Wendy awoke to Pan's arms around her. She remembered a second later about Syrena. She remembered her telling her that Tink had screamed for her life the day she died.
Tinkerbell was dead.
She couldn't stop the sobs. Pan's arms around her tightened. She should have known he was awake.
"Wendy?" She didn't answer. She couldn't answer. She needed to talk to Felix. She had to tell him what the mermaid told her.
"Wendy, please talk to me. Tell me why I found you on the beach unconscious. Tell me why you're crying." She looked up at Pan. Tears and all, she looked up. He was Peter. His green eyes were pained. He was desperately trying to figure out what she why she was so sad. His bronze hair tousled from sleep. Pan's strong arms were wrapped around the small of her back allowing her no escape.
"I can't..." She said hoarsely. He raised his perfect eyebrows as she spoke. Clearly he didn't think she would answer him.
Pan crushed her toward him. Her face was buried in his neck. He smelled like jungle and ocean. It soothed her, strangely. She suddenly became aware of his lips against her forehead. She felt the blush, but didn't exactly understand how it got there.
"You can tell me when you're ready." He whispered in her hair. The sound of his voice was not impatient the way she had thought it would be, but calm and content.
Something in Wendy just wanted to lay there. Not necessarily crying, but just to stay there in his arms. It was one of the most comfortable places she could imagine. The realization of what she wanted scared her.
"No." She said clearly. Wendy struggled to lift her head up to look at him. The closeness of both their faces caught her off guard, but she regained control over herself.
"No?" He asked in confusion. His green eyes burned in curiosity. It was like he wanted to see inside her soul.
Nothing much to see, she thought.
"I can't tell you because I'm not anything to you." She lied. Lies came easy to her now. Pan couldn't know anything about Tink. Her secret would be kept even in death. "I'm just property to you. I'm Wendy Bird, not Wendy."
Pan grabbed both sides of her face and brought her close to him. She could feel his breath on her lips.
"Is that what you have been thinking all this time?" He asked enraged. She looked at him stunned. Why was he so mad?
"How can you possibly think that I thought of you as an object?" Peter winced. Yes, Peter. He wasn't Pan, not right now he wasn't. Wendy was in a trance. One where she only looked at his lips and maybe, just maybe, wanting them closer.
The door to the hut swung open and Felix stood there. He looked away warily as if walking in on a romantic moment.
Instinctively, Wendy removed herself from Pan and sat up in bed. All the guilt came crashing on her again. Felix didn't know. Wendy had to tell him.
Felix glanced from Pan and settled on Wendy. At first it was questioningly, but then he saw the tear streaks across her face. Wendy's tear exploded for the fiftieth time. She darted across the small space and into Felix's chest.
"I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Tink. Tink. TINK. TINK!" She whispered just loud enough for only Felix. Felix swallowed lump after lump in his throat preventing himself from crying with her. Pan couldn't see it. For Tink.
"I need a moment." He said as he pried Wendy off of him. Wendy watched him run out of camp.
~~~~~~~~
Felix was crushed. He cried. Cried. Cried some more.
All he could see was Tink's face in his mind. The special way she smiled only to him. The taste of her lips on his. The fact that she only heard his pipe music.
And now all of that was gone.
Tinkerbell was dead.
And now Felix, for the first time, felt like he was too. It was like all the hiding from Pan, secret notes, all of it was for nothing. Loving her was for nothing, if in the end, he could never love her the way he wanted to.
He wanted to kiss her without worrying if Pan would strike her down. Or hold her without the constant looking over his shoulder. He wanted to have children with her. Marry her. Do everything they could.
Everything was ripped away from Felix.
She was ripped away.
Felix sat in Tink's treehouse. He wound his fingers in her green clothing. It still smelled like her. Everything was the same. Just as he left it.
How can she be gone?
How can she really be gone?
Felix sat there staring at nothing for what felt like an eternity.
~~~~~~~~
Pan was confused completely. So many emotions flowing through him at once, he never felt like this before.
Rage was easy. It's what he felt when Felix fled camp. He didn't even know the damned reason.
Frustration when Wendy refused to tell him what was wrong.
Appalled when Wendy thought she was nothing more of an object to him.
Jealous of Felix immensely when Wendy launched herself in his arms. When she whispered in his ear the words that he could not hear. That he wasn't allowed to hear.
He didn't understand what could be so catastrophic that Felix and Wendy became friends. He didn't know what Wendy thought of him as. He knew that Felix was still in love with the fairy Tinkerbell. He doubted that he would ever take a step toward Wendy.
But maybe Wendy took a step towards him.
Maybe Wendy was in love with Felix.
The thought alone was painful. The puzzle pieces fit themselves together in his mind. Wendy went to express her feelings towards him and he denied her. It would explain why she didn't want to talk to Pan. Why only Felix could comfort her.
Wendy had run out of the hut as soon as Felix had. And here Pan sat still in bed. The shock was almost enough to still him completely. His Wendy Bird thinks he wants her as a trophy. She didn't see the need in his eyes every time he looked at her. Or the wanting in his voice. She just saw it as prison. Not love.
Pan didn't know what to do. Felix might be another rouge Lost Boy. Wendy might be a neglected Lost Girl. He didn't know how to fix it. This wasn't like one of his game.
This was unfixable.
~~~~~~~~
Wendy had ran. She didn't know where she was going until she heard the familiar crash of waves against rocks.
Syrena.
She had to find her. Ask her.
Was Tinkerbell really dead?
It seemed impossible to be even considered a question. Of course not. Tinkerbell? She's a survivor. She can't be dead. She couldn't just die like that.
"Syrena!" Tears again.
Wendy didn't think it was possible ti be able to cry anymore.
"Syren-"
"Hey, shut the hell up before you bring Pan out here!" She hissed in the water. Her orange tail swished in the water. Her hazel eyes filled with mystery.
"Is she dead? Is Tinkerbell really...." She had to catch her breath between soft sobs. Syrena looked her up and down. At first it was a harsh glare on her face, but it turned into something softer.
"I'm afraid she is."
Wendy just stared at her. It was a joke. Tinkerbell couldn't die. Tink couldn't be dead.
"But I know who killed her."
The sentence hung in the air.
"If you make a deal with me, I'll tell you how to defeat them."
Wendy couldn't find words. Her vision was swimming. And then autopilot kicked itself on. She wasn't talking or moving by choice anymore, but to survive.
"Anything." She found that her voice was ruff with bloodlust. She could kill the thing that killed her Tink.
"A long time ago, a group of pirates sailed under a ship known as The Black Pearl to Neverland. Among them was a man pure of heart. Pure of any harsh pirate nature. He was a pirate by blood, but not by heart. Back then I was a curious creature. I spied on him. Soon I was captured by his captain, Black Beard. Phillip saved me countless times. So I saved him from what he was. I made him like me." Syrena motioned to her tail. Wendy shivered in disgust.
"When Pan inhabited the island, he and I made a deal. We would live in peace. No harm to either side. He agreed and all was well." She looked as if she wanted to kill something. Her fangs flashed while she spoke.
"Another ship after the Black Pearl set sail toward Neverland. After the long battle with Black Beard, Pan's goal was to steer the ship off course toward the Enchanted Forest. The problem with that was that the Jolly Roger had just came from there. Captain Killian Jones knew the ship was being taken over, so the magic didn't work."
Wendy's eyes widened as Hook was brought into the story. Syrena had been around since before Neverland even existed.
"Pan and Hook went into battle. Of course, Peter Pan won. He had clever tactics of a schoolboy that a older man would overlook. He tricked Killian's older brother into stabbing himself with Dreamshade, a deadly poisonous thorn, and it killed him when he left Neverland the first time. When he came back the second to head into battle, Pan had already allied himself with us merfolk. We had, after all, made a deal."
Wendy had finally learned the truth about Hook's brother. Syrena said he tricked him. How did Pan trick someone into killing himself? Did Pan even kill Hook's brother? Wendy didn't have enough time to think before being thrown back into the story.
"While in battle, my Phillip died. I watched him die..." She took a deep breath before continuing, "My sister saw who killed him. Pan was going to attack Hook's flank which was open. Phillip tried to stop him. He believed the war could be prevented. He was always against it. And Pan didn't listen to reason. He killed Phillip so he wasn't in his way. His truce with us was broken, and we all turned on him the second Phillip died."
"We weren't strong enough, though. He trapped everyone of my kind in the Lagoon, except for me. He punished me. He said since I led the attack to kill him he would separate me from my family."
Wendy could say she was surprised, but she honestly wasn't. Pan had done horrible things. It was his way of playing his game.
"I'm sorry.." Wendy said still thinking of Tink. This mermaid has had centuries to get over Phillip, but never has. How would she ever get over Tink? She wasn't sure if she wanted to.
"It was a long time ago. Which brings me to our deal," Syrena reminded Wendy who nodded.
"What do you want?" She asked slowly.
"I want you to make Pan sink to his knees before me and beg for forgiveness," Wendy's eyes almost bursted out of her head.
"That's impossib-"
Syrena wasn't done, "After I except the apology, I want you to kill him."
Wendy was shocked in silence. Kill Pan? Kill The great Peter Pan?
"I can't. He's too strong." Wendy spoke truthfully.
"Have him train you. You have magic, so have him help control it." Syrena said with a casual shrug.
"How do you know I have magic?" Wendy asked suspiciously.
"When you've been on this island long enough, you know how to get all the gossip. Plus you did almost lit up my family." Wendy didn't apologize.
Syrena narrowed her eyes. "I can help you kill the person that killed Tinkerbell, all you have to do is help me kill Pan."
Wendy imagined all the ways Pan could kill her before she even got close to him.
"Is there a problem? Has Wendy Bird fallen in love with her cage master." A flash of heat hit her cheeks again. Anger flashed across Wendy's features.
"I'm not in love with him." Wendy remembered how she thought fate was pulling them together. If she killed Pan, fate wouldn't happen. Killing him would get her away from everything. Even the guilt of Tink's death.
She thought of every bad thing that's ever happened to her on Neverland. How it was all his fault. Killing him would send her home. London. Mom. John. Michael. Leaving she would forget Tink. Forget Hook. Forget them all.
"Fine. I'll help you." Wendy said clearly struggling with her decision.
Syrena smiled and let out a scaled hand. "So we have a deal then?" She asked sweetly.
"Yeah," Wendy shook her hand.
"We have a deal."