CHAPTER SIX: Ariel

↫↫↫↫↫ Iཽ ཽmཽiཽsཽsཽ ཽtཽhཽeཽ ཽdཽaཽyཽsཽ ↬↬↬↬↬

REGINA WAS TRYING TO TEACH EMMA HOW TO CONTROL HER POWERS. Key word; trying.

"Focus. Concentrate." Regina tells Emma.

"It's kind of hard when you're talking in my ear." Emma replied.

"And when the wind blows or it's raining, or... someone's shooting arrows at you. Yes, concentration's hard. That's the point. Find your anger and use it to focus."

"Are they all this dramatic?" Ben questioned.

"No. There has to be a way without going dark." Emma tells Regina.

"You're such a pathetic waste of ability."

"Ohh! Evie, Mal, make popcorn." Jay speaks.

"For the last time, we can't do that!" Mal yelled out, throwing her head back as frustrated groan left her lips.

"And you're a monster." Emma snapped back at Regina.

"...Smell that?" Regina asked with a smile.

"What?" Emma angrily asked back.

"Smoke."

Emma looks at the campfire, which has the tinged fire below the woods

Hook entered, heading towards Prince Charming and Snow White. It caught Harry's attention, who looked over and watched the three.

Only, his father had practiced hid behind the two, who blocked his sight.

"What the hell is going on?" Jay demanded, as he has sneaked up behind the three.

All three pulled out a weapon on him, which Jay either completely dodged, or kicked away.

"None of your concern," David tried for a calming voice.

When Mary had gotten up, and walked over to a tree. "He's telling the truth. Tracks... and a scuffle. Someone was here while we were gone. We have to tell her."

"Who?" Jay asked.

Once again, causing the three to jump.

"Would you stop doing that?" Hook asked.

"No, no, no. She already lost Neal once. And if this is a game, we can't put her through losing him again."

"Neal. As in, Baelfire? As in, Ben's older-half brother?" Jay asks .

"He's right." Hook gestured to Charming. "Either way, telling her is what Pan wants, which is why we shouldn't do it."

"You want to find him without letting her know?"

"I'm telling Ben," Jay turned around.

But, Hook grabbing his arm stopped him as he pulled he teen back. It only succeed for the other eight to advanced forward.

"Why hurt her unnecessarily? Both of them," Hook says.

"I've never lied to her before." Mary replied.

Harry had grabbed his father's hand, the hand, still gripping Jay. As Gil grabbed the back of his jacket, and pulled him back.

"Don't touch him," Gil glared at Hook.
↫↫↫↫↫ Iཽ ཽmཽiཽsཽsཽ ཽtཽhཽeཽ ཽdཽaཽyཽsཽ ↬↬↬↬↬

The three said that they couldn't explain what they had discovered. Couldn't right now any how. Which made the nine teens suspicious, but, unable to do anything, they let it go. They said that they would need a cover story.

"We are going to find out what they are hiding, right?" Jay asked.

"Hell yeah." Mal grinned.

"Their drama has been the only enjoyment on this island," Uma spoke.

"If we're gonna hide this, we need a good cover story,". Mary says.

"We don't even know what we're hiding," Evie gestured to herself and her friends.

"Done."
"That's no problem."
David and Hook spoke in unison.

"Where you guys going?"  Emma asked, as she walked up to the group

"Firewood."
"To get water."
Both, once again, David and Hook spoke.

"Guys, what's going on?"  Emma asked.

"We're splitting into groups," Harry smiled. "One group gets-"

"Neal's alive." Mary revealed.

"Didn't see that coming," Gil spoke.
"Neal as in, Baelfire?" Hook asked.

"Neal i... is... Alive?" Emma's voice stammered.

"Maybe," the short haired woman turned to look at the two men. "Sorry, she deserved to know."
↫↫↫↫↫ Iཽ ཽmཽiཽsཽsཽ ཽtཽhཽeཽ ཽdཽaཽyཽsཽ ↬↬↬↬↬

"This is a waste of time. He's toying with us."  Regina spoke.

"He could be telling you the truth, if Neal is alive, and he tells you ahead of time, and your choice to not believe him-" Carlos began.

"Then you left Neal in Neverland, again," Uma looks to Hook.

"Either way, it being a truth or a lie," Harry says. "Both have something to mess with your mind."

Mary Margaret shakes her head. "I don't think so. Look." She had turned around and called tossed a section of broken branches. "More scuffling. Someone was definitely resisting."

"How do we know that means Neal?"  Emma asked.

"Well, then someone was fighting for his life." Snow argued.

"Are you really going to fall for this? Fine. You wanna follow the Evil Munchkin's dirt road? Be my guest," Regina huffed, turning around.

"Did she just call Pan an Evil Munchkin?" Uma asked.

"That's like, calling Gil weak, or ugly," Jay says.

"Okay, we don't have time for you to flirt-not-flirt," Uma huffed.

"Wait. Where are you going?" Emma asked Regina.

"To save our son."

"She's presumptuous," Jay crossed his arms.

"Aw, look, Carlos, your tutoring lessons are finally working!" Uma says.

"We need to stick together," Emma tells Regina.

Regina laughs. "No, we don't. You may be prepared to risk Henry's life over some heartbroken fool's errand, but I'm not. I'm tired of waiting around." Then she walked away.

Evie sighed, hanging her head as she followed the woman. "You're making a mistake."

"What if she's right? Pan could be lying." Emma asked her mother

"Just because it seems too good to be true doesn't mean it is. Don't give up. You owe it to Henry to find out if his father's still alive, and you owe it to yourself." 
↫↫↫↫↫ Iཽ ཽmཽiཽsཽsཽ ཽtཽhཽeཽ ཽdཽaཽyཽsཽ ↬↬↬↬↬

"Listen, I get he's your son," Evie began, after having followed Regina.  "But, you've never faced someone like Pan."

"And how do you know that?" Regina questioned, determiningly.

"Well, because you are the villain, what, twenty minutes before coming to Neverland?"

"I already lost one child," Regina says. "I will not lose another."

Nevermind the fact that Evie was standing right in front of her.  

"I don't know how to get you to trust me, do believe me when I say; I loved and wanted you the moment I figured out I was pregnant. But,  my mother...as I said, she didn't approve of who your father was." Regina looks like it pain to her recall the events.

Evie, despite the situation, despite the fact that she has wanted to see her mother in pain. Can't help but feel bad. After all, if she was telling the truth, then, she didn't abandon Evie. Evie was taken away from her.

When, suddenly, Evie was pulled right behind Regina, her hand was raised in the opening that there was. "Enough of this!"

"Regina!" A male voice called out.

"Are you really going to fall for this?" Regina asked back.

"Rumple, stop her," Belle gasped.

"Don't listen to him," Regina tells the man.
"Wait, Rumple? As in Rumplestilskin?" Evie asked.

"What are you doing?" Rumplestilskin asked in distress.

"Showing you the truth." Reina pulled him back.

Belle collapsed, falling to the ground.

"No!"

"Look who you're really dealing with."

Belle is consumed by a cloud of smoke and it is revealed to actually be the Shadow, which then flies away.

"Pan." Gold says, surprised.
↫↫↫↫↫ Iཽ ཽmཽiཽsཽsཽ ཽtཽhཽeཽ ཽdཽaཽyཽsཽ ↬↬↬↬↬

"So, you're really not gonna tell them?" Chad asked David.

"Tell them about me nearly dying and keeping it from them? No, I will not be telling them." David replied. He paused, turning. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Chad questioned. "About what?"

"Not finding you.  Trying to pressure you to talk to me, if I hadn't been..." he glanced up, at the two woman ahead. "I wouldn't have tried to push you into talking to me."

Hook, hated, that it seemed everyone (aside from Ben) was speaking to either parents, for longer then to send a threat. And, his own, son continued to threaten him.

And, when he tried to speaks to him, either Harry told him to go away, or that Carlos boy did. Either way, Hook wanted a chance to speak to his son, without any interference with one of his friend. Without his son saying he hated him.

Hook looks up once more, turning backwards briefly, to glance over his shoulder.
↫↫↫↫↫ Iཽ ཽmཽiཽsཽsཽ ཽtཽhཽeཽ ཽdཽaཽyཽsཽ ↬↬↬↬↬

"What is this? Amateur hour? Did you really believe that was Belle?" Regina asked the man.

"Why are you here? Who is she?" Rumplestilskin asked back instead of answering.

"Well, for starters, it appears I'm saving your ass. You were about to be Pan's lunch."

"Oh, what do you care?"

"I care because I've been camping with the Charmings for a week and getting nowhere. Plus, being attacked by, apparently all of our kids. If we're gonna get Henry, I need you. I need Rumplestiltskin."

"What do you mean, by; 'all of our kids'?"

Regina sighed. Then waved a hand in Evie's direction. "Evelyn, meet Rumplestilskin or Gold, Rumplestilskin, meet Evie, my daughter."

"Your daughter?"

"Yes. Just, like how Hook's son is here, and apparently, the Charming's son, Emma's sixteen-year-old twin brother."

"Oh, and I thought about not saying this, but, since it appears she'll say it either way; Ben in here. You know, yours and Belle's son."

"B-Ben is here?" Rumplestilskin asked, stammering momentarily. He shakes his head. "No. That's impossible-"

"Why is that all of your reactions?" Evie huffed , throwing her arms into the air.

"Before I casted the spell," Regina speaks. "I had gone to Rumplestilskin. In exchange, I would send his son to a world without magic, the same word Emma and Chad were sent to."

"Yeah. Well, neither of us found a foster home where someone wanted us," she says.

"Look, we can talk about this later," Regina says. "Once we're all off the island. The point is, I need you to help me kill Pan."

"Well, the problem, dearie, is that Rumplestiltskin can only stop Pan by dying."

"You're not gonna die at anyone's hands but my own. We're the two most powerful practitioners of magic who have ever lived. The Evil Queen and the Dark One joining forces? I'd say we can find another way to handle one smug teenager."

"One smug teenager, who had an island full of other teenagers, at his command," Evie says.

"You've never faced him. I have. And I know what killing him requires. And that is–my life." Gold tells Regina.

"Well, as much as I want to, maybe we don't have to kill him. If that's the case, then... Maybe we can find another way... something to contain him, some other fate."

"A fate worse than death."

"Now we're talkin'. There's my malevolent imp. Is there a spell you know? Something we can enact?"

Evie threw his hands into the air. "Why am I here is you're just gonna ignore me?"

"I'm not ignoring you-" Regina begins.

"No. But back in my shop, I might have just the thing." Gold informed.

"Well, why didn't you bring it with you in the first place?"

"Because I came here to kill him and die in the process!"

"That's severely depressing."

Regina laughs. "Well, I could've told you that wasn't gonna happen. You forget, dear. I've known you a long time. I know all about your survival instincts."

"Yeah, well, they just kicked in."

"Good. So now we just need a change of plans. We need to get back to your shop, pick up this magical item, and then all of our problems are solved."

"Crossing realms? Is that all?"

"Yes. That's all."

"And you're sure it was a good idea to bring her?" Gold pointed at Evie.

Regina shrugged, turning to her daughter. "She wants Pan dead as much as we do."
↫↫↫↫↫ Iཽ ཽmཽiཽsཽsཽ ཽtཽhཽeཽ ཽdཽaཽyཽsཽ ↬↬↬↬↬

They continued to walk, Snow leaned the way. "The tracks lead directly into that cave. This must be where Pan is keeping Neal."

Ben, slightly nervous, fiddled with the end of his jacket. Chad has looked over, taking a hold of one of his hands, and smiling. He tried to make it come off as supporting and calming.
Ben smiled back.

"If the cave is some sort of prison, why aren't there any guards posted to stop us?" David asked.

"Because this prison doesn't require guards. Echo cave." Hook said.

"You know it?" Mary asked.

"All too well. I lost half my crew inside those rock walls."

"The only way to rescue someone from inside is to reveal a secret." Harry revealed.

"A secret? That's all?" Snow questioned.

"Your darkest secret." Ben says. "Echo cave derives its name from an old saying... "the deeper the lie, the more truth in its echo." The cave demands that you reveal a truth about yourself. A secret you would never admit to anyone."

"This is ridiculous." Emma speaks.

"Don't kill the messengers, love." Hook says.

"Even if we spill our guts, how do we know Neal's still alive in there?"

"That's not Pam's game. If he wanted Neal dead, he'd either kill him in front of you, or drop off his body at your camp," Mal says casually. As if speaking about a grocery list.

"He wants you to rescue him." Gil spoke.

"Why?"

"So that we reveal our secrets. He believes once we do, our secrets will destroy us," Hook says.
↫↫↫↫↫ Iཽ ཽmཽiཽsཽsཽ ཽtཽhཽeཽ ཽdཽaཽyཽsཽ ↬↬↬↬↬

They had entered the cave, only to see, a large, empty space. In the distance, was a man in a wooden cage.

"Emma!" The man yelled out, his voice echoing.

"Neal," Emma's voice comes out low.

"It must be a hundred feet across." Mary speaks.

"Even if we fashioned some sort of rope, there's nothing to attach it to. No way to swing over." David said.

"So what do we do?" Emma asked.

"You confess a secure, that you wouldn't tell anyone," Uma says.  "As you do, a bridge will be made in front of you."

"Now... who wants to kick things off?" Hook asked.

"Well, how do you know it'll work?" David asked.

Hook takes a deep breath and turns to face Neal. "There's only one way to find out, I suppose.." He turns back to face everyone. "I kissed Emma."

Emma rolls her eyes. Harry glared, as a thought came to him.

"You did what?" David asked in disbelief.

"David, now is not the time." Mary tells him.

"I already told Mary Margaret, so technically it's not a secret. But it was just a kiss. How's that your darkest secret?" Emma questioned.

"It's what the kiss exposed. My secret is, I never thought I'd be capable of letting go of my first love... of my Milah... to believe that I could find someone else that is, until I met you."

The ground quakes and a large chunk of rock grows from the floor, forming a partial bridge to reach the part of the gave where Neal is.  Hook has racked out, to stay as Harry. Who had reached out to Carlos.

"Uh... Mary Margaret..." david begins.

"No, no, no. Me next. Ever since the curse broke, since we found each other, since we found Emma... And all of that happiness, there is something I haven't wanted to admit. Our daughter is a beautiful, smart, amazing woman whom I love very much, and of whom I could not be more proud. But she's all grown up. And... As much as I wanna pretend I'm okay with that, I'm not. We missed it, David. What we have with her is unique, but it's not what I wanted. We were cheated out of everything... her first step, her first word, her first smile. And now, with Chad. We missed it all."

"What are you saying?"

"When we get off this island and get back to Storybrooke, I want another go at it. I wanna have another baby." Mary specified.

The ground quakes and the bridge extends.

"Nothing in this world would make me happier, and I know with all my heart that you would make... An amazing mother. But it can never happen... At least not with me." David looked guilty.

"What do you mean?"

"When Hook and I went to search for the sextant, he was really taking me to find a cure."

"A cure for what?"

"Dreamshade."

"The lost boys, the arrow... you pushed me out of the way–" she realized.

"–I wasn't fast enough. I was hit. Hook was able to find a cure, but it comes at a price. I can't leave Neverland. If I do, I'll die."

The bridge finishes forming. Emma unsheathes her sword and carefully walks across. Half-way across, when she's sure it's sturdy, she runs the rest of the way and bends down to face Neal.

Chad lets out a breathe, glad that the three's secret was deep enough to form the bridge, and he didn't have to say his biggest secret.

They stayed a distance away. And Emma leaned down to speak to Neal, for a few seconds, before standing back up, sword in hand. She began to hit the cage, trying to break it.

"She does know she has to reveal a secret, right?"Uma lowly questioned.

After a few hits, Emma stopped crouching spine again. Whatever she was saying, was a large secret as she stayed kneeled down for a minute. When the cage opened, Neal immediately leaned out and hugged her.

As they leave, Ben continues to glance at Neal, his apparent  half-brother. It was odd, that he had a family. Who, appropriately had bene in the island before.

"Thank you." Neal speaks to the group.

"Well, don't thank us yet. We still have to save Henry," David says.

"We found your star map, so the real question is, do you know how to get off this island?" Hook questioned.

"Well, if we can find Henry, I can get us home."

"Let's go get Tinker Bell and... retrieve the boy," Hook glanced at Harry.  Before he walked off, as did the others.

When Neal joined the group, he had been surprised to be met with one of the lost boys, judging by his clothes. He had wondered how, why much a large group of the lost boys had been with Emma, David, Mary and Hook.

"I'm Ben," the boy stuck his hand out before he could back out.

Neal, slightly hesitate, took his hand. "Neal."

"Um...so, how do I say this?" He hesitated. "Uh, my father is the dark one. And mother Belle." He quickly speaks.

Neal, didn't reply for a moment. Which, made Ben panic, "I just-I figured to tell you, because if we all go back to-" he poked around for help in the name of the town.

"StoryBrooke," Neal says.

"Storybrooke, and bump into Rumplestilskin, that-"

"Him attempting to kill him won't be a big deal," Uma smiled. "Sorry, Benny. You were taking at to long."

"So, you're my half-brother," Neal says.

"Yeah..." Ben hesitated.

Neal glanced back, wanting someone else, that wasn't part of Ben's group to confirm.  When the four adults, agreed.

Ben didn't expect for Neal to pull him into a hug.
↫↫↫↫↫ Iཽ ཽmཽiཽsཽsཽ ཽtཽhཽeཽ ཽdཽaཽyཽsཽ ↬↬↬↬↬

Evie walked down the lake, along side Regina an Rumplestilskin.

"If you think summoning a giant squid is the answer, I've already tried that." Rumplestilskin says.

"Oh, you've had fun, haven't you? I have no intention of ordering calamari," Regina whispers into the conch.

And a red-headed mermaid appears.

"Hello, Ariel. Long time." Regina smiled.

"It's true mermaids can travel across realms. But they can't be trusted."

"This one can. We have history together."

"Well, that would explain the distasteful look on her face."

"And now she's going to help us."

Ariel mouthed 'no'. Evie frowned, furrows bored in confusion.

"Oh, right, your voice," Regina speaks as if it wasn't a big thing. She waves her hand

"Why would I help you?" Ariel immediately asks.

"Because I can give you what you want," She puts out her hand, a bracelet appears in Ariel's hand. "I can give you legs, Ariel, and this time, control over them. But more importantly, I can give you what you need most."

"What?"

"The place I'm sending you... among its residents... is your Prince Eric."

"What's the name of this place?"

"Storybrooke."
↫↫↫↫↫ Iཽ ཽmཽiཽsཽsཽ ཽtཽhཽeཽ ཽdཽaཽyཽsཽ ↬↬↬↬↬

{3362}