What it had taken them at least some forty minutes to walk, the pirates take them back in ten. It definitely isn't the same shore they landed on, however, because Emma is pretty sure they would have noticed the giant ship near it. There are two boats ready on the sand and the pirates seem to have some experience in taking hostages back to the ship because Emma sees no opening to let them escape.
Mary Margaret and David appear to be looking for an opening just like her, meanwhile, Regina simply seems to be getting more and more furious the more she thinks about the fact that her magic simply didn't work on the pirates.
When they get on deck Emma loses all hope for a great escape without Regina's magic.
At least thirty pirates are moving around the deck, not counting those she can not see. She can hear the sounds coming from under their feet and more orders flying around from a few men hanging by the ropes of the ship.
She is so focused on all that is happening around her that she slips on the deck, and, being chained to her three companions, makes them fall with her. Only when she went down did she notice what she had slipped on.
Blood.
"On your feet for the Captain." Red-hat says before Emma can think too much about her current situation, but his sentence makes her freeze. Slowly, she looks up.
His boots and pants are made of leather, and his clothes are cleaner and more extravagant than any other on the ship, clearly indicating some kind of superior status. But then, she can see it.
Where his left hand should be there is a hook, shiningly clean and very sharp. Finally gathering the courage to look at his face, Emma freezes again.
She is face to face with the bluest eyes she has ever seen.
He is nothing like the cartoon. His hair is shorter, no big mustache and the smirk on his face shows a cocky attitude she has never seen in the Peter Pan movies.
But there is something about him that makes her clench her fists and her hair stand, she just can't point her finger at it.
"New faces!" Captain Hook says and laughs, but there is no real joy in it. His crew gathers around them, forming a circle that makes it even harder to picture an escape. "Wait…" He says pointing at Mary Margaret, his smile never leaving his face. "I know you." He gets closer to them, and finally, Emma gets to her feet, allowing the others to do so too.
"You are Snow White!" He says and looks around at his crew. "The princess turned bandit!" The Captain laughs again. He takes one of her cuffed hands in his and raises it to his lips. "Not used to receiving royalty here, so pardon my men's manners, love." He whispers but Mary Margaret takes her hand back before he can kiss it. The action seems to entertain him even more.
He passes his eyes right through her, making her feel invisible, before stopping on David.
"You must be Prince Charming." He says and laughs along with his crew at the nickname. "No, no." He says, his lips pulled back in that grin, raising his hand to make the crew stop the mockery. "I am a man who prefers monikers as well." He indicates his hook. "Only mine is a little more…literal." He says and the crew laughs again. "I mean, yours could be as well for all I know." He says, biting his lip, and looking David up and down. The prince frowns at the words and stands taller, a challenging look in his eyes.
"This is ridiculous." Regina mutters, making Hook turn to her. He tilts his head before his smile disappears, and a look of horror takes place on his face.
"Oh no…" He whispers and Emma frowns. "The Evil Queen! We are doomed." He says before laughter erupts on the ship again and the smile returns. He gets uncomfortably close to Regina and raises his hook to her cheek. Judging by the small cut already forming, the thing was indeed very sharp. "Be patient, Your Highness, you'll see that, in Neverland, we have all the time in the world." He whispers right in her face and Emma realizes something.
In these few minutes, Captain Hook had managed to intimidate and unsettle them. He flirted, he joked and he threatened, but his eyes are always cold, and almost…dead. He knows what he is doing, choosing perfectly what will make each and every one of them back down.
"Well, it's going to feel even longer judging by the way you seem to like the sound of your own voice." Emma says, complete silence following her comment. Hook turns his blue eyes to her and that feeling Emma had felt earlier comes back in full force.
"And who would you be?" He says lowly while he walks in her direction. From the corner of her eye, she sees Regina let out a breath when the pirate lets go of her but Emma can't look any further since she doesn't want to take her eyes off Captain Hook.
Suddenly, he is face to face with her, and she can't breathe. It is like the air has solidified around her, and in her peripheral vision, she can see David and Mary Margaret seemingly ready to get between them.
"Your name, love." He whispers to her but Emma can't talk, her mouth is dry and there is a weight on her shoulders that seems to want to make her kneel. She notices a little turn-up of his lips at her wide-eyed stare before he takes a step back.
"Where are my manners? It is bad form of me to ask for a lady's name without introducing myself first, right?" He says louder, and it is like the pressure leaves her and she can breathe again. She turns to give Regina a quick look and sees that the woman looks furious, but there is apprehension in her eyes too. "My name is Killian Jones, but most people have taken to calling me by my more colorful moniker, Hook." He says looking at all of them, probably waiting for a reaction but they refuse to give him one.
He simply smirks and raises an eyebrow.
"I captain this beautiful vessel called the Jolly Roger, and this is me crew." He opens his arms and the crew cheers. He looks at her and raises an eyebrow again.
"Emma Swan." She says simply, keeping her head high, refusing to give him the satisfaction of her backing down.
"Oooh." He says mockingly, getting closer to her again. "Tell me Swan…what brings you, your parents, and your pet villain to Neverland?" He asks, making them tense up. Hook smirks, satisfied at their reaction. "Not hard to deduce, love. The last time I was in the Enchanted Forest was more or less 30 years ago and you," He points at Mary Margaret with his hook. "Look exactly the same as your wanted posters showed then. It's easy to conclude that Rumplestiltskin succeeded in his 'master plan' to make the Queen enact a Dark Curse, which you," He now points at Emma. "were supposed to break."
Emma's head is reeling, how could he know all of this? Even Snow White and Prince Charming didn't know the curse was Rumplestiltskin's until some time ago, and only they knew that she was supposed to break the curse.
And there is something more. The way he says Gold's name, combined with the fact she knows that the pawnshop owner s scared of the pirate makes her mind start to work.
"So tell me: are you lost on your way home?" He asks, fake sympathy in his voice.
"We came to rescue my son." Emma says, taking one step ahead, this time, she is the one getting closer to him. Hook simply tilts his head, for the first time looking her up and down with attention. "Pan took him, I am here to take him home." She finishes and she sees something sparkle in his eye.
He glances fast at the red-hat guy (probably Smee, now that she thinks about it) before turning around and climbing the steps to get to the helm of the ship.
"Take them under the deck" He orders one of his crewmembers, his voice now hard like stone, not even looking back at them. The moment one of the crew touches her arm to get her down the stairs, Emma starts to fight back.
"Wait, I need to get to my son!" She screams, but the men don't stop and Hook doesn't dignify her with even a look.
They are locked inside one little cell underdeck, the place is humid and smells of rot, and Emma doesn't want to think how often they actually clean this place. At least they had taken them out of their cuffs.
"Great! Now what?" Regina snaps, crossing her arms, refusing to touch any of the walls in this place.
"Can't you magic us away?" Emma snaps back while cursing herself for not bringing her lock pick kit or any hairpin.
"There's something strange about this ship, it's like my magic is blocked." She says, her anger evident in her voice. "And this Captain…there's something off about him too." She finishes more to herself than to them, but the comment makes Emma frown.
"I felt a lot of things off about him…" David murmurs while looking around the cell to see if he can find anything useful.
"He's a pirate, David, not really an upstanding citizen." Mary Margaret says, also looking around.
"It's not just that, he looks treacherous, cruel, violent, drunk…" David starts listing.
"Wow, you got all that from just one conversation?" Regina asks, crossing her arms. "And that's not what I mean! There's something off about him aside from his wonderful personality" She finishes. sarcasm dripping in her voice.
"Of course he is off, he must have spent, what? Hundreds of years here, he is probably a little…" Emma says, twirling her finger near her head.
"Great, we are captives to a crazy pirate." Regina says, throwing her hands in the air.
"I prefer dashing rapscallion." Speaking of the devil, he emerges almost out of nowhere and stops at the door. With his hand at his belt, his hook by his side, and his back at the door, he couldn't have said "I am in control of this situation" clearer than if he had said it out loud.
"Listen." Emma says, getting near the bars of the cell. "I don't care what you are doing here, I just want my son back, we will be out of your hair soon enough," She feels Mary Margaret getting ready to speak, but Emma puts her hand on her arm to make her stop. Her self-righteousness can mess this up, and now is not the time to do the heroic thing. She has to get to her son.
"Tell me something, Swan," He says after looking between her and Mary Margaret. "This land of yours, is still where you take residence?" He asks and Emma frowns.
"Yes…?" She answers, not sure where he is going with this.
"And how big is it?" He asks now messing with the tip of his hook. Emma frowns even more and exchanges a look with her companions. "I assume not much, cursed town, no memories, frozen in time, right?" He looks at them from under his eyelashes, showing again that he knows more than he should, that maybe, he knows even more than them.
"Why?" Emma asks, stepping back from the bars and squaring her shoulders. She can't stand this man. Everything he says or does is calculated to intimidate them, and worse, she can't get a reading on him.
"Let's say, hypothetically," He starts, getting closer to the cell. At every step he takes to get nearer them, the four get tenser, but Emma stands her ground. "someone with enough knowledge of this island proposed to help you on your heroic journey, and helped you get back to your land, for the small price of tagging along on your way back." He finishes, now only a hair away from the bars.
Maybe Emma can grab him by his coat and hit his head on the cell, but she doesn't know if he has the keys. Plus, he has a rather accessible weapon and they have none, so that plan is out of the table. By the small glint she notices in his eyes, he knows where her thoughts are, almost daring her to try.
The silence that follows is tense, Hook looks as if he lost his patience and thought they were being obtuse on purpose.
"It appears we want the same thing. To defeat Pan and get back to your land."
"Why does Captain Hook want to go to Storybrooke?" Emma asks when it seems her companions wouldn't say anything.
And then, there it was, for the first time since she has gotten on this ship, Emma sees something more than a simple spark of something in his eyes. His blue eyes are almost red in anger, the kind of anger Emma has never seen before in anyone. Maybe followed closely by the look Regina used to give her and Mary Margaret, but still, this was more.
This is a cared-for hatred, this is the kind of hatred and anger you can only achieve after years and years. If she thought that before the air was solid, now it is pure stone, so much she has to put one hand on the bar to make sure she doesn't get dragged down by its strength. Distantly, she notices that Regina had taken a half step back as if to get her bearings but Mary Margaret and David stay how they are. They don't feel it.
"To exact revenge on the man who took my hand." He snarls and Emma clenches her hands until her knuckles are white just to keep her standing. She screams at her brain to work this out, there is something she is missing, something staring at her right in the face.
She flashes back at the way he had said the Dark One's name.
"Rumplestiltskin." She whispers, a lightbulb clearing her head. Hook doesn't confirm or deny her accusation, but she can see that she is right.
A few seconds pass and Emma is sure she is going to pass out from lack of oxygen any moment now, when Hook tilts his head to the side, the movement is jerky and unnatural, and, suddenly, the air returns to her lungs so fast she coughs. A fast look behind her showed that Regina had supported herself on the wall behind them and had one hand raised to her chest, the other two look between them and Hook, a worried look on their faces.
"Do we have a deal?" The Captain asks making Emma turn sharply at him, and she is sure she wants nothing more than to get as far away from him as possible.
"Yes." Regina answers and steps up, getting by her side. Emma frowns at the Mayor, not knowing how she can think this would end up well.
"Regina…" Mary Margaret starts, but, before she can say anything, Hook interrupts her.
"I'm sorry love, I'm afraid I prefer the word of the leader of this endeavor of yours. " He says and Emma notices he hasn't taken his eyes off her.
"Tell me the truth, and I will know if you are lying." She starts, emphatic. "Do you know how to get to Pan?"
"Aye." He nods and Emma can't spot a lie.
"And you know how to defeat him? Get my son back and get away from this island?" She asks, Hook gives an irritated sigh and a roll of eyes before pinning her with his blue eyes again.
"I can only guide you to his camp and out of this place. The whole saving business I will leave to you hero lot." He answers and Emma frowns, even if she can see that he is telling the truth.
"If you know how to get away from here why don't you leave?" She asks, suspiciously. Hook runs his tongue on the tip of his teeth, and his eyes seem far away.
"Let's just say that Pan has a leash on me, that he is not stupid enough to pull, but it's starting to feel claustrophobic." He answers, and it isn't really an answer, but Emma knows she won't be able to get much more out of him. Suddenly, his grin is back and his eyes are bottomless again. "Besides, a man can only take so much from a place before it starts to feel boring." Only then does Emma notice that she is only inches from him, their breaths on each others' faces, but she will be damned if she is the first to back down. "Don't worry Swan, I won't stay long in this Storybrooke of yours. I will be…'out of your hair' soon enough."
She can imagine what he plans to do once in Storybrooke, it was her son's safety against Gold's.
"I can wait a few hundreds of years" Hook starts as if reading her thoughts. "but can your son?" It is a low blow and Emma can feel Regina glaring at her. In the end, it came to this: Henry is just a kid in a foreign, dangerous, land, and Gold is the Dark One.
Plus, maybe they can figure something out on the way home when Henry is once again safe by their side.
"Deal." She says and has a flashback of the last time she made a deal. Rumplestiltskin asked for her help to find his son in exchange for not killing the whole town after Belle's father had made her cross the town line. Both times it felt like making a deal with the devil.
This devil grins the biggest smile she had seen him do yet before taking a few steps back.
"SMEE!" He screams making Emma jump a little, startled, breaking the tension that had filled the cell. "Sorry, love." He says, looking coyly at her, and she almost believes him. "Some man need to be screamed at to understand orders. Ask Regina."
"Hey." Regina snaps but seems to think better and decides to not say anything. Hook raises an eyebrow at her, however, he is distracted by Smee coming running through the door.
"Yes, sir?" He asks, attent but also relaxed. Emma is surprised that, even if she sees fear in Smee's eyes, it isn't as prominent as she expected. She had previously suspected the whole crew was guided and commanded by fear, but apparently, she was wrong.
"Release our guests. I will accompany them on a merry walk through the island." Hook says, indicating the cell with his namesake.
"W-what?" Smee asks, looking uncertainly between the cell and his captain, but one look at Hook's expression makes him nod and turn to the cell to unlock it.
The four of them leave the cell moving as one, not daring to take their eyes off the pirates for one second. Hook looks at Emma and indicates the door out but she only does the same back at him. The Captain smiles at her before grabbing Smee by the shoulder and leaving ahead.
"Why do you think this is a good idea?" Mary Margaret whispers to her when both men leave their view.
"I know he is not lying about knowing his way on the Island and being able to take us out of this place. We need him to guide us to where we want to go." She whispers back, looking over her shoulder for any lurking pirates.
"I don't trust him." David says, fiercely and with a stubbornness, Emma had only seen before on herself.
"We don't need to." Regina snarls at him. "He is the fastest way to my son, we can rip his heart out for all I care, but only after Henry is safe."
"This will blow on our faces, he is dangerous." Mary Margaret snaps back. "Your magic is not working on his crew, what makes you think it will work on him when we need to?" She asks, shutting Regina up, which worries Emma, because that means Regina has the same feeling she has. That Captain Hook is unlike anything or anyone they have encountered before.
"Do you have a better plan?" She prefers to say, burying her worries about this for later. "If so, say it, because right now he is our best shot at getting out of this island alive, with my son." She looks between the two heroes a few times, seeing them look at each other briefly and then down, before nodding to herself. That's it then.