A/N: Bit of a rip-off from the 2003 Peter Pan, I know, but it's the same general concept. Just enjoy it.

The ship lurched as Jax lunged, so her first attack missed. Ninth spun around, probably to make a shish kebab of her, but then he finally noticed Peter and that queer golden light emanating from him. He paused; Jax acted. She ran and leaped, hugging the big man tight and barrelling him back a few steps before pushing herself away, sliding across the deck on her belly until she came to rest in a corner of the deck, squeezing her eyes shut and hiding her face in her arms.

"Now, Peter!"

Whether or not Peter had been holding in that unfamiliar, unlimited happiness that had been building up inside him or it had just been good timing, Ja would never know. But at that moment, there was a deep boom and a light that was blinding even through Jax's closed eyes as protective arms swept across them. An explosive wind followed, whipping her hair wildly about her head. She heard the unprepared Ninth and Mister Smee cry out; heard something break. She felt little hands tugging her hair and Dancer's familiar bell-words: look up.

Jax sat up and blinked. An almost invisible ring of force was spreading from where Peter lay, and as it passed the sea turned blue and calm, and the forest became green and lively. The black waters of the Mermaid Lagoon were alive with movement and the shine of a hundred different-coloured tails slapping on the water. Smoke rose from the redskin camp in a lazy spiral and cries of joy could be heard, even from here. A thousand golden lights emerged from the trees, flickering and fluttering in the air. Dancer waved heartily to his fellow fairies. They seemed to wave back. The rain flickered and faded; the rainclouds were sucked away to reveal a clear blue sky.

Grinning, Jax looked down to where Peter lay… except her didn't. She was hardly surprised when she looked up and saw a faint black speck high over her head in the new clear blue sky. He may have been out of sight, but when Peter Pan crowed he may well have been standing right next to her.

Jax laughed. It had never felt so wonderful.

At that moment, another white light engulfed them. For a moment Jax was not really Jax; she was a thousand pieces floating in a strange bright stream of sound and colour. It was by no means unpleasant. The drifting sensation made her feel free, so free. She let herself float for a few more seconds until she felt all those little pieces of her being sucked back down into a single place; she resisted, felt human pain again. With a dismissive mental sigh, she gave in and let herself be drawn back into her body.

She was still on the flying ship, but she was no longer in Neverland. They were sailing now over grey clouds in a black, starless night. Jax remembered how to make her legs work and walked over to the side; she could faintly see the lights of a city below them. Behind her, Ninth and Mister Smee were still getting their bearings. Jax sighed, blowing a wisp of hair out of her face. Jumping was not an option, and if she couldn't fly it probably wasn't a very good place to try. So until they landed, she was stuck with the two pirates.

"Excuse me?" She called to a rapidly blinking Ninth. "Yes, you. Where are we?"

Ninth had forgotten how to make his lips. He gaped like a goldfish for a few seconds before Smee spoke for him. His voice was croaky and thin and his lips moved as though they were made of lead, but he managed to speak. "London, Miss."

Jax's eyes widened. "You're going to attack the Queen?" she breathed.

Ninth swayed as he got to his feet. Jax wondered whether it was because she was younger or because she wasn't quite as bitter as he was that contributed to her fast recovery. "Yes," he snarled. "She did nothing to help us. She deserves it."

Jax whistled through her teeth. "Good luck with that, bud. Have you seen the palace? You'll never get past the guards."

"Because they are expecting an attack on foot," Ninth grinned. "Not a flying ship."

Jax blew more hair out of her face. "Still, there's no way you could do it. How do you know to get to her? She'll have her own private guard. It's just not done."

"It is if you can fly," Ninth snarled, and lunged for Dancer. He fell flat on his face as the lithe fairy stayed true to his name and danced out of his grip. Jax looked at him.

"Scram," she said, and Dancer saluted before diving over the side and plummeting down. Now all Jax had to do was make sure the ship didn't land and redirect it to Neverland.

"This should be fun," she muttered to herself, stepping forward to do some form of harm to the useless Ninth, but at that moment his hand shot up, wrapped around her ankle and tore her down. She fell with a grunt and lashed out with her foot, aiming for his face. She missed and his grip didn't loosen; rather, it tightened. The sharp nails dug into her leg and she kicked blindly again. He caught her other leg this time and, struggling to his feet, hauled her up upside-down. The blood rushed unpleasantly to her head and she gurgled uncomfortably. The ship was dropping now; Mister Smee was making sure of that. With sheer malice in his eyes, Ninth tied her upside down to the mainmast again.

"I'll deal with you later," he snarled. "I'm going to drag it out, sweetcheeks. It'll be long and painful and you will rue the day you were born."

"Great," Jax grinned, then frowned, so it would look like a grin to the pirate. "I look forward to it."

Ninth stalked away, muttering angrily under his breath. There was an unpleasant lurch as the ship dropped lower; Jax could not see it, but the lights of Buckingham Palace were now visible over the side. Still they dropped, still the blood rushed to Jax's head. Her temples throbbed and her eyes bulged. This was most certainly not where she had imagined she would be a week ago. She much preferred floating in limbo between Neverland and London…

For a moment a thick, cold, heavy cloud of smog surrounded them. Jax closed her eyes and held her breath as they plummeted down, her hair pooling on the deck beneath her head. Then they emerged again, and Jax could hear the sounds of the city over the wind and the blood pounding in her ears. They were close. Clenching her jaw against the throbbing in her head, she tried to wriggle around in her bonds, tried to find a way out. But with no Dancer and no Peter this may well have been-

There was a bang and a hole tore through the deck. A little grey bullet soared past Jax's ear, a few centimetres to the right. More followed; Jax tried to make herself as small as possible, which was easier said than done when tied upside-down to a mast. She squeezed her eyes shut against the pain in her head and the sounds of shouting and gunfire around her; they snapped open again abruptly as the ropes around her loosened. She prepared herself for impact on her head, but was caught by her ankles instead. Rolling her eyes up to give Ninth a very disapproving look, her mood was considerably brightened when she saw a familiar boy grinning down at her. His green eyes were ablaze with light and his sandy blonde hair shone in the lights of the city. His clothes were made of healthy green leaves and his skin, dirty as it was, seemed to glow.

"Hello, Peter Pan," Jax croaked. "Mind setting me right-way-up?"

"Certainly," Peter beamed, carefully laying Jax down on her back and helping her to her feet. She swayed for a seconds, wildly dizzy, then focused.

"That was a very plain entrance for someone like you," Jax said, eyebrow raised. "How'd you get me out, anyway? He should have… Oh."

Ninth had pushed Mister Smee away from the helm, who had become mysteriously blind to the prisoner's escape. In the time since the bullets had started flying, Ninth had now taken over the helm, armed to the teeth and with a mad look in his eyes and an inane grin on his face as he spun the wheel, directing the ship down to the palace.

"Peter, we've got to stop him," Jax said urgently. "If he lands, there'll be a manslaughter."

Peter shrugged. "Who cares? He's the bad guy."

Jax knew better than anyone what would happen to Peter if he lost his bad guy again, but she also knew how stubborn he was. So she told him the other part. "Yes, but they don't know that. They'll shoot us down too."

Peter shrugged again. "I'll just fly away."

Jax raised an eyebrow. "And leave me here? I don't think so. We need to convince them that he kidnapped us or something…"

Peter looked wistfully at the big pirate. "I still don't see why we can't just let him get shot."

Jax rolled her eyes. "Just follow my lead, OK? Go hide."

Peter frowned. "But I just got here!"

"You'll have your spotlight in a moment. Just listen for a moment, OK?"

xXx

Ninth could scarcely believe it. Buckingham Palace was a glittering jewel below him, so close he could almost cup it in his hands and crush it, just as he had always dreamed of doing. And once he had brought the Queen down, who knew what he could do next? The world was finally his oyster. Nothing, nothing could stop him.

"OI! OVER HERE, YOU BIG BUMBLING BRUTE!"

Except maybe that snotty black-haired brat who seemed intent on ruining everything. She was standing on the deck now, right-way up. Which was a shame, because Ninth had rather enjoyed that look of discomfort on her face as the blood rushed to her head. Her face was still flushed, but her eyes glinted.

No matter; it was a light he would put out soon enough. He had looked forward to torturing the girl until she begged for death, but he could stand her antics no longer. He could not let her interfere. With a growl he pounced from the helm and onto the deck, sword drawn and poised to attack. The girl blew a loud raspberry at him and rolled away from his falling sword, standing at the edge of the boat and looking infuriatingly cocky. She leaned against the side, her hands wrapped around the wood, eyes twinkling with mischief.

Ninth glanced briefly over the side. They were dropping, but still high enough for the girl to be seriously injured or dead by the time she hit the ground. Even if she wasn't, the bullets would probably take care of it anyway. He grinned at the thought; she would land in the middle of the Palace, and then he could crush her dead body with the Jolly Roger as he landed. No-one would remember her except the hull, smeared with her blood and the remains of her ground bones.

It was the best idea he'd had in a long time, so without further ado he pushed her.

xXx

It had all gone rather well, Jax thought.

Her goading had been pretty spectacular (if she did say so herself) and the fall was pretty fun too. She flipped over and over, eyes closed and smiling serenely. It was more fun than she would have thought, having her hair whip her face and hearing the roar of the air in her ears as she plummeted. She heard Peter's scream right on cue and heard a rush of bells in her ear, screaming a few obscenities and demanding her as to whether or not she was sane.

"Until the last second," she bellowed over the sound of the wind as she rolled over again through the rushing air. "Or maybe a little bit before. Just not before then."

You're nuts! Dancer cried. You're not invincible, who do you think you are-

"Runnin' round leaving scars," Jax sang to herself, a smile tugging at her lips. Despite the current predicament, she felt rather calm and a bit silly. She guessed that it had something to do with Neverland.

Dancer continued this way for a bit before, after muttering something about not helping her and letting her learn her lesson, flew around her once and coated her in shimmering golden dust. Jax felt the sparks tingle on her skin and remembered the mental oblivion that had come when she realized the difference between reality and dreams and suddenly soared upwards, defying gravity altogether. Her stomach flipped uncomfortably for a moment and she wobbled a little in the air, but she soon got the knack of it. She dived down, trying to make it look like she was still falling the last few hundred metres naturally before sticking her feet out and landing softly on the roof of Buckingham Palace. Dancer hid in her clothes, and she made sure he was properly concealed before screaming.

"Help! Somebody help, I'm up here!"

The guards had seen her fall; they knew exactly where she was. They moved quickly and in a few minutes Jax was safely back on the ground, crying fake tears and shaking with false tremors.

"What's your name?" one of the guards asked her, kneeling down on one knee and holding her shaking shoulders steady.

"J-Jax," she sobbed. "Jacqueline H-Hull."

"Hello Jax," the guard smiled. "Can you tell me where you came from?"

Jax was very tempted to say 'heaven', but instead pointed up at the slowly descending ship. "Th-th-there. I was p-p-pushed."

"And who is captaining that, uh, spectacular ship?"

Jax shook her head. "We d-don't know his n-n-name. We r-rarely saw d-d-d-daylight."

"We? So there's two of you?"

Jax nodded. "M-me and P-P-P-Peter. Please, you have to help him, he's still up there!"

The guard turned around, and sure enough the boat was now low enough for the deck to be visible, and what they saw was a big burly man hitting a small, dirty boy. There were roars of outrage and the gunfire started up again. Peter ducked down and disappeared; enraged, Ninth threw a rope over the side and slid down, murder in his eyes.

Jax swallowed. They hadn't counted on this happening.

Still, the guards of Buckingham Palace had it covered. They swarmed forward, guns held up. Police sirens wailed close-by. Ninth narrowed his eyes and death glared every single one of them, waving his swords around in a fancy sort of way, but even he knew he was beaten. The ship was still descending and was moving past him; soon the hull would be scraping through the roof of the palace. The rope he had thrown down trailed away and disappeared in the ring of guards surrounding him.

There was a loud screech as the police cars skidded to a halt. The soldiers quickly melted back and were replaced by officers dressed in black wearing helmets and holding shields and tasers. From a gap between their shoulders, Ninth's black eyes saw a familiar face. She smiled and waved cheekily; a little golden light fluttered by her side.

With a roar, Ninth lunged forward. The police restrained him and the girl broke out in tears again before two officers took her away gently. She followed them, but couldn't seem to resist a cheeky wink over her shoulder before she disappeared into the London night.

I hate kids, Ninth reflected as he dropped his sword with a clatter. I really do.