A/N - This chapter means everything to this story. . . Not much else to say. The most important chapter really. The beginning is sort of slow, but the end it ... well, I'll just let you read.

Just as a warning, there will be blood. Not much, but I do like to warn people since I know I too like to be warned about that type of stuff.

Another important note. Only three more chapters to this story. Once you are done reading this chapter, I would appreciate it if you answer my question in the authors note at the bottom. Thank you and enjoy.

Sickness of the Heart

Chapter 16 - Cold

The small holding cell had one undersized window up by the ceiling. Unfortunately, this sorry excuse for a window provided an insufficient amount of light. The moons afterglow hardly provided enough light. Most of it was hidden behind clouds anyway. It was just enough to illuminate a corner of the cold wood that loosely covered the floor. The only hope in such a dismal place was the long hallway leading to the cell. At the other end, a door was cracked open so that a light breeze could cool Hook's prisoners. Apparently, it worked a little too well for Peter.

Laying against the cold wall in a dormant state, the famous youth had his legs pressed tightly to his chest in an attempt to warm his sleeping body. Freezing gusts of night wind kept sweeping through the hall, causing the sleeping form to shiver violently. A few clouds that were hovering over the moon parted, allowing the dim light to shine a little brighter. Peters' eyes blinked several times as the new light filtered through his dark eyelashes.

He let a light moan escape his chapped lips as he sat up, suddenly remembering where he was. For all Peter knew, he could have been stuck in that god forsaken cell for hours on end. Even after a period of rest, his head still pounded with a lingering headache. His whole body ached with it. Visible bruises and caked blood ran along places where Hook's weapon pierced through Peters' skin. Peter threw his head back in disgust, wondering why he let Hook do this to him, no... Wondering why he let Hook do this to Wendy. He wondered what happened to 'Peter Pan' . The hero. The brave boy who never gave up the fight. Then his mind settled on something. The dream, He was so afraid that it would turn out true that he was willing to surrender himself. That's when he truly began to wonder, Hook somehow knew to threaten him with the exact image of what was in his dream. That was impossible though. He only told his dream to the Lost boys, certainly they haven't told a soul. How would Hook know of Peter's dreams unless he...

The corners of Peters' mouth turned down. He clenched his hands into fists, adrenaline pumping through his every vein. For the first time in a long time, he felt like himself again. He welcomed the feeling of wanting to take action. The only problem that hindered that was that he was trapped.

Using the back wall as support, Peter pushed himself up to a full stand. His legs wobbled dangerously as he let out a few labored breaths.

"Hook!" She screamed at the top of his lungs. His throat was dry and scratchy from lack of water. "I know what you did! That damn book and those damn spells you've been throwing around!" Peter resorted to using language he heard Wendy use when she pricked her finger on a sewing needle. Wendy told him not to say it to anyone for the reason that it's offensive, but right now, thats exactly what Peter wanted to be towards Hook. "You gave me those dreams didn't you! You knew what would happen!" Peter shouted to the ceiling, knowing it lead to one of the upper rooms. He was ready for Hook now. If the dreams truly were planted by Hooks' spells, then he was ready to face him.

"Answer me!"

Hook sat in his privet quarters with his nose stuck once again in his favorite book. Favorite, only because it was sending Peter's life into a fast downward spiral. He was definitely not oblivious to what was going on below deck. Peter was making such a racket down there that everyone on the ship was probably able to hear him loud and clear. He knew Peter was no fool, naive, but no fool. Just as he expected, Peter was clever enough to figure out all of his horrid nightmares were planted with the utterance of one little spell. It was nothing more then a way to frighten Peter and it worked. Unfortunately for peter, he was realizing all of this too late. The horrible deed was almost finished and Hook would have what Peter had.

"Smee!" Hook alerted the stout pirate who was working diligently in the corner. When Hook broke the silence Smee jumped, nearly knocking over several bottles that were scattered around him.

"Y-Yes Cap'n?" He caught a bottle containing a heavy green liquid, before it fell to the floor.

"Is it ready? Young Mr. Pan is getting anxious." Hook heard a loud bang on the walls of the lower chambers. Now that Peter had figured out about his little trick, it was no doubt he was extremely ill-tempered, maybe even resorting back to his old habit of being a persistent brat.

"I'd give it another hour a'least Cap'n." Hook growled in frustration. He heard another loud bang, this time against the floor right beneath him. At this point, he thought it would just be fun to go down and antagonize him from inside the cell. He could do no damage from in there.

"Smee... be sure that potion is finished. Alert me when it is complete."

"Where ye goin' Cap'n?"

"To give Pan a bit of company."

----

On her full sized bed, Wendy lay in a troubled sleep. Mostly tossing and turning about. The strange things was that it was a dreamless sleep. Her body was most likely trying to fight off the sleep that had been rudely forced upon her. Finally the magic that bind her began to lift as she felt herself drift into consciousness. Her body ached all over and she had a horrible sense of nausea floating around her head. As she sat up in bed, she pressed one hand on her forehead, which was quite warm. A searing pain seemed to resonate from her neck. She used her other hand to touch the pained area. The second her fingers came in contact, a stinging sensation shot through her body, causing her hand to draw back.

A small amount of blood stained her fingers. It was most likely caused by that sword that pirate held to her neck. Luckily it was nothing worth worrying about. A few simple bandages would do the trick. Sullenly, she rested her head against the back board of her bed, remembering that Peter was still a prisoner aboard the Jolly Roger.

"Shut up Curly, do you want Wendy to hear?" Wendy's ears perked up at the sound of her name. She heard some incoherent voices mumbling something coming from the main room. At first she didn't want to come across as rude for eavesdropping, but she did have a right to know what someone was trying to keep from her. Especially when those people were her own boys. She stood from her bed, immediately feeling weak at the knees. She crouched down by the flap of her door so she could hear better.

"What will Hook do to him?" A voice Wendy recognized as Curly spoke up.

"I would say kill him, but if that was his plan, he would have done it by now and trust me, we would know." This time, it was Peters second in command, Nibs, who spoke up.

"What would happen?" The Twins asked in unison.

"Neverland would cease to exist. Along with it, we will perish too. Since Peter's magic is what holds Neverland together, if he dies... it dies too..." Several of the lost boys gasped. Wendy too put a hand to her mouth to stop herself from making any noise. "But I don't think that's his goal. Like I said before, he would have done it by now. He may be even planning something worse."

"Worse then death?" Slightly replied almost sarcastically.

"Peter doesn't fear death. Only the deaths of others who he holds dear. It wouldn't be a suiting form of revenge." There was a long, drawn out silence between them all. Most likely they all were silently trying to come up with an answer to what Peter would consider 'worse then death' . Wendy fell backwards into a sitting position and drove the heels of her hands into her closed eyes. She didn't want to have to fear the worst for Peter, but that became near impossible with the given situation.

'What if Hook is planning on killing Peter? We would all cease to exist. Even Hook... All of us would die.' She pounded her head in frustration. 'That doesn't matter much to me anyway... or at least it shouldn't. I'm still sick! Neverland has done nothing for me. Maybe... I was just destined to die young... maybe...'

"No... There has to be something else." Wendy whispered to herself. Her thoughts once again wandered to what Peter must be going through at that very second. Whatever it was, it probably outweighed her dilemma.

----

When Hook refused to respond to Peter's angry rants about cruel trickery, he resorted to painfully ramming his body against the ceiling. If Hook went against answering, someone was bound to hear the noise and come down. Luckily, before Peters back was too damaged, the door at the end of the hallway shot open, hitting the back wall roughly.

"Evening Pan." Hook said casually, his hook gleaming dangerously in the dim light.

"You!" Peter pressed his face hard against the metal bars. "You gave me those nightmares didn't you?"

"Very clever Pan. You learn quickly."

"Your evil and cruel Hook!" Peter could do nothing but throw words at him since the bar served as an unfair barrier.

"Shame, I would have thought that little wench taught you some manners by now." Peter growled in anger at Hooks choice of name for Wendy.

"Never call her that!" Hook didn't look the least bit frightened. Who would be? Peter was reduced to nothing more then a young boy behind bars. Hook laughed to himself, causing Peter to grit his teeth, trying best not to call Hook any more offensive names.

"Look at this, the famous Peter Pan. Trapped. A prisoner to the infamous Captain James Hook."

"I'll never be your prisoner. I will escape just as before." Peter proudly put his hands on his hips, showing off his newfound hope.

"Oh, you haven't forgotten about that little potion I slipped Wendy did you?" Peter shrunk back a little. he had, in all honesty, completely forgot about that potion. If he were to make a getaway it wouldn't matter anyway. His escape would be in vein. Wendy would die and it would be his fault. He averted his strong gaze away from Hook.

'but there must be a way... ' Peter thought. He didn't want to loose his hope as fast as it came. At this point, it was all he had.

"Cap'n Hook, Cap'n Hook!" Smee ran down the hall leading to Peter's cell. One hand holding the vile of green liquid. "It's done Cap'n." Smee threw an dangerous look at Peter. Almost as if it were a silent warning. Smee had never been a cruel man. Sometimes even helping Peter out of jams (though he cleverly disguised it as an accident). Too bad he was one of Hooks most loved crew members.

"Mr. Smee... Would you and Jukes kindly escort Pan to the deck?" Hook smirked at peter one last time before leaving him to his companion, vile in hand.

----

"Are we just going to sit here, or are we going to do something.?" Finally Slightly asked the question that was surly on all the Lost boys and Wendys' mind. Nibs took the longest deep breath Wendy had ever seen. Then Nibs lowered his gaze to a map of Neverland and feathered quills.

"We can't just plunge into action. This need careful planning."

"But we must do something fast!" The twins argued. Wendy agreed with them. She knew Nibs took his leadership role quite seriously, but something had to be done now, not whenever he could think of something that was suitable for him. Still, she wondered what exactly Nibs had up his sleeve.

"Remember... It's all up to us now. If Peter tries to assist us, Hook will give the word and Wendy is gone." Wendy put her hand over her heart. She had completely forgotten about the dreadful stuff Hook shoved down her throat. Now with that extra baggage added on, it would take the Lost boys twice as long to come up with a successful plan. Wendy scrunched her brow in deep thought... What if... Peter wasn't rescued... yet, Hook wasn't in the picture anymore. If that was at all possible , then Wendy had the perfect plan. If Hook wasn't around anymore... Then there would be no one there to give that dreadful signal. Also, Peter could escape without worrying. The problem was, she doubted the Lost boys would allow her to take place in their plan. Besides that, they seemed to wrapped up in trying to come up with a plan of their own.

"You can't be serious! That will never work!"

"Oh yeah, I bet you can't come up with anything better!"

"Just watch me!" Slightly forcefully pulled the quill from Nibs fingers and started to draw on the map paper. Wendy rolled her eyes at how one moment they could be the picture of maturity then move right back to their boyish habits of bickering.

That was beyond the point, the Lost boys were now out of the picture. It was all up to her. She ran to her small wooden desk that held all of her possessions she brought from home. Wendy unbuttoned her wet nightgown, tossing it off over her head, and exchanged it for a pure white sleeveless sun dress that reached down to her ankles. She decided it was best to go barefoot since shoes were to weighted down. She wrapped her brown leather hilt around her sun dress and tucked one of Peter's sharpest swords safely by her side. Finally, she took a white, medium length ribbon from her jewelry box and used it to tie back her messy curls.

For her, it was quite easy to sneak past the Lost boys unnoticed. They were all now resorting to physically attacking each other to decide who's plan was better. They paid absolutely no attention to the girl tiptoeing past them towards the entrance.

Wendy looked up past the dense forest top up to the dark and now very cloudy night sky. She wasn't as strong as she used to be. She actually hadn't flown in a long time. Peter had forbid her to unless it was an emergency. Flying had become a very tedious activity, and it was a long ways to Hooks ship...

----

Just as Hook ordered, the door to the cell was unlocked and Peter was to be escorted to the deck. Surprisingly, Peter didn't put up a fight, he walked calmly beside Smee and Jukes down the long hallway and finally onto the moonlit deck. On deck, Hook was already waiting for peter at the very head of the ship, holding the same vile of green liquid Peter saw Smee holding.

"Pan." Hook said politely, bowing to his enemy.

"Hook." Peter returned the favor in a serous business-like voice as his escorts backed away to give the two room. Peter had already made up his mind. He would show Hook no fear. He would take whatever Hook decided to throw at him with a blank expression on his face. That way, he wouldn't be letting himself down, nor would he be putting Wendy in harms way. "Finally got me, don't you?" Peter held his head high and puffed his chest out. Yet his expression held no inner meaning.

"I would think you would be more... upset... or maybe...afraid?"

"Who me? No Way!" Peter said quite casually, a flicker of a grin tugging at the corners of his lips. He resisted the urge.

"Really now? Surely you are upset about Wendy. She is sick. I could tell by the way she wielded her sword." Peter only stared intensely at him. He too had figured out Wendy was still sick, even though she never said anything to him about it. That alone was a hard thing to deal with. Even though he practically wanted to shout, 'Yes, I'm afraid Wendy's going to die!' or just plain scream, he shook his head no in a relatively calm manner.

"You can't use Wendy against me anymore Hook." Peter said through his teeth. Hook shrugged.

"Then I have one last question for you Pan." Peter raised his eyebrow, curious as to what question Hook would have for him. "Why is it that Wendy loves you so?" Peter opened his mouth to answer, but promptly shut it when he realized he didn't know the answer. It was never really something he thought of. It just... was. "Is it your immaturity?" Hook began to circle Peter as he questioned. "Or maybe it's your natural charm?" Peter smiled his cocky grin at that.

Hook strode closer to Peter, pulling him closer by his upper arm. Immediately giving Peter an uncomfortable feeling.

"Or maybe it's your powers?" Hook held Peter tightly around his upper arm with his metal claw. In this position, if peter yanked his arm away, it would be sliced by that awful contraption. His regular hand wrapped around Peter's neck as he dangles the green vile in front of his face.

"My powers?" Peter frowned at Hook.

"You fly without the assistance of fairies, talk in the tongue of strange creatures, and sense things beyond anyones wildest imagination." Hook popped the cork top of the vile with his thumb, teasing Peter's nose with it's sweet scent. It almost had a soothing aroma to it.

"Where are you going with this?" Peter eyed the bottle. Hook positioned the vile so that it sat on the base of Peters' lower lip. Peter squirmed underneath Hooks heavy weight, unable to get away. Trapped between Hook and the potion. Peter pursed his lips together to try to keep the liquid out.

"She's dying Pan!" Hook screamed at him while trying to pry his mouth open.

'No.' Peter thought. He couldn't even open his mouth to protest.

"Slowly but surely."

'Stop it!'

"And soon you'll be all alone."

"STOP!" Peter opened his mouth wide, not being able to withstand Hooks words. As a result, Hook managed to slip a good deal of the potion down his throat. unfortunately for him, Peter closed his mouth before he was able to get it all in. Peter swallowed the disgusting drink out of panic.

Suddenly, Peter felt sick. The colors and textures around him seemed to blend together before his eyes. His knees were slowly beginning to give out on him. Hook let go of him and let him stumble backwards. Peter's knees finally gave in and he tripped over a bucket. His heart practically pounding out of his chest. The ground on the beach crack and disheveled throwing the ocean into a series of dangerously high waves. The Neverland forest withered and died right on spot. Palm trees slumped over and turned a rotten brown color. The soft green grass turned prickly.

"W-what's happening to me... wha-" Peter couldn't even think clearly. His mind went into a frenzy of random thoughts and memories. Familiar voices and places. He felt as if he were quickly loosing something... Something important, but he wasn't able to put his finger on it. Something was definitely being ripped from him.

"It's draining those powers of yours, and slowly transferring them to me." Hook said in a cold uncaring voice as Peters face drained of all color. All of a sudden, it was unbearably hot, yet, his blood ran as cold as ice. "Now lets finish this shall we?" Before Peter could even make sense of what as happening, Hook was slowly advancing on him, holding in his hand, the remainder of the draining potion. To weak to fly, peter closed his eyes and braced himself for the worst. He braced himself to be ripped from everything that made him special. Everything that made him who he was. He felt Hooks dark presence standing over him. All he could think was 'This is it...'

Bitter sweet silence...

All of time Froze... And then... a sickening scream.

Hands quickly clasped tightly over his small ears.

All the blood in his body ran down to his feet.

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end...

Eyes shut tight... Escaping tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

He tasted blood in his mouth as his teeth bit down hard on his tongue...

He drew his hands from his ears...

Static... That's all there was... A heavy static...

All the voices around him began to fade out. Fade into the static that clogged his ears.

Every cut and bruise on his body responded with a sharp burning sensation...

Yet, he felt so numb. He knew something was happening beyond his closed eyes. Something that wasn't supposed to be happening, but it was anyway.

He told himself the dream was caused by Hook... but whatever was happening beyond his closed eyes felt so similar... an it scarred him.

'Please... Make it stop...' Something hit his face. A warm liquid hit his face.

As if nothing happened... it stopped. The static faded to reveal voices. Upon opening his eyes, Peter saw a young girl in a blood stained white dress holding an equally blood stained sword.

The girl swayed on her feet before collapsing into Peter's arms. She lay half crying with an accomplished grin on her face. Peter scanned the deck... Many pirates coward in a corner while others lay lifeless on the deck. Finally Peter saw why the others hide. One pirate lay face down on the deck. Blood pouring from a sword sized wound in his back... a broken vile spilling green liquid lay not to far.

... Hook was dead.

A/N - ummm... three more chapters left (I think that's right) So I would like to know, I have a notebook where I write down all the questions I want to be answered in the story, I think in the next three chapters all these questions will be answered, but just in case, I would like it if you all took the time to write in your reviews any and all questions you still have that you want answered by the last chapter. I just want to be sure I leave nothing out! So PLEASE DO THIS

About the chapter... My Inner five year old is suffering trauma... she loved Hook (and so did I XD)