Tink sat in her rolling chair and traced the black rims of the glasses over and over. "Maybe he's right," she muttered to herself. "Maybe I'm being too defensive and should just let people help me once in awhile."
She fiddled with the glasses for a few seconds and then slammed them on her desk in a burst of anger, but the next moment she gasped and cradled them in her hands, carefully inspecting them to make sure they weren't broken. She sighed and put the glasses in a drawer.
"What a jerk," she thought aloud. "He thinks he can just come in here and win me over with fancy toys and false confessions of love. He's probably still trying to make up for kissing me." But as much as she tried to muster up feelings of anger, she couldn't. Curly's words ran through her mind, making her at turns ecstatic and livid.
She was staring at the wall when a knock sounded at the door. Before she could answer, it cracked open and Slightly stuck his head in.
"Ugh, go away Slightly."
Slightly clucked his tongue. "Remember, Tink, if you keep pushing people away you'll end up miserable and alone."
Tink nearly choked. "How did you...?"
Slightly slipped inside and pointed to a camera in the corner. "Come on, Tink. You're not the only one who sits around watching the feeds."
Tink huffed and folded her arms across her chest. "What do you want?"
"I just want to have a friendly chat."
Tink rolled her eyes. "What, are you going to give me relationship advice? I heard what told Peter and Curly by the way, and you're totally wrong."
"Am I?" Slightly said nonchalantly, leaning against the wall. He was so tall, his blonde hair almost touched the ceiling.
"Yes. Now go away," Tink said defiantly.
Undeterred, Slightly sat in the chair opposite her. "So, Curly's in love with you, but you're still in love with Peter."
Tink grunted and turned away.
"So what is it about Peter that makes him so much more desirable than Curly?"
Tink sat silently, refusing to give Slightly the pleasure of a response.
"I mean, Peter's good looking for sure. If I had that jawline maybe all the girls would be swooning over me."
Tink shot him a murderous look, then turned away again.
"But Curly's got his good features too. Nice eyes, rippling muscles... I think his biceps are bigger than my head. And I bet he's a pretty good kisser..."
Tink whirled around. "Fine, I'll talk!" She exclaimed.
Slightly sat back, looking pleased with himself.
"I like Peter because we have a lot of fun together. We've been on so many great adventures."
"Hm. I see," Slightly said, scratching his chin. "And when was your last adventure?"
Tink hesitated. She realized she couldn't remember the last time they'd shared an adventure. "Well, I went to the Grey World with him..."
"Oh yes, when he met Wendy and brought her back to Neverland with him. That must have been really enjoyable for you."
"Well, we used to have adventures, before Wendy came into the picture," Tink said defensively.
"Okay, fine. You say you have a lot of fun together. Is that when he comes here to visit you?"
"Yeah, we talk, we tell stories."
"Do you tell him a lot of stories? Does he listen to you? Or does he just talk at you and ask you to do stuff for him?"
Tink couldn't immediately answer. Thinking through it, she recognized that many of their conversations were one sided, that often she was doing favors for him while he did nothing for her in return. In her silence, Slightly stood and brushed himself off.
"Well, it was nice talking with you, Tink. Have a good night." He winked at her and then slipped out the door.
Tink let her head fall down to her desk. She was annoyed. Annoyed that her friendship with Peter wasn't as strong as she thought, annoyed that she hadn't been fair to Curly all this time, but mostly she was annoyed that Slightly was right. She sat in that position for several minutes, thinking through the events and conversations of the last two hours until her conflicting emotions started to give her a headache. Tink stood up to get a drink of water and suddenly the floor shifted. She stumbled and caught the edge of the desk to keep from falling.
What was that? She wondered, slowly straitening. Maybe she had imagined it. She glanced around her house and saw that several plants had fallen off of their shelves. She was crossing the room to inspect them when the floor shifted again and she fell to the ground. Before she could even consider getting back up again, the entire room started to vibrate. Tink crawled to her desk and pulled up the various feeds of Neverland on her computer screen. Everywhere she looked, the earth was shaking. But even more terrifying than Neverland in upheaval were the images of its occupants getting trapped in its elements.
Most of the pirates were on the beach, and as Tink watched, the sand turned to glass and their feet stuck in the substance, trapping them where they stood. Within five minutes they had sunk in to their ankles. Cecco and Alf Mason were playing cards in a cave and a sudden rockslide sealed up the entrance. Captain Hook was packing a trunk in the ship's cabin and the walls began to close in on him. The twins were climbing a zebra tree in search of rum berries and the branches wrapped around each of them and started pulling them slowly to the ground. Slightly was sinking into the ground at the base of the Silver Mountains and Nibs was slipping into a crevice that had opened up near the Imagination Tower. Peter had been flying up to the entrance to the Grey World, but a magnetic shift pinned him against the sky arch and held him fast. And Curly, who had been lying on his bed, was now gradually being covered with dirt and rocks as they filled up the underground tree house.
"What's going on?" Tink whispered, her eyes full of fear as she watched the mayhem progress. She glanced around her room, waiting for the ceiling to cave in or the floor to crack open, but nothing happened except for the steady vibrations.
Suddenly the feeds on her computer flickered off and were replaced by the terrifying face of the Crocodile.
"Hello, Tink," the woman said, her cold grey eyes darting from side to side and her huge smile filling a large portion of the screen.
Tink yelped and backed away. This couldn't be real. The Crocodile was dead. Hadn't everyone said they saw her get eaten by the Buffalostrich Rex?
"Don't be alarmed," the Crocodile continued, "if you're seeing this recording, it means I'm dead, and that I've been dead for exactly 6 weeks, because that was the timeline for the system I put in place."
Tink started to tremble, and it had nothing to do with her room shaking all around her.
"You see, Tink, I knew that if any of my Neverland subjects were to revolt against me, I needed to put a plan in place in order to exact my revenge." At this, she smiled so wide that the corners of her mouth almost reached her ears. "It was quite simple, actually. Every week for the past seven years I've been adding my Essentia to the system, which was programmed to normalize Neverland. Once my Essentia stopped coming into the mainframe, Neverland would self destruct and attack everyone in it, slowly at first, until it reached the glorious climax that you're experiencing right now." The crazed woman licked her lips as if she had just finished eating something delicious. Tink was starting to feel nauseated.
"I'm sure you've noticed all your friends and associates in peril by now," the Crocodile commented nonchalantly, "and you must be wondering why you seem to be the only one who is safe, or at least you're wondering why I'm sharing all of this morbid information with you." The Crocodile looked wistful for a moment, then her eyes narrowed again. "You see, Tink, I had to have the satisfaction of letting someone know why Neverland and all its population were being destroyed, and you were the only one I could count on to do nothing about it." The woman threw her head back and laughed, wheezing a bit as she continued to talk. "I knew I could rely on your mental weakness, your lack of courage, to stay in your safe room while the world around you crumbled. My dear Tink, you were nearly worthless when I found you living on the streets all those years ago, but I saw a spark of potential in you. I brought you to Neverland, and for a time you flourished, but in the end you proved to be more fragile than I had thought. What a fitting punishment that you should be powerless there in central control, doubtless knowing exactly how to save your friends and your home, but unable to do so because you are enslaved by your own vulnerabilities. But at least I have been merciful. You won't have to live forever with the guilt of your inadequacies. When everyone in Neverland is dead you'll be cut off from your supplies and you will starve to death in a week or two. You're welcome." The Crocodile laughed again and the recording cut out.
Tink crumpled to the floor, almost wishing she could be absorbed by it. She jumped up a few times with the intention of smashing her computer to bits, but every time she recalled the Crocodile's words, the fight went out of her. She didn't want to be affected by the dead woman's insults, but she was filled with frustration and defeat and sadness, and underneath it all was a feeling that the Crocodile was right. Tink did know how to stop Neverland from self destruction. She just had to override the Essentia system. But this meant collecting everyone's blood and reintroducing it into the mainframe, and as much as she despised the thought of losing everything and everyone she loved, she knew she couldn't go out there. The despair of the situation pressed in on her and she curled up on the floor, letting her tears spill out onto the cold stone. But just as the darkest images began to fill her mind, she had a thought that brought a sliver of hope. With all the resolve she could summon, Tink got off the floor, grabbed a bag of syringe needles and Curly's glasses and opened the door.