This is a Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction. All characters in here other than of my own creation are owned by either Disney or Square Enix.
Ch.1: And Everything in Between.
It was an early morning in Neverland and the fog was thick as pea soup. It was right before dawn and nothing could be seen of the island, not to mention on the island. Someone caught in this wouldn't be able to see a foot away, almost literally.
Unseen to anyone a shadow portal opened up on the grey mass that was the beach of Pirate's Cove. It spit out a limp form into the sand.
From the water a glint of light could be seen, someone was approaching the dangerous shores of the Neverland Island. as the light got closer the shine of gold glinting off of the source became visible.
Closer still the light came up to the sandy beach, the sound of wood scraping against the natural water breakers made from rock not too far away. The light made form as a bulls eye lantern, it's bright stream giving way to some of the fog for the small vessel.
(EMERGENCY LAUGHTER INTERLUDE! Now back to your regularly scheduled FanFic.)
The boat finally made it up on the sand, the light was blown out and the sound a stepping and scurrying of two people could be heard around the area now, a the hushed voice of a man came out from the fog. "Alright Smee, you know where to put the traps."
It was the infamous Captain James Thaddeus Hook watched as his First Mate gathered up and carried the precariously placed equipment and ran off into the grey that was the island. "Y-Yes sir Capt'n." The round man whispered back as he disappeared.
Hook had cut all ties to Maleficent and the darkness she had taken control of for fear of having the same fate as some of the others and becoming a Heartless. This was not something the Captain was going to risk, at least not before getting rid of that infernal Peter Pan.
Yes, he went back to hunting down the flying boy in tights, and having his plans blow up in his face but it was a better fate than the alternative.
Hook walked with a skip in his step, he was certain that this morning would be different than any of the others. He just felt good about this day for some reason, call it intuition, or maybe insanity, call it what you will but he KNEW that something good was about to happen to him.
He wasn't going too far from where he knew the boat was, the fog was still exceptionally thick and he didn't want to risk running into Pan before he fell into the traps.
Hook suddenly stopped, having stepped into the tide, he cursed to himself and took a step backwards, shaking his foot in an attempt to get some of the water out of his shoe. He soon gave in, realizing it was a fruitless effort. With a sigh he turned and before he could even complete this step he fell, face first, onto the beach.
The tall man propped himself up on his hand and tapped his hook in the sand. Maybe he had been wrong, it was early and nothing was going right yet.
Hook looked back to see what, exactly, had caught his foot. "A person?" He asked no one in particular. Sitting up he examined the seemingly lifeless form, curious if it was someone from the island.
The figure was female and was completely covered by a black robe. She had two black sword sheathes with gold dragons etched into them artistically that crossed on her back, yet there was no sign of any swords.
The captain used his hook, pulling the hood back so as he could see the face of this person, revealing a young looking lass. She couldn't be more than twelve, maybe, just maybe, fourteen.
Hook looked around him, in the time he was distracted by the girl the fog had lifted even more but it still left a grey tent on everything, making it hard to discern anything. He called out for Smee, trying to be as quiet as possible. "Meet me by the dingy." He still wasn't ready to face Pan.
The Captain lifted the girl in his arms and brought her to the small vessel and set her down and as her body rested her head turned to the side. She was petite, yet tall for her obvious age, her long, black hair made her seem even younger than before. Her long eyelashes sat still, no R.E.M. movement from her eyes. The girl's black shirt didn't rise or fall, her legs beneath black pants and black, high heeled, combat boots lay completely blue crystal pendant that held her robe together at the collar bone sparkled as the sun rose.
Smee had finally found his way out of the dense wooded area and made his way to the dingy."What is it Capt'n?" he asked as he looked past the much taller man to see the girl.
"Who is she? I don't remember seeing her on the island." Smee looked up at his Captain.
Hook shook his head. "That's because she's not from the island. I don't rightly know who she is but she's dead."
Smee looked back to the lifeless girl as the two men took off their hats in honor of the deceased.
At that moment the girl's fingers balled into fists and she took in a breath of air, gasping for more. Her blue eyes shot open and flicked around as she tried to take in everything, even though she couldn't see still.
The two pirates stared at her in dismay. The KNEW she was dead.
Smee shot past his captain as he helped the girl into a sitting position. "A-Are you go-going to be alright miss?" He stuttered out.
She finally caught her breath and looked to Smee then Hook. "Did either of y'all catch the license plate of that bus that hit me?" She tried to laugh but instead coughed.
"Bus?" Smee asked.
She just shook her head. "Just trying to joke a bit. Guess it didn't work." She started to sit up on her own.
Hook held out his hand to help her. The girl took it and was helped by the two pirates up onto one of the small benches on the dingy. She then looked up to Hook and smiled softly and innocently. "Thank you, mister?..." She tried for his name.
"Hugh... Captain... Hook..." He wasn't used to being thanked, especially by children. The young one's tended to hate him and she seemed quite content to be sitting here with the two men.
"I'm Smee." He introduced himself proudly.
The girl giggled at the little round man. "I'm Arina (Pronounced A-rE-na) but most of my friends call me Ari-Chan."
She saw the confused look in the two pirate's faces. "It means little or cute." They still looked somewhat lost so she just shook her head. "I guess y'all can just call me Ari," She smiled softly at the two.
Something seemed familiar about these two but Ari just couldn't place it until a voice came from above. "well would you look at that! A Codfish out of water!" It was Peter Pan.
He floated above the three just as proud as ever. "Don't worry girl, I'll save you!" He announce brazenly before crowing like a rooster.
Ari's eye's went wide. "Girl? Save me?" She asked silently.
Hook jumped back upon Pan's entrance. "PAN!"
Peter pulled out his dagger and pointed it towards the taller pirate. "Have at thee Hook, because what ever you're scheming, it's over."
"Come here you nuisance!" Hook pulled his Rapier out of it's sheathe and swong at Pan as the boy flew around him and pulled the large brimmed hat off of Hook's head, placing it onto his own. "You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn Hook. Getting slow in your old age, are we?"
The flying boy laughed as Hook frantically tried to get his hat back. "Give it back Pan!"
Ari reached into the baggy sleeves of her robe and pulled the two black Katanas that belonged to the sheathes on her back. "You need to learn a little finesse Peter Pan."
Hook and Peter stopped fighting. Peter stared, dumbfounded, at Ari and Hook took this chance to snatch his hat back before looking over at Ari as well.
Ari smirked. "No witty quip? No insult?"
Pan flew up some, glad he could stay out of reach of the girl's long swords. "But I'm the GOOD guy!"
A grin that scared Pan and made Hook step out of range spread across the girl's face. "You're Peter Pan, the same as from the Peter Pan books by one Miss Wendy Dear, correct?"
"Wendy wrote about me?" Peter smiled for a moment before getting back to the problem at hand. "Well then you should know that I'm the good one and Hook's the bad one. Why are you attacking..." Pan didn't finish his sentence before Ari started laughing which threw all of them off.
"He's a pirate and you're and asshole! There really doesn't seem to be much of a GOOD side in this entire mess, now is there?."
Pan flew up a little higher, he had never heard another child speak to him like this before. He was supposed to always be seen as the hero of this world.
Ari started spinning her swords in her hands, dancing with him. She could tell she was making him upset. "Besides. At least Hook has a sense of honor." She was goading him now, and it was working.
"What? I have honor!" Pan yelled at her, angrily. This wasn't right, she wasn't supposed to talk like that to him. "Hook tried to kill Tiger Lilly, and he's tried to kill me several times!" Peter started getting closer again.
"Ah! Like one kills a mosquito! You're nothing but a nuisance. And you, yourself has tried to kill your adversary many a times." Her manor of speech was now more that of an adult than the cute tone of voice that she was using before."You even kicked him off his own ship to be eaten by the crocodile. Dishonorable doesn't even begin to describe some of the things you've done to this man." Ari motioned back to Hook as he was now shaken up by the mentioning of the crocodile.
As Pan got closer and angrier she was becoming more and more satisfied that she could pull his strings like this.
"What about the time that he tried to kill me when I was trying to help him?" Pan was now more than close enough for Ari to attack him.
Hook stared on in dismay at how easily she got him to get close to her with his guard down.
In one fluid motion Ari pulled her right hand and sword across, seemingly in front of Pan, and sheathed it on her back. As it clicked into it's housing Pan's top fell into ribbons, she could of killed him if she had so pleased. "One small show of bad form."
Pan flew back up. "Fine! You want to play pirate? Then go be one!." He flew off, throwing a temper tantrum. "You've won this one!" He shouted back before he completely disappeared.
Hook couldn't believe his ears. He had a dumbstruck look on his face. "I won?" He finally choked out as a smile crossed his face. "I won!"
Hook looked to Smee and picked the little man up, hugging him. "We won! You did hear it too right?"
Smee nodded. "Ey Capt'n! That I did!" The two danced around together in joyous celebration as Ari smiled softly. They deserved to be happy, even if it was only for the time being.
After a few minutes of watching them she turned and started walking off, deciding where to go next. Ari's sudden movement caught the captain's eye and made him stop dancing like a fool. Leaving Smee to do so alone, he caught up with her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Why is it that even though you know the stories of Peter Pan through Wendy's eyes you still helped me?"
The girl looked to Hook's hand and smiled softly as she took it into her own. "Because I always found them to be quite one sided. I always wondered what made you go after him in the first place." She took his hook gingerly into her other hand. "Before this."
Hook didn't know what to say at this point. He wasn't used to being treated in such an understanding manor, especially from a child.
"Besides, you were always my favorite. I tend to have a soft spot for villains." She smiled and made a cute little pose.
Hook looked down at her, taking that a little bit in the wrong way. He was slightly amused by the affection until he remembered how old he thought she was. "My dear child, I'm old enough to be your father."
Ari twitched, now upset, and squeezed his hand tightly causing him to cringe. "For one, I'm not a child. I'm twenty-four." She spoke through gritted teeth. "For another, even though I do find you quite attractive I wasn't actually saying it in that manor."
She let go of the captain's hand and he started to rub it with the back of his hook. "I am quite sorry for that. You just look like your..." Ari poked him on the chest. "I look like I'm what? Fourteen? Twelve? I know this already." Tears started falling down her cheeks.
She hated nothing more than to be reminded of the fact that she looked so young. She didn't mind being called little so much only because she knew that even if she looked her age she'd still be small. She turned away from him and folded her arms.
Hook sighed. 'Well there went that.' He thought to himself. He knew he just ruined any chance of her helping him now but he still tried to get her to like him again, not being one to give up. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." He whispered softly, in a seemingly caring tone.
Ari figured that he just wanted her around for keeping Pan at bay and that she shouldn't place her trust in him or anything he said at this point but something in her couldn't help but make her smile when he apologized. "It's fine... Everyone does it." she turned back to him. "I'm just tired of it, that's all."
Smee finally realized that his captain had left him there alone and scuttled over to the other two. "Capt'n. We sh-should get ba-back to the sh-ship." He stuttered out.
Hook smiled, getting an idea. "Splendid idea Smee! Thank you for organizing a celebration of our victory!" He looked back to Ari. "Would you like to join us?"
He actually did want her to keep Pan away and the company wouldn't be bad either.