Thank you to Tallygirl102 for your title suggestion This chapter goes to you, I hope you like it!
Disclaimer- I own nothing and no one except Lacey Anderson.
Lightning- Chapter 1: The Pirate Lord of Singapore.
Sao Feng.
Lacey took her knife and began to cut her britches so they couldn't be seen under her short silk robe. She heard footsteps behind the door of her cabin and put on her cut pants while singing.
"Yo, ho, haul together, hoist the colors high. Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die. The king and his men stole the queen from her bed and bound her in her bones. The seas be ours and by the powers. Where we will, we'll roam."
The footsteps stopped outside the wooden door. She fastened the necklace she had gotten from Davy Jones' chest around her neck and continued, slowly grabbing her sword and walking quietly to the door.
"Yo, ho, haul together, hoist the colors high. Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die.Some men have died and some are alive and others sail on the sea with the keys to the cage and the Devil to pay we lay to Fiddler's Green!"
As she got closer, she softened her voice so the person couldn't tell she was coming closer. Lacey quickly opened the door and saw a British officer looking at her. She raised her knife slightly and ran it through his stomach. She looked down the hall of the empty tavern as his body fell to the ground and walked to the next door and went into the room.
Her eyes rested on Elizabeth sleeping in the bed. She rolled her eyes and walked to the bed, shaking Elizabeth slightly. "Wake up!"
The younger woman jerked awake and sat up quickly. She rubbed her eyes and frowned "Why are you dressed like a whore?" She asked rudely.
Lacey rolled her eyes "Shut up." She walked over to a wooden dresser on the other side of the room and opened the top drawer. Elizabeth went over to her and peered into the drawer.
"What are we doing with those?" she asked as her eyes wandered over the numerous weapons in the drawer.
Lacey grabbed her belt and put it around securely her waist outside her black robe and slipped her sword into its rightful place. Then she took a smaller strap with a parrying dagger and pulled it up her leg until it was at the outside of her thigh covered by her robe and shorts. She grabbed another dagger identical with the other and did the same. "The rest you'll deal with."
"Me?"
Lacey nodded "Barbossa and I will be waiting for you in case you screw up, someone sees you, you know, everything that will most likely happen." She headed towards the door.
"What if they search us." Elizabeth asked quickly.
"Gibbs and the crew are taking care of that. They will be under the floorboards if something goes wrong." There was a pause "Have you heard from Will?"
"No…"
Lacey made her way past the docks and to a stone bridge, her bare feet making no sound against the bricks. She looked out to the river in front of her and saw Elizabeth sailing down in a longboat.
She spotted Barbossa at the end of the bridge and hurried to him.
"Everythin ready?" He asked in a low voice. He got merely a nod in reply.
"-A dangerous song to be singing. For particularly a woman," Came a male voice. Then corrected himself. "particularly a woman alone."
"What makes you think she's alone?" Barbossa asked the man as he came around the bridge with Lacey following close behind.
"You protect her?" The man asked as he and the two men on either side of him turned to look at them both.
Elizabeth took a few steps towards the man speaking and held a dagger to his throat from behind. The other two men pointed their guns at her. "What makes you think I need protecting?"
"Sao Feng is expecting us, an unplanned death would cast a slight pall on our meeting." Lacey frowned at Elizabeth and she lowered her weapon.
"Captain Anderson?" The man asked her.
Barbossa scowled.
Lacey nodded "This is Hector Barbossa and Elizabeth Swann."
"Your master has promised us a safe passage." Barbossa said.
"For as long as it suits him." The man replied in a dark voice.
Every one of them froze when they heard the sound of boots running across the stone bridge above them. They waited until all of the East India Trading Company men passed before the man, Tai Huang, lead them down a large sewer pipe under the bridge. Before entering Lacey looked out into the water to see that the rest of the crew were on schedule. Once she saw them she followed the rest of her group.
The three were brought to a decrepit bathhouse that served as Sao Feng's hideout and was well guarded.
"Have you heard anything from Will?" Elizabeth asked Barbossa.
He shook his head "Young master Turner is more than capable of taking care of himself, but you… in the presence of Sao Fend you'll be wanting to show a bit more diffidence than is your custom."
Elizabeth frowned "What about her?"
Before Lacey could speak Barbossa said "She lacks self-confidence already."
"I resent that comment!" She scowled, but was ignored.
"Is he really that terrifying?" Elizabeth asked.
"He's much like myself-"
"-So yes." Lacey finished his sentence for him.
Tai Huang stopped them at a front door and began knocking on it in a code signal. A slit in the door slid open and a pair of eyes appeared; they studied them and after a minute the slit closed and the door opened. The three stepped inside a small entry room. Tai Huang looked at them and blocked their way into the main room.
"No Weapons." He said "Remove them, please."
"Of Course!" Barbossa said. Lacey handed her sword over along with the other two. They took a step forward but Tai Huang stopped them again.
"You think because they are women we would not suspect them of treachery?" He looked at the two women "Remove, please."
Lacey scowled "What do you expect me to remove?" She gestured to her attire "There isn't much here!"
Barbossa rolled his eyes. "She has a point there."
Elizabeth pulled off her coat and removed all of her weapons. They stepped forward again and were stopped… again. "Remove." Tai smirked at Elizabeth "Please."
To add insult to injury she was ordered to change into a silk robe to allow no weapons to remain hidden. She and Lacey went into the changing room and Elizabeth sighed "I'm sorry about what I said earlier… I know why you dressed this way now."
Lacey turned around while Elizabeth changed "Its fine."
"Robe?"
Lacey threw Elizabeth her robe and a minute later she turned back around to face Elizabeth and sighed.
Her robe was tied lightly around her and one side was shorter than the other.
"Let me fix that…" She walked closer "Can you pull the bottom down more?"
Elizabeth did so, making the robe line up at her mid-thigh.
"Think corset tight." She said to her.
"What?" Elizabeth asked, not understanding. Her only answer was Lacey pulling the belt of the blue silk robe off and replacing it with a much longer one that was hanging on a hook. She wrapped it around Elizabeth twice and then tied it as tightly as possible.
"There." Lacey smiled "Ready?"
Elizabeth took a deep breath before nodding a few times.
They both joined Barbossa and entered a room that had several baths. The men in the room stared at the two women in their robes, making them uncomfortable and self-conscious but they kept walking until they were stopped.
Lacey looked at some on the men in the bath and saw their body art. The more she looked around she realized they all had some. Barbossa made a noise from in front of her. She looked ahead of him but the steam clouded her vision momentarily.
She squinted and saw the outline of Sao Feng and bowed with Barbossa.
"Captain Anderson, Welcome to Singapore."
She nodded to him and stood up straight, looking at his scarred face to find a sign of weakness. His eyes were dark and cold revealing nothing.
He sniffed the rag that was in his hand and told the pair of woman behind him "More steam."
Lacey opened her mouth to speak but Barbossa beat her to it.
"I've a proposal to make to ya, I've a venture underway and I find myself in need of a ship and a crew."
"And you consider me worthy of such an honor? A ship and a crew… Sao Feng chuckled. "It's an odd coincidence."
"Because you happen to have a ship and a crew you don't need?" Elizabeth asked hopefully.
"No." He replied "Because earlier this day, not far from here, a thief broke into my most revered uncle's temple and tried to make off with these." He walked to an older man that was to the side of them all and took a large rolled up chart out of his hands. He showed it to them. "The navigational charts."
The three looked to one another, slightly worried but not showing it.
"The route to the Farthest Gate."
He threw the charts to Tia Huang and stepped closer to Lacey, looking at her intently "Wouldn't it be amazing if this venture of yours took you to a world beyond this one?"
She looked back, slightly fearful. "His venture…" She pulled Barbossa in front of her.
It grew silent as Sao Feng looked to a pair of men standing by a bath and nodded to them. Lacey heard splashing and someone gasping for breath; she looked to see who it was and saw Will being hauled out of the water.
"This is the thief. Is his face familiar to you?" He stepped closer to Will and the three managed to look impassive as they shook their heads. "No?" He pulled out a metal spike he had on his person. "Then I see no further need for it." With a swift movement Sao Feng moved the spike towards Will's face and Elizabeth reacted.
"No, no!" She put her hands over her mouth, expecting to see the worst.
Barbossa and Lacey stared wide eyed as Sao Feng stepped away from Will, pulling the spike back leaving him unharmed. The Pirate Lord's face darkened.
"You come into my city and you betray my hospitality." He moved in front of Lacey again.
"We had no idea-"
"-That he would get caught!" He interrupted her. The other men in the room got out of their baths and stopped what they were doing to begin surrounding them. Lacey looked down between the floorboards and saw movement. She could only hope it was the rest of the crew.
"You intend to attempt the voyage to Davy Jones' Locker."
"But I cannot help but wonder… Why?"
Barbossa took a silver piece of eight out of his pocket and tossed it to Sao Feng, who caught it in midair and examined it. I troubled look spread across his face.
"The song has been sung. The time is upon us. We must convene the Brethren Court." Barbossa Stepped forward as he spoke. "As one of the nine Pirate Lords you must honor the call."
Sao Feng gripped the coin in his hand. "More steam." He said to the girls once again. One of them pulled on a rope to signal workers below to release more steam. Nothing happened. "More Steam!" He said more forcefully looking at the woman. She pulled the string once more, looking confused.
Steam filled the room once more and Lacey could hear Barbossa let out he breath he had been holding as he walked even closer to Sao Feng.
"There is a price on all our heads."
"Aye." Barbossa nodded.
"It is true. It seems the only way a pirate can turn a profit anymore is by betraying other pirates." He looked at Will.
"We need to put our differences" Lacey frowned at him, stepping next to Barbossa. The first Brethren court gave you rule of the seas. But now that rule is being challenged by Lord Beckett."
"Against the East India Trading Company, what value is the Brethren Court? What can any of us do?" Sao Feng asked, eyeing her.
She glared "You can fi-"
"You can fight!" Elizabeth said, outraged as she quickly stepped forward. A man behind her grabbed her shoulder. "Get off me!" She moved his hand away angrily and continued. "You are Sao Feng, the Pirate Lord of Singapore. You command on an age of piracy where bold captains sail free waters. Where waves aren't measured in feet, but as increments of fear and those who pass the test become legend." Lacey frowned at her; she has planned on saying something along those lines before she was interrupted. "Would you have that era come to an end on your watch?"
Sao Feng regarded her with an impassive expression.
"But you're just sitting here." Lacey said scornfully before Elizabeth could open her mouth again "Your ships crowd the harbor while you sit here, cowering in your filthy bathwater."
He turned his head to her, his eyebrows twitched and Lacey fell silent and held her breath as he began to circle her, studying her with interest. His eyes wondered over her chest but stopped at her necklace. He looking into her blue eyes and smiled "There is more to you than meets the eye, isn't there?"
She raised a brow, but said nothing. Barbossa narrowed his eyes and watched cautiously, as did Elizabeth and Will.
"And the eye does not go wanting." He walked away from her "But I cannot help but notice you have failed to answer my question. What is it you seek in Davy Jones' locker?"
"Jack Sparrow." Will said, frowning. "He's one of the nine pirate Lords."
The two girls behind Sao Feng giggled as he himself froze and silence fell. Barbossa looked pained.
"The only reason I would want Jack Sparrow returned from the land of the dead is so I can put him back there myself!" Lacey stepped back as Sao Feng's temper rose and he kicked over a chair.
Barbossa walked closer to him. "Jack Sparrow holds one of the nine pieces of eight. He failed to pass it along to a successor before he died. So we must go and get him back!"
"So you admit you have deceived me?"
Lacey and Elizabeth tensed and they looked at each other.
"Weapons!" Sao Feng yelled as he pulled out his sword and Barbossa took several steps back, bumping into Lacey. All the men in the room yelled and pulled out there swords except for Barbossa and Will.
"Sao Feng, I assure you, our intentions are strictly honorable." Barbossa said as two pairs of swords came through the floorboards. He and Elizabeth grabbed two each.
Lacey took her daggers out in a second, watching the group of men closest to her.
"Drop your weapons or I kill the man." Sao Feng grabbed a man close to him and helo her sword across the man's chest.
Barbossa looked around the room trying to see is anyone on Jack's crew knew him. No one said anything. "Kill him, he's not our man."
"If he's not with you, and he's not with us… Who's he with?" Will asked, looking around as well.
The doors in the front of the room opened forcefully and someone yelled "Charge!"
All of the pirates directed there attention to the Royal Navy as they came through the front door. Several gunshots went off as charged through the front door.
Lacey spun around and saw more men coming from the back of the bathhouse towards her. One man slashed his sword at her, but she used one dagger to block, and the other to stab into his chest, killing him instantly. Two more men came her way, one on either side. As they tried to strike she stepped forward, making them hit one another. She looked ahead of her and saw a man pointing his gun right at her.
"Move!" Will grabbed his cousin and took her towards the door, saving her life. They found Elizabeth, Barbossa, and Sao Feng easily and heard men from the Navy shout "Ready!" They all turned to look and saw then getting in formation, ready to shoot. Before they could a bomb under the floorboards went off, sending the men flying everywhere.
Sao Feng shouted "Go!" He gestured to the door with his sword and the pirates began to flee.
Lacey ran out the door quickly, ducking every time she saw a sword being swung at her, avoiding every fight possible. She put her daggers away when she got to an empty bridge and was almost across it when she saw to Navy men running to her with their swords out. She kicked one of them in the stomach, knocking him over the rail and into the water. She took out one of her parrying daggers and blocked the other man's sword, then kneed him in the groin and kept walking.
There was a loud explosion and she turned around, watching one of the huts burn in flames. A group of men from the Bathhouse running onto the bridge, passing her. The Black Pearl's crew followed.
"Will got is a ship, crew, and the charts." Gibbs told her happily.
She raised a brow and followed the crew, ignoring the man on the ground. "Why would Sao Feng agree to this" She asked Gibbs as the boarded the ship.
He shrugged as they hoisted the sails, getting ready to make way on their voyage.
Terrible? Good? Ok? Great? Let me know! (By the way, this is the longest chapter I have ever written as of today)
-Love Layla