Chapter 11: Freed

A/N: SURPRISE

Yes, this is the surprise. Updating all of my eighteen in-progress fics at once. It was pretty crazy, but I did it, and it's here, and good day to you all! I had tons of fun doing this, so I hope you guys have tons of fun reading this!

And and and, I know you guys hate me because I didn't update, but please keep reading, because if you remember my AN, I said I'd be getting a new computer in 2014...I still haven't gotten one. I'm updating from a borrowed computer. I mean, that's no excuse, I could have worked on it earlier, but I lost the will, and before I knew it, it had been almost a whole year and I just convinced myself not to work on it and buried it in the back of my closet and stuff but now I'm working on it again! (Please don't hate me)


Silver finished looking over the last of the injuries upon Jim's face, dismissing him soon after. He did not like the feeling he was getting nowadays whenever Jim appeared at the bottom of the stairs, holding a tray of food and wearing a shy smile. He did not like feeling proud that Jim had stood up for himself, and he didn't like feeling angry at the crew for mistreating him.

The problem was, hard as Silver tried to distance himself, Jim had become more than "the slave boy", the timid kid who brought him his food. He had intended to get Jim on his side, intended to manipulate the boy into freeing him – he hadn't expected to feel this way, for Jim to feel like an actual person to him. A person with interests, likes, dislikes, an real history, a background. A life. He wasn't just another victim of Silver's vicious quest; he was different from all the others, standing out more clearly in the pirate's mind.

Silver watched the boy walking away up the creaky wooden stairs, and he scowled to himself. No, he couldn't allow himself to care for the boy. No matter what it took, he would have to begin distancing himself immediately.

And yet…what if he did convince the boy to free him? he wondered. He didn't believe it was really possible, of course, Jimbo was much too scared of the crew and the captain for that…but if he did? If he did manage it? Jim would get in terrible trouble for that…could he really do that to the boy who had been nothing but kind to him since he'd been imprisoned aboard this ship?


To Jim's intense surprise, none of the crew members sought him out and tried to make him pay for what he had said to Reggy – on the contrary, they all avoided him as best they could, not even daring to meet his eye when he went to the galley that day to eat. He lay on his hammock late into the night, turning the idea over again and again in his mind. He could still remember Silver, asking him his name, gently brushing his hair out of his eyes for him, cleaning his cuts and mending his bruises, even when he had no real need.

The thoughts filled his head, so consuming and unwavering that he felt sure that the crew must realize he had bigger things on his mind than day-to-day survival. He chewed his lip, gazing up at the hammock above his, listening to the other crew members snoring and snuffling, breathing deeply as hour after hour ticked by. If he were to do it at all, he should do it now, when everyone, even the captain, remained fast asleep. The sun should be rising soon, and they wouldn't want to do it in the light of day, would they?

Slowly, very slowly, he rose to a sitting position in his hammock. Nobody moved. Nobody registered his wakefulness. They were all asleep.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Jim crawled out of his hammock, hitting the wooden floor on all fours and gazing rather nervously around himself at the sleeping crew. Still, nobody moved. Taking a quiet breath, Jim rose unsteadily to his feet and made his quiet way over to the door, turning just as he grasped the handle to observe the crew once more. They lay, still snoozing, completely unaware that the slave boy was leaving their quarters. And they wouldn't be very bothered by it, either, Jim shrugged to himself as he opened the door, closing his eyes in gratitude when it didn't creak.

He made his slow way up to the deck, instantly going down another flight of wooden steps leading to the dungeons and prison cells, where mold and rust grew in considerable quantity. He looked around at the dank darkness of the miserable place, and he felt as if he were really seeing things for the first time since arriving on this ship. It felt rather like waking from a very long sleep, finally seeing things with his wakeful eyes, not the ones he had worn in his dreams. He walked a bit farther on, grabbing the keys hanging from their rusty hook and remembering to whisper more thankfulness that they were not located in the captain's quarters. Jim finally found the very last cell, placed at the very end of the row, the dirtiest and darkest there was. He unlocked the door easily and stepped inside, letting it swing shut behind him.

The cyborg prisoner stared coldly up at him, watching as he fidgeted with the keys.

"Hi," Jim greeted quietly, feeling again as though he had just woken from sleep, and that he was meeting Silver for the first time. He knelt down next to him and began prying the keys away from their neighbors, so each one stood separate and quivering, gleaming gold or silver in the dim moonlight.

"What are you doing down here?" Silver did not sound as welcoming as before, but this wasn't enough to deter Jim; he merely tried the first key, and then moved onto the next when the first one didn't work.

"I'm getting you out of here," he replied shortly. He found he couldn't meet the prisoner's eye when he spoke, deciding instead to simply examine the ring of keys as he tried the third and fourth one. The fourth one turned out to be the correct one for the shackles, and the chains fell away from the prisoner's wrists, but Silver still did not move.

"What are you waiting for?" Jim demanded, rising to his feet and grabbing hold of Silver's hand, trying to tug him up. Of course, being of little strength, he didn't succeed. "We need to get out, now! Hurry!"

But Silver only stared at him for a long moment before sighing, shaking his head and turning away. "Lad," he whispered, "I c—I'm staying here."

Jim scowled at him. "No, you're not. I'm getting you out, you can't tell me you want to stay here? It's an awful place."

"You know what the captain's like— Silver began, but Jim overrode him.

"Exactly. Why on earth would you want to stay here with him?"

"He'll kill you," Silver continued firmly. "Or he'll at least make you wish you were dead, either way, you'll get punished horribly if you let me go. You can't do that."

"Yeah, ordinarily, I'd get punished if I set a prisoner aboard this ship free, but it's not only you who I'm letting go."

"Jimbo, I can't…this is—

"I'm going with you."