Chapter 17: Neverland

Aqua and James land on a massive island, with a seemingly endless ocean on all sides. Lush jungles and forests cover the entire expanse. Aqua notices a piece of paper and picks it up just as two young boys run up to them. James looks at the two boys, "Hey there. You guys lost or something?"

The two wine, "We were so close." The boy in fox skin says.

Just then, a voice speaks up from above them, "Too bad, men. Tough break." A boy falls to the ground in front of them, landing gracefully on his feet.

"But Pan!" The kids say.

A quick observation shows this Pan is older than the other two, but not by more than 2 or 3 years.

"No buts." Pan tells them, "You know the rules. The first one to find and claim the treasure map… gets to be the leader. And that's you." He says to Aqua.

Aqua simply tilts her head, "Leader?" She echoes.

The fox-skinned boy looks up at her, "Of the expatition!" He explains.

The other boy, wearing bear skin, nods, "Uhh, we're goin' on a treasure hunt. And that's our map you got!"

As Aqua and James examine the map more closely, a small, glowing woman floats down on her wings and approaches Pan angrily, but no words come out, only jingle sounds.

Pan quirks an eyebrow, "Whaddaya mean? I never said girls can't be part of the gang." He argues with her, "C'mon, Tink, the more the merrier!"

Aqua frowns at Pan, "I'm sorry, but we have something else we need to take care of."

James nods, "We appreciate you willing to let us in on your game, but we simply don't have the time."

Aqua offers the map to Pan, "Here, you keep it."

Tink nods in agreement, but Pan crosses his arms, "Too bad… but rules are rules." He says, angering Tink again, "I guess we'll just have to call off the treasure hunt."

"Nooo!" The two kids wine loudly.

The two kids look disheartened, and even Pan looks fairly disappointed. James leans closer to Aqua, "Ya know, we don't exactly know where to start. We could play along with these guys as a cover while we look for Ven and Terra."

Aqua mulls it over for a moment before sighing, "All right, you win. We'll join you for one 'expatition.'" She tells them. The two young boys become excited and cheer in joy.

With that decided, Aqua opens the map and she and James examine the map. James hums, "Looks like we might wanna take this pass here." He suggests, but Pan shakes his head.

"You're not the leader. Only she gets to make the decision." He chides.

James nods, "Uh… right, my bad." He apologizes, "Far as I can tell, there's no Unversed here yet, but that could change at any time. I also haven't seen that Entity in a while. Last thing it told me was Daybreak…it couldn't possible mean…"

He's broken out of his thoughts when Aqua starts speaking to Peter Pan, and the Lost Boys, "As far as I can tell, we're here." She says, pointing at a certain point on the map, "And this mark here is where we'll find the treasure."

The one dressed like a fox glares, "Enough pointin'. C'mon, let's go!" He complains.

Peter gestures for him to wait, "Wait a second. We still don't even know our leader's name! Or our new expatition team member." He says before smiling, "I'm Peter Pan. The jealous one over here is Tinker Bell. And you are?"

Aqua smiles back, "Aqua." She answers.

"And I'm James, but you guys can just call me Jim." He moves towards Tinker Bell, "And no need to be jealous, she actually already likes so-AGH!"

He's interrupted by Aqua grabbing his ear, "Didn't you learn your lesson last time!" She says with a blush of embarrassment.

Pan tilts his head, "What's this about now?" He asks.

Aqua huffs and shakes her head, "Never mind."

Pan shrugs, "Anyways, so you're Aqua and Jim!" He says, making her eyes widen and release James' ear as Peter starts floating, "Now, first stop-Mermaid Lagoon!"

Aqua blinks for a moment, "Oh, okay." She and James exchange looks at one another before he nods. Aqua clenches her fist for a moment before they make their way towards the lagoon.

As they approached the lagoon, they were intercepted by a man in a long red coat, with a sabre on his hip, "I have you now, Peter Pan! Today's the day I shall be rid of you forever!" He declares.

James looks back at Pan, "Friend of yours, I presume?"

Peter glares back, "I'm busy right now, Hook. We're on an expatition. Can't I show you up some other day?"

Hook stomps his foot, "You'll show me up now! Give back me treasure!"

James narrows his eyes, "Ok, seriously, who's that?" He asks.

Peter smiles, "Aw, that's just Captain Hook. He's a two-bit pirate codfish." He says as he walks away, ignoring the Captain.

Hook scowls, "I'll cleave you into two bits, boy! Smee!" He shouts before running for cover. The whole group suddenly gets on alert when a cannon ball lands 3 feet from them.

Aqua looks to the group, "We're sitting ducks out here. Run!"

James summons Starlight, "You guys get a move on, I'll draw their fire and give you an opening!" He says before leaping into the air to cleave a second cannon ball in half as the others run to a safe distance.

James nimbly dodges and avoids all cannon fire shot at him as he keeps up his momentum, focusing on picking up as much speed as he can manage. Finally, he's moving fast enough to dash across the ocean with enough force to bring up a massive wall of water. James raises Starlight high, "Freeze!" He shouts as he casts ice magic, freezing it into a wall of ice that blocks him from the cannon fire.

James returns back to the ground, "That'll buy us a bit of extra time, I better meet back up with Aqua!"

When he finds the others, Aqua rushes up to him, "Are you ok, Jim?" She asks.

He nods, "Yeah, I'm fine. I bought us some time, but I don't know how long. We'd better keep moving." Aqua nods and turns to see the Lost Boys have stopped moving and are looking straight up.

They approach the boys, "What is it?" Aqua asks.

The boy in bear skin points up at a huge mountain, "The mark on the map points all the way up there."

Peter shrugs, "Aww, relax. A little pixie dust, and we'll be there in a jiffy."

The boys turn to Peter, "But… we've never had to flied that high up before!"

The bear skinned boy tells him. The boy in the fox skin nods, "What if we fall?" He asks in concern.

Peter narrows his eyes at them, "Hey, when did you two turn into cowards?"

Aqua steps forward towards Pan, "Don't you think you're asking a bit much of them?" She asks.

James nods, "Yeah, that would be a long drop. Don't forget, they're just kids."

Peter doesn't even look at them, "This is between me and them, you guys." He says before folding his arms, "Men, only the bravest of the brave can claim that treasure."

They look down, "Yeah, we know…" The bear skin one says. The two of them turn and continue on their way.

Peter turns to Tinker Bell, "Tink, if you would?" He asks. But she has her back turned to him and refuses, "We haven't got all day!" He tells her. With a jingle, she flies towards the group and sprinkles golden dust on them. The boys quickly take off as they fly up the mountain side. Peter turns to them as he begins to take off, "Just think of a happy thought! It's that easy!" He tells them. Aqua closes her eyes and, soon enough, she begins to fly.

James attempts to do the same, but nothing winds up happening. He raises an eyebrow at himself and tries again, but nothing. He hums to himself, "That's odd…. It worked for Aqua… I wonder what I'm doing wrong." He decides to abandon the flying idea and use his agility to leap from one ledge to another until he reaches the top with the others.

As they walked, Aqua noticed something, "Hey, aren't we back where we started?"

The fox skinned boy looks around, "Ya mean we went all the way around Never Land for nothin'?"

Peter smiled at them, "Well, ya conquered all sorts of obstacles to get here. And to me, that's certainly not nothin'."

Aqua looks at Peter, "You know, I had you all wrong." She tells him, "You were just looking out for them back there. Being a good leader."

Peter's smile turns smug, "Yeah, of course I was." He tells her.

"You're too late, Peter Pan!" Hook shouts from the distance, with a treasure chest under his boot, "I'll be taking what's mine now."

Peter draws his dagger, "It's Hook!"

Hook smiles wickedly at the group, "Smee, secure me treasure." He instructs. Another pirate opened the chest and shrieked in alarm, causing Hook to turn his head back towards him, "What is it now?" He asks.

Smee turns to Hook with fear in his eyes, "C-Cap'n, it's the treasure. It's b-been…" He stutters.

Hook glares, "Spit it out, you idiot!" He screams as he looks at the chest and sees a variety of wooden toys. Hook gasps, "Odd's fish! It's all junk!"

Peter glared at the Captain, "Whaddaya mean, junk? Those are our treasures, Hook!"

"But what did you do with MY Treasure?" Hook demands.

The boy in bear skin looked at Hook, "Oh, we losted it all." He says.

Hook stomps his feet in frustration, "You what!? You scurvy brats have crossed me for the last time!" Just then, a ticking sound can be heard coming from the waters surrounding them, "Hmm? What's that? That sound…" Hook says with fear growing with each passing tick. All eyes move to see a Crocodile being the source of the ticking. The crocodile eyes Hook hungrily. "Not you again!" Hook says, "No, get away from me! Smee! Do something!" He then turns and runs off shouting, "SMEE!" leaving Peter, the lost boys, Tinker Bell, Aqua and James to laugh at the scene that just took place.

Moments later, the chest was recovered and the group was looking inside. James took one look and gasped, "Hey, Aqua, isn't that Ven's old practice sword?" He asks, pointing to a wooden sword made to look like a Keyblade, with the word "Terra" inscribed on the side.

Aqua picked it up, "It is…"

Peter nods, "Oh, Ventus left that here. I guess it's a special keepsake or somethin'. But don't worry about him. He said he would be all right without it. And then he promised to visit us again with even better treasures-maybe enough to fill a hundred treasure chests."

Aqua looked deeply at the wooden Keyblade, "Ven… He was here…" She says before jerking her head to the left, "And someone else." She says with less friendliness in her voice.

James narrows his eyes, "Vanitas…" He says quietly.

"what's the matter?" The lost boys ask.

Aqua turns to them, "It's nothing. Best that you stay here."

James nods, "She's right. This is something we have to do ourselves." The two then hurry in the direction that they sensed Vanitas.

The two of them rushed as quick as they could to a nearby clearing when they heard Vanitas speaking, "So, have a good time hanging out with the kiddies?" He asks as he walks to them with Ventus' practice sword in hand.

"How'd you get that?" Aqua asks.

Vanitas holds it up, "I think that kid's outgrown such a childish toy, if you ask my opinion." He then snaps the wood in half.

James glares and summons Starlight, "How dare you!"

Vanitas tosses the remains aside and summons his Keyblade, "Just like I've outgrown my need for you two."

Aqua's fists tremble in anger, "You freak!" She yells as she summons her Keyblade, "We'll make you pay for that!" And so, the battle begins.

Vanitas opens with a Dark Firaga, but James parries it while Aqua fires Prism rain. Vanitas gets hit and doesn't have time to respond as James uses Aeroga, but Vanitas used an after image to counterattack. Aqua intercepts with a Wishing Edge attack as James gets up and uses Thunder Raid.

Aqua and James continued to use flawless teamwork, but Vanitas was unshakeable. No matter what they did, they couldn't put the boy down.

Finally, though, James leaps up and raises Starlight to the sky, "Faith rain!" Countless streaks of light bombard Vanitas mercilessly for 80 seconds as James pushes himself to the limits of his power. When the assault finally ends, James and Aqua are panting heavily as Vanitas drops to the ground, his Keyblade dropping to the ground some distance past him.

Aqua drops to her knees in exhaustion. James wipes his brow, "That kid was tougher than I thought… Are you ok, Aqua?"

She nods, "We've done it… He's…. finally, … finished…" She smiles as James helps her back up and they walk over to the broken practice sword. Two steps later, however and the full extent of the fatigue takes affect and they both drop to the floor, losing consciousness.

As they slept, their minds went back to the night before the Mark of Mastery Exam.

Flashback

"You'll find out someday, I'm sure." Terra answers. Ventus began to bicker with Terra about the subject, causing James and Aqua to start laughing. Terra glances over at them, "Hey, what are you two laughing at?" He asks. Aqua smiles widely, "We can't help it. You two would make the weirdest brothers." She says between laughs. James launches his shoulder around her, "Well we learned it all from our weird sister." He says, earning him a playful shove from Aqua in return. Meanwhile, Terra and Ventus just look on at the two completely lost as Aqua and James continue laughing. Soon enough, all four of them end up laughing together.

Flashback end

"Aqua! Jim!" They hear a voice calling. They open their eyes and see Peter Pan, crouching in front of them, "Are you two all right? What happened?"

James groans as he gets up, "We fought an old enemy of ours. It took more out of us than we thought it would." He turns to Aqua, "You ok?"

She gets to her feet, "I'm fine." She tells them.

Peter then looks over to the broken Keyblade replica, "Oh no! Look at Ven's treasure!" He says.

James scowls, "I still can't believe he did that!" He says through gritted teeth.

Aqua shakes her head, "It's okay, guys." She tells them, "Whatever it is that binds us together isn't going to break so easily…" James' hand instinctively goes to the Wayfinder around his neck, "and that's our real treasure." Aqua then goes and picks up the remains of the wooden blade, "I think Ventus knew that. That's why he left this behind."

Peter smiles, "You must really be close. And that's somethin' pretty special. You guys and Ventus… and Terra, was it?" He points out.

James nods, "Yeah. We're practically family."

Peter smiles wider, "One day you should all come back!"

Aqua turns to face him, "I'd like that."

James smiles, "Me too Peter. Me too."

(A/N: That's it for this chapter! Sorry it took longer than the last few updates, I'm on the road at present, so uploading times will be a little weird. We're in the home stretch now! Are you guys ready? The finale for book 2 begins next time! Read and Review!)