Hi guys! I'm so sorry it's been so long, once again my computer did that weird thing where it wouldn't update and all that crap but here I am! Back with the 3rd Chapter, the 4th will also be posted soon. Enjoy!
Chapter 3: Joining the Battle
Present Day
Ven hung upside down from the ceiling of her home in the Echo Caves by some vines that threaded their way through the rock. She'd found that it was easier to focus and think if she wasn't simply sitting, and focused thought she needed indeed. No one, no matter how powerful, had the magic to break blood magic. Even Peter couldn't open her pendant, and he was as powerful as they come.
The pendant hovered in front of her, within the depth of its sapphire gem there seemed to burn a supernatural fire.
Her magic attributed somewhat to the 'Three Ts' teleportation, telepathy (illusions) and telekineses. She'd only recently discovered the third attribution (meaning around fifty years ago) and perfected it around five years ago. She enjoyed that one, but didn't use it often in front of her enemies, it afforded a big advantage to her.
"Upside down again are you?" a voice asked.
She dropped down to the ground to face Peter. "It's easier to think like that."
"What is sitting too normal?" he asked.
She smirked. "Perhaps. Of course the word normal doesn't exactly describe anyone on the island."
He took her hand. "Agreed. So, are you going to tell me about the pendant, or do I have to make you tell me?" he asked, tracing circles on her palm. He looked at her through hooded eyelashes.
Normally she would've responded to the banter, but she didn't feel very normal at the moment. She turned away, slipping the pendant back on.
"It's my mother's. It's the only connection to my past I have," she said.
"I see. And because Regina opened it…" he asked.
"That pendant, it doesn't belong to you."
"It has to be some kind of mistake," she said, several rocks flying to smash into the wall in her anger. "That pendant can only be opened by blood magic! She shouldn't be able to open it!"
A hand touched her arm sending a chill through her. "Unless…she can. Blood magic doesn't work with your own."
Her hand tightened around the pendant. "No. No way. There is no way that witch could be…no. There's just no way."
"Why are you so adamant?" Peter asked. "It sounds like you're trying to convince yourself."
"Well besides the fact that she's tried to kill me in the past she…she's here to get her son back," she said, her voice dropping several octaves. "Her son, Peter, do you know what that means?"
"It means that even if she it your blood mother she's now moved on," Peter replied.
She laughed bitterly. "I guess that really does make me a lost girl."
"Sure," Peter wrapped his arms around her from behind, "but you're my lost girl. So even if she did try to get you back I wouldn't let her take you."
She couldn't help but smile. She and Peter might have had a very shifting relationship, but when it came to holding onto each other and letting go, neither would concede to the latter. The last two hundred years were a testimony to that.
"And besides," she said. "Even if Regina opened the pendant she couldn't be my mother. I was already one hundred thirty two when she was born."
"Quite right." He suddenly scooped her up. "Now, onto lighter subjects, we have a guest, an old friend."
She raised an eyebrow. "Really? Is this one of the 'old friends' that want to kill us?"
Peter smirked. "Yes. Although this one was someone you actually took a shine to."
Her eyes widened, then she smiled. "Baelfire. How wonderful."
The imagery shimmered and shifted and they appeared in the forest before a very disgruntled looking Felix and a couple other lost boys.
"Where's Baelfire?" Peter asked as he set her down.
Felix lowered his eyes. "He escaped."
She snorted. "Surprise surprise. The boy was taught by me after all."
"Can you find him?" Peter asked.
"No need," she replied with a shrug. "He'll come straight to us."
Ven found that she was correct in her assessment of Baelfire for later that night when she went to the camp she found everyone but Peter unconscious and confronted by Baelfire and Rumplestiltskin. But rather than intervene she perched in the canopy and watched the scene unfold, it was more interesting like that. And besides, she loved seeing Peter trapped by someone other than herself, it happened so rarely after all.
Baelfire immobilized Peter by use of squid ink on the shaft of an arrow, but when they got Henry Peter used his artful words to sow doubt. She smiled. He was a magician with words. Shortly thereafter the pair left, none the wiser to her presence.
She dropped down when they were gone.
"How amusing," she remarked, glancing in the direction they'd gone.
Peter shot her an irritated glance. "Why didn't you help?"
She smirked. "Now where's the fun in that?" She approached. "Besides, your words of doubt will reap rewards of destruction. Those…children, will tear themselves apart on their own better than either of us ever could." She laughed, unable to hold it back at the sight of his frozen form.
He just scoffed. "Do make yourself useful if ya please." She laughed again and cupped his face in her hands.
"I think not, you'll just have to wait for the ink to ware off," she said, planting a kiss on his lips. "I'll be back darling."
"Ven!"
"Ta ta!"
She heard a muttered word of 'damn woman' before she was gone. Yes... she did love it.
To be honest, examining the situation from an impartial view was the most interesting thing she'd seen in a long time. She saw Henry falling further and further in Pan's camp, she saw David, desperate for a cure to his dream shade poison and he and Hook going to the Never Falls to find the sextant. She saw the girl's group capture Devin, the lost boy, she saw them contact Henry.
In the past two centuries she'd mostly kept out of Pan's business, being just an impartial viewer, but she knew that that time was coming to an end. She had Peter's heart, she knew his choice would decide her life or death. If he decided power over her she would die, she was nowhere near as powerful as he.
And then there was Regina. She knew in her head that Regina was much too young to be…whatever, and time travel was impossible even with magic.
Mostly.
There were two ways of time travel. One was nearly impossible, the spell ingredient rare, morbid and close to impossible, but the other…the other required the right time and circumstance. Occasionally (meaning every few thousand years) there would be a natural magic disaster, a hurricane, earthquake, tsunami, they would cause magic tremors, shock waves that touched every piece of magic…anything that had ever been done. This sometimes opened up portals to the past or future. It split dimensions, cracked universes, opened portals. To put it simply, it tore through reality.
Most of the time these magic tremors were destroyed by magic itself in an act of self-preservation, but every now and then those same tremors caused an inexplicable event that birthed darkness worse than anything Neverland could ever produce. Something worse than the Dark One.
The last time that had happened was rumored to be thousands of years before. Peter had told her about it, and he, in turn, had received the information from the demon that bound him. The story of a magic user that managed to harness the tremor's power.
If she was honest with herself, that scared her. Ven, master of magic, apprentice to Pan, only lost girl of Neverland. Child of the unknown. She was afraid. A power like that didn't just disappear. She knew in the pit of her chest that someone, somewhere, was still alive and still held that power. That impossible power. And when that power emerged, and she knew it would… all hell would come with it.
When Neal woke up dawn was just beginning to rise above the trees…which he was currently hanging from in some sort of cage. He remembered being recaptured by the Lost Boys, it gave him a weird sort of deja vu. He'd been in this situation before and it hadn't ended very well then and it probably wouldn't now.
"Right now you're probably getting a sense of deja vu," a voice suddenly said, he immediately snapped up and searched wildly for its source. The owner of the voice was perched on a branch straight across from him, hunched down like a predator eying its prey. Then his eyes widened in horrified recognition.
"Ven…" He was in trouble.
Ven smiled, her mismatched eyes cold as ice. "My dear Baelfire, it's been such a long time."
"What do you want?" he asked, hands tightening on the bars of his cage.
She changed positions and sat down, her legs swinging back and forth like a child. "Want? Why, nothing from you."
"What are you doing here?"
"I just wanted to visit our newest captive," she replied innocently. "I have so much fun with the other, isn't that right Wendy?"
He heard a slight scuffle from the other cage, but no voice. Ven tilted her head and the cloth over the cage lifted, revealing the girl.
Wendy lowered her eyes. "Please leave me alone."
Ven just laughed. "Oh you poor girl. I honestly do wish that I could set you free, but unfortunately if I did that Peter would have not only my heart but my head as well."
The cloth lowered back.
"Why are you doing this Ven?" Neal asked. "Pan just wants your heart, he's going to kill you anyway."
Ven's eyes suddenly darkened and she stood, her lips curling upward in a snarl. "You know nothing son of the Dark One." Seconds later she had her emotions under control and gave a smirk. "Sit tight Baelfire, you'll be reunited with your family soon... wether you'll be dead or alive is still yet to be seen." She laughed darkly and vanished.
Regina brushed bugs aside in annoyance as she made her way through the forest. She was beyond annoyed with the Charmings. Pathetic goody-two-shoes. She'd have a better chance getting Henry back with Gold than the Charmings, even if she didn't trust the poisonous little imp.
Suddenly there was a flash in the dying light and a knife shot forward to hover in front of her left eye.
"Don't move," a voice said. Her eyes narrowed as a figure shimmered into view before her. It was the same girl from the cave. The witch that had her pendant.
"You," she stated in disgust, letting her eyes travel over the girl. Black hair, mismatched blue and brown eyes, she was fit, her arms more muscular than most girls her age. She had three visible knives strapped to her boots and belt, plus the one threatening to skewer her eye.
"Yes, me," the girl said cooly. "Though I prefer the name Ven."
"What do you want?" she asked.
Ven's eyes were filled with a disturbing amount of anger. "Do you remember me?"
"Should I?"
"I'm the girl that 'infiltrated' your castle seeking your help," Ven replied. Her eyes widened slightly as the memory came flitting back. It was brief and very vague.
"Oh yes…" Then her eyes narrowed. "And you're also the one who has something that belongs to me." Her pendant. The one her mother gave to her on the day of her birth, the pendant she'd wanted to throw away but instead gave to…someone else. "Where did you get that."
Ven's eyes darkened even more, if possible. "From someone I have never known," she replied.
"Who?" Regina asked.
"My mother."
"My mother." Ven eyes Regina, watching for her reaction.
"Your mother?" Regina asked in confusion.
She removed the pendant from around her neck. "Yes. Would you believe my mother abandoned me in one of the rooms of a brothel in London, 1815?"
"1815?" Her voice was now even more confused.
She smirked. "I told you I'm older than I look. I turned two hundred a week ago, how time flies, or doesn't I suppose."
"What does this have to do with me?" Regina snapped.
She toyed with the pendant. "The fact that you claim to own this pendant in addition to being able to open it is what ties the two of us together." She held up the pendant and snapped her fingers, it opened.
Regina's eyes widened in shock.
"Now there are two possibilities. The first is that you're a descendant of the woman that gave birth to me, and the second is that…" she trailed off, letting the woman put two and two together.
"Impossible."
"Difficult but possible."
"You're two hundred? I'm twenty eight."
"Time is like water. This island is proof of that."
Air suddenly vanished from her lungs and Regina stocked up, slamming her against a tree.
"I don't have a daughter! I never have and I never will because the only man I have ever loved is dead," Regina hissed. "Killed by my mother. His heart was ripped from his chest and turned to ash before my eyes so don't even suggest I would dishonor him and-"
"Than how can we both open the pendant?" Ven rasped.
Regina's hand loosened. "It's impos…" she trailed off.
Ven's eyes narrowed. "You remember…something," she managed, desperate for answers.
Regina dropped her and stepped back. "No. No it's impossible. No." As Ven lay on the ground recovering her breath the only woman with answer disappeared into the forest.
But that was okay, Ven would track her down and ring the answer from the other sorceress even if it killed her.
So what did you think? Please review! They mean a lot to me!