Some people say that storms are created by god. Others say they are made of scientific properties. Whatever the case it's clear that storms are powerful forces to be reckoned with. They can bring much needed rain to a place that otherwise would die without it, or they can tear the world apart and make the sky crash around you as everything you've ever loved is ripped from your grasp. Thalia has seen both sides of a storm, but Reyna has only seen the later. She fears storms, not because she doesn't know what they're capable of, but because she knows exactly what they are capable of. The problem though isn't that she is caught in a storm, its that she's found a storm in disguise. The storm has bright eyes and a warm laugh, shes every bit as energetic as a lightning strike and holds the presence of a thunderclap. The problem is Reyna has found a storm in disguise, and she can't help herself from falling in love with it.
Three months later...
"Duck!" A voice yelled as a thunder clap snapped overhead, the boat rocked sickeningly across the waves as Thalia and Reyna clung onto the boat's mast. Reyna ducked just in time to avoid getting hit by a flying piece of wood.
"I knew this was a bad idea!" she yelled above the storm as Thalia desperately finished tying the rigging as the boat narrowly avoided capsizing.
"Don't blame me! Your the ones who decided that you wanted to go after this stupid ship!" she yelled back.
"It's not just a stupid ship!" Reyna shouted back, in mock offense, "it's our new pirate ship Missy, and once we get it think of how much more room we'll have and how much more fancy it'll be and how we will finally be able to sell this old hunk of junk,"
"Hey! I like this old hunk of junk! It brings back memories," Thalia muttered and hugged the mast of the ship, as Reyna laughed.
"Memories of what? Your cousin hurling over the side? Or memories of will almost strangling us for taking Nico past his 'health zone', what about the time that we climbed up to the crow's nest and you nearly hyperventilated?" Reyna started as Thalia's face turned bright red.
"Shut up! I thought we agreed to never mention that again," she buried her face in her coat as Reyna laughed over the dizzying waves.
"Well you know what they always said in grade school, never trust a pirate!" Thalia swatted Reyna's arm, when they heard it, the laughter echoing over the roaring waves and sending chills up Thalia's spine.
"What the heck?" she yelled as Reyna almost immediately tossed her a dagger.
"That would be me dad's way of saying hello," she muttered.
"Your dad? What-" the sea burst as another Pirate ship appeared out of nowhere and rammed into their boat, the captain stood tall and he was unnaturally well groomed for a pirate, but Thalia would've pegged him for being related to Reyna somehow, even without the introduction. He had the same dark eyes, same elegant eyebrows, same soft nose, but Reyna had more of a visible jawline and held herself in a way that was opposite of the man's. Reyna's movements were controlled and tight, while the man's were lose and at ease, like he had all the time in the world. Thalia already didn't like him. Three months aboard a Pirate ship can teach you how to read people, it can also make your hair grow twice it's length and blind you at the worst possible moments. Thalia yelped as her hair whipped around into her eyes as Reyna turned to face her father, another voice breaking over the storm.
"Well I don't recall any cards about a family reunion," Hylla descended the stairs, her sword in hand and moving with a lazy elegance not unlike her fathers' like she was anticipating his moves and calculating them seconds before they actually happened. The man leaped aboard the ship, his dark eyes glistening angrily.
"As far as I recall I have no family, just two traitors that share my blood," he growled as Hylla raised her sword.
"Traitors? Says the man who tried to murder me as a child!" she snarled and he rounded on her, eyes blazing.
"if you had never been born your mother would still be alive!" he yelled and she narrowed her eyes.
"It's not my fault she understood the price of family and you never did," he launched himself at her, and she did the same, the sound of metal clashing against metal ringing through the stormy night. Both crews knew better then to get involved in a pirate captain duel, who ever won, got control over both crews and got what ever they wished from the other ship. Those were the rules every pirate knew. Even Thalia, who was the newest to all of this.
The battle was like nothing she had ever seen before, both captains moved with such grace and speed it was almost like a dance as they waved their swords through the air like sticks of light. Hylla thrusted, but was blocked, she whipped around on her feet, barely touching the ground. They seemed to fly as they fought, faster, faster, faster. No stop, no mercy, just pure battle, the rhythm of metal against metal shaking the boat and making something in Thalia's heart wake up. Then it happened, the moment when Hylla made a mistake and she was thrown across the deck like a rag doll. The captain growled in pain as she impaled her left arm into her own sword.
"A good try child, I taught you well," he moved in for the kill, "but not well enough," Thalia was suddenly aware of an empty space beside her and the words were out of her mouth before she fully registered them.
"Reyna no!" but she was too late, and Reyna was too fast. She stood in front of her father, swords pressing against each other, her eyes like two pits of darkness.
"What are you doing?!" the man growled at his daughter.
"I'm protecting my sister, like my mother did before me!" she growled and moved with the speed of a viper, something only Thalia could teach her. The man was caught off by surprise, and perhaps that's why she didn't die. Maybe she didn't die because she had the blessings of whatever powers that may be, but Thalia didn't care. What she did care about was the corpse at her feet and the heaving pirate girl standing over it, eyes blazing and blood sprayed over her clothes, her father's blood. Silence.
It was almost as if the ocean itself was holding it's breath, no one knew what to do, this was unrepresented. Who was in control? Surely a little girl who wasn't even the captain of a ship be the captain of two crews. Reyna shot a look so dark at her father's crew that it literally shrank away from her.
"Leave, now," she said deadly calm, the moon peaking through the clouds to illuminate the figure of a girl with a crazy look to her eyes and blood smeared down the front of her body and side of her face. The other crew was out of there with no time to spare, Will, the resident medic, was already looking over Hylla, while the rest of the crew crept away from the girl with the crazy look in her eyes. Thalia swallowed nervously.
"Reyna?" she asked softly, but she didn't seem to hear her, instead she just stared at the corpse of her father.
"I killed him," she whispered hoarsely, and Thalia blinked, realizing for the first time that hadn't even fazed her. What the heck had happened to that British girl three months ago?
"Yeah well... to be fair he was going to kill your sister. I think that's a pretty good reason to kill someone," Thalia muttered and Reyna turned to look up at her, she appeared to be barely holding back tears.
"I killed my own father," she whispered, looking down at the blood that had stained her coat. Thalia rushed forward and caught the girl just as her legs gave out. She gripped onto the red coat tightly.
"Well, apparently parents are jerks even out here," she muttered and Reyna just clutched onto the back of Thalia's Jacket, the British girl sighed, lifting the pirate who now was gripping onto her so tightly she was in danger of ripping though the fabric and stabbing Thalia with her finger nails. "Come on, lets get you cleaned up," she whispered to the pirate girl.
A bath and an hour later Reyna lay in her room, her eyes staring blankly at the ceiling as Thalia combed her fingers through her hair. Reyna tried not to remember the sensation of the cold metal ripping through his body, tried not to remember the satisfaction of killing a man who had almost killed the only family she had left. Tried not to remember the crushing realization she had just killed a man, a man who, at one point, had loved her.
"Hey, stop torturing yourself," Thalia muttered and she glanced over at her friend who was soaked from the waves pounding the boat all night.
"How do you do that?" she muttered softly, Thalia glanced at her, her blue eyes flashing with lightning in the dim lantern light.
"I know you, plus you get that cute look on your face where your nose pinches whenever you're thinking about something bad," she whispered softly, as if that were obvious. Reyna tried to hide the heat rising in her cheeks. Thalia sighed, "Besides I know what it's like to have to kill someone who you used to love, and used to love you too. It wont get better if you keep taking the blame,"
"Thalia, I know that you've dealt with some weird stuff, but it cant have possible been this bad," Reyna whispered. Thalia shook her head sadly.
"I guess it's story time then," she whispered softly and Thalia rose a tired eyebrow as Thalia brushed her now mid back length black hair behind her ear, fixing her with those slightly insane blue orbs.
"A long time ago I was a young french kid on the streets of England with a dad who didn't care and had no place to go, and as I was walking along I ran into a boy about a year or two older then me with blonde hair and blue eyes. His name was Luke. Me and Luke became a sort of team, together we pick pocketed our way to a small apartment with just enough room for us, a bed, a stove, and an area to store food. Then Luke started getting into the more serious criminal activities. It escalated to the point of when Luke no longer treated me like his partner, but like his slave, he didn't care anymore, and he wasn't the Luke that had saved me. I tried at first to just get away, but he'd always find me, and that's when the beatings started. Most of my scars are not from sea battles, or street fights. They're from Luke. Eventually, I snapped, and used his musket," Thalia muttered, her eyes sad and sympathetic. "I understand fully Reyna, I promise you I understand,"
"I-I," Reyna faltered, her eyes glowed with feelings she didn't recognize as the British girl turned pirate gently wrapped her arms around her pirate.
"It's okay, you don't need to say anything, I promise you that it will be okay. I won't let you turn out how I did," she muttered in a way that Reyna didn't fully understand, as she slowly drifted off in her friend's arms.