Thank you for the reads and reviews on the prologue! This is chapter 1. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: Vaas and the Far Cry universe belongs to Ubisoft, in fact none of this belongs to me apart from the OC. Not making any profit apart from fun.

The pirates were holding them. They'd kicked the men to the ground, were holding the women. The captain had been shot. Alice had watched it all happen from the beach where she'd managed the drag the other pirate to.

At first, Alice had not quite been able to process what was happening. Then she heard the gunshot, heard the screams. The pirates - it felt funny thinking that word, like a weird, bad joke - threw all the others onto their smaller motor boat and made their way to the beach. Straight to her.

"Oh my god!"

She stood, looked around.

"Oh my god, oh no, oh no, no, no, no!"

The noise of the motor grew louder, shouts and cries reached her ears. Was she supposed to run? Could she run fast enough? Did she have somewhere to run to? Could she hide? Should she wait where she was, spare herself the chase? She'd saved their friend, surely that would play in her favour, would it not? Yes, better not to fight. It wasn't like she would actually be able to outrun them.

The boat was nearly ashore. She saw that Tim had a nosebleed and Brad had a split eyebrow. She'd never seen real guns in her life prior to that day, but she had played enough video games and watched enough films to know these were AK-47. Probably.

So, to put it simply, she lost her shit.

Alice set off running towards the jungle, catching her feet in the sand. She tripped and fell. As she tried getting back up, her ankle was caught by what felt like an iron claw with hot, ragged leather spread over it. As she fell to her knee, Alice tried breaking free from the pirate's hold but his hand never let go of her. He crawled up to her, over her, pinning her to the sand.

"Easy, easy,sirenita, it's ok now no need to run, no need to run I said, nena!"

Now beyond panic, Alice screamed and thrashed around, kicking and scratching. His arms snaked around her upper body and crushed her arms to her chest, his weight stopping her from getting up.

"Ok stop this now"

It seemed that no matter how much strenght, anger and desperation she put in her squirming, it only made his hold grow stronger.

"Please! Please, please"

"It's ok now nena, stop this! Stop kicking! Ok it's fucking annoying now, stop it!"

He was speaking directly into her ear, his nose buried in her hair. He was suffocating her, and eventually the girl had no other option but to stop struggling.

That was about three to four days before.

At present, Alice Ridley, 23 years old, was locked up in some shack on Rook Island, in what appeared to be a pirate camp. The shack was made of bamboo, it consisted of a main room which had a sofa, a tv and some films, then a tiny kitchen area, a bedroom area with a bed that had no pillow nor duvet, just a simple sheet on top, then a bathroom/toilet area. None of the rooms were separated by doors, but by colourful if not washed out batiks. There was a pirate guarding the door, and as she'd looked out the window she'd ended up having an awkward face to face with more pirates. She was still wearing the same clothes she'd worn on that day when she'd jumped into the water to save a maniac's life. There was a bucket, a big sponge, a tap and some soap but she had not dared to undress and wash anything other than her face and hands. She had had to use the toilets, a hole in the ground you flushed by pouring a full bucket of water into. She'd been drinking water from the tap, but, despite their giving her fruit and rice on a banana leaf each day, she had yet to eat, and she had yet to sleep.

She'd been separated from Brad, Tim and Jessica from the beginning and had no idea how they were. Sometimes she could hear screams of pain and supplications, punctuated by crude laughters and aggressive shouting from the voice she recognised as that of the pirate she'd dragged out of the water. She guessed that if she had not been tormented yet, it was because of her good deed. Or perhaps they had a special kind of torment in store for her?

Her mind kept racing, though somewhat incoherently after so many hours without food or sleep. She tried to remember any documentaries, films, series, anything at all about hostages and pirates. All that came to her however was a quote from the film Taken, when Liam Neeson is told that he only has 24 hours to find his daughter, and any time after that would be too late. Well, she'd been abducted more than 24 hours before, and her dad was no Liam Neeson. The middle aged Englishman had moved to sunny Dordogne, France, a few years before, and spent most of his afternoons trying to invite, in broken French, his neighbours for an appéritif. Alice's mother, a Swedish artist, now lived in Italy with her new boyfriend. He was Alice's age, and they both liked the same tv shows.

She shook her head. She still couldn't decide whether there was comfort in remembering her family or if it was easier for her to just block them out of her mind.

Suddenly, the crazy pirate's voice rang a lot closer than normal - he must have been right next to the shack.

"Ok now hermano you clean that shit up ok? I'm going to see my sirenita."

She heard his heavy footsteps, so very close now. Her heart clenched and turned to stone, pushing down on her chest and trying to make its way down to her stomach. Her throat tightened, and a little burp escaped her (comically, Alice always burped when she was nervous). She was reminded of the time when her mother and her had spent two weeks in the Canadian wilderness, and had had to sit quietly for hours, shivering in fear, while a bear was lurking around the unlocked cabin.

She kept her eyes fixed on the door,wide open. Nothing happened for a while, then, the tip of a dark Mohawk gradually appeared, followed by a smiling head, strong shoulders.

"Hello"

The pirate fully stepped into view, and Alice had to crane her neck to look at him. He was tall, solid, wore dirty clothes and heavy boots. His hallucinated eyes were circled with black, his smile wolffish.

"How are you today?"

She scrambled to her feet, crossed her arms. Her back was against the wall, the window to her left. Maybe she could jump out of it?

"No offence, nena, but you look like shit today" he interrupted her thoughts.

Pardon?

"You look tired. There" he pointed at the area under his eyes. "Are you not sleeping well nena?"

When she failed to respond, he pressed, his upper body jerking forward abruptly: "huh?"

"Oh um, no, no I'm not sleeping very mu- very well."

"FUCK!" He yelled suddenly, his arms punching into he air. Alice recoiled in fear. He started pacing the tiny room, like a tiger in a cage. The light filtering through the bamboo ceiling even gave the impression of stripes on his hard body.

"You know, why is that, huh? What is it, nena? HUH?!"

"I , I don't, I don't,...!"

"Is it the noise?" He asked suddenly, stopping dead in his tracks. "Hm? Is it the noise at night?"

Thinking he meant the incessant cries of pain, begging, and barking, Alice nodded hesitantly.

The pirate shook his head, looked somewhat sorry.

"It's the jungle nena, it's noisy. It's all the birds and insects and shit. You're gonna have to get used to it." He chuckled. "Must be different from the sea, huh? Bet it's real quiet down there. Under da sea, under da sea!" He sang.

The way he moved around the room was unpredictable and frightening, and Alice had yet to understand what this was all about. Why was she there? What was he going to do to her? If he was going to hurt her, she would rather he just got on with it. Was he mocking her scuba diving?

"No but for real, nena, you need your beauty sleep. I can give you something to help you?"

"Um, it's ok thank you."

"I know I can get quite grumpy when I don't get my beauty sleep. Also I look like shit."

She stared. In his earlier outburst, he'd pushed a chair to the floor. His muscles still twitched with unrest. A nasty looking scar run from his neck to his forehead, and the hair around his Mohawk was patchy, unevenly shaved. His eyes were circled with dark but it was impossible to say whether it was intentional or not. His clothes were dirty.

"I don't like the way you're looking at me."

"Sorry"

"I don't like that word."

"Sor- I mean..."

He burst out laughing, and just like in anger, his whole body shook with the emotional display.

"Vaas!" Someone called.

"Guys fuck off I'm on a date here."

He turned to Alice. She crossed her arms a bit more tightly. There was a good few feet between them, but she felt like he could jump on her at any second. It was like being in a cage with a hungry tiger. Maybe if she didn't turn her back to him, didn't look him in the eye, showed submission...

Slowly, he picked up the chair and sat on it. He reached into his pocket and got a little booklet out. Alice recognised it instantly. It was her passport.

"Alice Belle Ridley." He read out. "Profession: mermaid" he laughed at his own joke. He waved the passport in her direction. "I took the picture out, I hope you don't mind? I'm gonna keep it in my wallet."

"Vaas!"

"I'll keep this for now also" he said, putting the passport away. "A British passport is worth a lot of money these days." He stood. "I'll buy you a gift with the money, nena. What do you like?"

"VAAS!"

"FUCK, GUYS! I'm coming hermano, chill the fuck out, ok!" Once again, his powerful arms jerked with rage, veins popped out along his neck and his whole body tensed as he got to his feet. A lot more calmly, he said to Alice:

"Ok now Alice, I've got to go. These motherfuckers can't do anything on their own. Always they're calling me, Vaas, Vaas, how do I put my shoes on, Vaas... I'm Vaas. We met on the beach. I'm gonna go now, when I'm back I want to see you fully rested, fully beautiful. Have a sleep. Have a shower. Watch a movie. And eat your rice and fruit. It's rude not to finish your plate."

He walked out.

Alice slid down the wall, let herself cry. She was so,so tired! After a few moments, the tears had burned her eyes so much that she could hardly keep them open any more. Gently, she let herself fall to the floor, in a ball,holding her knees to her chest. Sleep hit her like a blow to the head.