Hey guys! It's the Captain here! Hob Goblin aka Miss Helsing wrote the first bit of this chapter and helped with the main idea of the next major plotline so I hope you enjoy it! Unfortunately she couldn't finish it due to unforseen evil computers along with sudden endless amounts of coursework so let's give her a big hand by updating the next bit of AoP! Yes, I abbreviated it. Why? Because I wanted to.
You could call this chapter a collab of sorts between myself and Hob- Goblin so neither of us can write the next chapter, considering we both worked hard on this one. That means someone else needs to volunteer, since NO ONE did the last time, it's only fair we keep the story going, regardless of how busy we all are. Someone needs to do it, we've had a nice break so let's get back to writing, got it?
OK, I'm finished with my rant.
Enjoy! ;-)
Cap'n
Tucked within a streamed cul-de-sac off the Wattpadian sea,
St. Marlo Church,
23:45
Torches flared from the wall brackets, casting smoky shadows upon the cold stone walls and their intent, expectant faces.
The men, and three women, scattered about the chilled room were as legendary to common folk as sea wolves. They were supercilious and bold, avaricious and gallant, but above all, they for their own reasons, desired to crush the brats known as Team Enigma.
No one dared disturb the silence. All thirty two of the notorious felons simply lingered in the shadows, awaiting for him to speak. The being before them, assessing each of the gathered as he would a blade he was contemplating on stealing, was known to be so frightful and heinous that most referred to him as not a man, but as demon: a creature of nightmares.
Dressed entirely in black, he rose from his throne, made from damaged bone and arrow heads, and grinned at the darkness that surrounded him: a darkness created of shadows and the malicious figures they held.
“Welcome, my Dark Revengers.” He said, voice deep and hoarse. “Shall we begin?”
A pause, broken only by the whispers of flames as they curled in the harsh breeze.
“Begin what, exactly?” It was a male voice, almost as deep as the previous but more pronounced. He leant against a stone pillar indolently, head tilted towards the cobbled ground, the warm amber light of a candle reflecting across his shoulders and the black leathered hat concealing his face, a wooden shape and a carving knife in his hands.
“Why,” The Dark One said. “To destroy Team Enigma, just as our previous master planned."
..............
The Enigmus
02:30
Moonlight was streaming through the cracks in the cabins side, casting streaks of cool white across the many hammocks and sleeping crew mates dotted around the room.
It would have been calming and soothing, at least somewhat so, if the slightest sliver of light didn't cause a stabbing pain behind my eyes and thundering in my head.
Groaning, I turned in my hammock and pulled the large jug from between the folds in my blanket, sipping the Bacardi sluggishly as I raked my hand through my hair, pushing the dark, tangled mass from my face, flinching slightly when the cold glass of the jug brushed the pale skin beneath my untucked shirt. I turned again and felt a tired smile tug at the corner of my lips.
Everything upon the Enigmus had finally been righted: the Great One had been killed, Bitey is Bitey again, instead of being called freaking Cuddles, and the Captain was back to her usual, sarcastic self. It took her long enough.
We all had a rather large celebration when the Captain returned to us: properly I mean, not... Well, not as Cara. It had been a rigorous and blissful night, full of off-key singing, merry cheering and, of course, drinking... Which was the reason as to why the celebrations had ended so soon.
The Captain had decided to reward us by sharing her well cherished rum. All of it. Which was something we had no problem demolishing.
We did not, however, listen to the Cap'n: whom, for once, was the voice of both reason and experience when she had told us to take it easy. But hey, everyone had seemed to enjoy themselves.... While it had lasted.
Unable to sleep, I placed the jug onto the planked floor and pushed my upper body into an erect position, leaning on my elbows as the material swayed softly beneath me. I chuckled softly at the sight of my crew mates, either snoring or completely unconscious, who lay in heaps over the sides of their hammocks with both their limbs and hair dangling towards the floor. I silently laughed at the sight of everyone. We hadn't had a party such as this one in so long that everyone was a little green from the effects of drinking so much.
Oh well, we're allowed a break once in a while.
I took a final sip from my jug and put it back on the floor as quietly as I could and leant back in my hammock and drifted off to sleep again.
..........
Meanwhile, the Captain and Winter were the only one's awake. Winter steered the ship as usual, sipping from her bottle of Coke occasionally, always keeping an eye on the horizon as the Captain sat near her, on the rigging as if it was the most normal thing in the world, her feet dangling in front of her as she swung aimlessly, patiently waiting for her turn to steer. They both took turns steering since the sea was calm, thankfully so was the Enigmus now the Captain was back to her normal self. Surprisingly in the case of the Captain, neither of them decided to drink since all the other crew mate's were now either passed out or asleep. The Captain didn't feel like drinking. In all honesty, it reminded her of all the problems she had caused for her crew over the past few weeks. From the Great One, to the Writer's Block, to the awful effects of the amnesia, she was surprised her crew didn't dump her in the sea and leave her to drown. But she was proud of them, after all of that crap she put them through they all stayed faithful til the very end. Even Winter.
They had yet to talk about everything that happened but she knew she'd have to explain everything in due time, but finding the right time to do it was like finding a bottle of booze after their party. She had kept putting it off, avoiding talking to everyone about it, using her faithful sarcasm to deflect the conversation elsewhere and tried to keep it off her mind as much as possible. But there was only so many times you could avoid the past before it catches up with you. The Great One incident was no exception to that.
No. She couldn't delay it any longer. They had trusted her enough with everything so far. She had to return that trust by telling them everything. No more secrets. In two days, they would reach their destination to get the ship fixed. It had been damaged quite a bit since Skullrock and the marine attack, so the Captain decided to use the remainder of the treasure she had 'found' in Skullrock to give the ship a much needed upgrade.
They'd be staying with an old friend of the Captain's. There'd be enough room for them all there and enough privacy to tell them everything. She just hoped they'd forgive her after it all. But first, even before all that. She had to something she'd been dreading since the very beginning. She had to tell Winter.
Winter glanced the right, seeing her friend deep in thought. "You worried about the ship?" She asked quietly as she broke the silence between them.
"Mm." was the only reply she received as the Captain stopped the carefree rocking and sat with her knees drawn up toward her.
Whether it was a yes or a no only made things even more complicated. Winter was delighted to have her best friend back, as much as the rest of the crew was, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about the Captain. She understood why she shared her somewhat priceless collection of rum, but it surprised her when she declined to have some herself. The Captain NEVER declined rum. Even when she wasn't herself she ended up having a small amount, but now she was back to normal? It was strange not seeing her with a drink in her hand.
She still needed to look back once or twice to see if she was really back to normal, the Captain's attitude was noticeably different, to her. Of course she kept her carefree nature while being around her crew, but now they were all asleep? She was strangely quiet and distant, as if something was troubling her.
The silence still lingered as the Captain suddenly took a deep breath as if to steel her nerves.
"Winter?" she asked as her best friend turned her head. Of course she knew something was troubling her, she always did.
"I need to tell you something. It's not gonna be easy for me, so hear me out and try not to get too mad when you hear it."
...........................................................
The crew woke to splitting headaches and the sound of chaos. Swords clashed ferociously against each other as resounding bangs and clatters echoed around the whole ship. They awoke to find their Captain and first mate attacking each other as if their life depended on it. In the case of the Captain, it did. The crew had never seen Winter so mad, usually it was the Captain who was known for her bad temper, but this? This was on another level. Spikes of ice shot out at random angles everywhere as the Captain did her best to dodge them or reflect them using a small amount of her powers, it seemed she was on the defensive as Winter's attacks grew ever louder. Somehow through the heated battle they were managing to have an audible conversation through the sounds of destruction, which went something like this.
"You idiot! Why the HECK didn't you tell me?!" Winter yelled as spikes of ice shot everywhere.
"Well I couldn't really find the time in.....between everything." The Captain replied, scratching her head as she ducked behind a crate to avoid the spikes
"OH REALLY?" Winter replied sarcastically as she attacked with her ice sword. "I'm really surprised, considering YOU KNEW WHAT WAS GONNA HAPPEN!"
Shit.
Well, I didn't know all of it! I just knew the jist of it, really." The Captain replied as side stepped to block Winter's attack.
"And yet you couldn't SHARE the information with, Oh I dunno. THE REST OF US!" Winter retorted as the Captain did her best to block her attacks, as the crew could only stand by and watch.
"Well, I wasn't allowed to! And you said you wouldn't get mad!"
"Why wouldn't I get mad! You hid this from everyone without batting an eyelid! Surely if you knew what was gonna happen then you'd want to at least so something to stop it?! I bloody DIED!"
The Captain stopped as Winter aimed a blow to her shoulder and stopped in shock as the Captain did something unexpected. The two swords dropped alongside each other as the Captain cried as she hugged her best friend.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But I had to. The..Book..told me everything. It told me how it ends. I can't tell you, otherwise it'll happen and you'll never forgive me if it does."
"Surely, we can figure this out together?" Winter asked as her rage subsided.
The Captain gave a wan smile. "No. There's only two paths it can take. And neither of them look good for me."
"What do you mean?" Winter asked as they broke apart.
The Captain handed her a slip of paper and stood to the side as she opened it. She may not be able to say it, but hopefully that showed it.
The Enigmus wouldn't survive much longer. People didn't have imagination anymore. No imagination, no Enigmus. And if the Enigmus disappears then...
"So do you." Winter stared in shock at the Captain.
The crew were confused, and it wasn't just the hangover that was effecting them. The Captain was upset. They didn't know why but they knew she'd tell them eventually. For now, they needed to get rid of this hangover. Trilby ushered them back to bed reassuring that everything was OK and that they were just practicing, before giving them both a glare and a nod. Trilby knew too. Of course she did, she was a bloody mind reader. They would meet later on to discuss everything. For now, the crew couldn't know, especially when they had a bigger threat on there hands.
............................
"And that's why we fought." The Captain explained as the crew stared at her as she finished her story. They were now in Bermore, as planned. It had been two days since Winter and the Captain had fought and as planned, the ship was getting fixed while they stayed in a remote area where they couldn't be found. Skullrock Cave.
The crew were utterly silent. They couldn't believe what they had just been told. The Captain had known since Skullrock about what was going to happen, to her and the rest of the crew by the Book of Souls itself. The Captain had helped create the Enigmus a long time ago with the energy of the Book of Souls along with her own imagination supply. Each of the crew mates provided a top up of energy every once in a while to help keep the Enigmus going. But where there is light there is also darkness.
As she had received the Book of Souls, the Great One had received the Book of Revenge, also known as the Vendetta and created his own crew, the Dark Revengers. The Vendetta has the power to drain the imagination out of a person and turns it into dark energies. That dark energy, causes people's imagination to fade, and that is why the Enigmus isn't as good as it used to be. If the imagination runs out anymore, the Enigmus won't have enough to power itself and eventually, it'll disappear for good.
"I understand why the Enigmus would disappear Captain, but why would you too? And why not all of us?" Pheonix asked.
"A Captain has to go down with their ship, I guess." She joked lightly. A sharp kick to her leg from Winter told her that now was not the time for joking.
She sighed. "Because my energy started the creation of the Enigmus. Without my energy it would fail. It still used my energy when I had amnesia because I made sure to leave some so she'd survive. I only found out the rest a few days ago, when you guys brought me back."
"I see." Pheonix stated.
"So you knew in Skullrock, when you were about to walk through that door alone that he'd be defeated and you'd get amnesia." Trilby asked.
"Amnesia? Aye.
"That he'd be defeated? No." The Captain replied quietly, avoiding everyone's gazes.
They had every right to be angry at her. She hid everything from them and now they were finding out that all there problems had been planned out from the start.
"Oi! What's with all the glum faces? We've always been in trouble, no matter what we've all overcome it, regardless of how bad everything may seem. Fine, the Captain kept this from us, but surely it's more fun not to know what's going to happen than to know everything! The Captain said she couldn't tell us at the time and now she has! At least she had the decency to tell us, unlike some people I know." Miss Helsing announced as she grinned at everyone.
"What? Has none have you ever hidden something from Captain? I know for a fact you have, we're pirates after all. The Captain has done her best to be truthful so now it's our turn!"
They all muttered amongst themselves as Captain stared at Miss Helsing in confusion. What was she on about? She trusted her crew, so why wouldn't they be truthful? She glanced to her right as Winter was trying to hold in her laughter.
"Fine then. I'll tell her myself." she grinned.
A sudden uproar of yells and hand waving at her to stop proceeded for several minutes as the Captain folded her arms at the sudden change of mood.
"Helsing, what are you up to?" The Captain ordered as she glared at her.
"I'll go first, then shall I? Since you're all a bunch of big sissies!" Miss Helsing yelled out.
"Remember when we had that massive party and the deck got ruined for weeks cuz it was all sticky? Well, that was my fault. Instead of using the cleaning stuff, I used Fanta instead!" She announced bashfully before laughing.
The rest glanced nervously at the Captain, as she couldn't help but burst into fits of laughter alongside Winter and Trilby. Soon afterwards, one by one the crew mates were telling their secrets out loud, secrets which were either too embarrassing to tell at the time or they were to scared to tell because of the Captain's temper. But now, since she had told them everything she knew, a weight had been lifted off her chest and she knew that her crew could take it no matter what happened.
"It was me who did the toilet prank! Not Shadow or Arrowskull!" Black yelled out as everyone laughed.
"Wait...It was you who caused the Enigmus to smell like shite for weeks?!" The Captain exclaimed, her accent thicker than usual as everyone suddenly went silent.
"Uh...yeah..." Black replied quietly.
The Captain suddenly laughed as she pointed at Shadow and Arrowskull.
"Brilliant! They were on toilet duty for weeks cuz of that!" the Captain laughed uncontrollably as she nearly fell of her seat.
"I sometimes hypnotise you to steal extra food!" Violet yelled before adding, "I'm sorry!"
"I broke the dragon figurehead by ramming it into the marines." Winter told her.
"I know." The Captain replied before grinning. "It was worth it, it took down a bloody marine battleship!" She yelled happily before hi fiving Winter, before suddenly adding. "I used your share of the treasure to pay for it."
"What?!"
.................
Meanwhile, while the crew on the Enigmus was learning to trust each other again, an even sinister crew was preparing to attack. Booker had everything planned perfectly. Well, he was the Great One's successor after all. The Captain would pay, and he, would make sure of it.