Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Captain Rocket and his crew had faced many mishappenings through their many adventures at sea

Like how once they fought an eldritch sea creature because they took their rum stash

Or when an entire town hunted them down for days just because they took a little bit of their goods

But this.
This is worse than anything they’ve ever faced.

 

-…-

 

“WE ARE OFFICIALLY BROKE.”

 

“There ain’t no nothin ‘official’ ‘bout this, captain”
Scythe spoke up while leaning on her gear

The day had started in the most simple way any day could have while being in this pirate ship.

Captain Rocket had woken them all up for one of their ‘important pirate meetings’ with a loud bang of the door of the crew's sleeping abode, pulling everyone to their designated pirate meeting room.

So it was safe to say nobody was giving a single fuck about anything he was saying right now.

“GUYS!! I’M SERIOUS ABOUT THIS! IF WE HAVE NO MONEY THEN HOW WOULD WE-”

Before Captain could continue screaming about their lack of money, Zuka, the past captain of this ship and only reliable person in the vicinity currently available, slammed his bottle of rum on the table and spoke before Rocket could.
“Quit whining Rocket, there’s something simple we could do.”

“-Well, simple for pirates.”

“Okkayyyyy…” With a swift switch on the position of his legs, Captain perks up and lays his head on his hand.

“So, what is it?”

Zuka lifts his legs up and lays them on the table, his bottle of rum almost falls but he picks it up before it can touch the ground. “While we were on our last trip to the docs, while you all went on and about blowing up barrels, I ended up overhearing a conversation about some sort of island from our trader.”

He sighed before continuing “after their other customer left I went up to them and asked about said island, and from that I found out that there’s an island of some god, and that many people bring offerings so said god could give them blessings.”

Scythe went closer to the table, now with her gear in her shoulders. “Aye old geezer, what more ya know ‘bout this island? I wanna see if the treasures’ good enough for our crew”

Zuka takes a big shot out of his rum, as if he was just done with everything, before continuing with his ‘tale’. “In this island resides the god of the sun, and many go there to receive the god’s blessings so their land can be basked in its sun for their plants to grow and thrive. So said offerings are very valued, like rare gems, lots of gold, magical items and other things alike.”

Rocket instantly got up from his seat in delight, making Medkit, who was sleeping with a bottle of rum in his hand, jump from his position in shock. “PERFECT!!! SO THATS WHERE WE’RE GOING!” Rocket said with stars practically appearing in his eyes

“Now hold up there kid, we can’t just go in there without a plan.” Zuka took another second to take another shot of rum. “Our vendor said that most who tried going there to steal the god’s offerings never came back.”

“BAHAHAHHAH!! And since WHEN did any of this hold us back?!” While saying this, Rocket walked up to the map stuck on the room’s wall. “He isn’t wrong.” Medkit spoke up after being zoned out for the entirety of the conversation.

Grabbing the red sharpie next to the map, Rocket looked back at his crew with a grin wide on his face. “Now where is the damn island? We’re going today!!”

Scythe raised her gear to the air in a sort of victorious position. “I’m in Cap’!”

“You all have no sense of survivability.” Zuka put his hand on his head and groaned.

“I agree with that…” Medkit said weakly

 

“Weren’t you asleep??” Rocket looked back at the table to try finding medkit

“You fuckin’ shouting woke me up…” Medkit slammed his head back at the table

 

“What a way to ruin the mood.”
Zuka deadpanned

 

—————————-

 

“This sure looks like a pretty island from afar!”

Medkit deeply sighed. “Do I really have to go with you all? This adventure smells of trouble…”

They were close to reaching the island, and while Medkit stared at the distance with a sense of incoming dread, Zuka took on the job of throwing the anchor down so the ship couldn’t end up hitting the island when they got near and possibly break something.

Scythe, overhearing what Medkit said, walked over to his side and put one of her hands on his shoulder. “C’mon ‘kit! Stop bein so gloomy ‘bout everythin! There’s a bunch of good treasure there so it’s gon’ be worth it! We’r pirates after all!”

“It will only be worth it if we don’t end up dead. You all see that this ‘genius’ idea is stealing from a literal god, right?”

Rocket jumped to Medkit and Scythe’s side. “That’s why it’s so great! Imagine how much good stuff is gonna be there! And also, how do you even know if this ‘oh so great deity’ exists? And do you realllyyyy think I’m gonna go down because of some measly god that locked themselves up on an island? Please, you know me! I’m the great Captain Rocket! I’d never step down from a challenge!”

Medkit sighs and puts his hands on his head.
“I won’t be able to take this while sober…”

Rocket leaned on Medkit’s body in a way to be more ‘eccentric’ about his movements. “Well unlucky for you, we need the money so we can get more of that stuff”

“And also, doesn’t it sound fun to challenge a God? And I mean, what are they gonna do about it? Throw thunder at us? They’re the God of the sun, not of the full on weather!”

“Plus we don’t even need sun that much! As long as there’s good wind and the waters are calm, everything’s fine!!”

Zuka, being the voice of reason again, sneaks behind Rocket as he does his great speech and hits him on the head with his only hand “quit yapping kid, if you didn’t notice, we’re already ready for the boat.”

Rocket lights up about this knowledge, already finished everything he needed to do so everything could go the most smoothly possible.

Oh well, as best as him and his crew could.

“Perfect! Now let's go!!”

 

—————————-

 

“Reminder as to why we are all going together to our impending deaths?”

“Don’t be so gloomy about everything, ‘kit! The more hands we got the better!” Rocket laid back in an exaggerated way on the little boat they were using to get to the island, not helping with anything.

Zuka, overhearing their conversation, decided to speak up. “You know what else could be better? You using your hands to paddle this boat. Seriously, leaving it to me n’ scythe alone is a great way to be a good captain.”

“You’re so mean Zuka!! I’m such a great captain and this is the way I get rewarded by my crew? Rude!”

“Shut yer mouth up and help us out, cap’!” Scythe, with a huff in her tone of voice, pushed Rocket closer to one of the oars

“Fine fine! This is all gonna be worth it anyways!”

“Ya’ better help!”

With Rocket and Scythe arguing, they failed to notice themselves getting closer to the island, so the boat suddenly crashing onto land made them stop the loud insults they were throwing at each other

And through the boat crashing, Rocket manages to fall face onto sand because of course he was standing up while bickering with Scythe.

“Ffbmmghhffhhnmgffh!!”

“We’re here.” Zuka deadpanned, completely ignoring Rocket and practically walking over him to get on the sand.

While the rest of the crew got out of the small boat they were using, Rocket used his hands to support himself as he quickly got up, instantly being flashed with the scenery of the island they barged in.

The first thing he noticed was the totally new species of trees, like what tree looked like as if it was burning while still being so magestical??? Apparently half of the trees in here, even if they could only be fully noticed in the middle of the isle. The sand was surprisingly normal compared to the first thing seen, although when he cast a shadow through the sand, it became clear how some grains shone like stars in the night sky.

The sun seemed to shine brighter here than in the boat, but this could be just passed as the sand being hot the entirety of the day making everything seem warmer, at least that’s what it seems for Captain Rocket.

Other than these details, nothing else seemed out of the place. It looked just like… a normal Island.

But, with the hurry of a starving inphernal seeing edible food for the first time in so long, Rocket lifted himself up and barely removed the sand from his clothes before running straight into the woods.

“Rocket, where do you think you’re going? We just got here.” Zuka pulled a hand across his face as if to try relieving some of the stress that already got to his nerves.

Running straight ahead, the only thing that could be heard from Rocket was his footsteps on the sand.

With a wide grin, Rocket held onto one of the first trees he saw just so he could add some dramatic effect. “Come on crew! The riches of a god don’t wait for us to get comfortable!”

A loud sigh could be heard from where Medkit resided.

“Shut yer’ mouth rocket!”

“Just trust me on this scythe!!!”

Trust me

Those are scary, and very stupid, words to be said by Captain Rocket.

 

-…-

 

“GOD DARN IT WE LOST CAP’ AGAIN”

“Five minutes on this island and he already wanders off to nowhere…” Medkit says in regret.

“That’s why we can never trust the captain on anything” Zuka said while leading the rest of the crew throughout the path they found.

What even happened? you may ask.

Well, right after Rocket said to trust him, he wandered off from the group, not telling anyone, not even a single mention. While they were on an unknown island.

An island where a god resides.

It makes you wonder how he’s even alive.

“But what do we do now? Do we search for his arse or go after the darn gold n’ dip?”

While looking around for any other types of distinct pathways Rocket could’ve gone to, Zuka decides to be the one to speak rationally, and slightly glanced back at Scythe. “Scythe, we are not leaving Rocket behind. We’ll search for him and drag him back to the boat. If we catch him by sun fall we search for the gold.”

“Pshhh…. Cap’ Rocket… always getn into trouble to get himself killed…” Scythe kicked a rock in disdain and annoyance.

When the two others were looking around and down, Medkit decided to look up.
And right at that instant, a sudden light that was as strong as the morning sun shone through the only mountain on the island.

Huh…

“I guess I know where he is now…” Medkit pondered, before pulling both Scythe and Zuka towards the rocky path they had to go to reach their destination.

After all, who was going to retrieve Rocket if not them?

 

—————————-

 

When had everything gone dark?

The sun wasn’t even setting before..

He was with his crew before, walking around random paths they found in search of treasure, but then… he heard… his own voice.

That was it, wasn’t it? His voice, as smooth as a light rain, spoke in illegible words, and he followed.

The voice was smooth, calm and almost quiet, it was very unlike himself but he could not deny the voice was his.

It was like a guiding light, something that led him his entire life to where he was now.

It was comforting.

The sun went dark, no more evening light. Everything around him darkened, as the stars shone brightly, just like the sand in the shore they came from. The sand that washed away, coming back, again and again.
Just as his consciousness.

His voice led him to a path that didn’t exist, but it was pushing him as if they knew where he should go.

Soon enough, more voices joined.

They were faint, barely noticeable, but they were there, as a guiding light.

The whispers in his surroundings carried him, his eyes were wide throughout everything, like he was seeing all and nothing at the same time.

'I was being pulled, as if I was a moth to a flame.'

Each step taken led to another and another, the mountain he had seen before seemed smaller as to what might have been awaiting on the peak.

‘I can’t understand what they’re saying, but I know I need to climb’

And climb

And climb

The light on the peak was getting closer and closer to him, as if it was being pulled as well. As if the stars shone not only to him.

If he got closer, he knew he would get burned. But he can’t stop.

He’s almost there.

Almost.

He didn’t notice when he took his last step, he felt as if he should take one more, but he couldn’t, he was too weak to take another step, and the being in front of his very own eyes was simply too much for a simple pirate..

That person was… celestial.

They were way more than this, but any other words could not come to his head at the moment.

They were brilliant in the most literal sense, so brilliant the own sun could envy them.

And Rocket, he was a mere pirate. A small fish in an ocean that is basked by the sun in front of him. He stared at the being brighter than anything, and the only thought he could come up with was…

Holy shit they are hot.

He couldn’t stop gazing at the person, such beauty in front of him could never be found in that little port village he grew up in and went to so he could trade his treasures.

And with that, he figured that this person is definitely worth any gold he’s ever found in his measly life.

Hair as bright as a morning star, crimson armor that graced their whole body, gold markings on their skin as if each one was specially carved just to enhance their physique, and a barely noticeable red horn, simply because the person was facing the other way.

He hadn’t even noticed the voices in his ear had stopped whispering, too busy admiring the inphernal in front of him.

And oh god.

He was…

He was smitten.

He opened his mouth like a fish out of the water.
But before he could say something, the person in front of him suddenly turned his way.

And their eyes widening was the last thing he saw before he got knocked out.

But that didn’t even matter to him, because the last thing he saw that really mattered to him,

Were the most beautiful eyes he’s ever seen.

 

—————————-

 

“Do y’all think cap’s dead? Cuz I do”

 

The trio of pirates were walking through the woods, going to where Medkit had seen the sudden light. Although it was still a seemingly very bright day, everything seemed dark there, as if the time simply rushed to night.

Zuka, who was following right behind Medkit, stopped for a second. “Sycthe, you know Rocket.” He looked at the ground before walking again. “He’s like a cockroach, he never died no matter what happened to him. Even before he became a pirate.”

“It’s weird that everything went dark the moment we stopped taking the already existing paths…” Medkit pondered

“It’s as if this is something natural from this island.”

Throwing her gear on the ground and making a mark, Scythe grabs Zuka by the collar. “And also, look at this darn ground, it frickin’ glows.”

Taking her gear out of the the ground, the cracks slightly shine in a blue shade similiar to the sand on the shore.

“If y’all didnt notice it befor’, this island’ definitely ain’t normal.”

Gazing at the crack on the ground, Medkit crouches down. “If captain didn’t die before… he might as well die here. This place definitely has to be some sort of sacred place.”

“But whatever. Our goal is to find him and throw him back into the boat, do not test my patience.”
Medkit gets up and pulls the both of them so they can continue walking.

 

-…-

 

This place is different from the others, while the little forest they went through was dark, this specific corner is warmer.

Sunlight still didn’t shine in these parts, but the ground felt as if it was bubbling with lava, as if it was trying to warn them that this place was not safe.

Or it was a way to get them to leave this island.

Zuka looked to the right, and at the same instant, a glint of light appearing right in the corner of his eyesight.

“I have a gut feeling that there’s something there.”

This glint of light was not the same from the last one, this one was a shy, feeble and small light.

This was definitely the place they should go.

Without warning the other two, Zuka changes his pace and walks over to where the light came from.

Running after Zuka, Scythe grabs Medkit by the sleeve so he doesn’t stay there still like a barrel of whiskey. “Ay old geezer! Don’t leave us hangin’!”

Ignoring the uncanny amount of leaves on that specific area, as if it was trying to hide something, zuka cut through all of them. He had a stupid captain to find, so nothing like that mattered.

And so.. the cavern in front of him seemed to be normal enough, but the dangerous amount of gold and gems definitely were not.

Not like seeing treasure was something unusual to him, the shine of the gems and the sometimes rays of light that hit the gold coins when they opened a treasure chest they found by pure luck was something they found more than once.

But literal piles of all types of expensive stuff were not a normal sight to behold.

Before he could enter the cave, Zuka was stopped by one hand on his shoulder. He looked sideways to meet scythe’s eye, and was surprised to find some shine in it.

“Holy shot. We just found a literal gold mine.” Scythe, in bewilderment and amazement, pushed Zuka to the side and ran to the first pile of gold she saw.

Medkit, who was following right behind her, went to another one. “How is the only time you speak without an accent it’s about treasure?”

With her hands rummaging through the pile of everything that was rare and expensive, she picked a small cyan crystal with the shape of a rhombus and threw it at Medkits direction. “Hah! Ye know that that’s just how lil’ old me is built”

Picking up the crystal that was thrown at him, Medkit shines it to one of the random rays of light in the place which seemed to just randomly appear out of thin air to take a closer look at it. “These crystals are top quality… With one of these we could eat for at least a week.”

“Ya know way too much about crystals than a basic inphernal, what’s up with yew?” Scythe picked up a little pile of gold and other random jewels in her hand and tucked them all in one of her many pockets.

Putting the cyan crystal on his coat pocket, Medkit walked to another one of the many piles in the vicinity. The words “Nothing that matters” that Medkit said were barely heard due to how far he went in the cave.

Zuka, who had been just standing there while Medkit and Scythe talked, took his first step into the place in the search of the same shine he saw beforehand.

The piles were almost endless to the eye, each step taken just led to another pile, and although all seemed somewhat the same, the closer he got to the apparent end of the cavern, the more unique they became.

And in one of those unique piles, all he could see was red. well, not blood red, but crystal red. Red gems like garnets, spinels, and topaz were easy to notice. But the one who appeared the most was citrininite, which only appeared out of place due to being a bright yellow, even if they had so little in it.

But amidst all these gems, a single silver hook with blue undertones was the one that was truly out of place. It was shining brighter than any other thing in this pile, as if it was randomly put there but still intended to be in this place.

Without warning the other two in the vicinity, Zuka grabbed the hook tightly and pulled it out of the pile.

What he didn’t expect was an entire Inphernal to come with it.

Not only a random inphernal, it was Captain Rocket.

The gemstones that were on top of him fell to the ground along with Rocket, both making an obnoxiously loud sound.

With his hand on Rocket’s hook, Zuka could only say one thing.

“What the fuck.”

Scythe, who had stopped everything she was doing to take a look at where Zuka was, widened her eyes in shock and a bit of anger. “WHAT THE FUCK??”

So that’s where he was.

Running in a beeline to where Rocket laid passed out, Scythe put her gear on a random corner and pulled Rocket to one of her shoulders “I’m drownin’ em.”

Before she could get away and doom their Captain to his death, Zuka pulled her back and looked her dead in the eyes. “We’re taking him to the boat and getting away from here.”

Scoffing, Scythe grabbed her gear on her free hand and looked back at Zuka. “Yer fuckin’ father instincts showin’, old geezer.”

Medkit, who had been standing on the entrance and exit to the cavern waiting for them, finally uttered another word. “Let’s just get back to the boat, I’m too sober for this.”

With both her hands and pockets full, Scythe huffed loudly and walked over to Medkit “Ya, let’s go or whateve’.”

Zuka took one last look at the pile Rocket was laying in, and noticed how neat it was. “Huh…. Weird.”

He grabbed a small orange gem with the shape of a tear before walking away and not looking back.

 

—————————-

 

Loud sounds of splashing water were the first thing Captain Rocket heard after waking up from his god induced sleep.

It’s not that it wasn’t usual to hear these sounds, but hearing them right after seeing the most beautiful inphernal that he’s ever had the luck to gaze at and get knocked out cold right after, it does tend to get rather confusing.

He tried moving his limbs, but they were locked in place by what was clearly a rope. (He’s a pirate, how would he not know how a rope feels like?)

He, in a futile attempt of escape, tried wiggling his way out of the ropes right before hearing a familiar voice.

“Yeah it really weird that he was just clearly put there intentionally…. Oh, look who’s awake.”

It was Zuka’s voice, and after hearing him, suddenly, all of his senses seemed to finally start working and made him fully grasp the situation he was in.

He was in the boat they used to get to the island, he could hear paddling of the oar that was most likely being handled by Scythe due to the heaviness of the sounds, the texture of old wood that he never bothered to change because it worked well enough to not care about it, and the distinct smell of sea breeze that was always where he went.

And also the pounding headache that built up to this moment.

“Fuckk….. what the hell is happening..???” Rocket slowly tried pulling himself out of the ropes before Zuka went there and untied him.

He tried opening his eyes, but with the afternoon sun basking in all its glory, he instantly shut them without a second thought.

“We’re going back to the boat, we’ve got enough treasure to last for a while so we don’t need to go back to that island.” Zuka’s voice flowed around Rocket’s head as he tried to make sense of the others around him.

No need to go back?

Huh…

He knows he shouldn’t say it, not even think about it, but honestly, who was Captain Rocket without his prescistency of anything he faces?

After all, such beautiful gems would never go unnoticed by Rocket.

“I need to go back there.”

 

—————————-

 

On the far shore of an island which desired to be long gone, a deity stands, two feet on the sand, as they stare at the endless sea with a vengeful gaze.

“Pirates… always putting their sticky hands where they don’t belong…”

A little blue star laid on the deity’s palm, it’s shine long forgotten, taken by the breeze of the world.

“At least you’re still here… aren’t you?”

With the sun fading in the background, the deity walks away, with nothing but it to lose.

Chapter Text

The warm sea breeze of the summer was something Rocket was already used to when waking up

What he was not used to was being strapped to a wood plank by his own crew.

“This is an outrage!”

Right in front of him, his own fa- guardian stood in disdain all written in his face.

Not like disdain was something rare to be seen around Rocket, but still.

“What is an outrage is the fact that you think it’s smart to go back to the place where you were almost killed by a deity.”

“I wasn’t ‘almost killed’! I was just caught off guard!”

Zuka started walking in circles to try calming himself down, before stopping and going back to looking at Rocket.
“Are you crazy?”

“Ahahahahahh….. yes.”

“Rocket… Why do I even bother with you?”

In the background, a half awake Scythe checked a bunch of their barrels to see what was left of any food for the day “Ya should stop listenin’ to that kid! He only got bullshyte in his head!”

 

Rocket’s face suddenly went blank, he sat in an uncanny silence, basically staring into nothing, before flinching back to the world with a sudden flush to his face.
He started looking around in what seemed like panic before finally landing his eye back at Zuka.
“No but hear me ou-”

 

“No way.”
With a loud thud of a barrel falling onto the hard old wood of the boat, Scythe stood there just glaring at Rocket

 

Staring daggers into Rocket, Zuka’s face suddenly morphed into one of anguish and despair.
“Rocket.”

 

“You did not just fall in love with a random inphernal that lives in the middle of an island.”

“They’re not a random inphernal!! They’re.. you know!”

“ROCKET YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW THEIR NAME.”

“But Zuka!! It was love at first sight, trust me!!”

“And a concussion at first sight” Scythe snickered from where she was.

“Nobody asked for your opinion!” Rocket shouted back while struggling to escape the ropes

Zuka walked to where he trapped Rocket up and unbid the ropes.
“I am not letting you go back there, doesn’t matter if you just want the treasure and not the one living there.”

 

Before he could start arguing back at Zuka like he did with Scythe, a loud crash of a bottle of rum beat him to it and sent him rolling to the other side of the boat.

 

Medkit, who had just gotten out of their sleeping rooms already only half sober, stood there with one hand in his head and the other in a fist as if he didn’t just aim a bottle at nowhere.

 

“If you all have already forgotten, the reason we went there is because we needed money for the food. So how about we leave the whining for later and get to the port already?”

 

“Ugh finee…. Whatever.” Rocket said, his eye flicking to Zuka one last time before standing up and walking over to where the helm stood.

 

The last thing Zuka had thought before they got to the port city was that if Rocket gained any more brain cells than he could hold, he’d hope it wouldn’t happen today.

 

—————————-

 

The air of the port was cool even with very few clouds in the sky and a bright sun. The breeze swept through his messy hair that only a pirate could fuck it up this well. And as he walked out of his mess of a boat, the sight to behold was the same as it always was.

 

The warm colors of the many stalls ahead of him, a bunch of people just going about their day buying stuff, the one or two things stolen from the naked eye by a sneaky kid (he wasn’t going to snitch on them, he knows how it is) and the bright atmosphere of that port made the day better.

 

He could almost smell the scent of fish and food from where he was, it reminded him of when he lived there, not as a pirate, but as a child.

 

But that wasn’t what he was here for, reminiscing on old memories was not in his caliber.

 

Especially now that the present was right behind him, dunking his hat with a force that made him almost fall from how sudden it was.

“WHAT THE FUCK??” He shouted, and the only thing keeping him from falling was a half holding tight onto his belt

“Ay Cap’! Ya were standin’ too still for a sec there so I gave yer a nudge!” Scythe pulled a hand across her own hat as if to put it in the right place.

“That’s why you’re the worst amongst us all” he fixed his hat back into place and gave it a little twist before looking back at Scythe and the others right behind her.

 

While Scythe and Medkit looked around the port, Zuka went straight to business and walked into a medium stall by the corner of the port that was regarded to be full of anything an inphernal needs to be considered a pirate.

 

This stall was known to be where most pirates went to not only buy important items for wherever they go, but also where they trade all the gold they ‘borrow’ for themselves.

That also happened to be their main vendor, and one of the most annoying inphernals ever.

 

And no, Rocket is NOT biased.

 

“Oh! Look who it is! Two of the greatest pirates to ever sail the seas!”

He slowly tilted his head towards the owner of the voice. “Shut up T, ya know what we’re doin here.”

Rocket walked over to the front of the stall with a scowl on his face and a hand on his hip.

The inphernal inside the stall had a laid back posture, their outfit screamed their position of a highly sought after vendor, with a coat made of a seemingly great quality fabric and hints of gold at the ends of it, their red horns stood firmly on their head in what could be considered an imposing manner with its sharp edges, and the TNT held on their waist by a dark brown belt showed off what their gear was made of.

 

But, the smug look on their face and a smirk hidden by a mask turned off all of the things that could make them look cool in Captain Rocket’s eyes.

 

He knew he was cooler anyways.

 

“Wow Cap, is that how ya treat your friends? No shit your crew is made of a crazy lady and a guy that’s sober for less than a second of the day!”

TNT leaned into the table of their stall with a challenging look on their eyes.

“Can’t ya shut up and do your job? Ya sound like a stupid kid”

“A kid? Like your ass ain’t the same age as me! And ya didn’t even ask for anything, Rocket!”

Slamming his hand on the table, a glisten of light started coming off of his hooked hand, and before even being able to summon his gear, a hand shot out and grasped Rocket’s arm tightly.

 

Zuka, who had stood there quietly while the two argued, stayed still next to Rocket with a glare that could kill at least one inphernal in the vicinity and his only hand gripping Rocket’s hook.

“Enough with you two, we're here for supplies, not explosions."

Rocket let out a loud groan, pulled a large potato sack and threw it straight onto the stalls table.

The loud sound of coins smashing together managed to make the vendors eyes shoot open in shock.

Quickly standing straight, they opened the sack and found what seemed to be a life's worth of gold and gems

“what- what the??? How did you get this much??!”

Zuka supported himself on one of the polls of the stall and simply muttered “the island” in their direction.

tnt quietly glared at Zuka before going back to their normal demeanor and looking around their stall. “ohh, that place.”

“im honestly surprised that you left the place alive and with goods.”

Rocket, in a clear mocking manner, sat on the table and gazed at them. “And why is that, huh?”

“Oh well, the last time I let some of my trusty customers know of the place, they never really came back.”

“So wait did you try to lead us to our de-”

“But enough with the chit-chat! What you got there can buy a lot, so pick your poison”

Zuka pushed Rocket off and completely ignored the gasp that was made. “We’ll get the usual. Six ropes, twelve barrels of rum, one barrel of oil, three boxes of rum, seven cannon balls and four thin blankets.”

He looked at Rocket’s direction for a second before looking back. “And also one of the strongest alcohol you have. And don’t forget to give the change back.”

 

Tnt let out a chuckle before grabbing the money and going to the back of the stall to pick up the items. “On it, boss!”

“Rocket, I'll be here for some time, go get the food and we'll meet at the boat.”
A small sack with gold was thrown at Rocket's direction and he ran off the second he caught it.

When Rocket was out of sight, Zuka looked back at the vendor, his gaze suddenly darkened.

 

“How did you know about the island.”

 

A chuckle was heard.

 

“The same way you knew it, of course.”

 

—————————-

 

The sun slowly fell down in the sky as a sign of the day soon coming to an end. The food in his hands was heavy compared to the other inphernals next to him, which held barely anything.

 

His thoughts were quiet as the others were talking, the fading stars that were waiting to appear barely stood out against the sky, and the closer they got to the boat, the darker the sky of the port got.

 

It was a normal day.

 

Nothing weird or exciting had happened.

 

Except….

 

Wait.

 

Rocket suddenly stopped in his steps, his eyes widening.

Scythe, who was next to him while walking, looked back at him with a confused look on her face.

“Ay cap, wh-”

Rocket pushed all of the food onto Scythe’s arms and ran back to the stalls in the port.

“Give me a minute! I’ll meet y’all at the boat!”

“What’s up with him?” Medkit mumbled to the two others, not even glancing at where Rocket went.

“Eh, I don’ even care. I say we leave his ass”

“Why do you always talk about leaving Rocket behind.”

“It’s funny as shit”

 

-…-

 

He ran as fast as he could.

 

He wasn’t just gonna leave without asking any questions first.

 

He ran straight to the first stall he went to that day.

 

He slammed his hands onto the table and looked straight at the inphernal inside.

 

“What else do you know about that damn island.”

 

Tnt, who had been zoning out and looking the other way, flinched when Rocket spoke.

 

“Jeez! You scared me dude!”

 

“Speak! I know you know something!!”

 

“I don’t give info for free, even for my friends. You know that.”

Rocket put his hand in one of his pockets and took out a small blue diamond.

“Is this enough?”

The vendor stared at the rare gem heavily.

“Hm… it’s not that unique compared to this morning’s batch but it works.”

Leaning themselves on their table, they grabbed the diamond and carefully held it to the sun’s light.

“So, what do you want?”

“I wanna know more about that island”

They looked back at Rocket before letting out a puff

“What you wanna know?”

“What do you got about the inphernal that lives over there?”

“Pff- Inphernal? Whoever ya saw there was no normal inphernal, the only thing there that resembles one of our asses over there is a deity.”

“Say more, would ya?”

“Pff- What else is there to know? There’s a Deity that lives there by time knows how long and that they apparently take care of the sun or something.”

“So a sun god? I already know that, what else ya got?”

“I mean… I guess they get offerings from inphernals so the sun shines n shit. There’s also the fact that they look like us but that ain’t nothin new. That’s all I know.”

 

Rocket let out a sigh and put his hand on his waist, glaring at tnt.

 

Tnt leaned towards the table and supported their head with their hand, glaring back.

 

“So, you gon’ buy anything else or are ya gon scram?”

 

“Whatever you chud, give me one of the strongest ropes you got.”

“Got it, kid”

They crouched down and grabbed a rope from under the table.

“One of the strongest ones I got. With a good knot and a plan, ya could catch a tiger.”

“Ohh wow, did you just have that saved under there?”

“Nah, I knew ya’d ask for one of these soon enough.”

“Just that? You for real?”

“-and I knew you’d be the only one stupid enough to try making a trap with no damn knowledge on it.”

“Jeez, fuck you too.”

Rocket pulled the rope and hid it under his messy coat, at the same time grabbing a gold coin and throwing it at the table.

Tnt glared at the Captain before smiling with their eyes.

“How nice of you! I’ll let that slide because the diamond pays enough.”

Rocket glared back at the vendor one last time before walking away.

 

“Good luck out there!” The vendor shouted, but it was only heard as a faint voice in the wind.

 

—————————-

 

Escaping the boat in the middle of the night was, surprisingly, not difficult.

 

Now the question would come of ‘why was it surprising? It’s practically 1AM and nobody in their right mind would be awake’

 

Oh well, it’s because, of course, it’s Captain Rocket that made the escape.

 

And taking into account how loud he was on the daily, his escape being smooth and quiet was surprising even for himself.

Getting the little raft ready was no hard job, of course, he was a pirate! Everyone knew how to do that stuff.

And as the cold breeze hit him the moment he left his sleeping abode, with nothing but his own clothes and a rope in his hands, he left off to the darn island.

The raft swayed slowly through the waters, the trip was weird. Calmly swaying his paddle without any other sounds of bickering or loud talking was odd.

Being away from his crew was odd.

And maybe he did feel a bit guilty for going to the place that left his dad so worried.

‘And yes, I do not care about callin him that in my thoughts, not like he gon hear it’

 

A small huff was heard in the middle of the waters.

 

Not even the fishes heard that.

 

So nothin to worry about.

 

He continued his small journey, and after a while of just sea and sea and sea- he noticed that maybe it wasn’t that small of a trip.

It seemed smaller with his crew.

Oh welp, with a seemingly long way ahead till his final destination, Captain allowed himself to think.

What the hell was he thinking, going to the place where he quite clearly almost died at the hands of a fucking deity?? He knew he wasn’t the brightest inphernal around, but stars was he that stupid.

But thinking of the glow of that being he saw for a mere second, those eyes that shone as bright as any gem he’d ever seen in his whole pirate career, was what made him remember what he wanted.

‘I mean, I can’t let that much of a pretty inphernal get away from me! I’m the great Captain rocket! Nothing escapes me grasp!”
Thoughts of reassurance were the only thing keeping him sane, and also calling the full on deity an inphernal, but he would never say that out loud.

And trust him, he’d say a lot of things out loud.

With only his thoughts keeping him company, his destination was reached far faster than while fully aware of everything.

Huh, maybe re-enacting a bunch of things his crew would say worked better than he thought.

Not that he was doing that. He would never.

Walking out of his little raft, he almost tripped and fell onto the sand like yesterday, but of course, like the great inphernal he is, he balanced himself up.

Nobody saw that.

He silently huffed, grabbed his rope and a pocket knife, and finally started getting his plan into work.

 

-...-

 

The night sky was filled with stars, and the sand looked as if it held remnants of each individual constellation, and shone even brighter under the moon.

Heavy steps dragged itself onto the ground, and tired grumbles followed soon after.

“Fuckkk…. When’s that darn deity gonna catch the damn bait…”

Captain quietly complained while circling around the tree where he placed his trap, which consisted of a rope tied around a tree branch and small and vibrant crystals on the ground as bait.

“I mean.. I know it be a bit obvious but damn! I thought they liked this crap.. I mean I’d totally fall for that.”

While useless complaints quietly fell out of his mouth, the breeze of the sea shore turned warmer than before.

Way warmer.

The temperature completely changed in a fraction of a second, the sand started feeling like the sun was back in the sky and shining onto it all day long.

Captain, using all his braincells, quickly hid behind the tree and looked around frantically, trying to spot a shining inphernal.

Maybe they could finally fall into the trap so he could..
Do something! Because Captain definitely had a plan after that.

Yeah, totally.

And while he didn’t stop looking around, he still didn’t see any signs of the one he had seen yesterday.

 

The only sign that they were here was the random heat wave and nothing else.

 

But he suddenly felt a sharp pang to the back of his head.

 

Needless to say, he found them.

 

—————————-

 

Waking up from a forced unconsciousness.

It’s kinda weird, and the buzzing feeling alongside the numbness is uncomfortable at best.

He doesn’t know if he’s gonna get used to it.

His body felt trapped and his blood was heavy in his head, and everything felt like it was moving and spinning around.

The night was warm.

The small attempt of opening up his uncovered eye was practically impossible with everything around him.

But with what could only be called the persistence of a stupidly passionate pirate, he eventually succeeded.

A blur of a bright fiery light clouded his vision when he opened and slightly squinted his eye.

His head was spinning alongside himself, and his body could barely move without further worsening his headache.

He slowly fully opened his eye and looked around the place, trying to understand what the fuck was going on.

What he first noticed was, he clearly couldn’t move. And he was upside down. In the same island he was before.

Ok! So nothing that bad! He’s not been teleported somewhere randomly!

Thinking better about the situation at hand, what was easy to notice and that he had, somehow, not catched upon the first second was:

Ropes trapped him upside down on the same tree he used to make the futile attempt of a trap from before and that he wasn’t alone.

 

Oh wait.

 

He wasn’t alone.

 

The warm breeze hadn’t come out of nowhere, the new company in front of him was carefully sharpening their sword, sitting in a rock that came out of nowhere, while staring at Captain Rocket. Their face was cast in shadows no normal being could have, and bright golden eyes that could kill with a single glare stood unmoving, with nothing wavering their attention.

 

Looking back at the inphern-

 

No.

 

Looking back at the Deity that stood in front of him, all he could see was pure discontent, like if Rocket even dared to breathe a single word, his neck would be sliced down by the owner’s blade.

His face admittedly melts as he feels such glare, his eye widens and the only thing he repeats on his head is

oh stars, they’re so beautiful.

Such thoughts not leaving his head make him unfocus on the situation at hand, and before he could stop himself from doing the stupid bullshit he was about to do, his mouth opened

“Are ya single?”

With both their brazen eyes glaring daggers at him, the owner’s face started not-so-slowly twisting into a shocked expression, with the most expressive part being- surprisingly, the eyes.

“Are you crazy?”

Captain, hearing such words and knowing the Deity fucker didn’t try to go at his throat for not so exciting actions, suddenly got the full blown courage of a mad Inphernal in the brink of defeating an immortal force.

And with that courage, of course, he spoke again.

“Crazy for you.”

With another full glare out of the unknown deity close to him, they stand up and slowly creep their way closer to where Captain was stuck.

“Do tell me, do you even have the knowledge on how to hunt? That trap was foul to even a child’s standards.”

They stepped even closer to Captain, their face obscured by the godly shadow that creeped upon their face, and with their sword being held tightly by their right hand, just looked down upon the fumbling mess that was Rocket trapped in a bunch of ropes that he himself had bought.

And oh wow, Captain had never seen such a beautiful hidden gem before in all his travels.

And so, as always, he spoke again.

“Holy shit you’re hot.”

“Excuse me?”

Rocket fumbled over the ropes all over again.
“UH YEAH I DONT KNOW HOW TO HUNT.”

Glaring at Captain due to his words, the Deity lifts their weapon up and points it at Rocket’s face.

And throughout what seemed like his last moments, Rocket still couldn’t stop thinking.

‘So is this how I be going down? After all these darn years sailing the seas for the rarest gem that was this inphernal?’

Slightly trembling for a fraction of a second, Rocket accepts his clear demise and closes his eyes tightly.

‘At least I’ll be dying by the prettiest inphernal I’ve ever seen… Maybe I should have heard Zuka out.’

‘Maybe I should’ve actually thought ‘bout this.’

With his heart racing and thoughts boiling from not only his situation but also from the heat that resided in the place, a slicing sound was heard.

 

But no pain was felt.

 

In fact, he actually felt way more comfortable than before.

 

What the fuck?