A/N: There are quite a few songs within this chapter: Let It Rock by Kevin Rudolf ft. Lil Wayne, S&M by Rihanna, Tonight (I'm Fucking You) by Enrique Iglesias, The Bad Touch by The Bloodhound Gang, and Closer by Nine Inch Nails.
Chapter V
"So what exactly is it you're doing?" asks David, staring down at the red-headed witch.
Freya smiles as the red and white candles that circle her ignite with a simple flick of her fingers, casting an ethereal glow upon the Lady of the Lake against the darkening sky. A light begins to pierce the night sky, brighter than the twinkling stars that are also beginning to show themselves to the onlookers. The Charmings with both Henry and little Neal, Regina and Robin, Maleficent and Lily, and Killian all stand on the deck of the Jolly Roger, ready for whatever the night may bring them. Freya ignores them as she sits cross-legged within the circle of candlelight on top of one of the hatches that leads to the hold of the ship.
"I have a small droplet of the waters of Avalon left in my pendant. With it, and a little magic, I can send a form of communication to Merlin. It'll allow me to gain a brief glimpse of knowledge as to where he's currently residing. Or at least which realm," she tacks on in a low mutter.
"Which realm?" queries Killian. "I'm not just a roguishly handsome face; my ears are keen lass," he tells her when Freya shoots a dark look at him. "And how, pray tell, do you expect us to get Merlin to do our bidding if he's in another realm?"
"Well I know for sure he's not here. There was always going to be the necessity of travelling elsewhere."
"I thought you would communicate with him at moonrise and ask for his help. That perhaps he would then be able to aid us in getting to wherever we need to go. But what you speak of…" drifts of Killian.
"This spell Freya it sounds like it's only one-way," adds Maleficent.
"That's because it is, Mal. Though knowing Merlin he'll sense my magic, just have no knowledge what exactly I'm doing. Don't fret, Killian, I have a way to get us to where we need. And most importantly everyone back again," with those cryptic words she jerks her head towards the quarterdeck. "Now if I could have some quiet thank you very much; moonrise is upon us."
The dark-haired pirate glares at the Lady of the Lake but her eyes shut and a peaceful expression sweeps over her young pale face. The tenseness in his body eases as he silently reminds himself again that she is a friend to him and will help. He swiftly halts Mary Margaret with a quick shake of his head when it seems she is about to make a retort. Regina, Maleficent and Lily all watch Freya with fascination at the magic she silently weaves.
A few moments pass. No sound amongst the group is heard; the only noise filling the open space is that of the gentle waves crashing against the keel of the ship, and the creaking of the lines cast around the main and fore mast - as well as that of the stays, shrouds and ratlines - as the wind howls around and through them.
The quiet and inaction are unnerving for Killian. His blue eyes, still lined with kohl and framed by sooty lashes, flicker back to where Freya had jerked her head: the quarterdeck. With a quick glance back at Freya, who remains unmoving in her circle of candlelight, the captain turns and makes his way across the main deck. He feels, more than hears, the Charmings following him though Henry remains at his mother's side. The three (well four if young Neal in Mary Margaret's arms counts) make the trek up the four steps to the quarterdeck as quietly as possible so as to not disturb whatever magic Freya is performing or her concentration on said magic. The Charmings watch on as Killian marches straight to a place just to the right of where the entrance to the Captain's Cabin is. The pirate chuckles lightly as he bends and easily shifts the three loose boards to reveal one of the many hoarding holes hidden within the ship herself. He frowns when his search leads him to pull out two well-crafted top hats.
"Jefferson's hats," says David in realisation.
"Yes, you might want to be careful with those, my friend," calls out Freya, a rueful smile on her lips as she gazes up at her friend with only the light of the waxing moon, now high in the inky blue sky, to see by.
"That's 'devilishly handsome friend', if you please," he answers with a wide smile of appreciation as he stands and turns to face the ladies (along with Henry and Robin) gathered below on the main deck. "Curiosity," he adds with a shrug in explanation for his search and retrieval of the hats.
"That'll get you killed some day," she teases, before becoming serious. "He's in the same realm as the Enchanted Forest. Where within such a large place, I have some idea though it's fuzzy. But at least we have a starting point. The hats, Killian."
"Right," Killian carefully hands both hats over the railing in front of the helm down to where she stands beneath the large brass warning bell.
"In the wrong hands these can be dangerous things. They hold the power to traverse the realms."
"But the rule that governs it…" begins Regina.
"Which is why I asked Jefferson for two."
"What rule?" asks Lily intrigued.
"Only the same number that enters the hat can leave," explains Regina. "So for us to bring back Merlin, one of our number would have to remain in the Enchanted Forest."
"But with the second hat we can simply open it's portal and travel through that?" the dragon's daughter asks.
"Something like that. It's dangerous because it means both portals will remain open. People could enter it by mistake and become trapped inside. Merlin's power, once we're through, can close both of them."
"But isn't he able to create portals, like his apprentice?" frowns Mary Margaret. "Surely to get back he could do that."
Freya smiles bleakly. "I don't expect gaining Merlin's help to be easy. In fact it is quite possible we'll have to force him to come back with us. And relying on someone you don't know will succour you as your only way home isn't the smartest of plans. He'd take no issue in sending us through a portal to some other place. And so, the secondary hat is a necessity."
"So we all just jump into the hat and go trekking through the Enchanted Forest to find him?" asks Regina disbelievingly.
"No. With your help, and yours Mal, we'll be able to use the hat to take the Jolly Roger home and use it as our main mode of transport."
"She's more than just a piece of transportation, love," retorts Killian defensively.
"I know. The old girl has done a lot in her years, and she's the only ship I'd trust to be able to make such a voyage and return us home safe."
Maleficent rolls her eyes and sighs. "You two speak as if it's alive."
"Hush now, you'll hurt her feelings!" chides Freya before the light in her eyes dies a little as she looks to Mary Margaret and Henry. "We should really make tracks. I'm sorry to rush any goodbyes, but Merlin felt my magic. It's why I couldn't get a positive reading on where he is. If given enough time he may be able to work out what I was doing and so leave wherever he currently is...making it harder to find him unless we act as swiftly as possible."
"I understand," replies Regina, her eyes watery as she turns to Henry and pulls him tightly into her arms.
Beside the mother and son, David and Mary Margaret have their own silent goodbye embrace. Quiet words are exchanged between all that are remaining behind and their loved ones. Freya keeps her back to them all and stares out at the vast sea, attempting to keep her own emotions in control. After a quiet word to Henry, Killian moves to Freya's side, joining her in gazing out at the darkness before them.
"It'll be alright," he murmurs. "Now what's our heading?"
Freya smiles appreciatively at her friend and clasps his hand before taking a deep breath and letting her emotions drift away with the tide. "Somewhere where I'll be able to use it's magic to find Merlin a little more circumspectly."
"About that. Why didn't you use the Crocodile's globe?"
"The Magic Globe was created by Merlin. It can find anyone in any of the realms, except him."
"So where to?" calls out David.
Freya smiles gently at the flutter of wings and the cry of the beautiful falcon as it makes its perch high above her, on top of the main mast. Navarre gazes down at them all with one golden beady eye. He ruffles his feathers and shuffles a little upon the wood before settling down to roost. Freya turns to see Mary Margaret, baby Neal in her arms, and Henry standing upon the port their glassy eyes fixed on the ship. She quickly turns her gaze to Killian, ignoring the others.
"Cast off the lines. We'll need to be a bit further away from Storybrooke before we open this portal."
"And then? Do you plan on keeping everything to yourself?"
"David, Freya is helping us. There's no need to take that tone with her."
"Sorry Regina. And I apologise Freya, I…"
"There's no need. I understand. Completely," she interrupts. "After we get back to that realm we need to sail to a place where I can hopefully divine Merlin's location."
"And that would be?" asks Robin, curiously.
Freya's vivid green eyes drop to the well-swabbed deck beneath her feet as she whispers her reply, "Avalon."
Killian's stony gaze falls on the mirror in his cabin. At first he feels like he's looking at a stranger. A handsome one, but a stranger nonetheless. His legs are encased once more in leather rather than denim, his shoulders feel the heft of the longer and heavier leather coat instead of the short modern jacket he'd adopted a few months back. Brass fastenings sit beneath his hand as he passes it over his black leather vest, the metal cold and foreign in comparison to the plastic buttons that had been stitched into his waistcoat. The garments are momentarily unfamiliar to him, even though he has worn them for longer than the modern attire he'd appropriated when he started dating Emma.
The pirate's heavily kohl-lined blue eyes finally come to rest on a familiar object that, even when he had embraced the clothing in the other world, he had retained upon his person. He fists the skull and dagger necklace for a moment before turning away from his reflection without a backward glance. Barely looking, he uses his hook to prise open part of the panelling in the berth and reaches in to retrieve one of his stashed bottles of rum, only to consecutively pull out three empty bottles instead.
"Blast that red-headed strumpet!" he curses under his breath before hastily storming away to check his other hiding place for his rum.
Before he can go below to the hold, however, an empty bottle shatters near his feet. Charming, Robin and Regina (who had all been standing by the poop deck looking down into the white bubbling wake of the ocean) whirl as one - armed and at the ready for attack - at the sudden crash behind them. The three frown in confusion at the broken bottle and peer up at the clear blue sky, perplexed until a disembodied (and slightly inebriated-sounding) giggle floats down to them.
"Bugger your eyes, you shrew! Damnation harlot, you took it all?!" Killian bellows up at the rigging, causing Lily and Maleficent to climb up on to the main deck from where they'd been relaxing below as the noise had echoed through the ship.
"What's going on?" Maleficent calls over to Regina as they slowly make their way up to the poop deck, her eyes darting to the pirate captain in concern that he had suddenly gone mad.
Before Regina can attempt to answer another titter peters down to them. They finally catch a glimpse of a pair of ivory limbs unfolding and swinging over the side of the lubber's hole. Freya pops her head between her legs to look at them all below her, shutting one eye to bring them into focus. Her bare feet curl and uncurl in mid-air and she gently sways upon the wooden platform high up in the main mast. The mass of curly red hair whips around her legs and face, halting her laughter to spit out the stray hairs that had found their way into her mouth.
"Why is the rum always gone?" she suddenly sighs before hiccuping a chuckle. "Hmm, I wonder if the lusty Captain Jack Sparrow roams the sails in one of our many realms? Oh well, something to ponder another day. Time for some music and dancing!" she squeals delightfully.
"Bloody hell Freya, answer me!" shouts Killian, his one hand fisted and his jaw clenched in anger.
Freya frowns down at the dark-haired captain. "I didn't drink it all. Your other cubbyhole remains untouched. And we can restock at Avalon," she tells him before swinging her legs back up on to the platform and spinning round to lie flat on her back with her head dangling off the edge.
"Watch you don't get blown off," the prince calls up to her making her smile beatifically down at him.
"She'll be fine," assures Killian, his tone short before he stomps off to retrieve several bottles of rum.
"Is it really wise to do that? And the right time?" frowns David when the pirate returns gulping on the dark alcohol.
"Aye, mate, it is. You and your wife have been on my back ever since Emma went off and gave herself to the Darkness. It's already a trying enough situation we find ourselves in, without you making it worse."
"No fighting," calls down Freya. "Can I play my music now?"
"Does she have an attention problem?" Lily asks her mother.
"When avoiding her emotions, yes."
"Aye, you can have your music darling," answers the pirate automatically before realising, "What music?"
Before the words fully leave Killian's mouth, Freya reaches beside her to the iPod docking station she has strapped to the mast and the last dregs of a song begins to tinny out from the speakers. The Lady of the Lake raises her hands up and twists her fingers through the air, smirking as the magic takes hold and the music pumping out of the speakers becomes much louder than should be technically possible. With a touch of a button she changes the song and grins, shaking her hips as she dances whilst remaining lying down upon the lubber's hole.
"So he stuck his middle finger, to the world, to the world, to the world!" she croons along, flipping to her feet on the next chorus and dancing wildly around the mast, using it like a pole.
Killian rolls his eyes at her antics and returns his attentions to steering the ship and his bottle of rum. Charming reaches out to take a drink of the pirate's alcohol, sending the dark-haired man a silent apology for his previous behaviour. Killian nods in acknowledgement and the two contentedly share the bottle. Lily bops her head to the beat of the music, whilst her mother chats with Regina and Robin making very thinly veiled innuendoes about the two.
As the song peters out and a new track starts up, Killian opens a new bottle so as he and the prince don't have to share. Both of them have a mouthful of rum in their mouths as they take heed of the lyrics floating around them in the air, resulting in them choking on the liquid as they inhale it by mistake in their shock of what they hear. Up above them Freya laughs at their predicament before grasping a free line and swinging herself down from the lubber's hole and into the rigging, all the while singing and dancing to the somewhat explicit song.
"What kind of music is this? I know a bawdy tune or two, but nothing of this magnitude," comments Killian, his tone verging on being impressed.
"It's debauched and degenerate," adds Charming.
"That's your opinion and you're entitled to it," Freya pauses in her singing and dancing to tell the prince, before resuming her performance (uncaring that her thin dress is blowing up around her with the sudden increase of wind hitting the ropes), "Cause I may be bad,
But I'm perfectly good at it,
Sex in the air,
I don't care,
I love the smell of it,
Sticks and stones,
May break my bones,
But chains and whips,
Excite me."
"Good choice!" winks Lily, allowing a small content smile to grace her lips.
"I concur. I think I may just like the other world's music after all," grins Maleficent.
"Come dance!" Freya cries out, leaping off the shrouds and ratlines and on to the main deck below, reaching her hands out for Lily and Maleficent.
The three laugh and twirl about, shimmying their hips in time to the music. Regina watches on with a smile on her smooth plum-coloured lips at the pure happiness on both her friends' faces. Robin sidles up behind her and wraps her in his arms, leaving a soft kiss on her neck. She feels his breathy laugh against her skin and turns to look at him finding his gaze flickering with humour, the corner of his eyes wrinkling, as he looks at Killian and David stood in front of the helm. David's horror at the lyrics of some of the songs from the other world grows as the pop beat of the next track starts up and a male voice croons out "Tonight I'm fucking you". Killian, on the other hand, is grinning and his bushy black eyebrows are raised in appreciation of the music.
"If you think this is bad, you don't know the half of it Prince Charming," Robin calls out to him.
"There's worse?" David manages to ask to which Robin nods, his lips twisted in an attempt to prevent himself from laughing at the royal.
"There were two songs that we heard our neighbour playing and had to leave our apartment to prevent Roland asking certain questions."
"What was that?" pants Freya as she climbs up to stand on the ledge of the railing in front of where Killian and David stand. "You should play that last one for Emma, Cap'n, or one of the songs I was dancing to last night once you get her back...and then on to her back," she winks before waggling her eyebrows.
She immediately gets met with ire in the form of one overly protective father. "That won't be happening."
Freya laughs at the prince. "You do realise she isn't a virgin? She has a kid. And she's been brought up around all this music. It'll seem normal to her."
"What were the songs you were talking about?" interrupts Regina in an attempt to diffuse the situation.
"Um, I'm not sure," hesitates Robin, a slight blush colouring in his cheeks.
"Oh come on. You have to tell us now!" cheers on Freya as she lifts herself up to sit cross-legged atop the thick plank of the barrier before the helm.
"I don't know the name of the songs but one of the main lyrics for the first was 'Do it like they do on the Discovery Channel' and the other…" the thief lowers his voice until he almost can't be heard over the music still pumping out above them, "'I want to fuck you like an animal'."
"Ooh I know both, and I think I have both of them on my iPod," grins Freya clapping her hands on the wood beneath her before climbing up the rigging and returning to her nest, cheering in success when she finds the songs on her playlist.
Robin drops his head against Regina's shoulder with a soft thud and groans as the first song starts, making his love laugh lightly at him. The laughter becomes louder when she takes note of David's face when he hears the lyrics for the new songs. His eyes bulge slightly and his jaw squares as he glares up at Freya after she calls down to them.
"Maybe 'The Bad Touch' would be a better song for you and young Emma, Hook!" she jokes as the song ends. "This other one, 'Closer' by Nine Inch Nails, however would not fit you two. Suits me a lot more," she tells them seriously as she goes back to dancing and bellowing out the lyrics to the alternative rock song.
Her three friends beneath her all simply shake their heads at her antics. As quiet falls upon the deck of the ship the moment of relaxation suddenly seems to draw to an end, and tension hovers around all the passengers as they remember the reason they're in the Enchanted Forest. Killian's eyes flicker to David's and the two silently share the worry and fear that is trying to tear them apart.
"Goddess I can feel the sexual tension from up here," quips Freya, her smile quickly falling when she realises everyone is still fraught with worry for what's to come, and those they left behind. "They'll be fine," she assures them quietly. "We'll find Merlin and even if I have to kick his ass from wherever he's holed up back to Storybrooke, we will get his aid. There's no use in surrounding ourselves with worry for things beyond our control. It's a hard thing for me to ask, I know, but enjoy being back home for the little time we are here."
"Home is where the heart is, love."
"Awww, you've gone all soppy and romantic on me Hook. You not able to handle your rum any more? I know that some of you lot left parts of your hearts back in the other world but I'm sure if they were here they'd be telling you all off for being so damn gloomy. Hopefully this can cheer you all up a bit; a change of clothes always cheers me right up!" she exclaims with a grin before scrunching her eyes and nose up and flinging her hands out in front of her.
Beneath on the poop deck disgruntled yells float up at the sorceress who peeks down at them all with one eye resulting in her flailing and almost falling off the lubber's hole as she doubles over in peals of laughter. Six unimpressed faces glare up at her from underneath a collection of clothing that appeared out of thin air and landed on top of them. Freya falls to her knees and gasps for breath to which the sextet ignore her and drag the pieces of drapery off their heads and shoulders.
"Oh, this is quite pretty," comments Lily as she holds up the red velvet and black lace dress. "Though what's with the shoulder pads look?"
"That's mine," retorts Regina with a glare.
"Figured it would be best if I borrowed the clothes still in your palace. There should be something for everyone."
"Awfully kind but I can sort out my own clothing," states Maleficent, turning her nose up at Regina's garments strewn across the deck of the ship, before she gestures with her hands and is surrounded by a thick swirl of smoke. "You're right. A change of clothes definitely helps."
Freya wolf whistles down at the dragoness now bedecked in a long sleek black and crimson coat and dress with tiny rubies scattered across them, a high collar and long kimono-style sleeves, along with her traditional horned hat. "There's the Mal I know and love. Much better."
"Well if she's doing it…" trails off David before gathering a pair of brown trousers, a leather vest, white billowy shirt and a pair of soft dark brown leather boots.
"Feel free to use one of the chambers below. There's three private ones," suggests Killian.
"Oh go ahead and put that dress on. It'll suit your colouring," sighs Regina to Lily who is still holding the long dress.
"I'll help you with the corset," smiles Maleficent happily.
Lily gives them both a small smile and follows her mother back to the chambers they'd already declared was theirs. David moves aside to let them go first and turns to find his own chamber to change when Killian lets out a sharp whistle.
"Oi, mate," he says before chucking a burgundy velvet cape trimmed with cream fur at the prince.
"Thanks," Charming replies with a nod as he catches the cloak.
"Maybe we should do the same?" suggests Robin, making Regina sigh before foraging through the leftover clothes and ushering the blonde man below deck.
"Ah, peace at last," smiles Killian as he stands before the helm and looks out at the horizon.
"Killian…" calls down Freya in a singsongy voice. "I'm hungry."
"Never bloody lasts," the captain mutters as he bangs his head against the wheel before exhaling angrily and storming below deck to the galley.
"Thank you!" the redhead shouts after him as she remains lying upon the lubber's hole and singing softly to the songs playing quieter on her iPod.