Chapter 5 'The Treasure Chest'

"He sounds like a loon if you ask me," Peter said, swatting away leaves with his sword as he traversed the dense jungles with Tigerlily. She had finished telling him about the strange man her tribe found the other day. The look of disbelief worked its way onto his elfish features, then changed into respect for the man, "But with resilience like that, he just might survive."

Tigerlily nodded in agreement. Currently, she and Peter were going to check out the treasure on the front shore. It was nice to have a quest just by themselves. It had been a century since their last adventure, and it had been their most dangerous one yet. It made Tigerlily slightly hesitant to jump into another. She was thankful both of them made it out alive, but came out changed from that experience.

"He came from shore," she said, the beach slowly coming into view ahead, "Do you think he came with the treasure?"

"Probably ran off to go and get it," Peter theorized.

"If so. He should be here by now," Then Tigerlily remembered something else, the weirdest part of her brief conversation with the deranged man, "He said he has a master...inside the chest."

"Really?" Peter laughed, not believing it for a second, "It's probably some idol he worships," He caught Tigerlily's unamused reaction, "You don't actually think a real person is in there?"

She sighed. She harbored a sixth sense, like a premonition. From the whistle of the wind, she could hear if a fairy or Lost Boy is in danger. She could feel a disturbance in the universe when horrible events were going to happen. Most of the time, this feeling proved to be correct and she would find the compound set ablaze or something equally distressing. The man brought on that premonition and so did the chest where his supposed 'master' was in, "I have a bad feeling about it."

"You shouldn't be concerned with a chest. Unless," Grabbing her hand and spinning her towards him, Peter held Tigerlily flush against him. His hot breath tickling her neck when he spoke, "it's yours pressed against mine."

"Pet-?" She was prepared to launch a verbal attack when his finger went to her lips to shush her. From a passerby's eyes, it seemed romantic. But Tigerlily knew better. She detected an urgency in Peter's actions. His eyes flickered from her to the beach scene behind her. She knew that translated into 'we got company'. He pulled her back before she exposed their position.

She tore away his finger, "You did not have to such things you know." she huffed. The one thing she coveted was personal space and Peter had yet to learn what that meant.

"What things?" He asked, coyly. "You've got to admit that was clever the way I put that together. I simply couldn't break off in the middle like that," Leave it to Peter to joke around during a crisis.

"Never mind," Tigerlily silently changed direction to see who beat them to the treasure. She noticed hers and Peter's hands were still connected, but she didn't find the time to fix that. There were more pressing issues to be dealt with.

She could see a decrepit rowboat crashed against the rocks, and there in the center was the chest, heavily enclosed in a series of iron chains. Tigerlily learned that chains were used to keep something out...or something in. Moving her line of vision to the left, she saw a group of men, decked in their saltwater stained trousers and stolen jewelry- the pirates. Ahead of them was their leader, Captain Hook.

"Have a plan, Pan?"

Peter closed his eyes and fiddled his fingers across his lips, a habit he did to formulate on the spot decisions, "Think, think, think," Then it came to him.

"The Fire Beetles," he said, "Remember those little buggers. What did we do to lure them to the cage?"

Tigerlily nodded thoughtfully, recalling the strategy, "It could work." She waited for Peter to head out to the beach to initiate the plan. He would have gone right away with it being in his impulsive nature. But he lingered at her side, gazing at her. He debated whether or not to say something,"You know. When I asked you to come with me-"

"Peter. There is no time," Tigerlily said, impatiently. The window of opportunity was closing. It was time to act now, "Go."

Peter frowned for a moment before an indifferent demeanor took over his face. He dropped his hand from Tigerlily's and scampered off to the beach to let himself be known to the pirates, "Oi! Are you ladies lost?"

"Pan!" Captain Hook welcomed him, as if the beach was his domain, "You're too late. First come, first serve," He swaggered cockily towards the boy, his band of pirates following in suit their backs facing the rowboat. While they were distracted, Tigerlily crept to the treasure. She could hear the banter between Peter and Hook. It was the same witty remarks usually followed by a duel. They were both equally matched in swordplay skills, so they put on quite a show.

"Haven't stopped me before, Captain," Peter said, sword in ready in his hand.

"Sometimes I think you don't even try. Sending your Lost Boy to spread word of a fake luck charm via mermaid. Oldest trick in your book,"

"How did you find out?"

"Smee was snooping around the lagoon when Felix came. You know better than to deter a pirate from his treasure,"

While this was going on, Tigerlily climbed into the rowboat and went to break the chains, but her blade couldn't hack through them. Despite her initial bewilderment, she kept striking at them. Her axe should have cut through. Peter had enchanted the axe so it could pierce any material with no trouble. The chains were immune to the magic on her blade.

"What do we have here?" A gruff voice said into her ear. Tigerlily inwardly winced, recognizing her mistake. The noise of her efforts had drawn the attention of the pirates.

Looking up, she was face to face with Captain Hook. His ruggedly handsome features scowled at her, blue orbs as entrancing as the sea. His eyebrows quirked before getting dangerously close to her. For the second time that day, her personal space had been evaded,

"Hello Tigerlily," He caressed her hair with his hook, twirling it around. She growled and pushed the crude attachment away, "Do you remember the last time we were on this beach?" he hissed into her ear, "If I don't get the Crocodile first, then I'd be sure to cut off your head. I've been wanting a new mantlepiece though remind me to sew your mouth closed...so you won't spew lies even in death."

Peter slid in between them. He raised his sword to keep Hook from getting close again, "Get away from her!"

"Just give me the treasure and we'll be on our way,"

"You should have been on your way years ago," Peter retorted.

"Yes, but I haven't found what I need for my revenge. I'm not leaving Neverland anytime sooner. But in the meantime, I'll indulge myself with the gold in that chest,"

Peter sighed. He didn't want this ongoing rivalry to continue. Frankly, he was tired of it. There had been a time when he and Hook were on good terms. He wouldn't mind going back to how things used to be, but some part of him knew that was least likely to happen, "Must we do this, Killian?" he said his name wistfully, thinking of the times they had.

Hook, on the other hand, did not care to return to those days. His sea blue hues churned into a raging storm, "I'm not a boy anymore, Pan. Don't order me around," Tigerlily saw Peter stumble back at those words. A hint of sadness washed over him.

Then Hook gave the order for his pirates to charge and it became a battle for the treasure.

The past few weeks had been peaceful for Lily. Ever since the trip to the hospital, Sheriff Swan had kept her word and sent her to the program for troubled kids. At first, it was like one of those stupid sharing circles, where the person with the foam ball would speak while the others were forced to listen. But over time, they veered away from the serious stuff and went onto funny experiences. It took her mind off what was going on in her life and she could tell it had the same effect for everybody else in the program.

She got to know a number of people through the program and even made a couple of new friends. There were these twins, Ava and Nic Zimmer. She liked to talk to them, despite being 4 years apart. Like her, they were orphans. But that was until the Sheriff located their father who then took the twins in.

Ava proved to be quite a spitfire. She was the silliest of the group. There were no hesitation in her words, she spoke her mind. But the random things she say could either leave you baffled or entertained.

But Nicholas was the polar opposite of his sister. He was collective and quiet sometimes. But what sets him apart from the rest of the group was his obsession with science fiction. Lily had never seen a single Star Wars movie in her life, "We need to fix that," he had said. 6 movies and 8 bags of popcorn later, Lily could now carry on a conversation with Nic. She loved hanging out with them, even at school.

At school couldn't apply disciplinary action towards her tormentors. There wasn't proof that Manny and the others had bullied her so Mother Superior did nothing. Miraculously, Miss Blanchard pulled through for her and arranged for some teacher protection. She would walk Lily to and from school, making sure she wouldn't get ambushed on the way and would always check in on the weekends. And in class, she put a distance between Lily and her tormentors, never partnering her up with Manny or Allison for projects. Thanks to her, there hadn't been an attack for weeks. Lily was grateful for the help, since Paige wasn't giving her any.

Paige was still angry at her. She and her foster sister weren't on speaking would eat during different times at home and would avoid eye contact whenever necessary. This made it hard on the Tailors who try to accustom themselves to this strenuous situation. They didn't want to start another fight between the two.

Lily nearly apologized, but Paige had to make it worse. She started to hang out with Henry more. She thought she was doing that just to spite her, but she looked like she genuinely enjoyed his company, even having him come over. Imagine her face when she opened the door to find a smiling Henry on the doorstep. Now with this new development, she resumed her stubborn silence.

Despite the Paige issue, all was well in the world in Lily's eyes.

That was until today.

She was sitting on the steps of the school with Nic and Ava during recess. Manny and his group of older friends threw open the doors, startling the three, "Look guys, it's the orphans," he sneered in their faces.

Nic shifted away from them as best he could, bringing his R2D2 lunchbox closer to his chest. Ava glared at the boys for making her brother so insecure. She was overprotective of Nic. Lily learned of what the Zimmers had gone through since their mother's passing. Ava felt solely responsible for keeping her brother safe while they smuggled and stole in order to survive. She would inflict pain to those who dared to hurt him, "Leave us alone," she said. Lily put a reassuring hand on her friend's shoulder, calming her down.

Lily knew why Manny decided to grace them with his presence today of all days. Half the teachers have gone out sick due to food poisoning from the cafeteria meals. That meant they had to cut recess patrol down to two, both busy with the elementary school kids on the playground to notice. She figured he planned this confrontation for weeks now.

"Come on, guys," One of the things she learned from the program was if a bully was giving you a hard time, walking away before violence broke out was a good option. She hastily packed up her lunch and went to scurry down the steps. Her mistake, Manny stuck his foot in front of her, tripping her. She toppled to the ground.

"Get her," Manny ordered his friends. Lily raised her head from the gravel to see two boys, whom she recognized as her classmates, pluck her from the ground and hold in place in front of the flagpole. Nic and Ava knew what was happening and tried to get inside the school to warn a teacher, but the boys had locked the doors.

This beating was different than the others. This time, Lily was trying to wriggle out of their grips, she was fighting. For the past few weeks, she was exposed to a different life, a life where she had friends and felt she could be at ease with herself. For once, she was comfortable in her own skin, having let herself laugh and smile when she hadn't been able to do so since Graham's death, since ever.

That could change in an instant. She would only revert back to that scared, defenseless girl if she let them. A crowd of kids started to gather and watch it happen. Lily spotted Paige running from the playground with Henry in tow. She made a move to put a stop to this, but Henry pulled her back. He didn't want her to get hurt. She was forced to watch Lily get treated like this again.

"It's been a while," Manny didn't waste time, having brought his fist to punch Lily square in the stomach. Her knees buckled as she let out a cry. Her arms were still being held above her. She felt like she was about to be executed. But for what? It wasn't her fault she was an orphan. It was something she couldn't change.

Another punch knocked the breath out of her. It took a few moments to regain her air, but she knew she better do something before she started coughing blood.

"Stop!" Moving her eyes from the ground, she saw Paige move in front of her, having escaped Henry's hold and now shielding her from the next blow. "Manny, don't do this. She's done nothing wrong, yet you and everybody else pick on her," She pleaded. Nic and Ava were about to do the same but Lily mouthed a 'Don't' in their direction. She didn't want them to get involved.

"Paige, move," Lily tried to get her friend to safety.

"Listen to her," Manny said gruffly, "and we won't do the same with you,"

Paige wouldn't budge, feet rooted and arms spread to prevent further harm to Lily, "Why are you doing this to my sister?" Sister. She never called me that, thought Lily, stunned that she proclaimed that. She nearly forgot what was transpiring here.

"It's because it's so easy. Now, get out of the way, Paige," With that, Manny tossed Paige aside like a rag doll.

The sight of this made Lily's blood boil. No messes with her best friend. Her sister. She resumed jerking out of the boys' hold.

She imagined this was the part in the story, where the underdog had an epiphany before fighting the main antagonist. She wanted to be brave, like Graham wanted. She wanted to fight for him, for Paige, for the Zimmers. Just then, she laid it down. She wasn't going to be treated like this anymore and she wouldn't let anybody get treated like this either. What she did next surprised even her and may not have been what the former Sheriff would approve of. She finally forced herself away from the two boys' grips and punched them square in the face. They stumbled back, clutching to their faces. One of them pulled his hand away to reveal a nasty black eye.

Did I do that? Lily didn't have much time to mull it over since Manny called for reinforcements. This set of boys ranged from her age to older. She was running low on belief. I'm doomed.

"Paige, go!" The brown haired girl nodded and joined Henry and the Zimmers on the sidelines.

Lily could have escaped to the office and report to the teacher. But the way her bullies were staring her down, she was tempted. She was fueled with some unknown strength. If she could punch two guys simultaneously, then she can handle them, right? After that miraculous show of bravery, those stares didn't intimidate her like they used to.

In the back of her mind, she felt she came across many situations like this though couldn't properly recall. In a trick of the light, Lily thought she saw the bullies carrying swords. She shook her head and everything returned normal. Her fists tingled at the thought of payback, so she advanced.

Tigerlily's feet were planted into the ground, staring down the pirates as they neared her with their swords. She tossed her axe into the air and made a show of twirling it. Peter's theatrics must have rubbed off on her. Speaking of the boy, he was engaged in a duel with Hook. It was always those two, picking up from their last match with the incessant need to best the other. She heeded an oncoming pirate. When the first blade came in contact with her axe, she was ready.

CLANG

She could hear her opponents' chains buffeting against each other as they stormed towards Lily was ready. She ducked as the first guy tried to grab her and slid between his legs in a nick of time. While he was briefly confused, she yanked him down by his golden locks and landing painfully on the gravel.

THUD

The pirate fell after Tigerlily headbutted him. The impact could have damaged them both, but she was tolerant to the pain. She swung her axe at the rest. The pirates were tactful. Their attacks were rapid and well executed. When Tigerlily would block one, another would slash at her. She brought her axe to deflect as much as she could.

She turned her head to face Starkley, an eye-patched man with a dagger. A mistake. Bill Jukes came from behind and booted her in the knee.

CRACK

She elbowed a boy hard in the face and kicked another in a 'special place'. This caused an uproar within the crowd of kids. Some egged her on but the majority were terrified. Lily didn't mind and continued with this violent rhythm. But she was too busy with the reinforcements to notice Manny approaching from the back. The Zimmers, Paige, and Henry didn't hesitate to shout,

LOOK OUT!

Tigerlily heeded Peter's warning and swiveled with her injured knee, slicing Bill Jukes' leg clean off. How Peter was able to coach her whilst parrying Hook's strike was beyond her. She was worried he was spreading his focus way too thin, from keeping an eye on her, the treasure, and importantly Hook's sword.

Lily ducked to avoid the rock Manny threw her way. The projectile smashed into the front window, sending a shower of glass at the crowd of kids. They ducked and shielded themselves from the shards. Luckily, no one got hurt. The glass scattered far, a few finding their way near her and Manny.

She stared at her main tormentor and stuck out her chin stuck up in a defiant manner as if to say 'Bring it on'. Much to her amusement, Manny was wide-eyed before taking off in the opposite direction. Not so fast, she thought. The boy who started this shouldn't walk out unscathed. Then, without thinking, she cartwheeled to the shards. In a swift move, she grabbed a particularly big one in the midst of her acrobatics and once upright, had enough momentum to throw it at Manny's retreating figure. It pierced his shoulder, bringing him down before he could run further.

For a split second, she relished in the victory. But the reality of her actions quickly brought her out of her crazy warrior state. Silence stretched throughout the crowd. Those who were supporting the fight were now as frightened as the other kids after witnessing the glass shard shot. She saw the bodies of the boys she fought, they were slumped against the flagpole or groaning on the ground. One boy clutched his knee. Lily realized she had dislocated it by the way it was bent at an abnormal angle.

A bad feeling settled into her stomach. Lily looked to her friends. Nic and Ava were wide-eyed. She didn't know what they thought. Paige had a hand clamped over her mouth to stifle the shock. The expressions on everyone else's faces were clear. They thought she was a monster. Lily stared at her hands in horror and immediately felt ashamed.

The doors to the school opened and out came Mother Superior and the staff. Too late. Where were you guys ten minutes ago? she thought.

Mother Superior was gobsmacked to say the least. She put a hand on hips, eyes narrowing from the injured boys, to the broken window, and finally to Lily.

"What happened here?"

"This beach seemed bigger than I remembered," Peter angled his body to dodge an attack. He spun around in time to deflect another blow, "To a five year old, everything in Neverland seemed bigger," he replied.

Hook gave a dry laugh, then he kept coming at Peter. "Playing tag, picnics, our little duels- at this very spot,"

"For you to perish here would be all the more fitting wouldn't it, Jones?" Hook's tactic proved to be more offense than defense. Peter could easily see his opponent's moves coming after fighting him for so long. He had yet to see something new come from the Captain.

"I do not have plans to die on this godforsaken island,"

"Your brother didn't, but look how that ended,"

Hook gave a war cry, his bitterness fueled by those words. He kept swinging his sword at Peter just to only have the boy strike with the same force, their two blades meeting at an X-formation, "You wouldn't know anything about brotherhood," the pirate snarled, poison laced in his hoarse voice.

But Peter fought back, pushing against Hook with strength beyond his small boy appearance, "I know more than you think!" Hook stumbled onto the shore. He decided to get creative and kick saltwater into Peter's eyes, "Ah, that's better. I was born with the sea in my blood anyway, lad. This proves I have the upperhand in water,"

Peter's breath hitched as he looked at the water. He suddenly drew back, "Oh, afraid to go into the water?" the pirate goaded, "Peter Pan is going to let a bit of ocean stop him?"

Tigerlily decided to intervene at this point, bringing her axe to stop Hook from bringing down his sword on Peter. She gave Peter enough time to flee from the pirate's wrath, heaving the pirate captain into the water in the process.

"Good job, Tigerlily! Now get that chest open!" Tigerlily swung her axe to keep the other pirates at bay. But they were starting to regroup.

"My axe cannot cut through," she yelled over the commotion. She and Peter were back to back now, rotating to see which pirate to take down first. They circled them but were rendered to wait for Peter's first move.

"Don't be silly," Peter scoffed, "I enchanted it myself,"

"Either it was your magic or someone else's,"

"What do you mean?"

"I think there might be magic in that chest," Tigerlily did feel a surge of power when trying to break open the chest.

"Then I may know how to open it. What better than to use magic on magic,"

Tigerlily dropped her fighting stance. The pirates didn't matter. She lowered her guard to face Peter, "Too risky. I am not letting you," She grabbed his shoulders, "Don't."

"I'll be safe," Peter assured, "Take care of them while I go. When I return, I'll be the same boy you know and love. I promise." Tigerlily tried to disagree, but Peter gave her a farewell wink before flying off to the rowboat.

By this time, Hook pulled himself out of the water and went to join his comrades, "That is sweet and all but that's my treasure. Come on men, let's get him,"

"Cap'n!" The pirates turned their attention to their meek crew member, Smee. He was off to the side, tending to Jukes.

Hook's expression softened and he rushed to his fallen man. He assessed the damage and looked for the final diagnostic, "what is it?"

"Jukes lost a leg. He's losing a lot of blood. We need to get him back to the Roger," Smee explained hurriedly.

Hook grimaced, looking behind him he yelled to his two adversaries near the rowboat, "What riches enclosed in that chest- it's never worth the lives of my crew. This isn't over, Pan!" Peter didn't turn to face him. He wanted to know what was inside the chest. He wasn't going to leave until he found out.

Hook and Smee helped Jukes rise and brought along his severed leg. With that, they hobbled off the beach and had surrendered the treasure to Peter and Tigerlily.

Tigerlily relished the victory before remembering Peter. She turned to see how he was doing. She kept her distance, not sure what to expect.

His hands hummed with Neverland's magic pulsing through him. His face contorted into an expression of pure determination and the chains burned green, the color of magic, then rattled violently before coming undone around the chest. Peter went to open the chest, but he never had the chance. The lid screeched open and black mass shot up from inside.

Peter stumbled back, a gust of wind whipping at him. He fell on the ground and tried to ward it off. But it surrounded him, consumed him. This shapeless darkness tugged away at his body, tugging away at his essence. It was trying to get something from him but he didn't know what. From the corner he could see his own shadow moving. It was moving out of sync with his own actions, it was moving against his will.

Then suddenly, he felt a great weight being lifted from him. The extraction was painful, having screamed and fallen on his knees. His eyes widened in surprise as he groped around his back for the familiar cold of his shadow. But it wasn't there. Then Peter's torso finally crumpled onto the ground. He laid there, lifeless.

"Peter!" Tigerlily realized what was happening and went to stop it. But when she arrived at Peter's side, she was too late.

His shadow had been ripped from his body.

A/N: Yay! We get to see Hook!

For that little fight sequence, the sounds correspond to the attacks both Lily and Tigerlily use. It transitions from one world to another. I hope that didn't confuse anybody.

There are a few things you need to know about this story.

1) Peter Pan is not Rumplestiltskin's father. Peter and Malcom are two different people. And he will be mentioned in this story later on.

2) On a contrasting note, Tigerlily and Pocahontas are the same. In my opinion, it's like how Peter is also the Pied Piper (clever Eddy and Adam).

3) Peter Pan and Captain Hook have met before. Back when the captain had both his hands and a brother, he and Peter were on good terms. In fact, they were friends.

4) I might get timelines mucked up. It took me three tries to make sure everything is in order. How does OUAT do it?

5) This isn't really canon. I just recently learned what that word meant.

Don't forget to leave reviews. What do you think happened between Hook and Peter? Hook and Tigerlily? What do you think is going to happen to Peter?