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Chapter Sixteen: Uh oh!

~Unbowed-and-Unbroken~

"The prisoner's escaped!" Tony shouted, racing into the camp. He had blood oozing down the side of his face from where he got hit over the head. "Quick! Someone get Pan and Felix, our prisoner's escaped!" His voice rose even higher, nearly cracking from how much volume he was putting behind his frantic words.

As soon as the words registered on her brain, Piper was on her feet and across the clearing in seconds. Grasping the collar of his shirt, Piper yanked the tall guy down to her height, a furious snarl on her mouth.

"Which prisoner?" Piper growled and Tony flinched, his arms wind milling as he tried to keep his balance. It wasn't helped though when Piper yanked him closer. "Tell me!" She roared, shaking him viciously as he choked on his shirt.

"The- the savage!" Tony choked out and she abruptly released his collar, shoving him backwards. Tony yelped and stumbled, tripping and falling backwards from the force of her push.

"Did you release the prisoner?" Pan asked from behind her and Piper turned, narrowing her dark eyes sharply at him, tense.

"If I had, do you really think I would tell you?" Piper snapped angrily and Pan narrowed his eyes darkly at her, yanking on her collar and dragging her closer.

"Answer me!" He snarled and she met his gaze fearlessly, stubbornly keeping her mouth shut. Of course, she hadn't let the prisoner out but being manhandled by this prick was infuriating so she wasn't exactly about to just let him have his way. "Now is not the time to tease, Piper. Answer me or I may be forced-" He sneered darkly. "-To harm your precious little Dolly." He spat and rage roared up from deep within Piper, burning fiercely in her dark eyes.

"Screw you!" Piper snarled back at him, reaching up and digging her nails into the hollows of his veins in his wrist, clenching her jaw and glaring him in the eyes. "I didn't take the fucking prisoner, if I had, do you really think I would have stuck around or even taken that one to begin with?!" Piper growled, puffing up her chest and narrowing her eyes, digging her nails deeper into the skin of his wrists.

Seeing the truth of her words in her furious eyes, Pan shoved her away, striding over to where Tony was. The large male flinched, cowering before the shorter but far more dangerous male.

"When did the prisoner escape?" Pan snapped and Tony glanced around nervously, licking his lips and fidgeting.

"H-he, uh-" His voice cracked and Piper scoffed from where she had caught her balance, straightening her shirt and turning away.

"No!" Pan's voice cracked across the clearing like a whiplash and Piper stiffened but continued walking towards the camp exit, despite knowing full well that Pan was talking to her. "Take another step and Dolly won't be vacationing from her cozy cell in her cage. She'll be put someplace you won't ever be able to visit her again." Pan hissed and Piper did freeze that time, terrible dread sweeping through her.

H-how did he know that she had been visiting Dolly? Had he been spying on her? On them? If he had, how much did he know? Did he know of the secret place Piper had made in the trees for her friend to go to when they escaped together?

…did he know about her plans to help Dolly get off the island?

"What are you talking about, Pan?" Piper asked coolly, turning around and fixing her dark eyes on him. Pan scoffed at her, shaking his head, hooded emerald eyes fixated on her as silence fell in the camp. Felix flicked his gaze back and forth between the two of them, Angelo and Salazar hovering anxiously behind him as they watched the confrontation between the two of them.

"You know what I am talking about Piper and I won't hesitate to follow through with my threat. How about we make a deal? The life of your friend…for the life of the savage that thought he could escape my captivity?" Pan hissed, cruel delight flaring in his darkened emerald eyes.

There was nothing sweet or gentle about him, he is hard and cold and takes vicious enjoyment from the suffering of others….why is she still attracted to him? There is just something about his darkness that is a siren's call to her own darkness…the darkness she has fought so hard to beat but with him, she has to let it loose because if she doesn't…she can't win this game…and then Dolly won't ever make it back home with or without her.

The looming question hangs in the air between them: will she take the deal or not?

Piper knows in her heart of hearts that there is no doubt, no question, no hesitation in doing what she must for the sake of her friend…

"Fine but if anyone gets in my way-" Piper snapped and Pan grinned coldly, knowing he had gotten the upper hand in their silent war.

"They won't because if they do-" He paused and swept his gaze over his gathered Lost Boys. "If they do, then they will answer to me." Following some silent signal, they all stood to attention, snapping into a salute with their hands, clubs, arrows, and even bowls. These boys…suddenly, they aren't boys. They are the savages they profess the Indians to be.

The darkness in their eyes…in all of their eyes, Angelo and Salazar and Felix included, it shakes a part of Piper but that is the part that she will not accept of herself. That humanity…she can't afford to have it now so she shoves it away and allows her own expression to harden. Nodding once at Pan, Piper jerked her head at the group of boys, turning and striding out of camp, refusing to look back even when Pan started laughing behind her.

~Unbowed-and-Unbroken~

How dare he?

The flashing memory of Pan's superior smirk make Piper grit her teeth, shoving past a branch hanging low as she scanned the forest floor, waving one of the boys forward. He eyed her cautiously with soft green eyes, his hair a tangled mess on his head.

"Do you see any tracks?" Piper snapped and he flinched, looking quickly to the ground, not wanting to incite any rage from her.

"There are tracks but they aren't from the savage. C-can I take the lead?" He stammered, avoiding looking her in the eyes. Piper stared at him for a moment before she nodded curtly and swept her hand out mockingly in front of her. Red suffused his cheeks as he blushed and hurried forward, scanning the ground with businesslike intensity.

Piper, for the life of her, couldn't figure out how he was going to find which way the savage had gone based on a handful of leaves, some imprints in the dirt and misplaced branches but held her tongue, following silently behind the boy and pulling out her daggers.

The heavy weight of the hilts in her scarred palms was familiar and comforting but for once, Piper wished she had something that could reach further. She didn't want any unnecessary risks in this fight and having to get close enough to the savage to take him down counted as an unnecessary risk- until she got Dolly off the island. Once she achieved that, all bets were off and then Pan would find out what it was like to hold lightning in a collar- when it no longer wanted to be caged.

"I found something!" Excitement and trepidation tinged the boy's words and Piper narrowed her eyes at the boy, moving forward silently. He turned to say something else, his mouth open but saw her standing right behind him, a high-pitched, strangled yelp bursting out of him as he jumped and stumbled backwards, reflexively bringing his hands up.

"What is it?" Piper asked lowly, reflexively dropping her voice to a lower timber as an intimidation tactic. From the way he paled and whimpered, it was working but not quickly enough for Piper. Muttering a snarl under her breath, she forced herself to calm down and her features to soften into something soothing and light, filled with warmth and tender care.

Reacting instinctively to the gentle, motherly air about her, the boy relaxed and smiled hesitantly, calming down nearly instantaneously.

"S-sorry." He mumbled and looked up at her from his lowered lashes. "I found the savage's footprints and they were with…feral cat paw prints." He whispered, fear and distant awe in his eyes at the thought that any man could freely walk with the man-eating feral cats.

Piper had to work hard to not scoff and roll her eyes, if only to keep him talking.

"What else?" She asked, her voice soft and sweetly husky. The boy blinked at her hand, which was outstretched to him in a silent offer of help. He slowly reached up and placed his hand in hers, boosting himself up and then hurriedly letting go of her hand to brush his clothes off.

"I, um, they went towards the mountain." The boy said and Piper nodded contemplatively, her dark eyes going distant as she thought things over. Why would Fiercemoon be helping this savage? Why wouldn't Fiercemoon bring Piper to the savage so she could talk to him?

Questions and more questions began to pile up inside her head and Piper shook herself impatiently, her eyes clearing as she looked at the boy.

"Lead the way, we will go for a few miles and if we haven't caught him yet, we will return to camp and consult with Pan." Piper felt her mouth twist when she spit his name out and the boy jumped, startled at the venom in her voice at the name of his leader. Glancing curiously and apprehensively over his shoulder, he started walking, focusing his green eyes on the ground as he tracked the savage that already has a head start on them.

"What's going to happen when we catch the savage?" Salazar asked, his confidence showing in the way he said 'when we catch the savage' instead of 'if we catch the savage.' Piper looked down into his dark green eyes and scanned her eyes over his boyish face and mop of bronze curls.

"Then I do as I said I would and take his life so that Dolly may have hers."

~Unbowed-and-Unbroken~

"Still no sign of him?" Piper asked impatiently and Owen, the tracking boy, shook his head apologetically.

"I can see his tracks clearly but from the rapid pace, I can tell he is nearly a day ahead of us." Owen said, scanning the ground again. "If we follow him, we won't catch him until early morning and by then, the savage will have one over on us because we will be weak and tired." Owen fell silent, training his eyes intently on her face.

"What do we do?" Angelo was the only one who dared voice the question they were all thinking. Narrowing her dark eyes, Piper twirled her daggers in her fingers, each of them briefly skidding over her palm before twirling into the air again.

"We go back." Piper said abruptly and turned to Owen. "I am going to request that first light in the morrow, you and myself head out to catch the savage. I won't have anyone else going with us, they are only going to slow them down and I need to catch that savage as soon as possible." Piper said coldly, ignoring Salazar's and Angelo's protests.

"Why me?" Owen asked, paling a little as his voice shot high. "I-"

"You have already started tracking him. I am not going to have a different tracker start over in the morning, that is only going to slow me down." Piper said sharply, shooting a stern look to Angelo and Salazar, forcing them to be silent.

"Is Dolly really worth this to you?!" Angelo burst out and the blood drained out of his face when Piper went deadly still before whirling to him, slamming him up against a tree, her hand a bar of curved iron around his throat as her dark eyes burned fiercely into his own.

"You know the answer to that question, Angelo, so don't you dare ask it again." Piper hissed and held him there for a brief moment before releasing him and turning, sweeping her gaze darkly over the rest of the group. "Does anyone else have any comments or questions to make?" Piper snapped and they stared at her with wide eyes, each of them silent and scared. "Lead the way back to camp, Owen. Now." Piper ordered and the boy hurried to do as she said, the others quickly traipsing being their friend.

Piper started walking after them when Angelo spoke up, his voice hurt.

"Am I really not worth anything to you?" Piper stopped, not really certain on that question. He had caught her off guard and no quick lies sprung to her tongue, no scathing comments slipped out of her mouth, she was just…silent.

How does she tell him that in a competition between him and Dolly…there is no competition?

Slowly turning to the boy, Piper settled her dark gaze on him, her eyes quiet and numb. There's no competition between him and Dolly but she does care about him, she just can't afford to show it all that often. Or ever, really. If she does, that's just one more weakness for Pan to exploit, she knows it's true because if she was in Pan's position, that's what she would do.

"Angelo…don't ask questions to answers you already know." Piper said lowly and turned, heading off after the group of boys, leaving Angelo to clench his jaw, tears of hurt in his eyes before he hastily blinked them away and walked after her, his head hung low and his hands in his pockets.

He fell in line at the back of the group and Piper glanced back once, slight concern flashing over her face before she faced forward again, moving up beside Owen.

"Tomorrow, I want you packed and ready to go when I wake you up. We will be eating before we go but make sure to bring extra food for yourself. Don't worry about me, I will bring my own food. Bring only what you need. Understood?" Piper reeled off and Owen nodded quietly, shying away when she lifted a hand to flick a curl away from her face.

They used to be cropped closely against her head but now the curls have started growing out a bit, turning into a wild mop of curls on her head, not unlike Salazar's. The curls are corkscrews, wound tightly enough that if she were to pull on one, it would just spring back into the same curled shape.

When her hair was longer, it wasn't so bad because the weight of her curls would pull them straight on top of her head but since there is virtually no weight on the curls, they are springing in fairly odd different directions that she has little to no control over. It's a physical representation of her life and the lack of control she has over it.

Smiling coldly at nothing in particular, Piper pulled one of her daggers out and began aimlessly twirling it in her palm, the silver flashing under the setting and rising sun. She was lost in thought, mindlessly following Owen back to the camp, stepping over branches and avoiding the spots with the most leaves, ghosting silently over the ground while the boys behind her bumbled and crashed through the path behind her.

It's no wonder the savages find them so easily if these boys make noises like this all the time.

They finally reached the camp and Owen fell back, letting Piper take the lead. She could see Owen's reluctance to be the one to tell Pan that they had failed to reach the savage and kill it.

"Why is it-" Pan began asking loudly and sarcastically, holding a dagger in his hand as he slowly looked up at her. "-that I don't see a body with you?" Pan snapped and Piper stiffened, meeting his gaze boldly.

"We tracked him as far as we could until I determined it was far enough. We didn't have the proper provisions and strength to continue on a hunt for as long as it would have taken to capture the prisoner. I told the boys it was time to head on back, if you have a problem with that, speak now or forever hold your peace." Piper mocked, lifting her chin with defiance and arrogance, to the everlasting shock of the boys gathered around.

No one talked to Pan liked that and got away with it unscathed. No one…except, apparently, Piper could.

"You had best be heading out at first light." Pan threatened, pointing a dagger at her chest as he slowly stalked forward. "If you don't catch that savage, you and I and Dolly are going to be having a long, drawn out, painful reunion. Do I make myself clear?" Pan asked darkly and Piper lifted her chin even more, squaring her shoulders and smiling coldly right in his face.

"Yes, mother." She sneered, practically daring him to do something to her. If he tried to hurt her, Piper has no qualms about striking back. She will fight for Dolly's life if that is what is needed, that has never been held in question in her mind or anyone else's that has seen the two girls together. Though they are not of the same blood, they have chosen each other as sisters and that is the truest bond to them.

"Insolent brat." Pan snarled, snatching her throat up and digging the tip of the dagger into her jugular in the next second. Piper didn't tense up, she just kept on smiling coldly, a tapping feeling drawing his eyes downward…to where her dagger was right at his crotch. His eyes narrowed and Pan shot his gaze up to hers, a threatening glint to his dark emerald eyes.

"Were I you, I would be thinking carefully about my next step, wouldn't you agree?" Piper asked sweetly, mockingly and anger flared up in his eyes as he slowly released her. Piper wasted no time in stepping back, keeping her dagger low and out of sight but very much so still there.

"Defy me again and I won't threaten Dolly's life, I'll just take it." Pan hissed and in a cyclone of dark green smoke, disappeared from her sight.

"Pussy cat, pussy cat, where are you?" Piper asked liltingly, a triumphant gleam in her dark eyes. "Run away little kitty, run away free, hide from the big bad mousie." Piper hummed, turning swiftly and making her way to her tent to get a good night's sleep.

It was about damn time that Pan realized she wasn't just a plaything and that she wouldn't just roll over and let him play with her.

Oh no, he's going to have to earn that right.

Amina212 - Aww, thank you so much! That tension between Piper and Pan really is fun to play around with. I really agree with what you said about their struggle and Pan not knowing what to do with someone he can't dominate because it's so true! Thank you so much for your review!

HopeAndHeartache - Thank you so much!

BookRain - Hey, sorry about not getting this chapter out yesterday, work was driving me crazy, I barely had time to do anything, much less post a chapter. Hope this makes up for it!