Chapter Twenty-Eight: Home

The stress over Cora and Hook's abrupt appearance in Neverland was palatable as Bae cornered the pirate and Regina stared at her mother who was smiling that smile she always gave when she had an excuse. The others stood absolutely still, as if any movement would spook someone into an all-out brawl. Regina took one step forward, not willing to be completely overrun without any sayso at all. "Mother, we decided-"

"You didn't think I was going to let you face this alone, did you, sweetheart?"

"She's not alone." That was Snow, much to Regina's surprise. Her step-daughter squared her shoulders and straightened her spine. Regina had seen the expression before - many times, in fact - but never in attempt to defend her. Because despite the irritations of being around her too-good former enemy, there was something almost refreshing in having someone in her corner other than Rumplestiltskin when it came to raging with her mother, and she was never quite sure which corner Rumple actually sat in on most days. "We're here with her and she's here with us. We'll save Henry."

"And you're doing such a fine job of it, dear," Cora cooed. "You needn't worry about him, Baelfire, I have him quite under control."

Regina couldn't imagine what had set Rumple's son so on edge about the pirate, but if he continued to gather power to him like he was and managed to direct it all at him, Hook wouldn't last ten seconds against it. Apparently Bae had come quite a ways in his training with his father, but the Evil Queen knew her former teacher would never forgive her if she let his son injure himself while reaching too deep into untrained magic.

Emma beat her to it though. "Neal, I know what he did to your dad, but they're here now. Fighting Hook or Cora is just going to distract us from what's really important."

That seemed to get through to him and Baelfire's shoulders relaxed a bit, his magic deflating and slowly dissipating into the air. "Henry," he murmured.

"Right."

"Now that you have your priorities back on track," Regina grumbled, "maybe we can get on with it. I think we've laid around here long enough."

"Have you found his camp yet?" Cora asked. "We've come through from the sea into the river and haven't seen any sign of Pan or Henry."

Regina didn't miss the look the pirate shot her mother, but Cora seemed to either ignore it or was entirely oblivious to it. Granted, Regina had never known her mother to be oblivious to anything. She pursed her lips and reminded herself that Cora always had an ulterior motive, even if she had her heart back. There were some things that would never change. That didn't mean that her mother wasn't there to help, in her own way, it simply meant that her own way might not actually be anyone else's. "We found him but Pan took Henry. We were separated from the others when we came through and-"

"And he's too strong for just you, isn't he, dear?" Cora asked in that too-sweet voice that made her daughter frown.

"It's not just me. Baelfire has been studying under Rumple and…" Her eyes snapped over to Emma. She hadn't thought about the savior before, but she had heard through the grapevine that Emma had managed to perform some level of magic here and there. It wasn't shocking, considering the strength from which she was born and the fact that she was immediately shoved through a magic wardrobe to escape an oncoming curse. "Emma."

"Say what?" the blonde managed.

Regina's dark eyes flickered to Bae. "She can do magic, can't she?"

Rumplestiltskin's son looked like he'd rather be anywhere than in a place that required him to answer that particular question. "I… uh… She's done it before, but it's not like she's trained or anything… Papa hasn't-"

"That's fine," Regina said briskly, turning her attention back to the younger woman. "You know we're going to need everything that we have to defeat Pan."

"I don't know how to do magic," Emma argued. "I can't control it, and from what Neal says, that makes it more dangerous."

"I'll teach you."

"You?"

"Well don't act so surprised."

Emma looked petrified rather than surprised and her gaze went immediately to her mother. Regina tried not to frown. If anyone would shoot down the idea of Regina teaching Emma Swan magic, it was her mother.

"I think it's a good idea," Snow White said instead.

"What?" Emma demanded.

"Well, you have it in you. I think you should learn to use it."

"She's not wrong," Baelfire murmured and Emma looked thoroughly betrayed.

"I don't… I can't… I don't want to be like you."

Regina didn't feel quite as offended as she thought she should. "There's light and dark magic. Just because I teach you doesn't mean you have to choose dark."

"Really?"

"Really."

"And you think this will help us get Henry back faster?"

"I do."

"Regina, you can't possibly think of letting these… novices help us fight for Henry," Cora argued.

"I think that's exactly what we need to do, Mother. And you were supposed to stay in Storybrooke, so I don't think you get a say." For the first time since they hit Neverland, Regina felt something akin to hope bubbling within her. "We're going to save our son."


When she had been young her mother had read great tales of adventure and romance to her. Belle had clung to those stories like a life raft that would save her from the life she'd have much preferred not living. She wanted adventures, not to be trapped inside a castle with a fiancé she didn't love and a life that seemed to have no purpose. She'd imagined far off places. daring swordfights, and perhaps even a little bit of magic. As the tall blond boy shoved her forward, she supposed that she'd gotten her wish. She hadn't pictured it quite like this, though.

"Belle, isn't it?" Pan asked her and he wore an impish grin. It was difficult to believe this boy was really a man that had chosen to give up his son - abandon him - for youth, though as she watched him she thought she was really beginning to see where so much of Rumple's uncertainty stemmed from. Pile on top of that Milah and Cora, as well as a curse that encouraged paranoia and it was a recipe for disaster. It was a miracle Rumple had turned out as well as he had.

Pan continued to grin when she didn't answer. "Of course it is. You're Rumple's pretty little thing."

She wasn't sure what it was was with Rumple's enemies and their view of her, but she was more than a little tired of it. She wasn't a doll, she wasn't a flower, and she most certainly would not a trinket he possessed as they all seemed to think she was. She was his True Love and he was hers. She straightened her shoulders and put on her best glare. "You're not going to win."

The teen chuckled. "Is that so?" he asked in a mocking, childish voice. "Is Rumple going to save you?"

Yes, Rumple had certainly come out better than anyone could have asked if this was his father. Even Belle felt the need to lash out at him, and she had always prided herself on her patience and self-restraint. "We're all going to save Henry from you."

"I'd like to see you try." His smile turned deadly and he grabbed her by the wrist, turning her hand palm-up. "Really I would. It'd be a fun game. In fact, let's start now."

Belle tried to tug her hand free, but Pan was stronger than he looked. He pressed the sharp end of his knife along her palm and pressed down. She refused to make a sound, even as the sharp blade split skin and Pan smirked. "You see, Belle, I have no real interest in killing Rumple - much too permanent - but I can't have him running around with the idea in his head that he can rescue Henry. He might break my hold." His eyes flickered up and Belle felt a coldness spread through her. "But you I don't mind killing."

He released her wrist and Belle pulled it back immediately, inspecting the cut that already was beginning to look funny. The blood was tinged a strange yellowish colour and small veins had already begun to stretch out from the wound itself. She'd seen this before when the pirate had attacked Rumple in the shop. "Dreamshade," she whispered.

"Well aren't you a clever girl? It won't kill you right away. It has to make it to your heart first and I've given it a ways to go, but Rumple will be too busy worrying about you to get in my way. In a way, you might just save his life."

Belle clutched her injured hand to her and her eyes narrowed, not a hint of fear in them. "Rumple's stronger than you could ever know. All you've done is sealed your own fate."

"Quite a bit of faith in him," Pan mused.

"This place is built on belief, right?" she asked and waited until he nodded. A smile of her own, full of confidence, stretched her painted lips. "I believe in Rumplestiltskin. He won't fail."


"Just hear me out."

Bae jerked away as the words left his former friend's lips. He didn't like this sitting around any more than Regina would have had she not been trying to teach Emma to light the campfire - with magic - that had been doused a couple hours earlier. "Whatever you have to say isn't enough this time, Killian."

The pirate caught his sleeve. "Bae, this has to do with the boy," he said in hushed tones.

That caught the younger man's attention and he wondered just how much Hook knew. He turned a careful gaze on him and narrowed his eyes. "What about Henry?"

Blue eyes flickered over the where Cora was sitting on a rock, looking ever-so the queen even surrounded by the jungle. When he seemed convinced enough his new mistress wasn't listening, he continued. "Cora made a deal with Pan to stay out of his way with Henry. She's going to make it look like she's helping, but she-"

"Why should I believe you? You're working with her."

"Not by choice," the captain answered. "She has my heart. Do you think I would have come back here of my own free will? You remember what it was like for me after…"

Bae snorted. "After you killed that kid?"

"He was older than you at the time."

"I'd been here more than two centuries by then."

"And he'd been here years before you. Rufio was no new recruit. He knew what he was doing." Hook looked at him pointedly. "Both when he attacked you and when he dueled with me."

Bae knew that Rufio hadn't been a child, or at least no more than any of them had. They'd all been alive for centuries at that point and he'd been in the position that Felix now held at Pan's side. Rufio had been particularly determined to make Bae's life a living hell after his first escape attempt and it had only gone downhill from there. Baelfire knew exactly what Hook was referring to and remembered the night well. He'd been woken from his nook that he'd been dozing in, the sound of Lost Boys startling him awake and sending him running. Pan hadn't led that hunt. Rufio had, and he would have caught Bae too if Hook hadn't been looking for some way to get back into his dead love's son's good graces. "And you knew what you were doing when you when you ran him through."

"Aye, that I did," Hook murmured. "As I know what I'm doing now that I'm betraying the woman who could easily crush my heart, and I do mean that literally. Your boy's in danger."

"Of course he is. He's in Neverland," Bae growled. He didn't have time for Hook's games. They'd been irritating in his own timeline. He'd been willing to look past them for his help, but if he didn't have a reason to be on their side - and if Cora truly did have his heart, her reasons were now his - there was no telling what he'd do. Hook had always befriended the ones he thought most likely to get him what he wanted. Bae supposed he shouldn't blame him for it - he was a pirate - but that didn't mean he had to trust him. Or rekindle any old friendship that hadn't really lasted very long to begin with.

The pirate captain sighed. "I should have spoken to Emma."

That was the last thing Bae needed. "Fine," he snapped. "What sort of deal did they make?"

"He provided her with some bit of dark magic in exchange for her staying out of his way. Cora claims to be willing to break that deal, but you and I both know Pan knows everything that transpires of this island."

Bae frowned. "Either way it's dangerous," he murmured. His papa was notorious for holding people to their deals, but it was all one big, dangerous game to Pan. Bae's grandfather likely already knew that Cora was ready to double cross him - which begged the question why he would just hand over powerful dark magic to someone he knew couldn't be trusted - and now that she was with them it would make it that much harder to get to Henry. If she wasn't going to double cross Pan... Bae didn't even want to think of that.

"Agreed," Killian murmured. "I know... I know that I did wrong by you more than I did right in Neverland, Bae, but you and I know this place best. If we're going to save your boy then we need to work together. The Evil Queen's idea of teaching Swan magic is all well and good, but to get into the camp we'll need more."

"I know," the younger man murmured. He pulled in a deep breath, forcing himself to look at the pirate. "I'll trust you, Killian, on one condition."

"What's that?"

"You and Pop are done with this whole vendetta thing. It's over. This is about Henry, not you, not my mom. The feud is done and over."

Hook seemed to think on this a moment. "And what reassurance do I have he won't strike out in vengeance for the dreamshade?"

"I'll take care of Papa if I have your word."

"Then you have it," the pirate answered slowly and extended his good hand. Bae shook it and they both looked over, startled, as Emma's raised voice caught their attention.

Regina, though, was smiling, only agitating the savior a little more. Bae chuckled and she turned on him. "Look."

Her eyes followed to where he was pointing and to the flames that were crackling up from the previously dead fire pit. She stared at it and Bae's eyes met Regina. Despite herself, she looked proud of her reluctant student's accomplishment. It was one step closer to saving Henry and they needed to move quickly. The longer he was there, the harder it would be to leave.


Henry had been left more or less on his own while Pan was off again. More or less because while no one was talking to him there was always a Lost Boy or two trailing behind him. Then there was Pan's shadow as well. It fluttered around, sometimes there and sometimes not, but when it was it was always watching him. Those lamplight eyes stared at him from its perch and from the sky. Pan might not fly, but the shadow did, and Henry wondered if it held the secret.

He'd managed to wander away from the camp a bit, but not too far. One of his tails had already disappeared and Henry knew either Pan or Felix's arrival wouldn't be far behind. It seemed like the game they'd played since they'd captured him, though how long ago that had been, he had no idea. Hours and days and maybe even weeks ran together to feel like mere moments or a lifetime balled into one in this place. He wasn't sure how he felt about it yet. He obviously had plenty of time to decide that later. In that moment, though, he was working on finding the soft crying that he was certain he'd heard coming from some thick brush.

It took a couple of clever turns, but Henry managed to duck his remaining tail as he crept up a couple of low hanging limbs of a tree and the boy passed right below him. Henry bit back a laugh as he watched the Lost Boy search and he knew that he would have been fussed at back home. He wasn't sure by who, but one of the adults surely would have given him all kinds of grief for the prank.

When he was sure that his would-be guard was gone he dropped back down to the jungle floor, returning to his search. The crying had softened to a bare whimper at the sound of the trudging teen that had thought he was in the right trail now, but Henry found the culprit anyway. There was a box tucked away in the bushes, obscured by the thick foliage from anyone just passing by. He knelt down on the soft dirt, silent in his movements, and peered in. There was a girl dressed in her nightgown, knees pulled up to her chest, face buried against them, and her thick, blonde hair falling down all around her. Another soft sob escaped her and Henry leaned in a little further so that his face was pressed right up against the bars. "Why are you crying?"

The girl startled, tear-filled blue eyes blinking in the darkness. "Who are you?"

The boy grinned. "I'm Henry. Who are you?"

"Wendy," she answered hesitantly. "Wendy Darling."

Henry tilted his head. That name sounded family - like from a story - but he couldn't quite place it. "Hi, Wendy," he greeted instead. "Why are you sitting in there?"

"Pan locked me up."

"Really? Is it some sort of game?" The girl looked at him like he'd lost his mind and he shrugged. "He plays a lot of games, but they don't seem to be as much fun as he thinks they are. Do you want to get out?"

"I can't. He has my brothers. If I don't do as he says, he'll hurt them."

"Are they in the camp?"

"No. They're far away, but Pan has been watching them."

Henry frowned. It seemed that Pan kept people from doing quite a bit around Neverland.

"How long have you been here?" Wendy asked.

"I don't know," Henry answered with a shrug. "A few days? A few weeks? It all sort of runs together."

She gave him a sad smile. "Yes, it does. I fear that you've already begun to forget, just like the others."

"Forget?" he echoed. "Forget what?"

"About your family."

Henry opened his mouth to tell her that he had most certainly not forgotten anything so important, but Pan's shadow swooped in low, circling around the cage. "You can free her," the shadow said. It had barely spoken to him since he arrived, but those words rang loud and clear and Henry sprang to his feet.

"What about her brothers?"

"They'll be safe if you make them safe."

That seemed like a reasonable enough answer, but Henry had no idea how to go about making people safe whom he had never met and might likely never meet. "How do I do that?"

"The Heart of the Truest Believer can make anything happen in Neverland. All you must do is wish it and it will become so."

"Then I wish it," Henry said firmly. "I believe it."

Henry felt a strong wind pick up around him and he wasn't sure quite what he'd done, but something had changed in the air around him. Magic tingled like electricity and it made him sway for just a moment as it washed over him, leaving him feeling powerful like he'd never felt before. Anything was possible and no one could tell him no in this place. Not even Pan.

The cage door popped open and Wendy came out, looking stiff from her captivity. She blinked at him, surprise lighting her eyes and Henry realized he hadn't even touched it. He'd just willed it to open and it had.

"No one but Pan could open that cage," Wendy managed in an awestruck voice.

"Well he's not the strongest here anymore. I am. I'll protect your brothers, Wendy, and I'll save the island. I won't let magic die here and I won't let Pan hurt anyone else." He could be a hero. He could be Neverland's hero.

All at once the temperature dropped and Henry took a step in front of Wendy. The shadow had gone now and as the boy followed the almost visible path of power he saw Pan appearing in the small clearing, Lost Boys surrounding him. They looked around, all but Felix looking anxious and uncertain.

"What are you doing, Henry?" Pan asked, all the playfulness washed out of him.

"Freeing Wendy," Henry answered without missing a beat. "You can't keep her locked up anymore. I won't let you."

"You won't, hmm?" Pan asked, the smile that perked his lips anything but friendly. He took a step forward. "It's just a game, Henry. A fun game, if you'd like to play."

"I think I would," the younger boy answered, "but I don't think you'll be a very good loser."

"I don't lose."

That belief had kept Pan alive all these years. It had allowed him to take over this island and turn it into a living nightmare. Henry wouldn't stand for it. Not anymore. He would save Neverland from Pan. There was no doubt in his heart about it. "Yes, you do," he said firmly and magic sparked in the air.

Pan narrowed his eyes and took a step forward, but it was as if all the magic in the island reared up against him and he was thrown back without Henry even lifting a finger. He hadn't even thought it, specifically, it had just bent to his will. He wanted Neverland safe. He wanted his new friend safe. He wanted to be a hero.

The teen slammed hard into the ground, rolling as he did, but was up on his feet again with a snarl of fury. The Lost Boys around him stayed perfectly still, watching the literal battle of wills unfold before their eyes. "It's time you learned a valuable lesson, Henry. Peter Pan never fails. I've tried playing nice, but it's time for you to do what you came here to do. To save Neverland by giving me your heart."

"I will save Neverland, but not like that," Henry answered. "I'll save it from you."

Pan lurched forward, fingers stretched wide as he aimed for the younger boy's chest. A light shimmered around Henry, and as Pan's fingers passed through it they began to change. He pulled his hand back to him with a startled cry, but Neverland's magic was already reversing. The light moved up his arm, changing him as it went, and when it was done a grown man stood in his place, scraggly and ill kept. He stared at Henry with wide blue eyes that had lost all their youthful shine. "What have you done?" he demanded.

It wasn't Henry, but the shadow that had once done his bidding, that answered. "Your time is up."

"No! I can still get his heart! I can still be a boy here!"

The argument fell on deaf ears, because if there was one thing Henry knew about magic, it was that it always came with a price. That price washed over the grown man that had once been Peter Pan and his screams echoed throughout Neverland. Henry watched, brown eyes wide, as the magic disintegrated him and left nothing but a pile of ash and and echoed cry in its wake.

"He's gone," one of the Lost Boys Whispered. "You defeated Pan."

Henry was still staring at the ground and he felt Wendy take his hand. "Henry? Shouldn't we go find your family now?"

"Why?"

"So you can go home."

The shadow moved from where it had brought down the island's judgment on Pan and slunk across the soft dirt until it reached Henry's own. Dark, clever eyes watched it, but didn't fight it as it melded there, shifting and changing until, finally, it was one, and it was his. It stood back up flying into the air and beckoned him to do the same. He grinned as his feet lifted off the ground, his body suspended in the air. He didn't need pixie dust. All he needed was belief. "I am home."


Rumplestiltskin was not fond of cages. When he was young the other boys in the village had made it a sport to think up some of the worst games imaginable. Little Rumple hadn't been fool enough not to catch on pretty quick that most of the nastier games were directed at him and a couple of other boys that were liked less than the games' instigators. It hadn't helped him avoid the dark cellar that he'd been locked in for nearly two full days before they'd found him. Granted, the makeshift cage that they'd locked him in during the Ogres War after he'd broken his ankle hadn't helped clear up the horrible feeling of walls closing in that a closed cage door brought with it either.

Charming had been beating against the cage door next to him since they'd been tossed in, but Rumplestiltskin knew his father too well to think they could escape from the inside. No, that would require magic. The shepherd prince stopped - finally! - and Rumple heard him lean heavily against the cell of the cage next to him. "Still nothing?" he asked

The Dark One sighed. Pan had a firm grip on his ability to reach his magic. He was searching for a loophole, but Neverland made it difficult.

"You okay?"

Rumplestiltskin startled at that question and moved so that he could look through the thick bars of the cage. He caught blue eyes watching him and they actually looked a little concerned. "Yes," he said at last, but he hardly felt it. Pan had been right. Without his magic he was useless. They'd taken Belle, they had Henry, and what good was he? He was locked in a cage until he could either find a way around his father's magic or someone found them.

"So," David drawled and heaven help him, it sounded like he was going to use awkward questions to fill the silence. "What's the story about you and Pan?"

Rumple snorted. "Weren't you listening at all, dearie?" he snapped and watched Charming blink in surprise.

"He's your father. I heard that, of course, but-"

"We came to Neverland to escape his less than stellar reputation when I was a boy and he decided to stay. I wasn't welcome. Too much of a reminder." His voice was sharp and it hid the pain beneath the layers. He didn't want to think about how like his father he'd turned out, even if he was striving so hard to be better. He'd still left Bae. He'd still let him go.

David made a soft, noncommittal noise. Even he didn't know what to say, but Rumplestiltskin supposed he should be grateful for small mercies in the fact that he wasn't pushing the subject.

Distraction came in the form if shuffling feet and Rumplestiltskin pressed his face against the front bars, thin fingers wrapping around them as he watched. Lost Boys shuffled their captive, but the angle that he had was hardly conducive to seeing who it was. It only took one boy moving out of the way, though, and he saw Belle's muddy boots. A rage not entirely born of his curse filled him, pushing the hopelessness aside to make room for itself and his knuckles went white as he gripped the bars. They were shoving her along, and though she had her head held high, she was holding her hand close to her. If they'd hurt her, if they'd laid one hand on her, he was going to soak the ground with their blood.

That's the moment when his curse reared its head, forcing back the whispered idea Pan had put into his mind: Your magic is gone. Pan had believed and made it so, but the moment that Rumplestiltskin needed it protect the woman he loved it came to his call. His curse cared nothing for the reason, only the result, and it was cheerful enough to be released even if it was True Love that had won out over Pan and his own brand of magic.

The cage flew apart, bottled power raging outward and Rumplestiltskin stood where it had been. The Lost Boys froze, eyes wide and fixated on him, even as a slow and nasty smile crossed his lips. He didn't say a word, just motioned and they dropped their grip on Belle. She held herself steadily as she walked to him and he positioned himself between the boys and his love. She was still holding her hand close and he frowned. "What'd they do to you?"

"They didn't. Pan did," she answered and touched his arm with her non-injured hand. "Rumple, they're just children. They're not our enemy, not really."

His curse raged almost uncontrollably, demanding blood and revenge for being bottled as it had. For being suppressed, but Belle leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his shoulder. Even through the tough leathers of his clothing True Love washed over him and he felt the rage begin to die just a little. "Bring us Henry," he demanded of the frightened boys and they nodded, scurrying off to do the Dark One's bidding.

A mere flick of his hand snapped the cage door open and David moved stiffly out. "Your magic's back?"

The truth behind why eased Rumplestiltskin down from the raging storm that was still simmering inside his soul. He offered a tight smile. "It would seem I simply needed a reminder of what needed to be done. I couldn't let them hurt her." He turned his eyes towards Belle and motioned for her to show him her injury. "What did he do to you, my dear?"

Her lips were pulled into a frown and she slowly extended her hand. Rumplestiltskin felt his heart stop at the sight of it. "Dreamshade," he managed and she nodded.

"You were looking for a cure when Hook poisoned you."

"Yes," he whispered, barely able to pull the breath into his lungs for that one word. His father had poisoned her. He meant to kill her and for what? A distraction? To keep him from saving Henry?

"Then you'll save me."

Dark eyes blinked, flickering over to meet clear blue. "Yes," he answered and somehow the strength of her belief in him made it so. It had been that strength that she leant him that had allowed him to reach through Pan's lies and to his magic and that strength that would push them through this. "Of course I will."

She smiled and tipped up on her toes, pressing a kiss against his lips. He kissed her back, feeling True Love move between them, but the kiss was interrupted by the sudden chill that moved through the air. It was more than magic, Rumplestiltskin realized when David reacted as well, and he turned towards its source. "What was that?" Belle whispered in his ear.

He wrapped an arm around her and kissed the top of her head. "Nothing good."


TBC

Notes: I know that this chapter deviated greatly from the original Neverland arc of the show. I'm both nervous and excited to hear your thoughts, so please let me know what you think of this turn of events.

Next Time - Chapter Twenty-Nine: Neverland Makes You Forget, in which Henry forgets, his family has to work together to come up with a plan, and Wendy seeks help from quite a common fairy.