( Indented are flashbacks )
Chapter 29
Rapunzel remembered everything.
She hated that she could remember everything, from when she had woken up the woods after death, to the time she's spending telling the whole story of Peter Pan.
Death was not what she was expecting. It was like a bitter night without dreams, just an empty pit of nothingness and soon you're awake. She didn't feel the death, she just knew it was there.
Upon waking up, the first feeling she felt was regret. Regret over the way she treated Pan, seriously was he that bad?
As well as regret over the fact that she actually went on with it. Pan was right, he never actually planned for his life to happen as it did.
She was so freaking weak. How dare she be so weak!
But mostly: confusion on why there was a huge bump on her stomach. With help, she found out that somehow, some way, she was pregnant.
And there was nothing to do for it, but to have the baby.
When it was born, she had considered keeping it. She might have kept it, but the man at the hospital said there was no possible way. She was homeless, she was alone.
"You can barely take care of yourself, how do you expect taking care of a child?"
She cried for days after her child was ripped out of her arms. She never got to name it, she never got to stare into his hazel eyes, that looked so much like Peter's, for longer then ten seconds. The child was gone. And she, once again, was completely alone.
It took thirty years after that for her to actually get back to Neverland. And in that time, she found out things out that she never thought possible.
Rapunzel was powerful. Not just in the way she could tear a tree straight from its roots, but magically as well. She had a swirling power inside of her, constantly there, always begging for her attention.
At first she had no idea what to do with it. No idea what it was, she thought it was just another bodily reaction to the death she served.
But in the dark, when she closed her eyes and concentrated to the feeling, a fire set on the logs in front of her.
Confusion flooded her, made her unable to think properly. The more she concentrated on that sole feeling in her chest, the more things happened. Learning how to control is was something of troubles, but she managed it.
It was thirty years later when she decided to go back to Neverland. The immortality thing was something to get used to, she constantly had to change locations to not rise suspicion. She learned that the hard way.
World jumping was something that she found out she possessed. Rapunzel didn't remember how she figured out she had it, all she remembered is closing her eyes and thinking of Neverland. When she opened them, the almost familiar woods were around her.
Almost because she could feel the darkness closing in around her. It was almost suffocating, but she's gotten used to it. In later time, she found out when Ariel comes back she has the same feeling upon being on the land of her home.
Ariel had escaped Neverland before anything had actually happened to her. It was fortunate for Rapunzel that the mermaid was visiting when she came back.
"Ariel?" Rapunzel asked, hopeful.
The red haired girl looked up, and her eyes filled with tears. "No, this isn't real. Stop! This isn't real."
"What are you talking about? Yes it is. Are you okay? Aren't you rogue?"
Ariel crawls out of the water, the bracelet instantly giving her human legs. Rapunzel goes to her friend, helping her stand up. "Ho-How is this possible?"
"I have no clue. But I'm alive. You need to tell me what has been going on, from the beginning."
And she did. Ariel told Rapunzel every single last bit of what has been happening in Neverland for the last twenty years, not hiding anything. Pan had been killing people, he had ran all of the Indians from the land. The pirates were gone, they escaped just as quick as Ariel did. Tinkerbell was stuck rogue because there was something in her heart that kept her from being of pureness.
The fully of pure fairies, they had escaped. With them escaped Tinkerbell's wings, which the blue fairy had tooken away. She instantly wondered what had happened with Tink to make her not pure.
Rapunzel soon figured out that she could control the evil from Neverland. Not in a huge area, but she could but the shield up around Ariel so it wouldn't affect her.
And when they found Tinkerbell, she could even take some of the rogue away. All of it, no, but some of it. With some of it away, she put the shield up around her. Though not the same Tinkerbell, it was close.
"I feel like shit." Tink mumbled, rubbing at her face. "Sorry, R. I was a bitch."
Rapunzel didn't know how to respond. The old Tinkerbell would have never say words like that.
"God, Pan is a douche. You're here to take him down, right?"
Ariel sighed, running her hand through her hair.
"Not necessarily." Rapunzel had answered. "I'm here to fix Neverland. With your help."
The help that she wanted, Rapunzel was not sure. For another ten years, the girls had helped each other train. Rapunzel worked on her magic, Ariel worked on her combat, while Tink worked on both.
"It won't work!" Tinkerbell yelled, frustrated. "Why won't my magic work!"
Ariel kept quiet, scared to mention the thought on her mind.
"You're still a fairy, Tink. You are still a fairy, you still have the ability to do this. Even without your wings. Just pay attention to the candle, think about the fire that can go on it. You can do it." Rapunzel used words of uncouragement, but she knew with the darkness still in Tink, she would give up any second now.
And she did. "This is impossible! I'm not magic anymore, okay? Maybe I don't deserve it either."
"Don't say that." Ariel whispers. "You need to believe in yourself, that's the only way you can do this."
"How can I believe in myself?!" Tink yells back. "After all of this, how is it possible for me to believe that any of this will work out?"
Before the girls can respond, they hear voices from the sand.
"Crap." Rapunzel mumbled, pulling the girls behind the trees, the 3 each hiding behind one.
"We've made it!" She hears an excited voice boom. "This is how I remembered it in my dreams, it hasn't changed at all."
Rapunzel gulped, thinking it over. Dreams? How could anyone dream of Neverland?
"It's beautiful..." A younger voice whispered.
"It's more than that." The older said. "Neverland is special, you can do anything here. Just think it, it can happen."
Rapunzel turned her head slightly, just to try to see the people. Ariel tried to motion to the girl to stop, but she didn't. She turned until she could see the faces.
"What would you like to eat?" The old man asked. She thought it may be the younger boy's father, but that made no sense. "Go on! Just think it!"
Rapunzel glanced over in fear to Tinkerbell, who was shaking her head in confusion.
She watched as the young boy holds out his hand, and a small item appeared in it. What it was, Rapunzel didn't have a clue.
The older man laughed. "We can eat cake all day, and not get a stomach ache." He puts his arm around the younger boys neck as they begin to walk. "Or swing on a vine by a waterfall." Rapunzel felt possessiveness for her island. These people don't belong here. "But best of all, you can fly." The man held his hands out like a bird, and she had to stiffle a giggle.
"Flying is impossible." The young boy protested.
"Neverland is where the impossible is possible," He said. "If you believe in it. Here, let me show you." The man jumps up onto a high rock. The girls all glance at each other in confusion, before he does a monkey call and jumps into the air.
Fortunately, it resulted in a face full of sand. The girls all had to hold a hand over their mouths to hide the laughter.
The man stood up furiously. "What was that?" He whispered to himself. The guy kicked sand around in anger. "I could always fly whenever I was a boy!"
"Maybe you can't fly," The boy suggested. "Because you're not a boy anymore."
"How could I have forgotten?" The man asked before hitting himself in the head. "Of course! Pixie dust. Even as a boy, you needed pixie dust if you wanted to fly."
"No," Tinkerbell whispers warningly.
"Where do we get some?" The younger boy asked, seemingly uninterested.
"Oh, I'll show you." The man laughed, then picked up the boy on his shoulders. They both laughed as he jogged off of the sand into the woods. Once they had disappeared, the girls backed away from the tree.
"What was that?" Ariel asked.
"Men aren't supposed to be on Neverland. It's boys only, why is he here?"
"I don't know," Rapunzel whispered. "But I'm about to find out."
After that, she told the girls to follow her. They went in the direction the two guys went to. Unfortunately, the little boy was sitting at the bottom of the tree.
"Who are yo-" Rapunzel had cut him off by touching his head,focusing the magic to his thoughts and turning them off. The boy fainted and fell into Ariel's arms.
She looked up to the top of the tree, where the older man is holding onto the tree.
"I'll be back." Rapunzel said, starting up the tree next to it.
"R?" Tink asked. The long haired girl turned around to her friend. "Be careful."
"I will." She answered, starting to climb up the tree. Rapunzel focused onto her skin, and watched as it became completely invisible.
It took only a minute time to get up to the level of the older man. She wanted to ask him something, but nothing could come to mind.
And then she saw it.
It was the exact opposite of her, while she was clear it was black in shadow. It circled around the man hanging on the tree a few times, Rapunzel wasn't sure what to do but watch. If anything, the shadow of the man she used to love looked like a predator hunting it's prey. But it couldn't see her, and that's all that mattered.
Hide. She sends to the minds of the girls. Hide in the bushes.
But she didn't check to see if they did, because the shadow was now right in front of her.
Not looking at her, of course, it's back was to her as he was looking at the man.
"Who are you?" He asked the shadow.
"I am the sole inhabitant of Neverland." The shadow hissed. She had smiled at the irony of the words, that he had no idea how many people actually are on this island without his consent.
The man seems to take it in, before asking: "Can you tell me what's wrong? Why can't I fly?"
"You have to believe." The shadow said.
"I'm trying, but it doesn't work-"
"Because you, don't, belong." The voice hissed, before flying away. Rapunzel could hear her heart beating in her ears.
That was the first time she saw the shadow that was once Peter Pan. But it wasn't the last.
She had made the mistake of still following him. Of not letting the whole thing go, still dispicing the man for trying to live on this island.
When she found him, she couldn't have believed her eyes.
"Father, please! Help me!" The little boy yelled, as the man held onto his arm and the shadow hold onto his clothes, trying to pull him away.
"A child can't have a child, Rumple. I'm sorry, but it's true." The boy tried to pull away from the shadow, he really did. Rapunzel knew that she couldn't do anything. But she held onto her mouth as the tears came down her face. "We both know that you're better off without me." The boy whines, trying to hold onto his fathers sleeve. "I was never meant to be a father." And with that, the man lets go of the boy.
"NO!" Rumple yelled, thrashing in the shadows arms. She wanted to scream, shout, kill the man, but she couldn't do anything. For any hope of Neverland, she couldn't do anything. Rapunzel watched as a doll fell out of his hands and onto the floor in front of the man.
Green mist spread around the man. She looked up to see the shadow holding the boy in air, forcing him to watch everything that was happening. Rapunzel wanted to kill him for that.
Once the green mist left, the surprise was not hideable. She thanked herself that she remembered to make herself invisible, because there, in front of her: was Peter Pan. An exact replica. Only thing different, was a mole on his cheek and straighter hair.
Even the shadow was momentarily shocked. But quickly regaining himself, he flew up once again.
"NO!" Rumple yelled once again.
But she couldn't even look at him, all she could look at was the man. Who looked like Peter Pan but obviously was not.
He bent down to pick up the doll and held it in front of his face. "Peter Pan." The guy whispered.
And Rapunzel ran away.
The next month was spent watching him and waiting for Ariel to come back. The shadow was sort of- training him? Training him in magic and combat and rulery. It was strange, she didn't understand what Pan was actually doing. She wanted to figure it out, but there was nothing she could do.
Once she felt a new presence on the island, she went right away to transport to Ariel.
That was a mistake.
Because right in front of her wasn't Ariel.
It was Felix.
"Rapunzel?" He asked, confused. Felix was looked only older by a few years, which confused her. He shouldn't be looking that young, considering it's been more than a hundred years since he was this age.
"Uh, no. It's- um- this is a dream."
He knew it wasn't, but didn't question her on it. "This is all so weird. It was like a year ago that I woke up on my parents old farm. I checked the calender, but it was 1802. How is that possible?"
She had shook her head, only because she didn't know either.
"I was living normally, but then a shadow came and took me back here. What's happening?"
"Come here," She whispered, and held onto him as tight as she can in a hug. She had forgotten how much she had missed him until she actually saw him. But once she pulled apart, she put both hands on his cheeks. All of the power went down to her fingers as she holds onto his cheeks. "You forget you ever saw me. Listen to everything that they tell you to do."
Felix nods quickly, as she lets go of his face. He blinked a few times, but she is already invisible before he could have seen her again.
It was another month before Ariel came back, full of information.
She knew almost everything about this man- who really was Malcolm.
Except for one thing.
"He doesn't have parents." Ariel said.
"That's impossible." Rapunzel protested. "Everyone has parents.
"Well, he doesn't. None that anyone knows of, anyway. His adoptive parents said he used to always be dreaming of a place called, get this, Neverland. A woman and a man were there, looking like teenagers. The girl had long, blonde hair. The guy had short brown hair. He said they were calling him to come to Neverland. That they missed him."
"That girl was me, wasn't it?" She asked, but she had already knew the answer.
"How is that possible?" Tinkerbell asks. "Unless you have some dream possessing abilities you never told us about."
"Not entirely."
Malcolm was her son. The man who set that boy off on his own, was her own son. It must have been her fault as well, setting him in the world alone. And the same thing happened to his son.
Rapunzel would have never guessed that she started a trend in the family. She only figured that out later in life, when Ariel had told her. The woman wanted to know everything about her grandson, make sure all is going well.
Nothing went well.
Nothing ever went well, for anyone.
She wanted to change that, in any way she could.
Rapunzel needed to fix Neverland. She already knew that, but now she knew what she had to do.