Belle spent the voyage practicing a new spell that Rumple had helped her put together. Light magic could protect her from having her shadow ripped away (fatal for most people) by way of not casting any shadow in the first place. A trick of the light, as it were.

"Can you do the same thing with darkness?" Belle wondered.

"Light magic keeps you as you are, but dark magic leaves you vulnerable to Neverland's distortions," was Rumple's explanation. "It's easy to lose sight of the line between truth and lies on Neverland."

Fearing his father's tricks and illusions, Rumple decided to pre-empt Pan by cutting off his own shadow. He nailed it magically into place on the deck and used the Dark One dagger to carve it away from his feet. Once detached, the shadow accepted the dagger from Rumple's hand. "Keep it safe. Don't give it to anyone, not even me, as long as we are in this realm."

Belle watched it fly up until it was lost against the darkening sky. "How does that work? What about your other form? Isn't it also a shadow?"

Rumple shook his head. "I wouldn't have been able to use it in Neverland in any case."

Neverland had its own magic, its own rules.

Belle looked at the two Timers. "What does that mean for you, then?"

"That we must be careful," said Lumiere, shrugging from wingtip to tail.

Cogsworth rolled his eyes. "He means, unless we acquire pixie dust, our powers are limited to the mundane in Neverland."

"Good luck with that. Pan controls the pixie dust supply," Bae said glumly.

"But that does not mean we go to Neverland with empty pockets," declared Lumiere. "We can shield our own shadows."

The griffons, naturally inclined to light magic, were able to learn the trick well enough to protect themselves. Belle would be responsible for shielding Baelfire.

"This is close enough." Rumplestiltskin had the ship master drop anchor on the far side of one of the tiny rocky islets in Neverland's orbit. Bae had suggested it, saying that Pan and the Lost Boys didn't like to venture out this far, due to the 'infestation' of mermaids. Mermaids that they hoped wouldn't take offense at their presence.

Cogsworth and Lumiere dropped occlusion wards around the ship, that being part of the 'odds and ends' they had brought with them. Nova was assigned to stay behind to maintain the magic and protect the rest of the crew.

"Nova, you've got this," Belle said to the nervous-looking fairy.

"I...I hope so."

"We believe in you, love," affirmed Dreamy. The dwarf nodded to Belle. "Don't worry about us, sister. Go save those kids!"

Rumplestiltskin transported them magically to the shores of Neverland, landing them on a sandy beach. A dark line of jungle hid the interior. Belle shivered despite the tropical warmth, oppressed by the sense of eyes watching them, eyes hidden in the trees.

The griffons circled overhead, while the Timers spread out on either flank. Baelfire stood close to his father, on the other side from Belle.

Rumplestiltskin broke the silence first, calling out, "Come out and say hello, dearie."

The foliage rustled, disgorging a tall, lanky teenager. "Hello, Rumplestiltskin. Welcome back, Baelfire. Pan says you've taken something that belongs to him and he'd like it back."

"I'm sure he would," said Rumple grimly.

Belle silently concentrated on maintaining her protective spells and hoped it wouldn't come to a battle.

"We're here to free the others, Felix!" Bae took a step forward, fists clenched. "You may be happy as Pan's toady, but the others want to go home."

"Home?" sneered Felix. "Neverland's the only home they'll ever know."

"That's not true!" shouted Bae.

Belle pulled him back gently, trying to calm him down. They couldn't afford to lose their heads, not in a place like this.

"If Pan wants his shadow back, there's a price for that." Rumple twirled his hand, and Pandora's box materialized between his fingers in a puff of smoke. "Tell him to come out and we can discuss terms."

"Are you sure you want to make yourself Pan's enemy?" Felix smirked at them. "Don't you know that Pan always wins?"

"I know nothing of the sort," snarled Rumple.

Belle felt the ripple in the air a moment before a voice called out from above them.

"Then it's time for a reminder!" The boy swooping down towards them had to be Peter Pan.

Demon! screeched Eskereye. Both griffons flew at Pan, but he froze them with a wave of his hand, and they flopped onto the sand. Belle felt a wave of unease — wasn't Pan supposed to be weakened without his Shadow?

"Hello, laddie." Pan landed lightly in contrast to the griffons. "I see you've brought your pets. How quaint."

"They're my family," said Rumple. "Which is more than I can say for you."

"We know who you really are," said Bae defiantly.

"Ah! You've told them?" Pan grinned. "What a heart-warming reunion this is turning out to be."

"More so if you give it up."

"Give what up?" Pan tilted his head, raising an eyebrow in mock confusion.

"This, this island, everything!" Rumple gestured angrily. "Everything you traded your own son for."

Pan tsked. "I was never cut out to be a father, laddie. And it's a wee bit late to ask it of me now, at your age!"

"But it's not too late for these children you've stolen," Belle pointed out. "They deserve better. Please, free them."

Pan chuckled. "No, I think they're more fun where they are. If I let them go, I'd be dreadfully bored."

"You won't enjoy yourself so much without your Shadow," threatened Rumple.

"Oh, this Shadow?" Pan waved a hand, beckoning to a dark shape lurking in the jungle. It flew out, eyes blazing a violet-tinged white.

Belle gasped. She started forward, but something held her back. She found herself caught in the same paralysis that held the griffons.

Rumple looked in shock at the box in his hand. "I don't understand..."

"'Cause you don't have it." Pan opened his hand, an identical box appearing on his palm. "Follow the lady."

"You switched them?"

"You always had trouble believing," said Pan. "In Neverland, all you have to do is think of something to have it." He waved his other hand over the box. It opened, spewing a gush of red smoke. The smoke whipped out and engulfed Rumplestiltskin.

Then he was gone.

Peter Pan laughed and darted up into the sky, the real Pandora's box secure in his hands. "Peter Pan always wins!"

After hours of blindly wandering through the jungle, Belle began to wonder if it was true. They had split up into three groups. Cogsworth and Lumiere had gone to hunt down a giant Neverland squid, since even Peter Pan was vulnerable to the special ink that could temporarily disable a magic user. The two griffons had gone to scout out the island for the location of Pan's camp, where the bulk of the Lost Boys stayed.

Belle and Bae were on their way to Dark Hollow, after a brief stop at the small cave Bae had slept in during his years on Neverland. He showed her the coconut shell he had pierced with tiny openings, and candle inside.

"A star map?" Belle guessed.

Bae shook his head. "A trap. It was something I was working on, an escape plan, before the Captain took me away." He looked down at the coconut. "If you get the pattern of lights to move just right, the Shadow gets drawn in, like moths and flames. Then... if it worked... it would be trapped inside."

It didn't sound as reliable as Pandora's box, more like a child's fantasy of how magic worked. Belle bit back her objections. This was Neverland, where belief was everything. She did her best to believe along with Bae that a magic coconut was capable of containing the Shadow.

"So, when the Shadow isn't hanging out with Pan, it goes to the darkest part of the island — Dark Hollow. We have a fair chance of finding it there..."

The problem was that the geography of Neverland had all the logic of a dream, and this had turned into one of those nightmares where you walked endlessly without ever getting anywhere. The peculiar frozen time of Neverland only added to the dreamlike quality. The sky stayed in its red-streaked twilight hue no matter how long they walked. Only in Dark Hollow would they find night, according to Bae.

Then Belle glimpsed movement ahead. Too large to be one of the creatures that scurried through the undergrowth — a man's shape. One she recognized at once. "Rumple!"

As soon as she called out, instead of turning to face her, the figure darted away between the trees.

Baelfire's hand gripped her arm. "Don't follow! It's a trap."

Belle shook him loose, but doubt kept her in place. "Maybe... but what if it really is your father?"

"Then he would have stayed."

Belle looked at the boy. "It could be him. We don't know what happened to him...'

"Pan caught him, that's what happened!"

"But he could have escaped. His magic..."

Bae shook his head miserably. "This is Neverland. Nothing here is what you think."

Belle hissed between her teeth. "We have to be sure." She started forward. Bae followed, reluctance all over his face. When they neared the spot where Rumple had appeared (Belle couldn't help but hope — and if her wishes had any power, she was determined to believe in her husband) they saw a scrap of blue on the ground. Then the shape resolved itself and Belle impulsively picked it up.

"Papa's straw doll," whispered Bae, looking around nervously. "What's it doing here?"

"Maybe it's a message?" Belle bit her lip, trying to think.

"But what does it mean?"

Belle shook her head. Still holding the doll, she headed through the trees in the direction 'Rumple' had taken. Just as she was wondering if she had mistaken the way, she caught another glimpse of his back, retreating yet further away. "Rumple!"

"It could be an illusion," Bae said from a few steps behind Belle.

"It could be," Belle conceded. "But whose? It could be Pan's, but it could be Rumple, trying to show us something." It could be a projection, which made sense if the real Rumple was still trapped.

"Or it could be you! Your wish, showing you what you want to see."

"If it was my wish, wouldn't I be able to tell?" Belle closed her eyes for a moment, wishing for truth. Wishing to see through illusion.

"Things are strange on Neverland. Wishes cross each other and you can't tell what game you're playing until it's too late."

Belle didn't dare discount Bae's experience, but she didn't dare give up on any chance of saving Rumple. "Even if it's a trap, even if it's dangerous, we have to try... he'd do it for us, wouldn't he? Pan has magic, but so do we."

If the Shadow showed up, they had Bae's coconut ready. If it was some other threat, Belle would just have to do the best she could. She held onto her wish for truth.

Bae sighed. "All right. Sometimes you have to play the game..."

They followed the fleeting glimpses of 'Rumple' through the jungle, their halting progress becoming part of the nightmare. Then 'Rumple' vanished into a tunnel, taking the last of the light with him, and they found themselves waking up abruptly inside a cave. Belle turned slowly in a full circle, seeing nothing but darkness all around them. She tried to remember where they had come from, but nothing looked familiar.

"Shit," hissed Bae.

Belle had no heart to chide him for his language. She conjured a globe of witch light. "Don't panic." Though she had spoken softly, the words came back to her in a hollow echo. Don't panic, don't panic.

"Echo Cave," said Bae, almost too softly to be heard.

"Then you've been here before?" Belle let out a breath, but her relief was short-lived.

Bae shook his head. "Only Pan knows the secret way in and out. Sometimes, if one of the Lost Boys displeases him, he gets sent here. They go in and don't come out."

"Oh." Belle shut her eyes for a moment. Do the brave thing... They had been led here for a reason. Whether to help them or harm them, she didn't know, but if they wanted to find out, they had to move forward. She opened her eyes again and pointed. "That way. Maybe... maybe Rumple's trapped in here somewhere, and that was his only way of calling for help."

"Maybe." Bae sounded dubious, but he followed Belle anyway as she headed down the passageway. It slanted downwards, a triangular tunnel that gradually diminished until they were ducking their heads as they walked.

Just when Belle was afraid that it would become too tight to pass through, a crack on one wall opened out into another cave, this one wide, with an uneven floor that rose up in stepped ledges up the sides. She and Bae exchanged a glance, then took this new path that was offered to them.

It ended at a deep, sudden chasm in a vast underground chamber. In the middle of the chasm, on an island of stone, was built a bamboo cage. And inside the cage crouched a human figure, its head bowed.

"Rumple!" Belle called out in a wild surge of hope.

The chasm swallowed the sound, giving nothing back, but the figure in the cage lifted her head and stared at them.

It wasn't Rumple.

Belle stopped short at the edge of the chasm, Bae's fingers digging into her arm as if afraid she would attempt to jump.

"Who... who's there?" The prisoner looked just as shocked to see them. "Did Pan send you?"

"No!" Belle eased a careful step back. She wasn't sure how reliable her magic would be in this place. Even keeping the single witch light glowing was costing her more than it should have. "We thought we saw... That is, we were following... Did anyone pass through here before us?"

"No one's been here in a long time, as far as that has any meaning in Neverland. I think you've been chasing an illusion." The prisoner stuck a hand between the bars, pointed. "One that you've been carrying with you."

Belle glanced down in alarm at the doll she was still clutching. "You mean this?"

"One of Pan's tricks," muttered Bae, letting go of her arm and stepping back in alarm. "I knew it! Quick, get rid of it!"

Belle hesitated, feeling that the doll was the one tangible clue she had to finding Rumple. It had been his, hadn't it? She had found comfort in it, as if it had held something of his presence. Then she remembered that Rumple's father had stolen the name from it, and her blood ran cold. She cried out in disgust and hurled the thing into the chasm. "I can't believe I fell for it."

"Who are you? You're not a Lost Boy." Bae peered warily across the darkness at the indistinct figure in the cage.

"And neither is she," the prisoner said. "What are you doing on Neverland?"

"We're here to free the Lost Boys," said Bae, before Belle could warn him to be careful. "And you, too, if you want."

Belle sighed, then nodded in confirmation of his words. She was not one to turn her back on someone who needed help. "Was it Pan who locked you up?"

"He told me it was a fate worse than death, for one of my kind. To be alone and without hope."

"Why does he hate you so much?" asked Belle.

"He blames me for the loss of his wife." The prisoner let out a bitter chuckle. "And I can't say he's wrong..."

"Wait..." Belle stopped, stunned. His wife. Pan's wife? But did that mean...? But Rumple hadn't said. Did he know? Was the prisoner lying to them? But why would she, when she didn't even know who they were? Or was this another trick? "Are you... are you talking about Rumplestiltskin's mother?"

This time it was the prisoner who looked shocked, her face pale behind the bamboo bars as she pressed forward to stare at them. "You... how did you know that? Who are you?"

"Rumplestiltskin is my father," said Bae.

"And my husband." Belle sent her light across the chasm to reveal the prisoner's features more clearly. "Who are you?"

The woman's eyes turned to follow the light. "I... I'm called Tiger Lily. I was Rumplestiltskin's fairy godmother."

There was a long moment of silence. Belle's thoughts whirled in confusion. Fairy godmother? What the hell had happened? Did Rumple blame her, too, for the loss of his mother? Was that why he hated fairies so much?

"No way!" Bae burst out with a furious shout. "There's no way. My father was a commoner born. We never have fairies helping us. Don't you think we tried? Morraine told me about her, about Reul Ghorm, but she never showed up no matter how often they called. It was only after my father became the Dark One that she cared about us!"

"The Dark One?" Tiger Lily gasped. "Rumplestiltskin became the Dark One?"

"Still is," said Belle.

"Gods forgive me." Tiger Lily closed her eyes, bowing her head against the bars of the cage. "My failure is even worse than I feared..."

"Don't lie!" Bae sneered at the ex-fairy. "I don't know what trick this is, but I know my father never had any damn fairy godmother. Why would they bother?"

"You don't understand." Tiger Lily opened her eyes again, and Belle thought she saw genuine pain in them. "He — your father — was a special child, born with a great destiny..."

Bae snorted and crossed his arms in aggressive disbelief. "Yeah, right."

"It's the truth. There was a prophecy."

"Prophecy!" This time it was Belle who couldn't help scoffing.

"That was our mistake. We should never have told her..." Tiger Lily's voice was full of regret. "There was no reason to tell her, except that Blue — Reul Ghorm, that is — insisted, and I went along with it, thinking that it was only natural for a mother to know everything about her son. That she could be proud to bring a Savior into the world, and to prepare her for the sacrifice that every Savior faces in the end..."

"Wait, you're saying Rumple is a Savior?"

"He was born with powerful light magic, fated to defeat the great evil of the day and to... to die for the greater good." Tiger Lily sighed and shook her head. "I didn't want to tell her that part, but she found out. And like any mother, she was determined to protect her child. I'm afraid that determination led her down the path of darkness, until she herself became the great evil destined to kill her son."

"What the hell?" Bae's incredulous shout echoed Belle's own reaction.

Then she wondered, "Did Rumple know any of this?"

"No," said Tiger Lily. "He was only an infant when..."

"When what...?"

"I only wanted to help. I lent her the books from the fairy library. And when the truth about the great evil was revealed, I took the Shears of Destiny from the fairy vault and gave them to Fiona. I hoped she would cut her own fate, but instead she cut her son's." Tiger Lily's voice shook as she continued, "And that was when Blue exiled Fiona to the dark fairy realm. Permanent banishment, but we thought it kinder to tell Malcolm his wife was dead. So you see, it was my fault that he lost her, and my fault that an innocent child was stripped of his destiny and doomed to grow up without a mother."

As Tiger Lily concluded her confession, a low rumbling shook the cavern. Rocks flew out and assembled themselves midair against the island that held the cage, almost like the beginning of a bridge. It was no magic Belle had ever encountered before, but she was relieved when she sensed no hostility behind it.

Bae glanced at her in confusion. "What was that?"

It was Tiger Lily who answered, "The only way to escape Echo Cave is to reveal a secret."

"Then why did you never...?" asked Belle.

"A secret can't be revealed unless there are ears to hear it. I've been here alone."

"Oh, right." It was obvious, now that she thought about it. But Belle knew they hadn't heard the full story, yet. "All right, so you were Rumple's fairy godmother, but, what, you lost interest once his fate had been cut and he wasn't a Savior anymore?"

Tiger Lily flinched. "It wasn't like that. Blue is the head of the Fairy Order, so of course other matters demanded her attention. I kept an eye on the child as best I could."

"Fat lot of good that did," said Bae. "What did you ever do for my father?"

"When it was clear that Malcolm resented his own son, resented his own duties as a father, I thought it would be better to let the boy find his own way in life." Tiger Lily hesitated, then continued, "So I arranged for a magic bean to be given to him."

"A magic bean!" Bae exploded. "Is that the fairy solution to everything? Hand a child a magic bean and hope the problem goes away!?"

Belle laid a soothing hand on his shoulder. "Bae..."

Tiger Lily dropped her gaze, looking sad. "The price of the bean's magic is adventure. I thought, since he had lost his destiny, he could find a new one through a magic bean."

"That didn't quite work out, no," said Belle. Was that something else Pan had stolen from his own son? One could certainly say that Peter Pan had found a new destiny on Neverland.

"I know." Tiger Lily's hands twisted around the bars in shame. "So after the boy had lost his father, I thought I should try to repair things with his mother. I went to Blue and asked her for use of the wand to open passage to the dark fairy realm."

"She refused?" Belle guessed. She had never met the Blue Fairy, but according the books she had read, Reul Ghorm was known for her strict opposition to all things dark.

Tiger Lily nodded. "She said Fiona was too dark to allow back into our realm. Personally, I think Blue was afraid."

"Afraid?" Bae frowned. "She... she wanted to exile my father, too."

"If he became the Dark One as you say, then yes, she would fear him as a threat to her position in the realm."

"So Rumple's mother had dark magic, too?" asked Belle.

"The thing is, Fiona was a fairy when she and Malcolm fell in love, but Blue forbade their marriage, saying it went against the fairy way."

"But they still got together, obviously."

"Blue stripped her of her wings and her name. That was when she became Fiona, a common mortal, all memory of her wiped from the fairy records so thoroughly that Blue didn't even remember it herself." Tiger Lily shook her head. "Blue didn't want anyone else following in her footsteps. I had to learn the truth from Fiona herself."

Belle thought from the way she spoke that Tiger Lily and Fiona's mother might have been friends once. "So Blue wouldn't let you go to her. How did you end up in Neverland?"

Tiger Lily grimaced. "I didn't think Blue was right that there was no hope for Fiona, so I tried to steal the wand. Blue caught me, we fought, and she took my wings. The wand snapped in half between us. I clung onto my half, and its magic took me here — seeking pixie dust to heal itself."

"Pan controls all the pixie dust," Bae reminded them.

"So I found out," agreed Tiger Lily. "He captured me and locked me in this cage."

"He captured my father, too," said Bae.

Tiger Lily sighed. "Malcolm blames me for failing to protect Fiona, but he blames Rumplestiltskin even more for causing her 'death.' We were trying to spare him when we told him she had died in an accident, trying to protect her son, but it only made things worse."

"You lied?" Despite everything, Belle was surprised. Fairies were supposed to be the epitome of goodness and light, and deception didn't fit in with that.

"It was meant to be a kindness."

Bae snorted. "Yeah, that's what they all say. My father sounded just like that, and he's the Dark One!"

"I'm sorry." Tiger Lily looked ashamed at the comparison. "It was wrong of us. And now Pan won't listen to anything I have to say, taking it for a trick to win my own freedom."

Belle glanced at Bae. "Maybe if we work together..."

"Can we trust her?" whispered Bae, frowning slightly. "She's a fairy."

Belle eyed Tiger Lily. "I don't think one can just stop being someone's godmother. Not even if the godchild becomes the Dark One. Will you help us free Rumplestiltskin?"

Tiger Lily nodded. "I owe him that much, at least."

"Right, how do we get to you?" Belle silently tested the magic of the cave. Her attempt to conjure the rest of the bridge bounced back on her, and she didn't want to risk the backlash from anything stronger.

"Give the cave what it wants. You must each reveal a secret."

Belle bit her lip. She had been afraid of that. At Bae's uncertain look, Belle told him, "Why don't I go first?"

At Bae's tiny nod, Belle took a breath and began, softly at first. "When you said that Rumple was born to be a Savior, I... I was happy. Excited. Because that was a good story. I always wanted to be just like the heroes in my favorite books. But then I think about the three trials we each had to go through before we were married, and that's just like the stories, only... only he almost died. And you say that was his fate as a Savior. So why do I still keep trying to see him that way? A hero? Destiny shouldn't matter. We're people, that's all, doing the best we can... and sometimes I lose sight of that, and do something stupid or dangerous... And so does he. Sometimes I think he thinks he has to prove himself, and the three trials only made that worse. What if he gets killed because I'm expecting him to be a hero? I would never be able to forgive myself..."

As Belle's rambling confession trailed off, the air shook once again and another segment of rock rose up to join what was already there. She stared numbly at the magical construction, and no one said anything for a long moment even after it was done.

Then Bae burst out, "You did it!"

Tiger Lily was staring in wonder at Belle. "You invoked the three trials on Rumplestiltskin? And you both passed?" She blinked and answered herself, "Of course you did, or you wouldn't be married to him."

Belle nodded numbly.

"Right. Guess it's my turn," mumbled Bae. "It wasn't like that for me. I didn't care about that. I just wanted us to be normal, but everyone said my father was a coward. I tried not to believe it, but then after the soldiers took Morraine and we knew I would be next, and my father tried to make me run away with him... it was hard not to think it."

"He was trying to protect you," Belle said, but he was already nodding.

"I know that. But it was like he was trying to make me a coward, too, like he didn't think I was strong enough to fight. I know he just didn't want me to die, but I couldn't help hating him a little bit."

"Bae..."

"And the truth was, I was scared, too. I hated that he wouldn't let me be brave. But when Papa wouldn't let me fight against the ogres and chose dark magic instead, I... I was relieved. Glad that he made the choice so it wasn't my fault, but what kind of person thinks that? I guess deep down I'm a coward too."

The air trembled and the rocks thundered up to complete the bridge.

"You did it!" Belle started towards the cage, Baelfire on her heels. She crouched down to examine the bars and the lock holding the gate shut. From the outside, it opened easily.

"Wanting to live isn't cowardice," said Tiger Lily gently as they helped her climb out. "You don't need to throw your life away to prove your courage."

"That's what Archie says, too," said Bae. "But I didn't come back to Neverland to prove anything. I just want to help the others, just like they helped me when I was scared and alone in a strange place."

Once they were back on solid ground, they found that the labyrinthine caverns had magically condensed into a single passage sloping up to the exit. Before they stepped outside, Tiger Lily held the other two back. "Wait. Do you have a plan?"

Belle exchanged a glance with Bae. "We had one, but... Pan's taken Rumple, and the Shadow escaped."

Bae explained his idea to recapture the Shadow.

Tiger Lily nodded. "It may work."

"Maybe." Then another thought occurred to Belle. "Tiger Lily, do you still have the wand you took from Blue?"

"Half the wand," Tiger Lily reminded her. "Can't do much without the other half."

"And presumably, the Blue Fairy still has it." Belle remembered Lumiere telling her about the one-time head of the fairy order, about how she had somehow offended Nevethe and been taken by the Timers.

"Presumably so. Why?" Tiger Lily regarded her warily.

"Just the glimmering of an idea. Sometimes a carrot is better than a stick." Then Belle shook her head. It was probably stupid, but she couldn't help herself. If it could be done... "Never mind. We have a Shadow to catch."

"As long as we believe it strongly enough, it should work. That's the nature of Neverland," said Tiger Lily.

"Right. We can do this," Belle said with as much confidence as she could muster.

Perhaps it was the power of three (a potent number in magical workings) or that they had a fairy helping them, but this time they found their way straight to Dark Hollow, a rocky vale sunk in perpetual night. Shadows swooped all around them, and Belle concentrated on maintaining her protective spell while Bae and Tiger Lily together lured the one Shadow that ruled the others into the boy's specially carved coconut shell.

"Got it!" Bae grinned in triumph.

Belle nodded. "Keep it close, keep it in your thoughts. Remember what happened with Pandora's Box — one lapse in your attention and we could all be lost."

"I will," Bae promised. As a genuine child, he had an advantage over either Belle or Tiger Lily in bending the magic of Neverland to obey his wishes.

They climbed out of the dark clearing and headed through the jungle again. Bae guided them using the Shadow's link to Peter Pan. It twisted inside the coconut, orienting itself to its master like the needle of a compass.

Soon enough, they stumbled into Pan's camp. A crowd of Lost Boys appeared out of the trees like so many ghosts, surrounding them, armed with primitive bows, spears, and knives.

Peter Pan dipped down from the sky and landed lightly to welcome them mockingly. "All the stray lambs back in the fold." His eyes flickered to take in Tiger Lily, and Belle caught the startled look on his face, but that was nothing to the horror on her own.

Four cages hung from the trees, bristling with Neverland's magic. Cages that contained Cogsworth, Lumiere, and the two griffons.

The Lost Boy called Felix gloated, "I told you, Pan always wins!"