A/N: Merry Christmas!

James sat with his knees to his chest, plucking at blades of grass poking their way through the sandy shore of their great city. His gaze seemed fix out over the city filled with bustling crowds and rough laughter from men to long out to sea. Edward had arrived at dawn, and after a hearty dose of a fine woman and ale to recover from his time out, he was found seeking his kindest friend.

Thatch and Ben hadn't seen the lad all day, but were sure he had been seen whispering around them and keeping away from their glance. James had been coming home less and less, seeming to favor the water then land. Edward nodded to him, taking a seat beside him in the sand.

"You look as you've seen better day's lad."

"Aye, suppose I have."

"Mary?"

"Edward?" She sighed, falling down into the sand on her back as her glance fell from the city and on to him. Her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion as he reached down and brushed a piece of hair from her face.

"You avoiding everyone."

"Things on my mind."

"Surely ya can tell your frien-"

"I'm not coming back Edward. I'm not coming back to Nassau after today," She burst out, looking up to the sky and away from his gaze.

"What do you mean you're not coming back? This is our home!" Edward voice rose as his anger began to flare, watching Mary sit up again and grab his arm to yank him closer to her face. He gulped, watching her eyes before she threw him away with a flick of her wrist.

"I have to dedicate myself to the assassins. My people. Nassau has fallen to piss and ruin with no attempt of help."

"It has not."

"Stop being a child and wake up man. There's a sick running through the children and their mothers. Rats are starting to crawl more often since no one seems to want to keep the city clean. I tried 'bout a month ago to make some changes and Vane jumped down my throat faster than I could defend meself."

"Vane isn't in charge around here," Edward snarled, reaching for a bottle in his coat, preceding to yank the cork with his teeth. James or Mary, whomever this person was couldn't leave Nassau. No, she was far too important to the city. Their voice of reason, their wise thoughts always came from the words she would speak at during those light night hours sitting on a beach drinking until the world became a better place.

"No he's not, no one is. That's my point."

"But that goes against what Nassau was for, we're supposed to be free men here."

"Aye we are, and look at what it's given us. I don't think there is anything wrong with a bit of leadership, perhaps a group of men the people are fond of to help guide them to work together."

"It wouldn't work."

"Ya know nothing Kenway. How do we know it won't work unless we try?" Mary snapped, Edward eyes fell to her stomach as she sat up with such ease causing him to ponder what lie under her shirt. She must have a smooth stomach, and he doubted she had that bit of a pudge most woman carried above their naval. Everything about her was as smooth as a black jaguar stalking its prey hidden beneath the shadows; from her attitude to the way she killed. "Edward, oi mate what's gotten into ya?" Mary reached over, snapping her finger in front of his face.

He coughed, taking another deep gulp from his flask before offering the rum to her which she gladly took. "It just won't. Men 'round here are used to doing as they please."

"And they'll get used to kneeling before a king if they don't change."

"Are you truly leaving me?" Edward finally blurted out, not missing the split second of shock that showed on Mary's face. The slight rise of her eyebrows, the way her lips parted to say something but she shook her head, face falling back to a mask.

"I have to do what's best for me."

"Being selfish aren't you?"

"Some would prefer it to siting here watching something ya built up fall in less than a few years of havin' it. This city will move on without us, Nassau will never fall no matter who governs it. Look mate, it's nothing against ya personally. I just think it's ti-"

"I won't ever see you again will I?" He mumbled, plucking at blades of grass and turning to watch a young couple sneak behind a home trying to hide in the shadows.

"Ya are such a child."

"Why because I'm fully admitting that I'm going to miss you? You are my truest friend Mary, by far the only person I can seem to trust anymore. I don't have to worry about what you ever think of me, and yet now we're sat here saying goodbye. Please, please stay here for a while longer. Nassau has such great potential to be something with us."

Mary stood as he spoke, fixing up her clothes and tucking away any bit of her long hair that might have fallen from her bandanna. She turned to look down to him, offering a hand in aid to lift him up but Edward simply leaned back into the sand, looking out over his city. "I'm sorry I've upset ya so but I assure ya we'll see one another again. These seas have a way of bringing people together even if they don't wish for it to be so. Good luck with Nassau, Kenway."

Edward said nothing as she took her leave, trotting down the hill and sliding through the sand as James Kidd approached the bay to his ship. He sat until the sunset, until the city was alive with the sound of drunken laughter, and until Kidd's ship left their harbor one last time.

There was something so beautiful about the sunset over Nassau that could leave Edward breathless for a moment. Pinks, purples, and oranges all blended together into a smooth painting across the sky as the crystal blue waters danced below. For a moment he could forget who he was, that his daughter was being held captive, that his closest friends were dead or injured back in the Great Inagua, and that his almost lover was being used as a pawn to set him off.

Just who was Victoria? The question was had been pondering in his head for weeks now, but after last week's event he had to piece her together in this puzzle. She knew Rogers, used her name as someone sent by him for a kill. But why would Rogers send a woman? Let alone a dark skinned woman who was as reckless as she? When Edward spoke to him when he first met him he spoke highly of his wife, was Victoria his lover? But Rogers never seemed to respect humans as well, humans, they just seemed to be pieces on his chess board.

"Why are you fighting for him? It doesn't make any sense," Edward sighed, falling back into the sand with a heavy thud as footsteps approached him from the right.

"Talking to ya'self now?" Mary chimed in, sitting beside his head and reaching out to run her cool fingers through his sweaty bangs.

"Hm, suppose I am. I just can't seem to piece it all together," he sighed, watching as she leaned over to check at the stitching along the side of his temple where a piece of wood had crashed into his skull when Upton had rolled out a barrel of gunpowder. His hand reached to caress her face, the pad of his thumb gently brushing over her new scar forming from her cheek to her neck.

"I think I may have found a lead. Was 'round the market but an hour or so ago trying to get us somethin' to eat. Overheard a man complaining about some bitch leaving him all in a hurry few days past, and he's got no ways to get to her."

"Think its Victoria he's on about?"

"Aye I do, not too many men are flocking to get on a ship with a woman as captain."

"It's worth looking into, I agree but he'll surely know our faces if he's working with her."

"We're assassins Edward, we can eavesdrop on a man with ease."

"M'worried about you Mary," He sat up, leaning into her personal space and pressing their lips in a quick kiss. She didn't stiffen like she would have a month ago, but she didn't make a move to continue it, only pulled away and dug into her coat to find her pipe.

"Well stop it. M'fine we've been over this. She thinks she can hurt me to get you and I ain't letting that happen ya got that? If she thinks letting some man shove his cock in me will break me she's wrong."

"She did exactly what she wanted to do, she sent you back into the nightmares of that prison."

"They never left to begin with."

"But they were getting better, we almost made love an-"

"This is just goin' to be a fight about ya wanting to bed me," Mary snapped, lighting her pipe and taking a deep drag.

"It's not about that, it's about you. I wish for a moment you would stop seeing me as who I was. I don't care about sex, I care about you Mary."

"I'm still learning about ya, it's hardly fair. I haven't seen you in years Edward, I was trapped on an island with a woman I used to call friend. This hurts me, don't ya see that? Nothing nastier than a snake."

"I just want you to admit that it's bothering you, it's affected us. I went to hold you last night in bed while you were sleeping and you nearly killed me.

"Ya should know better than to spook me," Finally she smiled, leaning back on her hand as she blew out little rings of smoke, listening to the sounds of the waved crashing on the shore.

"How should I comfort you then? Women are impossible."

"Ya used to be married, surely ya learned some things about women."

"You're not like any lady I've ever met, you know that."

"Aye, m'not a lady. Back to my plan, I know how we can follow him and he not realize it."

"How?" Edward sighed in defeat, arguing with Mary was impossible when she was had set her mind on something she truly thought was true.

"I found us some clothes to wear, and I'll change up our faces a bit. Add some soot, some rouge, make us not so recognizable to a man who is fuming with anger."

"You were right you know," Edward sighed, reaching over to put his arm around her shoulders.

"Normally am, what 'bout now? Does the plan sound fine?"

"It does but... do you recall the last time you left this city? When we had our spat? You said the town would fall and keep going without us."

"Said that before I left for a hit. I thought I'd never see any of ya again."

"But…you even promised me we would meet again, gave me some riddles of the sea always pushing us together."

"I had to go on a mission that month, to take out a very powerful man. I didn't think I was going to do it, that I'd die. Nassau was falling, I was trying to prove my worth to Ah Tabai, and I realized something very wrong about the story of James Kidd that I couldn't keep going anymore."

"No one had any idea, why couldn't you keep going?"

"Because I was falling in love with ya Kenway. Every time ya showed up in town and I was there, my cheeks would turn red at the site of ya. I'd drink too much to and my eyes would wander to long. If they found out I was Mary, I don't know what they would have done."

"Jack dealt with it," Edward teased, though he was grinning like a buffoon at the words she had just admitted.

"He and I hated one another, enough of this come on. Upton is finally able to move about and he's been trying to renovate this new bureau to be more welcoming."

"Are you showing concern for him?" He stood, holding a hand out for her which she took and tucked her pipe away after one final puff.

"He saved my life, I owe him as much but don't ya think for a minute I think he's capable at what he does. He's a drunken fool."

"As was I once."

"Aye once, but ya are doing fine now."

The new bureau was located just down the street from a black crater they used to call home. It was slightly bigger, had a second story but still held the same Upton, Edward had grown to love over the years. Mary and he had walked in a comfortable silence but as they approached they heard a crash along with a few unpleasant words.

"Should he be out of bed?"

"Don't care, he can do what he likes," Mary muttered, opening the door. Upton stood in nothing but his trousers, stiches across his stomach were puffy and red from his refusal to relax and he stood with a scarf tied around his head. "What the fuck are ya doin'?"

"Edward! Come here friend, look at what I've done. Do you think it looks cozy yet?"

Edward gently pushed Mary aside who shot him a glare and stormed up to where they had been sleeping. He slowly walked in, stepping over random pieces of wood and turned to look at what Upton was doing. "Is that even dead?"

"Freshly killed this morning! Back in home they used to mount these on the walls! I thought it would do us some comfort," Upton smiled at the boar's head he had been nailing above the mantle, reaching for a bottle of rum and taking a deep gulp.

"Well mate, can't say any of the assassins around here want to go home."

"You did once old friend, you even came and said goodbye."

"All true but Upton, don't ya think it's going to rot here? It's humid, constantly."

"Well then we'll have to seal it. Do you think Mary knows how to do that?"

"M'afraid she doesn't, least I don't think."

"She knows quite a bit, you should ask her for me. Alright?"

"Aright I'll ask, but for now let's take it down and perhaps hang a painting."

"Oh a painting would be lovely! Where ever can I get one of those?" Upton fell to the couch, his rum rolling from his hand as sleep cascaded over him in a solid hit. Edward laughed, grabbing a blanket and over him up as he ran up the steps. Gently pushing the room open he found Mary laying out clothes over a desk and without turning to him held out a small vile.

"Take it before we forget. Ya have a few hours before they tavern gets crowded enough to pull this off anyways."

Edward wrapped his arm around her slim waist, pressing kissed onto her neck and listening to her breath halt for a moment before she spun around slowly in his arms. "Take a nap with me?"

"I need to prepare or I would. Take it. It's been helping with the healing," She held out his mixture of plants she mashed up from him and he took it, downing it in a gulp and letting her go to fall onto the bed where sleep would take him as quickly as it did Upton a moment ago.

Edward's feet slammed into the deck of the Jackdaw, jumping up to spin in the air before crashing his two cutlass's through a man's chest. He franticly looked around him, desperate to find his daughter who seemed to have disappeared off the ship. She'd been there, standing on the deck waving to him with her red hair flowing in the wind. Mary had swung their ship in, blocking off the Jackdaw as the swung on ropes to get to her.

But every time he ran to her, he found himself a second to slow before she'd be across the ship again, giggling like a sick game of cat and mouse. Didn't she know she was in trouble? He was here to rescue her, to take her home. "Edward!"

He looked to his right were Mary stood over him, covered in other men's blood before pointing across the ship once more. "She's there!"

"It's a trick Mary."

"She's there Edward, I can see her!" And Mary would run off, the same as she had over ten times now. He followed her, only realizing to late he had run into a slaughter. Twenty men stood around them and he felt the drip of blood hit his forehead, peering up and screaming out in pain. Jenny hung above him, staring down at him with white eyes as the flowers he'd given her on her arrival to him fell from her hands, dried old petals falling around him.

It was the sound of a scream, one he'd never heard before that made him break from the spell of staring at his dead daughter.

He spun on his heels, reaching for his sword as the sound of a muffled scream filled the air. Edward rose, the clashing of sword play around him, blood splattering across his face as Mary stood with a sword sticking from her chest. Blood began to spit out from her lips as she fell to her knees, and in that moment she found him across the Jackdaw and smiled to him before crashing to the floor.

Victoria thrusted the cutlass through Mary's chest before the dark woman pulled it out, kicking Mary's corpse to the deck of the ship as she sauntered over to him, reaching up to grab his chin as the fighting on the boat came to a startling halt.

"You know me," She whispered, lips brushing his neck. Edward moved to lunge at her but found himself paralyzed. His feet were stuck to the Jackdaw with a thick red ooze. He stared down at it feeling a warm liquid spill down his neck causing him to glance up and find his sweet Jenny. "You know where to find me."

Jenny's eyes stared down at him, her mouth open in a gruesome scream as blood slowly trickled past her blue lips, the thick rope keeping her dangled right above him. "M'going to kill you!" Edward screamed, trying to shove himself into her but he remained at her mercy, her little statue to toy with.

"Ya are incredibly foolish. To think you'd stop me before I'm done playing this game? You see, my dear Edward. You killed the man I loved, but I could forgive you for that. You've seen me. You know me."

"No-No I do not," He spat at her face, feeling the blow she landed into his cheek a second later.

"You killed my lover."

"I've killed a lot of people."

"You know me."

"I don't."

"You've seen me."

"I'm going to rip out your heart and feed it to m-"

"You know me."

"-my men you pathetic bitch."

"You've seen me.

"I DON'T KNOW YOU!"

"I can't allow you to live merry Edward."

"Who are you?"

"You know me. You've seen me. Find me."

"Kenway come back, it's alright now."

Edward jolted from his nightmare, sitting up in an instant with his heart pounding in his chest. He could feel the pain searing down into his stomach as he held his hidden blade to the offenders throat. It was when the offender began to melt, staying perfectly still did the man turn into Mary who was pinned against the wall. Taking a deep breath he pulled the blade down and laid his forehead on her shoulder, arms wrapping around her waist.

It had felt so real, so sure of what was to come that he didn't even want Mary to do this with him anymore. What if the dream came true? What if Mary truly left his side from this world? He was still shaking when her hands rubbed his back and he looked down, staring into pleasant view of her bosom in a corset.

Edward took a step back, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and staring bluntly at her body which he had never seen like this before. She was wearing a corset that was far too small for her, her breasts nearly spilling out from the damn thing. His grin only widened at the sight of a skirt tied up high like the girls around here wore, something a proper woman would never do. Her thighs were just showing and her calves were looking beautiful in a pair of heeled shoes.

"Ya don't get the pleasure of nearly killing me then staring like this. Put ya clothes on, we've got to get going," Ruby red lips snapped and he couldn't help but reach out and run his hands through her long silky hair without a single braid or not. She looked like a woman, a woman who knew how to make a man fall to his knees and beg; something he was fully prepared to do.

"There's only one other time I've ever seen you this beautiful."

"Enough we don't have time for ya flattering."

"When you rubbed blood on your lips and leapt from that windmill," He whispered, leaning down to capture her lips in his own, pulling her body fully against his. Mary paused but soon he felt her lips moving slightly against his own, and more importantly he could feel her bust heavy through that tight corset: she'd have to keep that.

"Change, please," She whispered, tossing him off of her and reaching up to wipe the red cream from his face. Who was he to deny such a creature as her this fine night? Edward grabbed the clothing she had laid out for him and put it all on, including the bandanna she used to wrap up his blond hair. She was soon making him sit, grabbing her pipe and taking some of the soot and gently rubbing it into his beard.

"I could have shaved, I look different without the beard."

"Nonsense, m'fond of it after all."

"Are ya now lass?"

"Aye, ya look fine enough. Like a little pirate lad trying to find his way on a ship."

"I'm a captain."

"Not tonight ya not. Your name is William, mine is Rosa. I'm the prostitute you've bought for the evening and we're out for drinks before we head off to bed. If anyone asks ya, ya once sailed for Captain Horningold."

"I'd rather not."

"His name is liked around this place now, especially if we're going to the Avery where the Templars hide out now."

"This towns gone to shit," Edward snarled, making his way to the door and opening for her. They walked down the steps and found Upton had rolled onto the floor still passed out from his drink. He shook his head as they took to the streets and began to blend in with the common crowd.

Edward was relaxed, fitting into the image of a young lad trying to find work on a merchant ship with ease. It's only been a few years since he'd been just that, working on Thatch's ship. Thatch had taught him how to be a good man, to treat your men well, and to always think before you plunder. Mary on the other hand kept pulling at her skirt, trying to cover her knees, tugging up her corset, and repeatedly catching herself before wiping at her face.

It was cute, to see her be like this, to be so…womanly. But it gave him a peace of mind knowing he'd rather have a Mary running around in men's clothing then this one who didn't seem comfortable in her own skin. He reached over, placing his arm around her shoulder and pressed his lips to her temple. "You look fine, stop fussing or people will start to stare."

"M'fraid they are and for all the wrong reasons. Well right I suppose…" Edward smiled, leading her up the hill to where the music of his old days. With a quick look around he realized not a single person he knew was working. Jamie wasn't singing her sons, Wallace wasn't behind the bar yelling at men to get their hands off of Anne whose husband had been too drunk to care what she did.

In the corner sat the only round table in the place and it was filled with young men flirting with the ladies of the night. Years before Thatch had sat facing the door, a tankard of good old dark rum in his hand. Vane and Jack would have been to his left, snapping at whichever lady caught their eyes. Horingold of course to Blackbeard's right side, always leaning in to talk about some plan he had. James would have been at the chair beside the table, gently telling the woman he didn't want to sleep with them.

But now James' was at his side, and she turned to give him a smile before finding a chair for them to sit in and sat in his lap, laying her cheek on his chest. "What are ya thinking about Willie?"

"Ghosts," He simply replied, reaching up to run a hand through her hair.

"Aye. It's a matter of seeing it as a blessin to have known them then a pain in the heart," She leaned up, gently trialing kisses up his neck but he peered down, seeing her eyes on two older men at a table a few to the left of them.

"Them?"

"Aye, and the lad she was talking to just left. M'going to follow them out and ya are to sit here and wait for me."

"Don't be stupid."

"M'not, ya will be if ya follow me."

Edward grabbed her face, tilting it up so he could kiss her lips once before she stood, playing with her skirt before following them as the older men left. She was gone with the click of her boots and Edward stood, deciding if he was going to wait for her he mind as well drink. The new barmen was a nice enough lad, but he did over charge Edward on account of being a 'new face'.

Sighing he took himself to a table, sipping on the mug slowly as he listened to the laughter around him, watching the shadows dance on the walls from the candle scattered about. He hadn't meant to doze off but he did jump when Mary was back, rubbing his shoulder and looking grim. "Did you learn anything?"

"No. Just a dead end. Let's go to bed now, I've had enough," She helped him up, taking his hand and leaning her head on her shoulder as they walked in silence back to the new bureau. It wasn't until she was undressing and slipping her old shirt on did he even try to talk to her. Something was rather off, his normal sarcastic bitch of a Mary was quiet and lost in her thoughts.

"Are you okay?"

"M'fine Kenway, stop ya worrin'," She smiled, hitting his shoulder playfully. The action settles his nerves, feeling more at home now. He pulled her into bed, kissing her forehead and drifting off into sleep. For once he dreamt no nightmare, only a simple dream of the past.

Morning came and his arms found to hold no warmth so he groaned, sitting up and letting the blankets fall from his bare chest as the panic set in. Rubbing his blurred eyes he stared around the room as everything related to Mary Read was gone. Leaping from the bed and looking around the room he found a letter on the desk, a simply piece of paper folded over with his name written rather sloppily almost as if the writer had never been taught how to write proper.

Quickly unfolding it his heart fell to his stomach, reading over the childish script:

You mustn't follow me. This is my mission and I must follow it myself. She will kill Jenny. Go home and I'll see you soon.

I am deeply sorry Edward.

Forever yours, Mary.

His fingers crumbled the paper before reaching for the desk, grabbing it as he leaned back to throw it on to the other side of the room. A thousand thoughts began to fire in his mind, rushing to him before he could comprehend them all. Where had she gone? What had she learned last night? Why did she leave him? What did she mean Jenny was going to die?

Edward screamed, slamming his fist into the wall.

This wasn't her fight yet Mary seemed to feel the need to save the world all by herself. He fell to his knees, running his hand through golden locks before staring out the window as a seagull flew into the sky, dancing into the sunlight.

He'd find her, he had to. But he needed the only person he knew would help him: perhaps if he begged.

He needed Ade.