PROLOGUE - THE PIPER & THE LOST
She crossed through the doors of the diner, looking up at the dark night sky.
She felt the eyes of her future step-brother, Henry, and the woman her father was bound to marry one day, Emma, and her father, Killian, all bore into the back of her head. She heard the intake of breath, which came from her Henry, who knew the significance of the words she was speaking, and from her father; all she heard from him was the smallest of held breaths let go, and the whispering of her name.
She ignored them both, as she ignored everything else that was around her, and put her sole focus into the dark night sky. "I believe." She whispered, waiting for the only that could really and truly take her home: the shadow of Pan.
The shadow, which had resided over Neverland for so long, stirred. The sound startled the Lost Boys, most of whom had never heard such a sound. The Elders had heard it a few times, but that had been long ago.
That had been when the shadow roamed freely, when the Lost Girls had roamed the treetops, away and above the Lost Boys heads. While the younger boys began to hide away, frightened by the sounds the shadow was making, the Elders began to stare at it, waiting for it to fly away and retrieve whatever, or whomever, that was causing the movement.
"I believe." She repeated, keeping her eyes lock on a particular star in the sky, as if she was waiting for it to go out.
Pan's eyes were locked on the shadow that he'd imprisoned over his [and his alone, mind you] island. "Why are you moving?" He muttered to himself, though he knew exactly why it was moving [not that he was going to voice it to anyone, especially not himself. The thought was too hopeful, too happy, too…. loving]. Then, all at once, the shadow broke free from its confinements, and raced toward the sky while the Lost Boys [and maybe a few of the scarce Lost Girls who had stayed on the island despite Pan orders to leave and never return] watched as it flew so far until it was a dot in the cloudless blue sky, and then kept flying until it wasn't even in that world anymore.
Now, the shadow was the one place the girl had sworn to the boy she'd never be: any World but theirs, and in this case: Our World. The girl's gray-green eyes light up as something blotted out the star she'd been staring at.
"Pan." She breathed, her voice become an eerily quiet thing as the shadow descended once it got to her, it stopped and held out it its dark, transparent hand.
It's head was tilted, as if asking her a question. The girl smiled, a real smile, one she'd only ever given to the shadow, or the shadow's owner.
"I believe." She answered the being's silent question. "I believe, so take me home."
With something that almost seemed like a smirk, the shadow grabbed at her wrist and yanked it forward, and with force that should of broken her arm, the Never-Guard pulled the Queen towards the star, and in the blink of an eye [because that's all it ever took to get from Neverland and back again] they were soaring over the dark blue water of her [though Pan would argue that it was only his, it was most defiantly hers as well] island.
She let go of the Guard, and it flew away from her. Back to the caves where it wouldn't be captured by Pan again.
As she neared the island, she saw Boys rushing out of the wood to protect their island, but she also saw Girls [her Girls were still here! she thought with childish glee] leaning too far forward in the trees, trying to catch a glimpse of her, to see if it was true.
But, it the middle of it all, in the middle of the cluster of Boys, stood the King himself; Peter Pan.
His eyes were narrowed at her, and his anger only seemed the worsen as she came closer and closer. "What do you think you're doing here, Lost Girl?"
She laughed as she watched him say this. "What does it look like, Neverboy? I'm coming home."