Part 7 – Why is the rum gone?

After a while, I get up off of the floor of my bridge and I feel awful, I don't want to face anyone right now, with a quick thought I turn off my drives and start to drift. With that done I make my way to the stores on the ship and I spot something I hadn't noticed before, a small keg of dark liquid. Moving over to it, I see a note attached to it, pulling it off I read it out loud, "Boss, I know life can be hard sometimes, but remember, Darkness can never win. So drink up when you conquer it! With love, Jamaica."

I drop the note to the floor and lift the small keg out of the rack it was in and pull the cork, the odor that greeted me reminded me a little of petrol. I dip a finger in and lick it, and I know this taste, Jamaican rum. I take a big drink from it and feel some of it run down my chin and onto my shirt before I take it away and wipe my mouth with the back of an arm as I say, "Thanks, Jamaica."

I left the storeroom, stopping to drink more of this rum every few feet. When I reach the outer hatches near my stern I open the doors and step out into the night air. My eyes focused on the Royal Navy ensign flapping in the wind and I slur out, "Fuck the Navy."

Even I notice that the rum is taking hold of me as I put down the keg and drunkenly stagger over to the flag on my stern before I take it down as I continue to slur out, "Fuck Illustrious," I pause to look up at the sky and yell out, "And most of all, fuck you."

With that done I stumble back over to the keg, picking it back up and I stumble towards my bow, drinking till I empty the keg and trip, going face-first into the deck platting near my A turret and pass out.

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I have no idea how long I was out, only that it was the best sleep I've had since I became kansen, but that came to an end when I sensed a ship smaller than myself coming near my hull, as I sat up a splitting headache pounded just inside my skull and I rotated my turrets around to point at the ship to get a better look at it through my gun sights. Her hull was an eight gun ship, four on each turret that were forward of the superstructure, it took my brain a while to place the layout until I saw the ensign flap in the wind slightly, French. I push myself up off of the deck just as I sense someone boards my hull and a woman calls out in French, "Bonjour?"

I groan and roll onto my back, I don't want to deal with this, I hear her starting to make her way forward as she continues to ask in French, "As-tu besoin d'aide? Vous ne battez pas un drapeau."

I sit up and bellow out, "I don't speak French!"

"Then what are you doing in French waters?" she calls back in English with a heavy French accent, pausing to add, "Unless you got lost, forgetting how big your Empire was."

Once I'm up I grip the keg and shake it back and forth and slur out, "Damn, the rum's gone."

"Are you drunk?" her voice calls out getting closer.

"Maybe!" I yell back

I rub my eyes and squint in the sunlight as she comes around my B turret, she was tall, with long brown hair tied back in a singular ponytail, her red eyes locked on me as she put a gloved hand on her hip, looping a thumb through the belt loop while her fingers rested beside the golden skull on her belt and she asked, "Where is the kansen of this hull? As far as I know, there are only two kansen with this hull."

I shove a finger into the keg and try to find the last drop of rum as I snap, "Why would it matter, we'd leave your waters anyway."

"You don't get to drift this close to Toulon without being questioned." She says as she shifts her hip slightly to show the saber hanging off of the other hip.

I roll my eyes and toss the keg aside as I have trouble staying on my feet and say, "I don't give a flying fuck what you want."

Her nostrils flare outward and she stalks towards me, gripping me by the shirt as she says, "And I don't care what you think human, you are in my waters and what I say goes."

"Really?" I say as I start to walk us back and rotate one of my secondary batteries to poke her in the back and rotate my X and Y turrets to point at her hull as I continue, "I think right now I get to decide."

Her red eyes go wide and she asks, "You're him, aren't ya?"

"So what if I am?" I say as use my hands to push her back a little and force her to let go of my shirt as I continue, "Not that it matters, I've had enough and I just don't care anymore."

Looking over my shoulder I see her step forward, away from my secondary gun I had in her back and she adjusts her top before giving me a sideways look and asking, "Then why aren't you flying your ensign? I thought all Royal Navy battleships were proud of who they are?"

"Fuck off." I say as I will AP rounds to load in my rear turrets, the loud clunking sound of the breaches being closed ringing out.

She looks a little surprised at the situation and puts up her hands as she says, "Look, I know your guns will punch right through my bow, I'm not going to try and piss you off anymore, so truce, for now?"

"Fine." I say coldly as I unload my rear turrets.

She relaxes and runs a hand over her ponytail before folding her arms under her bust and asks, "So, why did you drift into my waters?"

"The currents of the water did that." I quip.

She pinches the bridge of her nose and mumbles, "If your guns weren't so damn big."

With my foot, I rolled the empty keg into the water and start to make my way to a hatch as say, "And don't forget it. Now I'll stay here as long as the currents want me to, so you can fuck right off unless you want to give the sheets a toss."

Her cheeks went a little red before she said to me, "I'll take a pass on that, but I'll see about sending someone along in a day or two to check on you."

I give a dismissive hand gesture as I step back into my interior and go in search of more rum.

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I had fallen asleep with a few more empty bottles of less good rum around me, even used the ensign as a blanket apparently, when I wake up I sense several ships around me, a pair of cruisers and a battleship class this time, but worst of all, I sense that I have been boarded, again. I grab a half-full bottle and head out to the deck, taking a swig and slur out at them, "Did you bring some friends this time to take me up on that offer?"

When I step out of the hatchway, I see two blonds and a grey-haired woman, two of them with armor on. Of those two, one has a massive spear and the other has a sword of some kind. But it's the blond in between and slightly ahead of the two that I know is their leader and I say, "You're not the one that was here before."

"No, no I am not." the one in the center pauses to look me up and down before adding, "I expected more out of the HMS Thunderer."

Taking another swig off of the rum I snipe, "So sorry to disappoint." As I said that I gave a bow and stumbled forward a little.

"You're drunk." The one in the center says.

"And your point is? Even like this, I could take the three of you." The words slur out as I rotate two turrets to the battleship and one to each cruiser.

The blond behind the one that was speaking places a hand on the hilt of her sword and goes to move forward whereas the one with the spear changes her grip on it, getting ready to charge if I had to guess. The one in the center puts up a hand and says, "I am Richelieu."

Lifting my bottle to look at it and swirl around the fluid I say, "Good for you, rum?"

To my surprise she takes a step forward and takes the bottle from me, even taking a sip before she hands it back and says, "Well at least you're not offering me tea." The two behind her looked shocked and she continues, more for them I would wager, "We cannot live by faith alone, sometimes we need to enjoy the things life has to offer."

The other blond takes a step forward and says, "Your holiness!"

Richelieu again raises a hand to silence her and looks to me as she asks, "Are you a threat to me, right now, Thunderer?"

With another swig off of the bottle, finishing and tossing it overboard I say, "Not unless you're here for a fight."

Looking over her shoulder she says, "You two can return to your hulls, I will be along shortly."

The two of them left without issue and Richelieu stepped around me and into my hull, getting me to follow her. We walked past many rooms before she came to a stop at the admiral's cabin, I hadn't been in there since… since before I went to Italy. She looks around through the open door before asking, "Where is Illustrious?"

Slamming an open palm down beside her head as I slur out, "I don't want to talk about her, I'd rather talk about you."

"You are too drunk, coffee?" she says completely un-phased by me.

"I don't want coffee." I slur out while my eyes wander her frame.

"And I will not deal with you, while you are drunk." She says, moving on from the cabin.

"Fine, the galley and bridge have coffee makers." I say as she starts to walk through my hull.

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I sat in my captain's chair as she hands me a cup of the third cup of coffee and asks, "Now, have you sobered up any?"

"No, just more awake." I grumble.

She laughs a little before she moves to lean against my helm controls and asks, "But enough to answer questions without trying to be lewd?"

Sipping from the coffee I offer out a non-commitment as I say, "No promises."

"That will have to do for now." She says, sipping from the mug she poured herself before asking, "Why are you less than a kilometer off of Toulon?"

"Because that is where I drifted to." I say as I drink down more coffee.

"And why are you adrift? Is there something wrong?" she asks as she sits on top of the console, crossing her legs in the process.

With a heavy sigh, I turn my mug around in my hands and say, "Everything is wrong."

"How so?" she asks, sipping her coffee.

"I'm wrong. Ever since I met my mother, my life has been one giant downward spiral." I say, the words just flowing freely.

"Oh?" she asks.

"Between being set up with different women by different faction leaders, being abducted, turned into" I pause and gesture at my hull before continuing, "this, then sent on a mission to murder my mother only for me to kill my father. Then I get forced into a relationship with someone." I stop talking there and squeeze my mug, sending cracks into the ceramic as I add, "Someone that I thought I knew, someone that I even let myself love only to have her lie to me and betray me." The mug shatters, embedding shards of it into my hand and I feel the hot liquid all over my hand.

Richelieu got off of the console fast, a hand darting into a fold on her dress to produce a handkerchief and she started to dry my hand and start to pull out pieces of the mug as she says, "You are very angry, I cannot say that I blame you. Have you tried talking to anyone about this? Have you tried to talk to God?"

Rolling my eyes as I say, "If anything, I am proof there is no God, or if there is, I have gone and drawn his ire."

She pulls free the last of the ceramic and turns to get another mug for me as she says, "He does not hate anyone, if anything he is testing you. Now, will you tell me where Illustrious is?"

When the fresh mug is handed to me and she takes up her spot again I sigh out, "She left me at the altar and ran to Italy, to a lover she had denied ever having." I pause to drink some coffee and add, "She then had the nerve to accuse me of something I hadn't done, then try to get me to think that I had wronged her, that I am the one at fault for what happened."

"Are you?" she asks me.

"Only for striking Littorio and damaging Littorio's apartment, but she did goad me into it." I say as I look at the hot dark liquid in the mug.

She puts down her own mug and turns it on the console as she says, "It sounds like you are both adrift by your hull and by your soul."

With a shrug I say to her, "Not that it matters, nothing matters right now."

"Why do you say that?" She asks me as she brushes her dress with her hands.

"Because, I cannot return home to Midway, it would be too painful. I don't want to face everyone that knows me at the Atlantic HQ, I cannot go to the Home Fleet either. So if I drift I can at least put off facing anyone for as long as possible." I get out as I look off to the side of my bridge and add, "I'm a failure and turn everything to ash."

"Then, if you could go anywhere, where would it be? If you could do what you want, what would it be?" she asks me.

With another sip of my coffee, I sigh out, "I don't know. But I know I need to do something, I need to fix what's wrong with me, I need to find a way to stop being mad at the world."

She moves off of the console and places a hand on my knee as she kneels in front of me and says, "The first step towards that, is forgiving yourself and accepting that things were out of your control."

I give her a sideways look and ask, "Are you making a pass at me?"

Richelieu gives me this warm smile as she giggles softly and says, "No, no I am not. But what I can offer you, is a place to rest and regroup in Toulon for a little while."

With a sigh and a nod, I say, "Thank you."

She gets up and starts to head to an outer hatch as she says, "You are welcome, follow us we will guide you in."

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Stepping off my hull after I docked, I see Richelieu standing at the end of the ramp, her hands folded in front of her. I found it a little odd that it was just her standing there, no one else, looking around I ask, "No guards? No escorts?"

She shakes her head as she says, "During the trip here, it occurred to me, that everyone has asked for your trust and offered little in return, often betraying that trust."

"And your point is?" A cold tone escaped my lips.

"So, we are not going to ask for your trust, rather we are going to give you our trust. We trust you to follow our laws, we trust you to not take advantage of us, and most of all, we trust you to do what you think is right." She says as she steps aside to let me look up the dock at the entrance to the city.

"There has to be a catch." I say in a slightly distrustful tone.

"The only request I have is that should you wish to leave Toulon, you let me know." She says to me with what I think sincerity sounds like.

"What should I do?" I ask, as I slowly take a step forward.

Richelieu slips her left arm around my right arm and starts to walk with me as she says, "I would suggest a good glass of wine, but I think you may have had enough of wine, perhaps a good pastry first?"

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Following Prince of Wales

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Prince of Wales adjusted her uniform top as her lips pressed together as she anchored her hull just off of Taranto, walking up the beach her red eyes locked on the silver-haired woman in a red uniform who was walking down from the city to her. The silver-haired woman greeted her as she said, "Ciao, Price of Wales."

"Good afternoon lady Veneto." Wales responded as she came to a stop an arm's length away from Vittorio Veneto.

Vittorio smiles at her as she says, "I keep telling you, Vittorio is fine. What brings you to Italy, this time?"

Adjusting her cape slightly and looking around Wales said, "Something concerning, we know that Illustrious is here, but…" she pauses and looks around before whispering, "We've miss placed another kansen, they are overdue to return to the Atlantic after they came here."

Vittorio nods and looks down and adjusts the hem of her skirt before asking, "Has something happened to Thunderer?"

Wales blinks a few times before she says, "So, he was here then?"

Vittorio nods and offers an arm to Wales before they start walking back up the beach as she tells Wales, "He was, and caused a bit of a difficult situation here. But it was one that we chose to sweep under the rug."

"I would imagine so, how long ago was he here?" Wales asks as the two of them start to walk through the streets.

"He left about a week ago, after my sister baited him into a fight." Vittorio says as the two of them come to a stop outside of an apartment building she adds, "Littorio and Illustrious have been staying here since Littorio's apartment was damaged during the fight."

"Did he hurt her, Littorio, I mean?" Wales asks the concern in her voice at the new knowledge.

"Sadly, I doubt even the damage to her ego will be permanent," Vittorio says as she moves to open the door and lead Wales up a flight of stairs. Vittorio looks over her shoulder at Wales and ads, "but for now, she knows she bit off more than she could chew."

When the door to the apartment opened, Wales saw Illustrious sitting on the couch, Littorio's head resting in her lap. As soon as Illustrious noticed Wales standing in the doorway, she stood up quickly, causing Littorio to roll to the floor in a thump. Wales crossed the apartment quickly as Illustrious started to say, "Wales, how a-" anything else was ground to a halt as Wales slapped Illustrious across the face, hard and said, "How could you do that to him?"

Illustrious held her left cheek with her left hand, her eyes wide as Wales continued at her, "He didn't do anything but love you!"

"He fucked her, at the first chance he got!" Illustrious yells, pointing at Vittorio.

Wales holds her hand from striking again as she looked at Vittorio and asks, "Before or after she broke his heart?"

"After." Vittorio says with confidence and Wales slapped Illustrious again.

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A/N: The slap heard around the world….