Meanwhile, somewhere in northern London

The streets of the capitol of London could never look grimmer. Although little damage had been done to the buildings, it was obvious to tell just by looking around in the streets that the mood was grim and filled with fear. Many cars and horse carriages lay abandoned in the street, several small piles of rubble were scatted about, a few gas lamps and trees laid about in the road, having been knocked over by the tripods, and everyone was terrified and in disbelief that their homes were gone, their families and lovers were gone, either dead or they had been separated, as many had been at the Godwinson Bridge, and the British army, once the pride of their world, was unable to stop all this from happening.

In one of the streets in a small residential area of London, a crowd of about two hundred people were walking towards the city. They were a mixture of civilians and soldiers. They had been using army trucks but reports had reached them earlier from a few new arrivals to the crowd that there were several Martian tripods roaming the city and they were looking for army convoys to halt and destroy and so the officers had decided it was best to move on foot. Even though they had less chance of reaching safer areas of the city by a certain time, they could at least hide from the Martians if they were to come across a tripod.

Among the group were Lizzy and Mr and Mrs Perkins. They had been on the move for a while now, as they had had to abandon their vehicles outside the main areas of the city, and everybody was getting tired. The remaining fairies were in her coat pockets, some asleep, others sitting quietly. Barely any of them had spoken to each other since earlier on, probably because they were all filled with worry over their missing friends. Although they did not believe it and kept it at the back of their minds, something in their heads was telling them the worst case scenario, which was that Tinkerbell, Bobble, Fawn and Cheese were dead. Hopefully, that had not happened but a lot of unexpected and horrible things had happened so far in this invasion and there was no reason for them to suddenly stop today.

"'Scuse me, sir," one of the soldiers asked an officer at the front of the crowd.

"What is it, Barnes?" the officer asked.

"Well, it's getting late and some of the civilians are asking where we're gonna sleep tonigh'. Don't ya think we should stop in this little housing area?"

The officer thought for a moment as they neared the end of the street, which led into an intersection. He mentally admitted it was getting late and in fact it was a good time to stop for sleep, but the question was; where were they to go? Out here in the street was not safe because if a Martian tripod came through this area and found them, they would all be killed, captured and/or separated in the panic. Even though the houses did provide some shelter, what if the Martians decided to level the city? If that happened, then they would all be trapped and burn to death. Both decisions led to almost certain death, but they could not hope to carry on as an alternative, again for the threat of the Martians but also because of tiredness in the crowd.

Finally, the officer came to a decision. He stopped, which made the rest of the crowd halt in their tracks, and turned to face them.

"Right, we're stopping in these houses for tonight," he announced. "We'll all get some rest and we'll post some of us to keep watch,"

"Are you sure that's a good idea going into someone else's home?" a man asked.

"You want to spend the night out here in the cold with tripods lurking about then?" the officer inquired and the man said nothing in reply. Even though it was against the law to do so, right now it was necessary for their own safety.

The crowd began to disperse into the large grey bricked apartment houses. The soldiers and some of the men tired the doors to see if they were unlocked, those that were not they kicked open, and they walked inside. Lizzy and Mr and Mrs Perkins walked up a flight of wooden stairs to the second floor, which had a few doors along its sides with another flight of stairs at the end of the corridor. A few people had already taken some of the apartments so it was up to the next floor. When they reached that one, they walked to the end door along the left wall, near a door and a window that led outside onto the roof, and opened the unlocked door into a small room that had a bed, a table and a few chairs, a small bucket turned on its side with a damp wooden floor, the water having been tipped out, and an overturned bedside cabinet with its clothes scattered across the floor. An oil lamp lay on the table and a smaller door on the right wall of the room led to a toilet. A broken open window was placed on the wall opposite the door. It gave a view over part of the city.

"May not be the best, but at the moment we can't really complain," Mr Perkins said, walking into the room and placing the suitcases on the bed. They heard people talking from below and from the corridor and a door crashed open further down towards the steps, indicating another room had been occupied.

Lizzy walked over to the window and looked out across part of the city. Although other houses blocked her view, she could just about see grey smoke clouds rising up from other buildings into the air, indicating that they were on fire and that the Martians were still in the city. She sighed sadly and walked over to the table and took off her coat.

"It's time to come out, fairies," she said sadly.

The flaps of the coat pockets opened and the fairies, one-by-one, came out of the pocket. All of them were quiet, even when Rosetta and Iridessa yawn and look as though the wanted to ask where they were, they did not. Lizzy sat down in the chair next to them and took up the oil lamp and turned the knob on the side to light it.

"Is she okay?" Clank asked.

"She's just upset, Clank," Silvermist replied. "It's her father. She's worried about him,"

"I wonder where he is," Iridessa said. "I hope he's okay,"

"Same with the others," Terence piped up quietly as he flew over to the window and looked out across the city. "I hope they're okay out there,"

He felt a hand rest on his shoulder and saw it was Rosetta's. "Oh, sugarcane, don't worry, they'll be fine. Tink and Fawn are strong and Bobble and Cheese can easily get themselves out of any mess. They'll be fine,"

Terence smiled a little. "Thanks, Rosetta," he said and gave her a small hug.

"That's alright," she told him as they released each other.

A sigh drew their attention and they looked to see Lizzy staring at the small flame in the oil lamp, the sadness and look of no hope clearly in her eyes. She was worried for her father and for Tinkerbell and Bobble and everyone else. She just wished all of this would end, that the Martians would leave Earth and Britain could go back to the way it was, they could go back to the way it was. Life had been happy before the invasion, but now with everyone in the country on the run and the Martians nearing victory and their family and friends separated … it … it just seemed…out of reach for all this to end. This time … it really was the end.

"D'you think we should cheer her up?" Terence asked.

"What can we say?" Vidia said in a low tone as she flew over to the windowsill and sat down on it. "She won't understand us for a start and we don't have Tink to help us. Plus, what's the point? We could all be separated soon,"

Terence sighed and shook his head slightly. Vidia was always like this, though not as much after last summer. It was annoying, maybe even a bit careless that she was saying this, but in a way, she was kind of right. What if tomorrow or even tonight, they were to be attacked again and all be separated, or worse? If that happened, there was an even greater chance that at least one of their group would die, and if that happened it would be unbearable for any of them. In fact, and they hated to admit it, that had probably happened to Tinkerbell or Fawn or Bobble or Cheese or Martin.

However, Rosetta next to Terence had her hands clenched into fists and her face began to grow red with anger.

"Alright, Vidia, what is your problem?" she half-shouted, drawing the looks of the other fairies. Vidia turned round, a little shocked by Rosetta's sudden outburst, but held her position, not backing away to show fear. "Why are you so negative?! Do you even care about Tinkerbell or Fawn or Lizzy's dad?!"

"I do care, sweetie!" she hissed back, flying up to Rosetta and staring angrily at her. "It's bad enough for all of us to lose someone!"

"Well you've been acting like you don't care!" Rosetta shouted at her, her jingling catching the attention of Lizzy and Mr and Mrs Perkins.

"Hey c'mon, stop!" Terence said, trying to calm them down.

"Stay out of this, Terence!" Vidia and Rosetta barked at him. Silvermist, Iridessa and Clank flew over.

"You are such a mean fairy, Vidia!" Rosetta growled, poking her in the chest. "No wonder you don't have any friends,"

"Says you, Miss self-obsessed!" Vidia sneered. "You get worried and act like it's the end of everything if you don't look good, not that you do anyway. Everyone thinks your annoying with the way you are."

Rosetta snapped and grabbed Vidia's hair and pulled hard. Vidia yelled out in pain and hit Rosetta across the face, making her yell out. The two grabbed each other around the necks and began to push each other violently, their anger against each other suddenly exploding.

"What's going on?!" Lizzy cried in panic. "Please stop!" she begged.

Either they did not hear her or they were ignoring her. Right now, Vidia and Rosetta wanted to hurt each other for what they had said to one another.

"Hey, stop!" Terence exclaimed. He grabbed Vidia around the waist and yanked her back from Rosetta, who was yanked away by Clank. Vidia and Rosetta struggled against the two holding them, angry at wanting to get at each other." C'mon, stop!" he exclaimed.

"Rosetta, please, calm down!" Iridessa said.

Their begging seemed to have finally gotten through to the two and they calmed down. Terence and Clank slowly let go, ready to grab them again if they tried to lunge at each other. Vidia pushed Terence off her and, glaring at Rosetta, flew out of the window, disappearing behind the edge of the roof.

"Are you okay now?" Silvermist asked Rosetta, who sighed.

"I'm okay," she replied, though her voice told the others she was obviously not.

"I'll go talk to Vidia," Terence said.

He flew out of the window to the roof and found Vidia was sitting further down the roof near the right corner, her legs brought up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them and her head resting on her knees. She was glaring out across the city and glared at Terence when she heard him coming towards her.

"Go away, Terence!" she snapped.

"No, Vidia," he replied. Her glare deepened.

"What?!" she growled, her voice filled with anger.

"I said no," he repeated. "Now c'mon, Vidia. Something's wrong and I know there is because you would never say anything like that. What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong," she told him, looking back out ahead of her. "I'm just angry and annoyed,"

"Well yeah you are, but It's for a reason," he walked up to her and knelt down next to her and rested a hand on her shoulder, which shook off. "Vidia, what's wrong?" he asked.

"I told you, nothing is wrong!" she snapped. "Now leave me alone!"

He stared at her with uncertain eyes. She saw them and tried to ignore them, but it was impossible. She was admitting to herself, something was wrong, but she just did not want to admit it.

Finally, she could no longer conceal it within herself and she buried her face in her hands and began to cry. Terence soothingly placed an arm around her.

"Oh, I'm…I'm sorry, Terence!" she sobbed. "I … I just …. just can't … deal with this anymore," she raised her head from her hands tears running down her face. "I can't deal with the possibility … that Tinkerbell and Fawn and … and Bobble and Cheese are lying out there and dying!"

"Hey ssshh! It's okay, Vidia," Terence said softly as she rested her head against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Terence!" Vidia sobbed. "I…I can't deal with…a-all this…any…anymore! I just want this all to be over! And I want…to…go back to way life was before!"

"Don't we all, Vidia," Terence said to her. "We'll be okay. Don't worry, Vidia. We'll…we'll get through this,"

She looked up at him through her tear soaked eyes and smiled slightly. "You never seem to give up hope,"

"I've had a lot of practice with Fairy Gary and my talent,"

Vidia laughed a little, but it could not help her forget what had just happened. She looked out over the rooftops and watched as distant fires raged. In the far off distance, a bobbling head that moved from side to side moved among the buildings. It was one of the tripods, but, thankfully, it was moving away in the direction of the River Thames. Hopefully, it would be gone by tomorrow.

After a few moments, Vidia finally pulled herself together and sat up, wiping her eyes dry of her tears.

"Do you feel better?" Terence asked her.

She nodded. "Yeah," she replied. "Y'know, I just wish I could see Tinkerbell now. I want to tell her I'm sorry,"

"Sorry?" Terence repeated.

"Me and her had an argument over me not trusting Lizzy and her father and I told her she should stay here if she thought they were such good people," she explained. "What I meant in that, but I don't think she knew, was that she should stay and die here. I didn't think it would literally come true,"

Terence rested his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, look. None of knew this was going to happen. I'm sure even the council or the humans in those … uh, observatory thingies didn't know, but it's happened and we just can't do anything about it,"

"Apart from trying to survive," Vidia muttered, but loud enough for Terence to hear.

He nodded. "Apart from trying to survive," he repeated.

Silence fell between them for a moment and they watched the dark night above them overtake the sky and, gradually, the stars appeared. The two looked up and saw the second star on the right shine. They smiled a little. It was the way to their home. Neverland. They felt the urge to go back up there, but … but they just could not. For some reason, they felt like they had to stay here because they would be abandoning their friends and leaving the humans to their fate. Even though they did fear humans, they felt pity for them because of all they had suffered so far, and it probably would be a long time before all of this was over.

After a few moments, Terence stood up. "We best get some sleep," he said.

Vidia nodded. "I'll be with you in a moment," she told him.

"Okay," he replied and he flew off the roof and through the window into the room below.

Vidia looked up at the stars and then in the direction of where the Godwinson Bridge had been, where they had all been together for the last time. She sighed.

"I'm sorry, Tinkerbell," she said as if her words would carry on the air to her friend, but who knew if they would fall on live ears?

After another moment, Vidia stood up and flew down to the window and into the room to get some sleep.