Chapter Three

"Thankfully, I never had to worry about it. It was a trap and it worked well." (Pan)

"Until the pirates, you mean." (Neal)

"Pirates?" (Gold)


When Vissa Van woke up, the fact that she had legs pailed in comparison to what she woke up to. She was tied to one of the rocks in front of Skull Island. All of Pan's lost boys were gathered around fires dancing as Pan played his pipe.

On the first day of the full moon, Vissa loved to hear Pan playing his pipe. Tonight was an exception. She struggled against the ropes, but she found that it was harder to slip out with two legs instead of a tail.

"It's useless to try." Pan told her as he approached her.

She looked up at him, the fear in her eyes could be seen through the darkness. "I don't know where he is!" she told him.

"Oh, but Vissa," he whispered in her ear sadistically. He took out his crossbow and dragged the tip of the arrow slowly from her navel and up to her throat, making her squirm. "I know you do."

"I don't!" she growled at him, pulling at her retrains, being careful not to impale herself.

Peter Pan laughed. "We'll find out sooner or later." he said moving away from her, looking at her in teasing way. "When you turn back."

Her eyes widened in fear and outraged. "When I get out of here, and I assure you, I shall." she told him. "I will drown every last one of your lost boys."

For a moment, Pan let his fear of her show. He knew that she would deliver on that promise when she was free. He didn't want to kill her, but he couldn't allow her to kill anyone else. When she came back to him, all of her, she would regret every life she took.

"Then I better hope he doesn't come to for you." he said with a sly smile as Vissa fumed. He raised his hood to cover his face as he raised his pipe back to his lips.

"Pan!" Baelfire said from the top of the tallest rock on Skull Island. He had a sword in hand and courage in his eyes. "Release her!"

Pan just laughed, bringing his hood down. "Look who finally showed up, boys!" he told the lost boys with amusement. "And he's brought a sword too."

The boys laughed. "Does he think that will help?" one of them said. "Against all of us?"

"He's not only foolish to defy Pan, but he's stupid too." said another.

Baelfire smiled kindly at Pan and his lost boys. "Oh, I'm not alone." he said as the pirates came out of their hiding places with their weapons drawn.

Peter Pan's eyes narrowed at Baelfire before he blocked a blow by one of the pirates. "Keep him away from Vissa!" he ordered the boys.

The order came too late, as Baelfire had already reached her. "I'm so glad to see you." Vissa told him as soon as he reached her.

"Are you okay?" he asked her as he started to cut her ties.

"I'll be better use you get me to the water." she told him as he freed her. Her feet were too weak and she fell on the ground.

He understood as he wrapped her arm around his arm for support. "Come on." he said struggling to lead her back to the sea.

They got away unseen as the fighting between lost boys and pirates took place. But once they reached the water something was wrong.

"I'm not turning back." she said worried, looking at her pale human legs.

"Can you swim?" he asked her, knowing that the fighting wouldn't last long.

"I think so." she said submerging in the water and coming back soon after gasping for air. "I can't breath." she said panicked.

"I know this may come as a shock to you, but humans can't breath underwater." he told her. "You'll just have to hold your breath when you go under."

"Okay, I'll try." she said nodding, completely lost in her own element.


"You've met your grandmother? What was she like?" (Gold)

"Nothing like my mother. At least she had reason for acting the way she did. She had a madman pulling her strings." (Neal)


They didn't swim fast, but it was enough to get away from Skull Island before the pirates retreated. Once they reached the open water, Vissa's mermaids were waiting to take her to the cascade.

"I don't know how you humans do it." she told Baelfire when they were safe in the cascade. Like Pan had promised, she was back to normal.

Baelfire smiled. "Well, I think I'm getting better at it." he told her.

"Thank you." she told him sincerely. No one had ever done something like this for her. "How did you know where I was?"

"One of your mermaids saw Pan taking you from the water." he said. "I would have been there sooner, but I needed back up."

"How did you get the pirates to help?" she asked him, genuinely curious.

"I met them when I first landed in Neverland." he told her. "I know the Captain. He told me that if I ever needed anything he would help."

"I never knew you could be that resourceful." she smiled slyly. Before Baelfire could reply, Vissa's face changed. "He's calling me."

"How?" Baelfire asked confused. "I didn't hear anything."

"Magic shell." she told him smiling. "I have to go."

"He just tried to kill you!" he said outraged.

"O, ye of little faith. I never fall for the same trick twice." she told him, rolling her eyes. "And neither does Peter Pan play the same trick twice."

"He could still capture you!" he tried to reason with her. "You don't have to go."

"I have to." she said. "I can't ignore it."

"Why not?" he asked.

Vissa stopped, like the question had never crossed her mind before and she was confused by it. "I just can't." she said ignoring the feeling.

"I'm coming with you." he said, seeing she wouldn't budge.

"No, you're not!" she ordered him. "If you come anywhere near Pan, he will catch you. I won't be able to help you on land, and neither will your pirate friends."

"I can take care of myself." he argued.

"No, you can't." she told him. "You are going to stay here!" she ordered him one last time before she sunk down in the water and swam away.


"Oh, I never pulled her strings. Most of the time she pulled mine. It was the mermaid." (Pan)

"You can blame the mermaid all you would like, but it was your games that drove her insane." (Neal)

"My games were never meant for one. She played too, and you were her pawn." (Pan)


"Two calls in one day. My, oh my." Vissa teased Pan as her head reached the surface. "To what I owe the pleasure. Are you going to try to capture me again, Pan?"

"You got lucky." Pan told her, clearly irritated by the fact that she and Baelfire escaped.

"Or you're getting sloppy." she retaliated.

"I'm surprised you showed at all." he told her, his cunning personality returning. "I figured your pride would be too wounded."

"And let your ego grow?" she asked him offended. "I think not."

"Now that we've established that you know the boy, where is he?" Pan asked.

"Why do you care so much?" she asked intrigued, swimming closer to the shore.

"He kept something from me." he said, sitting on the grass. For some reason, he liked to talk to her about his problems. Even though they lived in a constant power struggle, she listened to him. "Something I really wanted."

He hoped it would tick her off as much as it angered him that she was spending time with Baelfire.

"A girl, or so I hear." Vissa said calmly as she reached him. "I thought I was the only girl you had in mind." she said leaning up so they were face to face.

"Are you jealous?" he asked her, amused by it.

"Do I have any reason to be?" she asked him, their faces were centimeters away from each other. "Wendy, isn't it?"

"Yes." he said smugly. Not being clear with which question he was answering.

She raised her eyebrow. "Interesting." she said swimming away from him. Something in her wasn't feeling right, she felt like boiling the sea or cause a tsunami. But another part of her told her to get payback. "Then it's a good thing that I have Baelfire."

His eye narrowed at her. "So his name is Baelfire." he said.

"Yes, it is." she said smiling wickedly as she jumped on a rock. "I should thank you."

"And why is that?" he asked curiously and angrily at the same time.

"If you hadn't kidnapped and almost killed me, I wouldn't have found out how deeply he cared about me." she told him, sighing like a girl in love. She had seen her mermaids do that quite often once they fell in love. "He even brought pirates to help rescue me."

"Is that so?" Pan said through gritted teeth.

"Yes." she said.

He stood up. "Well, Wendy can tell such amazing stories." he said.

"Then I guess she must be a great liar too." she countered it with a smile. "Baelfire is heroic."

"She cares about the lost boys." he said. "And she doesn't want to drown them."

"Then that's something we both don't have in common with her." she said. They both chuckled at her witty reply. Pan rolled his eyes at her. "He actually cares about my safety."

"And I don't?" he asked furious and without thinking.

"Clearly not!" she told him.

They both stared at each other, not saying a word, for a very long time. Their tempers rising, neither knowing where to go from there. Like an unspoken agreement, Pan turned away from her and left while Vissa made her way back to the sea.