Calliope had never seen a ship arrive in Neverland. The one that floated offshore was large with a sail of white feathers adorning the front, a pegasus in black as decoration. As she hid in the trees, Calliope just watched. A small rowboat glided through the dark waters towards the shore. In it, two men in matching navy blue jackets, gold fringe and buttons rounding out the richness. Military men.

The boat hit the sand. They lept out, their boots sinking into the beach. Both looked around in confusion. Calliope couldn't help but smile a bit at their antics, one wandering a bit further inland, frowning. They had clearly come here on purpose; the pegasus sail allowed them flight to cross the Realms. So why did the one look so surprised?

The one who had moved closer inland shook his head. He turned back. "What exactly does the King have to find on this island?"

"A plant."

Calliope frowned. What plant did they hope to take? So many had withered away, others tainted by the Shadow and the evil child. Pan. She hated him. He couldn't touch her, not yet anyway. But she couldn't touch him either, or the Darkness that allied with him. With each passing day, she felt their grip on her home tightening.

"We journeyed across the realms for a plant?"

But at least the arrival of these two brought some source of amusement. She couldn't help grinning at their antics, though she stayed concealed in the forest. A few more minutes of watching, to see their motives. Then she would speak to them. She wanted to get to them before Pan.

The second man, clearly the one in charge as he knew the orders, just flashed a small smile. He waved a large envelope before his companion. Taking out the document, he showed it to the other. "Our sources say it's magical. Potent enough to heal any injury.

Calliope couldn't see the expression of the man in charge, but his friend faced her. He opened his mouth a bit, shocked. Then he nodded. "So we never have to bury another sailor at sea again?"

"Now you understand the importance of our mission."

That sounded promising. As Calliope moved to show herself, however, the voice that did nothing but fill her with rage sounded from the beach. Pan.

"Are you two lost?" He faced her, forcing the men to turn towards the water as they drew their swords. Calliope couldn't help but think that was on purpose. That way she couldn't warn them. Not without confronting Pan directly. "You look lost to me."

"Identify yourself, boy."

"I'm Peter Pan. I live here. Who are you?"

"Captain Jones. And my lieutenant. We're here by order of the King."

"The King, huh? We don't have any kings in Neverland." He looked between them, locking eyes with Calliope in the trees. "Just me."

Captain Jones gave a small huff of laughter. Then he held out the paper. "That's funny. We seek this plant. Now tell us, boy, where can we find it?"

Calliope's blood ran cold. They had no idea who they were dealing with. They couldn't know, of course. She wanted to warn them. She wanted to rush out, confront Pan. But she couldn't stop him from hurting these men. So she decided to bide her time.

"Your king sent you for this plant?"

She couldn't see the paper. But even Pan looked a bit surprised. Though she didn't like the tiny grin growing on his face one bit.

"You know it?"

Pan's smile widened just a bit. "Dreamshade? It's the deadliest plant on the island. Your king is really ruthless."

Calliope held her breath. Dreamshade. It had been beautiful, once. White blossoms that glowed in the moonlight, wrapping its way up cliff faces and outcroppings. The Shadow had tainted it as it had tried with everything on the island. Everything but her Well-spring.

Both the men protested. The second, the Lieutenant, just scoffed. "It's medicine."

"It's doom," Pan said, and for the first time, she agreed with him. "Why fight a messy battle when you can kill an entire army with the sap of one plant?"

She couldn't hear what was whispered between the men, but she could see the Lieutenant's face, half-turned to her as he conversed with his Captain. He was troubled, brow furrowed and frowning. Why couldn't Pan leave them alone!

Her hands balled into fists until they finally, mercifully decided to walk away. Leaving Pan standing with a smirk on his face, they went off in the wrong direction. Calliope released a long breath. She had no intention of helping them find that plant. Let them wander the wrong way; it would be safer for everyone.

She looked forward. Pan was grinning at her, and before she could do anything, he appeared not five feet beyond the treeline in front of her. Fury built up in her again. Fury at the boy, at the Shadow, at the fact that she couldn't hurt him. The Shadow fed off the souls of her dead sisters and Pan drew his power from that Darkness.

"Well, well. Come to see the new arrivals?" he teased. "Sorry I got there first."

Calliope felt her jaw clenching. She sneered. "Get out of here, Pan."

"Or what? You can't make me."

She hated how right he was. Pan knew it, too, the smile only growing on his smug face. She bit her cheek.

"That's what I thought. Now, you stay here," Pan said, "and I'll go help our lost friends."

"I'll do nothing of the sort," she snapped.

Pan laughed. He disappeared. Moments later, the Shadow, black as night with eyes like cold stars, materialized. If there was anything she hated more than the boy it was the Darkness. Its voice chilled her to the bone. Someday she hoped she could make Pan bleed. But Darkness couldn't bleed.

"Have you gone, yet?" it asked.

Calliope frowned. She knew what it referred to. It wanted her to travel to Dark Hollow. Her sisters were there, their shadow forms at least. Or so it said. But she couldn't. She couldn't see their broken souls doing the bidding of an evil master.

"Out of my way, Darkness," she said.

It laughed. "You don't like this form? How about one a bit more familiar."

The ink-black shadow disappeared. In its place on the ground stood a familiar figure. Light brown hair braided as a crown on her head, a red and golden dress flowing about her bare feet, her sister Clio didn't speak. She held an open scroll. With a small smile, though her face was wet with tears, she turned the parchment towards Calliope.

"Clio." Calliope's voice broke as she looked at her younger sister. "Clio."

The parchment turned black. So did her eyes, and Calliope jolted back in fear. This wasn't Clio. This was the Darkness. She choked on her tears but turned away. She couldn't watch as her sister withered away. But she couldn't block out the screams.

At last, silence reigned. Her hands covered her temples, Calliope trying, desperately, to drive the images and sounds from her mind. She couldn't let it win. As she stood up straighter, staring out across the bay towards the great ship, she took a deep breath.

Pan had to be stopped.

Calliope closed her eyes. With a whispered word she focused all her attention on the source of the Island's power, the waters that ran with her magic. She concentrated. Moments later, a coldness like a winter rain washed over her, and then she opened her eyes. She found herself staring at the visitors barely two meters from her.

Both shouted. Before she could say anything, two identical swords pointed at her chest. Calliope had to work to suppress a smile. "Put those down, before you hurt yourselves." She smiled wider as they watched open-mouthed. "You can trust me."

"First a magic boy and now a strange woman," the Captain muttered. But he didn't lower his sword, still holding it a few inches from her chest. "What kind of island is this?"

"The kind that belongs to me," she said.

The Captain scoffed. "The boy said he was alone."

"The boy lies." Calliope waved her hand. In a puff of gold and white smoke, the swords appeared back in their sheaths. "I heard your name, Captain Jones." Looking to his left, she faced the other, the one she'd seen more clearly on the beach. "You are?"

For a moment, he paused. His gaze flicked from her to the sword at his side, to his companion. But then he turned back to her. "Lieutenant Killian Jones."

Calliope looked at them in surprise. But then she grinned, shifting where she stood as the wind picked up on the walkway up to the peak of the mountain. Her hair whipped into her face. "Brothers? I can see it now."

"We're on a mission here for our king," Captain Jones told her. He drew himself up taller, looking down as he had a couple of inches on her. "We seek the plant Dreamshade."

"Don't take it," Calliope urged. But as the man just scoffed a bit, huffing and turning to look off the edge of the path down at the rest of the island, she focused her attention on Killian Jones. "It's dangerous."

"With all due respect," said the Captain, "Why should we trust you or that boy? You haven't even given your name."

"Calliope."

"You say it's dangerous?" Killian pressed. He turned to his brother, "Liam."

She nodded. Calliope still blocked the path, the winding way not big enough for more than two abreast around the cliff face. But before she could respond, Liam shut it down.

"She says the boy is a liar, but he tried to warn us too. Who are we to believe?" He shook his head. "I choose to trust in the honor of my king."

Killian frowned. But as Liam moved forward towards Calliope, he didn't stop him. Her heart sank. They made their choice, coming to stand before her, looking down at her from less than a foot away. So be it. She stepped aside, letting her back rest against the uneven stone. Liam pushed past her first, not sparing her a glance. He'd already made up his mind. But Killian, he paused. She caught his eye, hoping she could kindle something in him, a question, a courage to stand up to his brother. But he left too.

Soon it was just her and the dramatic view of her island. A breeze blew her pale dress around her body as it did her hair into her face. It really was beautiful, even with the Darkness. Forests stretching endlessly, beautiful blue-green waters reaching towards the horizon. For a moment she thought she could spy the glitter of mermaid tails in the closest cove. Calliope allowed herself a few moments to smile.

She tried to scream when Pan appeared in front of her. She couldn't, though, as her body wouldn't respond. Squid ink. Calliope could barely breathe. The blood in her veins became like ice.

"Let's play a game. You know I love those," Pan said. He grinned, moving to whisper in her ear. "What happens if Dreamshade gets into the bloodstream of a mortal?"

"You know what happens," she hissed. Calliope tried to turn to him, to face him, but Pan just laughed and walked down the path.

She could hear his shouts. Not Pan's, the boy never shouted. Killian Jones, if she had to guess. He was shouting, crying out for help. But Calliope still couldn't move. She still couldn't break free.

Then silence fell. Calliope's breath came in heaves as the spell wore off, grasping at the stones with her hands. It was like her sisters all over again. She couldn't help. She hadn't been able to help.

When she appeared at the top of the cliff, she found Liam Jones' body splayed out on the ground. Her breath caught. Glancing left, she saw that someone, Pan evidently, had moved the Dreamshade aside to allow a path to the well-spring. The other Jones brother stood inside.

Calliope dropped beside the Captain. She looked at him, his curly brown hair stuck to his pale face with sweat from the climb. A quick once over revealed where the Dreamshade had set in. A cut, about three inches long on his left forearm, oozed black all around it. She held back tears, placing her hand on his arm.

It felt frigid to the touch. Calliope closed her eyes, trying to concentrate. She tried to reach what the poison had been before the Shadow corrupted it. But nothing remained except the evil that it had transformed into.

"Hey!"

She glanced left. Killian Jones reappeared from her cave, dripping canteen in hand. She recognized the fear in his eyes. Calliope stood back up, moving away.

"The boy said this would cure him," Killian said.

Calliope hesitated. "Yes. It will. But then you cannot leave this island."

"Not until we pay," Killian said. He nodded. "The boy told me that too."

Before she had a chance to correct him, to explain the game Pan was playing, Killian Jones had already begun to pour the liquid into his brother's pale lips. She felt it work. The well-spring's water got its power from her, and from her sisters. Pan had placed Dreamshade in front of it as a mockery, if she had to guess. A reminder of his own power.

"Brother?" Killian shook him. "Brother!"

Liam sputtered for a moment, then murmured to him. "That's Captain to you."

As joyful as Killian was when his brother sat up, groaning at first but then breaking into a smile, Calliope felt only unease. Foreboding fell over her heart as she hung back by the cliff edge. She couldn't smile. Not while watching these two men become pawns in Pan's intricate game.

"What happened?" Liam asked.

Killian just shook his head. He stood away, grinning from ear to ear. "It doesn't matter. Now let's pay the boy. Boy, what do you want? Boy?"

"You don't have anything he wants," Calliope said.

Both of them turned to look at her. Liam frowned, scrambling up from the ground and moving his left arm around as if to massage what was no longer there. But Killian just shook his head.

"We said we would pay," Killian objected. "It would be bad form to just leave."

Calliope frowned. "You already have paid. These waters are sacred to Neverland. They are the source of the magic here, and reach into every corner of this realm."

"How do you know so much about this?" Liam moved over to her, still not smiling. He looked at her closer before turning to Killian. "You said the boy told you about the water?"

"I know about this place because I created it," Calliope said. "My sisters and I, this place was created with our magic."

Killian walked over to her. His smile had dropped. "Then what was the price?"

"Captain Jones cannot leave." She glanced at the older one. "As I said, the magic from this spring reaches every inch of the realm, but not beyond."

"That's preposterous." Liam shook his head, pulling his sleeve back over his arm. "I've never heard of magic like that. And anyway, the boy is the one who saved my life, not you."

"Please," Calliope said. "You must stay."

"No."

She frowned. Calliope turned to Killian. He looked much more uncertain than his brother, eyebrows furrowed and mouth set in a frown. The small ponytail that held his hair back blew to the side in the wind of the cliff as they stood there in a small triangle by the well-spring.

"Come on, Killian," Liam said. He left no room for argument as he set back on the path down the mountain. "Let's get back to the ship."

And so, once more, Calliope found herself alone. She faced the small cove where the Jones' ship had moored, bobbing there like an apple in a bucket of water. Just before the brothers disappeared from view, she called out to them.

"If you have need of me, speak my name." She moved to the edge of the path. Killian and Liam both looked back, though the latter only for a moment. So she spoke to the younger. "Calliope. Say my name, I can hear it from anywhere, across any realm."

He paused, then nodded. "Thank you."

With that, they both rounded a corner out of view. Calliope sighed. They would need her. As soon as their ship passed beyond the borders of Neverland, they would need her. She wasn't sure if she could sustain what the waters had started, but she would try.

Calliope stayed there on the edge of the cliff for nearly an hour. She stood there alone, letting the wind whip her hair around her face and billow her dress. It felt good. But it felt lonely. The peak had been Urania's favorite spot. Now it echoed with the memories of her death.

The ship slowly left the waters around the Island. She could feel them drifting away, going beyond the reaches of her island's magic. It wouldn't be long. Captain Jones couldn't last long.

And indeed, when she heard her name whispered on the winds, a desperate cry from Killian Jones, it hadn't taken long. The pain in his voice gripped her heart. She closed her eyes. She knew that pain, the pain of losing a sibling.

"You're going after them, then?" Pan asked.

She looked right, the boy and the Shadow now just beside her. The boy's wicked smile widened at her silence.

He just laughed. "You know that every minute you're away, you're going to lose this island more and more." Pan walked closer to her, whispering in her ear. "Just how much is helping the needy worth, Calliope? Is it worth the land of your sisters?"

She could feel the tears in her eyes. He was right. The longer she stayed away, the less grip on the Island's control she would have. But as another whispered scream graced her ears, she fought the rage.

She tossed a magic bean from her pouch just off the cliff. It exploded into golden sparks. Turning, Calliope leaned in towards Pan, getting mere inches from his nose. She stared into his hazel eyes. "I don't like to play your games, evil child. But don't think this one is over. I will be back."

He grinned. "Oh, I'm counting on it."