37.4KB/15 pages without notes.
Well, this took a bit longer than I was hoping in order to get it out, but it's rather understandable; I'm back at school now, and I have less time to work on any of my works of fiction. I have thirty hours per week of classes to take, and as I'm in second semester, there's a lot of work to be done. Of course, I'm also on academic probation, which means that I have to get my butt in gear and do my work. Cuts into my fanfiction time, but quite frankly, getting that exceedingly high paying job that I'm told I'll get if I pass my Computer Engineering Technologies course takes precedence.
Not that I have a job right now... ah, the joys of being money-less. I survive off of the allowance my parents give me (why yes, I am eighteen...) and what cash I got for my birthday (in October-- it's mostly gone now) and for Christmas (substantially less than my birthday money).
Oh well, I have my Kingdom Hearts, my Pirates of the Caribbean, my Highlander, and my Priest manwha (no, that is _not_ a misspelling of "manga") to occupy my time. Hmm... maybe my next fic should be a Priest/Kingdom Hearts fusion, although that will be harder to place the characters. Ivan would be... Riku; Lizzie/Kairi; Coburn/Sora; Temozarela/Ansem; Novic/Cairo/Donald/Goofy; Lucian/... uh... I can't really think of someone who matches Father Lucian. Well, there goes my attempt to cast Priest as Kingdom Hearts characters.
Anyone else a fan of Priest, or is it just me? If it's just me, then I really _do_ have to write that fusion, just to turn people on to the manwha. It's _good_ man; real good! Go. Read it. Now. It may be a bit hard to find volume one, since it's been out for a year or so now-- been reading it since the second volume was released (bought 1 & 2 at the same time... there are 10 volumes so far. They come out, roughly, every second month or so.
Bah, you don't want to hear me rambling about Priest, so onto the review response.
Alana Hikari-Chan - Yes, he's in mortal peril. It is a time of piracy, after all. And I have issues with the 'to' 'too' thing. I can never remember when 'too' is supposed to be used-- so I tend to ignore it, and hope people don't notice ^_^;;
Disclaimer in Part One.
--------
Pirates of Destiny Isle
Part Five
Priest Li Xiang
--------
Had he taken two moments longer, he knew, without a doubt, that he would have been dead. Unfortunately, he had no idea if he would survive his current mess-- he'd been far to close to the explosion when it went off, and had been knocked unconscious. As luck would have it, death was not to take him that day as despite being flung from the exploding ship, he had somehow managed to land on a section of the hull that was not on fire. But unfortunately for Riku Turner, he had been out for five and a half hours, and the Black Pearl was little more than a speck on sunlit waves.
Dammit all.
To be perfectly honest, Riku didn't know if he could die. He wasn't really... real, after all. It was strange to think of himself as abstractly as that, but it was the truth-- his body was in the hands of Ansem, and he himself was a form crafted by his Heart, when it had been ejected from his then Heartless body. Why the curse hadn't been transferred with his Heart, he did not know, but for some reason he suspected that his Heart was not supposed to have been able to survive without his body.
It almost made him wish that he and Sora hadn't decided to see the outside world all those long years ago. It almost made him want to be back on that island in the middle of nowhere, surviving with their families. Almost.
Riku wouldn't give up everything that had happened to them since that day he, Sora, Tidus, Wakka and Selphie had set sail, eager to see the world. While it had been harsh, and they had all changed from the children they had been at the time, it had defined him. It had defined Sora, as well. The oh-so-noticeable changes of the past ten years played a large part as well. Sora was not the brash, almost hyper youth he'd been. He, himself, was not the smirking, arrogant man that had been Sora's better in nearly everything.
So much had changed, he knew, but still... some part of him hummed with anticipation. Some part of him whispered that they were nearing this adventure's end, and about to set sail upon another. Hardship after hardship had befallen them, but the sun was on the horizon, and for the first time in a decade, it wasn't red.
Now, he just had to stop thinking so poetically, and start trying to find a way to either get back to land, or catch up with the Black Pearl. He was seriously doubting the possibility of the second.
---
"Well then, missy, since you're no use to us, I see no reason to keep ye aboard," the white haired Ansem was grinning maliciously at Kairi, who stood nervously at the end of the plank. They had set sail almost immediately for a small spit of land, having decided to take care of some 'left over' business. It was most unfortunate, Ansem reflected somewhat sourly, that the young Turner had perished with the Highwind; something he had only learned when the redheaded girl had accidentally spilled the fact that Riku Turner had been on ship when it went up.
They would be taking the crew of the Highwind to every port-- pirate or not-- that they came across, to make a point. For each port, one man of Sparrow and Turner's crew would be executed, and their bodies "gifted" to the people who manned the ports. It would be a warning for those who thought to rise up against Ansem and the Black Pearl-- no one could win. Forever and eternity, they would be pirates, and they would track down any man, woman or child with the name of Turner, and spill their blood across the Aztec gold. Certainly someone out there had to be a relative of Bootstrap's-- a brother, sister, or cousin of some sort or another.
But for now, they were taking care of the useless Miss Kairi-- who had repeatedly refused to give her true family name-- and the damn near impossible to kill Sora Sparrow. Sorry, 'Captain' Sora Sparrow.
"Though..." Ansem continued, tapping his chin with a thoughtful look, "It does seem a shame to lose something so fine, don't it lads?" His crew laughed in agreement, and Ansem turned his gaze fully back to the Governor's daughter, "So I'll be having that dress back before you go."
Sora rolled his eyes at the dramatics, before leaning over to one of the men who was holding him in place, "You know," he tried, in a last attempt to save his own hide, "I always liked you."
"Shut it, Sparrow," the pirate snapped back, eyes raking across Kairi's form as she pealed the wine-colored dress from her body, eyes narrowing sharply as she glowered at the pirate captain. Her lips were tightly pursed, and cheeks flushed with anger and embarrassment. She was down to the white cotton dress that was her under garments, and although it was thankfully cooler without the heavy dress to soak up the sunshine, it was still embarrassing to be without the top dress. Kairi spat at him, "It matches the empty place where your heart used to be."
"Ah, but I still have a Heart," Ansem grinned, nuzzling the cloth, "Oooh, it's still warm."
"Of course it is," she shot back flatly, "The sun's still up, isn't it?"
"I never did much care for that mouth of yours," Malificent sneered, before stomping on her end of the plank, and sending Kairi off with a small shriek of surprise. Laughter arose amongst the pirates of the Black Pearl, and even under the waters, Kairi swore she could hear their mocking tones. With a kick, she broke the surface of the warm waters, shaking limp red hair out of her face, and glaring up at the ship. Then she began towards the near-by island, thankful that Riku, her father, and Commodore Loire had thought it prudent for her to learn how to swim, what with the area of the world she was living in.
"I really had rather hoped we were past all of this," no, he was not whining, no matter how much it sounded like he was. Captain Sora Sparrow did _not_ whine. Ever. Even when Bootstrap had stolen his favorite sword-- he never whined. He didn't pout either, he reminded himself, trying to pull his bottom lip back in, and restrain the puppy-dog eyes that wanted so desperately to come into play. They hadn't worked on Ansem a decade prior, they wouldn't work on his former first mate this time, either.
"Sora, Sora, Sora," Ansem scolded with a chuckle, "Did ye not notice? That bit of island is the same spit that we made you Governor of one our last little trip."
Sparrow winced slightly, trying not to follow as Ansem pointed out the tiny tropical island, but unable to help himself, "I did notice."
"Perhaps you'll be able to conjure up another miraculous escape," the scorn in the Heartless Pirate's voice was practically dripping from his words, "But I thoroughly doubt that. Off you go now," and his sword tip rested on the prominent edge of Sora's collarbone. The younger pirate swallowed slightly, before alighting on a proper plan.
"Last time you left me a pistol with one shot," he reminded the man cheerfully, pushing the sword away and ignoring the way it scraped painfully across his skin.
"By the powers, you're right!" Ansem was grinning, as it had obviously struck him before, and he had only been waiting to see if the mad Sparrow would recall his weaponry, "Lads! Where be Sora's pistol? Bring it forward!"
"Seeing as there's two of us," Sora threw in with a wry grin, "A gentleman would give us a pair of pistols."
The narrowed eyed stare he got in return told him, point blank, that he was stepping over the invisible lines Ansem had put pretty much everywhere, "It'll be one pistol, same as before, and you can be the gentleman and shoot the lady, and starve to death yourself." Without another word, the pistol was thrown overboard, and Sora followed it over almost desperately. Again, the pirates' mocking laughter followed the man.
Don't you worry, Sora thought, snatching up his weaponry, directing a furious glare through the water towards his ship, I will get my revenge, Ansem. Not just for stealing my ship, but for taking my crew-- my _family_. You're a dead man, as soon as I figure out how to kill you.
---
"Man overboard!"
The shout brought Riku back to full consciousness, and his section of the Highwind's hull dipped as he tried to push himself up into a seated position, not quite sure of where he was. When the water splashed on him, he recalled his position and groaned slightly, shading his ocean-blue eyes. Eyes that widened significantly as he recognized the ship that had come up alongside of him. Several familiar faces peered over the edge, including the scarred visage of one Commodore Leon Loire.
"I'm pleased to see that you're still alive, Mister Turner," the former pirate called down, and though his tone and face were blank, Riku had had enough experience-- both with the pirate and with the commodore-- to recognize the smug look in his eyes.
"Alive is a relative term, Leonhart!" he shouted back, stretching out to grasp the rope that had been dropped into the waters by him. He was weak from the sun, but the fact that he was near someone he had known for many, many years-- as well as the possibility of having real food-- gave him enough strength to hold the rope until he was pulled on board. The pirate turned blacksmith rubbed his face tiredly as he came on deck, and found himself facing the cool gaze of Commodore Loire, "Before you even think of the irons, Leonhart, I suggest you listen to what I say, or neither of us will see Kairi again."
"My name," the Commodore stressed with narrowed eyes, "Is Leon Loire. Not Leonhart."
"You can keep pretending, Squall," Riku was careful to keep his voice just as quiet as the Commodore's had been as they spoke. For the crew to learn that the man they sailed under had once been a pirate... well, very little good could possibly come from it, "But I knew you fifteen years ago, and I know you now. You're not as different as you pretend to be."
The words startled the man, and his storm-gray eyes searched the ocean-blues of the youth before him, and found in them, an old friend. Someone he'd not seen in ten years; someone long thought dead, and one that he and his men had pulled from the waters with four others that had eventually become a pirate under his command, "Bootstrap."
"The one and only," Riku's smile was tight, "And right now, both Sora and Kairi are in the hands of dear ol'Captain Ansem."
Leon Loire stared long and hard at the youth, "I cannot do what I once did."
"Why not?" Riku stared hard at the man, "Are you scared, Squall? Is that it? Is that why you gave up? Why you turned your back on what you are, what you've always been, just to become what you've always hated?"
"You don't know what you're talking about," the commodore growled, voice low and harsh. Riku's eyes lit with amusement.
"That has to be it," was his smug response, "You only get riled up when someone guesses what's on your mind, Squally-boy."
"Don't. Call. Me. That," Leon ground out eyes flashing with barely suppressed rage. The blacksmith stared the man down, meeting him gaze for gaze, as he had those long years ago when he had asked to become a part of the crew of the Balamb. Well, asked being a relative term-- Riku had all but demanded. And he had liked it. He liked have the brash youth under his command, doing what he asked. While he had disliked being made Captain of the Balamb when old Cid had gone off to some island or another to be with his wife, he had _liked_ knowing that he had someone as strong as Riku 'Bootstrap' Turner under his command.
Even as a Commodore, even as highly feared by pirates as he was, he missed that. He missed that sense of control and belonging that he had once had when he had been a pirate.
But... he had responsibilities now. He couldn't just take up that life style anymore.
"Why not?"
He started, not realizing that he had spoken aloud, and looked back up into the eyes of the younger body of his one-time friend, the best friend of his former first mate, Sora Sparrow. While the face was younger, those eyes were as old as he should have been-- something that Loire had missed all those times that the blacksmith and he had met during the duration of his stays at Destiny Island.
"It's... not right."
"Since when has that stopped you?" the boy wondered, "Squall, you were given to Cid and Edea by the Governor of Port Royal-- your own father. He knew they were pirates, and he still let them have you. You weren't meant for the position you're in." Leon's stare said it all, demanding to know why he thought such things, and Riku shrugged, "Come on, Leonhart, where's that fire Almasy always ranted about when we crossed blades? Where's that screw-the-rules attitude you always used to take? What happened to you, old friend?"
"Seif... Almasy is dead," Leon's flat tone said he would not expand on it, but Turner had the feeling that Squall felt it was his fault that his friend turned enemy had been executed for piracy. Despite the intervening decade and a half since the blonde pirate captain had been killed, the commodore still felt that it was his fault that the man had been killed. It was a harsh judgment on himself, Riku knew. He'd been in much the same position when he had gone along with Ansem's mutiny plans-- some lingering sense of guilt had plagued him, even during those memory-less years as a young blacksmith, until he had seen Sora's face when they fought in the smithy.
He knew that Leonhart wouldn't get the chance to see the blonde again, but that shouldn't have stopped him in the first place. Turner sighed heavily, "Just... think about it, okay? I'll be in your office, stealing your liquor."
---
He barely held back the groan as the girl tromped after him, "But you were marooned on this island before, weren't you? So we can escape in the same way you did then!"
"To what point and purpose?" he wondered, whirling on her, the beads fluttering around his face, "The Black Pearl is gone and unless you have a rudder and a lot of sails hidden in that bodice-- unlikely-- there's no way to get off this sand heap!"
"But... but you're Captain Sora Sparrow!" She ignored it as he rapped on one of the trees, putting it off to his obvious insanity, "You vanished under the eyes of seven agents of the East India company! You sacked Traverse Port without even firing a shot! Are you the pirate I've read about, or not? How did you escape the last time?"
"Last time..." Sora trailed off for a moment to jump up and down in the sand, before sighing, "Last time, I was here a grand total of three days, alright? Last time," he bent down, wiping sand from some wooden planks, before hefting them up to reveal a cellar beneath them, "the rumrunners used this island as a cache. Came by and I was able to barter a passage off. From the looks of things, they've long been out of business. Probably have that bloody traitor 'Leon' to thank for it."
Somewhat morosely, he stomped down the stairs into the cellar and rummaged about for a couple of full bottles of the rum contained within. He was thirsty, and he was hungry, and he was cranky. He might as well get rid of two of those items of the list of what he was. Food... well, he'd have to see how rusty he was at fishing the way he'd been taught as a child. Food shouldn't be much of a problem, but he'd think about that tomorrow. Today was a day to get drunk.
"So that's it then?" he ignored the strained note in her voice, the fact that she was about to cry blowing completely over his head, "That's the secret grand adventure of the infamous Sora Sparrow? You spent three days lying on a beach, drinking rum?"
Hopping out of the cellar, the pirate grinned at her, "Welcome to the Caribbean, love."
---
"I would have thought the Governor would have come with you to find his daughter," Riku commented as Leon entered his office. The older man eyed him for a moment, then gave a slight shrug.
"He had to manage the port," Leon muttered, pulling the jacket that signified his rank off of him, and throwing his hat and wig down so he could rake his fingers through his messy brown-gold hair, "What have I been doing...?"
"Your job," Riku returned, taking a swig from his bottle, and watching the other man through heavy lids, "You became a part of the Royal Navy. Therefore, you hunt down pirates."
"You're not helping."
"I'm playing devil's advocate," Turner pointed out with a wry grin, "So, you've apparently thought about what I said this afternoon."
"Indeed."
"Still the one-word wonder, are you?"
"That was Fujin."
"But the 'really-short-sentence-wonder' just doesn't have the same ring to it," Riku teased his former Captain with a smirk. Before Leon could grace him with one of his famous glares, Riku hopped out of his chair and padded towards the commodore, "So, what's your decision then? Captain or Commodore, Squall or Leon?"
Leon's gaze turned distant for a moment, then he frowned, getting to his feet, "Where was Sora marooned the last time?" Riku grinned widely at his non-answer. It may have seemed to have been an attempt to change the conversation to anyone else, but Bootstrap knew damn well what it mean.
Squall Leonhart had returned to the seas. Let heaven weep, and hell scream, because Squall did not leave survivors when he decided to use lethal force. He wondered how long it would take for the crew to realize that their Commodore had returned to his roots as a pirate Captain, then wondered why he cared.
The age of pirates had been dying out before. Riku, Sora, Yuffie, Donald, and the rest of their ilk had been about to loose their life's blood. They were loosing what had made them great.
But now, one of the greatest had returned.
"Commodore!" the shout came through the door, and the two men glanced at each other, before Squall gave the order to enter the cabin. Aeris stood there, dressed as always in her male guise, a frown turning her lips as she took in her commanding officer's state of dress, before shaking it off, "Hercules spotted a light in the distance-- there's a fire, sir! It's controlled, so we can only assume that there is someone there."
"If I remember right," Riku muttered, "We _were_ close to the island Ansem marooned him on before, when you picked me up."
"We'll head towards it then," Leon commanded, eyes oddly bright-- at least in Aeris' opinion-- "And see to whomever it is that has caught the attention of the Ragnarok."
"Sir...?" But Aeris would get no answer, as the dark haired man pushed past her and out onto the deck, not even bothering to gather the signs of his rank. Her confused gaze turned to Riku, only to find him slipping by her with a wry grin in place.
"Don't try to understand it, Aeris," chuckled the blacksmith, "Just go with it."
She didn't know if she liked the tone in his voice or not.
---
Night had fallen long ago, and Sora had built up a fire using dry grass and the glass from his rum bottles. It had taken a bit longer than he had hoped it would, but eventually they had the flames stoked and jumping high into the sky, burning the broken boxes and empty rum bottles that had been found in the cellar. Eyes bright, and voices loud, he was swinging about the fire, laughing and dancing and singing as he went, Kairi's voice adding to his own in their strange little duet.
"We're devils and black sheep and really bad eggs! Drink up me 'earties yo ho! Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me!"
"I love this song!" Sora proclaimed, staggering for a moment towards the flames, before swinging back to take a long drag from his rum bottle, "Really bad eggs! Whoa!" Apparently, he swung a bit to far, and tripped over his own feet, a rain of sand flying up about him as he landed, "When I get the Pearl back, I'm gonna teach it to the whole crew and we'll sing it all the bloody time!"
"And you'll be positively the most fearsome pirate in the Spanish Main!" Kairi giggled, collapsing beside him and taking a drag from her own bottle. To be honest, she'd always liked the taste of the drink-- unusual for her, given her normal aversion to such drinks-- so she found no harm in indulging a little. Besides, it wasn't like there was much else to do here... she brushed her fingers across her tonfa, and yelped slightly as they bit into her fingers. She'd forgotten that she'd taken the blades out to show them to Sparrow.
"Eh? Somethin' wrong, love?"
"Cut myself," she muttered, lifting one of the bladed tonfa free, and spinning it artfully about in her hands, before yelping again as it sliced the back of her right hand.
"Careful there, Kairi," Sora grinned, and Kairi couldn't help but think of the man as an older brother of sorts as he took the weapons for her, "You know what these could be used for?"
"What?"
"Haircuts!"
"Haircuts?" that was a first. She'd never even considered such a thing.
"Yes, haircuts. I am a master a hairstyling, you know," she cast a dubious glance to his wild mane of hair that was barely held out of his face with a bandana, his beloved hat having been lost somewhere in the waters when they had been sent off the plank, "You don't believe me? I could give you a style like no other seen before!"
"That, I do not doubt," she returned, taking another drink, "Whether I like it is a different story entirely!"
"Well, you won't know until you try, love! Come on then, just sit in ol'Sora's lap, and I'll style y'up something nice indeed."
She figured she probably would regret this come morning and the hangover, but right now... it actually sounded like something of a good idea. With a laugh, the half-way-to-drunk young woman scrabbled into the lap of the older man, swaying a bit as she leaned forwards to give him room to work, "Hack away, Master Barber!"
Grinning widely, Sora adjusted his grip on the tonfa, moving from the handle to holding the back of the blade, "Now then, dear Miss Swann, try not to move to much-- we wouldn't want to nick your pretty little neck, now would we?"
"A few nicks and cuts wouldn't be all that damaging, Mister Sparrow," she returned as her gaze cast out over the dark waters of the Caribbean, "Just as long as you don't behead me."
"I am certainly not that clumsy!" the man huffed indignantly, before diligently settling to work. Crimson strands fluttered to the ground as Kairi's mid-back length locks were sheared away by the sharp edge of the tonfa. Obviously, Sora thought with some amusement, the girl spent far to much time caring for her weapons. Hardly a nick in them, there was! His own sword was pockmarked with the signs of use and battle, and it always surprised him to come across such a well maintained weapon.
They continued on in silence, Sora determined to give the girl a unique hairstyle, and Kairi swaying as the rum caught up with her. She had almost passed out when Sora proclaimed himself done, and handed her back the tonfa. The weapon returned to it's casing, and she lifted a hand to see how much hair was gone-- it was the best she could do without a mirror, after all.
"Sora!" she squawked, coming almost fully back into consciousness, and spinning around to glare at the man who's lap she still sat in, "You cut off all my hair!"
"Not all of it love," Sora waggled a finger in her face with a wide grin, "Just most of it. And think! No other woman has a haircut like this!"
"But... but..."
"No buts, missy; it's a fine haircut."
She scowled at him, eyes narrowed sharply, "You... you--"
"Insufferable bastard?" the voice of one Riku Turner cut in, causing the marooned pair to whirl about. A small lifeboat had come up on shore while they had been preoccupied, and Sora felt he could only blame the drink for not noticing it. Of course, it could just be a hallucination, he frowned in thought, because the young man that now stood before him was supposed to be dead.
And the fact that Squall Leonhart was with him was another point in the 'hallucination' category.
Kairi, on the other hand, gave a yip of delight-- something Riku hadn't heard from the girl in nearly five years-- and threw herself at the supposed apparition. Riku sighed, but smiled, and wrapped an arm around her, "Nice hair, Kairi."
"Sora did it," were the first words out of her mouth to the blacksmith.
"Sora was always a little... 'off'," Riku agreed with a solemn nod of his head. Leonhart stepped past the two friends, to peer down at the man laying in the sand. Sora snorted.
"Bugger off, you damned hallucination."
"_You_ know what hallucination means?" the nearly soundless scoff in the older one's voice forced Sparrow to crack an eye open and actually look at the man.
"O'course I do! What do you take me for, an idiot?"
"Simpleton, actually."
"Now that's just plain mean, Squally."
"Hn," and the so-called apparition shrugged, before hauling Sora back onto his feet. The pirate captain blinked a few times.
"Didn't think a hallucination could affect reality," frowning, he came to the only logical conclusion, "You're ghosts! I know Riku died, so you must have died, too!"
"..."
"Where the hell did you get _that_ idea from?" Riku rolled his eyes, exasperated, "I didn't die. I just got very lucky. Get in the boat, Sora, before I have to take a lash to your hide."
"You, Mister Turner, are very cruel," But he got into the boat anyways, "Do you have any rum?"
"No," Leonhart muttered, pushing the boat back out into the waters, before climbing in himself.
"It's all gone, Sora," Riku grinned, just knowing what would come next. Sparrow was always so amusing when someone informed him of the lack of something he wanted. While the young man he'd known so long ago would never have touched rum with a forty foot pole, he had been practically addicted to various food stuffs over the years. He could only assume that Sora was the same now, with his rum.
"Why is the rum gone?"
"It just is," Riku teased with a wry smirk that Sora couldn't see, what with the silver haired youth's back to him.
"But _why_ is the rum gone?!"
---
"Shiver me timbers!"
"Goofy 'ere says you missed a bit," Donald pointed out with a tight-lipped grin. They'd already lost one man to the pirates' port-to-port warning system, so none of the pirates locked in the brig were in all that great of a mood. At least, though, they would get a few days grace, what with all the gold the pirates of the Black Pearl had looted from ships going into and out of the port that they had dropped the body off at. Kingsley would be missed, but quite frankly, Donald was just glad it hadn't been him.
"Shaddup," Hook snapped, but he shifted the mop anyways, to catch the spot he had, indeed, missed.
"Been wondering," Yuffie muttered with a cross look at both Hook and Jafar, "what happened to Riku Turner."
"He got blown up, he did," Hook stopped swabbing to scowl at her, "You were there!"
"Not that Turner," she shot back, "I meant Bootstrap."
"Ol'Bootstrap," Jafar interjected with a frown, "deserved what he got."
Donald's stout form crept closer to the cage bars, a curious, wondering frown puckering his lips and creasing his forehead, "And what was that?"
"The fool helped us to mutiny against Sparrow, and then 'came to his senses', to quote his own words," Jafar stopped his actions, leaning against the handle of the mop in his hands, eyes distant as he tried to recall everything that had happened way back when, "He claimed it wasn't 'right with the code', and so sent off a piece of the treasure-- didn't find out 'til recently it was sent to that boy of his. He said we deserved to be cursed... and to remain cursed."
"Stupid blighter," Hook grumbled.
"Good man," Donald corrected with slightly strained smirk.
Jafar ignored them both, "But as you can imagine, that didn't sit to well with the Captain."
"That didn't sit too well with the Captain at all," Hook nodded rapidly, a wide grin in place as he gave the prisoners a smug look, "Tell them what Ansem did!"
"I'm telling the story!" the tall man hissed, fury dancing in his eyes, annoyed with Hook's constant interruptions, "So, what the Captain did, was that he took ol'Bootstrap, and tied him to the mast, aye? Waited until Bootstrap was delirious, then plunged his hands right into the bastard's chest!"
"It made for quite the sight!" was Hook's enthusiastic agreement.
"Aye, it did," Jafar nodded, grinning nastily, "Took his Heart from him, and then let it go. Said he didn't want to have to deal with the Heart's contamination, before he took control of Bootstrap's body. He still wears it, you know."
"Disgusting," one of the pirates that had formed Sparrow's crew muttered, although it was far to low for either Jafar or Hook to be able to hear him.
"'Course..." Jafar added in, somewhat distantly, "It was only after that, that we learned that we needed Turner's blood to lift the curse-- and the connection that blood had to his Heart. The Captain's Heart corrupted Bootstrap's body to the point where his blood didn't work no more."
Hook nodded, surprisingly solemn, "That's what you call ironic."
"Get up here you fools!" Ansem's voice echoed through the brig, "We're not going to stow your swag for you!"
"Aye Captain!" both pirates called back, dropping their mops and scrabbling up the stairs. Wouldn't want one of the others to steal their stolen goods.
---
Squall Leonhart was in his element-- of sorts. Truly, battle was his element, but for now he had to deal with the tactical part of that. It had taken some doing to convince the Navy men that crewed the Ragnarok to head for the Isla de Bastion, but in the end they had wanted to get the 'last true pirate ship' on the seas. It had taken little more than Kairi announcing that the Black Pearl had been heavily damaged in it's battle with the Highwind, to get them to agree to it. So now, here he was in a boat with Hercules, Aladdin, Riku and Sora, staring into the mouth of the Isla de Bastion, "Storming the cave could turn to an ambush."
"Not if you're the one doing the ambushing," Sora pointed out, slinging an arm around the older man's shoulders, as he had all those years ago, back when he'd been the man's first mate, "I go in to convince Ansem to send his men out in their little boats. You and the crew return to the Ragnarok and blast the beejesus outta them with your little cannons, aye? What do you have to lose?"
Squall stared down at the limb across his shoulders, before shrugging out of it, "Nothing that couldn't be replaced."
"You're very cruel, you know that?" Sora sighed, "First you want me to sail under your colors, and now you say I can be replaced? Cruel, indeed. Malicious even!"
Leonhart rolled his eyes, and let the boy rant on for awhile. He was sure Hercules and Aladdin were confused about the 'sailing under his colors' remark, but he let them stew on it for a bit. He was planning on informing the crew of their becoming pirates after they had safely rescued the pirates that had formerly been crewing the Highwind, and got rid of Ansem once and for all.
He, himself, hadn't wanted to go after Ansem, until the duet of whining from Riku and Sora had mentioned Yuffie's presence. The girl had long been one of his dear friends, from those days spent under Cid's command, sailing on the Balamb and the Trabia-- the ship that had eventually become Yuffie's, only to be stolen by Sparrow, and promptly destroyed a bare month later. Squall Leonhart would not let a friend die unless completely unavoidable.
But he wasn't about to do something and not get something else out of it. That had been a habit that he had been hard pressed to keep hidden when he was a Navy man, but now a pirate once again, he indulged himself a bit. He would help Sora get the Pearl back, in exchange for the Pearl sailing under his colors. He knew pirates could command more than a single ship-- Cid had managed it when he was a child, commanding the Balamb, the Trabia and the Galbadia. Though, after Cid's decision to 'retire', no other pirate had managed it.
Squall wanted to be the one to revive it. He wanted to make his name a legend again, although this time, one heard in more places than pirate ports. It wasn't something he had cared for as a young man, but now that he could feel his age starting to creep up on him, he wanted to be remembered for something. Anything.
"Sparrow," he finally interrupted the boy's babbling, "get on with it."
"Get on with what?" The flat gaze he got in return said it all, and Sora blinked, "Oh, right then. C'mon, Riku."
"What do I have to do with anything?" he had been staying silent, in hopes that his lunatic friend-- who _still_ hadn't realized that he wasn't Riku Turner the second, but Bootstrap himself-- and the former Commodore would forget his existence.
"Well, you're all a part of the plan, m'boy!"
"That fails to inspire confidence, Sparrow," still, as Sora hopped from one boat to another, allowing the men in that small rowboat to get into their Commodore's boat, the silver haired one followed suit. Somehow, he had a feeling that Sora didn't have a clue what he was doing, and was merely going by the seat of his pants.
When they were a considerable distance from Leonhart and the rest of the crew, Sora stopped rowing, "I need to tie your hands together."
Eyeing the man suspiciously, he held his hands out in front of him, but the pirate shook his head, "Behind your back."
"Not on your life, Sora," Riku shot back, "Out in front, or I don't help."
"Stubborn bastard," Sora griped, but capitulated. It wouldn't due to argue with the boy, having tried to do so several times before, both times they were sailing together in the past couple months. Winding the rope around Turner's wrists, he stopped to study his handiwork. Yes, this would do nicely. Very nicely.
His sudden movements caught Turner off guard, and the boy was rendered unconscious before he knew what hit him.
Yes. Everything was coming together nicely indeed.
---
Riku came to, only to find his hands bound behind his back, and that he was slumped against the stone chest that contained the eight hundred and eighty one Aztec gold coins. Pushing himself up, he blinked blurry eyes at the sight before him-- Sora and Ansem bargaining.
"--rok, pride of the Royal Navy, is floating just offshore... waiting for you."
"And why should we care?" Ansem eyed his former Captain, casting a short glance to the boy who was now standing on rather wobbly legs beside the chest. How Sora had come across the boy had yet to be discovered, but quite frankly, he didn't care. Just the sight of the boy, alive, unconscious, and slung over Sparrow's shoulder like a sack had brought hope to his men and himself.
"Just hear me out, mate. You order your men to row out to the Ragnarok; they do what they do best. Robert's your uncle, Fannie's your aunt, there you are with two ships. The makings of your very own fleet. 'Course, you'll take the grandest one as your flagship, and who's to argue? But what of the Pearl?" Sora held up his hands, a grin threatening to break across his face, "Name me Captain, I'll sail under your colors, I'll give you ten percent of me plunder and you get to introduce yourself as... Commodore Ansem. Savvy?"
"And I suppose, in exchange, you want me to just use the whelp's blood, not kill him."
"No, no, no, by all means, kill the whelp. Just... not yet. Wait to lift the curse... until the opportune moment," his eyes flickered to Riku's, "For instance," the pirate was speaking, picking up four medallions, "After you've killed Commodore Loire's men..." and for every word he spoke next, one medallion fell back into the chest, "...every... last... one."
Ocean-blue eyes widened as he caught Sora slipping a coin into his sleeve, and comprehension dawned on him, "You've been planning this from the beginning. Ever since you learned my name."
"Yeah," Sora nodded in agreement.
"I want fifty percent of your plunder," Ansem threw in quite suddenly, and Sora returned his attention back to his one-time first mate.
"Fifteen."
"Forty."
"Twenty-five," Sora grinned, opening his mouth as Ansem looked about to demand the forty percent, "And I'll buy you the hat. A really big one... Commodore."
Ansem was silent, considering the deal, then stuck out his hand, eyes glittering with unholy greed, "We have an accord." Sora's grin was a twisted little grin that did not properly fit his face, as he shook the man's hand, right in front of Riku's nose. The two men turned to the pirates that had been gathered, watching the entire proceedings.
Caught up in the moment, Sora threw his arms out, "All hands to the boats!" Ansem's dark look caused him to pause, "I apologize, you give the orders," and he bowed. There was a mocking edge to the bow, but Ansem's glee at finally nearing the end of his curse caused him to miss it.
"Gents!" the Heartless Captain shouted, "Take a walk!"
"Not to the boats?" Sora queried, looking at the man in askance, as the pirates laughed and began to filter out of the cabin. Riku could only hope that Leonhart was prepared for this. It wasn't exactly an everyday situation, after all. Not even for them.
---
End Part Five
Kairi: Priest wasn't kidding when she said there were major changes.
Sora: But she somehow still managed to keep in bits and pieces of the movie.
Riku: Sora could not knock me out.
Sora: I could too!
Riku: No, you couldn't. Every time you've beaten me has been a fluke.
Kairi: Sure it has, Riku.
Riku: I'm still not talking to you.
Sora: You just did.
Riku: Dammit all!
Kairi: Look, I'm sorry, now stop it. Back to the fic... Sora got to cut my hair?!
Sora: Hey, what's wrong with that?
Kairi: Gee, maybe the fact that you think having beads in your hair is a good thing?
Sora: My beads are cool.
Riku: They're stupid, stop trying to deny it.
Kairi: Well, at least I don't have long hair any more. I happen to like my hair short.
Sora: That would explain why both Riku and me have longer hair than you throughout Kingdom Hearts.
Kairi: Riku's just girly.
Riku: Girly?! I am NOT girly!
Sora & Kairi: You keep thinking that.
Riku: *grumblegrumble*stupidfriends*grumble*
Well, this took a bit longer than I was hoping in order to get it out, but it's rather understandable; I'm back at school now, and I have less time to work on any of my works of fiction. I have thirty hours per week of classes to take, and as I'm in second semester, there's a lot of work to be done. Of course, I'm also on academic probation, which means that I have to get my butt in gear and do my work. Cuts into my fanfiction time, but quite frankly, getting that exceedingly high paying job that I'm told I'll get if I pass my Computer Engineering Technologies course takes precedence.
Not that I have a job right now... ah, the joys of being money-less. I survive off of the allowance my parents give me (why yes, I am eighteen...) and what cash I got for my birthday (in October-- it's mostly gone now) and for Christmas (substantially less than my birthday money).
Oh well, I have my Kingdom Hearts, my Pirates of the Caribbean, my Highlander, and my Priest manwha (no, that is _not_ a misspelling of "manga") to occupy my time. Hmm... maybe my next fic should be a Priest/Kingdom Hearts fusion, although that will be harder to place the characters. Ivan would be... Riku; Lizzie/Kairi; Coburn/Sora; Temozarela/Ansem; Novic/Cairo/Donald/Goofy; Lucian/... uh... I can't really think of someone who matches Father Lucian. Well, there goes my attempt to cast Priest as Kingdom Hearts characters.
Anyone else a fan of Priest, or is it just me? If it's just me, then I really _do_ have to write that fusion, just to turn people on to the manwha. It's _good_ man; real good! Go. Read it. Now. It may be a bit hard to find volume one, since it's been out for a year or so now-- been reading it since the second volume was released (bought 1 & 2 at the same time... there are 10 volumes so far. They come out, roughly, every second month or so.
Bah, you don't want to hear me rambling about Priest, so onto the review response.
Alana Hikari-Chan - Yes, he's in mortal peril. It is a time of piracy, after all. And I have issues with the 'to' 'too' thing. I can never remember when 'too' is supposed to be used-- so I tend to ignore it, and hope people don't notice ^_^;;
Disclaimer in Part One.
--------
Pirates of Destiny Isle
Part Five
Priest Li Xiang
--------
Had he taken two moments longer, he knew, without a doubt, that he would have been dead. Unfortunately, he had no idea if he would survive his current mess-- he'd been far to close to the explosion when it went off, and had been knocked unconscious. As luck would have it, death was not to take him that day as despite being flung from the exploding ship, he had somehow managed to land on a section of the hull that was not on fire. But unfortunately for Riku Turner, he had been out for five and a half hours, and the Black Pearl was little more than a speck on sunlit waves.
Dammit all.
To be perfectly honest, Riku didn't know if he could die. He wasn't really... real, after all. It was strange to think of himself as abstractly as that, but it was the truth-- his body was in the hands of Ansem, and he himself was a form crafted by his Heart, when it had been ejected from his then Heartless body. Why the curse hadn't been transferred with his Heart, he did not know, but for some reason he suspected that his Heart was not supposed to have been able to survive without his body.
It almost made him wish that he and Sora hadn't decided to see the outside world all those long years ago. It almost made him want to be back on that island in the middle of nowhere, surviving with their families. Almost.
Riku wouldn't give up everything that had happened to them since that day he, Sora, Tidus, Wakka and Selphie had set sail, eager to see the world. While it had been harsh, and they had all changed from the children they had been at the time, it had defined him. It had defined Sora, as well. The oh-so-noticeable changes of the past ten years played a large part as well. Sora was not the brash, almost hyper youth he'd been. He, himself, was not the smirking, arrogant man that had been Sora's better in nearly everything.
So much had changed, he knew, but still... some part of him hummed with anticipation. Some part of him whispered that they were nearing this adventure's end, and about to set sail upon another. Hardship after hardship had befallen them, but the sun was on the horizon, and for the first time in a decade, it wasn't red.
Now, he just had to stop thinking so poetically, and start trying to find a way to either get back to land, or catch up with the Black Pearl. He was seriously doubting the possibility of the second.
---
"Well then, missy, since you're no use to us, I see no reason to keep ye aboard," the white haired Ansem was grinning maliciously at Kairi, who stood nervously at the end of the plank. They had set sail almost immediately for a small spit of land, having decided to take care of some 'left over' business. It was most unfortunate, Ansem reflected somewhat sourly, that the young Turner had perished with the Highwind; something he had only learned when the redheaded girl had accidentally spilled the fact that Riku Turner had been on ship when it went up.
They would be taking the crew of the Highwind to every port-- pirate or not-- that they came across, to make a point. For each port, one man of Sparrow and Turner's crew would be executed, and their bodies "gifted" to the people who manned the ports. It would be a warning for those who thought to rise up against Ansem and the Black Pearl-- no one could win. Forever and eternity, they would be pirates, and they would track down any man, woman or child with the name of Turner, and spill their blood across the Aztec gold. Certainly someone out there had to be a relative of Bootstrap's-- a brother, sister, or cousin of some sort or another.
But for now, they were taking care of the useless Miss Kairi-- who had repeatedly refused to give her true family name-- and the damn near impossible to kill Sora Sparrow. Sorry, 'Captain' Sora Sparrow.
"Though..." Ansem continued, tapping his chin with a thoughtful look, "It does seem a shame to lose something so fine, don't it lads?" His crew laughed in agreement, and Ansem turned his gaze fully back to the Governor's daughter, "So I'll be having that dress back before you go."
Sora rolled his eyes at the dramatics, before leaning over to one of the men who was holding him in place, "You know," he tried, in a last attempt to save his own hide, "I always liked you."
"Shut it, Sparrow," the pirate snapped back, eyes raking across Kairi's form as she pealed the wine-colored dress from her body, eyes narrowing sharply as she glowered at the pirate captain. Her lips were tightly pursed, and cheeks flushed with anger and embarrassment. She was down to the white cotton dress that was her under garments, and although it was thankfully cooler without the heavy dress to soak up the sunshine, it was still embarrassing to be without the top dress. Kairi spat at him, "It matches the empty place where your heart used to be."
"Ah, but I still have a Heart," Ansem grinned, nuzzling the cloth, "Oooh, it's still warm."
"Of course it is," she shot back flatly, "The sun's still up, isn't it?"
"I never did much care for that mouth of yours," Malificent sneered, before stomping on her end of the plank, and sending Kairi off with a small shriek of surprise. Laughter arose amongst the pirates of the Black Pearl, and even under the waters, Kairi swore she could hear their mocking tones. With a kick, she broke the surface of the warm waters, shaking limp red hair out of her face, and glaring up at the ship. Then she began towards the near-by island, thankful that Riku, her father, and Commodore Loire had thought it prudent for her to learn how to swim, what with the area of the world she was living in.
"I really had rather hoped we were past all of this," no, he was not whining, no matter how much it sounded like he was. Captain Sora Sparrow did _not_ whine. Ever. Even when Bootstrap had stolen his favorite sword-- he never whined. He didn't pout either, he reminded himself, trying to pull his bottom lip back in, and restrain the puppy-dog eyes that wanted so desperately to come into play. They hadn't worked on Ansem a decade prior, they wouldn't work on his former first mate this time, either.
"Sora, Sora, Sora," Ansem scolded with a chuckle, "Did ye not notice? That bit of island is the same spit that we made you Governor of one our last little trip."
Sparrow winced slightly, trying not to follow as Ansem pointed out the tiny tropical island, but unable to help himself, "I did notice."
"Perhaps you'll be able to conjure up another miraculous escape," the scorn in the Heartless Pirate's voice was practically dripping from his words, "But I thoroughly doubt that. Off you go now," and his sword tip rested on the prominent edge of Sora's collarbone. The younger pirate swallowed slightly, before alighting on a proper plan.
"Last time you left me a pistol with one shot," he reminded the man cheerfully, pushing the sword away and ignoring the way it scraped painfully across his skin.
"By the powers, you're right!" Ansem was grinning, as it had obviously struck him before, and he had only been waiting to see if the mad Sparrow would recall his weaponry, "Lads! Where be Sora's pistol? Bring it forward!"
"Seeing as there's two of us," Sora threw in with a wry grin, "A gentleman would give us a pair of pistols."
The narrowed eyed stare he got in return told him, point blank, that he was stepping over the invisible lines Ansem had put pretty much everywhere, "It'll be one pistol, same as before, and you can be the gentleman and shoot the lady, and starve to death yourself." Without another word, the pistol was thrown overboard, and Sora followed it over almost desperately. Again, the pirates' mocking laughter followed the man.
Don't you worry, Sora thought, snatching up his weaponry, directing a furious glare through the water towards his ship, I will get my revenge, Ansem. Not just for stealing my ship, but for taking my crew-- my _family_. You're a dead man, as soon as I figure out how to kill you.
---
"Man overboard!"
The shout brought Riku back to full consciousness, and his section of the Highwind's hull dipped as he tried to push himself up into a seated position, not quite sure of where he was. When the water splashed on him, he recalled his position and groaned slightly, shading his ocean-blue eyes. Eyes that widened significantly as he recognized the ship that had come up alongside of him. Several familiar faces peered over the edge, including the scarred visage of one Commodore Leon Loire.
"I'm pleased to see that you're still alive, Mister Turner," the former pirate called down, and though his tone and face were blank, Riku had had enough experience-- both with the pirate and with the commodore-- to recognize the smug look in his eyes.
"Alive is a relative term, Leonhart!" he shouted back, stretching out to grasp the rope that had been dropped into the waters by him. He was weak from the sun, but the fact that he was near someone he had known for many, many years-- as well as the possibility of having real food-- gave him enough strength to hold the rope until he was pulled on board. The pirate turned blacksmith rubbed his face tiredly as he came on deck, and found himself facing the cool gaze of Commodore Loire, "Before you even think of the irons, Leonhart, I suggest you listen to what I say, or neither of us will see Kairi again."
"My name," the Commodore stressed with narrowed eyes, "Is Leon Loire. Not Leonhart."
"You can keep pretending, Squall," Riku was careful to keep his voice just as quiet as the Commodore's had been as they spoke. For the crew to learn that the man they sailed under had once been a pirate... well, very little good could possibly come from it, "But I knew you fifteen years ago, and I know you now. You're not as different as you pretend to be."
The words startled the man, and his storm-gray eyes searched the ocean-blues of the youth before him, and found in them, an old friend. Someone he'd not seen in ten years; someone long thought dead, and one that he and his men had pulled from the waters with four others that had eventually become a pirate under his command, "Bootstrap."
"The one and only," Riku's smile was tight, "And right now, both Sora and Kairi are in the hands of dear ol'Captain Ansem."
Leon Loire stared long and hard at the youth, "I cannot do what I once did."
"Why not?" Riku stared hard at the man, "Are you scared, Squall? Is that it? Is that why you gave up? Why you turned your back on what you are, what you've always been, just to become what you've always hated?"
"You don't know what you're talking about," the commodore growled, voice low and harsh. Riku's eyes lit with amusement.
"That has to be it," was his smug response, "You only get riled up when someone guesses what's on your mind, Squally-boy."
"Don't. Call. Me. That," Leon ground out eyes flashing with barely suppressed rage. The blacksmith stared the man down, meeting him gaze for gaze, as he had those long years ago when he had asked to become a part of the crew of the Balamb. Well, asked being a relative term-- Riku had all but demanded. And he had liked it. He liked have the brash youth under his command, doing what he asked. While he had disliked being made Captain of the Balamb when old Cid had gone off to some island or another to be with his wife, he had _liked_ knowing that he had someone as strong as Riku 'Bootstrap' Turner under his command.
Even as a Commodore, even as highly feared by pirates as he was, he missed that. He missed that sense of control and belonging that he had once had when he had been a pirate.
But... he had responsibilities now. He couldn't just take up that life style anymore.
"Why not?"
He started, not realizing that he had spoken aloud, and looked back up into the eyes of the younger body of his one-time friend, the best friend of his former first mate, Sora Sparrow. While the face was younger, those eyes were as old as he should have been-- something that Loire had missed all those times that the blacksmith and he had met during the duration of his stays at Destiny Island.
"It's... not right."
"Since when has that stopped you?" the boy wondered, "Squall, you were given to Cid and Edea by the Governor of Port Royal-- your own father. He knew they were pirates, and he still let them have you. You weren't meant for the position you're in." Leon's stare said it all, demanding to know why he thought such things, and Riku shrugged, "Come on, Leonhart, where's that fire Almasy always ranted about when we crossed blades? Where's that screw-the-rules attitude you always used to take? What happened to you, old friend?"
"Seif... Almasy is dead," Leon's flat tone said he would not expand on it, but Turner had the feeling that Squall felt it was his fault that his friend turned enemy had been executed for piracy. Despite the intervening decade and a half since the blonde pirate captain had been killed, the commodore still felt that it was his fault that the man had been killed. It was a harsh judgment on himself, Riku knew. He'd been in much the same position when he had gone along with Ansem's mutiny plans-- some lingering sense of guilt had plagued him, even during those memory-less years as a young blacksmith, until he had seen Sora's face when they fought in the smithy.
He knew that Leonhart wouldn't get the chance to see the blonde again, but that shouldn't have stopped him in the first place. Turner sighed heavily, "Just... think about it, okay? I'll be in your office, stealing your liquor."
---
He barely held back the groan as the girl tromped after him, "But you were marooned on this island before, weren't you? So we can escape in the same way you did then!"
"To what point and purpose?" he wondered, whirling on her, the beads fluttering around his face, "The Black Pearl is gone and unless you have a rudder and a lot of sails hidden in that bodice-- unlikely-- there's no way to get off this sand heap!"
"But... but you're Captain Sora Sparrow!" She ignored it as he rapped on one of the trees, putting it off to his obvious insanity, "You vanished under the eyes of seven agents of the East India company! You sacked Traverse Port without even firing a shot! Are you the pirate I've read about, or not? How did you escape the last time?"
"Last time..." Sora trailed off for a moment to jump up and down in the sand, before sighing, "Last time, I was here a grand total of three days, alright? Last time," he bent down, wiping sand from some wooden planks, before hefting them up to reveal a cellar beneath them, "the rumrunners used this island as a cache. Came by and I was able to barter a passage off. From the looks of things, they've long been out of business. Probably have that bloody traitor 'Leon' to thank for it."
Somewhat morosely, he stomped down the stairs into the cellar and rummaged about for a couple of full bottles of the rum contained within. He was thirsty, and he was hungry, and he was cranky. He might as well get rid of two of those items of the list of what he was. Food... well, he'd have to see how rusty he was at fishing the way he'd been taught as a child. Food shouldn't be much of a problem, but he'd think about that tomorrow. Today was a day to get drunk.
"So that's it then?" he ignored the strained note in her voice, the fact that she was about to cry blowing completely over his head, "That's the secret grand adventure of the infamous Sora Sparrow? You spent three days lying on a beach, drinking rum?"
Hopping out of the cellar, the pirate grinned at her, "Welcome to the Caribbean, love."
---
"I would have thought the Governor would have come with you to find his daughter," Riku commented as Leon entered his office. The older man eyed him for a moment, then gave a slight shrug.
"He had to manage the port," Leon muttered, pulling the jacket that signified his rank off of him, and throwing his hat and wig down so he could rake his fingers through his messy brown-gold hair, "What have I been doing...?"
"Your job," Riku returned, taking a swig from his bottle, and watching the other man through heavy lids, "You became a part of the Royal Navy. Therefore, you hunt down pirates."
"You're not helping."
"I'm playing devil's advocate," Turner pointed out with a wry grin, "So, you've apparently thought about what I said this afternoon."
"Indeed."
"Still the one-word wonder, are you?"
"That was Fujin."
"But the 'really-short-sentence-wonder' just doesn't have the same ring to it," Riku teased his former Captain with a smirk. Before Leon could grace him with one of his famous glares, Riku hopped out of his chair and padded towards the commodore, "So, what's your decision then? Captain or Commodore, Squall or Leon?"
Leon's gaze turned distant for a moment, then he frowned, getting to his feet, "Where was Sora marooned the last time?" Riku grinned widely at his non-answer. It may have seemed to have been an attempt to change the conversation to anyone else, but Bootstrap knew damn well what it mean.
Squall Leonhart had returned to the seas. Let heaven weep, and hell scream, because Squall did not leave survivors when he decided to use lethal force. He wondered how long it would take for the crew to realize that their Commodore had returned to his roots as a pirate Captain, then wondered why he cared.
The age of pirates had been dying out before. Riku, Sora, Yuffie, Donald, and the rest of their ilk had been about to loose their life's blood. They were loosing what had made them great.
But now, one of the greatest had returned.
"Commodore!" the shout came through the door, and the two men glanced at each other, before Squall gave the order to enter the cabin. Aeris stood there, dressed as always in her male guise, a frown turning her lips as she took in her commanding officer's state of dress, before shaking it off, "Hercules spotted a light in the distance-- there's a fire, sir! It's controlled, so we can only assume that there is someone there."
"If I remember right," Riku muttered, "We _were_ close to the island Ansem marooned him on before, when you picked me up."
"We'll head towards it then," Leon commanded, eyes oddly bright-- at least in Aeris' opinion-- "And see to whomever it is that has caught the attention of the Ragnarok."
"Sir...?" But Aeris would get no answer, as the dark haired man pushed past her and out onto the deck, not even bothering to gather the signs of his rank. Her confused gaze turned to Riku, only to find him slipping by her with a wry grin in place.
"Don't try to understand it, Aeris," chuckled the blacksmith, "Just go with it."
She didn't know if she liked the tone in his voice or not.
---
Night had fallen long ago, and Sora had built up a fire using dry grass and the glass from his rum bottles. It had taken a bit longer than he had hoped it would, but eventually they had the flames stoked and jumping high into the sky, burning the broken boxes and empty rum bottles that had been found in the cellar. Eyes bright, and voices loud, he was swinging about the fire, laughing and dancing and singing as he went, Kairi's voice adding to his own in their strange little duet.
"We're devils and black sheep and really bad eggs! Drink up me 'earties yo ho! Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me!"
"I love this song!" Sora proclaimed, staggering for a moment towards the flames, before swinging back to take a long drag from his rum bottle, "Really bad eggs! Whoa!" Apparently, he swung a bit to far, and tripped over his own feet, a rain of sand flying up about him as he landed, "When I get the Pearl back, I'm gonna teach it to the whole crew and we'll sing it all the bloody time!"
"And you'll be positively the most fearsome pirate in the Spanish Main!" Kairi giggled, collapsing beside him and taking a drag from her own bottle. To be honest, she'd always liked the taste of the drink-- unusual for her, given her normal aversion to such drinks-- so she found no harm in indulging a little. Besides, it wasn't like there was much else to do here... she brushed her fingers across her tonfa, and yelped slightly as they bit into her fingers. She'd forgotten that she'd taken the blades out to show them to Sparrow.
"Eh? Somethin' wrong, love?"
"Cut myself," she muttered, lifting one of the bladed tonfa free, and spinning it artfully about in her hands, before yelping again as it sliced the back of her right hand.
"Careful there, Kairi," Sora grinned, and Kairi couldn't help but think of the man as an older brother of sorts as he took the weapons for her, "You know what these could be used for?"
"What?"
"Haircuts!"
"Haircuts?" that was a first. She'd never even considered such a thing.
"Yes, haircuts. I am a master a hairstyling, you know," she cast a dubious glance to his wild mane of hair that was barely held out of his face with a bandana, his beloved hat having been lost somewhere in the waters when they had been sent off the plank, "You don't believe me? I could give you a style like no other seen before!"
"That, I do not doubt," she returned, taking another drink, "Whether I like it is a different story entirely!"
"Well, you won't know until you try, love! Come on then, just sit in ol'Sora's lap, and I'll style y'up something nice indeed."
She figured she probably would regret this come morning and the hangover, but right now... it actually sounded like something of a good idea. With a laugh, the half-way-to-drunk young woman scrabbled into the lap of the older man, swaying a bit as she leaned forwards to give him room to work, "Hack away, Master Barber!"
Grinning widely, Sora adjusted his grip on the tonfa, moving from the handle to holding the back of the blade, "Now then, dear Miss Swann, try not to move to much-- we wouldn't want to nick your pretty little neck, now would we?"
"A few nicks and cuts wouldn't be all that damaging, Mister Sparrow," she returned as her gaze cast out over the dark waters of the Caribbean, "Just as long as you don't behead me."
"I am certainly not that clumsy!" the man huffed indignantly, before diligently settling to work. Crimson strands fluttered to the ground as Kairi's mid-back length locks were sheared away by the sharp edge of the tonfa. Obviously, Sora thought with some amusement, the girl spent far to much time caring for her weapons. Hardly a nick in them, there was! His own sword was pockmarked with the signs of use and battle, and it always surprised him to come across such a well maintained weapon.
They continued on in silence, Sora determined to give the girl a unique hairstyle, and Kairi swaying as the rum caught up with her. She had almost passed out when Sora proclaimed himself done, and handed her back the tonfa. The weapon returned to it's casing, and she lifted a hand to see how much hair was gone-- it was the best she could do without a mirror, after all.
"Sora!" she squawked, coming almost fully back into consciousness, and spinning around to glare at the man who's lap she still sat in, "You cut off all my hair!"
"Not all of it love," Sora waggled a finger in her face with a wide grin, "Just most of it. And think! No other woman has a haircut like this!"
"But... but..."
"No buts, missy; it's a fine haircut."
She scowled at him, eyes narrowed sharply, "You... you--"
"Insufferable bastard?" the voice of one Riku Turner cut in, causing the marooned pair to whirl about. A small lifeboat had come up on shore while they had been preoccupied, and Sora felt he could only blame the drink for not noticing it. Of course, it could just be a hallucination, he frowned in thought, because the young man that now stood before him was supposed to be dead.
And the fact that Squall Leonhart was with him was another point in the 'hallucination' category.
Kairi, on the other hand, gave a yip of delight-- something Riku hadn't heard from the girl in nearly five years-- and threw herself at the supposed apparition. Riku sighed, but smiled, and wrapped an arm around her, "Nice hair, Kairi."
"Sora did it," were the first words out of her mouth to the blacksmith.
"Sora was always a little... 'off'," Riku agreed with a solemn nod of his head. Leonhart stepped past the two friends, to peer down at the man laying in the sand. Sora snorted.
"Bugger off, you damned hallucination."
"_You_ know what hallucination means?" the nearly soundless scoff in the older one's voice forced Sparrow to crack an eye open and actually look at the man.
"O'course I do! What do you take me for, an idiot?"
"Simpleton, actually."
"Now that's just plain mean, Squally."
"Hn," and the so-called apparition shrugged, before hauling Sora back onto his feet. The pirate captain blinked a few times.
"Didn't think a hallucination could affect reality," frowning, he came to the only logical conclusion, "You're ghosts! I know Riku died, so you must have died, too!"
"..."
"Where the hell did you get _that_ idea from?" Riku rolled his eyes, exasperated, "I didn't die. I just got very lucky. Get in the boat, Sora, before I have to take a lash to your hide."
"You, Mister Turner, are very cruel," But he got into the boat anyways, "Do you have any rum?"
"No," Leonhart muttered, pushing the boat back out into the waters, before climbing in himself.
"It's all gone, Sora," Riku grinned, just knowing what would come next. Sparrow was always so amusing when someone informed him of the lack of something he wanted. While the young man he'd known so long ago would never have touched rum with a forty foot pole, he had been practically addicted to various food stuffs over the years. He could only assume that Sora was the same now, with his rum.
"Why is the rum gone?"
"It just is," Riku teased with a wry smirk that Sora couldn't see, what with the silver haired youth's back to him.
"But _why_ is the rum gone?!"
---
"Shiver me timbers!"
"Goofy 'ere says you missed a bit," Donald pointed out with a tight-lipped grin. They'd already lost one man to the pirates' port-to-port warning system, so none of the pirates locked in the brig were in all that great of a mood. At least, though, they would get a few days grace, what with all the gold the pirates of the Black Pearl had looted from ships going into and out of the port that they had dropped the body off at. Kingsley would be missed, but quite frankly, Donald was just glad it hadn't been him.
"Shaddup," Hook snapped, but he shifted the mop anyways, to catch the spot he had, indeed, missed.
"Been wondering," Yuffie muttered with a cross look at both Hook and Jafar, "what happened to Riku Turner."
"He got blown up, he did," Hook stopped swabbing to scowl at her, "You were there!"
"Not that Turner," she shot back, "I meant Bootstrap."
"Ol'Bootstrap," Jafar interjected with a frown, "deserved what he got."
Donald's stout form crept closer to the cage bars, a curious, wondering frown puckering his lips and creasing his forehead, "And what was that?"
"The fool helped us to mutiny against Sparrow, and then 'came to his senses', to quote his own words," Jafar stopped his actions, leaning against the handle of the mop in his hands, eyes distant as he tried to recall everything that had happened way back when, "He claimed it wasn't 'right with the code', and so sent off a piece of the treasure-- didn't find out 'til recently it was sent to that boy of his. He said we deserved to be cursed... and to remain cursed."
"Stupid blighter," Hook grumbled.
"Good man," Donald corrected with slightly strained smirk.
Jafar ignored them both, "But as you can imagine, that didn't sit to well with the Captain."
"That didn't sit too well with the Captain at all," Hook nodded rapidly, a wide grin in place as he gave the prisoners a smug look, "Tell them what Ansem did!"
"I'm telling the story!" the tall man hissed, fury dancing in his eyes, annoyed with Hook's constant interruptions, "So, what the Captain did, was that he took ol'Bootstrap, and tied him to the mast, aye? Waited until Bootstrap was delirious, then plunged his hands right into the bastard's chest!"
"It made for quite the sight!" was Hook's enthusiastic agreement.
"Aye, it did," Jafar nodded, grinning nastily, "Took his Heart from him, and then let it go. Said he didn't want to have to deal with the Heart's contamination, before he took control of Bootstrap's body. He still wears it, you know."
"Disgusting," one of the pirates that had formed Sparrow's crew muttered, although it was far to low for either Jafar or Hook to be able to hear him.
"'Course..." Jafar added in, somewhat distantly, "It was only after that, that we learned that we needed Turner's blood to lift the curse-- and the connection that blood had to his Heart. The Captain's Heart corrupted Bootstrap's body to the point where his blood didn't work no more."
Hook nodded, surprisingly solemn, "That's what you call ironic."
"Get up here you fools!" Ansem's voice echoed through the brig, "We're not going to stow your swag for you!"
"Aye Captain!" both pirates called back, dropping their mops and scrabbling up the stairs. Wouldn't want one of the others to steal their stolen goods.
---
Squall Leonhart was in his element-- of sorts. Truly, battle was his element, but for now he had to deal with the tactical part of that. It had taken some doing to convince the Navy men that crewed the Ragnarok to head for the Isla de Bastion, but in the end they had wanted to get the 'last true pirate ship' on the seas. It had taken little more than Kairi announcing that the Black Pearl had been heavily damaged in it's battle with the Highwind, to get them to agree to it. So now, here he was in a boat with Hercules, Aladdin, Riku and Sora, staring into the mouth of the Isla de Bastion, "Storming the cave could turn to an ambush."
"Not if you're the one doing the ambushing," Sora pointed out, slinging an arm around the older man's shoulders, as he had all those years ago, back when he'd been the man's first mate, "I go in to convince Ansem to send his men out in their little boats. You and the crew return to the Ragnarok and blast the beejesus outta them with your little cannons, aye? What do you have to lose?"
Squall stared down at the limb across his shoulders, before shrugging out of it, "Nothing that couldn't be replaced."
"You're very cruel, you know that?" Sora sighed, "First you want me to sail under your colors, and now you say I can be replaced? Cruel, indeed. Malicious even!"
Leonhart rolled his eyes, and let the boy rant on for awhile. He was sure Hercules and Aladdin were confused about the 'sailing under his colors' remark, but he let them stew on it for a bit. He was planning on informing the crew of their becoming pirates after they had safely rescued the pirates that had formerly been crewing the Highwind, and got rid of Ansem once and for all.
He, himself, hadn't wanted to go after Ansem, until the duet of whining from Riku and Sora had mentioned Yuffie's presence. The girl had long been one of his dear friends, from those days spent under Cid's command, sailing on the Balamb and the Trabia-- the ship that had eventually become Yuffie's, only to be stolen by Sparrow, and promptly destroyed a bare month later. Squall Leonhart would not let a friend die unless completely unavoidable.
But he wasn't about to do something and not get something else out of it. That had been a habit that he had been hard pressed to keep hidden when he was a Navy man, but now a pirate once again, he indulged himself a bit. He would help Sora get the Pearl back, in exchange for the Pearl sailing under his colors. He knew pirates could command more than a single ship-- Cid had managed it when he was a child, commanding the Balamb, the Trabia and the Galbadia. Though, after Cid's decision to 'retire', no other pirate had managed it.
Squall wanted to be the one to revive it. He wanted to make his name a legend again, although this time, one heard in more places than pirate ports. It wasn't something he had cared for as a young man, but now that he could feel his age starting to creep up on him, he wanted to be remembered for something. Anything.
"Sparrow," he finally interrupted the boy's babbling, "get on with it."
"Get on with what?" The flat gaze he got in return said it all, and Sora blinked, "Oh, right then. C'mon, Riku."
"What do I have to do with anything?" he had been staying silent, in hopes that his lunatic friend-- who _still_ hadn't realized that he wasn't Riku Turner the second, but Bootstrap himself-- and the former Commodore would forget his existence.
"Well, you're all a part of the plan, m'boy!"
"That fails to inspire confidence, Sparrow," still, as Sora hopped from one boat to another, allowing the men in that small rowboat to get into their Commodore's boat, the silver haired one followed suit. Somehow, he had a feeling that Sora didn't have a clue what he was doing, and was merely going by the seat of his pants.
When they were a considerable distance from Leonhart and the rest of the crew, Sora stopped rowing, "I need to tie your hands together."
Eyeing the man suspiciously, he held his hands out in front of him, but the pirate shook his head, "Behind your back."
"Not on your life, Sora," Riku shot back, "Out in front, or I don't help."
"Stubborn bastard," Sora griped, but capitulated. It wouldn't due to argue with the boy, having tried to do so several times before, both times they were sailing together in the past couple months. Winding the rope around Turner's wrists, he stopped to study his handiwork. Yes, this would do nicely. Very nicely.
His sudden movements caught Turner off guard, and the boy was rendered unconscious before he knew what hit him.
Yes. Everything was coming together nicely indeed.
---
Riku came to, only to find his hands bound behind his back, and that he was slumped against the stone chest that contained the eight hundred and eighty one Aztec gold coins. Pushing himself up, he blinked blurry eyes at the sight before him-- Sora and Ansem bargaining.
"--rok, pride of the Royal Navy, is floating just offshore... waiting for you."
"And why should we care?" Ansem eyed his former Captain, casting a short glance to the boy who was now standing on rather wobbly legs beside the chest. How Sora had come across the boy had yet to be discovered, but quite frankly, he didn't care. Just the sight of the boy, alive, unconscious, and slung over Sparrow's shoulder like a sack had brought hope to his men and himself.
"Just hear me out, mate. You order your men to row out to the Ragnarok; they do what they do best. Robert's your uncle, Fannie's your aunt, there you are with two ships. The makings of your very own fleet. 'Course, you'll take the grandest one as your flagship, and who's to argue? But what of the Pearl?" Sora held up his hands, a grin threatening to break across his face, "Name me Captain, I'll sail under your colors, I'll give you ten percent of me plunder and you get to introduce yourself as... Commodore Ansem. Savvy?"
"And I suppose, in exchange, you want me to just use the whelp's blood, not kill him."
"No, no, no, by all means, kill the whelp. Just... not yet. Wait to lift the curse... until the opportune moment," his eyes flickered to Riku's, "For instance," the pirate was speaking, picking up four medallions, "After you've killed Commodore Loire's men..." and for every word he spoke next, one medallion fell back into the chest, "...every... last... one."
Ocean-blue eyes widened as he caught Sora slipping a coin into his sleeve, and comprehension dawned on him, "You've been planning this from the beginning. Ever since you learned my name."
"Yeah," Sora nodded in agreement.
"I want fifty percent of your plunder," Ansem threw in quite suddenly, and Sora returned his attention back to his one-time first mate.
"Fifteen."
"Forty."
"Twenty-five," Sora grinned, opening his mouth as Ansem looked about to demand the forty percent, "And I'll buy you the hat. A really big one... Commodore."
Ansem was silent, considering the deal, then stuck out his hand, eyes glittering with unholy greed, "We have an accord." Sora's grin was a twisted little grin that did not properly fit his face, as he shook the man's hand, right in front of Riku's nose. The two men turned to the pirates that had been gathered, watching the entire proceedings.
Caught up in the moment, Sora threw his arms out, "All hands to the boats!" Ansem's dark look caused him to pause, "I apologize, you give the orders," and he bowed. There was a mocking edge to the bow, but Ansem's glee at finally nearing the end of his curse caused him to miss it.
"Gents!" the Heartless Captain shouted, "Take a walk!"
"Not to the boats?" Sora queried, looking at the man in askance, as the pirates laughed and began to filter out of the cabin. Riku could only hope that Leonhart was prepared for this. It wasn't exactly an everyday situation, after all. Not even for them.
---
End Part Five
Kairi: Priest wasn't kidding when she said there were major changes.
Sora: But she somehow still managed to keep in bits and pieces of the movie.
Riku: Sora could not knock me out.
Sora: I could too!
Riku: No, you couldn't. Every time you've beaten me has been a fluke.
Kairi: Sure it has, Riku.
Riku: I'm still not talking to you.
Sora: You just did.
Riku: Dammit all!
Kairi: Look, I'm sorry, now stop it. Back to the fic... Sora got to cut my hair?!
Sora: Hey, what's wrong with that?
Kairi: Gee, maybe the fact that you think having beads in your hair is a good thing?
Sora: My beads are cool.
Riku: They're stupid, stop trying to deny it.
Kairi: Well, at least I don't have long hair any more. I happen to like my hair short.
Sora: That would explain why both Riku and me have longer hair than you throughout Kingdom Hearts.
Kairi: Riku's just girly.
Riku: Girly?! I am NOT girly!
Sora & Kairi: You keep thinking that.
Riku: *grumblegrumble*stupidfriends*grumble*