Chapter Five: Putrefy
Warning: A bit OOC with pretty much everyone and especially Pan. Character death.
Disclaimers see Author's profile page.
I would like to dedicate this chapter to two of my good friends, if you can call it that, Insane PJO LOver and Lord of Insomnia. One of them is my beta went over my numerous tenses and other problems to make this at least eligible to read. I love both of them and would recommend their great stories for reading.
"I'm sorry, but there is nothing more I could do."
That was the sentence Whale tried at least seven times to tell the rag-tagged group that insisted to stay outside of he operation room and only now they relented to a small meeting room, wearing smoking outfits riddled with holes and dirt that was almost superglued on. Tracking mud and leaves all over the clean pristine tiles of the hospital.
Usually Whale would have all of them thrown out the front door to either get cleaned up or file in at a mental hospital somewhere not close to here.
He had been thinking of doing those things when they first came into the double doors, if not for the explosion and lights that everyone saw or felt in the forest and the boy. The boy in Charming's arms, with blood pooling like waterfalls out of his body.
That is when his doctor instincts kicked in.
It was well past three, almost twelve hours since the company first barged in. He, along with half of the personnel in the hospital finally got the boy's blood to stop flowing and at least stabilized him. He could see the magic in that boy's veins, making his blood glow sliver, and making his job no less messier.
Stabilized does not mean he would recover. Whale could only imagine and hopefully not dream about what kind of monster caused that amount of injury. If not for the amount of magic in the boy's blood stream, he would have died long before anyone could have said otherwise.
"Nothing more?" Henry asked, voice half muffled in his mother's embrace. That almost eleven years old had experienced a lot of things the adults three times his age could only have nightmares over, in this particular world at least.
"What about magic?" He dared to ask, looking pointedly at Gold. Rumpelstiltskin is the most powerful man he knew in all his years, in any world. He still is the one that all princes and heroines went to for something magical. For the right price of course.
Everything has a price. Especially magic.
Regina sighed, and proceeds to explain the why not to the ignorant fool that still thinks magic is a stupid trick of the light. "Pan took Henry's heart. Your heart is where you store your most treasured things, like memories for example. Because Pan is the at least five times more powerful than me or Gold, and he was the one that has Henry's heart, he is able to restore Henry with some sort of dark/black magic that I really don't want to know. pan is more Powerful than Rumpelstiltskin ever hoped to be, so there is nothing he can to."
"So Henry is alive...right?"
"Yes he is alive and kicking. Pan on the other hand...was a totally different story." Huffed Tinker Bell, tear tracks already done her cheeks.
"Wait, why do we care about Peter pan again? I mean, he is the bad guy that stole your son to Neverland intending to rip his heart out. And by the looks of it, he succeeded." Whale trailed off when he saw the murderous look half the room is shooting at him, Charming and Hook is suddenly sharpening their weapons in the lime light for all to see.
"Pan takes promises very seriously, some of that seriousness came from before he was taken to Never land. Something about his mother and not coming back. I only know that his family had hurt him deeply by not fulfilling their promises, so Pan resolved to never break one like his family had." Tink never wanted to say anything about Pan's family or his life before. But since Pan is dying in a hospital room a couple of doors away, she has to break the rules. Hopefully Pan won't rip her into shreds once he wakes.
"To say the Master of Neverland, the real master, would be displeased would be a severe understatement, Pan knows the punishment and still he stuck to it. Long story short, the Master of Neverland tortured Pan for about a week before Emma found him half dead somewhere in the forest and dragged us with her to get him out of that hell-hole. He killed the thing and at the same time it almost killed him as well. He still got all those injury from the week he has been...away..." At this Tink buried her face in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. Unaware of the looks she was getting from almost everyone.
"The fairy was the closest thing Pan has got to a friend and a mother figure thing while he is kept prisoner in that demented island." Regina muttered to the group of trembling adults, barely able to hold back a sneer.
Whale was again, hopelessly confused, "You still didn't answer my question though, why can't you use your magic on him?"
"Because," Gold stood up, knocking back the stool he had been perching on, clad in full Dark One regalia, intimidating half the room, "Pan knows enough magic to level this town with a flick of a hand. If he hasn't done the thing he is not suppose to do, I'd be sticking a dagger in the hospital room right now. He has unknown and powerful magic flowing in his systems. He still has Henry's heart, so we have no idea what outside magic could do to him. It could either make his condition worse, though I don't know how we can do that, or kill him out right."
"So we are just going to leave him like that?" There was a hint of disbelief and accusation in Snow's tone as she put a comforting hand around the distraught fairy.
"We wait, and see if Pan has enough of a will to keep on living."
"Will?" The question in Charming's voice was apparent.
"He will live," The room's noise came to a grinding halt at the sound of Henry's voice, bruised and battered like the rest of himself. He offered a tender smile, "If I learnt one thing in my stay in Neverland, Peter Pan never fails."
A chuckle from the far corner drew everyone's attention, before revealing Hook, with his crooked hands and equally crooked smile, "Indeed."
The moods did not lighten, but everyone was strangely reassured.
"Hello Henry," the greeting was soft spoken, lost in the late evening breeze, so unlike the devious streak he always has back in Neverland, or hoarse voice lanced with pain and secrets he used to calm the boy down when he woke up screaming after Pan had used his magic to forcefully drag him from the limbo between life and death.
Henry whirled around, hands clutching the wooden stick he used as a wand when his family shooed him outside to get some fresh air. He has recently finished the last book and movie of the Harry Potter series and had been itching to be alone and try the killing curse.
He smiled hesitantly in reply, before suddenly remembering the reason he was kicked out to the courtyard in the first place. Regina shooed him off with a conjured Voldemort wand to get him away from the rushing bodies and Hook's colourful cursing tirade on the variation of where did that brat Pan go he is half dead how did the hell did he get out without been seen god I am so going to gut him like a mermaid and hang his insides on my ship mast for all to see.
"How did you..." He began, half wanting to drag Pan back to the hospital, half wanting to know how he got out in the first place. He was wearing his usual Peter Pan get up, the green-green-green outfit, including the dagger. There were blotches of flaking brown and wet crimson, but his wounds are no where to be seen.
"You know, this is a yew tree," huh? "It signifies rebirth, a new life, a tie to our ancestors and a symbol of the old magic. The yew is sacred to Hecate, the crone aspect of the Triple Goddess; both are guardians of the Underworld, death and the afterlife." A pale hand gently stoked the dark bark of the tree, a perfect picture of melancholy.
What is it about rebirth that stoke Henry as uneasy, almost knowing something. He looked down at the white 'wand' his mum conjured. Voldemort's wand, made from the wood of a yew tree, fitting he supposed, since the evil nose-less freak tried so hard at conquering death. Something drifted into his vision, ash, soft, fine and grey, slowing disintegrating in the wind, carried away by the same breeze. But where did it come from?
He glanced back up, and drew a sharp breath, as did everyone that has been gathered at the courtyard. One half already given up in the search, another half wanting to ask Henry if he knew where Pan is.
The ash came from Pan. Bits and pieces breaking off of him and into fine grey ash. Gruesome, yet beautiful, hypnotic at the same time. A twisted life, broken beyond recognition on the inside, finally finding peace.
"The small evergreen leaves are dark green, even in the middle of the coolest, most bitter of winters. A symbol of life, but they are deadly poisonous at the same time. The entire tree is poisonous - wood, bark, needles and seed. I find yew tree the easiest to relate to. At least in this world." Pan chuckled, seemingly not caring about the ash that came from his own broken body. "Am I that far gone that I have to use this method of dying?"
"Pan..."
He extended a hand, trying to grasp a life for Peter Pan, to whatever he has left, the other gripping the leaf pendant so hard it etched a deep red line across his palm. Pan smiled, without the mischievous glint the Lost Boys had grown to fear, and also love. It always means a adventure was starting. A great adventure.
The words died on his lips as the ashes engulfed his face, dancing and twirling into oblivion, and perhaps even realms beyond it. To finally die next to a tree of rebirth...Fitting.
"You promised Pan. YOU PROMISED!" Henry screamed to the now still air, forgetting everything, forgetting there're princes and heroines and dwarfs and Lost Boys that must be feeling the same broken thing he is. He screamed and screamed and just wants him to come back. It was that simple and that childish, he just wants him to come back and say let's play and pulls his dagger and fires spells and saying he understands how the little boy inside the little boy feels.
He can't stand the pendent now. But that was the only thing left of him. Of the infamous Peter Pan.
He may not be the most well behaved boy on he island Neverland, but he always keeps his promises. Not wanting to end up like his godforsaken family and beautiful mother that doesn't even spare him a glance when he flew back through their window, wanting to be back in her embrace.
He winces. The memory is still too painful to bear. He could remember his mother's screeches and his father's swords too well.
"I don't have a son like you! Get out! My sons are normal, not freaks that could do witchery and flies through windows! Get out and never come back!"
At least that was the one thing the Master allowed him to have, to indulge himself . It was the first time he laughed like that as he plunged his dagger into his brother's chest and laughed and laughed at his mother's horrified expression. He had felt a piece of his kind heart shrivel up and die. He didn't care at that time. He still doesn't care now.
He once made a promise to a boy, giving him the pendent he loathed and loved and could never throw away. Not many remembered the promise any more.
But peter Pan always remembered. Because he promised. Because he couldn't stand the anguish cry the young boy hurtled at the wind, wanting Pan to hear.
"I did, didn't I? I promised..."
A/N: Please review, favorite. Tell me how many plot holes I have forgotten to plug but no flames please.
Reference to why I put Pan's 'death' like that could be found on YouTube if you type in 'Ulquiorra's Death' in the search box. But I strongly recommend against it if you are reading or watching Bleach. I will not be responsible if you did not heed my warning and came back and blames me for the spoiler. If any of you want to read a good story that involves around a yew tree, I strongly suggest A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, an insanely good story.
This story is NOT over yet. There is still an epilogue and a small glimmer of hope that Pan is still alive, somehow. Though even I wouldn't count on it.
I finally got a beta! Lets celebrate with a new chapter!