Captain Hook slowly descended so he would reach the lower level of the deck where Metanoia was harshly restrained to the wooden floorboards. Her breathing was frantic and erratic as she eyed Hook reaching her slowly. He stopped when he was five feet away from her, and raised his eyebrows intriguingly. "Where are my manners? I believe introductions are in order, are they not?"

Captain Hook gestured towards himself with palpable pride, exclaiming, "Captain Killian Jones, Captain of the Jolly Roger and my fellow pirates ... and who might you be?" He squinted his eyes as he pointed at her with his shiny, newly sharpened hook, which Metanoia eyed warily.

Nodding at the pirate crushing her down, Captain Hook allowed him to forcefully tug Metanoia up so she would be looking directly at the Captain while holding down her arms at an alarming grip backwards. Her knees were what kept her up on the floorboards, kneeling before the Captain. She hissed in pain when she felt her arm twist at an abnormal angle. Metanoia got the chance to observe him properly when she was seeing him in an upright vision. He was relatively tall, with black attire from head to toe, and a pristine black coat dragging behind him, along with a tight black vest hugging his chest. The matching coloured pants were also well-fitted to his legs, and when she raised her vision back up to his face, she had to admit that he was not how she thought he'd look. For a gruesome pirate with a reputation that precedes him, Metanoia pictures a man with a beer belly, wearing stained smelly clothes and matted hair which hasn't been washed in years, along with chapped lips from the sea salt and yellow, rotting teeth. Instead, he was dressed quite immaculately in her opinion, and his undeniably handsome face momentarily confused her. Subtle, dark eyeliner lining his eyes, Captain Hook's gentle shade of green eyes pored into her very soul, a cocky smirk on his sharp facial features. It wasn't like Pan's soulless smirk; on the contrary, Captain Hook's tug of his lips were almost amused and curious. He almost looked more of a youthful spirit than Pan, despite the fact that Hook was a fully grown man, while Peter Pan was still merely a young adult. But something lingered behind the excitement in the pirate's eyes; Metanoia could sense a hint of pain and anger.

She raised her eyebrows, cocking her head to the side a little as she gazed at him unwaveringly. "Where I come from, you go by a different name, Captain Hook."

A flash of anger had gone as quickly as it had come through Captain Hook's eyes, before he strode towards her and kneeled so he could see her better. Using his hook, he yanked Metanoia's chin up, slightly nicking her skin in the process and Metanoia clenched her jaw in annoyance.

Yet another scar she had to tend to.

"There's only one person who has the cruel audacity to dare humiliate me to this name." Killian Jones spat. "So let me ask you one more time, who . are . you?"

Metanoia glared hard at him, before she spat with confidence, "Metanoia."

Captain Hook inhaled slightly, "Well, Metanoia, you don't look the part for fae folk, nor do you belong to the mer-people." Hook's gaze trailed to her legs, before they returned to her face. "And you certainly don't look like the Indian tribe." His eyes scanned her plain cloak and brown pants knowingly.

Captain Hook's smirk broadened when Metanoia grimaced, before he voiced his suspicions. "There is only one person on Neverland who brainwashes his kind into referring to me by that filthy name. You're a Lost Girl, aren't you?"

When Metanoia made no move to respond, maintaining a cold expression on her face, Hook carried on. "I wasn't aware that Peter Pan allowed girls in his little army." The boy's name tasted bitter on his tongue, and he spoke it out load as though it was venomous poison.

Metanoia scowled at him, yanking her head away from his hook, and raising her chin up arrogantly. "I'd be the first."

"Well, I'm starting to question Pan's judgment of who he brings into his little team." He paused as the pirates laughed around them. "It doesn't seem like you're good enough seeing as though you've been caught." Hook cackled, allowing the other pirates to laugh gruffly too, their volume of laughter rising exponentially.

She didn't allow the mockery to get under her skin, and so Metanoia eyed him amusedly. "I'm still here, am I not? So, my work isn't over just yet, I'm afraid. Apologies for the inconvenience, Hook." She shot him a condescending wink.

Hook retaliated with a menacing glare, before demanding, "Why are you here, Lost Girl?"

Metanoia offered him a lopsided grin, before claiming, "you have something of ours that we would like to have back."

"And what might that be?" His eyes narrowed, allowing to entertain this predicament, his ears perking up curiously.

Metanoia feigned being deep in thought, before she replied, "Just a certain crown that belongs to Pan."

Hook was utterly infuriated, before releasing his sword and pointing it to her chest, the blade pressing against her flesh threateningly.

"Pan owns nothing. You are stealing, not retrieving an item." He hissed angrily.

Metanoia however was hardly fazed by his little outburst, still smiling at him to infuriate him further, and she shrugged a shoulder laxly, despite feeling the pain in her arms multiplying while still being twisted. "Sorry, Hook, but what Pan wants, Pan gets. The only way I don't get that crown is if you kill me."

Hook lowered his head to be in level with her own, before whispering, "And kill you I shall."

Metanoia's smile faltered ever so slightly as Hook stood back up and commanded his crew. "She will walk the plank."

"WALK THE PLANK!" One pirate bellowed.

"WALK THE PLANK!" Another repeated with cackling malice as the rest of the pirates started chanting, hoisting Metanoia up against her will as she felt ropes being tied around her wrists.

She refused to panic in a moment as dangerous as this, her eyes darting everywhere for anything that could aid her as she struggled against the pirates' grip, but she was unlucky this time. Her eyes flashed in fear as she saw the plank being adjusted to end her life, but she refused to expose that fear to Hook and his crew. She would not allow her final acts to be those of cowardice.

~•~

Jeremy inhaled sharply, his eyes watching Metanoia getting shoved towards the plank roughly, and they stung with tears. Jacob placed a firm, consoling hand on his shoulder. It wouldn't be the first time they'd lose one of their own to the pirates, only this time, Pan was allowing it to happen. Just as Metanoia had begun to worm her way into the boys' hearts, she was being brutally ripped away from them.

"Don't look, Jeremy." Jacob whispered beside him, but Jeremy was too horrified to rip his gaze away. He felt as though he was frozen.

Sam, Finn and Timmothy watched morbidly, gulping anxiously as they battled with themselves on whether they had it in them to watch her die or if they should look away. They exchanged heartbreaking glances, silent words being thrown at each other. All of them had thought that she could succeed, that she would beat all odds against her in the first two trials, so why would the third have been any different? But it was, and it was just starting to dawn on them now.

Micah, Gabriel and Charlie were already looking away from the large screen, refusing to watch their new friend die at the hands of such unholy men that they hated from the bottom of their hearts. Charlie even began to edge away from the space, wanting to be as far away from sighting the screen or hearing her if she cried. Idris, Liam and Elijah were watching with clenched jaws and fists, refusing to expose their heavy hearts overbearing the nerves to expose sadness on their faces, though they masked it very well. Even David and James looked uncertainly at the other, hardly fathoming the near end of Metanoia's short-lived time on Neverland, although, Denzel and Felix watched with slight smirks on their faces; neither one of them ever cared for the girl, and they weren't about to now.

Of course, Nate and Theodore were still desperately beseeching Pan to reconsider, to stop this madness and retrieve Metanoia before the Pirates could do her any harm. However, they weren't aware that this was exactly what Pan wanted. When they thought he wanted her murdered, they were under the impression that he wanted to end her life himself - but this was even better in Pan's opinion. Her death would not be pinned onto him, and the Lost Boys who have grown affectionate towards the girl would not resent him or question their loyalty towards him. Instead, their passionate loathing of Captain Hook and his pirates would undeniably grow. Pan's army would gain a stronger purpose of infiltrating Hook's division and claiming it as their own.

Peter Pan would come out of this victorious, although, no one had ever doubted this fated outcome. 

~•~

Metanoia was wriggling in place, her wrists tied behind her as she was shoved to the base of the plank. She shot the pirates a filthy scowl, and they roared with laughter, one of them accidentally spitting on her face while laughing, and Metanoia winced in disgust. She couldn't even wipe it off.

"Right, there we are." Hook's voice was prominent above the excited chatter and laughs mingling in the air, and Metanoia turned her head to look at him expressionlessly. "Any last words, princess of Neverland?"

Metanoia scoffed at the nickname, before replying coolly, "Just that I pity you for fearing a boy to the point where you cannot even set foot on Neverland in fear of having him massacre your people."

Captain Hook's smug smile was wiped clean off his face, before he released his sword from its sheath, and prodded her in the back, forcing her to move forward. The plank was being pulled inside as the sword remained on her back, leaving Metanoia with no choice but to keep stepping forward, until she was right on the edge of the plank.

"So long, Lost Girl." Captain Hook sneered in her ear as she stood right in front of him, before pushing her off the edge and into the water she plummeted, but not before Metanoia took a deep breath in.

She opened her eyes in the water, darting around her surroundings as she sunk deeper and deeper into the ocean. The herb Pan has given her was still working, much to her relief, and so, she wasted no more time in feeling for the blade hidden under her shirt, tucked into the waistline of her pants. Her tied hands managed to grab it out of her waistline, and she began to rip through the thick ropes restraining her, all while still sinking further into the water.

~•~

He expected her to frantically panic and not think straight. He expected the herb to wear off by now on a normal person, but she was no ordinary person, was she? Peter Pan's breath sharpened upon the sight of her adamantly cutting on the rope, his ears barely registering the excited and anxious cheers of his Lost Boys urging Metanoia to succeed. He felt as though he was on the brink of tearing the island apart. Who was Metanoia, and how is she always finding a way to escape the claws of death every time she's clutched within them?

"That's our Metanoia!" Elijah hollered as he cupped his hands to his mouth, while Charlie, Sam, Nate and Theo whistled and howled into the wind, their voices traveling through Neverland and shaking the animals awake.

Peter Pan clenched his jaw angrily, and craned his neck to regard them, snapping irately, "Silence."

The boys obeyed him, but neither one of them could hide their hopeful expressions as they watched Metanoia slicing the rope.

~•~

Metanoia had finally ripped herself free of the ropes tying her down, wincing in the water as she retrieved her arms forward and feeling her muscles cry out in pain for being stretched back for a long period of time. Her long hair swished entrancingly around her, floating in pretty waves of brown, and Metanoia pushed it aside so she could see, blinking slowly. She started to swim upwards, the silhouette of the Jolly Roger barely decipherable from how deep she'd sunk into the ocean. She could have admitted defeat and swam back to the shores of Neverland, where she knew very well that Pan would be smirking satisfactorily because he would finally get what he'd been anticipating all along - murdering her in cold blood and laughing at her pain. But she was not about to give in so easily; Metanoia was a fighter, and fight she shall. Her head peaked out of the water, and she gasped harshly as the oxygen filled her lungs at an alarming speed and overwhelming her. She spluttered, seawater leaving her mouth and dripping over her face and down her long lashes. She peered up at the massive pirate ship, and for the second time this day, Metanoia began her climb up the Jolly Roger. Now that she knew where the treasure chest was, she knew which angle she'd climb up from to ensure her snagging the crown without anyone noticing. As she boarded the ship, her eyes immediately landed on the chest which wasn't shut entirely, but left half open, allowing her to catch a glimpse of shimmering gold resting within it, and she grinned deviously, almost looking like a child that was about to get their hands on some tooth-decaying candy. She tip-toed while hunched over, towards the treasure chest, only being three feet away from it, but her ears perked up at the voice of Captain Hook, who was still loitering at the bottom level of the deck.

"Did you see the way she wobbled on that plank? Definitely makes some nice bait for the hungry beasts of the ocean." He roared laughing, his crew following his lead and shoving one another as they howled.

Metanoia rolled her eyes at them. Clearly, they had underestimated her, and they would soon suffer the consequences. Her dripping wet hair was creating a small pool beneath her feet as her hand tentatively reached across and quietly lifted the lid of the chest. Her eyes shimmered at the sight of the gorgeous crown sitting on top of the golden coins, its reflection shining in her eyes. She grinned to herself; it truly was a mesmerising crown - peaks encircling its edges with rough diamonds attached to each tip of the peaks, and rubies glittered across the base of the crown with so much delicate elegance. Her hands gripped the crown cautiously, and Metanoia commenced her tiptoeing to the edge of the ship once again to climb down, but she couldn't help herself. She was far too smug and that much of a show-off that she just had to prove Hook wrong, and she needed to humiliate him.

Standing up straight so she was now visible to everyone below her, she called out teasingly, "It seems as though the hungry beasts of the ocean won't be getting fed tonight, Hook."

Captain Hook and his crew immediately looked up at her, and Hook's lip curled furiously.

"How did you - "

"What's the matter?" She raised her eyebrows. "I understand how humiliating it must be to see me right here, with Peter Pan's crown in my hands." She paused to flash the crown to them, and Hook's fists clenched angrily. "Especially in front of your crew who were under the impression that you were too powerful."

The crew murmured amongst themselves, and Metanoia sighed dramatically. "But alas, you're not even strong enough to defeat a young, Lost Girl." She winked tauntingly, and Captain Hook roared with rage, pointing at her with his existing hand and bellowing, "SEIZE HER!"

Metanoia laughed loudly, hoisting herself up on base of the sails, yanked out her blade, and chopped it off, before clutching the ropes and flying across the deck. A couple of pirates tried to grab blindly at her legs, but Metanoia retaliated by kicking them smack on their faces, the soles of her boots kissing them mercilessly as they toppled to the ground clutching their noses. Metanoia bit her lip as she was tempted to laugh, and she soon landed at the base of the deck, swiping a random sword that was cluttered to the floor by one of the knocked out pirates, and immediately duelled with two pirates charging at her. Metanoia kept the crown stashed inside the pocket of her cloak safely, and she fought the pirates with all her strength that she could muster. Killian Jones stood a few feet away, observing the scene as more and more of his crew circled her to attack, but Metanoia hardly looked intimidated, her jaw clenched and her eyes sharp and alert, her senses heightened as she refused to make a mistake. As much as he despised to admit it, Captain Hook was impressed by her effort to take his crew down. But she was dangerously outnumbered, and she would inevitably lose this battle. Just as he'd predicted, Metanoia's arms grew tired eventually, and when it wobbled slightly, one pirate took advantage of that, and tackled her to the floor once again.

Metanoia growled in response, her leg flying up to knee him in the groin. The man cried out in pain and fell to his side, but before Metanoia could stand back up, two other pirates forced her arms down to her sides, while another two gripped her feet. She was pinned to the floor, and she huffed out angrily.

"Let go of me." She seethed, squirming under their grasp.

Slowly, Captain Hook approached the once again restrained girl, and his hand dove deep within her jumper's pocket. His had was quick and sudden, that Metanoia clamped her mouth shut because it actually tickled, and now was not the time to giggle like an idiot. He took the crown out, and smirked deviously. "I'll take that off you, thanks."

"Give it back." She demanded through gritted teeth as she watched him place the crown over his head, and she growled as a response to his action.

"Allow me to let you in on a little secret, darling." He whispered as he leaned down to her ear. "No one leaves the Jolly Roger alive."

Once he had straightened up again, he casually commanded, "Kill her" before walking away and turning his back on her.

The pirates shuffled over her, a grubby hand clasping her neck tightly as she spat at the pirate's face. He yelled at her as a result, and another took his sword out, ready to plunge it into her chest. Metanoia squeezed her eyes shut, feeling overwhelmed by the natural fear of death. Right when she thought the sword was swinging down to penetrate her chest, a massively powerful gust of wind had thrown the pirates back and away from her, most of them being rendered unconscious for hitting their heads too hard when falling. Metanoia gasped loudly, her eyes bulging out of her sockets at the alarming power she felt coursing through her veins, brows furrowed and perplexed by where she had acquired such energy. It felt supernatural, and in no way normal. She heaved heavy breaths, watching Killian Jones slowly turned to face her, a bewildered expression finding its way onto his face, and his mouth opening and closing like a fish, at a loss for words. Metanoia slowly stood up, her body shaking with power and rage, and she glared viciously at him.

"The crown." She growled, extending her hand forward. "Before I end you right here and now."

The Captain gulped, his hand clutching the crown and hiding it behind his back. "You're not getting it from me willingly."

Metanoia lolled her head to the side, eyeing him with an unhinged look on her face as her hand dropped to her side. "Well,