Pan dreamt nothing at first. In fact, he hadn't been dreaming at all for awhile now. Slowly but surely, her face became clearer and clearer. Soon he forgot he was dreaming.
"Hey." He said to Wendy coming towards her to sit on a log by the bonfire in the center of camp.
"Hi." It wasn't as inviting as he hoped. In fact, it sounded a bit forced. He tried to remember if he upset her, but only remembered the day before. They were happy.
"What's wrong?" He yelled over the hoots of the Lost Boys dancing wildly around the fire.
"I miss you."
Pan couldn't understand why there was so much pain laced in het tone. He didn't know what was wrong, but he couldn't stand Wendy's tortured expression any longer. He gently lifted her chin and softly kissed her lips. He noticed how she shied away. Her fingers didn't twine themselves in his short brown hair. She didn't whisper his name. Her hands were simply folded in her lap. Pan laid a hand on top of her own and kissed her a bit stronger. He tried to hint how much love swelled within his stomach. Enough to cause a slight tint of red on his usual cold face.
When he broke away, she didn't look at him. Her head bowed itself as if it was an instinct. Rejection slapped him across the face. Did she not love him anymore?
"I love you." He said fiercely, and a bit desperately.
Wendy's head snapped up as if she was shocked. Like he had never said the words before.
But then her eyes pooled with tears. She sobbed.
"Wendy?"
She took a shaky breath between the sobs and whispered, "Wake up."
~~~~~~~~
"So why do you think she picked us? Wendy, I mean. Why you and I of all people?" Hook questioned as he, Tink, and Felix marched through the jungle starting week two of the Rescue Wendy Darling Mission.
Tink didn't hesitate to answer, "Because we know the most about her."
"But that doesn't make sense. Why not just get Pan?" Hook was asking his questions a little too irritably. It seemed like they had searched every inch of the jungle. They tried to use all of the clues Wendy had left himself and Tinkerbell, but they didn't make sense. There was no way he would give up on finding Wendy, but there was a part of him that believed she was dead and that maybe whoever had abducted her was just playing games with them.
"Maybe because he's an-"
"She doesn't want her capture to figure out we know. Wendy probably figured Pan wouldn't be able to stop from killing the imposter and then we would never figure out where she is." Felix gave Tink a sharp look after he cut her off, but that didn't seem to erase her attitude.
Hook looked at them both startled, "So he doesn't know?"
"No." Felix said coolly. Hook saw Tinkerbell's hand grip her sword tighter.
This situation was all kinds of messed up.
"So in reality, we're on a time limit. If Pan or the fake Wendy think you're taking too long on your 'trip', we're done for. The women will figure us out?" Hook asked with dry laughter.
Tinkerbell exchanged a glance with Felix before answering his question.
"Yep, we'll be done for."
Felix glared in her direction while watching her pick up the pace in front of them. He leaned toward Hook and whispered, "Let's hope it doesn't come to that." And then Felix ran through the trees after Tinkerbell.
Hook shook his head realizing this was the chance to back out. The women would know soon enough find out of their plan. When that happened there would be no escape. He wondered if it would happen now, in the dead of night, in the cover of the dark. He laughed again, but this time at himself.
When was a pirate ever known to back down from a fight?
Hook ran deeper into the jungle after Tinkerbell and Felix.
~~~~~~~~
Pan didn't wake up to the pleasant feeling he was now used to waking up with. His arms were wrapped around his Wendy Bird, but somehow it didn't comfort him. He looked at her face for comfort. She was deeply asleep, it would be unfair to wake her up over something so small as a nightmare. He carefully slid out of the furs surrounding them, put the hood of his cloak over his head, and slipped out unnoticed through the night.
The cool, chilly air helped clear his mind. Sometimes, he actually did feel the cold radiating off Neverland. He vaguely remembered when Wendy had asked him if he could control the weather. His emotions were the thing that matched the weather. Pan shivered slightly wondering why the temperature was still the same. Perhaps colder. If anything, when Wendy was with him, Neverland should be sunny.
He remembered their hunting trip. Not yesterday. Or the day before that. But the first one. The day Tinkerbell and Felix left Wendy and Pan the camp to themselves. Wendy had been excited at his offering. He wanted to teach her to fend for herself. To be able to protect herself. She had to learn eventually.
"You're going to teach me?" She had asked. She smiled in anticipation. Her brown eyes gleamed in excitement.
"Yeah, why not." Pan shrugged trying not to show how her reaction made him feel just then.
"You're happy, aren't you?" Wendy asked seeing through his pretend. She walked across the hut to him and stopped in front of him. Her golden curls were fanned out around her face like a lion's mane. Her brown eyes danced with laughter. The rose-cream skin of her cheeks a bit red. Just the way he liked them.
"Of course," In one fluid motion he had lifted her off the ground. His hands resting on the back of her thighs and her legs wrapped around his waist. "You are the only reason a villain like me could smile."
Their kiss had been passionate. He had looked at the bed of furs in the corner of his eye wondering why he shouldn't just abandon the hunting idea and just have her instead. Before he could voice his thoughts, he realized she was trying to dislodge herself from him. He let her slip back to the floor.
"How about that hunting trip?" Wendy asked breathlessly. Her cheeks were even redder than before. His may have been too.
Pan uttered a sigh and he grabbed their weapons. "Fine, let's go."
Pan remembered how he taught her to use the bow and arrow. His strong arms circling her. The first shot made the target. Of course it would.
Pan walked now through the darkness of the jungle. He hoped that clinging to the bright, happy moments of his life would push out the bad. As he got deeper and deeper in, he somewhat knew why Wendy had once asked him if she could leave Neverland. I guess if you haven't lived here for so long the dark jungle could cripple you with fear.
And with that thought still in his mind, he saw something that made him stop in his tracks. It was his wolf, Baelfire. He strode to where in lay, dead, in a pile of leaves. The body had been preserved due to it being Pan's magic, but something had killed it. And it had been two months at most.
One word came to mind. One person could have done this. It didn't make sense, but he knew.
He whispered the aloud, "Wendy."
~~~~~~~~
"It's hot, but it's cold?" Felix asked doubtfully.
"That doesn't make sense," Hook agreed sadly. Tink scowled at him.
"That's what Wendy said in the dream. She also said 'It's wet, but I'm somewhere away from the ocean'." Felix continued to sharpen his sword. Tink sighed in defeat and went to curl up in the sleeping bag they shared. They had been on a nocturnal schedule ever since they ran into Hook. He brought up the fact that it would be better to travel when nothing could see them coming. She guessed it was a pirate
thing.
Tink opened one eye to look out at the sky above her head. She couldn't see the past the trees, but she could see the sky had started to turn into a gray-pearl color.
"I'm going to go...uh...pick a tree." He got up and left them.
"You know the ground won't bite you." Tink whispered.
She realized he was only trying to give Felix and herself privacy, but he couldn't think she would be in the mood to do anything in the freaking jungle that still gave her nightmares. Felix wrapped his arms around her and nudged the back of her head with his nose.
"Hey, stop worrying." He whispered.
"Stop worrying? How am I supposed to-"
"Worrying won't find her."
"That antidream dust you gave me won't either." Tink snapped. And then she felt the guilt when he didn't reply. She quickly turned to face him taking in his hurt expression.
"I thought you forgave me." He whispered looking deeply into her eyes.
"I do, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it." She kissed his chin. Felix pecked her lips, but his eyes still looked sad.
"You just need to find her. I get it."
"I love you." She carefully fit herself against his chest.
"I love you too."
~~~~~~~~
She was right there. So close. Why couldn't she be real?
"Wendy, you have to help us find you. You have to-" Hook started.
"I'm getting weaker. That's why the dreams aren't coming as frequently." She whispered. She looked the same as she always did in the dreams. Red eyed, pale skinned, bloody nightgown.
"What's weakening you?" Hook held her hand in his own. Her hand was so cold, but also so small compared to his. He didn't understand the bond he had with her. He lived to protect her.
"I have to show you. It might help you find me before it's too late."
And then Hook wasn't staring at her anymore. He was sitting on a cliff ledge looking out at the ocean below. Pan's face raced through his mind. He just wanted to go back to him. To tell him he loved him and WOAH-
Hook realized that he was no longer himself. He looked at Wendy's fragile fingers and realized that she was indeed showing him something. Wendy was showing him inside her thoughts. Hook was experiencing what Wendy had right before she disappeared.
And as he realized it, he felt what she felt. The poison tipped arrow lodged itself between Wendy/Hook's shoulder blades.
"BLOODY HELL!" He yelled, and Wendy doubled over in pain. Both their visions were blurring together.
Wendy opened her mouth to scream, but the figure covered her mouth. And then she couldn't scream. Hook couldn't yell. Magic stole Wendy's voice voice.
"Hello, Wendy. It's time for you to finally be able to leave Neverland." The woman's words cut like ice. Hook shuddered immediately recognizing the poison dripping into his wound.
They both struggled against the poison, shaking on the ground, but the poison absorbed their strength.
"Did I not introduce myself?" The question struck a cord with Wendy and all of the sudden thoughts of Pan filled Hook's mind.
"I'm the Queen of the Sea."
Hook's vision went dark and he struggled to hear the abductor's words.
"Ursula."
He saw flashes of color in the darkness, mostly green. There was a sound of rushing water, but Hook couldn't be sure. The poison was starting to burn. It made him sweat and his shirt stuck to his back.
He felt Wendy concentrate. Her survival mood was on. Ursula had Wendy slung on her shoulder and was on the move. She fluttered her eyes occasionally to try to get a clear enough image of where she was.
One flash just showed the jungle greenery. Hook felt her realize if she kept trying to open her eyes she would pass out again. But in that moment Hook felt the desperation.
She was only able to get two more glimpses before passing out.
One flash they were next to what looked like a cave.
The last was of the water tumbling down from the rocks.
Hook woke up with a start and fell from the tree face first into a pile of leaves. He looked around for a disorienting moment remembering the woke up at night now. He then jumped to his feet and ran to where Tinkerbell and Felix were.
They were already up, both of them packing up the gear.
"We were about to come get you, pack up your weapons and let's go." Felix said slinging his own backpack on his shoulders. Tinkerbell was still rolling up their sleeping bag.
"I know where she is." Tink's head snapped up.
"What did you say?" She asked as Felix turned to make sure Hook was serious.
"Wendy showed me what happened when she was attacked." Hook's thoughts were scattered. He was still stuck in the dream. He had felt everything Wendy had, everything she thought, saw.
But now he had a name. Someone to blame for her capture. Someone to wish for dead.
"I know who took her...."
"Hold on, let's go back to the beginning. She showed you in a dream?" Felix asked while putting an arm around Tinkerbell. She seemed like she needed the support.
"She made me experience what happened to her. She made me feel everything like she had. She told me that she's getting weaker and I know why. Ursula poisoned her with Dreamshade with an arrow to her back."
Tinkerbell's expression changed to one of horror.
"Ursula?" Felix asked in shock.
"You know her?" Tinkerbell asked in surprise.
"She....seemed completely harmless when she crossed our path a hundred years ago." Felix shook his head slightly disbelievingly.
"Where is she?" Tinkerbell demanded looking at Hook now.
"In a cave by Mermaid Lagoon." Hook said uneasily.
Tinkerbell hurriedly folded the sleeping bag and showed it into her backpack.
"I'm not scared of any damn mermaids. Let's go." She took off running before Felix or Hook could say another word.
~~~~~~~~
Pan raced back to the hut in a blind rage. He slammed the door open causing Wendy to gasp and sit up in his bed. Her eyes widened in fear, but turned questing when she saw it was Pan.
"DID YOU DO THIS?" He roared dropping the wolf carcass on the floor. She stumbled out of bed and looked at the wolf disgusted.
"Oh my god." Wendy covered her mouth.
"Did you?"
"No!" She shouted looking at him a bit scared.
Pan knew she was lying then. Wendy never backed down from a fight. She never showed her fear.
"You're lying to me." Pan growled staring at her pretty brown eyes.
"Why would I lie about this?" The hurt in her voice made Pan search. Was he absolutely sure something was wrong. He listed the odd events within the month.
1. Felix and Tink packing up and leaving.
2. Dead wolf in the woods.
And 3.....
"Why haven't you been to the ocean? I haven't seen you change into a mermaid in three weeks."
And there it was. The expression on Wendy's face changed from pained to calculating. She came closer to him.
"You should have just left it alone, Pan." She said in a cold voice.
"Wendy what are you talking abou-" Wendy spun so fast his eyes could register. He realized crashing to the floor he had been slapped.
But then the enchantment sent in.
A pain so intense it took all his strength to gasp his sentence to her, "Wendy....what....are....you doing?"
"I'm not Wendy." And then he blacked out.
~~~~~~~~~
"WENDY! WENDY, I'M HERE!" Tink screamed at the top of her lungs stumbling up the ledge that peered over Mermaid Lagoon.
"There's no way across without alerting the mermaids." Felix examined the lagoon from above.
"I don't see any other way..." Hook said hesitantly looking at Tink.
"I'm not sending us on a suicide mission." Felix said in a harsh tone looking at Tinkerbell also.
"Felix, there's no other way-" Tink started.
"There's always a way." He cut her off, "Just...let me think of a way to not alert the mermaids."
Tink nodded, but glanced over the edge. They were directly on top of the waterfall, the cave underneath her feet. All she had to do was jump into the lagoon and swim quickly through the waterfall and into the cave. The mermaids wouldn't have any time to attack if she acted quickly.
So she didn't let the guilt of Felix's disapproval have a chance to set in. Without warning she lurched herself off the ledge and plummeted into the Lagoon. The coldness of the water shocked her for a couple seconds, but thoughts of the creatures below her sent her paddling to the cave entrance. She clawed at the rocks and threw her body on top of them.
She faintly heard her name being called over and over, but her pulse was thumping in her ears. "FELIX, HOOK, HURRY!" She yelled from below.
There was a single beat of silence before two sets of splashes echoed the cave. Tink watched them worriedly as she watched the top of their heads come closer to her.
Hook pulled himself over.
And then several tails advanced towards Felix. Tink quickly grabbed her throwing knives and began to take them out. Soon she had run out of knives, but Felix gripped the rocks now.
But then the red tail was close enough to touch Felix.
"FELIX!" Tink screamed. Felix didn't look up to met her terror filled gaze. He acted like a warrior. He submerged himself underwater.
Tink sobbed.
"Tinkerbell." Hook pleaded tugging her away from the mermaid infested waters. But Tinkerbell couldn't breathe.
The mermaids body drifted to the top of the water and Felix used all his strength to hall himself up on the rocks.
Tink flung herself at him crying hysterically. "I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry...."
Felix kissed her forehead, "Just....don't make me think you have a death wish."
Tink laughed, "I won't."
"Not to break up the reunion, but we have a Darling to save." Hook started forward into the cave.
Tink grabbed Felix's hand and jogged forward.
The cave was endless. It had been thirty minutes and still no sign of any life form.
"Maybe we got the wrong cave?" Felix asked reluctantly. Tink didn't want to believe it either.
"No, this is it I swear." Hook said angrily looking down the long tunnel before them.
"I don't understand how a cave could be so deep." Felix murmured touching the cave walls.
"Maybe it's not." Tink suddenly said.
"What?" Hook asked.
"She did this, Ursula. She wanted to make finding Wendy close to impossible." Tink looked around the cavern desperately.
"Then how are we supposed to find her then?" Hook asked her.
"WENDY!" Tink yelled. "Wendy, I know what she's done to you. I know you want to be saved. You have to help us find you. You can't use your magic..."
~~~~~~~~
The three of them made camp in the cave. They had assigned sleeping shifts in case Ursula figured them out. It was Felix's watch, and as he looked around the cave, he realized how desperate they really were.
They were waiting for Wendy's voice in a cave in the villains lair. Normally, Felix would have been furious. He would have told Tink and Hook that they were crazy. The thing was, as much as Felix tried to hide it, he wanted Wendy back almost as much as they did.
He stood from where they were sleeping and made his way to the mouth of the cavern. Very carefully Felix searched the jungle with his eyes. He looked for any signs that Ursula was there in wait.
Felix couldn't believe Ursula was the one who was behind this. When Felix met her, she was a just a sad weepy girl broken hearted after her mother died. With a voice so beautiful, even Pan was speechless.
And then he remembered the gazes she would give him. Ones of devotion. Ones of admiration.
Felix knew she had loved Pan, he just figured Pan ignored her feelings. But what if he toyed with them?
It was such a pity that Wendy Darling was constantly getting hurt for all the bad deeds Peter Pan had done.
Felix thought about that for a moment. How Wendy didn't ask for any of what was taken from her. How she didn't ask to be stalked and taken.
No matter if she loved Pan or not, she was caught up in his web.
"Felix...." Felix turned expecting the high voice to belong to Tinkerbell, but she and Hook were curled up on the cave floor asleep.
Felix got up and waited. He felt childish for a moment, waiting for a voice that he might have imagined up.
"Fel....." The whisper was weak, labored. Felix pressed his ear to the cave wall and waited.
"Fe..."
And then Felix was screaming.
"WENDY!" and rammed the wall with his shoulder.
"Felix?!" Tink gasped as Hook jumped to his feet.
Felix looked into her eyes and nodded at her unspoken question. They all took turns ramming into the rock. The wall wasn't as sturdy as rest of the cave because of Ursula's glamour. It soon came crumbling down in large hunks of rock.
None of them were prepared for what they saw on the inside.
It hardly looked like her anymore. She was wearing a white nightgown that was too long to fit Wendy's short and curvy form. The fabric was covered in her own blood. Her skin had no rose tint, but was the color of snow. There were deep bruising under her eyelids as if they belonged to a corpse.
She sat on a wooden chair in the middle of the room. It didn't look like she could have stayed sitting up if it weren't for the chains wrapped around her body so tightly Felix was sure her body was numb. There was tubing all around her. To humans, it would have looked like Wendy was having a blood transfusion. The dark liquid in the blood bag surged into her both of her arms. But Felix knew what color blood was, and it wasn't a dark purplish color.
Ursula was pumping Dreamshade into her system.
Wendy's eyes fluttered open for a mere second. Her gaze appraised the three of them and a tight smile spread across her face. Then her head rolled backward banging into the back of the chair and her body went limp.
"Wendy?!" Tink shrieked, rushing to her.
Hook and Felix yanked the tubes out out her arms and checked her pulse.
Felix wouldn't have known what to say to Tink if there hadn't been a heartbeat.
"Felix, the chains." Felix examined the thick metal and cursed. He hadn't noticed Hook had left until he walked back into the room with his sword raised above his head.
"Hook!" Felix cried in alarm looking from his sword to Wendy. He brought the blade down, but not at the girl. He sliced at the chair.
"If we break the chair the chains should slide off." And he went back to hacking away.
"Tink, go get our gear. We're getting out of this place." She hurried out of the room.
Finally with a loud crack, the chair exploded into splinters. Wendy started to hit the cave floor, but Felix grabbed her head before it could smack against the rocks. Hook threw the chains across the room and Felix lifted Wendy into his arms. They both made their way to the mouth of the cave where Tink waited for them.
"How are we going to cross?" Tink asked with her sword pointing to the lagoon.
That stopped Hook and Felix in their tracks.
"Bloody hell," Hook cursed taking his sword out of its sheath.
There was no way they would get as lucky as last time. The mermaids knew they were here.
And then Hook dived in.
"HOOK! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Tink shouted, but he was already under the surface.
And then the splashes came.
There was more mermaids than the first time. Fifty or so. They both knew Hook had no chance.
Wendy squirmed in his grip as he thought it. Her breathing quickened.
"Wendy?" Felix asked working hard not to drop her from all her thrashing. She opened her eyes, but looked at the water.
And then Felix understood. Wendy was the only one that could help Hook.
Felix threw her as far as he could into the water with Tink screaming behind him. All the mermaids in the water stopped in their tracks. Their swishing tales stilled.
And then the hissing started.
Wendy was fighting them off.
Felix knew it was now or never. He grabbed Tink's hand and jumped into the water. Tink resurfaced first, but Felix stayed underwater. He opened his eyes and watched as blue mermaid tailed Wendy attacked one, two, three at a time.
By the time he resurfaced, Tink and Hook were already across. They were yelling at him to follow their lead, but Felix knew Wendy needed help. Even if she was a mermaid, there was more than even she could control.
Felix dove into the water to where Wendy was cornered. He took out his sword and stabbed one in the back. The mermaid immediately stilled and shrieked, but it was already dying. Wendy bit and clawed at the other two until they backed off.
There was a window of opportunity. Felix was running out of air and Wendy met his gaze underwater. She grabbed his arm and swam towards the surface like a rocket. Felix gasped at the air and felt Hook grab his other arm and pull them both up before the mermaids could snap at their feet.
They sat there like that for awhile. Felix had given his shirt to Wendy as her tail slowly melted off her legs. She was no longer conscious as he picked her up for the second time.
"What are we going to do?" Tink whispered looking at Wendy worriedly.
"We have to take her to Pan. He has to cure the Dreamshade out of her system if she has any chance of living." Felix looked down at the golden haired girl he was holding.
Wendy was safe for now,
But she only had days left if they were lucky.....
~~~~~~~~8 Chapters Left