'Hush, now, girlie. No need to make a scene.'

Fighting against her urge to bolt towards the taped-up windows, Quinn's golden eyes immediately locked with the narrowed green jewels of her assailant's. Her heart instinctively jolted at the shock of unruly red hair swinging over the assailant's shoulders, but realised that it was too gingery to be that of the Noxian woman. The ranger's eyes passed across the porcelain skin, pouty mouth and blazing green eyes, more gooseberry than emerald under the light spluttered into the room by a dusty, solitary candelabra, and she tensed underneath the stranger's sudden aggression.

'Who are you?' the woman hissed menacingly as the ranger fought to contain the horrified tremors spilling over into her muscles. 'How did you find me?'

'I-I got sent here,' the ranger panted from underneath her jarred ribs. 'You're Sarah, I take it.'

'Don't call me that!' she snarled, twirling another gun from her holster and focussing it on each side of the ranger's temples. 'It's Miss Fortune to you.'

'Sarah,' the ranger persisted, noticing a tinge of fear in the bounty hunter's eyes whenever she used her forename. 'I'm not here to hurt you, I promise.'

'You're not the first one to have said that, and you won't be the last to go back on your word!' she yelled, cocking each gun with a loud, powerful click. 'Who the hell are you?'

'Put down your weapon and I'll tell you!' the ranger pleaded, bowed over her bruised ribs.

'Like I'm falling for that,' the woman scoffed, lowering one gun and stepping around the back of her before wrapping her skinny, ivory arm around Quinn's neck. Her coppery hair tickled the ranger's face as she painfully yanked her head above the crook of her arm. The ranger suddenly stomped down as hard as she could on Miss Fortune's high-heeled boot and she stumbled forward, screeching with pain. Quinn took the chance to wrench her wrists and kicked the dropped weapons underneath a moulding sofa. The enraged woman shoved the ranger out of her way and made to claw under it, but the ranger hooked out her foot from underneath her and she went sprawling into its solid wooden armrest. Thanks, Jarvan, she noted mentally after using the offensive move the Prince taught her, and she immediately boiled with self-pity as she remembered their sparring sessions. There was no time to think, though. Miss Fortune shook off the blow to her head and curled her fingers around the ranger's leg, pulling her down with her and then closing her bony hands over Quinn's open neck. Orbs and flashes erupted across her eyes as her assailant choked her hard, trying to crush every ounce of air from the ranger's body, and her eyes watered as she smashed her forehead into Fortune's upturned nose. Wincing at the crunch of snapping cartilage, the ranger scrambled away as Sarah cradled her bleeding nose in one hand and spat out a crimson glob from her mouth.

'Oww! You fucking bitch!'

'Listen to me - for fuck's sake, Sarah, LISTEN!' the ranger hollered, adrenaline shaking her to the core as she watched Fortune cough up more blood. 'Tobias sent me. Said you know what it's like to be a girl in need. I need your help!'

'You think I'm going to help someone who tried to fucking kill me?' she snarled, though she paused as she digested the ranger's words. 'Wait…you said Tobias, not Fate. He sent you?'

'Yes. How else would I know you're here?' she replied exasperatedly. 'Why didn't you just try to let me explain before you started attacking me?'

'If you knew why I was in hiding, you'd understand why I don't take kindly to strangers waltzing into my sanctuary.' She noticed how Fortune had calmed down since Fate had been mentioned, however, and Quinn continued her appeal before she could change her mind.

'Look, I'm sorry. But I'm stuck. I need your help. I'm not from round here.'

'Why? Whatever can I help you with that he can't?' she sulked.

'I need to sail to Noxus. And that son of a bitch Gangplank won't let me.'

She sensed a chill in the air at the mention of the Pirate Lord, and Sarah glared at the ranger with wounded eyes. 'You know…him? He's here, in Bilgewater? Right now?'

'Yes? But, no, I don't know him…I mean, I just met him for the first time today. I certainly wouldn't want to get to know him well. He's…he's…'

'Evil? Bloodthirsty? Homicidal?' the dishevelled woman offered snippily. She touched her nose gingerly, wincing as her fingers probed the break, and Quinn caught hold of her arm.

'Hey, don't poke it. It's best you try and get it re-set.'

'Oh, and where am I going to find a hospital in a land governed by a tyrannical pirate lord who wants to wear my skin as a novelty hat?' she muttered sarcastically, pulling away from the ranger's touch. 'Thanks a lot, you stupid girl.'

Quinn bristled at the insult and drew herself up to her full height. 'Fine. I'm clearly wasting my time here. Have fun being trapped in your madhouse. It suits you well.'

She straightened her clothing, cursing under her breath as her tender ribs jostled painfully, and began to walk across to the door.

'Wait.'

The ranger turned around impatiently, but she was stunned to see that pearly tears were glistening in the maiden's gooseberry eyes. Her mouth went dry as Sarah plonked down onto the dirty sofa, stemming the blood flow with her white frilly sleeve.

'Alright, sit down. Why do you need to get to Noxus?'

Quinn was surprised in the turnabout of conversation, and she uneasily sank into an antique armchair in the corner of the damp room. 'I need to find my friend. She was taken by the Noxians as a bargaining chip of the Io-Noxian war, and I don't believe they're going to take quite so good care of her as everyone says they will. I'm also on the look-out for someone who killed one of our own.'

'Huh.' The bounty hunter spat out the last of the blood dripping into her mouth and stared back up at Quinn. 'And how is it that you've been rubbing shoulders with the scum of the earth?'

'My…business partner is tight with him,' the ranger explained, hesitating to call Yasuo by his name. 'I met him during a transaction today.'

'I see. Let me guess, he won't let you on board because you're a woman?'

'Yep,' the ranger confirmed. 'But I must get to Noxus, Sar- I mean, Miss Fortune. I've come too far to turn back now. I have nowhere else to run to.'

'Which implies that you're running from something,' the bounty hunter observed, sighing with relief as she held the cold metal of her gun to her swollen nose. 'Most people are only in Bilgewater when they can't run any further. So, little filly, where are you from originally?'

'Demacia,' the ranger finally admitted, brushing her tangled locks from her face as she searched her face for a reaction.

'Demacia? Wow, girl, you really did fall from grace,' the bounty hunter snorted, surprising Quinn by dropping her weapon on the sofa and tilting her head back. 'Are you pregnant? A hooker? A thief?'

'Ha, nothing as simple as that,' the ranger laughed, and she was surprised as the bounty hunter's cheek twitched with a small smile. 'Let's just say I just don't fit in there. I don't comply with what they want me to be. I'm an outcast.'

'Yeah, I get that,' Miss Fortune confirmed, a twinge of recognition in her gooseberry eyes. She touched her nose again and shuddered again, earning a tut from the ranger.

'Stop it,' she said gently. 'You'll only make it worse.'

'It wouldn't have been a problem if you didn't break it,' she retorted hotly, though she could not suppress an admiring glance at Quinn. 'You can fight, though, that's for sure. No wonder you didn't fit in with the Demacians.'

'Precisely. I'm on the run. I have no family. No job. I have no clue what I'm doing right now. It sucks.' The ranger turned from the sleeve she was picking at to smirk at the bounty hunter. 'Hey, I wouldn't have had to break it if you hadn't tried to break me first.'

'Eh, I guess you have a point,' her companion sighed, running her fingers across her puffy eyes. 'Bleugh. It ain't a fair fight if I'm without my boys.' She gazed down at her muskets next to her, but quickly looked back to Quinn to show she was not going to use them. 'Are you a melee specialist?'

'Erm, no. I'm actually a ranger. Or I'm trained as one, anyway.'

'Serious?' she replied in surprise, watching the ranger like a hawk. 'That's…pretty impressive, I gotta say. But you know how to use daggers, too?' she added, nodding towards the glinting weapon next to Quinn.

'Just about,' she smiled, spinning the blade against her fingers and slipping it back into her boot. 'A crossbow isn't always practical, so I have to get by with a blade when I'm on the move. Why do you ask?'

The bounty hunter didn't answer for a second, but it was as if the sun rose behind her eyes as she twisted her head towards the ranger, mouth agape.

'What? What is it? You're scaring me, Miss.'

'Sarah,' she corrected her vaguely, before leaping to her feet. 'Oh my God, yes!'

'What? What is it?' the ranger enquired curiously, alarmed by the hungry glint in Sarah's eye.

'I can get you to Noxus,' the animated woman declared triumphantly, clapping her hands together as she bent down to catch Quinn's gaze, 'if you can get me Gangplank.'

'Well, yes, of course I can,' the ranger explained, her heart quickening at this proposal. 'He'll be at the Slaughter Docks tonight, I imagine. In the cabin playing poker with his men.'

'Perfect.'

The ranger stared at the pacing woman in great confusion. She turned back swiftly on her heel to stare at the ranger. 'Tobias thought I could help you by smuggling you onto one of my private ships, but why bother sorting that out when we just can hitch a ride?'

'Wait...what?' the ranger tailed off, wondering if the bounty hunter had finally lost the plot. 'On a ship where everyone would want to kill us?'

'Well, yes, yes, yes,' Sarah replied abruptly, flicking her hands as if to slap away the minor inconvenience, 'but hear me out. I know how we can smuggle ourselves on, and then we can just hide until the men get into the cabin.'

'Alright, I'll do it,' the ranger sighed, her eyes flickering towards her gun. 'You don't have to persuade me to end that bastard's life. But why me, anyway? Why can't you get some dirty great pirate lord to depose this Gangplank?'

'Because you'd actually be able to look after yourself if things went south. And, also, they don't have the same…assets…that you do,' Sarah emphasised, waving generally at the ranger. 'Has he started slobbering all over you yet?'

'Well, I guess, he's made some creepy comments but…hang on,' the ranger paused, angst dripping into her heart. 'You wanted me to kill him, right?'

Sarah grinned malevolently, dashing around the abandoned house and collecting her gear like a frantic squirrel. ''Fraid not, doll. Your own task was to bring him to me.'

'But…how?' the ranger asked in confusion, though the sick feeling in her stomach would not disperse.

Miss Fortune paused for a moment before she ripped a revealing V-neck into the ranger's shirt. She gasped, cupping her half-exposed breasts, and glaring indignantly at the bounty hunter.

'Could be bigger, but I suppose they will have to do!' she guffawed crudely. 'Gangplank ain't fussy, though. He'll take what he can get. Yuck.'

'What the hell are you suggesting? That I sleep with him?!' the ranger gasped, hastily trying to strap up her top and cursing as it continued to spring open. 'No, god no. I have my problems to worry about….'

'No, girl, that's not what I was going for. But it's nice to see that the nice lil' Demacian girl's mind is capable of being in the gutter,' Sarah smirked, slinging a small satchel across her curvaceous hips. 'Listen, it's quite simple. We'll stash ourselves on board before the ship sails and we'll steal a couple of uniforms to disguise ourselves. We can listen in to the poker game to determine exactly when that sick old freak will be retiring to his bedchamber. I'll tell you the rest on the way…'

Sarah's eyes now shimmered with witchy excitement as she shushed Quinn, stepping up on some crates and pressing her ear against the dense oak. After sliding her head across the warped ceiling, she turned back to the ranger and grinned widely, pointing upwards to the ceiling.

'Finally. That's where the table is,' she whispered softly, tapping her long pearly nail against the dense oak. 'Take that hand drill from your satchel and start screwing in where my finger is. We'll be able to hear their conversation through the hole, but they won't be able to see or hear us.'

'Brilliant.' The anxious Demacian did not need to be told twice; she quickly began to screw into the ceiling, Sarah making sure to capture the counter-sized piece of wood so that it would not clatter to the floor. Giving the wood shavings a little puff of air, they both climbed up onto the boxes and pressed their air to the hole, both chests heaving with nerves at having gotten this far to dispatching the pirate lord without detection.

'Naw, c'mon, Kench. Let us see that last hand, you cheatin' tub of lard.' Miss Fortune and Quinn threw surprised looks at each other as the drawling tones of Tobias came drifting through the floor. 'I can see you silently chuckin' up before each round.'

'I refuse to be subjected to this overzealous scrutiny, Cardmaster!' a strange, throaty voice protested, before a noxious retching sound and splatter on the table caused several men to make gagging noises. 'There ain't nothing to see here, I can assure you!'

'There's my damn ace of spades I've been looking for since the last game!' Fate complained sternly, and the light above eclipsed briefly as his foot momentarily closed over their makeshift hole. 'Plank, why do we have to play with the demon?'

'Hush now, Fate, don't be such a pussy. There's somethin' a little more exciting playing with a creature that can suck out your soul if you fuck up,' a gravelly, wheezy man laughed, and both the ranger and bounty hunter cringed at Gangplank's sickening voice. 'Come on now, lad, less gassing, more dealin', before I stick that deck where the sun don't shine.'

'You heard the Cap'n,' a cool, amused voice jibed gently, and Quinn's heart quickened at the sound of Yasuo's voice. 'I'd best get dealing before you've no fingers left to play with.'

The Cardmaster grumbled, but they heard the laminated shuffle of cards between his fingers and then click systematically as he placed a pile in front of each player. 'Alright, boy, no need to be a kiss-ass.'

'You're just jealous because I'd let him actually do it!' the Captain guffawed, slamming his fist on the table as he let out a grotesque belly laugh. 'In your dreams, Fate. So, boys, what are we betting tonight? Booze, broads, booty?'

'Ugh, no more booze, sir,' one of the men grumbled, as Quinn and Miss Fortune heard his head clunk onto the table. 'I ain't as much of a drinker as I was in my youth.'

'Then you're doin' it wrong, you soggy old git,' Gangplank scolded, hungrily lapping up a drink and clunking the tankard back down on the table. 'Well, seeing as Martyr's just about popped his clocks, let's see if a saucy wench would liven him up. Broad poker, gents?'

There was a murmur of general discussion and Quinn looked across to Sarah, who was shaking her head with an angry vein pulsating in her thin temple. The glower from the bounty hunter was troubling enough to focus the ranger to look away and back up to the chink of light above.

'Well, isn't that a bit dull when there's no women on board?' Yasuo pointed out, shifting with a crack in his chair. 'I mean, you're gorgeous, Planky, but I'd prefer to see some tits that aren't yours.'

'We'll just browse the goods when we get to Noxus,' Gangplank dismissed airily, cackling as his sausage fingers flicked through his hand. 'Won't it turn you on to lay with a Noxian lass, Yasuo? She could slit your throat for being an Ionian any minute, but that'd be all part of the fun. Those Noxians fillies are wild.'

'I'll just stick to the wayward Bilgies, thanks, Plank,' Yasuo sighed wearily, and the two ladies heard the scraping of betting chips moving across the wood. 'They don't take so much persuading. Anyway, I'm in.'

'Me too.'

'I fold, Plank.'

'I'm in,' the demon rasped, his slime beginning to trickle under the table and towards the nauseous spies below. 'Pay the Ionian no mind, Cap'n. The boy's just salty that you prevented him from hitching a ride with that traveller girl you was talkin' about earlier.'

'What traveller girl?' Yasuo asked curiously, tapping his fingertips on his cards. Quinn was not sure if she detected the slightest tinge of panic to his voice, and her heart fluttered with the absurdity of the situation.

'The toad means that pretty little thing you had with you when you first came to me in the Hydra today,' Gangplank explained shortly, snorting at Yasuo's confusion. 'Where did she go after she threw her little hissy fit because I wouldn't let her sail with the lads?'

'Lord knows,' the exile muttered, waiting for the round to be played. 'Qu- err…D-Demi's got a mind of her own. Probably shacking up with some Bilgie sailor, I don't know.'

'Nah, lad, that ain't gonna happen. I saw the way she was looking at our boy. You've got this Demi in the palm of your hand,' the Captain rumbled, laughing in glee as he slapped his cards down and scrabbled all of the chips towards him with an audible clatter. 'Well, she might be a petulant hussy, but she's a damn fine one. Have you hit that treasure yet?'

'Why does this matter to you, Plank?' Twisted Fate laughed off, and Miss Fortune's ears pricked up as she listened to her friend. 'You can see Yas is uncomfortable talking about it.'

'But that's exactly why we wanna pry into his life, Fate!' the Captain barked, and the table squeaked as he presumably leant forward. 'Why are you so awkward all of a sudden, Yas? You're normally damn smooth around any broad. Why's this one turning you into a jessie?'

'She isn't,' Yasuo replied simply, appearing to take a glug of his chosen drink. 'I don't really give two shits about her, to be honest. She's just a little fun for the road.'

'You know what, Unforgiven One, I ain't buying this bullshit,' the demon chuckled, his laugh turning into a hacking cough. 'Pardon me, fellas. Now listen here, exile. You care about her enough to have seen her one today and woken up to her the next. That's better than you normally are with the ladies.'

'No, really, Tahm. She's nothing to me. Bit of a side quest, if you know what I mean.'

The men laughed and the slap of skins in high-fives made tears smart in Quinn's eyes, with the bounty hunter throwing her a warning look and simultaneously putting a comforting arm on her shoulder. 'Not now,' she mouthed at the ranger, and the latter gave a tight nod.

'That's what we'll bet on then, Yas. You have 'til the end of the month to get over yourself and deflower that little rose, and if not, then I'll do it for you and make you watch,' the Captain growled, pausing for dramatic effect before laughing. The room nervously tittered along with the pirate lord. Anger steaming in her ears, it took everything Quinn had to not go storming upstairs and confront the bastards treating her like an object for their pleasure. But she caught sight of Sarah anxiously nibbling her lip, knowing she had waited so long to get so close to avenging her mother, and she stayed put as hurt crackled under her skin.

'Oh hell,' the bounty hunter muttered under her breath, staring over at the ranger. 'How do we get him to his room? They'll be here all night if we let them.'

'I don't give a shit. I want out of this.' The ranger stripped off her jacket and threw it to the floor with a sodden smack. 'Let's just hide it out until we reach Noxus.'

'You're kidding me, right?' Miss Fortune hissed under her breath, glaring at Quinn. 'We come all this way and you want to turn back now? No, Quinn. I've waited too long for this moment. Too damn long. Do this with me and I'll make you rich beyond your wildest dreams.'

'I prefer my dignity to having money,' the ranger spat back, kicking the jacket under a stool and collapsing down upon it. 'I was an idiot to follow Yasuo to Noxus. A stupid, naïve, idealistic little girl. I got suckered in like the rest of those poor women he's screwed over.'

'Happens to us all, Quinn,' Fortune sighed, straining her eyes against the gap in the floor. 'Come on, girl, we've come so far. If we kill him, we free Bilgewater. We stop him trading with the Noxians. We take the pressure off Ionia and Demacia, and Runeterra as a whole. Now focus. You can't let them win. Buck up, Demacian!'

'Alright, Bilgie,' the ranger scowled, letting herself be pulled along. All she could feel right now was solidarity with the one person she actually trusted in this establishment alongside Fate, and even Sarah had tried to kill her several times over.

'So, what's the plan?'

'Gangplank never, ever lets anyone go into his quarter of the ship, according to Tobias. So you'll hide in this cupboard,' – she pointed over to a broom closet in the distance – 'and then start making a noise. He'll go storming over here to investigate, probably take you into his office, and I'll sneak in through the window of his office to kill him from behind. He'll never see it coming. Quick, go!' the bounty hunter urged her quickly, shoving her down the stairs and running away from her. Her heart leaping horribly in her chest, she saw Sarah flash her a quick thumbs-up before nipping out into the night.

Quinn took a deep breath, feeling queasy as she pulled down her ripped shirt to let her cleavage swell out and stepped into the closet, banging on the door. Nothing happened for a long time, until she heard a disgustingly familiar voice swear at a crewmate for being too close to his quarters and then deafening footsteps taking chunks out of the floor. The Saltwater Scourge's glassy eyes widened in surprise as he opened the door. 'Whuh- YOU!'

'Captain? Oh, thank goodness!' the ranger began to sob quietly between coughs. 'It was so dusty and dark in there, I began to panic. I thought no one was coming for me.'

'No one should be coming for you,' the irate pirate noted dangerously, glaring at the alarmed young woman. 'What the hell are you doing on board, missy? I told you to stay behind, for fuck's sake! You'll bring us bad luck!'

'I know, just…I…' she choked up on the revolting inaccuracy of her next words, but ran a finger up along the Captain's arm. 'Yasuo smuggled me on because…well…I just had to have a chance to meet you alone, Cap'n. I'm sorry.'

'Alone?' he croaked, looking down at her teasing hand and frowning back up at her. 'Why do you need to see me? Are you part of the Slaughter Mafia?'

'Umm…no?' she confirmed with bemusement, although she noted the flash of panic in his eyes for future reference. 'Just…I've heard a lot about you, sir…about what you've done in these parts…and I've always wanted to meet you.'

'Ain't you with Yasuo?' the Captain asked in confusion, his piercing eyes drooping down to the greasy buttons she was beginning to undo on his tunic. 'What the fuck…?'

'Oh, you mean you don't like that?' the ranger asked him gently, locking eyes with him and instantly feeling her stomach turn at his horrific face, sliced by endless conflicts and seeped in death. 'I'm sorry, I can always…'

'No, no, no, darling,' he crooned suddenly, wrapping his cracked hands over hers and pulling them away from his shirt. 'I never said that. You just surprised me is all.'

She smiled shyly, knowing from Sarah that he always went for the innocent type because he perceived them as more of a challenge. It appeared to be working as he paused and then reached behind himself, his fingers deftly working with the snake-engraved lock of his office door. He let it swing behind him with an ominous creak. 'Come in, my sweet. No one will hear us in here.'

She smiled and bowed forward to him as she accepted his request, though her heart sunk as she noticed him locking the door again behind him and slipping the key into the pocket of his breeches.

'You'll have to fight me for it if you change your mind now, lassie,' he confirmed with a wink, before taking hold of her arm and forcing her to hop up onto his ring-stained mahogany desk. 'I assume you knew what you were getting into.'

'Oh, absolutely,' she agreed heartily, clasping her sweaty palms together on the knee of her trousers. She mentally noted the possible escape routes and weapons around her as he turned away and made them both a drink, puzzled at the framed picture of a young, beautiful dark-skinned woman, but her head snapped up as he handed her a frothing drink.

'I guess a little danger won't hurt. Here's to adventure,' he declared, throwing the shot back and roaring as he smashed the glass against the wall and staring hungrily at her. 'Your turn.'

The ranger knocked back the foul-smelling liquid which fighting the urge to retch, but she managed it all and followed Gangplank by destroying the crystal grass next to him. He whooped and clapped before suddenly pressing in closer towards her, trapping her between the desk and himself. His ghostly eyes fixated on her and they stood nose-to-nose, his golden tooth shining in the candle-light as he threw her a wolfish grin. 'So…Demi, wasn't it? What have you heard about the great Gangplank that brought you to me?'

'Everything,' the ranger improvised, trying to keep eye contact with the lecherous man now running his hands up and down the back of her back, the hairs on the back of her neck spiking up with adrenaline. She nervously watched the frosty window behind him for Sarah, pulling him closer to hide her line of sight. Quinn shuddered as she got closer to him, knowing the sorts of crimes those hands were capable of committing, but she persevered in wrapping one arm around his shoulders until his rough ear brushed against hers. He placed his hands on the small of her back and bucked her hips in towards him, rocking her sinisterly from side to side.

'You ain't the first woman to throw herself at me,' he purred, picking at the hooked buttons down the back of her shirt, 'and you ain't gonna be the last. Tell me why I should spend my precious time with a little scrap like you?'

'I saw the way you were looking at me today in the tavern,' Quinn whispered into his ear, her eyes dilating anxiously in the silvery moonlight as she still saw no sign of Sarah. 'I know that look. You couldn't stop thinking about me all day, could you?'

'That's mighty presumptuous of you, girl,' he tutted, though he began to plant sloppy kisses across her shoulder as she died inwardly with revulsion. 'There's many an attractive filly in Bilgewater, so what makes you so special?'

'Because I'm nothing like the rest,' she teased softly, sneaking a glance at the gnarly clock hung up on Gangplank's wall and wondered how long she could hold out before the pirate lost his patience. 'You know I wouldn't just throw myself at any normal man, don't you?'

'Nice to know that you have a good taste in men, Demi,' he concurred, moving his hands to the sides of her ribcage and running his fingers along it like a xylophone. 'I'm impressed.'

'I knew you would be,' she confirmed quietly, her eyes closing in horror as she felt his ragged breath on her neck. 'Yasuo's alright for a bit of boyish fun, but a real woman just needs a real man, you know?'

'I don't blame you, poppet,' the pirate lord slurred, pulling away from her and cupping her face in his hand. 'Bet you've never seen one 'til now. Demacia only ever tends to produce those weak ass pretty boys who look good on the battlefield and look better dead on one.'

The ranger froze up completely, unable to tear her eyes away from the glowing triumphant in the Saltwater Scourge's filmy stare, but she tried to overcome the hitch in her breath. 'Huh?'

'I know exactly who you are, Demacian. Don't think you've fooled the great Gangplank for one damn second,' the pirate snarled, his dirty nails digging painfully into her chin to make her look at him. 'I know everybody in these parts, girlie. And you were very, very unwise to think that this would ever work out. Now, stand there and look pretty. Here comes someone who's been very anxious to meet you…so much so that he gave me the largest damn transaction I've ever had the pleasure of doing. Talon?'

Gulping in fear, the pirate lord snapped his fingers and suddenly the door behind him was kicked straight off its hinges. The deafening thud juddered straight through the ranger's nerves, and she peered through the darkness as Gangplank jolted her head to look directly at the door. Her stomach pooled in terror as she looked at the tall, lean, slouching figure that ducked his head under the doorway, and she felt herself go limp in the pirate's grip as her golden eyes locked with burning ochre. The familiar thin slash of a smile curled back to show his wolfish lips, blades spinning in hand, until he tucked one under her sweaty chin and tilted her head to look at him. 'Good work, Plank. I'll take it from here.'