Work Text:
5 People Israel Hands Betrayed
- His Mother
He knew how she suffered. He always knew; from as long as he could remember, he watched as she shouldered her burdens in silent resignation. As soon as he was old enough, he tried to help her. He put his own small hands to work, cleaning and cooking, and helping with the smaller children. He knew that when she yelled it was because she was tired; when her hand lashed out at him, it was because he wasn't good enough. He loved her anyway. And when he was old enough to hire out, he brought her his meager wages in the hopes it would ease her work load. His too-few coins did put food in her belly, and he had the pleasure of seeing her start to lose the sharp-boned, thin-skinned look of the near-starving.
He’d loved his Mam. Loved her still, if the truth was told. Prayed for her immortal soul everyday, even though he wasn’t as sure there even was a God as he used to be. That didn’t matter; she’d believed it, and that was enough for him. He offers remember not her offenses and negligences, but be mindful of Thy loving mercy, which is from all eternity every night before he goes to bed.
He’d worked for her and loved her all his life. Years after leaving home, when he and Ed had begun to make money together as pirates, he arranged to have a monthly sum sent to her. He’d eased the end of her life and paid for a neat little headstone with her name and beloved mother carved into it. He wasn’t with her when she died, and he’s never seen the little epitaph to her.
He’s never been home since he left.
Because he’d left. Afraid of being trapped in her life of poverty, afraid of bleak years of nothing but work, nothing but toil. Afraid of working hard and it never being enough to make her comfortable. Afraid of the spark in him dying if he stayed. So he left her and that life, tried for something better. The Navy had at least seemed like a way to a better life. So he took the opportunity.
He’d never been able to forgive himself.
- The British Navy
An oath of service is solemn. And he had meant it, at the time. The Navy was his way out. He had endured and endured and endured. He survived commanding officers with big egos, commanding officers afraid their authority wasn’t solid, commanding officers who were weak. He’d learned to sail. He wore the scars of floggings and beatings he’d taken under the King’s colors, for his own good he’d been told. He could have survived it, he thinks, if it hadn’t been for the waste of lives.
He’d seen men, his shipmates and crew mates, die around him. Those who died in battle he could bear the loss of. Those who died due to bad orders or a weak commander were harder to take. His final straw was the storm.
The storm. They’d had time to turn from it, to outrun it. And yet orders to stay the course came down. Not a single person tried to countermand the orders. Not a single one breathed disobedience. They sailed right into the heart of it, and Izzy had seen men go over. Men swept from the deck. By the time they were cowering in the hold—tied to the ship with lifelines and praying and vomiting and crying out for mercy or for their mothers—he’d made up his mind. He’d abandon ship at the next opportunity. He’d be forsworn, he’d be an oathbreaker. But wasn’t that better than dying for stupid men’s stupid orders?
He’d never been sure.
- Benjamin Hornigold
Captain Hornigold was the opportunity. He’d taken a shine to Izzy, and for the first time in years Izzy felt seen and valued. He was pleased to offer his service for recognition from such a man, at first. However, the captain’s attention came with a price.
He’d endured it until he couldn’t. The mutiny had been planned and fomented by Ed and Jack—but it had been executed by Izzy. It was Izzy’s blade Hornigold had to look down and beg mercy from. It was Izzy’s hand that had to be stayed, his rage that had to be subdued by Ed’s soft voice saying the ship is ours now, he can’t do anything any more. We’ll give ‘im water and put him in a dinghy, yeah?
His only regret was that he didn’t kill the bastard.
- Calico Jack Rackham
He knew. Of course he did. Just because he hardly ever acknowledged it didn’t mean he didn’t know.
It was hard not to, with the way Jack looked at him. The hope and longing that was always in his eyes when he thought Izzy couldn’t see. The way Jack goaded and incited Edward into greater and greater acts of stupidity. The way he wheedled and begged Izzy to leave Ed. The small touches Jack thought he could get away with that Izzy merely tolerated. He knew, had always known, that Calico Jack was in love with him.
He didn’t use that against Jack, not once through all the reckless fuckeries he and Ed got up to. Not when Jack's crews kept mutinying against him. Not even at the beginning, when he could have asked Jack to intervene with Hornigold. It would have cost Jack a flogging or two, perhaps worse. He didn’t ask Jack for anything, not even to leave Ed alone. Because he knew if he did, Jack would. It was too much power, too much influence. It scared him.
Except the last time. Except when he looked at Jack with wide pleading eyes and asked him to get Ed away from Stede fucking Bonnet. Jack had stroked his mustache, sighed, and said yeah, okay, Iz. Fuck it. I’ll save Eddie for you.
It’d cost Jack his life. He’d never forgive himself for that.
- Stede fucking Bonnet
He owed Bonnet no loyalty. He’d sworn no oaths to the ponce. He’d made no promises, even. It was barely a betrayal. He’d only done it to get Edward back—to save their lives from the utter disaster Stede fucking Bonnet had made of them.
No regrets, except that Stede hadn’t just fucking died. Everything that followed the Navy invading The Revenge was down to stupid fucking Stede Bonnet not dying. The Act of Grace, Ed’s imprisonment at that stupid fucking Navy camp. Ed coming back broken. The rise of the Kraken and the destruction of everything Izzy Hands had devoted his life to.
He’ll never forgive Stede Bonnet. Given the opportunity, he’d spit on the man’s grave.
And The One He Didn’t:
- Edward Teach
The tides cannot betray the moon. The sun cannot fail to meet the horizon. The stars cannot move from their constellations.
Edward is Polaris to him. When he left home in search of something better, he didn’t know it was Edward he was seeking. While he endured in the Navy, he didn’t know it was Edward he was enduring for. When he couldn’t bear Hornigold’s regard any more, it was because he craved Edward’s attention. He could never have loved Jack; his heart beat the name Edward Teach from the first moment Izzy laid eyes on the wild, elemental beauty of him. His world, his whole life, came into focus at the moment their eyes met and Ed grinned at him across the deck.
It’s impossible to betray your life’s purpose, your heart’s blood, your soul’s desire. Izzy had betrayed everything and everyone else that ever meant anything to him—but not Ed.
Never Ed.
Israel Hands cannot betray Edward Teach. The sun cannot fail to rise, and he cannot fail his captain. Above all else, loyalty to your captain.