NPOV

My friends were already overwhelmed, and we had barely even begun yet. I stabbed a woman in the leg before she could fire her musket at Hazel, then I threw her weapon into the sea. I couldn't see Gabe anywhere, only his crew and the fighting and the blood.

Annabeth fell to the ground to my right and I jumped into her fight to defend her. She clutched her gut. Percy was at her side in an instant, letting her lean on him so they could fight together. I left them to find Gabe. I had a horrible roiling feeling in my gut, but I refused to let it deter my focus.

An enemy crew mate tried to stab me, but I stuck my sword through the handle of his own, cutting his fingers to the bone and successfully flinging the sword across the deck. Then I was moving again, defending my friends when necessary.

The Stolls had run out of those pepper explosives they'd used in the last battle, but they'd broken a crate and were using planks of wood to swing wildly at their opponents. It seemed sufficient to keep people away from them.

Gabe was looking on at the scene without a scratch. He stood on a crate, unchallenged. No one had tried to fight him; we'd all had our own miniature battles to keep us busy. But someone had to take Gabe. It looked like it was going to have to be me. Shit.

His eyes slid over to me without even a hint of fear in them. "I haven't seen the blondie fighting. You haven't taught him how to wield a sword?"

I ignored him and raised my sword in a stance that I hoped looked more threatening than terrified. "Get off of our ship, Gabriel. This is not yours to take."

"It was always mine, di Angelo. If you lower your sword and make this easy for me, I might not force your crew to watch your death. Deal?"

I kept my arm steady. I had to try. I would definitely lose, but I had to try. It was captain against captain. Unfortunately, it was also cruel and experienced versus soft and new. I didn't have a chance.

He looked mildly inconvenienced. He drew his own sword. "Fine. I can use your death as an example for the others, I suppose." He lunged, and I deflected his sword away from my heart. He was on the offensive from the very start, and I was stuck just responding to all of his attacks. One of these times, I would slip up.

Parry, block, parry, block. I was losing ground, and his constant attacks forward were gaining it. The back of my boot hit the side of the boat. I was cornered. I tried moving sideways, but his sword was there in an instant, scraping my throat. I dropped my sword. He looked bored. I gasped for breath and tried to shove him off of me. He grabbed my wrists and held them in the air, and then pointed his sword at the soft spot beneath my chin.

"Step up onto the side of the boat, di Angelo."

Bianca, on the side of the boat. Side and leg bleeding, tears sitting on her cheeks. He shoved her over with a comment about which would get her first—asphyxiation, blood loss, or the sharks attracted to her wounds. She fell into the water, and I was left behind—

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't fucking breathe.

I was in no place to argue with him. I stepped up onto the side of the boat. He had a sick grin on his face now. He'd been looking forward to this. He'd been planning this.

"This is the spot that she stood. I still wonder which got her first. Personally, I place my bet on the sharks. I've heard horror stories of their lightning speeds and knives for teeth. It would've been a painful death, but hey. It's what she knew would happen for trying to escape."

Air wouldn't come. I was done. These were my final moments. I couldn't remember my final words. Had they been to Will? No—I'd spoken to Gabriel after that. God damn it. My last words were to the guy that killed me.

He stabbed his sword into my leg first. It took all of my energy to not fall off of the boat. Then he readied it at my side. My body would look just like Bianca's. Ha. What a way to follow in her footsteps. When she told me to be like her, she didn't realize I'd take it this far.

I closed my eyes and swallowed my fear. I'd done what I could. My time was over. I never had a chance.

I wish Will had heard my goodbye.

~~~

WPOV

I shouted and shook the bars of my cell in a desperate attempt to get someone's attention. No one came. I cursed and turned my attention to my cell. The key ring was hanging on the wall near my cell, but it was out of my reach. I'd tried already.

I had a fork from one of the meals the crew had brought me early on. I'd been staying in an actual cabin after they moved me from the cell, so we had forgotten to clean it up. I tried the fork, but the keys were still just out of reach. I growled with frustration and dropped it. What else did I have?

Not much. Pillows. Blankets. Rope that Nico had used to tie us up down here for the Channel of Song. I figured I'd have to make do. I grabbed the rope and tied it into a loop on one end. Why had I pursued medicine instead of something useful, like how to become a cowboy?

My first attempt to throw it at the keys was an utter failure. It flopped to the floor without even touching it. I set my jaw and tried again. And again. It was getting closer each time. Finally, the rope hit the key rack, and I pulled. The key rack tilted in my direction, and I reached out again. Too far. I grabbed the fork off the ground. Perfect! The keys were hooked around it, and I dropped them into my hand and tossed the fork away.

I unlocked my cell and shoved the door open before sprinting up the stairs to help Nico.

The battle was mostly on the top deck. I grabbed a knife from the kitchens with full knowledge that I had absolutely no idea how to use it. I mean, how hard could it be? All I had to do was hit someone with the pointy end. That's not hard.

The fighting was gory and terrifying. Blood covered the deck like we'd washed it with the stuff. Everything was stained. There were a couple of bodies, but so far I had only seen enemies dead. My team was badly injured, but they were still fighting. They were still alive.

Well, so was I. I spotted Nico quickly. He was fighting a losing battle against someone with a rather fancy coat—probably the Gabe guy everyone had been afraid of. Of course he'd gone straight for the most dangerous enemy he could find. I picked the safest path I could through the fighting. I guess I didn't look super threatening, because no one really gave me a second glance.

Nico was cornered. Gabe said something, and Nico stepped up onto the side of the ship. His throat was bleeding. Shit. I had to get over there. Shit, shit, shit.

Gabe tore his sword through Nico's thigh, and Nico cried out and just about fell off of the boat. Shit. I was almost there. Just hang on a little longer.

Gabe raised his sword to Nico's stomach. I raised my knife to Gabe's back.

He pulled back his arm an inch or two, whether for effect or strength I'll never know. "I might watch this time as you struggle in the water. I'm still betting on sharks. And, hey, if you see Bianca's body down there, be sure to let her know you failed the entire crew."

I drove my knife into his back with my head turned away. I had no idea how I was supposed to be doing this. Just that the pointy end had definitely gone in. It seemed to have hit his shoulder blade more than anything, but it worked. He instinctively swung his sword towards me, and I jumped back. I only just barely avoided it. Nico grabbed his own sword off the ground and stabbed Gabe's leg, and Gabe fell to his knees, swearing.

Nico raised the sword one more time and it sank into Gabe's non-dominant arm. He would be immobile and unable to fight. Nico was breathing heavily. He kicked Gabe's sword away, and then sheathed his own. He was limping again—Gabe had stabbed the same leg that had been wounded in the last battle, and almost in the same spot.

I didn't bother removing my knife from Gabe's shoulder. Nico hefted Gabe's left side and gestured for me to take his right. Nico called out to everyone still fighting, "To everyone attempting to infiltrate our ship: your leader is bleeding out and I would appreciate it if you just went back on your own boat and went home. We don't need any more deaths than strictly necessary."

The fighting actually did pause, which seemed like a miracle. These were paid crew mates—they weren't fighting because they just had a passion for it. They were fighting because they were promised money, but now that Gabe was possibly going to die, it was likely that they wouldn't receive payment. Hands went into the air in surrender, and they backed into their own ship via a plank Hazel set up.

She checked to make sure the last ones were gone before removing the plank again. Nico and I kept a firm grip on Gabe.

Nico ordered for the crew to stock a small emergency boat with small portions of food and drink. Then we dumped Gabe into it. If he wanted to be the captain again, he would just have to deal with the mutiny. At this point, I was hardly fazed. Nico pushed Gabe's boat away from ours, and then we were sailing again.

We stopped again on the other end of the uninhabited island and gathered as much as we could. We took multiple stops. We'd tried to find people on the island to ask permission to use some of the resources and come back with replacements later, but it appeared to be entirely empty. So we filled our kitchen and storage to the brim with everything edible in reach. There were no majorly helpful stops from here all the way back to Honnet, so this would have to last us quite a while.

Then the island was out of the view of our boat, and we were only surrounded by blue.

Word count: 1839