sultal's note:

1. Big sorry. Taking Fantasia got so big, I had to continue it! Believe me...it killed me not to work on both stories!

2. kyleigh bug7 - BIG HUG. She PM'd me, asking me to keep writing. Thank you so much for sticking with these characters. And with me.

3. For this chapter, it would be helpful to review Chpt 12 The Northern Neversea. It detail's Shark's relation with Bluebeard. It will make this chapter an easier read.

4. Thank you all for waiting.

5. On with the story!

Chapter 19: Si Tu Veux?

Shark was not afraid to die.

To sail the seas with a heart countlessly broken was to endure Hell. So, without Nixie and without love, Shark was not afraid to die.

But this time, Shark was afraid.

Deathly afraid.

Bluebeard stepped aboard.

Captain Hook cocked his pistol. The sound broke like an icicle. But the warning only lifted the pirate lord's namesake with a smile.

Bluebeard was a paradox. His visage was gorgeous and pristine but diseased with wild eyes and indecorous blue beard. Each step, each glance, each movement was decisively choreographed, save for the fasciculating itch of fingers. Neither wind nor rain could rattle his comportment, but he would spontaneously combust into uncontrollable rage. And, most of all, most of all was Bluebeard's legendary gluttony for love and hate.

Shark pressed against the bulwark. Bluebeard passed without pause but Shark held his breath still. He was not foolish enough to believe the pirate lord had missed his presence or dismissed their past.

Suspicions confirmed, Shark stiffened as Bluebeard's gaze sliced over his ear. The pirate lord did not look at Shark, but behind him. Into the white ocean.

There, something reflected in Bluebeard's eye.

Something fast and fleeting, as if startled.

Something…blue-violet.

Shark turned. Nothing. Whatever he had seen, or had imagined, reflected in Bluebeard's eyes, was not there.

Gripping the bulwark, Shark peered harder, hunting beneath the icy crust. His heart was roaring. But again…nothing. Only a frozen ripple.

Shark closed his eyes. Then…he smelled it.

The stench of dried blood. The stench of shaved flesh. The stench of air on bone. The stench of rot.

Shark swallowed a prayer. Then, releasing the bulwark, he turned.

Bluebeard.

"Requin."

Shark moved, but the pirate lord was faster. Bluebeard stuck his fingers between Shark's collar bones and squeezed before his breath could escape. Teeth bared, Shark reached for his knife, knowing that Bluebeard already held it.

Shark growled. Bluebeard's intent was not to kill – or else he'd already be dead. The pirate lord was punishing Shark for his failure to assassin Captain Hook and subsequent abandonment to the Jolly Roger. This pain was an acknowledgement as much as an assertion of dominance.

It was anger. It was pride. It was adoration of violence.

It was Bluebeard's way. And…it was Shark's way.

Struggling to breath, Shark rose.

Glaring at the blue-violet reflection in Bluebeard's eye, he snarled at the man that had turned him into a monster.

BANG.

"You have my ship." Captain Hook strode across the deck. Pistol smoke curling into his dismantled sails, he raised his hook to Bluebeard's neck. "But not my crew. His life and loyalty are mine, thanks to your delightful efforts to see me killed. So…shall we dispense…?"

Bluebeard grinned against the hook. A prick of blood bubbled over the silver point.

"Never trust a Shark." he whispered, releasing Shark's throat. Hook's men cringed, resisting the urge to cover their ears. Bluebeard's voice sawed through their heads. "Never trust a Shark."

Sweeping aside, Bluebeard retrieved his own pistol. Cocking the lever, he lifted it against Captain Hook's.

"Large, uncommon crew." Bluebeard peered aside as the sea witch coiled over John, Tigerlily, and Black Antler. "All to invade my waters. To hunt for…a pixie?"

Captain Hook advanced. Bluebeard's pistol chinked against his hook. "Your waters? Lovely. Should I imagine that the Neversea mer also consider these your waters?"

Bluebeard smirked. Encircling Hook, his fingers twitched over the trigger. "Si tu veux: As much as the flying child shares Neverland's waters with you."

Bluebeard's crew – hunters, burned raw with cold – jerked forward as Captain Hook took the pirate lord's throat. Ignoring the wave of clicking pistols, he hissed into Bluebeard. "Peter Pan is a demon. A pest on the crown of a king. Neverland is mine."

"Yet here you are." Bluebeard said, sticking his pistol against Hook's sternum. Bits of blood froze from his breath as he spoke. "Ship broken. Trapped ice. Captured by Lord Bluebeard and his hunters – "

"—Oh I beg to differ—"

"—and no way to find your…" Bluebeard's voice brushed over his wild mane. Spidery blood vessels reddened the whites of his eyes as he whispered."…pixie."

The pistol cut into Captain Hook's chest. He could feel tensions about to rupture as Bluebeard tightened the trigger.

"I'll string you with my pretty others when you die, James Hook."

Bluebeard pulled.

Hook spoke. "The pixie can kill mer."

Bluebeard paused. Urge overwhelmed by intrigue, he twisted the pistol further but did not shoot. "Si tu veux?"

Captain Hook inhaled. The stench stung his airways. His gaze pulled to Bluebeard's ship. Littered in infamy, the vessel was Bluebeard's personification: imperial, morb, and…infected.

Hook exhaled against the pistol.

He knew what was inside Bluebeard's ship, slowly petrifying and staining the ocean in rotted stench. Hook glanced at Shark. He also knew Bluebeard was a hunter, ravenous for the slaughter. Never had he delivered an idle threat to kill. Only promises.

Hook returned his gaze. If his eloquence could not withhold Bluebeard's ire…

"The pixie." Captain Hook continued. "Pan's pixie, Tinkerbell, can help us destroy the Neversea mer."

Bluebeard's eyes slit. "Us?"

"Quite." replied Captain Hook. Carefully he stepped to the side. Bluebeard followed, angling the pistol. "Us. You. I. Mistress Seawitch. And…our mer ally."

Delicately, the captain slid his hook down the pistol shaft. "Join us. The distinction, my dear Bluebeard, between roaming and ruling the Neverseas…" Hook leaned, emphasizing his insistence. "…is extinction of the Neversea mer. Not one. Not few. Not most..."

Hook flicked his wrist. The pistol detonated, shattering the brittle air. Hook smiled, waiting as the shot reverberated across the ice. "All."

Bluebeard did not speak. Stonily, he regarded the unmarked shot. Suddenly, his eyes darted to the seawitch, and the children caught in her tentacles.

"How?" Bluebeard finally said. Without blinking, he strode for the seawitch. Disregarding her scrutiny, Bluebeard studied John and Black Antler. A smile cut through his beard when he saw Tigerlily. "We've covred the ocean with hooks. Fathoms and fathoms of hooks. But Basalt's mer live regardless. How, si tu veux, can a pixie kill mer?"

"Only know that she can." Lofted in confidence, Captain Hook joined Bluebeard. His boot grazed Black Antler's temple. "If properly engaged. But a bargain, a truce, is in order before I reveal Neverland's greatest secret. So…"

Captain Hook extended an arm. His hook gleamed under frost. "Have we a bargain?"

Bluebeard smiled. Without reservation, he stuck a hand into the seawitch's tentcles.

"The elegant Captain Hook." he whispered, caressing Tigerlily with a rough, passionate stroke. "Si tu veux…to exchange with Hook is to toss loaded dice with the Devil."

Bluebeards fingers contracted over Tigerlily's long, slender throat. His eyes glinted at her anger and John's protests.

"Where is the pixie?"

Captain Hook bristled. "Under the sea. A trivial interruption. Our mer ally was too quick to capture the pixie. Thus, we lost her. But amends are in order."

Bluebeard rubbed his thumb back and forth, hungrily watching the pressure change over Tigerlily's skin. "Amends?"

"…yes." Nettles pinched Hook's face. "Our Mistress seawitch as cursed a little…friend of the Neversea royalty. She came from Neverland. She knows the pixie. Tis only a matter of time before she leads our mer ally right to the pixie."

Bluebeard released Tigerlily. She gasped, Bluebeard's welts faded from her throat. Twisting before the seawitch could gag her, Tigerlily spit at the pirate.

Bluebeard smiled. Placidly, he guided the black tentacle into Tigerlily's mouth.

"Beautiful glare." he whispered. "Beautiful." Calmly, Bluebeard returned to Hook. "And Pan?"

Captain Hook seethed. "Meddling." he hissed, rubbing phantom pains from his hook. "Cursed into a mer and somewhere under the sea. Blasted Peter Pan."

Bluebeard laughed. It was a dissonant, sinister sound. "Hook wants Pan. Seawitch wants Basalt. Bluebeard wants the Northern Neversea." Elated, Bluebeard lifted a hand to Hook. "Oh what a pixie can do."

Out of courtesy, Captain Hook smiled. Cursing the pirate lord with all the blackness in his heart, he offered Bluebeard his hook. "A bargain?"

Bluebeard seized the hook. Blood laced over his knuckles and froze on the deck. "Si tu veux."

Nixie did not hear what happened next. She did not hear Captain Hook introduce the Neverland children. She did not hear Bluebeard's invitation to slake his bloodlust in torture. She did not hear the crews intermingle and cheer as Black Antler screamed. She did not hear Shark whisper a vow of love.

She did not hear anything as her blue-violet tail vanished into the voiceless, icy ocean.

sultal's note again:

next chpt we meet brine's family. yeep!