18. FAR AWAY

"Snow!" Aurora called the queen, who rushed towards her, thinking that she had some kind of problem. But, when she reached the spot where the princess was standing and saw her excited smile, she understood everything.

"It's moving, isn't it?" she asked. Aurora nodded without moving her hand from her belly.

"Yes" she confirmed.

Snow hadn't seen her so happy since she'd arrived William's castle and, specially, since they knew what Killian had done.

Three weeks had passed since that. For Aurora they had been twenty-one long days with no news about him or the quest, without even knowing if he was alive. 'If he were dead we would know' she repeated to herself every time that possibility crossed her mind. Everyday she tried to be optimistic (mainly for the baby's sake) and think that he would survive that madness as he'd done a lot of times before, but nervousness and worry usually won the battle. She wondered how he was and where and if there was something her brother or Snow didn't want to tell her... no, if they were lying to her, she would notice. That anxiety accompanied her even in her dreams: sometimes she had nightmares about him being killed and woke up crying in the middle of the night. Because of that, Snow and Jour had decided not to leave her alone during the nights. They also did their best to keep her busy and entertained, to make her not to think about Killian.'We'll have news soon' they said when they didn't achieve their goal, and tried to comfort her with similar words as the ones they'd used when Jour'd told her everything.

"I'll go to look for your brother, alright?" Snow said after hugging Aurora, who nodded.

When the queen left her alone with her thoughts, the princess couldn't avoid feeling sad again because of the situation. She wondered how Killian would have reacted if he'd been there, if he'd been excited, scared or the two things at the same time. Whatever his reaction would be, she needed him to stay by her side so much... They still had so much to talk about the subject and there were so many things that he was missing during that months. Her happiness had disappeared and was replaced by the sadness in her eyes again.

'Not again' Jour thought when he arrived and saw how his sister was.

"Snow's told me you have something to show me" he said with a smile, trying to cheer her up.

"Come here" although she was unable to smile, at least she'd remembered what had happened minutes before. Her brother walked towards her and she took his hand, placing it where the baby's movements were still noticeable. He smiled widely, making her show a little smile too.

"That's better" he said, hugging her with his free arm and kissing her temple "Everything will be fine. And, since I don't want you to be sad, I've got a surprise for you too." he added, guiding her to the apartment's entrance.

Intrigued about what Jour had done, she opened the door when he invited her with a movement of his hand. She found that her surprise had a name: Mulan.

The warrior was standing there along with Snow, who was smiling widely too. Before Aurora could react, Mulan took the two steps that separated them and, without saying a word, hugged her. At first, Aurora felt quite surprised: her friend was not the kind of person who hugged someone so easily, but she was so happy to see her again that she immediately forgot that.

"How are you?" Mulan asked.

"I... I'm so glad you've come... I've missed you so much" was the only thing she managed to say, trying to stop herself from crying again.

"Hey, it's fine." the warrior replied, her hands on the princess' shoulders so she could see her better "You've got me here, it's all that matters." Aurora nodded, hugging her friend one more time and Mulan, after letting the hug last for many seconds, spoke again "There'll be time to talk about everything, right?" her friend nodded again.

"How much time are you staying?" Aurora asked.

"I won't go until you get out of here." the warrior answered. "I vowed to protect you, remember?" the princess was going to reply something, but she didn't let her "Not for Phillip but for you... I still consider you as my best friend. And I've been away during enough time." Aurora tried to hug her again, but the warrior seemed to have reached her limit of hugs for one day and just took her hands, stopping her for doing it, giving them a squeeze "I'm not leaving you alone, alright?"

"We're the ones who are leaving so you can talk, alright?" Snow said, taking Jour's arm and disappearing from their side.

The two friends sat together on Aurora's bed and spent more than an hour speaking about everything. The conversation reminded the princess of the one she'd had with Phillip so many weeks before but it was clear that the warrior had spoken with him too. And speaking about that conversation...

"A little bird told me that you've found... someone special" Aurora said. "It's not like I want to be nosy but, I don't know, I thought Phillip and you would eventualy get together."

"Well..." Mulan was not very good at talking about her feelings, specially love "Of course I loved Phillip but... Shang appeared and it was like... like a hurricane that turned everything upside down, do you understand?"

"I do... more than you think." she answered.

"But now there's something more urgent than the details of my love story" Aurora didn't want to insist, knowing how difficult it was for her friend. "You've said someone told William where to find you. Isn't it suspicious? Why someone would bother to follow two people he doesn't know? Isn't it too much coincidence that, after... " she stopped for a moment and asked "how many days you've said?"

"Two weeks."

"After two weeks someone whose identity nobody knows and who had no idea of who you are goes and turns you in to a paranoid king. And now your brother says that William was talking with a man whose face he's never seen before about comitting certain murder. It's too much coincidence, don't you think?"

"So what you're saying is..."

"I'm saying that, whoever told the king where you were, he knew you and wanted to harm you... and if he's also wanted to kill Hook, he's dangerous and can return to harm you too. They can be plotting something right now..." suddenly, a smile appeared on her face and she stood up "This is a task for Mulan."

"Wait, are you telling me you're going to catch that guy?" the warrior nodded with so much determination that Aurora didn't even think about stopping her "Please, be careful."

"I'm always careful." she answered and, squeezing Aurora's hand again, she went out of the room.

.

In the twilight, while Aurora, Snow and Jour were speaking about what to do the following day, Mulan entered the room like a hurricane, holding a man by his elbow. They noticed that his hands were tied firmly with a rope.

"So..." the warrior said proudly "this is the scoundrel who turned you in."

They looked at the man in question and Snow muffled.

"I know you" she said.

His wavy blond hair was longer than ever and half-covered by a hood which didn't hide the long scars on his face and his cold dark eyes looked at them with hate and arrogance.

"Good to see you again, your majesty" he said with sarcasm. "It's been a long time."

"How did you manage to escape from Neverland, Felix?" Snow asked, althought she'd already started to think about a possibility, which was also crossing Aurora's mind.

"Why would I tell you that? You're not my queen" he replied. Mulan took him from his collar.

"Answer it" she told him in a threatening tone. "Tell them everything you've told me before." The lost boy, who was really scared of her, surrendered:

"I was weak when I found out that you" he looked at Aurora "and your pirate were in Neverland on your honeymoon or whatever it was." she got pale "Don't worry, I didn't stay to watch the show... I looked for your ship instead."

"And when they returned..." Snow saw everything clear then.

"I hid in it and returned here without their knowledge. Once I was here, I hid in the village and I did my research. I just had to wait until they weren't under Eric's protection and then, you know, I played my cards with William... People who lost what they wanted the most are so easy to manipulate, and he hated pirates so much..." he concluded with a cold smile.

"Why?" Jour asked, unable to keep quiet for more time.

"Revenge" was the simple answer. "When I lost Peter Pan, I lost everything." he made a pause and looked at Snow "I couldn't let you and your dear friends escape without the punishment you deserved."

"What do we do with him now?" Jour asked.

"I don't think the fact that we've caught him will change William's mind...Let's take him to Nicholas' castle's dungeons until we decide what to do with him." Snow said after thinking about it for a couple of minutes "Mulan?"

"It'll be a pleasure" she answered. And then looked at Felix "You'd better behave if you don't want me to show you what I can do with my sword."

"Be discrete" the queen asked her. The warrior nodded and was going to leave with the prisoner when Snow called her again "Mulan... good job." she smiled.

.

Aurora was sitting on her bed, looking at the full moon which could be seen behind the clouds. She didn't know what to think... if they'd noticed that the lost boy was on the ship... Snow'd told her not to worry about that, that nobody could have known it but she still felt disappointed for it.
Snow's voice cut her thoughts:

"Aurora, dear, I'm going to sleep, alright?" the princess nodded "Wake me up if you need something."

"Goodnight" she said.

"Goodnight" the queen caressed her cheek and headed to the couch.

One more day without knowing anything about Killian, one more day alone in the dark, wondering how he was and wishing he could come back to her, safe. One more time, she obliged herself to think that he'd come through that, to fight against her fear. Maybe when the morning came they would receive some news. The baby moved again, as if it wanted to catch her attention. She sighed and, putting her hand on her belly again, she lay on the bed. Five minutes later she was completely asleep.

.

He was aboard the Jolly Roger, walking quickly through one of its corridors. He heard confusing sounds... he had to reach the place where they came from but it was as if the corridor never ended... and he needed it to end. He walked and walked, feeling his heart racing inside his chest and his own agitated breathing. He started to run, hearing the sounds more clearly with each step: bits of encouraging sentences... and Aurora's pain. He ran quicker, he had to be with her urgently. Finally, he reached the door he was heading to in the precise moment when a baby cry replaced every other sound. He stopped, listening to it. Suddenly the door was half opened and he could see an exhausted Aurora lying on a bed, with their baby in her arms. 'It's a girl' he heard.

When he wanted to walk again to reach them, the door slammed and an invisible hand dragged him backwards. He tried desperately to resist but he couldn't. The room where his family was became more and more small until he lost its sight and everything turned to black. Where was he now? Suddenly, a voice he knew well spoke next to him.

"Don't worry, my love." he turned to see Milah by his side "You'll be fine. Here is where you belong."

"Jones... Jones" he woke up covered in sweat. One of the soldiers was shaking his shoulder "Time to wake up."

That was the last day of their journey, the day when everything would be decided. They had set camp near the dragon's refuge, which was surrounded by mountains, hidden enoug to avoid being seen by the beast.

The quest hadn't been too hard and the men were always willing to speak with each other about anything. He'd been tempted to run away as Jour had asked him to do, but, in the end, he'd always decided to stay. He wasn't a coward.

The memories of what he'd lived with Aurora and the hope of a happy future with her and their son had made everyting easier. There hadn't been a day in which he hadn't thought about them or wondered how they were.

After having breakfast, they prepared to face the fight against the dragon. While the leaders of the quest were giving instructions, he remembered the promised he'd made to Jour: to make sure to come back. It was the last thought he had before totally focusing on the battle.

.

Everyone was ready on their positions when the beast noticed that it had company. Killian had never seen such a furious dragon before, but it didn't scare him. He fought along with his mates, paying attention to the leaders' orders. It didn't go bad and they eventually managed to hurt it. That encouraged them to keep fighting and, finally, after having lost many men in the battle, Killian and the others could accomplish the mission: they killed the beast together.

But it couldn't be so easy: the dragon, fatally wounded, fell and crashed with one of the mountains. The people who were closer to it didn't even had time to react when a lot of big rocks detached from its slope and fell above them. Very few had the luck to save themselves.

After they'd recovered from the shock, the survivors checked that the dragon was dead and some of them approached the amount of rocks. They saw blood, flowing from under them.

"They're dead" one of them sentenced.

Sadly, they proceeded to carry the corpses which hadn't been buried by the rocks and, when they'd buried them near the camp, they enumerated the ones who had suffered that unfortunate accident.

"Harris, Jameson," one of them started, counting with his fingers. "Burrows, Douglas... and Jones."