Work Text:
“His Royal Majesty, King Benjamin Florian Léandre of Auradon, regrets to inform you that by the royal decree of His Royal Majesty, Former King Adam Léandre, and Her Royal Majesty, Former Queen Belle Léandre, you, Captain Hannah Artemis Hook along with your crew, The Stormbringer, and all remaining Hooks (along with those associated with them) are hereby banned from coming to Auradon.
His Royal Majesty also regrets to inform you that due to the recent incidents of the last couple of years First Mate Harrison Hook, along with the rest of the Lost Revenge, were executed via guillotine on May 28th and that Calista Jane Hook, Frederique Facilier, and Zevon Sorcerer of Enchancia were all hanged on June 1st, all for the charges of treason.
Allison Liddell was also hanged on that day for accessory to Treason and Aiding-and-Abetting a fugitive.
His Royal Majesty, King Benjamin Florian Léandre of Auradon, Her Royal Consort, Mal Bertha Fae of the Isle, and Their Royal Councilor, Princess Geneviève Evelyn Grimhilde-Westergaard Of The Southern Isles, send their condolences.”
Was all the letter from Auradon Hannah Hook received said.
Was all the letter Jakeem 'Jay' Al-Jazira hand delivered to her at three in the morning said.
Was all the letter that would have been taped to her ship had Jay not snuck to the isle to give it to her instead on Ben’s behalf (because apparently he was finally being somewhat closely monitored) said.
That was how the thirteen year old pirate captain had found out that her siblings were dead.
It was with that letter, that Pinocchio and Alice Liddell’s own letter was received. And it was with that letter, that Hannah Hook had found out that CJ’s dead twin, Adelais, wasn’t so dead after all….
Well.. Hadn’t been so dead before June 1st, that is.
People always said not to kill the messenger and Hannah didn’t kill Jay, but Gods had she wanted to after reading those letters.
She screamed at him and had struck him, but he hadn’t hit her back. Hadn’t yelled back. Just told her that he was sorry, looking uncharacteristically uncomfortable and solemn before leaving her to grieve all alone in her nightgown and inform the rest of her broken little family.
Hannah couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her father cry before that moment.
Or Grandmusie Hook, for that matter.
And she had never seen Harriet and Ginny look so…broken… before.
Their stepmother, Alala, had sworn so loud that little Hope—who would never know Harry, CJ, or Ally (Ally, who Hannah had never even met) or get to see Auradon—had started wailing as loud as her little lungs would allow for.
Even Uncle Jasper had reacted poorly to the news and Hannah had been sure before that moment that he had hated them all for living after his own children had died.
Hannah wasn’t sure that she’d ever forget any of it or how unbearably empty she felt as she returned home to The Stormbringer to her crewmates all asleep. Still barefoot and in the nightgown she wore every Monday–Thursday. She was also sure that she’d never be able to forget how alone she felt as her memories threatened to destroy her.
Because Harry and CJ and all their friends were gone.
Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.Gone.Gone.Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.Gone. Gone.Gone. Gone.Gone. Gone.Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.Gone.Gone.Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.Gone.Gone.Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.Gone.Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.Gone.Gone. Gone. Gone.Gone.Gone.Gone. Gone.Gone. GONE.
All because the former king and queen of Auradon couldn’t keep track of their only child and decided to stomp all over his boundaries to make that her and her family’s problem instead of their own.
Her siblings were dead and weren’t coming back.
The boy who used to read to her in sign language when she was little was dead.
The girl who bit Hannah’s would-be-kidnapper when she was three was gone.
The brother who had held her as she cried about how unfair it was that Mal and her friends were going to Auradon instead of Eduardo and Claudine Frollo or any of the littler kids who needed the safety of Auradon more had lost his head.
The sister who had viciously pranked Olga Hearts for locking Hannah in the catacombs beneath Dragon Hall when she was six with the guard spider had been hanged.
Hannah’s siblings had been beheaded and hanged when their hostage hadn’t been harmed at all—hadn’t been scared at all…
It wasn’t fair.
It wasn’t—no, no, no!
It wasn’t fair.
Wasn’t equal.
Harry was only seventeen.
CJ and Ally were only fourteen.
How was it fair that they were dead when Ben wasn’t harmed?
Weren’t good guys supposed to be all about fairness—like Hannah had been ever since she had learned the reality about her situation?
Weren’t they supposed to be good—like Hannah had tried to be all her life, like the kids in her crew were?
Why… why were her siblings and their friends dead if heroes were good and fair and the victims of the villains’ stories?
And why had she and the rest of her family and their friends been banned from a place they had never even stepped foot in?
How was that fair or kind or right?
It wasn’t fair.
It wasn’t fucking—
“...you all good, H?”
No.
No she wasn't.