MERRY CHRISTMAS! Hey guys! I am uploading on time life is good and I'm going dancing tonight! Ok that last part was unnecessary but hey, I'm excited. Anyway, here's the next chapter (obviously) enjoy and Merry Christmas!
We ended with a cliffhanger last time, no promises for the end of this time :P
Chapter 9: Fragmented
Glass rained down, slicing across her arms and face but she ignored it, focused solely on Peter. She hugged him to herself tightly. No no no this can't be happening! Peter!
"Peter!" You idiot why didn't you take it! Tears streamed down her face. "Why didn't you just take it," she sobbed. "Why?! I was ok with it, I was ok with dying for you!"
I WOULD HAVE DIED FOR YOU!
"Ven look out!" Regina ran forward and raised her arms, Mim's magic slammed against Regina's barrier and the entire island shook. "Get out of here! I can't hold it for long!"
"Leave me alone," she sobbed. Why Peter?
"No no no! I still need you deary!" Mim screeched.
"What do you want?" Ven shouted, her voice breaking. "Why are you doing this?"
"Well at first I wanted a little fun, but then I wanted to intervene, and now I figure I'll just take what's ripe for harvest." She cackled. "Give me your heart little girl! You won't be needing it soon."
She stood, fire blazing around her feet, the markings pulsed brightly. "NO!" She raised her hands and bright white magic shot out, reinforcing Regina's barrier. "Emma take your parents and Henry and get out of here!" she shouted. She held no love for any of them, but they had no idea what was going on and they would only get in the way. "Hook and Neal too, leave before this place gets obliterated!"
"But-"
"Just do it!" Regina interrupted.
The blond nodded and rose from her son's side. In only a few moments they had retrieved Henry and disappeared down the passage.
"Leave me Regina," she said.
"No."
Ven winced as Mim's magic stung her.
"We can't keep this up," Regina said. "She's too powerful. We just have to hold her off as long as possible."
"Why?" The question appeared in her mind. "Why should I?" she asked. Her tears had dried and crusted against her face. "I've already lost what's most important to me so why should I care what happens? It's not like I have anyone else that cares." She looked at him. "He was the only one."
Regina stared at her. "Ven…you don't have to die. Please don't say that."
"Why do you care?" she spat, wincing again.
"Because I don't want to lose you now that I've found you."
I don't want to lose you…Those words, those words so often sought after and wanted in the heart of her deepest wants and needs, those words that were only spoken by one person in her entire life. His dirty blond hair, the bright green eyes, the scar just behind his left ear and the burn on his ankle, she knew every part of him from head to toe. She'd been willing to sacrifice herself…and now? Now he was gone.
"Mother and daughter… how disgustingly touching!"
She snapped back to Mim. "How do you know that?!" she shouted.
Mim cackled, her hate-crazed eyes rolling back and forth. "I know it all! You see I'm all alone so I had to find some way to entertain myself! Hahahaha! So I utilized a tiny little tear." Her eyes widened. Mim grinned. "Oh yes dear little Ven…all those years ago."
Regina stared, her eyes as wide as Ven's, filled with shock and horror. "You did this?"
Mim tip toed forward, leering at them through the cracked barrier. "Let me show you…"
The barrier shattered and magic swirled around them both, tugging them back and showing them images and memories, events that reached back to the beginning…
…The beautiful black haired woman knelt at the neatly kept little grave, she was dressed in a silken black dress, her lovely tresses pulled up in a low bun with little blue forget-me-nots entangled within it. She brushed her fingers against the stone.
"Oh Daniel…I wish you were here," she whispered. "If only you could see her my love." In her arms held close to her chest was a beautiful little baby. The woman pressed a kiss to the child's head and she opened her eyes revealing little mismatched orbs of blue and brown. The baby cooed happily, her soft black hair framing her chubby face.
The woman smiled though tears filled her eyes. The past nine months had been stressful and worry filled, so many lies and excuses had left her tongue to evade discovery as she hid within the confines of the Winter Palace, avoiding her mother, new husband and stepdaughter.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you-" She was cut off by a loud thunderclap. Her eyes rose to the sky as dark brooding clouds drew near. She stood and covered her child with the black veil around her shoulders. She touched her fingers to her lips and placed them on the headstone before heading back to the horse that waited patiently on the road.
"Regina!" She spun around in shock and panic as another woman approached rapidly. The woman's plump lips were pulled back in a disapproving frown and her perfectly dusted eyebrows were furrowed.
"Mother—"
"How dare you!" Cora gestured to the child. "After everything I've done for you you have dared betray me!"
"No mother it isn't like that," she pleaded.
"That monster—"
"No. No she isn't. She my precious child."
"No she is not. She is the child of a stable boy and you shan't have her!"
"Mother—"
"You are a queen now and no Queen should need bear the child of a lowly stable hand." Cora's eyes narrowed. "You have been lying to me from the start and I have allowed for it lest the royal family grow wise to your unfaithfulness, but the game ends."
Tears trembled in her blue eyes. "Mother please, she's my child."
Cora raised her chin. "You are a Queen and you are my daughter! Now give me the child now."
"But mother—"
"Now Regina!" The shout made her wince. "You will not destroy everything I have worked to build for you."
She swallowed thickly. "But she's my baby."
Cora scoffed. "No. She's the child of a stable boy, she belongs with some miller, not in the arms of a Queen. You have a daughter. Snow is your daughter now and King Leopold is your husband."
"But I don't want that," she said, looking at the beautiful eyes of her child. "I want my baby."
The sky rumbled plaintively.
Cora grew quiet as she walked forward. "My daughter, I want only the best for you. And I want the best for your child. She will not do well as the illegitimate daughter of a Queen, she will be looked down upon and cast down."
Was it true? Regina looked down at her baby. Her precious child would never be accepted by the court, but that was ok. She was her baby and Daniel's. She was hers, not Cora's, not the court, not Leopold's. Her child.
"No mother," she murmured. "She is my daughter."
"And what will you do when she asks for daddy?" Regina's eyes widened. "And what will Snow say when she sees a stepsister, a stepsister hidden by lies. And what will all the kingdom think when they learn that the child of an affair is being harbored by the royal family?"
Cora stepped forward. "Regina, as much as you love it, it shall do you no good and you shall do it no good. She will never have a place. And you cannot leave, where would you go? Could you support a child on your own?"
"But—"
"Think about what's good for her, she needs to be with people who will have the time to love her, with people like her."
Her blue eyes centered on the mismatched orbs of her little one.
Cora reached out and slowly extracted the little one from her mother's arms. A soft mewing sound came from the pink face, the child suddenly too weak to cry.
"You cannot have her. Trust me Regina. This is for the best." Cora turned away.
"No… no mother." Regina stood. "Mother please no, I want my baby, I don't care what happens-"
She was cut off by a massive crash other lightning as it tore across the sky. Thunder rumbled in the heavens and hot rain suddenly ravaged the earth in heavy torrents. Visibility was was almost null, Regina shouted for her mother, for her child, but her voice was ripped away by the wind.
Lightning suddenly slammed into the ground a mere fifteen feet away from her, throwing her back.
A hand grabbed her wrist.
"Mother!" she had to shout at the top of her lungs to be heard above the storm.
"Hurry Regina!" The voice was faint, but present. She got to her feet, stumbling.
"My baby, where's my baby?!" she shouted.
"Run!"
"No! No my daughter!"
"Your daughter is gone! Run!"
"No… NO!"
But the images didn't stop there.
In the heart of the raging storm the baby cried, swirling around, the pendant around her neck glowing brightly, a light in the darkness. Then the storm constricted, converging on the pendant and in a single moment the storm vanished…taking the child with it.
Ven and Regina both stared, frozen as the images melted away. Mim cackled in delight at their shocked expressions.
"Your glorious mother let go of little Ven, it really was the perfect time to get rid of her, but I thought it'd be more interesting if she was sent back in time through the storm to little old London," Mim said. "Now do you see the glorious me?! You should thank me! I saved your li-"
"YOU MONSTER!" A blast of magic slammed into the cackling old witch. Ven stepped forward, an aura of pure rage radiated from her small body. "I spent my whole life wondering why why would my own mother let me go! Why was I abandoned?! Why am I alone?! But it was you! You sent me off to a strange land without any hope of return just for fun?! I'll kill you-"
"What a gorgeously horrible reaction," Mim screeched happily. "To me my demon!" The Shadow, the demon, that had brought her to the island so long ago flew up and landed behind Mim. "You see?! It was all me! I brought you here! Pan, the foolish boy, he thought he could use me like he uses everyone else, but no! I was so delighted when Rumple decided to sell him to me that it made me giddy! But then he had to go and kill himself after everything I'd done to get him the Heart of the Truest Believer! But no matter I'll just take it for myself, I'll take your heart I'll take your pendant I'll destroy everything you love!"
It was her all along. She's the reason Peter is dead.
"You killed him," she whispered. "You killed the only person I love. I have nothing left to lose."
Mim giggled madly. "Oh you humans are so stupid…nothing left to lose? What about the Lost Boys, Felix…your home."
Mim stretched out a hand and a rope of black magic shot out and entered her chest. She screamed as pain ripped through her body. She thought she heard Regina call her name but then Mim wave her other hand and the woman flew back.
"I'LL DESTROY YOU!"
"You…you can't…take my heart," she gasped. "P-Peter protected…me…"
Mim laughed. "Foolish girl! I'm the one who gave your lover his magic and I can undo it! Your heart…IS MINE!"
The white and black glow that had fueled her suddenly vanished. Mim squawked loudly, rising into the air.
"Yes…! Yes! Finally!" She looked at them, her eyes were solid black and white. "Don't worry little girl, soon you won't have anything left!" She cackled again and flew from the Chamber, mad giggles and the black Shadow following behind her.
Regina stumbled towards Ven, holding her pained side with one hand. "Ven…" She fell to her knees beside the girl. "Are you alright?" She was still, so terribly still.
The dust seemed to settle, fractures ran up the walls of the cave, the hourglass lay scattered around the cave in pieces. Pan was still on the floor of the cave, unmoving, his skin already beginning to pale in death. And here, lying before her, was the one whom she'd always loved.
Tears filled her eyes and she touched Ven's forehead. "Please Ven…not you too. Please wake up." She cupped the girl's face in her hands and touched her forehead with her own. "Wake up!" She forced her own magic into the girl, making her body spasm. Slowly, oh so devastatingly slowly, her chest rose and fell. Her eyelids fluttered open. "Ven?"
A low groan escaped the pale lips and Ven's eyes fluttered open.
She breathed a sigh of relief. "Ven…you're alright. I was afraid you were dead."
She slowly sat up. "W-where's Mim?"
"She's gone, I don't know where."
Ven's eyes widened. "Oh no. I know where she is. She's going to the Falls."
She looked at her in confusion. "The Falls?"
Ven tried to stand, leaning against Regina. "The water fall on the other side of the island, Skull Rock may be the heart of magic of Neverland but the Falls is the physical center of this island. She's going to destroy Neverland."
Regina's mind flashed to Henry, Emma and all the others. If the island was destroyed they would die.
"What do we do?" she asked.
Ven ignored the question, stumbling over to Peter. She gathered him in her arms, murmuring his name over and over as she rocked back and forth. Then she suddenly stopped and looked at her.
"How am I alive?" she asked.
Regina walked closer. "I transferred some of my magic to you to revive you."
Ven's eyes widened. "Then…maybe…I can still save him!"
Ven pressed her lips to Peter's cold ones. "I'll save you yet." She turned to Regina. "My magic is gone, I need you to do something for me."
Regina nodded. "Anything."
She set him down gently and stood. "I want you to remove my heart."
Regina's eyes widened. "What?!"
"There's no time to argue! Mim destroyed the protection Peter put around it so you'll have no trouble, I want you to take out my heart." She could still feel the pain in her chest. "Mim tore the magic from my heart, it no longer contains the magic of 'Heart of the Truest Believer' but it still contains remnants of Peter's protection as well as my life magic. I want you to take it out."
"But I can't! What if-"
"I don't care!" Her hands shook. "I have to do this, please help me…Regina, please."
Regina stared at her in shock and heartbreak. "Ven…" then she closed her eyes, covering her mouth, after a moment that felt like eternity her eyes opened once more and she stepped closer. "Alright. I'll be as gentle as possible."
Ven steeled herself as she felt Regina's hand enter her chest. I can still save him. She bit back a cry of pain as her heart left her chest. She took the pulsing red object and knelt beside Peter.
"What are you going to do?" Regina asked.
She gazed at his pale face. "I'm going do what I always planned on doing…I'm going to give it to him." And before Regina could answer she snapped her heart in half. Pain tore through her body and she cried out, but she resisted it. She set the half-heart against his chest and pushed it in, pushing her own half back in as she did so.
She searched his face. "Peter…please come back to me." The fear she'd been holding back rose up, she held him tightly. "Wake up! Please wake up!" Those ugly tears once again rolled down her cheeks, she hugged him to her chest. "Wake up!" she shouted. "You can't leave me! You promised!" Her shoulders shook with the sobs that racked her small frame. She bent low, touching her forehead to his chest. "You…promised." She leaned over and kissed him. "I thought I could save you…I thought it would be enough." Her tears dripped onto his face. "I…love you."
"I…love you too."
Her eyes snapped open. "Peter!" She hugged him tightly. "You're alive," she whispered, tears of sadness turning to tears of joy. "You're alive…"
"I'm sorry to interrupt your reunion but we need to do something," Regina said.
Ven helped Peter stand up, her own strength having replenished a bit.
"What happened after the hourglass broke?" Peter asked. "Actually first how am I alive?"
"I did what I always planned to, I gave you my heart," Ven said. Peter's eyes widened. "Only half though, as for Mim, she…" Ven swallowed tightly. "Mim took my magic, she's on her way to the Falls right now. She plans to destroy Neverland."
"Why is she even doing this?" Regina asked. "It makes no sense for the enemy of Merlin in Neverland in the first place?"
"Mim lives to sow chaos," Peter replied. "Merlin locked her away in a dimension outside of space and time centuries ago, I don't know how she's here now."
Ven's eyes widened slightly. "I think I do. Peter, the demon that confined you to the island, it's Mim's minion," she said. "I think…I think the magic storm that Mim showed us is what freed her."
"It's more than possible," Regina agreed. "Magic storms 'shake' the bonds of magic."
"None of that matters right now," Peter said. "If this island is destroyed everyone dies."
"But we can't defeat her," she said. "Mim took my magic and your magic was hers, or rather her demon's, to begin with and Regina can't defeat her alone."
Peter took a deep breath. "I have someone who can help." Ven stared in surprise as Peter retrieved none other than Pandora's Box from a rock a ways away.
"Who do you have in there?" Regina asked cautiously.
Peter waved his hand over the top. "Someone that can help us." It shifted and opened, red mist drifted from the box and came away to reveal Rumplestiltskin.
"Gold?" Regina exclaimed.
Rumple looked around, then focused on Peter. "Pan," he snarled.
Ven stepped in front of him and Regina in front of her.
"That's enough Rumple," Ven said. "There's no time to explain but we have to go quickly. Madam Mim is on her way to the heart of the island's magic to destroy Neverland, we have to stop her and we need your help."
Rumplestiltskin looked at Regina. "Is this true?" The black haired woman nodded.
"Ven and I have lost our magic," Peter continued. "Mim took it, we need to stop her from destroying the island."
"And why should I help you?" Rumple sneered.
"Because you're one of the idiots on the island!" Ven snapped. "If you don't help everyone dies! Including your son and grandson, do you want that?"
Rumplestiltskin was silent for a moment, then growled softly. "Fine," he barked. "What's the plan?"
Emma cast a worried glance over Henry, he was still asleep but other than that he appeared to be fine. He was breathing steadily and there wasn't a scratch on him. If Ven was to be trusted, which she wasn't, he would be fine. But at that moment the island shook to it's core and a wave of magic spread over them.
"What was that?" David asked, drawing his sword.
"That was Mim," a voice said.
Everyone looked up as four people stepped out of a portal. Regina, Rumplestiltskin, Ven and Peter Pan.
She drew her sword along with her father, Hook and Neal, Snow had her arrow leveled at them as well.
"Get away from them Regina," Emma said.
"Lower your weapons," Regina replied. "The situation has changed."
"In what way? Those two tried to kill us all!" Snow exclaimed.
"False," Ven said. "We had a goal that you were interfering with. That is all. Our goal was never to harm any of you." Silence. "Felix!" she barked.
"Don't talk to me like that witch," the boy replied, standing and sauntering forward. Regina raised her hand and waved them off as they prepped to attack.
Felix walked up to Pan, who cut his bonds. "As much as I hate to admit it we need to work together," Pan said firmly.
"No way!"
"Are you insane?"
"Not in a million years!"
"That's enough!" Regina said. "Madam Mim is on her way to the center of magic of the island at this very moment with the intent to destroy Neverland."
Gasps rippled through the clearing.
"We need to defeat her or we all die," Rumplestiltskin said. "She's more powerful than any one of us so we have to work together to defeat her."
Silence hung in the clearing. The animosity that had built up over the past dangled like a knife over rope.
Then Emma stepped forward. "If it keeps Henry safe I'll do anything."
"I'm in."
"Fine."
"Alright."
"I guess."
"I guess I'm in too then."
Hook, Neal, Tinkerbell, David and Snow all stepped in too.
"What do we have to do?" Tinkerbell asked.
"Tinkerbell, Neal, David and Snow are going to help Felix get everyone onto the Jolly Roger, we'll fly out of here with this," Ven said, tossing Tinkerbell something. Tink stared at it in surprise.
"Is this pix crystal?" she asked in wonder.
Ven nodded. "Yes. I've been saving it for a long time. Use it."
"In the meantime Emma, Hook and the rest of us will face Mim. Before you argue about the placement Ven and I need to regain our magic, Emma, Regina and Rumple have magic and Hook has history facing magic users," Pan said. "We leave immediately. Leave everything boys, get on the ship and get out of here, we'll meet you there."
Ven took a deep breath as they approached the cavern. The plan was simple but difficult, Mim was more powerful than ever with her heart, or at least the magic from it. Mim was almost a deity with her incredible power and proficiency with the dark arts.
"Are you sure about this Peter?" she whispered. He nodded. She glanced back at the other magic users that followed them. They were watching them closely, perfectly fine with them going ahead. There was no trust among them. Peter went first, followed by Ven, then Regina, then Emma, then Hook and finally Rumplestiltskin bring up the rear.
"It's amazing that only hours ago we were enemies," she said.
"We still are," Peter replied grimly. "Now we just have a common foe."
Peter knew the caves well and he knew how to control the traps and mazes it set, he knew them even better than Ven did, he would get them to the center of the island physically and with each tremor and skid she knew that Mim grew closer and closer to the utter obliteration of the island.
"If you betray us I'll kill you," Rumplestiltskin said for the second time. "And don't think that once this is finished and Mim is destroyed you'll go down as well."
Ven turned to speak but Regina cut her off.
"No one is killing anyone until everyone is safely off this damn island," she stated firmly. "That includes both Ven and Pan." She muttered the last name grudgingly.
Ven was surprised by it, wondering silently if Regina didn't have another plan for the two of them. She shook the thought from her head. Regina had abandoned her. She had seen it with her own eyes, she had let her go, given a mere child to her mother, a woman that killed the man she loved. She let her go.
They walked the rest of the journey in silence, Ven's eyes remained slightly fixed upon the scar right behind Peter's ear. She remembered the day she gave it to him with startling clarity…
"I swear Peter if you throw another fireball at m—"
Peter cut her off with a hot, blazing ball of magic, which she caught and dispersed in pure annoyance.
"Peter!" she snapped.
He just laughed, juggling a few flames in his hands. "Come now Ven, now's not the time for contemplation, the sun is out, the water is sparkling and yet here you sit even amidst the perfect magic conditions."
She just shot him a look of irritation. "Peter I don't want to play." Don't get her wrong, she enjoyed the peaceful moments with neither Hook or Baelfire or even Felix to destroy it, but she disliked them when Peter was being the sort of prick he was.
He tossed another fireball and she caught it, crushed it, and leapt to her feet with her sword in hand. He ducked the first swing.
"Whoa! Where on earth were you hiding that?" he exclaimed, dodging another one. She teleported back and grabbed a second blade, both of which had been hidden behind her seated form, and tossed it to him.
"You want to play? Fine, but no more magic for today," she said with a smirk. The surprised look in his eyes was what she lived for.
He caught the sword and blocked her next attack.
"Oh you trickster you, I suppose I have only myself to blame," he said, parrying a thrust and backing away as they fought with practiced footwork.
"Indeed you should," she replied, ducking one of his attacks and hitting him in the stomach with the hilt of her blade. He coughed slightly and struck downward, she dropped to the ground, rolled and leapt to her feet in time to block the next attack.
"You've gotten quite good," he remarked.
She smirked. "The goblins of the east forest are wonderful teachers."
He chuckled. "So that's where you've been going."
She parried and blocked. "Well I have to be able to beat you at something."
And beat him she did, as their battle wore on he suddenly slipped, his perfect footing faltering and she took the opportunity, lunging forward for a head strike, his eyes widened and he turned to the side to dodge as he tried to keep his balance and the blade knicked across his skin, drawing blood as he regained balance.
She spun her blade and smirked. "Want some more?"
Peter chuckled slightly. "My dear Ven, I am no fool." He swung his blade down and bowed. "Today I cede victory." Then he looked up and smirked. "Tomorrow you may not be so lucky…"
It was amazing what one thought of in times of danger.
She forever smiled at the scar, at first because it told her Peter, though powerful, was very human, but later it was because it spoke of the fun they had together, even while fighting and even if one of them was mildly injured.
Then her smile fell away, for she knew full well the chances of her walking out of this battle alive were very slim indeed…
Tada! Next chapter on it's way next week. My Christmas present to you... a chapter on time. And to those of you following Demigods and Hunters there is a Christmas special that will be uploaded within a few days featuring (of course) the Winchesters, with guest stars Charlie and Nico!
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and that we don't forget that the true purpose of this holiday is the commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ.