Time didn't slow. It was all just too quick for Felix to comprehend.
He never saw an expression so lethal.
One moment he was pulling Tink into a crushing embrace and the next, Pan was barreling into the jungle. He sprang into the air with the grace of a panther, and was gone.
His green eyes had burned with unspoken agony, with a hatred so intense Felix wanted to tuck Tinkerbell away from Pan forever.
Never had Felix seen such an expression.
Not when Wendy ran away from him for the first time. Not when Syrena turned her into a mermaid. Not even when he sat on the beach for days waiting for her to swim back to him.
Felix was afraid for everyone's life on the island, including his own. When he was gone, Felix looked at Tinkerbell's blank expression.
She simply whispered, "Let him go."
~~~~~~~~
Tinkerbell stared at the cave wall in front of her for hours. Pan still hadn't come back from when Rudolph wordlessly unlocked his shackles and tugged him out of the cave. Rudolph's eyes were different than when he had captured her three days ago. The gold color was dulled. It seemed to give off the impression nobody was home.
"Hey! Leave him alone!" Tink yelled with a crackly voice. Pan didn't even react or put up a defense. Rudolph didn't even seem to hear her.
So there she sat. Shackled to one wall of the cave staring at the empty pair of shackles where Pan usually sat. Just waiting for him to return. Racked with unimaginable guilt knowing the reason for his detachment.
She wondered about Wendy's decision. Tink would be lying if she said that she hadn't thought about telling Pan the truth. Wendy didn't elaborate. She didn't exactly explain her reasoning for letting Pan think she was dead.
Her one phrase seemed to echo through Tink's head: "I didn't realize I was the one hurting him."
Tink couldn't think of a single incident where Wendy was at fault. She couldn't piece together how Wendy could do such a thing to Pan. It was obvious, even if Tink didn't know the reason, that she loved him. She sacrificed so much to be with him.
Why would she throw it all away?
As Tink pondered this, she knew in the back of her head there was something happening to Pan. Ursula was off torturing him. But Tink couldn't think about why Hook and Felix were taking so long for step two of the plan. She couldn't think about how scared she was if she had to look Ursula in the eye. To remember her near death experience. She could only let her mind wander to one thing.
Where had her old Wendy gone?
~~~~~~~~
Wendy stood in front of the ancient hour glass on Skull Rock. She watched the sand for what seemed like days, but were really hours. The golden dust mocked her with each trickle falling to the bottom of the glass.
She didn't know why she came here. In the beginning, she just wanted to get away from Rumple and his talk of revenge. But now, she felt like the whole island rested on her fragile shoulders.
She wanted to throw the plan away. She wanted to call it off and tell Felix and Hook to come back. But with Tinkerbell there it was too late. She sent them to save Pan when she expected to be reunited with him. When she figured the hourglass would still the second he saw her.
But that was all just a childish thought. She should have known, after all the time spent on Neverland, that nothing would ever seem so easy.
She was no longer a human. No longer living in London. No longer had two younger brothers. She didn't have a silly schoolgirl crush. Her nose wasn't deep into a book and her fingers weren't pushing up nerd glasses on the bridge of her nose.
She was in Neverland. She was in a hopeless love. She had been turned into a mermaid. And she knew that Neverland was at war. When she pictured war, she imagined two large groups of people. Two armies surging towards each other and fighting to the death.
But they were up against Ursula. One being powerful enough to conquer the entire island with a simple flick of her wrist, and that was the only angle Wendy could think to stop her.
Ursula had the power to take over, yet she hadn't done it. She was playing some twisted game. Some sort of revenge against Pan, and all Wendy could hope for was for her to make a mistake.
Wendy was tired of it all. She didn't want to stand and do nothing just waiting for something to go wrong with her own plan. This time, Wendy wasn't going be the victim. If she was presented with the opportunity, she would stop Ursula herself.
This would be her final act on the island.
Wendy was sure Rumple intended to take her somewhere far away from Pan. Far enough he wouldn't check to see if she was actually alive.
If this was her way of saying goodbye, the risk seemed worth it.
~~~~~~~~
Pan could still hear Tinkerbell's useless screaming as Rudolph dragged him out of the mouth of the cave. He figured her sudden urge to defend him was because of her. Because of the guilt Tink felt for his grief over his love....
"What does Ursula want with me now?" Pan asked, though his dehydrated voice only came out a whisper. The past few days since Tink's capture, Ursula had been requesting him. Or...what he assumed was Ursula. Every time Rudolph dragged him somewhere, he would lead Pan to the ghost town of one of his old camps. One Lost Boy would be there waiting for there arrival.
And then that kid would beat the crap out of him. No explanation what so ever. But Pan realized after the first time, it wasn't really the Lost Boys. It was liked they were all checked out. Ursula's brainless soldiers.
Rudolph continued to stare blankly forward as he gripped Pan's arm taking him deeper into the jungle, "I don't know who you mean."
"Of course you don't!" Pan laughed, but again it sounded like a quiet wheeze, "She has you brainwashed. Open your eyes, Rudolph! Come on!"
"I don't understand." His robotic voice replied back.
"Great talk." Pan replied bitterly. He tried to mentally prepare himself for whatever Lost Boy's torture methods decided to be. He tried to prepare himself for the pain. Perhaps then, it wouldn't hurt so badly.
He realized with a sudden gasp where Rudolph was taking him. They were emerging the Dark Jungle. Powerless, and hands bound, Pan jerked away from Rudolph. Rudolph simply tightened his grip on his arm and together they were surrounded in darkness.
So this was how it was going to be? A Lost Boy was going to kick his ass in the dark where he couldn't see what part of his body needed to be protected. Maybe Ursula was going to get all of them this time. Pan's stomach lurched, his pulse beat rapidly in his ears.
Rudolph stopped him from continuing on and Pan thought his panic was going to swallow him whole. This wasn't like him. He finally realized how powerless he was without his magic. Without the use of his bound hands. He was helpless.
"That will be all, my dear Ru." Her voice cut right through Pan's heart. Ursula was still wearing her façade. The one she knew would break Pan.
"Your majesty." Rudolph stalked off, but Pan couldn't believe his ears.
"Your majesty?" Pan growled in Ursula's direction. He couldn't see her face. Not like the darkness was blanketing her, which it was, but like it would physically pain him to see the face of the girl he had loved.
"But of course. Neverland doesn't have Kings or Queens, right?" She mocked still using Wendy's voice. "Well, whatever you were to Neverland, to the Lost Boys.....I'm afraid you've been outranked." She chuckled lightly.
"Do you expect me to willing give you my island? If you want it, you should fight fire with fire, witch. Give me my magic back and we'll see who the true sorcerer is. I am older, wiser, stronger." Pan was a bit surprised at his own arrogance in such a comprising situation. Old habits die hard.
"Older yes, but if you really were wiser, you wouldn't have believed I was your Wendy Bird so easily."
Pan flinched, partly because the truth hurt him as bad as it did the first day he realized his mistake. And partly because, if he was without the common sense this was Ursula talking, it was as if Wendy was shouting the accusations at him.
"Stronger....that's what I have been wondering as well. You may have had less years of practice than you, but I've had your son as my teacher."
Pan didn't say anything. He hadn't seen Rumple in years. The last he saw, Rumple was the Dark One wrecking havoc in the Enchanted Forest. Of course he heard stories of him. Oh so many twisted tales of the reptilian man who was known for his twisted deals. He didn't know what to make of him. Every time he thought of him, his thoughts skittered unwillingly to the poor helpless boy being flown away from him by the first Shadow.
Yet another regret.
"And you think because my son, my own flesh and blood, taught you that some of my potential could drain into you? Sounds more like you idolize me, dearie."
And then his world was staring back at him. Ursula had lit fire in both of her palms and had moved just inches away from his face. He hadn't mentally prepared himself at all. He couldn't move his eyes away from her chocolate brown ones, gleaming with a gold tint in the flames light.
"I did idolize you. I thought wow what must it be like to be the greatest, most powerful villain of all the realms. I wanted to work up to your potential. Even after you stole my singing voice to Black Beard. Even after I hated you, I still admired you. That is, until you got soft." She hissed, but all Pan could think of was no matter how cruel this was, he missed Wendy's face so much he hadn't realized his breathing was ragged. How much he was drinking in the illusion like a drug.
"You never stopped to think of how weak she was. Wendy, the human girl. She was supposed to die for you. As soon as you kidnapped her and put her on this island you were supposed to kill her and carryout the immortal life you gave up your only child for! How could you let someone so insignificant get the better of you?!" Even the infuriating Wendy before him was so beautiful he wished she was real.
"If your looking for an answer, I don't have one. I've never have. She is the greatest force I had ever been put up against."
Ursula inched closer to him and Pan jerked back.
"Stop." He begged in a rough voice.
He could practically hear the snap in her head as she figured out what had been bothering him.
"Oh....my." She cackled darkly, "She's really dead, isn't she?"
"I will kill you. I guarantee you, even without magic, I'll find a way."
"And while you're plotting that, I'm just going to go deal with that hourglass of yours. Maybe I can make time run just a bit faster for my taste." She picked at her fingernails pretending to be bored.
"You're not as good at lying as I, I see. If I'm going to die, I can't picture anyone killing me but you. You won't make death easy for me. Not as easy as simply speeding up my inevitable death my curse has set for me. You want to do it yourself." Pan smirked, although he was out of reasons to ever smile again.
"You can act so high and mighty all you want, but I won. You know that. I might have to drag her dead body into the cave to greet you."
Pan lurched forward. He wasn't sure what on earth he was going to do without his hands to strangle her, maybe go for the old fashioned head-butt. As soon he was close enough to touch, two sets of arms tugged him away from her.
"Ru, Vic," Ursula sang Rudolph and Victor's names so sweetly Pan could have been sick, "I'm bored. You guys can deal with him."
She vanished in a cloud of white smoke and the jungle was again submerged in black.
"Yes, your majesty." They both said in unison.
This time, Pan didn't have time to reply with a sarcastic comment before they dove toward him with all fists, kicks, and elbows.
~~~~~~~~
Wendy stood outside the camp with Hook and Felix at her sides. Her hand gripped her sword hilt all too tightly as she watched the Lost Boys roaming around the camp as if nothing horrible was happening at all.
"Are you sure about this?" Hook asked checking over his shoulder for unwanted listeners. Felix looked at Wendy waiting for the same answer.
All three of them knew this wasn't going to be easy.
She weighed the odds for a moment. It was more likely they were all going to get killed before they even got close to where Ursula was keeping Pan and Tinkerbell. The same resolve from Skull Rock came crashing into her. She owed this to Pan. Owed this to herself.
For one selfish moment she didn't care if Felix or Tink or Hook died if it meant Ursula would never walk the earth again.
She shook off her thoughts and looked Felix and Hook in the eye. There was no way she would let them die. She wouldn't give Ursula the time to even consider it.
"Yes," She replied with a bit of uncertainty, "Part two of the plan commences now."
~~~~~~~~ 5 Chapters Left