Pan's Redemption

Chapter 33 ~Greed*

Pan watched her as she slept. He never felt more peaceful. He had watched Wendy a million times, but this moment felt more precious than than the rest.

Wendy had finally returned to him. He pressed their foreheads together. He felt so much ease in that moment. Pan had never experienced such grief in his life. When Wendy had been thrown off that cliff, Pan thought his emotions would kill him. The relief he felt seeing her on Skull Rock was extraordinary.

All he wanted was for her to feel the same way as he did.

Pan feared that would be impossible. What Syrena did to Wendy was irreversible. She turned her into a mermaid. A creature even Pan would call a monster. But Wendy wasn't a monster. Seeing her after what Syrena did to her, she was still herself. Somewhat.

She still looked like Wendy. She had the same wild golden hair. The same chocolate colored eyes. The differences in her seemed small, but Pan was left worried. Her eyes didn't seem to have the same glow that they used to. Her sentences were clipped. She looked down when she spoke like she used to when she first came to Neverland.

Pan used to believe that no one could take the light out of Wendy Darling. Pan couldn't help remembering when he and Felix had locked her in the bamboo cage. Even when she thought he was going to turn her brothers into Lost Boys, she still had some sort of hope. Her magic had spiraled out of control. Pan knew that Wendy didn't understand what she was doing when she lit the camp aflame, but deep down, Pan was sure her consciousness did. It was a defensive mechanism. She had hope she could still protect her brothers.

Pan tightened his arms around her. Did Syrena take her hope away?

He couldn't bare the wait. He had planned to ask her in the morning. To demand that she confess what was bothering her. For her to stop lying to him. But Pan had to know now. And this was the perfect opportunity to do so.

Pan concentrated his magic on her face. It took less than five seconds to get into her head. He planted the perfect dream. He continued the vision he gave her long ago when he had first convinced her to be his Lost Girl. Pan closed his eyes and let the dream sink into his mind.

He had busied himself in braiding her hair into a crown. In the dream, he could manipulate anything around them. He made the sun radiate heat, like it should. Made a perfect meadow with lovely wildflowers. He made the things he guessed she had dreamt about as a child. When Peter Pan was just a book. When Neverland was just an imaginary place.

He looked down occasionally from her hair to see her face. He knew it was just his magic. If he were to end the dream right now, her face would not wear such an expression.

Wendy's cheeks were a rosy color with her blush. Her hair bouncing with her golden curls that gleamed even brighter in the sunlight. Her dark eyelashes naturally curled upwards. And when she opened her eyes to glance at the meadow in wonder, her beautiful brown eyes pierced through his chest.

He had always known she was his greatest weakness.

"Pan?" Wendy looked up at him with a small smile.

"Yes?" He looked down at her with an answering smile. He enjoyed watching the blush spread across her cheeks.

"Do you see a future with me?" Pan looked at her with a blank expression. A future with him?  That's when Pan knew. He realized that if he hadn't been making this dream so happy and sparkly, misery would surround her.

She knew. The Shadow had told her. Wendy knew that she had the Heart Of The Truest Believer.

Not wanting to ruin the perfect dream he planted in her head, he flashed another perfect smile down at her.