Innocence (OUAT/Peter Pan)

Chapter 45: Starry Rift

So I lied. Originally, 45 and 46 were one chapter but that was 11 pages and I think just a bit much. So, here it is!

COMENT VOTE AND (most importantly) READ! I LOVE YOU ALL and I loev the comments!!! You guys are so into this and so enthusiastic<<<333I

It's midnight and I'm exhausted, so short author's note, the next chapter will have my long one. Enjoy my angels:)

ELLE’S POV

“Peter, I can save you, all of you,” Elle pleaded, just barely getting the breath to form the words. Her fingers squeezed his, they were so cold, and limp. He didn’t seem to hear her, Peter’s normally bright, glittering brown eyes were dull and glassy, unfocused. No, no. Desperately, she kept talking, kept begging him. “You said I’m powerful, that my heart can work. You, my brothers, this place is my home, please don’t let me lose you.”

            He was leaving. Peter’s fingers were limp in hers, his chest didn’t even stir under her palm. His brown eyes were open, watching her and not seeing her, dull and blank and empty. Those empty eyes terrified her, Elle felt screams claw at her throat but they didn’t leave, she wanted to run away across the island and over the ocean and through several different realms. But she couldn’t move. She was too weak and exhausted, and she didn’t want to.

            She readjusted, grunting with the effort it took to fold her legs in front of her, and tugged Peter’s shoulders into her lap, holding onto him while her eyes burned. Elle couldn’t remember the last time she cried, surely not since she was a child. She didn’t cry now. Her throat was swollen shut, her body felt limp and as helpless as fallen leaves as she cast out her mind, feeling the island. It was dying so fast, its magic no longer strong and humming around her, but crumbling and fading and crashing, suffocating her and dragging her with it. Peter’s aura…was gone. Not even a trace, either slipping away with Neverland before she could remember, or because he was gone. Peter left.

            A hand hesitantly touched her shoulder, left quickly, then returned and stayed. For the first time, Elle realized others were in the cave. She looked up, meeting Emma’s dark green eyes. Behind her stood Baelfire, Regina, and the pirate—Hook. Each brow was frowning, all eyes holding some mixture of sadness and bewilderment. The utter lack of anger, or pride, would have shocked Elle, and should have, but she didn’t care. Just turning her head to look up at them had cost her energy she didn’t know she had, and the room was tilting slightly.

            “I—” Emma started. Her lips stayed parted, but no sound came out. After a moment, she sighed and looked away, keeping her hand on Elle’s shoulder.

            “I’m sorry,” Hook murmured, his voice low and thick from somewhere behind Elle.

            It was silent for a beat. “The consequences were,” a new, somewhat grudging, voice mumbled, “unfortunate.” Regina sounded awkward and somewhat forced. Elle didn’t care, she could say nothing if she wanted.

            “Elle,” Emma’s voice was hesitant. “I—um, I—I’m sorry, but…but I had to save my son.” She sounded a bit scared. Elle didn’t want to speak, she just wanted them to go away and let her hold onto Peter.

            “I don’t blame you,” her voice sounded fuzzy, and it scraped her throat. “Your actions were right.”

            “We were thinking, if you wanted…” Emma spoke again, but Elle was consumed by the boy. His face was so still, eyes still open and blank and haunting. His skin was pale and he felt so cold and still in her lap. He’d never been still, never could be. Peter’s eyes were always bright and piercing and flitting around, taking in everything even on an island he’d spent centuries on. Peter had always been warm, the few times he’d even gotten close enough for her to feel the heat and magic and life radiating off of him. This was wrong. So, so wrong. And Elle was utterly powerless, feeling as lifeless as he looked. But her eyes weren’t empty.