Pan's POV

When I woke up, my face was wet. Were these... They couldn't be tears. Peter Pan doesn't cry, I thought. It's not in my skill set.

And yet here I was, with my face coated in streaks of saltwater the I'd had no control over. I wiped the blasphemous wetness on the blankets, shivering slightly. I'd taken off my vest to sleep and the undershirt did nothing to protect from the cold, as it was a thin tank top. Immediately, the temperature rose to a comfortable level. Hook knew about the island's connection to my emotions and losing control would be a very bad thing.

Speaking of... Someone wasn't playing by the rules. Emma's pain was the only game I was interested in, and nobody cheated me. I pulled on my vest (it was clean... ish...), realizing the redundancy as I did so. I would only be changing out of it later. When I looked like my normal self again, minus the tear tracks, I transported to the camp.

Felix was already awake. He was sitting on a log, looking blankly into the coals. A branch cracked when I shifted my weight and he jumped, like I'd startled him. Strange. Is he up this early every day? Wakeup wasn't for another forty minutes. Whatever, it was a good thing.

"Pan," he said in acknowledgement. "You're here early."

"So are you. We have a situation." I explained the plan and he nodded in understanding. "Alright, get the boys and be there in five minutes. I never thought I'd say this, but we have a time limit."

I went into Henry's tent myself. The boy slept on, oblivious to my presence. "Hello, Henry," I said quietly. "I need to borrow those for a bit."

With a thought, I was dressed in Henry's clothes and he in mine. After all, the "heroes" were looking for him, not me. There wasn't much risk, but to be safe I'd had Felix leave three boys behind to keep him here. He wouldn't try to escape, that much was sure. Henry was a smart boy, he always had been; he knew he had no chance of getting anywhere on my island. I transported to the old campsite to wait for the "heroes."

Well it's not as though I would resort to actually hurting the kid, I-- or rather, Pietro-- thought. Not only does he need to believe that I have his best interests at heart, but Rosalie cared about the kid more than she'd ever admitted, which meant that Lily did too. If she was with the boys and me now, she would most likely see him as a replacement for Michael, who she'd always doted on. She'd probably be angry with me for that whole thing with the Darlings, too, come to think of it. I'd have a lot of making up (not apologizing of course, just making it up to her) to do when I finally found her. No, not groveling or begging. I had standards.

But I would find her.

"No one's here," someone said. I relaxed, slipping almost effortlessly into the role of the villain. "Maybe your spell was wrong, Regina."

"Yes, blame me again," another woman snapped. The evil queen, I presumed. The group was quiet for a moment; I assumed they were looking around and an amused grin spread across my face. They hadn't even seen me yet, and they thought they would be able to beat me?

Right on cue, Emma gasped. "Guys, hold on. Is that... Henry!"

I turned toward her. "Hi Emma," I said sweetly. Innocence was a good look on me, or so I'd been told.

"Where the hell is Henry?" she demanded.

Okay, this woman was hilarious. She came to my island, took up my time, hurt my Rosalie, and had the gall to demand answers.

"You broke the rules," I said. "That's not fair. Bad form. I expect more from you, Captain."

"Aye," he said, angry but cautious. It was good to see that the fear of god was still instilled in him. That would be useful later. "And you'll get it."

"Give Henry to me!" Jesus, this woman would have been a great lost boy, had she been born the opposite gender. She sure threw tantrums well enough.

"Sorry, can't. Don't you know?" The boys were in position. Good. "Cheaters never win."

On cue, the boys stormed the proverbial castle. The fight was fair in my eyes: Two to three boys to an adult, except for the good Captain. As per my orders, Felix took on the man who was the cause of this whole debacle. Most of it, anyway. Calling the Dark One to deal with a situation because he was scared... He was the reason Emma even had the opportunity to hurt Rose in the first place. Felix fought with unbridled fury.

She told me everything that happened.

That was the reason I'd assigned him to Hook. He needed to let loose a little, and what better way to vent than to get revenge?

I hear Charming cry out in pain. Good, Sammy's arrow had grazed him. I kept a mental scoreboard: Pan-3, Heroes-3. So long as I kept Henry and Rumple, I would win by a landslide, but now that I had the knight in shining armor... Oh this was going to be too easy.

"Remember what I did to Rufio?" Hook sneered. Felix's face twisted in rage and he fought doubly hard. "It's going to be even worse for you, boy."

Despite their big words the "heroes" were losing big time and they knew it. They were forced into a defensive circle formation and it would have been so easy to end it all right there, to prove once and for all that Henry's family would never come for him. I would avenge Rosalie and pave the way for my own salvation in one fell swoop.There would be nothing in my way, nothing to make things difficult...

But I said some nonsense about Emma being the only one who could save Henry (she was, at least in this circumstance) and retreated with the boys. Once we were far out of earshot, I stopped everyone.

"Go on and tell the boys at the camp that we'll be having a campfire dance tonight in celebration for that fantastic fight. Sammy, forget about firepit cleanout for the night. That was an excellent shot." I smiled with my usual cheeriness. Of course, I was elated that I was winning the game, but Felix's reaction to that comment about Rufio was bothering me. The boys didn't need to know that.

"But... I missed my target," he said, unsure.

I raised my eyebrow. "You missed your target and hit another one. Did you lose?" The boy shook his head. "Then you won. I'll take care of cleanup. Go on, all of you. Back to camp!"

They turned as a group and ran, not in fear, but in excitement. It wasn't often that they did well enough to warrant a campfire dance unless there was a new boy on the island. Felix lagged behind in his usual fashion, waiting until I individually dismissed him. When he realized I wasn't going to, he spoke.

"Something's bothering you," he said in his drawling way. I shrugged.

"It's nothing." One thing was nothing, the other was kind of a big deal.

He smirked, purposefully twisting the scar on his face menacingly in order to amuse me. "It's funny how you still think you can lie to me."

"I can't lie."

"You're avoiding the subject. It's the same thing." He drew out the vowels of his words in a more pronounced way than before. Maybe it was the lack of any true emotion in his voice. "What's bothering you?"

I didn't know any way to get out of it, but I supposed it wasn't a big deal. "Your behavior recently has me a little worried."

"My behavior." I nodded. "Very well. How would you like me to act?"

It was such a Felix answer; I didn't expect myself to be so frustrated by it. "I want you to act like you again."

For the first time in years, Felix looked at me in the slightest amount of annoyance. "I am acting like me."

"No you're not," I snapped, letting my temper get the best of me. "You're acting like a shell, as though I'd taken out your heart a hundred years ago and I don't like it."

"Sorry to disappoint," he drawled, eyes still squinted in that almost-annoyed look, "but this is the only way I know how to act anymore. We've lost too many."

I pulled down his hood and gripped his shoulders, forcing him to look at me. His pupils dilated so that the silver was barely noticeable but his annoyed squint hid any of the color that was left and made his eyes a rather frightening black color.

"Felix, you need to listen to me. She is on the island. We just need to find her." His eyes flickered with something before he nodded, a little of the old 'Felix Happiness' shining through his cold gaze.

"I'll get a search party together immediately." He turned to leave.

"Oh and Felix," I called with a grin. He turned. "If you do find her, you might want to stop looking at me like a schoolboy with a crush."

Lily's POV

This was an annoying situation, but I could handle it. I hadn't meant to give Pan false hope when I looked into his dream; now that I really thought about it, was there any other way it could have gone? I told him I was here and then I let him kiss me like that.

And what was that schoolboy comment about? I thought that my "3000% done" look was pretty convincing. Maybe my acting wasn't as good as I'd originally thought.

Of course, the search party I set up was doomed to fail from the beginning, but I had to set it up to look as though I'd tried my damnedest to find someone that was impossible to find. I stayed out all night with the boys, making them look in all the obvious places I would go, were I to actually run away: Mermaid Cove, the healing spring, old encampments, places like that. Only at dawn did I call it and decide to go back to camp.

The boys were exhausted after trekking all over the island. I let them go to sleep just as the others were supposed to wake up. The fire pit was as spotless as I'd ever seen it. Pan really had to have been in a good mood to do something like that. It was a shame I had to break that... but it wasn't like I could just lie to him. Felix would never do that, and it was difficult for me to do anyway.

I knocked on the door of the treehouse, like I always did when I had to make a report. He was never there to begin with, but somehow he was alerted to the fact that someone was there. Lo and behold, in less than a second the door opened wide, revealing a smirking Peter Pan.

The look was wiped off his face when he saw what was quickly becoming the trademark "Felix scowl" that I was so good at. "You didn't find her?"

"We combed the island as well as we could--"

"I don't give a damn!" He roared. All I could do was stare as Peter got into my face-- it was surprisingly frightening, despite the height difference between him and Felix --and glared. "You lost her, Felix. She's on this island, and you gave up your chance to find her again. You failed me."

That hurt. Whether I was Lily or Felix, that hurt in the same way. Pan slammed the door in my face for effect, though I knee he wasn't there anymore. I had to figure out how to stop him from doing anything rash, but he wouldn't listen to Felix.

That only left me one option.

I'M LATE I'M LATE FOR A VERY IMPORTANT DATE NO TIME TO SAY HELLO oh wait. So yeah. This is exactly THREE DAYS LATE and therefore I will make three allowances.

Day One- Announcement: I will be writing a third book to this series, but the third will be the last.

Day Two- Spoilers: I'll answer ANY SEVEN QUESTIONS in the comments of this chapter, about anything: Myself, the story, or even *shudders* spoilers.

Day Three- Announcement: I have another idea for a Panlix story in the works so look forward to that.