Hook didn't know what to think as he looked down at both girls' unconscious forms. They were angled towards each other, hands touching. They both looked so peaceful. Looked as if nothing horrible had taken place just moments before.
But Hook knew that when one of them woke up, nothing would ever be the same between them. Not just for them. The bond that somehow formed between five unlikely allies against Ursula. One common enemy that brought them together, had also tore them apart. No, not torn. Shredded.
Pan, Wendy, Hook, Tinkerbell, and Felix would never be the same, but two bonds within the group were shattered.
Wendy and Tinkerbell were now strangers to each other....
~~~~~~~~
Tinkerbell didn't know how she was able to fall asleep each night. The freezing cold stone floor she and Pan laid against didn't exactly lull them to sleep. When she did sleep, her nights were cruel and dreamless. So when she was transported to her old treehouse in the jungle, she instantly looked for Wendy.
She was out on the house's balcony in a loose white dress with a billowing skirt. Her golden hair was in a braid that hung against her neck. Wendy took Tink's breath away.
"Hey," Tink approached her shyly in her ripped leather outfit she wore when she was captured. Wendy turned to face her, but the relieved smile Tink imagined she'd be wearing was a worried frown.
"Is he okay?" Wendy bit her lip nervously, "I mean, he believes it, right? Ursula believes it?" Now it was Tink's turn to frown. She forgot the reason she was mad at Wendy.
"He believes it, Ursula believes it, and no. No he is not in any way okay." Tink growled quietly in case she talked in her sleep.
"When this is all over I'll tell you my reasons, but I need you to trust me. If....." Wendy's fear was evident in her voice.
"Wendy, I know you can stop her." Tink tried to sound convincing, but Wendy shook her head sharply, angrily.
"Don't misunderstand, I will defeat her. Even if I have to take her down with me. But there's something you don't know. That only Rumple knows and I have to ask you something selfish."
"Well what now?" Tink pictured telling Pan something else. Something more heartbreaking.
"When this is over, I'm leaving Neverland. I'm not staying. My death has to be real. Not just for the plan to rescue you." Wendy ran her fingers through her skirt to keep from looking at her.
Tink wanted to ask why. She wanted to scream at her. Wanted to know what the point of fighting for the island was if Wendy had no intention to be thought of alive. But Tink could feel herself stirring under the dream. She could hear herself whimpering.
"Tink?" Pan's voice shook the treehouse and for a moment, Wendy almost disappeared from her. It was shear willpower she was still staring at Wendy at all.
"I want you to come with me."
"Tink! Hey, it's just a dram! Stop shaking, wake up!" This time Pan's voice echoed loud enough for Wendy to hear. She flinched, but at the sound her face took up a whole new look of determination.
"You need to go. Think about what I asked, and carryout the plan."
Tink felt the dream slipping. Like she was beginning to fall away from the world. Tink would wake up with new information that would cause her to go crazy yet again.
She wanted Wendy to feel even a fraction of how she felt right then.
"I miss the old Wendy....my friend."
And then she was snapped back into the cave with Pan.
"Are you okay?" Pan asked looking at her worriedly. He cringed holding his ribs as he sat up.
Tink half smiled at him, "Fine, just a nightmare."
A brutal nightmare.
~~~~~~~~
Wendy was shoved out if Tinkerbell's head similar to the snap of an elastic band. She gasped taking in the surroundings she had left behind. She was still on Hook's ship. The sky was a morning pink signaling the sun's rising. Wendy was alone; Hook and Felix must have still been below deck for the privacy she required before the trip into Tink's consciousness.
Wendy took these quiet moments to think of him. To take a step back and determine if she was making the right choice by leaving.
It is the only way the hour glass will stop, Wendy reminded herself.
Yes, she was making the right decision. Wendy couldn't follow with her heart any longer. It only told her to stay on Neverland and be with the one who made her heart hurt in the most wonderful ways. She could only listen to her mind. The only constant reminder about how she held Pan's heart. How this bittersweet choice would stop his greed, and therefore his time limit.
Hearing Pan's voice in Tink's head had made her waver. Hearing how broken he sounded choked her revenge plot. She just wanted him to be safe. But that should be simple request would not happen anytime soon if she didn't get a move on.
Wendy stood and made her way below deck. Felix appeared to be resting his head on the small kitchen table, but as she got closer Wendy heard a light snore. She looked doen at him startled with an unfamiliar sense of betrayal. He picked this time to catch up on his sleep? In the middle of their planned sneak attack.
Wendy revised that thought in her head. Sneak attack sounded a bit childish and uncool. Ambush, that's a better word.
Her anger evaporated as she tried to think of the last time she had slept herself. She was too busy playing mind games in Tinkerbell's head.
Hook was sitting at one of the lower deck windows that overlooked the beautiful coral reefs and small schools of fish under the water's surface. He looked up at her approach, but he too looked haggard. Wendy sat herself on the other window next to him.
"I'm sorry you guys are so tired." Hook shook his head. He smirked as if none of it phased him.
"No, don't worry about it. What did you tell Tink?"
Wendy prepared a lie. She tried to think of something convincing. They needed to believe in her. She couldn't tell Hook her plans in fear of a reaction like Tink's.
"I know that face," Hook warned her sitting up from the windowsill, "No more surprises. Whatever it is, tell me. Don't make me as terrified as I was when you sought me out with a tail." Wendy flinched, but nodded. She looked over her shoulder to make sure Felix was asleep.
"I know that you don't approve of my liking towards Pan...." Wendy trailed off with whisper laugh.
"Are you looking for an approval to marry, then? After this is all over? You're what twelve?"
Wendy's heart felt like it got stabbed with a thousand icicles.
"I'm fourteen." Wendy couldn't contain the sadness in her tone. Hook's expression went from teasing to serious in a blink of an eye.
"I misread the situation completely, didn't I?"
"Yep."
"I'm sorry. Carry on, I'll shut up." Wendy almost smiled, but sighed instead. She thought telling people her feelings was supposed to help. Make it seem like she wasn't bottling everything up till she explodes. It only seemed to hurt her more to say it out loud.
"As you probably know, Pan needs the Heart Of The Truest Believer in order to stay alive. There are only two heart holders in the world, one male and one female...."
"And?" Hook asked looking a but eager. He must have been curious of how his enemy's curse worked.
"He found one...and it's me."
Hook stared at her for a long time. He looked like he wanted to tear Pan's throat out, hug her, and scream all at the same time. Wendy took this opportunity to tell him everything before he could answer.
She didn't know how long they both sat there in silence. Hook still seemed like he needed more time to comprehend with all the information she had given him. Felix was still asleep, but for how much longer Wendy didn't know.
"I need to know that you will keep this to yourself. Felix and Pan have to stay in the dark. I can't trust Felix to not tell Pan this. You and Tinkerbell are my only allies on this subject. I just need you both to work together, for once. Just help me get rid of Ursula and you won't ever have to see me again." Wendy looked back at Felix a bit paranoid. If he overheard, it would ruin everything.
"What if I'm selfish? What if I want you to stay? What if...."
"What if what?" Wendy looked at him, noticing the uncomfortable look in his eyes.
"I guess you could say I've gotten attached to you. You used to be a helpless girl running from Peter Pan. You used to be only a nuisance to me. But all of the sudden...you're being turned into a mermaid, poisoned, hunted, hurt. I'm used to being the one that protected you. How did it end up that you're protecting us all now?"
Wendy half smiled, "I have to safe myself once in a while," she laughed quietly in whispers, "You know, I used to dream about the day I got off this damn island. Now, thinking about leaving is too painful..."
Hook nodded and looked out the window. Wendy knew he was a man who would never weep. The thought made her more comfortable somehow. She was never good at comforting people.
"You know I wouldn't be leaving if I had any other choice."
A beat of silence.
"Yeah....sadly I know about your thick headedness, weird girl."
This time, Wendy couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled up to the surface and Felix flinched awake. She laughed a little bit harder at the way he looked at her crazily. Why on earth would Wendy Darling be laughing when the love of her life could die at any second? The situation was so comical to her.
"Everything okay with Tink?" Felix asked looking between her and Hook.
"Yep, we should probably get moving." Hook murmured and left for the top deck.
As Felix and Hook gathered up the anchor from the ocean floor, Wendy looked out at the sea. She welcomed the spray of salty ocean water crashing against the side of the ship. Listened to the comforting sound of seagulls chirping above her. Looking into the clear, see-through water that was not mermaid infested.
"Where to, Captain?" Hook asked with such a bitter tone Wendy couldn't help but smile at the ocean.
"To The Lost Boy's camp, right in the eye of the deadliest storm of our lives."
~~~~~~~~
Tinkerbell ate her small piece of bread in angry silence. She let her glare fully set upon Rudolph who was sitting far away from the both of them with not only that dumb blank expression Tink wanted to smack repeatedly, but also the keys to her shackles.
Pan sat as quietly as she, but he stared at the cave floor. His piece of bread hung loosely in his hands; his ability to ignore food for this long impressed Tink in an odd way. All traces of the human Pan left as morning faded into afternoon. It seemed like days ago he was concerned about her nightmare rather than hours ago. But Tink knew why he was more depressed as usual. Tonight was a moonless night. It would be cold, unforgiving. She would think of Felix. She would imagine Wendy. Hell, she would even picture Hook in his comfy pirate ship wishing she could sail realms away from here.
"Could you leave already? You're presence annoys me," Tink growled at Rudolph.
"Sorry, Fairy, I've got my orders to -"
Pan laughed a thin, lifeless laugh. Rudolph's gold eyes squinted at him; it was the first time Tink was seeing a non-robotic expression from him since her capture. "You've got your orders. You mean you and the other Lost Boys are being brainwashed by Ursula?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"Tell me then, who is giving the orders you must turn on Peter Pan for?" Tink asked sharply.
"I do not know how to answer that."
"The name. Just a simple name, old pal." Pan knew very well the name. Tink caught on quickly to his intensions of trying to confuse Rudolph. Trying to get him to snap out of it.
"I do not know the name."
"Then why are you taking orders from someone who you don't even know?" Tink pressed leaning forward from the cave wall toward where Rudolph sat rather stiffly.
"I don't know...." Rudolph squeezed his eyes shut for a moment.
"Rudolph, it's your friend. I took you in. Don't you remember what the boys in your village did to you? I saved you, lad." Pan sounded eager for the first time in days.
"I...."
"Rudolph, come on," Tink urged.
Rudolph's form went even more rigid than Tink thought was possible. His golden eyes had completely turned flat black. Suddenly his body was completely turned in her direction.
"Did you think you could beat me so easily?" Rudolph's voice sneered down at Tinkerbell. Pan set his jaw, his eyes full of hatred. Rudolph lunged at her, grabbing her chin lifting her off the ground as much as the shackle around her ankle would allow.
"Hey, get the hell off of her!" Rudolph spun on Pan so fast. Tink didn't even think she caught the full motion with her own eyes it was so fast. Rudolph had roundhouse kicked Pan hard in the gut. Tink watched him on the ground moaning in pain. Somehow, it wasn't a fear of what Rudolph's body could do to her that made her afraid. It was how suddenly you could see Ursula in Rudolph's whole body.
"If I sense Rudolph or any of the other Lost Boys awakening under my influence again, I will kill you." Rudolph looked straight into Tinkerbell's eyes.
"You can go ahead and kill me. Nothing stopping you." Pan grunted still clutching his stomach.
"Oh, I know you wouldn't mind if I ripped your heart out. But Fairy here," Rudolph squeezed her jaw so hard Tink thought her jawbone was going to snap in half, "I know you wouldn't be able to forgive yourself if you let another person die because of your actions. Wasn't she Wendy's best friend? Oh that would be such a shame!"
Pan sat up and didn't say another word.
Rudolph suddenly cocked his head to the side as if someone had called his name from behind, "Ah...I've got some business to attend to." He threw Tinkerbell hard onto the cave floor.
As soon as Rudolph had rushed out of the cave, Pan was gripping her shoulders.
"Are you alright?" He asked looking....scared. Tink had never thought she would see the day when Pan would ask her if she was okay. He was the cause of most of her pain up until recently, after all.
"I can't....stay here any longer." Tink's voice was shaken. In fact her entire body shook.
"I know, I'm sorry. I'll figure out a way to stop her, I swear. I won't let-" Pan cut himself off and looked at her startled when she pulled the pointed dagger out of her bra. He stared wide eyed as she jammed the tip of the blade into the lock of her shackle and yanked the chain off of her. She moved to Pan's ankle, but he jerked away from her.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm saving you. Come on, we need to get out of here before the others get here."
"Others?"
"Hook and Felix, we made a plan to come rescue you. I would get you out of here at the earliest opportunity and they would stop Ursula." Pan's eyes grew wider in alarm.
"Hook and Felix?! They'll be slaughtered! Ursula is too powerful for them. Tink, you have to call it off." Pan looked like he was close to a breakdown. She didn't know what to do.
"Pan, trust me on this! This is our only opportunity to escape!"
"Tink, Felix is going to die!" Tink flinched, trying to think of any possible way left to convince him to leave the cave.
"No he won't....because Wendy won't let him."
Pan stopped breathing for a moment.
"What....did you say?" He whispered.
"Wendy's alive. It was all part of the lie to save you. I needed to get you out so that when Ursula and Wendy faced off, Ursula would no longer have any leverage over her."
Tink heard the snap of a twig outside the cave and her shaking began to start again.
"You're lying to me. You're just trying to make me go with you." Pan's voice was sure, but when Tinkerbell looked into his eyes, she saw the indecision clearly, "Go, Tink. Go call it off. Ursula will not kill me, I promise you. She intends to keep me under her power for as long as possible if not forever...."
"Pan!" She let out a frustrated shriek, so close to tears it frightened her.
"But she will kill you. She will do it to break me further. You are here to torture me."
Tears were blinding her vision. She was so scared.
"Go and save yourself!" Pan yelled loud enough for her to get to her feet.
That was it. She had failed. Tinkerbell walked into the plan Wendy had created thinking it would be a piece of cake. Go in, pretend to be a helpless prisoner to Ursula, get Pan out, let Wendy kill her. She didn't after what Ursula had made Tink experience, that she could feel anymore fear towards her. But now here she was, running away from the cave. Crashing into the jungle alone, without Pan by her side.
She had failed.
They were all going to die.
~~~~~~~~
Wendy, Felix, and Hook took off into the jungle after grabbing every weapon the three of them could possibly carry from Hook's ship. As they ran, Wendy let her senses branch out. She tried to sense all the people on the island. They had gotten at least thirty minutes into the thick vegetation when her temple gave a sudden agonizing throb.
"Wendy!" Felix called to her in alarm as she fell forward unable to catch herself onto the hard roots of a jungle tree.
"Ouch," Wendy sat still watching the jungle's spin begin to slow.
"What happened?" Hook asked looking over his shoulder to make sure no Lost Boys were attacking.
"I...think someone got hurt...?" Wendy tried to concentrate on if the magical energy came from Pan or Tinkerbell.
"I'm going to go scout ahead," Felix called over his shoulder jogging ahead of them while Hook sat next to her on the tree root.
"Are we too late?" Hook asked and a sudden fear went chilling down throughout her whole body at the thought. What if they were too late?
Wendy closed her eyes waiting for the energy to throw another emotion at her. She didn't realize it was happening until Hook took her chin looking at her horrified. Tears were dribbling down her pale face. It took her a moment before realizing that they weren't coming from her.
She suddenly heard Tinkerbell's voice in her head, "Pan!"
Wendy jumped up and took off in the opposite direction Felix had gone. She felt a sudden pull. Something that was also coming toward her.
"Hey, Wendy! Hey!" Hook called taking off after her.
Wendy felt Tinkerbell. She felt how scared she was. The raw emotion was so intense, Wendy 's tears continued to blind her vision as she somehow dodged the jungle's barriers. Wendy wanted nothing but to comfort her best friend. In that moment their differences in opinion over Wendy's plan to save Pan didn't matter to her. Tink was dying for all Wendy knew.
A sudden smack of another body running into hers and the shrill, terrified scream that followed had Wendy's blood running cold. Hook tackled the figure to the ground.
"Hook! Hook stop, it's Tink!" Tinkerbell laid there shaking violently.
"Wendy?" Wendy abandoned her weapons and pushed Hook off of her to tackle Tink into the tightest hug she had ever gave.
"Oh, Tink! Are you okay? Are you hurt? I felt something with your energy...."
Wendy thought Tink would smile at her. Thought she would return the hug. As they both stood up to face each other in the dark of the jungle, Wendy saw an expression that stalled her completely.
Tink looked like the most guiltiest person in the world.
"I'm so sorry Wendy. Oh, my god, Wendy. Please don't hate me...." More sobs racked her body.
"What happened to you?" Hook asked sounded as startled as Wendy felt.
"He wouldn't come, Wendy. I couldn't convince Pan to come with me. I tried...I even told him the plan and that you were alive, but he didn't believe me....why wouldn't he come with me?"
Wendy felt like this was a joke. Some hilarious joke that didn't have a punch line. All the remorse that Wendy was feeling because of Tink dissipated completely.
"You...left....Pan?" All of the emotions that she had kept back seemed to hit her all at once.
The flood gate had opened.
"It was a trap, Wendy. I offered myself up without thinking. Ursula has no intension of killing Pan. Her only goal was to break him enough for him to join her. She was going to kill me. If I didn't escape now, I wouldn't have survived. I wouldn't have been able to warn you guys in time and-"
"You left Pan?"
"Yes, Wendy but-"
Wendy let her raw emotions take hold as she lunged at Tinkerbell.
~~~~~~~~4 Chapters Left