The Portrait of Elijah Mill's

by 06bromleys

Family Above All. Elijah Mill's has only had one goal since the Dark Curse was cast 28 years ago; his sister's redemption. When Henry brings Emma Swan to Storybrooke, his world is turned on it's head as he seeks to hide the monster that lives within his portrait. Will he be able to beat the monster inside or let it destroy the things he loves the most? (Rated M for Safety)

18. Chapter 18: Queen of Hearts

Enchanted Forest

Years Ago

With a thick hood and cloak hiding his face from view of the guards with a pot in his hand, Captain Hook slowly made his way up the winding staircase up to the cell the Evil Queen was keeping the prisoner that would bring him one step closer to his prized crocodile when he was stopped by one of the Queen's Dark Knights.

"Halt" the guards orders him putting himself in Hook's path, silently demanding his business in the area.

"Food for the prisoner" Hook answers from under the hood.

"It's not mealtime" the guard corrects him "Who are you? Identify yourself, slave!".

The knight reached out to pull the hood from his head only for a silver hook to be imbedded in his neck, killing the guard instantly as he was pushed up against the wall, alerting another one from further up to the join the fight, pulling his sword from its sheath the knight goes to strike the hooded figure only for a silver hook to catch the blade and pull it out of his gloved hand, allowing the pirate to knock the guard off his feet with ease to join his dead comrade on the ground.

"Slave?" Hook huffed at the dead knights as he pulls the hood off his head and clock off his body "I prefer Captain" he corrects the pair as he takes the guards keys for himself and continue upwards to the cell that held the prisoner he was looking for.

Letting himself into the cell he was met by the image of a young brunette woman sat on an uncomfortable looking cot, slumped up against her cell covered in white tally marks that counted each day she had been in there. It was Belle, Rumpelstiltskin's former caretaker, captured by the Evil Queen and her brother, Elijah.

Seeing the stranger, the maid sat up on her cot in alarm. No one ever came in here. The only person and that would be once a week was Elijah himself, dropping off more books for her to read during her imprisonment. Each time he visited she would circle the tally she had made for that day to mark his visit.

However, recently he hadn't been visiting, he hadn't come to see her for months now. She missed his kindness he had shown toward her and their deep discussions on the book she had just read. The last time she had seen him, he seemed not himself, erratic even. Like his mind wasn't his own.

She knew he wasn't coming back when the Queen ordered her guards to remove the books that she had accumulated from the time she had spent here. All 'borrowed' from the Queen's brother for her to come back to.

"Hi… You must be Belle" Hook greets her, closing the door behind him to approach the chained girl on her cot.

"The Queen sent you, didn't she?" Belle addressed the man, know full well why he was there and not Elijah "She wants you to kill me".

"I'm not here to kill you, love. I'm here to rescue you" he countered the former maid as he knelt down to unshackle her ankle.

"Rescue me?" she questioned him as he moved to remove the shackle from her wrist "Who are you?" the question made Hook pause to look up at the woman with gentle smile.

"A friend" he gently tells her resting his hand on her's, before returning to the shackle on her wrist "We haven't much time. Your father's life is in danger. He's being attacked by the very same monster who stole you away from your family in the first place".

"What, Rumpelstiltskin?" Belle chuckled out in disbelief. She knew for a fact that he wouldn't do that.

"The Dark One – he must be stopped" he tells her, helping her up from the cot "You spent more time with him than anyone. There are rumours of a magical weapon that has the power to kill him".

"No, no, no, no. Let… Let me talk to him. He's not a monster" she reasoned with the man.

"Belle, your father's life hangs in the balance" he argues "I need to know what that weapon is, and where to find it".

"I don't know what you're talking about" she tells the man, shaking her head at him "and I have no idea how to… How to kill Rumpelstiltskin".

"You don't?" he replies taken aback at the revelation.

"No. And… And nor would I" she goes on.

"Hm" Belle heard the man hum to himself "Then, I'm afraid I'm not here to rescue you" he notifies her before sensing the back of his hand into her face, making her land in a heap on her cot, unconscious "So pretty… Yet, so useless". Raising his hook in the air, preparing to kill her he's stopped when his silver hook disappears from the end of his arm as he swings down to end her life.

Seeing his hook missing the pirate stood dumbfounded of how it seemed to disappear from nowhere until the answer to his question came from the open cell of the door.

"No. Not useless" the Evil Queen corrects the pirate "She's a valuable chess piece" she adds stepping into the cell as the pirate stood up straight to face the woman that had stopped him from killing Belle.

"Do I look like I'm playing a game of chess?" he retorts "My hook, if you please" he polity asks the Queen who shuts the cell door behind her with his hook firmly in her hands

"No" she plainly answers the pirate.

"The asking was me being a gentleman.

"Is that any way to address a queen?" she questions him as it dawned on him who was in front of him. Even a pirate should have better manners than that. The Evil Queen "Yes… I know who you are… Captain" she adds as she circled his still figure "I know why you came here from Neverland. And I know all about the crocodile you wish to skin". she informs him coming to a stop in front of him.

"Then you also know, that I'll stop at nothing".

"So dedicated and resourceful" the Queen grinned at the pirate seeing how useful he would "No one has been able to fight their way past my defences before. She can't help you kill Rumpelstiltskin, Hook. But I can, if you do something for me" using his hook she drags the pirate towards her by his waistcoat "Care to join me for a drink?".

---

With the pirate's silver hook still in her possession, the Queen took the pirate intruder to somewhere less, confined to go over her deal with him in exchange for a way for the pirate to finally rid himself of the the thing that had illuded for over a century.

"Things are about to change in this world" the Queen informs him as she poured out a goblet of wine for him "Radically" she adds handing the man his drink for picking up her own before stepping away from him "I have plans to enact a curse that will take everyone to a far-off land".

"How will that help me?" he asks her.

"This new realm? It's a land without magic" she informs him turning to face him "Where the Dark One will be stripped of his powers. There, you won't need any magical weapon to kill him" she goes on closing the distance between them to place the curve of his hook under his chin "You can do it with a mere flick of your wrist" making her point the Queen slid Hook across his neck with a flick.

"Tell me what I have to do".

"There's two people I don't want following us to this new land. You're to see to it that doesn't happen".

"Us?" the pirate questions the Queen in curiosity.

"My younger brother and I" she answers him "You may have heard of him".

"Aye, I have" he answers clenching his jaw. The Ripper. Word spread like wildfire of a creature that had had rampaged through two entire villages, in a span of days, draining all of their blood, leaving his victims in pieces. All covered up by the Queen herself. Or at least that was what he had heard on his travels.

"Do I have the honour of meeting him as well?".

"He's currently...indisposed" she chose her words carefully with a stiff smirk, not wanting or needing anyone to know of her brother's current state of mind. Or lack of it.

Confinement to his chambers' seemed to be the only solution to his madness. The same madness he started to exhibit before he was turned, only this time, it was so much worse than before. The uncontrollable bloodlust. The violent outbursts. The hallucinations. All stemming from the curse that had been set upon his portrait. All amplified by his second nature.

The curse was his saviour. To take him away from all the memories and the magic that created his curse. But she needed to make sure two people didn't come with them that would put his life in jeopardy.

"An assassination" the pirate easily read between the lines of her request "Who is it you want me to dispose of?".

"Our mother" she states to the an with a grin of her lips "But first, there's someone else, that needs to be taken care of. A test if you will. If you manage to kill this person, then our mother should be no problem".

"Who are they?" he asked his intrigue peaked.

"In this kingdom, he went by the name Henry Wotton. But in his, he goes by another...

"Dracula".

---

Storybrooke

Present

Cora

Or as she was more commonly known as now, at least to those conscious inside Mr. Gold's Pawn Shop;

The Queen of Hearts.

With David still under the effects of the sleeping curse, the former Queen was at a loss to what to do not knowing if their message to defeat her mother managed to reached their intended recipients. While he slept soundly, her mother's impending arrival sent waves of worry through her mind as she wished for her brother's composed and focused nature to ease her thoughts.

Instead, he was with her. In what capacity? She wasn't even sure. Could he have been caught up in the whirlwind of her sudden reappearance or had the hero's done something to make him choose a side he would rather not be on, to get himself back home.

That was the only thing she was sure of nowadays. That he would get home to them.

With no noticeable change in the sleeping Prince over the last twelve hours or so, the former Queen left the back room of the pawn shop to find Gold himself stood at the counter with an open book in front of him.

"Any change?" he asked his former student.

"No" Regina answered "He's not improving. He needs true love's kiss. He won't wake up until Mary Margaret comes back".

"Until?" he questioned the woman's choice of words "Well, that's rather optimistic, isn't it?".

"What are you talking about?"

"They're up against your mother. The only chance Snow and Emma have of defeating her, is with the squid ink. And if your brother has truly joined your mother's side" he paused seeing the look on the former Queen's face at the thought of her brother's darker side coming to the surface without her there to pacify it "I don't need to remind you of his fragile state of mind" he goes on.

She didn't need reminding at all. She had spent months dealing with him after Wotton abandoned him after he was plagued with the memories he was forced to forget come back to him. It was why she needed to curse him. To forget about the monster he became after he was turned. About the people he hurt, he killed because of the damn portrait.

"Which is why you sent the message through David" she bit out at the man, keeping her thoughts about the older man's hand to her baby brother's downfall.

"Which would be beneficial, if we knew that message were delivered. But alas, given the Prince's condition, we don't know. As such, it's important we take precautions. We have to consider the possibility that, when that portal opens, it won't be his family or your brother that come through. It'll be Cora".

"And neither one of us wants that" she reminds him.

"We have to find where they're coming through, and destroy that portal" he summarised to the sorceress as he turned to paces the length of his shop, with the former Queen rounding the counter to follow him.

"But whoever came through would die" she voiced to him. Even her brother's current immortal state, there was only so much magic he would be able to take before even he would succumb to that much power.

"Exactly" Gold says turning to look at her "But, I'm confident between the two of us, we can summon up enough magic to complete the task".

"Well, what if we're wrong?" she retorted "What if that portal opens up, and it's not my mother? What if Mary Margaret and Emma do defeat Cora, and go through it? What if it's my brother that come through?".

"Well, I believe in this world, they call that a win-win" Gold tells her.

"How exactly is that?".

"If we stop Cora, you are protected from your mother's wrath. If, on the other hand, we stop Snow and Emma and Master Mill's, well… You become the only mother in your son's life, now don't you? Without little brother there to watching your every move move, reminding you of the vow he made to your father before the curse" her initial silence allowed the man to continue knowing he was close to convincing her that this was the best course of action.

"Look, magic is unpredictable in this world" he goes on to convince her further "If something unfortunate were to happen while you were attempting to help… Henry could hardly blame you for that, could he?".

"No. I can't lie to him" she made herself say to the older man "I am trying to be a better mother".

"You won't be able to be a better anything if Cora comes through. And if she does, she will be a threat to everyone – including your son. So, if you truly want to be a good mother to Henry – to protect him – if you want to be better, prove it".

---

Enchanted Forest

Present

Arriving at Rumpelstiltskin's cell in search for the squid ink that David had told his true love about in the Netherworld, the former princess stood at the end of the mine shaft that had been adapted to hold the Dark One as Mulan and the newly returned Princess Aurora initially searched the confined space in search for the key ingredient they needed to defeat Cora and get back home.

Only the saviour couldn't quite put a finger on the lingering feeling that something was wrong since the Aurora returned to them. The reason she gave for Elijah letting her go, something didn't seem right about his words. Sure, she believed them, but he didn't think he would let any potential feelings he had for her get in the way of getting back home and to Henry.

Their moment in his office still went unspoken in his efforts to tell her about his vampirism. Maybe he didn't feel the same. Not that she wanted to do anything about them. She wanted to concentrate on Henry and being a mother. She had no time for romance.

"Rumpelstiltskin's cell" her mother's voice brought her out her thoughts, back to reality as she held up a lantern that lit darkened mine shaft "I haven't been here since before Regina's curse. This is where he told us you were going to be the saviour" she went on taking the blonde by surprise.

"He knew?" she asks her mother.

"Oh, It was prophesized" she casually replies "Come on" she prompted her daughter to walk into the cell that once was inhabited by the Dark One himself.

"The squid ink – it's not here" Aurora informs the pair as they join her and Mulan in the cell before searching through the crevices of the cell walls.

"Gold said we would find it" Mary Margaret argued unaware of what Aurora was doing.

"Well, was there anyone else in here with him?" Mulan questions the former Princess for any clue where it could have gone as Aurora pull our a scroll of parchment from the crack in the wall opening it to see one word written again and again in dark ink "Could they have taken the ink?".

"No, he was kept alone" Mary Margaret answers her "Visitors were forbidden. He was too dangerous to allow any human contact".

"How'd he keep from going crazy?" Emma voices to the group unaware of the Princess had just found.

"He didn't" Aurora speaks up gaining the other's attention.

"What is it?" Mary Margaret quizzes the younger woman.

"Is that a message?" Emma asks her next.

"Yes" the Princess answers both their questions, before looking at the blonde saviour "And I think it's for you" she adds handing the scroll to the blonde.

"Why would you think…That" " Her answers came as she pulled the rest of the parchment down to reveal her name written over and over again and nothing else.

---

As his grandfather slept soundly in the back of the pawn shop, Henry did the one thing that seemed to make sense to him at this moment in time. Read. But not just any story. It was his and Snow's true love story.

He couldn't help but miss his Uncle the most in that moment in time, as he remembered the last time his Uncle took time out of his life to sit a read to him, or at least tried to read to him. It was before he brought Emma to town, around the time he learnt about his adoption. He remembers pretending falling asleep not even halfway through the story until his Uncle gave up. After that, the next time Elijah tucked him into bed, he didn't stay to read to him.

In what little time he had with his grandmother and birth mother after the curse was broken, he was told that Elijah had remained by his side the whole time he was asleep. He was never left alone as his Uncle stayed and read him his storybook.

If he could do anything, he was going to the same for David while he slept to speak to his true love in the Netherworld. Read.

"With one kiss, true love's power made everything right again. but this was not the end of their story. It was only the beginning".

"I think this time, it'll happen the other way around" his adopted mother tells him with a smile as she joins him in the back of the shop having heard what he was reading aloud.

"You think so?" he questions her.

"I do" she replies leaning down to meet his eye, before crouching down in front of him "Which is why I need you to stay here and watch David for a little while".

"Where are you going?" he asks her.

"Mr. Gold and I need to prepare for Emma, Mary Margaret and Elijah's return" she tells him making him smile to himself seeing how much she had changed since the curse had broken "Coming through the portal won't be easy. We need to make sure everything's in place".

"Really? You're really going to help them?".

"I promised you I was going to do better – to be better. So, yes, I'm going to do everything in my power to see to it they come home safely" she goes on before placing a gently hand on his arm "Especially your Uncle. I know for a fact that he misses you".

"Really?" he mumbles out the question.

"Yes, Henry. Really" she confirms giving his arm a reassuring squeeze "If I know one thing about your Uncle is that he loves you so much. He'll be doing everything he can to get back to you. To his family".

As she spoke the eleven year old tries to see any hint of his adopted mother lying to him only to see how much she had tried to change for him.

"Wow. You really have changed" he tells her.

"I'll be back as soon as I can".

---

As the group in Rumpelstiltskin's cell continued to scour every nook and cranny for the ink David told his true love about all the while Emma sat crossed legged on the ground with the scroll that inked her name over and over again with the compass on her knee as Aurora kept glancing back at the item out in the open, ready to be taken at a moments notice.

"What does this even mean?" Emma voiced to her mother as the latter climbed down from the wall continuing her search for the ink.

"He was obsessed with you, Emma" she could only tell her "You were the key to breaking the curse".

"We've looked everywhere" Aurora announced to the others "There's no ink in this cell"

"Well, it has to be. He told David" Mary Margaret told the Princess knowing her husband wouldn't be wrong.

"You were in a Netherworld. Maybe something got lost in translation" her daughter suggested as she continued to carefully examine the parchment in her hands.

"No. She heard right" Mulan spoke up picking up the item she had found, hidden between the rocks.

"You found it?" Mary Margaret questioned the female warrior as she and Aurora made their way to her for the woman to hold up an empty glass ink pot "In a manner of speaking. There was ink in the cell".

"Son of a bitch…" Emma trailed off seeing the item as Aurora suddenly turns and hurls a rock against a lever just outside of the cell, triggering the lever just outside the cell to make the heavy cell door fall from the ceiling, sealing all four women inside.

"Aurora, what are you doing?!" the blonde exclaims as she rushed forward to try and stop it only to see Cora and Hook on the other side.

"Helping me" Cora announced to the savoir as she approached the cell door, with a flick of her wrist, the sorceress magically summoned the compass into her hand as Elijah blinked into the cell with the four other woman, appearing in front of the former Princess.

As their eye's met the former Princess was taken aback by his ash coloured skin that were covered in dark veins, collapsing onto his knee's, Mary Margaret followed the vampire down onto the ground catching him by his head and face, cradling it between her hands as she felt his course, rough, cold skin under her fingers.

"Elijah?!" she called out to the man as he barely had the energy to reply. He looked dead.

"No! No. No" the blonde panicked seeing the compass in the older woman's hands as she tried her best to pull on the bars that held them inside the prison.

"Don't waste your energy, dear" Cora tells her with a smirk on her lips as Hook casually leant against the wall enjoying the victory over the woman that had left him at the top of the beanstalk with the vampire "Rumpelstiltskin himself couldn't escape from this cell" she continues before looking over to the young Princess she once held captive "Thank you, Aurora. We couldn't have done it without you".

"Why would you do this?" "How could you?" Emma and Mary Margaret questioned the confused Princess of her betrayal only for the older woman to answer them for her.

"Don't blame her. She was only doing what she was told" she informs the blonde saviour pulling out the enchanted heart that belonged to the young woman in the cell with the other.

"You took her heart" the blonde stated to the older woman.

"Actually, I did" Hook corrects her from his place against the wall "It was a gift. You should thank your vampire for letting her escape. Without him, I wouldn't have been able to take it" he grinned at the women in the cell before Cora squeezed the heart in her hand making Aurora yell out in pian clutching her chest as Mulan quickly came to her aide, not that she could do much but wait for Cora to stop.

"Forgive us. We'd love to stay, but Storybrooke awaits" turning on her heel the Mill's matriarch left her son to suffer the effects of his punishment with the rest of the hero's only for Emma to call out to Hook.

"Hook. Wait" she called out to him making him stop and looking back at the blonde woman in a last ditch attempt to get the out "Please don't do this. My son is in Storybrooke. He needs me" she pleads to the pirate from the bars.

"Perhaps you should've considered that, before you abandoned us on that beanstalk" he replies approaching the cell to face the woman who would abandon her so called friend. He may be a pirate. But he held some honour.

"You would've done the same" she retorts as he step closer to the bars.

"Actually, no" he disagrees with, taking out the trinket he took from the giant while Elijah made his escape from the castle before sunrise. The pirate held it up to the bar for the woman to see what he had taken from the giant "Do you know what this is, Emma?".

"The bean that the giant kept" Emma answered trying to snatch it away only for the pirate to calmly keep it out of her reach.

"Uh, uh, uh" he light scolds her before continuing "Yes, indeed" he confirms "A pirate always keeps a souvenir of his conquest, but this… Well, this is much more than a mere trinket. This is a symbol. Something that was once magical, full of hope, possibility… Now look at it. Dried up, dead, useless" he listed "Much like your vampire behind you" at the mention of Elijah the blonde looked behind her to see her mother on the ground doing her best to keep the desiccating weak looking vampire sat up, to watch helplessly as his mother took the thing they needed to get back home.

"The time for making deals is done, just as I'm done… With you" he finishes stepping away from the bars to leave with Cora to start their final journey to Storybrooke.

---

Enchanted Forest

Kingdom of Transylvania

This land was like no other Captain Hook had had the fortune to explore. None at all. Its days ran short and night long in which some of it's people were blessed with gifts of speed, strength all the while living along side man in harmony.

Spilt blood had made the land it was, one in which creatures thrived under the cover of constant darkness and endless moon cycles, while humans hunted them down, seeking to control the world of the supernatural. But when the hunter's came, the creatures were left with only two choices. Expand or die out.

Travelling to every corner of every realm they could reach, vampires and werewolves alike left the safety of the Transylvania to turn, and breed elsewhere, to expand their numbers against the hunters, with the plan to return as a united army to face the hunter's themselves and reclaim it for themselves.

But all of the changed when one vampire from hundreds that fled came back to vanquish the hunter's once and for all with his 'apprentice' next to him.

Dr. Abraham Van Helsing didn't know what hit him until two lone vampires came into his home and killed him as he sat behind his desk with his own order laid out in pieces in his very own home.

Peace once again settled over the Kingdom with the vampire that returned it now residing in the castle the old doctor once lived in himself. The new owner had taken the name of 'Dracula' as a reminder to others of how easily the blood flowed through the land for the vampires and werewolves to return to live without fear of hunters returning. But when his apprentice left him, the blood stopped flowing as he become a recluse from the rest of the Kingdom. Now he was only known for the bodies that left outside his castle gate.

This Dracula wasn't hard to find as the first person that the Captain asked pointed to the stone castle that stood on the perched isolated on a rocky mountain. The castle's great round arches, the immense iron-studded stone doors, rattling chains and the clanking of massive bolts would put the bravest hero off from stepping a foot inside. But not him. He had a crocodile to skin and if this Dracula would take him a step closer before he set off to kill the Queen's mother, then so be it.

Stepping into the castle he was surprised to see no guard posted at doors and exits as he made his way through the wooden floor corridors, high ceilings and lavish furniture that filled room after room. In fact there were no guards at all to get in his way.

He wasn't quite sure where he was going in the darkened hallways, but his first clue of life came int he form of light underneath a closed door. As quietly as he could the pirate opened the door to enter some for sort of study.

"You're not my usual meal" a voice from behind the desk greeted him, making him look to a man sat in rather large chair in front of the fireplace "They're usually, less..hairy" he trailed off as his eye racked up and down the new face in his castle.

What shocked the pirate was how young the man he was sent to kill looked. He barely looked out of his second decade of life and yet the Queen spoke of him like he was older than the Dark One himself. However his youthful complexion didn't sway the pirate knowing better than to be influence by how young someone may look, for they could very well be the devil himself behind their young looks.

"Which beg's the question. Who, the hell, are you?" 'Dracula' went on.

"I'm-" Hook went to answer only for 'Dracula' to interrupt him.

"Oh no, don't tell me. Let me guess" he tells the stranger as he jumps from his chair to pace the wooden floor in front of the pirate. Coming to a stop in the middle of the floor he folded his hands behind his back as he observed every feature of the man that had been brave enough to break into his home.

"Let's see" he trails off as he eye rack up from his leather clad legs up to this dark waistcoat and dark cotton shirt that hung loosely from his chest to show off the silver jewellery that hung from his neck. To the long dark coat that hung down almost to the floor. The rings that sat on his fingers to the hook that stood in for his left hand.

A smile grew on his face knowing exactly was brave enough to sneak into his home.

"Rather rough looking for a common man" the description made Hooks scoff to himself "You're a a sailor. A Captain even, but which one? Not Blackbeard or Nemo. Which leaves only...Captain Hook" he slowly stated his name.

"Aye you have me" Hook grinned at the man holding his arms up in a mock surrender "I see you've heard of me" he couldn't help but to smirk at the man he was sent to kill.

"You're a long way from Neverland Captain. Did you catch wrong current on that ship of yours?".

The smirk on his face dropped from his face at information that the man held of him.

"Oh. I know why you're here" it suddenly came to the man in front of him as he chuckled to himself "The Evil Queen has finally come for my head has she?. But she wasn't brave enough to leave her little castle to come for me herself?".

"Well.." he trailed off not sure how to answer him.

"I'm afraid this has been a lost journey mate" he sadly informs the Captain as he turns to small table sat next to his chair in front of the fireplace that held a a silver tray that held a jug and goblet "However I'm willing to offer you something the Queen cannot".

"And what's that?".

"Speed, strength. Immortality" he listed off with a tight lipped smirk "You see I know all about you're little vendetta with the Dark One and your love. Milah, was it?".

"Watch it mate" he growled between clenched teeth in warning.

"In exchange for letting me live" Dracula continued "I'll give you the means of killing Rumplestiltskin, without having to leave the realm to do so".

Oh yes he knew about the curse. Nearly everyone that was anyone knew what was coming from the Evil Queen. He just hadn't figured out how to avoid it. He couldn't' stand the thought of being trapped or frozen for twenty-eight years. Or the horror of forgetting who he was.

"And how would you do that?" the pirate inquired with him.

"By turning you into a vampire" he offers the pirate "Involves drinking a little of my blood, a little bit of death on your part and then a bit of human blood to complete the transition. Then you'll be able to face the Dark One on equal terms. No man made weapon would be able to kill you, you'll be able to withstand whatever magic he throws you're way".

"What's the catch?" the opportunity seemed to good to be true.

"Oh nothing big" he shrugged as he poured himself a goblet of what looked like red wine, but at a second glance he caught sigh of how thick the 'drink' was as it poured into the silver goblet "No sunlight for starters, wooden stakes become a bit of an issue especially in and around the chest area, and oh yeah, and an uncontrollable thirst for human blood" he blinked with a smirk bringing the goblet to his lips to take a gulp of blood "However, I think the drawbacks would be worth finally silencing the man's ridiculous giggling".

"As lovely as that sounds. I'll pass".

He wanted to kill Rumplestiltskin with his mortal hand, to go down as a legend of being the one to kill the infamous Dark One.

"Shame" Dracula mused to himself "I think you would've been a good vampire" he say looking at a ring that sat on his right hand on his middle finger with his daylight ring below it.

"Here, give the Queen this" he tells the pirate throwing over the small object for Hook to catch. Opening the hand he caught sign of the silver sing that sat in his palm, embossed with the image of a dragon in the middle of the circlet shaped ring "That ring should be prove enough that I'm dead. Tell her I burnt to death in a fire, started by yourself. And all that was left of me, was that ring" he points the piece in Hooks hand.

"What fire?".

The pirate's answer came in the form of the vampire picking up a log from the fireplace that was on fire, throwing it at the thick red curtains that covered the windows, the thick material instantly caught aflame, the flames rushing up the length of the tall window and out as the flames caught the wooden frames of the portrait of the former occupants of the castle. The intense heat was felt by the pirate as a it rushed through the room as he watched the man he was supposed to kill quickly gather what he could from his desk.

Papers flew everywhere as the man sped through the room, opening draws and cabinets until he had a satchel of all the papers he needed to continue to hide from the Queen until he came up with a way of escaping the curse that was about to ravage this land.

"It was nice meeting you Captain. If we should ever have the misfortune to meet again, I suggest never taking the ring from your finger. Call it a gift for sparing mine" he smirks at the man.

"Good luck getting out mate" in a blur the man disappeared from the room leaving the pirate to fend for himself as the ceiling above him started to creak above him as the fire started to consume the rest of the room, stepping back through the open door the pirate quickly ran down the corridor he had come from as the fire followed him out of the castle.

---

The clanging of a sword hitting something over and over again is was made Elijah come out of his semi-weakened state from where he was left sat up against the cell wall, barely able to move as he opened his eye's to see Emma desperately hitting the bars of their prison with a sword, in an attempt to get them out.

All the vampire could do was try and not think of how hungry he felt at the moment in time. His mother's desiccation spell had made it so that he felt like he hadn't fed on any type of blood for months. His body was starting the process of mummifying itself, by the way how stiff his limbs had become to move in the slightest way it was progressing faster than he thought.

He needed blood, but he was afraid even the smallest of gulps from a willing doner within the cell would lose control and not even a sword in his chest would stop him from draining each woman trapped in the cell with him.

"We aren't going to break it down, Emma" her mother tells her daughter from the back of the cell "It was enchanted to hold Rumpelstiltskin. We don't have a chance".

Giving up, Emma joins' Elijah on the ground slumped against the wall of the cell between the door and the weakened vampire sighing out in defeat

"This is my fault" the Princess tells the group joining Mulan on the floor.

"No, it's mine" Mulan spoke up next "Cora stole your heart because I failed to protect you".

"I'm afraid I may be at fault for capturing her in the first place" Elijah reminded the other's how they ended up in this situation. He was the one to join his mother. It was also his fault for misjudging how long it took for Hook to be resurrected by the ring.

"That's very sweet, but I believe it's my fault" Emma corrects them "I'm the saviour, and I'm not doing much saving, am I?".

Hearing the doubt from her daughter Mary Margaret crosses the cell to take the vacant space next to Elijah so that the mother/ daughter duo sat wither side of the weakened vampire.

"We're going to win this fight, you know" the former Princess voices to her daughter the other side of Elijah "Good always defeats evil".

"You sound like Henry" Elijah had to agree with Emma on that, every time he and his sister thought they had finally thwarted Snow and her Prince Charming, somehow they would end up as the victors, leaving the sibling to return to the drawing board.

"Guess optimism runs in the family" his friend comments.

"I think it skipped a generation" Emma states to her mother with a frown.

"You should know better than anybody. You broke the curse".

"What have I done since then?" the blonde questions her "I got us stranded over here, burned down the wardrobe, let Cora get the ash, and now, the compass. The only reason I ever broke the curse, was because it was exactly what Gold wanted me to do. I had nothing to do with it".

"What are you talking about?".

"He told you I was the saviour" she reminded her mother "It was his plan. Once I fulfilled that role, maybe that's all I was ever meant to do. Everything I've ever done… He had it all mapped out before I was even born. I'm not powerful. I'm… I'm not… A saviour" she tells her mother, handing her the parchment that repeated her name over and over again "I'm a name on a piece of paper. I'm a pawn, and that's exactly why we are in here. And Cora's on her way to Storybrooke".

The cell fell into silence as the saviour words sunk into their minds the doubt the saviour had in herself to accomplish was was prophesied about her. But there was one person in that cell that refused to believe in her words.

"Family Above All" Elijah suddenly said making the mother and daughter either side of him to look towards him.

"It's the promise I made to my father before he died for the curse to be cast" he informs the pair looking towards the blonde saviour next to him "It wasn't just a promise to see though my sister's chance of redemption for everything she did as the Evil Queen, its been the very foundation in which I've built everything upon for the last twenty-eight years. It's what's driven me to be a better man for Henry. It is the promise I made to myself that I would do everything in my power to protect my family with every fibre of my body".

"The moment you stepped into Storybrooke, everything changed. If you didn't think you were the saviour, that you could make a difference. The second the curse was broken you would've left for Boston back to your life as a bails bond person. Instead you stayed to save the one woman that has done nothing but to try and bring you down the moment you arrived. If that isn't a saviour, then I don't know what is".

"So, if you think you're just a pawn for people like Rumplestiltskin and my mother to use for their own use, then I've just wasted those years for nothing".

Turning away from woman beside him, the vampire settled back against the wall of the cell closing his eye's to wait until his body eventually shut down and mummify into something that hardly looked human.

---

Their mother was dead.

That single statement was the thing to snap her brother out of his latest bout of madness. It came as a welcome relief for her and their father as they spent days keeping him from hurting himself by removing his portrait from his room after an incident that saw . Not even his rapid healing mended the deep cut that appeared on his arm after taking the blade to the painting.

But she would have to keep the demise of Henry Wotton from her brother a little longer. Returning from the kingdom the vampire resided in reeking of smoke from a fire, the pirate showed her the ring that she saw on Wotton's finger a number of times during their strained acquittanced through her brother. It was proof enough the man was dead.

Allowing the pirate to keep it, she promptly turned his attention towards her mother. He had come through on both occasions.

Stood in the crypt with her dead mother laid out in a stone coffin , the Queen dressed in black in mourning for her late mother holding a single long stemmed red rose in her gloved hand with the pirate she hired to kill the last person in her way of making sure they were safe in the Land of No Magic.

"Satisfied?" Hook inquired with the Queen.

"Did she put up a fight?" she retorts not looking away from the corpse.

"Nothing I couldn't handle".

"Thank you. Now leave us. I'd like a moment alone to say goodbye".

Doing as he was told the pirate leaves the crypt closing the door behind him to give the Queen the privacy she required.

"I'm sorry, mother" Regina starts leaning over to look down at her mother " Without you, I never would've become the person I am now. But I had no choice. I had to do this. After you killed Daniel, you told me something I've never forgotten. Love is weakness. Well, mother, you are my weakness, because I love you. That's why I couldn't risk taking you to the new land with me. Your grip on my heart is just too strong. And for what I need to do… I can't have any weakness".

Placing a rose on top of Cora's body, Regina took a moment to look over the woman that made her the woman she was today "Goodbye Mother".

The doors behind her open for a pair of footsteps to make their way to join her side to look over their mother's body together.

Clean shaven with a clean suit on, the youngest Mill's sibling looked down at the image that made her sister's statement true as he held is own long stemmed red rose in his hand.

"So it's true" Elijah voice met her ears "She really is dead. I will admit I will miss her".

A sad smile flashed on Regina's lips before she turned to leave the crypt, closing the doors behind her, she looked at her mother one last time before the doors shut together, leaving her baby brother to say his goodbyes to the woman that made the man he was today.

"I should thank you really" he started "I became the man you dreamed of me becoming. A man with power, strength and the means to protect my family against those who seek to destroy us. However, I will not deny how good it felt pushing you through that looking glass all those years. It was the first time I truly felt powerful".

"So, I thank you mother. You pushed me to become what I am today" he tells her pricking the pad of his thumb with a thorn on the rose, blood welted from the small wound watching it heal just as quickly as it was made, before laying the rose next to the one his sister laid her's as the spec of his blood remained on the tip of the thorn.

"That's the last drop of blood you will ever get from me" he states to the still body "Goodbye Mother".

At that the vampire turned his back on his mother once and for all, letting himself out of the crypt without giving his mother a second glance.

Hearing the door shut firmly, the Mills matriarch took hold of the roses her children left behind as Hook snuck out of his hiding place to approach the open stone casket, holding out a helping hand to the older woman inside.

"What happened?" You didn't kill them" he asks the Queen of Hearts sit up in her casket.

"There's been a change of plans" she suddenly states to the pirate.

"What would that be?" he inquires.

"My daughter's curse is coming. We have to protect ourselves".

---

With the fairy dust the dwarves had managed to find in the mines in their possession, the Dark One Rumplestiltskin led his former student through the forest, to where any portal that would bring Emma, Snow White and Elijah back to Storybrooke. But more importantly, where Cora would come through.

"You're certain the portal's going to open all the way out here?" Regina inquires with her old teacher.

"There" he points to the wishing well in the middle of the woods, the same place where he brought magic to the sleepy town shortly after the curse was broken, deviating of the path to approached the small stone structure "This is where things once lost are returned to us. This is where Cora's going to come through" he tells her as the pair climb up to peer down to see bubbling water at the very bottom.

"Unless, it's Mary Margaret, Emma and Elijah" she retorts.

"I highly doubt it".

---

Much hadn't been said between the hero's and the vampire from his earlier speech as Mary Margaret continued to examine the paper that her daughter's name had been written over and over again, remembering something that might help them out from her childhood.

"We are going to get out of here" the pixie haired woman suddenly tells the others as the desiccating vampire opened his eyes to look at the woman that would disturb him.

"How?" Emma asks her mother from his other side "By staring at that scroll? It's not like it's going to magically open the door for us".

"Yes, it is" Mary Margaret retorts with a grin growing on her face.

"What?" she questioned her mother further as the latter stood from the ground to address them.

"When I was a little girl, I used to sneak into Cora's chamber and watch her practice magic.

"You did?" Elijah exclaimed at his ex-fiancée from the floor. The vampire's brow furrowed in concern with this piece of information. What other room's did she sneak into without him knowing?.

"You didn't?" she questioned him.

"I only ever witnessed my mother practicing magic whenever she used it on my sister and I" he retorted. And it was true. He was strictly forbidden to stay away whenever his mother was practicing. And the only time he saw his mother using magic was whenever she needed to keep with himself or his sister in line.

"Doesn't matter" the former princess shook his statement off to carry on "She had a spell book and, Emma… The spells were in the book".

"Yeah, isn't that what a spell book is? A book that has spells in it?" Emma question looking towards Elijah for backup, who only stared at the woman above him knowing what she was speaking about.

"Watch" she instructs her daughter. Gently blowing on the paper causing the repeated word to lift off the page and into the air as her daughter watched in awe as the particles of ink floated in the air.

"Whoa!" Emma exclaimed as she, Mulan and Aurora jumped from the ground "Squid ink. Gold wrote the scroll in squid ink!".

"That's magic Emma" Elijah corrects the blonde making her look back at the ashen skinned vampire "Magic that can get you out of here and back home".

The excitement on her face dropped at the vampires use of words as Mary Margaret blew the ink towards the cell door dissolving the enchanted bars to create a hole big enough for all of the to simply walk out of.

"Told ya" the former Princess spoke up gaining her daughters attention "Good always wins" before moving to fetch her bow and arrow from across the cell. The blonde look down at the vampire who looked the same way he did when he 'died' from Mulan's sword. If his eye's hadn't been open she would've thought he was dead again. But whatever Cora did to him looked worse than his temporary death.

"We can go home Elijah" she tells the man.

"Not me, not anymore" he replies shaking his head at her as she crouches down in front of him "I can't move, let alone fight my mother and Hook for the compass. You need to leave me and get back to Henry before my mother does".

"No" she refuses him "There must be something we can do".

"He needs to feed" Mulan speaks up making the blonde look up at the female warrior "I've seen this before, if he remains here without any blood, he'll eventually mummify. Alive but his mind will be trapped in his own body".

Hearing this the blonde snapped her head back to the vampire "Elijah you need to feed" she pressed the man.

"No" he protest to the blonde.

"Elijah-".

"NO!" he repeated himself only louder "You have any idea what it's like. To get lost in the hunger. To lose a part of myself each time I feel the rush of power I feel each time I drain someone, to watch their life literally drain away. Because I will if I have any right now".

"You're right" Emma gulped "I don't understand" she admits to him "I don't understand anything about vampire's or how it changed the man that I met a few months ago. Which is why I left you at the top of the beanstalk. I made a rushed judgment and now, you're paying the price. For that, I'm so sorry. But despite everything that's happened. Henry loves you. He needs you to come back home to him. We need you Elijah" she tell him taking both of his hands into her's.

"Emma.." Mary Margaret called out to her daughter in warning seeing the way how Elijah held her daughter's hands.

Ignoring her mother's warning's Emma continued to hold onto them, she needed to show him, she wasn't afraid of him despite as she saw veins around his eyes protruding from underneath his skin as his second nature took over his mind, feeling each pulse of warm blood that pumped underneath her skin.

He could hear her. But she needed him to listen. Letting go of his hand the saviour took hold of his cheek making his look up at her, her thumb instinctively brushing over the monstrous features that had overtaken the face of the man that she needed at that moment in time.

"Family Above All" those three words made those dark eye's turn back to the gentle brown as the veins resided to bring back the smooth skin around them "That is what you promised me when I wanted to leave. I need you to keep your word now".

Taking in a breath through his nose, it felt like he could breath again as he felt himself come back to the surface from being drowned into darkness. He could do this. He could feed and not lose himself in the moment, giving Emma a silent nod, he was ready to be the one to be saved from his own sense of honour.

"We just need to get you some blood now" was a sentence she never thought she would say But that didn't matter as she took the dagger from her boot, poising the sharp edge against her wrist ready to feed the hungry vampire she was stopped by a voice behind her.

"Use mine" Aurora quickly volunteers to the blonde saviour much to the surprise of the other in the cell and mine shaft.

"What? No, you don't-" the saviour went to argue only for the princess to fight back.

"You need all the strength you have to fight Cora" Aurora reminds the woman "He can have mine. I trust him".

"Aurora No!" Mulan objects to the idea of the Princess feeding the vampire, putting herself in between vampire and the Princess she swore she would protect.

"The only reason he's like this is because he let me go" Aurora tells her "He risked his life and Cora's wrath to free me from using me to trade my life for the compass. He healed the burns Mulan" she quietly adds to the female warrior "I owe him".

The determined look in the Princess's eye told the female warrior there was no point, she had made her decision. "I'll be there the whole time" Mulan relents.

Accepting the warrior's protection with a nod the Princess steps forward to crouch down next to Emma hold out her hand and wrist the vampire, waiting for him to take hold of her arm and hand to bring it closer to his face, allowing his vampiric features to come back to the surface as he felt the sharp incisors descend down

"It'll hurt" Elijah warns the young Princess, stopping short of the soft delicate flesh that stood in the way of gaining the strength he needed to get his way back home.

"Do it" she firmly tells him "I can take it".

Opening his mouth, the Princess saw a flash of the sharp fangs protruding from the top of his mouth before she felt them sink into her wrist making her squeak out in pain and surprise as she tried to hide the pain that etching on her face as Mulan kept hand on the pommel of her sword ready to stop the vampire if need by as Emma watched as the grey skin turn back to its heathy pink. It was working.

Euphoria swept over him like cool air on a warm day the second blood touched his tongue as he savoured each mouthful of blood that filled his mouth as he gripped the Princess's arm harder to push down the feeling to bite down on the open wound again to make the blood escape faster than it was. Instead he chose to something, instead of completely losing himself in the blood he forced Aurora's wrist out of his mouth to swallow down the rest of remained in mouth, before returning her arm to her, allowing Mulan to quickly cover the bite wound with a piece of cloth she had ripped off the Princesses shawl as the latter's cradled her arm and wrist to her body.

"Thank you" he panted out feeling his body retaken to the fill of human blood. He felt strong again.

"Come on" Emma prompted the man on the ground as she pulled him back onto his feet "We gotta go".

Walking out of the cell together, Emma led her mother, Mulan and Elijah down the mine shaft to face Cora only to be called back.

"Wait!" Aurora called out to the other's "I can't go. You have to tie me up" she announced to the other's making the stop and turn back to see the Princess still in the cell.

"No. I'm not leaving without you" Mulan tells her.

"I can't be trusted. Not as long as Cora has my heart".

She was right. Cora would use it against them at the worst possibly moment, make them choose between her life and getting back home.

"Then I will get it back for you" Elijah promises the Princess "It was my fault Hook ever got the opportunity to take it. Allow me to get it back from Hook for Mulan to return it to you".

Nodding at the vampire, Aurora was left to convince one last person that leaving her behind was the best course of action for them.

"Mulan…" she trailed off needing her to agree with her.

"I will bring it back to you" Mulan tells the Princess.

"Mulan" Emma called out to the warrior making her look at the blonde "We gotta go" the tells the warrior, they couldn't wait any longer.

"Do it" Aurora prompts her friend.

Taking a piece of rope, the Princess takes a seat on the ground in front of the bars that remained for the warrior to tie her to the door, careful of the ender bite mark on her wrist.

"Good luck" the Princess wishes the other's from the ground as she felt the rope pull against her wrists.

"Thank you" Mary Margaret tells her "Good luck to you" she replies turning to leave with her daughter, as Elijah remained.

Sending a curt nod in the Princesses' direction, Aurora mirrored his action before the vampire turned to follow Emma out of the mine's to face his mother once and for all.

---

The former Queen wrung her hands in anticipation and anxiousness as she and Gold watched the waters at the bottom of the wishing well start to churn. Someone was coming.

"It's time" Gold announces to the woman next to her as he peers over for any sign she was change her mind about sacrificing her brothers life in return for making sure their mother came nowhere near Storybrooke or Henry.

If she knew her baby brother as well as she did, she knew he would be telling her to carry on with the plan with Gold. He hated Cora more than he ever hated the Evil Queen. But then, she wasn't' sure what he would be thinking if he knew why she was willing to sacrifice a life without him so that she would get one unhindered by Henry's birth mother.

"So what are we waiting for?" Regina's reply answered the older man's question as the pair turned to step away from the well.

Taking out the wand from the jacket of his suit, the Dark One held the object up to the cloudy blue sky summoning a thunderstorm to form above them as bolts of green lighting flashed through the dark clouds until the sorcerer guided one to hit the well, creating an electric barrier in the lip that no-one not even an immortal vampire would be able to survive.

"Doesn't matter who come's through now" Gold tells his former student "No-one can survive this".

---

As the restored water's of Lake Nosto's swirled into a whirlpool made by the ashes of the burnt enchanted wardrobe, Cora and Hood stood at the edge of their joint victory knowing they were only a jump away from the Queen of Heart's daughter and the pirate's crocodile.

Taking out the compass the older sorceress hold it out for Hook to grab ready for their journey to Storybrooke "I told you I'd deliver you to Rumpelstiltskin. Now don't let go. Unless, you want to end up someplace that isn't Storybrooke".

Taking hold of the other side of the compass, the two prepare to jump into the portal, only for an arrow to strike the compass making the object fly out of her hand and onto the dirt ground behind them, making the pair look across the whirlpool to see Emma, Mary Margaret, Elijah and Mulan stood there with weapons in their hands as they took note of how the vampire looked. Strong and ready to fight until his last breath to stop his mother from reaching his family.

"You're not going anywhere" the former Princess yells over to the villains "This portal's taking us home" she adds as Elijah unsheathes his sword from his waist. "The compass – get it" Mary Margaret instructs them as they split up to fight their way to the compass.

"Find it first" Cora quickly instructs the pirate beside her "I'll take care of them".

While Emma and Elijah ran the circumference of the whirlpool to Hook with their swords in their hands, Mulan ran for Cora while Mary Margaret remained on the other side aiming her arrows to aid the others as much as she could.

Elijah's sword was first to strike the pirates as it was easily parried away by the one-handed man before Emma quickly followed up as the vampire regained his footing from the strike. It had been a while since he had fought with a sword.

"I thought you said you knew how to use a sword!" Emma yelled at the vampire as the boot of her boot met Hook's chest, pushing him back.

"I never said how well Miss Swan" he retorted as a ball of fire from his mother was fired his way, ducking down just in time the ball of fire flew over his head before the vampire looked to the other fight to see Mulan struggling with his mother.

"I've got this" the blonde tells him as she swung her words towards the pirate, only for the man to easily disarm her. Going for the pirate with her hands, the man tripped the blonde saviour onto the ground, stabbing his sword into the ground before grabbing the saviours boot clad foot to drag her towards the edge of the whirlpool out of reach of her own sword.

Speeding towards his mother, the sorceress disappeared in a ploom of purple smoke as he reached her only for Mulan's sword to slice through the air where she was stood, only for the warrior to hit something else. The object caught the eye of both the vampire and the warrior as she pouch Cora stored Aurora's heart in to fly up in the air

From his place at the edge of the whirlpool Hook leans back ready to catch it with his hook only for a blurred figure to leap over the middle of the pool and land next to Mary Margaret with the brown pouch holding the Princesses heart as Emma and Mulan watched with widened eyes at the vampire feat of enhanced agility.

"Bloody hell" Hook exclaimed from his place at the side as he stood back up straight allowing Emma to free herself from his hold and scramble after her sword.

"Good catch" Mary Margaret panted out after feeling her heart skip a beat, with a wink of his eye the vampire sped back to Mulan as Emma regrouped with the female warrior and Elijah.

"I keep my word" he states to her as the vampire handed the pouch to the warrior that once killed him "Always".

Meeting Emma's gaze, the blonde gave give him a curt nod before the pair ran back into the fray to fight Hook as Mary Margaret joined the conflicted warrior over what to do. Carry on the fight or go back to Aurora.

"Go!" the former princess tells her, seeing the conflict clear on her face.

"No, but you need the compass!" Mulan argued.

"And Aurora needs her heart" she retorted.

Handing the former bandit her sword Mulan makes her decision "Take it. It deflects magic" she tells the woman before running back in the direction they came to find Aurora and return her heart.

"I had no idea you could do that" Emma tells the vampire as the pair stand before the pirate with their sword held out in front of them.

"I didn't either" Elijah admits to the blonde beside him making the blonde look at him is disbelief before Hook took the opportunity to strike the distracted blonde only for the vampire to quickly step in and take the brunt of the pirates hits, their blades strike the other, the pirate quickly gaining the upper hand as he pushed the vampire to retreat back as Emma watched the men

"Good form" Hook praises the pair fighting together. They made a good team together "But not good enough" he adds before taking the opportunity to sink his hook into his chest, not to enchant it, but to rip it out.

"Do you feel that Ripper?" Hook sneered into his ear as he held the immobile vampire close "That's your immortal life in my hand".

"Elijah!" he heard Emma call out to him as the blonde advanced forward swing her sword wildly at the pirate making him forget about the vampire he was only moment away from permanently killing as he wrenched his hook back out of the vampire's chest making him grunt out in pain as the pirate parried away the blonde's attacks, leaving the vampire in a weakened state as the Hook caught the saviours sword in a tight 'x' before Hook takes a confident step towards the blonde saviour to close the distance between them.

The blonde goes to kick the pirate away only for the latter to catch her leg and foot with his foot, flipping her onto her back, trapping the blade of her sword between his and his hook the pirate slowly slid down it's length, pinning her to ground at he crouched down over her.

"Normally, I prefer to do other more enjoyable activities with a woman on her back. With my life on the line, you've left me no choice. A bit of advice? When I jab you with my sword, you'll feel it" Hook gloats down to the saviour as she feels for the compass that buried underneath her "You might want to quit".

"Why would I do that when I'm winning?" she questions the man as she shows him the compass, firmly in her possession. Distracted by the object the pirate failed to see the vampire speed over, taking the compass out of Emma's hand, taking hold of the back of the pirate's leather jacket, the vampire pulled the pirate off the woman, sending him sprawling out onto the ground as he held out helping hand for Emma to take to pull herself off the ground.

Scrambling back on his feet the pirate turned to face the vampire only to see Emma back on her feet beside the vampire.

"Oh I'm sorry are you looking for this?" he asks Hook holding up the compass in his hand "Here, go ahead take it" he offers it back to the pirate as he stepped towards the pirate, only to stop short as the pirate held up his sword in warning.

"No? Yes? No?" he teases the pirate before taking the man by surprise, speeding in front of him the vampire used his superior strength to take hold of the one handed pirates cotton shirt, balling his other hand in a fist around the compass the vampire went to punch the pirate in the face onto the stop short, making the man flinch in fear.

"Made you flinch" Elijah mocked him before flinging his head forward so that his forehead sharply hit the pirates squarely in his. The pirate's face relaxed as a beat or two later Elijah and Emma watched the man collapsed on to the ground, unconscious.

Turning to face the blonde the vampire throws the compass for her to easily catch in her free hand.

"Thanks" Emma tells vampire for helping her out of the tight bind.

"Shouldn't I be saying that Miss Swan?" he retorts gesturing to the blood that coated the front of his white cotton shirt and tunic

"Now let's go home!" the blonde announced as they turned to the stand off between Mary Margaret and her former step-grandmother.

---

As the pair of villains stood by as the barrier on the well flashed and crackled to itself as it waited to destroy whoever came through the portal, Gold was the first to notice the arrival of Henry and Ruby before the eleven year old called out to his mother, realising that she had lied to him about helping his family get back after the dwarfs had discovered the fairy dust missing from the mines.

"Mom?" turning around at the sound of her son's voice the former Queen turned round to see that she had been caught out in her lie about helping Emma, Mary Margaret and Elijah get back to Storybrooke "You're not helping them, are you?".

"I'm helping you, Henry" she argues.

"What are you talking about?" he asks shaking his head in confusion.

"You're going to kill them" Ruby tells him, taking a step forward stop them she's stopped when Gold magically throw's the werewolf aside with a flick of his hand, the Dark One knocked out the woman as she lands heavily onto the forest floor away from them.

"Sorry, dearie" the older man flippantly states to the unconscious werewolf.

"Mom, what are you doing?" Henry asks his mother.

"We can't let Cora come through the portal" she tells her son "You have no idea what she would do to us".

"Emma, Elijah and Mary Margaret are going to defeat her. They're the ones that are going to come through".

"Henry, your mother's right. It's going to be Cora" Gold voices to the young boy.

"No. It won't. Good always defeats evil. You should know that more than anyone" Henry reminds the former Queen.

"What I know, is my mother will destroy everything Elijah and I love – and that means you. And I can't let that happen".

---

While Emma and Elijah were left to defeat Hook. Mary Margaret was left to deal with Cora with Mulan's sword in her hand. The hero and villain circled the other ready for the other to strike first only for Emma and Elijah to charge in the middle of the standoff fresh from knocking Hook out only for the woman to disappear in a cloud of purple smoke once again as their swords cut through the air where she once stood, leaving the whirlpool unguarded and the compass in their possession.

Seeing no obstacle in their way the former Princess gave her daughter and ex-fiancé once simple order "Run!".

Dropping their swords on the ground all three ran for the whirlpool only for Cora to reappear using her magic to throw the trio backwards away from the portal to Storybrooke, blocking their path once again back home.

Recovering from the force quicker than the blonde Mary Margaret and Elijah climbed back onto their feet as Cora stalked toward the former Princess with a look on her face her son knew too well.

With his fangs extended the vampire went to stop her only for the witch to raise her hand up and harshly twist it to the side, snapping her son's neck, killing him, while she continued her short journey to the Princess her daughter wanted dead. Emma could do nothing as she saw Elijah's dead weight drop to the ground with his neck twisted in an unnatural way.

Attempting to get up herself the saviour was pushed back on the ground as Cora stood in front of her step-granddaughter on the cusp achieving the thing her daughter had been after for over a decade. Her heart.

"Why do you want to go to Storybrooke?" the younger woman fearfully asks her.

"Because my children need me" she answers the Princess without missing a beat "And now, I'm going to give my daughter the one thing she's always wanted. Your heart. Goodbye, Snow".

"No!" Emma yells from the ground pushing herself off the ground to push her mother out of the way as the sorceress draws her hand back to reach into Mary Margaret chest only for Cora to end up with her hand inside Emma's.

"Emma!".

"Oh, you foolish girl" Cora sneers at the saviour that had foolishly put herself in danger "Don't you know? Love is weakness".

The witch goes to rip out the saviours heart only for nothing to happen as her hand is stopped. Trying again the older woman was toped again, only increasing her confusion of how and why this was happening.

"No" Emma tells the woman dead in the eye "It's strength" the saviour corrects her as a burst of light pulsates from the saviours chest to travel outwards, causing Cora to disappear.

As the magic washes over the 'dead' vampire on the ground, a deep painful gasp is heard from the man as he sits up in bewilderment at how quickly he had recovered from being killed as he felt his heart beat against his ribcage. Looking down at his chest he saw no sign of Hook's silver hook ever being only a pull away from killing him. He shouldn't have healed that quickly with what little of Aurora's blood he had drank.

His head suddenly looked up to the bewildered blonde saviour as her mother quickly came to her side after nearly having her heart ripped out of her chest. It was her. Her magic. It healed him.

"What was that?" Emma asks her mother as she stood dazed from what had happened.

"That… Is a great subject for discussion" she tells her daughter with watery eye's "When we get home" she reminds her daughter snapping her out of her daze for both women to find Elijah still on the ground staring up at the saviour.

Rushing forward the pair pull the bewildered vampire to the feet before running towards the edge of the whirlpool as Emma hold out the compass for her mother and Elijah to take a hold of before they jumped into the portal.

With their hands joined the trio held onto the object as they jumped into the portal with only place in mind as they fell.

Home.

---

Running towards the deadly barrier himself the eleven year old had to try and do something as his adopted mother caught him before he could get any closer

"You can't!" he yelled in his mothers arms "Stop it! You can't! You're going to kill them! Please! No! They're going to make it through! We have to turn it off! You're going to kill them!".

Breaking free of his mother hold the eleven year old made it to the edge of the well only to be pulled back.

"Henry!" his mother yelled at him over the swirling wind as she held the boy in her hands "What are you doing?".

"They're are going to come through. I know it. You said you wanted to change – to be better. This is how. You want me to have faith in you? Have faith in me".

"Regina" Gold called out to the woman in a warning tone as he saw the woman listen to her son's words.

"Family Above All!" the boy yells at her mother "That's what Uncle Elijah says to us. It's not just the promise he made to your Dad, its the promise to protect his family no matter what. He's coming back to us, I know he is. You know that too".

Always and Forever. The vow the pair of siblings had made to each other on the day of her wedding to the King came to her mind at this reminder from her son. She couldn't break that vow. Not now.

"Regina!" Gold's voice went ignored as Regina turned her back on her son to approach the electrical barrier, the former Evil Queen places her hands over the electrical barrier that was placed to stop whoever came through as the woman absorbed the power from the barrier, convulsing from the raw power that she was taking, removing the barrier as a pulse wave of energy shot out of the well forcing the former Queen to stumble onto the ground.

Silence engulfed the forest as the crackling ceased from within the well as the eleven year old boy watch for any sign of his mother, grandmother and uncle to appear from the other side. But no one did. Not even Cora.

"No" Henry cried out see no sign of his family's return as grief filled the Queen's mind that she had lost her baby brother. She had broken their vow and now she was truly alone in this world.

"I'm sorry, Henry" Regina tells her son from the ground she really tried to do the right thing this time. She really did "I'm sorry".

Suddenly a pale hand come out of the well grabbing the edge of the well, a second later Emma pulls herself out of the well red jacket and all quickly followed by Elijah before he reached back down to pull Mary Margaret the rest of the way as the vampire kept a strong arm around around his friends waist as she recovered from the trip through the portal. It was rougher than the three had anticipated when they jumped, but

"Mom?" his nephews' voice reached his ears for the first time in days making the trio returning from the Enchanted Forest look up to see the eleven year old in front of them after so long.

"Henry!" Emma replied with relief washing through her body seeing her son once again after fight so hard to get back to him.

"Mom!" the boy repeated in excitement as he rushed forward to engulf his mother in a warm embrace that felt like a wooden stake going through his heart as he watched the boy he let into his heart run straight to the woman that gave him up.

"I missed you!" he heard the blonde tell his so as she held him tight in her arms, before his grandmother joined the embrace.

"I missed you, too".

"I missed you so much".

Pushing down the bitterness on his tongue the vampire left the happy reunion to find his sister struggling to pick herself off the ground as the woman suddenly saw a hand appear in her line of vision as his voice reached her ears "Sister".

Looking up she finally set her sight on the one person who still might remain on her side. Grasping the hand, the former Queen pulled herself back onto her feet to come face to face to her baby brother for the first time since the curse had broken, sporting a more...vintage look.

"Brother" he states to him taking in his appearance. Dirt covered his clothes from the Enchanted Forest as light stubble covered his cheeks and jaw. Scruffy wasn't the word she would use to describe her brother's unkempt appearance.

"You look terrible" were the words that came to her mind.

"Is that your way of saying you missed me?" he replied with a smirk on playing on his lips.

He rarely saw his sister vulnerable side since she become the Evil Queen but as she watched her bottom lip wobble, her walls fell around her as she threw herself into her brother's arms, winding her arms around him as the vampire was taken aback by her affection as he slowly mirrored her embrace.

"You're okay" he heard his sister say into his chest as relief washed through her seeing her baby brother safe and sound back home.

"I'm okay" he tells his sister as he leant down to place a loving kiss on the crown of her head.

Drawing back from her reunion with her grandson, the former Princess look up to see Gold slinking away from the scene and Ruby coming to on the ground from where she was thrown to by the older man.

"What's going on? What happened?". the question from the pixie haired woman broke the siblings reunion as Elijah pulled away with an arm still around her sister as leant on his stronger form as she still felt the effect of absorbing all that power, while he looked to see what his friend was talking about.

"She saved you" Henry informs the returning trio looking towards his adopted mother next to his Uncle "She saved you all".

Looking towards the former Queen with already reunited her little brother the saviour never thought she was utter the next two word so genuinely than she did in that moment "Thank you".

"You're welcome" she replied as Ruby ran up the small incline, glancing towards Elijah, giving him a friendly smile that was mirrored before she headed straight for her best friend.

"Are you okay?" Ruby asks her best friend before engulfing her in a tight embrace that took the former Princess by surprise.

"Where's my husband?" Mary Margaret suddenly remembered breaking the hug with her friend "I need to find him".

Taking her hand Ruby drags the former Princess away as Emma and Henry approach the siblings with Henry held close to her side.

"Um, your mom… She's, uh… She's… A piece of work, you know?" she tells the elder sibling.

"Indeed, we do" Regina replies with a forced smile on her face "Welcome back".

"Thanks".

---

Following Mary Margaret and Ruby to the pawn shop where David was sleeping under the sleeping curse Elijah and Regina stood in the background as the pulse wave of light magic washed outwards from true loves kiss to awaken the Prince from his curse as the royals couple allies watched on with Henry.

Keeping his hand firmly in her's, the youngest Mill's sibling kept himself grounded as he concentrated on the small but strong heartbeat that was housed in his nephews chest to drown out the other's that filled his ears, keeping steady and even breathes to as he aimed to stop himself from losing control as his hunger once again made itself known to him.

He needed to hunt in the forest soon. Either that or to drown himself in whatever alcohol he could find to numb the feeling away. But the hand gripping his hand back kept him from doing something foolish as the hero's reunited only a few feet away.

He hadn't even seen Emma leave the back room of the pawn shop until he could find her as Henry approached his adopted mother and Uncle.

"I was right" Henry tells his mother making his Uncle furrow his brows "You really have changed" he add before stepping forward to hug his mother, letting go of his sister's hand, it allowed her to cup the back of her son's head as she held him close until he suddenly pulled away to find his Uncle stood there.

"Henry" he greets him as an involuntary smile grew on his face seeing his nephew this close without any of his other family present. He'd missed him so much.

He didn't get much time to say anything else before the boy threw himself into his Uncle's chest, winding his arms around him as the slowly hugged him back, pushing his nose and face into the crown of his head as a moment of peace came over the man for the first time since the curse had broken.

The image of her son and her brother together again made the former Queen's eye's well up and a smile grow on her face as she watched the once inseparable pair reunite.

"I've missed you 'Lijah" Henry tells his Uncle looking up at him "I'm happy your back".

"Me too" his uncle replied "I've missed you too. Very much in fact" he says as Emma steps into the room after speaking to Gold, the blonde looks around to find Henry only not to see him in the spot she left him in. After a quick search she found him with his arms wrapped around his Uncle's frame.

The private moment she was looking in on, made the blonde take pause to see how content Elijah looked, like everything was right again in the world. This is what he had been wanting since falling into the portal with her in the town hall, to be with his family again.

"Emma…" Mary Margaret called out to her daughter, literally pulling her away from the quiet reunion to find her parents wrapping up in each other's arms on the cot.

"Well, looks like we have some catching up to do" David tells her as he held his true love close to him.

"You have no idea".

"How about dinner at Granny's?" Ruby offer's the family and dwarfs in the room "On me"

"As long as it's not Chimera, or blood" she grimaces to herself "I'm in" the other's chuckled at her joke before she found Henry still in his Uncle's arms.

"Hey, kid" Emma voice made the Mill's family look up to see Emma "You hungry?".

"Yeah" the boy replied as Elijah fought the need to keep him a close as possible only for the boy to pull away from him and his mother to follow everyone else out of the room.

"I'll see you later" Henry tells the pair before Emma quickly take hold of him to go to the diner.

"Always" his sister heard her brother barely whisper before they both lost sight of him in small crowds filing out of the room. It felt like a stake to the stomach to see him leave. He hated the feeling already.

Leaving the siblings behind the pair remained in heartbroken silence before it was disturbed by the shops owner, re-entering the room.

"Congratulations" the older man tell them "You just reunited mother and son. Maybe one day, they'll even invite you both for dinner".

---

He should have never have allowed his sister to have a pirate to do a vampire's job. Especially if it dealt with Henry Wotton. They were literally weeks from the dark curse being cast only for the Evil Queen to discover that the pirate hadn't delt with the vampire as he said he had. The only proof he had was the ring he supposedly found in the ashes of the castle he resided in. One that she had seen on his finger a number of times. How foolish of her to have been so naïve as to think he could be killed so easily.

And a pirate. The insult.

His sire was smarter than to let himself be killed by a pirate. He needed to suffer for everything he had done to him, since entering his life all those years ago. His obsession with the beauty of his portrait had created a monster not even the most valiant hero could defeat.

Regina's momentary foolishness was almost punished when the vampire came a whisker away from taking her own life, only for her baby brother to step in at the last moment and break his maker's neck, rendering his dead while he received an explanation of Wotton's sudden reappearance after leaving to the Kingdom of Transylvania to re-join his sister in her pursuit of her revenge against Snow White.

Luckily for her, Elijah had been planning his maker's demise by paying the best blacksmith's in the realm to create a horizontal steel casket with spike producing from the inside guaranteeing it's victim's suffering from a schematic he had procured from a friend. It was called the Iron Maiden.

It held the capabilities to hold any vampire. Especially one as old as Wotton.

Opening the iron casket, he and his sister was greeted with the image of his maker chained within the object in the woman's own chambers as Wotton smirked at the pair in front of him, impressed that they had managed to best him.

"Brother" Wotton greets the man outside of his trap with his sister beside him "This is to be my end" he states to the younger vampire.

"No, no" Elijah corrects him stepping to stand in front of his maker "This is the very beginning. You are going to the bottom of the ocean, where you will drown in darkness again and again and again over the course of centuries. This will be your splendidly horrific and perpetual end".

"Hmm" the elder vampire smirked to himself "Look at you Elijah. Look at the man that came from the boy I met all those years ago. Without me, you'd still be that weak, pathetic-".

The vampire was cut short when the Queen quickly grew tire of his words as she summoned a ball of fire in her hand before throwing it at the immobile vampire, making him scream out in pain as he burnt.

"You were saying?" the Queen chimed in as they watched the burnt skin heal itself as he glared at the Queen, but the vervain that pumped through his body rendered his useless to break the chains that enchased him in the iron casket.

Stepping in Wotton's line of vision, Elijah took hold of the door that would seal him in his prison for the foreseeable future.

"You took a very good woman from this world. But she will be with me forever in this new world. But you, you will be forgotten as you rot in the ocean. Remember my face. Because it's going to be the last one you'll ever see".

At the the door was closed as darkness encased him for however long he was going to be trapped inside.

---

"Heave!" the word echoed around him as he felt the coldness of the water draining from his resting place as he was jolted "Heave!" the second jolt is what made him open his eye's as he was met by the darkness that he had grown used to for however long he had been drowning on sea water, again and again. "Heave!"

The smell of the ocean met his nose as a minute after feeling he was being moved, the bottom of the iron casket met something hard before he heard the lock on the door being broken away.

A second or two later his eye's met daylight for the first time as he was greeted with a familiar figure with a hook for a hand stood in front of his prison.

"You" Hook breathed out seeing the man the Evil Queen called Dracula in the casket he had been ordered to find in the middle of the sea.

"Hello mate" he smirked at the pirate before another figure joined him. He recognised her straight away. A little older than she was when he first met her, but it didn't matter.

"Cora" the vampire drawled out to the witch in front of him. It's been a long time since he had laid his eye's on the sorceress. Decades even. Last he heard, she had become Queen in a place called Wonderland. How adept for a woman like her. "It's good to see you love".

"Hello Lestat" she replied with a smirk of her own playing on her lips "Hook, may I introduce you to Lestat de Lioncourt. An old..friend, of mine".

"Nice to meet you again mate. Now that you've found me, would you do my the honour of freeing me from this thing".

Looking to the woman for guidance, she simply nodded at him before he stepped forward to break the lock that held the chains around his body. The second he was free the vampire used what little power he had left to speed out oft he casket and grab the nearest crewmate sinking his fangs in that man's neck. He was barely able to scream before his body fell to the deck of the Jolly Roger dead as Hook watching horror of what creature he had just brought onto his ship.

Unsheathing his sword from his waist the pirate held it out in front of him as Lestat turned around for the pirate to see blood dripping from his mouth as fangs extended from the top and bottom row's of his teeth, his eye's shone an bright amber as dark veins surrounded his eye's.

"What the bloody hell was that?!".

"He's a vampire and a werewolf" Cora informs the panicked pirate next to her "A true hybrid. And he's going to help us get to my children".

---

AN: Hello there!

Another chapter of PEOM! Hope you enjoyed it!

Honestly can't wait to write The Cricket Game, its one of my favourite episodes to write. A few surprises, of you can call it that I have planned for the chapter. And Yes. Elijah will finally get a haircut Haha.

Just to note I absolutely loved Sam Reid's portrayal of Lestat in the resent adaptation of Anna Rices Interview With A Vampire and the show itself. Its one of the many reasons I went ahead with this fic and included the character. Sooo looking forward to seeing the second season.

Anyway until next time:

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O6bromleys x