Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Puffy had been prepared to enter the Ardere Kingdom with her ship in tow to 'pledge her loyalty', blah blah, just so she wouldn't be blasted out the lake. There were lots of good fishing spots around Ardere, and they had more than enough space to spare for a pirate's boat. Besides, she knew that they had been interested in pirates, because of their daughter or something like that. Either way, it was a win-win. Ardere got their pirates, Puffy and her crew got free fishing spots. Result!

Except that all took a turn on the fifth night of sailing, roughly 200 miles away from Ardere.

Puffy and her crew were just hanging around, relaxing, preparing for lazy days of just fishing and not worrying about royals fucking up their day, when everything changed. For the worse, or for the better, remained to be seen.

They were just sailing through a forest. The water just about reached the roots of the trees, meaning the trees were tall and dense, having enough water to give to a small army.

"Foolish." She called over to her son. Being a shark hybrid, he could breathe underwater.

He came over. "Yeah, dad?"

"Uh, would you mind going under and making sure we don't have anything stuck to the boat?" She asked. "The forest is kinda edgy here, I don't want anything slowing us doing. The sooner we can get to goddamn Ardere, the sooner we can-"

Suddenly she heard something. She put her hand up, and everyone paused. The boat stopped.

Now she could hear it louder, though it was still muffled. She probably wouldn't've heard it if she hadn't been a sheep hybrid. Even though she could hear it, the voice was hard to discern. Wait... two voices? It was two voices... arguing about something.

"...Stupid fucking Ardere..."

"...paid enough for this..."

"...hut up you dolt!... you're... us found."

"eh... nobody here..."

"Revenge... Ardere..."

Her ears pricked slightly. Whatever they were planning, it didn't sound good. It sounded evil, in fact. Some kind of plot against Ardere.. Maybe it'd get them in better terms with the Kingdom, if she brought these two criminals in.

She gestured for the crew to move the boat forwards slightly without making any noise.

T he boat edged forwards, and she looked to where she heard it, and her heart sank.

To the side, hidden between trees and rocks and fog, were two men in a small boat, and a woman with two-toned hair tied up, sitting on the floor of the boat.

She didn't know what the men were going to do with the woman, but it couldn't be anything good.

And she was right.

In the seconds she spent staring, they grabbed her by the arms and legs, and seemed to be steeling themselves to do something, and it clicked.

Two men, out in a random, deserted forest-river/lake, miles away from any nearby house or kingdom, with a tied-up woman who looked to be of high status, if the – admittedly dirty and torn – dress was saying anything.

She grabbed the edges of her boat, suddenly furious. "HEY! What do you think you're doing over there?!"

There was a pause, and both men paused and looked over at her.

"...Shit." Asshole 1 said.

"Throw her in!" Asshole 2 yelled.

"NO!" Puffy jumped in the murky, disgusting lake as they threw the innocent woman into it.

Dark, dark water surrounded her, and she could barely see. She felt something on her leg and shivered, then swam forwards. She had to save someone.

It was hard to see anything unless it was right next to her or right in front of her. Part of her worried that the woman had gone lower.

Fortunately, she found the woman, whose hands, feet and mouth were bound. She was thrashing, trying to move, when Puffy put her arm around her and kicked upwards.

Taking a gasping breath of oxygen, she remembered the woman's mouth was bound, and undid it. Her beautiful bright blue eyes were blown wide with fear, and she looked back at the small boat. Puffy looked back too, and saw that the two men had arrows in their throats. They were dead.

Suddenly Puffy heard shouting, and then her ship was turning towards her, and smiled.

The two were hoisted onto the ship, and once they were there, everyone gaped, then demanded answers out of the woman – what had happened, why she was drowned, why she was here, why her posh fancy clothes were ruined.

The woman shrunk into herself, wincing at every question that came her way.

Puffy growled and put her hands up. "QUIET!"

Everyone shut up at once. Puffy sighed in relief, then turned to the woman.

"Are you okay?" She asked. "Sorry about my crew, they can... be a bit much, sometimes."

Before the woman could even open her mouth, Foolish spoke.

"You're Niki Nihachu, Princess of Ardere." Foolish said, then got down on one knee. "Your Highness."

Everyone soon followed suite.

Puffy, though confused, got on one knee, too. Why was a Princess out here when she was supposed to be at her castle, safe inside the protection of great walls.

Princess Nihachu, however, grimaced. "I used to be."

Puffy shot her a questioning glance, and Princess(?) Nihachu sighed and said, "You can get up now."

Puffy and her crew did so, murmuring questions before going silent.

"My name is Niki Nihachu," She nodded in acknowledgement at Foolish, and then paled as she went on, "But I'm afraid my parents want me dead."

Chapter Text

Puffy knocked on the door of the cabin. Well, her cabin, technically. But Niki Nihachu , having, y'know, almost died, deserved better than just a hammock with cold walls.

They'd given her a change of clothes, the finest clothes they had (aka some of Puffy's clothes), and let her change and get a quick shower.

Warm showers weren't available, sadly. It was a fairly small boat, and it wasn't like they'd gotten the money to actually get a shower there. So it was just buckets of clean water, put under a fire for a while, then dumping it on you. It was actually quite funny, but not when you were the one showering.

She knocked on the door again. "Nihachu?"

"Come in." Came a voice. Puffy opened the door to see the (ex?) princess sitting on the bed, looking honestly a little lost. The dress shirt was slightly big for her, as were the trousers – she had rolled up the sleeves and hems of them.

"Is it comfortable?" Puffy asked worriedly. "Like, here?"

"Oh, yeah." Nihachu said, then pulled a face. "The clothes are so much more comfortable than the dresses."

Puffy was repulsed by those big dresses like prisons the higher-ups had to wear. "Yeah, I wouldn't wanna wear those ever."

"Yeah, they're pretty repulsive." Nihachu said. "Very pretty, but very uncomfortable."

Puffy coughed. "Well, I think you'll quite like it here then, Your Highness."

Nihachu made a face like she'd sucked on a lemon. "Not really high anymore. Call me Niki. What can I call you, Captain?"

" Puffy." She was oddly flustered for having to give her name to the person she saved, for whatever reason. It made her feel a giddy, bubbly feeling in her heart she hadn't felt since she was a child. "Captain Puffy, but you can just call me Puffy."

Niki giggled. "That's a funny name. Well, it's nice to meet you, Puffy."

"Ditto." She smiled. "Do you mind if I-?"

"Oh, no, sit down!" Niki said, smiling and tapping the space next to her on the bed. Puffy walked over and sat down, again a sort of giddy feeling in her brain and gut with the idea of them both alone.

The feeling faded as Puffy remembered Niki's words from before – But I'm afraid my parents want me dead.

Niki's smile faded as well, as if she was reading Puffy's mind.

Puffy sighed. "You know I have to ask."

"I know." Niki whispered, then took a deep breath. "The reason my parents want me to die, and ordered these people to kill me, is because.. well, they're having a baby."

Puffy blinked. She'd heard nothing of this, which she supposed made sense, travelling so far from Ardere. But what did that have to do with Niki?

Niki lay her head on the wall, which couldn't have been comfortable. "You see, they'd had me when they were young; my father was 18 and my mother was 17. And they'd heard that people reigned best when they were in their 30's, that the kingdom was best and wealthiest around middle age. So, essentially, they thought their reign wouldn't be nearly as successful because of me, who would become of age – as I am now – when they were in their prime. But then, when they finally managed to get a baby... well, it wasn't like I was needed, if that baby was going to be the heir."

Puffy stared. If Niki was telling the truth, which Puffy had no doubt that she was, then how had she survived? Two wealthy people who could've easily covered the death up as a tragic incident – how had she survived that?

Niki's expression darkened, like she was thinking the same thing as Puffy. "I overheard them talking to some people, mercenaries. Mercenaries are common in Ardere, but they usually never talked to someone so high up, especially a king or queen. I heard them plot to kill me, and that's when I decided to run away. I got fairly far, but-" She smiled wryly. "As you can see, they'd caught up to me."

"Damn." Puffy said. "Damn. Parents suck ass."

Niki blinked. "They what?"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot you're all rich and posh and stuff." Puffy rolled her eyes lightheartedly. "I'll teach you the ropes of slang in a bit, just gotta talk to the crew."

"You won't tell them about the whole thing, will you?" Niki asked pleadingly.

"Not everything. Besides, they know enough that your parents want to..." She coughed. "Yeah, anyways. Get some rest, I'll be back soon."

Niki eased into the bed and nodded at Puffy. Puffy sighed and closed the door behind her.

"How's the princess doing?" Wilbur asked once the door was shut. She jumped – she hadn't realized her whole crew was behind her.

"Jesus Christ, guys, you almost gave me a heart attack-" She clutched the side of the boat. "Sheesh."

Foolish smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, we're just interested in our new... passenger."

"Fair enough." Puffy nodded. "Not often we get pretty princesses on our boat."

Everyone stared at her, and she realized: shit, did I say that out loud?!-

Ponk coughed into his hand. "Well, we know who the captain's new crush is."

Laughter rumbled all along the deck. Puffy's face flushed red as she laughed embarassedly.

It wasn't a crush. It wasn't a crush! It was just- it wasn't a crush to admire someone's looks, right? Right?

"Anyways," Foolish said, after the giggling had properly subsided. "Where are we gonna go?"

"Huh?"

"We can't go to Ardere." Foolish pointed out. "Not after the whole 'my-parents-want-me-dead' thing."

"Wait..." Wilbur frowned. "We were invited to visit Ardere, right?"

"Right." The crew chorused.

"And we just didn't really think why they'd want pirates, only the fishing spots." Wilbur said, starting to look faintly pale. "They'd mentioned it was about their daughter. You don't think-?" He didn't need to finish his sentence, they all understood what he was saying. Puffy suddenly felt faintly sick, which was crazy, because she didn't get seasick.

The idea of getting hired to kill someone, especially someone as kind and pretty as Niki was- was jarring. She'd only known the girl for a few hours, yet the idea of her dead just... it just didn't work.

Puffy didn't get that close with people that quickly, not since Schlatt, and they'd all seen how that went. Yet something about Niki- maybe it was the pretty blue eyes, maybe it was her soft voice, or maybe it was the fact that she had almost been killed so crudely, so... inhumanely.

She drew a shuddering breath. "Foolish, turn the ship around." She said. "We're heading back home."

Chapter Text

The next few days were relatively peaceful. They had to keep Niki hidden, of course, as they passed through towns and bays and villages.

But if they weren't hiding her, they were teaching her the ropes, sometimes literally. Defining and differenciating the different parts of the ship, explaining slang terms, etcetera etcetera. Niki was a good student. A good listener, for sure, and she stared attentively and patiently as they explained every little thing, occasionally asking questions in a small voice.

She was polite, kind and always tried to help across the ship. Puffy tried to tell her she didn't have to, she was (or at least, had been) a princess, but Niki insisted. So Puffy explained the scrubbing of the foremast, the cleaning of the decks, the importance of the cleansliness of the mast. She took to all the tasks with gusto, even – to many of the sailors' shock – with a smile.

Puffy asked her about this one day, and her answer was short and simple. "I was never allowed to housework or clean or do anything, that was the maid and butler's job. When they didn't do it quite right, they were fired by my parents. Some of them were my friends- and so I want to prove my parents wrong."

Puffy had stared, then punched her lightly on the shoulder, barely a shove. "Jeez, we're gonna have to make you a real pirate soon enough."

And at that, Niki had beamed. Puffy had genuinely wondered for a brief moment whether she could let Niki on the crew.

She waved away the idea almost as soon as it came. Niki was inexperienced, came from frickin royalty, and was wanted by one of the most dangerous kingdoms in all the land. She would never be able to stay with them. Puffy was many things, but stupid wasn't one of them (contrary to popular belief), and she knew that having Niki on the ship was a great risk that she thought she was particularly bold for taking.

Nobody could say Niki didn't deserve to be there, though. She tied ropes and lowered sails and cleaned decks as if she had done it all her life. It came so naturally that Puffy had to think: was she meant to be a pirate, after all?

But of course, the relative peace didn't last long. It could only be so long before someone would catch a glimpse of her, then word would sprea d.

It had only been two weeks since Niki's attempted execution, and that was where things went wrong.

They were just passing through the bay.

One of the men who worked there, she'd forgotten his name, had just walked through, having made a good deal with her several weeks ago.

"Captain!" He called, his voice bouncy and light.

"Ayup!" Jack yelled. "How you doin'?"

"Good." Said the guy as he stepped onto the ship. "Where's the goodies?"

"Right through here." She gestured. She was happy to indulge in all her normal activities, as if Niki wasn't here. It sounded a bit mean, but she just wanted a sense of normalcy, at least. Besides, it wasn't like Niki would stay here long.

A pang hit her at the thought of Niki leaving, a thought that clenched her heart.

It's ridiculous, she thought furiously as she led the man further into the ship. Utterly ridiculous. I've talked to her, like, three times over the last few weeks.

Okay, a little bit of an understatement. She'd been with Niki a lot over the last few weeks, it was just that... Niki hadn't known. Bad had called her a 'stalker with sheep ears'.

She wasn't a stalker! She wasn't! She was just looking out for her.. she was just looking out for her, it was normal!

In any case, Niki was leaving soon, and Puffy had to go on with her normal routine. This was fine.

She hit the side of a large box. "Finest cod of all the land."

"If I'm gonna be honest, that's a pretty low bar." The man grinned, then looked at the box. "And this is two kilograms, aye?"

"That's right."

"I'll be off, then." The man picked up the box, then paused. "'old on, what's that?"

Puffy looked sharply around to see a plain bit of old wood, covering-

Her heart stuttered. Covering one of Niki's hiding spots. The one where they'd arranged Niki to be in. It was well hidden, but it wasn't perfect.

"See what?" She said, keeping her cool.

"I saw 'n' eye!" He grunted, putting down the box. "I did!"

Puffy rolled her eyes, trying to hide how her heart was beating so fast she felt like it was going to explode. "Have you been getting sleep? Because, I don't know if you've noticed, but we haven't got floating eyeballs."

"I'm not crazy!" He yelled, and, to her horror, walked towards it and took the wood away. "'ere! I-"

His face went slack as he saw Niki crouched down, mostly hidden but with her head sticking out.

"My god." He said. "You've got the princess..."

Puffy drew her cutlass and aimed. She knew he was a thug, and didn't give a shit about pirates. He'd gladly sell her in for a bit of money. Or, in this case, probably a lot of money.

"Don't do it." She whispered, in vain. "Please."

The man said nothing before he yelled so loudly that she thought it shook the walls, "WE'VE GOT A BOUNTY HIDER 'ERE!"

Without even hesitating, she ran him through with her sword.

Niki gaped at the body, but Puffy had no time to explain or even to be angry. She ran to the upper deck to find that a small fight had broken out at the thug's words.

She growled and grabbed the ship's wheel, and spun the ship out of the bay.

Once they were out of reach of the bay, she jumped down and quickly started slashing down the enemies.

At last, Fundy pushed the last one off the ship, and Puffy sighed and leant against the wall. "Oh, my God..."

There was silence, then Niki, who looked shaken and scared. "U-Uhm..."

Puffy felt rage simmer beneath her, the first time it had been aimed at anyone on this ship. "What the fuck were you thinking?!"

Niki flinched. "I- I was just-"

"You know how much you've fucked up?!" Puffy yelled. "The whole of fucking Ardere is gonna be on our tail and we're gonna have a shitton of mercenaries."

"I'm sorry..." Niki said in a hoarse voice, and Puffy realized she was crying. Oh god, oh god.. . "I- I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't b- be here, I'm sorry."

"Great, you're fucking sorry, we've established that." She hissed, barely recognizing her voice under all the venom. "Go to my quarters and fucking stay there. We're not letting you out again."

Niki paused, registering the words, before quickly walking into where she'd slept for the last two weeks.

Silence followed, and Puffy felt immeasurable guilt weigh in her chest. She wanted to apologize, calmly explain, hug her... she wanted to make sure that while yes, it was Niki's fault, it was also normal for someone to make mistakes.

But she had a reputation to maintain, so she took a deep breath, then turned to Foolish. "Set your directions to go more discreet, unknown ways. It'll take us longer, but it'll be safer."

Chapter Text

They were attacked three weeks later.

If Puffy was going to be honest, she was pleasantly surprised by how long it took for somebody to find them. In fact, she had genuinely expected them to come in the days following Niki getting found.

It was a normal day, Puffy was steering and looking out over the horizon. The familiarity of the worn down wood underneath her hands made her smile. She loved her boat. She loved her crew. Manning the ship had always been one of her favourite things to do, to feel like you're in control of the seas, with the air whipping at your face.

The tangy feel of salt was on her lips. She revelled in it.

Suddenly, a shape emerged in the distance. Unused pathways usually meant foggy pathways, which made it hard to see past the chunk of their boat.

She squinted, then realized it was a boat.

She called down, "Hey, Sam! Can you see that? What kind of ship is it?"

Sam put on his glasses, then his eyes widened. "Mercenary ship!"

Shit! Puffy internally cursed, and drove the ship to the side to avoid collision.

The boat passed them, but then a grappling hook sped out from the boat and latched onto the side of Puffy's boat. Then several more did the same.

"TAKE THEM OFF!" Puffy demanded her crew, who all rushed to try take them off, but the damage had been done; their ships were exactly side to side.

Puffy's crew all drew their swords as the mercenaries ran onto her boat – her precious boat.

She jumped down and slashed at a mercenary whose back was turned. They turned around and slashed with their sword, but Puffy ducked and Fundy ran them through from behind.

Puffy dove to the side and surprised a mercenary by stabbing him in the neck as he fell.

A mercenary ran forwards and slashed at her, and she defended with her sword, looped it around and disarmed them, before promptly stabbing them in the neck.

A sound rang through the air, the sound of a bullet exiting a gun, and Puffy cried out and knelt down on the deck, clutching her shoulder, with had started to bleed profusely.

Everyone had frozen at the sound, and with pride that was muffled by searing pain, she noticed that most of the mercenaries had been killed, and that all her crew was left standing.

A man, probably the captain, ran forwards and grabbed Puffy by the arm putting his gun to her head. She flinched but kept her cool, starting to tremble from pain.

"One more move and I kill your captain." He yelled, and Puffy, along with a sharp pain her arm, jolted as she recognized the voice.

"Jay?" She said in disbelief, and the man growled and in the next second, a shot rang out, with a smoking hole in the floor to match it.

"It's Schlatt now, Puffy. Captain Schlatt." He said. "Now, everyone drop your weapon or else your sweet, precious captain will get killed."

No, she tried to tell them, with just her eyes. No, no, don't. You can't.

A moment of hesitation, then another, and then there was a clang as Foolish's sword fell from his hand. Then Sam's. Then Ant's.

The air was soon rent with sounds of clanging.

What remained on Schlatt's crew on her deck, as well as the rest of the crew of Schlatt's ship all surged forwards as one and started dragging them to the other boat. No-one resisted.

Schlatt laughed. "This is why you shouldn't develop close relationships with your crew. It's a dog-eat-dog world, Puffy."

She snarled, and said, "It's Captain Puffy, asshole."

"Now, I heard you had precious cargo.." His hold tightened. "Mind telling me where she is?"

She hesitated. "...She's-" And then she grabbed Schlatt by the arm and slammed him overhead. He, now with his back facing the deck, grabbed Puffy's arm to heave himself up. Puffy slapped him and rolled out of his loose grip, and grabbed her sword.

Schlatt laughed, rubbing his cheek. "You really wanna do this?" He asked, taking out his sword.

"Just like when we were kids." Puffy agreed, and leapt forwards, only for his sword to be brought up so suddenly that Puffy stumbled. Schlatt used that to his advantage and swiped her feet from under her.

She raised her sword instinctively, and just in time, too, as his sword clashed against hers. The screech of metal on metal hurt Puffy's ears, and his ears lowered uncomfortably, too. Unanimously, they decided that anything was better than that, and Schlatt backed off so she could get to her feet.

"Rams have always been-" He slashed downwards, she combatted it and tried to loop it, but he pulled his sword sharply back to avoid that. "Stronger."

"Well, this sheep has horns." Puffy said as they began to circle each other dramatically.

Schlatt barked out a laugh. "Still the same, Puffy! Funny, charismatic-"

"Why, thank you." She snapped, unsure of where he was going with this.

"But still so weak."

He suddenly raised his gun so quickly that Puffy ducked instinctively, but he just shot to the side, and a yelp rang through.

A very familiar yelp.

The color left Puffy's face as she looked over, and saw a mercenary holding Niki in a chokehold, and the bullet had missed her by an inch.

"Hold her still." Schlatt demanded. "Next time, I won't miss."

"Don't!" Puffy shouted. "What do you want, Schlatt?!"

Schlatt smiled, and Puffy's heart ached as it looked like the boy she had been raised with, the boy that had been so excited to see his horns start coming in.. . "The bounty." He responded simply. "Now, drop your sword and any other weapons you may have, and if you even think about pulling anything, I'll put this bullet straight through that thick head of hers."

Puffy's fingers twitched, and she leant down and placed her sword gingerly on the ground. The next thing she knew, she was being hauled onto the deck of the other boat, he hands tied together as some random mercenary pulled her forwards.

She was thrown in the Hull, along with the rest of her crew. They gaped in amazement as she was brought down and tied against a piece of wood.

Her face burned as everybody looked at her, and she refused to meet anyone's eyes. How embarassing, for a Captain to be captured, along with her crew... she was supposed to be the most experienced, the wisest, the most skilful, and just like that, she had gotten captured.

She felt her hands trembling as she realized what this meant.

Not only was Niki in danger, as she was either going to be killed or brought before her parents, which was basically the same thing, but.. well... whenever captains were captured, especially singlehandedly, it was a triumph for the team that captured them, and a punishment for the captain that was captured.

Her punishment was most likely to be a public flogging. Fucking great. She still had the scars from her last one, and those had happened years and years ago...

She closed her eyes, leaned against the wall, and pretended that she was still on her own ship.

Chapter Text

Somebody shook Puffy's arm. When she opened her eyes, everything was blurred, but there was a blue-eyed brunette in front of her, for sure. She blinked a few times and saw they were snipping the rope that connected her to the the boat, though carefully avoiding untying her hands. They couldn't be older than sixteen, maybe seventeen at best.

"What-?"

"D- Captain Schlatt wants you up for your punishment." The teen mumbled. Her heart sank. "I was told to bring you up."

"Right, right." She said distractedly. Options ran through her mind – she could try escape, though she doubted she could with... what? Twenty, thirty pirates on board? And she couldn't just leave her crew like that. She considered taking this kid hostage, but she didn't for two reasons: a) she didn't like the idea of taking just a kid hostage, and b) she doubted Schlatt would care if she killed him. She didn't resist as he grabbed her by the arm (much gentler than the rest of his crew would've done, she noted), nor as he pulled her up the stairs and onto the deck.

After such thick darkness, the brightness of the sun made her wince. Once her eyesight adjusted to the sudden change, she saw the entire crew, staring at her, watching her. Grinning broadly, though some of the light missing from his eyes, was Schlatt, standing at the mast.

"She didn't maul you then, Tubbo?" He called out. Tubbo. That must have been the name for the kid. "Would've been funny if she did. Then again," His eyes fell to her own. "Not like she has the heart to do it."

Puffy showed no reaction. She carefully kept her face as blank and noncommital as possible. "We gonna have a nice friendly chat? Cause I'm all for it, just get me a cup of tea and pull up a chair."

Schlatt's face went red as the crew laughed. He grabbed her arm and pulled her forwards, yanking her out of the boy's grip and starting to tie her to the mast. She raised her eyebrows at him, smirking slightly at him to piss him off, as well as to hide her panic, because boy was she panicking.

"Everybody!" Schlatt yelled. "Captain Puffy is a pirate! She disobeyed the law and kidnapped the princess! Now, I know none of us care about royalty, but we all care about money, so we're takin' her back! But, as for Puffy, well.." He smirked sideways at her. "We all know what happens to pirates, don't we, lads?" A cheer went up in the ranks.

She bit her tongue to stop the inevitable scream that would soon burst forth from her mouth. A few seconds of silent apprehension, then-

"PUFFY!"

Puffy looked around sharply- she recognized that voice all too well.

Niki was in a struggling mercenaries arms, her eyes flickering from Puffy to the whip. "NO! No! You wouldn't- you couldn't-"

"This isn't any of your business, princess." Schlatt sneered, then did that smirk she hated so much. "Unless you want to take her place?"

"No, Niki!" Puffy yelled as soon as the words left Schlatt's mouth. "Don't you dare! Jay, don't let her!"

Schlatt's face contorted with rage, and then-

SNAP!

Searing, burning pain went on her back in a painful line. She cried out, then held it in, her lip wobbling.

"Don't-" Schlatt said through gritted teeth. "call me that ever again. I am Captain Schlatt, feared mercenary of the seas, and you are nothing." He spat.

"H-HOW DARE YOU!" Niki yelled. "HOW DARE YOU! You can't- I won't let you-"

"Get the bitch back in the room." Schlatt growled, and a hand went over Niki's mouth and she was brought, kicking and struggling, away.

Schlatt exhaled through his teeth, then gave the whip back to one of his crew. "Now, where were we?"

Puffy was thrown harshly into the lower parts of the ship, her hands still tied, as she gasped. She just lay there, on the ground, shivering as her back felt like it was burning and so, so raw.

Immediately there were shouts of alarm from the rest of her crew, but Puffy curled in on herself, ignoring the shooting pain in her back as it moved ever so slightly.

Concerned voices filled her ears. She just wanted to die. Her last flogging hadn't nearly been bad, and the scars had just started to heal, too- now they were going to stay there forever.

The voices starting drowning out. Maybe they realized she wasn't going to respond. Maybe she was falling unconscious. Maybe she was dying. Or maybe her brain was simply tuning things out, concentrating wholeheartedly on the pain to focus on her friends...

She saw the door to the hull open as a beam of light went straight into her eyes. She whined, then her face burnt red as she realized she was just vulnerable in front of her entire god-damned crew.

The last thing she saw was a small figure coming downstairs just before her entire world blacked out.