Chapter 25: Neverland Misadventures - Monsters and Memories
(When: 9 Years Ago)
They all asked Wendy the same question:
"How do you know? How do you know the Jolly Roger has been found? How do you know Hook is alive? How do you know? How do you know? How do you know?"
Each question was followed by a hundred more. Where was the Jolly Roger? What galaxy was it hiding in? How long did they have until Captain Hook attacked? Had he already tried to attack? Was he following them? Who else was alive – Pitch Black? Facilier? Captain Flint? Gaston? They asked who! They asked what! They asked where, when, why and how!
They asked more questions than Wendy had answers. But the answers she gave them were the truth.
Well...at least..the half truth.
"Shadow found the Jolly Roger. How? I'm not certain, but I think it was a lucky mistake. You know how I've been sending Shadow to Fantasia? Well I think he took a wrong turn – you know...second star to the left, second star to the right, it's really very confusing. In any case, Shadow took a wrong turn, and instead of going to Fantasia, he ended up in the Milky Way Galaxy by a little planet called Pluto..."
"And that's where Hook is?" Jim verified, "Pluto?"
Wendy doubled checked with Shadow. Shadow gave two somber thumbs up.
"It seems so." Wendy said, eyes flicking to a dark figure behind the sails. She gazed a moment, then confidently nodded. "Yes. The Jolly Roger is on Pluto."
They stood for a moment, each reflecting on the hardships that Captain Hook, Pitch Black, and Facilier had brought to their lives. They thought of their pact with Queen Illysa, their promise to stay in Neverland until Captain Flint was apprehended. They thought of Fantasia, the place their children may never learn to call home.
"Alighty then!" Ariel hiked her trident. More than anyone, she knew that too much silence could be dangerous. "Captain Hook has been found. Let's kick his butt. Mark – set – go!"
"Set sail!" Jim agreed, snapping into attack mode. "Ariel secure the lines, make sure every end is knotted! Morph you help Ariel, check that every line is free of their cleats and off their winches! Peter, power the pixie dust engines, I want full throttle! Wendy you activate the solar sails while Silver hoists the boom! And Shadow..."
Shadow jumped. He looked around, bewildered. Was Captain Stupid Face actually talking to him?
Jim smiled. "You found the Jolly Roger, Shadow. As much as it pains me to say this, you are the hero. You are also the only one that knows where we're going. So..."
Jim slid a hand from the ship's wheel. "You take the helm."
WHAT?! AHHH! YAYYYY! Shadow went berserk. He flipped, cart-wheeled, did one-armed push-ups, and celebrated just short of giving Jim a kiss before seizing the helm and setting sail for Pluto.
It was a hopeful moment for the guardians. Naturally, Peter was willing to take all the credit.
"My shadow! Good ol' shadow! He's a chip off the old block!" Peter patted himself on the shoulder. "Good thing we're both so clever."
"Try lucky." Jim said, joining the guardians at the forecastle deck. Sedately, he surveyed the stars. "Shadow got lost, it's just a coincidence. Damn lucky coincidence, so we better not blow it."
"And I think we have Wendy to thank." piped Ariel. Sisterly, she punched Wendy's arm. "Kudos chica! If you hadn't sent Shadow to Fantasia, he never would have taken a wrong turn! Girl power, yay!"
"Lucky ducky." In a dark, yet good-natured way, Peter focused on Wendy. "But lucky nonetheless. How do you explain it Wendy?"
Wendy stared at the stars beyond the bowsprit. "I couldn't say." she said, glancing at the stole away hidden behind the shrouds. "I really couldn't say."
And she really couldn't say. Because Eris had not told her what happened when she found the Jolly Roger.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
So...what happened, you ask?
Eris lied. She lied to Wendy about everything.
For example, Eris didn't find the Jolly Roger on Pluto.
She found it on Charon, the largest of Pluto's five moons. Half the size of Pluto, Charon was the most intriguing of the orbital cluster. Like it's fellow moons, Charon was white, but it's northern pole was rusty and red. From afar, the cratered surface looked like a skull, smeared with dried blood.
Shadow had been drawn to Charon the second he and Eris entered the Milky Way. Without warning, he jumped from their vessel and flew straight to Charon. This behavior was not unusual: shadow took many unexpected detours throughout their search (but all had resulted in dead ends). Eris had no reason to believe that this circuit would be any different.
As Shadow investigated, Eris kept her distance. She and Wendy had been experimenting with something they called 'psyche spying,' so she didn't need to be present to know what was happening.
What is psyche spying? Basically, psyche spying used shadow working to connect with another person's mind. The purpose of psyche spying was to see memories though a psychic connection with Shadow.
Psychic spying was Wendy idea, and she had been inspired by personal experience: Pitch Black had read her mind using his nightmares. Therefore, it seemed reasonable that Wendy could read other people's minds using Shadow.
The concept was simple: Shadow would send memories telepathically to Wendy as they were formed, in real time.
So, Shadow would enter someone's mind (under Wendy's direction). The host would experience something upsetting. The experience would be stored as a short term memory. Shadow would find the memory and relay it to Wendy, acting as a 'psychic bridge' between her and the host.
Normally, Wendy had to be touching Shadow to see other people's memories. Therefore, trying to access the memories without being physically present was harder. Wendy and Shadow had a mental connection, but Shadow wasn't part of Wendy's essence (as Pitch's nightmares were a part of his), so their connection was weak. When Shadow entered another person's mind, Wendy could only see bits and pieces. It was an ever evolving process.
Eris was not good at psyche spying. As you might have guessed, Eris was manipulating Shadow (the reason why has yet to come) so their 'mental connection' was toxic. Shadow wanted nothing more than to punch Eris' brains out: there was no way he was going to play nice without a fight.
Eris had been manipulating Shadow for three years. This particular misadventure was no exception. As Shadow explored Charon, Eris maintained a 'mental hold' on his essence to keep him from running away. This made psyche spying nearly impossible. Instead of creating a bridge for memories to flow easily between them, Eris was smothering Shadow's consciousness.
Needless to say, the exploration of Charon was not going well.
"Ouch!" Eris clutched her forehead. Her connection with Shadow had suddenly broken, and was immediately replaced by a burning headache. Fearful that Shadow would flee, Eris struggled to reestablish their connection.
"Pathetic." she murmured, probing the darkness. "You pathetic, miserable shadow...if it wasn't for your prissy little shadow worker, I would shred you to ribbons! Now...where are you? Come here Shadow...come here Shadow..."
A wispy voice sang in her ear.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are."
Eris stopped. She looked to the side. Nothing. She looked to the opposite side. Nothing. Slowly, she looked behind. Nothing again.
Experimentally, she touched her temple.
"Hello Eris." the voice said. It laughed directly inside her head. "Do us a small favor. Look behind you again."
Eris did. And she was attacked by three shadows: Peter's, Facilier's, and...something else. It was like a shadow but ...colder...and...
...alive.
"Well now..." the voice returned. Eris could almost feel it snuggling aside her brain, like one would a good book. "Let's see what you are afraid of, shall we?"
The shadows struck. They scoured her brain, tearing memories from the neural network.
"My, my, my..." The voice leafed through Eris' unhappy memories. Lightly, he laughed. "Monsters don't sleep under your bed. Where they sleep, is inside your head."
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Eris didn't even fight back.
Whoever was attacking her (presumably the voice inside her head), she knew that he knew how to shadow work. Therefore, this may be the person she was looking for. At the very least it was a step in the right direction.
Eris closed her eyes. Confident that her quest was nearing fruition, she waited for the exorcism to end.
But it didn't.
Even after the shadows had extracted every unhappy memory, the voice stayed. The shadows left (they hovered over her), but the voice stayed. Eris could almost feel him filtering throughout her brain like sand.
Eris flexed her fingers. Nothing. No resistance. Gently, she scraped her finger nails into the ground. Still nothing from the voice.
She cleared her throat.
"Are you going to stay in my head forever?"
The voice ignored her. He seemed preoccupied with one of Eris' unhappy memories – the night she lost Hexxus. He kept replaying the memory and pausing to silently study the particularly painful moments. But in time, he began asking her questions.
"Eris, where was this memory?"
Eris avoided the question with her own (this time more forcefully). "Are you going to stay in my head forever?"
The voice was surprisingly gentle. "Do you want me out?"
Eris frowned. "Yes."
"Hm, you sure?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
The voice reconjured the image of Hexxus.
"Because of him. I can help you see him again, almost feel him again. Even if it hurts. Even if it only a bad memory."
Eris didn't respond. But she closed her eyes tighter, lest the vision of Hexxus should fade.
The voice made the image sharper.
"His name was Hexxus?"
"Yes." Eris paused before adding, "But you knew that already."
The voice was amused. "I did. But that doesn't minimize my interest. This memory is the day that Hexxus died, is it not?"
"No." Eris clenched her fingers. Her blood red nails chipped. "That was the day Hexxus was imprisoned to certain death."
"Imprisoned to certain death?"
"Yes." Eris' lip curled. "Hexxus was imprisoned inside an enchanted baobab tree. If the tree is ever hewed, either by an axe or storm, then Hexxus will die."
"Cruel options." mused the voice. "Who would do such a thing?"
"A wizard!" Eris snarled. "A wizard named Emrys! Emrys placed the magical spell on Hexxus, but he was ordered to do so by my sister's lover."
"Your sister's lover?"
"Yes. I have two sisters, Amalthea and Odette. Amalthea's lover ordered Emrys to imprison Hexxus."
" Her lover must have had great authority."
"He was a king." Eris shook her head. Hair spilled across her brow. "A boy king. The King of a place called The Otherland. His name was – "
"King Arthur."
"Yes...that was his name."
Eris felt something constrict inside her skull. The image of Hexxus began to fade. Although the voice inside her head seemed to know everything about her, the tone in which he said 'King Arthur' seemed more than supernatural omniscience. It seemed...personal.
"Who are you?" Eris asked.
The voice filled her ears. "I am who you have been looking for. I am the fairytale creature that you sought under your bed as a child, and the spirit that you sought inside yourself as an adult."
Eris felt tension behind her eyes, as if fingers were pulling them further into the sockets. The voice became louder.
"Hexxus told you about me...he told you of an ancient being that could create nightmares and control shadows...he told you story after story of the only person that could help you understand your powers...The Nightmare King. Pitch Black."
Pitch waited for Eris's reaction. He laughed when she finally said:
"That still doesn't answer my first question: Are you going to stay in my head forever?"
"Well I'll answer with my first question." Again, Pitch was gentle. "Do you want me out?"
Eris was quiet. Then, she smiled.
"No."
"Good," said Pitch. "So...what do you want?"
"I want you to help me." replied Eris. "Teach me to shadow work, so I can destroy Arthur, destroy Amalthea, and destroy Fantasia. If Hexxus suffers, then I want Fantasia to suffer. If Hexxus dies, then I want Fantasia to die."
"Lovely." said Pitch. "We share the same goal. I too want Fantasia to suffer...well I should say, my associate Captain Hook and I want Fantasia to suffer. But, dear Eris, we cannot do it alone. We must...combine powers."
"You and I?"
"Yes...in a way."
"What way?"
"Time will tell..." Pitch settled, allowing Eris control of her senses. "But for now, I must live in your head, gain strength through your memories. The Battle to Give Fantasia rendered me to a mere memory myself. I am too weak to survive alone. But your mind – the energy and chaos of your mind – will help me grow strong."
"But in the meantime," said Pitch, "I will introduce you to Captains Hook and Flint. They will help you in your next quest."
Eris suddenly noticed a ship – The Jolly Roger – anchored on Charon's northern pole.
"And what is my next quest?" she asked.
Eris felt Pitch smile.
"Tricking Fantasia's guardians. If we're going to destroy Fantasia, we've got to eliminate her defenses...starting with the shadow worker."
And so it began. Eris was acquainted with Captain Flint, Captain Hook and his undead villains. She returned to The Second Star and lied to Wendy, who unknowingly led the guardians astray.
Three more years passed. Eris continued to manipulate Wendy, leading the guardians closer and closer to a trap. All the while, she listened to Pitch Black laughing in the shadows of her mind.
"Monsters don't sleep under your bed. Where they sleep, is inside your head."