I am not sure if I am going to fast or not on this chapter and the next, you will know what I mean once you read. Please tell me what you think and thank you to everyone who has supported me through this fanfiction. It's not over yet, don't worry.

Chapter 18: Life as a Pirate

3 weeks later...

I took in the strong whiff of jungle dew, the homey scent sinking into my nostrils. Drawing the bowstring back, my eyes focused on the deer grazing in the jungle brush ahead of me, past vines and hanging branches, past grey moss, and wet leaves. Suddenly I was jumped on, I fell to the side, the bow releasing and the arrow floating through the air and missing the deer, the deer ran off startled by the sudden movement.
I stared up at a shirtless Vaas staring down at me, his muscles and abs glistening with sweat. I hopped up onto my boots, he wasn't supposed to be here. He held his arms open for me to jump into, was he crazy? Of course he was.
"Vaas! What the fuck are you doing here?" He smiled as though nothing had happened.
"I am here for you mi Bella." He came forward to wrap me in his arms and I backed away, shaking my head I reached back in my quiver for an arrow, pulling one out I stared back up at his smiling self. I shook my head and turned away from him with disapproval, if I had to kill anybody it would be him.
"I can do this." I told myself, I turned around again and my eyes widened, he was gone, like nothing, like he was thin air, I gulped.
"Vaas." Nothing... Just silence, it was happening, I was going crazy. He was just a hallucination and I hadn't gotten my meat for the day. The boys will be upset with me.
I walked back to camp empty handed again, Michael sat by the fire, George was tuning up the jeep, Vadim was cleaning his rifle. As I walked up, all eyes had found mine. Usually they had found trust in letting me get the hunt for the day, but today I got nothing and hopefully they respected me enough to not get angry with me for that. Vadim stood up and took a few steps towards me.
"Dammit! Fucking Bitch didn't get anything!" Michael stated angrily.
"Hey!" I snapped at Michael. "I don't see you doing shit. The deer traveled westward and the boars were all in drifts, I couldn't get a good kill."
"It's okay, you did your best." Vadim assured softly nodding his head with reassurance.
"Her best?! I don't think this bitch has hunted once in her-"
"And you can do better?" I retorted glaring at him with a strict expression full of hatred, there was a sweet silence that followed. "You think you can wake up early in the morning and leave this camp to go wait in the jungle for the next shot to come up? I could always hunt for myself. Never share the kills." More quietness. "Do tell now? I would like to know what makes you think you can do any better than me." I glanced at Vadim and George who were surprised immensely by my outburst, wide eyes, dropped jaw. Michael seemed shy now, he seemed tense and nervous, all the while embarrassed that a woman just told him out. "If you are hungry and want food, I suggest you go get it yourself because I highly doubt you'll get any further than me." I stated those last words with a small sense of pride, this man would no take me down, and he would not control my very being. For a moment I believed him to be scared yet, that was just before I continued my path to the small shack, where his words had caused an anger that I could not control.
"So that is why Vaas left you... A woman who doesn't know her place." I growled in defiance, pulling the quiver and bow from my torso, I threw them to the side and turned to come sprinting to Michael. I pushed him to the ground with my hands gripping his throat, he flipped me over with more strength and punched me across the face. I yelped in pain at my aching left eye, all through this Vadim and George watching.
I flipped Michael back over and head butted him in the nose just enough to get that trickle of blood, in which he elbowed me across the cheek and kicked me off of him. He hopped up onto his feet with a groan of annoyance, I kept sat in the dirt staring up at him, my left eye starting to turn purple and swell up. He held his nose furiously and stared back down at me.
"Michael remember what Benny said..." Vadim warned, Michael shook his head and chuckled as he looked over his shoulder at Vadim.
"This bitch! Just fucking tried to kill me." Vadim opened his mouth to say something, but I silenced him.
"No... I was only trying to teach you a lesson." I clarified, he glared back over at me.
"You?! Teach me a lesson?!" He repeated in a question, showing a look of slight disbelief at my defiance towards him despite him being the leader of the camp. I slowly stood myself up, the hours were certainly weighing on me, soreness, exhaustion.
"Yeah. I came here in hopes that you would respect me. I think I have proven myself enough."
"You haven't proven yourself to me until you have killed someone." I gulped, I couldn't kill anyone, it couldn't be any different than stabbing a deer though... No! I take that back when you kill a deer, you use it's meat, you never use human meat to survive, or at least I don't. "That's what I thought! You can't be a pirate if you can't kill!" He snarled at me before brushing past my shoulder and entering the shack, slamming the door behind him.
I stared down at the dirt, I didn't care what Michael thought, I didn't need him, I didn't need anyone here. Once I kill Vaas, I will kill myself anyways so, I have no reason to care what they think. I tried to sniffle, but couldn't breath much through my nostrils. Vadim slowly approached, he stopped in front of me, leaning forward he pressed lightly on my facial bruises with a thumb, I winced and just let him play doctor. "You are impulsive..." He said in a matter of fact way, I winced again when he touched a specific spot. "Naive and Arrogant." He stared at the bruises intently, keeping his eyes on them
"I think of them as my strengths." He nodded his head before moving his hands to my shoulders and staring me in the eyes.
" Then what are your weaknesses?" I thought for a moment, definitely my emotions, my exaggeration on everything, and over thought process to survive.
"I don't know." I shrugged, I didn't want to say them out loud, but he already seemed to know he smirked caressing my bare shoulders.
"Tell me when you do." He strolled off back to his seat where he continued to clean his gun. I sighed, the warmth of the sun beat at my skin and the wind started to whoosh my hair around my shoulders, sweaty hair sticking down to my skin. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, the noise of the jungle kept me alive, in fact that jungle could be my very heart, my very existence. I had to admit, so far the one thing I missed most about this island was the noise, the exotic birds chirping at your window every morning, the babbling monkeys that swinging from vine to vine.
This island was beautiful and in the three weeks I have been here, I have realized just how much it really is. Vaas thought that I would see the disaster in this island, how such beauty can become hell. I guess I hadn't seen this island's worst, right? But nothing could be more worse than Vaas. I'm not going to lie and say that I don't miss him, I am not going to say that I don't love him anymore. Sometimes my mindset was different, sometimes I hated Vaas for what he had done, but I knew that he was still in my heart and I still knew I was in his.
I wasn't going to obsess over him though... Perhaps I already had, Vaas is the guy that kills people, or ransoms them now, he fucks whores and steals things, has drugs and doesn't play a ukulele anymore. He isn't the man I fell in love with, his actions prove this and right now I am still so torn between loving him and hating him. He killed my family, my friends, he threatened to kill me, I wanted my revenge of course. I wasn't at all a weak woman, I would see to it that nothing was in vain, but still... I still loved him.
"Bella?" Vadim called I looked over at him from my seat by the fire, I had been so caught up in thought that I failed to notice the many hours passing by and with it the sun started to fall.
"Yeah."
"Watch tonight." I nodded my head, Vadim leaving to go into the building. I hated night watch, I rarely slept, but the silence was antagonizing, the constant sound of crickets soon became annoying after a while. I would find things to pass the time, shoot an arrow at a nearby can, or clean my gun. Sometimes I would stargaze and if there were no stars, I would exercise since my wounds had healed slightly leaving blank scars, a couple push-ups, a couple sit-ups, and when I say a couple I mean at least one hundred, that isn't that much.
Tonight was extremely agonizing, so agonizing that I actually found myself falling asleep, I nodded off and then snapped back up. I thought walking around would cure my somehow odd exhaustion that I was experiencing earlier, but it wouldn't go away. I sat down again and stared up at the stars, keeping myself perched upright so if I fell asleep, I would lean forward.
I slowly started to fall into the abyss of sleep and then suddenly everything was silent, I awakened and looked around at the darkness that engulfed the entire camp besides the fire. I slowly stood up, my eyes narrowing into the darkness where I swore I saw something move. I had never been scared of the dark, it was what was it in that could hurt me.
I crouched down grabbing my quiver and bow, throwing the quiver strap over my shoulder. I placed a drawn arrow into the string and pulled back slightly, drawing it just to my chest. I took a deep breath once again looking through the darkness. I wasn't an idiot to shoot into the dark, but something was out there. The silence was drop dead and the air was thick with the scent of dew, but there was more, my senses from years of hunting were telling me I was being watched, I was a prey... Not the predator this time.
It wasn't an animal, which didn't strike fear into me, but made me cautious. This person was silent and silence could be very deadly. I drew the string in slightly and lowered my weapon taking another glare around the camp. I moved my head at just the right time when as arrow came soaring through the air past my ear and hit the alarm beside me, setting off the sound of gunshots and yelling. I took a moment to analyze where the arrow came from and took my shot into the dark, only feeling slightly victorious when I dodged a second arrow.
They were coming for me, but who. Vadim had told me about the Rakyat, Vaas had told me before about his sister being their leader. They despised pirates and if it was my decision I would join their cause, but my emotions got in the way whenever the thought came to mind. Vaas became who he was because of Citra, I am not surprised that she despised him and he the same to her.
The others game running from the shack, making shots at the darkness, despite the fact of not knowing. Vadim rushed over to me pushing me to the ground.
"Take cover in the shack!" He yelled in my face before lifting himself up and shooting out into the darkness again, taking cover behind the logs hick I could only see silhouette of. I pushed myself up to my feet, it would be a coward of me to not stay behind and assist them, but Vadim gave me an order and I respected him enough to follow it.
I hopped up onto my feet bow and arrow still tightly held in my hands, I sprinted towards the shack slamming the door open and slamming it shut as I entered. I backed away from the door to the sounds of constant gunfire and shouting. I must have stood there for about twenty minutes staring at the door and listening before the gunfire had stopped and the yelling had silence.
I was hesitant to leave the shack, Vadim told me to take cover here, I couldn't just leave until he came to give me the all clear... But what if he didn't come at all? I grew worried, rushing with strides to towards the door, I slammed it open and looked around. The sun just rising up beyond the tree line, placing the sky in beautiful violets and oranges. I looked around, that same bow and arrow still in hand, I saw nothing, it was almost as if they had vanished into thin air.
"Vadim!" I shouted out, stepping further from the camp just to the logs. I drew my arrow back to my chest once again. "Vadim!" I shouted again, a bullet missing me and hit the log beside me, making a loud whooping sound against the humid air.
I turned to the shooter, drew my arrow and shot, I could see my assailant now. The one who tried to kill was in fact Rakyat, blue colors, tattoos all over his body. I glared down at the body blankly... I had.. Killed someone. Before shooting into the darkness was an act of impulse, the man that was shooting arrows at me was after all trying to kill me and I had killed him first, but as I stared at this dead man's body, there was no darkness to hide him. I realized the wrong of my act, I dropped the bow to the ground, allowing the quiver to slide off my shoulder.
I gulped, my eyes wide with shock. I had killed, I promised I wouldn't kill anybody, but Vaas. Harming those pirates before was an act of self defense and even Michael, the man I had only know for about four weeks tops knew I never killed. In my head he would be applauding giving a smart alloc comment to make me feel even more like shit.
"Pirate?!" I heard a rugged accented voice call from behind me, I turned and looked over at them. The owner of the voice was an Rakyat man, he was covered in blood, piercing brown eyes and a knife in his left hand ready to kill. He was breathing rapidly and ragged and I myself could see a much greater hatred far beyond Vaas's in this man's eyes. My breath hitched in my throat and I gulped, my hands moving up to hopefully calm him. "Pirate!" He repeated, it was obvious I was since I was wearing red and I'm in the middle of a pirate camp. The way he blurted the word out though, was a sign that he was in such a malice filled state that all he wanted to do was kill.
"Uh... Yes." I made a mistake the moment the words left my lips, he came running towards me, the knife fully aimed at me. I couldn't almost die again. I skillfully dodged his slice at the thin air, I stood up and placed my hand on his shoulder. "Stop!" I shouted trying to calm both him and myself with a firm tone, he growled hitting my hand off his shoulder and slashing at the air again, I pounced back.
He then came rushing at me again, I felt the sharp sting of the knife merely graze my cheek leaving a wide cut. Time froze, my eyes widened and once again my hand smeared the blood that drizzled from the clean cut on my cheek and onto my fingers which had now turned red along with everything else in my line of sight. The man stared at me with a readiness that I was not expecting and in the moment I felt a burst of rage in which everything went black and the darkness consumed me... But I wasn't unconscious.

Vaas POV

After three weeks of not having her around, I was already getting depressed. I was extremely depressed when she was in that cage and not near me, but now I was beginning to think it was my fault. Memories of what happened years ago on that special day sinked into my head. I knew she wanted me dead, but she couldn't kill me, she still loved me no matter what she said. This pirate idea wasn't going to work, she could never kill, she was to innocent, to kind, She only defended herself when she needed to and there was no way she would go any further than self defense.
I stared up at the ceiling in my relaxed state, the funny thing was that I actually wasn't relaxed because of the weed. I was relaxed because she was on my mind, I would get tense at the thought of her getting hurt, the thought of her almost dying like that one ni- What the fuck am I thinking?! I saved her fucking life and she fucking repays me with disapproval, disgust, I gave my time to her.
I sat up onto the edge of the bed with a growl, my hands hanging down off my knees. That bitch deserves whatever she gets... I shouldn't give a fuck. I can't lie though, she has the potential to kill, to become my queen as we had always wanted. I mean, I haven't had sex with any other woman since she came back, that's a start right? Maybe if she learned how to truly survive, then I can finally take her as mine again and she can be my second.
Benny was my second, but I highly doubt he could pick a fight with mi Bella. I taught her well and if anything the strongest gets to be the leader. I will be the strongest, she can be the second strongest. I shrugged, trying to find reasonable ideas for this was deeming to be difficult. I wanted to marry her before, I want to marry her now... But she can't kill, she can't just be a pirate because I said, she has to be a pirate in order to gain my men's respect, in order to become a pirate.
I stood up with a loud sigh and walked my way out of my room and down the stairs... Alone time was over. When I exited the warehouse, I was greeted with the eyes of many in the distance, I smirked the fear that I saw in those eyes made me proud of who I was, what I could do. What's so wrong with killing if no one is going to stop you in the process, these men were all pussies. That one day though Mirabella did-
No enough about her! A voice called in my head, I agreed, I have a job to do, plus it's her third week, I should be seeing her soon anyways. I recognized the familiar line of rejects that was waiting for me at the center of the camp, all natives... All on their knees... All worth shit. I walked my way over to the line, Benny set this up for me... What a nice man, I smirked deviously as I grabbed the handle of my gun, the metal had bound itself to my palm from holding it so many times, I didn't even realize what I was holding. I pointed the gun at the first reject.
"Boom!" I emphasized, the man flinching at my impersonation of a gun shot. I chuckled standing up straight, they were whimpering and being pussies as all of them always are. "You guys look so tense!" I stated sarcastically. "You guys are always so tense, no matter how different you all are, when I walk over with a gun you each start to sob." I snorted and looked around at my men. "I mean all I ask is for someone to be a fucking man about it, grow a dick, and bite the bullet. You might not even have to, if you do that much." The silence revealed nothing but whimpering and crying, they still were FUCKING crying! "Fine!" I fiddled with the gun in my hands, there was not enough fun around here. "I was having a good day, but you fuckers had to come and fuck it up." I growled pointing the gun at that same reject again, my finger traced over the trigger and just seconds before I pulled it, my name was called.
"Vaas! Vaas!" That familiar voice, that FUCKING familiar voice, not when I'm annoyed Benny! Not now! I turned lowering my gun after winking at the man I was about to kill. He took a sigh of relief, Benny running towards me stopped a few feet away.
"What the fuck is it Benjamin?" I asked in the calmest tone I could muster, he was breathing heavily from running the distance.
"It's C-Camp Murder..." He stuttered.
"Camp Murder, what?" My eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"The Rakyat tried to liberate it." I shook my head, waving my gun around I pointed it at Benny, then at the ground defiantly.
"They 'tried', but they didn't. So come to me when something's worth worrying about." I turned to continue my actions.
"Mirabella." I froze with my steps and looked over my shoulder hesitantly, my breath caught in my throat.
"What about her?"
"She's there."