BatteriezNotIncluded here, just want to say thank you for being patient in waiting for this chapter, my muse decided to take some time off :-(

As usual, everything belongs to Disney (except the OC's)

Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Seven Years Ago: two weeks after running away

The six pirate wannabes were sweaty, dirty, and had never felt better in their lives. The sensation of freedom ran through them with an incredible feeling. Gawain was at the wheel of The Junker, as they had jokingly started calling the floating hunk of wood they were currently sailing (or trying to at least). For Anna, through all two weeks, her smile had never wavered, even finding out there wasn't technically a toilet. For the first time in forever she was free. She wasn't the spare, or a princess, or being yelled at to sit up straight, or be ladylike. Sure she wasn't totally free of responsibilities. She had to help the boys clean, and do basic maintenance on The Junker to make sure they didn't wake up to the darn thing sinking in their sleep.

Gawain was steering the ship, sometimes taking turns with Chatterbox, whenever Gawain simply got too tired and cold to do it. Smarts was in the lower hold, looking at the new maps and getting use to all the new navigation instruments. The rest of them were simply getting used to unfurling the sails, adjusting the rigging, and finding out the different parts of a ship.

According to Gawain, the first place they needed to go was a place town called Tortuga. From Gawain's description, it was an incredibly seedy place, to put it lightly, and the kind of place that would probably give her parents a heart attack if they ever found out Anna was going there. The one thing Anna was disappointed at was that they weren't flying their flag, but Gawain had (wisely) pointed out that flying a pirate flag while still in Arendelle waters with a runaway Princess on board probably wasn't the best idea.

One of these days, Anna and Kaleb were sparring. They were pretty evenly matched, although while Anna excelled in combining her attacks in quick finesse, Kaleb swung his sword savagely, focusing on brute strength. Even though the swords were in no way dulled, both of them were smiling as they attacked and parried the other.

"Come on, Kaleb," Anna taunted rolling behind the big teenager, "at least try to fight."

Kaleb grinned back as he swung his sword in straight arc, "at least I don't fight like a girl!"

"Oh, you're going to pay for that one!" Anna laughed, glaring playfully at the bigger boy, as she dodged his sword.

Suddenly Gawain let out a cry, and the two stopped fighting and ran over to him, stopping when they saw him face palming repeatedly.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," he cursed angrily, glaring furiously.

"Who's stupid?" Anna asked cautiously.

"Me," he groaned and looked at Anna apologetically, "Kaleb, mind getting the others out here? I just remembered something important we need to do before we get to port."

Kaleb turned and left, leaving Gawain, and a very confused Anna.

"So," Anna began slowly, "what's going on?"

"I'm really sorry Anna," began Gawain, looking at her apologetically, "but, you're going to need a disguise."

Anna blinked, "what? Why?"

"Girls are considered bad luck on ships, I know: it's stupid," he told her before she could object, "but when we eventually get a full crew, no one will want to join us if there's a woman on board," he paused and then winked slyly at her, "unless they don't know there's a woman on board."

Anna pouted, "Do I have to?" she whined, but nodded.

Gawain grinned, "Don't worry, you shouldn't have to cut your hair, just keep it in the braided pigtails, and hid those in a hat or hood. The only other thing you need to worry about now is your voice. "

"And her name," added Chatterbox, coming up to them, followed by Kaleb and the others.

"Oh, right," said Gawain sheepishly, "any ideas?"

"Andrew." Said Pike, as Smoke said, "Anders."

"Soooo, Andrews?" asked Anna, looking confused.

They looked among one another and slowly nodded, Anna looked at Gawain but he simply shrugged.

"It's your name." he said simply, and slowly, Anna nodded.

"I like it," she said after a moment, "Andrews it is."

"Well get you some better clothes when we get to Tortuga," Gawain spoke, looking at each of them, "speaking of names, we should all have aliases, except for you three." He gestured to Pike, Smoke and Chatterbox.

"How about Roberts," suggested Anna, "he was a really feared pirate in one of the books I've read?"

"Works for me," Said Gawain, grinning again, "what about you Kaleb?"

"Kay," he grunted simply, and shrugged.

"Right then," stated Gawain/Roberts, and grinned, "I wanted to call all of you here so I we can vote on who gets to do what when we get a proper ship and a real crew."

"Well I'm already cook," Pike grinned, "and besides, your Captain, don't you get to pick out jobs?"

"Well yeah," agreed Gawain slowly, "but the crew has to approve. I would say, Smarts is navigator, Kay is the first mate, Smoke would make a good Gunner, Chatterbox would be Bosun, and Anna- sorry Andrews I would like to be quartermaster."

"Quartermaster is second in command," stated Chatterbox, "why her?"

Gawain stared at him simply, "Quartermaster is someone who has the respect of the crew, who leads the attacks on the other vessels, and has the power to veto the captain. I want my quartermaster to be someone that everyone can get along with, someone that will be respected as a person, those are the kinds of people that are good leaders, and Anna is naturally likable. She'll be perfect, she has a good head on her shoulders, and she already has you guys running around without needing to bark orders or anything, it just comes naturally with her. It would be a shame to waste that kind of talent."

Anna looked touched as the boys slowly nodded, and then each agreed to their jobs and the assigned positions of the others. Quartermaster, Anna thought excitedly, I'm a quartermaster, not a spare or a princess. I'm needed, and important. I won't mess this up, and I won't let them down!

Tortuga was just as nasty as Roberts had made it sound, if not more so. The whole town seemed to reek of rum and salt, and looked as though it had been made from leftover ship parts. Remember Anna, she thought to herself, here, you're Andrews, and Gawain is Roberts. Don't forget and don't mess this up, this is your fresh start, no more being the spare.

Roberts walked purposely to an old shabby looking building (if you could even call it a building), and walked inside. It was a bar of sorts, and Anna (no Andrews, I'm Andrews here, she chided herself) followed him to the front. He waited patiently as the barman slowly took them in.

"Waddaya want, kids?" He asked his voice grating again against Andrews' ears.

Roberts smiled slightly, "A drink, this is a bar, ain't it?"

The man grunted and turned to get their drinks. Roberts smiled and looked back at them "okay, walk around the bar and see if you hear anything interesting. Stay out of the middle, don't start any fights, and only sit at a table if you have to. Got it?" they nodded, grabbed their drinks, and split up.

The inside of the bar was dirty, but had a strange golden glow to it. The walls were covered in animal heads, which gave Anna the strange sensation of being stared at. She took a sip of her drink, and tried desperately not to choke. It's probably supposed to be rum, she thought sourly, as she passed a rather loud bunch of men sitting at a table.

"-especially with that new shipment coming in from Weselton. Poor blokes, barely in manhood and being thrown into debtors' prison because their parents couldn't cough up. Apparently it's all for 'Duke Duck' to show off his new warship."

Anna froze, and slowly turned to the men at the table, "What was that about a warship?"

The men turned to look at her, and one of them scoffed, "have ye been under a rock? Ev'ryone knows about the new Weselton ship, supposedly the crown jewel of the Duck's fleet, three masted beauty with, double cannon decks on each side. Ev'ry bilge rat from 'ere to the Southern Isles knows about it."

Andrews glowered, "been at sea for the past two weeks, just got into port actually." She tried to mimic the gruff accent that she had heard from the tavern's patrons. The men looked at her and slowly nodded. "Fair enough, word only reached us a week ago."

Okay, I need to be subtle about this, "the rumors you heard wouldn't by chance 'ave included the route the ship was takin' would it?" Okay, maybe I need to work on subtlety. She silently cursed herself as the men looked at each other with a greedy gleam in their eyes. She quietly looked around for Ga- Roberts and tried to signal him over, but he either didn't see her or was having his own problems.

"I might know, but me memory is a little… foggy. Mind sweet'n it up a bit?" said the man with a yellow teethed grin?"

"That depends," Said Andrews, trying to sound tough, "On how clear your memory is."

The man scowled, and beckoned his friends into a huddle. Meanwhile Anna reached into her pocket and felt to see how many coins she had. Suddenly she felt something sharp against her fingers, after feeling around, she realized it was a snowflake necklace; the last gift Elsa had ever given her before her isolation. One of the men grabbed her hand and yanked. She tried to extricate her fingers from the chain, but too late, the necklace came out of her pocket with her hand. The men eyed the necklace greedily.

"That's solid silver that is, and a sapphire in the middle by the looks of it," one of the men commented smiling sickly, "I'd say that would rouse our memories real good." Anna's eyes darkened, "not this," she said firmly, "I'll give you coin, but not this."

"Then we have a problem," said the man, his eyes just as dark as hers.

"An' what problem would that be, I wonder?" it was Roberts, with Kay standing behind him.

"And how is this your business, kid?" the man glowered.

"They know about a Weselton warship, that's transporting blokes to debtors' prison, but this gentlemen here won't share the route."

"I will too tell the route, for tha' silver snowflake."

"And I told you I would give you gold instead," Anna glowered. Roberts looked at the necklace and seemed to recognize it. He put a hand on Anna's shoulder and reached into his own pocket, and pulled out one of her brooches, which she had taken the night she was thrown out. "How about you tell me, for this?" Said Roberts with a smile, tossing the gold brooch from hand to hand teasingly, it's rubies flashing in the light. One of the men licked their lips, and nodded to the others, "Done." The leader held out his hand but Roberts pulled his hand back and waved a finger. The men glared but relented.

"It's going to port in Corona, to be shown off, and get supplies before heading to the Southern Isles to drop off the lads to debtors prison." Roberts tossed the brooch to the man and carefully steered Anna out of the tavern. When they were back on the beach Roberts turned to her, "why?"

Anna knew what he was asking; why did she not want to trade the necklace? The truth was Anna didn't want to part with something that served as the last reminder of a time when her family, Elsa included, loved her. The necklace reminded her of all the fun they had had; all the snowmen, the snowball fights, the hot chocolates afterwards. The necklace was a symbol of her best memories, and even if her family, Elsa included, had thrown her to the wolves, she wasn't ready to give up on them, not yet anyway. She sighed and looked and looked at Gawain, and he seemed to understand, and he motioned at The Junker.

"Next stop," He said, his voice laced with determination, "Corona."

Corona really was a beautiful kingdom, even if some of its splendor had faded, along with its joyous mood when the princess was lost. To Anna, and the boys, however it looked as beautiful as could be especially with the large three masted warship, with the name The Neptune, painted on the prow, with the Weselton flag flying high on its highest mast. It really was rather stupid of the Duke to have it sail all the way to Corona alone, but none of them were going to complain, as it would be hard enough to steal the boat while dealing with its rather large, armed crew. The Junker was just pulling into Corona waters when Anna suddenly heard Smoke curse.

"Looks like the Duck decided to come personally," he grimaced, glaring through his spyglass.

"Why do they call him that?" Anna asked curiously, and Smoke grinned, "you mean why does everyone call him 'duke duck'?" Anna nodded, and Smoke giggled, "Because they say that when he dances he looks like a cross between a duck and a chicken with its head cut off."

Anna let out a snort at that and took out a spyglass of her own and looked through it to the warship. Those men at the tavern may have been drunk, but they sure weren't exaggerating when they said that ship was amazing. Indeed, it was; with its white sails, and green and silver trim, as well as the cannons protruding from the sides and even the front of the prow, and the blue figurehead that overlooked the harbor, the ship looked like piece of art. Judging by the looks on the other's faces, she guessed that they were enamored with the ship as well.

"How the hell are we going to get past all of those guards?" asked Pike frowning. Anna was secretly wondering the same thing: the vessel was practically crawling with armed guards and crewmen, while the 'Duck' was pompously walking across the deck. After a moment, it looked like the duke had seen something not to his liking and began to yell at some poor cabin boy. His two body guards grabbed the boy by the scruff of the neck and punched him in the gut, before throwing him off to the side. Anna felt her jaw tighten at the spectacle, especially when it looked like some of the crewmen were laughing at the poor boy.

"Let's go on land, and you three follow him, meanwhile, I'm going to see if I can make some friends." Gawain ordered and the crew split up, heading for land.

Gawain couldn't help but smile as he saw the Corona Mail Company at the edge of Corona, where the docks met the inner city. Being in so central to the world map, Corona was where all mail that was to be sent and sorted, ready to be mailed across the kingdoms. The entire company was huge, and royally funded, which kept the kingdom of Corona bountiful. He slowly made it to the central office and suddenly heard the sound of a scuffle. Never able to stay out of a good fight, Roberts followed the sound, hand on his sword, when he spotted two familiar faces; the Stabbington Brothers. They appeared to be holding a boy about eight by the scruff of the neck and scaring him. Both were smirking and muttering to the boy in low tones. The boys face paled, and Roberts decided to step in.

"Threatening a little boy, that's not very sporting" Roberts said, sword in hand.

The Brothers scowled and the one in front turned and spoke impatiently, "this is none of your concern boy, leave now and we won't kill you."

"How about, you leave the boy alone permanently, and I won't kill you" Roberts smiled coldly, tapping his sword on the side of his foot.

The Brothers pulled out their own swords and charged, Roberts grinned widened and parried, one and slashed at the other hitting one across the eye, the Brother clutched his face and scowled, the other brother roared and came around again. Roberts ducked and slashed his sword, angling it to get under the Brother's sword, and he clutched his mouth. The brothers looked around saw guards coming towards them, the Brothers glared at Roberts and ran. One of the Guards looked at Roberts, gave him a thankful nod, and ran after the brothers. Gawain turned and walked into the alley where the boy was looking bewildered.

"You-you beat them," he said stupidly, then broke into a grin, "Thanks man! They've been being meanies to me forever!"

Roberts chuckled, "those kinds of people are like that. But why were they bothering you."

"They were angry that I wasn't playing the game fast enough." The boy said sadly, when Roberts looked confused, the boy pulled out a pad of paper, and showed the Pirate. "I take the numbers and symbols and make them into secret messages! It's really fun and they gave me candy for it, but they were angry that I didn't do it faster. But it's not my fault, my dad made me go to the sorting room for the weekend because he caught me out past my bedtime."

"I take it your dad is a post master?" Roberts asked, the boy slowly, the little boy grinned and nodded.

"Yeah!" the boy grinned excitedly, "he just got pro… pro…" the boy frowned deep in thought.

"Promotion?" Gawain asked and the boy grinned and nodded. Then he stopped for a moment and thrust out his hand, "I'm Rascal, at least that's what everyone calls me, and I'm a runner for the Corona Mail Company." The little boy puffed out his chest proudly.

"I'm Roberts, I'm a privateer, and I have a proposition for you; I'll pay you money for your game, and when you're older you and I can decide how much you need."

The Little boy grinned, "Sure mister," and then frowned, how will I send you the answers?" Roberts grinned and wrote a small address in the dirt, an old house that Gawain had been born in. long since abandoned, but not completely abandoned. "Send them here."

"Can I ask you a question," Roberts asked, and the boy nodded, "do you know anything about that big ship from Weselton?"

"Oh, you mean The Neptune, the one with the blue figurehead?" Roberts nodded, and the boy continued, "My dad told me that it's supposed to be the fastest ship ever built, and is supposed to be carrying people who did bad stuff. He also told me that the Duke is carrying a lot of money on the ship, so he can buy stuff when he makes port, but that he's going to leave tomorrow."

Roberts grinned, and gave Rascal a few coins, "thanks kid, I'll keep in touch. Just one more thing; what did the message the Brothers want you to tell them?"

Rascal grinned, "Oh, it said something about a convoy heading for the Southern Isles, that's supposed to have a LOT of money on it. Anyway, thanks mister!"

Roberts watched Rascal run back to the mail office, a thoughtful look on his face. He smiled softly and slowly made his way back to The Junker.

Anna was bored. 'Duke Duck' was by far the creepiest person she had ever laid eyes on. He had quickly shown his traits as a full-blown jerk, from telling his guards to beat up young kids, to monologuing his political plans to no one in particular. Personally, Anna was beginning to question the man's sanity as the day wore on. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Smarts roll his eyes at the Duke's antics.

Duck turned and walked briskly into a large building with the Corona seal on the archway above the door. Anna assumed it was some kind of political building, shame I didn't pay attention to those in my lessons, oh well Elsa would probably know… Anna froze, and shook her head violently trying to rid herself of thoughts of certain people. Kay quirked an eyebrow at her and she glared at him.

"So…" Smarts began slowly, "don't most Corona buildings have skylights?"

Kay nodded and reached into his sack and grabbed a long coil of rope. "After you, Quartermaster."

Anna huffed, tied the rope to her waist, and began to climb. Once she was at the top she carefully tied the end of the rope to a pillar and went over to the various skylights. After three empty rooms, and a bathroom (seriously, who puts a skylight in a bathroom? Thought Anna) she saw the Duck, his guards, and three other official looking men enter the room. Quickly, Anna reached into her pouch, pulled out her lock-picks, and opened the skylight.

"—as their closest partner in trade, I can honestly say that I have no idea what caused the decision," the Duck was saying, his nasally voice sounding proper, "the king and queen refuse to reveal any hints on what caused them to close the gates. The only thing I can say for certain is that the only time one is allowed inside is when doing business when a meeting is scheduled in advance, which is rather unfortunate as I would love to drop by for a pleasant visit on occasion."

Anna felt a tap on her shoulder and saw Kay and Smarts looking at her frowning, "what did we miss?" whispered Smarts, jerking his thumb at the four officials.

Anna rolled her eyes and shook her head, "nothing." She whispered back, and the three of them turned their attention back on the four officials, who were now discussing a shipment of gunpowder that had come in recently.

Anna had to admit, listening to politics from the roof, was not much better than when she had had to learn from her tutor. It was complicated, boring, she didn't understand most of it, (and judging by the looks on Kay and Smarts, they didn't either). While waiting for anything interesting she peeked over around the roof for something to occupy herself, when she suddenly spotted a very large spider near the window they were looking at. Carefully she pulled out a handkerchief and picked up the spider, and slowly brought it over toward the window, a wicked gleam in her eyes. Smarts peeked over to her, did a double take on what was in the cloth, and violently shook his head. He reached over and tried to grab the spider, but instead grabbed the kerchief, and after a brief tug of war, the spider went flying.

Kay, Smarts and Anna watched in horror, as the large spider fell in seemingly slow motion, tumbling through the air. Anna snatched the kerchief and stuffed it back in her pocket as the spider continued to fall, when in suddenly made its landing… on the nose of one of the guards. There was silence in the room, as the three-wannabe pirates looked at each other in horror, before they heard the un-manliest scream any of them had ever heard.

"GET IT OFF!" the man shrieked, suddenly hitting himself in the nose, knocking the Duke's spectacles off in the process. Immediately, he started running around the room, his two guards chased after him, the other dignitaries following closely after. After several laps around the room, with an insane amount of high-pitched squealing, the Duck ran out of the room, with the guards, and representatives close behind. The three of them looked at one another, too stunned to speak, until Anna burst out laughing. She was quickly joined by Kay and Smarts, until they had to stop due to their shortness of breath and stitches in their sides. They quickly made their way to the rendezvous with Roberts, who was waiting for them at the docks. Seeing their grins, he arched an eyebrow, and the three of them quickly explained what had happened. As the story unfolded, a small smile appeared on Roberts' face.

"Andrews," he said with a smirk, "two things; one, you're a genius, and two, I know how we're going to get that ship."

"How?" asked Kay, frowning, and Roberts grinned again before answering.

"We're going to kidnap the Duke."

Yeah yeah, I know, lots of filler, but it's important for later chapters okay. Follow, Favorite and Review please.

Peace out.