Later that night

The storm had finally passed by the time the night had fallen over Great Britain. The clouds had moved on, revealing a clear sky filled with thousands upon thousands of stars. A half crescent moon was visible in the night sky as well, whining brighter than any of the stars. It looked so peaceful, but for Great Britain, tonight was not a peaceful night. News of the first attack north of London had spread quickly across the country and the government had been quick to mobilize the army to defeat these invaders, but alas, the flow of refugees had slowed down the advance of the army, making it impossible for them to get to the crash sites of these meteorites the invaders had arrived in, and even if they were to get to the crash sites of these meteorites, the technology of the British army was…inferior to the invaders. Their death rays could wipe out scores of people in the blink of an eye; they could destroy entire villages with just a few blasts from it and set fire to…everything. Even if something was not flammable was hit by their death ray, it would seemingly burst into flames or melt as if it was flammable.

For Great Britain, this was its darkest hour.

On the main road leading to the village of St Angel, a convoy of cars drove down the paved road towards the settlement. About half-way down the convoy was Mr and Mrs Perkins' car. All of the cars had switched on their headlights so as to alert any military to their presence and now the few remaining lights from cars parked in the village and the occasional one from a building from within the village led them in.

In Mr and Mrs Perkins' car, Lizzy was asleep, leaning against the back of her seat with her blanket draped over her. Most of her fairy friends were asleep as well. Rosetta, Fawn, Silvermist, Iridessa, Bobble and Clank were sleeping against Mr Twitches and Vidia and Terence were sleeping against Cheese, Vidia on one side and Terence on the other.

Tinkerbell, however, sat alone near the edge of the back of the car next to Lizzy's shoulder, wide awake with her legs brought up to her chest and her head resting on her knees with her arms wrapped around her legs. She watched as the moonlight from above partially showed the many trees and shadows of other people walking by along the side of the road. She sighed and looked up at the sky. She was trying to search for the second star on the right, the one that led to Neverland, the one that led to her home.

Home. That thought struck her like a sledgehammer. Her thoughts went back to home and what the other fairies were doing now. What would they do? Would Queen Clarion come down to help search for them? In fact, did they even know what was going on? It was a crazy thought but; did they? Did they know that the Mainland, a place the fairies of Neverland had worked so hard on for so many centuries, was now under siege from something that was killing everything on it? And what of the other fairy camps? Had they been attacked?

"Hey, Tink," a voice said from behind.

Tinkerbell looked over her shoulder and saw Terence walking over to her.

"Hey, Terence," she greeted lowly.

He sat down next to her. "Are you alright? You've been over here on your own for a while," he said to her.

She nodded slightly. "Yeah, don't worry, Terence, I'm fine," she replied, but Terence was not so convinced.

"No, Tink, there's something wrong, I can tell. C'mon, what's the matter?" he asked her.

"Nothing," she insisted.

He raised his eyebrow as he looked at her. When she saw this, she sighed.

"Alright, if you want to know why I'm over here and I don't sound alright is because I'm thinking of home," she told him.

"Home?"

She nodded. "Yes. I'm thinking; do they know, or will they know? And if they do know, will they do anything?" She looked at him. "D'you think they'll do anything?"

Terence did not reply. He looked up at the stars as Tinkerbell had been doing a few moments earlier as if trying to find the star that led to Neverland. He had no idea of what Queen Clarion and the fairy council back on Neverland would do. Did they even know what was happening? And even if they did; what were they planning to do to help? Then again … what could they do to help? After all, the fairies were not able to do much good against humans and now that the Mainland was being invaded by creatures that the humans, or even the fairies, had never seen before, for all they knew they could be absolutely helpless against these creatures. They knew nothing about them, apart from the fact that they were killing humans, which meant that they hated them, but that was about it. They did not know what they looked like, apart from the vague description Tinkerbell had explained to them at the cottage earlier on, where they came from and, probably more importantly, why they were here.

"Terence?" Tinkerbell said, snapping him out of his skyward trance. He looked back at her. "Do you think they'll do anything?" she asked him again.

"I … uh," he replied, but paused for a moment. "I … I don't know, Tink," he said after a few seconds.

"Neither do I," she replied, looking back out at the passing crowds.

A few moments later, the convoy arrived in the village. St Angel was supposed to be one of the most beautiful villages in England, but at the moment it looked the complete opposite. Not an ugly village, but it just felt…unwelcoming. It looked like a ghost town. There were barely any lights on in any of the houses as they passed them, there were no gas lamps lit along the roads to brighten up the way and the pavements and the parks that would usually be packed with people going to the shops and couples with their children and lovers going for walks and sightseers enjoying the scenery around them were now empty. There were a few people walking about, but they were not here to have fun or go for a romantic walk or anything like that. They were here because they had been forced to flee their homes and hope they could escape these monsters that were coming down from the skies and destroying and killing at will.

Mr Perkins drove the car of the paved road and into a small clearing on the pavement that was in front a pub. As the car jolted to a halt, Lizzy stirred and yawned.

"W-where are…oh, we?" she asked as she woke up, rubbing her eyes.

"We're in St Angel, dear," Mrs Perkins told her.

Tinkerbell and Terence heard the others stirring behind them.

"What time of day is it?" Rosetta asked.

"It's night-time," Tinkerbell answered as they woke up one-by-one.

"Are we in that village we said we would meet Lizzy's dad?" Iridessa asked as she woke up and yawned and stretched her arms.

"Yep," Tinkerbell replied.

Mr Perkins turned off the car and he and his wife got out. Mr Twitches woke up, stretched and yawned and jumped out of the car to the ground below. Lizzy grabbed her suitcase and climbed out of the car. Tinkerbell and her friends flew up and hovered outside. Cheese jumped down from the back of the car to the car seat and then to the ground below.

"Where are we going, Mrs Perkins?" Lizzy asked.

"In there, dear," she replied, pointing to the pub.

The pub was a large building, about forty feet long and thirty feet wide, with two floors and a tiled roof. A chimney was placed at the left end of the building and a bit of smoke was rising out of it. There were several windows along the front of the ground floor of the pub and the lights were on inside them. A few carriages were parked in front of the pub as well, indicating that, along with the lights on in the pub, that there were people here as well. The group walked over to the pub and walked through the open door into the room. The room took up the front half of the ground floor of the pub. A wooden bar was placed along the back wall and at the right end was a door that had the word Private above it. The walls of the room were a cream colour and several wooden beams descended down from the ceiling to the floor. There were several tables in the room, but they had been moved to the sides to allow room for a few beds that the army had prepared. The cash register lay on the floor in front of the bar, having been smashed open, and all the money inside it, save for a few coins that were scattered across the floor, was gone. Upon seeing this, Lizzy shook her head. Who would care so much about money, not that it would do them any good now? It was unlikely they were going to try and bribe a way out of the country, not when there were millions of other people trying to flee these invaders.

A few people were also in the pub, about eight including a couple, who were asleep on the beds, and a man sitting at the end of the bar near the soldiers. The rest were soldiers who had set up a small machine gun nest near a smashed open window near the right end of the pub. As the group entered, the door behind the bar opened and an army officer in his thirties appeared.

"Ah, more arrivals," he said, climbing over the bar. Tinkerbell and her friends hid behind Lizzy, Vidia going first as she was still wary of other humans. Cheese hid behind Lizzy's foot next to Mr Twitches. "You lot fled as well?" he asked.

"Yes, unfortunately," Mr Perkins replied.

"Well, we got a few beds spare for you all," he said. "Help yourself to a drink and there's a bit of food in the kitchen if you're hungry,"

"Thank you," Mr Perkins said and he, his wife and Lizzy walked over to a few beds placed along the wall to the right of the door, the fairies, Mr Twitches and Cheese following close behind. As they passed the officer, he saw a glimmer of gold light behind the back of the young girl and looked to see the fairies there. He blinked several times and rubbed his eyes.

"I've got to stop drinking so much," he said to himself and he walked out of the pub outside.

Lizzy laid down on one of the beds and sighed. "Well, we just have to wait for my father now," she said. "I hope he's okay,"

"Oh don't worry, dear," Mrs Perkins reassured her as she sat down on her bed next to Lizzy's. "I'm sure he's on his way here. He might even turn up tonight,"

Lizzy gave a small smile to Mrs Perkins. "Thanks, Mrs Perkins," she said.

"Oh, c'mon, for crying out loud!" the man sitting on the end of the bar and working on a radio growled, drawing the three's looks.

"D'you need help, son?" Mr Perkins asked.

"I'd appreciate it," the man replied and Mr Perkins got up and walked over to the man to help him with his radio. Mrs Perkins opened her luggage and took out one of the paper bags of food she had brought with them.

"Are you hungry, Lizzy?" she asked.

"Oh, yes, please, Mrs Perkins," Lizzy replied and she took a cheese sandwich from the bag and began to eat it.

On the floor next to her, her fairy friends had gathered in a group and were talking about what the fair council might do, whether they knew and where these invaders came from.

"What do you think Queen Clarion'll do?" Silvermist asked.

"Well, does she even know?" Clank asked.

"I don't know, in fact I don't think she does," Silvermist replied. "We would have had a messenger or something come to us if she knew,"

"Yeah, but sugarcane, don't forget that we have been on the move," Rosetta told her.

"Oh, yeah," Silvermist said lowly.

"So where d'you think they came from?" Fawn asked.

"Who knows," Bobble replied.

"Maybe they're an undiscovered form of life from Neverland," Clank suggested, but Terence shook his head.

"Nah, that can't be," he replied. "I've been over most of Neverland and so has Fairy Gary and he's met virtually every form of life you would expect to see on Neverland,"

"Maybe they're from another country," Tinkerbell suggested.

"Another what?" Vidia asked her as everyone looked at her, confused.

"The other day, Lizzy showed me this globe of the Earth and the Mainland where we are is only a small island on it and it's called a country, or the humans call it Great Britain," she explained to her friends. "There's loads of other countries, or main lands, on Earth, so maybe they're from one of them,"

The others looked at each. They knew nothing of these other main land's Tinkerbell had just explained to them so she could be right. Tinkerbell was certain they might be from Earth because even though Lizzy had explained other countries to her, she still knew very little and even though humans covered almost every part of the Earth, there was a chance that these invaders may have come from an undiscovered region of Earth. If so though, why had not been seen before by the humans?

Then, Tinkerbell felt her stomach growl. She had not eaten anything for most of the day.

"Oooh!" she said, placing her hand on her stomach. "Is anyone else hungry?" she asked.

"Yeah, my belly's growling," Rosetta replied.

"Yeah, I'm kinda hungry as well," Iridessa said.

"Me too," Fawn piped up. "What about you, Cheese?" she asked the field mouse sitting behind her, who nodded.

"I'll ask Lizzy if she has anything for us," Tinkerbell said and she flew up to Lizzy, who was taking a bite out of her sandwich. When she saw Tinkerbell, she quickly swallowed her bite.

"Hello, Tinkerbell," she said.

Tinkerbell smiled and nodded and pointed towards her food bag.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Lizzy said apologetically. "I forgot about you all for a moment. Hang on," she reached into the bag and took out another cheese sandwich. "I hope you all like cheese," she said and placed it on the floor between them. Tinkerbell nodded at Lizzy to say thanks and hovered down to join her friends who were tucking into the sandwich.

"Oh my goodness, this is so good," Clank said as he took a bite out of two large chunks of bread with a bit of cheese placed between them.

"Wow, I forgot how much I liked this," Rosetta said.

"Yeah, me too," Fawn replied. "There ya go, Cheese," she said, giving him a large part of cheese from the sandwich, which he took in his paws and began to nibble on.

"Oh, hang on," Mr Perkins said from the bar as he and the man seemed to have finally got the radio working. "Have we…Yes!"

The radio crackled to life. Static was all that came out from it first, and then voices began to come from it.

KZK… "The Bri-(static)-government has declared-(static)-state of emergency. The army has been mobilized and-(static)-ordered a general evacuation-(static)-population of major population centres. Evacuation ports have been set up along the coasts in Hampshire, Yorkshire, Sussex, Norfolk, Devon, Argyll, Aberdeenshire, the eastern areas of Lothian and Berwickshire. All civilians near these evacuation ports have been advised to flee to the for evacuation to the Mainland continent. In other news, observatories have warned that more explosions have been seen on the planet Mars…which suggests that more cylinders are likely to land within the next twelve hours. Where exactly is unknown,"

Everyone in the pub, including the couple who had woken up to the noise of the talking, looked at each other. So they finally knew where these invaders were coming from. Mars.

"I cannot believe they're coming from Mars," Lizzy said.

The fairies just looked at each other with confused looks. Mars? Where, or what, was Mars?

"Any of you guys know where she means?" Clank asked and they all shook their heads.

"I'll ask," Tinkerbell piped up and she flew up to Lizzy who had given a digestive biscuit to Mr Twitches. She tapped Lizzy on the shoulder and turned to face her.

"Oh, are you okay, Tinkerbell?" she asked.

Tinkerbell nodded and waved her arms around in front of her face and then pointed at the radio.

"That's a radio," Lizzy told her. "It-" she stopped when Tinkerbell shook her head and thought for a moment on how she was going to explain what she wanted to task to Lizzy.

Then, an idea popped into her head. She hovered down to her friends and talked to them for a moment, which was all jingling to Lizzy, and they sprayed a cloud of pixie dust onto the floor. Tinkerbell then hovered down and began to write letters into the dust. Lizzy watched intently as Tinkerbell began to spell out a word: M-A-R-S. Mars. Tinkerbell then waved her hands in front of her face again and then pointed down at the spelling to say "Where is Mars?"

"Oh," Lizzy said, finally getting what Tinkerbell was asking her. "I don't know much about Mars, my father told me about it a long time ago. It's the third planet from the Sun and, well … at least until today, it was supposed to have been a dead planet. Nothing but desert where nothing could survive,"

The other fairies looked at each other. So they were coming from another planet. Mars was a new name to them, they had never heard of it before, or probably even anyone in Neverland had never heard of it before. It was partly amazing to know about this, but it was very shocking now because of what was going on.

"Righ', c'mon!" a voice barked from the entrance into the pub. "Bed-time! Lights out!"

Mr Perkins walked back over to the group and laid down on his bed. "Best get some sleep, love," he said.

His wife nodded and set her suitcase down on the floor next to her bed. "C'mon, Lizzy, best get some sleep," she said to her.

"Okay, Mrs Perkins," Lizzy replied.

She put the bag of food back in Mrs Perkins' suitcase and laid down in the bed on her side facing her friends, who were also beginning to set down for the night.

"Good night fairies," she said to them.

They all waved or jingled in reply and made themselves comfy. Rosetta, Fawn, Silvermist, Iridessa, Bobble, Clank and Vidia all leant against Mr Twitches and Cheese laid down in front of them and Tinkerbell and Terence laid down against him. A moment later, the lights went out, only to be replaced by the faint glimmer of an oil lamp turning on by the window where the soldiers were, who were quietly muttering to themselves. The shadow of the man who had the radio passed by them as he walked over to his bed placed against the wall near the window before he disappeared into the darkness.

"Hey Terence?" Tinkerbell asked as she looked at him, his blonde hair and face just visible in the light coming from the oil lamp.

"Yeah, Tinkerbell?" he replied. "What is it?"

"D'you think we'll make it through this?" she asked him.

He did not reply straight away. Tinkerbell saw his eyes look down at the floor, lost in thought through her question. If she was confused or worried on whether they would survive, then he was just as confused and worried as her. But would they live? Would any of them make it through this invasion from another planet? That was something they did not know and they probably only would know at the end of this.

"I don't know, Tinkerbell," he replied after a few moments. "I don't know. Anyway, we best get some sleep. Night,"

She nodded. "Night," she replied and laid on her side, resting her head against Cheese's side and looked ahead at the wall. Her eyelids began to grow and she let sleep take her away.

Several hours later

The dead of night had descended onto St Angel. The moon shined brightly in the clear sky and the stars still glimmered brightly. However, the village was still partly alive with activity. A few more people and/or cars would arrive every hour and swell the amount of refugees in the village. Another regiment of soldiers had arrived as well and had set up a gun position on the outskirts of the village to defend it if it was to be attacked.

In the pub, all was quiet. The soldiers had decided to take a few hours' sleep with the people inside the bar. Near one of the windows along the wall where the door was, Lizzy stirred and turned over in her sleep. Next to her, Tinkerbell did the same. Next to them, Bobble had his head resting on Fawn's shoulder and Silvermist was leaning against Clank, who was now half-leaning on the floor.

Suddenly, a small rumble began to shake the pub a little. Well, a rumble to the people but to the fairies it was more like someone was shaking the floor. Fawn stirred and sat up, making Bobble's head thud to the floor, which woke him up with a groan.

"Are you alright, Fawn?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she replied, but before she could say anything else, the pub began to shake more now, only this time it was gradually getting more violent. The others stirred around them.

"What's going on?" Vidia moaned as she woke up and rubbed her eyes.

"Why's the building shaking?" Silvermist asked.

Then, a faint roaring sound filled the air and began to grow louder. By this time, the humans were stirring as well as the glass on the light on the ceiling and on the glasses on the wall behind the bar began to shake and jingle loudly. One fell off and smashed, which pretty much woke everyone up with a gasp.

"What the…?" Lizzy gasped as she woke up and rubbed her eyes, breathing heavily.

"What the 'ell's going on?" one of the soldiers asked, clutching his weapon tightly.

Then…

WHOOOOSSSSSHHHHH! Something fiery and large shot overhead and, a few seconds later, the building seemed to leap as a thunderous CRASH erupted outside. All the glasses and anything fragile around the pub fell to the floor and smashed. Those scattered around cried out/screamed/swore loudly, the woman with the man near the window screaming and grabbing hold of her partner tightly.

Shouting from outside came in and a second later, the door to the pub burst open and the officer, who had greeted Mr and Mrs Perkins and Lizzy and her friends earlier on, ran in, a panicked look on his face.

"C'mon, everyone!" he said. "C'mon, we have to go!"

"What's goin' on," the man of the couple lying near the soldiers asked, sitting up.

"Another meteorite has just crashed outside the village," the officer said. "Well, c'mon, hurry up! We have to go!"

At once, there was a rush as everyone went to pack their belongings. The soldiers picked up the machine gun and carried it outside. The couple followed close behind. The man, who Mr Perkins had helped earlier on, ran over to the bar, a suitcase in his hand, and grabbed his radio with his other hand and ran out after them.

Mr and Mrs Perkins and Lizzy quickly grabbed their things and ran outside. The fairies followed with Mr Twitches holding Cheese in his mouth. They ran over to the car and climbed in, the humans throwing the things into the back of the car. Mr Perkins started the car, the engine spluttering and the gunshot sounding backfiring filling the air. He reversed the vehicle off the pavement and drove down the road as quickly as he could. A few other cars were ahead and a few more followed them. Panicked fleeing people ran along the pavements further into the village.

As they drove on, Lizzy and the fairies watched as soldiers ran up the way they had just come. The doubt of them winning or even surviving the coming battle filled their minds. There was very little chance the soldiers would win. Their weapons were inferior compared to the Martians.

Sighing, the group sat down in the car, thinking of where they were to go next now that they were on the move.