I do not own Soul Eater or any other character (hahahah get the pun?)

A/N: Hello hello! It's been three years since I updated this story! Well I'm in university now and upon re-reading my old high school writing style and therein realizing how absolutely shot my skills were back then, I've decided to rewrite this story for all those old and new who like my little pirate AU.

One big thing I'm changing is my usage of movie quotes. Apparently my former self sought to use other script writer's brilliance in her story. So there'll be none of that and any you find will be completely accidental (and please let me know if I accidentally quote another story or movie). For those of you who have read the story before, I apologize that the plot remains the same, just a hopefully better and more improved reading experience from a new writing style as typed by me hopefully three years more mature in writing stories.

Speaking of which, here's a little fun fact: ALL OF MY STORIES ON HERE WERE WRITTEN BY AN 8TH GRADER-SOPHOMORE IN HIGH SCHOOL (depending on when the story was published).

One thing I'm not going to change is my lack in long descriptive character descriptions. You all know what they look like, and Gods forbid I force you to my own imagination of what alluded characters in Soul Eater look like (ex. Kami). And for both story setting and Soul Eater purposes, Death City is going to be in England. The U.S. doesn't have kings!

So, massive apologies. Moving on…

"Yo ho…yo ho…"

"…a pirate's life for me…"

A little girl sang in a whispered tone, clutching onto the edge of her ship. She was on a rather large sea vessel, owned by the King of her country, on its way home after a journey to a different country to negotiate a peace treaty. Her father, a diplomat, admiral, and the King's most trusted advisor, was one of the actors in this conference. As per usual, the girl and her mother decided to tag along, quenching the thirst of both their curiosities of the world. The Admiral often questioned how the two most important women he was granted in his life turned out to lack a sense of settling down.

"Maka, get away from there." A tall, beautiful woman in an elegant gown headed to the side of the ship, and grabbed her daughter from behind, pulling her away from the boundary separating the child from wood and sea.

"But mum, there's another ship over there!" The five-year old pointed in the direction of the edge she was previously standing by. "Do you suppose they're the friendly sort?"

"A ship?" The older version of the child let her gaze follow her outstretched arm, staring across into the fog, which may or may not have been getting thicker.

But for an instance, the cloudy screen dispersed long enough for the woman to see that sure enough, another whip was making its way towards them. What alarmed her was the close proximity between the two vessels; the foreign one was close enough the two of them were able to hear the creaking noises of it. In a somewhat eerie way, the winds began to blow in the other ship's favor, minimizing the space between them, and bringing its ominous atmosphere with it.

The older woman knelt down to look at her daughter at eye level, and grabbed her hand. "Sweetheart, be a dear and go to Stein." She placed a hand to the child's cheek. "Mummy will be back. Promise me you won't leave Stein's side, no matter what?"

"Yes, mum." The child quickly agreed. Her mother placed a kiss on her forehead and stood up.

As fast as her little feet would run, the young girl ran to the man her mother mentioned, holding her dress up so she wouldn't trip. The other members on the ship quickly parted out of the child's way when she ran past them, doting over the small child and her small sounding footsteps. She was precious on the ship, the King's navy men treated her as if she were their own daughter.

When she reached the grey-haired man, despite his young age, he took picked her up, letting her sit on his elbow so he could see her eye-to-eye. He bobbed up and down to entertain the small girl after she told him she found him under her mother's orders. But from time to time, the man stole glances at the other ship, and during those short amounts of time his smile would turn to concern, before he re-enacted joy for the little girl in his arms.

After her daughter scampered off, the woman quickly strode in the opposite direction, walking up some stairs to enter the captain's quarters, which laid right below the wheel. Without knocking on the door, she barged in to see her husband talking around a table with a few other men.

"Kami?" The red-headed man exclaimed as the others turned around to stare at said woman. "We're in the middle of a meeting."

"There is a ship nearing." She said in a worried tone, out of breath from moving in haste and eyes looking alarmed. The atmosphere in the room thickened in an instance; nothing scared Kami Albarn. "And it is not one of ours."

"It wouldn't be from Russia, now would it?" A dark skinned Commander asked his superior. "We've just come from there. Tsar and Feodor would have notified us."

Kami shook her head. "It wasn't coming from that direction."

The Admiral's expression tensed. With time being of the essence, he quickly gathered his thoughts and with a defiant voice, gave his orders. "Sid, gather the men. Tell them to ready the canons. Joe, steer this ship off course. We'll not have them following us home. Give ourselves as much distance as we can. The rest of you, prepare for an attack."

"You're going to fire at them?" His wife exclaimed, walking to his table as the Admiral's soldiers excused themselves from his quarters. The man walked around the table to stand before her once the two of them were alone.

"No. We need to be ready when they attack us."

"Any ship that is not ours, is an enemy, yeah?" She quoted.

"I really wish you'd have become an Admiral with me after graduating the academy. You were top of the class." He said, alluding to her memory of the academy's teachings. He brought his hands to cup her cheeks. "Is she safe?"

"Yes, I sent her to Stein." She responded. "Our darling, Maka." She whispered, and brought her own hand to her husband's cheek. "I pray she will forget this day."

He took the wrist of the hand on his cheek, pulling it over his shoulder to bring her into a kiss. "She is ours, and so I'm sure she will be strong. She's brave, just like you."

Suddenly, a loud bang was heard from outside the quarters and the ship rocked to one side, forcing the couple to hold onto each other and the nearby table for support to keep balance. He instructed his wife to stay there, quickly gave her one last kiss, and ran out onto the deck.

He saw smoke for a few seconds, but once it cleared it gave him full view of what laid before him. Many of his men were injured, others attending to them and carrying them to safety. Pieces of wood were scattered all across the deck, the sound of cracking wood surrounding them. They had surely been hit by a canon, but luckily this one merely grazed the top of the deck, but unfortunately it was the most populated part of the ship, so whilst the vessel was still intact, the manpower was not.

Perhaps they hadn't been so lucky, if that was not an unstrategized attack.

Another blow came as he stood there, rocking the ship once more. There were a few more screams this time, but somehow, amidst the newly arisen smoke, he spotted a dark-skinned woman making his way to him.

"The starboard's been hit, sir." Commander Nygus informed him. "We're firing the canons as much as fast as we can, but over half of our men are down, sir, and the other half are strewn between tending to the injured and assisting in the battle."

The Admiral coughed into his sleeve, some of the smoke getting to him, before responding. "They're somehow aiming at the men, not the ship. Tell them to set them back, but not to provoke them into destroying the ship as well. If we can manage that with what men we have left, hopefully we can get some more distance. That's our only option."

"Yes, sir." She nodded, and hurried to get below deck.

Once the smoke cleared again, the Admiral raised his voice at its highest. He pointed. "Joe, steer us away from them! You men!" He pointed to his right. "Grab your gun and head to the stern whilst Joe makes the turn-around! Do what you can to keep them from following!"

"Yes, sir!"

He pointed to his left. "You men, bring the wounded to safety! Find the ones healed enough to at least fire a gun even one handed if that's what it comes down to and send them to the stern as well! We'll need as much man power as we can muster!"

"Yes, sir!"

The men scattered around the vessel in haste after his commands. He walked up the stairs to stand next to Joe at the wheel, so he could get a better grasp of the situation of his ship. He'd wished in that moment he could separate himself into dozens of Spirit Albarns to help all of his men, but for now the best he could do was direct them all in the best way possible to get them out of the mess.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the shrill cry of a little girl bombed the war filled air, and in response, a tall, beautiful woman emerged out of the room below where the Admiral was standing, and ran down the stairs.

"Kami!" He shouted and rammed himself against the balcony in front of the wheel. She was heading for their daughter, he didn't need the smoke to clear a view of the little girl, crouching in a corner behind some boxes to see it.

He wasn't kidding when he said she was brave.

He saw Stein standing in front of her, protecting her mostly from the debris that flew everywhere around them than from the attacks themselves. He had a grip on her arm, holding onto her for dear life so she wouldn't run away.

"She's with Stein! Come back!" He pleaded with his wife, now running down the stairs to chase after her across deck, but another canon fire subsequently blocked his path, and he saw his wife through the smoke in between coughing fits.

She, like her daughter, was holding onto the front of her dress so she wouldn't trip. She jumped over and maneuvered around the deceased and wounded bodies, dodging around the men scurrying everywhere to aid in the battle. Among her struggles emerged a new one; gunshots began passing through the air from all directions. The other ship had begun firing it seemed. Spirit cursed whatever force allowed the enemy ship to get close enough to theirs that their bullets for goodness' sake could actually aim at them.

Once again, he tried to make it on deck to follow her, the smell of gunpowder intoxicating the air in wake of the new player in the battle. He quickly ducked and missed a bullet, but fell right into the path of another one. He felt a sharp pain in his side before he realized what it was, and he fell to his knees, one hand clutching at the wound. The gunshot clearly came from the other ship, and he turned to the source of his wound.

No, it wasn't someone on the other ship that shot him.

It was someone from a damn rowboat that had made its way to his ship. He watched, his path blocked by fire and debris to get there, as the assailants climbed up the side of the vessel, barely dodging bullets his men were shooting down at them from over the ledge. He decided to turn back over to face his wife with wild eyes. She was frantic, pleading with the Gods to let her legs run faster than they were so she could reach her beloved child within the next second or so.

But a lot can happen in a second.

And in that second, all time seemed to stop.

"MAMA!" The child shrieked.

"KAMI!" The Admiral shouted in despair.

A tall, beautiful, courageous, and respected woman, laid to rest on the floor of the deck. Her elegant, inordinate gown, stained red, a sword sticking out from her corset.

Her hand, in grace with the floor, still reached out to her daughter.

The five-year old, in better view of the fall of the woman, watched as a man in heavy sounding clothing and thick boots grabbed the handle of the sword, and pulled it out of her mother. She looked up from the thundering boots to the red-stained sword, to the large gloved hand that grasped onto its handle. Due to the smoke and powder his face was hard for her to see, but she could make out a sliver of metal somewhere on his face, and messy spiked up dirty blonde hair. Strapped to his hip was a small cubed item that looked as if it was bolted together with a hammer and nails, holding the different parts of the cube together. Maka had seen the item before, stowed away in a chest in the cargo room below the deck of the ship. And there was the chest, in the corner of her eye, somehow above deck and looking as if it was brutally forced open.

She looked towards Stein for help, but he was on the ground, one hand over his left eye. He had fallen from a gunshot wound, and at the same time his face had rammed into something. There was a large gash that lead from the bridge of his nose, to below his left eye. She panicked. What could she do? She was quite frankly alone and helpless before the man who stood over her fallen mother.

"It's finally ours once more." She heard his gruff voice say. Then he turned to the ship's soldiers, and raised his sword up, his crew doing the same. "We be pirates!" He shouted to them. "Don't go forgettin' that!" He laughed extraordinarily loud, and shouted more demands to his men.

She couldn't understand what he said with his back to her, but whatever he said made the apparent pirates cheer and leave the ship.

But not before the five-year old's scared expression turned into pure rage.

She would never forget.

13 Years Later

An eighteen year old sat in front of a mirror, staring at herself while a maid brushed her hair. Maka Albarn had certainly grown to be a full fledged woman of high respects and manners in their society, with an uncanny knack for knowledge through her literary interests in learning through books. Her studies were performed on her own with the help of a private tutor, which she technically didn't need since she read all the books anyways.

She stood up, hair now done, and fixed her dress from sitting down for so long, as well as adjusting her corset. She, rather more fortunately than not, had not exactly grown much in the chest area. Despite her small inferiority complex of it, this made corsets slightly more comforting for her; though for her fellow ladies who sported much more blossomed chests, the corsets did wonders for them, especially when it came to being courted.

She hasn't not been courted, don't get her wrong. In fact she was quite content knowing whoever desired the opportunity to ask for her hand in marriage would want her for her, and not because her chest sported a mirroring image of what she perceived to be a buttcrack.

At least, that analogy made her feel better about it.

But none of the suitors she'd either been set up with or met at a gala satisfied her. They either went for her because their first choice had turned them down, or because her father was the closest man to the King despite a lack of a royal title, or because there seemed to be a bet placed on the young adults of high society on which unfortunate man would end up with the flat-chested bookworm of England, whom still wore pigtails.

Her mother used to put her hair in pigtails all the time, that's why she kept them. But quite obviously, the others did not know that little fact of her choice in hair fashion.

She dismissed her maid and exited the room. She lived in the palace, sharing the home of the King of Death City, England, Lord Death. Her father, the Admiral Spirit Albarn, was Lord Death's right hand man; one could imagine the kind of influence she held over the country.

Said man had just happened to have been heading towards her room to greet her in the morning. The red-haired man was donning his Admiral's uniform, his hate tucked neatly under his arm. "Maka, you are the mere image of your mother." He complimented. "And every bit the woman she was."

Maka didn't even both glancing at him. "I'm headed to the scaffold. There's an execution scheduled." She simply responded, giving him the cold shoulder.

After her mother's death, Spirit had taken to a rather odd form of grieving. He took to women as a vent for dealing with his loss, trying to find the perfect woman to replace his deceased wife. All the women he met within the last dozen or so years were, enjoyable at least, and as the King's confidant the amount of these women was no small number, but none of them could fill the void. Spirit never believed that he would be able to find one who could, and so began his "dating" habit.

But this did not come without cost. Even at such a young age, Maka admired her mother the most, and witnessing her bravery at running across a ship battlefield to protect her left Maka feeling very proud about whom she came from and had grown up trying to replicate the independence and courage of Kami Albarn. Her father's recent disregard of women, going through them so quickly, did much to help foster that independence she so admired from her mother.

And as the years went by, these two turned their father-daughter relationship into something that could only be compared in the way Spirit acted as one of Maka's suitors, only her suitors actually did better at winning her attention. She respected her father's ranking as Admiral and his unprecedented strength and wit when acting as such, but as a regular person of society, even as her father, she despised the man.

Spirit had told her multiple times that he loved her and her mother still when she questioned how he couldn't have had the decency to spend more time with her as she grew up than with all of those women, which was a valid argument because when looking for someone similar to Kami to fill the void she would be the obvious choice, no? That was what he always answered when she questioned him on his womanly escapades, that no matter what he did, or didn't do in regards to his absence in her growing years, he loved the two of them very much. This only made her despise him even more.

"Are you in need of an escort?" He asked.

"Yes, actually, I am." Spirit beamed momentarily until she looked over his shoulder and smiled. "And there he is now."

He turned around to see that she was waving at Lord Death's son, Kid. He was in his royal attire, the gold matching the color of his eyes. Spirit had lived in the palace with Lord Death years before Maka was born, and being the same age and living in the same place, she and Kid had grown up together. It was also due to their childhood friendship that Kid was never to be one of her suitors, despite Spirit and even Lord Death's pressuring. Maka was quite set on marrying for love, not wanting to be like one of the women her father recently saw, and Kid was never more than her best friend. The feeling was mutual, in a sense that Kid also never gave thought to courting Maka for marriage. In fact, she was quite certain he did not care for marriage in the slightest. He believed he could succeed his father so long as there was balance and order in the world, regardless of if he was married or not. Of course, the topic of needing to produce an heir would be brought up, but Kid would have none of it.

And neither would Maka, when they so indiscreetly looked to her when that topic came up.

The King's son approached them, hands behind his back. He gave Spirit a nod, which the latter took as his cue to dismiss himself after his daughter's blatant rejection. He left the two of them alone in the hallway, whispering to himself plans to try harder to win back his daughter's love.

"Are you ready for the hanging?" He asked.

Ever since that day when she was five, she absolutely loathed pirates. They had subsequently ripped away the normalcy in her family life; took away her mother and lead her father to the path he was on. Because of some apparent hidden evil in her that found enjoyment in watching them hang for their crimes, she often went to witness the executions with Kid, who opted a lady of high society should not go to those proceedings alone. It wasn't exactly a gruesome thing to watch, loads of men and women and children from all classes enjoyed a hanging every now and then, but it was just the thing of it, watching someone die before your eyes.

That of course, was not something new to the eighteen year old.

She was about to reply with a nod, but then she noticed something hanging around her friend's neck. It was a gold key, and it was real gold as far as she could tell, but it looked eerily familiar to her. "What's that?" She asked, pointing to it.

"This little trinket?" He took it off and dropped the necklace with the key into Maka's quite grabby hands when she wanted a closer look at it. "Just a key."

Her eyes widened as she examined it more thoroughly. "Kid, do you have any idea what this is?"

"I reckon it's something important?" He raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, wary of her wide grin.

She shoved it into his face. "This is the key to the Book of Eibon!"

Kid let out a sigh. "You're not still going on about that ancient novel, are you? It's a myth, Maka,"

"Where did you get it?" She asked, ignoring his remarks. She grabbed his arm in a death grip, trying to hold in her excitement. She was not about to let this go. She'd read about the key and the book it unlocks plenty of times in novels tucked away in the shelves of the castle library; particularly the restricted ones.

He put his hand over hers and less than gently ripped her hands off of his sleeve. "Confiscated it from one of the prisoners." He said simply, as if to answer her question in order to shut her down about the topic, but he should've known answering her questions would just rile her up even more.

Although he had pried her hands off of him, she clutched his wrist again and started running down the hall, dragging him with her. "Well come along then! Show me who it was!"

"You're going the wrong way!"

.⌠∞⌡.

She had put the key and chain around her own neck for safekeeping and as a convenience. Kid and Maka asked a guard to lead them towards the chambers, requesting to give an audience to one of the cellmates. Kid led Maka down the hallway of the dirtiest part of the palace, looking left and right through rusted metal bars and ambient groaning noises to look for the man he had confiscated the key from. Maka followed from a few feet behind, interested in seeing what kind of people judgment was to be brought upon. She was mixed with both feelings of hatred for most of them were pirates, but also curiosity at their story. How bad were their crimes? How did they finally get caught? What caused their death sentence?

About a dozen cells from the entrance, Kid finally stopped in front of one, and turned around one-eighty to face Maka as she caught up with him. "This is the one."

She turned her body to face the metal bars, unfortunately one of the more rusted ones, and saw a boy, leaning against the farthest wall. He seemed to her around her age, despite the white hair he had, dirtied and tangled by the muck and grime. The light to his cell blocked by the two figures caught his attention, and he lifted his head up to look at the two nobles. That's when she noticed the red color of his eyes, which only struck her as even more odd than his hair. Captivating was the first word that came to her mind when trying to describe them. She didn't know if it was the stark white hair or the odd eye color but he was rather tan, at least, much tanner than her. Perhaps it was the dirt again.

He was wearing a loose long sleeved shirt that dipped very low in the chest area, revealing a questionable scar across the diagonal of it, and brown pants. Both were covered in small rips and dirt and probably traces of blood because what else is red? Certainly not rum. He was barefoot, she noticed, but was not surprised. All prisoners are forced to be barefooted.

"What brings you fine people to my lovely abode?" He sneered, his low yet youthful voice echoing in his cell. Maka shivered slightly, the tone of his voice seemed to have reached even her. He pushed himself off the wall and walked to the bars, hands on his hips. She saw that they were handcuffed; loosely might she add because he was by no means had scrawny narrow hips. She quickly averted her gaze back up to his face. What was she thinking? Of course he looked strange but that did not mean she had the gall to analyze him! He was a pirate, and they were all the same, despite outward appearances. "Is this a broad you've got with you?" He asked Kid, and seemingly mocking Maka's former actions, scanned her up and down, though where she focused on his hips for crying out loud, he paused at her chest. "Come on, you can do better." He mocked.

At first, her immediate reaction was of course anger and some violence if it came down to it, but Kid putting his hand on her shoulder knowing what she was thinking and her ultimate goal, she bit her tongue. She had to be the better person because clearly, he was lacking in manners, unlike her. "Maka." She tried to say as pleasantly as a person can when gritting their teeth. She needed to get on his good side. After he failed to return the greeting with his own name, she reached towards her neck, grabbed the chain and held the key up. "This is yours, I believe.

"It was." He shot a look at Kid.

She let it rest against her chest again. "So then you can take me to the Book of Eibon?"

He cocked an eyebrow, impressed if not pleasantly surprised at her boldness. She was most certainly not the type to beat around the bush, much to Kid's discomfort. He'd rather she not choose now of all times for this of all things to embrace her impulsive urges. The pirate looked over at Kid for his reaction to her question, and quickly noted that he did not agree with his friend's blatant statement. However, this girl in front of him looked very determined. Very. There was something in her green eyes that irked him and pushed him around, though he couldn't tell if it was because those green eyes were a shimmering hope for him in that moment.

He knew, of course, of what she was speaking of. The oldest treasure in existence, one of the tools used by the Great Old One, Eibon. He was one of the most prosperous pirates to have ever claimed the sea as his home, until he died a very undramatic death for someone as rich in stories and experience as him, centuries ago. He was very famous, so it would be hard to not have heard of Eibon. But to have heard of the tools that were claimed to be the key, no pun intended, to his prosperity being hidden around the world; well, there's a reason none have been found yet.

He gave them a haughty smile. "S'pose I know where it is."

Kid's eyes widened and he panic-glanced at Maka, whose eyes were already gleaming ever brighter and repeated the part of her question he'd failed to answer. "Can you take me there?" She half asked, half expected.

The two boys then seemed to have noticed the sound of multiple footsteps in boots coming their way, while Maka kept her gaze locked on the boy on the other side of the bars. As the noise came closer, they were able to hear mixed conversations from the talking amongst the men who were most certainly getting closer as the voices got louder.

"Sure, yeah, fine, whatever." His nonchalant personality seemed to dwindle out of him as the length of his time thinned. He forcefully grabbed the bars in front of Maka, handcuffs jingling and jangling loudly against the rusted metal. He looked her straight in the eye, and she froze. "Just get me the hell outof here."

And then Maka and Kid were forced to step aside as multiple guards in uniform made their way to his cell, and unlocked the door. Through the huge shuffle of men and the shouting of the soldiers to one another they couldn't see what was going on until they all made it out of the cell with their backs facing the two of them. Two guards each had one of the pirate's arms in their hands as the others walked behind and in front of them, the boy's handcuffs clanking around as he kept his hands together in front of him while being whisked away.

"Wait! Where are you taking him?" She tried to ask them, but they were already nearing the exit, too far away to hear her. She turned to Kid. "Where are they taking him?"

"To the scaffold. His hanging's scheduled for today."

"You mean he is the condemned pirate?" She shouted, then without thought gathered her dress into her hands so she could run after them. This boy could bring her to the most important book in the world, she was not letting him die!

Exiting the underground prison, Kid somewhere behind her, she heard an immediate cheering of the crowds. Oh how Death City citizens loved their executions. Though she was certainly one of them, this certain execution suddenly made her see the clapping and shouting from a different angle. She thought about how barely a few minutes earlier she was looking forward to witnessing the death of another pirate, just as she always had, and yet now she was running to save one's life.

Shoot to death her love of books.

That's what was making her do this anyways. Running out, she saw that the men had already made it to the gallows where he was being led to in all his mucky white-haired glory, still handcuffed as it were. She looked up, and spotted the warden seated where he always was, leading the entire event as he always did. There was a seat reserved for her in the same area, where she always sat when she watched the hangings; it had a good view. However this time, when she made her way up to her usual spot, she stood next to the warden's chair, where he was seated. Before speaking, she glanced below; the executioner was wrapping the noose around his neck.

"Justin Law." She both greeted and demanded. "Please release him. I will pay you one hundred pounds."

Like all the others in the palace, he too knew Maka since a young age. He was the one who nurtured this habit of hers to watch executions, having bringing her since she was a child as a sort of grieving effort in that she could watch 'revenge' be taken on pirates and hopefully feel better that way. So imagine his surprise when she had just begged him to release one!

"Pirate shopping now are we?" He commented back immediately. "If you've decided to enact torturous punishments yourself on these pirates trust you have my utmost support, love, but it doesn't work like that. I can't just release him, there'll need to be court hearing to decide if he can even evade the death penalty and then there'll be the paperwork and officials who need to sign but they're always busy with-"

"Four hundred pounds!" She cut him off with a raised voice as the warden began lifting his hand up, ready to give the signal to the executioner. "Sir, I need that man. He's the only one who knows where to find something I'm looking for." The warden paused and turned to her with a curious raised eyebrow, to which she concluded, "I will pay you five hundred pounds if you let him go."

"Maka, I am a man of divine justice. I can't just allow a condemned pirate to elude punishment just like that." He tried to persuade her.

She staggered a bit, knowing full well Justin's passionate regards for justice of crimes. However for her, his words only stalled her. She swallowed hard and sucked in her breath. "Eight hundred pounds." She offered one last time.

He didn't smile, or laugh, or say anything in response. They stared at each other for a few seconds, then he turned to the executioner and moved his hand horizontally. Relief rushed through her as she watched the executioner cut the rope, a very smug look on the pirate she'd just freed as a guard removed the noose from around his neck. In return, he looked back up at her with his red eyes, although that he was able to immediately find her in the crowd was a bit unsettling to her. His expression was unreadable to her, which annoyed her since she loved to read. She automatically assumed that he would be mouthing words of thanks to her or smiling at her at least, but he looked slightly frustrated. But nevertheless, she too put on a smug smile for herself; she had never felt more powerful in her life, or rich for that matter.

"I've been waiting for the day when you decided to follow your adventurous impulses. Though I would have never guessed you'd pay me to release a pirate for it." Justin said, standing up from his seat. Holding her money in one pocket, he put his other hand on her shoulder. "You are certainly Kami's daughter. Be safe with whatever endeavors you are about to face." But then he shrugged. "Or not. Recklessness is what makes things interesting."

She thanked the warden for his favor as he took his leave while the crowd too began dispersing. She heard him mutter something about executions now being put behind schedule, to which she silently apologized. Following the warden out, she headed back down to where the guards were going to free him. Releasing him from execution ultimately meant freeing him, so he could roam the seas again or whatever it was she thought pirates did.

She didn't think much about the details of what she'd just done, going against her beliefs and hatred of pirates, but the Book of Eibon of all things! The secrets and stories that it was supposed to hold, she'd do anything for it. And looking back to the fact she'd just essentially willingly bought a pirate, anything was anything. She found him being unhandcuffed outside of the palace. The guards a little too violently pushed him out away from the palace, subsequently kicking him out. She waited until they returned inside, the pirate rubbing his wrists from the handcuffs when she reached him.

"You owe me your end of the bargain." She said proudly, smiling from her excitement.

"And what made you think I'd keep it?"

"Because I just freed your arse and if you have any sense of the word 'parley' you should keep your end of the deal!" She huffed in anger. Of course she'd studied pirates and pirate terms, though their negotiation wasn't exactly 'parley' in either of theirs' eyes.

Suddenly, she felt something hard hit her on the head and a bladed hand slam into the side of her neck. The last comprehensible sight she saw before falling unconscious was the pirate she freed standing before her with both arms crossed, and then multiple boots from his seemingly companions walking up to him when her eyes finally closed.

.⌠∞⌡.

It was humid when she woke up. In fact, it was probably due to the discomfort from the foreign atmosphere that had caused her to wake up. She felt groggy from confusion as bits and pieces of scenes slowly put themselves together to form coherent memories. The enormous head throbbing did not help to speed up the process either as her mind both tried to regain conscious and figure out whether it should alarm her or not of her surroundings. She felt herself rocking back and forth. Wherever she was, the balance was completely unstable.

"…she's o' the wealthy sort."

Was the first thing her almost conscience heard, but her eyes failed to focus. Rather, she couldn't even lift her head up enough to see the source of the other voices that were with her. She had to settle with blurry visions of, dear Gods was that old wood?

"…what do we do with her?"

"S'not up to us, cap'n's orders."

She wiggled her body around to get a more physical understanding of her surroundings. She realized she wasn't laying down, she was actually sitting up. Her back was against a wooden pole, arms tied behind her and around it. Her hair was horridly out of place, and she thought firstly of how Kid would kick her ass if he saw how uneven her pigtails were now, one lower than the other. Her clothes felt slightly tarnished and battered, mud all over them, but concentrated on one side. Had she fallen down outside?

"…ransom...play around…bit…"

Her conscience would not yet allow her to hear their full conversation, but she could see more of the source of the voices. She saw boots, wet and beaten up, and then the tip of swords that must be strapped to their waists and hanging from there. Unintentionally, she winced at a sudden sharp pain at concentrating too hard.

"Oi, the lass is wakin' up."

Her immediate reaction was to play ragdoll and pretend she was still asleep, but then she felt her hair suddenly pulled and her head yanked up, her body along with it. Had the man truly just pulled her to stand up like some vegetable being pulled from the ground? Her? A noble? Not only that, but he had a knife in his hand, and was currently ghosting over her cheek with it.

"Such fair skin." The one who held her by the hair commented. His skin was lightly tanned, unlike his dark hair, which was pulled back into one messy spiky ponytail. He turned to his comrade, who just stood by and watched. "Aye Kilik, you think if I rough 'er up a bit the cap'n won't mind?"

That last sentence should have frightened her, she knew it, but she wasn't scared. Not one bit. She hated pirates and the loathsome feeling that boiled in her was giving her enough courage to give them a disgusted glare. Her hate for them was certainly stronger than her fear of them, which her common sense was currently trying to scream at her to have more of.

"Lay another one of your filthy hands on me and I shall have you hanging by the noose in the morning!" She spit in his face.

He let her go immediately so he could use his freed up hand to wipe her saliva off of his face. His grip on the knife tightened when he finished. Matching her own expression, he shot back a nasty look but before he could lunge at her his companion quickly grabbed him from behind, holding him back.

"Calm down Harvar! This one's special." His friend scolded. He had dark skin which matched his even darker eyes and hair, which was also pulled back but in cornrows instead. "That captain will have our heads if we-!"

"If you what."

A familiar low, rough voice interrupted. The two men stopped struggling, freezing in the silence that filled the room. The two of them turned around, the man called Kilik still holding the so called Harvar from behind. After realizing who the figure from which the voice came from was, they quickly split apart and stood straight as a board. Maka moved her head to see what could have made these men stiff in their boots.

He was standing there, arms crossed and one shoulder leaning against the opening of the doorway, a sword strapped to his hip. He was certainly more cleaned up than when she last saw him. He wore the same loose long sleeved shirt and pants, only this time he had on black boots to cover his feet. In that moment she found it amazing what a sword and some shoes can do to a person, because he somehow looked more respected and presentable; well, as much as a pirate could be.

"N-Nothing Captain!" Kilik replied.

"We 'ere jus' messin' around, sir." Harvar added.

Without uncrossing his arms he lifted his weight off the frame of the door and walking in Maka's direction. His eyes focused on his two men, each of his steps accentuated, bolder and heavier as he walked further in.

"Give me that." He ordered and forcefully grabbed the knife out of the other man's hand; never once did he stop walking. Then his eyes turned to her and his steps' direction came her way. "Now here be a fine young lady." He smirked, playing with the tip of the blade.

The sight of this repulsive man so close in her sights stirred something in her. "You. When I paid for your release that did not include knocking me unconscious and tying me to a pole like some prisoner!" She shouted, struggling against her binds for emphasis. Oh if he could only get closer, she could headbutt him.

"I like to use the word 'guest', it sounds less…forced."

"Then may I ask the name of my 'host' so I can remind the warden to lock you back up." She spat the last few words at him. What was she thinking, trusting a pirate to keep his side of the bargain? She'd remind herself to re-evaluate how passionate she should be about her books from now on. But before doing that, she'd remind herself to muster up the courage to ask Justin to arrest him again; oh the endless lecturing she would endure about how impossible it is for man to evade justice.

He smiled, entertained by this noble. She had some spark to her. With no hesitation, he stepped closer to her, and plunged the knife into the wooden pole right next to her head, to which she flinched for a short moment before returning to her death glare. He leaned forward, getting dangerously close. "I'd suggest putting that cheeky tongue of yours back into your kisser. You're on my territory now, angel."

"What do you mean." She demanded, rather than asked.

She watched as he took a step back, returning the large space between them as quickly as he'd destroyed it. He opened his arms wide in a greeting style. "Welcome aboard the Nidhogg." He beamed. "Where you'll find yourself among the finest crew on the finest ship of the sea, captained by none other than yours truly."

She scoffed. "The Nidhogg? That damned boat only exists in ghost stories."

He once again closed the space between them, but instead of leaning forward he simply settled with looking down at her as he reached for the knife. "So does the Book of Eibon and look what happened there." He said as he ripped the knife out of the wood, eyeing the key. It was then she noticed it was still around her neck; why hadn't he taken it from her?

"And the Flying Dutchman, suppose he exists too." She sarcastically mocked.

"Nope, took that pitiful man out years ago." He began brushing the splinters off of it with his fingers, sliding them up and down the blade as if he was sharpening it. "Didn't put much of a fight. Took his bloody red hat from him and then he went ballistic."

She gave him a hard glare. "I don't believe that." All the stories of the Flying Dutchman and the fear he instilled in even the nastiest of pirates? Surely this boy couldn't have beaten him, and not so easily at least.

"Says the woman who wants me to take her to the Book of Eibon." He brought the knife up to her neck. "That's a right nasty myth you're wanting to mess with."

Maka was satisfyingly surprised with herself at how well she could keep her angrily composed face even near death, as he put pressure on the blade. But somehow, she knew he wouldn't dare harm her. She noticed the other two men in the room with them backed up slightly, watching them nervously. Pirates were cowards, she concluded.

But then in one quick motion, he threw the knife to his side, and Maka watched as it stabbed a farther wall, now sticking upright perpendicular to it. Well, that certainly made her lose her composure. He had thrown the knife into the oneopen spot on that wall amongst a cluster of other knives that likewise, stuck out. She didn't know if she was shocked at the precision of his throw or at the unnecessarily violent means of 'putting his knives away', if that's what one could call that anyways.

"Speaking of which…" He crossed his arms, looking back at her. "Hate to break it to you, but I don't actually know where this bloody book of yours is."

She couldn't decide if her heart sank to the depths of the ocean or if the temperature in her head rose to the height of the skies. She could not believe that a woman with her stature was imprudent enough to not only make a deal with a pirate, but also to having not considered the obvious; pirates were not to be trusted. And not even to mention her letting herself get kidnapped and trapped onto a pirate's ship, the freaking Nidhogg nonetheless.

Her eyes went from open wide in disbelief to thin slits where she thoroughly scowled at him, pretending to cut his heart out with her eyes. If he had a heart, that is. "Liar! You've got the key!" Well, right now she did but now was not the time for literal speaking.

"I nicked that little thing from a passerby ship, it's completely worthless."

The key was real. She knew that the item that hung around her neck was absolutely authentic and was as old as the Great Old Ones; she'd read too many books on it to not know every scratch on the thing. She decided if it was worthless to him, she'd just keep the bloody thing. Such a thing for a pirate to do, to steal such an important item and treat is as though it were as essential as vermin. It was one thing to pillage about, but to not know the worth of it? The boy in front of her was exactly the worst type of pirate, the kind that she despised the most.

Wait, what was his name?

"I paid eight hundred pounds for you so either return the sum to me and let me off or keep your damn end of the bargain!" She didn't like swearing much, it was unladylike, though in that moment it seemed to be the proper thing to do. But she knew the weakness in her words, she was not in a position to be making threats.

Not that she couldn't carry them out, at least.

Suddenly realizing that oh, they'd only tied up her wrists, she lifted a foot to deck the Captain right in his jewels. Problem was, he'd reacted too quickly, or her actions were too slow from her poor state, and he caught her ankle before her foot could reach its destination. He didn't say anything, but the way his tongue seemed to press his inner cheek and his eyebrows lifted in thought, he was not all too pleased.

Throwing her foot back down, he walked around her and began untying the rope around her wrists. While doing so, he leaned over the side of the pole and she could feel his breath on her ear when he more or less growled, "I warned you to watch yourself, love."

She didn't have time to process the danger in his words because as soon as her hands were free he put one hand on each of her shoulders and pushed her towards the Harvar and Kilik. She took the few seconds of freedom to consider running, but she was more logical than that. Where was there to run to? The sea?

"Take her onto deck." The Captain demanded as Kilik and Harvar each kept a firm hold on her arms. "I want her cleaning it by dawn."

"What about her clothes?" Kilik asked.

"What about them?"

"If we're to run into another ship, suppose what they'll think seeing one of the crew dressed in such a wealthy get-up. They might even think she's taken control over the ship."

The Captain thought about it for a little, as Maka stared at them all in disbelief. One of the crew! Even if she were to journey with them after the Book of Eibon, she never imagined it'd be as one of the crew. A guest of honor, perhaps. But she agreed, this dress was tiring her. All ripped and worn out, she wouldn't be caught dead in it. Although, since the possibility of that was rather high, she decided not to mock her clothing just yet.

After a moment of inconclusive thinking, the Captain pushed the three of them out of his quarters, groaning. "Figure it out yourselves." He said harshly and then slammed the door in their faces, leaving them on the balcony of the second highest part of the ship.

"Charming captain you've got." Maka jeered at the other two as they began leading her down the stairs onto the deck to meet with a certain woman whom they went to as a first resort.

"Rather handsome though, eh?" Kilik commented.

"He's got e'ery woman's eyes on this 'ere vessel." Harvar nodded in agreement. Maka rolled her eyes at the two.

"And I've just a sword and me trousers."

"No! That's quite a dashin' shirt you've got on there." Harvar pointed to him.

"You think so?"

"Frojm the bot'om of me boot."

"Thanks mate!"

"…"

"What you lookin' at me like that for?" Kilik asked.

"You oaf!" His companion slapped him on the top of his head. "Yer s'pose to comment me back."

"Well how the bloody hell am I supposed to know that?"

"It's common cour'esy."

"You want courtesy? Well here's your 'courtesy' ya git!" Kilik reached across Maka to punch him.

She sighed as the two men began to one arm fight each other.

Of all places to be taken hostage.

So if you've read my previous story, you probably recognize this.

Also, PLEASE DO NOT READ MY OLD STORY. Not only will it ruin the plot for you, but you'd have to suffer my horrid three-years-ago-writing-style!

Please Review :)

It keeps the crew fed and happy.

[And a well-fed crew means faster updates]