Chapter 9: Betrayal and the Crystal
"Mommy.. where are you going?" A small girl clutching at a teddybear asked curiously. A tall slender woman turned around and knelt towards the little girl.
"Don't worry dear your father and I are just going out for a little while. "
"Can I come?" The little girl asked, giving her best puppy dog eyes.
"It wouldn't be any fun for you sweetie.." A tall handsome man walked into the room.
"You ready to go?" He asked the woman. She nodded. The little girl turned to the man.
"You and Mommy'll be back soon though right?" He smiled and ruffled up her hair.
"Yes darling we will.. don't worry.. this is just a routine flight.. nothing to be so worried about.. you goof.." He said affectionately ruffling her hair. She smiled at him. Before both the man and woman walked out the door...
* * * *
"- they were out flying when the plane had a malfunction and exploded upon impact with the ground. Authorities are still investigating the reason the malfunction occurred..." The news droned on and on, falling on deaf ears. The girl sat staring blankly at a wall. The same scene kept playing in her mind. Running out near the landing area waving frantically at the two people in the descending plane. Curiously wondering why they both looked so horrified about something on the controls.. A loud boom.. fire.. smoke.. so much smoke.. burning and stinging. The two people completely destroyed within the plane.. gone.. gone..
Aurelia shot up in bed panting. Her face was covered in sweat, her hair in disarray. She sighed and pressed her palm against her forehead. Her insides felt like they were crumbling. She shook her head in a helpless attempt to rid herself of the memories. Aurelia got up, brushed her hair in a rush, picked up a basket and crawled out her.. "back" door.
She walked thoughtfully, silently through the forests, absently picking pretty wildflowers and putting them in her basket. In the past she had just gone through people's gardens.. the wildflowers was a lot safer. Just not as pretty as the well tended to flowers from people's overly elaborate gardens. It would have to do. Maybe Aurelia should figure out how to fly and then go and get some seeds and plant her own garden from London.
She remembered the pretty garden her parents had allowed her to tend to. How well the flowers flourished. Perhaps Aurelia could not sew or cook very well, but she did have a magic touch when it came to plants.
The girl finally came to the foot of the highest peak in all of Neverland. She had spied out this area before and knew of a small path that lazily crawled up the side, all the way to the summit. Perhaps it would have been faster if she could have found Peter and gotten him to give her a lift, but that would require human interaction. Aurelia had sworn off all interaction on this day. Plus.. most of the day was the actual journey.. not how fast one could reach the top. She continued to absently throw in odd flowers into her basket. It was getting quite full already! She would toss them to the skies later on. Aurelia idly wondered why she had such twisted traditions, but dismissed it as just being a twisted person in the first place.
* * * *
It was colder at the top. Rocky and cold. The wind was battering, you could hear a gentle whistle of it. The view was glorious though. Aurelia could see miles upon miles of sea, she picked out where the Lost boys played football, the hangmans tree, the mermaid lagoon. Aurelia could almost pinpoint the exact area inside the earth of her own home's location.
She smiled bitterly as the wind tossed her hair gently. She was standing on the edge of a cliff leading down the mountain, enjoying the breeze. Aurelia leaned down and picked up her basket of flowers, throwing the blossoms into the wind and watched them being lifted up into the clouds. She wondered idly if the wind was carrying the flowers straight to her parents to let them know she still thought of them all the time. That was sort of morbid..
Out of the corner of her eye she saw smoke, her head swiveled in that direction to see silvery gray puffs. If she didn't know better she would almost say those were smoke signals. She raised an eyebrow curiously. What the heck could the Indians be worried about? That made no sense whatsoever.. Must just be a party the Indians were having. Nothing she should be worried about. Still.. there was a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach.
The rest of the day was spent in peaceful reflection before she decided she was extremely bored sitting there. It was then she began her decent down. The sun was still up in the air with a few more hours of daylight to pass away. As Aurelia reached the bottom of the mountain she immediately went towards the area in which she hoped to find the Lost boys so they could all play something together. She headed for the large field and looked around quizzically. Not here. She sighed and figured she perhaps should just go home and sit around staring at the walls for the next few hours. That didn't sound like too much fun. She heard a sound behind her and grinned. So the boys wanted to surprise her huh? She'd just play pretend to make them happy. Aurelia continued to act casually and commanded her muscles to remain relaxed, trying to ignore the tense nervous fluttering and the warning bells going off in her mind. How badly she wanted to just run away. This was ridiculous! It was the lost boys! She was sure of it!! Just then..
Aurelia spun around as something sharp hit her back. To her surprise, the assailant wasn't an angry Injun or a disgruntled pirate, but a stocky young boy by the name of Cubbie, surrounded by boys of similar age and two bright red pixies. What was going on? She absently massaged her shoulders easing up the pain from where Cubbie had hit her..
"Where is it, Aurelia?" Cubbie asked as menacingly as he could muster.
"Where is what?" was the bewildered response.
"You know what. Don't play dumb!" Jax suddenly entered into the conversation. He growled low in his throat. The girl took a hesitant step backwards in a subconscious attempt to escape everyone's harsh glares.
"Really, guys, I have no idea what you're talking about." She tried to defend herself.
"You stole it. Now return it." The twins said staring at her with.. with.. hatred written in their eyes? What on earth had happened. Aurelia was felt like crying from frustration.
"I don't understand!" Aurelia cried desperately, her voice cracking.
The other pixie, obviously disbelieving, made some angry gestures and the whole mob was upon her as soon as Aurelia could bat her eye. Rapidly she dodged all attempts to dogpile on her. As soon as she noticed all boys on the ground and the fairies smashed some where inbetween them she took off. Gulping, she ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Reaching the lagoon, she searched refuge from the mermaids.
"Girls! Girls! Where are you? I need help!" Aurelia screeched.
"Get out of here, you thief!" was the only response that came from the water's depth, accompanied by a large wave, which soaked the distraught girl to the bone.
Running again and utterly confused, Aurelia ran through the forest before she felt like her legs would give out and leant against a boulder to catch her breath.
"Whats.. whats going on?" she whispered to herself. Suddenly something green dove and landed in front of her. .. was that.. Peter? Who else on the Island wore green panty hose? Aurelia's eyes widened. He was sixteen last time she checked! Now he looked.. twenty! He probably would have made a gorgeous twenty year old if he shaved.. He had gained facial hair and looked extremely strong and powerful. Especially since he was glaring at her with what looked like the fury of the Gods. His eyes though.. they only showed deep pain and betrayal, and that betrayal was aimed at her. Seeing him look at her like that bit violently at her heart. It felt like a stab of his dagger.
"What did you do with it?" He hissed, his voice filled with venom. Aurelia backed up against the boulder in fear.
"P-Peter.. I .. I really don't-"
"Yes you do! You're the only one who could have stolen it!!" He roared.
"I didn't steal ANYTHING" She defended angrily.
"YOU'RE LYING! YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE WHO COULD HAVE STOLEN IT," He bellowed, "YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A THIEF!!A USELESS THIEF!! I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND! I GUESS EVERYONE WAS WRONG! YOU'RE A FILTHLY LIAR!" Aurelia flinched, her eyes blurred and she ran. Aurelia could hear the enraged.. boy now turned man tearing off after her. Screams of "Come back here thief!" echoed. Aurelia flinched at each time that phrase was repeated. She was so sure she'd never hear that overly clichéd phrase again in Neverland.. She pleaded with her legs to make her faster. Soon the confused girl lost track of her movements and whereabouts and inelegantly plummeted face first into an underground cavern through its only entrance, a small, covered hole above it. Aurelia watched as Peter tore past her accidental hiding place cautiously before she curled up into a little ball on the ground, trying to block out the memory of everyone's cruel words. How had she betrayed them? She had done nothing wrong!! Nothing! What was going on in Neverland? What had happened when she was gone? It looked like she'd have to stay in.. where ever she was for a bit longer..
But, before she could ascertain her surroundings, Aurelia heard voices. The girl stood up cautiously and walked down the cave until it gave way to a large underground lake. Her eyes widened in shock. There was the Jolly Roger! What was THAT doing here?! Listening closely, she could make out a conversation.
"Listen closely, you sniveling yellow-belly. I'll only explain this once more to you, you dimwitted idiot. This crystal is the epicenter of Neverland and its magic. Whoever controls it, controls Neverland. It is the item the fairies most cautiously guard. The magic of Neverland is contained in it.. And with it, I will finally defeat my foe...by taking away the one thing he prizes the most."
"Yes, sir!"
Aurelia gasped in sudden understooding. The magic of Neverland was in Hook's horrid hand. The devious pirate would only use it to cover his own stupid ship that was in this lake. She silently noted one of the walls of the cavern looked like it was caved in. No wonder the mermaids or anyone else could find him. He must have floated in here and then caused the landslide during that thunder. Thus it wouldn't be heard by anyone.. If he used the magic on his ship alone.. Peter would grow old..WAS growing old! He had already lived for what? 400 years? If she didn't help him.. He'd die soon enough.. same with.. Oh god.. of course! The fairies and mermaids would soon turn more human! Loosing scales.. for the mermaids.. and for the fairies, losing their wings and becoming bigger.. and they would eventually age as well.. until they too died.. The Indians.. the Lost boys.. everyone would just be gone.. even the unicorns and dragons that supposedly lived on this Isle.. they would turn to more.. average nonmagical beasts.. Hook was a disgusting bastard!!!
Aurelia's eyes narrowed. She was beyond anger, beyond seeing red. Now it was only time for revenge. She stood up on steady legs, the hands that had been trembling were still, the tears still in her eyes left to fall had all but dried. She realized that she was indeed the only one who could successfully save Neverland.. obviously since she wasn't magical nothing would happen to her, that and she was in fact only 16 to begin with. No seriously super fast aging for this girl! But.. perhaps.. perhaps the entire world of Neverland would be destroyed!! The Isle itself was magical. The dirt in itself had enough magic in it to fill a Grimm's brothers book of fairy tales..
Aurelia had to get that crystal back NOW! ...but what then? If she returned the crystal to the fae court? they would still blame her and maybe even.. banish her.. so.. She shook her head ridding herself of all those thoughts.
"Lets not get ahead of ourselves." well.. First the thief would have to steal the crystal back before she even considered what to do with it. She stared at the ship in quiet contemplation, in order to assess the situation and the best plan of action.
Her senses were tingling in nervousness. She tried to ignore the fact that everything was counting on her. The entire existence of Neverland was on her shoulders. She tried to ignore the fact that her fate, her friends fate.. was being decided by her next actions. She tried to ignore the fact that if she failed.. well obviously she wasn't doing a good job of ignoring all of this. Aurelia scowled to herself.
"Concentrate girl!" she reprimanded to herself. She stared at the deck harshly and saw the pirates alert, on guard..obviously this time they weren't drunk... She swallowed a lump in her throat. Well there went the plan of climbing aboard casually like she had the first time.
"Think fast.." Obviously dressing up as a pirate wouldn't work since this crew had probably known each other for the past.. god knows how many years.. And just climbing aboard wouldn't work considering there was around 9 of them, and each was holding at least two overly sharp knifes or swords. Aurelia sighed before looking at the side of the boat. She saw a tiny ledge she might be able to crawl along if she kept her fingers on the railing. Again she looked over the edge of the boat and spied a couple of barrels around 5 meters away from where she was. Perhaps.. crawl over there and try and hop behind the barrels? But she didn't even know where the crystal was! Why endanger herself even more by going aboard the ship? She went back to the dressing up as a pirate thought. Although that wouldn't work.. a smile sneaked its way onto Aurelia's countenance. Her eyes gained the mischievous twinkle that sparkled when a brilliant idea came to mind. Maybe she couldn't dress up as a pirate.. but she CERTAINLY could dress up as someone else she knew..
Just then the door from the captain's quarters burst open. He came out smiling.. Aurelia's eyes widened in.. slight fear. Seeing an evil man like Captain Hook smile was extremely disturbing.
"Sir?" Asked one of the men. Hook continued to grin, he eyedthe door he had just come through.
"That fairy is doing a rutty good job keeping the crystal's magic on this ship. Although its draining all of its power.. damned thing.I forgot it takes at least 5 fairies at full power to keep the crystal going around Neverland.. " Fairy? He got a FAIRY to betray Neverland? Its own safehaven? What?
"Ah but sir it was indeed wise to kidnap that fairy as well as taking the crystal.." Smee said with glee.
Aurelia didn't need to hear any more. She walked over to the hole she came out of and saw it was dark. It was time to put her plan into action.
* * * * (I thought of ending it here.. HEHEHE! All thank me by reviewing!)
The room was dark, but she could make out two glowing balls together in the corner. The light was dimmer than she remembered, but that had to be due to the deterioration of Neverland.. Luckily they gave off enough light for her to see perfectly. Aurelia quickly snuck over to the set of drawers and grabbed what she needed. She silently used the shadows to go over to the main bed and looked at the man asleep there. Aurelia frowned sadly. "Peter I promise I'll fix all of this.. and hopefully you'll understand I never stole it.. I pray I can prove my innocence to everyone.. because I love everyone so much.." she whispered under her breath... now for the difficult part in this step of the plan.
Aurelia crept back towards the glowing balls. She could make out a lot of fairy dust underneath the two slightly larger fairies and took out a makeshift pouch, shoving in as much dust as she could. It filled the bag to about halfway. Aurelia sighed. In order for her to be positively sure everything would be okay she wanted a full bag of dust. Gently, ever so gently she touched Jax's wing, fountains of the dust fell into the pouch and she smiled and sent up a prayer of thanks to what ever angel decided to bless her today. Aurelia quickly snuck out again, carefully avoiding the strings of metal that had been pieced together to alert the slumbering group to intruders.
As soon as she was past the boobytraps she sprinted as far from the tree and Indian Encampment.. AND mermaid lagoon as possible. She quickly ducked near a rock and began the next step of her plan. She only hoped she had enough courage to pull it off. And face the greatest of any of her fears.
* * * *
Hook had never been happier. This plan put the rest of his plans to shame! Nevermind none of the other plans had actually worked as this one had. But this one had been the most difficult. Yet James Hook had managed it. He was indeed the best pirate in all the world. Which is what he kept telling himself.. and his crew.. just to let them know they were under the greatest captain of all! Peter by now was far too old to do anything to save himself and the rest of Neverland. Soon all of those horrible brats and horrible Indians and horrid mermaids would be gone forever! FOREVER! And Hook! Hook would be the ruler!! Suddenly a flash of green flew over head.
"Say your prayers Hook! This was the LAST straw!" Peter shouted, his voice seeming a bit higher than normal. Every person on the Jolly Roger's jaw dropped to their knees. Hook was the one who finally regained the ability to speak.
"PAN?! STILL A BOY?! HOW?!" He bellowed. Pan grinned insolently before zooming past Hook, grabbing his hat, whipping out the handy dagger and shredding the feather to pieces.
"So you thought you could defeat me just by stealing that crystal? Think again you old codfish!!" Hook wanted to rip his hair out in frustration. The crew still stared with their mouths open like fish. How had Peter evaded the attack this time? How?!?! This was a surefire plan! And from that cocky attitude the flying brat HAD to be Pan. None of the other brats wore that annoyingly green outfit.. that silly red feather.. that insolent arrogant smile..
The boy dipped his dagger into a small pouch tied to his belt before soaring down towards the chain keeping the anchor aboard the ship. Hook saw him raise his dagger as if to cut the chain and grinned vainly. There was NO way in the seven layers of hell that puny dagger could cut through chain....
Obviously Hook had never seen a dagger dipped in fairy dust in action! Peter swung, the chain cut like it had been a tiny piece of string. The chain whipped across the deck before sliding overboard and down into the murky depths of the lagoon. What was that boy planning?! Hook watched wildly as the boy flew up to the high ceilings of the cavern and sliced through the stalactites. They came crashing down.. Suddenly it became clear.. waves.. horrible waves... Each pirate stared in horror as the waves smashed against the boat. Peter grinned..
"Try THAT on for size Hook!!" Pan taunted. Hook stared in shocked awe as his boat was tossed crazily, coming nearer and nearer towards the deadly sharp rocks the cavern's sides were covered in. If the ship went near any of those rocks.. Pan would be the least of their problems..
* * * *
Aurelia smiled as the waves crashed against the boat making it seem more like a toy in a deadly bathtub and a large pirate ship. She placed the dagger back into its tiny sheath, fixed the green hat on her head, gave the red feather a flick and zoomed back downwards to the ship. She could understand why Peter did what he did after this experience. First off.. those green pantyhose were pretty darn comfy! Second.. after the initial shock.. Aurelia could swallow down her fear of flying and was quite a pro at it! She quickly threw open the door to the lower deck and flew down. She figured it was faster to keep flying.. although.. she didn't want to waste all of her dust.. after all that on her dagger.. oh well.. that's why she got a full pouch!
Aurelia flung open the door to the captain's quarters looking around crazily. Not caring about how loud she was. Hook wasn't gonna try and get her while he had his boat to worry about! There! In the corner! she saw an exhausted pale sick looking old fairy holding its hands out to a gorgeous sparkling, glowing crystal. The crystal hung in mid air and emitted a brilliant light that made the entire room seem to sparkle. The fairy seemed to be straining to control it. Her eyes widened in awe before she snapped out of it, flew over and winked at the fairy cutely before grabbing the crystal. She nearly dropped it again. That thing was HOT! Aurelia managed to keep a tight clutch on it.
"Please no! Don't touch! You cannot control it!" The fairy whispered weakly.
"How is it I can understand you?" Aurelia demanded. The fairy shook his aged head.
"No time for that now!" He hissed quietly. Aurelia glared at him angrily as the fairy looked at her more closely.
"You are quite determined to.. to.. use that to restore Neverland?" he said in amazement, "perhaps your will power will be strong enough.. I cannot help you.. my power is all drained.. please.. please save us..don't worry about me.. get out of here.. you haven't much time.." he whispered before collapsing on the desk. Aurelia's eyes widened in shock and her initial thought was to.. give him CPR? Something! Anything! She shook her head reminding herself of what the fairy told her,flew out of the room again, and watched in facinated horror as the side of the boat crashed against the rocks. The wood snapped on the entire center of the port side. Well.. there went her distraction.. She quickly snuck out of the boat, dumped on the last of the fairy dust and barely managed to fly up to a ledge on the far side of the cavern. So much for leaving the cavern to a safer area. She looked sadly at her exit on the side of the cavern nearest to the boat. That was an extremely stupid move. She could already see the pirates swimming in the water, towards her. She looked at the crystal.
"You haven't much time.."
Aurelia nodded to herself. So what if it took 6 fairies to keep Neverland magical alone.. nevermind restoring it which would probably take a lot more energy! Aurelia glanced longingly once more at the exit before kneeling down and concentrating on the burning hot crystal clutched tightly in her fingers.
For all of you that didn't get it.. hehe! Aurelia dressed up as Peter! Yay she's so smart!! *dances* New chapter will be out soon! REVIEW!