I move away from the side, and try to block away what I just did. That small extent of trust is now shattered. Miguel won't want anything to do with me, and who can blame him. I betrayed him.

It's for his own good.

Maybe, but he won't recognize it as that.

Well, his daughter will be safe. You'll betray your group, locking them up in the brig, and then dock it by yourself. When they all escape, which should be pretty quick, they'll find Luna safe and sound, Alistar dead with my knife in his chest, and me either bleeding out or dead from an iron bullet.

It is what it is. I just hope Luna isn't scarred too badly. If there's one thing that will give a kid nightmares, and ruin their childhood it's watching someone die.

Stop dwelling on these thoughts. It's nearly time.

"You guys, is it just me or are we possibly sinking?" I call out, and I'm met with silence.

"If you think we are, go check it out. I'm busy at the helm and the other two getting the sails all ready," Amelia calls.

I walk down, and pretend to go check. I know we aren't but I have to get two of them down here. Then, I'll go back up and get Amelia.

I sprint out from my hiding spot, and shout "We're sinking quickly. Hurry and get down here," before dashing off.

As I suspected, the other two follow me quickly.

And also apparently, they put the pirates down here. The pirates who were supposed to fight back and be knocked out right now. Of course nothing is going to plan, it just has to be one of those days.

"LB, why is there no-" Zeev starts, but I shove him and Katherine into a cell before he can finish.

"She betrayed you too?" Ruben asks, and I cringe at the sneer in his voice. It's for their own good. I have to do it like this; it's the only way to keep everyone safe. This is the best way, for their own good.

"Yes, well, my team should be used to it by now and know that I'm not a team player. If I feel the risk is high enough, I pull them off, no matter how forceful I have to get," I respond, and everyone does whatever tick they have for disappointment.

"Really? So you believe that it's less dangerous for us and Luna for you to go in there alone, with the only people who can help you tied up?" Maartje challenges me, and I chuckle darkly.

"You're completely right. I don't believe that's best. I know that I'm about to walk straight into my death, and I don't care. I've already burnt my bridge: if I let you guys out now, then you wouldn't listen to anything I say or do, causing death. If I don't, and go ahead and do my plan, then at the worst only one death should happen. The death of someone who everyone can live without. I've made my bed, I made it ten years ago. Now I have to lie in it," I respond, before turning heel and ignoring their protests. It's all just lies anyway.

"Amelia, they sent me to take over. They say that they need you down there," I respond, and she doesn't question. Of course she doesn't, she has no need to. She trusts me.

She doesn't see it coming, not until I ask her for forgiveness. I can see the look of surprise as I let go of the wheel, and with a couple well placed kicks, she's crumpled to the ground.

I don't even have time to tie her up, considering we're approaching the waterfall. "Time to see what my short lesson taught me," I whisper as I steel my nerves and step up to the wheel.

Surprisingly, I don't crash the ship into the cliff side. I may scrap along the edge, but we don't start taking on water, so no harm no foul. Well, besides the fact that Alistar probably heard and knows that I'm here. And that I must have scared the living daylights out of everyone else.

I debate on it, and decide that I need to get Amelia down there. Who knows what happens when I get closer to the dock. Alistar could start shooting immediately, and Amelia could get caught in the crossfire. I can't chance it.

And, since I'm just supposed to keep on going straight, I do the seemingly logical thing.

Now, let me be perfectly clear here. I have now been told many times, no, this doesn't work. I have gotten the lecture from multiple people that this doesn't work, and I risked all of our lives. I can confirm this doesn't work. So, for you little annoying children who decided to sneak into the archives and read my file, don't do this. Promise me you won't do this, and I won't ban you from the field for the rest of your life.

I stuck two of my knives against the fence in such a way that should keep the wheel from moving, and in theory, keep us straight and right on track for the docks.

And then, I do something even more idiotic; I take Amelia downstairs. Yes, you read that right. With my knives barely holding the wheel in place, I run over to where Amelia had fallen and is nearly paralyzed in pain, pick her up by her shoulders, hoist her over mine, and carry her down to the brig with the others.

When I get to the brig, with Amelia over my shoulders, the two groups wince with what I now know are two completely different reasons. I thought they were all just wincing because of how painful it must be, and winced for sympathy from Amelia. That was how it was for my group. The pirate's wince was more of a 'no one is at the wheel and now we're going to die' wince.

I put Amelia in the last empty cell, and she's still in too much pain to try to fight me, much less notice that I've slipped a pair of hair pins in her pocket. I want to protect them from Alistar, not make them sitting ducks and easier for him to kill.

Besides, I know all of my team has their weapons on them, and Miguel can still get to his when he wakes up. I go up, and the silence causes my senses to kick into hyper awareness.

I see the dock, and debate if I even want to dock, or just throw the anchor. The latter would be easier with we have to get away in a hurry, and we're so close to shore that I doubt it would drift that much.

On the other hand, it's hard to pull the anchor by yourself. And, if I come back, I'll be coming back with a little kid. Or, if I'm not coming back, and they have to come, and it drifts, they're going to have a hard time getting back. Or if it drifts too far, we're going to get stung. Fun.

I don't stop, and just let my feet lead me to the anchor. Guess I'm throwing the anchor.

I move quickly in the eerie silence. When it's this still, I prefer to be hiding behind something. Preferably a wall. A stone wall. With my gun drawn and ready to shoot as soon as I can pinpoint where the other person is at.

Suddenly, everything is no longer still. Apparently my blow to the head wasn't strong enough to knock him out for long, since Miguel opens that door. I twist to see where the sound is coming from (at least that's what I tell myself. Totally not to make sure that he's okay.) and as I do it, I lower my shoulder a couple of inches.

I feel something fly past my shoulder, feel its heat, and know before I hear the echoing crack what it was. Someone just shot at us.

"Get inside, now!" I yell, and of course, the pirate ignores me. Instead of taking care of himself and running for cover, he has to run to check on me, whilst I'm trying to find a half-way decent place to take cover. After all, being in a gunfight without knowing where the enemy is stationed in an open area isn't really the most fun thing. Not speaking from experience or anything, since I have never been in that position before. I'm not enjoying it either.

As it turns out, there's only one halfway sheltered place on the ship. And guess where it's at? If you guessed the room that Miguel just ran from and is basically impossible for us to get to now, at least without the enemy knowing, you guessed correctly.

Whoa, tune back the sarcasm. Reacting to stress with sarcasm is perfectly normal, yes, but too much sarcasm isn't the best. Especially deadpan sarcasm; that tends to lead to uncomfortable situations.

And this is how you know I'm going crazy; I'm in the middle of a battle, and yet I'm thinking of sarcasm and not of how to get us out of this.

"I'm taking your silence as a sign that you don't have a plan," Miguel comments, and before I can respond, I hear the all too familiar footsteps.

"I would respond, but then I'm afraid we would be rude to our guest. Alistar, would you please come to meet us? And do have your men hidden in the shadows slip out into the light: I get a bit jumpy when they're half-hidden by the shadows like that, and we both know that won't end well for either side, though mainly yours."

"My, my. You know, after being with your father for a couple of years, I can see where you get your mouth and false confidence from. I thought it was your mother, but I was so terribly wrong," he says, shaking his head. "Oh, and Love, why don't you wave to daddy dearest? He's over in the corner, holding your man's lovely little daughter, with a gun placed directly to her temple-" I make a move closer to Alistar, before her tuts. "-and I wouldn't do that. It would be such a pity if the grandfather was forced to kill his granddaughter. And when they're becoming so well acquainted too."

I know I shouldn't but I can't help but glance over to the indicated corner. And there he is. The irony isn't lost to me; he's the reason I needed this space, and now he's invading it.

"It looks like there's two men here I'll have to be killing," I mutter under my breath.

"Oh, my dear. You won't be the one doing the killing; it'll be your little boyfriend here. You already had your turn, don't be too greedy."

"What do you mean?" Miguel finally speaks up, moving in front of me a little bit.

Wow, he's insane. I knock him out, effectively betraying him, and he's still trying to protect me. Perfectly insane.

"It means that you're going to have to do some choosing. You can either kill your lovely friend here, and in so acknowledging that you will never marry again, that your daughter will never see how two people who are in love are supposed to act with one of her two parents and have to go to her cousin for all of those questions," Miguel looks so pained at that choice, and I can only shake my head.

So, I'm going in a full circle. My social and love life ended in this spot, I got it back, I was prepared to let it happen again, but this time my actual life will. The little details are so lovely; cruel but lovely.

"My other option?" Miguel asks, and Alistar laughs.

"You still love her after she tried to kill you? Or maybe not kill you; no, she's too fond of you to do that? Knock you out maybe; I'm sure she's told you it was to keep you safe. It wasn't; it was to keep you out of her way while she went and killed me. But, in the case you don't want to get your revenge, you can kill Dirk-" At this a couple of his men grab the red head and force him over onto my ship. I might just have to burn it down because he stepped on it. The only comfort I have for being far too close to him is the look of utter betrayal on his face. "-however, if you choose this option, Player will have to shoot your daughter in the shoulder. A perfectly survivable wound, however she will be in a considerable amount of pain for a while."

"You've gotten a lot better at making these choices hard," I comment, and Alistar justs smiles that stupid smile of his. The psychotic one of a man who knows he holds all the aces and has you exactly where he wants you: the one I want to punch off his face.

I close my eyes, and decide to make the choice easier for Miguel. After all, he can't use how many people will die as an indicator.

"You know, I was planning the betrayal all along," I start out flippantly. "The flirting, the playing coy, the smiling, all of that was just a show. Just another face to trick you. To get you to let your guard down so I could trick you. I've already killed the rest of your team; they tried to resist and got into my way. I'm such a hypocrite, criticizing Dirk while I have more blood on my hands then him; in far worse ways too."

I notice his hands starting to shake, and Alistar smirking, before pushing his stupid gun into Miguel's hands. Just one more thing, it should be enough to send him over the edge. And what better thing to do to send him over the edge than to attack his daughter. "Oh, and the whole reason I didn't kill you, which I'm sure you're clinging onto as hope that I'm not all that bad. That was so I could see the pain in your eyes. The pain as I put a bullet in both of your daughter's shoulders and knee caps, before having you listen to her begging not to kill her lovely father. Then I would empty my gun into your stomach, and leave you both to die together. I was portraying Dirk as doing all of this because he figured out my plan on how to destroy all pirates, and he was trying to stop me."

I'm honestly surprised I lived to end that insult by the look of death in his eyes. He believed every word that I said. Perfect; he won't have any guilt this way.

Apparently though, I'm wrong. Because when he turns to me, with the hammer of the gun pulled back, there's only sorrow in his eyes. "I'm so sorry," he whispers, the words I said to him not even an hour ago.

I feel the bullet entering my body before I can register the shot as always, and I hear him whisper it one more time, "I'm so sorry."