It was hard enough for Tink to try and navigate the path with Curly's special glasses, but the constantly shaking ground and animals running across her feet made the task nearly impossible. Plus, she had to stop every few seconds to take a deep breath and convince herself not to pass out. It was extremely nerve-racking to be walking in what looked like her room and suddenly be hit in the face with a tree branch. After what seemed like hours she reached Slightly at the bottom of the Silver Mountains.
"Tink! I am so thrilled to see you!" He called out cheerfully. "You look absolutely stunning outside of your house! Do you think you could give me a hand and lift me out of this rock? Or maybe find a tool to cut it away?"
Tink ignored his chatter and quickly drew his blood.
"Ow! What are you doing? Where are you going? Tink?"
"Don't have time to explain!" She yelled as she stumbled away in the direction of the lagoon.
When she arrived at the beach she almost turned back. Rain was pelting down from the sky arch and several times she was drenched by what she could only guess were huge waves coming out from the lagoon. Shouts of surprise and celebration greeted her from the pirates, but she made her way through them, ignoring their questions and drawing their blood. She was almost finished when Whibbler grabbed her.
"Hey! What's going on? Are you responsible for this?"
"I'm overriding the Essentia," she replied through gritted teeth. "Now let me go!"
"I won't let you go until you help me out of this stuff!" Whibbler shouted, holding her tight.
"Hey, let her go!" Smee called out. "What's she going to do? Dig you out with a syringe?"
There was strained laughter from some of the other pirates, but it stopped quickly when another wave crashed over them. Whibbler reluctantly released Tink and she scurried over to the last two pirates. When she had finished, she grabbed Starkey's sword controller and called up the Neverbird. Moments later the huge machine flew down to the beach and Tink climbed on its back and rode it a short distance across the water to the pirate's ship. She jumped onto the deck and ran down to the cabin. She slipped off her glasses and peered through the small window in the door. She saw Captain Hook running around wildly, beating and pushing against the walls. A sword was lying nearby and Tink picked it up and broke the small window with the hilt.
"Tink! You've come to save me!"
"Something like that," Tink mumbled, putting her glasses back on before she got too nauseous. "Give me your arm."
Hook complied. "This is Matilda's work, isn't it? I can feel her everywhere."
"Yes, it is," Tink said, putting the filled syringe in her bag and turning away.
"Wait! Tink! Let me out of here! It's horrible being stuck in this tiny room!"
"Sounds wonderful to me," Tink muttered and ran back up to the deck. She hunted around until she found a mild explosive, then climbed back on the Neverbird. The animatronic fowl carried her back to the beach and over to the closed off cave. It took her a few minutes to figure out how to activate the explosive with her glasses on, and constantly trying to see things through the image of her room was giving her a headache. She placed the explosive at the base of the rocks, backed up, and hoped she wasn't about to kill Alf Mason and Cecco. Ten seconds later the explosive detonated and cleared the opening of the cave. The pirates were so involved in their card game that they barely noticed anything had happened.
"Hello, little girl," Cecco grumbled as Tink took his blood, giving her half a glance.
"Aha!" Alf Mason exclaimed triumphantly, slapping his cards down on the table. "I win! A set of fives!"
"You cheated!" Cecco bellowed. "I asked you two turns ago if you had any fives and you told me to go fish!"
Tink was just barely able to draw Alf Mason's blood before the pirates began to brawl. She scurried out of their path and saw that the only reason they weren't strangling each other was because their feet were stuck in the rocky ground.
Tink again climbed up on the Neverbird and went in search of Peter. She was grateful for the heat sensor in the Neverbird that located where Peter was plastered to the sky arch, otherwise she could have spent all night looking for him.
"Tink! What are you doing out here?" He called out with some concern as she flew up to him.
"I've been asking myself that question every five seconds," Tink responded.
She had to balance on the Neverbird in order to reach Peter's arm. He was facing outward and was completely stuck to the sky arch except for his head. He looked at her questioningly but didn't say anything when she took his blood.
"What's going on? How did you get out of central control? Are those the glasses Curly was working on?"
"Yes."
"Oh." He studied her for a moment and then his mouth morphed into a teasing smile. "Curly spent a really long time making those, you know" he said, waggling his eyebrows at her.
Tink groaned. "Please, Peter, this really isn't the time to be insinuating anything about me and Curly."
"Right. Of course. I just can't believe I didn't notice it earlier."
"Well, that's probably because you never notice anything about me."
Peter looked away and was silent for a moment. "I know I've kind of been a jerk to you, Tink."
"Yeah, you have," Tink replied, wondering why the confession didn't give her as much satisfaction as she would have hoped.
"You've always been a better friend to me than I have been to you. I'm sorry about that, but please don't take it out on me now," Peter said hopefully.
Tink blew her hair out of her face and tried to communicate the urgency of the situation. "I can't help you right now. I have to collect everyone's blood to override the Crocodile's Essentia in the system to restore normalcy. I've spent too much time talking to you as it is, and you're probably better off than everyone else."
At that moment, one of the panels of the sky arch broke off a few meters away from them and plummeted to the ground.
"Okay, I take that back," Tink said quickly. "But I still don't have time to help you."
"Got it," Peter said, smiling weakly through the obvious alarm in his eyes. "Good luck."
Tink carefully shuffled back to her perch on the Neverbird and flew away, trying not to imagine Peter being crushed beneath a falling sky arch panel. A gust of wind almost caused her to fall off the bird as they neared the Imagination Tower. Shaking, she climbed to the ground and quickly found Nibs. He was diligently attempting to claw his way out of the crevice but wasn't making much progress. He growled when he saw her.
"You! You're behind all this, aren't you?"
"No," Tink spat, "but I am trying to fix it."
"Ha! Because you made it happen in the first place! You just want attention!"
"Do you really think I would put everyone's life in danger and then test the limits of my own sanity by running all over Neverland just because I want attention?"
Nibs softened a bit as he considered this. "Maybe."
"Ugh, just shut up and give me your arm."
Nibs eyed her suspiciously but extended his arm while he clung to a nearby rock with his other hand. "You better not be taking my blood to kill me off."
"Believe me, I'm considering it," Tink replied nastily, then ran off before he could respond. She had had enough of the Neverbird and left it behind, but she regretted that decision as she picked her way through the jungle. The thick foliage and scurrying animals made it nearly impossible for her to believe she was safe in her room and she started to breathe in quick, short breaths that made her dizzy. The only reason she found the twins was because they were making so much noise. They were tangled up in the zebra trees and hanging upside down, and it sounded like they were practicing their animal calls.
"Look!" Called the first twin as Tink approached. "We finally got one of the animals to come rescue us!"
"That's not an animal, that's a girl."
"Same thing."
"No it's not. Who are you, girl?"
Tink rolled her eyes. "It's me, Tink."
"No way. Tink is a whole lot smaller than you. And she's got wings."
"That's my avatar! Don't you remember me? I live in central control."
The twins glanced dubiously at each other. "It's not ringing any bells."
A tree crashed behind Tink, reminding her of her mission.
"Never mind, it doesn't matter," she said. "Just hold still."
"Haha! That tickles!" The first twin said when she stuck the needle in his arm. She went on to the second twin, who just looked at her in confusion and then howled in her face. She left them arguing about how big the mermaids were.
Tink's last stop made her the most nervous, not only because she was afraid she'd get stuck in the lost boys' house, but because Curly was in there. She made her way to the underground tree house, hoping that Curly wasn't already buried alive, but not sure what she was going to say to him if he wasn't. When she arrived at the entrance to the house she could feel the soil beneath her feet seeping into the tunnels and doors. She chose to go through the highest opening a few meters up from the base of the trunk. She dropped down and landed on a shelf, then glanced over the top of her glasses and saw Curly up to his waist in dirt and holding on to a root protruding from the ceiling above him.
"Tink?"
Their eyes locked and a dozen emotions flickered across his face. Finally, he gave her a grateful smile.
"Tink, I'm so glad you're here. I've been thinking about how awful it would be if I died before I had the chance to apologize to you-"
"Stop. Stop right there. We don't have time for this." Before she knew what she was doing, Tink slid off of the shelf and landed on the dirt below. Curly gasped, then looked at her curiously when she didn't sink into the soil.
"How are you standing on that? Every time I tried to step up on it I'd slip right through."
Tink looked down at the loose earth under her feet. "I don't know. The Crocodile is behind all this, and she programmed it to attack everyone's Essentia. She didn't think I'd come out of my room."
"Well, it's a good thing you're stronger than she thought."
Something swelled in Tink and she grinned at Curly. "Thanks."
A sudden creaking sound came from the root Curly was gripping. It was breaking with the weight of him being pulled into the earth.
"Quick, I need to take your blood," Tink said, gingerly stepping over to him.
"Sure, whatever you need."
Tink smiled at him again. He didn't ask her why, or ask her to help him, or blame her for his predicament. He trusted her, and the thing he was mostly concerned with was apologizing to her, not saving himself. She was amazed at his selflessness and his goodness, and in that moment she knew that she loved him. Too bad he was slowly being buried in dirt and roots and she was a nervous wreck from being outside of central control for so long. It was probably the least romantic situation she could imagine.
"I hope this works," Tink whispered as she put the last syringe in her bag.
"Of course it will. You're brilliant," Curly assured her. He smiled, but she saw the worry beneath it. She took him in one more time, then climbed back up out of the treehouse.
Tink felt numb as she ran back to central control, which was probably the best way she could feel given her circumstances. She let herself take a few deep breaths when she finally got back to her room, then took off the glasses and got to work. Her hands trembled as she mixed each blood sample with the chemical solution that activated the Essentia and slipped each vial into the tube that dispersed the solutions throughout Neverland. When she had typed the last command and the last vial had been sent out to the mainframe, she pulled up the feeds on her screen and waited.
For a few seconds nothing changed, but then several explosions of color appeared in various parts of Neverland. Plants and trees and organisms grew larger and more radiant, birds soared through the air and the lagoon sparkled. But most importantly, things returned to normal. The beach turned back to sand and the pirates were freed. The ship's cabin grew to its normal size. The magnetic field was restored and Peter flew safely to the ground. Nibs crawled out of the crevice before it closed back up and the twins were released from the zebra trees. The dirt withdrew from the underground house and Curly quickly climbed out.
Tink was so relieved she almost cried. Looking at everyone on the screen, safe and unharmed, gave her complete and utter happiness. She was about to throw herself on her bed when she noticed a small message flashing on the corner of her computer screen.
Error. Missing Essentia: Wendy Darling.
In less than a second Neverland was in turmoil again. The shaking had intensified and everyone was again getting trapped in or attacked by some organism.
Tink cursed. She knew it was a terrible idea to put that stupid girl's Essentia in the system, and now they were all paying for it.
What do I do now? Tink thought with increasing panic. There's no way I can go into the Grey World, and everyone else is incapacitated. She looked around her small room and saw something that sparked her last shred of hope.
"If I can't go to her," Tink murmured, "I'll have to bring her here."