A/N: Hey hey!
Thank you guys for reading! I've got my formal tomorrow, so next chapter might be a little delayed, but I'm writing it now so I don't have to do too much tomorrow. =]
If you have time, go check out my new online shop. Head on over to Etsy and type in 'Knightsandchains' to take a look at my jewellery. If you're interested and you live outside Australia, send me a message and I'll see what I can do about sending it out. =D
Yes - shameless self promotion - but I'm new at this sahhhh...
Also! This fic just reached novel length *Cheers*.
Anyway, enjoy my lovely readers! Reviews always appreciated. xx
Where Allegiances Lie
Present Day
Indigo and Wendy caught up quickly over what Indigo had been doing on the island, Indigo skimming over the finer details of her and Pan as they approached the campsite where Indigo stopped just short and turned to Wendy.
"Erm," she hesitated, "I'm not too sure how to say this…"
"Really mum?" Wendy looked at her doubtfully, "A thousand years and you don't know how to say something."
"Well, I guess I never told you who your father was."
"I never asked," Wendy replied honestly. "I assumed he wasn't good for anything; certainly not good at being a father."
Indigo looked over at her daughter. "Judging by your timing I'm assuming he's on the other side of those trees," she nodded her head towards the camp. Indigo nodded once again before saying, "Don't judge him too harshly Wendy. In all honesty, he only found out you existed yesterday."
"You've gotten better at lying mother," Wendy said, pressing on, "Perhaps a little too good."
Indigo tried not to let the words affect her as she followed her daughter into the fire-lit campsite. It was Neal who jumped at first spotting her. For a moment she was confused but then she recognised the boy and smiled, running to hug him, "Bae!"
"Oh my goodness!" he replied in shock, looking at her youthful face. "How long have you been here?"
"Um…Pan's kept me here since I was fourteen…" Wendy trailed off.
"That's almost 85 years!" Neal gasped, looking at her face, "Neverland's magic has certainly worked on you."
"And you too," Wendy replied. "You were here for a while before you left, otherwise you'd be dead by now, or at least really old."
"Yes well, I think most of us have had some kind of age suspension over the course of our lives. Some of course, more than others," he looked at Indigo who merely smiled.
"Not me," Emma pointed out. "I'm 28 and am still aging."
"Not for the past six days you haven't love," Killian interjected.
"Thank you for that Hook, like six days is going to make a difference in the long run. Who is this by the way?"
"I'm Wendy," the girl smiled, looking at the group assembled before her and looking at each of them in turn. "By what Indigo's said I'm guessing Emma?" She nodded. "Snow and Charming." Her eyes moved along then to the man standing with a hook hanging from his left hand. "And Hook."
The man was looking at her strangely and it was then that after glancing back at her mother she realised she was looking into eyes very similar to her own. "Oh," was all she could say.
"Alright let's break," David said as the father and daughter simply looked at each other. "Let these two have some privacy. Snow and I are going out for firewood."
"Emma," Indigo said suddenly, "Can I talk to you?"
The two of them left quickly as Hook and Wendy sat down to talk, both hesitant about each other.
"Indigo named you after my mother," Hook began with a small smile.
"It's a good name," she replied, frowning, "Yours isn't actually Hook is it?"
"No," he chuckled. "It's Killian Jones."
"Killian," she repeated, not willing to call him father just yet.
"So I've heard some of your story from Pan," Wendy continued. "It was fro, his point of view, but I can read between the lines. However, something Indigo never told me, is why Indigo left you?"
"You don't call her your mother?" Hook enquired, noticing that Emma did the same thing with Snow.
"When you spend half your childhood without her, it does become hard to."
"She," Hook frowned. "She didn't want to leave you."
"I know that," Wendy said with a sad smile. "I remember her saying goodbye to me and giving her a dagger…that is currently upon your necklace." Her face brightened when she realised he had something of hers.
"I can't say the same for me however," Killian answered. "I think, she just sincerely didn't want to raise a child with a pirate."
Wendy's brow furrowed. "I don't think it was that."
"Hmm?"
"She came to Neverland to fight Pan," Wendy said thinking out loud. "But with a child, she had to stop using magic and that meant she had no way to fight him. So she left because she no longer had a purpose."
"You certainly know how to make your father feel better Wendy," Killian scoffed. "You're saying she never felt anything for me?"
"No," she continued, "I'm not saying that at all. But it's not her primary motivation. It never has been. I always thought it was revenge that fuelled her, but it wasn't, it still isn't."
"I have no idea what you're on about Wendy," Hook replied honestly. "You get the rambling from Indigo."
"Her love for me wouldn't have been enough to break Pan's hold, nor her love for you," Wendy continued as though she hadn't heard him. "So the only way it could have been revenge, is if there was something deeper underneath it."
Killian's face was gradually falling underneath the firelight. "You don't think-"
"It has to be," Wendy said earnestly. "The only way she got here was because she never stopped loving Peter Pan."
The Enchanted Forest – 41 Years Ago…
"Look Dark One," Indigo was saying as she paced the floor of Rumplestiltskin's Dining Hall. "I don't know what you want me to say. Travel between worlds is impossible unless you've got a magic bean, a mermaid or some massively dangerous curse."
"There are no more magic beans dearie. And as for a curse? Well, I've never seen anything that dark written down."
"I have," Indigo sighed, before widening her eyes as she realised what she just said. Immediately she put a barrier up around herself so that the Dark One couldn't coax further information from her lips.
"You've seen a spell that dark?" Rumplestiltskin cackled, "And here I thought you were the purest of magic users."
"I want my daughter back just as much as you want your son Rumplestiltskin," she answered honestly. "I'll tell you what's necessary if you can promise me that Regina will set me free."
"I have no power there dearie," Rumplestiltskin replied.
"You did once," she replied. "I was there when you fell in love with her mother. I remember when Regina called on you to be her mentor. I've been around Dark One. You've got influence – you have fear. Use it."
And with those words Indigo disappeared.
Present Day
"I got distracted yesterday," Indigo said, shaking her head as she spoke to Emma. "I need to get something from Pan."
"What will it do?" she asked. "Will it help Henry?"
"If I do what I know I can," Indigo nodded, looking up at Emma's hopeful eyes, "Then yes. It'll destroy Pan. And if we do that, Henry is free to go."
"You should be working with Rumplestiltskin and Regina," Emma commented. "They're working on a way to kill Pan."
"Yes well," Indigo stood up, "I've worked with both of them, and neither of those times were we actually on the same side. So forgive me if I prefer to work alone."
"Of course," Emma replied. "I understand that. Do you need me to say anything to the others?"
"No," Indigo replied, watching Wendy and Hook talking intently, "I'll be back before they realise I'm gone."
She sped off into the night. Looking for one simple thing that she had hidden in Pan's desk drawer. And as the camp slept, she crept into his room, and took the blue petal that Pan had magicked into beauty for her and made to leave. But as she saw him lying there, she smirked and thought she could toy with him a little before she left.
"I freed Wendy," Indigo said loudly, perched upon his desk.
His sword was in his hand as he spun up from his sleep to face the empty room. The moment he saw Indigo, he disappeared and reappeared in front of her, sword reared – only she'd disappeared too.
"Two can play at this game," she laughed from the other side of the room where she now sat on the opposite windowsill, flicking at her nails.
"Well congratulations Anabelle," he replied, feeling a twinge when he realised if Wendy got out of Neverland, his control over John and Michael was gone. But they wouldn't get out of Neverland so that passed quickly. He called her Anabelle, trying to get a rise out of her so that she would leave. He legitimately wanted to sleep to be up early tomorrow. "You just come here to gloat? Although I do find it curious why you persist on coming back here even after everything I've done to you? You have an incredibly twisted mind to still want me."
"Not as twisted as yours," she answered, keeping her anger in check, smiling as she began to poke at tender points of Pan's grand plan. "I just came here to say that it's possible that you're losing control of the lost boys. Unfortunately we carry a certain camaraderie that you couldn't possibly understand, having forgotten how to feel lost," her tone had turned patronising.
"I'm a lost girl," she said, stepping into his room. "But you made sure of that a thousand years ago. And because of your actions, you know that I have just as much right to this island as any of them. And just as much right as you."
"So why don't you just take it?" Pan asked, crossing the room to her with glowing arms outstretched. Their magic bounced off each other, rendering both attacks useless, so when he came face to face with her she simply said, "You know I'm immortal."
"So am I," Pan answered smugly.
"Mmm," she murmured. "Except yours is because of the island. And mine, well, mine's because of this."
With more power than she'd used in a while, she pushed through Pan's defences, throwing him backwards into the corner of his room where she bent the chains he hadn't taken off his wall around his wrists. He didn't bother fighting them, but merely watched Indigo curiously. As she walked past him, he caught her arm and said, "I wouldn't advise you to look in a mirror anytime soon. You're looking an awful lot like me."
She pulled her arm out of his forcefully before turning back to him. Dropping to his height, she said evenly, "And that lover, is exactly what I need to take the lost boys and this island out from under you."
And with a forceful kiss on Pan's captive lips, she disappeared into the night. Pan, for the first time, in awe of his enemy.
But he couldn't deny that as he looked after Indigo he felt a pang of regret. Yes, she did look an awful lot like him. And for the first time in centuries, he questioned why that suddenly seemed like a bad thing.
"Felix!" he called loudly, the chains inhibiting his magic. "I need you!" It was time to get those annoying good guys off his island before they started toying even more fiercely with his mind.
The Enchanted Forest – 40 Years Ago…
"If I ever hear that you've gone behind my back to work with Rumplestiltskin again," Regina said dangerously, her magic holding Indigo up by her throat. "Even your magic won't save you from the hell that I will put you in."
She let her go and Indigo fell to the ground, staring up at the woman with hatred. Her magic had grown stronger, but still not strong enough to fight off the darkness in Regina.
"You can't believe that you really need me anymore?" Indigo said, crawling to her feet as she rubbed at her neck. "You've obviously got enough power."
"I do Indigo," Regina replied. "But I can't just expect you to not go running over to my enemies the minute I let you go."
"Maybe I'd actually just like to find my daughter," Indigo replied honestly. After all those years, it was still the same quest.
"And how are you going to do that?"
"Go ask Rumplestiltskin," Indigo ordered before mocking realisation, "Oh wait. I wasn't going to tell him unless you set me free. Guess we all lose."
"What could possible have that much power?" Regina enquired.
"A curse," Indigo smiled a little darkly, seeing her chance. "You know, it could have advantages in your war on Snow and Charming."
"And your price is of course your freedom."
"You going to give it to me?"
"In time," she muttered. "When I know this curse will work."
Ten years later, Indigo was set free, with Rumplestiltskin having used her knowledge to alter the curse to suit their needs. Eleven years later, she called upon Ariel once more – her desperation so great that she was willing to risk even death in crossing worlds to find her daughter. And she stood before Wendy, grown up, but merely a mirage. Speaking with the utmost conviction, she recognised her mother but would not even touch her. Merely sending her on a mission of hatred – to trap Peter Pan in a land without magic.
That night, Indigo caught sight of the shadow, and unable to follow it without magic, she latched onto his feet, the moment she entered Neverland, flying across the dying day to where a pirate ship sat upon the still seas.
A year later, the curse was activated. But for Indigo, no time had really passed. And 28 years passed in a week. While she plotted in the back of her mind.
She planned the destruction of Peter Pan.
Present Day
Indigo walked back to the camp slowly, passing the magic filled petal between her fingers as she tried to analyse Pan's magic. It was old, and incredibly powerful. But what he had used in this was nothing like what she'd ever sensed in him. It was joy and fear fighting for dominance.
But what could Pan possibly fear so much that it would fuel his magic-
Indigo let out a breath of surprised shock as it hit her. She knew what he feared. He covered it up at every instance. "Pan fears falling in love with me all over again," she breathed ever so quietly to herself, smirking at the thought.
"That's impossible."
Felix's voice from behind her shocked her. She turned around, arms prepared to attack, but even Felix was looking at her in the knowledge that her words could actually possibly be true.
"No it isn't," she breathed, a small smile forming on her face.
"If that's true," Felix continued, "Then maybe it's time we talked."
It occurred to Indigo then that Felix had heeded her words from yesterday and sought her out. It was time they talked; it was time they planned.
It was time to free them all from the hold of Neverland.