AN: If I were writing the screenplay for the Hollow City movie this is how I would connect the ending of the movie to the beginning of the second book. If by some miracle anyone connected to the Miss Peregrine Movie is reading this you are more than welcome to use this sequence of events (and the events in the next chapter as well) as long as we get a Hollow City movie! I have my fingers crossed that Tim Burton does a sequel, this is a series I'm dying to see come to life and the second movie would be able to cover so much more of peculiardom that we haven't seen yet!

Also a huge thanks to Guest, WillowTree1221, 12ScooterBear74 and marianafilhadomar for your reviews. You guys are honestly the best reviewers I've ever had! Thanks to your amazing dedication this story has made it to 100 REVIEWS! This is also very special to me because this is the first time any of my stories has gotten that many responses! As a reward this chapter is SUPER long! I hope you all enjoy it as it includes some of my favorite moments from the final battle of book one!

Chapter 42

"I heard a shout and looked up to see a man in a grey uniform rise from a hatch – I saw his face full in the light, his mouth curled into a leering grin, his eyes depthless and blank." {Jacob Portman, pg 326-327 book 1}

Aurora grabbed Claire as they fell from where they were sitting so the younger girl wouldn't fall into the broken glass around them. Once the ship settled from the collision they both got up and ran for the main deck. The others were already there, some looking out the windows, others crouched in fright.

Out the grimy window Aurora saw what had caused the ship to tilt so violently. It looked like a whale about to surface, long, large and grey. It had come up and collided against the right side of the front hull of the ship – a U-boat. And what was worse was the crew that emerged from it, not Nazi's or Allies, something much worse - wights.

"Stay here." Miss Peregrine ordered as she prepared to leave the deck.

"We can help!" Enoch protested from his place behind the wheel.

"He's right." Jake agreed, which shocked Aurora, those two never got along, "You saw what we did to Barron and his group." Jake reasoned.

"You can't go out there alone." Emma added, "Let us help you."

Miss Peregrine looked around the room at all the faces of her wards with a mix of concern and pride in her eyes. Then she took a deep breath to compose herself.

"Aurora, take the younger ones – Claire, Bronwyn and the twins – deeper into the ship. We don't know what weapons the wights have and we can't risk them getting hurt. Horace, Olive, Hugh and Fiona, man the ship. Enoch, Millard, Emma and Jake will come with me – "

"I can help too!" Bronwyn disputed. Miss Peregrine looked unsure until Olive spoke up.

"Wyn and I can go deeper into the hull and try to repair where the U-boat hit so the ship doesn't go under." She offered and the headmistress gave her a thankful smile. Bronwyn, who seemed pleased by this nodded her head vigorously and both her and Olive took off for the inner workings of the Augusta. Aurora ushered the younger children out the door before turning to Millard. He grabbed her and pulled her lips to his, kissing her passionately, when they broke apart she was the first to speak.

"Don't be a hero." She begged, her hands still cupping his face.

He hesitated before answering, "Just keep yourself safe darling." He said and before she could make him promise Claire began tugging at Aurora's skirt as she began to cry in fear. Aurora picked up the tiny peculiar girl and followed the twins down the stairs and into a room that hadn't been destroyed by the crash.

MILLARD P.O.V.

He immediately stripped off all his clothes and followed the others out to the bow of the ship. Jake had taken the crossbow and began having target practice on the wights. Enoch had rustled up a few of the remaining skeletons and they were now throwing harpoons at their attackers. Emma was bent at the rail blowing into the water trying to get their ship out of range from the U-boat while Miss Peregrine turned into a falcon – mid run – and began circling and pecking at the wights, going for their eyes with her talons. Millard ran over to Jake and knelt beside him.

"Where do you need me?" he asked, knowing that with Miss Peregrine so far Jake was now their second in command. Especially after the attack he'd launched with Barron and the others. Millard knew he had, on some level, inherited Abe's ability to strategize a battle. Just as Jake opened his mouth to reply they heard a high shrieking caw and looked up to see that Miss Peregrine had been caught in what appeared to be a fishing net on a long pole. The wights were trying to stuff her in another cage – this one much smaller than the last. Knowing they had no time to waste Millard ran for the U-boat.

The Augusta had taken on enough water that the nose of the ship now had a foot of water splashing atop its decks. A jump from the end of their boat onto the sub would be no great feat and Millard knew a jump that short he could make. He kept his eyes on Miss Peregrine as he ran and he didn't stop, not even when he heard Jake call his name. But he soon realized his mistake, his feet had been splashing in the seawater revealing each step he took and in only seconds there was a loud noise, almost like a pan being dropped, before Millard felt something rip through his left shoulder and his body erupted with pain.

THIRD P.O.V.

Jake had tried to warn Millard when he saw the wight cock his pistol and take aim. But there was too much noise, too much commotion and chaos and he saw Millard's body splash into the water that had begun to overtake their ship. There was an odd negative space where Millard landed – one of the few times he was visible – and the water around him turned red with his blood. That's when Emma turned and saw what was happening, Millard bleeding to death and Miss Peregrine being stuffed into a cage.

Outraged and horrified of losing her again Emma blew a sharp wind at the wights who had their ymbryne by the wings. The group fell back into the waves that crashed against the side of the U-boat, but unfortunately so did Miss Peregrine in the small cage they'd managed to stuff her in. She tried to fly out but her wing hit the bars and bent at an unnatural angle, she gave another shriek as she landed in the water with her good wing flapping trying to keep her head above the surface.

Jake dropped his crossbow and ran to Enoch, "Find a way to get to Millard, I'll get Miss Peregrine."

The dead-riser nodded and ran back into the main deck. Olive and Bronwyn had only just returned and were filling Horace, Hugh and Fiona in on their repair work.

"We were able to slow it down but we're still taking on water. –"

"Millard's shot!" Enoch yelled as he entered the doorway, "Get Aurora!" he instructed Olive who rushed out of the room.

"We have to find a way to –"

"Here!" Bronwyn shouted seeming to be five steps ahead of him. She ripped one of the doors off its rusted hinges and rushed outside with him.

"I'm coming too!" Hugh shouted leaving Fiona and Horace at the ships controls. They used the door Bronwyn carried like a shield as the wights scrambled back on the U-boat and started firing bullets at them. There was the ping, ping, ping as they ricocheted. Eventually, they were able to reach Millard, he was lying on his side and seemed to be only half conscious from the blood loss. Hugh and Enoch each took an arm, he yelped when they moved his left one as it irritated his wound. Bronwyn shielded them as they made their way back to the safety of the main deck.

"I must apologize, it seems I've gone and gotten myself shot." He mumbled in a daze.

AURORA P.O.V.

Aurora hated all the waiting but when Olive came rushing in she decided the waiting hadn't been as bad as she thought.

"Aurora, come quickly!" she called, "Millard's been shot."

Three words. Those three words were all it took for her world to stop spinning and fall apart. It took about a millisecond for it to sink in then Aurora took off like a bat out of hell. She ran as fast as her feet would carry her out of the room and up the stairs. When she entered the main deck she saw Hugh and Enoch laying Millard against the wall. The whole front of him was visible from the bright red blood that was seeping from a small hole in his left shoulder. She could see his chest rising and falling quickly as his breaths came in short pants.

She immediately got to work, kneeling by his side and placing her hands over the wound. She concentrated on pouring all her energy into him as his blood ran between her fingers, staining her hands. She did her best not to cry at the horrible sight but the tears still found their way down her cheeks.

"Don't cry darling." Millard whispered in a dazed voice. He must have been staring at her because a few moments later he whispered, "So beautiful, even more beautiful than the angel."

"What angel?" she asked, her worry growing.

"The one who came and kindly offered to take me to heaven." Aurora stifled a sob as she tried to concentrate harder, she couldn't understand why her peculiarity wasn't working. Then darker thoughts started to fill her head, why should she heal Millard anyway? So he could live, but live for what? They had no loop, no home, the ship was sinking, slowly but sinking, and the future was so uncertain. Wouldn't it be better, more merciful, to let him die now? To encourage him to follow the angel to heaven? To let him simply fall asleep and never wake up again? She lessened the pressure she was putting on his wound and more blood poured through her fingers.

"Aurora." Came Olive's voice snapping her out of it. She took a shaky, teary breath.

"I don't understand why it's not working." She said racking her brain for answers, then it came to her. She began to feel the back of Millard's shoulder, but his skin was smooth, unwounded.

"There's no exit wound." She explained, "The bullet is still in his shoulder, that's why I can't heal him. We have to get it out first."

"Will you all quit shouting and let me bleed in peace!"

"Olive, you have to get it out."

"Why me?"

"If any of us try we might infect the wound, but if you heat up your fingers you can cauterize the wound as you remove the bullet."

"You can do it, Olive." Enoch said reassuringly. The red head nodded, removed her gloves and dug two of her fingers into her palm, Aurora began asking Millard questions trying to keep him conscious.

"Millard, who's the prime minister?"

"Winston Churchill, I'm dying not daft."

"What's the capital of Burma?"

"Lord, I've no idea. Rangoon."

"Good. When's your birthday?"

"Ready." Olive said approaching with two glowing hot fingers. She knelt down opposite Aurora and leaned over Millard.

"It'll scar!" Millard protested, coherent enough to care.

"Who's going to bloody see it?" Enoch grumbled and Olive elbowed him to keep quiet. Then she plunged her fingers into Millard's shoulder. Aurora shuddered as he shouted in pain, it sounded excruciating but it had to be done. Olive's eyebrows scrunched together as she dug around trying to find the bullet while her fingers made a hiss like when you put meat on the grill. Then Millard became quiet, deathly quiet.

"Millard?" Aurora said with a shaking voice. Enoch felt around and put two fingers to his neck trying to find a pulse.

"Just blacked out is all. He ain't as fit as he pretends to be." He said.

"Got it!" Olive said pulling her fingers out, between her pointer and middle finger was a small metal bullet. It was hard to believe that something so small could cause so much damage.

Aurora jumped into action, she placed her hands over his wound again and – thank bird – this time it worked. She could feel the wound closing under her palms, the bleeding slowed and soon she only felt a scab where the bullet had pierced him.

"I need something that can work as bandages." She asked.

"But you just healed him." Enoch stated confused.

"But I've never healed a would that deep before, I don't know how healed he is on the inside. I just need something to secure his shoulder so he can give it time to heal more on it's own."

The she felt a tapping on her shoulder. The twins stood behind her holding long scraps of white cloth, the extra set of clothes they had packed.

"Did you tear up your spare masks, for me?" she asked and they nodded in sync. More tears came to her eyes but these tears were happy. She put an arm around each of them and they each hugged her back. "Thank you both so much."

She took the bandages but realized how red her hands were and her breathing started to quicken. Her hands started to shake but then Hugh came over and put his hand over hers taking the bandages.

"Let us. We can do this part. You've done a lot for him Aurora, you deserve some rest."

"But –"

"Let us." he insisted, "He's our family, we love him too."

She nodded and stood to leave. On her way out she noticed the U-boat was submerging again and headed for the Augusta was Jake and Emma. Jake was holding what could only be Miss Peregrine as Emma used her peculiarity to blow them away from the whirlpool the sub was creating as it returned under the waves.

Assured that everyone was safe Aurora made her way down to one of the old staterooms on the ship, her bloody hands still shaking.