Bart Roberts sat comfortably on the yard of Kirk's ship with a bottle of rum held loosely in his right hand. A slow, drunk smile formed on his pale lips as he watched over the crew scrubbing the deck below.

He nodded his head in approval and took a swig from his drink. It had taken only a day to organise the Kirk Pirate's, but now they were in tiptop condition, following his every order as the new first mate, a position assigned to him by his new captain.

It made the older pirate laugh. Whenever he thought of the two Flint brothers, they were indeed very similar, except Kirk could be easily annoyed and blow up at the littlest of things, like now.

Bart chuckled to himself as the Ice Queen continued to annoy the Captain, who was on the verge of exploding.

"Young love," Bart reminisced. "I would do anything to be young again." He thought back to a time with his wife and two children. Happy times.

Unfortunately, his family was ripped away from him when they were killed by a raid from the slave trade in his home village. Bart was not present when it had happened many years ago; he had been out at sea. He'd heard about it from the Albatross News' coverage of what had happened. His children would have been eighteen around about now, turning into young adults.

He would not rest until the slave trade was abolished, so that no other father would have to live through the same experiences he had to.

"Why the long face?" Morgan sat upside down next to him on the yard, his hair dangling down to the deck below and his legs curled over the beam. His friend John joined him, shipmates of Kirk whom Bart had befriended. The two of them reminded him of his younger days, when he was both upbeat and ready to conquer the world. If only their naive minds knew what it was really like out there.

They were both the same age of twenty-five and wore similar steampunk styles to their captain. However, Morgan was taller and broader with startling green hair, whereas Jack was short and stout with blue hair that covered his left eye, which he had lost in a fight against another pirate crew.

"I'm all good." Bart forced a smile. "What do you think of those two?" He pointed down at Kirk and Sam. The two of them were still bickering amongst themselves, and Kirk was turning redder by the second.

Morgan swung himself up onto the yard, a deceitful smile on his face. "I think the Captain likes Samantha Bellamy."

John nodded in agreement. "Why else would he be giving her a hard time?"

"He does it with every woman he's fancied," Morgan chuckled.

"Let's bet on it." A menacing look fell upon the older man's face. "When do you think Kirk will finally admit he loves her, after or during Harvest Island? The winner gets ten thousand  joules." Bart flipped a golden coin in his hand.

Both Morgan and Jack were listening. Ten thousand joules would get them a lot of booze. However, they were up against Bart Roberts aka, the Lucky Man. It would be hard to win against him; he never lost a bet. The two friends spoke amongst themselves as they decided, and finally, the pair nodded in agreement.

"We're not that far off from Harvest Island, and Kirk and Sam haven't had a chance to warm up to each other yet. At the moment, they're just arguing all the time, so Kirk will admit his love after we've left Harvest Island," Morgan bet. "What do you wager?"

"During." Bart smiled confidently and fumbled with the shamrock pin on his jacket for luck, a gift given to him by his two children before they died.

Morgan and Bart shook hands on the little wager they had made and continued to watch on to find out who would emerge as the victor.

Down on the deck below the mainmast, Kirk growled as he brushed a dusting of snow from his shoulder and glared darkly towards Samantha Bellamy.

"Stop icing the de..." Kirk slipped on some black ice, his feet flying up into the air, and he landed on his back, groaning in agony.

What was it with women making him fall on his back in pain? He remembered the time when Jessica pulled a prank on him at the Hawk's Eye tavern, which involved falling down the steps, then getting covered in slime and feathers. One could imagine the outcome.

Kirk growled in annoyance as he sat up, rubbing his lower back, and glared towards the girl. The loose objects around the ship started to rattle, and everyone ducked for cover as items flew across the deck, aimed directly at Sam with malicious intent.

All it took was the wave of her hand, and the weapons froze and shattered into a dusting of snow before they could reach her. She laughed at his pathetic attempt to hurt her.

Kirk stood back up, and Sam smirked, egging him on. In a second, he was stood before her, his hand gripped tightly around the collar of her blouse. She cursed under her breath; she forgot that the Flints could move quickly on their feet. She didn't have a chance to dodge him.

Instead, she found herself glaring towards the hotheaded captain, but she showed no signs of weakness. There was a reason she was a part of Zachary Flint's crew; she was rather sneaky.

An innocent, scared look fell upon her face, and her breathing heightened.

"P-please..." she stammered. "Don't hurt me." She shied away from him, a tear rolling down her cheek.

Kirk's amber eyes softened, and his hand slackened around her blouse, giving her an opportunity to attack. Sam mischievously smirked. Like always, men were weak when it came to a crying woman. She pushed back from him, jumped into the air, and roundhouse-kicked him, aiming for his head.

She gasped in shock when he tightly grabbed her ankle at the very last second, a smug look on his face as he flashed his amber eyes towards her. Her smile wavered, and her heart pounded. What was it about his fiery eyes that had her losing her concentration? Maybe it was because they reminded her of herself; they showed the fight within him.

"The crying act doesn't work on me." Kirk swung her through the air and slammed her down onto the deck with a loud crash, and she groaned as her entire body ached.

Why were the Flints so incredibly strong? Just who were they?

"No food until you have swabbed this entire deck all by yourself." He stomped off to his quarters, his crew cowering as he marched across the deck.

"What?!" Sam cried in anguish. "Why?"

"You attacked your captain." Kirk paused before entering his room. "Don't look so downhearted. You got off easy. My punishment is usually death to those who disrespect me."

"You're no fun!" She sat cross-legged on the deck with a pout playing on her lips, a childish move which Kirk found sort of cute, but he shook his head before anyone saw that he had looked softly towards her. He would not allow her to play with his feelings.

"Get used to it, Sami. I'm not fun. I'm not my brother!" He slammed the door after him.

Sam mumbled under her breath that she didn't like being called Sami.

Back on the yard of the mast, Morgan and John burst out laughing, and Bart smirked from the interaction between the Ice Queen and the Hothead. The tension couldn't be any thicker, even if it tried to.

"At this rate, the two will be together before they reach Harvest Island." Bart took a swig from his drink.

Morgan shook his head, his shaggy green hair swaying around him. "Kirk pushed Sam too far. Just look at her. She wants to kill him with her bare hands."

"I know Sam, and she doesn't hold grudges. Plus, she knows it's her fault for disrespecting the captain." Bart smiled to himself like he knew all.

☠️

It was late in the evening and Sam was still scrubbing the deck. The ship was anchored, and everyone else had gone to bed. Her stomach growled loudly, and she groaned as she fell against the wooden boards, no longer capable of doing any more. The scent of freshly baked bread enticed her senses, and she jerked up into a sitting position at the sight of bread waving in front of her face.

She grabbed the food and started to stuff it down her throat, earning a chuckle from the person who had given her the bread.

"Thank you." She gulped and looked up to her saviour.

Her smile instantly dropped. It was him.

"What do you want?" She crossed her arms and looked away from him.

"To give you food, but if you don't want it..." He took the bread from her.

"I want the bread!" She snatched the food back and shoved it down her gob before he could take it back from her.

Kirk laughed at Sam's behaviour, and her cheeks heated a degree in embarrassment. She frowned. Why should she care what he thought about her when she ate? Yes, she was a woman, but she was no lady.

"I'm a pirate; I can stuff my face how I please," she said justifying her un-ladylike actions, and swallowed the last of her bread.

"I don't care about that stuff." Kirk continued to laugh. "By the way, you don't need to finish scrubbing the deck. You've done more than enough. Get some sleep. It's late, and we have a long day ahead of us."

Kirk stood up, but Sam stayed put on the deck, laying down on the hard surface, and looked up at the night sky. A soft smile formed across her lips.

"You know, underneath all that hard exterior, you're kind of soft-hearted inside," Sam chuckled.

"So I've been told." Kirk looked foul, probably from the idea of being a softy.

"I think it suits you; it shows who you really are as a person. Stop trying to be someone you're not." Sam sat up with a smile.

Kirk frowned at her words, but he could not argue with her. He was a big softy at heart, but he could not be seen as soft. He had a reputation to uphold as a pirate. Nobody feared a soft-hearted pirate.

Her actions confused him when she laid back down with her hands behind her head like a pillow and made herself more comfortable.

"You know, there are hammocks below deck in the cabins."

"I don't like sleeping in confined spaces. I tend to prefer to sleep under the light of the stars." Sam grabbed his hand and pulled him down next to her. "Join me. I can tell you find it hard to sleep at night. You're worrying about Azalea. Don't. I'm sure she is fine. She's a Flint, after all, some of the strongest pirates to have ever sailed the seas. It makes me wonder what your family secret is."

Kirk laughed. "We have no family secret; we're just extraordinary."

Sam scoffed at his answer, but after being on Zachary Flint's crew for the past couple of years, she couldn't help but agree, Kirk was right; they were indeed extraordinary.

He lay down next to her and watched the stars and soon he understood why Sam preferred to sleep under them. He finally saw the beauty within them. He'd never really stopped to look around him and actually see the beauty in the world before. He leaned his head to the side and smiled as his eyes wandered over Sam. With the moon shining down upon her soft features, she was radiant.

"Why am I here, Kirk?" Sam turned her head to look at him, and he just as quickly looked back up at the stars, hoping he had not been caught staring at her, though his red cheeks said otherwise.

"What do you mean?" Kirk frowned at her question.

"Why did Zach place me on your ship?"

He sighed. "Because you're immune to sea crystals and he wants you to teach me."

Sam sat up abruptly and hit him across the forehead.

"Ow!" He sat up and rubbed the lump forming on his head. "What was that for?"

"You should have told me that the second I stepped foot on the ship. I should have been teaching you from the moment we left your brother!" Sam shook her head. "We're behind schedule now." She dragged Kirk up onto his feet. "We'd best start right now!"

"Now?" Kirk grumbled. "But it's the middle of the night!"

"The time when your enemies are watching." Sam looked darkly towards him. "You never know when you're going to be attacked by someone who is an expert at killing cursed souls. The Sea Dog for example!"

Kirk swallowed nervously. Sir Francis Drake, the King's Sea Dog, had a reputation for using sea crystals as weapons against his enemies, despite being a cursed soul himself. It was clear now to Kirk that Drake was immune to sea crystals. Nobody knew what the Sea Dog's cursed soul was, but rumour said that if you called upon his name and meant it, he would appear within the second.

Kirk agreed with Sam, and so the two started training every day and every night for weeks on end. The training was gruelling. It began with wearing the bracelet for thirty seconds and gradually working his way up until he could last twenty-four hours before having to take it off or fainting from exhaustion. His powers did not work whenever he wore the sea crystal bracelet, but that was the time when he sparred against Sam and learnt how to fight without his cursed soul, in case such a scenario were to befall him.

Throughout their time training, the two learned to get along with one another, and they soon became good friends, joking, teasing and arguing amongst one another. By the time they arrived at Harvest Island, Kirk could withstand wearing a sea-crystal bracelet for a week without it fully draining his energy.

"We're at Harvest Island, old man," Morgan said teasingly to Bart. "And Kirk still shows no signs of confessing his love anytime soon. You might as well cough up the money now." Joule signs flashed within Morgan's eyes.

Bart shook his head. "He may not show signs of confessing just yet, but he has shown signs of affection towards her." The older pirate smiled to himself. "He's just concealing it from you lot."

Morgan's eyes sharpened, and he turned on his heel as he stomped off. "We'll see, old man."

Bart chuckled, and his grey eyes caught the young couple stood at the bow of the ship. To the unsuspecting eye, the two looked as though they were friends stood close to one another chatting, but with another glance, Bart could see that the two now and then would link their fingers together.

"Young love," Bart sighed in acknowledgement and prepared the crew to dock.

Unaware to the Kirk Pirates, sat on the docks of Southport was a man with a spyglass, watching the ship as it approached the island. This man was not a local, far from it. He had jet black shimmering hair and wore dark clothes and had an altogether hostile appearance about him that had the locals dodging around him. He smiled to himself and took the spyglass away from his eye.

"Master Pride will be happy. A girl of dark skin and white hair. Such a rarity, she will go for quite the price at Halfway Point's Annual Auction." The man laughed as he vanished into the shadows of Southport to find his master, a trail of black dust following after him.

Once docked at the port town of Southport, Kirk immediately noticed a stark difference from the last time he'd stepped foot on the island. The Islanders seemed jollier, even going as far as welcoming the pirates to the island with beer and rum. Not that Kirk was complaining, but still, oddly suspicious.

There seemed to be a beer festival going on, with the locals drinking and handing out alcohol to anyone who didn't have a drink in hand. Kirk didn't understand; the harvest festival was two months ago, what were they still doing celebrating? There were also newly painted statues placed around the island of a wooden puppet wearing an orange suit with an orange fedora hat, and sometimes, he carried a cane in his right hand.

Kirk grabbed a local by the scruff of his neck. "What's going on here?"

The local smiled, not at all scared by Kirk's appearance. "We've been freed from the tyranny of our mayor and the high priest who conned us every year. The puppet god opened our eyes to the truth. No longer do we have to sacrifice the most beautiful girl on the island. Instead, our new god only wishes we offer him alcohol. So we are celebrating with a beer festival." The local smiled and offered Kirk a drink, which he declined.

"The statues of the puppet look like they have the same bad fashion sense as my cousin, Baden," Bellamy chuckled to herself. "Right down to the silly orange fedora hat and that stupid hook-handled cane he always carries with him."

Kirk did not care; he needed to find Jessica. He stomped off to Elena's bar, hoping the mysterious Landlady of the Hawk's Eye would give him some insight.

"Morgan, John, head to Jessica's apartment and see if she is still living there. Bart, go with them. Meet me back at the tavern."

"Aye, Cap'n." The three saluted and headed off in the direction of Jessica's apartment.

"Sami, ask around for a girl called Jessica Red."

She nodded and wiped the sweat off her forehead, though not without Kirk noticing.

"You need to take your sea crystal bracelet off. You've been wearing it for over two weeks now, and you're starting to look tired," Kirk said, trying to reason with her.

"I'm fine." She gave a smile, but it did nothing to convince the captain. If anything, it made him more worried.

He didn't have time to argue with her; if she was going to be stubborn, it was her own fault if something bad happened to her.

"Just go," he sighed and watched as she ran off. "But be careful."

"Don't worry about me." She waved back at him with a cheeky grin which tugged at his heartstrings. That woman would be the death of him.

Kirk eventually made it to the Hawk's Eye, only to find it was boarded up. His heart started to pound. What was going on here? He knocked the door open and looked around to find a room unrecognisable to the tavern he was used to residing in. The stage was gone the bar was gone; it was just an empty room filled with dust.

"Elena!" he shouted.

Kirk fell back in surprise when the sharp-eyed woman appeared before him.

"Kirk, what a pleasant surprise." She offered him a hand and helped him up from the floor. "What can I help you with?"

Kirk grabbed the dark-haired woman by the throat. "Where is Jessica, and what is going on here?"

Elena chuckled and disappeared from Kirk's grasp and fell back against a green sofa, which appeared out of nowhere. "That's no way to greet an old friend."

The woman had not changed. She was as mysterious as ever.

"Stop playing around and answer the damn question."

"I do hate people that are no fun. Still, people like you make me feel fortunate that one day I'm going to marry someone who is the definition of fun," she vainly said as she thought back to the day when Levi first said he was going to marry her.

Kirk's eyebrow twitched. He really did hate this woman. "Where is Jessica?"

"She left the island two months ago and joined Mad Man Levon and his crew," Elena sighed and looked down at her nails, finding more interest in them than him.

Kirk felt betrayed. Jessica had made a promise that she would one day join his crew when she felt strong enough. Yet, she could easily join the Mad Man. His fists curled tightly in anger. He hated that rookie pirate, always getting the limelight in the papers ever since he defeated Madame Cheng.

"Don't get your pants in a twist. Jessica joined Levon's crew to make herself stronger so she could one day join your crew."

Kirk breathed out and loosened his fists. He should have known and not jumped to conclusions, Jessica wouldn't betray him like that; they were family. Elena soon started to explain everything that had happened between Jessica and Levon on the island. It turned out the statues were indeed based on Sam's cousin Baden Bones. He would have to tell her later.

At least Jessica was heading towards Halfway Point, the same route he was taking. He would have to catch up to her there and then take her back to her father.

Out of nowhere, Elena grabbed ahold of Kirk's hand and started to trace her fingers along the lines of his palm.

"What the hell are you doing?" He attempted to pull back his hand but was surprised to find she was incredibly strong.

"You're in love, with a beautiful woman as well." Elena's sharp yellow eyes soon started to well with tears. "However, your destiny does not lie with Samantha Bellamy. You will be forever known as the lovers who never were, and become the one who brings all the pirates together, the turning point in the war to come."

Kirk was finally able to free his hand from her and hissed. "Do you think you can scare me, witch?!"

"Destiny does not lie, Ruben Kirk Flint." Elena dusted down her black dress as she stood up from the green sofa and smiled to herself upon seeing his reaction to her knowing his real name. "It was nice chatting to you, but I must be going, I'll see you at Halfway Point." She snapped her fingers and was gone, nothing but air in her place.

Kirk growled to himself. He'd never understood why Jessica was friends with such a strange woman. He marched out of the empty bar and instantly bumped into his fellow crewmates, Morgan and John.

"Jessica wasn't in her apartment," Morgan panted. It looked like he had been running. "All her stuff was gone as well."

"She's headed to Halfway Point." Kirk walked back over in the direction of the docks. "We might as well gather everyone up and head off. There is no point in staying here."

"How do you know she's headed to Halfway Point?" Bart asked, a cloud of smoke escaping his mouth as he lit a cigar.

"The Landlady Elena told me."

Bart's eyebrows rose, and his eyes widened  slightly. "By any chance is her surname, Sharp?"

Kirk stopped in his tracks and faced Bart. "How do you know her?"

Bart chuckled. "Mysterious woman, she is, a confidante of Blackbeard's. We can trust her judgement. If she says Jessica is headed towards Halfway Point then that is where we will find her."

Kirk nodded in agreement but was still surprised that Elena was once acquaintanced with the Pirate King. He would never have expected it. Wouldn't that make her a Pirate Lord and older than she looked? His thoughts were drowned out by a heart-piercing scream that echoed across the streets of Southport.

"Sami!" Kirk's heart strained, and without thought, he dashed off in the direction of the commotion.

His throat sharpened with each breath he drew in, his heart raced, and his amber eyes shone with a deep hatred. If anybody hurt Sam, he wouldn't stop until that person was dead. He skidded around the corner and came to a halt at the town square to find a group of people surrounding a fallen woman with a bleeding head.

Kirk knocked the people out of the way, hoping for the woman to be Sam, only for it to be a local who had been pushed to the ground.

"What happened?" Kirk growled, silencing the crowds and causing the woman to whimper in fright at the angry pirate looming above her.

"A man with jet black hair wearing an eye patch and had a tattoo on his neck of a horse's head took her, the woman with dark skin and white hair. She attempted to fight back, but she looked weak and fainted. I tried to help her, but the man attacked me, and that's when I screamed."

A man with an eyepatch and a tattoo on his neck of a horse's head. Bart's cigar fell from his lips, and his hands tightened into balls, ready to punch the person next to him. It was the same man who had taken his family from him.

"Pride!" Bart whispered, his aura dark and dangerous, and his voice resonated across the streets of Southport, stunning everyone into silence.

"Pride?" Kirk questioned and started to follow Bart, who was walking over in the direction of the docks, his strides soon turning into a sprint.

"Pride. He's the man in charge of the slave trade and the annual auction at Halfway Point! The man who killed my family! He's extremely powerful!"

The slave trade. Kirk's heart flatlined. Anyone but them. They were more savage than any bloodthirsty Pirate ever to sail the seas of Aqua.

Without a second thought, Kirk sprinted ahead in the direction of the docks. He ran faster than he ever had before in the hopes of catching up to Sam. Why was this happening? He hadn't yet told Sam how he honestly felt about her, and now he never would.

He made it to the docks in no time at all, but he was too late. His knees fell to the deck, as he let his world fall apart and watched as the black ship sailed away into the distance.

"How did it sail away so quickly?" John finally caught up to him. "That's impossible, unless it's electrically powered!"

"The Slave Trade has some of the fastest boats in the world and have found a way for electricity to work without frying out from the strong magnetic flux. We will never catch up to them." Bart placed a comforting hand on Kirk's shoulder, but inside his soul was on fire, in a fit of rage ready to explode. "They will be headed to Halfway Point."

"Looks like the wager is off, then?" Morgan sighed in defeat.

"Idiot!" John hissed. "Now is not the time!"

Bart's hand clenched down on Kirk's shoulder, keeping the Captain down on his knees. He could feel the bloodlust emitting from Kirk, the same feeling Bart had felt once before with Zach. It was anger that could only be calmed by killing someone. The Flint Legacy had been awakened within him. After all, it usually was times of desperation that brought the power to the light.

Bart remembered the day it happened to Flint on Sunrise Island ten years ago, and he had managed to leave a scar on the King's face as a result. Right at that second, it took all of Bart's strength to keep Kirk down on his knees, and the wooden decking started to splinter around them.

"The woman I love, who I am yet to tell how I feel, has been taken from me!" Kirk shouted, and his amber eyes shone in a fury towards Morgan. "And all you care about is some damn bet you made with Bart!"

Morgan's throat tightened. He had never seen the captain look so angry before, and he stepped back in fear. He wasn't aware his captain knew about the wager, but he should have known, it was hard keeping secrets from the captain. He knew everything that went on on his ship.

Kirk shoved Bart's hand off his shoulder. The captain slowly stood up, facing his shipmate, and roughly grabbed Morgan by the collar and looked down upon his so-called friend. The bloodlust was shining darkly in his amber eyes.

"Are you happy? I've finally admitted that I love her during our time on the island, which means Bart wins!" Kirk pushed him, accidentally pushing him too hard and sending him flying into a pile of crates on the dock. Morgan screamed when his arm cracked.

Where was this power coming from? His captain had never been this strong before? Morgan could even see a deadly amber aura surrounding Kirk's body, and he was breathing in deeply as the power tried to control him.

Bart placed a hand on Kirk's shoulder once again in an attempt to calm him down.

"Listen to me, Kirk, you've awoken your family legacy, and right now you can feel a tremendous amount of power within you. You want nothing more than to kill anyone in your sight as a means to release it. I've seen it happen to your brother when he awakened it. Luckily, he had a friend to help him control it at the time. I have no idea what the stupid kid said to him that day, but you need to calm down, or you will end up killing your friends when you don't want to. Don't let the power control you."

The power was boiling within him, ready to wreak havoc across the world. He'd never felt anything like it before, and he felt unstoppable. His body started to tremble, but as his eyes looked down upon his crew, he saw how frightened they looked. His heart stammered. What was happening to him? He didn't want this, to hurt his friends or to scare them. He breathed in a couple of times, slowly calming himself down until the power finally shied away but still lingered from within his heart.

He wiped away the hot, angry tears from his face. He knew his friend meant no harm, but still, it struck him in the heart. "Find Sami at all costs, Morgan, or I will never forgive you for what you've just said." He turned away from his crew, their scared eyes making him feel guilty. Instead, he looked down at his shaking hands, which were still slightly glowing with an amber aura.

"Yes, Captain." Morgan trembled in fear as John helped him up.

This new power - or legacy - as Bart had called it, gave a whole new meaning to the name the Hothead. Why hadn't Zach told him about this power that lay within him? Did it also mean Jessica held this power within her as well? He had to find her soon and fast before she exploded like he nearly did.

But first, there was someone he had to get back. Kirk's amber eyes never left the black ship as it disappeared over the horizon. If Sam hadn't been wearing her sea crystal bracelet, if she had not pushed herself to the limit in an attempt to make herself stronger, she wouldn't have been so weak against her enemies. She could have fought back with her cursed soul. Kirk easily ripped the sea crystal bracelet from his own wrist. Never again would he wear one.

"I promise, Sami, I will find you!"