And there they lay on the deck of the ship, bleeding from wounds of surprise. A rapier thrust which had been parried so often before, and a dagger jab meant only to test range. The boy in green run through, and the old man in red run onto the small blade. The cheering and laughs of the onlooking pirates and Lost Boys ceased as the silence of shock took over.
The two immortally long opponents had first fallen to their knees looking each other in the eyes in disbelief. Time uncountable and duels innumerable and neither had laid more than a scratch on the other, though not always for the Captain's lack of effort. But neither believed an end to their war, only the recurring battle as had always come before. All that followed was a nod and a look behind the other.
Behind the young lad clad in green, a gang of boys scarcely younger than Pan himself. Spirited away from the mortal world to a life of youth, laughter, fun, and games. Never having to grow up, never taking responsibility for others than each younger than himself.
Except for Peter, the oldest and longest lived child in Neverland. Even the Lost Boys needed to eat, to have shelter, to settle their squabbles. They needed someone to lead them, and Peter was always the one to turn that responsibility into another game. But the longer he lead, the more often he had to do the one thing he was preventing his Boys from having to do- grow up.
And behind Captain James Hook, scourge of the seas and all Neverland, a filthy band of vulgar, violent, and free pirates and wenches answering to none but the Hook. Men and women who had gone wild in the throws of a land where their misdeeds went unpunished, they lived as they chose, and took responsibility for none but those of rank below them.
All but the Captain, oldest and longest lived adult in Neverland. Adults free from fear of consequence can tear each other apart, and they need a law to be laid down to prevent them from doing the worst in their blackened hearts. The Captain was the one person to never cross, disobey, or bluff. He kept the order which allowed chaos to flourish.
In that one moment before the embrace of death, the two leaders saw the other for what they truly were, mirrors. The pirates were nothing more than grown ups who longed to live the carefree life of the Lost Boys, and Pan and Hook were nothing more than the ones who grew up enough to do what their people needed from them. In the pirates, the Lost Boys saw much of what they feared to become if they aged. And in the Boys the pirates saw the youth they squandered, and the children they left behind to live as they wished.
Without them, who would care for their Lost ones? What could become of a Neverland without its two esteemed leaders?
The boy and the captain could not know, all they could think in their final moments was 'what will happen to them without me?'