"I can see all the doors and what's behind all the doors and behind one of them, incredibly, I see him." - Elizabeth - Bioshock Infinite
The animosity between father and son was too big not to notice. Sarah flinched when she saw Rumple move towards Pan. A huge battle was about to break out at any given moment. Sarah knew she wasn't strong enough to stop them both. Her eyes averted over to the cliff. It was pretty high but there was water below meaning she might live if she jumped. She still wouldn't jump… but they didn't have to know.
Sarah stood on the edge of it anyway, and announced, "I will jump off this cliff." Pan and Rumple turned their attention to her. Pan's smile faded and Rumple stayed frozen. "Leave him alone, Pan. You can get him later. He isn't who you really want."
"Don't do this for my sake," Rumple said to her.
"This is for Henry," Sarah replied. "He doesn't to deal with family members dying."
"Well, aren't you the peaceful type?" Pan mocked her. She ignored him. She was sure Rumple would also do this for Henry even if what Pan said about the boy being his undoing was true or not. "Are you trying to convince me you will jump?" He tried stepping closer to her but in turn, she stepped away from him. Pan's eyes narrowed down at her.
"Please," Sarah said, looking directly at him. He looked like he was considering listening to her if it meant he wouldn't lose her. The threat between Rumple and his "father was far too real to not take seriously.
"Fine," Pan finally agreed. "I wouldn't want to waste my breath on him anyway."
"Don't bother holding back the next time we meet," Rumple snapped at him. "Because, next time, I definitely won't. I have more important things to do." He disappeared into thin air right away, with only his footprints left behind.
Sarah sighed, weighing in on what she actually happened. She ran off after Ariel supposedly recognized her and Rumple arrived in time to see Pan conversing with her about Henry. Rumple definitely showed no care for her, nor did Pan. Nobody except Henry truly cared for her.. He was willing to help find her 'enchanted' fairytale back ground.
She barely took one step forward and sensed the ground below her beginning to rumble and erode quickly. Before long, she found herself slowly falling down, as Pan did nothing but act as a bystander to her death. Sarah never thought he was cruel as to not even try and save her. He had the ability to fly, and didn't use it. It wasn't up to him to save her life. It was her own fault for standing too close to the edge in the first place.
And Sarah's one regret before she plummeted into the water? That she never got to save Henry from Neverland and bring him back to his family.
In the back of Sarah's mind, she doubted the apprenticeship with Zoso was going to last very long. In fact, she was rather surprised it lasted as long as it did. Eventually, he would find out how limited her powers actually were. And if he did figure out, Sarah guessed the probability of him keeping her around was slim. He seemed to think achieving great power was nothing. He was the Dark One and he needed her? Sarah knew enough about him after a couple of weeks of working close to him but smart to not continue asking questions she was not entitled to ask.
So far, his lessons involved opening rifts to towns. He wanted her to try burning the memory of each town into her mind. Although they only went to one town, Zoso wanted her to learn one at a time. The rifts could not just simply open whenever she wanted them to. He thought the reason was because she didn't know how to control it properly but in reality, Sarah was sure they were limited.
"How did you open them before?" Zoso asked her. Sarah responded to him by shrugging. He sighed agitatedly, making her hope he would give up on her. Instead of throwing her to the wolves as Sarah wanted, he demanded she try again. He thought her powers were fun and games when in reality, Sarah hated it so much but she remembered the life she had before and didn't want to go back to it. She wanted to live a normal life… get married and have children of her own.
"I told you, this is not going to work," Sarah said. "We have been at this for hours upon end without getting anywhere."
"You will never improve with your attitude."
"I won't improve at all."
"Keeping telling yourself that and it might as well come true."
Sarah kicked the ground – hard. He was more than annoying her. She could not stand training day after day with no results. The amount of times wasted on lessons proved too much of a hassle. "I'm taking a break," she announced, "and don't try stopping me."
They had not left the town they were in since arriving a couple weeks ago. She just wanted sometime to herself for a while. She was not sure what there was to do in the town of Summerfell. In the middle of the day there had to be at least something interesting happening. She figured it was a small town but found out quickly, it was actually a big city... She and Zosos travelled through the market and barely saw much of it. Not a very hygienic city, she thought, remembering the awful stench that came with it when she first arrived.
She stumbled into a bunch of axes neatly stacked against the table in the Market Square. The same stand she ran into before and the same boy, who got mad at her for not watching where she was going, saw everything. "You again," the boy said, and rolled his eyes. "That doesn't surprise me much. You country folk think you can do whatever you please."
"Not from the country. I prefer cities that aren't dirty."
He raised his brown haired eyebrows. "Clearly I wouldn't know the difference. You look just as dirty as the city."
"Oh no," Sarah said, sarcastically. She knew had been dirty at least, but not smelly. Not her fault Zoso made her trek through swamps because he claimed it was faster that way. "You got me there."
"Where are you from?" The boy picked the axes up and stacked them neatly again.
"Everywhere," she replied. Her family travelled from town to city, and to more towns, because they all despised beggars and harassed them until they fled the area. Sarah hd no idea of which place she was actually born in.
"Which means?"
An angry man from inside the building behind the stand, stormed out. "Malcolm!" the man shouted. "What are you doing? Unless this young lady happens to be a customer, I suggest you quit talking and continue with the work I gave to you."
"She knocked those items over!"
"Doesn't matter. You don't have it right anyway. I told you to put them on the racks!"
The boy said nothing short of a sigh, as the man returned inside and slammed the door harshly. "Sorry, but I have more important things to do than to speak with the likes of you."
Jerk, she thought. Sarah took a quick look at Malcolm before leaving the Market Square. He seemed too busy trying to place the axes in their proper spots. It didn't matter. Sarah had enough of the city for one day to last an entire lifetime.
Her ribs began aching the moment she reached the surface. She dragged herself out of the water or at least tried to if the current had not pulled her with it. It was always a bad idea to fight the current in a river and the most important thing was to let it take her until she could grab onto a rock. She finally managed to grab a hold of a branch sticking out into the river and pulled herself onto land. Sarah touched her ribs, wincing as the pain took over her mind. She doubled, over, staying on the ground. Her ribs were most definitely broken from the feel of it. The impact was what broke her ribs to begin with. Sarah thought of it as hitting concrete from a failed parachute incident. She was relieved to know she survived once again, only with worse injuries. I definitely could have died, she thought. I need to think about watching my surroundings more.
The flashback she had when she hit the water was one of the strangest "memories" that occurred to her as of yet and none ever lasted long. She remembered the boy in the flashback was named Malcolm and he looked identical to Pan. So we have met before. Pan told her his own father sold him to a blacksmith meaning the time seemed right for the memory. A couple drops of blood fell onto her arm. She didn't react at first until a stream of blood made its way out of her nostrils and onto her lips. Lifting herself up despite the pain to her ribs, she plugged her nose and held her head down until the blood started drying up.
Pan was right. They had known each other at one time. To what extent, though, was the hardest thing to guess as Sarah noticed no difference between their past and present 'relationship'? "Malcolm" still acted just as selfish as he was as Peter Pan. And then there was Ariel, another fairy tale she had also known at one time. My whole life has basically been a lie. And she had no knowledge of how she got to the real world.
"Look who we have here." Speaking of him, he stood in front of her, as she looked up at him while trying not to move too much.
Sarah gave him a half smile. "Just the person I want to see right now," Sarah said. It couldn't be more the opposite. "You didn't save me when you had the chance. I thought you needed me."
"Perhaps." Pan kneeled, lifting her chin upwards. "Want to know something? I didn't want to save you and why would you care if I did or not? You hate me as much as I hate you. For all I know, you purposely wanted to go off that cliff to test me."
"If that were true, why would are you here? To bring me back to the camp?"
"Actually… I wanted to say farewell to you," he said. "Partly because you are no longer of use to me anymore and you always stir things up whenever I am around you. This is for the best."
Sarah's hands balled into fists tightly. He yearned to see her upset, so she let her hands relax. She was not going to allow him the advantage of seeing her upset. "Fine with me. I can handle being alone, especially away from you." She gulped. She would be alone, with a few broken ribs but how hard could it be to find help in a magically haunted island where anything goes?
He stood up, smiling down at her. There he was… looking down at her as he had since she came to Neverland. She wished he would leave her alone so she could lay in her misery. "I'm so sure you will find someone to help you," Pan taunted. "Or, you will die in your own shame."
"I have never hated someone so much as I hate you right now," Sarah growled, digging her finger nails into the dirt.
It wasn't long before Sarah realized her coin purse was gone. She guessed she dropped it in the market square somewhere in Summerfell. She immediately turned around to look for it, and to her surprise, Malcolm was there still at his stand, with the coin purse intact. Sarah crossed her arms, walking up to him. She had no patience for people who stole money from her. "Hand it over," she snapped at him.
Malcolm merely smirked at her, handing the coin purse to her without argument. Sarah expected him to give her problems but when he didn't, Sarah was unsure of what to think of him. "This doesn't mean I like you," she added.
He shrugged. "Just go already," he muttered. "Before my 'master' comes out and sees me - "
"I thought I told you about talking to people who aren't customers!" the man shouted, grabbing him harshly by the arm. Sarah was unable to do anything about it, watching as the man roughed up Malcolm a little. Once the man finished getting angry, Sarah wasn't sure if she should thank him or not. He did not have to return her money to her. Still, the gesture did not mean he wasn't still the annoying person she met earlier.
Sarah opened up her coin purse, and handed Malcolm a couple coins. Malcolm looked up at her in surprise. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Thank you for not keeping it," she replied.
"You're welcome," he muttered, awkwardly, immediately looking the other way.
It would be a while before they saw each other again in that town. Pan tried not thinking about the memory. He never spent the coins Sarah gave him, keeping them in his pocket forever. Even when he was at his lowest amount of money, he never thought once to use it on anything despite how much he disliked her for leaving. It occurred to him every now and then if maybe, Sarah did have a good reason for it, but reminded himself she didn't care for him or anyone else. What happened in the past between them did not matter because it was over now.
Was it over?
Felix noticed his return, having his respect for Pan but kept his anger. He desperately tried not to let it show, as Pan could tell. "Did you kill her?" Felix questioned him. Pan nodded. "Good. Now you don't need any more distractions, right?" She wasn't dead. Pan left her to suffer in her own injuries. He didn't care what happened to the girl afterwards. There was no way she would sustain it for much longer. What Felix did not know would not kill him. "Is there anything else you need?"
"Bring Henry to me," Pan said. "It's time to make the final step."
"I'm screwed," Sarah said. "I am fucking screwed." No, don't think that way now. She crawled on her knees, and soon found out how hard each movement was on her ribs. She knew walking wouldn't be any better but no one died from moving with broken ribs. She may even find the others faster that way. I need to get to Emma, Sarah thought, despite how impossible it might be. And save Henry. Of all times. It happens now?
"I see someone!" she heard a woman yell. Sarah collapsed to the ground, after a couple of seconds of standing up. She practically felt her ribs cracking under the pressure of lying on her stomach. Several people gathered around her, and she thought it could be the lost boys but there were no women/girls in that group. She felt a finger against her neck. "Her pulse is fine. She's alive."
"Can you move at all?" a different woman asked. Gently, the blonde haired woman moved her to sitting up. Emma and the others found her after all. So they didn't hate her… yet. Except Regina, who disliked Sarah from the start.
Sarah didn't want them knowing about her injury, so she got up to show them it was nothing when she grabbed onto the injury and almost fell onto the ground. "Just a bruise," she said.
"A bruise? No, the girl must have broken her ribs," Hook said. "How in all the hells did you manage to do that?"
"I fell into the water… I think the impact of hitting it caused my ribs to break."
Mary Margaret put a hand on her shoulder. If it was for reassurance, Sarah definitely felt it from her. "Don't worry. You'll be fine."
"Some are broken," Neal said, pressing his hands against her ribs. "That was quite a fall though. I'm not sure how you survived. Dad, do you have anything to help her out? Like maybe some magic?"
Rumple nodded without asking questions. "It won't heal her but it will ease the pain for a time. She will have to go to the hospital when we return to Storybrooke." A blue light glowed from his hands, pressing gently on the injury. The pain became worse at first but slowly, a lot better like the injury never happened. "This doesn't mean you can be reckless. Your injury will get worse if you fall like that again."
"I appreciate it, thank you." Sarah never expected him to help her out but with Neal asking his father, he probably wanted to show his son he was good after Pan revealed the 'prophecy'. "I'm sorry I ran away before."
"Don't worry yourself about it," Rumple said, in a strangely calm tone unlike before when he sounded almost murderous. Sarah wondered if it was an act he put on for his son. "Everyone runs away from their past."
"Could you explain to us who Ariel is to you?" Regina asked. "She seemed to indicate you gave her something."
Sarah thought about the interaction with the mermaid over and over, and she knew she had given her an important item but was unsure if it was right to tell them about it. Was it even important enough to speak about? "I really don't know but we can all figure it out later. Henry really needs all of you right now. Pan isn't going to wait another day for this."
"I believe you," Emma said. "I'm glad someone stayed by Henry's side for a time even if it was a complete stranger."
"It was no problem at all," Sarah said. "I hated having no friends in the shelter."
"You lived in a shelter?"
"In New York. My parents didn't want me. No big deal." She told herself that every day when in fact, it bothered her often by reminding her about her parents not caring about her at all. "Back on track, we should head out to…"
"Skull rock," Emma added. "You were right about the heart of the truest believer. Wendy told us everything."
Skull Rock. Sounded familiar. "Oh… the place where Captain Hook held Tiger Lily hostage in order to gain Peter Pan's attention?"
"I… What?" Hook said, rather shocked and confused. "Who is Tiger Lily?"
"From a different version of this tale," Emma said quickly. "But yes, we should go to Skull Rock and stick together this time." She snags a quick look at Rumple, who doesn't say anything. "Please, don't just leave us in the middle of nowhere."
"He did that?" Neal asked, also glaring at his father.
Rumple just shook his head. "I did it for a good reason."
"Don't we all," Sarah muttered, and then they all eyed her suspiciously. "Let's just go…"
But it was Rumple who gave her the strangest looks of them all. His eyes were burning right through her. I don't know, but there is something wrong with this man, she thought. Sarah ignored it, and walked alongside the bulk of the group towards Skull Rock.
A|N: Basically the whole Neverland is the first arc of this fanfic. The 2nd Arc is pretty much Sarah trying to find out who she is and her relationship with Pan (Whatever that may be ;D) So, until the neverland arc is finished, the chapters will be 2-3k long and for the second one, longer. Anywayyyyyyyy, reviews are certainly welcome! :)