Chapter Twenty-Five: Welcome to Neverland

The shadow dropped him from several feet in the air so that he hit the sand tumbling. Henry sucked in a breath and choked on it immediately, scrambling to his feet to start running. Trees stretched out in all around him and the ocean blocked his retreat from behind. Baelfire had told him snippets about his time in Neverland and every horror came to his mind as he took in the jungle. There was no question where he was, not when Pan's shadow had brought him there.

"Hello again, Henry."

He turned, nearly throwing himself off balance as he did so. Pan stood on the beach as well, a confident sort of smirk tilting his lips at the edges. Of all the things Bae had told him about Neverland and Pan, he'd never mentioned that he'd be coming after him.

Henry took a step back. "What do you want with me?"

The smirk widened to a grin and Henry heard the sound of twigs snapping and several boys of various ages were slinking out of the jungle. They stepped, clothes ragged and weapons in hand, silently forward and were closing in around him. Pan was moving closer as well and there was nowhere that Henry could go. "Let's make it a game, shall we?" he asked and Henry glanced behind him, spears and arrows coming in closer. "I need to know if you possess something I've looked for for a very, very long time."

"And what's that?"

"The Heart of the Truest Believer."

"I'm not going to help you," Henry said firmly. "You can't make me. I know who you are. I know what you are."

"And what am I, Henry?"

"You're a villain. My dad warned me about you."

The grin returned and there was a darkness to it. "Did he? Good old Baelfire."

"He'll be coming for me. They all will."

"I wouldn't count on that. Not with your grandfather in the mix."

Henry stiffened and tried to take another step back, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He looked up to see another blond boy, this one with a scar on the side of his face and he grinned wickedly at him. "You're going to be sorry," he said as strongly as he could manage. "My whole family will come for me, and when they do it's not just Baelfire you'll face."

"Oh I know," Pan chuckled. "One mother is the savior of Storybrooke while the other is the Evil Queen. Snow White and Prince Charming for a set of grandparents and… Well, Henry, I wouldn't trust your other grandfather to have your best interest in mind."

"What do you mean?"

Pan sighed, his dark and playful expression softening a bit as his eyes flickered around to the other boys. They stepped back a few steps, giving Henry a bit more room to breathe and Pan took one more step forward. "I didn't want to be the one to tell you this," he said, "but your grandfather won't let you live, Henry. He can't. If he does, it means he'll die, and if Rumplestiltskin is anything he's a selfish coward that will put his life above anyone else's. Even his own grandson."

"Liar!" Henry snapped and turned, slipping between two Lost Boys that had backed away a bit further than the rest. He heard the shouts behind him, but they were in the distance as he raced forward. They'd chase him, he knew, but maybe he could outrun them. His father had, and if that's what it took, he'd run from them until his family came to save them. They would. He knew they would. All of them.

There were several things that Baelfire had tried to put out of his mind over the years. One was the feeling of falling through a portal. It was a jolting experience, one that left him feeling like he'd left a piece of himself behind. His stomach rolled and the dizziness hit him immediately, but he gripped the hand in his as tightly as he could. He'd often dreamt of the night his papa had let him go, the feeling of his fingers loosening around Bae's own smaller ones and slipping away, crying out for him as he did, and that terrified look his father wore even as he let him go. Bae didn't want to be the one to let go now, even as they fell through the fabric of the worlds.

Then it happened, a sharp jolt that caught Baelfire by surprise. It would have pulled a cry from him if there'd been any air to breathe, and as they landed hard, rolling to a stop on the soft dirt, he flexed his fingers and realized that his hand was empty.

"Okay, next time that we decide to hop to another world, let's not take a portal," Emma grumbled, picking herself up unsteadily.

Regina offered her a glare as she tried to brush off some of the caked-on mud that clung to her blue jacket. "Portals are the only way to travel between realms."

"Or Dark Curses," Mary Margaret countered and looked around, her eyes growing a little bigger. "Where are the others?"

Bae felt his chest clench. Her words had echoed his own thoughts as he managed to look around, pulling himself to his knees and finally to his feet. Emma, Regina, and Mary Margaret were there, but David, Belle, and his papa were missing. Bae had let him go. After everything, after he'd promised, he'd been the one to let his papa go. There was something about portals created by magic beans that set a deep fear in his father and Bae had to wonder if it was more than the paranoia that his papa's curse set deeply within him. As far as he knew, the bean he'd brought to him from Blue had been the first one that Rumplestiltskin had ever encountered, but he wasn't sure about that. Something drove that fear, and at least twice now, those stupid things really had separated them. At least this time they were in the same world. He would find him just like he would find his son.

"It should have put us all down in the same place," Regina murmured, walking a bit to the side to look through the thick trees. They'd landed in the jungle by the looks of it. While it wasn't the worst place, it most certainly wasn't the best either. It had grown up some since Bae had last been there on his first trip to Neverland, but it still looked like a vision from his worst nightmares.

He pulled in a deep breath. "Don't bet on anything happening in Neverland like it might anywhere else," he warned. "There was a jolt there at the end. Pan probably knew we were coming and set it up to split us apart."

"No one's that powerful," Regina grumbled.

"This place is run on will and belief. Yeah, people can be that powerful here. If you can believe it, it can happen."

"Are you saying we can just will Henry here?" Mary Margaret demanded, her gaze hopeful.

"Not exactly. You'd have to be able to out-will Pan, and no one's ever been able to do that." He watched, trying to gauge if they understood or not. There were some strong wills in this group, but even he had to admit Pan's was impressive. He'd never been able to match him in all the years he'd been there. At least not until the day he'd escaped.

"I think I have a stronger will than some teenager," Regina answered, her tone tight and irritable.

"Yeah, I kind of have to agree with Regina on this," Emma said

Bae shook his head. "You don't get it. This isn't some smug kid. Pan's… You're not going to be able to out-imagine him, trust me. Three hundred years here, remember? I know my way around."

Regina snorted. "I'm sure do. So what's your plan, since you know so much about this place?"

"We've got to be more clever than Pan," Baelfire answered, his dark eyes watching the all-too-still foliage that surrounded them. The birds had gone quiet and the only sounds that he could hear belonged to them. "And we've got to move."

"What about David and the others?" Mary Margaret asked, not looking like she wanted to go anywhere without that plan sorted out.

"We have no way to know where they were put down," Bae answered reluctantly. "Papa knows enough about Peter Pan and Neverland to make sure that they get out okay, but right now we need to- Woh!" He jerked back, an arrow slamming into the tree closest to him and nearly taking his nose with it. He'd been right about the quiet, but now the jungle came alive with the sounds of a hunting party. The Lost Boys had found them.

"What the- Neal, you okay?" Emma demanded.

He didn't answer, but instead turned to look in the direction the arrow had come from. He heard Mary Margaret ready her own and felt magic sizzle through the air as Regina pulled power to her, but his attention was on the tall boy that stepped out from the darkness. His face was covered by a hood, but Bae would know that voice anywhere. It had woken him from more than one night of sleep when he'd been on the run in Neverland, trying to escape Pan. "Welcome home, Baelfire," the hooded boy drawled.

Bae snorted. "Some welcoming party, Felix. Where the hell is my son?"

Felix grinned toothily as he pulled the hood back from his face. A few other boys stepped forward behind him, spears and arrows ready for a fight. "We were hoping you could help us find him."

So Henry had gotten away. Good. At least Bae had done something right in telling him that Peter Pan was the worse kind of a villain. He'd given his son a fighting chance not to be taken in by the lies.

"We're not helping you," Regina growled from behind, a fireball racing forward to send several boys scattering in all directions.

The one with the bow popped right back up, another arrow notched even as the edges of his jacket sizzled, but Bae extended his hand, forcing himself to remain calm and think about everything that his papa had been teaching him in the last weeks. Emotions drove magic, but they also could throw it off balance. His eyes focused in on Felix even as power struck out, knocking the Lost Boys back.

Pan's right hand whistled lowly. "Looks like the Dark One's son finally figured out how to use magic himself," he said. "I thought you hated magic, Baelfire."

Bae didn't have a chance to loose a sarcastic response as the boys perked. A high-pitched whistle sounded through the trees and Bae knew what it was even if his friends didn't. Pan was calling them, and the boys were gone in an instant, leaving them standing in the middle of the jungle alone.

The water washed over him, threatening to drag him down until he found a way to break the surface. The problem was that he wasn't quite sure which way was up. Darkness surrounded him but he needed to choose a direction soon or he'd run out of air, so he pushed, kicking wildly against the crushing water. The farm he'd grown up on had been far away from the ocean. He wasn't a weak swimmer by any stretch, but he also wasn't the most experienced either.

David broke the surface, having seen a small patch of lighter water and had gone for it. He gasped and sputtered, trying to get his bearings before remembering that there was no good way to. He'd never been to Neverland, not even in his dreams as a child.

A gasping sound to his left made him turn and Belle surfaced just a few yards away, Rumplestiltskin right after her. They both looked as half-drowned as David felt as they treaded water. He expected the others to break the surface as well, but he saw the same uncomfortable look that was currently working it's way through him. Emma and Snow should have come up by now along with Baelfire. He could have seen Regina teleporting herself to dry land, but there would have been no reason to leave half of them behind if she'd chosen to help.

"Rumple, he's probably just swam to shore," Belle tried to say between gulps of water.

"Snow and Emma are missing too," David called out, swimming closer. "And Regina."

"Is it possible they were put down somewhere else?" Belle asked.

"I don't know," Rumplestiltskin huffed irritably, his dark eyes scanning the waters around them and David was sure his magic was reaching out as well. "I don't... It shouldn't have, but this is Neverland. Anything is possible."

Without warning magic swirled around them, redepositing them on the dark beach. David nearly fell over with the sudden dry land under his feet, but he caught himself just in time. Rumplestiltskin took a steady step back towards the waves, his eyes continuing to search the dark waters it only by moon and starlight. "They're not there. They're simply not there," he murmured.

"Then they're somewhere else," Belle said sensibly.

"Perhaps," the Dark One answered, but he hardly sounded like he believed it. "I had Bae's hand going in. Why would he have gone somewhere else? It doesn't make any sense."

"Could Pan have done it?" she asked and the man that claimed to love her snarled dangerously at the idea.

That was when David noticed that Rumplestiltskin had forfeited his usual gold and black cane and seemed none the worse for wear because of it. His usual tailored suit had also been replaced by something much more like what he would have worn in their own land, just with a bit less colour involved. Even so, his features remained very human, his skin unmarred by the scales and his eyes still a dark brown. Dressed as he was, he looked an odder mix of Mr Gold and the Dark One than he ever had in Storybrooke. While everyone knew who held the magical power in Storybrooke, that power was understated by his slight form and all-too-human features. David wondered, as he watched him now, if the cane had simply been a prop to throw others off.

"It's possible," Rumplestiltskin said tightly. "Likely. He does love his games."

"And I'd wager he likes playing them on you," Belle said softly, her fingers douching his arm and the Dark One's shoulders drooped a little.

"Indeed he does."

"Can you find them?"

Rumplestiltskin turned towards David, almost as if he'd forgotten he was standing there with them. "Neverland has a tendency to confuse things, but yes, eventually we should be able to find them. We're all working towards the same goal after all."

"Henry," David agreed. "But they're safe? Mary Margaret and Emma? And the others?"

The Dark One frowned and David didn't like the look. "We're in Neverland. None of us are."

Cora had tried playing nice. Really, she'd given it her best effort, despite the way those arrogant royals and Rumple had poisoned others against her. Even Regina. She knew better than to think that Regina would have stood against her if that little blond princess - Eva's granddaughter to be certain - hadn't been chirping in her ear. She wasn't certain what Storybrooke's little savior had over her daughter - it seemed much simpler to take her out of the equation completely and make it so that Regina was the only mother in Henry's life - but Regina was determined to keep that peace even at the expense if her mother's much-needed help. That, of course, didn't mean Cora would sit back and do nothing. What kind of mother would?

Cora's heeled boots tapped along the boards of the pier as she came to stand behind a man that had made himself very scarce around Storybrooke since his last attempt on his nemesis' life. "Hello, Captain," she greeted.

Hook turned, irritation shining in his eyes. "Lady Cora," he answered, though somehow the title had an empty ring to it.

Cora didn't let it phase her as her smile widened. "I'm half surprised to see you here, Captain."

"And where else would I go? I'm stuck here without a portal, and you destroyed any hopes I had of killing the crocodile."

"Sometimes things simply do not work out as we wish them to, but I've come to offer you a second chance at him."

"Have you? At what price?"

Her smile didn't falter. "I need your vessel to transport us to where he is."

That caught Hook's attention. "Rumplestiltskin has left Storybrooke?" he demanded as he stood.

"Yes, not too long ago in fact. If we hurry, I'm sure we can catch them."

"But why do you need to go, and where? My ship may be a wonder, but she won't travel across realms without some kind of portal."

"Well, then it's quite a good thing that I have a bean to create one," Cora said and pulled a small pouch holding several magic beans. They had been hers to begin with, as she had brought the giant over. "My daughter is with them in Neverland. We leave immediately."

"Neverland?" the pirate echoed, taking a physical step back from her. "No. Find another way. I won't be taking you."

"Even for a chance to kill the man who murdered your love?"

Hook frowned at that and Cora thought she had him before he shook his head. "You've obviously never been to Neverland, love. Nothing is worth that."

She hadn't, of course, but she'd heard bits and pieces from Rumple in some of their closer moments. It was amazing how much he'd actually trusted her with. Her smile finally faded and her thin lips turned down into a pout. "I really had hoped we'd avoid all this unpleasantness."

She moved faster than Hook could react, plunging her hand into his chest and wrapping her fingers around his beating heart. He stiffened immediately, a pained sound escaping through parted lips and he tried to turn a glare on her as she pulled it out and inspected it. It beat in her hand, magic allowing her to hold it. Light pulsed around the many dark spots that years of stewing anger and hatred had formed up on it, but she'd expected a bit more from a feared pirate. Perhaps he was more bluster than action. He'd had three centuries to kill Rumplestiltskin, after all. If Cora had ever actually wanted to kill Rumple, he'd have been dead years ago.

"You might as well crush it," Hook growled, "because no matter how much you threaten me, I'm not taking you to Neverland."

"Oh, there's no need to threaten you, Captain," Cora laughed. "You'll do whatever I say now. I have your heart."

She watched as Hook's expression melted from determined hatred to dread as he realized just what she was saying. "You evil bitch!" he snarled, lunging forward.

"Now now," she said as she stepped back. "None of that."

The pirate froze instantly as if he'd been caught by a thousand invisible strings. He couldn't even twitch without her sayso now and she gave his heart a light squeeze, revelling in the way his brows drew together in obvious discomfort. "Shall we, Captain?"

Hook growled lowly, even as Cora summoned a box to hold the heart and magicked it back to her daughter's vault. She didn't need it in her hands to control him, just her possession.

"Keep that well guarded, Your Highness," the pirate warned darkly, "because the moment you slip up I'll make you regret it."

Cora chuckled and touched his face as she moved past him. "My dear captain, you couldn't do it when my daughter set you after me, nor will you now. In fact, you won't do anything that I don't want you to."

His temper was amusing at worst because they both knew that she had him on a tight leash now. She would use him to get to Neverland and then she'd use him to help her save her daughter's adopted son. If a few of the others - say Snow, Emma, or that child Rumple seemed so determined to keep - met their ends in Neverland, well, terrible things did happen. It really was just the way of things, and the fact that it made her life just a little bit more comfortable was a pleasant thought in the end. Perhaps she really did enjoy having her heart back after all.

TBC

Notes: I'm very excited that everyone seems to be equally excited about Neverland! There's really no point in rehashing what the show did (considering I wasn't overly fond of it anyway), so expect some twists and turns :)

Next time - Chapter Twenty-Six: Where Belief Matters Most, in which Rumple, Belle, and David find themselves in the aptly named Nightmare Forest, and Bae, Emma, Regina, and Snow find Henry... and Pan.