Joanna felt as if she was watching the room some distance from her own body. Everything in the room had gone still, and her pulse beating loudly in her ears went almost completely ignored. Moments before, she had been struggling against the man who had dragged her from across the house, but the ache in her arms was nothing but a vague sensation now. She paid it little attention as someone appeared in the doorway behind Elena.

A well-dressed Terran stepped through with no weapon in sight, and he paused for just a moment to scan the room. With his hands clasped behind his back, he seemed as calm as any guest would be. He was clearly much older than her aunt, probably well into his sixties, and yet he still sauntered in with the confidence of a man who was in quite good health for his age. Elena's eyes moved briefly at the sound of the floor creaking, but she still kept the gun pointed towards the man holding Joanna. The newcomer wasn't alone, however. Two more plainly-dressed men followed in after him with pistols drawn, but it wasn't until the unarmed man spoke that her aunt's demeanor changed.

"Elena," he greeted, and though his voice was cold, a smile grew under his thick, gray mustache.

While her aunt didn't move at all, the arm that held the gun trembled for a brief moment before she readjusted her grip. Though it was just for an instant, Joanna had seen it—and that scared her more than anything else.

The older man walked up next to Elena, his clothing impeccably tailored with gold thread running throughout the maroon suit and coat. A dark neck scarf contrasted against his narrow beard that was more gray and white than black. He looked at her curiously, despite the fact she seemed to ignore him. Her aunt's gaze hadn't left the man holding Joanna at gunpoint, but she certainly must have been able to see the older man from the corner of her eye now.

"Well…." he began, drawing in a long breath. "This is a reunion long overdue, is it not?" Low and confident, his voice sounded like he was stepping into a simple business meeting, and while it was clear he came from the isles, his accent was much stronger than Elena's. He studied her face with a slight tilt of his head before his mouth pulled into a slight frown. Joanna watched her aunt's expression shift into something that would have appeared fiercely angry to anyone else. To her, however… there was something else.

"…Abraham," she greeted back coldly.

For a moment, Joanna was back in her body. She could feel her breath catch in her throat as a wave of gut-wrenching anxiety washed over her. This is her father?

The man took a step closer to her, and Joanna couldn't understand why she let him—why she didn't turn the gun on him instead. Reaching a hand towards her face, he delicately pushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear, and again… she saw something in her aunt she had never seen before. Elena visibly shuddered, and her brows drew together for an instant before her glare deepened.

Though Abraham didn't react, the man holding Joanna did. He took a hesitant step back at the look on Elena's face, his arm still holding the young woman tightly across her neck and shoulders. He pressed the gun against the side of her face, but she didn't feel her body react in any other way than it was already.

"It makes… what, eighteen years now? Time has been kind to you," Abraham said quietly, still studying his daughter's reaction. As he let his hand fall, his fingertips brushed her cheek, and Elena's expression finally broke. Her eyes shut tightly in a grimace before opening narrowly, the dim light in the room reflecting all too well in them.

Seemingly satisfied, he walked towards the fireplace. With his hands clasped behind his back once more, he paused to inspect the items sitting on the mantle for a moment before he moved over to her desk. He unbuttoned his coat and sat down in the high-backed chair, gesturing towards the men in the doorway. One of them grabbed the simpler wooden chair that had sat in the corner of the room, dropping it down in front of the desk loudly. They both watched Elena's pistol warily from the edge of the room, though it was clear they weren't going to make a move against her without orders.

"Take a seat," Abraham said, and for the first time, Elena turned her head to face him directly. Whatever had been in her eyes earlier had been blinked away, and when she did not respond, his slight grin faded into the same cold glare she had. His voice became harsh. "I will not say it again. Sit. Down."

Her aunt continued to meet his gaze defiantly, never moving her pistol that was still trained on the man holding Joanna. As his dark eyes narrowed, Abraham sat back against the chair. He glanced towards the man at the door, and Joanna's stomach sunk as she watched helplessly. One of them walked up behind Elena, lifting his leg as if to kick hers from behind and send her to her knees. Before Joanna was able to shout a warning, however, her aunt had turned and shot the man.

The sound was incredibly loud in the small room. Before the man could even cry out, Elena took a step towards the desk and pointed the gun towards Abraham, though she used her other hand to steady it now as well. The room went still again. Abraham looked across at it with a raised brow as the gun emitted a high-pitched whine, and the man on the ground shouted all kinds of obscenities at her while putting pressure on his leg that bled slowly into the floorboards.

"What is the logic here?" The older man asked from behind the desk with no concern for the injured one on the ground. His dark tone from earlier had disappeared and was replaced by a condescending level of propriety.

"Your feud is with me," Elena said steadily, albeit through gritted teeth. "Let the girl go."

He never once looked over at Joanna. She guessed she mattered as little as the man on the floor. "Again… what would the logic be there?" he asked as he leaned forward slightly.

"I own this city," she spat, moving forward the same distance.

"You did."

Anger sparked anew in her eyes. "You may have slipped past the fort, but you will not—"

"Is that what you think happened?" His laughing interruption sent the room into silence, including the man on the ground who clearly bit back any sound of pain he looked desperate to make. "Come now. We both know this was not luck."

Elena's grip on the pistol visibly tightened, though the rest of her body may as well have been stone. Her glare betrayed nothing as she stated aloud what he clearly thought to be obvious.

"Someone convinced the men in the fort not to shoot you down, then," she said.

"…Is that all?" His eyes crinkled with a subtle grin that hid behind the beard.

"It does not matter. The crews here have no interest in loyalty to you."

"Enough of them already do. Enough to cause the rest to fall in line," he replied casually, taking a deep breath. "I do appreciate what you have done with this place… I will be happy to take it off your hands."

The silence that fell was thick. Abraham clearly waited for her reaction, and she could tell Elena was taking the time to channel the swelling anger inside of her into words.

"…I will watch this place burn before you can have it."

He folded his hands in his lap, his smile disappearing. "A familiar and….pointless threat."

Her voice rose slightly. "You will bring hell upon yourselves trying to keep this place. You know doña Maria will not be—"

"Should I remind you of the hell you have already brought upon yourself? It did not go away, morrita." His tone remained calm, yet his eyes had became sinister and dark. "You betrayed your family. Let me remind you what that looks like."

When there was movement in the doorway, Elena stepped back quickly from the desk. The injured man was dragged out as he grunted and cursed. He left a trail of blood in his wake that Joanna would have called a disturbing sight, but she had a feeling whatever was about to happen next would be give an unfortunate new perspective on the word. Two more Terran men appeared from the hallway. They pulled someone inside who could barely stand, and when they threw the person to the ground, Joanna couldn't help but gasp as the young man's head hit the floorboards with an audible crack.

He was just a boy, she realized. With a groan, he tried to get to his feet, but one of Abraham's men grabbed him by the hair to pull his head back. He sat on bent knees, looking up with an eye so swollen he couldn't possibly see anything from it. With his face beaten so bloody, it was hard to separate out the different injuries: the broken nose, split lip, and the eye. His brown hair was plastered to his face, wet and red, though streaks of salty tears had washed away some of the blood.

"This young man helped betray the Ortega family," Abraham said, clicking his tongue with a shake of his head. "He ran messages between the crews that betrayed you for months without informing you."

Elena turned slightly towards the boy despite keeping her pistol on Abraham. Though Joanna couldn't see her aunt's face, she watched the older woman take a deep breath, her shoulders lowering slightly. The man behind the desk smiled again.

"Evidently, Price has been planning things in detail on his own for quite some time now. He had the men who work the fort convinced to join him, and, well…" He gestured vaguely. "At that point, I only had to convince Price to turn on you. A single man, as opposed to half the island. He made things awfully convenient, no?"

Elena's head lifted slightly, and Joanna could hear her scoff quietly. Abraham leaned forward over the desk, resting his arms on it and tapping a finger as he watched her face with curiosity. When she turned back to look at him, her eyes narrowed, but her silence seemed to annoy him.

"Does this not anger you?" His lip curled back until his mustache touched his teeth. When she didn't answer him, he sat back into the chair again, looking disappointed. "…Family is everything, morrita. That is a lesson this boy should have been taught already."

With a frown, he waved a hand towards his men. The two that had dragged the boy in grabbed him by the arms again, and Elena adjusted her grip on the pistol, exhaling sharply.

"Leave him be, Abraham."

He ignored her completely, smoothing down his beard with one hand and resting the other on the arm of the chair casually. Elena maintained eye contact with him despite what was happening to her right, but Joanna couldn't help but see everything. One of the men tried forcing the boy's mouth open, and as he fought him, the man resorted to a knife between his teeth. Next was a piece of wood, keeping the boy from shutting his mouth. When Joanna caught the glint of some other metal tool, she felt like she was back in her body for a moment. A reeling sense of vertigo made her legs feel weak as she realized what was about to happen.

The boy let out a horrific scream as the tongue was cut from his mouth. Joanna finally looked away to where Elena and Abraham still held one another's gaze, and she watched her aunt's expression break for a moment… much to the amusement of her father. The young boy's entire body shook from the pain, and blood spilled from his mouth and down the front of his shirt. The two men holding his arms looked to Abraham for further instructions. He simply frowned at Elena.

"You will come home. Your family has not forgotten all that you have done." With that, he nodded at his men, who pulled the boy onto his back. He didn't even have the strength to fight it.

Joanna's breath caught in her throat as the boy's body convulsed in coughing fits from the blood that pooled in his mouth. Though he tried to spit it out to breathe, one of the men clamped a hand down on his nose and mouth, and the boy began to choke on the red liquid that blocked his airway. Though it was hard to look away from, she saw that Abraham was still watching Elena, despite the fact her aunt was finally looking down towards the boy.

"You will come home," he repeated. "You have far too much to lose now."

Elena's free hand trembled slightly, and she shook it before balling it into a fist. The two men tensed as she lifted her pistol—though the shot wasn't for them. The bullet hit the boy cleanly through his head, and his body instantly relaxed into the floorboards. Joanna finally drew in a breath.

The men who'd been holding him moved back quickly, reaching for their own weapons before standing down hesitantly at Abraham's raised hand. Elena didn't lift the gun again to any of them, and Joanna grew nervous as she let it hang down at her side. She still couldn't see her aunt's face, but she didn't need to see her expression to know where her thoughts had gone.

"…Let her go first."

"Aunt Len, don't!" The man with his arm around Joanna's neck tightened his grip, tapping the gun painfully against her temple. Elena glanced over at her for a moment, and their eyes met as Joanna felt tears well up.

"I am not negotiating on that matter."

"You will have to," Elena replied strongly. "Let her go."

Abraham scoffed. "Though I am surprised to see your affection for her, I was not speaking of just the girl," he said, causing Elena to look back at him quickly. His expression had lost all of its sneering pride, and his gaze settled on her with a dark sincerity. "…I can see to it that he hangs as well. In the same place. In the same way. Remember that."

Elena was silent. Though her aunt's expression didn't change, her shoulders rose and fell visibly with each breath.

"By the way…" The smirk slowly returned to Abraham's mouth as he lifted his hand to run two fingers down his cheek slowly. "How did that face of his heal?"

"You would have done it by now," she spat back, though the statement wasn't quite as harsh as she probably intended. She sounded breathless.

Abraham chuckled. "Again… what would the logic be in that? Nuisance as he may be… he is better as a bargaining chip," he replied, his voice dropping again. "You will come home, morrita. The longer you put it off, the more you will live to regret it."

Joanna watched her glance over towards the men standing over the boy's body. Her response still pending in the silence, Elena looked at Joanna then, and the man with his arm around her neck pulled her slightly more in front of himself. Her aunt's brows drew together as she narrowed her eyes, her gaze dropping to the pistol in her hand. She regarded it contemplatively, her mouth pulling back in a sneer as her father spoke again.

"What will it be?"

In a quick movement, Elena shot out the light above the man who held Joanna with a loud pop. Hot glass rained down, and he shouted, twisting to avoid it. Joanna nearly tripped as the man's grip on her faltered, and then… she found herself standing alone. The second shot had left him a crumpled heap on the floor, and Joanna looked down at him with wide eyes before watching Elena turn towards the other side of the room.

Though the other two men had started towards them, they now hesitated with her gun pointed their way, looking towards the man behind the desk for orders. Abraham shook his head slowly. Whether it was in response to his men's uncertain expressions or to his daughter, she couldn't be sure. Elena took a careful step backwards, reaching out a hand that Joanna found herself looking down at hesitantly.

"Open the door, Joanna."

She had heard the statement, but she still felt as if she was watching everything above her own body. Coming back to it now seemed impossible. Reaching out blindly, her aunt's hand grabbed her own. Joanna dizzily forced herself to look down towards the floor, making sure not to trip on the man's boot as she opened the door to the balcony with trembling fingers. The warm, humid air outside made everything more real, which was in no way a comfort. At least no one was outside in the darkness.

When Joanna looked back to the room past Elena, it was still frozen in place—except for Abraham. He stood slowly, his fingertips brushing the surface of the desk. He regarded Elena with a look of disappointment so harsh it was probably better to call it disgust.

"The longer you put this off, the more you will lose," he said, his eyes narrowing into a scowl. "I will see to it that you have nowhere left to hide. No one left to turn to."

"Step back," Elena's voice quietly addressed her, though she couldn't bring herself to move again just yet.

"You think I cannot bring hell down upon him as well?" Though Elena had stepped to the side and blocked her view of him for a moment, she could still hear Abraham's voice. "His crew will beg to hunt you down to turn you in themselves. To end their own suffering. And when he inevitably refuses… they will turn on him, as well."

"Go." Elena had turned just enough to mutter the word breathlessly to her, and she finally took a step back. Her aunt didn't let go of her hand, however, and she stepped with her. For a brief moment, Joanna could see Abraham again in the gap between the doorway and where Elena stood now. The way he looked at her was disturbing—not exactly with anger, but not exactly hatred.

"You will watch them suffer," he continued quietly, something in his eyes not matching the rest of his expression. With the smirk playing at the corner of his mouth, Joanna began to feel like she knew what it was. "You will watch him hang."

He enjoyed the fear.

With Elena aiming her gun their way, his men made no attempt to rush them. Joanna couldn't help but feel something was wrong, though. Even as they walked across the balcony unfollowed, with her aunt stepping carefully backwards with her gun still raised, Joanna didn't feel like she could breathe any easier. If anything, her heart seemed to beat faster.

Once on the other side, Elena shut the door to the master bedroom quickly behind them, suddenly pulling her along with a speed that shocked her. In a daze, she followed her down the narrow servant's corridor hidden in the wall, taking them down to the kitchen. Despite the darkness, it didn't seem like anyone was downstairs or out in the other courtyard. It wasn't until Elena was unlocking a gate in the fence that had been hidden by the bushes that Joanna glanced back towards the house.

"Wait."

"We need to hurry," Elena whispered sharply, stopping suddenly when she realized Joanna's hand had slipped out of her own.

"What about Israel or James or…?" While Joanna looked over her shoulder at the house, the door that led to the back hallway hung open and swung in the breeze. The window of their room was nothing more than a pile of glass in the yard. The lower level was completely dark.

"Come on."

She felt Elena pulling on her arm, and she didn't fight it as the facts she could see with her own eyes swirled around in her head for meaning. They moved silently through several backstreets, though they luckily didn't come across anyone. In the distance, a fire raging cast an orange glow against all of the taller buildings, and the booming echo of cannon fire sounded far away, likely on the other side of the island. At the mouth of a narrow alley, Elena stopped, and Joanna nearly bumped into her.

"Where did James go?" she asked quietly.

Her aunt didn't turn as they caught their breath. "I do not know."

"What are we going to do about Israel?"

"I do not know."

Joanna could hear shouting nearby, and she looked down to the tight grip Elena still had on her hand. "Where are we going?"

The older woman went silent. Joanna glanced back as she heard gunshots not too far off, and she watched as a few people went running by on the street at the end of the alley. After a moment of no response, Joanna pulled her hand free so that she could step up next to her aunt. Her dark hair had fallen out of place in a disheveled curtain over one shoulder, and her eyes were distant.

"Aunt Len?"

She didn't say anything right away, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath that shook her shoulders slightly. Joanna waited, and although she had caught her breath, the loud pounding of her heart had been replaced by a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.

"We should not have been able to get away," Elena said quietly, her eyes fluttering open and focused somewhere far off.

The air was uncomfortably warm, and Joanna could feel sweat drip down her back. "What?"

The older woman's face twisted in confusion briefly before she shook her head slightly. "He let us go," she said to herself more than anything. "He let us go."

"Aunt Len?" Despite the chaos breaking out over the island, the sense of urgency from moments ago was gone. Joanna's words did nothing to catch her attention.

The young woman found herself wishing to go back to that dissociative state from before. She didn't want to be in her body—didn't want to see her aunt who always had control over everything slipping into something similar now. Her stomach twisted almost painfully just as the yelling across the way grew louder. Her heart jumping in her chest, Joanna instantly took a step towards the sound, her eyes set on the end of the alleyway. A single voice shouted over the others, and it was followed by a loud crash.

"That's Israel," Joanna said breathlessly without doubt. She glanced back at Elena, but the older woman hadn't reacted at all to what she had said, so with a determined frown, Joanna grabbed her hand and pulled her along. "Come on!"

When they reached the end of the alley, the street was deserted. Across the way, however, a small barrel rolled from another break in the buildings, and Joanna headed towards it with a tight grip on Elena's hand. In the narrow lane, a single figure stood in the dim light coming from the main streets, a mess of knocked over crates blocking the way to the other side. It was Isreal, looking down at the still boots of someone underneath. He noticed their shadows and turned quickly with trembling hands and a torn sleeve.

"You're okay!" she exclaimed as his ears perked up for a brief moment despite the look on his face.

He seemed to be in a bit of shock, and his mouth opened silently as he tried to point to the scene behind him. "They grabbed me—I—I…"

She let go of her aunt's hand behind her to reach for Israel, touching him gently on the arm as she watched his eyes blink frantically. "But you're okay, though, right?" He turned his head back towards the pile of crates, a look of confusion on his face. "What happened?"

He wasn't the one who answered her, however.

"Sorry, sorry!" An uneasy voice called out from the other side of the alley, and the one scaling the mountain of broken wood was not who she would have expected. "Whoopsie. Not exactly the intention there… You think they'll be okay?" The copper robot standing precariously on a barrel at the top of the stack scratched his head with his knees and elbows tucked in sheepishly.

"B.E.N.?" Her voice had broken into a shocked laugh.

"Oh, hey, Joanna! Your new friend here said you were around somewhere—yikes!" He took a step that ended with him tripping down the mountain of splintered wood, just barely catching himself before landing face-first on the cobblestones. Pausing in his wide-armed stance to maintain his balance, he looked at her with a tilt of his head. "Say, did you get… taller?"

She tore her eyes away from the AI scratching his chin contemplatively to give a bewildered gesture in Israel's direction. The Crocutan caught her eye and sighed, his shoulders dropping as he leaned against the wall of the building.

"Before they dragged me out, I switched him on," he explained, his brows lifting. "I figured it was worth a shot."

B.E.N. had his arm over her shoulders in an instant then, leaning in close enough to bump her head with his and make her wince slightly. He dropped his voice to a whisper still loud enough to be heard by all. "Between you and me—the guys he was hanging out with seem like baaad news." He chuckled nervously, pointing a thumb back at the pair of boots. "Are you sure you haven't gotten taller? No? Maybe you're doing something different with your hair? Wait, wait. I'll get it. Let me guess."

A shadow moved across the alley as Elena stepped up closer to the three of them, finally speaking. "We need to move before more of them come looking for us." Her voice was stern, sounding more like the aunt she knew.

"Where, though?" Joanna turned to look at her, feeling the robot's arm slip away. "Do you have a ship here?"

The sky around them lit up for a moment as something exploded in the distance. As the sound of cannon fire continued, Elena looked over her shoulder with a deep breath before replying. "Likely not."

Joanna frowned. "…Will Avery help us?"

The distant look in Elena's eyes returned for just a moment. "If we can find him."

.

.

Author's Note:

Coming soon... Chapter 18: Libertalia Falls.