I knew there was something off about Peter Pan when I had gone to speak with him a couple of months ago. Now that Zeke said it, I realized what it was.

His hair had been blond. In the Disney version, it was red. I remembered thinking that but I had been too preoccupied with other things to give it much thought. Now, there I was, realizing that this whole time he hadn't even been Disney.

Apparently the new non-Disney character was Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon. Not too far off in the "child friendly movies" spectrum, but still not Disney. Under other circumstances, maybe it would have been exciting. Right now, as we walked into ComplexDisney together, I just felt a nervous wrench in my gut at the thought.

"Do you think this plan will work?" I asked Zeke as we made our way down the cobblestone path. The park was closed, only workers roaming about to ensure all exhibits were securely locked.

"I hope so," he murmured, nodding at Sukie who nodded back and began making her way away from us with Ben. Zeke left in a different direction with Marcus and Mary-Ann too, leaving me to make my way to Ordinarily Disney alone.

We worked on a plan all through the day and most of the night before agreeing unanimously on one route. Now, four days after making our plan, we were putting it into action.

I strode toward Ordinarily Disney, a walkie-talkie strapped to my belt bumping my leg. Zeke gave it to me only yesterday. Making sure I remained out of sight once I reached the area, I made my way to Sara and Seth's exhibit.

Sara was sitting on the ground, rubbing her cheek. She looked up when she heard me approach and her mouth dropped open in shock. "Gianna Yumia? But...But I overheard people saying you died."

I snorted, glancing around nervously to make sure no one was in sight. "Takes a lot more than some rumors to kill me."

She smiled tentatively, rising to her feet. "I take it you are still in need of our help?" She gestured between herself and Seth, who remained as I had seen him before – passed out on a table in the right half of the exhibit with cords springing from his body.

I nodded. "If that's alright"

"Yes!" she quickly said. "Yes, that is quite fine."

"Will he agree though?" I nodded my head toward Seth.

"If I'm doing it, he will too," she said, as if that fully answered my question.

"Alright, well..." I glanced around again before slipping the hoop of keys off of my belt. The keys accessing some of the exhibits in Ordinarily Disney. I could see other characters in other exhibits perk up at the sight. "I'm going to open the exhibit. Please don't come out until I tell you to."

She nodded slowly, watching me insert the key into the side door. Sukie would contact me through the radio. We had all agreed on using a channel on the walkie-talkies that nobody else used. That way, our conversations wouldn't be overheard.

I ducked behind an exhibit when a group of workers strolled past on their way to leave ComplexDisney and go home. The sun had begun setting, giving off warm hues of light that I used to finish opening the exhibit door. Once it was unlocked, I stepped back to wait.

Hopefully Zeke, Mary-Ann, and Marcus were having success in their tasks. That thought was confirmed when Marcus came walking around the corner. At first, I froze in fear, thinking I'd been caught. Once I realized it was only him, I relaxed, stepping out to greet him. "Everything working smoothly for you?"

He nodded, jangling the keys in his hand. "Yeah. Pretty much all of the characters are agreeing."

"Well, wait until you get to VillaVillians," I teased.

"Yeah...Zeke is going to tackle that area," Marcus laughed.

Even with everybody gone now, we kept our voices hushed. Security guards would be out any minute, after all, and then we'd all be sneaking about. I swallowed. I trusted that nobody would get caught, but even so, my heart didn't stop pounding.

"Hey, are you okay?" Marcus suddenly asked. "You look a bit pale."

"Oh, I'm fine." I lied, though I didn't feel it. I was probably just scared. I was sure everybody was.

He pursed his lips but slowly nodded. "Yeah. Okay."

"Let's get Seth unhooked so he can wake up." I made my way over to the side door on the right side of the exhibit. Once unlocked, I slipped inside and approached the table with the boy lying on it. He almost looked peaceful; like he were but taking a nap.

Obviously I knew better.

It took a several minutes, but eventually, I had successfully unhooked him from the machines and removed the IVs in his arms. It would take a while before he actually started to wake up, so in the meantime, I'd just be waiting around.

That was alright with me. Once he was awake and the siblings were sent on their way, the real action would happen.

The previous plan to just turn the sedative flow off had been scratched off the list because there were other things everybody needed to do – like ask around and get as many characters as possible to agree to help us once the time came. So, instead, we decided we'd just unhook him and allow the sedatives to wear off that way.

I closed the exhibit door behind me but didn't lock it. Not that it mattered if it were locked or not. Once conscious, Seth could just phase through the glass and nobody could stop him.

Sara's gaze was trained on her brother as she stood next to the glass separating them. Marcus was still by the exhibit, his keys in his hands.

"Aren't you going to keep working?" I asked, inhaling deeply to try and settle my racing heart.

"I was going to but I'm a little concerned about you," he said, eyeing me up and down. "You're shaking."

I blinked and looked down. I hadn't realized but my whole body really was trembling. My heart was getting more antsy by the second, thumping rapidly and erratically in my chest.

Perfect. A panic attack. Or maybe, this time, it was an anxiety attack triggered by the fright of what we were doing and dread of how it could all play out.

I inhaled again, holding the break for a moment before releasing it. "I'll be alright." I turned to Sara. "Remember, you and Seth will go into the castle with Ben and Sukie and find some papers that Zeke and I had gotten a glimpse of a few weeks ago. They started with the words R-O in big, blocked letters. We need to know what that means because Peter Pan had pronounced those exact letters to me. He couldn't finish the word so we don't know what he was trying to say, but I bet the two are linked."

"Gianna-" Marcus started.

"A-Also," I said. I cleared my throat. "Also, you're looking for a little girl that got kidnapped and taken there. We don't know if she's still in there, but we have to look, and with Seth able to phase through walls it'll be a quicker search."

Sara nodded, her expression set with determination. Concern also flickered in her eyes. "You don't look well."

"I'm f-fine," I said. It was getting harder to breathe though. I hunched over, little gasps for air filling the silence. Why now?

"Gianna," Marcus said again. I felt his hand touch my back. "You need to sit down."

My brain barely processed his words. I was shaking as I took a step forward. That was as far as I made it. I had to lean over again, crouching down as I tried to breathe.

The plan might not work. I can't let anything happen to Mom or Mary-Ann. Can't let anything happen to my friends. What if I get them killed?

Thoughts were suddenly racing through my head, aiding the anxiety attack in getting stronger.

Breathe.

Another hand touched my arm. A smaller one. I turned my head. It was Sara. She was out of the exhibit even after I told her to stay inside.

She's just trying to help.

"What's going on?" a new voice asked. Footsteps approached us.

"She's not doing well," Marcus responded.

Seconds later, I felt arms wrap around me, pulling me against a chest.

"Gianna, just keep breathing like you are." It was Zeke. "You're doing great."

I wanted to tell him that I wasn't a little kid and he didn't need to speak to me like I was, but I was busy trying to steady my rapid breaths, and he was just concerned. It wasn't him treating me like a child, it was him using a soothing tone to help me.

I was able to calm myself after a few minutes. Zeke's arms were wrapped around me, keeping me in an embrace. He made sure his grip was loose so I could move as I needed, but he didn't let go completely. Once I felt I wasn't going to pass out or completely panic, I opened my eyes and took one last deep inhale, wrapping my arms around Zeke to hug him back.

"Feeling a bit better?" he asked.

I nodded, my voice raspy as I asked, "Wh-Where's Mary-Ann?"

"She's at VillaVillains. I was going to recruit the characters down there but she volunteered, saying they didn't scare her."

"So you just let her go there by herself?" I said, pulling away from him. "She could get caught or something."

"It's less likely she'll be caught if it's just her," Zeke assured before clearing his throat. "Plus, she threatened to attack me if I didn't let her. I don't know her too well but I know she would do it."

Yeah. She definitely would.

A noise from the exhibit made me twist to look.

Seth was struggling to sit up on the table.

"Seth!" Sara gasped, noticing him moving too. She raced for the door into his side of the exhibit and didn't hesitate in embracing him tightly. Zeke, Marcus, and I approached the glass. Zeke still kept an arm around my shoulders.

"What's going on?" Seth asked, sounding almost groggy. Sara didn't respond, instead glancing at us. Seth turned to look too. His confused expression changed to anger. "Who are you?"

"We can trust them," Sara quickly said, a hand on his shoulder. "We're not in our world. They're trying to send us back but they need our help."

Seth didn't lose the caution in his expression, but at least his body relaxed a little. I just stayed quiet, letting him take everything in.

"How are you feeling?" Sara asked him. "Do you think you could use your abilities?"

"I think so. I just feel weird but it will pass."

His sister nodded. Then she started telling him about the plan. I zoned out of the conversation, glancing around to make sure no security guards were lurking anywhere. It made me nervous just standing in the open. The rest of the workers would have gone home by now so we didn't have to worry about them. I was surprised at how little we'd actually seen security guards. Either there weren't very many or they just weren't doing their job very well and patrolling every area.

Sara had Seth completely informed in less than three minutes. He seemed to understand everything she told him. He still didn't look very trusting, but I knew he trusted his sister, so they were both ready now.

It was like Sukie knew this too, because as if on cue, her voice came through on my walkie-talkie. "Ben and I are all situated over here. Let us know when you'll be sending the siblings."

I unstrapped the walkie-talkie from my belt to reply. "Actually, they're ready right now if you are."

"We're ready," she said, almost cheerily. "Send them over!"

"Cool. They'll be there soon." I glanced back up at Sara and Seth who waited expectantly. Seth was still sitting on the table. "Ben and Sukie are ready. Are you?"

They both nodded. Seth rose to his feet, seeming a little shaky, but he didn't collapse so that was good. "We're ready."

I nodded. Sara made for the door but Seth just stepped up to the glass. I watched in complete awe as he touched it with his palm right before stepping through it. Literally. Next thing I knew, he was standing on our side of the glass, a small smile on his lips.

Marcus was just shell-shocked to my left and it made me laugh. He'd probably never seen the movie then.

Zeke cleared his throat. "They're waiting at the castle. Head on over there and you'll meet up with them."

They nodded. The castle was in sight. It was a good distance away, but it was in sight. So at least we didn't have to give directions. As the two of them took off at a steady pace toward it, I took another deep breath.

This was really about to happen. Who knew how it would play out.

•~•~•~•

Woo! We've only got a few chapters left! Do you have any predictions on what's going to happen? I kind of left it for the imagination when I didn't elaborate on why exactly they were recruiting the Disney characters hehe.

Also, Toothless is the non-Disney character that arrived! My favorite dragon. 🥺

Did any of you guess that Peter Pan wasn't the Disney version? I know I mentioned in chapter 8 that his hair was blond instead of red. Did any of you put two and two together? :D