While the Supremacy's crew was distracted by the storm, an immortal band of pirates onboard the Silencer was closely following behind. An invasion was imminent as the immortals were seeking one artifact on the Supremacy for their captain, Kylo Ren.

Formerly known as Ben Solo, son of Governor Leia Organa and legendary naval Admiral Han Solo, Kylo was given control over the Silencer early at the age of nineteen. Unbeknownst to him, long ago, a powerful curse had been placed on the Silencer's former captain, and whoever killed its bearer would also hold an equal share in his torment.

Whether the act was committed heroically or not, sequentially, Ben's fate was sealed.

Like a disease running rampant through a third world country, the curse had spread to each and every newcomer onboard the Silencer. As of result, Ben's outward appearance progressively succumbed to the curse's effects. The few comrades who had stayed and sworn allegiance to him were also affected; similar as to what happened to the Silencer's original crew, now under Ben's command. Slowly, the curse transformed their bodies to resemble an array of ocean-dwelling creatures.

Within weeks of the curse's initial enactment, Ben's handsome features were dominated by a cephalopod's. Day by day and little by little, Ben had helplessly watched himself become more monster than man. Creamy, pale skin turned sage, his layered raven hair disappeared completely as bristles of a four o'clock shadow on his face shaped into squid-like tentacles. Lastly, a crustacean's claw had developed for his left hand.

Truly, he was a monster in every way, shape and form.

However...

A compass was made by the witch who'd created the spell and was meant to guide the cursed towards his only cure. Finding a compass that never pointed north was one thing, but to find someone who would love him like this? A man who literally qualified as a new species from the ocean's midnight zone?

It was impossible. Because the notion Ben discovered next unfortunately furnished the tip on the iceberg.

For an entire decade, Ben and his crew were banished from setting foot on land, save for one day where he was permitted to leave the ocean and walk on soil. If there was ever any chance in favor of him acquiring the compass, it had suddenly plunged into the negatives. To make matters worse, as if his soul shared a pulse with the damned gadget, Ben eventually pegged the compass' location on land; specifically, somewhere in his hometown, Jakku.

For years, its allure beckoned him to come and claim what he desperately desired most: his longing to be free of the monster that should have been destroyed when he saved his father from Snoke. To be Ben Solo again, and not the creature who'd adopted the name, Kylo Ren.

As time progressed, the compass was seemingly glued to that bloody island. The longer he waited to be free, the deeper he felt himself falling into despair. Convinced he was forever doomed, his heart became cold and his temper grew unsteady. Consequently, Kylo caved to his inner darkness.

Ren's failure to cope led to him cutting out his own heart; which was then secured inside a small chest and sent someplace safe. Safe yet so apparently obvious, a new enemy was constantly overlooking its whereabouts. And the key to unlocking his heart was safely tucked away. Anger and a heavy lust for violence filled the hollowness left inside his sternum. Completely and utterly numb of feeling emotional pain, he began terrorizing vessels along the Atlantic Coast before returning to Caribbean waters nearly ten years later.

Now, precisely two months prior to the day Kylo was due to walk on land again, that gleam of hope returned as the compass had finally crossed the division between land and sea. To his pleasure, the compass was onboard the Supremacy, a ship belonging to his sworn enemy Armitage Hux.

"Canons are being loaded, sir!" Kylo Ren's first mate, Poe Dameron, hollered. Despite the angry waves rolling across the deck below, Poe ascended the quarterdeck stairwell with ease and met his captain. Being so acclimated to the sea surely had its perks at times.

Unlike the majority onboard the Silencer, Poe hadn't been as dramatically affected by the curse. A fiery-shaded starfish hugged his right temple and underneath his cheekbone. Barnacles the size of gold shillings covered remnants of skin there and descended to his collarbone, the rest of his profile completely unscathed. His monkey companion Bee-Bee - perching on Poe's left shoulder, screeching excitedly - looked more like an oversized, leafy seadragon than a spidery primate.

What I wouldn't give to have kept that sliver of humanity, Kylo thought. There were moments he hated Poe for it too.

Although, sometimes, he wondered if his first mate would have a better chance at breaking the curse instead. Compared to the captain's deformities, Poe wasn't so horribly bad looking. No woman would ever consider a monster like Ren worthy of attention—or love, for that matter.

Regardless, he'd endure the suffering solely to prevent Hux from acquiring the compass.

"Hold the artillery," said Kylo, considering the importance his timbre elicited little emotion. " Nothing is to be fired until I have the compass."

"Yes, sir," Poe scoffed. "But what if he fires first? Without defense, we're kinda sitting ducks here."

Ren frowned at a thunderbolt cracking ahead. If there was nothing he wanted more than to free himself and his men of this prison, it was to unload the Silencer's 46 canons on Hux and send him straight to those specially reserved places in Hell for traitors and mutineers. But getting the compass came first and foremost, before delivering sweet revenge.

"By all means use your melee weaponry and kill whoever you come across onboard. No canons. I'll personally throw anyone who disobeys overboard to the sharks." Granted they probably wouldn't die, but it was punishment nonetheless. "But I imagine he's a bit occupied at the moment. You'll have no problem getting onboard without canon interference."

"Aye," nodded Poe in accord. His brow furrowed thoughtfully then as he folded his arms. "A bit strange though for the compass to be leading him towards Tatooine. There's nothing but sand there?"

Above the elongated appendages on his face, Kylo's smirk was fleeting. "It's not leading him anywhere," he corrected. "He's looking for it."

Poe's eyebrows lifted skyward, vanishing under a black bandana covering his dark curly hair. "You mean Hux doesn't know it's there?"

Ren nodded. Poe grinned. "Can't say why it surprises me. The son of a bitch always had his head up his ass."

Grimacing at his first mate, Kylo stepped past Poe towards the quarterdeck stairwell. "Don't confuse arrogance with intelligence, Dameron. His pride often clouds his judgment, yes, but it doesn't necessarily mean Hux is incompetent."

Poe grunted. "How much you wanna bet he'll suddenly play smart this time," he mumbled, trailing a few paces after Kylo down the stairs.

Fixated on another crew member approaching, Kylo ignored the snark as he stopped at the stairwell base and courteously offered Chewie a nod. Now a more colossal slab of driftwood than a 7-foot man lacking regular use of his larynx, a low moan slipped through Chewie's lips in response to his superior. His captain. His lifelong family friend.

Charles Edward Teach was his name. Pre-curse, he'd had a thick, bushy beard on his face. Outlandishly tall at a hulking 7 foot 2 inches in height, and fiercely loyal to friends and family and the six pistols holstered at his side. And he regularly had a tobacco wad packed inside his bottom lip—hence how he'd earned the nickname Chewie.

Keenly aware of the consequences for remaining onboard the Silencer, Chewie had been more steadfast and stubborn in terms of wanting to stay when Kylo sent his father home. The man's parting words with Han was him promising he'd look after his and Leia's son—through the good times and the bad.

Truth be told, Chewie was the only individual there allowed to address Kylo as Ben. Apparently, old habits died hard for the old man. And Kylo was also the only person there who understood Chewie's unusual curse-infused dialect.

Ren glowered at the information Chewie proceeded to advise him of then. "From where?"

Shrugging the broad stumps he bore for shoulders, Chewie murmured a brief sequence of groans.

"Nobody just appears out of nowhere in the ocean," the captain snarled. "He had to have come from the Supremacy." Ren's comment and expressing his order to dispose of the individual was a hairbreadth apart before Chewie suggested he better go see the newcomer for himself.

"What's he saying?" asked Poe, both feet still planted on the third step behind Kylo.

Again snubbing the first mate, Kylo's head cocked quizzically at Chewie. "And what makes you think one of Hux's men warrants my attention over the compass?"

Wordlessly, Chewie moved aside, offering Ren a clear view of the crowd huddling in a crescent towards the bow. Water was gushing around a prone figure lying motionless on his side, back facing Kylo as an unseen force brought him closer. The rapid flowing current sweeping the figure's mahogany coattails upward revealed perfectly-toned thighs and buttocks beneath sopping wet trousers. A subtle dip at the waistline below a lean torso confirming the 'he' was actually a she.

Oh, shit...

"Found 'im thrashing in the water like a damned fish outta water," a man they called Snap explained when Kylo stopped alongside him. Snap was a veteran crew member whose features imitated a mighty hammerhead's. Spending a lifetime cursed at sea had surely made it possible for him to forget the exquisite curvatures on a woman's body. It had been a decade since Kylo was with a woman last, however, given his present state, it felt like centuries ago than just a mere fragment in time. "Got the water outta his lungs the best we could. The lad woke up for a second then went back out," added Snap.

Paying no mind to the man's rambling, Kylo carefully stepped over her and knelt beside the woman for a better look at her face. She was beautiful, he perceived, fascinated by the dozens of tiny freckles powdering sun-kissed skin along her nose and prominently-defined cheekbones. Wet, stray chunks of auburn hair clung to her face, ends touching a partially open pair of pretty pink lips he so badly wanted to taste.

Dumbass, you'd scar her for life, Kylo chided himself for even considering the thought. Though it was difficult not to think as she was everything Ben Solo wanted in a woman. But why in the hell had she been with Hux's crew? he couldn't help but wonder.

Reaching his hand out to brush the hair from her face, Poe's leafy companion Bee-Bee's wild screeches ceased him of the gesture. Ren recoiled his hand with a snarl as the orange and white creature sprang from its master's shoulder, snatching a small object peeking beyond the front hem of the woman's tunic. What Bee-Bee showed him rid the captain's bronchial siphon - a short hollow tentacle which served in place of lungs - of its normal functions.

As the creature gave Kylo the compass, the winds howling in the background faded to a buzz. It was half the size of his fist but in his palm, its weight was remarkably heavy. Weighing in the tons rather than ounces. The answer to his problems now resting in front of him. Curiously, opening the compass, its needle immediately began to spin, finding north.

If his eyes were to look up, he'd find the needle pointing directly to the young woman lying unconscious.

"Captain Ren." Poe's voice was loud and clipped as if he'd already tried multiple times to grab Ren's attention. Clenching the compass, Kylo rose to his feet and looked at Poe standing to his right. The creature Bee-Bee was scrambling up Poe's arm to its usual perch. "What of the girl?" he asked Ren quietly.

Ren's conscience was saying he should leave her on the nearest island they stumbled upon next. There she could at least build herself a raft and sail to whichever God-forsaken scrap of land she was originally from. Away from the infernal Silencer and its crew. Away from him.

"Give her a hammock below deck," Ren lowly advised. "Find some proper attire onboard for her to change into."

Poe nodded. "Aye, sir."

"And the Supremacy," inquired Snap, "we just gonna let them get away?"

Sparing a glance at the Supremacy, Ren noted the large surges flinging the vessel to and fro. "Maybe if we're lucky, the ocean will do us a favor and swallow them whole," he sneered. Closing the compass, Kylo tucked it away within a back row of his tentacles; beside the appendage holding the key to his heart. "Forget the Supremacy. We have what we need."