Chapter Text
"There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory." -Sir Francis Drake, 1587
When Avery got the call from her childhood friend, Nathan Drake, she didn't expect that she would be flying and meeting a blond reporter named Elena in the middle of the Panamanian seas. But here she was. Pulling an ancient coffin out of the water.
Nate grabbed the crowbar as Avery stood back and Elena was filming, her bulky grey camera in hand, pointed at the coffin.
"I'm here off the coast of Panama, where we've just discovered what we believe to be the coffin of legendary explorer Sir Francis Drake, who was buried at sea over 400 years ago." Elena said her thing. She put the camera down as Nate pushed the crowbar in.
"Are you sure you wanna be defiling your ancestor's remains like that?" Elena asked.
"You make it sound so dirty." Nate retorted, laughing as he tossed Avery the crowbar and got to the other side.
"Besides, I thought you didn't believe me." Nate said to Elena.
"Well, I did do my research. And apparently, Francis Drake didn't have any children." Elena said as Avery tossed the crowbar to Nate.
"Allegedly. History can be wrong." Avery pointed out, a slight Boston accent in her voice, similar to Nate.
Nate got the last of the coffin lid unstuck.
"For example - you can't defile an empty coffin." Nate said as he and Avery opened the coffin.
"What the hell-?" Elena said, impressed as Nate grabbed a metal box.
Nate opened it and grabbed the small brown notebook in the box. He flipped through the pages. It was Sir Francis Drake's diary. Nate and Avery both laughed.
"You devil." Nate said, amused. "What is it? C'mon, hold it up-" Elena said, wanting to get the footage of the journal.
"No, no, no -- no way." Nate stood up and gently got the camera out of his face.
"The deal was for a coffin, that's it." Nate said.
"Wait a minute, if my show hadn't've funded this expedition, you wouldn'tve-" Elena was arguing when Nate stopped her.
"Hey, hey... you got your story lady." Nate tried to argue as Avery gathered up the journal and whatever else was in the container.
"Look, Mr. Drake, Miss Bonny, you signed a contract." Elena argued.
She stood up as Nate laughed.
"I have a right to see every single thing that-" Elena was arguing still when Nate noticed something, shutting her up.
"Uh, Nate, you're seeing that too, right?" Avery asked, going for the gun in the waterproof case on the wooden crate.
"Could you hold that thought?" Nate asked Elena, joining Avery and grabbing the walkie.
"Sully? Uh, we got some trouble. Hurry it up." Nate said into the walkie.
"Okay, okay, what's going on?" Elena said, walking over to the crate and setting down her camera as Avery and Nate walked to the other side of the ship.
"Uh... pirates." Nate said.
"Pirates?!" Elena exclaimed, surprised.
Nate grabbed a case with his name on it and opened it.
"Yeah. The modern kind. They don't take prisoners." Nate grabbed a gun and Avery got her gun ready.
"...least not male prisoners." Avery butted in.
"Wait, what are you talking about?" Elena said.
That was when the boats started approaching.
"Uh, sh- shouldn't we call the authorities or something?" Elena asked as Nate loaded his gun.
"That'd be a great idea but we don't exactly have a permit to be here." Nate said, looking at the women.
"What?" Avery and Elena questioned.
"Nathan, I thought you said it was handled." Avery said, not happy.
"Yeah, so unless you wanna end up in a Panamanian jail, we should probably handle this ourselves." Nate said as he put the clip in the pistol.
"Wh- what's worse?" Elena asked.
"You've obviously haven't been in a Panamanian jail. Do you know how to use one of these?" Nate asked Elena, showing her the gun.
"Yeah, it's like a camera... you just, you point and shoot, right?" Elena said, holding the gun awkwardly.
"Good girl." Nate said, grabbing his gun.
The trio ran to the edge of the boat and ducked.
"How the hell did they find us out here?" Elena asked.
"These guys have been tailing us for weeks." Avery said, firing a couple of shots, both hitting their mark.
"Thought I lost them." Nate said, firing more bullets at the pirates.
"What'd you do to piss them off?" Elena asked, also firing some bullets.
"It's kind of a long story." Nate said.
They took out all of the Pirates that were on the boat in front of them.
"These guys don't like you much, do they?" Elena asked.
"Less talking, more shooting!" Nate exclaimed as they shot the boats out at sea.
"They're climbing aboard!" Elena exclaimed as Nate and Avery got up and went to the back of the boat and each fired a round, hitting the two pirates aboard.
Just then two more pirates came, and Nate and Avery fought them, tossing them overboard.
"Come on, Sullivan!" Avery exclaimed, wondering where the hell he was.
Just then two more Pirates came. Avery and Nate took them out. Avery was grabbing what ammo she could. Just then, she heard an explosion and ducked. There was a boat with a rocket launcher.
"Of course they would." Avery retorted as she ducked.
Nate and Avery hid, but they couldn't get a shot. Just then, another explosion happened. This time, the boat with the rocket launcher exploded.
"What's that?" Elena asked.
Just then, Sully's plane was seen. Avery was happy.
"Whoo! Alright Sully!" Nate yelled as the cabin started catching fire.
"Oh- I don't think I'm getting my security deposit back." Elena said.
Sully's plane went around the back and took out another boat. Avery took the opportunity to grab ammo.
"Cavalry's here!" Nate yelled, indicating that they needed to move.
Just as Sully took out the boat, more explosions happened. The trio ran to each other.
"Whole ship's gonna blow! We gotta jump!" Nate said.
Elena went to run but turned back.
"Yeah... oh wait!" Elena said.
Avery and Nate had their arms out.
"What are you doing?" Nate asked.
Elena grabbed her camera and the women jumped over. Then Nate jumped over as the boat exploded.
They came up for air at the plane. Sully opened the door. He started laughing.
"I can't leave you two alone for a minute, can I?" Sully asked, cigar in his mouth, patting Nate's hand.
"Ah, we had everything under control until they blew up the boat." Nate said.
Sully went to get the ladder as Elena swan over.
"You okay?" Avery asked Elena.
"Nothing that years of therapy won't fix." Elena said.
Elena handed her camera to Sully, then went up first.
"Well, if it isn't the beautiful and talented Elena Fisher." Sully said, helping her up.
"Flattery will get you screen time." Elena said, getting on the plane.
"Yeah. I'm more of a behind the scenes guy." Sully took the cigar out of his mouth as Avery got up.
"Victor Sullivan." Sully grabbed Elena's hand and kissed it.
Avery chuckled at the sight.
"Oh, for chrissakes..." Nate retorted.
"I got you." Avery pulled Nate up, giving each other smiles.
Elena sat down and Sully went towards the cockpit. Nate and Every shut the doors.
"Whaddya say we get out of here before we attract anymore attention?" Nate suggested as he finished shutting the door.
Nate took off his harness as Sully started flying the plane. Avery went to the door frame as Nate was in the co-pilot's seat.
"Well?" Sully questioned.
Nate held the journal.
"A little present from Sir Francis." Nate said.
Sully laughed a bit.
"So you found the coffin?" Sully said as Nate started flipping the pages.
"Wait a minute - is that what I think it is?" Sully questioned.
Nate laughed a bit.
"Drake's lost diary. He faked his death, just like I said, Sully." Nate said.
"He must've been onto something big if he hid that diary and faked his death." Avery said.
"Yeah, well, let's just keep that between us." Sully said.
"Thanks for the loan, Mr. Drake." Elena said, turning around, handing Nate the gun.
Nate grabbed it.
"I think I've earned a look at that diary, when we land." Elena said.
She turned back around. Sully and Avery gave Nate a "told you so" look. Nate just shrugged his shoulders and put the gun away.
Finally, they landed close to sunset in a marina in Panama. Elena left to make a phone call and Nate, Sully, and Avery were looking at the journal.
"So look, when Drake sailed into the Pacific, he took the Spanish fleet completely by surprise. He captured their ships, he took all their maps, their letters, their journals- and he recorded everything in this diary." Nate explained.
"Uh-huh, so this-" Sully tried to say when Nate cut him off.
"But when he got back to England, Queen Elizabeth confiscated all of his charts and logbooks -including this one - and then swore his entire crew to silence." Nate continued explaining.
Avery was smiling at Nate. He was like a kid in a candy store any time he caught onto something.
"Yeah, so this-" Sully tried to finish.
"Y'see, Drake discovered something on that voyage, Sully - something so secret, and so valuable, they couldn't risk it getting out." Nate finished his rant and went across from Sully.
Sully took the cigar out of his mouth.
"All right, Nate - just pretend for a minute that I don't really care about any of that stuff, and cut to the chase, wouldya?" Sully said.
Nate started flipping the pages.
"A man only interested in the climax. You must be a real hit with the ladies." Nate retorted, trying to find the page he wanted.
"Never had any complaints." Sully said.
Avery was a bit disgusted.
"Okay then, I'll jump to the good part, just for you." Nate said.
He laid the diary down, opened it to a page. Avery and Sully saw that the page had one word on top. "El Dorado" and a map. Avery and Sully started laughing.
"El goddamn Dorado...." Sully said.
"He was onto something big time, all right." Avery said, very pleased with the information.
"Does it say anything else?" Sully asked, grabbing the diary and taking the cigar out of his mouth.
"Oh, so now you're interested, huh?" Nate questioned, amused.
Nate went to grab the diary, but Avery grabbed it. Avery flipped the pages after a "seriously" face from Nate. Avery flipped to the last page.
"No. Last page was torn out." Avery said, showing Sully and Nate the image, which looked like part of a map.
"I'm telling you, Sully... This is it - this is finally it." Nate said, walking to Sully.
"Yeah... Only, we got one little problem." Sully said, pointing to Elena outside the boat on the dock.
Avery and Nate were shocked at the rudeness.
"Sully, the girl can hold her own. You shoulda seen her." Nate said, defending Elena.
"Yeah. She's a fighter. Doesn't know it yet, but she is. And I get along with her. And how many women get along with me?" Avery asked, also defending Elena.
"Fine, you go on out there, and you tell her, "we just found the lost City of Gold." Maybe her producer can get it on the air tonight." Sully said.
"Oh, come on..." Nate brushed Sully off.
"Nate, Avery - do you trust me?" Sully asked the duo.
Avery and Nate looked at each other.
"More or less." Nate said.
"Covering our asses, yes. Judgment of women, no." Avery said, showing she didn't like Sully's judgment of Elena.
Sully scoffed at Avery but ignored her.
"Cause we're gonna have every two-bit scumbag in the world racing us to this treasure, unless we cut her loose right now." Sully said.
Both Avery and Nate lowered their heads.
"You're a real gentleman, Sully." Nate retorted, looking at Sully.
"I know. It stinks. She'll get over it." Sully said.
He walked to the steering controls.
"Dammit. I thought I made a friend." Avery retorted as she saw Elena wave to them and Sully wave back.
Just then Sully started the boat and drove off. Avery saw Elena run on the dock, waving to come back. Both Avery and Nate felt bad. They hoped she'd forgive them.