Trigger Warnings
Mentions of guns, knives, sword fighting, blood, and a hostage situation will be included in this chapter. If these topics are distressing to you, I would recommend that you scroll to the bottom to get a chapter summary.
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Peter swung his dagger furiously, beat for beat matching the arcs of the pirate's swords. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Down. Over. Down.
Each clink and clang sent a rush through Peter's body. He couldn't keep this pace for long. Not with how many times he's come so close to losing this fight. Three pirates laid on the ground with pools of blood gushing out of them. Another three pirates angrily tried to make a mark on Peter, their swings becoming sloppier and more desperate by the second. Peter himself felt his form deteriorate, but he couldn't focus enough to make corrections. Not with how crazed his mind was in this moment.
The pure chaos erupting through Peter could have generated enough kinetic energy to power the entirety of the world. His mind dodged in millions of different directions, with only a second for something to jump onto his train of thought. Margaret left—Hook not on—pirates swinging—Slightly—dynamite—Tootles said—rendezvous—
Peter saw an opening and lunged toward one of the pirates, digging his dagger deep into the pirate's heart as he pushed the large specimen toward the other two pirates, knocking them off their feet. Peter briefly considered running away to meet up with Margaret, but the remaining two pirates jumped off the floor too quickly for that to be a viable option.
Peter wiped his mouth, finding a small blotch of red on his arm. Peter brought two fingers up to his face. His nose was bleeding. Probably due to being thrown against the wall face first earlier…
A shine caught Peter's attention. Reflexively, Peter threw his arm up, catching the swing of the ragged pirate's sword with his dagger. The pirate threw his body into pushing the sword closer and closer to Peter, nearing insertion into Peter's skin. The other pirate prepped a swing. Peter pushed the first pirate back and landed another connection with the second pirate's sword, this time successfully parrying the sword away. The second pirate's arms were thrown out widely—Before Peter could register what he was doing, he realized his dagger was pushed to the hilt in the second pirate's heart. Peter yanked out the dagger, meeting another swing from the first pirate, now the only one remaining.
Peter's breathing was ragged from the exertion, blood dripping onto his lips from his nose. He wiped his face again to remove the annoying sensation. Peter was in a defensive position, his knees bent and his body rocking from side to side as he watched the other pirate threaten a swing. The pirate lurched forward. Peter jumped toward the pirate, catching the pirate's arm. The pirate yelled in pain from the knife digging into the skin, but Peter didn't waste time. He jumped behind the pirate and pounded the dagger into the pirate's back. The pirate fell onto his knees, struggling to breathe before collapsing entirely.
Peter stepped back, looking around at the six dead bodies in the hallway. His breathing was the only sound that Peter could hear as he pulled out his knife from the pirate's back and started sprinting down the hallway where Margaret had hobbled away.
All he needed to do was to rendezvous with Margaret. Then he could take her away and she would be safe once again.
Peter turned the corner where Margaret had gone. From there, it was his own guesswork as to which direction Margaret had gone to. The further Peter ran, the clearer the sounds on deck became. Whooping, hollering, and all other forms of celebration were being thrown around. From the sounds of it, the celebration was coming from the Lost Boys. They'd won.
Peter found a set of steps leading to the deck. Peter ran toward them, making a fast appearance on deck. The Lost Boys locked on him. "PETER!"
They all shouted in unison, running toward him. The Lost Boys jumped and shouted all at once as they each began to relate the story of how they'd fought all the pirates. Peter couldn't bring himself to listen, his eyes darting across the deck desperately. She had to be up here. She had to…
"Peter?" Slightly asked with an edge of concern.
Peter forced himself to look at Slightly, his body cold and alert. "Isn't Margaret up here?"
"No…? She never came up here on deck. We assumed you must've changed plans and put her on a boat to Skull Rock, because we saw her headed that way—"
Peter immediately sprinted away, leaving the Lost Boys dumbfounded. Slightly caught up to Peter, catching his arm. "What's going on?"
"I didn't put her on a boat!" Peter shouted before jumping off the ship. Slightly was forced to let go of Peter as he was nearly pulled off the ship by Peter's jump. The other Lost Boys raced to the side of the Jolly Roger, staring in horror toward Skull Rock.
"Lost Boys get the ship ready!" Slightly commanded, running toward the wheel.
"Where to, captain?" Tootles shouted as he began to tie knots in the ropes.
"Skull Rock!"
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The wind battered against Peter as he flew as fast as he could to Skull Rock. His heart threw itself around in his chest as he flew, helpless to achieve a greater speed than he was already traveling at.
Peter flew near the water in the hopes of flying inside undetected. He flew through one of the archways and landed against the pebbly shores within. He looked around—
"Aye, I should've expected you'd be here so soon," a voice boomed. Peter's head snapped upwards toward a ledge where he could barely make out a red hat. Peter launched himself upwards.
He was face to face with Hook, who held Margaret in an iron grip with a pistol pointed to her head. She remained still as a statue, her eyes wide in horror as one of Hook's hands covered her mouth. Peter could see Margaret's body trembling as she stood. Margaret appeared to shout, only for her words to be smothered by Hook, who turned a menacing grin towards Peter.
"It seems your little plan backfired, hm?"
"We've defeated your crew, Hook. You have no business keeping Margaret hostage," Peter began evenly. He tightened his jaw to avoid a warble from entering his voice.
"Don't I now?" Hook asked, pressing the pistol elegantly against Margaret's head. Peter flinched, his eyes widening. Margaret clamped her eyes shut, a tear slipping down her cheeks. "There's nothing stopping me from pulling the trigger now. You may have defeated my crew, but now that means that I have nothing to lose, hm?"
Hook started shuffling backwards with Margaret, which Peter realized was leading to another ledge. A much taller ledge. Peter took careful steps forward, putting his hands up in the most non-threatening manner he could. "You want me, Hook. Not Margaret. Just let her go and I'll happily take her place."
Muffled shouts of protest erupted from Margaret. Hook pulled his hand away from Margaret's face in amusement, causing her to splutter incoherently from the sudden fresh air in her lungs. "Don't do it Peter! You can't!"
Peter's eyes flashed, almost as though to communicate that he didn't have any other choice. Margaret appeared to receive the message, if evidenced by how she immediately fell silent. Hook roughly stuffed his hand over Margaret's mouth again, yanking her back along with him.
"The thing is, Peter, we've quarreled for so long," Hook began slowly. "Fighting the same menace day…" Hook took a step back, "after day", another step back, "after day…it gets tiring after some time." Hook tsked, smiling smugly as Peter grew noticeably alarmed by how close the pair was drawing to the ledge. "You always had a talent for bringing in fresh prey, hm? Such loyal, fresh prey. First Wendy, then Jane, and now…" Hook gripped Margaret's jaw roughly, forcing her to look at him, "Margaret."
"I don't see what you mean," Peter replied anxiously. Margaret's eyes grew wider, almost as though she sensed where she and Hook were headed.
"Your loyal girls have always found a way to derail my plans. You think my quarrel is only with you. But might I remind you how Wendy had defied me so stubbornly, preventing me from turning the Lost Boys?" Hook strode back. "Don't you recall how Jane helped you to defeat me? You see, the Darling family has cost me dearly. Had they not been involved, I would have snuffed you out a long time ago."
"But you went after Margaret. You wouldn't have lost your crew if you hadn't attempted to kill Margaret first. You wouldn't have lost your crew if you had just let me take her home." Peter's voice grew more dangerous and gravelly as he spoke, his desperation and anger beginning to boil within him.
"I require justice from the years I have spent being cheated out of victory by you," was Hook's far-too-calm reply. Peter heard the echo of a pebble slide off the ledge, signaling that Hook was right on it. Margaret was inches away from a fatal fall. Peter never felt further away from Margaret than he was now.
Peter would do almost anything to get closer to her.
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Margaret closed her eyes again, going through her mind once more as she weighed her options. She almost felt like the moment she was in was frozen in time. Peter, with his eyes wide and his hands up. Hook, with his iron grip around Margaret to ensure she wouldn't escape.
Hook was obviously not overly keen to shoot Margaret, or else he would have done that long ago. Hook needed this moment, Margaret decided, to push Peter to the edge of desperation and make him do something truly bloody stupid. She knew Peter would go to great lengths for her sake. Whatever malicious tricks Hook had planned would not be of benefit to anyone else besides himself.
However, the ledge—Margaret was sure there was a ledge behind her, based on Peter's expression and the sound of something dropping just moments ago—meant that Hook wasn't entirely opposed to throwing her off upon a whim. Hook was positioned well enough where he could do so without risking his own life. It was the ticking clock of this scenario, it seemed. The ledge was Hook's way to apply pressure to Peter's mind as he attempted to reach some sort of conclusion.
Hook didn't have anything to lose, assuming Peter's words earlier were not a bluff. That made him and this situation far more dangerous. And that meant, in Margaret's mind, that her already slim chances had thinned significantly. There wasn't anything Peter could say that would prompt Hook to release Margaret. Not unless it was a trick of some sort.
There…there was only one way this could end for her.
Margaret had managed, within the past 30 minutes since her emotional rendezvous with Peter, to collect herself and bring clarity to her thoughts. She managed to put on the objective lens she insisted on wearing for the majority of her life. Even so, the barrier crumbled slightly, as Margaret felt her eyes grow watery.
She knew what she had to do.
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"Hook! Let. Margaret. Go!" Peter demanded, taking two large strides forward. Hook shuffled back slightly. Peter immediately froze.
"Getting Margaret will cost you a lot more than your life, I can tell you that."
"What is it that you want?" Peter shouted, feeling thunder start pounding in his ears.
"Your Lost Boys will have to turn themselves in. And you will also have to tell me the location of your hideout."
"I'm more than willing to give up my life, but I cannot bargain the lives of the Lost Boys!" Peter yelled back, his voice cracking. Hook's smile widened.
"Then, you will just have to watch as I take Margaret away from you once more," Hook said, lowering his hand from Margaret's mouth. Peter began taking a step forward, before locking eyes with Margaret
A look of determination flooded her eyes as she looked at Peter. By all accounts, this was the most alive she's looked since before her kidnapping. She'd decided something, or else she wouldn't look so certain in this moment-Margaret moved a foot back slightly.
Peter's eyes flashed wide open.
"I'm sorry!" Margaret yelled, before throwing all of her weight against Hook. Margaret and Hook began falling.
Peter sprinted forward, reaching out to catch Margaret's outstretched arm. Red-coated arms wrapped around Margaret, pulling her just out of Peter's reach. Peter lost the ability to float as he slid and buckled against the edge of the ledge.
As if in slow motion, Peter felt his throat vibrate as an ear-piercing scream exploded from within his mouth. Or, it must've been so, or else the feeling of his mouth making a noise wouldn't be so noticeable. Peter reached out an arm helplessly, barely missing Margaret's hands once more. Margaret's eyes stared back at Peter in disbelief, then sadness, then acceptance. She closed her eyes.
She hit the ground.
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A/N: Ok please don't be too mad at me. I probably should've included a warning that this story would include character death, and for that I'm sorry. For those who might be wondering, having a character die was something I had planned from the get-go in this story. Admittedly, I waffled between having Peter die, then having Margaret die, then Peter, then Margaret…you get the point. However, by the time of writing the previous few chapters I had finalized the victim, and unfortunately Margaret was the winner.
However, this isn't the end of the story, so I ask that you please stick with me for the next chapter. Considering how this could very well destroy some people's evenings/days, I wanted to write the next chapter in tandem so that you guys wouldn't have to wait to see what happens next. I promise that continuing to read will be worth it.
Chapter Summary
Peter fights the group of pirates that confronted him in the ship and comes out victorious. When Peter goes to the deck of the ship to find Margaret, he learns from the Lost Boys that Margaret was spotted on a boat earlier going to Skull Rock, and they had assumed that Peter had changed his plans. Peter flies to Skull Rock and finds Hook holding onto Margaret while threatening her with a weapon. As Peter tries to plead with Hook for Margaret's release, Hook edges toward a ledge in Skull Rock that would be a fatal fall should Hook and Margaret topple over.
Margaret analyzes the situation and realizes that her chances of getting out alive are very slim and realizes that the best way to end everything is by taking Hook out along with her. Margaret pushes herself and Hook over the edge. Peter attempts to grab Margaret, but Hook pulls Margaret away from Peter, resulting in both of them falling all the way to the ground.