Legacy: Finding Neverland

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Four: Fighting Without Magic

Despite himself, Chris couldn't help smiling at the casual way that Susan had addressed Bianca, who narrowed her eyes towards the witchlighter. Wyatt let out a snort and Brooke covered her mouth to stifle the laughter that was threatening to explode from her. Trying to hide his amusement, Chris turned his attention towards Hook, who was standing there with a menacing look on his face.

"Well, well, Pan, it seems as though we've finally found your hideaway," he said to the boy who was floating above them, eyeing the pirates carefully, sketching out a plan. "And who might this new beauty be?" He took a step closer to Susan and Chris instantly moved in front of her. "Ah, already have a man, do you? You protect her?"

"And what makes you think that I need protecting?" Susan challenged him. Hook smirked, chuckling quietly as he grasped the hilt of his sword. She gulped as she slipped her hand into Chris's. He tightened his grip on it, searching around the room for weapons. With no powers, they didn't stand a chance unarmed against a dozen armed pirates. "Any ideas?" she murmured, not moving her mouth.

"We need weapons," Chris said just as quietly and as unapparent as she had. Susan gave a small nod and moved back so Chris could cover her, but in an instant, Bianca was right behind her.

"I'm not going to fall for that trick again, girl," she hissed, stretching out her hand, but to nobody's surprise but her own, no energy ball appeared. "What the—" she began, then glared furiously at Susan, the anger evident in her eyes. "You little witch, you did something."

"Me?" Susan rolled her eyes. "I think you overestimate me. There's no way that I have the kind of power to take other people's powers away from them. No, that's your job," she added, referring to Bianca's ability to temporarily take away other people's powers.

"At least it's an equal playing field," Wyatt muttered to Chris, who nodded in agreement. Brooke glanced up towards the Lost Boys, all of whom were crowded around in the corner, cornered by several of the pirates. "We need to get out of here."

"Agreed," Brooke muttered. "All right, let's divide and conquer. Susan, you take care of the two on the left. Wyatt, you take the ones in the centre-right. Chris, centre-left. I'll take the ones on the right. See, we'll have no problem?" Unfortunately, Brooke's voice had gone high, a sign that she didn't believe her words any more than they did.

"If we get ourselves killed, Mom's gonna summon us back from the dead just so she can kill us herself," Chris told Wyatt.

"What about the phoenix?" Susan hissed at Brooke. "She's just not going to stand by and let us escape."

"We'll deal with her later," Brooke said indifferently. "Ready? Go!" she said without waiting for an answer. Barrelling forward, she attacked two pirates from behind, leaving the other three with no other option but to run and help her. After glancing at each other quickly, the Lost Boys joined the fight.

"Wendy!" Peter soared above the quartet as Chris glanced up at him; he was carrying about four swords. It took Susan a minute to realise that he was talking to her. When she glanced up at him, he threw her one of the weapons and she caught it by the hilt, turning around to swing it into one of the pirates. He groaned as he toppled over.

Peter threw another sword towards Chris before flying over to Brooke and Wyatt to give them weapons and lend them a hand. Even with the swords, Chris doubted that they were going to get out of there alive. It only took the space of about five seconds to prove him wrong.

Everyone looked around as a portal opened up above them and Chris took a step back. Even Bianca looked unnerved by this as they all heard faint yelling coming from the portal.

Susan shrieked as Bobby suddenly was flung through the portal, landing in a heap on top of her, sending her sword flying into a pirate, which pretty much put an end to his pirating days. She groaned as he winced slightly, pushing himself off of her.

"Sorry," he apologised. Susan rolled her eyes, making a face at him just as they heard more yelling coming from the portal. "Oh, boy, you might want to move, Susan."

"Why?"

Bobby didn't answer as he pulled her up, pulling her out of the way just as Brandon spurted from the portal, landing right where the two half-siblings had just been sitting. He groaned as he massaged his backside. "They really need to do something about that landing," he grumbled.

"What are you two doing here?" Susan asked with a sigh.

"Well, you know, Susie, we could ask you four the very same question," Brandon said, grinning at her as he stood up. "You know, Neverland's not supposed to be one of the highly visited areas of the universe. Its location is kept secret for a reason. So, who cast the spell that brought you guys here? Just for curiosity's sake," he remarked.

Chris, Brooke, and Susan all looked at each other, then pointed towards Wyatt, who raised his hand at the same time. "Me," Wyatt said with a sigh. "I was just trying to find out what his dad's up to, all right?" He inclined his head towards Bobby, who shook his head as he looked towards his sister.

"Are you guys okay?" he asked.

"We're being attacked by pirates from a fictional world and we do not have our powers," Susan said sardonically. "Of course we're not okay?"

"Excuse me!" Hook was looking highly annoyed by the interruption, glaring at the two newcomers in exasperation. "Would it be possible for us to get back to fighting now?"

Brandon sighed and shook his head, turning towards them. "Didn't anybody come here just so they wouldn't have to grow up?" All of the Lost Boys raised their hands, including Peter. "Okay, that's great. You guys run." Once they had taken off, Brandon looked at Hook. "You scream."

As Brandon picked up Susan's fallen sword, Susan looked towards Brooke. "You know, when we get home, maybe we should try an anti-possession spell on him, just to make sure that Ryan isn't possessing him," she commented.

"Oh, yeah," Brooke muttered as Bobby grinned slightly, grabbing one of the dead pirates' swords and tossing another one to Susan, who caught it.

"Come on, guys," he said with a grin as he started duelling with another pirate. "Let's get this party started, huh?"

"You call this a party?" Susan asked as she was forced into a battle with the phoenix that was inflexibly determined to see her six feet under.

Bobby grinned at her as she ducked underneath Bianca's sword. "What, you're not having fun?"

--

It seemed to take forever to get out from the ambush at the hideout and when they finally managed to reach safe territory, Brooke leaned against a tree, breathing in heavily as she dropped the sword to the ground. "No more," she said flatly. "There is no way that I am going anywhere anymore that I can't use my powers to fight demons."

"They're not exactly demons," Susan pointed out. Bobby had gotten hurt in the escape and she was tending to the injury, seeing as Brandon couldn't heal him. "But considering that we've never had to fight with swords before, yeah, I'd say that we were lucky to get away. How'd you guys get here, anyway?" she asked, looking to Brandon and Bobby.

"Spell," Bobby answered simply as they exchanged a look. "Brandon couldn't sense you, so we figured you weren't on this plane anymore. I saw the flashing star last night . . . it just kind of fit." He winced slightly. "Ow! Take it easy, will you?"

"Relax, I'm almost done," Susan said with a sigh as she finished bandaging the injury with a torn piece of her jacket. "All right, we need to figure out a plan, because sitting around here doing nothing is not going to get us back home any faster."

"Offhand, I'd say that we're in over our heads here," Brandon said simply. "I know you're not going to want my advice, but I'm going to say it anyway. We should leave here, go back home and tell the Elders what's going on, see what They know about this. I know you hate them, Susan, but They might actually know something that could help us."

Susan sighed and shook her head. "We can't leave," she said softly, tying the bandage quickly before turning around to look at the others. Bobby glanced at her quickly before looking towards them.

"Well, Susan, Brandon is kind of right," Brooke said. Susan shot her an annoyed look. "I hate to be the one to say it, but have no idea what we're dealing with here. At the very least, we should go find out what kind of demon we're going up against here."

"We can't," Susan said even more stubbornly.

"Yes, we can," Wyatt snapped at her. "Look, Susan, this is no time to be stubborn. We need to leave here before something happens that gets us all killed. I have never even heard of a dream-sucking demon. Traps people in dreams, yeah, kills people in them, sure, but never one that is actually stealing kids' dreams away from them. So we need to get out of here and find out what we're going up against here."

"They've kind of got a point, Sue," Chris told her. "I mean, if we have no idea what we're up against—"

"Did I say that they weren't making sense?" Susan stood up, turning away from them. "That's not why we can't leave here, you guys. We can't leave because one, we have no idea how we could even leave here. And two, there's no guarantee that once we leave, we'll be able to get back in."

Silence fell over the clearing that they were at as they considered her words. Susan sighed as she sat back down on the log. "Our only option is to track the pirates and see if they lead us to the demon." She stared at her hands before she stood up, looking around at them. "Look, if we do nothing, then we'll die. If we go back and we can't get back in, then we die. Anybody in favour for either one of those two options?"

Nobody spoke. They could hear the chirps of the birds in the trees as they all looked around at each other. "All right." Susan clasped her hands together, trying to think. "So then we need to go find the pirates and hopefully, they or Bianca is going to lead us straight to the demon."

"Okay, but if we even find the demon, what then?" Brooke asked her. "It's not like our powers even work here."

"No, but spells might," Chris pointed out. "Wy, could you come up with a spell to track this demon?" Wyatt, though worried about writing another spell that could possibly go wrong, nodded. "Okay, then let's go find the pirates. There's bound to be some hanging around here, somewhere."

Just as they were about to stand up and head into the forest, Peter suddenly poked his head down, grinning at them jubilantly. "Hey, there," he said cheerfully, startling all of them. "If you're going to find the pirates, then you can count the rest of us in, too."

"It's too dangerous," Susan protested, but knew that her protests fell on deaf ears. "Do you have any idea where they're going?"

Peter's grin broadened and she looked worried as she turned towards Chris with a sigh. "How do we get ourselves into these things?" she wondered, shaking her head.