Checkmate

Leaving Mary Margaret and Blue in the shack, I took the rest of us back to the forest nearer the ship with my magic, focusing everything on not creating the blue smoke upon our arrival. David used the spyglass Regina had given him to peek at the deck, but seeing only Regina on board, the man shrugged. "She's alone," he said, suddenly yelping as Emma snatched the item from him to look for herself.

"She seems... okay."

"Just okay?" I asked, my brows pinching. "Killian said-"

"Wait." Emma twisted the glass into focus and groaned. "I lied. She's surrounded."

"What?" David spluttered as he snatched the spyglass back to press it once more to his eye. "What do we do?"

Felix pulled the glass from the man's hand to his own eye before dropping it to the ground. He reached for my shoulders to pull me to face him, his face serious and his voice low as his blue eyes locked with mine. "I recognise the face. Pretend Pan is here. Be the queen he made you."

"But-"

"The man on that ship works for Pan." My brows tightened as my face fell into a more serious one I had adopted whilst under Pan's control. "That's my girl."

The comment would have usually made me blush, but I suppressed the feeling before vanishing to arrive on the deck. I leaned up against the mast as Pan had done when we first met all those years ago. "Hullo, lads. It seems you have something of mine."

Within seconds, the men had rushed to face me, their swords drawn and aimed at my face as the largest of the men stood near Regina. "Little girl," he announced with a strong Russian accent. "Why so brave?"

"Why so stupid?"

The man blinked twice before exploding into a deep belly aching chortle that many of his crew matched. "You zink you have upper hand? I am Bellamy, captain of these dogs. They could run you through at my command."

"Run me through?" I repeated as I cocked my brow. "With what?" After a wave of my hand, the men looked down to see their swords flash blue before vanishing into nothing. Only the captain's sword remained, the weapon refusing to vanish. "Nice sword."

The man growled deeply and moved forward as he pushed Regina into one of his crew, the man now weaponless as he sneered at the woman in his arms. "Don't even think about it," I heard Regina warn him as the captain came nearer to me.

As I took the attention of the stowaway crew, behind them snuck on the rest of my team, Felix giving me a nod as he moved to silently take out the crew member holding Regina. My eyes flicked back to the captain before me as he approached even closer, his sword aimed at me, the item glowing with a dark aura.

"So it was you who stabbed the fairy." I tutted and shook my head slowly. "No coins under your pillow next time you lose a tooth." I scoffed a laugh even as the man held the sword closer to my throat.

"Why so brave?" He repeated.

I looked the man in the eyes and crossed my arms. For a moment, he seemed familiar, as if I had known him many years before. My eyes flicked momentarily to see Felix and Mary Margaret huddle Blue below, Charming ahead of them with his sword drawn. Killian, however, had frozen at the sight of the man threatening me, his jaw agape. "Bellamy, did you say?" I asked as my gaze flicked back to the captain. "Viktor... Bellamy?"

The man blinked before his eyes softened and he pulled the sword from my neck, the air thankfully a little cooler in the absence of the magic filled weapon. "Kroshka... Maria?" It had been a long time since I had heard the name of my mother, the woman who had given her life to bring me into the world. I nodded slowly as the man leaned in just a little closer to look at me. "Your eyes have not changed, not since you were born on this ship."