Killian sputtered to life, his parched lips and dark button down soaked in the remains of what someone poured into his mouth. Groggily opening his eyes, he met the blurry retreating visage of an A-line leather trench coat and back length platinum blonde hair. Despite the darkness, the smell of pine resin and salty air told him he was below deck on the Jolly. Killian moved his hand to his face to rub his eyes; or well, he would have if his arms weren't physically tied behind his back to the wooden chair.
"What in the-" he clambered, soberingly awake with distress as he budged against the restraints. "What did you do?"
The rope dug harshly into his palm as his fingers gratefully felt the slightly warm steel of his hook. Most captors would have removed the metal attachment from his detachable appendage to dismantle his ease of escape or worse, enact a form of power play by physically impaling him into submission. Killian half-heartedly grinned. Nothing like the labor of love in granting him a small comfort and a wisp of control. He rotated his wrist and batted the air with his fingers, attempting to poof out of the scene.
Damn. Killian gritted his teeth. Only a magic cuff would restrain him in that respect.
"Swan! I don't appreciate the bedplay in my sleep," he growled, spite seething in his voice as his eyes adjusted. Glass clinked as she stumbled back into the cart of magical ingredients, turning round to face him. Killian faintly recalled the rum he drank. She had probably dosed his flask. "Ever heard of consent?"
"Killian, this was the only way. You wouldn't have listened to me otherwise," Emma urged, moving closer to him, sunlight from the porthole illuminating her features.
Her hair, usually pomaded and pulled tight in a bun, cascaded down her back in loose curls, white and gray swan feathers sprinkled throughout. Smudged mascara, rest that hadn't touched her in ages, and new tears spoke of long deliberated anguish. Her voice ebbed with loneliness and fear, the facade of being cold and foreboding as a Dark One erased, as if she was the victim in the tale of life. One could almost mistake her as human. If her appearance of disarray meant anything, Killian's heart didn't yearn with any longing to comfort her.
"Listen? All I did was listen." Killian laughed wryly, a glint of anger flaming his bold blues as he grimly stated, "Every aching day to your wants and needs, trying to supplement what you lacked. I had to live on your teasing scraps while you learned to take, plunder, pillage through my heart!"
Every word held daggers. He exhaled, self pity piercing his ire.
"Connection, love, family, someone to be by your side through it all. It never was enough, was it?"
"It's not like that." Emma's eyebrows furrowed. "I never asked you to stick around or do anything for me."
"God, are you really that daft, Swan?! You don't need to ask for someone to love or care for you. Someone who wants to will." He slumped back in his seat, pretending he wasn't invested, as if he hadn't lurched forward to prove his point. "To think I wanted to marry a woman who still can't accept that," Killian retorted, rolling his eyes.
Emma felt a wave of epiphany and loss wash over her. She dropped the vial in her hand, the potion bottle shattering into shards as it hit the ground. The truth serum had worked. Granted, her loving pirate boyfriend turned dark one still spoke in shades of sarcasm, but she knew he meant every word he said, hurtful or not.
"Marry?" she uttered, the word slowly registering as her tongue glided across the syllables. "You wanted to marry me?"
"Yes. I did."
He raised an eyebrow and blinked quickly. Odd. Brash honesty replaced his preference for ignorance and defiant silence. His mouth had spoken before he could catch the sentiment. Killian licked his lips, on the cusp of remembering the unusually familiar sweet taste of whatever he'd swallowed. The last time he had tasted the peculiarity had been Neverland, at the hands of Peter Pan.
"What did you make me drink?"
"Nothing poisonous, I swear. It will wear off in a few hours."
"Doesn't matter. Answer me!"
Emma didn't respond. She didn't have to. Killian noticed the shimmery gold drops that sparkled on the wooden floorboards from the dropped vial. His small sea chest on the top shelf, where mementos like Liam's sextant and a bottle of dreamshade laid to rest, was left ajar.
"After all that we've been through, you still don't trust me to tell you the truth?"
"I had to make sure. It's not like you've been available as of late." Emma rubbed her arm.
"Oh really? You think you're better?" Killian tilted his head to one side, the light turning his locks shades of soft brown. "First, it was Excalibur. Then, the memory wiping curse. Finally, when I remember the truth, you tie me up in my own quarters and drug me with a stolen serum?
"I tried to make it on my own, but you know what. Never mind. Extreme, I'll admit, but the things I did were necessary remedies to stuff out of my control. The darkness is trying to use you. Make us doubt each other."
"True," said a twinkling, gleefully slimy voice behind her. "Must say, I should have brought popcorn."
Killian scoffed, his attention shifted to the cabin door.
"At leastittells me the truth of its own accord," he remarked, casting shade on her actions.
Emma didn't dare look towards the crocodile embodiment. She scurried over to Killian, his shoulders hunched up in simmering rage. Her body eclipsed his narrow view, shielding him from the figure's sight. As if it were a monster under the bed, she pretended if they didn't see the darkness, it couldn't see them.
"Focus on me. There's no one here but us."
Desperation hung in the air as Emma clasped Killian's cheek, attempting to soothe him again like she did when he awoke as the Dark One, as he did for her in the sunlit forest of Camelot. For a moment, his vibrant blue relaxed upon meeting her soft meadowy green eyes. His jaw loosened and she let out a breath, relieved.
Belief must have rendered the shadow silent. Killian removed himself from their interlocking gaze first, acting as though her hand burned his face with its warmth. She stepped back, giving him space again.
"What could you want to know so badly, huh? Ask away. While you've still got time."
"Always the dramatics," Emma huffed with amusement.
His gentle rise in volume to taunt and demand urgency resounded in mimicry since intimidation was loudest with fear inflicted prior. All bark and no bite. She'd forgotten how Killian resembled a teenager sometimes, reminding her of Henry's petulance when she needed him to do his part with chores and threatened to suspend his X-Box time if he didn't comply after multiple reminders.
"Why did you cast the curse, bring us back here?" Emma asked, aware of him doing so, but not why.
Killian laughed heartily, tiptoeing the line with his next utterance. The truth serum meant he couldn't lie, but that didn't mean he had to tell her the whole reason why.
"Emma, you should know this better than anyone. To get my revenge, of course." He bowed theatrically, with a lift of his head, to the best of his restrained capabilities. "And where better to do it, but Storybrooke? Didn't you want to return?"
"Where did you put my memories? Everyone's memories?" Her shoulders shook as she tried to keep her tone even.
"In a dreamcatcher, love." His honeyed endearment coated with a sour ending note as his eyes narrowed.
She disregarded the question, trying to remain unfazed as he tried to get under her skin. He knew how to break down the wall she temporarily rebuilt. Getting Killian to spill secrets without quips was like pulling teeth.
"No, you know what I meant." Emma crossed her arms. "Where did you hide the dreamcatchers?"
Killian paused, grinning mischievously as he made small circles with his thumb gently against the cool tip of his hook.
"In a place where hope initially ticked, signaling the evil queen's demising reign on this town and her avarice for your son."
"I don't have time for riddles. Tell it to me straight and we can have the future we dreamed about. You saw the house. All we have to do is get rid of the darkness, together," Emma pleaded.
"No." His eyes darkened. "You don't get to play that game with me. This isn't what I wanted." Disgust dripped from his words as he struggled against the ropes, itching to be away from his immortal casing. "I can finally see you for all your lies," he hissed.
Her promises couldn't be relied upon. He'd be a fool to be mistaken twice.
"Look, I didn't come here to argue. You know everything I did was for you and our future."
"Me? Our future?" Killian's eyebrows raised as his eyes widened, appalled by her overstep. "Don't you mean yours? We could have had that in spirit. Why didn't you let me go, respect my final wishes?"
"You were dying! You didn't mean what you said back then."
Killian's eyes widened, appalled by Emma's overstepping of boundaries with the interpretation of his intent.
Emma held the sides of her head with her hands, pacing back and forth in denial. "I couldn't do that, not when I finally found a future worth living for."
A numbness overtook the bud of patience to care in Killian's chest.
"Oh, I see now. You have a family, friends even. You could find love again, in due time. The future's malleable." He bit his lip. She opened her mouth and he interjected, "Don't! It was never about me. Always you and your control!" Killian glowered.
"Control? Control?! How did you get to that conclusion?"
"Tell me then! Who am I to you? Am I just a toy you can revive and do with as you please? Cause' that lovesick puppy dog boyfriend of yours? He's long gone."
Killian took on a mercurial demeanor. He knew it'd be easier for her to let him go a second time if she hated him, especially with what he had planned. The Crocodile was just the tip of the iceberg.
"So what?" Killian continued, mocking her. "Boo hoo. I'm here now, yet you can't accept me? Poor Emma, searched for family and belonging her entire life, but once she had it, she turned them all away for past familiarity. Pathetic. Actually, you know what? I've met so many people with something worth crying over. No wonder everyone left you while they could. If only I'd known, but now I'm stuck here, trapped for all of eternity, with you!"
"Stop! I didn't have a choice. A future without you means nothing!" Emma retorted.
"What future is there now?! Choices? Where was mine then, hm? We all make and have to live with them. Accident or not, I was ready to make my peace with the dead. You chose to bring me back! And now you don't want the consequences? Who are you to play God?!"
"I can't believe you! Is it a crime to love? To save someone if you can? I couldn't lose you too."
Emma crumbled onto the ground, her head in her hands. Everyone she had ever loved either died or got close to danger because of her. How bad could darkness be if it guaranteed immediate time to borrow and the ability to correct fate?
"With that logic, love is a double edged sword," Killian added, rolling his eyes. "Heaven knows I've done plenty with that excuse." She looked up at him, glassy eyed and shaken as he towered over her. Too vulnerable and no fun to play with. "How about this? You take this cuff off and I'll think about your offer."
"Why would I do that?"
"You'll lose me otherwise."
Emma raised an eyebrow, confused and conflicted.
"If you want us to have a future past today, you have to let me go. No controlling, manipulating, or lying." Killian clarified.
"How will I know that you feel the same? That you won't leave me for good."
"You won't. Our love will have to suffice as the guiding line." Killian winked. "Now, would you please?" He clicked his tongue and tilted his head back, wiggling his fingers as if beckoning her aid in his freedom.
Emma felt needy, desperate to keep him safe in her embrace, even if unhappily. Every miniscule fiber and bone in her ached, telling her not to let him loose, for Killian might never return, ready to abandon her for a new quest like the pirate he was. Her supportive lover from beyond the grave had changed his tune, his appearance as cold and foreign as her own. Would they ever be the same again or drift apart? Emma's eyes welled with hot and painful tears. They had both made so many choices that led them here. He was alive and that was more than she could bargain for. She believed some part of him that loves her was struggling to survive inside the stormy darkness. Killian chose to be there for her, unrelenting through realms and insecurities. She wanted to do the same. Her gut told her there was only one thing to do.
"I trust you, Killian," Emma uttered, her voice trembling and broken.
Hot and painful tears fell in streams down her cheek, darkening the wood boards with mini splashes. Surely they would meet again, if their hearts aligned, Emma thought in earnest.
She uncuffed the magical restraint from his wrist and he magically unraveled the ropes like it was second nature. He circled her with a smirk, chuckling while reattaching his hook and rubbing the raw redness away from his wrist until he was out of sight, vanishing in a veil of crimson smoke.