Before the island, before the mermaids and Lost Boys, before it knew the touch of Peter the Fountain of Youth poured into the seas and rose as vapour into clouds before raining down again. The Fire Bird knew no cage and just as waters from the fountain were transformed and reborn in a perpetual cycle so was the bird. None were meant to be discovered or used, immortality was only found in dreams of men but one little boy changed that. The creation of Neverland was the beginning of the end.
As the first adult blood was spilled and the island soaked it up Wendy Darling collected what water was left from the dying fountain and crept through the jungle. To any that saw her from the corner of their eye she was a ghost that was quickly swallowed by deep shades. Peter had taught her everything he knew and she could slip away undetected as easily as he could.
Tamera and Greg lay sprawled out in the disturbed earth, signs of a previous scuffle. An arrow shaft jutted out from the woman's back and Wendy sneered. What sort of coward killed someone with their back turned? She could no longer claim to have any sense of innocence left but such a senseless and disrespectful death was repellent.
"Left out to rot like animals," she murmured and shook her head. "Worse even…" she looked down at the flask of water in her hand and lowered it. It was useless now, nothing could bring back the dead. Peter and Felix had often referred to the two dead adults at her feet as the idiots, who had no real clue as to who they were working for. Peter had her brothers trick them and though she knew Michael and John were off put lying to them soon even they looked on the two dupes with a disdainful scorn. Wendy stared down at them with a hot sizzling pity.
"You're not going to cry, are you?" Peter's voice drifted from behind her and she stiffened but did not turn.
"Who's crying? No one will mourn these poor souls," she said as Peter came to stand before her, the bodies between them. He was no longer dressed as a Lost Boy but in his usual attire. He was smiling very softly. Henry was his and the years of waiting was over.
"Why pity those you don't even know?"
"Why? How can I even explain it to you? Why even bother and waste my breath? Even with a heart you wouldn't get it," she replied softly and he rolled his eyes as she pointed down. "No matter what you thought of them, no matter what they did, they didn't deserve to die like this. Are you going to kill the others too?"
Peter's eyebrows rose into his hair and he scoffed as if she were mad. "Kill them? Where's the fun in that? They've just got here! I've been waiting centuries for these people Wendy. Oh no I'm going to have fun with them before the end," he grinned in excitement but it did not quite reach his eyes.
"Peter you hardly have any magic left, whatever you think you can do you can't. Almost all of those adults have magic," she warned him gently and stepped away from the gruesome sight at her feet and went to him. He cocked an eyebrow, looking unconcerned.
"I'm well aware of my limitations. Like I said I've known who has been coming for centuries. You think I wouldn't have put some preventative measures in place? And you know better than anyone that I don't need magic to succeed," he tapped his temple and Wendy grew cold. He would play with their minds, target their love as surely as he had fed into the anger and loneliness of Greg and Tamera. He would play them like strings.
"I shouldn't have taken your heart," she whispered and he cocked his head and touched her cheek.
"It was an ingenuous plan Wendy. As long as it beats they can do whatever they want with my body and I'll still live. And once the heart of the truest believer is here," he tapped his chest, "I'll have no need of that rotting old thing."
"It was getting better," she muttered, feeling small. It was like talking to a wall. He only smirked and scoffed at her silly human feelings. But no matter what she felt having ownership of his heart was the only way to make her plan a success. She just had to be strong and weather it out. She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a hard hug before he pushed her back gently.
"This isn't part of the game. You're meant to stay out of sight until I have need of you. I don't want them to catch a single glimpse of you."
Though his heart was now hers he spoke with a possessiveness that was familiar. She wondered what feeling, if any, was now pulsing through him, what he was thinking. Did he care for her? Love? Was that possible in someone who felt all but nothing? Or maybe the more pertinent question was did she love this heartless boy before her? Could she?
He pressed one light kiss to her mouth before nodding for her to leave. Wendy cast a backwards glance and watched Peter wave his hand over the bodies and they disappeared as if they had never been.
The water reeds clustered around the small pier shivered in the breeze as Wendy paddled in a boat across the lake that cut off her cave from the rest of the island. The entire inlet was choked with a briar of Dreamshade, an infestation that had grown worse as soon as the adults had stepped foot on the island. Peter was deathly serious about no one having access to her. Wendy was now immune to the poison but she still moved carefully as she walked along the jetty and hacked away the vines with her sword. Dreamshade had brought so much misery to her life that she hated the very sight of it.
"You know it'll just grow back even more," a voice quipped and Wendy looked up to see Tink standing at the entrance to the cave. It had been twenty eight years since Tink had come back but Wendy always caught herself looking for any tell-tell signs of change. She was not any older but when she let the glamour fade the degradation of magic was clear in the hollow of her cheeks and the dimming light of her eyes. Tink was dying but for the first time in centuries she was desperate to stay alive and not for revenge.
"Did you see them? The adults? I don't know why I keep calling them that, I'm three times as old as most of them," Wendy rambled and Tink smiled and sat on the ladder behind her. She sighed and did not speak for some time but when she did her words were chosen carefully.
"I confronted Regina…and I let her live. I've wanted her to pay for so long but now things are different. Revenge just seemed…petty. She just wants to protect her son…I've been so selfish," Tink smiled humourlessly, hand idle on her stomach, but to Wendy it appeared that the sullenness that hovered over her friend like a dark cloud had lifted. She could not imagine carrying such a blood thirsty want but she knew discarding it must be freeing, in a hollow way, as a stone lifted leaves a dent that can only be levelled with time.
"Have you seen him yet?" she stressed and Tink's eyes flickered before the corner of her mouth curled.
"My captain," she crooned softly but her gaze grew distant. Again her hand went to her stomach and Wendy battled down an old envy that left her shamed. Tink's predicament was awful and her life depended on the survival of Neverland as surely as Peter's did. Would Hook be so eager to help his new friends if he knew what state he had left his old lover in?
"You won't tell him?" Wendy asked. It was something she had gingerly asked before and it was always met with the same answer.
"That bridge is burnt. We went our separate ways, we parted on good terms," she said but to Wendy it sounded too rehearsed and she knew that more had gone down between the captain and the fairy than Tink was willing to admit. The truth of the matter was she loved him and that love had not dimmed after centuries.
"But you love him…"
Tink's eyes snapped to her and she grew sombre. "Sometimes it's not enough, especially when your love is not that person's priority. Do you understand? Never settle for less."
Wendy smiled weakly and leaned on the Dreamshade infested wall beside Tink, plucking off thorns. "Whose side are you on now?"
"Side? I've never been on anyone's side but my own. You should consider doing the same."
"I was like that once, when I escaped. I was just looking out for myself but it's different when the ones you love are involved," she hovered her fingertip over an inky thorn and stared at Tinkerbell significantly. The ex-fairy realised that she was cradling her stomach and straightened, lowering her hands.
"Yes…I've got your back but we both know what my priority is now. I want to leave this island alive."
"I know and so do I. I'll do everything I can to help you," she pulled her friend in for a hug and eyed Felix standing on the other shore. She smiled and lifted a hand which he did not return. "Your secret admirer is here," Wendy joked and Tink groaned, pulling back. The knowledge that Felix, stoic but often cruel Felix, was quietly in love with the fairy came as a surprise to Wendy. Peter was not and found it hilarious.
"He's got more pixie dust for me," Tink said with a sigh. "He knew straight away you know, about my condition."
"How a silly lanky boy could have realised before me I'll never know!" Wendy joked, walking Tink to the boat. The fairy eyed her for a moment, weighting what to say before shrugging.
"You'd be surprised. He was married once you know."
"WHAT?" Wendy yelled and quickly clapped her hand over her mouth. Tink smirked at her utter surprise and looked at Felix, who could not hear them but was eyeing them suspiciously all the same.
"Yeah, he's full of surprises."
"I can't believe it. Peter never mentioned it!"
"He probably forgot, like he forgets everything he doesn't care to hear…" Tink sighed and stared at Wendy hard. "If you run into Killian you must promise me that you won't breathe a word."
"I promise," she said firmly and cocked her head as Tink sat down in the boat. "Half human, half fey…do you think it will be like Peter?"
"I bloody hope not," Tink swore and grew serious. "Look after yourself Wendy…and remember if all goes to hell and you see a chance to escape: take it."
"I'll try…"
Emma Swan was on the Jolly Roger. In Neverland. With Captain Hook and Rumplestiltskin. Sometimes she sat back and let the truth wash over her and while she knew it was real sometimes it was just too much to take in. Her life was like a child's dream, one with a weird imagination. Thinking of the peculiarities was preferable to the swelling panic and misery that rose up in her when she thought about her son or Neal. Henry was still in Pan's clutches, for what purpose she still had no clue and Neal…
"We barely made it out of there alive," Regina drawled at Rumple who said nothing but gave her a heavy lidded stare. He was on autopilot, as she was and only one thing was keeping them up: getting Henry back. But sometimes she could smell gunpowder, hear the crack of a gun in her ears, the slip of Neal's fingers as he fell through the portal and her last confession. She had told him she loved him and he was dead.
"Earth to Emma," Hook said gently and she blinked rapidly.
"Sorry. What do we do?" She had followed the map that smirking bastard had given her and it had taken her to Pan's camp but it had been a trick. He just wanted to show them how powerless they were and how this was his island. They were stumbling around in the dark and she couldn't see how they could find Henry in it.
"As you've no doubt realised now an upfront assault on Pan and his hoard is useless and trying again is ill advised. I don't think he wants to kill us, he could have done so already. He wants a game and we're his pieces. Pan himself hardly ever raises arms, his choice of weapon is far more insidious. He goes for you here and here," Hook placed his fingers against his temple and chest. "He might look like a boy but he's old and plays on your hopes and fears like a demon."
"So what? How can we defeat someone like that?" Emma groaned, throwing her hands up. It did not escape her that while she possessed magic she was out of her depth. But she had to get Henry back, by whatever means necessary, so any fears and worries had to be pushed down until she couldn't feel them. Her mother moved closer and Emma felt herself sinking against her before catching herself and straightening.
"By retaliating like for like," Rumple answered quietly, speaking for the first time since they ventured back to the ship. "He's taken someone we love and so we'll do the same in kind."
"Love?" Regain sneered.
Hook inhaled sharply and clenched his jaw, looking startled. He looked at Rumple and shook his head. "You're suggestion a trade? It's bad form."
"He has my grandson, there is no form. Whatever sentimental notions you have for the girl drop them," Rumple spat and Hook's face grew hard until his eyes glinted like flint. Emma, deeply confused, looked between the two men who had a shaky but so far intact truce.
"Who does Peter Pan love? Who do we take from him?"
Hook sighed and reluctantly answered her. "…Wendy Darling."
a.n:
dundunduh! D:
So I said that this would be mainly from Wendy's POV but I needed a voice from the other camp and I thought Emma's would be best. More to come in a few days! Thanks for reading!
