Hello everyone and welcome back to The Realm! I deeply apologize for the insanely long wait but the wait is now over and as the title suggests, we are once more within the origin story of the Third and Fourth Captains! Now on with the show!
He had tried to interact with Killian many times, but he never seemed to remember him and eventually Liam, Killian's elder brother, told William why the younger Jones couldn't remember him...his heritage. He was part whitelighter and Killian was reacting to that instinctively, trying to maintain the barrier holding back his memories.
In a nutshell, Killian Jones would never remember him...ever...until a certain redhead gets involved and both Hook and Killian finally see him and when that happens...later that night, he cried in relief and joy because his childhood friend and his captain actually acknowledged his existence, but it did not change the past. For when Artz had latched onto him during her time as "Alice", she had told him about what was happening; the Dreamshade, the trio of idiots, what she needed to cure herself of the poison, and most importantly, she told him about what Black, and eventually Hawthorne and Jefferson, did to her...were still doing to her.
Artz begged him for his help and at first, he didn't believe her. Worse still, he had told her who he was and what she had done to him. She simply smiled sadly and said that Killian wasn't the only one that lost something. He didn't have time to ask what she had meant by that because the clutzy Jefferson informed them that Black was reminding her of her other "shift" of work. This allowed the idiot trio to do as they pleased with her and for so long, he did nothing to stop it.
It was during a particularly vicious storm that he had been thrown overboard and the redhead that he despised so much risked her own life to save his. She brought them back to surface, using every ounce of her strength to hoist them back onto the ship, but Smee wasn't breathing. She performed CPR which allowed him to come sputtering back to life, but during the time between him drowning and being brought back, his forgotten past was restored to him and a great shift took place within the man's soul.
The reason why everything went to hell when he was a child was because he had been murdered...by his own father and the one he didn't know about either. His mother never told him who his father was and simply said that she didn't regret conceiving and giving birth to him, but the event prior to conception was not consensual and every time after that as well. His father had raped his mother and had apparently still been doing it, but then his mother fought back and he killed her. Not a day later, his father murdered him in retribution, believing that it was his fault that his mother finally grew a back bone.
Artz had felt it or at least felt something so she asked the boys to look after Graham for a bit and left to investigate only to find him dead on the rocky coastline and in the distance was the man that murdered him. She had been stunned to say the least...because it was Killian's and Liam's stepfather. She had a choice...go after the bastard and make him pay for what he had done or stay and save the life of the child laying dead at her feet.
She chose to save William and it was revealed to him that the Jones brothers and himself were stepbrothers. He told her about his mother and was taking her to his house to save her when Artz felt the power surge from Killian. A light orb formed around him and her, disappearing upon their arrival. She hadn't used it to get to Smee's house because she had never been there...even her powers have limitations and stipulations. Her light orb was only effective if she had spent an extended period of time in a particular place or held an incredibly strong bond with a specific individual.
When she was killed by Killian's powers and after the explosion of emotion that followed, Artz needed to be revived but because it was Killian's power that caused the injuries, it required a specific kind of ability to heal them...the power of a Whitelighter. Smee was sitting on his legs next to the woman that had brought him back to life and had come here to save his dear friends, only to die herself. He hated himself for how he felt all those months, wishing to rewind the clock and be with her just as his friends had been.
Tears began to form in his eyes, slipping down his cheeks to fall on the backs of his hands and his palms began to glow with a soft white light. He became deaf to Liam's voice, despite the elder Jones trying to warn him of the repercussions of drawing on his awakened heritage. Young Whitelighters were prohibited from using their healing power because they didn't fully comprehend what activated them in the first place and the toll it would take on their still developing bodies.
But William didn't care because all he saw was her...his savior...the light in the darkness...she truly was a star and that star needed to shine once more. He put everything he had into healing her. He did manage to start her heart but her injuries were a lot worse than he had thought so he focused mainly on healing her internal organs. His own heart began to stutter, the light from his hands flickering on and off. His young body was beginning to buckle under the strain and it wouldn't be long before he would be in death's embrace once more.
One of his closest friends was still begging him to stop but he couldn't. He had to make things right, to atone for the hatred he had once felt for her, but Liam had other ideas. The elder Jones shot a bolt of red electricity to hit the poor boy straight on, sending him flying backwards, his head smacking backwards and hitting the tree before the rest of his body had caught up. As always, there were consequences for every action and in this case, it had not only knocked him out but caused short term amnesia. Thus making him revert back to the time in which he hated her. Upon hearing this tale, William had scoffed at the elder Jones and simply walked away, having nothing more to do with them until all three were assigned to the Jewel of the Realm.
After he had recovered from his near death experience, he started to get to know Artz and he could see why his childhood friends were practically obsessed with her. She gave off this sort of aura of understanding... like you could tell her anything whether good or bad and you would know that she was actually listening to you. Then she would offer advice after explaining her perspective of the situation. It was up to them whether or not they followed that advice or chose a path of their own making. He honestly began to wonder if all the other things she had told him were true as well.
He had started noticing a pattern...she would be happy performing her duties as a deckhand but as soon as Jefferson, Hawthorne or Black reminded her of her other shift, just how petrified she became. Then gradually each man would disappear at random and were not seen or heard from for hours, even days but once the captain was back on board, these other shifts would abruptly end. He finally got fed up and actually attempted to follow them. It had taken a few tries for stealth was not his forte, but he did eventually succeed and what he witnessed with his own eyes was horrific; Hawthorne was making her service his sword with her mouth, Jefferson was was behind her and most definitely sheathed in her rear entrance and Black was on the floor monopolizing her womanhood, his hands gripping her breasts. They were definitely not being gentle in the slightest.
He could tell that she was trying very hard not to cry, not wanting to give them the bastards the satisfaction, but he also couldn't just barge in and rescue her. Three healthy males against one still recovering man, not very good odds...which went to zilch because Artz wasn't using her powers to stop them, meaning that what she said about the captain being poisoned through his evening wine had to be true and she had been protecting him, becoming a living shield for the captain they both cared for. She wasn't strong enough to fight back so he made it his mission to keep those three away from her at all costs, even gradually coaxing his captain into taking the ginger with him all the time until she never left his side, denying them their prize.
He had been surprised when he was promoted to First Mate but damn if he didn't do a mental happy dance when his captain cut off Black's hand. He made certain to show the captain what his true priorities were once returning to the ship, despite his personal feelings. That's when he saw it...acknowledgment and he actually trusted him. He almost lost control over his emotions when his captain had laughed after he had said aye, aye captain in response to his orders. He hadn't known just how much it would truly mean to him, to once again been seen and acknowledged.
When little Morrie came out of the Captain's quarters with a smirk firmly planted on his face, round two of pranking began aboard the Jolly Roger though it didn't disrupt their digestive tracts. In fact, the young druid seemed to be searching for something, so the first mate assisted the mischievous child so he could enter every part of the ship, including the cargo hold where Artz's other shifts had occurred.
When the boy suddenly stopped pranking and had become almost completely silent, William Smee knew something was wrong. His suspicions were confirmed when the ginger's godson started staring at the master of the galley, Lawrence Hawthorne. His theory was further validated when the man barged into the Captain's quarters while he was bedding his wench...she barely left that bed in the first place. Everyone on the bloody ship knew better than to get in between the Scourge of the Sea and his wench, doing so led to some rather unpleasant events for certain members of the crew that found themselves no longer amongst the living.
Fortunately, Artz had managed the situation well enough to keep her Captain from reacting instead of acting. She needed him to remain calm, rational, and ironically open to manipulation. It was only a slight tweak of the man's perception of her to actually hide the fact that she was dying. To save her Captain and ultimately herself, she drank the wine provided for him during his evening meal...the wine becoming more and more potent. He had tried to intercept the carrier but then Jefferson or someone else would either distract him or bowl over Artz.
When Morrie asked him to come to his quarters to look at something, he never expected to see the strange box that Jefferson had been carrying with him to and from Neverland...the very same land that had claimed the life of Liam Jones, the so called miraculous healing herb known as Dreamshade being the most viscous toxin in all the realms. He told the boy that he had seen Jefferson with that box and the boy's eyes went wide, his skin becoming an ashen white. The druid child whipped around and started rifling through page after page of notes, only for them to scatter about the floor.
Smee was utterly shocked that little Morrie was crying and he was crying silently, not making a single sound. That boy had never cried before...his godmother attempting to kill him twice simply because her Captain had ordered her to...no problem, a trio of idiotic bastards with hidden agendas...smooth sailing...so what in blazing hell could possibly make this boy shed silent tears like his world had just shattered into dust?!
The answer came the next morning, but he didn't care express his grief, not in front of the crew. His captain, his friend, and his comrade that only just found his blackened heart a year ago was shattering to pieces. His friend was barely holding himself together and when they arrived at Port Marques de Leon, The Queen of Camelot herself boarded the Jolly Roger, along with a bed of flowers.
Watching his captain kiss the woman that had become his soul, the eye of his storm, the star of the sea, it broke something inside of the whitelighter then he watched as his captain allowed the Seeress of the Blood Guard to place him into a deep slumber, one he had no intention of waking up from. Smee honestly didn't know what to do but Morgana did and then she named him, a crest appearing on his left hand. She informed him that Her Ladyship had named him long ago but it was not to be revealed until now. With its emergence, he could sense them...the Blood Guard. There were so many...most of the bloody crew were Blood Guard! That's why it was so easy for her to fit in with the crew, allowing the captain to believe that she had earned their trust which had eventually began to sway his mentality away from the abyss of evil and into the night bathed in starlight.
The first mate's attention snapped back to the present when the ship suddenly lurched, the tentacles disengaging and disappearing beneath the water. That's when he noticed that his captain and dear friend was no longer on board and judging from the swirling motion of the sea, a whirlpool was beginning to form and they were right on top of it. Silver suddenly appeared from the water to land on the deck, his clothes and body completely soaked. He made a mad dash up the stairs and took the helm, turning the ship so that they could use the flow of the emerging vortex of aquatic doom to pilot them out into safer waters. They couldn't break free entirely but they were able to remain on the edge the whole time.
Smee's jaw dropped as a massive squid-like creature rose from the whirlpool and easily swam to calmer waters but remained nearby for some inexplicable reason. The ship lurched again as the sea tornado grew in intensity, expanding further outwards and much deeper. It was almost to the ocean floor. The creature grabbed their ship again and pulled them back to the edge but kept a tentacle wrapped horizontally around the ship to act as a buffer.
Many of the crew actually screamed in terror as a rather large arachnid appendage landed on the deck. It was followed by several more until a gigantic spider loomed overhead. Fortunately, the spider positioned itself just so to keep its body from wrecking the sails and snapping the mast like a toothpick. Only Smee and Silver noticed the jet stream of water that had erupted from the center of the whirlpool, shooting straight up before arcing towards the ship. When it landed, a certain redhead came tumbling out while the water formed into the shape of a man. It solidified to reveal Poseidon, who then promptly collapsed. The strain of using his recently awakened heritage being too much for his body to handle.
Artz: And that's where I'm ending it. Sorry if it seemed more choppy than normal. It was written in short bursts over several months. Things have just been insanely hectic as of late and has still not settled down either, but I wanted to give ya something! I haven't forgotten I swear!
*A boy with silver hair walks into the article with his arms crossed and he's not alone. Several other very recognizable people join him.*
Artz: I haven't forgotten you guys either. I'll get there eventually.
Crow: *appears from her shadow, directly behind her. He smiles creepily at the crowd before opening his eyes, revealing that they were glowing a deep crimson color, almost like blood*
The crowd fled but two remained; the silver haired boy and the brown haired man.
Balthier: I'm not so easily intimidated.
Hope: And I'm just plain stubborn.
Artz: What are you...*notices Crow* Well that explains a lot. *to the readers* Apologies if the text style or spacing is a bit wonky. I had typed up the original draft in Google Docs, copied and modified it in the Blogger app, but to add gifs I have to use the browser version.
