Chapter 42: Good form
Rose knew she couldn't stay there. She had to get her powers under control. Her family was in danger, and she had a lot of Lost Boys to save.
She stood up on shaking legs and looked around. She first needed to know where she was. Once she recognized where she was, she decided to visit one place she hadn't gone to in a very long time, and should have been her first stop upon reaching Neverland.
It took her a while. She was still hurting physically and mentally. But she finally made it. At the edge of a cliff stood a stick with a sign. She kneeled in front of it and bowed her head.
"Sorry it took me so long." She put her hand on the sign. "I'm back, Rufio."
Emma, Mary-Margaret and Regina had managed to capture a Lost Boy. They were trying to convince him to help them.
"You had a home and a family once, and you stopped believing you could get back to them." Said Emma. "Now we're here. We can help... not just Henry, all of you. We can get you home."
"Don't you get it?" He said with a chuckle. "I'm here… We're all here because we don't want to go home. We had hope of that once, but we couldn't even trust Spitfire."
The women looked at each other. They knew from Tinkerbell that Rose's original plan was to take all the Lost Boys with her. But Pan got in her way. After a while, they saw that talking would get them nowhere. So they decided to take another approach.
Rose Red arrived at the village where children disappeared in the middle of the night. From what the villagers said, some children started to leave their homes in the middle of the night and come back before morning. This went on for some days, until the first child never came back.
Rose stayed up that night. She felt magic sweeping through town, and saw children getting out of their windows and go towards the forest. There she saw them dancing around a fire while one boy in a hood seemed to play on a flute. She wasn't really sure about the last part, as she couldn't hear any music coming from the instrument, just magic.
She watched all night, but no kid was taken. What she noticed was a shadow lurking around the children. She saw it taking a special interest in one boy. So, the next morning she decided to stand guard at the boy's room, with the parents' permission. The young boy told her how the boy with the flute told them that if the shadow visited, they could go to a place where they could do anything they wanted, where there were no rules, and everything was run by the magic of belief.
"It may seem a pretty good deal." Said Rose with a soft smile. "But magic always has a price. What if you go to that place, but can never come back? Would you still go?"
The boy shook his head. Rose nodded, and assured him that she wouldn't let the shadow take him. After spending the day with the boy, she realized that the only thing special about him was that he believed strongly in magic. He was amazed with the small tricks Rose showed him. When the shadow finally came, it approached the boy, but Rose stood on its way.
"You are taking these children for a reason." She saw that she had the shadow's attention. "If you are looking for someone specific, maybe I can help. You don't need to take more children."
The shadow circled her, looking at her in interest.
"So, what do you say?" Rose asked, extending her hand. "You take me, and leave these children alone. Deal?"
The shadow looked from her to the boy once more, before taking her hand and flying off. The last thing Rose heard before disappearing above the cloud was the boy crying for the black shadow not to take her.
Hook was about to pull up David, when Pan stopped him. He tried to make a deal with the pirate, but it wasn't as easy as it had been in the past.
"What if I were to offer you something very hard to come by?" He said, transporting right in front of Hook. "Passage off the island."
"Still not interested."
"Oh, but you did it so readily before. You even killed one of my boys for it." He said with a smirk.
"You said you would treat his wounds. That you would give him the water from the spring, so he could never leave the island." He said Hook with hate. "You are the only reason Rufio is dead."
"If that helps you sleep at night." He said, shrugging his shoulders. "But, what if I were to sweeten the deal?"
Their conversation continued, and Hook knew what decision to take by the end of it.
When the shadow finally dropped Rose Red, she landed in the middle of a jungle. Before she could get her bearing, she had spears and arrows pointed at her, and one sword directly at her throat.
"You are not a boy." Said the one holding the sword.
"How very observant of you. May I ask where am I?" Said Rose, looking around.
"I ask the questions here." He said, holding the sword closer to her throat. "Who are you? How did an adult get to Neverland?"
"Adult?" Said Rose with a raised eyebrow. "Wait. You are the kidnapped children?"
"I said I ask the questions!" He yelled in rage.
He tried to swing the sword at her, but she disappeared in a puff of red smoke.
"Sure, sure. Ask any questions you like, but wouldn't it be fair for me to ask some in return?"
Rose had teleported right behind the boy and put one of her daggers at his throat.
"I like you, adult." The boy said with a chuckle. "I'll make you a deal. You fight me, and if you win, I'll answer any question you have. I win, and you are our prisoner for eternity."
The boys surrounding them started to cheer. Rose looked around, sighed and agreed.
"Okay, simple rules. One, the battle will end when one yields. And two, no use of magic." He said.
"If I can't use my magic, you can't use whatever poison you coat your weapons with." She said, nodding to his sword.
"An adult who can use magic and is observant. You are a bit different from the rest. Fine, no magic, poison. Everything else goes, until one of us yields."
Rose nodded and readied her daggers. The rest of the boys formed a circle around them. The fight started. They slashed, dodged and clashed weapons for a while. Rose was holding back, not wanting to hurt a boy, but she could tell that he wasn't, and that meant that she had to be very careful and be on the defensive. She couldn't underestimate her opponent.
After a while of going back and forth, both were covered in cuts and were starting to feel tired. Rose knew she had to put an end to the fight, but so knew the boy. After a succession of parries, the boy took the chance and knocked Rose to the ground. He smirked at her, but she just smirked right back. She twisted her legs and flipped their position. She had one pinning his arm with the sword and the other at his throat.
"What's your name?" She asked him.
"I didn't yield." Said the boy with a frown.
"Do you really need to say it, when it's quite clear?" Asked Rose with a smirk.
"It's Rufio." Said the boy with a laugh.
After that first encounter, Rose got to meet the rest of the Lost Boys, as they called themselves. She found out that Rufio was second in command along with another boy called Felix. Their leader was a boy named Peter Pan. When she first met them, she saw very clearly that Felix didn't like her at all. If looks could kill, she would have died a thousand times after the first five minutes of their introduction. As for Pan, she recognized his magic and knew he was the boy playing the flute back in the Enchanted Forest.
The boys at first were hesitant about her. She was not only an adult, but a woman. But after their fight, Rufio opened up to her quickly and introduced her to everyone. The rest of the boys, seeing that one of their leaders was so comfortable with her, started to open up too. She learned that all the boy were there for a reason. Their lives back on their worlds weren't the best. Parents that didn't want them, orphans that had no one, some of them even escaped from abusive families. But that didn't mean that they didn't miss them, or at least the few good memories they had of them.
She heard their cries at night and her heart broke for them. So, she took it upon herself to show them what having a family was truly like. She thought the young ones how to start writing and hold properly a bow and sword. With the old ones, she corrected their stance while they fought and thought them some hunting tricks. When any of them got hurt, she would use her limited knowledge of healing magic to help them, all the while scolding them for getting hurt.
At night, she told them bedtime stories, some that her mother had read to her and Snow, some were retellings of her adventures. And once they were asleep, she would go around tucking in the young ones and giving cups of warm tea to the ones that stood watch. It was during one of those trips that Felix finally opened up to her. She brought him a cup of tea, and he asked her why was she doing all that.
"Everyone needs a family. Even if it's one of your own choosing."
Felix nodded, and they spent the rest of the watch together in silence.
Pan saw all this and didn't like it. But there was something special about the woman and her magic. The shadow wouldn't have brought her to Neverland if that wasn't the case. Maybe he could use her until he had found the heart of the truest believer.
More time passed and Rose started to notice things. One of the boys was more withdrawn than the others. When she learned he was Baelfire, the first thing she thought was to tell Rumple once she saw him again. His son was alive. But she didn't want to mention him too much. She saw that Bae didn't have his father in high regards. But they became friends. He told her what happened to him after separating from his father, about the Darlings, and how he had lost hope of ever going back.
Rose knew that that was something all the boys had in common. They lost hope of ever going back to their homes.
"Are you starting to see the reality of this place?"
"You'll have to do better than that if you want to surprise me, Rufio" Said Rose with a smile.
"I know." He sighed in mock despair. "But you have seen what this place does to us. It takes our hope. It's not right."
"Careful, Spike." She said, ruffling his spiky hair. "Anyone else hears you say that, and you'll be branded a traitor." Said Rose with a pointed look.
"That's why I'm saying it to you." He grabbed her hands and looked her in the eyes. "Spitfire, we have to find a way to defeat Pan. Waiting for the magic to die in this place will take too long."
"Rufio, are you hearing yourself?" She said with a frown. "You kill Pan, and the rest of the boys won't forgive you. If you want to protect them, that's not the way to do it."
"Then, we'll find a way out of Neverland." He said with conviction.
Unaware to the two of them, someone was listening to their conversation, and he was not amused. Pan decided that he needed to have a conversation with a certain pirate. Maybe a way out of Neverland would convince him to his dirty work.
A plan had been laid out. Rufio would speak with the pirates in one of their skirmishes and convince them to help them get away from Neverland. Once that was done, they would round up all the Lost Boys that wanted to leave, board the ship and leave Neverland behind.
While they were planning, Bae heard them and demanded to join the plan. If they were working on a way out of the island, he wanted in. The tricky part was getting Pan to let them leave, and as much as Felix had warmed up to Rose, he was the most loyal to Pan. He would definitely get in their way.
Rufio was confident that between the three of them they could distract Pan long enough for the boys to get aboard the ship, and once they were far enough, Rose could teleport them to the ship before it left Neverland.
"Don't worry about Felix, Rose. He won't attack you. You two are like brother and sister. He won't harm you." Said Rufio, while Bae nodded. "We will give him the option too. Stay here with Pan, or leave with us and truly be free."
Before they could discuss further, they were called to a meeting where Pan proposed to pay a "visit" to their friends, the pirates. Rufio looked at Rose and grinned. Their plan was starting. But no one could have predicted what happened later that day.
"Spitfire! We need your help!" Some of the boys yelled while making their way to camp.
They left on the ground a body covered in blood. When Rose approached it, she saw that it was Rufio.
"No. No, no, no, no." She said getting to work on his injuries.
Healing magic had never been her forte. She could mend small cuts and dull the pain, but she couldn't heal damage that extensive. Her hands were glowing white with healing magic, but the wounds were barely closing.
"Come on. Come on." She kept muttering.
A bloody hand grabbed hers and she stopped. Rufio smiled at her with blood pouring out of his mouth.
"It's okay, Spitfire." He coughed more blood. "Just promise that you will get them out of here."
He sat up with Rose and Felix's help and coughed some more. He looked around at all the Lost Boys and smiled.
"Boys! Listen to me. We have a lot of fun here. But don't be fooled. We are not free." He looked at Rose before turning to the boys again. "We wanted to take you to a place where we could really be free to do what we wanted, to go wherever we wanted. I'm sorry I failed you."
With those last words, he closed his eyes, never to open them again.
After Rufio's death, some boys approached Rose about leaving Neverland. If there was another plan to escape. She didn't know what to say. They buried Rufio on top of a cliff. All the Lost Boys paid their respects. One by one, they left, until only Rose and Felix were standing in front of the grave.
"I don't know if I will want to when the time comes." Said Felix, not taking his eyes from Rufio's name on the sign. "But if the other boys want to leave, I will help you."
Rose looked at him shocked. She never thought Felix would go along with a plan that was so clearly against Pan. She hugged him, and the two of them cried for their lost friend. Felix left, and Rose kneeled in front of the grave.
"I'm sorry."
"You should be." Said Pan, coming from behind the trees. "Rufio always had the idea running in his head, but he would never have acted on it if you hadn't come here. So it's your fault he's dead."
At that moment, she realized that Rufio's death had been orchestrated by him. And she felt anger like she had never felt before. He had killed a child for trying to find a way to help his brothers. He was a monster that deserved no sympathy or restrain from her part. But she knew that acting harshly would only affect the boys.
"Mark my words, Pan." Said Rose with hate in her eyes. "I will find a way to get these boys away from you."
"I can't wait to see you try." He said with a smirk.
"Rufio, this time I won't fail." She said getting up and turning around. "It's time I keep my promise to you."
She left the cliff on a warpath. She knew her powers were still unstable, and that Pan was extremely powerful. But after everything, she didn't' care. She was going to get the boys out of Neverland, and there was only one way to accomplish it. Pan had to die, and nothing would stand in her way.
AN: Yay! I'm back, and with a double chapter. I won't bore you with the hectic last year of my life, but I'll try to upload on the weekends or when I have some free time.
In this chapter, I didn't picture Rose getting involved in much of the plot, so I took the opportunity to explain some of what happened to her in Neverland.
I loved Rufio in the movie Pan, and hated that he only had a passing mention in the series. So, I took the character and made the reverse of the movie. After all, if Peter Pan can be the bad guy, Rufio can go from trusting him to be against him to protect the Lost Boys.
As always, thank you for taking the time to read my story :)