Pan's Redemption

Chapter 29 ~Skull Rock*

Pan sat on the damp sand scanning the ocean. He didn't know how many days or how many nights he had stayed there. He didn't care in the slightest. What he cared about was Wendy.

He knew she was out there. Scared, hurt, lost. She wasn't dead. What Syrena did was completely out of revenge. Syrena knew that killing Wendy would be too easy of a punishment. Turning her was a fate worse than death. Those who were not born mermaids sometimes died in transition. He knew that, but he wasn't scared about that. Wendy had been though hell and back. There was no way she could just disappear like that.

Pan would not give up on her. He didn't care how long it takes for her to find her way back to him, he would always be waiting. Even if she didn't want him to.

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Wendy had been out of it all night. Hook didn't know what to do. He had carried her through the cabin on the ship and placed her on one of the cots. She was sick.

Hook remembered his studies on mermaids. It was way back to when his older brother had been known as Captain Jones. Back when he had nothing better to do. He never thought of them as dangerous until he fought Pan. When the mermaids allied themselves with Pan, he saw how dangerous they really were. That was why, even though it was little Wendy, he shied away from her.

A mermaid's transition was painful. No so much if you were born one, but if you were bit, it would be incredibly painful. At first, a mermaid's bite was only used for the sailors that they wanted to keep for themselves and not to kill. Over time when wars spread across the realms, the mermaids found that their bite could immobilize their victims.

Clearly that was what happened to Wendy.

She told him what happened, eventually. After her delusional episode she admitted everything that had happened. The girl was in love with Pan. It was such an impossible thing: falling in love with a monster. Yet, somehow Wendy loved what she was running from. Hook pieced Pan's feelings together on the ship that horrid night. He never thought Wendy could be so stupid to fall for it. It had to be an act. He needed her for some reason. Some reason no one knew about.

In her sleep she shouted things at him.

"Tink! I'm sorry!" "Please, Felix, I didn't mean to leave her alone." "Tink can't be dead."

Hook looked at her startled. Tinkerbell was dead? He almost shook Wendy awake to ask what had happened. He remembered the fairy vividly. He saw what Pan did to Felix that night she was thrown off that cliff. He had been hiding in the tree line, just waiting for the chance to catch Pan off guard. Of course, he was too shocked to do any sort of fighting. He knew that Tink had been still living on the island. Living her life in secret. Hiding from Pan.

Hook knew it couldn't have been Pan that killed her. Wendy would have been brokenhearted. Tink and Felix loved each other. The Lost Boys could never do that. It had to be someone else. But before Hook could think about in further, Wendy got worse.

Wendy's skin was burning up and the mumbling in her sleep quickly progressed to screaming.

"My teeth HURT!" She screamed so loud he was sure everyone on Neverland heard her. When she spoke, Hook could see the fangs growing in. The transitioning was in its last and final stage. From here Wendy could either sink or swim. Either way she couldn't stay above water. Hook lifted her easily and hurried to the deck. Somewhere halfway from throwing her in the water she came to.

"Hook, stop! What are you doing?!" She clung to his fine leather captain's jacket.

"I'm not going to just let you die. I don't care if you're a mermaid or not. It doesn't change the fact that you're still Wendy." He attempted to toss her in again, but she clung onto him for dear life.