I gave a warning at the end of last chapter about this chapter's length compared to the last, but sometimes people will skip the author's note just to save time. (*cough cough* I'm just as guilty)
Disclaimer: I don't have any rights to OUAT
"What's that?" Henry asks as he walks up to Peter Pan; who is currently dipping an arrow in a dark jar of black liquid that is being held by a Lost Boy.
Peter answers, "Dreamshade. It's a nasty poison," Peter removes the arrow and blows at the arrowhead, drying the dreamshade. "We have a story here about a man who once shot an apple off his son's head with an arrow." Peter takes the crossbow from his side and pulls the string taunt. The smile on Peter's face grows. "Let's find out if it's possible." He knocks the arrow.
Henry notices that the boy who had held the dreamshade for Pan now tosses the apple up in the air. Henry looks at the apple and then at Pan. "If you're shooting an apple, what's the poison for?"
Peter swings the crossbow around to face Henry. He draws the crossbow close to his face, aiming at Henry's heart. "Motivation not to miss. Felix!" Felix looks up at Henry and Pan's stance from his crouched position at the fire. He has a makeshift toothpick in his mouth and is smiling eerily. "Get over here."
Felix throws his club over his shoulder and walks over to Pan and Henry. He casts a shadow over Henry while smiling down at him. "Wait is Felix good? Is his aim good?" Henry asks, getting nervous and slowly backing up.
Peter answers, "Doesn't matter." He hands the crossbow to Henry, whose eyes keep averting from Felix's smiling face. "You're the doing the shooting."
"But I-I don't want to shoot" Henry's distress fuels Pan and Felix's resolve even more. The Lost Boy who had the apple tosses it to Felix, who catches it as he starts backing away from Peter and Henry. The Lost Boys start to chant the word 'shoot' over and over.
"You won't hit him." Pan reassures Henry. Henry watches as Felix puts the apple on his head, still backing away and refusing to break eye contact with Henry. Henry takes aim. "Trust yourself go on. It's exhilarating!" Peter and Felix take up the cry the Lost Boys started, going, "Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. Shoot." The boys gradually increase both the tempo and volume of the cry, until Henry has a hard time focusing on the apple instead the Lost Boys. Pan raises his left arm and points at Felix, silencing all the Lost Boys. Henry takes aim and spins around and shoots at Peter Pan's heart. Pan catches it one handed, eyebrow raised and smirk present on his face. Everyone breaks out into loud cheers as soon as Henry tries to murder Pan. "Told you it was exhilarating." Pan tosses the arrow that had made an attempt at his life aside with an unnatural ease. "Come on I have something to show you." Pan leads Henry away from the Lost Boys, and out of Felix's sight. Not that he cares. He goes over and squats by the fire again, laughing at something one of Lost Boys says. He had known that Henry was going to shoot at Pan the moment Pan handed Henry the crossbow. All of it had to be part Pan's master plan to corrupt Henry, otherwise Felix would be very… confused as to why his life was just risked. Pan and Henry came back some time later and Henry went off to the corner and sits down on the log. Pan nods to Felix, indicating his summons. Felix gets up and moves in front of Pan and waits for his orders. "Be expecting an old friend very soon."
"I don't have many friends." Felix is digging for more information and Pan provides. "Baelfire." With that one sentence, Felix takes off into the jungle to wait for the arriving guest.
As Neal touches down from his flight with the shadow, Felix speaks from behind to scare him. "Welcome home, Baelfire." Neal looks around to see Felix push off a tree, his club slung over his shoulder and a lamp in his other hand. Felix smiles and before Neal knows what is happening Felix has overpowered him and is binding his hands together in front of him. Felix pushes Neal through the forest, walking behind Neal to ensure he doesn't try escape. After some time of walking Felix grows bored of the silence and instead tries to goad Neal. "Feels like just yesterday I welcomed you to Neverland the first time Baelfire." His tone is purposefully grating. "Gotta say, hoped I'd never see you again." He pushes Neal forward with his club, unaware of the annoyed expression on Neal's face.
"Maybe Pan shouldn't have taken my son." Neal calls back to Felix.
"Maybe you should have left well enough alone." Felix mocks Neal by parroting the beginning of his response.
Neal smiles shortly and then grows serious once more. "I'm going to get him back." He says with the utmost conviction.
"You really believe that? You were a Lost Boy, you know Peter Pan's not to be trifled with. You know how long he's been searching for the heart of the truest believer." Felix is too lost in his monologue to notice Neal pulling one of his hands out of the rope. "Do you really believe he'll just give him up?"
"Maybe, if I ask nicely." Neal says with a shrug.
Felix lets out a scoff that changes into low laughter. "You may have grown up Baelfire," he starts, "But it would appear you have grown up stupid." Like before, Felix misses Neal completely freeing himself from the bindings.
"I have grown up." Neal begins, "I don't know if I'm stupid or not, *but I do know I know how to tie an overhand knot." Neal swings both his hand around in a fluid motion, hitting Felix in the temple. Felix only has time to think 'Oh shi-' before crumpling to the ground.
Felix sighed to himself. He had let himself get knocked out by someone like Baelfire, Pan was going to be pissed. He was dreaming, which made him mad. He didn't like to dream, considering how lucid he was during them. As usual, he was sitting in a hollowed out tree, wildflowers hanging pretty much everywhere. 'Annoying' he thought. He hated the tree where his dreams always began, but he hated leaving the tree more. That's when things would change. He sighed, pushing himself out of the hammock and moving to the archway. He prepared to step outside, knowing full well that he won't wake up until he leaves the tree and experiences whatever he had to. Because as soon as he walks away, he'll lose control of his body, saying and doing things that are similar to his personality, but not quite true. Dreading what's coming, Felix puts one foot on the grass just beyond the archway and is sucked into a darkness.
When he opens his eyes, he is pacing in front of six Lost Boys who are standing attention close to a ledge. He can hear the ocean hitting against rocks and sighs internally, the water explains why the Lost Boys are soaking wet. The drenched boys stand there waiting for Felix to scold them. They're trying not to smile and Felix wants to strangle them for being so nonchalant, but he is powerless to this body. He stops pacing and stands in a spot where all the Lost Boys can see his anger easily. "What. Were. You. Thinking?" His body hisses. "What possessed you to think that jumping into the ocean would be okay?" It continues, "We are supposed to be hunting. And I find you splashing around like idiots? That's a fifteen foot drop!" Felix doesn't care about the fact that they had just risked their lives, it irks him that they disobeyed Pan's rules. They will not get away with this. One of them feel especially courageous and puts their hand in the air, raising it as high as it can go, bending their body so that their hand will be farther up in the air. They sit waiting for Felix to notice and once he does, he silently screams in his mind. 'Of course she is involved'
The girl loses patience and steps out of line, letting her arm drop down to her side. "It's my fault Felix." She looks right into his eyes and tilts her head to the side, waiting for his response. Felix scowls so severely that it turns into a snarl. "Of course the Darling Lost Pirate is to blame." The amount of hate put into dream Felix's words almost measure up to the true contempt that Felix feels when he sees the nightmare girl every time he closed his eyes. "We might as well add suicidal to your lengthy title. Darling Lost Suicidal Pirate?" Every night when Felix went to sleep, he would enter a nightmare where a girl ran aside them. The situations change each time, but Felix can count on seeing her annoyingly short and blonde haired head in all of them.
"I thought my name was, GIRL!" She yells the word girl in a deep voice, causing the boys to break out snickering. Felix silences them with a glare and walks to face off against the girl. She smiles at him in a sweet manner that makes the trapped Felix sick and dream Felix return her smile maliciously.
"Why are you here?" He says low enough for only her to hear. "You're no Lost Boy. In fact you only wish you were lost." Felix sees her fists clench at her side and he smirks, it was working. "No matter if you spend the rest of time here, you'll still be the odd man out."
What Felix wasn't expecting, was for the girl to decide a right hook to his face is a good way to stop him from continuing to talk. He looks up from the ground to see her standing over him, arms crossed and only slightly teary. "You're right." She says while regaining her composure. "I wish with all my heart that I was lost. To be able to stop running away. To forget who I am." She has captivated all of the boys' attention. "But I won't be able to. I will always remember who I am, it will never be who I was. Not as long as she is out there, waiting for me." The calmness of her voice makes Felix wary, 'What is she getting at?' Her eyes lock onto his as she continues. "So even if you remind me that I am the girl staying with the Lost Boys, Felix, I thank you for reminding me that Neverland is safe."
Felix scrambles off the ground and is about to lunge at her when a rather loud noise comes from the trees. All seven of them look towards the bushes to see Peter Pan emerge. He takes in the sight of the dripping boys, the soaked girl with rivulets of water still running off her, and the very tense Felix. Pan smirks "Are they fighting again?" He tsks at Felix and the girl and then gestures for the other Lost Boys to leave. When it's just the three of them, Pan walks up to be right next to them. He puts a hand on them both, pushing them farther apart. "Now, now." he says, "I need my right-hand and left-hand to get along.**"
The girl smiles, completely forgetting her recent state of distress. "I think that's impossible when the right hates the left."
Pan turns his full attention to the girl, causing Felix to internally bristle. "His hatred isn't usually earned unprompted. What torturous and water based act did you carry out to get him that mad?" Peter says, touching a waterlogged lock of hair, pulling it out of her eyes.
The girl's eyes sparkle as she remembers what she was doing before Felix had showed up. "The cliff." She turns around and walks the three paces to the edge of the cliff, looking down at the water and rocks below. "We were seeing just how close someone can jump by the rocks without getting hurt." She turns around to face Peter and Felix, her back to sea.
"What a sense of adventure you have, Darling." Felix speaks out, watching as her pallor whitens at the mention of her old nickname.
"Felix." One word of warning, that's all Pan would give him. His blood boils. "Sounds like a fun game." Pan continues, his face lighting up with the dangerous possibilities the new game held. The girl lets out a surprised squeak and starts flail her arms about, falling backwards and over the ledge. 'Good riddance' Felix thinks, but his body moves without his consent, sprinting to try to save the girl. He reaches her, and she throws him over the ledge. He falls, hearing her laughter ringing out as he hits the water's surface far from the rocks. Felix could've sworn there were two splashes, meaning that bitch had thrown Pan to his death also. He surfaces as fast as he can, surprised when he sees Pan wading in the water and laughing his head off. Felix hears a third splash and looks around to see waves forming where the girl herself had jumped into the water. Suddenly, water is over his head and he assumes the mermaids are dragging him down to the depths. The girl uses his head to push herself to the surface, swimming away from him as fast as she can once she breaks for air.
All three of them are above water and Felix is glaring at the girl so intensely, that had it been anyone else, they would have burst into tears. "What was that for?" Pan asks as he swims around, hair in his eyes and smile on his face.
"You two were dry, and I was jealous." She states as if it were the most logical reason.
"Jealous?" Felix snarls and splashes her in frustration. "And what if you killed us?"
"But you're not dead." She splashes him back. "Everyone needs a break once in a while, and dancing has gotten boring."
"Boring?" Peter asks with a raise of an eyebrow. "I'll show you boring." With a laugh he leaps at the now squealing girl, pulling her under. Pan surfaces, but the girl is no where to be found. Pan looks at Felix and smiles fully, Felix realizing a second too late what was about to happen. He is pulled under again and breaches the ocean sputtering. Both Pan and the girl are laughing and soon Felix's body joins in with a small chuckle.'NO! STOP!' His conscious screams fruitlessly at his body. 'Don't laugh with the impostor! Don't smile at the girl. I hate her! Stop!'
Felix jumps up, now fully awake. He needs to rest a moment before going after Baelfire, sleeping is taxing in Neverland. Felix sets off, tracking Baelfire with an ease. The man had only been concerned about getting away from him, not hiding his tracks. Felix smirks to himself as he thinks of all the ways to make Baelfire pay for knocking him out. The smirk is wiped from his face when he comes across two unconscious Lost Boys. The tracks disappear here, and Felix bends down to investigate, confirming what he suspected. A sleeping spell. Felix had no choice but to go to Pan now. And hope Pan is more focused on the Dark One than his own mistake.
* This was dialogue in the episode, so even though I find it super awkward to say, I included it.
**Left-hand man comes after right-hand man. This was me trying to cleverly allude to the fact that Samantha is third in command.
The reveal comes next chapter! I'm finishing it up right now and I like it a lot. There's no dream scenes in the next chapter which might be good for those who hate italics.
shyangel101: Thanks for reading, and you'll find out who she is next chapter. :)
polly and her cracker: You squeal when you read this and I squeal when you say you like Hook/Samantha relationship! You're pretty awesome.
Next Chapter: The Will to Escape