T/W for implied character death and violence
Chapter sixty four
"I want to make a deal," Felix announced as soon as the door opened.
Emma wheeled her way over to the table and nodded, "within reason."
"I'll tell you exactly what Pan is doing and where he is and you have to promise that every other Lost Boy will be safe…and Wendy…"
"Would 'every other Lost Boy' include you?" the blonde asked with narrowed eyes.
Felix nodded and looked down at the table, "I'm sorry," he mumbled.
Emma's eyebrows shot up, she had expected him to cave, but she certainly hadn't expected an apology.
The blond boy didn't look up for a reaction and continued, "after all that time in Neverland, I guess that I forgot what it meant to do the right thing. This is probably the longest that I have been away from Pan and I suppose it has given me some clarity."
"If Henry comes back completely unharmed, you can have immunity, if not, then I'll let Regina decide what to do to you."
The boy cringed and Emma almost sighed in relief, clearly he must have been from the Enchanted Forest, she was half worried that he would know nothing about the Evil Queen.
"Pan won't be doing anything to him until midday…" he sighed, though he was very worried about what his 'friend' would have done to the boy just for fun. He tried to reassure himself that Pan wouldn't compromise the integrity of his plan, but the demonic boy was rather temperamental.
"What happens at midday?" Emma asked with a furrowed brow.
"Well…11.52…Pan needs to remove his heart at the exact moment he was born and then he can use it to restore his eternal youth."
The sheriff resisted the urge to roll her eyes at just how ridiculous that all sounded, despite everything that had happened, she was sure that she would never get used to all of the very much random rules that seemed to comprise magic.
"So you're saying that he will be completely safe for the next four hours?"
Felix nodded and Emma allowed her tensed shoulders to relax, she had assumed that they would end up saving him at the last possible moment, or at least that was how things always seemed to work out. She had to admit that it was a nice feeling to know that they had more than enough time to save her son.
"Fine, I agree to your terms, as long as Henry comes back safely, every Lost Boy and Wendy will be safe, but if you try to trick us, I can guarantee that you will never get another chance to get away from Pan."
Felix blinked a few times, he was clearly trying to figure out who posed the greater threat to him. Finally he decided that he had to go with the people who currently held him in their custody, Pan hadn't even bothered to check if he was safe, then again, he probably assumed that it would take more than a couple hours for him to be discovered. It still would have been nice for the boy who he has always thought of as a best friend, to at least check that the saviour and Evil Queen weren't ripping him limb from limb, so he finally made his decision and looked up at the blonde.
"They're in the forest, Pan is holding him in a clearing one league directly away from the tree line."
Emma nodded and then turned her chair around.
"Wait…are you going to let me go?" the blond asked rather pathetically.
"When Henry is back, but I'll consider giving you something to eat."
Felix seemed to relax marginally at the thought of food, he literally couldn't remember the last real meal he'd had in his life, if there was one thing wrong with Neverland, it was certainly the food.
With that, Emma wheeled herself out of the room and at the same moment, Regina and Cora came rapidly walking into the station.
Regina looked between everyone in the room, she was expecting to either know where her son was or to have maim a Lost Boy, though she would prefer to be have both, she was willing to go with whatever her girlfriend promised the teen.
"He told me where he is, all we have to do is allow the Lost Boys to stay in Storybrooke after we defeat Pan," Emma explained.
Regina nodded she had half expected something much more unreasonable, and said, "where is he?"
"In a clearing one league from the treeline."
The brunette sighed in relief and turned to leave, only to notice that no one was following her.
"What are you waiting for?" she asked, looking back at the three Charmings.
Emma furrowed her brow and said, "I'm not going…"
The mayor just tilted her head, she was frankly amazed at the wonders that one therapy session did for the blonde, she had to consider the possibility that Archie deserved a rather substantial raise.
"Are you sure?" she asked softly, inspecting the woman for any discomfort at the thought of not being involved in the rescue, of not being the saviour.
"I'm sure you can handle it, but I think that maybe you should bring Gold in on this…"
"Why?" Regina instantly replied.
"Even if he was a complete dick, Neal was still his son and Gold deserves the chance to confront the person who took him away from him," the blonde replied as evenly as possible.
Regina looked over at Cora, her mother clearly agreed with her girlfriend and she just nodded. As much as she wanted to be the person to crush Peter Pan's heart, she knew that there was someone else who deserved the catharsis more.
Henry had finally given up on struggling and instead watched the movement of the sun as it slowly made its way to the highest point.
By his calculations, it was at least 9.00am, three hours until Pan started his little sick ritual, though he was still suffering some doubts, he kept telling himself that they would save him. It seemed as though Emma and Regina could do anything between them, plus they had the added help of the Dark One and the former Queen of Hearts, if there was any family that would be capable of saving him, it was certainly his.
"Getting bored, dear Henry?" Pan sneered as he sauntered over to his captive, "if I didn't think that you would run away, I would release you so you could join in on our little game."
The brunette's eyes flitted over to the Lost Boys who seemed to be playing some kind of sword fighting game, only the swords seemed to be unnecessarily thick tree branches.
Henry shot the blond a contemptuous look and shook his head, "I have no interest in joining in."
"It's a shame, you would have made quite the Lost Boy, well you would have in the other timeline."
The brunette narrowed his eyes and said. "how do you know about the other timeline."
"Because we were once a part of it, many failed to bring you to me and Neverland was falling apart at the seams. But when your mothers stopped that trigger, they created a rift in time itself and allowed us to travel here. Soon Neverland will be falling apart and there will be no trigger to save its residents, then I will be the only version of Peter Pan in this timeline."
"But you won't have Neverland…"
"Such a smart little boy," Pan sneered, "I will just have to create a new dominion and with a few modifications, Storybrooke will do quite nicely."
Henry swallowed hard and said, "modifications?"
"We can't have adults in Neverland, now can we?" Pan laughed, "your heart will ensure that I maintain my youth and then I will be able to unleash a new curse upon this realm."
"What a wonderful plan, it's a shame that it has already failed," someone said from behind Pan and Henry instantly perked up at the sound of his paternal grandfather.
Pan looked around him to see that each of his Lost Boys had been frozen in place and he sighed deeply, it didn't matter much anyway, considering that none of them could ever be a match for his son.
"Rumple," he said evenly as he turned to face the man, who had been accompanied by the former Evil Queen and her mother, "it has been such a long time."
"And whose fault would that be, father?" Gold sneered as he walked towards the teen, "you chose to leave me alone so that you could have your infernal youth forever. Do you truly think that I would allow you to hurt my grandson?"
"Well you didn't have much choice in what I did to Baelfire, so I didn't particularly consider you a threat."
At the blond's words, Gold waved his hands and the ropes fell from Henry's hands.
The boy instantly took the opportunity to run past his kidnapper and into his mother's outstretched arms.
As Gold walked towards his father, Regina began whispering assurances to her son, holding his head in place, she refused allow him to see whatever his grandfather was about to do.
Rumple raised his hand again and the ropes surrounded Pan's hands, holding him firmly in place, "I may not have had a choice in what you did to him, but I can certainly get the revenge that he deserves."
"And why would he deserve it?" Pan asked as he desperately struggled against the rope, he tried to bring his magic to the surface, but he felt something on his forearm that wasn't there before. Looking at the black band that he knew he would be able to take off if he could move his arms, he growled in frustration.
The blond decided to continue, his only option seemed to be some psychological manipulation, "your dear son ordered the torture of the saviour, does that kind of man deserve to be avenged."
Rumple took a deep breath, this had certainly been something he had considered, but not matter what Neal did, he was still his son.
"He didn't have the best role model as a child, but then again, neither did I," Gold sneered.
Pan didn't even show one morsel of regret as he looked into the eyes of the son that he knew almost nothing about, all he could think about was the fact that there was still too much time between now and midday and that there didn't seem to be any way out of his current predicament.
"You don't have to do this Rumple," Pan finally said rather weakly, "with the heart of the Truest Believer, I will be able to keep my life and be a father to you."
"There's one problem with that," Gold sneered as he brought his hand up to the teen's chest, "I already have all the family I could ever need."
With that, he sank his hand into the boy's chest and his heart was dust after a short agonising scream.
A/N Hope you guys enjoyed, let me know what you think XD
The next chapter is the last and I haven't had any question suggestions, so I'll assume that you guys aren't as interested. If you have any ideas for what I could do for the final chapter to thank you all, I'm open to suggestions :)