Season of the Tides (Pirates of the Caribbean)

31. Love in the form of Anger

How many times had Kaylee gotten too angry? She could honestly say that she wasn't sure, but there had been times that she was ready to kill; there was one specific time that she could remember that she nearly did kill.

With a Nature Queen, recalling moments like this could end badly for those around, which is one reason why she'd made Will leave.

She and Ronan had had an encounter with pirates in Narnia when she had been sixteen and he fifteen, they'd had to negotiate however they could to get Jace out of their clutches.

~

"This is absurd, you can't negotiate with pirates!" Ronan hissed as they boarded the ragged pirate ship.

"They've got Jace, we can't just attack," Kaylee whispered back.

Pirates in these waters were all most-likely to have no love for the royal families, but even they weren't stupid enough to oppose people like Kaylee and Ronan, and if Jace wasn't already injured they would never had captured him in the first place.

They watched as they climbed aboard, they eyes gleaming with the familiar gleam that Kaylee knew from pirates: youngsters worth a lot of reward.

A large man with giant gold earrings came forward, a hand on his sword.

"What is your business here?" he asked, his accent heavy.

"We've come to bargain for your prisoner," Ronan said, he was a few inches shorter than the man.

"Which one?"

The pirate grinned to show a bunch of missing teeth, and laughed.

"Jace Pevensie Wolf," Ronan said curtly.

"Ah! The royal!" The whole ship echoed with laughter, and Kaylee's tail twitched.

"Give him willingly and you may have an envious reward," Ronan's tone was laced with venom.

"And if we do not?" the pirate challenged.

"You will comply or we will take this ship-"

His hand came out of no where and smacked her across the cheek, since she was only sixteen, her skin was still human, soft and feeble.

She kept her head turned to the left for a few seconds before looking back to the pirate.

"You will only speak when spoken to!" he snarled.

Kaylee could feel Ronan's temperature rising, but she herself was inflamed with fury.

"Give. Me. My. Cousin," she hissed.

"SILENCE!" the pirate roared.

Her ears suddenly flattened and a growl escaped her throat,

The pirate backed up slightly, his eyes narrowing.

"Uuma ma' ten' rashwe, ta tuluva a' lle {don't look for trouble or it will come to you}," Ronan warned in elvish.

Kaylee tried to heed his words, but her fury was not easily extinguished once put there. She was plotting fear in the pirates, she could feel it burning through them like fire.

"Give us Jace and we will leave," Ronan told them, placing a hand on Kaylee's shoulder.
They glanced at the head pirate and he nodded, even he looked unsure of defying them.
A moment later, they returned with a bloody and bruised Jace and tossed him on the floor.

"Jace!"

Kaylee skidded to the ground, examining him. He had been in a bloody scuffle a few days ago, and then he'd been captured by these pirates.

"What did you do to him?" she demanded.

"We are pirates, we needed....information to-"

"So, you tortured him?" Ronan was angry now.

Kaylee had her daggers out in half a second, and was on her feet in one. Ronan caught her before she could kill anyone, his arms locked tightly around her.

"Get him on a ship," he growled at a pair of pirates.

Without question they hauled Jace and moved him off their ship and onto the Dawn Treader.

"Now you hold up your end of the deal," the head pirate snarled," where's our reward."

They'd hurt Jace. That was all that tumbled through Kaylee's mind at this very moment. Jace could be a pain sometimes, but he was basically her little brother.

Another growl escaped her, but the head pirate just looked amused now.

"How adorable," he grinned," We could take her off your hands."

That did it.

Her hand came out and raked across his face, her claws slicing through his skin.

As he yowled, Kaylee yanked out of Ronan's grip and launched herself at the dispersing pirates.
Her jump was intercepted by her brother, who grabbed her and backed up. He was of age, so he was much stronger, she wouldn't be able to kill anyone now. But she was hot with anger. How dare they hurt Jace, and how dare they hurt her. She kept still except for her feet moving back, one twitch could set her off again.

~

At this moment, Kaylee really needed that one twitch to break out of this gold. She focused on Jace, the pirates had got him pretty good. He was out of it for several days before the healing process had set in, but they'd carved an x in his back with a knife. That was still there. That did the trick.

BANG!

The gold exploded as her limbs twitched, flying off of her in hard pieces. She looked down at her hand, and there was a heart; beating gold-less. She shriveled her nose in disgust, but at least there would be no skeletons to deal with.

"Will," she whispered.

She stood back up, the heart in her hand and ran out of the caverns. Looking down from where she was, she spotted the fighting. Their crew was surrounded, Darlo's crew had indeed doubled.
The amount of pistols would end them all in a second.

Will was still no where to be seen, but he was close; Kaylee could could feel it.

****

"Never," Jackson snarled.

"No?" Darlo raised his eyebrows," Such defiance. I could use you on my crew, Jackson."

"You lost that option when you abandoned me," Jackson snarled, "Will, NOW!"

Will leapt out and shot several of the pirates, catching everyone off guard. Jackson went for Darlo, swiping his sword back. Will helped him this time, and Darlo was indeed outnumbered with Will there.

"Bold ones, aren't you?" Darlo admitted," I could use you both."

"Not a chance," Will growled.

"Fine, if you will not join me, you can die!"

Darlo swiped his sword left, nailing Jackson in the gut.

"NO!" Marien's shriek was heard from across the clearing as Jackson fell to his knees.

Darlo laughed, "You should have listened boy!"

Jackson felt nothing but pain. His vision was blurry, and he knew what was happening. Will looked ready to kill, he launched at Darlo, but he had suddenly gone stiff. His eyes were popping, and he'd dropped his sword.

Kaylee, Jackson thought.

Darlo fell, and looking around numbly, a Jackson saw the others do so as well. The rein of terror was over.