back to Starkey, pressed on, "And the others? How many of them came here right before some injustice? I'm going to guess all of the adults. And how about all those boys the chief brought here – those children. The ones separated from their homes, the ones who look so lost, who still don't quite understand why they are here..." He turned to Peter and accused, The ones you still have not offered to return to their families now that you can sail between worlds… I find them interesting."
"Do you?" Peter asked sharply.
"Fighting in the ogre wars is mandatory now," Jones replied. "They've dealt with the massive casualties by demanding that every peasant child be sent to the front lines as soon as they reach the age of fourteen." He smiled chillingly, then turned to Jukes, Starkey, and Teynte, and added, "And do you know what I find quite fascinating? That every single one of those lost boys in Peter's little band... everyone is just a few weeks shy of fourteen.
There was a moment of complete silence.
Then Jones added to Peter, "Oh, by the way, you did it wrong. You only rescued boys, but they're sending boys and girls to the front lines now."
Peter's lips flattened into a thin line.
"But you got tired of bringing people here," Jones said. "You wanted to get out, wanted to see other worlds, wanted to lead your band of followers to other lands. And to do that, you needed someone foolish enough to sail a ship through the dangers of a portal. So you brought me."
He turned to the other three men, as though to rest his case.
Jones had misjudged Teynte – the man refused to budge in his loyalty. He stepped over to Peter's side and said, "I'd still rather be here than back in my world. Maybe the chief did bring me here. Maybe he did lie. But he rescued me, and that is what matters."
But Jones had not misjudged Starkey or Jukes.
"How dare you?" Starkey growled at Peter, finally breaking. "What gave you the right?"
"They were going to send you off to work in some prison camp!" Peter shouted back, finally deciding to drop all pretenses and defend his actions. "And why? Because the noble whose land your family worked decided you hadn't worked hard enough? He blamed you for the lost crop, for the drought that you had no control over. I saved you."
"But you left my father and mother behind," Starkey argued.
"Falling through a portal is dangerous," Peter replied. "Your father and mother were old. Bringing them here would have killed them. I couldn't save them, Starkey, but I could save you, so I did."
"Then why did you wait to identify yourself? Why did you lie and say you came afterwards?"
"Because I never planned to come forward," Peter replied. He glanced at Jones derisively and elaborated, "Whatever the pirate claims, I didn't bring you here to create a band of followers for myself. I was only trying to save you, to offer you the chance to escape and start over. The same chance someone had given me." He paused, ran a hand through his hair, and for a moment looked like an adolescent boy, bewildered and tired, "But then you all were fighting and people were getting hurt – dying. I knew I had to step in, knew I had to try to protect you. But by then I had remained hidden for so long, and I didn't know… I didn't know how to tell any of you that I had been here all along. So I lied, because it was easier, simpler. Maybe that makes me a coward, but I was always only trying to help."
"But why didn't you want to come forward in the beginning?" Starkey pressed.
Peter's eyes hardened. "I didn't really like people then," he said flatly. "I was willing to help you all because I believe in helping strangers. If a stranger hadn't helped me, I wouldn't have escaped myself and I had to repay that somehow…" He trailed off for a moment, then said bitterly, "But at the time, I truly thought that people only cause trouble. Wendy... I gave Wendy everything, but she couldn't do the same for me. I loved her and she broke her promises. After that, the last thing I wanted was to be around more people who could betray me."
The information about Wendy was interesting, but not really relevant to Jones' plans. The pirate stepped closer to Peter. "So you decided that you – a boy of sixteen – knew what was best for everyone else?"
"Haven't you been listening to him?" Teynte growled. "Haven't you heard a word he said?"
"Yes," Jones said. "Have you?"
And without warning, he swung his arm out and knocked Peter over the side of the ship and into the ocean.
Teynte lunged forward, but Jukes quickly pulled him away from Jones. The two engaged in a brief scuffle, and then Jukes shoved Teynte overboard as well.
Jones leaned over the side of the ship, searching the ocean for any sign of the boy chief. Peter had disappeared underneath the water for a moment, but he reappeared quickly several feet from the ship.
"Don't be a fool Jones," he called. "You can't go anywhere without me."
Jones reached into his pocket and pulled out the magical bean. He held it out for Peter to see, and smiled as the boy chief's expression flooded with horror.
"I don't know how you got these, but I suppose it doesn't really matter," Jones said. "I'm going home, Peter Pan, and just in case you've got plans to bring me back… Tinker Bell was so helpful in telling me where you kept all your magic beans, and I destroyed the others. So you're going to be stuck here, in Neverland… forever."
Peter sputter for a moment, treading water and unable to think of anything to say. Then he scowled and shouted, "One day you're going to push around the wrong person, pirate, and that person is going to push back."
Jones ignored the warning and turned to face Starkey and Jukes. Nodding to the ocean, he asked "Are you with me or with them?"
Starkey looked at the magic bean in Jones' hand. "You," he said, and Jukes echoed his agreement.
"Good," Jones said. "Starkey, man the rigging. Jukes, make sure Peter and Teynte don't try to climb back aboard – hit them with an oar if you have to." He turned towards the bow of the ship. "Time to go home."
The first time he'd sailed through the portal on the Jolly Roger, Peter Pan had come with him, and had never once left his side.
"Don't you trust me?" Jones had asked.
"Should I?" Peter had replied.
"No," Jones had answered, but he had known Peter was too arrogant to believe he could be beaten.
The ropes twisted around her calf and ankle.
Mary Margaret frantically clawed at the side of the ship, but it was too smooth and too wet to offer her any purchase. She was half-submerged under the water, and sinking even more with every passing second as the ropes around her leg pulled her downwards.
Saltwater spray stung her eyes as she squinted through the storm in search of Emma.
The blonde had been thrown further from the ship. It took a moment, and then Mary Margaret saw Emma several feet away from her, struggling to keep her head above the crashing waves.
"Emma!" Mary Margaret cried out, but her shout was swallowed up by the sounds of the storm.
The ship pitched forward, and Mary Margaret was slammed back against the hull. Her head hit the wood and for a moment she thought she saw stars. Then she twisted and looked towards the bow, and saw, only a few feet away, the whirlpool portal opened beneath them, dragging them to Storybrooke.
Treading water with one arm, she reached down with the other and pulled at the ropes around her leg, trying to untangle them. But she couldn't keep herself afloat and fight the rope at the same time, and a moment later she was sinking underneath the waves.
Panic filled her.
She kicked wildly, pushing her way to the surface.
She haphazardly wiped water out of her eyes and looked for Emma again. The blonde was no closer to the ship – it was clear that all her efforts were doing little against the power of the storm-rocked waves. They buffeted her about, and for a moment, her head sank beneath the waves.
"Emma!" Mary Margaret screamed.
She kicked her feet against the hull of the ship, straining towards her submerged daughter.
We go back together. That is the only way. Do you understand?
Emma resurfaced a moment later and resumed fighting her way through the raging sea, powerful strokes bringing her closer to Mary Margaret.
Then the ship hit the edge of the portal.
The ropes went taunt, and forcefully pulled Mary Margaret away from Emma.
She tried to scream, but saltwater filled her mouth and stung her eyes as the ropes around her ankle pulled her under the waves. She began to pry at them in frantic, half-mad gestures, but her fingers merely scraped against the twisted fibers. Then the ship lurched into the portal, and magic hummed around her as she fell through water and air.
The portal closed over her head and she was flung towards Storybrooke, leaving Emma behind.
A/N: The next chapter will finally take us back to Storybrooke, though, of course, we will continue to visit FTL to see Emma.