- Chapter One Hundred And Four -

A Rude Awakening

Libertalia.

Liber-fucking-talia.

Daniella had only dreamed of this moment, of stepping foot on the white sandy beaches previously claimed by pirates and colonists. Of seeing the weathered remains of the colony perched precariously atop crumbling cliffs. Flooded homes of fraudulent founders, an actual ship graveyard! Gilded halls dimmed by decades of dust, jungle camps spanning the length of an entire settlement. And... The Fancy. Above all - despite that woman constantly impressing it upon her that it was nothing but childish fantasy to see Henry Avery's ship with her own two eyes - the infamous vessel was the final thing she had to connect to her father's legacy.

To see where her father had stood in his final moments, to see what he had seen... It was impossible for another person to want anything more.

Rightfully proud of his landmark discovery, Sam had been more than keen to share his experience; listening with wide-eyed rapture to every syllable, he had painted quite the vivid image. Trust coming maybe a touch too easy, the young woman was sure that his brother could have corroborated if asked (although perhaps a little less enthusiastically, considering what he had almost lost).

Listening had been one thing, but to be there in person... Just the thought alone had stolen her breath away, leaving the heiress to build up a storybook image as they sailed from King's Bay to the colony.

Conducting business around the island chain for some time now, Wyatt was familiar enough with the emerald peeks to disregard their jade majesty as they loomed into view through the cannonball mist wafting over the briny tide. Being hired hands, Angel and Ashley were only there for the fun they had been promised (and were consequently wondering what they were still doing there when they weren't permitted to lay a finger on their dear punching bag). Orange and blue, the tiger cubs had to side with the hipsters more than anyone else: this was Daniella's thing.

Jian, to his credit, had made an attempt to approach the girl as they made the uneventful journey; not completely ignorant to the shift behind her, Dells could only hear the awkward scuffling of feet and the familiar voice grumbling something under his breath that only she could understand. On some level she did appreciate that he had even made that small effort, however she never once looked away and gave any indication.

Eased into an elastic state been jumpy panic and the comfort of safety, the heiress leaned back into the thief's arms, rocked back and forth by the momentum. Keeping her closer than close - as if one of the seedy bastards they were surrounded by could make her vanish in a whisp of smoke should he lower his guard for even a moment - he felt his hands shaking against the polished rails. Nerves only marginally more probable than withdrawals this time, Sam caught himself thinking that this was exactly where he wanted to be.

Danger, the adrenaline fueled by the foreboding sense that it could end at any moment, the hyperawareness of exactly how many scoundrels wanted them dead this time. And... there was something else, something that he didn't quite put a name to.

"This is it!" Grinning like a small child on a class fieldtrip that was more fun than educational, the heiress bounced animatedly on the balls of her feet below him. "This is really it!"

Moutain brought low, between the damage the ship had done to the inside when it went down and the work that the little soldier boy was doing to claw his way back in, it was almost nothing like it had been the last time they'd seen it. Salvage crew on a rig pulled far out to sea, the crisp blue waters were stapled with ugly gray protrusions and an oceanic crane that had once been the same color as an old fire engine. Memories further back than either of them had cared to admit, the excavation was new to Victor and Sam, who could both recall the sun setting on the end of an era.

"Libertalia!" Breathy and breathless at the same time, the word almost didn't escape her lips at all.

Purposefully avoiding the two swallows that wouldn't leave the roost, she was actively aware of everyone's location as they arrived: Sully was in the cabin with the tigers, playing a game of dice (Ludo was winning from the sound of it), Wyatt was sitting cross-legged on the bow (was he meditating?), and Sam was right beside her, taking it all in. For as much as he'd ran circles around the land, she was fairly certain that he hadn't seen the cave from this angle before. Foolishly thinking a thought before she could stop it, Daniella wondered if was only the first thing they would uncover together.

Knuckles going bone white as he tightened his grip on the railing, Sam entertained the notion of moving one hand away to settle on her waist. Wyatt seemed not to mind when it was as innocent as preventing a slip, however anything more might have invited the wrong impression. Instead, the thief leaned over her shoulder to point out the place where the ship had gone down. A rebel at heart, his hand snaked around her middle to point the girl in the right direction.

"X marks the spot." Hazarding that she would appreciate his humor as much as - if not more than - his baby brother, Sam was downright giddy that he'd finally had the chance to use that one. Maybe it was dumb, but come on, how could you not make at least one pirate joke?

Finding that funnier than she should have, Dells snorted gleefully as the moment swept her away. When she realized what exactly the context behind the hilarity was, the mirth was crushed beneath the massive weight of a couple million reasons to hate the man behind her. To compensate for her own bad reaction, she spun on her heel and swatted Sam square in the chest. Interestingly enough, the one thing she didn't do was shove him away.

Intimidating as a bunny rabbit, Dells might've been scowling, but he'd heard her laughing seconds beforehand. Even before this, he knew that she knew he was funny, even if she couldn't admit it. Plus, if the princess was really scandalized, that strike would have been a lot harder.

"Yes, dear? Can I help you with something?" Taunting her just because he could, Sam noted that her hand was lingering in place, her eyes (although still a little misty) locking with his own. A muscle twitched in her jaw, almost like she wanted to say something. Or, maybe, do something?

"Jerk..." Pouting - and if anyone knew what that looked like, it was him - Daniella broke their contest. Slowly lowering her own hand out of the picture, there was just too much going on. Because of that, the part of her that was mad at him for making her want to kiss him actually was grateful.

Between the ghost of her father looming almost tangible, her half-brother watching everything within the sun's light like a hawk, the pair of psychos tainting the finalization of an impossible dream come true... It was a lot of a lot. Somehow minusing everything that had transpired with her one-time bodyguard, there were too many pieces at play, too many cooks in the kitchen. More than all of that, this moment should have been all about her daddy.

How he died...

Frown going from playful annoyance to genuine sorrow, the heiress couldn't ignore what had been there for so long. Rafe was dead because of this man. Finding his own way from the shadows of the family name, her father could have chased anything, but there was something about this one - about Henry Avery's millions - that had truly captivated him. Had it been something in the history, something that resonated on a personal level? Or had Sam Drake convinced him of something so strongly that he could never stop searching for this one treasure?

Stepping back so that her spine was pressed against the cold metal railing, she gazed at Sam as if he were some alien thing. A stranger she didn't know.

Except, she did know him.

Right?

Trapped once more in the vortex of emotion and sudden unexpected truths, of storm clouds and the promise of violence, there was just too much going on in her head. Daddy. Sam. Mr. Drake, Elena, Sully. Chloe, Nadine, Wyatt. Jian, her own mother, the grandfather she'd never spoken to. Kind acts, brutal acts inspired from selfishness, or even from the sheer brutality of it. Logan, caught up in everything because he met Sam... Or was it more a matter of wrong place, wrong time? Logan had uprooted everything to find his father, and look at what that had earned him.

Maybe... Maybe family wasn't worth it after all?

Wondering if blood was worthless, she thought of her mother; Bai had bent over backwards and had practically killed herself for Rafe, but what had she down for anyone else? Grandfather had been ignored for the better part of two decades, at least so far as she knew. When he suddenly did enter the equation, that woman had made him her daughter's problem instead. Sure, she claimed to be working on it, but everything that woman had done had led to this... Bai had been the one that had hired Sam, had agreed to marry Daniella off to Jian.

Jian, who probably wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for his own family. For duty.

Impressed that her would-be fiancé had men so loyal that they were leagues out of their depth, she even considered the other lovebirds. While they were driven by a darkness that was more frightening than any other, the gruesome twosome had each other. Not forgetting Sully, the man was perhaps the strongest evidence for advocating for chosen family.

Blood, though?

Wyatt made pretty arguments out of ugly points, and maybe he really meant what he said, but he was the person she knew the least. Nadine was something of a mystery to her as well, however Chloe had faith in her, and for whatever it was worth, there was something about miss Frazer that she trusted. Well, as much as you could put your faith into a perfect stranger that had been introduced as a charlatan.

Another point for found families over genetic kin, there was only one other person she could examine through this lens, and shockingly it wasn't the person that had quite literally had her back mere seconds ago. Even at the beginning of this train of thought, the first thing she'd admitted was that her father was obsessed with the treasure more than anything else. Even me.

Rafe Adler, to the public, was many things, but none of them included father. Unable to recall if she'd ever asked him this before or not, for all Daniella knew, this moment was the only thing in the all of eternity, "Did you know about me, back then?"

Scary quiet, when the heiress addressed the thief, he knew by the haunted look in her eyes that something had changed. In all honesty, he knew it the minute she had plied herself out of his arms. His Dells wouldn't have peeled away without a reason. A reason that her gaze could only hint at, it seemed.

Not entirely sure how they could have gone from joking to something so serious so quickly, Sam couldn't lie to the young woman. Not right now, not if he ever wanted to speak to her again.

Answer near as soft, he dipped his head so low that he caught the glint of silver-gray from the corner of his eye. When exactly had his hair gone from auburn to this old man blend? "Yes."

"But I was the only one." Attempting to leave his little brother out of whatever this was, he owed him that much.

Bad enough to hear just that one fatal word, Sam tacking on the information about his brother being kept out of the loop only made it hurt that much worse. Did he ever love me? Was everything I ever knew a lie? Heart breaking into unnumerable shards that science could never hope to count, the infinite specks of her person would have crumbled if not for the steel pressing into her back.

Why am I even here?

What am I doing?

Finding closure for a ghost that never loved me?

For what? The little idiot that fancied herself a pirate? The baby that wanted to be an adventurer? Because it just happened to me?

Inadvertently finding the last two people she ever wanted to see again, Daniella ached with how many things had 'just happened' to her. Meeting Sam, getting her head smashed in, getting pulled out of that pool. Getting kidnapped, getting tortured just for the fun of it, getting rescued once again by who she'd mistaken for her hero... Were her growing feelings for Sam even something she'd wanted for herself, or were those also just born out of consequence of someone else's actions?

Never once in her wildest dreams had Daniella ever considered that her deepest wish would fall apart, yet here it was, doing so in spectacular fashion!

Libertalia...

The punchline to the world's saddest joke.

Author's Note:

Wrote the first 880 or so words a good while back, then, checking where I was, the rest of this just kinda spilled out. In other words, everything from "X marks the spot" is new. Why that matters, I don't know, but I like cataloging these things. Not that I'm the most consistent haha.