AN: So here's the next chapter. Told by Selene, of course, but it does feature quite a bit of Henry. And that whole thing about Henry not being able to leave the island from last chapter...
On a lighter note, we also get some interaction between Selene and Hook! Their little "conversation" is one of the first things that I thought of while intentionally coming up with this story. With that, I hope you enjoy!
Selene: "No, no. No need to kneel!" Selene exclaimed from her seat at the front of the throne room. One would think that she would have some say in how her throne looked or how comfortable it was at the very least, but there was nothing she could do about the tall wooden chair she sat in or the identical one at her left side. Her feet hardly touched the floor when she sat in the middle of it, as if it was made for somebody much taller than herself. She was glad that she did not have to frequent the chair.
"Asher, don't you know that we are in the presence of royalty?" she asked to the Guard at her side. Apparently, the Guardians knew a way to listen in to anything that happened on the island and these people sure were not expecting someone to be listening to them talk judging from the detailed conversations they had when they thought they were alone. "Almost every one of you are of the crown, so there is no need to kneel before one of your own. But, more importantly than your linage is the fact that I respect all of you- except one."
At that, the eight standing in front of her looked at each other quizzically, each trying to guess who had been the one to piss her off. After what seemed to be less than a moment all of their eyes rested on the man at the end of their line.
"Pirate," she acknowledged him. She hoped she sounded amused, because she sure was trying to. She had her chin resting on fist; elbow resting on the soft, gold fabric that covered her crossed legs. When she had gotten word from Bennet that morning that they were about to close in on Neverland's newest inhabitants she decided that she was going to wear her best dress. While draped in swirls of bright gold that matched her crown, she knew that she was going to make an impression.
"Your majesty," the pirate spoke as he sunk into a deep bow. His smirk easily reached his eyes.
"So, I would be hurt to hear that I wasn't the friend that you were so keen to see here on the island," Selene said, matching his smirk.
"Who else would I be seeking out, your majesty? I was hoping that you could help us-"
"I know what you would like to discuss, pirate. It will please you to know that I too would love to discuss that and some other pressing matters with everyone in your little group in due time. Well, everyone except you." Selene felt a flutter of anticipation leave her stomach as she spoke her next few words. "Asher, Theo, disarm the pirate and lock him up. As a long time enemy of the crown, he is not welcome in my presence or in my realm."
Asher and Theo began walking towards the pirate that had haunted her daughter's dreams a few nights before. The very same pirate that she was making sure her daughter would never see. The pirate that she was going to make sure didn't hurt the only person she could bring herself to love.
Her triumphant reverie was ended by a screech from the blonde princess, Emma she believed, who protested her captain's capture. He shot her a warning look and then gazed back up towards the throne and spoke, "I thought you would remember, your majesty, but I only like items removed from my person by lovely women."
He had caught her off guard and her smirk faded into an expression of shock and disgust for a brief moment before she regained her composure and put it back on. "It looks like you have a few options," she said calmly as she glanced at the queen and princesses standing to his left. When he raised his one of his eyebrows, she knew that there was only one way she was going to get him to cooperate: give him what he wanted.
As she stood up she sent a look to Asher and Theo to tell them to step back from the pirate and to let them know what she was doing. She could communicate with almost all of her boys just by giving them different facial expressions, which she was surprised she could still do even at a tense moment like this. Theo was about to protest her decision when she began speaking to the pirate. Her goal was to make a scene. She wanted to show these newcomers her confidence and cunning. They already had her respect, but she knew solely from listening to their conversations in the forest that they didn't respect each other, so why would they respect someone they had just met?
"Because it has been a few decades since your departure from Neverland, I assume that you forgot one essential aspect of the inhabitants of this island. All of us, including myself, are children. And even though I am much older than you, I am still a child and children do not partake in the same activities that you do. In other words, you are a pig, Pirate." By this time she was right in front of him. Too close, she thought.
She looked up and met his glowing eyes. It was as if he had two tiny oceans implanted into his scull instead of eyes. She smirked to let him know that the closeness wasn't bothering her and began to undo the belt that held his sword. She felt his head lower closer to her ear as he whispered, "Be careful down there, m'lady."
"I'm not your lady," she hissed back through clenched teeth as she pulled off the belt, redid it and swung it over her shoulder. She gazed back up to his eyes and he whispered, "Left boot."
She bent down and retrieved a dagger that was sticking out of his boot, placing it in a slot on her belt. Selene gave him one last look before she spun on her heel and began walking towards her throne. If she was going to put on a show, she knew she had to make it a good one. Acting like she had forgotten something unimportant, she spun back around and stalked back to the pirate. Pulling a length of cloth out of one of her pockets and looping it around his wrists, she plastered a wide grin on her face. It wasn't even a real fake smile. She was glad to be catching an enemy that had plagued her land for hundreds of years.
She gave him one last killer smile before tying off the cloth, gripping the contraption on his left wrist and twisting off his hook. She turned back around ordered Theo and Asher to take him away. She didn't hear any protest, so she expected the best. Strutting back to her throne, she artfully began to twirl the hook around her index finger aimlessly.
Sitting back down, she looked towards the stunned group of people still standing in front of her. Seeing the five boys standing off to the side of the room, she remembered that she had not dismissed the Sneakers that had escorted the newcomers to the castle. "Bennet, Javier, Taro, Luca and Jackston: good work this past week. I assume that you all would like to wash up and get a good meal in after everything you've done. You are dismissed." The boys bowed and left the room. Now it was just her, the queen, the three princesses, two princes, the fabled Dark One, a few Guards and a Personal. It was time to get down to the real business.
"I know your reason for visiting me, and we will discuss it in due time. Right now, I would like to have a council with the young prince," she announced; nodding at the youngest in the group. This time it was not only the blonde princess that protested, but also the queen and the princess with short, black hair, who she had learned was the blonde princess's mother.
A guard started advancing on them from one of the side doors before she motioned for him to stop and again began to address those in the throne room. "I am not seeking to harm the boy; I would just like to speak with him. If you would be so kind, Damian will lead you out to the hall so the two of us can have some privacy."
They only seemed to back down when she raised a brow at them; silently asking them if they wanted to end up like their leather clad friend. The blonde princess looked defeated, very defeated in fact, and silently turned around and began exiting the room with a huff before Damian even pointed her in the right direction. I am either going to be great friends or grave enemies with this women, she thought as they exited, leaving the boy standing alone in front of her.
He looked to be a few years younger than the majority of the boys, maybe twelve or thirteen. He looked like someone who smiled a lot, even though his face was now etched in a frown. His brown hair almost reached his sadness filled eyes. She could tell that he had lost somebody he had cared about recently, only because that look was permanently etched into her own eyes. He was a sad, happy person and never the other way around.
"You can come up here and sit if you would like," she offered the boy when she heard the large wooden door slam shut. She wanted to come across as friendly instead of bold like she had showed only seconds before.
The prince began tentatively walking forward and stopped when he got to the bottom of the dais that held the two thrones. She reached over and patted the armrest of the chair next to her. She wanted to convey that she wanted to have a conversation between two people, not one between a princess and a prince of a far off land. He wordlessly sat and looked down at his hands instead of at her.
"What is your name, your majesty?" she asked him, trying to break the ice.
"Who? Oh, um, my name is Henry. I'm sorry; I'm not used to people calling me your majesty. I've never been called a prince before either, but I guess I am considering my grandparents, but- my name is Henry," he babbled, clearly thrown off by the simple question and the formality she addressed him with.
"Well then, I guess you wouldn't mind if I called you Henry then," she smiled, noticing how he became a bit less tense as the corners of his lips were tugged up in a small smile.
"If you are going to call me Henry, do you want me to call you Cleopatra?" he asked innocently, not knowing anything of her past.
She felt her smile falter for only a second before she curtly responded, "Cleopatra was my mother. I would much rather you call me Selene." Nice cover, she told herself.
"If you don't mind me asking, Selene, why did you want to speak to me without my family?" Henry asked curiously.
"If you wish to skip the small talk and get straight to business that is fine with me. I trust that your captain explained to you that since you are not of age, you cannot leave Neverland."
"You mean I can't go home to the Enchanted Forest with my family?" he asked; the smile that had been on his face moments before quickly faded into a deep frown. She realized a few seconds too late that the sorry excuse of a man that was currently being locked up in one of the castle's towers would not have told the boy of the dangers of Neverland. It should have been obvious to her that he would not know about having to stay on the island. After only speaking one sentence on the topic, the offer she was about to present to the prince before her suddenly became a lot harder to pitch.
"No, you can't. I didn't make the rules. Hell, I don't even enforce them most of the time. But you physically cannot leave. If you try to step off one of the beaches without the intention of coming back, an invisible shield will prevent you from even touching the sea." Selene knew that explaining the situation to him would not make him feel any better, but she had to say something as preamble to her proposition.
"I'm sorry that you are just hearing this from me. I was under the assumption that you were seeking to become one of the boys here when you stepped off your ship," she told him softly.
"Is that why you wanted to talk to me? To let me know that I was going to have to say goodbye to my family?" Selene could now see tears forming in the young boy's eyes. She knew that she had do use all of the skills she had learned in the past two thousand years to manipulate people to make sure Henry did not shed a single tear. She knew from personal experiences she had pushed to the far corner of her mind that once the first tear was shed, nothing could make you feel the same security that you felt before the drop salt water fell down your face.
"Not exactly. I wanted to make you an offer that I have never made with any other boy that has stepped foot on this island. You are special, Henry, and you are not like any of the other boys who have stepped foot on this island. That is why I would like to offer you the position of Prince of Neverland."
She waited for a reaction. She had spoken the words she had just said over and over again in her head many, many times in the last few thousand years. It was one of the things that she knew she was going to have to say at some point or another even though the time never seemed to be right; the boy was never the right one. But, the right boy was standing right in front of her now. The Prince was in Neverland. She had just met the person she was going to rule Neverland with for the rest of forever and she was afraid that he was going to shed that incipient tear and the deal would be rejected before she could explain it in its entirety.
"What do you mean Prince of Neverland?" he asked. The young prince's frown had turned into an indifferent line and his eyes appeared to be less glazed over than they had a second before. She could tell that his curiosity was getting in in the way of him being apprehensive about her. She felt that he was a very open and trusting person even though he sometimes tried to second guess his gut instinct. She felt like she had known him for years when she only had for minutes.
"Well, it's a bit hard to explain. As Prince, you would do just about the same things that I do, which is make sure that the boys stay in line and safe. The biggest thing that I do is deal with the occasional pirate and make sure the island is secure. Because there are few other islands in Neverland and they are beyond the lengths that should be traveled for trading, most all duties are domestic.
"The reason Neverland was founded and still thrives today is to give boys a place to never grow up. You just have to make sure that happens." She smiled at him. She wanted him to believe what she was saying as well as believe what she was feeling, which was passion for her land. She wanted him to take the position not because of what he had to do, but because of what he would get out of doing it.
"I don't know. As I said, I don't know how to be a prince. And if I can't leave, can my family stay here with me?" It saddened her that he was begging to stay with his family. She thought that he would just be a boy who wanted to be lost in time like the rest, only more special because he was the rightful prince. She should have known that it wouldn't be easy to convince her Prince to be her Prince. After two thousand and forty one years, she should have known that nothing comes without a price.
"Your family is all grown up. There is no way they can stay here, especially with you. Their best bet at survival is to learn how to sail the ship they came here in a sail aimlessly around. There is no other option."
"Can I at least stay with them until they find a way to get back to the Enchanted Forest?" Henry pleaded. She did not want to break this boy's heart, but she knew it had to be done. Maybe you couldn't be fit to rule until your heart was broken into too many pieces to count.
"I am deeply sorry, Henry, but I can't authorize that. No matter where your family goes on the island they are considered outlaws, even if they were to stay here in the castle. I legally cannot let them stay on the island without taking action against them or getting something from them in return. The law is a path that I must follow, even if I veer off course once in a while. The only way I can help them with their search in any way is if you stay and become Prince. I cannot turn my back on the law and for that I am deeply sorry."
The terrible thing was that she was not only sorry for Henry not being with his family, but also for herself because she knew that she was going to have to help him grieve. She had never helped one of her boys grieve before. Every one that had come was like a soldier marching to a place that would bring a better life, not like Henry who was a boy who was part of a family. Everybody who came to her was always lost. Henry was found.
"Are you saying that the only way to make sure my family is safe is to stay here and be the Prince?" he asked. She didn't want to say yes. She wanted to tell him to treasure his family while he still could; savor the feeling of being loved by someone who was of you own flesh and blood. But she couldn't. She didn't make the rules, but this was one she had to follow.
"Yes, yes it is. But if you stay I will make sure you family is safe for the duration of their stay in Neverland. Hell, I'll even send some Guards and Sneakers with them to keep them safe. And I'm not saying that you will never see them again if you stay here. Every boy has to do field work during their initiation and I'm sure that I could get you sent out close to where they are camped," she let out in what seemed to be a single breath.
"By what you're saying, I don't have a choice. I stay here and you have people take care of my family until they leave Neverland without me," Henry stated. She could tell that he was trying to find a loophole somewhere in between the words that she had spoken. He knew what he was going to have to do, but he didn't want to accept it.
"You do have a choice. You can stay here now and your family will have safe passage or you can stay with your family while I am forced to make their lives a living hell. I am sorry to make you choose between being with your family and keeping them safe, but I am bound by the law. Even promising to keep them save is teasing fate."
"Will I have a chance to say goodbye?" he asked while the sadness in his eyes grew. She had known it since she had first laid eyes on him when he entered the throne room with his family that he would do anything for their safety even if that meant never seeing them again.
"I was planning on having everybody spend the night in the castle and set out in the morning. You will have plenty of time to be with them even though you don't have to say goodbye yet. I'll make sure that you will see them again after tomorrow. To be honest with you, I'm not sure of risk free way to get them off the island just ye-,"
"You mean that they could wander around Neverland for hundreds of years not being any closer to getting home than we were this morning and I won't be able to be with them?" he cut her off and spoke like he wanted to yell it but dared not to.
"I have some leads that I need to follow a bit further, but-," she was cut off again. This time it was not Henry that stopped her but a door opening at her side.
"Seelie, Seelie!" her daughter shouted as she ran to her and grabbed her leg.
"Ife, love, this isn't a good time. Seelie has work to do," she whispered while she combed her fingers through her daughter's hair. She actually wouldn't mind if Henry and the rest of his family disappeared just so that she could stay like that with her daughter for a while longer. But sometimes we actually have to work, she reminded herself. "What did you want dear?"
"Russell wants to know where you want to eat tonight," She replied with a smile. Even though she must have done it a million times, she could tell that she felt important when she was asked to deliver messages to different parts of the castle.
Selene sunk down to her Ife's height and replied, "Tell Russell to have the dining room set for me, you, six guests and the Prince."
Ife's face lit up at her mention of the Prince. The Prince was often one of the things her daughter asked her about. She was obsessed with the idea of somebody sitting in the throne next to her mother and staying in the room across the hall from her own. In all of the years that they had been there, the Prince was the only thing Selene could not give to her daughter. "The Prince is here!" she exclaimed.
She put a hand on each of her daughter's shoulders and spun her around towards Henry. "Ife, this is Henry, the Prince of Neverland. Henry, this is my daughter Ife." Ife took her by surprise and lunged towards Henry and hugging his knees like she had done to her only a few moments ago. Henry looked at her with a startled look on his face, but all that she could do is smile. For the first time since she had told Henry that he was going to have to leave his family behind, she felt happy about something, and that was making her daughter's dreams come true and locking her nightmares away where she would never meet them.
"Ife, love, give Henry some space. You are going to scare him off before he even decides if he wants to stay! Now, go run back to Russell with what I told you." She gave Henry an apologetic look as Ife backed away and began running to the door yelling, "Six guests and the Prince!" behind her.
"She seemed excited about seeing me," Henry spoke reluctantly, a smile curving on his lips once again.
"Well, this is the only thing she has talked about for seven hundred years," she shrugged. "I guess since our dinner order is on its way we should invite your family back in," she suggested.
"I'll stay here and be Prince if you promise my family will be safe," he almost whispered. It physically pained her that he sounded so defeated, but there was nothing she could do to ease the boy's pain.
"I promise that I will try my hardest to protect them from the land and I have never broken a promise that I so dearly wanted to keep," she assured him. "If I were you, I would start thinking about how you want to break the news to them." She sent him one last reassuring smile before putting her austere facade and waving her hands in front of her. The doors at the back of the room opened and silence fell where there had been a trace of yelling a moment ago.
"You all may return now!" she bellowed to the group standing outside. They began walking back in. She could tell that they were all distressed about Henry being away from them and she feared the conversation that was to come. She could already see rage etched on Henry's mother's face as if she was going to expel all the power of Horus on her. She opened her mouth to speak, but Selene had been expecting this. Before she could get a syllable out she said, "Henry here would like to share something with all of you."
She decided that the blonde princess would not be able to unleash her anger if it was her son's turn to speak and she proved to be correct. She took a barely noticeable step backwards and shut her mouth.
"Well, um, I guess that I am going to stay here at the castle while all of you go out and search for a way to get home because I, um, can't leave the island and I am also the Prince of Neverland now." His words varied in tempo from bursts of quick phrases to momentary hesitations; he ended in his declaration in a tone just above a whisper. He was scared to share the news, just as she knew that his family would be quite enraged to hear it.
She looked out to his family to see a variety of faces. While the faces of the raven haired and brown haired princesses and the prince fell with despair, anger flashed on the faces of the queen and Dark One. It was only when she took a second look at the blonde's face that she saw that it was covered in neither to the two expressions that the others' faces held. Regret. What could she possibly be regretting?, she thought.
Just as the moment of shock passed between the family members, the blonde princess and the queen began to lash out. She had learned that somehow the queen was also a mother of sorts to Henry, so her display was just as predictable as the blonde's.
She held up her hand to silence the group just as the side door burst open once again. Everybody stopped and turned to see Ife running towards the thrones. "Well, I believe that we should continue to discuss this over dinner. Follow me," she spoke as she began walking to the door, her hand in her daughter's and her mind praying to every god that would hear her prayer.
There you have it folks! A new prince, an arrest and a lovely dress. (I'll be posting my inspiration for Selene's dress on my Tumblr (figureskatingfangirl39) later tonight under the tag Selene dresses. My Tumblr is a mess because I just started actually using it, so I apologize in advance for you having to look at it.)
Anyways, next Saturday we get to see how Emma responds to all of this. I bet you can all guess how that goes. :)
Please follow, favorite and review. My heart does somersaults and my ego gets boosted up, like, 68% percent when you guys do one of those things. Thanks a million for reading! See you in a week!