— ᴀ ᴛʀᴜᴇ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ.
They all got off the ferry that brought them to the Underworld. At first it all seemed dark and damp, but when they stepped through the fog that was hanging around the docks their world changed.
Instead of cold and damp it was chilly, red and.. urban?
"I don't think we're in Maine anymore," the queen rightfully remarks.
They landed right into a wreckage that looked awfully similar to their Storybrooke. The sky above them was cloudy and red and mist swirled around them. Emma asks the question that had been on all their minds and asks why it looks so similar, but Rumplestiltskin remarks that her questions are pointless. He explains that all that matters is that all the people there were dead and trapped souls because they had unfinished business left to deal with.
They heard an engine revving and a car sped by not much time later. "Is that.. Cruella de Vil," Presley asks as she recognises the two coloured hair and giant coat of the driver.
"How would you know if you were not in town when that happened?" It was Rumplestiltskin who looked at her questioningly. Presley responds by rolling her eyes and giving him a sarcastic, biting response. "Because I watched Disney movies as a kid, dumbass."
Emma suggests splitting up to cover more ground and everyone agreed quickly. The sooner they found Hook the sooner they could leave.
Presley and Wendy hold hands as they separate from the rest of the group. At the corner of the street they stop to make a plan.
"Where could we possibly be able to find Hook? This place must be massive," the blue eyed girl complains. She didn't think their chances of success were that high. Wendy pouts her lips and put a finger to her chin. Her eyebrows were furrowed, causing a line to appear on her forehead.
"Well, we can use a bit of magic to find him.. and if this Underworld is a copy of Storybrooke, we just need to go where we would go up there," she muses, glancing at her girlfriend for approval of her plan. "But where would we go, then," Presley asks. She didn't quite follow her trail of thoughts to be honest.
Wendy smiles. "Where do people in Storybrooke store and collect magical items?" Presley answers quickly, since the answer was quite obvious. "The Queen's vault and.. Mr. Gold's shop!"
It has hit her. If they needed magic to find Hook, then Mr. Gold's shop was the right way to go.
Wendy reacted with enthusiasm. "Then that is where we are headed!" The blue eyed girl lunges her arms around her girlfriend's neck, hugging her tightly. "You are brilliant, Wendy. Absolutely brilliant!"
The two girls hold each others hand and went on their way, but unbeknownst to them they were being watched.
°
The two found their way to Mr. Gold's shop easily, considering they were quite familiar to its Storybrooke counterpart by now. The bell jingles when they get inside. The shop was eerily silent.
They pass the different displays of magical items that are dear to or mean something to the citizens of Storybrooke, Mr. Gold especially. Wendy pulls on Presley's arm and nods towards a pan flute that was presented. She didn't need to say the words for Presley to understand what she means. It has been Pan's flute. Pan, her captor and tormentor for more than a century.
Presley steps closer to her girlfriend and reaches out with her hand. Their slender fingers lace together elegantly with an ease that only comes with much practice.
Together they walk further into the shop. Wendy suggests that they look in the back of the shop. Considering that it was the private area of the shop it might hold the more powerful or unique artifacts. They make a move towards the curtain that separated the two rooms when a noise behind their backs startles them. Wendy reacts immediately by grabbing a small statue from the register desk.
For a second a flash of surprise gleams in her eyes. Strangely enough she felt like she recognized the statue as one from her home in London. As if she was experiencing deja-vu. But then her hands tighten around it and her mind is solely focused on defending her girlfriend and herself.
Presley also turns around. She curls the fingers of one hand and creates a red flame with electricity crackling from it. Both were absolutely baffled by the one they were greeted with.
"Hello, ladies. To be honest, I hadn't expected the two of you to be the first to come here."
He was standing before the front door, the light entering through the glass of the door causing him to be shrouded in shadows. When he steps forward they were clearly able to see him, though they had already known who he was.
It was Pan.
Dressed impeccably in the same style of suits that his son wears he struts towards them. "How lovely to see you again, old friend." His eyes rest on Wendy. "How is life outside of your cage, Wendy-Bird?"
Her arms were trembling. The look on her face showed a true desire to hit him with the bust in her hands. "How is life.. oh wait. You aren't alive. You're dead," she sneers, her eyes narrowed on him and her iris a few shades darker.
Presley was actually a bit startled. She had never seen Wendy so hateful before. Then again, it was Pan who ruined her life. Who took her from her brothers, locked her up and used them against each other to get what he wanted. Pan deserved everything bad that could come to him.
"Give me one reason not to incinerate you right now." For good measure the goddess let the magic around her fingers crackle like a fire. She meant business.
But Pan was only smirking, just like they remember him. "Because you need me. Because, without me, you can never find what you are looking for down in this shop. No one can." He approaches them, calm and collected.
However, now it was Presley's turn to be smug. She laughs a perfect, clear sarcastic laugh that rings through the shop. "I think you forget one thing, Pan," she draws out.
Pan raises an eyebrow, but it was clear to everyone that he was annoyed. "Oh, and that is?"
Presley felt a sense of glee from him being so irritated. Her smirk only grows as she approaches him with crossed arms. "That down here.. I am the one in charge. As you already knew, I am Persephone. Daughter of Hades. He is kind of your boss around here, nah?"
Pan keeps a smirk on his face, but he seemed tight. He balled his fists in surpressed anger. "So you figured it out?"
"Eventually, yeah. But that all doesn't take away from the fact that I despise you with my entire being for what you did to everyone I care about." She marches forward and grabs the front of his suit. Presley brings him closer to her and hisses in his ear.
"And don't think I forgot about what you did to Felix either."
She flicks her wrist and Pan was immobilized. He was standing stiff like a rock, unable to move any limb. "Come on, Wendy. We need to find something.. anything." The frizzy haired girl quickly put the statue back on a table and helped her girlfriend search the shop.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Pan was right. Without him wanting them to find something, they couldn't.
Wendy walks up toward her girlfriend and rests a hand on her shoulder. Presley looks over her shoulder and raises a questioning eyebrow at her. "This is not going to work and Pan won't help us. We need to try other ways of finding Killian."
Though she didn't want to, Presley had to agree. They weren't coming any closer to finding anything that could help with the search of Hook. To keep on going to search the shop was a waste of time.
Wendy and Presley lace their hands and walk out together. The bell jingles behind them, but before the door closes they could hear Pan yell after them. "You may be victorious now, but both of you don't forget. Peter Pan never fails."
The bell was tinkling wildly for a moment when a hand abruptly stopped the door from closing. Presley feels a tug on her hand as she wanted to continue walking and her girlfriend had stopped. Wendy throws a disgusted look over her shoulder.
"Tell that to your Heart of the Truest Believer, Peter."
She pulls the door shut and the doorbell finally stopped ringing. Wendy was visibly shaking and her girlfriend could guess it was more from anger than a fear for Peter Pan. Presley pulls the frizzy haired girl along and they make a stop when they turned around the corner.
"Hey, what's wrong," she asks calmly. Wendy tries to stop her trembling, but it was clear to Presley that she was bottling up her emotions. She was unable to miss the anger and hurt that clouded Wendy's beautiful, usually glistening brown eyes.
The Darling girl runs a hand through her own hair and sighs. Her lower lip wobbles as she tries to give words to what she was feeling. "You remember.. on Hook's ship, when we left Neverland.. Do you remember what I told you?"
Presley nods. Of course she remembered their first meeting. The moment that her heart fluttered at seeing the brown eyed, kind hearted girl who showed a genuine interest in her well-being. The moment she felt understood for the first time in such a long while.
The frizzy haired girl sounds hesitant. As if she was unsure how to start her story, which was undoubtedly important and most likely also painful.
"Well, I never told you the entire truth. Like.. how there was a time that I was actually in love with Peter Pan."
Wendy chuckles, but she didn't sound actually happy. She lowers her gaze in shame and regret. "Thinking back to then it was silly of me to believe he could actually harbour feelings for anyone. But that didn't stop my childish little heart from believing he might can."
Wendy bites down on her lower lip. It was clear to her that she blamed herself for all that occured. But Presley didn't believe that to be true at all. "Wendy.. it is just like you said on the ship. You can not be blamed for falling for his lies. Everyone did."
But Wendy didn't seem receptive to her words. Even though Presley tries to capture her gaze, the Darling girl keeps her head lowered and her eyes on her shoes.
"But it is not all there is, Presley. There are things I haven't told anyone, not even my brothers.. or Pan. At least, I don't think he knows the truth." She takes a deep breath and starts walking. Presley follows after her. She was feeling a little unsure about what Wendy was going to tell her. It all sounded so grave and sad.
A few blocks away they entered Storybrook Park. The trees were bare and the plants dead. There was no fish in the pond or anything else that resembled life. Neither of them paid much attention to the view. Wendy just seemed miserable when she slid down on a park bench. Her girlfriend follows her. Their hands entwine and rest on their legs.
"Pan.. When I arrived in Neverland I thought we could become great friends. He sounded so exciting and fun in the bedtime stories mother used to tell. At first we actually were sort of friends. He told me the story of how he had this vision shortly after his permanent stay. A boy which he drew on a piece of parchment who would be his salvation. Or rather, his key to immortality," Wendy explains.
Presley feels a nauseating feeling boil up inside her, thinking back to that horrible time in Neverland. "Henry.."
Wendy nods solemnly. "Yes, Henry. Pan believed he had the prophesized Heart of the Truest Believer. But even Pan does not know everything.." The girl starts to tremble a bit. Presley immediately reached out to comfort her. She wraps her arm around the other girl, pulling her close. The Darling girl rests her head on the space between her shoulder and neck and nuzzles closer.
"Only when I lost it did I realize what I had. I was actually the one with the Heart of the Truest Believer at that time. What I only recently learned is that there is always someone on Earth with the Heart of the Truest Believer. The title is passed on when the former carrier dies or.. experiences something so haunting and traumatic that they lose their belief. A-And Pan.. he was the one who snuffed out all of my belief."
Wendy starts to sniffle, trying to stem the tears that were threatening to fall. "I'm going to kill that son of a bitch.. well, kill him again," Presley growls lowly. She pulls Wendy even closer, their skin flush against each other. It was a coccoon of love and safety that Wendy desperately craved.
Both of them had been through so much hardship and neither of them deserved it.
"He will be properly punished down here, I'm certain. Now.. we must not delay any further. The Captain is waiting on us and then.. then we need to get you reunited with your father!"
Wendy jumps up from the park bench, feeling energized now the heavy burden was lifted off her shoulders. She takes Presley's hand and pulls her off. The multicoloured haired girl starts laughing and let her girlfriend drag her along the park.
On the other side of the pond a man was standing still. He wears a long coat that was closed up to his neck. The mist surrounding the lake had hidden him for a short time, long enough to listen in on the two unknowing girls on the park bench.
The man let out a deep sigh. He had many a thing to worry about now everything was finally coming together. He wanted a proper introduction to his daughter, but for as long as she was stuck to the hip with that other girl and trying to find the pirate in his captivity that was not an option.
He runs a hand through his red hair, a familiar shade to the red of Presley's different coloured highlights.
"Persephone.. soon we will be reunited. I promise."
And in a smokey cloud of red Hades disappeared.