Second, since so much time passed between this chapter, which is the last (hopefully. I'm one of those people who think a trilogy has five books in it.) and the one before it, I've lost a little something. Mainly the horribly fan girlish happy ending. That has been scrapped. The ending is going to go wherever it wants, be it happy or sad. I'm through try to force it. Which was the main problem. The other problem was Lili wanted so very much to turn into a Mary Sue. I smacked her and got rid of any planet bouncing powers my fevered brain had originally cooked up. All that is left is Peter, Lili, and Barbarrossa. More human, or as human as Peter and Barbarrossa ever were. Their characters are intact, it's just Lili doesn't exhibit superpowers.
/end rant.
DISCLAIMER: I still don't own Peter. Or the Neverland, although I do play in it.
Lili woke up tires to the main mast of the Jolly Rodger. Not the world's best wake up view.
"Is Sunshine awake?" Barbarrossa swayed forward, smirking.
"I'm not your sunshine ." Lili pulled fruitlessly at the ropes binding her to the mast.
"Everybody should have someone as their sunshine"
"Even so, I'm not your sunshine"
"Not even for...say, your freedom?" Barbarrossa smirked in the manner of all villains who believe they hold all the cards.
"As if you'd untie me." Lili glared in the manner of a person with a mild concussion and a major headache.
"...I could...it isn't as if you have anywhere to go, except to Davy Jones' Locker." Turns out that Barbarrossa's thinking had a rather large error.
Everyone forgets the levitating ability fairy dust gives a body.
These same people also forget the fact the Neverland is positively saturated with the stuff.
Lili could just fly away home.
All she needed was enough time to get airborne. Or jump ship.
"So what exactly would it take for you to cut me loose"
"Oh, just a promise…" Barbarrossa turned his head and studied her. "A promise to give up Pan"
"…." Lili's fists tightened. "Fine"
Barbarrossa smiled sunnily. "I don't believe you"
"I've never broken my word"
"Ah, yes, there is that. But a person's word is such a flimsy thing. And you've been so gallant in defending Peter"
"Which I've done only because I swore I would." Lili studied him, her face blank.
"Now that, that I believe"
Barbarrossa pulled a decorative but still functional and above all sharp dagger and began slicing through the rope binding Lili to the mast.
The gesture, while nice, did not give her false hope. It would be just like Barbarrossa to give the illusion of freedom before taking it away permanently. As the last rope binding her to the mast fell loose she sprang, hoping the sudden movement might stun him into a few precious seconds of non action.
Barbarrossa, however had been expecting an escape attempt, moved quickly to block the path of her flight. Lili feinted around him.
He easily caught her around the waist before she could jump ship. As Barbarrossa pulled her back towards the centre of the deck she scratched and kicked to no avail. Lili might as well have been pinned by a statue.
What this little tiff amounted to was, in fact, a perfect distraction. Things could not have gone better had Peter planned the kidnapping from the beginning, Galen mused silently. The only problem with that theory was Peter never actually planned anything, events just had a tendency to fall in his favour. Peter crouched on the gaff, watching Lili's struggle with Barbarrossa. It didn't take a genius to see she was severely outmatched. Galen glanced over at Peter, then leaned in to whisper "Why are we just watching"
Peter looked up, the whites of his eyes showing "I don't know what to do!" Below them, Lili scored a kick to the shins, which Barbarrossa wasn't quite able to shake off. She twisted around to face him and ducked out from beneath his arms. She was growling and using the more interesting bits of her extremely generous vocabulary. Any fool could see she wasn't in a mood to be trifled with.
Which was why the crew of the Jolly Rodger was staying aft, they were no fools. Galen was struck by a bright idea. Barbarrossa's back was turned as he was stalking towards Lili, who had managed to get from amidships closer to the bow.
Galen landed quietly in front of the crew, who regarded him with open-mouthed expressions. "For the sake of everything you've ever held holy, close your mouths!" he whispered aggressively. The crew took his advice.
"Now, you group of pansies, do you like Barbarrossa?" Galen glared at the crew as a general would his recalcitrant troops. "You! An answer!" he pointed to one pirate who was a rather sad looking man with eyeglasses and pinstriped trousers that had seen better days.
The surprised pirate stuttered for a moment under the steely gaze before Galen lost control of the façade and grinned.
"Sometime today would be rather nice"
The pirate swallowed and smiled faintly. "None of us particularly care for the Captain"
"That does not surprise me, he's madder than a hatter on a cocaine kick. Now would you like to do something about the madman before he destroys the place we call home"
"Er… you wouldn't be talking… mutiny would you?" asked a tattooed pirate.
"Mutiny is exactly what I was thinking about"
"He'll kill us!" chorused the crew.
"No, no, no. See, he's distracted right now. See that girl with the--" he squinted "Rather large bar of iron? Yes her. He's got his hands full with her, as you can see she's no slouch with that-- oh, ouch that looked like it stung!" Galen turned back to the crew "Well, anyway, he's not paying any attention to his back, what with having his front in danger of being staved in. So I say we attack. There's thirty of us, one of him, and I'm sure if you drop your weapons fast enough afterwards Lili might convinced not to kill you." Galen grinned crookedly, and said "What say you, lads"
"You are nuts"
"Let's take that as a given. Now, killing Barbarrossa or waiting for him to kill you? I wouldn't think it would be a hard choice. I'd have hit him upside the head with a half brick in a sock ten minutes after talking to him"
The crew looked at one another nervously, then the oldest of the crew members said "Bugger this, he's right. Are we the fearsome scourge of the seas, or a pack of lily livered pansies?" then as an afterthought he added "Remember Hook? He was a pirate. That up there is a clotheshorse with questionable taste in bedroom partners"
The crew started nodding to one another, then a formidable yell tore from the pack of them and they ran forward towards the scuffle in the bow.
Well, all of them but two. Galen and the other speaker had hung back. "They have little regard for their skins, eh?" Galen nodded and pulled out a flash, and took a draught and handed it to the other man. "Jack, I tell you, leave the heroic examples until you have no choice. You live longer"
"Still haven't got that hero thing down have you?" Jack grinned and took a swig.
"I died once today, it was enough. Let the new kids have the fun."
Peter watched Galen's little pep talk, and the sudden wave of pirates running toward Barbarrossa with their best battle cries and swords out. He turned his attention back to Lili, who had exchanged the iron bar for a sword and was happily reducing the captain's coat to shreds. He smiled suddenly, and inspiration struck. Sudden storm clouds built, and thunder rolled. The commotion on the deck came to a screeching halt. Lightning split the sky, and Barbarrossa was looking around in some confusion. Lili started to laugh and shouted out "You silly ass"
Barbarrossa bellowed and pulled a sword and went for Lili. But before he managed a step towards her, Peter landed gracefully on the blade, his own out. "Bad form, trying to hit a girl." Peter grinned, and lighting lit the deck. "Very bad form"
"You horrid egotistical little boy!" Barbarrossa swung the blade wildly against his fleet and unbelievably happy aggressor, failing to hit Peter every time. "Why. Are. You HAPPY!?" he growled through gritted teeth. "You're terrified of me! I made sure of that"
Peter laughed and feinted around the captain "You are sad." He disarmed Barbarrossa with a nimble move and pinned him against the mast, his blade at the captain's throat. "A girl beat you off. A girl"
Lili in a manner that gave the impression she was more stifling laughter than getting an itch out of her throat. Galen grinned ruefully, clearly remembering some of the heinous deeds Lili had inflicted on the pirates as a child.
Barbarrossa tried to free himself, but Peter's strength was greater than his, as Peter wasn't exhausted from a prior fight. "You can't win"
"I already have." Peter pulled away suddenly and Tink flew in and ringed Barbarrossa with fairy dust. Peter easily pulled Barbarrossa from the deck by his collar. As the two rose higher and further from the Jolly Rodger, Peter leaned in and whispered to Barbarrossa "You know how happy thoughts lift you up and unhappy thoughts drag you down"
Barbarrossa hung several hundred feet from the surface of the water.
"It's true. But fairy dust doesn't last nearly as long as a happy thought." he let go of Barbarrossa, who stayed stock still. "And you don't like high places"
Tinker Bell circled Peter who drew back from Barbarrossa.
"Don't you dare leave me here"
"Don't worry, you can fly right back to the island." Peter grinned spitefully, and turned gracefully in the air. "It's not my fault if you are to scared to move"
Those aboard the Jolly Rodger couldn't hear what Barbarrossa was yelling, but the tone clearly conveyed his anger. Lili studied the small figure high in the air. "Why doesn't he just fly back. It's not far." Peter landed beside her.
Galen wandered toward them "He's afraid of heights. Petrified of them. I sent him up to the crow's nest once and he nearly broke his neck falling out. Stupid really, I would just close my eyes and move. Things aren't so bad if you can't see what you're doing"
"In any case, he's not bright." Lili said, "He had a pistol. If I had been him fighting me, I would have shot me"
"Peter grinned. "I'd have shot you too, if you smacked me with a bar of iron"
Galen sighed. "I have to agree. But we're not going to stand here and wait till he falls in, are we? I, for one, am hungry." he paused. "And I have to get someone to clean out my cabin, because I'm not touching it with a ten foot pole"
Lili cocked an eyebrow at him. "Cabin? As in on board"
Galen grinned and picked up one of the fallen swords and stood en guard. "Aye, girly, you've met your last pirate captain"
"Girly!" Lili grabbed a sword and ran at him. "Girls can do anything a boy can do twice as well, you chauvinistic pig"
The ringing of the blades sounded suspiciously like bells. Peter picked up his blade, tossed it up and caught it. He grinned and watched Galen and Lili spar. It was a surprisingly even match; considering Galen had 60 years of practice on her.
In the distance, a small figure sank slowly, then faster into the cerulean water below. No one noted the splash, for Galen had managed to knock Lili into the water.