Maddie seemed to be quite a death magnet as of late. I mean, seriously this is like what, the second time? Or the third? If she got out of this alive, we were going to have a serious talk about attracting death from nearly everyone she meets because if this keeps up, I'll have grey hairs at twenty..

The blonde one, Francis's sister, was the archery expert here. That much was perfectly clear. With a bow, I was pretty damn good but I can't hit rapidly moving targets directly in the jugular at 40 paces while pirates all around me are trying to cleave my head in two. Or maybe I can. I don't know, I haven't tried it yet.

She nearly shot me in the eye, the fucking eye, while I was behind this one sailor, I was trying to keep his blows off of me and anyone else near enough to get caught in this and the only reason I didn't was because my body somehow knew what she was doing before she did it and I sidestepped literally a fraction of a second before it got lodged in my iris. As it were, the thing scraped against my cheek, leaving a shallow cut that stung like a bitch.

So I'm dodging arrows, shooting a few myself whenever I pick a bow, dodging fists and swords and just about everything that comes my way with the exception of a rare few and I have come to a realization that my reflexes are really, really, good. Weirdly so. Add that to the fact that I've never held a gun before yet I'm a perfect shot, I have the fighting skills of someone whose trained their whole life and kicked ass all the way there, and that a very small fraction or so of the pirates I'm facing have even laid a finger on me throughout the duration of this fight and I get this: There is something up with me. I'm way too good at this stuff, with way, way, way too little experience or training. There's got to be something up. But I don't have time to figure out what right now.

I finish my guy and turned around just in time to see the blonde guy in Kirkland's...our, crew get shot through the shoulder by, I'm gonna guess she's Alyssandra or maybe Jeanne oh I dunno the Blonde one. The blonde, ditzy-looking one. She looks like a Princess, all dainty prettiness and snobby touch-me-not-you-peasant. She is now Princess. Princess shoots blonde-guy in the shoulder and he goes down and he hit she deck and I'm struck with this very heroic urge to help him.

So I do. The pirate that blondey was facing before Princess happened raised his sword, and Kirkland yelled out, "VASH!" So I guess that's his name. I kill him and on the ground are two rifles. I picked them both up, shoved the one engraved with Vash on the side into the hand of its owner and took the other one for myself.

In my peripheral, I saw Princess ready another bow because apparently she has nothing else better to do. I follow from her bow to where its target is and lo and behold, it's Maddie. It takes a few seconds to see why.

Francis is currently floating and clutching at his throat, like he's choking, but there's nothing there but his hands and Maddie's right behind him doing weird gesture with her palm so I put two and two together and guess that Maddie's is using her magic (which reminds me that I really gotta talk to her about that, like where did you learn to do that. At all?) to choke Francis. His sisters are all none to pleased, but at least they can recognize it when they see it. I can understand why they aren't pleased, especially now that Maddie is in Princesses sights.

You know the saying, 'my heart skipped a beat,'? I used to think it was total bullshit. I was proven wrong. My heart literally forgot to function for a second, as did the rest of my vital organs. I felt like I did a few hours ago. That is, scared out of my wits and beyond, but worse because this time Death was quite literally yards away. My first thought was to throw myself in front of her. One slight problem though, she was too far away for me to get in front of her unless Princess decided to wait 10 more seconds before killing my baby sister.

I ran anyway. Kirkland did too. We were both too late.

Princess notched the arrow and let go and it flew at Maddie. I didn't have the breath to scream, and I was too petrified to try. She didn't even see it coming at her though, she was too busy choking Francis to death. I'm not religious, at all because if there really was a God then I sincerely doubt that he'd put us in this mess without so much as a howdy-doo but I was praying to anyone who would listen to save her, or take me instead.

Neither of those things happened. The arrow stopped. One second it was soaring towards Maddie's heart, the next, it was quivering in mid-air half a foot away from Maddie's chest. Where it stopped, the space around it shimmered slightly. The closer I looked at it, the stranger it got. The space was pulsating, like ripples, like a pond and it was violet like the amethyst in her necklace.

I could have choked on the relief and gratitude I felt when I realized she was ok. I wanted to bear-hug her so hard her spine would snap. Then punch her for scaring the shit outta me like that.

Princess gaped at her, like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. I didn't blame her, I didn't get it either. Then Maddie realized that a good chunk of us were staring at her and she turned around.

She went bug-eyed when she saw the arrow. She looked at it, and the shield thing around her and then at her chest and then back to the arrow.

Kirkland materialized by my side, looking like he got his ass handed to him, and also really suprised and impressed. "She summoned a barrier without even meaning to. Damn, that's impressive."

I turn to him."What do you mean? What's impressive? What is that?!"

"It's just what I said it was. A barrier. Thats summoned itself, apparently. Curious indeed..."

It was then after a rogue sword came hurtling at my back that I realized the fight was still going on. I sidestepped again without even looking at the thing, watching as the sword flew past Kirkland and I and into a rival pirates skull. Kirkland looked at me the same way he looked at Maddie, suprised and impressed and curious and like, that look you get when you're slowly starting to realize something.

The triplets were no longer entirely focused on Maddie because when she turned around she let go of Francis. He fell to his knees coughing and wheezing and his harem of sisters crowded around him, focused completely on him.

Easy targets.

Too easy. and really unfair besides.

The Heroine doesn't get mean like that.

We both ran off into our separate fights again. The fighting began to dwindle. Elizaveta was fine, The weird asiani-guy was fine, Vash was as fine as he could be with his shoulder like that, the silver-haired woman was fine and laughing, the flamboyant blonde that has never left the serious brunette's side, they were both battered but more or less alright. All the memorable faces are pretty much alright. Some of the unlucky unnamed were scattered across both decks in various stages of injured, dying and dead. I had killed some of them. I didn't feel guilty at all when I killed them.

Now I did.

But they were still attacking. And I still killed them. I got hit in the arm with a bullet only because I would have gotten my throat slit open if I moved. It hurt. I dealt with it.

Everyone who was fine gradually became less ok.

The fighting dwindled down to Francis and Arthur. Everyone else was either too sick of it, too injured, or too dead to fight. Or they were waiting for their captains leave to retreat and regroup.

Francis was back on his feet facing off with Kirkland, man to man, sword to sword. That chokehold must have put him off his game just a little because he was barely keeping ahead of Kirkland, and I got the feeling that usually it was the other way around. Kirkland backed him up into a corner and raised his sword, but Francis ducked under his arm and hurried over into the middle of the deck, switching their positions.

They stood there, staring each other down.

Then Kirland looked around at all the injured and the corpses. He looked...ashamed, disgusted, maybe a little of both. Or something else entirely. It was kinda hard to tell. Francis was studiously avoiding looking at the deck, on either side. He kept his eyes trained on Arthur. His sisters all stood back, far enough to let him fight, but close enough to save him if need be. But who'd save them? Princess was looking a little worse for wear. Redhead was limping, and blood ran in rivulets down her cheek. The black-haired one was clutching her arm and her sword, but she looked as if she could fight until the cows came home even after all that. Now that, that pig-headed, I-do-not-give-a-fuck-about-me-but-when-shit-gets-bad-for-you-that-is-not-ok temperament about her made me like her instantly, without any reason. Under different circumstances, I'd totally befriend her.

I got the feeling that Kirkland and his brother ( and those two others who looked a lot like him, so I guess they are his brothers) weren't on the best of terms as well, but now they were mirroring Francis's sisters. Allistor was in the front, chewing on the end of a cigar, that he seemingly pulled out of his ass (I don't really want to know), looking battered but fine. The other could boast of more or less the same. They too were close enough to snatch Kirland out of harms way if needed, I commened them for it.

I realized that I wanted to find Maddie. I looked for her and found her over on the other side of the ship, away from the gangplank, near the main mast. I almost went over to her, but I didn't.

Kirkland took one last look around and dropped his sword in the deck, still staring Francis in the face, daring him to attack. The message was clear, he was done fighting. So was Francis. Francis sheathed his sword slowly, gave a bow to Kirkland that was so full of sarcasm that I could feel it from over here and left. His sisters, his crew mates, they all followed without so much as a backwards glance.

It was like the entire crew had been holding their breath and let it out the moment the last Francian pirate foot left the ship. I didn't watch him leave. I had bigger concerns like Maddie, and Vash and deep, down for some indiscernible reason, Kirkland. Maddie was in the same place, sitting against the mast.

"MADDIE!" She looks up, startled as i crash into her knocking us both to the ground.

"Ack! Amelia? Ahh, you're squeezing too tight! Let go! C'mon, enough with the hugs, let GO!" She tries pushing me off. I don't mind too much. I do remember that I have super-strength though, and I let her go.

"Are you ok?" I ask. "Are you hurt?" Because if you are I'll go chase down that boat Maddie, I swear!

"I'm better than you, Amelia. I'm fine. *Gasp* Your arm!" Oh yeah that's right. I got shot. Funny thing, I didn't notice how much it hurt until she pointed it out. It hurt's. A lot. I wince, involuntarily. "Ow."

"What happened?!"

I got shot. "I got shot."

"What! You need like, a bandage or stitches or something! Shit!"

"Quit overreacting Maddie, I'm ok." Not exactly true.

"Bullshit!" Yeah, I'm not fine. Maddie could always more or less tell when I was lying.

"Madeline is right." came a voice above my head. I crane my neck around, which introduces a few new bruises and shallow cuts that I didn't know I had. And surprise, surprise It's my favorite Pirate Captain, yaaay. (Can you hear the sarcasm?)

He's still looking at us as if he's on the verge of realizing something. His green eyes were calculating, thought why I didn't know but wanted to find out. Speaking of eyes, he was very nice ones. Sort of a warm forrest green, intelligent, serious, and What the hell am I saying?! Uh, um... Just ignore that last paragraph.

"Amelia, you're blushing."

What?! Shit! Shut up Maddie! Quit calling attention to it! "No I'm not." Please let it go... "She's right...You are blushing, love." Damn it... He called me love, he called me love! Why? No! No that's just a thing Britainicans say, they say it all the time, it's cool.. Phew...

"It would seem that someone's been hurt." He said, looking at my arm. I mean, he was too but whatever. Then out of the blue, He squats, grabs my uninjured forearm and pulls me to my feet. "Julchen is busy with the rest of the injured. I'll stitch your wound. Come with me." I wanted to protest, but Maddie opened her mouth, "If you don't get it clean and stitched then it could get infected and..." I did not want a lecture so I shut up and let him lead me away.

Keeping a grip in my forearm, he took me to the hatch. Then he pause and looked out to sea. I looked too. Francis Bonnefoy's ship was sailing away, barely a black dot on the horizon. He tugged at me. "Come on then."

We went down to his cabin, he closed the door and he set me down on the couch opposite the desk. I could hear people milling about on the ceiling and coming downstairs through the door. "Hold still." He told me. Art- Kirkland sat down beside and removed his glove. "It works best if you stay still, mind you."

"What are you t-" He waved his hand in my face and this warm, fuzzy feeling swept over me, erasing the pain but not affecting my mind. "What was that?"

He shrugged, stood and and opened a drawer. In it were a roll on bandages, a needle and thread, some topical ointment and various other stuff. He took the bandages and the needle and thread out and left the drawer open as he crossed to the candle on the far edge of the desk. He held the needle over it for a few seconds. When it got hot enough to his liking he took it off the flame, gathered the rest of the stuff and sat down again.

"A spell. You won't feel any pain for the next three hours. "

Oh really? Good. I've had stitches before and no pain for them is always a good thing. He set too work, using a small bundle of bandage to blot away the blood.

It dawned on me that I had literally just met this dude hours ago and hated his guts with a fiery passion, and now I was acting all buddy-buddy with him. I didn't trust this fuck as far as I could spit, but now we were all alone, together, and he was stitching me up. Actually, he was being very...nice. His hands were steady, he wasn't calling me wench, or looking at me like a piece of meat he couldn't wait to consume, even thought now the looks were more like 'What exactly is up with you?'. But he was a pirate! A ruthless killing machine! Why was he doing this for me? Why was I letting him?!

"May I ask you something?" He said, as he began the stitches. Since he was being so...nice, I suppose that's what I could call it, i felt inclined to agree. "Sure. What?"

"That necklace...where did you get it?"

"Oh...My, my mother gave it to me."

"and Madeline?"

"Yes, and her too."

"Do you know where your mother got it?"

"I...She left when i was really young so i don't know. I cant even remember her."

"Oh. I see. I'm sorry."

And the questions stopped. But the odd looks didn't.

"One last question, if you don't mind."

"Shoot."

"How old are you and your sister?"

YAY! I finished a chapter during benchmark week! I feel so accomplished! but thank you all for the encouraging review! I love you all sooooooooo much, but I have to think of a whole smattering of new plot twists now that Arthur is beginning to cotton on. I had someone remind me that you guys already know the business, so now i'll have to throw in a curveball...hmmm

Well! Review and read and stuff! Bye!