sultal's quick note: I lied. Peter and Wendy interaction NEXT chapter (which I may have up by tonight, depending on the homework situation). ALSO, I decided to post the audios of the chapters. Currently, chapters 1, 62, 82, and 17 are on YouTube. Yes, I know I am going in random order - so if there are any chapters you want me to do first let me know :)

Chapter 84: Pete's Dragon

"Wendy? Rat Ta…Wendy?"

Nothing.

Peter opened his eyes. Darkness. He opened his eyes again, feeling the lids, just to make sure they were actually working.

He sat up. He almost threw up. Peter rubbed his forehead, making sure a twelve inch nail wasn't sticking through it. No such luck.

Slowly, Peter leaned forward onto his knees. The adjustment shifted the scrap heap on which he'd been deposited. Thin-wire springs sprung into his face. Peter batted at them in the darkness. He was startled, but proprioceptively better for it.

Embarrassed for his fright, Peter glanced accusingly to either side, as if someone were laughing silently at him in the darkness.

"Not afraid." Peter muttered, lifting less confidently to his feet. Spine cracking, he winced. "Especially not…this place. Dark….place."

A red flag waved frantically in Peter's mind. Liar! Liar! Liar! Black hole! Black hole! Closing in! No escape! No way out! No light! No sky! Liar! Liar!

Sweat bled through his temples. His heart raced at the speed of light and his breathing tried desperately to catch up. And much like the black space surrounding him, Peter's chest squeezed. He grabbed his chest. He tried to stop the invisible noose cutting through his sternum.

He had to move. He could not bear staying still for a second more.

Without any purpose other than exerting control, Peter stumbled forward. Gears and springs slid under his sneakers, catching in his laces and punching into his shins.

"Wendy!" Peter gasped, groping his fingers through the blackness. "Wendy! I'm here. Where are you? Get up. Get up! You there? Come on, Girl! Answer me! We—oah!"

Peter twisted, knotted over his own feet. He fell. His ribs cracked on something hot and metallic. Untangling his legs, Peter pushed up. Tiny spikes prickled into his fingertips. The hot metal object was cylindrical but with spikes along the crest, almost like a spine.

Or Peter thought, smoothing his hand over bumpy metal scales, a tail. The metal moved under his palm, sliding heavily like a snake. A really, really, really big tail.

Something growled. The low purr rippled through the darkness. The air vibrated. The ground shook.

Peter looked up.

Two eyes slivered open. And then a mouth, jagged with teeth and red as blood.

A dragon.

Peter pounced into the air. Fire roared from the dragon's jaws, injecting molten lava into the darkness. The energy was brute and unbearable; Peter felt like hot oil had splashed into his face.

Fire frothed with agonizing contrast to the darkness. Light blistered into the surroundings, but was too intense for Peter to distinguish anything.

Suddenly, the dragon roared. It was an inhumane, mechanical sound that echoed without end as the dragon lifted into the sky.

Flames spread under the dragon's wings. Light melted, covering the wake in a buttery glow.

Peter gawked, eyes darting back and forth. Greedily, he tried to look at everything in the fading fire light. The metallic clutter, copper, brass and bronze. Broken buildings, petrified in positions of productivity. Cities of glass and iron at the roots of craggy mountains. Dragons. More dragons, decorating mountain peaks.

And…as the light faded…

Peter saw Wendy.

She was surrounded by….shadows. They were sniffing her. Licking her. Nibbling her. Browsing through her memories.

Silver and Facilier held her by the throat.