Peter almost laughed at the chunk of fallen sky floating in the water, but then he imagined the rest of it raining down on them and his amusement quickly turned to worry. He jumped up, grabbing out the pixie dust from a compartment on the side of his suit and hurriedly rubbed it onto his clothes and shoes. He felt himself being pulled to a nearby rock, but he forced his body away and instead ran towards the helm of the nearby pirate ship. As soon as he felt the opposing magnets pushing against the pixie dust he flung himself into the air and with a few practiced maneuvers he was soon soaring above the beach, heading up to the sky arch.
Peter never tired of this sensation. The freedom of flying across Neverland was pure bliss, and the only thing that made him happier was spending time with Wendy. He felt a moment of guilt when he realized he'd just flown off without her, but he had to make sure the rest of the sky arch wasn't going to topple down on everybody.
He faltered as he neared the hole, the missing piece throwing off his magnetic balance. After a few tries he managed to grab onto the edge of the opening and inch around as he inspected the cavity. Everything looked clean. There were no sparking wires or jagged cracks, and the neighboring panels were functioning just fine. It was as if the hexagonal panel had simply unhooked itself and plummeted to the ground.
"How bad is it?"
Peter jerked back and hit his head on the panel. "Tink!" He scolded. "You can't sneak up and shout in my ear like that!"
The robotic fairy flew past him, offering no apology. "It's irreparable, isn't it?" She moaned, flitting madly around the opening. "We're all going to have to evacuate in the next 30 minutes or we'll be crushed by the rest of it!"
"No, Tink, calm down." Peter caught the fairy by the legs to keep her from running into the panels. "One of the panels just came loose. We'll do maintenance on the rest of the sky arch, but it looks like everything else is fine."
"Oh." She hung limply in Peter's hand, uncommonly still.
"Tink, are you okay?"
"Oh, I'm fantastic," she muttered sarcastically. "Captain Hook won't get off my back about some impossible task and I'm constantly surrounded by jerks, but yeah, I'm terrific."
"Who's being a jerk?"
"No one. Everyone. Well, someone..." She trailed off and was silent for a few seconds.
"Tink?"
"I wanted to apologize."
"Apologize?" Peter shook his head, wondering why she had changed the topic.
"Yeah, the other day, when I pretended I was dying, and I kissed you... I shouldn't have done that."
It took Peter a few moments to remember what she was talking about. A lot had happened on that day. The Crocodile had tried to kill him, he had learned the truth about his parents' death, not to mention Wendy had also kissed him, and if he was going to remember any kiss from that day, it would definitely be hers. Tink's kiss had been pleasant, but Wendy's had been mind blowing. Not a day went by that he didn't think of the way her lips felt on his.
"Anyway," Tink continued, pulling Peter from his daydream, "I now know how it feels to be taken advantage of, and I'm sorry I did that to you. It was selfish and dirty and only a filthy bottom dweller would pull a stunt like that."
"Whoa, Tink, don't be so hard on yourself! It's okay, I wasn't that offended."
"Well, yeah, that's because I was acting out of genuine feelings, whereas some people just do it for their own sick entertainment."
Peter stared at the metallic fairy, wishing it had the ability to show some sort of facial expression so he could have a clue as to what Tink meant. Her light flashed in his face and then she turned away.
"Well, if there's nothing wrong with the rest of the sky arch I'll just go tell everybody not to worry," she said abruptly. She took another pass around the perimeter of the hole and then headed back towards the lagoon. Peter scratched his head as he watched her fly away, wondering if the lack of oxygen she had suffered from that night had done permanent damage.
*****
"How are we going to get it back up there?" Cecco asked, pulling on his long beard.
"It's far to heavy for anyone to try and fly it up there," Slightly replied.
Peter gazed out at the piece of sky floating in the lagoon. The twins had already swum out to it and were jumping up and down on each end like a see saw.
"We'll just make a new panel," Tink explained, her tone condescending. "We'll fly each piece up and assemble it in place in the arch."
Everybody nodded, approving this plan.
"But it needs to be done before the tournament," added Smee.
"I'm going to win this year!" Shouted Whibbler, jumping up. "I've been practicing for months, and I've rigged some of the challenges!"
"You can't rig the challenges!" Nibs scoffed. "They're constantly changing so you can't cheat!"
Bill Jukes stood up and clapped his hand on Whibbler's shoulder. "Even if you could rig them, you probably wouldn't want to announce that to everybody."
Everyone laughed and Wendy lightly touched Peter's arm.
"Hey," she whispered "what's the tournament?"
Peter turned to her, once again stunned by her blue green eyes. "Every year we have a big competition to celebrate the creation of Neverland," he said. "We use a program we all designed and coded that randomly generates tasks. There are games and challenges and new inventions. The winner gets to design a whole acre."
"That sounds fascinating."
"You'll come, won't you? I'll even ask the others if you can compete."
"I'll absolutely be there if it means I have a chance to put you in your place," Wendy teased.
Peter smiled and raised his eyebrows. He'd never lost the tournament.