Images of Broken Souls

Chapter Nine: It Pours

Is there anything in this life but grief?

- Illyria, Angel: the Series -

Nicole looked at Shon is shock. Her old friend; he had always been somewhat like an older brother, but closer. They had shared a closer confidence, born of true friendship and trust. As she went over to hug the older boy all she could remember was times spent out around the island with him, Walker, and Ting.

"Oh my god. Shon!" The joy was obvious in her voice, and as she pulled back from the hug so was the wonder. "It's really you."

"Yes, it's really me." His voice was touched with laughter but he didn't laugh.

All the others looked on the scene with one of two emotions; confusion or pain. Peter, Mandy, and Ian were all confused and wondering why a girl so close to them, though in different ways, was hugging someone they had been fighting only moments before. Bubba was similarly confused. But he swiftly remembered that while he had never been around both of them at the same time, they did know each other. His feelings then moved to the grief surrounding both Tinker Bell and his fellow Lost Boys.

The hardest pain-struck were Tink, Walker, and Bits. They were the only ones present who knew all that had happened and were not truly children. Where they felt true agony, the others only felt sorrow that Mother did not know of the betrayal.

"Oh my god." Only then did she notice his clothing. Shon was the pirate captain. "He… never mind." Suddenly what Walker had said that night was running through her head, and the smile fell from Nicole's lips. Eyes widening as her ecstatic mood shifted to a stricken one, she questioned, "Did you kill Ting? Is that how he left here?"

The pirate captain grabbed her arm with remarkable speed. "Who told you that?" His voice shook with anger as he spoke.

"No one did," she replied in a mournful voice. "But now I have a reason to believe it."

The fury in Shon's eyes cooled down to misery, as he told his crew to go back to the ship. He released Nicole's arm, but held onto her hand lightly. "We'll meet again soon."

"I sincerely hope not."

With that said Shon left, and when he was out of sight Nicole sank to the forest floor. Noticing the silent tears running down her cheeks, Walker knelt beside her and asked if she was all right. But Peter did not acknowledge the tears nor the weight they held as he questioned her.

"Wendy, what were you doing talking to the pirate captain," he asked with annoyance. Then he continued, as though she were the child and needed things of such a matter explained to her, "Captain Shon is the most ruthless pirate around. Even the Sea Cook fears him."

Both of Neverland's newest guests were greatly disturbed by the scene they had just witnessed. But while Mandy absently whispered "Hook. The Sea Cook was afraid of Captain Hook. Not Captain Shon." in a shell shocked manner that caused Dokey to give her a slightly worried look, Ian's thoughts were trying to put the puzzle pieces together.

His sister had just introduced herself as Wendy; something the pirate had accused Mandy of being. And Peter had called Nikki Wendy as well. Which, now that Ian thought about it, the elder boy had often implied, though not said outright. At least, Peter hadn't called Nikki by another girl's name in an outright manner around him. And she had taken a claim to that name when she entered the Gulch. Finally Ian remembered that the Lost Boys' first Mother had been named Wendy Darling. But, besides being the first Mother, what made her so special?

But while those two pondered, Nicole stood. Her body was shaking with the mixed strength of grief, fury, and simple tension. She turned the most hateful glare she had ever given onto Peter, startling the boy.

"I was talking to him because he is, or at least was, my friend. But you don't remember that do you?" Anger began pushing her voice to higher tones. "You don't remember anything! You certainly don't remember the people who matter. Do you even recognize the name Ting? What happened to him?" Turning her grief-hollowed gaze on the Lost Boys, she pleaded, "What happened?"

But none would answer. And she turned to leave.

"Wendy," Peter started, but she slapped him hard across the face before he could continue.

"Don't call me that," she gritted out. With a fresh batch of tears she left. "Don't ever call me that."

It was hours later, near nightfall, when a small group of braves wandering the island saw Nicole sitting by a river. Among them was Michael, and he nearly went over, but was stopped by his sister, Shining Star. She was approximately the same age as the pale girl and thought she would have better luck.

Shining Star sat down next to the other girl, and asked, "What is wrong?"

"Nothing." Nicole gave out a weak laugh and a tired smile before correcting herself; "Everything." She glanced at Shining Star before standing up, rubbing at the tear track that decorated her face with the back of her hand. "I need to talk to your mother. She said that once I found out what was wrong she'd tell me what she knew about what happened." A pained look crossed Nicole's face as she whispered, "I need to know what happened."

And as they headed to the tribe's camp, Ian waited in the clearing above the house under the ground for his sister to return. Shortly after Nikki had left, Peter took to the air and everyone else headed back to the Lost Boys' home. They had assumed that she would be there. But upon finding that she wasn't the two other girls seeked solitude, Mandy in Mother's cove and Tinker Bell in her own bedroom, and Ian went back aboveground to sit.

Every once in a while, one of the Lost Boys, though never Walker or Bits, would go up to check on Ian, make sure that he was still there and not doing something rash. But it disturbed most that he not only was not behaving rashly, but wasn't doing anything at all. The Boys were so bothered by this that no matter how hard any told himself that he would go over and talk to Ian, none could work up the nerve to do so.

Eventually Walker became so fed up with the Boys fluttering that he decided to go up and figure out what to do about Nicole's brother. However when Walker went above and saw the boy's stoic, silent sitting he froze. Bits, whom had followed the older boy up, did not freeze, instead he sat down next to Ian.

"Hi."

Ian looked at him and asked "What do you want?" The question did not come harshly from aggravation, but instead came from bemusement.