The Darker One// Once Upon A Time

Chapter 27

"Did you take away my memories for my own good or for yours?" Reese questioned. "I have a feeling that you took them away so that you can be the only one that can be the ruler of this land... I know every inch of this island, and I have this feeling that you may not know everything about your precious home."

"I have gone through all of your drawings, so therefore I know everything."

"I don't think you know everything." She stated. "Even as a child I knew that I need to hide some things from you. I don't know if I did that or not because you took away my right to know everything."

"If I give you back your memories, will you give me the information that I so greatly desire?"
"Depends on what the information is."

"I can't take the chance that you might not give me the information. I need to know for sure that you will tell me everything."

"Okay, but you truly have no choice. You need to trust me that I will tell you if you need to know the knowledge that I will acquire. Come on, Pan. Don't you trust your own daughter?"

"No."

"And you're correct in saying that, but I feel like you've taken something away from me that I might need at some point during this visit."

"Well, if you leave Neverland while it's dying then you will always be dying, and it doesn't matter if you're the dark one or not. It will kill you."

"I'm not afraid of dying." She responded. "Now are you going to give me back," she was stopped when Pan took something out of his pocket, and put it on Reese's head; it was a small rock.

Reese was hearing her own voice in her head and she even heard her brothers. She looked behind her and saw her younger self at her kitchen table coloring.

"What are you drawing, Rae?" Malcolm questioned her daughter as he sat down next to her.

"I'm drawing a map of Neverland." She replied. "I remember you telling Rumple and I about it, and I thought that it deserved a map. I even put a lot of traps along the way."

"What about those dumb mermaids that tried drowning me in my dream?" Reese picked up her piece of paper and pointed to Mermaid Cove, and nodded her head. "Wow.. This is really good Rae. How did you even come up with this?"

"I don't know... While you were talking about it these pictures came in my head and I wanted to draw it out." His daughter pointed to the other pages next to her, "This isn't the only thing I drew. I decided to design a campsite and something that's called Skull rock... It has an hourglass that tells how much time is left on the island."

"Why in the world would you have that?"

"Because magic always comes with a price, and I realized that this magical place needs to be stopped at some point; someone might try and use its power for evil."

"How could you stop this timer?"

"You need the heart of the truest believer," she lifted up one of the drawings and pointed at the heart in the middle, "This is called the heart of Neverland, and if I am not back at Neverland before it dies then I would too.. Oh, and I am the one that would need the heart of the Truest Believer."

"Why?"

"It's complicated but you could technically put in the King of Neverland, but it will only give the person the power.. You need to give power to the whole island. I am the heart of the whole island, so I would need the power in the end."