A/N: I want to thank everyone for being such good supporters, already there are four reviews! I will be using more pirate vocabulary, and I'll do my best to explain in the story when I mention each one. In this chapter I use 'shanty', 'rigger', and 'boatswain'. I hope this doesn't confuse anyone. Again, thank you so much! Reviews really help me push through each chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own the shanty "Heave Away", and neither do I own Kingdom Hearts. Or Final Fantasy characters.

Chapter Two: Captives

Roxas and his friends were shoved onto the ship, the greedy pirates shoving passed them to loot the defeated schrooner. The chaos in front of the prince made him think of vultures tearing apart a corpse, picking off anything of value and leaving the bones to rot. He choked in disgust before he was roughly thrown forward by the pirate thug he'd come to know on a personal I-fucking-hate-your-guts basis. Picking himself back up before he could be trampled on, Roxas turned to throw a loathing glare at the fearsome pirate captain.

Axel smirked, "Welcome aboard the Calypso's Tear, boy. Here there are no rules but my own, and if you try to escape...you'll see why I'm the sixth most wanted criminal in these waters."

Roxas hid the shivers that ran up his spine at the deep, huskily voiced threat and tried to contain his panicked heart. He would not break, not for this man...he had people to protect and a nation waiting back home.

"Sir! This was found below the schooner's decks." A pirate came towards Axel, stopping in front of him to procure a sword of shining steel and silver engravings. Axel's eyes gleamed as he took the sword by its golden handle, and Roxas could feel a little part of him dying. That was his sword! He had the right to that sword from birth! How dare that grungy pirate place his muggy hands on it!

"Well, well." Axel gave the sword a test-twirl. His eye brows raised in surprise as he felt the sword's perfect balance. "Seems there was a noble aboard that ship. Whoever he was, he's dead now."

Roxas cringed at the captain's words, keeping his eyes on the sword as Axel switched it with his own...replacing the now outperformed pirate cutlass.

Hearing his best friend Sora yelp, Roxas turned to see the small brunet being knocked from his feet, his head falling to hit the metal pulleys at the base of the main mast. The girls tried to help, but Kairi's upper left arm was grabbed by a behemoth of a man, and a screaming Namine was being restrained by her waist. Roxas failed to spot Hayner in the rolling chaos of moving pirates, and as he ran to check on Sora he saw a trail of blood seep down from a cut in the boy's head.

The blond reined in his emotions as he knelt down next to Sora. The brunet had lost consciousness, but as Roxas felt the wrist for a pulse he breathed a small sigh of relief. Twelve seconds and already one of his charges was hurt. Cursing quietly, Roxas bent to wrap an arm around his friend's shoulders and the other arm under the bend of his knees. He ignored the wolf whistles thrown his way as he made to stand and carry his friend wherever they'd be thrown next. If only Cloud was here. His older brother would know what to do and how to escape...he was always better at these things. Even his twin, Ventus, had been on routine missions gone awry before. Roxas was in the dark ...fumbling around blind with only his hands telling him if he was about to run into something.

Behind him an explosion of fire and black smoke shot out to the sky, blowing the defeated ship apart, shrapnel flying everywhere. Roxas turned sharply, his blue eyes wide and his breath caught in his chest. He watched the destruction as the ship sank, his terror drowned out by the sound of cheering pirates.

"Get them in the holding cells." Axel shouted to his men. He turned to Roxas and his gaze was cold with malice; the smile creasing his lips lighting a spark of hate within the blond once more. "I want them working on the repairs in the morning."

The young prince was grabbed by three sets of hands, and before he had time to think the group of captives were tugged and thrown down the shaft leading below decks.

Roxas made sure to not jostle his injured friend, though that in itself was a difficult task. Rounding several wooden beams and pillars, he was pushed none-too-gently into one of a number of iron cells. They all got individual cages, except for Roxas since he had to carry Sora. He was glad that the pirates didn't try to separate them. Sora needed that injury tended to.

He and his friends stayed silent until the laughing thugs headed back to the decks. Once they were out of hearing range, Roxas waited two minutes before checking on the others.

"Kairi, Namine, are you okay?" He called out quietly.

Something shifted in his vision to his right, and across from his cell he saw Kairi's gentle blue eyes and silky maroon hair. "I'm- I'm fine...just shaken, I guess."

He heard a sound of shuffling to his left and in between the iron bars he glimpsed Namine's platinum blond hair. Her soft voice murmured the same, and then she looked around. "...Where's Hayner?"

A cold chill tickled down the back of Roxas' neck as he saw that Hayner wasn't there. Did he get trampled underneath the horde of running pirates? Had he tripped and fallen overboard? Had he been able to slip away?

Roxas held on tight to that last thought, hoping his friend was well and alive.

The young teenager hid behind the many barrels of stollen goods, his face scrunching up at the heavy smell of wine and ale. He was lucky Roxas drove the pirates' attention away from him, giving him the chance to back slowly away unnoticed.

He took out a small knife he had tucked away in the sleeve of his boots, and thought of what he could do with it. Hiding in barrels was always a good start, but the knife was too small to cut out a hole in a barrel if red wine, and the barrel would take too long to empty out unless he tipped the contents over the edge, making the knife useless. Even then he would risk making too much noise and being seen. Unless...

Hayner remembered two nights ago when the English sailors of their ship went down in the dining room to drink, and from all the drinking games and contest they had emptied two and a half barrels. The two empty barrels most likely were left behind, but he imagined that the pirates would not leave half a barrel of red wine behind. If he could find that half, he could use his knife to prop the top open and slide in.

Plan formulated, Hayner began looking for the right barrel. He tapped the sides, all of them pretty much sounding solid. He was starting to dispair at never finding it amongst forty or more wooden barrels, until his tapping efforts were rewarded by the sound of a half-hollow barrel. Grinning, Hayner looked right and left, as well as up for anyone who could spot him.

Across on the other side of the ship, two large thugs were carrying crates of stolen salt and sugar down below deck. One had black dreadlocks and lightning shaped eyebrows. The other had a chin the size and shape of a brick, giving his narrow eyes a scary appearance below the short ginger-blond hair. Continuing his perusal of the crew, Hayner looked over to the left, where a young silver-haired boy with sea-green eyes was working on taking the hull repairs down to where they'd be needed.

Looking up, Hayner's jaw dropped at the incredulous sight of a pirate up in the rigging swinging from rope to rope and crossing wooden beams like he lived up there. The weird pirate had an even stranger hair style with blond frays that stood up like a horse's mane down the center of his scalp. /What?/

Hayner turned his head to the side in a strange mixture of confusion and interest as the pirate started singing up a shanty, starting a working song as he tied snapped ropes back together and unfurled the sails. In between lines of the song, the other pirates below him working on the rigging and pulleys responded in time.

"Come get your duds in order
For we're going to leave tomorrow

Heave away, me jollies, heave away

Come get your duds in order
For we're going to cross the water

Heave away me jolly boys, we're all bound away

Sometimes we're bound for Liverpool
Sometimes we're bound for Spain

Heave away me jollies, heave away

But now we're bound for San Juan island
To watch the girls a-daaancing

Heave away me jolly boys, we're all bound away"

Hayner felt himself thumbing his harmonica, and he mentally slapped himself for being distracted by music.
His mom had been the court musician, and his father ... well he worked at the smithy, but that's not the point. He liked music.

Shaking his head to focus, he heard voices coming closer. He slid down further to the base of the barrel and held his breath.

"I want us to port in San Juan in two days. After selling the loot, we go to Cid's for an upgrade to the ship's ram and hull armor."

Hayner cursed his luck at hearing the voice of that red-haired freak show. If he was caught...he couldn't imagine the things that would happen to him. Unlike Prince Roxas, Hayner had heard all the rumors about the Fire of the Sea. He used to be a fan actually, three months back, finding the young pirate kicking ass something to look up to.

Boy had he been wrong.

Hayner perked his ears as the conversation between the captain continued, and an unfamiliar voice spoke up.

"That's 72,500 reales, captain. Do we have enough from our last three raids to cover that? This ship we took down only had trading goods, not enough for such a spend. Unless you really plan to sell the captives on a less conspicuous island on the way to San Juan." Hayner shivered at the possibility of him and the others becoming slaves. He was itching to see who the voice belonged to, but he kept his head down and remembered to breathe narrowly.

"We have enough if we steal from the local treasury of San Juan, undetected in the night." Hayner swore he could hear the mischievous smile accompanying those words.

"Captain, San Juan is a big settlement. A city, not a village. If you get caught, it'll be on all our heads."

"Did I say I would be going? ...No, Saïx, I plan to use the captives for that job."

Hayner's steady breathing was interrupted as he nearly coughed on the air stuck in his throat. What? Axel wanted them to rob a treasury? Was he insane?

"You can't let them off the ship. They'd run the first chance they get. How do you suppose to get them to steal for you?"

Hayner chilled at the sound of the captain's laugh. "They'll cooperate. One boy fell during the skirmish earlier, so that leaves two able-bodied youngsters and two ladies. I keep the girls and the wounded boy hostage and let the two boys go a-ground. I'll leave Riku and Vincent with them for insurance, just so I have an eye on them if they do try to run. They will have to steal for me and return because they can't stand leaving without the girls. It's plain and simple."

Saïx paused for a while before starting up again. "What will you do with the hostages if I'm right, and they make a run for it?"

"Nothing." Axel said bluntly. "Probably use them as cooks or something. Jewels they may be in slave market standings, but you know I only use that threat to keep prisoners in line."

Saïx grunted. "You're soft on young ones. If it were middle-age swine you'd wouldn't've hesitated to slit their throats."

Axel hummed in response, "Don't shoot me for having a heart, Saïx. I care about my men, my money, and myself foremost."

Hayner stayed silent until the voices moved on, completely forgetting about the barrel. He had to tell Roxas, but sneaking in to the cells was not going to work. Hammering his head for answers, he fisted his hair in wake of his nervousness.

He and Roxas were gonna become thieves in three days if he couldn't come up with something, fast.

Demyx finished the last chorus to "Heave Away", a simple song that all pirates and regular sailor knew. Sitting up in a nest of tight ropes, Demyx watched the sun slowly approach the horizon. Glancing down, he saw the silver-haired boatswain trying to move a rather large plank of wood for the repairs that would start in the morn.

Demyx smiled and watched as the usually 'tough guy that can handle anything' cursed and kicked the stubbornly heavy wood. Yes, he enjoyed seeing the upstart pirate stumble over himself, and he didn't really want to lift a finger to help. However, the silver-haired lad was unfortunately his friend, so he had to do /something/...even if it was just teasing him in his face.

Grabbing onto a rope he knew would take him further towards his destination, he raised his foot lazily to kick the pulley just right. The rope was released, pulling him up from his sitting position and swung him over to the next mast. Letting go once he reached the wooden brace that held the sail, Demyx grabbed the next rope and swung around the mast, letting go to drop on all fours right next to the person he wanted to see.

"Demyx," The silver-head said, used to his friend's method of travel. His green-blue eyes glared a warning. "Don't you start."

"Riku, you wound me with your accusations!" Demyx played victim, smiling despite himself. "I only came to help a poor friend in need, from being teased mercilessly for not being able to lift half a ton."

"Gull-shit." Riku looked at the cheerful pirate, his arms crossing over his chest. "You just wanted the teasing all to yourself."

"Yes, I did."

Riku shook his head. "Why do I even bother?"

Demyx looked over at the two thugs returning from below deck to grab another bunch of crates and boxes. He whistled and waved them over with his hand.

"Hey Xaldin, Lexaous, come on over here!"

The two grunts put the crates down and came over. Demyx grinned and Riku told them where the last...and heaviest...wooden repair plank needed to go below decks. The two nodded and picked it up with both of their strengths, and carried it below.

Riku muttered to Demyx, "I've been charged with watching the brats tomorrow throughout the repairs."

"You're the boatswain, Riku." Demyx smiled, "Managing the ship's maintenance is your duty. Babysitting is just a bonus."

Demyx dodged easily and laughed as Riku made a swipe at him. Narrowly avoiding a punch in the nose, Demyx smirked and ran up the mast three steps, grabbing ahold of the lowest and strongest ropes. Walking over it like an acrobat, the pirate laughed as Riku glared daggers and shouted expletives only a sailor could devise.

"Get your skinny ass down here or I swear I'll shove you in a wine barrel and throw you in the back with the powder ammunition! Neptune's Moby Dick, you're annoying."

"You won't do that to your only friend now, would you?" Demyx leaded forward, throwing his arms back for balance.

Riku ignored the question and lost interest in the pirate's jests. He muttered to himself the reason for his frustration. "Why did the captain have to let prisoners out at all? Then they will mess with my ship..."

"It's not your ship, Riku. It's Axel's."

"Who does all the maintenance?" Riku countered calmly, placing a hand over a chipped wooden pillar in the wall to the navigation deck. "Who makes sure she carries enough food for everyone? Who fixes her up after rough bouts against the navy?"

Demyx nodded to himself, seeing the boatswain's point. "You do."

"Now Axel wants five squirts with no existing experience in carpentry to fix the hole his ship's hull. This will only lead in disaster." Riku lowered his hand from over the grove in the wood, gesturing to Demyx with the other. "Who in their right minds would hand a hammer over to a prisoner, let them outside the cells, hands untied and say 'hey, fix my ship' ? Those five could forget about working, because Axel's handing them the perfect tools for escape!"

Demyx jumped down and walked over. "But you'll be watching them. Axel's appointed you, Riku. He trusts you to keep them in line and prevent that from happening. You understand how huge that is?"

Riku stopped and sighed. He chuckled after a brief silence, "Since when did you store up on old-man wisdom?"

Demyx smirked. "Comes with the charm. It was a package-deal of inheritance."

Riku shoved him with an elbow, and Demyx laughed.

"Fine. But you can bet I will not let those captives out of my sight."