a/n: so I know I'm kind of late to the party but I noticed there isn't a ton of fan fic in the black sails category, so I thought why not add one extra to the number. I hope you'll enjoy this fic, it's a little different but a good different I hope.

The pirates of The Dream Thief had gained extra crew members in the last small town they had ported; a quaint colourful place with the only substantial means of trade being healing herbs and pretty flowers. But, it was the closest place they could find to repair heavy damage from collecting a large prize when Nassau-a pirates favored port and considered home when on land-proved to be too far away.

It was an unexpected accumulation for Captain Amadeo, he hadn't even had the need to go looking for new recruits as they had brought themselves to him; the girl and her brother and their four cloaked friends. He had been hesitant to take them on, they were dressed rough as usual of pirates, but there was something about the way they did so, with an arrangement of textiles and patterns that would have been otherwise considered rich had they been in better condition and not the sullied and torn standard that seemed as if it had been intentional. There was just something strange about them that led him to believe at first that they were luring him into a trap.

But the brother had a carefree smile, it was kinder than the steely colour of his eyes and he explained simply that they were stolen finds. Believable.

The girl had smiled even brighter, charming Captain Amadeo with eyes that changed from blue to grey to green in an instant and thick lashes that brushed against the tops of her cheeks as they fluttered. She had told the Captain that her brother was the best at finding special things, then her hand was stretching outward to show her rings fashioned from silver sculpted around slim fingers into the shape of metal claws.

And just like that they had charmed their way onto The Dream Thief and towards Nassau.

He needed skilled hands to replace his fallen friends and the boy and his four cloaked friends had proved to be equipped even better than the former each man worth 3 of the last men he had. They took to the seas like they had spent their whole lives upon them, tying knots and mending sails with an effortless efficiency. But the girl didn't prove quite so well adjusted.

Four days on the seas towards Nassau ports and they had decided indefinitley that the girl was to remain only on the lower decks.

When she frowned in dismay Amadeo had apologised, rubbing the scruff of his grey streaked beard on his neck as he explained to her that the crew thought a woman on board brought about ill omens and bad tides and despite her pretty face, he could not allow her needs above those of his crew.

Perhaps they wouldn't have minded the girl around if she had been more friendly, if she had sung and danced and laughed and flirted. And they had tried to get her to do all those things by attempting to coax her away from her brother with bottles of rum and whisky and a sea shanty and a lute, with high hopes of a kiss or something more. But she was different from the first impression she had bestowed upon them, she was cautious and introverted and quiet, she sat with her head held high and shoulders rolled back as if the weight of the world was sitting upon them. She was not the sort of woman they expected her to be and now-now she made them scared.

The third day on the tides was the last time she was allowed above deck, sitting on a crate with her head tilted to one side allowing the sunlight to bounce of the high bones in her cheeks, hands clasped and resting in her lap.

To the crew and their wild imaginations she had become some sort of stolen princess,-that was the story they had decided to come up with to explain the boy the girl and their circumstances, and it was the story they were going to preach in the tavern once they reached Nassau.

Her sun glazed skin was a stark contrast to the to the obviously paler colour of her brother, an odd thing that perhaps they would have dwelled on had they the opportunity. She had obviously been exposed to the outdoor climate, though the way she acted made her seem so out of place in such a setting, as if she belonged more in an expensive dress on a golden throne.

She was too well-mannered and shy to be some whore, and definitely was not a female pirate in their eyes when they thought back to what The Rangers Anne Bonny was like.

In their eyes the story they had fabricated made perfect, truthful sense.

The ship's bosun had become particularly enamored with her she realized, when he frequently made trips over to them to talk to her brother, stealing secret glances at her pouting mouth, and the curves of her silhouette through her clingy clothing and tight pants. The constant watchful sun was quick to dust her blemish free shoulders and face with faint freckles, making an unnoticeable white scar that sat across the hollow of her right cheek suddenly apparent. The bosun wondered how she had got it, but would never dare ask with fear of offending her. Sometimes she would meet his eyes when he looked at her and she would curve her mouth up into a slight smile that was innocent and bashful, and he would smile back before looking away, embarrassed at being caught.

Sudden shouts made everyone around them spring into action, a frantic alert in the air when they spotted a couple of ships that were just about visible on the horizon and intent on heading towards them.

Naval ships.

The bosun abandoned the girl and her brother to holler at members of the crew and then hollered back and forth until they were certain everyone and everything was in working order.

The girl and her brother shared a long look, an unspoken conversation playing between them in their light and dark eyes. A single nod finalized the conversation with eyes and the brother left the girl to see about aiding the crew, following behind one of his cloaked friends who had already started to help. He places a broad hand on the cloaked ones shoulder, leaning inward to whisper and then repeating the same gesture and message to the next one and the next, until all four cloaked men had heard the secret whisper. He finished by giving another look to his sister and gave her a nod and a look that said 'it's your turn'.

A sandy haired crew member approached the silent beauty, a boy compared to the rest of them and she put two and two together recognizing him as the fool in love with the girl from the flower shop on the last island. The rest of the crew were often teasing him for it. The poor thing.

Quickly crossing over to her he wanted to make sure she was alright, and assure her that there was no need to panic. But as he spoke, he noticed that she didn't, and he considered the fact that maybe she were mute before he remembered hearing her talk to the Captain and laugh like a gleeful child. He also noticed that she was distracted, head turned towards the heavens where the sky was a swirling spell of grey and black and purple.

A storm.

The sort of storm wasn't unheard of and especially not uncommon on the seas, but they usually arrived in the air in a pattern, one that could be spotted and avoided before it happened. This one though, this one had appeared out of nowhere. And that was rare.

Thunder rumbled and a loud boom tore open the sky sending ricochets of water falling. He hurriedly tried to get the girl below deck; since she had been on board they'd been crossed by the naval fleet, the quartermaster had taken ill due to a sudden strange fever, and now the storm; if they kept her above deck any longer he feared that she would bring about all of their demise.

The girl slipped off the crate and allowed him to take her arm, and they lifted up the other to shield their faces from the icy torrent that pelted them, soaking them to the bone in a matter of minutes. The sandy haired crew member noted as the sky blackened further, now the colour of midnight and he took some relief in the fact that a storm like this would mean the navy would be reluctant to follow them.

But there was one bold ship that made an attempt to give chase, despite the indefinite possibility of the ocean splintering the ship to pieces and killing every single soul on board.

"Fucking hell!"

One of the men had called out loudly and on her way to the lower deck the girl had halted, bringing the sandy haired pirate to a stop also.

She eyed the ship trying to tail them, then found the eyes of her brother and then the disheveled pirate holding her arm before tilting her head upwards towards the sky, her verdigris eyes now a shadowed cloud as they mirrored the stormy darkness.

And then it happened.

The air was charged, the sky morphed into scene fit for the underworld as the clouds turned pitch black, there was a rumble of thunder growing louder and louder as it traveled across the sky.

Lightening hits.

A silvery forked tongue created an earsplitting crack as it struck down their pursuer, the naval ship's mast splits in two and then the whole thing is ablaze, scorching red flames engulfing everything. The shouts and screams and wailing from the distance were muffled by the rain and the winds, and everyone on The Dream thief came to a momentary standstill.

They turned to the girl and then to the sky and back to the burning boat, but it is no longer on the tides, now consumed by the dark depths of the sea as it is taken to the underworld.

Witch is what some start to call her.

Others say a child of the sea gods, or a vengeful goddess. So they decide to hide her in a storage room giving her the company of a barrel of molasses and crates of mussels. The quicker they get her to Nassau and off the boat the better. She'd be Eleanor Guthrie's problem then.

She spends the rest of the journey skulking about the belly of the ship, counting the barrels and crates of goods, till she had memorized what was inside each and every one, then she would study the captains old logs and carefully copy his charts and maps to amuse herself. She was an excellent forger they had found out; able to produce pretty much an exact copy of a letter or brother had told them it was because she was a magnificent artist. she had beamed and blushed and refused the compliment.

Sometimes she would allow the bosun to take her to the kitchens, where she would help peel potatoes and stir soup. Her brother had popped his head around to see her the odd few times, and the two shared a knowing smirk and another nod.

There were rarely any words spoken between the two, the pirates had noticed; their conversations mainly consisted of nods and small gestures and eyes dancing back and forth.

"Patience, I haven't forgotten." She says to him when he lingers one time, completely calm despite the fact that her brothers features show urgency, pressing her to hurry before they retire to their jovial default and he smiles again.

He ruffles his sister's hair, sending the light brown waves spilling in front of her eyes and she glowers, tossing her head back so it falls away and behind her shoulders. When she looks up her brother is gone, and she goes back to chopping up herbs for the soup.

The closer they got to port, meant that Captain Amouteru became more reclusive. He kept to the Captain's quarters, sifting through his books and logs to make sure everything was accounted for. He often skipped eating meals with his crew, and plates and bowls made there way to him by hand of his now recovered quartermaster, or the girl when the crew decided it may do him some good to see a prettier face.

She picked up the bowl of broth intended for Amouteru as the other pirates sat themselves down in the ships' mess hall, and she eyes her brother and their cloaked friends intensely as they situate themselves in the four corners of the room. Her lips part in the smallest of movements, only a trained eye picking up the word 'now' as it silently fell from her mouth. Then she turned on her heels and headed to the captain's quarters.

Eventually The Dream Thief made land and the boy and the girl stood side by side leaning over the railing, watching as the coast of Nassau neared closer. The storm from the early days of their journey had long since been forgotten, a blistering heatwave, and clear calm blue skies were now at play.

Twin smirks marked both their faces, breaking into a pair of achieved smiles. They drew into harbor through a collection of bound sails and weathered masts. Upon captain's request the crew had worked the ship to stop with the ported ships of The Ranger and The Walrus within comfortable distance. Then once they were anchored, boats were lowered followed by a ladder, and the crew began to make way to the beach.

A welcome committee consisting of Eleanor Guthrie and several pirates were about the beach to greet The Dream Thief and it's crew, main reason being that it had been a long while since Captain Amouteru had ported in Nassau.

Eleanor Guthrie was quick to notice that the crew had took on some new faces, but among those faces and the faces she was familiar with there was one that was explicitly not present.

"Where the fucks your captain?"

She asked the throng of men, and a tall one, with large curling biceps and hair short and bluntly cut-so that longer strands stuck to his face and hung in front of a crystal blue eye- broke away from conversation with the man beside him.

He smiled a charming smile, wiping his sweat coated face with the shirt in his hand and he nodded at the woman in acknowledgement.

"That would be me. "

Murmurs from the already ported pirates that had came to welcome the Dream Thief had broke out at the news and with a furrowed brow Eleanor Guthrie planted her hands firmly on her hips, eyes narrowed and they darted over to the members of the crew, to the quartermaster with a question and she saw how they stiffened.

"What happened to Amadeo?"

She did not miss it as the crew bristled, mouths opening and gazes scattering uneasily among one another; at a loss for words or not willing to say.

"Well?"

The blonde woman pressed, before looking back to the so called new Captain accusedly.

"Poor thing succumbed to a snake bite."

A voice; lilting and feminine spoke up from the jolly boat that had just arrived with the remainder of The Dream Thief's crew, and Guthrie followed it with her deepening frown, hands fisting the fabric of her floral skirt.

A small figure jumped out of the jolly boat with a splash, joining the new captains side. Eleanor widened her eyes at the shock of it, her hair was braided intricately in layers, half of it down and starting to frizz from the heat, pulled away from her face which was so young, and she sported clothing that was certainly not standard dress for a woman.

Eleanor almost believed the sincerity to the girl's words, almost believed the story as such a cause of death had happened before to a poor unfortunate soul; but she had learned to study someone's character carefully and though the girl tried to hide her eyes, she had caught them before they had been turned away from her and she saw that unlike the warmth of her sad pout, they told a different story; they were cold and as black as the colour of her outfit.

Something about her was not right at all. She searched the reactions of the crew as they muttered agreements almost too quickly in response, and she watched carefully as one of the men passed the girl a tankard of water, which she accepted with a silver clawed hand and a shark toothed smile that made Eleanor shudder and the boy recoil.

The girl took a sip and held it towards the captain with an arched eyebrow.

"Brother?"

Eleanor's eyes widened again, brother? She scrutinised the two but could find no resemblance other than the colour of their eyes, but still then that was not exact. They had different noses, different eyes, different mouths, different builds; they couldn't possibly be truly related could they?

Or perhaps they could, maybe they only shared one parent and the other was the one that each had gained their separate looks from. Her lips pressed together in a firm unhappy line.

There were too many unwanted questions with unknown answers surrounding the girl and her brother. She didn't like it. But she had business to do so she sucked in a disgruntled breath and folded her arms over her corseted blouse.

"What do I call you then Captain?"

Despite her hard set features, the man smiled brightly still.

"Raz will do just fine."

"Well then Raz, you're new, but i suppose you know very well who i am yes?"

The new captain nodded.

"Good, then if you'd follow me to my office we can get down to business. You'll need to fill in a report of your captain's death, we'll look over the agreements I had in the past with Amadeo and then we will come to an accord so you can sell your prize, is that understood?"

Before the new captain could even speak, she had already began her way up the beach and to the main street, pausing and lifting a finger up in the air looking between him and his sister.

"Just you, she can stay with the crew and help them unload, Amadeo's lead was for a big prize so they'll need every hand they can get."

She watched as Raz and his sister exchanged a look and oddly the girl nodded, spinning around and marching off to join the rest of their crew to unload. It was odd how the brother didn't settle until the girl had reassured him, but for now she decided to overlook it, that was a matter for a different time.