Cubby POV

I watched in wide-eyed horror as Izzy, fueled by nothing but pure rage, leaped at Peter with relentless determination. Her blade sliced through the air, aiming for Peter's flying figure, but he expertly dodged her every strike. Each time she missed, she landed on the rocky ground, grunting in pain as her body absorbed the impact. You could see the pain and even the anguish in her eyes, but she still continued to fight. Jake, and I stood frozen, watching from the side as Skully flapped above our heads. Izzy's attempts to strike Peter became increasingly frantic, each failed swing followed by a painful fall and a painful yell. But still, she pushed herself up again and again, her face contorted with determination.

"Izzy stop it!" Peter shrieked, dodging another swing from her weapon.

"Never!" the lass yelled back, but not without several pants.

"You're hurting yourself!" Peter argued as he, agile as ever, effortlessly continued to avoid her onslaught. The previous slit on his arm that she gave him seemed to have reminded him who he was dealing with and made him step up his game. With each dodge, he seemed to provoke her further, pushing her to the edge of her sanity-correction, the edge of her insanity. I felt a mixture of fear and even pity for Izzy. Despite her hatred for us and her intentions, I couldn't help but empathize with her pain and frustration...but it wasn't even really her doing all this. It was this Morgan. This ghost. This parasite that teased and manipulated her into giving herself up. But our Izzy still wanted to live-still wants to live. We know it, Morgan knows it and Peter knows it. And that is what he is fighting for right before our eyes.

With a sudden burst of energy, Izzy lunged at Peter one final time, her blade slicing through the air with a primal scream. But Peter, always one step ahead, maneuvered out of her reach, causing her to fall once more and meet the ground with an unforgiving *SNAP*. I winced as she cried out in agony, her face contorted with pain as she clutched her leg. It was awful to witness. Even more so when we realized that that horrid snap we had heard must have been her leg. Peter descended to the ground, cautiously landing a few feet in front of the Izzy that was still clutching her leg in pain. Peter motioned for Skully to come to him with the Forever Flower. Our little parrot friend did so before backing up along with me and Jake, making Peter look like he had been marooned on an island. The redhead sighed heavily before kneeling down to the broken Izzy, the purple flower in his hand.

"Let her go." he demanded gently yet sternly. Izzy opened her squinted eyes and looked at him. All our hearts pounded heavily in our chests as we saw her then reach out her hand in acceptance and let a beaming Peter place the flower in her hand. But we had celebrated far too early and what we thought out to be a victory was only a huge loss. After fully gaining a good grip on the Forever Flower, Izzy's sorrowful expression immediately disappeared and was replaced with a smirk. She cackled as pushed herself to get up-though stumbling a bit though, for her leg was still badly hurt. Then before we knew it she leaned forward, ripping her pixie dust pouch off of Peter's neck, sprinkling the dust on herself and shooting up into the sky. However she winced in pain and clutched her leg every two to five seconds, although her motivation for killing us did not shrink one bit.

"Why you sly little liar!" Peter sneered, his fists clenched tightly.

"Takes one to know one, Peter dear," Izzy replied. "Did you honestly think that was gonna make me stop?" she asked mockingly, looking down at us. Peter, Jake and Skully were all fuming and so was I, but I felt more disappointed than annoyed or aggravated.

"Well It'll most definitely slow you down!" Jake barked at her. "How can you still possibly be going!? You probably just broke your leg!" Izzy rolled her eyes and lifted up her shirt a little, to reveal numerous white scars and light pink welt marks on her waist and abdomen. We all cringed at the sight. She made sure all four of us got a good long look at the scars and rashes that had been forever placed onto her once perfect skin before dropping her shirt back down and shooting us all death glares.

"Did ya see those scars!?" she yelled. We just remained silent. "Well did ya!?"

"Aye." Skully chirped, timidly.

"I got 'em when I was whipped and beaten while you two were having the time of your lives! One more strike from the cat tail and I surely would've died! And a day later I was locked in a closet with a pirate for seven minutes..that turned into an entire hour! It was a rather unpleasant experience. You thought that kiss was bad Jake, try that on for size!" The boys whose name had just been spoken sighed.

"Iz…I know what they did to you was horrible but—."

"But nothing! I'd hate to rain on your parade Jacob, but a little 'I'm sorry' cliche apology won't change anything!"

"Who said I was even gonna apologize? And not everything that has happened isn't all because I left! Did you ever figure that maybe, just maybe everything that happened was a worst case scenario? And if my absence hurt you so much then why did you even tell me to go in the first place!?"

"The old Izzy didn't say anything because she wanted you to be happy! And she thought maybe you'd figure out you were making a mistake! But evidently you didn't and that is why I, the psycho pirate, exist! And that is why we are here!"

"No, we are here because Izzy got jealous, you took advantage of it and you took over her! If Peter offered the real Izzy the same chance she would've taken it! That was my time to shine and you both know it!"

"Every time is your time to shine Jake! Everything was always about you! And what happens to Izzy or Cubby when you're out shining and embracing the glory? They're left in the dark! I thought you cared about them! I thought you cared about Izzy. And not in that stupid fake brother sister way!" the corrupted girl exclaimed. Jake looked down and scratched his head.

"Not in a brother sister way…..," he repeated. "That's it," he mumbled before looking up at her again. "Izzy.….you…love me." he stated.

"I do not!" the girl's evil counterpart shouted. You could see the fake denial in her eyes but she quickly shut them and shook her head. "We are getting off topic Jake! As I was saying, a little broken bone is nothing I can't handle! I've had these painful horrible scars for two whole years! That's over seven hundred days! And they have not gone away and they never will! Just like how I won't go away and I never will! You can do whatever your pathetic little minds think will get rid of me but-it-just-won't-work!" She turned her gaze toward Peter. "Neverland was your home Mr. Pan flute. You were supposed to protect it. And yet you leave it behind to be spooked and tormented by the evil psycho pirate. Well Peter, unlike you, I will take very good care of Neverland. I will never leave it! And before we all know it, it will forget that you ever existed." Peter rolled up his short sleeved even more.

"Over my dead body you will."

"That my friend, is the idea." Izzy purred, getting a better grip on her large dagger. "But first, I want you to watch this flower and pretend as if it were you," she said, landing on the rim of the volcano and to see ur complete horror, dangling the flower above the sizzling orange lava pool. "..because in the next five minutes it will be yo—OW!" she suddenly shrieked. Just as she was dangling the flower above the sizzling orange lava pool, Skully swooped down at lightning speed and with a determined squawk, he latched onto Izzy's hair with his beak, causing her to cry out in surprise and drop the flower once again.I felt a surge of hope as Jake, quick on his feet, sprinted forward and managed to catch the precious crystal just in the nick of time.

Izzy, now more frustrated than ever, wrestled with Skully to free her hair from his grip. She finally managed to get him to let go, but her anger didn't subside. Instead, she turned her attention towards Jake, her eyes blazing with fury. It was a terrifying sight to see a grown pirate woman, with strength and determination, facing off against a young boy in his mid-teens. Jake, though brave, seemed almost defenseless in comparison. I held my breath, my heart pounding in my chest as I watched Izzy charge at Jake like a tiger hunting its prey and eventually knocked him down. One of her hands held down his shoulder, the other trying to grab the crystal and she had his legs pinned down with both her knees-despite one of them being badly damaged. She had him pinned on the ground now, using every bit of her strength to try and pry his fingers off of the flower's stem but the pirate teen just wouldn't let it go.

"You're making this harder than it needs to be, ya little rat!" Izzy growled through her teeth. "GIVE IT TO ME!"

"NO!" Jake lashed.

Peter quickly dashed over to the cat fight and encircled his arms around Izzy's waist, trying to pull her off. But it was useless. The lass just jerked around and sent him flying like a horse flinging off its jockey.

"IF YOU DON'T LET IT GO JAKE I WILL KILL YOU!" Izzy threatened, scarier in every way. I would've just given up at this point, but Jake only lifted up his head and sunk his teeth into her hand. Izzy screamed and immediately got off of him, shaking her hand, and even though her grip on the forever flower loosed a bit, she still did not let it go. Jake staggered to get up and before the posses pirate could fully regain her strength, he quickly snatched the crystal flower and grabbed the sword that she had strapped back to her led, kicked her in the abdomen to cause her to fall over completely and to top it all off, pointed the sword down at her, looking like he would stab her if she moved one muscle.

Izzy lay on the ground crying and screaming in misery and for real this time. She had damaged her leg, been kicked and bitten and her head had made a hard contact with the ground that she began to hemorrhage and there was now blood coming out of her nose.

"Any. Last. Words?" Jake asked, laying the tip of the blade on her shoulder, inches away from her neck.

"Jake don't!" I protested, running up to him and trying to pull the long knife out of his hands.

"Get back Cubby! You don't wanna see this!" he snarled, still looking at Izzy in viscous disgust.

"No! We've already done enough! If we kill her then we kill Izzy! Remember!?"

"Cubby's right Jake." Peter said, limping over to us while clutching one of his arms.

"Izzy is already dead! I'm ending her suffering now! Do you really think a flower is gonna switch her back!?" the green eyed pirate shrieked. "Now get back! Both of you!" he growled before turning his gaze back to the dying woman. "Now…any last words?" he asked. Evil Izzy remained silent, coughing and weeping in pain. We thought she wasn't gonna give Jake the pleasure of surrender, but….we were wrong.

"I'll let her go." her voice quivered. We all froze. Jake lowered the blade and took a step closer.

"What did you say?" he asked.

"I'll do whatever I have to! A-anything to make this pain go away!" she whined, clenching her teeth. Jake did not so much as make a move to hand the flower over to her.

"You can't fool us twice."

"I'm serious!" she shouted in nothing but raw misery. "I'd rather give the little rat her body back! You can have her! Then you can tell her that it was you who bit her! And that she was the one who burnt down pirate island!" The woman used what was left of her strength to push herself to sit up. "This is not the last you will see of me Peter!" she sneered at the green boy standing beside me. "You too Jacob! You want her back so badly!? You can have her! You can have her and Neverland! And you can have your fame and your fortune! Have it! I'm serious! YOU HAVE IT ALL!" she screamed before leaning forward, yanking the Forever Flower out of Jake's hand and taking it into her own.

And then, she kissed it.

When her lips pressed against the delicate amethyst petals of the flower, a bright light filled the atmosphere, it was so white that we could barely see. Eventually the light morphed into smoke that eventually cleared. And there on the ground, Izzy, the real Izzy lay before us. We all gasped at the sight we had not seen in forever. She looked entirely different, so much better-like she had just been cured of a sickness that had plagued her for months. Everything that made her look like a monster disappeared and rightfully so after Morgan's spirit was flushed out of her. She had shrunken down back to her normal size (which was even shorter than me by now after my growth spurt over the last few months). The white blouse and skirt looked enormous on her now. Her hair returned back to its normal warm light brown, instead of that ugly blackish color. It had also gone back to its normal form with minor waves instead of a ruffled lion's mane. Her skin tone was no longer pale but was not as tan as it used to be. Jake cautiously crawled over to her and gently tapped her shoulder. At first there was no response. But then…Izzy opened her eyes. Relief washed over me when I saw that the devilish red was gone and the calm serene honey brown had taken its place. I swear this was the happiest I had ever felt in a long while. A smile kept its way onto Jake's face when he saw those eyes.

"Hey Iz."

To Be Continued…..One Last Time