Pan's Redemption

Chapter 42 ~Devestation*

Time didn't slow. It was all just too quick for Felix to comprehend.

He never saw an expression so lethal.

One moment he was pulling Tink into a crushing embrace and the next, Pan was barreling into the jungle. He sprang into the air with the grace of a panther, and was gone.

His green eyes had burned with unspoken agony, with a hatred so intense Felix wanted to tuck Tinkerbell away from Pan forever.

Never had Felix seen such an expression.

Not when Wendy ran away from him for the first time. Not when Syrena turned her into a mermaid. Not even when he sat on the beach for days waiting for her to swim back to him.

Felix was afraid for everyone's life on the island, including his own. When he was gone, Felix looked at Tinkerbell's blank expression.

She simply whispered, "Let him go."

~~~~~~~~

Tinkerbell stared at the cave wall in front of her for hours. Pan still hadn't come back from when Rudolph wordlessly unlocked his shackles and tugged him out of the cave. Rudolph's eyes were different than when he had captured her three days ago. The gold color was dulled. It seemed to give off the impression nobody was home.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" Tink yelled with a crackly voice. Pan didn't even react or put up a defense. Rudolph didn't even seem to hear her.

So there she sat. Shackled to one wall of the cave staring at the empty pair of shackles where Pan usually sat. Just waiting for him to return. Racked with unimaginable guilt knowing the reason for his detachment.

She wondered about Wendy's decision. Tink would be lying if she said that she hadn't thought about telling Pan the truth. Wendy didn't elaborate. She didn't exactly explain her reasoning for letting Pan think she was dead.

Her one phrase seemed to echo through Tink's head: "I didn't realize I was the one hurting him."

Tink couldn't think of a single incident where Wendy was at fault. She couldn't piece together how Wendy could do such a thing to Pan. It was obvious, even if Tink didn't know the reason, that she loved him. She sacrificed so much to be with him.

Why would she throw it all away?

As Tink pondered this, she knew in the back of her head there was something happening to Pan. Ursula was off torturing him. But Tink couldn't think about why Hook and Felix were taking so long for step two of the plan. She couldn't think about how scared she was if she had to look Ursula in the eye. To remember her near death experience. She could only let her mind wander to one thing.

Where had her old Wendy gone?

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Wendy stood in front of the ancient hour glass on Skull Rock. She watched the sand for what seemed like days, but were really hours. The golden dust mocked her with each trickle falling to the bottom of the glass.

She didn't know why she came here. In the beginning, she just wanted to get away from Rumple and his talk of revenge. But now, she felt like the whole island rested on her fragile shoulders.

She wanted to throw the plan away. She wanted to call it off and tell Felix and Hook to come back. But with Tinkerbell there it was too late. She sent them to save Pan when she expected to be reunited with him. When she figured the hourglass would still the second he saw her.

But that was all just a childish thought. She should have known, after all the time spent on Neverland, that nothing would ever seem so easy.

She was no longer a human. No longer living in London. No longer had two younger brothers. She didn't have a silly schoolgirl crush. Her nose wasn't deep into a book and her fingers weren't pushing up nerd glasses on the bridge of her nose.