Peter Pan and the War of Evils

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

He didn't bother calling out her name as he flew to her side. He didn't bother pressing his ear to her chest to listen for what he already knew wasn't there. He didn't glance at Jude's body, as lifeless as Kaytee's. He only saw her blade, lined with blood, glinting on the deck beside the long dagger still clutched in Jude's dead hand. Still wet with her blood. Kaytee's blood.

It was always about her.

"Tinker Bell!" Peter screamed into the air, his voice breaking and hoarse, "Tinker Bell!"

She flashed to his side and gasped, "Oh, no... oh Kaytee..."

"Do something," Peter hissed, dropping to his knees. He turned Kaytee onto her back, flinching at the lifeless weight, and cupped her cheek, "Do something- now!"

"Peter-" Tink's voice cracked, her face broken with agony as she shook her head, "I'm not a Healer, I don't have this magic... her heart. Her heart isn't beating, Peter."

"There has to be a way," He cried out. His breath was coming in and out in short panicked breaths, "There has to! Tell me what to do!"

Tink was quiet for a second, wide eyed and taking in Kaytee's limp body, the blood pooled around them, and then her eyes met his, "Your magic. You have to use your magic, Peter. Restart her heart just long enough to bring her to the Healers."

"Restart her heart?" Peter asked incredulously, shrill confusion filling his voice, "How? I've never used my magic before, never. It always just surrounds me! I don't even feel it now!"

"Because you simply don't pay attention," Tinker Bell urged, her hands up in plea, "Listen around you, feel it inside you, Peter! It's there!"

"Just- just help me take her to the fairies!" Peter demanded, preparing to scoop Kaytee up, but Tink placed a hand on his shoulder, pushing him back.

"Peter, they can't do anything for a dead body," Though she hated the words, they came out urgently, desperate for him to understand, "You have to start her heart. Now! Before her brain dies with it."

It seemed like an impossible task. Peter never truly realized when his magic was brought forth. The only conscious use of it he'd ever experienced was when he had Banished Jude and when Wendy's kiss had surged strength through him-

Wait, no, Peter thought, I brought back Tink.

The memory presented itself in clear, vivid detail: Tink's lifeless body limp in his hands after she had drunk the poison left for Peter by Hook. His instincts had overtaken him, channeling the only words he could manage to strengthen his magic. It pooled life back into her.

And if he could resurrect a fairy from nothing, he could surely get a heart to pump a few more times, right? Peter closed his eyes and panted, diving back into the deep recesses of his memories. The pull in his gut, the warmth surrounding him... the warmth...

There was a tickle in the back of his mind. Tentatively, he prodded at it with his subconscious, and then-

Wham! Every source of life in Neverland burned in his mind like a beacon of warm light, thousands, millions of animals, plants, bugs, humans, all thrumming with souls and magic. He felt every single connection they held, every heartbeat, every molecule of light within them. He could feel every way they were linked to him, every instance in which their life-force was synced with his. And from them, he knew he could draw the magic.

He took a breath.

He pressed the palm of his right hand onto the back of his left, entwining the fingers. He lifted them above his head, closed his eyes, and took one deep inhale. And with the exhale, he brought the palm of his left hand down onto the center of Kaytee's chest, her shirt drenched in sticky blood that seeped over the webbing between his fingers. He drew on the life surrounding him, the magic flowing from them, through him, and into her.