Disclaimer- Levi is mine, Janus is mine, and if you don't recognize it from the book or the movies, it's mine. This is only my envisioning of Never-Land and its nature, not anyone else's. And if you do recognize it, it belongs to someone else and isn't mine. That said, read on, noble... er, reader. :D
Chapter Seven
The Persistence of Memory
She woke slowly, her senses coming online one by one. First she was aware of the sound of siren song, tickling at the edges of her hearing. Then the crash of ocean waves and the early-morning squalling of seabirds.
Next came the salty-sweet smell of the sea, and a strange, but oddly comforting scent she almost felt she recognized.
And then she realized she had sand all over her face and the awful stuff and found its way into her clothes, and that there was something warm next to her.
She opened her eyes blearily, wincing at the bright sunshine. She was confused- how had she ended up on the beach? She'd been flying towards the jungle, looking for those dratted fairies...
Levi sucked in a deep breath, all her memories snapping back into their proper place. She'd been dreaming, that was all. But it seemed so real.
Levi suddenly flushed, realizing what a compromising situation she was in. She'd fallen asleep on the beach, and apparently so had Peter. They were curled up together far closer than she was comfortable with. She stood sharply, almost regretful for an instant, but she brushed it away and looked down at Peter.
He hadn't even flinched. He looked rather childlike, curled up like that with sand stuck to him. He murmured something in his sleep.
Levi froze. It sounded suspiciously like the name Lyris.
"Wake up," Levi said, giving Peter a light kick in the ribs. He grunted and opened his eyes, looking up at her groggily.
"Huh?"
"We fell asleep out here," said Levi, trying not to blush and doing a terrible job of it. "We'd better get back to the settlement."
Peter sighed and stood, brushing sand off his clothes and face. "Yeah- I'm supervising that fighting thing this morning."
"What thing?"
"Training, basically. Swords and bows and stuff." He rubbed the gunk out of his eyes, lifting a few inches off the sand as he did so. "Hurry up, Ly- Levi, let's go." Then he vanished.
Levi shoved her crazy dream to far away corner of her mind for later perusal, then took off after Peter and trying to forget that in her dream she'd used a bow.
* * *
Levi flew slowly towards the settlement, not really wanting to see the fairies, but even more so wanting to avoid Peter. That dream... even if she didn't want to think about it, it pushed itself to the forefront of her mind and demanded to be examined.
It was probably a memory, from when she'd been Lyris. Even though Levi still wasn't sure she believed it all, almost couldn't believe, she couldn't hide from the evidence.
Peter had been Piotr. He looked a little older, which didn't make any sense. Because unlike her, this wasn't some repeat life. He hadn't died, while she-or Lyris-obviously had at some point. Levi had the baby pictures to prove it- she wasn't a hold-over like Piotr. Peter.
And she had been Lyris, a girl who loved music and dancing and her bow and Piotr. Who wanted desperately to be able to really fly, not just drift along at the wind's whim. Who was curious about her world.
Levi and Lyris were the same person, as far as personality went. One and the same. They were the same on the outside, too- down to the very last hair.
Levi wondered how much more than her Peter remembered. More than her, certainly. He had never left, and he wasn't fishing for memories through a thousand years of being dead.
Levi shivered. She didn't want to think about it anymore; she sped up and flew as fast as she knew how to the Lost settlement.
She needed to talk to someone. And she knew almost no one- wait. A smile flickered across her face, and she knew exactly where to go.
But they weren't there.
"Where's Mad and Knuckles?" Levi asked, looking at the giant shell in disappointment. The five teenagers inside-all girls Levi had never seen before-gave her a look that suggested she was a complete idiot.
"On the cliff, training," said the eldest, a brunette with freckles and a heavy German accent. "That way." She gestured with the shirt in her hand.
"Thanks."
It only took five minutes to find where the missing teens had gone- it was a cliff about a half a mile from the giant cypress grove. The roar of the surf crashing on the cliffs over a hundred feet below filled Levi's ears. The cliff was bare of vegetation, save for the short, thick grass.
About a hundred and fifty people were there, all looking to be between twelve and eighteen years of age. Some were doing what Levi could only call sparring, beating each other up. Some were practicing with swords. And some were practicing with bow and arrows, their targets a long row of dirt piles.
Peter was showing one of the boys how to hold his sword properly. For a moment he looked far older, comparable to an old army veteran who patiently teaches cadets knowing he's giving them a way to hasten their own deaths. But the illusion fled after a moment and it was just Peter, giving the sword a dramatic twirl before handing it back to the other boy.
Levi landed and wound her way through the crowd-mostly boys, a few girls here and there-to Peter. He was wandering through the group using swords, adjusting their grips or giving pointers.
"Peter! Have you seen Mad and Knuckles?"
Peter looked up sharply, then grinned easily. "Hello, Levity. Mad's over there," he gestured at the makeshift archery range, "Knuckles is sparring with someone."
"Thanks." She ignored his profaning her name-she almost giggled-and headed towards the cluster of archers.
And sure enough, there was Mad, looking both highly attractive and absolutely ludicrous. Leather leggings, a purple hat, a yellow poet shirt, and reddish boots. He seriously needs to get a color consultant, Levi decided.
Mad was listening to an older boy explain how to properly hold the bow. He looked rather intent, brows furrowed. He noticed Levi and instantly the expression fled, replaced by a friendly smile.
"Levi! I wondered if you were here. Any good with a bow?"
She almost told him she could shoot a target blindfolded. She bit her lip and instead told him, "I was good at it once." Some faraway part of her subconscious told her to quit trying to ignore her new memories, but she ignored that too.
"Here, then," said the boy who had been instructing Mad. He tossed a bow and quiver full of arrows at Levi, who caught them easily. "Why don't you demonstrate for Mad here while I go help someone else." The boy headed off down the line.
Levi sighed and slung the quiver over her back. "Come on, Mad." She gestured for him to follow her. He did so and they made their way towards the last target, which didn't have anyone shooting at it due to the fact that it was extremely close to the cliff edge and water came splashing up every so often. Also there was the increased wind factor.
"I'll do a few shots, and then you try," said Levi. "Just watch and pay attention."
Mad nodded, the studious look creeping back onto his dark face.
Levi nocked an arrow and aimed it at the target, not even really thinking about it. She had never held a bow in her life, but it was as natural as breathing.
"I'm better at it than you, so nhah!" She stuck her tongue out, though her eyes were dancing mischievously.
"Don't do that unless you intend to use it," he replied, grinning impishly as he took the bow from her. She flushed, then grinned.
"But I do intend to. Just not in front of the whole village."
"And why not?"
"Well fine."
She jumped and looked around her, heart pounding wildly. What happened?
Then Levi took a deep breath and focused herself to pay attention. But try as she might, Levi didn't know anything about shooting a bow and arrow.
But Lyris did.
She took a deep breath, steadied her nerves, forced herself not to have a conniptions fit, and just let go. The memories and long-dead abilities surfaced, and it seemed that time had blinked and this was just another practice. Afterwards she would go back to the village and see if Phineas would let her into the scouting party, although he probably wouldn't.
She released the bowstring, the arrow went sailing, and struck the dirt-pile dead center.
Levi let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She hadn't lost herself in those memories, she'd just... used them. Lyris wasn't another person, Levi vaguely realized. Lyris and Levi are one and the same, and these were her memories and abilities and knowledge, not that of some ancient doppleganger. She was just as much Lyris as she was Levi.
The realization almost took her breath away.
"That was great, Levi!" Mad crowed. "What do you mean, used to be good? You're bloody well amazing."
Levi turned sharply, forcing herself to pay attention to the here and now. Epiphanies would have wait another half an hour.
"You stand here, Mad, and I'll help you through it," she said suddenly, indicating where he should stand with her foot. Suddenly enthusiastic, Mad obeyed, grabbing his own bow and one of his arrows.
Levi corrected his stance, talked him through how to hold the bow and fire it, helped him aim. Mad released the arrow. It bounced off the target.
"You didn't pull back all the way. Try it again, and aim a little higher."
This time the arrow struck true, even if it wasn't dead-center like Levi's. Mad looked highly proud of himself.
"Keep doing it until you're comfortable with it, then we'll try something different," said Levi, mildly annoyed with herself with getting so comfortable with her odd past so quickly.
Mad kept at it in silence or a few minutes. Then, as he was fishing another arrow from his quiver, he asked, "What brings you out here? You don't have to be here; no one gets sent out to battles or anything until they've been here at least a year."
Levi bit her lip. "I needed to talk to someone, and I figured it might as well be you."
"Why?"
"Well, I could talk to Knuckles but she's too rambunctious, and Peter- he's too close to the problem. And I don't know anyone else, besides you."
"So what do you need to talk about? I'll listen, promise, even if I do have to keep practicing." His eyes were focused on the target with such intensity that Levi almost thought he'd burn a hole in it, but his voice was mild and unassuming, besides being so wonderfully Arabic.
"Do you believe in reincarnation?" Levi blurted. Mad, who had been about to grab another arrow, stopped short and looked up at her.
"Not really."
"Well, I'm a reincarnated warrior girl who lived in Never-Land before the Fae came," she said quickly, afraid Mad would start laughing at her. "And what's worse, is that apparently I was Peter's girlfriend."
Mad gave her a look that suggested she was completely off her rocker. But he saw the sincerity in her face and softened slightly.
"That's the oddest story I've heard yet," he said. "Maybe you'd better explain everything."
So while Mad practiced his archery, Levi told her story, beginning with the afternoon before and telling him her memories of being Lyris inasmuch as she remembered. Images and emotions were still filtering in slowly, like a slight trickle of water from a long-dry spring. She couldn't remember the end of it yet, but for vague impressions and feelings.
By the time Mad ran out of arrows, Levi had run out of words. They sat on the grass together in silence, both digesting what Levi had just said. It was all new to Mad, but Levi was trying to decide what she believed. What to do. Why she felt so irresistibly drawn to Peter, even though it was rather obvious. But there was something beyond all that, some impression of words left unsaid, things left undone. But as to what, she didn't know, and it was frustrating.
"Well," said Mad, taking a deep breath, "like I said, that's the strangest story I've ever heard. I don't know if I believe you."
Levi smiled bitterly. "I don't know if I believe me either."
* * *
Peter watched the pair talking from the corner of his eye. Outwardly he was watching the teens with swords and making sure no one got impaled, but really he was wondering what Levi was up to. Why she was talking with Mad, and what about.
He was also wondering what had happened to Tinker Bell. He hadn't seen her since she flew away the day before after Levi's various insinuations about Tink's knowledge of what had happened.
And along with all that, he was wondering if Janus was still around. He probably was, that old eel had been around since before time itself began. Or so it seemed, sometimes. Janus might know why the Fae had changed him- why they'd stolen his memory and reversed the aging. He'd aged at least five or six years in the time between the Fae arriving and Lyris leaving; he wondered why he'd been turned back. He had rather liked being tall.
Peter shook his head, banishing such thoughts, and forced himself to focus on the sword practice. It was more important to keep everyone safe during training than to speculate about the collective motivations of the Fae.
Even so, he wondered....
* * *
It was dusk now. The training had ended only two hours before, and Levi had wandered off, not really knowing where she was going. She flew aimlessly, thoughts a tangle of questions.
What am I going to do? This is just nuts. Listen to me- four days ago I was living in suburbia, bored out of my mind, and now I'm living in a fairy-tale and I can fly and all I can think about is what to do about these memory things. I ought to be thinking about how to kill pirates- there's only one day left.
Levi landed, and suddenly realized where she was. A rocky beach, near the lagoon where the mer-folk lived. A cliff rose out of the water some one hundred yards away, and a cave had been hollowed out of it.
"It hasn't changed at all," she murmured, heading towards the cave and carefully picking her way through the rocks. They were a little smoother and rounder from the tides, but they still had unexpected sharp edges.
She didn't bother looking for a torch. She just walked in, feeling her way along. She'd done this hundreds of times before.
The chamber with the lake and the shimmering light, daylight reflected through crystals, was the same as she remembered it. It was as if she'd never left.
Something pale blue was under the water. Levi kneeled on the stone bank and brushed the surface of the water with one hand, sending out ripples. "Janus, hear me," she murmured. "I need your counsel, old friend."
A moment later, up came Janus. The water barely rippled as he emerged, wet and dripping and glistening like a pale blue opal. He hauled himself out of the water onto the stone bank and blinked down at Levi, who didn't quite know what to think.
"I have expected you for some time," he said, his deep voice rumbling in Levi's chest and reverberating off the cavern walls. "It has been a long time, Lyris."
"Actually-" it came out rather higher than normal and Levi cleared her throat before continuing- "actually, I go by Levi now. But- I am Lyris..."
Janus considered her silently, black eyes unreadable. Then the great sea-dragon sighed. "You do not remember all yet, do you?"
Levi shook her head. "No. There are big holes."
"And Piotr? Or should I say, Peter?"
"He remembers everything."
Janus nodded. He was older and wiser, Levi realized, and there was something bothering him. She couldn't decide what, though.
"You go to fight the pirates day after tomorrow." It wasn't a question.
Levi blinked, startled, then nodded. "Yes. I myself aren't supposed to, though."
"Go. You are needed there," Janus commanded. "Certain things will happen that will need you. Certain changes. Watch and listen."
She nodded. "I will."
There was a short silence. Then Janus beckoned her forward with one blunt foreleg. She stood and obeyed.
"You doubt yourself," Janus murmured, so low Levi almost didn't hear. "Your abilities. We cannot have that." He reached up and touched her forehead with one claw.
There was a blinding flash of light...