A/N: hey guys, I'm sorry I haven't posted on this story in a while. I am still working on it though, but it's been rough the past few months and I've found myself with less time to write. I am also suffering from writers block so it may take some time. Thank you for reading and I promise I am still writing. I added just a little more to this chapter, but not too much.
Life on Neverland set into a somewhat normal routine for Alice. She would watch over the lost boys and explore the island whenever she got the chance. She eventually let Peter sleep in the same bed as her but only because he kept insisting that it was 'traditional'.
One time when she was exploring the island she came across a crystal clear lagoon. The sparkling blue water took her breath away. She hopped onto a rock that was a little ways out from shore and was big enough for her to sit on. She crouched down and ran her hand on the water's surface. To her shock, another hand grabbed her wrist and pushed it out of the water. A girl with blonde hair with blue tips surfaced shortly after her hand.
"Don't do that" the girl warned
"Don't do what?" Alice asked, now even more shocked by seeing another girl on Neverland. Alice looked at the girl in the water. Her eyes drifted to where the girl's feet should be, but all she saw was a turquoise tail.
"Whoa…you're a-"
"Why are you here?" The mermaid interrupted
"What?"
"Neverland? How are you on Neverland? Why?"
"Um, I'm exploring...have you lived here a while?"
"My whole life. How did you get on Neverland?"
"I'll get back to you on that one. What do you think of Peter Pan?"
"Pan? That kid is the Devil. Who are you?"
Alice was quiet for a moment, "…The Devil's wife" The mermaid got a frightened look in her blue eyes and dove back underwater in fear.
"No wait!" Alice called, "Please come back! I'm not like him! This wasn't my choosing…ugh forget it" Alice sunk down on her butt and sat crisscross. She rested her elbows on her legs as her hands held up her head.
"What do you mean not of your choosing?" The mermaid resurfaced slowly
Alice sighed, "Pan kidnapped me and brought me here. Then took me as his wife."
"That sounds like something he would do" The magical creature put her elbows up on Alice's rock and rested her head on them.
"I'm Alice. Who are you?"
"Asrai" The mermaid responded
Alice offered a smile, "Nice to meet you Asrai"
"Likewise"
"Why'd you yell at me for touching the water?"
"Because it will attract mermaids."
"Looks like it already did."
"Not me, I mean different ones. The ones that like to drown people."
"Why would they do that?"
"I don't know. It's how we're raised."
"But you're not like that?"
"Nah"
"Why?"
"I don't see the point. I'm not just going to blindly follow what I'm told if it doesn't make sense to me. I think all life is precious and I don't want to destroy it."
"Oh, ok. So do you-"
"Look girls! Asrai's talking to a human!" A taunting voice called from further out in the lagoon. Alice turned and saw a group of girls, she assumed to be mermaids.
"Oh great, Kai." Asrai muttered. The group of mermaids swam over and surrounded the rock.
"Who's your new friend?" Kai asked Asrai
"Nobody. Go away Kai" Asrai responded
"How rude." Kai then turned to Alice, "Wanna join us for a swim human?"
"Um no. Not really, but thanks" Alice answered having remembered what Asrai said about other mermaids wanting to drown people.
"Come on, It'll be fun!" Kai reached for Alice's hand, but she stood up quickly. Kai laughed as her and the other mermaids started grabbing and scratching at Alice's feet and trying to get her to fall in the water.
"Knock it off Kai!" Asrai shouted but was ultimately ignored. Alice stepped on one of the mermaid's hands as she tried to keep her footing.
"What's going on?" A voice asked from above them. They all froze and looked up. Pan was flying above them with his arms crossed. Shit.
"Hi Pan." Kai said
"Still trying to drown people Kai?"
"Of course"
"Looks like you're doing a terrible job"
"Well if she was a man, I could have easily lured her to her death with my song and beauty"
"You actually have to be beautiful to do that"
Alice's jaw hit the ground, damn that's rude. Well then again, so is drowning people.
"I'm warning you once, stay away from Alice" Pan commanded
"Or what?" Kai asked
"Or we'll see how well you can swim without a tail" Pan flew down and scooped up Alice. He flew her back to camp.
"Why do you always have to do that?!" Alice asked once they landed
"Do what?" he responded with attitude
"Save me like I'm some damsel in distress!"
"You needed help"
"I could've handled it myself!"
"You were away from shore, surrounded by mermaid trying to kill you. What exactly would you have done to get out of there?" Pan crossed his arms
"Asrai was on my side!"
"That doesn't answer my question."
"I would've figured something out!"
"Is it really that hard for you to just say thank you?"
"To you it is"
"Why?"
"Because you're you!"
"How specific"
"First the pirates, now the mermaids, I'm not some princess who constantly needs saving! I can handle myself. I'm not a damsel in distress waiting for prince charming to come rescue her!"
"Girls are supposed to be rescued"
"What the—you sexist piece of shit! That's not what girls are 'supposed' to do. I could save a guy if I so choose. Girls can do anything guys can and our role in life is not to be rescued by men like you who think it's their job!"
"But that's how it is."
"Nope, I'm done," Alice threw her arms up, turned her back and began to walk away from Pan
"Where the hell do you think you're going now?!" He called after her
"Drop dead Pan!" Alice shouted as she kept walking until she was out of Pan's sight. He sighed believing that she will come back.
Alice walked through the forest alone for a bit until a lost boy who was about 12 jumped out at her.
"Hey Alice!" he said gleefully
"Huh? Oh hey Ridley" she responded
"Where ya going?" He asked
"Just out for a walk"
"You look upset"
"I'm fine"
"Ok…Can I walk with you?"
"Doesn't Pan have you patrolling or something?"
"Well nothing says I can't patrol with you"
Alice laughed, "I guess not"
"Yeah I'm like the bodyguard to the Queen!" He shouted excitedly. Alice soured her face, but didn't say anything because Ridley seemed so happy about it. So they walked together deeper into the forest.
Back at camp Pan was eagerly pacing around the fire. He didn't like the thought of Alice being away on her own.
"Are you ok Pan?" Felix asked. Pan stopped.
"Fine."
"It doesn't look like it."
"Alice isn't back yet. That's all. But its fine because I know that she can't get too far from the island without me knowing."
"How long has she been gone?"
Pan looked up at the sky to determine the time, "Just about thirty minutes."
"Oh I'm sure she's fine then. Alice has stayed out even longer before. Plus, she's a tough girl."
"I know, but she doesn't know the island well enough to-" Pan was cut off by the sound of a horn being blown some distance away. All of the boys looked up. Pan was relieved: even though he knew the horn meant some lost boy was in trouble, he knew that Alice would go towards the horn because she cared about all the lost boys.
"Felix come on!" Pan ordered as the horn continued to sound, "Hunter, Alex, Chris, you too! James, stay and watch over the younger ones!" The lost boys nodded and Pan took off into the forest, towards the sound of the horn. He came to the boy who was blowing the horn. His back was turned and he was standing over whoever needed help.
"What happened?" Pan asked
"I don't know. We were just walking and…" Ridley turned around to face Pan, "And she started stumbling, then she just dropped!"
Pan paled, "What?" he pushed past Ridley and saw Alice on the ground, unconscious, shaking and sweating.
"Alice! Alice can you hear me?" He asked, shaking her a bit, but ultimately getting no response.
"Hunter, Alex get back to camp, prep the med stuff" Felix ordered. The boys nodded and rushed off.
"Ridley, you too. Chis and I will help Pan get her back to camp safely. GO!" Felix shouted
Pan gently picked Alice up. He would have no trouble getting her back to camp on his own, but he had a sneaking suspicion about Alice's "sudden" illness. He handed her to Felix, who took her with surprise.
"Get her back quickly and try to bring her fever down." He ordered.
"Where are you going?"
"I get the feeling that this isn't a coincidence."
"What do you mean?" Chris asked, but Pan ignored him and vanished. Chris looked at Felix for clarification on their leader's actions.
"He thinks she was poisoned." Felix stated.
"Oh" Chris responded. He and Felix got Alice back to camp just like Pan ordered. They took her to the medic tent and Felix laid her down on one of the beds.
"Get me a bucket of cold water quickly!" Felix ordered at Alex. He nodded and ran out of the tent.
"Hunter?!"
"Got 'em right here!" Hunter responded, handing all of the spare towels to Felix.
"Excellent." Alex came rushing back in the tent with a bucket of cold water.
"I'll tend to her from here. If I need anything else, I'll call" Felix said as he dipped one of the towels in the cold water, rang it out and smoothed it over Alice's forehead. Occasionally he would flip it, then change towels. He kept this up for another hour before Pan appeared behind him in the tent.
"How is she?" he asked.
"Not any better" Felix reported, "What came of your 'trip'?"
Pan snapped his fingers and Asrai appeared next to him with bound hands and screaming curses at him.
"Who's this?" Felix asked
"Asrai, a mermaid."
"She has legs though."
"Temporary magic." Pan pushed her towards his still unconscious wife, "Now explain. What happened? Before she was in the forest she was with you! What did you do to her?!" Pan asked accusingly.
"What the Hell?! I didn't do anything to her!" Asrai defended herself
"Then what happened to her?!" Pan asked
"Untie me"
"No way. Until we know what's wrong with her and how to fix it, you're my prisoner"
"How is that gonna help you here?! Now untie me. I may not have caused whatever is happening to her, but I might be able to figure out what it is and stop it if you freaking untie me!"
"Yeah right"
"Fine. I'll just sit here and watch her DIE" Asrai said stepping back and turning away from Pan. He was silent for a moment, thinking
"If you run…" He warned
"I can barely walk!" She protested. Pan silently glared at her and cut her bonds. She carefully walked over to Alice and steadied herself on the bed before examining her condition.
"Hang on" She thought out loud after a few minutes of examining her. Asrai moved down to Alice's feet and looked. On her Achilles tendon there was a scratch.
"Yep, thought so." She turned to face Pan, "She's got sea flu"
"Huh?" Felix asked
"It's like a common cold to us mermaids but it can be deadly to a human. She must've gotten it when she was being attacked by Kai and her little friends."
"Can you cure it?" Pan asked
"Are you asking or telling me?"
"Asking." Pan said calmly, "Please, I can't lose her." The sincerity of his voice felt so real to Asrai.
"I'll need my tail back. There's a potion that can cure it, probably. But the ingredients are found in the ocean."
"Of course." Pan teleported him and Asrai back to Mermaid Lagoon and gave her tail back. Without saying a word, she dove underwater. Pan sat down on the rocky shore and waited for when, or even if, Asrai came back.
20 minutes later Asrai surface. She threw a bag of ingredients on the shore at Pan.
"Mix them together over a fire, wait for it to cool, then give her a dose. I got enough to make around 15 doses incase this happens again. But she should only need one. Only give her one! ...So next time the love of your life falls fatally ill with a mermaid disease, don't kidnap me!" with that, she dove back underwater with the flick of her tail. Pan hurried back to camp and followed Asrai's instructions. He gave a dose to Alice and saw the sickness begin to fade: rather than shaking and sweating while being unconscious, she appeared to drift into a peaceful sleep.
Alice opened her eyes the next morning and saw Felix standing guard in the medical tent. Pan was in bed with her, holding her from behind. He was still fast asleep. Alice went to move, but Felix stopped her when he spoke.
"Don't. You're still weak." Felix looked over at her
"I feel fine." She whispered back.
"Just try to get more rest ok? You need it. Plus, he just got to sleep a few hours ago. He's refused to leave your side."
Alice didn't know what to say, so she closed her eyes again and soon drifted off to sleep again.