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"Here he comes," Jerome hissed, moving away from the doorway. He stood beside Alfie's bunk and Alfie spoke up,
"How are we going to find it now, unless we take over this ship?"
Jerome sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "No, there's too many of them for us to take on alone. We need to find another way to get it."
"We can't expect to find it while on this ship. We'd have to raid every ship we come across." Alfie pointed out, his brown eyes flitting to the doorway. He saw Eddie's shadow on the wall.
"There's got to be some way we can find it without Eddie finding out we're looking for it. Damn, if I had it, I'd be the most powerful pirate of all the Seven Seas. I'd have hundreds of ships. I'd have a string of islands all to myself. I'd be untouchable."
"How would you name hundreds of ships? It must've taken hours to name this one." Alfie mumbled.
"Not the problem at hand, mate." Jerome said with a roll of his eyes. "I'll think of something. We have to get our hands on it. It's big enough to give you half of it and still afford to buy an entire country."
"Jerry," Eddie addressed, walking into the room. "I need to speak with you in my quarters."
Jerome nodded and winked at Alfie with a small smirk, following the Captain out of the crew's quarters. Once they were in the captain's quarters, Eddie sat at his desk and Jerome stared at the map that was hanging on the wall.
"So," Eddie began. "What were you doing on the North Star, exactly?"
Jerome's eyes flitted to him briefly. "I told you, I was a Striker."
"I heard your conversation with Alfie." Eddie stood. "What is it that will make you the most powerful pirate of the Seven Seas?"
Jerome pretended to sigh in defeat. "I'm not going to get out of this. I should have known someone would find out sooner or later. I only recently learned about the Eye of Anubis. Ever since then, it's been the only thing on my mind." He unsheathed his sword, and Eddie's hand shot to the hilt of his own, but Jerome made no move to attack the Captain. He pointed his sword at the map; the tip touched a spot on the ocean. "Five hundred years ago, there was a man that shipwrecked and washed up on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean—"
"There's nothing there." Eddie interrupted.
Jerome sighed. "It was never charted because no one ever believed that it existed. It was said to have caves filled with diamonds and emeralds, water that could keep you young forever, flowers that could cure any disease, and more. The island, considered only a legend, was named the Land of the Gods, and then the ruby was named the Eye of Anubis after the Egyptian god of death because some sailors believed the ruby brought death to anyone that ever possessed it. But that's not important." He continued after a moment of silence, "The man spent several weeks on the island, alone. He was eventually picked up by an English ship. But within a day, the ship was raided by a pirate ship and the English ship sank.
"The pirate captain that had raided the English ship had logged what he had looted from the Englishmen. One of the items he had logged was a ruby; a ruby bigger and more beautiful than any ruby that has ever existed, known to man." Jerome looked at Eddie and smirked, his eyes dancing with excitement. "It was three times the size of your head, Captain. It was priceless. And once word got out that a gem like that existed, everyone searched for it; raiding every ship that could have it.
"The last ship known to have it, over two hundred years ago, was the Siren's Curse, but it mysteriously disappeared one day; the whole ship, the captain, the crew, and the ruby. And then everyone forgot about it because so many rumors had gone around: the captain, Phillip Harrell, had run off with the ruby; the ship was lost at sea; lost in a storm and sunk to the bottom the ocean; raided by another pirate ship until both ships had sunk; whirlpools; lost in the Bermuda Triangle, and so on.
"Until," Jerome chuckled. "About a year ago, someone had learned that there was a fisherman in Australia with the name Harrell that always bragged, but never revealed, a treasure he claimed to be unfathomable. A few weeks later, that news had carried and that entire city had been raided; houses set on fire and more than half of the citizens killed. Harrell was found dead in his house, holding on to a box for dear life. The box was just big enough to hold a priceless ruby, but it was empty, which means, my dear Captain, that the Eye of Anubis could very well be out there. That's what the captain of the North Star was searching for. I mean, who wouldn't want something like that?"
Jerome looked at Eddie out of the corner of his eye and the Captain looked to be deep in thought, before he pushed off the desk and left the room. Jerome smirked and picked up a bottle of rum. After taking a long sip, he left the Captain's quarters.
"No, not gonna die tonight, we're gonna stand and fight forever. (Don't close your eyes) No, not gonna die tonight, we're gonna fight for us together. No, we're not gonna die tonight. Don't you give up on me, you're everything I need. This is how it feels when you take your life back, this is how it feels when you fight back." -Not Gonna Die, Skillet
-Rachel