— ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀᴜᴇꜱᴛ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇʀ.
Emma and her family were venturing the forest on their way to find Tinkerbell, a fairy who has lived on Neverland for a very long time. Pan trusts her, which means that she might be able to help them in getting Henry back. If she were willing to help, of course, Emma thinks pessimistically.
They had been walking for a while when Hook suddenly stops. The others follow his example and stare at the pirate. "Why are we stopping," Regina questions with clear irritation to her voice. Captain Hook raises his hand and signals them to be quiet. "I hear voices," he whispers very softly. He gestures towards a dirt path that they were nearing and he lowers himself. The others follow his example as they crouch towards the bushes by the side of the path.
"-Absolutely mental," they hear a voice yelling. Emma flinches visibly when she recognizes who it was. A pair of boots stops right before the bush they were hiding behind, but the foliage was enough to cover them entirely. They all suck in a breath to make as little noise as possible. "Come on, Pres. It's not far from here." "As if I'd take another step! You're insane," a familiar voice exclaims loudly.
Emma barely lifts her head, but it was enough to be able to glance over the bush that was covering her. She sees Felix standing right in front of them with crossed arms. Presley was a little further back on the forest path and seems to refuse to take another step. "You agreed to come here with me. I didn't force you," the slouchy blonde in front of her says calmly. "I call being high barely giving consent to take me to some woods!"
Presley was seething and feeling so very confused. Felix has a golden medal for acting mysteriously, but usually she was able to get something useful out of him. Now? Nothing. Felix rolls his eyes. "I told you, it's not just some woods. This is Neverland." Presley scoffs. "Sure. Are we sure you're not the one intoxicated right now? Neverland doesn't exist! Fairytales don't exist!" "Pres, just meet him. If you still don't want to be here after that, I will bring you home. I promise."
The girl crosses her arms and starts thinking so hard that the wrinkles appeared in her forehead. She could refuse, of course, but she didn't know the way off this place. Without her friend's help she would never be able to leave. Besides, what harm could it do to indulge in his drug trip a little more? Probably a lot, but Presley didn't think of that at the moment.
She scoffs. "Fine, take me to whatever imaginary friend you have. When we're done, I'll be leaving. With or without you," she tells him firmly. She comes into motion and approaches Felix. He turns his back against her again and leads them through the Dark Forest. When they were out of range, the group comes out of hiding.
"Damn it, Presley," Emma mutters. Hook overhears the Savior and raises an eyebrow at her. "How do you know her?" His question makes everyone turn around and glance at the two of them. "You know that girl," Regina questions too. She crosses her arm. Her facial expression shows she wasn't impressed. Snow and Charming stay quiet. They didn't want to say anything that might be against Emma's wishes. Emma hesitates and looks down at the dirt and fallen leaves beneath her shoes. "I.. yes, I know her. She is my foster child."
Both Regina and Killlian eye the Savior with bulging eyes. "Why didn't you ever say something," the Queen asks with a singular raised eyebrow, her entire look scrutinizing. Emma crosses her arms. Why didn't she say something? It was not like she was ashamed of Presley. She cares deeply for the girl that looks so similar to herself. And these people were family to her. They wouldn't judge her or her decisions regarding the teen. Except, perhaps, the one about leaving Presley behind in Boston.
But Emma also knew that this entire new world was crazy. Both of them would never have believed Snow White and Prince Charming to be real, to have magic beans and flying broomsticks and what not. She didn't want to drag Presley into this and bombard her with information she didn't need.
"I guess I was still figuring out things. On what to tell her, if I ever would. Presley is very much like me as in that we only look out for evidence and facts. Putting this onto her.. it would be a lot. I didn't want to do that to her in a reckless manner. I had to think, but with everything going on I didn't have the time to let myself make the decision." She meets the eyes of everyone in their group. "Please believe me when I tell you it wasn't my intention to lie about anything. I just didn't want her to get involved." Emma sighs deeply as she stares down the path where Felix and Presley disappeared. "But it looks like she already did."
Snow walks up to her daughter and gently rubs her back. "Hey, everything will be okay, alright? We have always defeated the villain and we will again. You just got to keep on believing." Hook nods. "The princess is right. We will save the lass, Emma."
°
Felix pushes aside a few leaves that hang over the path he was walking and allows Presley to pass him in a gentlemanly manner. The girl rolls her eyes but makes use of his gesture. Sweat was starting to roll down her back in small droplets and sheer layer of transpiration had given a glimmer to the curve of her upper lip. The jungle might be a beautiful piece of nature, it was also humid and a death sentence if Felix hadn't led them past the Dreamshade bushes he told her about quite descriptively.
"We're there," the boy announces. He points with his club to the part of the path where the trees started thinning out. She could spot soft light coming from there and a bunch of noise. "He is expecting us," Felix remarks and he looks down at the girl standing besides him. "You ready?" "Ready to meet a figment of your clearly delusional illusions? Sure, no problem." The slouchy teen starts chuckling. "You will see in a moment that I have not been lying to you, Pres." He nods towards the end of the path, encouraging her to start moving. Presley sighs but starts walking while Felix was staying to her side. It was comforting yet also gave her shivers. Was it really that bad that she felt that he should stay at her side every moment?
They enter a campsite. Four boys were sitting in a circle and cutting spears while a few others were doing a vine climbing game. Felix guides the both of them through the maze of boys, stray materials and the campfire. He halts when approaching a boy who had his back turned to them, sitting on a rock in the middle of the campfire. Presley didn't think he noticed their presence at first, but then she saw his ear twitching. The muscles in his back tightened and the boy sat up a little straighter. He definitely heard.
Felix speaks up. "Pan, I brought the girl." Presley throws a fierce glare at him for being called 'the girl'. Did she mean that little to him? She hears a short, soft chuckle come from the seated boy before he turns around on the stone. He wasn't quite what she had expected. The boy couldn't be much older than her. He had brown hair that seemed to have a mind of its own and piercing green eyes that were now drilling into hers. The boy also had this air of mischief around him, as if he was always brooding on a next scheme. It made her distrust him immediately and she crosses her arms before her chest as if they could protect her.
"Presley Swan.. I've been waiting to meet you for quite some time." A smile makes its way up his boyish features. Somehow that irked Presley even more. "It seems so, considering all your.. efforts to get me here." The blonde teen girl glares at Felix one more time before drifting her gaze back to the seated boy. He stands up, reaching about the same height as her. He extends his hand. "It seems that I haven't properly introduced myself. I'm Peter, Peter Pan."
At that, Presley couldn't contain her burst of laughter. She doubles over and clenches her stomach with both arms. Tears roll over her cheeks as she tries to fathom the strange obsession these junkies had with fairytale characters. "You weirdos have been watching too much Disney!" Pan glances over the girl's doubled figure at Felix. The tall teenager responds by simply shrugging his shoulders. Peter Pan returns his eyes to the girl. "Everyone believes us to be fairytales, to believe that magic is impossible, but you will see soon that is nothing short of a lie."
Pan raises his hand and let the campfire by his feet die out. Presley eyes the spectacle with a raised eyebrow. "The wind could have done that," she reasons, though she didn't quite feel a breeze here. However, him just putting out fire like that was.. not possible, was it? Pan chuckles at her disbelief and opts for a more direct showcase of magic. He let his magic dangle around his hand, presenting itself how pixie dust does when he flies. A sparkling green hue around his fingertips, spreading out towards his wrist. That made Presley widen her eyes and rub them. She wanted to make absolutely clear that she wasn't dreaming or still high from her joint of earlier that evening.
But no, this was not an intoxicated illusion. This was real, somehow.
"B-but how-" Pan interrupts her confused stutter by letting the magic disappear and lowering his hand. "Do you believe me now?" Presley responds by silently nodding her head, her eyes still fixated on the hand that had showed magic a few seconds ago. "Now that is out of the way, I want to talk with you." The girl was ripped out of her amazement and narrows her eyes on the guy. Immediately, she was hostile again. "What do you want?"
"A deal. One of which we can both profit," Pan proposes and the way he put it lured Presley's curiosity in. "And what kind of deal would that be? Because I can't quite see what you could possibly want from me." The boy sits down again on the rock and crosses his arms. "The deal is simple. You work for me and I can tell you everything you want to know about your mystery." Presley looks down at the boy in confusion and irritation. "What mystery are you talking about? I have no mystery and certainly none that you might have the miracle answer to."
But Pan scoffs. "But I do. You have the same mystery as all orphaned, abandoned children have: who were my parents?" Silence settles between them as Presley had no witty remarks left. She swallows the lump in her throat away. Pan was right. Like probably most kids without parents she had wondered where her actual parents were. Why had they abandoned her? Who were they even? To think that he might have the answers to her questions was quite the good offer he was throwing her way.
"How would you know about that," Presley asks hesitantly. Pan glances at Felix, who was standing behind her, and returns his gaze. "I know a lot of things about you. More than you know yourself. Felix told me about the nightmare you had. About someone regretting something, about finding someone back." She sucks in a breath. The part about Felix spilling her secrets to Pan had quickly left her mind as she focused on the thing that seemed more concerning at the moment. He knew a lot about her. Question is.. what did he know?
She asks that, causing Pan to smirk at her. "I know about your family. About why they haven't reached out to you yet. I will give you all the answers you seek if you help me with something." Of course, there is the real reason for all of this. "And what might that be?" Pan let his eyes waver over the campsite. "There is a boy here. He is the key to all of our plans. He has the Heart of the Truest Believer and he will be the one to save Neverland and save magic. But he is hesitant. I need you to convince him that he will save magic.. whatever the cost." Presley raises her eyebrows at the last part of Pan's sentence. That sounded like quite heavy stuff for someone who was just their age. Presley follows Pan's gaze around the camp. "And who is it?"
"A boy you already know. Henry." Presley's breath hitches. Her fierce blue eyes snap back to the smirking figure in front of her. "No, I won't let you hurt Henry. I might be angry at Emma, I might want to know more about my history, but I will not let you put Henry in danger." Pan raises a calming hand and gestures her to quiet down. "Calm down, Presley. I never said I would put Henry in danger." "But you didn't say you wouldn't either," she retorts angrily with crossed arms in front of her chest.
Pan's eyes twinkle in mischief. It was quite off-putting to her. "I will assure you that for Henry to save magic he will not be forced to do anything against his will. You just need to give him that last assuring push in the right direction." He stands up and starts circling around Presley. "Besides, what other options do you have? I am the only one who can help you solve your mystery. What is this tiny favor in exchange for all you ever dreamt of?" He halts in front of her and extends his hand. "So what do you say? Do we have a deal?"
Presley looks down at the dirt beneath her shoes. She thinks long and hard. But a few moments later she looks up. Determination was radiating off her when she places her hand in his and shakes it. Her hand was almost crushing his. She was clinging onto the last straw she had that could let her know something of her family while making excuses in her head. Pan was right that it was a small favor to give in order to have everything she always wanted to know. To have answers to her lifelong mystery. Besides, he assured that Henry would not be forced to do anything that he didn't agree with. It lightened the burden of her conscience.
"Deal."