Author's Note:

Firstly, thank you to Kristen, the Guests (I'm pretty sure there are two different ones? Either way, you are awesome), Dreamer-Girl96, Rainbows-slayer, MusicLover500, and sarah0406 for your reviews! I really appreciate you taking the time to do it; it means a lot to me. :) Secondly, just as general info, I'm a grad student, and often I have zero life. The next two weeks I have so much schoolwork it's insane. So while I will try to update frequently, I can't promise it will be every 2 days or so, like it has been previously. Still, I'm just as obsessed with Darling/Pan as you are, and I want to write, so I will do my very best.

Finally, please enjoy!

~ladykikyo1792

Chapter 9: Changing the Game

He stood there, cocky, confident, and beautiful. It was as if he had walked straight out of her dreams to stand before her. Green, stunning eyes, sun-kissed bronze hair, and lean, taut muscle, clothed in his leather boots and outfit of stitched leaves.

Yet he smiled the same way, as if he were happy to see her. That scared her most of all.

"How?" Wendy croaked, taking a few steps backwards, "How did you survive that? How could you survive that?" She'd seen Regina tear his heart out. It had been blackened, and the red representing his life faded the more the Evil Queen touched it. Regina had finally held it in front of his face, taunting him with it as he lay on the floor dying, before hurling it into the depths of the ocean beside Skull Rock.

"I'd tell you," Peter said, "but that would ruin the game." He smirked at her. She couldn't fathom how he already had a plan in place. And his games were always dangerous. The Twins, if they were alive, could testify to that. But Wendy didn't know what this one was, and cautiously, she tried to find out:

"The game?"

"Yes. There's a new game, Wendy, but I'm afraid you can't play. I can't trust you. You didn't play fair last time." He walked towards her, and she doubled over, fighting back tears. Part of her was terrified that her nightmares had come to life. Another part of her, the part, she didn't want to acknowledge, was grateful to see him alive. She hated herself for it.

"You were going to kill him, Peter," she whispered, reminding both him and herself of his awful intention, "You wanted to rip his heart out-"

"I've killed people plenty of times, and you never had a problem with it then," Peter said dismissively. He raised an eyebrow at her, and crossed his arms. Wendy had no answer for that, as he knew she wouldn't. Still, he liked to know everything, and he needed to know one thing:

"Why this time, Wendy? What made Henry Mills so special that you betrayed me?" It was something he had wondered for a long time, and even in the darkness of his heart, it bothered him. He had thought he was the center of Wendy Darling's world, and that she couldn't bear to be without him. Then she'd gone and left him to die, and he never understood her reasons.

Peter circled around her like a predator surveying his prey. She could feel his breath on her neck, and she resisted the urge to fall back against the chest, as she had so many times before.

"It wasn't just him, Peter," she explained, though he would never comprehend her feelings, "I felt like I'd lost you." There were no words to describe what she had gone through in those last, agonizing days. The choice she had had to make. How she had broken her heart to give up his.

"Lost me?" he chuckled, "I was never lost." The very notion was foreign to him. He had always had a place: the king of Neverland. His boys were Lost, at least in name, though to him were only lost to their old worlds. He had found them. He had saved them.

But he himself was never lost.

"What do you want, Peter?" Wendy demanded, "I don't have time to play games with you-" He always had a desire, an end in mind, and despite their past, despite everything that had happened between them, there were people she needed to protect. And so she had to remember everything he had done, and focus only on that. Trying to get him to understand something he never would was a waste of time.

"Oh yes," Peter noted sarcastically, "All grown up now, aren't we?" He picked up a lock of her hair, letting the silken strands run through his fingers. Almost against her will, Wendy shivered:

"Stop, Peter. Just stop."

"Why would I? I'm having so much fun. And I've only just started!" he came around in front of her again, grinning as though he had merely been fighting with the pirates again.

"Stop it," Wendy hissed, "Stop this now. Stop killing people. Stop murdering the boys. They were afraid of you-"

"They knew the rules," Peter replied, utterly shameless, "They broke them. They paid the price." Absentmindedly, he began to play with his dagger. It was like he was fondly reminiscing about killing his friends.

"And what about me, Peter?" Wendy said, "I broke the rules. By that logic, I should be dead."

"But that would be no fun at all!" Peter retorted almost jokingly, before his voice grew deathly serious, "Now, Wendy. You will do me a favor. Tell them to release Felix. He's done nothing; all the boys died by my hand. Then let them know I am here, and they will meet with me and give me what I want."

"And what's that?"

"You'll find out, Wendy-bird. Though you should already know." He trailed one hand down her cheek, his rough fingers, calloused from so many battles, like fire on her soft skin. Unable to bear it, she turned away from him. He was right. She had spent so many days running from him, and so many nights at his side. While none could claim to know Peter Pan, she was one of the few with whom he'd shared at least a little. She could never win his games, but she could guess. And she was clever enough to try, which was, she suspected, part of the reason he'd kept her in Neverland. Even boys who lived forever got bored, every once in a while, and she provided a foil to him.

Without another word, he took off into the air and was gone. She watched his silhouette disappear among the branches, and for a second, she found herself remembering the day he'd taught her to fly. She'd forgotten how, it seemed, otherwise she'd fly after him and rip his heart out herself.

"Wendy!" Tink called frantically. She was trailed by Emma, Regina, David, Mary Margaret, and shockingly, the Mother Superior. Wendy knew that as the Blue Fairy, she and Tink had a sour relationship, so it meant a lot to her that Tink had sought out her help. It wouldn't have been easy for her.

"Where is he?" David asked. He held his sword in front of him, searching for an enemy that was no longer there. The image was almost comical.

"He's gone," Wendy said, with zero emotion, "I don't know where. He said to let Felix go." Surprisingly, she couldn't bring herself to feel angry or sad anymore. It seemed those initial feelings had left her after she'd seen him again, because now, she was just numb. Her swirling emotions had disappeared with his departure. Peter Pan was back to doing the things he always did, and she'd grown used to his power in Neverland once. It was very easy to accept that he'd brought his power to a new realm, and they were all subjects to the boy-king. There was no point dreading something that had already occurred, and no point mourning it.

How on earth had she and Tink thought they could fight him?

"Why is it that you are always left were bad things happen?" Regina demanded. She looked at Wendy suspiciously, and somewhere in her mind, Wendy found it laughable that Regina considered her a threat.

Had she forgotten about Pan?

"It's the nature of being a Neverlander," Tink explained, "and Wendy is unique, even among us."

"How so?" Emma asked. When they'd ventured to Neverland before, Wendy had been a background figure. She could think of little else to distinguish her other than that she had been the only girl on the island, and Tink couldn't possibly be referencing that.

"Pan is the king of Neverland. Wendy, at one point, was his queen. Not in name, but he regarded her as his all the same."

As the group looked at her in shock, Wendy said nothing. She kept her gaze fixed on the trees, certain that Peter was listening. She wondered if Tink's assertion amused him. Peter Pan had never cared for her- of that she was certain -and he'd never granted her any power. He'd viewed her as a sort of ornament to his reign, one he'd guarded jealously and kept only for himself.

She was hardly a queen. More of a pretty possession.

"Then why did he leave her here?" Regina wrinkled her nose. It was true that she herself had ruled a kingdom once, and from her experience, one kept all valuables close by. They were never left for peasants to find.

"He'll come back eventually," Tink replied, "but for now, he'll let things stay as they are. This is a game to him. We're all pieces in it, and he's interested only that it ends in his favor. In the meantime, he likes to see suffering." She snuck a quick glance at Wendy, but the teenager continued to ignore the entire conversation. She was still watching for Pan.

Oblivious to this, Mary Margaret walked to Wendy and asked her directly, "Why would he do that?" The former princess literally could not comprehend it. Regina, at least, when she was her enemy, had clear motives and had preferred to act on them immediately. Pan was different, apparently, but she didn't grasp why.

"Because he's Peter Pan," Wendy stated, "That's what he does. He plays games and manipulates them so he wins. In the meantime, he watches everyone else fail. He entertains himself. And he sees this as the ultimate revenge, letting you all run around and try to fix it-"

"Letting us?" Emma asked. The Savior was incredulous. They'd beaten him once. How could he be treating them like marionettes? Wasn't he afraid of them, even a bit?

"You're talking about a boy who defied nature, and now he defied death. You really think he can't control you?" Tink pointed out. She was clearly frustrated, but she couldn't help but let loose a dejected laugh. Peter Pan had raised himself from the dead. He wasn't exactly a typical enemy.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Regina said, "Just give into the demands of a teenage serial killer?" She snorted.

"Right now, I'm afraid those are your only options. Unless you can figure out a brilliant plan to fight him, which Wendy and I were trying to do by ourselves, but-" Tink started, though Mary Margaret quickly interrupted her:

"What if we work together? That's what helped last time-" She had such a naive smile on her face the fairy almost pitied her.

"We can't," Wendy said, "Tink and I both know our plan won't work now, no matter how many people participate. We thought he was just here for murder, but he's not."

"What are you saying, Wendy?" David inquired. He narrowed his eyes.

Wendy gave them all a long look, then announced: "He's changed the game."

Author's Note:

I hope you liked it! Please let me know what you think!

~ladykikyo1792