Shahrazád's Ghosts

Chapter 22: Darling (Bella) Part VI

2416 A.D.

He peeped in again to see why the music had stopped, and now he saw that Mrs. Darling had laid her head on the box, and that two tears were sitting on her eyes.

"She wants me to unbar the window," thought Peter, "but I won't, not I!" He peeped again, and the tears were still there, or another two had taken their place. "She's awfully fond of Wendy," he said to himself. He was angry with her now for not seeing why she could not have Wendy. The reason was so simple: "I'm fond of her too. We can't both have her, lady."

But the lady would not make the best of it, and he was unhappy. He ceased to look at her, but even then she would not let go of him. He skipped about and made funny faces, but when he stopped it was just as if she were inside him, knocking.

"Oh, all right," he said at last, and gulped. Then he unbarred the window. "Come on, Tink," he cried, with a frightful sneer at the laws of nature; "we don't want any silly mothers;" and he flew away.

J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

oooo

Darling watched Peter just enough to notice when he began stockpiling supplies in one corner of Tinkerbell's House. Extra clothes, water, food, and blankets now covered half of his floor. She caught him spending hours analyzing each door, ventilation shaft, and security camera around their underground home. It would not be long before he decided to make his escape, rescue his Tinkerbell from the horrors of Neverland, and make a new home with her, far, far from Darling. She could watch them from outside the barred window and see the world she would never fully be a part of, except in stories. They would forget about her. They always forgot about her. But they would be happy and that would have to be enough.

She could not let Peter know of her intervention, but she wanted to help his escape along as much as she could. Quietly, so quietly, she opened all the glass barriers between compartments and unlocked the inner and outer perimeter doors. She tried to make it appear as a convenient technical failure and a blinking light on the computer screen should alert Peter to the "error."

Now, all she had to do was wait.

Oooo

Slightly and Darling made one more trip to Volterra. Michael was still there, pining away on a balcony, watching the moon as if it were a troupe of acrobats performing on a tight rope and not a giant rock half stripped of the light of the sun. His thoughts were far away from the moon and firmly placed on what he had left behind in Neverland.

Slightly listened from the delivery truck where they were parked in front of a restaurant. The noise of the late-night patrons filled the street with music and laughter, but it also kept them from appearing out-of-place in their hiding place. Darling listened to the music and wondered if Peter would ever bring Bell to Italy. The thought made her startle.

He shouldn't. He couldn't. Bell should never come near Aro, not if Peter is to stay safe. Aro would stop at nothing to have a shield he could control and keep nearby and Peter would make it only too easy.

She realized she would need to find some way to warn him. Perhaps a suggestion to Slightly would do it. She knew Peter and Slightly had developed an uneasy friendship over the years, though Tinkerbell had placed a wedge between them.

"My Lady?" Slightly began and Darling was pulled from her reverie.

"What is it?"

"Did you tell Aro that your sire was named Peter?"

Darling bristled.

"Yes. My sire went by many names. When I was first discovered by the Volturi, I gave Aro his list of names."

Slightly chuckled. "Aro has gotten it into his head that your sire intentionally sent you to the Volturi as a spy and now he has sent Michael."

"My sire? He thinks my sire sent me?" Darling thought of Edward during those last days and she smiled. He had barely known if he was wearing clothing or if he was chewing off his own fingers. The idea of him attempting subterfuge in Volterra was so ridiculous she could barely stifle her laugh. "So, Aro does not believe I sent Michael?"

"Oh no. Aro is entirely convinced that Neverland has been built by a vampire named Peter, who used you as a puppet for him to hide behind. He's quite impressed and he is putting all his efforts into finding this Peter." Slightly fell silent and Darling was not sure if he was listening to Aro further or considering this new piece of information. "You know, he isn't entirely wrong, though he has mixed up who the puppet master is. I mean, in a sense, Neverland has been built by a vampire named Peter. It just happens there's been more than one vampire named Peter who have all made their own contributions."

"But if he comes now, there is only one we all agree is called Peter," Darling said.

"Oh, Peter's face!" Slightly said, breaking down into a boisterous laughter. "If Aro comes to Neverland asking for Peter and thinking he is the mastermind behind everything… I almost wish it would happen just so I could see Aro try to figure out how Peter built Neverland with nothing but songs and poetry and Pirates!"

Darling did not find the idea as amusing. Peter was the one person in all Neverland that Aro must not find. The thought of Aro running facial recognition scans around the world suddenly put Peter into danger, no matter how far he moved from Neverland. She felt her anxiety and impatience spike. She needed to summon Michael out and pull Aro's attention as far from Peter as she could.

"Slightly, has Peter mentioned anything to you about leaving?" she asked.

"Leaving?"

"You know, spending some time away from Neverland?"

"Oh, yeah. He's already gone."

"Peter is gone?" she asked.

She had assumed he would leave soon and she had not wanted to know the moment of departure. Now, she wished she had paid closer attention, at least so that she could get one last glance of him before he left, as melancholy as that seemed.

"When did he leave?"

"Oh, last night, I believe was when he meant to leave," Slightly said with a shrug. "I didn't know you knew about that."

"Of course, I knew."

"Oh, good. Well, that should make my job easier then, cause I lost the coin toss."

"A coin toss?"

"There is one bit of information I am supposed to get from you, before all this comes together."

She could barely register what Slightly was saying. Her mind was sinking deeper and deeper into the realization that it had happened. Peter was gone.

All she wanted to do was be back in her favorite room and bury herself in her book. She didn't want to hear anything else or think about Neverland or Volturi or Braves. She swallowed back a sigh to hide it from Slightly and she tried to shake herself out of the sense of foreboding that crept over her like a mist at dawn.

Peter was safe. Aro could not find him. Aro would not know to look for him and would have no reason to find him. If Aro wanted a shield, he would come for Darling, not Tinkerbell. Peter would be safe and have the benefit of the strongest shield known in the vampire world to protect him. If all the covens of the earth descended upon Darling, she would welcome them. If the worst happened and the Volturi somehow defeated them, she would simply ensure she took out as many of them with her along the way. As long as Peter was safe, nothing else mattered, or so she tried to tell herself.

"Peter already got most of them," Slightly was saying, and Darling realized she had know idea what he was talking about.

"Most of what?"

"The Tiger Lilies. The human bodies of your clones."

"Why does Peter have them?"

"To destroy them, you know, as I just said, before the Volturi come?"

"Peter is destroying them? From where?"

"Barzakh, and anywhere else they are hiding."

"You sent Peter there?" she said. It was a thought so distasteful she would have preferred Peter as far from that place as geographically possible.

Slightly sighed. "My Lady, have you heard a word of what I've said?"

"Enough," she bit back. She imagined Peter amongst the old shallow graves and she grimaced. What would he think of her after being there?

It won't matter because I will not be seeing him again, she tried to remind herself. It didn't stop the shudder that rippled through her body.

"As I was saying, we need to destroy the one you used to make Tinkerbell."

"What does Tinkerbell have to do with this?"

"Not Tinkerbell, my Lady. The genetic material you used to create Tinkerbell. If we don't want any more duplicates of you running around, then we need to get rid of all the original material."

She nodded. "I will do that when we return."

"Splendid! Ok, and there's another one we can't find."

"Which?"

"This is an old one, from before your days in the Volturi, I think. The archaeologists called her the 'Toubou Woman.' She was the oldest of the clones and she was buried in the gold room near the bed."

"What do you mean you can't find her?" Darling hissed and swung her head back as if she had been struck.

"Just that. She vanished during the excavation. The archaeologists returned to their lab one day and the body was gone, or so their notes say."

"How is that possible? Who would have stolen her body?"

"That's what I am asking. You didn't take it?"

"Why would I want that woman's body? Edward should have left her to the hyenas and the care of her offspring instead of dragging her back to us, again. I never wanted to see her the first time and I surely did not want to see her the second and third time he forced her back to us."

Slightly groaned and she could hear him rubbing his forehead with his hand. "Ok. Got it. Here's the thing. She's the one missing body."

"Of course, she is."

Why was it that no matter what Darling did, she could not escape from Badiyah? The woman refused to stay dead.

She thought of Edward's desolation as he spent months in vigil next to that grave…how he had not even changed his clothes or noted if his temple burned down around him.

And it all circled around that woman.

Her own guilt clawed at her throat and blinded her eyes and all she wanted was to rebury those memories before they revealed more uncomfortable truths Darling prefer stay in the past.

It was more disconcerting than she wished to admit to herself to know that Badiyah's body had mysteriously vanished. Who would have still remembered the woman and lived long enough to carry off her body?

It took a moment before Darling realized that Slightly was addressing her name and concern was evident in his voice.

"If you haven't found her, there's nothing I can do. The last place I saw her was buried in the floor of what you called the Gold Room."

"Ugh. Of course, this would be a dead end."

"There's nothing that can be done about it now," she said. "Let's leave Michael his summons before we leave."

They sent a tiny drone to leave a note for him. When he returned to his room, it would be waiting for him inside his Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees of Britain and Europe. Then they left. There would be a shipping container waiting for him in the same location he had first disembarked from in Volterra. He would return to Neverland within three days and Darling would ensure the autopilot of the final truck delivered him directly into the underground delivery garage of Tinkerbell's House.

Then, all they would need to do was wait.

She had not dwelt as Aro's shadow for a century without learning his ways and his little habits. She knew that the moment Michael left, and did not return, then Demetri would track him. The guard, however, would not be deployed until Demetri determined Michael's location was fixed and he was not simply wandering around as a nomad. Darling knew she had approximately one to two months before the Volturi would come to call on her in Neverland.

Oooooo

All her carefully laid plans were disintegrating around her. Instead of an army prepared to surprise the vampire lords, Darling had complete and utter chaos and an underground city badly in need of repair. Her production of blood must be transferred until Neverland could be repaired and her many courtiers and visitors must also leave until she could continue to feed them.

She made a frantic call to Augustine. "You were right," she said. "We should have set up an alternate site for blood production. I regret not listening to you sooner."

"I am most relieved to know you are still in one piece," Augustine had responded. He promised to make arrangements for not one but two sites and he could expedite all the logistics, if she could only get him the machines and people who knew how to use them.

"Slightly, Nibs, you move all the least damaged milk machines to wherever Augustine tells you," she directed. "We can keep the others here. We need to split production between sites so we do not have something like this happen again. Take how ever many Braves you need to move it over and get it running."

"My Lady, a suggestion…," Slightly began.

"What is it?"

"Send the Pirates with me."

"The Pirates? Why?"

"Neverland is in no shape for the little humans right now and I will need skilled hands to run the machines. They can all stay to work for a time, until this is sorted out."

"Fine."

Two days later, Nibs, Slightly and five Braves loaded one full floor of machines onto a series of trucks and travelled to Tamanrasset, Algeria. The second load they delivered to Dongola, Sudan. They reassembled each complicated piece of technology while Nibs tried to make the necessary repairs. Slightly returned to Neverland to exchange the Braves for the Pirates.

"I have the Pirates all staying in Dongola until the Tamanrasset facility is up-and-running," Slightly informed Darling, when he returned. "The poor devils were so delighted to see the sun and the stars and the rocks that the views of the Nile and the conical pyramids pretty much took their breath away. They are also happy to be back at work. It's good for them, I think, to have the normality of work they are used to. They were all pretty badly shaken up by all that happened here."

"You can manage them?"

Slightly laughed. "Of course! Are you sure you can manage without me?"

Darling sighed. "We should be fine. Thomas and Curly have been working their crews around the clock to get things fixed. We will need to discuss how to prevent something like this from happening again."

"What, like stationing our own missiles to protect Garden City from attack?"

She shrugged. "I guess you are right. There was no way to prevent this."

"No more than we can stop sandstorms or floods, my Lady. What of Volterra?"

"Our contact in the airport said they may have a trip to Scotland soon, but nothing that leads our direction."

"Good! Let them wait until we are a bit more put together here!" Slightly said. "By the way, Peter came back."

"What?!"

"I heard him when I was leaving. John was talking to him in his old room."

She didn't know which surprised her more – the fact he had returned (again) or that John was speaking with him or the fact that he was in his old room.

Why is he back? He is supposed to be gone. He had left-again. She did not think her heart could handle such constant whiplash of him returning like a boomerang.

The first time he appeared outside her door, nearly six weeks ago, she wasn't sure whether she should throw her arms around him or slap him across the face and send him away again. In the end, it took very little conniving and convincing to get him to choose to leave all on his own. He left directly from Darling's room to Tinkerbell's House and not even twelve hours passed before he finally did what she thought he had done all along: he helped Tinkerbell escape.

She gave a sigh of relief when Peter snuck both his charges out of Neverland through a ventilation shaft. Tinkerbell still lived. Darling watched half in amusement, half in dismay at his proceedings. The man struggled to haul a frail human woman wrapped in blankets through the tight ventilation shaft instead of simply opening the doors to Tinkerbell's Home.

The doors were all unlocked. She had made sure of it. She had even left a truck full of supplies for them waiting outside.

Oh, Peter, she mused to herself. Must you play the hero? Must you go so far to rescue your lady from the clutches of the evil stepmother? How truly low your opinion must be of me!

The video feed did not catch clear images of the escaping prisoners, but it was clear enough to show Darling that it was three individuals, and not two, who escaped. This was another unexpected, and problematic, development.

Michael is going with them, she surmised, with no lack of surprise. All the 'why's' and 'how's' of this were overshadowed by the sudden dread of what this meant… for Neverland and for Peter.

Idiot! Darling fumed. She re-watched the video feed ten times to make sure she saw it perfectly. Of course, she had not made a mistake and no amount of hoping for error could change it. Michael went with Peter and Tinkerbell.

Demetri would follow Michael straight to wherever Peter went.

Darling nearly leapt up and screamed in her panic. She could not shield him. She could not contact him to warn him or let him know of his own danger. If Aro followed…well, even if the little human was changed, she would not know how to use her shield in time to protect anyone other than herself.

Darling paced her room, back and forth, back and forth, frantically thinking through all that she could do, or should do, and all the delicate pieces of her many plans she would need to rework in light of this.

With Neverland in such disarray, a slight delay in the Volturi's arrival was actually welcome, but at what cost?

Oh, Peter! She thought to herself. You can't ever do what I think you should! Why did you not take your little mate and run? Why must you rescue Michael along with Tinkerbell?

She knew why. Because he was too good. He had always had that heart larger than her entire army and it was as much a weakness as it was a strength.

But she loved him for it. With every ounce of her being, even if he had succeeded in single-handedly overturning all her careful planning.

Peter vanished for nearly six weeks. She knew because she watched for him like a hawk watches the roadway for a mouse. She wasn't sure if she most hoped that he stayed away, or hoped for him to return. She thought, at first, that he was truly gone this time, but then Slightly informed her that he had returned.

She forgot all about returning to her room and made her way straight to the Home Under the Ground. The hall lights were still dark and the hall had a dank, musty smell lingering from the burst pipes. Papers and articles of clothing were strewn around the hall where they had floated away from different rooms, carried on the tides and currents of the sudden flood. The Lost Boys had been so busy fixing Neverland since the flood that none had bothered to clean up their own wing.

The Home Under the Ground appeared to be deserted. She could not hear any footsteps or whispers or sounds of movement. At least, not until she threw open the door to Peter's typically empty room.

She was not prepared for what she saw.

Peter was covered in sand, from head to foot. He lay on the floor in one corner of the room with his arm over his eyes and his head away from her, facing the far wall. He did not move or stir when she entered the room, leaving the door ajar behind her.

The dim light reflected off the bottle in his hand. It was a black bottle. A medicine bottle. Its cork had been thrown across the room and the scent of blood, her blood, filled the room.

"Oh, no, no, no, no," she said as she ran and knelt beside him, her heart sinking to her toes. "Peter, what are you doing?"

He did not respond. Not so much as a muscle in his cheek or a single finger moved. Then, he opened one eye and peeked out at her from beneath his arm.

"Ah, my Lady, so you've come to applaud me for my descent into debauchery," he mumbled before he closed his eye again. "Far be it from me to do anything but to please you and serve you to my utmost, my Lady. I hope I may finally earn your favor."

"Peter, not now. Please, not now," she said. She covered her own eyes with her hand, fighting back the waves of fear and disappointment that crashed over her. She had placed him on his own pedestal, she realized, but wasn't he just a man, like any other? He, too, could fall, but it still smarted to see the reality of it before her eyes.

"Aw, so you will encourage my dissipation, but not until a time more convenient to yourself."

"That is not what I meant."

"Well, please enlighten me. I cannot read your mind, you know. Please let me know what the Mistress of Neverland is thinking."

"Peter, I…," she began, but first she moved to take the bottle away from where it precariously balanced on his hand. It was heavy. She gaped and peered into the bottle's neck.

The bottle was full.

He had not taken a single sip.

She glared at him. He noticed and he laughed.

"Oh, I am sorry to disappoint you, but it's not for lack of trying, my Lady," he said, his eyes now fully opened and his mouth twisted in a wry, crooked smile. "I've stared at that bottle for near 24 hours and brought it to my lips at least twice that many times. But I just can't do it, no matter how I wish I could. John promises it would help and he seems to be the expert in these matters. A few hours of oblivion sounds rather wonderful right now."

It was her turn to throw the bottle against the wall and she watched with a smug satisfaction when it crashed against the wall of his room and left a trickle of scarlet down the uneven rock face and onto the floor.

"What is going on?" she finally said, once she felt her initial burst of anger simmer down and the broken glass no longer tinkled against the rocks.

"Oh, I am having a delightful pity party. Would you care to join in? Here, come and we can feel sorry for ourselves together. You see, I've learned something very important. I found that jealousy does not suit me."

She sank back on her heels with her arms pressed against her knees and sighed. "What has brought this about? Who are you jealous of?"

"Michael has his Bell. They have their entire lives ahead of them and have so much to look forward to. And me, well, I am still here. Alone. Cursed to remain here until my days are finally spent and I go the way of all the Pirates and visit Captain Hook myself. Truly, what is the point of any of this now? If I had any self-preservation instincts, that bottle would be empty and I would find something, anything else to live for now."

"Peter, you could have stayed with them," she whispered. Oh, why didn't you stay with them?

"Ah, yes. I'm sure that would have fixed everything. I am shocked and appalled I did not consider that myself. Yes. Run away with Michael and Bell."

"Why did you come back, then?"

"That is the question I keep asking myself and the one which John felt compelled to answer for me with his generous peace offering. His answer, however, has not improved my disposition."

"I am surprised you both maintained all your limbs."

"Truthfully, I am as well. I considered asking him to relieve me of a few of mine, but then decided bodily harm would not improve my mood."

She sighed and closed her eyes. She had never, not in all the years she had known him, seen him in a mood quite like this and she did not know how she was supposed to respond.

"Why did you help them both escape?" she asked.

"So, they could have what I don't. A life outside of here. I don't want to risk you leaving a door open again or turning into a temper because Bell suddenly becomes a danger to you and your lofty ambitions."

"I wouldn't…," she began but his sudden movement stopped her.

He sat up, rage boiling across his face, and his lethargy melted away entirely. "Of course, you would. You already have before. You practically forced her blood…your blood…down my throat and when I refused, you dangled your own human body, Tiger Lily's body, in front of me instead. When I refused that, you killed her. I think that's enough reasons to want Bell and her child far, far from here. If that wasn't enough, you apparently threw Bell at me in hopes of escaping my abhorrent attentions and to get me as far away from you as possible. I am sorry to disappoint you by turning back up again."

Darling dug her fingers into the rock floor beneath her until she left grooves with her fingernails across the rock face.

"Peter, I wouldn't, it's not like that. I wish you could see it from my… wait, Bell's…child?"

"Yes, Bell's child. He is doing quite well, by the way. He's a beauty, like his mother. His father is quite proud. Michael has mastered the art of bottle feeding and is learning how to cook human food already, just so he can feed the little imp properly."

"Bell…had a child with Michael?" Darling asked, unsure if she was truly hearing what she thought she was hearing.

"Yes."

"Not with you?"

By the way he scoffed and rolled his eyes she gained her answer, but it still made her mind tumble about like rocks in a river bed.

"And Bell – she still lives?"

"Yes. She's never been happier, and I don't blame her."

"Oh, you idiot," Darling said, pulling up on her knees so she could look down over where he leaned against the wall. "You foolish, foolish man. Do you have any idea what you've done?"

The lines of his jaw grew hard and his eyebrows crept closer together. "I rescued three people I care about from this God-forsaken place and got them far away from danger."

"You are so noble! So valiant! You have come in as the hero to save them all, have you? You idiot."

Darling was tempted, for a minute, to let Peter continue to bask in his self-congratulation and leave it alone. After all, Peter was now here, with her, the location which had unexpectedly become the safest from the Volturi. She must find a certain amount of comfort in having him here, even if in a foul mood. If he chose to place the safety of his precious young family in the hands of the Volturi over her, she could let him. Her initial plan obviously failed. Peter was not happy and he had not left Neverland permanently and Darling couldn't help the sudden burst of joy she felt in her own failure.

She knew it would destroy him, though, if any harm came to them.

Then there was a baby… she already owed a greater debt than she could ever pay to a similar child who she had failed to save in time.

She moved forward to Peter so she could place both her hands on his shoulders and implore him to hear her.

"Peter, if you wish to keep them alive, you must take me to them," she said. "Michael can be tracked wherever he goes. I did not mean for him to leave Neverland. I sent him to Tinkerbell's House once I thought you and Tinkerbell were far from here so the Volturi could follow him straight to Neverland. The Volturi will still follow him, but now they will go straight to wherever you have hidden them away."

"By Hook's claws!" he exclaimed. His face grew grave and he leaned forward on his elbows to be closer to where Darling implored him to listen to her. "Why would it help? I mean, what good would it do if I brought you to them?"

"I am assuming Tinkerbell has been changed?" When he gave a hesitant nod, she continued. "Then, I am the only one who can teach her to use her shield. The Volturi cannot track me or any I keep shielded."

When he nodded a second time, Darling was torn in half again. Leaving Neverland now, at such a vulnerable point, could be disastrous. If the Volturi chose to travel to Chad after all, they would find her kingdom without its monarch and shield and they would easily fall. But when she saw the fear in Peter's eyes, she tried to swallow all her fears for her kingdom.

In the end, there really never was a choice.