Chapter Text
"Captain," Izzy starts, "Come, look at this."
Blackbeard walks over to where Izzy stood in front of a painting portrait. A professional portrait of the woman of the house, and her two children. There was a empty space, but you could clearly see someone had been painted over.
"What'd you think happened to the poor bastard?"
Blackbeard shrugs, "No idea, but it's a good thing he's not here, huh?" He gives Izzy a half cocked grin, cause it was more good for the man to not be there than it was for them.
Izzy smiles back and nods with a hum of agreement, clutching his cane at his side.
Blackbeard leaves Izzy to continue his search for those in the painting.
Night time raids were always fun. Or Blackbeard used to remember it being fun. He didn't remember not liking the house fires and pulling people from their beds. He remembered being so high from the rush of it, the smell of smoke, the screaming. Fuck the rich, their nightmares are right at their doors.
But ever since Stede, he's seen people different and it's really bringing him down.
He hopes, as he searches through each room, that he finds the kids first. He doesn't trust Izzy not to be cruel to them and Blackbeard doesn't kill kids or at least, want to be around for it.
He goes upstairs, quick and quiet. Something he learned young when his dad was still alive.
Each room he opens makes his heart quicken, waiting to see a bed with a person in it.
Bathroom, closet, another bathroom, a guest room, Jesus, another bathroom?
How many bathrooms do rich people need, really?
Then he opens one and bingo, two beds with two sleeping heads. Slowly he sneaks in, opens the door, and closes it, without sound.
He feels a certain air around him like he was this slimy tentacle breaking in from the ocean and these two are his next victims he'll pull in with him.
As he moved, he looked around. The room was pretty spacious, the beds took up most of it. Each bed had a side table. The bed nearest the door had the girl in it and the other had the boy.
He looks to the side table by the girl and freezes.
Cause half of a petrified orange was sitting on top.
It couldn't be. He picks it up, gently, studying it. It was the same, who else had one? Not everyone has a petrified fucking orange.
He looks over at the girl and puts the half down. He grabs her, one hand over her mouth and the other holding her so she doesn't run.
Immediately from his action, she wakes up and screams. It's muffled against his hand and he hushes her,
"Shhh, I won't hurt you! I don't want you to run and scream, okay? I want to ask you a question."
The girl stops screaming and glares at him in confusion.
Since she stopped screaming, Blackbeard hoped he could trust her not to when he lifts his hand.
Surprisingly, she's just frowning at him and gestures to go on.
"Who's your father?"
The girl doesn't look too keen on answering but answers anyway, and proudly too,
"The Gentleman Pirate."
Blackbeard let's out a breathless laugh, cause of course. Of course, they're raiding Stede's family house. Of course, here he was with his kids, in his house.
Then he thinks back to the portrait, that empty space.
Before he could think further, he could hear movement outside, probably Izzy going upstairs to find him.
He looks to the girl and puts her down where she sat on her bed. He crouched down, "I'm going to help you out, you and your family but you have to work with me here."
"Are you Blackbeard?"
And really, he could say yes, he shouldn't lie, but where's the fun in that? So he says,
"You can call me Ed."
<>
Ed seemed nice enough. He let her wake up Louis who, of course, was sleepy and confused and once she explained, fully awake and panicked.
Somehow Ed calmed him down which was impressive but the only pirate Alma trusted was her dad. This guy was on a thin rope, and he didn't know it.
When they both got up, letting Ed tie their hands behind their backs, he talks to them, crouched down at their level,
"If Izzy gives you any trouble, you tell me. You have to listen to everything he says for now before I can get you guys out of town-"
"You have to get Doug too," Louis interjects.
"Who's Doug?"
"My mom's boyfriend," Alma explains, "We can't just leave him or the other townspeople."
She looks at him, wanting to see what he says, what he says determines how thin the rope will be.
"I can get Doug but the town, that's tough, kids," he sounded genuine and regretful like he wished he never set foot here, "Pirates can't always do the right thing."
And really, Alma was pushing him to do more than what he was already doing which was way more than any pirate Alma could think of would do.
"Okay, he's the painting instructor in town, has a ponytail," she goes to gesture to her own head of hair but forgot about her hands being tied and doesn't.
Ed nods and starts leading them out of the room. Once the door opens, there's a man right there. Izzy, Alma assumes.
He's surprised at the sight of them,
"See you found the rascals." When he says that with a smug smirk, Alma knows she doesn't like him and doesn't want to follow anything he says.
But when he says, "Let's go." And pushes her from the back, she goes cause she gave Ed her word. Ed was right there behind Izzy and them, and she felt safe even though she was far from it.
<>
"Kids!"
The two run to their mother who was put with the rest of the townspeople in the middle of town.
Blackbeard lets them, he would do the same thing if it were him. If he was even a few seconds separated from his mom, he'd be a sobbing mess.
Makes his heart ache watching them.
But he has to focus, and looks around to spot the one Alma told him about. Then he sees him, a man with a brunette ponytail.
He'll have to distract the others to get to him so he tells the crew,
"Make sure there's no one around town, maybe had gone for a walk, coming home from work. I want this area secure!"
No one questions, lucky that they don't these days. Except Izzy who stands like he has something to say but when Blackbeard turns to look at him, he goes with the others.
Now it was Blackbeard, Ivan, and Fang there with the hostages.
Ivan and Fang were talking about something, Blackbeard couldn't hear them clearly from his side. But he kept an eye on them as he made his way towards Doug.
He couldn't help his gaze flicking over to the kids and their mother.
The girl, Alma, she was whispering to her and the mom was looking at him. Hopefully, Alma was saying good things, he can't think of anything he did bad to them till they got here. He kept a close eye on Izzy the whole time and Izzy for the most part kept to himself.
Like a good lil first mate.
Still Blackbeard knew Izzy's trust in him has been broken cause of Stede and mending it hasn't been easy. He can threaten Izzy all he wants, but every man has his limits.
He finally found his way to Doug's side. He gives a quick look over at Ivan and Fang who are now gesturing and deep into whatever topic they were talking about.
He crouches, "Hey, mate."
Doug jumps, he had zoned out at some point after being placed on the ground. He looks to Blackbeard with wide eyes.
"You're Doug, the painting instructor, right?"
He gets a nod in answer and smiles,
"I'm here to help you out, but you have to trust me." Blackbeard reaches into his pocket and holds the half petrified orange.
Doug looks at it and raises a eyebrow.
"Alma said to give this to you to show you, you can trust me." Doug's hands were tied, literally and metaphorically. Blackbeard puts it quickly into the man's pant's pocket, "I want to help you, and the kids to get out of here."
"Mary too?"
Must be their mom, "Yes, Mary too."
"What about the others?" He jerks his head to gesture at all the other people.
This makes Blackbeard pause cause Alma asked the same thing of him. He wasn't a miracle worker but maybe...
"Not sure yet. I'll think of something, but right now, you all are my main focus."
"Why?"
It was a fair question. Why was a fearsome pirate helping a family from a rich town?
"Cause it's the gentleman thing to do," Blackbeard gets up and goes off towards Mary and the kids.
Before he could reach them he hears yelling,
"A fucking leopard! Are you serious?!"
He sees the crew he sent off running back with a big jungle cat chasing after them.
Blackbeard casually starts to load his gun as his crew runs past. Izzy is the last to go past him, the big cat coming up behind him.
Blackbeard aims and fires. The cat goes down, sliding dead at his feet. Curious, why was there a leopard here? Then he spots the collar.
"So who's the owner," he turns to the hostages. No one answers. He starts to load his gun again, "If I don't get a answer, I'll be shooting one dead each time I ask, so do I ask again?"
"She's out of town."
He looks to Mary and smiles, "Good for her." He stops loading his gun and holsters it.
He can tell that Mary didn't trust him, hell, the kids probably were having a hard time too. He understands, he was the monster in their bedtime stories.
"She's going to be really pissed that you killed her pet," Mary is glaring at him and he laughs,
"Well, I hope she finds out that Blackbeard was the one to do it."
This makes Mary's eyes go wide as well as the kids. And wow, they didn't know he was Blackbeard. Do these people really not get out much?
Or were the wanted posters of him too white washed? Either way,
"Let's start moving!" He goes to Mary and the kids. He grabs Mary, just by the ropes of where her hands were tied.
He whispers to her, "I'll do my best to get you out of here."
She looks at him, shocked. But then her features soften like she knows something about him. He didn't like that, he doesn't know what she could know.
They were now on the move, out of town towards his ship.
<>
Mary suggested she'd get the knife.
Mary, out of all the people Blackbeard has ever come across, seems like someone who can completely take care of herself. So he agrees and with both of them in the back of group, he slides his knife to her hands.
Slowly, she starts to cut at her ropes.
"Tell me something," she whispers to him, looking around, careful that no one catches their conversation, "Are you actually Blackbeard?"
Blackbeard's taken aback cause what kind of question is that?
"Yes, I am," he says this slow, like maybe if he did, she'd understand what he was saying.
She just looks at him, judging him for something. What exactly was is his crime for this trial?
"And your name's Ed."
"Yes."
"Hmm."
What does that mean? Of course, Stede's wife would get under his skin. This was the worst, he wish he never sailed anywhere near here. Then he goes ahead and questions her back,
"The painting in your house, the family portrait, why's Stede painted over?"
She goes quiet now. Blackbeard looks around but no one's looking to them, his crew too focused on making sure the group was in line and not trying to escape.
"He left us so he didn't deserve that spot anymore."
He looks at her and she looks back, frowning, "But he came back and apologized. He was lost, kind of like me when he had left us. But I found myself so Stede needed to find himself."
"You've got Doug now." They both look over at the man who was nearby.
"Yes, I was able to find myself and find someone I love. Stede's doing the same." Then she laughs, not too loud, "I helped him fake his death, you know?"
She says this like it's not the weirdest thing you can say.
"Fake his death? Why?"
"He's in love."
This makes Blackbeard stop in his tracks. Who? Who was he in love with? Blackbeard could feel a million questions and urges rush through him. Oh, he definitely was going to gut who ever it was, make sure they stay a thousand miles away from Stede. He'll find out who, he'll-
"Ed."
He looks to Mary and her hands are free. One of her hand is on his own. "It's not my business to say who it is, but know in time, I'm sure he'll tell you."
Stede would tell him. But he hasn't seen him in months! Is she serious? He wanted to keep talking, keep asking, but the fact that her hands were now free meant the plan was now in action and he had to move quickly.
"It was nice meeting you, Mary," he says to her, catching her off guard.
She composes herself, "You too, Ed." And she means it, though it would have been better under different circumstances.
Then Blackbeard yells out in pain and falls to the ground.
<>
Alma really hopes she remembered it was the left and not the right side that she had told her mother. Cause when Ed went down, he yelled and it sounded bad.
But when she ran with her mom, she looked back and she swore he winked at her.
Blackbeard winked at her.
She had to chalk it up to insanity and not ever tell any other living soul. The souls now near her were her mother, brother, and Doug.
They were running, fast, and however far they can get away from the group. She also hopes that the other townspeople can get away but she doesn't keep her hopes up.
All she needs to think about is not tripping and to not worry about Ed, he'll be fine.
She hopes again that he did say the left side.
<>
Maybe getting stabbed in the same spot multiple times starts to hurt more and more each stabbing.
And this time was no different, it hurt like something exploded inside him but he pushed pass the pain, made sure that the family was together so they could escape. They should all stay close.
He made his pain more dramatic, holding his whole body so Izzy didn't know he was just stabbed on his left. It did hurt like absolute hell, he'll have to be more careful in the future.
Izzy was by his side in a instant. In the commotion, a handful of people ran. Ed was glad, even though some were still guarded n held to stay.
Can't win it all, he should know that.
Izzy quickly snapped at Ivan and Fang to pick Blackbeard up. They did and they started towards the ship.
Blackbeard could tell Izzy was concerned but also pissed and suspicious which wasn't good for him.
He'll deal with it once he gets bandaged up. He looks back to where the rest of his crew had gathered the remaining hostages and made sure they stayed together as they moved.
Blackbeard leaned his head back against Ivan's chest and let the ocean waves sing him to sleep.
<>
The sun was coming up, its rays passing through the window and hitting Blackbeard right in the face.
He groans and winces at his body stinging with burning pain. Cause he got stabbed. By Mary, Mary Bonnet.
He breathes in and takes a look around. In the dim light of the sunrise, Izzy was standing there, watching him.
"Izzy," Blackbeard hisses as he turns to face him and when he does, he wishes he hadn't woken up.
"She had your knife," Izzy holds out Blackbeard's knife, the one he gave Mary, "She dropped it after running. That's how she got free."
"Well she did seem like a smart one-"
"Do you think I am a fool?!"
Izzy's outburst makes Blackbeard flinch cause not only is his whole body in suffering so is his head which burned with a rising fever.
"Even if she was the finest pickpocketer in the world, she still wouldn't have pulled a fast one on you!"
Izzy, of course, is right. So Blackbeard tells him the truth,
"Fine, I gave it to her."
This info doesn't calm Izzy. He rubs his hand down his face and stares at Blackbeard, "And why, in God's name, did you do that for?"
Blackbeard gives him the partial truth, "She reminded me of my mom." And she did. A widow taking care of her kids, strong and independent. She looked out for them so much that she'd stab someone for it.
He was sure she'd kill someone for them as well.
Izzy let's out a long sigh, "Edward, what has he done to you?"
He's talking about Stede cause Stede broke down the dam inside Ed's head. And now he can't build it back up, so open with his emotions, even if he tries to bottle it up, he still ends up crying at night.
Sure, he can act tough, but inside, he didn't want any of this life. He wanted Stede to find him, to apologize, to hold him in his arms as he cries.
Blackbeard waits for Izzy. Izzy makes a disgusted sound before saying, "You should rest for the day, I'll man the ship." Blackbeard knew with that and Izzy taking his leave, that there would be a crew member by the door at guard.
Once the door shut, Blackbeard sighed and laid his head back down on the bed. Tears were threatening to fall and man, wouldn't it be nice if Stede was here to take care of him?
"What's wrong with you?"
Jim's voice startles Ed from his thoughts.
Awhile back, they had made the secret closet into a cell. Where the bookcase once was, was now metal bars. And on the other side was Jim, looking over at him with arms hanging out of the bars, leaning on them.
Jim had to be put in there. With a open room, any time Blackbeard put someone to guard them, Jim was able to get the upper hand n escape. Way too many times to count so the cell was made especially for them.
If they had good behavior for a week or so, they're allowed to go with the crew on supply runs and raids. But with Jim, there's no such thing as good behavior.
"I got stabbed," Blackbeard replies but doesn't look over at the cell.
"Yes, I can see that, " Jim sounds aggravated, that's usually how they always sounded though, "I mean..."
Now Blackbeard looks over and even from where he was, he can tell that Jim seemed uncomfortable with what they were going to say. They say it,
"Emotionally."
They look to him, expecting a answer right away but Blackbeard laughs, a mean one.
"Right, like I'm upset," he says as if he didn't still have tears in his eyes, "I don't get upset."
"Sure," Jim leans up against the bars, this time with their arms crossed over their chest, "You have never been upset before in your whole liiiiife."
Blackbeard could hear their sarcasm and if he wasn't in so much pain, he'd get up to threaten them. Though he's found out by now, threatening and torture does very little to Jim.
"I met Stede's wife and kids."
And it's quiet now, he knows Jim is thinking about what he said.
"That's a pretty big deal," Jim starts, "How'd it go?"
"I helped them escape."
Again, quiet. Blackbeard has the urge to get up and move to the couch to get a better look at Jim, to see their face and try to understand what's going on in their mind.
They let him know,
"So you go on a raid, run into Stede's family, help them run away, and in that time, you got stabbed?"
"His wife did it, I told her to." He wasn't sure why he kept talking. Maybe it was because who else was he going to talk with about this? Whether he'd likes it or not, Jim was the only one who understands.
"Wow," Jim goes back to silently thinking which finally makes Blackbeard stand up and make his way over.
He's at the bars and peers at Jim who is looking back, "What do you want to say?"
Jim shrugs, "I just thought you'd be happy to kill Stede's wife."
Blackbeard has to hold a hand against the wall nearest so he doesn't stumble back cause what? How could Jim think this?
"I mean, without her or his kids, there's no chance of Stede going back to them."
"He did."
Blackbeard hasn't meant to confess that, and he looks down, "He went back and she helped him fake his death."
He looks to Jim who looks surprised, and just like how he asked, they ask,
"Why?"
"Cause he's in love." And saying that, brings more pain than the bleeding wound in his side.
He can't keep standing, he makes his way to the couch and falls down into it. He doesn't say anything, just sits with his arms laying on his legs.
Jim hasn't said anything either which makes him nervous cause it feels like they knew something he didn't just like Mary.
"What? What is it?"
"Who do you think it is?"
That's really what they asked him. What kind of fucking clue did Blackbeard have to who Stede is in love with? He can go through a list of all of Stede's crew in his head but he can't see Stede with any of them. Maybe Lucius, but gladly he was somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. Blackbeard likes to believe he is.
"I wouldn't fucking know," he sighs, going back to holding his stomach, hugging himself. The tears in his eyes had started falling at some point and he can't stop them.
"It's crazy how you are Blackbeard," Jim is gripping the bars and looking at him, "You tell me you raid towns, bring down ships, find loot and treasures, threaten, and torture any in your way but you are so stupid." Jim laughs.
Blackbeard's head whips up at this and he frowns, "What?"
"I'm in love with Oluwande."
Jim admits this but hides their face as they continue to speak, "He has been there for me ever since I went on the run. Hell, even before that, he was the one who helped me get revenge on the man who killed my father."
"It took me kissing him for him to realize just how much I was into him," Jim shakes their head, "I thought he'd known before how into him I was."
"But love is oblivious," Jim looks back to Blackbeard, "Blind and lost."
"So?" Blackbeard hates this.
"So maybe looking inside will help to see on the outside," they gestured to their heart and then outside themself.
Why can't people just tell him who Stede's in love with? What's with this philosophy bullshit?
He shakes his head and fixes himself more comfortably, laying back on the couch, "You disappoint me, Jim, as a crew member and advice giver."
"Glad to hear," Ed knows Jim is actually glad.
"I'm sorry you can't see Oluwande," Blackbeard is sorry but Jim retaliates,
"If you're so sorry, you can just let me go."
This was true but, "Nice try."
"Why didn't you take him with you? Is he that bad of a crew member?"
Blackbeard wanted to say, 'not as bad as you' but says, "He's too loyal to his captain."
And with the silence that falls between them, this was the truth.
"You don't think I am?"
"At first, no," he had honestly hoped and prayed that Jim would smoothly join his crew, without any trouble, "Then I guess after the tenth time you tried to escape, I suppose, I got you wrong."
"Yeah, that's what you get for fucking assuming things about people," Jim rolls their eyes and goes to sit down, back against the bars.
"When you got your revenge on that man who killed your father, did it feel good?"
This makes Jim look back over at Blackbeard but Blackbeard's looking at the ceiling.
"I felt relief, a weight taken off of my shoulders," Jim sighs, "It didn't feel good, just nice, comfortable."
Blackbeard breathes in deep and when he breathes out, he replies,
"I don't feel good about what I am doing." And what he means is everything since the day when Stede didn't show at the docks, "I'm not even sure what I am doing."
"What do you want then?"
Stede.
It's the first word, thought, face he sees in his mind. And doesn't he hate that? He doesn't answer Jim, just rolls over so he faces the couch.
His crying has slowed and he holds himself tighter.
"If you know what you want, you can go with that." Jim doesn't talk anymore after that, goes deeper inside their makeshift cell.
Blackbeard gives it a couple beats before closing his eyes, letting the pain and fever drag him back to sleep.