Title: What Shall We Die For?
Author: Laura/icedpoison/SugarNeko
Pairing: none really, mention of NorringtonxOFC (Bella)
Notes: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR AWE~! Though, kinda...not really. Whatever XD
The fleet spanned out in front of them, all gold and blue and huge billowing sails. They were clearly outnumbered; 20 to hundreds. Expectant eyes were peering towards the Pearl, waiting for the signal from their ‘king’.
Was the Captain of the Rose nervous? Bloody hell, of course she was. This was the biggest event she had ever taken part in. And it was the most dangerous to date. She was nervous and scared. But this was something worth fighting for, worth giving her life for.
The Seas were never meant to be controlled…they were meant to be free.
Looking upon her crew, the blonde made a decision. They all had to fight. Some would die, that was for sure, but they all wanted the same thing: freedom. Beckett would never control them. He would never have their freedom.
“Listen, everyone!”
Heads turned and eyes set on Belladonna’s face as the woman pushed past them all. Her husband was faithfully on her heels before he lengthened his stride to walk beside her.
“Belladonna…it is not too late…”
She ignored him, sprinting to the wheel. Once there, bright green eyes scanned upon her crew, then shifted to look at all the other pirate vessels in the vicinity. It seemed as if Elizabeth was doing something similar, giving a speech to the crew to bring their spirits up.
Belladonna had to do this; she owed the pirating world this much. Sure, she may have been brought up in that posh life…but these people; they were more like family to her than anything. And as her eyes flicked to James’ face, he knew it as well.
This was their world now.
“Listen to me…all of you!”
When her voice resounded again, the deck went silent. Every single set of eyes was trained on the blonde.
“I know you are scared and I know you are thinking all is lost! Believe me…I feel the same. I know how easy it would be to surrender now, save your skins, turn tail and run…but would it be right to do so?”
Natashia suddenly pulled free from the crowd, making her way up the set of stairs to stand at her Captain’s side, “Could you live with yerselves if you gave up now? Knowing that everythin’ Belladonna ‘as done for you would go to waste?”
That apparently hit home. Bella had given so much to keep her crew alive. She loved them all, treated them like family. Provided many of them with new lives and new hopes; things to dream for.
“We cannot let them win!” the woman said, “Beckett will not rest until the Sea is his! Until every last pirate is gone!”
Suddenly, someone else was at her side, curling an arm around her shoulder. Bella glanced upwards, letting dark-rimmed eyes focus on James’ profile.
“If it is determined that we shall all die in the end…well then…we will not go down without a fight!” he said, squeezing his wife’s shoulder gently. “We will show Lord Beckett and his men that we will not run, we will not be silenced, not now, not ever!”
The small cheer from the deck erupted into a loud wave of sound. The blonde let her hand rest over James’, allowing their fingers to lace together. And in the midst of the shouting and cheering, each knew this might be the last time they were ever together. Either, or both, could die in the fight to come. While the thought genuinely scared them both, they were ready. With their destinies entwined…it was almost guaranteed they’d be together in the end.
A shrill cry echoed through the charged air, “Hoist the colors!”
So Natashia mimicked it, “You heard them, hoist the colors!”
A sea of flags was being raised. All 9 pirate lords were pulling up flags of multiple colors and patterns, pulling swords from sheaths and cocking pistols. The Deadly Rose’s flag whipped as it was raised, the bleeding rose stabbed through with a knife. It had been her calling card for years…this vessel was where her mother died, perhaps even where Bella would die as well.
James pulled his arm from her shoulders and slid his rapier from its sheath, pointing towards the enemy, “Are we ready to fight for freedom?”
Metallic sounds reverberated off the wood of the Rose and bounced off the sides of other ships, followed by hollering and calling. Belladonna unsheathed her own sword, staring as the light glinted from the blade. Once the noise died down, Bella pointed the tip towards the HMS Endeavor.
“Well then, loves,” she said, following it up with a dark smirk. “Let’s give them hell!