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    SLEEP DID NOT come back for Kaelyn. Her mind was too busy thinking over what she could possibly do, how to handle Peter, how immediate the danger Henry was in. Sleep could not take her away, her body refused it, her eyes fixated on the treehouse where she knew Peter was resting away. If she was ten times stronger she'd brandish a knife and do it in his sleep, if she had more resolve she would threaten Henry's life to manipulate Peter since he needed the boy so badly.

    If she was really the villain she acted like, she would have had no problems in the first place.

    Henry slept soundly beside her, completely unaware of the turmoil around him and the growing danger. Kaelyn watched as the sun rose, light tinting the sky however brightly it was allowed, and the camp began to stir. Kaelyn pushed her tired body so she was sitting next to Henry, eyes following everything she could, wary of everyone who passed her. Everything she saw was under Peter's control, she had to believe that now, which made everything more dangerous.

    An unwelcome tall figure approached them with a small limp, and Kaelyn looked up at him in displeasure. Felix was holding out a green apple, glistening with morning dew, almost engulfed by his wide hands. Kaelyn blinked at him.

    "Pan says you need to eat," Felix said, crouching down so he was level with her. He looked alien bent over; limbs too long for his positioning. Kaelyn pouted and took the apple, turning it over in her hands multiple times as Felix watched her intently, wondering when the pair had had a chance to communicate.

    "He can suck my dick," Kaelyn said after a moment, throwing the apple back at him where it rolled at his feet. Felix scoffed. "How's the leg?" Kaelyn jeered.

    "It was nice of you to miss the artery," Felix said with a grin, scar twisting with the movement. He picked up the apple from the ground, dusting it off a bit, before he bit into it with a crunch. Kaelyn scowled. "Maybe you can show mercy," he said around a mouthful.

    The brunette scoffed. "Fuck off, Felix." He just chuckled. A familiar feeling suddenly washed over the immortal teenager, and she shook her head. "He's moving the camp," Kaelyn realised out loud, Felix looking smug.

    "And you hardly notice, right?" Felix said as if he were advertising a service. He was, of course, right. The camp was moving but in a way with magic that those in the area didn't feel it. If Kaelyn wasn't familiar with the feeling she would have struggled to notice. "Feels like a dream," the tall blonde added.

    Kaelyn rolled her eyes. "Not quite how I'd describe this place."

    Someone was on the island, if Peter was moving around. He was playing with someone and didn't want to be found. That was a comfort, to a degree. She glanced down at Henry beside her, and thought of how much he was adored by the people of Storybrooke. Maybe Kaelyn had a shot at getting him off this island.

    "You should lighten up," Felix chimed in.

    "No," she said, simply.

    Felix chuckled, as if he genuinely found her amusing. "You will." And then he was gone, probably to grovel to Peter.

    Kaelyn looked back down at Henry. Someone was on the island for him. There was hope, the slightest bit. If only she knew where they were, if only the camp wasn't moving constantly, if only Peter couldn't sense her presence wherever she was on the island. She'd take the kid's hand in hers and sprint from the camp, away from all of it.

    "Cuckoo!" Kaelyn whipped around at Peter's voice to see him approaching, as if out of nowhere. "Wake up!" The blonde said, strolling up, and Kaelyn felt her heart sink at the crossbow he was holding. Henry stirred abruptly, eyes darting around and blinking rapidly as he sat up, Kaelyn leaning closer. "Catch."

    Peter threw another apple towards them, Henry catching it. He looked at it for a moment. "I don't like apples," Henry murmured.

    Peter looked almost offended. "Who doesn't like apples?"

    "It's a family thing." Kaelyn would've laughed had the situation been different.

    "Well, don't worry. They're not for eating," Peter chuckled. "It's for a kind of game. A really fun game." He held up the crossbow, the tip of the arrow dangerously close to Henry's throat. "I call it target practice."

    "Alright, that's enough," Kaelyn said, with a roll of her eyes, abruptly getting to her feet and forcing Peter back a few paces. Some of the boys let out 'ooh's, to which Kaelyn scowled. There were a number of lost boys Kaelyn didn't recognise, in fact, almost a majority of them had not been around when she was. That or she selectively ignored the ones she did know. "Back down, right now," Kaelyn hissed, dangerously close to Peter, so she could feel his breath against her face.

    "Relax. No one's shooting at him," he told her, lips curving up at her glare.

    She raised her eyebrows. "And that's supposed to make it better?" she asked, indignantly.

    "It doesn't?" the blonde said, innocently, pursing his lips.

    "You lay a hand on him–"

    "And I lose it?" Peter cut her off. "Not very original."

    Kaelyn scowled, feeling like a child under his gaze. It was humbling that he didn't take her seriously, that he underestimated her the way he did and took every opportunity to put himself above her. As if anything on the island truly belonged to his, as if he would be anywhere without her.

    She pulled away, taking a few steps back, dragging her eyes away from him, refocusing on Henry. The boy moved to her, gripping her forearm, Peter watching the interaction intently, which made Kaelyn's skin crawl. A lost boy came up with a tube black as squid-ink, but Kaelyn immediately knew it wasn't squid-ink, as Peter dipped the arrow into it.

    "What's that?" Henry asked, nervously.

    "Dreamshade. It's a nasty poison," Peter mused, removing the arrow and blowing on the tip briefly, Kaelyn reaching a hand over to squeeze the top of Henry's. "We have a story here about a man who once shot an arrow off his son's head with an arrow. Let's find out if it's possible," Peter said, placing the arrow back in the crossbow.

    "If you're shooting at the apple, what's the poison for?" Henry took a step back, forcing Kaelyn to move, too.

    "Motivation not to miss," Peter chuckled. "Felix, get over here!" The tall blonde boy got up from where he was sitting beside the fire, pulling his hood down as he approached, shooting Kaelyn a look.

    "Is Felix good? Is his aim good?" Henry asked, quickly, eyes flicking between him and Peter.

    "You're the one shooting, Henry," Kaelyn told him, softly.

    "Me?" Henry looked up at her, stunned, but she couldn't meet his eyes. "I don't want to shoot." But Peter had already pushed the crossbow into Henry's hands, the boy taking it automatically, forcing Kaelyn to move away from him and next to Peter, who she also refused to look at.

    Peter began to chant "shoot" and the lost boys that had gathered began to join in, till it was a chorus of, "Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!" surrounding Henry.

    "You won't hit him," Peter told Henry over the noise. Henry didn't look at him, instead looking to Kaelyn, who gave him the smallest nod that it would be okay. "Trust yourself, go on. It's exhilarating."

    Felix grinned as he placed the apple atop his head, beginning to chant, too, as Henry lined up the shot. Kaelyn was already prepared to change the course of the arrow if necessary. Peter held a hand out and the chanting stopped, just as Henry wheeled around and shot at the head of Neverland instead.

    The boys cheered, Peter catching the arrow with ease inches away from his heart, Kaelyn's fist relaxing at her side. Henry looked defeated, and Kaelyn was cursing how her heart rate increased at the thought of the arrow striking Peter.

    "Told you it was exhilarating," Peter said, throwing the arrow to the side. He stepped forward and began to usher Henry away. "Come on, I have something to show you," he said, glancing over his shoulder at Kaelyn, giving her a wicked smirk. She moved to follow them but Felix blocked her.

    "You should relax," he said. Kaelyn crossed her arms over her chest and looked up at him in the way a disappointed mother looked at a child. "You're home."

    "No, I'm not," Kaelyn repeated for the millionth time since she'd been on the island.

    "Whatever you say." The pair stood together in silence, staring intently at Peter and Henry talking on a log far out of earshot of the camp. "Apple?" Kaelyn looked down to see Felix holding out the apple that'd been on his head for Henry to shoot.

    "It's probably poisoned," Kaelyn sneered, rejecting the food again, even if she was hungry. What she wouldn't do for something from the Diner right now. Felix scoffed as he took a loud bite of the fruit.

    The immortal teenager continued to watch Henry and Peter talk as the chaos of the camp returned to normal around them. Boys were back to chanting and dancing around the fire, others were playing with knives around the trees, some were simply talking amongst themselves and laughing. It should've been a good thing, a beautiful and safe place for boys with no home who needed somewhere like that, but it would never be that again.

    Neverland had been a sanctuary, and instead it had become a melting point of the darkest shadows. Kaelyn wondered if the people who had arrived on the island knew what they'd gotten themselves into, but then she figured it would make her less of a target and she could slip between Peter's fingers. She hated all those Storybrooke heroes but if she could find them, they could rescue Henry together.

    But that would mean leaving Henry alone, and Kaelyn couldn't do that. She didn't trust anything on the island for a second, and she wasn't going anywhere unless Henry was, too. And fucking Peter knew that, in all his smugness and superiority.

    Kaelyn fingered the single ring she'd kept from when she'd left Neverland and inevitably been caught in the curse; an expensive silver ring with a violet stone in the centre of an intricately carved flower, worn always on her middle finger. She wondered why she hadn't gotten rid of it in all that time.

    The brunette girl snapped to attention when she noticed the way Henry had begun to look at Peter where they were talking over Felix's bicep, and the blonde was beginning to remove something from his pocket. Kaelyn immediately moved forward, but in a second Felix barred her path, as always dwarfing her frame.

    "Move," she said, not even looking up at him.

    "I can't do that," he said, and there was a hint of remorse in his voice.

    Kaelyn grit her teeth. "Fine."

    With a wave of her hand, Felix was thrown to the side, sprawling on the ground, but before she could step forward other Lost Boys moved forward to grab as Felix whistled. Kaelyn shot him a disgruntled look over her shoulder.

    "Don't listen to a word he says!" Kaelyn shouted across the campsite. Henry turned to look at her, but was distracted by Peter, who simply seemed to be talking over her, using that damned charm to sway the boy to Neverland, offering him what looked like a kind of scroll. Brainwashing, that's what it was like. "Get off me," Kaelyn hissed as she kicked and struggled against the lost boys that had filed in to hold her back from disrupting Peter's endeavour.

    With a simple grunt, all the boys crowding Kaelyn were immobilised, pushed and held to the ground by an invisible force, the brunette's palms facing the ground, her fingers taught. She glanced at Felix, as if daring him to stop her, but he remained still. He never had been a stupid one.

    "Peter Pan never fails," one of the boys spat into the dirt.

    "He's about to." The brunette released her hold on all of them and began to storm over to where Peter and Henry were talking. "Stop," she said as she approached. There was no acknowledgement. "I said stop," she said, louder. She knew Peter had heard, the bastard. "Stop it!" she screamed, and with a lurch, Peter was pushed from the log, nowhere near as aggressively as she would've liked given his own power, but his attention at least fixed to her.

    He got to his feet slowly, as the lost boys crowded in, but Peter held up a hand and they stopped advancing. Henry moved away from the log, watching on from a distance as the two conflicting sorcerers stood opposite each other. Kaelyn thought of the night before, refusing to start a fight, but she was tired of being treated like she wasn't a threat, and Peter had advanced on Henry. If his plan was in motion then she had to stop it.

    "You don't want to do this," Peter told her, firmly, as he realised she wasn't backing down, her fingers alive with indigo energy. She remembered the buzz she'd felt by the fire, the familiarity of being back for once; knowing her energy still flowed through Neverland even just a little bit. Maybe that's what was driving her confidence right now, as she stood up to him.

    She tilted her head. "I do, actually."

    Peter casually strolled away from the log, positioning the pair in the centre of the camp, the brunette girl's eyes never leaving him. "Reminds me of his father. Wouldn't you agree?" he said, abruptly, gesturing to Henry against the tree. Kaelyn let herself be baited, let herself snap as he expected her to, achieve the goal of such a remark. So, she made the first move.

    She simply swung two orbs of indigo energy at him, which dissipated as they hit his hand raised in front of him, hardly affecting him. Kaelyn furrowed her brows, bringing back the question of just how strong he'd gotten since she'd left, and how equal they were these days. The last thing she felt like doing was losing badly, and she'd have to be careful not knowing his power level.

    The fire suddenly sprung to life and flew towards Kaelyn, who simply raised her hands as it turned to purple smoke, billowing around her, before redirecting it as tendrils of energy towards Peter, who blinked out of the way, teleporting so he was next to Kaelyn.

    She attempted to shove him back, fingers curling with the effort, but he had a strength she hadn't expected, and resisted. With one final push however, she got a hold of him and flung him violently into a tree and held him there by his throat. And he laughed.

    Kaelyn pulled him back to the ground with such force he rolled over from the momentum, and as he clambered to his feet he was grinning. "There she is!" Peter shouted, raising his arms to the lost boys watching the conflict. "The one we heard stories about!"

    She caught him off hard, yanking him forward by an invisible force with one hand, and just as he was close enough, she punched the side of his face with the other, sending a surge of energy through her fist, which sent him skidding backwards in a trail of residual purple.

    Peter froze, lost boys going silent as the blood trickled down his cheek. He wiped at the tiny cut slowly, looking at the red tips of his fingers. And then he looked at Kaelyn with an absolutely lethal expression that would've scared anyone else. Even the lost boys backed up, but Kaelyn stood fast, looking far too casual for the situation. And that seemed to infuriate Peter further, her absolute indifference to his threatening attempt.

    He came at her with renewed ferocity, teleporting so he was immediately in front of her in a blink, sword materialising out of nowhere. Kaelyn swiped her hand upwards, a flow of purple emanating from it, deflecting the blow from the weapon, but the force from the hit drove her back, heels catching her in the dirt, the two in a duel of pure strength as Kaelyn held the blade away from her face with nothing but magic.

    They were face to face, noses almost touching, eyes staring into the others. She could once again feel his frantic breath on her face, and as her back bent further and her knees grew closer to the ground, Kaelyn's eyes gleamed. She separated her hands, a bolt of energy radiating from it and forcing Peter back.

    He spun his sword in his hand, tongue in cheek as he regarded the brunette girl whose nose had begun to drip blood. She had to exert more energy than normal to contend his own strength, which was frustrating her. She hadn't expected the fight to be so challenging. She sprinted at him, and he smirked, ready to disappear, and she indulged in his facial expression when he realised he couldn't.

    For he now understood why she had insisted on skin-to-skin before, on making him bleed from that and sending pure energy through him. She had latched onto a part of his power and temporarily held it, making him unable to teleport, suppressing the iconic ability and likely his main form of combat. She would have thought he'd understand her magic technique by now– not just telekinesis or energy, but the ability to latch on. From her tracking spells, to leaving behind tripwires she was connected to, to having a part of her magic still flowing through Neverland– pieces of her magic connected to whatever she needed to succeed.

    To his credit, Peter did react quickly, deflecting a blur of purple with the sword, which ricocheted off the blade and scattered some nearby lost boys. She landed a blow to his middle, which he only grunted in response to, before throwing a hand up alongside the sword. A bolt of magic grazed Kaelyn's forehead, and the blood trickled between her eyes, but she ignored it as she attempted to grab a hold of him again, when Peter's attention suddenly diverted somewhere else.

    "I've got him."

    Kaelyn paused, hand outstretched, cautiously turning her head to see Henry unravel the piece of paper Peter had given him before. She looked back to the blonde, who simply smirked. With a final push, Peter was slammed back onto his ass, Kaelyn looking down her nose at him, wiping away the thin trail of blood that had accumulated.

    "I win," she breathed.

    She turned away, hardly feeling the satisfaction she had expected from the victory, as her energy replenished unnaturally fast from Neverland. Some of the boys looked at her more warily now, and others went to help Peter up, but he only dismissed them, and that made it somewhat worth it to Kaelyn.

    She headed over to where Henry was, as he put the scroll away, looking almost ashamed when he looked up and saw his babysitter. She was not blind to Peter's manipulation he had attempted on the boy, and that whatever he needed Henry for required his compliance. He would try to get at the boy again, and Kaelyn knew that was the goal, if Felix and the other boys had tried so vehemently to stop her from interrupting.

    "What happened to your head?" Henry asked, bewildered.

    Kaelyn furrowed her brows, wondering at what point he'd stopped watching, or if Neverland's influence had already seeped in that much, despite her attempted intervention. "Just a scratch. It'll heal," she said, ignoring the oddness of his obliviousness.

    Henry's eyes focused on something behind Kaelyn and she turned to see Peter approaching, holding up his hands as he saw hers tense. "Point taken," he told her, his cheek still smeared with blood.

    "Henry, stay here," Kaelyn told him, scuffing his hair a bit before shoving Peter in the chest and moving them away. "I had you on the ropes," she hissed. Peter shrugged, but the playfulness was gone. Something had shifted during their fight.

    "I must say it's been a while since somebody made me bleed," Peter responded lightly.

    "Touch Henry again and it'll be worse," Kaelyn snipped.

    This time, instead of questioning her threat, Peter just acknowledged her, watching her carefully. "I'm sure it will be." Kaelyn narrowed her eyes at the insinuation that it was guaranteed to happen. "I was always surprised you got caught in the curse," he said, suddenly and casually.

    Kaelyn furrowed her brows. "Why, because you would have escaped it?"

    "Thought you'd be immune to it, is all," he responded slyly.

    "Unlike our old friend I didn't make a deal with the devil," Kaelyn said, snidely.

    "Sounds about right," Peter said with a shrug. "I searched for you, you know that."

    Kaelyn pursed her lips. "So what?"

    "I was going to make things right," he said, firmly.

    "It's a nice sentiment," Kaelyn said, dryly.

    "You don't believe me." It wasn't a question.

    Kaelyn narrowed her eyes, averting her eyes from his. "How can I?"

    Peter blinked down at her, and she almost thought he looked sad. But that wasn't right. He had no right to be sad that she had left when everything was his fault. He had driven her away, he had to know that. And then Kaelyn hated the way he looked at her, the same he had on that day. He knew what he was doing, but he would simper and play a part until there was an opening, just like he always did. She couldn't let her guard down.

    Kaelyn backed up abruptly, giving him a look of distrust, and she hated the way he gazed at her, eyes gleaming and emotional. False. It was a false look to appeal to some deep buried part of her that had cared for him long ago. He knew what he was doing, and so did she.

    "You had me on the ropes," he echoed. Kaelyn narrowed her eyes at the sentence, body tense. "But the game's only just begun."

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as promised

this chapter is not a fave and brings back the issue that henry and pan are in limbo for so much of season 3A i hate it. literally nothing happened this episode and i had to fill it all up so much to make it anywhere near an acceptable length. that being said, kaelyn's power is finally being touched on.

next chapter is, however, a good one. so that's something to look forward to and i definitely won't take such a long break this time!

anyway please consider voting or commenting if you liked this chapter! this book has been suffering terribly from lack of engagement and ghost readers and i hate cause i don't write for numbers but the support does keep us authors going (: