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Jaden’s never had as much time to think about his life as he had now, locked up in one of the many prisons of the Law. He was sat in the furthest corner, away from the cell entrance which made him feel exposed with the thin iron bars being the only thing separating him from his crew. Well, the iron bars and the key card locked doors and the concrete walls and okay maybe it was more than just a few metal poles...
They had stripped him of everything - weapons, armor, food, every single thing apart from his clothes was gone. Lettuce had even taken his pirate hat which, Jaden had to admit, felt pretty demoralizing as it was a part of his identity. There was no way he could escape this prison unless someone broke him out. Would he even want to be broken out? It was a bit of a stupid thought, because of course he wanted to be free, but he would be putting his pirates in even more danger and he’d felt like he had already let them down enough without giving them more false hope.
Jaden leaned his back against the hard wall, enveloping his arms around his knees to pull them close to his chest. The ground was cold, but he couldn’t bring himself to sit on the bed opposite him. Though however uncomfortable it may be, it couldn’t be worse than sitting on the floor, but how could he even consider it when his people were still out there fighting a losing war?
The tide had shifted significantly when their plan failed. The Law greatly outnumbered their team and at some point, he had started to notice more dead pirates than lawmen around him. Even now, sitting in this cold, damp and moldy cell, it sickened him. He couldn’t get the image of them out of his head, laying lifelessly on the ground.
Running a hand through his hair, Jaden closed his eyes and breathed in, his exhale coming out shaky. Adrenaline had been coursing through him the entire time and he vaguely remembered gathering what was left of his troupe along with Egg. He had firmly ordered them to get out while they still could, planning to sacrifice himself for their safety. If the pirate leader gave himself up, there would be no more reason for bloodshed.
With a bit of resistance from them, he managed to sum up the strength for a good enough speech to convince them to leave without looking back. He silently hoped each of them had made it out. Would LettuceK still use the cannon to blow up Pirate City even after he gave himself up? Jaden cursed himself for not asking, but he had been so worn out after his adrenaline high had ended that he had remained silent all throughout the whole process of surrendering.
With his head hung low, the pirate anxiously pulled his knees closer until he could feel them digging into his chest against the slight swell of his injuries there. His armor had taken the brunt of the attacks, but it still painfully pushed at his torso, with a few bruises and scratches on some exposed parts. But Jaden couldn’t stop himself from thinking how this was nothing compared to the lost lives of his pirates. He didn’t personally know all of them, but it didn’t stop him from caring about his people.
As the biting chill continued to seep into his bones, the leader’s mind wandered back to their last stand. In the beginning they were doing well as their job had either way been to hold off as many of the lawmen for as long as possible and keep their eyes on the pirates while Wemmbu disabled the cannon with the help of Egg.
Jaden’s eyes widened at the sudden realization.
Actually, now that he had the time to think about it, Wemmbu had disappeared from his sight at some point during the resistance. That fact itself wasn’t exactly unusual since it was required for them to split off for the plan to work, but still, Jaden remembered seeing his friend in the sky throughout the fight, macing through the lawmen in his way like they were merely obstacles for him to get over.
If he thought about it hard enough, he was sure he could remember seeing a blur of purple on the hillside where the cannon was located. But what happened then? If Wemmbu had failed then the civilization was probably long gone, considering the cannon was already too close to being ready to be fired. That was the last he remembered of seeing his friend before having to focus on the fight.
Come to think of it, they had started to lose shortly after the demon hybrid disappeared...
A fresh roll of anxiety washed over the pirate as he pulled at his shirt, feeling himself losing air. Jaden shifted his position so that his arms were resting folded on his knees, moving his legs away a bit so that they weren’t pressing into his chest and constricting his airflow. A thin sheen of sweat was starting to form on his face.
Did the Law capture Wemmbu as well? Was he somewhere in this prison too but in a different cell? Was he in a different prison altogether with higher security considering he was an escapee and one of the most wanted and dangerous players on the server?
What if... Wemmbu was also dead?
‘No...’ Jaden had quickly discarded that thought, vigorously shaking his head. ‘There’s no way Wemmbu would just die like that.’ The pirate leader convinced himself that the purple demon was probably on his way to free him right now, unless he had been captured and imprisoned like him. Those were the only two possibilities that made sense.
But why didn’t he notice the Law dragging him off? How would they even capture the player again? The demon hybrid had explained to him that the only reason he was captured in the first place was because a fight with thousands of lawmen had weakened him and severely depleted all of his resources. Additionally, a fight with Flame right after that one got rid of his leftover loot so, really, Wemmbu didn’t have a choice in his capture and yet he still tried to fight his way out of it until he was half dead.
Jaden knew that his friend wouldn’t just let himself get captured again. But what if they had threatened him with Egg’s life? No, the angel hybrid would’ve told him before the leader had sent them off. Either way, the pirate himself had given him enough resources to be able to decently fend on his own so that couldn’t be the case. And the man was sure that Lettuce would’ve flaunted the capture of Wemmbu in front of him anyway, just to get him to surrender.
But none of this explained what had actually happened to his friend. With the pirate leader’s imprisonment, he could only assume the possibilities and the lack of factual knowledge was driving him insane in the small cell. Suddenly, a horrible thought occurred to Jaden. One that made dread fill up his entire lungs. One that made his insides twist with nausea. One that made his whole body shiver from the sheer possibility of it being real.
What if Wemmbu had betrayed him.
It was supposed to be a question, but it was harder to get rid of this thought from his head as the player wasn’t a stranger to it. Jaden had betrayed many people in his life before turning a new leaf with his former enemy. He was painfully aware of how easy it was to just turn your back on someone. But would Wemmbu really betray him now?
He hated how easy it was to imagine the purple demon making a deal with LettuceK to save his own skin because he was a survivor through and through as they all were. Maybe the leader of the Law had offered him some sort of deal while Jaden wasn’t looking - something like letting him run free this time in exchange for leaving and weakening the pirate’s forces. Would Wemmbu accept such a deal?
Did Wemmbu value his freedom over his friendship with Jaden?
The man thought about what they had been through together. His eyes almost swelled at the memory of finding out the invisible player who he had teamed up with was in fact his enemy all along. But after Wemmbu had left that day, Jaden had reflected and found that he didn’t hate him for what he had done. Instead, he had seen the demon hybrid in a completely new and different light.
After that, it was easy to save him and Egg once he had returned to the Great Sea, the Law right on their tail. He remembered the genuine surprise in Wemmbu’s voice, the grateful glint in his eyes and everything else that followed suit after. But had Wemmbu been planning to betray him all along? Was he just using Jaden like before when he was invisible?
It felt as if the prison walls were starting to cave in on him. The pirate was forced to close his eyes and lay his head on his arms to stop the feeling from taking over. Jaden hated how it would make sense because he so clearly needed the protection from the Law, needed a group to hide in and have his back. The pirate leader would be the perfect lamb to the slaughter - it’s what he himself would’ve done as well.
Tightening the grip on his upper arms, his mind worked against him, solidifying the thought with memories of kidnapping him and Egg, stealing his mace, and worst of all - Jaden killing Rejoice. It only added fuel to the fire of Wemmbu having every reason to betray him, the flames of it burned his skin.
As much as he tried to deny the ,,theory’’, he kept coming up with other reasons. Other possibilities which would lead to the player turning his back on him were as simple as Wemmbu realizing he was practically on a suicide mission in a war he didn’t really have any part in. The purple demon wasn’t a pirate and the only reason he was fighting on their side was because of his alliance with Jaden. ‘An alliance which could easily be broken.’ a voice from the back of his head reminded him.
It would’ve been simple enough for the man to just slip out unnoticed in the chaos and the pirate leader couldn’t seem to put it past him. His eyes flew open as he shouted out loud “NO!” slamming his fist against the ground. Breathing heavily, he closed his eyes, taking a moment to focus purely on calming his laboured breathing. Jaden could feel the rapid heartbeat trying to burst from his chest.
“Wemmbu wouldn’t leave Egg behind. Wemmbu wouldn’t return to the Great Sea expecting not to meet me again. Wemmbu wouldn’t risk both his and Egg’s life for Pirate city if he didn’t actually care.” he took one last consoling breath in. “Wemmbu wouldn’t disappear from a fight unless something happened to him.”
Then Jaden exhaled, feeling just a bit lighter than before.
He wasn’t going to let this prison get to him. He wasn’t going to succumb to any of his own intrusive thoughts. And he certainly wasn’t going to give up on Wemmbu.
The pirate leader would be lying if he said he wasn’t still worried at least a little, but he had confidence in his troupe and most of all...
He had faith in Wemmbu.
Whether his civilization was still standing, whether his people were all dead, whether the law had captured Wemmbu with it... Jaden was going to get out.
And he was going to get his revenge - one way or another.
Because the Law certainly doesn’t cover the Great Sea.
Not if he has anything to say for it.