“I got it,” Tink crowed loudly. “Or at least I think I did. The signal stopped broadcasting, and I can see the virus. All I have to do is—”

Just then, a Red Skull burst through the door, and Tink spun around at the intrusion, then felt an instant pain in her chest. She looked down at the silver dart, then up at John’s shocked face.

“Oh, *#$!” Bells rang as she slid out of the chair onto the floor.

John roared, overcome with rage, and tackled the Red Skull who had shot his girl. The soldier wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of a ticked-off, six-foot teenager, and John had the element of surprise to his advantage. He ripped the gun from the man’s right hand and punched him with his left. The dart gun spun on the floor, just out of reach. The soldier knocked him back and made a run for the gun. Then, John dived, knocking him down and grabbing the back of his head. He slammed his face into the floor, stunning him for the few seconds it took to regain control of the dart gun. He aimed it at the man’s chest and pulled, then hit him with a second dart in the neck, and the soldier went limp.

Breathing hard from adrenaline, he kneeled by Tink’s side and pulled the dart out of her chest. He went back to the door, locked it, and slid a cabinet in front of it as a barricade. Then, he moved to Tink’s computer and examined the suspicious code she had highlighted. His fingers flew over the keyboard as he did everything he could to quarantine the virus. He breathed a quick prayer and hit enter. A few heartbeats later, the lights came back on, and he could hear the distant sound of the security doors closing.

But they were too late. Looking up at the surveillance screen, he could see the soldiers had overrun the school. They were loading the boys on their shoulders and hauling them out one by one. He rubbed his hands over his face, unsure of what to do. A second screen showed Wendy facing off with another Red Skull. Someone descended slowly from the hole in the ceiling, a large hovering form that blocked the security camera. When it moved, and John saw the figure, he swore under his breath.

---

Wendy thought she was dreaming. Fire, smoke alarms, and screaming, and then she was confronted with her past. A tall figure stood in the middle of the chaos. Larger than life, his shoulders broad, and his nose crooked. A scar ran down his cheek. He was imposing, scary, and he looked as if he hadn’t aged a bit.

Wendy trembled, facing Hook as he directed the attack. “Take them all. Don’t leave a single one behind.”

More soldiers rappelled to the ground around him, each of them spanning out to search the school. Hook held a computer tablet and looked at it for directions.

“That way!” he roared, directing more men up the stairs toward the control room. When the dust settled, he turned and stared at her, a smile forming on his face.

“Where’s Peter?” she yelled, pulling out one of the Red Skulls’ guns from the debris, then turned it on Hook, taking aim.

Hook stared down the barrel of her gun. His head dipped in acknowledgment, but his face shifted and he transformed physically, growing shorter, slimmer—someone she knew replaced her enemy.

She hesitated as her brother John stood in front of her gun. “You wouldn’t hurt me, would you, sis?”

Wendy took a step back.

“No, but I would.” Jax grabbed the gun from Wendy’s slack hand and shot the shifter in the arm before giving it back to Wendy.

The shifter lost control of John’s form, and she shrank into a young, freckled red-headed teen. She groaned and fell to her knees, staunching the blood flow on her upper arm with her left hand.

A shadow cast over her, and Wendy looked up as a male figure descended from the opening in the ceiling to float in front of Wendy and Jax.

Wendy recognized him instantly—Peter.

“You’re back!” Wendy tried to step over a cement pylon to rush toward Peter, but Jax grabbed her arm, yanking her back.

“Let me go!” Wendy cried, pulling hard.

“No, don’t!” Jax warned, but Wendy clawed at his hand, and he released her. She crawled over the large cinder blocks and beams as she made her way to where Peter levitated above the wreckage. His hands on his waist, he stared at the Red Skulls who were passing through the room. He didn’t make a single motion to help or hinder.

“Peter?” Wendy called out, stepping in front of him and noticing his clothes for the first time. Gone were his jeans and casual jacket, replaced by the pressed black uniform of the Red Skulls. His eyes no longer held their usual hint of laughter, instead that was replaced by darkness.

Peter looked at her. No, not at her, through her. What was going on? He raised his arm and pointed the dart gun her way.

“No, Peter, stop!” Wendy yelled. She dropped her gun and kicked it aside, then raised her hands to show him that she meant no harm. She heard Jax swear under his breath.

“That’s not Peter anymore, Wendy.”

She didn’t listen to Jax’s warnings. “Peter, we’re your friends,” she said, desperate to break through to him.

Peter’s mouth turned upward into a smile that chilled her bones. She saw his finger move on the trigger, and she closed her eyes and waited for the impact as the person she loved betrayed her.

Heat flew past her cheek. She opened her eyes to see Peter falling from the ceiling, hit by one of Jax’s fireballs, and landing in the rubble. Peter leaped up, silent and blank-faced, and thrust himself at Jax, grabbing him around the waist. Then, he lifted Jax up and flung him across the room.

Jax grunted as he hit the wall, his body creating spiderweb-like cracks spreading out from his point of impact, before sliding to the floor.

“Jax!” Wendy screamed as Peter, possessed by whatever Neverland had done to him, continued his onslaught.

She spared a glance at the shifter, but she was gone—where, she had no idea, but she couldn’t follow her. Not when she was worried about Peter, who had grabbed Jax by his boot and lifted him through the broken ceiling into the night sky. Higher and higher he flew until he was nothing more than a speck in the air. Then, he began to grow larger as Peter let go and let Jax drop to his death.

“No!” she cried out. Doing the only thing she could think of doing, she reached for the shadows. One after another, they came out of nothing, out of nowhere, and they wrapped themselves around Jax’s falling form. He disappeared mid-descent, reappearing mid-air, inches from the ground.

Peter howled in anger and flew back like a man on a mission, straight toward Jax.

Wendy tried to rush to him, but a young Red Skull stepped out in front of her, blocking her path.

“Why are you in such a hurry to save them?” the teen wearing the Red Skull uniform taunted her. “You never were the hero.”

“I’m not their hero. I’m just their friend,” Wendy said, taking in the clawed fingers, the tiger color of her eyes, and a familiar smirk.

“Then, where were you, friend, seven years ago when you abandoned me?” she hissed.

Wendy could finally place her, and her breath caught in her chest. “Lily?”

She remembered the time, years ago, reaching through the padlocked doors to grasp her hand, trying to pull her through to safety. But then, the Red Skull had ripped the girl from her hands, and Lily had taken a piece of Wendy’s nightgown with her. In Lily, she knew she was facing years of resentment and hate.

Lily’s face turned to one of disgust, and then she punched Wendy in the stomach. “You’re nothing. Pathetic. Weak.”

Wendy’s mouth gaped open in pain, her eyes flicking over Lily’s shoulder to see what was happening with Jax and Peter. Jax had regained his footing and was fighting off his friend, doing everything he could to stay out of Peter’s reach.

She was tired of everyone assuming she was weak. She wasn’t a helpless child either. Without looking away, careful not to draw attention, Wendy summoned the shadows again and saw that Lily couldn’t see them as they gathered near. Good. It gave her an advantage over her.

Lily tossed her braid over her shoulder and shrugged. Her arms at her side as claws extended from the tips of her fingers. “They thought of destroying us,” she whispered, her voice filled with hate and venom. “But I was not easily killed. Those of us that didn’t burn in the fire were imprisoned. Years. I spent years in hell, wanting nothing but revenge on the ones who abandoned us. You and the boys. Now, it’s your turn to endure what I endured.”

Wendy lunged and tried to get around Lily, but the girl swiped with her claw. Pain ripped through Wendy’s abdomen, along with claw marks to match, and she fell to her knees. Her frantic mind worked hard as she processed what Lily was freely telling her.

“What did you do to Peter?” Wendy asked as her hands clutched at her stomach.

“Newest recruit,” Lily sneered. “He was so easy to reboot. His mind is so malleable, and we had a little help from one of yours. Hook wanted to gift wrap him for you and the boys, to show you what your future is.”

“Never.”

She brought up her clawed hands, still dripping with Wendy’s blood, and gave it a quick sniff. “Are you afraid to die?” She laughed, and Wendy realized that despite the girl’s willingness to brag about her plans, she knew very little about Wendy.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Wendy answered, letting confidence fill her. She placed her hand over the bleeding wound and looked at her blood. She needed to avoid taking another hit like that. Wendy made a small motion with her hand, and the shadows moved in closer. “Death is not the end. It’s the beginning.”

She rushed toward Lily, her hand reaching for the girl, and the shadow pushed its way into Wendy. Wendy almost faltered as the shadow joined with her. One minute, she was in front of Lily; the next, she and the shadow were passing through the shadow realm.

Everything was gray, cold, dark as the shadow moved Wendy through the other world. It was only seconds, but those seconds felt like hours as she reappeared behind Lily; the shadow moved away. Wendy picked up a piece of the rubble and smashed it into the side of her head. She crumpled to the ground.

“Sleep that off,” Wendy said and ran across the room to help Jax with Peter. Both the boys were bloodied and injured. Peter’s eyes were crazed as Jax knocked him into a brick wall with a blast of fire. Wendy could see the blistered and seared skin underneath the tattered uniform. She flung herself between Peter and Jax, holding her hands up between them.

“Stop! You two are friends; you don’t need to fight like this.”

“I am not his friend,” Peter choked out, blood dripping from his lips. A cough wracked his lungs. “He is the enemy.” He looked at Wendy, a sneer forming. “You are the enemy. The disease that plagues the earth and needs to be got rid of. Squashed like cockroaches.”

“No, you’re wrong,” Wendy said softly, coming to kneel by Peter. His chest was oozing. It didn’t look good at all. “I’m your friend. Well, more than your friend.”

Peter’s head hung at an odd angle. “Will you die for me?”

He lunged forward and wrapped his large hands around Wendy’s neck, digging his fingers into her throat. She gagged and fell backward, his body falling on top of hers.

A soldier came in and yelled at Jax to get on the chopper, as the rest of the troops began to retreat. A flash of light appeared next to the prone body of a lost boy, and like Onyx, he disappeared. Wendy was able to follow the blur of light as it streaked out the hole in the ceiling. Security doors began to close, locking the building down. If the Red Skulls didn’t leave, they’d all be trapped inside; that was their one chance to escape.

Wendy’s vision began to dim. She couldn’t breathe. She struggled against Peter, pulling at his fingers, and he tightened his grip further. The shadows came to Wendy’s aid and attacked Peter. He let go of her neck and batted at the dark shadows that only they could see. Not only were they both able to pan, but they both could see the shadows without specs.

“Go away. Get away from me.” His eyes were wide; terror ebbed from his body.

Wendy gasped and tried to pull herself back up. The shadows were driving Peter away from her and trapping him in the corner. She couldn’t understand why he was so terrified. Peter screamed. Jax stormed over to him and lifted his fist. Wendy turned away as she heard his fist connect with Peter’s jaw, knocking him out cold.

Lily regained consciousness and got to her feet. She leaped high into the air and landed softly in front of Peter, her hands transforming into long claws. She glared at Jax. “You’re a traitor.”

“I’ve been called worse.” He shrugged.

The streak of light came back into the room and stopped in front of Wendy, and she could see that it belonged to a Red Skull. An inhumanly fast super soldier. He picked up Peter, smiled wryly at Wendy, and she knew what was going to happen. She could read the victory on his face.

“No!” Wendy cried, but he leaped up in the air, and with a flash of light, they were both gone. She couldn’t lose him to Neverland.

“Give him back,” Wendy yelled, running after him, but was cut off by a side attack from Lily, who was ticked off, the side of her face swollen and her eye bloodshot from Wendy’s blow to her head.

“No, we have need for his DNA,” she said, then turned to Jax, growling, “The next time I see you, Jax, I will kill you.”

“And I you,” Jax warned, his fists clenching, his hands glowing red with power. Lily smirked as the flash of light appeared again, and the soldier whisked her away.

Wendy could feel Jax’s anger radiating from him, or it could have been the heat permeating from his hands.

“Do something!” Wendy yelled, pointing through the hole in the roof, at the four helicopters flying away with the remaining boys.

He flung a blast of fire in front of the chopper, and it swerved to avoid the flame. The helicopter almost ran into the second helicopter, nearly colliding with it.

“No, Jax!” Wendy commanded, grabbing onto his arm as he released the second ball of flame. It went off course and crashed into the bungalow house, which exploded. “You will kill them all.”

He pushed her away. “It’s better to be dead than taken alive by Neverland. They will just strip them into soulless mercenaries.”

“You don’t get to make that decision for them,” Wendy said.

“I’m the only one that can,” Jax argued.

“You weren’t the only one on that island, Jax,” Wendy challenged. “I was there too. In fact, I died there.”

“Then, you should understand more than anyone what we’re sentencing them to.”

“I do, but still, you do not get to make that decision for the boys.”

Jax came to his senses and ran his hand over his face. “I’m sorry, but I think like a soldier first.”

“That’s your problem,” Wendy spat and started running through the building, looking for anyone left behind. There were signs of destruction everywhere—walls half collapsed, furniture overturned, and glass everywhere, but it was silent except for the fading hum of the helicopters as they retreated.

And then it was quiet. Wendy was running, calling their names but getting nothing in return. “Ditto . . . Fox . . . Slightly!”

Silence greeted her.

She continued her search. The smoke and her tears made it difficult to see. She stumbled in the dark and saw a hand buried beneath stone rubble, where she had last seen her brother and Tootles.

“Tootles . . . Michael!” Wendy began digging, pulling off the rock and debris. Jax silently aided her attempt at a rescue. The hand lay still, and with each rock that she lifted, her hope dwindled.

Jax lifted a board, blocking the view of what was beneath with his body.

“Wendy, don’t,” Jax said turning toward her to shield her view.

“Is it . . . is it . . . ?” She couldn’t finish as a river of tears and anguish came over her. She dropped to her knees, her hand covering her mouth.

“There’s nothing you can do here. He’s gone.”