After an unsuccessful rest, Emma had made a tiny scale model of the cap and grabbed a stick to do I don't know with. She sat next to Mary Margaret as she explained everything. David sat leaning against a tree, Hook was standing next to another tree behind Mary Margaret and Emma while Regina and I sat on a rock across from my family, peering at the rudimentary plan. "This is where they're keeping henry." Emma said, pointing at the plan with the stick. "Pan's compound. According to...uh…"
"Tinkerbell." The former fairy supplied as she busied herself around the camp.
"Yeah, I know, still weird to say."
"Tink is fine."
"Not sure that's any better. Anyway, she says there are sentries positioned across the front." Emma indicated where with her stick. "Which is why we're gonna come in through the back entrance, here. She's gonna talk her way in. Once she makes sure the coast is clear, then we're going to sneak on in."
"You'll still have to deal with any Lost Boys once you're inside." Tinkerbell reminded us.
"I think we can handle a few children with pointy sticks." Regina commented.
"It's not the sticks you need to worry about. It's the poison they're dipped in." I glanced up at Hook to see he was giving me a look. I flashed my eyes gold at him before turning back to my biological sister.
"Dreamshade." Mary Margaret remembered. "Hook warned us."
"Good. Because one nick and you'll spend the rest of your days."
"We get it, Tinkerbell." I snapped at her. "Get touched with the poison sticks and we die."
"When can we put this rescue mission into action?" David asked, trying to soothe the tension as he stood.
"I'm ready to go." Tinkerbell stated. "Just as soon as you tell me the exit plan." Regina and I traded glances. This is the part we didn't have. "You do have an escape plan, don't you?"
"It was more of a...last minute trip." Mary Margaret admitted.
"If you don't have a way off this Island, then none of this matters."
"We'll figure it out." Regina told her, standing.
"You'll 'figure it out'? No one comes and goes from this place unless he allows it. This is a waste of time."
"When it comes to family, we always find a way." David stated. I scoffed lightly, turning away from him.
"You don't get it. Here, let me show you something." Tinkerbell pulled something out of her pocket. "You know what this is?"
"Yeah, a watch." Emma said.
"I git it from the people your son here for Pan." Emma shot to her feet.
"Greg and Tamara?" Emma demanded. "Where are they? Why did they give you that?
"I got it off the girl's body. Spent half the night cleaning the blood off it. And the other guy? Well, there wasn't enough of him left to find anything useful. This is what Pan does to the people he employs. What do you think he's gonna do to you? I'm not sticking my neck on Pan's chopping block without a way off this Island. You figure that out, you know where I live." And with that, Tinkerbell started to walk off.
"Where the hell is she going?" Mary Margaret breathed.
"I'll get her, bring her back." David said, trying to follow her.
"Don't." Emma said, stopping him. "She's right. If there's one thing I've learned, you never break in somewhere unless you know the way out."
"Where did you get that?" Regina asked. "In pail bondsperson school?"
"Neal taught me that."
"I can vouch for her." I spoke up.
"How would you know that?" Mary Margaret asked me with a frown.
"First-hand experience. Broke into a museum a couple months back to steal a wand, nearly got caught trying to flee without it."
"What about you, Hook?" David asked, turning to the Pirate. "You got off this island before."
"Yes, aboard my ship." Hook replied. "Which will require some form of magic to create a Portal. Which I got from Pan in a deal I don't think he's ready to repeat."
"So no one's ever left the Island without Pan's permission?" Regina clarified.
"One man. Her partner in crime." Hook gestured to Emma. "Neal."
"How'd he manage that?" I asked.
"Maybe we can find out." Everyone gathered their things and we followed Hook through the Dark Jungle. I fell behind the group, the Dremshade affecting me even more. I could feel the poison creeping over my chest.
"What is this supposed to be?" Regina asked once we stopped. My eyebrows pinched together in confusion. We were standing in front of a ridge of some sort, one that was covered all in vines.
'So, what, Neal swung out of Neverland on a vine?" Emma asked.
"Perhaps someone would be kind enough to lend me a hand…" Hook trailed off. "What do you say, saviour?"
"I got it." I spoke up, walking forward. "It seems my strength is gonna be a help today, not a hindrance." I followed Hook to one of the vines.
"You don't look so hot, lass." Hook muttered to me as we started to pull a voice down.
"If you hadn't noticed, it's like a hundred degrees Fahrenheit here in this Gods forsaken jungle." I hissed. "Anyone would be hot." I continued to pull the vine down, only for a stone in the wall to ascend. I pulled the vine long enough so I was able to tie it around a tree so it could stay open.
"Ladies first." Mary Margaret, Emma and Regina slipped into the cave, followed closely by David. I went to follow them, but Hook grabbed my elbow to keep me still. "How much longer do you think you can keep up this charade?" He asked me. "Don't you think your family deserves to know you're going to die?"
"Why do you care so much?" I snapped at him,
"Why don't you?"
"You clearly don't understand where I grew up, do you? If something was wrong with you, you don't tell anyone. Plus, what's the point in saying anything when the stuff's incurable?"
"If there's one thing I've gleaned from you hero types, is that there's always hope."
"Wait...wait are you telling me there is a cure for this? One that doesn't involve transferring the poison to someone else?"
"Alas...hope and reality are often worlds apart. I told you the truth. You're never making it off this island alive."
"Well then, this." I pointed to my wound. "Is our little secret ok? Right now all I care about is saving my nephew." I pushed past Hook into the cave.
"Hook!" Emma called, her voice becoming louder as we neared her. "What is this place? What are we doing here?" Hook sauntered over to a torch and tried to light it with a flint and his hook. David rolled his eyes before stepping forward and lighting it with a lighter. My eyes widened at the cave. On each and every wall, there was some form of drawing, however, I had no clue what any of them meant. "Neal…This is where he lived."
"Aye." Hook agreed. "Bealfire spent some time in Neverland as a boy. This was his home."
"So you think he may have left us a clue as to how he escaped from here?" Mary Margaret asked.
"Let's hope so. Or we'll be lost, just like he was." On that lovely note, we started to search the cave for anything that could possibly aid us in our journey.
"I'm hoping Neal left something useful in the details of one of these." Emma admitted. "Maybe a map or some kind of clue. Hand me that candle...has anyone had any luck?"
"There's nothing here." I said, opening one of the chests for a moment before closing it again. "I mean, I never had the luxury of…things growing up but I at least had more than this."
"No potted bean plat or swirling vortex under the rug if that's what you mean." Hook commented. "Maybe no rug at all. There are other drawings on the far wall but, as far as I can tell, that's all they are. Probably just a way to pss the time and keep occupied."
"You knew him pretty well, didn't you?"
"We spent some time together." I tuned out of Emma and Hook's conversation as I approached the table in the middle of the room. There was an assortment of cups, bowls and pitchers that seemed to made from the surrounding brush.
"What's all this?" Emma asked as she approached us.
"Uh, just some cups and bowls he fashioned from things he found here." Mary Margaret answered.
"I don't know how great a cup this coconut can make." David said, lifting up one half of a husked coconut. "It's filled with holes."
"Maybe it's a tiny colander?"
"Because pasta is a staple here in Neverland." I stated. Emma took the holed coconut from David.
"Hold on...Hook, snuff out that torch." Emma ordered. Hook took the snuffer off the wall, placing it over to the torch to remove the main light source of the room. The only thing that was glowing was the light from the candle inside another halved coconut. Emma took the two pieces and placed the holed one on top of the other to make it whole.
"Am I supposed to be impressed that he made a night light?" Regina questioned.
"Look up." Emma said. I tilted my head backwards, and my eye widened at the ceiling. The holes from the coconut had created little lights that seemed to dance across the cave.
"Stars…" Mary Margaret trailed off.
"It's a map." Hook told us.
"To where?" David wondered.
"Home." Emma replied.
"How can you be so sure it's a map?" Mary Margaret asked.
"There was a short time in Neverland when Bealfire was aboard my ship." Hook started. "I taught him to navigate using the stars. What you're looking at is the fruit of my labours."
"Then you can read it." Regina realised.
"Sadly, no."
"I thought you just said you taught him how." David stated.
"Yes, but I also taught Neal something else." Hook added. "The key to being a pirate. Secrecy. The best Captians conceal their maps in code, and he was an apt pupil."
"So what you're telling us that Neal is the only person who's able to read this thing?" I asked, pointing to the coconut.
"Which means the only person who can read it is dead." Emma muttered. She exited the cave, Mary Margaret and David gearing to follow.
"Come on." I pressured, scurrying ahead of the two to join my sister. "She needs us." I exited the cave. "Hey." I called. "Emma, are you ok?"
"Now is not the time." Emma snapped at us.
"I can't even imagine the sadness you must be feeling." Mary Margaret admitted.
"I'm not sad. I'm pissed. Yes, Neal just died, but I lost him years ago." Emma's voice started to break. "All that time thinking that he didn't love me, only to find out that he did and it was too late. I can't even tell him how angry that makes me, or how much it hurt when he left, or how terrified I was when he came back, because...I knew the moment I saw him I never stopped loving him." Emma turned and stormed back into the cave. I watched her, my mouth trying to form words.
"She'll be ok." David said.
"Really?" Mary Margaret questioned, her voice wavering.
"We've done everything we can."
"That's the problem. I have no idea how to comfort my own daughter. It is the first thing a mother learns. And I don't know how."
"You don't think that I don't feel the same way?" I demanded, turning in my heel to stare at her. "We're twins, we're supposed to share this...this bond that we just don't have. Whatever she's feeling, we need to-"
"How can we even blame you two." Mary Margaret interrupted, her eyes shining with unshed tears. "If you died, either of you. I would not be able to move on." The Dreamshade decided to make itself known again, flashing a shooting pain down my side. I concealed a wince.
"You have to. Look, I admit, my life is a hell of a lot better now than what it was, but we're still at odds, even in Storybrooke. But every moment we're here, we're in danger. Plus, if I die, nothing's really gonna change, Isle Kids never make it this far, I'm one of the lucky ones. You'd have to move on, for your own sake."
"Oh, Hadley." Mary Margaret reached out and cupped my cheeks. "That's really sweet. But nothing's going to happen to you, not while I'm here." Mary Margaret pulled me close and wrapped me in a hug. I grimaced in pain, but allowed my mother to hold me tight.
