Chapter Four—Closing In

For several more days, they sailed on southeast. They attacked and robbed a trade vessel, though at Tetra's insistence they did only minimal damage to the crew, but otherwise they had little excitement.

That is, the crew had little excitement. Jack, however, had much to keep his interest.

Tetra had proven true to her word about surprising him every day. He soon learned that the men had not been exaggerating about her skills in combat with sword, bow, fists and feet. She trained with them on a daily basis, a practice that the crew began to dread, as it often resulted in pain for them. Jack didn't mind, though. Rather, he appreciated the fact that Tetra was whipping the Pearl's sailors into shape.

Besides such physical skills as these, she also had a knack for reading people, and predicted that Michael, the prisoner, would crack within days. Sure enough, the day after they had plundered the traders, Jack received word that Michael wished to speak with him. Suspicious and guarded, the captain visited the captive in his cell.

"Yeah?" he asked roughly.

Before he had even begun to speak, Michael's resolve faded visibly. He dropped his gaze to the floor, leaning against the bars of his cell hopelessly. "I—I wanted to say…I'm sorry," he said feebly. "I know it probably doesn't mean anything to you, but…"

When he let his voice die, Jack told him, "Keep talking. But what?"

Apparently slightly heartened by the captain's interest, Michael went on, "But I really—I didn't know what I was doing. I'm just trying to figure things out, captain, and I know now that I just don't have a clue about anything. I mean, you can see that, can't you?"

Jack nodded. "Seems pretty clear by now," he agreed.

"Right. So I thought—I mean, I know you really don't have any reason to want to give me…well, anything, but especially not a second chance—but I thought that maybe…since I don't have a captain now, or anything at all, really…I thought maybe—maybe I could join your crew?"

He finished his request meekly, barely daring to glance halfway up enough to meet Jack's even stare.

Jack had known this was coming as soon as Michael had said he was "trying to figure things out." He also knew exactly what would happen if he said yes: The boy would be loyal and eager, until the day his courage failed him, at which point he would turn tail and run.

On the other hand, it was clear that this boy genuinely didn't understand the world he had fallen into, and the fact that he was willing to accept how much trouble he had found and was trying to turn it into something positive was admirable. Although he had a lot to improve about himself…he also had the capacity to do so.

"Well," Jack said decisively, "I can't see why not." Extending a hand, he proclaimed formally, "Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, sailor. I'm your captain."

Michael looked so relieved as he shook Jack's hand that the captain worried he might faint. "Th-thank you! Captain. Sir. What am I supposed to call you?"

"Captain," Jack told him, taking the keys to unlock the door. "Or sir. Anything respectful, really. From here on, I'm your king. Now let's go meet your queen."

The door swung open, but Michael didn't move. He was looking at Jack in mild confusion. "Queen?" he echoed. "You mean…that woman—?"

"My second in command," Jack elaborated. "First mate of the Black Pearl, whose orders you are to obey as you would mine."

"Oh," Michael said with a laugh, falling into step behind Jack. "When you said 'queen,' I thought you meant…y'know."

Jack chose not to say anything, but merely grinned.

As they emerged onto the deck, he looked around and called out, "Tetra! Where are you?"

"Right here, Jack!"

She made an appropriately impressive appearance, by leaping the railing of the stairs next to the doorway through which Jack and Michael had come, to land lightly before them with a wide smile. Identical looks of shock, however, instantly appeared on the faces of both her and the newly released captive.

"Hey—What's going on?" she asked, turning her eyes with difficulty onto Jack.

"Michael here's joining our crew," he answered easily. "I wanted to show him who he's answering to."

"You—You're not the same…" Michael stammered, pointing in disbelief at her. "Are you?"

"She's the only woman aboard the Pearl, mate, which should answer your question," Jack told him. "She's Tetra, and she's above you. She's above everyone, actually, except me."

"She's underneath you, huh?" Michael clarified with a grin.

Jack didn't feel the need to respond to this subtly suggestive comment, and he wouldn't have had a chance to anyway; Tetra responded first, delivering a swift punch to Michael's gut. "First rule of any ship, mate, don't ever objectify your commanding officer," she snapped.

Winded, he could only nod.

"Right, then," Jack, who was perfectly willing to leave Tetra to her own methods of punishment, addressed himself to the new sailor. "I'll have Mr Gibbs show you around… Where is Gibbs?"

He addressed the question at his first mate, and she, still glaring at Michael, jerked her head towards the stairs. She continued to watch them hostilely until Mr Gibbs had taken the new sailor away to show him the ropes, at which point Jack returned to her side.

"You don't hate him that much," he said idly.

"Of course not," she agreed immediately, dropping the act. "But I do hate comments like that—I'm not some harlot. And besides, you know the importance of being an intimidating figure."

"Of course," Jack agreed. Tilting his head thoughtfully, he inquired, "What do you really think of him, then?" He had his own opinions, naturally, but he was curious about hers."

"He's a soldier, but a weak one," she decided. "Wasn't long in the service before he turned pirate, I bet, which he thought would be easier than the military. He's learning that it's not. He's gonna want to take the easiest way out of anything."

For the most part, Jack's observations tallied with hers. "If that's the case," he inquired, "then why was he so stubborn about answering my questions?"

"Because in that instance, the easiest thing to do was follow his training," she replied immediately. "He knew you were going to make his life hell whether you answered him or not, so it was easier to not answer. With me, on the other hand, he knew that he wasn't getting anything good if he didn't do what I wanted, so the easiest thing was to answer."

"Little did he know he wasn't going to get anything good from you anyway, aye?"

"Exactly. He tried two different methods of opposition, neither one worked, so now he's figured, if you can't beat 'em…"

"Join them."

"Yep."

Adding Michael was the last major shift in the Pearl's organization. From that point on, the ship settled itself into smooth operation under two very different leaders.

Neither Jack nor Tetra was any more or less intelligent than the other; their areas of expertise were simply different. Lying, deception and even tactful omission were skills in which Tetra was barely proficient, while Jack's abilities were awe-inspiring. She was remarkable at understanding the way people thought, and could predict the behaviour of an individual; but he knew the practices of politics, and could predict the behaviour of an organization. She fought with swift and brutal strength, but he fought with blunt and practical strategy. With his mind and her heart, he thought, they had the makings of a pirate captain of god-like power. And he had to admit that thought was tantalizing.

Of course, there remained times when she was just strange. For example, when he asked her to ensure they were on the right course, she never checked a compass, map, or even the sky or wind. She simply headed to the prow and climbed atop the head of the mermaid, where she would sit as though in meditation for a few moments. When she had finished, she would climb back down and give directions. She always looked faintly disappointed, though, and he rather thought she was scouring the sea as opposed to heading for any specific destination, despite the fact that their course was usually fairly steady to the southeast.

There was something odd about her, and Jack was determined to find out what it was.


They had been at sea for a little over two weeks when they first saw it.

It was Michael who first spotted it, when he happened to glance casually out at the water behind them. He did a double take, staring with a crease in his brow as he squinted to see clearly.

"Captain?" he called, when he was sure he wasn't imagining things. "Captain Sparrow!"

Tetra, who was nearer, approached. "What is it?" she asked sharply.

"I think I see something…" Michael replied; he was still staring at the ocean, and pointed towards the small object. Tetra, looking where he indicated, frowned as well.

"Yeah…I see it. Good observation, sailor," she commended him, patting him on the back and quickly walking away to get a telescope; as she went, she called back behind her, "Go find Jack and let him know."

"Aye, ma'am."

Although she had no reason to think that her fear could be realized, somehow she suspected that was exactly what was happening.

Moments later, when she came back to the stern, she found Jack there with a telescope of his own in hand. Before she could look, he said slowly, "It's a ship, of course. Can't see much more than that…"

"Is it following us?" she asked, peering through her own instrument.

"Is it following us, you ask?" Jack repeated, glancing at her with a small smile. "You can see it as well as I can."

"Yeah, I can," she agreed irritably. "It's still far away, though. It's tough to say."

"Well," Jack concluded decisively as he lowered his telescope, "it could be following us, or it could be another ship that's heading southeast. Can't say yet." Glancing at Tetra, he instructed her, "Keep one eye on it."

She nodded, her eyes frozen on the distant vessel.


Over the coming days, Tetra followed Jack's orders thoroughly—perhaps too much so. She spent all her time at the stern of the ship, unmoving, staring out at the water like a loyal pet awaiting the return of her master; she left this post only to sit atop the mermaid at the prow, her hair tossed in the wind like the waves that rolled before the Black Pearl.

The men began to wonder about her, and posed their concerns to Jack, but he disregarded them. Whatever was wrong with Tetra, he assured them, she was still the best sailor the Pearl had ever known…besides, of course, himself. She would get over this odd little fancy that had taken her.

Although Jack believed his own words, the other sailors didn't. Michael, in particular, began to feel guilty.

"If I hadn't pointed that thing out, she'd still be acting normal," he told Mr Gibbs, who had become a good friend of his.

"Ah, don't blame yourself, Crawford," Mr Gibbs assured him. "She was bound to lose it eventually. Women aren't meant to be on the sea. You mark my words, she'll not be much longer with us."


"Jack?"

It was evening, and Jack was retiring to his cabin for a night's sleep when he heard Tetra's meek voice behind him and turned around to see her standing there, her hands clasped in front her and her gaze focused on the ground.

"Yes?" he prompted, leaning on the doorway with his arms folded and waiting for an explanation.

"I just…I wanted to tell you… Remember how I told you that before, when I was with my men, there were some official ships chasing us?"

She chanced looking up, and Jack nodded briefly.

"Well—I think… That's ships been getting closer, and I can see it more clearly, and I think…it's the same one that was after us before."

When Jack said nothing, she looked up again to see the expression of shock on his face. To her amazement, it wasn't there.

"Obviously," he commented.

"Wh—You knew?" she blurted. "But…Wait, you couldn't have known! You didn't see the ship before, so how could you—?"

"I didn't know that's who it was," he corrected, "but I did know that's who you thought it was. Why else would you be spending every waking moment dreading its approach?"

Tetra looked as though she had been struck with something heavy. "Oh," she said blankly. "Right…okay…"

"Get some sleep, love," he advised her, clapping her on the shoulder bracingly. "You're killing yourself. We won't let them catch you."

She nodded, and cast him a wan smile. He knew she wasn't much reassured, but there was nothing he could do about that. After all, he wasn't reassured, either.


It was definitely following them—following her. By now, Tetra knew that for a fact. And it made her angry.

She knew why they were hunting her down so fervently. Although she hadn't been near the Great Sea recently enough to know much detail about its politics, she had heard a few vague rumours before leaving the area, and even after, when she had still been with her own crew. Such gossip always spoke of Windfall Island as an emerging power, and said that the government there was focusing on two main goals to solidify itself as the most formidable force within its region: eliminating crime, and unifying religion. Both of these, she knew, would involve getting her out of the picture.

To be honest, she thought, she could be quite confident that no one yet realized why she could cause conflicts over spiritual matters. Regardless, she knew she represented deviation, and wasn't waiting for them to find that out. It was enough that she knew why it would be worth their while for them to catch her, even if they didn't.

Undoubtedly Link was already on the run; this fact had been on her mind for months now. He, like her, had connections to the ancient world which Windfall didn't know about, but would want to erase from history if they did. However, again like her, he probably wasn't about to let anyone discover those connections. Knowing him, he would have dropped out of Windfall's sphere of influence before they had a chance to learn all there was to know about him. This was another reason she wanted to find him, so that she could hide with him, out of reach of Windfall's conquering forces. They would each stand a better chance with the other than either could alone.

But now it seemed she was running out of time. She would be caught, trapped, kept away from Link forever. Denied her freedom, taken as a sacrifice…perhaps even murdered to serve as a demonstration of the fate which would befall dissenters.

Perhaps such a fate had already befallen Link. A fine and fitting way for a hero to die, she thought bitterly, martyred by the very people he had saved.

She lay in her bunk, staring at the wooden planks over her head, her mind heavy with these thoughts, her eyes wide in an attempt to find any and all light in a world that appeared to her to be increasingly dark. Her eyes slid to her porthole, through which a faint sea breeze blew.

Since boarding the Black Pearl, she hadn't once spoken to her parents. Her fingers moved to her throat subconsciously at this thought. She could speak to them now; she could see the stars from here… But they weren't the ones she wanted to talk to.

She was scared. She wanted someone to reassure her—someone with courage.

"Where are you?" she whispered, staring unblinkingly at the stars. "You're not up there in the sky like my mom and dad are. You're alive. I know you are. If you weren't…" she swallowed, but the lump in her throat didn't move, "I'd know that, too. You're somewhere out there." She let out her nervous breath in a sigh.

"Did they catch you?" she wondered aloud, though very softly, after a long moment of silence. "Do they know who you are, Hero?" The humour she attempted with his nickname only caused a splinter of pain to pierce her heart, and her smile fell dramatically short of anything happy. "Do they know who I am?" she murmured. "Did you tell them?"

Once again, she paused. When her eyes began to water, she blinked. It was just because she had been staring at one spot for too long, that was all, she insisted internally.

"No, you wouldn't say anything to them. You wouldn't betray me. Well, you're not in any position to betray me, because they can't have caught you, so it's kind of a moot point, but even if you were…" She shrugged. Forcing herself to smile, she went on, "I'll kill you if you tell anyone this, but… Well, you already know most of my secrets…but this is a big one." Taking a deep breath, she admitted softly, "I'm scared."

As soon as she had spoken the words, they felt much more real.

"Yeah," she confirmed reluctantly. "I know. Me, of all people. Scared. And saying so. Bet you never thought you'd live to see the day. Like I said, you tell anyone, and I'll kill you."

With a sigh, she cast her eyes back up at the smooth wood over her head.

"But who am I kidding," she added. "You won't tell. You would never tell my secrets. And you could never tell the ones you're not even around to hear."

A crease appeared in her brow, and she felt a wave of unexpectedly strong emotions wash over her heart; she didn't recognize them, but she heard their heat in her voice as she said, "I wanted you to stay. But you wanted to go back to the normal world…and look what the normal world wants to do to us both now. Bet it's not looking so great anymore, is it, now that we're both on the run? I knew you were wrong."

Her hand clenched around the gold pendant, and she finished in a whisper made harsh by the bitterness of her rejection, "It's your fault for leaving, Link. You were never supposed to leave me."


Needless to say, her sleep that night was restless. As the crew woke the next morning, they were surprised to find that she wasn't up already. They had gotten used to the idea that Tetra was always awake with the sun, and that each morning would find her already on the deck: practicing with her bow or sword, checking that the ship was in order, or else just sitting at her usual post atop the mermaid. Recently, they had also frequently found her just standing there, standing out at the water, either before, behind, or beside them. At these times, she often didn't answer when spoken to, so the men found it less unnerving to simply leave her be until such time as she chose to emerge from her trance of her own accord.

Therefore they were confused about what to make of the fact that Tetra was nowhere to be found, and informed Jack of the situation. He didn't seem to think it was a matter to be dwelt on.

"So she's sleeping in," he said dismissively when the crew called her absence to his attention. "Do you need her around to do your jobs? Get to work."

Ten men muttered their acquiescence and dispersed, but Jack, of course, was unwilling to simply forget about Tetra. Besides the fact that it was neglectful of her to just not turn up in the morning, it was also worryingly out of character—enough so that he turned around and headed down to her cabin immediately to check on her.

No sounds were audible from the other side of her door, though he listened closely and for several seconds, so he tried knocking. She didn't answer.

"Tetra?" he called.

Nothing.

"Tetra, love, you all right in there?"

Still nothing.

"All right…"

Tentatively, he opened the door and peered inside. There was nothing unusual to be seen; a lump in the blankets indicated Tetra's presence, and he approached the bunk cautiously.

"Hey…Tetra!"

Only when he shook her by the shoulder did she jerk awake, rolling onto her back with panic on her face.

"Jack! Oh, for the love of…" She relaxed with a sigh, but her anger quickly resumed. "What are you doing in my room?" she demanded furiously.

He expected a reaction along these lines, and so wasn't remotely offended or concerned. He did, however, take a step back.

"Come to wake you up," he answered. "It's morning."

"Huh?" she glanced out the porthole in bewilderment, noticing the full daylight for the first time. "Oh!" She sat up straight, forgetting her annoyance instantly. "Sorry…Thanks, Jack. I'll be right up, just let me get ready. I can't believe I slept in like that…"

Jack nodded as he showed himself out of the room. "You haven't missed much. But I'm hoping to cover some good ground today, put some distance between us and that other ship."

Tetra looked at him sharply. Her eyes momentarily betrayed her fear.

"You're safe with us, love," he promised again. "You're one of the best sailors this ship's ever seen. I'd really have to break a few heads if someone tried to take you away from the Pearl, and it's really much easier not to have to bother with all that, don't you think?"

She gave him a faint smile, knowing that these jokes were merely his way of helping her cope with the situation. Jokes were his way of coping with every situation.

"Thanks," she told him sincerely.

Jack flashed her a gold-toothed grin and a wink, and left.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Tetra let out a slow, controlled breath and rubbed her trembling hands over her face. She supposed it wasn't much of a surprise that she had lost track of time this morning, given that her night had been plagued with unsettling dreams. Her memories of them were slipping away even as she sat there, leaning her elbows on her knees and digging the heels of her palms into her eyes. She remembered…Link. And Jack. Both of them, fighting. Except they were friends. Except they really were trying to kill each other. And Link had won, driving his sword through Jack, but it wasn't Jack. It was her. And Jack was nearby, and he was so upset that she was dying. But it wasn't her. It was Link. Jack had killed him.

She furrowed her brow, trying to make sense of these contradictory images that flooded her mind, swimming through her own certainties and blurring them.

Dropping her hands, she sighed loudly and gave her head a firm shake, as if by so doing she could banish any and all unwanted thoughts that weighed her down. Of course it didn't work.

She moved slowly as she dressed, for no reason other than that she was feeling oddly mentally uncoordinated. What she really needed was a good bout of meditation, to let her mind stretch out and expand itself. There was also the off chance that she could find Link's mental presence that way. But she didn't have time for any such thing. At most, she could hope to find a moment to expand her thoughts internally and stabilize them thus, though this method wouldn't be nearly so fulfilling.

When she had readied herself, she checked herself in her mirror; neither Jack nor anyone else knew that she had a mirror, because she knew that they would denounce it as no more than female vanity. Even though she had proven with the interrogation that she had practical reasons for caring what she looked like, she still was unwilling to subject herself to the possibility of the men's taunts. They would never admit that perhaps any feminine values could be significant or worthwhile… Truth be told, Tetra didn't put much stock in vanity, either, but that didn't mean she didn't want to check her reflection in the morning. Twitching her hair appropriately so that it hung exactly the way she wanted it to in her ponytail, she shoved the mirror back into her bag and then hurried up onto the deck.

She had already affixed a smile on her face, and was calling ahead of her as she emerged, "Sorry I'm late, everyone, I didn't…sleep…well…"

Her sentence died uncertainly when she found the crew in disarray, muttering distractedly amongst themselves, looking around edgily. Instantly she reverted to a more decisively angle of approaching the situation, demanding authoritatively. "What's going on?"

"Squark! All hands on deck!"

Tetra looked from the parrot to Mr Gibbs, who answered, "It's that other ship, Miss Tetra." Nodding towards the stern, he explained simply, "Looks like it's gaining on us."

Just catching herself from swearing viciously, Tetra bit her lip hard in frustration. "Where's Jack?" she asked in an effort to remain calm. Still, her fists were clenched.

"He went to have a look at the situation," Mr Gibbs answered. "Told us to keep to our course in the meantime."

"So keep to the course!" Tetra ordered loudly; her tone became so suddenly commanding that several men jumped. "Whatever you have to do to make this ship go its fastest, do it!"

"But we're already at top speed, Miss—"

"Then go faster!"

Her tone did not invite doubt, and nor did she herself when she turned around and ran aggressively to where Jack stood, gazing out at the vessel behind them; he didn't need a telescope to see it clearly. She took in immediately that it was much closer than it had been the night before—startlingly close, in fact—and would clearly overtake them within the day if they kept to the same pace.

"Did we lose speed overnight?" she asked quickly.

"No," Jack replied without looking at her. "They gained it." He paused. "And it looks like they're still gaining."

Once again, Tetra bit back the curse she was longing to shout, and settled for stomping he foot in annoyance.

"We'll get away from them," Jack vowed. "Don't worry."

Tetra got the feeling, watching him turn his back on the oncoming ship, that the conflict was no longer about her. It was about the Pearl, about naval superiority, about who was better. It was on principle now.

Well, if that kept Jack fighting, then so be it. But for her own sake, she would have liked Link by her side once more, flashing her a confident grin before he hardened himself to battle their mutual enemy. Like old times. She had never thought she would be fighting like this without him…but she had never thought her homeland would turn against them both, as it obviously had. She, too, turned her back on the ship to follow Jack.

He was already issuing orders, not only to find a way to increase their speed, but also to prepare in case they had to fight.

"…to man the guns! You, too, Gibbs! And you," he finished, turning around and pointed at Tetra, "come here. We need to talk."'

Bewildered, and admittedly more frightened than she was wont to be in Jack's presence, Tetra nevertheless merely nodded and followed her captain out of earshot of the rest of the crew.

"What did you want to talk about?" she asked, unsure why she was suddenly nervous.

"You tell me."

She stared for a moment, but when it became clear that he was not going to elaborate, she asked, "Excuse me?"

"I want to talk about whatever it is you want to tell me," he explained, "because I know there's something you haven't told me. Something about who your enemies are. So what is it?"

"It's nothing," she assured him quickly.

"Then you admit it's something."

"Wh—No, I just said—"

"You said 'It's nothing,' but 'nothing' is something, and whether or not 'it' is nothing, 'it' is, and that mean's 'it' is something."

Tetra wasn't entirely sure that she understood what he had just said, but it was at least clear to her that he knew she was lying.

"I supposed I shouldn't be surprised that you were less than forthcoming," he was now saying thoughtfully. "For all your 'code of honour' says about loyalty, it says nothing about honestly. Lovely loophole. Still…" he fixed her with a penetrating gaze, "I don't appreciate being lied to."

A long silence passed between them, during which Tetra tried to force her eyes to lift to his, but couldn't do it.

"Well," Jack said presently, "if we're done here, then, I've got a ship to run, and an opponent to fight."

Finding her voice, Tetra jerked her head up and stammered, "You're—Are you still going to…fight with me? For me?"

"I can't very well give up now, can I, love?" he pointed out. "Captain Jack Sparrow surrenders to no man, no matter what the reason."

Although this was a very convenient situation, it still led Tetra to ask, "Then why should I tell you my secret? If you're still supporting my cause, I have no good reason to tell you anything."

"Aye, that may be." Jack was already walking away unconcernedly. "But you will."


Her conversation with Jack unnerved Tetra, so much so that she cast him as many sidelong worried glances as she did the imposing figure of the official-looking vessel behind them—which stubbornly continued to close the open water between them, despite the Pearl's success in increasing her top speed.

"I must say, love," Jack informed her darkly as they stood together at the helm that afternoon, "whoever these men are from your country…they do know how to sail."

Tetra replied with a grunt of unhappy agreement. She had always known that the sailors of the Great Sea were talented at what they did, but she had hoped that the sailors of the Black Pearl were more so. Of course, a voice in the back of her mind had been nagging from day one that they obviously weren't; never had she imagined that she could so loathe being right.

It was only moments later that the Great Sea ship fired a shot—straight out at the ocean.

"It's a warning shot," Tetra explained sharply; naval communication was different in her homeland from that to which the pirates of Jack's crew were accustomed. "They're going to make a demand, and if we don't meet it, they'll attack. At least, that's officially what it means," she concluded, "in theory. In practice, it really just means they're opening negotiations."

Jack listened to this thoughtfully, arms folded, then asked, "So how will we know what they're demanding?"

"They'll raise a flag," she replied, glancing towards the stern. "And it'll mean something…"

Mere seconds after the words escaped her lisp, they saw two flags being raised: one red, one yellow. Jack looked to Tetra for further explanation.

"They red one means they want a person," she said heavily, "alive or dead, doesn't matter. And the yellow one means we know which person they want."

She exchanged a look with Jack, who said simply, "You."

"Me."

"So how do we reply?"

"Some kind of yellow flag. With a white stripe would mean we accept their terms, with a black stripe would mean we refuse, a plain one would mean we're willing to negotiate. Actually," she added immediately, inspiration on her face, "it might be better to just lie. If we raise a flag half black and half white, or no flag at all, it means we don't understand their signal."

Jack nodded as he took all this in, then summarized, "No response at all, then, aye?"

"That'd be best," Tetra confirmed.

"All right. Let's see how they handle that."


It was over an hour before they received a new signal. This one came in the form of three flags: one red with a white stripe running its horizontal breadth, the next a solid field of blue, the last a solid field of green.

"So they want me alive now," Tetra explained. "That's what the white stripe means. The blue means they want to meet with us and discuss things in person, and the green means that if we refuse, they're going to attack." Casting a glance at Jack, she added, "And they're serious about that this time."

"Hm," said Jack. For several seconds, he stood perfectly still with a slight frown. Then, so suddenly that Tetra jumped, he turned around and bellowed to the crew, "PREPARE FOR BATTLE!"

Instantly, unquestioningly, every man moved to his station for combat. Tetra didn't know why she felt positively faint at the prospect of this combat; it wasn't like she had never fought for her life before. In fact, she had proven herself on this very ship to be one of the most skillful warriors in the world. But fighting her own people…that didn't sit well with her conscience.

"I'm going down below," Jack informed her, making her start. "You know what they're going to do better than me, so you stay here and run things from the helm. This is your fight."

These words didn't immediately piece themselves together in her mind. When they did, she said rather vacantly. "Oh. Right. Okay, then, yeah."

She took her assigned place at the helm as Jack walked away, and braced herself. She refused to be scared. She just had to tell herself to be angry instead. Who did these people think they were, trying to take her like this? If they thought she'd surrender, they were insane. She narrowed her eyes in determination—She'd die before she'd give up.


Protocol required that the ship offering the signal had to allow a reasonable amount of time for a response before carrying out on any threat. The crew of the Pearl was therefore waiting, armed and dangerous, still and silent. They cast uneasy looks at each other, wondering what was going to happen, not daring to speak. Occasionally they cast their eyes up at Tetra, who still stood at the helm, jaw set, eyes unblinking, expression unreadable.

This went on for at least another hour before anything happened. When it did, it was the one thing that incensed Tetra more than anything else would have done.

They fired another warning shot.

"Damn it!" she roared furiously. Whipping around to face her enemy, which was now easily close enough to hit them, she bellowed, "Cowards! Are you afraid to fight like real men?! Because I'm not!"

She was suddenly completely and utterly sick of playing games. Her patience and her temper had both reached their limits and snapped with that one round of cannon fire. If death, pain, betrayal, torture, captivity, or any other horrors were lurking so close, then she would rear up against them and go down fighting on her own terms. And she wanted to let them know it. Glaring, she snarled bestially at the opposing ship, as though its captain could see her where she stood and would yield when he saw her temper.

"Fine," she growled. "If they want me, they're going to get me."

As she strode angrily to the stern of the ship, she hollered ahead of her, "Load the cannons! And when I give the order, fire at will!" The men around her hurried to obey, clearly glad to at last be doing something, and equally eager to get out of her way.

Facing into the wind, she stood alone at the stern, as close to the other ship as she could get without standing in the water. Glaring across the waves that tossed in curtains of azure and emerald laced with ivory foam, she saw that there was a man standing at the opposite bow. The captain. He matched her stance for confident and unrelenting strength.

Well, she thought, he wouldn't for long.

Hoping he could see what she was doing, she took her bow from her back and nocked an arrow. Her vision tunnelled as she aimed, ignoring the wind that buffeted her and tossed her hair in her face, until she was sure that she would strike her target. Just before she let the projectile fly, she added another detail; closing her eyes briefly, she summoned the powers that had lain dormant within her almost without exception for nearly ten years. The tip of the arrow spontaneously ignited. Then she released the bowstring.

As she had known it would, her arrow soared smoothly across the open water between the vessels. To her surprise, however, the man she had aimed for wasn't stepping aside to avoid being struck. In fact, he didn't move at all until the flaming arrow was only feet away; then the fire snuffed and he sharply grabbed the shaft out of midair.

Tetra was glad that her opponent couldn't see her face from this distance, because her expression fell into one of unflattering shock. Unbelievable.

And now the man was aiming back at her with a bow of his own. He had barely aimed, it seemed, before he sent his response flying, and Tetra decided even as she watched that she wouldn't move, either. She wouldn't be the coward in this confrontation.

Still, she couldn't help being slightly relieved when she didn't have to move; the arrow struck firmly into the deck at her feet. Smugly, she noted that he had missed his target and she had not…but when she looked down at the arrow, she was confused.

There was a scroll tied to it. He must not have been shooting to kill, but only to deliver a message, in which case the shot had been a very good one indeed. She quickly ripped off the scroll to read it.

Surrender Zelda, Princess of Hyrule.