Most of the pirates that were running front row had dropped down, some that were hit by arrows lurched forward, stumbled forward and kept charging. Those that dropped down and never came back up were seen their heads snapped back before impacting to the ground. Those still standing, those that never got hit, and those in the back charged, raised their weapons over their heads, pointed forward and towards the Lost Children.

Mara felt her heart racing quickly, quicker than she runs. She watched a couple of more pirates dropping to the ground as every arrow that the Lost Boys and the Natives released. The Natives were almost quick to fly their arrows than the pirates running charging. Almost slowing them down. She positioned her feet in a fighting stance and both hands on the hilt of her sword.

She had James by her side, the two exchanged glances, both shared the same look of fear and bravery. To combine both fear and bravery was a strange thing, those two things were like the ice and fire, the sun and moon, the love and hate. To fear of something of whatever is going to happen in any moment, fear of death, fear of losing, but to Mara, the worst thing she fears was losing James, losing Peter and losing his friends to this battle. But she must be brave, she has to be brave, there was no turning back now.

Lady and Shadow were loose, they charge forward so quick like lightning crashes to the earth. The animals' cries were heard as they caught their prey and two men screaming. Mara didn't see as she was too focused on the enemy in front of her.

The Lost Boys and the Natives shouted, let out war cries as the two sides collided to each other. Chaos began.

It was happening so fast, Mara didn't know who to focus on, the first pirate she spotted charged her way with his sword raised and she prepared to clash her sword with his. The man was large than her, maybe a foot tall and more weight. But slow and sloppy. Their two swords clashed each other, all Mara did was shield herself with her sword, clashing and clashing, but the fight against him didn't last long, an arrow plunged into the man chest before falling to the ground. Mara didn't have time to see who's arrow it was, another pirate charged at her.

Everyone were fighting, some Lost Boys and Natives fought two pirates at once, the pirates dropped quicker than the Natives and the Lost Boys. Only one Lost Boy had fallen and one Native as both of them were outnumbered. Peter Pan was nowhere to be seen, neither Blackbeard, the Lost Boy was searching for his brother. James was fighting the forth pirate after defeating the first three with barely a struggle. Curly took down three as well, Slightly shot down six with his arrows before finally duelling with an enemy using his bow and arrow as his weapon to fight him off. Felix took down his second victim, Nibs down with his forth, Thomas also with a forth pirate. Tiger Lily and her two brothers fighting side by side. The pirates were falling quicker than the Lost Boys and the Natives.

Mara was fighting the third pirate after the second pirate she fought was brought down by Killian, saving her. The two of them fought side by side, Mara lunging her sword at any pirate that charged before Killian made the final blow.

"I suppose the lessons I gave you helped you very well" Killian recalled the days when he taught her how to fight with a sword before Neverland. "I taught you well, didn't I?"

Mara panted, still in a fighting position, back to back against Killian's. "Sort of" She corrected, "you weren't the only one who taught me—" She abruptly halted before clashing her sword against another pirate's sword then Killian plunged his weapon into the pirate's gut while his sword was still on Mara's.

"Anyway, how are you?" Killian asked.

Mara was so surprised how Killian can still be himself in a situation like this. "Are you serious, right now?!" She twisted around at him then spotted another pirate charging behind Killian, sword raised. She shielded him by her sword meeting the pirate's sword before Killian shoved him back with his foot.

"We didn't get a proper conversation to catch up before, didn't we?" Killian went up to stab the pirate.

"Now is not the best time, Killian!" Mara yelled in frustration as she shifted her head around for any more enemies.

Another casualties from one of the Lost Boys and a Native boy. One Lost Boy almost wounded but still fighting, James had two slashes on his arm and leg, Curly with a stab on the shoulder but didn't stop him from fighting, Slightly, barely a scratch on him, was shooting down any pirate he sees, saving Natives and the boys from getting shanked behind them.

The air was filled with shouts, screams, cries, swords crashing each other, the ground thumped by the stomps and a man or a boy fell. Swords and wooden spears were in the air, drenched in warm blood, more pirates came charging as they continue to outnumber the Lost Boys and the Natives. The Lost Boys and the Natives didn't realize that they were slowly backing away, drawn further into the forest. The air smell of smoke from the fire, fire grew big and taller, it clouds of smoke was all darkened, mixed of reds and oranges, the fire that was made by Blackbeard as he promised he'd burn the island. Leave no survivors and show no mercy, everyone dead but Peter Pan.

          The boy somehow knew where his brother would be waiting. It was the place where Bishop had revealed his intentions of betraying those who were close to him. By the Hangman Tree, where the oldest and tallest tree on the island had stood. Blackbeard was already there, waiting. There was a moment where Peter Pan saw his child brother standing next to the tree when he arrived, how small he used to be, his once-little brother, now a man before Peter himself who was once older than that man, and Peter himself is still a child.

"You don't have to do this, Bishop" Peter began to bargain. "It's not too late to stop this. You can take me. Take me. Kill me. Hurt me worse than I hurt you. But leave all the people out of this. Whatever it is you want from me, but leave them"

Bishop didn't speak momentarily. His eyes remained furrowed as he looked at Peter before lightly shaking his head. "I gave you plenty of chances, Peter. Each time I came here to visit you, I asked you. I asked you to come and leave this place . . . But you chose them, you chose this place over your own brother, over and over"

"You left me!" Peter uttered, "and betrayed me, betrayed Lily, and the people that saved us both! After what they done for us both, and this is how you repay them?!"

Bishop scoffed softly as he smiled. ". . . you betrayed me first, Peter. You never told me about the Heart that saves me . . . and you— you and Lily. You hide the Heart from me and you took the person I once loved from me . . . You really wanna talk about who betrayed who?"

Peter never knew Bishop knew about him and Lily. He felt all the shame and the guilty plunging his chest. It had him lost in words, the words he had in mind to tell Bishop, all that gone and betrayed by his own shame and guilt. "Bishop, please . . . We'll go, all right? You take me. We'll leave Neverland for good"

"Well, that is the plan" Bishop quirked a smile again. "I'm afraid I made a promise to my men. But you know us both, we always keep our promises"

Peter didn't need to know what promise Bishop made for his pirates. Peter sighed in both doleful and disappointment. "Don't make me do this"

"I'm not making you do anything, Peter" Bishop said, "All you have to do is give up . . . and fail. And then we're even"

"That's not even" Peter said.

"You did say I can hurt you worse than you hurt me"

Peter heaved another sigh. He didn't respond for a moment. The sounds of faint cries from the battle, imagining the worst that's happening to his boys, the tribe . . . and Mara. He knew what he had to do now, and it was the only way he can stop this.

Peter responded by pulling the sword out and drew it.

"You continue to disappoint me . . . But I'm not surprised anymore" Bishop drew his sword as well.

          Mara was tired. She found herself leaning back against a tree trunk to catch her breath quick, behind the tree was the chaos, down a steep hill, the Lost Boys and the Natives are drawn away as the chaos moved slowly further in the forest and now near the Lost Boys' camp. The Pirates keep coming. The Boys and the Natives were getting too tired to fight hard against their foes. Mara couldn't drowned out the sounds of the chaos, the swords clashing, the shouts and cries from everyone. Her arm was bleeding from a slash, it stung her, the wounds stung her even when she isn't touching them.

"Oy, what are you doing hiding from your first battle?" Killian appeared by her side, leaned against the same tree as he panted.

"Could say the same thing to you" she replied.

"Not my first battle, but this is the most fun I've been to" Killian tried to smile but he couldn't.

Mara sharply sighed. "I could use a bit of your rum right now"

"Sorry, darling. I lost it somewhere in there" Killian nodded towards the battle. "Come on, why don't we go fetch it together?"

It wasn't the rum that motivated her, or given her strength but the sound of a familiar cry from one of the Boys. It wasn't from James or Slightly. She left the tree, slide down the steep hill and back into the chaos. That cry came from Curly but she couldn't see him anywhere. She saw James still fighting in effort, Slightly fought with a sword this time as he ran out of arrows or couldn't find any near him. She saw one of the Twins falling then became still. Tiger Lily still fighting with only one of her brothers, the little brother she was with was nowhere to be seen. One of Peter's animals had been killed while the other was still catching her prey.

There was death all over. Death left and right. When does this chaos stop?

It felt that battle had went on for a very long time that it scattered around and further from each other. Barely an hour had passed since it began. Peter fighting Bishop in the other side of the island from the battle. The Lost Boys still stood and fought, the Native also still fighting, the Pirates seems getting stronger while the Boys and the Native grew tired.

          The fire grew bigger and wider. Tinker Bell was out there trying to slow the fire down and put it out. The more she tried, the fire grew rather viciously.

          Mara had blood on her hands. She was saved plenty of times when she was on the ground, mostly by Killian, sometimes by James and once by Tiger Lily. Perhaps her training wasn't enough to get her prepared for a battle like this. She doesn't even belong in a battle, she never was, she was only meant to save Peter. But Peter was not here with her. Could he be in danger? Does he need to be saved now?

Mara couldn't escape from this at all as she tried to. She always finds her friends in inches away from getting killed and she saves them, or she finds another pirate her way that she has to fight off.

          Peter; weak, exhausted, inch away from being defeat, it wasn't because he was tired, but rather feeling drained. It was because of Neverland, it was Neverland that dying and weak, with the island weak and dying, so was he. And Bishop has no desire of finishing him off, though he took it easy for him, giving Peter a lot of chances to regain his strength. Bishop could never bring himself to kill him. He spared him. Many times he had spared him.

          The longer the battle went on, the Boys and the Natives were slowly losing.

Just as they were dying slowly like flies, the canon fired in the distance. It was a signal for the pirates to retreat. Not that they were running, this battle was just a start and like the Boys and the Natives, the Pirates also needed to replenish for the next battle.

The pirates had left, leaving their dead and the wounded behind. When they were gone, the Lost Boys dropped to their knees from an immense exhaustion. No one won yet. This was just a break.

Mara was about to drop and rest. Instead, she looked around for her friends, for James, for Slightly, for Curly and to see who is still alive and who is dead.

Nibs is dead. Rufio, still trying to revive the fierce boy. She saw Twin One, dead, in Twin Two's arms. Tiger Lily and her eldest brother were grieving for their little brother. The more she saw who died, she got more terrified.

Then she saw James and she made no hesitation to run to him. The relief she felt, the most relief she had felt in years that she almost began to cry. She could only lift one arm up as she flung her arm around James and so did he. They hugged tight and long. She really wished it was over. She hoped it was over.

"You're—" she looked at him , "you're all right?"

"For now" James nodded, "You?"

"Same" she nodded back.

James gazed away before suddenly he started running as he uttered, "Curly" Mara followed.

They rushed down a steep hill where the battle once took place. Everyone scattered all over the forest during the fight. Separated from each other.

They found Slightly, he was on his knees and over a body. Mara wished it wasn't who she thinks it is as she and James approached them.

She was too scared to see but she went close anyway. Slowly went around Slightly and saw who the boy was mourning for.

Curly.

Still and lifeless.

*****

Well, that was kinda hard to write xD
This entire chapter was difficult to write because I suck at writing battles and it's why it was sloppy and rushed lmao

Yepp, I really thought I couldn't do this but I am sooooo close to the ending

And tbh, what I have in plan on how to end this won't be a "happy ending" at all, least what I think and I feel like I'm going to anger most of you xD

Anyway, stay weird :)