Peter Pan took a swing.

It seemed as if the wind, the sky, and every star in the sky held its breath. Then the blade whirred through the air, and the fabric of Neverland trembled as the blade penetrated the mesh of the firmament.

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The glowing fairy blade slid through the weave of the night sky, and Peter hardly felt any resistance as if he was cutting no more than a thin piece of taut yarn. No sooner had the sword pierced the web than Pan could see the meshes loosening. Fine, luminous threads like spider silk shimmered in the light of the many stars, frayed into the ethereal glow, and disappeared as if they had never existed. For a second, Peter stared at the beauty in the chaos before his eyes.

In his chest, his heart drummed as wildly as a panicked sparrow. The single, secretly hidden sound in the suspended silence of stillness and night. Peter could see the blinding light of a star contracting, slipping out of the structure, the luminous form slipping from the holding fibers. The star began to fall. Peter let the fairy blade slip carelessly from his fingers. He didn't need it now, and t want the damn thing with him any longer than necessary. Everything he wanted and needed was right there in front of him!

Peter's gaze latched onto the star and shifted his position in the endless height of flight. Peter was already shooting forward, back into the depths, and toward the star, its light drawing a tail of rainbow colors behind him in the darkness. The blond stretched out his hands, those damn big, grown-up hands. Something inside him was tempted to wish back what the fairy queen had stolen from him ... but his guilt weighed heavier. And then, finally, he reached it. The star was so bright that Peter had to squint his eyes into narrow slits. But then he went for it, and an indescribable feeling flooded his body.

Peter had expected many things. The pain would immediately jerk through his fingers, and the star's light ate the flesh from his bones like fire. That the star fire would go out for some reason, or lick higher, spill over onto him, shine brighter ... but he did not reckon with the overwhelming feeling that the pure white light left on his skin. A pleasant, tingling warmth that felt more like delicate fairy wings on his fingertips instead of biting fire. His green-gold eyes widened in surprise, and Peter's breath caught. Then he blinked and pulled the glowing ball to his chest, close to his heart.

The wind rustled in his ears, and the fluttering of his clothes and hair around his features barely penetrated his senses. Peter concentrated with all his power and clung to the desire, the hope. He was an adult now ... he could only hope that the star would still hear him.

"I wish...," Peter murmured, and as he plunged back into the depths at breakneck speed, he squinted his eyes tightly as if that might reinforce his wish. "... that Michael, John, and Wendy are safe and alive again where they belong: with their parents."

Peter couldn't express what he was feeling at that moment. It was as if the words leaped from his lips and took on reality through the magic of the star. He opened his eyes and stared at the light streaming between his fingers. Suddenly there were glowing bright sparks, not unlike those dancing over a wood fire. They detached from the star in his hands, and Peter discerned a surface like liquid mercury beneath the glow. The bright fire groped for him, sliding over his hand and arms. But it did not burn either but leaped from him into the air and rose from there as if the stars remaining in the firmament had called out to the sparks personally. Peter watched the spectacle with glittering eyes. He could not hide his fascination and followed a wonderful spark while the star cooled in his fingers and became a clod of iron - just as Queen Titania had predicted.

Peter didn't know how he was so sure at that moment ... but for some reason, he suddenly KNEW that the star must have heard him!

His joy, however, lasted only a short time.

Something flickered abruptly in the corner of his eye. Then suddenly, something shot past him—a flash of light, then another and another. Uncomprehending, Peter saw the bright tails of fluttering light rushing toward the island at a breathtaking speed.

"What the ... ?" he gasped, spinning in the air. Wind and Neverland at his back, Peter's gaze now captured the firmament above him, and all color disappeared from his features, only to give way to an expression of sheer horror. He recognized the cut his blade had torn in the sky. A golden-white scar on the midnight-blue silk ribbon of the canopy of heaven, from which countless silver threads had spread. The web of the heavens lost its hold and tattered before his eyes like a carpet from which a vital stitch had been loosened. One star after another detached itself from the night sky and plunged into the depths as a burning, bright ball of light.

"No..." gasped Peter, who couldn't understand what was happening there. Had he struck too hard, or had Hook's cursed blade done what it always accomplished: bring disaster and doom to everything it touched?!

As if the horror wasn't bad enough, the cracks continued to stretch through the sky continuously and like falling dominoes ... and Peter's heart faltered as he saw one of the shimmering silver threads extending on and on ... towards the second star from the right.

'But beware of cutting one of the twin stars from the sky. For they are the pillars of this world and carry Neverland on their shoulders,' the memory of Titania's voice boomed reproachfully in his head.

"NO!" roared Pan into the darkness of the night. He felt as if all the eyes of the many stars were blinking reproachfully and stunned at the scene, unable to do anything or avert the disaster into which their former playmate had driven them.

Peter tried to break his fall. If he flew up, could he do anything?! But he needed to be faster. Before he could complete the thought, he saw the large, unmistakable star already falling. The bright light flickered as if it wanted to defend itself against the inevitable. But then another loose mesh reached the star, Peter saw it slip through the mesh, and an ominous roll of thunder rolled across the Neverland firmament.

Numerous small stars detached themselves from the mesh of the sky, and one roared just past Peter. He felt the hurtling projectile as a sleek gust of wind as Peter lurched to the side in midair, missed by a hair's breadth by another. Then everything happened quickly. The twin star fell, and a loud noise drowned out every thought and sound. Peter felt a tremor roll through the air, taking over everything. The sky and the waves below them spilled over everything as a wave of invisible energy.

The flying man lost concentration, began to stagger, and the rain of dozens of stars plummeted with him. The crunching and groaning of tearing fabric mixed with the hissing of the sky rang in his ears, and it seemed to him that it echoed in his thoughts as well. With a roar, the massive star of light shot down into the depths, trailing a tail of multicolored light in shades of turquoise, orange, and red to violet, and plunged toward Neverland like an angel of death on its final flight.

'When it hits, it will tear Neverland to pieces!' thought Peter, his mind desperately searching for a way out. Panic wrestled with wild thoughts tumbling over each other. But all of them seemed useless. But then a tiny star shot past Peter, and suddenly an idea flashed out between all the others. This idea was insane, ridiculous, death-defying, and completely insane. But this WAS Neverland! Here even the impossible could come true!

Peter put his arms at his sides, tight to his body, and stopped trying to break his fall. Like the falling stars, he now hurtled unchecked into the depths. The bright glow of a tail blinded his eyes as he reached out again, first grasping at nothing before finally getting hold of the star. His eyes caught the twin star below him; its light refracted on the reflecting Neverseas. Then Peter took a deep breath.

Please. It had to work. 

It just HAD to!

'Believe,' Peter ordered himself, 'Believe that it will work!'

"I wish," he shouted as if he wanted to yell against the falling wind and the star rain so that all the other stars in the night sky could hear him too, "that nothing happens to Neverland and the falling twin star!"

Wordcount: 1.479 Words