It was a cool clear night, stars sparkling overheard as the night sky overtook the afternoon sun. The Sirius was floating in the water just off shore, the sounds of jovial laughter coming from up top on the deck. But Kris wasn't focused on that. Her attention was undividedly on her task at hand. After some careful planning between her and the rest of the crew, they had decided to pull a similar attack on them, that they had done on the Sirius not but a few days earlier. A fair treatment Kris thought.

They had all agreed to sneak onto the Sirius in any way they could find. Wanting the element of surprise for the other crew members. Kris and the others had managed to persuade the four men they had taken out to tell them how many men were on the Sirius keeping guard of the two captains. The four of them had been quite stubborn in wanting to keep their silence, but Fuzzy had managed to get them to talk. Kris had exited the room for the altercation, but from what she'd heard, it was a pretty funny encounter. Hearing one man scream at the top of his lungs for mercy. Fuzzy wouldn't say what she'd done to get them to talk later, but from the smile on her face, Kris had a sneaking suspicion that it was something similar to what she had done once before herself. From what Fuzzy had heard, there weren't too terribly many men on the ship guarding their captains, but they were apparently well-armed.

Her and Nathan's job was to immediately begin searching for Morgan and Alan, and Kris suspected that they were being held in Morgan's quarters again. They were climbing up the back portion of the ship, while everyone else was coming up the sides. Their task was much more difficult seeing as the ship was much more of a steeper climb up the backside. But Kris was determined to liberate the Sirius once and for all from these slave traders, and Nathan had been determined to be the one to go with her.

One hand in front of the other, one step at a time. Climbing up the side of the ship carefully, listening to the waves crashing into the ship below her. One wrong move and she'd plunge into the ocean below, and possibly alert the men on the deck of their presence. She took a deep breath in and inched herself further up, eyeing the next step she was going to take. She quickly glanced over to her right, seeing Nathan climbing alongside her. He seemed to sense her looking at him, and stopped, giving her a gentle smile and silently nodding at her in encouragement.

They were almost there, Kris could see the window just up above her. Slightly open to let the breeze in, just as Morgan liked it. She silently thanked her lucky stars that they had left that window open once again, and reached for the handle, slowly lifting the handle up to further open it for their entry. Nathan nodded at her, and she crawled in through the small opening first. The room was quite, and Kris quickly reached for her weapons, ready for a fight.

Two figures hovered in the corner, tied down to chairs with sacks covering their heads, and she knew that they were in the right place. Kris looked outside the window and signaled to Nathan that they were in there, and went over to quickly untie them, hearing a fight beginning to break out on the deck. It would be only a matter of minutes before the other crew would come in to get Morgan and Alan, so they had to act swiftly.

She reached for the sack and lifted it, seeing Morgan's slightly dazed expression looking up at her. "Kris?!"

"Good to see you too Captain." She whispered, reaching down to quickly work on the ropes binding his wrists. Nathan's head appeared in the window, and he crawled in, signaling to her to hurry what she was doing.

"Boy am I glad to see you two!" Morgan said, smiling brightly.

"Is that my pearl I hear?! She came for me?!" Alan exclaimed excitedly next to him, the sack on his head turning from side to side as he blindly looked for her.

Nathan stopped his motions and narrowed his eyes. "On second thought, can we leave Alan here?"

Kris couldn't help but smile, releasing Morgan from his chair and moving to Alan's restraints. "Tempting thought, but no we have to take him too."

"See? My pearl wouldn't leave me!" Alan said proudly, jutting out his tongue at Nathan as he crawled in through the window into the room.

"I will if you keep talking like that." Kris stated, tossing his restraints away and going to stand by the door warily, listening to the outside.

Morgan turned to Nathan. "So what's the plan?"

"The rest of the crew is outside dealing with the rest of the traders. All we have to do is to wait for their signal outside and I'm going to cut the lines keeping us anchored close to shore, and we're off." Nathan answered, giving Alan a warning glare as he went and stood behind Kris.

Morgan chuckled. "Sounds like you guys have everything taken care of quite nicely."

"Well, thanks to the Rika crew. We wouldn't have been able to do this as quickly or efficiently if we didn't have them with us as well." Kris said, hearing the signaling whistle just outside.

"Now Nate!" She shouted, and Nathan ran to the window, his knife in hand. He dangled himself out the window and gently lowered himself enough to reach the ropes, anchoring himself with his feet against the window edges. The battle continued on outside, and as much as Kris wanted to join her friends outside, she knew she needed to stay where she was. To make sure Morgan and Alan stayed safe until everyone signaled it was safe.

Shots fired on the deck, and Morgan pulled his weapon out. "Why aren't we going outside to fight?!"

"Because, Captain, we have to keep you and Alan safe until we've reclaimed the Sirius!" Nathan shouted with a strained voice from just outside.

"Well that's stupid! We're no women!" Alan said with agitation in his voice, then quickly looked at Kris, "No offense."

Kris narrowed her eyes. "None taken. But that's not the point. They're heavily armed, and the only way we could pull this off was to surprise them. We're not taking any chances with you two, so just stay here with us until we hear the signal. Got it?"

Alan seemed to pout at the statement, but Morgan nodded and patted Kris on the back. "Thank you."

"Done!" Nathan shouted, pulling himself back into the room slowly, and Kris cracked the door open, letting out the next signal in their plan. She heard Russell's answering calls and heard as the crew began throwing the traders into the waters below. They had decided earlier that day that once they had dealt with the traders properly, they would toss them into the ocean to make sure that they couldn't return back on board to try to take the Sirius again. These traders had been extremely persistent before, and they wanted to make sure that they wouldn't be able to follow them.

After a few moments of waiting, Kris heard the final signal and turned, smiling at the three men behind her. "We're free."

Alan and Morgan let out a cheer, high-fiving one another with their victory. The crew cheered just outside the door, retaking the Sirius once and for all. The four of them exited the room and began cheering with the rest of the crew, throwing arms around one another in pure delight. Nathan walked over to Kris and scooped her up, twirling her around in his arms in celebration. Being in his arms once again felt like heaven, felt like home. A place she always wanted to be, and she was happier than she could've ever expected to be. When he finally lowered her to the ground, he seared her lips in a fierce kiss, one that left fire in her soul.

"We did it." He whispered to her, the rest of the crew's shouting and cheers almost drowning him out.

Kris leaned into Nathan, sighing. "It's finally over with."

He smiled and gently kissed the top of her head. "Yeah, and now we can start our lives."