Passing Ships | Our flag means death

Dark clouds

After throwing away Lucius, Ed had changed drastically. In the morning he emmerged from his chambers dressed in his old Blackbeard garb, kohl smudged around his eyes and jaw. After paying Izzy a visit and chopping off his toe, he summoned the crew to the deck and surveyed them with cold eyes. Everything about him had frozen over, nothing of the kind Ed remained.

He barked orders at them, instructing them to remove all the books from the Captains chambers and throw them into sea. When they hesitated he just shouted louder, stripping the room bare of anything that linked back to the man who left him.

Once that job was done, Blackbeard ordered Izzy to lock Stede's crew in the brig until they found a bit of land to dump them on. Things were looking bleak on the Revenge but Izzy was enjoying every moment of it, elated to have his old captain back and as vicious as before.

---

It had been two weeks since Stede had left and Blackbeard had just finished another raid on a ship, allowing his thin crew to gather the spoilings while he retired to his quarters. He had spent a lot of time in there over this period of time. It was the only place where the silence was so loud it hurt more sharply than the constant dull ache in his chest. In a way the silence was more bearable, it drowned out the dull ache and encouraged anger to take its hold. Anger was easier to manage than saddness. It made him stronger. Even in these moments when the Blackbeard mask cracked and tears streaked through the kohl. All the while that lighthouse painting mocked him. A reminder of what-- who stede had left him for.

---

Another two weeks passed and the Revenge was finally docking at the Republic of Pirates to throw out the 'play things' Stede called a crew.. They were ushered off the ship with nothing but the clothes on their back as Izzy watched on smugly, not hiding his clear amusement. They dragged their feet away and disapeared into the crowd to find their next move when a flash of bright, fine frabric caught their eye. Surely not..

Oluwande chased after that bright teal and caught the arm of the man, utter disbelief on his face as Stede whipped his head around to face him. The Gentleman pirate grinned and embraced him, overjoyed to see a familar face. The group decided to go the tavern to catch up, all of them eager to know where Stede had been.

So Stede told them about the cutting words of the Admiral, the family he left, how he returned to them but they were better off without him. Even how he faked his death and travelled back to Republic of Pirates in hopes to find out where the Revenge was. Some of the crew were more quick to forgive than others but Stede had other issues to deal with.

"So ah...Where's Blackbeard? Is he here too?" Stede nervously questioned.

The crew exchanged glum looks before Black Pete spoke up "He's gone crazy. At first he looked pretty cool but it wasn't so cool when he locked us up for like a month. And Lucius has gone missing but he won't say where he is. It's pretty scary on there actually."

Stede shook his head and stood "This is not right at all. This is all my fault. I'm sorry I left you all and caused this but I will set things right. Now lets go take back our ship!" He voiced, hurrying them all towards the docks. They were still reluctant to trust the captain that abandonded them but he was all they had at the moment.

Apprehension filled Stede as he approached his old ship. He didn't know what he would say to Ed but he hoped it would come to him in the moment.

One foot on. Then the next. He looked around when movement caught his eye. Blackbeard emerged from the captains room and dropped his bottle when he saw Stede, shattering glass filling the tense silence.