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Beyond Here Lies Darkness	By : LotornoMiko Category: M through R > Once Upon A Time Views: 3724 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Once Upon A Time fandom. Nor do I make any money off of it or this story.

Chapter List
- 1-One
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Six
- 7-Seven
- 8-Eight
- 9-Nine
- 10-Ten
- 11-Eleven
- 12-Twelve
- 13-Thirteen
- 14-Fourteen
- 15-Fifteen
- 13
- 14
- 15
His stomach gives a wild lurch in response to the darkness' voice, to the near maniacal glee the Dark One revels in as it reveals just why it wants the dagger. His shock seems to be echoed throughout the room, the people there gasping, exchanging wide eyed glances, a few even daring to begin a whispered conversation. And holding reign over it all is the darkness' wild laughter, the noise growing stronger in response to Killian Jones' shout.

"No!"

It's a vehement protest that roars out of him, and it is a scream not borne on concern for himself. It's for her, for Emma Swan, that Killian cries out for. For Emma, that he screams out a no with all he has left. His throat hurts from the force of it, but worst than the pain is the fear coursing through him. It's not his death that has Killian Jones fearing, but the thoughts of her. Of Emma, and of what will happen to her once there's no one to stand between her and the dark.

Not that what Killian Jones had done has amounted to much. Emma's still been hurt, and she's still been raped, and the brunt of that blame lies within him. In what he had done, in what he helped usher in, the malevolent darkness being set free. Twisting it's desires with that of one Killian Jones, it's want and need of the light had married into a physical lust. It now craved the woman as much as the purity inside her, and was equally determined to possess both.

Killian can only begin to imagine how much worst things will become, how much more abused Emma will be, should the Darkness take on a new host. Especially one that holds not an ounce of real feeling for the woman. He shudders at the thought of it, at the realization of how easily a new host will be swallowed down by the darkness. The same had nearly happened to him, Killian fighting, hanging on only by the sliver of concern that was his very real feelings for one Emma Swan.

If not for those feelings, Killian Jones would have ceased to be ages ago. He would have let the darkness snuff out his existence, he would have given up and died like he was rightfully meant to so many hundreds of years ago. But he hasn't, and Killain won't, ready to fight, to wage battle with everything that the man has got left. He'll not only lie, manipulate and scheme, but use against the darkness every bit of that relentless single minded determination that has seen Killian Jones through three hundred long years of life.

It's just a mere drop of water compared to the amount of time the dark has endured, but while the darkness is an ancient and eternal being, it is very much new to the feelings Killian Jones and Emma Swan have birthed inside it. There's the lust, but there's also the jealousy, and that insensible, maddening need. The desperate dark wants everything from Emma, even the things it doesn't understand, and would have never imagined it would one day crave, let alone need.

It's because of that dark, desperate need that has given it reason to let Emma Swan live. It's that same want of her that has the darkness maddened, the monster unable to put an end to that which both torments and delights it so. The dark laughs not only at Killian Jones, but at itself, realizing there is a sickness festering inside them both, and the woman is both the cause and the cure.

Emma Swan is a weakness, an infection the darkness cannot carve out. Most days it doesn't even want to try. Blinded and besotted by the light that is Emma Swan, the dark cannot truly bring itself to go that final step too far. Tortured by her, by it's need for her, the dark fears Emma is the one undeniable truth. The woman the weakness the darkness can no longer do without.

It shakes with it's laughter, and with the screams that remain trapped inside it's throat. Is that too the darkness, or is that some remnant of Killian Jones trying to worm it's way free? The darkness can no longer tell, too staggered and too hurting, sick with conflicting desires, and torn apart by the addiction that runs roughshod through it's veins. That poison won't ever bleed out, having found firm root deep in the core that makes up the being that is the darkness.

That odd mix of laugher and stifled screaming takes on a mad, infuriated tone. It can't kill Emma Swan, it now KNOWS and recognizes that as fact. But Killian Jones on the other hand, is more than fair game. It's smile twists, it's coal black eyes gleam, as it feeds off of Killian Jones' panic inside it.

Even as it bloats itself on Killian's despair and anxieties, the dark is extending an impatient hand toward Cora. Around the warbling mix of laughter and scream, the darkness again demands the dagger, actually fights against it's command. It takes a struggling, unsteady step forward, ready to throw itself onto the dagger's pointed tip. Does it matter that the hand that still holds it is that of Cora's? Not when the dark uses a host's body, the way a human does clothing.

Even amidst panicking, Killian Jones realizes what the darkness intends. Actively moves to stop it with nothing more than sheer desperation. The push and play of Cora's command over the dagger, and Killian's own internal fight, causes the dark to actually stumble a second before the queen's magic slams their body downward.

Killian hears as well as feels the furious sound the darkness lets out. It starts out deep in the chest, and comes to a rumbling end in their throat. It's not just the dagger that leaves the darkness impotent towards acting, Cora is using her own impressive spells to keep the darkness pinned down to the floor. Killian can't even lift his head up, but he can hear the sound of the court's screaming, people scrambling out of the way, many emptying out of the throne room.

Gaston is not one of them. The black haired hunter stands calm amidst the chaos, his muscular arms crossing over his broad chest. He's eying the creature's struggle on the floor with quite some interest, and no one else but Regina Mills seems to notice. She frowns and briefly locks eyes with him, the man visibly shrugging his shoulders in response to the unspoken question there.

Regina tries not to scowl in response, but Gaston is pushing his luck. Both his and hers, Regina thinking what it will cost them, who will be taken from her, should Cora learn of just who Regina was secretly allying herself with.

With a barely suppressed sigh, Regina shifts her attention away from Gaston. She's glad Henry's not here to see any of this, and not just because the Darkness scares her. Her mother's infuriated expression is more disturbing than even that of the monster's, and not for once does Regina forget that Cora is a much more powerful and evil a queen than she can ever have hoped to aspire to be.

That misguided woman Regina has once been, is long gone, awakened to the horrors of what her revenge and heart break have cost her. What it is STILL costing her. Her long buried conscience has flared to life, and it is a million moments too late for her. But she has to try, one way or the other, if not for her sake, than for Henry's. He can't go on living like this, Cora's magic blinding him to the reality of what is really happening in Storybrooke.

Henry already lost to her, Regina can only try to make amends. He probably won't ever forgive her, and he definitely won't love her, but at least Regina can give him his birth mother back. She doesn't dare hope the time is right now, and still she has to try, Regina nerving herself to walk past the Dark One on the floor, and approach her mother's side.

"Mother, allow me..." She doesn't truly expect her mother to give up the dagger this easily, and yet Regina tries for it all the same. She nearly gets backhanded by Cora's magic, the woman reacting on guarded instinct without any real thought to who had just spoken.

"Regina..." Cora speaks in scalding tones. "You KNOW better than to try to take the dagger from me..."

"Mother, I only meant to help...." Regina protested in a hurt tone she didn't have to do much to feign. "You're only one woman..."

"I am the Queen of Hearts!" Cora snaps back. "I have survived more than what this leashed dog can ever hope to throw at me!"

Regina eyes the snarling Darkness on the floor. "Er..be that as it may....even you can't wield the dagger twenty four seven. Allow me to shoulder some of your burden...."

"We've had this discussion before. I will allow NO ONE to take this dagger from me. Not even YOU!" A pause, and then she growls low in her throat, perfect white teeth grinding together. "And certainly not you, Dark One! Though why you continue to attempt to defy me time and time again...."

"It's all HIS fault." hisses the darkness. "It's all the man known as Killian Jones' doing."

"Oh?" A drop of sweat arcs it way down the side of Cora's face, as the queen narrows her eyes at the Dark one. "And just how is that pirate to blame for YOUR actions?" She demands.

"He's to blame for it all!" The darkness screams out. "Every last bit of it! From the desperation that I feel, to the lust that I have! Without him, it all goes away! He needs to be carved out so that this can all end."

"Mother, it's rambling." Regina didn't have to feign all of her nervousness. Not with the darkness so near, and so angry. Even as the impressive combination of the dagger's compulsion and the Queen of Heart's magic held it at bay, the darkness continued to struggle, to fight to get up off the floor.

"That it is indeed." Cora agreed, with a twist of her lips. "But there could be some truth to it's madness..."

Regina felt her eyes widen with her shock. "Mother?!"

"Killian Jones is clearly not agreeing with it." Cora explained, hers lips twisted into a malicious little smirk. "In fact, I dare say the pirate is affecting it more so than it is affecting HIM."

"If you understand, than quickly...." Again a hand stretched in the direction of Cora, but the queen wasn't in reach of the dark.

"You're a fool if you think I'd offer to become your new host." Cora coldly retorts.

"Then..." It's cold gaze on her made Regina's skin crawl in reaction, and she inadvertently took a step back.

"And I'm not about to offer up my daughter for your new body either." Cora wasn't smiling any more.

"I will kill her." threatened the dark. "I will peel open her insides like a ripe fruit, and I will use every last bit of my ancient power to keep her alive while I do it. I will make her SUFFER a million times over, and it will be the pirate who gives me the strength to do it."

"Mother....!"

"You talk a lot for someone so powerless..." Cora spoke in a mocking tone to the dark. It was the wrong thing to say, the monster screaming, it's fury allowing it to lunge up off the floor before more magic cascaded into it. For one second, Cora's cold mask of indifference split apart, the woman looking shaken by the effort it was taking her to keep on subduing the darkness.

"You're a fool." It said, with a low, empty laugh. It seemed to sag in place, but Cora didn't let up on her magic one bit.

"I think I've heard enough out of you." She sneered. "Let's hear from the man, the pirate you claim empowers you so..."

The darkness started to make a protesting sound, but it wasn't a request Cora has given it, but a dagger compelled command. In the midst of it's angry roar, Killian seized his chance, his words desperate as he spoke.

"It's right you know." Killian said, hearing the way that Regina gasped. "I am at fault for a lot of it."

"Oh, are you?" Cora scoffed with a narrowed gaze. "And just when did you get such power?"

"I didn't." Killian retorted. "I can no more control the dark than you can." The Queen of Hearts hissed in response to that. "But I have made it easier for YOU."

"What? Don't be absurd. How could you possibly have.....?!"

"Where do you think it's lust for Emma Swan comes from?" Killian demanded. "That desire it has, that need, it's all my doing. Take me away, and what's left? Certainly not anything YOU can use."

Killian could see the calculating look in Cora's eyes, the way the woman gave due consideration to what he was saying. He was unhurried, trying to sound unbothered and unconcerned.

"By the same token, wouldn't that mean it's emboldened surge of defiance is in part your doing as well?" Cora asked.

"Oh it is, but not in the way it would have you believe." Killian told her with his most charming of smiles. "Do you comprehend just why it wants, NEEDS me gone? It's not so it can have Emma Swan all to itself, or whatever it is you imagine. It wants the lust gone, wants the weakness that Emma Swan makes it feel purged from it's system."

He felt the darkness seething in response, felt the hard truth of it's addiction to Emma and the lust that it felt. Most of all Killian Jones read the turmoil within it, the understanding that with him or without, the Darkness would continue to lust after Emma Swan and the purity within her.

His removal from the situation wouldn't change a thing, and both Killian and the darkness understood that. Damnable creature that it was, the dark was right to have stated that the lust it had learnt, was a taste that won't ever be forgot. But it was one weakness that the Queen of Hearts need never be privy to, Killian nonchalant as he explained to her how the lust removed would allow the darkness to refocus all it's attentions on Cora. On the killing of her, and all that she held dear, and not even the dagger would be enough to stave off the darkness forever.

He wasn't looking anywhere but at Cora, so missed the aghast expression on Regina Mill's face. "What are you saying?" She managed to speak with a choked out tone of voice.

She was ignored, not just by the pirate, but by her mother too. "It all begins to make a twisted sort of sense." Cora mused. She then laughed. "The darkness enslaved by your lust...yes I can see that. No wonder it's trying so desperately to be rid of you....." Her eyes narrowed, and Killian felt her magic slap him across the face. The darkness felt it too, and with that pain, it came roaring back in control of the body.

"You deceiving beast! Thinking to trick me! As if I would EVER allow you to be rid of the weakness the pirate has infected you with!" Fuming though she was, Cora still took the time to smile mockingly at the Dark One. "You'll NEVER be free of it, or him. I will see to it personally."

"The man Killian Jones LIES!" The darkness snarled out. "I seek only to...."

"Enough!" Cora screamed. "I have heard more than enough of your filthy tongue! You are not to speak to me, and not to appear before me until I have given you leave to. Is that understood?!"

The darkness showed all of it's teeth as it wordlessly snarled, and then nodded it's head in a show of understanding. Inside it felt Killian Jones relief, the man actually daring to laugh with it. The Dark One's glower worsened, the ancient entity vowing to make the human regret it. To make both Killian Jones and the Queen of Hearts regret ever messing with the dark.

Regina saw the look on the Dark One's face, and couldn't help but tremble in response to it. She was shaking with more than just fear, but disgust and anger, hardly daring to believe the pirate could be so casual about what he had enabled the Darkness to feel for and do to Emma Swan. What his existence would continue to allow, Regina thinking of Emma and the many horrors and indignities she must be going through. But Regina wasn't privy to all the details, and neither did she want to be. The guilt of what she did know, and of what she had allowed to happen, was strong enough on it's own to weigh Regina down.

Much like Cora's magic was doing to the darkness, the creature with Hook's body scowling, allowing it's magic to wrap shadowy tentacles around it, and take both the man and the monster away. Regina was left staring at an empty spot on what was once the town hall's floor, with only blood as a marker for what had just gone on.

To the side of her she heard Cora angrily shout at those that had remained inside her throne room. The Queen of Hearts was in a foul enough mood that their eviction from the court raised not a single protest. The villains practically fell all over one another in an attempt to be the first out the door, and amidst the noise and confusion, Regina again caught Gaston's eye. One black eyebrow raised in question, but Regina demurely shook her head no. He frowned in response, as though to ask her if she was truly sure. A more vigorous headshake was his answer, Regina all but glaring at him. There was nothing to report, nothing worth mentioning to the fairies that was worth the risk of their cover blown.

Gaston seemed to suppress a sigh from across the room, before nodding his head in understanding. Regina didn't seem to think today's events worth mentioning to the fairies, and he couldn't truly argue with that. Not without something more being brought to his attention. The pirate and the Dark One's lust was nothing new, and it had yet to prove a weakness that would be exploitable to anyone but Cora, the Queen of Hearts. Gaston felt the deep seated disappointment that had birthed to life upon the realization that Hook was a liability to the darkness only because of the lust he made it feel, and not because of any true fight the pirate might have put up.

Gaston and Regina didn't know how wrong they were, and wouldn't for a while yet. But there were others who had witnessed the Darkness struggle against Killian Jones out on the streets, others with less scruples and morals than the hunter, men and women who would be all too eager to tell all that they had seen for a price. Hope would spark when that happened, small though the flames would be. But it might just be enough to strengthen and lead good's rebellion to victory.

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To Be Continued....

I seem only capable of writing in spurts. But really, I am grateful for every time I do get a chapter completed for ANY story. X_X Didn't expect it to be done this soon, but hey...got inspired! And yes Gaston was the character I hinted at in my author's notes for 13. I have been chortling to myself over surprising everyone with Gaston being a good guy in this! XD

I remember being torn over whose POV it should be for this chapter...ended up sneaking in quite a few...but when I started this chapter this evening, I set out to keep it an all Hook POV. But then it didn't stay that well. Oh well. For the most part I am happy with it, except for my dialogue. I always feel like conversations are my weak point. =/

It's a little after midnight as I type this. Still go to spell check and proofread! Oh speaking of, I went and updated the existing chapters (Still have to do 13.) nothing major, just a word here and there. No matter how much I proofread, I always find a word missing, or the wrong one used.

Probably get this chapter up after I eat! And eee! New Once season starts tomorrow! :D

----Michelle
- 13
- 14
- 15
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Beyond Here Lies Darkness