AN: OH MY GOOOOOOSH I FINALLY FINISHED THIS CHAPTER! UGHHHH! Again, sorry it's late, i've been ridiculously busy lately but I finally got this one out after what? Two weeks? Ok, I'ma stop yapping and let you just read the dang thing.

Chapter Nineteen:

Izzy to the Rescue

(Well, sort of)

Izzy POV

"Deserted hideouts, missing crew, haunted temples, creepy witches! Could this night get any better?" I say to myself, my voice trembling with unease as I hopped from one rock sticking out of a stream to another. When I had fully made it across the mini river, I continued on what I swear was the most spooky night in Neverland. It figured, since Halloween was coming up next month. Every hoot of an owl, every snap of a twig beneath my boots sent shivers down my spine. All I wanted was to go back home to Pirate Island, bury myself under my blanket, and pretend none of this ever happened.

Finally, I reached my destination—not the haunted temple, but the cozy cottage of an old friend. She was also a witch, but not the scary kind. No, Misty was kind, helpful, and always had a warm smile for me. Her cottage was a sanctuary, decorated with flowers and painted in soothing pastel hues.

I approached the door and knocked, hissing her name softly,

"Misty."

No answer.

"Hey, Misty!" I hissed again, growing impatient. The door creaked open, and before I could utter a word, I was smacked in the face with a broom. I fell to the floor, groaning in pain.

"Stay back, Psycho Pirate!" Misty exclaimed, her voice filled with panic as she continued to beat me with the broom.

"Misty hold it! I—-OOF!"I tried to protest, but the broom kept coming down to whack me over and over again.

"No! Not another word! Just wait till I tell Peter about you!" the witch shouted back as she continued to strike me. Finally, I managed to crawl out of the aim of her broom, panting and throbbing.

"IT'S ME!" I screamed, my voice shaky with fear and frustration. "I'm back to normal, REMEMBER!?" Misty's eyes widened in horror as she dropped the broom and rushed to my side, fussing over me like a mother hen.

"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed, her voice laced with guilt. "Izzy, I'm so sorry! I forgot that they fixed you! You see, it's just that you haven't been in Neverland in so long and—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I interrupted, waving off her apologies. I couldn't really blame her. Everybody here seemed to have forgotten that I exist anyway," My tone quickly switched to concern. "Look Misty, this is no time for clowning around. I've got a serious problem and I'm counting on you to help me out."

She put a finger to her bottom lip.

"A serious problem?" she asked and then shrugged. "Like what?"

"Jake, Cubby and Skully are missing and I can't find them anywhere! I thi—."

"Oh don't be silly! They're not missing!" she interrupted with a reassuring smile. "I just saw them last night wandering around. Although I think they were trying to find something."

"They were." I confirmed.

"Like what?"

"Well you see Misty, there's this Temple in the Mountains we discovered and—-." Before I could finish, her dark eyes widened in fear as she interrupted me.

"You mean that big scary castle that's haunted!?" the good witch asked, looking just as terrified as Hooks crew. Now I had come to Misty's cottage just in case the temple was actually haunted-which I was pretty sure it wasn't. I thought surely those crazy, sober pirates had stretched the truth by a landslide, but now to see that's how Misty of all people described the Temple, now I know that it must be haunted.

"Yep. That would be it." I grumbled, scratching the back of my head, looking down at the ground.

"I sure hope you have no intention of going there! Why, an evil witch lives in that place!"

"So I've heard," I mumbled. "Misty….have you actually seen this witch for yourself?"

"Well….not exactly. But I sure have heard her, and boy can her laugh give a scare! Also, I've seen the temple. But the strange thing is that I've never seen it in the daytime. Only at night." she says in a soft voice.

"Do you have any idea of what this place could be?"

"Oh I wish I did Izzy, but the only thing I can say is that it's an old palace with a mysterious witch in it. In fact just before you showed up, I was trying to see if I had something about this temple in any of my books but…..nothing."

"Swell." I mutter to myself, disappointed.

A minute of quiet goes by, Misty staring at me awkwardly as I hang my head in disappointment.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" she asked gently. I looked up at her.

"No. That is unless you've got some sort of super speed potion I can use to get away from that witch when I go to confront her." I responded. As expected, the dark haired witch's eyes widened once again and she looked like she was gonna explode.

"Confront her!?" she exclaimed. "Izzy you can't do that! You're gonna get yourself killed!"

"Yes Misty, I figured that out a couple hours ago."

"And you're still gonna do it!?" she asked. I gulped and then nodded. "Aren't you scared!?"

"Of course I am," I say, very scared indeed. "But my mateys could be trapped in there. And if they are, it's my job to rescue them. I mean, they'd do the same for me if I was trapped in a scary place."

"But Izzy…..," Misty began, looking like she was too afraid to say what she wanted to. "Nowadays, Jake and Cubby are both bigger and stronger and tougher than you, even more so together. And…no offense Iz-and I know you've also grown a bit-but you're…..well you're still small, cute and adorable!" she said with a smile before embracing me in a tight hug.

"Alright! Alright! Enough of that!" I let out as I squirmed out of the hug and pushed her away. "Look, I've lived in this body for over half a century! You don't think I already know I'm a little shrimp that anybody could step on!?" I asked. "I was hoping you could help me try and save my friends but it looks like I got the answer to that so I might as well go," I say as I turn to leave. "Nice to see you again Misty an—."

"Izzy wait!" the witch called. I turned back around.

"What?" She looked down and scratched the back of her head.

"Well….I haven't finished searching my shelves completely….," she said with all of a sudden timidness. "Maybe...maybe I just overlooked something. Maybe I do have a book about this temple somewhere. But then again I may not but if it'll help you know what you're up against it's worth a try, right?" she asked. I nodded and she smiled. "Great, come on in." she said as she gestured for me to step inside her flower adorned cottage. And when I did I saw she wasn't kidding about trying to find out more about this strange temple. There were books scattered and stacked everywhere! The shelves were practically empty.

"Uhm…thanks for agreeing to help me out Misty but….," I paused to look at the mess her cottage had turned into and she didn't even get a single sliver of an explanation out of it. "There's a million books in here and it looks like you have indeed gone through every one of them."

"Every one that was on the bookshelves you mean."

"Huh?"

"Well you see Iz, there are two kinds of books I own. Important books and very important books. So very important that I have to hide them away in special hiding places. But the only problem is…I hid them so well that I don't even know where they are."

So, we started searching.

The books scattered all over the ground made this place almost like a maze. I looked under the rug, my fingers brushing against the rough floorboards, while Misty wielded her wand—which was really just a stick with a flower stem wrapped around it—tapping on walls and even attempting to remove a brick to reveal hidden spaces. But no matter how hard we searched, we found nothing. Frustration gnawed at me, and I finally gave up, slumping against the wall with a defeated sigh.

"Thanks for trying to help, Misty, but if there's a secret compartment somewhere in this place, it'll take us all night to find it—-WOAH!" Before I could finish my sentence, I felt the floorboard beneath me give way, and I tumbled backward, landing on the cottage floor. I rubbed my head, trying to shake off the shock of the fall. "S-Short night, wasn't it?" I muttered, wincing at the sudden pain.

Misty rushed over, her eyes wide with excitement, and she began clapping and cheering as if I'd just won a prize.

"Good work Iz! You found it! You found my secret book safe!" she exclaimed, pointing to the broken floorboard beneath me. And there, nestled snugly in the hidden space beneath the cottage floor, were Misty's secret three inch thick books-among which I hoped to find answers in.

I sat up, still recovering from my fall as Misty got down on her knees and started to go through the books. This shouldn't take too long for there were only about four or five of them.

"Let's see," she began, looking at the cover of one of the books. "A Hundred and One Captains and Commarades -no," she said as she threw the book aside and then picked up another one and then another. "Night on Belch Mountain -no. Into the Winter Woods-no. For Whom Tinker Bell Tolls -no. Stairway to Pirate Paradise -no," I continued to watch with a disappointed face as she picked up the last book. Misty cocked her head and gave its cover a rather peculiar look."Alice in Wonderland? That's funny. I don't remember getting this book. I wonder what it's about."

"Uhm…Misty?" I squeaked, prompting her to get back on track, which she did, but it didn't do me any good.

"Gee I'm sorry Iz, but it looks like I really don't have a text about the temple. As far as special books go, I'm afraid that the only place I could possibly have an answer to your question would be here. And it's not." she said gently. I sighed in disappointment and then began to help Misty squeeze the thick books back in the tiny hole in the floor, when something caught my eye. There in the space was another book, no not even a book. It was far too small to be a book. It was practically a pamphlet. It must have been smashed underneath all the big thick books, that's why we didn't notice it.

"Say Misty, what's this?" I asked as I reached into the secret hiding place and pulled the small book out into the light. The dark haired witch put down the big stack of books she was holding to look at what I had found and her reaction was not what I had expected in the slightest.

"A…..cooking guide? It beats me," she said with a shrug. "But how'd that get in there? I've never seen that puny book in my whole life."

"Maybe it fell in by accident?" I suggested, before fully examining the small book. It seemed pretty old. Decades old.

"Well what's it called? Read the cover." I did as told.

"The Mystery of the Temple in the Hills," I read and then looked up eagerly. "Hey, that sounds promising!"

"It does," Misty agreed. "Well what are you waiting for Iz? Read it!" I opened up to the first page, when I noticed two small words and then read them out loud. "To: Misty."

"To me!?" the witch repeated, pointing at herself shocked. "I don't remember getting this book well…..ever! I wonder who it's from."

"Well whoever it's from, they sure have terrible handwriting." I noted as I began to skim through the pages. There were only about thirty or forty of them, and each one had only twenty words, all written in messy handwriting.

"Let me see," Misty said as she took the book from me to have a look for herself. "You're right. I can barely make any of this out! Can you?" She handed it back to me.

"Oh don't worry," I assured her. "If I can read Jake's sloppy writing, I can read anything."

And so, I began.

" I cannot exactly prove to you that this legend from so long ago is true but that is how I remember it. Yours truly, Peter Pan." I closed the little book to meet Misty's shocked face.

"So Peter's the one behind all this hocus pocus," she noted. Misty went quiet for a minute and then dropped her serious tone to a more casual one. "Honestly I'm not that surprised."

"Me neither. But honestly, who else would know about a mysterious place in Neverland that nobody else knew about?"

"Now aside from all the Mistress vs Peter business, there's one thing that also caught me there Iz…" the witch began.

"What?"

"At the end…he mentioned a young pirate girl who told him about the Mistress….and he also mentioned that he gifted her with pixie dust…Izzy…was that girl…..you?" she asked with an almost cautious tone. I sighed heavily and then looked down at the ground. I knew this was coming.

"It has to be," I say, not taking my eyes off the floor. "But how!? I….I don't remember any of this happening!" I exclaim, holding up the book and pointing at it.

"You don't remember the day Peter gave you pixie dust?"

"Oh of course I do, but that's it! I was so happy that that's the only part I remember! I don't recall him giving it to me as a reward for snitching on a witch!" I then let out a heavy sigh, that was one of many that I had already released.

It was strange. After I finished jumping and hopping on the stepping stones to get across the river, I began to feel a little sick. And a little nauseous. But I have no idea why. I felt completely fine when I woke up and walked around a bit, but when I started jumping to get across the stream, it was as if ten percent of my energy had been sucked out. I decided to worry about my tiny amount of fatigue and focus on what was more important and more urgent.

"Well the whole Temple business is solved," I stated. "But what about the whole witch business?" At that, Misty looked puzzled.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"What I mean is, is there or is there not any connection between the Mistress of the Mountains and this witch that you and Hook's crew said they saw?" I interrogated.

"Well they're both witches."

"Clearly they're both witches, I wasn't asking which one was a witch and which one was not a witch. The question which I was asking was simply which witch is which?" I explained, though Misty's confused expression told me that I had evidently not done so very well.

"Erm, Izzy," Misty began, scratching the back of her head. "Peter's book says that the Temple would only return if the Mistress of the Mountains does so…chances are, it is her."

"I guess it is." I reply, flipping through the short novel again.

"So….what are you gonna do now?" the wonderful witch squeaked. I closed the book and set it aside before looking up at her.

"What else can I do? I'm gonna have to face her."

"With what Izzy!? A sword and a shield!?" Misty exclaimed.

"Well..you know you could always go with me—-."

"No thank you!" she interrupted me, as expected. "You need the help of someone who has experience with this Mistress," the lady in the turquoise robes said as she stood up and started to search around her cottage for something. "Someone horrible handwriting and a red feathered hat."

"Peter?" I questioned and she nodded her head in response. "But who knows where he is Misty? He could be in Neverland or beyond the Neversea. I haven't seen him in months and all I've gotten were a couple of letters that warn us about something dangerous and I think we can both agree on what exactly that dangerous thing is," As I explained my worry, Misty continued to make her way through the maze of book stacks around the room still looking for something. "And besides, how would I signal him here anyway? I destroyed the lantern with his filter on it when I burnt down the island."

"Well then you can use mine." Misty then continued to rummage through her cluttered cottage, sending books tumbling in her search. Finally, she emerged triumphantly, holding up a lantern that glinted in the dim light of her cottage. "Here it is," she exclaimed, presenting it to me with a grin.

I peered at the lantern curiously. It was just an average gold lantern, nothing too special about it at first glance. But when you looked closer, you'd see that one of its four windows had a lens with the silhouette of Peter Pan etched onto it.

"Wow," I breathed as she bestowed it to me. I took it, looking at it in awe. "I never knew you had one of these."

Misty nodded enthusiastically.

"Well I do. Afterall, it's no ordinary lantern Izzy." She was right. When you illuminate its light and shine it at the moon, it projects Peter's figure onto the surface. It's how we used to signal him when we needed his help to save Bucky.

"You really think he'll come if I use this?" I asked, starting to second guess. Misty nodded again, her turquoise robes swishing as she moved.

"Of course! Peter won't be able to resist a signal like that, unlike shouting 'cock-a-doodle-doo' over and over again," She paused and we both giggled at that. "Now, all you have to do is try and get the Heart of the Viper away from the Mistress. I don't know how you're gonna do it, but you've just got to. Once you do, the Mistress will be completely powerless against you and you can call for Peter to come and finish her off. Understand?" I nodded.

I quickly hoisted up Peter's lantern and carried it out the door of Misty's cottage, with the witch herself in tow.

"Thanks for your help Misty."

"Aw any time Iz," she said, swatting the air. "Now remember: If you get the necklace away from her, fine. If you don't…" her tone quickly took on a deep, dark and eerie sound.

"I'm cooked." I squeaked, the fear quickly coming back into me as I remembered that I was about to enter a haunted temple, alone and armed with nothing but a lantern, that was inhabited by a witch who possibly hates my guts for telling Peter on her. Shiver me timbers, what the yay hey am i doing!? I don't go on missions and dangerous adventures anymore. That was the boys' job!

"Uhm..Izzy?" Misty's voice squeaked. I snapped out of my thoughts that were now going to follow me as I journeyed to the Temple in the Hills with Peter's lantern shining my path.

"Oh, I'm sorry Misty. I was just—-."

"Realizing that this is all ridiculously dangerous?" she cut me off her guess being very accurate.

"Yeah…how did you know?"

"You forget Izzy," Misty said as she gripped the door handle of her cottage. "I'm a witch too. I know a lot of things." And with that, the witch shut the front door to her floral cottage, leaving me outside, alone, and getting ready to go to the Temple and come face to face with the Mistress of the Mountains. A shiver went down my spine and I gulped loudly.

"I wonder if she knows if I'm ever coming back?"

To Be Continued….

Ok, a couple things...

1. Why did I change the name of the first story? - Because I wanted to.

2. Are these new covers permanent? - No. I'm gonna switch them out every now and then, kinda like how Netflix always changes the covers for the shows.

Anyways, please review! And thank you SO MUCH to those who do! :)