I Trusted You (Peter Pan)

Chapter 9

A/N: Was Cassie's choice enough to save Peter?

Emma, Neal, and Regina were crouched at Henry's side in an instant.

"Oh god," Emma said, shaking her son. "Is he unconscious?"

"Henry, can you hear us?" Regina cried. Cassandra watched the panicking parents, as she swayed on her shaking legs.

"He passed out as soon as his heart went into Pan." Neal informed, though the mothers saw that for themselves.

"Is he breathing?"

Cassandra found herself wanting to help; to explain exactly what had happened.

"I don't know." Neal fretted. Cassandra wanted to yell at them all. For being so useless. They should be able to tell if a body was breathing. If they couldn't help him they needed to move ahead and think of a plan, instead of whining over a corpse.

The rush of power had caused Peter to rise into the air, and now he was slowly floating back to the rock floor. As he came into everyone's vision once more, Emma turned to him.

"What the hell did you do to him?" She spat. None of her anger hidden.

"Oh, I didn't do anything, Emma." Cassandra looked at his smug face. Did he feel the slightest bit of regret? Or even sadness that, despite being necessary, it had to come to this? "It was Henry. He offered me his heart of his own free will."

Still, he wore that confident and smug expression. Did he need to toy with the parent's anymore? He had what he wanted.

Emma quickly drew her sword. "I'm gonna take it back from you." She lunged forward towards Peter, slicing the blade through the air. Cassandra's heart squeezed. Luckily, he disappeared before the metal could scrape him.

Peter picked up Pandora's box from where it sat on a rock. "I don't think you have it in you." He drawled. "Rumpelstiltskin didn't." He chucked the box between his hands, a knowing smile on his face. "Why should you?"

"Where is he?" Emma demanded. Cassandra began edging her way towards the staircase. Peter antagonising them was the best distraction she was going to get.

"What did you do?" Neal looked between Peter and the box, wishing his suspicions weren't true. Cassandra took another step.

"Oh, he's right in this box." Peter smirked to himself with pride. "Safe and sound. And out of the way. Unfortunately for you, he can't hurt me anymore. And neither can you."

Another step. Peter's eyes flickered to her for a fraction of a second.

"Really?" Emma asked. Emma swung forward, jabbing the sword at Peter. He took a second too long to react, and the metal nicked his skin. "How did that feel?"

Cassandra paused. Heart pounding.

"Like a tickle." His mouth stretched into an eerie smile. Cassandra let out the breath she was holding. He was fine. Her foot slid backwards once more. Peter rose into the air, out of harm's way. He couldn't help but glance to Cassandra one last time, an odd look in his eyes. She had no time to figure it out before he flew through one of the skull's eyes and into the night air.

Emma had seen him looking at something; she spun around to see the pale blonde girl, hollows beneath her eyes, wobbling on her feet. The hot anger flaring within Emma vanished as a strange emotion flashed through her. Some combination of pity and heartache that she wouldn't have expected to feel when looking at the girl who helped kill her son. But that girl was her daughter. And she was frightened. Whether Cassandra would acknowledge it or not, she had been affected by the events that had occurred over the past few days. And maybe it wasn't just that. Perhaps the pain of all the trauma she had endured in her life had accumulated, and now she no longer had the strength to bury and hide it.