Still Breathing Chapter 10
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It's a Pirate's Life for Me
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Notes: and soon my precious, my home and life will be my own again.. soooon yes precious, my precious…
Yeah, life been up in the air for a bit, just when things were settling again, illness and holidays hit.
Updates are going to be a bit spotty for a little while longer. We're going to be moving cross country in the next couple months. So its been a bit of fun trying to apartment hunt via email and phone calls.
Anyway, been looking forward to writing this chapter for a long time! Things are going to get crazy for a bit and hopefully will lead into epic awesomeness.
OH and the periodic disclaimer "I don't own shit and if you are reading fanfic you should know that already"
On with the story!
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Gamzee frowned at the water. He was at the back of the boat as he found it to be a quiet place he could sit and stare at the water shifting from the wake of the ship.
But right now he had a feeling it wasn't all happiness and miracles that was approaching from behind. Another ship, but something didn't look right about it.
Startling a couple nearby with the sudden surge of movement when he went from sitting to standing he walked to the rail his frown deepening.
At the edge of the horizon. He could just make out the boat. But it was still too far away. He couldn't make out the details and the surging of the waves of water kept blocking his view.
Why did that boat make him so uneasy? It was likely just another cruise line, or shipping vessel. Maybe just a huge yacht with rich tourists.
Feeling twitchy, he decided to forgo his nap and go find the others.
He wanted his family close, safe, if something went wrong.
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Hope reclined on the recliner by the pool. In both the ship and in that place formed by the Mothers. Outwardly she appeared to be napping in the warm evening sun. In her mind she was fighting herself from pacing.
"Something is wrong. Everyone is on edge and I'm not sure what's causing it!" she huffed to the Mothers.
The elder mother was staring off into the clouds, trying to sort through all the changing possibilities for answers for the uncomfortable human. The other was flitting over the pool, she seemed to be just as edgy.
"Something is going on in my chambers" she told them "They have taken away most of my attendants. And I've been given no material, I should be laying eggs right now but there is nothing. Where are all the Queens?" she hugged herself, feeling very uneasy. "I was talking to the other surviving Mother in Europe and she says that something similar is happening with her too. What are they doing?"
Hope shook her head, she didn't think what was going on with the Mothers was related to what was happening on the ship. But it was just as concerning. It was as if they were getting ready to move the Mothers, but where?
"I'll let Karkat know, he can likely get through to the Highblood and hopefully he can find something out for you." She offered. "If you are really uncomfortable, is there a way to hide possibly? Just till you feel safe?"
The flitting Mother paused and settled at the edge of the pool, chin in hand and elbows on her knees. She stared down at the water "there is a place, it would be difficult, I haven't really moved much since I was placed here." She admitted "Gotten kind of fat and lazy I guess."
"Oh dear." The til now silent mother said standing and still staring towards the sky.
"What Dolly? What do you see?" Hope asked as she came to her own feet and walked up beside her, looking at the Mother's face and not the sky.
"Possibilities and not good ones." She turned her gaze down to Hope "All of us are in danger, you should get yourself somewhere safe, get warning out, that they have found the ship."
"Oh shit." Hope breathed.
"And us?" the other Mother bounced worried beside her friend.
The Dolorosa stared down at the younger mother and said softly "Hide. For the future of our kind, hide."
Hope came out of her trance with a start. Sitting up in the chair just as she saw Gamzee crossing the deck towards her. Grabbing up her wrap she just finished tying it off when the taller troll reached her and took hold of her arm "We have to get out of here." She said to him grabbing her sunglasses and perching them on her head. Stopping him from whatever he was going to said.
Thrown off his stride he blinked at her "Do you know where everyone else is?" she asked him.
Mutely he shook his head.
Hope nodded "Well, last I saw Karkat and Nepeta had gone to the movies, they are doing a huge run of romantic comedies today. Go find them and tell them to meet us back at the rooms. We need him to call the Highblood about the other Mothergrubs. The kids are likely all in the kid zone, I'll find them and I'll call Jade and tell her to get back to the rooms." She had gotten loose from his hold, he hadn't grabbed her that hard, she knew that whatever was going on he was picking up on the situation in his own way. Digging in his pocket she came out with his phone. A track phone that didn't work all that well outside the US, but the ship had its own tower, so she was able to dial Jade as she started off with a determined stride.
Gamzee watched her go and then a grin breaking across his features. Hope was coming to her own.
And despite the worry, it made him happy.
Miracles happened.
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It wasn't all that long before the group was gathered. Doors between their rooms opened. Vierge was on one of the beds hugging a pillow tightly, he still looked ashen but at least not like he was going to be ill any moment. Beleza sat on the floor, her back against the wall and was stretching, her legs spread as far as the tight quarters allowed. Sirius on the balcony looking in through the open doorway. Gamzee had taken command of the only couch in the room. The children and grubs scattered along one of the beds and the other had the rest of the adults seated.
Except Hope who was half bouncing in place. She was twitching and nervous. Her eyes darting about the room. "Something is coming, and its not going to be nice. According to the Mothergrubs, there is two things going on. In the first, both the current living mothergrubs are complaining that their attendants have been removed and even the Queens as well, we.. saw something." Hope paused trying to figure out how to word it "They are going to go into hiding." She said. Karkat got up and was already on his phone, heading into one of the other rooms to make his call.
She watched him for a moment "The other thing is more for us, from what I was told.. we've been found."
Everyone but for Gamzee looked shocked, scared, surprised. Gamzee looked both mad and a little vindicated. "I motherfucking been watching a ship get closer all day off the back." He told them.
Feferi hugged one of the grubs tight enough to make the little one squeak.
"What do we do? Warn the ship?" Nepeta said leaning forward her fingers digging into the cover of the bed.
Both Gamzee and Beleza shook their heads. "If they do listen to us we give up Feferi's location, we can hope that the ship following will wait to try and attack when we reach port." Beleza commented "That way with warning given to the Highblood, he can make sure we have help waiting for us when we get there.
Nepeta got up quickly going to the room Karkat had gone to, to update him and thus the Highblood with the secondary news.
Hope was shifting and moving about so much that Gamzee made her sit in the chair and he leaned against her legs to keep her from trying to pace the room. It was making him twitchy. Tavros ended up crawling up into her lap which also helped. She cuddled her child and relaxed feeling a bit more protected.
It wasn't too much longer before Karkat came back. He didn't look happy but he did managed to look pleased. "We have help on the ship already, the Highblood had flown in some of his guys who'd been looking for us to crew on this ship, or be other passengers. So he'll be contacting them and getting them in position to act, as well as making sure the right people are informed of the possible danger. So this isn't the worst fucking disaster ever, yet. He'll also be getting some of his people in on the caverns with the mothergrubs. Make sure that they are safe and what's going on with the Queens. Until then, we stay low and do our best to stay together."
A minor relaxing around the group, though Ana started polishing her juggling pins. Eric and Eridan fetching the bags with the other weapons, not the guns those were not allowed on board, or anything that looked like a weapon to humans. Like Karkat's blades.
But they had other items, tucked away. This was one case where the weapons of the juggalo came in handy for smuggling protection on board.
As it was, it was going to be a long few days until they reached port.
Or until the attackers caught up.
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"Its dark in here! And Cold! Do you have any fucking respect for royalty?" the voice of a young troll called out from the cell. Outside the guards were looking more than a little irritated.
"Shut up in there" One stated.
"Can't I at least get a computer, or a phone with wifi? My stocks are falling by the instant! I have books to run! There are ongoing bets! I can't leave my costumers hanging!" the young troll inside the cell tried another tactic.
The guards ignored her.
"You fuckers are so dead when I get out of here." She hissed angrily. And the waterdweller flopped back against the door and slid down to the floor. Plotting revenge as she picked apart one of her braids and started putting it back together again.
Fucking hell, Mom was going to be so pissed off that she didn't come home on time. She was still technically grounded after the last time her school caught her running a gambling ring on the last Hockey finals.
Covering her head Meenah tried to focus on numbers, on well just about anything but the fact she had been kidnapped on her way home from school and was now being held against her will in a tiny dank room. It was cold, it was wet in the icky way not in the nice large body of water way or warm bath way.
"I thought they had found their Empress." She complained to herself. When she'd heard the news that the trolls in the USA had rescued the young Empress, she had been thrilled. It meant Meenah wasn't going to have to do it.
She didn't want the job.
The teenager pulled up her knees tighter against herself. Other than moldy wet, this dark place reminded her too much of the place she had been forced to hide on the ships. Hell she'd been hiding for so long, from grubhood on, the prior Empress did not like competition. And Meenah, she'd been competition. When they landed on earth she managed to escape the well meaning humans looking for survivors. Fled into the wilds of Canada, headed for the ocean.
She'd been sleeping in a lake when she was found by the ocean biologist in training.
Let herself be adopted by the human. Found she liked a lot of the human ways of things. So much less pressure! She hid who she was, she was just old enough by troll law that she didn't need a lusus, so her arrangement with her human mom was between her and Mom.
It suited her. She was able to hide who she was, and the cold winters didn't really make the western half of Canada all that appealing to most trolls.
So she went to school, she got to pretend she was a normal kid. She got an allowance and went to the mall and had friends. She wanted to study business when she could go to college. Dreamed of becoming a huge CEO or other high profile person. Someone rich and influential.
But not a world leader. She just wanted to take over the business world, not the troll.
From everything she saw, that little Feferi was better suited. She would do the job way better than Meenah could.
And here she was, trapped, scared, and fighting the urge to scream like a frightened grub. And worse was that these assholes wanted to turn her into their little tuna princess and make a puppet ruler of her.
Because they wanted things not to change, for the human world to turn into their old homeworld.
Oh she could play along, but they would only keep her so long as another princess wasn't born. They were already she'd overheard, trying to get control of the Mothergrubs, and had most the Queens.
Control the breeding population and as the humans would say, you hold the rest of the species by the balls.
"mommy" she whimpered and huddled into herself. She wanted her adopted lusus here. She wanted to be held and told this was just a bad dream brought on by too much pizza and a horror movie marathon.
She wanted to be back in her own room, painted to look like it was all under water, with the twin bed with the shell headboard and her stuffed sea life toys. Her computer running numbers, keeping an eye on her portfolio, stocks, and the latest hockey game.
She wanted her mom to bring her cocoa and they talk about next Christmas, or Meenah's favorite, Halloween. How they would decorate the house, or where they would go. Last year they talked about going to Paris for the holidays, her mom had gotten an offer to get to attend a special ocean conference being held there, and that had sounded like such fun. She'd been researching, covering her walls in pictures of the Eifel Tower and other landmarks.
She wanted familiar.
And to not be called Princess. Not by anyone but her Mom…
She was her mom's princess…
Not the Trolls.
She would never be theirs.
And anyone who thought differently, was going to die.
She looked up her eyes shifting shades from the childhood grey to a faint magenta.
And she glared at the wall in rage.
No one would ever tell her what she was going to become.
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The children were growing bored. Incredibly bored. They had been locked up in their rooms for a few days and the ship cabins were not meant for more than a rest zone, so even with the doors open between the spaces, it was still three cramped rooms with hardly any space for three humans, nine trolls, a few grubs and a rather good sized Lusus.
At the moment they couldn't risk being separated, couldn't risk leaving the rooms and the weapons as well as easy access to escape routes. They had their balconies and they had inflatable boats they could hit the water with if an attack did happen while on ship.
Gamzee or one of the other adults would go out to check on the ship following.
It was definitely getting closer, but so far seemed to only be tailing them, not intending attack.
If they could make port, get to the small airport and the planes waiting, they could escape and hopefully not cause a scene.
But everyone knew that was just wishful thinking.
They didn't know what the other side was planning, but they knew it was dangerous.
Hope was curled up, sleeping apparently, but she was everyone's contact to the mothergrubs. That situation as devolving worse. The European Mothergrub had been captured and claimed she was somewhere dark and very cold. The Queens of her hive, plus a few others, and many of the attendants were there as well, and they were scared. Several had fallen into shock and having flashbacks to the ships. Others were doing their best to keep the chilled Mothergrub warm.
The other mothergrub of South America had managed to escape. Perhaps because she was younger than the other one, or just more inventive since she was in direct contact with Hope who was able to confer with Nepeta and Beleza about the caverns and the surrounding areas.
She had managed to escape the caverns completely. From Hope's last word she was in the care of Gliese. The Dragon was currently hiding not just the mothergrub and the attendants who managed to escape the caverns with her, but the entire human village who had given the group help.
And the only person who knew where that Mothergrub was, was Hope.
"I wish they would do something." Feferi complained and the other children agreed. Even the grubs had begun to pick up on that something was very wrong and huddled closer to the older children they seemed to view as protectors.
It wasn't that they wanted violence, but this not knowing, it was wearing on them. Tavros leaned against his lusus' hip and sighed, looking at the sleeping form of his mother. It felt weird, both having her back and still having to share her now. How she had new abilities that he just couldn't really understand. She'd been trying to explain them, and it seemed to make sense to the humans, like Jade and Eric, and the older trolls could seem to wrap their heads around the very human concepts, but it was harder for the kids.
Same time, easier. In the end Tav only had to just accept that this was how things were. He had his powers, a kind of mental healing and awareness, and his Mom had her's. Which as far as he could understand meant she was some sort of wifi modem to all things human.
But he did understand that whatever it was that she had, was very likely what it was that made her his Mom, that let them form the bonds that let her keep him.
Was why he got to grow up like this and wasn't somewhere else with Sirius. Why Ana had Sirius instead and why they all got to live together.
So no matter if he didn't get the full details of it, he understood it was the whole reason that they were all together now and that was enough for him.
He got to have his family and as Gamzee would say, it was all miraculous.
Gamzee charged into the room startling them all, he rushed to the bed and snagged up Hope, taking Tavros' hand and pulling the younger and very startled jade blood against the older troll. "Brace!" was all he got out before there was a low strange and muted boom, then the whole ship began to tilt oddly before it settled again.
Red lights began to flash, a wailing siren of emergency.
A moment of silence on the ship before even through their doors they could hear screaming.
"What the fuck happened?" Karkat demanded from where he and Nepeta fell over and rolled half under the desk that they had been using one of the laptops on.
"Motherfuckers had a submarine! The ship was a decoy!" Gamzee growled, "I barely saw them under the water getting in position to do something when I ran here."
An announcement was over the intercoms. The captain's voice telling everyone to be calm and go to their cabins, the ship was not going to sink.
Whatever they did wasn't to attempt to sink the boat.
Which meant, they were likely going to try and board it.
Ana hissed a strange sound like from the bowels of hell. Her hands gripping her pins tightly, above her Sirius was bristled and ready, teeth bared dangerously.
Hope came out of her trance as Eric, Eridan and Jade began pulling out pieces of things from all over their luggage and with steady hands began putting them together.
Soon they had a couple cross bows and a rifle. Other rifles were in the stored luggage not their room luggage.
Feferi was holding her own weapon, a more trident style thing that she had also put together from parts, so that it packed better.
Tavros on the other hand wasn't able to get Gamzee to let go, so he had to wait while everyone else got ready. He looked up and saw the dangerous and almost scared look in Gamzee's eyes.
It was odd realizing that the most dangerous troll with them was terrified.
For them.
He reached up his other hand and gently papped the hand holding him, and saw him softened. Gamzee half knelt, letting Hope gain her feet on the floor, though she still looked a touch out of it. Having been forced from her trance rather than coming up on her own. Gamzee rested his forehead against the younger troll and whispered "I'll keep you both safe." He promised "Not going to let anyone hurt my Miracles."
Tavros nodded mutely, but Gamzee released him and let him go to Ana, picking up another pin he could use himself. Vierge was half behind Nepeta and Karkat. Neither Nepeta nor Beleza needed weapons, Nepeta had very sharp claws, though he knew she had gloves with longer sharper claws on them, and Beleza had her fists. Karkat had brought out a pair of sling blades he'd had hidden somewhere unnoticed among their luggage.
There was a slight screech over the intercom and then a new voice came on. "People of this ship. Hand over the young Empress and no one will be hurt. Do as we say and we will not kill every last one of you." There was a slight accent, waterdweller.
They had been attacked by trolls.
"Fucking pirates." Karkat hissed.
Tavros had to agree.
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End notes: Happy newyear!