"He told you to bring her unharmed!"

"She threw dirt in my eyes!"

"Did you hurt her before that?"

"... Maybe."

I haven't been able to retain consciousness; it keeps fading in and out. I miss parts of their conversation.

"Are you still able to fight with that shoulder?" The man carrying me asks as gunshots and sword clashes echo around us.

"This little bitch did a number on me-"

"Language, Alfred!"

The man dubbed 'Alfred' sighs and continues, "-But this little cut won't stop me from fighting."

"Good," he pauses, taking a deep breath, "I'm going to get her to the ship. Don't forget about that other woman Captain mentioned."

"What was her name again? Qiangxiang?"

How do they know her name? What do they want with Mo?!

I try to get me body to move, but to no avail. "Get back to the ship safely, Matthew," Alfred whispers, patting his shoulder.

"Be safe out there, brother," Matthew replies, a faint smile in his voice.

We begin moving in the direction where the fighting is the loudest. I hear Alfred break off from us, screaming as he joins the battle. I peek my eyes open, just slightly, and am met with a similar scene as the day that changed my life. Burning buildings, people screaming for mercy on their knees, and bodies of the dead, invaders and natives alike, strewn across these once beautiful grounds. My breath hitches just slightly as I take it all in.

"You're awake." I remain limp, attempting to calm my beating heart. "I'm not going to hurt you, I have strict orders to bring you back unharmed."

I don't dare say a word as we near the port, where the fighting is the heaviest. I hear a familiar voice cut through the chaos. "Get the fuck out of my town, you bastards!"

Mo! I need to help her.

I begin to move my fingers, then my arm. "Please don't move too much. I don't want to drop you."

I turn my head to where Mo's voice is coming from, and see her cutting down opponent after opponent. I ready myself for an escape when, all of a sudden, Matthew falls to the ground, and a hand reaches down to me. "C'mon, (Name). Get up." I look up and see those confident amber hues staring back at me.

I grasp her hand tightly with a nod, "Thanks, Mo." she hands me her rapier and pulls the bullwhip from her belt, running back into the fight. I follow closely after her, swinging my sword and blocking attacks from the pirates. All around me, men scream in victory, and in pain. Hairs all over my body suddenly stand on end as a sense of dread fills me, sensing a dark, evil presence. For the first time in my life, I actually experience the body's third trauma response:

Freeze.

I can't bring myself to move, and I watch as the fighters around me all move in slow motion. I see Mo running towards me with her hand outstretched as she screeches my name. She pushes me out of the way as she grabs the sword out of my hand, and raising it to block an attack coming from behind where I once was. "My, how you've grown, Qiangxiang." I look up to see a tall, blonde man dressed in a black coat, his face slightly obscured by his captain's hat, but I could see he wore an eyepatch over his left eye.

I turn to Mo and see she's just as shocked as I am. She regains her composure and she points her blade at him as she cracks her whip. "Don't call me that."

"Why? I always thought it was a quite beautiful."

"Who the hell are you?"

The giant white feather adorning his hat tickles his cheek as he grins, "Why don't you come and find out?"

Mo's wrath smolders, hotter than I've ever seen before; she is well prepared for a fight like this. "(Name)?" I take a few steps toward her before she shakes her head, "Stay out of my way." She runs forward and she cuts at the man, to which he parries, easily slipping past her defenses. She takes a few steps forward and jolts around to face him, winding up her whip behind her before rolling it at him, hitting him on the forehead.

Blood slowly trickles down his face as he stumbles backwards, slightly, in surprise. He reaches up and touches the wound, licking the blood off of his finger. "Good girl." Not more than a second later, he had closed the distance between them, the edge of his sword careening towards her stomach. He knows the bullwhip is useless in close combat.

Mo clenches her jaw and rushes to parry his fast attack; he simply mutates the cut into a thrust.
He cuts and thrusts at her, relentlessly, not allowing her time to take the offensive or regain her balance. She parries desperately and tries to counter, but he presses without yielding, never giving up the initiative. The tip of his sword finally slips past Mo's guard, and she quickly jerks her head back, barely turning a head-cleaving hew into a gash across her face.

She needs help!

I barely even manage to take a single step before Alfred has ahold of my arm and throws me down, pinning me to the ground with his knee on my back. "You're not going anywhere."

"The Pirate King really outdid himself with you," the pirate mocks, easily blocking and countering every attack she throws at him.

In one movement, Mo has the man's collar in her right fist, her rapier inches from his neck. "Tell me who you are!" She snarls up at him.

"He really did teach you everything he knew," the man raises his head and an emerald-green eye peeks out from behind his hair.

She stares up at him, her eyebrows furrow in dismay as she whispers, "Arthur...?"

"It's been a while," he grabs her right wrist with his left hand. I watch as he squats down slightly, jolting up with his right hand under her elbow and breaks her arm clean in half. Mo screams and drops her rapier, clutching at her arm in anguish.

"Mo!" I fight from underneath Alfred; he only digs his knee further into my spine.

She drops to her knees screeching in pain, while Arthur paces back and forth in front of her. "You've grown weak."

Her face contorts as she battles with sheer terror, her eyes scanning over the destroyed buildings and dead bodies strewn about the village. She takes a few calming breaths, her right arm unmoving; lifeless. "Why...? After all these years?"

"You killed my father."

"Your father beat you every day-"

"He was stoned to death because of you!"

Though futile, she attempts to reason with him. "He was an evil man-"

"His crew was slaughtered like pigs."

Her eyes fill with tears as she stares up at him, betrayed and defeated. "I-I pitied you— I spared your life and saved you from that monster, and this is how you repay me? By destroying my home?"

"Saved me?!" He grabs her hair and forces her head back, "You took everything from me."

"He wanted me to kill you, goddammit!" Mo barely manages to choke out; the pain in her voice unbearable, "And I couldn't do it..."

He releases her hair causing her head to whip forward, and she begins to cough violently. He walks over to Alfred and I, and gestures for him to release me. As I feel his weight lift off of me, he pulls me onto my knees and ties my arms behind my back. I desperately take in a few full breaths as I stare at Arthur's boots. "I haven't had the chance to take a good look at your face until now," he kneels down and lifts my chin with his finger, raising my eyes to meet his. "You're quite a looker, aren't you?"

"Y-Your business is with me, leave the girl out of it!" Mo snarls at him.

"Actually," he licks his lips seductively, taking out a small knife and holding it to my cheek, "The entire reason I'm here is because of her."

"Kirkland, I swear to the Gods, if you touch a single hair on that girl's head-"

He gives Alfred a nod, to which he responds with a kick to her stomach. Blood splurts from her mouth as she continues to glare at him. He turns his attention back to me and stares into my eyes as he traces the knife over my face gently, the blade flirting with my skin. "Do you know who I am, love?"

"T-The son of the Pirate King."

"Wrong," his blade cuts into my cheek, and I wince. "I am The Pirate King." He raises an eyebrow at me and he nods towards his blade, "What kind of knife is this?"

"A Dirk..."

"Correct, very impressive. The Blacksmith taught you well." I make eye contact with Mo, who stares at me in concern. Arthur grabs my cheeks and whips my face back, "Now, what do you know about death, girl?" He whispers, running his thumb gently over the small cut on my cheek.

"Enough to know that small cut isn't going to kill me," I spit on him.

"No," he smiles darkly, "But the poison will."

Mo was unable to hear what he had said, but I'm sure she saw the look on my face. "What did you do to her?!"

Her screams echo in my ears, and I feel my heartbeat pound harder than ever before. I attempt to look at her, but my vision is blurry. "M-Mo!" I call for her, desperately.

"Qiangxiang, you were my father's protégé; I'm surprised he never taught you this," he takes out a cloth and wipes down the blade he had used to cut me.

"He taught me how to fight," she claws into the dirt, attempting to crawl over to him, "He didn't teach me to cower behind dirty tricks!"

The blonde pirate struts over to her and kicks her square in the face, "You should know that the Pirate King never fights fair."

My stomach cramps, causing excruciating pain, and there's so much pressure in my head that I can't think straight.

What is going on?!

"Come with me, Princess," Arthur kneels and holds his hand out to me, the other resting on his chest as if he was trying to be my knight in shining armor. "Let me save you."

All of a sudden, Mo is on top of him, her left arm wrapped around his neck as she sinks her teeth into the soft spot between his neck and shoulder. "Get the fuck away from her!" Her demands are muffled, but fierce.

Although I can see his blood pouring from her mouth— Arthur doesn't scream.

He grabs the arm holding Mo to him and rips it off before throwing her up and over him, her back crashing into the ground. "You are just like your father," she hisses as a cloud of dirt rises from where she landed.

"No," he looms over Mo, her nose broken and her face swollen and beaten. Still holding her arm, he leans down until his cheek almost touches her's and whispers, "I'm worse." He stomps his foot down on her other arm, breaking that one in half, as well. He leaves her there, crying in the dirt, and walks over to me, hoisting me onto his shoulder. With a snap of his fingers, his men grab Mo and force her against the Wisteria in the middle of the square, crossing her broken arms over her body and tie them around the trunk. Tears stream down her face as she screams at them to release her, but to no avail. They douse the bottom of the tree with some kind of liquid and light it on fire with torches.

The tree erupts into flames, and so does Mo. Barely able to muster a sound, I watch silently as smoke covers the skies, her clothes slowly blackened to ash, and the fire charring her once beautiful skin.

Please... make it stop.

My cheek rests on the Captain back, my body having been rendered immobile by the poison, I am unable to cover my ears, barely able to even avert my gaze from the crackling flames engulfing the Wisteria tree.

He forces me to watch her die for what feels like forever.

Mo takes in another breath to let out another gut wrenching scream, but just as quickly as she drew it, it was taken from her by an arrow to the chest. The life drains from her face and her body falls limp.

Arthur grunts in frustration seeing her released from the agony of the fire, and he picks up his pace back to his ship. "Back to the ship, men!"

My eyelids slowly close, not breaking eye contact with the fire in the square until I drift off into unconsciousness.

"What did you expose her to, Arthur?"

"White Baneberry."

"Was it really necessary to poison the poor girl?"

My eyes flutter open and I shoot up, only to feel the world around me swaying back and forth. Just as my stomach begins to bubble, a hand reaches out to me tenderly, "Here. Take this for the sickness." I look up and am greeted with a kind set of pale green eyes, and a mop of light brown, almost blonde, hair. I eye the small, yellow disk in his hand suspiciously, and he chuckles, "It will help, I promise." Hesitantly, I take it and plop it in my mouth; the taste is extremely strong and almost peppery. I hurriedly chew and swallow it before I glare at him and he shrugs with a cheeky grin, "What? I said it would help, not that it would taste good."

My hand flies up to my cheek and find stitching where my cut once was. "Don't worry, the poison Arthur used wasn't lethal. It should have exited your system by now. I went ahead and cleaned it before sewing it up."

He begins to sort through bottles and containers of medicine and herbs, and I shrink back into the sheets covering my legs, looking around; no one else was in the room but this man and I. My hands grip onto the cloths covering me and I muster up the courage to speak. "... Where am I?"

"Aboard the Siren. You're in the infirmary, if we're talking specifics."

He answered that very quickly.

"How long have I been here?"

He taps his chin, "Two days, I believe?"

"Who are you?"

"My name is Toby; I'm the First Mate and Doctor of the Siren."

"Where is Kirkland?"

"In his study, I would assume."

"Why am I here?"

He raises his finger to his lips and winks at me, "That's enough questions for today, alright?" He stands and gently pushes my shoulder down until my back rests against the bed. "Recover  your strength. The ginger root will help with the seasickness temporarily; once you've spent a little time onboard and have started eating like us, you'll barely even notice the sway of the ship." He turns and opens the door, beginning to step out into the hallway.

"Where are you going?"

"Arthur asked me to report to him when you woke. Now, get some rest."

The Flag of the Siren