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"How do we even know where to start?" Regina asked impatiently. "This island is huge, he could be anywhere. If there is any of him left to find that is."
"Well, Henry wasn't far," Snow said. "David and I found him in a matter of minutes. I'm sure if Pan's still alive he'll be around here somewhere."
Regina turned away from the others in frustration. "This is a such waste of time."
"Who's Pan?" Henry piped up from where he was sitting on a boulder. Regina glanced down at him but Emma took her attention.
"Regina you can't expect us to just leave him on his own."
"You don't even know for certain that there's anyone to look for!" Regina fumed. " And let's just say that there is, what if he's not three? What if he's the same rotten preteen we've been fighting with the entire time we've been here? We could be running straight into an ambush!"
"We have to be sure before we just drop the idea." David reasoned.
"He's dead! I saw it, I felt it. That spell worked!"
"What's a spell?" Henry said from below. "Like spelling words? I can spell my name!"
"Well then what happened to my son?" Emma challenged. "And why can't you change him back?"
"H... uuumm... E..." Henry started.
"I don't know why it's not working... but I do know that Pan is gone."
Henry pressed his palms to his face."I don't ermember..."
"Regina think about it." Snow said, "what if it was Henry all alone out there, lost in some big scary forest that he didn't know. If there was someone who was able to help him surely you would want them to?"
Regina folded her arms and looked down at Henry who, realising he was being talked about, stared up at them all curiously.
"See?" Snow concluded. "You would want someone to find him. Right now Pan could just be someone's lost little boy."
Disconcerted, Regina was shaking her head.
Emma took this as an acceptance of the plan. "So where should we start?" She looked to her parents.
"Why don't we just scope the area for a while?" David suggested." It hasn't been that, long maybe he's still around here somewhere."
Emma raised her eyebrows to Snow, silently asking if she agreed.
"I think that's a great idea." The brunette said. "Should we split up?"
"Maybe we could go in teams?" David suggested. "Mary Margaret, you and me in one direction and Emma and Regina in another."
"Do you two think you're going to get along?" Snow asked both of the women.
They just looked at each other, daring the other to say no.
"Well that's settled then. Why don't we meet back at the camp in an hour." Snow said. "David, shall we?"
"What about me?" Henry asked Snow.
Snow gave an amused smile, "honey you'll go with Emma and Regina."
"Kay."
Snow took David's hand and the two disappeared into the trees.
"So..." Emma said, hands on her hips. "You ready to go?"
"Why don't we just let the Lost Boys find him? If he indeed, needs to be found. I'm sure they'll look after their so called leader."
"Regina you can't be serious, they're teenagers! There is no way they're gonna look after Pan if he's practically a baby."
"What are we supposed to do with him if we find him? He's centuries old. I seriously doubt we're going to find his parents."
"I don't know, I haven't really thought about it."
"So what, you're going to adopt him? Cause I sure as hell am not."
"Mommy said a bad word!" Henry giggled.
Regina sighed. "That was your fault," she pointed a finger at Emma who smirked as if to say 'yeah right it was.'
"I'm sorry Henry." Regina crouched beside him. "I don't ever want to hear you repeating that okay?" She said firmly, but not unkindly.
"I knooow."
"That's my boy," she smiled.
"Alright let's get going." Emma said. "We can't leave Mary Margaret and David to do all the work."
"Come on sweetheart," Regina said, offering the three year old her hand. He took it hopped off the boulder.
Venturing through the uneven terrain of the forest proved difficult with Henry tagging along. He slowed them down tremendously, mostly for reasons none of them control. His legs were too small to keep up for one thing, so they had to either walk at snail pace or carry him. Carrying him was problematic as well because they needed their hands to get through areas that were substantially bushy.
Henry giggled happily as Emma lifted him over a fallen tree.
"We can't use another locator spell." Emma was saying to Regina who was taking Henry's hand. "First, we don't have anything of Pan's. Second, I don't know if his younger self counts as the same person. Third, we don't have anything of Pan's!"
"There are other ways of tracking someone by magic." Regina said. The two had decided that it was okay to talk about this stuff in front of Henry. At this point he thought it was just a game, and he wouldn't be three for long; they were going to find a way to change him back. And besides, the future... present... older Henry knew about magic already and he handled it well. Chances were that when he changed back he wouldn't remember anything of this 'flashback' anyways.
"Is Pan your son?" Henry looked back at Emma who was stepping over the tree.
"Nope, Pan's a different kid."
"Oh...What's your son's name?" Henry asked.
Emma and Regina shared a look.
"Umm... his name is Henry too." Emma said.
Regina rolled her eyes.
"REALLY?! I never known anyone with my name before! Well, except for Grandpa, but I never got to meet him."
Emma didn't notice the falter in Regina's next step. The blonde merely grinned as they resumed their journey.
"Mommy mommy! Em's sons gots the same name as me!"
"I heard!" Regina said with a little extra enthusiasm.
"How old is he?"
"He's eleven, almost twelve. Eleven-and-three-quarters I guess." Emma said, remembering how Henry saw things.
"Is he in high school?"
"No, not yet."
"I wanna meet him!"
"Yeah well, if we ever find him maybe you can."
"Why's he missing?"
"He's not really missing, it's complicated."
"Is he playing hide-and-seek?"
"No..."
"Then why can't you find him?"
Emma looked to Regina who had no suggestions to offer. "He just forgot to tell me where he would be that's all."
"Oh."
Henry got sidetracked by examining the ground as he walked ahead of the other two, pulling against Regina's grasp.
"Great save." Regina whispered sarcastically to the blonde.
Emma shrugged. "Hey, it's the truth isn't it?"
Henry suddenly stopped. "Mommyyyy..."
"Yes Henry?"
"I have to go potty."
Regina sighed. "Alright, let's find a place you can go."
"In the woods!?" Henry asked incredulously.
"Yes Henry, in the woods."
"Nooo! I need a bafroom."
"Henry there are no bathrooms out here."
"But mooommy I need one!"
Regina glanced at Emma. "Wait..." she said under her breath.
Emma shook her head warningly.
Regina nodded.
"No!" Emma mouthed.
"What harm can it do?" Regina whispered back.
"Talking about magic and actually showing him are two totally different things."
"I'm not about to make him go to the bathroom in a hole in the ground."
"Why not? We've been doing it for days!"
"Well unfortunately, his aim's not so great."
"Regina don't!"
"Too late." Regina grinned mischievously.
Emma turned around and exhaled in irritation as she saw the little blue potty.
"Wow!" Henry exclaimed, "where'd that come from?"
Regina leaned down and grabbed the potty in order to take it to a more secluded area. "Let's go Henry."
"You're unbelievable, you know that?" Emma quipped as Regina walked by her with the three-year-old.
Not phased, the brunette just smiled at Emma's expense. "Don't worry dear, I'll get rid of it afterwards. I wouldn't dream of littering."
"So it's weird with Henry being so young huh?" Snow said to David, both looking into the surrounding trees as they paced through the woods.
"It sure is. But he seems great, I never got to see him growing up. Do you remember him when he was three?" David paused. "The first time I mean."
"Oh yeah." Snow said. "I used to pass Regina and him walking sometimes. It's remarkable how I never realised he was getting older while everything else stayed exactly the same."
"Well that's the curse for you."
"Yeah... He's precious though isn't he?"
"He is." David smiled.
They searched in silence for a few minutes until David noticed Snow's expression. He stopped her by placing a hand on her arm.
"Snow, what is it?"
She looked up at him sadly. "It's just, seeing Henry like that... at this age... he's so sweet and little and..." she trailed off.
"You're thinking about Emma."
"David we missed everything."
"I know. There is nothing I regret more than sending her away. But we did the right thing. She never would have had the chance to grow up if we hadn't sent her through the wardrobe, and you and I never would have been able to see each other again."
Snow glumly turned to keep walking, hearing this again wasn't making her feel any better.
David rushed to step in front of her."Snow, we will get a second chance I know we will. We will have another baby."
"But what if we can't get you off the island?"
"What do you mean? Gold said he can make a potion back in his shop that will cure me so I can survive away from Neverland."
"I know he did. But where has he been since then?"
"I'm sure he has something up his sleeve. He wouldn't just abandon the rest of us, not now. Mary Margaret... Snow. We will make it home. All of us."
"Moommyyyy?"
"Yes Henry?"
"I'm tired."
"Do want me to carry you?"
"Yes please."
"Alright, come here."
She lifted him into her arms and he rested his head against her shoulder.
"I guess we should start heading back to camp soon." Emma said as they resumed their walk. "It's almost been an hour."
"Good, I'm getting quite tired of this hike myself. I knew we weren't going to find anything."
"There's still time. And maybe David and Mary Margaret had more luck."
"I doubt it. And I wouldn't call finding Pan 'lucky' either. As far as I'm concerned I never want to see that delinquent ever again."
"De-link-oo-ent." Henry repeated sleepily, eyes barely open. This caused both mothers to smile.
"Okay," Emma said lightly. "If you're so sure Pan is dead, tell me why and maybe I'll take your side."
"Well..." Regina said, shifting Henry a little in her arms. He opened his eyes briefly at the movement, but they soon fluttered closed again. "After the spell hit him he was paralyzed immediately which is what was supposed to happen. And I'm sure he was dead by the time he hit the ground... As for whatever the aftermath was that came back at me, I have no idea. But I do know that it felt like power. Power that had just been defeated. I think it was Pan's magic, it felt like a last attempt to defend its' master if that makes any sense."
"So you're saying his magic has a mind of its own? That's not comforting."
"Well no, if he's dead now so is his power. It's just like having a last thought before one's death. He had a last spell. His magic works differently than ours since its indigenous to Neverland. Ours is learned through study but his is purely thought based."
"Hold on I thought all spells were thought based? That's what you and Gold are always saying. It's emotion and all that."
"It is. But it's different than the magic here."
"Why did he disappear then? How can you be sure he didn't just 'poof' to some other part of the island like Henry did?"
"I can't, but I do know what I felt and what I saw. And what I saw was him dying."
"What about the purple smoke? It was separate from the one that took Henry."
"And did you notice the difference between the two? Pan's didn't disappear as soon as he was gone as Henry's did when he was taken. It just dispersed slowly into the air."
Emma's brow furrowed as she remembered this. "Okay sure, the smoke was different, but that still doesn't prove that Pan's really gone."
Regina didn't respond, she appeared to be too deep in thought.
"You said there are other ways of tracking him." Emma stated. "Do you think you could try any of them? That way we'll know if this really is a waste of time or not."
"Many of the methods require objects or potion ingredients that I don't have. Scrying is one way we could do it, although we'd have to get very creative regarding the materials needed... However there is one way we could check that requires nothing at all..."
"What is it?" Emma asked.
"His shadow. If it still exists, that means he still exists. We need to check that little nightlight of Neal's and see if it still has that monster encaged."
"Seriously? It's that easy? Why didn't you just say so earlier!"
"Well if you hadn't noticed, I was a little pre-occupied with trying to keep our son calm to think up ways of determining whether a demonic child I have absolutely no sympathy for is alive or dead."
"Hold on... I'm seeing a flaw in this."
"And what's that?"
"Neal told me that a person dies when their shadow is pulled from their body. So if Pan is dead... couldn't his shadow still survive and live on its own like the others do?"
Emma held back some branches so Regina could pass through first.
"No. Because the difference is that Pan was controlling his own shadow. The shadows that were created by the killing of the people to which they belonged have no minds of their own. Pan's shadow controlled them."
"Okay... so umm... if Pan is dead and his shadow is dead then wouldn't the other shadows be dead too if they had no one to command them?"
"Possibly, yes."
Emma stopped dead in her tracks. "But the shadows were our way home."
"I know they were..."
