Chapter Text
“So much for our future, Swan.”
His words hung in the room as Zelena continued speaking.
No. Not after everything she’d done. He couldn’t really mean it. They’d come too far. She’d come too far. She could fix this. They could get back to their future.
“Aye, but first we have to take care of her,” his husky voice pulled her from her thoughts. She met his eyes, now boring through her frozen body.
Zelena laughed, “Alright then, where do we start?” She grinned at the last word as she snapped her teeth next to Emma’s cheek.
“Actually, love, now that I know what I’m capable of… I think I’d rather handle this myself,” Killian said, never breaking his gaze with Emma. He slowly brought up his wrist and smiled as he twisted it and watched Zelena vanish in a cloud of deep blue smoke.
“Killian, don’t!” Emma struggled to open her mouth wider. “Don’t use your magic! It makes it harder.”
“Harder Swan?!” He yelled snapping his neck back to look at her again. “Harder than being betrayed by you? Harder then becoming THE ONE THING I’VE SPENT MY LIFE TRYING TO DESTROY?”
Emma had never heard his voice reach that volume, even shouting commands on the Jolly Roger.
“Killian-“ she pleaded, waiting for the squid ink to wear off, “I did it to save you. You would have died!”
“Dying is better than this, Emma! Dying is better than being forced back into the darkness when I had just felt the light. Why didn’t you let me die?” Killian’s voiced was quieter, but no less frightening.
“I couldn’t-“ her voice broke, the tears in her eyes unable to fall. “I couldn’t let you die Killian you know that.”
“What I know, Swan, is that I would have died for protecting you, something I would have gladly done and instead I have to live as this- this creature! I fought for centuries to free myself from the darkness and you have imprisoned me in it.”
“Kill-“
“And you didn’t even have the decency to bloody TELL ME?!” Killian’s voice was raised again. “Instead you do this- you take my memories, you deceive me, you hide from me. I can’t… I can’t even look at you.”
Killian had taken two strides toward the door, apparently forgetting his transporting abilities, when the magic from the squid ink broke. She flew from her spot on the floor and flung her arms around him.
“Killian please!” Emma’s words were clearer now that she was no longer contained. “Please stop, I love you!”
“Doesn’t bloody matter now, does it?” He asked pulling himself from her grasp.
“Killian, please don’t say that. I can fix this. I will fix this!” Emma insisted.
“How Swan? How? By killing Zelena? No, love. That won’t fix anything,” he turned back to the door and made another loud, clucky stomp before he was pulled by her words.
“Killian stop!” Emma called and he did. He turned round with both eyebrows raised and his lips pursed as he looked down to see Excalibur in her hand.
“Do you really think controlling me is going to make me forgive you Swan? Do you think reminding me my freewill is now tied to a bloody sword is going to help you?”
She stood there, arm wavering with the weight of the sword. She swallowed hard, and glanced between his eyes and the floor.
The floor of the house he picked.
Emma placed the sword down and replaced it with her arm, holding him back from her, but also pleading him to stay. “Just listen,” she begged.
“No, Emma. You listen. I spend 300 years chasing the Dark One. Trying to destroy it. Revenge and darkness consumed me. That’s all I was for years.” Killian cleared his throat and started to close the gap between them. “And then there was you.”
She stared into his ocean eyes, feeling frozen again.
“Emma, you were my light, my only light in all those years. You saved me.” Killian almost seemed delighted in that moment, but his tone quickly shifted. “But now you’ve done this. Now you’ve turned me into a monster once again. And now- now you want to kill someone to try and fix it. No, Emma- killing is no way back to the light. You doing this to me and wanting to kill Zelena- that means there is no more light from you and there’s no hope for either of us.” He leaned close to her and
stroked her cheek. Emma opened her mouth and closed her eyes. She heard him lift the sword from the floor.
“I will be taking this,” Killian said as he abandoned his need to walk to the door and began to lift his hand instead.
Emma pulled on his coat. “What would you have done?!”
Killian sighed and lowered his arm.
“What would you have done if it were me? What if I was dying in your arms and you could save me? Would you just let me die?” Emma’s tears had freed themselves and were now rolling down her face, breaking the Dark One mold she had worn for weeks.
Killian turned to look at her. “It’s different.” He said sternly, but with less conviction than before.
“How?” Emma asked, reaching out for his hand, but he let it fall to his side. “How is it different? If you wouldn’t let me die, how was I supposed to let you? I had the power to save you. I had to.”
“But you didn’t. You didn’t have the power to save me. Just to give me this life- this fate I didn’t want. I told you I didn’t want it. You were selfish and you made me stay for you,” Killian stated matter-of-factly.
Emma pulled her head up and looked at him directly. Her cheeks and her eyes dried, her face hardened. Killian mimicked her expression.
“And now you have to pay,” Killian’s eyes flashed black and he disappeared in a whirl of smoke.