Disclaimer: I do not own Utena

My Saviour

When Utena finally dragged the unconscious woman up onto the docks with the help of Wakaba to lift her up her heart was racing madly and her mind awhirl in a maelstrom of thoughts. She knelt down beside the woman, beginning air compressions.

"Please, please wake up!" Utena prayed desperately.

After two agonizingly long minutes the woman choked, spurting torrents of water out of her water. Blinking a few times to clear dizziness, she stared up at her relieved saviour with a pair of stunning dark green eyes and Wakaba thought she saw the strangest expression grace her face but it was there only for a moment. She was squeezing water out of Utena's hat.

"I'm glad you're alright m'lady," Utena smiled slightly down at the woman.

"Are you…are you a pirate?" She asked hopefully, sitting up.

"Well…" Utena started, uncertain what to say and perplexed at her question as it was not something someone would say after being saved from drowning to death.

"Yep but we really have to go now don't we Utena?" Wakaba answered for her, taking her hand.

"Hold it she-devils!" An elderly man shouted, striding forth. Wakaba and Utena were surprised to see that it was a Japanese man dressed in regal clothes, the governor no doubt. A young man with sky blue hair brushed past him, going to the woman's side. "Anthy, are you alright?"

"Yes I'm fine," She reassured as he took off his coat, wrapping it around the soaked woman tenderly.

"We have to get out of here Utena," Wakaba said nervously as she eyed the guards that were filing into the area. She turned only to be faced with a musket and backed away.

Utena stepped in front of Wakaba protectively, eyes and ears attuned to the danger present now. Her fingers curled around the hilt of the sword and she whispered to Wakaba out of the corner of her mouth.

"Be ready to fight."

"Kiryuu, kill them!" The elderly man commanded the guard on his left side, a long-haired, red-head.

"Such a pity though, I mean to say, killing such lovely women." The red-head mused, an appraising smile teasing his lips.

"Do it!"

"As you wish," He sighed. Utena had time to see a flash of silver and covering Wakaba with her body, she unsheathed her own with deadly efficiency and swung upwards, intending to meet Kiryuu's sword with hers.

However, the woman, Anthy, appeared in front of her in that precise moment. Utena's blade halted .01 millimetres away from slicing her head open and Kiryuu's sword just touched the woman's hair.

"Anthy, what are you doing?" The elderly man cried out.

"Please father, do not kill them. What happened to me was not their fault and at any rate,

I'm fine now." She implored, holding her ground.

For Utena and Wakaba's part, they were grateful and puzzled at the same time, especially Utena.

"But, but Anthy, they, they-" Her father sputtered.

"One of them saved me from certain death and the other has committed no crime," Anthy finished. "Please grant them your pity and let them go and stay here freely."

He seemed to be having an internal debate within himself but finally he said through gritted teeth, annoyed. "Alright then, you…people…are allowed to go. Guards, put down your weapons now!"

They obliged. Utena released the breath she had been holding, lowering her sword.

"Well what are you waiting for? Get out of here," The man snapped.

"Wait," Anthy spoke up. She turned around, facing Utena and took her sopping wet hand. The skin felt rough and coarse from the labour which was essential to keep a good, clean ship but as Anthy's eyes met hers, there was only an endearing kindness to them.

"Thank you for saving me Miss Utena." She said, smiling at her with a smile which reached her eyes.

Wakaba snatched her hand out of the woman's, "Utena, come on! Remember the gun shot?"

She whisked the pink-haired captain away. Utena cast a throwaway glance at the woman named Anthy and what she saw both interested and bemused her. She was positively beaming and her eyes alight with sheer ecstasy.

"It's like you made her day or something Utena." Wakaba muttered.

Despite the fact that Anthy was drenched to the bone and had been hovering somewhere between life and death, she was both shocked and jubilant at the same time. A pirate! She had actually met a real pirate but…a troubled look crossed her features. In the lush carriage next to Mickey she creased her eyebrows as she scoured the depths of her brain for any information regarding female pirates. She knew they did exist, albeit very few but none ever commandeered a ship as powerful and sleek as that one and another oddity was that there were more females than men. She had counted six altogether out of the 10 crew members. But what really intrigued her was the fact that all of them except for maybe two of the men couldn't be any older than 20. The young woman, Utena, was the captain and at such a young age of 18 too. At least, that's what she assumed judging from her general appearance.

"Anthy, are you really alright?" Mickey asked worriedly as he draped a spare piece of clothing over her shoulders.

Anthy shivered involuntarily but gave Mickey a small smile of reassurance. "I'll be alright once I dry myself when I return back home Mickey."

To his credit he asked no further questions but clasped his hand over hers, offering his body warmth to her. Anthy leaned into him, partly because of the desire to attain some sort of warmth for her coldness but also out of friendship.

"Mickey, what do you know about pirates?"

Mickey looked across at her in surprise, smiling gently. "Not much but whatever I know you probably already would. Why? Is it because of what happened today?"

"I guess so. From the books and documents I've read the pirates I saw just then were not the ones I had really heard of or read about." Anthy elaborated. She gazed at the floor unseeingly, "They didn't seem rowdy or disruptive at all or dirty."

"Well there are always things in this world which are new to us," Mickey said sagely.

Anthy's eyes flicked to the blue-haired young man knowingly and she said playfully, eyes sparkling. "Has your father been teaching you philosophy recently?"

Mickey blushed. "A few days ago."

"It suits you well," Anthy said.

"Thank you."

When they stopped outside the governor's house, Mickey said seriously. "Anthy, do not get involved with these pirates. I know you want to find out about them but they will do you more harm than good and they are dangerous to be around. It was because of the presence of them today that you nearly drowned and they have endangered the lives of five civilians today. Please, promise me you will not consort with them or anything of the sort.

"Five civilians?" Anthy stared at him in shock.

"Yes and two were children. Your father is deciding their punishment as we speak so please Anthy, do not go near them. I do not want to loose you." Mickey pleaded, gazing at her with caring eyes.

Anthy's heart ached with sadness whenever she saw that love and worry in his eyes so she did what she usually did. "I promise I will have nothing to do with them." She lied.

Quickly she hurried to intercept her father, Mickey's words ringing in her mind. Your father is deciding their punishment as we speak… She thanked the lord he couldn't see her expression at the moment or read her mind.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Notes: Too short? Too long? Not interesting enough? Tell me what you think. School's going to start in another few weeks so I won't have as much time to write but I'll try to.

Naoko Tachido: Lol, it's not totally Jack Sparrowish and thanks :D. As for the vampire story, yes I do have it in my files. The thing was that I wanted to experiment since it was my first time uploading anything onto and that fic was the one I'd been working on at the time. I have intentions of putting it up but just…not…yet.

Infamous.Rene: Yep, there will definitely be more, J