These stories often start with a curse of some kind, and a princess, fair and lovely and usually golden-haired. This one is no different.

There is often a hero: someone brave and strong and true, someone who will break the curse, someone who will free the princess.

This is not one of those stories.

...

His boots, still covered with sand from Neverland, have barely touched the soil of the Enchanted Forest when he hears the news: the Dark One is dead, and there is a new one, some other fool who has assumed the title and the dark power that comes with it.

(It is not the homecoming he has wished for.)

Every man, woman, and child in the port city whispers about the death of Rumplestiltskin under his or her breath, speculating about when where why and how, spreading gossip and rumor about the new Dark One – female this time. Some say she's a wisp of a girl, others argue she is as strong as an ox. They wonder, in hushed tones, about her, and how she managed to kill the (supposedly) immortal Dark One.

"Witchcraft," says an old woman as Hook walks by, his shoulders heavy with the weight of years spent in the hot humid jungle, learning secrets for a task he will no longer perform.

"Cunning skill," says an old man as Hook purchases a room, pressing gold coin into the wrinkled palm.

"Dumb luck," says a young boy, clearing the tables in the tavern, and Hook is inclined to believe this last one is the truth (though he wonders if it is luck, and not something else instead).

…

He lingers in port, unsure because his purpose in life has now vanished like morning mist in the forest; he bears no ill will towards this new demon, has no desire to enact the vengeance befitting of her predecessor on her, for it is not her fault that his Milah is dead and gone. And so he finds that, without the pain and anger to hold onto, he is adrift, cast out to sea – lost.

It does not take long before he is found again.

There is a rumor that the new Dark One is the lost Princess, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, kidnapped when she was but a young girl of seven and raised by the Evil Queen these past twelve years. There is a rumor that her parents are looking for someone to save her - someone who knows about the Dark One's power.

Someone like him.

(After all, it's not like he hadn't made his agenda known, time and time again. A vendetta is nothing without a little pageantry.)

It's not long until someone finds him, in a tavern, deep in his cups, and offers him passage to Snow White's palace to talk.

He rolls his eyes but finishes his drink anyway, allows the man (just a huntsman he says by way of introduction) to lead him to horses, which are saddled and ready. As he stands, he gives the small boy scrubbing the floors a few coins and tells him to run fast, to tell Smee to wait for him, that he won't be long, but as they set off down the dirt road through the forest, Hook knows that things can always change.

He does not expect to see his ship again.

(The thought is not a pleasant one.)

…

He refuses them, at first.

Hook returned from Neverland with poison – poison powerful enough to slay the Dark One (or so says Pan)– which he carries on his person at all times. After all, it's either that or the dagger, but there's not a single bone in his body that wants the power that comes with being the Dark One, not a single part of him eager to assume that title and the darkness that clings to it.

(It's not that he's unfamiliar with darkness – not at all. It's just that he's spent too many years wading about in the shallow pools of it, never fully submerged, staying close enough to shore to never be carried out to sea.)

But the princess looks despondent, and the prince brokenhearted, and he agrees to listen to their efforts to influence him. It doesn't hurt that there is a roof over his head and a soft mattress beneath it, and three square meals a day that he doesn't have to buy or barter for. He has nothing else to do, anyway.

It gives him time to think, and to learn.

Slowly, the prince and princess tell him the story of their daughter, stolen away by her grandmother (stepgrandmother, the princess interjects) when she was but a young thing of five, and lost to them forever. Twisted, corrupted into a thing of evil – a remorseless creature that bears no resemblance to their child. Killing Rumplestiltskin with the dagger was just the final act in a tragedy that had gone on for far too long.

"What exactly would you have me do?" Hook asks one evening, as they eat. The prince sighs, and the princess places her fork and knife on her plate.

"Bring her back to us," she says. "She was born capable of darkness – "

"And of goodness – " the prince adds, though his wife seems to ignore it.

"Bring her back to us, so that we can keep her here, away from others – away from those she might hurt, and those that would take advantage of her powers," Snow White tells him, and Hook can't help but fall back in his chair with a sharp laugh.

"She was stolen from you – " he begins to point out, but the prince and princess interrupt, one after another, with well-rehearsed lines that they must use to assuage the guilt of what their little girl has become.

"It was our fault – "

"We knew Regina was coming - "

"If we had only – "

"This time we have the means to keep her safe – from herself and from those around her." The prince's tone is severe, his blue eyes imploring, and beside him, the princess buries her face in her hands.

"Help us do this," the prince says. "Give us one last chance to protect our daughter."

From herself, Hook thinks, but he says nothing. He thinks about family, about Liam and Milah and the smell of salt water and sea breezes, and how he would do anything to see them again, if given the chance (he's just not sure what form that would take, and he wonders if he would act as the prince and princess intend, but he does not know).

His mind is made up.

"I'll bring your daughter home to you," he tells them.

He tells himself he's interested seeing the girl who bested Rumplestiltskin firsthand, when it took him years of looking, centuries trapped in Neverland working for Pan, before he was ready to attempt such a feat.

In truth, he doesn't know why. Maybe it was the tears that flecked Snow White's eyes, or the sadness etched deep in Prince Charming's face. Whatever the case, it's only when he's gone to bed that night, ready to depart at first light in the morning, that he realizes there is no reason, or no good one. A quick death or a slow one, a victory over evil or a defeat, there is no real reason that he agrees. He's sure he'll hate himself in the morning for agreeing to what will inevitably be his demise if his silver tongue fails him (it has in the past, occasionally, but tonight he watches the stars out the window, and gets reacquainted with the skies of the Enchanted Forest.

That morning, they receive news that the Dark One has laid waste to a village all due to a small insult, an innuendo about her power made by one of the men who did not cower at her feet. Breakfast is a somber affair, where the prince chews his food angrily, and the princess stares off into space.

"I knew those people," she says finally, gripping her fork. "They brought their trade here. Good men and women, hard-working and honest."

"Perhaps it is the darkness – " Killian offers, but the prince snaps back, "Not just the darkness. Not just that curse."

They sit in heavy silence, the prince's words hanging over their heads.

When Killian makes ready to leave, filling his saddlebags with bread and cheese from the castle, accepting a sword from the prince and a blessing from the Blue Fairy (he's heard about her from Tinkerbelle, so he accepts it with apprehension and a raised eyebrow), the princess approaches.

"Thank you," she says, pressing coin into his hand. "Thank you for freeing our daughter."

"Don't know that I'll succeed," he warns her, lest she gets her hopes up, but she shakes her head, smile shaky, eyes still wet with tears.

"You will," Snow White promises. "Heroes always do."

He doesn't have the heart to tell her that he is not the hero of this or any story - just a broken man with a broken heart that beats far too strongly for his liking, just a man who misses his love and his brother and the gentle rocking of the sea. He has long since given up the thought of a hero's journey, for there are no such thing as heroes in this world, just men and beasts and men who become beasts (and sometimes, he wonders which one he is).

The prince stops him as he mounts his horse, clutching the reins in his hands.

"Bring her back to us," he says, and then pauses before adding "alive or otherwise." He hands Hook the reins before heading back into the palace with his wife, suddenly leaving Hook with an uneasy feeling.

Perhaps, during his brief acquaintance with the prince and princess, he's learning a bit more about what sort of man he is, for the prince's words ring in his ears and he now knows that he is not bringing her back here, regardless of the coin, sword, or other things he's been given or may receive. A man must have lines he will not cross, and he will not murder a daughter to assuage a prince's guilt.

…

The Dark One is not in her castle.

The door opens easily, swinging silently inward on its hinges, welcoming him into the castle's imposing hall (he shivers, but does not know if it is a draft or the place itself that gives him goosebumps).

The castle is quiet – too quiet – as Hook steps from room to room, silent as a mouse, cautious and intent. Nothing in the East Wing looks touched, and everything – even an elaborate kitchen full of caldrons and ingredients he wishes to know nothing about – seems to be in its proper place.

That is what terrifies him more than the silence. It is as if the great rooms are lying, waiting, for their mistress to return (that the castle is a living, breathing entity is obvious to him - he can feel its heartbeats faintly as he walks across the marble floors).

The West Wing, however, is a different story, and that is where he finds her. Or, rather, she finds him, rushing out with teeth bared and sharp nails clawing at his face (he ducks, avoids her flailing arms, notices how weak she seems when he has to restrain her).

"And here I thought you were the Evil Queen," he sneers as Queen Regina falls back away from him, her black dress in tatters, her hair a rat's nest atop her head. "Perhaps Mad Queen would be more suited to your current state?"

When she turns her gaze upon him, there is nothing but despair. There is no attempt to put up a different face, no attempt to hide her true feelings under a veneer of regality. Regina, the Evil Queen, is broken.

"She's not here," she says, voice gravely and rough, chin pointed slightly upward even as her shoulders fall back, defeated. "She's gone – trapped me here, with the same spells I used all those years ago to trap her in this very wing." Venom creeps into her tone, and Hook can gather that having your protégé turn on you is a terrible thing (as is kidnapping young princesses to mold into your image, but that's splitting hairs with someone like the queen).

She turns away and starts to walk back up the hallway, which is littered with broken furniture and china.. Hook knows that this woman, growing madder by the minute, is right. The Dark One is not here. She would have found him by now if she was.

Such a disappointment, he thinks, but he is surprised to find that he is slightly relieved. Despite his death wish, he did want to see one more sunrise (and perhaps one more sunset, and the sea - he does not want to die on land, where the mermaids can't claim his soul and take it down into the depths -)

"But this is her castle," Hook calls out to the queen's retreating figure. She stops, turns, and looks at him with such despair in her eyes that he suddenly rethinks his stupid urge to find the woman who stole his revenge from his grasp.

"This is a castle," she points out softly. "If I were you, I'd look west, to the sea." She pauses, as if considering him closely. "She always did like the sea."

He turns to leave, but the Queen stops him with a glance. "She's not in her right mind, just so you know," she says, and Hook can practically see the syrup-y sweetness of the Queen's victory, dripping from every word. "She was already a conflicted girl before the curse but after killing the Dark One…"

"What do you mean, conflicted?" Hook asks, turning to face the woman completely. This is new information, and he has no idea what to expect.

"I mean," she says, taking a step away, "that as the product of true love, she was destined to be a hero or a villain. I merely taught her how to take what she wanted instead of asking politely." She shrugs, as if it is nothing to kidnap a young girl, "but that goodness just kept shining through. She fought with it - the power that comes with taking what you want instead of waiting, …" she trails off, and Hook steps forward.

"And?"

The Evil Queen smiles maniacally. "I guess you'll just have to see for yourself."