Liam moved through several rooms, shuffling papers and opening doors. He had walked into a couple of rooms where one of the others was also searching, and so he couldn't move outside to destroy the pages yet. The only person he hadn't met was Emma, but he knew that she had stalked off into a completely different area of the manse so as to avoid everyone else. He smiled slightly at Henry, which Henry returned as he moved into a new location. Liam watched Henry leave, and then he listened for the sounds of any of the others.

Hearing nothing, Liam decided that this was the best time to finish what he had started. He moved to the window facing the back yard, and noted how close he was to a door that led to the yard. Looking around him once more to check that he was alone, Liam slunk off towards the exit that led outside. He moved as quickly as he could without making much noise. He didn't want to draw any attention to himself. He opened the door as quietly as he could and closed it without pulling the latch; he didn't need the door to make any extra noise. He didn't know how much time he had, so he crossed over to the well quickly, stopping at the edge and pulling the pages out of his pocket.

Hades hadn't left any specific instructions on how exactly to destroy them, but he did say that all the waterways led back to him. Liam decided that the best way was to follow Hades' orders was to throw them into the nearest waterways. Remembering the well he had spied as he came into the mansion, he supposed that he could throw them in there and that would be enough. Moving fast, he managed to avoid everyone else searching and got to the well without anyone seeing him. He quickly took the pages out of his jacket and let them fall into the well. He watched them fall into the water and sink to the bottom almost immediately upon touching the water. It was done. He was free, finally free at last, of his secret's hold on him. This was it, the whole reason he was still in purgatory. He could finally move on from this place. The regret at betraying his brother was outweighed by his singular relief at getting away with keeping his treachery a secret. He sighed as a weight lifted off his shoulders.

—

After the altercation with Liam earlier in the day and her quasi-argument with Killian about whether Liam was hiding something, the last thing Emma felt like doing was searching for the missing pages. She actually felt more like hitting something (or someone, or possibly even multiple someones), an emotion which was apparent in the way she threw open doors and slammed them shut, roughly yanked open drawers and caused their contents to rattle, only to throw them shut in the same aggravated movement. Without Killian around her to see, she let her emotions reign as she stomped around, on her face a screwed up scowl, and she didn't linger in any place for long.

She knew that Liam was wrong in his assessment of his brother's perceived lack of heroism, just as he was wrong in his villainized judgment of her. She just didn't know how to get Liam to see that there was more to Killian than that supposed "darkness" and view his younger brother for the hero that Emma knew him to be (and she also didn't know how to get Killian to see that same fact for himself, only she was beginning to suspect that somehow Liam, himself, had to be the key to that's endeavor). She couldn't care less whether Liam Jones' opinion ever changed of her; she just wanted to change his opinion of Killian (and of Killian concerning himself).

She wandered into another sitting room and paced through the length of it, scanning absentmindedly for any sign of the torn pages of Henry's storybook, Underworld Edition, when she caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. She stopped and turned her head back to where she had caught it and realized she was seeing through a window into a yard just beside the house. She stepped closer to the window, her brow furrowed in confusion and suspicion as she realized she was looking at Liam. His back was to her; she couldn't see what it was he was doing, but why would he be out in the yard when he had sworn he wouldn't stop looking until they were successful in locating the lost pages?"

Making a split-second decision, she hastily left the room and made a beeline for the nearest exit that would get her to that yard and into yet another confrontation with Killian's older brother. Her inner lie detector had been going off ever since their first conversation, and she was going to find out why it was alerting her to something being off with Liam. She owed it to Killian to investigate his brother's shady actions, even if he wouldn't appreciate her for it.

—-

Liam rubbed his hands together, watching as the pages floated down into the well and disappeared into the water, wishing that the ink hadn't stained his hands so badly, and he heaved another sigh of relief. He hadn't realized how tense he had been since seeing his brother once more. But all would be well. He would not have to answer Killian about what he had done, and Killian would never find out about his mistakes. He would remain a hero in his little brother's eyes. They could move on from this place together. He would finally have his brother back.

He was just about to turn to find a place to wash his hands of the ink that had stained them when he heard Emma's voice.

"I thought you were inside looking for the missing pages," she called. Liam whirled around to face her, balling his hands into fists so as to hide the stains and stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets as he did so in order to further conceal his treachery.

"Emma," Liam replied, a bit breathlessly. "I thought a bit of fresh air and a change of scenery would get the inspiration flowing."

Emma didn't respond. She just smiled slightly, preparing to lay her trap though Liam didn't know it. "Find anything?"

Liam shook his head minutely. "I'm afraid a ship's captain can only be cooped up for so long. I had to come out and get some air. What brings you out here?"

Emma wondered if Liam realized how hollow his words sounded to her ears, how tinny they were with his lies, but, of course, he didn't know about her super power. She walked closer to Liam so that he could get a good look about what she was going to show him. She hoped that the way to breach Liam's lies was to use Killian to do it.

"I wanted to show you this," Emma responded, pulling the chain out from under her shirt that had the ring Killian had given her in Camelot. She held the ring out as far as it would go to Liam to allow him to see what it was she beheld.

Liam leaned in a bit to look closer. "Oh. It's the ring I gave Killian. I noticed he wasn't wearing it."

Emma smiled softly and played with the ring in her fingers. "Because he gave it to me," she confirmed. "And you know what he told me when he did?" She paused and waited for Liam to shake his head before continuing. "That it belonged to a much better man than him. You're his hero. He doesn't think you can do any wrong…"

Liam squirmed uncomfortably, moving to scratch behind his ear in the same mannerism Killian had when he was uncomfortable. "Yes, well…" Liam tried to respond before falling silent, not knowing how to respond.

"Which is why," Emma continued with no great concern about Liam's feelings, "I can't figure out why you would lie to him." Emma stopped speaking and stared at Liam, a serious expression on her face.

Liam stared back, struck speechless by how blatantly she had called him out. Emma could tell he didn't know what to say. He stared at her a moment before looking at the ground out of shame, and in that action Emma knew she had him. She just didn't know what the lie was.

Before Liam could stammer out a reply, Killian joined them outside. "Liam? Emma? What's going on?" he called out as he joined the two by the well. Killian looked between his brother and his lover, trying to puzzle out the tense air between the two people he loved most.

Liam looked to Killian and then Emma. Emma seemed as if she was content to let silence ring, so Liam responded to Killian's question. He swallowed before saying, "She thinks I lied to you."

"What?" Killian said under his breath, not sure if he had heard Liam right. He instinctively looked to Emma.

Emma nodded once to Liam. "He took the pages. I can prove it. Ask him to show you his hands. He's been hiding them from me since I got here."

Liam's heart stopped, but he knew a way out of this trap. "Look," he shrugged, "if it would help to clear things up, I'd be happy to."

Emma shot him a look of challenging disbelief, but before she could accept his proposal, Killian spoke up.

"That won't be necessary," Killian said as he shook his head in exasperation. "I don't need proof to know what's really going on here. Emma, when are you gonna admit that this isn't really about my brother?"

Emma looked taken aback, Liam noticed. Hadn't the thought occurred to her that Killian would automatically assume that? It seemed Emma didn't know Killian as well as she thought, Liam smugly thought to himself.

"What else would you think it's about?" She asked slowly, confused about why Killian was questioning her motives.

Killian gestured between him and Emma with his hook. "Us," Killian said plaintively. "You think if you can prove that Liam is a villain, then I'll somehow feel like I was less of one. That you can convince me I'm worth saving and that we've got a future together."

Liam glanced between his brother and his brother's lover, wondering if she caught the same rough edge to Killian's voice at that last bit that Liam had. Liam felt a surge of guilt go through his stomach at the thought that Killian's hopes were being dashed, but Liam knew that it was for the best.

Killian walked closer to Emma, almost unconsciously, Liam noted. It seemed to him that Killian couldn't break himself away from her no matter how much he said he wanted to. It suddenly struck Liam that he wasn't the only one lying in this yard. In fact, Liam wondered if the only one of them telling the truth at this moment was Emma. He wondered if she were the only one who could possibly tell the truth now, as caught up in his mistakes as he was and as disappointed in himself as Killian was.

Emma's face turned down and sadness peppered her voice. "You agree with him?" she whispered, and Liam's heart lifted that their scrutiny seemed to be off of him and onto each other. Selfishly, he had no thought for Killian's discomfort.

Killian shrugged. "Why bring me back if I should just love on? After we defeat Hades, I won't be returning with you. My fate isn't in Storybrooke. It should be determined here." Killian's eyes kept shifting back and forth from her eyes to the roofline of the house. He couldn't look her in the eyes as he said his words.

Liam saw how much it hurt Killian to deny Emma the one thing that she wanted most. He wondered if she knew Killian was lying as well as Liam did.

"It doesn't have to be," Emma responded, tears welling in her eyes. "You can come home. You just have to forgive yourself." Emma sighed and paused, trying to catch Killian's eye, though he stubbornly looked over her shoulder. When she wasn't successful, she continued, "Thing is… no matter how many times I tell you, or anybody else does, you have to do it yourself." At that, she turned and walked past Killian towards the house.

Killian turned and shouted, "Emma!" When she didn't stop, he made to follow her, but Liam grabbed his arm before Killian could take more than a step.

"Let her go, Killian. It's for the best." The sooner Killian could let Emma go, the sooner he could move on with Liam. Liam knew that desperately holding onto the ties to the Living was the reason why so many people down here couldn't move on. Killian going after her would only delay the inevitable.

Killian sighed in frustration and looked down at the hand restraining him. He loved his brother, but he was really getting annoyed with the man. If he were to move on, he didn't want things between him and Emma to have ended in strife and pain. He was just about to retort this to Liam when his eyes processed why Killian hadn't looked back up to his brother's face. Liam did have ink stains on his hands. Ink stains that Killian knew hadn't been there when they arrived at the mansion. Ink stains much like the ones he himself had incurred when he rifled through the book's pages in search of Hades' story.

"Your hand," he mumbled, dumbfounded. "You are hiding something."

Liam tried to jerk his hand back, but it was too late. Killian grabbed Liam's arm and held it up so he could check to make sure he had seen ink stains.

"It's nothing," Liam halfheartedly to excuse.

Killian stared at his brother's hand uncomprehendingly. "It's ink from the pages. Emma was right," he said softly. Killian swallowed and looked up to stare his brother in the eyes. "Why would you lie to me?!"

Liam tried to find the words to explain, but his voice died in his throat. To be honest about this would mean admitting to what he had done, to the deal with Hades, all of it. Liam didn't have it in him to admit to those failings, but how could he lie to Killian otherwise?

"Because…" called out a voice. Liam and Killian both turned to see their old captain, John Silver, approaching them with the rest of their old crew. "He's got much bigger secrets than what's in some book. Like the truth about what he did to us."

Killian turned to Liam, his eyes blazing with a hard, desperate look. "What's he talking about? What did you do?"

Liam looked back at his brother, pain and tears in his eyes. He stuttered, trying to find the words that could somehow both explain and excuse what he did, but they wouldn't come. He knew that nothing he said would mend what was now breaking between them. Killian, in spite of his quick temper and tendency to seek vengeance as retribution for wrongs committed against him, had always had a very healthy streak of justice running through his veins. Perhaps it had been because their mother had died young and their father had abandoned them, perhaps it had been because the navy had given him purpose; Liam didn't know. What he did know was that Killian had always, always believed in good form, in helping others less fortunate than they, in always making the right choices, in fighting against tyranny and those who would mistreat others for their own gains. And this, Liam was ashamed to admit, was the very opposite of good form his brother had always believed in, and that he, Liam, had tried to foster in his younger brother as they had grown up.

Liam had sowed the seeds long ago, and now he was going to reap the benefits, no matter how hard and difficult.

"Your brother made a deal with the devil," Silver answered when it looked like Liam would say nothing. "He allowed us to die in that storm that sank our ship in exchange for the Eye of the Storm. Hades struck that deal with him to save you and condemn us to die."

Killian stared at Silver in shock before turning to Liam. "Is this true?" Killian asked, shock and disgust coloring his voice. As he looked at the anguish on Liam's face, Killian knew it was true, and the image of his brother, his unfailing, strong, heroic brother, began at last to fracture and crumble.

Liam swallowed and nodded once. "It's true."

Liam watched as awareness of just how wrong about h is brother Killian had been made its way into Killian's eyes. There was no going back from this. He stood staring at his brother helplessly, not knowing how to right the wrongs, only stirring when Silver spoke.

"Tie 'em up and take them away, boys," Silver demanded.

Before he could utter a word in protest, Silver then signaled to the rest of his crew to carry on with binding them up with rope. They took Liam's hands and bound them behind his back, and he watched helplessly as they did the same to Killian. Killian tried to fight them off in typical Killian fashion, but there were too many of them. Killian had always been more of a fighter than he; Liam had always been more of a pacifist, only fighting when absolutely necessary but reluctant to stir up the status quo when it wasn't.

Liam had always believed that there were certain facts that were incontrovertible, certain situations that one couldn't change, so fighting them was pointless. It felt to him as if this situation they were in was one of the latter ones. What was the point of fighting now? He deserved whatever fate that his old crew members had in store for him. He just regretted that Killian had been dragged into this and be made to pay for Liam's own follies.

Killian continued to struggle even as the men threw bags over their heads. Liam wondered whether Killian, as a pirate captain, was plotting out a violent and bloody way out. He thought not, as he rather got the impression that Killian didn't actually want to hurt the men. When they had successfully bound Liam and Killian, they began frog marching them to Hades only knew what destination. As they tripped and stumbled along, Silver began to talk.

"Imagine my surprise when I came down to the bar for my nightly drink, Liam, and saw that Hades had paid you a visit. Up until that point, I had no idea what had transpired to cause our deaths. I have to hand it to you, you sure did manage to cover up your tracks. I never would have suspected it if I hadn't heard Hades allude to it."

"Hades wanted you to hear it," Liam muttered resentfully.

"It is a rather juicy detail, you have to admit," Silver retorted. "If it were your death, you'd be interested in it, too."

"I can't believe you sentenced them to death all because Hades wanted you to," Killian gritted out towards his brother, ignoring Silver's words.

Liam gritted his teeth against his brother's censure, desperately aware of the audience they had. "Don't deny you would have done the same thing! You always talked of getting vengeance," he deflected.

Killian snarled. "Justice! I always talked of justice! But what you did wasn't justice; it was vengeance."

"Oh what's the difference, Killian? They deserved what they got in the end."

Without quite realizing it, they had arrived at the entrance to the building that housed the entrance to the Boiling Sea where final judgment occurred. Everyone stopped as two of the crew members went to open the outer doors, though Killian and Liam could not see this.

"The difference?" Killian echoed in amazement. "Only innocent lives, Liam! That's the difference! How many of these men deserved retribution? How many of them directly attacked us? I only remember one who did. I can't believe you would condemn them to this hell."

"You have no idea what it was like, always having to look after both of us, not having someone else to bear the burden of making sure that we were clean or had food. Of making sure you didn't succumb to the darkness inside you! I gave up everything to make sure you had a future! I was more a father than a brother to you, and because of that I did what I had to do."

"I didn't ask you to be that! You took that burden up all on your own! And what did it get you? I still succumbed to my darkness, and you blackened your heart for yours!" Killian shouted, enraged at Liam's pigheaded attempts at justifying his actions. "And what's worse is you lied about it. You looked me in the eye and lied. You hurt Emma, damn near convinced me that my future wasn't with her, and you took away our best chance of defeating Hades."

"I did everything I did to save you!"

"Well, congratulations!" Killian snarled in response. "You did an excellent job of it! And to hell with everyone else in the process!"

"It was worth it to have a chance to save you from the darkness," Liam protested once more.

"You didn't save me from my darkness; I saved myself! I took it in and damn near destroyed it for good!"

"All because of her! Emma doesn't are about you, only herself! She is the absolute worst thing for you."

"Milah, my ex, was the worst thing for me! She encouraged the darkness inside of me. Emma has been the inspiration for me to be better, to be the man I want to be. But you've never had that kind of influence, so you just keep giving into your darkness! You lie and you let others die for you and your selfish desires! When does this end Liam?! You're the one who's endangered me this very moment!"

Liam stared towards Killian helplessly though he couldn't see him, knowing that he was right. Liam was still succumbing to his inner darkness. Killian surely hadn't fed his own to the extent that Liam had his, even through all his years as a pirate hunting down the Dark One. But Liam didn't know a way out. Liam didn't see a way to stop this. As sure as the world, he was about to pay for his sins, and Killian was about to pay the price for a crime he hadn't committed.

The crew finally wrenched the heavy doors open, and Silver pushed Liam through the threshold. The last thing he saw before the crew members finally wrenched open the doors was Killian's anguished blue eyes staring back at him as if he didn't know him. Liam knew with absolute certainty that his story ended here.