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The pirate captain leaned over the railing, watching the four of them as the pirate ship slowly overtook the Pursuit. She had a smug look on her face as she gestured a greeting to her targets, fingers moving up and down in the air, a teasing non-verbal "Hello". By this point more of the pirate crew had made their way to the deck, joining her in watching them. Andereon counted twenty-five in all. Five of them had firearms, rifles, pointed toward the Pursuit; the rest had swords or cutlasses, some of them shaking them threateningly.

Kirima had an arrow nocked and ready to fire, pulling back on the bowstring as much as she could. All she needed now was the order. Andereon already knew she was aiming for one of the riflemen, and there was no doubt that the riflemen were trained on her.

"Some of them are going to risk injury by trying to jump from their second or third deck to our second," Lilica guessed.

"They would have to chance it," Andereon replied. "We're not going to let them have the main deck without a fight; if I were them I would send some of my force to swing from an upper deck or even just jump. If they don't take Skychaser or Alanea out then they'll be harassed and we'll be kept relatively healthy until the fight is over. If the pirates intend to overrun us with numbers they need to rush them both. You ever seen Skychaser with a knife?"

"No. Can Alanea fight?"

"If her life depends on it. And it does." He made a gesture with his head, jerking it back. "Get behind me. They're about to enter rifle range. I'm pretty sure they're going to try firing at Skychaser, but they could also just be aiming at us. At the speed they're chasing...they get two shots, maybe three before they catch up to us and get within boarding range."

Lilica inched closer to Andereon, moving behind him and exposing as little of herself as possible to potential fire. He hadn't yet given the order to fire because he wasn't sure if the pirates would actually shoot, but they certainly would if Kirima shot first. The night was quiet as no one made a sound, the tension rising as the ships grew closer and closer.

A minute later, they were in rifle range. Andereon held his shield arm close to his body, ready to protect himself and Lilica if he saw a flash from the other ship. The pirate captain shouted an order that the wind didn't carry, but there was no firing. Did she order them to wait and see too? Was their plan to get the four to surrender? Given that pirates, especially "mixed faction" ones, ran the gamut from being able to be negotiated with, all the way to taking no prisoners or enslaving their captives, Andereon couldn't be sure what kind of crew this was. But the fact they weren't lighting up the night more was a good thing, surely.

Two minutes until they were within boarding range. Some of the pirates were already getting ready to throw out ropes or planks. Lilica bounced from foot to foot behind Andereon. "I don't like this, there's too little action and I can taste the tension in the air," she said.

"Patience," Andereon told her quietly. "We may be trained, but we don't have the numbers. We're going to be purely on defense. Stay focused, pandaren."

Alanea stood behind Kirima, who was focused on one of the riflemen. Her breathing was slow, steady. Alanea wanted to say something, but upon seeing how tense Kirima was being, almost like a statue, she couldn't find the courage to say anything. But her master gave her a task: Focus on healing. Heal the wounds they may have, trust Kirima to protect her. This time wouldn't be like the worgen pack when they first met. This wasn't an ambush, Kirima was prepared. They all were. Alanea took a deep breath and held it in. Danger. Real danger, but if she trusted everyone they could all get out just fine. She had to endure a lot with her master, and having to do it all again except at the hands of a big crew of pirates...her master might have hurt her often, but he wanted her alive. These pirates probably wouldn't care if their treatment killed her.

No, they were fighting for their lives. Her master wanted a prize, the worgen wanted a prize...these pirates just cared about what the ship was carrying, her life was secondary.

Then the pirate captain spoke, her voice authoritative as the female worgen looked down at them. "Ahoy, ladies and gentleman. I commend you for having the guts to look ready for a fight, but you know you can't win in a fight. We're going to come aboard and take what you have in your holds, n' if you're lucky we won't make you all walk the plank."

"Like hell we're going to go down without a fight!" Andereon rebuked her. "You should know a Gilnean doesn't just give up until they're dead!"

The captain laughed. "Don't think that you can sway me with talk of allegiance. The Alliance left us to rot after Teldrassil burned, and pledged their support to the night elves while we proud Gilneas were told to wait longer to return home. Me and my boys decided that if they didn't care, we wouldn't care. Got a few like-minded scallywags and now we have three scuttled ships to our name. Soon to be four, I wager."

"If you sink us," Andereon shot back, "we'll take you along for the ride!"

"I have five guns trained on your crew, Gilnean," the pirate captain said, her smugness now turning to annoyance. "They're ready to fire. You think your lone archer can cover you?"

"You think a few bullets will be enough to take down me and mine?" Andereon shot back. "Your swords certainly won't. If you think you can overwhelm us, then by all means, try and board us!"

The pirate captain smiled. "You'll wish you died in the war, Gilnean!" She slammed a fist down on the railing of her ship. "Fire! Fire! Kill them!"

"Well,that's predictable," Lilica remarked under her breath.

She reached up to grab Andereon's shoulders and immediately ducked while Andereon raised his shield. Simultaneously, Kirima gave Alanea a heavy shove that moved her several feet to the side, Kirima going with her. At the same time, the rifles flashed in the night, the_ crack _of gunfire ringing out. Two bullets embedded themselves in Andereon's shield while a third hit the top of the shield, ricocheting upward where it hit and embedded itself in the railing overlooking the main deck. The fourth and fifth bullets shot past the taurens' original location.

The pirate captain snarled as Kirima fired an arrow that very quickly embedded itself into the skull of one of the riflemen, a human, who fell out of sight of the four after he let out of a grunt.

"Take cover!" she shouted. "Take cover, you imbeciles!"

The four remaining rifle users backed up from the railing. Kirima quickly nocked another arrow and fired at one of the other pirates, the arrow finding its mark in an orc's shoulder. He let out a swear in orcish. Andereon locked eyes with the pirate captain and smirked.

The captain slammed her hands on the railing again. "To hell with this! Board them! Kill them!"

Some of the pirates didn't even wait for the planks to be set, the took running jumps and jumped from their deck to the Pursuit's main deck. Kirima readied an arrow whose tip was wrapped in a pouch and aimed, but didn't fire. Four of the pirate crew landed on the main deck and rushed Andereon and Lilica. Lilica jumped on Andereon and jumped off his shoulders, giving her height to come down hard on one of the pirates, putting all her weight into knocking him down. Andereon blocked another pirate's sword and pushed him back toward Lilica. Lilica grabbed him and used his momentum to send him over the railing, down into the water, the human swearing until the inevitable splash.

The last two pirates on the ship charged. Lilica, being closest, sidestepped a very heavily telegraphed strike and grabbed the orc's sword arm, twisting it slightly. The orc's musculature prevented her from twisting it enough to get him to drop the sword, but it did cause pain, given his shout. The worgan who boarded with him turned to help her, but suddenly thick brambles wrapped around his feet and legs. Alanea lowered a glowing hand and immediately hid behind Kirima, still aiming her pouched arrow.

The worgen hacked at the brambles as Lilica hit the orc in the chest over and over with her other fist. The orc managed to backhand her away, but she backed into a slowly-approaching Andereon, who lifted her up with the shield and a grunt, and thrust forward, sending her crashing into the orc again, his sword leaving a mark on her shoulder pad.

Two planks landed on the railing with heavy thuds, granting the other pirates relatively easy access to the Pursuit. Kirima let fly her pouched arrow as the pirates began to cross them, and the arrow impacted one of the planks, exploding in a mix of gunpowder and Arcane energy and shattering the plank, sending four pirates into the water.

"Don't you know some attack spell?" Kirima asked Alanea.

"I can burn them," Alanea offered. "But that's about it...?"

"Just start doing it," Kirima ordered. She drew another arrow as the rifle-using pirates got ready to fire again. She struck one of them in the neck, but that left three guns left, and they fired, lighting up the night with more bullets.

Kirima felt one pierce through her armor and hit her in the chest. She took a step back as she let out a loud grunt of pain. A second bullet hit her in the right shoulder. Alanea let out a yelp as the third passed by her head. Her hands began to glow green as she looked up at the rifle-using pirates and unleashed Moonfire, a spell that set the target aflame in blue fire. One of the riflemen burst into flame, and he screamed in pain as the flames danced around his body.

Then the fire reached the black powder cartridges he was storing to reload the rifle with, and he exploded with a loud BOOM , throwing the other gunmen to the deck, wounded or dazed by the sudden explosion.

Kirima dropped to one knee and checked her wounds as, on the main deck, more pirates rushed aboard. Andereon blocked a sword strike with his shield and parried another with his own sword, and slashed wildly as a counter. It found its mark, slashing open a fellow worgen, who howled in pain before Andereon could free his shield to bash him to the floor. Lilica, nearby, ducked under a sword and drove both hands into the chest of her attacker, pushing them back. Another pirate reached out and grabbed her hair, trying to incapacitate her, but she planted her feet firmly on the deck and drove a palm into the human's elbow, making him release her hair as she broke his arm thanks to the fast impact and the human's own tension from the grip. She swept with her leg and knocked down two of the pirates, but others stepped up over them, leaving her unable to finish them off.

"They're overwhelming us!" Lilica explained. She tried to weave around a slash, but felt the tip of the blade cut into her cheek. She drove a fist into the attacking worgen, and kicked him toward Andereon, who let his armor take the blow from a slash, the blade clanging off his armor as he drove his own blade into the worgen, dropping him to the ground in a near-instant.

Alanea's hands glowed as she began to cast Regrowth, a rejuvenating spell that sealed wounds over time by accelerating the body's natural healing ability with Nature energy. After a quick wave of her hands, green energy swirled around Kirima, and she slowly stood up as her bullet wounds sealed. The bullets would still be inside her but they weren't in lethal locations at least.

As soon as she was able, Kirima readied yet another arrow, this one glowing with Arcane energy, making it obvious now that it wasn't hidden by a pouch full of gunpowder. "We need to be faster, Alanea!" she exclaimed as she fired an arrow at one of the pirates Lilica had knocked down with her leg sweep. The Arcane energy discharged and the pirate let out a shout of pain, silenced by another Arcane-powered shot. "And I need to aim better!"

Alanea began to cast Moonfire as fast as she could, setting more and more pirates aflame, but having to focus so hard and switching targets was quickly starting to disorient her. Kirima could see the strained look on her face, and took a deep breath herself. Running a hand along her arrows, she took a second to adjust her stance, and quickly grabbed an arrow, shot it at a pirate, then reached back, grabbed another arrow extremely quickly, put it on the string, pulled and fired. She did this over several seconds, firing off arrow after arrow of rapid-fire shots, using the Moonfire as a targeting beacon. It was requiring intense focus to do as she had to focus on her muscle movements and her breathing to have full control over her body.

The pirate captain saw the heavy resistance they were facing and let out a howl of frustration. "How are you idiots letting four people get the better of you!?" She drew her own sword, a cutlass, and pointed it at Andereon. "You, Gilnean!"

Andereon shot her a glance, his left eye glowing brightly. One of the remaining pirates on the _Pursuit_aimed a dagger at his back, but Andereon brought his shield around suddenly and slammed it hard into the orc, slamming him against the wall. As he dropped like a rock, Andereon put a massive foot paw down on his chest, and pointed his sword at the orc's throat, ready to shove it down for the kill.

"Stand down, boys!" The captain said, moving to the plank. "I lose more of you scallywags and we'll be easy pickings for the Horde." She kept her cutlass pointed at Andereon. "But you've pissed me off, Gilnean. I demand blood for what you've done!"

Andereon let out a snarl in reply. "What _I've_done!? You saw us as easy prey and we showed you that your motley crew bit off more than they could chew!" Andereon pointed his sword at her. "You want this fight over? Get out of here and take your boys with you!"

"You owe me lives, Gilnean!"

Andereon stomped his foot down on the orc's chest hard, making the orc shout in pain. "I owe you nothing but this blade in your neck!" He exclaimed. The glow in his eyes flared, as did the veins visible on his neck and face. "If we have to kill you all to get free than we will! You know as well as I do what it's like to fight with your life on the line! I know what you plan to do with the girls. They're mine! And if you don't want more of your men to be killed you'd back off!"

Alanea inched closer to Kirima, who had her bow ready to fire another arrow. "I thought the feral worgen were scary..."

By this time, any pirate standing had surrounded Lilica and Andereon. The tip of Andereon's sword pressed against the orc's neck. "Come on, bitch! Give the order! Kill us or retreat!"

Lilica was panting lightly, holding her pose steady as she looked from pirate to pirate. Her exposed body had several small nicks and cuts, but thankfully no gashes. Andereon's armor was dented in some places, his shield battered, but otherwise unharmed. Alanea was unharmed while Kirima had been fully healed thanks to Regrowth.

For a minute, there was nothing but silence aside from the groans of pain from the wounded pirates. The pirate captain and Andereon stared at each other, neither moving an inch.

"Captain?" Lilica asked quietly.

His shield hand hidden by his shield, Andereon made a gripping motion, closing his hand into a fist, then opening it, then closing it. He knew what was going to happen. Lilica noticed it out of the corner of her eye, and knew she had to be ready to go on the offensive. Kirima noticed Lilica change stances to put more force behind her blows, and lightly whacked Alanea with her tail while still pointing an arrow at one of the pirates surrounding Lilica and Andereon.

"Get ready to toss that sword down," she told Alanea quietly.

Alanea, remembering that she had his spare blade tied to her back, reached back and touched it. For the minute of silence she thought that there was a chance the fighting was over. But it seemed everyone but her knew there was no chance the pirates would just let them off.

Finally, the pirate captain raised her sword. "Now you're surrounded! Forget taking prisoners, kill the lot of them!"

"Exactly what I was thinking!" Andereon shouted. He pushed the blade into the orc's throat with a hard thrust downward, then gripped the hilt and pulled the sword to the side, slashing through the orc's throat. Lilica thrust out with her palm as she took a large step toward another pirate, then lashed out with a hard kick that burst with Chi energy, knocking said pirate to the railing. Kirima took the shot, ending the combination attack with an arrow to the pirate's chest, and another palm strike send the arrow in deeper, fulfilling its purpose.

Alanea untied the sword from her back and held it. It was kind of heavy...was it alright to throw it down? She had to trust him. She threw it underhanded, and it just barely cleared the railing. She began to channel more Nature magic and began to set pirates on fire again. She tried the same with the pirate captain, but found she was just out of range. Kirima fired an arrow at her, only for her to take cover behind her ship's railing.

The sword landed next to Andereon. He put a foot on the blade and slashed out with the sword in his hand, clearing space as four pirates rushed him. He was good, but he knew he wasn't going to be able to get the shield off his wrist without a few seconds of time, time he didn't have, as he had to shield bash another pirate to the side and impale a second with a thrust. It wasn't a killing blow but it made her back off for a second, but taking her place was yet another pirate.

Lilica drove her palm under an orc's chin, thrusting upward to disorient the orc. His blade went wide for the most part, but her shoulder pad was now sporting a groove that was cut by the cutlass. Taking a deep breath, Lilica leveled her hand, staring down the orc as she focused on his body, and then, with a flash, she thrust out with her hand like a knife, impacting the orc's chest, right where his heart was. The orc dropped his cutlass in sudden pain, gripping his chest. He took several steps back, another pirate taking his place, and after a few seconds, he collapsed, dead.

The deck was becoming covered in bodies, wounded and dead. It was getting hard to move around for everyone on the main deck. But the pirate numbers were dwindling. Kirima fired off more arrows in extremely rapid succession, buying Andereon time to throw his shield aside and pick up the second sword. He rushed toward the pirates, swords slicing through the air. The green in his veins was shining brightly, almost like he was on fire from the inside as he deflected a cutlass slash with one blade and thrust forward with the other. Injured, his attacker took a step back, and Andereon turned around, delivering four quick slashes against another pirate, cutting their chest and belly open and shoving them aside. An arrow from Kirima struck the first pirate he hit, and Alanea set him aflame.

Lilica kicked one of the pirates attacking her in the chest with a jumping kick, and then spun around and delivered two palm strikes to a second pirate. A third grabbed her by the arm, and as she turned to force him away, the pirate she kicked grabbed her from behind. "Get off me!" Lilica shouted, another pirate grabbing her leg as she kicked out with it.

Kirima leaned over the railing, bow ready to fire, but Lilica struggling was making it hard for her to land a clean shot. Andereon was busy dealing with other pirates. Kirima grit her teeth as she tried to line up a shot, the seconds passing slowly as Lilica was overwhelmed.

"Dammit...!" she cursed quietly. "Andereon!" she called out, her voice raised.

Andereon glanced up at her, distracted enough that one of the remaining worgen pirates was able to land a blow against his head, slamming the pommel of his cutlass against the warrior's skull. Seeing stars, Andereon took a step back, deflecting a second strike.

"Captain!" Lilica shouted as two of the pirates restraining her pulled out daggers. " Captain!"

The pirate captain blinked. Andereon? She knew that name. She had served with an Andereon back in Gilneas. He commanded the company she was a part of. They had lost contact with him after a sudden worgen attack in Silverpine Forest. She was certain he had died, though she had heard rumors that he had survived as a worgen and, like her, was brought back to sanity after she turned during the Cataclysm...but there was no way he was that Andereon.

"Alanea!" Andereon shouted. "Cat! Now!"

Alanea trembled. Her first real fight under his command, and he had just given her a direct order. She had to obey. They were going to die here if they were overwhelmed, and she liked Lilica. She couldn't let her get hurt, and it sounded like she was about to get hurt very,_very_badly. She let out a whimper, but changed anyway, shifting into her cat form, a horned lion with white fur and a gray mane.

She jumped off the railing, landing on the pile of pirates that were pinning Lilica down. The sudden arrival of a big lion disoriented the pirates, and Lilica stood up and quickly stomped down on the back of one of them, snapping the spine with a very hard hit.

"Thanks for that," Lilica remarked quickly.

"Stay with her!" Andereon ordered as he pinned the orc to the wall with his body. He plunged both blades into the orc and pulled them out, the body dropping quickly.

Then, a howl, piercing the din of battle and overtaking everything else. Those pirates still fighting stopped, as did Andereon and the girls. They all turned to the source of the howling, the pirate captain.

Her hands gripped the railing hard enough that her claws were digging into the wood. She stared daggers at Andereon, who only glared back.

"The cow called you Andereon," the captain said. "Are you Jayden Andereon? Captain in the Gilnean Army?"

"Jayden is dead," Andereon muttered. Why was his past still coming back? He didn't like it. But he raised his voice so she could hear him. "...I used to be Jayden Andereon, yes. What of it?"

The pirate captain looked down at the water, some of her fallen pirate crew floating on the surface. A few were still alive, but most who had fallen down had succumbed to their wounds or had drowned thanks to what gear they had carried.

With a growl, she waved a hand. "Men, fall back! If I had known we were fighting a hardened military veteran I would have just rammed the ship."

Andereon scoffed. "Going to run after wanting to fight us so badly!?"

"You don't know who I am, and that's fine...but I remember you, Andereon. The worgen and the undead were eating away at our sanity. Those of us without iron wills were starting to go crazy at the constant fighting and the feat of what would happen to us. You and the other veterans kept us newer soldiers in line, trying to keep things in perspective." The pirate captain slammed a closed fist down on the railing. "I abandoned the Alliance because I was pissed off at the idea that we couldn't get our home back and yet were going to war again! You put in the work! I put in the work! We deserve to have our homeland back!"

"The night elves took us in when we lost the city!" Andereon shot back. "They took care of us, let us back into the Alliance, something we didn't deserve after the way we left after the Second War! They opened their doors and homes for us! I think this war is fucking stupid, and if I were in better condition I'd want to go home too, but the Cataclysm showed us that we couldn't do everything ourselves. We needed help to drive the undead out of the kingdom, and help those of us who turned into beasts get back what sanity they could!"

"And yet, on the cusp of being able to inhabit our kingdom again, now the Alliance seeks to help the night elves instead!"

Andereon glanced over at Lilica and up at Kirima. Kirima spoke up. "The night elves didn't deserve to lose Teldrassil like that," she said.

"Shut up, taruen!" The worgen shouted. "This doesn't concern you!"

"She's right," Andereon shot back. "All I know about the world post-Burning Legion is second-hand, but the night elves were nothing but gracious to the Gilneans. Now it's the Gilneans' turn to give back to the night elves. It's true that Gilneas isn't habitable yet, but we took it back from the undead! We just need resources to clear out the rubble and restore the kingdom...but the night elves lost a lot with Teldrassil. They saved us from being wiped out, it's only fair that the Gilneans save them, no?"

"But--!"

"I'm finished talking with you," Andereon told her. "If you want to continue living, you'll let us go. I don't care if you go back to the Alliance, I don't care if you continue being a pirate. I left Gilneas behind and the matters of the world don't matter to me. I'd rather not kill more than I have to, and it's clear you don't want to die here. We'll let you take your wounded with you, but we've won our passage."

The pirate captain slammed her fist down on the railing again. "Dammit...! Making a fool out of me and my crew...!"

"Last warning!" Andereon called out.

"Fine! You're free to go after we get our wounded!"

"Skychaser, keep an eye on her!"

"Affirmative!" Kirima shifted her aim to the pirate captain, quickly switching her arrow to an Arcane-infused one.

Over the next five minutes, those still able to walk on their own power returned to the pirate ship, and the wounded were slowly carried over. The dead were thrown off the ship, leaving the _Pursuit_with a very bloody main deck. But the captain kept her word, and the pirate ship slowly turned, leaving the _Pursuit_alone. Andereon and the others stayed on guard until they were well out of rifle range, whereupon Lilica walked up to the second deck and immediately sat down.

"Whew! It's been a while since I got into a brawl that nasty!" She stretched and groaned as she felt something pop. "That was some good leading, Captain!"

Andereon, still walking up to the second deck, waved a hand dismissively. "That wasn't really leading. We did what we could given our disadvantage. We were just lucky their crew wasn't as experienced or seasoned as we were.

He helped Alanea shift back to her tauren form, and she healed Lilica, sealing up the cuts that had left blood streaks on her body. Kirima sat against the railing and locked eyes with Andereon.

"What?" he asked.

"For a self-proclaimed monster, you spoke to her about your past well enough."

Andereon's eye flared, and he scoffed. Lilica smirked as she gave him an aside glance. "Kirima's right, Captain. You say you only care about yourself but you seem to really think that the night elves are good people too."

"If it wasn't for them, we would all be snarling, feral monsters," Andereon replied. "Just because that's what I'll be in a year or so, doesn't mean I can't still be grateful."

"That assumes you won't be fixed," Lilica countered.

"I'm not getting into this with you, pandaren. Not again."

Everyone took a moment to catch their breath. Alanea went back to get Andereon's shield and swords and brought them to him. She sat next to him as he looked at the bloodied blades.

"You use a two-handed sword with a shield," Lilica pointed out.

"It's not optimal," Andereon replied. "But it allows me to switch from dual-wielding to a shield and the other way around almost at will. My old sword shattered a long time ago."

"So what do we do now?" Alanea looked between the three.

Andereon nodded. "You three get back to sleep. I'll get the engine back to full speed, then try and clean up here while keeping an eye out for things."

"We'd be pretty fucked if they came back," Lilica pointed out.

"Yes, we would be, so we just have to hope we intimidated them enough to make them know to not come back to finish the job."

Kirima walked past Andereon and down to the lower decks. Lilica went downstairs as well, citing a need to wash the blood off her. Andereon began to remove the armor around his limbs slowly.

Alanea watched him quietly. As his armor clattered to the floor, Andereon eyed her. "You're not much of a fighter," he told her.

"I didn't want to kill anyone," she replied meekly. "Moonfire's magic fire lasts for a while, but I had hoped you or someone else would be able to...you know..."

"You blew up that rifle user."

"I...I didn't think...I wasn't thinking when I..." She was quiet, her voice quivering. She had seen him splatter as the gunpowder he was carrying ignited. "I didn't think I was going to..."

Andereon let his second shoulder pad fall to the floor, and he walked over, putting a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him, and looked in surprise as an...odd gentleness was reflected in his eyes. The usual rage and anger had subsided, or was pushed away, or was otherwise...gone. Even his tainted eye was giving her a soft look.

"I didn't train you to be a killer," he told her. "I wasn't expecting to go on this adventure out of my comfort zone; you were supposed to just be an obedient slave catering to my whims. Outside of teaching you to defend yourself, I made sure that you would need to rely on me for most things. You took to that training well. It was selfish training, but you weren't training to fight before I got you anyway.

"You keep following my orders, I'll take care of the killing. You'll maim, you'll cripple, but you're not a soldier or an adventurer, not like me, or Skychaser, or the pandaren. All I expect is for you to heal and support first, damage when you need to, we'll focus on the killing. Would that make you feel better for now?"

She nodded quickly.

Then the gentleness faded. Whatever had changed his attitude was gone. "Good. Leave it to the people good at it. All you're good for is staying in the back or scouting. Get down there and clean yourself off, then sleep."

Her shoulders slumped down upon hearing the insulting words, but she was used to it now, and only just slightly smiled. "Yes, Master," she said quietly.

She quickly rushed down to the lower deck. Andereon scoffed as he listened to her go. "Dumb girl..." But his expression softened as he held a hand up to his head, a rush of pain as the taint in him flared up.

After ten minutes of being alone, he heard the sound of wet footsteps, and the smell of wet fur. He let out a grunt and huff of air and went down to the main deck, seeing Lilica's with two buckets of water and two mops. The monk herself was dripping set and naked, like she just jumped in a tub or barrel and stayed there. And given how quick it was, it probably was what happened.

"The sun's not out," he told her.

Lilica set down one set of cleaning equipment in front of him. "I know your type. You'd rather us girls not wear anything."

He scowled. She walked past him, accenting her walk with a very deliberate walk that drew attention to her rear. His gaze followed her as she began to try and clean up the blood. She had to have known it was a futile effort; blood wouldn't clean off the mop strands well. She was using this as an excuse for something.

"What do you want, pandaren?"

"I figured we could talk more," she said cheerily.

"I'm not interested in whatever you have to say."

"She called you 'Master'."

Andereon gripped the mop in front of him. "What of it?"

"I told you before that you're more caring than you let on, Captain. You know I'm right, and whatever that was that made you be nice to her for a few seconds, that's who you used to be."

He watched her cleaning. Slow, deliberate, moving her hips this way and that.

"...I like to pretend to not pay attention," Lilica began in her cheery voice. "So no one tends to notice when I look around, thinking it's nothing. But you don't live long on your own without noticing things. That collar kind of makes it obvious when you have friends who smuggle things." She glanced back at him. "You're a slaver."

"You're not going to win in a fight," he warned her. preparing to use the mop as a weapon if he had to.

"I know," she said. "I've fought slavers before. You find out quickly just how much the Alliance and Horde miss when you're a lone adventurer. I've woken up many times with bad men poking around my camp, or thinking they can overpower someone trained to use their body as a weapon. But you're not some brute. At least...not an untrained brute. It's kind of hard to fight against a military captain."

Andereon kept his eyes on her as he began to clean the deck as best he could. She kept her eyes on him too. She continued, "Kirima told me a lot while I was washing up. You two had a real thing together."

"Until I learned how much of an idiot she was."

"Now you have a fetish for tauren. Or maybe just enslaving girls, given the druid."

"She was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"But I think that talk you had with that pirate told me everything. Or at least, a lot of things. I don't know what happened to you when the Burning Legion invaded Azeroth, but I've talked to more than a few worgen in my travels, so I know all about that whole 'beast within' stuff. Before becoming a worgen, I could tell by the words you spoke that you were a reasonable person, real noble. And after your infection and transformation, you stayed like that, if a bit more gruffer and...rougher."

He grunted in response.

"I won't deny that you've turned into a monster or something, but nothing really changes who you are deep inside. That's what I think. No matter if the fel eats away at you and the worgen blood makes you angry and bloodthirsty, but think about this: You had a tauren at your mercy. You beat her down and could have killed her. She would have been easy prey for you. But you enslaved her instead. I know it was because you loved Kirima and it warped into an obsessive hate...but it wasn't an obsessive hate to kill."

Another grunt.

"Something in you told you to keep the tauren and not kill her. And then when Kirima was in front of you, you didn't kill her either. Or enslave her, even. You told her to go away. And then she came back anyway, and you didn't kill her. You..." She took a breath. "Okay, you raped her, but you didn't..." She trailed off. "...No, it wasn't rape either. She knew what she was doing, she knew how it would go."

"Get to the point, pandaren!" Andereon barked out, fel glow flaring.

"My point is that sure, you've fallen far from where you are, but you're not going to turn into a pure monster. You could have gone ahead and fought the pirates and killed the captain, but you let her go and keep the survivors. That's why I can talk to you like this. I don't like people that keep others against their will, but I'd be too late to intervene anyway. Alanea's been broken, and Kirima willingly gave herself to you. I know you're just waiting to put another collar on her to make it a reality but at this point we know it's a formality."

She leaned forward, a sly smile on her face. "Me? You'll rape me at most. Put me in my place. And I'll hate it. But I think being enslaved under you would be a good thing."

"...What the fuck does that mean?" he asked her quietly.

"I live alone on Pandaria. I won the _Pursuit_off a bet, but that was just to say I had a ship; I can't man a ship by myself. I need a crew. I wanted to explore Zandalar or Kul Tiras, and what do you know? An old friend contacts me and tells me she needs passage to Zandalar or an island near Zandalar. It's like the stars aligned."

She wrung out the mop over the railing, squeezing out much of the blood, and soaked the mop again, the strands already stained heavily. "I'd rather not be a slave, Captain. But I know how some of these slavers operate. They'll work you until you die, or sell you to someone who will make you wish you were dead. You? All you care about is having obedient girls you can boss around, break mentally, and rape. It's still low and horrible, but you'd rather your slaves have working limbs and be alive."

"I'm not seeking to become some renowned slaver," Andereon told her.

"I didn't say that. Look, Captain...you don't like me. I know that. I know that before we go back to Pandaria or Kalimdor or the Eastern Kingdoms...you're going to reach your limit with me and rape me to make me scared of you...and don't get me wrong, part of me already is. But I know you have Alanea under your control fully, and I know Kirima would rather betray me than disobey you after what she promised you. I wouldn't be able to stand against you in an actual fight, let alone three of you. So maybe I'm just finishing realizing that I'm going to be under your control by the end of our time together because I know I've been grating on you since we met and I'm not as stupid as I let on."

"And why are you being so open about it now?"

"Honestly, I don't want to get beaten up. You saw that I was likely about to get stabbed to death earlier. That...I've fought against demons and many other creatures with murderous intent, but that was the closest I've ever actually come to having my life flash before my eyes."

"I'd do it anyway," Andereon pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'd be prepared for it at least."

"You really haven't thought this through."

Lilica sighed. "...No, not really. I had this plan where I'd try and seduce you and hope you'd be gentle when you eventually made your move because...well, you know how useful a fellow fighter can be."

"You really are an idiot."

"I'll have to get used to that, huh...?"

Andereon put the mop down and walked over to her. Lilica watched him, but didn't react until he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall, making her yelp. He lifted her off her feet by her throat, and she gripped his arm, trying to pry him off. His eye was flaring up, and now the glowing veins inside his body could be seen trailing down his left shoulder and down his arm, down to his elbow.

"I thought Skychaser was stupid for willingly coming back to me, but you? You're even stupider, trying to trigger me on purpose so...what, I'd be gentle with you?" He growled and slammed her against the wall again. "The meaning of the word is lost on me. When I have you, Stormchaser, it's going to hurt you a hell of a lot, and I'll be sure to make it as humiliating and shameful as I can."

She started to make choking sounds as she found that she couldn't breathe. Her kicking became frantic, impacts on the armor still on his chest thudding and thunking with every blow, unable to put much power into the strikes.

"But maybe you have a point. Maybe I haven't fallen as far as I think I have. Maybe Skychaser is right, and I still have some shred of humanity left in me. Frankly, I don't care. But I'll make you a deal. I won't tell you when I'll make my move against you, but if you really want to jump into the maw of slavery, then I'll let you spring the trap on yourself. No clothes until we get to Zandalar. You'll take a risk by letting me bunk with you when I need to take a rest. You're going to expose yourself to as much danger in regards to me as you can."

He leaned in close and lowered his voice to a whisper. "If you're serious about this, then you'll put yourself at risk to be taken by me at all times. Of course, there's no guarantee that I'll take you before we get to Zandalar. It could be afterward. But either way. You want it, you put yourself at risk. Understood, you stupid ball of fluff?"

Lilica nodded quickly.

Andereon let her go, and she slumped to the floor, gasping for air.

"Go dry off, then get back to bed," Andereon told her, then went to go grab his mop. He began to clean off the blood on the deck, and didn't notice until a minute had passed that Lilica had resumed mopping.

"You really are a stupid bitch," he grumbled.

"Dad always said I had a hard head," she replied quietly.

He narrowed his eyes in annoyance. "Go dry off," he ordered.

"If you want me to obey, you'll have to make your move," she told him.

He huffed.

"It's like a new chapter in my life," Lilica explained. She talked up to the still-bloody Andereon and pressed her wet body up against his. "It's scary, I'm terrified, nervous...but at the same time, excited. I've never been so at risk to have my free spirit be chained up!"

"...You're a fucking masochist," Andereon told her.

"Maybe, maybe not. I certainly don't like getting stabbed."

"If you don't get back to cleaning I might just bend you over the railing."

"With your clothes on?"

"I'm going to break this mop over your fucking head, monk."

She backed up after a few seconds, but happily returned to her work. "Maybe I might just be," she mused. "That threat certainly made me feel something..." She giggled.

"Skychaser was right, you _are_a handful."

"I bet you can't wait to break me down a few pegs, huh?" She gave him a fleeting smile.

"I'll break more than a few 'pegs'!"

He gripped the mop tightly and hooked the bucket with the bucket's metal handle, and gave a mix of a thrust and swing that launched the water inside toward Lilica, who could only give a brief stare of surprise at the sudden gush of water about to hit her. She ducked under it, allowing Andereon time to thrust the mop low, like a spear, hooking her leg and pulling back to make her lose her footing.

She let out a shout of surprise as she fell down onto the deck, landing on her back with a wet thud. Andereon spun the mop around and brought it down like a sword. Lilica brought her own mop up to block the strike, but with the mop flipped, the cleaning head was now facing outward, and when she blocked it, the cleaning head covered her face, obscuring her vision. Despite that, she touched one of his legs with her feet, and quickly brought them up higher to drive them into his chest.

She had forgotten momentarily that he was still wearing heavy plate there, and the only thing she accomplished aside from pushing him back was making her feet go numb from the impact. He took a couple of steps back, now against the wall, and waited for Lilica to regain her footing, standing back up, though wobbly since she couldn't exactly feel her feet at the moment. Holding her mop like a quarterstaff and him holding his like a two-handed sword, they both stared at each other, the fel in Andereon glowing with a pulsing rage, while she tried to give her best intimidating glare.

"You're not going to scare a veteran," he told her.

"No, but I think I'm finding out more and more about myself," she replied. "There's a rush when you realize what exactly is at stake. I haven't felt like this since the Broken Isles."

Lilica took a step forward and struck fast with her mop. Andereon deflected it to the right, leaving her open for a quick worgen fist to the jaw. He followed it up with a kick of his own, driving his foot into her chest and knocking her against the railing. The sudden impact of metal on her back made her go tense as a jolt of pain ran through her, and he took the time to jab the handle of his mop into her stomach and then grab her shoulders when she hunched over, throwing her almost all the way back to the wall.

Landing once again with a wet thud, Lilica was slower in getting up thanks to the sudden hard impacts against the ship. This bought Andereon the time he needed to plant her back down to the floor with a stomp to her back. He then drove his weight into her, bringing down a knee to her back and holding her arms behind her back. She struggled against his grip but without any leverage of her own, she couldn't counter his pure strength.

"You think that you can just drive me to break you on your own terms," he told her, "but that's not how this works, pandaren! When I say I take you when I want, I mean I take you when I want. If you want to play this game every night, I'll play, but I'm just going to beat you down every night. All you're doing is guaranteeing that I'm going to _hurt_you when I finally do decide to take you as my own."

He grabbed her by her long strand of hair and, just to add insult to injury, wrapped the braid around her arms; since it was wet, it was able to coil nicely, and a zig-zagging wrapping motion meant it would hurt her very much if she tried to quickly free herself.

"I'm s-sorry!" Lilica said, trying to not turn her head lest she start pulling on her hair.

"You're not sorry." Andereon told her. He picked her up roughly and made her walk down the stairs to the first lower deck. " Skychaser! Sharphoof!"

Alanea immediately poked her head out of her room. Kirima did the same several seconds later. Kirima muttered under her breath upon seeing him walking Lilica toward them.

"Skychaser, your brainless fuck-buddy thinks it's a good idea to tease and aggravate me. I want you three to spend some time talking, tell her exactly what I did to Alanea and what I did to you while we were waiting for her reply. If she's smart, she'll listen to you."

Andereon put a foot on Lilica's rear and shoved, pushing her into Kirima's room, where she stumbled and fell onto the bed with a shout and a grunt. Kirima immediately went to help her untie her hair from her wrists. Alanea ran into the room to check on her too.

"Frankly, I don't expect much," Andereon finished. "I don't want to see any of you until sunup." He pointed to Lilica. "Otherwise next time I'll be using my swords."

Lilica nodded quickly, and Andereon stepped out in a huff.

---

The sun rose on a new day, bathing the sea in orange. Andereon let out a light yawn as the fatigue was slowly catching up to him. The deck was still lightly stained, and the cleaning heads of the mops were soaking in clean water to try and get the residual blood off the mops, but he had done what he could do. His armor and weapons were mostly cleaned as well. If he had soap he'd be able to clean better, but at least now the stains would be removed later on rather than risk them permanently baking into the metal.

The worgen pirate had kept her word. When he had gone back up after throwing Stormchaser into Skychaser's room, he noticed the ship moving further away, and a couple hours before the sun rose, it was gone. Assuming she didn't have a mutiny on her hands, she'd probably be able to maintain order enough. There were definitely a lot less mouths to feed and whatever loot they had could be split less ways.

At least things were calmer now. It had been a while since he had to actually clash blades with someone; he was used to fighting feral worgen and animals. But those pirates...they just had so many numbers...they were fortunate that the "terrain" of the boat's design meant they couldn't actually surround them, but ti was touch and go near the end. They managed to gang up on and overpower Stormchaser.

He yawned again. Stormchaser. What the fuck was she trying last night? What was her goal? Get him to be gentle with her? Trying to get him to just get it over with and rape her? Was she teasing him? Taunting him? Did she know she was playing with fire? Did she _want_to get burned? He had joked about her being a masochist, but was he onto something there? Or was she just fucking crazy?

He shook his head. He had a low opinion of anyone screwing with him, but there was no way she was that stupid. He had worked with pandaren before and they were smart. There was no way_that Stormchaser was dumb enough to just throw herself into this. Skychaser was an idiot but she at least had her guilt to guide her. Stormchaser was nothing to him aside from owning the _Pursuit. She couldn't be that fucking stupid.

"Captain, there's breakfast downstairs if you want to eat something before resting from your shift."

Her voice was quiet, reserved. She learned her lesson. Good.

He turned around and saw her saluting him, completely naked, a faint smile on her face as the sun illuminated her body. Alanea and Skychaser were watching from the staircase to the lower deck, Alanea in her cat form, their heads poking out into the open.

"I'll take over for the day, Captain," Stormchaser told him, still saluting.

She didn't learn anything. Was she even thinking? Did she even have a brain? What the _ fuck _!? His fel taint glowed slightly as he growled, trying to keep himself contained. Fucking stupid monk!

"What the hell are you thinking, you dumb bitch?" Andereon asked her.

"Consider it my application to formally join Andereon's Fallen, Captain."

Andereon, for the second time that week, looked like he was struck dumb by her words. "...My fallen?"

"Because we're all stupid girls who have fallen from grace. Druid with high potential, now a mentally damaged shell who can barely think for herself, a hunter who was a hero within the Horde whose guilt caused her to become nothing out of wanting to suffer for her mistake, and now a monk who has seen most of the world and now wants to experience something new; what it's like to be broken by someone physically stronger than her and potentially awaken feelings in her she didn't know she might have had."

...What the fuck did any of that mean!? Andereon could only stare at her in utter disbelief and shock. "You...what...what was...where did all that come from?"

"They told me everything, Captain, and while I know I wouldn't be able to make it through it completely intact...there's not a lot left to experience on this planet."

"They put you up to this, didn't they?" Andereon asked, pointing at Skychaser and Alanea. "They told you this was a good idea, wasn't it?"

Stormchaser let out a quiet laugh. "We talked about a lot of things, Captain!"

The rest of this trip was going to take forever.