AN: I'm sorry this took so long to come out! End of term is fast approaching, and deadlines for term projects are popping up all over like toadstools. grumble That and some difficulty I was having hacking out a plot kink conspired together to make this chapter much harder to write than previous ones have been. Unfortunately, due to my need to actually do work for school atm, it's likely that I won't be able to update as quickly as I was before, but I'll try to have a post a week if I can. Anyhow, enough blather, hope you enjoy.

.oOo.

Chapter 6: Monster.

Mello whipped around, the scream splintering his nerves. Time seemed to gel, the air suddenly thicker, too viscous to breathe properly. He was diving after Near, but he could no longer see him in the crashing spray and then he was falling too and the wind was so cold—

Hands seized his arms, jerking his fall to a halt. Pan and Matt were both yelling but he couldn't understand what they were saying. The smashing of the sea on the rocks thundered in his ears as he scanned the chaos desperately for a glimpse of Near's red bandanna and sash in the maelstrom of white and blue and black.

Matt struggled to keep his grip on the blonde and stay aloft. The horrifying image of turning back to see Near gone and Mello falling was quickly shoved to the back of his mind by the crack of a second pistol shot. The pirates were standing at the cliff's edge, firing down on them. "Mello!" he screamed in his friend's ear. "We have to get out of here!"

But Mello wasn't listening, shouting incoherently and trying to break free.

Pan solved the problem by punching him in the face.

With a roar of pain, Mello made as though to hit back. Since Pan was holding him up by the arm he was trying to punch with, this was not very effective.

"Come on, Mello, we gotta go!" Pan bellowed.

"Near—"

"There's nothing you can do for him right now! They'll shoot us down if we don't get away!" As though to punctuate his point, a bullet actually nicked one of Pan's feathers, knocking it out of his hair to flutter down to the booming waves below.

Mello stopped wriggling, his face white, but he couldn't seem to support himself in the air. Pan and Matt held him between them and they sped away, leaving the pirates behind, waving their pistols and jeering from the cliff's edge.

The cliffs declined, growing shorter and shorter then spreading down to a rocky beach. Matt flew numbly, not sure what was keeping him in the air except that he had to help Mello. They landed gracelessly, Pan lighting firmly on the rocks but Matt nearly collapsing in sudden exhaustion and Mello dropping stiffly to his knees. Almost immediately he stood, turned, and half-staggered back to the waves with hard eyes and a clenched jaw.

Pan watched, nonplussed, as Matt stumbled after him. He caught up with his friend as Mello splashed purposefully through the surf, throwing his arms around the blonde to restrain him. "Mello, stop!"

"We have to go back for him," Mello gritted out, wrestling against Matt's grip. "We gotta go find him!"

"Mello—" Matt's voice broke but he clung on. "Mello, there's nothing we can do, you can't help him now—"

"We can't leave him behind," Mello insisted. He elbowed Matt hard in the gut, and Matt knocked him down into the water, gamely holding him from behind, pinning his arms. Mello thrashed wildly.

"Mello...I'm sorry. You can't—"

"I have to!" Mello screamed at him. Matt just held him tightly.

"Near's gone, Mel."

The blonde went limp in his arms, his face hidden by his hair.

.oOo.

Pan had the tact to give them a few minutes, but then insisted that they return and rendezvous with the other children. The sun was beginning to set, he pointed out, and they didn't want to be trying to navigate the jungle in the dark.

Mello was frighteningly silent the whole walk—a cold, brittle silence that was stiff with anger. Matt didn't try to talk to him as they followed Pan through the vine-tangled trees; even if he had thought Mello wanted to be talked to, he wouldn't have been able to think of anything to say. He found himself increasingly distracted by his own thoughts. Matt was not devastated, precisely, and yet in a way that didn't seem too far off the mark. The whole situation seemed tiny and distant, as though he were watching it on a screen. Near was such a constant— always dressing the same way, doing the same things at the same times every day, that the idea that he wouldn't be around filling that predictable routine seemed unreal. Matt felt oddly cold despite the warmth of the dying afternoon and wondered if he were in shock.

Near and Matt had never been particular friends, or friends at all, really. Mello claimed to hate Near and Matt was Mello's friend, so he hadn't ever really considered going out of his way to be friendly to the younger boy, who didn't really invite friendliness anyway. But when he considered the last couple days, Near's strange fascination with this fairytale world as though it were a toy he could live in, his excitement on the beach upon seeing the pirate ship for the first time, his dazed surprise at himself after shooting that pirate...He really isn't that bad of a kid, Matt would think. Maybe if Mello weren't so mad at him all the time it might be fun to get to know him a little. And then with a jolt he would remember, He wasn't, not isn't.

He had been so young. It just didn't seem possible. Sure, people died, but in Matt's experience children were always the ones left behind, not the victims.

And what would they tell Roger? That they had let the smaller boy—what? Get lost? Get in an accident? He certainly wouldn't believe the truth, and what story could they possibly give him that wouldn't lead to serious trouble, given Mello and Near's infamous rivalry?

The thick jungle somehow no longer seemed magical and brimming with adventurous possibilities in the deepening dusk, but creepy and full of shadows where treacherous things might be lurking. Mello had been right, he thought miserably. They should have made Pan take them back to Wammy's before any of this had happened. In the end Neverland wasn't any different from the real world.

They heard the Lost Boys before they saw them, sitting around a tree laughing and throwing clumps of leaves at each other. Matt was suddenly struck with how oblivious they were. Near was dead, and here they were playing games.

"Hey!" Turtle cried as they came into sight, whooping with delight. "That was AWESOME! Too bad we missed out on EVERYTHING—"

"Yeah, you guys got all the fun!" Cinder rejoined, "but we were watching, you really got Kira good, slipping out from under his nose like that—"

"Yeah and grabbing Taki's bandanna, that was really—"

"Where's Near?" Brown asked, tilting his head lazily.

"Not sure," said Pan cheerfully, stopping both Mello and Matt in their tracks, too shocked for a second to react. "Is Cherry around? I was going to have her go ask—"

"She went to make a cake to celebrate," Turtle said just as Mello snarled, "He fell."

Everyone looked at him, Pan with mild surprise, and the Lost Boys curiously. "What do you mean, he fell? You didn't leave that poor klutz to find his way in the dark, did you?" Cinder said.

"Don't worry, Mello," Pan chuckled.

"Don't worry," Mello repeated, as though he had never conceived that anything so completely idiotic could be actually spoken aloud by anyone intelligent enough to be capable of speech, and wasn't sure how to respond to it. His face began to redden.

Pan smiled easily. "I'm sure Near's fine. We'll just ask Leslie and the girls if they've seen him, and—"

"It was at least fifty feet. With rocks at the bottom. He can barely swim," Mello grated, his hands clenching convulsively. "Do you know what the statistical probability of his surviving that fall is? Let alone getting to shore!"

"Mello," Pan laughed, holding up his hands, "you are taking this way too seriously. If I had known that you thought he was a goner all this time—"

"Too seriously?" Mello shrieked. "He's dead, you asshole! Died in your stupid fairy tale world, playing your stupid fairy tale games! He's dead, and it's all your damn fault!" He launched himself at Pan, his eyes crazed, lunging for the older boy's throat.

The Lost Boys stared open-mouthed. Matt cried out and tried to pull Mello back, but before he reached them Pan dropped to the ground and delivered a swift kick to Mello's gut. "I'll ignore that, seeing as how you're a bit out of it," he said coolly as the blonde fell backward, gasping, his cheeks scarlet with rage. "Oh, Cherry! There you are!" Pan turned away from them, beaming as the cake fairy fluttered to the group, flying low under the weight of a large cake.

It was chocolate, Mello noticed, and suddenly felt as though someone had roughly scooped out his insides and replaced them with something hot and foul and bubbling, thick as tar. The memory of rich cacao made him nauseous.

"Oh, Mello, it's chocolate," Matt said, thinking that it would at least distract the other boy from trying to throttle their only guide back out of this place.

Mello burst inexplicably into tears.

Matt might still be numb, the redhead realized, but Mello was taking Near's death very hard indeed. Unsure of what to do, he crouched by his friend, putting a tentative hand on his shoulder. "Hey," he said awkwardly, then didn't know how to go on. 'It's going to be ok' was an insultingly transparent lie, and anything of the truth would hardly be comforting at the moment.

Cinder and Brown had no such hesitations. As Turtle relieved Cherry of her burden and Pan gave her his instructions, the two of them hurried to Mello, Cinder throwing her skinny arms around his shoulders and Brown saying in his slow, soothing voice, "Pan will take care of everything, Mello. Your friend is going to be ok."

Mello just cried harder into his arms, shaking his head.

"They're not even friends," Turtle scoffed tactlessly as he came over with the cake. Cinder glared at him, hugging Mello protectively. "Jeez, Turtle, shut up."

Mello said something incoherent. "What Mel?" Matt asked anxiously, taking the cue from Cinder and putting his arm around his friend.

His shoulders hitched. "It's all my fault," Mello choked.

"Ah, jeez, Mel—we were all in a panic, what else could you have done, left him there to be shot?" Matt felt his own eyes starting to sting as the situation began to sink in.

"He said he couldn't do it and I just threw him over...and..." Mello sucked in a deep breath, "I made him fall, Matt, I was thinking about him falling..."

Cinder hugged him tighter as Pan walked over to the little clump, Cherry's flickering glow darting away into the trees. "That was my happy thought, Matt, that Near couldn't fly!" He sobbed uncontrollably.

"Doesn't work that way," Pan said reasonably, crouching in front of him. "You can't affect someone else's happy thought with yours."

The blonde ignored him. "And he saw right through me," he went on hoarsely, "if you guys hadn't come to get me it would never have happened..."

"Mello," Pan interrupted firmly. "Trust me. Don't give up on Near. He's probably fine."

"That's not really likely," Matt said, starting to become angry with Pan's cavalier attitude, as Mello looked over the top of his sleeve with bloodshot eyes and growled, "Give up?! You stopped me from helping him!"

"You could not have caught him in time," Pan said patiently. "You would have fallen too."

Mello wished he had, but didn't dare say so. "Just leave me alone," he muttered, burying his face again and huddling into a tense, prickly ball.

"Let him chill out," Pan told them, and Cinder let her arms drop. Matt stayed with his friend as the Lost Boys backed off. "We'll stay here tonight," the wild boy went on, "and wait for Cherry to come back..." Matt tuned him out.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. Pushing his goggles into his hair, he rubbed tiredly at his eyes. Mello turned his head sideways in his arms to look miserably at him.

"Me too," he croaked.

.oOo.

Someone was touching him—that was the first thing he noticed, flinching away. The next thing he noticed almost immediately was that he was lying on his belly on warm, smooth stone, and that he was sore all over.

The gentle hand ignored his reaction, brushing the wet curls off his forehead. He was confused. Where was he? There was only one person who had ever caressed him that way (or been allowed to) and she was—

"Mommy?" he tried to say, and retched up seawater instead. More hands held up his head and pounded his back, forcing him to cough it all up. Vaguely he heard murmuring voices, and then everything was dark again.

When Near woke again the sky was blazing rose and violet, gold banners curling to usher the sun into the sea. Around him were the sounds of laughing and splashing and lilting voices. Blinking up at the sky, Near tried to remember where he was and how he had gotten there. He seemed to remember falling off a rather large cliff after being chased by pirates, and the fact that his back and limbs felt rather stiff seemed to support this as fact; but he was apparently still alive, and that made rather less sense.

"Hey Les! He's awake!" called a voice very close by. Turning his head, he saw that he was lying on a rock a little out from the shore of a short, pebbly beach fenced by high cliffs that reached out to hug a small grotto, the walls of which were green with trailing vines and drooping clusters of flowers. There were people, perhaps a dozen of them, playing in the grotto, and a young woman was in the water a mere couple feet from his face, relaxing with her crossed arms propped up on his rock. She regarded him with open curiousity and a sweet smile, and a large pink flower was stuck in her pale blond hair.

Words failed, so he voiced the first stupid thing that floated to the top of his mind. "I'm alive," Near said, and it might have been a question.

"Sure are," she said brightly.

He stared at the sky again. "I fell?"

"Sure did." The girl laughed, a clear laugh that tinkled like small bells.

Near shook his head, barely able to believe it. "Do you know what the statistical probability of my surviving that fall was?"

Someone giggled from his other side. Another girl was in the water there, orange flowers bound up in her dark hair. "I like him. He's funny."

"He's cute," the first one agreed. Near frowned, not sure he cared for being characterized as either cute or funny.

Something large and silvery splashed nearby, and a third flowered head popped out of the water, this one a dark blond with green eyes. "He's awake? So he is," she said, looking him over. Planting her slender hands on the edge of the rock, she levered herself up to sit next to him. Instead of legs, the skin of her waist transitioned smoothly to tiny silver-green scales and a long, tapered tail that flared into a webbed fin.

Near breathed in, giddy with the overwhelming realization of just how magical Neverland really was. Jump off a cliff and instead of getting smashed on rocks or drowning, you got rescued by mermaids. Suddenly anything seemed possible. Normal rules just didn't appear to apply.

If people don't grow up here, maybe they don't die here either. Not that he intended to go out of his way to test that possibility again.

"I'm Leslie, and these are Hallie and Stefani," said the mermaid, pointing to her blond and dark-haired companions in turn. "How ya feeling?"

Near sat up slowly. He was a little stiff, but was no longer sore, not even scratched. His bandanna seemed to have gotten lost in the mix (he hadn't liked it anyway) but that was apparently the only damage he had sustained. "Fine," he said, surprised. "I'm Near."

Stefani giggled again. "That's a funny name," she said, then squealed as Hallie splashed her. "Be nice!"

"I am being nice," she retorted, sticking her tongue out. "I didn't say it was a bad name."

"You one of Pan's new boys?" Leslie asked, ignoring the antics of the other two.

Near adjusted himself to sit in his favorite position. "I suppose so."

"We saw them," Hallie piped up.

"Yeah, Pan and the other two new ones," Stefani chimed in. "We almost had two guests, the one in black tried to jump in after Near here. Pan must not have told him about us—they had to drag him away to keep from being shot." She winked at Near. "You have pretty brave friends."

Unsure of how to respond to that interesting piece of information, Near twirled a curl of his now-dry hair around one finger. Hallie and Stefani exchanged glances—How cute! He stopped abruptly and they giggled.

"Be nice, girls," Leslie scolded them, seeing his discomfort. "Well then, Pan'll probably be sending the fairy 'round to make sure you're with us. You can stay with us tonight—she can tell us where to meet them and we'll swim you there when it's lighter." The sun had set completely now, and the reddish glow in the west was fading quickly, giving way to the ghostly light of the moon.

"Still no open water after sundown, Les?" Hallie said, laughing.

Leslie stuck her tongue out. "Ryuk's hanging around, I wanna be able to see him coming."

"Ooh, the big bad monster," Stefani said, making a mock-scary face and fanning her hands around her head. All three girls broke into giggles.

"Still though, you wouldn't want to meet him alone at night in open water, Stef," Leslie retorted, rolling her eyes. Stefani just laughed.

"Well then," Hallie said, her dark eyes lighting again on Near, "if you're staying the night you can come play with us!"

"Ah—" Near eyed the mermaids laughing and splashing in the moonlit water. "I don't really swim..."

"Awwwww, come on," Stefani coaxed.

"We won't let you sink," Leslie said reassuringly.

"Yeah, if we can catch you diving unexpectedly into the surf, we can totally take care of you in quiet water," said Hallie. "It'll be fun! Unless you want to sit on that rock all night."

Near rather thought that didn't sound like such a bad alternative, but the mermaids were not about to let him off that easily, and were even more tenacious than Mello.

"Pleeeease?" Hallie was saying a full fifteen minutes later, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

"Well..." Near's reluctance was weakening in the face of their insistence. He hadn't counted on being nagged all night.

"Yay!" Stefani cried gleefully, seizing him by the wrist. With a startled yelp he toppled sideways into the water. Near gasped quickly, bracing to go under, but the mermaid caught him under the arms and he didn't even get his hair wet.

"Stef!" Leslie scolded.

"He's fine," Stefani protested. "Just relax!" she told Near, giggling as he kicked spasmodically to stay afloat. The powerful beats of her fishlike tail kept them up effortlessly. The mermaids were evidently much stronger than their girlish figures suggested. With an effort he forced his muscles to relax, putting out one hand to hold onto the rock just in case.

Laughing, Leslie slid gracefully into the water and Hallie flipped her tail and joined them. "See, it's not so bad, is it?" said Hallie, her hair streaming as she surfaced.

Actually, it wasn't horrible. The water was warm and sort of soothing on his stiff limbs, and although he was a little uncomfortable with the mermaids' proximity and Stefani's gentle grip on his arms, he could see that they were right. It was very unlikely that he was going to drown under their watchful eyes. Concentrating on breathing slowly, he gradually let his hand drop from the rock into the water.

"That's it," said Leslie encouragingly. "Easy does it..."

With a flick of her tail Stefani pushed them away from the rock. "Come on," she said mischievously. "We'll teach you how to swim!"

"That's really not necessary—" started Near, wishing she hadn't left the comfortingly solid rock so soon.

"At least how to float," Hallie temporized. "You'll like it, we promise. Nothing's better than being in the water."

"I really don't—what is that?" Near asked, half out of curiousity and half to distract them.

Something was glowing faintly in the water a little ways from them, a pale greenish blue light that shimmered in ribbons and splotches. As the last purple faded to black in the sky, the glow grew stronger.

"Fluorescence," Leslie told him, grinning at his interested expression.

"The whole grotto is full of coral," said Hallie. "And a lot of it's grown over with fluorescent anemones."

"Wanna go look closer?" Stef asked slyly.

"...ok," said Near hesitantly.

Floating, thought Near quite a while later, might just be even better than sitting. They had spent a while exploring the reef, with its twisted turrets and walls like a sprawling fairy castle. Stefani had even persuaded him to paddle a little way on his own (out of reach of his rock, he really didn't have any way to argue). Now the long strenuous day was catching up with him, and Hallie and Leslie had had mercy on the boy and told Stefani to let him rest a little. He felt completely weightless, rocked gently by the water, the distant rush of the surf on the beach and the splashing of the playful mermaids lulling him into an almost meditative state. Without the sun counting off the hours, time strolled unhurriedly through the moonlit darkness. He even thought the mermaids' almost constant laughter was growing on him, or at least not as irritating as it had been at first. All Near needed for this to be completely soothing was a boat or a duck or some other toy. Perhaps he could make one out of a coconut or something, he thought whimsically, and giggled at the mental image.

Hallie chuckled. "You were so quiet, I thought you might have fallen asleep."

"I don't think I'd still be floating if I were asleep," Near pointed out lazily, not opening his eyes.

"Then you were so quiet you might have sunk right to the bottom, asleep, and not even you would have noticed," Stefani teased.

They were back by the rock again. Leslie sat sideways on top of it, rebraiding Stefani's long black hair into intricate loops. Hallie lounged against the rock, watching and making suggestions every now and then, keeping an eye on the little boy floating in the water and making sure he didn't drift too far away.

"You won't let me sink," said Near drowsily.

"Oh, I suppose not, since you're so cute," said Hallie, flicking water at him.

Near calmly ignored both the comment and the cool drops that sprinkled his face. He was far too relaxed to put forth the effort necessary to react. Then he squealed in surprise and thrashed as slender fingers unexpectedly tickled his sides.

"That was mean," he grumbled as all three mermaids burst into laughter, Hallie taking him by the arms to keep him from going under. Near splashed her petulantly with one hand, which only made them laugh harder. The uplit glow of the water made their pretty faces look surreal in the darkness, and Near wondered for a moment if he looked as elfin as they did in the eerie light.

Another light in the blackness near the mouth of the grotto caught his eye, a single red dot of crimson fire that was strangely mesmerizing. It winked out for a second, and then came back. It seemed to be growing slowly larger. "Is that a different kind of anemone?" he asked, pointing.

"What?" asked Leslie, and as they turned to look screams broke out across the grotto.

There was a colossal splash and Near's veins went ice cold despite the warm water as the moonlight glinted on a huge coil rising out of the water, a looming shadow against the fluorescent water following the burning red spot. Mermaids shrieked and dove away, toward shallower water and the rocky beach. "It's Ryuk!" Stefani cried.

Before Near could begin to analyze the situation, Hallie and Stefani had seized him between them and they were speeding for shore, Leslie right behind them.

"I can reach," he gasped as he felt rocks scraping his legs, and they let him go to scramble to his feet. Standing was strangely awkward after being in the water for so long but he didn't have time to let himself acclimate. Near splashed frantically over the slippery rocks to the beach, the mermaids hauling themselves bodily along beside him.

The water broke open behind them and Near drew in a sharp breath as the serpent's head reared high above them, towering almost half as high as the cliff that encircled the grotto before sliding down with a rushing splash, crashing and coiling onto the beach. Everyone sat frozen as the enormous monster sprawled half in and half out of the water, its raspy panting echoing in the grotto.

After a long moment of nothing happening, Stefani burst helplessly into mad giggles. Hallie shushed her with no effect, and Near rolled his eyes. Was there anything mermaids didn't laugh about?

"What now?" Near whispered. They couldn't go anywhere. The beach was closed off by the cliffs, and the mermaids probably couldn't get far on land anyway. On the other hand, the monster didn't seem to be about to attack. Was this some sort of trap? Wouldn't a sea serpent be at a greater advantage attacking in the water instead of chasing them all up onto the beach and then taking a break before coming after them? He remembered earlier that day, the thundering cannons and Captain Kira's triumphant yell. Sometimes whales beached themselves to die. Had the beast been mortally wounded, and come here to gasp out its last minutes?

"Not sure," Leslie murmured. "Usually he just chases us around a bit and gets bored and leaves...maybe this is a new game." She wrinkled her nose. "Ugh...he smells horrible."

"Way worse than usual," Hallie agreed.

Near noticed the stench, an odd combination of raw fish and rotten apples. "Maybe he's injured," he suggested. "The pirates were firing at him earlier."

"Hm, maybe," said Leslie, then to Near's alarm yelled loudly, "Hey, seaworm! What's wrong? Kira stick a pin in you?"

Ryuk let out a low, rumbling growl. "No, fishgirl, I thought I'd come sun myself on the beach," he retorted, his voice raspy and grating. Hearing intelligible speech come from the huge snake was a little unnerving.

"What do you want?" she called, perching on a rock and crossing her arms imperiously. Near couldn't help but admire her gall, although he wasn't sure about the wisdom of talking so casually to a giant monster that could easily have snapped her up in one bite. On the other hand, neither the mermaid nor the serpent seemed to be taking the situation entirely seriously. What on earth was this, a huge game?

"Isn't this a little dangerous?" he muttered quietly to Stefani.

"Pssht, don't worry," she whispered back. "He's unpredictable, but he probably won't do anything."

"Get over here," rumbled the serpent. "I need hands."

"What's that?" said Leslie, cupping a hand to her ear. "You need our help? Big bad Ryuk wants help from the fishgirls?" The mermaids scattered along the beach giggled.

"Consider it a favor," Ryuk growled, then added almost as an afterthought, "or else I'll eat you all."

Leslie laughed, then flopped into the water. "Come on girls," she said, rolling her eyes, "let's go see what the big worm wants."

"What?" Near squeaked, stumbling after Hallie and Stefani, who were giggling as usual. "Are you sure this is a good—"

"Don't worry, silly," Hallie laughed.

The mermaids and Near (hanging back a little) gathered around the beached monster. The smell was even worse closer up. Ryuk's body was almost twice as thick as Near was tall, heaving with every breath he took. With disgust the boy saw that the serpent's skin was not simply like a large snake's, as he had assumed, but almost like a patchwork of dull, blue-black scales and thick greyish skin more like a whale's, nightmarishly bound together with heavy metallic staple-like stitches like something out of a Tim Burton film. As they approached the beast lifted his head from the rocks to peer at them over his tumbled coils. Gleaming fangs shone against the dark, reptilian face framed with long, feather-like spines, and a single tiny red eye glinted at the group. The right socket was black and empty. Just like Captain Kira, the thought popped into Near's head.

The crimson eye lit on Near, blinking. "A human, fishgirl? Are you stealing boys from Pan again?"

"It's not everyone's company we can't stand, just yours," Stefani teased.

Ryuk cackled. "All the better...he'll be useful."

"Useful for what?" said Leslie, as Hallie and Stefani drew protectively closer to Near.

"Obnoxious fishgirl," snorted the monster. "Yes, that plumed pirate got me. I've been squirming around all afternoon and I can't get the ball out. It's not funny," he growled, as the mermaids broke into giggles.

"You've survived this long, I'm sure you're not seriously hurt," Leslie retorted. "Anyway, why should we help you?" she asked slyly.

Ryuk gave her a long-suffering look, which was quite an accomplishment for a fanged, one-eyed sea monster. "Don't make me chew your empty head off."

Leslie laughed. "All right then. Get where we can see it, fishbreath."

They all backed away as Ryuk wriggled down into the water, rolling so that the dark oozing hole could be seen. He shifted his considerable weight so that Leslie and Hallie could pull themselves up onto a rock to look at it more closely.

"Hmm," said Hallie.

"Well?" Ryuk demanded.

"You really smell," Leslie told him. The monster harrumphed. "Would you like to find out if your insides smell any better?" The mermaids laughed off the threat.

"It's hard to see," Hallie said, holding her nose and peering at the hole. "You might be better off waiting til light."

"But it really hurts," whined Ryuk. "And I've been putting up with it all day and half the night."

"Big whiner," muttered Stefani, giggling.

Near didn't know what to think anymore. This had to be the most bizarre situation he had ever witnessed.

Suddenly, overhead, a light whizzed down like a falling star, circling wide around the beached sea serpent and swooping down. "Cherry!" cried Near in surprise. The cake fairy landed on his outstretched hand, clinging to his thumb and chattering frantically, pointing to Ryuk.

"Ah, I knew she'd come looking for you," said Leslie brightly, and Ryuk peered at them with a narrowed eye.

"Yes, I know, it's all right," Near told the fairy, although he wasn't sure if he believed himself. "We're just giving him a hand."

Cherry eyed Ryuk suspiciously, hugging Near's thumb tightly and getting sugardust all over his hands. "Hey," said Near, "Cherry can give you light. If she agrees, that is."

"That's a great idea!" cried Hallie, and Stefani ruffled his curls energetically. "Aww, you're so smart Near!" He winced.

The fairy looked up at him skeptically. "It'll be ok," he told her with more certainty than he felt. The sooner they helped Ryuk, the sooner the serpent would go away. He hoped.

"Bring her on over, Near!" Leslie said.

Near frowned. He hadn't actually meant to go closer to the sea monster himself. Hesitantly he waded through the water, and Hallie reached down and pulled him up onto the rock to hold the fairy closer. The rotting stench was much worse closer up, and a thick, oily slime oozed slowly from the injury. It looked pretty big to Near, but he supposed in comparison to Ryuk's colossal body it wasn't that serious. He wondered how many 24-pound shots it would actually take to incapacitate the monster, and if Captain Kira's ship was even capable of getting in enough hits or one accurate enough to kill him.

The fairy's glimmering light cast the ripped scales and torn muscle into sharp relief, and lodged in the flesh the miraculously intact ball glinted dully. "Hmm," said Leslie. "It's not in deep, just in under the skin a way...it must have hit sort of side-on."

"So do something about it," grumbled Ryuk.

"Quiet," Leslie said absently. "Near, you have legs. Could you climb up there and sort of hold back the skin so we can dig it out?"

"Er—what?" said Near, alarmed. This was definitely more than he had bargained for. And really, he thought, it hadn't been much of a bargain in the first place.

"Don't worry," said Hallie reassuringly, "We won't let anything happen to you."

"Ah..." he said faintly. Ryuk dipped his head down. "Need some encouragement?" he rumbled.

"Ryuk, be nice to him or he won't help you," Stefani scolded.

Near considered the chances; help perform field surgery on a giant sea monster, or possibly get eaten by said monster. This was ridiculous. The situation was so weird he didn't even know how to start reasoning through it. Better to just get it over with.

"Uh, ok," he said reluctantly, letting Cherry flutter into the air. Before climbing up he unwound his sash and pulled off his shirt, folding it neatly and setting it down on a large rock. Much as he had disliked the rough sailcloth when Pan first convinced him to wear the disguise, it was the closest thing he had to a clean white garment at the moment; his pajamas, now abandoned in the jungle somewhere, had been stained with dye and dirt and moss and who knew what else. There was no way he was going to get sea monster slime all over this one. For a second he noted curiously that there was a large lump in the pocket—it must be that thing that Mello dropped, he thought distractedly before putting it out of his mind to concentrate on the unpleasant task ahead.

Hallie gave him a wink and an encouraging smile as Leslie boosted him up bodily. He scrambled up, using the weird metal stitches like ladder rungs. Rolling awkwardly onto his belly, he peered down, wrinkling his nose at the horrible smell and trying to ignore the serpent's head hanging above him to watch. Several of the other mermaids were now clustered around curiously too, cheering them on. The dull scales were a lot smoother than they looked, he noted thankfully. Cherry landed by the edge of the tear, making a face, and Ryuk twitched. "Ugh, sugardust," the monster muttered.

"Ok Near," said Hallie, far more enthusiastically than Near thought anyone getting ready to stick their hands into a sea serpent's gory side had a right to be. "Just hold here and here, and sort of pull it gently."

Feeling slightly sick, Near did as she instructed. Ryuk's flesh was horribly spongy and sort of greasy, but it stretched much more elastically than he expected. The monster snapped his teeth in pain and Near flinched.

"Don't move, now," said Leslie, and she and Hallie reached in.

Near's fingers began to grow sore as mermaids worked gently away at the firmly lodged ball, and Ryuk's growls and sudden gasps were making him edgy. He cast about for something that would distract the both of them through this wretched task. Near wasn't the best conversationalist even in normal circumstances, and he had no idea what would interest a sea monster. So, what are the squid migration patterns like this time of year? "What happened to your eye?" he asked finally.

Ryuk snarled, and Near winced. Ok, maybe too tactless. But after a moment the creature answered crabbily, "It got stolen."

"Stolen?" Near repeated. How on earth did someone steal an eye?

Stefani burst out laughing and Ryuk glared at her. "Oh, come on," she chuckled. "You started it."

"Did not!" Ryuk snapped, shifting.

"Stop moving," said Leslie, "and Stef, stop picking on him, you're making him fidget."

Now curious, Near wondered how to probe further without riling up the beast. Ryuk solved the problem for him by saying huffily, "I only took Kira's eye. He shoots at me all the time AND took my eye. That's hardly fair."

"Only took his eye?" Stefani scoffed. "You're always chasing those pirates all over the lagoon."

"It's all in fun," Ryuk said defensively.

"Until you poked his eye out."

"It was an accident!" the monster said.

"So, does he still have your eye then?" Near asked out of morbid curiousity.

"Yeah," he grumbled, and scowled fiercely at Stefani when she laughed.

Near wriggled a little, tightening his grip. His arms were getting tired. "Almost there," Hallie muttered, glancing up to give him a small smile. "You're doing great, Near."

"Why don't you just steal it back?" the boy asked Ryuk, trying to ignore the fresh wave of rotten fish and fruit as the ball shifted.

"What, climb on board his ship and rummage around with my dainty prehensile tail?" scoffed Ryuk. He had a point. "Aaarrgh!"

With a horrible squelch, the heavy iron ball popped out. Hallie and Leslie shrieked and laughed, jumping out of the way as it bounced on the rock, cracking off several chunks of stone, and splashed into the surf. Near let go with a huge sigh of relief, sitting up and shuddering as he wiped his hands off on his pirate pants. Chattering disgustedly, Cherry fluttered up to his shoulder and clung to his hair.

The boy yelped as Ryuk shifted, clinging to the scales. "Oh, that's so much better," the monster groaned.

"You're welcome," Leslie smirked. "Now you owe us one."

"Yeah, yeah," said the serpent.

"Thanks," Near told Cherry. She smiled weakly at him, still looking rather ill. "You can go back to Pan and tell him and Matt and..." he faltered. "And...the others that I'm ok."

Ryuk loomed over them, giving Near a calculating look. "Going back to Pan, are you?"

"Yep," Leslie answered for him, smiling at Near. "His friends'll be worrying. This one jumped off a cliff to see us." The mermaids giggled.

"Hmm," rumbled the sea monster. "I might have a word with Pan..." His huge, fang-packed mouth gaped in a terrifying smile. "How would you like a ride?"