"That's what a ship is, you know. It's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs but what a ship is. What the Black Pearl really is...is freedom."

-Pirates of the Carribean

Hook reaches for his sword instinctively, and in the next moment curses again; it will not be removed from its sheath, not when it knows that he means to use it against Pan, not while he is still wearing these damned manacles that are so tight they nearly slice into his skin; a warning, no doubt.

Starkey moves to pull out his own sword, but only the handle comes out of the sheath, the blade itself remaining within. He lets out a foul curse, shoving the handle back into place.

Pan gives him a hard look, and Hook has no doubt that that bit of magic is his doing. "Try not to insult my mother like that, Captain; she was a right bitch for abandoning and forgetting about me, I think, but you should know better than to talk about...loose women like that."

"What the hell is this?" Hook demands icily, holding up his wrists in annoyance, and ignoring the slight against Milah for now. There will be time to wring the little fae's neck, if that's what the blasted creature is, once he's got these damned things off.

Pan looks like he is holding back laughter, and he spins past the crew and toward where Hook is standing with ease. None of the men dare to attack him, not with all of the stories they've heard. "You said you wanted to be able to leave Neverland, Captain," he taunts. "This," he gestures to the manacles, "is your chance to do so."

Smee speaks up then, all righteous indignation, though Hook can see him quaking from where he stands behind Red and Rodney. "What have you done to our Captain? I don't understand."

"No, you wouldn't," Pan says, with mocking compassion. "You're only a simple sailor, after all. Waiting for your orders." And this time, he does laugh, and Hook hears the words he doesn't say. Another kind of slave. "All right, Captain. I'll spell it out for you. You can leave, now. Those manacles...well, they're imbued with the same magic that allows me to control the Shadow. You can leave Neverland, so long as you're wearing them."

"I gather that's not all there is to them," Hook growls, silently fuming.

Pan winks at him. "No," he admits, pinching his thumb and forefinger together. "There's a little wrinkle in your happy ending. A...delay."

"Leaving Neverland is not my happy ending," Hook snaps, and Pan laughs, a rich, full sound, that is at the same time sick and twisted.

"No, but killing the Dark One is. Or did you forget that?" his eyes flash, and, for a moment, his eyes radiate anger, before that disappears behind amusement once more. "One forgets ever so many things in Neverland."

"I've never forgotten that," Hook grits out. He wants to tear this wicked creature to pieces, as he's always wanted to do since he betrayed Liam, as he wants to kill the Dark One.

But for the first time, he can't even try to act on that desire.

"Oh?" Pan raises a brow. "Even when you were busy playing dad to his son?" he smirks at the look on Hook's face. "Oh, don't look so glum, Hook! It isn't the end of the world, after all. Just the end of your freedom." A pause, during which Pan moves to lean lazily against the ship's wheel, one hand slinging itself over the spokes as if he owns it. "Which is worth more to you?"

Hook doesn't answer, though his eyes narrow in irritation at the sight of Pan touching any part of his ship. What would be the point?

"Let me explain how this works," Pan drawls, seeming to preen under the hatred Hook feels, simmering just below the surface. "The cuffs put you in my service. You don't necessarily have to do anything I want, but you can't harm me, and you can't...outright disobey me."

"I know how the bloody cuffs work, Pan!" Hook snaps. "I've seen them before."

"Hmm. Then you know that they'll allow you to leave Neverland, whenever I like. As well as your men, too."

Smee's mouth drops open. It would be comical, Hook supposes, were he not still so furious.

He thinks, in this moment, he has never hated anyone save the Dark One as much as he hates Pan.

"How is that possible?"

"Like I said, the manacles have the same magic as the Shadow," Pan says, as if he's giving a particularly rousing lecture.

Hook wonders how far he would get before the manacles stopped him, if he tried to stick his hook in the man-boy. Of course, it doesn't matter. The brat's immortal, after all, and not just in the way that everyone in Neverland stays young for as long as they're there.

One can still die, here. He's seen it happen often enough to know.

"You'll go anywhere I like, any time I want you to. You're my servant now; you and your whole ship will do my bidding forever. But...at least you'll get to leave here. And who knows? You might even get your chance to skin a crocodile, after a while."

"And why shouldn't I just sail away and never return, the moment I get to another world?" Hook demands.

Pan smirks. "I dare you to try. I do so ever like games."

Hook takes that to mean that it is impossible to do so, but then, he was expecting that. It would be akin to outright disobedience, after all.

Outright.

There are ways to get around that little loophole, he thinks, and then curses inwardly. He is practically a slave to the little demon, and here he is, trying to find ways to...

"And if I don't do as you say?"

Pan smirks. "Oh, dear Captain, I thought you said you understood how this works." His lips twitch into a full grin. "You'll die, of course. And without ever getting your revenge on the Crocodile. Your life would be for nothing. How disappointing that would be."

Hook growls, annoyed more than he cares to admit by the words. "And what is this for?" he demands, irritation bubbling up into fury. "So that you can have another toy to play with, boy?"

Pan raises a palm to his chest in mock offense, pushing himself off of the ship's wheel; the men before him dive out of the way like frightened children, and Hook just sighs. "Of course not, Captain. I have far too much respect for you for that."

Hook raised a brow. "Then what?"

Pan smirks. "Well, let me see. Immortality has its perks, of course, but sometimes boys can simply get bored here, Captain."

He doesn't quite know how to respond to that, so Hook keeps his mouth shut.

Starkey, however, where he stands by the Captain's cabin, does not. "We returned the boy to you, did we not?"

Pan scoffs. "Late, but yes, I suppose you did. What of it?"

Red looks furious as he spits, "So, shouldn't you let us go, now?"

This time, Pan just laughs, staring at Red until the man takes a step backward and stumbles over a bit of rope before falling to the ground.

"A pirate, demanding fairness," Pan smirks. "Imagine that."

"You've had your fun," Hook grits out then, stalking forward until he is standing just before the boy now, though the other does not look at all intimidated, as well he might. "Now get off my ship, unless you have anything else of note to say. I'm sure your wishes are made clear enough through these." And he holds up the manacles, and struggles not to be sick at the sight of them.

Pan raises an eyebrow; perhaps to remind him that he has no way of enforcing his words, that Pan owns him now, and will leave whenever he damn well pleases, but he doesn't say any of those things.

Instead, his feet come up off of the deck of the ship, and, in the next moment, he is the air, flying back to that blasted island with the grace of a fairy, and Hook wonders if the no-longer fairy's words are right, because the pixies and Pan are just as evil as one another.

"What do we do now, Captain?" one of the men asks then, and suddenly every eye of those still on the ship turn to him, where they had been on Pan just moments earlier.

He stares at them for a long moment.

Days ago, he was used to this. Used to his men looking up to him, to having the answers.

But he doesn't, not now. And he doesn't know what to say.

He's left standing there, completely lost, for a full moment, before something else answers for him.

The wind picks up, swirls, and the bracelets around his wrists glow golden with magic.

He can hear Milah's voice, whispering close to his ear, a billow of wind, begging him not to leave her son, but he brushes it away irritably, because there's nothing he can do, now, even if he wants to.

They land in Wonderland, not the Enchanted Forest, and Hook finds himself wondering if the Dark One's dagger can kill any immortal being, for, when he finds it, that's what he intends to do with it.

Even if it means nothing, for he is not truly free of that infernal place, in more ways than one, Hook is determined to enjoy his newfound freedom from Neverland, however long it lasts.

But, as the day goes on, and he knows that, eventually, it will draw to a close and he will be sucked back to that infernal island, he can almost pretend that the 'errand' he is performing for Pan is not one forced upon him, because he finally has some small amount of freedom. And that isn't enough, but

When morning comes, a real, vivid morning, and not another day that is not really another day passing; Hook is tired and feels older, even though he knows that he cannot have aged too much over one night when he has not aged for many, many years whilst in Neverland.