Chapter Three: Penalty
Warning: A bit OOC with pretty much everyone and especially Pan. Dark stuff in this chapter, I'm trying to keep the stuff as minimal as possible. No slash. Character 'Death' eventually.
Disclaimers see Author's profile page.
THIS IS A DOUBLE UPDATE, READ CHAPTER THREE BEFORE THIS ONE OR IT WILL NOT MAKE AN OUNCE OF SENSE!
He wished the Master would just kill him for another time that day. Another part ached and prayed for the small town he so painstakingly held to protect. No protection spell will hold if he weren't there to chant them, to reinforce them, and he is not getting out anytime soon, last he checked.
He wonders for a thousand times, how are they faring in that town, the Lost Boys? He watched them board the Jolly Roger and set sail to the night. Some of them are even fighting the adults to get back on the soil of Neverland. He couldn't fathom why, he made the conditions on the island as difficult as possible so they can go without remorse when the company went to get them. He may have needed them at one time because he was dying of loneliness, but now, he wanted them, and there laid the difference.
Peter Pan doesn't understand why they want to stay. All of them are better off somewhere else. Away from him. As far away as possible.
He sense the door open, wide, letting some sunlight filter through, joining its brother from the ceiling 'window.' He grasped at the presence, eyes open and adjusting to the light, it was Emma? Strange. The Master had never let her do the tormenting before. It was always Henry, or Felix, or Tink, or even some of the boys he rescued and cared for once upon a time. He is not taking any chances. Master could and will throw him off if he had his dagger even in his hands. He wonders if the vile monster would kill him if he had a knife to His throat. He sincerely hopes so.
He waited until Emma is almost close enough to touch him…and sprang.
Emma pushed open the thick iron door and was rewarded with the stench of heavy blood. The only available source of light was the small ceiling window, if you can call a square the size of her palm a window, the bars in between divided up the sun's rays, but it was enough. The broken light was enough to illuminate the boy's features.
She just wandered through the forest after escaping the suffocating air of the white mansion, with Tink's hostility, Henry's bewilderment, Regina's worry faces, Hook and Neal's no help arguing and the nagging word of what's wrong of her parents. She just has to get away, so she wandered to the woods, even though Regina warned everyone in town to keep away from there. She found a well. Not the drinking well August took her a couple of months ago, but well with a thick stone latch and a stair case that goes down under.
She had never heard of Regina building this 'prison' like…thing before.
Back to the boy behind the thick doors.
Gone was the smug arrogant Peter Pan they met in Neverland, or the sad wistful Peter Pan she saw returning Henry back to them, and was replaced by, well, a boy. Messy bronze hair that fell in his eyes, ripped tunic, slashed leggings. Wrists in cuffs on thick chains that stretched to the dark wall. Bruises, large cuts and whip marks decorated his body. Blood was pooling around where he lay, smeared to every available space. Cracked lips and death pale skin. His dagger lies just inches next to the left hand cuff, surrounded by some of the dry, flaking liquid. His eyes are closed, at a glance.
"Pan? Pan! Peter!" She shouted
The boy stirred, revealing resilient but somehow lifeless emerald-green eyes that hardened the minute Emma went close enough, his pupils barely a slit. Pan snatched up the bloody dagger, pounced on the still shocked woman and held the weapon to her throat, all was silent.
"Pan, what happened to you?" Her tone urgent, panicking.
He remained quiet, his eyes murderous now, with a tint of confusion? Weapon at the ready.
"What is the last thing I said to Henry?" Quietly he said, like the calm before the storm. Emma shuddered.
She remembers that afternoon as if she was there again. The slightly confused Henry being hugged by everybody within reach. There was smiles and laughter and reassurance, some were brave enough to sneak a few glances at the boy standing near the doorway, hands in pockets, slouching against the wall, eyes sad but relieved and pained at the sight before him.
"Hey Pan," Henry spoke up, silencing the joyous occasion immediately. "Do you want it back?" He gingerly held up the necklace hanging around his neck, fingers smoothing over the Greenleaf, etched in faded green ink if you held the stone up to the right light.
Pan shook his head, "Keep it safe Henry, you might never know, it may come in handy someday." Softly chucking at some unseen irony only Pan, and now Tink, can find. Pan turned and walked straight out through the open doorway, his scarf fluttering behind him. This is what pan said, and what Emma repeated.
Pan backed away, dropping the dagger with a resounding clang and stepped into the pitiful amount of light. His injuries somehow went even worse in the sun. He stumbled, chairs rattling and slid down the wall. Two set of crystal droplets fell out of his emerald orbs and Emma went up to him, wrapping him with her arms and her red leather jacket, filled with comfort and home, reminding him of the things that he was ripped from all those centuries ago, and let the immortal being cry out his fears, tears and despair.
They stayed like that for a while, bits of dried blood and dirt made a gathering meeting at Emma's shoulder, like a young mother, bringing hope and light to a sun that just woke up screaming from a nightmare.
"What happened?" She asked, careful not to set him on edge.
"I disobeyed." He answered.
Seeing Emma's confused glance, he continued. "I was never the true lord of Neverland. I just woke Him up that's all. I'm like a vessel, chosen by him, to carry his orders to the last degree. If I live, he lives, and Neverland survives. I'm mortal, so I'll need the heart of the Truest Believer to keep holding on. I don't want to, but I can't say no. This is the first time I…" His eyes slammed shut, no doubt experiencing some unlucky memory. Emma could see more tears forming.
"What about the town? And the forest and everything if he's here?" She softly shrieked. A flash of anger flitted across Pan's handsome features. "I put up a protection spell around the town. He's not getting in when I'm still alive. Which won't be much longer I think." He finished with a mirthless chuckle. Emma's arms grasped him tighter.
"I will protect Henry. I promised." He gritted his teeth, determination and hatred burns through his entourage. The Peter pan she knew of flickered back, a ruthless being that would do anything to get what he wants.
She felt a smirk tugging on her lips, but paired with tears stinging her eyes. The infamous Peter Pan risked his life for them, for the ones she holds most dear, for everyone in this town. He owned them nothing, he didn't deserve this, beneath all that power he's just a lonely, lost boy whose family went 'away.'
"Emma, you should go. He'll be here soon. I don't…want you to…" The rest went trailing off into oblivion.
She listened. "I'll be back. I promise." She cast one last fleeting glance at the boy before sprinting out of the well. She could only catch a shadow of a look at the master of Neverland before He descended into blackness below.
"How I wish you wouldn't keep that." He had said, a tiniest smile formed on his dehydrated lips before Emma took off. She quietly smirked to herself. Since when had the leader of the Charming Co. ever listened to that boy anyway.
Peter Pan always keeps his promises, and now, Emma Swan is going to keep hers.
A/N: Please review, favorite. Tell me how many plot holes I have forgotten to plug but no flames please.
Clearing something up: Peter Pan was like a host to another soul. He has his own mind-set but is forced to obey whatever the Master tells him to. I think I showed it pretty well what happens in this chapter on what would happen if he didn't obey. The Master told him to take Henry's heart, get the intruders off Neverland and do whatever Pan is doing before the Charming Co. came. Obviously he did not do that because if he did, there won't be any of this story to go on with and I'll be devastated.
A giant fight with a monster coming up next chapter. There will probably another three more left to go before this is finished.
The Peter Pan in the real show is quite good-looking if I do say so myself. *giggles*
I need a beta. Someone?