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Chapter Text

The brig stank like humid wool, faeces and rotting hay, mingled with the rusty smell of iron bars and blood stains. The creaking of the pulleys and ropes as the weight hanging on them swung with the movement of the ship on the waves as they hit the barnacle covered hull. The splashing of the waves was overpowered by the sound of a sick crew mate retching into bucket just outside the brig.

The prisoner sighed and took in a breath of air through his nose; the last of his breaths that wouldn’t be filled with the acrid scent of the lining of the deck-hand’s inner stomach contents. He turned away from prison bars to prevent the wall of smell from hitting him straight in the face, the metal chains attached to his ankles clinking together as he shifted. Lifting his dirty hands up to his face, covering his nose and mouth to keep the acidic air out of his lungs for a short while longer, not that the metallic scent of the dries blood on his hands was much better.

He took another breath in resignation as his nostrils started burning, and raised his head from his hands to lean it against the wall. He winced as the slimy oil-lining of the wood worked it’s way into his hair, oh how far I’ve fallen, he thought, his lips curling up in a pained grimace.

Don’t trust a Malachite. That would be the lesson he learned from this, tricked out of his own ship by two of his most loyal crew members. The only two of his crew members that actually had enough brains to not be considered idiots, but apparently having their own brains meant having their own ability to commit mutiny. So much for loyalty.

Stuck inside the brig of the ship he had built with his own hands; built from scratch with the care a landrat might’ve used to build his home. The only part of the ship that wasn’t kept in prime condition because it wasn’t intended to be used, his crew was supposed to be so well-oiled and friendly with each other that they wouldn’t have arguments that ended in people locked in the brig.

His hands balled into fists, and the grimace turning into a snarl. He winced as his nails tore up the wounds on his palms. He missed the fresh ocean air blowing through his hair, the smell of salt water in his nose and the taste of it on hips lips. He missed the incessant screeching of the seagulls that used the masts as resting place for their cross-oceanic journeys. He missed the feeling of wet drops on his face, and staring endlessly at the glinting waves in the hopes of catching sight of a fabled mermaid of the sea.

His deepest dream was to see the ultimate treasure of the sea, beyond the pearls and sunken shipwrecks with chests filled with gold and gemstones. To witness was was rumoured to be Calypso’s most treasured creation, the creatures with such an intelligence that they could’ve created entire sophisticated civilisations deep in the ocean, with such beauty that they could convince any man, sailor or pirate, to give up their lives and jump in the waves to get dragged to the bottom of the ocean and be drowned with a Kiss of Death. There was such beauty in the strength and terror of these creatures, beauty beyond the rumoured regal faces and silk hair.

He snapped out of his thoughts when the soft thuds of those, now familiar, heeled boots neared. Turning his head away as she came around the corner, resolutely glaring at his chains so he wouldn’t have to look at the self-satisfied smirks that would more than likely be playing on her lips.

“Oh Junior,” she proclaimed, voice coated sugar-sweet, the smug smirk on her lips translating into her tone, “how are your circumstances treating you?”  As if she wasn’t fully aware of the conditions he was facing in his- her brig, as if she wasn’t fully aware what being locked away from the sea while drifting in the middle of the ocean was doing to him. To his mental state, and the imbalance in his already weak semblance. He turned further away from her in an effort to block the tendons of her semblance reaching out to provoke him.

“Darling,” her tone in no way suggesting that he was dear to her, “as much as people seem to think you know everything, you haven’t exactly been showingyour worth.”

“I’m not telling you anything,” he muttered “because I. don’t. know.” Junior emphasised the negative with a grimace as he snapped the last words at her.  He was sick of playing this game, and the disdain only grew as he took in the windswept nature of her hair, and the scent of salt-water breeze that he could faintly smell over the gruel of the brig. He grit his teeth to keep from whining as his entire nature and semblance protested and yearned for the experience of standing on the deck. An experience that he’d been denied for the last couple of months.

“You and I both know that’s not true.” she taunted, “All you have to do is tell me and I’ll let you go, Junior.” It sounded so tempting, but he knew it was never that easy when you were dealing with Captain Cinder Fall, aptly named for all the men and nations alike whose demise she had caused.

He looked at her and pursed his lips; besides the information she wanted there was nothing he could grant her. He took in her appearance, her amber eyes staring him down, the deep blood-red jacket over her wrap, with it’s gold-thread inlays to guide her semblance, the deep-brown trousers, and sturdy leather boots, and his hat. Grinding ones teeth this much had to have some sort of negative on ones jaw.

During his observations, Cinder’s golden inlays started glowing slightly, signalling the emotional turmoil of emotions she felt underneath her cold and schooled expression. He raised his eyebrows at her, as if to say what do you want me to do?.

A scoff that she had most likely not intended to vocalise escaped her, as she shook her head softly before spinning around without a word and walking away, just as her heel turned the corner he broke his silence.

“Cinder! I hope you fall from grace and burn to ashes!”

————————————

It must have been less than a week after the latest near incineration, as he had mentally labelled the meetings with Cinder, when he was woken from his nap at noon, there was no reason for his sleep schedule to follow that of the sun. Emerald Sustrai, one of Cinder’s loyal hands, was messing around with the keys to the brig. Muttering under her breath about the unfairness of being constantly assigned prisoner duty, she finally found the right key and unlocked the brig.

“Get up princess. Beauty sleep is over.” she snapped, swooping in and grabbing the chains attached to his ankles, “You’re cell in the brig’s about to be a shared one.”

Junior scrambled to get up and winced as the joints in his legs got more use than they had in a long time, he could almost hear them creaking with disuse. Emerald yanked the chains and the tug made Junior nosedive for the floor; his face smashed against the floors as the clunky chains attached to his wrists prohibited him from catching the fall.

“How you were ever Captain of this ship is still a mystery to me.” Emerald grumbled under her breath as she swiftly unlocked the chains from the starboard side of the brig and reattached them to the port side. She flipped her mint green hair out of her eyes as she stood back up, her lips curling in a smirk as she failed to hide her joy at towering over his usually frightening frame.

She slipped away quickly as more approaching footsteps could be heard; leaving the door wide open in her wake. The pair of footsteps sounded cumbersome; as if the owners were greatly weighed down by a heavy burden, and as they turned the corner Junior’s eyebrows reached his hairline.

Cumbersome, indeed. He thought as he saw his former crewmate Adam, and Cinder’s other pawn Roman carry a large and heavy glass container. A thick and sturdy metal frame, inscribed with what looked like a mixture of chicken-scratches and fine cursive, with glowing dust infused symbols. Thick glass that was definitely not kept in it’s best state; deep scratches littered the inside of the blue-ish tinted glass, with tufts and patches of dried algae covering the nooks and crannies of the frame. It looked like an aquarium, though the fish scales that littered the floor pane made it seem more like a catch-container, a location to keep all the daily catch in until the cook could get there to dissect and prepare it all.

Adam let out an angry grunt as Roman steered him straight into the prison bars, and he retaliated with a shove to the container that almost made Roman lose his grip on the floor. The red head glares at the tall brunette, though quickly schooled his expression as the legendary fighter must have sent him a non-verbal warning. They walked out without even acknowledging Junior or his predicament, and he’d be lying if it didn’t hurt. How the man he thought was a friend, whom he had spent plenty of starry nights discussing adventures, treasures and mermaids with, had turned his back to him and switched his loyalties to Cinder Fall and her mission to stealing Dust and gold alike from the Remnant Merchant ships. A task that would result in the ruin of his ship; as the Remnant Militia would no doubt spare no expense in destroying a ship that had partaken in actions against the kingdoms.

Would he go down with the ship? Junior thought wryly, there wasn’t any chance for him to get out of the brig unless he told Cinder what she wanted to know, and although he’d always taken great pride in understanding all the comings and going of the pirates on the ocean, he’d be the first to admit that he had no idea what to tell Cinder to satisfy her. Sinking with a ship wouldn’t be the lowest I’ve sunk.

He was wrenched from his thoughts as water splashed over him, in front of him stood a sheepish looking deck-hand, a half-empty bucket in his hand. The deck-hand had tripped over the small step into the brig, and the consequent jostle in which he tried to regain balance had resulted in his flinging out the hand that held the bucket.

Junior’s lips curled up in a grimace as he felt the icy could seawater soak into vest and trousers, they wouldn’t dry for quite a while, and wet fabric chafed so much more than dry fabric did. He raised his eyebrows at the deck-hand, and the boy fumbled to apologise.

“Oh, shut. up!” another deck-hand snarled at the first one, “we’ve got the fill the whole tank with water, so the sooner you empty your bucket, the sooner we can go get sum’ grub.” He heaved the bucket over his head to tip the water into the tank.

“Just remember to tip it into the tank the next hundred times you’ll be doin’ it.”he remarked as he left the brig to go fill up another bucket.

The first deck-hand mumbled another apology, emptied the remaining water in his bucket into the tank, and hurries after the other to back to deck to refill his bucket.

Despite being cold and wet, Junior couldn’t keep the small smile of his face, as the smell of salty seawater reached his nose. He settled back against the wall, and prepared for a few hours of “entertainment”. In the form of the bumbling idiots that were his, well Cinder’s, deck-hands.

As the two continued to talk loudly throughout their endeavour of filling up the tank, Junior listened to the snippets of conversation.

“—I just don’t get why I couldn’t be on chart duty.” 
“You can’t read the sea-charts for shit.”

“I at least have some understanding of friggin’ seafaring strategies!”

“As if you’d actually be advising Cinder, she’s got —”

“— sent someone else?”

“I think Commander Qrow is one of their best.”
“And they send him after a Pirate Captain? Haven’t they got better uses for their resources.”

“Possibly, but apparently he and the Captain have a history. I heard Octavia from the kitchens say they used to —”

“—there’s no way that’s true!”

“And the rumour about the Captain and the Commandor having a history is?!?!”
“I said ‘allegedly!’”

“No you didn’t!”
“Alright, so if, hypothetically speaking, mermaids existed. How would we possibly capture one?”

“I don’t know, but why else would we be filling up a tank this big, if not as a place to house a captive lady of the sea!”

“As a torture machine or something.”

“A torture machine, are you stupid? It’s not like we need another —”

Junior had just gotten interested by the conversation, the mermaids not the torture machines, he wasn’t a masochist, when the deck supervisor’s voice reached the brig. “Stop gossiping like some harbour wenches and work faster, you lazy landrats!”

The two deck-hands shut up immediately, and picked up the pace; the spent another three hours and approximately three-hundred and fifty trips to fill the tank. The water causing the light from the swimming oil lamp to flicker ominously over the wooden walls; provoking a deep unease in Junior’s mind. As the wick of the lamp burned low, and the flame dimes slightly the shadows grew and they danced over the ceilings and the walls. Junior let the motions guide his mind into a soft rest; slowly tuning out the scurry of feet on the floors above, tuning out the gentle rocking of the boat, and the stench of the brig. He let himself be carried into gentle dreams by the sounds of water lapping at the glass, and the faint smell of saltwater.

Images of nights spent in the crow’s nest on the top of the middle-mast were bid to his mind. He closed his eyes and let the memories of starry nights fade over him, he looked at all the constellations and marvelled over the vast distances that the light must’ve travelled. He recalled sitting with his grandmother on the grassy cliffs; awaiting the boats that carried his parents and he started softly humming the sea shanty’s his grandma sung as lullabies.

Upon one summer’s morning, I carelessly did stray,

Down by the Walls of Wapping, where I met a sailor gay,

Conversing with a bouncing lass, who seem’d to be in pain,

Saying, William, when you go, I fear you will ne'er return again.

He rocked gently to the harmony, synchronising the harmony to the movement of the ship on the waves.

My name it is Maria, a merchant’s daughter fair,

And I have left my parents and three thousand pounds a year,

My heart is pierced by Cupid, I disdain all glittering gold,

There is nothing can console me but my jolly sailor bold.

His arms came up to gently cradle himself, and his calloused thumb traced the pattern of the tattoo on his arm; the comfort of the symbol he’d gotten inked on his arm as a memento to his childhood dreams finally tipping him over the edge as he drifted off to sleep.

————————————

Junior started awake in the middle to the night by a heavy thud on the stairs, the ship now rocking viciously on stormy seas. His eyes snapped to the oil-lamp; the wick had been replaced, and was only slightly burnt up. Two hours past midnight at most; less than an hour after the wick had been replaced as part of the new ship rounds as the crews switched at midnight.

His eyes then moved to the stairs leading from the lower brig level to the lower deck. Shadows silhouettes moved on the wall as some people were making their way down. He heard an exerted groan and saw one of the crouching silhouettes stand up straight lifting up his end of the cargo they were carrying. As the clarity of his hearing returned, he picked up a vicious hissing sound along with a wet slaps.

Curiosity piqued, Junior shifted his position so that bandana covered his eyes, allowing him to see through the red fabric without giving away that he was awake.

“I want to stab this fucking wench.” one of the carriers grumbled, frustration and anger seeping into his tone.

“I don’t think the cap’n ‘d be t’ happy w’th ya, if ya did.” came the reply

“Keelhaul me if that’s th’ punishment, but oh Calypso, let me hurt this scum.”the hissing increasing in loudness and ferocity, and more thumps were heard, along with muttered curses and grunts.

The two men and their cargo finally rounded the corner and Junior almost gave away his state of consciousness as he saw what they were carrying. A large heavy net rope net, with pieces of seaweed hanging from it, and the weight clinking with the movement. But it was the catch in the net that had Junior gasp in a breath. A mermaid with a long fish-tail covered in golden scales that shimmered in the light, and with a bush of straw-blonde hair. Surprisingly tanned arms with webbed fingers and talons extended, and metal cuffs around the wrists.

One of the men balanced the mermaid’s weight on his shoulders, holder her and the net between his arm and neck so that the other hand was free to mess with the keys attached to his belt; he struggled with putting the key in the keyhole as the wriggling mermaid threatened to fall of his shoulder and he had to shift his weight to not drop her.

What seemed like eons later, the man finally unlocked the door, pushing the creaking metal bars open and entered the brig with their catch. The carriers heaved the struggling creature onto their shoulders, and balanced her precariously on the edge of the large tank, before shoving her in with a resounding push. The loud splash would have surely woken Junior if he had not already been awake but, not wanting to start a conversation with these brutes, he continued to feign sleep. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw her sink to the bottom of the tank, furiously thrashing but still strangled within the net.

The two men gave each other vocal and physical pats on the shoulder as they turned away from the tanks and left the brig; locking the door behind them. Junior continued to fake unconsciousness, as the mermaid increased her thrashing attempts to escape the nets. He saw the water turn slightly cloudy with red, the friction of the nets had ripped off some of her scales. He caught their reflection in the light as they sank to the bottom of the tank, joining other old and chipped scales.

The mermaid gave a shill cry as her talons finally cut through one of the ropes, causing the net to fall apart and giving her the ability to free herself from its restraints. The heavy ropes sank to the floor as she wildly flung herself to the top of the tank, she’d made a miscalculation in the force she applied because she shot out of the tank and hit the roof hard with a resonating thud. Dropping straight back down into the tank where she sank to lay in a heap on the floor; laying motionlessly while the water clouded even redder as blood came from her head wound.

Junior opened his eyes to stare at the creature, this majestic lady of the sea that had been battered and bruised by fishing nests and now lay gracelessly on the floor of a dirty fish-tank. Like some forgotten pet fish in a rich kid’s aquarium; though knowing Capt. Cinder, he doubted she’s been captured for museum and scientific reasons. Her purpose would be to secure Cinder and her crew a mountain of gold, a treasury of jewels and a whole fleet of Dust ships, either through sale to the highest bidder or as tool for retrieving greater riches.

He couldn’t keep the scoff in; using live beings for such vile purposes was something he prided himself in being above, and if that made him a lousy pirate, then he’d rather be a lousy pirate than a horrible human being. Which, now that he thought about it, could be a contributing factor to his crew’s mutiny.

He shook his head to keep his mind from going down that path and turned his eyes back to observing the mermaid; her golden hair clouded her face and deigned with the movement of the ship, but they couldn’t completely obscure her features. Her had was resting on one of her gloved hands, and on now that he could take a closer look, he saw that they were intricate and layered pieces of armour, as opposed to the supple fabric he’s assumed. Gold sparks ran through the lined details of the cuffs; fizzing with the water around them and eerily lighting up the room with a green tinted glow.

His eyes snapped back to her face as the fluttering of her eyelids caught his attention; they drowsily blinked open to reveal breath-taking purple eyes. He must have made some kind of started sound because she stiffened and her eyes snapped to his, and if he thought they’d been breath-taking before, having them stare into his eyes made them heart-stopping.

Junior wasn’t one for poetry. Fuck the men that wrote long epics about their wives because they couldn’t show them their love otherwise, but her eyes made him want to furiously scratch down poetry on the wooden walls of the brig; tear his fingers open and chip his nails trying to get out the whirlwind of poetic bullshit that flooded into his brain seeing her.

Two pools of lilac depths of wisdom, and a gigantic storm cloud of golden hair lighting with flashed of energy from her cuffs and from the necklace around her neck.

She’d slowly pushed herself upwards, and had drifted closer to the glass wall of the tank that separated them; her hand coming up to rest against the glass. Palms pushed against the glass turning a pale-green as the light and glass twisted their image. The whirlpool of golden hair shifted slightly as her head tilted to the side in a token image of child-like curiosity, and he felt drawn to her.

Not in the poetic sense, he felt a physical tug on his very being as her eyes stared into the very depth of his soul, a sparkle of magic tugged him upwards and he couldn’t help but lean forwards and towards her. He strained towards her until he toppled over onto his knees as he overbalanced from his previous seated position.

Now on his hands and knees he crawled over to the tank, not dissimilar from the way a starving man that had spent months in a waterless desert would strain towards a miracle oasis. The chains tugged on his limbs, and rattled as he kept on his path towards her.

He reached the tank. He was half a hand away from the glass, and a hand away from her face on the other side, his mind wasn’t listening to the subtle thoughts of flinching backwards as he saw the sparks of thunderstorms in her eyes. He had no control of himself, like his entire being had been put under a spell to do as she wanted him, a tool for her plan to escape, but these were not thoughts running through his mind.

His mind was concerned with one singularity. Getting closer. Contact. Actually touching this reverent creature of the ocean that had been such a vivid part of his dreams as a child. Just as his lips were about to connect with the glass behind which lay hers, her purple eyes flicked to his tattoo, and the magic was gone. The feel of the air turned sour and the ocean daughter’s appearance shifted. Her purple eyes flashed bright led, her gentle lips curved into a wicked smile and her teeth sharpened into predatorial fangs. The loud and violent hiss, combined with the bright firecracker flash and bang that seemed to come from her cuffs, rattled the entire aquarium.

Junior scrambled backwards, fear thrumming through his veins and eyes wide and frightened as he crowded himself against the opposite wall. As far from the water tank as the chain would allow him. He took deep laboured breaths and brought his arms and knees up to his chest as tried to gather his senses.

He’d been wrong. Mermaids weren’t, had and would never, be mere maids daintily living in the ocean. They were fierce creatures with strong survival instincts, and they would not be trifled with.

Junior spent the entire rest of the night sitting restlessly against the back-wall and looking uneasily at the now aggressively postured mermaid in the tank; hoping to every deity in both heaven and hell and everything in between that the tank was built well enough to be a reasonable barrier between his neck and her flesh-ripping teeth.

————————————

After a long night of guarded watch, combined with the lethargy from near-starvation and dehydration, Junior tumbled into a fitful unconsciousness just as the wick of the lamp burned out.

————————————

The human captive was roughly awoken from his rest as he was yanked upwards, chains already detached from the walls and viciously tugged forwards. Quickly trying to gather his bearings, Junior glanced around the brig as he was dragged from it, seeing the large aquarium sitting empty in the corner.

He started struggling against the hands of his captors, and didn’t calm down until a knife was pressed against his gut, “If you don’t stop making my life difficult,” Roman hissed into his ear, “I will not hesitate to gut you, and throw you overboard to the sharks.”

The rest of the journey up the stairs to the deck was a blur, as his exhaustion made his vision swim, and made his head pound.

The brightness of the sun increased his headache by ten-fold, and he flinched as he was unceremoniously tossed to the floor. He felt his hair stick to the thick tar that the deck had recently been scrubbed with, and his sickly skin glistened as sweat started pouring out of him as a response to the scorching hot sun.

A kick to his shoulder sent him sprawling onto his back, eyes blinking wildly as they adjusted to the bright sunlight before a shadow fell over his face, a last remnant flash hit his iris and he flinched.

The flash came from the feather buckle atop the dark maroon hat glistened gold as they were hit by the sun, sitting on top of a mass of ebony black hair and pale skin with fiery eyes that portrayed thinly-veiled disgust towards him.

“You’ve surpassed your usefulness,” the Captain’s velvet voice did little in disguising the glee at finally having a legitimate reason to cast of their dead-weight prisoner, “we have other information sources.”

Junior glanced around the circle of crew members, some having shielded their emotions while others showed them freely through sneers, snarks and smug smiles. His eyes tried to seek out Adam, but he was nowhere to be found, a wry smile graced his lips at the thought that his ‘old friend’ didn’t hate his gut badly enough to want to witness Cinder slit his throat.

He caught another flicker of reflected lights and his eyes narrowed in on a heap of golden fish scales laying by foot of the central mast, all still seeming attached to a golden fish tail and a tangle of blonde locks.

“Oh yes, your mermaid was quite helpful in giving us what we wanted.” The fake sincerity that laces Cinder’s words felt like poison, “I mean, an actual creature of the sea know it better than a mere pirate information broker.”

“You’ll get your biggest dream fulfilled soon,” she walked closer to him and kneeled down, her hand gently tilting his jaw and sharp nails scratching teasingly, “you can live the rest of your life on the ocean.” a huff “More accurately, on the bottom of the ocean, if you succeed in sinking so far before the sharks tear you apart. I highly doubt it.”

Mercury and Roman stepped forward at this, heavy chains clinking in their hands and they gleefully and forcefully wrapped them tightly around Junior. Restricting his movements and weighing him down simultaneously, they attached a heavy weight to the bottom the chains, and two additional crew members were needed to transport Junior, in his newly created prison, closer to the edge of the ship.

“I dropped the plank,” Cinder stated “unnecessary dramatics.”

The feeling of doubt and fear bubbled up within him, and any hope he’d had for a quick death sank quicker than he would as despair overpowered. He started struggling attempting to break free from the grip of the four men shoving him towards the edge; the sounds of shuffling feet and grunts of exerting mingled with the lapping of the waves and screeching of the wind, and with thesnapping of bones?

Junior was thoughtlessly dropped against the banister, as his the men who’d held him up shifted priority, and entered the building fray. A portion of the crew members was fleeing from the main deck, whilst the others were all crowding towards the central mast post. He strained to see what was happening in the middle of the throng of pirates, but all he saw was occasional yellow flashed and pirated flying through the air and colliding painfully with the ship.

As more and more pirated fled or laid unconscious strewn across the deck, the fray became smaller and Junior could catch more fleeting glimpses of the fight, the mermaid seemed to have become vicious and was attacking and throwing off all her captors systematically. Keeping the others at bay with blasts of energy from her cuffs.

Then a flash of pale pink, and the fight stopped. In the aftermath the petite first-mate Neo Politan, stood with a subdued mermaid pinned to the mast pole.

Junior’s eyes searched for the mermaid’s and as they met, a voice in his head urged him to jump overboard you fool! and despite the predicament he was in, he felt powerless for the second time since meeting the mermaid, and said his blessings as he tossed himself overboard into the waiting waves.

Just before he hit the water, he caught a last glimpse of gold following his path before he hid the water and cold blue-black darkness surrounded him. The initial impact had forced the air from his lungs, and water flooded his lungs as he took a panicked breath.

The burn of the saltwater in his lungs wasn’t enough to distract himself from the heavy pull downwards of the chain and weight, and growing feelings of drowning in despair as the light of the surface diminished as he sank to the bottom of the ocean.

As he whispered a last prayer through the waters, in between his continued gasps and intakes of sea water, he caught another flash of gold barrelling straight towards him; the painful collision of the golden force and his frail and sinking body forced any last remaining molecules of air from his lungs, and as his lungs almost burst with the feeling of saltwater filling them, a warm light enveloped him. A worm line was drawn from his shoulder to his feet, and as they passed his ankles he felt the chains loosen, fall of, and continue their journey to the bottom of the ocean without him.

Then his lips felt warm, and he opened his eyes to see two lilac orbs of light looking into his, and as his lungs once more filled breath, his eyes fell shut.

-~-

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