<div style="text-align: center"><b>Wendy</b><br/>
<i>With Mr. Dameron, once and for all</i>​</div><br/>His eyes were full of sadness.  Sadness and promise.  He would not fail her … but would she fail him?  Wendy’s eyes lifted to meet his as their foreheads touched.  James promised and a hint of a smile tugged at the side of her mouth.  So many promises had been whispered in her ears, so many lies had come to pass.  Mr. Dameron was no liar though – he remembered now and his promise rang true.  He would not fail her.<br/><br/>Belief welled in her heart – belief that they would be okay – only to be extinguished by the cold menacing crowing that rolled through the air.  Wendy froze, not knowing and almost not caring what was behind her.  James gathered her close and for a second, just for one heartbeat, she imagined they were fine, everything was fine, this was just a dream.<br/><br/>Mr. Dameron pulled her from her silly daydream with one hissed word then he was tugging and yanking, demanding they<b>move</b>.  He pushed and shoved her toward the makeshift ladder, unrelenting in his desire to get her out of harm’s way.  Wendy had no choice but to keep her feet moving lest his frantic desperation knock her off-balance.  She stumbled through the doorway while trying to stay low enough not to crack her head on the top of the frame.<br/><br/>She straightened and turned to face her companion.  “No,” she stated with simple conviction.  It wasn’t just Hook and the dragon she was making a stand against.  It was all the people who had ruled her life since that fateful night she’d flown from her window with Peter and Tinkerbell.  It was her mother’s sad eyes when she tried to tell stories and the gentle way Mrs. Darling would pat Wendy’s scarred hand.  It was the father who adamantly refused to believe anything she said and treated her like an oddity that needed fixing.  It was the doctor who had hurt her repeatedly for months and years despite near-constant begging that she was sorry, she wouldn’t tell lies anymore.  It was the way she was kept hidden, only brought out and paraded around when the family fortune needed enlarging.<br/><br/>Wendy Moira Angela Darling was going to do what she should have done years and years ago and fight back against those who wanted to hurt her.<br/><br/>When James emerged from the depths of Peter’s old tree, their old bastion of fun and adventure, Wendy took his hand in hers and gave it a gentle and reassuring squeeze.  “I don’t know how to kill a dragon and I don’t think you do either but whatever happens, we do it together.”<br/><br/>She shifted her weight sideways, an almost half-step, and pressed her lips to his cheek.  Not the middle of his cheek or near his ear but close to the corner of his mouth.  His skin felt warm under the coolness of her lips and rough with stubble that needed a razor.  She let the kiss linger just to bask in the warmth for a moment before they faced the writhing mass of black-and-gold smoke that roared like thunder again, wrapping and weaving its way through the air toward them.<br/><br/><hr class="bbc-hr bbc-hr--3"/><br/><div style="text-align: center"><b>Tinkerbell</b><br/>
<i>The skies above Neverland</i>​</div><br/>They were finally going to shoot the Wendybird!  Wendy would be gone gone gone and Neverland would be just like it was before.  The urge to flip and roll and frolic in the air bubbled up inside her, filling every inch of her with excitement she’d never ever felt before.  Her skin turned a richer gold as Pan took her hand and propelled them through the air.<br/><br/>Twisting around in the air, she turned to face Pan, flying backward, trusting him to lead her on, to help her find the Wendybird.  Inky black smoke streamed behind them, coalescing into a shape, one with wings and claws and biting snapping teeth.  Bells chimed as delighted laughter burst forth.  Wendy might have been able to escape Tootles’s arrow thanks to that stupid kiss Peter gave her but she’d never escape this creature that she and Pan created together.<br/><br/><i>Together</i>, a word she thought would never apply to her and Peter again, not after he found Wendy in her room all those years ago and brought her to Neverland.  She’d told him no, told him it was a bad idea but he didn’t listen and now look at all the trouble he’d caused.  She’d fix it though.  She’d fix Neverland and turn it back the way it was and then Peter would kiss her cheeks and tell her what a wonderfully brilliant fairy she was!<br/><br/>Tink slipped her hand from Pan’s, her fingers the last to let go right before her wings beat against the wind and propelled her higher into the sky.  From up here, she could see the enormous bulk of their dragon and it delighted her.<br/><br/>Again she laughed, clapping her hands, then diving down to shoot along the curling back of the beast toward the very end of its tail.  She dipped down underneath, her wings just barely skimming the smoke scales of its underbelly as her golden eyes scoured the ground below for any sign of Wendy.<br/><br/>The trees below were familiar.  She’d flown over them hundreds and millions of times on her way back and forth from adventures with Peter.  That crooked tree there was where she and John would hide to eat sweets they pilfered from the pirates.  That opening over there hid a special little spring full of fresh cool water where she and Michael would pretend to be mermaids and sea creatures from the deep.  And up ahead was their tree, their home, the one place in the whole land where the pirates dare not venture.<br/><br/>It was dead now, gnarled branches reaching high into the sky like they always had but there were no green leaves covering them.  Instead they were dry and gray, a reflection of the rot creeping over Neverland.  A rot that Wendy Darling brought with her.<br/><br/>Wendy Moira Angela Darling needed to die.<br/><br/>Red flashed through her eyes, quick as a flash, before the gold flooded back in.<br/><br/>Wendy Moira Angela Darling was going to die.<br/><br/>Tinkerbell shot higher in the sky, darting through the dragon’s maw as it opened wide to release another thunderous roar.  Her back stiffened and arched as her own victorious crow, accented by discordant bells, exploded forth.  She urged them on with a giant swoop of one arm, Pan and the dragon and the Boys that flew behind them, dropping down toward the treetops toward where Wendy and James waited for them, the blasted fools.  They hadn’t even bothered to hide.<br/><br/>Death, shrouded in black smoke and fairy magic, dove for them.<br/><br/><hr class="bbc-hr bbc-hr--3"/><br/><div style="text-align: center"><b>Tiger Lily</b><br/>
<i>On the road to salvation</i>​</div><br/>Lead the way – a dangerous purr from a dangerous man.  She would do best not to forget what the pirate was capable of but her back was to him as she eyed the finished repair, pausing to see if it would hold.  The treachery in his eyes was hidden to her, veiled from her sight.<br/><br/>With a nod, Tiger Lily took the first step of many that would carry her to Darling Manor where a small remnant of Neverland called out to her, singing of its desire to be returned to its homeland.  What exactly was summoning her would remain sealed behind her lips despite Hook’s question.  He was far more transparent than he ever realized, wheedling and trying to pluck secrets from any lips that would spill them.  Lily would not reveal the mysteries she painstakingly kept hidden away from Neverland and its inhabitants.  Chaos already reigned in the realm thanks to Wendy Darling; there was no need in adding pointless pirate scheming to the fray.<br/><br/>“It is of no consequence to you, Captain.  It is something that we must have if we are to right the wrongs done so many years ago.”  Perhaps that would satisfy him, perhaps it would not but it was all that Hook would get from her lips.<br/><br/>Silence fell as the pair journeyed along the dark road toward the manor.  Her steps were quiet and so it was Hook’s boots that set the rhythm of their footsteps.  Lily’s lips moved silently as she repeated prayers and murmured ancient songs under her breath, sending pleas to whatever higher power might be listening that Neverland survive until they were able to return to its lands.<br/><br/>The sun peeked over the horizon, persistent in its daily slow climb to bring on yet another day.  Hook’s steps lost their regular rhythm, stomping here and pounding there, markers of his anxiousness to bring the fruitless search for Wendy to a close.  Morning fog burned off as they grew closer to the great gates that surrounded the edifice behind them.<br/><br/>“Now, Captain, we enter that house.”  One hand wrapped around an iron bar set square in the middle of the gate.  Tiger Lily drew in a deep breath, set her shoulders, and when she exhaled she<i>pulled</i>.  The iron bent to her will with nary a protest.  She stepped sideways through the small opening and released the metal.  There was no need to see if Hook followed.  He would, as he had all night.<br/><br/>Up the long drive they walked, the pull of the Neverland scrap almost yanking her forward into the house.  She could see the door hanging open but could sense no movement from inside.  “Be ready, we do not know what awaits us inside and who might try to prevent us from reclaiming what is rightfully ours.”<br/><br/>Lily was not armed but that did not stop her from taking the lead in stepping up to the open door.  A foot hung over the threshold, motionless in its leather boot.  Her eyes moved up from the boot to the leg then higher up to hips and a scarred blood-stained back.  A deep slash split the man down to bone between the shoulder blades.  The man next to him’s throat wore a macabre smile below his chin from ear to ear.  Pirates, so many pirates, littered the foyer’s marble floor.<br/><br/>“Can you sail the ship with no crew?” questioned the woman as she picked her way through the death and destruction that filled the entryway.  The Jolly Roger was a large ship and most, if not all, of its crew was laying in puddles of congealing blood, dead as doornails.  Her eyes swept over a rather large fat man with a cane lying near his hand.  Disdain curled her upper lip as she brought her gaze to Hook.  “Or must we find men to press into service before we can return home?”<br/><br/>Behind Hook, one particular dead man caught her attention so without waiting for a response, she stepped over one body then another, and one last one.  The man was no pirate; he had died clutching a large leather-bound book and no pirate she’d ever met had ever read a book nor died protecting one.  Tiger Lily crouched down and ran her fingertips over the aged leather.  Could this be what had called to her?  Did this book contain that bit of Neverland that demanded to be found?<br/><br/>She hissed and snatched her hand away.  Torment had been stored in this book, scribed and scratched into its worn pages.  Eyeing it warily and leaving it within the dead man’s clutches, Lily straightened and smoothed her hands over her hips.<br/><br/>Her chin lifted, her head turning and tilting as she<i>listened</i>.  The siren song was unmistakable – a mix of mermaid melodies, tinkling fairy voices, Peter’s crowing, clanging of weapons in battle, and under all of that the metronome of the crocodile’s tick-tocking.  “There it is,” she whispered as her feet moved of their own accord to the grand sweeping staircase.<br/><br/><i>Tick…tock…tick…tock…</i><br/><br/>Footsteps fit to that beat, placed carefully on the smooth surface of the steps then on the wooden planks of the landing above.  The pulsing was stronger now, the mermaids’ song louder.  It pounded in her veins, filling her body with an aching throb.  Neverland clamored to be whole and its protector, Tiger Lily, would do anything to ensure the split was mended.<br/><br/>The corridor was long and lined with doors but one door stood out among them, the others nothing more than mere distraction now.  Throwing caution to the wind, Lily strode purposefully to the door and pushed it open.  The call of Neverland beat in time with her heart and each step that she took as she headed first to the small writing desk in the corner.  It was empty now but she rested her hand on it nevertheless.  Magic was strong here, imbued into the wood grain.  “Here,” she said as she ran her finger in a rectangle across the desk’s surface, tracing the space where the book had sat all these years, “but also not<i>here</i>.”<br/><br/>Tiger Lily turned slowly, her eyes scanning the room, moving slowly over the pair of armchairs in the corner by the window, the bookshelves lined with dusty first editions of all the Peter Pan and Wendy stories that had been published over the years, the piles of clothing dotted randomly around the room, until they landed on the bed, still rumpled from Wendy’s nightmare.<br/><br/>There.  There it was.<br/><br/>A sense of dread washed over her and pooled in her stomach.  Her steps quickened; they could not linger here any longer.  Lily thrust her hands into the mess of sheets and blankets and took hold of Wendy’s journal.<br/><br/>“Captain!” she called out.  “I have it!”<br/><br/><hr class="bbc-hr bbc-hr--3"/><br/><div style="text-align: center"><b>Wendy Moira Angela Darling</b><br/>
<i>The Unthinkable</i>​</div><br/>Fear rolled down her spine, its icy cold fingers gripping her stomach and squeezing.  This was no regular dragon – not that she even knew how to defeat one of those – but one created with deep dark magic.<br/><br/>Fairy magic.<br/><br/>Wendy knew of only one way to put an end to fairy magic.<br/><br/>She didn’t want to do that though.  Peter would never let Tink go too far and if she said those words…<br/><br/>Taking a deep breath, she pushed those thoughts aside.  Hand in hand with James, Wendy watched the smoke dragon roil its way across the blue sky.  A golden blur darted through and over and under and around the smoke dragon.  Behind the dragon’s roar, she swore she could hear the tinkling of laughing bells.<br/><br/>Wendy twitched at the sound, nothing more than a quick drop of her head to the side, one she covered by resting her head against his upper arm.  Just as it had outside the Starstruck, the sound of bells brought forth memories she'd tried so hard to forget.<br/><br/>The smell of long-ago antiseptic flooded her mind; she squeezed James's hand tightly as if he could help keep the memories at bay.<br/><br/>He could not and the image of the Doctor loomed large in her thoughts.  Oh, the things he’d done to her, things she’d never told a soul no matter how hard they’d pressed for explanations for the various marks and bruises and scars that blemished her porcelain skin.<br/><br/>The Doctor had done wretchedly painful things until she’d given up all hope of anyone ever coming to rescue her and submitted to his will, saying the words he wanted her to say like the tortured little puppet she was.  Over and over, she’d been made to repeat the words<i>I don’t believe in fairies</i>until she could barely form the words from sobbing over the innocent beings she knew she was murdering with five simple words.<br/><br/>Deep down inside though, she’d always held onto that spark of hope, that little glimmer of fairy dust in her soul that hinted at Peter and Tink and Neverland and even Hook.  It was that speck of fairy dust she grabbed hold of as she watched Tink dip and dive lower and lower.<br/><br/>Wendy sucked in a breath as her eyes locked onto the golden fairy.<br/><br/>Waiting for the timing to be just right.<br/><br/>There it was - Tinkerbell, gold and gleaming with happiness, hovering in the air to urge on the dragon and the Boys, her focus not on Wendy and James, the great beast diving toward them.<br/><br/>A surge of hatred coursed through Wendy’s veins.  She’d tried and tried to befriend the fairy then to at least be kind to Peter’s first companion but the little fairy wanted none of it instead choosing to sulk and pout, her skin turning greener and greener with envy.  Now that jealousy had brought forth this abomination that threatened them all.<br/><br/>Red hot heat swept through her body.<br/><br/>Unlike before when the Doctor had made her say the words until her voice was hoarse and her face was swollen from tears, Wendy poured every ounce of conviction she had into the five words she screamed toward the sky.  Her fists clenched, the nails of her hand digging into James’s as her face turned red with the scorching heat of unleashed rage.  Rage for how she’d been made to feel crazy, burning resentment for the “treatments” her father had forced upon her, seething hatred for the Doctor and his unorthodox methods, and unbridled anger at how simple wonder had been twisted into something so ugly and dark.<br/><br/><b>“I DON’T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES!”</b><br/><br/>The fairy dropped from the sky like a lead weight onto the rocks below.<br/><br/><hr class="bbc-hr bbc-hr--3"/><br/><div style="text-align: center"><b>Wendy</b><br/>
<i>Disbelief</i>​</div><br/>Wendy’s eyes went wide in utter disbelief.  The hand not laced securely with Mr. Dameron’s shot up, fingertips hovering over her upper lip as her mouth dropped open under their protective shield.  She<i>knew</i>those words had the power to kill but never thought she’d wield them against Tinkerbell.<br/><br/>Her hand trembled as she brought it down to rest just under her rib cage, pressing firmly against her stomach to steady herself.<br/><br/><hr class="bbc-hr bbc-hr--3"/><br/><div style="text-align: center"><b>The Magic</b><br/>
<i>Disappearing</i>​</div><br/>Dark magic controlled the beast, the combination of Pan’s shadow magic and Tinkerbell’s fairy magic providing that spark that brought forth life in the inky black that darkened the sky.  The magic was strong, stronger than almost any magic that Neverland had seen throughout its many incarnations.  Never before had shadow magic melded with fairy magic.  It was an abomination that threatened to destroy the entire realm.  The waters in Mermaid Lagoon churned and thrashed, roiling and rolling as the sea itself retreated.  Birds and other small animals went to ground to hide from the black magic that filled the sky.  Even the ticking of the great crocodile on its never-ending search for Hook went silent.<br/><br/>Neverland would fall.<br/><br/>And yet...<br/><br/>…it was the fairy who fell.<br/><br/>Golden magic threaded throughout the coal-black smoke began to disappear.  Inch by inch, the smallest capillaries winked out of existence then the largest veins and branches of Tinkerbell’s gold faded away.  The beast screamed in protest at its impending doom, snapping and gnashing at the sky.  It whirled around and around, coiling over and under itself.  All the air in the atmosphere sucked into that coil, the whistle loud like an angry locomotive bearing down on Neverland itself.  Suddenly, a great crack of thunder exploded high over Peter’s tree.  A fresh breeze blew in from the sea, sending wisps of smoke dissipating in its wake.<br/><br/>The dragon, and the fairy who spawned it, existed no more.<br/><br/><hr class="bbc-hr bbc-hr--3"/><br/><div style="text-align: center"><b>Wendy Darling</b><br/>
<i>Celebration</i>​</div><br/>Tugging their joined hands downward for balance, Wendy turned slowly to face James.  A joyous warm smile spread across her face just before she stepped toward him and pressed her lips firmly against his.  Breathless laughter broke through the kiss and then she helped herself to another one.  Color rose in her cheeks, much like the rosy pink the dead fairy sported on occasion, as she looked up at him sheepishly then shifted her attention to the sky.<br/><br/>“I know how to kill a dragon now,” Wendy offered quietly, doing her best not to look at him lest her cheeks flame red with embarrassment.<br/><br/><hr class="bbc-hr bbc-hr--3"/><br/><div style="text-align: center"><b>Tiger Lily</b><br/>
<i>The end is nigh</i>​</div><br/>Lily froze and straightened with Wendy’s book tucked securely under her arm.  Dark eyes stared through windows still marked with Wendy’s smeared fingerprints, not at the courtyard outside and not into George Darling’s office where only a few hours ago he had pressed Mr. James Dameron into service with promises of money.  She stared<i>out</i>into the distance, her gaze shrewd.<br/><br/>A roll of thunder rumbled in the distance.<br/><br/>“Neverland needs us, Captain.  She is dying.”