A.N.: Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! Wow, I've certainly been gone for a bit, eh? Sorry, friends, so sorry about that. I didn't mean to keep you all in horrid suspense, truly I did not. But as we all know so well, life happens. I've been in two shows at my college and am coming up on a third, as well as classes, work, and scrounging for some sort of a social life. On top of that, I'll be doing an independent study over January in Europe, so that takes tons of reading and reading takes tons of time. You understand. I…hope. And last but certainly not least, my computer contracted a virus from the lovely virus making people, bless them (blatant, BLATANT sarcasm), and in removing it, it took all of my word processors with it. I can no longer open any nor create new word processors of any kind. Can't even re-install one. Bastards. So I am stuck with my parents' stone age computer until mine can be fixed and am not at all happy about it.

So there you have it. My excuses in a nutshell. Or a refrigerator box. Whichever you prefer.

But mwah! I love you all and your reviews have been so kind and heart warming and I thank you a million times over for your patience. And if anyone knows where I can download a winspool driver for Windows ME, I promise this story will be done MUCH more quickly. ^_^

Enough about me, onward, to the story!

The Battle, part 2

But what were the pirates doing on land? Didn't they always stay on their ship? Their 'Jolly Roger' or some junk? I remembered something from an old movie I saw, and guessed that they must be going to capture some pirates. It was one of the Boys' favorite games! I thought so, anyway. I mean, who can keep all those Disney cartoons straight, right?

The pirates stepped into the small clearing right beneath me, one by one, hacking ferns out of their path. I winced in disgust as I got a good look at the one in front. He was a huge beast of a man with no hair, but about ten earrings in each ear, and what appeared to be a fishing hook in his eyebrow. I had to wonder if that was ornamental or accidental.

The beefy man sheathed his sword for the time being and motioned with his hand to the others who were still lurking in the foliage behind him. I tried to count them all as they came into the clearing one by one, but I was distracted by a sudden movement off to my right. The boys were slowly moving in above the trees. I saw the blond boy to my right, slipping through the air silently, crossbow cocked. Grinz was to my left, hooked swords up and spinning, creating haunting light patterns across his smiling face. Teaken was coming from a point in front of me, daggers in each hand and plenty more around his belt. I began to wonder about the whole 'game' aspect of this. I mean, if this was just a game, why did they all have those rather real looking weapons?

My eyebrows lowered a bit and I looked down to see what the ugly brute pirates were up to in the clearing. My brows shot back up into my hairline as I saw that the clearing below me was absolutely crawling with them. There had to be over thirty of them down there. I looked back up quickly to see that the boys were still advancing. Four on thirty? Not exactly good odds. And speaking of four, where was Pan?

I heard a soft bird call below me, and it startled me into looking down, which startled me to nearly fall out of the tree. Peter Pan was directly beneath the branch I was sitting on.

Breathe, Mary, breathe, he's just a boy…man…with muscles…and a sword…sweet Jesus-

I cut that line of thought off right away and carefully pulled my legs up onto the branch, out of any line of sight…I hoped. My legs, however, were the last things on Peter's mind at that moment. His eyes were zeroed in on the group of pirates in the clearing, and eerie grin stretching his lips. I heard the soft bird call answered back on three other sides of me, and then I made the mistake of blinking.

It all happened so fast.

Peter let loose a war cry and dove into the middle of the clearing. I gasped as I saw that the pirates had heard it, and for all their slobbering, smelly demeanors, they reacted a lot quicker than I would have guessed. They all raised their swords directly into the air, and Peter didn't slow a bit. He crowed happily and dove into the sea of swords. Three other blurs streaked past my peripheral vision and into the fray. I watched intently, wondering what the plan was. Would they confuse the pirates and send them into some kind of trap in the ground? Or would they dupe them into capture some other way?

It was when I saw the first gush of blood, and heard a man's terrified dying shriek that I realized they weren't playing to capture. Not able to look away, I watched as Grinz snuck up behind one pirate and swung his blades in front of the man, hooking together the curved ends, and then scissoring them quickly, effectively relieving the man of his head.

That was when I realized they weren't playing at all.

Sickened, I covered my mouth with a shaking hand. What the hell was going on? Wasn't this a children's story? A playground constructed by the dreams of the innocent?

Shrieks of rage from below brought my eyes back down to the clearing. I saw the taller blond boy struggling to load an arrow onto his crossbow as a pirate quickly bore down on him. I winced and prepared to cover my eyes and the pirate gave a great bellowing cry of victory as he swung his sword down. A loud click rent the air, and the pirate's cry was reduced to weak gasping and gurgling as he fell still on top of the younger boy. The blond grunted as he kicked the pirate off of him, and I saw that he had indeed been successful in loading his cross bow on time…an arrow protruded out the back of the pirates neck, embedded in his throat up to its feathers. I squeezed my eyes shut and began to try to stand up, wanting to get as far away as possible from this sudden war, when an angry cry of pain shot past my ears.

"Teaken!" I whispered, recognizing the voice immediately. I ran to the edge of the branch, the tree's vine tightening around my waist urgently. I searched the battle for him, and finally spotted him rolling backwards away from the pirate that had just drawn blood from Teaken's shoulder. The pirate had come out the worse in that exchange however, and I nearly gagged at the sight of one of Teaken's daggers sheathed in the pirate's left eye socket. I did choke up harsh bile into my throat when Teaken stood and yanked the dagger out of the man's head creating an obnoxious squelching sound, and wiped it on his leggings before hurrying forward after another pirate.

I spat over the side of the branch and wiped my mouth. Again, I shut my eyes for a moment and waited for the rolling in my stomach to stop. This was horrible, terrifying, ghastly, all the bad parts of the bible were unfolding right below me. I wanted to be anywhere but there, and yet I couldn't move. I was scared stiff and mesmerized by the gore below me. It was like watching a horrific accident scene, you know it's wrong, and you know you should just move along, but you can't help but watch.

Grinz went after two more pirates, chasing them around the clearing. He flew between them with a burst of speed, his blades held out to both sides, and the men each had their spinal columns shredded. I actually cried out at that point, but the noise down in the clearing drowned me out by decibels. Shrieks of pain and death do tend to get rather loud, I learned.

"Bringing a child into this?" The thought had come unbidden into my mind, but I couldn't help but ponder on it. An innocent child didn't deserve to be raised in such a nightmare. "Nightmare is right, why the hell am I risking so much to try and save this?" These thoughts just kept bombarding my mind. It made sense after all. Why sacrifice my future to save murderers? It was ridiculous! And how did I know they wouldn't just turn around and kill me once they had what they wanted? That thought drained all the blood from my face, and I panicked. I had to get out of there. Screw this and screw them. I wanted to live!

I stood quickly and twisted around, ready to run back into the tree. Where had I seen Teaken get that pixie dust from? Surely I could find it somewhere-

A loud gunshot rang through the air and all the activity in the clearing stilled, as well as me. I gasped and clung onto a branch that stood vertically up from the one I was crouching on. I stood as still as possible in the sudden quiet, and I squeezed my eyes shut, willing my heart beat to quiet.

"Amusing as this has been, I think that will do," a rich voice unfurled from the edge of the clearing. I opened my eyes and carefully turned as the smoking pistol that had fired came into sight. It sat in the hand of a tallish man with long dark hair that fell in graceful and well kept waves to his shoulders. His red hat sat jauntily on his head at an angle, with a large white feather trailing behind him. His coat was a matching scarlet lined with white and gold threading and buttons all the way down to his impeccably shinned black knee-high boots. This, then, no doubt, was James Hook, Captain.

I forgot to be as frightened as I should have been, had I remembered the horrid things written about him, as I looked at him. He was certainly more well kept than any of the other brutes, as well as the Lost Boys, for that matter. And I had assumed that he'd be older than the rest of them, much older. But the man before me looked to be only in his very early thirties. His coat and pants were immaculate despite his trek through the wilds of Neverland. That registered as odd and near impossible to me-but then, I was sitting in a tree with the personality of an eighty year old nurse maid-so I decided to chalk it up to the zaniness of Neverland.

"What's the matter, old man? Tired already?" Peter laughed and flew down to circle just out of reach above Hook. The Captain rolled his eyes.

"Not physically, dear boy, no. But I am tired of this useless fray we seem to have begun. It's not necessary at all, really. You see, I'm not here for you this time, boy." Hook's smile bordered on a snarl, and I remembered to be wary again as my nails dug into the branch of the tree. Said vegetation didn't appreciate that much, and retaliated by tightening the vine around my waist. I apologized softly and removed my nails from its bark once my supply of oxygen had been threatened.

Peter smirked and hovered in the air in front of Hook. He squinted his eyes and daringly drifted a bit closer to the older man. "You look different, Codfish. What'd you do to yourself?"

Hook laughed lightly, a sound that poured a shiver down my spine. "You are different as well, my adversary. We all are changing. Am I mistaken to think you have noticed the rather large and obvious change in yourself, your boys, and this Island?"

Peter floated back a few feet and sheathed his sword on his back. "Of course I've noticed. I am this Island."

Hook smirked slowly. "Indeed."

Pan crossed his arms over his puffed out chest and lifted his chin. "So, what does the good Captain require on this lovely eve then, if not my head?"

"Rumor has it," Hook started slowly. "That you have discovered an answer to the change that is happening to all of us. Is this true, boy?"

Narrowing his eyes, Peter leaned back and put his feet up, as if resting in an invisible recliner in the air. "Of course I have an answer. If anyone is to fix this, it's going to be me."

"Yes, because you are-"

"Amazing? Wonderful? Stupendous? Fabulous? Awe inspiring?" Peter polished his nails as he spouted off one compliment after another for himself. I was beginning to wonder if he'd forgotten the fully operational pistol that was still warming in Hook's left hand. Another pirate, obviously sick of Peter's little tirade, surged forward with his sword drawn. "You disrespectful little twerp, I'll cut you down to si-" The pirate stopped as Grinz, not taking his eyes off of Peter, had simply swung his curved blade back over his shoulder and caught the man under his jaw with the razor sharp hooked end. Grinz twisted the blade with a flick of his wrist and then jerked it down, effectively ripping the man's throat wide open. The man gave a surprised gurgle, which, I suppose, was all he could do really, and fell to the ground, his own blood pooling around him.

Gritting my teeth to hold in a moan of disgust, I turned back to Hook, worried that he would retaliate. But it seemed the Captain didn't care much for his own men, as he only sighed and looked back at Peter, who was still reclining, but now grinning brightly at the Captain. "You were saying, Captain?"

"Quite. Well, as I was saying, this answer you have…"

Now I don't know if I was only being paranoid, I mean a bloody scene like the one I've just witnessed would make the frickin' Terminator paranoid, but I could have I sworn I just saw Hook glance up in the tree directly at me. And I tell you what ladies and gentlemen, that is not a good feeling.

"What about it?" Peter asked, still as cocky as anything.

"I want it."

I jumped, the vine tightened, Teaken swore, but Peter laughed.

"Tsk, tsk, Captain. Where are your manners? If you want something, you know you must ask the person who has it nicely."

"Of course. Good form as always, Peter." Hook took aim with his pistol, pointing it right at Peter. "Give me the girl, please." Peter blinked, and Hook fired.

Peter shouted and flipped backwards in the air, feeling the heat of the iron fired right past his neck. I had shouted as well, and out of instinct jumped to the side…but I had jumped too far, and Hook's bullet hadn't been meant for Peter at all.

The tree gave a pained groan as the hot iron ball tore through the thick vine that it had wound around my waist, and a whisper of apology as I fell from the branches.

It felt like I fell for ages. I thought of my brother, my aunt, of my mother. Maybe I'd see her again. But, as it turned out, it all happened rather quickly. I didn't even have time to scream as the ground rushed up to meet me. I saw a flash of red from the corner of my eye, then heard Peter and Teaken both shout my name. They must have been restrained somehow, because I hit the ground-hard-on my back. The air was forced from my lungs and I choked trying to gasp oxygen back into them. A sharp pain in my side registered, but was not as important as the immediate oxygen problem. Strong hands grabbed at my arms and pulled me up and onto my knees. They bended me forward and helped me relax my torso. Finally, my diaphragm relaxed, and I was able to breathe in and out, which I did, rapidly, desperate for the oxygen that my body needed.

"Slow down there, love, you'll pass out." A velvety smooth voice warned me.

"I know-I-I'm trying…" I gasped, knowing I was hyperventilating myself into unconsciousness. I placed my hand on my stomach and slowed my breaths one at a time. "Ok, I…I think I'm alright…"

"Good. Can you stand?" The smooth voice asked quietly.

"I think so…my side stings, I…shit I think I'm bleeding-"

"Just a flesh wound, love, I'll help you up."

I lifted right hand while looking at my left, which was smeared with my own blood. "Thank yo-" I stopped suddenly, feeling the cold steel my right hand had just grabbed hold of. I slowly looked up into the face of Captain James Hook. I screamed and tried to rip my hand away, but Hook was fast, and he quickly flexed his hook hand up, catching mine as I tried to pull it away. The effect was not happy for me at all. I shrieked again as his hook ripped its way through my hand, puncturing it from the palm, and coming out the top. Now I was hooked, literally, and I felt horrid for every fish I'd ever eaten, because this hurt like hell.

"Get away from her, Hook!" Peter yelled, pulling away from the pirates who had restrained him from catching me.

"But Peter, I said please. Isn't that what you said I needed to do to get what I wanted?" Hook asked innocently as he tugged me closer, causing me to sob again. I made the mistake of looking at the wound in my hand, and nearly lost consciousness again.

"Holy shit," I gagged and doubled over, nearly having to revisit that Cantanana I had eaten for breakfast.

"Oh, none of that, if you please, milady. I just had them polished." Hook moved his feet out of my spewing range. Sensitive, he's not.

"Hands off of her, Hook, and we'll let some of your vermin live to keep serving you on that pretty boat of yours." Teaken stepped up, holding one of the pirates in front of him, a dagger to the pirate's throat.

"Speaking of pretty boats," Grinz said, each of his hooked swords up against the throats of two more very nervous pirates. "Shouldn't you be getting back to yours, Jimmy?"

Hook closed his eyes and inhaled. Grinz smirked, he knew how much Hook despised being called that. Hook shook his head and looked down at me, offering a serene smile while I whimpered and shook, my left hand holding the wrist of my right, trying to keep it as still as possible. "Well, my dear Mary, I think they have a point. It is getting rather late. Ready to retire back to my ship?"

I could only whimper painfully in response.

Hook smirked. "Good. Off we go, then." Hook yanked up on his hook and I shrieked, scrambling to stand quickly. "There's a good lass," Hook chuckled.

Wounded or not, I can't take comments like that. "I'm not your f-fucking pet, asshole!" I hissed through my tears.

"Goodness, what language from a lady, no less. Not good form at all, especially for a mother to be." Hook said quietly, and I heard Peter and the Lost Boys gasp. Hook looked up, smiling, his eyebrow arched. "Oh yes, Peter. I know exactly what it is you need to save this wretched Island, and I can assure you I'll do everything in my power to make sure you won't have it."

"I will have it, and her, Hook." Peter swore, his sword pointed at the back of Hook's head as he turned to walk away, me still in tow.

Hook turned and smirked over his shoulder. "Cocky as ever, boy. Take care of him, Mr. Smee."

"Aye, Cap'n," Smee stuttered as Hook turned and dragged me away. I looked over my shoulder as I was pulled away, hand still hooked, and watched as Peter and Teaken both tried to fly after me at once. Teaken was careless with rage, and was lucky to escape a deadly pirate's pistol with only a bullet in the leg, which brought him shouting to the ground.

"Teaken!" I screamed as I watched the blood explode from his thigh. I heard Grinz and the blond Lost Boy cry out nearly simultaneously, and knew that Peter was now my last hope…

A canon that the pirates had dragged up onto the island with them and had hidden in the foliage was fired, and a weighted net shot out and took down Peter. Four iron balls on each edge of the net tangled themselves together and brought Peter to the ground with a loud thud and a pained grunt.

"Peter!" I yelled, watching him hit the floor.

His eyes shot up and met mine an instant before I was yanked out of sight, and the determination I saw glowing in them gave me hope. "Hook!" He called angrily. "I'll come for her!"

I couldn't see Peter any more, but the anger and confidence in his voice gave me hope that filled my middle with warmth, even as it was emptying with dread. My hand still firmly impaled on the Captain's hook, I heard him chuckle upon hearing Peter's promise.

"I'm counting on it, boy."

The hope trickled quickly away, leaving me empty and cold with fear.

A.N.: Oh gasp, pant, shriek and giggle, all who haven't yet seen the new Peter Pan movie starring Jeremy Sumpter, Jason Isaacs, and Rachel Hurd Wood, there are no excuses for you! It is marvelous, wonderful, and I nearly cried for loving it so much. I'm on my way tomorrow to see it again. They've done a wonderful job, and it's nearly the same as the original book. Closer than anything else will ever get, I wager, and damned if that Jeremy Sumpter isn't the best little actor ever as the Pan. Loved him, loved it, love YOU if you review! ^_~