"What the hell is going on?" The blue-eyed messenger boy panicked. At first, he was hazy, until the rather violent confrontation forced him to become alert.
"Oh, I think you know exactly what's going on," Pan sneered.
"I want answers!" Benjamin demanded. "Now," he growled.
Hemlock was startled by the boy's aggression. At last, the boy's assertion was burning through just as Hemlock incessantly pushed it to be; he just hadn't expected the assertion would be on him so violently. Truth was, Hemlock never believed in Benjamin, that was why he bullied him--to have the power he had so secretly craved for years upon years.
"You heard the boy," Pan cooled, "answers! I'll get them from you either way..." The restrained lost boy remained stubbornly quiet. "Anwen is dead, Hemlock." That was when Hemlock's face hardened into a scowl, glaring and clenching his jaw. It was only fair, after all, they had got him out here and he was going to die either way now. He knew Pan better than that. He debated just staying quiet, though when he glanced at Benjamin, he felt immense remorse for what he had done to the boy. They used to be brothers before Pan had casted the curse, and the pain began glimmering through his eyes.
"I want to know why you tried to kill me," Benjamin began. The old messenger boy straightened as much as he could, uncomfortably swallowing.
"Tell Pan to stop holding me against this tree first, then I'll tell you everything you want to know," Hemlock attempted to negotiate. "You can trust me..."
Pan couldn't help but chuckle. "You're joking, right?"
Hemlock stayed silent, expressing how serious he was.
Benjamin tilted his head, eyeing him suspiciously.
Pan and Felix simultaneously glanced between the two boys, feeling the tension.
"No," Benjamin spoke, at last.
"That's enough," Pan exhaled then abruptly, Hemlock cried out, startling Benjamin. In Pan's vice grip was Hemlock's heart. The lost boy cried out in agonizing pain. "Now tell us why you tried to kill Benjamin!"
Hemlock tried to resist Pan's command, faltering and pained in the face. "Anwen--she promised she'd save my life...if I did," he confessed against his will.
"What would she have to gain from taking Benjamin's life?" Pan inquired.
"He...he hurt her, when he thought she was Anne. He ran the moment he discovered it was really her.."
Pan glanced over at Benjamin in realization. The lost boy shied away guiltily, unable to meet Pan's eyes. "I see," Pan then mumbled. Benjamin clenched his jaw.
"MY turn!" Taking the heart from Pan's hand, Benjamin stared daggers into Hemlock's gaze. "I thought you were sincerely helping me save Anne and Felix, had your negotiation with Anwen been set that entire time?"
Hemlock once again, tried to resist until Ben's grip tightened. "Gah! Yes, alright, yes! I was playing along, trying to gain your trust," he mumbled weakly.
Benjamin hesitated asking about the kiss. He didn't want to understand it, but at the same time, he couldn't help himself. "Give us a minute," he told Pan, slightly turning his head in his direction.
The keeper gave him a slight look of disbelief, before he finally just got up.
Hemlock peered at Benjamin with the slightest smirk. He knew what this was about. Benjamin couldn't help but mirror the bitter curl of his lips. "Trust," he spat, slightly amused.
"It's the perfect decoy," Hemlock taunted with a testy grin. Benjamin's blood boiled and he tightened his grasp back on the boy's heart, causing him to gasp in pain.
"Alright, let's just get down to the point, that...kiss," he grew timid, "that was a part of your act, too?"
"Worse," the arrested lost boy began, breathing heavily, "for a moment, I actually thought I liked you." A smug smirk returned to Benjamin's lips and his confidence returned. "It was my way of saying goodbye," Hemlock managed, pained in the face, "just get it over with," he weakly pleaded, squeezing his eyes shut tight.
"No," Benjamin emitted, bitterly humored, "I'm going to do more than that," he climbed to his feet, "I'm going to make sure every last trace of you is gone!"
Hemlock peered up in terror and uncertainty, his breathing quickening.
"Pan," Benjamin addressed the keeper, glancing back at him, "I'm ready..." With that, Pan darkly smirked and headed over. Felix followed attentively, anticipating. Pan pulled out his dagger, and said, "let's get this show on the road, boys, I have to be there when my dear old Anne wakes up." With that, he raised his blade and Hemlock panicked.
"Wait! Wait, please!" He pleaded, having realized how much he wanted to live, after all. Pan stopped, his blade mid-air and a look of annoyance on his face. "The others--! They've been plotting to over throw you since the beginning! The-the magic, they wanted it to consume you and become your ruination until you--you would b-become Neverland's shadow! They they--they were going to trap you in the dagger for all eternity!"
Pan appeared faintly shocked, alarmed in his eyes. So that was what Anwen had been planning, and Pan figured as much when he was in that cave with her and the others--when she tried to deceive him by disguising herself as Lydia.
Whatever the case was, it didn't matter in that moment because Anwen was dead. When Pan looked over, the children that had been in that cave with him, were gone, for now anyway. Pan grew more at ease the longer he stared at the helpless lost boy, though there was a disheartened look in his eyes, and although his second-in-command could see it, he wouldn't let it distract him. And Pan wouldn't hesitate much longer. He said nothing, swallowed his doubts and raised the dagger completely.
The rest of Hemlock's hope drained and with the quietest spell, both Benjamin and Felix were changing.
"Pan, please!! I'll...I'll do anything!" Of course, when staring death in the face, Hemlock's true self would burn through, the cowardice, yielding messenger boy he always was.
"It's too late!" Pan breathed darkly. Then as Benjamin's eyes changed to a wolfish, piercing gold, he mercilessly snickered, having leaned down just enough to eat out Hemlock's soul.
"Now who's the weak one?" He finished with a chilling laughter.
With that, the boys transformations began taking full effect, and for the last moment, they would be wolves, and mauled Hemlock to death. His cries rang up into the night as Pan stood in the near shadows, and not once did he ever blink an eye.
~ ~ ~
Anne laid still, the group hovering over her, anticipating her waking. It had been long enough, they thought and held their breath. Just then, Pan emerged from the forest, Felix and Benjamin following.
Isabelle nearly shrieked at the sight of Pan and stood protectively in front of her daughter. "Stay away from her!" Everyone looked over in alarm. But of course, Pan had surprised them not too long ago and they didn't know what to think.
Pan abruptly halted, eyeing Isabelle almost pleadingly. She held up her hand. John anxiously joined her side.
"Now you listen to me," she began firmly, "you will not take her from us again, do you understand me?" She stared boldly at the distraught keeper.
He opened his mouth to speak, "I just want to see her, that's all," he beseeched, "I wanted to make sure she's alright." There was a look in his eyes, a desperate, human one. This was certainly a sight to see since Pan was always thought of not being anything close to human, and he was sincere.
"Let him through!" Felix's voice came, moving around Pan, with a new flare in his eyes. "He's telling the truth."
"Now wait a second, how do you know that?" John demanded warily.
"I just..." Felix faltered. "I just know, okay, so do it!" His voice rose.
His parents bore their eyes into Pan's skull, until finally moving apart. Hurriedly forcing himself through them, Pan peered down at a sleeping Anne, noting her chest rising and falling. The boy was content, admiring her. He had saved her life, he felt he earned her to stay and heavily contemplated just teleporting her away with him.
Not yet, though. He would wait until she would wake up, just in case she would have a hard time and needed the group's magic again. To take her, he knew, would betray everyone's trust. Felix believed in him again, and maybe, if he didn't take her, she would wake up and believe in him too. When she would understand that he returned her to her family, despite everything, she would be thankful, she would see that he turned his selfishness around.
Though, despite all the reasons not to take her, he hadn't turned his selfishness around completely. He still wanted her to stay. When she would open her eyes and see her family, the chance she would want to stay was nonexistent. But when Pan laid a hand on her shoulder to teleport away, he stopped. The girl inhaled deeply, then exhaled in her sleep, and it was like she had been relieved when he stopped.
But oh, did he want to take her away. He might always want to.
"I think she's waking up!" Henry chirped, pulling free from his father's grasp and leaned over to peer into her face. Her eyelashes quivered, then stopped. Pan held his breath. It felt like an eternity the longer they anticipated. With each passing second, then at last, they were relieved when the girl's eyes opened.
~ ~ ~
Limbo --- flashback
Anne's P.O.V
Pan had taken me back to the meadow, Felix at his side. Pan explained that since I had just about completed my task to return back to my body, I had to simply lie back down where I was, then the rest of the job would come shortly. Though he had pulled me away just before I was about to, to talk with me.
"What is it, Peter?" I questioned, warily, locking eyes with him. Just then, he cocked his head in Felix's direction. I glanced over and gasped as the child faded away. My eyes bulged and shot back in Pan's direction--about to protest until I was mentally thrown off at the dangling key he held up in front of my face.
My brows pulled together in puzzlement as I lifted my hand and wrapped my fingers around the key. "It's yours," he spoke, laying the rope over my knuckles.
"Was this..." I debated about whether or not this had somehow became that eleven year old boy that used to be my brother. But that was a bizarre thought.
"You know your heart, this key will lead you to it," he explained.
"In..." I regarded him, pointing to the ground, "limbo?"
A soft chuckle fell from his lips. "In the real world," he replied as he took the rope of my key and gently brought it over my neck. "Now you have to go."
~ ~ ~
Present day --- Third person P.O.V.
"Anne," Pan cried with relief. His voice was the first one she heard and her eyes widened at the sight of him. Although he still looked cursed, the relief in his voice made the ghost of her heart lift. She weakly sat up, rubbing her head with a slightly pained look on her face. She peered around to discover that for the first time, Pan wasn't alone with her.
She grew curious as her parents and her brother rushed toward her. They crawled in tight enough to the point that Pan felt suffocated and he climbed to his feet. He would get to visit her, just not before her family did. Emma's family shared a relieved smile. Rumple watched quietly, somewhat content. Everyone watched as Anne talked with her family, exchanging hugs and words of reassurance. Pan gazed upon the scene with Benjamin standing beside him. He was quiet while Benjamin nodded to himself approvingly.
"You did it, Pan, you saved her."
A smile tugged on Pan's lips, when abruptly, his shoulder was jerked back. "Now where is my son's heart?!"
Pan was addled by the brusque tone of Regina's voice. Emma stood beside her, mercilessly boring her eyes into Pan's. He was agape, his delayed thoughts still collecting.
"That's it!" Regina growled, lighting a violet, glowing orb in her hand, "I've had enough of this teenage soap opera--"
"Stop!" Anne cried, hastening over.
Regina halted with testy, glistening eyes, when precipitately, Anne shone a brightly dangling key. "This might help," she attempted to weaken the tension in the air, a wary, fearful look in her eyes.
Emma's hand came around the key, partially stunned by its authenticity.
"I don't know where his heart is, but I'm almost certain this key can unlock whatever chamber it's in, and maybe, the lost boys' hearts are there too, Felix's...mine..."
"How do you know?" Regina questioned, hesitating lowering her orb.
"I don't, I just have a feeling. The only thing left to do--"
"How'd you get this??" Pan inquired in slight panic, materializing the key into his hand. A faint gasp escaped Anne's lips. "I've had it this entire time," he added, puzzled.
"Yeah, well," Anne snatched the key back before she got anxious, "you haven't always been the brightest," she mumbled, hanging the key from her neck again, and pulled her hair free.
Pan eyed her defensively, debating how to respond.
"Anyways, let's go," she added as she turned and began heading over to the other.
"Wait a second," Pan began as Regina and Emma followed, "you know where they are?"
"Nope," the lost girl confessed, "but I have an idea on how to find them."
"A locator spell," Rumple interjected, approaching her.
"Exactly."