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THE ASCENT WAS QUIET, no one wanting to talk after all that had just been said. Once again, Kaelyn led the way, refusing to break face as she felt her skin crawl under everyone's eyes, including Peter's. She had lost control, given into anger, and in turn had made herself vulnerable and appeared weak.

She didn't much care for everyone else's secrets, but her own weighed heavy on her, to the point she couldn't even enjoy the fact that Neal was back. In reality, they had all just played into Peter's game. He had the control and the power, he knew their every move and their presence. It made her sick and it made her angry.

All she wanted was to get the fuck off the island. She was tired of Peter winning and getting his way. They were making no progress and Henry was slipping further and further away as Peter's goal got closer and closer.

As the rest of them regrouped outside the cave, Kaelyn could only get lost in her thoughts, trying to ignore the looks she was now receiving. She wasn't sure what she had expected- her secrets hardly made her look any better to them.

I'm still in love with Peter Pan.

It hadn't worked. Of course it hadn't. Why should it? Hadn't she been the one to swear by hating him just days ago? But she had considered it an option; a truth that no one would know.

Or someone else just knows it already.

Was David right?

It had been so long since Kaelyn had left, that she had forgotten what was love and what was familiarity. Even now, thinking back on however long she had been back in Neverland, did she love him? She knew she couldn't hurt him, that had been proven, and she knew he wouldn't hurt her.

But was that love or familiarity?

How could she so easily hold a grudge against Rumple when he had done nothing close to the scale of Peter? How could she so openly hate him but still, against all her better judgement, accept that she would never be able to treat Peter as an enemy, not really? She could yell at him and mock him and go against him as much as she wanted, but she could not see him as an enemy. And she hated herself the most for it.

"Kaelyn." She perked up as Neal approached her, the others starting to head off as she had zoned out.

"Hm?" she hummed.

"Go back to the compound," Neal told her. "Make sure he doesn't touch Henry. We'll meet you there."

Kaelyn furrowed her brows. "You have a plan?"

"Yes, yes I do."

Kaelyn didn't reply immediately, giving him time, before she realised with a sinking feeling in her stomach. "And you don't trust me with it."

Neal sighed. "It's not about me, it's about them–"

"You don't trust me." Disappointment. That was all Kaelyn could feel as she stared at her longtime friend, and he stared back, not denying her statement.

"Kaelyn... you couldn't defend me from him before. Whether you like it or not, some small part of you is still in love with him, and you can't hurt him," Neal said, slowly. "In the same notion, he can't hurt you, which is why we're sending you back." Kaelyn scoffed. "Just don't do anything till we get there, for Henry's sake."

Kaelyn just nodded, pressing her lips together. "Whatever." She moved past him in the direction of the compound, feelings stung. "Should've never jumped through that fucking portal," she announced, loudly, as she passed the others, before disappearing into the jungle.

She swallowed against the lump in her throat, trying to find a way to rationalise their refusal to let her help. But of course they wouldn't. She was a horrible person, whose humanity had long removed itself, whose values were nothing close to the Saviour and her crew. She had alienated herself long ago, on purpose. She was right about herself. Why should she be surprised?

Consequences, of course. She wasn't stupid, she wasn't naive. She was selfish and violent and had a history. They would never trust her and she didn't blame them, and she would never trust them. They were heroes, fairytale stories out of a book, and she was a villain, chaotic and misrepresented in Henry's book.

This was not what she was supposed to become. This was never what she had wanted.

But it was what she needed to be.

As predicted, Peter didn't hide the camp from her or move it, and she arrived after a trek through the jungle, passing through the barrier into a camp that was surprisingly empty. Only a small band of lost boys were gathered around the fire. Not even Felix was present.

"Ah, look who's returned," Peter jeered, appearing out of the shadows.

"Fuck off, Peter," Kaelyn said, dully, not in the mood for his games. She continued forward, not unaware of the boy trailing her, as she scanned the camp. Her eyes narrowed when she realised Henry wasn't present. "Where is he?" she asked, casually, turning on her heel to face Peter.

Peter raised his eyebrows. "Who?"

"Felix, I've really been feeling sparks between him and I, thinking I should make it official," Kaelyn responded, trying to sound as serious as possible.

"That's funny," Peter remarked, though his tone suggested it was nowhere near funny to him.

"Oh, it's hilarious," Kaelyn said, smugly, grinning, before dropping it immediately. "Where's Henry?" she asked, coldly.

"You just missed him," Peter said, giving her a mock look of disappointment. "He wandered off to look for his family or something."

"Useless," she spat, shoving past him to head straight back into the jungle. The one thing the damned heroes ask of her and she can't even keep track of one boy. Magic suddenly overrode her movement, freezing her in place.

"I can't let you do that," Peter sighed. A second later, Kaelyn broke free of the magic, whipping around to glare at him. Not once had he so vehemently tried to keep her from doing something on the island, which told her something had changed. He must be pressed for time, that or his plan was going into motion.

"You will," Kaelyn snipped, trying to hide the sense of urgency she now felt.

"I really can't," he said with a shake of his head.

Kaelyn gave him a mock frown. "Want to share with the group?"

"Not particularly," he drawled.

Kaelyn again moved to leave camp and go after Henry, but Peter once again intervened, teleporting so he was right in front of her. She inhaled sharply, before slowly lifting her eyes to meet his.

"Move," she said, simply.

"The games are over," he told her, softly.

"No." She jolted back from him, staring at him in defiance. She wouldn't lose to him, not again. He couldn't get Henry, he couldn't take anything else from her. "Let me go," she said, a warning tone to her voice.

"I can't do that," he repeated.

Indigo energy crackled at her fingertips. "You can't stop me."

"Go ahead and try," he said.

Kaelyn went to shove him with her magic, but he blocked it. As she went to move, he overrode her movement until the second she undid it and broke free. Like an invisible punching game, the pair could not disarm each other, not without damage. Too evenly matched. Too vulnerable to the other person.

She had to weaken him, give him a serious distraction. She had to do something, even if that was the exact opposite of what Neal had told her. She had to protect Henry.

She backed off, literally taking a few steps back as she glanced at her hands. Peter watched her, not stupid enough to think she had simply given up.

And then she lowered herself to the ground. She heard some of the lost boys laugh, as she placed her hands flat against the ground. Peter had barely taken a step towards her in alarm, recognising what she was about to attempt, before indigo energy surged off her.

The sudden pressure from the magic she was reabsorbing shocked her, as the lifeblood of Neverland flowed back into its rightful ruler. The person the energy originated from. Her magic had blasted outwards, forming a tight shield around her as she worked. The lost boys were unable to intervene, as Kaelyn slowly lifted her head and got to her feet.

She stared Peter down, the boy flickering with green energy as he attempted to stop her, but to no avail. Like a beacon, indigo energy surged off her, straight into the sky and beyond, the clouds flickering and the wind in the camp picking up, the sky swirling above her. Kaelyn's hair flew around her, but her glowing eyes were unwavering.

Indigo collected in her hands, orbs of swirling colour in each, her fingers hooked around them, as energy continued to flow from the ground back into it. Tendrils had even started to come from the air as they were drawn to her, energy she had long since forgotten that was present in every crevice of the island.

His face was all the reward she needed. He had underestimated her connection to the island. He should've stopped her long before she got the chance to suck whatever life was left in Neverland.

As energy reinvigorated her, she slightly rose off the ground, floating in midair as she reabsorbed what was hers. Too long, it had been too long since she had felt such raw and untouched power. Blood was running from her nose from the exertion, but she didn't care.

After only a few minutes, she released, sinking back to the ground. The lost boys had been pressed to the ground by the pressure, while Peter had remained steadfast, but weary. The indigo energy beaming into the sky fading, the wind dying down, as Kaelyn met the boy's wide green eyes.

Remnants of indigo energy lingered in the camp, and Kaelyn knew every living thing on Neverland had seen her beacon, and likely would have even felt it in the very ground as she reclaimed the energy that kept it stable.

"That hurt, didn't it?" Kaelyn asked, tilting her head. She only had a small window before her energy would crash, needing to get to work taking on the energy she had reintroduced to her body. "Neverland's energy gives you strength so when someone drains it, they drain you." It wasn't a question, and they both knew that, as Kaelyn took a few steps forward.

She took a few more steps towards him, and though he tried to mimic, she saw the way his limbs shook. Of all the things he had expected from her, that hadn't been one of them. The lost boys were still disarmed as Kaelyn glanced into the jungle, Peter watching her every moment.

"You don't have the energy to get away," Peter told her.

"Watch me," she said, before she took off, disappearing into the jungle, in the direction the leaves were slightly damaged.

"Kaelyn!" she heard him shout after her, but he was still too weakened to pursue. "Boys!"

Kaelyn didn't even glance over her shoulder as she followed Henry's trail, sprinting desperately, thanking her renewed energy from the connection to Neverland. She had to track Henry the old-fashioned way, the entire time conscious of the time she had left.

In the long-term, she had weakened him. In the short-term, she knew she was going to pass out soon. But she had to find Henry.

Peter's plan was in action now, and hopefully she had bought enough time to stall. But it would mean nothing if she couldn't ensure Henry was safe. What if something had already happened to him?

For a decade she had looked after the kid, and he had known her true nature, and never once flinched from her, shunned her, or shamed her. He was good and pure, and the thought of him being twisted, or suffering because he was good, drove Kaelyn mad. She wanted to preserve what light there was left, and she would be hard-pressed to deny the fact he didn't remind her of the lost boys back in the day.

Anger. Anger at Peter, at the island, at Tamara and Greg, everything. She had never wanted any of this, but she had never had a choice. She had wanted things to be different, but they weren't. Kaelyn had lived long enough to know that.

She could hear the lost boys on her trail, crashing through the jungle in a ditch effort to catch her. That told her she was on the right track, if Peter was so desperate to stop her. Temporarily, she had disarmed him. That likely meant he would be blind to her location on Neverland. If she could just escape the lost boys, she might stand a chance.

Kaelyn vaulted over a fallen tree, running off straight adrenaline as her arms pumped at her side, not daring to look over her shoulder. She could hear them closing in around her, and in a second, placed a magic thread down when her foot next touched the ground. Not seconds later, she felt many people pass over it, and in a second she skidded to a halt and generated a blast of energy behind her.

She heard the grunts and sounds of pain, knowing she had hit her key attackers, before she realised where Henry's path was leading. She could get to the cottage on her own, as she veered off Henry's trodden trail in an attempt to shake the lost boys off her.

"Where you going?" Kaelyn slammed the lost boy that had leapt in front of her into a nearby tree without care, continuing to run, refusing to be stopped. This part of the jungle was thick, with many trees close together that her smaller body was able to slip through.

"She's hiding in Pin Forest!" she heard a voice shout, followed by some sort of other commands as she continued to move, albeit having to slow down every now and then to squeeze through a particularly tight pair of tree trunks. To her surprise, she heard some scattered footfalls pursuing her. Persistent.

Kaelyn couldn't fight them off in such a closed space, not reliably, as she finally stopped. She glanced upwards, wondering how long it had been since she had been physically nimble enough to leap from the tree canopy and across roofs.

In less than a minute, she had scrambled up a tree, and perched herself high above the forest floor, enough that she could observe the lost boys scurrying around below her, spread out to look for her. There weren't that many, which led her to believe that only the boys who could fit into the narrow section of jungle had been sent after her, and the rest were flanking it.

Kaelyn bent a nearby tree branch, using it as a magical bridge to cross into another tree, and began to do this intermittently to clear the patch of close-together trees. The boys below her didn't notice, but Kaelyn could feel her energy subsiding, feeling it peak just before it would crash. She had to hurry.

A single lost boy beneath her was suddenly claimed by a collection of vines, pinning him to a tree, and wrapping around his mouth to keep him from drawing attention, Kaelyn's dainty fingers working as she manipulated the plant matter. She turned to her left, seeing a group of two with lanterns moving clumsily through the trees.

She stretched out her hand again, manipulating a ground creeper to grab the ankles of one and drag him through the underbrush, his yells echoing in the enclosed space. He was finally knocked against a tree into unconsciousness. As his companion chased after him, vines from above gripped his ankles, sweeping his feet out from under him as he was suspended into the air.

Kaelyn crossed another branch bridge, slowly forming a safe pathway for her to escape, when someone yelled a warning.

"She's in the trees!" one seemed to finally realise, and in a second all their heads were trained to the upper branches. Kaelyn slipped from the branch she was currently on, straight onto a lost boy, effectively knocking him out. Before the other boy with him could even lift a weapon to her, she had slammed him into a nearby tree hard enough to render him unconscious.

She whipped around, seeing the edge of the thin forest nearby, and made a dash for it, breaking out of it with a leap. Immediately, large arms went for her, but with a single finger twitch their wrist had snapped to the side. Kaelyn wheeled around to see a horrifyingly familiar face, but had to ignore it as she drew up roots from the ground and bent them around his ankles to keep him in place.

"Sorry, Cubby," she breathed, feeling her lungs start to crave air as she continued. The shortcut through Pin Forest had helped, and she doubted if any of the lost boys had realised that she knew where she was going and not running aimlessly.

Kaelyn didn't hear anything else pursuing her as she began to clear the rest of the distance, and smirked to herself as she realised she had lost them. Now all she had to do was stay awake and energetic enough to get to Henry. She could already see the light of the lantern on the cottage from where she was.

How much time did she have left before Peter knew her location and teleported right in front of her?

Lungs burning, muscles starting to ache as exhaustion claimed her, Kaelyn finally slowed to a stop, leaning against a tree. She panted, frustrated. She had to keep going, she had to keep pushing.

"Should've learned," a voice came. Kaelyn turned to see Felix materialising out of the jungle, club held over the back of neck as usual. "Knew you'd tired eventually."

"Fuck off, Felix," she said, her knees close to buckling as she moved away from the tree. How had Felix gotten so close? He hadn't even been at camp. She tried to hide the panic in her. She was so close, but she knew she couldn't make it now. In her current state, Felix could outrun her, especially with his long ass legs, and overpower her.

"We have you surrounded, so don't try anything," he warned, approaching her. Kaelyn tried to gauge a bluff, as she flexed her hand with indigo.

"You're the one who shouldn't try anything," she said, sounding much stronger than she felt, as she hid the pain that using her magic currently gave her.

"Don't do it," Felix tsked, as Kaelyn eyed the jungle. She bolted. "Ah, shit."

As predicted, but worth attempting, Felix had caught her in a few strides, his free arm going around her middle and lifting her clean off the ground. Like a frustrated child, Kaelyn kicked and struggled, but to no use. Her weakened, magic-blinded body simply couldn't compare with him.

"Put me down or I'll make you wish you weren't immortal!" Kaelyn shouted, amongst other things, as Felix began to carry her away. He merely sighed, as she tried to reach up and hit his face after pounding and clawing at his arm did nothing. In a final attempt, Kaelyn sunk her teeth in his arm, which had slid further up her torso as she had struggled.

Felix almost immediately dropped her- no, threw her- to the ground, her teeth tearing as she went. Almost as soon as she had hit the ground, Felix's club came down on her. Kaelyn hissed, curling in on herself at the pain in her abdomen.

"Son of a bitch you broke my ribs," she laughed, which hurt.

"You bit me!" Felix protested.

Kaelyn lifted her head to glare at him. "And you broke my ribs!"

"Muscle reflex," Felix sighed.

"Oh sure," Kaelyn said dramatically, as she painfully pushed herself into a sitting position.

"You'll heal it as soon as you wake up, don't be so dramatic," Felix relented, though she hadn't missed the slight guilt in his face after he'd hit her.

Kaelyn spat out his blood onto the ground, before cooing, "Aw, you know me so well."

Felix rolled his eyes, moment passed. "Just come quietly or we'll have to do this the hard way."

"Oh, this was the easy way?" Kaelyn retorted.

"I will bat you again," Felix said, firmly.

"I'll kill you if you even touch me," Kaelyn said, holding up a finger.

"Sure." But she knew he was bluffing. He didn't have the same protection as Peter did, and they both knew it.

"Yeah, you traitor," she wheezed out, ribs aching.

"Not a traitor. I just follow whoever's in charge," Felix said with a shrug.

"Oh, that's funny," Kaelyn laughed, but there was no joy. "Not like I saved you from that very scar being infected," she added, predicting his reaction.

"Shut up," he snarled.

A couple things happened in that moment. Felix aggressively moved towards her, Kaelyn anticipated being hit again, the sounds of many lost boys tensing in the trees around, and a single shout of "Don't!" Kaelyn saw it out of the corner of her eye, briefly, but her magic was too dull to even be considered an option to block it.

The arrow would've landed, had Peter not appeared right in front of her, catching it as it streaked over his shoulder. He looked livid, eyes dark as he pulled the arrow into his view and stared at the tip. Kaelyn paled at the dreamshade tipped arrow, which she would've been too weak to stop.

Peter let out a single breath, which seemed to silence the entire clearing. "Who shot this?"

Felix had gone very still, and slowly, lost boys emerged from the trees to face their leader. There were many archers among them, likely being poised to take down Kaelyn, but none of them appeared to carry dreamshade. Peter scanned them all, face relaxed, but eyes raging.

"It-it was me," came a timid voice. A boy, who appeared no older than fourteen, stepped forward. He was one of the ones Kaelyn didn't recognise, who had joined the island after she had left.

Peter's head snapped to him. "And why would you attempt to kill our guest?" he asked, coldly.

"Well– I— she–" he stammered, before swallowing thickly. "She's too dangerous to be left alive," he said, voice stronger now.

"You think so?" Peter asked, mockingly, as he spun the arrow in his hand and slowly stepped up to the boy. The boy simpered out the response, which wasn't audible. "You were aiming for her shoulder, yes?" The boy nodded.

Almost too quick to register, Peter had driven the arrow in his shoulder, the boy letting out a yell, scrambling backwards and trying to remove the arrow. The other boys watched on in silence as Peter mercilessly walked off.

"Consider this a lesson for all of you," he spoke up. "Leave us," Peter instructed. "Felix," he added, gesturing to the injured boy, who would quickly succumb to poison. Felix just nodded, moving to pick up the boy, who had started to make muffled sounds of pain. Kaelyn could only watch as the boys disappeared into the jungle, and Kaelyn knew the fate that awaited her would-be killer.

"A bit much, don't you think?" Kaelyn said as Peter turned to her. He ignored the remark, as she tried to ignore that he had just saved her life.

"A fun game of tag," Peter mused, crouching beside her. "Surprised you lasted so long."

"I used to say the same thing about you," she sneered.

Peter allowed himself to look offended. He reached up a hand, which Kaelyn was too exhausted to shy away from, and gently touched her cheek with his fingertips, before exhaustion finally overcame her, and she gave in to the inevitable sleep her body needed.

Her final thought was Henry, and that she had failed him, as the light from the nearby building he had been headed towards blinked out of Kaelyn's consciousness.

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i'm so glad neverland is like two chapters left because kaelyn really doesn't do much except flit around and yell at peter. i was initially stuck at what to do with this chapter to lead into the final act of peter's plan for henry, so this happened. included some fun banter for kaelyn and felix because,, besties

thank you sm for all your patience and the new readers and my regulars for reading and supporting this fic, please vote or comment if you enjoyed, i love and appreciate all engagement, and i will see you next week <33