Felix was my brother? Cool. That meant that the siblings lie that we'd been telling everyone we came across wasn't a lie at all. We looked at each other curiously.

"So," he said simply.

"Yup."

"Problem?"

I shook my head. "Nope. You?"

"Nope."

"Cool. I'm tired." I leaned back into his hold the way I had before and closed my eyes.

The spell that Thitis had done had gotten Pietro's consciousness out of my head and exhausted me, but it was worth it. He was now safely sealed away in a crystal in my pocket, and Rosalie was marginally easier to deal with now that he was. She still wanted to kill these people, and Uriel, surprisingly, agreed with her. A lot. Like, with no stuttering at all. But they wanted to get to Arthur too, so we agreed that it could wait.

Tommy spoke up, sounding confused. "Aren't you... I don't know, surprised?"

I opened my eyes and turned to look at him. "Oh yeah. I didn't expect this at all."

"I'm definitely surprised," Felix said.

"Then-- What-- Why aren't you reacting?" Tommy spluttered. "Does this sort of thing happen often or something?"

"Not at all." I closed my eyes again and leaned back, exhaustion taking its toll.

Felix held me up, just as I knew he would. "Actually, only two Lost Ones have ever been related. It's basically unprecedented."

"What?"

"He doesn't get it," I muttered to Felix. "Do we have to explain?"

"I think we should," he said at normal volume. "They all look pretty confused."

I sighed. "But I'm tired."

"Do you want me to pick you up or something?" His voice was half mocking, but it was a serious offer.

I nodded. I couldn't remember ever being this tired physically. It was unlikely that I would fall asleep, but I couldn't find the energy to stand on my own power.

"We're Lost Ones," Felix said to he others as he moved out from behind me. I leaned against the wall. "Blood ties don't mean the same thing to us as they do to you." He knelt in front of me and I climbed onto his back, wrapping my arms around his neck. He gripped the back of my knees securely and I put my chin on his left shoulder.

"If I had just met Felix today," I said, yawning, "And you told me we were related, I probably would have reacted the same way."

Felix nudged me as he stood up. "Hey, open your eyes. I can't have you falling asleep on me."

I did so and it looked as if Guinevere had woken up. Lancelot and Kay were looking at us with the same curious confusion as Tommy, so I elaborated. "Blood ties don't matter to us. Family is earned."

"In other words," Felix said, "If we had just met today and we were expected to live together and trust each other like family should, we would probably try to kill each other."

I yawned. "As it is, we were family already. Being related doesn't matter to us at all."

Tommy seemed to kind of understand, but Lancelot and Kay were staring at Felix in disbelief. I figured that it had less to do with them not understanding and more to do with them knowing Felix from before. Glitonea and Thitis didn't give anything away in their expressions. Guinevere didn't seem to know what to say, but she looked like she was following the conversation remarkably well for someone who was unconscious for the first half of it.

Hm... Unconsciousness sounded like a pretty good option right now. I yawned into Felix's shoulder again and shook my head. No, he told me not to fall asleep.

"That really exhausted you, huh?" he asked me. "What was even involved in that spell?"

I blinked the darkness out of my vision. "Not much, but remember what Pan said. All magic comes with a price. I've never been this tired."

Felix hummed in understanding. "You can take a nap, sweetheart. I'll wake you up if there's any impending violence."

"Magic exhaustion is the worst experience in the world," Kay muttered. "It's awful."

I blinked at him slowly. "I think being a slave was worse, honestly."

The words sounded slow and syrupy. I hadn't quite realized what I had said before I fell asleep.

I let out a breath. Lily wasn't entirely coherent when she was tired; I knew that better than anyone, since I'd been waking her up for years. Still, the words she murmured before falling asleep silenced the room as effectively as any spell could hope to.

Well you guys are just learning everything about us at once, aren't you? I thought grimly. I hadn't planned on them knowing so much about Lily or Neverland or my new life, but Lily was the type of person to act the same no matter who was watching. It was in my nature to act accordingly. She leaned into open air? I was there in a second. She couldn't stand up because of exhaustion? I held her. It was a simple relationship, and it worked for us.

The only problem was that everyone who had ever held importance to the Old Me had now seen Neverland Me and seemed to be experiencing whiplash. Add that to what Lily said before she fell asleep, and I was surprised that their brains weren't melting out their ears.

I think slavery was worse, honestly.

I knew that Lily had been a slave of the Dark One, but she didn't talk much about it. I didn't ask either; backstories had no place on Neverland, where the only time was the present. Her past had only been revealed in the first place to help her control her magic. I doubted that she even thought about it much.

It looked like the others had questions though, and Lily seemed to be interested in whatever trouble she could cause for Arthur; it probably wouldn't be a bad thing to answer whatever I could.

I put a finger to my lips meaningfully in the universal sign for "quiet," and transferred Lily carefully from my back to my arms, princess style. I sat down and put her head in my lap.

Then I sighed. "I don't think she meant to say that. She loses control of her words when she gets tired."

Instead of asking a question, Lancelot spoke. "She's a remarkable woman."

"Girl." We didn't grow up. It was a fundamental rule for us, and one of the major facts that separated us and them.

He nodded once in apology. "Of course. But to have gone through so much and still be capable of the love you two display is truly admirable."

"Is that how she normally is?" Guinevere asked timidly. "So... standoffish?"

I chuckled. "Pretty much. Although not usually this tired, obviously."

"She actually doesn't sleep much at all," Tommy added. I glanced at him; Tommy had been the one to bring us here, and despite being the least impressive person in the room, I couldn't seem to shake off the realization that he had disregarded any consequence to help us.

"Well, she's lived through enough nightmares that I think sleep may scare her a little," I said, running my fingers through her short hair. "And being away from home is... pretty unsettling, especially for her."

I didn't have to look up to feel the shift in the mood.

Kay cleared his throat. "So Neverland... It's a good place then?"

"The best." I didn't want to go into too much detail, but I had to restrain myself from waxing poetic about Neverland all the same.

"And you're happy there?"

I looked at Kay blankly. Gone were the days when I'd blindly idolized him and seen him in a cloud of pink. He'd grown up, become a man. Beyond that, I'd simply moved on. "Do you really have to ask?"

The sisters hadn't said a word since Lily had returned from their care, looking upon our conversations with nothing more than mild curiosity. They rarely showed emotion on their faces, keeping every thought shrouded in mystery. It was a trait they inherited from their faerie blood, supposedly. It was easier to look at them than to look to my former comrades, if only because they showed no pity or judgement of any kind.

"If you don't want to speak to us, why are you staying here?" Lancelot finally asked. "We did what we promised and healed the princess. You owe us nothing. Less than nothing."

Princess. The word rang in my head as I realized that yeah, that was what Lily was now. I worried about how she would handle it. She would probably do one of two things: reject it completely or use her newfound status as a way to fulfill her vendetta against Arthur and the others. She thought she was being subtle, but I knew what murderous intent looked like on her face. I knew which scenario was more likely. I also knew that I would follow her to the ends of the earth and back, so I took the opportunity that had presented itself because she wasn't able to do it herself.

"Maybe not, but you want her help." I raised an eyebrow and brushed some of the hair off of Lily's face.

"What do you mean by that?" Guinevere asked carefully.

"I mean, you have the crown princess of Camelot literally sitting in front of you and the rest of your band of rebels," I said simply. "There was no way that you weren't going to ask for our help."

"What makes you think we're rebels?" Kay narrowed his eyes.

"Every single one of you has reason to hate Arthur and you're all here, meeting in secret." I pointed to each of them in turn.

Guinevere: "The wife he ignores and orders around."

Lancelot: "The best friend that he treats like a lapdog."

Thitis: "The neutral party that he forced to choose a side."

Kay: "The knight shamed in the eyes of the kingdom and subject to rumors that tarnished his reputation. Sorry about that, by the way. I take full responsibility."

Tommy: "I'm not entirely sure why you're here, actually, but I assume he either killed or hurt someone close to you?"

Tommy nodded. "My mother."

I nodded and looked at Kay. "Want to try telling me again that you aren't starting a rebellion?"

"We would never drag you into our problems," Kay said. There was something in his voice that gave me the impression that there was a double meaning in his words, but I shrugged it off.

"Well, that's not necessarily true, now, is it?" I asked rhetorically, looking at Guinevere. She flushed in shame. Never let it be said that I can't be cruel if I have to be, I thought. "If you thought it would make your chances better, you would absolutely ask for our help."

Even Lancelot winced at that. "If there's something you mean to say, Felix, then do so. There's no need to be cruel."

I snorted. "I was making a point. You want Lily as an asset. I don't blame you. She's terrifying on her own, but as someone with political sway, she would be a formidable enemy to Arthur. What I'm saying is that we are willing to assist for as long as we stay in this realm."

Guinevere looked as if she were about to cry. "We could never--"

"Don't misunderstand." I cut her off. "There are going to be rules and conditions that you are going to have to agree to."

"How can you speak for her when she's unconscious?" Kay asked dubiously. "What way do you have to know that she will agree to help us?"

I let my face fall into the lopsided grin that struck terror into the Lost Boys that disobeyed orders. "Of course I know. There's only one person in all the realms who knows her better than I do."

Henry's body would take some getting used to, but I could control it suitably enough after a few hours to adjust. The Lost Boys' betrayal had been annoying, but not unexpected; without that girl around, even Felix had changed. Not that he was anything but loyal, of course. If there was anyone who was incapable of treason, it was him.

I didn't see much of Felix on the ship, but I didn't particularly need to. The plan for the moment was to wait and see how to proceed when the ship landed. I needed the Dark Curse and for that, I would need to play Henry pretty convincingly. Luckily, I knew exactly his type of boy and how to be one.

However easy the game was to play, I couldn't deny that the heroes had the upper and at the moment. The game had gotten away from me. For the first time since I had done it, I wondered if getting rid of Pietro had been a mistake. Lacking deep emotion meant that I didn't particularly understand it or plan for it. The heroes acted and reacted solely on emotion-- even Regina and Rumple, who were the least likely to do so. I hadn't considered every option.

Which was why my new plan was entirely devoid of their participation. Get the curse, cast the curse, and create a new Neverland out of the dull town that had been my prison for twenty eight years. In a way, I considered it an abstract revenge on Pietro for turning me into such a disgrace: turn the place that had been his home into my own.

Not that he would ever see it. He was trapped in that girl's head, and if I ever saw her again, Pietro wouldn't be around to save her. She broke the rule and tried to win the game. If ever there was a type of person that I hated more than cheaters, it was people who tried and nearly succeeded in winning a game against me without cheating. Winners. It was often said that winners never cheat and that cheaters never win. Both of these ideas formed Peter Pan. They created who I was; they were who I was. Subsequently, anyone else who acted upon this rule threatened my existence as a unique individual. Heroes who won without cheating were not losers. Therefore they had to be destroyed.

Because Peter Pan never fails.