Chapter Fifteen: Broken
"You're not Peter." Merida repeated, holding him down.
He wriggled beneath her.
"Of course I am."
He was looking at her with one of Peter's innocent expressions.
Jafar had slipped up this time; He had tried to impersonate someone who she already knew.
"Jim! Jim!" Merida yelled out.
The impersonator's body thrashed underneath her.
"Mer, this is ridiculous!"
"Don't call me that." She snapped back at him.
Jim came running into the cave.
"What the-?"
"This isn't Peter." Merida said, staring at the boy underneath her.
"Are you positive?" Jim asked, looking at her.
"Yeah, are you?" Peter said.
She stared into his eyes for one long second.
"Yes." She looked over at Jim. "Help me get him into the cage."
Jim stood where he was for a second, and then walked over to Merida.
They pulled him up and carried him by the arms to the room at the end of the path.
"Merida, this is stupid. You know that it's me. Look at me. Look at me, Merida!"
Merida rolled her eyes. The real Peter wouldn't complain this much or be annoyed with her for even considering the possibility of him being Jafar.
She continued walking, keeping her eyes locked on the path.
Once they reached the cell, she threw him in and Jim closed it.
"Go tell the others."
Jim nodded and jogged out of the cave, and Merida walked up the glass.
"Where. Is. Peter." She said, staring into Peter's eyes.
He looked back at her, cold.
"I am Peter."
She hit the glass.
"No, you're not!"
He shook his head.
"I thought you knew me better than this."
Merida squared her jaw.
"And I thought you wouldn't underestimate me."
Jim came back with the rest of the group, and they all stared at the man in the cage. It was a tight fit, but everyone managed to get into the room.
"Are you sure this is him?" Mulan asked, staring.
"Positive." Merida said, and she turned to them. "Peter's still out there somewhere, we have to find him. He could be hurt."
Mulan nodded and turned to leave.
"Wait." Aladdin said, looking at Merida.
"What?" She asked, annoyed.
Why was he wasting time?
"How do we know that you're Merida?"
They all stared at her, and she sucked in a breath.
"We're wasting time."
"No, I don't think we are." Aladdin said, looking her over.
"This is ridiculous." Merida said, looking at all of her friends.
"Jim?" She asked, turning her head to him.
He stared at her, and then shrugged.
"Fine, I'll prove it." Merida spat, looking around at her friends. "Ask me something. Anything that Jafar wouldn't know."
Her friends stared at her for a few seconds, and then Tiana stepped forward.
"When's the wedding?"
"TIANA!"
"That's her." Tiana said, smiling.
Merida smiled back at her. Jafar definitely wouldn't know about Tiana's jokes.
Aladdin looked like he was going to protest, but Tiana held up a finger.
"Excuse me, but I think that I know Merida pretty well, and I say that this is Merida." She leaned into his face "Do you have a problem with that?"
Everyone looked at Aladdin, and he shrugged.
"All right, guys, let's go find him."
Merida pulled her eyebrows together. Who put him in charge?
Jasmine leaned into Merida.
"He just gets like this." She whispered in her ear. "Sorry about that."
"It's okay." Merida whispered back.
Everyone walked out, leaving Peter, Merida, and Jim.
"One of us needs to stay here." Jim said.
Merida looked at Peter's face.
"I will."
She sat down in front of the cage.
"Are you sure?" Jim asked.
Merida nodded.
"Positive."
Jim patted her shoulder and then walked out.
"Merida, please."
Peter's face stared back at her through the glass, but she stared at it coldly.
The way that he was standing, the way that he was holding his hands, the way he was using his voice, all of it was wrong.
"You could never be him. Never."
Peter's mouth twisted into a smirk.
"You don't know that. For all you know, I've always been pretending. Always kept myself acting a certain way because I wanted you to like me. I knew that you wouldn't like the real me, so I had to lie until you started to like who I was pretending to be. This could be the real me."
"Stop it." Merida said.
"Everything could be a lie, and you could be looking at the one truth, right here."
"Stop it!" She said, and she kicked the glass.
"Feisty. I like that." He said, smiling at her.
"You're wrong, you know." Merida panted. "You've made a huge mistake. You can't plant any doubt into my mind of who Peter is, because I know him inside and out. I know him better than anyone."
He closed his eyes, and then smiled.
"All right, you caught me." Jafar said.
He threw himself against the glass.
"But I will never tell you where Peter is, and you will never find him, unless you let me out." He smiled wickedly.
"And I know you'll want to find him as soon as possible, little girl. Just look at the condition I left him in." Jafar held up Peter's arms, turning them around and showing off the cuts and bruises.
"You're sick." Merida spat at him.
He laughed, and Peter's body melted off of him. It disintegrated and then disappeared.
"Not as sick as you'll be when I'm through with you." Jafar twisted his head. "I will admit, it is an impressive cage, but it can only hold my body. Did you not think about my magic?" He smirked. "Insolent girl!"
Merida stared at him, wide eyed. Jafar raised his hands and stared intently at Merida.
Nothing happened.
He stared at his hands, and then at the glass.
"How-?"
"She didn't think about the magic, but I did."
Merida whipped her head around. Tony was leaning against one of the cave walls.
"Hey Curls." He said.
Merida got out a breathy laugh.
"Tony." She said.
He walked up to the glass and stared at Jafar.
"You see, you're not the first person to call this an 'impressive cage'. Do you know who it was built for?"
Jafar looked at the ground, angry.
"A two-ton giant green rage monster." Tony spat out. "We also kept a magic demi-god in it who was most definitely much more powerful than you, and he couldn't get out, either."
Jafar looked up at him, enraged.
"Who are you?"
Tony smiled down at Merida.
"Wanna tell him, Curls?"
She smiled.
"Iron Man."
Tony looked down at her.
"Good answer."
He started to walk away, but then he turned to Merida, holding up his pointer finger.
"One more thing I forgot to mention, I overheard Mr. Beard's little spat with Peter earlier. Peter's through the back of the first cave on the left. It looks like a dead end, but you can push it aside."
Merida stared at Tony, wide-eyed.
"Thanks."
"No problem." He said, and he winked at her.
Merida looked at Jafar and smiled; There were many emotions on his face, but the most prominent was fear.
"I'll be right back." She said, and ran out of the room.
"Guys! Guys! I know where he is!" Merida yelled as she ran down the main hallway.
People began to emerge, a few at a time. Merida rounded the corner into the first cave.
"Merida, that's a dead end, remember?" Jim called out.
"No, it isn't!"
When she reached the "dead end", Merida got onto her knees and groped the walls around it. Her fingers fell into a small hole, and she shoved it aside.
Bright eyes looked up at her.
"Peter!" Merida yelled, wrapping him up in her arms.
"Good job, Mer, you found me." He said.
He sounded exhausted, and she threw her arms around him.
"Please stop getting yourself hurt."
Peter smiled at her.
"No promises."
She laughed and helped him out of the cave.
When they were fully out, everyone crowded around them. Sweet sat him down and began to examine him.
"Slight bruising, some cuts, not too deep, oh." He said looking at Peter's left arm. "I think that's broken."
Peter sucked in a sharp breath.
"How are we going to get him up?" Merida asked, looking at the ladder.
"We're not."
Everyone looked at Sweet.
"What do you mean 'we're not'?" Jim said.
"That's exactly what I mean. We're not. His arm is too damaged for him to climb, and the path is too narrow for any of us to have him cling to our back."
"Sorry, guys." Peter said.
Merida patted his shoulder.
"Don't apologize, Peter, it's not your fault."
Sweet stood up.
"Come on, Peter, let's get you somewhere you can lay down." He looked around. "You guys can all go home now. Jim, can you bring back some supplies for me?"Jim nodded.
"Sure Doc."
He began to climb the ladder. Everyone else stayed where they were.
"Seriously, people, you being here won't make him get better faster."
Slowly, people started to migrate toward the ladder.
"Give me a hand?" Sweet asked, nodding to Merida.
She nodded and they both helped Peter stand up, walking him into the largest sub-cave. Sweet laid him down on the floor, and Merida sat down next to him. Sweet looked at her.
"I'm gonna, uh, go help Jim with the, uh, stuff." He said, and walked away, lightly laughing. Peter smirked at Merida
"Hey Mer?"
"Yeah?"
"How did you know he wasn't me?"
Merida looked down and bit her lip.
"It just wasn't right. He looked just like you, but he just… wasn't you."
"Know me that well, huh?" Peter said, nudging her with his good arm.
Merida smiled at him.
"Well, I do spend most every day with you."
He leaned against her.
"You should keep doing that." Merida smiled at him.
"I will, Peter." Peter made a soft sound. "You should get some rest."
"'S okay. You should get some rest."
Merida laughed lightly, and Peter closed his eyes.
"Goodnight Peter."
"'Night." He said, half asleep.
b
"Peter. Peter wake up." Merida gently shook him.
"Mer?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.
She laughed.
"And Doctor Sweet." Sweet said, "I came to patch you up."
Peter sat up against the cave wall.
"All right, Doc. Do your worst."
Sweet began to clean Peter's cuts and bandage them up.
As Merida watched him, she had to admit that the Doctor was skilled at his job. It was as if he was meant for it.
He kept up a nice conversation with Peter, asking him about how his bow shooting was going.
After he had finished the physical examination, Sweet pulled some small capsules out of his pocket.
"Swallow these."
Peter groaned.
"But Sweet-"
Sweet held his free hand up.
"No, Peter, you have to take pain pills."
Peter pulled his eyebrows together.
"It doesn't even hurt that bad."
"Peter, your arm is broken."
He stared at Sweet for a long second.
"Fine."
Peter pouted and took his pills.
Sweet packed up his medical supplies, but left the food and water. He handed a small rectangle to Merida.
"Jim told me to give this to you, just in case you need to call someone."
Merida flipped the phone over in her hands.
"Thank you."
Sweet smiled and walked out of the cave.
"What have we got to eat?" Peter asked.
Merida pulled the basket toward her, handing a bottle of water to Peter. He pulled his eyebrows together.
"What's this for?"
"It's for you to actually swallow your pills."
Peter put on his innocent face.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Merida raised her eyebrows, and Peter sighed.
"Fine."
He took a swing of water.
"It looks like we have sandwiches, berries, crackers, and chocolate cake." Peter opened his mouth to speak. "For desert."
"Come on, Merida. Please?"
Merida mimicked Peter's thinking face.
"Nope."
The rectangle in her hand started to vibrate, and she stared at it.
"Someone's calling, Mer."
"Oh." She said.
She looked at the phone's screen. Jim.
"I'll be right back."
Merida walked into a cave out of hearing distance and answered the phone.
"Jim?" She asked.
"Looks like you figured out how to use the phone." She laughed "How's Peter?"
"Good. Doctor Sweet just came over and took care of him."
"Did you make sure he took his pills?" Merida laughed.
"Yeah, I made him drink water."
"Good."
Jim sounded kind of awkward. There was a small silence.
"Merida, if you want to, I could stay down there with him instead of you. You don't need to stay the entire time."
Merida's hand instinctively reached to twist the phone cord, but dropped when it hit empty air.
"No, it's okay Jim, I don't mind."
There was another moment of silence.
"Just… Just make sure that you take care of yourself, too. Okay?"
Merida was confused. Did Jim not think that she would?
"Yeah, of course I will."
Jim sighed.
"Call me if you guys need anything, okay?"
"'Kay."
"Bye, Mer."
"Bye."
Merida clicked the phone shut and walked back to the cave.
"What was that about?" Peter asked, eating a sandwich.
Merida grabbed some crackers.
"Just Jim making sure we were okay."
"Oh." Peter said, pulling his eyebrows together.
Merida looked at him.
"What?"
Peter chewed thoughtfully.
"It's just, that's not something that he usually does."
"Oh." Merida said. "Well, do you usually get yourself into this much trouble?"
Peter laughed.
"No, I guess not."
Merida laughed, and he looked over at her.
"Hey Merida?"
"Yeah?"
"We're gonna be stuck down here for a while, huh?"
She sighed.
"Yeah."