Passing Ships | Our flag means death

Black Dahlias

"But... We can hardly leave in the middle of the party," Stede mumbled, glancing behind them and then to Izzy with apprehension.

Ed looked between them both, chewing on his lip as he debated whether he's forgiven or even trusts his old right hand after all the schemes he pulled, but... maybe he should take a leaf from Stede's book and show a little kindness. He always admired how the Gentleman pirate saw the good in people, unlike all other pirates who fuck people over and expect everyone to fuck them over as well.

"C'mon, my love, I'm sure we'll be right back. It won't take long," Ed encouraged, taking his hand as they followed Izzy down small lanes and to the nearby beach. Stede didn't trust the wily little man as far as he could throw him and every step caused such a visceral reaction in his gut but he continued walking. He trusted his husband with his life and his judgement was good enough for him.

The first thing of notice once they reached their destination were two men stood facing away from them at the shoreline; one had neat silver hair and a dark jacket and as his ageing face turned to them he instantly recognised him as the man he stabbed. Hornigold. The man to his right was unmistakably Fang.

"I thought, uh, you could sort things out with your old captain. So you would have one less enemy. He and I have actually quite hit it off on our ah...mutual dislike for Bonnet. So he agreed to bury the hatchet with you," Izzy explained, noticing the look of panic on the couple's faces.

"Wow, Izzy, that's actually...quite thoughtful of you," Blackbeard mused, finally leaving his husband's side to greet Hornigold, shaking his outstretched hand with a smile. Then everything happened so quickly that it was a disorientating blur.

Hornigold twisted Ed's arm into an inescapable restraint, with Izzy assisting in holding him as he thrashed, while Fang imprisoned Stede in his stocky arms. Izzy raised a gun to Ed's head and the lovers locked wide, horrified eyes as each feared more for their partner's life than their own, squirming desperately to reach out to each other. A large hand covered Stede's eyes just as a gunshot thundered through the still air and pure, undiluted terror like nothing he had felt before flooded him as he clawed at the hand over his eyes like a wild animal. Before he could survey the situation and confirm if his fears were true, a blunt force to the back of his head had him crumpling to the sand.

When he awoke again, the men were nowhere to be seen and instead Jim was shaking him back to consciousness. They were speaking but the words were distant, numbed by his chest caving in as if a wall of bricks had fallen onto it, the grief and shock far too immense for such a frail human body to bear. It felt as though he was at the very bottom of the ocean, crushed by the sheer pressure as everything around him became muted and his lungs hyperventilated for air it could not find. It felt more like dying than any stab or slash he's endured yet. A sharp sting from a hand against his cheek snapped his senses back into place, "Look at me," Jim gritted out through clenched teeth, "Look at me, Stede. Where is Blackbeard?"

"Gone.." was all he could rasp.

"What? What do you mean gone? Did Izzy take him away? Where is he?" They held their captain's face in front of theirs as they tried to get through to him. Jim had noticed Izzy's arrival and decided to trail them just to make sure they were okay when they heard a gunshot and came running, only to see Stede in the sand and a small dinghy sailing away

"He's gone, he's gone... oh my god, he's gone," He continued to mutter with a voice that cracked from the pain, tears now spilling from agonised eyes as he let out a strangled sob.

"D-did he get shot? Do you mean gone as in.. dead?" They inquired, dropping his face as they stood to scan the beach. There was not a drop of blood in sight which was bizarre if a murder did occur but that was all they could deduce, there was no other evidence to indicate what took place here.

"Yeesh alright, vamonos pobrecito," Jim heaved the man off his knees, holding an arm over their shoulders as they helped him walk back to his home, collapsing as soon as they were spotted by the rest of their friends and they hurried to take over carrying the grief-stricken man. Once he was laid down in bed, they collected in the kitchen, the mood far more sombre than the merry one from an hour ago.

"Widowed on your wedding day...wow," Black Pete spoke, breaking the sullen silence, "that is as bad as it gets"

"Yeah no shit," Lucius snapped in between biting at his cuticles, a nervous habit of his.

"Hey, we don't know that Ed's dead for sure yet. I mean, what would Izzy even gain from killing him? It was always Stede he hated so why not him," Jim mused, tapping the palm of their hand with the hilt of their dagger as they pondered.

"I don't know, he was always a been a little bit of a sadomasochist, maybe he'd rather see his captain dead than retiring from pirating" Frenchie added, earning nods of agreement from everyone else in the room.

"No, no something isn't adding up here. When I found Stede he had been knocked out so why just knock him out, why not kill him along with Blackbeard? And why go to the trouble of taking away his body with you if you did kill him?" Continued Jim.

"Well if he's still alive and Izzy has him, why don't we just chase after them. And if he is actually dead then we can get our revenge on Izzy anyway," Black Pete piped up but he was quickly settled down by Lucius' placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Babe, Stede needs us now more than ever, we can't go running after him for revenge, it's not our place. Besides, we don't even have a boat," He lectured, another gloomy silence settling on the room.

---

Four days passed after that and Stede had not once left his bedroom, uttered another word or even opened his mouth to drink or eat; one of the crew would have to visit and practically force-feed him any kind of sustinance. Whenever he was visited, his eyes never truly focused on the person before him, he was so far detached from everything that he did not feel any dehydration or hunger, only a hollowness that filled him, leaving no room to desire anything else. Grief had ravaged his soul and left him a husk that slumbered for hours on end just so he didn't have to face the dismay that smothered him every time he awoke. However, an unexpected visitor had him finally venturing as far as his front door to greet the stranger.

"Hiya! I'm Michel, one of Jackie's husbands. Also, the man who bought your boat. She mentioned you might need to borrow it actually," The stranger chirped with a genial smile, shaking Stede's hand before rummaging in his satchel, "She also told me to give you this"

Stede took the small, slightly singed parchment and when he opened it, he was swarmed with so many emotions his knees threatened to buckle. Leaning on the door frame, he stared at the recognisable scrawled letters that he held with trembling fingers. The words were cryptic and hard to understand but they were undoubtedly Blackbeard's and below them were two locations; this one and a sailing route.