Although this one was not my very first pastiche story, this one is actually a prequel to Don't You Dare Deny Me. Originally, I had not intended to have any prequels and move forward from Don't You Dare Deny Me (I'm the kind of writer who likes to move forward, not backwards, otherwise I'll go nuts). But, as I was writing the character biography for Captain Lillian Bates, I started getting a multitude of ideas in my head that were just begging to be written separate from the biography.

This story is loosely inspired by the classic Diary of Anne Frank and will be frequently swapping from 3rd person to 1st person, between Basil's perspective and Captain Lillian Bates's perspective. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Journey Back to 1875 ... Captain Bates meets Fidget

June 10, 1875

I will never forget that night ...

We just returned from our last plunder in Liverpool. The mouse that was my guardian my father had passed away paid DEARLY for the way he treated ME. I was a respectable pirate now. A full-fledged pirate, queen of the seas, skilled, feared, powerful, and beautiful. I sat on my throne in the cabin as Ravenwing attended to his usual duty of steering the ship. It wasn't really a throne I sat on, it was just a chair like any other, but I liked to BELIEVE it was a throne. Part of me must've still been that little girl who loved to play pretend ... as if the world were full of rosy possibilities ... endless ... But NO! I would NOT have such weaknesses on MY ship! The Nightwing Crew would question my authority ... such defiance is unforgivable!

But alas, I was getting old. As I was once under the tutelage of the infamous Rose Nightwing, which the ship was named after, I would too need someone under MY tutelage. But which crew member would I pick? All were skilled in the art of piracy (I SHOULD know; I TRAINED them myself). All were obedient to my every command. Of course, they would only obey AFTER I yell at them. Some I've had to threaten to walk the plank if they ever disobeyed me again. I overheard a few of them plotting to betray me. It turns out I trained them a little TOO well. Sadly, as much in abundance I had of crew members, I couldn't choose any one of them to be my replacement. So I found myself considering the unthinkable ... I would have to choose someone who was too stupid to plot against me. He would have to be SUBMISSIVELY obedient, almost like a DOG. Did I mention that I was the ONLY woman on The Bloody Rose?

THAT'S RIGHT! Men were my enemies. And rich men I hated even MORE! So how on earth did I end up with all male pirates under my employment!? What was Captain Rose Nightwing thinking!? I guess girl pirates were a lot harder to find than I imagined. Most would rather be prim and proper, following the ways of Queen Mousetoria. Unfortunately, those kind of women DISGUSTED me! Always whining about their dresses not being the right color, foolishly dependent on a man to rescue them from any little sign of trouble (even if it was so much as tripping over their clumsy feet). And their DRESSES!? Bloody hell, how could they even STAND wearing those dresses!? If only they learned to wear pants ... like ME. It's much more comfortable and practical.

My thoughts were suddenly disturbed when Blade, my second-in-command, came to my cabin with a pleasant surprise.

"Oy! Captain!"

"What!?" I heaved in exasperation. Blade KNEW I didn't like to be disturbed whenever I was deep in thought ... yet he frequently did it ANYWAY! I'm surprised I haven't asked Vulture to have him EXECUTED.

"Hawkeyes found this BOY crawlin' on all fours, Captain!"

Blade, who was slightly taller than I was, gestured his dark wings to Hawkeyes, who held a small gray-furred bat in his brown wings. This boy had blood dripping from the left side of his head. I didn't get a good look at his face; he was hiding it from me with his webbed hands as he shook.

"Where did you find him!?" I demanded to know.

"Not too far from the docks," Hawkeyes answered. "Blade found a few dead priests by a crevice not too far from where this boy lay. Looks like the boy hit his head pretty hard."

"The boy must've been daft!" Blade mocked as he looked at the boy bat with a slight hint of contempt. "I'd say 'E must've killed those priests, but 'oo would kill mice and then 'it 'is 'ead in broad view where someone would find 'im!?"

What Blade said made now sense to me. Nevertheless, I didn't care. I was particularly interested in this little boy they had found. "Hawkeyes, fetch some bandages and dress the boy's wounds! Blade, when Hawkeyes is done, YOU bring him back here to ME."

"Aaawww, but we have barely enough food to feed the rest of the crew as it is!" Blade complained. "Why can't we just throw 'im in the river!?"

"Am I not your Captain, Blade!?" I replied with a stern voice. "Did I not specifically ask to do one simple task!?"

"Beggin' your pardon, Captain," Blade replied; I noticed he had flinched after I raised my voice to him. "It's just that ... if we keep this boy, we won't 'ave any food left to provide for YOU. I 'ear little boys love to eat a lot."

"I will be the judge of that!" I reminded him. "Now, go with Hawkeyes and help him bandage the boy's wounds!"

Blade heaved a disgruntled sigh, then he did as I ordered. He had BETTER! I've become very distrustful of Blade lately, but I haven't seen or heard him once complain about the work I made him do ... until NOW. Still, I couldn't shake that feeling in my bones. He would take unusually long to get a simple task done. And I know Blade to be very clever and quick, so I knew it had nothing to do with any lack of intelligence. Luckily, Blade wasted no time in bringing that boy back to me, his head bandaged in white gauze. But this little boy still had his face covered with his webbed hand. I rose from my THRONE and slowly approached the boy. He was shaking from head to foot, practically crawling out of his skin. Obviously he FEARED me. All the better ...

"What is your name, boy?" I asked in a soft voice. I'm not sure what in the world made me act motherly toward this boy. I did NOT believe in being silent and ALWAYS spoke in a stern voice. How else would the crew fear me if I spoke like a mouse!? Then the boy slowly lowered his hands. I was able to see his face now. He had yellow eyes, practically the color of the sun. Red rims encircled them. I took one good look into those eyes. They were so ... BLANK. He must've still been in shock from that head wound. I knelt to his level and extended my left webbed hand to touch his face. Before I could prepare myself for it, those shrunken black pupils widened ... and then he BIT me.

I recoiled my hand in shock. It didn't hurt that much (I've dealt with worse injuries). The boy had baby fangs ... and I was in such an unusually motherly mood to take offense. He should consider himself lucky for this, otherwise I would've given the little brat such a whipping he would NEVER forget. And I would do it in FRONT of the whole crew (and yes, I am THAT mean).

"What is your name, boy?" I repeated, much softer as I gently stroked him underneath his chin with my right hand instead. His body managed to shake less upon my motherly touch, so I picked the boy up and placed him on my lap. His blank expression returned. "W-whrr ... am ... I ...?"

WHERE AM I? was what I heard the boy utter. He spoke so softly that, if I had not been a bat, would'v'e been barely audible. He had a ... rather high pitched voice, almost like a boy soprano from choirs. In all honesty, I thought it sounded really sweet and soothing ... NO! I CANNOT allow myself to get attached to this BOY! I am the Captain, HE is my SLAVE.

"You're on The Bloody Rose, little boy," I told him. "Blade and Hawkeyes were the ones who brought you here."

"B-blehde ...? H-hawkis ...?"

I noticed a slur in this boy's speech. Either the head wound was more serious than it looked, or this boy was a terrible speaker to begin with. I continued to analyze this boy with my hands. He was ... a little on the pudgy side, but that can be easily remedied (all us bats had baby fat at one point). However, his wings were strong enough and his legs were sturdy. He was PERFECT! Just what I need to train as my replacement! But this boy sounded so ... innocent. That meant ... he wouldn't be able to plot against me at all!

"I'm being easy on you NOW because of your wound," I spoke to the little boy bat, this time my voice was stern "... AND I'm a little tired. But I will make it clear to you. I am the captain of this ship. As long as you remain on MY ship, you will obey all of MY rules. You understand?"

The boy bat sucked on his thumb in a pensive manner before he looked back up to me and nodded.

"GOOD! I shall bring you food and something to keep you warm, until you're in better condition. After that, I will teach you how to to hunt for food yourself. You WILL learn it. No bat on this ship is allowed to be idle or defiant!"

I called for Hawkeyes to take the little brat under his wing and to have him fed. I could stand the sight of a cute little face for so long. And since dawn was almost here, I needed to rest. Tomorrow evening, the boy's training begins ...

The mouse detective temporarily closed the journal for a moment to ponder over the content of Bates's entry. Then he thought about the night she came to his flat. Basil recalled Bates once saying how she regretted that she had Hawkeyes executed. He repeated that name in his head. Hawkeyes ... Hawkeyes. Basil never had the opportunity of encountering Hawkeyes, who had already been dead anyway. Bates described him as a brown-furred flying fox Rose Nightwing found on an island by the Pacifc Oceans who lived solely on fruit. His real name was Aheahe Kahiau. Rose Nightwing had dubbed him the name Hawkeyes because he had a distinguished golden-colored eyes and was the only bat of the crew who had a reversed sleeping pattern. While the rest of the crew were dormant by day, Hawkeyes was awake, able to spot enemies who would dare to trespass on their ship and steal their treasures. According to Bates, Hawkeyes joined the Nightwing Pirates because his family were victims to the eagles, who hunted flying foxes for food. All of the pirates of the Nightwing crew had their names changed to some code name, usually after birds of prey to strike fear in the hearts of those would oppose them.

However, this Hawkeyes was different from the rest of the crew, and not just because he was a ... flying fox or whatever Bates called it. This Hawkeyes was actually a fatherly soul. The family that were killed by the eagles in his home happened to be his wife and three children (one son and two daughters). And this Hawkeyes that Captain Bates spoke of was best friends with ... Fidget.

Yes, that was the name given to that little boy bat in the journal that both Hawkeyes and Blade found with a head wound. The boy had amnesia and didn't remember his name. And because that boy had a tendency to fidget a lot, Bates decided to give him the code name Fidget. Hearing the name alone, Basil would've laughed it off, for it completely defeated the purpose of striking fear to opposers, as Bates would so boldly claim. But Basil had seen how this Fidget character fought. And it was no laughing matter at all. But Bates described the relationship between Fidget and Hawkeyes in such a way one would hardly believe these two to be real pirates at all. Not to mention that Hawkeyes was always the most faithful of crew members on The Bloody Rose. And Bates had suspected that Hawkeyes had some ... feelings for Bates. In Basil's opinion, Hawkeyes sounded more like a gentlebat of society than a pirate.

"If Hawkeyes was so faithful to you, why did you have him executed?" Basil remembered asking Bates, scratching his head.

"Blade lied to me," was Bates's answer. "He told me that Hawkeyes was turning my new pupil against me by helping him escape."

Aha! So it was Blade who was responsible for the fall of The Nightwing Pirates. Basil remembered Bates telling him that she was beginning to get more suspicious of Blade's motive with each passing year. Blade was a black-furred, slit-faced bat, which was part of the reason he earned his code name. The other reason for Blade's name was because he had a skilled hand with a sword which never left his side. Bates never trusted Blade as far as she could keep a wing's length from him. It was Rose Nightwing, the vile-hearted pirate who had trained her, who told Bates that Blade was a good second-in-command. But Bates didn't learn until much later that Blade was actually jealous of Fidget's popularity. He didn't like that Bates made Fidget her second-in-command and often bragged that Fidget would be the new Captain of the Nightwing Pirates when she was gone. Fidget was practically the Captain's pet, and Blade didn't like that one bit.

Basil's mind suddenly dwelled back on that night when he had first met Fidget. Yes ... He remembered it so vividly as if the incident happened just yesterday ...

As the fog lifted from the docks, a small, seemingly demure boy bat knelt there with both his wings crossed in front of him, nude from the waist up. An orange bandana was wrapped around the boys head, a small black chain with a ruby pendant shaped like bat-wings hung on his neck. Although the bat's age was uncertain, Basil assumed the boy was at least fourteen and reaching puberty. If it weren't for the slight turn of his head, Basil would've concluded that the bar was a statue. But what was most mysterious about this boy, aside the fact that Basil had never seen him before, was that his crossed wings forming a letter "X" in front of him made him look very effeminate. It was a common trait Basil had noticed from Captain Lillian Bates and her whole band of Nightwing Pirates. The whole crew he knew to be somewhat androgynous and often dressed in ways that one couldn't tell their gender just by looking at them. But this creature? This one seemed ... different from the rest. And ... Basil noticed something else. Although it was somewhat dark, the mouse detective could see scars across the young boy's chest. The boy was very skinny, practically starving. Either he was once a homeless child from an abusive relationship or just plain careless with his own body, Basil assumed. Though Basil was generally a very serious and disliked hooligan children, he couldn't help but feel a bit of empathy for this poor creature.

"You there, young chap!" Basil called. The boy bat still remained motionless with the exception of a slight turn of the head. "Are you ... in some kind of pain?"

The bat did not respond but slowly rose to his bare feet and stood straight. Even his mannerism of lifting himself to a standstill position looked effeminate. Was this boy a mute, Basil wondered?

"Why won't you answer, young chap?" Basil asked the boy. "Is your mother close by?"

"So ... you're da one called Basil of Baker Street?" the boy uttered in a low voice with an undertone of warning. Even his voice sounded effeminate, like a young boy soprano in a choir. "It's such a pleasure to finally meet you."

The mouse detective shook his head in disbelief. "You ... know my name!?"

"Everyone knows your name," the boy replied. "Such a nice sounding name. I want to have it!"

Suddenly, the young boy opened his eyes, revealing two yellow glowing slits. Before Basil could say anything more, the boy lunged forward and punched Basil in the stomach.

"Guuugh!" the mouse detective gasped as he fell backwards on the wooden planks of the dock, clutching his stomach with both hands. Before Basil could recover from the pain, the young pirate bat leapt onto the mouse's chest and pinned both his arms down with incredible force. Basil was stunned. He didn't anticipate a boy bat of that size to have unreal amounts of strength.

"For someone who's da greatest mouse detective," the boy bat spoke, a childlike giggle escaping his throat, "you're incredibly stupid to trespass here on Captain Bates's land! She is our queen, you should swear allegiance and bow to her!"

"Your ... queen, you say!?" Basil uttered as he struggled to free himself from the boy bat's grasp. "Ludicrous! The only rightful queen here in mousedom that I serve is Queen Mousetoria herself!"

The young pirate bat cocked his head back and laughed. "Dat pompous bitch!?" the boy retorted as he squeezed Basil's arms, causing the detective to seethe through his teeth in pain. "Da same one who mocks and ridicules our kind every day, banishes us to transportation, and leaves us to starve!?"

Basil's eyes narrowed in anger. "How dare you speak that way about our queen!"

"Your queen, not mine," the boy bat giggled, this time his cutesy giggle turning into maniacal laughter. "Dhere is only one queen here, and dat's Captain Lillian Bates!" The boy bat's webbed hands slid from Basil's forearms and onto the mouse neck in a choke hold. "Swear allegiance to her ... or die!"

Before Basil would ever allow panic to take hold of his mind, he punched the boy in his right eye, causing him to recoil in pain. The boy bat covered his injured eye with both hands, while his better eye caught sight of the mouse detective heading toward him in his direction. With quick reflex, the bat jumped out of the way and flapped his wings in the air as he watched the stupid mouse detective crash against a pole (which greatly amused the boy). "You t'ink a punch would faze me dat easily!?" the young pirate mocked. "I'm a warrior of da skies! You cannot catch what you cannot reach!"

The young pirate bat flew away, leaving Basil to fume in defeat. The boy only stopped for a moment as he clutched himself against the pole and withdrew a bag of shillings from his pocket. "I just want to t'ank you for da shillings, Basil of Baker Street! Da queen of da Bloody Rose greatly appreciates your generosity!"

Replacing the shilling bag in his pocket, the pirate bat took to flight again. Only his maniacal laughter echoed in the night.

Damn that little hooligan! Basil fumed as he puffed on his pipe angrily. He figured the bat must've grabbed the bag of shillings from his pocket while he was writhing in agony over his stomach. Then the mouse's anger faded just as soon as it had risen. Something Basil couldn't get over in his head was his first encounter with Fidget. When he had met the boy for the first time, he had a high-pitched, soprano voice, as if he were a choir boy. It was a stark difference compared to the bat he is now. Now the boy's voice was hoarse, raspy, and sinister. Basil assumed it must've been from all the cigars Fidget smoked. Upon one of the mouse detective's ventures in The Rat Trap, he often caught sight of Fidget playing card games with the rest of the Nightwing crew. Basil must've caught sight of Fidget during one of his moments of weaknesses, because he would see the bat distance himself from the crew nervously to go outdoors for some fresh air and light up a cigar. He must've lost the card game, Basil assumed. It wasn't surprising that villains would go out of their way to humiliate the loser of a card game if he didn't pay up. Captain Bates herself once told him that Fidget wasn't as quick-witted as the other crew when playing. And as Captain Bates herself feared, the boy was becoming a bit promiscuous ... Ironically, the boy bat still respected Captain Bates's boundaries and never tried anything on her. But this promiscuity wasn't just the result of Fidget reaching puberty. He was often challenged by Blade and the others, nearly pushing him outside his comfort zone more than he would've liked.

"Blade just wanted to make the boy's life miserable," Captain Bates told Basil. "He practically tortured the boy. Fidget seemed like the boy who just wanted a friend ... and neither I nor anyone else allowed him that. That is why Hawkeyes and Fidget were very close. If only I hadn't been so blind by Blade baring false witness, I wouldn't have had Vulture execute Hawkeyes. I believe the loss of his only friend drove Fidget to madness."

"Friends or no friends, that bat is a maniacal little monster!" Basil shouted to himself in a defiant manner. "It was downright foolish of Captain Bates to take him under her wing. He would've been better off in an orphanage."

Nevertheless, Basil continued to read Bates's journal. He was just curious to learn more about this so-called friendship between Fidget and Hawkeyes.