Chapter 4

As Regina and David started heading out to the doors of the hospital to be on their way to Neverland, Neal was just coming through the hospital doors to visit Emma, to see how she was doing.

"Where are you guys going?" asked Neal

Regina looked a little annoyed now because this exchange was already taking time she felt they needed to get to Neverland, but nonetheless she replied being as nice as she could, trying not to show her annoyance.

"We're on our way to Neverland. David just said his goodbyes to Snow. Once Emma wakes, they'll find a way to follow us to Neverland, but until then, Snow is staying by Emma's side and David won't let me go to a new realm alone. So, please excuse us. We need to get going! We have already lost valuable time."

Regina then started to walk away though David decided to reassure Neal that everything was going to be okay. Right before walking off with Regina, David told Neal that Henry needed to be saved now. They couldn't wait for Emma to be awake and healed enough to go on this journey to search for Henry,knowing that Henry may be in some serious trouble. David told Neal that they were headed to the docks where Henry was originally taken from, so they could open up a portal to Neverland right there. Neal then was about to say something, but David cut him off reassuring him, telling him things would be fine and that he needed to go before Regina left without him. Regina obviously never stopped walking away. She was determined to get to Neverland as soon as possible. She wasn't waiting another minute and David knew this.

David ran to catch up to Regina and once he reached her, he made sure to keep up with her pace until they got to the docks. Once they reached the docks, Regina pulled out the magic bean and looked at the water for a few seconds holding the magic bean tightly around her hands with her eyes closed taking a deep breath. She had to concentrate and not falter. She couldn't risk any mistakes because this was the only magic bean she had left. If she didn't put all her focus on Neverland the portal could take them any other place.

"I will find you Henry and I will bring you home. If it is the LAST thing I do!" said Regina before looking at David, making sure he's ready for this journey.

"We both will find Henry and bring him home! Together!" said David

Regina smiled a little knowing that she was definitely not doing this alone. Especially since this was a world she didn't know. She wasn't sure what this world would entail and be like, but no matter the circumstances, she wasn't going to be alone. It felt good to know that she could count on someone else to face this challenge; this uncertainty, that she wasn't alone and David had her back. After being feared and avoided for so long, it was a refreshing experience to start this journey accompanied. Deep down she knew that she would have rather gone to this rescue mission with Emma by her side, but she was grateful with David for volunteering to join her non the less.

Regina then opened her eyes and looked at the magic bean held in her hand and thought of nothing but Neverland as she threw the bean into the water. As soon as the bean hit the surface a portal started opening in the water. It yet again looked like a multicolored swirling sinkhole in the water. Regina then held out her hand for David to take while they both jumped into the portal. David was skeptical at taking Regina's hand for a few seconds, because this was Regina after all. Not his wife; Snow. It felt weird for him to hold Regina's hand. Particularly because they just started having a more cordial relationship just recently. Yet, he understood why she wanted to hold hands while jumping into the portal. So nonetheless, David took her hand with a strong grip and they both jumped into the portal at the same time.

Both David and Regina were so distracted by the portal and jumping into it that they didn't even notice Neal running towards them. After they jumped into the portal, Neal still continued running to the portal at full speed. Right as the portal started closing, Neal jumped into it and followed Regina and David to Neverland.

About a minute later, all three of them fell onto the ground of Neverland. Dirt clung now on their clothes as they fell into the dirt. Regina stood up and brushed the dust off of her while David and Neal did the same.

Right as Regina finished brushing all the dirt off of her, she looked up and that's when she finally noticed a third body next to her and David and it only took her a few seconds to recognize it was Neal.

"How the hell did you get here? Did you literally just follow us into the portal WITHOUT Emma?" asked Regina with her brows now up in curiosity

Neal just looked at her for a second before replying.

"Well as soon as you two took off from the hospital without me being able to actually talk to you two about this place, I ran through the hospital hallways to reach Snow and tell her that I was following you two here to Neverland. Snow said she understood why I needed to come with you two. I know this island. Better than you two do for sure. I spent many years here. So I told Snow to tell my father where I was going, so he'd then have no choice but to help Emma and Snow follow us here,because he would do anything in his power to follow them here to find me. After that, I ran as fast as I could out of that hospital to catch up with you two. I almost didn't make it in time. The portal was closing in as I finally got to the docks. So I just jumped and followed without a second thought!"

Regina and David both stared at each other for a few seconds before then finally looked back at Neal.

"Well then, since you followed us here. Let's get started on looking for Henry! I'm not waiting any longer!" said Regina as she started walking off to try to find Henry. Although Neal didn't get to say anything back to Regina, because as soon as Regina started walking off into the unknown island, Peter Pan appeared in the back of Regina and grabbed her by the neck with a sword holding her in place, making sure David and Neal did nothing to try to save Regina before they knew Pan's next move.

"Pan, let her go!" said Neal

"You know this boy?" asked David

Neal then nodded his head.

"Yes this is Peter Pan. He runs this whole island. He has magic so I wouldn't try to do anything or else he might just hurt Regina or kill her!"

Regina couldn't even speak because the sword was so close to her neck that any movement could easily slice her neck. She was afraid that if she talked, her throat might move just enough for the sword to slice her. So she just stood there trying to gather her thoughts on what she needed to do to get out of this situation.

"I know you're here for the boy. I can't have you three finding him and ruining my plans here. I have been plotting this for quite a while and you are not going to get in the way of my mission. So, I'm gonna get you all side tracked for now. Looks like instead of searching for Henry; you'll have to search for Regina here!"

Just as Pan said that, green smoke appeared all around him and Regina and they disappeared. David then started panicking. He started pacing back and fourth not knowing what to do. It took him a few moments before Neal finally had to hold David still for him to speak.

"David there is no time to panic. We need to find Regina and Henry. I'm not sure where he took Regina but we will figure it out. We WILL find both of them!"

David then calmed down a little bit and gathered his thoughts for a few seconds before replying.

"Why didn't Regina use her magic? How did he know who we were? He said Regina's name. How did he know that?"

"Peter Pan knows everything. He can travel between realms. He is very powerful. Regina probably couldn't use her magic because he might have done some sort of spell before he appeared to make sure that if anyone had magic, that they couldn't use their magic against him. Probably taking away her magic temporarily only around him. I could be wrong but I doubt it. I've seen him do it to someone once before when I was as a boy here."

David then became curious. His brows scrunched up in confusion.

"Who did he do this to before?"

Neal just looked to him for a few seconds before replying.

"Tinkerbelle!"

Right after Neal said that; a map suddenly appeared in front of them, enveloped in green smoke, on the ground by their feet. It was a map showing where Regina was located at. The map said "Regina" on it with a person figure on it showing that the map was tracking Regina somehow.

"Regina! This is where Regina is!! But I don't even know where we are or why this Pan person just gave us a map to where he's holding Regina. Why would he do that? Why take her away like that and then make it so easy for us to find her? He's probably luring us into a trap. This can't be that easy and straightforward. This has to be a trick, I don't think we have to think of this map as any regular map. " said David

"You are right. Peter Pan likes to play games. This is probably one of his games. Once we get closer to the spot where Regina is being held at, he will very much likely move her to a new spot magically. He likes to do that to people. I've seen it happen before but let's not talk about that right now. We need to find Regina and Henry. We can't do that by standing here!"

Neal then looked around and after a few moments, he pointed to a spot on the map.

"If I'm correct, we are here. We need to get across the other side of the island to Regina! So let's not wait any longer. Let's start searching! We'll keep an eye on the map in case we detect that Regina shifts her location." said Neal

David never said a word back. He was not expecting this rescue mission to turn into a magical conundrum. He just nodded his head in agreement as they started walking off into the center of the island, to go search for Regina using the map that Pan gave them. He was actually very relieved that Neal had come through the portal, because he certainly didn't feel equipped to face Pan on his own.