A/N: Kira: *being swishy like Sparrow* Kat fell asleep! SO, ON WITH THE SHOW! *shoots pistol into the air*

Chapter 13: Ambush

The full moon came out from behind the clouds, washing the entire bay in moonlight. The entire crew of the Archangel walked along the floor of the bay, their skeleton forms taking no abuse from the water. They all came up under the Eternal and then to the surface.

Durandal watched the mouth of the cave carefully. He saw a boat come out, as did the rest of the men. They all raised their guns, but Durandal told them to stand down, seeing at the figures in the boats were in dresses and assumed to be female. Yzak and Dearka rowed into the bay, Yzak slightly giddy.

"You know, this is just what the Greeks did to Troy," Yzak said. "Except they weren't in dresses…"

The crew started to climb up the anchor ropes, confident that now they would not be seen but Durandal's men…

Fumihiko walked over to the Captain's stateroom, where Shinn had been placed earlier for safekeeping. He knocked on the doors and called to Shinn.

"Shinn, I do believe you made a good decision today," Fumihiko said with a sigh. "But, even a good decision made for the wrong reasons can be a bag decision… Shinn? Are you listening to me? Shinn?"

"Dad, why are you talking to yourself?" Kazuki asked, coming up behind Fumihiko.

"Kazuki?" Fumihiko asked, turning to see his other son there. "But, you went out with… but then who's in here?"

Fumihiko opened the doors, only to find no one there. Turned around, only to see a battle beginning on the deck. The most horrific skeleton like creatures that Fumihiko had ever seen were battling his crew. Kazuki shouted for his father to stay inside as he drew his sword and jumped right into the fray. Fumihiko wanted to help his son, but was pushed back into the stateroom by Soushi.

Kira looked about at the treasure in the cavern. He had to admit, there was a lot of very nice things here. He even saw a gold, ruby ring. It could make a nice engagement ring…? Kira slipped it into his pocket slyly. He could spend all day in there and not get bored. Rey, on the other hand, was loosing his patients, as was Cagalli and Shinn.

"You know, Kira, I thought I had you figured out," Athrun said with a smile. "Turns out you're a hard man to predict."

"Me? I'm dishonest," Kira said with a chuckle. He began to walk up to Athrun as he said, "And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest, honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for. Because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly…" Kira looked right at Rey and said, "stupid."

With that, Kira grabbed the sword from the nearest pirate still in the room and kicked him into the water. He tossed the sword over to Rey, who caught it. Athrun pulled out his sword and began to duel with Kira. Rey managed to get the Pirate he was sparing with to cut the ropes on his hands, making it easier for Rey to fight.

"You're off the edge of the map, mate!" Athrun said as he got Kira at a short standstill. "There be monsters here!"

"I have an idea," Shinn said, motioning for Cagalli to follow him out of the cave.

Cagalli managed to row over to the Archangel without being seen. She climbed up to the empty deck and get on without a hitch. Of course, that was until She slipped on a bit of water and fell over, making a rather loud thump. It was loud enough to alert the two pirates guarding the brig.

Cagalli ran down one level, only to hear the Pirates coming up. She hid behind a couple of crates as the Pirates ran up onto the deck. Cagalli then ran down into the brig, ready to spring the rest of the crew.

"It's Cagalli!" Mu cried as she got the keys.

The battle onboard the Eternal raged on. One of the crew was brave enough to make it over to the warning bell and ring it before he was stabbed. Durandal heard the bell toll and realized that the pirates were already on the ship. He called for the men to row back to the ship, just as the Pirates started to fire the Eternal's cannons.

"You can't beat me, Kira!" Athrun said, kicking Kira to the ground.

Kira's sword spun away from him, past Athrun. Athrun just stood there, chuckling. Kira managed to stand and grabbed Athrun's sword and stabbed him with it. Athrun just looked at it and chuckled. He then took the sword out of his stomach and spun it around, stabbing Kira in the chest.

Time seemed to have stopped for a split second. Shinn saw Kira, stumbling back as his life seeped away from him. Now he was mad. He leaped down from the outcropping and grabbed Kira's sword. He ran towards Athrun, ready to chop his head off, when Kira stumbled back into the moonlight.

"Well, that's interesting," Kira said, looking at himself in a skeleton form. Athrun looked at him, puzzled. Kira grinned and rolled the coin he had taken between his fingers. "Couldn't resist, mate."

"You sneaky little!" Athrun cried, looking for his sword, only to realize that it was stuck in Kira.

"You know what else is interesting?" Kira asked, pulling the sword from his chest. "It's two on one and you have no weapon."

Athrun looked at Kira quizzically before he turned around and saw Shinn, ready to attack. Athrun rolled out of the way and grabbed a sword from a pile of weapons he landed near. The fight resumed, but now Athrun had two swords to deal with instead of just one. Athrun knew he was going to be rather outmatched. Shinn was good, no doubt about that. And he and Kira were always on par with each other. Now, with two very skilled swordsman against him, Athrun wasn't sure how long he could hold out. However, he just needed to stall long enough to figure something out…

Rey, on the other hand, was finding his opponent rather easy. The Pirate he was up against had a cornucopia of explosives with him, suggesting that he was more of a long range fighter, not hand to hand combat. So, when the Pirate tossed one of the explosives at Rey, he managed to catch it before it went off. Rey then saw that the Pirate was in his skeleton form and smirked. He stuffed the grenade into the Pirate's chest and pushed him back out of the moonlight. The Pirate realized that the bomb was stuck inside him and ran for it before he exploded himself. Rey smirked at his triumph and turned, seeing something come into the cave. He turned, about to attack, when he realized it was Cagalli.

"What's going on?" Cagalli asked, running over to Rey.

"Athrun tried to kill Kira and now he has his hands full with Kira and Shinn," Rey said, summarizing it rather sweetly. He turned to watch Athrun taking on Kira and Shinn for a moment.

"Who's side is Kira on?" Cagalli snapped.

"Ours, at the moment," Rey said, running over to the chest.

Kira managed to get Athrun backed up against a wall. Athrun chuckled and pulled out his gun, pointing it at Shinn. Kira growled and put the coin in his hands, cut his palm, and tossed the coin to Rey before pulling out his own gun and pointing it at Athrun.

"That won't do any good, Kira," Athrun said, chuckling at the gun.

"Yes it will!" Rey said, dropping two bloody coins into the chest.

Athrun stopped dead, almost dropping his gun in shock. He could feel the curse lift, just like that. He felt the cold air of the cave on his skin, the wet from the water that soaked through his boots, even the small pain from the small cuts and nicks Kira made on him during the duel. He was even more shocked, however, when he felt the rush of emotions when he saw Cagalli not too far away from the chest. She was looking between Athrun and Kira, her eyes pleading.

"Don't make me kill you in front of her," Kira said, cocking his gun. "Put. It. Down."

"Kira, I'll admit defeat," Athrun said, tossing his gun away. "You beat me for on—AAHH! You said you wouldn't shoot me!" Athrun fell down to one knee, gripping the new bullet hole in his calf.

"I said I wouldn't kill you," Kira said with a smirk, blowing the smoke off the top of his gun. "I was waiting for ten years to do that to you. It's for taking my ship."

"Ahgg… Fair enough," Athrun said, wincing in pain.

"Why did you do that?" Shinn asked, leading Kira away from Athrun as Cagalli ran to him.

"Because, I can't kill my perspective brother-in-law with my sister right there," Kira said with a chuckle. "It would not make for pleasant Christmas dinners. Besides, even the worst deserve a second chance."

~*Meanwhile*~

Kazuki pushed back two of the Pirates he was dueling against. He had no idea why they would not die already! They were all bones, for Christ's sake! He had made plenty of lethal blows to the Pirates, especially when they looked like humans when the moonlight wasn't on them. But why did they not die?

The battle stopped suddenly when all the pirates turned back into humans. Not only was the crew of the Eternal shocked, but so where the pirates. They looked up to see the moon still shining, and only one answer came to mind. The curse was lifted. Several of the pirates fell over, dead. The others that were still alive dropped their weapons in surrender.

"Men, the ship is ours!" Kazuki shouted to the crew.

The crew began to rejoice as they pirates were all herded up and stored in the brig. Kazuki smiled and felt Soushi embrace him from behind. They were glad that this was over and that it turned in their favor. But now, Kazuki was worried about how Shinn was doing.

"Come on, let's get over to the cave and get Shinn," Kazuki said, going over to one of the boats.

Kira: *chuckling like a mad man*

Athrun: *groans* did you enjoy shooting me?

Kira: Oh yes... *still acting all swishy*

Athrun: Can you stop all the... swishy-ness? You're making my stomach churn...

Kira: but mate, I'm Captain Kira Yamato!

Athrun: *groans* KIRA! You're only captain in the story! let it go!

Kira: *epic pout*

ONE CHAPTER LEFT!