Dead Reckoning
Chapter Nineteen
After Bishop and his men, who were still alive and not apprehended, then magically transported to this world's dungeons no doubt, fled from the cliffs upon watching their own ship be pulled apart piece by piece, they trudged through the woods surrounding the town until they finally came upon a cave deep within where they could remain hidden until they were ready to either attack the heroes again, or leave Storybrooke to return to Neverland where they belonged now that their reason for coming was complete.
Before any of the men could settle in or make themselves comfortable, the brute immediately ordered a few of them to collect wood for a fire and the rest to find food, but one of the pirates finally spoke up as he turned to their leader and asked, "What is your plan to get us out of this realm, now that we no longer have a ship to sail us all back to Neverland? We weren't supposed to get stuck here."
Bishop glared at the man who questioned him as he responded, "There is another way home and I will find it. These heroes did not trap themselves here without a way to return to where they truly belong."
"Nothing's definite, but this realm exists because everyone here was brought over in a dark curse created by the Evil Queen and they have been trapped here without a way back to the Enchanted Forest," Rufio's shadow retorted as it continued to hover above the men's heads. "I can fly back to Neverland right away and even take one of you with me if I wanted to be generous, but then that wouldn't really be fair for the rest of you, would it?"
"No one is leaving until Hook's body is dead at my feet," the brute answered before any of his men could say anything more.
The entity replied, "I couldn't agree with you more, my friend. But your men do make a good point. How do you plan to get back without my assistance? Or do you actually plan to leave everyone else here behind? Your haste to get your revenge led to this. If you had done what you came here to do in a subtler attack against our enemy, then your ship never would have been destroyed. Luckily for all of you, I've learned that the townsfolk are working on a crop of magic beans. If they can succeed in growing them, you'll have a way home."
Bishop raised his head to look up at the dark being above him and responded, "I have admitted my mistake in acting too hastily. I also realize we should not have taken Hook's woman prisoner. But you act as though you are without blame. You were supposed to remain with my ship to stand guard. If you had done your duty, those ghosts never would have been able to attack. Tell me, how is it you allowed yourself to be killed by Hook all those years ago? I was not there for the pirates' attack against our camp at the time. Pan sent me and a few others off to patrol the island. You said you sensed your death was coming. How?"
Rufio's shadow floated down so that he became eye level with the brute and his first mate as it answered, "Like you, I realized Pan wasn't the leader we all believed him to be. But unlike you, I knew he would soon discover my loyalty no longer was with him and knew that he would eventually try to have me killed, or banished. Pan always knew everything that happened in Neverland. So... I split myself from my shadow just to make sure that one day I'd be able to have my own revenge, on him or whoever he sent to kill me."
Bishop's right-hand cut in as he said, "So he set Hook up to kill you too?"
"No," the dark entity replied curtly. "Hook just so happened to attack our camp one night and was able to kill me with his sword when I tried to sneak up to kill him from behind. It wasn't of Pan's doing. It was simply a lucky kill for both the pirate and Pan. Which is why I never made an effort to kill Pan when my shadow became strong enough. Besides, he was too strong while he remained in Neverland. Even if I could have found a way to kill him, the island would have provided him and the Lost Boys a way to heal him. Then Hook left Neverland for good. I eventually found him here in Storybrooke, but he was too well protected by the men and women here who regard him as a hero. I couldn't have killed him on my own. I found it fortunate when you finally returned nights ago. The Lost Boys failed to kill Hook when they had a chance not so long ago, but at last he will suffer as he deserves to. And the heroes cannot help him."
"How did you come to learn of this ancient brand?" the brute asked when he spoke up again. "In all the years I lived on the island before being banished, I never knew of it. I thought I knew all there was to know of Neverland."
The crewmen sent out to gather the firewood returned carrying sticks and branches from the trees in their arms as the entity responded, "Trust me, you don't know our world as well as you think you do. Not even Peter Pan understood it completely. Nor did he understand that the shadow he claimed as his own wasn't completely devoted to him as he believed. It showed me how to find the brand days before these heroes captured it to get them home when they came here some time ago. Not so I could kill Pan then, but in case it was necessary to do so in the future. It turns out it wasn't needed. Because the boy's own son killed him first."
The first mate looked at the shadow as he asked, "Why would it want to kill Pan if it was so devoted to the boy?"
"Because, Pan had eventually become too arrogant," Rufio's shadow answered. "The island's first shadow no longer believed him to be the chosen leader Neverland deserved. It too was killed when they came here to Storybrooke. We cannot allow the same to happen to us."
"It will not come to pass so long as we continue to work together to see that Hook dies and then find our way back home," Bishop replied with confidence. "We will just have to steal ourselves a magic bean."