Warning: graphic torture. Blood.
The pirates took three days to load as much treasure onto the Legacy as they could. Through all of it, Jim never left the brig. After awhile, they threw the Doc and the captain into the empty cells, keeping B.E.N in her quarters to help navigate to one of Flint's hideouts.
"There was a boobytrap," Amelia droned out, her eyes not moving from the wall she'd been staring down since their imprisonment. "The whole planet was rigged to self-distruct. The bug spotted it before anyone could trip it. A damn shame." Her injuries hadn't been seen to beyond Delbert's first aid. Jim would've been concerned, if he hadn't caught the scathing look she'd given him when she'd been dragged down here, spitting and hissing like a rabid stray. Delbert hadn't said a word, just kept cleaning his glasses on his shirt. It was his fault. If he hadn't broken, they'd have come up with a plan. As it was, Amelia would be lucky to escape with her life, let alone her prized ship.
"All my life I've dreamed of an adventure like this." Delbert sighed, holding his face in his hands. "I can't believe I was...so useless."
"Not as useless as you might think, Doctor." Amelia groaned as she stood up, her breathing labored. "They didn't think to search us. There might be a way out yet." She slipped her hand into the folds of her uniform jacket, withdrawing a sliver of metal. A lock-pick. Dr. Doppler jumped up, his excitement clear on his face, and in his raised ears.
"What are you waiting for? Let's go!"
"There's a problem. We've only one skiff, and unless we can find enough extra fuel, from what I can remember from the charts we'd never make it to the nearest port with all three of us."
"What do you mean?" Delbert asked. "You can't be saying-"
"One of us stays."
"Never." Delbert's voice was uncharacteristically cold, devoid of any emotion. Jim peered up through his bangs. "I promised his mother I would bring him home. Leave me instead."
"They don't want you!" Amelia pleaded. "They want him. He's the only one who can open the map. They'll need him, there's no way they'll get all that gold off this planet in one go. As long as he's of use to them, he'll live." Delbert shook his head.
"No! I won't!"
"Doctor, please." Amelia hissed. "It's less than ideal, but its our only shot." Delbert looked to Jim, his eyes desperate for another way. Jim knew what he had to do.
"She's right Doc." His voice was soft, almost a whisper. "You've got to try." A few agonizing seconds dragged by, Delbert's resolve crumbling bit by bit until he finally turned to Amelia.
"What do we do then?" She began rattling off a plan, something about old war allies and fuel cells, but everything around Jim began to blur and distort. They were leaving him behind. They were leaving him with Scroop.
His arm burned and itched, the pain long gone but the rash-like reddness remained, tender to the touch. Wax. He'd given into the demands of a bloodthirsty cutthroat pirate, surrendered the safety of himself and his friends, under the torture of candle wax. He'd have been embarrassed if he wasn't so disgusted with himself. They were right to leave him behind- he would only slow them down. He'd betrayed them enough as it was.
So Jim looked away as Amelia slipped the tiny file into the lock of her cell. After a moment, it popped open, and she moved swiftly to Delbert's cell. After his opened, she pocketed her tools and closed the cells behind them. No goodbyes were said as they crept up the steps. Jim could think of nothing to say. In the blink of an eye, they were gone. Jim curled up on his side, cradling his arm to his chest. His panic and hysteria began to grow as his confidence in their escape swelled, minutes crawling into hours of peaceful silence. He began to rock on the floor in an attempt to get a grip.
The first jolt of fear came at dawn, when he began hearing shouts above deck. He strained his ear to catch what Onus was shouting. A skiff was missing. He pressed his mouth against his knees to muffle the sound of his crying as the crew began turning over every inch of the ship, he could hear swearing and things being thrown around, heard a pistol discharge several times.
The door to the brig burst open with a gut wrenching bang. A slender figure Jim knew all too well skittered down the steps and walls. Jim's heart began to pound as he realized too late what was clenched firmly in Scroop's claw.
A ring of keys.
By the time Jim noticed the sound of footsteps and drunken voices shouting and swearing, Scroop's eyes had adjusted. He shouted that two of the prisoners had escaped, his eyes glowing with outrage. He turned, and his eyes found Jim in the darkness. Jim bit his tongue to stifle the whimper in his throat.
In an instant they were opening his cell, angry and demanding information. Scroop pinned him against the wall, twisting his seared arm behind his back. Jim began to struggle, but as his wound began to throb anew he froze.
"Where did they go?!" Turnbuckle shouted, appearing at Scroop's side after he'd gone to fetch something.
"About to find out." Scroop smiled, holding out his claw. Turnbuckle handed him something, right in front of his face.
Jim felt the blood drain from his face. He felt dizzy.
"No..." He moaned. They were the blood-stained pliers Jim had smuggled onboard the Legacy.
Scroop took Jim's damaged hand. He carefully pried his hand out of the fist he was making. Selected his middle finger, and clamped the pliers down on his nail.
The cuticle ripped away, as his nail was jerked and bent and twisted. Blood trickled from his mangled finger as the nail snapped in half, the other bit hanging on by exposed tissue. And through it all, he screamed. He shrieked and swore he knew nothing, that he'd seen nothing. The other pirates jeered and mocked him incessantly, urging Scroop to peel off another nail, or lop off a finger. The pliers pried Jim's pinky away from his palm, and found the nail. His fear turned to hysteria.
"No! NO! PLEASE!"
"What the devil do ye think yer doin?!" Silver thundered, shoving his crew aside. Jim felt his body go limp with relief. Scroop glowered at his captain.
"The captain and the doctor escaped in the night. He might've ssseen sssomething."
"I didn't I swear I didn't see anything, I don't know where they're going, I don't know anything!" Jim insisted. Silver's mechanical eye burned red, and he stared down at Scroop. Jim fell to the floor as the metal arm whirred and clicked, the huge mechanical vice clamping down on Scroop's neck. He lifted him in the air.
"Then what are ye wastin' your time in here fir?!" He roared, his voice making Jim's ears ring. Scroop angrily scrabbled at the arm, claws grasping for a hold.
"He'sss uselessss now. Not worth hisss weight in gold." The others began to shout in agreement.
"Bleed 'im out!" Birdbrain Mary jeered, jumping excitedly on her hands.
"Cut into tiny pieces!" Onus cackled. Jim curled on his side, shying away from the open cell door and retreating into the safety of his corner.
"You shite-brained dogs!" Silver berated, throwing Scroop to the ground. "The second the captain finds an outpost, it's only a matter of time before the entire royal navy is swarming this place! We got two laser cannons an a shit dozen rifles with next to no ammunition, and you idiots want to waste what precious time we have down here?!"
"Even with the coordinates, it'll take them months to get to an outpost, and even longer to get back."
"Are ye daft?! There's a bleedin' portal, and Morphy's still missin'. He copied the map before, what if they got through it already?!" Jim felt his heart lift, hope welling up.
"We'd have noticed if the portal changed!"
"No, its closed!" Someone else shouted. At once, there was a stampede to the door- the portal to the treasure hadn't been closed since they'd found it. Even Scroop slunk away, his malevolent glare never leaving Jim. Only after he'd gone did Silver move toward the cell.
"Jimbo..." He said softly. "Lad, are ye alright?" Jim was staring at the far wall, his abused arm and hand cradled against his chest. A spasm of shivers attacked his body every few seconds, but his face was frozen in an expressionless stare. Silver hurried to his side. Sweat dotted his face, but his skin was cold and clammy to the touch. Silver reached for his wrist to check his pulse, but Jim snapped out of his reverie.
"Get off of me!" He kicked out, catching Silver's mechanical leg. The pirate narrowly caught his balance and Jim stood up, his legs like jelly, his eyes wild. Silver gave him a pained look.
"Boyo, I never meant for them to-"
"Whatever it takes, right?" Jim spat. "Just open the map." Silver winced.
"I was-"
"'Makings of greatness'," Jim scoffed. "All along you meant for me to die. For all of us to be executed on this goddamn planet." The fight seemed to leave him. His shoulders dropped, and he leaned into the corner, one pressed to coarse wood, the other to rust-flecked metal bars. His head leaned back and he laughed, a dry sarcastic cough. "What a joke."
"Jim I'm going to get ya out of here. They'll be in a hurry to move the treasure, I'll get ya somewhere safe. You and yer mother."
"If anything happens to her I swear to god, Silver, I will kill you."
"I'm tryin to help ya, kid!"
"I don't want your help." Jim sneered at him, sinking down to sit with his knees to his chest. He looked down. His blistered skin burned and itched. His finger throbbed, the ripped nail still clinging to it, dangling on the end of a nerve. He sat on the wooden floor, and that was when he felt it. Something hard. The pliers. He scoffed at the irony. Silver came closer, thinking this was directed at him.
"We're pirates, lad," he sighed, as if this was supposed to explain it all away.
"Save it." Jim mumbled, closing his eyes and dropping his good hand to his side. "You closed the portal." Silver shook his head.
"I didn't. They must'a gotten away. They left ya lad, not me." Silver reached out to Jim, just as his hand closed around the handles.
Three things happened at once. The door at the top of the stairs slammed open. Silver turned his head. Jim swung his weapon with every ounce of strength he could muster.
Silver screamed as the metal was driven straight through his cybernetic eye. He lurched backward, tripping over and falling on his back. He scrambled out of the cell as Jim leapt to his feet. The intruder hurried doqn the steps as Silver kicked out, slamming the cell door shut with a heavy clang. The latch clicked into place, locking Jim inside just before he slammed against the door with all his weight. His face fell, devastation and betrayal shining in his questioning gaze before his face contorted into a sullen, vengeful mask. He retreated against the wall as the intruder approached Silver.
"Ssseems your little pet finally bit hisss mastersss hand." Scroop ignored Jim. Instead he watched as Silver picked himself up off the floor, grasping at his sparking, mutilated eye. He stared at Jim, half blind and genuinely shocked. His confusing turned to fury.
"So it would." He chuckled. The cyborg stood up, using the steps to regain his balance.
"The portal appearsss to have closed over an hour ago."
"Get the men ready." Silver ordered. "I want us headed for the first coordinates ye can squeeze outta that damned robot."
"Aye captain." Scroop turned to face Jim's cell. "And the boy?"
"Maroon 'im on the next asteroid we see." Scroop smiled.
"The crew knowsss, 'Captain'." Silver stared straight at the door, the casual smile firmly affixed to his features. "If you don't kill him, they'll mutiny. They know you're sssoft for him."
"He'll be dead before anyone could help him. No way he'd survive without food or water anywhere."
"I want him." At those words, Jim felt his mind behind to go numb. "The crew witnessed what I've in mind for him. He'll be alive. Or you try to ssspare him, and the crew maroons you instead. He dies, a long, sssslow, painful death."
"What do I get fir 'im?" Silver asked. Jim felt his stomach lurch, threatening to spill its contents.
He wouldn't.
He would. Another voice in his head spoke up, louder than his. He's a pirate. He left you to Scroop before. I bet he knew the whole time. After all, how could Scroop have left the galley...without going right past Silver?
"Not worth hisss weight in gold." Scroop smirked. "I'll convince them you've had a change of heart, and make sssure they don't kill you."
There was a beat of silence, then another. It grew into a pause, and in those precious seconds Jim dared to hope.
Silver tossed the key ring to Scroop.
"Deal."
n-
sorry for any typos or grammatical errors, i was too tired to beta. R&R.